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THE

LIVES AND TIMES

ROMAN PONTIFFS,

FROM ST. PETER TO PIUS IX.

CHEVALIER ARTAUD DE MONTOR.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
EDITED BY REV. DR. NELIGAN
VOL. I.
PART SECOND.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER & CO.,
31 BARCLAY STREET.
1869.

<^J>*ary 005*

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
D. & J. SADLIEE & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

JOHN G. SHEA,
Stereotyper and Elec'rotyper
New York.

We appeove of the publication, by D. & J. Sadliee & Co., of
Aktaud's Lives of the Popes.

•J. JOHN, Archbishop of New York.

New Yoke, March 30th, 1865.

H hi question of the papal supremacy is a sum
mary of the whole cause at issue between the
Church and Protestantism in every shape. An
cient writers speak in no doubtful tone of the
primacy and prerogatives of St. Peter. God him
self, appealing in a man's form to the mind and
heart of men, declares this in a clearer, more
emphatic, and soul-piercing manner :
" Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build
Church." (Matt. xvi. 18.)
! Simon, Simon, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not ; and
thou, in thy turn, one day confirm thy brethren." (Luke, xxii. 24.)
" Feed my sheep ; feed my lambs." (John, xxi. 15-17.)
If St. Peter is thus made the head and bond of the college of the
Apostles, — if our Lord in the visible government of his Church on
earth has appointed him as the supreme ruler who was to succeed
himself, — there is a sure certainty which warrants us to expect that such
a ruler will continue in the Church until the consummation of all things.
That the Bishop of Eome is the successor of Saint Peter, and that the
prerogatives given to Saint Peter as the head of the Church, were to con
tinue on his successors, has ever been the belief of the Church. The
Christian Fathers, as individual writers and witnesses, the ancient Church
in her universal councils, with one voice, regard the pope as sitting in the
chair of Saint Peter. His prerogatives are as imperishable as the life of the
Church itself. He is the rock of the Church, the source of all jurisdiction
and the centre of unity.
The history of the popes is but little known. It is a source of biog-
raphy from which much is to be learned, and much consolation can be
gained. To witness those holy men who succeeded to the chair of Saint

8 INTRODUCTION.
Peter for nearly four centuries die as martyrs for the faith, and become
witnesses for the truth which they taught and so nobly defended, must
animate our faith and enliven our hope. To behold a holy band of con
fessors succeed these, will increase our charity, and strengthen us hi the
path of virtue. To see those holy men amidst good repute and evil
repute, meek and lowly like their divine Master, will teach us that humility
is the mother of all graces and virtues.
Various histories of the popes have been written in different languages.
Some of these are true, and some false. The popes were ever the defenders
of rights and justice. They would not wink at the follies or acts of tyranny
and injustice practised by the princes and monarchs of Europe. Their
mission was divine, therefore it was their duty to defend the people from
cruel oppression and invasion of their civil rights. The guardianship
of the virgin, the widow, and the orphan was their especial office. This
harmonized not with the feelings of the proud monarchs and the haughty
feudal lords. Men were found who, professing themselves Christians, com
posed histories or lives of the popes, in which errors were exaggerated,
faults magnified into crimes and vices of the most outrageous character :
our Lord once more seems to suffer in the person of his vicar here on earth.
Even Protestantism could not swallow such wholesale falsehoods ; and a
Hurter and a Eoscoe, with a host of others, were found ready to buckle on
their armor, and to fight for the cause of God and his anointed.
Many writers of learning, and several of the most distinguished bishops
of the Church in this country, have constantly expressed a wish that a
history of the popes, in the English language, would be published for the
use of the laity.
This work of M. Artaud has received the commendation of the Holy
Father and of the most distinguished French bishops and ecclesiastics.
The hierarchy of America, so distinguished for its piety and learning, has
expressed its cordial approbation of it.
The exact chronology of the Eoman pontiffs, extending through more
than nineteen centuries, is a difficult matter to arrange in itself. Novaes,
the first edition of whose work was published in Eome, in 1785, has given
what he deems to be an exact catalogue. Many celebrated writers have
followed in this same work, in which there has not been an exact agree
ment as to the date of the creation of the early popes. The length of
their reigns and the time of their death have caused also some difficul
ties. The ancient catalogues and the ancient pictures, together with
the writers in the different centuries, are the sources from which these
catalogues of popes have been taken. It is not to be wondered that in
the lapse of so many centuries there should be some discrepancies. These
are of no material account. The official almanac, called the Diario, is

INTRODUCTION.

published each year at Rome. The chronology of the popes as given in
this document will be followed. It is adopted by M. Artaud, " as it enjoys
each year the approbation of the Holy See."

WILLIAM H. NELIGAN.

St. Colxtmba's Church, Easter, 1865.

LIVES OF THE POPES.

ST. PETER.— a. d. 42.+
AINT PETER, the Prince of the Apostles, and first
of the Christian pontiffs, was originally named Si
mon. His father was a fisherman of Bethsaida, near
the lake of Gennesareth, in Galilee, which was also
the birthplace of his brother, Saint Andrew. When
Simon was about forty years old his brother pre
sented him to our Saviour, who receiving him as one
of his apostles, surnamed him Cephas, which in the
Syriac signifies Stone, or Rock. Upon this Rock I wiU huild my Church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. By these words our Saviour inti
mated that in raising Saint Peter to the dignity of the chief of the apos
tles, he made that dignity the foundation-stone of his Church.
As our Lord said that that edifice shall not be overturned, but subsist
throughout all ages, it follows that the authority of Saint Peter has
descended upon his successors, and that his See still continues, and ever
will continue to be the centre of Unity. In order to be true members
of the Church, the faithful must ever hold to it. Thus the fathers
of the Church, and, following them, the theologians have ever reasoned.
B eretics and unbelievers have, in vain, endeavored to obscure this truth.

* The First Primacy.
f The year 42 : see Feller's Historical Dictionary, vol. v., p. 40 ; edition 1839.

=rdy

12 LIVES OF THE POPES.
For some time Saint Peter did not habitually attend our Lord on his
journeys, but always went to hear him when he taught the multitude.
One day, Jesus was on the shore of the lake Gennesareth, which is also
called the Sea of Tiberias, and knowing that Peter and Andrew had all
night cast their nets in vain, he told the fishermen to go further out from
the shore. They did so, and so abundant was the take, that not only
their own boat, but also'that of Saint James and Saint John was filled. Peter
presented himself to express his gratitude, and professed himself unworthy
to approach his Lord. The humility of Peter procured him a new call
from Jesus. Peter's usual residence was at Capharnaum; our Lord
was often there, and walking along the shore again, saw Peter and
Andrew, and James, and John casting their nets into the sea. He again
called upon them to follow him; and it was on that occasion that from
a mere fisherman Peter became, in the exact words of our Saviour, a
fisher of men* Going from Bethsaida to Csesarea, Jesus asked Peter what
he thought of the Son of Man, whom some considered to be John the
Baptist, and others considered to be one or the other of the prophets.
Peter replied in that celebrated confession, that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God. This reply obtained for him the confirmation of
the surname of Peter, and the power to bind and to loose for himself, per
sonally, and to his successors in the Primacy.t Peter was one of the
witnesses of the glory of our Lord upon Mount Tabor. He was present
at the Last Supper, and was the first whose feet Jesus washed.
In the pages of the inspired Gospels we see Peter in his phases of
man and apostle, until the apostolic spirit dominated the natural temper.
His Master having reproved him for striking Malchus, Peter, timid and
fickle, forgot his oath, but ere long bitterly bewailed his fault. After the
death of our Saviour, Simon Peter hastened to the sepulchre. He was
the first to enter. He found that Jesus was no longer there. Peter was
also the first to whom, the Scripture informs us, Jesus appeared after
his resurrection. Peter, however, was still to receive an express mission,
more especially consecrating him to his apostolic functions. Jesus ap
peared to him and to John, when they both were engaged in fishing on
the Sea of Galilee. It was then and there that Jesus, after having thrice
received from Peter the acknowledgment of his love, as though to make
him expiate his triple denial, gave him a threefold charge of his Sock in
those words — Feed my lambs. Saint John, the beloved disciple, called
Peter by the title of Apostle (Chap. xxi. 15-17), as having received from
Jesus Christ, in reward of his attachment the Pastorate, which Saint
Ambrose (on Luke xxiii.) so well entitles the Vicarship of Love. The gift
* Biog. Unveersellc, t. xxxiv., p. 826. f Matt. xvi. 16, 19.

SAINT PETER. I3
of that function, as related by the Evangelist, was made at the very place
where Jesus had given to Simon the name of Peter, which was afterwards
confirmed to him by his calling to the government of the Church of Christ.
Here Peter learned that, following Jesus Christ, he would suffer like him,
and would be glorified in martyrdom.
Peter's first act of pontifical jurisdiction, after the Ascension, was the
assembing of a council at Jerusalem,* at which both the apostles and the
disciples were present. The object was the filling, in the apostolic college,
the place of the iniquitous Judas Iscariot. Matthias was chosen by
lot. Peter presided over that assemblage, and reminded it that the crime
of Judas had been foretold by David. Peter's application of the Scrip
tures was again very felicitous when the disciples were visited by the
wondrous phenomenon of the Day of Pentecost. On that memorable day,
at about nine o'clock, a great sound, like unto the rushing of a mighty
wind,t filled the whole place of the assembly. All present saw, as it
were, tongues of fire, and they all felt themselves filled by that Spirit
which Jesus, on quitting them, promised they should be inspired with.
In the fervor and gush of the zeal by which they were transported,
their strange and eloquent language astonished the people of Jerusalem,
and even the strangers who heard them. Some of the Jews took occasion
to reproach them as being intoxicated. Then Peter arose, and so earn
estly preached Christ, risen from the dead, that three thousand persons
were converted, and asked to be baptized. That discourse of Peter was
at once wise and noble. The apostle announced that, in accomplishment
of the prophecy of Joel, the time announced by our Lord had arrived,}
and that the disciples were filled with that Spirit which he was to shed
upon them, and upon his servants. In the second council seven deacons
were appointed to assist the apostles in the distribution of alms, and in
the ministry of preaching. It is remarkable how faithful the succeeding
pontiffs have been to the first two precepts of Peter. From the date of
the Ascension, Peter remained five years in Judea. At the gate of tli6
Temple, on Mount Sion, he restored to health a poor cripple who asked
him for charity. The Sadducees endeavored publicly to arrest Peter and
John, who preached the resurrection of our Lord. The apostles, on the
other hand, preached with redoubled courage; and Peter, previously so
timid and halting in his ideas, no longer hesitated boldly to confess the
name of Jesus before the assembled doctors of the law. From that
period dates the triumph of the Apostolic Church, persecuted from its
* Novaes, i. 4. + Biog. TTni-c., t. xxiv., p. 329.
X Joel, ii. 28, 30. Bffundam spiritum meum super omnen carnem, Sic—Ht dabo prodigia in
codo et in terra, &x,.—IvM pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and there shall be wonders in the
Jteavens and upon earth.

14: LIVES OF THE POPES.
birth, and reviving from its persecution. The punishment of Ananias
and Sapphira, guilty of falsehood against both the sacredness of their oath
and the spirit of Christianity, and a thousand other testimonies to the
power which distinguished the life of Peter, served only to irritate his
enemies. Notwithstanding the protection of Gamaliel, who was held in
honor by all the people, that wise, prudent, and humane man, who wished
to ascertain whether the apostles and their followers were not a party
very different from any merely human faction, Peter and the apostles were
beaten with rods, and even threatened with death. They bore their pun
ishment with joy, and rejoiced in that they had been deemed worthy to
suffer for the name of their Master.
Then began a great persecution in Judea. Peter went to Samaria,
which Saint Philip had already converted, to administer the rite of Con
firmation to the faithful. It was there that he held his first dispute with
the Samaritan, Simon the magician. Thence he proceeded to Csesarea
to baptize Cornelius the centurion, who commanded the garrison in that
city. Cornelius was the first Gentile who received baptism. He subse
quently became Bishop of Csesarea. From Palestine, Peter passed into
Syria, to the metropolitan city of Antioch, the most famous city of the
East, and considered as the third city of the Roman empire — after
Rome and Alexandria. He took up his abode in Antioch in A. D. 38, and
governed that See for several years. The more worthily to fulfil his
pastoral duty, he frequently traversed the provinces of Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, and Bithynia. Eventually, while visiting the afflicted Church
of Jerusalem, Peter was arrested by order of Herod Agrippa ; but the
apostle was miraculously delivered by an angel, who led him from the
prison. That incident has been represented by the great Raphael, in one
of his purest frescoes in the Vatican.
Peter, having placed Saint Evodius in the episcopal chair of Antioch,
determined to proceed in person to Rome. Going through Naples, he
planted the faith, by giving to that city Saint Aspren for its first Bishop.*
Arrived at Rome, the holy pontiff lived in the Trastevere, near the
site of the Church of Saint Cecilia. In a short time, Pudens, a Roman
senator, having heard the preaching of Peter, declared himself converted,
and the Apostle was conducted to a fine palace which Pudens possessed
upon the Mount Viminal.
The capital of the world, says Feller (v. 41), appeared to Peter to be
* See M. Sabbatini's Dissertation, taken from the Neapolitan Calendar (Month of April,
page 137), where the falsity is shown of the assertion made by the author of the Cicil History
of Naples, that when Saint Severus was bishop of that city it was entirely pagan. That
Dissertation will be found in Zaccaria's Collection of Dissertations in Ecclesiastical History,
vol. -o., Diss. 8, p. 229.

SAINT PETER. 15
the best centre for the propagation of the divine religion of which he
had become the chief minister; for Peter was not only the bishop of
Rome, or of Antioch, but also the bishop of the Universal Church.
Saint Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans (chap. xv. 20), while con
gratulating them on their faith, which he says is spoken of by all, tells
them that he has long intended to visit them, but that he has been
prevented from so doing by the law which he has laid down for himself, not
to preach the gospel in places that had already received it, lest he should
build upon the foundation of another. Saint Peter came to convert Rome,
that great city "which," as says Saint Leo, "by its celebrity and its
power had spread its superstitions throughout the earth, was now to
become, in fulfilment of the designs of God, the humble disciple of the
truth, and subsequently to extend its spiritual dominion beyond the
bounds of its ancient empire." Quce eras magistra erroris, facta es disci-
pula veritatis. Latins praisideres religione divina, quam dominatione terrena.
Well may we ask, Has there been any sovereign in the world who has
received a greater or more glorious title than that which was thus bestowed
upon a man by God himself?
According to the Diario, it was in the year 42 that the twenty-five
years commenced that are commonly attributed to the pontificate of Saint
Peter. He wrote at that time from Rome his first epistle, of which we
shall speak hereafter. After seven years (being exiled by order of the
Emperor Claudius), Saint Peter returned to Jerusalem, where he held
the first council. He there first spoke upon the controversies which
had arisen at Antioch between the heresiarch Cerinthus and the new
converts. It was decided in that council that those converts were not
to be disturbed; that it was sufficient that they should abstain from
meat sacrificed to idols, and from fornication. That decision was sent
to Antioch with this formula, since adopted by the general councils : Visum
est Spiritui Sancto et nobis, — " It appears to the Holy Ghost and to us."
The exile of Saint Peter lasted five years. After the death of the Emperor
Claudius, the Apostle, in the year 56, and the fourteenth of his pontifi
cate, returned to Rome, and there found Simon the Magician, who
arrogated to himself the power of God, saying, " I command the angels"
and who declared that the gift of working miracles might be purchased
with money. It is known how the prayers of Peter obtained the victory
over Simon, and how the latter broke his limbs near the temple of
Romulus, now the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian.
The Catholics of Rome perceiving at length that Nero meditated a
persecution, entreated the Apostle to conceal himself from the pursuit of
that monster of cruelty. Saint Peter left the city by the gate which is
now called Saint Mary ad passus, on the Appian way. There he was met

16 LIVES OF THE POPES.
by Jesus. Saint Peter asked whither he was going. Jesus replied,
"I am going to Rome, to be crucified again." Then Saint Peter understood
that Jesus would be crucified in the person of his servant. Saint Peter then
retraced his steps to Rome, determined to endure whatever torment the
barbarous Nero might invent for him. Near the gate which leads to
Saint Sebastian, there is a little round temple, dedicated to the memory
of that apparition, and called Domine quo vadis, — Lord, whither goest
thou ? It has also the name of Saint Mary de plantis, because where Jesus
replied to Saint Peter, he left the trace of his sacred feet, upon a stone
still preserved in the Church of Saint Sebastian. Scarcely had Saint
Peter re-entered the city when he was arrested and taken to the Mamer-
tine prison. There he remained chained during nine months. The
chain was found A. D. 126, by Saint Balbina, and then given to Theodora,
a noble Roman lady, sister of Saint Ermes, who was then governor of
the city, but who gloriously suffered martyrdom. Shortly afterwards, Theo
dora gave that chain to Sixtus I., martyr ; it was placed in the Church of
Saint Peter ad vinmla, after it was restored by Eudoxia, wife of the Empe
ror Valentinian III., under the reign of Pope Sixtus III., about the year 439.
Saint Peter was violently tormented in the Mamertine prison, where he
was confined with Saint Paul. From the prison Saint Peter was taken
to 1 he Janiculum, and was then put to death. He obtained it as a special
favor from the executioner that he was to be crucified with his head
downward, deeming himself unworthy to be placed on the cross in the
same position as his divine Master had been.
According to the opinion of Baronius, of brother Sangallo, and of
Novaes, Peter suffered martyrdom in the year of our Lord 69. The
Diario, already quoted, gives the date of 65 ; but if, as has been expressly
said, the twenty-five years of Saint Peter's pontificate only commenced in
the year 42, it must at least be admitted that his death took place in the
year 67. We will not insist upon this point of history, for a whole host
of Dissertations have been written about the one and the other date.
The most distinguished names, and the most respectable traditions have
been quoted on either side. We have deemed it incumbent upon us to
cite the date which is given by Novaes, supported by Baronius, and also
that which renders the Diario consistent with itself.
The body of Saint Peter was at first interred in the catacombs,* and then
transferred to the Vatican. His head, as well as that of Saint Paul, is
over the high altar of the Basilica of Saint John of Lateran, where they
were placed by Pope Urban V., A. D. 1370.
* Which as yet were only excavations formed in taking out the Puozzalana necessary for
building in Rome.

SAINT PETER. 17
The death of Saint Peter irrevocably fixed at Rome the chief See of the
Christian Church. Henceforth Rome has become the Jerusalem of
Christianity, the residence of its principal pastor, the centre of the
Catholic union, the oracle and the rule of the various Churches, from
which the fathers and the theologians of all ages have asked decisions
upon all difficult matters * where the artifices of so many sectaries have
been confounded, who have endeavored to alter the doctrine of Jesus
Christ; there their mission has been received by all those apostolic men
who, after the first publication of the gospel, have carried that divine
light to the distant nations. It is not to be wondered at that the fury of the
heretics, and the sarcasms of bad Catholics have always, but especially
in this last century of turmoil and error, been directed against that great
mother of the Christians; nor are we to be surprised that they have
united their efforts to misrepresent as the mere result of human policy the
authority that the Roman pontiff exercises over the Universal Church, by
virtue of powers received from God himself.
Some Protestants have carried the partisan spirit so far as to main
tain that Saint Peter never was at Rome, and consequently did not found
that See; but learned men, even though most opposed to the papal
authority, have fully refuted those Protestants. Pearson, an English
bishop, in a Dissertation which is included among his works, sustains it
by a striking array of testimony. In fact all historical monuments give
evidence in its favor. Hegesippus, who, like Papias, lived near the apos
tolic time, published a history of the martyrdom of Saint Peter at Rome.
Saint Irenseus and Saint Ignatius, disciples of Saint Peter, inform us that
that Apostle had fixed his See at Rome. Tertullian calls the heretics them
selves to witness to the foundation of the Roman Church by Saint Peter.
Saint Cyprian frequently speaks of that Church as the chair of Saint Peter.
Arnobius, Saint Epiphanius, Origen, Saint Athanasius, Eusebius, Lactantius,
Saint Ambrose, Saint Optatus, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Saint Chrys-
ostom, Paul Orosus, Maximus, Theodoret, Paulinus, Saint Leo, and many
others, have left us catalogues of the bishops of Rome, from Saint Peter to
the pontiff who occupied the holy See in their time. All writers of history
continue on the series down to Pius IX., who now sits in the chair of Saint
Peter. What other religion than the Roman Catholic can present so marked
and so clearly proven a succession ? Need we wonder that its enemies have
endeavored to destroy the foundation? What sect has ever ventured to
figure a chain of legitimate pastors so closely and well connected ? Corfin-
gant tdte quid heretici ? Such is the challenge which Tertullian gave to all
heretics. That bold challenge has become stronger and safer still since the
* Feller, v. 41.
2

18

LIVES OF THE POPES.

days of Tertullian. He spoke thus when the Church was not yet two
centuries old. What would he have said, could he have witnessed the
superhuman succession of eighteen centuries and a half, as it has existed
and has been attested by the most indisputable titles and monuments ?
" Against those who differ from us," says Bossuet, " there is always this
damaging fact^-they are separated from the great body of the Church ;
but for us, what consolation it is that from our sovereign pontiff we can
ascend uninterruptedly to Saint Peter, who was established by Jesus Christ
himself ; and from Saint Peter, going back to the pontiffs of the Old Law,
we ascend to Aaron and to Moses, and from them to the patriarchs, and to
the very beginning of the world ! What a succession ! What a tradition !
What a marvellous chain !"
Besides the two epistles of Saint Peter which are received as canonical
books, several works have been attributed to him — as, his Acts, his Gospel,
and his Apocalypse ; but they are not genuine.

2. ST. LINUS.— a. d. 67.

AINT LINUS was the son of Herculanus, of the
family of the Mauri, of Volterra, an ancient town of
Tuscany. Some authors suppose the family to be
the same that is called Morosina at Venice, and
Morigia at Milan. At the age of twenty-two he was
sent to Rome to study. There he saw Saint Peter,
who sent him to Besancon in France, to preach the
gospel, and it has even been affirmed that this saint
had the title of bishop. On his return to Rome, Linus was declared by
Saint Peter his coadjutor. The regular canons named after St. Augustine,
who venerate Saint Peter as their founder, include Linus among their num
ber. He was elected as pontiff on the 30th of June, in the year 67.
Novaes gives precisely that date, as to the month, but thinks the year was
not 67 but 69. Linus was the immediate successor of Saint Peter, accord
ing to Saint Irenaaus, Eusebius, and Saint Augustine. But Tertullian says
(in his book Be Prescript, chap, xxxii.) that the prince of the Apostles named
Saint Clement as his successor. These passages are reconcilable on the
supposition that Saint Clement refused to accept that dignity until after
the decease of Saint Linus. And it is added that the reason why some
authors have placed Saint Clement immediately after Saint Peter, is that

SAINT LINUS. 19
during the life of that Apostle, and during one of his apostolical journeys,*
Clement officiated as Peter's vicar, and administered, ad interim, the affairs
of the holy See.
It is the generally received opinion that Saint Linus ascended the chair
of Saint Peter when the first vicar of Jesus Christ was martyred. Saint
Linus, following a recommendation of Saint Paul,t ordered that women
should never enter the church with uncovered heads. Pope Clement XIV.
renewed that prohibition in, the last century. Saint Linus excommunicated
the Menandrians who followed Menander, a Samaritan and a disciple of
Simon Magus. He maintained that the world was a creation of- the angels,
and not of God, and defended the errors of the Nicolaites (so called after
Nicolas, Deacon of Antioch), who pretended that all things were in common
among the Christians. In their assemblies they practised, as did most
of the early heretics, the most infamous turpitudes. Menander was perhaps
the first to introduce into the Church the germs of the Eastern philosophy.
This developed itself under various forms, through imposture and igno
rance, and propagated an inextricable forest of heresies which it was not
easy to uproot.J It was under this pontificate that the destruction of Jeru
salem took place. Linus might have witnessed the arrival at Rome of the
first of those Jews who were subsequently condemned to labor in building
the arch of Titus, where the Roman pride was flattered by the exhibition
of the seven-branched candlestick, as one of the trophies of the victory.
Works have been published, attributed to St. Linus as their author. They
are now pronounced apocryphal, because they are infected by errors,
resembling those of the Manichseans. Linus is named among the martyrs
in the canon of the Roman Church, which is of a higher antiquity than the
Sacramentary of Gelasius, and of greater authority on that point. Saint
Linus died in 78 ; his feast is kept on the 23d of September in the Roman
martyrology. The Biographie Universelk is in error in affirming that Saint
Linus received the crown of martyrdom under Nero. It was under Ves
pasian that this saint perished a victim to the malignity of Saturninus,
a man of consular rank. Linus had assisted, during her long illness,
the daughter of that very man who also had solicited the prayers of the
pontiff. Pope Saint Linus reigned about eleven years.
* Feller, iv., 143.
f Epistle to the Corinthians, I., xi. 5.
\ Vite dei cento prim Pontiflei, di Mekhior Cesarotti; Forenze, 1811 ; p. 4.

20

LIVES OF THE POPES.

3. SAINT ANACLETUS.

HE Biario maintains that Cletus and Anacletus are
one and the same person ; Novaes asserts that they
were not ; and he says, that Saint Cletus was the
son of Emilian, and was created pope on the 24th
of September, A. d. 80. During the life, and by the
order of Saint Peter, he divided Rome into twenty-
five parishes, and placed them under the direction
of the same number of priests. From that state
ment, it has been inferred that Cletus was a coad
jutor of Saint Peter in the suburban cities. We must not give implicit
credence to those authors who hold that Saint Cletus was the first pontiff
who, in the apostolic letters, used the formula salutem et apostolicam benedic-
tionem. That formula is not to be found before the time of John V., who
was created pope in 685. Saint Cletus is said to have originated those
pilgrimages to the churches of Rome, which have since been called Stations ;
and he is also said to have converted into a church his own house, situated
near the baths of Philip in the Rione de' Monti. He is said to have suffered
martyrdom, during the second persecution of the Church, on the 26th of
April, in the year 93 ; and Novaes adds, that he was interred at the Vatican.
It is stated, also, that the Holy See remained vacant for twenty days after
his decease.
Saint Anacletus was a Greek, born at Athens, and, according to No
vaes, was the son of Antiochus. Under Saint Peter, he was deacon,
priest, and subsequently, bishop. He was elected pontiff on the 3d of
April, A. d. 78. He finished and dedicated the Basilica, which was built
on the spot where Saint Peter was martyred. Many authors maintain
that Cletus and Anacletus are but one and the same person, — neglecting
to notice that the birthplace, the parentage, the works, and the festivals
appointed by the Church for each of these saints, quite clearly show they
are different. Panvini maintains this ; nevertheless, the very learned
Father Lazzeri, who was especially learned in sacred antiquity, read
before the Roman College, in 1755, a fine dissertation, in which he main
tained that Cletus and Anacletus were one and the same person. He
cited, in support of that opinion, the authority of Papebrock. Cletus
* Some authors hold that Cletus and Anacletus are one and the same person, while others
speak of them as two separate popes. We give above what has been said as to Pope Cletus,
but follow in the details the Biario regarding Anacletus, the third Christian pontiff.

SAINT CLEMENT.

21

would have been pontiff in 73, but, being exiled with the other Christians,
he must have renounced the pontificate, and was replaced by Clement I.,
up to the year 83. Then, Clement himself being exiled, he, in his turn,
renounced the pontificate in favor of the same Cletus, his predecessor.
Cletus, on being called to Rome, would quite naturally be named Ana
cletus, that is to say, Revocato, the Recalled, or iterum Cletus. In this man
ner Lazzeri reconciles the authority of the ancient fathers and the ancient
catalogues, which speak of Cletus and of Anacletus, while others mention
first Cletus, and then Anacletus. For the opinion which confounds Cletus
and Anacletus, Papebrock, Dupin, Tillemont, Pearson, Baillet, Father Hol-
loix, and Natalis Alexander may be consulted ; for the contrary opinion, the
two Pagis, Schelstrate (Vol. i., Dissert. 2, chap. 2), and Sandini (Dissert. 4).
Anacletus was distinguished for a rare integrity and great learning.
According to the authors of the Art de< Verifier les Bates, and the Biario, he
died A. d. 91. Novaes says that some Decretals attributed to this pope are
suspected by modern critics.
He belonged to the order of regular canons, according to those who make
that order coeval with Saint Peter.

4. ST. CLEMENT. — a. d. 91.

AINT CLEMENT the first, successor to Anacletus,
was a native of Rome, and a disciple of Saint Peter.
Saint Paul speaks of him in terms of warm interest,
in his Epistle to the Philippians.
Clement appointed in Rome seven notaries, who
were charged with the duty of collecting the Acts of
the Martyrs, and registering them in the records of
the Church. Thence originated the institution of
the assistant Apostohc Prothonatories, who were increased to the number
of twelve by Sixtus V. To Clement have been attributed several Decretals,
which are now recognized as spurious. In two ordinations, he created
fifteen bishops, and ordained ten priests, and eleven deacons. During the
third Persecution, he was exiled to Cherson, a city of Pontus, and there
drowned in the sea.
Saint Clement wrote two epistles to the Corinthians. The first, which
the learned supposed to be lost, was published, almost entire, at Oxford, by
Patrick Giunio, from a manuscript in the library of the King of England^

22 LIVES OF THE POPES.
which manuscript we owe to Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady, who was con
temporary with the first Council of Nice. It is one of the finest monuments
of antiquity. Tillemont ascribes to it "much unction and strength; its
style is lucid, and it greatly resembles the Epistle to the Hebrews. We find
in the one not only some of the sense, but also even some of the very words
of the other." This fact has led some critics to believe that Saint Clement
was the translator of that Epistle of Saint Paul. Many authors also attribute
to Saint Clement another letter to the Corinthians, of which there remains a
considerable fragment, which was published in Latin,* by Godefroy Wende-
lin, and from the Greek by Patrick Guinio. It seems, in fact, that Saint
Clement was the author of it. Saint Denis, of Corinth, mentions it in his
letter to Soter, and he testifies that from time immemorial it had been
read in his church. Saint Irenaeus pronounced it to be very powerful and
very persuasive. Clement of Alexandria cites it in his Stromates (section 5),
and it agrees with the fragment of it which we possess. Origen also cites
it in his Commentary on Saint John. Burigny says it is false, that Euse-
bius, Saint Jerome, and Photius absolutely reject it.
There is a church in Rome known as Saint Clement's, which is said to occu
py the site of the paternal house of this pontiff; it is said to have been built
in the reign of Constantine, in memory of the disciple of Saint Peter. It was
in that church, the object of the especial veneration of the Romans, that, in
417, Celestius, a disciple of the heresiarch Pelagius, was condemned by Pope
Zozimus. It is stated that its title was given to this church under Leo the
Great. Before the door is a small portico, supported by four granite
columns. From that portico we pass into the Atrium,t which is surrounded
by other porticoes, and ornamented by sixteen granite columns, six of which
are on each side, and four opposite to the door by which we enter the
church. It is divided into three naves by eighteen columns, which support,
with two arches, the side-walls. That church gives us an idea of the primi
tive form of our Catholic Basilicas. It is asserted that it was in this church
that the body of Saint Clement, brought from the Crimea, rested for some
time. Novaes mentions, in a note, authorities which prove, in the terms of
the Constitution XIX., of Leo IX., that the body of Saint Clement, pontiff
and martyr, formed a part of the relics of the monastery of Casaure, in the
Abruzzi. * Feller, ii., 279.
f Description of Rome, translated from the Italian by Mr. Charles Fea ; Rome, 1821 : 12mo,
vol. ii., p. 55.

SAINT EVARISTUS. £3

5. ST. EYARISTUS.— a. d. 100.
ALNT EVARISTUS was born at Bethlehem, in Pales
tine. He was created pontiff in the year 100 of the
Christian era.* It has not been said of him that he
prided himself on his birthplace ; and even if he had
done so, few Christians would blame him for it.
Leaving Bethlehem at a very early age, he went to
Rome to study, and distinguished himself there by
both his piety and his erudition. When he became
sovereign pontiff, he ordered, according to the apostolical tradition, that mar
riages should be celebrated publicly, and with the priestly benediction, and
that no bishop should preach without the assistance of seven deacons.
Chacon says that this order was given to prevent their rivals from imputing
error to them ; but Bianchini, in his notes ad Anastasium (vol. ii., p. 78), sup
poses that the object of it was that those deacons should feel the truth in
the ministry of preaching. Evaristus distributed to the priests the titles,
that is to say, the churches of Rome, whence some authors have inferred
that this pontiff instituted Cardinal priests. To the rite of the consecration of
churches, passed from the Old to the New Testament, Evaristus' added some
ceremonies. In three or four ordinations, he created five bishops, six, or
according to some authors seventeen priests, arid two deacons. He gov
erned the Church nine years and three months, was martyred A. D. 109, and
buried in the Vatican.
The two Decretals attributed to Evaristus, one of which was addressed to
the bishops of Africa, and the other to all the faithful in Egypt, are now
considered to be apocryphal.
Under his pontificate, the Church was attacked from without by the per
secution of Trajan, and torn within by divers heresies. But one of the
consolations of this pontiff was the courage of Saint Ignatius, a disciple of
Saint Peter and of Saint John. Evaristus had maintained his correspond
ence with Palestine and Syria. He knew that Saint Ignatius, surnamed
Theophous, or God-bearer, had been ordained bishop of Antioch, in the year
68, after Saint Evodius, the immediate successor to Saint Peter. Ignatius
governed that See with the zeal that was to be expected from a pupil and
* Though still quoting Novaes as to facts, we shall henceforth adopt only the chronology of
the Biario; but the confusion relating to Cletus, Anacletus, and Saint Clement I., appeared to
us to justify the preceding discussion.

24 LIVES OF THE POPES.
an imitator of the apostles.* Nothing could exceed the ardor of his charity,
the vivacity of his faith, and the depth of his humility. All those virtues
appeared in great brilliancy in the third persecution to which Christianity
was subjected, under the reign of Trajan. Ignatius appeared before the
emperor, and spoke with all the earnestness of a Christian, and received
from that prince's own lips the sentence of a barbarous death ; yet Trajan
is constantly held up to our view as a model of justice and humanity. Sent
from Antioch to Rome, there to be thrown to the wild beasts, he saw Saint
Polycarp at Smyrna, visited many churches, and wrote to those that he
could not go to. He encouraged the strong, and gave strength to the weak.
When he reached Rome, whither he went of his own accord and without
guards, because he had pledged his word that he would not turn aside from
his direct road, he resolutely opposed those of the faithful who would fain
have saved him from a terrible death. On the day appointed for his execu
tion he heard the roaring of the hungry lions : he said, " I am the wheat of
Jesus Christ, to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts into a perfectly pure
bread." Being exposed to two lions, he saw their approach without trem
bling, and was devoured by them, amidst the applauses of the vile multi
tude. He yielded up his soul to God in the year of Christ 107, while
Evaristus was in secret praying for so noble a martyr. Can any thing be
more edifying than the epistles of Ignatius ? In one of them he exclaims :
" Now I begin to be indeed the disciple of Christ ; having found Christ, I
no longer desire any thing that is to be found here below ; let fire, the cross,
or the wild beasts assail me, it signifies nothing, provided that I enjoy Jesus
Christ." "That heroism," says Csesarotti, "is so superior to humanity,
that we cannot think the religion that inspired it aught but divine."
Nothing confers greater glory upon the Christians of Rome and their head
than that letter of Ignatius. He makes the most edifying eulogy of that
church, bestows copious praises upon the faithful of the city, and expressly
says that he recognizes it as worthy of the primacy in authority, as it so
eminently held the primacy in virtues. Ignatius died of the wounds that
were inflicted by ferocious beasts ; Evaristus died under the hands of execu
tioners, more cruel than the wild beasts themselves.
Feller, iii. 597

SAINT ALEXANDER I.

25

6. ST. ALEXANDER I.— a. d. 109.

T is said that this pontiff pursued his studies
under the direction and advice of Pliny the
Younger and Plutarch. There are attributed
to him two decrees and three decretal letters ;
the first addressed to all the orthodox, the second
to all the bishops, and the third to all the priests.
Modern critics have decided those pieces to
be apocryphal. They find in them no trace of
the system of composition of the two great writers above mentioned.
Novaes credits what is said of Saint Alexander's connection with Pliny. As
regards Plutarch, he himself confesses that during his travels in Italy he
could not command sufficient leisure to acquire a profound knowledge of
the Latin language, occupied as he was with the public business which was
intrusted to him, and with the conferences with the learned men who
came to consult and listen to him. In all probability Plutarch could not
give lessons in Latin literature to Alexander ; but the painter of the virtue
of the Greeks, who was born a. d. 66, in the little town of Cheronea, in
Beotia, could instruct the Christian in the art of meditating upon the
Greek literature. This a pontiff could not neglect, as he necessarily had to
maintain correspondence with so many illustrious cities which spoke the
language of Homer and Herodotus. It is unfortunate that we have no letter
or other document from the pen of Alexander, containing any expression
of a feeling of gratitude towards such masters, as it might have enabled us
to learn something as to the various sentiments of Pliny and Plutarch upon
the great question of religion which at that period divided the pagans.
The letter that Pliny wrote in favor of the Christians is justly famous, and
does credit to his enlightened tolerance. The virtues of that friend of
Trajan, who was then proconsul and governor of Bithynia, induced, it is
said, some persons to reckon him among them, and to assign him a place
in their dyptics. Unfortunately, however, those partisans of Plinius secun-
dvs have confounded him with another Secundus, a true Christian, whose
name was quite properly placed on the Christian roll.
Alexander was still young when he arrived at the pontificate. Some say
that he was only twenty, and others that he was thirty, when he became
Pope. On that point Novaes says : " Alexander was young in years ; but in
morals, knowledge, and virtue he was a veteran." It was he who ordered
that the priests should celebrate but one Mass daily, which rule was

26 LIVES OF THE POPES.
observed until the papacy of Saint Deodatus, in 615. Alexander converted
to the faith Ernies, prefect of Rome, that officer's wife, and numerous illus
trious citizens. Being thrown into prison for those glorious efforts, he
converted the tribune Quirinus and his daughter Balbina. Alexander, in
three ordinations, created six bishops, six priests, and two or three deacons.
He suffered martyrdom under Adrian, who had not sufficiently weighed the
plea which Pliny the Younger had addressed to Trajan.
Pliny to the Empeeob Teajan.
" I feel it my duty, my Lord, to make known to you all my doubts ; for
who can better decide for me and instruct me ? I have never been present
at the trial and sentence of any Christian,, so that I know not the particu
lars of the information against them, or to how great a degree of punish
ment they should be consigned. I feel great hesitation on the subject of
different ages. Should Christians be subject to punishment without any
distinction being made between the older and the younger ? Ought those
to be pardoned who repent, or is renunciation of Christianity useless when
it has once been professed ? Are they punishable for the mere name of
Christianity, or for the crimes connected with that name ? The following is
the rule by which I have governed myself in the cases which have been
brought before me concerning the Christians. I have questioned a second
and even a third time those who have avowed their Christianity, and I have
threatened them with punishment should they persist, and I have sent to
execution those who did so persist ; for no matter what may be the nature of
that which they confessed, I felt that I must not neglect to punish their
disobedience and their inflexible obstinacy. Others, though confessedly
guilty of the same folly, I have sent to Rome, because they are Roman
citizens. Subsequently this crime, or accusations of it having spread,* as
is usual in such cases, charges are made in great variety. An anonymous
memorial has been placed in my hands, accusing of Christianity many per
sons who deny that they are or ever have been such. In my own presence, and
in terms that I dictated to them, they have invoked the gods, and offered
wine and incense to your image, which I expressly ordered to be brought
with the images of the gods. They have even indulged in furious impreca
tions against Christ, which I am assured no real Christians can be made to
do. I therefore deemed that they ought to be acquitted. Others, accused
by an informer, at first admitted that they were Christians, but immediately
* Biffundente se crimine. Cicero sometimes uses the word crimen in the sense of crime; but
he more frequently uses it in the very different sense of accusation. This latter use of the word
seems most conformable to the disposition of Pliny in the character of mediator, which, without
compromising himself, he wished to take.

SAINT ALEXANDER I. 27 «
afterwards denied it, declaring that indeed they had been, but had ceased
to be so, some for three years and others for more, even to the extent in
some cases of twenty years. All of this class have venerated your image
and the statues of the gods, and have also cursed Christ. They protested
that their error or their crime had been confined to the following particu
lars.* On appointed days they assembled before sunrise, and sang by
turns verses in praise of Christ, as being God ;t that they engaged them
selves on oath, not to any crime, but that they would not be guilty of larceny,
theft, or adultery, or of breach of promise or denial of deposit made with
them. That afterwards it was their custom to separate, and then reas
semble to eat in company innocent food ; and that they had ceased to hold
those assemblies when my edict was published, in obedience to your orders
forbidding such assemblies. This made me feel it all the more necessary
to get at the whole truth, by dint of torture, from two young slave-girls,
who confessed to ministering in this worship ;| but as I ascertained only
that they carried to excess a stupid superstition, for that reason I suspended
further proceedings until I can receive your orders.
" This business appears to me to be worthy of your consideration, on
account of the multitude of those that are placed in this peril ; for a great
number of persons of all ages and ranks, and of both sexes, are and will be
implicated in this accusation. This contagious evil has not only diffused§
itself in the cities and towns, but also in villages, and in the open country. I
believe, however, that it can be remedied and arrested. What is certain is,
that our temples, which were almost deserted, are now frequented, and sacri
fices long neglected recommence. || Victims are now everywhere in demand,
which formerly found no purchasers ; whence we may infer what numbers
of persons would be redeemed from their errors if repentance would pro
cure pardon."
Trajan replied in the following terms :
" You have taken the right course, my dear Secundus, as to the cases of
Christianity that have been referred to you; for it is not practicable to
establish a certain and general form of procedure in a business of this kind.
Inquiry and search should not be ordered ; but those who are accused and
convicted should be punished. If, however, the accused denies his Chris-
* Here Pliny somewhat more clearly shows what kind of reply he desired.
f Sacy says, as if he had been God ; Pliny's words are, Carmenque Ohristo quasi Beo.
X If this is true, Pliny's mercy soon grew weary ; those poor girls are to us martyrs.
§ De Sacy says, infected the thousand cities ; but pervagatur cannot properly be translated by
infected. \ The vanity of the administrator here peeps out ; or perhaps he says this in order that he
may the better captivate Trajan.

28 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tianity, and authenticates his denial by his conduct — I mean, by invoking
the gods — his repentance should obtain his pardon, whatever the suspicions
under which he has formerly labored. In no kind of accusation should
anonymous denunciations be received, for they set an evil example, and suit
not our age."
Fleury, after transcribing this letter, makes the following judicious obser
vations :
" That reply of the emperor in some sort put a stop to the persecution
which threatened the Christians, yet left their enemies no less pretext to
annoy them. In some places the populace and in others the authorities
set snares for them ; so that without any declared general persecution,
there were individual persecutions in every province."
The persecution in which Pope Saint Alexander perished had not been
expressly ordered by the emperor, but the sycophantic governors hoping to
please him, and often without any orders, or under misinterpreted orders,
sent Christians to execution.
Saint Alexander governed the Holy See ten years, five months, and
twenty days; he has the title of martyr in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory
the Great, in the old calendar published at Verona in 1733, by Father Fron-
teau, and in all the Martyrologies. After several centuries, his body was
removed to Saint Sabina, and placed beneath the high altar erected by
Sextus V.

7. ST. SIXTUS L— a.d. 119.
ORN of the senatorial family of the Colonnas,
Sixtus was created pontiff on the 29th of May,*
119. He was the first to direct that the chalice and
the paten should be touched only by the sacred
ministers. Csesarotti remarks, that if the pagan
philosophers held in honor the names of the Eu-
molpes, the Orpheuses, and the Numas, because
they originated or added to the pomp of the wor
ship of their fantastic deities, into which those pagans introduced supersti
tions and absurd ceremonies, we ought to contemplate with respect the
pontiffs who, like Saint Alexander and Saint Sixtus, successively, and in
accordance with the Christian spirit, labored to render more venerable the
most august of all our mysteries.

SAINT SIXTUS I.

29

Under the reign of Saint Sixtus there was less persecution. A proconsul
still more courageous than Pliny, represented to the Emperor Adrian how
unjust it was to inflict cruel tortures, without examination and trial, from
mere prejudice against a class whose one only fault, in the estimation of all
reasonable Romans, consisted in the name of Christian. That proconsul
was Serenius Granianus. History should display in letters of gold the
name of that minister who ventured to expose himself to the hatred of the
prince in defence of truth and justice.* The emperor was moved, and the
apologies which were presented to him by Quadratus and Aristides com
pletely appeased him. Adrian wrote a memorable letter in favor of the
Christians,t strictly forbade denunciations of them, and ordered that those
who offended in that wise should be punished. This showed that if he had
not already learned to worship Jesus, he had at least learned to venerate
him. Ere long, however, the inconsistent prince suffered persecution to
begin again. Sixtus was its victim.
Full of generous and considerate ideas, Sixtus had ordered that no bishop
having been summoned to Rome, and subsequently returning to his
bishopric, should be received there, except on his presenting to his people
apostohc letters called/ormafce. These recommended the unity of the faith,
and a mutual love between the head of Cathohcity and the children of
Jesus Christ. Besides the letters called formatce,% there were others
termed canonicals, which were delivered to the bishops when they were
about to return to their dioceses. Still more explicit than the formatoe,
they tended to strengthen and render unalterable the unity of the faith,
obedience to the Holy See, the charity of the pope, and that of the mem
bers of the Church. The word canonicals well explains the sense of those
letters. To prevent all system of fraud, those letters were sanctioned by
the first council of Nice, which prescribed their tenor, and in some sort
even the cypher in which they should be written ; for their language was
not intelligible to all. There were letters called pacifies, or communicatives.
These letters were given to pilgrims, and testified to their Catholic faith,
and to their communion with the church in which they lived. Letters
commendatory served pilgrims in their traveling expenses.
There were already lecters dimissory, by which a cleric could prove that he
was absent from his diocese by permission of his bishop. There were also
memoriales, or letters commonitory; they contained instructions to the
legates for the fulfilment of the commissions with which they were
intrusted. And there were Synodals, which were issued on various occa
sions. They were called encyclicals or circulars, and catholicals, when they ,

p. 16. t Fleury, vol. i., p. 338.
X Theformatce (formed) were so named on account of the seal or of the especial form used in
writing them.

30 LIVES OF THE POPES.
were addressed to all the Churches. They were called decretals when the
Roman pontiffs issued them in responses to various questions, or to pre
scribe the performance or the omission of some act. Pastoral letters were
those of the bishops to their flocks. Letters confessory were those given
to the Christians who, in times of persecution, were imprisoned for the sake
of Jesus. They recommended to the bishops those weak-minded men
who in their terror of torture had denied the faith ; and served afterwards
to admit these uncourageous Christians to penitence and rehabilitation.
Apostolic letters were those which emanated from the Roman pontiffs, in
virtue of the apostohc authority. These were of various kinds. Some
were called briefs, by which name the ancients understood the documents
which described the ecclesiastical property ; or, what we should now call
inventories. The name of brief has become a generic term, and is applied
to all the missive letters of the Roman pontiffs. There were, still further,
letters that were called clericals, which were issued by the clergy during the
vacancy of Sees.* Saint Augustine speaks of letters termed trattatory,
by which princes invited the bishops to attend councils. The same name
was given to those letters by which bishops communicated to other bishops
what had taken place with respect to any business or question of import
ance. Letters not noted by a title, or other public sign, were termed
private. It has been maintained that Saint Sixtus styled himself bishop of
bishops. But this assertion rests only on an apocryphal letter, as Marea
and Baluze observe. Tertullian, who flourished at the commencement of
the third century, adopts that style and title in speaking of the Roman
pontiffs.t Saint Sixtus created four bishops, nine priests, and three deacons, and
governed the Holy See during nearly nine years.
* Saint Augustine : Epist. 59, ad Yictorin. \ Be Pudicitia, chap. i.

SAINT TELESPHORUS.— SAINT HYGINIUS.

31

8. ST. TELESPHORUS— a. d. 127,
'AS a Greek by birth, though some authors say
that he was born in Terra Nova, in Calabria. It is
by some affirmed that his father was an Anchorite,
and that Telesphorus himself was Roman by birth.
Some say that by his decrees he confirmed the ob
servance of Lent ; and others affirm that the. quadra
gesimal Fast came down by tradition, as stated by
Saint Ignatius, Saint Jerome, and Theophilus.
This holy pope suffered martyrdom, A. D. 139.
In his four ordinations, Telesphorus created thirteen bishops, fifteen
priests, and eight deacons. Some pious Christians removed his body after
execution, and placed it near that of Saint Peter, in the Vatican.
It is said that this pope ordered that all priests should celebrate three
Masses on Christmas day. But Novaes considers that this statement rests
only upon an apochryphal Decretal (vol. i., p. 44). However, this observ
ance was followed under Saint Gregory the Great.
Saint Telesphorus presided over the Holy See during eleven years, eight
months, and eighteen days.

9. ST. HYOINIUS. — a. d. 139.

ALNT HYGINIUS was born at Athens, and was
raised to the papacy by the clergy and the people,
in A. D. 139. He settled the order of priority among
the clergy, which has led to the supposition that he
was the founder of the College of Cardinals. The
custom of having a godfather and a godmother, at
the baptismal font, which some have attributed to
Hyginius, is stated by Novaes, on the authority of
Tertullian, to have been in use prior to the reign of that pontiff.
Hyginius excommunicated Cerdon, the author of that heresy which
afterwards was known as the Marcionite. This heresy taught that there
were two Gods, one good and the other cruel. Cerdon denied that Jesus
Christ had ever Hved in the flesh, avemng that he was only a shadow. This

32

LIVES OF THE POPES.

sentence of Hyginius was almost universally approved. Novaes affirms that
this pope suffered martyrdom, but Eusebius and Saint Cyprian say that
though he endured much for the sake of the Church, he did not, strictly
speaking, suffer martyrdom. He governed the Holy See during three years,
eleven months, and twenty-nine days.
Saint Hyginius was buried at the Vatican. We have spoken of the clergy
and the people, as having elected the pope. The clergy were divided into
three classes — priests, heads of the clergy, and the inferior clergy. The
priests were the seven Suburbicans (afterwards named Cardinal bishops),
and the twenty-eight priests who were also called Cardinals. The principal
clergy, or primates of the Church, were the Primate of the Notaries, or arch
deacon, the deputy archdeacon, the treasurer, the protoscrinariiis, the Chief
of the Defenders, and the Nomenclator. The rest of the clergy consisted of
subdeacons, notaries, and acolytes. The people were divided into three
classes — the citizens, the soldiery, and the rest, though they were Chris
tians, were not recognized as either citizens or soldiers.
In the eleventh century, under the reign of Nicholas II., the elective
faculty was limited to the principal priests and vicarial bishops of Rome,
who were then generally called Metropolitan Cardinals, Cardinal-bishops,
and Cardinal-deacons. (Novaes, Introd., vol. i., 29.)

10. ST. PIUS I. — a. d. 142.

AINT PIUS I. was born at Aquilea. He was created
pontiff A. D. 142. Like Saint Hyginius, he con
demned the followers of Cerdon and his successor
in that heresy, Marcion.
"Marcion," says Fleury, "recognized two princi
ples, the good and the evil, and he claimed to be
J».V justified by these words of the Scripture : ' The Tree
which beareth good fruit is not evil; and the Tree
which beareth bad fruit, is not good.' " He also availed himself of the
parable which advises that we mend not an old garment with new cloth,
nor put new wine into old bottles. He repudiated the Old Testament, as
having been given by the evil principle, and he composed a work which he
entit'ed Antitheses, or "the Contradictions between the Old Law and the
New Testament." His followers abstained from animal food, and used only
water in holy Communion. They carried their abhorrence of flesh meat so

SAINT PIUS I. 33
far as to suffer death as martyrs. This heresy had a great number of be
lievers, not only in many places, but also during many centuries*
The condemnation pronounced by Saint Pius I., added weight to the
excommunication pronounced against this heresy by Saint Hyginius.
Pius I. had also to combat the heresy of Valentinus, whose origin is not
known. " Valentinus at first preached the Catholic faith in Egypt, where
he is said to have been born, and afterwards in Rome," says Fleury, " but
it was in the isle of Cyprus that he became perverted from the faith.
Possessing both ability and eloquence, he hoped for a bishopric, but being
disappointed, he, in his anger, undertook to combat the doctrine of the
Church. He had studied the writings of the Greeks, and especially the
Platonic philosophy.
Justin Martyr composed an apology for the Christians in the year of
Christ 150, and placed the following address in the beginning of it : " To
the Empeeoe Titus Elian Adeian Antonius, pious and august Gesae, and
TO HIS SON VeEISSLMUS, PHILOSOPHEE ; AND LUCIUS, PHTLOSOPHEE, THE SON OF
GffiSAB BY NATUBE, AND OF THE EMPEEOE BY ADOPTION, LOVEES OF SCIENCE ; AND
TO THE SACBED SENATE, AND THE WHOLE ROMAN PEOPLE ; JUSTIN, SON OF PEIS-
cus Bacchius, a native of Flavia oe Naples of Palestine, one of the
PEESECUTED, PEESENTS THIS MEMOEIAL.f
"Reason teaches us that those who are truly pious and philosophers
esteem and love only the truth, and not old opinions if they are unsound.
You are everywhere called pious and philosophical ; the effect shows how
that really is.
" We do not intend to flatter you in this writing, but to ask you for justice,
in accordance with the most sound reason, and to entreat you not to listen to
prejudices, nor to adhere to superstitions, J nor to passion, nor to give credence
to the false reports that have long been circulated, so as to render judgments
which must be injurious to yourselves. For ourselves, we are persuaded that
no one can do us harm so long as no one can convict us of being evil doers ;
you may have us put to death, but you cannot injure us ; and in order that
this discourse be not thought rash, we beg for an exact inquiry into the
nature of the crimes that are imputed to us. If such crimes be proved
against us, let us be punished even more severely than such crimes merit !
But if we be found blameless, sound reason forbids that you should maltreat
the innocent on account of false reports ; or rather that you wrong yourselves
in punishing in passion and not in justice. The legitimate form of justice is,
that subjects give a faithful account of their life and conversation, and that
* Fleury, vol. i., pp. 336, 337. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 361.
X That term had already been used in the trials of Christians, but it was applied to our wor
ship by Pliny the Younger. It is now applied to the worship of false gods. We have made
great progress since Pliny's time. 8

34 LIVES OF THE POPES.
princes judge not by violence and tyranny, but in piety and wisdom. It is
for us, therefore, to make our life and conversation known to all the world,
lest we have imputed to ourselves those crimes which are charged against
us in ignorance ; and it is for you to show us that you are unprejudiced
judges. For if, after receiving this information, you do not act justly, you,
wiU no longer have any excuse before God."
Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, explains the doctrine of the Chris
tians, saying that they adore, first, the eternal God, the author of all things;
in the second place, his son Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius
Pilate; and in the third place, they honor the prophetic Spirit.* Saint
Justin proceeds to say that Jesus Christ is the sovereign reason which
entirely changes the heart of his worshippers.
Jesus is the supreme reason who changes his followers. The discourses
of Jesus were the word of God, brief and exact. They have convinced us.
The Christians are the only people who are punished for their creed and
worship, while all other religions are tolerated. Some adore trees, flowers,
eats, rats, and crocodiles, and generally animals. Moreover, all do not
adore the same things — the worship is different, in accordance with their
gods ; so that each sect is impious in the estimation of all the others.
"Nevertheless," he continues, "the only complaint you make against us, is
that we do not adore the same gods as you do, and that we offer to the dead
neither libations, nor crowns, nor sacrifices. Yet you well know that the
others do not agree as to what they shall hold to be gods, or brutes, or
victims." He goes on to complain that there is no order taken with the impostors
who, after the ascension of Jesus, set themselves up as Gods, as Simon the
Samaritan, of the city of Gitton, who, in the time of the Emperor Claudius,
performed divers magical operations, and was recognized at Rome as a god ;
Menander, a disciple of Simon, who seduced so many at Antioch; and
Marcion, who even at that very time taught that there was another God
greater than the Creator. Justin Martyr then explains all that took place
in the Christian assemblies, and ends by laying before the eyes of the princes
the copy of the letter of Adrian to Minutius Fundanus.t
To Saint Pius I. is attributed a decree ordering the celebration of Easter
Sunday ; but that celebration had already been ordered by the Apostles.
The same pontiff directed that converts from Judaism}' to the Catholic
faith should be received and baptized. At the solicitation of Saint Praxedes,
* Fleury, vol. i., p. 365. Hist. Des Pont. — T. 1.
f See above, page 29, the mention of that letter, written by the emperor on the request of the
proconsul ©ranianus.
X By these words Peter Boerius understands the Jews themselves; Baronius, the sect ot
Cerinthus.

SAINT ANICETUS.

35

daughter of the senator Pudens, he erected in the palace of that Christian,
in which Saint Peter had lodged, the title of the Shepherd, and founded
there a church, now known under the name of Saint Pudentiana, sister of
Saint Praxedes*
Tu five ordinations, Saint Pius I. created twelve bishops, eighteen priests,
and eleven, or according to some, twenty-one deacons. He governed the
Church about fifteen years.

11. SAINT ANICETUS.— a. d. 157.
> N the 25th of July, a. d. 157, Saint Anicetus, a Syrian
^ priest, son of John, was created pontiff. Between
that pope and Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna,
there was a great controversy, which divided them
in opinion, but did not disturb their friendship. It
was upon the subject of the celebration of Easter.
Anicetus followed the tradition of Saint Peter, in
celebrating Easter on the Sunday following the
fourteenth day of the moon of the vernal equinox. Saint Polycarp, on the
contrary, preferred the tradition of the Apostle Saint John, celebrating on the
day of that full moon, which sometimes fell on a week day. The bishops of
Asia did not agree upon that subject with the Roman Church. That question
was subsequently decided, as we shall relate in the life of Saint Victor I.
This difference of opinion did not cause any breach of friendship. On one
occasion, Anicetus even yielded to Polycarp the honor of offering up the
sacrifice of the Mass. Anicetus had the ability to preserve his flock from
the poison of error, t and to keep the great trust of the faith in all its
purity.- By his vigilance he suppressed the heresies of Valentinus and
of Marcion.
Saint Anicetus suffered martyrdom in the year 168. In five ordinations,
he created nine bishops, seventeen priests, and fourteen deacons. He
governed the Church nearly eleven years. His remains, which for fourteen
hundred and twenty-nine years had rested in the cemetery of Calixtus, are
at present venerated in the chapel of the Attemps palace at Rome, where
they were deposited on the 28th of October, 16044 This favor was granted,
by the Pope Clement VHI., to the Prince John Angelo, Duke of Attemps.

Novaes, i., p. 48.

f Feller, i., p. 181.

X Novaes, i., p. 5

36

LIVES OF THE POPES.

12. ST. SOTER. — a. d. 168.

ONDI, near Naples, was the native place of Saint
Soter, also in his life called Concordius. He was
created pontiff A. D. 168. Critics are not agreed
as to the authenticity of the decretals published
under his name. Novaes here repeats the warn
ing which he had already given, that all the
decretals up to those of Saint Sicirius, the thirty-
ninth pope, who was created A. D. 384, should be
examined with the most scrupulous attention. By the testimony of Saint
Denis, we know that Saint Soter fulfilled his duties with an unfailing zeal,
and that he, like his predecessors, who had to use great circumspection,
delighted in aiding distant and indigent Christians. He inquired into the
sufferings and needs of those who were persecuted for the faith. He sent
without delay consolation and provision to those whom the emperor's
orders condemned to work in the mines. The more prosperous Christians
were called upon to give large alms, by means of which such sufferings
could be diminished and alleviated. These cases, so multiplied and so
pious, extended into the most distant parts of the world. At the same time,
this pontiff opposed the heresies which gnawed the vitals of Christianity.
By means of an affectation of extreme strictness of hfe, the heretics
deluded the multitude : they pretended that the time had arrived which
they called the millennium.
The zeal of the sovereign pontiff obtained the important concession that
Christians, merely as Christians, should not be condemned — that unless
charged with some distinct crime against the State, their Christian creed
should not be imputed to them as a crime.
In five ordinations Saint Soter created eleven bishops, eighteen priests,
and nine deacons. He governed the Church nine years and a few months.
From the cemetery of Saint Calixtus, where his body was at first buried,
it was removed by Sergius II., in 845, to the church of Saint Sylvester and
Martin ai Monti, and then to the Appian way, to the church of Saint
Sixtus, belonging to the Dominican fathers.
To this reign belongs the miracle of the thundering legion. The follow
ing account is given of it by Bossuet :
" In an extreme scarcity of water that was endured by the army of Mar
cus Aurelius in Germany, a Christian legion obtained rain sufficient to
quench the thirst of all the troops, and accompanied by thunder that terri-

SAINT ELEUTHERUS.

37

fied the enemy. This miracle caused the legion to receive, or to have
confirmed to it, the title of the thundering. The emperor was touched by
that miracle, and wrote to the senate in favor of the Christians. Subse
quently, his false priests persuaded him to attribute to their prayers to their
false gods the miracle which the pagans were far enough from wishing for."*
Evidence of this miracle is to be seen in the bas-reliefs of the Antonine
column. The Romans are there represented with weapons in hand against
the barbarians, who are seen extended upon the ground with their horses,
while a torrent of rain is pouring upon them, and they seem to be pros
trated by the thunderbolts. On that occasion, in fact, Marcus Aurelius,
in his letter to the senate, declared that his army had been saved by the
prayers of the Christian soldiers.

13. ST. ELEUTHERUS.— a. d. 177.

CCORDLNG to several writers, Saint Eleutherus
had the surname of Abondio; he was a Greek,
and born at Nicopolis, now called Previsa, in
Albania. Others, however,- say that he was a
Neapolitan, born in Calabria. (It must be re
membered that all that part of Italy was also
called Magna Grsecia.) At the request of Lucius,
king of that part of England which was subject
to the Romans, this pope sent Fugacius and
Damian into that island, to endeavor to convert it to the Catholic faith.
Marcus Aurelius was succeeded in the empire by Commodus, and by a
strange but welcome contradiction, the Church, which had been persecuted
during the reign of a good prince, was left in peace by a monstrous one.f
Elected A. D. 177, Saint Eleutherus governed the Church during fifteen
years and a few days. In three ordinations he created sixteen bishops,
twelve priests, and eight deacons. He was buried in the Vatican.

* Bossuet, Biscourse on Universal History, p. 78.
f Caesarotti, p. 27.

38 LIVES OF THE POPES.

14. ST YICTOR L— a. d. 193.
| HILE Victor I. sat in the chair of Saint Peter,
especial attention was paid to the question about
the celebration of Easter, of which we have already
spoken. The dispute was on this question : whether
the celebration should take place on the fourteenth
day of the March moon, as the Asiatic Churches
maintained, or on the Sunday next after that four
teenth day, as was customary at Rome and among
the Western Churches. This latter opinion, conformable to the tradition of
Saint Peter, prevailed in the council which was assembled in Rome by Pope
Saint Victor. However, those who preferred the contrary practice were not
condemned until the question was decided by the Council of Nice. But the
first decision proves what power Victor then had in the Church. Some
excitable persons wanted Saint Victor to excommunicate the Asiatic
bishops ; but, at the persuasion of Saint Irenseus, Victor did not .pronounce
the decree of separation. Novaes gives the names of the authors who
believe that fact ; but he also gives the names of the authors who, contrari
wise, believe that the excommunication actually took place. Among these
latter he mentions Baronius, Pagi (criticism on Baronius, A. D. 194), Schel-
strate, the Bollandists, Basnage, and others. Pierre de Marca, while he
adopts the opinion of the latter authors, adds that Saint Victor, at the urgent
request of Saint Irenseus, subsequently admitted the bishops to communion.
Father Zaccaria, with Dumesnil and Daude, believes that Victor deprived
the Asiatics of his individual Communion, by depriving them of his Pacific
Letters* and that, at length, he showed himself indulgent and patient, in
order that he might conciliate many bishops who disapproved of vexing
Churches so illustrious, when their docility and obedience might be better
left to the work of time.
Saint Victor I. decided that common water might, in case of actual
necessity, be used in baptism.
In several councils he excommunicated those heretics who maintained
that Christ was man and not God, and others who maintained that the
body of Jesus was celestial. He condemned Praxeas, who maintained that
the Father and not the Son had suffered on the cross, and who denied tha
three persons of the most holy Trinity.
* See, ante, the nature of the various official letters, briefs, &c.

SAINT ZEPHYRINUS. 39
At this period flourished Saint Clement of Alexandria. His name was
Titus Flavius Clemens ; some call him Athenian, which has led to the
behef that he was born at Athens. He was deeply learned in hterature and
philosophy, especially in that of Plato. He was well versed also in the
holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the Gospel. At the commencement of
his Stromates, he thus informs us of the pains that he took in studying
them. " I have not composed this work for ostentation ; it is a treasure of
memory for my old age, an artless remedy against oblivion and malice, a
slight sketch of lively and animated discourses, and those blessed and truly
memorable men whom I have had the advantage to hear."
Victor, in two ordinations, created twelve bishops, four priests, and seven
deacons. He governed the Church about nine years. Saint Nicholas, who
was pope in 858, says* that Victor was truly, as well as in name, a Victor,
or conqueror, because he was martyrized/or the traditions of the Church.
Saint Victor I. was buried in the Vatican.
He left some books on points of religion. They are lost, but they had
obtained the praises of Saint Jerome, who also says that Saint Victor was
the first among ecclesiastical authors to use the Latin language, all before
him having written in Greek.

15. ST. ZEPHYRINUS.— a. d. 202.
r^:S^J-^:'r'ft^^HSlEPHYRINUS, a Roman, the son of Abondio, was
- " : ' created pontiff A. D. 202. According to Anastasius,
''I -who wrote the hfe of this pope, he ordered that all
iff the priests living with a bishop should be present
whenever he should officiate; that no patriarch,
primate, or archbishop should pass sentence upon
a bishop without the authority of the Pope ; that
all Christians should communicate at Easter ; that
the patens and chalices should not be of wood, as
till then they had been, but of glass. Some writers say that Saint Zephy-
rinus ordered them to be neither of wood nor of glass, but of gold or silver.
Novaes cites all the authors who have written on the question, but seems to
be unwilling to come to any positive conclusion respecting it.
Saint Zephyrinus condemned the Montanists,Kthe Phrygians, the Cataphry-
gians, and the Encratites. Tertullian also was excommunicated, and endeav-
* Letter 9, in the Collection of the Councils, by Labbe, p. 341.

40 LIVES OF THE POPES.
ored to avenge himself by sarcasm, unworthy of so lofty a genius, which
pride rendered heretical. It was under Saint Zephyrinus that the famous
Origen went to Rome to visit the first and most celebrated of all the Chris
tian churches. During the seventeen years of his pontificate, Saint Zephy
rinus wholly devoted himself to maintaining the purity of the faith and
discipline in the clergy. By the prudent counsels of Zephyrin, Naialis, who
had professed the heresy of Theodotus, the currier, so fully and frankly
recanted, that the pontiff received him into the communion of the faithful,
and exempted him from canonical penalties.
Saint Zephyrinus, in four ordinations, created thirteen bishops, thirteen
priests, and seven deacons. He governed the Church nearly seventeen
years. He was buried in the cemetery called after the name of Calixtus,
his successor, on the Appian way.
Saint Zephyrinus had an especial esteem for Clement, that Platonic
philosopher who became a Christian, and who taught in the school of
Alexandria. Clement ' had a great number of disciples who afterwards
ranked among the best masters ; among them were Origen, and Alexander,
bishop of Jerusalem. Clement died about the year 217. The most cele
brated of his works is An Exhortation to the Pagans, the object of which is
to expose the absurdity of idolatry ; the Pedagogue, a master who conducts
the pupil from childhood to manhood in the way to heaven; and the
Stromata, a collection of miscellanies in eight books. He wrote this book
to serve him as a collection of memoranda, when his memory should fail him.
Clement, who well knew the pagans, has judged them more favorably
than many of the other Fathers ; though he conceals neither their errors
nor their vices.
Tertullian, priest of Carthage, died towards the close of the reign of Saint
Zephyrinus. His works are of two kinds — those which he wrote before his
fall, and those which he wrote after his separation from Rome. Among
those of the former class, is his Apology for the Christians, which is consid
ered one of the most precious monuments of Catholic antiquity. Fleury,*
among other details, gives the following extracts from Tertullian.
" We do not," says he, " entreat on his behalf gods which exist not, the
dead, and statues which he can command ; but we invoke, for the health of
the emperors, the eternal God, the true God, the living God. Bareheaded,
with uplifted eyes, and hands outstretched towards heaven, we pray for all
the emperors, and we ask that they may have long hfe, a tranquil reign,
safety in their houses, valor in their armies, fidelity in' the senate, honesty
in the people, and rest for every one. All that man or emperor can need,
I can only ask of Him who has the power to grant it, to whom I offer the
* Vol. ii., p. 27, et seg.

SAINT ZEPHYRINUS.

41

one sacrifice that he hath commanded, the prayer that proceeds from a
pure heart, an innocent mind, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ; and
not a few grains of incense or of gum, or a few drops of wine, or the blood
of some paltry animal, and what is still worse, an evil conscience.
" We pray, not by the genius of Ca3sar, but by his health, which is more
august than his genius. Know ye not that genii are demons ? Neither will
I call the emperor God, because I will not he, and because I respect him
too much to make a mockery of him. I am willing to call him Lord, but
only when I am not compelled to say Lord and God are equivalent. For
me, and equally for the emperor, there is but one Lord, who is all-powerful
and eternal.
" The Christians are denounced as public enemies, because they do not
pay false and vain honors to the emperors ; because, professing the true
religion, they daily enact their part in the public rejoicings rather by the
feelings of their hearts than by debauchery. Great honor, surely, is paid
to princes by setting out hearths and tables in the public streets for the
banquet, and turning the whole city into a public house, to mingle wine and
mire, and go about in companies committing insolences ! Can public joy be
only expressed by public shame? Are we culpable in praying for and
rejoicing in our emperors in pure, sober, and modest guise ?
"How many cruelties do you not still exercise against the Christians,
whether from your own inclination or in obedience to the laws ! How often
does it not happen that the populace, even without awaiting your orders,
throw stones at us, or set fire to our houses ! Have you ever remarked
that we have never done aught to revenge ourselves for so much injustice,
and an animosity that pursues us even unto the death ? Yet a single night,
and a few torches, would enable us abundantly to avenge ourselves, if it
were allowable to us to repay evil with evil ; and if we chose openly to declare
ourselves your enemies, could we not command strength and troops ? Are
the Moors, the Parthians, or any other nation, more numerous than all the
nations of the world? We are but a people of yesterday, and ive abound every
where, in your cities, your hamlets, your camps, your castles, your tribes, your
palaces, the senate-house, and the public square; in every place toe have taken
possession, leaving you nothing but your temples."
Saint Justin himself is here surpassed in the sacred struggle against
intolerance. Unhappily, Tertulhan did not persist in such excellent sentiments. He
became a Montanist ; and he left that sect and became the founder of a new
heresy. But, before his perjury, to what noble words he had given utter
ance ! The evil produced no effect ; the good alone remained.
Saint Zephyrinus enjoyed the success of Tertulhan, and no doubt par
doned his error, if, before his death, he manifested a true penitence.

42

LIVES OF THE POPES.

16. ST. CALIXTUS I.— a. d. 219.

A TNT CALIXTUS I., son of Domitian, was a mem
ber of the family of Domitia. He was created in
the year 219. There was no persecution during his
pontificate; nevertheless there were some martyrs.
Those calamities, however, must not be attributed
to the emperor himself ; for it may be said of Alex
ander Severus that, though a pagan by education,
he was Christian by disposition, and was one of the
princes who do the most honor to Roman history and to our common hu
manity. It is affirmed that he admired the maxims of Christianity, and that
one of those maxims — " We should not do unto others what we would not
that they should do unto us" — was by his order written in large letters in his
palace. He venerated Christ as one worthy of divine honors, and had our
Saviour's image among his lares, or household gods, as the image of a
benefactor to humanity, and would have erected a temple to him in the year
222 (more than a century before Constantine), had not the obstinate pagans
objected that if that were done, the altars of their false gods would be de
serted. There is much in this history that is consecrated to the glory of
Christ, illustrative of Christian doctrine, and destructive of that feeling of
surprise affected by Protestantism when it is compelled to recognize the
great power of Cathohcism under Constantine. It was not in the power of
that prince to postpone the striking homage that he paid to the Catholic
worship.* Csesarotti,f in the article which he devotes to Calixtus, asks whether the
violent death of that pontiff is to be attributed to a humane and generous
emperor ; he rephes that the emperor was at a distance from Rome, and
ignorant of the causes of that death. And he goes still further, and attrib
utes it to the prefects of the city, and especially to the consulters of the law.
Of these officers, he says : " They formed a very powerful order ; profes
sional pedantry urged them to display their zeal for the old laws, and to
sacrifice the law of conscience to the written law." This pontiff perished
during a poptdar insurrection, and ecclesiastical memoirs state that he was
thrown from a window and into a well. He did not die on the spot, and
men daily went down to maltreat the glorious martyr, who made no com
plaint. The well is still to be seen in the church of Saint Calixtus, of the

* Beauvais, Abridged History of the Soman Emperors, vol. i., p. 347. \ Csesarotti, p. 35.

SAINT URBAN I.

43

Benedictine Fathers, near that of Saint Mary, in Trastevere, which is itseK
built on the former site of the house. That httle church, built with the
permission of the emperor,* was renewed by Gregory IH., about the year
740 ; then it was granted to the Benedictine monks, with the palace built
by the Cardinal Moroni, in exchange for the monastery which they pos
sessed on the Quirinal, where the Quirinal palace now stands.
It is related that this pope expressly ordered that priests, on receiving
holy orders, should make a vow of continence, and should never contract
marriage ; that marriage shoul4 not be contracted between relatives, and
that the fast of the ember days of the year, which in some countries was
neglected, should be strictly observed. He re-established, on the Appian
Way, the cemetery which takes the name of Saint Calixtus, and which sub
sequently has received the bodies of a hundred and seventy-four thousand
martyrs, and of forty-six pontiffs. From this we may calculate how vast a
number of bodies must be contained in the other cemeteries in Rome.
In five ordinations, this pontiff created eight bishops, sixteen priests, and
four deacons. He governed the church about four years.

17. ST. URBAN I. — a. d. 223.
^N the death of Saint Calixtus, Saint Urban I., a
^J noble Roman, was created pontiff, in 223. He bap-
* tized many persons belonging to the Roman nobili
ty, among others Saint Ceciha and her husband
Valerianus. He ordered that all the vessels used
in the sacred mysteries should be of silver; it is
not astonishing that silver chalices were in use
before this pontificate. On this subject Novaes
tells us that when Saint Boniface was asked whether it was allowable to
celebrate with vessels of wood, he replied : " Formerly, golden priests used
wooden chalices ; now, wooden priests use golden chalices."
It was Urban who ordered that Christians should receive the chrism
only from the hands of the bishops, whence the heretics have stupidly attrib
uted to him the institution of the Sacrament of Confirmation. It is as cer
tain that that sacrament was instituted before Saint Urban, as it is that
Christ and the Apostles preceded that pope.
It is affirmed that he ordered that the thrones of the bishops should be

Saint Calixtus was the first who was permitted to build a Christian church in Rome.

44

LIVES OF THE POPES.

made higher, so that they might judge the faithful; and it was on that
account that those thrones are also called tribunals.
He suffered martyrdom in the year 230, under Alexander Severus. But
let us not on that account withdraw the praises we have bestowed upon that
emperor. Csesarotti has well explained that when that prince was absent
from Eome, men who were obstinately attached to the old laws irritated
the populace and consigned the Christians to martyrdom. Many preceding
decrees allowed the maltreatment of the Christians under various pretexts,
and the imprisonment of Eomans who conspired against the State. The
condemnation, therefore, could easily mention some legally punishable
offence without saying that the only real cause of proceeding against the
accused was his being a Christian.
In five ordinations, Saint Urban I. created eight bishops, five priests, and
nine deacons.
He was buried in the cemetery of Pretextatus, on the Appian Way, near
the gate of Saint Sebastian.
The head of that pontiff is venerated in the church of Saint Mary, in the
Trastevere, in the chapel of the Madonna of Strada Cupa, which was richly
ornamented and consecrated by Cardinal the Duke of York, commendatory
of that Basilica. The ceremony took place on the 14th of November, 1762.
That chapel had been given by the chapter to that cardinal, who was brother
of Prince Charles Edward. His eminence was the last of the Stuarts, and died
in 1788. He had on his medals the title of Henry IX., King of England.

18. ST. PENTIANUS. — a. d. 230.

AINT PENTIANUS, son of Calpurnius, was created
pontiff on the 26th of June, a. d. 230. Some learned
men think, with Platina, that it was this pope who
ordered the singing of the Psalms in the Church,
both by day and by night ; but other writers main
tain that the custom is older. It is possible that
fM\ Saint Pentianus published a decree on this subject,
w£&/i " for the better regulation of the ecclesiastical prac
tice. This latter is the opinion of SangaUo.*
In ten ordinations, Saint Pentianus created six bishops, six priests, and
five deacons. He governed the Church more than five years.

Gest. de Pontifici, vol. iil, p. 238.

SAINT AUTERUS.

45

His body, martyrized in the island of Tavolato, near the island of Sar
dinia, was removed to Eome, by order of Pope Saint Fabian, and buried in
the cemetery of Calixtus. Two epistles are attributed to him, but they are
evidently apocryphal.

19. ST. ANTERUS.— a. d. 235.

E find, as the next sovereign pontiff, Saint Anterus,
a Greek, said to have been born at Petilia, in
Calabria, Grsecia Magna, but, according to other
authors, at Policastre. He was the son of Eomulus,
who is said to have been born in Sardinia. An
terus was elected pope on the »9th of September,
A. D. 235. He governed the Church only one month.
He created one bishop, for the city of Fondi. He
suffered martyrdom because he ordered greater strictness in searching
into the acts of the martyrs, exactly collected by the notaries appointed by
Saint Clement I. Anterus was interred in the cemetery of Calixtus, on the
Appian Way, whence his ashes were removed to the church of Saint Sylves
ter, in the Campus Martins. They were discovered on the 17th of Novem
ber, 1595, when Pope Clement VLTI. rebuilt that church, which had fallen
into ruins.

20. ST. FABIAN.— a. d. 236.

T is said that the electors decided in favor of
¦ Fabian, son of Fabius, who was created pope on
• the 13th of January, 236, because a dove, after
hovering about the heads of all present, during
the election, at length ahghted on the head of
Fabian. The fact is stated by Eusebius. To the
seven deacon-notaries appointed by Saint Clem
ent I. to collect the acts of the martyrs, Fabian
added seven subdeacons, to assist the former in a task so pious and so
important. He appointed seven other deacons of a superior order to
oversee those of whom we have spoken. They were ordered to take care

46 LIVES OF THE POPES.
that the acts were edited with details, and not in the few scant words to
which they had been confined.
Fabian divided Rome into seven Rioni — quarters, or districts ; as Augustus
had divided it into fourteen. That ancient civil division did not please
Fabian; while in that which he adopted, the seven deacons who were
charged to oversee the seven other deacQns, and the seven subdeacons,
could take care of the poor in the seven churches. In this ecclesiastical
division originated the titles of the Cardinal-deacons, who at first were
entitled Regionari. It has been stated that Fabian gave orders that on holy
Thursday the old oil of the holy chrism should be burned. It has also
been stated that Fabian decreed that no one should be ordained priest at
an earlier age than thirty years ; that, in civil judgment, no priest could
be either accuser, or judge, or witness ; that the faithful should communicate
thrice in every year; that priests who had become idiots as the result of
illness, should no longer be allowed to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice ; and that
marriage should be prohibited to the faithful to the fourth degree of con
sanguinity. While recounting these regulations, Novaes adds : " Neverthe
less, I believe that although the sovereign pontiffs of the primitive Christian
centuries must have made provision for the proper regulation of the Church,
I also believe that the Decretals attributed to the pontiffs earlier than Saint
Siricius, that is to say, earlier than the year 385, are apocryphal, with the
exception of four Decretals in the first three centuries. Those four are-
one by Saint Clement, and three by Saint Cornelius. To these we may add
some fragments of other genuine documents ; viz., fragments of two Decre
tals of Saint Stephen (year 253) ; of one of Saint Dionysius, year 259 ; of
another of Saint Felix I, 269 ; in the fourth century, two of Saint Julius
(year 337); the twelve of Saint Liberius (year 352); and eight of Saint
Damasus (year 366) ; all indicated by Monsignore Bartoli." *
The same prelate also mentions, in his nineteenth chapter, the ninety-
seven apocryphal Decretals forged by Isidore Mercator, and attributed to
the pontiffs who preceded Saint Gregory the Great, the 65th pope.
Saint Cyprian, speaking of Saint Fabian, calls him an excellent man, and
says that the glory of his death was conformable to the purity, the holiness,
and the integrity of his life. He had the glory to banish from the Church
a new heretic, Privatus, an African, who was previously condemned by a
council for enormous faults, and who endeavored by an insidious humility
to impose upon the candor of the pope.
Many modern writers have maintained that Saint Fabian baptized the
the Emperor Philip and his son, also named Philip ; in which case Philip,
the father, would have been the first Christian emperor. To those who, in
* Jur. Canon. Ins., cap. 18.

SAINT FABIAN. 47
common with so many historians who are supported by documents possess
ing the confidence and respect of all Christendom, maintain that Constan
tine was the first Christian emperor, Novaes rephes, as do some other
authors, that the two opinions are not necessarily irreconcilable. He argues
that Philip might have been the first Christian emperor, and yet not have
dared pubhcly to profess his Christianity. In all things there are such
gradations. Always it is by gradations more or less distant that a free and
noble conduct develops itseK in the history of a people : there have always
been precedents, more or less concealed, which have given the examples,
and strengthened the courage of some successor who has been assisted by
more favorable circumstances.
Csesarotti does not admit the Christian sentiments attributed to Philip,
and he thinks that to doubt them is by no means to do any wrong to our
holy religion. He who was a traitor to his prince, and the assassin of his
pupil, would be no very desirable acquisition to the Christians ; and if Philip
had really desired to become a genuine Christian, his first step should have
been to take off his crown and trample it under his feet, obtained, as it had
been, by so much perfidy. Then he should have passed Ms whole remain
ing days in the Station of the Weeping*
In five ordinations, Fabian created either eleven or fourteen bishops,
twenty-two priests, and seven or. eight deacons. The different numbers are
stated by different authors.
He governed the Church about fourteen years.
Having suffered martyrdom in the seventh persecution under Decius, this
Pope was buried in the cemetery of Saint Cahxtus. He is reckoned among
the Canons Eegular.
The Holy See remained vacant during more than sixteen months, as the
persecution under the Emperor Decius became more and more cruel. In
this interval, between the death of Fabian and the election of his successor,
the first of the Antipopes made his appearance. His name was Novatian.
With him began the first schism of the Church. Unfortunately, Novatian,
who died at Rome in the pontificate of Sixtus II., had, during nearly two
centuries, successors who were attached to that fatal schism which was
extinguished by Celestine I.
Fabian kept up a correspondence with Origen, born at Alexandria in 185.
Clement of Alexandria was his master. Both sexes crowded to the school
of Origen. Few authors have been more industrious than he was, and few
men have been admired for as long a time, and no one has been more
* The Weepers' Station, or Station of Tears, was the first of the four degrees of the Canonical
penance. The penitents could not enter the church ; they waited in the porch, covered with
sackcloth, confessing their sins, and begging with tears and supplications that the faithful would
pray for God's pardon for them.

48

LIVES OF THE POPES.

severely attacked and censured than he was during his IKe, and has been
since his death.
His works are, an Exhortation to Martyrdom, and Commentaries on the
Holy Scripture, which he was perhaps the first to explain as a whole. He
labored on an edition of the Scriptures in six columns, entitled Hexaphs.
In his book of Prindpia, he has been supposed to have borrowed his
system from the philosophy of Plato.*
We also owe to Origen the Treatise against Celsus. That enemy of the
Christian religion had insolently published his Discourse on Truth, a dis
course full of insults and calumnies. In none of his writings has Origen
displayed so much of either Christian or profane science as in this ; nor in
any other work has he brought forward so many strong and solid proofs. It
is considered the most perfect and well-written defence of Christianity that
antiquity has bequeathed to us.
It is remarkable that the objections of Celsus are in most cases the same
that are repeated by the philosophers of our age. Those copyists have not
the merit of inventing errors and blasphemies, they are obhged to recur
to the sophisms of sophists forgotten for sixteen centuries. Scarcely was
Origen dead, when the disputes about his orthodoxy'became stronger and
warmer. Some fathers defended him ; others, including Saint Basil, and
after him some of the commentators, aver that Origen did not think rightly
as to the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Origen was condemned in the fifth
general council. Saint Augustine wrote against the Origenists.

21. ST. CORNELIUS.— a. d. 251.

; IKE many of his predecessors, Saint Cornelius was
a Roman priest, he was the son of Castinus, or
Cahxtus, of the noble family of the Octavii, or of
the Cornelii. Many authors include him among
the regular canons. Cornelius, against his own
will, was created pontiff a. d. 251, more than a year
after the death of Saint Fabian, and he refused
the sovereign dignity with an exemplary and hum
ble generosity. Sixteen bishops, as well as the clergy and the people, were
present at that election. He ordered that only those who could prove

Fleury, II., 117 ; and Feller, IV., 653.

9 E

SAINT CORNELIUS. 49
themselves professors of the true faith could put a cleric to his oath. An
oath should be taken while fasting, and no one could be sworn at an earlier
age than fourteen years.
Notwithstanding the persecution which raged so violently during the
time of Saint Cornelius, there were at that time in Rome, as appears in a
letter given by Eusebius, forty-six priests, who superintended the like
number of parishes, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes,
fifty-two exorcists, readers, and ostiaries, fifteen hundred widows, very many
poor persons, and Christian cenobites ; all these were properly supported
by the Church. Besides these, there was an immense number of Christians.
Tertullian, consequently, is justified in saying in his Apology, chapter 34,
that K, in his time, the Christians had migrated from the Roman empire
to other countries, their absence would have produced a sort of solitude.
In a Roman council, composed of sixty bishops, Cornelius excommuni
cated the anti-pope Novatian, a Roman priest, a pagan by birth, a Christian
in appearance, and heretic from despair. All Novatian's sectaries were
included in that excommunication. It was then taught that the Church
could not receive into her bosom the fallen or relapsed, nor pardon their
offence. The name of caduci was given to those who from fear of torture
abandoned the doctrines of Christianity. The caduci were subdivided into
several distinct classes. Some, says Novaes, were called sacrificati, because
they had sacrificed to the idols ; others, thurificati, because they had offered
incense in the pagan sacrifices ; others were called idolatri, because they
recurred to the worship of the false gods; and others, again, libellatici,
because, becoming renegades to the catholic faith, they paid money to
redeem themselves from the penalty of being ignominiously led to the
pagan altars, and on payment of the money were furnished by the magis
trates with a libellus, or written certificate of protection. Of the libellatici
there were several different classes. Among the caduci there was also a
class called traditori (traitors), because, obeying the edicts of the tyrants,
they gave up to the pagan judges some of the sacred vessels, or the books
of prayer, or church ornaments, or were still more heinously guilty in fur
nishing the pagans with the names of the faithful. The schism of the
Donatists had its origin in the excommunications pronounced against
bishops suspected of being traditori*
Among the bishops of that time, whether faithful or heretical, there were
some who demanded that the caduci should be received again into com
munion without the enforcement of penance ; while others maintained that
they should not be received to penance itseK, but should be rejected.
Felicissimus, a priest of Carthage, was for a time at the head of the re-
* On these points Saint Augustine, Orsi, Chardon, Kraus, and Lambertini may be consulted.
4

50 LIVES OF THE POPES.
laxed party ; and Novatian defended the rigorists, a kind of Jansenists of
that time. This was in reality to deprive on the one hand those unfortu
nates of all trust in repentance, and to take from the Church, on the other
hand, the divine faculty of pardoning. Cornelius, like a wise and moderate
father, endeavored to reconcile the stern laws of discipline with the gentler
promptings of compassion. He held out to penitent caduci the hand of
mercy for the alleviation of their pain; but he would not allow of their
return into the bosom of the Church until they had substantially proved
the truth of their penitence by submitting to the wholesome severity of
penance. Finally, he would not allow the complete rehabilitation of
repentant cadud until they had complied with every thing formally ordered
by the Church, except when such were in danger of death. It is a touching
spectacle, calculated to convert even the most hardened heart, to behold
the inexhaustible tenderness of the Church towards the dying, and that
disarmed hand which falls without smiting. A wise severity no longer
interposes between the culprit and his judges ; the priest who until then
has had so much power, no longer speaks with the same sternness, because
the master of both culprit and priest is about to speak, and because in the
depths of our souls that master has placed a certain disposition tq that
mixture of attrition and contrition which most frequently becomes a frank
contrition, that is to say, a horror of sin caused by the love of that God
whose goodness is so great that the sinner no longer fears the penalties
which yet God's justice orders.
The decision of the pontiff was confirmed by that council of sixty bishops
of which we have spoken, all approving of the excommunication of Nova
tian. In fact, to maintain that an apostacy is in some sort a matter of
indifference, and that immediately after having apostacized, a person may
present himseK just as one who had remained a faithful Christian, is to
be wanting alike in courage, in faith, and in dignity. On the other hand,
to maintain that, because an error has been committed, one should be
forever reputed a pagan, and driven forth hke some unclean creature, is to act
with a harshness which Christianity should shrink from. Those two oppo
site opinions equally fell under condemnation. Those who maintained them
were no longer recognized as Christians, and the malignant men who advised
so many evils became isolated and execrated by the Church and by humanity.
For some time the Christians had been permitted to breathe freely ; but
a pestilence having broken out, it was attributed to the disdain which
Christians had manKested towards the false gods. Cornelius was too emi
nent a person not to be proscribed. He was exiled to Centum Cello; (now
Civita Vecchia), where he found that crown of martyrdom which he desired.
He merited it, says Saint Cyprian, for he had defied the fury of the tyrants
in daring to accept a title which in those times was in itseK equivalent to a

SAINT LUCIUS I.

51

sentence of death. A holy purity, and a singular seK-control and firmness
characterized Saint Cornelius.
Li two ordinations he created seven or eight bishops, one or four priests,
and two or four deacons. He governed the Church one year, .three months,
and ten days. It was in that inconsiderable space of time that he achieved
so much of good.
Fleury (EL, 235), speaking of the acts of Saint Cornelius, says : " A
council assembled at Rome, and consisting of sixty bishops, condemned
Novatian, his schism, and his cruel doctrine, which refused communion to
those who had fallen, however penitent they should become."
From Civita Vecchia the body of Saint Cornelius was translated to the
cemetery of Calixtus, and afterwards placed in the Church of St. Mary in
Trastevere.
The Holy See was vacant during one month and five days.

22. ST. LUCIUS I — a. d. 252.
T is probable that Saint Lucius I., a Roman priest,
one of the companions in exile of Saint Cornelius,
was elected at Civita Vecchia. He received the
pontificate A. D. 252. He ordered that the minis
ters of the altars should never be chosen except
from among men of the purest virtue, and that
none of them should ever go unaccompanied into a
house occupied by a woman, and that no priest
should reside with a woman unless she should be
of his nearest kindred. The penalty of the priest for breach of that regula
tion was deposition ; for the woman, exclusion from the Church.
Lucius, who, like Saint Evaristus, was anxious for the greatness and
dignity of the pontificate and the episcopacy, ordered that two priests and
three deacons should constantly accompany the pontiff and the bishops as
witnesses of their whole course of hfe. At the commencement of his pon
tificate, Lucius was sent into exile, but was soon afterwards recalled. This
recall, says Csesarotti,* was caused not by repentance, but merely by a
caprice of cruelty, as the Eternal City was soon convinced. We are
informed of this return by a letter of Saint Cyprian congratulating him.
Lucius received that letter with a transport of joy. The motive of the con-

Csesarotti, p. 48.

52

LIVES OF THE POPES.

gratulation was worthy of both saints. The African doubted not that God
had granted the termination of an exile in an obscure place to bring back
him upon a more brilliant theatre who was destined to perish before the
people of Rome. Felicitations of this kind are to be found only in the
epistles of Christians.
Saint Lucius received the crown of martyrdom on the 5th March, A. D. 253.
In two ordinations this pope created seven bishops, four priests, and four
deacons. He governed the church a httle more than five months. He was
interred in the cemetery of Saint Cahxtus.

23. ST. STEPHEN I— a. d. 253.

AINT STEPHEN I., a Roman, was archdeacon of
the church of Rome under Saint Cornelius and Saint
Lucius, and succeeded them in the power of the
keys. The period of the reign of Saint Stephen was
also that of the remarkable question whether it was
necessary to repeat the baptism given by heretics, in
the event of their return to the faith. The dispute
arose between two of the most eminent Christians,
one of whom, Stephen, was the foundation-stone, and the other a principal
pillar, Saint Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. The traditions of the Church
held that baptism, even when conferred by heretics, preserved its sacra
mental characteristics, provided that in conferring it all the evangelical
forms had been preserved ; and, consequently, when a heretic passed from
the temples of error to the true sanctuary of truth, the baptismal ceremony
needed not to be renewed. Nevertheless, by degrees, in some of the prov
inces of Africa and Asia, the contrary custom had prevailed amongst holy
bishops and learned men ; and it received weight and even an extraordinary
importance from the example and authority of Saint Cyprian, who had suc
ceeded in causing it to be recognized in several councils on both those con
tinents. Saint Cyprian supported his opinion by arguments so plausible that Saint
Augustin confessed that he himseK would have been misled by them had
not the decision of the Church served him as both argument and rule.
Stephen, who, as became a pontiff, supported the ancient and more sound
doctrine, treated the custom as an innovation, and to aU the attacks of Saint
Cyprian he opposed the invulnerable buckler «of tradition. He avoided

SAINT STEPHEN L

53

.parrying- them by other arguments, lest on questions relating to the faith
too much weight should be given to human reason always too rash.
Stephen was stern, more so than Cyprian had anticipated. This dissension
ought not to weaken the veneration of the faithful for either the one or the
other. Both were actuated by the same spirit, and strove, though by differ
ent ways, to attain to the same end. Cyprian was in error, yet sincerely
sought the truth; Stephen was sternly strict, because he feared lest in
respecting error he should nurture it.
The bishop said that in order to be convinced he awaited the sentence of
the oecumenical Church. The pontiff anticipated it, and felt it within himseK.
Saint Augustine observes that his controversy displayed the two superior
virtues of both disputants, charity and concord. Stephen, though per
sistent in his disapprobation of such a maxim, yet did not condemn its pro
pagator, and sedulously avoided striking one of the most zealous supporters
of the Church ;* Cyprian, in detaching himseK from the head had given the
whole body a violent shock, yet ceased not to show himseK faithfully united.
He peacefully endured reproaches ; he preached gentleness, docility, and
integrity ; and K he did not abandon the doctrines which he favored, he
bore himseK so humbly that it might be supposed that he had repudiated
them. Those two illustrious men, divided upon the question of the first
sacrament of the Church, were gloriously reunited to each other by the
baptism of blood. That last baptism, which they received in the same
year, purified those elect souls from hereditary taint of humanity, leaving
only the bright light of their faith to shine in the day of God. Saint Vin
cent de Lerins says of Stephen I., " That great pope, whose prudence was
as great as his sanctity, knew that piety can allow us to receive no other
doctrine than that which is handed down to us from the faith of our prede
cessors, and that it is our duty to transmit it to others as faithfully and as
purely as we have received it ; that we are not to carry religion whithersoever
we choose, but to follow it whitJier soever it leads; that the property of Christian
modesty is consistently to preserve the holy maxims left to us by our
fathers, and not to hand down our own ideas to our posterity. What was
the result of this dispute ? That which is usual in such matters ; the old
faith was recognized and upheld, and the innovation was rejected. The
question was not decided until the Council of Nice, where the view of
Stephen triumphed.
Novaes details the names of the writers on the question as to the suf
ficient or insufficient baptism, of heretics returning to the true faith. It was
Agrippinus, Saint Cyprian's predecessor in the bishopric of Carthage, who
first started this difficulty. Many authors, Italian, German, and French,
* Csesarotti, p. 51.

54

LIVES OF THE POPES.

have published important dissertations on the subject. Novaes declines to
decide another question, namely: whether Stephen confined himseK to
threats or actuaUy excommunicated Saint Cyprian.
In reply to Napoleon, on the subject of the marriage of Jerome Bona
parte, dated 25th June, 1805, Pius Vn. used these very words :— " The
disparity of creed between two baptized persons is not considered by the
Church a fatal impediment to marriage, even though one of the parties be
not in the Catholic communion."
In two ordinations in the month of December, Stephen created three or
four bishops, six priests, and five deacons. He governed the Church four
years and about six months. The executioners of the persecutors seized
him at the moment when he was celebrating the holy sacrifice in the cata
combs, and beheaded him on the very altar.
Innocent XII., among the presents that he made to Cosmos ILT., Grand
Duke of Tuscany, who was at Rome during the Jubilee of 1700, gave him
the chair of Saint Stephen I., which the Grand Duke sent to the cathedral
of Pisa. It was under the invocation of this pope and saint that the cele
brated Tuscan order of knighthood was founded, the " order of Saint Ste
phen, saint and martyr."
The body of this saint was at first interred in the cemetery of CaKxtus,
but on the 17th of August, in the year 762, it was removed to the Church
of Saint Stephen and Saint Sylvester, which Paul I. caused to be erected, and
which is now caned the Church of Saint Sylvester, in capite, because in it is
preserved the head of Saint John the Baptist.
After the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, the Holy See remained vacant for
twenty-two days.

24. ST. SIXTUS II. — 257.

N the year 257 Saint Sixtus IT., an Athenian,
became pope. It is said that it was he who
ordered that the bodies of Saint Peter and Saint
Paul should be translated from the place where
they rested into the catacombs during the raging
of the persecution. Then the faithful regularly
chanted the psalms until the ninth hour in those
sacred chambers.
The dispute relative to the baptism of heretics still existed, but there was
no longer a fatal discord to be deplored. Sixtus defended the doctrine of

SAINT SIXTUS H. 55
Stephen I. Dionysius, the celebrated bishop of Alexandria offered to
mediate with Sixtus II. on the Easter question, as Saint Irenseus had with
Victor. Sixtus yielded to the reasonings of Dionysius, and allowed the dis
senting churches to keep to their customs until the question should be
authoritatively settled by the sentence of a general council. The effect
proved the wisdom of this idea. The Eastern Churches, perceiving that
they were suspected of error, examined the question more attentively, and
various African churches in succession, laying aside the new custom, adopted
that of Rome — an event which led to the belief that Saint Cyprian himseK
had graduaUy abandoned his system.
The early years of the rule of the Emperor Valerian had promised some
tranquillity to the Church, but his good inclination was perverted by a min
ister. The execution of Pope Saint Stephen presaged the fate of Sixtus.
Macrinus, a man of great influence, on account of his warhke skill' and
courage, was infatuated with the mysteries of magic. He persuaded the
emperor that the true secret for rendering his reign prosperous lay in pro
pitiating the demons by magical operations. At the same time he urged
that those operations would be ineffectual unless accompanied by the exter
mination of the Christians, those chief enemies of the demons and magicians.
Valerian's feelings towards the Christians were thus changed ; his former
love became hatred, and he gave orders for the destruction alike of the
bishops, priests, and deacons. Saint Sixtus was arrested and led to execu
tion. The order was that the bishops should be first executed. Saint
Laurence, the principal of the deacons, was not on that day among the
number of the victims. He, weeping, fonowed Sixtus, and exclaimed : " My
father, whither are you going without your son ? You are not accustomed
to offer sacrifice without the assistance of a minister. How have I dis
pleased you ? Try me, whether I am worthy of the choice that you have
made of me for the distribution of the blood of our Lord." Sixtus replied :
" I do not abandon you, my son ; but God reserves you for a greater com
bat. Doubt it not ; in three days you wiK be with me." Having uttered
those prophetic words, he ascended to heaven, and from the height of the
abode of God he could look down upon the triumph of his disciple. For-
tunati ambo, exclaims Csesarotti.
Saint Sixtus was buried in the cemetery of Pretextatus. Fleury* thus
relates the execution of Saint Laurence : —
" However, the prefect of Rome, believing that the Christians had great
treasure concealed, and desiring to ascertain the fact, caused Saint
Laurence to be brought before him, as being, in his quality of archdeacon,
the Christian treasurer also. When Saint Laurence was placed before him,
VoL ii., p. 317.

56 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the prefect said : " It is your common complaint that we treat you cruelly :
there are no torments. I mildly ask you what entirely depends upon your-
seK to answer. It is stated that in your ceremonies the pontiffs offer liba
tions in vessels of gold, that the blood of the victims is received in vessels
of silver, and that, to illuminate your nocturnal sacrifices, your tapers are
borne in golden candelabra. It is further stated, that to defray the expenses
of these things, the brethren sell their inheritance, and often reduce their
children to poverty. Bring forth these hidden treasures ; your prince has
need of them for the payment of his troops. I understand that it is your
doctrine that you should ' render unto Csesar the things that are Csesar's :'
and I do not suppose that your God coins money. When he came into the
world he brought no money with him, but only words. Give us the money,
and rest content with words." Saint Laurence calmly replied : " I confess
that our Church is rich ; and the emperor has not such great treasures. I
will show you what our Church has of the most precious ; only give me a
little time to put aU in order, to make the calculation, and to draw up the
statement." That reply satisfied the prefect, who, imagining that he was about to
grasp the treasures of the Church, granted a delay of three days. During
those three days, Saint Laurence traversed the city, gathering together the
poor who were supported by the Church, the halt, the lame, and the blind,
of whom he knew more than any other person did. Having got them
together, he took down their names, and drew them up in a line before the
Church. On the day appointed for the production of the Church treasures,
he went to the prefect and said : " Come and behold the treasures of our
God ; you will see a great court-yard filled with vessels of gold, and whole
talents of gold heaped together beneath the galleries." The prefect accom
panied him, and, in beholding those paupers of hideous and sordid aspect,
who importuned him for alms, he, with angry and threatening glances,
turned to Saint Laurence, who mildly inquired : " Why are you angry ? The
gold which you so ardently desire is a vile metal drawn from the earth, and
is what causes so many crimes. The true gold is the light of which these
poor people are the disciples ; their bodily weakness is their spiritual ad
vantage ; the real diseases of our race are the vices and the passions ; the
great people of the time are the really wretched and contemptible people.
Behold the treasures that I promised you, and to them I will add pearls
and diamonds. You see these widows and virgins ? They are the crown
of the Church ; make these riches profitable to Rome, to the emperor, and
to yourseK."
" Do you mate sport of me, thus ?" said the prefect. " I know that you
Christians affect to despise death, and therefore I will not have you
promptly killed." Then he caused a framework of iron bars to be set over

SAINT DIONYSIUS.

57

a slow fire, in order to take a longer time to burn the martyr to death.
Saint Laurence was stripped and laid upon the gigantic gridiron. To the
newly baptized Christians his countenance seemed to shine with an extra
ordinary brightness. When the martyr had laid thus for some time on one
side, he said to the prefect: — " TeU them to turn me over ; I am done enough
on this side." Then, looking up to heaven, he prayed to God for the con
version of Rome, and gave up the ghost. Some senators, converted by his
example, carried his body on their shoulders, and he was buried near the
Tiburtean road, in a grotto, on the 10th of August, A. D. 259.
But for the hasty cruelty of the prefect, the clergy of Rome would doubt
less have named the courageous Saint Laurence as the successor in the
pontificate of Sixtus I., and we should reckon that intrepid confessor of the
faith among those who have occupied the chair of Saint Peter.
Shortly afterwards, Saint Cyprian received the crown of glory at Car
thage.

25. ST. DIONYSIUS.— a.d. 259.

' N the 12th of September, A. D. 259, Saint Dionysius,
bom in Calabria, a priest of the Roman Church,
was created pope. He rearranged the parishes of
Rome, and re-established those institutions which
had been disturbed by Valerian's persecutions.
Saint Basil calls Dionysius a man illustrious for
fidelity to the faith and for virtues of every kind ;
and the same is said of this pope by his namesake,
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, whom Saint
^psSt^-^-x^z^i-^lKS Anastasius speaks of as an admirable prelate.
Pope Dionysius had so long and perfect an acquaintance with the doctrines
of the Church, that he might have served as the referee of an oecumenical
council. During the dispute about the baptism of heretics, he adhered to
the decision of Stephen.
The city of Csesarea, in Cappadocia, having been sacked by the bar
barians, Pope Dionysius, faithful to the generous traditions of his prede
cessors, sent to the churches there both consolation and means to redeem
Christians from slavery, which circumstance caused the people to bless the
memory of that pontiff, and to hold his letters in great veneration. Never
theless, the harmony which had existed between Dionysius of Rome and

58

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Dionysius of Alexandria was on the point of being disturbed on account of
a serious error of the latter. He undertook to refute with some warmth
the heresy of Sabellius, who recognized in God no distinction of persons.
Some believed, or pretended to believe, that in combating that error
Dionysius of Alexandria had fallen into another that was no less blame
worthy — that of supposing the Son not to be consubstantial with the Father.
The pontiff wrote to him, and from the explanations which were given
there resulted, as the pontiff hastened to acknowledge in the tenderest
terms, a complete satisfaction. Gallienus commanded that persecution
should cease, and declared it his pleasure that every one should freely follow
his own creed. The pontiff, after a long and holily employed hfe, died A. D.
269. He governed the Church ten years, five months, and a few days.
In two ordinations he created seven bishops, twelve priests, and six
deacons. He was interred in the cemetery of Calixtus.
After his decease the Holy See was vacant four days.

26. ST. FELIX I.— a. d. 269.

HE successor of St. Dionysius, Saint Felix I„ was
the son of Constantius. He ordered, or perhaps
only confirmed the custom, that Masses, termed
memorials, should be celebrated on the tombs of
the martyrs, and that the altars should be conse
crated, and have relics of martyrs placed in them.
Felix continued to be watchful respecting the false
doctrines of the innovators, who endeavored to
corrupt the purity of the faith. Just as Christians
were deploring the wounds inflicted on the Church by the heresiarch
Sabellius, there appeared a new assailant, Paul of Samosata, bishop of
Antioch. He regarded religion only as the instrument of avarice, luxury,
and vanity.* Licentious and inflated with worldly pride, a theatrical per
former rather than a sacred orator, a rapacious priest, and a speculating
bishop, corrupt in his own acts, and the corrupter of his flock, he was a
Christian by accident, and by adulation made himseK almost a Jew, for, in
his eagerness to obtain favor with Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who was
inclined to Judaism, he Judaized his doctrines. The Council of Antioch,
after having in three solemn assemblies convicted, condemned, and deposed

Csesarotti, p. 58.

SALNT FELIX I. 59
that unworthy bishop, gave notice of that judgment to all the Cathohc
churches, and in particular, as was fit, to that of Rome. A letter was
addressed to Pope Dionysius to instruct him of the judgment, but as that
Pope died before the letter reached Rome it was received by Fehx. On
that occasion the courageous pontiff sent to Maximus, bishop of Alexan
dria, a celebrated synodal, quoted by the Council of Ephesus, which
condemned both the heresy of Sabellius and that of Paul of Samosata.
This latter heretic having, as we have stated, been deprived of his epis
copate, Domnus was elected in his place. Such was the fury of the Samo-
satian, that he refused to vacate the episcopal palace ; and he persisted
until the Emperor Aurehan himseK, on the appHcation of the Eastern
churches, ordered him to be expeUed from the palace, that it might receive
the bishop who was recognized by the Church of Rome and the Itahan
bishops. This proves that Aurehan, at the commencement of his reign,
showed himseK indulgent to the Christians ; and Eusebius observes that at
that time one might have said that the devil was asleep. But, unfortu
nately,* the slumbers of the devil are neither sound nor long. It was not
long ere he awoke, and excited that same Aurehan to order a persecution.
It was not universal, and we may add that it was not of long duration, but
it added, nevertheless, very many new names to the martyrology.
Fehx was the first victim : he perished with that firmness which so well
became him who may be pointed out as the model of the most shining
virtues. In two ordinations, in the month of December, he made five bishops, nine
priests, and five deacons. He governed the Church about five years. He
was interred in the cemetery on the Aurehan Way, about two miles from
Eome, where subsequently a church was consecrated by Fehx LT.
The fury of the persecutor increased at every instant, and no doubt it was
for that reason that the Holy See remained vacant only four days.
A short time before the reign of Saint Fehx, Cathohcism had to
lament the death of Saint Gregory, the Thaumaturgist, bishop of Neo-
cesarea. During 'the weak reign of Gallienus, the Goths tad overrun
Thrace and Macedonia, whence they spread into Asia and Pontus. They
plundered and burned the Temple of Diana. Those disorders gave occa
sion to some Christians to commit crimes. Suddenly Saint Gregory sent a
canonical epistle to a bishop, pointing out different degrees of penance for
those Christians who made themselves Goths by joining them in order to pillage.
Fleury (ii. 373) says : " Even the enemies of the Church have called Saint
Gregory another Moses, on account of his miracles."
* Csesarotti, p. 59.

60 LIVES OF THE POPES.

27. ST. EUTYCHIANUS.— a. d. 275.
AINT EUTYCHIANUS, of Luni, a city of which now
only the ruins are to be seen near Savona, was the
son of Marinus, or Martinus, names which have long
been almost synonymous. He was created pope in
the year 275.
According to Bury,* this pope instituted the Offer
tory of the Mass ; and he ordered the benediction,
under certain circumstances, of branches of trees and
of fruit. He decided that the faithful, who had married before the women
had been baptized, should have the right to keep their wives or repudiate
them. By that order, he did not encroach upon the Roman laws of that
time. By his command, drunkards were excluded from Communion until they
should abandon their vice. He with his own hands buried above three hun
dred and forty-two martyrs. He ordered that no one should be buried but
in a colobio, a kind of cloak, of red color ; previously they had been buried
in white cloth, stained with their own blood.
In five ordinations, in the month of December, he created nine bishops,
sixteen priests, and five deacons. He died on the 8th of December, A. D.
283, and was interred in the cemetery of Calixtus, but the body was after
wards removed to his native place, Luni.
The Holy See remained vacant seven days.
It was during the pontificate of Eutychianus that the heresiarch Manes
appeared. If heresy raised its heads, the faith of Jesus Christ more than ever at
tracted men's hearts. In the need of extending the faith, the Roman pon
tiffs recommended zealous propagandism. The Christians tried those who
were willing to hsten to them. These latter were divided into two classes —
one, the beginners, who had not yet learned the creed ; the other, those
who appeared entirely resolved upon following the maxims of Christianity.
Belief was not left to mere chance ; the beginners were instructed by de
grees, and according to their capacity. If a Gentile profited by that instruc
tion, hands were laid upon him, and he became a Catechumen. Those who
were baptized were known as the faithful.
* Bomanor. Pontiflc. brems JSTotitia, 1726, p. 30.

SAINT CAIUS.

61

28. ST. CAIUS— a. d. 283,

PRIEST of Spulatro, in Dalmatia, son of Saint
Caius, priest, brother of Saint Gabinus, uncle of
Saint Susannah, virgin and martyr, and nephew
of the Emperor Diocletian, was created pontiff
on the 16th of December, 283.
He confirmed the custom which required clerics
to pass through the seven inferior orders of the
Church during a fitting period, before they could
be created bishops.* In five ordinations he
created, in December, five bishops, twenty-five priests, and eight deacons,
and he governed the Church twelve years, four months, and seventeen days.
He died on the 22d of April, A. D. 296. He was a man of rare prudence
and virtue. He was interred in the cemetery of Cahxtus. The Holy See
was vacant ten days.
Under this pontificate reigned the Emperor Maximianus. Desiring to
pass into Gaul, he brought from the East a legion named the Theban, which
was composed of Christians; and he wished to make them, hke other
soldiers, says Fleury, instruments in the persecution of the Christians. The
regiment refused to obey. The emperor, to rest from the fatigues of the
journey, stopped upon the Alps, in a place called Octodurum, now Mar-
tinach in the Valais. The Theban legion was then near there, at a place
called Agaunus, at the foot of the mountain now known as the Great Saint
Bernard. The emperor, irritated by the disobedience of the Theban legion,
ordered it to be decimated, and then repeated his orders that the rest
should persecute the Christians. Decimation was a military punishment
of offending soldiery. The Theban legion, on receiving this second order,
began to exclaim throughout the campt that they would rather suffer the
utmost extremities than do any thing against the Christian religion. The
emperor ordered them to be again decimated, and the survivors to be
reduced to obedience. Every tenth man was again put to death, and the
survivors encouraged each other to persevere.
They were principally encouraged by three of their officers, Mauritius,
Exuperus, and Candidas, who exhorted them to follow the example of their
comrades, who had passed through martyrdom to heaven. Under the
advice of their officers, the soldiers sent a remonstrance to the emperor.

* That custom had existed from the time of Saint Cornelius.
f Baronius, ad Martyr., 22 September.

62 LIVES OF THE POPES.
"We are your soldiers, lord," said the remonstrance, but servants of God,
we confess it freely. To you we owe the service of war, to Him the service
of innocence; from you we receive pay, from Him we receive IKe. We
cannot obey you in renouncing God, our creator and master, and yours
also. If nothing be demanded from us that is offensive to Him, we will
obey you, as hitherto we always have done ; otherwise we shall obey Him
rather than you. We offer you our hands against all enemies, be they
whom they may ; but we do not deem ourselves permitted to imbrue those
hands in the blood of the innocent. We made an oath to God before we
did so to you : you could not believe the latter oath would be kept, should
we break the former one. You command us to search for Christians, that
they may be punished : you have only to search after others ; for ourselves,
we confess God the maker of all things, and Jesus Christ his Son. We
have seen our companions slain, without pitying them ; we even rejoiced
that they had the honor to suffer for their God. Neither their death nor
despair has led us to revolt ; we are armed, yet we shaK not resist, because
we prefer to die innocent, rather than live guilty."
Maximianus, despairing of being able to conquer such constancy, ordered
that all the survivors of the legion should be put to death, and the other
soldiers surrounded them to cut them to pieces. They made no resistance,
but grounded their arms and presented their throats to their destroyers,
and the ground was soon covered with their bodies. It is supposed that
about six thousand men were thus destroyed, that being the usual number
of the legions.*
A veteran soldier, named Victor, who did not belong to that, and was out
of the service, found himseK, while on the road, placed in the midst of
those who had slain the martyrs, and who were feasting and rejoicing over
then: plunder.t They invited the veteran to eat with them, and told him
exultingly all that had passed. Detesting alike their banquet and them
selves, he turned to depart from them, when they asked him K he was not
a Christian. He answered that he was, and always would be. They
instantly threw themselves upon him and put him to death.
* Vegetius, Be re militari libri quinque, c. 2. f Fleury, ii., 407.

SAINT MARCELLINUS.

63

29. ST. MARCELLINUS— a. d. 296.

| HIS Saint, Marcellinus, son of Projectus, a Roman,
was, according to some, a Benedictine, and was
created pontiff on the 3d of May, a. d. 296.
The Church never suffered more than at this
terrible period. The vast edifice of idolatry, gradu
ally ruined by the Christians, and in some of its
parts destroyed, was ready to crumble to its very
foundations. The heathen altars lacked flowers,
and the priests lacked victims; the aruspices no
longer read in the entrails of slaughtered animals the signs and tokens of
the future ; the oracles were dumb, and the magicians were powerless. In
such a state of things, it seemed as though all the gods of darkness made a
last effort against the God of light. Diocletian, Maximinanus, Galerius, and
Maximums, in succession, were the four chiefs of that infernal enterprise.*
Galerius, the most furious of them ah1, had taken from Diocletian the fatal
sentence which ordered that cruel persecution, at once atrocious and uni
versal, without truce and without pity. The churches were pulled down in
most of the provinces ; men and women, old men, children, and virgins were
ahke given up to the executioners. Heaven was peopled with martyrs, and
earth, at the sight of such courage, warmed into a love for Cathohcism.
The persecutor hoped to destroy the religion of Christ, and all that fury
only served to raise the throne of the faith upon the wreck and ruins of
paganism. The States subject to Rome, watered with the blood of the persecuted,
only became the more productive of Christian branches. Tortures tore the
bodies of the martyrs, but their souls, firmly embracing the faith, remained
invulnerable and invincible. Nevertheless, there were some weak spirits
that yielded to threats, and with whom seK-love prevailed over religion ;
and it has even been said, that among those weak ones was Marcellinus him
seK. The falsehood which was circulated on this head was adorned with all
the circumstances which might give it an air of probability. It was pre
tended that the pontiff, perceiving his fault, presented himself as a suppli
ant before a council of three hundred bishops, assembled at Sinnessa.
There, ran the story, the culprit confessed his error, and, weeping, demanded
that he should be sentenced to the punishment he had incurred ; and the

* Csesarotti, p.

61 LIVES OF THE POPES.
council rephed, " Pronounce sentence on thyseK ; the chief See cannot be
judged but by itseK." But in this statement every particular is false ; it is
now ascertained that the accusation is calumnious, and that the pontiff com
mitted no fault. Saint Augustine, speaking of Petihus, author of that fable,
says,* " He calls Marcellinus a sacrilegious wretch ; I declare him innocent.
It is not necessary for me to weary myseK to support my defence by proofs ;
for Petihus himseK supports his accusation by no proof." In our own days
that accusation has been repeated, and it has been said, with some founda
tion, too, that the Roman Breviary seems to support the tale, under the
date of the 26th of April. Muratori writes that it is so, and every one can
convince himseK of it. But Lambertini, before he was Pope, speaking of
the Breviary, or of its authority, says that the fact is false. He says :
" 1. All the ancient writers of the Lives of the Popes are silent on that head ;
2. The Donatists could never prove the truth of their assertion, and were
guilty of useless impostures," and he cites those words of Saint Augustine,
which we quoted above.f
Baronius warns us on the subject,^ that the Roman Church is not accus
tomed to have the acts of the saints read as if they were a gospel. Each,
says Novaes,§ after Gelasus, may examine into things in conformity to the
rule given by Saint Paul, when he said— "Prove all things; hold fast to
that which is good.'H The fall of that pontiff is denied by Schelstratus,
Roccaberti, Pierre de Marcas, Pierre Constant, Papebrock, Natalis Alex
ander, Pagi, Agiurre, SangaUo, and Xavier de Mareo, a Jesuit. The last-
mentioned writer has put forth that denial in a very important work.!
Thus, according to the testimony of Theodoret, it is proved that Marcel
linus was distinguished for the firmness of his courage ; and the imputation
against him was sustained only by Petihus, and the sectarians of his time.
The early Donatists never reproached the Church with such a fall of her
head, eager as they were to support their own evil cause by collecting even
the slightest errors of Cathohc bishops, and especially of pontiffs. Every
thing leads to the behef, after Tillemont, that Marcellinus received the
crown of martyrdom. He was interred in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the
Salarian Way, near the Salarian bridge. According to Novaes, the Holy See
was vacant only six months and twenty-four days ; but, according to the
Diario, the vacancy lasted nearly four years. In two ordinations, in the
month of December, this pope created five bishops, four priests, and four or
five deacons. He governed the Church eight years and some months.
According to Fleury, in the seventh year of the pontificate of Saint Mar-
* Be Unica baptis, chap. 16. \ Be Sen. Bei beat., p. 2, chap. 13, No. 8.
X Ann. Eccles. § Vol. 1, p. 99.
|| Omnia autem probate; quod bonum est tenete. Saint Paul, 1 Thess. v. 21.
1 Bifesa di Alcuni Pontifici accusati di errore, chap. 12, p. 140.

SAINT MARCELLUS I. 65
cellinus, Diocletian passed the winter in Nicomedia. Galerius Maximian
visited him there, after having vanquished the Persians, and wanted to per
suade Diocletian to order a new persecution, which should everywhere cause
paganism to triumph.
¦ The old emperor for a long time resisted Galerius, and pointed out how
dangerous it was to disturb the world, and to shed so much blood. But
Galerius was not to be overruled by such arguments, and would have
advice ; for such was the mahgnity of his nature, that he wanted no advice
when he would do good, but always required it when he wanted to do evil —
so that he might cast the blame on others. Diocletian, finding that all
around him were divided in opinion, sent an aruspice to Apollo of Miletus.
That ApoUo's reply was given, not by the medium of a priestess, but from
the depth of a dark cave, that the just on earth prevented him from saying
the truth, and that that was the reason why the oracles he gave from the
tripod were false. The priestess of Apollo said the same, with her hair dis-
heveUed, and she lamented the misfortunes of the human race. Diocletian
asked his officers who were those just on earth ; no doubt, answered the one
who served at the sacrifices, those words mean the Christians.
The emperor was pleased with that reply, and resolved upon the persecu
tion, being unable to resist the urgings of his friends, Apollo and Csesar.
Then commenced the terrible persecution of Nicomedia, of Tyre, of Anti
och, of Ancyra, and of Arabia. Fleury gives the terrible history, which
makes us shudder with horror (Vol. ii., pp. 429-574).

30. ST. MARCELLUS L— a. d. 308.
ALNT MARCELLUS I., a Eoman priest, son of
Benedict, belonged, according to some authors,
to the illustrious family of the Savelli, and was
created pope in 308. He instituted twenty titles or
parishes in Eome. The priests whom he named as
their titulars were charged with the administration
P\ of baptism and penance, to those converted from
$&* paganism to our faith. Those same priests were
charged with the care of the sepulture of the martyrs. He created twenty-
one bishops, twenty-five priests, and two deacons. He was imprisoned by
order of Maxentius, who had ordered him to lay aside the title of bishop,
and to sacrifice to idols ; he was condemned to serve as a kind of slave in
the imperial stables. Nine months afterwards, during the night, he was
5

66

LIVES OF THE POPES.

dehvered by his clergy, and received by Lucina, a Roman matron, who
generously sheltered him in her house, which she then converted into a
church. Maxentius being informed of this, ordered that church to be
turned into a stable, and condemned MarceUus to the meanest labors about
the horses. The holy pontiff obtained martyrdom after having governed the
Church one year, seven months, and above twenty days.
A letter is attributed to him, addressed to the bishops of Antioch, declar
ing that the Roman Church should be called Primatial, and be recognized
as the head of all the others. But Novaes says that both that letter and
one addressed to Maxentius are to be considered spurious.
MarceUus was buried by the blessed Lucina, and John, a priest of the
Roman Church, in the cemetery of PrisciUa. His body was thence trans
lated to the church of Saint MarceUus, which he had buUt. The Holy See
was vacant twenty days. Fleury (ii. 573) says : " Pope MarceUus died this
year, after having held the Holy See one year and nearly eight months.
He had been odious to many, because he was for compelling those who
had fallen during the persecution to do penance for their crime, and the
disputes on that subject led to sedition and murder."
MarceUus only did his duty in proposing that penance, and Fleury, to the
language we have just quoted, should have added that the conduct of Mar
ceUus in that matter was conformable to the rules of the Church and to the
duty of the pontiff, in order to make those rules respected by aU Catholics.

31. ST. EUSEBIUS.— a. d. 310.

USEBIUS, of Cassano, in Calabria, said to be the
son of a physician, and originaUy a physician
himseK, was created pontiff in 310. There were
pointed out to him certain traitors (traditori) who
had dehvered to the officers of the imperial trea
sury the sacred vessels and books. Those fallen
were desirous of being reconcUed to the Church,
but they intended to be Christian only in name,
without veneration for the Christian mysteries. The old dispute about the
lapsed* then was revived with some acrimony, and Eusebius refused to con
sent to the restoration of the lapsed. Maxentius, informed of that act of

* See above, in Life of

SAINT MELCHIADES. 67
firmness, condemned the pontiff to exUe. Three letters are attributed to
Eusebius : one addressed to aU the bishops of France, the second to the
faithful of Alexandria, and the third to the bishops of Tuscany. Novaes
affirms that modern criticism rejects those letters as spurious. In -a single
ordination, Eusebius created sixteen bishops, thirteen priests, and three
deacons. He governed the Church only four months and a few days. The
Holy See was vacant only six days.

32. ST MELCHIADES— a. d. 311,
1 AS caUed by some writers Miltiades ; he was created
pope A. D. 311. He was an African ; according to
others, a native of Madrid. The Church, thus far
pursued by the executioner, was now about to tri
umph. The preceding pope had the happiness to
see the dawning of so fine a day. Throughout the
Roman province, nothing was talked of but a new
edict in favor of the Christians. The Emperor
Galerius, according to Eusebius, was sinking under the torments of a fright
ful dropsy, and ordered the execution of several physicians, who were un
able to cure him. One of them, seeing himseK in peril, said to the tyrant :
" You mistake, my lord, K you imagine that God can cure, the evU that
God has sent to you. Your disease is not human, nor amenable to our
remedies. Remember what you have done against the servants of God,
and against his holy rehgion, and you wiU see whither you should resort
for relief." Galerius began to understand that he was only man. Con
quered by disease, and urged by pain, he exclaimed that he would re-estab
lish the temple of God and give satisfaction for his crime, and he ordered
an edict to be drawn up in his own name, and in the name of Constantine
and Licinius. The edict was in the foUowing terms :
" Among the cares that we continuaUy take of the public weal, we desired
to restore aU things into conformity with the ancient laws of Rome, and
therefore to cause the Christians, who had quitted or might quit the rehgion
of their ancestors, to return to it ; for they were so preoccupied by certain
reasonings, that they no longer foUowed the maxims of their fathers, but
according to their own fancy made laws for their own observance, and
assembled together the people in various places ; and finaUy, as we made
an ordinance for bringing them back to the maxims of the ancients, many
of them have been put in peril, and many have actuaUy perished."

68 LIVES OF THE POPES.
When a government, takes a retrospect, it deems it right to soften the
statement of the evUs that it has done. It was not many Christians who
had been put in perU, but aU of them ; and it was not merely many Chris
tians who had perished, but tens of thousands of them : in a few days a
whole legion had been butchered. But now Galerius confesses himseK van
quished. " And as we see that they for the most part remain in their senti
ments, worshipping neither the God to whom worship is due, nor the God
of the Christians, we, having respect to our clemency and to our custom to
have mercy upon aU men, have deemed it our duty to extend that mercy
also to the Christians, so that they may be Christians as before, and re
establish their places of assembly, provided that they do nothing there
contrary to rule. Then, according to the mercy that we bestowed upon
them, they wiU be obliged to pray to their God for our health, for the State,
and for themselves, so that the States may be prosperous on aU sides, and
that they may dweU in peace in their own houses."
Tliis edict was drawn up in Latin, at Sardis, where the emperor then was,
and thence distributed into aU the principal cities, and translated into Greek
for the East. It was published throughout Asia and the adjacent provinces,
and especiaUy in Nicomedia, which had witnessed so much cruelty of the
executioners and so much intrepidity of the victims.
The following passage from Fleury (ii., 601) shows the effect produced
by this edict which Sabinus the prefect, subsequently, by special order,
interpreted favorably to the Christians.
" The governors and the magistrates of towns and rural districts, believ
ing, in fact, that such was the emperor's intention, made it known by writing,
and even commenced putting it in force. AU the confessors of Christianity
who were in prison were set at hberty, and those who were condemned to
labor in the mines were recaUed. It seemed that the bright hght suddenly
appeared after a dark night. In aU the towns, the churches held their
assemblies and made their usual eoUections. The infidels were surprised at
so unexpected a change, and loudly confessed that the God of the Christians
was great, and the only true God. The Christians who had been faithful in
the persecution now regained aU their former freedom; those who had
fallen, eagerly endeavored to obtain the healing of their siok souls, begging
those who had remained firm to extend the hand to them, and praying God
to be propitious to them. The professors who were dehvered from labor in
the mines, returned home and traversed the streets, fiUed with incredible
joy. On the high roads and in the pubhc places, numerous companies of
them were seen walking in procession and singing psalms and hymns to
God, and thus ending their journey and returning into their houses with
joyous countenances. The very infidels rejoiced with them."
But God had chosen another instrument of his power to dehver the

SAINT MELCHIADES. 69
empire and Christianity from persecutors and tyrants. Constantine, who
inherited the moderation of his father, after floating between the errors
of his early education, and the brightness of the truth, at length fiUed
with a divine vocation,* displayed the banner of the faith, and having driven
Maxentius from power, soon planted on the throne of Rome that Cross to
which he owed the brilliant prosperities of his reign.
Constantine, writes Fleury, reflectedf that the emperors who during his
time had been zealous for idolatry and the plurahty of gods, had perished
miserably ; and that his father, Constantius, who throughout his whole hfe
had honored the one true God, had received from that one only Sovereign
Lord evident marks of his protection. He therefore resolved to attach him
seK to that great God, and earnestly prayed to know and to be protected
by him. The Emperor Constantine was thus praying with the utmost
fervency, when, towards noon, as the sun tended westwards, as Constantine
marched through the country with his troops, he saw in the sky, above the
sun, a luminous cross, and an inscription which said, In hoc signo vinces — by
this sign you shall conquer. He was strangely surprised by that vision, and
the troops that accompanied him, who saw it, were no less astonished. The
emperor long afterwards related that marvel, and with the solemnity of an
oath attested that his own eyes had witnessed it.
" During the remainder of the day the emperor was occupied in meditat
ing what might be the meaning of that marvel. At night, as he slept, Christ
appeared to him with the same sign that he had seen in the sky, and com
manded him to have an image of it made, and to make use of it in battle
against his enemies."
Such was the origin of Constantine's standard, the Labarum.%
The battle against Maxentius was gained on the 28th of October, A. D. 312,
near the MUvian bridge. The antiquary Fea, who has long studied the
history of that period, affirms that the Milvian bridge here aUuded to is not
that which at the present time is stiU known as the Ponte MoUe, but was a
wooden bridge further up, but still on the Tiber.
Satisfied at first with granting hberty of worship to aU, Constantine ere
long showed himseK the venerator and the indefatigable promoter of Chris-
* Csesarotti, p. 71. + Fleury ii., 622.
X Father Lacordaire thus speaks' of it : — " When, after three centuries of tortures, Constan
tine saw in the air the Labarum, it was the blood of the Christians which had germinated in the
shadow, which had descended like a dew to the skies, and there displayed itself in the form ol
the triumphant cross. Our public liberty was the fruit of an unexampled moral liberty. Out
entrance into the forum of the princes was the fruit of our having exerted command over our
selves, even unto death. Such an apprenticeship of command qualified for reigning ; the doctrine
might well be covered with the purple after so much blood had been shed upon it. Moreover
the reign was not long, if we call by that name the time that elapsed between Constantine and
the barbarians, that time of conflicts, when the Catholic doctrine never for a day ceased to battla
with voice and swor i."

70 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tianity, and he bestowed upon the hierarchy of the Church so many favors,
privileges, and gKts, that the name of Christian, which among many Romans
was stiU a mere by-word of hatred or contempt, became a proud and coveted
title. UnhappUy, the Church was wounded by her own hands. The perversities
of the Donatists ravaged Africa. We have already described the traditori,
or traitors. That name was now reciprocaUy bestowed by both parties. A
councU of the bishops of Italy and Gaul was assembled at Rome. It con
sisted of eighteen bishops, and was opened on the 2d of October, 313, in
the palace of the Lateran, and condemned the Numidian bishop Donatus.
The Donatists, besides denying the validity of baptism when administered
by heretics, rejected the infaUibihty of the Cathohc Church, to which they
gave insulting names, to prove its easy kindness. In the same councU,
Cicilian, bishop of Carthage, who had falsely been declared a traditori, was
declared lawful bishop of Carthage, and the Africans were ordered to con
sider his previous deposition as not having taken place. Melchiades pro
nounced the final sentence, which evidenced his justice, prudence, and
charity. So much moderation caused Saint Augustine, when speaking of
Melchiades, to exclaim, " O exceUent man ! O true son of peace ! 0 true
father of the Christian people !"*
That same palace of St. John of Lateran had been bestowed on the
Church. It formerly belonged to Plautius Lateranus, who was despofled of
it by Nero for the benefit of his treasury. To the gKt of the palace itseK
Constantine added a fitting income for the proper maintenance of the
dignity of the head of the Church. This statement is affirmed by SangaUo.
In one ordination Melchiades created eleven or twelve bishops, six or
seven, or according to some writers, fourteen priests, and five deacons. He
governed the Church two years, six months, and a few days. He was in
terred in the cemetery of Cahxtus : his body was placed in the church of
Saint Sylvester in capite, by Saint Paul I. Novaes (vol. i., p. 106) concludes
this article in these words : The opinion of many learned men is, that the
thirty-two pontiffs above spoken of have gained the glory of martyrdom in
defence of the faith on account of the pains, fatigues, and anxieties to
which they were subjected for the cause of God ; but other writers attribute
to some of those pontiffs only the title of confessors, because they did not
actuaUy die a violent death.
The Holy See was vacant one month and twenty days.
* See Saint Augustine, Ep. 105, ad Bonat., chap. 2; Ep. 4% chap. 5, Be Bapt. contra Bonat
lib. 6, chap. 35.

S^INT SYLVESTER I. 71

33. ST. SYLYESTER L — a. d. 314.
YLVESTER, a Roman priest, ordained by Pope Saint
Marcellinus, was the son of Rufinus and Saint Jus-
tina, and was created pontiff on the 31st of January,
314. He addressed to the clergy a variety of orders
and regulations, the importance and utility of which
are generaUy admitted, and are praised by Bede and
SgTgj SangaUo. Among other regulations, this pope or
dered that the head of the baptized should be
anointed with the chrism by the priest ; and he also ordered that the days
of the week, excepting Saturday and Sunday, should be caUed ferias, a
name which several authors, especiaUy Tertullian, affirm to have been
already in use. In that nomenclature Monday is caUed the second feria,
Tuesday the third feria, and so on to Friday, which was the sixth feria.
The first feria and the second feria are caUed by the ordinary names of
Saturday and Sunday.
Sylvester continued to govern the Church, which Constantine enriched
with gifts and protected with Uvely and firm determination. In the year
325, the holy pontiff held at Nicea (now caUed Isnich), in Anatoha, the
first general councU* convoked by Constantine to condemn the heresy
of Arius, who asserted that Jesus Christ was not God, but merely man.
The councU was also to decide upon the dissensions in the Church con
cerning the celebration of Easter, and to endeavor to put an end to the
* We give some details relating to the publication of the works on the councils. An anony
mous French author has written a History of the Councils General, commencing taith the first
Council of Nice, with explanatory notes and criticisms, &c. Paris, 1694. Although that learned
work was so useful, it was not continued, and we have but the first volume, containing the
Council of Nice alone. Another French author has published the History of the General Coun
cils to the Council of Trent. Paris, 2 vols., 12mo. Mark Battaglini has written, in Italian, a
Universal History of all the General Councils, and especiaUy of Holy Church. The fifth edition,
published at Venice in 1724-29, is the fullest. The same general councils have been illustrated
by Christianus Lupus, a celebrated Augustine monk. His entire works, in two volumes, were
published at Venice in 1724-29, in folio. Father Catalana continued the publication with very
sound commentaries, under the following title : Sacrosancta concilia cecumenica cornmentarius
illustrata, &c. Rome, 1749, 4 vols., folio. They were also illustrated by Xavier Binius, in
nine vols., folio, printed at Cologne, 1618 ; then by the publishers of the Collectio Conciliorum
regia, printed at the Louvre in 1644, in 37 vols., folio ; then by fathers Philippe Labbe and
Gabriel Cossart in the Collectio, Magna Conciliorum, &c, published at Paris in 1672, in 18 vols.,
folio. A supplement, in six vols., folio, was added in a Venetian edition by Monsignor Giaudo-
menico Mansi, printed at Lucca in 1748-52 ; and by Father Hardouin, in the Gonciliorum Collectia
regia Mamma, published at Paris in 1715, in 12 vols., folio.

72 LIVES OF THE POPES.
schism of Meletius, bishop of Sicopohs, in Egypt, against the patriarch of
Alexandria. The councU consisted of three hundred and eighteen bishops,
besides the pope's legates. The emperor attended in great state.
Arius, an African priest, poet, and musician, who composed spiritual
songs for pious persons and work-people, put his erroneous doctrine into
verse, and thus got it into circulation among the people. The same means
had previously been employed by Valentinus and Armonius, and had often
served the purposes of the heretics. Apollinaris also employed it after
Arius, and by it, rather than by his writings, perpetuated his errors. On
this point Ernest Cypriani may be consulted, who published (London, 1718)
an 8vo volume entitled, On the Propagation of Heresies by means of Songs*
The Fathers, after many dehberations, formed the symbol of the faith,
Credo in unum Deum, &c, and declared, contrary to the opinion of the
Arians, that the Son was consubstantial with the Eternal, his father. It
was settled, against the quartadedmants, that the 21st of March would end
the winter equinox, and that the Sunday after the fourteenth moon, which
would be at full on the 21st, or after that day, should be the day for the
celebration of Easter. It was ordered that the Patriarch of Alexandria
should especiaUy make public the day for the celebration of Easter, because,
in that city, more than elsewhere, astronomy was carefuUy studied. Thence
has come to us the use of the Paschal Cycle, of the Golden Number, and of
the Indictions. In this council it was decreed that Meletius should remain
without any jurisdiction at Sicopohs, and that those who had been ordained
by him should be subject to the Patriarch of Alexandria. Twenty canons
were formed for the reform of the ecclesiastical discipline.
It is not certain that it was Saint Sylvester who ordered that the altars
should be of stone.
It was in his time that the custom commenced of consecrating the pontiff
on a Sunday or feast day. Novaes thinks that that ceremony had taken

* We shall see that Arianism, after having spread throughout all the provinces, faded by de
grees, so that by the end of the fourth century the Arians had not in the Roman empire either
bishops or churches. If there were still some Arians, they no longer formed » body. That
heresy took shelter among the Goths, who had embraced it even during the reign of Constan
tine ; among the Vandals, who seized on Africa ; and among the Burgundians, to whom it had
been communicated by the Goths. The Francs embraced it when they ceased to be idolaters,
and did not abandon it until after the conversion of Clovis. Arianism reappeared in Europe in
the train of Luther's reformation ; an anabaptist preacher affirmed that he was the grandson oi
God, son of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. This heretic found followers, so that in a short time
his doctrine spread in Germany and Poland, and produced various sects ; passed into Holland;
and was imported into England by Orchin and Bucer, who was engaged by the Protector Somer
set, guardian of Edward VI., to teach the doctrine of Zuinglius. Though Madame Meyer
founded a chair, with an endowment for lectures against Arianism, the heresy has still its de
fenders and believers in England. [See Bibliotlieca Brit, vol, 7 ; and Bictionary of Heresies,
artich Arius.]

SAINT SYLVESTER I. 73
place on a ferial day, except in the cases of Paul in., Clement VII., and
Leo X. Sylvester is the first who is represented as crowned with the tiara.
That which he wore was taken to Avignon, thence back again to Rome, and
then placed in the church of Saints Sylvester and Martin a'i monti.
In six ordinations, in December, the Holy Father created sixty-two or
sixty-three bishops, forty-two priests, and twenty-six deacons. He governed
the Church twenty-one years and eleven months. He died 31st December,
335, and was interred in the cemetery of PrisciUa, on the Salarian Way.
There is no longer any controversy about the pretended donation of Con
stantine. One of the oldest authors who has spoken of it is Eneas, of Paris,
who hved A. D. 854. The Abbe Fea treated the question with great ability
and good faith. How many useless arguments do not the enemies of the
Church stiU revive upon that subject! Dante has repeated the error in
his beautiful verse ; but even the greatest of modern poets may, in this, as
in many other inspirations, be any thing rather than a trustworthy his
torian. It was during the pontificate of Saint Sylvester that Helena, mother of
Constantine, found, at Jerusalem, the true cross and the holy tomb, since
intrusted to the guardianship of the minor brethren of Saint Francis of
Assisiam.* * At page — we have mentioned the question of the Paschal Cycle. We now add a few
explanatory words on the same subject.
The Paschal Cycle is a cycle of 532 years. At the end of that period the Feast of Easter returns
on the same Sunday. That cycle brings the new moons on the same days of the Julian year.
It is the product of the nineteen years of the lunar cycle, multiplied by the twenty-eight years of
the solar cycle.
The Indiction is a period or cycle of fifteen years, thus named from a tribute which the
Romans levied annually in the provinces to provide pay for those soldiers who had served fifteen
years. That period, according to some authors, commenced in 312 ; according to others, in 313.
Those countries that still observe it, reckon it from the first of January. To find the year of
the Indiction, add three to a thousandth of the Gregorian year, and divide by 15. The remainder
indicates the Indiction, unless it be a cipher ; in that case the Indiction is 15.
The Golden Number is a number which indicates the year of the lunar cycle to which any
given year belongs, and the method of finding the Golden Number of any given year since Jesus
Christ is as follows : Add one to the number of years that have elapsed since Jesus Christ, and
divide by 19. The remainder will be the Golden Number sought for ; but if there be no re
mainder, then the Golden Number will be 19.

74

LIVES OF THE POPES.

34. ST. MARK— a. d. 336.

OR a moment let us here pause. Christ came to
redeem us, and to give us the most admirable
precepts that can be offered to the human mind.
Christ intrusted to his apostles the task of pub
lishing the holy Gospels. The Christian rehgion
was embraced with enthusiasm. Paganism re
sorted to the most cruel methods to destroy the
altars of Christ. The courage of the faithful did
not shrink before the ferocity of the torturers. Some emperors moderated
the torments, and treated the Christians with gentleness ; others invented
the most frightful tortures for the annihUation of their enemies. At length
an emperor (Constantine), victorious by the aid of the Cross, stretched out
his hand to the Christians, raised them from their, oppressed condition,
heaped benefits upon them, aUowed them to found a great number of
churches, buUt some himseK, and declared himseK the friend and protector
of the new worship, and pubhcly honored it. The dedication of a new
Rome, caUed Byzantium, took place on the 11th May, 330. Sylvester con
tinued to reside in the old Rome, the Rome of Romulus, of the great repub
lic, of Csesar, of Augustus, and of aU the emperors to the time of Constantine.
The pontiff freely exerted his spiritual authority, the temporal authority
remaining entirely in the emperor or his delegates. Rehgion had obtained
the most glorious triumph. Since the reign of Saint Peter, as we have
seen, his successors have displayed the virtues of courage, learning, and
piety. If the heretics are not utterly vanquished, they at least have been
combated with purity, with wisdom, and with truth. We have to contem
plate other times ; we have to praise other models of evangehcal purity. Let
us not forget that God, when he granted us great benefits, and gave us
unhoped for tokens of benevolence, for our instruction, and for keeping
within due bounds our human pride, prepared moments of new suffering.
These destroying our confidence, could yet serve to remind us of our
nothingness. A sincere distrust of ourselves must in such cases enlighten
us and render us worthy of a more secure independence, and of a confidence
tempered by reverses, but never so far weakened as to cause us to doubt of
that imperishable glory promised to us by the words of the Lord himseK.
The Old and the New Testament are there to strengthen us, and the gates
of heU cannot prevaU against the holy Church which is our guide, and the
dogmas of the faith that so many victims of recent cruelties have defended

SAINT JULIUS I.

75

with the courage of those martyrs of whose heroic and glorious lives we
have treated.
Saint Mark was named successor of Saint Sylvester in the year 336. He
had previously been made by Constantine one of the judges of Donatus,
whence it may be inferred that that priest was already renowned for his
spirit of piety and justice. Novaes maintains that previous to reaching the
tiara, Saint Mark bore the title of cardinal, and that that title was
then in use. Saint Mark, in one ordination, created seven, some say twenty-
seven, bishops ; five, or as some say, twenty-five priests ; and five or six
deacons. He governed the Church eight or nine months. He died on the
7th of October, 336, and was buried' in the cemetery of Balbinus, on the
Via Ardeatina. His body was thence removed to the church of Saint Mark,
which he had buUt. The Holy See was vacant during a few months. Here
we are compeUed to say that towards the close of his hfe Saint Mark had
the pain to see Constantine, tiU then so zealous a defender of the Church,
seduced by the friends of Arius, restore that heretic to favor, as an inno
cent and calumniated man. So completely was the emperor imposed upon
by the hypocrisy and the equivocal explanations of that sophist, that he
would probably have been restored to the Church; but that mischief
and disgrace were averted by the death of Arius under circumstances par
taking of the miraculous. Though Arius was carried off just as he felt sure
of triumph, Constantine was not convinced, and, unhappUy, Arianism was
not humiliated.*

35. ST. JULIUS I — a. d. 337.

AINT JULIUS was created pontiff in 337. At the
commencement of this pontificate Constantine died,
after having been baptized.
We quote the three pages which Fleury devotes
to that event.t
" The emperor was then about sixty-five years of
age, and tiU then he had enjoyed such perfect health
that he easUy performed aU the military exercises.
Preparing to lead his troops against the Persians, he had named the bishops
who were to accompany him, and had a tent prepared, and richly decorated,

Csesarotti, p. 77.

f Fleury, iii., 229-232.

76 LIVES OF THE POPES.
as a portable church, in which he might pray with them. The Feast of
Easter having arrived, he passed the evening in prayer with the faithful, as
was his custom, for he was the first emperor to celebrate that feast ; and to
render the celebration the more brilliant, he ordered that during the whole
night not only aU the churches, but the whole city of Constantinople, should
be illuminated ; and even appointed for that purpose lighted torches, and
tapers, or rather columns of wax.
" When day appeared, he gave UberaUy to the people, in humble imitation
of the benefits which our Saviour conferred. Having thus, in the year 337,
celebrated as usual the Easter feast, he feU sick, and went to the hot-baths
of Constantinople, and then to those of Helenopohs, where he spent some
time in prayer in the church of the martyr Saint Lucian. It was then,
feeling that his end approached, that he determined to receive baptism.
Having maturely considered the necessity of that sacrament and its mar-
veUous virtues, he threw himseK upon the ground in that oratory and
confessed his sins : then he received the laying on of hands with the first
prayers, and was thus placed in the rank of catechumens. Thence he had
himseK removed to Achiron, near Nicomedia, and having sent for the
bishops, he thus addressed them :
" ' The time has arrived which I have so much wished for, when I hope to
obtain from God the grace of salvation, and that holy sign which gives
immortahty. I intended to receive baptism in the river Jordan, where our
Saviour himseK received it. to give us an example ; but God, who knows
what is best for us, wills that I shaU receive that favor here ; make, there
fore, no difficulty in granting it to me. If I be permitted stiU to remain
some time upon earth, I am resolved to mingle with aU the faithful in the
assemblies of the Church, and to lead a holy hfe in obedience to the laws
of God.' It was a common devotion in those primitive times to be bap
tized in the Jordan, or at least to bathe in it, as pilgrims stiU do.
" When the emperor had thus spoken, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and the
bishops who accompanied him, baptized the emperor, observing aU the
usual ceremonies. Then they took the purple from him and clothed him in
white garments, but of a richness becoming his dignity. His bed also was
covered with white. Then, raising his voice, he returned thanks to God for
the grace bestowed upon him, and ended with these words : ' Now I am
truly happy ; I can beheve myseK worthy of eternal hfe, and of sharing the
divine hght. What misery it would be to be deprived of such blessings !'
" His captains, having entered his chamber, lamented his state, and prayed
that God would prolong his days ; but he said that he, better than any one,
knew the great blessings that he was about to receive, and that he did not wish
to delay in going to his God. AU this occurred on the Feast of Pentecost.
" Constantine had made his wiU, by which he confirmed the division of the

SAINT JULIUS I. 77
empire which he had made during his hfe, between his three sons and his
two nephews. He also ordered that Saint Athanasius shordd be recaUed
from exUe, although Eusebius of Nicomedia tried to prevent him from
giving that order.
"The Emperor Constantine having thus set aU things in order, died at noon
on the Day of Pentecost, the 20th of May, A. D. 337, having reigned thirty-one
years, the longest reign since Augustus. The body, shrouded in gold, was
conveyed to Constantinople. Constantius was the only one of his sons who
was in time to be present at the burial. He had the body conveyed with
great pomp into the Church of the Apostles, himseK being in the proces
sion ; then he retired with the soldiers, he being only a catechumen. But
the clergy and the people remained to pray and to offer the sacrifice. The
body of the emperor was raised on a lofty catafalque during the prayers,
and interred in the vestibule of the Basilica, near the door."
The memory of the Emperor Constantine is held in esteem in the Church
for the great benefits that he bestowed upon her, protecting her with aU
his power, and in so many ways showing his zeal for the true rehgion. It
must be beheved that his baptism effaced aU the faults of his hfe ; yet we
perceive great faults in it after he had seen the miraculous cross, and had
declared for the Christian rehgion. Eusebius himseK, though a great ad
mirer of that prince, confessed that many Romans complained of his great
easiness of character. He too often aUowed free course to two great vices —
the violence of those who oppressed the weak in order to feed their own
insatiable greediness, and the hypocrisy of the false Christians who joined
the Church only that they might obtain the favor of the emperor. How
ever, we shaU not greatly err in believing aU the good things said of Con
stantine by Zosimus,* and aU the bad things said of him by Eusebius.
The pontificate of Liberius was almost entirely occupied by the conse
quences of the persecution raised against Saint Athanasius by Arius.
That heresiarch died in 336. Athanasius went to Rome to defend himseK
against the Eusebians, the partisans of the Arian doctrines. Pope Julius
received him with honor. He sent legates to the Eusebians to invite them
to the council which was to be held at Eome. Their reply not arriving in
time, the councU was held in 342, and Saint Athanasius was reinstated in
the See of Alexandria. The Eusebians complained. Saint Juhus rephed
to them in a letter which TiUemont affirms to be one of the finest monu
ments of antiquity. He reproached them with abandoning the doctrine of
the CouncU of Nice to embrace condemned heresies. Those subjects of
division between the Easterns and the Westerns made it desirable that a
councU should be held near the frontier of the two countries, with a view to
* Zosimus, a zealous pagan priest, paints Constantine for the most part in very dark colors.

78

LIVES OF THE POPES.

reuniting the two Churches. It was held in 344, at Sardis (now Sophia), the
capital of Bulgaria. There were present at it about three hundred bishops,
besides the pontifical legates. Athanasius there obtained a new triumph ;
the judgment of the pope was pubhcly read to the Council of Eome, and
loudly praised by the Fathers. Twenty canons were at the same time
formed for the discipline of the Church, and are an appendix to those of
Nice. Some time after, Saint Athanasius was definitively restored to the See
of Alexandria. Saint Julius renewed the order to the notaries to coUect
and arrange aU wills, donations, and other documents concerning the Holy
See. Cluni beheves that this is the formal and initial principle of the
foundation of a pontifical hbrary.
It is said that Julius I. ordered the Feast of Christmas to be kept on the
25th of December. Pagi (see Breviar. Pont. Rom.) is of that opinion ; but
in the very ample coUection of the councUs (vol. ii., p. 1255), it is shown that
the institution of the celebration of that great feast is of later date than the
pontificate of Juhus.
In three ordinations, this pope, so eminent for his piety and for his firm
and constant nature, created nine or ten bishops, eighteen or nineteen
priests, and four or five deacons.
He died on the 12th of April, A. D. 352, after governing the Church fifteen
years, two months, and fifteen days. He was* interred in the cemetery of
Calepodius, on the Via Aureliana, and afterwards removed to the church of
Saint Mary, in Trastevere.
The Holy See was vacant twenty-five days.

36. LIBERIUS.— a. d. 352.

IBEEIUS, a Eoman cardinal-deacon, created by
Saint Sylvester, is said to have been of the SaveUi
famUy. Liberius was elected, against his own
desire, on the 8th of May, 352. It is affirmed that
he ordered that, during fast-days, htigation should
cease, and that he reprimanded those of the faith
ful who, during Lent, enforced their claims upon
their debtors. It is to one of his precepts that the
custom is owing of abstaining from marriage during Lent.
The Holy Father was frequently invited to condemn Saint Athanasius,
the energetic partisan of the doctrines of Nice ; but the pope, no less cour-

SAINT LIBERIUS. 79
ageous, showed the true rock of the Church. Bold against aU threats, in>
sensible to aU promises, he had to be torn from his flock. Carried to Milan,
before the Emperor Constantms, he dared to refuse the condemnation of the
holy doctor, because he knew his innocence and the mahgnity against him
of the Arians, and also because such a condemnation would have aimed a
mortal blow at the CouncU of Nice, of which Athanasius was the most
zealous defender. Constantius threatened the pope with exile. Liberius
rephed : " We have already given our last fareweU to our brethren at Eome ;
and we attach more value to the ecclesiastical laws than to our continued
residence in that city." That noble reply is testified by Theodoret and by
Dom Constant. Csesar instantly ordered that Liberius should be taken to
Berea, in Thrace. Before his departure, he was visited by an officer of the
prince, who offered him a sum sufficient for the journey. Liberius rephed :
" TeU the emperor to keep the money to pay his soldiers, and to gratify the
greed of his ministers." He also refused another sum which was offered to
him by the empress, and another sent to him by the eunuch Eusebius, one
of the principal officers of the imperial court.
When the pontiff was in exUe, a councU was held at Sirmium, a city of
Lower Hungary, of more than three hundred bishops, for the condemnation
of Photinus, birliop of that city, who, with his master, Paul of Samosata,
maintained that Jesus was not God, but only a man. In this council, the
Arians drew up a formula of the faith. Some authors say that Liberius,
depressed by threats of death, consented to the condemnation of Athana
sius, and was reduced to enter into communion with the Arians. Novaes
relates, but with a kind of regret, what Baronius says about that fall •' " No
truer history can be found." Natalis Alexander and Tillemont manifest the
same feeling. Novaes adds, that many modern criticisms go to show that
this is false, and very false. He quotes the critical dissertation on Pope
Liberius, written by the Abbe Congne (Paris, 1733), who maintains the
non-authenticity of the/teZZ of Liberius. However, those who beheve in the
possibility of such faU, endeavor to show that the pope did not directly
offend the Catholic faith. SangaUo, especiaUy, takes that view. However,
if this asserted weakness on the part of Liberius was true (which cannot be
admitted), the pope subsequently effaced it by his exemplary conduct, since
he has merited the title of saint in several martyrologies. Moreover, it is
ascertained that the most distinguished among the Soman matrons de
manded from the emperor the recaU of Liberius from exUe, which Constan
tius could not refuse.
When Liberius returned to Eome, a councU was assembled at Eimini, in
359, at Avhich there were present four hundred bishops, eighty of whom were
Arians. In that councU, which commenced favorably, but termina'.ed dis
astrously, as says Saint Ambrose (Letter 21, § 15), the bishops, who at first

80 LIVES OF THE POPES.
had confirmed the profession of faith of the Council of Nice, and condemned
and excommunicated Arsacius and Valens, and their Arian accompUces,
aUowed themselves to be ill-treated by Constantius ; and, deceived by the
intrigues of the Arian bishops, they subscribed the false formula of the
Council of Firmium, which concealed the culpable intention. These bishops
thus consented to the omission of the words substance and consubstantial, as
the monks of St. Maur observe.*
Liberius, who doubtless was no longer in those circumstances in which
the most upright intentions are sometimes misjudged, because ordinary men
are inclined to beheve that one must always submit when unfortunate ;
Liberius, urged by Constantine to ratify that fraudulent consent of the
bishops, not only gave a flat refusal, but, also — which at that time could
not but make a great impression — actuaUy excommunicated the signing
bishops. Driven forth again from Eome, he concealed himseK in the
haUowed cemeteries, and remained there tiU the close of his IKe.
This pontiff, and John, a Eoman patrician, had a vision, afterwards con
firmed by a miraculous faU of snow on the Esquiline Mount, on the 5th of
August, which made known the site and the form of the Church, which the
mother of God desired to be buUt in her honor. Liberius traced the found
ations upon which John buUt that Church, which was consecrated in 353,
and caUed the Liberian. It is also known as Saint Mary Major, to show
that among aU the Churches dedicated to Our Lady, it holds the first rank.
It is also named Mary al prazsipio, on account of the relic of the manger, in
which lay the infant Jesus, which is preserved in that same Church.
In two ordinations, Liberius created nineteen bishops, eighteen priests,
and five deacons. He governed the Church fourteen years, four months,
and two days, and died on the 9th of December, A. d. 366, and was interred
in the cemetery of PrisciUa, on the Salarian Way. The Holy See was
vacant ten days.
Though we have quite correctly given above, the date of 366, it wiU be
noticed that in the next chapter we go back to the date of the year 359, the
date of the accession of Felix, who probably had some intermediate au
thority during the troubles of Liberius.

In St. Ambros : lib. i., de Fid., chap. 18, p. 122.

ST. FELIX n.

81

37. ST. FELIX II— a. d. 359.

I HE pontifical authority, during the exile of Liberius,
which lasted for two years, was exercised by Saint
Fehx, the second pope of that name. Authors.
differ as to the exact circumstances under which
Felix thus acted. Did he act as the absent pope's
vicar ? Did he usurp authority ? Or was he, with
the absent pope's consent, actuaUy, though pri
vately and only temporarily, elected pope, with the
understanding that on the return of Liberius,
should that ever take place, Fehx would retire ? Be that as it may, it is
certain that when Liberius did return, Fehx laid down his authority, and
went to practice the Christian virtues in retirement.
In a single ordination he created nineteen bishops, twenty-seven priests,
and five deacons. While he held the supreme authority in the Church he
had the courage to condemn Constantius as an Arian ; and on the return
of Liberius, the emperor in revenge condemned Felix II. to exUe in the
httle town of Cori, on the Aurehan Way, seventeen miles from Eome. There
he suffered martyrdom with great courage. It may not be useless to add,
that even after the triumph of the Church great cruelties were inflicted
upon the Christians. As the chief of the state was himseK a Christian, there
was no longer even the wretched excuse of a mistaken religious zeal ; but
heretics pursued those whom they jleemed enemies as fiercely as any pagans
could. The body of Fehx being brought to Rome, was interred at the baths of
Trajan, and subsequently placed by Saint Damasus in the BasUica, which
Fehx himseK had caused to be constructed on the Aurehan Way, two mUes
from Rome. From this the body was removed into the Church of Saints
Cosmo and Damian. In the reign of Pope Gregory XIII., there arose a
question between the Cardinals Baronius and Santorio as to whether the
name Of Fehx should be retained in the Roman martyrology as pontiff and
as martyr. Santorio maintained that it was clearly right, and on the 22d
of July, 1582, the evening of the Feast of Saint Fehx, that saint's body
was found in the above-mentioned Church of Saint Cosmo and Saint
Damian, and the inscription described him as having been pontiff and mar
tyr. Many modern critics erase him from the Hst of pontiffs, on the ground
that that inscription is not authentic.
Some writers maintain that the body is preserved at Padua, in the Church
6

82 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of the Cordehers, and that the coffin bears an inscription with the title of
saint, placed in 1503.
Even in our own day there are different opinions as to the legitimacy of the
papacy of Fehx n. Various authors consider him a legitimate pope, and
and BeUarmine even wrote an apologetical dissertation in support of that
view. On the, other hand, there are not wanting some who deny that he
was either saint, or pope, or martyr, and consider that he was an antipope,
and even erroneous in his doctrines ; of this opinion are Natahs Alexander,
SangaUo, Fleury, and Christianus Lupus. The celebrated Monsignor
Borgia, afterwards cardinal, said upon this subj-ect : " The legitimacy of
Fehx is demonstrated to those who beheve in the faU of Liberius."
Shortly after the pontificate of Damasus I., who succeeds to Liberius
and Fehx, must be placed the reign of Julian, surnamed the Apostate, son
of Juhus Constantius, brother of the great Constantine. He was near
perishing with his brother Gallus in a terrible massacre of his famUy by
the sons of Constantine, and was only saved by the care of Mark, bishop
of Aristus, who concealed him in the sanctuary of his church, a circum
stance which subsequently added to the horror of his apostacy. Eusebius
of Nicomedia, who was charged with the education of Julian and GaUus,
gave them a tutor named Mardonius,* who endeavored to inspire them with
gravity, modesty, and contempt for sensual pleasures. These young princes
entered into the order of the clergy, and performed the duty of readers,
but with very different sentiments upon rehgion. GaUus had much piety,
whUe Julian had a secret leaning to the worship of false gods, and his in
clinations broke forth when, at the age of twenty-four, he was sent to Athens,
where he addicted himseK to astrology, magic, and aU the vain Ulusions of
paganism. It is chiefly to that sacrilegious curiosity about the future that
we must attribute the apostacy of that young prince, who gave no reason
for suspicion tiU after the death of Constantius. Julian, being named
Csesar by Constantius, distinguished himseK in Gaul, and gained a victory
over seven German kings near Strasburg. Subsequently his soldiers de
clared him emperor. He was then at Paris, where he had buUt a palace,
of which the remains are still visible. Subsequently, Julian was recognized
as emperor in the East, as he already had been in the West. The pagan
phUosophers, by whom he was surrounded, persuaded him to annihUate
Christianity and to revive idolatry. At first he employed only mUd means,
but he afterwards ordered cruelty and bloodshed. Iondotf says of this
emperor, that " his character presents one of the most embarrassing prob
lems of history. He was humane and sanguinary, disinterested and prodi
gal, harsh to himseK, and too indulgent to the sophists, his favorites ; he
* Feller iii., 719. f Biog. Univ., xxii., 140.

SAINT DAMASUS.

83

combined the contraries, and was at the same time an Alexander and a Di
ogenes." The Cardinal Gerdil, in his Considerations upon Julian (vol. x.,
Roman edition), has weU described him. The edict of that emperor against
the Christians is a tissue of false reasonings, of which Voltaire has repro
duced the principal traits in his Essay on Morals, with the same logic and
the same honesty. With the death of this emperor, the famUy of Constan
tine became extinct. In that family Christianity found alike its most
generous friend and its most cruel enemy. One sentence, borrowed from
Lebeau's Histoire de I' Empire, will complete one's knowledge of Julian :
" He is the model of those persecuting princes who try to avoid the re
proach of persecuting by an appearance of gentleness and equity."
Julian died on the 26th June, 363, at the age of about thirty-two years.

38. ST. DAMASUS— a. d. 366,
AS born at Guimaraens, in Portugal. Sent to Rome
at an early age, he at 'first was writer and reader,
then deacon, and at length cardinal-priest. Da
masus has been caUed a Spaniard, because Portu
gal was then a part of Spain. It has been affirmed
that, during the exile of Liberius, Damasus was his
Vicar. While stiU young, he wrote the acts of the
holy martyrs, Peter and Marcellinus, which he had
learned from the hps of their executioner, Dorotheus. Subsequently, he
contracted friendship with Athanasius, when the latter came to Rome, under
the pontificate of Juhus, and 'perhaps he was ordained deacon by that pon
tiff. Certainly he was deacon when Liberius was sent into exUe. The
schismatical author of the prefaces to the Memorial of Faustinus and Mar
cellinus, after Father Zaccaria, adds that Damasus did not foUow Liberius
into exile, but only feigned to do so, and then hastened back to Rome and
usurped the pontifical authority. But the author of those prefaces, besides
being a schismatic, showed himseK the partisan of an antipope, named Ursi-
cinus, who then tormented the Church. And, therefore, we need give no
credence to what this opponent says against Damasus.
This cardinal-priest was elected pope at the age of sixty-two, on the 15th
of September, 366. He began by using aU the means in his power to put
an end to the schism of Ursicinus. In 369, he assembled at Rome a synod
of ninety-three bishops, confirmed the faith of Nice, rebuked the Council of

84 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Rimini, and condemned the Bishop Auxentius, the disseminator of heresy
in the diocese of Milan, and in the neighboring churches. Saint BasU,
having sent letters to Rome by Dorotheus, deacon of Antioch,* the
Holy Father, to show himseK favorable to the entreaties of the pious
bishop, sent to the East Sabinus, deacon of the MUanese church. The
latter returned to Rome with letters from BasU, which were not satisfactory
to the pontiff. He thought fit to send them back to BasU by Evagrius.
BasU then sent again to Rome Dorotheus, recently consecrated priest.
On that occasion, the Holy Father, in '374, assembled another councU, of
whose acts only a single fragment remains.
Several letters from the pontiff to Paulinus of Antioch then caused some
rumors in the East. Those letters contained a tacit but clear protestation by
which the Holy Father recognized the said Paulinus as Bishop of Antioch,
to the prejudice of Meletius. BasU, the friend of the latter, sent Dorotheus
for the third time to Rome, with the view, in concert with other bishops, to
procure a retraction of that decision. At that time, Damasus assembled
a synod, in which he declared that he maintained his decree in favor of
Paulinus, but without cutting off Meletius from the communion of the
Church. In 377, Saint Jerome consulted Damasus on these questions. 1.
May we say that in God there are three hypostases ? 2. With which of the two
parties, the Meletinian or the Paulinian, were the faithful to communicate ?
The pope rephed that Paulinus was to be communicated with, and that in
God three persons and one God were to be recognized.?
In the foUowing year, Gracchus, Prefect of Rome, to whom is apphcable
Justinian's law that no one shall be a judge in his own cause, obtained baptism
on condition that the authorities should destroy the infamous den of Mythra.
In 379, peace was concluded between Paulinus and Meletius. The former
held a councU, the acts of which he sent to Damasus. In 380, the pope
held a synod, in which he approved and confirmed the transaction of the
two bishops of Antioch, received Meletius into perfect communion, estab-
Ushing a confession of faith. The same year the Holy Father declared null
the ordination, by some Egyptians, of the ambitious Maximus Cinicus, who
dared to pretend to be Bishop of Constantinople, to the prejudice of Saint
Gregory Naziensis, and he constituted, as his Vicar in the provinces of
eastern Hlyria, Acolius, Bishop of Thessalonica.
PriscUianus, condemned by the CouncU of Saragossa, then visited Rome
for the purpose of .justKying himseK to Damasus, but the pope would not
even admit him to his presence.
* Care must be taken not to confound the names and the men so remote from our own time.
Just now we had to mention DorotheuB, an executioner ; we now have another Dorotheus a
friend of Saint Basil.
f Novaes, i., p. 134

SAINT DAMASUS. 85
At the solicitation of the Emperor Theodosius, Damasus, in 381, assem
bled at Constantinople the second general councU. It was attended by a
hundred and fifty or a hundred and eighty bishops, who gave honorable
reception to the Tome of the Westerns, that is to say, the confession of
Damasus to Paulinus, or the confession of faith estabhshed in the Roman
councU of the preceding year. The bishops in this councU confirmed the
Nicene creed against Macedonius, iEtius, and Eunomius, Arians, who,
among other errors, denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost. The bishops
added to the Nicene creed the words, I believe in the Holy. Ghost, Lord, &c,
to which were added the words filioque in Spain, by the Council of Toledo,
of 589. It was received by the churches of France and Germany, in the
eighth century, and by the Roman church in the ninth.
Maximus Sinicus, usurper of the See of Constantinople, was deposed, and
Saint Gregory Nazianensis was restored to his episcopal jurisdiction. But
he, from his love of peace, renounced it, and in his place was appointed
Nectairus, of the senatorial order, who was only a catechumen. In this
councU three or four canons were formed, in one of which primacy was given
to the Bishop of Constantinople after that of the Roman pontiff. This was
disapproved of by Damasus, who was too acute and far-sighted not to per
ceive the danger which might arise from that probably too hasty declara
tion. About the same time, when, on every side, measures were being taken
to secure the peace of the Church, and to destroy heresies, some senators,
partisans of the old system of the Gentiles of Rome, attempted to restore
paganism by causing the altar of victory to be re-erected in the senate. In
pursuance of that design, they were about to send Simmachus to the
Emperor Gratian to obtain his consent. But Saint Ambrose, formaUy em
powered by Damasus, exerted himseK so effectively at court, that the em
bassy was not suffered to depart. That same year the Holy Father convoked
a numerous councU, aU the acts of which are lost.
In 383, Damasus wrote a letter to the Eastern bishops against the par
tisans of Apollinarus, and, in 384, another letter to the Emperor Valentinian,
in favor of Simmachus, who had been accused of showing his hatred of the
Christians, under pretext of obeying the orders of the emperor. Damasus
instituted the penalty of retaliation, by which the caluminator was to be sub
jected to the punishment which the accused would have incurred had he
been unable to prove himseK innocent.* To him also is attributed the cus
tom of chaunting the Psalms day and night, but that custom prevailed in
the primitive church in the time of Pope Pontianus. It is possible that it
was even earlier. Saint Ambrose introduced into the West the singing of
* Qualia fecisti, patiaris talia,jus est,
Huic sibi conveniens talio nomen habet.

86 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the Psalms, by two choirs alternately, it may have been that Damasus, by a
decree, confirmed that new custom. On this point, Dom Constant refutes
those who say that the alternate singing was either invented or confirmed by
Pope Damasus. It is not exact to say that Damasus, foUowing the example
of the Church of Jerusalem, ordered the Alleluia to be sung at Rome. By
the advice of Saint Jerome, he ordered that, as the Alleluia was sung at
Easter time, it should frequently be sung at other times, that is to say, on
Sundays. Those who write that the same pontiff ordered that at the end of
the Psalms the Gloria Patri should, be used, are mistaken, for they base
their assertion upon a letter of St. Jerome, which is now known to be
apocryphal. Novaes thinks that the Gloria Patri was in use in the primi
tive church. The CouncU of Nice added to it the words, Sicut erat in princi-
pio, in opposition to the Arians, who said that the Son of God was created
in time. In general, the custom of saying it at the end of the Psalms was
not usuaUy commanded by the Church as early as is supposed ; perhaps it
was not ordered previous to the celebration of the Council of Vaison, in the
acts of which we, for the first time, meet with a decree that relates to it.
Damasus summoned to Rome Saint Jerome, who served him as secretary,
with the duty of replying to the letters which the Holy Father received from
the councils and from the churches. By order of the same pontiff, Saint
Jerome corrected and translated into Latin the version of the Septuagint,
and he did the same for the Hebrew edition, done into Latin. He also
most scrupulously corrected the Latin text of the New Testament, carefully
comparing it with the Greek text.
In five ordinations, Saint Damasus created sixty-two bishops, thirty-one
priests, and eleven deacons. He governed the Church eighteen years and
about two months, and died at the age of eighty, in December,- 384. -
He was a man of brilliant virtue, learned in the Holy Scriptures, illustri
ous by his writings, and celebrated for the good and constant organization
of the acts of his pontificate. This pontiff had also some disposition towards
the cultivation of poetry, but exceUed less in that kind of study than in aU
the others to which he devoted himseK. Saint Jerome bestows this eulogy
upon the continence of Damasus : He ivas the virgin doctor of a virgin
Church. Tolerant as to offences offered to himseK, Damasus would not
endure such to the Church.
The genuine works of Saint Damasus were printed at Paris in 1672, in
8vo. That edition is preceded by the Life of the Pontiff, which is also to
be found in the BibliotJieque des Peres, and in the Ep. Rom. Pont, of Dom
Constant, folio. An earlier edition was pubhshed in 1639, by Frederick
Ubaldini, and there was another Roman edition in 1638. There is also an
edition by the Canon Antoine Marie Merenda, foho, 1754.
A host of other authors have spoken of the works of Saint Damasus.

SAINT DAMASUS. 87
The council of Chalcedon caUed him the ornament and the glory of Rome.
His intimate union with Saint Jerome is one of the finest acts of this pon
tiff. To select for his interpreter a writer of such splendid talent and such
high renown, was to show an admirable modesty. The moral strength of the
pontificate was doubled by such a circumstance. So great a head of
the church, learned himseK, and endowed with the most eminent literary
qualities, stiU further summoned to his aid the eloquence, the force, the
fervor, the calm style, the patience, and the almost universal learning, and
finaUy, the advice of the most eminent doctor of the Latin Church.
Damasus added to his own intrinsic greatness by his confidence in Saint
Jerome. Damasus was buried in the Basihca that he had raised on the
Via Ardeatina. His body was removed into the church that he had him
seK founded, caUed Saint Laurence, in Damaso.
The Holy See was vacant thirty-one days. It is said that Saint Damasus
introduced the use of organs. (See the reign of Saint Vitalianus, seventy-
seventh Pope.)
We must here say a few words more about the Antipope Ursidnus. At
the election of Damasus he did not fear to accept the part of an intrusive
pope. Although that election shone with the intervention of the divine
judgment, says Saint Ambrose ( Ep. 30, ad Valentin), some priests, seven in
number,* and three deacons, having placed themselves at the head of the
faction opposed to Fehx, created Ursicinus pontiff, in the Basihca of Sicinus,
situated near the Esquiline, and he was ordained by the bishop of Tivoh ;
and then arose a sedition between the two factions, each of which desired
the man of its choice to prevaU. Juventius, then prefect of Rome, drove
Ursicinus and his partisans from the city, but they speedily returned.
Again expeUed by Pretextatus, successor to Juventius, the Emperor Valen-
tinian confirmed the order of exUe, and declared Ursicinus a disturber of
the Church, and aU the partisans of the intruder schismatics. They
attempted a new sedition, stiU maintaining that in Ursicinus they recog
nized their legitimate head; but the emperor by a new order sent the
partisans to a distance of twenty miles from the metropolis, and banished
the false pontiff into Gaul.
On the death of Valentinian, Ursicinus endeavored to return to Rome,
and assembled his partisans, with a view to seizing the pontifical authority.
He continued his intrigues and his seditious conduct during the whole
reign of Damasus, but was unable to expel the noble friend of Saint Jerome.
At the moment of the election of Siricius, successor of Damasus, Ursicinus
endeavored to oppose it, but he was again repulsed from Rome, to which
it seemed he could never return.
* This circumstance throws some light upon the then system of election.

88 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Under this reign died Saint Macrina, sister of Saint BasU and of Saint
Gregory of Nyssus. Saint BasU, surnamed the Great, was bishop of
Ctesarea. The Emperor Valeus having sent a prefect to BasU to engage
him to become an Arian, he refused with some force. The prefect observed
that people never spoke to him in that manner, to which Basil cuttingly
rephed, "Possibly that is because you are never in the habit of speaking to a
bishop." " A reply," says FeUer (I., 378), " full of energy and of the episcopal
character, and one which pastors should never lose sight of." The Hexame-
ron of Saint BasU (a work upon the six days of the creation) is looked upon
as a masterpiece.
The Basihan religious orders, male and female, take their name from this
holy doctor.

<sa

39. ST. SIRICIUS.— a. d. 384.
IRICIUS, a Roman, son of Tiburtius, priest-cardinal
of Saint Pudenziana in Pastore, or as some say,
cardinal-deacon, created by Damasus, was elected
pontiff in 384. It is affirmed that he is the author
of the Communicantes in the mass. By a decretal
written to Himerius, bishop of Tarragona, he permits
monks to receive the sacerdotal order which previ
ously was prohibited. He forbade the ordaining of
bigamists, and those who had married widows.
Saint Siricius ordained that, except in cases of urgent necessity, baptism
should be administered only at Easter and Pentecost.
He condemned the Manicheans, those obstinate sectaries of Manes, a
Persian slave, who propagated his errors in 273. They maintained that the
body of Christ was altogether actual ; that there are two supreme principles,
the Good and the EvU, and that from this latter proceeded the old law.
They forbade obedience to princes, as being dangerous. According to
Manes, aU the prophets were damned souls. The absurd dogma of the
Metempsychosis, the prohidition to kiU any animal whatever, or to use any
kind of animal food, were some of the chief points of the heresy of Manes.
He dogmatised pubhcly, and he sent disciples to preach his doctrines at
first in the nearest provinces of Persia, and afterwards in India and Egypt.
In imitation of the number of our Saviour's apostles, this man employed

saint smicrus. 89
twelve emissaries, three of whom are named Thomas, Hermas, and
Buldas.* Saint Siricius also condemned the PrisciUianists, foUowers of PrisciUian,
bishop of AvUa. That heresiarch adopted some of the errors of the Man-
icheans, and added one of his own — that men are subject to the influence of
evU stars. Juvenian, a MUanese monk, was also condemned. He denied
the Virginity of the Mother of God.
Some authors doubt the piety of Saint Siricius, because he did not
promptly repel the mischievous errors of Rufinus, a monk of Aquilea, which
errors were long kept concealed. They were at length made public by
Saint MarceUa, a Roman lady, and Pammachius, a Roman senator. The
pontiff is defended upon this point by Florentini and Noris. Benedict XIV.
also excuses the pontiff, especiaUy in a letter to John V., King of Portugal.
He moreover ordered that the name of Saint Siricius should be placed in
the Roman martyrology. Baronius had previously accused him of having
being cold in his relations with Saint Jerome, and of not continuing to him
the confidence that Damasus had shown ; but these circumstances did not
influence the decision of Benedict XIV., which now has the force of a law.
What must have especiaUy struck that learned and sagacious Cathohc legis
lator of the eighteenth century is that the works of Saint Siricius indicate
great courage. In those letters the pontifical dignity shines forth in aU its
lustre. We recognise the spirit of the prince of the Church, of the lieuten
ant of God,t when he commands that his decrees shaU be pubhshed in' aU
the provinces, and that the primates of the Church see to their execution, on
pain of their immediate deposition. The pontiff expressly declares that
whoever shaU refuse to obey his injunctions wiU be cut off from the com
munion of the faithful, and liable to the pains of heU.
Saint Siricius, in five ordinations, in December, created thirty-two bishops,
twenty-seven (some say thirty-one) priests, and sixteen or nineteen deacons.
He was the first pontiff who caUed himseK pope.J Novaes discusses that
question in his introduction to his Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs of Rome.
(Dissert. IV., vol. ii., p. 3.) The foUowing is his opinion upon this import
ant point :
" When the new pontiff has accepted the election, he begins to be called
Pope. I wiU not give here the catalogue of the various interpretations that
authors assign to that name."
* " This name," Buldas, says the celebrated M. de Saint Martin, *' may be merely indicative
of the dogmas that these heretics borrowed from the Indian legislator, Buddh or Buddha, whose
doctrine-at that time predominated in India, was widely spread in the regions which separate
that country from China, where it is said that ManeB travelled.
f Csesarotti, p. 91.
X Ignatius Baacii has written a little work in 12mo., entitled, "Etymology of the words Pope
and Pontiff.

90 LIVES OF THE POPES.
He nevertheless does cite Barbosa (Jur. Eccles., lib. i., cap. 2 ; Petra, Com
ment ad Const. Apost., t. i., pragraphe 3, numero 7), the BoUandists, in the
Chronological History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, vol. v., act. ss., p. 25 ;
Raynaud, vol. x. (Des Titres du Pontifo Romain, p. 80), and Lambertini (De
Syndimces, lib. i., chap. 3, para. 4).
Novaes continues thus :
" This name is derived from the title of Pater P atrial ; others derive it from
Pater Patrum or Pater Pastorum. Some, again, say that the word is de
rived from the initial letters of the foUowing words : thus, Petri, Apostoli,
Potestatem, Accipiens."
AU those interpretations befit a name so mysterious.
" At first," continues Novaes, " this name was apphed in common to aU
priests, whence came the custom of giving the name of father to every regu
lar priest. Then the name was given only to bishops. Papebrok (in Conat.
Ghrono. Histor. ad Siricium, p. 147, No. 9) says that Saint Siricius was the
first who caUed himseK Papa (pope), and that he so styles himseK in many
letters which he wrote to various provinces. Saint Leo the Great, elected
in 440, foUows that example ; in his Epist. 17, he entitles himseK "Leo, Papa
Universis per Sicilium constitutis Salutem." At the end of the ninth century,
this name was no longer given to any one but the sovereign pontiffs of
Eome. About the end of the tenth century, Arulphus H., Archbishop of
' Milan, having taken the title of " Pope of the City of Milan, Gregory V., in
988, complained of it, and the CouncU of Pavia decreed that Arulphus must
desist from that pretension of being pope.
" The schismatics, however, usurped the name of pope. Gregory VH., in
the CouncU of Rome, of 1076, strictly ordered that the title of pope should
be unique in the Cathohc world, and that no one should be aUowed' either
to take that name for himself or apply it to any one but the sovereign pon
tiff." (Baronius, Martyrol., 10 jan. and 25 jan.)
" Carni has pubhshed a dissertation on the question whether that degree
of Saint Gregory VII. is genuine. (Vol. i. of his Works, p. 152.) It is
written in Itahan, and the title is in Latin."
With the reign of Siricius are also connected the sedition of Antioch, the
Massacre of Thessalonica, the letter of Saint Ambrose to Theodosius, and
the penitence of that emperor, who for eight months refrained from enter
ing the Church.* During that time, Siricius added his zeal to that of the
great Saint Ambrose, in endeavoring to restore peace to the empire. Siri
cius governed the Church during fourteen years. He died in 398, at the
age of seventy-four years, and was interred in the cemetery of PrisciUa, on
* Fleury, iv., p. 559, et seq.

SAINT ANASTASIUS I.

91

the Via Solaria. His body was removed by Pascal I. into the Church of
Saint Praxedes. The Holy See was vacant nineteen days.
I must add that, under Saint Siricius, also appeared what Fleury caUs
(IV. 528) the beginnings of Saint Augustine. He had been made a catechu
men by the sign of the cross, and by salt. At first he addicted himseK to
the pleasures of the world, and feU into the hands of the Manicheans who,
leading him astray by their pompous discourses, gave him a taste for their
reveries, and an aversion for the Old Testament. Saint Monica, mother of
Saint Augustine, begged a bishop to bring her son back into the right way.
The bishop rephed that it was necessary to wait, and, as the mother rephed
to those words with a flood of tears, he added, it is impossible that the
chUd of those tears should perish.
Under the reign of Saint Siricius, died Saint Gregory of Nyssus, brother
of Saint BasU and Saint Mocrina. Gregory was bishop of Nyssus, a city
of Dardania ; he is surnamed the Father of fathers. His principal works
are Funeral Orations, Sermons, Panegyrics of the Saints, Commentaries on
Scripture, and Dogmatic Treatises. He may be compared to the most cele
brated orators of antiquity for purity, ease, strength, fecundity, and mag
nificence of style.
We must not forget the great Saint Athanasius, who died about this time
(eleven years before the reign of Saint Siricius), after being bishop of Alex
andria during forty-six years. During more than fifty years he was perse
cuted by the Arians, whom he opposed with an. invincible courage. Eras
mus was a great admirer of the style of Saint Athanasius ; a style which is
by turns noble, simple, elegant, clear, and pathetic.

40. ST. ANASTASIUS I.— a.d. 398.

NASTASIUS I., a Roman, and son of Maximus,
was created pontiff at the close of 388. He for
bade the ordination of any deformed person.
PUgrims could no longer be ordained without a
letter from their own bishop : whence the actual
origin of letters dimissory. He ordered that the
priests should stand up, keeping their heads
bowed, while the deacons read the gospel during
Mass, in order to show, says Bona, in his hturgic
letters, that they were servants ready to fulfil the commands of the gospel.
This decree was caUed forth by a dissension which occurred at Rome be-

92 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tween the priests and the deacons. The latter (see Baronius), administering
the goods of the Church, treated with not much respect the .priests who, on
account of that, disdained to rise up before the deacons, even when the
latter were reading the gospel before the faithful; for, according to old
custom, when the priests were seated the deacons were to remain standing.*
The holy father, in order to put an end to that scandal, pubhshed the decree
of which we have spoken, and which was registered in the pontifical book.
Saint Jerome caUs Saint Anastasius a man of very rich poverty and apos
tolic zeal.
It was especiaUy in defending Saint Chrysostom, whom they attempted
to expel from Constantinople, that Anastasius evidenced a great devotion.
In two ordinations Anastasius created ten or twelve bishops, eight or
nine priests, and five deacons. " He governed the Church," says Innocent
I., " with purity of hfe, abundance of doctrine, and perfect strictness of
ecclesiastical authority. He reigned three years and ten days, and died
in 401.
Saint Jerome further says (Ep. 127), that under such a bishop Rome
would remain. And, in fact, very shortly after the good pope's death, in
410, Rome was for the first time sacked by the Goths. Their king, Alaric,
had assaulted it three times before he could take it.
Saint Anastasius was interred in the cemetery of the Orso Pileato, on the
Esquiline, and afterwards removed by Sergeus I. into the Church of Saint
Sylvester and Saint Martin ai Monti. The Holy See remained vacant
twenty days.

41. ST. INNOCENT I — a. d. 401.
KT|jg|NNOCENT L, of Alba, in Montferrato, was the
gjl son of Innocent, and a cardinal-deacon created
jj by Saint Damasus. He was elected pontiff at
j|jj| the close of 401. In 401 lie went to Ravennaf
;r3^ to converse with the Emperor Honorius, ami ob-
! tain from him the confirmation of the capitulation
jj| concluded between King Alaric and the senate of
W the city of Rome, besieged by Alaric, and sacked
by him in the foUowing year.
Returning to Rome after a fruitless journey, the pope applied himseK to
* Novaes, i., p. 146. f See note at end of this chapter.

D & J.SaxTb'-r, "NV-w "Kirk.

SAINT INNOCENT I. 93
consoling and encouraging the Romans, restoring the churches, and orna
menting them anew with precious jewels of gold and sUver. He at the
same time busied himseK in publishing constitutions for the disciphne of
the church, in destroying as far as he could in their beginning the heresies
of Pelagius, an English monk, and his disciple Celestius, whose nativity is
unknown, and in condemning the reviving heresies of the Donatists.
Saint Jerome caUs Innocent the successor and the son of Anastasius, be
cause the former, like the latter, had given proofs of his love of justice by
protecting the cause of Saint John Chrysostom, unworthily deposed from
the see of Constantinople, and driven from his church by the faction of
Theophilus.* He who had condemned the two councUs irregularly held
against a bishop, whom no prudent man could deem guilty, could not but .
be inflexible against the Novatians, who, for more than a century, had kept
up their schism.f
Innocent, of his own sense of duty, determined to anathematize both
Pelagius and Celestius, who continued to torment men's consciences by
their audacious doctrines on original sin, free wUl, and divine grace.
Saint Innocent ordered that aU important causes, after the sentence of the
bishop, should be remitted to the Holy See, " according to the religious
custom," as he himseK said. With the legacy of the matron Vestina, he
buUt and erected into a cardinalate parish the church of Saints Vitahus,
Gervasius and Protasius.
In four ordinations, in the month of December, this pope created fifty-
four bishops, thirty priests, and fifteen deacons. He governed the Church
fifteen years, two months, and ten days.
He was endowed with very distinguished inteUect and singular prudence.
He laifr it down that a ruler should never dismiss the ministers of his pre
decessor, "for," said he, "new comers injure business before they learn
how to do it."
He died on the 28th of July, in the year 417, and was buried in the
cemetery at the Orso Pileato, and thence removed into the church of Saint
Sylvester and Saint Martin, ai Monti.
The Holy See remained vacant twenty-one days-
It was under the reign of Innocent I. that Eutropius suffered martyrdom
at Constantinople. Fleury, vol. v., book 21, chap. 38, says : " The prefect,
* It must not be forgotten that Saint John Chrysostom appealed from the sentence of the
ConcUidbvle du Chene, that the pontiff reversed the iniquitous condemnation, and that his sen
tence was respected by the whole Church. But there was a wide distance then from those
false decretals which ignorant modern sectarians tell us are the source of appeals to Rome.
{Feller, iii., 605.) The Conciliabule du Chene was so called because held in the church of a
quarter of the town of Chalcedon, to which a great oak had given its name.
f See life oi Saint Cornelius, in p. — of this volrvme, for his opinion of the Novatians.

94 LIVES OF THE POPES.
a pagan, and the enemy of the Christians, inflicted the most cruel tortures
on the friends of Saint Chrysostom. Eutropius, reader and chanter, was
put to the question. Fire was applied to him ; he was beaten with straps
of raw hides, and with sticks ; his sides, his cheeks, and Ins forehead were
torn with iron hooks, and, finaUy, lighted torches were plunged into the
gaping wounds where the flesh had been torn completely away from the
bone, and he expired.
The priest Tigrius was also stripped, scourged upon the back, and tied
hand and foot, and stretched so violently that the joints were dislocated."
In France, the barbarians furiously tortured the bishops ; at Rheims,
Saint Nicasia, with the virgin Eutropia, her sister'; at Arras, Saint Diogene;
at Auxerre, Saint Paterna; at Langres, Saint Didier. Every where the
same deplorable horrors foUowed the triumph of the barbarians. It seemed
as though Constantine had every where propagated Catholicism only that
the victims might be the more plainly pointed out for destruction ; and
among those barbarians who thus tortured and destroyed Christians, there
were some who pretended to beheve in Christ.
Note. — The Abbe Francis Giusta, in his Journeys of the Popes ( Viaggide Papi), Florence,
1782, 8vo., describes the principal journeys undertaken by the popes for the benefit of the
Church. The first journey is that of Innocent I., to have an interview in 409 with the Emperor
Honorius, then residing at Ravenna. Then come the journeys of Saint Leo to Attila, in Mantua,
in 452 ; that of Hormisdas to Ravenna, to Theodoric, King of the Goths ; that of Saint John I. to
Constantinople, to the Emperor Justinian, in 525 ; that of Agupetus to Constantinople to the
Emperor Justinian, in 546. In 652 Martin I. was carried off from Rome, by order of the Empe
ror Constantius.
In the eighth century, Constantine went to Constantinople to the Emperor Justinian II., in
710. Other journeys followed. Saint Zacharias went to Turin, to Ravenna, to Pavia, and to
Perugia, in 742, 743, and 750. Saint Stephen III. went to France, to King Pepin, in 754* Saint
Stephen V. went to Rheims, to the Emperor Louis I. in 816. Gregory IV. went to France in
832 ; John VIII. went to Paris to the Emperor Charles the Bald in 877.
In the tenth century no pope left Rome. Saint Leo IX. went to France in 1049, and to Ger
many in 1053. Victor II. went to Germany to the Emperor Henry, in 1057 ; Saint Gregory VII.
went to the Castle of Canosse in 1077. A century later, in 1177, Alexander III. went to Venice
to treat for peace with the Emperor Frederic.
In the twelfth century there was no papal removal from Rome. In the thirteenth — in 1223
— Honorius III. went to the congress with the Emperor Frederic II. Gregory X. went to Lyons
in 1274.
Clement V. transferred the residence of the Holy See into France in 1306. Urban V. went to
Avignon, in Italy, in 1363. Gregory XI. re-established the residence of the Holy See at Rome in
1376. Pius II. went to Mantua in 1459. Julius II. in 1511 besieged La Mirandola. Leo X.
went to Bologna to confer with King Francis I., in 1515. Paul III. went to Savona in 1538, to
Lucca in 1541, and to Basseto in 1543. Clement Vin. went to Ferrara in 1598.
In the seventeenth century there was no papal journey.
In the eighteenth century, in 1782, Pius VI. went to Vienna ; Pius VII. went to Paris in 1804 ;
in 1809 he was detained at Savona ; in 1815 he went to Geneva, and, finally, Gregory XVI
visited Ancona in 1841 ; Pius IX. went to Gaeta in 1848.

SAINT ZOZIMUS.

95

42. ST. ZOZIMUS.— a. d. 417.

AINT ZOZIMUS, made a priest by Saint Innocent
I., was, according to some, a Greek, born at Cesarea,
in Cappadocia ; according to others, he was born at
Bieti, in Calabria. He was elected pontiff on the
19th of August, A. D. 417. He was the first who to
the title of bishop or pope added the words, of Rome.
(Novaes i., 153.) He forbade that impure men or
slaves should be received into the clergy ; and he
forbade the clergy to frequent taverns. He renewed the condemnation of
Pelagius and Celestius, and he obtained from the Emperor Honorius, then
residing at Ravenna, that the Celestians and the Pelagians should be
banished from Rome, and every where known as heretics. African bishops
assembled at Carthage, having condemned the Pelagians as heretics, the
pope confirmed the sentence ; and from that instant he neglected no pre
caution to hasten, every where, the destruction of the schism which concealed
itseK under false pretences of piety and of submission.
To settle some Church business, Saint Zozimus sent Saint Augustine to
Cesarea, a city of Mauritania. The holy doctor speaks of that journey in
his letters 190 and 209.
It is stated in the Martyrology that this pope ordered that deacons
should wear the stole, hanging from the left shoulder to the right side. He
granted to the parish churches the faculty of blessing the paschal candles,
which previously had been permitted only to the great BasUicas. Some
authors attribute to him the invention of the paschal candle, whence the
Agnus Dei originated ; but the opinion is not shared by other historians.
The truth is that the custom of blessing and distributing the Agnus Dei
dates from the infant church, and that that ceremony was performed on
Holy Saturday.
Zozimus gave a decision relating to the difference which existed between
the churches of Aries and Vienne, as to which should be the metropohtan of
the Viennoise and Narbonnaise provinces.
He had some disputes with the bishops of Africa on the subject of
Apiarius, an African priest, deposed from the priesthood by Bishop Urbain.
There arose a difference of opinion between the Roman and the African
church, which continued five years, and was terminated by P.ope Saint
BonKace I. Apiarius, when he appealed on the subject to Zozimus, availed
himseK of an established right. The African fathers recognized the right

96

LIVES OF THE POPES.

of the Roman pontiffs to receive and decide upon aU appeals made to the
Holy See from aU parts of the Cathohc world. The Africans, in the case of
Apiarius, did not directly contest the right of appeal to the Holy See ; but
they demanded the execution of the estabhshed rules to prevent the abuses
committed by the clerics and simple priests in making such appeals with
too great levity and in cases already weU decided.* It was in vain that su
perficial writers or enemies of the Holy See quoted those regulations as
against the right of appeal in itseK. A power so old in the Church as to
its essence, although it had not always been as active or extensive in its
exercise, and those in whose hands it existed, could by no right-minded
reasoner be termed a usurped power, when the circumstances, the wants of
the Church and its discipline, required that the exercise of the same power
should become more frequent and more habitual.
Saint Zozimus, in an ordination in December, created eight bishops, ten
priests, and three deacons. He governed the Church one year, nine months,
and nine days. He died on the 26th December, 418, and was interred in
the Basihca of Saint Laurence, on the Via Tiburtina. The Holy See re
mained vacant one day.
It was in 418 that Saint Augustine wrote to a layman named Mercator,
who had consulted him upon the errors of the Pelagians : " For myseK, I
confess it to you, I love rather to learn than to teach, for the sweetness of
truth invites us to learn, and charity must constrain us to teach. But we
should teach only when charity constrains us to do so."

43. ST. BONIFACE L— a. d. 418,
ROMAN, the son of Zucundus, was made cardi
nal-priest by Saint Damasus. When about to be
proclaimed pontiff, he had not voluntarily accepted
that dignity, but he had at length given his con
sent, when some deacons and a very few priests,
opposing themselves to the wishes of the great
majority of the electors, named Eulahus, who had
s been made cardinal archdeacon by Innocent 1.
1 Symmachus, prefect of Rome, patronized Eulahus,
and prejudiced the Emperor Honorius in favor of that antipope. The em
peror being warned that Symmachus had written falsely to him upon the

* Feller, v., p. 814.

SAINT BONIFACE I. 97
subject, thought fit to caU upon both Boniface and Eulahus to attend before
him at Ravenna. EulaUus, in contempt of the emperor's orders, left Eome
for a short time and then secretly returned. That, of course, put an end
to aU dispute upon the subject of the pontificate ; BonKace was solemnly
recognized. UnhappUy it resulted from that dispute that as Honorius in that instance,
so the kings of Italy and others subsequently, interfered in the papal elec
tions. Of Eulahus we may sum up aU that it is necessary to say about him,
by merely adding that this intruder retired to Porto d'Anzo, and was sub
sequently bishop of Nepi.
BonKace, being firmly seated in the Holy See, ordered that no cleric
should be ordained priest earher than thirty years of age, as Saint Fabian
had desired, and BonKace also followed Zozimus in excluding from that
honor aU impure men and slaves. He introduced the custom of singing. on
Holy Thursdays the Gloria in Excelsis.
This pope suppressed the vigils of the saints ; which consisted in meeting
at their tombs and passing the nights preceding their feasts in fervent
prayer. Although those nights began, as it was fitting, in a holy manner, it
must be confessed that they did degenerate into mere meetings for amuse
ment ; the pope limited such meetings to the feast days, but he did not
suppress either the name of vigils or the fasting which was prescribed.
Boniface made a decree which forbade aU canvassing in the pontifical
elections ; the true pope was to be he who should be elected by the divine
judgment and the consent of aU.
By apostohcal and royal edicts he pursued the enemies of grace ; he re
ceived the four books dedicated to him by Saint Augustine, which the latter
had sent by Alipius. Those books refuted the letters of the Pelagians.
This same pope firmly maintained the rights of the Holy See over myriad,
which the patriarch of Constantinople aimed at separating from the Eoman
jurisdiction. It was under this pope that Saint Jerome died, that brilliant
hght that so long and so brilliantly Uluminated aU Christendom.
In one ordination, in the month of December, Saint BonKace created
thirty-six bishops, thirteen priests, and three deacons; he governed the
Church three years, eight months, and seven days. He died A. D. 422, and
was buried in the Cemetery of Saint Felicitas, on the Appian Way, and
near the Cemetery of Cahxtus.
The Holy See was vacant eight days. 7

98

LIVES OF THE POPES.

44. ST. CELESTINE I. — a. d. 422.

ELESTLNE I., a Eoman, cardinal-deacon, created
by Innocent I., was the son of Priscus, and a very
near relation of the Emperor Valentinian. This
pontiff was elected in the year 422.
In 431, the Holy Father caused to be celebrated
at Ephesus, formerly a city, and at present a vUlage
of Turkey, in Asia, the third general councU, with
the presence of two hundred bishops, and of three
of his legates. This councU estabhshed against Nestorius, nephew of Paul
of Samosata, at first a monk, then a priest at Antioch, and, at the time
referred to, bishop of Constantinople, that there was in Jesus Christ but
one person and two natures, and that the most holy Virgin was to be called
Mother of God. Nestorius was of a contrary opinion, and obstinately de
fended his false and erroneous opinion : he maintained that there were two
persons in Christ, one divine and the other human. He said that the most
holy Virgin ought not to be'caUed Mother of God, but only Mother of Christ,
because, according to him, it was the Man and not the God to whom she
gave birth. The definitive decree of the councU having been sent to Rome,
was received there on Christmas Day with so much joy and acclamation, that
to the angehc salutation were added the words : Sancta Maria, Mater Die,
ora pro nobis ; Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us*
In the history of the Church from its establishment to the pontificate of
Gregory XVI., by M. the Abbe Receveur (vol. ni., book 13, p. 36), there is
the foUowing passage :
" On the very day of the arrival of the legates of Pope Celestine, the
councU held its second session in the episcopal house. The letter of the
pope was read, first in Latin, then in Greek ; and after numerous acclama
tions of the bishops, in honor of Celestine and Cyril (patriarch of Alexan
dria), the legates, remarking that the papal letter prescribed the execution
of the judgment already pronounced by the Holy See, caUed the acts of the
preceding session, that it might be certain that the councU had proceeded
regularly, and to confirm its decisions by the authority of the Holy See, K
those decisions should be found conformable to what Pope Celestine had
himseK already decided. Firmus, of Cesarea, and Theodotus, of Ancyra,

* In support of this fact, Novaes quotes Baronius ; then he adds that Bona and Mabillon main
tain that this addition of words must be considered more recent.

SAINT CELESTINE I. 99
repKed, in the name of the councU, that in aU things they had foUowed and
executed the judgment pronounced by the pope, as would be proved to the
legates by the reading of the acts.
" On the foUowing day, a third session was held, in which were pubhcly
read the acts which had already been privately read by the legates, after
which the Priest Philip, one of the legates, said : ' All know that Saint
Peter, chief of the Apostles, and founder of the Cathohc Church, received
from Jesus Christ the keys of the celestial kingdom, with power to bind
and loose, and that he, by his successors, stiU exerts his power.' Our holy
pope, Bishop Celestine, who now holds Saint Peter's place, having sent us
to supply his place in the council, we, by his authority, confirm the sentence
of deposition and excommunication passed against Nestorius."
Celestine expeUed from Italy the Pelagians, who continued the propaga
tion of their errors. Celestius, their head, having retired to Great Britain,
Celestine sent thither two missionaries who, in two years, brought him back
to the orthodox faith* The Novatians still kept many churches open in
Rome. The pope, K we are to credit Cassiodorus on that point, confined
their last bishop to a distant quarter, and forbade that heresiarch to re
assemble his partisans.
Learning that some bishops of France were afflicted by new progress of
the. sect caUed semi-Pelagians, who had recently passed from Africa to Mar
seilles to oppose the doctrine of Saint Augustine on predestination and
grace, Celestine wrote to those French bishops a letter, replete with wisdom
and prudence. FinaUy, he sent into Ireland, PaUadius, the Greek, first
bishop of that country, and Saint Patrick, now the beloved apostle of the
Irish. In three ordinations, Celestine created forty-six, or, as others say, sixty-
two bishops, thirty-two priests, and twelve deacons. He governed the
Church nearly ten years. He ordered that his synodal decrees, and those
of his predecessors, should in no wise be revoked or subjected to any new
examination, when once ordered and decided. He was interred in the
cemetery of. PrisciUa, on the Via Solaria, and subsequently his body was
removed into the church of Saint Praxedes.
The Holy See was vacant nineteen days. Under this reign died Saint
Augustine. That celebrated father oonfounded the dangerous heretics of
the time, among others, Celestius and Pelagius ; and he -enhghtened the
Church by his admirable writings. The same father, seconded by Saint
Romain, his disciple, sUenced the semi-Pelagians, who attributed the com
mencement of justification and faith to free wiU alone.t
* Beda, chap, xvii, t Bossuet, Bisc. sur VHist. Univ., p. 73.

100 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Saint Augustine has left in his " Confessions"* great detaUs of his own
hfe. Of all his works, this throws the most interest on the Bishop of
Hippo. Science, virtue, and the courage of the saints are objects of
eternal veneration. The piety of Saint Augustine was characterized by
that impassioned love of God which in aU ages has invariably dehghted
and attracted the faithful. The accounts that he has given of the errors
and faults of his turbulent youth, the progressive effects of rehgious senti
ments in his soul, which stiU remained weak long after being convinced,
render him far less a stranger to us than most of the other fathers of the
Church. The confessions of Saint Augustine are a continual prayer; he
unceasingly addresses himself to God with a sort of familiarity of adoration
which is at once singular and affecting ; he supplicates God to give him the
enlightenment necessary to the discovery of the faults that he had com
mitted at the various stages of his hfe, and he forcibly breathes out his
sentiments of shame and repentance.? The most complete of his works is
The City, of God. When, in 410, Rome was taken by Alaric, and the love
liest part of the civilized world was a prey to the barbarians, clamors arose
against Christianity. The rest of the pagans and phUosophers remarked
that from the establishment of rehgion the world had become more and
more subjected to frightful calamities. Saint Augustine then undertook to
show that idolatry, even K enhghtened by the purest phUosophy, must
stiU be powerless to secure even temporal happiness to mankind. Then he
explained what is the city of God, that is to say, the Church of God, which
subsists in all His glory, and of which some fragments are scattered about
our terrestrial city. It is the continual opposition of the love of the things
of this world with the love of divine things ; their combat commenced with
the faU of the angels. Almost the whole doctrine of Saint Augustine is
contained in this book, which is undoubtedly the noblest picture of the
Christian rehgion, which there, as in aU the writings of the saint, is
represented with a penetrating sweetness. He seems always to' invite men
to temporal as weU as to eternal happiness. He speaks from his own ex
perience. HimseK fuU of passion and of scruples, he had found calmness
nowhere but in the secure asylum of religion.
Saint Augustine has been surnamed the Doctor of Grace, and the painters
have given him a flaming heart for symbol. Among his numerous works,
the single book, On the Christian Doctrine-, contains, in the opinion of Bos-
suet, more aid to the understanding of the Holy Scriptures than can be
found in all the other doctors. His sermons, too, and his letters, should be
read. AU traveUers who have visited the temple of Saint Peter wUl remem
ber and confirm that passage in Fea's description of Rome, which says : " At
* Biog. Univ., iii., 54 art., by M. the Baron de Barante. f Biog. Univ., iii., 55.

\;ii!MUiL'LjItttn-J ^
N.^vua'.i.SiHiiiei-ac'o.

SAINT SIXTUS III.

101

the tribune, caUed Delia Catedra, in the midst there is a great altar above
which is placed the monument of the chair, that is to say, a seat of wood
adorned with ivory, with open-work in gold. It is the very seat which Saint
Peter and his successors had used in great ceremonies. That chair is in
closed in another great seat in bronze, crowned by two angels bearing the
tiara and the keys. This magnificent seat is supported by four doctors,
namely, Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose, doctors of the Latin Church,
and Saint Chrysostom and Saint Athanasius, doctors of the Greek Church."
Rome, where the inteUectual, the learned, and the men of profound medi
tation succeed each other to infinity, needs no teachings as to propriety,
and it often happens that she has already fulfilled signaUy and solemnly the
duty with which she is reproached for forgetting.

45. ST. SIXTUS III.— a. d. 432.
T was to Sixtus that Saint Augustine wrote his cele
brated letter concerning grace. Sixtus was then
only a priest of the Roman church. His nomina
tion to the pontificate was made by unanimous con
sent, and even in the presence of two oriental
bishops. Fourteen years previous to his exaltation,
when he as yet was only a catechist, with great
eloquence he anathematised the Pelagian dogmas.
Having become pope, he stiU more strongly opposed their criminal attempts.
After having eonfirmed the CouncU of Ephesus, which had been approved
of by his predecessors, he applied himseK to dispersing the faction of Nes
torius, who still had for partisans some bishops of the East.
He zealously labored to re-establish peace between Cyril, Bishop of Alex
andria, and John, Bishop of Antioch. This letter at length confessed that
Nestorius, whose abettor he had been, had been justly condemned by the
councU. From the peace thus made, two metropohtans were excluded,
EUadius of Tarsus, and Eutherus of Thyanis, who, in their obstinacy, ap
pealed to the Pontiff Sixtus. He did not show himseK favorable to their
appeal, solely because they persisted in their preference for the errors of
Nestorius. The Pagi, in the criticism of Baronius, an. 433, No. 10, and in the Life of
Sixtus III., freely and skilfuUy treat the question of that appeal, and prove

102

LIVES OF THE POPES.

that the Oriental bishops, when dissenting, always appealed to the sovereign
pontiffs, and not to the general councils.
In the year 433, the pope ordained, as Bishop of Ravenna, Saint Peter
Chrysologus. It is said that the pope was miraculously invited to that
ordination by Saint Peter himseK. Saint Sixtus, wishing to erect a trophy
in honor of the most holy Virgin, for the victory gained over the heresy of
Nestorius, augmented and renovated the Basihca of Saint Mary Major,
which he enriched with precious gifts and considerable income.
He left other proofs of his magnificence to the BasUica of Saint John of
Lateran. In four ordinations, in December, he created fifty-two bishops, twenty-
two or twenty-eight priests, and twelve deacons. He governed the Church
about eight years, died on the 28th of March, 440, and was interred in the
catacombs* of Saint Laurence, beyond the waUs. The Holy See was vacant
one month and eleven days.

46. ST. LEO I. — a. d. 440.

AINT LEO, son of Quintian, is caUed the Great, on
account of his rare and eminent knowledge. Ac
cording to some authors, he was a Roman, but
others make him a native of Tuscany. Leo had been
created cardinal-deacon by Pope Saint Zozimus, and
he was absent from Rome at the time of the death
of Saint Sixtus III., having been sent to Gaul by
kvsw- the senate, to estabhsh a good understanding be
tween the Roman generals, Aetius and Albinus. Theodosius knew him
from having previously seen him in Asia, presiding over the Council of
Ephesus, and had conceived a high opinion both of his talents and his piety.

* For details about the Catacombs of Rome, read Bosio, who wrote in Italian (folio, Rome,
1632) a fina work, translated into Latin by Father Aringhi. Bosio gives a veiy exact descrip
tion of all the ancient catacombs where a host of martyrs were buried during the persecutions.
There many Christians found at once an asylum, death, and burial. Among others are the cata
combs of the Vatican, and the catacombs on the following vice, or roads — Aurelia, Cornelia, Por-
tuensis, Ostiensis, Ardeatina, Appia, Latina, Labinica, Prsestina, Tiburtina, Salaria, and Flaminia.
The etymology of the word Catacombs fully justifies the use to which it is applied. Before
proving that, we must at the outset admit that formerly, the word was not catacombs but cata-
tombes. In the acts of Saint Cornelius and in those of Saint Sebastian, the latter word alone is
employed, and in Saint Gregory (Book iii., ep. 30) we first find the use of the word catacombs.
Baronius justly thinks that this word is derived from the Greek.

SAINT LEO I. 103
He had no ambitious feeling when he was named pope, in spite of his ab
sence. He immediately applied himseK to condemn and put down the stiU
existing heresies of the Manicheans, the Priscillianists, the Pelagians, and
the Eutychians. Father Cacciari, in his edition of the works of Saint Leo,
has coUected aU the documents which tend to prove the great services which
this pope rendered to the Church during the dangers which continued to
threaten her both in the East and in the West. Among the letters then
published, must be mentioned the celebrated Letter 24 to Flavian, Bishop
of Constantinople. Of that letter we shaU have more to say, when we reach
the pontificate of Saint HUary, who strongly confirms that decision in
praising the wisdom' of his iUustrious predecessor.
Saint Leo soon had occasion to show the activity of his courage. Saint
Hilary, Bishop of Aries,* had deposed from the See of Besancon the Bishop
Celidonius, accused of having married a widow, and having as a secular
judge pronounced sentences of death. For those two causes he could not be
bishop, as it was strictly forbidden to raise to the episcopate a bigamist or
a criminal judge. From the bishop's sentence Celidonius appealed to Saint
Leo, who, finding him falsely accused and completely innocent, re-estabhshed
him in his See. SangaUo, in his Gest de Pont, vol. iv., treats of that matter,
and condemns Febronius and other enemies of the Holy See of our own
time in applying the doctrine of Saint Leo.
In 451, Saint Leo had the fourth general councU celebrated at Chalcedon.
There were present six hundred and thirty-six fathers, exclusive of four
legates of the pope ; the Emperor Marcian, the Empress Pulcheria and
many senators were present. This council condemned Dioscorus, Bishop
of Alexandria, and Eutyches, archimandrite, or abbot-general of a celebrated
monastery of Constantinople, who recognized but one nature in Jesus
Christ. In this council also was treated the case of Bassian and Stephen, the
former of whom had been deposed from the See of Ephesus, and the latter
put in his place. It was decided that a third bishop should be ordained,
and that the two contestants should be supported at the expense of the
Church treasury, receiving two hundred gold crowns per annum " for sup
port and consolation," as the councU expressed it.f That was the origin of
ecclesiastical pensions, until then unknown. Among the innumerable de
cisions of Saint Leo must be distinguished that by which he ordered the
removal from ecclesiastical office and sacerdotal title those who should marry
widows. He strictly forbade usury, whether among clergy or laity. In 459 he
forbade public confession, as never having been commanded by the Church.
* Novaes, i., 167.. t Labbe, Cone., vol. iv., col. 705.

104 LIVES OF THE POPES.-
He caUed that confession a "presumption against the apostohcal rule,''
secret confession being sufficient.
In the Canon of the Mass he added the words, Sanctum Sacrificium, im-
maculatam hostiam ; but it is not certain that it was he who also ordered the
saying of the words, Ite missa est, and Benedicamus Bomino.
It is inferred from Letter 84* that Saint Leo was the first to accredit
apostohc nuncios to princes. In fact, in a letter addressed to the Emperor
Marcian, the pontiff begins by begging the emperor to treat the Bishop
Juhan kindly ; and he adds, " I beg your affection for your venerator, my
brother, the Bishop Julian, his deferences wiU represent to you my presence.
I trust entirely to the sincerity of his faith ; I have delegated to him my
powers against the heretics of our time, and I have required that, on account
of the care he is to have for the churches and for the peace, he should re
main near your person. Deign to hsten, as though my own voice spoke,
to his observations for the unity of Catholic concord." Many simUar
recommendations stiU in our own day are in the letters of credit of an
apostolic nuncio.
One' of the finest incidents in the hfe of Saint Leo was the determined
courage with which, near Mantua, he prevailed on Attila, king of the Huns,
a Tartar people, who caUed himseK the scourge of God, to withdraw his
army from Italy, t It was to escape from that scourge that the populations
of Padua, of Vicenza, and of Verona founded the city of Venice. God
had reserved yet another triumph to Saint Leo. Genseric, king of the Van
dals, advanced with his army towards Rome. Leo met the conqueror six
mUes from the city. He could not obtain from him that the city should be
spared, but the king promised that no depredation or hostility should be
committed against those who should seek shelter in the Basilicas of Saint
John, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul. The remainder of the city was sacked
for fourteen days. Among other rich spoUs, the plunderers found there the
vessels of gold and sUver which Titus had brought from Jerusalem. UntU
then those vessels had been most carefuUy preserved, but it was forgotten
to conceal them in one of the Basilicas spared by Genseric. Trithemus, in
his Ecclesiastical Writers, caUs Leo the TuUy of ecclesiastical faculties, the
Homer of sacred theology, the Aristotle of arguments for the faith, the
Peter of apostolical authority, and the Paul of Christian charity. Quesnel,
on his part, in a kind of dedication at the head of his edition of the whole
works of this pope, caUs Saint Leo an apostolic man, luminary of the Church,
pillar of the orthodox faith, interpreter of the voice of Peter, defender of the
apostolical dogmas, a man who has equaled the apostles, and who is equal to the
angels. In truth, this great pontiff was not only an author profoundly versed
* Edition of 1675, p. '608. + See note at end of this article.

SAINT LEO I. 105
in sacred knowledge, but also very skUful in the profane sciences, as his
letters and sermons attest. They display a just and exact doctrine, a more
than ordinary' gravity and eloquence, accompanied by a style which some
times perhaps is incorrect, but which nevertheless pleases and charms by
the imagery which adorns it.
M. Receveur gives the foUowing judgment : — " Although the writings of
Saint Leo are not free from some faults partaking of the bad taste of his
age, they are remarkable for elegance and nobleness of style, precision, and
neatness of ideas, strength of reasoning, and the pathetic movements of a
brilliant eloquence which seizes the mind and penetrates the heart."*
In four ordinations, in December, this pope created a hundred and eighty
or a hundred and eighty-six bishops, eighty-one priests, twelve, or as some
say, thirty-one, deacons. He governed the Church twenty-one years, one
month, and four days, and died on the 11th of April, 461. He was the first
pontiff buried in Saint Peter's.f His predecessors had been interred in the
subterraneans, beside the holy apostle," or in the portico. His remains
have four times been removed into four different parts of that Basihca. The
first translation took place in the reign of Sergius I., in the year 688. That
'pontiff had been removed from the atrium of the old Basilica into the
interior. Gregory XIII., about the year 1580 had them removed to the
chapel which he raised in honor of this saint in the present Basihca. The
third removal was ordered by Paul V. in 1607. On the 26th of March the
body was found almost perfect, with the pontifical ensigns and the pallium.
Paul ordered that the precious relic should be placed on the foUowing day
under the altar of the blessed Mary DeUa Colonna, where were already
deposited the bodies of Saints Leo II., Leo III., and Leo IV. FinaUy,
Clement XL, in 1715, leaving the three bodies just named under the altar,
ordered the body of Saint Leo I. to be removed, on the eleventh of AprU,
the feast day of the saint, and with solemn pomp conveyed to the altar
named after the saint previously erected by Innocent II. There is placed
the celebrated bas-relief by Alexander Algardi, which represents the
saint meeting AttUa. The sculptor has not forgotten the apparition of
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which produces an admirable effect in that
dramatic composition. Saint Leo shows to the Scythian king the two
apostles, and threatens him with then anger. That bas-relief, placed between
two pUlars of oriental granite, shows with an imposing majesty. It is one
of the finest works of modern sculpture. Benedict XIV., while only pro
moter of the faith, and canon of Saint Peter, took part in this last transla
tion, and he describes it in his work, on the canonisation of the Saints ; part
ii., cap. 23, No. 7, et seq. So many authors speak of Saint Leo, that it is
* HI., 171. t Lasrzio Cherubini, Bull Bom vol. i., p. 1.

106

LIVES OF THE POPES.

almost impossible to cite them. But we must mention that the edition of
Saint Leo's works given by Quesnel is accused of falsifications, and that fuU
confidence may be given to the editions by Cacciari, of the order of Carmel
ites, (Rome, 1751 ; folio), and by the brothers Peter and Jerome BaUerini,
learned priests of Verona, (Venice, 1755). The Jesuit Hbrary at Rome con
tains a manuscript entitled S. Leonis I. vital compendium.
Note. — Nicholas Olaiis, archbishop of Strigonia, and Callimachus Philip Esperiente wrote
Lives of Attila, which Sambucco inserted in his history of Hungary. Another Life of Attila
by Juvencus Celius Calanus of Dalmatia, under the title of Attila, king of the Huns, was
printed in 1502, at the end of Plutarch's Lives. Baronius relates, on the authority of a writer
of the eighth century, that Attila saw beside Pope Leo while he was speaking, two real persons,
whom he believed to be Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It is very clear that the sudden retirement
of that barbarian, at the bidding of a priest, is a greater marvel than any apparition.

47. ST. HILARY— a. d. 461

|ILARY of Caghari, in Sardinia, son of Crispin, a
cardinal-deacon, created by Saint Zozimus, and
Leo's legate to the councU of Chalcedon, was
elected pontiff on the 12th, and consecrated on the
17th of November, a. d. 461.
In the year 463, he ordered Victor of Aquitaine,
a celebrated mathematician of that time, to com
pose a paschal canon, so as, K possible, posi
tively to settle the difference of opinion between the East and the West
as to the celebration of Easter.
In the Roman council, holden on the anniversary of his consecration,-
the 17th day of November, 465, among other decrees of ecclesiastical dis
cipline he gave one which specified that no cleric should be ordained who
had not cultivated rhetoric; that no bishop should be consecrated with
out the consent of his metropolitan ; and, finaUy, that no bishop elect
should thereupon choose his successor, as had been the practice of some
bishops. The first Council of Nice had already decreed this last prohibition.
This pope confirmed the general councils of Nice, of Ephesus, and of Chalce
don,* and the celebrated letter of Saint Leo to Saint Flavian, caUed by
Saint Gregory a volume and a definition ; that letter, in which the whole
* Novaes i., p. 174.

ST. HILARY. 107
controversy on the mystery of the Incarnation is examined and defined.
The errors of Nestorius and Eutychius are condemned, and the Cathohc
doctrine lucidly displayed.
He ordered that the bishops should hold councils yearly ; the Council of
Nice had proposed that it should be so every other year. He excommuni
cated anew Nestorius, Eutychius, and their abettors. He also ordered the
establishment of libraries in the BasUica of the Lateran.
Saint Hilary so courageously resisted the Emperor Athemius, who had
brought Macedonian heretics to Rome, that the emperor, overcome by the
Holy Father, promised that he would no longer protect them.
Bury, in his Notitia, p. 70, says of Pope Saint HUary : " Hilarius, opum
negledu et consiliorum magnitudine, inter sublimes pontifices effulsit ; Hilary,
by his contempt of riches and the greatness of his enterprises, shines among
the most sublime pontiffs.
La one December ordination, he created twenty-two bishops, twenty-
five priests, and six deacons ; or, as others say, eighty-six bishops, fifty-eight
priests, and eleven deacons, in three ordinations. He governed the Church
nearly six years, and died on the 10th of September, A. d. 467.
Saint Hilary displayed great magnificence in the churches. He was
interred near Sixtus III., in the Catacombs of Saint Laurence, beyond the
walls. The Holy See remained vacant nine days.
Under the reign of HUary, died Saint Simon Stylites. Fleury says :
" Simon felt annoyed by the innumerable crowds that pressed around him
to touch the skins in which he was clad, and thus obtain a benediction from
them. He disliked both the excessive honors themselves and the continual
pressure of the crowds ; and it was thence that he was induced to isolate
himseK permanently upon a piUar, which he caused to be erected, first six
feet in height, then twelve, and finaUy thirty-six. Many censured so extra
ordinary a way of living, and some have ridiculed it ; but Theodoret be
lieved that it was the effect of a special providence of God, that such a
spectacle might strike mankind ; and the miracles worked by Simon, both
before and after, furnish great reason for this behef."

108

LIVES OF THE POPES.

48. ST. SIMPLICIUS— a. d. 467,

, F Tivoh, a town in the Papal States, near Rome, was
son of Castinus. He was created pontiff on the
20th of September, 467. With the same hereditary
constancy which had been displayed by his prede
cessors Leo and Hilary, he resisted aU the impor
tunities of the Emperor Leo. That prince, urged
by Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, sohcited the
Holy Father to approve the twenty-eighth canon of
the CouncU of Chalcedon, in which it was attempted to grant the first See
to Constantinople, after that of Rome ; which canon had been annuUed by
Leo. He also refused to restore Peter Mongus to the See- of Alexan
dria, and that of Peter the Tanner to the See of Antioch. He ordered
that the alms of the faithful should be divided into four parts : the first for
the bishops, the second for the clergy, and the two other parts for the
maintenance of the Church, for pUgrims, and for the resident poor ; which
subsequently was in more positive manner confirmed by Saint Gelasius I.,
Saint Gregory the Great, other pontiffs, and various councils.
It was an established rule, from the time of Saint Peter, that the pontiffs
should always confer orders in the month of December ; Simphcius was the
first to confer them in the month of February ; and so, after him, until the
ninth century, aU the popes conferred orders either in the month of Decem
ber, or in the first week of Lent, or after the fourth Sunday in Lent, with
the exception of Leo II., who administered that sacrament in the months of
May and June, and Saint Gregory the Great once in September. No pope,
however, conferred orders on the Saturday before Easter.*
In 482, the Holy Father named the Bishop of SeviUe as first bishop in
Spain. It was a prerogative purely personal, which consisted in a power
granted by the pope confiding to that bishop the care of seeing to the ob
servance of the canons. That primacy of the Church of SeviUe continued
tiU the celebration of the Council of Toledo, which took place in 681. In
that space of time, from 482 to 681, the bishop of SeviUe was not alone in
the enjoyment of that pre-eminence of vicar or legate of the pope ; for Pope
Hormisdas, in 517, gave nearly like power to John, bishop of Tarragona.
In three ordinations, in the month of December, and in the month of

* See Mabillon, In ord. Bom.; cap. xvi., p. 103 ; cap. xix., p. 126 ; and Novaes, i., p. 78.

SAINT FELIX III. 109
February, SimpUcius created thirty-six bishops, fifty-eight priests, and
eleven deacons. He governed the Church more than fifteen years, and
died on the 1st of March, 483, after having seen the extinction, in 476, df
the Roman empire of the West, in the person of Augustulus, subjected by
Odoacer, king of the Heruh. About that time, Zeno reigned in the East,
and foUowed the errors of Eutychius. In the West, in Italy, reigned Odo
acer, an Arian ; in Gaul, the Burgundians, also Arians ; further, the Goths
were Arians ; the Franks pagans. In Spain, the Goths and the Suevi
favored the doctrine of Arius ; in Great Britain, the Saxons remained pagan,
and in Africa the Vandals showed themselves obstinate Arians. What was
the situation of the Christian republic at that time wUl readily be imagined,
and also what courage and what talents were required in its chief to enable
him to defend and propagate the dogmas and his authority.
Saint Simphcius was interred in the Vatican Basihca. The Holy See
remained vacant seven days.

49. ST. FELIX III.— a. d. 483.
ALNT Fehx HI., Roman, son of Fehx, cardinal-priest
of the church of Saints Nereus and Achilles, be
longed to the Anicia famUy, the wealthiest, noblest,
and most powerful in Rome. Fehx was created
pope on the 8th March, 483. It was evident in the
very beginning of his reign that he would not de-
WM\ generate from his predecessors, and would neither
%?£$&¦' admit nor tolerate, in matters of faith, any equivo
cation or ambiguity of phrase. He declared that he would prefer the safe
ty of dogma to aU human respect, to aU earthly prudence, and that he
would always maintain open war with the contumacious, rather than an
insidious and suspicious peace. He condemned, the foUowing year, and
repulsed from the episcopate and the Cathohc communion, Acacius, patriarch
of Constantinople, author of the first schism between the Greek and the
Latin Church, which lasted thirty-five years, down to Pope Hormisdas, who
was created in 514. Acacius was also an indefatigable abettor of Peter
Mongus, bishop of Alexandria, and of Peter the Tanner, or Gnaffeo, pseudo
bishop of Antioch, both condemned as Eutychian heretics. The same
penalty was fulminated by the pope against Vital, bishop of Yrento* a city
* Novaes, i., p. 182.

110 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of Picenum, now reduced to a smaU number of houses ; and against Mis-
senus, bishop of Cumea, because, having been sent as legates to Constanti
nople about the affairs of the East, they had aUowed themselves to be
intimidated by the threats of Zeno and Acacius, • and had betrayed the
divine ministry with which they were intrusted.
Fehx improved the Henotic, that is to say, the Edict of Pacification, the
apparent object of which was to estabhsh unity, but which really concealed
a snare set by the ministers of the Emperor Zeno. The Cathohcs and the
Eutychians were to be reconciled. Acacius, by the vilest flatteries, endeav
ored to persuade the emperor that he could decide questions of the faith.
To that end the prince issued this edict, caUed Unitive, or Uniting. The
intention seemed upright, and the decree seemed to contain nothing but
what was openly Cathohc. But Fehx was endowed with a rare perception ;
he noticed that in the Henotic there, were omissions which might, to less
attentive minds, appear to be innocent. But the sagacity of the pontiff at
once perceived that they were suspicious, K not actually mahcious, tending
only to bring about an apparent political accommodation, whUe reaUy con
founding together the faithful with the false believers.
It must not be omitted to state how Acacius learned that he was excom
municated by Fehx. It was necessary that the anathema should be pub
lished in Constantinople itself, amidst the glory and power of Acacius.
One Sunday, as he was solemnly proceeding to church, some monks from
Rome fastened to his robe the excommunication sent by Felix. The
courageous monks paid for their boldness with their hves ; they were put to
death on the spot.
Fehx did not confine himseK to bestowing tender and benevolent care
upon the interests of the Church of Constantinople ; he did not lose sight of
the African Church. He wrote to the emperor to interpose with Hunneric,
king of the Vandals, to engage him to exercise no cruelties on the Afri
can bishops. He was the first pontiff who gave the emperor the name
of Son. One of his letters to Zeno commences thus : Gloriosissimo et sere-
nissimo Filio Zenoni Augusto, Felix, Episcopius in Bomino, salutem* This
example was foUowed by Pope Anastatius II., when writing to the Emperor
Anastasius. In two ordinations the Holy Father created thirty-one bishops,
twenty-eight priests, and five deacons. He governed the Church eight
years, eleven months, and seventeen days. The Holy See was vacant four
days. * Novaes, i., p. 183. The words apostolicam benedictionem do not occur until the time of
JohnV.

SAINT GELASIUS I. m

50. ST. GELASIUS I. — a. d. 492.
ELASIUS, Roman, as he himseK affirmed, and not
African, was the son of Valerius, and was created
pope on the 2d of March, 492. According to some
writers he instituted the regular canons of Lateran.
Gelasius declared, in a council of sixty bishops
held at Rome in 494, what were the sacred books
in both the Old Testament and the New; what books
were received by the Church ; and, finaUy, what
were the apocryphal books.
He commanded, in the same council, that the four general councils, that
of Nice, that of Constantinople, that of Ephesus, and that of Chalcedon,
should be respected. /
He suppressed the Lupercal feasts, and caused them to disappear from
Rome ; those feasts in which naked men ran about the city, striking with
goat-skin scourges aU barren women. The Holy Father refuted, in a treatise,
the senator Andromachus, who complained of the abohtion of the Lupercaha.
Instead of the famous Lupercaha, Gelasius instituted the Feast of the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin. Martinus maintains that it was long
before celebrated in the East ; however, we know that the pontiff Sergius,
in the seventh century, added to it the procession with hghted tapers. Saint
Gelasius refused to grant the communion and the pacific letters to Euphemius,
bishop of Constantinople, untU he had erased the name of .Acacius from the
sacred dyptics. The same pope also combated the remains of the Pelagian
heresy which endeavored to steal into Dalmatia and Picenum, imitating
herein his predecessors, Saint Innocent I., Saint Zozimus, Saint Boniface I.,
Saint Celestine I., Saint Sixtus III., and Saint Leo the Great, who never
aUowed any advance to the foUowers of that heresy. The more certainly to
recognize Manichseans remaining in Rome, who abhorred wine, which they
caUed the gall of the prince of darkness and of the devil, Gelasius ordered
that the faithful should communicate in both lands ; and this continued up
to the tweKth century. It was entirely and formaUy abolished in 1416, by
the Council of Constance. However, according to the Council of Trent, this
prerogative was granted to the kings of France on the day of their corona
tion, to the deacons and subdeacons of Saint Denis, near Paris,* for Sun-
* Novaes, i., p. 188.

112

LIVES OF THE POPES.

days and solemn days, and, finaUy, to the ministers of the altars of the
monastery of Cluny in France, for feast-days.*
Saint Gelasius published a code or missal for the right ordering of the
Masses. Gelasius was the first to aUow < the conferring of orders in aU the ember
days of the year.
In two ordinations, he created seventy-seven bishops, thirty-two priests,
and twelve deacons ; he governed the Church four years, eight months, and
nineteen days. He died on the 21st of November, and was interred at the
Vatican, the same year in which Clovis in France embraced the Cathohc
rehgion. This pope took part in that immense success of Catholicity.
The Holy See was vacant six days. Gelasius was a model of purity, of
zeal, and of simplicity in his conduct. His morals corresponded with his
conduct. It wiU have been noticed in the Life of Saint HUary (see supra), that
Saint HUary confirmed the general councils of Nice, Ephesus, and Chalce
don, and that in that confirmation nothing is said about that of Constanti
nople. Plantius, Fleury, and Novaes state the fact, without commenting
on it. It is clear' that Gelasius was more exphcit. No doubt the three
writers just named have aU been imperfectly informed by the authorities on
which they have rehed.

51. ST. ANASTASIUS II.— a. d. 496.

NASTASIUS II. was a Roman, and born in the
Nicolo Capotoro, on the Esquiline. He was created
pontiff on the 28th November, 496. Being con
sulted as to the baptisms given during the hfe of
Acacius, the pope rephed that the baptism and
the orders conferred by an excommunicated and
suspended bishop were vahd nevertheless.
He congratulated Clovis, king of France, on
being baptized, and on having set that heroic
example in presence of a great number of Frank warriors, at the sohbitation
of his wife, Clotilda.

Mabillon, In Ord. Bom., cap. 9 and 19.

SAINT SYMMACHUS. H3
The author of the Liber Pontificahs relates that many priests and clerics
withdrew from the communion of Anastasius II., on account of his close
relations with Photinus, deacon of Thessalonica, who had adhered to the
party of Acacius, and because in this reign it had been thought proper to
recaU that same Acacius. Here, however, we must note an important truth
upon that subject. The Holy Father could scarcely have conceived the
idea of restoring the See of which that heretic had been deprived, inasmuch
as that heretic died in 488, and under the reign of the predecessor of Anas
tasius, Fehx HI. The falsehood of the report surely requires no further
comment. It has also been said that Acacius could not be reinstated by
Pope Anastasius, because, before that pontiff could succeed in his design,
he was killed by hghtning. This was a mere calumny circulated by the
partisans of the antipope Laurentius. The Anastasius who was struck
dead in a thunder-storm was the Emperor Anastasius, and not the pope of
the same name, as Baronius affirms in An. 497. In an ordination, in the
month of December, the Holy Father created sixteen bishops and twelve
priests. He governed the Church two years, aU but six days. He died on
the 16th November, 498, and was buried in the porch of Saint Peter's.
The Holy See remained vacant six days.

52. ST. SYMMACHUS.— ad. 498.
ALNT Symmachus, son of Fortunatus, was born in
the viUage of Simagia, in the diocese of Cristagno,
in Sardinia, and created cardinal-deacon by Saint
Felix III. He was elected pontiff on the 22d of No
vember, 498. On the same day, Festus, a Roman
senator, corrupted by money, caused the election
JJ\ of the antipope Laurentius, archdeacon of Saint
%?B^- Praxedes. The intruder promised Festus that he
would support the Henotic of the Emperor Zeno. This double election
gave rise to violent quarrels; assaults and murders were deplorably nu
merous ; blood flowed, the clergy and senate of Eome took part with one or
other of the rivals, and at length the question was referred to the arbitration
of Theodoric, king of Italy, who resided at Eavenna.' He, although an
Arian, decided in favor of Symmachus, on the double ground that he was
first elected, and chosen by the greatest number. Symmachus, having

114 LIVES OF THE POPES.
obtained quiet possession of his authority, endeavored to render his reign
illustrious by the holy laws which he promulgated in six councUs, aU assem
bled at Eome.
He ordered that on every Sunday and holy day the Gloria in Excelsis
should be said in the Mass, which Saint Telesphorus, the eighth pope, had
only ordered to be done on Christmas Day. Perhaps under the latter pope
only the angelic ivords were said ; and then Symmachus may have ordered
the rest of the hymn to be chanted. He was not the author of it, as
some writers have pretended, for, before him, Saint Athanasius had made
mention of it, in prescribing that prayer to a virgin. The decree of
Symmachus extended to aU priests; Saint Gregory the Great limited it
to the bishops alone, permitting the priests to say it only at Easter.
Symmachus forbade laymen, even kings, to take any part in the election of
pontiffs. The Emperor Anastasius continued to favor the Arians. Symmachus
debarred them from the Communion, and redoubled his efforts for the ex
pulsion of some Manichseans, who, in secret, stUl practised their false doc
trines. The alms of the Catholics being at this time very abundant,
Symmachus showed himseK a vigilant administrator, and distributed his
aid to the Basilicas and the Churches. It is known that he thus dispensed
fourteen hundred and sixty-nine pounds of silver, besides precious stones,
gold, and rare marbles.
• In the year 500 the schism of Laurentius acquired new strength. The
true pope assembled a councU to consult means for restoring peace to
the Church. In that assembly it was thought fitting, in order to satisfy the
antipope, to name him bishop of Nocera, on condition that he would submit
to his legitimate chief. After some hypocrisy, Laurentius again revolted,
and endeavored to usurp the pontifical authority, in spite of the decree
of the synod, and the repeated orders of Theodoric, who showed himseK
favorable to Symmachus. The schismatics ere long resorted to means un
worthy any virtuous man. They accused Symmachus of the gravest crimes.
They suborned false witnesses ; Festus and another evU man supported those
accusations. Theodoric, astonished at seeing so much perfidy employed
for the purpose of ruining a man of austere morality and eminent virtue,
sent to Rome Peter, bishop of Altino, in the Venetian state, to deal with
such great scandals. Peter joined with the schismatics, troubling more
than ever the affairs of the Church, and endeavoring to prejudice the king
against Symmachus. Then, with the consent of this pope, a councU was
convoked. It was attended by one hundred and twenty-five bishops. There
the innocence of the pontiff was loudly recognized. He had voluntarily
promised to submit to the judgment of that council, though the fathers had
declared that the bishop of the Holy See should not be subject to examina-

SAINT SYMMACHUS. 115
tion before inferior bishops.* Subsequently, the antipope Laurentius was
exUed as a calumniator and heretic.
The decree of the councU having become known in Gaul, the bishops of
France deputed Saint Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to write to Rome, in the
name of aU of them, to complain of the bishops having presumed to sit in
judgment on the pope. " It is hard to understand," wrote Avitus, " how a
superior, and, above aU, the head of the Church, can be judged by his in
feriors." Nevertheless, he praised the fathers for having borne testimony
to the innocence of the pope. Saint Avitus was right ; as the fathers had
pronounced judgment and declared him innocent, it might happen that they
should beheve themselves authorized to pronounce a condemnation.
Towards the end of the reign of Symmachus his authority ceased to be
attacked. Even in the East, the Emperor Anastasius, by the reception which
he gave to Saint Sebasius, exarch or superior-general of aU the monasteries
of anchorites near Jerusalem, showed a desire to protect the Catholics ; but
some courtiers endeavored to elude the benevolent orders of the emperor, and
Saint Sebasius, the hght of Palestine, was pursued and violently threatened.
Other griefs afflicted the Church of the East, and in a long letter she im
plored the aid of Pope Symmachus. Some bishops had been repulsed from
the Roman communion. Here Fleury gives us some important details :
" The Orientals asked to be re-estabhshed in communion with the pope,
without being punished for the fault of Acacius, because they had no part
in it, and had received the letter of Leo and the CouncU of Chalcedon.
' Do not reject us,' say they, ' on account of our communicating with your
adversaries ; for those of us who do so, do it not in mere attachment to their
IKe, but from fear of leaving their flocks a prey to the heretics ; and all, both
those who apparently communicate with them, and those who abstain from
. doing so, hope, under God, for your succor, and that you wiU restore to the
East that hght which you originally received from it. The evU is so great
that we cannot even go in search of the remedy ; it is necessary that you
come to us.'
" FinaUy, to show that they are Cathohcs, they end by giving an exposi
tion of their doctrine, in which they plainly condemn Nestorius and Euty
chius, and recognize in Jesus Christ two natures, the divine nature and the
human nature in one person."
We have a letter from Pope Symmachust to the Eastern Cathohcs, which
seems to be in reply to the above, although the latter is not actuaUy men
tioned. The pope consoles them, and exhorts them to remain firm in what
has once been decided against Eutychius, and to suffer, if need be, exile
and aU sorts of persecutions.
* Novaes, i., p. 196. t Fleury, vii., p. 159.

116

LIVES OF THE POPES.

In four ordinations, in the months of December and February, this pope
created one hundred and seventeen bishops, ninety-two priests, and sixteen
deacons. He governed the Church fifteen years and nearly eight months.
His charity was equal to the firmness of his soul. He one day redeemed
aU the slaves that were in Liguria, Milan, and in other provinces. He mag
nificently assisted the African bishops who were sent into Sardinia by Trasa-
mond, king of the Vandals, and who were in that island in great numbers.
By most touching letters, he consoled them in their affliction. We shaU
hereafter see this beautiful example foUowed by Pius VI., that noble and
charitable benefactor of the French clergy.
Symmachus died on the 19th July, 514, and was interred in the porch of
Saint Peter's.
The Holy See remained vacant six days.

53. ST. HORMISDAS.— a. d. 514.

HIS Saint, who is also named Celius, was born at
Frosinone, a town of Latium, and not at Capua, as
stated by Muratori. He was raised tp the pontifi
cate on the 26th of July, 514, as Saint Cesarius, of
Aries, had foretold to him that he would be.
This pope named as his primate or vicar, in
Spain, the bishop of Tarragona, and confirmed
the bishop of SeviUe, whom Pope Simphcius had
named primate in Andalusia and in Portugal, giv
ing to him the same solely personal prerogative, which consisted in the
faculty of exercising the functions of the pope, but without encroaching
upon the privileges of the metropohtans for the observance of the canons,
the preservation of the integrity of the Cathohc faith, the settlement of
causes and differences, and the preservation of harmony among priests.
As regarded most difficult and important affairs, they were to be referred
+o Eome.
By a Decretal letter, directed to aU the bishops of Spain, Hormisdas com
manded that priests should be ordained conformably to the canons, not per
salt-urn, but with the prescribed intervals. Public penitents could not be
ordained ; long and careful inquiry should be made as to the probity and
the knowledge of those seeking holy orders. A bishopric was not to be
obtained by gift or sought by flattery. FinaUy, the provincial synods were

SAINT HORMISDAS. 117
to be held twice in every year, or, at the least once, as being a very effica
cious means of preserving discipline.
Hormisdas desired to send his legates to the Emperor Justin, to demand
the union of the Greek and Latin churches, which had been divided for
thirty-five years by the schism of Acacius. The Holy Father was san
guine of effecting this union ; but as he joined to his many religious
virtues a rare and profound political foresight, he feared that the departure
of the legation might offend Theodoric, king of the Goths. The latter, after
having completed the conquest of almost aU Italy, had fixed his rOyal resi
dence at Eavenna. Hormisdas repaired thither in 518, and obtained the
consent of the king, who, although an Arian, showed himseK kind towards
the Cathohc faith.
It is known that this pope received ambassadors from Clovis, king of the
Franks, who recognized him as the true Vicar of Jesus Christ. The king
sent to the pope a crown of gold, and promised him that he, the king,
would preserve pure and unspotted the Cathohc faith, which he had re
ceived under the reign of Saint Anastasius n. Saint Hormisdas reprobated,
as being hable to erroneous and mischievous interpretation by heretics, the
proposition of some monks of European Scythia : Unus de Trinitate passus
est in came. That controversy lasted twenty-five years, and was carried on
with great vigor.
It was under this pontiff, about the year 520, that the order of Benedic
tines was instituted by Saint Benedict. A great number of monks joine 1
with him, and they estabhshed various monasteries. The holy patriarch
retired to Monte Cassino, where he formed his rule which served as the
model of the monastic orders of the West. France received the rule from
the hands of Saint Maur, a disciple of the founder. Pope John XXII.,
created in 1316, after having ordered exact researches in the pontifical
registers, containing the number of canonized saints, ascertained that
the Order of Benedictines had produced twenty-five holy pontiffs, nearly
forty thousand saints and beatified, five thousand five hundred of whom
were from Monte Cassino ; nearly two hundred cardinals, seven thousand
¦archbishops, five thousand bishops, fifteen thousand abbots, whose confir
mation depended on the Holy See ; and more than two hundred and twenty-
four sons of kings and emperors.
We wiU remark on this subject that opinions differ as to the number of
Benedictine pontiffs. Pope Gregory XV, in his Constitution vi., No. 1,
declares that, during a long succession of ages, the Church received her
pontiffs from the Benedictine famUy. MabUlon says that in the eleventh
century there were so many Benedictine popes that it seemed that the
pontifical authority had become hereditary in that order. Spondanus, in
the Annals of the Church, year 1334, gives different figures ; but not

118 LIVES OF THE POPES.
as relates to the twenty-five holy pontiffs, about whom there is no
dispute. Hormisdas was a model of modesty, of patience, and of charity ; he watched
over aU the churches with an unwearying attention ; he recommended to
the clergy the virtues befitting their state, and gave them instructions
in psalmody. The CoUection of the Councils contains eighty-one letters of
this pope. In one of those letters, written to SaUust of SeviUe, his vicar in
Spain, we perceive how potent was the authority which the popes exerted
over the* Church long prior to the pretended Isidore Mercator* In vari
ous ordinations, Hormisdas created fifty-five bishops, twenty-one priests, and
ten deacons. He governed the Church nine years and eleven days. He
died on the 6th of August, 533, four years after he had put an end to the
schisms between the Greek and Latin churches, which had been separated
during thirty-five years, on account of the former having kept on its books
the name of Acacius, condemned by Fehx HI. Hormisdas had the happi
ness to see the Burgundians renounce Arianism ; the Ethiopians paganism;
and the Omerites the Jewish superstition. Saint Hormisdas, in ornamenting
the churches of Eome, employed five hundred and seventy-one pounds of
silver, furnished by the charity of the faithful.
He was interred in the Basihca of Saint Peter. The Holy See remained
vacant six days.
Under this pope flourished Saint Fulgentius. He wrote courageously to.
Trasamond, king of the Vandals, who consulted him upon some points of
rehgion. "It is rare," wrote he, "to see a barbarian king, so constantly
occupied with the care of his kingdom, inspired with so ardent a desire to
obtain wisdom. In general, it is only men of leisure and Eomans who so
strongly apply themselves to wisdom." Neither the Vandals nor any of the
other conquerors, considered the name of barbarian an affront, but caUed
themselves barbarians in contradistinction from the Eomans.
It may be added that there were two kinds of Eomans,— the Eomans of
Eome, and the inhabitants of Constantinople, who also caUed themselves
Romans. * Feller iii., p. 631.

SAINT JOHN I. H9

54. ST. JOHN I. — a. d. 523.
OHN I., son of Constantius, of Sienna, in Tuscany,
was cardinal-priest of Saints John and Paul, in
Pammachio, and was created pontiff on the 13th
of August, 523. Some time after his election he
was caUed to Ravenna, by King Theodoric.
That Arian prince determined that John should go
to Constantinople to demand three things from the
Emperor Justin;
1. That the Arians, previously compeUed by Csesar to receive the Cathohc
rehgion, should be permitted to return to their sect ; 2. that the churches
taken from the Arians in the East should be restored to them ; and, 3, that
for the future no one should be ordered to abjure the sect of the Arians.
On the first demand, the pope was pretty fuUy resolved to say nothing to
the emperor ; it is said that as to the two others, he obtained some mitiga
tion. The pope knew, moreover, that, in a spirit of vengeance, the king
would inflict torments upon the Cathohcs, whom he had it in his power to
-persecute in Rome and Italy.
On reaching Corinth, Pope John was received as in triumph. At Con
stantinople he was received with stiU more magnificence. The whole
population met him, carrying lighted tapers in their hands. The emperor
promptly appeared and knelt, thus rendering to him the homage which he
would have rendered to Saint Peter. On the 30th of March, 535, the Mass
was celebrated in the cathedral, in the Latin language, and with the Roman
ritual. John crowned Justin, and was the first pontiff who had decorated
an emperor with the imperial insignia ; for the other emperors had only
been crowned by the bishops after verbaUy and in writing professing the
Cathohc faith. Justin, in his turn, clothed the pope in the Augustal vest
ments (vesti AugustaliJ, at the same time granting the use of them to him
and his successors.
Justin gave the pope a paten of gold, weighing twenty pounds, and en
riched with jewels, five vessels of sUver, and fifteen paUs of gold tissue.
John immediately sent those presents to the churches of Saint Peter,
Saint Paul, Saint Mary, and Saint Laurence. That noble example has in
variably been foUowed by the popes who have succeeded John. They have
always tranferred to the churches or the pubhc estabUshments the gKts sent
to them by princes. " But," says Csesarotti, " John, who found homage in
the East, was to find a prison in the West." Scarcely had he returned to

120

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Ravenna, where it was soon known that he had not wished for the entire
success of his difficult mission, than he was thrown into prison, and Theo
doric gave orders that he should be rigorously treated. This conduct has
drawn down warm censure on the prince who tiU then had shown himseK
great, generous, and clement.
John was weakened by his long journey, and he sank beneath his fatigues
on the 27th of May, A. D. 526. Four years afterwards his body was trans
ferred to Rome, and interred in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
The Holy See remained vacant one month and twenty-seven days.

55. FELIX IV.— a. d. 526.

r ELIX IV. belonged to the Fimbri famUy, of
Benevento, and was cardinal-priest of Saints
Sylvester and Martin ai Monti. He was elected
pope on the 24th of July, 526. The secret reasons
which had led Theodoric to imprison Saint John
I. began to be known. That prince was bent upon
exercising great power over the election of the
popes. It was Theodoric who indicated the choice
that ought to be made on this occasion. The Roman clergy wisely respected
the wiU of the Gothic king, whose wUl in truth they had no power to resist
with success. In this wiU the clergy avoided a schism which might have
led to fatal consequences. It was not, however, entirely without opposition
that the clergy submitted to the wiU of the king. Calm spirits represented
that Fehx was distinguished ahke for science and for piety. The Roman
senate had also shown some resistance, not to the elected, but to the man
ner of the election, which had been conducted contrary to ecclesiastical law.
That question was not weU settled, tiU it was agreed that the clergy by their
vote, and the Roman people by its consent, should, according to ancient
custom, elect the Roman pontiff. That mode of election necessarUy con
tinued in force as long as Gothic kings remained in Italy. In default of
those kings, the emperors of the East usurped that privUege.* "From that
Imperial usurpation," says Baronius,t " it foUowed that the clergy studied
to choose pontiffs who would be agreeable to the emperors ; as were Vi-
gilius, in 538 ; Gregory the Great, in 590 ; Sabinian, in 604 ; Boniface TIT.,
in 607; and Pascal I.; in 817." Previous to becoming pontiffs they had

* Novaes Bissertazioni, i., p. 12.

t Ann. Eccles., an., 607, No. 1.

BONIFACE II.

121

resided at the imperial court as pohtical agents. Muratori adds, that from
that circumstance the electing clergy could not doubt that residence at
Constantinople necessarily gave the apocrisiarii, or political agents, a pro
found knowledge of public business.
Saint Felix IV. dedicated to Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian the temple
which had been buUt in honor of Remus and Romulus in the Roman forum.
He decreed that laymen should not be ordained priests excepting upon
authentic certificates of good IKe and irreproachable morals. In two ordi
nations, in February and March, the Holy Father created twenty-nine
bishops, fifty-five priests, and four deacons.
He governed the Church four years, two months, and eighteen days.
Fehx was beloved for his simplicity, his spirit of benevolence, and his un
alterable charity to the poor. He died on the 12th of October, 530, and
was interred in the Basihca of Saint Peter. The Holy See remained vacant
three days. We may mention, in proof of this pontiff's humility, that the
error of the semi-Pelagians having taken root in Gaul, Saint Cesarius, bishop
of Aries, applied to Fehx for advice and directions. Fehx could think
of nothing more appropriate to the occasion, or better calculated to pre
serve the faithful from seduction, than the extracts from the works of Saint
Augustine, of the most luminous passages on Grace and Free WiU, which
he transmitted to Cesairius, as containing precise and unequivocal the tra
ditional doctrine of the Church.

56. BONIFACE II. — a. d. 530.

ONLFACE II., Roman born, but son of Sigibald, a
Goth, was cardinal-priest of Saint Cecilia, and was
created pontiff on the 16th of October, 530.
On the day of his election, a fraction of malcon
tents named, as pope, Dioscorus, a former legate
from Hormisdas to the Orientals ; but that false pope
died seventeen days after that intrusion, and even
after his death he was excommunicated, because
he had been guilty of the crime of simony.*
BonKace, being thus left in peaceable possession of the Holy See, in order
to provide a remedy against the intrigues and especiaUy against the preten-

* Novaes i., p. 211.

122 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tions of the Gothic kings, assembled a councU in 531, and named Vigihus
as his successor. BonKace, repenting of having violated the holy laws* and
the canons, principaUy those of Nice, and of having offended the liberty of
the holy comitia, caUed the councU together again, and annuUed the decree
that he had issued as to the election of his successor. By the approbation
which he bestowed upon the acts of the second Council of Orange, celebrated
by Saint Cesarius, the Ulustrious bishop of Aries, the pope might fairly
claim that he helped to extinguish that heresy of the semi-Pelagians, which
during so many years had afflicted France. On that occasion, he gave to
Saint Augustine the same praises which had already been given to him by
Saint Felix IV
BonKace II. governed the Church a httle more than two years. He died
on the 16th of October, 532, and was interred in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
The Holy See remained vacant two months and fifteen days.

57. ST. JOHN II.— a. d. 532.
OHN II., surnamed Mercury, on account of his elo
quence, was a Roman, the son of Projectus, and is
reckoned among the pontiffs of the Conti family.
Made cardinal-priest by Saint Clement, he was
created pontiff in the church of Saint Peter in vin
culo, on the 31st of December, 532. Simony ravaged
nearly aU the diaconates ; unfaithful agents pledged
even the sacred vessels in support of their candi
dates for the benefices. Simony did not respect even the election of the
bishops and that of the pontiffs. John II. obtained from Athalaric that
simonists should be severely punished by the civil law, as the ecclesiastical
law could not sufficiently reach that fatal crime.
An edict of the king interposed in this important matter, and the prince
even had that law, graven, in marble, placed in the porch of Saint Peter's.f
By the same constitution, Athalaric estabhshed the amount of the sum
which the pope and the bishops were to pay for confirmation in their
benefices. The product of that tax was devoted to the relief of the poor.
Thus, a sovereign pontiff was to pay three thousand pieces of gold ; the
metropohtans two thousand, and the bishops five hundred, for their conse
cration. It was a tyrannical edict.
* Novaes. i., p. 211. f Baronius, an. 533, No. 39.

SAINT AGAPETUS I. 123
The Holy Father approved, as Cathohc, the proposition of the Scythian
monks, when thus amended — Unus de Trinitate passus est, in caene — One per
son of the Trinity suffered in the elesh. The monks had ardently defended
that proposition, which Pope Hormisdas had treated as a novelty, and had
suspected of being intended to lend aid to some faUacious pretension of the
Eutychians. Hormisdas had not pronounced that proposition positively
heretical in itseK. John signified to the monks that K they did not cease to
condemn that proposition as heretical, the authority of the Holy See would
separate them from the Church.
The apparent opposition of views between Hormisdas and John wUl, per
haps, surprise some readers; but the following statement wUl speedily
satisfy them. The contradiction is only apparent : Hormisdas questioned ;
John decided. The first considered the proposition with relation to pru
dence ; the second analyzed it with reference to the dogma. It displeased
the first, because he suspected it to be a device of the Eutychians ; but he
did not condemn it as absolutely heretical in itseK.
In an ordination, in December, the Holy Father created twenty-one
bishops and fifteen priests. He governed the Church two years, four
months and twenty-six days. He died the 27th of May, 535, and was in
terred in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
The Holy See remained vacant six days.

58. ST. AGAPETUS I.— a. d. 535.
AINT Agapetus I., Roman, archdeacon of the Holy
Roman Church, the son of Gerdian, was created
pontiff on the 3d of June, 535. The Emperor Jus
tinian immediately sent his profession of faith to the
y pontiff. It was all that could be desired ; and Aga
petus, in his reply, congratulated the emperor upon
the victories of Belisarius. He censured the acts,
already revoked by the councU, by which Boniface
had chosen his successor. He also revoked, for reason unknown, the ex
communication which the same Boniface had launched against the antipope
Dioscorus: In the foUowing year the Holy Father was obliged, by Theo-
datus, king of the Goths, to set out for Constantinople, to demand that the
army sent to SicUy with orders to pass into Italy, under the command of
Belisarius, should be recaUed to Byzantium. But, on account of the great
expense attendant upon raising so many soldiers, the emperor could not

\ij.

124 LIVES OF THE POPES.
comply with the entreaties of the Holy Father. Agapetus, giving his atten
tion to other matters, sought for the means of re-establishing peaceful rela
tions among the Eastern priests. He deposed Anthymus, bishop of Trebi-
sond, whom he perceived to be a concealed Eutychian heretic, who, under
the patronage of Theodora, wife of Justinian, had usurped the See of Con
stantinople. Agapetus appointed Mevas to that See, and consecrated him
with great pomp. He was a man Ulustrious alike for virtue and for doc
trine, and was the first Eastern bishop who was consecrated by a pope.
Justinian, hstening to bad advice, resolved to reinstate Anthymus, and
threatened the pope with exile. The pope, full of courage and constancy,
replied to that threat : " We believed that we had a Cathohc emperor, but
it appears that we have to do with a Diocletian ; but Diocletian must learn
that his threats do not alarm us."
Subsequently, the pope proposed to the emperor that Anthymus should
be subjected to an examination as to his sentiments. Anthymus, when
questioned as to the two natures of Jesus Christ, refused to confess them.
Then Justinian perceived the fraud of the heretical bishop; and the
emperor threw himseK on his knees before the pope, who so firmly upheld
the Cathohc Church and faith, approved the deposition of Anthymus, and,
on the 16th of March, transmitted to Agapetus his own imperial confession
of faith, signed with his own hand.
The Holy Father accredited, as his nuncio to the emperor, Pelagius, the
pope's archdeacon, who afterwards was himseK pope, and the Holy Father
then prepared to return to Italy. Previous to setting out, he held an ordi
nation, at which he created eleven bishops and four deacons. But soon
after he feU dangerously iU, and died before he could leave Constantinople.
His death occurred on the 22d of AprU, 536. He was very learned in
ecclesiastic laws and regulations. Gregory the Great caUed him, Apostolic
Vessel, Trumpet of the Gospel, and Herald of Justice. There 'has been no
pope who in so short a time (ten months and nineteen days) has done
such great things, and borne so much fatigue. His labors procured him
the admiration of both East and West. His body was translated to Rome,
and interred with great solemnity in the church of Saint Peter, in the
month of September.
According to Novaes, the Holy See, at the death of this pontiff, remained
vacant fifteen days. But there must be some error, for, in those days it
took a courier more than fifteen days to go from Constantinople to Rome,
by land, and a stiU longer time by sea. Before he went to the East, that
indefatigable pontiff formed a design of establishing pubhc schools for the
instruction of persons intended for the sacred ministry. Cassiodorus agreed
with the pope, but his death prevented, for the time, the founding of estab
lishments so useful.

SAINT SYLVERIUS.

125

During the pontificate of Agapetus, an event occurred, strikingly illustra
tive of the Vanity of conquests. It relates to the sacred vessels of Jerusalem,
taken from the Jews by Titus, at the time of the taking of the holy city, and
taken from Rome by Genseric, king of the Vandals. Fleury* speaks of this
matter as foUows :
" Behsarius triumphed at Constantinople, and among the wealth that was
displayed to the populace during the procession of the triumph, the most
remarkable objects were the sacred vessels of Jerusalem, which the Emperor
Titus (or rather Titus, before he was emperor, for at the taking of Jerusa
lem he commanded under his father, Vespasian, who was then emperor)
had brought to Rome, and which Genseric, on pillaging Rome, carried to
Carthage. A Jew having seen them, said to a man known to the emperor,
" It is not right to put those vessels in the treasury of Constantinople ; their
only proper place is where Solomon put them. It is in punishment of that
offence that Genseric took the Roman capital, and that the Romans have
taken that of the Vandals."
This caUs to mind the celebrated Greek horses, the fate of which seems
to be connected with that of empires. They adorned, in succession, Con
stantinople,? Venice, and Paris ; thence they returned to Venice, whence
some revolution may compel them to migrate once more.

59. ST. SYLVERIUS.— a. d. 536.
HE martyr, Saint Sylverius, of Frosinone, was the
son of Pope Hormisdas, who had contracted a le
gitimate marriage before he received holy orders.
According to some, this pope was cardinal-priest ;
according to others, a regionary deacon at Rome.
He was created pope the 22d of June, 536 ; so that
the vacancy lasted one month and seventeen days.
Anastasius, the librarian, writes that Sylverius was
* named in obedience to the expressed desire of
Theodatus, king of the Goths ; but authors of that time make mention of
no violence against the Roman clergy.
* Fleury, vol. vii., p. 334.
f It has been asserted that these horses, taken by the Venetians from the Hippodrome of Con
stantinople, belonged to Corinth, and had first been taken to Rome. All this is imaginary ; their
style especially proves that they are of the time of the decline of art

126 LIVES OF THE POPES.
It is known that Vigihus had been accredited to Constantinople as apo-
crisiarius, or pohtical agent. He is the same Vigihus whom BonKace H.
named as his successor. The Empress Theodora endeavored by her prom
ises to induce Vigihus to aUow himseK to be placed- in the Holy See.
The testimony of Novaes seems to be less rehable than that of FeUer,* who
says : " Belisarius had taken Rome. Theodora determined to avaU herseK
of that opportunity to extend the sect of the Acephali, a branch of Euty-
chianism ;t she endeavored to attach Saint Sylverius to her views, but,
failing to do so, she resolved to have him deposed. He was unjustly accused
of having improper understanding with the Goths. A letter was produced
which he was said to have addressed to the hostUe kings ; but it was proved
to have been forged by an advocate named Marcus; yet this did not prevent
Sylverius from being sent into exile to Patara in Syria, and Vigihus was
ordained in his place on the 22d of November, 537. The bishop of Patara,
whose name, unfortunately, has not come down to us, boldly defended Sylve
rius, went to the Emperor Justinian at Constantinople, and said to him :
" There are many kings in the world, but there is only one pope in the universe."
Justinian, learning the real state of affairs, ordered that Sylverius should be
reinstated hi his See. As he returned to Italy he was again arrested by
Behsarius, at the solicitation of that general's wife, Antonina, who wished
to propitiate the Empress Theodora. The pope, deserted by aU, was sent
back to the isle of Palmeria, opposite to Terracina, where, according to
Liberatus, he died of hunger, in the month of June, 538. FeUer beheves that
Vigihus committed no offence either before or after that event. Novaes
has indulged in some severity towards that pope, and believes culpable
promises to have seduced him. Novaes founds that behef on the former
circumstance of Vigihus consenting to receive from BonKace II. the succes
sion to the- tiara.
Previous to his exile, Saint Sylverius had created, in one ordination in
December, nineteen bishops, thirteen priests, and five deacons. He
governed the Church two years and a few days, and was interred on the
isle on which he died.
The Holy See remained vacant six days.
Justinian, under the reign of Saint Agapetus I., published a second and
more regular edition of his code. He had already endeavored to reduce
into one body all the most useful works of the ancient jurisconsults. The
extracts were arranged under certain titles, and bore the name of Bigests,
or Pandects ; subsequently he composed his Institutes, to serve as an intro-
* Feller, v., p. 502.
f The Acephali, says Fleury, vii., p. 346, set up altaors and baptisteries in the private houses of
towns and suburbs, and despised everybody, on account of the protection they had from the
palace. The word Acephali signifies the headless.

VIGILIUS. 127
duction to those books. Trebonian had a large share in those important
works. Justinian also promulgated laws, enforcing' respect to Catholicity.
They are aU comprised in his Novella, as being newer than the pubhcation
of his code. He recommends the observance of the canons, and forbids the
alienation of the property of any of the churches.

60. VIGILIUS.— a. d. 538.
*E have no doubt that Vigilius ardently desired the
tiara, for, after being named, probably with his own
consent, as successor to the papacy without any
election, he afterwards figured as antipope, under
Sylverius. But those facts do not justify preju
dices, stiU less do they justify false accusations
against him. Let us examine the actual pontifical
career of this pope, who on more than one occasion
wiU show himseK a courageous soldier of Christ.
He was Roman, the son of John, of a consular family. Boniface II.
named him apocrisiarius, or pohtical agent at Constantinople. On the death
of Sylverius, Vigihus was legitimately elected. Belisarius, his patron, com
manded at Rome, and the clergy desired peace in the Church. Moreover, the
Holy See was occupied by a man distinguished for his talents, and for a
profound knowledge of pubhc affairs. Suddenly an unhoped for change
appeared in the inclinations of Vigihus. Had he promised Theodore to
admit the communion of the heretics? We shaU learn that. It is of 'the
hfe, the actions, and the writings of Vigihus that we have now to speak.
He wiU make Theodora aware that he has no intention of acceding to the
wishes of the enemies of Cathohcity ; it wiU be seen that if he imprudently
entered into engagements he wiU not ratify any such promises, but wiU
confirm the excommunication of Anthymus and his sectaries. With relation
to Anastasius, Vigihus wrote' to the empress : — " We have spoken wrongly,
senselessly ; now we wiU by no means consent to what you require of us.
We wiU not recall an anathematized heretic." Peremptorily ordered to
repair to Constantinople, he did not hesitate to order the necessary prepar
ations for the journey, but he did not show extreme haste. It was he who, in
545, named as his primate the bishop of Aries, a city of the States of Cbilde-
bert, in France, and sent to him powers similar to those that some of his
predecessors had given to the primacy in Spain.

128 LIVES OF THE POPES.
In 546, the Emperor Justinian pubhshed an edict, in which he ordered the
bishops to condemn the three chapters. The first concerned the writings and
the persons of Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuesta, accused of Nestorianism ;
the second formed part of the writings of Theodoret, bishop of Civo,
against the twelve chapters of Saint CyrU ; the third consisted of a letter
written by Ibas, bishop of Edessa, to a Persian heretic, named Marin.
The Holy Father, Vigihus, disapproved of this condemnation by the em
peror, and his example was foUowed by some bishops. They naturaUy
rejected errors opposed to the faith ; but they would not condemn the per
sons to whom those errors were attributed, fearing lest they should in some
sort offend against the canons of the Council of Chalcedon. The emperor,
urged on by the representations of Theodora, that actress who had become
empress and arbitress of the destinies of the empire, demanded also that
Anthymus should be reinstated in the See of Constantinople, and repeated
his order to Vigihus to repair to that city.
Arriving in Constantinople in January, 547, he was received with great
honors. Theodora being dead, the emperor, of his own accord, begged
Vigihus to condemn the three chapters, and obstinately pressed the- subject
upon him.
Vigihus, having assembled seventy bishops, was told by them that
without prejudice to the CouncU of Chalcedon, the three chapters might be
condemned. Then he condemned them, and sent to Mennas, bishop of
Constantinople, a decree, in which he distinctly noted that he did not by
that condemnation intend any prejudice to the acts of the CouncU of Chal
cedon. The pope supposed that he had satisfied both parties ; — the Greeks, by his
condemnation of the three chapters ; and the Latins, by accompanying the
condemnation with the necessary reservation in favor of the acts of the
Council of Chalcedon. But he found that he was mistaken. The East burst
out against him as a violator of that councU, and some of the African bish
ops went so far as to cut off the pontiff from their communion. To appease
the tumult, the Holy Father revoked the said constitution, and threatened
to excommunicate the Greek bishops who should consent to any thing con
cerning the three chapters without the consent of a general councU. Jus
tinian, on the request of Theodorus of Cesarea, pubhshed another decree
against the three chapters. The Holy Father convoked the Greek and
Latin bishops in the Placidian palace, and forbade, on pain of excommuni
cation, obedience to the imperial decree. Justinian, irritated, ordered the
imprisonment of Vigihus. AU appeared to become orderly ; but the peace
was of no long endurance. Theodorus, bishop of Cesarea, and even Men
nas, bishop of Constantinople, were excommunicated. At this crisis the
conduct of Vigihus was subhme. CompeUed to take refuge in a church,

SAINT VIGILIUS. 129
he was foUowed by the prsetor and armed soldiers. The pope embraced the
pUlars that supported .the altar; the people compeUed the prsetor to retire.
It was in the midst of this violence that the intrepid pope exclaimed : " We
declare to you that though you hold us captive, you do not hold Saint
Peter." Justinian, conquered by so much constancy and so lofty a virtue, revoked
his edict ; and Vigihus, who had fled towards the city of Chalcedon, re
turned to Constantinople. It was agreed that, in order to terminate the
controversy, it should be referred to a general council, consisting of Greek
and Latin bishops in equal numbers. But the emperor broke his word, and
Vigihus found himseK obhged to convene the council on the 5th of May,
553, without waiting for the arrival of the Latin bishops. In the conduct
of the emperor there was neither justice, nor dignity, nor respect for the
Church. Vigihus would not be present in the councU. He published a
new Constitutum, in which he protested that such a council, having only one
arm, could not condemn the three chapters. Nevertheless, they were con
demned by that council, which is called the Fifth General CouncU, at which
there were present one hundred and sixty-five bishops, among whom were
three patriarchs. Vigihus, not wishing to confirm this decree, was sent into
exUe, nor was he recaUed until he had confirmed with his authority the
condemnation of the council. Thus the pontiff changed his views without
prejudice to apostoUcal truth, as the question was not of faith but of per
sons. It only evinced a want of prudence.
We may add here that it was also confirmed by this pope's successors,
Pelagius I., John ni., Benedict I., Pelagius II., and Saint Gregory the
Great. The confirmation by this last-mentioned pontiff explains why
Vigihus perceived the necessity of conduct which, far from being contradic
tory, proved the extreme attention with which the pope watched events,
their power, and their inevitable requirements, and finished by a skiKul act,
after having exhausted aU the phases of determination and the loftiest
courage. The emperor allowed Vigihus to depart; but he had scarcely ar
rived in Sicily when he was attacked by a painful disease, of which he
died at Syracuse in 555, after a reign of sixteen years and about six
months. In two ordinations, in the month of December, he ordained eighty-one
bishops, sixteen priests (some say forty-six), and sixteen deacons.
The body was transferred to Rome, and interred in the Church of Saint
MarceUus, on the Salarian Way.
The Holy See remained vacant about three months.
A law of Justinian, pubhshed under this pontificate, provides that the
four General Councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon,
9

130

LIVES OF THE POPES.

shaU always have the force of law, and that the pope is the first of aU the
bishops. To this law it was added that the general councU holden at Con
stantinople, 553, should also be recognized as holy. That fifth councU is
also known as the second of Constantinople.
Under this pontificate, Totila took the city of Rome, plundered it, and
threw down the waUs, but Belisarius soon appeared, and restored them.

61. PELAGIUS I. — a. d. 555.

ELAGIUS I., Roman, son of John Vicarianus,
named cardinal-priest by Saint Agapetus, and nun
cio to Justinian, as Liberius and Vigihus had been,
was created pontiff on the 11th of April, 555.
Like Vigihus, he had condemned the three chap
ters ; he was therefore held in some suspicion of
being false* to the CouncU of Chalcedon.
The populace, in violent tumults, disowned aUe-
giance to Pelagius. UnhappUy, rehgious men and noble citizens both
shared and showed the same feehng to such an extent, that though two
bishops were prepared to consecrate him, the third one, who was necessary
to the canonical fulfilment of the ceremony, could not be found.
At length, Pelagius was consecrated by the bishops of Perugia and Feren-
tino, and by Andrew, arch-priest of Ostia. Father Berti demonstrates that
that consecration was valid, though not in conformity to what usuaUy took
place.f When the Romans, besieged by Totila, were suffering from famine, Pela
gius had rendered them great service by passing in provisions to them.
That bygone benevolence was now remembered, and a desire was shown to
estabhsh with the new pope relations of respectful submission. It was also
mentioned that once, when he was accused of entertaining factious feelings
against VigUius, he rushed to the preacher's pulpit, in Saint Peter's church,
placed the Gospel on his head, and protested his innocence of the crime.
Pelagius confirmed the fifth general councU approved by his predecessor ;
and to appease the differences which had sprung up among the Western
bishops on the subject of the three chapters condemned in the councU, he en-

* Novaes, i., p. 225.
<\ Dissertation VI., vol. xvii., of the Dissertations collected by Zaccaria. Rome : 8vo, 1775.

PELAGIUS I. 131
deavored to get them condemned anew by the African, the LUyrian, and even
the Italian bishops. " To that end he employed," says Fleury (vii., p. 468),
" the authority of Narses, and he was pious and fearful of offending against
rehgion. Pelagius, in one of his letters, exhorts him thus : " Pay no attention
to the vain speeches of people who charge the Church with exciting perse
cution when she represses crime and labors for the salvation of souls. To
persecute, is to compel one to do evil ; otherwise, aU the laws, divine and
human, which order the punishment of crime, would be deserving of aboU-
tion. Now the Scripture and the canons teach us that schism is an evil,
and that it ought to be suppressed, even by the secular power ; and aU who
separate themselves from the apostohc See, sin, and undoubtedly are
schismatics." During the reign of Pelagius, the famous Cassiodorus died in extreme old
age. He belonged to the most famous Roman nobihty, and was born at
SquiUacia, in Calabria, about the year 470. He was the principal minister
of King Theodoric. After he had retired from pubhc hfe, he composed, in
a monastery that he had founded, Commentaries on the Psalms, and The In
stitution of the Scriptures. At the age of ninety-two years he wrote several
other works, and a treatise on orthography, extracted from twelve authors, —
the tweKth being Priscian. Cassiodorus always showed a respectful attach
ment to Pelagius.
The French having declared Pelagius suspected of heresy, he defended
himseK before them in a profession of faith, which he sent to King Childe-
bert, and signed with his own hand, that he condemned and excommunicated
wanderers from the doctrine of the letter of Saint Leo, and the acts of the
Council of Chalcedon.
The bishops of Tuscany refused to adhere to the fifth council, and
withdrew from the communion of Pelagius. He wrote to them in these
remarkable terms : " How can you doubt that you are separated from aU
Christian communion, when you do not pronounce our name, according to
custom, in the holy mysteries, since, however unworthy we personaUy may
be, it is in us that at present subsists the sohdity of the Apostohc See, with
the succession of the episcopacy ?"
In two ordinations, in the month of December, Pelagius created forty-
eight or forty-nine bishops, twenty-five or twenty-six priests, and nine dea
cons. He died the 28th February, 560, after governing the Church four
years, ten months, and eighteen days.
The Holy See was vacant four months and sixteen days, because at that
time it was necessary to await the imperial consent from Constantinople, to
the pontifical election : although the election had not previously been so long
deferred. The right claimed by Justinian to interfere in the election of the
popes, which right was maintained by the successors of that emperor subse-

132

LIVES OF THE POPES.

quently, occasioned vacancies in the See of Rome much longer than before.
Nevertheless, from the days of Odoacer the sovereigns of Italy pretended
to direct or rather to- disturb that election. When Pope Pelagius died, he
had begun to build the church of the Holy Twelve Apostles.

62. JOHN III.— a. d. 560.
JOHN ni., caUed Catelinus, son of Anastasius, a
noble Roman, was created pontiff on the 18th of
July, 560.
He aUowed the appeal of Sagittarius, bishop of
Embrun, and of Salonius, bishop of Gap, deposed
from their bishoprics by the second CouncU of
Lyons, and restored them to their dignity.
John confirmed the fifth general council, of which
he showed himseK the zealous defender. It is said that on an occasion of
his notice being directed to some crying usurpations upon the legitimate
possessors of ecclesiastical property, he determined to put an end to those
spoliations, and that he ordered* that every usurper of such property
should be mulcted in four times the value. He finished the Basilica of
the Twelve Apostles, which his predecessor had commenced — as we men
tioned in the preceding article — and he consecrated it on the Feast of Saint
Phihp and Saint James, erecting it into a cardinalate, or parochial district.
In that church he had several historical subjects represented, partly in colors
and partly in mosaic.
Pope John enlarged and repaired the cemeteries of the martyrs, and
ordered that, for the sacrifice of the Mass, celebrated in the Catacombs, the
church of Saint John of Lateran should furnish the bread, the wine, and
the hghts.
In two ordinations, in the month of December, John created sixty-one
bishops, thirty priests, and thirteen deacons. He governed the Church
twelve years, eleven months, and twenty-six days. He died on the 13th of
July, 573, after having seen, in the ninth year of his pontificate (a. d. 568),
the commencement of the reign of the Lombards in Italy. These Lom
bards, or Longobards, were thus caUed on account of their long beards,

* Novaes i., p. 228.

BENEDICT I. 133
which they never shaved, and were a people of the Scandinavian peninsula,
whom Narses, Justinian's general in Italy, become a traitor to his sove
reign, caUed in to sustain his revolt.
The first king of the Lombards, Alboin, estabhshed his capital at Pavia.
Then the emperors of the East were compeUed to govern what remained to
them in the peninsula by captains, and to confide Ravenna to officers caUed
exarchs. That state of things continued a hundred and eighty-four years.
John was buried at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant ten
months and twenty days, for the reason mentioned at the close of our last
article, and in consequence of the troubles which the Lombards excited
throughout Italy.

63. BENEDICT I.— a.d. 574.
ENEDICT, or Bonosus, was a Roman, the son of
Boniface ; he was recognized as pope on the 3d of
June, 574, and consoled Rome, afflicted by those
two great scourges, famine and the Lombards.
He drew from the retirement of a monastery, and
created cardinal-deacon, Gregory, who succeeded
finally to the pontificate, and is known as Gregory
the Great.
After the example of his predecessors, Benedict confirmed the fifth
general councU.
In one ordination, in the month of December, he created twenty bishops,
fifteen priests, and three deacons. He governed the Church four years, one
month, and twenty-eight days ; died on the 30th July, 578, and was interred
at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant four months.

134 LIVES OF THE POPES.

64. PELAGIUS II.— a. d. 578.

ELAGIUS n., Roman, a Benedictine monk, the
son of VinigUd, a Goth, was created pontiff on the
30th of November, 578. This time the consent of
the emperor was not awaited, as Rome was closely
besieged by the Lombards.
This misfortune secured the right which other

wise might have been withheld. Besieged Rome
was not defended by the exarch or imperial lieu
tenant in Italy, who could scarcely defend himseK
in Ravenna. The loss of a pontiff, too, would have been insupportable to
Rome. However, amid the vicissitudes of war, Pelagius was consecrated,
a man distinguished for wisdom, moderation, and virtue. The Lombards
had piUaged the abbey of Mount Casino, and the monks were obhged to
take refuge in Rome. To arrest the incursions of the barbarians, the pope
gave plenary powers to Gregory, his apocrisiarius, or pohtical agent at Con
stantinople, who was then at the commencement of his clerical career and
who afterwards became renowned as Saint Gregory the Great.
Pelagius, learning that France was in a sufficiently peaceful condition,
wrote to the bishop of Auxerre a letter in which, in the name of the Holy
See, he deplored the iU-treatment inflicted upon so many sufferers by the
Lombards. This communication was joyously received by an eminently
Cathohc people, and it subsequently made a powerful impression on Charles
Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne. Pelagius H., in that letter recaUed the
fact that the French monarchs were bound to defend with aU their might
the rehgion which had procured them so many triumphs.
The metropolis of AquUea was disturbed by the enemies of the Roman
faith. Pelagius permitted the archbishop elect to transfer the metropolis to
Grado. Unfortunately, in a councU of the year 587, celebrated by that
same archbishop elect, and at which there were present eighteen bishops,
his suffragans, those prelates having become schismatic, swore never to
admit the fifth general councU. They acted thus under pretence of not
doing prejudice to the CouncU of Chalcedon.
Pelagius, hoping to soften their obstinacy, announced by his legates, and
by letters, that the three chapters were justly condemned, and that the Coun
cil of Chalcedon had not been offended by that condemnation. But the zeal
of the pontiff was useless ; and the exarch, residing at Ravenna, was then
caUed upon to labor to bring back those erring bishops to their duty.

SAINT GREGORY I. 135
In his time there appeared an extraordinary plague,* as sudden as it was
violent. The patient frequently died whUe in the act of sneezing or yawning.
Pelagius himseK died of it on the 8th of February, A. D. 590. This
pope was the first who, in the diplomas of his chancery, marked the
time by the Indictions that Constantine the Great had instituted on the 24th
of September, a. d. 312. They form, as is weU known, a course of fifteen
years ; when those years are ended, the Indiction recommences.
In two ordinations, in December, Pelagius created forty-eight bishops,
twenty-two priests, and eight deacons. He governed the Church twelve
years, two months, and ten days. Very Hberal towards the poor, and
especiaUy towards the aged, he assembled so many of them in his palaces
that they resembled hospitals. Pelagius was interred in the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant six months and twenty-five days.

65. ST. GREGORY I.— a. d. 590.
jjjjP^fF^^ifl REGORY I., surnamed the Great, doctor of the
W-rf JOzk. ; « i Church, was bom about the year 540, and was the
Ih^k^^^^A^ son of Gordian, a Roman senator,'- afterwards re-
S^s - ' SKII gionary cardinal-deacon, and Sylvia, a very pious
llillii'BEpy*y%? lady. He was grand-nephew of Pope Saint Felix
^^^^^^^Sfc= DU., of the Anicia, now the Conti, famUy. In
JIlSlljjBlljjIijjl^ the year 572 he was prsetor, not, as some writers
jj^^r-r^S^^tsT-r^?^"" have stated, prefect of Rome. That fact is proven
by a letter written by Gregory himseK to Constantius, archbishop of
MUan. At the death of his father, Gregory found himseK master of an im
mense fortune. Then he built six monasteries, among them one, in
575, at his own palace in Rome ; he became a Benedictine monk, and hved
in the monastery of Saint Andrew, which he had himseK caused to be buUt,
and which belonged to the Camaldolese Benedictines. Some writers, and
among them father Thomassin,t of the Oratory, maintain that Gregory be
longed to no religious order. Be that as it may, he was named cardinal-
deacon by Pelagius, whose secretary he had been ; subsequently, the same
pope sent him as nuncio to Constantinople, to the Emperor Maurice.
* Novaes, i., p. 234. \ Be Vet. et nov. Ecclesia disciplines, 1., part i., cap. 3, p. 24.

136 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Gregory, on his return to Rome, was against his wish created pontiff; the
choice of the clergy, of the Roman clergy, and of the Roman people, had
unanimously faUen upon Gregory, who wrote to the Emperor Maurice,
begging him to oppose the election.* Germanus, Prefect of Rome, inter
cepted the letters, and substituted others in the opposite sense, containing
the text of the decree of election. Gregory then left Rome, and concealed
himseK in a retired place. The people flocked from aU parts in search of
Gregory, who was at length discovered by a dove hovering over his head.
He was surrounded, and intreated to accept the authority, and he was con
secrated on the 3d of September, in the year 590. At the commencement
of his pontificate, he wrote to the patriarchs of the East a letter, in which,
according to the custom of those times, he included his profession of faith.f
At the same time, he confirmed the General CouncUs of Nice, of Constanti
nople (i. e., the first council of that city), of Ephesus, and of Chalcedon.
He ordered that those four councils should be respected as the four Gospels.J
The same confirmation was pronounced as to the second CouncU of Con
stantinople, caUed the fifth secumenical council. The pope demanded that
that council should be plainly acknowledged by aU, in order that the defend
ers of, the three chapters, which that council had condemned, should desist
from their culpable obstinacy. Three years previously, Pelagius had
ordered that those subdeacons in SicUy who were married should separate
from their wives. Gregory, thinking this decision too stern and severe,§
permitted subdeacons to marry, provided that they should not receive higher
orders ; and, subsequently, he forbade the ordination of any subdeacon
before he had made the vow of continence in the proper form before the
bishop. He aUowed the Spaniards to baptize by only a single immersion. (See
Book I., letter 43, to Leander.) The authority of Gregory was foUowed by
the fathers in the CouncU of Toledo (IV. Cant., 6.) That permission, contrary
to previous custom on that subject, was granted, in order that the true
Cathohcs might be distinguished from the heretics, in Spain, who, by a triple
immersion, fancied that they authorized their errors relating to the Trinity.
He forbade that Hebrews should be compeUed to receive the faith of
Christ ; he ordered that entrance into the monasteries of nuns should be
forbidden to both men and women who were strangers to what concerned
the administration of those monasteries. He ordered that at the commence
ment of Lent the blessed ashes should be placed on the. foreheads of the
faithful.! Gregory also ordered that the Lent fast should be kept uninter-
* Novaes, i., p. 325.
f Gregory himself mentions this work in his letter 52, book ix.
X Novaes i., 236. § Novaes, ibid.
J Up to the time of Celestine III., created pope in 1191, it was the custom to place the holy

SAINT GREGORY I. 137
ruptedly, and not, as formerly, discontinued on Thursdays, Saturdays, and
Sundays. Thus, fasting commenced from Septuagesima. He also ordered
that from Septuagesima to Easter the Alleluia should not be sung. He per
mitted the priests of Sardinia to administer confirmation in the absence of
the bishops, who ordinarily administer that sacrament, as was solemnly de
clared by the CouncU of Trent. Benedict XIII. subsequently granted the
same privilege to the abbot of Saint Paul, outside the walls of Rome, and
to the custodian of the Holy Sepulchre, of the order of Minor Observantins,
of the convent of Aracceh.
In 592, Pope Saint Gregory caused the removal to Rome of the tunic of
Saint John the Evangehst, and placed it beneath the altar of Saint John, in
the Lateran BasUica. The same year, the Emperor Maurice rendered a
decree by which he prohibited men of the legal profession, as weU as per
sons charged with debts to the treasury, from entering the clerical, and
soldiers from entering the monastic profession. The Holy Father, in his
letter (book ii., ep. 62), written in 593, praises that part of the decree which
relates to men of .the law, but disapproves the two other parts, which he
induced the emperor to revoke.
Saint Gregory also remedied two abuses — the one consisted in demanding
a price for the burial of the dead in churches, and the other in building
churches where the dead had been interred. The pope was unwiUing that
there should be any risk of the bones of the profane being mingled with
those of martyrs.
Father Thomassin, already quoted, maintains that it was not untU the
reign of Gregory that Christians began to be buried in the churches ; for
which reason that pope disapproved of the custom. But Muratori proves
that the custom was long anterior to Saint Gregory. The Council of Braga,
in 563, was the first to forbid burial in the churches, and subsequently many
synods, especiaUy in France, prohibited the custom, but with exceptions as
ashes on the head of the pope, as they are now placed on the heads of the faithful, and to repeat
the well-known formula — " Remember, man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."
Bat, under Urban VI., elected pope in 1378, a different custom was introduced, which obtains to
this day ; that, namely, of strewing the ashes upon the head of the Holy Father without saying a
word. Monseigneur Antonelli, in a letter addressed to the Cardinal Gentili, inquires into the
reasons for which the masters of the ceremonies retrain from saying the words. He considers
that the action of strewing the ashes during the repetition of the formula is a. venerable
remnant of the rite formerly practised with the penitents on Ash Wednesday. Ashes were given
to them, accompanied by those words which remind us of our mortality, and, so reminding us,
are a wholesome humiliation. At the present time, the public penance, whence that ceremony
came down to us, being a species of ecclesiastical j udgment, to which the Roman pontiff ought
not to be subjected, it was resolved that, as regarded him, the fact should suffice without the
formula ; that is to say, that the action of placing the ashes on the head sufficiently suggests the
mortal condition of the pope, without there being exercised upon Mm that shadow of ecclesias
tical jurisdiction to which the head of the Church is in no wise subject. Novaes, in his intro
duction, &c, vol. ii., p. 234, gives details of that ceremonial of the pontifical chapel.

138 LIVES OF THE POPES.
to certain persons. But the Roman Church has always maintained the
ancient custom of burying in churches, as appears in the reply of Nicholas I.
to the Bulgarians, about the year 860.*
Many persons affirm that Saint Gregory the Great instituted what is
known as the Gregorian Chant. But the learned Dominick Maria Manni,
in his Bissertation upon the Bisdpline of the Andent Ecclesiastical Chant,
printed at Florence, in 1756, and reprinted in the coUection of Zaccaria, in
1794, proves that Gregory did not invent that chant, but reduced it to a
more fitting form, and rendered it more easy to be studied. And we have
it on the authority of Anastasius the Librarian, that a chant simUar to the
Gregorian was known in the time of Saint HUary, created pope in 461 ; and,
according to the testimony of Peter, bishop of Orvieto, there was a very
simUar chant in the time of Pope Saint Sylvester ; i. e. two hundred and
seventy years before the time of Saint Gregory. However, it is certain that
this pope instituted, at Rome, a school of chanters, for whom he had two
houses buUt : one near the Basihca of Saint Peter, and the other near the
patriarch's of Saint John Lateran. Into this coUege of chanters only seven
deacons were admitted, and in addition, some boys who, when necessary,
took their parts in high tone.
Saint Gelasius having arranged the recital of the prayers or coUects in
the Mass, Saint Gregory put them in better order, and compUed a volume
which he entitled the Sacramentary. \
Saint Gregory instituted the processions on the day of the Purification of
the Blessed Virgin, and the Litany of the saints on the Feast of Saint Mark,
on account of the increased virulence of the plague that had carried off Pela
gius. The disease always ended in a fit of sneezing or of yawning, and the
pope ordered that God bless you, should be said to those who sneezed, and
that the sign of the cross should be made on the mouths of those who
yawned. The plague having ceased, the antiphon Regina cozli ladare was
introduced into chants of the Church. It is affirmed by pious writers, that
at the moment when the plague decreased in virulence, there appeared on the
" During the French occupation in 1809, public cemeteries began to be in popular request, and
such cemeteries were afterwards authorized by Pope Pius VII. Only persons of very high rank
are now interred in the churches
f The analysis of the Sacramentary, given by M. Receveur (iii., 449), is very exact. In the
same author (iii., 455), I find as follows : " In the Sacramentary of Saint Gregory and in the Ro
man rubrics, we find, in addition to the ceremonies of the Mass, those of baptism, of ordination,
and of the processions, with the blessing of tapers and ashes, and many others noticed in the
Sacramentary of Saint Gelasius. Some persons have complained that Saint Gregory had adopted
several practices from Constantinople, but he showed that he had only re-established old customs •
and as it seemed to be feared that the Greeks would draw some advantage from it, ' Who doubts '
said he, 'that that church should not be subject to the Holy See, as the emperor and the bishop
of Constantinople on every occasion show that it is f If that Church or any other has some
good practice, I am ready to imitate that practice of even the lowest of your inferior churches "

SAINT GREGORY I. 139
top of the mausoleum of Adrian an angel sheathing his sword. Thence
forth, that mausoleum was caUed the castle of Saint Angelo, and an angel
in marble was placed on it, for which Benedict XIV. substituted the one in
bronze, which stiU remains there.
Gregory found it necessary to repress a claim of John the Faster, a man,
however, whom the Greeks represent as a prelate of such great virtue,* that
he was placed among the number of the saints, a step to which the approval
of the congregation of the Propaganda was given afterwards. John assumed
the title of the Universal Bishop. The predecessor of Gregory had censured
that title ; and Gregory had already deprived Eulogus, bishop of Alexandria,
of the similar title of Universal Patriarch. The Holy Father then entitled him
seK, in aU his letters, with a sentiment of humility and modesty, servant of
tlie servants of God. That custom has continued to our own day, and Pius
IX. uses the same formula. At the close of the tenth century,t some
bishops wished to take that title ; but it is now confined solely to the Ro
man pontiff.
Gregory was the first pontiff who ordered that pontifical diplomas or
bulls should be dated from the incarnation of our Saviour.
Formerly, the Church had the custom of calculating time from the con
sular fasti (it is known that they commenced, dating from the year 244, from
the foundation of Rome, or 245, according to the epoch of Varro, that is to
say, five hundred and nine years before Christ), but under Diocletian ap
peared Dionysius, caUed, from his short stature, Dionysius the Little, who
abandoned the eras of the Consuls, and the Emperors Augustus and Dio
cletian, which tUl then had been foUowed aU over the world. In 527, Dio
nysius introduced a paschal cycle for ninety-five years, and made the years
commence on the 25th of March, saying that he dated them from the Incar
nation of the Lord ; but he left the three months from the Circumcision,
which commence on the 1st of January. So the year of the Incarnation,
according to Dionysius, commenced three months after the Circumcision,
which dates from the first of January ; while the year of the Nativity com
menced on the 28th of December, and that of the Indiction on the 24th of
September, but for the Roman Curia, on the 25th of December.
Saint Gregory was also the first pontiff who employed the phrase to speak
ex cathedra.
He ratified the baptism given by heretics in the name of the most Holy
Trinity. He ordered that on the 29th of June the memory of the two
princes of the apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, should be celebrated in
the Church of the Vatican, and that on the foUowing day the Feast of Saint
Paul should be celebrated specially.
* Novaes, i., p. 242. t Muratori, Ann. d' Italic, iii., part 2, an. 595.

140 LIVES OF THE POPES.
From the letters of this pontiff we learn that the Holy See then possessed
rich patrimonies in Sicily, in the city of Syracuse, in Palermo, in Calabria,
in Apulia, in the country of the Samnites, in Campania, in Tuscany, in
Sabina, in Nercia, at Carseoh, one caUed Appia, at Ravenna, in Dalmatia,
Ulyria, Sardinia, Corsica, Liguria, in the Cottian Alps, in Germaniciana, in
Syria, and in Gaul. The last-named patrimony, according to Saint Gregory
(Ep. 52, book V.), produced but little revenue.* Each of those patri
monies was intrusted to a distinct administrator, who had the title of de
fender or rector, and was always one of the first clerks of- the Roman Church.
It also possessed other patrimonies in the East, which yielded a net reve
nue of nearly fifty thousand Roman crowns of the present day.f
FinaUy, Saint Gregory, after having, by Saint Augustine,^ a Benedictine
monk of the abbey of Saint Andrew, at Rouen (a monastery known to have
been founded by Saint Gregory), converted the Anglo-Saxons to the true
faith, gave him orders to establish two metropohtans, one at London, and
the other in the city of York ; and the metropohtans were then to ordain
twelve bishops.
Gregory confounded the Arians who remained in Spain, and the Lom
bards who occupied' a large portion of Italy. He iUustrated the Church by
the prodigious number of works he has left us, although interrupted by serious
difficulties. After meriting the praise of Saint Ildefonsus, who said of that
great pontiff, " He exceUed Anthony in holiness, and Augustine in knowl
edge, and after governing the Church thirteen years, six months, and ten
days, died on the 12th of March, 603, aged sixty-four years.
In two ordinations, one in Lent, and the other in the month of September,
he created sixty-two bishops, thirty-eight or thirty-nine priests, and five or
fifteen deacons.
He was adorned by the most sublime virtues, and his court consisted of
subjects worthy to be near him. He kept laics out of his council, and took
for his advisers only clerks endowed with great prudence, and learned
pious monks. He received them whenever they chose, whether by night or
day ; nothing was wanting to religious perfection in the palace, nothing
wanting of the pontifical duties in the Church. Andres, at the beginning .
of his book, On the Origin, Progress, and Present Condition of aU Literature
(vol. I., chap, vii., p. 94), pronounces the foUowing judgment on Gregory :
" He possessed doctrine, learning, and eloquence superior to those of the
time in which he hved ; the arts and sciences found a worthy temple in his
* See Cenni's appendix to Father Orsi on the Temporal Domain of the Popes, reprinted in
1754. f The Roman crown corresponds nearly to our dollar.
X The history of the Church has nothing finer than the entrance of the holy monk Augustine
Into the kingdom of Kent.

SAINT GREGORY I. 141
palace. He had not a single servant who had not received a good education,
and whose words were not worthy to be heard around the ancient throne of
the Latin language. In the court of the Great Gregory the studies of the
fine arts took a new vigor. Nevertheless, aU the advantages of a lettered
mind could not protect him from the calumnies of those who were deter
mined to consider him the sworn enemy of good taste and of the sciences
and fine arts. Tiraboschi courageously came forward in his defence, and
the memoir of that holy doctor triumphed over many unworthy accusa
tions." The grave cares of the pontificate did not prevent Gregory from indulg
ing in practices of the most ardent charity. Every day he invited twelve
paupers into his palace, and personaUy waited upon them at table ; and,
according to the legends, that humility was rewarded by his one day seeing
an angel make the thirteenth of the company at that table. Thence came
' the custom of daily inviting thirteen poor persons, generaUy priests, in the
name of the pontiff, who himseK served them at table ; they were selected
in the hospital of the Most Holy Trinity. In the monastery of Saint An
drew he had his portrait placed, showing him to have been of noble stat
ure, his face long, his head bald in front, with tufts of black hair at the
side. A passage, altered from the Polycratic of John of Shrewsbury,* was made
to accuse Gregory of the burning of the Palatine library, founded by Augus
tus — that is to say, of aU its classic works.
This error is completely refuted in the Art of Verifying Bates: It was
also said that during his reign Gregory ordered the destruction or mutila
tion of the statues and monuments which stiU existed in Rome, so that
strangers who from religious motives might visit Rome should not go to
admire the triumphal arches and other wonders of ancient Rome. Platinat
exclaims, — " Absit luec calumnia a tanto pontifice Romano prazsertim cui certe,
post Beiim, patria quam vita charior. Away with such calumny against so
great a Roman pontiff, to whom, after God, his country was dearer than hfe."
Platina further observed that the mutUations were made by the Romans
to buUd new palaces. These barbarians tore away the ornaments and
fixtures, in order to get at some paltry bronze nails, or the vases (ollxs)
which the ancient architects had placed in circus waUs, to render them more
sounding ; and Platina adds : " This was done by the Romans themselves,
K we may give the name of Romans to Epirotes, Dalmatians, Panno-
nians, and the scum and offscouring of the whole world."
In regard to the statues, Platina, in his fine Latinity, continues to justify
* Biog. Univ., xvlil, p. 385.
\ Opus de Vitis ac Gestis Summorum Pontificum. 12mo., 1634, p. 159.

142

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Gregory, especiaUy against the charge of having caused the statues to be
decapitated. " Jacent statuoz," he says, " turn propter vetustatem coUapsoz, turn ;
etiam quia basibus sublatis, vel ceris, vel marmorum causa, stare tantai moles non
poterant. Quod atem capitibus careant, mirum nequaquam videri debet, cum
ipsius statum casui, ea pars utpotefragilior et ad acdpiendum laisionem paratior,
potissimum frangatur. The statutes he upon the ground, not only over
thrown by time, but also because their bases had been removed by' those
who were in quest of bronze or marble, and such great masses thus under
mined could not remain erect. Nor need it be wondered at that the statutes
were headless, for when the statue fell, the head, the most fragile and easUy
injured part, was of course the first to be broken."

66. SABINIANUS.— a. d. 604.

ABINIANUS, of Volterra, in Tuscany, is by some said
to have been born at Bied, a ruined town, a few
mUes from Viterbo. He was the son of Bono, and
was a cardinal-deacon, named by Saint Gregory,
whose apocrisarian he had been to the Emperor
Maurice during some four or five years.
Sabinianus was elected pontiff on the 13th of Sep
tember, 604, and consecrated bishop without previ
ously receiving the priesthood, as was also the case (says Novaes ii., 3) with
Valentine, the one hundred and second pope, in 827, and Nicholas I. the
one hundred and seventh pope, in 858. We may add that the same is to be
said in the cases of Fehx II., in 355 ; Agapetus I., in 535, and VigUius, in
540. Monsignor Borgia, afterwards cardinal, in his apology for the ponti
ficate of Benedict X., (parag. i., c. 3, annot. 2), after having shown in support
of that fact that Cecilianus was named bishop of Carthage, when he was
only a deacon, adds that the only argument in favor of such promotions,
per saltum, is the sUence of writers ; and he asks his readers if such an argu
ment can be deemed to be sufficient on a question of such importance. To
Sabinianus is attributed the invention of church beUs. Others give the
glory of that invention to Saint Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in the Campaina,
about 401, and they infer that it is on that account that a beU is caUed nola
or campana.
This invention is ascribed to Sabinianus by Polydore Vir°il Genebrard

SABINIANUS. 143
and Panvinius ; the last named of whom shows that opinion in his Epit.
Rom. Pont. cap. 27.
According to Oldoin, in his reflections upon Chacon, Sabinianus did not,
indeed, invent the use of church beUs, but prescribed the use of them, at the
canonical hours, that the sound of them might quicken the devotion of the
faithful. What can be most confidently said upon this subject is, that the use of
beUs in the Western Church was known before the sixth century, i. e., A. D.
496. In the life of Saint Colombanus, written in the sixth century, and pub
hshed by MabiUon, we read that at midnight, Saint Colombanus, at the sound
of the belt, went to the church to meet the brothers of the monastery there.
In the Eastern Church, beUs were introduced at a much later period.
In the ninth century, -between 864 and 867, Orso, Doge of Venice, made a
present to the Greek emperor, Michael, of twelve beUs, which the emperor
placed in an elegant belfry, built by him in the church of Saint Sophia.
UntU that time the Greeks caUed the faithful to divine service by means of
a wooden table, which was struck upon with an instrument caUed synan-
drum, not unlike the wooden rattle used in the closing days of Holy Week.
The table, block, or plank of wood was sometimes, perhaps, replaced by a
sheet of iron, and the wooden club or maUet by an iron hammer. We
know that in the East the instrument had the name of ferrum sacrum*
However it may be, K Sabinianus did not invent beUs for church use, it is
nevertheless true, that, as we have already said, he ordered the canonical
hours to be announced, and the people caUed to church by the sound
of beUs. In one ordination in September, Sabinianus created twenty-six
bishops ; he governed the Church three years, and three months, and
nine days; died on the 22d of February, 606, and was interred at the
Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant eleven months, and twenty-eight
days. * See Maggi, chap. 15, De Tintinnabulis. To all the above, taken from Italian scholars, we
must add a contribution from French erudition. Saint Loup, bishop of Orleans, being at Sens
when Clothaire beseiged that city, spread terror throughout the camp, and put the beseiging army
to flight, by having the bells of Saint Stephen's rung, which proves that bells were not then
commonly known.

144

LIVES OF THE POPES.

67. BONIFACE III. — a. d. 607.

ONIFACE III., a cardinal-deacon, created by Saint
Gregory, and son of John Candiote, was elected
pope on the 19th of February, 607. And, no doubt,
he deserved the election, for Saint Gregory, in
naming him as nuncio in 603, had said of him, " He
is a defender of the Church, and we can amply
testify to his purity and fidelity from our long ex
perience of them."
In a council that Boniface III. held at Saint Peter's, in which he as
sembled seventy-two bishops, he ordered, on pain of excommunication, that
no one should busy himseK about the election of the pope, or any other
bishop, until three days after the death of the late pontiff or prelate. That
interval of time, not observed by some of the successors of Boniface, was
extended to ten days by Gregory X.
BonKace obtained from the Emperor Phocas what Saint Gregory had
been unable to obtain from the Emperor Maurice. The Emperor Phocas,
by a decree, declared that to the Roman pontiff exclusively belonged the
title of Universal Bishop, the title which had been arrogated to himseK by
Cyriacus, successor to John the Faster, in the patriarchate of Constanti
nople, who had usurped that same title. The Emperor Justinian, who hved
eighty years before Phocas, had confessed that John II., fifty-seventh pope
(see Labbe and Hardouin), ivas the head of all the holy Churches.
In the 131st of his NoveUas, chap, n., he caUs him the " first of aU
priests." So that the decree was not issued by Phocas to estabhsh any
novelty, as the centuriators of Magdebourg (Centur. vii., cap. 7, page 121)
suppose, but to declare and estabhsh the right of the pope to take that
title of Universal, as is shown by the cardinals Baronius and BeUarmine.
Upon this question, Csesarotti is wrong, where, in order to weaken the force
of the decree, he speaks of it as having been given by Phocas, a bad
emperor. As we have just seen, Phocas only confirmed a decision of
Justinian. In one ordination this Holy Father created eleven, or, as some authors say,
twenty-one bishops; he governed the Church eight months and twenty- two
days, and died on the 10th of November, 607. He was interred at the
Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant ten months and twelve days.

BONIFACE IV.

145

68. BONIFACE IV— a. d. 608.

ONIFACE IV., of Valeria, a town of the Abruzzi,
in the kingdom of Naples, was the son of John,
and a Benedictine monk in the monastery of Saint
Sebastian of Rome, and afterwards a cardinal-
priest. He estabhshed in his house a monastery,
which he enriched with valuable gKts. With the
consent of the Emperor Phocas, he consecrated to
the Blessed Virgin, and aU the holy martyrs, the
Pantheon, that was built by Marcus Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus. That
same church, caUed Saint Mary, of the Rotunda, on account of its form,
Gregory IV., in 834, dedicated to aU the saints, in honor of whom he in
stituted on the same occasion, All Saints Bay.
Novaes quotes a dissertation of the Father Lazzari, which would tend to
prove that this temple was not dedicated to any pagan deity ; but he does
not venture to say to what other purpose the temple could originally be
erected. Father Lazzari was undoubtedly wrong, and should be refuted.
In an inscription on the architrave, after the name and titles of Septimus
Severus and CaracaUa, are the foUowing decisive words : Pantheum vetustate
corruptum cum omni cultu restituerunt ; i. e., the inscription teUs that Septimus
Severus, &c, and Antoninus CaracaUa, &c, have, imth great magnificence rebuilt
the Pantheon, which time had injured. Had the temple not been pagan in its
original, whence its name Pan-theon ?
To prove to how great an extent the popes have been generous conserva
tors, and free from aU jealousy as to their predecessors, and moved by re
spect for the material works of those pontiffs, we wiU, in a few words, give
the history of the Pantheon, which certainly bore that name formerly ; con
sidering it only in its relations to the sovereign pontiffs of Rome.
Phocas granted the temple to BonKace IV., who altered its interior into
a church. AU the idols were removed. In the year 663, Constantius n.,
being in Rome, though it was converted into a Cathohc church, treated it
with so httle respect as to despoU it of the metal which covered the roof and
porticoes, in order to send it to his own royal city of Constantinople. This
injury was repaired in 731, by Gregory III., who covered the roof withj lead.
Anastasius IV., in 1153, erected a palace for himseK, communicating with
the church. Martin V., in 1420, and Eugenius IV., in 1435, re-covered the
roof with lead. The last of these popes made some alterations, and in the
10

146 LIVES OF THE POPES.
niche which is beneath the porch, placed the two basalter hons, and the
fine porphyry urn, which now stands at the tomb of Clement XH., in Saint
John Lateran. Those who reared the tomb of Clement XH. may be par
doned for removing the urn, as it was improperly exposed under the portico
of the Pantheon. It was Eugenius IV. probably, who placed the antique
altar at the bottom of the gaUery, the existence of which is attested by en
gravings of the fifteenth century.
Urban VHL, in 1639, replaced in the portico the angular column, bearing
in the capital a bee, the armorial device of that pope. Alexander VH., in
1660, gave the two other columns which were wanting on the right side,
removed the paltry braidings which had been reared against the church,
and lowered the grade of the square, — perhaps a httle too much, for the
Pantheon square, being thus lower than the Tiber when swoUen, is subject
to inundations. Benedict XIV. about 1750, varied the attic ornaments,
and every pope, since that time, has added some useful embellishments.
Pius VLL, following the advice of Cardinal Gonsalvi, also, contributed to
repair, maintain, and perfect, if one may so speak, the sole remnant of Ro
man antiquity, which remains entire in the midst of that city, twice the
metropolis of the world. This is a right fulfilment of the duty of the sove
reigns of that land which contains so many masterpieces of art. We shaU
have many other occasions to notice this admirable vigilance constantly ob
served by the popes, and it is especiaUy in the church of Saint Peter's, that
this famUy spirit, as it may not improperly be termed, has been the most
manKested. It is useful to direct attention to that pontifical greatness, that
love of the past, that veneration for predecessors, and that passion for
-&e arts, which so well become the august inheritors of the great city of
Rome. This is, in fact, the worthy guardianship of the deposit intrusted
.by Saint Peter.
From the time of Sabinianus, the pontiffs, with the clergy, repaired to the
rotunda on the Sunday before Pentecost, to celebrate Mass ; when a sermon
was preached on the coming of the Holy Ghost. Roses were thrown from
the top, whence that Sunday was caUed Rose Sunday. To the present
time, roses are on that Sunday distributed to the canons seated in the
choir. Saint Mary of the Rotunda, was erected into a cardinalate, and was
that of the Cardinal Gonsalvi when he died.
In a councU assembled at Rome in the year 610, BonKace gave a check
to those who, more tormented by jealousy than inflamed by zeal, maintained
that the monks had no right to administer the sacrament, either of baptism
or penanee. The decree of BonKace on that question was confirmed in
1096, by Urban II., who inserts a eulogy upon the religious orders.
In two ordinations, the Holy Father created thirty-six bishops, some
priests, and mine deacons. He governed the Church six years, eight months,

SAINT DEUSDEDIT.

147

and thirteen days, and died on the 7th of March, 615. In the Roman
martyrolology he is named on the 25th of May. He was interred near the
Vatican. BonKace VIH. raised a new altar for him, which was destroyed
when the new Basilica of Saint Peter's was built. Paul V. having dis
covered the ashes of BonKace IV. on the 20th of October, 1605, caused
them to be removed to the altar of Saint Thomas the apostle.
The Holy See was vacant for five months and twelve days.

69. ST. DEUSDEDIT— a. d. 615.

AINT DEUSDEDIT, son of Stephen, a subdeacon,
but not a subdeacon himseK, though elected pope
notwithstanding, was created pontiff on the 19th
of October, 615. He endeavored to restore the an
cient order in the Church, and greatly distin
guished himseK by his piety and his charity to the
sick. Saint Deusdedit meeting one of the lepers,
kissed him on the face ; and all the holy legends
agree in saying that the leper was cured, owing to the prayers of Saint
Deusdedit. The gifts of celestial grace descend only upon souls of super
natural piety.
In three ordinations, Deusdedit created twenty-nine bishops, thirteen
priests, and five deacons. He governed the Church nearly three years, and
was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant one year, one
month, and sixteen days.

148

LIVES OF THE POPES.

70. ST. BONIFACE V— a. d. 619.

ONIFACE V. son of John Fummini, and born
at Naples, was a cardinal-priest of Saint Sixtus,
when he was elected on the 23d of December, 619.
There were at that time a great many priests, and
this pope wished no more ordained except to fiU
up vacancies caused by deaths.
His memory is attacked by the heretics, because
he said in a letter that Jesus Christ redeemed us
from original sin alone. The letter in question was addressed to Edwin,
king of Northumberland, who at the entreaty of his queen Ethelburga, had
embraced the Cathohc faith. Novaes discusses the pointy and declares that
in the letter aUuded to the word alone, does not occur, and that K even it
were there, Boniface would not therefore be censurable; The Holy Father
— I now quote from Novaes* — only meant to say that original sin is that
for our redemption from which Jesus Christ died. It is the only sin common
to aU mankind, many of whom, including infants, are free from any other, t
Boniface opposed the authorities which sought to abohsh the right of
asylum in the Churches.
In two ordinations, in December, BonKace created twenty-nine bishops,
twenty-six or twenty-seven priests, and four deacons. He governed the
Church five years and ten months, and died in the month of October, 625,
and was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant only five
days, as the confirmation of the election of Honorius I., the succeeding
pope from Constantinople, had not to be waited for. The exarch of
Ravenna, who was at that time in Rome, pretended to revive the old custom
of giving confirmation in the name of the emperor.
But Cathohcity was about to be opposed by new enemies. If the great
Gregory had courageously begun to estabhsh the temporal power of the
popes, the successors of Gregory were thenceforward to see a population
eager in attacking them, and anxious to destroy them.
A man hidden in the far depths of the Arabian deserts, forged, in his
obscurity, springs whose strength he knew not, and whose prodigious work
ing was to prostrate the authority of the Greek empire and of the Persian
kingdom, and to change the face of the world. Italy herseK was to see
the audacious sectaries of Mahomet land upon her shore. The Arabian

* Novaes, ii., p. 15. f See Bellarmine, Be Bom. Pont., Book iv., cap. 10.

HONORIUS I.

149

impostor could stiU command his proselytes, even when he was obhged
to fly from his country. That flight was more famous than the most cele
brated victories, and served the Mussulmans as an era from whence to date
their annals.
But the zeal of the Roman pontiffs never slackened, and we shaU see,
under the reign of Gregory HI., what chastisements the faithful Cathohcs
of Gaul, directed by that pope and commanded by Charles Martel, inflicted
upon the Mahometans, who, no longer content with invading and disturbing
Italy, desired to estabhsh themselves in France, and smite it with aU the
evUs that accompany slavery, imposed by a pitUess conqueror.

71. HONORIUS I.— a. d. 625.
|ONORIUS I., son -of Petronius, of the Ulustrious
DeUa Marra family of Capua, and a regular canon,
was elected pontiff on the 27th of October, 625.
By a letter of this pope to the repubhc of Venice,
we are informed that she then enjoyed the title of
Most Christian* There is still extant another very
precious letter, in which the pope exhorts the
Northumbrian king, Edwin, firmly to abide in that
Cathohc faith which he had recently embraced.
This pope sharply reprimanded the Scots, because, contrary to the rule
estabhshed by the CouncU of Nice, they celebrated Easter on the Sunday
that feU on the fourteenth day of the moon in March, and not on the Sun
day which foUowed.
In 630 he deposed from his See Fortunatus, patriarch of Grado, a
heretic and traitor to the repubhc, and replaced him by Primogenius,
regionary subdeacon of the Roman Church. Honorius extinguished the
schism of the bishops of Istria, who for seventy years had defended the
three chapters.
Honorius loved to erect magnificent churches, and to rebuild such as were
falling into ruins. He covered the roof of Saint Peter's with bronze plates,
which the Emperor Heraclius allowed to be taken from the temple of
Jupiter Capitolinus. He also adorned the altar of the holy apostle with
incrustations of sUver.

* See Labbe and Baronius.

150 LIVES OF THE POPES.
In three ordinations, in December, Honorius created eighty-one bishops,
and thirteen or thirty-one priests. He governed the Church twelve years,
eleven months, and sixteen days. He died on the 12th of October, 638, and
was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant one year, seven
months, and seventeen days.
The memory of this pontiff, says some historians, would have been among
the most glorious, had he not shown himseK somewhat negligent in rooting
out at its commencement the heresy of the Monothehtes, a branch of the
Eutychians, who attributed but one wiU, the divine, to Jesus Christ.* The
author of that heresy was Theodore, bishop of Faran, in Arabia. Honorius,
it is said, deceived by the letters of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople,
and a secret professor of Monothehsm, prohibited disputation upon the
question whether there was in Jesus two operations or wills, so that those
who should affirm that there was only one should not seem to favor the
party of Eutychius, which party admitted only one nature in Christ ; and
that those who affirmed that there were two, should not appear to f oUow the
error of Nestorius, who obstinately persisted in affirming two persons in
Christ, in whom nevertheless Honorius recognized two wills.
Some authors, calumniating Honorius, have declared him a sectary of the
Monothehtes. The most that can be said is, that he was only guilty of
neghgence when he should have extinguished that heresy, which did so
much mischief to the Church, and which was condemned by the sixth
general council, in 680.
I cannot refrain from giving here the spirit of the remarks of Novaes
on this point, as it appears to me to sum up with talent the great question
of the guilt or innocence of Honorius.
To vindicate the honor of that pontiff, many authors of many varieties of
opinion have discussed the question ; aU their various opinions have de
served praise, but they are not aU equaUy sohd. A remarkably reserved
and conciliatory spirit dictated this note : " Cardinal John Torrecremata,
in his second book, De Ecclesia, chap. 93, thinks that Honorius did not
err at aU, but that it was the sixth councU that committed an error of fact.
Misinterpreting the Cathohc letters of the pontiff to Sergius, Witasse, in his
Treatise on the Incarnation (p. 293, et seq., of the Venice edition), quotes the
authors who, after Torrecremata, have defended that opinion.
"Witasse, nevertheless, attacks him. On that subject, Bernard Desirant,
hermit of Saint Augustine, pubhshed an apology, entitled ' Pope Honorius
defended, saving the integrity of the sixth council, or the History of Mono
thehsm, against the last subterfuge of the Jansenists (Aix-la-ChapeUe, 1711 ;
4to.).' Melchior Cano took another way. He argued that Honorius, in
* Petau, Theolog. Bog., vol. iv., Book 1, chap. 19.

HONORIUS I. 151
writing to Sergius, reaUy erred in the faith, but that his error was that of
a private man, and not of the pope. Tournely and Thomassin subsequently
adopted this opinion.
" Albert Pighi, the two cardinals Baronius and BeUarmine, Boucat, and
Father Merhn, the author of a dissertation which appeared in 1733, under
the title of ' An exact and detailed Examination of the action of Honorius,'
deny that Honorius was condemned by the sixth councU, and think that,
against the wUl of the Fathers in councU, the name of Honorius was inserted
instead of that of Theodorus.
" But very distinguished men who have written on this subject, such as
Christianus Lupus, Jean Garnier, Natalis Alexander, Pagi, Pierre de Marca,
Jean-Baptiste Tamagnini, have received as genuine and sincere, the acts of
the sixth councU. Father John Gisbert, a Jesuit, printed at Paris, in 1688,
a defence of Honorius. He argues that the letters of this pope to Sergius
contain no definition of faith, but only the precept not to make use of the
term two operations. ' Those letters,' says also that Father of the Society
of Jesus, ' when they were written, did not directly injure the faith ; the
cause between the Cathohcs and the Monothehtes was stUl pending ; and
whUe a cause is pending, the judge can impose sUence on both parties,
saving the right of one of them. Subsequent to that, when the sixth coun
cU terminated that controversy, the letters of the pontiff began directly to
wound the faith ; for, where a controversy is at an end, aU hesitation or
vacillation in the faith is contrary and offensive to the faith. Consequently,
although Honorius did not adhere to the opinion of the Monothehtes, the
general council could yet condemn his letters as documents which, issuing
from the Papal See, began to be injurious to the faith."
Father Francis Marchesi, of the Roman oratory, in his Clypeus Fortium,
or, a Defence of Honorius I. (Rome, 1680 ; 4to.), maintains, with great viva
city, that Honorius was not condemned by the sixth synod while it was
general and cecumenicaL.that is to say, until its eleventh session, but after
wards, when it was already dissolved. Boucas declares for this opinion, in
his Treatise on the Incarnation, Dissertation 4 ; and Torrecremata, BeUar
mine, and many others, are of nearly the same way of thinking.
" The most common opinion of modern authors is that which Garnier
defended, and to which Serry and Witasse gave then adhesion, namely, that
Honorius was not tainted with Monothehsm, and yet deserved condemna
tion because of his imprudent dissimulation and his not putting down the
new heresy. In support of that view of the case, a letter is quoted, of Leo
II. to the Spanish bishops, which letter Labbe has given in his Councils
(vol vi, col. 1247). Baronius deems the letter apocryphal, whUe Christianus
Lupus beheves it genuine.
"Monsignor Jean-Baptiste Bertoh, bishop of Feitre, in his exceUent

152 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Apology for Honorius I. (Feltre, 1750 ; 4to), takes an absolutely new way of
defending Honorius, not from the charge of an error as to the faith, for he
wUl not, for an instant, imagine that error, but from any negUgence of any
kind whatever. His arguments have such a manly sohdity, and are adorned
by such powerful erudition, as to dissipate aU doubt. AU must foUow the
road marked out by the prelate." The elaborate note of Novaes ends in
the foUowing words : " I submit my judgment in this matter to that prelate,
and to the fine extract from him given by Zacchary, in his Literary History
of Italy, vol. ii, book ii, chap. 24, p. 21, et seq."
FinaUy, after thus explaining the dispute, nothing remains to controvert
the infaUibUity of the Church as to dogmatic facts, as Havelange shows in
his learned and orthodox work, The Infallibility of the Church as to Bog-
matic Facts. (See the Historical and Literary Journal for April 1, 1790,
p. 530.*)
Honorius, towards the close of his reign, had to deplore the progress of
Mahometanism ; but God granted him the consolation of seeing Croatia
become Cathohc, and the Holy Cross taken from the Persians by the tri
umphant armies of Herachus.

72. SEVERINUS. — a. d. 640.
EVERINUS, a Roman, son of Labienus, was elected
pontiff on the 28th of May, 640, after the Holy See
had been vacant more than a year and a haK, because
the emperor would not ratify the election, as Severinus
had not approved the Ecthesis, or profession of faith,
published in 638, by the same emperor, which im
posed sUence on the question of one or two wiUs in
our Saviour. This latter the Monothehtes denied.
In this manner they endeavored to obtain a confirmation of their heresy.
The legates sent by Severinus perceived that they would obtain nothing
until that Ecthesis should be approved at Rome ; they went so far as to prom
ise the signature of the pope, and they returned to Italy after the con
firmation of the election of Severinus was obtained. But the pope showed
himself averse to aU approbation on that point. It was a decree in favor of
the Monothehtes ; and that work which Sergius had recommended was con-
* Feller, iii., p. 560.

JOHN rv.

153

demned by Severinus. Heraclius, offended at this, gave orders to his min
isters, and especiaUy to Isaac, exarch of Ravenna, and Mauritius, governor
of Rome, to sack the treasury of the Lateran Church. They were to spare
the Blessed Sacrament. Severinus, deeply afflicted, feU sick, and died after
a pontificate of three months and four days.
In one single ordination, this pope created nine bishops. He died on the
1st of August, 640. He was esteemed for his virtue, his piety, his mildness,
and his love for the poor. He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See
remained vacant four months and twenty-four days.
The refusal of Severinus, who was the acquaintance and friend of Hono
rius, would, K needed, suffice to prove that the celebrated letter written to
Sergius by Honorius does not permit the accusation of that pope as a Mono-
thelist, and only tended to impose upon aU an absolute sUence respecting
that anti-Catholic question.

73. JOHN IV— a. d. 640.

OHN IV., son of Venantius, of Zara, in Dalmatia,
cardinal-deacon, was elected pontiff on the 24th of
December, 640. Before he was consecrated, he ad
dressed a letter to the bishops of Scotia, and he
condemned some of them, who, on the subject of the
celebration of Easter, had not obeyed the decrees of
the Council of Nice. At the same time, he begged
the faithful to beware of the heresies of Pelagius,
which had revived in that country. Subsequently, in a council, he con
demned the Ecthesis of Herachus, and the error of the Monothehtes. He
approved the doctrine of Honorius I., as conformable to the true faith. The
heretics took unfair advantage of his letters to defend their heresy; he
declared every attack upon Honorius to be unjust and calumnious. He
sent to Constantine, son and successor of Herachus, a letter, begging that
the new emperor would revoke the Ecthesis of his father, which was done by
Constans, successor to Constantine I., in 641.
In a question which arose between the priests and the monks, as to the
administration of the parish churches, the pope decided that the latter
might administer such as should be committed to their charge.
John caused to be removed from his own country, Dalmatia, often exposed
to the incursions of the barbarians, the remains of the holy martyrs, Ve-

154

LIVES OF THE POPES.

nantius, Anastasius, and Maurus, and placed them in the Church of Saint
John Lateran, where they repose in the oratory, known, since 1575, as the
Madonna of Saint John.
The Holy Father created eighteen bishops, one priest, and five deacons.
He died on the 11th of October, 642, after governing the Church one year,
nine months, and eighteen days, and he was interred at the Vatican. The
Holy See remained vacant one month and thirteen days.

74. THEODORE I.— a. d. 642.

HEODOEE I., a Greek by descent, but born at
Jerusalem, was elected pontiff on the 24th of
November, 642. He wrote to Paul, patriarch of
Constantinople, synodal letters, in which he ordered
an examination of the cause of Pyrrhus, a Mono-
thehte, who then came to Eome, abjured his error
before the pope, and was received into the Cathohc
communion. This same Pyrrhus, having retracted
his retractation, Theodore assembled a council in
648, and condemned the relapsed heretic. The sentence was written with a
pen dipped in a chahce which contained the blood of our Lord. That cere
mony again practised by the fourth CouncU of Constantinople, the eighth
general council, in which Leo pronounced sentence against Photius, and
many years afterwards, at the conclusion of peace between Charles the
Bald, king of France, and Bernard, Count of Toulouse.
In the same councU, Theodore condemned Paul, who had instigated the
Emperor Constantius to pubhsh the Type or formulary.
In the Type, the emperor forbade all disputation between the Cathohcs
and Monothehtes. He threatened those who should disobey with deposi
tion, privation of trust, confiscation, banishment, and even corporal punish
ment.* The absurd zeal of the author of this edict, invoking the name of
the emperor, considered no punishment too severe for those who differed
from it in opinion. We shaU relate with some particularity what occurred
at Rome when that writing appeared. It was thenceforth, by the liveliest
and most just resistance that the popes manifested their independence.

* Italy : Didot, p. 39.

THEODORE I.

155

Their pohtical position appeared more secure than ever. The Lombards
hved more peacefully with the pontificate than with the inhabitants of Ra
venna. The exarchs gave themselves up to debauchery and to schemes of
avarice and robbery, as had been the case under the reign of Pope Severinus.
It was considered at Rome that the Edheds, though contradictory in its
terms, and imposing sUence on aU, yet seemed to pronounce in favor of the
Cathohcs, and it was probably for that reason that Pope Honorius, at the
time of the pubhcation of the Ecthesis, maintained the prescribed sUence,
and on the whole had acted rather as a private individual than as pope ; for
whUe the Type left the question undetermined, and absolutely forbade
explanation on either side, Cathohcs and heretics alike were to be silent.
Pope Theodore and his bishops, even the Lombard bishops, resisted that
edict, which they deemed dangerous, because, said they, it closed the
mouths of the orthodox, confounded truth and error, and left the faith mute
and in captivity.
Theodore caused the church of Saint Valentine, on the Flaminian Way,
near the Ponte MoUe, but now destroyed, to be buUt and richly ornamented.
From the Nomentanian Way, where they were first interred, he removed,
to the church of Saint Stephen the protomartyr, the bodies of the holy
martyrs, Primus and Fehcianus. He also hunt two oratories, the one at
Saint John Lateran, and the other outside of Saint Paul's gate ; the former
dedicated to Saint Sebastian, and the latter to Saint Euplus.
In one ordination, in December, Theodore created forty-six bishops,
twenty-one priests, and four deacons. He governed the Church six years,
five months, and nine days, and died on the 13th of May, 649.
He was affable to aU, and especiaUy to the poor. In some martyrologies
he has the title of Saint, but the Roman Martyrology does not give him that
title, the necessary documents being wanting.
He was interred at the Vatican, and the Holy See remained vacant one
month and twenty-two days.

156 LIVES OF THE POPES.

75. ST. MARTIN I.— a. d. 649.
ALNT MARTIN I., son of Fabricius, a rich and noble
personage of Todi, a town in the States of the
Church, was elected pope on the 5th of July, 649,
and consecrated without waiting for the consent of
the emperor, who afterwards accused him of taking
the pontificate irregularly, and without his consent.*
This pope himseK informs us, in a letter which is
contained in Labbe's CouncUs (Vol. v., p. 65), that
this was the reason why the pontiff of Rome was persecuted. He convoked
a councU in the church of Saint John Lateran, which was attended by five
hundred bishops. Here the Ecthesis, where necessary, and the Type, were
condemned. Such declarations required martial support, and the Lombard
kings did not seem disposed to' withhold it ; they declared for Pope Martin
against the Emperor Constans. The emperor endeavored, by stratagem, to
punish the pope for his opposition, and gave orders for his assassination.
But Martin never went forth except attended by a number of the clergy,
and the exarch, Olympius, who had received the order to commit the crime,
faUed to execute it. However, being eager to obey, he one day sent to beg
that the pope would give him communion in the church of Saint John
Lateran.t Constant watch was kept for designs against the Holy Father.
The bishops were foremost in showing zeal and eagerness to honor and
serve the pontiff. No one supposed that Olympius, clothed in the great
dignity of exarch, would thus draw the pope into an ambush, and dare to
commit a sacrUege in the church itself. Nevertheless, as the faithful at that
time received communion at the place in the church where they prayed, and
as the pontiff carried it to them, as at the present time it is carried only to
the pope in the Roman ceremonial, Olympius was to be apart, surrounded
by his guards, and his personal attendant ready to stab the pontiff at
the moment when he stooped to pronounce the words of communion.
The pope, attended by his bishops, advanced, and Olympius knelt to receive
the communion, but the assassin was appaUed, and Martin retired un
molested. Olympius demanded why his attendant had not kiUed the pope.
He rephed, that at the moment when the communion commenced he seemed
to be suddenly stricken with blindness, and in his agitation and a trembling
which he could not control, it seemed to him that the pope disappeared.
* Novaes, ii., p. 28. t l^7> P- 19-

SAINT MARTIN I. I57
Olympius, who already began to feel some remorse for the crime that he
had contemplated, did not punish his attendant, but, on the foUowing day,
threw himseK at the pope's feet, confessed the horrible project of assassin
ation, confided to him the order that had been sent from Constantinople,
promised not to execute it, and solicited his pardon. Martin, much affected,
raised Olympius from the ground, embraced and pardoned him. Constans
recaUed Olympius from his exarchate, and sent him to Sicily to fight the
MussiUmans, who had already invaded that island. Theodore CaUiopas was
appointed to succeed Olympius in the exarchate, and ordered to reside in
Rome, to execute important orders. CaUiopas arrived, with the determina
tion to obey the severest orders.
Italy, though subject to different masters, had but one feeling towards
Pope Martin. He was a pontiff of eminent piety, patient in bearing wrongs,
and inflexible in his desire to defend the faith. Simple and frugal in his
expenses, he was sumptuous only in his alms. He reconcUed differences,
and maintained the union essential to preserve Italy from useless disasters.
Men never spoke unmoved of the spectacle of the conscience-stricken
assassin, of the remorse of Olympius, and the impious obstinacy of the
emperor ; the words of CaUiopas were noted, his fury or his treachery was
everywhere dreaded, on the pubhc ways, in the palaces, in the processions,
and even in the very sanctuary.
Martin acquired, by a new title, the veneration and gratitude of the Chris
tians, when he sent to SicUy considerable sums to ransom the unfortunate
Christian inhabitants, whom the Saracens had reduced to slavery after a
defeat, of which Constans was the real author, because he deprived Olym
pius of the means of defending the towns.
Here we must remark, that the custom of the Mussulmans to reduce the
vanquished to slavery compeUed the Christians, notwithstanding the repre
sentations of the popes, to resort to reprisals, and to re-establish, at least,
during the wars with the Turks, the odious institution of slavery.
Martin, then, was regarded at Rome as an angel of peace, and as a worthy
successor of the apostles ; but as soon as he lost the displeasure of the
emperor, the court could see in Martin only a malignant and dangerous
man, a pontiff destitute of virtue, and a rebellious subject. When he sent
money to the Saracens for the ransom of Greeks and Itahans, and even the
soldiers of Olympius, the pope became, in their eyes, an enemy of the
emperor, seeking to dehver Italy to the Saracens. Such is ever the en
venomed spirit of cowards and sycophants !
CaUiopas did not delegate to another, as Olympius had, the task of
gratifying the emperor. He strengthened the military posts along the in-
trenchments erected by Aurehan, in the form of an arm on the right and
left of the tomb of Adrian, on the bank of the Tiber, and now known as the

158 LIVES OF THE POPES.
castle of Sant Angelo ; he appeared in pubhc, escorted by soldiers and by
Theodore PeUurius, chamberlain of the emperor, who was to receive the
person of Martin when he should be seized. The pope feU sick. CaUiopas
sent an officer to him, who said — " The exarch learns that the pontifical
palace has become a garrison, where arms and stones are coUected ; he
knows no cause for this, but he cannot refrain from condemning such
measures as preparations for revolt."
The pope ordered the officer to be shown over the palace, to convince
him that there were neither weapons nor stones there. The exarch had
adopted the stratagem to learn whether the palace had any means of
defence. Satisfied on that point by the report of his officer, CaUiopas no
longer concealed his designs. Martin then had his bed removed into the
church itseK, as into an inviolable asylum. CaUiopas broke in the doors
and rushed in, foUowed by his soldiery, shouting and striking their shields
with their swords. He destroyed the candlesticks, the tapers, and the seats,
and placed soldiers around the bed of the almost dying pontiff. He then
communicated to the clergy a letter of the emperor, .ordering the election
of another pope, on the ground that Martin was an intruder. Then, in spite
of the cries of the clergy, who pressed around their father, whom they
wished to accompany, and from whom they implored not to be separated,
he seized the person of the pontiff and carried him away a prisoner.
On the foUowing day Martin was dehvered into the hands of PeUurius,
who threw him into a bark on the Tiber, aUowing him to take nothing with
him but his torn clothes and a drinking-cup. The vUe chamberlain took
his victim to Porto, thence to Messina, where a vessel awaited to take him
to Constantinople.
The voyage was prolonged, in order to weary out the patience of Martin,
and the vessel was kept three months on the coast of Calabria. Suffering
from a dysentery which enfeebled him extremely, and shrinking from even
the most nourishing food, nothing was aUowed the pontiff except the coarse
food of the common saUors.
If priests, or the faithful in the neighboring places, brought him any
refreshment, they were iU treated, and told, " You must be enemies of the
emperor, as you love this man. At length the vessel saUed for Naxos, where
the pontiff was aUowed to go on shore, but only to be imprisoned in a
house in the town, where he was kept for an entire year. On the 17th
of September, 654, Martin, dragged violently from his prison, arrived
before Constantinople. The clergy at Rome, and the Lombards at Pavia,
had written to commend Saint Martin to the emperor; but those
entreaties only increased the fury of the heretic. He ordered Martin
to be kept on the shore a whole day, lying on a mat and exposed to the
insults of the populace. At last, confined in prison, he was harshly

SAINT MARTIN I.

159

questioned by the emperor, deprived of the pallium, dragged through the
streets and courts with a chain round his neck, and chained to his jailer,
as an indication that he was condemned to death. The executioner carried
before Martin the headsman's sword. Staggering with weakness, and
marking his passage with tracks of blood, he was then cast into another
prison, where he would have died of cold had not his guards taken compas
sion upon him. At the end of three months he was transported to Cherson,
then the place of exUe of great criminals. Here this noble pontiff died of
fatigue and suffering, on the 16th of September, 655.
The Romans had elected Pope Eugenius, during the hfe of Martin, who,
from his Cherson prison, approved the election, in order that the chair of
Peter should not remain vacant.
Thus ended the hfe of Martin, a worthy, learned, and courageous pon
tiff, firm in the opinions that he had professed, and in the principles of
order that aU Italy maintained against the Greek rhetors, even in that
state of pohtical dismemberment and that host of reciprocal capitulations
to which she was reduced.
As it is requisite to estabhsh the duration of the pontificate of Martin,
the decision of the Biario of Rome is foUowed. It states that Martin
governed the Church six years, two months, and twelve days. Novaes gives
this reign only five years, two months, and three days, basing his estimate
on the opinion of those authors who maintained that Martin ceased to be
pope after that election of Eugenius I. which he approved of in prison.
In two ordinations, in December, Martin, previous to his exUe, had
created thirty-three bishops, five or eleven priests, and five deacons.
His body was taken to Rome, and deposited in the church of Saint
Martin ai Monti. The Latins celebrate his feast on the 12th, and the
Greeks the day of his death, and also on the- 13th of AprU, with great
solemnity. Reckoning from the departure of Martin to the election of Eugenius, the
Holy See remained vacant one year, two months, and twenty days.

160 LIVES OF THE POPES.

76. EUGENE I.— a. d. 654.
UGENE I., a Roman, was elected on the 8th of
September, 654, with the consent of the stiU liv
ing, but imprisoned pope, Saint Martin I. The
Roman clergy were forced to this step by fear
of seeing the election of a Monothehte pontiff.
Cardinal Baronius* thinks that Eugene, during
the hfe of Martin, was only that pontiff's vicar, and
did not become truly a pope untU Martin's death.
FeUer,t in the short article that he has devoted to Eugene, says briefly :
"Eugene was vicar-general of the Church during the captivity of Pope
Saint Martin, and succeeded him in the pontificate in 656."
Peter, successor of Pyrrhus, in the patriarchate of Constantinople, and
an ardent abettor of the Monothehtes, hoped to baffle the vigUance of
him who exercised the functions of pontiff, and sent him, according to
ancient custom, the synodical letter. It was full of cunning and treacherous
expressions as to the wUls and operations of Christ, and was calculated to
impose upon any one who read it without serious attention. The Roman
clergy, accustomed to distrust Greek faith, and justly indignant against the
patriarchs of Byzantium, the authors of the sufferings of Pope Martin per
suaded Eugene to abstain from celebrating Mass, until he solemnly promised
neither to receive nor to approve the synodical letter. Eugene, who needed
not that advice, firmly rejected the letter as suspicious, and as secretly
heretical ; he sent his own synodical to Constantinople, and ended by con
demning his own apocrisiaries at the imperial court, who, seduced by the
patriarch, had begun to stray from the Catholic faith.
This pontiff died on the 2d of June, 657, and was buried at the Vatican.
He governed the Church, reckoning from the year 654, two years, eight
months, and twenty-four days.
In two ordinations he created twenty-two bishops. The Holy See was
vacant two months and nine days.
* Annal. Eccles. ad An. 652, No. 14, et ad An. 654, No. 6. \ n. p. 757.

SAINT VITALIAN. jgi

77. ST. VITALIAN— a. d. 657.
AINT VITALIAN, son of Anastasius Pontracius, of
Legni, a town in the Roman Campana, or born
according to others at Svernia, a castle in the
Abruzzi, was elected pontiff on the 11th of August,
657. He immediately dispatched his legates to the
Emperor Constans with a synodal letter, announ-
WM.\ cing his election, and exhorting him to abandon the
<^i» Monothehtes. The legates were weU received, and
brought back, as a gift to the church of Saint Peter, the gospels covered
with gold and precious stones. The Holy Father received the present
with marks of joy.
MeanwhUe Constans resolved to abandon Constantinople, expel the Lom
bards from Italy, and re-estabhsh Rome as the seat of the empire. " The
mother," said he, " deserves more consideration than the daughter." He therefore
fitted out a fleet, and embarked his treasures about the year 662 : he directed
his empress, whose name history has not preserved, to join him in the port,
with their three sons, Constantine Pogonatus, Herachus, and Tiberius.
But Andreas, his chamberlain, and Theodorus of Colonos, stirred up the
populace, who felt bound to show their detestation for a tyrant, combining
in himseK aU the cruelty of Nero, Commodus, and Hehogabalus. The
Byzantines accordingly prevented the famUy of Constans from joining him.
This did not for an instant turn him from his purpose. He mounted to the
deck of his vessel, spat at the city, and immediately set saU. After winter
ing at Athens, he set out for Italy early in spring, and reached Rome
on the 5th of July, in the year 663, and remained there for a few days.
The emperor was continuaUy boasting that he would destroy the Lombards,
but soon renounced aU hope. Pope Vitalian, at the head of his clergy, went
out to meet the emperor, and conducted him to the church of Saint Peter,
where the dissembler, in order to mask his evU intentions, left a rich pres
ent. Subsequently he visited Saint Mary Major, where also he made an
offering. On the foUowing day he again went to Saint Peter's, which he
surrounded with his troops. He heard Mass, and laid upon the altar
a piece of cloth of gold. On the following Sunday he again heard Mass
at Saint Peter's, and after the sacrifice the emperor and the pope embraced
and bade each other fareweU. This was the tweKth day after the arrival of
Constans. Up to this time he had displayed signs only of devotion and
pious liberality. But the .Lombards had defeated his rear-guard at Naples,
11

162 , LIVES OF THE POPES.
which deprived him of his hope of remaining at Rome. Before leaving
the city, he piUaged the churches, took back aU the presents he had made,
and carried off aU that was most precious in the city. He had been
sohcited to adorn the Pantheon, transformed into a church in 608, by Pope
Boniface IV., with the permission of the Emperor Phocas. But Constans
II. preferred plundering that temple of aU the metal plates on the roof.
Thus a Roman emperor was guUty of greater violence than can be charged
on the Goths and Vandals. He immediately hastened away with aU his
plunder to Syracuse. Such conduct could not fail to strengthen the power
of the popes in Italy.
Platina states that Vitahan introduced the use of organs in churches, for
divine service : others attribute that custom to Saint Damasus, but the pre
vailing, if not the correct opinion, attributes it to Saint. Vitahan. Moreri
states that organs were invented in the time of Saint Aldric, bishop of Mans,
who died in 856, and was among the first to place organs in churches. But
Ladvocat says that the invention was earlier by four centuries, inasmuch as
Claudian describes an organ. In fact, it is certain that before Pope Saint
Vitalian, Venantius Fortunatus, who died in 606, says, with reference to
Saint Germain, bishop of Paris, that in his time there were organs in the
churches of that city. The foUowing verses show that Fortunatus was ac
quainted with organs. " Exiguis attemperat organa cannis,
Ructat ab ore tubam —
Cymbalise noces —
Fistula dulce sonat."
Bingham (Orig. Eccles., liv. 8) affirms that organs were not known before
the time of Saint Thomas Aquinas. But such an opinion cannot possibly
be sustained.
Saint Vitahan sent back to the church of Lappa, in Candia, John, who
had appealed to the universal pontiff from the sentence of deposition pro
nounced by his metropohtan, Paul. The pontiff excommunicated Maurus,
bishop of Ravenna, who, proud of the favor of the exarch, refused to appear
at Rome to answer an accusation, and, shaking off the authority of the
Roman Church, had sohcited and obtained from Constans a decree de
claring Ravenna an autocephalic church.
The Holy Father, in four ordinations, created ninety-seven bishops,
twenty-two priests, and ten deacons. He governed the Church fourteen
years and ten months, and died on the 27th of January, 672.
In erudition, Vitalian may bear comparison with the most learned pontiffs ;
he was inferior to none of them in zeal for the propagation of rehgion, and
courage in its defence. He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See
remained vacant two months and twenty-four days.

SAINT VITALIAN. 153
The Emperor Constans, whUe in such constant dread of the Lombards,
seems to have had no fear of a far different danger which was one day to
threaten his successors in their own capital.
The doctrine of Mahomet has caused so many evUs to the Holy See, and
has given it so many opportunities of displaying its constancy and its cour
age, that it merits especial attention here.
Mahomet, at twelve years' of age, was instructed at Bosra, by a Nestorian
monk, whose name, according to some Eastern authors, was Fehx, son of
Aba-Absahbi, driven from Constantinople on account of his errors, at the
time when the Nestorians had lost aU credit in that city. This monk, Fehx,
shared the errors of the Nestorians, and he gave Mahomet his own gross
idea of the Christian rehgion. The fatal seed germinated in the bosom of
Mahomet ; at first he felt horror of the idolatry in which he had been born,
and that feeling being sharpened by ambition, he conceived the audacious
design of reforming the rehgion of Arabia, and making himseK master of
the country.
It was to Felix that Mahomet, who could neither read nor write, owed
many passages in the Koran that prove an indirect and imperfect acquaint
ance with the dogmas of Christianity. According to M. de Saint Martin,
Fehx, not to be an utter apostate, induced the impostor so far to compro
mise matters, as to confess Christ to be a prophet, and the son of God.
During the latter years of Mahomet's hfe began that cruel war, which
continued for eight hundred years, between the Mussulmans and the Greek
empire. This war occasioned the Crusades, which cost France Saint Louis,
and which, interrupted only by brief intervals, covered with its ravages
Asia, Africa, and especiaUy Italy, where the Saracens,* landing in 846, ad
vanced almost to the walls of Rome.
* The name of Saracens does not come from Sara, with which their origin has no connection,
but from the Arabic word Schark, which signifies East. From Schark is derived ScMrkiia, that
is to say, Orientals. Hosts of etymologies have no better origin, though there is a fancy for
connecting them to the most ancient formulas. There is an almost universal mania for thus
giving a high nobility to both names and things. Our lineage from Saint Peter will never need
the support of such misrepresentations, — it is the Truth, in all times, in all languages, and for
all ages to come.

164

LIVES OF THE POPES.

78. ADEODATUS I. — a. d. 672.

DEODATUS I., by many authors caUed Deusdet
dit II., was the son of Jovian, and was a Bene
dictine monk of Saint Erasmus of Rome, on the
Celian Mount, and afterwards cardinal-priest. He
was elected pontiff on the 22d of AprU, 672. He
confirmed to the Venetians their right to elect
their Doge.* That fact is a proof of the agreement
which then subsisted between Rome and Venice.
The Venetians, who, to rid themselves from the disturbances of democratic
anarchy, had wisely resolved to choose for themselves a more concentrated
and more stable government, could do no better than procure for their new
constitution a sacred sanction,t which could at once awe the tumultuous
multitude, and give the Venetians a new title to disengage themselves the
more frankly from the servitude in which they were kept by the emperors of
the East. On the other hand, the pontiff must have seen, with satisfaction,
a free people coming to him to implore an investiture that it beheved to be
necessary. Adeodatus ratified the privUege granted by Crotpert, bishop of Tours, to
the monastery of Saint Martin, which privilege consisted in freeing that
monastery from the authority of the ordinary. FeUer says that Adeodatus
was the first who employed in his letters the formula — Salutem et apostolicam
benedictionem.% Anastasius the Librarian describes Adeodatus as a pontiff of mUd dispo
sition, affable, hberal, and compassionate to the poor.
In one ordination, in December, he created six, or, as some authors say,
forty-six bishops, fourteen priests, and five deacons. He governed the
Church four years, two months, and a few days. He was interred in Saint
Peter's. The Holy See remained vacant four months and five days.

* Peter Giustiniani, Pier. Venet., lib. i., p. 6.
X We have already treated that question.

t Ctesarotti, p. 198.

ST. DONUS L— ST. AGATHO.

165

79. ST. DONUS I. — a. d. 676.

£ONUS I. is also caUed Domno, Domnione, Cono, and
Cunone. He was a Roman, the son of Mauritius,
and was elected pontiff on the 1st of November,
676. Reparatus, archbishop of Ravenna, wiser than
his predecessor Maur, recognized the obedience
that he owed to the Holy See. Donus magnificently
ornamented with marble tables the atrium of the
church of Saint Peter, and which was named Para
dise. He restored the Basihca of Saint Paul. Anastasius speaks of a
comet that was visible for three months during the reign of this pontiff.
The Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, after having concluded quite a
glorious peace with the Saracens, who were animated with the conquering
fury of their founder, Mahomet, desired to restore calm to the Greek and
Latin Churches, and asked that the Holy See should convoke a new
oecumenical councU, in which the great question upon the wiU of Christ
should be solemnly debated. He desired that the faithful should at length
receive a certain rule for their faith. The letters of Constantine did not
arrive until after the death of Donus, and were referred to his successor.
Donus created, in one ordination, six bishops, ten priests, and five dea
cons. He died on the 11th of AprU, 678, and was buried at Saint Peter's.
The Holy See was vacant two months and fifteen days.

80. ST. AGATHO.— a. d. 678.
ATNT AGATHO, son of Pannonius Amon, was born,
according to some, at Aquilano, at Valle Siculiana, in
the Abruzzi Bury says that this pope was a Sicilian,
and there is reason to believe that such is the fact.
Being a Benedictine monk, he hved in the monastery
of Saint Ermes, at Palermo. He was elected pontiff
on the 27th of June, 678. He was then, according
to Novaes, a hundred and three years old ; but Pla
tina, Bury, Fleury, FeUer, the Biographie Universelle, and M. Receveur
speak of no such age.

166 LIVES OF THE POPES.
After receiving the letters of Constantine, written with such pious inten
tions, Agatho celebrated a synod at Rome., in the year 679. It was attended
by a hundred and twenty-five bishops. In this Synod the Monothehtes
were condemned, and legates were elected to represent the pope, in
the general councU that was convoked at Constantinople. The le
gates were bearers of two letters, one from Agatho, and the other from the
synod, addressed to Constantine. In that of the pope, the foUowing
remarkable words occur : " We send you our legates. Do not expect to
find in them secular eloquence, or even perfect knowledge of the Scriptures.
How could those universal enlightenments be preserved amidst the tumult
of arms by prelates eompeUed to gain their daily bread by the daily labor
of their hands ? The patrimony of the churches has become the prey of the
barbarians. AU that these prelates have been able to save from so many
ravages is the treasure of the faith, such as our fathers transmitted it to us,
with nothing added to it and nothing taken from it."
In the same letter, Monothehsm was refuted by the constant tradition of
the Roman Church. "The Catholic universe," says the pope, "recognizes
this Church for the mother and the mistress of aU the others. Her primacy
came from Saint Peter, the prince of the Apostles, to whom Jesus Christ
intrusted the care of his whole flock, with a promise that his faith should
never be found wanting." That letter having been referred to the Fathers of
the councU, they received it respectfully, and declared that Peter had spoken
by the mouth of Agatho.
This general councU, commonly caUed in trullo, from the round form
of the vault where it was held, is known as the sixth general councU,
and the third of Constantinople. There were two hundred and eighty-
five Fathers present. It condemned the Ecthesis of Herachus, the Type of
the Emperor Constans, and the Monothehtes. FinaUy, it declared that
there were two wiUs in Christ.
After the council, in which the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus gave so
many proofs of pure Cathohcity, the pope obtained from him the remission
of the three thousand solidi of gold which were exacted by the emperor on the
election of each pope, and it was agreed that thenceforth that tribute should
not be imposed upon the Holy See. That abuse had been introduced under
Athalaric, and continued under some emperors of the East. Agatho sent
chanters to England to teach the clergy of that country the Roman
chant. Vitahan had taken a like course with respect to France, whither
he had sent the chanter John to instruct the clerks. In one ordination, in
December, Agatho created eighteen bishops, ten priests, and three deacons.
He governed the Church three years, six months, and fifteen days. The
great number of miracles that he performed obtained for him, says Anas
tasius, the surname of Thaumaturgist. The Greeks, as weU as the Latins,

SAINT LEO II.

167

honor his memory on the 10th of January. Novaes distinctly says that
Agatho died at the age of one hundred and seven years, and he quotes
Mongitore, who affirms that fact.*
Agatho was affable and generous ; none ever left his presence, discon
tented. He was interred at Saint Peter's. The Holy See remained vacant
seven months and five days.
Novaes says nothing . about the accusations which at this time arose
against Honorius, of which we have spoken in the hfe of that pope. It is
certain, in the first place, that Agatho in his letter in which he traced aU the
Monothelite antecedents as keenly as he attacked those errors of his own
time, never once mentioned Pope Honorius. In the History of the Papacy,
by Baron Henrion (2d edition, Paris, 1834, 12mo, p. 128), we find the
foUowing passage : " If the natural and grammatical sense of the assertion
of Honorius is liable to blame, at least the personal sense of the rescript
of that pope has been solidly justified, in such wise that in the dogmatic
facts there is nothing contrary to the infalhbUity of the Church. More
over, Honorius never ceased, to his last breath, to profess and to defend
the truth, and to exhort and threaten those same Monothehtes whose
opinions he has since been accused of embracing."
FinaUy, the eighth general councU, whose decisions are most certainly
to be honored, confesses, adds Henrion, that the pure doctrine had been
invariably taught from the apostohc chair.

81. ST. LEO II.— a. d. 682.

N the death of Saint Agatho, Saint Leo n., son of
Paul Manco, a physician, was elected pope. He
was born at Piano-di-San-Martino, near Reggio,
in Grecia Magna (now the Kingdom of Naples). He
was originaUy a canon-regular, and then cardinal-
priest. He was elected pope on the 16th of August,
682, and then consecrated according to the estab
lished custom by the bishop of Ostia, assisted by
the bishop of Porto and another bishop.
He confirmed the sixth councU, in trullo, whose acts had been taken to
Rome by Agatho's legates, and he translated them from the Greek into the

* Sicilia Bicercata, Vol. i., chap, liv., p. 172.

168 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Latin in order to send a copy of them to the Spanish bishops. The emperor
Constantine, at the request of Leo, ordered that on the death of the titular
archbishop of Ravenna, the newly elected archbishop should go to Rome
to be consecrated, conformably to usage ; the pope at the same time dis
pensed the See of Ravenna from paying the offering customary at that
consecration. Saint Leo was a great lover of music, he improved the Gregorian
chants, regulated the different modes of intoning the hymns, and composed
several new ones. He instituted the Kiss of Peace in the Mass, and the
sprinkling of holy water upon the people. Four letters are attributed to him,
but Baronius believes them to be apocryphal.
In one ordination, on the 16th of June, he created twenty-three bishops,
nine priests, and three deacons ; he governed the Church ten months and
seventeen days, and died on the 4th of July, 683. To extensive knowledge
he joined rare prudence.
He was interred at Saint Peter's. The Holy See remained vacant eleven
months and twenty-two days.

82. ST. BENEDICT II.— a. d. 684.
& T is debated among writers whether Saint Benedict
* II., a Roman, son of John, and supposed to be of
H the SaveUi family, was a canon-regular of Saint
John Lateran, or a Benedictine monk. He was a
cardinal-priest, and was elected pontiff on the
26th of June, 684. Previous to being conse
crated, he intrusted the care of some affairs to
Peter, regionary notary, whom the preceding pon
tiff, Saint Leo II., had sent into Spain with the acts of the sixth general
council ; they were addressed to a councU of Toledo, which was to recog
nize the definition settled at that councU. It is thence inferred that at the
time of the election of Benedict the ancient custom of the pontifical govern
ment ceased ; by that custom, at the death of a pope, and from the election
to the consecration of his successor, the powers of the government were
intrusted to the archpriest, the archdeacon, and the primate of the
notaries. The Emperor Constantine IV, who had a tender affection for Benedict,
decreed that thenceforth the election of the Roman pontiff should not need

JOHN v. 169
the confirmation of the emperor, nor even that of the exarch, a change
which the popes long and vainly sohcited. Unfortunately, the effect of that
decree was not long enjoyed, for Justinian II., son and successor of the
pious Constantine, paying no respect to the decision of his father, renewed
the same abuse, by committing to the exarch of Ravenna the right of con
firming the election of Pope Conon.
Benedict, reared in the love of poverty, patient, mild, hberal, versed in
the Holy Scriptures, says Fleury, and learned in the rules of the chant, was
much regretted. He created twelve bishops, and governed the Church ten
months and twelve days. According to Baronius, this pontiff was so beloved
by the Emperor Constantine that the prince sent to the pope the hair of
his sons Justinian and Herachus, which at that time signified that the
emperor looked upon the pontiff as a second father of the young heirs of the
empire. Benedict died on the 7th of March, 685, and was interred at Saint
Peter's. The Holy See remained vacant two months and fifteen days.

83. JOHN V— a. d. 685.
OHN V, son of Cyriacus, of Antioch, cardinal-deacon
at the sixth oecumenical councU, was elected pontiff
on the 23d of July, 685, and consecrated wi.hout
waiting for the confirmation of the emperor, or the
exarch. This pope restored to the Holy See the
Churches of Sardinia, the ordinations of which had
jSCfLi from primitive times belonged to her, but had been
temporarily granted to the archbishop of Caghari.
In one ordination of December, John created thirteen bishops. He
governed one year and ten days, but was almost constantly Ul. He died on
the first of August, and was interred at Saint Peter's. He was a man fiUed
with piety, prudence, zeal, and knowledge. The Holy See remained vacant-
five months and eighteen days.
The Emperor Constantine IV. died in 685. Two great events signalize
this reign, the repression of the Saracens, and the restoration of peace to
the Church.
This emperor, generous, and often even magnanimous, who so worthUy
atoned for the crimes of his father, Constans II., a monarch as perfidious as
he was cruel, was succeeded by a prince only sixteen years old, Justinian H.,

170

LIVES OF THE POPES.

son of John. The young emperor, trifling with his sovereign power, suc
cessively inherited, lost, and recovered it. In his misfortunes Justinian
implored the clemency and the compassion of the conqueror, and thus
obtained his hfe ; but when he regained power he knew not how to pardon.
He suffered his heutenants to dishonor his name in Italy, and under the
successors of John V. we shaU see the, evil influence of Justinian develop
itseK, to the calamity of the Church.

84. CONON. — a. d. 687.

HIS pope, the son of Benedict, of Thracian race,
was born at Temeswar, a town of Lower Mysia,
where Ovid was exUed. Conon received his educa
tion in Sicily, became cardinal-priest, and was
elected pope in 687. He was compeUed, notwith
standing the decree of Constantine Pognatus, to
sohcit the confirmation of the exarch of Ravenna.
=^jW This pope governed the Church during only a few
^ months. In one ordination he created sixteen
bishops. He was an old man, white haired, of venerable countenance;
simple, peaceable, stranger to faction, of but httle experience in pubhc
business. Some authors accuse him of imprudence, because he ordained as bishop
of Antioch, Constantine, a Syracusan, and rector of the patrimony of the
Roman Church in Sicily, without making previous inquiry of the clergy at
Rome as to the merit and bearing of the new bishop, as was the custom for
aU ecclesiastical appointments. Subsequently, says Pagi (Breviar. Gest,
Rom. Pont), it was ascertained that Constantine was unworthy of that
honor. This pope died on the 21st of September, 687, and was interred at the
Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant two months and twenty-three
days. At the moment of the election of Conon, that is to say, after the death of
John, there were two antipopes, Peter, archpriest, and Theodore, priest.
The former was supported by the clergy, the second by the judges and the
army. To put an end to the intrigues, the clergy elected a third, Conon.
Justinian II. had fomented aU these troubles.
Under this reign, Saint KUlian, of an Ulustrious family of Great Britain,

SAINT SERGIUS I.

171

obtained permission to go to Germany to convert the infidels. At first he
met with great success at Wurtzburgh, but afterwards incurred the unjust
hatred of the wife of the Duke Gosbert, who governed that country. When
that English bishop and his companions were singing the praises of the
Lord, the duke's wKe caused them to be arrested, and they subsequently
suffered martyrdom with a courage worthy of the primitive times of the
Church.

85. ST. SERGIUS I.— a. d. 687.

AINT SERGIUS I., son of Tiberius, native .of
Antioch, and educated at Palermo, or rather, as
some say, Syrian by descent, born at Palermo, and
educated at Rome, where he became a canon-regular
of Saint John Lateran, was first named cardinal-
priest of Saint Susannah by Leo H., and was elected
pontiff on the 15th of December, 687. Justinian
H., successor of Constantine IV., and the son whose
hair the latter had sent as a token of filial love to Benedict II., had subse
quently continued to manifest feehngs of hatred and malignity. Hardy
and presumptuous, he confounded the Roman monarchy with the whole
world ; claimed that aU peoples ought to obey his laws, and beheved that
he had a right even to seU the very chair of Saint Peter. In a council held
at Constantinople, and at which only Greek prelates were present, he caused
it to be decided that priests who had married previous to their ordination
should be permitted to retain their wives. This councU was called quinisex-
tile, because it was, as it were, supplementary to the fifth and sixth general
councUs. The discipline of the West did not aUow of the possibility of
this rule. A hundred and five canons had been passed in that assembly,
and when they were submitted to Sergius for his approbation he refused it.
Irritated by this refusal to subscribe the name of the Holy See to the
decision of the Greek councU, Justinian publicly ordered Zachary, his
esquire, to seize the pope and convey him to Constantinople. Zachary, on
proceeding to Rome, found the whole people in arms for the defence of
their pastor.* The soldiery of the exarchate hastened from Ravenna to
Rome with the same hostile design against the pope, and the city resounded
with shouts and threatenings. Zachary, pursued from street to street, took

Italy, p. 47.

172 LIVES OF THE POPES.
shelter in the very chamber of the pope, whom he entreated to save him
The Lombard ambassadors, who resided at Rome at the same time, sent off
couriers begging that Lombard troops might be sent to the defence of Ser
gius. Suddenly a rumor arose that by treachery, combined with violence,
the pope had been carried off and embarked upon the Tiber. The troops
from Ravenna immediately invaded the palace, and tumultuously demanded
to see the pope, threatening to burst in the doors if they were not instantly
opened. Zachary, concealed beneath the very bed of the pope, feared that
he should be discovered, and entreated the pope not to desert him. Ser
gius promised him protection, ordered the doors to be thrown open, and
presented himseK to the soldiers, who kissed his hands and garments.
The times had changed since an emperor had so cruelly carried off Pope
Martin. The unworthy treatment of that martyr was stiU remembered,
and it was known that Justinian was prepared to be no less barbarous
than his ancestor Constans. The pope purified the people and blessed
them, and solicited the hfe of Zachary, which the Romans granted, and
Zachary was ignominiously driven from Rome. This was the first time that
the Itahans sided with the pontiff in opposition to the imperial power.
This pope, by his prudence, reconcUed to the Church of Rome that of
Aquilea, which from the time of Vigihus had been separated on account of
not condemning the three chapters.
Saint Sergius ordered that on the Annunciation, Nativity, Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin, and Saint Simeon's day, that is to say, Purification,
the people, should go in procession from Saint Adrian to Saint Mary
Major. Sergius had made himseK beloved by Rome, and by aU Italy. After
having saved him from so many dangers, they regarded him as their own
conquest. This pope died on the 7th of September, 701. He had governed
the Church thirteen years, eight months, and twenty-four days. In two
ordinations he created ninety-six bishops, eighteen priests, and four deacons.
He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant one month
and twenty days.
It was at that period that Africa feU into the power of the Mussulmans.
As they had taken Carthage, the emperor sent the patrician John, a great
captain, who drove them out ; but, in the foUowing year, they again
returned in great force, recaptured Carthage and some other towns, and
thus extinguished the power of the Romans in Africa, where they had
ruled for eight hundred and fifty years, from the year 608 of Rome, when
Carthage was taken by Scipio.
On the death of the Pontiff Conon, the sacred comitia were assembled.
Theodore, archpriest, and Pascal, archdeacon, presented themselves as can
didates to succeed him. Theodore had already been the competitor of

JOHN VI.

173

Conon. Neither of the rivals would yield, and then it was that Sergius was
elected. Subsequently, Pascal, convicted of magic, was degraded and con
fined in a monastery, where he died impenitent. Theodore had yielded
in good faith to the authority of Sergius, and Pascal had never ceased to
show anger and discontent.

86. JOHN VI.— a. d. 701.
OHN VI., a Greek, son of Petronius, was elected
pontiff on the 28th of October, 701. Scarcely did
the Emperor Tiberius Absimarius hear of that ex
altation, than he sent to Rome the exarch of Ra
venna, Theophylaetus, a patrician, to obtain from
the pope, by force, his approbation in a certain
business which was not clearly explained. But the
Itahan army, which a short time before had pro
tected Sergius, also pronounced now in favor of John, seeing in Theophy
laetus another CaUiopas, or another Zachary. The soldiers were about to
strike the exarch, but John interposed. Baronius observes that divine
Providence, protecting the Roman pontiffs, so manifested itseK then in their
favor, that when the emperors attacked or insulted the popes, the Itahan
soldiers protected them against the imperial power. From that time, the
power of the exarchs began to dechne, and that of the popes continuaUy
increased. The latter profited by those advantages, but without abusing
them ; moreover, it was a wise principle not to rely too much on the favor
of the mihtary.
In the council that John celebrated at Rome, in the year 703, he declared
the innocence of Saint Wilfred, bishop of York, who had been deposed from
his See in the year 692, and appealed to Rome. The pope received that
bishop kindly, attentively examined the case, and sent him back to England,
with recommendations to the kings of that country.
John governed three years, two months, and thirteen days. In one ordi
nation he created fifteen bishops, nine priests, and two deacons. He died
on the 9th of January, 705. The apostohcal charity of John led him to
redeem aU the slaves who had faUen into the power of GisuK, duke of
Benevento, who had ravaged the Roman territory. John was interred, ac
cording to some, in the catacombs of Saint Sebastian, but according to
others in the Basihca of Saint Peter. The Holy See remained vacant one
month and twenty days.

174

LIVES OF THE POPES.

That year the Caliph Wahd caused a magnificent mosque to be buUt in Da
mascus, his capital ; having the great church, dedicated to Saint John, razed
to the ground for that purpose. It is said that he offered the Christians to
purchase then- cathedral church of Saint John for a considerable sum. They
refused it, and then the Mussulman seized upon the church, razed it, and on
its site had his mosque erected, without giving any thing to the Christians.
This outrage was avenged four centuries later by the French kings of
Jerusalem.

87. JOHN VIL— a. d. 705.

OHN Vn., cardinal-deacon of Saint Mary the New,
son of Plato, a Greek, said by others, but with httle
foundation, to have been born at Rossano, in Cala
bria, in Magna Grecia, was a very learned man for
his time. He was elected pontiff on the 1st of
March, 705.
In 707, Aribert II., king of the Lombards, re
stored to him the Cottian Alps. They were thus
called from Prince Cottius, who for a long time possessed them under the
Emperor Octavian Augustus. They formed the fifth province of Italy,
made part of Liguria to the confines of Gaul, and contained Tortona,
Bobbio, Acqui, Genoa, and Savona.
Previous to the coming of the Lombards, the Cottian Alps were admin
istered by, the popes. The Lombards usurped those provinces in spite of
the remonstrances of the various pontiffs. Aribert caused a diploma to be
drawn up in letters of gold, and in that document he recognized the prop
erty of the Holy See ; it was afterwards confirmed by King Luitprand,
under the reign of Gregory II., as is related by Paul the Deacon.
The Emperor Justinian II., having sent to John the canons of the last
councU held at Constantinople, with the request that he would confirm what
he should approve, and reject what he should disapprove in them, John
returned the documents unread, because the councU had not been assem
bled with the intervention of the papal legates. Anastasius the Librarian,
blames John for this conduct, and thinks that as in those canons there was
much that was good, John would have done weU to approve them, with the
exception of such canons as were bad.
FeUer and Novaes judge John, perhaps, too severely upon this subject.
FeUer quotes the opinion of Fleury, who says that — John, fearing to displease

John vn. 175
the emperor, sent back those volumes without correcting any thing in them.
Novaes quotes the opinion of Christianus Lupus, who also blames the pon
tiff, on the authority of Anastasius. But, considering the conduct of Con
stans towards Pope Martin, and the services rendered to Popes Sergius and
John VI., by the soldiery of Rome and Ravenna ; considering, too, the per
verse and hypocritical nature of Justinian II., and the natural instabihty of
the soldiery, we may judge John VH. less severely. Evidently, had he
acted as Anastasius, Christianus Lupus, FeUer, and Novaes seem to advise,
it might have happened that Justinian, approving what John might have
approved, but then refusing to reject whatever John might have rejected,
the already embarrassing circumstances have been fataUy complicated by
such a course being adopted by the Holy See.
After composing the history of the sovereign pontiffs, after fulfilling in
part the grave duty I had assumed, I have revised it sheet by sheet, adding,
as occasion required, omitted facts, when they could explain, apparently
erroneous conduct. It would have iU become me not to meet unfounded
accusations, repeated from age to age. I have intentionaUy dwelt on the
fearful sufferings of Martin ; with Baronius, I have blessed Providence for
protecting other popes against the atrocious chamberlains o'f Constantino
ple, and I now beheve that John VII. does not merit the censure given him ;
that he consvdted calm and experienced men ; those prudent and able men
who showed him the necessity of acting as he acted with Justinian. This
pope had the magnanimity to expose himseK to great dangers ; his name
has been compromised during the succession of a thousand years, whUe he
was reaUy a sagacious pontiff, ready to foUow sage counsel and slow to write.
We should aU think so now ; the misfortunes of Honorius, abandoned by
the legates of the sixth councU, was a formidable warning to the successors
of that pope. The course pursued by John VH. entaUed no more evUs
on the Church, gave Justinian no more opportunity for invading the rights
of the Holy See, and crushing its rising power.
He did not postpone the epoch when that power was to take its majestic
course amid the nations that honor a spirit of order and civilization, becom
ing, as we shaU see in the sequel, the regenerative power in Europe. If we
are not to praise blindly aU that the world praises, it is the historian's duty
not to blame lightly what others have unjustly censured.
John VII. governed the Church two years, seven months, and seventeen
days. In one ordination he created fifteen bishops, nine priests, and two dea
cons. He died on the 17th of October, 707, and was interred in the Vatican,
in front of the Altar of the Madonna, now called of the Sudorio, which he
had himseK set up.
The Holy See remained vacant three months.

176

LIVES OF THE POPES.

88. SISINNIUS— a. d. 708.
ISINNIUS, a native of Syria, son of John, was elected
pontiff on the 18th of January, 708. He reigned
only twenty days, during which time he held one
ordination, and created bishops for Corsica. He
died in February of the same year, from an attack
of gout. He had lost the use of both his hands
and his feet. Notwithstanding his great sufferings,
he was of a noble and generous disposition. He
contemplated restoring the waUs of Rome, and rebuilding many of the
churches. Death took him away, when already, in so brief a reign, he
had coUected considerable materials for that laudable undertaking. He
was interred at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant one month and nineteen days.

89. CONSTANTINE — a. d. 708.
ONSTANTINE, born at Syria, son of John, was
elected pontiff on the 25th of March, 708. Jus
tinian was stiU emperor, and his conduct proves
that that of John VII. was as courageous as it
was skUful. Justinian, from time to time, showed
himseK indignant that the canons of his council
had not been accepted at Rome; but he ap
peared to be unwilling to resort again to trick
and perfidy, and he wrote to Pope Constantine, formerly his friend, and
entreated him to visit Byzantium. The emperor declared that he wished to
converse amicably with the pontiff upon ecclesiastical affairs; and even
intimated his intention to change his conduct and to expiate his faults, and
he urged the pope to visit him, and encourage his projects of penitence and
clemency. Constantine, full of strength and zeal, deemed it his duty not to hesitate
about undertaking a journey so interesting and important to the Holy See ;
and he risked his hfe had the tyrant been audacious enough to take it.

CONSTANTINE. 177
Setting out from Rome on the 5th of October, 710, he went by sea,
accompanied by a very numerous cortege, consisting of deacons, priests, and
bishops, continuing his journey by way of SicUy. The reception given to
him by order of the emperor induced him to beheve that that prince
harbored no evil intentions. An imperial diploma ordered aU officers to
pay to the pope the same honors as .to the emperor himseK. Tiberius, son
of Justinian, foUowed by the principal Greek nobility, and the patriarch
Cyrus at the head of his clergy, and a multitude of the people, met the pope
at about seven mUes from Byzantium. The pope, dressed in the same vest
ments that he wore at Rome* on days of ceremony, and the principal clergy
mounted on horses from the Imperial stables, with their saddles, bridles, and
housings richly embroidered with gold, entered in triumph. Thus far the
courage of Constantine seemed fully rewarded. The emperor was absent,
and the pope was conducted to the palace that had been prepared to receive
him. The prince, who was at Nice, as soon as he heard of the arrival of
the pontiff, sent him a letter of congratulation, and begged him to come to
Nicomedia, to which he was himseK proceeding. At their first interview,
the emperor with his crown on his head, prostrated himseK before the pope,
and kissed his feet.t Then they embraced, amidst the applauding shouts
of the people. It was in a private interview that they conversed about the
canons of the councU. Constantine, considering himseK in a situation dK-
ferent from that in which John VH. had been placed, rejected one portion
of the canons and accepted the other portion. The conference terminated
to the satisfaction of the emperor, who showed his pleasure at having
obtained some advantages from the condescension of Constantine, and to
give a pubhc testimony of his satisfaction, he on the foUowing Sunday was
present at the Mass that was celebrated by the pope, and received the
Communion from the Holy Father's own hand. On conjuring the pope to
grant him the remission of his sins, the emperor renewed the privUeges
which his predecessors had granted to the Church of Rome ; and he then
permitted his return to Italy. The pope re-entered his own capital in 711,
after a year's absence, stronger, more powerful, more sovereign than ever.
Justinian having been assassinated, Phihppicus Bardauns endeavored to
re-estabhsh the doctrine of the Monothehtes. Constantine, with new cour
age, resisted.
* Italy, p. 51.
f Since then the great princes of the earth have given that token of respect to the sovereign
head of the Church. Luitprand, king of the Lombards, gave it to Gregory H.. ;: Raechis, king of
the same nation, to Zachary ; the Emperor Charlemagne, to Adrian L ;: Louis the Pius, to
Stephen IV. ; Sigismund to Eugene IV. ; Frederick Barbarossa, to Alexander III. ; Stephen,
king of Hungary, to Benedict VII. ; Charles VIII., king of France, to Alexander VL ; the
Emperor Charles V., to Clement VII., and Paul IU. ; Charles III., king of Naples, and subse
quently of Spain, to Benedict XTV. 12

178 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Phihppicus was succeeded by Anastasius II., a profoundly Cathohc
prince. He sent to Constantine a confession of faith, fuU and entire, and
peace was re-estabhshed in the Church. Constantine governed seven years
and twelve days.
In one ordination he created sixty-four bishops, ten priests, and two
deacons. He died on the 8th of AprU, 715, and was interred at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant one month and ten days.
There is a serious consideration which has escaped historians — it is
this : since Saint Peter, who came to Rome in the year of our Lord 42,
since Saint Linus, A. D. 66, and his principal successors, Saint Evaristus,
Saint Pius, Saint Victor, Saint Sylvester, and to Pope Constantine in
708, there wei*e eighty-nine popes. The clergy of Rome, it is true, fre
quently gave the power to their compatriots. Of the above number
forty were Romans ; but the other forty-nine were, one Gahlean, and the
remainder Tuscans, Athenians, Syrians, Byzantine Greeks, Africans, Dal
matians, Spaniards, Sardinians, Corsicans, Sicilians, and Neapohtans. Cer
tainly a pious impartiahty alone could have dictated those selections. They
appear to have been dictated solely by zeal for rehgion. No faithful Chris
tian was excluded. The three (then known) great divisions of the globe had,
respectively, their candidates, and frequently those of Asia and Africa
obtained the votes. What respect must not such a rare spirit of charity,
freedom, and justice, command from the entire universe !* Rome could not
be accused of exclusively placing her own chUdren in the chair of Saint
Peter. It may be imagined that in Rome a preference would sometimes be
felt for the Roman candidate, but that tendency did not exist to such an
extent as to exclude others. So judicious a plan, rising above aU dismem
berings and schisms, singularly elevated and increased the power of the Holy
See, especiaUy at periods when Syrians, like Constantine, and immediate
subjects of Byzantium, obtained the suffrages of the Romans. It need
not be asked how the popes became sovereigns of the surrounding country ;
rather it should be asked how could they possibly faU to become so under
such circumstances, notwithstanding the difference between the head of
the Church and the heads of States, between the spiritual and the temporal,
between heayen and earth. It may be said that it is not the same now ; it
is not the first time that the operations of skUl and reserve found neces
sary to establish, are not the same as those necessary to preserve.
* Italy, p 63.

SAINT GREGORY H. 179

90. ST. GREGORY II.— a. d. 715,
AS a Roman Benedictine monk, chaplain and libra
rian of the Holy Roman Church, a cardinal-deacon,
(a dignity which he owed to Saint Sergius, and,
according to several writers, to Constans, who,
when at Constantinople, brought him thence).
His election, on the 19th of May, 715, was the re
sult of a remarkable agreement in opinion between
the Roman clergy and people. The intentions
of this pope were irreproachable, his courage was firm, and he vigorously
maintained the rights of the Church. At the commencement of his pontifi
cate he began to repair the waUs of Rome, but various circumstances re
tarded that useful design.
Italy was a prey to the Lombards, who had surprised Cumea, near Naples,
during a peace, and refused to restore it, although Gregory threatened them
with the anger of God. Their obstinacy was not to be shaken by entreat
ies, threats, or presents ; and Duke John of Naples, supported by Gregory,
retook Cumea by force.
This pontiff also labored to revive monastic discipline in Italy. To
restore the abbey of Monte Casino, ruined by the Lombards about a hun
dred and fifty years before, he sent Petronax, who, having from pious mo
tives visited Rome, had there embraced the monastic hfe. He was accom
panied, in the holy mission entrusted to him by some brethren of the
monastery of the Lateran, founded at Rome in the time of Pelagius II. by
the monks of Monte Casino, who had taken shelter in the capital.
Petronax and his companions, on their arrival at Monte Casino, found a
few anchorites living there in great simplicity. Amid the ruins of the old
monastery these anchorites, together with some new brethren, formed one
community, and elected as their superior Petronax, who thus became the
sixth abbot from the original founding of the order. The re-estabhshment
of the monastery of Monte Casino took place in the year 718, and from
that time the monastery was very famous, and considered as a fountain dif
fusing the pure observance of the rule of the great Saint Benedict.
Let us learn from Fleury how, at that period, the Enghsh understood
CathoUcity. " They continued," says Fleury,* " their pilgrimages to Rome,
* Fleury, ix., p. 165.

180 LIVES OF THE POPES.
and Ceolfrid, abbot of Weymouth, died on his way back. Seeing that age
prevented his further instruction of his disciples, and disabled him from
setting them an example of perfect regularity, he, after long consideration,
determined that it would be best to have a new abbot elected, that he him
self might go to Rome, to die in that city which he had formerly \isited
with Saint Benedict Biscop, his master. The monks endeavored to detain
Ceolfrid by weeping and clinging to his knees, but he hastened his departure,
fearing that he might die on the way, or be prevented from proceeding by
some of the lords of the country. On the third day after he had announced
his intention to depart, Mass was celebrated very early in the morning, those
present communicated, and then they assembled in the church of Saint Peter,
and the abbot gave them the kiss of peace from the steps of the altar, censer
in hand. The chant of htanies was broken by the sobs of the brethren,
and they entered the oratory of Saint Laurence, where the pUgrim bade
them a last fareweU. He was attended to the river side by the deacons,
carrying lighted tapers and a golden cross. AU knelt, and praying once
more, the holy abbot set out, leaving about six hundred monks in the two
monasteries of Jarrow and Weymouth. As soon as their former head had
departed, the monks unanimously elected for their abbot Hucbert, who im
mediately foUowed Saint Ceolfrid, who had not yet saUed. He approved
the choice, and even took from the new abbot, his successor, a letter of
recommendation to Pope Gregory II. He did not reach Rome, but falling
sick at Langres, in France, died there, aged 74 years."
Nor was that the only triumph of Cathohcity in England at that time.
In the same year, the Irish monks abandoned their diversity of opinion,
and joined in the observance of the Roman Church relative to Easter and
the ecclesiastical tonsure. For this purpose God made use of Saint Egbert,
an Englishman who had embraced the monastic IKe in freland. Having
arrived at the monastery, he was received with much distinction, and as he
was very learned and very zealous, he persuaded these good monks to quit
their erroneous tradition. It is beheved that they, at the same time, adopted
the rule of Saint Benedict.
But that was not enough to place the Enghsh in the first rank among
the piUars of Christianity. The greatest hght of the Enghsh Church at
this time was Saint Boniface, afterwards the Apostle of Germany.
Bossuet, in his rapid glance at religious affairs, which he described with
the countless events of history, gives only three lines to the heroism of Saint
Boniface. These three lines, as usual sublime, should not be neglected :
" Religion was estabhshed in Germany : the holy priest Boniface converted
those nations, and was made their bishop by Pope Gregory H., who had
sent him thither."
I do not add this pope's name to the texts I cite or extract from other

SAINT GREGORY II. 181
historians. I repeat, in their very words, the homage they address to this
holy pontiff. His reputation drew to Rome aU who wished to show their
zeal for the doctrine of Christ.
Boniface, or, as he was caUed in Saxon, Winifred, who had already en
joyed great renown in England, determined to visit Rome. He there pre
sented himseK before the pope, and explained his desire to labor for the
conversion of the heathen. The pope, looking kindly upon him, asked him
K he had brought any letters from his bishop. Winifred had not neglected
to procure letters dimissory from Bishop Daniel, of Winchester, in whose
diocese he had received the priesthood, and he drew from beneath his cloak
a sealed letter for the pope,* and another unsealed, which was a general
letter of recommendation to aU Christians, according to the then existing
custom. The pope motioned to him to withdraw, and having at his leisure
read the letters of Bishop Daniel, he had several conferences with Winifred
whUe he waited for a favorable season for his journey, that is to say, the
beginning of summer, 719. Then the pope gave Winifred the rehcs he had
asked for, together with the mission to preach the Gospel to aU the infidel
nations that he might reach, to baptize them according to the Roman ritual,
and to communicate to the Holy See whatever might tend to the accom-
phshment of that mission. The plenary powers bear date the 15th of
March, in the third year of the reign of the Emperor Leo II., indiction the
second, that is to say, A. D. 719. With these letters Winifred first passed into
Lombardy, where he was honorably received by King Luitprand. He then
traversed Bavaria, and reached Thuringia, where he commenced his pious
labors. He preached to both nobles and people, to lead them back to the
true rehgion which false teachers had altered and almost extinguished.
For although there were priests and bishops who were sincerely zealous
for the service of God, Winifred met with others sunk in incontinence,
whom he endeavored, by exhortation, to bring back to a hfe in conformity
to the Holy Canons.
Winifred having sent to the pope an account of his successful mission, the
pontiff invited him to Rome. Being questioned upon various particulars of
the faith of the Church, BonKace answered so frankly and clearly, that the
pope told him to prepare to be consecrated as bishop. The holy priest
submitted, and the day for the consecration was fixed for the 30th Novem
ber, 723, the feast of Saint Andrew. The pope changed the name of the
new bishop from Winifred to BonKace (boni faciens — doing good), and in the
seventh year of the Emperor Leo, sixth indiction, which is the same as A. D.
723, he caused the new bishop to take an oath by which he bound himseK
to keep the purity of the faith, and the unity of CathoUcity, to act always
* Fleury, ix., p. 168.

182 LIVES OF THE POPES.
with the pope for the good of the Holy See, to secure advantage to the Roman
Church, and to renounce aU communion with the bishops who did not ob
serve true maxims. The pope, on his part, gave Winifred a book of canons,
to serve as a rule of his conduct, and intrusted him with six letters. The
first of those letters was to Charles Martel, son of Pepin, the former mayor
of the palace, who had died in 714, after governing in Paris during twenty-
seven years, in the name of Dagobert HI. In this letter, Gregory recom
mended to Charles Martel, the bearer, Boniface, an envoy to the heathen
dweUing east of the Rhine ; for the dominion of France extended beyond
that river very far into Germany. The other letters were addressed to all
the bishops, priests, deacons, dukes, counts, clergy, and people, whom Boni
face was to govern as bishop : to the Christians of Thuringia and their five
princes, who are named in the letters, and also to aU the people of the old
Saxons. Charles Martel, who governed France for Thierry II., received BonKace
with respect, and recommended him to aU the bishops of the kingdom.
The Emperor Leo enkindled the fatal " War of Images," which continued
for a hundred and eighteen years. He had obtained warlike success, and
he imagined that no power, even moral, could resist him. Trusting too
much to his glory, he resolved to become a reformer,* — a dehcate and dan
gerous task, that of religious reformation, when one is not the true repre
sentative of God upon earth ! " Religion," says a learned writer, " dreads
the hand of the prince ; it needs his protection, not his reforming ; from
its own ministers alone it expects reform." This caprice neutralized aU
Leo's talent. How could a man of such low condition that he had carried
loads in the pubhc markets, and had fed and sold cattle ; a poor Syrian,
uneducated and without any science, become, on attaining the highest
civU dignity on earth, a ferocious persecutor? By what mental per
versity had he embraced a doctrine pernicious to the arts, which aban
dons man in a rude temple, and demands from him prayers, devotions,
and repentance, without speaking to his mind, to his eyes, to his heart, or
to his imagination ? He treated as a favorite Beser, another Syrian, who
was born a Christian, but who, having been captured by Mahometans, had
apostatised to their faith. Released from slavery, Beser had returned to
CathoUcity, but sought to introduce into it Mahometan notions. He
broached his heretical ideas to Leo, and the demented emperor had the
audacity to assemble the senate, and to pronounce before it the foUowing
declaration : " I wiU abolish that idolatry which has found its way into the
Church. The images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, are so
many idols to which a worship of which God is jealous. I have, therefore,
* Italy, p. 55.

SAINT GREGORY II. 183
drawn up an edict for purging the churches of this sacrilegious supersti
tion." At this signal, the courtiers, the weak, the ignorant, the friends of every
novelty, and men who hoped to repair their own broken fortunes during a
time of publio trouble, broke the sacred images, respecting none but those
of the emperor.
A revolt ensued at once throughout the East ; in Africa, Spain, Gaul,
and Italy ; in brief, in aU the brilliant conquests that had already been
made by CathoUcity.
For an instant Leo was inclined to retract ; but his first fury rekindling,
he ordered that the images should be removed from aU the churches.
From that instant Leo, the armed sophist, held conferences, in which he
argued, in the military style, against Germanus, patriarch of Constantino
ple, and showed himseK aU but Mahometan in conviction. He expected
by this servile complaisance to soften and attract the Mussulmans, scarcely
intending to remain Christian, since he thus sacrificed Cathohc customs and
the rules of one of the most sacred traditions of our Fathers.
John Damasenus, caUed Chrysorroes, golden river, resisted the new error
in the East. Gregory II. summoned around him aU the West. The con
science of Christendom repulsed the arch heretic emperor. Leo, especiaUy
irritated against the pope, endeavored by crime to rid himseK of his pow
erful censor.
Marinus, the emperor's esquire, was charged to organize a conspiracy
against the pontiff. The principal conspirators were discovered and pun
ished. The Exarch Paul assembled troops, and prepared to make himseK
master of Rome, and by force of arms to elect another pope. The Romans,
warned of the approach of the exarch's troops, took up arms ;* the Floren
tines, the Lombards of Spoleto, and aU the inhabitants of the neighborhood
also rushed to the defence of the Papal city, and Paul was obhged to return
to Ravenna. '¦
The Saracens continued to harass Constantinople, which had adopted
their spirit of opposition and mahgnity; but the emperor, who had be
come less a warrior than an advocate of bad theology, was more concerned
about the resistance of the pope than about the progress which the enemy
was making around his own capital.
Leo, by his own obstinacy, unconsciously prepared the way for two great
results. There can be no doubt but that the troubles incited in Italy con
tributed to estabhsh the independence of the popes, and to raise up the
empire of the French to the prejudice of the Greeks.
The Eomans, moreover, in this interregnum, sustained the interests of the
* Italy, p. 56.

184 LIVES OF THE POPES.
pope, so intimately connected with their own, for they had everything to
fear from the Lombards and from the exarchs. These two powers, incited
by the Emperor Leo, endeavored to unite in order to occupy Eome ; Luit
prand commanded his Lombards, and also the troops of the exarchs, much
astonished at marching together. Their watch-fires crowned Monte Mario,
and they advanced to the foot of Adrian's Mausoleum, now the castle of
Saint Angelo. Gregory, preceded by his clergy, issued from Eome. A new
Saint Leo, he represented that the misfortunes of Eome would be those of
aU Christendom ; and that the Saracens, far more than the emperor, would
rejoice over the disasters of the metropolis of the faith of Christ. The elo
quence of Gregory moved King Luitprand even to tears.
Luitprand threw himseK at the feet of the pontiff. They were near Saint
Peter's ; and Gregory pointed out to the king the sacred place containing
the tomb of the Apostle.
Luitprand, confounded, advanced towards the Church, knelt before the
confessional of the prince of the Apostles, put off his royal robes, and laid
them, with his baldrick, his sword, his golden crown, and his sUver crown,
by the tomb. He then begged the pope to forgive his enemies. Gregory
pronounced the solemn pardon, and the king returned to Pavia.
Wise and cultivated men plainly perceived that aU these events neces
sarily gave strength to the Church. Minds deprived of energy, which do
not at aU examine the secrets of Providence, and see only the confused
spectacle of submission that is presented to their eyes, even these, notwith
standing their ignorance, convinced themselves of the necessity of obedience
to the sovereign pontiff, when they saw at his feet the most formidable
prince in Italy, whom aU looked upon as determined to overthrow the power
of Gregory.
Leo, in his criminal impetuosity, had written to him, warning him of the
fate of Pope Martin. But the fatigues of the pontificate, and the occurrence
of hostilities, had so destroyed the health of Gregory, that he died on the
10th of February, 731.
This pontificate was a reign of wisdom, of glory, and of courage.* The
pope wrote to Leo, " The West sees our humility (this aUudes to Charles
Martel and Luitprand), and regards us as the arbitrator and moderator of
the pubhc tranquility. If you venture to make the trial, you wiU find
the West ready to seek you where you are, in order to avenge the wrongs
of your Eastern subjects."
Accordingly, M. de Maistre is right in saying in his book On tlie Pope,
" It was the authority of the pope that created European monarchy a
* Considerations upon the First Fifteen Popes, who bore the name of Gregory : Paris, Adrien
Leclerc, p. 22.

SAINT GREGORY II.

185

marvel of the supernatural order, which we look upon as indifferently as
upon the sun, because we see it every day."
The countless consequences of so many facts wiU be developed : they wiU
find us spontaneously as we read on : I wiU here mention some material
consequences of high importance. Eome had a duke, named by the
emperor. Marinus had obtained the dignity ; but, being ordered to murder
Gregory, the disloyal governor had failed, and the people had expeUed him,
demanding the appointment of another. Peter, the successor of Marinus,
ever speaking of the destruction of the images, was in his turn deprived of
power, and the Eoman duchy, desiring to enjoy a more secure hberty,
voluntarily submitted to Gregory II., so that one may say that from that
period commenced in part the positive temporal dominion of the sovereign
pontiffs.* The Eoman Duchy at that time, according to Sigonius and Muratori, in
cluded sixteen cities, Rome, Porto, Civita Vecchia, Ceri, Bieda, Manturana,
Sutri, Nepi, GaUese, Orta, Bomarzo, Ameha, Todi, Perugia, Narni, and
Otricoli Seven other towns of the Campania were also dependencies of the
same Duchy; Segni, Anaqui, Terentino, Alatri, Patrico, Frosinone, and
Tivoli To this patrimony of the Church, Kings Pepin and Charlemagne
added other towns.
Gregory II. governed the Church fifteen years, eight months, and twenty-
three days. In four ordinations, in the months of September and June, he
created one hundred and fifty bishops, thirty-five priests, and fourteen dea

cons.

Baronius (An. 31, No. 1) thinks him worthy to be compared to Saint
Gregory the Great. Gregory H. was interred at the Vatican. The Holy
See remained vacant five days.
Platina informs us that under this pope the Tiber overflowed the city
from the Ponte MoUe to the first steps of Saint Peter's Church.
* Novaes ii., p. 61.

Ifc6 LIVES OF THE POPES.

91. ST. GREGORY III.— a. d. 731.
AINT GREGORY III., son of John, a Syrian, a
Benedictine monk, and cardinal-priest, was unani
mously elected five days after the death of Gregory
II. As the confirmation of the election by the ex
arch of Ravenna had to be waited for, the pontiff
was not consecrated until the 18th of March.
Leo, the emperor, continued the persecution against
those who would not destroy the images. Gregory
H. had pronounced against the iconoclasts, and Gregory HI. was no less
animated in opposition to that barbarous custom.
Luitprand, king of the Lombards, resumed his hostility. Charles
Martel had not previously given any striking proof of his good-wiU and
support, his authority not being sufficiently firm in France. But he could
not resist the repeated appeals of Gregory III. Charles ordered Luitprand to
leave the new Roman state free, and confine himseK absolutely to the pos
session of the Lombard states.
In the letter which Gregory IH. addressed to Charles Martel, sohciting
an effective intervention, the pope gave that prince the title of Most
Christian. Pope Pius II. declared that title hereditary in the person of the
kings of France, when he wrote to Charles VI. and his successors. From
this pontifical embassy arose the institution of pontifical nuncios in the
West, which somewhat resembled that of apocrisiaries, or pohtical agents,
accredited by the popes to Constantinople. The nuncios, however, were
stiU further recognized as ministers of a sovereign power.
In 732 the pope had more urgent occasion than ever to sohcit the support
of Charles Martel for the interest of the Cathohc rehgion. The Saracens,
after subjecting Africa, had occupied Spain. They appeared to foUow the
same road that Hannibal had taken in order to reach Italy. However, by
a kind of military skiU which they do not seem to have been suspected of
possessing, they would not advance too far without securing their flanks
against Charles Martel, who kept strict watch upon such dangerous enemies
to rehgion and the power that he was beginning to estabhsh. It was
necessary then to bar the Mussulmans from access to Italy, and to that end
it was urged that Charles should keep them in Spain. Their chief did not
venture to pass the Alps untU he had repulsed Charles. A general
battle became inevitable ; a large portion of Gaul was already invaded.

SAINT GREGORY III. 187
Says Henry Martin, in vol. ii., p. 274, of his History of France : " Charles
Martel had not waited the appearance of the Mussulman hosts before the
gates of Orleans and Sens to declare war. He had not quitted France that
year and held himseK in readiness to throw into the scale the weight of his
sword. The arrival of- Eudes, king of Aquitaine, beaten, a fugitive, a
general without an army, and a king without a kingdom, convinced Charles
that the danger was more instantly imminent than he had supposed it. He
gave Eudes a cordial reception, though they had formerly been enemies ;
he promised him every thing, on condition that he recognized the sover
eignty of the Franks, and that Aquitaine should thus enter into the Frank
monarchy. ' " During the whole summer of 732 the Roman clarions and the Germanic
trumpets blared in the countries of Austrasia and Neustria, in the rustic
palaces of the Frank leuds, and in the gaws of Western Germany. The most
impenetrable marshes of the North Sea, and the wUdest recesses of the
Black Forest poured out hosts of haK-naked combatants rushing towards
the Loire, foUowing, as a rear-guard, the heavy Austrasian knights in full pan
oply of steel. This enormous mass of Franks, 'Teutons, and Gallic Romans
passed the Loire at Orleans, and was joined by the remnants of the
Aquitaine army which had been compeUed to retire into Berry and
Touraine, and appeared before .the invaders in October, 732.
" This was one of the most solemn moments in the whole history of the
human race. Islamism was face to face with the last bulwark of Chris
tianity. After the Visi-Goths, the GaUo-Vascons ; after the GaUo-Vascons,
the Franks; but after the Franks, nothing! The Anglo-Saxons, isolated
in their island ; the Lombards, weak rulers of exhausted Italy ; even the
Greco-Romans of the Eastern empire could save Europe ; Constantinople
had work enough to save itseK. The contemporary chronicler Isidore de
Beja was not wrong in calling the Frank army the army of the Europeans.
That army lost, the world was Mahomet's."*
" What would have been the result to humanity had the European civiliza
tion of the middle ages, our mother, been thus stifled in the cradle ? At the
moment of the tremendous collision, the Arabs, stiU in the first fierce fervor
of Islamism, had, assuredly, more humanity, morality, and enlightenment
than the Franks. But we must not be deluded by that accidental superiority,
nor dazzled by the elegant movements of art and hterature that were pro
duced in Cordova, Grenada, Bagdad, and Schiraz. Islamism, compared to
European behef, was not a new development of humanity, but a backward
impulse. The Koran resuscitated ancient fatalism, subjected women
* That is to say, would belong to the enemies of Christ, and who can say what would have
been the consequent mischief to Rome and the sovereign pontiffs !

188 LIVES OF THE POPES.
anew to the humiliating yoke of polygamy, which the Greeks and Romans
had broken.
" The fate of the world was about to be decided between the Franks and
the Arabs. The barbarians of Austrasia scarcely suspected what issues were
entrusted to their swords ; yet they had a vague notion of the immensity of
the struggle in which they were about to be engaged. The Mussulmans, on
then part, hesitated for the first time. During a week, the East and the
West examined each other with hate and terror ; the two armies, or rather
the two worlds, were mutuaUy astonished by the differences of physiognomy,
of costume, and of tactics. The Franks gazed with curious eye upon those
myriads of turbaned men of dark complexion, with white bournous, striped
abas, round shields, curved sabres, and hght lances, curvetting on their
horses; and the Moslem Sheiks passed and re-passed in front of the
Franco-Teutonic lines, in order to get a closer view of those giants of the
North, with their long fair hair, their shining helmets, and their coats of
steel mail, or buffalo hide, their long swords, and their enormous battle-
axes. " At length, on the seventh day, which was a Saturday, at the end of Oc
tober, towards the dawn, the Arabs and the Moors came from their tents at
the cry of the Muezzins, calling the soldiers to prayer ; they deployed in
order on the plain, and after the morning prayer, Abderaman gave the
signal. The Christian army received, unmoved, the shower of arrows which
the Mussulmans poured in upon them ; then the masses of the Mussulman
cavalry dashed forward with their war cry, Allah, dkbar ! God is great !
and feU hke a hurricane cloud upon the army of the Europeans. The
long line of the Franks was unbroken by that rude shock ; motionless as a
wall of iron, or a rampart of ice, the people of the North stood in closely serried
ranks like men of marble. Twenty times the Mussulmans wheeled to return
to the charge with the swiftness of lightning, and twenty times their im
petuous charge was broken upon that unshaken Uving waU. The Austrasian
giants, erect upon their heavy Belgian horses, received the shght men of
the South upon the point of the sword, piercing them through and through
with frightful thrusts. The battle, nevertheless, continued throughout the
day, and Abderaman stiU hoped to weary out the resistance of the Chris
tians, when, towards the tenth hour (four in the afternoon), King Eudes,
who, with what was left of his Basques and Aquitaines, had outflanked
the Arab army, threw himseK upon the camp of the Wah, and repulsed
its guards. The rampart of ice moved at length : Charles and his Austrasians
charged in their turn, and overthrew aU before them. Abderaman, and
the flower of his foUowers, disappeared, crushed beneath that mass of
iron." The consequences of that battle of Poitiers were immense. Charles

SAINT GREGORY III. 189
Martel dispatched a courier to Gregory, to announce to him the victory of
the Christian army, which the papal nuncios, previous to the battle, had so
much encouraged, by the distribution of sacred badges, blessed by the pope
upon the altar of Saint Peter.
In aU the temples of Italy and France, thanks were offered up to God.
The nuncios returned to Rome laden with presents, and empowered to make
known to aU the adversaries of Gregory, that Charles Martel, his son, and
the defender of Christendom, himseK notably the object of God's benev
olence, would never suffer that even the slightest insult should, with im
punity, be offered to God's vicar on earth. The emperors of the East must
learn that another empire was about to be estabhshed in Europe ; and the
Lombards perceived that they must show great respect to the new power
that had sprung up in front of them.
We have seen God's protection in the battle given to Maxentius by Con
stantine. We see it now crown the heroism of Martel, fighting with the
blessing of Gregory IH. ; after Valette's heroic defence of Malta, we shaU
behold the lesson given the Turks at Lepanto ; and stUl later, the great
Sobieski deliver Vienna from the Vizer of Mahomet IV.
In 739, the pope confirmed the institution of four bishoprics, those viz., of
Salzbourg, Freisingen, Ratisbon, and Passaw, which had been made in
Bavaria, by Saint BonKace, apostolic legate, and apostle of Germany.
Gregory ordered the monks of Monte Casino to recite, in addition to the
divine office, that of the Blessed Virgin. Urban II. imposed the same obli
gation upon aU priests, on occasion of the first crusade. In the time of
Gregory III., the regionary-cardinals had been increased in number from
seven to fourteen, and he, further, created four, who were called Palatines,
and whose duty was to assist the pope during his celebration of the office.
But the institution of those four deacons did not long subsist in the Roman
Church ; they were subsequently created priests. The number of fourteen
deacons subsequently varied according to the pope's pleasure, up to the
papacy of Sixtus V. That pope definitively settled that the number should
never exceed fourteen, which is that at present.
Gregory governed the Church ten years, eight months, and ten days.
He was one of the most learned men of his time, and gifted with a prodigi
ous memory. He knew aU the Psalms by heart ; he showed himseK es
peciaUy prudent in affairs of importance, and like Saint Gregory the Great,
showed great interest with respect to those in slavery.
In three ordinations in the month of December, he created eighty bishops,
twenty-four priests, and three deacons. He died on the 27th of November,
741. The Holy See was vacant only two days, the right of election, without
waiting for the confirmation by the exarch of Ravenna, being now fuUy estab
hshed.

190

LIVES OF THE POPES.

There are seven letters of this pope in Labbe's Collection of the Councils,
Vol. IV, and Baluze has inserted one of them in the appendix to the trea
tise Be Primatibus, by Peter de Marca.

92. ST. ZACHARY— a. d. 741.

HIS pope, son of Polycronius, a native of Syria,
canon regular, then a Benedictine monk, was created
cardinal-priest by Gregory IH. Others say that he
belonged to the Pontina famUy of San Severino, in
Calabria, and was the fourth Neapohtan pope.
He was elected pontiff on the 30th of November,
741. As we have seen at the close of the reign of
Gregory n., the consent of the exarch of Ravenna
was not waited, and the consecration of the pontiff
took place without that formahty, which, thenceforward was totaUy
abolished. Saint Zachary confirmed the erection of three bishoprics, estabhshed in
Germany by Saint BonKace ; subsequently he confirmed the archbishopric
of Mayence, to which the same Saint Boniface gave as suffragans the bishops
of Langres, of Cologne, of Worms, of Spire, and of Strasbourg.
For nearly two years the Lombards had occupied four towns of the papal
States, Orta, Amelia, Bomazzo and Bieda. Pope Zachary went to Terni, to
have a meeting with Eang Luitprand, stiU alarmed by the victories of
Charles Martel, and the pope did not return to Eome until he had obtained
the restitution of these towns, one after the other, and even of some pro
vinces also, including Sabina, which, thirty years previously had been wrested
from Pope Constantine.
In 743, Zachary, leaving the government of Eome to Stephen, patrician
and duke, named by the Holy See, made a journey to Eavenna, again to
resist the attacks of the heutenants of Luitprand. From Eavenna he
proceeded to visit King Luitpraud himseK, at Pavia. The king could not
resist the eloquence and the energetic representations of the pope, who
reproached him with the violation of his promises made after the battle of
Poiters, with a continual breach of faith, and with impious and sacrilegious
conduct. Luitpraud was convinced, and immediately restored aU the
usurped territories. After the death of Luitpraud, Eachis, duke of Forh,
succeeded to the Lombard throne, and Zachary proceeded to visit that
prince at Perugia, to induce him to raise his siege of that city. The Ian-

SAINT ZACHARY. 191
guage of the pope was so persuasive that the prince not only desisted
from his projects, but also abdicated his throne in favor of his brother, and
retired into the monastery of Monte Casino. Zachary exempted that
monastery from the jurisdiction of the bishops, rendering it subject only to
the authority of the Holy See. We have seen the holy and admirable
union which was estabhshed between Gregory II., Gregory HI., and
Charles Martel. It wiU astonish no one, therefore, that Zachary was warmly
attached to the son of the conqueror of the Saracens, the son of that great
man who hurled them from France, and thus saved that kingdom from
contact with the pestiferous errors of Mahometanism.
BonKace consulted Zachary with the most entire confidence. Sometimes
in Germany, priests who were rather illiterate, administered baptism in
terms that were not correct, and Boniface cited some examples. Zachary
rephed that the baptism should be deemed valid even when the priest had
said words so informal and senseless as Baptizo te in nomine pateia, et FniA,
et Spiritus Sancta. The pope also ordered that the priests could not celebrate
the holy mysteries whUe leaning on a stick or having the head covered; and
he commanded that churchmen should never appear in the street without
the habit commonly caUed a soutan.*
In 745, Zachary forbade names to be given to any of the angels, except
Michael, Gabriel, and Baphael. On the authority of some iUuminated
manuscripts, it has been maintained that four other angels were invoked —
Uriel, Saltiel, Geudiel, and Barachiel. But the invocation of these four
names was subsequently deemed to be a remnant of the superstition of the
BasUians. The same prohibition appears in the acts of the Synods of
Orleans and Laodicea, and in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, (Book i,
chap. 16.)
Saint Boniface, in his intimate correspondence with the pope, complained
that one of the German clergy, named Virgihus, endeavored to create a
variance between him and Odilo, duke of Bavaria ; and that this priest
moreover taught many errors, especiaUy these : That there ivas another world,
other men under the earth, another sun, and another moon. Zachary ordered him
to reprimand VirgUius,t and asked OdUo to send him to Eome to have his
* Bury (Notitia, p. 596) notes having read in the canonical statutes these words explaining
the length of this garment : " Vestementa nostra terrain tangent, non verrant. Let our vest
ments touch, not sweep the ground."
f Virgilius, born in Ireland, labored on the German missions, under the jurisdiction of Saint
Boniface ; but with Lidonius, another priest, greatly tried the patience of the Holy Legate. If
Virgilius embraced the opinion that men existed under the earth, not of Adam's race, nor ran
somed by Christ, he apparently recanted, or else Boniface was in error, for Virgilius was subse
quently bishop of Salzbourg. He had, too, differed with Boniface in regard to the validity of the
baptism by the ignorant priests. Boniface held it invalid, but Pope Zachary confirmed the
opinion of Virgilius. [This matter will be found fully treated in Moore's History of Ireland.

192 LIVES OF THE POPES.
doctrine examined. Modern writers err in saying that Zachary cor,demned
the opinion of the antipodes. He had in view only certain heretics who
maintained the existence of a race of men not descended from Adam, and
not ransomed by Christ.
Zachary set free many slaves whom the Venetian merchants would have
taken to Africa, to seU them to the infidels. The Venetians appeared to de
part from the system of moderation which had led them to be contented with
a wise mode of internal administration under the protection of the pontiffs.
The ambition of wealth made some merchants of that city desire to push
their commercial relations to distant parts at aU risks. But commerce is
not like industry : K in many points it shows egotism, or tempers this defect
by a national and patriotic spirit, that excuses it. The commerce of the
Venetians showed itseK from the first, what it is too frequently everywhere,
absolutely cosmopohtan, and without respect for rehgion, and one of its
noblest doctrines, that which condemns slavery. Zachary for a moment
arrested this scandal.
Zachary has left Letters, some Decrees, a translation from the Latin into the
Greek of the Bialogues of Saint Gregory. The finest and fuUest edition of this
last-named work is that of Canisius, which has important notes.
Saint Zachary governed the Church ten years, three months, and a few
days. In three ordinations, he created eighty-five bishops, thirty priests,
and five deacons. He died on the 14th of March, 752, and was buried at
the Vatican on the foUowing day.
Anastasius the Librarian praises this pope for great affability, and for
moderation, piety, and a spirit of compassion and forgiveness.
The Holy See was vacant twelve days, if we take no account of the next
Papal reign of only two days.
Butler, in his Life of Saint Boniface, admits the error of the English saint. The Irish, far in
advance of their age in mathematics, were misunderstood in some of their views, and their sup
posed error in regard to Easter was probably only their exactness in calculating, making the
allowance, which centuries later was introduced by Pope Gregory.]

STEPHEN H.— STEPHEN EL

193

93. STEPHEN II.— a. d. 752.

N the 27th of March, 752, Stephen, a Eoman cardinal-
^ priest of Saint Chrysogonus, was elected pontiff;
but two days after he died of apoplexy. Many
writers, on the ground that though elected he was
not consecrated, wiU not admit that he was pope.
Bury is not of their opinion, and, in his nomencla
ture, includes the name of Stephen n. Monsignor
Borgia, afterwards cardinal, foUows Francis Vettori
in holding that Stephen was pope, and should be considered as such.
FeUer, in his Dictionary, and the editor of the Biographic UniverseUe, do
not reckon Stephen II. among the popes, but I think erroneously ; and No
vaes, by omitting him, is obhged to alter the numbering of all the popes of
the name. By not departing from Roman opinions, I consider myseK always
in the correct way.

94. STEPHEN III.— a. d. 752.

W."

T is supposed that Stephen III., a canon regular,
and afterwards created cardinal-deacon by Saint
Zachary, was of the Orsini famUy. He was a
Roman, and son of Constantine. He was elected
pope on the 30th of March, 752.
Stephen, being unable to put a stop to the
incursions of Astulphus, king of the Lombards,
> resolved to ask the aid of Pepin, son of Charles
Martel. Stephen had before this implored the
assistance of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus. That prince, involved
in wars which he beheved likely to be prosperous, advised Stephen to lay
before Pepin the misfortunes of the Church. The pope determined to
go to France. Pepin, in order to be agreeable to the pontiff, sent three
successive embassies to Astulphus. That prince haughtily persisted in his
refusals, and, Pepin at length resolved to march upon Pavia.
On the 20th of July, 746, Pepin had been crowned king of the French by
13

at

J94 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Saint Zachary, with his son Charles, and afterwards known as Charlemagne,
and aU three, and their successors, were at the same time declared Roman
patricians, and protectors and defenders of the Holy Apostohc See.
When the troops of Pepin were haK waytowards the Alps, he again sent
ambassadors ; Pepin did this at the sohcitation'of the pope, who wished to
avoid the shedding of blood. Astulphus replied only by threats. Pepin,
unwilling that a king of France should be insulted, erossed the Alps, besieged
the prinee in Pavia, and made him promise to restore Ravenna- Asttdplius
broke this last promise once, but was at length obhged to yield. Pepin, on
giving to the pope the recovered provinces, augmented the principality of
the Roman pontiff. From that time the popes, not as mere proprietors, but
as sovereigns, organized an undisputed administration, and were invested
with fuU power, as to civil affairs, alike for the exarchate and for the city of
Rome. Besides, the towns of the EmUian province^ Anastasius counts
twenty-two others in the donation of Pepin.
These cities are: Ravenna, Rimini, Pfesaro, Fano, Cesena, Sinigaglia, Iesi,
Forlimpopoli, Forii, Castrocaro, Monte FeltaOi Averagro, Nocera, Serra-
vaUe, San Marino, Bobbie, Urbino, Cagli, LucuUi, Gubbio, Comacchio, and
Narni It is also to be noticed, that this donation of Pepin's was a pure restitution
of portions of the pontifical domain. So that the principahty of the Church
was not then, in the proper sense of the word, instituted, but extended and
considerably increased.
Stephen, having received the restitution of this domain, granted the
administration of Ravenna to the archbishop and tribunes of the city, and
the archbishop even took the name of exarch, but in quahty of a subject of
the Church-.
King Astulphus dying in 756, the Holy Father aided1, by means of the
French troops, in causing Desiderias, the ruler of some of the Lombards
in Tuscany, to be reeognized' as king of the whole nation> It had been
stipulated between the pope and Besiderius, that the latter should keep no
garrisons- in the cities and towns given: by Pepin, which Astulphus had
held. Those- cities and towns were Faenza, Tmola, Ferrara^ Osimo, Ravenna,
Umana, and Bologna. As the result of those arrangements, only Faenza and
the Duchy of Ferrara were restored to the pope. As to the remainder, Desi-
derius, having become peaceable king of the Lombards, broke Bis promise:
However, Stephen, never unmindful of the interests of the Church, con
demned the* Cbndliahda, held at Constantinople by Constantine Copronymus,
in which was renewed an order to destroy the holy images, and he endeav
ored to bring that emperor to a reconciliation, which was desired by the
whole ChMar-eh, even at Byzantium. Some authors have blamed tiw dona-

SAINT STEPHEN HI.

1-95

tion made by King Pepin. Fleury* blames the pope for employing religious
motives in an affair of state. But, were the deHverance of the pope when
oppressed by, Astulphus, and that of the Church upon which the Lombards
had committed so many cruelties and so many profanations — were these de
liverances an affair* of state? And is it to be said that these dehverances
by Pepin were meritorious before God ? As for the donation made by Pepin
to the Holy See, Fleury confesses, that now especiaUy it is of the great
est importance to the weal of the Church. As long as the Roman empire
existed, it contained within its vast extent almost the whole of Christendom ;
but since Europe has been divided into numerous independent principalities
and powers, had the pope been subject to anyone of them, it might be
apprehended that the others would' be disinclined to recognize him as the
common father. Consequently schisms would be frequent. We may, there
fore, say, that it is providential that the pope is independent and master of
a civil state sufficiently powerful not to be easUy oppressed by the other
sovereigns, in order that he should be the more free in the exercise of his
Spiritual power, and the more easUy direct other bishops.
The great Saint Leo and Bossuet have also used that argument with the
genius peculiar to them.
Even before Stephen became pope, he was so much- beloved by the Ro
man people that when his election became known they carried him on their
shoulders to the Basihca of Saint John Lateran. Thence, at a later
fete, origmafced the use of the sedia gestatoria,. which stiU exists, and which
gives t& &# p>mps of Rome an air of magnificence unequaled at the eourt
of any other "sovereign,"
Stephen HI. governed the Chu*eh five years and twenty days. In one
efcdination, in the month of March, he created four bishops (Natahs Alex
ander says twenty), two priests, and two deacons. This pope died on the
27th April, 757. He wa* interred in foe Vatican. The Holy See was vacant
ffikty-five days.

, n., p.

196

LIVES OF THE POPES.

95. ST. PAUL I — a. d. 757.

AINT PAUL I., created cardinal-deacon, was a Eo
man, and brother of the preceding pope ; this ex
ample of brother succeeding brother in the chair of
Saint Peter was repeated in the eleventh century by
the brothers John XIX. and Benedict VIII. Paul
I. was consecrated pope on the 29th March, 757. As
soon as he was elected, and even before he was con
secrated, he wrote a letter* to Pepin, king of the
French, begging him to continue his protection to the Romans. In the
fourth year of his pontificate he wrote another letter to the same prince,
conjuring him to compel Desiderius to restore all the Church patrimony and
aU the Church's rights in various places, which property and rights Deside
rius withheld.
In 761, the Holy Father founded in his own paternal house the monastery
and church of Saints Stephen and Sylvester. He transported thither the
bodies of those saints, endowed the institution richly, and gave it to the
Greek monks that they might celebrate the office there according to their
ritual. Subsequently the monastery belonged to the nuns of Saint Clare.
The pope also removed into the church the body of St. PetronUla, and other
bodies of martyrs that had lain scattered in the ancient cemeteries since
the invasions of the Lombards. Saint Paul received from Pepin the cloth
on which the king's daughter GiseUa had been laid after her baptism. It
appears that Pepin had asked the pope for some books, and his Holiness
rephed that he sent as many as he could find. " Who," exclaims Tirabosci,
" would not expect to see an ample catalogue of books, a present worthy of
the pope sending and the king receiving it?" WeU, this great treasure
consisted of an Antiphonary (a church-book in which portions of the office
are arranged with notes for plain singing), Aristotle's Logic, the books of
Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, with a small number of other books.f
* This letter is the first in Labbe, Cone, vol. vi., p. 1675.- It is the thirteenth in the Codex
Varolini, that is to say, in the collection, made by order of Charlemagne, of ninety-nine letters of
the pontiffs Gregory III , Zachary, Stephen III., Paul I., Stephen IV., Adrian I., and the anti-
pope Constantine, written to Charles Martel, to Pepin, to Carloman, and to Charlemagne, relat
ing to the temporalities of the Holy See. This Godex was published at Ingolstadt by Father
James Gretser, to confound the calumnies of the Centuriators of Magdeburg in relation to the
temporalities of the Eoman pontiffs.
f Cenni, in the Codex Carolini, vol. i., p. 148.

SAINT PAUL I. 197
At the same time, Saint Paul urged Pepin to introduce the Roman chant
into his kingdom.,
Nor did the pope spare any pains towards effecting the conversion of the
emperor of the East, Constantine Copronymus, exhorting him to abandon
the heresy of the Iconoclasts. The pope sent him legates charged with the
duty of bringing the emperor back to the Cathohc worship, and the vener
ation of the sacred images.* But Constantine, still obstinate in his error,
despised the paternal observations of the pope, and treated with inhuman-"
ity and violence the legates sent to Constantinople. All the questions dis
cussed in councUs were not within the capacity of the common people, but
aU understood the blows of axes aimed at1 statues, and the most learned
and the most ignorant were alike judges. Sufficient notice has not
been bestowed upon the part that Italy reserved for herseK in that
quarrel about the images. To take away from the people those religious
pleasures,"!- which sculpture and painting presented for their gaze in the
temples, and on the pubhc places, was to wound them in the most sensitive
portion of their pious feelings. Images copied from nature, that great and
inexhaustible master of arts, speak at once to the heart and to the mind,
nurture tenderness, revive gratitude, strengthen admiration, and produce
sentiments analogous to the qualities of the objects represented, and trans
port the soul beyond itseK. How, then, must not religion, in a peculiar
manner, welcome the veneration of images ; demanding, as religion does,
more of effort and sacrifice than ordinary human virtue is equal to, and re
quiring the means of visibly representing to the faithful the hkeness of the
heroes of Christianity, who sacrifice aU the pleasures of this world, and even
hfe itseK, for the hope of celestial joys. And how much must not the sight ¦
of the images animate the Cathohcs to a burning zeal, and still urge them
to conjure the holy personages to inspire them with strength to foUow their
examples, and to obtain from God the assistance of his grace, and the
pardon of the faults that repentance extenuates ! If, notwithstanding the
precepts of the sound doctrine explained by the Church, ignorance and
fraud have introduced some superstitious idea to alter its purity, was that a
leutasr. for abohshing a received, popular, reasonable, and consoling institu-
ti'jti."J: " How many examples of maternal tenderness," said a learned Roman
priest, "have there not been given by the sight of a Virgin holding her
child in her arms! That 'glory' that surrounds the head of a saint, is it
not the supernatural illustration that every Cathohc should endeavor to ac
quire ? And the palm of martyrdom that a saint clasps in her joyous hand,
* Novaes, ii.. p. 83. t Csesarotti, p. 225.
J See the Spicilegium of the Cardinal Mai, Vol. vi., preface; pp. 15-16.

198 LIVES OF THE POPES.
joyous, though stUl showing marks of the torture, does it not more effectively
than any discourse, explain the august reward that heaven in anticipation
sends down to earth ?"
In the coUection of Gretser there are twenty-two letters of Saint Paul.
This pope governed the Church ten years and one month, with great wis
dom and prudence.
In one ordination he created three bishops, twelve priests, and two dea
cons. He died on the 28th of June, 767, and was the first who was interred in
Saint Paul, beyond the waUs. A few months afterwards his body was re
moved to Saint Peter's, and placed near the great altar.
A short time before the death of Saint Paul, an antipope, named Con
stantine, made his appearance ; he had been elected by the influence of his
brother Toton, duke of Nepi
At evening, Constantine was only a layman ; he caused himseK to be made
deacon, disdained to be made priest, had himseK ordained bishop, by George,
bishop of Palestrina, and then he was crowned by the same George, assisted
by, Eustasius, and Citonatus, bishops of Albano and Porto. Shortly after,
his father having been kiUed, Constantine was confined in a monastery.
During his intrusion, he created eight bishops, eight priests, and four deacons.
After him, in 768, appeared another antipope, monk-abbot of Saint Vito,
and cardinal-priest ; but on the very day of his attempting the intrusion he
was repulsed, and sent back to his monastery.

96. STEPHEN IV— a. d. 768

ANON REGULAR of Saint John Lateran, then
a religious in the monastery of Saint Chrysogonus,
had been employed by four of his predecessors in
the papacy, and became cardinal-priest. He was
Es| a Sicilian, and the son of Oliva. He was elected
pope on the 5th, and consecrated on the 7th of
August, 768.
In the foUowing year, in a councU held in the
month of April, in Saint John Lateran, it was decided that no* one
should be promoted to the pontificate, unless he had previously been
ordained priest or deacon. That measure was advised and adopted on
account of the pretension of the Antipope Constantine. In that couneil

STEPHEN IV. 199
Constantine was treated with great severity. The populace were exceed
ingly ®seited against that intruder who, in a riot, was deprived of sight in
the midst of a great fury which <Stephen could not allay, as he was not yet
promoted. Certainly the disposition of Stephen warrants us in beheving
that K Constantine could have appealed to a true pontifical power, he would
not have suffered the eruel treat inent that he could not escape.*
In 769, Desiderius, king of the Lombards, under the pretext of venerating
the tomb of the apostles* ^went to Rome, There that evU prinee caused
many Roman nobles to be arrested, and foUowing the ferocious example
given by the populace, he had them deprived of sight, apparently to revenge
Constantine. Not contented with that reprisal, which is only too consonant with the fe
rocity of the time, he invited the pope to confer with him upon very serious ,
bashaiess. When the pope complied with that invitation, Desiderius ordered
him to be confined, with the intention of haying V™ put to death, which
crime would have been committed had not two faithful ecclesiastics, Chris
topher and Sergius, courageously opposed it. That fact is proved by a
letter of Adrian I., who reproaches Desiderius with his iniquitous and feroci
ous conduct towards Adrian's predecessor, Stephen.
The courage of the two priests was not long left unrewarded, as noble and.
virtuous aetions were rewarded at that time. Desiderius had both the
priests deprived of their eyes.
In 770, Bertrade, widow of King Pepin, visited Italy, and was received
at Pavia with great magnificence by King Desiderius, who designed to sow
discord between the pope and the king of the French, persuaded as he was
that by that means he could manage the affairs of Italy to his own liking.
Marriage was proposed to the .queen between her daughter GiseUa and
Adelgise, son of Desiderius, and between a daughter of his and a son of
Queen Bertrade. The latter inconsiderately consented to both marriages ;
but as soon as Stephen was made aware of the project, he opposed it
with the whole weight of the apostohe authority.
In a letter* addressed to Charlemagne,' and to Carloman, ^Stephen exhorted
them not to repudiate their wives in order to marry other princesses, oon-
trary to the laws of the Church. He advised the princes not to attach
themselves so closely to a king who on many points was an enemy to the
Cathohc rehgion. He also recommended them to foUow the example of
* The acts of the council here spoken of were .found in an ancient MS. of the capitulary arch
ives of Verona, and carried to Rome by the father Bianchini. They were published, for the first
time, and learnedly illustrated by the Abbe Gaetan Cenrri, under the title of " Concilium Later-
anense Stefani III.,— it should be Stefani IV., (year 749, ?Rome— -printed at the Vatican, mi
ll folio 1737, 4to.) . Cenni, in that work, illustuates, -with an exquisite erudition, the ecclesiastical
discipline of those times, and names th« Sees of &e3»i8hops that took part in that council.
f Letter forty-five of the Oodex Carolin.

200 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Pepin, who had refused to give his daughter GiseUa in marriage to the Empe
ror Constantine Copronymus, solely because that emperor was not strictly in
the Roman communion. The Holy Father, after laying the letter upon
the confessional of Saint Peter, and upon the altar upon which he had
celebrated the Mass, took the letter again with solemnity, and dispatched
it to the priuces by his legates, Peter, a priest, and Pamphilus, regionary
defender. He ordered them to be energetic in urging the tenor of his
remonstrance, which terminated by these emphatic words: "If any one
shall venture to do aught in opposition to this letter, let him learn that,
in addition to the authority of the blessed Apostle Peter, the tie of excom
munication is bound around him, that he is excluded from the kingdom of
God, and condemned to groan in eternal fire, in company with demons
and others of the impious.*
This formula, with slight differences, has become famihar to the Roman
pontiffs, to show their supreme authority over aU the faithful in this hfe,
and show them what they have to fear in the next.
Unfortunately, Charles, despising these entreaties and threats, although
he was already married to another princess, married the daughter of King
Desiderius, but after a year repudiated her, to marry Indelgarde, a prin
cess of the Suabian race.
Stephen governed the Church three years, five months, and about
twenty-seven days. In one ordination he created several bishops, five
priests, and four deacons. He died on the 1st of February, 772.
Anastasius says that this pope was very learned in the Holy Scriptures,
and thoroughly acquainted with ecclesiastical traditions.
His name occurs in some martyrologies, with the title of saint. He was
interred at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant seven days.
After relating the chief events of this reign, Platina gives way to a sort of
Dantesque imprecation on the clergy and cardinals of his own time. This
diatribe is out of place. Some things were doubtless to blame, but are we
to look for the triumph of ecclesiastical discipline in 772 ? Platina here
loses by unseasonable exaggeration the confidence which he often inspires.
* Novaes.

ADRIAN I.

201

97. ADRIAN L— a. d. 772.

DRIAN L> clerk, notary, regionary, and then cardi
nal-deacon, was a Roman, son of Theodore, and
belonged to the noble family of Colonna. He was
elected pope on the 9th of February, 772. This
pontiff, notwithstanding the rudeness of the time,
was endowed with a merit which enhanced the
effect of the beauty of his person. His principle
was that great point of ancient discipline, forgive
ness of the guilty. He was always desirous of saving hfe, in order to give
time for repentance. Under his authority, no prisoner ever suffered tor
ture. He set at hberty some Roman nobles accused of various offences.
On that subject, Anastasius and De Marca repeat that at that time the
popes exercised fuU power in civU affairs, unless when they were hindered
by popular seditions.
Desiderius, king of the Lombards, intended to seize upon Rome and expel
the pope, who applied to Charlemagne. That victorious and pious prince
besieged Desiderius in Pavia, in 773, made him prisoner, sent him to the
monastery of Corbie, in France, and put an end to the authority of the
Lombards. The Lombard kingdom had existed two hunded and six years. The name
of Lombards, however, was not extinct with their princes. Not only did
they remain on the lands which the Lombards had possessed in the envi
rons of the Po, but the dukes of Benevento gave the name of Lombardy to
the lands over which they had dominion. In this revolution, the Greek
emperors entirely lost the hope which till then they had cherished of recov
ering the exarchate and the pentapolis.
In 773, Charles gave the fine domain of the Duchy of Benevento to the
Holy See.
In 781, Adrian baptized Pepin, son of Charlemagne, and anointed him as
king of Italy. He also crowned another of Charles's sons, Louis, as king of
Aquitaine. Adrian ordered that the pontiffs should put up prayers for the
kings of France in the pontifical high Mass that is celebrated at the begin
ning of Lent. This order was obeyed in other Cathohc kingdoms by the
priests, wko were subjects of those kingdoms.
Adrian received Charlemagne at Rome three times. The first time in
773, the king having gone to celebrate Easter at Rome ; the second time in

202 LIVES OF THE POPES.
781, when he visited Rome in company with his wKe, and his son Pepin ;
and the third time in 787, when he went to repress the arrogance of Arigisa,
duke of Benevento, who had revolted against the Holy See.
In all those expeditions, the principal object of Charles was to defend the
domains of the Church, which had been given by King Pepin, and increased
by Charles himseK, the pious donor of the territory of Sabina, and of the
duchies of Spoleto and Benevento.
Adrian having, by the zeal of Constantine VI. and his mother Irene,
obtained peace with the Eastern Church, resolved to assemble the third
general council, for the putting down of the Iconoclasts. The council com
menced its session in 786, and was transferred to Nice in 787. It was
attended by three hundred and fifty bishops. They estabhshed the venera
tion of images, and to the symbol of the faith they added these words : Qui
a poire filioque procedit — ivho proceedeth from the Father and the Son.
In the council that was celebrated at Frankfort in 794, Fehx, bishop of
Urgel, in Catalonia, and Ehpand, archbishop of Toledo, were condemned
for not admitting the veneration of images, and for maintaining that Christ
was only the adoptive son of God.
The reign of Adrian was longer than that of any pope, from Saint Peter.
He reigned twenty-three years, ten months, and seventeen days.
In two ordinations he created one hundred and eighty-five bishops, twenty-
four priests, and seven deacons. He was so charitable, that he everywhere
increased the revenues of the poor, and he was so magnificent, that upon
the church of the Vatican alone he expended two thousand five hundred
and eighty pounds of gold, and nine hundred and seven pounds of silver.
He expended nearly as much upon the ornamenting of Saint Paul, outside
the waUs. This iUustrious benefactor devoted eleven hundred pounds of
gold to the rebuUding of the waUs of the city, and an immense sum to
defray the expense of repairing the Basihca and churches. He died on the
25th of December, 795, and was buried in the Vatican. On his tomb was
placed an inscription of nineteen couplets, said to have been composed by
Charlemagne, * who wept bitterly on the death of the pope, whom he had
always looked upon as a father. t
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
* The inscription is given by Pagi, Father Jacob, and Fabricius.
f The following are four verses of the inscription ; they are supposed to be spoken by Chart*
magne. "Nomina junge simul titulis, clarissima nostra ;
Hadrianus, Carolus, rex ego, tuque pater.
Quiquis legas versus, devoto pectore supples,
Amborum mitis, die, miserere Deus."

SAINT LEO m.

208

98. ST. LEO III.— a. d, 795,

ROMAN, son of Asupius, was at first canon of
Saint John Lateran, and then, K we may rely upon
Chacon, a Benedictine monk. Modern critics affirm
that in his youth Leo hved in the pontifical palace,
for the purpose of being especiaUy instructed in
the sciences and pohte hterature; subsequently,
gf he was made subdeacon, then deacon, and at length
I* raised to the dignity of cardinal-priest of Saint
Susanna. Unanimously elected pope on the 26th of December, he was con
secrated on the foUowing day, and, after his consecration, crowned upon
the lower steps of the Vatican Basihca.*
This pontiff was sohcited by Charlemagne to confirm to him the title of
Moman Patrician, which had been conferred upon him by Stephen HI., and
which imposed upon him the obligation to defend the Church. Leo sent to
him the keys of Saint Peter, and the standard of Rome. BeUarmine and
Baronius maintain that those " keys" were no other than boxes fiUed with
relics. Andrew VittoreUit thinks that they were the actual keys with which
the gates of the Vatican Basilica were locked and unlocked.:):
Novaes adds—" Protestants assert that by those keys and that stand
ard of Rome the pontiff meant to put Charles in possession of the Church
and city of Rome, but that conjecture is refuted by Bzovius."
That writer expresses his wonder that the innovators could be ignorant of
the fact ihat in those times it was the custom to present those keys as a
token of devotion, not only to the emperors, but also to other princes who
made no claim of right over the Roman Church,
It is certain that the custom of sending boxes in the form of keys, and
containing relies, dates from Saint Gregory, who sent such to King GhUdet-
bert .(book v., letter 43), and to Reecared, king of Spain (book vii, letter
7.2.7). ,Saint Gregory the Great assuredly did not intend to recognize those
princes as his suzerains! The "keys" seat to Charles Martel had the
same form as those sent by Saint Gregory, and were sent with the same
intention. They might be a kind of symbol to raeaU the tomb of Sajnt

* Novaes, ii., p. 95. Cancellieri (History of the Possessi : Rome, 1802) begins his account of
the PotsesH, formerly called Procesai, or Processioni, from this date.
f In addit. to Oaccorium's (Chacon's) Life of Saint Leo III.
% Novaes, ii., mt#, f>. 9(6. M*t. 4ee M, vol. 1

204 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Peter. Gregory Vn., in 1079, sent a simUar "key" to.Alphonso, king of
CastUe (book vii, letter 1). FinaUy, Cenni thus sums up : " Sovereign
princes never received from the pontiffs any other sort of keys ; and to
doubt that, is Uke doubting the hght of the sun."
In 799 a plot was set on foot at Rome for the assassination of Saint Leo.
In fact, at the moment when he went forth from the palace to head the pro
cession on Saint Mark's Day, Pascal^ the primate, and Campolo, chaplain of
the Roman Church, each angry that he had not succeeded his uncle Adrian,
sent armed men, who assaulted the pope, and endeavored to deprive him of
his eyes and tongue. Legends relate that they succeeded, but that, by a
miracle performed by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Saint Leo was completely
cured. Novaes combats Fleury, who, in fact, relates the fact differently,*
and Novaes quotes the testimony of Pagi (Life of Leo III), of Anastasius
the Librarian, and especially of Alcuin, who explains the miracle in some
verses in the poem devoted to a description of the departure of Leo.
After recovering his health, Leo departed for France, whence he returned
to Rome, where he made a triumphal entry on Saint Andrew's Day, 29th of
November. On Christmas Day, A. D. 800, Leo anointed and crowned
Charlemagne emperor of the Romans, and re-estaUished in his favor the
Western empire, which had languished without a head during three hun
dred and twenty-five years, from the death of the last Emperor Augustulus.
Charles, abandoning the title of Patrician, received that of Emperor and
Augustus. In " Italy," page 65, we read : " The last year of the eighth century is the
epoch of a revolution the most important that had taken place in Europe
since the Roman sovereigns had removed the seat of empire to Constanti
nople. The French monarch, the greatest prince that existed in the workL
Ulustrious alike as a warrior and a legislator, deprived the Greeks of the
last title of sovereignty that they possessed in Italy, and thus took away
from them forever that name of Romans, which they had persisted in using
in their treaties, and in the preamble of their decrees. Pope Saint Leo HI.
then reigned. A conspiracy having been formed against him, he was on
the point of perishing, and went to Paderborn to entreat the succor of
Charlemagne, who proceeded to Rome. On Christmas Day, 800, whUe
Charles was at prayer at the confessional of Saint Peter, the pope, accom-
* panied by the bishops, priests, and French and Roman lords, approached
him, and placed upon his head a golden crown, and aU the people exclaimed,
Victory and long life to Charles the most pious, Augustus great and padfic,
wi w» God crowneth.f

* Fleury, x., page 19, line 81.
f This intervention of the people may excite surprise, bu.1, on referring back to our life of Pope

SAINT LEO III. 205
The pope then anointed Charles with holy oil. AU authors agree in
saying that Charles then pronounced the oath taken by his successors after
him : "I, emperor, promise in the name of Jesus Christ, before God and the
Apostle Saint Peter, that I wiU protect and defend the holy Roman Church
against aU, as far as God gives me strength and power."
The festivities lasted far through January.
But what had been the moment chosen by Rome to accomplish so deci
sive a revolution, thus to estabhsh the independence of the Holy See?
That when a woman reigned, an Empress Irene. ' This princess, born in
Athens, of such rare beauty, that to see her was to admire, offered a con
trast of good quaUties and barbarous inclinations. Ascending the throne in
780 with her son Constantine VI., she at first renounced the persecution
against the Iconoclasts. This condescension to the Moslem did hot avail
the Greeks of New Rome, whom the Saracens were bent on expeUing from ,
Byzantium. Irene, subsequently, jealous of her son, put him to death, to
be sole monarch. The detaUs of COnstantine's death are fearful : his eyes
were torn out with such violence that he died: The news of this crime had
just reached Rome, where it excited general indignation, except amongst
those who had conspired and endeavored to assassinate Leo.
It is also said that many of the Roman enemies of the Holy See,
endeavored to effect a matrimonial aUiance between Irene and Charle
magne ; but that princess, married to Leo Chazares in 769, was forty-six
years old, and could not expect to bear issue. Hence, many authors,
amongst others M. de Saint Martin, regarded the supposition as a fable.
Rome, rejecting on the one hand the authority of this cruel princess, this
empress almost powerless abroad, who, perhaps, merely affected religious
sentiments ; and on the other hand by adopting Charlemagne, magnanimous
and beneficent, commanding a people composed of the noble adversaries of
Csesar in Gaul, and the bravest Colonies from Germany, stiU proud of the
victory of Poitiers ; Rome weU knew the interests of Italy, and paid a most
striking homage to pubhc morahty. AU was great, true, just, admirable,
able, in this sublime change. The Roman court granted a glorious title to
the valor of Charles ; he lavished conquests, and loaded with presents the
Vicar of Jesus Christ.*
Above aU, God cemented the strength of his Church, and recompensed
the conquerors of those ignorant sectaries of the Arabian impostor.
A frightful earthquake, in 861, ruined several towns in Italy, and espe-
Hyginus, page 31, it will be seen that they had long since been authorized to assist in the elec
tion of the popes. Might they not also assist in the .solemn scene described above?
* Gibbon, though inclined to blame the popes, yet says, with reference to these donations —
" In strict lawfulness, every one may, without offence, accept of that which is given without
injustice."

206 LIVES or THST POPES.
ciaUy the BasUiea of Saint Paid beyond thei walla AJteff having ordered it
to be rebuUt, the pope ordered that during the three days preceding the
Feast of the Ascension, the Utany should be chanted in solemn proces
sion, as, on the same motive, Saint Mamertus, bishop of Vienna, had estab
lished in France the institution and rite of the Roga£om.*
Saint Leo IH. was a patron of the fine arts* He adorned Rome with
sculptures and paintings ;. and, according to Muratori, he had paintings on
glass placed in the windows of several churches.
To show the purity of his Cathohc faith, he placed in the Vatican Basilica
two silver tables of the weight of ninety-four pounds. Upon one of them,
the Nicene or ConstantinopoU^jan Creed, was written in the Greek language,
and upon the other in Latin. Upon each of them the symbol was that
formed by the hundred and twenty Fathers of the CouncU of Constantinople.
In 804 Saint Leo made a second journey to France, to celebrate Christ
mas with the Emperor Charlemagne, who met His Holiness at Rheims.
Thence the two sovereigns passed into Germany.
In 813 he estabhshed the Feast of the Assumption, which had been
celebrated as early as Sergius I., but had been aUowed to fall into a kind of
disuse. T
Although oppressed by infirmities, he had the habit of celebrating Mass
sometimes eight Or nine times a day., a custom of many priests at that time,
but abolished by Pope Alexander II., the 158th pope.
Saint Leo EEL governed the Church twenty years, five months,- and- six
teen days.
In three ordinations he created twenty-six bishops, thirty priests, and ten
deacons. He died on the 11th of June, 816, leaving the reputation of a
pontiff, who was friendly to men of letters, and himseK learned, eloquent,
affable, mUd, and generous. He was interred at the Vatican, and the con
gregation of the rites subsequently caused his name to be placed in the
Roman martyrology. The Holy See remained vacant six days.
* In a note, Novaes says that the Rogations are called maggiori and minori. The greater Ro
gations are made on St. Mark's Day ; the lesser on the three days before Ascension. The former
were instituted, or At least restored, by St. Gregory the Great, who speaks of them as a custom
known Before his day. The Lesser Rogations were instituted by St. MamerfOB, as it is stated
expressly in a-sermon off the Rogations printed by John Gagnee, and reprinted: by Menard in
bis notes to the Sacramentary of St. Gr-egory. Sidonius Apollinaris mentions them, lib. vii.,
Epie xiv.

il

STEPHEBT vt

207

99. STEPHEN Y.— a. d. 816,

TEPHEN V., son of Julius Marinus, first a sub-
deacon and then deacon, under Leo IH., was elected
pope on the 22d of June, 816. To prevent the con
spiracies that were forming against him, he made
the Romans take the oath of fidelity to Louis,, son
of Charlemagne, whom he then anointed, and
crowned with a precious crown that he himseK
took to Rheims. He also crowned the empress
Ermengarde, wKe of Louis.*
Stephen founded the monastery of Saint PraxedeSj in which he assem
bled a congregation of Greek monks, who, according to their own ritual,
chanted and sang both by night and by day. That monastery now belongs
to the monks of VaUambrosa.
He had scarcely returned to Eome from Rheims, when he died, on the
24th January, 817, He governed, the ChuTeh a httle more than seven
months. In one ordination this pope created five bishops, nine priests, and
four deacons. He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained
vacant only one day.
Stephen V. had a high reputation for kindness and clemency. He had
been forced to leave Rome for Rheims to escape the machinations of wicked
men ; yet his first act on approaching Louis was to ask him for the pardon
of the conspirators, whom the emperor had threatened to have removed to
France and punished.
Educated in the courts of Adrian and of. Leo, he had acquired their
noble and distinguished manners, and to those advantages he joined a sweet
humility, a virtue which recommended him even to those who tried to brave
his power.
Platina, in speaking of this reign, has mach confusion as to date and
place. He speaks of the interview of Stephen and Louis as taking place
at Orleans. We have seen that these sovereigns met at Rheims.

* See Duchesne, voL ii-., p. 278.

208

LIVES OF THE POPES.

100. ST. PASCAL I— a. d. 817.

ASCAL I., Roman, son of Maximin Bonosus, was
a Benedictine monk, and abbot in the monastery
of Saint Stephen, near Saint Peter's, at Rome.
He was afterwards created cardinal-priest of Saint
Praxedes by Leo III.
Pascal was elected against his own wiU, on the
25th of January, 817.
On Easter Day, 823, he crowned the Emperor
Lothaire, eldest son of Louis the Pious, and temporarily granted him the
authority that the old emperors had exerted over the Eomans, in order to
repress the audacity of those who conspired against the sovereign pontiffs.
The acts of the emperors of that time were admirable and generous in
giving the sovereignty of Eome to the popes ; and the foresight of the empe
rors was no less salutary, which occasionaUy seemed to resume that authori
ty, only the better ultimately to secure it to the successors of Saint Peter.
Under the pontificate of Pascal, Rome was torn by cruel factions, those
fatal consequences of anarchy, but the sacred robe was safely sheltered be
neath the imperial sceptre.
This holy pontiff gave an asylum at Rome to the Greeks who had been
exiled by the Iconoclasts. He received from Louis the Pious, by means of
a diploma, which was the source of all the other imperial diplomas, a con
firmation of the gifts and restitutions made by the emperor's predecessors
to the Holy See, and with the addition of Sicily and Sardinia. Pascal has
been reproached with want of firmness. At Eome there were two parties
hostile to the pope ; an imperial party which, ignorant of the beneficent
intentions of the emperor, seemed to demand the absolute authority of that
prince, and a Roman party which wanted an equally vague independence.
It was impossible but that amidst aU that disorder, lovers of order also
should be found, who demanded respect for the pontifical authority.
Abominable murders having been committed upon Theodore, primate,
and Leo, nomenclator, Pascal publicly manKested the horror with which
those crimes inspired him, and history assures us that he deplored them
with sincerity. Moreover, in this case, there was a denial of justice, which
paints those times in most odious colors. Some friends of Pascal were
against giving up the murderers to the Emperor Lothaire, that they might
be punished, because the murderers were of the famUy of Saint Peter, and
their victims had been guUty of high treason. Lothaire, after hearing

EUGENE II.

209

the deputies of the pope, made no further inquiries, foUowing his natural
inclination to clemency, a dangerous and fatal virtue in troublous times. ,
Pascal, overwhelmed with cares and. sorrow, did. not. long survive that,
eyent. This pope governedthe Church seven years. and seventeen days.: In two
ordinations he created fifteen bishops, seven priests^ and seven deacons.
He died on the 10th of February, 824.
He was interred at Saint . Rraxedes, in a tomb which he had himseK „
. caused to be constructed. The Holy See remained vacant five days.
It is.admitted that the principal clergy of Rome, who had.caUed them
selves cardinals long before the reign of Pascal, were pubhcly so entitled :
under that pontiff. The word cardinals of the Church, means hinges of the
Church. They were at that time few in number. In 1277, under Nicholas
HI., there were but seven ; under John XXII., in 1330, there were twenty ;
at the CouncU of Constance there were thirty-four. . Leo X. added thirty-
one, making sixty-five in aU. Paul IV., in 1556, added five ; Sixtus V., in
1586, considering that seventy was the number of the elders of Israel, ordered
that for the future that should be the, fixed number, as it still remains.
Of the seventy, six have the title of cardinal-bishops, fifty have the title
of, cardinal-priests, and fourteen have the title of cardinal-deacons. We,
sbaU hereafter see how that wise order has been estabhshed.

101. EUGENE II.— a. d. 824.
E have given a succinct but sufficient account of the,
first one hundred popes. We shaU continue our,
task courageously, and we trust that our strength
wiU not fail us until we finish our holy undertaking.
Eugene H., a Roman, son of Bohemond, canon-
regular, and subsequently cardinal-priest of Saint
Sabinus, was elected pope on the 16th of February,
824. He paid great honors to Lothaire, son of Louis
the Pious, employed by his father to destroy the schism which had threat
ened the Church at the moment of the election of Eugene. At this time,,
too, Lothaire, in concert with the pope, pubhshed a law calculated to pre
vent the disturbances that often occurred during the elections.* The impe-

js?, * Part of this law is in Baronius; it will be found complete in Lecompt.
f^i >Hraneorvm, 824, No. 12.)

{Annal. Eccles.

210 LIVES OF THE POPES.
perial ambassadors were to be present on such occasions, that their author
ity might put a stop to tumult. Some authors maintain that it is to this
epoch that is to be attributed the institution of a seminary for clerks^ as the
result of a canon of the councU which was then assembled at Rome. Various "'»$
authors also dispute respecting the question, whether it was Eugene who es
tabhshed ordeal by cold water, as a test of the innocence of an accused
person. MabiUon (in Vet. Analect., p. 161) declares in the, affirmative, and
relies on an ancient MS. of Rheims. Natalis Alexander is of the contrary
opinion (Hist. Eccles. sucal. ix., cap. 2). Pagi, in his Breviarium Pont. (Life
of Eugene, to.. 75), is of hke opinion With MabiUon, and endeavors to com
bat four principal arguments adduced by Natalis Alexander. Van Espen does
not decide, but confines himseK to saying that this, hke other vulgar tests,
was in use for several centuries. Christianus Lupus maintains that the
proof by the Eucharist is of very ancient use. We shaU find Gregory VII.
proposing this proof to the King Henry IV. Du Cange, in his Glossary,
says that ordeal by cold water, one of the vulgar purgations caUed the
Judgment of God, consisted in this : " The person accused of a crime was
plunged into the water : K he swam, he was declared guUty ; if he sank, he
was innocent." Novaes, in his turn, confines himself to noticing that that '
custom was prohibited by Innocent III. in the CouncU of Lateran. It is
dehghtful to see superstitions often thus solemnly destroyed by the popes.
AgObard, archbishop of Lyons, had previously written against the trials of
both fire and water. (See Papire, Mason, and Baluze.) FeUer (n., 757)
says on this subject : " One would have no very high opinion of the inteUect
of Eugene, if it is true, as many authors- affirm, that he estabhshed the
trial by cold water. Certain it is, that in those times the means of ascer
taining the truth were so far from enhghtened or secure, that one is tempted
to approve the recourse to supernatural means. Even now that our juris
prudence is so proud of its enhghtenment, the result of many trials, both
civU and criminal, is no more trustworthy than that of ordeal by cold water."
That whole judgment, as concerns both Pope Eugene and our modern
magistrates, is far too harsh. Eugene governed the Church three years,
some months, and a few days. His great charity obtained him the sur
name of the Father of the People. He died on the 27th of August, 827, and
was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant four days.
According to Chacon, the election of Eugene was disturbed by the in
trigues of an antipope named Sinsinius. However, no mention of that intru
sion is made by Anastasius, by Martin Polonius, or by Platina. At any
rate, it must have lasted only a few days.

VALENTINE.— GREGORY IV.

211

102. VALENTINE.— a. d. 827.

ALENTLNE, a Roman, son of Peter Leontius, of the
Rione de Via Lata, made cardinal-deacon by Pas
cal I., was elected pope on the 1st September, 827.
It appears that he was consecrated without the
intervention of the authorities who represented
Lothaire, notwithstanding the law of which we
spoke in our sketch of this pope's immediate pre
decessor. The ceremonials, as we have the detaUs
from MabiUon, consisted in the consecration of the new pontiff at Saint
Peter's, the oblation of the sacrifice by the new pope, a banquet, and a dis
tribution to the senate and people of presents which were vulgarly caUed
presbyteries. Valentine governed the Church forty days. This prince was worthy of a
longer pontificate, on account of his piety, his clemency, and his liberaUty.
He died on the 16th of October, 827, and was interred at the Vatican. The
Holy See remained vacant three days.

103. GREGORY IV.— a. d. 827.
REGORT IV., son of John, was a noble Roman,
who became a Benedictine monk, in the monastery
of Fossa Nuova, at Terracina. Pascal I. had
created him cardinal-priest of Saint Mark. On
the 14th September, A. D. 827, he was elected pope
in spite of his warm refusal ; clergy, senate, and
people refusing to yield to his unwillingness. He
himseK favored the delays made to his conse
cration under pretext of waiting for the ambas
sador of the emperor, who was to demand from the Romans whether
the election had been regular. In the meantime the humble monk,
^ hke his predecessor, Saint Gregory the Great, concealed himseK m
an obscure place; but he was discovered and conducted to the pontifical
] throne, upon which he was placed almost by force.

212 LIVES OF THE POPES.
In the year 828, he rebuilt and waUed in the town of Ostia, which from
his own name he caUed GregoriopoUs; his object was to prevent the
Saracens from continuing their inroads by ascending the Tiber, which falls
into the sea near that town.
It was during this pope's reign that the Venetians sent a vessel to Alexan
dria furtively* to carry off the body, of Saint., Mark the evangelist, which
they transported into the ducal Basihca, erected in honor of the saint.
Subsequently to that event the pope restored at Rome the church of Saint
Mark, which had been his parish; and he made rich presents to it, a holy
ciborium inclosed in a silver tabernacle. It was into this church that the
pope transferred the body of Saint Hermes.
At the close of the year 828, the Emperor Louis held an assembly at
Aix-la-ChapeUe, for an inquiry into the evUs of the State, and the practi
cable remedies for them. Vala, abbot of Corbie, venerable for age,
birth, and merit, spoke strongly, complaining that the ecclesiastical and
secular powers encroached upon each other. The emperor, he urged,
often quitted his own duties to interfere in affairs of rehgion, in which
he properly had no concern, and the bishops interfered in purely temporal
affairs. Goods consecrated to God were perverted into gifts to laymen.
To this the lay lords rephed : " The State is so weakened that it can no
longer subsist without the help of the goods and vassals of the Church,"
"TeU me, I pray," rejoined Vala, "if any one has put my offering on the
altar, and another comes and takes it, how do you caU the act ?" " A sacri
lege," they rephed. " My lord," cried Vala, addressing the emperor, " let
no man deceive you ! It is very dangerous to divert to profane uses things
once consecrated to God, and thus act against the authority of so many
canons, and contemn so many anathemas. If it be true that the State
cannot subsist without the help of ecclesiastical goods, means must be
modestly sought, without injury to rehgion ; K bishops owe any martial
service, let them discharge it without derogating from the sanctity of their
profession; that is, dispense with their personal service, as Charlemagne,
did." Vala then exposed the dangers to which monasteries were exposed when
given over to laymen. He declared that bishoprics were not given accord
ing to the canons, and that elections had become irregular.
We insist on these considerations, because they prove the manners of the
time ; and the manners of each period should be known, either by isolated
facts, or by a profound examination due ' to an able and impartial contem
porary. i* Novaes, ii., 113. Fleury contradicts himself. After saying that Louis was deposed accord
ing to the advice of the pope and the nobles, he says that the pope "returned greatly afflicted at
the manner in which the father was treated by his children."

'ii

GREGORY IV. 213
Vala finaUy denounced thes palace chaplains, or clergy, foUowing the
court, Viho were neither monk's living under rule, nor clerks subject to a
bishop, and who were guided solely by interest or ambition ; for he main
tained that every Christian should be either a canon, that is to say, clerk
observing the canons, a monk, or a layman ; otherwise, said he, the Chris
tian is headless, and consequently an acephalous heretic.
In 829, the Emperor Louis received ambassadors from the Swedes, who,
among other DUsiness with which they were intrusted, declared that many
people of their nation desired to embrace the Christian rehgion, and to
. recognize the authority of Pope Gregory IV. Saint Anscarius and Vitmar,
a monk of Corbie, were sent to Sweden as missionaries, with full powers
from the pope, and with presents from the emperor. The mission had
great success, which rejoiced the hearts of the faithful. Dissensions aris
ing between Louis and his chUdren, Gregory repaired to France, to restore
peace among the princes, but the emperor was deposed by his sons, who
divided the empire among them; and Lothaire received the title of
emperor. Gregory returned to Rome, thinking that from that capital his voice
would have the more power ; in fact, he annulled the sentence which had
taken the sceptre from Louis, and that prince was then restored to the
throne.* This pontiff instituted for aU Christendom the Feast of AU
Saints, to be celebrated on the 1st of November, as is stiU the custom.
It was he who translated the body of Gregory the Great from the place
where it had been buried, an humble gaUery in Saint Peter's, and placed it
within the church itseK, in a splendid oratory, the flooring of which was
mosaic, ornamented with gold, and the altar was adorned with a number
of sUver tablets. The body of the saint was placed beneath this altar .t
His feast was celebrated every year, and his pallium was given to be
kissed by the faithful, as were his reliquary and his girdles, the plainness
of which excited admiration. In the same oratory this pope also placed the
bodies of Saint Sebastian and Saint Tiburtius.
Under this pontificate, in 842, the Empress Theodora, regent for her son
Michael, revived at Constantinople the veneration of images. The persecution
had lasted nearly 120 years. The first Sunday in Lent, Methodius, the new
patriarch, passed the night in prayer with the empress and aU the people ;
in the morning they went in procession to Saint Sophia, where Mass
Was celebrated and the images solemnly rehabilitated. This feast was
caUed the Feast of Orthodoxy, as K to say the feast of the triumph

* Paul Emili, Be Beous Gestis France, lib. 3, p. 34. That work, printed in 1519, has been
continued by Daniel Zavari'si, of Verona.
t The body of Saint Gregory rests in the Clementine chapel of the present; Saint Peter's.

214

LIVES OF THE POPES.

of the Cathohc rehgion. Rome thus obtained the reward of her courage, of
her admirable constancy, and of her passion for the fine arts, and the heart
of the pope and of the Romans was fiUed with a most soothing joy.
Gregory IV., who governed sixteen years and twenty-four days, died in
844, and was interred at the Vatican ; the epitaph on his tomb is common
to him and to BonKace IV, and was placed there by BonKace VIH. There
are some letters of Gregory IV. in the Collection of the Councils, by Labbe,
(vol. vii), in the Miscellanea of Baluze, and in MabiUon. Platina bestows
great eulogium on this pope, whose pontificate is described in prose and
verse by the monk Rabanus.

104. SERGIUS II— a. d. 844.

ERGIUS H., a Roman of an Ulustrious family, a
canon-regular, and then created by Pascal I. car
dinal-priest of Saint Martin ai Monti, was elected
pope on the 16th of February, 844, The same year
he crowned as long of the Lombards, and not as
emperor, Louis n., son of Lothaire. Louis having
asked the pope to aUow the Romans to swear fidelity
to him, the pope refused, because Lothaire was
living. He would have only Lothaire as protector of the Church.
Lecointe, in his annals (Life of Sergius, p. 352), gives an analysis of the
oath of fidelity. The Romans promised the French kings to be obe
dient to the pontiffs, lords of Rome ; and the pope and people of Rome
promised the kings of France to be constant in their friendship to those
kings. The same year Sergius caused to be arranged, in the form of a staircase,
with a porch, and before the church of Saint John Lateran, the twenty-
eight steps sanctified at Jerusalem by the Redeemer ascending upon them
to the house of PUate. Those stairs were transported to Rome by order of
Saint Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, and had remained con
cealed in that Basihca. But we shaU have to speak of that holy monument
in the reign of Sixtus V. Sergius governed about three years. In one
ordination he created twenty-three bishops, eight priests, and three deacons.
He was humble, affable, prudent, a. friend to the people, charitable to the
poor, and a consoler of the unhappy ; such is the character given to him

SAINT LEO IV.

215

by Anaslasius the Librarian. This pope died on the 27th January, 847,
and was buried at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant (K we in
clude the day of the successor's consecration) two months and fourteen days,
but there was no vacancy for the election.
It has been maintained that Sergius gave to Drogon, Bishop of Metz,
who accompanied Louis, letters as vicar-apostohc, conferring upon him the
power of vicar-apostohc beyond the Rhine, with authority over the Metro
politans, and even the right to assemble a councU, from which, however,
there was right to appeal to the pope.

105. ST. LEO IV— a. d. 847.

EO IV., a Roman, was created pope in the year.
847. He was the son of Rodoald, or Rodolph, of
an iUustrious famUy. At an early age he was a
Benedictine monk, not, as some writers, have stated
that he was, in the monastery of Saints Sylyester
and Martin ai Monti a* Rome, but in the mon
astery of Saint Martin which joined the ancient
Basilica Vaticana, in the place now occupied by
the altar of Saint Veronica.
Leo became cardinal-priest of the title of the Four Crowned Saints, and
owed that appointment to Pope Sergius n., or, rather, to Gregory IV.
After the death of Sergius, Leo was immediately and unanimously
elected, the late pope not being as yet interred. However, the new pontiff
was not consecrated untU the 11th of April. The Romans were at that
time in dread of an invasion of the Saracens from Sicily. The Gauls were
dehvered from their yoke, but Italy was not yet freed from it.
Leo deposed from the cardinalate Anastasius,* priest of Saint MarceUus,
because he had abandoned his parish during five years. The same pope
surrounded the church of Saint Peter with waUs. AU the nobles of Romef
were sensibly afflicted by the excesses committed there by the Saracen sol
diery, and greatly dreaded their return. To reassure the inhabitants, the

* This Anastasius must not be confounded, as by many modern authors he has been, with
Anastasius the Librarian. The Librarian wrote nearly about the same time, and especially
nourished under John VIII. He died in 882.
f Fleury, x., p. 411.

216 LIVES OF THE TOPES.
pope determined to execute the design of Leo IH.,-to buUd a new town
about Saint Peter's, the foundations of which had -"alrettdy -been com
menced. Leo TV. wrote to the Emperor Lothaire upon the subject. The prince
was dehghted with the proposal, exhorted the pope to put the work in hand
without delay, and sent, as the contributions of aU his brothers as weU as
of himseK, a great many pounds of silver, The pope having received that
generous reply of the emperor, assembled the Romans and consulted them
upon his project. It was resolved to bring in from aU the neighboring
towns and lands aU the workmen, whether employed by the pubhc or by the
monasteries, and set them to work in turn upon that great task. It occupied
four years, the pope continuaUy superintending operations aU the time left
at his disposal by his spiritual duties, without allowing cold, rain, or storm'
to divert him from his purpose.
Almost at the same time, that is to say, -¦ during the tweKth indiction,
which commenced that year (848), the pope also labored to repair the
waUs of Rome, which had become ruinous. He had the gates remade, and
buUt fifteen towers from the foundation to the roof, going sometimes on
foot , and sometimes on horsebaek, to encourage the workmen. Among
others, he constructed two towers near the Tiber, on the gate which is on
the road to Porto, now caUed the Porta Portese, to stop the smaUer barks of
the infidels.
Undeterred by those preparations, the Saracens made a descent near
Ostia. The pope repaired to that town ; and there, aided by the inhabit
ants of Gaeta, of Naples, and of Amalfi, the Romans gained a signal victory
over their enemies.
Voltaire thus speaks of this historical fact :
" Being attacked by the Saracens, Pope Leo IV. showed himseK, by his
defence of Rome, worthy to rule there as a sovereign. He had employed'
the wealth of the Church in repairing the walls, buUding towers, and
stretching chains across the Tiber. He armed the militia at his own
expense, engaged the inhabitants of Gaeta and Naples to defend the shores
and the port of Ostia, but did not neglect the prudent precaution of taking
hostages from them, weU knowing that those who are powerful enough to
¦aid us are also -powerful enough to injure us. He personaUy visited aU the
posts, and met the Saracens on their descent, not in warhke array, hke
Gozlin, bishop of Paris, under circumstances stiU -more urgent, but as a
pontiff-exhorting a Christian people, and as a king watching over the safety of
his subjects. He was a Roman; in him the courage of the primitive ages of
'the republic was revived, in. a time of cowardice and corruption, like some
beautiful monument of ancient Rome that is sometimes found amidst the
ruins of the new Rome. The Saracens were valorously met on their de-

r

SAINT LEO tV. 217

v

scent, and a tempest having scattered haK their vessels, a portion of
the invaders having escaped shipwreck, were captured and made to work
in chains. Thus the pope utiUsed his victory by employing upon the
defences and adornment of Rome the very hands which were to have
destroyed her."
AU who know Voltaire's Essai sur les Mazurs, may see those letters of
Historical Nobility, given by the writer, who has 'most iU-treated the popes,
and who, writing Of so early a date as 849, did not shrink from using
such words as pontiff, king, for he commenced by saying "Leo, by his defence
of Rome showed himself worthy to rule there as a sovereign."*
Nothing was wanting to the glory of Leo. That noble deed of arms, that
second battle of Poitiers, if we may so speak, that immortal service rendered
to rehgion, has been handed down to posterity by Raphael, in the haUs of
the Vatican.
At Poitiers, France as a whole was threatened and saved ; but by the
victory of Ostia, it was the city of Rome that was directly to be crushed or
freed. In a few hours, had the Saracens been victors at Ostia, Rome
would have been theirs. Voltaire has not exaggerated the praise of Leo,
and in speaking of him, the imagination and the ability of the writer were
equal to the subject.
The new city, buUt around Saint Peter's, is stiU to this day caUed the
Leonine city ; it is connected with Rome, and actuaUy enclosed in the
same circuit.
k.-... In 852, the pope, prudent as became a man who had conquered bar
barians, resolved to fortify the town of Porto, because the Saracens had
concentrated considerable forces in SicUy. Then there presented themselves
a great number of Corsicans, whom dread of the Saracens had driven from
Bastia and the neighborhood of Cdrte, and who were wandering about with
out fixed abode.t Having set forth their distresses', they promised that, K
they should be received, they and their chUdren would remain in the service
of the pope, who, on his part, offered them the city of Porto, weU fortified,
and provided with vineyards, meadows, arable land, horses, and cattle. The
Corsicans, a brave people, loving war, and highly esteeming the pope, who
had shown himseK as brave as themselves, accepted Leo's offer, and a deed
of gift of the lands was dehvered in due form to those who hastened to sign
the treaty.
* However grateful we may feel to Voltaire for the justice with which he has praised Leo TV.,
we yet must remark here that as relates to Gozlin, "bishop of Paris, defending Paris against
the Normans, there is a serious error in date. The courageous act of Leo relates to the year 849,
and Gozlin was not bishop of Paris until 883. The monk Abbon, moreover, calls Gozlin the
beneficent pasU r and hero, full of gentleness— pastor benignus et mitissimus heros.
| Fleurjs.x., p. '443.

218 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Leo IV. had, in 850, crowned Louis II. as emperor, or rather as associ
ate in the empire, and he hved constantly in good understanding with him,
as weU as with Lothaire, the still living father of Louis.
Towards the end of the year 853, Leo IV. held at Rome, in the church of
Saint Peter's, a council of sixty-seven bishops, amongst whom were four
sent by the Emperor Lothaire. The councU assembled on the 8th of Sep
tember, second indiction, seventh year of the reign of Leo, thirty-seventh of
the reign of Lothaire, and the fifth of the reign of Louis II. It was in that
council that Anastasius was deposed, as mentioned earlier in this chapter.
The inhabitants of Centum CeUae, a flourishing town in the days of Trajan,
were exposed to attacks by the Saracens, and quitted the city. Leo built,
at a short distance, a new city, but in the course of time it was deserted,
and the inhabitants returned to the old Centum CeUse, to which they gave
the name of Civita Vecchia (the old city), which it stiU bears.
Leo was the first who began to reckon the years of his pontificate.* Leo
IV. governed the Church eight years, three months, and six days. In two
ordinations he created sixty-three bishops, nineteen priests, and eight dea
cons. This pope was very learned ; he united the rarest virtues, circumspection,
magnificence, piety, humanity, courage, and love of justice ; he was bene
ficent to the poor, and fulfilled the duties of the pontifical ministry with the
most exemplary exactitude. To him, as to Gozlin, might justly be apphed
the term mitissimus heros — hero full of gentleness. Leo died on the 17th of
July, 855, and was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant
one month and twelve days, until the consecration of Benedict III.
All that is related concerning this reign, fuUy proves how powerful Leo
was at Rome. Fleury, however, seems to doubt the authenticity of such a
sovereignty. He says (x., 493), "Daniel, master of the militia,' went from
Rome to Pa via to obtain an interview with Louis," and said to him :
" Gratian, governor of the palace of Rome, whom you believe to be faithful
to you, said to me in his own house, ' These French do us no good, and give
us no assistance ; on the contrary, they pillage us. Why do we not call in the
Greeks, and make a treaty with them, and drive away the French king and
nation ?' "
The emperor was so irritated on hearing this, that he hastily marched
upon Rome without writing to the pope or the senate. The pope failed not
to receive him, in the usual honorable manner, upon the great steps of the
church of Saint Peter's, and spoke to him with mfldness to appease him.
A day was appointed for Gratian's trial ; and the emperor, accompanied
by the pope, and the Roman and French nobles, held his court in the palace
* See the introduction to the Lines of the Pontiffs, by Novaes, vol. ii., Bisiert. iv., p. 2d

SAINT LEO iv.; 219
', erected by Leo HI,, near St. Peter's. Daniel repeated his accusation in
'i", Gratian's presence, that he sought to persuade him to dehver Rome to the
Greeks; but Gratian and the Romans contradicted him. The emperor
, ordered them to be tried by the Roman law, and Daniel was convicted of
calumny. He was delivered to Gratian to abide his wiU, but at the request
of the emperor was released. This story shows who was sovereign at
I* Rome. This story, except the concluding reflection by Fleury himseK, is drawn
from the Lives of the Popes, by Anastasius, Librarian of the Roman Church,
the same who aided the pope's legates at the CouncU of Constantinople, in
869, and who wrote nothing unjust to Rome, or unfavorable to its dignity.
But Fleury, who was subsequently obhged to acknowledge the pontifical
R"Sovereignty — and who wiU give, though with an Ul-grace, the firm and ener
getic letters of Nicholas I., pope in 858, three years after Leo IV., and im-
;.- mediately after his successor, Benedict HI. — Fleury takes a malignant
"¦' pleasure in representing the Western emperors as absolute masters of Rome,
as several Eastern emperors had been before Charlemagne. This is not
, good sound history on Fleury's part. Read these pages before the great
Saint Leo ; read the events of his reign ; go on to Saint Gregory the Great ;
and K you are not convinced, take up some pages on the pontificate of Saint
Leo IV. himseK, and see whether such sophistry should find place in a nar
rative which should be written only with the spirit of the most exact truth
and soundest criticism. Certainly, after Charlemagne a mixed element is
discoverable in examining this question, but Charlemagne almost always
> considered himself as a sort of legate a latere of the pope, and defends re
hgion as though pope himself. Louis the Debonnaire did not contend with
the popes. Lothaire, in the pohcy entailed by his revolt against his father,
courted Gregory IV. rather than endeavored to humUiate him. Lothaire,
subsequently recognized as lawful emperor, did not ill-treat Sergius ; and
certainly Leo IV, the conqueror of the Saracens, did not yield any rights to
Louis n., whom he had first crowned king of the Lombards, at the earnest
solicitation of Lothaire, and whom he subsequently crowned as emperor, or
[: associate in the empire, about the time when the Greeks avowed their evi-
f^ .designs ; for Gratian was, perhaps, less guUtless than Anastasius says ; and
Daniel, master of the militia, who, after aU, was not punished, although con
victed of calumny, may have told the truth. The Iconoclasts wished to
satisfy the Moslem at any price, and in the popes the Greeks found one of
the great obstacles to their perfidious project.*
* Hereafter, treating of Nicholas I., we shall see Fleury more reserved, and less inclined to
favor this spirit o' blackening the popes, and a certain contempt for the various phases of the
rise of their temporal power. This system of injustice was characteristic of many French writ
ings tov ards the close of the regency. We read in Feller (vol. v., p. 21) : " To fix, says an

220 LIVES OF THE POPES.

100. BENEDICT III.— a. d. 855.

T is between the reign of Saint Leo IV. and that
% of Benedict III. that the pretended reign of the
female Pope Joan has been placed. This dis
graceful fable was invented about the year 1278,
| and is founded upon a suppositious assertion of
I, Martin Polonus and Marianus Scotus, in the mar-
| § ?Jj gin of whose works this fable was inserted by

sasssssss? some lying writer, as is demonstrated by David
Blondel.* A great many Protestant writers reject the fable ; Cathohc
authors have refuted it. Unfortunately, seventy writers, and among them
many credulous Catholics, admit the ignoble tale. Father Honoratus a S.
Maria gives a list, adding that it embraces no French writer, t
These inconsiderate authors gives various names to the female pope;
some call her Agnes, others Angehca ; these caU her Margaret, those
Dorothy. .It is an immense falsehood, to which each of these authors con
tributes his share. If they differ as to the name of their imaginary
popess, they differ no less as to her nativity. She is Enghsh, a German, of
Mentz. She had, say they, successfully cultivated BeUes Lettres. Dis
guised as a man, she went to Athens, thence to Jerusalem, and finally to
Rome. There her talents and learning procured her admirers, and raised
her to the pontificate, which she held for two years, five months, and four
days. Here, as a woman is in question, the impostors lose no opportunity
to scatter their venom ; they cite the place, the procession, and the neigh
boring church at which she was obhged to stop. Then comes the filthy
author who wrote in 1791, the period when irreligion took its upward flight in France, we must
go back to that famous regency, when the race of the new Jeroboam already sought to divide
the prophet's mantle," (Kings iii. 11.) Fleury, a laborious and often just writer, taking in hand
the defence of right, unfortunately had not always power to withstand the impression of the
irreligious opposition of his time, and hence, in so fine a work which has been, and often still is,
go useful, we find some spots which disfigure it, a certain bitterness, calculated to destroy con
fidence, which the French can better detect than the Romans can, because the former perceive
the poisoned dart which, with more or less of evil intention, first gave the wound, and after
wards rankled in it, and which, if it tears no more, still remains there without the balm that
might soothe the pain.
* Light on the Question whether a Woman held the See of Borne between Leo IV. and Benedict
III. By David Blohdel, Protestant Minister, and translated into Latin by Courcelles, under the
witle Bi Joanna Papissa. 1657, in 8vo.
f In Beg. Critic, lib. i., dissert, iii., reg. viii., p. 09.

J

BENEDICT IH. 221
history of. the Sedia of Saint John Lateran. To go into that church, it
is said, thepopes.had changed the route. True, but the change was made.
because the old road could not contain the cortege of the popes, so much
more magnificent had it become. One of the most remarkable publications
uponthis question is Bonna ngnessere data Pontefice, (a Dissertation by George
Scherer, of the Society of Jesus. Vienna, 1586, 4to ; and translated into
Itahan by Nicholas Pierio, Venice, 1686). The scandalous absurdity so long
;'i employed to gratify their hatred by the enemies of the Holy See, should be
indignantly rejected, as even Protestants have taken pains to refute it.
How cynical Platina shows himseK in the matter !
Benedict IH., a Roman, son of Peter, a canon-regular, then made cardi
nal of Saint Calixtus by Leo IV., was elected pope, against his own desire,
on the 17th of July, and consecrated on the 29th of September, 855, after
the_ imperial ambassadors, whose duty it was to be present at the con
secration, had desisted from an endeavor to favor an antipope named
^Anastasius, because they perceived how warmly the clergy were in favor of
, Benedict. In 857, he conceded, in perpetuity, Terni to the inhabitants of that town,
on condition that they. should restore the houses that had been ruined by
the dukes of Spoleto.
He ordered that on the death of a bishop, a priest, or a deacon, the pon
tiff, with aU the bishops, priests, deacons, and clergy, should be present at.
, the funeral, and that, the same should be observed on the death of. a pope.
He thus restored the old custom, of the Ghurch, which ordained that at the
death of a bishop aU the other bishops of the province should carry him to
the grave.
He governed the Church two years, six months, and about ten days, count
ing the day of his consecration, and not that of his election.
In one ordination he created twenty bishops, six priests, and one deacon.
He was a pontiff of . great piety, Ml of tenderness and charity, visiting the
£ sick, and accessible to the poor, whom he saluted as nobles in. Jesus Christ.
I He refused his protection to no widow or orphan ; and he had the pleasure
> to find his virtues praised even by his enemies. This pope died on the 8th
of April, 858, and was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained
\ ' vacant fifteen days.
I ; , Mention has been made of the antipope. Anastasius. Some schis-
|; matics, supported by the ambassadors of Lothaire, sought to elect An
astasius, from whom Sahit Leo IV., had withdrawn the title of cardinal
of Saint MarceUus. Anastasius persisted in his resistance two months and
; some days, and even went so far as to depose Benedict. As length, having,
in the Basihca of Saint John Lateran, and in that of the Vatican, been guilty
of excesses which, says Novaes (ii., p. 125)j would have shocked a Saracen,

222

LIVES OF THE POPES.

he fled from Rome in the year 867, as Baronius states. But he returned
with genuine feelings of repentance, and was received into the communion
of the Church by Saint Nicholas I. UnhappUy this ungovernable man,
destitute alike of firmness and of good faith, always ready to fall, com
mitted new offences, and Adrian H. cut him off from the Cathohc com
munion in 868.

107. ST. NICHOLAS I. — a. d. 858.

ALNT NICHOLAS I., surnamed the Great, deserved
>)};> the title by his virtues, comparable to those of Saint
Gregory and Saint Leo. He was a Roman, and son
of Theodore of the Conti famUy. He was made
_J) cardinal-deacon by Leo IV. Notwithstanding the
resistance which he manifested, he was elected and
consecrated pope on the 24th of April, 858, in pre
sence of Louis II., who held the new pope's stirrup
as he mounted his horse to go to take the possesso. He was the first pope
crowned with the papal tiara. The coronation took place at Saint John
Lateran, but custom had prevaUed that the pope should be crowned at
Saint Peter's, and that he should go to Saint John Lateran to take possesso.
A few days after those ceremonies, Louis II. left Rome for a neighboring
place called Tor di Quinto. The pope, accompanied by aU the Roman
nobles, paid a visit to the prince at that place. On the arrival of the pon
tiff, Louis dismounted from his own horse, took the pope's bridle, and con
ducted His Holiness to Tor di Quinto, where a magnificent banquet was
prepared. The same honors were paid by Louis II. to Nicholas when he
returned to Rome.
The pope at this time commenced that series of great actions by which
his name and pontificate were made Ulustrious.
With admirable constancy he defended Ignatius, patriarch of Constanti
nople, whom Bardanes, uncle of the Emperor Michael, and governing in his
name, had deposed on a false charge of high treason. Bardanes had named,
in place of the deposed Ignatius, the eunuch Photius, a man of corrupt
morals, whom Nicholas deemed it his duty to excommunicate in a councU in
the year 863.*

* On this subject, see Baronius, Labbe, and Petavius.
matic Theology, vol. ii., chaps. 1 and 2, p. 633.

The last treats it formally in his Bog-

=1

SAINT NICHOLAS L 223
Li 866, Nicholas required of Lothaire that he should take back his wife,
Queen Tielberge, and to dismiss his concubine Waldrade. But subsequently
Lothaire took back the concubine, abandoning and ill-treating his lawful
wKe. In one of the seven councils which he celebrated at Rome, Nicholas
'l extinguished the reviving sect of the Theopaschites. He says himseK in the
seventh of his letters, pubhshed by Labbe, that they maintained that Jesus
Christ, on the cross, suffered in his divinity.
The Bulgarians were converted in 861. Nicholas sent to them, in 866,
his legates, among whom was distinguished Formosus, bishop of Porto,
who became pope in 891.
For their instruction he gave them one hundred and six rephes to as many
.questions asked by Michael, king of the Bulgarians. The hundred and
fourth (see Labbe, vol. viii, col. 548), became the subject of great disagree
ment among the theologians ; the following is the decision : Those should
not be re-baptised who have received baptism in the name of the Trinity,
or only in the name of Christ. " Among the rephes which the theologians
give upon that point the most fitting, as it seems to me,* says Novaes, is
that which says that the pope intended to intimate, not the form of baptism,
for that must be in the name of the Trinity, but the faith in Christ of the
A adults who were to receive the baptism in the name of the Trinity. How
ever, this is not our province, as we treat only of facts."
Being also an historian,. and not a theologian, I cannot too much applaud
the decorous reserve of Novaes ; and I remain ready to receive with respect
every Roman decision differing from what I have taken as my guide.
On the subject of the divorce of Lothaire, Fleury (xi. 76) notices a letter
[];'. which Nicholas wrote to Adventius, bishop of Mentz, in which the pope
seems to authorize bishops to disobey princes whom they do not consider
fc< ¦; legitimate.
fP: "You say that you are subject to the prince because the apostle says:
§', Obey the king, as being set over you. You are right; but be sure that
0 these kings and princes are truly so. See whether they act uprightly,
|> govern their subjects weU, for what is he good for who is bad in himseK?
1 See whether they are princes justly; otherwise we must rather hold them
as tyrants than kings, and resist, rather than by obeying them place ourselves
under the necessity of favoring their vices. Be subject to the king as
being above aU by his virtues, not by his vices, and obey him for God's
sake, as the apostle says, and not against God."
Fleury adds : " Pope Nicholas forgot that the king, or rather emperor,
|. , whom Saint Peter ordered Christians to obey, was Nero ; and that he says
immediately after, ' slaves obey your masters, not only those who are good,
f Novaes, ii., 127.

J.

224 LIVES OF THE POPES.
but the froward also.' Moreover, the pope makes bishops judges whether
princes are legitimate or tyrants ; and not only bishops but aU their sub
jects, for the reason he cites in general."
Fleury frequently censures Nicholas. " There was also a letter for the
bishops of the kingdom of Charles the Bald. The king begs them to
exhort the king to keep his oaths, and adds these remarkable words : ' That
the emperor be not forced to turn against Christians the sword which he
has received from the vicar of Saint Peter, to use against the infidel ; that
he be permitted to govern the kingdoms faUen to him by succession, con
firmed by the authority of the Holy See, and by the crown which the Holy
See has placed on his head.' "
" We see the pope seeking to avail himself of the coronation ceremony,
and the delivery of the sword, which forms part of it. He adds a threat of
God's anger against any one daring to attack the emperor, and declares
that he wiU himseK defend him with all his power."
I think Fleury mistakes in looking upon the crowning, and the dehvery
of the sword as vain formulas. Those words have been pronounced at
every coronation of which history speaks. Fleury devoted himseK too
much to old works, and perhaps, he selected those passages which supported
not his mistakes, but his passions.
The heresy of Photius began to make some ravages in France. That
schismatic continued to maintain that when the emperors removed from
Rome to Constantinople, the primacy of the Roman Church and its privi
leges had also passed to the Church of Constantinople.'""
The pope, then, wrote to the French bishops, assembled at Troyes, to
inform them of these extraordinary pretensions of the Greek calumnies, and
unjust reproaches against the Roman Church.
" Before we sent our legates," says the pope, " the Greeks overwhelmed
us with eulogies, and exalted the authority of the Holy See. But since we
condemned their excesses, they use far different language,"!" and load us
with insults. Finding nothing, God be praised, which they could reproach
us with as to personal conduct, they have resorted to attacks upon the tra
ditions of our fathers, which their ancestors dared not oppose."
In a document put forth by Nicholas (Collection des Candles, vol. 8), he
recommends the foUowing doctrine : " The canons ordain that throughout
the world appeals shaU be made to Rome, from whose decision there shaU
be no appeal."
* I remember hearing Monsignor Nicolai, a Roman wit, say upon this subject: " The vessel
must have been large, both physically and morally, which carried so much at once from Rome
to Byzantium I For it must have lodged the Old Testament which promises Rome itself to the
¦Universe." t Feller, iv., p. 517.

~p«-

ADRIAN II

225

¦ Nicholas governed the Church nine years.six months, and twenty days..
In various ordinations,. he created sixty-five bishops, seven priests,, and
four deacons. The; eighth general councU, .assembled in Constantinople in
870 (Hardouin, -vol. v.), caUs? Nicholas the, new Elias,. the new Phineas* new
Baniel, and new Martin. Anastasius, in the preface to that same council,
calls Nicholas a heavenly man, and an> earthly, angel. He showed great
magnificence in the restoration of the churches of Rome. AU authors agree,
that he was enthusiasticaUy beloved by the poor, .because he had said that.
there.should not be oneof them- in Rome that had not shared in his bounty.
Nicholas was -also- respected on account of the just severity with which he
enforced ecclesiastical discipline. He died on the 13th of November, 867,
and was interred before the doors of Saint Peter.
The Holy See remained vacant one month.

ADRIAN II.— a. d. 867.

fee, fig

I

DRIAN II., a Roman-, son of Talarus, and abishop,,,
was a relation of Stephen IV. and of Sergius. II.
He owed his rank of, cardinal-priest of Saint
Mark to Gregory IV. Adrian twice refused the,
pontificate, after the death of Leo TV. and after
that of Benedict ni.
Some authors maintain that before he became
a cardinal he was married. Novaes does not
deny that fact, which was very common in the
The wife of the son of Talarus was named Ste-
Muratori states the same fact in his '

times of which we speak
phanie, and they had one daughter.
Annals (vol. v.).
When Adrian H. was elected pope, he was above seventy-six years old.
He was consecrated on the 14th of December, 867 ; and even whUe the cere
mony was in progress; he made a third attempt to refuse the pontificate.
Adrian, in his rule, so carefuUy foUowed in the path of his predecessor, that
with iU-timed derision he was caUed Nicholas the Little ; but he persisted
in foUowing the noble examples given by his predecessor. He pronounced
a second sentence of excommunication against Anastasius, cardinal of Saint

• Phineas, son of Eleazar, and grandson of Aaron, was the third high-priest of the Jews.
15

226

LIVES OF THE POPES.

MarceUus, who had been deposed by Leo IV. Anastasius, when restored
to communion, had forgotten that favor. He abstracted synodal writings,
and committed other offences, and no doubt deserved the sentence of ex
communication which was pronounced against him by a council assembled
at Rome in 868.
In another council assembled at Rome, Adrian, urged by his apostohc
zeal, issued a third excommunication against the arrogant Photius. On
this subject, and in order to restore agreement with the various Eastern
churches, he convoked the Fourth CouncU of Constantinople, which was the
eighth general council. There a hundred and nine bishops signed the con
demnation of Photius, with a pen dipped in the chalice. The 27th canon
of that councU ordered that monks and religious when made bishops should
visibly wear the habit of their order.
Adrian absolved Lothaire from his excommunication, and urged him to
leave his concubine Waldrade, and take back his lawful wife Tielberge, to
whom he was bound to pay all royal honors.
This pope ordered Charles the Bald, on pain of excommunication, to re
store the kingdom usurped from his brother, the Emperor Louis II., whose
birthright it was. He crowned Alfred I., sixth king of England, and granted
to the Moravians the right to use the Sclavonic, their vernacular language,
in the divine offices and in the Mass. Pope John VIII. confirmed that
right, on condition that they should first recite the Gospel in Latin and
then in Sclavonic. Langlet, in his Chronological Tables (vol. ii, p. 278),
thinks that it was at this period that the cross began to be borne before
the pope.
Adrian II. governed the Church four years, eleven months, and twelve
days. He died on the 26th of November, 872, and was buried at the Vati
can. The Holy See remained vacant twenty-six days.

JOHN vra.

227

109. JOHN VIII — a. d. 872.

OHN VHL, a Roman, son of Guido, and cardinal-
archdeacon, was elected and consecrated pope on the
14th of December, 872. He was the first to publish
rules on the rights and pre-eminences of the cardi
nals. (See Saint Pascal I., p. 208.)
In 875 he crowned the Emperor Charles the Bald
as king of France, and accompanied him to Pavia,
where he held a councU, which confirmed the elec
tion of the Emperor Charles.
In 876 he excommunicated Formosus, bishop of Porto (who, in the year
891, succeeded him in the pontificate), because that bishop had left his
church without the permission of the pope, and was, moreover, accused of
conspiring against the weal of the empire and of Christendom. MabiUon
gives us, on this subject, details which are founded upon John's own letter.
Subsequently, the pope exUed Formosus to France, making him swear that
he would not return to Rome, or even to Porto. The Saracens, who had
infested the kingdom of Naples, had approached Rome. John sohcited the ¦
aid of Charles the Bald. Fleury* gives the following extract from the letter
then written by the pope : " In proportion to the joy at the aid you promise, '
is our grief at learning that it has returned without doing any thing. The
blood of Christians is shed. He who escapes the sword is hurried away
into endless bondage. Cities, towns, villages perish, abandoned by the in
habitants ; the bishops are scattered, and have no refuge but Rome ; their
episcopal residences are become the refuge of wUd beasts ; they themselves
are wanderers on the face of the earth, reduced to beggary. Last year,
instead of preaching, we planted, and have reaped nothing ; this year, not
having sowed, we have not even a hope of harvest. Why speak of pagans ?
Christians do no better — I mean some of our neighbors whom you caU
Marchiones. They plunder Saint Peter's patrimony in the city and country.

* Hitherto I have used the 12mo edition of Fleury (1724) ; but having heard of another
edition, I shall henceforth make use of it. This latter edition was published at Paris (1840-
1844), in six volumes, large 8vo, double columns, and, besides the hundred books given in pre
ceding editions, it contains four said to be previously unpublished. It is stated that these four
books were found in the Bibliotheque du Boi ; they refer to the years 1414 to 1517. Hereafter I
necessarily must consult this edition ; I do so beforehand, because it corrects a host of erroneous
dates. When I shall reach the year 1414, I shall inquire into the authenticity of those four
new books. The letter of Pope John VIH., here mentioned, is in the third volume of the new
edition of Fleury, p. 501.

228 LIVES OF THE POPES
They kiU us, not by the steel, but by famine ; they do not take us into
captivity, but they reduce us to bondage. Their oppression makes us un
able to find any one to meet the enemy. You alone, under God, are our
refuge and our consolation, and therefore ii is that with our whole hearts
we supphcate you — we, the bishops, priests, nobles, and the rest of the
people— to stretch forth your helping hand to this oppressed city and your
Mother Church, from whom you have received not only your kingdom, but
the faith ; and who, finally, raised you to the empire, in preference to your
brother, who was a great prince."
John, however, was attacked in the States of the Church by the Saracens,
and unable to rely upon the aid of Charles and the other princes, was
obhged to purchase peace from the barbarians by the promise of an annual
tribute of twenty-five thousand silver marks ; and at the same time he found
himseK obhged to leave his capital, to avoid the plots of some Roman
nobles, his enemies, and he took shelter in France. On Whitsunday, the
11th of May, 878, he stopped in the city of Aries ; thence he proceeded to
Lyons, from which city he wrote to various prelates, and among them to
Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, whose great merits he knew.
John assembled a councU at Troyes. In the third session aU the bishops
present agreed upon the foUowing address to the pope :
" Lord and most Holy Father, we, the bishops of Gaul and Belgium,
your servants and your disciples, compassionate the miseries which the
ministers of the devil have inflicted upon our Holy Mother, the Mistress of
aU the Churches, and we unanimously foUow the sentence which, according
to the canons, you have pronounced upon those enemies in causing them to
die by the sword of the spirit. We hold as excommunicated aU whom you
have excommunicated, as anathematized those whom you have anathema
tized, and we wUl receive those who shah be received by you, after they
shaU have made satisfaction according to the rules ; but we have aU, in
these churches, the same evUs to deplore. Wherefore, in aU humUity, we
supphcate you to aid us and prescribe how we shaU act against those who
rob our churches, so that, being supported by your authority, we and our
successors may be the stronger to resist and punish them."*
John returned to Rome with Count Boson, whom he had chosen as the
defender of the States of the Church against Lambert, duke of Spoleto.
The pontiff, on his return to the capital, was waited upon by ambassadors
from Basil, emperor of the East. That prince, deceived by Photius, had
replaced him in the See of Constantinople, and now begged the pope
to confirm his acts. The emperor urged that not only the partisans of
Photius, but those of the party of Ignatius and Methodius, had consented
* Fleury, vol. iii., p. 509 {an. 878, 1840-1844, edition previously quoted.)

JOHN VIH. 229
to this restoration. John, deceived by such reports,* without inquiry, was
unwise enough to write, through Cardinal Peter, his legate, to the emperor,
the patriarchs of the East, and aU who had refused to communicate with
Photius, and declare him re-established in that See. John beheved the
sacrifice to be necessary to the peace of the Church ; nevertheless he made
it on condition that Photius, in the presence of the legates, should ask
pardon for his conduct towards the Roman Church. Photius, who was fuU
of trickery and imposture, readily consented.
This compliance on the part of the pope surprised aU the orthodox, and
caused Cardinal Baronius to say that at that time the Church was governed
by a woman.f
Baronius somewhat exaggerates the mischief done to the Holy See by John
in restoring Photius ; and de Marca, according to Novaes, perhaps refines
too much in his endeavor to justify the pontiff on that point. We abstain
from deciding the question. Such discussions are always dehcate and diffi
cult to settle. We confine ourselves to saying, stiU foUowing Novaes, that
John, perceiving that he had made a false step in re-establishing Photius,
and thus restoring to the communion the usurper of a seat of which he had
been deprived by an oecumenical councU, soon canceUed the acts of the
Condliabula presided over by Photius in person, and severely punished the
legates of the Holy See who had suffered themselves to be deceived by the
frauds of that disobedient prelate. Photius was again condemned, and
John sent Marius, a cardinal-deacon, to Constantinople to cause the pon
tifical wiU to be executed.
At the sohcitation of Alphonso III., king of Leon, John erected the
Church of Oviedo into the metropohtan Church of Gahcia.
In four years, John is said to have crowned as emperors three kings of
France: Charles the Bald, in 876; Louis III., in 878 ;$ and Charles the
Fat, in 880.
The same pontiff gave to the duke of Gaeta, to John his son, and
to their successors, the patrimony of Traetto, and the town of Fondi,
previously the absolute property of the Holy See, on condition that those
princes should declare war against the Saracens, which they courageously
did. FeUer (ii. 649) says that we have three hundred and twenty-six of this
pope's letters. The Biographie Universelle states that it was by order of this

* Baronius, ad. an. 879, No. 5 ; and Langlet, Princ. de VHist., vol. vii., p. 1.
f See Life of Nicholas I. for an account of the pretensions of Photius.
| It is commonly said that John crowned Louis III. as emperor; but Father Sirmond, in the
notes to the Council of Troyes, which was celebrated in presence of the pontiff, about Septem
ber, 878, shows that Louis was crowned king, and not emperor.

230

LIVES OF THE POPES.

pontiff that John, a deacon of the Roman Church, wrote, in four volumes,
the Life of Gregory the Great, who hved three centuries earlier.
John governed ten years and two days ; he died on the 15th of Decem
ber, 882, just as he was about to set out for France, for the puipose of
bringing about a reconcUiation among the French princes. He was interred
under the portico of the Vatican. The Holy See remamed vacant seven
days.

110. MARINUS I.— a. d. 882.

^jte^SiCK^^rtfEa^a HE next pope, Marinus I., son of Palombo, was
' born at Montefiascone, a town in the States of the
Church, near Viterbo. He had three times been
legate to Constantinople, in the affair of Photius, —
under Nicholas I., in 866, under A.drian II., in 868,
and under John VHI., in 881.
He was elected pope on the 23d of December,
882. He immediately excommunicated Photius,
and restored Formosus to his See of Porto, and also
permitted him to go to Rome.
Under Pope Marinus hved the great king of England, Alfred. Named king
of Demetia by his father, he was crowned at Rome by Pope Leo IV., and
subsequently recognized as king of Wessex. He is considered the first
legislator of the nation. Those among his laws which relate to rehgion
were made by him in concert with the See of Rome.
Perjury was punished by forty days' imprisonment, to fulfil the penance
imposed by the bishop. Right of sanctuary was given to the churches.
Larceny committed in a church, or on a Sunday, was punished more
severely than K committed elsewhere, and on any other day. Nuns were
protected against insults of men,* which seems to infer that they were not
cloistered. It was forbidden to draw a sword in the presence of a bishop.
A deposit made to a monk without the permission of the abbot was void,
and the loss feU on the depositor.
Pope Marinus, at the request of King Alfred, of England, sent him a piece
of the true cross. This pontiff governed one year, four months, and a few
days. He died on the 24th of February, 884, with the reputation of an en-

* Fleury, iii., 542, new edition.

te

ADRIAN ni.— STEPHEN VI.

231

Ughtened and very pious man. We must presume that Formosus, whom
this pope pardoned, had given clear proofs of his repentance.
Marinus was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant six
days.

111. ADRIAN III.— a. d. 884.

DRIAN in., whom many authors caU Agapitus,
was a Roman, son of Benedict. He was elected
pontiff on the 1st of March, 884.
He would never yield to Basilius, the Mace
donian, who wished him to revoke the excom
munication against Photius, the perpetual tor
ment of the Church. Adrian governed one year,
four months, and eight days. He was invited to
France by Charles the Fat. The firmness and
wisdom of this pope were much relied on to terminate the differences which
disturbed that monarchy, but he died on his way at Saint Cesarius, a smaU
town near Modena, on the 8th of July, 885. He was buried in the monas
tery of Nonantola, five mUes from Modena.
The Holy See remained vacant six days.

112. STEPHEN VI— a. d. 885.

TEPHEN VI. , who is believed to have belonged to
the house of Colonna, was cardinal-priest, and unani
mously elected pope on the 15th of July, 885. So
great was his resistance to the promotion, that he
ordered the doors of his house to be closed, and it
was necessary to break them down in order to seize
'J^\ him (as was done with Gregory the Great), and
'^" lead him to the church. Stephen was crowned, with
out the presence of the imperial ambassadors, at the close of the month of
September of the same year, which would confirm the existence of a decree

232 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of Adrian in., his predecessor, providing that the pope elect should be
consecrated without requiring the presence of the king or his ambassadors.
I have not previously mentioned that decree, because many writers consider
it apocryphal ; but what occurred in Stephen's case proves that the decree
probably existed.
With the aid of the Emperor Leo VI., caUed the PhUosopher, Stephen
extinguished the schism of Photius ; that heresiarch was confined in a
monastery, where he died, despised by aU the faithful. Thus was destroyed
the schism of the Eastern Church, so fatally introduced into Cathohc affairs
by Photius. This schism did not revive until the time of Michael Ceru-
larius, who, by favor of Constantine Monomachus, was placed in the See
of Constantinople in 1043.
In 891, Stephen crowned as emperor, Guido, duke of Spoleto, his adopted
son, who out of gratitude confirmed the gKts made to the Roman Church
by Pepin, and by the Emperor Charlemagne and Louis the Pious ; and thus,
after many vicissitudes, the Itahan empire feU again into the hands of an
Itahan prince.
It is affirmed that it was Stephen who, in a letter addressed to Humbert,
bishop of Mayence, prohibited the ordeal by a hot iron or boiling water ;
by which the accused was deemed innocent, K he touched the iron or water
without being injured! But many writers, and among them Van Espen, do
not recognize the decree.
Stephen governed six years. He distinguished himseK by his knowledge,
and by his charity to the poor.
" This pope," says FeUer, (H., 751), "was of noble race and of exemplary
disinterestedness. He to the utmost of his power opposed his own eleva
tion. He nourished orphans as though they had been his own chUdren,
and often admitted them to his table. On his attaining to the pontificate,
the goods of the Church being almost aU dissipated, he UberaUy distributed
his rich patrimony. He celebrated Mass daUy, and gave to prayer or
psalmody such time as he could spare from the duties of charity and
pastoral watchfulness. He above aU things was anxious to associate with
himseK in the government of the Church the most enhghtened and the most
virtuous men whom he could discover. He died on the 7th of August, or, as
some say, towards the end of September, 891, and was interred in the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant one month and eleven days.

FORMOSUS.

233

113. FORMOSUS— a. d. 891.

ORMOSUS, son of Leo, was a native of Corsica,

canon-regular, and afterwards bishop of Porto.
He was the first bishop who became pope. He
was elected pontiff about the 21st of September,
and consecrated towards the end of that month.
John VIII. had condemned Formosus, deposed
him from his See, exiled him, and forbidden him
to return to his church or to Rome, and had made
him promise to content himseK with lay communion.
Marinus I., as we have seen, released the exile from his oaths, and restored
him to his See. Adrian III. and Stephen VI. distinguished and honored
Formosus. Monsignor Becchetti, in stating that fact in his Hist. Ecdesiast.
(vol. vii), adds that, owing to the obscurity of the ancient documents, it
would be difficult to prove the innocence of Formosus. Nevertheless, Car-
della, in vol. i. of his History of the Cardinals, mentions that even amidst
that dense darkness, Father Nardi- has found abundant hght to clear
Formosus from aU the offences that have been imputed to him ; and he
maintains that time has openly proved the innocence of this cardinal, who
subsequently became pontiff. Novaes does not hesitate to say that John
VHL, who restored Photius to the See of Constantinople, may also have
given too easy credence to calumnies against Formosus ; and at the same
time that historian asserts that the contemporaries of Formosus eulogized
him as a man of great virtue.
The Emperor Leo having written to Stephen VI. that Photius of his own
free wiU had resigned his bishopric, and the bishops of the East having
written to the contrary, begging the pope to receive into the communion of
the Church those who had been ordained by that heresiarch, Formosus
received the letters, Stephen having died ere they reached Rome. For
mosus showed himseK favorable to the prayer of the bishops, but with the
condition that those who had been ordained by Photius should present a
libellus containing a written confession of their fault and asking pardon
for it.
The Emperor Guido being dead, the affairs of Italy were again disturbed
by violence : the Holy Father secretly caUed to Rome the king of Ger
many, Arnulphus, to repress a party that had risen against the pope, headed
by Lambert, a son of Guido. Arnulphus was crowned emperor in 895, after

234

LIVES OF THE POPES.

having taken Rome, by permission of Formosus, and driven out the enemies
of that pope. In the oath that the Romans took to Arnulphus, the pope
caused the words, saving the faith due to Formosus, to be inserted.
A letter of the archbishop of Rheims, Foulques, having informed the
Holy Father of the coronation of Charles the Simple as king of France,
His Holiness wrote to King Eudes, begging him not to attack Charles in
either his person or possessions, but to grant him a truce ; and he also
wrote to the bishops, exhorting them to make the same request to King
Eudes. He also sent Charles advice suited to his position. Formosus
governed the Church nearly five years. He died on the 4th of April, 896,
and was interred at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant six days.

114. BONIFACE VI.— a. d. 896.
i3l ONIFACE VI. is reckoned among the popes of that
| name ; nevertheless, the official Diario of Rome
says that many writers consider him an antipope.
After the death of Formosus, a mob placed Boni
face in the chair of Saint Peter, on the 11th of
April, 896. Little regularity was observed in his
election, and he aUowed himseK to be appointed by
unqualified electors. John VIH. had condemned
him, and deprived him of the dignity of subdeacon. He enjoyed the pon
tificate only fifteen days, and died of an attack of gout, on the 26th of AprU,
896. He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant five
days.

STEPHEN VIL 235

15. STEPHEN VII— a. d. 896.
TEPHEN VIL, a Roman, made bishop of Anagni by
Stephen VI, was elected pontiff by the seditious
exertions of Adalbert, marquis of Tuscany, on the
22d of May, 896, and consecrated about the 20th of
August. According to Baronius (An. 896, n. 2 and 6), he
was the first who covered with mourning the chair
of Saint Peter. Stephen, ignorant of the sacred doc
trines, and unable to consult the clergy, who had taken no part in his elec
tion, violated the grave of a sovereign pontiff, caused Formosus, who
had been buried at the Vatican, to be taken up, clothed in the papal orna
ments, and placed on the pontifical throne, where he thus outrageously
addressed his corpse : " You were bishop of Porto ; and how, man fuU of
ambition, did you dare to usurp the universal Roman throne ?" Having
said that, he had the body stripped of the sacred garb, had the three fingers
cut off with which the living pope had been accustomed to give the papal
benediction, and then had the body thrown into the Tiber.* Afterwards,
having deposed aU those who had been ordained by Formosus, Stephen
rendered himseK universaUy odious by such revengeful conduct. The
friends of Formosus excited the citizens, who loaded Stephen with hons,
and strangled him in prison.
Some time after (in 898), John IX. assembled at Rome a council, which
condemned aU that had been done in 897, against the memory and the body
of Formosus. The Fathers of the councU remarked that Formosus had been
removed by necessity from the See of Porto to that of Rome. " There was
necessity," said they, " for transferring Formosus from the Church of Porto
to the Holy See. Formosus was distinguished for the merits of his hfe."
" The conduct of Stephen," says Baronius, " must be attributed to a vio
lent tyranny in fact, and not to error in faith : let us not forget that we are
treating of the ninth century." Stephen governed the Church one year and
two months. He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained
v icant thr 3e days. * Luitprand, book i., chap. 8. Muratori, vol. ii., p. 430.

286

LIVES OF THE POPES.

116. ROMANUS— a. d. 898.

OMANUS, of Montefiascone, or rather of Gallese,
an estate near Civita CasteUana, was the son of
Constantine, the father also of Pope Marinus. He
was elected pontiff on the 17th of September, 898.
Sigonius, Platina, Panvini, and Chacon state that
this pope abrogated aU that Stephen had done
against Formosus, whose friend Romanus had been.
But the contemporary writers make no mention of
this abrogation, which seems to have been reserved for Theodore H., succes
sor of Romanus.
This pope died on the 8th of February, 898, after governing the Church
about four months, and was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See re
mained vacant three days.

117. THEODORE II.— a. d. 898.

HEODORE n., Roman, son of Photius, a noble,
was elected pontiff on the 12th of February, 898.
He annulled the sentence pronounced by Stephen
VII. against those ordained by Formosus. He en
tombed with .pomp, in Saint Peter's, the body of
that pope, which some fishermen had recovered
from the Tiber. Legends recount that when the
body appeared at the entrance of the church aU the
images bowed in salutation. Modern critics, says
Novaes, reject this statement as a comphmentary fable— favola galante —
While others receive it as an indubitable fact.
Theodore II. governed only twenty days. He deserves praise for having
punished the insult offered to Formosus. Flodoard lauds the piety, cour
age, and charity of Theodore. He died on the 3d of March, 898, and was
interred at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant eight days.

JOHN IX

237

118. JOHN IX. — a. d. 898.

OHN IX., of Tivoh, son of Rampoald, first a Bene
dictine monk, then cardinal-deacon, was elected
pope on the 22d of March, 898, and consecrated at
the end of August. He formaUy abrogated the
acts against Formosus. Nevertheless, he ordered,
in two councUs, assembled at Rome and Ravenna,
that no bishop should pass from his own Church
to that of Rome, — a law annulled, as we shaU see,
in 914.*
In the CouncU of Ravenna, John required aU to swear obedience to the
capitularies of Charlemagne. After having nobly restored the memory of
Formosus, he excommunicated those who had violated the tomb, in order
to take out the body of that pope. He ratified the coronation of the
Emperor Lambert, and annuUed the election of Berengarius. This pontiff
forbade the houses of bishops to be pUlaged at their death, and he ordained,
for the prevention of disturbances arising out of the coronation of the popes,
that the ceremony should take place in presence of .the imperial ambassa
dors. The presence of those ministers was often apparently invoked : they
were called for K a riot was feared ; but if the people were peaceable they
were not invited. John IX. governed two years and fifteen days. He died
on the 26th of March, or at the commencement of August, in the year 900.
He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant ten
days. * Upon this strange trial, held on the corpse of Formosus, Henault remarks — " It is pretended
that translation from one bishopric to another was unexampled. Yet, in the third century,
we have the case of Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, and also a coadjutor given to a living
bishop."

238

LIVES OF THE POPES.

19. BENEDICT IV — a. d. 900.
BENEDICT IV., a Roman, canon-regular of Saint
John Lateran, son of Mammolus, and said to be of
the famous Conti family, was elected on the 6th of
April, A. D. 900. In the month of August, he
jif crowned, as emperor, Louis, king of Burgundy.
f=§ Benedict governed three years and two months.
f-14 He was affable, hberal to the poor, and of virtues
rare in those unhappy times.
We are now entering the tenth century ; it already announces itseK by
acts which fill us with grief. That tenth century was the most fatal, the
most unfortunate, to the Church. Who can deny it ?*
The great Baronius (An. 900, n. 1) thus speaks : " This tenth century
commences — this century, which, by its barrenness and sterihty of good, was
caUed the iron age ; subsequently, on account of its abounding perversity,
the leaden age, and on account of its scarcity of writers, the dark age."
Anthony Pagi, in his remarks on Baronius, says — " The tenth century is
deplorable ; for its barbarism was horrible, immeasurable ; because ecclesi
astic property, bishoprics, and other benefices were constantly usurped,
often by laymen, even those in the married state." Disturbances in the
Roman See were frequent, as we shaU have occasion to observe.f Examples
of piety and virtue in the heads of the Church became less frequent. Am
bition and simony prevailed among the greater portion of the ecclesiastical
body, and laws to remedy those evUs were commonly despised.
" There were but few writers, K we compare them to the number which gave
lustre to the preceding or to the following centuries. Ignorance would have
been universal, says Father Faure in his annotations to the Father Muzan-
zio (Table Chronolog., p. 178), had not a few monks employed themselves in
copying some of the productions of men who flourished before that time.
We should read and seriously meditate what Tiraboschi says in his History
of Italian Literature, vol. iii, book iii, chap. ii.
" It is pitiable to see that in that age sound criticism and good philosophy
were almost wholly banished from Europe. The bishops had to ask priests
if they knew how to read. The corruption of the clergy was such that in
this century and the beginning of the next men had to be raised to the
heads of churches who were unworthy of that honor. Peter Damian, writ-

* Novaes, ii., p.151.

f Novaes, ii., p. 151.

BENEDICT rv. 239
ing to a pontiff of an archpriest who aspired to become a bishop, gives the
following account of the merits of the candidate : " He reaUy is governed
by avarice and vanity, and he too strongly desires to reach the dignity of a
pastor ; but if this prove no obstacle, your Hohness must know that after
aU he is better than aU the others."
The See of the Prince of. the Apostles* had become the prey of certain
princes and their wives. Their unbridled excesses, says Baronius, aided by
their wealth and other circumstances, had rendered these personages ar
biters of the domains of Rome. It was not talent, but arbitrary power,
that raised to the pontifical See these successors of the Holy Apostle. It
seemed that as Divine Providence had in these fatal times intrusted its be
loved flock to shepherds unmindful of their duties, the abandoned flock
must wander from the right path ; but Divine Providence was stiU always
wonderfully and inscrutably governing it with an almighty arm. That same
Divine Providence, so great and so generous, though often so severe, but
always justly so, ordained that in that century, in which more of goodness
and science were so much needed among the pastors, there was less heresy
than in any others. God is always so powerful and so kind to his chUdren !
God so ordered it that at the moment when the head of the Church showed
least piety, the Church beheld coming to its bosom Harold, king of Den
mark, with his whole kingdom ; Dukes Liberius of Muscovy, Micislaus of
Poland, Waldemar of Prussia, and Spetineus of Bohemia, as well as their
vassals. Then Hungary was converted by Saint Stephen, and Russia by
Saint Boniface, and aU, as if urged by a supernatural impulse, united with
the Church. God finaUy so arranged that, in an age when the pontiffs were
not irreproachable, the Councils of Chalons, in 915, Troyes, in 921 and 927,
and Rheims, in 995, recognized and venerated in the heads residing at Rome
the supreme authority and the high and indestructible pontifical sovereignty.
Let us, nevertheless, repeat with MabiUon and Natahs Alexander that, in
spite of the almost universal irregularity, there yet flourished in sanctity
many bishops, abbots, monks, and nuns, men and women of aU ranks and
conditions. It must also be added that many heretics, and even some Catholic writers,
who look with no friendly eye upon the splendor of the Roman See,
attack and denounce, while they exaggerate the faults of some of the pon
tiffs of that age. Those authors are numerous, and merit pity rather than
refutation. " I know," said MabiUon, " that the innovators of our age avail
themselves of the evU example of a few popes to attack the incorruptible
truth and unity of the Roman Church. Be the popes what they may,
against whom so many charges have been invented, their faults, real or
* Novaes, ii., p. 152.

240 LIVES OF THE POPES.
only alleged, can in no wise prejudice the Cathohc Church, spread over
the whole world. Saint Augustine, speaking of the Donatists, said : ' We
are not crowned for their innocence, nor punished for their perversity ;' and
we may, with like truth, say, as to modern innovators, the truth of the
Church remains unalterable."
Let us say with Bellarmine : " Heretics industriously seek after the
faults of the pontiffs ; these faults have not been few, but do they destroy,
or even diminish the glory of the Holy See ? No ; even on account of those
very faults it must increase and extend. The Roman pontificate has not
owed its preservation to human direction or prudence ; it has been pre
served because that rock has been so divinely fixed, so powerfuUy upheld,
so vigilantly surrounded by the guard of the apostles, and so gUted with
the singular protection of God, that the gates of hell cannot prevaU against
that rock. Those 'gates of heU' are represented by the persecutions of
tyrants, by the rage of heretics, by the mockeries of free-thinkers, by the
circulation of corrupt writings, by all the wickedness spawned by human
corruption."* Novaes, continuing to quote from BeUarmine, does not here confine him
seK to mere quotation, but continues in these terms : " We must continue
the lives of the pontiffs who governed the Church in the tenth century.
Certainly, I do not pursue my task with the same satisfaction and pleasure
that I felt while recounting the acts of the primitive faithful, where we had
to admire so much virtue, knowledge, exemplary good works, and zeal for
due pontifical administration. Now conduct unregulated by reflection at
times, presents us with a spectacle different from what formerly edified us.
"Nevertheless, as I have not exaggerated the good qualities of former
pontiffs, so with the foUowing ones I wiU not conceal what is censurable,
being assured that the action of Divine Providence cannot but triumph the
more, for, amidst those disorders, it has sustained the great glory of the
Church." The terrible accusation against the period, however, must not be apphed
to Benedict. Fleury says of him, " He was a great pope."t
He acted prudently in the case of Argrim, bishop of Langres, whom the
Emperor Guy had driven from that city. The pope not choosing to decide
without the bishops, convened a council in the Lateran palace, where it was
decided that Argrim should be maintained in the See of Langres. The
Emperor Lambert was dead, and Benedict not deeming it right to recognize
Berengarius, held the empire to be vacant ; but shortly after, Louis, son of
Boson, king of Provence, was caUed into Italy and recognized as emperor.
Under this reign died Alfred the Great, king of England. He profited by
* Bellarmine, preface to his Be Bom. Pont. \ Fleury, chap, liv., p. 671

LEO V.

241

aU the leisure his pubhc duties aUowed him, to read, interrogate educated
men, and thus to learn whatever might improve himseK for those with whom
he conversed.* He left many writings, six of which were his own composi
tions. Among them were a collection of the laws of various nations, the
laws of the West Saxons, a treatise against evU judges, maxims of wise men,
parables, and dissertations on the various fortunes of kings. The Enghsh
ascribe to Alfred trial by jury in criminal cases.
Benedict died on the 20th of October, 903. He was interred at the
Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant seven days.

120. LEO V— 903.

: EO V. was born at Priapi, near Ardea, in the Ro
man Campagna, or, according to other authors, at
Arezzo ; he was certainly not a Tuscan. A simple
Benedictine in the abbey of BrandaUo, then cardi
nal, he was elected pope on the 28th of October,
903. A few days afterwards, Christopher, cardi
nal-priest of Saint Lawrence in Bamaso, who owed
aU to the new pope, seeing him destitute of execu
tive abihty, and incapable of upholding his authority, threw him into prison,
compeUed him to renounce the pontificate, and made him promise that he
would return to his monastery. Sigonius affirms that time was not aUowed
him to resume the monastic hfe, and that he died in prison, in one month
and nine days. He was interred at Saint John Lateran.
Platina, speaking of the weakness of Leo, says : " Dignities receive more
authority from men, than men from dignities." As Christopher was a ser
vant of Leo, Platina, with less gravity than the subject requires, adds these
words, almost quoted from Theocritus : Enutrito lupos qui te comedant — Nur
ture ivolves, and be devoured !t

* Fleury.
f Platina, probably quoting from memory, has not given Theocritus quite exactly. One of the
Greek writer's shepherds, reproaching another for his ingratitude, indignantly exclaims : epitpru
Km Xvta&zis, Bpitpai Kvvas, tits re faybivrt. Idyll. V., 1). 38.
Vol. I.— 16

242

LIVES OF THE POPES.

121. CHRISTOPHER. — a. d. 903,

HRISTOPHER, a Roman, cardinal-priest of Saint
Lawrence in Bamaso, set up his pretensions against
Leo V. and threw him into prison, as related, in the
last IKe. But, though he thus grasped the pontifi
cal authority, he is not reckoned among the anti-
popes. Six months after his usurpation he was im
prisoned by Sergius, who sent him to a monastery,
where he perished miserably in June, 904. He was
This is one of the deplorable scenes which we an
nounced as having disgraced the tenth century. Happily, we can say that
shortly before the Iconoclasts had been repressed by Theodora, widow of
TheophUus. The arts, so friendly to Christian government, were cultivated
both in the East and in the West ; sculptors in bronze, especiaUy, now
acquired renown at Constantinople.

buried at the Vatican.

122. SERGIUS III— a. d. 904.

ERGIUS, a Roman, cardinal-priest, son of Benedict,
of the Conti family, aspired to the papacy on the
death of Theodore II. Defeated by a faction, he
passed seven years at Florence, in exile. RecaUed
subsequently by the party of Adalbert, marquis of
Tuscany, he was invited by the Roman people, who
hated Christopher, to present himseK again for elec
tion. He was consecrated on the 9th of June, 904.
Sergius entertained feelings hostile to Formosus, and he annulled the acts
by which Theodore H. and John IX. had restored the memory of that
pope. Subsequently, many calumnies were circulated against Sergius. Novaes
is far from admitting the truth of those accusations.
This pope repaired and embellished the church of Saint John Lateran,
that had been damaged by an earthquake in the reign of Stephen VII.
The errors of Photius still had partisans in the East. Sergius redoubled.

SERGIUS III. 243
his efforts to diminish the influence of the adherents of such maxims. He
governed seven years and three months, and died towards the end of
August, 911, after a pontificate of which Baronius says that it had un
cattivo ingresso, un peggiore progresso, ed un pessime egresso — bad ingress,
worse progress, an egress worst of aU.
According to many authors, Sergius was interred at the Vatican ; but,
according to Rasponi, in the Basihca of Saint John Lateran.*
The venerable Cardinal BeUarmine does not silently pass over the re
proaches due to some of the popes, who, in that age, showed such opposite
feelings towards Formosus.
This work cannot become a panegyric, wanting in truth ; it is a statement
of facts, where tares wiU be found among the good grain.
The historian who conceals the truth exposes himself to sharp criticism.
The reader thinks he has strong arguments for reply and censure, and he
thence acquires a suspicious feeling, which is sure to grow. BeUarmine
meets the difficulty boldly ;t but he does not forget the respect due to the
Holy See.
Among these popes, certainly some were mistaken, as the sharp-eyed
centuriators of Magdebourg remark. "Yes," exclaimed Cardinal BeUar
mine, " Stephen VH. and Sergius HI. erred, but on a question of fact, and
not of law — by bad example, not by false doctrine."
Sergius, who, as we have seen, completely repaired the church of Saint
John Lateran, damaged by an earthquake in the reign of Stephen, chose
it for his burial-place.
Fleury gives accusations brought against the doctrine of Sergius ; Novaes
maintains that they were only calumnies ; and to prove that this pope did
not neglect the duties of the papacy, he reminds us that the pope contrib
uted to destroy the errors of Photius in the East, who taught that the
Holy Ghost proceeded not from the Son, but only from the Father. Pla
tina mentions a journey made by Sergius into France, of which Fleury
makes no mention. Francis Giusta is also silent upon the subject ; but it is
true that he has been occasionally careless in his remarks on the travels of
the popes.
* Papebroke, In Propyleo, p. 155, n. 11. f -°e Rom- Pontyi Dook iv, chap. 12.

244

LIVES OF THE POPES.

123. ANASTASIUS III— a. d. 911.

NASTASIUS III., a Roman, son of Lucian, was
elected pope a day or two after the death of
Sergius III., in 911. At the request of Beren
garius, king of Italy, he granted various privi
leges to the Bishop of Pavia — the right to ride a
white horse, to have the cross carried in proces
sion before him on his journeys, and to sit at the
left hand of the pope in the councUs. Cardinal
Baronius cites yet another privUege. Wlienever the bishop of Pavia caUed
to a synod the archbishops of Milan or Ravenna, with their suffragans,
they were bound to attend at once. Novaes says that it was on account of
these singular privileges that Benedict XIV., in 1743, created the bishops
of Pavia perpetual archbishops of Amasia. This concession restored
order into the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Anastasius is praised for the gentleness of his government, which lasted
only two years and two months.
He died in October, and was interred at the Vatican.

124. LANDO.— a. d. 913.

ANDO, son of Trano, born at Monterotondo, an
ancient Roman colony, was a canon-regular. He
was elected pontiff on the 16th of October, 913,
governed six months and ten days, died the 26th
of April, 914, and was interred at the Vatican.
From fear of the vengeance of a celebrated and
powerful Roman lady, Theodora, who was no less
vicious than her two daughters, Theodora and
Marozia, Lando transferred John from the church of Bologna, where he
was elected, to that of Ravenna. That same John, under the name of John
X., was Lando's successor.
Chacon says that the hfe of this pontiff was very obscure, partly on ac-

JOHN X.

245

count of the shortness of his pontificate, partly from the scarcity of writers
who give the annals of these times. This explains the brief character of
the notices given by historians of the popes of that period. Nevertheless,
we see in the reports of WiUiam the Librarian, and of Godefry, that Lando,
faithful to the sentiments of concihation which have always animated the
popes, interposed his authority to prevent Berengarius, king of Italy, and
Rodolph, son of Count Guido, from going to war with each other. Many
authors reckon Lando among the pontiffs, though it is impossible always to
approve his character, his weaknesses, and his censurable deferences.
In Platina (p. 280) we find the foUowing : " There was at that time a great
strife between the Itahans, the Germans, and the French, for the possession
of the empire, and fatal wars were the result. The Romans and the
Italians endeavored to retain the imperial dignity in their country, in
spite of all the resistance of all the barbarians.* The Romans and the
Itahans acted thus, although they were destitute of a head capable of sus
taining so noble an enterprise. AU those lights were now extinguished
which had once made Italy shed such effulgence on the world. That tower
ing tree that once had sent out its glorious roots so far was now stricken
and withered."

125. JOHN X.— a.d. 914.

^ OHN X., of the Cenci famUy, not a Roman, but born
at Ravenna, was son of John of the city of Bo- He

logna, where he had been appointed bishop
was transferred to the archbishopric of Ravenna at
the urgent recommendation of the powerful and
shameless Theodora. Thence he rose to the pontifi
cate on the 30th of -April, 914.
On the 24th of March, 914, he crowned as em
peror Berengarius, king of Italy. On that occasion the emperor confirmed
the donations made by Pepin, Charlemagne, and other emperors.
The same year, with the assistance of that emperor, Constantine Por-
phyrogenitus, and other princes, he entirely defeated the Saracens, who for
forty years had intrenched themselves in the lands of Garighano, in the
province of Lavoro. The pope, in person, encouraged the Catholics. He

* The word barbarians here means the Germans and French of that time.

246 LIVES OF THE POPES.
dispatched a legate to ComposteUa to venerate in the name of the pope
himseK the body of Saint James.
John confirmed in the title of archbishop of Rheims (one of the iniquities
of those times) Hugo, son of the count of Aquitaine, who, according to
Flodoard, was not five years old. Kings and people sohcited such favors
for children, and the popes sometimes lacked courage to refuse. " That,"
says Baronius, " was the first monster that was seen in the Church of God ;
an unheard of event, of which no creature in the world had yet formed an
idea." .
John had governed more than fourteen years, when, by order of the in-.
famous Marozia, wKe of Guido, marquis of Tuscany, he was arrested and
thrown into prison, where he was strangled by having a pillow bound over
his mouth,* on the 2d of July, 928. He was buried at Saint John Lateran.
Fellerf says, that although the memory of this pontiff was not held in
very great veneration, there is every reason to believe that towards the end
of his hfe he expiated his faults by his penitence. On many occasions he
manifested the sincero sorrow that he felt, and he exhorted charitable per
sons to join their prayers to his to avert God's wrath.

126. LEO VI— a. d. 928.
Jp"T the end of June, 928, Leo, son of Christopher, of
the Roman family of Gemina, afterwards caUed
Sanguigna, was elected pope. He governed the
Church with integrity and moderation seven months
and five days, died about the 3d of February, 929,
and was interred at the Vatican.
Albert Kranz (Metropolis, hb. v., cap. i, p. 117)
Ml expresses surprise at the brief duration of the hves
of the popes in this age, and he suspects that poison was in frequent use.|
Yet John X. had just reigned fourteen years.
Platina thinks that Leo reigned with as much wisdom as the times permit
ted, when morals were so corrupt.§ He continues : " To recaU the citizens to
concord, to settle Italian affairs stiU in tumult, owing to the rashness and
weakness of preceding popes, and to keep the barbarians from crushing
the Italians, such was the task essayed by Leo. And he could not better or
more worthUy employ his short pontificate."
* Platina, p. 282. f m- P- 65°- X Novaes, ii., p. 167, n. § Platina, p. 828.

STEPHEN VIII.^JOHN XI.

247

127. STEPHEN VOL— a. d. 929.

TEPHEN VEIL, Roman, son of Theudemond, was
elected pope on the 3d of January, 929.
He governed two years, one month, and twelve
days, with sentiments of kindness and rehgion even
more praiseworthy in that age than in any other.
He died March 15th, 931, and was interred at the
Vatican.

128. JOHN XL — a.d. 931.

|OHN XL, a Roman, of the Conti family, son of
Alberic, consul of Rome, was elected about the 13th
of March, 931, at the age of twenty years, as some
maintain, or twenty-five, according to others.
John was surrounded by evU men, who had raised
him to- authority, and possessed more of it than he
did. He governed four years and ten months,
always submissive to Marozia, whom many authors
regard as his mother ; or to his brother Alberic, who kept him in prison
from the year 933. He died there at the commencement of January, 936,
the victim of the ambition of his supposed mother, and of the cruelty of his
brother. He was interred at Saint John Lateran.

248

LIVES OF THE POPES.

129. LEO VIL— a. d. 936-8.

EO VIL, a Roman, son of Christopher, w;.s elected
pontiff against his wUl, and consecrated before the
9th of January, 936. He invited to Rome Odo,
abbot of Cluny, to reform .monastic discipline,
and to rebuild, near the church of Saint Paul, the
monastery that once existed there.
Fleury says that Odo received, under the will of
Abbot Bernon, Cluny, Massay, and Deols. By
this disposal of these monasteries, it is evident that Bernon had not yet
thought of forming a congregation ; it was Odo who properly formed that
which has since borne the name of Cluny. Saint Odo was appointed by
Leo VII. to restore peace between Hugo, king of Italy, and Alberic, brother
of Pope John XL When the holy monk reached Rome he undertook that
reconcihation, and succeeded, to the satisfaction of the pope.
Leo governed with mUdness and integrity. Flodoard praises Leo in
Latin verses. This pope died about 937, and was interred at the Vatican.

130. STEPHEN IX— a. d. 939.

TEPHEN IX., a Roman, but educated in Germany,
was elected pontiff about the 19th of July, 939.
Alberic, who had become legate of Rome, hated him
because he enjoyed the friendship of Otho, king of
Germany. It is said that in consequence of this
hatred Stephen was wounded in the face. The event
is mentioned in Muratori ; but, as it is remarked in
„YS»r- a standard work (L'Art de verifier les Bates), no such
assault is mentioned by any contemporary author ; and accordingly some
writers doubt it.
In 942, Stephen sent Bishop Damasus as his legate to France, with let
ters recognizing as king Louis d'Outre Mer, against whom many of the
nobles had revolted, though he had been crowned king on the 19th of June

MARINUS n.

249

936, by Artaud, archbishop of Rheims, formerly a monk of the Abbey of
Saint Remi*
Stephen threatened the revolted with excommunication, should they not
recognize their king before Christmas.
Peace was broken off between Hugo, king of Italy, and Alberic, who had
set himseK up as prince of Rome. Stephen desired once more to employ
in this difficult negotiation Odo, the abbot of Cluny, who had returned into
France. But the abbot died at Tours, before he could obey the pope.
Stephen governed three years, four months, and fifteen days. He died at
the beginning of December, 942, and was interred at the Vatican.

131. MARINUS II— a. d. 943.
HE name of Martin is given by many authors to this
pope, as they give that name to Pope Marinus I.
Marinus II. was a Roman, and was elected pope
some time previous to the 4th of February, probably
about the 22d of January, 943. He wrote to the
bishop of Capua a letter, in which that bishop was
accused of being ignorant of the canons, Uhterate,
too familiar with laymen, and a rash transgressor,
because he had given a benefice to one of his dea
cons. It was the Church of the Holy Angels which Stephen IX. had just
granted to the Benedictine monks to erect a monastery. This pope ordered,
at the same time, that the monastery should be erected on the grounds of
that church, declaring that it should never be disturbed by him. or by his
successors, and that the monastery should remain constantly subject to the
Benedictine abbey at Capua. Further, the bishop, on pain of excom
munication, was to cut off the intrusive deacon from all communication with
the ecclesiastical offices. Marinus governed three years and six months.
He distinguished himseK by his zeal for ecclesiastical reform, the rebuilding
of churches, and the relief of the poor. He displayed something of the
pious perseverance which had animated the pontiffs in the primitive days
of the Church, and he could not be surpassed in his love of establishing
peace among princes. He died in the month of June, 946, and was interred
at the Vatican.

* Fleury, iii., p. 593.

250

LIVES OF THE POPES.

132. AGAPITUS— a. d. 946.

GAPITUS, a Roman, was elected pontiff in the
month of June, 946, two or three days after the
death of Marinus. Troubles still prevailed in
France in regard to the See of Rheims. Artaud,
after having crowned Louis d'Outre Mer, had been
deposed, and Hugh, son of Heribert, count of
Rheims, elected in his stead. The new archbishop
was a child not five years old ! In that age, bad
examples were foUowed everywhere, even in France. Agapitus, to termi
nate that schism and to restore the authority of Louis d'Outre Mer, sent to
Paris a legate named Marinus. This legate, in 948, held a council at Ingel-
heim, in the diocese of Cologne. In this councU Artaud, in reward for his
fidelity to his legitimate king, was reinstated in his See of Rheims ; Hugo,
his rival, was excommunicated, as was Heribert, a rebel to the king.
In 949, there was another councU at Rome, at which these excommunica
tions were renewed.
The Holy Father caUed to Rome Otho I., king of Germany, that he might
expel from Italy Berengarius, who iU treated the clergy, and even plundered
them of actual necessaries. The Itahan peninsula was at that time thus
divided : Lombardy obeyed Berengarius II. and his son Adalbert ; Genoa,
Tuscany, and the Romagna were subject to a minister of the emperor of the
West : Apulia and Calabria, the southern part, though infested by the Sara
cens, recognized the Greek emperor. Venice amassed wealth by carrying
to various nations the commodities they needed. At Rome consuls were
annuaUy appointed for the nobility ; a prefect was supposed to protect the
interests of the populace. The pope, while receiving the homage of nearly
aU the sovereigns of Europe, was oppressed by the consuls in his capital
city, and by Berengarius in his provincial possessions.
Otho received the letters of the pope, and, after ordering the king of Den
mark and the dukes of Poland and Bohemia to declare themselves his vas
sals, he crossed the Alps. Announcing that he came at the request of Pope
Agapitus, he subjugated Lombardy, and demanded the crown of Italy,
which he caUed the right of victory. Many princes had competed for that
throne, since the deposition of Louis the Fat. The aspirants were Beren
garius, duke of Friuli ; Guido, duke of Spoleto ; Arnulph, king of Germany ;
Louis HI., king of Provence ; Rudolph, king of Burgundy, beyond the Jura ;

AGAPITUS.

251

Hugo, count of Provence ; and Berengarius II., marquis of Ivry. The arri
val of Otho proclaimed a more powerful competitor.
Pope Agapitus II. was to decide the claims of all these princes to the
iron crown. Otho, master of Milan and of Pavia, had himseK recognized
as king of these provinces in the year 951 . But, to the eyes of the popu
lace, the sovereign power did not seem to be positively conferred upon him
until Wolpul, archbishop of Milgn, acting in concert with Pope Agapitus,
placed upon his head the crown of the Lombards, which was preserved in
the church of Saint _ John the Baptist, at Monza. Otho deposited on the
altar of Saint Ambrose aU his ornaments as king of Germany, the lance, the
royal sword, the battle-axe, the baldrick, and the chlamys. He served the
Mass in the dalmatic of subdeacon, while the clergy celebrated the ceremo
nies. After the sacrifice, the archbishop addressed to the dukes and mar
quises who surrounded him a congratulatory address in honor of Otho.
He then anointed him with the holy oil, arrayed him again in the ornaments
that had been laid upon the altar, restored his arms to him, and finaUy
placed upon his head the crown of the Lombards.*
Pope Agapitus sent to Saint Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, and brother
of Otho, the pallium, with especial privileges.
Agapitus governed nine years and six or seven months, with great zeal
for the peace of Christendom. He died August 20th (or perhaps 28th), 956,
and was buried in Saint John Lateran. •
* This crown consists of a band of gold about four fingers wide, ornamented with chased work
and jewels, in the form of an ancient diadem, and having in the inside a band of iron of the
breadth of one finger. Considering the chief material, we should call this the golden crown, but
the name of the iron crown prevailed, because it was said that the slendor band of iron which it
contained was a nail of our Saviour's cross, sent to Theodelinda by-Gregory the Great, as rewards
for her temporary extirpation of the Arian heresy. Some authors maintain that the iron band
within the crown attested that a courageous people owe their gold to iron. — Italy, p. 68.

252

LIVES OF THE POPES.

133. JOHN XII. — a. d. 956.

REPEAT what was said of John XII. in the
Notizie of Rome for the year 1844 :
" John XII., Conti, a Roman, was created pope
in the year 956, and governed the church about
eight years. During that time, and in the yeai
963, Leo was intruded into the pontificate. Being
subsequently deposed, he again usurped the
supreme dignity on the 26th June, 964, and he
continued to retain his illegal possession of it
untU April, 965. Nevertheless, Leo is reckoned in the hst of popes under
the name of Leo VIII."*
After this preliminary official information, we proceed to details. His
name was Octavian, and he was the first pontiff who changed his name.
John of the Conti family, grand nephew of Sergius III. and of John XL,
was elected, or rather, at the instigation of some Romans, intruded into the
papacy about the 20th of August, 956. He was then only some sixteen or
eighteen years old. Such were the calamities of the times, says Baronius,
that it was deemed better to tolerate that invasion than to wound the Church
by a schism which would be a worse evil stUl. Therefore the Church
accepted and endured him as pontiff, considering that there would be less
evU in tolerating one head, though a monstrous one, than in afflicting the
one body with two heads.t
In 957, the new head of the Church, with a youthful ardor more becoming
a warrior than a vicar of Jesus Christ, took into his pay the auxiliary
troops of the duke of Spoleto, and having joined them to his own, marched
in person against Pandolpho, prince of Capua, who, supported by the army
of GisoKo, prince of Salerno, not only resisted the pope, but completely
defeated him. John was forced to retreat in disorder to his own territory
and to sue for peace, which Pandolpho granted, making a treaty of friend
ship and confederation.
John being afterwards annoyed by Berengarius and his son Adalbert,
called King Otho to his aid, as Agapitus II. had done, that Otho with his
army might deliver John from those vexations. Otho, before he marched,
engaged himseK by oath to cause the restoration of all that those tyrants
had plundered from the Church. :£

* Notizie: Ronio, 1814. j Novaes, ii., p. 177.
X The formula of the oath is to be found in Gratian, under the head Tibi Bomino, 33, did. 63.

john xii. 253
Otho drove Berengarius and Adalbert from Italy, and restored to the
Church what she had received from Pepin and Charlemagne. Subsequently,
John, grateful to Otho, crowned him as emperor, on the 13th of February,
962. He was the first German prince who received the imperial crown,
and John, the pontiff who effected the change, had promised Otho to
entertain no relations with Berengarius and Adalbert : such relations, how
ever, revived. Otho, irritated at this, advanced towards Rome in 963. The
Romans, discontented with John, who fled, swore that they would never
again elect a pontiff without the approbation of the emperor. Three days
afterwards the emperor assembled a Corteiliabida, in which John was accused
of enormous crimes, except of heresy, and iniquitously degraded from
the pontificate on the 6th of November, 963. The antipope Leo was then
raised to the papacy, but the inconstant Romans soon dismissed Leo and
restored John. It is affirmed that the latter, on re-entering Rome, ordered
cruel reprisals which disgrace his memory.
The reader must go back to those days of grief and horror. A young
man scarcely twenty-five years old was invested with the papal attire ; he
owed such an unheard-of honor to factious and evU men, to a host of
wretches who trembled in defeat, and then abused their victory. He who
owed his elevation to such circumstances had neither the moderation nor
the uprightness so admirable in many preceding popes. Perverse counsel
lors involved the Church in wars, and in complications repugnant to her
character. On the one side, seeing so many enemies united against her,
pohtical and sovereign power was needed to shelter her from their constant
unjust attacks ; on the other hand, it was to be feared that the inconsiderate
youth would forget duty, and prove only the ambitious defender of authority
by force, forgetful of the power of rehgion and the holy patience it pre
scribes. All these terrible and detestable circumstances brought about the dis
orders that we unceasingly deplore, and which withal we cannot pass over
in sUence, since so many ecclesiastical writers before us have deplored and
described them in language that inspires terror. Our task is difficult, but
unavoidable. After this frightful tenth century, and the commencement of
the eleventh, we come again to pontiffs who do honor to the Church ; we
find a Saint Sylvester and a Saint Leo IX., and come to a Gregory VIL,
defending the prerogatives of the Church, and at the same time distinguish
ing himseK by such eminent sanctity of life, that the Church in presence of
so many virtues does not hesitate to place .him upon her altars.
John pursued the political vengeance which was dictated to him by his
accomplices. In religious authority he was strict ; but not more so than a
legitimate pope should be.
On the 26th of February, 964, he celebrated a councU, in which he con-

254 LIVES OF THE POPES.
demned the Emperor Otho and the antipope Leo, and the bishops of
Ostia, Porto, and Albano, who had ordained Leo when unjustly promoted to
the pontificate. He deprived of aU rank and of aU honors the priests who
had been ordained by the intruder, stripped them of their clerical vestments,
and made them sign this declaration : " My father had nothing — nothing,
therefore, could he bestow upon me."
At length the end of John's life came. Luitprand, who is hostUe to
John, bitterly accuses him ; but grave authors rightly refuse to admit
these latter accusations. Rancor and prejudice sometimes overstep all
bounds ; having spoken truly on some points, men sometimes fancy them
selves privileged to speak untruly on others. Luitprand was the friend of
schismatics and the flatterer of Otho.
We shaU close by a reflection of Feller's :* " The great number," says he,
" of virtuous and holy pontiffs who have occupied the See of Rome, should
make us forget the smaU number whose morals have ill-suited their station.
Jesus Christ expressly warns us that the chiefs of rehgion are not impecca
ble, and that their faults are no argument against the worship of which they
are the ministers, or the doctrine of which they are the depositaries. " The
Scribes and Pharisees sit in the chair of Moses : aU things whatsoever they
shall say unto you, observe and do, but according to their works do ye not."
(Matt, xxiii. 23.)
John was interred at Saint John Lateran.
In the East, the Emperor Romanus the Younger died on the 15th of
March in the preceding year. Romanus, at the suggestion of evU counsel
lors, had driven from the imperial palace the Empress Helena, his mother,
and his sisters. In those sad times the East set no better examples than
the West, and Europe was apparently unmoved by this barbarity.
Under this disastrous reign, Genoa, which had already been piUaged by
the Saracens from Africa, was again threatened with an incursion ; and the
Hungarians, coming by way of the town of Fiuma, ravaged Italy.
* Feller, iii., 650.

BENEDICT V

255

134. BENEDICT V— a. d. 964.
5^ ENEDICT V, named Grammatico, a Roman, of
the Conti family, cardinal-deacon, was elected
May 19th, 964, to succeed John XII., without the
consent of the Emperor Otho I. That prince then
laid siege to Rome, which, pressed by hunger, sur
rendered, abandoning Benedict, and received the
intruder, Leo VLIL Benedict was sent as a
prisoner into Germany, and delivered to Adalgag-
nus, bishop of Hamburg, who treated him with honor until his death, which
occurred on the 4th of July, 965, after a pontificate of one year and a few
months. Benedict was buried in the cathedral of Hamburg, and thence re
moved to Rome in 999, by order of Otho III. In various martyrologies,
the title of martyr is given to Benedict. The Holy See was vacant two
months and twenty-five days. Benedict was a learned and virtuous pontiff.
with mUdness and patience equal to his misfortunes.
We are now to see how the antipope Leo VIII. appreciated the preroga
tives of the Holy See. The intruder assembled a council, after the depart
ure of Benedict V.
In Fleury (hi, book 56, page 636) we read : " There is a decree of that
council by which the pope (the antipope) Leo, with aU the clergy and peo
ple of Rome, granted and confirmed to Otho and his successors the right
of choosing a successor in the kingdom of Italy, to establish the pope, and to
give the investiture to the bishops ; so that neither patricians, nor pope, nor
bishop could be created without his consent ; the whole, under penalty of
excommunication, perpetual exile, and death." Nothing was wanting to the
dastardly cruelty and impiety which dictated that decision. Usurpers
freely part with what they have wrested from the lawful owners.

256 LIVES OF THE POPES.

135. JOHN XIII. — a. d. 965.
OHN XIII., a Roman, was consecrated pontiff on the
. 1st of October, 965. His hauteur drew on him the
hatred of the Roman nobility, and RoKredus, prefect
of Rome, excited a tumult against the pope, who was
obliged to retire to Capua, where, for six months, Pan-
1 dolpho,the lord of that city, treated him with great hon
ors. In gratitude, John made Capua an episcopal See.
He approved the acts of the council held at Ra
venna, in 968, which erected Magdebourg into an archbishopric ; and he
convened another councU, at Rome, in 969, when the Church of Benevento
was made an archbishopric.
On the return of Otho, John's protector, to Italy, the Romans recaUed the
latter, and replaced him in the chair of Saint Peter.
The emperor learning that many of the Romans had shamefully betrayed
the pope, punished them with great severity. Peter, prefect of Rome, was
tied by the hair to the head of Constantine's horse, and there exposed to
the maledictions of the people.*
In 967, John crowned Otho'II. as emperor, at the request of Otho I., who
wished before his death to see his son invested with the imperial dignity.
It is said that John was the first who introduced the custom of baptizing
church bells, because he baptized one at Saint John Lateran, to which he
gave the name of Saint John. That opinion is adopted by Baronius : but
the rite was certainly in use prior to the reign of John XIII., 'and, on such
occasion, some at least of the ceremonies of baptism were foUowed, such
as the pouring of water, the anointing, and the imposition of the name of a
saint. The object was to distinguish one bell from another ; or, in obedi
ence to a pious feehng, they sought to caU people to church by the voice of
a saint, whose name was thus united to an instrument of divine praise.
The Poles having been converted to the Cathohc faith, John sent Egiel,
bishop of Tusculum, to confirm them in their holy intention.
y Fleury (iii.. 56, p. 638) repeats what Platina had said about a bronze horse of Constanti
nople which was at Rome. There is a serious error here. What many authors, consulted by
Plati na and Fleury, take for the horse of Constantine is no other than the celebrated horse of
Man as Aurelius, which now stands in the middle of the square of the capitol, at Rome. In the
ages of ignorance, this horse and the statue of the emperor were found amidst some ruins.
The populace persisted in calling the horse that of Constantine, and on fete days wine was dis
tributed through the mouth of that horse. Fea has well illustrated that historical fact, and he
supports his views by a host of proofs which render them now indisputable.

JOHN XIII. 257
He governed six years, eleven months, and six days, and dying on the
6th of September, 972, was interred at Saint Paul beyond the waUs.
The Holy See remamed vacant nearly three months.
Under the reign of this pontiff, Otho sent to Constantinople, as ambassa
dor, Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, to ask of the Emperor Nicephorus
Phocas, for young Otho, the emperor's son, the hand of Anne, daughter of
the Emperor Romanus the Younger, and of the Empress Tlieophania, whom
Nicephorus had married. Luitprand has left an account of his embassy.
In an audience, Nicephorus said to Luitprand — " I should wish to receive
you weU, but the conduct of your master does not permit me. He has
taken Rome as though it were an enemy's city. He has endeavored vio
lently to subject several cities of my empire, and being unable to succeed,
he now, under pretence of peace, sends you as a spy upon us."
The bishop rephed : " My master has not usurped the city of Rome by
violence ; on the contrary, he has delivered it from tyrants. Was it not in
the power of effeminate men and profligate women ? I think your prede
cessors have been asleep, who called themselves Roman emperors, but were
not so in fact! Have not some of the popes been banished, others re
duced to actual want, and not aUowed to receive even alms ? Who of you
other emperors has been zealous enough to punish those crimes, and to re
store the Church to its primitive lustre ? You have neglected her ; but my
master has not. He has come from the end of the earth to dehver Rome
from the wicked, and to restore aU honor and power to the successors of the
Apostles. And, then, when rebels have risen against him, and against the
pope, he has punished them according to the laws of Justinian, of Valen-
tinian, of Theodosius, and of the other emperors."
The emperor and the bishop exchanged other words, which history has
not disdained. Nicephorus said to the ambassador — " You are not Romans,
you are only Lombards." The bishop replied : " We Lombards, Saxons,
and Franks have no greater insult than to caU a man a Roman. With us
this name implies aU that can be conceived of baseness, cowardice, avarice,
impurity, and treachery."
This great nation, which had bestrode the known universe in triumph,
accumulated conquests, had yielded to the caprice of exchanging its capital,
only in the end to excite such just hatred, and see themselves so completely
despised by nations uncivilized by science and art, by rude ignorant men,
who, in their turn, ruled the world with the battle-axe, the francisque, and
fire. The emperor's ambassador spoke with respect at least of the popes.
Whether the prince interposed with evil intent or wise and Christian views,
his envoy defended the rights of rehgion, which the Roman emperor of Con
stantinople trampled under foot. In those sad days of duty disregarded,
Vol. I.— 17

258

LIVES OF THE POPES.

there was never a pope so little master of himseK as to allow such verses as
these to be sung before him, verses which Luitprand heard without evincing
disgust : " Behold, the morning star approaches — the aurora rises — the
death of the Saracens ! Prince Nicephorus— long live Nicephorus ! Adore
him, ye nations — submit to his power !"
Many popes have been accused of not repressing feelings of pride. Was
pride ever more satanic than that of Nicephorus ? Let us never forget, in
the course of this history, that besides the weakness of those whose annals
we write, there is always room to mention the weakness of contemporary
princes. We must not be aroused at the one without remembering the
others, who were doubtless more guilty. Never did a vicar of Christ, never
did a pope set himseK up as God, like Nicephorus, who made men adore
him.

136. BENEDICT VI.— a. d. 972.

ENEDICT VI, a Roman, son of HUdebrand, was
elected pontiff on the 20th of December, 972.
Otho I., the emperor, dying at this time, his son
Otho II., who had already been crowned by John
XIII., succeeded. The Romans, desirous of ac
quiring what they had caUpd hberty under the
emperors and under the republic, broke out in
riots, persuaded that they had little to fear from
the imperial armies, then elsewhere engaged in obstinate wars. They ex
cited trouble in many cities. Cencius was one of the boldest conspirators
in this seditious enterprise. As Benedict defended at once the rights of the
Church and those of the emperor, Cencius attacked and imprisoned him in
the castle of Saint Angelo, where, by order of the rebel, the pontiff was put
to death.
Benedict governed one year and three months. One of the most furious,
in calling for the death of the pontiff, was Franco, son of Feruzzi, afterwards
pope under the title of Boniface VII.
The disturbances of those times seem to have caused a corresponding dis
order in the writings of the historians. Some pi them make Donus II. the
successor of Benedict VI., while others make the former the immediate
predecessor of the latter. Novaes is of the latter class. The dates of the
events are no less uncertain.. The papacy in those times was lowered and
profaned to the extent of becoming a kind of temporal and very precarious

DONUS II.— BENEDICT VII.

259

post, dependent on the caprice of the mob, as the Roman empire had been
upon the venahty of the Praetorian guards. Those sovereigns of the moment
rose and fell ere there was time for them to be recognized. We have not
erred in announcing, with alarm, aU the ferocities of the tenth century, and
we have not employed colors too dark to warn the reader of the frightful
picture to be unroUed before him.

137. DONUS II.— a. d. 972.

ONUS II. was elected pontiff in 972, with the aid
and favor of the counts of Tusculum, who were then
very powerful in the city of Rome. He governed
three months, with great integrity. He died on
the 19th of December, and was interred at the
Vatican.

138. BENEDICT VIL— a. d. 975.

N antipope, named Franco, who had caused Pope
Benedict to be put to death, usurped the pontifi
cate, and as he could but continue his career of
iniquity, he in a month plundered the Vatican of
its most valuable contents. This sacrilegious
usurper then escaped to Constantinople, whence
we shaU see him return in 985, to commit a fresh
crime upon the person of John XIV.
Benedict VIL, a Roman, son of David, of the
Conti famUy, was elected pdpe before the 25th of March, 975.
Benedict celebrated two councils at Rome ; in one he excommunicated
the antipope BonKace— in the other, the simoniacs. After a reign of more
than eight years, he died, in the year 984, and was interred at Santa Croce
in Gerusalemme. Ecclesiastical history at this epoch stiU continues fuU of

260

LIVES OF THE POPES

uncertainties and disputes as to dates, facts, and persons. It is beheved
that Benedict occupied the See eight years and some months, setting
an example of all the pastoral virtues, and ruling the Church prudently in
those difficult times. Possibly, at a later date, the popes of that period
have been judged according to the known perversity that prevailed in gen
eral. Perhaps some authors meeting only horrors and abominations among
both princes and people, infer that the popes were no better. Benedict VH.
was, however, a wise, prudent, and virtuous pope.

139. JOHN XIV — a. d. 984.

OHN XIV., originaUy named Peter Canevanova,
changed that name of Peter out of his respect for
the prince of the apostles, the first sovereign pon
tiff whose name has not been taken by any pon
tiff, although the name was very common among
the Christians from the time of Constantine the
Great. John was cardinal-deacon, bishop of Pavia, his
native city, and arch-chanceUor to the Emperor Otho II.
After John had reigned nearly eight months, the antipope Franco, calling
himseK Boniface VH., returning from Constantinople, threw John into prison,
where he died — it is doubtful whether of poison or of starvation — in the
month of June, 985. He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See re
mained vacant nearly ten months. It wiU not be amiss here to record the
end of the antipope Franco. He died suddenly not long after the commis
sion of his second crime. He was so hated, even by his accomphces, that
after his death he was pierced with spears, lances, and dragged along the
streets by the feet, and left stark naked in front of the horse of Constan
tine ;* but on the next morning some clerics removed and interred the
mangled body.

See note on this horse of Constantine, in the Life of John XIII.

JOHN XV.— JOHN XVL

261

140. JOHN XV — a. d. 985

||) OHN XV., a Roman, son of Robert, was elected
^ggp; pontiff in December, 985. He died the same month,
before consecration, and was interred at the Vati
can. At that time there arose in Italy two great her-
!|9 mits, Romuald, in Lombardy, and Nilus, in Calabria.
Saint Romuald belonged to the noble famUy of the
dukes of Ravenna. He introduced the rule of the
hermits, which enjoined fasting for every day except Thursday and Sunday.
The hfe of Saint NUus is related in great detaU by Fleury (iv., hb. lvii,
p. 7). At Monte Cassino a monk questioned Saint Nilus as to fasting on
Saturday. The saint, who differed in opinion from Saint Romuald, rephed :
" Let him who eats, not despise him who eats not ; and let him who eats
not, despise not him who eats." (Romans, xiv. 3.) If you reprove us because
we do not fast on Saturday, beware that you be not in opposition to the
pillars of the Church, Saint Athanasius, Saint BasU, Saint Gregory, Saint
Chrysostom, and the councUs. We do weU not to fast on Saturday, in op
position to the Manicheans, who on that day afflicted themselves in hatred
to the Old Testament ; but we do not abstain from labor on that day, that
we may not imitate the Jews. You also are right in fasting on that day,
that you may prepare yourselves for Sunday.

141. JOHN XVL— a. d. 985.

OHN XVI. was elected at the end of December,
985. He was a Roman priest, and the son of Leo.
' Harassed by the tyrant Crescentius, who, with the
title of consul, occupied the castle of Saint Angelo,
John fled into Tuscany, and appealed to Otho III.
As soon as the Romans learned the step that the
pope had taken, they recalled him, so much did
they dread Otho. The clergy reproached John
with yielding to that kind of favoritism which has since been known as

262 LIVES OF THE POPES.
nepotism ; in fact he enriched his relatives beyond bounds. Through the
medium of Leo, bishop of Treves, whom he sent as legate to London in the
year 990, the pope restored peace between Ethelred, king of England, and
Richard, duke of Normandy, whose discords were involving their countries
in war. Hugh Capet, king of France, crowned at Rheims on the 3d of
July, 987, was some time afterwards deserted by the archbishop of that
city, Arnoul, a natural son of King Lothaire. The archbishop being taken
prisoner at the siege of Laon, the king sohcited a sentence of deposition
from Pope John XVI. The pope not replying as promptly as the king de
sired, a council was convoked at Rheims, and pronounced sentence of depo
sition on Arnoul, who confessed himself guilty, and submitted to his
sentence. Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., succeeded Arnoul in the
See of Rheims; but the pope having courageously protested against the
condemnation of Arnoul, the king wrote to the sovereign pontiff and urged
that his authority had not been invaded, and offered to explain the matter
K he would meet him at Grenoble. A councU was held on the 2d of June,
995, at Mouzon, in which the matter was discussed. The right of Gerbert
was there held to be uncertain, and the pope's legate interdicted him until
a new councU was held, which was convoked for the first of the following
July. But the council did not meet so soon, and as long as King Hugh
survived, Gerbert remamed archbishop of Rheims, and Arnoul remained a
prisoner at Orleans. However, this resistance on the part of the head of
the Capetian race was unaccompanied by any insulting word or Ul-treatment
towards the legate, who constantly received in France the honor that was
due to him.
In 993, John solemnly canonized, in the CouncU of Lateran, Adalric, who
was made bishop of Augsburg in 924, at the age of thirty-one, and died
on the 4th of July, 973. This was the first solemn canonization. Credit
must not be given to those who state that the first was celebrated by Leo
HI., or by Stephen IH., in favor of Suidbert, apostle of Westphaha. The
name of canonization was not known before the tenth century.*
The exclusive right of canonization, which the sovereign pontiffs reserve
to themselves, commenced only in the tweKth century. Until then each
bishop in his own diocese declared the virtues of the servant of God, who
had lived in sanctity, and no more was required to authorize the veneration
of the saint.
John is said to have granted the city of Ferrara to Tedald, great-grand
father of the Countess Matilda.
This pope governed more than ten years. He was Ulustrious as a culti
vator of letters, notwithstanding the rudeness of the time, and he is the
* Novaes, ii., p. 197.

GREGORY V.

263

reputed author of some books on mihtary art. He died on the 30th of
April, 996, and was interred at the Vatican, in the oratory of Saint Mary.
Under his reign the Russians, following the example of their King Wladi-
niir, became fervent converts to the Cathohc faith. " For, although the
Christian rehgion had been introduced among the Russians in the preceding
century, yet as late as 940 they were guilty of great cruelty against the
Christians, especiaUy priests, whose heads they pierced with nails.* So
that the sohd estabhshment of Christianity, and the entire conversion of
the nation, date from the reign of Wladimir, towards the close of the tenth
century." (Fleury, iv., hb. lvii, p. 11.)

142. GREGORY V— a. d. 996.

REGORY V. was originaUy named Bruno ; he was
the third son of Otho, duke of Franconia, marquis
of Verona, and related to Otho III., king of Ger
many. He was created cardinal by. Pope John
XV., and at the age of twenty-four was elected
pope, on the 8th of May, 996. Fleury says of him :
" Bruno was gifted, conversant with Roman litera
ture, and spoke three languages, the German, the
hterary Latin, and the vulgar— (i. e. the Itahan.)" He was the first German
who was raised to the Holy See.
Otho having returned into Germany, the Romans revolted against the
pope, who had to take refuge at Pavia. There he, in 997, held a great
councU, in which he excommunicated Crescentius, of the family of the
counts of Tusculum, who had caused himseK to be named consul, and who
wielded at Rome a despotic authority greater than that of the pope. Otho
marched upon Rome, where he was crowned emperor by Gregory. Cre
scentius retired into the castle of Saint Angelo, where he obtained terms of
capitulation ; but Otho disregarding it, beheaded him. It was soon per
ceived that the pope, a native of Germany, would favor the opinions of his
nation. At first secretly, and then pubhcly, he confirmed these maxims of
jurisprudence :
" The prince elected in a Diet of Germany, acquired by that election the
subordinate kingdoms of Italy and Rome.

* Ephemer. op. Boll., vol. xiii.

264 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" Nevertheless, he cannot entitle himseK emperor and Augustus until he
receive the crown from the hands of the Roman pontiffs."
Gregory, wishing to punish the inhabitants of Rome, who had been
opposed to him, and who disapproved of the influence exercised by Otho in
public affairs, took away from the Romans the right of electing the emperor,
urging as the reason that Germany was the great arm of Christianity. The
pope ascribed the right of election, according to VUlani, to seven princes
of that country ; — the archbishop of Mayence, chancellor of Germany ; the
archbishop of Treves, chanceUor of the Gauls ; the archbishop of Cologne,
chancellor of Italy ; the marquis of Brandenburg, grand chamberlain ; the
duke of Saxe, sword-bearer ; the count Palatine of the Rhine, who served
at the first table of the emperor ; and the king of Bohemia, great butler.
The preceding detaUs have been repeated by a host of authors deemed
trustworthy ; but Novaes is of a different opinion :* " Critics," says that
author in his history, " are not of one mind upon the question of who in
stituted the seven electors of the empire. Some writers — as Giordano in
his Chronicle — attribute this creation to Charlemagne, and that opinion is
supported by the authority of Innocent in. — (cap. Vencrabilem de election, et
electi pot.) Other annalists deem the princes of Germany authors of the
method of election ; others attribute it to Gregory X., some to Gregory V.
(and this is the opinion of BeUarmine) ; and others again attribute it partly
to Gregory V., partly to Otho III., and in part to the German princes. This
institution interested the popes, the emperors, and the princes : it must have
been approved, then, by those three authorities. That is the view taken
by Dupin (Be la Bisdpline de Vancienne Eglise, dissert. 7, chap. 3, parag. 3.)
Natalis Alexander (foUowed by Pagi, ad ami. 996, n. 13) affirms that under
the sway of Frederick II. the princes of Germany gave to seven electors
the right of choosing the emperor. "StiU," says Novaes, "the right to
elect the emperor is derived from the sovereign pontiff, as Sandini demon
strates in the LKe of Gregory V., where he speaks of the number and office
of the electors."
In corroboration of the opinion of Novaes, we may remind our readers of
what took place on the recognition of Charlemagne, in his quahty of
emperor. Gregory raised to the See of Ravenna, Gerbert, who succeeded him in
the pontificate under the name of Sylvester II.
The great erudition of Gregory V, his abundant alms, his virtues, and
the quahties of both his heart and his talent,t obtained for him the name of
Gregorio Minore, Gregory the Less; though doubtless that surname was
more frequently bestowed upon him in Germany than in the city of Rome,
* Novaes, ii., p. 198. f Novaes, ii., p. 200.

GREGORY V.

265

whose privUeges he had attacked. He died on the 18th of February, 999,
at the age of twenty-seven, after governing the Church two years and some
thing more than eight months. He was interred at the Vatican.
It cannot be forgotten that, at the instigation of Otho, born a German,
and a constant enemy of the French, a councU was held at Rome, at which
the customs of the Church, already invoked under similar circumstances,
were brought to bear heavily upon Robert, king of France. " Twenty-
eight bishops, nearly aU Itahans, were present.* Eight canons were passed,
by the first of which King Robert was directed to put away Bertha, whom
he had married within the prohibited degree of relationship, and to do
penance for seven years, according to the degrees prescribed by the Church,
all under pain of being anathematized. And the same sentence was passed
upon Bertha.
" Archambault, archbishop of Tours, who had given them the nuptial
benediction, and aU the bishops who had assisted in the ceremony, were
suspended from communion untU they made satisfaction to the Holy See.
" King Robert subsequently obeyed the order of the council, and espoused
Constance, daughter of WUham I., count of Provence."t
The interference of Otho in this case, proves that K the sovereignty of the
pope were not independent — if, for instance, it were limited, as has been
spoken of, to the possession of the Vatican and the church of Saint Peter —
the foreign sovereign, whether Cathohc or not, who should occupy Rome,
could easUy exert an unjust influence upon the other courts of Europe,
excite quarrels among them, and, under a pliable ecclesiastical admin
istration, interfere in the rights of the others, and turn religious weapons
to the service of secular polity. The pope must remain as he is ; there is
access to his States by two seas, and thus he can freely become ac
quainted with the complaints, the petitions, and the needs of aU Catholics
l.hroughout the universe.
[See the note of the Cardinal Casoni, Hist, du Pape Pie VII. ; 3 ed., vol.
ii, p. 31.J

Novaes, ii., p. 199.

f Fleury, iv., lib. lvii., p. 38.

266

LIVES OF THE POPES.

143. SYLVESTER II.— a. d. 999.

YLVESTER II., formerly caUed Gerbert, a native of
v Aurillac, in France, was the first Frenchman who
occupied the chair of Saint Peter. He was a Bene
dictine monk of the monastery of Saint Gerandus,
and became abbot of Bobbio. Having been made
archbishop of Rheims on the deposition of Arnoul,
he was himself deposed in 994, and afterwards made
archbishop of Ravenna. Some say that he was of
low birth, while others maintain that he belonged to the noble Cesi family,
a member of which had settled at AuriUac.
Sylvester, on the recommendation of the Emperor Otho III., was elected
pope on the 28th of February, and consecrated on the 2d of AprU, 999.
Immediately, in an impulse of generosity worthy of the primitive times of
the Church, he confirmed, -as archbishop of Rheims, his former rival Arnoul,
at) J then he turned his attention to reforming the monasteries of Christen
dom. He gave the title of apostohc king to Stephen, king of Hungary, who
had converted that country to the Catholic faith, and permitted him and his
successors to have the cross borne before them. He reigned four years,
one month, and about ten days, including, as was then customary, the day
of his consecration.
This Pontiff* was an illustrious scholar and a very learned mathemati
cian, and though, on his deposition from the See of Rheims, he used cen
surable language towards the Holy See, yet, as pope, he governed with
both wisdom and sanctity. The monks of Saint Maur, relying upon the
historians of the time, were better able than others to know the real
character of this pontiff. They speak of him in the foUowing terms : " A
fine and subtle genius, a zealous lover of truth and justice, he was the
enemy of haughtiness and of duplicity. His maxim concerning the minis
ters of the Gospel was this : " He who is concerned in the saving of souls,
stands in need of great moderation." This pope protested that he was
ready to give up his life to preserve the unity of the Church, and reproached
himself only with having overmuch flattered the great ; perhaps, in fact, he
cannot be held to have been free from the fault of ambition." However, it
is beyond aU doubt that his great ability in mathematics, in rhetoric, in

* Novaes, ii. p. 205.

SYLVESTER II. 267
music, and in medicine, and the rapid elevation that he so rapidly achieved,
were the only reasons why, in a barbarous age, he was suspected of magic.
On that score, he was obliged formally to defend himseK.
Platina treats Sylvester with unjust severity. In the first place, he does
not even seem properly to know this pope's name, for he sometimes caUs
him Gilbertus, and sometimes Hilbertus. He says that this pope reached
the pontificate ivith the aid of the devil. Platina, in his own day, believed in
sorcerers, and in page 303 of his book, he gives a host of absurdities that
history does not confirm.
Relying on Baronius as my authority, I have spoken of the tenth century
as a period of almost universal cruelty, ignorance, felony, and impurity. It
is pleasant for a French historian, in the midst of details so deplorable, to
be able to point out the great qualities, the generosity, and the lofty science
of a son of France, of a chUd of pious Auvergne, who gave so brilliant and
pubhc a contradiction to the age in which he hved.
Bishop Ditmar praises the ability of Gerbert, who constructed a clock at
Magdebourg. So much for his skill in art ; as regards letters, he propa
gated their study in the University of Rome.
Novaes copies the epitaph which Sergius IV. had placed, in 1010, upon
the tomb of Sylvester H., in the church of Samt -John Lateran. It consists
of twenty-four lines, in praise of the pope who deserved so weU of Italy
and France.*
Sylvester n. died March 12, 1003. The Holy See was vacant thirty-three
* We cannot refrain from citing this epitaph, says Artaud :
Iste locus mundi, -Sylvestri membra sepulti,
Venturo Domino conferet ad sonitum ;
Quern dederat mundo celebrem doctissima Virgo,
Atque caput mundi culmina Romulea,
Primum Gerbertus meruit, Francigena, sedes
Rhemensis populi, metropolim patrise,
Inde Ravennatis meruit conscendere summum
Ecclesise regimen nobile, fitque potens,
Post annum, Romam, mutato nomine, sumpsit
Ut toto pastor fieret orbe novus.
Cui ninrium placuit sociali mente fidelis,
Obtulit hoc Czesar tertius Otho sibi.
Tempus uterque comit clara virtute sophije
Gaudet et omne SEeclum, frangitur omne reum.
Clavigeri instar erat ccelorum sede potitus
Terno suffectus cui vice pastor erat
Iste vicem Petri postquam suscepit, abegit
Lustrali spatio ssecula morte sui
Obriguit mundus, discussa pace, triumphus
Ecclesiae, nutans dedidicit requiem.
Sergius hunc loculum, miti pietate sacerdos,
Successorque c-uus compsit ainore sui.

268 LIVES OF THE POPES.
days. A learned Polish Dominican, Abraham Bzovius, wrote the hfe of
Sylvester II. under the following title : Sylvester II, Ccesius, Aquitanus, Pon-
tifex Maximus. (Rome, 1629, 4to.) Bzovius, judging from the title, beheved
Gerbert to belong to the noble family of the Cesi. Bernard Pez pubhshed
Gerbert's geometry in the Thesaurus Anecdotorum (vol. iii, par. ii, p. 5).
The monks of Saint Maur mention aU the works of Sylvester in vol. vi. of
their literary History of France.
M. C. F. Hock pubhshed in Germany a History of Pope Sylvester II. and
his Age, since translated into French by the Abbe J. M. Axinger, honorary
canon of Evreux, &c. (Paris, 1 vol., '8vo.) B Ami de la Religion, the 1st of
January, 1846, thus speaks of M. Axinger's translation :
" The fifty years that have passed, and aU their vicissitudes, have dis
credited theories and inchned judicious and practical minds towards the
study of facts. Assuredly history always has charms, and has its serious
teachings for every generation ; but there are some ages and some men that
the disenchantments of the present send back with peculiar force to the
lessons of the past. We live in, and are of such an age, and such men.
" In truth, historical works do not now take such colossal proportions as
were given to them by the peaceful authors of past ages. This arises
from many causes, which need not be more particularly referred to here.
Monographs were resorted to as a matter of necessity, and have become a
blessing. The necessities of the epoch have given us the Athanasius the
Great, of Moehler ; the Gregory VIL, of Voigt ; the Innocent III. and his
Age, of Hurter ; and the Histories of Saint Francis of Assisi and of Saint
Elizabeth of Hungary.
" By his life of Saint Sylvester II, Mr. Hock has entered upon the same
path, and with what success we are to see.
" In a prehminary chapter of remarkable learning, Mr. Hock traces out the
limits within which his hero is to move. It is fitting, in fact, to describe the
circumstances which surround a man before tracing his biography, in order
that the reader may be able to appreciate his genius and his virtues. For
human activity has its influence on events, and they in turn modify greatly
the direction assumed by our free activity on what is styled our successes
and reverses.
" Gerbert, prince of science, philosopher, mathematician, musician, arch
bishop of Rheims and Ravenna, finaUy pope, united in himseK by his genius,
Quisquis ad hunc tumulum devexa lumina vertis
Omnipotens Domine, die, miserere sui.
Obiit anno Dominicae Inoarnationis Mill.
Indict. 1, M. Maii, die XII.
These lines have been probably retouched, and are not yet free from fault.

SYLVESTER II. 289
and developed by applying them to practical IKe, aU the elements of pro
gress possessed by the tenth century ; he was, like all great men, the per
sonification of his epoch. This assertion, which is the exact analysis of
Hock's work, is proved by a simple narration of the events that fiU up the
hfe of Gerbert.
" Gerbert is caUed to the pontifical See, vacant by the death of Gregory V.
The new pope addressed the bishops of the Catholic world in a letter full
of force, humihty, and unction, depicting with unusual ability the vices of
the time, and urging a reformation, thus preluding the efforts soon to be
continued by Gregory VII. He devotes himself with generous ardor to the
external wants of Cathohcity. He was the first to caU the attention of
Europe to the Holy Land. "Rise, soldiers of Christ!" he cried; "seize
banner and sword, and effect by counsel and wealth what you cannot by
arms." The Pisans alone responded at that time. But it was not the fault
of Sylvester that France did not then assume the attitude she held a cen
tury later.
" To him, too, is ascribed the first idea of the JubUee, that great invitation
addressed to Christians, to make pause in the career of life, and draw from
faith and charity new strength to accomphsh the pilgrimage to eternity."
Mr. Hock's work is a valuable one to consult for a picture of the tenth
century, and a learned vindication of Sylvester.*
The monk Helgald, of Fleury, author of a Life of Robert, King of the
French (Duchesne, iv., p. 63), says that Gerbert wrote in sport a Latin line
on the three Sees he had occupied, Rheims, Ravenna, Rome :
Scandit ad R., Gerbertus in R., post Papa viget R.
Novaes cites the triplet, which some severe writers blame, because it places
on a level a French See, an Italian See, and the most elevated of aU, the
Roman See, the first See of Catholicity which rules the world.
* Some slight errors and omissions in the original are ratified in Axinger's translation, the
French writer using Richer's chronicle, which Mr. Hock did not know. By notes and illustra
tions, Mr. Axinger, a man of faith and learning, holding the balance with a firm hand, leaves
the German writer all his peculiar merit, and gives history all its truth.

270

LIVES OF THE POPES.

144. JOHN XVIII. — a. d. 1003.
HIS pope is styled John the Eighteenth, because
John Philagates, the antipope, who usurped the
papacy in May, 997, has been commonly, though
improperly, enumerated among the popes as John
the Seventeenth. He owed his elevation to the
favor of the tyrant Crescentius. When Gregory
V., expeUed by Crescentius, was restored on the
demand of Otho, that emperor ordered Crescentius
and twelve noblemen of his party to be beheaded,
and subjected the antipope John to cruel treatment, of which he died in the
month of March of the same year. John XVIIL, who is commonly be
lieved to be a Roman, was born at Ripagnano, in the diocese of Fermo, and
belonged to the Ulustrious family of the Secchi. He was elected by the
party of the counts of Tusculum on the 9th of June, and consecrated on
the 15th of the same month. He governed the Church four months and
twenty-two days; died in October, 1003, and was buried at Saint John
Lateran. The Holy See remained vacant thirteen days.

145. JOHN XIX. -a. d. 1003.
OHN XIX., surnamed Fasanus, was elected in No
vember, 1003. He confirmed the institution of the
bishopric of Bamberg, in Franconia, erected at the
desire of the Emperor Henry.
Under this pontificate concord was restored be
tween the Churches of Rome and Constantinople,
which had been disunited in consequence of the arro
gant pretension of the patriarch Michael Cerularins,
who presumptuously assumed the title of oecumenical and universal bishop,
which exclusively belongs to the Roman pontiff. John XIX., having for
bidden the patriarch to usurp that title, the right of Rome was recognized,
and the patriarch Sergius, in its place, took in the Dyptics — ('. e., the ta
bles of the Church of Constantinople — the title of the pope.

SERGIUS IV. 271
Some authors think that John XIX., towards the close of his life, abdi
cated the pontificate to retire to the Benedictine abbey of Saint Paul, at
Rome, but modern critics do not admit that fact. This pope governed five
years and five months, according to Novaes, and three years and five
months according to the Roman hst. It seems certain that he died about
the year 1009, and that he was interred at Saint John Lateran.
From an author of that same century, we learn that there were then in
Rome twenty monasteries for women, forty of monks, and sixty of canons,
exclusive of those which were outside of the city.*

146. SERGIUS IV — a. d. 1009.
ERGIUS IV, a Roman, is said to have been called
Bocca di Porco ; his father's name was Martin. Ser
gius was consecrated pope after the 17th of June,
1009. He governed the Church a httle less than three
)) years. He was hberal to the poor, and adorned
by many virtues. He died on the 18th of August,
>®T) 1012, and was interred hi the church of Saint John
"^ Lateran, not far from the entrance of the oratory of
Saint Thomas. Platina, however, and some other writers, state that he was
interred at the Vatican, and that an epitaph of nine couplets was placed on
his tomb. It wiU be remembered that to him is attributed the epitaph on
Pope Sylvester II.
We have spoken of the devout acts of Helena, mother of the great Con
stantine, the pious princess who discovered the Holy Sepulchre. Till this
time Christians, it is true, could visit it through a thousand perils ; but pil
grims could pass through by the power of money, and their courage braved
the difficulty of the journey, and the exactions with which the Turkish
rulers of Palestine oppressed them.
As early as the year 613 the Persians had tried to destroy the church of
the Holy Sepulchre, but the zeal of the Cathohcs restored it. A greater
misfortune happened in the year 1009. The monk Glaberus, author of a
chronicle printed for the first time in Pithou's Historia Francorum (Frank
fort, foho, 1646, vol. hi., cap. 7), relates a new catastrophe that befell the
Holy Sepulchre. He thinks that it was instigated by the Jews. "The
* Fleury, iv., lib. viii., p. 48.

272

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Church," says he, " was levelled to the ground by soldiers, who were sent by
the prince of Babylon. They even endeavored to break, with masses of
iron, the grotto of the Holy Sepulchre, but ' failed to effect their purpose.'
That same year, Mary, the mother of the prince of Babylon, who was a
Christian princess, began to restore the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and
a multitude of people from aU parts flocked to Jerusalem, and contributed
large sums towards the restoration." The pious inhabitants of pontifical
Rome were not backward in furnishing the necessary aid to the noble and
holy enterprise.

147. BENEDICT VIII. — a. d. 1012.
ENEDICT VIH., originally named John, was a
Roman, and son of Gregory, count of Tusculum,
of , the Conti famUy. Benedict was elected pope
on the 17th of June, 1012 ; but an antipope, Greg
ory, soon expeUed the legitimate pope. Benedict
retired to Germany to solicit the aid of King
Henry, who immediately set out for Italy, and re
stored him to the pontifical See. The pope crowned
Henry II. as emperor, in the church of the Vatican, on the 14th of February,
1014. In this ceremony the pope more especially estabUshed that form
of the imperial sceptre which is used at present — a golden apple sur
mounted by a cross, and enriched with two crossed circles of precious
stones. The apple represents the world ; the cross, rehgion ; and the
precious stones, the virtues. We bwe this information to Glaberus."""
Henry confirmed to the Church aU the gKts and rights granted by Charle
magne, and by the Othos, father and son. At the same time, he declared
that the election of the pontiff should be freely made by the clergy and the
Roman people, provided that, in the terms of the decrees of Eugene II. and
Leo IV., the consecration took place in the presence of the emperor's am
bassadors. Apparently with a view to consohdate peace with the Greek Church, the
pope ordered that at Rome, in the Masses, the Constantinopolitan creed

* The apple to represent the world was not a new idea ; we see it in the hand of the empe
rors in the ancient medals.

BENEDICT VIII. 273
should be chanted. It had not been customary to chant it, but as far back
as the ninth century it had been usuaUy recited. Lambertini informs us
that there are four creeds used by the Church : 1st. The Apostles' Creed ;
2d. The Nicene, drawn up in 385 ; 3d. The Constantinopolitan ; and the 4th,
that which commences the holy office with the word Quicunque, and
commonly attributed to Saint Athanasius. This opinion is shared by
Baronius.* Many other authors, and especiaUy the monks of Saint Maur,
Natahs Alexander, TUlemont, Muratori, Father Speroni, Papebroke, Le
Quien, MabiUon, CeiUier, Dupin, and Benedict XIIL, demonstrate that Saint
Athanasius was not the author of the creed, for he would not have omitted
the word consubstantial, as that was at once the strongest term against the
Arians, and the most precious pledge to the Cathohcs of that time. The'
creed was not known until the sixth century. TheodoK, of Orleans, is
the first who attributed it to Saint Athanasius, which leads to the infer
ence that the error originated in France. Novaes then quotes various
authors on either side of this question, and seems to inchne, though
not at aU decidedly, to the opinion that does not attribute it to Saint
Athanasius. Benedict, finding his states constantly ravaged by the Saracens, deter
mined to repulse them. In the year 1016, he assembled an army, embarked
with it, and pursued the infidels upon the Tuscan seas, gained a brUhant
victory over them, and restored to his subjects a hberty, honor, and repose,
and a reputation of which they had long been deprived.
At the same time, the Greeks, who, after so much baseness, had become
exacting, devastated the principalities of Apulia. The pope sent against
them Raoul, prince of Normandy, who attacked and beat them, and com
pelled them to retire from the province which they had treated as tyranni-
caUy as though it had not belonged to Christendom. That same year,
according to MabiUon, the pontiff canonized Saint Simeon, the Armenian, a
hermit monk of PadaUrona, near Mantua, who died in July of that year.
Lambertini shows that the pope more probably beatified only, and did not
canonize that pious man.
The Greeks having reappeared in considerable strength before the city of
Rome, Benedict, in 1019, went to Germany, to sohcit the aid of Henry. The
emperor received him in the town of Bamberg, which he declared a feuda
tory of the Church, with the obligation of a tribute, consisting of a capari
soned palfrey and a hundred marks* in money.t After the expulsion of the
Greeks, Benedict and Henry visited the celebrated monastery of Monte
Cassino, just as they were electing an abbot. On that account, and because
* Annal. Eccles., ad an. 340, n. 11.
f This, no doubt, was one of the origins of the tribute of the palfrey.
VOL. I.— 18

274 LIVES OF THE POPES.
he had recovered his health, which had been much weakened by the
fatigues of war, the emperor made great presents to the monastery.
Benedict, on his return to Rome, summoned thither Guy of Arezzo (sup
posed to belong to the Donati family), a Benedictine monk in the convent
of Pomposa, that he might teach the Roman clergy the notes of the plain
chant, which the Itahans caU the canto fermo. The notes which he had in
vented are, Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and are taken from the hymn composed in
honor of Saint John the Baptist, by Paul the deacon, a celebrated poet and
monk of Monte Cassino, in the ninth century.
The hymn opens with these words :
Ut queant laxis
ijesonare fibris,
Mica, questorum
Famvii tuorum
Solve pollutis
Xabii reatum.
Such is the opinion of Baronius ; but MabiUon maintains that it was not
Benedict, but his successor, John XX., who summoned Guy of Arezzo to
Rome. Benedict held a councU at Pavia, in which he pubhshed eight decrees.
He wrote various epistles, which are almost aU unknown to us, with the ex
ception of that which he wrote at Monte Cassino, when he was there with
his deliverer Henry. From the events of Benedict's hfe we may infer that
he possessed talents and virtues, and that his memory is worthy of our
esteem. He distinguished himself ahke as a statesman and as a minister
of religion. To these merits he added that of having conducted a war that
freed Rome from the Saracens and Greeks.
Benedict governed eleven years and nine months. He died a. d. 1024,
and was interred at the Vatican.
The antipope Gregory, who had molested Benedict, soon after yielded,
from fear of the anger of Henry, who always showed himseK the firm and
faithful friend of Benedict VIH.

JOHN XX.

275

148. JOHN XX — a. d. 1024.

OHN XX., brother of Benedict VIII., was a lay
man, and the first who, without being in holy
orders, reached the pontificate. He was elected
on the 6th of June, 1024. He would neither yield
to the entreaties, nor receive the gifts of the Con-
stantinopolitans, who asked for the Oriental Church
in the East the title of Universal, which the Roman
s!^3G^E Church had for aU the Christian world. Thence
originated anew differences between the Latin and Greek Churches.
Conrad n., the Salic, visiting Rome in the year 1027, John crowned him
emperor on Easter-day of that year.
On that occasion, Canute, king of England, was at Rome in the habit of
a pilgrim, having come to prostrate himself at the tomb of the Holy Apostle.
It was at that period that commenced the Enghsh tribute to Rome known
as Peter's Pence.
The Parisians and the inhabitants of Limoges had a dispute whether
Saint Martial should be styled only Confessor, or, as those of Limoges
wished, Apostle also. The pope decided in favor of the Parisians, and
caused a fine altar to be raised to that saint in Saint Peter's. Saint Martial
was bishop of Limoges when Decius was emperor. In 1032, the pope
beatified Saint Romuald, founder of the Camaldulensian monks. His
canonization did not occur till the reign of Pope Clement VIII.
John governed the Church nearly nine years. He died in 1033, and was
interred at the Vatican, between the Silver and the Roman gates.

276

LIVES OF THE POPES.

149. BENEDICT IX— a. d. 1033.

ENEDICT IX., a cardinal-deacon, previously called
Theophylactus, was a Roman of the Conti family,
son of Alberic, count of Tusculum, and nephew
of the two preceding pontiffs. He was elected
pope in 1033, on the 9th of December, at the age
of ten years, according to Bury, but probably at
at a more mature age. Novaes thinks that Bene
dict was then eighteen or twenty years of age,
and that ignorant copyists wrote decennis instead of vicennis. Although he
was an intruder into the papacy, his family lavished so much gold among
the Roman populace that he was received as legitimate.
In 1073, Benedict, learning that Conrad had arrived in Italy, addressed
letters of congratulation to him, and received favorable replies. On the
19th of June of the same year the Romans, unable any longer to endure
the licentiousness of Benedict IX., deposed him ; but in the foUowing year
the Emperor Conrad ordered that the pontiff should be restored to his
dignity. On the 17th of November, 1042, Benedict canonized Saint Simeon, a
Syracusan noble and a Benedictine monk. Two factions arose in Rome
and commenced a cruel war. The counts of Tusculum, and Ptolemy, the
Roman consul, strove for the ascendency. Benedict was expeUed on the
1st of May, 1044, and Ptolemy caused Sylvester III. to be named pope.
Subsequently the Romans recaUed Benedict to power, but he abandoned it
to Gregory VI., of whom we shall speak hereafter. After the death of
Clement II., of whom we shaU also have to speak, Benedict once again held
the pontificate from the 8th of November, 1047, to the 17th July, 1048..
Thus, by turns expelled and restored, Benedict occupied the See above ten
years. The life of Benedict was irregular at first, but in his later years he
changed his conduct. Urged by Saint Bartholomew, fourth abbot of the
monastery of Grotta Ferrara, near Frascati, Benedict renounced the pontifi
cate, and taking the habit of a monk, asked pardon for his past hfe, and led
an exemplary one to the end of his days, about the year 1065.
On the subject of this reign Baronius says : " Reproaches are uttered
against the Church of Rome, but ' she is not guUty of the abuses of that
time; the power of secular princes compelled her to endure them. The

GREGORY VI. 277
disgrace of those irregularities must fall, in the first instance, upon Conrad
the Salic."
Sylvester HI., antipope, after owing an ephemeral power to Ptolemy,
the Roman consul, was expeUed, and died in obscurity.

150. GREGORY VI. — a. d. 1044.
REGORY VI., originally caUed John Gratian, was
son of Peter Leo, an illustrious Roman, and was
archpriest of Saint John at the Batin gate. He
was not even cardinal, as Crescimbeni* proves, for
that Church had not yet the cardinalate ; and it is
affirmedf that he bought the pontificate from Bene
dict IX.
Baron Henrion, in his history of the papacy,
says of this pontiff :
" This prudent liberator of the Church, placed in possession of the Holy
See by the cession of Benedict IX. in May, 1044, reigned under the name
of Gregory VI. Finding that the temporahties of the Church were so
diminished that scarcely enough remained for its subsistence, he excom
municated the usurpers, and those culprits in their anger approached Rome
in arms. The pope on his part raised troops, occupied the church of Saint
Peter, drove away those who stole the offerings placed upon the tombs of
the apostles, resumed some Church lands, and restored safety to the roads
where pilgrims had long been unable to pass, except by forming caravans.
This conduct displeased the Romans, accustomed to plundering. Upon
their complaints, Henry in., king of Germany, rapidly crossed the moun
tains, and at Sutri, during the Christmas hohdays, held a council to examine
whether the election of the pope had not been simoniacal. Nevertheless,
both Gregory and the clergy had honestly deemed it their right to purchase
the resignation of the unworthy Benedict, and release the Church from a
great scandal. Amidst these doubts Gregory stripped himself of the pon
tifical ornaments, and laid down his pastoral staff. After that laudable act
he retired to the monastery of Cluny, where he ended his days.
The councU was held in presence of Henry III. the Black, who, after
* History of Saint John at the Latin Gate, p. 216. \ Novaes, ii., p. 230.
X Histoire de la Papaute, 1834, 12mo., vol. i., p. 234.

278 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Conrad, received the title of emperor. Gregory VI. is recognized as a legit
imate pope, because Saint Gregory VIL, in taking the number of seventh
and not of sixth, seems to have approved the accession of Gregory VI.*
Gregory VL governed the Church two years and nine months.

151. CLEMENT II — 1046.

OGER, or Suidger, a Saxon, who took the name
of Clement II., was canon of Halberstadt, then
chaplain to the archbishop of Bremen, and subse
quently chancellor to the Emperor Henry III., and
bishop of Bamberg. After the resignation of
Gregory VI., at the Council of Sutri, Clement was
JLa against his wiU unanimously appointed, for there
!ll2> was not then in the Roman Church an ecclesiastic

more worthy of that honor than he. Elected on the 21st of December,
1046, and crowned on the 25th, Christmas-day, he on the same day crowned
King Henry IH. as emperor.
At the beginning of 1047, Clement convened a councU to check the perver
sity of simoniacs, who at that time were desolating the Church. Contests
arose upon the question of precedence between the archbishops of MUan
and of Ravenna. Both claimed the precedence, and, like the patriarch of
Aquilea, each wished to occupy the place of honor. Clement II. decided
that in the councils the archbishop of Ravenna should be seated at the
right hand of the sovereign pontiff, K the emperor was not present ; but in
case the emperor were present, the archbishop should sit on the left of the
pontiff. The pope interposed in a dispute between the emperor and the
people of Benevento : the emperor insisted that His Hohness should ex
communicate them, because they would not receive him. Clement then
gave his attention to the affairs of Germany, and he canonized the pious
virgin Saint Viborada, martyred by the Hungarians in 925.
Clement governed nine months and fifteen days, and died at Pesaro. In
compliance with his last will, his .body was removed to Bamberg.
The Holy See was vacant twenty-nine days, tiU the return of Benedict
IX., when he usurped the See for the third time ; and nine months and seven
days, tUl the creation of Damasus II.
* Novaes, ii., p. 231.

DAMASUS H.

279

152. DAMASUS II. — a. d. 1048.

AMASUS II., originally named Poppo, bishop of
Brixen, was recommended for the pontificate by the
Emperor Henry III., in 1047, and created pope at
Rome, on the 17th of July, 1048.
Clement, archbishop of Lyons, had been spoken
of, but he magnanimously refused the dignity.
Damasus did not belong to Brescia. Baronius
was deceived by the likeness which exists between
the Latin words Brixinensis and Brixiensis. Neither was this pope, as
Alphonso Chacon* maintains, either patriarch of AquUea or of Cowbirth.
He was a man of middling condition, but of very distinguished inteUect.
He governed only twenty-three days, and died at Palestrina, near Rome,+
and was interred at Saint Lawrence outside the walls.
The Holy See remained vacant six months and four days.
* Lives of the Pontiffs, article Clement (Rome, 1677 ; 4 vols, folio). Chacon, a Spanish Do
minican, died at Rome in 1599, with the title of Patriarch of Alexandria.
f Benno states that Damasus II. was poisoned by Benedict IX., but it is certain that Benedict,
whom we have not defended against other accusations, was not guilty of that crime. Damasus
died in the month of August, by the excessive heat that then prevailed in Rome and its neigh
borhood. Baronius speaks on this point as he thought he ought to speak of a perverse and
malignant man, and said that that writer had put forward more falsehoods than words. In
fact,»Benno, a writer of the eleventh century, created cardinal by the antipope Guibert, who
styled himself Clement III., was an unscrupulous fanatic, and was especially bitter against
Gregory VII. We agree with Novaes, and we think that one may apply to Benno those words
of Tacitus, that a critic of our time has somewhat too severely applied to another author : " 06-
trectatio et livor pronis auribus accipiuntur, quia malignitati falsa species libertatis inest (Hist.,
liv. i., 1) — The words of accusing envy are received by greedy ears, because malice has a certain
false show of freedom."

280 LIVES OF THE POPES.

153. ST. LEO IX— a. d. 1049.
AINT LEO IX., originaUy named Bruno, count of
L Hapsburg, was born in Hapsburg, a town on the
f^f frontiers of Lorraine, the Palatinate, and Alsace.
He was related to the Emperor Henry III., and a
}j cousin of Gerard of Alsace, duke of Upper Lorraine,
^? from whom descends the house of Lorraine, now
reigning in Austria. At an early age, Bruno entered
a Benedictine monastery, and became bishop of Toul
when only twenty-four years of age.
Fleury thus speaks of the accession of this pope :* " In a diet or assem
bly of the nobles, held by the emperor at Worms, a unanimous vote elected,
as pope, Bruno, bishop of Toul, who was present, but never thought of such
an event. He was forty-six years old, and had been bishop during twenty-
two years, which he had worthily employed. At first, he applied himseK to
reform the monasteries, by means of Guidric, abbot of Saint Apre, a disci
ple of Saint WUliam of Dijon. Bruno was successfully employed in nego
tiating peace between Rodolph, king of Burgundy, and Robert, king of
France. " His virtue, as weU as his manly learning and agreeable manners, made
him a general favorite. He loved music, and could even compose it. He
was so devoted to Saint Peter, that he annuaUy went to Rome, and scjme-
times with a retinue of five hundred men. Such was Bruno, when elected
pope. " For a long time he refused the dignity, and when he was more and more
urged, he asked three days for deliberation, which he spent without eating
or drinking, entirely absorbed in prayer ; and then he made a public confes
sion of his sins, believing that he should thus show his unworthiness. The
tears that he shed during that act, made all present weep with him, but
without changing their resolution that he should be pope. Bruno, then, was
obhged to accept the pontificate, but he declared, in presence of the deputies
from Rome, that he accepted only on condition of the consent of the clergy
and people of Rome. He returned to Toul, where he celebrated the feast
of Christmas with four bishops— Hugo, an Italian, deputed by the Romans,
* Fleury, iv,, lib. lix., p. 112. Further on, Fleury confesses that deputies from Rome had
brought news of the election, and that at Worms they could only discuss an election, and not
elect.

ST. LEO IX. 281
Eberhard, archbishop of Treves, Adalberon, bishop of Metz, and Thierry,
bishop of Verdun.
" Bruno set out from Toul in the habit of a pilgrim, on his way to Rome,
continuaUy engaged in prayer for the salvation of the souls committed to
his charge. At Augsburg, being in prayer, he heard a voice which said :
' I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of
peace ;' and the rest of the Introit taken from Jeremiah, which is sung on the
last Sundays after Pentecost.* Encouraged by this revelation, and accom
panied by great numbers, who hurried from aU parts, he arrived at Rome. .
" The whole city met him with canticles of joy, but he alighted from his
horse and walked for some time barefoot. After kneehng in prayer, he
spoke to the clergy and people, and explained the choice that the emperor
had made of his person,t begging them freely to express their opinion,
whatever that might be. He added that, according to the canons, the
election by the clergy and the people ought to precede any other suffrage ;
and that as he had come to them against his own will, so he should wiUingly
return, unless his election should be unanimously ratified by them. Cries
of joy were the only reply to this address, and he then exhorted the Ro
mans to correct their morals, and begged them to pray for him. He was
then enthroned on the 12th of February, 1049, which was the first Sunday
in Lent, and took the name of Leo IX."
, When he received the reins of government, he found nothing in the coffers
of the apostohc chambers. AU that he had brought from Toul had been
disbursed in travelling expenses and alms. His retinue was equally without
means, but on the very day when they were about to depart secretly from
him, deputies from the nobility of Benevento arrived with magnificent pres
ents for the pope, whose blessing and protection they sohcited. Leo then
reproached his attendants with their want of faith, and taught them from
that instance that we should never distrust Providence. Subsequently,
when his reputation attracted to Rome an extraordinary number of pilgrims,
who laid great offerings at his feet, he took nothing either for himself or for
his servants ; aU was for the poor in that eternal capital of charity. We
should remark here, that during his journey from Toul to Rome, Bruno had
for the most intimate of his companions HUdebrand, who was subsequently
Saint Gregory VII.
The second week after Easter, which that year (1049) feU on the 26th of
March, Pope Leo held a councU at Rome, to which he summoned not only
the bishops of Italy, but also those of Gaul. In that council, in spite of
great tumults, all simoniacal ordinations were declared to be nuU and void,
and aU the ancient canons were renewed.
* Jeremiah, xxix. 11-14. f Fleury errs, Bruno did not use this language.

282 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The pontificate of Leo was one continual journey for the weal of the
Church ; everywhere his object was to cause respect to be paid to regula
tions that had fallen into disuse, and in some cases were absolutely forgot
ten by the faithful. At Pavia, he held a councU which re-enacted several
decrees relating to ecclesiastical discipline.
Thence the pontiff repaired to Rheims. The detaUs of the council are
faithfully reported by Fleury, and may be consulted in his work. At
Mayence, the pope held another council, in presence of the emperor, and
he there condemned simony, and pubhshed a decree upon the continence
required of clerics. On that occasion, the archbishop of Mayence was de
clared legate in Germany for the Roman Church.
Leo, still accompanied by the Emperor Henry III., celebrated at Cologne
the feasts of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and granted various
privUeges to the priests of that cathedral.
At that period the canons of Bamberg obtained the right to wear the
mitre : the chapter of Besancon partially received the same favor : it was
permitted to the deacon and sub-deacon, assisting the bishop at the altar,
also to wear the mitre.
Novaes* adds, that the same privilege is still at present recognized for the
canons of Poitiers, of Lyons, of Milan, of Annecy, of Viterbo, and of Sienna.
The canons of Sienna received that honor in 1802 from Pius VIL, at the
solicitation of their archbishop, the Cardinal Zondadari.
Leo, on his return to Italy, celebrated the feast of Christmas at Verona,
and thence went to Venice to venerate the body of Saint Mark.
On his return to Rome, in 1050, he assembled a council in the month of
April, and there condemned Berengarius ; archdeacon of Angers, head of aU
the sacramentary heretics, who maintained that the sacrament of the Eu
charist was only a figurative representation of the body and blood of Jesus
Christ, and that there was no change in the substance of the bread and
wine.f In the same council the pope canonized Saint Gerard, bishop of Toul,
who died on the 23d of April, 994.
At VerceUi, Leo again condemned the heresy of Berengarius, and the
book, Of the Body of Jesus Christ, of John Scotus, in which book Berengarius
had learned his errors. According to Feller (v., p. 456), the work is no
longer extant.
The Holy Father then proceeded to Capua, Monte Cassino, Salerno, and
Benevento. He reheved the last city from the excommunication pronounced
against it in the previous year, because a conspiracy had been formed there
to alienate the people from the pontifical government.
* Novaes, ii., p. 328. f Novaes, ii., p. 239.

ST. LEO IX. 283
In 1025 he canonized, at Ratisbon, Saint Wolfgang and Saint Erard,
former bishops of that city.
The same year the pope visited the emperor at Worms. In the month of
December he subscribed a decision relating to the city of Bamberg. It was
a feudatory of the Church (see our life of Benedict VIII, p. 273), and had
to present a caparisoned paKrey, and a hundred marks in money. Leo re
served to himself only the paKrey that Bamberg was to continue to present
to him ; and as to the fief, he yielded it to the emperor, who, on his part,
yielded to the Holy Father, in absolute sovereignty, Benevento, a duchy
which had been secured to him by the Lombards.
The emperors and the kings of Italy pretended to preserve the paramount
lordship in that duchy, wliich, said they, Charlemagne could not give to the
pope, although he had given him aU the adjoining Neapolitan territory.
But what could Charlemagne not do ?
The Holy Father, having returned to Rome, celebrated a council there ;
and then he marched against the Normans, who devastated Apulia. Un
fortunately the pope was defeated, and made prisoner. He remained at
Benevento till 1054, and there, by his skill, Leo changed his enemies into
protectors of the Holy See* Having recovered his hberty, the pope re
turned to Rome, after giving to the Normans the investiture of a portion of
the lands they had conquered.
The Holy Father, with great penetration of mind, refuted a writing of
Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, who, with abominable
pride, had controverted the primacy of the Roman Church. The letter of
the courageous pontiff is in Babbe's Councils (vol. ix., col. 949), and in Har-
douin (vol. vn., col. 927). Leo reproaches the church of Constantinople with
the disgrace of ordaining eunuchs as bishops ; and he adds, that once they
even ordained a woman. Leo would not have said so, had the ignoble fable
of " Pope Joan" then been in circulation, for Cerularius would have made
use of it to defend himseK against Rome. This judicious remark we owe
to MabiUon.
At the same time he sent legates to Constantinople to endeavor to reclaim
the patriarch. Among those legates was Cardinal Frederick, Vice-Chan-
ceUor of the Holy Church, afterwards pope, under the name of Stephen
IX. Irritated by the resistance made to them, the legates excommunicated
Cerularius, who, in his turn, excommunicated them, and caused the name of
the Roman Church to be removed from the dyptics, or church-hst of the
Eastern Church. The schism of Photius- was then renewed, which had dis
turbed the reigns of Nicholas I. and Adrian II*
* See History of the Origin of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples, concerning the adven
and the conquests of the Norman princes who established it, &c. Paris : Anisson, 1700, 12mo.
f See our lives of those pontiffs.

284 LIVES OF THE POPES.
We extract the detaUs of the excommunication from Fleury (iv., book lx.,
p. 159). This account gives a weU-timed view of the various heresies which
Rome then courageously pursued.
" We," says the excommunication, " have been sent by the Holy See of
Rome to inquire into the truth of the reports that have been made to it,
and in this imperial city we have found much good and much evU. For, as
to the pillars of the empire, the dignitaries and the wise citizens, the im
perial city is most Christian and orthodox ; but as to Michael, abusively
termed patriarch, and his abettors, they have spread abroad many heresies.
They, like the simoniacs, seU the gift of God ; like the Valesians, they make
eunuchs their hosts, and afterwards raise them not only to the priesthood,
but to the episcopate ; imitating 'the Arians, they rebaptize those already
baptized in the name of the holy Trinity — namely, the Latins ; hke the Do
natists, they say that out of the Greek Church there is in the world neither
Church of Christ, nor true sacrifice, nor true baptism ; hke the Nicolaites,
they permit the ministers of the altar to marry ; hke the Severians, they say
that the law of Moses is accursed; hke the Macedonians, they expunge
from the Creed that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son ; like the Mani-
cheans, they say, among other things, that whatever is leavened has hfe ;
like the Nazareans, they observe the Jewish purifications ; refuse baptism
to chUdren dying before the eighth day, and communion to women in child
bed, and exclude from their communion those who cut their hair or beard
according to the usage of the Roman Church.
" Michael, warned by Pope Leo of his errors and his many excesses,
turned a deaf ear, and when we sought to repress these disorders by reason,
he has refused to see or converse with us, or assign us churches to say
Mass, as he had already closed the churches of the Latin rite, styling them
Azymites, persecuting them everywhere, and in their own person anathema
tizing the Holy See, in contempt of which, Michael assumes the title of
oecumenical patriarch.
" Therefore, by the authority of the Holy Trinity, of the Holy Apostohc
See, the Seven Councils, and the whole Catholic Church, we subscribe the
anathema pronounced by the pope, and in his name, say :
"Michael, falsely styled patriarch, neophyte clad in the monastic garb
solely from fear of man, accused of many crimes ; and with him Leo, called
bishop of Acris and Constantine, chaplain of Michael, who has trampled
under his profane feet the sacrifice of the Latins ; — be they and aU their
sectaries anathema, with the simqniacs and other heretics that have been
named, and aU others, and with the devil and his angels, if they be not con
verted. Amen, Amen, Amen.
" The legates also pronounced another excommunication viva voce, in
presence of the emperor and the nobles, in these words : ' Whosoever shall

ST. LEO IX. 285
obstinately blame the faith. of the Holy See of Rome and its sacrifices, let
him be anathema, and let him not be deemed Catholic, but a prozymite
heretic, that is to say, Defender of the Leaven.'' "
Fleury, as- though afraid of seeming too Roman, adds : " Those heresies
imputed to the Greeks were, for the most part, only consequences drawn
from their doctrine, but they did not avow them."
Saint Leo IX. governed the Church five years, two months, and seven
days. He was a pontiff of a tender and solid piety, says Novaes, and en
dowed with a living and ardent zeal. He began to learn Greek at the
age of fifty, and made rapid progress in it, so that he was able to refute
the Greek schismatics. Victor III., himseK a pontiff,* writes thus of Saint
Leo : " He was a truly apostohc man ; born of the royal family, rich in
learning, eminently pious, and ripe in the knowledge of all ecclesiastical
learning." Bury says that Leo IX. shone at Rome like another sun.
This pope died at the age of fifty-two years, on the 19th of April, 1054,
and was interred at the Vatican, near the altar of Saints Andrew and Greg
ory. Paul V. having found the body in perfect preservation, caused it to
be placed with great pomp on the 8th of January, 1606, beneath the altar
dedicated in his name, and those of Saints Martial and Valerius.
The Holy See remained vacant eleven months and twenty-five days.
A great number of authors have written the hfe of Saint Leo IX., —
Augustine Bontemps, monk of Arras (who wrote in verse), Saint Bruno,
cardinal-bishop of Segni, and Wilpert, a contemporary of the Saint.
At that period flourished in England King Edward the Confessor, the
son of Ethelred and of Emma, sister of Richard duke of Normandy. He
reduced to order the laws pubhshed by his grandfather, King Edgar,
which the Danish domination had weU-nigh abolished. They comprised,
substantiaUy, the ordinances of former kings, and contained many wise regu
lations in ecclesiastical matters. The laws of King Edward are famous,
and were long held in reverence. This king also rebuilt the ancient abbey
of Westminster. * Biblioth. Pat., 854 ; Bialog., book iii., vol. xviii.

286 LIVES OF THE POPES.

154. VICTOR II.— a. d. 1055.
ICTOR H., originaUy named Gebehard, was born at
Inspriick, the capital of Tyrol : a Benedictine monk.
He was a relation and privy counciUor of the empe
ror Henry III., and after being a Benedictine monk
became a bishop. He was indicated for the papacy
by the celebrated Hildebrand, subsequently Pope
Gregory VII. Gebehard resisted the entreaties of
Hildebrand, who overcame his repugnance, and
Gebehard was elected on the 13th of AprU, 1055, and enthroned on the
16th of the same month.
This pope maintained a good understanding with the Emperor Henry ni.
The period of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century had
gone by. Virtue, experience, and courage were often seated on the pon
tifical throne. In one councU, Victor threatened with excommunication
those who usurped the property of the Church. He forbade Ferdinand,
king of Castile and Leon, to usurp the title of emperor ; and that prince
immediately obeyed the orders of the pontiff.
In a council held at Tours, and presided over by HUdebrand, Berengarius
was again condemned. That heresiarch having obtained permission to
defend his opinion upon the Eucharist, dared not do so, and he pubhcly
confessed the common faith of the Church, and promised that thenceforth
he would thus believe. Berengarius subscribed the recantation with his
own hand, and the legates, believing his conversion sincere, received him
into communion.
In the year 1056 the pope went to Germany to see the Emperor Henry
HI., and to restore peace between several nobles and that prince. The
pope celebrated Easter at Ratisbon. The zeal of Victor for discipline, and
his affection for the stern HUdebrand, have drawn upon him the hatred of
some writers ; but the most judicious authors do justice to his character for
integrity and exalted piety. A cup of poison was one day presented to
him. The legend says that the cup became so heavy that the pope could
not hft it, and thus the crime was discovered. He died at Florence, on
the 28th of July, 1057, and was interred in the church of Santa Reparata, in
that city.
The Holy See remained vacant five days.

STEPHEN X.

287

155. STEPHEN X— a. d. 1057.

LLDEBRAND already reigned by his virtues : none
could hope for the pontificate, except by conform
ing to the austere rules professed by that noble
monk. There was a prince of the house of Lor
raine who was renowned for his virtues. This was
Junian Frederic, related both to the imperial famUy
and to the royal famUy of France. This prince had
recently entered the monastery of Monte Cassino,
where he was discovered by Pope Victor II., who named him cardinal-priest
of Saint Chrysogonus. On the death of Victor II., they sought his
consent to nominate him pope, but he declined the honor. A general
acclamation in the church of Saint Peter in Vincoli, soon forced the modest
cardinal to accept the pontificate. On Saint Stephen's day, August 2d,
1057, he was enthroned in the church of Saint John Lateran, and the elect
ors themselves conferred the name of the saint upon the new pontiff.
In four months this pope restored good order in the Church ; he forbade
the marriage of clerics, and sought out incontinent hvers. It was not enough
that the pontiff himseK was a model of purity, he required that the lowest
cleric should Uve a spotless hfe. Even those clerks who put away their
concubines, and did penance, were excluded from the sanctuary for a time,
and were permanently deprived of the power to celebrate the holy myster
ies. God was appeased, and no longer continued the chastisement he so
long had inflicted upon his Church.
Hildebrand, who resided in France, was recalled, and sent as legate to
the Empress Agnes, mother of King Henry IV. Stephen then gave a
singular order, which strikingly proves his confidence in the greatest servant
the Church at that time possessed. The pope, by his entreaties and by his
authority, induced the bishops, clergy, and Roman people to consent that,
in the event of the pontifical chair becoming vacant, they would not pro
ceed to an election until HUdebrand returned from his legation. The pope
then went to Tuscany, and died in the arms of Saint Hugh, abbot of Cluny,
at Florence, where he was interred in the church of Santa Reparata.
Stephen governed about nine months. The Holy See remamed vacant
eight months and twenty days.

288

LIVES OF THE POPES.

156. BENEDICT X — a. d. 1058.

iH.ENEDICT X., Conti (who, according to many
authors, was an antipope, but who stands in the
Diario among the legitimate popes), was raised to
the pontificate by an armed faction, without waiting
for the return of Hildebrand, as Stephen had re
quired. The intruder thus elevated was so ex
tremely ignorant, that Saint Peter Damian said, " I
wiU acknowledge him as the true and very true
pope, if he can explain a single verse of any psalm." He kept the pontifi
cate nearly nine months. Subsequently, being deposed by Nicholas H., he
died about the year 1059, and was buried at Saint Mary Major.

157. NICHOLAS II.— a. d. 1058.

| LLDEBRAND, upon whom rested a great portion
of the strength of the Church, was not wanting to
his mission. He learned with disgust the election
of Benedict X., whom so many authors consider an
antipope. As we have seen, a tumtdtuous faction,
led by the Roman oligarchy, had nominated and
raised the intruder. Cardinal Hildebrand, re
turned from his legation, soon changed the face
of affairs.
Gerard, bishop of Florence, born at the castle of Chevron, in Savoy, which
then formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy, appeared to Hildebrand
one worthy of the tiara.
A councU was then held at Sienna, when the bishop of Florence was
named pope ; and authority was thus restored to worthy hands.
Gerard, who took the name of Nicholas n., received the crown in 1059.
He convoked a council of Tuscan and Lombard bishops at Sutri, to con
sider the intrusion of Benedict X., who was then condemned and deposed.
From Rome the Holy Father went to visit the March of Ancona, and as
he passed through Spoleto made a promotion of cardinals.

NICHOLAS II.

289

The Nicolaites, defenders of the marriage of ecclesiastics, began to excite
dangerous schisms. The Pope ordered rigorous measures against them.
He made a law against the simoniacs, who profanely trafficked in sacred
things. In a council held at Rome, at which one hundred and thirteen
bishops were present, Nicholas confined to the cardinals exclusively the
right to elect the pope. The inferior clergy and the people were simply to
give assent.*
He next ordered a councU to meet at Amalfi, to restore clerical reform,
and the exact observance of ecclesiastical discipline. In this councU the
Normans were absolved from the excommunication which they had incurred.
Richard, one of their leaders, received the principality of Capua ; and to
another leader, Robert Guiscard, the pope assigned Calabria, Apuha, and
SicUy. These leaders took the oath of fidelity to the pope, as vassals and
feudatories of the Roman Church. In the reign of Nicholas, a councU
again condemned Berengarius, who had returned to his errors (Novaes, n.,
254). At first he appeared to yield to the voice of the Church, and then
resumed his errors, and aggravated them by the most horrible insults.
In 1060, Nicholas convoked another councU, at which he granted to
Aldred, bishop of York, for himself and his successors, the honor and use of
the paUium. He confirmed to the holy Enghsh King Edward the privileges
already granted to him by the Holy See.
The pope desired to revisit Florence, of which he had remained bishop ;
and died there, fuU of merits, virtues, wisdom, candor, and pontifical vigor.
Every day in the year he washed the feet of a dozen poor men.
This pontiff governed the Church two years, six months, and twenty-five
days. He died on the 22d of July, 1061, and was buried at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant two months and nine days.
* See what is said on p. 32 as to the mode of election in the year 142.

Vol. L— 19

290

LIVES OF THE POPES.

158. ALEXANDER II. -a. d. 1061.

NSELEM BADAGIUS, of an Ulustrious family of
MUan, was canon-regular of Saint John Lateran,
and then created bishop of Lucca. By unani
mous vote, the electors named him. pope, on the
1st of October, 1061. At this period arose the
custom of not waiting any approbation of the
emperors. Moreover, at that moment there was
no emperor ; young Henry IV. was simply king
of Germany. That point should be first estab
hshed : we shaU frequently have to revert to it when we have to describe
the reign of Gregory VII. Holy Church at that time was as absolutely in
dependent as it has remained to our own days, and as it was in the primi
tive days of Christianity. When this election became known to Agnes,
mother of King Henry, both mother and son were very indignant that it had
been made without their consent, and in revenge they set up an antipope,
Cadaloiis, bishop of Parma, who was consecrated by the bishops of Vercelh
and Placenza.
The legitimate electors of the true pope asked Anselm to assume the name
of Alexander.
In a councU of over a hundred bishops, held at Rome, Alexander ordered
priests to celebrate but one Mass a day. At the same time it being the
custom of the period to celebrate in the same morning the Mass for the
dead, and another of the day, the pope repeals the custom, but without
rejecting or condemning it. The reforming spirit of HUdebrand watched
beside Alexander his friend. The pope confirmed the decrees of Leo IX.
and Nicholas III. against incontinent clerics and simony, a vice which in
fected all the elections of that time.
In 1063, Count Roger gained a victory over the Saracens, and sent to the
pope four camels, which were taken from the enemy. The Holy Father, in
gratitude for the victory, sent the general a standard, blessed by his pon
tifical hands.
He granted to aU who wrested from the hands of the infidels any portion
of SicUy, a plenary indulgence. This single document, preserved by Mala-
terra, suffices to confound the bad faith of Luther. That enemy of the
Church would not attentively examine the venerable custom of the popes,
who, disposing of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, and of the treasure of
the Church, granted privileges to those who did great things in the cause of

ALEXANDER II. 291
God. Luther, taking no account of dates, or of the facts of history, or of
the array of information which could not have escaped him, impiously main
tained, in the sixteenth century, that indulgences were a modern invention
of the popes, tending to despoil the faithful of their substance. And yet
we have here an indulgence granted by Alexander II., a pontiff who reigned
nearly five centuries before the so-caUed Reformation.
We have many of the letters of Alexander II., among which we remark
that which he wrote to the French bishops on the unhappy condition of the
Jews.* Many Christians, unworthy of their name, in a strange devotion
massacred the unfortunate Jews, in hope of gaining eternal life by such
abominable murders. Alexander praised the bishops of France for not
having encouraged those cruelties against a people once dear to God, but
now scattered over the world by his justice.
No less remarkable is the letter which this pope wrote to Harold, king
of Norway ; it proves the power which the pope then exerted in the interest
of humanity, amid the snows of the remote north as weU as amid the burn
ing sands of the south.
" As you are as yet but httle instructed," wrote the pope, " either in the
faith or in holy disciphne, it is for us, who have the charge of the whole
Church, to enlighten you by frequent instructions. But our distance from
your kingdom preventing us from personaUy doing so, we have commis
sioned our legate, the archbishop of Bremen. Be assured, then, that by
foUowing his advice you render obedience to the Holy See itself."
The Holy Father, in two councUs that he assembled at Rome, and which
were attended by many bishops, condemned the heresy of the incestuous,
who, with the sanction of the Emperor Justinian, counted the degrees of
consanguinity the same for marriage as in case of inheritance ; that is to
say, according to the civil law, and not according to the canon law. This
constitution of Alexander has been vigorously assailed, not only by the
heterodox Francis Ottman, Boemer, Treutler, Wiserbach, and others, but
also by some Cathohcs, including Cujas and Van Espen. Notwithstand-
.ing the pontifical decision, they maintain that for marriages the degrees of
consanguinity should be counted according to the civil law, which in the
collateral line does not count the stem, but only regards the degree in
which two relatives of different branches are distant from each other ; whUe,
on the contrary, the canon law considers to what degree the relations are
distant from the common stem. The arguments of the opponents of pope
Alexander, on that point, were weU refuted by Father Melchior Fred-
ericf In 1751, to refute the same arguments anew, Joachim Sandonnini, pro-
* Novaes, ii., p. 110. t Be Sangumit. et Afflntat., questio 2.

292 LIVES OF THE POPES.
fessor of canon law in the University of Pisa, published a very remarkable
dissertation. On the death of Edward, king of England, disputes arose between Wil
ham, duke of Normandy, and Harold. Alexander sent to William the
standard of Saint Peter. Victory crowned the efforts, the piety, and the
rehgious confidence of WUliam.
Alexander deeming another council necessary to purge the Church com
pletely of simony and incontinent clerks, convoked one at Mantua, and
attended it, in 1067. As he passed through MUan, he canonized Arialdo, who
was martyred, on the 28th of June in the preceding year, by the simoniacs
and the Nicolaites. In that council, Alexander was recognized as the true
pontiff, and the antipope Cadaloiis condemned. The latter died in the
foUowing year, after having, a short time before, asked pardon of Alexan
der, saying, " You are the Universal Shepherd of the Church of God."
Alexander granted the use of the mitre to Wratislaus, king of Bohemia :
that privilege was confirmed subsequently by Gregory VII. It is a favor
rarely conferred upon a layman.
Alexander was the first to reform, in Italy, the regular canons of Saint
Augustine, who were spread aU over Europe, where they had four thou
sand five hundred and fifty monasteries, seven hundred of wliich were in
Italy. This pope governed eleven years, six months, and twenty-one days. He
was a pontiff full of eloquence and learning. The two Pagi express their
wonder that such a pontiff has not been canonized.
He died on the 21st of April, 1073, and was buried in the church of Saint
John Lateran, where he had been canon, and where he had introduced the
regular canons of Saint Augustine, who were confirmed in the same Basihca
by Pascal II., in 1106, and by Anastasius IV., in 1154.
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
Two days after the election of Alexander, the 28th of October, 1061, as is
known, the faction of King Henry elected Pope Cadaloiis, bishop of Parma,
who, according to some, assumed the name of Honorius, and according to
others took none, which seems to dimmish the gravity of his offence. We
have already seen that after various vicissitudes, he was deposed by the
Council of Mantua.
Under this reign flourished Saint Peter Damian, whose writings are stUl
so celebrated.
Saint Peter Damian considered himseK reheved of the administration of
the See of Lucca, by his renunciation of it under Nicholas II., and under
Alexander. He subsequently took in his letters only the title of monk.
Soon after his retirement, he wrote letters to the cardinal-bishops, in wliich,
considering them as judges and counseUors of the pope in every council,

ALEXANDER II. 293
he exhorts them to fly avarice, and not only seek no presents, but not even to
receive those spontaneously offered. He dUates upon the malignant nature
of avarice, which renders all good works useless. " Though the avaricious
man," he exclaims ,* " build churches, be assiduous in preaching, reconcile
enemies, strengthen in the faith those who hesitate ; though he offer the
holy sacrifice daily ; though he keep aloof from secular affairs ; yet, so long
as avarice rules him, it corrupts all his virtues."
Saint Peter Damian complains of the luxury of the ecclesiastics, in one of
the writings in which he justifies his renunciation of the bishopric. " The
day of modesty, mortification, and sacerdotal severity is gone. MyseK
even, when I wait upon you (he speaks to the pope and to Hildebrand), you
hear forthwith a whole host of raiUeries, jokes, witticisms, questions out of
number, words without utility, amidst a dissipation which quenches devotion
and destroys good example. If we do not indulge in this, we are accused
of harshness and of inhumanity. I am ashamed to mention still more dis
graceful disorders, hunting, hawking, the passion of games of chance or
chess, which transform a bishop into a buffoon. One day when I was
travelling with the archbishop of Florence, I was told that he was playing
a game of chess. I was shocked to the heart, and took an opportunity to
show him how unbecoming such an amusement was in a man whose hand
offers up the Body of our Lord, and whose tongue renders him the mediator
between God and man, especiaUy as the canons forbid aU games to bishops.
He rephed that they forbid only games of chance ; but I maintain that they
apply to aU. He at length yielded, and begged me to impose a penance
upon him. I ordered him to recite the Psalter three times, to wash the feet
of twelve poor men, and to give . each of them a penny, and thus to repair
the sin that he had committed with his hands and his tongue."
Under Pope Alexander II., Sigefroy, archbishop of Mentz, conducted
to Jerusalem a great number of pilgrims. The whole numbered above
seven thousand men. On reaching Constantinople they saluted the Empe
ror Constantine Lucas, and visited Saint Sophia. Having passed into
Syria, they found themselves in Moslem territory, and the Arabs came in
numbers to piUage the pious caravan. Fortunately, the Christians were
assisted by the Turkish governor of Ramleh, who caused them to be es
corted to the Holy City. There they were received by the venerable patri
arch Sophronius, and led in procession to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
to the sound of cymbals, attended by both Syrians and Latins. The pil
grims beheld with pain the churches which the Fatimite caliph Hakim
had laid in ruin, and they gave considerable sums for their repair.
A few words must be said of the morals of Henry IV., king of Germany.
* Opuscula Pet. Bamiani, c. 3.

294

LIVES OF THE POPES.

" Henry, king of Germany," says Fleury (vol. iv., book lxi, p. 214), at the
age of eighteen was already one of the most wicked of men. He had two
or three concubines at once. In the year 1066, he had married Bertha,
daughter of Otho, marquis of Italy, being scarcely fifteen years old. But
as he married her by the advice of his counciUors, and not from his own
choice, he never loved that princess, and always sought to separate from
her. He became cruel, even towards his confidants. His accomphces in
crime became objects of his suspicion. He knew how to conceal his anger,
and cut men off at the very moment when they least suspected him, and
then to feign, even unto tears, his grief at their death.
" He sold bishoprics to the highest bidders, or to those who could best
flatter his vices ; and after he had thus sold a bishopric, if another competi
tor offered more money, or more acceptably praised his crimes, he deposed
the former as a simoniac, and ordained the other in his place ; whence it
happened that many cities had two bishops at once, and both of them
unworthy." Such was King Henry, and the sequel of this history wiU make
him stUl more clearly known.
We now come to the commencement of the reign of the celebrated Hilde
brand, Saint Gregory VH., the friend and immediate successor of Alex
ander H.

159. ST. GREGORY VIL— a. d. 1073.

T is well once more to review the situation of the
Church. The tenth century had displayed its fury,
its cowardice, its frantic and ignoble manners. The

eleventh century had given the terrible spectacle of
a deeper ignorance, combined with an unruly pride.
The pontifical throne itseK was subjected to indig
nities which fiUed aU true Catholics with terror and
despair. Yet the majority of the pontiffs had
merited the honor of sitting in the chair of Saint Peter. StUl, as we re
marked, if there were shocking scenes to be deplored, there were fewer
heresies to be uprooted. Those of Constantinople were at that time a kind
of necessary ulcer, and they spread but httle, in either Africa or Italy.
Berengarius, it is true, scandahzed France, but no sovereign supported him.
That false spirit was in some sort periodicaUy condemned at each council.
At the same time, some firm and generous hearts, inexorable to evil, but

SAINT GREGORY VII. 295
intrepid in restoring the good and the wise, arose more especially among
the monks. We have seen that many of them were the depositaries of the
learning of the Fathers ; we have seen one order obtain almost always, as if
by right, the pontifical tiara. Now again it is a son of Saint Benedict that
wears it ; he must continue the work of the few reformers who have pre
ceded him. Free from anxiety as to heresies, he hastens to take in hand
the defence of morality. It was much that in the confusion of the sects
that boasted of being Christians, God had not seemed to abandon his
Church, or rather that he had only punished it in a mercy that promised a
return to calm and peace. " God had preserved in his Church," says Bos-
suet * " a character of authority that those heresies could not assume. She
is cathohc and universal ; she embraces all times ; she extends on all sides ;
she is apostohc ; continuity, succession, the chain of unity, primitive author
ity belong to her ; aU who leave her acknowledge her first, and cannot
efface the stamp of novelty and rebellion. The very pagans regarded it as
the stem, the whole from which the fragments were detached, the ever-living
trunk, left intact, though branches were lopped off. Celsus, reproaching
Christians with their divisions, remarked amid the schismatic churches,
whose rise he beheld, one Church distinguished from aU others, and always
more vigorous, which for that reason he styled the Great Church.
" The true Church had a majesty and uprightness which heresies could
neither imitate nor obscure. If the Arians were asked where the Catholic
Church held her assemblies, and who were her bishops, they instinctively
pointed to her. Heresies, do what they would, could not shake off their
founder's name.t The SabeUians, Paulianists, Arians, Pelagians, and
others, in vain took umbrage at the party name given them. The world, in
spite of their wishes, used natural language, and designated each sect by
him who gave it birth.
" As for the Great Church, the Cathohc and Apostolic Church, it has
never been possible to name any founder but Christ himself, or show its first
pastors, without going back to the apostles, or give it any name but that
which it took.
" What matters it that some branches are torn from the Church of Christ?
The nourishing sap is not thereby lost ; new branches push forth. In fact,
if we consider the history of the Church, we see that as often as a heresy
declines, the Church repairs her losses, both by extending without and by
increasing in light and piety within, while in obscure corners the discarded
branches are seen withering away. The works of men have perished, in
* Discourse on Universal History, edition of 1844, p. 289.
f See, above, the excommunication of Cerularius. With what a host of denominations the
legates overwhelm the revolted patriarch !

296 LIVES OF THE POPES.
spite of the support of hell ; the work of God subsists ; the Church has
triumphed over idolatry and all errors."
But heresies are not the only things to be feared ; the Great Church has
formidable dangers still. A family often suffers more from a domestic mis
fortune than from the loss of precious goods. If peace is lost in the bosom
of a pa-lace, what avail outward homage, the praise of men incompetent to
preserve that action necessary to authority ? Immorality can corrupt a
situation most blessed by God. The wound must then feel the salutary in
struments which isolate it from what remains sound ; the hand of authority
must repress its strength, and that hand is efficacious only when, prudent
and deaf to human respect, it undertakes the cure, and in a spirit of forecast
leads it to its term. If that term is passed, we see at least the point where
reason would rest satisfied ; the confines of truth, solidity, possible progress
are attained, and wise laws are passed for the good of the nation ; they have
only to ask the solid establishment of rehgion, which claims eternal respect.
The Christian repubhc repulses no noble progress. The dreams of states
men lead only to conquests, often useless in the uncertain game of war ;
sometimes contemptuously reject art and science, centre in a single hand
the rule of numberless provinces, often sundered by diversity of interest,
and tending to disunite and become again spontaneously smaU and feeble,
or to oppress a neighbor and make it a tool, a helot, or a slave.
In this view, he who takes from none, who can give to all (is any gift
greater than repose and assured conciliation ?) — he who counsels mUdly, who,
if need be, represses with unforeseen strength — can and must hold an honor
able place among men ; and when he is the acknowledged chief of a true
rehgion, what treasures of counsel, clemency, and light he can diffuse among
the blinded ! for aU men at variance are in a manner blinded by passion,
anger, preoccupation, ruined interest, low cupidity, maintained with a kind
of satisfaction around them.
This state of grief, misunderstanding, anarchy even, once admitted, let us
examine, with the facts before us, the duties imposed by circumstances on
the pontiff whose history we are about to sketch, and the means which he
employed not to be wanting to duty. We shah not exaggerate our praise,
or censure without restraint. Our opinion shaU rest on this pohtical con
sideration : It was not Saint Gregory VII. who reigned alone from 1073 to
1086 ; it was with this pontiff the spirit of reaction of morality insulted in
contempt of the dignity of conduct imposed on the clergy especiaUy, and
on kings ;* it was the voice of nations stigmatizing bad example and avidity,
* Saint Peter Damian, a contemporary, says : " The world plunges into the abyss of all vices ;
lie enormous mass of crime accumulating as it nears its end. Ecclesiastical discipline is almost
gone ; the holy canons are despised, and the ardor due to God's service is shown only in the pur
suit of earthly goods. The lawful order of marriage is disregarded, and, to the shame of the

i

SAINT GREGORY VII. 297
set up in the place of honor or finer sentiments ; it was &n almost universal
return to the devotedness of the primitive Church ; it was a general cry
against usurpers, simoniacs, disturbers of the apostolic glory, who no
longer disputing as to the separate or different natures in Christ, and find
ing themselves almost united in creed, believed while rending the Church,
believed whUe violating its rights, without perceiving that heresies and
the reign of rhetoricians was almost to be regretted, as at least the de
fenders of the Roman doctrine, those who may be called animi dites
could refute and at times silence these false spirits. It was left for these
men who abused inteUect only to revive underhand the demolished argu
ments, and revive with new names a Marcion, Arius, Eutyches, and others
whose names had had their time, and who were forced to assume the new
titles of Severus, Priscilhan, ApoUinaris. Bossuet here leads us to an ap
preciation of one of the most substantial glories of the Great Church. Our
enemies sought to revive the dead, incapable of resurrection, and shrank
from among those who first raised the standard of revolt by wearing a rebel
mitre.t We, on the other hand, with an army ever the same, bearing on
our banners the names of Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Atha
nasius — to take here but a few in the first letter of the Catholic alphabet — we
fought, drawn up in serried lines, without losing a man ; all seemed to have
been said in controversy, it was exhausted. An intelligent scribe, in default
of those generals who are rarely wanting, gained a glorious victory by cita
tions analogous to the dispute, and by the aid of recollections scattered
through all Ubraries, and traditions treasured up in all hearts.
Our bodUy powers are weakened by fever. It produces always the same
Christian name, men live like Jews. We have long since renounced all virtue, and every pest
of perversity has overwhelmed us like a deluge. The whole world is like a sea roused by a
tempest. The churches are assailed by such frightful calamity, that like besieged Jerusalem, they
are surrounded by all the armies of Babylon. Laymen seize the rights, the revenues, the posses
sions of the Church, and seize the substance of the poor, as they would the spoil of their enemies.
In our days the world is but a theatre of intemperance, avarice, and lust ; and as it was once so
divided as to obey at once three, princes, so, alas ! mankind bows its servile neck to these three
vices, and basely obeys their laws.'' Aurelian de Courson, from whose Histoire des Peuples
Bretons (ii., p. 164i I cite this, adds : " Such disorders called for the influence of the clergy in
the temporal order. Prince and people felt the want of an order, exercising the greatest
authority in society by its light and virtue, and in some sense the only support of order. Kings,
threatened with constant revolts of powerful vassals, endeavored to extend the power of the
clergy ; for in the principles of Christianity princes are the images of God on earth, and the
depositaries of his authority. The preaching of this doctrine among nations full of energy,
owning no check but that of religion, was in the Middle Ages the only safeguard of kings.
(Bernardi. Origin of French Legislation, lib. i., cap. x., p. 74) The Carlovingians were so con
vinced of the necessity of this intervention by the clergy in temporal affairs, that we can assert,
without fear of being taxed with exaggeration, that the main object of their policy was to mul
tiply ecclesiastical seigneuries in the parts of the empire most difficult to hold. (lb., p. 16,").)
These are privileges not to be forgotten in reading the life of Gregory VII.
* De Maistre, The Pope, vol. i., p. 79.

298 LIVES OF THE POPES.
agitation, the same 'burning, the same tremor. There are plants, and always
the same, wliich calm this agitation, extinguish this burning, and quiet these
tremors. But let us not defer the solemn account that we have to render.
Gregory VII. (originaUy named Hildebrand), born at Soane, a town of
Tuscany, was the son* of Benzo, of the iUustrious famUy of the Aldo-
brandeschi, one of the most powerful in Sienna, and possessing numbers of
towns and castles. Others, and still more numerous authors, make Hilde
brand the son of a carpenter in that same town of Soane. It is very cer
tain that at an early age he entered a Benedictine abbey, where study made
him one of the most learned monks of that age. His merits led to his ap
pointment as sub-deacon in the Roman Church by Saint Leo IX., like him
self a Benedictine. t Victor II., another Benedictine, to honor one who
had become an honor to' his order, sent Hildebrand as legate to France.
Nicholas II. showed his appreciation of the ability, eloquence, and eccle
siastical learning of the monk of Soane by creating him cardinal-archdeacon
of Saint Mary in Dominica, in 1059. He was to lack no suffrage that would
hasten that final and just elevation which was of such happy augury for the
interests of Cathohcity. In 1061, Alexander II. appointed Cardinal Hilde
brand vice-chanceUor of the Roman Church. Finally, whUe the funeral of
Alexander was performed in the Vatican, the clergy and people proclaimed
HUdebrand as pope, and the cardinals united in confirming the choice.
Hildebrand alone opposed it. His letter on the occasion is weU known ; it
is included in the collection of Labbe (t. x., col. 6, p. 7). Hildebrand was
then sixty years of age.
Gregory hastened, says Novaes, to notify the emperor of his election,:):
not for the purpose of awaiting his confirmation (that abuse had ceased
from his predecessor's election), but in order that the emperor should pre
vent the carrying out of that election, which Gregory urged the emperor to
oppose. Here we must for a moment pause to consider this recital of Novaes. It
was not the emperor that Gregory addressed himseK ; for at that time there
was no emperor. Agnes, the empress, widow of the Emperor Henry IH.,
governed the empire as far as she was permitted by Henry IV., who was
simply king of Germany. That prudent woman, who was only titular em
press, had no direct right, well or ill founded, that an emperor could exert
at Rome to influence the election of a pope. Novaes, then, is in error.
FeUer is mistaken also, on this point ; but so many historians have similarly
been mistaken before Novaes and Feller, that we will not dweU with much
detail upon this historical irregularity. A simple note from an exceUent
work that we owe to one of the most learned and pious men of our time,

¦ Novaes, ii., p. 267. f Ibid., P- 268. J Ibid., p.

269.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 299
Gossehn, director of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice,* wUl throw sufficient
hght upon this fact. That writer says : " According to the custom and
pubhc law of Germany, the choice that the German nobles made of the
king of Germany, did not properly confer upon him the imperial dignity ;
he was not to take the title of emperor, until recognized and crowned by
the pope. This last formality had never taken place with respect to Henry,
as he had never been crowned by a legitimate pope, but only by the anti-
pope Guibert, who styled himself Clement the Third. Henry, therefore, was
not, properly speaking, emperor, but only king of Germany and emperor
elect. It is in that sense' that the Saxon lords say that Rome has not yet
given him the royal dignity."
We resume the course of our narrative. King Henry IV. sent Gregory,
bishop of VerceUi, to be present at the consecration of Pope Gregory VII.
The newly elected Pope was ordained priest in the Basihca of the Late
ran, and then consecrated in the Vatican, on the 29th of June, 1073. He is
the first pope who, being only a deacon, was then ordained priest. He took
the name of Gregory, in memory of Gregory VI., who had been his pre
ceptor. The new pontiff directed his earhest cares to the suppression of simony
and the heresy of the Nicolaites. Thence arose that fatal difference be
tween the priesthood and the emperor, which lasted more than forty years.
Henry, king of Germany, emperor elect, but uncrowned, pretended to give
investiture to bishops by sending them the ring and crozier.t Gregory
resolved to suppress that abuse, which the partisans of the emperor termed
the regalia.
The pope, grounding his views upon the authority of former popes and
upon the sacred canons, determined, in a councU held at Rome in 1074 — in
order to oppose a scandal given by the Nicolaites, and of which the clergy
of MUan rendered themselves guilty — that no clerk could take a wife ; that
holy orders should be conferred on such only as would profess perpetual
celibacy, and that no married man should assist at the priest's Mass.|
When, amidst the great affairs which he has to narrate, a historian meets
with a document by the aid of which the personal and secret feelings of the
principal person in the narrative become known, this confidential revela
tion throws a bright light on the whole narrative.
In a letter of Gregory to Hugo, abbot of Cluny, he opens his heart to
his friend, and speaks to him with the most tender confidence :
" Would," he writes, " that I could make known to you the full extent of

* Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages. t Novaes, ii., p. 270.
X Letter to Otho, bishop of Constance: Labbe, Concil., tome x., col. 316. See also Baronius,
ad annum 1074, No. 40.

300 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the tribulations which assail me, and of the labors, incessantly renewed,
which overwhelm me, and crush me beneath their daily increasing weight*
Many a time have I asked our divine Saviour to deign to remove me from
this world, or to permit me to become useful to our common mother. An
unspeakable, pain and extreme melancholy seize me as I behold the Eastern
Church, which the spirit of darkness has separated from the Cathohc faith.
Looking to the west, to the south, and to the north, I can only discover a
few bishops who have entered the episcopacy by canonical ways, and Avho
govern their flock in a spirit of charity, and not with the despotic pride of
the powers of the earth. Among the secular princes, I know none who
prefers the glory of God to his own glory, and justice to seK-interest. As
for those among whom I hve, the Romans, Lombards, and Normans, I often
teU them that they are worse than Jews and pagans. When, at length, I
revert to myseK, I find myself so overwhelmed beneath the weight of my own
actions, that I see no hope of salvation, save only in the mercy of Christ ;
for, if I had not the hope of a better hfe, and the prospect of being useful
to the Church, God knoweth that I would no longer abide in Rome, where
I feel myself as though in chains. It is thus that, divided between a grief
daUy renewed within me, and a hope, alas ! only too distant, I am assaUed
by a thousand tempests, and my hfe is but one continual agony."
In a second council, held during the Lent of 1075, it was decreed that
whoever had received, in consideration of any present, any grade or office of
holy orders, could no longer exercise his ministry in the churches ; and that
aU those who received from laymen the investiture of a church should be
excommunicated, as well as the lay donors. King Henry showed irritationf
at these decrees : Gregory had imparted the decree to him, and wished
entire obedience. The prince, whose violence increased, meditated ven
geance for what he caUed an insult to his authority. He secretly prepared
a conspiracy against the hfe of the pope, and he excited to rebellion several
German bishops and clerks, who had been mentioned in the decree as being
habituaUy guilty of simony and incontinence. Gregory replied that, on his
arrival in Italy, having been appointed to the administration of several re
ligious houses, he had restored order and regularity in them, and that now,
since he had been named pope,| it was his duty to interfere wherever he
discerned evil. It is further stated, that many of the accused clerks asked
if it was required that they should hve like the angels, and protested that
they would rather renounce the priesthood than their wives ! Oh, shame
upon those God-forsaken times !
We describe scenes of the middle ages, which are not to be separated from
* I find this letter in the History of Pope Gregory VII and of his Time, by J. Voigt.
f Novaes, ii.. p. 271. X Italie, p. 71.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 301
the actual facts. This the reader should bear in mind, and also the circum
stances in which the Holy See had been placed during eight centuries ;* and
the civU disorders of Rome, where it was proposed to assassinate the pope ;
and the hateful cynicism of the dissenters ; and the encouraging fidelity of
.the rest of Christendom ; and the excitements of those who regretted the
imperial authority ; and, finaUy, the indomitable character of a reformer,
shocked in his views of order and regular discipline.
Gregory VII. sent legates to the king to request him to repair to Rome,
with a definite menace of excommunication if he should refuse. He re
doubled his invitations when he learned that a conspiracy existed in Rome
itself, supported by the king's ambassadors. Henry resolved to give satis
factory explanations as concerned the disorders of his clergjr, and prom
ised to destroy the abuses of simonjr ; but he ordered the conspirators to
effect their purpose.
Quintius, son of the prefect of Rome, on Christmas night, 1075, burst in
with his soldiers upon Gregory VIL, who was calmly celebrating Mass at
the High Altar of Saint Mary Major. The accomplices of Henry recalled
the times of Constans II., and excited the rage of another CaUiopas. The
pope, severely wounded, was stripped of his pontifical habits, and ordered
to prison. Without a word, and head erect, he followed the assassins, who
marched before him. But it was not to be with Gregory as it had been
with Martin. The people, faithful to their pontiff, learning that he was
imprisoned in a tower, rush to arms to deliver him.
The multitude soon enter the tower in which the pope was confined ; then
rushed to the house of the assassin Quintius, who was brought before the
pope and compeUed to faU on his knees and ask pardon for his odious crime.
Gregory pardoned him, and only imposed, as a penance, a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. He then returned to Saint Mary Major, where he once more
began the holy sacrifice. As though he had forgotten the scene of which
he had been the victim,* he recited the prayers in a calm voice, amidst the
general emotion, and gave the benediction to his liberators.
* " The Church," says a celebrated writer (Hist. Generate de la Civilization en Europe, 3 ed.,
pp. 86-90), " was a regularly constituted society, having its principles, its rule, and its discipline,
and feeling an ardent need of extending its influence and conquering its conquerors. Never has
any society made such efforts to act on all around it, and to assimilate to itself the outer world,
as the Christian Church did from the fifth to the ninth century It in some sort attacked bar
barism at both ends, to civilize while it conquered." To carry out the idea presented by that
homely bat expressive phrase, both ends, he might have said, "from the fifth to the eleventh
century," for, in the supposition of the author, who says "from the fifth to the ninth century,"
what becomes of that tenth century, which Baronius so well terms " century of iron, century of
lead, and dark age ?" Bat in stopping at the ninth century, the sentiment of the profound and
judicious author was none the less to recall, in their entirety, the centuries wliich have been
called barbarous.
f Novaes, ii., p. 72.

302 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Better endowed than the tenth century, which amidst so many crimes had
seen only sohtary virtues, the eleventh century, though still witnessing horrible
crimes, saw great characters, worthy of the admiration of ages most honor
able to humanity.* Gregory made it an invariable rule to act at the outset
with gentleness. "No one," says he, "reaches the highest rank at a single
spring ; great edifices rise gradually." Certain of his strength, he chose to
employ concihation. He especiaUy sought to convince Henry, but the ex
cesses in which that prince wallowed were so abominable that his subjects
in all parts, and especially the great, revolted against him. In 1076,
Gregory assembled a council, which pronounced the excommunication of the
king, with all the terrible consequences attendant upon it.
History shows several emperors of the East excommunicated by preced
ing popes ; — Arcadius, by Innocent I. ; Anastasius, by Saint Symmachus ;
and Leo the Isaurian, by Gregory II. and Gregory III.
The decree of the same council set forth that the throne vacated by
Henry was adjudged to Rudolph, duke of Suabia, already created king of
Germany by the electors of the empire.
Henry burst into great fury on learning the proceedings of the council,
and he had the audacity to address to the pope the following letter :
" Henby, king by the gkace of God, to Hildebrand :
" When I expected from you the treatment of a father, and was obe
dient to you in aU things, to the displeasure of my subjects, I learned that
you were acting as one of my greatest enemies. You have deprived me
of the respect due me from your See, and by your evil arts you have en
deavored to deprive me of the kingdom of Italy ; you have not scrupled to
lay hands on bishops, and treated them with indignity. As I overlooked
these excesses, you took my patience for weakness, and you dared to ask
me that you should die or deprive me of my kingdom and hfe.t To repress
such insolence, not by words but by acts, I have assembled aU the nobles of
my kingdom, as they begged that I would. There was discovered what fear
had previously kept unsaid, and it has been proved, as you wiU see by their
letters, that you cannot remain on the Holy See. I have followed their ad
vice, which seemed to me to be just — I renounce you as pope, and, as a pa
trician of Rome, command you to leave the See4
" Such is the letter that we address to the monk Hildebrand, and that we
* Among the young generals who served under Henry IV. we cannot forget one of his rela
tives, who acquired then a deplorable reputation. When we meet with him ao-ain he will be
the captain who freed the Holy Sepulchre of Christ.
f Paul Bernried ( Vie de Gregoire VII.) says of this letter that it is full of forgeries.
X The Patricians of Borne belonged to a time far distant from that in which Henry thus ex
pressed himself and claimed their title.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 303
send to you, that you may know our will, and that your love may do what
it owes us, or rather owes to God and us. Rise up against him, then, my
faithful subjects! And let him who is the most faithful to me be the first
to condemn him ! We do not bid you shed his blood, for, after his depo
sition, hfe wiU be harder to him than death ; but compel him to descend, if
he refuse to do so, and place in the apostolic chair another elected by us,
with the common consent of the bishops, who can and wUl heal the wounds
that this one has inflicted upon the Church."*
A Parmesan cleric, named Roland, was appointed to bear this letter to
Rome, with the other decrees of the Conciliabula. A second synod had been
assembled. The bishops met in the Church of the Lateran. t The pope
occupied an elevated seat. Roland, entering the assembly, announced that
he was sent by the king of Germany, and that he came to the synod by his
order ; and then, turning towards the pope, he said : " The king, my master,
and aU the Ultramontane and Itahan bishops, order you immediately to re
nounce the throne of Saint Peter and the government of the Roman Church,
which you have usurped ; for it is not just to raise you to a dignity so emi
nent without the approbation of the bishops and the imperial confirmation."!
And then, turning to the clergy, Roland thus continued : " My brethren, I
have to announce to you that you must present yourselves before the king at
the approaching Feast of Pentecost, to receive a pope from his appointment,
as this one is now known to be not a pope, but a devouring wolf."
At these words, John, bishop of Porto, rose hastily from his seat and
exclaimed, " Seize him !" The new prefect of Rome, his soldiers and other
nobles, drew their swords and rushed at him. They would have killed him,
had not the pope descended from his throne, and covering Roland with his
¦body, saved the wretch's life. Gregory calmed the excited spirits, and re
commended them to have moderation in their anger. His words on that
memorable occasion were : " My chUdren, let not the peace of the Church be
disturbed. Behold, we hve in those dangerous times spoken of by Scripture,
when men shaU be lovers of themselves, greedy, proud, and disobedient ;§ it
is necessary that scandals come : and the Lord hath said that he sent us as
sheep among wolves. We must be wise as serpents, but also mild as doves.
We must hate no one, but bear with the madmen who wiU violate the law
of God. For a long time we have Uved in peace. It is the wiU of God
that the harvest shaU again be watered with the blood of the saints. Let
* But Henry forgets here that Quintius had attempted the life of the pope, and that the latter,
when saved, gave his benediction to his liberators with a hand bound up in strips of a surplice
hastily torn up to stanch the blood.
t Voigt, p. 375. X T° speak regularly, the word should be royal, not imperial.
§ 2 Timothy, i.

304 LIVES OF THE POPES.
us be prepared for martyrdom, if need be, for the love of God, and let
nothing separate us from the charity of Jesus Christ."
Before the election of Rudolph, Gregory had declared that he would
repair to Germany. King Henry, on his part, promised to come into Italy.
The pope left Rome with an escort furnished by the countess of Tuscany,
daughter of Boniface, marquis of Tuscany. The march of Gregory was a
triumph .* Amidst that escort he reached Vercelli. It was feared by some
that Henry would make his appearance at the head of an army, but he had
not that intention. The pope, nevertheless, deemed it best to retire into
the fortress of Canossa, belonging to the Countess Matilda, in order that he
might be secure from aU violence.
Henry had spent nearly two months at Spires in a profound and melan
choly solitude. The weight of the excommunication oppressed him with a
thousand griefs. Weary of that state of uncertainty, and still, as ever,
tricky and hypocritical, he conceived the idea of winning over the pope by
an apparent piety, and of satisfying his requirements by a brief humiliation ;
moreover, the decree of excommunication declared that it should be with
drawn if the king appeared before the pope within a year from the date of
the decree. The winter was severe. After running a thousand dangers, the
king. and his queen arrived at Turin, and proceeded to Placentia. Thence
the prince announced that he would proceed to Canossa, by way of Reggio.
The Countess Matildaf met him with Hugo, bishop of Cluny. She wished
to restore harmony between the pope and the king. Gregory seemed to
desire that Henry should return to Augsburg, to be judged by the Diet.
The envoys of the king at Canossa replied : " Henry does • not fear being
judged ; he knows that the pope wiU protect innocence and justice ; but the
anniversary of the excommunication is at hand, and if the excommunication
be not removed, the king, according to the laws of the land, will lose his right
to the crown. J The prince humbly requests the Holy Father to raise the
interdict, and to restore him to the communion of the Church. He is ready
to give every satisfaction that the pope shaU require ; to present himself at
such place and at such time as the pope shaU order ; to meet his accusers,
and to commit himself entirely to the decision of the head of the Church."
* Histoire de Qrigoire VH., by Voigt, translated by M. Jager, p. 418.
f See Histoire de Gregoire VIL, cited above.
X In an excellent note on this passage, M. Jager says : — "Here we have an indisputable proof
of the effect of the excommunication. We see that, according to the public law then prevailing,
it implied deposition, when he who had incurred it failed to be reconciled to the Church
within the space of a year. The historian Lambert expressly says on this occasion : Ut si ante
Jianc diem excom.municatione non absolnatur, deinccps, junta palatinas leges, iiidignus regio
Iwnore habeatur." To this we add : to be indignus regio lionore — unworthy of the kinglytitle—
included unworthiness to bear the title of emperor elect, and so Henry was neither king no;
emperor elect.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 305
Henry, says Voigt, having received permission to advance, was not long
on the way. The fortress had triple inclosures ; Henry was conducted into
the second ; his retinue remained outside the first. He had laid aside the
insignia of royalty ; nothing announced his rank. AU day long, Henry, bare
headed, clad in .penitential garb, and fasting from morning tiU night, awaited
the sentence of the sovereign pontiff. He thus waited during a second and a
third day. During the intervening time he had not ceased to negotiate.
On the morrow, MatUda interceded with the pope on behalf of Henry*, and
the conditions of the treaty were settled. The prince promised to give
satisfaction to the complaints made against him by his subjects, and he took
an oath,* in which his sureties joined. When those oaths were taken, the
pontiff gave the king the benediction and the apostolic peace, and celebrated
Mass. After the consecration of the host, the pope called Henry and all present,
and stiU holding the host in his hand, said to the king : " We have received
letters from you and those of your party, in which we are accused of having
usurped the Holy See by simony, and of having, both before and since our
episcopacy, committed crimes which, according to the canons, excluded us
from holy orders.
" Although we could justify ourselves by the testimony of those who have
known our manner of hfe from our childhood, and who were the authors of
our promotion to the episcopacy, nevertheless, to do away with aU kind of
scandal, we wiU appeal to the judgment, not of men, but of God. Let the
body of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we are about to take, be this day a
proof of our innocence. We pray the Almighty to dispel aU suspicion, if
we are innocent, and to cause us suddenly to die, if we are guilty."
Then turning towards the king, Gregory again spoke : " Dear son, do also
as you have seen us do. The German princes have daily accused you to us
of a great number of crimes, for which those nobles maintain that you ought
to be interdicted, during your whole IKe, not only from royalty and aU pub
hc function, but also from aU ecclesiastical communion, and from all com
merce of civU hfe. They urgently demand that you be judged, and you
know how uncertain are aU human judgments. Do, then, as we advise, and
if' you feel that you are innocent, deliver the Church from this scandal, and
' yourseK from this embarrassment. Take this other portion of the host, that
this proof of your innocence may close the lips of your enemies, and engage
us to be your most ardent defender, to reconcUe you with the nobles, and
forever to terminate the civU war."
' This address astonished the king. Going apart with his confidants, he
tremblingly consulted as to what he could do to avoid so terrible a test.t At
* See it at length in Voigt, p. 431. f Voigt, p. 433.

30(3 LIVES OF THE POPES.
leno-th, having somewhat recovered his calmness, he saicl to the" pope, that
as those nobles who remained faithful were, for the most part, absent, as
well as those who accused him, the latter would give little faith to what he
might do in his own justification, unless it were done in their presence.
For that reason, he asked that the test should be postponed to the day of
the sitting of the general diet, and the pope consented.
When the pope had finished Mass, he invited the king to dinner, treated
him with much attention, and dismissed him in peace to his own people,
who had remained outside the castle. Henry, on his return to his. nobles,
was not well received. Henry, as Voigt shows, soon became alarmed at
their disapprobation, which originated only in a feehng of wounded com
plicity and ambitious views, which could not hope for success after the
victory gained by Gregory.
Henry, hearing himseK accused of weakness, thought to deliver himseK
from so much annoyance by a bold perjury ; and he endeavored to draw
Gregory and Matilda into a snare. Warned by faithful friends, they did
not visit the king as had been agreed ; and that new wrong determined
Gregory to suspend his departure for the Diet of Augsburg. No one, not
even the pious MatUda, now dared to speak of a reconciliation.
Henry held at Brescia, in 1080, a pseudo council of the bishops devoted
to him ; and there he caused Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, an avowed
enemy of Gregory, to be elected as pope ; and he deposed Gregory, although
he was recognized as the legitimate pope by the whole Cathohc world, with
the exception of the bishops in revolt, under the direction of Henry. On
learning this, Gregory celebrated at Rome, in the year 1080, a regular coun
cU, in which he again excommunicated Henry, and especiaUy the antipope,
whom he would never absolve.
Thus arose the schism known as the Henricians, who were condemned by
various councils. Those sectaries maintained that the emperor ought to
exercise the highest authority over the election of the pontiffs and the
bishops, and that no one could be recognized as legitimate pontiff or legiti
mate bishop, unless he had been elected by the emperor or by the king of
Germany ;* and that no account was to be taken of excommunication pro
nounced against kings. This schism ended under the reign of Cahxtus II.,
about 1120.
From the troubles during the reign of Henry IV. and Henry V., arose the
custom of sending to Rome Ambassadors of Obedience, t
The Holy Father also at this time excommunicated Boleslaus H., king
* The Henricians added this clause, because they plainly saw that in the public law of the
time, which they wished to modify to their own liking, a king of Germany was not an emperor
complete. f A dissertation on this point, by Christian Gottlieb Buder, appeared at Jena, in 1737.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 307
of Poland, known to have assassinated Saint Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow.
At this time, also, Demetrius, king of Russia, declared his states tributaries
of the Holy See, which course had been taken by many other princes, as is
observed by Muratori*
Berengarius led a miserable and despised life in France, and for the fourth
time begged and received permission to abjure. He finaUy died penitent
in 1088. Gregory now received, as fiefs of the Church, Tuscany and Lom
bardy, offered to him by the Countess MatUda. The donation was confirmed
by her. in 1102, under Pope Pascal II.
The actions of that great Cathohc princess, who has so weU deserved of
the Church, have been described by Francis-Maria Fiorentini, chief physi
cian of Pope Urban VIII. (Lucca, 4to, 1642). The merit of that work
has been attested by Cardinal Sforza PaUavicini, Cosmo della Rena, Car
dinal Bona, Luc Holstenius, Anthony Pagi, Charles du Cange, Louis An
thony Muratori, Geoffry WiUiam Leibnitz, Father Andrew Rota, and by
aU who have had occasion to speak of the pious daughter of BonKace,
marquis of Tuscany. The enemies of the sovereign pontiff have accused
her of having been too intimately connected with Gregory VII. ;f but
the virtue of that pope, and that of MatUda, have caused all impartial
historians to treat that accusation as a mere calumny. Not a fact, not an
indication, has ever justified it. The truth of the Countess Matilda's
donation has never been doubted ; it is one of the most authentic titles
claimed by the pontiffs. But this title itseK was the subject of discord.
Matilda, we may here say, possessed Tuscany, Mantua, Parma, Reggio,
Placentia, Ferrara, Modena, a part of Umbria, the Duchy of Spoleto, Vero
na, almost aU now known as the Patrimony of Saint Peter, from Viterbo to
Orvieto, with a part of the March of Ancona.
Pope Pascal II. wishing to take possession of those States, Henry IV.
opposed him, on the ground that most of the fiefs given by the countess
were appendages of the imperial authority. These rival pretensions were a
new spark of war between the papacy and the empire. But at length it
was necessary to yield to the Holy See a portion of the heritage of Matilda.:):
Gregory, foUowing in the footsteps of Alexander II., succeeded in indu
cing Alphonso VI. to introduce the Roman rite into Spain, which had
hitherto foUowed only the Gothic rite, so caUed because introduced in
Spain by the Gothic kings. Yet the latter rite was maintained in six par
ishes of Toledo, from respect to its antiquity.
Henry continued to persecute Gregory, whom he several times besieged
in Rome. The pope was delivered by the aid of Robert Guiscard ; but
* Script, rer. Ital, tome iii., p. 367. t Feller, iv., p. 370.
X Memoria delta Gran Contezza, &c, da Gian-Domenico Mansi, della Gongregazione della
Madre di Dio: Lucca, 1756, 4to. Many other works treat on this extensive subject.

308 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Henry soon returned, and the pope was obliged to retire to Salerno. Worn
*out with grief, fatigue, and infirmities, he died there on the 25th of May,
1085, uttering these words : " We have loved justice and hated iniquity, and
for this we die in exUe." He had governed, as an intrepid defender of
ecclesiastical liberty, twelve years, one month, and four days.
On account of the tribulations that pursued this holy pontiff, the Bol-
landists say (vol. vi, June, p. 197) that he died martyr and confessor. He
was interred beneath the dome of Salerno, where Archbishop Marsigh
Colonna, in 1573, found the body of the pontiff miraculously preserved, and
still arrayed in the pontifical vestments. In 1578, that archbishop placed
on the tomb an epitaph, which may be found in Father Jacob's Biblioih.
Pontific. Benedict XIII., in 1728, ordered the office of this saint to be cele
brated in the whole Church. This office was prohibited in France in 1729,
and in Flanders in 1730 ; but they admit the Roman Martyrology, in which
the name of Gregory VII. was placed on the 25th of May, 1584, by order
of Gregory XIII.
A few reflections may be made on this remarkable reign.
M. Jager truly observes, that, in- his Ep. ix., 21, Gregory expressed the
one idea which engrossed his genius during his entire life. " We desire but
one thing, that the impious repent and return to their Creator. We have
but one desire, that the Church, oppressed and overturned everywhere, re
sume her ancient splendor and solidity. We have but one object, that God'
be glorified in us ; and we with our brethren, even with those who persecute
us, so that we aU may merit to arrive at eternal life. Regain courage, then,
conceive a lively hope, fix your gaze upon the standard of the eternal King,
where he says to us: In patience possess your souls." (Luke ii.) Voigt pro
nounces the following judgment upon Gregory : " When in the bosom of
prosperity a man shows himseK great, noble, and elevated, the world honors,
venerates, and admires him ; and K his prosperity continues to the end of
his career and to his death, his name is transmitted to posterity.
" Even should his work not be completed, even should death surprise him
in the midst of his struggle, we look upon his career as complete, because
our imagination supplies aU that remained for him' to do. But when a man,
thrown amidst tumult and disorder, and exposed to the vicissitudes of good
and evU fortune, resists firmly, and, strong in conscience and animated by
faith and convictions, remains calm and unruffled, suffers with resignation,
and supports himseK upon the anchor that God has placed in his heart,
when aU the world has risen against him, such a man becomes the marvel
of his age.
" Even the enemies of Gregory," says Voigt in conclusion, " are obhged
to confess that the ruhng thought of the pontiff (the independence of the
Church) was indispensable for the propagation of rehgion and the refor-

SAINT GREGORY Vn. 309
mation of society, and that to that end it was necessary to break the fetters
which bound the Church to the State, to the great detriment of religion. It
was necessary for the Church to be an entirety, a unit, in itself and by it
seK, a divine institution, whose influence, salutary to all men, could be
arrested by no prince of the world. The Church is God's society, of
which no mortal can claim the goods or the privileges, and of which no
prince can, without crime, usurp the jurisdiction. As there is but one God
and one Faith, so there is but one Church with one Head.* The letters of
Gregory are fuU of this thought ; and in the conviction that he was caUed
to realize that thought, he labored with aU his might, t
" Is he to be reproached for having nurtured that noble idea ? Can the
idea itseK be deemed strange and exaggerated ? Either assertion would be
unjust and not very sensible.
" The Genius of Despotism died with the Asiatic empire. The stirring
republics of Athens and of Rome had disappeared. Every thing around
Gregory tended towards a monarchy ; every thing moulded itseK in that
direction. Each endeavored at first to be something for himseK, in order to
become something for aU. The dukes surrounded the emperors, and the
princes the dukes ; then came the vassals and the feudatories, who ranged
themselves around their respective lords. Why, then, should the Church,
essentiaUy monarchical, not have labored to the same end ? Why reproach
the popes with having had the spirit of their epoch, and obeying the gen
eral impulse ?
" For Gregory not to have had the idea which animated him, it would have
been necessary for him to pass through the school of our modern civiliza
tion. Now that was not the case. He hved in a gross age, an age of iron,
which had nothing in common with our age. So the acts of that age can
not be judged according to our principles and our manners. Before aU, we
must represent to ourselves the age and the circumstances in which Gregory
hved, the situation and the constitution of the Church, its connection with
the State, and its disorders. We must seriously inquire into the morals and
habits of the clerical body, its spirit, its tendency, its rudeness, its degen
eracy, its forgetfulness of aU duty and of aU disciphne, and its ignorance
side by side with its pride. A clear idea must be formed of the situation
of Germany, and the character of Henry be fuUy comprehended ; then, and
not tiU then, can we judge Gregory. By foUowing that course, by consider
ing his ideas, his acts, and his wishes, relatively to his century, we arrive,
if free from prejudice, at a judgment very different from that formed by

* Jager sagaciously remarks that that expression is significant in the mouth of a Protestant.
f No history is more certain or reliable than that which is founded upon the letters of him
whose life we write. Baronius, ad annum 1043, xxvii.

310 LIVES OF THE POPES.
men who persist in prescribing to the pontiff, for his rule of thought and
act, the views and the ideas of their own age.
" To attain the end that he proposed to himself, Gregory could not act
otherwise than he did ; for, in fact, to be pope one must act as pope ; he
had to act differently from the multitude, differently from his predecessors,
if he could raise himself above aU, and be a really great man."
" If Gregory had chosen means httle adapted to reahze his plan ; if he
had not studied the circumstances, or kept account of his epoch ; K he had
committed serious faults in execution, his prudence and judgment, and not
his heart, might be accused. But it is precisely his ability that is censured,
without admitting the goodness of his heart. The genius of Gregory
embraced, and could not but embrace, the whole Christian world, because
the independence of the Church was a general idea. His action was neces
sarily energetic, because he acted in his age. His faith and his conviction
could not but be as they were, for the course of events had given them
birth." We wUl add, he was assaUed with fragments of rock, and he replied
with mountains, and Pelion heaped on Ossa. Does not such language in a
Protestant predict the progress wliich wiU henceforth be made ? Does not
such language in a Protestant foreshadow the progress which truth is yet
to make, as weU as betoken a return to the sound principles of Cathohcity ?
We will now cite some of the reflections found in the learned work of
Gossehn. Fenelon, he says, first among Catholic writers brought forward
the opinion which explains, by the international law of the middle ages, the
conduct of the pope and of councils in deposing temporal princes.* " We
assert even that Fenelon's firm tone in discussing the subject is the real
mainspring of the researches made of late years to establish this important
point." Of the maxims of the times of Gregory VIL, Gossehn remarks, most pro
foundly, that he did not push them any further than his predecessors ; the
force of circumstances obhged him to give them a more rigorous appli
cation. " After citing a number of facts, he adds : " From this it results that the
power exercised over sovereigns by popes and councils in the middle ages,
cannot be regarded as a criminal usurpation of ecclesiastical power over
the rights of sovereigns. It is certain, in fact, that the popes and councils
who have exercised this power have only foUowed and apphed maxims uni
versally admitted, not only by the people, but by the most enlightened and
virtuous nien."t

* Gosselin, Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages.
f lb. He refers to Bossuet, Fleury, -Pfeffel, &c.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 311
We cannot impress too deeply on our mind the sound and sohd argu
ments of Gossehn. His work is a monument of clear logic, pohshed dis
cussion, one of the best answers to the wild attacks of many modern politi
cal writers, to whom the middle ages are a bugbear.
De Maistre's work on " the Pope," comes as a reserve to give the last
blow. It is the thundering legion of Marcus Aurelius. We have just
seen the views of the conciliatory Voigt and circumspect Gossehn. The
iUustrious Piedmontese lays down this general rule : " The popes having
never ceased, during eighteen centuries, deciding questions of every kind
with a prudence and justice truly miraculous — in this, that their decisions
invariably show themselves exempt from the moral character and passions
of the oracle, who is a man — a few equivocal facts cannot be admitted
against the popes, without violating every law of probability, which never
theless rules the world."
De Maistre fears no difficulty. He accepts and meets the most malicious
definitions of his adversaries, just as they present them. " Popes sometimes
contended with sovereigns, never with sovereignty. The very act by which
they absolved subjects from the oath of aUegiance, declared sovereignty
inviolable. The popes taught nations that no human power could reach the
sovereign, whose authority was suspended only by a divine power ; so that
their anathemas, instead of derogating from the rigor of Catholic maxims
as to the inviolabihty of sovereigns, served, on the contrary, but to give them
a new sanction in the eyes of the people.
" In the eleventh century the popes were universaUy acknowledged as dele
gates of God, the source of sovereignty. The greatest princes sought, on
consecration, a sanction, and so to speak, confirmation of their right. The
first of these sovereigns in those ancient ideas, the German emperor, was to
be consecrated by the pope in person. He was deemed to hold his august
character from him, and be truly emperor only by the imposition of his
hand." "Papal excommunication worked no detriment to sovereignty in the
minds of the people.* On the contrary, by repressing it on some points, by
rendering it less fierce end crushing, by alarming it for its own unseen good,
they rendered it more venerable. They banished from its brow the old mark
of the beast, to substitute that of regeneration. They made it sacrecl, to make
it inviolable. A new and great proof amid a thousand, that the pontifical
power has ever been conservative.
" Now, it is for princes to reflect : the power which hampered their prede
cessors a thousand years ago, but which sanctified the sovereign character,

The Pope, i., p. 233.

312 Lives of the popes.
became an object of fear. They fell into the well-laid snare : they have
been dragged down to the ground ; they are mere men."
De Maistre is right. When kings are no longer needed, they are arraigned
for a battle lost, or even a battle won ; they are expelled, and this great act
of chastisement is attributed to the people, who act as sovereign, and who,
under other aspects and under other forms, excommunicate those whom
they wish to replace by others. " Hear Voltaire," says De Maistre — " Vol
taire, whose native good sense, makes us regret that passion so often
obscured it : ' From aU the history of the period, it follows that society
among the Western nations had few certain rules ; that the States had few
laws, and the Church sought to repair the want.' "
De Maistre continues : " Among aU the pontiffs called to this great work,
Saint Gregory VII. rises majesticaUy. Gregory did not presume on him
self, when he assumed, with an inherent consciousness of power, the mission
of instituting European sovereignty, then young and unchecked in its pas
sions. The pope wrote these remarkable words : " We are mindful, with the
Divine assistance, to furnish the emperors, kings, and other sovereigns, those
spiritual arms which they need to quell in their hearts the furious tempests
of pride." As if to say, " I teach them that a king is not a tyrant." And
who, but for Gregory, would have taught them ?
Maimbourg, in his History of the Roman Decline* complains that the
imperious and inflexible temper of Gregory VII. prevented his tempering
zeal with the noble moderation which characterized his five predeces
sors. " Unfortunately, the noble moderation of these predecessors corrected no
evU, and they were always disregarded. Violence was never arrested by
moderation ; power is balanced only by contrary efforts. The emperors in
dulged in violence towards the popes, which is never mentioned, and a few
acts of popes are exaggerated, presented as great crimes, and loudly de
nounced. But human affairs do not go otherwise. No constitution, no
pohtical amalgamation is ever formed except by elements which clash at
first, then blend and grow calm. '
" In a word, the Church, humanly speaking, was all but lost. It had no
form, no pohty, soon no name, had not the popes by their extraordinary
intervention substituted themselves in the place of corrupt or benighted
authorities, and governed more directly, so as to restore order.
" European monarchy would have been lost,t had not detestable princes
* Histoire de la Bicadence Bomaine, lib. iii., an. 1073.
f It has inherited the fruit of this superhuman courage; and yet some who even now govern
by the help of the ramparts which that courage reared, curse the heroic and unshaken will
which repressed the licentiousness, bratal power, the usurped ecclesiastical power, and the power
of assassination with impunity, which the emperors claimed to exercise. Their good pleasure

SAINT GREGORY VII. 313
met a terrible obstacle ; and to speak only of Gregory VIL, every equitable
man wiU doubtless admit the impartial judgment of the historian of the
revolutions of Germany : ' The mere exposition of facts,' says he, ' shows
that this pope's conduct was that which any firm and enhghtened man
would have followed under simUar circumstances.'*
" The sacking of MUan, one of the most horrible events of history, would
alone suffice, in Voltaire's judgment, to justify all that the popes did.f
" All nations agree in placing in the first rank of great men those who
delivered their country from a foreign yoke : heroes in success, martyrs if
they faU, their names go down the vista of ages. Modern stupidity would
except popes from this general apotheosis, and deprive them of the undying-
glory they deserve, as temporal princes who labored unceasingly to free
their native land. That some French writers should faU to do justice
to Saint Gregory VIL, is conceivable. Having over their eyes the preju
dices of Protestants, phUosophers, Jansenists, and parliamentarians, what
could they see through the quadruple bandage ?":£
A book caUed Dictatus Papce is ascribed to Saint Gregory VII. Voigt
quotes the twenty sentences with which it opens, and adds : " There is in
the principles nothing that Gregory did not maintain, or at least tacitly
sanction. We need not seek the author. That pope, had he written them
himseK, would have put them in better order." The Abbe Jager, the* French
translator of Voigt, makes a remark full of truth and erudition : " Had the
capitularies of Charlemagne been better known, these principles would have
excited less astonishment, for the former are the source of the latter. It
must be remembered that Charlemagne, a kind of outside bishop, addressed
even to bishops exhortations full of power and truth to fiU aU hearts with
love for the Holy See, and the veneration due to the universal bishop.
We have nine books of Saint Gregory's letters, written between 1073 and
1082. These letters are inserted in aU the coUections of the council ; several
are given also in the Bibliotheca Floriacensis of Dubois, in the collections of
Martene, d'Achery, and UgheUi. This pope was in hfe and after his death
assaUed by noted calumnies. One of the calumniators of this pope was
Cardinal Benno, who wrote a history of the pope full of venom. It was
printed at Hanau in 1611. At the time when Benno composed this bad
book, Saint Anselm, bishop of Lucca, defended Gregory.§ The life of this
pope was written forty years after his death by Paul Benried, canon-regular,
would have known no limit, and catastrophe would have ingulfed faith in Christ, all civilization
and true happiness of the people, that constant aim of all apostolic solicitude. It is better for
the people to be happy than to be masters.
* Denina, Bcvolutions d'AUemagne, vol. ii., p. 49.
t Essai sur I'Histoire Generate, ii., ch. 61, p. 156.
X The Pope, i., p. 304. § See this defence in Canisius. vol. vi.

314 LIVES OF THE POPES.
bishop of Augsburg, and printed at Ingolstadt in 1610, and at Augsburg
the same year, with notes by Father Gretser.
Bellarmine refutes modern calumniators.* Gretser, in an apology for
Gregory VIL, cites the opinion of fifty panegyrists. Gotto and Enghien
subsequently gave their laudatory opinion. Another IKe of Gregory ap
peared at Frankfort in 1581. Muratori gives the history as written by
Pandulphus of Alatri and Nicolas de RoseUis. There is also a hfe by Jus
tus Christopher Ditmar (Frankfort, 1710, 8vo). In 1837, VidaiUan pubhshed
a hfe of Gregory VII. (2 vols., 8vo). This author speaks of the differences
between Gregory VII. and 'the Emperor -Henry IV., strangely giving the
latter the title of emperor, when his numerous authorities always style him
only king. The only coronation to which he could pretend was that given
by the antipope Guibert (VidaiUan, ii., p. 466), and that given only in 1084,
when Gregory, the legitimate pope, overwhelmed by his troubles, was on
his death-bed. VidaiUan, though unfavorable to Gregory, makes a quota
tion from Bayle which is worth transcribing. Speaking of those who com
pare Gregory to great conquerors, Bayle says : " I use this comparison the
more boldly, as I am convinced that the Church's conquest was a work de
manding no less courage and address than that of an empire. The authority
attained by the popes deserves greater admiration than the vast monarchy
of ancient Rome ; so that we may say Providence destined that city to be,
in two different modes, the source and mainspring of the most exalted quali
ties necessary to found a mighty State. . . If ancient Rome, proud only
of conquest and military valor, subdued so many nations, this is glorious in
the eyes of the world ; but when we reflect, our surprise ceases. Far different
is our astonishment to see new Rome acquire an authority under which the
greatest monarchs are forced to bow ; for we say there is scarce an emperor
who opposed the popes, whom his resistance did not in the end cost dearly.
Even now the disputes of the most powerful princes with the court of Rome
almost always end in their confusion.f Examples are so recent that we
need not give them. According to the world, this conquest is a more
glorious work than those of the Alexanders and Caesars ; and thus Gregory
VIL, who was its principal promoter, must rank among the most eminently
endowed of great conquerors."
The point of view of this Protestant writer is not that adopted by us.
Gregory VII. sought no glory, no conquest ; he sought to civUize kings,
that their example, descending to their people, might draw with it days of
public peace, order, and fehcity. Henry IV. aimed to be emperor and
* On the Soman Pontiffs, book iv., ch. xii.
t Bayle wrote this, of course, long before the world witnessed a singular corroboration of it in
ihe great moral victory of Pius VII. over Napoleon. See life of Pius VII., postea. The admis
sion of the English historian Alison is well known.

SAINT GREGORY VII. 315
pope. He was neither. The resistance to his pretensions gave hfe, in Euro
pean manners, to better days. The title of Conqueror, as given to Caesar
and Alexander, Ul becomes Gregory VII. But if it is forced upon us, we
admit that he conquered the empire of evU by the empire of good ; that for a
time he subdued the wicked, traitors, intruders : that he besieged receptacles
of vice ; and then, in fine, he conquered in set battle cupidity, murder, cruel
war, and the whole age of abominations, — where crime, become rhetorical,
stalked with bold brow tiU forced to bow to the heavy hand of a man of
genius, whom the nations caUed to their aid, and who, deserving their honor,
was entitled to something better than insults from history.
A few words may be said of the antipope Guibert Correggia, born at
Parma, and calling himseK Clement III. Appointed archbishop of Ravenna
by Alexander H., then chanceUor of Henry IV., he was an eloquent and
learned man. Some authors represent him as of low birth, others make
him a descendant of the counts of Augsburg. The question is unimportant.
His famUy foUowed the fortunes of the Ghibelines tiU 1247, when it em
braced the side of the Guelphs. A general of this house obtained a pedes
trian statue in marble, at Venice, for his eminent services to the State.
Clement, repeatedly excommunicated by Gregory VIL, maintained, for
twenty years, the schism which lasted for fifty, under five successive pon
tiffs, tiU the time of Cahxtus II. He died a sudden death, in 1100. His
bones, interred at Ravenna, were carried to a distance from that city six
years after, by order of Pascal II. This pope wished to expose the story
got up by impostors, that rays of hght, signs of his sanctity, had been seen
over Clement's grave.
After the death of Gregory VIL, the Holy See was vacant a year. Like
Sylvester H., this pope uttered the mighty word Crusade. H Europe pro
fited by these wars, as it undoubtedly did, credit is due first to the genius of
Sylvester II., then to the pohtical forecast of Gregory VII. The latter pope
had previously ordered a five years' fast, on Wednesday and Friday, to draw
down God's help on the Church of Jerusalem.*
Platina is often hostile to the popes. His judgment on Hildebrand is
this : " He was a man certainly agreeable to God, prudent, just, clement,
protector of the poor, of widows and orphans, the sole and stoutest, boldest
defender of the Roman Church against the malignity of heretics and the
power of wicked princes, who endeavored to lay violent hands on ecclesi
astical things."
We have long spoken of excommunications. It is time to say what it was
and what it became. It had been in use among the Greeks, Romans, and
- See the manuscript of Peter the Chanter, monk of the abbey of Longpont, who flourished
in 1187

316 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Gauls. Caesar describes in exact terms the interdiction pronounced by the
Druids. In the primitive Church, the bishop denounced to the faithful the
name of the excommunicated, forbidding aU intercourse with him. About
the ninth century, excommunication was invested with ceremonies fitted to
inspire terror. Twelve priests held each a lighted taper, which they cast on
the ground and trampled out, when the bishop had pronounced the formula
of excommunication. Anathema meant at first consecrated, unveiled, an offer
ing set aside, a thing separated, devoted : then it came to mean separated exclu
sively. Anathema cut one off from the body, and even from the intercourse
of the faithful. What excommunication forbade, has been condensed in
this hne : Os, orare, vale, communio, mensa negatur.
That is to say, conversation, prayer, salutation, communion, the table.
Let us remember the circumspection of the Roman court when, outraged
most unduly in 1809, it pronounced an excommunication, in which the cul
prit could easily recognize himself, although he was not named.
Rome defends the high morahty of our holy religion, and that high moral
ity comprehends all the virtues of patience, generosity, and prudence that
men can attain here below.

160. VICTOR III.— a. d. 1086.
ICTOR in., whose original name was Desiderius,
belonged to the family Epipliania, counts of Marsi,
and was the son of the prince of the city of Bene
vento. Born in that city, he there received the
| most finished education attainable at that time.
While stiU young, he embraced the rule of Saint
Benedict, in the monastery of Cava. He was
created successively cardinal-deacon of Saints Ser
gius and Bacchus, by Leon IX., and then cardinal-priest of Saint Ceciha,
by Nicholas II., on the 26th of March, 1059. On the foUowing day he was
named abbot of Monte Cassino. He was the thirty-seventh abbot from
Saint Benedict. He fiUed this office when he was, against his will, elected
pope on Whitsunday, May 24, 1086. The cardinals conducted him, almost
by force, into the deaconry of Saint Lucy, because for nearly a year after
the death of Gregory VII. they could not persuade Desiderius to accept
the pontificate. Previous to his death, that great pontiff frequently and
earnestly recommended Desiderius as his successor, assuring th^. <>arclinals

VICTOR III. 317
that they would never have to repent maldng such a choice ; and the opin
ion of the great Hildebrand was the most powerful recommendation. The
election being made, the cardinals gave the pope of their choice the name
of Victor III.
Four days later, Victor left Rome. At Terracina, the pious and humble
monk suddenly put off the pontifical habit, and fled to Monte Cassino ; and
it was necessary to pursue him, force him to resume the sacred vestments,
and take him back to Rome, where he was kept under guard and conse
crated. After promising to resign himseK to the wiU of God, he requested
to see Monte Cassino again for a few days, which he passed in prayer, and
declared that, notwithstanding his new grandeur, he would remain abbot of
that monastery. As supreme head. of the Church, he could retain that title,
and during his hfe no other abbot was elected.
The Saracens made preparations in Africa to come and attack Rome.
Victor sohcited aid from the princes of Italy, and having obtained it, himseh
sent an army into Africa, attacked the Saracens, and gained a complete
victory over them.
In a councU celebrated at Benevento, Victor excommunicated the anti-
pope, Clement HI., who had been enthroned in 1084, in the time of Greg
ory "VTI., and he kept up the schism with a culpable perseverance. Always
indefatigable in his_ duty, the pope forbade, on pain of excommunication, to
give to laymen, or receive from them, the investiture of any ecclesiastical
dignity. He also forbade the faithful to receive the sacraments of Penance
and the Eucharist at the hands of heretics or simoniacs. At length attacked,
while celebrating the councU, by a new disease, the pope retired from Bene
vento to his abbey of Monte Cassino, where, ready to die, he pointed out to
the favor of the cardinals those whom he deemed worthy to succeed him.
From his elevation, Victor governed one year, three months, and twenty-
four days; and from his pontifical consecration, four months and seven
days. He died at Monte Cassino, of a dysentery, caused, it is said, by
poison administered by order of King Henry, that mahgnant enemy of
Gregory VIL* Victor was at first interred at Monte Cassino. He was a
man distinguished for the sanctity of his hfe and the glory of his virtues, t
Victor left books of dialogues upon the miracles of Saint Benedict, and
of other monks of Monte Cassino.
The Holy See remained vacant five months and twenty-five days.
Under this reign the rehcs of Saint Nicholas, bishop of Myra, in Lycia,
were brought to Bari. They had been carried away by merchants of that
city (Fleury iv., hb. lxiii, p. 304). Saint Nicholas flourished under Con
stantine the Great, and assisted at the first general council of Nice.
* Trithemius, Ptolemy of Lucca, and Muratori. t Novaes, ii., p. 288.

318

LIVES OF THE POPES.

161. URBAN II.— a. d. 1088.
, TTO or Oddo, born at ChatiUon-sur-Marne, in
France, a Benedictine, and friend of Gregory VIL,
was next elected Pope under the name of Urban II.
He became canon and then archdeacon of Rheims ;
and it is known that he was also a disciple of Saint
Bruno,* founder of the Carthusians. Created cardi
nal-bishop of Ostia by Gregory VIL, he was sent
by that pontiff as legate to King Henry IV., who
caused him to be arrested, and treated in the most atrocious manner. He
was elected pope at Terracina, but refused the honor, as he himself relates
in one of his letters to Epiphanius of Salzburg. Nevertheless, he was con
secrated on the 12th of March, 1088. In the council celebrated at Rome in
1089, he confirmed the excommunication which his predecessors had pro
nounced upon the antipope Guibert, styled Clement III.
Scarcely was the council at an end, when the pope, who was very anxious
for a perfect union between the Greek and Latin Churches, went into Sicily
to establish a lasting concord, and to sohcit the influence of the Count
Roger. The count accepted the mediation, and went to meet the pope at
Butera. This negotiation resulted in absolving the Emperor Alexis from a
special excommunication that he had incurred.
Urban celebrated twelve councils, some in France, and others in Italy.
He strove for the radical destruction of the heresy of Berengarius, con-.
demned by Leo IX. in 1050. That archdeacon of Angers, treasurer of Saint
Martin of Tours, renewed, with a thousand more dangerous developments,
the errors of John Scotus Erigena. That heresy, unfortunately, still reck
oned many abettors. Berengarius depreciated the Fathers, because he
found them opposed to his doctrine, and because they clearly and unani
mously established what it took his fancy to deny.t
Urban had other enemies to combat — the distributors of investitures, the
antipope Clement III., the simoniacs, who boasted of their power, and the
Nicolaites. The Church was keenly aggrieved at this time. In aU Ger
many there were but four bishops — those of Wurtzburg, Passau, Worms,
and Constance — who preserved the Cathohc communion. The nature of the
misfortune under which Rome had groaned in the age of iron and lead, had

* See the account of Saint Bruno, in Fleury, iv., lib. lxiii., p. 215.

f Feller, i., p. 446.

URBAN 11. 319
partially disappeared ; schism and heresy were obstinately propagated
anew. Rome, then, was stUl condemned to battle against evU and false
men ; but her trials assumed another name.
Urban, in 1088, declared the archbishop of Toledo primate of aU Spain.
From the bishopric of Cambray, which was erected into an archiepiscopal
See by Paul IV., in 1562, he detached, in 1094, the bishopric of Arras.
Urban having passed from Sicily into Apulia to visit the relics of Saint
Nicholas, at Bari, was in that city in October, and confirmed the union
of the archbishopric of Canosa with the see of Bari.
In the council of Amalfi, the pope invested Roger with the duchies of
Apulia and Calabria. It was at this time that the celebrated Countess
Matilda, widow of the late Count Godfry, espoused the duke of Bavaria.
Saint Bruno, the former master of the pope, was then invited to assist in
the councils of State.
From the council of Benevento, in 1091 to 1093, Urban had not resided at
Rome, on account of the fury of the schism. But its violence becoming
less perUous, the pope returned to the city, where, by a sort of capitulation,
he obtained possession of the Lateran palace, and the castle of Saint Angelo,
which had been held by the faction of the antipope.
In 1095, Urban celebrated a council at Placentia. It was held under
tents, as there was no church large enough to contain about four thousand
clergy and a great number of laity, who were attached to the service, or
who came as pious spectators of the proceedings of the council, when per
mission was granted them to approach it.
From Placentia, Urban passed into France. In the councU of Claremont
he excommunicated King Philip I., because, while his wife Bertha was
stiU living, by whom he had three sons, he treated as his wife Bertalda, wKe
of Fulk, count of Angers, who was still living.
Li the same council, Urban, moved by the eloquence and tears of Peter
the Hermit, of the diocese of Amiens, decreed the first crusade to recover
the lands usurped by the Saracens.
The name of Crusade was given to this expedition, because the soldiers,
who already formed an army of three hundred thousand men, in order to
show the strength of their wUl, wore a red cross embroidered on the right
shoulder. To animate the faithful to join the expedition, in which a great number
of towns and castles were taken, and which had for its immense results the
occupation of the holy city of Jerusalem, Urban granted a plenary indul-
. gence to aU Crusaders.* The council of Clermont was concluded in ten
days. On the 30th of, November, Urban set out for Limoges, where he
* Novaes, ii., p. 295.

320

LIVES OF THE POPES.

convoked another council in which he deposed from the See a bishop
accused of many offences.* Thence he went to Tours, wheie he held an
other councU. At Tours he gave to Fulk, count of Anjou, the golden rose,
which he had carried in his own hand in a procession on the fourth Sunday
of Lent. This was the first time that the golden rose was given by a pope.
This present was afterwards sent to pious persons of high birth, or to those
who had gained great battles to the advantage of the Church, and under
other various circumstances, of which we shaU have occasion to speak.
From Tours he went to Saintes and Toulouse. This French pope felt
great joy in thus traversing his native country. In a council at Nismes,
King PhiUp I. was reconciled to the Church.
At Milan, in 1096, the pope canonized Saint Eiiembad, a nobleman of
that city, who was martyred in 1076 by the simoniacs and the concubin-
arians. The pope returned to Rome in 1097, and he was received with
applause by the whole city. In the foUowing year he went to Bari, where,
accompanied by Saint Anselm, bishop of Canterbury, he celebrated, in the
month of September, a councU at which one hundred and ninety-five bishops
were present. There was another council at Rome, by which the pope ter
minated the glorious career of his apostohc labors.
Urban governed during eleven years, four months, and eighteen days, and
died on the 29th of July, 1099. He lived long enough to learn the first
success of the Crusaders, who captured Antioch on the 3d of June, 1098.
Jerusalem, too, was taken while he stUl lived, i. e. on the 15th of July, jusi
thirteen days before his death.
He was interred at Saint Peter's. His name is found in various martyr
ologies, with the title of Blessed.
The Holy See remained vacant fifteen days.
* Here is a new proof of Luther's error. See reign of Alexander II.

PASCAL n.

321

162. PASCAL II.— a. d. 1099.

ASCAL II., originaUy named Renier, son of Cre
scentius and Alfatra, was born at Bieda, near
Viterbo. He was a canon-regular, and then a
monk of the order of Cluny. Gregory VII. named
him cardinal-priest of Saint Clement
Cardinal Renier was elected pope against his
« wiU, in fhe church of Saint Clement, on the 13th
of August, 1099, and consecrated and crowned on
the 14th. Judging that he would be elected to
the pontificate, he fled from Rome, but being soon recognized, he was taken
back, in spite of himseK, to the sacred councils, where he was received with
cries of — Saint Peter wishes you as his successor.
We cannot but pause awhile here upon the grand victory of the Crusa
ders — the capture of Jerusalem from the infidels. The idea of the Crusades
had been especially encouraged by Gregory VII. Long previously, Greg
ory HI. had excited Charles Martel to drive the Saracens from France.
The great man, in following his council, laid the foundation of that power
which was to be wielded by his son Pepin, and his grandson Charlemagne.
Gregory VII. thought that if it had been deemed useful to unite aU the
efforts of the sword to vanquish Abderahman, the invader of France, it
would be stiU more politic and more opportune to attack the infidels in their
own provinces. The pilgrims who returned to those countries reported the
sufferings of the few Christians who had not quitted Palestine. The Holy
Sepulchre was profaned. An outcry arose in France. At first an armed
pilgrimage was spoken of, but eventuaUy the " pilgrims" became an im
mense army, with terrible preparations for war.
Michaud's History of the Crusades gives in detaU all the phases of that first
enterprise. These immense emigrations have often been spoken of in anger
and passion.
" If we consider the Crusades under a political point of view, we must
perceive that either the Saracens would return to France and Italy, or the
Western nations must go to Asia and attack the Saracens. Enterprises are
blamed long after the time of their execution, because those who blame
them were ignorant of their causes : because they would now be ill times,
we are apt to imagine that they were equally so when they took place. But
the road to Poitiers and to Tours was well known to the Saracens ; they
Vol. I.— 21

322 LIVES OF THE POPES.
had covered France with blood and carnage, they had pillaged the churches
of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. From the Crusades, everywhere resulted
the enfranchisement of many districts, the introduction into the West, and
especiaUy into Italy, which became another East, of institutions, customs,
and precious commodities, previously unknown.
" To the Crusades we also owe the assurance that, for a long time at least,
the Mahometans wiU not come to destroy our civUization ; and if, since the
Crusades, they actuaUy did attack us by the way of Vienna, the great sword
of Sobieski, in 1682, repulsed them, and impressed them with a wholesome
terror of our arms, which was renewed in their minds by Prince Eugene of
Savoy, in the battle of Peterwardin, in 1716. StiU later, they met our ser
ried squadrons in Egypt."*
But whither would the Crusaders of the close of the eleventh century
direct their efforts ? They weU knew ; they were unanimous in wish and in
object; they were determined upon delivering Jerusalem and restoring the
Holy Sepulchre.
It is a glorious and immense name, Jerusalem, a name never to be too
much celebrated in a history of the sovereign pontiffs. We shaU speak,
then, of Jerusalem ; we shaU speak of Godfrey de Bouillon, duke of Lor
raine. He had valiantly served Henry IV., king of Germany, whose ex
cesses so much afflicted the Church, and he subsequently was to serve a
better cause. Urban II. desired Godfrey to be one of the principal com
manders of the army that was to march upon Palestine.
The mere remembrance of Jerusalem awakens within us the loftiest and
the hohest feelings. Jerusalem was the first Church of the Apostles ; and
moreover, it was in the religion of our Lord that Mahomet sought his in
spirations, thus adding the base aUoy to the pure gold. At length truth
approached, to give fierce battle to imposture.
The capital of Palestine, Jerusalem, is situated at 31° 47' N. and 33° E.,
at the culminating point of the mountains of Judea, upon the ancient hmits
of Benjamin and Judah. The mountain on which stands the city of David,
sloping towards the north, is surrounded on the east, south, and west by
deep ravines. The city cannot be seen from afar. The principal building of
ancient Jerusalem was the Temple, founded by Solomon upon Mount Mo-
riah, rebuUt by Zorobabel, and magnificently restored by Herod. It may
not be useless to recaU, in succession, some of the principal events that
occurred in that city.f
" Under Amasias, king of Judah, it was sacked by Joas, king of Israel.
Under Ezechias it was in vain besieged by the Assyrians ; but, a hundred
* Artaud's Italic, p. 75.
f I here give an extract from a notice I published on Jerusalem : Paris, 1846.

PASCAL II. 323
and thirty years afterwards, the Chaldeans under Nabuchadonosor com
pletely destroyed it. Rebuilt, as weU as the Temple, by permission of
Cyrus, the faU of the empire of the Persians plunged the city into new
misfortunes. " Jerusalem surrendered to Alexander, who treated it with great gener-r
osity.* "After the death of Alexander, Jerusalem was taken by the king of Egypt,
Ptolemy, son of Lagus. Antiochus Epiphanes, king of the Syrians, sacked
it one hundred and seventy years before the Christian era, and profaned the
Temple by placing in it the statue of the Olympian Jove. After a period
of peace under the Maccabean princes, Pompey victoriously entered Jeru
salem in the year 63 B. C, and some time afterwards the Temple was pil
laged by Crassus.
"Herod adorned Jerusalem with magnificent buUdings; but Judea soon
became a Roman province. A revolt of the Jews brought on that war
which terminated in the surrender of the capital.
" Conquered by Titus, in the year 71 of the Christian era, the city was
entirely destroyed ; a few towers and houses that Titus spared, were pulled
down by the Emperor iElius Adrian. In consequence of a new revolt of the
Jews, in the year 136, Adrian determined to destroy even the very name of
Jerusalem. He buUt in its stead a new city, which he caUed iElia Capito-
lina, in honor of Jupiter Capitolinus, and which the Jews were forbidden to
enter under pain of death.
" When Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars, Jerusalem re
ceived, instead of pagan temples, a host of Christian monuments, in places
known as having been the scenes of the life and death of Jesus Christ.
" In 615, the city was conquered by Chosroes, king of Persia. The Em
peror Herachus retook it in 627 ; but, shortly afterwards, the Arab hordes
under the Caliph Omar entered its walls. It fell, successively, into the
power of the Persian sultan, of the Egyptian Fatimites, and of the Seldjou-
kides. " Thus Jerusalem had seen upon her hUls David, Solomon, Joas, Nabuchad
onosor, Alexander, Ptolemy son of Lagus, Antiochus Epiphanes, Pompey,
Crassus, Titus, Adrian, Constantine, Chosroes, Herachus, the Caliph Omar.
That city was now to be invested by the army of Godfrey de Bouillon."
* According to the historian Josephus, Alexander went to Jerusalem and caused sacrifices to
be offered in the Temple, where the high-priest Jaddus, before whom he prostrated himseli,
showed him the prophecy of Daniel, wliich reserved to the Macedonian the conquest of Persia.
But this journey is vouched for only by the Jewish historian, always ready to seize on aught to
reflect credit upon his nation. Quintus Curtius does not mention this journey to Jerusalem;
but the second book of the History of Alexander, where, if at all, the journey would be men
tioned, is lost.

324 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The Christians before whom was borne the spear which had pierced
the side of Jesus Christ, the holy spear found during the siege that led to
the capture of the city of Antioch, gallantly advanced to the assault. We
cannot disguise the fact, that the resistance of the Mussulmans seemed
destined to exhaust the courage of the men of the West. The siege lasted
five weeks. The city was taken by assault. " The massacre was horrible ;
every thing was swimming in blood, so that the very conquerors, wearied
with carnage, stood aghast at the spectacle." Michaud, on the authority
of a Christian writer, who was an eyewitness, says : " Beneath the porch
and in the court of the mosque of Omar, the blood rose to the knees and
even to the bridles of the horses." Godfrey, whose piety was equal to his
valor, was doubtless one of those whose indignation rose at such unsparing
fury. After the city fell, he thought only of fulfilling his devotion. Laying
aside his armor, he clothed himseK in wooUen, and went barefooted around
the city, to the Holy Sepulchre. The patriarch of Jerusalem was not there
to receive him ; for, according to the Eastern custom, he was coUecting alms
for the repairs of the churches, and was at that time in the isle of Cyprus.
Scarcely was Godfrey before the Holy Sepulchre, when a rumor spread
through the whole army that the general had shed tears on beholding such
obstinate pillage. Sublime recall ! more potent than clarion and trumpet,
in bringing a Christian army back to its duty ! The massacre suddenly
ceased, and that night and the next, every soldier, in turn, knelt in the
holy places.
A week after Godfrey's victory, the crusading nobles elected him king of
the city and country. The prince refused the insignia of royalty, saying
that " it was not fitting to wear a crown of gold in a city where Christ had
been crowned with thorns. He refused even the title of king, and contented
himself with that of Buke and Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre." Unfor
tunately, Godfrey held his authority only one year ; but he had time to
make laws so wise that for eighty years they governed what, notwithstand
ing the modesty of the conqueror, was caUed the kingdom of Jerusalem.
The reign of Pascal II. was prosperous up to the year 1101. But from
that time the unfortunate pontiff knew nothing but pains and torments,
v hich rendered his hfe only one continual martyrdom.
The king of Germany, Henry IV., crowned as emperor by an intruder,
raised up against Pascal three antipopes ; but he suffered aU with an apos
tolical courage.
Henry IV. being dead, it was to be expected that his son would continue
to be an enemy to the Church. There seemed no end to the question of
investitures. Pascal retired to France to implore the protection of King
Philip, who was restored to the Cathohc communion. That pope assew-

PASCAL II. 325
bled several successive councils, where decrees were made concerning inves
titures and simoniacs.
We notice here what was said at the conferences of Chalons. The arch
bishop of Treves spoke in the name of Henry IV., defending the right which
he attributed to an emperor of giving investiture by the crozier and ring.
When the archbishop had expressed this opinion, the bishop of Placentia
rephed, in the name of the pope : " The Church, redeemed by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ, must no more be enslaved ; and she would be the
slave of princes could she not choose a prelate without consulting the em
peror. It is a crime against God for a prince to give the investiture by the
ring, the cross, and the pastoral staff; and the prelates discredit their
anointing, if they submit their hands, consecrated by the body and blood
of our Lord, to the hands of laymen reeking with blood."*
In 1108, the Holy Father quitted France to return to Rome. At a coun-
, cil at Benevento, the decrees relating to the investitures were renewed.
Henry V., successor to King Henry IV., repaired to Rome for the pur
pose, as he said, of being crowned emperor. But Pascal refused, unless the
prince first disclaimed the pretension which had been condemned by Greg
ory Vn. — that, namely, of the, right of an emperor to confer ecclesiastical
benefices. Pascal also demanded that previous to the coronation, the prince
should confirm the donations made to the Holy See.
Henry, in a burst of passion, ordered the arrest of the pope, as weU as of
several cardinals, bishops, and nobles, attached to the Holy See, and they
were closely and harshly confined. Then no German bishop repaired to the
king, excepting Conrad, archbishop of Salzburg.
After fifty-five days of cruel detention, that is to say, from the 12th of
February to the 9th of April, 1111, the pope, who resolved to suffer even
unto death, felt grieved at the misery of his companions, rather than for his
own. He therefore permitted Henry, without violence and without simony,
to give investiture to the bishops and abbots of his kingdom with the ring
and the crozier, provided that the election was free, and possession given
without simony. Pascal has been sharply reproached. Baronius replies :
" There is no heresy in making the reserved concession to which Pascal con
sented. But to maintain that that is of right, and to declare that laymen
ought to give investiture — which Pascal never did — would be heresy; in
such wise a false dogma would be introduced into the Church, repugnant to
recognized customs, to the sacred institutions of the Fathers, and to the
opinion of many pious writers who have defended Pascal." Henry, satis
fied with what Pascal had yielded, which only constituted him an agent of the
Holy See, returned to Rome with the Holy Father, and was crowned emperor.
* Fleury, iv., p. 405.

326 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Pascal, however, regretting this concession, desired to abdicate the pon
tificate, but was unable to effect his purpose.
In 1116, in a council assembled at Saint John Lateran, Pascal renewed
the decree of Gregory VII. against aU seculars who conferred, and against
aU ecclesiastics who accepted, the investitures. Henry repaired to Rome.
The pope retired to Albano, and thence to Monte Cassino, that useful ref
uge of the Benedictine pontiffs. He then set out for Benevento, where he
hoped to be in greater safety. The Normans, then faithful feudatories of
the Holy See, offered an asylum.
At that moment, there were renewed complaints against the pope, who,
it was said, should rather have suffered death than yield such a privUege to
a secular power. Other theologians, attentively reading the rigorous con
ditions which the pope had imposed, maintained his cause with great
warmth. Pascal was his own severe judge. He repented of his compli
ance, he condemned it, and he subjected himself to an austere penance.
The Holy Father, whose history we are writing, approved the order of Fon-
tenrault, founded by Robert of Arbrissel, who had given it the rule of Saint
Benedict. Pascal also estabhshed a bishop at Bethlehem, the presence of
the victorious Crusaders affording him an opportunity to do so.
In 1115, he made Bourges an archbishopric. The See had been founded
in the third century, and had for its first bishop Saint Ursinus, who had
eighteen saints as successors.
In 1117, Pascal again left Rome, fearing that it would not protect him
from the snares of the Emperor Henry. From Benevento he went to
Anagni, where he feU ill, but he recovered and returned to Rome. After
celebrating the Christmas holidays, he again fell Ul, and died on the night
of the 21st of January, 1118. He was interred in the Basilica of Saint John
Lateran. Pascal governed the Church eighteen years, five months, and eight or
eleven days.
The Holy See remained vacant three days.
Under his reign there were three antipopes — Albert, Theodoric, and
Maingualfe. Albert, cardinal-deacon, was named to replace Clement III. ; but on the
very day of his election, that intruder was arrested and confined in the
monastery of Aversa. Theodoric, after a hundred and five days of pre
tended pontificate, was sent to the monastery of the Trinity de la Cava.
Maingualfe, abbot of Farfa in 1102, took the name of Sylvester IV. ; but
he was compeUed to fly from Rome, feU into frightful misery, and died in
exile, in apparent sentiments of penitence.
For the history of Saint Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and his dis
putes with the king of England concerning the investitures, Fleury may be

GELASIUS II. 327
consulted.* Saint Anselm courageously maintained the pontifical doctrine.
Fleury also gives a list of the works, both dogmatic and moral, of that cele
brated English saint. The life of the archbishop was written by the monk
Edmar, his disciple, and his inseparable companion.
Towards the end of the reign of Pascal, men already began to talk of the
necessity of a general council to remedy the evils of the Church. It would
be the ninth oecumenical council. Already there had been that of Nice, the
first of Constantinople, that of Ephesus, that of Chalcedon ; the fifth, sixth,
seventh, and eighth, which had been celebrated at Constantinople, as well
as the second general councU. This time, the Roman policy, with foresight
and rehance upon its own strength, desired that the contemplated oecumeni
cal council should be celebrated in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, at
Rome.

163. GELASIUS II.— a. d. 1118.
ELASIUS II., previously called John Gaetani, be
longed to the noble family of Gaeta. He was a
Benedictine. While still very young, he was made
cardinal-deacon by Urban II., and soon afterwards
vice-chancellor, to " re-establish," says Pandolpho
d'Alatri, the " ancient elegance of style which was
almost lost," as documents of that time evince.
FKty-one cardinals who assembled for the election,
recognized him as pope, notwithstanding his warm resistance. An extraor
dinary event impressed aU minds. It is maintained that this resistance of
the vice-chanceUor was supported by Henry V., his enemy ; and Gelasius
hoped that, with the aid of a prince who was anxious to have a pope of his
own selection, he, Gelasius, would be enabled to avoid the pontificate.
Scarcely was the election known, when Cencio Frangipani, a partisan of
the emperor, and a very powerful personage at Rome, sought to have an
other pope created : that was the wish, also, of Gelasius. But the latter
was not yet aware to what an extent his election had kindled the fury of the
emperor and his partisans. Frangipani, at the head of several conspirators,
forced his way to the presence of the pope, seized him by the throat, beat
him to the ground, trampled on him, and threw him into prison. Fortu
nately, the prefect of Rome and Pietro Leo arrived in time to prevent other
* Fleury, iv., lib. Iv., p. 381.

328 LIVES OF THE POPES.
excesses, and succeeded in liberating Gelasius. We have seen no less
frightful terrors under Gregory VH. The twelfth century cannot reproach
the tenth.
The friends of the pope, on consultation, deemed it prudent to induce
him to go to Gaeta, as the emperor was expected in Rome.
In the former city Gelasius was consecrated, as it was impossible to be
consecrated in Saint John Lateran.
Henry was determined to place in the pontifical chair the antipope Greg
ory VIII. Gelasius, in a council held at Capua, excommunicated both of
them. However, the pope, on the faith of his friends, deemed that he
might return to Rome. One day, as he was celebrating Mass in Saint
Praxedes, the imperial sateUites endeavored to surprise him : he was obliged
to conceal himself near Saint Paul's without the walls, leaving, as vicar
in Rome, Cardinal Peter, bishop of Porto.
Gelasius, more and more persecuted by Henry, resolved to retire to
France to solicit King Louis VI. to aid him against the emperor. Amidst
so many hardships and poignant sorrows, the pope feU sick at Macon ; he
had himself conveyed to Cluny, and died there, amidst his .brethren, on the
29th of January, 1119, and was interred in the monastery.
Gelasius governed one year and five days.
Feller here makes a very sound remark :* " One cannot help remarking
that modern historians, in speaking of the disputes between the popes and
emperors, do not dwell upon the wrongs done by the latter, although the
popes never committed such violences as those wliich Henry committed
upon the pious and modest Gelasius."
The Holy See was vacant four days.
The antipope, who so violently disturbed the pontificate of Gelasius, was
a Frenchman, named Maurice Bourdin, a Benedictine monk, archdeacon of
Toledo, bishop of Coimbra, in Portugal, and afterwards archbishop of Braga,
in the same kingdom. He was excommunicated in the Council of Capua ;
then in the Council of Rheims, in 1119, by Calixtus II. He died in 1124,
at the castle of Fumone, near Alatri.
Baluze, who wrote his hfe, endeavored to defend him against some of the
accusations brought against him.
* Filler, iii., p. 250. .But M. de Maistre anticipated Feller, in making this observation.

iU

CALIXTUS III. 329

164. CALIXTUS II. — a. d. 1119.
ALLXTUS II., originally named Guido, a Benedic
tine monk, and then archbishop of Vienne, near
Lyons, in 1083, was the fifth son of William Tete
Hardie, surnamed the Greed, count of Burgundy,
brother of GuUla, wife of Hubert II., the progenitor
of the royal house of Savoy, uncle of Adelaide, wife
of Louis VI., king of France ; and, to sum up aU in
a few words, the royal and the imperial blood flowed
in his veins. He was elected pontiff notwithstanding his resistance (this
modesty is a sort of hereditary virtue among many Benedictines) by six
cardinals, who were at Cluny on the 1st of February, 1119, and crowned him
at Vienne, on the 9th of the same month. All admired the zeal of the
German cardinal, Conon of Urach, who, to avoid the pontificate for himself,
favored the views of aU the friends of Guido. The nomination of the latter
had been strongly recommended by the dying Gelasius, who declared him
qualified to regulate the affairs of the Holy See.
Suddenly ambassadors arrived from Rome, declaring the election at
Cluny canonical. The confirmation by the Roman cardinals was thus ex
pressed : " We confirm the election of the Cardinal Guido, although the
election should have been made by all the sons of the Roman Church,
priests, and deacons, and also, if possible, in Rome ; or in the neighbor
hood, in case of the cardinals being prevented from making it according to
the Roman custom."*
In a council at Toulouse. Calixtus condemned the head of the Petrobu-
sians, who stirred up quarrels of words, and difficulties beyond number,
upon baptism, the Eucharist, the Church, and the cross.
In 1119 there was also another council at Rheims, where simoniacs,
priests having concubines, and aU those who exacted exorbitant fees for
baptism and burial, were condemned. There, too, the emperor and the
antipope Bourdin were excommunicated; investitures were condemned,
and the marriage of priests was expressly forbidden. Calixtus having pro
ceeded to Rome, was received with great honors, and took possession of
Saint John Lateran, on the 2d of June, 1120. From Rome he went to
Benevento to animate the Normans to besiege Sutri, whither the antipope
* Novaes, iii., p. 11.

330 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Bourdin had retired. Shortly afterwards, the Normans captured Bourdin,
and that obstinate antipope was no longer dangerous.
Before Calixtus left Rome, he made a promotion of cardinals. I have not
yet registered the various promotions, because the writers, up to this time,
differ as to dates, and also because those cardinals are but of little note.
Their family names, their labors, and their part as counseUors of the Holy
See are unknown. We could but give an unimportant hst of unimportant
names, to which, generally, nothing could be added..
From this time, owing to the custom of giving and recognizing family
names, there is less obscurity as to such facts, and we shaU sometimes cite
the names of the principal cardinals, when mentioning promotions. Among
the new cardinals created by Calixtus, were some who had previously been
attached to antipopes, but who had perceived their error ; and the clemency
of the pontiff had not only pardoned them, but marked their return to the
right way by august favors. That sentiment of kindness will always pre
vail in the history of the popes. They never forget that they are the min
isters of a God of mercy.
Every thing seemed to tend towards a new state of things, another abyss
of perturbation ; but God touched the hearts of the chiefs of both parties,
and at length the controversy concerning investitures was terminated at
Worms. That devouring moral war had lasted nearly fifty years, from the
pontificate of Gregory VII. It was agreed between the pope's legates and
the imperial ambassadors, that the emperor might give the investiture of
the regalia only, by the sceptre, and that the investiture by the cross and
ring should be reserved for the pope. The emperor restored the domains
that had been confiscated from the Church since the commencement of the
dispute, and the two contracting parties promised sincere and lasting peace.
All these acts were ratified in the CouncU of Lateran, the ninth general
and first western council, at which more than nine hundred bishops were
present. It was agreed and weU understood that the elections of the
bishops and abbots of Germany might be made without simony before the
emperor, and that the elected should receive from him the regalia, that is
to say, the fiefs and other hke benefits granted by the princes to the Church.
The excommunications were more strictly and persistently than ever re
newed against the Nicolaites, the simoniacs, and the antipope Bourdin.
The expeditions into Palestine were also considered ; and finaUy, the pope
canonized Conrad, bishop of Constance.
New cardinals were named in the month of December.
In 1123, Cahxtus went to Benevento to decide the case of the Archbishop
Rofred, accused of simony, but he justified himself in presence of the pope.
It is always with joy and happiness that a pope restores honor and the com
munion to an ecclesiastic who has been falsely accused.

CALIXTUS H. 331
Cahxtus established in favor of the canons of Saint John Lateran the
cardinal titles of Santa Croce in Gerusahmme, and S. Maria Nuova. It was
thus during some time ; the • pontiffs gave these titles only to two of the
canons elected by their brethren.
This pope governed five years, ten months, and twelve days. He died on
the 13th of December, 1124, and was interred in the Basihca of Saint John
Lateran. The Holy See remained vacant seven days. The death of Cahxtus filled
the whole Christian world with mourning.* In less than six years he had
pacified the Church and the empire, repaired the faults or the weaknesses
of his predecessors, and re-estabhshed the authority of the Holy See, and
aU the splendor of the hierarchy, after finding means of bringing abun
dance into Rome. He not only restored many ancient monuments, but also
added many aqueducts for the convenience of different quarters of the city,
rebuUt part of the church of Saint Paul, and gave it magnificent vestments.
Many letters, sermons, and bulls of Pope Cahxtus II. are included in the
Miscellanea of Baluze, the Spicilegium of d'Achery, Labbe's Collection of the
Councils, the Bibliotheca Floriacensis, the Bibliotheca Patrum (Lyons edition),
L' Italia Sacra of UgheUi, the Bullarium Cassinense of Margarini, la Marca
Hispanica, and MabiUon's Be Re Biplomatica. To him are also attributed
a Life of Charlemagne, and a treatise Be Obitu et Vita Sanctorum.
Under this pontificate, Abelard was condemned by a council held at Sois-
sons. That monk was caUed into the presence of the council, and obliged
to throw into the fiames his book upon the Trinity. Some accuse him of
having taught that there are three Gods ; others, on the contrary, accuse
him of not having sufficiently distinguished the persons of the Trinity.f
Under the reign of Cahxtus, Suger was elected abbot of Saint Denis :
being only deacon, he was ordained priest on the spot. He was forty years
old when elected, and governed that celebrated abbey during thirty years.
* Feller, ii., p. 21. t Fleury, iv., p. 469.

332

LIVES OF THE POPES.

165. HONORIUS II.— a. d. 1124.

JONORIUS II., originally named Lambert di Fag-
nano, archdeacon of the cathedral of Bologna, his
native place, canon-regular of Saint John Lateran,
and then cardinal of Saint Praxedes — made cardi-
cal-bishop by Pascal II., and legate from Cahxtus
H. to the court of King Henry V., with whom he
terminated the controversy, about the investitures —
was elected pope on the 21st of December, 1124,
and crowned on the 28th. Another pope was elected, when Leo Frangi
pani wished Lambert chosen in preference. The .choice was not unwise,
but the seditious attempt to bestow the tiara, renewed a custom which
might produce new disturbances.
Lambert, with instinctive modesty, shrank from a dignity thus irregu
larly conferred, and at the end of a week he laid down the pontificate;
but the cardinals, in view of his noble modesty, ratified his election. Pre
vious to the intervention of Frangipani the cardinals had elected Theobald,
a Roman, who took the name of Celestine II. Theobald, learning the inten
tions of Frangipani, and fearing a schism, refused the election. Thus,
within a week, two cardinals gave admirable examples of seK-abnegation.
Theobald persisted in his refusal, and Lambert was obliged to yield to the
united solicitations of those who had and those who had not the right
to elect.
During the Ember Days, in December, 1125, Honorius II. made a first
promotion of cardinals. The Emperor Henry V. having died without male
issue, Honorius II. confirmed the election, as king of the Romans, of Lo
thaire, duke of Saxony, who had been named at Mentz, on the 29th of
August ; and the pope excommunicated Frederick and Conrad, nephews of
Henry, who had taken up arms to dispute the kingdom with Lothaire. He
at the same time deposed Anselm from the archbishopric of Milan, for
crowning Conrad, at Monza, with the crown of the kingdom of Italy,
During the Ember Days, in December, 1126, Honorius made his second
promotion of cardinals. Among these nominations, the choice was some
times made from the nobihty ; at others, from the second, and even the
third class of society.
Honorius II. interposed in the quarrel between the bishop of Paris
and his clergy, on account of the reform that the prelate wished to intro-

INNOCENT II.

333

duce. Louis VI. had aUowed himself to be prejudiced against the bishop,
who, rendered anxious by the menacing dangers, had laid the king's do
mains under interdict. Honorius first provisionally annuUed the bishop's
acts, as -likely to produce great disturbance in the State ; but Saint Ber
nard warmly sided with the bishop, who was supported by the pope, and
who at length triumphed. In concert with the patriarch Stephen, the pope
gave the white cloak to the templars, whose order had just been established.
In 1127, Honorius excommunicated Roger, count of Sicily, because, after
the death of William II., duke of Apulia, the count, without the consent of
the Holy See, had taken possession of -that State, thus uniting Naples to
Sicily. But, in the following year, Roger having sent to the pope an act of
submission and some presents, the pope accepted the submission, returned
the presents, and admitted the prince to communion. He then created him
duke of Apulia, after having received his oath to remain a true vassal and
feudatory of the Roman Church.
Benevento having taken steps which might lead to a revolt, Honorius
repaired to that city, and by his resolute and generous character restored
peace, distributing with a firm hand chastisement and reward, where they
were merited.
He governed the Church five years, one month, and twenty-five days, and
. died at Rome, in the monastery of Saint Andrew, now called Saint Gregory,
on the 14th of February, 1130, and was interred in the church of Saint John
Lateran. There was no vacancy in the Holy See.

166. INNOCENT II.— a. d. 1130.

REGORY PAPARESCHI, who took the name of
Innocent II., was a Roman of the Trastevere, or
quarter beyond the Tiber, and belonged to the
noble family Guidoni, now known as the Mattei.
He was at first a canon-regular of Saint John Late
ran, and had been created cardinal-deacon of Saint
Angelo by Urban II.
He was elected pope on the 15th of February,
1130, by sixteen cardinals. The rest were in favor of the antipope Ana
cletus, of whom we shaU speak hereafter. Papareschi refused to comply
with the desires of the cardinals ; but they compeUed him, on pain of ex-

334 LIVES OF THE POPES.
communication, to accept the pontificate of which he was so worthy, by his
noble and firm conduct, his locks hoary with study, his extraordinary learn
ing, his affability and eloquence. He was ordained priest on the 22d of
February, the clay dedicated to the Chair of Saint Peter, and consecrated
pope on the 23d, in the church of Santa Maria Nuova.
Unable to resist the party of Peter Leo, antipope under the name of Ana
cletus, he passed into France, where he was received with great honor by
the king, Louis VI., surnamed the Fat, in whose reign five pontiffs obtained
shelter in that faithful country, which Baronius, on another occasion, calls
the haven of the tempest-tost bark of Saint Peter. These five popes were—
Urban II., Pascal II, Gelasius II., Cahxtus II., and Innocent II.
The pope first went to Pisa, where he passed a part of the year 1130 ; he
continued his journey by Geneva, and landed in Provence. In the monas
tery of Cluny he was received with the honors due to his rank. Thence he
set out for Clermont, where he held a councU. It was in that city that he
made his first promotion of cardinals. From Clermont, Pope Innocent II
repaired to Orleans, where he was received by King Louis, who gave him
the sincerest and most touching marks of attachment. He visited succes
sively Rouen and Chartres, and then went to Liege. In the midst of the
council that was assembled in this last named city he excommunicated
Anacletus* and promised the imperial crown to King Lothaire, if he would.
engage to defend the Church and maintain her rights. Lothaire at that
moment proposed to the pope to re-establish the right of investiture, which
Henry V. had renounced; but the Holy Father courageously resisted.
Saint Bernard also opposed the renewal firmly, and persuaded the king to
abandon such a request.
On his return to France, the pope visited the two celebrated abbeys of
Clairvaux and Saint Denis. At Clairvaux he was received with peculiar
affection by the monks, carrying a rudely polished wooden cross, and
chanting. The bishops wept, as did the pope himseK, and aU admired the
gravity of that community, observing that, even in so pubhc an occasion of
joy, they all had their eyes cast down towards the ground, without turning
to either side in curiosity ; so that, while every one looked upon them, they
saw nobody. Their church had naught to show but naked waUs, and the
monks had nothing enviable but their virtues.t
At Saint Denis the pope was received by the Abbot Suger who, in pro
cession at the head of his chapter, met him and gave him every mark of
* Anacletus was not without ability ; to conciliate France and obtain its recognition, he wrote
to King Louis VII. : " It is with justice that we bear this testimony to the Gallican Church, that
it has never been infected by any error or schism." France accepted the praise which was
deserved ; bu1-, rejected him who gave it, because he was an intruder.
f Mabillon, Chr. Bern.

INNOCENT II. 335
veneration. There Innocent II. gave a magnificent largesse, named the
presbytery.* Then the pope held a council at Rheims, where, with the customary
formahties, he condemned the antipope Anacletus, and canonized Saint
Godard, born in Bavaria, in 960, who became Benedictine monk in 990, and
abbot in 998.
In the midst of the same councils the pope crowned, as king of France,
Louis VIL, son of Louis VI.
Fleuryt (see, also, Chr. Maurin, p. 378) relates a touching scene that oc
curred at this council. King Louis VI. had lost his eldest son Philip,
recently crowned, and he desired the pope to crown his other son, Louis.
On Saturday, the 24th of October, 1131, King Louis the Fat ascended the
platform where the pope sat, kissed his feet, then took a seat near him, and
spoke of the death of his son in few words, which drew tears from aU pres
ent. The pope then addressed the king in- a speech of consolation, ex
horting him to raise his thoughts to the King of kings, and submit to the
judgment of God. "He has," said the pope, "taken your eldest son in his
innocence to reign with him in heaven, leaving you several others to succeed
you in your kingdom. It is for you to console us, strangers driven from
our own land, as you have done by receiving us with so much honor, and
bestowing so many favors on us, for which you will receive an eternal
reward." Early the next day, the pope, issuing from the archiepiscopal palace with
his court and the fathers of the council, went to Saint Remy, where the
king tarried with the prince, his son, and was received by the monks of that
abbey in procession. Thence the pope conducted the young prince Louis,
then about ten years of age, to the metropohtan church of Our Lady. The
pope was arrayed in his most solemn vestments, and wore his tiara. He
and the prince were foUowed by a crowd of priests and nobles. At the door
of the church they were met by the king, who awaited them, attended by
many nobles and prelates. They entered the church, and presented the
young prince, at the altar ; and the pope, receiving the sacred ampulla,
anointed him with the oil with wliich Saint Remigius had anointed Clovis at
his baptism, and which that archbishop had received from the hand of an
angel. The populace, in their acclamations, applauded the pope, Louis the
Fat, and his son, the new king.
From Rheims the pope proceeded to Italy, accompanied by Saint Bernard.
Lothaire n. was crowned emperor in the Basihca of Saint John Lateran,
on the 4th of June. Unfortunately, the Vatican was occupied by the anti-
pope Anacletus. On that occasion, the pope yielded to the emperor the
* Bury: 12mo., Pavia, 1726. \ Fleury, lib. lxviii., p. 508.

336 LIVES OF THE POPES.
gKt made by the Countess Matilda. That gift comprised the greater part
of the duchies of Mantua, Parma, Reggio, and Modena, and the whole of
Garfagnana.* In return, the emperor was to pay the pope and his succes
sors a hundred pounds of sUver. Further, it was stipulated that this gift,
in its entirety, granted to the emperor for his life, should revert to the Holy
See at the death of that prince.
When the emperor had left Rome, the schismatics forced the pope to
depart for Pisa, where he had the happiness of restoring peace between- the
people of Genoa and Pisa. He remained at Pisa tiU the death of Anacletus.
But that did not terminate the schism, because those who were concerned
in it, supported by Roger, duke of SicUy, pretended to elect as pope the
Cardinal of the Holy Apostles, Gregorio Conti, under the name Victor IV.
But he, after three months, at the entreaty of Saint Bernard, submitted, and
thus terminating a schism which had lasted eight years, restored peace to
the Church. On the 22d of April, 1134, Innocent canonized Saint Hugh,
bishop of Grenoble, monk of Cluny.
In France every thing went on in accordance with the wishes of Innocent
II. A portion of that success was due to Saint Bernard, a friend as gener
ous as he was disinterested. It was in vain that he was offered the See of
Genoa, about to be erected into an archbishopric, and afterwards the bish
opric of Chalons. Saint Bernard desired no other glory than that of re
maining a Benedictine monk.
In 1139, after the death of the antipope Victor, Innocent assembled the
second council of Lateran, the tenth general council. It was attended by
nearly a thousand bishops, who framed thirty canonical decisions. In the
same spirit of constancy and courage, the Nicolaites, the simoniacs, and all
who accepted investitures at the hands of laymen, were excommunicated.
The same sentence was pronounced against the Arnaldists, the sectaries of
Arnald of Brescia. He denied the possibihty of the salvation of clergy who
possessed, of bishops who received regalia, as well as of monks who had
lands, because aU that belongs to the laity.
That heresy has passed from hand to hand down to modern sectarians ;
"in such wise," says Baronius, speaking of pohtical heretics, "that Arnald
is deemed their patriarch and their prince."
After the councU, Innocent, forced unwUhngly into a war against Roger,
duke of Sicily, was made prisoner by that prince's son, not far from Monte
Cassino. But Innocent soon recovered his liberty, as the result of a treaty,
in which Roger obtained from the pope the title of king of Sicily, on con
dition of a tribute, which was not, this time, a palfrey.
In 1140, Innocent condemned the errors of Peter Abelard, censured hi
* Novaes, iii., p. 25.

INNOCENT II. 337
previous councils. The pope was actively seconded by the eloquence and
the activity of Saint Bernard.
In 1141, a difference arose between the pope and King Louis VII. After
the death of Alberic, archbishop of Bourges, the pope named, as Alberic's
successor, Peter de la Ohatre. Louis the Young, irritated that the pope
had made that nomination without the royal consent, swore that it should
not have effect, and prevented the newly elected bishop from entering the
city. Peter complained to "the pope, who laid under interdict aU the lands
from which the archbishop was excluded.
But Peter de Champagne, who possessed great fiefs in Berri, took Peter de
la Chatre under his protection, in concert with Rome, and caused him to be
recognized in the churches of his domains. Louis the Young then deter
mined to carry the war into Champagne, and it was on that occasion that
the town of Vitry was burned, and a great part of the inhabitants perished
in it. Again it was Saint Bernard who interposed, with his potent elo
quence, to appease the strife. It was beautiful to find that Frenchman
always mindful of his country, when she stood in need of his support, and
at the same time honoring the Holy See, when at variance with France ; it
was grand to see him always successful in his negotiations, and rendering
himseK worthy of admiration in the eyes of aU Christendom.
Abelard died in 1142, after asking pardon for aU his errors. Innocent
aUowed the too celebrated professor to be reconciled to the Church.
This Holy Father governed the Church thirteen years, seven months, and
ten days, and died on the 24th of. September, 1143.
He was interred at Saint John Lateran, and after seven years his remains •
were removed to the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, which he had in
part rebuUt, and which was finished by his brother Peter, bishop of Albano.
The Holy See remained vacant three days, tiU the consecration of Celes
tine H.
Towards the close of the pontificate of Innocent H., died the Greek em
peror, John Comnenus. His successor was Manuel, the younger, but more
able of his two surviving sons.

Vol. 1— 22

338 LIVES OF THE POPES.

167. CELESTINE II. — a. d. 1143.
%gj§§P^^l^jii ELESTLNE H., previously named Guido, born at
fm/tiS/^AgiL /^k *ne castle of Santa-Felicita, near the Tiber, was a
W§mh^kJzr^J& (MK descendant of an illustrious famUy of Citta di Cas-
Ilip^^^^lifcS^ teUo. He was elected pope, and consecrated on
fkwwPfife- $wfli$ *^e ^^ °^ September, 1143. That election was
X^^^^^^R^S^P undisturbed, a circumstance which had not occurred
,^^^^^^^^^W since that of Alexander II., elected in 1061 — that is
^^—-^^^^ to say, eighty-two years earlier.
Scarcely was Celestine on the throne, when Louis VII. sent him an em
bassy of obedience, asking for the pax and for absolution from the ecclesias
tical censures pronounced by Celestine's predecessor, Innocent II.
The Holy Father received the ambassadors kindly, and in the presence of
a crowd of nobles made, with his hand, the sign of benediction in the direc
tion of France, and released that country from the sentence of interdict.
With this pope commence the famous prophecies upon the sovereign
pontiffs, attributed to Saint Malaehi, archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland,
who died in 1148. The first who pubhshed them was Albert Wion, a
Benedictine. Many editions have appeared, each seeming to value these
sibylline books as so many leaves fallen down from heaven. But Father
Menestrier, of the Society of Jesus, unmasked the imposture in 1689, in such
wise that no one would now be so senseless as to take them for aught but
what they really are. If, since the time of their first appearance, these pre
dictions have been defended by credulity or mistaken piety, both of wliich
ignored the rules of sound criticism, they were also assaUed by a strong
party who made every effort to check or destroy them. Thus by degrees
they were either forgotten, or remembered only to be disdained as they
deserve. Arnold Wion, who hved in 1595, that is to say, four hundred and fifty
years after Saint Malaehi, affirmed that he was the first to pubhsh them,
but does not teU whence he received them. No writer contemporary with
Saint Malaehi makes mention of them. Saint Bernard himseK, that great
and celebrated friend of the archbishop, whose IKe he carefuUy wrote, does
not speak of those verses, although he mentions other and less important
prophecies of the Saint.
The prophecies include eight antipopes : Victor IV., Pascal HI., Cahxtus
HI, Nicholas V, Clement VIL, Benedict XHI., Clement VHL, and Felix V

CELESTINE H. 339
These are placed among the true popes ; the antipopes, designated as such,
being Nicholas V. and Clement Vin.
There is great confusion in the arrangement of the names. AU this can
not be caUed prophecy ; God does not reveal falsehood.* In fact, many
eminently illustrious persons, such as Baronius, Spondanus, Bzovius, and
Rainaldi, give no heed to such dreams.
They were probably invented in 1590, at the time of the conclave that
elected Gregory XIV., and fabricated by the partisans of the Cardinal
SimonceUi of Orvieto, whom they point out by the prophecy Be Antiquitate
Urbis. It is easy to prophesy of the past. Now in- speaking of Celestine
H., the one hundred and sixty-seventh pope, and continuing to Pope Greg
ory XIV., the prophecies apply very weU to the pontiffs who reigned during
that period ; subsequently, when they had to divine the future, they apply
only by a forced interpretation, and do violence to both facts and common
sense. Novaes gives these prophecies at full length, and adds a more or less
forced apphcation to each pope, down to Pius VI. inclusive. After the
successor of Pius VI., the prophecy bears these words — Aquila Rapax. The
friends of that imposture have protested ; they would see in them only an
aUusion to the order for carrying off Pius VIL, given by the representation
of the Eagle, or by his ministers. The prophecies are as applicable for the
later pontiffs.? However, let us see the one hundred and tweKth prophecy,
which is also the last.
" At the time of the last persecution against the Holy Roman Church,
the pontifical throne wiU be occupied by Peter, a Roman, second of that
name. He wiU feed his flock amidst tribulations. When they shaU come
to an end, the seven lulled city will be destroyed, and the terrible Judge wiU
judge his people. Amen." Many Protestants seeing in this fable reasons
for attacking the Holy See, and fancying, especiaUy from the last prophecy,
that they are justified in beheving in the destruction of Rome, have given
credit to this absurd dream. No reasonable man now, Cathohc or Protes
tant, believes in them, or ventures to confess his belief.
We have only to add the last particulars of the reign of Celestine H.
He governed the Church five months and thirteen days. He died on the
9th of March, 1144, and was interred in the church of Saint John Lateran.
The Holy See remained vacant three days.
* Novaes, iii., p. 41.
t That for Pius IX. is Crux de Crane, which the believers in the prophecy will doubtless
explain, " His Cross comes from the Cross" (of Savoy).— Trans.

340

LIVES OF THE POPES.

168. LUCIUS II. — a. d. 1144.
*
^ ^v^l UCIUS II., whose name was Gerard Caccianami*!,
was a Bolognese. He became canon of Saint John
Lateran, where he foUowed the rule of Saint Au
gustine. Honorius H. made him cardinal-priest
of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and Innocent H.
named him vice-chanceUor and librarian of the
Holy Church. Gerard was elected pope on the 12th
of March, 1144, and consecrated on the same day.
From Alphonso, who caUed himseK king of Portugal, but to whom the
Holy See only gave the title of count,* the pope received the homage of
that prince's States, that acknowledged themselves feudatories of the Ro
man Church, and engaged to pay a tribute of four ounces of gold.
In 1145, Lucius summoned from France some monks of Cluny, and gave
them the monastery of Saint Sabas, founded by Saint Gregory the Great,
which needed the observance of the rule of Saint Benedict.
The Romans, partisans of Arnald of Brescia, having revolted against the
pontificate, as they had already done in the time of Innocent H., affected
to revive the ancient senatorial dignity, as weU as the old order of Roman
knights, and they determined to estabhsh at the capital a patrician whom
they would obey as a prince. They conferred that charge upon Jordan,
son of Pietro Leo, a man very powerful among them ; and they assigned to
him aU the revenues of the Church, saying that the pope had enough from
his tithes and oblations. The pope endeavored to put down those rebels,
and expel them from the capitol. They resisted, and during the attack, the
pope was struck by a stone. He died of the wound, on the 25th of AprU,
1145, after having governed the Church eleven months and fourteen days,
and was interred at Saint John Lateran.
The Holy See remained vacant one day.
* .The title of king was subsequently given to him by Alexander III. ; but the prince, in the
time of Lucius II., received it from his vassals.

EUGENE HI. 34]

169. EUGENE III. — a. d. 1145.
UGENE HI., originaUy named Bernard of Mon-
temago, a castle five mUes from the city of Pisa,
where he was canon, was a descendant of the illus
trious famUy of the PaganeUi. He belonged to the
order of Cluny; and Saint Bernard, whose pupU
's^ he was, named him abbot of the monastery of Saint
g Vincent and Saint Anastasius at the Three Foun
tains.
Although he was not a cardinal, he was elected pope in the church of
Saint Cesarius, where the sacred electors assembled, according to several
writers, on the 27th of December., The nomination was in derogation of
the decree which made only cardinals ehgible to the tiara.
Eugene immediately promised to approve the institution of the military
order of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly caUed Knights of Malta, which
was founded about the year 1119, at Jerusalem, by some Neapohtans. They
erected a hospital there for their countrymen ; aU obeyed the blessed Ge
rard, a native of Martigues, in Provence, who gave to the knights the rule
of Saint Augustine. As they were at once hospitalers and knights, they,
by a fourth vow, undertook to reheve pUgrims.
After his election, Eugene, fearing the mahgnity of the Amaldists, who
urged the re-estabhshment of their pretended senate, and the deposition
of the new pope K he did not consent, retired to the abbey of Farfa,*
where he was consecrated on the 4th of March. Thence he went to Viterbo,
to make his first promotion of cardinals. Some months later, he was en
abled to return to Rome, where the Amaldists promised to do away with
their senate, and submitted to the senators who were deputed by the pon
tifical authority.
The Amaldists, after some new tumults, broke their promise. Eugene
set out for France, where he was pompously received by Louis VIL, who
promised to assist the Holy Land.
At Paris, in 1147, the pontiff celebrated Easter, and assembled a council
to consider the affair of GUbert de la Poree, bishop of Poitiers, who distin
guished the divine essence from the person of God himseK, and professed
other errors against the mystery of the Incarnation. GUbert, combated
* Fleury, speaking of Athenulphus, calls him abbot of Farse, in Italy. It should be Farfa
The names in Fleury are full of faults, which are not corrected even in recent editions.

342 LIVES OF THE POPES.
by Saint Bernard, pretended that he had never advanced such principles.
The decision was referred to the CouncU of Rheims, which met in the fol
lowing year, and by which the erroneous opinions of GUbert were con
demned. Eugene then celebrated a councU at Treves, which examined the writings
of Saint HUdegarde, a celebrated nun of that time. Her simple and can
did rephes to her interrogators, and the testimony of Saint Bernard, forbade
Eugene to doubt her having been pecuharly favored by Heaven. He
therefore aUowed her to write her revelations, exhorting her at the same
time to do so with pious prudence, and especiaUy warning her to preserve
by humihty the grace that she had received.
In another council at Rheims, there was a conversion which gladdened
every Cathohc heart in France. GUbert, in person, abjured his errors, was
admitted to the kiss of peace, and returned to govern his church.
Eugene then went to the monastery of Clairvaux, where he appeared as
sovereign pontiff, but hved like a simple monk. Under the vestments of
his rank he constantly wore the hair-cloth. Embroidered banners were
carried before him, and his bed was covered with purple and rich stuffs,
but beneath it was spread only a straw bed and wooUen blankets. In
addressing the community, he could not restrain his tears. He exhorted
and consoled the former companions of his earhest religious labors with a
brotherly affection. What conduct could give a better idea of the excel
lence of the principles inculcated at Clairvaux, of the exceUence of those
principles which excited in an Itahan, born far from there, remembrances so
touching? What situation better calculated to draw closer the ties con
necting Italy to France? When French and Itahans see httle of each
other, prejudices wUl arise to the detriment of harmony. When they see
each other more closely, esteem and mutual good offices wiU foUow, and
they give other nations an example of truly Cathohc affection.
Let us hear no more of the foibles of this pope or that ; we forget the
errors, we think not of the exaggerated accusations, and we thank God that
he permits, from time to time on earth, that order of divine virtue which
certain pope's present ; virtues which other princes, other men, do not nor
can know ; virtues which gladden the heart, overcome by the misery under
gone by so many popes destined to sorrow, and whose sad annals we have
sketched, to teach distinctly that grandeur should not be imprudently sought
in the ecclesiastical state any more than in any other. Let us, at the same
time, remember how many popes refused the tiara, or accepted it only
through obedience.
It is known, but we .cannot too often repeat it, that the duties of a Roman
pontiff are immense,. He must not aUow himseK to love and bless only where
he thinks good; he must ask himseK whether elsewhere, even where in-

EUGENE III. 343
grates predominate, there may not be need of him, of his advice, of his pro
tection, and of his clemency.
Spain had been agitated by some domestic embarrassments. Eugene re
membered that in that country he had a devoted son, Raymond, archbishop
of Toledo. He wrote him a letter confirming the primacy which had pre
viously been given by Lucius H. to the Church of Toledo, and to the letter
he added the gKt of the Golden Rose.
On the subject of the Golden Rose there has been a host of contradic
tory conjectures. According to Father Cahnet, author of the Histoire Eccle-
dastique et Civil de la Lorraine (hb. xix., No. 101, p. 140), Saint Leo IX., in
1050, instituted the benediction of the Golden Rose. This occurred at the
period when that pontiff subjected to the Holy See the monastery of the
Holy Cross, in Alsatia, which was founded by his ancestors, and had be
come his own by inheritance ; and when, wishing to commemorate that junc
tion or that exemption, he imposed on that monastery the annual tribute of
a Golden Rose, weighing two ounces. According to the buU, that rose was
to be placed in the hand of the pope reigning at the time, and subsequently
carried by him in the usual ceremony of the fourth Sunday in Lent. The
consistorial advocate, Charles Cartari, does not admit that supposition in
his Treatise on the Golden Rose, and on the Rites observed in its Benediction
(Rome, 1681 and 1687, 4to). He represents the institution as being so an
cient that modern critics cannot agree with him.
Novaes (iii., p. 214), on the reign of Innocent IV., affirms that that pon
tiff sent the Golden Rose, in 1248, to the canons of Saint Juste, at Lyons,
because he had lodged with them nearly seven years ; that in the year 1249
he gave it to Raymond, count of Toulouse, who had visited the Holy Father
in the same city of Lyons, and that he was the first pontiff who gave that
benediction. Novaes, combating that fact, affirms that the institution did
not take place until towards 1400, probably under BonKace IX. Without
admitting what Dom Cahnet says about it, he believes that Saint Leo, also,
blessed golden roses. We may reconcUe Novaes and Dom Calmet, by say
ing that the idea of a golden rose received may have given rise to the idea
of a golden rose given. There is no difficulty, however, as to the day of thn
benediction : all agree that it is the fourth Sunday in Lent.
For some time it took place in the church of " Santa Croce in Gerusa-
lemme," tiU the removal of the popes to Avignon. On their return, the
ceremony continued to be performed in the haU of the Paramenti, in the
pontifical palace, and then it was taken in procession, after it had been
impregnated with balm and musk.*
* See Gretzer, tome v., part 2 ; Be Benedietionibus, lib. ii., cap. 44, p. 270. See, also, Edmond
Marteue, Be Ant. Eccles. Biscipl., c. xix., paragr. 17. Benedict XIV. may also b& consulted in

344 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Eugene, after gaining advantages over the Amaldists, at length returned
to Rome, towards the close of 1149.
In 1157, while the pope, on account of new disturbances, was obhged to
hve in the Roman Campagna, he received the two archbishops of Cologne
and Mentz, caUed upon to give an account of their conduct on several occa
sions. Those prelates, knowing to what extremities the pope was- reduced
by the invading doctrines of the Amaldists, who would not aUow that the
priest should hve by the altar, brought with them a large sum of money,
coUected from the faithful in Germany, and thought themselves happy in
being able'to offer it to the pope. He refused to receive it. Close examin
ation was made into the case of the bishops, whom it was not found neces
sary to treat with severity. On the contrary, Arnould, archbishop of Co
logne, received special graces and privUeges, which were preserved up to the
commencement of the present century by the incumbent of that diocese,
but which disappeared in the universal confusion suffered by Germany and
other countries as weU as France.
In 1152, Eugene canonized the Emperor Henry I., who had been king of
Germany under the name of Henry H. The Holy Father rewarded the
religious feehng of Ireland, which stUl shines no less brightly, by instituting
four archbishoprics — those of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam.
At the sohcitation of Gratian, the Benedictine monk, who is celebrated
for his coUection of the Decrees of the Popes and the CouncUs, Eugene
instituted in the academies the grades of bachelor, Ucentiate, and doctor,
with various privUeges.
Novaes whUe reporting this fact seems to deny it, and to think that the
institution of those grades was earher.
The nearer Eugene approached the end of his days, the more noble and
pious were his actions. The ingratitude of the Romans did not diminish
his favors ; he embellished Rome, rebuilt Saint Mary Major, and added a
portico corresponding to the majesty of that temple, which he also adorned
with rich mosaics.
He did not forget his famUy — that is to say, the Cistercian order. That
was his glorious nepotism. He confirmed the statutes of the order, and
granted it aU the privUeges it could reasonably desire, which it had on so
many accounts merited. The pope loved Clairvaux, and he was also loved
there. It was to Eugene III. that Saint Bernard addressed his books on
Consideration. Eugene always looked upon Saint Bernard as his master,
and held his opinions in the highest estimation. Men of distorted views
his Bullarium, tome iii., p. 340. There is also, upon this subject, an anonymous dissertation
composed in 1758. See, also, the work of the Jesuit Father Baldassari, entitled, La Bosa d'ori
che si benedice nella quarta Bomenica di quaresima ; Venice, 1759. See, also, a Latin letter by
Pietro BusaneUi, Theatin, which went through two editions in 1759.

EUGENE IH. 345
have misrepresented this advice, to exaggerate the evUs that Bernard re
proved. We cannot but admire both the personal wisdom of the pontiff
and that of the government, whose advice and lessons, even when sometimes
harshly given, were gratefully received and made profitable.
In the person of Eugene were found zeal, piety, wisdom, disinterested
ness, and application to the government of the Church, to the advancement
of rehgion, and to the extirpation of errors ; admirable virtues, the union of
which forms the ideal of a great pope. He sought out the learned, and
appreciated them. He rewarded men of letters, and caused a spirit of emu
lation among them. He suggested the translation of the works of Saint
John of Damascus., on orthodox faith.
He recovered Terracina, and buUt at Rome a palace near the Vatican.
Subsequently, that palace was demolished, to make room for the vast struc
ture which now serves as the abode of the pope. Eugene governed eight
. years, four months, and ten days. He died at Tivoli, on the 8th of July,
1153, and was interred at the Vatican.
The Holy See remained vacant only one day.
Saint Bernard, so weU known, and so highly esteemed at Rome, often
wrote to Eugene. In one of his letters, he says to him, " Excuse me, if I
am troublesome, but I have a good excuse. It is said that I am pope, and
not you. Those who have business, rush upon me from aU quarters ; and
in that multitude of friends, there are some to whom I cannot conscientiously
refuse my services."
Saint Bernard wrote to the Crusaders on the subject of the Jews. " I
warn you not to beheve aU you hear, and to regulate your zeal by know
ledge. The Jews should not be persecuted, nor kUled, nor even banished.
They are as living letters, representing to us the Passion of our Lord. It is
for that that they are dispersed throughout aU parts of the world, in order
that, suffering the just penalty of so great a crime, they should bear testi
mony to our redemption. And they wUl be converted in the end, after the
multitude of the GentUes shaU have entered into the Church." When Ber
nard spoke thus, the second Crusade had commenced, and King Louis had
set out for Jerusalem. '
Under this reign died Saint Malaehi, archbishop of Armagh. Saint Ber
nard wrote his hfe at the request of the Abbot Congan, and of the whole of
the community of Cistercians that he governed in Leland.
In January, 1152, died the Abbot Suger. His funeral was attended by
I six bishops, several abbots, and King Louis the Young, who wept bitterly.

346 LIVES OF THE POPES.

170. ANASTASIUS IV— a. d. 1153.
pNASTASIUS TV, originaUy Conrad of Suburra, son
of Benedict, a noble Roman, was a canon-regular,
and prior of the monastery of Saint Anastasius,
then cardinal-bishop of Saint Sabina, of the crea
tion of Honorius n. He was elected pope on the
9th, and consecrated on the 12th of July, 1153.
He was stiU vigorous, though aged, and' was very
learned in both civU and canon law, and endowed
with extreme prudence.
The commencement of the reign of Anastasius was distinguished by an
event which plunged the whole Church into deep grief.
Saint Bernard, caUed to Metz to restore peace between the nobles and the
people, had the happiness to appease the anger of aU. The difficulties
were great : the two parties insulted each other when they met. Bernard
proposed that delegates of the two parties should meet on an island on the
MoseUe and sign a treaty. And he had the consolation of seeing the
antagonists perfectly reconcUed.
This was the last act in the saint's hfe. On his return to Clairvaux, he
feU sick. He explains the nature of his disease in a. letter to Arnold, abbot
of Bonneval (Letter 310). "My only pleasure is abstaining from nourish
ments. My legs and feet are swoUen hke those of a dropsical person.
Nevertheless, to teU aU to such a friend as you, the spirit is easy, though
the flesh is infirm. Pray our Lord to save me without delay on my leav
ing this world ; and in that last moment, when I shaU find myseK without
merit, give me your prayers that temptation may not reach me. I write
this myseK, even in my present state, in order that, recognizing the hand,
you may also recognize the heart."
He died on the 20th of August, 1153. His body, clothed in the sacerdotal
vestments, was borne into the chapel of the Blessed Virgin. The nobihty
and the people of the whole neighborhood assembled, and the whole vaUey
resounded with their grief. Saint Bernard died in his seventy-third year-
forty years after his profession as a Cistercian, and thirty-eight after he
became abbot of Clairvaux. He founded or added to his order seventy-
seven monasteries ;* thirty-five in Franoe, eleven in Spain, six in the Lo-v
* Fleury, iv., lib. lxix., p. 606.

ADRIAN IV.

347

Countries, five in England, as many in Ireland, as many in Savoy, four in
Italy, two in Germany, two in Sweden, one in Hungary, and one in Den
mark. But, including the foundations made by abbeys dependent upon
Clairvaux, the number would amount to more than one hundred and sixty.
The Church honors the memory of Saint Bernard on the anniversary of his
death. The doctrine, zeal, and piety that distinguish his writings, rank him
among the most admirable Fathers of the Church.*
In the year 1154, Anastasius IV. granted to the -Knights of Saint John of
Jerusalem the possession in fuU of aU that had been or should thereafter be
given to them for the support of pUgrims.
He granted to the abbot of Corvei, in Saxony, for his hfe, the use of the
ring. This pope buUt a new palace near Saint Mary of the Rotunda. He gov
erned one year, four months, and twenty-three days. He died on the 2d of
. December, and was interred in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.
The Holy See was not vacant a day.

171. ADRIAN IV— a. d. 1154.

i§g^?DRIAN IV. was the only native of England who be
came pope. He was originaUy named Nicholas
Breakspear; he was of poor and low birth, and
first saw the hght at Langley, near Saint Albans,
Hertfordshire. He went to France to study, and
was at first a servant to the regular canons of the
monastery of Saint Rufus, near Avignon. From
that obscure position, he succeeded in being re
ceived into the order. When one is naturaUy inteUectual, the inteUect is
drawn from the works of wise men, increases the innate capacity to become
the head of others, which explains the sudden fortunes of talent and genius.
As. a monk at Saint Rufus, Adrian, by studious vigils, continued to im
prove in the most difficult hterature and science, in which his progress was
* The edition of the works of Saint Bernard that should be consulted by the learned, is that
of Dom MabiUon, 1690, 2 vols, folio; reprinted in 1719, 2 vols, folio. Saint Bernard, though
born in the century of the scholastics, has neither the method nor the dryness of many of them.
Protestants have done him more justice than many Catholics of our century. He composed the
beautiful and touching canticle, Ave, Maris Stella. We have his life by Le Maistre and by Ville-
font; the latter is best. See the sublime prayer to the Virgin, that Dante puts into the mouth
of Saint Bernard (Paradiso, Canto 33).

348 LIVES OF THE POPES.
as rapid as it was brilliant. His regular conduct, his application to study,
and that nobleness of language that is derived from the reading of the great
Writers, rendered him agreeable to his brethren, and on the death of the
abbot, he became their superior. Envy, however, soon gave rise to quar
rels ; new monks, who had not taken part in his election, accused him to
the pope. Eugene H. merely said, as he dismissed them, "Go choose a
superior with whom you wiU be able or rather willing to hve in peace ; this
one shaU not long be a burden to you." And, in fact, the pope summoned
Breakspear to him., and created him cardinal-bishop of Albano.
He then sent him as his legate to Denmark and Norway.
The worthy ambassador of the Holy See had the honor of corffirming in
the faith the stiU rude Scandinavians. On his return, he won the esteem of
the Romans, and, finaUy, was unanimously elected pope on the 3d, and con
secrated on the 5th of December, 1154.
On hearing of the election of one of his subjects, Henry, the new king of
England, wrote a letter of congratulation to the pope, in which the king
fehcitated his country on having produced a tree so happUy transplanted ;
he conjured His Hohness to fiU the Church with worthy ministers, and to
procure succor for the Holy Land, and for the empire of Constantinople.
Nevertheless, the Romans soon revolted under the orders of the obstinate
Arnold of Brescia, who had succeeded in getting back to Rome. The revolt
was encouraged by Wilham, king of SicUy, and Frederic Barbarossa I., the
successor to Conrad III. A cardinal, on his way to the pope, was attacked
and wounded. The Amaldists, faithful to their old system, excited new
disturbances in their desire to estabhsh a new Roman senate, and the pope
was obhged to lay the city of Rome under interdict, a punishment which
never tiU then had been inflicted upon that august city, even in the worst
times for rehgion. The celebration of the holy offices were suspended until
the 23d of March, 1155 ; but at length the senators, urged by the clergy and
Roman people, repaired to the pope and declared that Arnald of Brescia
and his foUowers should be driven from the city, K they would not be obe
dient to His Holiness.
In fact, Arnald had to take to. flight; but he was arrested, and perished
miserably by order of the prefect of Rome.
Meanwhile, Frederic Barbarossa was on his way to Rome, where he had
determined to become emperor. The pope, knowing that Barbarossa came
with an army more like an enemy than like a prince deferential to the Holy
See, sent three cardinals to Viterbo to submit the treaty and conditions
which he was to sign before entering Rome.
At San Quirico, Frederic solemnly swore to defend and preserve the rights
of the Roman pontiffs ; and then he continued his journey towards Rome.
Adrian met him at Sutri ; but the king having refused to hold the bridle of

ADRIAN IV. 349
the pontiff's horse, the pope refused the kiss of peace. After some discus
sion, Frederic yielded aU that was demanded of him, and comphed with the
received custom of his predecessors. What a step from the poor servitor
bom at Langley, to an humble condition in hfe, to that pontiff who exacted
that a king should kiss his feet and pay him aU the honors previously paid
to sovereign pontiffs ! This act of reverence, which consisted in holding the
bridle of the pope's horse, had been paid by King Pepin to Stephen II., in
753 ; by Louis II. to Nicholas I. ; and thrice to Adrian II., in 857, by Con
rad, king of the Romans ; also to Urban n., at the interview of Cremona,
in 1095 ; by William, duke of Calabria, to Cahxtus H., at Troia, near Na
ples, in 1120 ; by Lothaire, emperor, to Innocent II., in 1131.
The same homage was subsequently paid by the Emperor Frederic in
1162 ; by Louis VH., king of France, in 1163 ; by Henry HI., king of Eng
land, in 1177 ; by those three monarchs to Alexander III. ; by Otho IV.,
emperor, to Innocent HI., when that prince was crowned in 1209 ; and by
Charles H., king of Naples, and Andrew, king of Hungary, to Celestine V.
This homage was also paid by Philip the Fair, to Clement V, in 1305 ; by
John, duke of Normandy, and future heir of the kingdom of France, to
Clement VI., in 1342 ; by Charles IV., emperor, to Urban V, in 1368 ; by
Charles HI., king of SicUy, to Urban VI., in 1383 ; by Sigismund, king of
the Romans, to Martin V., in 1418, and then to Eugene IV., in 1433 ; by
Frederic LH., king of the Romans, to Nicholas V, in 1452 ; and, finaUy, by
the Emperor Charles V. to Clement VIL, in 1530.
In 1155, Adrian excommunicated William, son of Roger, king of Italy,
who had commenced hostilities, and refused to recognize former treaties.
Adrian was the first pontiff who resided with aU the Curia, or pontifical
court at Orvieto ; he surrounded with walls and towers the town of Radico-
fani, which now belongs to Tuscany. This pope, the worthy successor of
so many illustrious popes, governed the Church four years, eight months,
and twenty-nine days.
This was a prince of exemplary hfe, of sublime intelligence, and great
firmness of soul ; he never yielded to anger, and he was ready to pardon.
He was so free from nepotism that he left his own mother, though he was
by no means ashamed of her, to be reheved by the church of Canterbury.
He died in the city of Anagni, on the 1st of September, 1159, and was
interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant five days.
As previously mentioned, this was' the one only Enghsh pontiff; but how
wise, noble, generous, and worthy of aU admiration he was ! WiU God so
ordain events as to place again among the high dignities of Rome a subject
of that great and powerful nation, which needs another glory amidst the
immensities of its power? Our bishops of France have ordered us to pray
for England's return to the one only true faith. That return, should the

350

LIVES OF THE POPES.

wiU of God effect it, wUl perhaps bring us (who knows the contrary?) a
compatriot of Adrian IV., to be first created cardinal, and then- raised to
the tiara by the sacred coUege.
Let us add that we should prudently make our conditions ; an Enghsh
pope should hve altogether in Rome.

172. ALEXANDER III.— a. d. 1159.

LEXANDER IH., originaUy named Laurentinus
BandineUi, of the Paperoni famUy of Sienna,
canon-regular at Pisa and at Saint John Late
ran, and professor of Holy Scripture in the Uni
versity of Bologna, was created cardinal-deacon
in 1145, by Eugene, and then named by the same
pope cardinal-priest of Samt Mark, and vice-
chanceUor of the holy Roman Church ; and, final
ly, he was made legate from Adrian IV. to WUliam, king of SicUy, and then
to the Emperor Frederic I. He was elected pope after three days' deliber
ation. He refused the tiara, but was compeUed to accept it, and he was
crowned in the estate of Ninfa, near Veletri, on the 20th of September, 1159.
As soon as Alexander was raised to the Chair of Saint Peter, seeing the
threatened schism, he addressed an encyclical letter to bishops of the prin
cipal churches, to inform them of his election. A few days afterwards, he
wrote another letter, stating the manner in which Cardinal Octavian had
endeavored to seize the pontifical authority. One of those letters was ad
dressed to Gerard, bishop, another to the canons, and a third to the doctors
and professors of Bologna ; and Tiraboschi remarks, on this subject, that
the university of that city was the first to be thus honored with a letter
from a sovereign pontiff.
Saint Bernard had foretold the pontificate of Alexander, and at the same
time announced the tribulations and the embarrassments that would attend
upon his labors.
Henry n., king of England, Frederic I., emperor, and four antipopes,
were those who most tried the patience of this pontiff. But, whether
obhged to fly, or hve in exUe, or whether he was falsely excommunicated
by the antipopes, his courage and his heroic constancy never faUed him.
Alexander remained at Ninfa to avoid the disturbances which were ex
cited in Rome by the partisans of Octavian. Thence he was enabled to

ALEXANDER IH. 351
return to the capital in 1161 ; some time after, he canonized Saint Edward,
king of England, who died on the 4th of January, 1066 ; then, leaving a
vicar-general, he went to Terracina to embark in a gaUey for France.
In 1162, the Holy Father arrived at Genoa on the gaUeys which belonged
to William, king of SicUy. There, in spite of the prohibition of Frederic,
who was about to dishonor himseK by the destruction of the city of MUan,
the clergy and the people gave the pontiff an honorable reception. In the
month of AprU he arrived at Montpelier, where he held a councU, which
excommunicated the antipope Octavian, who had assumed the name of
Victor IV. Early in 1163, the pope arrived at Paris. King Louis the
Young met him two leagues from the city, kissed his feet, and received
from the pope the Goldm Rose.* ,
From Paris he went to Tours, where he celebrated a councU, in which he
received with great honors Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury.
In this councU the errors of the Albigenses were again condemned. The
same year, at the sohcitation of Charles, king of Sweden, and of the Goths,
he canonized Saint Helena, a Swedish widow, who feU a martyr as she
returned from the Holy Sepulchre.
In 1164, Alexander approved the mihtary order of Calatrava, founded in
1158 by divers Spaniards, who defended that territory against the Saracens.
These Spaniards, under the command of Diego Velasquez de la Bureba, a
Cistercian novice, vanquished the infidels. Then he and the blessed Ray
mond of Fiterio, his abbot, founded at Calatrava, which was granted to
them in fief by King Sancho IH., that order which remained subject to the
Cistercian rule, adapted, however, to the pursuit of arms, because they had
to be always ready to meet the Saracens. The order had many vicissitudes.
Cardinal Julius was Alexander's vicar at Rome, and these Romans, who
always ill-treated the pontiffs when they resided in the city, and bitterly
regretted them when they left it, now grown wiser, sent an ambassador to
the pope to entreat him to return to Rome. Escorted by an army of King
Wifliam, Alexander returned to Rome in 1165, and was received with honors
stUl more pompous than those which had been paid to his predecessors.
At the same moment, the antipope Pascal IH., named by Frederic to re
place the antipope Victor IV., canonized Charlemagne. The Church has
not approved, but only tolerated this canonization, and that is sufficient,
says Lambertini, to warrant the behef that he has been beatified equiva-
lently. (See Novaes, hi., p. 116.) However, Charlemagne receives the title
of saint in the churches of France, Germany, and Flanders, but his name
has never been introduced into the Roman martyrology. (Novaes, ibid.)
In 1166, Frederic advanced to besiege Rome. To this period belong the
* See note, p. 343.

352 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sufferings of Saint Thomas a Becket, archbishop of "Canterbury. Perse
cuted by King Henry II. (of England), the prelate fled to Pontigny, a de
pendency ©f the Cistercian abbey. Henry II. wished the archbishop to be
driven from that asylum, and he wrote threatening letters to the chapter
general. " You," he says, " have received Thomas mine enemy into one of
your houses ; I forbid you to keep him any longer, K you would not lose all
that you possess in my territory, on either side of the sea."
When the chapter adjourned, the Cistercian abbot went to Pontigny,,
accompanied by the bishop of Parma, formerly a monk of the order, and
by some abbots.* They declared to the archbishop, in the name of the
chapter, the order that they had received from the king, and added : " My
Lord Archbishop, the chapter does not, therefore, expel you, but it begs you
prudently to consider what it is best for you to do." The prelate having
reflected, replied : " I should be grieved, indeed, should an order, which has
so charitably received me, suffer on my account ; therefore, wherever else
I go, I shaU promptly avoid your houses ; but I hope that He who feeds
the fowls of the air, wUl care for me and for the companions of my exUe."
He sent intelligence of this to Louis, king of France, whom it much aston
ished, and who communicated it to those who were around him. Then he
exclaimed : " Rehgion, Rehgion ! where art thou ? Behold these men
whom we fancy dead to the world, yet fearing the threats of the world, and,
for the sake of the worldly goods wliich they pretend to despise for the sake
of God, abandon the work of God, and drive away those who suffer for his
cause !" Then, turning to the prelate's messengers, he said : " Salute your
master in my name, and teU him boldly that, though he be abandoned by
aU the world, and by those who pretend to be dead to the world, I wUl not
abandon him, and whatever the king of England, my vassal, may do or
threaten against the archbishop, I wiU constantly protect him, because he
suffers for justice. TeU him, then, to let me know in what part of my do
minions he prefers to remain, and he shaU find it ready to receive him."
Saint Bernard no longer existed (the documents were prepared for his
canonization), but his courage and determination, his eloquence and his
strength, lived again in the heart and in the mouth of a king of France, in
the 12th century. The demand of Henry II. very much resembles that
which the Enghsh government made for the expulsion of Charles Edward,
the pretender, after the battle of CuUoden. Unfortunately, in the latter
case, France had not a government to reply in the spirit of Louis VH.
Subsequently, the same Louis VII. further addressed the envoys of Henry
II., of England, in the foUowing beautiful words :
" TeU your master that K he wiU not abandon the customs which he
* Fleury, iv., lib. Ixxi., p. 677.

ALEXANDER IH. 353
claims to have been handed down to him by his ancestors, although they
are said to be contrary to the laws of God, stiU less wUl I give up the
ancient right of France. For France has ever been accustomed to protect
the unfortunate and the afflicted, and chiefly to receive those who suffer
exue in the cause of justice. I have received the archbishop of Canterbury
from the hands of the pope, whom alone I recognize as my suzerain here on
earth, and, therefore, I wiU not abandon this archbishop for emperor, for
king, or for any power in the world."
We shah see that those admirable words of our monarch did not at all
move the king of England. Men of great station who have not great souls,
are always surrounded by sycophants, ready to act upon their slightest hint.
Henry having previously exclaimed, " WiU none of my friends and servants
rid me of this Thomas ?" was answered by four dastards, who assassinated
the archbishop.
The emperor was again excommunicated in a council held in 1167 ; but
the imperial arms being on the point of triumphing, the pope traveUed to
Gaeta, in the garb of a pUgrim, and there resumed the pontifical habits, in
which to proceed to Benevento.
In that city, on the 15th of March, 1168, he received the ambassadors of
the Greek emperor, Manuel, who promised to reunite the Greek to the
Latin churches, and to dehver it from the persecution of the emperor Fred
eric. Manuel attached a condition to that promise ; he asked in exchange
the investiture of the empire of the West.
The Holy Father thanked Manuel for his offers of kindness and for his
wishes for the greater glory of rehgion. As to the demand for the empire
of the West, the pontiff rephed that God had raised him to a high position
of authority, in which he should show himseK the friend of peace and not
the fomenter of discord.
In the same year, 1168, the pope, at the request of Waldemar, king of
Denmark, canonized that monarch's father, Saint Canute, king of that realm,
martyred, in 1132, by Magnus, son of King Nicholas.* Lambertini dates
that canonization in 1164.
To the same or the next year is attributed the foundation of the city of
Alexandria ; it was buUt by the partisans of Alexander, and in his honor, in
a spot caUed Rovereta. The pope's enemies thought fit to add to that
name the words della Paglia, in derision, and the city, which has now be
come one of the greatest fortresses in the world, preserves the name of
Alexandria of Straw.
On his return to Rome, Alexander confirmed King Henry H., of England,
* See Bollandus, at the 7th of January, and Isaac Pontacus, Historian of the kingdom of Den
mark, b. 6, p. 252 ; Amsterdam, 1631.
" Vol. L— 23

354 LIVES OF THE POPES.
in possession of the kingdom of Ireland, which he had conquered. The
pope soon repented of his kindness ; he learned the assassination of Thomas
a Becket. The king sued for pardon, but Alexander would not grant it,
although the king protested that the crime had been committed without
his order.
In 1173, the pope canonized Saint Thomas of Canterbury, and the acts
of canonization were accompanied by testimonies of admiration at the virtue
of so courageous a martyr. In 1174 took place the canonization of the
great Saint Bernard, first abbot of Clairvaux. He died on the 20th of
August, 1153. The order of the Carthusians was approved by Alexander
in 1176.
Frederic, waary-of useless wars and of the plotting wliich he had so dis
honorably resorted to in his endeavors to destroy the legitimate authority
of Alexander, sent ambassadors to sohcit peace.
The Holy Father could not trust to the word of Frederic ; but as the
common father of Christendom, he could not discourage the real or appa
rent penitence of the emperor. He went to Venice on one of the gaUeys of
King William of SicUy, whom he stiU found a faithful friend and a devout
Cathohc. There he concluded the long-desired peace between the Church
and the empire, to which Frederic was more than ever forced by a check
which his arms had met with in a war against the Venetians. The Doge
Zani, among other privUeges, obtained' that of having a drawn sword car
ried before him on great hohdays. The pope presented him with the Gol
den Rose that he had blessed on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and he also
gave him a ring with which he and his successors should espouse the Adria
tic on Ascension day, in sign of sovereignty acquired over that sea. On
the 24th of July, the emperor asked absolution, and received it in front of
the doors of Saint Mark. He knelt before the Holy Father, who, in tears,
hastily raised him to his feet, gave him the kiss of peace, and blessed him.
On the foUowing day, the emperor received Communion from the hands of
the Holy Father, and they pubhcly exchanged marks of friendship. The
ceremony of holding the stirrup when the pope mounted his horse, was
renewed in aU its vigor.
It is an indecent calumny, that when the emperor kissed the feet of the
pope, the latter struck him on the head, and said : " Thou shalt tread upon
the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample upon tlie lion and the dragon ;"
and that the angry emperor retorted: "Not to thee was that said, but to
Peter ;" and that, finaUy, the pope rejoined—" Both to me and to Peter." These
are absurd falsehoods. A pontiff hke Alexander, almost always a fugitive,
wandering from State to State, could not think of being guilty of so Ul-
advised an insult. In such ceremonies, every thing is prearranged on both
sides. Frederic, constrained into peace by disasters which weakened his

ALEXANDER III. 355
power and might even endanger his hfe, and Alexander thinking of nothing
but the good of the Church, had both settled beforehand the homage, its
form, and even the shghtest words that were to be spoken ; the rest is the
invention of the enemies of rehgion. The fable, however, is weU made up.
The words attributed to the pope have a character of pride and of false
forgiveness that our enemies delight to beheve ; the reply of the emperor
appears a Cathohc confession which repels aU idea of respect for Alexan
der. The repartee of the pope is also a fine touch of the romantic, which
must rejoice all who dread the glory of rehgion. The whole mass of accu
sations is further refuted by Alexander's own letters, written at the very
time, and in Venice itseK.*
During his stay in Venice, Alexander sent a legate to a king who hved
between Persia and Armenia, caUed, it was said, Prester John. Modern
critics affirm that he was at once king and Christian priest, but that he pro
fessed Nestorianism.t
In 1177, the pope approved the mihtary order of Alcantara, instituted
against the Saracens in 1156, by Don Soero Fernandez, under the Cister
cian rule.
In 1178, Alexander returned to Rome. In 1179, he celebrated the third
Lateran and eleventh general councU, consisting of more than three hun
dred bishops ; there it was resolved that no pontiff should be recognized
itnless elected by the votes of two-thirds of the cardinals, exclusive of the
voice of the one elected. This law is stiU in force.
Among other regulations, that councU decided that no one under thirty
years of age should be elected bishop ; and that bishops should not be
sumptuous in apparel, be present at any banquet, or go hunting.
The Albigenses were again condemned ; and soon divided themselves into
Catari, Paiarini, and Publicani. They foUowed the heresy of the Mani-
cheans, rejected. the Old Testament, prayers for the dead, the real presence,
and the authority of the Church, and maintained many other errors.
To reward the services rendered by Alphonso I., of Portugal, Alexander
granted to him, in 1179, the title of king, which he had taken in the time of
Lucius IH., but which no pontiff had confirmed.
Alexander was the first pope who reserved to himseK the canonization of
saints, a regulation profoundly wise and necessary,^ not only to invest
* See Baronius, Labbe, and Martene. To their testimony I add another fact, which it seems
to me no one has yet considered. In the true language of the popes, that has long been in use,
they use the first person plural ; they say Not, we, not Ego, I. The inventor forgot that to speak
correctly Alexander must have said, Et nobis et Petro. But inventors cannot think of every
thing. They are ignorant people, for the most part, who make up such fables ; they talk about
Italy without ever being outside of Magdeburg. Fleury says nothing about these wretched
inventions. t Otho of Frisingen, lib. vii., cap. 23. X Feller, i., p. 111.

350 LIVES OF THE POPES.
canonization with respect and insure its general reception ; but, above all,
to remedy the abuses and levity with which most of those who imagined
they had the right, had proceeded to a judgment of so great importance.
Many of his predecessors had already endeavored to remedy this disorder ;
but their efforts had not been completely successful. The canonization of
Saint Gaultier, abbot of Pontoise, by the archbishop of Rouen^ in 1153, is
almost the last example that history furnishes of saints not canonized by
Roman pontiffs.
Alexander possessed a courage equal to his misfortunes, and a modesty
which his triumphs never altered. He died at Civita CasteUana, and, on
the 30th of August, 1181, was interred at Saint John Lateran.
He had governed the Church twenty-one years, eleven months, and
twenty-three days.*
The antipopes that troubled his reign were Victor IV., who died impeni
tent at Lucca, in 1164 ; Pascal, who died impenitent at Rome, in 1167 ;
Cahxtus IH., who repented, and died at Benevento, in 1178 ; and, finaUy,
Innocent, who did reluctant penance in the monastery of La Cava.
* The life of Alexander III. was written by Cornelius Frangipani, and by John Francis Leredano ;
Venice, 1637, 4to ; and 1662, 12mo. This last life was translated into German, and printed at
Leipsic in 1732, 8vo. A Spaniard, Antonio Velasquez, published the Vida de Alexandre IH,
Papa; Madrid, 1656, 8vo. Pandolpho d'Alatro, Bernard di Guido, and Nicholas de Rosellis,
also wrote the life of Alexander III. These three works are in Muratori, Script, rer. Ital.
The following is the judgment which Voltaire pronounces on Alexander HI., in the summary
of his General History. GSuvres Completes, douze vols., 8vo ;¦ Paris, 1817 ; tome x., pp. 998.
" The man perhaps who, in those rude times that we call the Middle Ages, deserved best from
the human race, was Pope Alexander III. It was he who, in a council in the 12th century,
abolished slavery, as far as he could. It was he who, in Venice, triumphed by his wisdom over
the violence of the Emperor Barbarossa, and obliged Henry H., of England, to ask pardon of God
and man for the murder of Thomas a Becket. He revived the rights of the people, and repressed
the crimes of kings. We have remarked that, before that time, all Europe, excepting a small
number of cities, was divided into two classes of men : the lords of lands, whether ecclesiastics
or laymen, and slaves. The men of law who assisted the knights, the bailifls, the stewards of
the fiefs, in their judgments, were really only serfs by birth. If men have regained their rights,
it is chiefly to Pope Alexander III. that they are indebted for it ; it is to him that so many cities
owe their splendor." This opinion of Voltaire on the great Alexander HI. has not been cited
frequently enough.

Lucius in. 357

173. LUCIUS III.— a. d. 1181.
I UCIUS III., who was originally named Ubaldo Al-
lucingoli, belonged to an iUustrious famUy of Luc
ca. In 1140, Innocent H. named him cardinal-
priest of Saint Praxedes ; and in 1158, Adrian IV.
created him cardinal-bishop of Ostia and Veletri.
Dean of the sacred coUege, and a man of ma
tured years and prudence, not very learned, but
weU skilled in pubhc affairs, he had filled success
fully missions to France, SicUy, and the Emperor Frederic.
Ubaldo was elected pope at Veletri, on the 1st of September, 1181, and
crowned on the 6th of that month. He was unable to remain long at Rome,
because he feared the insults with which he was threatened by some Roman
* *
nobles, who saw in him a man not likely to submit to exactions insupport
able to a Roman pontiff.
In 1182, he freed William, king of Scotland, from an excommunication
pronounced against him by the archbishop of York.
At the beginning of 1183, the Sicilian bishopric of Montreal was raised
into a metropolis.
This pope,* in a councU held at Verona, in the year 1184, at which the
Emperor Frederic was present, pubhshed a constitution, in which the two
powers concurred in the endeavor to extirpate heresy. That constitution
required bishops to inquire by themselves or by commissioners, as to the
conduct of persons suspected of heresy, which, indeed, was a duty inherent
in the office of bishops. It also shows that after the Church had employed
spiritual means against culprits, they were given over to the secular arm, to
wliich it belonged to inflict temporal punishment, t
While Lucius was busied in laboring for the better administration of the
Christian repubhc, and urging the kings of France and England 'to send aid
to the Crusaders, he feU sick, and died on the 25th of November", 1195, after
governing the Church four years, two months, and twenty-three days. He
was interred in the Cathedral of Verona4
* Feller, iv., p. 224. -f This Constitution is in voL x., Labbe's Councils.
X John Francis Tintd gives the epitaph placed on the tomb of Lucius :
Luci, Lucca tibi dedit ortum, pontificatum
Ostia, Papatum Boma, Verona mori.
Immo, Verona dedit iierum tibi vkere, Boma
ExUium, euros Ostia, Lucca mori.

358 LIVES OF THE POPES.
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
We have lost sight of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was weakened
more and more, both internahy by the dissensions of the nobles, and exter
nally by their misconduct towards the Saracens. • King Baldwin IV. was
seized with leprosy ; he became suspicious of Bohemond, prince of Antioch,
and Raymond, count of Tripoli, believing that they wished to dethrone him.
He, therefore, resolved to betroth his sister SibyUa, widow of the marquis
of Montferrat ; and instead of giving her to one of the powerful' lords of the
country, married her in haste to a young French knight, Guy de Lusignan,
son of Hugh, count de la Merche.
This marriage took place during Easter-week, according to custom. On
the other hand, Arnold de ChatUlon, chief of the Templars, was lord of
Kerek, a strong city in Syria, named by the ancients the Rock of the
Desert, because it is the entrance to the desert of Arabia, and is on a high
mountain. Arnold often made sorties from that place, and without any
regard to truces made with Saladin, carried off' caravans of merchants,
whom he put in irons, after he had piUaged their merchandise. He even
determined to carry into effect a design which he had formed many years
before, to march to the very gates of Mecca, and he commenced prepara
tions for that expedition.
. Some months later, a vessel, with fifteen hundred Christians on board,
was shipwrecked near Damietta. Saladin ordered aU of them who were
saved to be put in irons, and their merchandise to be confiscated ; and then
he sent to the king of Jerusalem a demand for aU the Mussulmans who had
been captured by Arnold de ChatUlon, and the Templars of Kerek. He
also demanded satisfaction for the hostile acts committed by the Christians
in violation of existing treaties. In default of satisfaction, Saladin de
clared war against the king of Jerusalem, and threatened to treat the Chris
tians as the Templars had treated their prisoners. King Baldwin con
temptuously dismissed the envoys of Saladin, through fear of displeasing
the Templars, who professed to obey no one but the reigning pope, Lucius
III., and the superiors of their own order. The Templars would on no
account giv.e up the booty they had taken from the caravans. So they con
strained Baldwin to declare war against the advice of aU the nobles ; for he
had not more than two or three thousand infantry and seven hundred cav
alry, whUe Saladin was at the head of twenty thousand men of aU arms,
This imprudence was to lead to terrible catastrophes.
That epitaph has all the precision and something of the mystery of the monumental style ;
but when, with a little attention and true Christian philosophy, we see that the author by birth
means death and by death life, the verses are piquant, and describe quite well the career of
Lucius III.

urban m 359

174. URBAN III.— a. d. 1185.
|UBERT CRIVELLI, a MUanese, and canon-regular,
whom Alexander III. had named cardinal-priest of
Saint Lawrence in Bamaso, was elected pope at
Verona- on the 25th of November, and took the
name of Urban III. He was crowned on the 1st
of December ; but he could not go to Rome, as the
troubles in that city were not yet ended. A good
understanding had existed between Lucius HI. and
the Emperor Frederic. But the latter did not preserve the same feeling
towards Urban, and he violently seized upon the patrimony left by the
Countess MatUda to Saint Gregory VII. The same emperor converted to
the use of his own treasury the property of deceased bishops, and he
usurped, under pretext of reforms, the income of nunneries. For an in
stant, he moderated his attacks. He hoped to have his son Henry crowned
as emperor, but Urban refused. Under similar circumstances, Alexander
HI. had demanded that Frederic should give the authority to his son. But
Urban said that it was not a time in which it would be fitting to have two
emperors on the throne at once. The pope, however, gave permission to
Henry H., king of England, to have such one of his sons he as chose crowned
king of Ireland. The cardinal legate, Octavian Conti, being empowered,
crowned Prince John, to whom the pontiff sent a beautiful crown of pea
cock's feathers, mounted in gold.
The Holy Father having set out for Venice to infuse order into the army
which was going to the aid of the Crusaders, heard, at Ferrara, the news of
the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, eighty-eight years
after the taking of that city by the Christians. The pope was so grieved at
the news, that he feU sick, and died on the 19th of October, 1187. He had
governed the Church one year, ten months, and twenty-five days. He was
interred in the cathedral of Ferrara, the inhabitants of that city paying him
magnificent funeral honors during seven days.
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
It is painful to give an account of the misfortune with which the Chris
tians were now afflicted. On the 19th of September, 1187, Saladin laid siege
to Jerusalem. Baldwin IV. had died, leaving the throne to Baldwin V., his
nephew. That youth, son of SibyUa, sister of Baldwin IV., by William

360 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Longsword, died suddenly in 1186, and SibyUa succeeded in giving the
throne to her second husband, Guy de Lusignan.*
The incapacity and the indolence of the new king, the quarrels of parties,
and the licentiousness that prevaUed in Palestine, of which the Patriarch
Herachus set the example, prognosticated the approaching ruin of the king
dom of Jerusalem.!
M. Michaud, in the second volume of his History of Crusades, gives a
frightful picture of the morals of that time, and exclaims that, by the per
mission of Christ, Saladin was to become the rod of God's anger. At that
juncture, another caravan was plundered near Kerek. Saladin demanded
satisfaction for this new outrage. He had defeated Guy de Lusignan in
a pitched battle. The cities of Palestine surrendered to ransom their
king ; it was clear that the great glory of the Western arms had reached its
end. The wreck of Guy's army, the chUdren of the dead warriors, and a
great number of Christian families from the devastated provinces had taken
shelter in Jerusalem. A hundred thousand people were in the holy city ;
but only a smaU portion of them were warriors capable of defending the
city. The multitude only augmented the difficulty, and rendered resistance
almost impossible. Saladin summoned the inhabitants to give up the city
to him, promising that K they did so they should be aided with money and
with fertUe lands in Syria. Those offers being rejected, the Sultan swore
that he would raze the towers and ramparts of Jerusalem, and avenge upon
the Christians the Mussulman blood that had been shed by the soldiers of
Godfrey de Bouillon. The besieged chose for their leader Balean d'lbelin,
an old warrior. Saladin, after encamping for a few days on the west of the
city, directed his attacks against the north, as aU former besiegers of Jeru
salem had done ; — Joash, king of Israel ; the generals of Nebuchodonosor ;
Alexander the Great ; Ptolemy, son of Lagus ; Antiochus Epiphanes, Pom
pey, Crassus, Titus, Chosroes, Omar, and Godfrey de BouiUon.
Twelve days were passed in continual combats. At first the Christians
fought with great courage, and made vigorous resistance ; but soon per
ceiving that their efforts were useless against the imposing forces of the
enemy, they were seized with despair. The soldiers no longer dared to
remain on the ramparts by night, for the waUs threatened to crumble under
the shock of Saladin's machines ; and instead of standing to their arms,
they hastened to the churches to invoke the protection of Heaven. The
Latins, learning that the Greek and Eastern Christians had formed a plot
for putting an end to the war by giving up Jerusalem to the Mussulmans,

* M. Michaud characterizes Guy de Lusignan in these few words: " He was a knight without
renown and without personal glory."
f Palestine, p. 624 ; Paris, Didot

URBAN III. 361
hastened to offer capitulation to Saladin. Queen SibyUa was incapable of
perceiving the importance of the deposit that was intrusted to her. Cour
age and faith had gained the Holy Sepulchre for the Christians ; indecision
and irreligion were to yield it up to our enemies.
Saladin consulted the Mussulman doctors upon the demand for a capitu
lation. They rephed that the prince might accept it without violation of
the oath he had made. The warriors obtained permission to go to Tyre or
Tripoli* The other inhabitants were to be considered as slaves, but with
permission to purchase their hberty. The ransom was fixed at ten pieces
of gold for each man, five for each woman, and two for each chUd. This
capitulation, to which different authors assign different dates, took place, in
fact, according to aU the Arabian authors, on the 2d of October, 1187.
A delay of forty days was granted to the Christians to make preparations
for their departure, whUe the Mussulmans took possession of Jerusalem.
" At length," says Michaud, " the fatal day arrived on which the Chris
tians were to depart from Jerusalem. AU the gates of the city were closed
except that of David. Saladin, elevated on a throne that gleamed with gold,
saw a despairing population file past him ; the patriarch, foUowed by the
clergy, first appeared, carrying the sacred vessels, the ornaments of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and treasures of which, says an Arabian
author, God alone knew the value. The queen of Jerusalem came next,
attended by the principal barons and knights. Saladin respected her grief,
and spoke most kindly to her. After the queen, came a great number of
women, carrying their children in their arms, and giving utterance to the
most piercing cries. Many of them approached the throne of Saladin :
' Behold at your feet,' said they, ' the wives, the mothers, and the daughters
of your prisoners ; we are quitting forever our country which they gloriously
defended ; they aided us to support hfe, in losing them we have lost our last
hope. H you deign to restore them to us, they wiU solace our misery, and
we shaU no longer be without support in the world.' Saladin was touched
by their prayers, and promised to mitigate the miseries of so many unfor
tunate families. He restored chUdren to their mothers, and to wives their
husbands, who were among the captives. Many Christians had abandoned
their furniture and their most precious effects, to bear away on their shoul
ders aged and infirm relatives or friends. Saladin was melted by the spec
tacle, and. rewarded with his alms the piety and virtue of his enemies.
Taking pity upon aU kinds of misfortunes, he permitted the HospitaUers to
remain in the city to take care of the pUgrims and those whom serious
sickness prevented from leaving Jerusalem."
Of a hundred thousand Christians inhabiting the city, only fourteen thou-
* Michaud, as previously quoted.

362 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sand remained in slavery, and of those; four or five thousand were young
children. The noble and pious Balean employed the treasures, that had
been intended for the expenses of the siege in dehvering a portion of the
inhabitants. Saladin broke the bonds of a great number of paupers and
orphans, and his brother, Malek-Adel, paid the ransom of two thousand
prisoners. Such was the real end of the kingdom founded by Godfrey, which had
lasted eighty-eight years. Subsequently, the royalty of Jerusalem was
nothing more than an empty title ; for the temporary domination of the
Emperor Frederic H. was a mere chimera, without any serious character.
According to Fleury,* Saladin caused aU the bells of aU the churches to
be broken up. As for the patriarchal church, which had been the great
mosque, built on the site of Solomon's Temple, aU the marks of Christianity
being removed from it, it was re-established, as under Omar, for the Ma
hometan worship.
All the other churches were also changed into mosques, excepting that
of the Holy Sepulchre, which the Syrian Christians ransomed. These Sy
rians were schismatics. There may, then, be circumstances under which
even a schismatic, though still remaining in his error, may render an impor
tant service to the Holy See. Some Moslem, seeing the pecuniary sacrifices
made by these Syrians to save the Holy Sepulchre, urged Saladin to destroy
the church and aU the other holy places, saying, says Fleury, " that to leave
these holy places was to favor the idolatry of the Christians, and the wrong
they do the Messiah by honoring the marks of his Passion. For these Mos
lem believe that Jesus was not crucified, but Judas in his stead. They
added that by depriving Christians of this object of their devotion, they
would remove aU pretext for crusades; but the ablest Moslem doctors
thought differently. They told Saladin not to be more, scrupulous than
the Caliph Omar, who preserved the church ; that K the holy places were
ruined, Jerusalem would lose the source of its wealth by the stopping of
pUgrimages. FinaUy, that the blow would be felt as deeply by the oriental
Christians as by those of the West, and might excite them to revolt and
join the latter through the common interest of rehgion. Saladin yielded,
and permitted Christians to visit the holy places as before, provided they
came unarmed and paid certain duties.
We may here express a regret that must fill the hearts of a Cathohc his
torian and of the readers who foUow the course of these annals. What
riches, what treasures of greatness, piety, courage, fortitude, disinterested
ness, and true Cathohcity did not God send to the Holy Land ! Godfrey,
Eustace, Baldwin, his brothers, sons of the pious Duchess Ida, advanced to
* Fleury, iv., lib. lxxiv., p. 78.

urban in. 363
free the Holy Sepulchre. Scarce a century expires, and the descendants of
these heroes, and those bound to this noble blood by ties of kindred, are
debased almost to impious beings, trembling before the foeman's sword,
scarcely daring to wield a weapon, and sunk in aU the vile empty feelings
which spring from avarice. The man who bore the title of king of holy
Jerusalem, is content to be indemnified by the vain possession of the island
of Cyprus,, travestied into a kingdom.
SibyUa has no longer in her veins the blood of Ida, her glorious ancestor,
though Mehsenda, eldest daughter of Baldwin II. AU that was noble, be
neficent, just in Cathohcity, in 1098, is sent to Palestine to found a French
State. AU that the burning climate could bring forth of vile and effeminate,
failed later to defend the kingdom. Could no elements remain pure to de
fend the tomb of Christ ? But God wished a momentary glory for his ser
vants, and then their chastisement. He even orders, and it is the hardest
punishment of our vices, that heroism should pass from the Christian to the
Moslem camp. The victorious Saladin humbles the vanquished by a clem
ency which his law forbids. All is not then corrupted in that chmate, whose
influence we have endeavored to urge in excuse of our brethren. God
raises up amidst the intoxicating delights of that chmate a lofty, generous,
and magnanimous character; and that character (how deplorable is the
abandonment in which God for a moment left us !) that character is not
that of a Christian. Let us ever be submissive to the decrees of Providence,
whether for our reward or for our punishment !

||P^3^

364 LIVES OF THE POPES.

175. GREGORY VIIL— a. d. 1187.
REGORY "Vlll. was originaUy named -Albert da
Morra ; other authors give him the name of Spi-
naccio. He was born at Benevento, and embraced
the rule of the Cistercians. Before the year 1155,
Adrian IV. named him cardinal-deacon of Saint
Adrian, and in 1158, cardinal-priest of Saint Law
rence in Lucina. He was the last cardinal who bore
the title of chancellor, for when Gregory VIIL was
pope, that charge was given to Moses, canon of Lateran, with the specifi
cation that he should only take the title of vice-chanceUor. Subsequently,
when cardinals were promoted to that office, they received the title only of
vice-chancellor, and such is the custom at this day.
In the year 1187, cardinal Albert de Morra was elected pope, on the 21st
of October, and consecrated on the 25th. In the first moments after the
death of Urban IH., the sacred coUege had saluted as pontiff cardinal
Henry, monk of Clairvaux, but he persistently refused that honor, and did
aU in his power to insure the election of Albert de Morra, who took the
name of Gregory VIIL One of the first cares of the new pope was to
seek means for the reconquest of Jerusalem. He ordered a general fast
throughout Christendom, as a mark of grief. The edict ordered abstinence
from meat, not only on Fridays, but also on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
His Holiness, the cardinals, and the whole court, included Mondays with
the above named three days, as strict fasts. Gregory VIH., learning that
there were some disputes between. the republics of Pisa and Genoa, went
to the former city to encourage its government to commence arming against
the Saracens. The same request was addressed to the authorities of Genoa.
At the same time a letter from the pope, pubhshed at Ferrara, caUed upon
the Christians to unite in sending aid to Saint Jean d'Acre. Fleury (iv.,
lib. lxxiv., 780), says : " Inasmuch as commissions legaUy expire at the death
of those granting them, Pope Gregory, fearing that those who at great cost
had obtained letters from Pope Urban, to have their business decided on
the spot, should be obhged to obtain new ones, he addressed, two days
after his coronation, a circular to aU the bishops of the Church to give
effect to aU commissions of his predecessor to that effect, dated three
months before his decease."
Gregory being attacked by fever at Pisa, died there en the 17th of De-

CLEMENT III. 365
ctjaber, 1187, and was interred in the cathedral (the Buomo).* This pope
was learned, and very zealous in affairs of rehgion. He governed the
Church one month and twenty-eight days. The Holy See was vacant only
one day.

176. CLEMENT III. — a. d. 1187.
LEMENT HI., Paulinus Scolari, a Roman, and
canon of Saint Mary Major, was made cardinal-
priest of Palestrina by Alexander HI. On the
19th of December, 1187, he was elected pontiff at
Pisa, and he was crowned on the 20th. For fifty
years dissensions had existed between the popes
and the Roman people. The Romans had almost
deprived the popes of authority in Rome, and
transferred it to the senators and to a patrician. The pontiffs, from Inno
cent H., had frequently been obhged to leave Rome. Innocent II. and
Celestine H. died of grief, caused by this discord. Lucius II. was
sacrilegiously wounded ; Eugene III., Alexander HI., and Lucius in., in
whose time perversity was most violent, were driven from Rome ; and
Urban HI. and Gregory VHI. had been summoned to leave that city. The
Roman people was not so inimical to its feUow-citizen, Clement HI.
It was agreed that senators should be elected as usual, but that a prefect
should be elected instead of a patrician.
By the articles of treaty : 1. The city of Rome should be under the
power of the sovereign pontiff; 2. The title and dignity of patrician were
to be abohshed, and a prefect elected ; 3. The senators to be elected an-
nuaUy, under the authority of the pontiff, to whom they wUl swear peace
and fidelity, and, when necessary, wUl defend the Roman Church ; 4. The
Roman people wiU restore the Vatican Basilica, and the fiefs of Saint Peter,
occupied in time of war ; 5. The pubUc tributes to be at the disposal of the
pope, who wiU grant two-thirds of them for the needs of the people ; 6. The
senate and the Roman people to defend the majesty, honor, and power of
the Roman Church and the sovereign pontiff; 7. The pope, at the accus-
* This marble tomb was destroyed in a fire which ravaged that cathedral in 1600. By the
care of Camille Campilio, sacristan, in 1658, the tomb was replaced by a representation of it
painted on canvass ; and subsequently a sumptuous monument was erected. — Papebroke, Pro-
pyleum, part ii., p. 30.)

366 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tomed time, to give to the senators, judges, advocates, and ministers of the
senators the presents caUed presbyteries ; 8. The pope annuaUy to con
tribute a certain sum towards the re-estabhshment of the waUs of the city ;
9. FinaUy, the pope permits the destruction of the city of Tusculum, and
will lend assistance to the Roman people to accomphsh that enterprise ;
10. Then the soU and the population of the above-mentioned Tusculum
shaU remain under the power of the Roman Church.
The people, having thus submitted to the authority of the pope, Clement,
on the 13th of March, 1188, made his entrance into Rome, surrounded by
his cardinals, and was received with great demonstrations of joy. He im
mediately rebuUt the cloister Of Saint Lawrence without the walls, and re
paired the Lateran Palace, which he adorned with pictures. Here, we may
remark, was a commencement of the revival of the arts, which took place
in 1188, towards the close of the twelfth century.
Clement III. was the first pope who added the year of his pontificate to
dates.* Among the cardinals created by Clement we must name the blessed Guy
de Pare, a Frenchman, bishop of Palestrina, and legate in France and in
Germany. At Cologne, Guy introduced the custom of warning the faithful)
by the ringing of a beU, of the moment of the elevation of the Host and
the chahce in the Mass, and also to make known the passing of the holy
viaticum to the sick.
Clement III. governed three years, three months, and three days. He
died on the 29th of March, 1191, and was interred at Saint John Lateran,
in front of the old choir of the canons.
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
Under this reign Phihp Augustus, king of France, and Richard I., king
of England, set out for Syria. Phihp arrived first near Saint Jean d'Acre,
and his presence increased the courage of the Christians, who vigorously
besieged that city. Richard reached the camp later, having been driven
by a storm to the isle of Cyprus. The Emperor Frederic, who also was a
crusader, got as far as the frontiers of Armenia, but whUe bathing in a
httle river, caUed the Lon River, he was drowned. Henry, eldest son of
Frederic, who had remained in Germany, was" proclaimed king of that
country, under the title of Henry VI. Phihp, Richard, and Frederic had
shown deference to Clement III., and obeyed him ; and Henry appeared ,
inclined to foUow that good example.t
* Feller II., 280.
f We have mentioned the presents distributed to the people, and called presbyteries. See
tur remarks under Valentine and Innocent II. ,

CELESTINE IH. 367

177. CELESTINE III.— a. d. 1191.
ELESTLNE ni., Hyacinth, of the Ulustrious Orsini
famUy, was made cardinal-deacon of Saint Mary
in Cosmedin, by Honorius H. He was elected pope
on the 30th of March, 1191, ordained priest on the
13th of April, and consecrated pope on the 14th of
the same month. He was eighty-five years old,
but vigorous and fuU of health.
On the 15th of AprU he crowned as emperor
Henry VI., son of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa.
When the Enghsh, under their king, Richard, and the French, under
their king, Phihp Augustus, united their forces before Saint Jean d'Acre
(the ancient Ptolemais), they took that city. The besieged obtained a
capitulation by promising, in the name of Saladin, the sum of two hundred
thousand pieces of gold, the delivery of the true cross, discovered by Saint
Helena, and lost in the battle of Tiberias, where Saladin was victor, and
also the hberation of a certain number of Christian prisoners. Philip
Augustus then returned to Europe, and Richard remained alone to see to
carry out the capitulation. Saladin delayed complying with the conditions,
which he had not signed, and Richard, after waiting more than a month,
gave way to an impulse of pride and cruel vexation, and put to death a
great number of the Mussulman prisoners.* Saladin, roused to indigna
tion, moved on Arsouf to attack Richard, but victory declared for the king
of England. Hugo III., duke of Burgundy, commanded the French in
the name of PhUip Augustus, and honorably seconded the valor of the
Enghsh monarch.
After fortifying Joppa (the modern Jaffa), the two armies resumed their
march to reconquer Jerusalem. Had the allies been cordiaUy united,
Richard could have seized the city, but discord between the French and
Enghsh prevented him from acting with celerity and energy, and it is said
that inteUigence of some pohtical trouble in England caused that prince to
desire to bring the war to an end by negotiation. He conceived the singu
lar idea of a marriage between Malek Adel, brother of the Sultan, and the
widow of WiUiam of SicUy. He proposed that they should govern the
kingdom of Jerusalem, reigning together, a Mussulman king and a Chris
tian queen, over a mixed population of Mussulmans and Christians. Sala-
* Palestine, p. 630 ; 1844.

368 LIVES OF THE POPES.
din seemed disposed to agree to the proposal. Richard forgot that his
massacre of the prisoners had enraged the whole country, and that it was
impossible that the Gospel and the Koran, Truth and Falsehood, could sit
together upon the same throne. The proposal was rejected by both Chris
tian bishops and Mussulman doctors.
Li June, the Christian army marched upon the holy city. The recom
mendations of Pope Celestine III. were constantly arriving to inflame the
zeal of Richard ; but the nearer the army approached the city, the greater
were the irresolution and depression of Richard. He said that his army
was not sufficiently strong to keep up regular communications with the
coast, that the expedition against Jerusalem presented great perUs, and
that he could not risk his honor and that of Christendom. The question
was submitted to a councU, consisting of twenty members, chosen from
among the Knights Templars, the Knights of Saint John, the barons of
France, and the barons of Palestine. WhUe the councU deliberated, Rich
ard passed his time in plundering.a rich caravan that was on its way from
Egypt to Jerusalem. After several days' deliberation, the knights
and barons decided that the army should leave the Judean moun
tains and return to the seacoast. The conduct of Richard, that great
captain, who had not the excuse of being enervated by the perfumes of the
East, wiU always remain a problem in history ; for aU the reasons aUeged
in justification of the retreat must have been known to Richard when he
gave the order to march upon Jerusalem.* The chances in war are always
favorable to him who has gained the last victory. His soldiers march with
heads erect, and confidence emboldens more than the hope of vengeance,
which is usuaUy weakened by the memory of a recent check.
" If it is easy," says Michaud, " to describe the passions when they burst
forth in the camp, it is not so when they are confined to the councils of
princes, and are mingled with a thousand interests. There they easily es
cape the glance of history, and almost always hide from posterity the most
shameful secrets."t
The negotiations which had been commenced with Saladin, were pro
longed by him, as he sought time to recaU his emirs. Having coUected
sufficient forces, he surprised and took Joppa, where the Mussulmans com
menced the most horrible cruelties,— fatal reprisals for the slaughter com
mitted by Richard at Saint Jean d'Acre. Saladin was on the point of
occupying the citadel, when Richard, weak enough to be an imprudent ne
gotiator, but too great a warrior to endure an enemy in his front, appeared
* According to About Faradj, an Arabian writer (Chron. Syr., p. 421), Saladin had destroyed
the aqueducts and obstructed the springs which should have furnished the besiegers with
water. t Vol. ii., p.,501.

CELESTINE III. 3 go
before the port, and having disembarked, repulsed the Mussulmans and
attacked the place. This victory, however, wrought no change in the situ
ation of the Christians in Palestine. Richard was in haste to return to
Europb, and Saladin perceiving that the Mussulmans were no less weary of
the war, consented to a truce for three years and eight months. It was
agreed that the Christians should keep aU the coast from Joppa to Tyre ;
that the citadel of Ascalon, which was occupied by the Mussulmans, should
be demolished ; and that Jerusalem should be open to Christian pUgrims.
Richard gave the imaginary royalty of Jerusalem to Henry, count of Cham
pagne, third husband of IsabeUa, daughter of Amaury and sister of Si
byUa, and recompensed Guy of Lusignan by securing for him the isle of
Cyprus. Towards the end of the year 1192, Richard set out for Europe. Thus
ended the third crusade, which resulted merely in the conquest of Saint
Jean d'Acre and the demolition of the fortifications of Ascalon.
The first crusade gave Jerusalem to Godfrey de BouiUon in 1099 ; the
second crusade (preached by Saint Bernard), to confirm the possession of
Palestine and increase the Christian influence in the East, was undertaken
on the 31st of March, 1146. Louis VIL, king of France, and the Emperor
Conrad LH., first betrayed by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus, and then
Hi-received at Jerusalem itseK, retired from that city in confusion. How
the third crusade ended, we have just seen.
The departure of Richard fiUed the Christian inhabitants of the Holy
Land with despair. Great dangers and a long imprisonment in a German
dungeon awaited the hero of the last crusade, that hero whose renown
filled the world, and whose name was for a long time the terror of the East.
Previous to foUowing Richard in his misfortunes, which, perhaps, he
would have avoided had he more nobly defended the standard of the cross,
and drawn from the Holy Sepulchre inspiration for nobler enterprises for
the glory of rehgion, which Celestine HI. incessantly represented as not suf
ficiently regarded by the Enghsh monarch, we must give some account of an
incident which created great admiration in both East and West, and which
shows that a httle more constancy would doubtless have been rewarded with
the most glorious success. Saladin, the rival of Richard in mihtary glory,
but perhaps distinguished by more real quahties, died at Damascus, on the
3d of March, 1193, scarcely fifty-six years of age. He had reigned about
twenty-four years in Egypt and nineteen in Syria.* The profound grief of
his people was the funeral eulogy most worthy of that prince. It is related
* Saladin had acquired an immense renown in France and in England. The Saladin tithe
was the name of the impost to provide for the expenses- of the third crusad« See Fleury, iv.,
hb. lxxiv., p. 781.
Vol. I.— 24

370 LIVES OF THE POPES.
that before his death he caused alms to be distributed equaUy among
Christians and Mussulmans. He then ordered that his winding-sheet
should be carried into the public places, and that a herald should proclaim
aloud : " Behold aU that Saladin, the conqueror of the East, can bear with
him of aU his conquests."* Platina says on this subject : " Spectacle worthy
of a great prince, who lacked only Christianity to constitute him a perfect
character."f Before we speak of the fourth crusade, advised by Celestine IH., let us
give some attention to what befeU Richard on his way back to his kingdom.
He returned from the Holy Land with a smaU body of adherents. While
traversing Austria, Leopold, duke of that country, arrested and dehvered
him into the hands of the Emperor Henry VI. That prince, not having
been in Palestine, could have no complaint to make of the haughtiness of
Richard, whose indomitable pride was deplored by the whole army.| Phihp
Augustus may have foreseen that the Enghsh king intended to wrest the
throne of Jerusalem from a French famUy. Henry VI. could not openly
make that complaint, and he pretended that he kept the Enghsh king a
prisoner untU he should pay a considerable sum, which he did not owe,
and wliich no reasonable person could demand. Celestine IH. thought it
his duty to remonstrate with Henry, and on his refusal to do justice, excom
municated him.
The place where Richard was confined is stiU to be seen in Austria ; it
belongs at present to the Lichtenstein family, and is caUed Darnstein.§
* Michaud, History of the Crusades, tome 2, end of book 8.
f Dante, inspired by the traditions of the time, has placed Saladin in the privileged abode of
those who have merited it by an illustrious life ; that abode, however, making part of the first
circle of Hell, where they are separated from the other souls. The poet, after seeing Homer,
Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, and then Hector, Lucretia, and Csesar, adds: "Further on was Sala
din, by himself." — Hell, Canto 6.
X We have a beautiful passage upon the pride of princes, in the Buties of the Great, by Mon
seigneur the prince of Conti, brother of the great Conde. Paris, 1667 ; 12mo, p. 99.
" It is that pride which arrogates the dependence of every thing upon the proud man's self,
and would, were it possible, take from God his sovereign power over all beings; which demands
the sacrifice of all creatures, and which is so fine, so delicate, so imperceptible in a great man, that
it is the soul of all his actions, though he knows it not. He connects every thing with himself,
and believes that all creatures are put to their most legitimate use, when they are destroyed to
his honor and glory ; establishing, so to speak, a worship of which he deems himself worthy,
and demanding, from those who submit, a respect amounting to religion. It was that pride
which ruined human nature in our first parents, as it had ruined the first of the angels, that
desire of entire independence ; and it is the same which still exerts upon the minds of the great
a tyrannical empire, and daily uses their own great qualities to effect their ruin."
§ I visited it in 1818, with a letter from the Princess Jane Lichtenstein, who ordered
the concierge to show us the new building, and the actual dungeon in which, according to
tradition, Richard was confined. We were shown a wooden cage, some three or four yards
high, and the same wide ; the bars were far enough apart to allow an arm to pass between. It
did not seem possible that that cage had actually been the prison of King Bichard. His person
could be secured without the employment of so iniquitous and also useless a means. A well-

CELESTINE m. 37^
Henry soon after died at Messina, and the pope Ordered Christian burial
to be withheld, unless with the consent of the king of England, whose hberty
the pope had procured ; and also unless payment was made to Richard of the
money extorted by the imperial agents. But, in his wiU, Henry, fiUed with
repentance, had ordered his son Frederic not only to repay the sum improp
erly taken from Richard, but also to restore to the Holy See aU the rights
that the kings of SicUy had usurped from the popes ; and he added that, in
the event of his dying without heirs, the throne of SicUy was to revert -to
the Holy See.
Pope Celestine, desiring firmly to estabhsh internal peace, gave up the city
of Tusculum to the Romans, as we mentioned above. Unfortunately, the
Romans, animated by an old animosity, that knew neither bounds nor mercy,
drove away the whole population of that city, as though they had the right
to curse it. Those unfortunate people, deprived of their goods, descended
into the plains and buUt huts of frasche (branches of trees, with the leaves
on). Such was the origin of the celebrated suburb of Frascati, which at
present contains so many magnificent and royal viUas.
That same year, Celestine canonized Saint Peter, bishop of Tarentaise,
formerly a monk of the Cistercian order, who was born in the diocese of
Vienne, in Dauphiny, in 1102, and died in 1175.
Celestine had confirmed, in 1192, the Teutonic mihtary order, so caUed
because it had been instituted at Saint Jean d'Acre, by a society of German
officers from Bremen and Lubeck, for the purpose of aiding and relieving
the sick and wounded of the army under the command of Frederic, duke of
Suabia. Those knights having been caUed upon by Duke Conrad to aid
him against the idolaters in Prussia, he bestowed upon them aU the coun
try they conquered from the idolatrous enemy. In the course of time, they
thus became possessed of the whole of Prussia, whither the Grand Master,
after the takmg of Saint Jean d'Acre by the Saracens, transported the chief
residence of the order, which he estabhshed at. Marienburg. Soon after,
the neighboring princes deprived the knights of their lands and castles.
The marquis of Brandenburg took the rest, when, being grand master, he
embraced, as did a few of the knights, the Lutheran rehgion. Those who
courageously persisted in the Cathohc faith, transferred the chief house of
the order to Marienthal, in Franconia. These knights, in the exercise of
their functions, wore a white cloak with a black cross.
The fourth crusade, ordered by Celestine, attracted to Palestine a great
fastened and weU-guarded room would have prevented the escape of that prince. However,
the situation of that castle-crowned rock, near the Danube, and surrounded by woods, was well
chosen to fill the mind of the prince with Thoughts of anguish and despair. How different his
position then, from that height of his glory when he so brilliantly triumphed over the valiant
Saladin I

372 LIVES OF THE POPES.
number of Germans, but not living on good terms with the Templars and
the other Christians forming the garrison of Saint Jean d'Acre, they retired
to Jaffa, whence, becoming discontented with their chiefs, they returned to
Europe. " Thus," says Fleury, " another great crusade was fruitless."
After the canonization of Saint Ubaldo, canon-regular of Saint John
Lateran, the pope pronounced that of Saint John Gualbert, a Florentine,
who died on the 18th of July, 1075, aged eighty-eight years ; he was the
founder of the congregation of the monks of VaUumbrosa, under the rule
of Saint Benedict.
Celestine issued an important decree on ecclesiastical discipline. He
ordered that chUdren presented to a monastery by their parents should, if
they chose, be aUowed to leave on reaching adult age ; which regulation was
confirmed by the Council of Trent. Custom previously required that the
parents could not revoke the promise given by them, and that the children
thus given up could not leave the monastery.
There are seventeen letters extant, written by this pope. He died on the
8th of January, 1198, and was interred at Saint John Lateran, near Saint
Mary del Riposo.
This pope governed six years, nine months, and nine days. At the point
of death, he desired to abdicate, and he conjured the cardinals to place in
the pontifical Chair of Saint Peter, John of Saint Paul, of the Colonna
famUy ; but they would not consent, saying that it was an unheard of thing
for a pope to depose himself. This fact is related by Roger, a contemporary
of Celestine III., quoted by Baronius.*
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
* The noble ecclesiastical work of the immortal cardinal, at first a member of the Congrega
tion of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, finishes with the year 1198. Volumes would be re
quired to contain all the praises deserved by that work.

W W © © S W T Q Q Q Q

INNOCENT HI.

373

178. INNOCENT III.— a. d. 1198.

NNOCENT in., born in the city of Anagni, son of
Frasimond, count of Segni, uncle of Pope Greg
ory IX., and related to Alexander IV., belonged to
the Conti famUy, and was named John Lothaire.
He was a canon of Saint Peter's, and was named
cardinal-deacon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus,
by Clement III. He was unanimously elected,
notwithstanding a discourse in which he endeav
ored to dissuade the electors from their purpose of imposing upon him so
terrible a burden. His words had weU-nigh persuaded them to give the
tiara to the Cardinal John of Salerno. That prince of the Church had
already obtained ten votes, but he made the utmost efforts to transfer them
to Cardinal Conti, who, nevertheless, was only thirty-eight years old.*
On the 8th of January, 1198, the day on which Celestine III. was buried,
Innocent HI. was elected. He was ordained priest on the 21st of Febru
ary, and consecrated on the 22d, at Saint Peter's ;t whence, after his coro
nation, he went to take the possesso at Saint John Lateran.
In his Constitution IneffabUis, or what would now be caUed the Accession-
Encyclical, Innocent HI. made known to Christendom that he had been
legitimately elected ; spoke of his slight qualification for the tiara, and en
treated the faithful to aid him with their prayers.
Previous to his consecration, the pope granted to the archbishop of Milan
to promote in sacred orders those who should already have received an order
from the pope. This shows that, subsequent to this date, one who had been
ordained by a pope cflral only be promoted to a higher order by permission
of the Holy See. Th^P was an example of that in 1802, under Pius VII.
That pope promoted to the priesthood an ecclesiastic who had received the
other orders from Clement Xlll. ; and this was done only to maintain that
ancient prerogative of the sovereign pontiff.

* We find much important information on the History of Innocent III. and his Century, by
F. Hurter, President of the Consistory of Schaffhausen, translated by the Abbes Jager and Vial,
2 vols., 8vo, 1840. There was a previous translation by M. de Saint Cheron, 3 vols., 8vo, with
which Hurter expressed himself equally satisfied.
t An extraordinary error has' slipped into page 105, vol. i., of Jager's translation of the work
of Hurter. Mention is made of a palladium fastened on the back, the breast, and the side
of the papal attire, with spangles of gold. For palladium read pallium. I have collated the
original, to ascertain what was the expression used by Hurter; he speaks only of pallium
See vol. i., Hamburgh edition, 1841.

374 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The first acts of the new pope were attentively watched in Europe. " He
brought to the administration," says Sismondi, " a profound knowledge of
the interests of his country and of the Holy See, and the courage and am
bition of a stiU youthful patrician, and, finaUy, a reputation for sanctity and
learning, due to a weU ordered hfe and esteemed writings. He had writ
ten a treatise Be Contemptu mundi, seu de Miseria homenis — Contempt of the
World, or, On the Misery of Man — as weU as some dissertations on points of
discipline." We shaU see the hopes excited by the election of so great a personage,
, confirmed by his lofty views and by vigor and firmness of soul which, per
haps, when too violently attacked in troublous times, were goaded beyond
strict limit, yet, in the end, always regained their normal state, with aU the
dignity of a great character.*
In the revolutions of Germany and Southern Italyt — in France, disturbed
by the illegitimate marriage of its sovereign — in the whole extent of the
Cathohc world, where the zeal for the crusaders had produced a new fer
mentation — this pope found ample opportunities to manifest aU the qualities
and aU the talents that Providence had lavished upon him.J
In Germany, Frederic II., of the house Suabia, the successor of Henry
VI., was a chUd only two years of age, and his mother, Constance, recog
nized Innocent HI. as the guardian of that child, and the administrator of
his kingdom.
Already, mere infant as he was, Frederic was proclaimed king of the Ro
mans before the death of his father ; but the imperial crown was claimed
by Phihp, duke of Suabia, the child's own uncle, who was the eldest of the
brothers of Henry VI., and by Otho, then duke of Aquitaine, son of Henry
the Lion, who had been duke of Bavaria and of Saxony.
The most powerful princes in Europe took part in the dispute. Philip
Augustus, in France, declared for Duke Phihp ; and Richard Cozur de Lion,
in England, declared for Otho. The former compet|fcr represented the Wei-

bling (Ghibeline) house; the latter represented ^ WeK (GueK) house.§
* Novaes, iii., p. 143. t Italy, p. 89.
X I will cite a passage from Mr. Jager's Introduction : " The history of the popes in the Middle
Ages has been long disfigured by heaping error on error ; but truth at least pierces the veil that
hides it, and shines forth with its inherent lustre. Gregory VII., Innocent III., find defenders,
and what is most surprising, among the disciples of Luther and Calvin, iu countries which had
hurled the most horrible anathemas upon them. This reparation was due to the Holy See ; it
is a kind of separation which will be followed, we hope, by repentance ; for as soon as the
learned writers of Germany examine the doctrines of Catholicity with the care they bestow on
the history of the popes, they will renounce prejudice and follow the example of a Schlegel, a
Stolberg, a Haller." Mr. Jager was not deceived. Hurter returned to the bosom of the Church.
§ There were in Germany two powerful houses, one designated as the Salique or Weiblingen,
from Weibling, a castle in the diocese of Augsburg, amid the Hertfeld mountains, from which
this house probably came. The partisans of this house, which gave several emperors, were

INNOCENT III. 375
Italy, thus divided, prepared to concur in those fatal contests, and to expend
her blood and treasure in the quarrels of Germany.
Yet Innocent IH. was also to raise his voice in this terrible strife, and
that without losing sight of his position at Rome. Under Celestine III.,
the authority of the senate had been recognized by the popes, and the con
stitution of a body thus named, was regulated by the charter already men
tioned. But this senate had not yet taken its proper form. It consisted of
only one senator, a foreigner and a soldier, who was supposed to have no
duty but that of endeavoring to repress the ambition of the nobles of the
land, but who frequently went much further than they.
Innocent, a skilful statesman, was not long in perceiving that the Romans
had become jealous of a foreigner's exercising a kind of legislative, and, as
it were, sovereign authority. Then he remarked that, according to an old
custom, the people had demanded a distribution of money on the accession
of the pope. The confirmation of this privilege was indirectly granted by
the treaty mentioned in the hfe of Clement III.
One of the ministers of the pope endeavored to avaU himseK for the papal
interest of those two important circumstances. The people that elects to
an office, often assume the right to harass, punish, and depose ; but it has
greater respect for an authority in whose election it has had no share, and
shows its respect by accepting liberality.
Innocent HI., in a single day, cast the money to the populace, dismissed
the senator elected by the people, and appointed a new one from among
the partisans of the pontificate. He compeUed the prefect of the city, who
was also an officer of the emperor, that is to say of a prince then non
existent, to pay him liege homage (he who paid liege homage was bound to
the lord by a closer tie than that of simple vassal), and to receive from the
pope's hand a new appointment. FinaUy, he expeUed from the cities and
the patrimony of Saint Peter the judges and the podestds (a kind of in
ferior governors) who had been named by the people. He then, also,
strengthened his power in the cities and towns of Ancona, Fermo, Osimo,
Camerino, Sinigaglia, Pesaro, Rieto, Spoleto, Assisi, Fuligno, Todi, and
Citta di CasteUo. So much for temporal affairs ; but the spiritual affairs
were of far higher importance.
called Weibling. The other house, originally from Alsdorf, at this time possessed Bavaria, and
had several successive princes of the name of Welf. The WeibUng had frequently been in oppo
sition to the popes, while the Welf had repeatedly taken up their defence.
Unhappy Italy! As though insufficiently tormented by her own passions, she must also
espouse those of the neighboring country 1 It was necessary to distinguish friends from foes ;
the German names could not be easily pronounced by the Italians, so each party changed them
to such as suited the national pronunciation. The partisans of the popes, in Italy, called their
friends the Welfs by the name of Guelfi, or Guelfs, while the opposite party, Weiblings, were
called Ghibelins, GhibeUini.

376 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The king of France, Phihp Augustus, was caUed upon to discard Agnes
de Meranie, daughter of the duke of Aquitaine, married after he repudiated
his lawful wife, Ingelburga, daughter of the king of Denmark, whom he
did not recaU untU 1212, subsequent to the interdict laid on his kingdom
by Innocent. He annuUed the incestuous marriage contracted by the king
of Leon, Alphonso, with his niece, the daughter of the king of CastUe. He
exhorted Sancho, king of Portugal, to pay the tribute agreed to by his
father, who, before Pope Lucius II., had declared Portugal a feudatory of
Rome, and had sohcited from Alexander HI. the title of king. These first
labors of Innocent III., these rights which he preserved, or, at need, es
tabhshed, are weU weighed by the penetrating Hurter, who in the foUow
ing passage* expresses his convictions with equal honesty and eloquence :
" H we consider how greatly the papacy surpasses in duration the other
European institutions ; how it has seen them rise and disappear ; how
amidst that ebb and tide of human vicissitudes she alone has always pre
served and defended, without change, the spirit that gave her hfe ; how
can we wonder that so many look up to her as to the rock that is ever
beaten by the foaming waves of time, yet even unshaken by them ?" In
confirmation of his remark, Hurter adds the foUowing note : " History
alone dictates this judgment — not dogmatic polemics, which have no
.place in this work." Such reflections explain the pohcy which the sover
eign of Portugal must necessarUy embrace, and the confidence which both
he and his people felt in the power of the pope. Innocent can act, he
knows the ground on which Saint Peter stands. By means of the Cardinal
Octavian Conti, his legate in SicUy, Innocent invested the Empress Con
stance, widow of Henry VI., and her son, Frederic, with the kingdom of
SicUy, the duchy of Apulia, the principalities of Capua, Naples, Salerno,
and Amalfi, and the province of Marsi, as fiefs of the Holy See, — the empress
and her son, on their part, to pay the Roman Church a stipulated tribute,
and render liege homage when circumstances permitted. Thus the territory
of the two Sicilies passed from the Normans to the house of Suabia. The
Holy Father approved the institution of the Monks of the Most Holy
Trinity, for the redemption of slaves, founded near Meaux, by Saint
John of Matha, and Saint Fehx of Valois, French nobles. This pontiff also
sent a legate to Armenia, to crown King Leo, who, together with his people,
had returned to obedience to the Holy See, from which a schism had sepa
rated them.
Innocent also turned his eyes to England, to relieve the people. King
Richard stiU reigned there. Hurter, in wise words, confirms the judg
ment that we have already passed upon that king :
* Vol. i., p. 95, Jager's French translation.

INNOCENT III. 377
" Richard of England (vol. i, p. 125), to the virtues of an intrepid hero
joined aU the faults of a brute strength, unameliorated by the moral influ
ences of rehgion, and to which poetry, though he was its friend and patron,
had given none of that seductive prestige that it had communicated to most
of the Eastern prmces. His continual quarrels with the kings of France
kept him less in his insular kingdom than in his provinces on the continent.
His wars, his ransom from captivity, and the taxes required immense sums,
so that, levied upon his subjects, they became insupportable, less by their
actual amount than by the severity with which they were exacted. On his
return from Austria he saw aU those fair hopes disappear which had flat
tered him at the commencement of his reign. He received with fierce
glances those who applied to him in personal matters. He spared neither
the clergy, who in aid of the royal ransom had sacrificed the gold and sUver
vessels of the churches, nor the nobihty and citizens, whose zeal iiad vied
with that of the clergy, and he became a stranger to aU justice whenever
his treasury was empty. Accordingly, his extortions, his domineering
spirit, his pride, and his frequent bursts of anger that amounted to brutal
ity, extinguished that admiration and love which his courage had kindled
in aU hearts, and which he might have retained, and even increased, by
wiser conduct and sentiments more in accordance with justice."
Cathohc Europe beheld with pain the prince who was surnamed the Lion-
Hearted,, yielding to passions so shameful. Providence denied him a long
hfe ; he died at forty-two' years of age, after having distinguished his last
moments by one of those generous actions which had been so familiar to
him at the commencement of his reign, in 1190.
In turning his looks back upon Rome, Innocent saw no reason to con
gratulate himseK upon an even endurable situation.
Hurter defines this situation with his customary talent, in a style that
has some of the coloring of Gibbon :*
" The Romans had inherited aU the vices of their ancestors, and added
to them aU the vices of the new tribes, whose influence had revolutionized
Italy. Of the glorious past nothing remained but the memory of a lost
greatness ; the sohd base on which that greatness rested, and the moral
means by which it had been developed, had vanished entirely from their
memory. Like all people who faU from the height of glory, the Romans
fancied themselves stiU at the highest period of their greatness as soon as
they uttered the names of their ancient heroes, or pretended to renew
social forms and pohtical institutions of wliich not a vestige remained, or
decked their brows with laurels that centuries had blasted. So, when, in
the time of Pope Lucius H., they obtained the restoration of the senate,
* Vol. i., p. 142, of the translation by M. Jager.

378 LIVES OF THE POPES.
and Roman knights, and the reopening of the capitol, they fancied that
they were again in ancient Rome ! Surrounded by these phantoms, the
Romans so persuaded themselves that they had reconquered their ancient
splendor, that they wished to make of that epoch a new era. And when,
to complete that Ulusion, Arnold of Brescia presented himseK before that
populace with his doctrines of popular hberty and popular enfranchisement
from the ' yoke' of the Church and of aU behef ; when that man, treading
in the steps of the demagogues of aU times and of aU countries, flattered
the opinions of the multitude, the Romans exerted themselves to hmit the
rights of the popes, oppressed by the emperors, though powerless to defend
against the emperor those conquests which Rome had made only by the
influence of the pontifical power."
Amidst these strifes, Innocent estabhshed a firm authority, which re
strained aU pohtical parties ; and with the same effort he brought back
men's minds to that veneration which, after aU, every Roman loves to testify
for every thing which concerns the glory of the faith. •
In 1199, this pope canonized Saint Homobono, of Cremona, who died on
the 13th of November, 1197 ; he erected into a metropohtan See the church
of ComposteUa, in Spain, by the Constitution In Eminenti of the 14th of
July ; or rather, as some authors think, he confirmed the erection of that
metropohtan See, which had been ordained by Cahxtus II., in 1120. It is
known that this last-named pope instituted seven canons there, who were
caUed cardinals because they wore red vestments.' Only these canons were
allowed to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice upon the altar of the apostle Saint
James. Innocent, in the year 1200, confirmed the order of the Humiliati,
founded at Milan by Saint John de Meda. in 1199. The long course of
years and the accumulation of wealth produced fatal abuses among these
religious, which Pius V. wishing to remedy, ordered their reformation
by Saint Charles Borromeo, the protector of the order. Deplorable scenes
ensued, and Saint Pius V. was obhged to suppress that order, in the year
1571. In 1200, Pope Innocent IH. canonized the Empress Saint Cune-
gunda, who, with the consent of her husband, the Emperor Henry H., had
hved in a holy and perpetual virginity. *
The king of Portugal having sohcited the confirmation of the mihtary
order of Saint Benedict of Avis,* instituted against the Saracens, under the
rule of the Cistercians, by Alphonso I., the pope granted that favor. The
knights wore a golden cross ornamented with hhes, among which are two
birds, in allusion to the Latin word Avis. Julius HE., in his eighteenth
constitution, named the kings of Portugal perpetual grand masters of that
order. * Avis is the name of the city in which the order had its principal convent.

INNOCENT IH. 379
The kings of Europe incessantly paid the tribute of their veneration to
Innocent. He created the chief of the Bulgarians king, and sent him the
royal sceptre and crown. He also named king, Primislas, prince of Bohe
mia, who had borne the title without its having been bestowed upon him
by the Holy See. Peter of Aragon,. recognized in Aragon as king, went
to Rome expressly to be crowned in the Vatican Basilica, by the pope in
person. In the same year, 1204, the pontiff canonized Saint Procopius, a Bohe
mian, Benedictine abbot of Saint John Raphilus, at Prague, who died about
the year 1053. The Holy Father also bestowed anxious cares upon the
affairs of the Holy Land. He wrote to Cardinal Joffred, who had refused
the patriarchal dignity of Jerusalem :
" We propose to you the example of the Son of God made man, who chose
Jerusalem as his abode, where he, the master, sacrificed his hfe for the
slave, effaced sins, endured aU torments, and devoted himseK to all oppro
brium ; it is you whom he has chosen to be, in some sort, his successor.
You wiU not refuse a burden that is offered to you by divine Providence ;
you should fear neither its pains, nor its anxieties, nor its insults, nor its
poverty, nor its griefs, nor its privations ; but you should resign yourseK to
these evUs for Him who bore aU for you. And if you are called to a church
of which you cannot at this instant take possession, think then of , James,
brother of our Lord, who was placed at the head of that church while he
was stiU in the hands of those who had crucified Jesus Christ. H many
members of that church are prisoners, or if they have faUen beneath the
sword of the enemy, those who have escaped call upon you and expect you
as their shepherd. Do not dispute as to the place ; you are to direct men,
to whom, rather than to the place, belongs the name of Church.* But if
you fear for the place, exert yourseK to the utmost to hasten the reconquest
of the Holy Land. AU agree in representing to us the wrong that you do
to the Eastern Church in refusing the dignity of patriarch. Oh ! fear not
the pain, for you wiU resist God ! We send the pallium, by our legate Peter,
that he may invest you with it ; and we authorize you to choose for your
successor such Cathohc bishop as you shaU prefer."
Innocent was incapable of concealing his real sentiments. He did not
approve of what it was proposed to do at Byzantium, and his mind contin-
uaUy reverted to the holy thought of Palestine. He wrote to the same Car
dinal Joffred : " It is difficult (Ep. vi, p. 130) to remain firm amidst the
agitated sea that is caUed the world, and amidst a host of enemies, visible
and invisible : ydU are not of this world ; seek not that which concerns it,
* What magnificence of expression ! what sublime tenderness in these precepts of the supreme
pontiff I

380 LIVES OF THE POPES.
but that which concerns Christ. Seek not your own glory, but that of Him
crucified. Ought you to wonder that, bearing the cross, you feel its weight ?
Do not the sufferings of this hfe conduct to glory in the next ? If you are
afflicted by the knowledge that the Saracens inhabit the land which beheld
the passion and the resurrection of our Lord, and that they poUute His
Temple, then remember the complaints of the Psalmist : Lord, the heathen
have attacked thy heritage, they have profaned thy holy Temple and. made Jeru-
lem a Jieap of stones.
" H you complain that, hke the sons of Ephraim, the princes who have
taken the cross, turn back in the day of battle, and seem to have forgotten
their design, remember the reproaches of the prophet — I have fed and reared
my sons and they have turned away from me. It is thus that you wUl change
mourning into joy, sorrow into pleasure ; thus you will become worthy to
drink the chalice wliich the Lord has drunk for us. We who are not only
his unworthy representative, but even useless servant, share your grief,
and wiU do aU we can to mitigate it. Although the army has turned against
Greece, we do not renounce the claims of the Holy Land."*
Innocent, though displeased with the dissimulating conduct of the Greek
emperors, was pained, nevertheless, by the news of the bloody occupation
of Constantinople, the capital of the Greek empire; and he shed tears
when he learned that, on the 16th of March, the Latins had recognized, as
king, Baldwin, count of Flanders.f
To prevent the heretical Albigenses, who were numerous in France, from
secretly dogmatizing, Innocent, after excommunicating Raymond VI., count
of Toulouse, established in the city the first tribunal to which the name of
Inquisition was given, because it made inquisition of those who secretly
dogmatized. The first head of that tribunal, which by degrees retired from France to
Spain and Italy,:): was Peter de Chateauneuf, a Cistercian monk, and pon-
* To this letter Hurter adds : " Is this the language of a man using the sanctity of his minis
try to cloak ambitious views, and bold only because all around him are blinded by error 1 Vet
such is the light in which some book-makers would present to us the popes (especially Innocent
III.) and the Middle Ages. We may say of history, as Bacon did of philosophy : Leviores haustus
acocant a Beo ; pleniores ad Beum reducunt."
f The account, in Hurter's work, of the attack on Constantinople, is a fine piece of history
which deserves a separate perusal. I regret to see, however, that he attributes the Venetian
horses, which we have seen at Paris, to Lysippus. See the note p. 125 of this History. There is
another passage which, though certainly very short, has really afflicted me. Speaking of the
division of the booty, he says : " Here it was not the holy zeal which had formerly animated
Gregory the Great against the idols, but a base and vile cupidity." The last point is true,
and no one contradicts it ; but the unjust accusation against Gregory tile Great should not be
repeated. Gregory the Great did not destroy the Temple at Rome. (See Life of that great
pope in this work.) Once more I say, Gregory the Great was not a puller down of images;
there is no reason to speak of the holy zeal which animated him against the idols.
i Novaes, iii., p. 155.

INNOCENT III. 381
tifical legate. Innocent canonized him* the year of his martyrdom, by order
of Raymond VI. However, it is not to be believed that, in the wars of the
Albigenses, the latter were constantly the victims, and presented their
throats to their enemies without ever smiting them.
We cannot pass unnoticed the great Saint Francis of Assisium. In 1268,
he wrote his rule, founded upon the most rigid poverty, and presented it to
the Holy Father, who, seeing in Francis a protector of the Church, entirely
approved those statutes, which he emphaticaUy praised in the CouncU of
Lateran, assembled in 1215.
. The first house of those friars was the church of Saint Mary of the Por-
tiuncula, which had been given to them by the Benedictines.
The Franciscan orderf so greatly increased there, that in 1219 five thou
sand Franciscans assembled at Assisium for that chapter general caUed of
tJie Mats (della stuore), because it was necessary to construct cells of mats
to receive the numbers who came to the chapter.
At that time, Sancho I., king of Portugal, disposed, at his own pleasure,
of the ecclesiastical benefices, usurped the incomes of them, Ul-treated the
clerks, and abhorred the monks, regarding it as an Ul omen to meet any of
them on his road.
Innocent, always fuU of zeal for the ecclesiastical interests, paternaUy
exhorted King Sancho to desist from the commission of such injustice ; and
he even went so far as to intrust the archbishop of ComposteUa with the
right to punish the prince, should he not amend his conduct. Sancho wrote
a letter of excuse to the Holy Father. Innocent, in reply, declared to him
that he deserved to be excommunicated, because he had outrageously de
prived his sisters and brothers of what had been left to them by Alphonso,
their father. Then the Holy Father authorized two abbots of the monas
teries to absolve Sancho, K he would restore, as in fact he did, aU that he
had usurped.
Frederic, king of SicUy, having been elected emperor in place of Otho,
who had unjustly held the Church lands, Innocent received Frederic at
Rome with great honors. Then that prince confirmed the donations that
* Lambertini says that Pope Innocent did not formally canonize Peter ; that he only approved
the documents that established the fact of the martyrdom, hoping to pronounce the canonization
at a future time.— Je Canoniz., lib. i, cap. xix., n. 9.
t The order of Saint Francis has produced five pontiffs— Nicholas IV., Alexander V., Sixtus IV.,
Sixtus V., and Clement IV, It can also claim nearly fifty cardinals, an infinite number of patri
archs, archbishops, bishops, and two electors of the holy Roman empire. The order glories in
having sent to heaven forty-six canonized martyrs, and seventeen canonized with the title of
Confessors, besides many others whose office is performed by the permission of the Church. In
the chapter general, held at Rome in 1628, eighty of its sons were mentioned whose canoniza
tion was in progress. That number increased to a hundred and ten. We may add more than
two thousand of both sexes who have shed their blood for Christ, or who, for their sanctity, have
merited to be considered as saints.

382 LIVES OF THE POPES.
he had made of the county of Fondi and of other baronies, because Richard
dell' Aquila, who had possessed them, had constituted the apostohc cham<
ber his universal heir. All those customs belonged to the times ; a man
appointed as his heir whoever he deemed worthy to be so.
The affairs of Europe could not distract Innocent from his constant care
to strengthen the spirit of fervor that was necessary to caU Christians to
the succor of the Holy Land. The troubles resulting from the occupation
of Constantinople at the same time began to diminish. Hurter sagaciously
explains the causes which, on this subject, diminished the anxieties of the
Holy Father :
" Constantinople, under the Greek emperors, had long been cut off from
Europe. It was known that its inhabitants adored Christ ; but the differ
ence of dogmas, the diversity of ceremonies, and the divergence of the reli
gious and pohtical institutions had loosened the ties which had united it to
the West. In fact, pubhc life there took a peculiar form. Its legislation
was different, and the emperor bore a different relation to his court and
nobles from that of sovereigns to the other courts of Europe. Foreign
nobles sought in vain among the Greek nobUity that chivalric spirit and
that respect for woman that was observable among the Latins. The arts,
also, presented themselves under a different form. At Byzantium they
resembled a full-blown flower, whose leaves feU one by one ; whUe in the
West they began to bud, to display their richness and beauty. Minstrelsy,
so much admired and cultivated in the West, was neither hked nor culti
vated in the East.
" In the state of the sciences there was no greater resemblance. The
Western church, enjoying greater hberty, produced more remarkable men
than the Eastern did, subjected as the latter was to the caprice of licen
tious princes. The Cathohc nations of Europe, also, had greater analogy
with each other, in the relations of common IKe, than obtained in the East.
It was the same as to language. But for the scrupulous honesty of the
early crusaders, the imperial crown of Byzantium would long since have
passed to a Latin head. The events that succeeded prove how a single
fault may produce an innumerable series of unfortunate comphcations. The
armed intervention of the crusaders of 1202, in favor of the dispossessed
Greek Prince Alexis, was the first motive that urged them, almost in spite
of themselves, to a struggle the success of which surpassed their utmost
hopes. But how different was their conduct from that of the crusaders of
1099, who, under the command of Godfrey de BouiUon, had made their way
into the holy city ! The nature of the ends respectively aimed at by those
two expeditions, seemed to have communicated itseK to their feelings and
their acts. What pious ardor, what devotion to works of benevolence, shone
among the hberators of the Holy Sepulchre, K we can for an instant forget

INNOCENT III. 383
the deplorable consequences of the frightful assault which was so crueUy
necessary to the taking of the city ! And then, what audacity, what greedi
ness, what barbarism in the oppressors of Byzantium !"
The pope then had no longer to bewail the spirit of independence which
led the Greeks to have httle respect for the power of Rome. Even the
authority of the Latin king, circumscribed by new dangers, and by the de
fection of some of the crusaders, who, after sharing in the conquest, had
retired laden with booty, did not show itseK much more disposed to recog
nize the voice of the Roman pontiff, who vainly exclaimed that it was not
. at Byzantium that the Church of Christ suffered the greatest evils.
However, it could not escape the perception of so great a man as Inno
cent HI., that Byzantium was one of the roads leading to Jerusalem. But
a pope, who so loved duty could not refrain from addressing sharp reproofs
to the crusaders. He said :* " You have lightly broken your vow, since,
having sworn, in your obedience to the Crucified, that you would dehver
the Holy Land from the hands of the infidel, you have attacked, in defi
ance of threats of excommunication, a Christian country, although you
were forbidden to do so unless the inhabitants should oppose your passage,
or should refuse you necessaries ; and even in that case you were not to act
except with the advice of the legate. You have wielded the sword, not
against the Saracens, but against Christians ; you have conquered, not Je
rusalem, but Constantinople ; you have preferred earthly wealth to the
treasures of heaven. But what renders you stiU more guUty, is the fact
that you have spared neither age nor sex ; you have pubhcly abandoned
yourselves to prostitution and adultery.t You have given up to the lust of
the wicked, not only wives and widows, but also the virgins devoted to the
worship of the Lord. It did not suffice you to draw from the imperial
treasury, and to seize upon the wealth of both great and smaU, but you
also laid sacrilegious hands upon the wealth and lands of the Church ; you
carried away the silver plates of the altars, broke open the sacristies, and
stole the crosses, the images, and the rehcs. Accordingly, notwithstanding
the exertions directed towards the Greek Church, she begins to refuse
obedience to the Holy See, because she has seen amongst the Latins only
treachery and the works of darkness, and she flies from them as from
dogs."* The Emperor Baldwin presented for Constantinopolitan patriarch the
* Ep. viii., 133.
t The details of this other assault had reached Rome, and had inspired the horror of all
Christendom. In the castles the minstrels were called upon to recount the magnanimity of
Saladin taking Jerusalem, to compare that act of greatness to the sanguinary and greedy con
duct of the crusaders at Byzantium.
X We give this letter textually, because it shows in what point of view Innocent then con
sidered the events at Constantinople.

384 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sub-deacon Thomas, then at Rome. Innocent at first opposed some diffi
culties, but ended by approving the election.
On the 5th of March, 1205, Thomas was ordained deacon ; the Saturday
after the third week of Lent, he was ordained priest ; and on the foUowing
Sunday he was consecrated bishop, in the Church of Saint Peter's, where
he received the pallium. He then, in the appointed form, took the oath of
obedience and fidelity to the Holy See. The act of nomination drawn upon
that occasion ran thus : " The favor which the Holy See* heaps upon the
Church of Byzantium, in raising it to the patriarchate, shows the extent of
the power of the Church ; a power bestowed upon Saint Peter by the Man-
God, and by virtue of which the pope, his representative, can make the
first last, and the last first. The Byzantine Church, formerly without rank
and without See, is raised to the patriarchate by the Roman Church, and,
after her, takes the highest rank. Formerly withdrawn from obedience to
the Roman Church, the Byzantine Church now returns to it."
New embarrassments afflicted Innocent. There were two pretenders to
the empire, Phihp, duke of Suabia, and Otho, duke of Aquitaine. The
pope had not made it known which he was inclined to favor. Frederic II:,
of the house of Suabia, the successor of Henry VI., considered Innocent
III. as his guardian, and, even before the death of his father, had been
declared king of the Romans. The most powerful princes of Europe,
ignoring the rights of Frederic, sided with the other rivals. The first
served the Ghibeline faction, the second the GueK faction.
Baldwin of Flanders, emperor of Byzantium, died whUe a prisoner with
the Bulgarians ; his brother Henry was named as his successor.
At this juncture a quarrel resulted in the assassination of PhUip by the
guards of his rival Otho.
The pope had been opposed to the duke of Suabia, as emperor elect, but
not recognized by Rome ; but was not therefore opposed to the same prince
as Phihp of Suabia, against whOm the pope had no complaint. The pope,
therefore, far from rejoicing at the death of Phihp, which so greatly facili
tated the elevation of Otho, the secret object of so many years of effort,t
was much grieved when he heard of the tragical end of that prince, and in
very significant terms he expressed the horror with which he regarded both
the murderer and his accompUces. The popes of that period deemed it
their right to combat with both spiritual and temporal weapons for a cause
which they deemed the Almighty's, and to continue the combat to the an
nihilation of the adversary, but they never sought victory by odious means.
On the other hand, Germany was plunged into anarchy in consequence
of the long contests between the two pretenders to the empire. Otho re-
* Hurter, ii., 23. f ^id., ii., 160.

INNOCENT HI. 335
doubled his efforts to win over Philip's adherents. As aU desired peace,
and the cessation of discord, a diet assembled at Frankfort with the con
sent of the legates from Rome, and Otho was elected emperor. It now
required only the confirmation of Innocent, placed between his duty
as guardian of young Frederic, and his sense of what the interest alike of
the Holy See and of all Europe required. Innocent wiU now show his in
most soul.
Otho asked why Frederic, who occupied Sicily, and in whose name a firm
government was estabhshed, seemed determined to disturb the peace of the
empire. Innocent rephed : " In accordance with the last wiU of his parents,
the king of SicUy is under our guardianship, and, having received his king
dom as a fief of the Church, he owes us the fidelity of a vassal to his
sovereign. We cannot refuse him advice and assistance in the affairs of
his kingdom, for, in the words of the apostle, we owe justice to aU, but we
shall aid neither him nor any one else against you, whom we have so much
endeavored to raise up, and to whom, as you confess in your letters, you
owe the honor conferred on you at Frankfort. Should aU else abandon
you, the Church, with which you ought to hve in perfect harmony, would
never refuse you its protection. Doubt not of our good-will ; govern ac
cording to the commandments of God, and walk with pure heart in the
way of peace and salvation."
It remained to be seen what were the intentions of Otho, should he suc
ceed in being crowned at Rome. Then, by his order, an address was pub
hshed at Spires, returning thanks for the support of the pope, and promis
ing, for the emperor elect and his successors, to the pope and his successors,
and to the Roman Church, obedience, submission, and respect, renouncing
the abuse of taking part in the election of bishops, granting to each of them
the right to appeal to the Holy See, and abandoning aU pretension to the
succession of deceased prelates, or to the revenues of vacant churches.
This document also promised, on the part of the emperor elect, to co-oper
ate in the annihUation of heresies, and to maintain the Roman Church in
the tranquU possession of all the territories that she had received from
preceding emperors, and even to assist her in reconquering the provinces
that were stUl to be recovered.
Preparation was then made for the marriage of Otho with Beatrice,
daughter of Phihp of Suabia. AU Germany felt that that marriage would
produce universal peace. A scene ensued that strikingly Illustrates the
manners of the times ; a compound of cynicism and piety, forced to mingle
with each other. Otho invited the attention of aU present, and then said,
that from among the noblest ladies of the empire he had selected the
daughter of Phihp, duke of Suabia, but that he deemed it necessary to ask
their opinion, whether he could contract that marriage without danger to
Vol. I.— 25

386 ' LIVES OF THE POPES.
his soul ; for, rather than perU his soul,* he would prefer to remain un
married. He therefore invited his auditors to look to that, rather than to
the nobihty or the great possessions of the young princess. The princes
retired to consult, and, in order that they might the more freely do so, Otho
desired his brother, the count palatine, to remain with him.
Morimond, the Cistercian abbot, who had foUowed the emperor elect
with the fifty-two monks of the abbey of Walkenreid, proposed that, in
expiation of any thing unlawful in the projected marriage, the prince should
promise to be the protector of the convents and the churches, the widows
and the orphans, to found in his own domains a monastery of the Cistercian -
order, and personaUy to aid the Holy Land.t
The princes again presented themselves before the king (the emperor
elect), and Leopold, duke of Austria,! an eloquent personage, stated that
the princes and jurisconsults were unanimous in the opinion that the mar
riage of Otho and the daughter of Philip could not fail to be advantageous
to the empire. He added, that with respect to the proposal of the Abbot
Morimond, the princes would also contribute towards the estabhshment of
the monastery. The emperor elect having given his consent, the dukes of
Austria and Bavaria introduced the young princess, and asked her consent.
She blushingly gave it (unfortunate princess !), and then Otho descended
from the throne, bowed, drew a ring from his finger and affianced himself
to the princess. After embracing her he seated her on the throne between
the cardinals,§ and when the princes were also seated, he said to them :
" Behold your queen : honor her as such." The affianced bride and her sister
were escorted in pomp to Brunswick. Otho remained in Franconia to
settle some business, and prepare for the coronation journey. With respect
to that ceremony, Hurter describes the church of Saint Peter as it was then.
I extract his description, which, moreover, agrees in details with aU that
I had coUected in other quarters on the subject.
When we reach the age of Michael Angelo and of Raphael, I shaU have
to speak of Saint Peter's and the Vatican, as we now see them. It is fitting,
therefore, to speak of what Saint Peter's then was ; antiquaries will thus
learn what they have lost, and the admirers of the great Florentine and of
the painter of Urbino wUl reahze the debt of gratitude which rehgion and
the arts owe them. It wUl be perceived that Saint Peter's must always
have been a rich and imposing temple. " Like a majestic mother, sur
rounded by a group of daughters brilliant in the graces of youth,! the
church of Saint Peter, situated beyond the waUs, rose amidst a crowd of
* Hurter, ii., p. 226. f Otto de Saint Bias, Arn Lubek, vii., p. 19.
X I much fear that this was the same duke who kept Richard Cceur de Lion, king of England,
prisoner at Durnstein.
g Hurter, ii., p. 227. | Ibid., ii., p. 242, Jager's translation. -

INNOCENT III.

387

other churches, chapels, and convents. The popes had then no residence
there, but, on aU occasions of solemnity, repaired thither from the Lateran
palace * A flight of thirty-five marble steps led to the three entrances of
¦the portico, the walls of which were adorned with marbles and paintings.
On one side, on three brass tablets, were inscribed the names of all the
kingdoms, countries, cities, and islands that were tributary to the Holy
See.f By three other doors, the portico was left for the porch, which the
care of Pope Sergius:): had paved with marble. In that porch was a pine
apple, of gilt bronze, fifteen palms high, which had formerly ornamented
the tomb of the Emperor Adrian,§ inclosing leaden pipes from which water
issued in jets. Above this, eight porphyry piUar-s supported a gilded roof,
from which four gilt dolphins spouted forth water into a large basin. This
masterpiece was due to the munificence of Pope Symmachus. [| Silver
doors separated the porch from the sanctuary. This part of the church
contained aU that the piety of the heads of Catholicity had for centuries
coUected, most magnificent in symbohcal significance, workmanship, and
material. Besides the high altar dedicated to Saint Peter, there were
twenty-seven other altars ; and it is difficult to say whether the mind of a
stranger was more impressed by the rich decorations of that vast inclosure,
or by the host of the faithful who, from all parts of the world, often almost
precluded aU access to the rehcs of the prince of the apostles. There,
were chapels adorned by the finest mosaic work, and the most precious
metals,! and sanctified by the most venerable rehcs of the Christian mar
tyrs, the doctors, and the pastors. Here, the mausoleums of almost all the
popes** subsequent to Saint Clement, set forth by inscription and symbols,
their acts, their quahties, and their piety. The soul was penetrated with
admiration at the view, in that sanctuary, of the union of the deepest mys
teries, and the earthly envelope of so many great geniuses who, during long
centuries,ft had directed the inteUigence of past generations, and by their
* A considerable distance had to be traversed.
t It has been said that Rome preserved a sort of hypocritical and secret jurisdiction over differ
ent countries. That list of kingdoms, islands, and cities, presented to the gaze of all comers
that there was nothing either hypocritical or secret in that j urisdictiou. I have deemed it neces
sary to add this note to the labor of Hurter.
X Probably Sergius IV., one hundred and forty-sixth pope, created in 1009.
§ Paul V. caused it to be removed to the Belvidere garden. We shall speak further of that
ancient monument, which is nearly four yards in height.
1 Saint Symmachus, fifty-second pope, created in 498, was a most generous prince.
If Only the canons of the Church had the right to enter the chapel in wliich was preserved
the Holy Sudarium.
** We have given the list of all those who were interred at the Vatican. See, also, note on
p. 16, relative to the tomb of the two apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in the subterranean
church, in the midst of the new Basilica built over the ancient one by Julius II. and Leo X.
tf Nine centuries might be said ; what is described here existed in 1209.

388 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sentiments, their knowledge, and their morals had, generally, raised them
selves hke so many pillars of truth.
" On the eastern side of the church, which indicates the light shed upon
the sphitual world, shone the high altar of Saint Peter, adorned by aU that
art and wealth could find to glorify the holy Apostle. His successors alone
had the right to be crowned before that high altar. Four porphyry piUars
supported the canopy of the altar. In front were twelve towering piUars,
six of which were sent from Greece by Constantine. At the side of that
altar gleamed, hke the source of hght upon the dark earth, amidst diamonds,
rubies, and emeralds, a cross of the finest gold, weighing one thousand
pounds.* It was presented by Pope Leo IV. t Near this cross was the
golden table of the two Testaments ; it was ornamented with emeralds, and
weighed two hundred and fifty pounds ; around were suspended forty silver
lamps ; besides which, one hundred and fifty tapers burned by day, and two
hundred and fifty by night.
" On great solemnities, a quantity of gold and silver candelabra, in the
form of gigantic . crosses, of luminous trees, and of garlands, enriched with
precious stones, shed around a light more brilliant than that of the day-
star ; a balsamic oU keeping up the flame, and diffusing the most delightful
perfume. Rods and rings of silver supported the hangings of the choir,
which, under Pascal L, were made of cloth of gold. Forty-six of those
hangings represented the Passion of our Lord, and a hke number the acts
of the Apostles.
" The ornaments of the altar were in no respect wanting to this marvel
lous magnificence. Pedestals, some plated with gold and sUver, and some
of solid metal, supported a golden cross enriched with fine stones, as if
to show that ignominy had disappeared from the cross, and had been re
placed by a brilliant splendor, since Christ had wrought the salvation of the
world. Statues of saints stood upon other pedestals.
"Leo III.J placed two sUver angels at the entrance to the choir. Leo
IV., one of the principal benefactors of this temple of Christianity, gave a
statue of our Lord seated upon his throne between two celestial messen
gers, and surrounded by twenty other statues. Other pedestals served to
support magnificent vases or costly hangings. But what especially awak
ened the admiration of the faithful§ were the paintings on the ceiling, rep- -
v A thousand pounds of gold would now cost about three hundred thousand dollars.
t The one hundred and fifth pope, created in 847. See what we have said of the courage and
magnificence of Leo IV. (ante, p. 215). It was he who had the old church of Saint Peter sur
rounded by walls, and it was of him that Voltaire said : " Leo, in his defence of Borne, proved
himself worthy to be her sovereign."
X He was the ninety-eighth pope, created in 795 ; and he crowned Charlemagne as emperor.
§ I omit npthing from this description, which testifies the learned research of Hurter. As I
have said, let those who dare, compare the magnificence of Saint Peter's as it was, and as it is.

INNOCENT III. 389
resenting the creed of the Christian revelation ; paintings even more re
markable for the depth of their mysterious meaning than for their artistic
merit.* There were the mysteries of the Church mihtant, the cross, and
the Lamb ; from the wounds of the Lamb flowed five streams, towards
wliich the twelve tribes of Israel proceeded under the form of twelve
lambs. The pope (probably Innocent in.) was in the attitude of adoration
beside the Lamb, and held in his hand the banner of victory. Above, in a
starry sky, and seated on a throne, was our Lord, holding in his hand a book
whence proceeded the four Gospels, under the form of the four rivers of
Paradise, whUe the nations, represented by harts panting for the fountains,
flocked to hear him. Peter and Paul, with halo-circled heads, announced
the Son of the living God, and promised a new hfe to the faithful. A dove
escaped from a hand that emerged from the clouds. Such, at that period,
was the temple dedicated to the chief of the Apostles, "t
In the morning, the steps of the church of Saint Peter, and aU the streets
and avenues in the vicinity, were occupied by priests. There was a Roman
party to whom the election of Otho was distasteful, and it was necessary to
make a formidable display of troops to put down, at need, the malcontents.
Otho had some difficulty in advancing with his own attendants.
The pope, surrounded by the cardinals, bishops, and clergy, was seated
in front of the bronze gate, at the head of the steps leading to the church.
Three bishops descended the steps to give the benediction to Otho and to
conduct him to the pope.
Otho. after kissing Innocent's feet, swore, as Henry VI. had sworn, to
attack neither the Church nor its rights ; to be an equitable judge, the pro
tector of the widow and the orphan; with aU his power to defend the
churches, especiaUy the patrimony of Saint Peter, to watch over and sup
port the dignity of the empire, and to reconquer the rights which had been
taken from it.
The pope then said: "WiU you live in peace with the Church?" The
emperor having thrice rephed " Yes," the pope said : " I give you peace as
it was given by the Lord to his disciples," and kissed him on the forehead,
the chin, and the cheeks. Then he continued, " Will you be a son of the
Church?" and the emperor having answered in the affirmative, the pope
said: "I receive you, then, as a son of the Church;" and then covered
him with his cloak, taking him by the right hand, and the emperor kissed
the pope on the breast. They thus proceeded from the bronze gate to the
* They date from the time of Saint Sylvester, thirty-third pope, created in 314. Innocent III.
had them repaired about the year 1200.
t Hurter's words are : " The metropolitan church of Christendom ;" but that title more prop
erly belongs to Saint John Lateran, which is called Mater et Caput ecclesiarum—Motlier and
Head of the Churches.

390 LIVES OF THE POPES.
silver gate, during the singing of the Benedictus Bominus Bens Israel —
" Blessed be the Bord God of Israel."
The pope leaving the emperor in prayer, returned to the church, during
the singing of, Peter, lovest thou me ? The emperor was then introduced.
Seven Itahan bishops sat on the right hand of the pope, and seven German
bishops on the right hand of the emperor. Innocent then said : " The an
cient rules of the holy Fathers require that he who is placed above others,
should be charitably examined as to his faith and hfe ; for, it is written,
Impose not hands lightly." The emperor was then asked if .he promised to
be pious, temperate, disinterested, affable, and mild, and K he sincerely
admitted all the articles of the Catholic faith. The pope, having blessed
him after his answer to those questions, went into the sacristy, whence he
returned clad in the papal vestments, to proceed with the rites. The arch-
priest and archdeacon of the Sacred CoUege, who were stationed near the
emperor, to direct him in the ceremony, then conducted him to the sacristy,
where the pope received him as a canon of Saint Peter's, and caused him
to put on the costume of that dignity. They then left the sacristy and
advanced towards the altar of Saint Peter, and the archdeacon intoned the
litany. The bishop of Ostia then anointed the emperor, and prayed the
Most High to give him his Holy Spirit, that he might govern the people
with justice, have God constantly before his eyes, and merit his goodness.
The pope then descended from the throne, and, with Otho, proceeded to
the altar of Saint Maurice, whither the proper officers brought the imperial
crown from the high altar. The pope first presented the ring to the em
peror, saying : " Take it as the symbol of faith, sovereignty, and power."
Then he girded him with the sword, that with the blessing of God and by
the power of the Holy Ghost he should cast down his own enemies and
those of Holy Church, and protect the kingdom and soldiers of Christ.
During the prayers which accompanied e'ach of those ceremonies, the pope
received, from the hands of the archdeacon, the imperial crown, placed it
on the head of the emperor, and gave him the sceptre, emblem of the
imperial authority, with which he was to protect the Church and the Chris
tian people, to punish the wicked, and give peace to the good. The head
of Christendom then returned with his assistants to the high altar. The
prefect of the city and the chief judge conducted the emperor to his place ;
and the pope having intoned the Gloria in Excelsis, the choirs sang alter
nately. At the end of the chant the emperor placed the crown upon the
altar, heard the Gospel read, laid down the sword, and offered to the pope
bread, tapers, and gold ; in return for which he received the kiss of peace,
and then the body of the Lord. The episcopal shoes were then taken from
the emperor, and replaced by the imperial boots and the spurs of Saint
Maurice. At length lie left the church, accompanied by the pope,

INNOCENT III.

391

to march in procession through the city. Horses stood ready at the
church door. The emperor held the pope's stirrup,* handed him the bridle,
and foUowing him with the crown upon his head and surrounded by aU his
attendants. The chant of the priests arose in the streets, the bells rang,
and the chamberlains of the emperor scattered money among the people
during the whole length of the procession.
At the entrance to the great Lateran palace, the emperor alighted, again
took the pope's stirrup, and together with the prefect, conducted the sov
ereign pontiff to the banqueting haU. At the repast, Otho was seated at
the right of the pope, and after the singing, and the benediction given by
the pontiff, each retired amidst the applause of a portion of the Roman
people. The two sovereigns some time afterwards took leave of each other ; but
a germ of enmity already fermented in the bosom of Otho.
The Waldenses began to excite attention. Some of the principles
of the sect of the Manicheans prevailed, it was supposed, among them.
Peter Waldo, of Lyons, if not the founder, was at least the most active
promoter of the sect. It owed its celebrity less to the innovations it strove
to introduce, than to the audacity with which it propagated principles
already taught in various countries, and even in Rome, by Arnold of Bres
cia. It is related that as several citizens of Lyonsf were at their doors
, talking on indifferent matters, one of them suddenly feU dead. The im
pression made by the event determined Peter Waldo, a rich man, to preach
the nothingness of human hfe, and the necessity of amending their hearts
and becoming more pious. He enlarged on this topic whenever he found
opportunity. Liberal almsgiving soon surrounded him with poor people,
and furnished him with the means of increasing the number of his hearers.
Waldo by degrees became chief of a sect. His followers were called the
Poor of Byons — they caUed themselves the Humble.
The principal attack of these sectarians was upon the visible Church,
wliich they declared corrupted by the use of property. According to them,
they alone preached the true doctrine of Christ ; aU men were equal ; no
one had the right to claim obedience, since there ought not to be any
hierarchy in the Church. They rejected the names of popes and bishops.
Singing in church was a heUish screaming, marriage no sacrament,:): every
honest layman a priest.
Priests' vestments, tapers, incense, and holy water, were according to
them things superfluous and absurd. Images and paintings were a sign of
* This ceremony, says Jager, prescribed by the Germanic law of the middle age, was a token
of submission.
f Hurter, ii., p. 289. X Ibid-- "- P- 393-

392 LIVES OF THE POPES.
idolatry ; the cross only a bit of wood, like any other ; and the sign of the
cross a vain habit. Yet they seem to have had images of our Saviour
on the cross, but the cross was in the form of a T, and our Saviour
had one foot over the other, so as to be attached by only three nails. In
nocent, after testifying his horror of their maxims, disapproved this last
innovation, which scandahzed the faithful ; for he distinctly speaks, in his
sermons, of the form of the cross, and of the four nails.
Such heretics having appeared at Viterbo, Innocent succeeded in alarm
ing them.
A warlike protector was needed by those perverse people. Raymond VI.,
count of Toulouse, whose ancestor is distinguished in history as the com
panion and rival of Godfrey de Bouillon, became the most powerful friend
of those heretics.
Hurter gives exact detaUs of the war declared against the sectaries, of
the siege of Beziers, and of aU the deeds of arms in which the innovators
were defeated.* Unfortunately, views of personal ambition entered into
this war. Some were tempted to the field by the hope of sharing the spoils
of the conquered ; and others expected higher titles, or exemption from a
crusade to the Holy Land, for the name of crusade was also . given to the
expedition against Languedoc.
Otho did not fulfil the promise he had so solemnly made. He annexed
the State of the Church to the empire, and intended the same fate for all
Italy. " Roger, the Norman hero," it was said, " wrested Apuha from the
empire ; that province must be restored." Otho coveted even the provinces
belonging to Frederic ; provinces which he had sworn to respect.
Innocent could not behold unmoved the dangers that menaced the king
dom of Sicily. Although his guardianship was at an end, circumstances
rendered the pope's protection necessary to the young king.
In 1211, the pontiff, with the advice of the cardinals, having long warned
Otho, pronounced an excommunication against him. " for having degener
ated from the sentiments of his ancestors ; for having violated his sworn
faith ; for having seized Viterbo and other cities given by his ancestors to
Saint Peter ; and for preparing to wage unjust war against Frederic II., king
of Sicily."
Meanwhile the Saracens remained quiet possessors of the Holy Land.
Not a soldier left either Greece or Constantinople to cross the sea. The
West prepared no new crusade ; that in the south of France seemed to have
sufficed, though it was accompanied, on both sides, by fearful cruelties that
desolated that fine country. Not one of the noble wishes of Innocent had
been accomplished. The reunion of the Greek to the Latin Church was
* Hurter, ii., p. 384.

INNOCENT III. 393
only apparent ; it resembled a compulsory submission rather than a real one,
and therefore was less calculated to increase the consideration of the Holy
See than to increase its cares,* and to render almost impossible the execu
tion of its duties.
In 1212, Innocent learned with joy the great victory obtained in Spain
over the Moors at Navas de Tolosa, by the kings of Navarre, Arragon, and
CastUe. Spanish historians regard this event as another field of Poitiers,
destined to dehver Spain from the Arab yoke.
In the same year, 1212, Innocent excommunicated John, king of Eng
land, because that king had seized upon aU ecclesiastical rights. In the
foUowing year, however, John, perceiving that in consequence of violent
insults the pope had released the English from their oath of fidelity, and
had invited the king of France to dethrone and succeed him, deemed it best
to return to obedience to the Holy Church ; and he rendered his country
feudatory by promising the punctual payment of a tribute to the authorities
at Rome.
Other disagreements had long existed in Italy. The Pisans refused on
some points to recognize, not indeed the supremacy of Rome, but her right
to make those remonstrances which, in that age, aU the people rightly, and
doubtless for their own happiness and peace, attributed to the benevolent
and wisely advisory intervention of the Roman court, which, having to de
cide in the last resort, repressed tyrannies, punished robberies, and en
deavored to maintain pubhc concord everywhere.
Innocent III., notwithstanding his power, employed no means unworthy
of his character to gain the Pisans. He repeated, that his first duty was
that of pontiff ;t that he had refused the crown ; that he had been elected
in spite of his remonstrances, his cries, and his tears ; and that he would
worthily fulfil aU the obhgations which he had been compelled to accept,
and especiaUy that of being a pacificator.
Let us confess that this courageous moderation could not always resist
the spirit of the age, that spirit which strove to imphcate the pope in the
domestic quarrels of other countries. Let us also declare, that to a right
estabhshed, by universal agreement, in favor of the Holy See, was added a
whole host of cupidities that endeavored to force the pope to be their ac
complice. The king of Hungary invited him to send to the Holy Land the
king's brother, Andrew, whom the king accused of disturbing the State.
Some French barons conjured the pope to give severe lessons to Phihp, who
thwarted their ambition. Innocent was caUed upon by them to remember the
doctrine of Gregory VIL, and to avail himself of that moral weapon in the
recent disputes with John Lackland. The king had threatened the pope
* Hurter, ii., p. 462. | Italy, p. 90.

394 LIVES OF THE POPES.
that the Enghsh should not be aUowed to take treasure to Rome. The
reply to this threat was an interdict. John vilely avenged himseK upon the
bishop of Norwich, who sided with the pope, threw the prelate into prison,
fettered, and with a leaden cope of such crushing weight, that he died in a
few days. Innocent, irritated, and warmly urged by John's nobles, who
were' fervent Cathohcs, thought of deposing the prince. If the pope re
solved upon this violence, a king of France, Philip Augustus himself, under
took to execute the sentence upon the legitimate king of England. Does
not devotion explain these acts ? Never has a pope been alone in an ex
communication ; there was always a benevolent executioner ready to draw
the sword.
Does not any discredit that attaches to an interdict belong more to those
who solicit it, and accept the execution of it, than to those who issue
it ? And in that case, was the interdict -fulminated against John more rep
rehensible than the conduct of those English nobles, who, seeing their king
unfortunate, declared him incapable of reigning, and who sought to replace
him by Louis, son of Phihp Augustus ? But it is a sort of rule with some
that the guilty are to be sought always in Rome. A thorough acquaintance
with aU the interests of that time is requisite to warrant a decision upon
such questions, and with aU my sincere research for facts, it is by no means
clear to my mind, that Rome was always wrong.
Otho being at the point of death, Frederic II. was crowned king of Ger
many, and Italy began to hope for a little tranquillity. Yet it seemed that
calm could not readily be restored. On all subjects, even the most futile,
the pope was called upon to intervene. Amidst these senseless excitements,
Innocent III., whatever may be said to the contrary, did not aUow himself
to be led into error. He perceived, at length, that a malevolent foreign
policy, selfish and dastardly, delighted to involve the Church in affairs of
civU governments, whose intrigues it was unacquainted with. And on care
fully examining the close of this pope's life, where shaU we easily find a
man who has more courageously resisted the universal homage of Europe,
and has been more calm than he, when it is -noted that a king of Portugal,
a king of Arragon, and subsequently, the king of the kingdom of Poland, so
humbly wrote that they were his tributaries. Moreover, that terror which
was inspired by the Saracens, who had become before that handful of Latins
that had occupied the throne of Constantinople stronger than they had
been before the Greeks, who still called themselves Romans (a name calcu
lated to impress a kind of terror, especiaUy upon the barbarians) — that
terror which disguised itself beneath costly armaments, mostly mere shams,
and expeditions that were almost always unfortunate, even when successful —
* Italy, p. 91.

INNOCENT III. 395
concurred to strengthen the power of the pope. And what was that pope ?
Let us give his portrait. Innocent III. was one of the ablest statesmen of
his time, endowed with tried courage, a firm yet not obstinate nature, and
an enhghtenment which may be termed supernatural. His intervention
was sohcited on aU sides ; and he appeared to accept them all. He strove
to leave no affair in an unfinished state. Then, he set the example of great
purity of morals, and when he resisted a repudiation dictated by caprice,
he spoke with the voice of a just, wise, and irreproachable apostle. By his
letters he earned the title of father of the new law ; he composed affecting
prayers, preserved by the Church, he was author of the beautiful Veni Cre
ator Spiritus, and he is said to have composed the Stabat Mater.
Although we have blamed PhUip Augustus on other occasions, it is im
possible for us to forget the glory that he acquired, in 1214, at Bouvines.
He made war in Flanders against Count Ferrand, against the Emperor
Otho, and against the earl of Salisbury, brother of the king of England,
who had come to the aid of Ferrand. The armies met at the bridge of
Bouvines, near Tournay, and Phihp thus addressed his troops :*
" AU our hope is in God : the emperor and his army are excommunicated
by the pope ; they are the enemies and destroyers of the Church, and the
money paid to them is the fruit of the tears of the poor, and of the plunder
of the clergy and the churches. For ourselves we are Christians, and we
rejoice in the communion and the peace of Holy Church. Although sinners,
we are united to the Church, and as far as we can we defend the liberty of
the clergy. Therefore it is that we may confidently hope for the mercy of
God to give us the victory over our enemies."
When the king had thus spoken, the " charge !" was sounded. Behind
the king was the chaplain who wrote the history of that prince, and
another clerk. When the trumpets had sounded, they chanted the one
hundred and sixty-third, the sixty-seventh, and the twentieth psalms, all
apposite to the occasion, and they often wept as they sang.t Victory de
clared for King Philip. The imperial army fled ; the count of Flanders
and the earl of Sahsbury were captured.
We return to our recital of the labors of Innocent III. In 1215, he cel
ebrated the twelfth general and fourth Lateran councUs, to condemn the
errors of the Albigenses.
The fourth canon of that council concerns the Greeks reunited to the
Roman Church. The councU declares that it wiU favor and honor them,---
as far as it can, agreeably to God, supporting their customs and rites ;| but
it blames those who carry aversion so far as to wash the altars on wliich
* Rigord, Gesta Philippi Augusti, Francorum Regis. (Dueheene's Collection, tome iii.)
f Fleury, v., lib. lxxvii., p. 116. X Ibia, Ylb- Ixxii., p. 124.

396 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the Latin priests had celebrated, and to rebaptize those who had been bap
tized by the Latins ; and it forbids such excesses for the future, on pain of
excommunication and deposition. In many countries, people of different
languages are mixed, and differ not only in manners, but also in their rules
as to religious ceremonies, although living in the same city or the same
diocese. That mixture existed in Constantinople and throughout Romania,
where the Latins and Greeks were intermingled ; and in the East, at An
tioch, at Tripoli, and at Saint Jean d'Acre, where the Latins were mingled
with the Syrians, the Greeks, and the Armenians. To avoid the confusion
that might arise from that diversity of languages and rites among Chris
tians having the same belief, the council orders that the bishops of those
dioceses estabhsh men capable of celebrating the divine office before each
nation, and administrating the sacraments and giving instruction to each,
according to its own ritual and in its own language.* It forbids, however,
the placing of two bishops in one diocese, as that would be one body with
two heads, and, consequently, a monster ; but it orders that the bishop
give to those of the other rite a Catholic vicar entirely subject to such
bishop. If any one intrude into the ecclesiastical functions, he is to be ex
communicated, then deposed, and even, if need be, restrained by the secular
power. Another canon of this council declares the rank and the prerogatives of
the four patriarchs, naming him of Constantinople the first, and then those
of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. With respect to them the follow
ing arrangement was made. "After the patriarchs shaU have received
from the pope the pallium, and taken the oath of fidelity, they can give
the pallium to their suffragans, and receive from them professions of obe
dience to them and to the Roman Church. They may have the cross borne
before them everywhere, except at Rome, or in places where the pope or
his legate is present. In all the provinces within their jurisdiction, appeals
will be heard by them, but with right of appeal to the pope."
This council also forbade the establishment of any new religious orders.
The faithful were directed to confess at least once a year.
Innocent also thought fit to forbid ecclesiastics to practise surgery.
This pope died at the age of fifty-six, on the 16th of July, 1216, at Peru
gia, and was interred in the cathedral church of Saint Lawrence.
The ashes of Innocent III., in the year 1345, were joined to those of
Popes Urban IV. and Martin IV., who died in that city, and placed in one
tomb, whence they were removed to a more magnificent one, in 1615.
The Holy See remained vacant only one day.
We think it fitting to insert here what Dom Mauros CapeUani, since
* Canon 9, canon 14, de. Off. jud.

INNOCENT III. 397
raised to the papacy, said of the various popes accused by the innovators.
In the list of such pontiffs he includes Innocent III.*
" We are reminded, in a tone of triumph, of the names of a Zozimus, a
Pelagius I., a Nicholas I., an Honorius, an Adrian I., a Leo IV., an Inno
cent III., &c.
" Every one knows the celebrated and victorious apologies devoted to the
defence of each of these popes, which are constantly quoted by the most
enhghtened critics, the most impartial historians, the most profound theo
logians, and the most sincere Cathohcs. It would be a waste of time to
reproduce those apologies here. The innovators cannot be ignorant of
them ; but they affect to be so, or rather pass them by, and persist in
saying that if the popes were infallible, they should have a firmness supe
rior to aU violences — the tone of supreme judges in the tribunal and in
their own apartment — in debates of councils and in social conversations ;
be infallible in aU their words and in all their practical resolves, whether
interesting the faith or not, whether they concern the Church or concern
merely an individual. From the moment of his elevation, a pope, according
to the innovators, should entirely cease to be a man and become a divinity.
It is in vain to point out that among aU nations, in the sovereigns them
selves, the prince is distinguished from the individual ; that the first of those
quahties does not govern aU his actions ; that in the common understand
ing, the exercise of the sovereignty is always dependent upon the wiU of
the sovereign ; that the prerogatives of power ally themselves with, but do
not destroy the personal quahties ; and, finaUy, that we must consider the
nature of the objects, and other circumstances in wliich a prince or a pope
may be placed, in order to judge in what quahty he acts. Nothing is gained
by presenting these views to our adversaries ; they do not reply to them,
but they entirely ignore them, or, at the utmost, treat them as absurd pue
rilities, mere chicanery, and chimerical distinctions."
It was a simple religious who thus spoke. What subhme instinct told
him that he should be a sovereign? What gift of God unveiled to him,
whUe stUl in the cloister, the depth of the heart of a prince ? Gregory
XVL,t notwithstanding his greatness, was so modest that he has not told
us the secret of that prodigious foresight, but we know it as it were against
his wiU. The mind of a judicious scholar possesses a penetration which
clearly explains the phenomenon.
Let us return to Innocent III., though we do not hope so ably to defend
* See Triumph of the Holy See, and of the Church, translated by the Abbe Jammes, 8vo, Lyons,
1833, tome i., p. 262. We shall return to that fine work in our following volumes. It is trans
lated with both elegance and fidelity.
f " While writing this portion, we learned the death of Gregory XVI.," says Mr. Artaud, who
then gives a portrait of that pontiff, which we transfer to- his me.— Translator.

398 LIVES OF THE POPES.
him. Innocent was a pontiff of the most distinguished character. He sur
passed all the men of merit of his day. At Rome, at Pavia, at Bologna, no
one could leave him but with admiration of his astonishing memory.
We have seen that in many affairs his advice prevaUed. He knew how
to avail himself of aU advantages — skilful condescension, patience, and a
just understanding of the interests of Rome. The doctrine of Gregory VIL,
softened in form because the secular princes were less evil ; generous coun
sels to the crusaders, hberty secured to his partisans, respect and apostoli
cal affection for his adversaries — such were his allies, his counsels, and his
rules. The more he acted alone, the more surely he commanded success.
Thrice a week he held a consistory, or, rather, a pubhc audience, which had
not been done for a long time. In various matters, he heard aU parties ; he
left trivial causes to his subalterns, and reserved to himseK only the more
difficult. He debated with such profundity, that jurisconsults went merely for the
sake of hearing him.
He was of medium stature, and his countenance always imposing. Inno
cent supported many poor people in plenty, while only three dishes were
served to him. He both advised temperance and practised it.
Under his reign, the temporal power of the popes gained new strength.
This great pontiff, this great genius, as courageous in his own way as Greg
ory VIL, was more fortunate than the latter.
Innocent, at his death, was in the zenith of his glory. Such was the end
of him who had so nobly maintained the interests of Christianity, and who
fearlessly reminded reigning princes of the dictates of morahty and of the
duties of the throne.
This pope governed the Church eighteen years, six months, and nine days.
We owe to M. Chavin de Malan, a very distinguished ecclesiastical wri
ter, a reprint of the book entitled " Innocentii III, de sacro altar is My ste-
rio, libri vi. (16mo ; Paris, Sagnier & Bray, 1845). This work, written in very
pure Latin, contains, first, the Ordo Missce, and a prologue. The first bopk
comprises sixty-four chapters; the second, sixty-one; the third, twelve;
the fourth, forty-four ; the fifth, twenty-eight ; the sixth, fourteen. It is
dedicated to Bishop Affre, of Paris, who worthily appreciates so complete
a work. AU the different orders of the hierarchy are clearly defined.
FinaUy, as announced by the title, the sacred mystery of the altar is fuUy
explained. One cannot well express aU the learning that is to be found in
this admirable work, which one of the popes, most busied in important
affairs, yet found time to compose for the instruction of the ecclesiastics of
aU countries. Bury speaks briefly of this work. Fleury and Receveur
have not mentioned it. The title, the subjects, the quotations from Scrip
ture, may have caused it to be supposed to be in the style of the Following

HONOKIUS III.

399

of Christ ; but it is essentiaUy different. Innocent's work has too many
antitheses ; a defect from which the Imitation is free.
I close with aU those considerations, by quoting the portrait of The
Preacher, which Innocent himseK has drawn :
" The power of the preaching of the divine word is such, that it reclaims
the soul from error to truth, and from vice to virtue ; it raises up the fallen,
smoothes the rough ; it instructs in the faith; creates hope, and strengthens
love ; it uproots the mischievous, plants what is useful, and sustains what
is virtuous ; it is the road of hfe, the ladder of salvation, and the gate of
Paradise. Therefore, the preacher should be provided with gold, silver,
and balm; that is to say, that he should have wisdom, eloquence, and
virtue, that he may feel what he speaks, and practise what he preaches.
God grant that I may myself practise that which, as a preacher, I teach !"
Besides these precepts of so great a genius, let us add a few words which
testify to the deepest humUity. He says in his book v., chapter 2, of the
Sacred Mystery of the Altar : Ego vellem doceri quam docere, magisque referre
quam prqferre sententiam — I ivould rather be taught than teach, and receive than
give advice. No ! holy and admirable pontiff, it is you who stUl instruct us
in pohcy, in courage, in greatness of soul, and in knowledge ; and humihty
wiU but crown so many accomplishments and virtues.

179. HONORIUS III. — a. d. 1216.

jONORIUS III., Cenci SaveUi, belonged to one of
the most iUustrious Roman famiUes. At first canon
of Saint Mary Major, he next became canon-regu
lar of Saint John Lateran. For four years he was
tutor to Frederic II., and afterwards, in succession,
chamberlain and vice-chanceUor of the Holy Ro
man Church. He was elected pope at Perugia, on
the 18th of July, 1216, by nineteen cardinals, whom
the Perugians, to quicken the election, had confined in the haU where the
election was held. He was crowned and consecrated on the 24th of July,
in the same city, and made his entry into Rome on the 31st of August.
On the 4th of September, he formaUy took possession at Saint John Late
ran. The Romans received the new pope with such demonstrations of joy
as justified hopes of a happy reign.
In his zeal for the interests of the Holy Land, the pope wrote to the

400 LIVES OF THE POPES.
bishops and to the Catholic sovereigns in terms of encouragement. Desir
ing the execution of the laws of his predecessor on the studies of the clergy,
Honorius ordered the chapters to send to the public universities some
young canons to be trained in the studies requisite for their ministry ; and
to remove all obstacles, he granted exemption from residence to the stu
dents and to then theological professors.
The faithful had been accustomed to observe the feast of Christmas with
. so much solemnity, that the more forcibly to express then- rejoicing, they
did not abstain from flesh-meat if it fell on a Friday. The bishop of Prague
wrote to Honorius, inquiring whether the custom was permissible. The
pope replied, confirming it : " H Christmas-day faU on a Friday, and, even
more, if it faU on a Saturday, on account of the exceUence of the feast,
all Christians may eat flesh-meat, provided that no vow or regular observ
ance constrains them to abstain from it ; but those are not to be reproached
who, on such days, abstain from flesh-meat."*
By a buU signed on the 22d of December, 1216, Honorius approved the
order of Preachers (Dominicans), instituted in 1207, under the rule of Saint
Augustine. Innocent III. had oraUy approved that order. Saint Dominic
has been often and violently attacked. It is to be observed that the assaU-
ants have confounded the founder of an order, which, in Spain, counted
among its members some pitUess persecutors, with the persecutors them
selves. The Inquisition, of which we have already spoken, and which
originaUy only inquired as to the propagation of heretical opinions, became
a pohtical institution, far more Spanish than Itahan. Upon which point
we may remark, that Italian sagacity was somewhat outdone by Spanish
despotism. It must not be forgotten that Saint Dominic devoted himself
exclusively to preaching ; that it was his maxim that the master of his own
passions is master of the woiid,t and that we must either be the rulers or
the slaves of the passions. Dominic exhorted to humihty, and especially
to poverty. He was once asked in what book he had found a sermon which
had much affected his auditors ; the monk rephed : " The book I use is
Charity." Saint Dominic attacked the heresy of the Albigenses by word and by
example. The civil authority committed cruelties which he neither advised
nor appreciated ; and, moreover, he died in 1221, while that terrible tribunal
was not estabhshed untU 1229 ! This justice is due to Saint Dominic, whose
acts were entirely distinct from those of the Inquisition.
The rule of the Dominicans enjoined preaching, perpetual silence, con-
* Novaes, iii., p. 173. Dom Grappin gives a dissertation on this question in the Ecclesiastical
Journal of Dinouarts, in 1775. The question is thus stated : " When and why was meat made
lawful food on Christmas-day, if it fall on a Friday or a Saturday ?"
\ Italy, p. 94.

HONORIUS III. 401
tinuous fasting, abstinence from flesh-meat between the 14th of September
and Easter, the use of wooUen instead of linen, and other austerities, which
they strictly observed. Up to the year 1219, they wore the habit of the
regular canons. Subsequently, they assumed that which they now wear.
In 1220, they celebrated a general chapter in the convent of Bologna.
There, the holy founder of the order renounced aU the income and posses
sions of the convents. This order became one of the four mendicant orders ;
those four orders are the Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Fran
ciscans. The Council of Trent authorized them to possess property, but
imposed upon them the law of mendicancy, to preserve the memory of their
former disciphne.
The Dominican order has produced a great many canonized saints ; four
sovereign pontiffs — Innocent V., Blessed Benedict XL, Saint Pius V., and
Benedict XIII. ; more than sixty cardinals ; more than a hundred and fifty
archbishops ; more than eight hundred bishops ; and an innumerable host
of writers, and men Ulustrious for piety and knowledge.
Subsequently, Honorius assigned to a member of that order the office of
Master of the Sacred Pcdace, one of the most important in the Roman court.
Saint Dominic, noticing that when the cardinals went to the ceremonials of
the pontifical palace, their servants remained idle in the ante-chamber, pro
posed to Honorius to appoint a learned man who, at such times, should
preach the word of God to them. The pope approved of that, and intrusted
the work to Dominic himseK, who commenced it by expounding the Epis
tles of Saint Paul. So great an audience was attracted by his lectures, that
it was settled that thenceforth a Dominican should perform this duty, with
the title of 3Iaestre del sa.gro Palazzo — Master of the Sacred Palace. In the
course of time, the Dominican, companion of the master, had the duty of
preaching to the retinue of the cardinals, and the master had the office of
censor of the pubhcation of books and writings in the city of Rome, and of
pubhcations brought thither. For this reason, the Father Master has a
seat in the Congregations of the Holy Inquisition and the Index.
Honorius crowned, as emperor of the East, Peter de Courtenay, count of
Auxerre, and his wKe, Violante, sister of the Emperor Baldwin and Henry.
The ceremony took place on the 9th of April, 1217, in the church of Saint
Lawrence, without the walls, not only in order that the Eastern empire
should not, on account of such a coronation, pretend to any right upon the
West, but also that the patriarch of Constantinople should not have any
complaint to make that his right to crown the emperors of the East was
prejudiced. The city of Genoa revived some old claims upon the island of Corsica.
Honorius recognized the republic as being entitled to one-half of the island ;
and Genoa, in return, was to pay the pope annuaUy a pound of gold. At
Vol. I.— 26

402 LIVES OF THE POPES
the same time the Marquis d'Este received, in fief, the March of Ancona,
in consideration of an annual tribute of a hundred livres provisines, or, as
others say, provengahs*
The Holy Father, in 1218, approved of the Hospitaller Canons regular of
Saint Anthony, instituted in 1093, by Gaston, a knight of Vienne, in Dau-
phiny. They undertook the care of the patients attacked by Saint An
thony's fire, an epidemic which at that time afflicted the West. The order
was suppressed under Clement XIV., and the property of the Canons of
Saint Anthony given in part to the Knights of Malta ; whose grand
master added to his titles that of Grand Master of the Order of Saint
Anthony. In 1218, Honorius canonized Saint Williarn, archbishop of Bourges, who
died on the 10th of January, 1209 ; and in 1220, Saint Hugh, prior of the
Carthusians, and bishop 6f Lincoln, in England, who died on the 17th of
November, 1200. In 1224, he canonized Saint William, canon regular of
the congregation of Saint Victor, of Paris, and abbot of Roschild, in the
island of Zealand., Denmark. In 1225, he canonized Saint Lawrence
O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin, who died on the 14th of November, 1181 ;
and finaUy, in 1226, Saint Wilhani, archbishop of York, who died on the
8th of June, 1154.
The pope, who had crowned as emperor Frederic II., son of Henry VI.,
and grandson of Frederic Barbarossa, incessantly urged him to take the
cross for the Holy Land, as his predecessors had done. Frederic H. alter
nately sold and seized again the patrimony of the Countess Matilda. At
the time of which we speak, those lands were sold, and the pope was en
treated to crown, as king of Sicily, Henry, son of Frederic. But Henry
dying, Frederic seized the island again.
In the north of France, the pope had restored peace ; he had previously
succeeded in withdrawing all claim to. the Enghsh throne by Louis, son of
Philip Augustus, who had been invited to London to succeed John Lack
land, and subsequently his son, Henry III. As Phihp Augustus owed
so much of his strength and power to the patronage of the Holy See, it
was his duty to recognize the authority of Rome when she ordered him to
abandon pretensions which she no longer approved.
In 1219, Saint Dominic proposed to Saint Francis that their two congre
gations should be blended into one. But Saint Francis rephed : " My dear
brother, it is the wiU of God that they should remain separate, in order that
by their diversity they may adapt themselves to human infirmity, so that he
whom the rigor of the one would not suit, may embrace the mildness of the
* Each of these livres was worth eighty centimes of present French money, or thirteen and
a half cents.

HONORIUS III. 403
other." But they none the less formed a perfect union between each other
and their disciples. Saint Dominic was present in the chapter general that
Saint Francis held near Assisi, in the year 1219, commencing on the day of
Pentecost, 19th of May. There were present above five thousand friars, so
greatly had the order increased in nine or ten years ; and they camped out
in the fields, lying on mats or beneath poor huts. They had brought no
provisions, and yet they wanted for nothing, so great was the charity of the
neighboring towns and cities of Assisi, Perugio, Foligno, Spoleto, and even
Terni, Narni, and Civita CasteUana. Ecclesiastics, nobles, and commons
flocked from aU lands to minister to the friars, in a holy emulation of
humihty and charity ; they were touched by the sight of the peace and joy
of the brethren in a hfe of such hardship and penance ; they admired
their union and their submission to their holy founder. " Behold," said
they, " the narrow way of the Gospel ; behold why it is so difficult for the
rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven !"
Cardinal Ugolino attended the chapter, and one day when he addressed
the brethren, he ended by giving them great praise. Fearing that such
praise might excite a spirit of vanity and relaxation, Saint Francis ascended
the pulpit, and represented to the brethren the temptations and persecu
tions which awaited them, the disorder of then: successors, and the future
decay of the order. He reproached them with laxity, and with their in
sufficient sense of the singular graces which God had bestowed upon them ;
and so forcible was his address, that not only did he repress in them any
feehng of vanity, but even covered them with confusion.* The cardinal
complained of this to Saint Francis, who replied : " My lord, I have spoken
to preserve the substance of your praise, and to support those in whom
humihty has not yet become deeply enough rooted."
Many Franciscan friars of the transmarine provinces, came to seek from
the head of that chapter remedies for the evil treatment they had suffered
in various places, from their want of authentic letters proving that their
order was approved by the Church. They also complained that they were
not aUowed to preach, and begged that Saint Francis would obtain from
Pope Honorius a privUege by virtue of which they might preach whereso
ever they pleased, even without the permission of the bishops. The holy
man indignantly replied : " What ! my brethren, know ye not the wiU of
God ! It is his wiU that you should first concihate the superior by humility
and respect ; and then by your words and your good example concihate
those who are inferior. When the bishops see you hve hohly, and not seek
ing to encroach upon their authority, they wiU themselves solicit you to aid
them in laboring for the salvation of souls, and will send to hear and inii-
* Fleury, Ixxviii., p. 151.

404 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tate you. Your peculiar privilege, therefore, should be, not to have a
privilege which would only serve to inflate you, to give you a confidence
prejudicial to others, and to excite opposition."
Some of them represented that they had met with many priests whom
they could not influence by prayer, argument, submission, or their own ex
emplary life, to allow them to preach or to receive material aid. Francis
replied : " My brethren, we are sent to the assistance of the priests to sup
ply their defects ; each will receive his reward, not according to his author
ity, but, according to his labor. What is the most agreeable to God is the
salvation of souls, and we shaU gain souls, not by separating ourselves from
the priests, but by living weU with them. If they oppose the salvation of
souls, God can punish them. If you be sons of peace, you wUl win over
both the clergy and the laity, and that wiU be more agreeable to God than
your winning over the laity while scandalizing the clergy. Hide their
faults, supply their defects, and be only the more humble for having
done so."
Fleury, in his book lxxix., p. 183, thus speaks of the stigmata* or marks
of Saint Francis d' Assisium : " Saint Francis was accustomed to divide his
time into two parts ; one, of action for the good of his neighbor ; the other,
of contemplation for the improvement of himself. Thus, two years before
his death, in the year 1224, after many labors, he retired to Mount Alvernia
to pass his Saint Michael's Lent, the forty days from Assumption to the end
of September, on which he habitually fasted. This mountain is on the con
fines of Tuscany, and is part of the Apennines, lying between the Arno and
Tiber, near Camaldoli and Vallumbrosa.t
" It was given to Saint Francis in 1213, by a nobleman of the country, by
name Orlando Catanio, who erected an oratory and some cells there. The
holy man having retired thither in 1224, and prayed long and fervently,
God revealed to him that on opening the Gospels he would learn what
would be in him most agreeable to God. Having accordingly prayed ar
dently, he took the book on the altar, and- had it opened by Brother Leo,
his only companion in this solitude. He opened it thrice, every time find
ing the Passion of our Lord, whence Francis concluded that he was before
death to conform himself stiU more to the sorrows of the Passion; and
although his body was extremely weakened by austerity, the saint was not

*• In the Dictionary of the Academy (4to ed., vol. ii., p. 780 ; Paris, Firmin Didot, 1^35), in the
article Stigmata we find the following : " The Stigmata of Saint Francis, marks like those of
the five wounds of Christ., that Saint Francis had on his hands, feet, and side."
t Wadding, 1213. From the top of Mount Alvernia, in clear weather, you can see the Medi
terranean on one side, the Adriatic on the other. This magnificent spectacle makes it one of the
most beautiful spots of earth. A rent in the rock is shown where Saint Francis received the
stigmata. i

HONORIUS III. 405
alarmed at this thought, but more encouraged to martyrdom, which he sup
posed to be the perfect conformity to the sufferings of Christ. -
" One morning, about September 14th, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
as he was praying on the mountain side, he beheld a seraph with six ardent
and luminous wings descend rapidly from heaven. When he came near,
Francis distinguished amid his wings the figure of a man, having his hands
and feet extended and nailed to a cross. Two wings rose above his head ;
two were spread to fly, and two covered aU his body. This vision as
tonished him greatly. His heart was seized with a joy mingled with
sadness, and he saw that it was not by bodily martyrdom, but by the
ardor of charity that he was to be transformed into the image of Christ
crucified. " The vision disappeared, leaving in his heart a wonderful ardor, and a
stiU more admirable impression on his body ; for there at once began to
appear on his hands and feet the marks of the naUs, as he had seen them
in the vision of the Crucified. His hands and feet seemed pierced through
with nails ; the heads of the nails appeared inside his hands and above his
feet, and on the other side the points were turned back into the flesh. On
Ms right side appeared a red wound, like a lance thrust, which often gave
blood that stained his tunic and drawers.
" The servant of God seeing that these stigmata (as they were called)
could not be concealed from his companions, was greatly embarrassed.
" He told them his vision, and after spending his Lent in solitude, de
scended the mountain at Michaelmas, and God confirmed the miraculous
impression of these stigmata by several other miracles."
Luke, bishop of Tuy, in Spain, an author living in that time, bears testi
mony to the truth of the stigmata of Saint Francis, and says that they
were seen and touched, five years before he wrote, by many of both the
regular and secular clergy.*
It is on account of that miracle that Saint Francis is called in history the
Seraphic. In 1226, Honorius, on the 30th of January, approved of the rule given
on the 13th_ of January, 1171, to the Carmelite monks, by the blessed Albert,
patriarch of Jerusalem.
These religious trace their foundation to the Prophet Elias, in Mount
Carmel. Innocent XIII. forbade the discussion of that question.
Novaest says : " I willingly submit to the decision of the supreme judge '
of the Church, and wiU only say, that the rule of the blessed Albert, which
consists of eighteen very short heads, was mitigated in 1431 by Eugene
III, who permitted the religious to eat . meat on three days of the week,
* Fleury, Ixxix. t Novaes, iii., p. 184.

406 LIVES OF THE POPES.
suppressed the fasting from the Feast of the Holy Cross tiU Easter, and
moderated the perpetual sUence."
This order having been suspended in the General Council of Lyons till it
should be deliberately examined, Honorius IV. confirmed it, and ordered
the religious to adopt a different dress from that which they had worn.
The Carmelites, and Discalced Carmelites, animated by the noblest emu
lation, have in aU times produced a great number of saints and iUustiious
personages. As Frederic II. had despoUed John of Brienne of that portion of his
kingdom of Jerusalem which was not occupied by the Saracens, Honorius
yielded to one of those charitable impulses which so admirably characterize
the Roman Church, and gave to John, temporarily, for the support of the
royal dignity, aU the patrimony possessed by the Church between Radico-
fani and Rome.
In 1226* Dominic held the first general chapter of his order at Bologna,
and was named in it Master General.
The same year, the pope crowned Frederic II. emperor. Two years later,
Philip Augustus died, and was succeeded by his son, Louis VIIL
Most of the letters of Honorius were published at Toulouse, by Innocent
Ciron, under the title of Quinta Compilatio Becretalium (1645, folio), with the
notes of the pubhsher ; some of them are also to be found in the CoUection
of the Councils, and in the works of Baluze, Wadding, Dom Martene,
d'Achery, d'Ughelli, &c.
Under Honorius we must place the reign and the conquests of Genghis-
Khan, son of a khan of the Moguls,! who was born in 1153. He was only
thirteen years old when he began to reign. An almost general conspiracy
among his subjects, who deemed him weak and without talent, compelled
him to retire to Avenk-Khan, sovereign of the Tartars. He showed himself
worthy of the shelter given to him by that prince by signal services, not only
in the wars against his neighbors, but also in that wliich he maintained
against his brother, who had usurped the throne. Genghis-Khan restored
Avenk-Khan to his throne, and became his son-in-law. But Avenk forgot
the services Genghis had rendered, and resolved upon his ruin. Genghis
levied an army, defeated his father-in-law, and dethroned him. This vic
tory inflamed his ambition ; he raised a great army, with which, in less than
twenty-two years, he conquered Persia, Cathay, part of China, and almost
all Asia. His dominion extended over eighteen hundred leagues, from east
to west, and over more than a thousand from north to south. He was pre
paring to complete the conquest of China when a disease carried him off, in
the midst of his triumphs, in 1227.
* Fleury, lxxviii., p. 159. t FeUer, ii., p. 583.

GREGORY IX. 407
Genghis-Khan was neither a Christian nor a Mussulman. The Mussul
mans feared him because he had done them much evil, and from fear of that
indomitable conqueror they spared the Christians, whom they deemed to be
less to be dreaded.
On the 8th of November, 1226, King Louis V1TL, of France, died at Avig
non. By his queen, Blanche of CastUe, he had had eleven children, six of
whom survived him — Louis, Robert, John, Alphonse, Charles, and a daugh
ter named Isabel. The one who succeeded Louis VIIL, on the throne of
France, was that great king, Louis IX., whom France venerates under the
name of Saint Louis. As he was only eleven on his father's death, Queen
Blanche was declared regent.
Honorius III. governed the Church ten years, eight months, and one day.
He died on the 18th of March, 1227, and was interred at Saint Mary Major,
near the altar of the presepio.
There was no vacancy in the Holy See.
If we are to follow Matthew Paris, the heretical Albigenses, whose doc
trine had spread into Germany, elected, about the year 1223, an antipope,
on the confines of Bulgaria, Croatia, and Dalmatia : he was named Bar
tholomew. But this intruder does not appear to have troubled the Church
long. However, the Albigenses whom Raymond ruled in France threatened
their country with no less fatal injury ; and the pope in vain endeavored to
retain Raymond in the ways of gentleness and obedience.

180. GREGORY IX. — a. d. 1227.
REGORY assumed the name because he was created
pope at the monastery of Saint Gregory ad septem
solia. His former name was Hugh, or Hugolin,
and he was of the famUy of the Ceneis, counts of
Segni. In 1198, his cousin, Innocent III., remarked him
in the congregation of Saint Mary del Reno, and
created him successively cardinal-deacon of Saint
Eustace, bishop of Ostia, and archpriest of the Vatican Basilica. Various
legations were confided to him ; he was sent to Naples, France, Tuscany,
and Lombardy. Novaes bestows great praise upon this Ulustrious negotia
tor ; purity of religious sentiment, prudence, sagacity, knowledge in every

408 LIVES OF THE POPES.
branch of hterature, dexterity in business, and persuasive eloquence ; all
those lofty quahties were combined in him with noble manners and an ele
gant and majestic figure. He was appreciated aU over Europe and beloved
in Rome. He was deeply versed in the affairs of the Holy See and though
he was eighty-three, age had diminished none of the gifts of nature and
study. He was elected pope, in spite of his strong resistance, on the 19th
of March, 1227 ; blessed for consecration on the 21st ; and, finaUy, crowned
on the Easter Tuesday, April 3, 1227. He took possession at Saint John
Lateran on the 30th of the same month. Saint Francis of Assisium, who
had chosen him as the first cardinal protector of the Franciscan order, had
foretold his elevation by often addressing letters to him with the super
scription, to the Most Reverend Father and Lord Hugo, future bishop of all the
universe, and father of the nations. This pope greatly loved Saint Francis,
and, as we shall see, canonized him in 1228.
In the conclave which elected Gregory, the cardinals were divided in
opinion. Being unable to agree, they agreed to a compromise, voting for
the one chosen by three compromisers. This fact, not noticed by Fleury, is
given at length by Novaes.* Among the cardinals selected as compromisers
was Cardinal d'Urach. Two of the compromisers instantly declared in his
favor, but with uncommon generosity and with earnest remonstrance he
proposed Cardinal Conti ; and he pressed that choice so earnestly, proving
too the justice of the selection by so many arguments, that the other two
compromiserst yielded, and Conti was elected. By this conduct, and by
other virtues, Cardinal d'Urach has merited the title of saint in the Cister
cian calendar, and in the Gallican martyrology of Saussay.J
Fleury, on the authority of Rainaldi, gives the foUowing account of the
ceremonies then celebrated :
" On the day of his coronation, Gregory§ proceeding to Saint Peter's,
accompanied by many prelates, received the 'pallium according to the cus
tom, and, after saying Mass, walked to the Lateran palace, covered with
gold and precious stones, and returned with the crown on his head. On
Monday, having said Mass at Saint Peter's, he issued forth wearing two
crowns, mounted on a richly caparisoned horse, surrounded by cardinals
clad in purple, and by a numerous clergy ; the streets were hung with
tapestry ornamented with gold and sUver — the finest work of Egypt and
the finest colors of India — and perfumed with various aromatics. The peo
ple sang the Kyrie eleison, and hymns of joy, accompanied by the sound
of trumpets. The judges and officers attended, resplendent with gold and
* Novaes, iii., p. 187.
\ A compromise is an act by which two or more persons agive to leave their differences to
the decision of an arbiter or arbiters. — Bict. of French Academy. Paris, Didot, 1835.
X Novaes, iii., p. 188. § Fleury, book lxxix., p. 200.

GREGOBV IX. 409
silver and sUken copes. Greeks and Jews, in their respective languages,
sang the praises of the pope. An innumerable crowd, bearing palm-branches
and flowers, led the procession ; the senator and the prefect of Rome walked
beside the pope, holding his bridle. And thus he was conducted to the
palace of the Lateran."
Gregory, after the possesso, ordered the Emperor Frederic to set out,
according to his promise, for the Holy Land. Frederic bluntly refused to
comply with the pontifical behest, and maintained that he would not fulfil
his oath.
On the 29th of September, 1227, the pope, attired in his pontifical robes,
pronounced, in the cathedral of Anagni, that the emperor was cut off from
the Cathohc communion. On Holy Thursday, the emperor, in his anger,
induced the Frangipani and other Roman nobles to conspire against the
pope, whom they attacked while he was celebrating Mass at Saint Peter's,
on Easter Tuesday, thus renewing the sacrilege committed upon Gregory
VII. Abandoned by a part of his guards, Gregory IX. was compelled to
retire hastUy from Rome to Rieti, a city of his own States, whence he re
paired to Spoleto, and finaUy to Assisi.
Before entering the last-named city, he halted at Saint Damian, where he
visited Saint Clare, and advised her, in order to avoid various inconve
niences, to have some property, and he offered her an abundant supply.
She firmly declined the offer (Fleury, lxxix., p. 206), saying that a holy
poverty was preferable to aU property, and that having that, she could
find no more secure possession. The pope then said : " If it is your vow
that restrains you, my daughter, I wUl absolve you from it." " Holy Fa
ther," she replied, " I desire absolution only from my sins."
Arrived at Assisi, the pope directly proceeded to the tomb of Saint Fran
cis, where he prayed for a long time, and recommended to the saint the
Church, so greatly disturbed. Then he consulted with the cardinals who
accompanied him, as to the canonization ; he ordered an exact inquiry into
the miracles of the saint, both in the city and in the surrounding country..
The witnesses were heard and their depositions reduced to writing, and the
evidence was then examined by those cardinals who seemed least favorable
to the canonization. Then, returning to Perugia, the pope examined, in full
consistory, the validity of the proceedings; and the canonization being
unanimously resolved upon, he returned with his court to Assisi, where the
tidings of that ceremony had caused a great assemblage of prelates, nobles,
and the people of the different provinces.
At length, on Sunday, the 16th of July, 1228, in the church of Saint
George, where the saint was buried, the pope, from a lofty throne, preached
a sermon upon the text of these words of Ecclesiasticus : " He shone in the
temple of God hke the star of the morning, like the fuU moon, and hke the

410 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sun."* Then Octavius, cardinal-deacon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus,
and a relative of Innocent III, pubhcly read the account of the miracles;
and Rainier Capoccio, also a cardinal-deacon, pronounced a discourse in
corroboration. Then the pope rose, and, in a loud tone, said : " To the
Glory of God, of the Holy Virgin Mary, and the apostles Saint Peter and
Saint Paul, and to the honor of the Roman Church, we, by the advice of
our brethren, have resolved to place in the catalogue of the saints the
blessed Father Francis, whom God has glorified in heaven ; and we decide
that his festival shaU be celebrated on the anniversary of his death."
Then the cardinals intoned the Te Beum, and the people responded with
joyful acclamations. The bull of canonization was expedited three days
after, and directed that the festival should be celebrated yearly on the 4th
of October. Novaest says : " The body of the saint was for a long time
exposed to public view ; it was erect, had its eyes open, and the stigmata
were seen surrounded by blood."
It remained thus during the foUowing reigns ; but Sixtus IV, at the
request of Saint James de la Marca, when at Assisi, in 1476, had a wall
built before the stairway, which led to the subterranean church, where the
saint was, and thus deprived the people of the sight of the body of Saint
Francis. It began to be thought that the body had ceased to exist, but, by
the care of Pope Pius VIL, it was found, and a detaUed account pub
hshed by his orders, of which we shall speak in his reign.J The ca
nonization of Saint Francis had a happy effect upon the Romans, who
very tenderly venerated him, and they recalled Gregory, promising to
remain faithful subjects. Moreover, they were indignant that Fred
eric, who had at last resolved upon going to Syria, had ordered Ray-
nald, duke of Spoleto, to commence hostilities against the Roman court.
In fact, Raynald, with some imperial troops, and even some Saracens, at
tacked the patrimony of Saint Peter. The foresight of the popes had con
stantly taken measures to prevent any important success of the Mussulmans
in Italy ; but that same sagacity could not anticipate that the Saracens
would ever become the allies of an emperor who had sworn to defend and
protect the Holy See. The pope sent against this impious army some sol-
* Ecclesiastes, chap. 1., v. 7.
f Novaes, xiii., p. 33. That author gives these details only in the volume comprising the
reign of Innocent XIII.
X There are many Lives of Saint Francis, but they are not equal to the subject. Baillet hav
ing remarked that it was astonishing that among sp many members of so distinguished an order,
not one was found worthy to write the life of its founder, Father Louis Francis Chalippe, a Re
collect, undertook the work. His book, 4to, was published at Paris, in 1728. and the Saint had
a noble historian. The Memoirs of Trevoux, in 1729, very justly praised Father Chalippe's work.
Subsequently Chavin de Malan published another life of Saint Francis, which the authorities of
the order at Rome pronounced wise, rich in facts, and worthy of the holy patriarch.

GREGORY IX. 411
diers hastUy raised, and commanded by Jean de Brienne, the former king
of Jerusalem, and Frederic's son-in-law, though all good understanding had
ceased between them. Great violence was committed on both sides.
Frederic, meanwhUe, had arrived near Jerusalem, disembarking at Saint
Jean d'Acre. Having with him only two galleys and a hundred knights, he
found but httle obedience in the country. At this juncture there arrived
two friars minor, who presented to the patriarch of Jerusalem dispatches
from the pope, announcing the perjury and excommunication of Frederic.
The pope, at the same time, forbade the HospitaUers, Templars, and Teu
tonic knights to obey any of the orders of Frederic.
The Christians now reasonably thought that such quarrels might be fitly
postponed. Marching under the command of the duke of Limburg, a Ger
man by birth, they fortified Csesarea, and thought that, after repairing the
walls of Joppa, which they stUl held, they might march upon Jerusalem.
Frederic approved the design, and placing himseK at their head, they
arrived at Joppa on the 15th of November, 1229. But the Sultan of Egypt,
Melik-Camel, was encamped near Gaza, a day's march from Joppa, and his
nephew, the sultan of Damascus, at Naplouse, at the hke distance.
The Emperor Frederic sent two nobles to Melik-Camel with presents,
and with the expression of the emperor's desire to have the sultan for his
brother, and of his intention being not to make conquests, as he had already
territories enough to satisfy the greatest ambition. The nobles, on obtain
ing an audience, were to add that the emperor, nevertheless, had come to
recover the holy places, and the kingdom of Jerusalem, which rightfully
belonged to his son-in-law. The Empress Yolande, Frederic's new wife,
had died that year, after giving birth to a son, who was named Conrad.
The envoys had also orders to say that K Jerusalem were restored, there
would be no need to commence a war or to shed human blood. Melik-
Camel was well aware of Frederic's real weakness, and of the existing differ
ences among the Christians. Moreover, those who arrived from Europe
were not accustomed to speak so moderately ; Frederic's message was in
the tone of a Christian long resident in the East, who would procure by
negotiation what he did not hope to attain by force and courage.
Melik-Camel, on his part, also sent presents, and begged that the emperor
would explain the nature of the friendship which he desired to exist be
tween them. "As regards Jerusalem," rephed the Mussulman, "the affair
is important, not on account of the value of the country, but on account of
the respect that the Mussulmans my brethren feel for the city, and espe
ciaUy for the Temple, which they look upon as the house of God ; they,
with as much devotion as the Christians, visit the sepulchre of Jesus Christ.
Were I to abandon the Holy Sepulchre, the Cahph might accuse me of
betraying my religion."

412 LIVES OF THE POPES.
After a very secret negotiation, in which there was no intervention of any
authority dependent upon the Holy See, although there were vicars apos
tolic in that country, a treaty was concluded between Frederic and the
sultan, in the following terms : " 1. The sultan delivers Jerusalem to the
emperor and his lieutenants, that he may fortify and dispose of it as he will.
2. The emperor will not touch the Gemlate, which is the Temple of Solomon,
nor any tiling that is within its bounds, nor allow any Frank to do so,* but
it will remain unchanged in the hands of the ' Mussulmans, that they may
pray there and have the pubhc and free exercise of their rehgion. The
keys of the inclosing gates will be kept by those who reside within the
inclosure, to take care of the mosque. 3. No Mussulman shaU be pre
vented from going in pilgrimage to Bethlehem. 4. If any Frank firmly
believes in the majesty and dignity of the Temple (by this behef is meant a
respect for that mosque equal to that of the Mussulmans), he may enter to
pray, otherwise no Frank shall be allowed even to enter the inclosure. 5. If,
at Jerusalem, a Mussulman does wrong to another Mussulman, he shaU be
judged by magistrates of his own religion. 6. The emperor wiU recaU those
who shaU undertake to injure the possessions of Melik-Camel. 7. The em
peror wUl aid neither Christian nor Mussulman in making war upon the Mus
sulmans during the truce, nor excite them to commence hostilities. 8. If any
Franks pretend to contravene any of the articles in this truce, the emperor
will be held to defend the sultan against their attack. 9. Tripoli and its ter
ritory, Kerek, Castelbianco, Tortosa, Margat, and Antioch, with all their con
tents to remain in the same state as during the war, and the emperor forbids
his army to give any aid to the lords of those places. Finally, and further,
Bethlehem and the territory between it and Jerusalem, together with Naza
reth and the road as far as Acre, and the territory of Touron, Sidon, or Said
with its dependencies, were to be restored to the Christians.
This truce, which was to last ten years, was sworn to by both parties, on
Sunday, the 18th of February, 1229. But Gerold, patriarch of Jerusalem,
the Hospitallers, and the Templars took no part in forming it, as they
deemed it shameful and disadvantageous to Christendom, and worthy only
of an excommunicated emperor. The patriarch even refused to aU pilgrims
indifferently permission to enter Jerusalem and visit the Holy Sepulchre,
aUeging the unrevoked prohibition of Pope Gregorv.
Frederic nevertheless entered Jerusalem on Saturday, the 17th of March,
and on the foUowing clay, the third Sunday in Lent, he went in his imperial
robes to visit the Holy Sepulchre, accompanied by the Teutonic knights,
his German nobles, and a few of the populace. As he could not find a
bishop to give him the crown, he took it from the altar himself. Then the
* Rainaldi, 1229, No. 15.

GREGORY IX. 413
master of the Teutonic order delivered a long discourse, partly in German
and partly in French. He eulogized the emperor, complained of the ec
clesiastics, and invited the nobles to contribute towards the fortifications
that were to be raised around the city. Frederic, as inconsistent in his
plans as he had been in signing such a treaty, promptly returned to Acre,
without paying the slightest attention to the fortifications for which he had
asked the money. In the course of the few days that he had passed at
Jerusalem, he wrote triumphant letters to tliank God for the great success
of his journey, and set forth in grandiloquent language that he had enabled
Christians thenceforth to visit the holy city at pleasure. Rainaldi gives us
two of those letters ; one to Pope Gregory, which is couched in general
terms, the other to Henry, king of England, entering somewhat into details.
The patriarch of Jerusalem wrote, on the same subject, two letters in a very
different style ; one to the pope, the other to the faithful. In the letter to
the pope he set forth the disadvantages to the Christians that resulted from
the arrival of the emperor. The prelate complained of the secrecy which
the prince had observed in the negotiations for the truce, in contempt of
the opinions of the bishops and the nobles ; and he reflected upon the pre
cipitate departure of such a conqueror, which looked more hke a flight.
The prelate then examined the treaty.
"It is," wrote he, "an intolerable abuse to yield to the infidels the
temple of God, which is the patriarchal seat, without even aUowing Chris
tians to enter the inclosure unless they agree with the Saracen- estimate of
that place, while they are permitted to enter Bethlehem freely."
" There is another wrong," he added ; " Frederic, by his treaty pledges
himseK against any act of hostility, direct or indirect, against the Saracens,
during the truce. How reconcile this oath with the oath to the Church, to
keep in the Holy Land for two years one thousand knights and fifty gaUeys ?
His excommunication resulted from his non-fulfilment."
The letter to aU the faithful is somewhat more menacing. Fleury gives
a complete analysis of it. It is easy to see that the treaty was dictated
solely by the interest of the sultan of Egypt, who had divined the imperial
pride. Frederic asked but to enter Jerusalem for a moment, to date his
letter from that capital. The tomb of Christ, the woes of Palestine, steps
to enable other Christians to enter the city without dishonor, care for the
interests of the Holy See, were motives without weight for Frederic. We
have already justly remarked, that the transient rule of Frederic was but a
chimera, destitute of any reality. .
After reading so many sad details, we may add that it was not only chi
merical, but that amid circumstances requiring more frankness than Richard
had shown, it was really a treason. So we must reaUy speak of a prince
possessed of extraordinary ability, and subsequently, beyond dispute, one

414 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of the greatest men of his time. We shall see him die in sentiments of
piety and penitence ; but how many outrages had he not committed upon
religion, morahty, the imperial dignity, and the interests of Italy, of the
Holy See, and even of the empire ! But, let us proceed.
Though Gregory was obliged to make war to preserve his States, nor
could he forget the disturbance caused in France by religious questions.
Raymond, count of Toulouse, had made his peace with the Church and
with the king of France ; a treaty had been concluded, in the form of letters
patent of Louis IX., setting forth, in substance, that Raymond had sub
mitted, and that he came to ask, not justice but mercy from the Church
and from the king, and promised thenceforth to be faithful to them. He
was to expel aU heretics from his territory, and to make strict search after
them. Immediately after his absolution, Raymond was also to fulfil some other
conditions : he was to take the cross from the hand of the legate, to cross
the sea against the Saracens, and to remain in Palestine five years ; and to
place his daughter, Jane, in the king's custody, to become the bride of one
of his brothers. By this arrangement the king left to Raymond aU the
diocese of Toulouse, excepting the property of the marshal, that is to say,
Guy de Levis, marshal de la Foi, from whom the lords of Mirepoix are de
scended. In the year 1229, the pope confirmed an excommunication pronounced
against Frederic, who had declared against Rome. Here we must remark,
that though Frederic had been reaUy crowned emperor, he had not pro
nounced the whole of the oath which the emperors took at their coronation.
The pope, after quitting Rome would not return, on account of the plots
formed by the nobles, who were partisans of Frederic ; but, the Tiber hav
ing suddenly overflowed its banks, the people rose in tumult and demanded
his return. The emperor, impressed by the event, determined to sign a
peace. On this occasion Frederic agreed to the following terms : " The king of
Sicily and of Germany wiU not, by himseK or by others, prevent free course
to elections, postulations, or confirmations in the churches and monasteries
of the kingdom of Sicily and in Germany." An interview then took place
at Anagni between the two sovereigns. When the pope appeared the prince
took off his cloak, threw himself at the pontiff's feet, and received the kiss
of peace, and then they ate at the same table. On the foUowing day
Frederic returned to Germany.
In a prefatory discourse to his eightieth book, Fleury gives a host of im
portant particulars as to the state of the universities of Paris and Bologna*
* Fleury, v., p. 226

GREGORY IX. 415
In the month of June, 1231, Saint Anthony of Padua, of the order of
Friars Minor, died in that city at the age of thirty-six. His great reputa
tion, and the miracles which daUy occurred at his tomb, hastened his canon
ization, which the pope pronounced at Spoleto, on the 30th of March,
1232. In Germany, Saint Elizabeth, widow of the Landgrave of Thuringia,
closed a short but most edKying hfe. She was the daughter of Andrew,
king of Hungary, and was betrothed in her infancy to Louis of Thuringia,
a prince endowed with singular virtues.
The Roman court never lost sight of occasions for drawing closer the
ties of good understanding with the Greek patriarchs. Germanus, patri
arch of Constantinople, sent a priest to solicit from Gregory a closer union
of the two Churches.
The letter of the Patriarch Germanus to Pope Gregory, commenced
with a prayer to Jesus Christ, whom he invoked as the corner-stone that
had united the various nations into one Church. Then directly addressing
the pope, Germanus acknowledged* that His Holiness had received the
primacy of the Apostohc See, and begged Gregory to descend somewhat
from his elevation and hear him favorably. He then repeats that he does
not pretend to prejudice the primacy of the pope, and adds, " Let us with
the utmost diligence seek seek after the authors of the division. If we are,
point out to us the error and its remedy ; if the Latins, we do not believe
that you wish to be excluded from the heritage of the Lord." The agree
ment between the two parties, however, was not yet sufficiently complete to
delight Gregory, who prepared to make fresh efforts towards obtaining an
unalterable agreement.
The same year the pope sent some Franciscans on a mission to the in
fidels, with a letter addressed to the sultan of Damascus, containing a long
instruction upon the Christian rehgion, supported by many passages of the
Old and New Testaments. It finished by an exhortation to the sultan to
embrace Christianity, with a protestation that the pope had no view but the
salvation of the sultan, and was quite free from temporal interests in the
matter, and from any desire to diminish that sovereign's power.
The reputation of the Dominicans increased daUy, especiaUy in Italy.
Brother John of Vicenza was then one of the most renowned of that order.
He proposed the canonization of Dominic, and, in 1234, the buU was given
at Rieti, on the 13th of July.
In the year 1232, Louis had asked in marriage Margaret, eldest daughter
of Raymond Berenger, count of Provence ; and as they were related in the
fourth degree, he sent to sohcit a dispensation from the pope, in considera-
* Fleury, v., p. 248.

416 LIVES OF THE POPES,
tion of the importance of that marriage in securing to Provence the peace
and glory of the Catholic faith.
In 1234, King Louis having entered his twentieth year, his marriage was
celebrated at Sens, about the end of March. God bestowed his blessing
upon this marriage, the happy pair obtaining from the providence that
protected them six sons and five daughters.
In the same year, Gregory pubhshed the collection of Decretals which
bears his name, and has since been of the highest authority. There were
already five coUections of the decretal epistles of the popes, all made sub
sequent to the work of Gratian ; the first by Bernard Balbo, of the church
of Pavia, later bishop of Faenza, and then of Pavia, after Saint Lanfranc,
his master. He was a very learned canonist, and wrote five books on
canon law. Balbo also collected the decretals and the canons of some
councils up to the year 1190. The second compUation was commenced by
GUbert and Alain, and finished by GaUus de Volterra ; it bore the two
names. The third was extracted from the registers of Innocent in., by
Bernard the Great, archdeacon of ComposteUa, and revised by Peter Bene
vento, notary of the pope, about the year 1210. Five years later, Pope
Innocent III. ordered the fourth collection, consisting at first of the decrees
of the CouncU of Lateran, at which he presided in the same year, 1215, and
then of his rescripts. The fifth _ coUection consisted of the Constitutions of
Honorius IH. who had them coUected by Tancred, archdeacon of Bologna,
and ordered them to be followed in the schools and the tribunals.*
From aU these collections Pope Gregory had his own compUed by Saint
Raymond of Penaforte, a Dominican, who was then sub-chaplain of his
penitentiary, t The decretals in that coUection are divided into five books,
each containing many titles in chronological order, which had not been at
tended to in the former collections. This commenced at Alexander III.;
it was at the commencement of that reign that the decretal of Gratian ter
minated, and the decretals are given only in extract, according to the matter
of each title, but preserve the first words by which they were already
known. Pope Gregory addressed this coUection to the doctors and scholars
of Bologna, by a letter, in which he said that he had pubhshed in one
book the constitutions of his predecessors, previously dispersed through
many volumes, and that he had done this to avoid the confusion aris
ing from their resemblance and their apparent contradiction. Moreover,
as some of them were to be found nowhere but in these volumes, their
authority had been questioned. He added, that he had omitted whatever
was needless in the ancient constitutions, and added his own on some
* Edit, of Innocent Ciron, 1645, tit. i., c. i. f Fleury, v., p. 267.

GREGORY IX. 417
doubtful questions, and he ordered this collecdon alone to be used in the
tribunals and schools, and that no other should be made without the au
thority of the Holy See. The pope wrote a similar letter to the doctors of
Paris, dated from Spoleto, on the 5th of September, 1234. His design was
fulfiUed, and his constitution so weU received that it has since been referred
to simply as the Decretals.
While the pope was at Spoleto, the Emperor Frederic II. arrived, hav
ing been preceded by the Latin patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch,
and Jerusalem. It was agreed that preparations should be made for war,
as the truce with the infidels terminated in four years.
Then the crusade for the year 1238 was pubhshed. The letter, especially
addressed to Louis IX., bears the date of the 6th of November, 1234. The
pope exhorts him to prepare to assist the Holy Land, either personaUy or
by his troops. At the same time there was a renewal of the excommunica
tion by the last Lateran CouncU against all who should furnish the infidels
with arms or vessels.
Then the pope demanded from aU parts aid against the revolted Romans
who had driven him from Rome. The Romans, however, taking wiser
counsel, made their peace with the pontiff in the month of March, 1235.
In Syria, the citizens of Acre would not submit to the authority of the
archbishop of Ravenna, papal legate in Palestine, who was directed to
defend the interests of Conrad, son of F'rederic, and heir, through his mother,
to. the kingdom of Jerusalem. The archbishop of Ravenna, therefore, laid
the inhabitants of Acre under interdict. Gregory reflected that that city
was inhabited by Christians of different rites, who, on account of that cen
sure, might refuse obedience to the Holy See, and give rise to heresy, ever
ready to make its appearance. The pope, therefore, raised the interdict,
after receiving from the inhabitants of Acre their promise to obey his
orders ; and he became their mediator with the emperor.
In Spain, from the battle of Navas de Tolosa, the arms of the Christians
constantly prospered. In 1236, Ferdinand took Cordova.
Numbers of crusaders assembled in their excitement : they tormented the
Jews, and baptized them by force. Gregory addressed a letter to several
prelates, in which he said that the crusaders ought to war against the
infidels in the fear of God, purity of heart, and charity ; and that although
our Lord excludes no one from baptism, he shows mercy to whom he wUl.
No one ought to be compeUed to receive that sacrament ; for, as man fell
by his free-wiU, so he should rise again by his free-wiU, being caUed thereto
by grace. The pope wrote to Louis IX. on the same subject, and the pious
king replied that he had given orders that in his kingdom every one should
obey the wise and prudent decision of His Holiness.
The pope received a letter from PhUip, prior of the Dominicans in the
Vol. I.— 27

418 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Holy Land, in which he said that "the patriarch of the Jacobites, a man
venerable for age, knowledge, and virtue, came this year (1237) to pray at
Jerusalem, with a numerous attendance of bishops and monks of his nation.*
We have explained the Catholic faith to him, and with the grace of God
we have so far convinced him, that on Palm Sunday, at the solemn proces
sion to the Mount of Ohves, at Jerusalem, he promised obedience to the
Roman Church, abjuring all sorts of heresy, and he gave us his confession,
written in Chaldee and in Arabic ; and on leaving, he even assumed our
dress. He has in obedience to him the Chaldeans, the Medes, the Persians,
and the Armenians, whose countries are already ravaged, for the most part,
by the Tartars. His sway extends over seventy provinces, inhabited by an
innumerable multitude of Christians, who, however, are subject and tribu
tary to the Saracens, with the exception of the monks, who pay no tribute.
Two archbishops have made the same submission ; the one a Jacobite, of
Egypt, the other a Nestorian, of the East, who are recognized as superiors
in Syria and Phoenicia ; and we have already sent four brethren into Arme
nia to learn the language, thus complying with the earnest entreaties of the
king and the nobles.
" We have received many letters from the patriarch of the Nestorians,
whose authority extends into the great Indies, the kingdom of Prester John,
and the neighboring Eastern States ; and he has promised Father William
of Montferrat, who sometime resided with him, to join the Church. We
have also sent some of our brethren into Egypt, to the patriarch of the
Jacobites of that country, whose errors are greater than those of the Orien
tals, for they add circumcision, like the Saracens. t That patriarch, also,
has professed to us his willingness to return to the unity of the Church. He
has already done away with several errors, and has forbidden circumcision
within the hmits of his authority, which extends into the httle Indies,
Ethiopia, and Libya, besides Egypt ; but the Ethiopians and Libyans are
not subject to the Saracens.
" As regards the Maronites of Mount Libanus, they long since returned to
obedience to the Church, and stiU persevere in it. AU those nations accept
the doctrine of the Trinity, and our preaching. The Greeks alone perse
vere in their mahce ; everywhere they either openly or covertly oppose the
Roman Church. They blaspheme all the sacraments, and treat as evU and
heretical every opinion which differs from their own.
" Seeing so wide a door opened for the admission of the Gospel, we have
* Matthew Paris, 1237, p. 372 ; Bain. Cod., n. 87.
|- In those unhappy countries, those who are alarmed, seek to propitiate the more powerful
by defections from principle which never turn to good. As we pointed out on pp. 183, 205, the
Byzantine Greeks, in endeavoring to gain over the Mussulmans by culpable concessions only,
urged them to a livelier and more terrible hatred.

GREGORY IX. 419
set ourselves to learning those languages, for which we have established a
school in each of our convents, and already we have brothers who preach
in various languages, principaUy the Arabic, which is the most common
language of the country."
On the 23d of March, in the year 1237, John de Brienne, emperor of Con
stantinople, died of grief, while young Baldwin was in Flanders, occupied
in the recovery of his lands, and in borrowing money to sustain his tottering
empire. Many of the best qualified French nobles had already taken the
cross to aid him, which deprived the Holy Land of just so much aid. ' The
Knights HospitaUers of Saint John of Jerusalem had unhappUy been gained
over by Vatacius, John III. (Ducas), Greek emperor of Nice (1238), who
had given them lands and revenues, on condition that they should foUow
him, even against the Latins.* Moreover, they were accused of indulging
in deplorable excesses. These complaints having reached Pope Gregory,
he wrote thus to the master of the order :
" We have learned with grief that you retain on your lands, on certain
conditions, abandoned women, with whom you hve in disorder ; that you
possess individual property ; that you take the defence of all who embrace
your fraternity and pay an annual fee ; and that you receive among you
thieves, murderers, pilgrims, and heretics. You are not ashamed to aid
with horses and arms Vatacius, that enemy of God and the Church. You
diminish your ordinary alms, you alter the wiUs of those who die in your
hospital, and you do not allow the patients to confess, without your per
mission, to any other priests but those who are of your order or in your pay.
It is even said that many of your brothers are suspected of heresy."
In Spain, James, king of Aragon, besieged and took Valencia. It was
easy to see that the arms of the Catholic princes were blessed by God.
In 1240, the animosity of Frederic II. against the pope was at its height.
The emperor recriminated by enumerating the services that he had rendered
to the Church ; and, on this occasion, no one attempted to reconcile so mis
chievous a difference, i
Cardinal James, bishop of Palestrina, having arrived in France, pubhshed
throughout that kingdom the buU of excommunieation pronounced by Greg
ory against Frederic ; the legate was at the same time directed to offer the
empire to Count Robert, brother of the king. Louis refused the offer
in most firm and prudent terms. The French ambassadors, who were sent
to Frederic, to ask if he held religious sentiments different from those of
other Cathohcs, were told by him that the emperor had never departed
from the faith of his fathers, and of his predecessors. After this assurance
had been given by Frederic himself, the ambassadors rephed : " God forbid
* Fleury, v., p. 289.

420 LIVES OF THE POPES.
that we should attack any Christian prince without legitimate cause ! It is
not ambition that moves us. We esteem the king our master, who came to
the throne by the right of birth ; we esteem him beyond any elective prince :
as for Count Robert, it is sufficient for him to be brother of so great a
prince." Such was the reply, admirable for greatness and piety, and distinguished
by sentiments of good neighborship, and that circumspection which should
never desert even a powerful sovereign.
The pontifical legates endeavored to excite some of the German princes
against Frederic, but no consideration could alter the fidelity of the
electors. Gregory wished to assemble a councU ; Frederic opposed it, and marched
upon Rome. He approached Grotta-Ferrata, when he learned the death of
the pope, who sank under so many troubles on the 20th of AprU, aged
nearly a hundred years, after governing the Church fourteen years, five
months, and a few days.
We extract from Novaes* the character which he gives of Gregory IX. :
" He was a man of sagacious inteUect, endowed with a most happy memory,
skilled in the liberal arts, distinguished for his knowledge of jurisprudence
and sacred literature. He was the flower of Ciceronian eloquence, the ever
ready friend of the poor, the zealous defender of the faith and of ecclesias
tical hberty ; a model of the most shining virtues."
He was interred at the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant one
month. Gerard Vossius, provost of Tongres, and doctor of theology at Rome,
pubhshed, in 1588, in 4to, a book entitled Gesta qucedam ac monumenta
Gregorii IX. grcecolatina, cum scholiis.
Inquiry has often been made about the cause of the somewhat sudden
death of Gregory. Novaes and some other authors attribute it to the grief
he felt on learning that some French and Spanish bishops, who were on
their way to Rome to be present at the council, had been attacked by the
people of Pisa, then at war with the Genoese, and treated in the most bar
barous manner, — being chained, and left to the torments of hunger and
thirst, by order of Frederic. Gregory never recovered from the attack
which deprived him of aU consciousness, and which almost instantly caused
his life to be despaired of. Louis IX. demanded the release of the bishops,
who were his subjects. Frederic made a haughty reply. Louis rejoined :
" You must release them. Think seriously, for the kingdom of France is not
so weakened as to bear any more of your spurring." This truly royal letter
produced its effects ; the French prelates were released. The advisers of
* Novaes, hi., p. 200.

CELESTINE IV.

421

Louis IX. must have been convinced that Gregory was not whoUy in the
wrong in his differences with Frederic.
The brother of Prester John, of whom we spoke in our hfe of Alexander
HI., must be David. This last had a shorter reign than his brother, Ung-
eam. The Portuguese writers have given the most positive information
about the two Presters John.

181. CELESTINE IV— a. d. 1241.

ELESTLNE TV., originaUy Geoffry CastigUoni, ca-
|Ept; non and chanceUor of MUan, his native city, was
created cardinal-priest of Saint Mark, and bishop
of Sabina, by Gregory IX. That pontiff named
him legate a latere, in Tuscany, in Lombardy, and
then to the Emperor Frederic II., when he was at
Monte Cassino.
Celestine was elected pope at the place caUed
Sette Soli, by only ten cardinals. The senator and princes of Rome had con
fined them there, that the election might be the more speedy. Weakened
by age and by grief, he survived his election only seventeen days, had not
time to publish a single buU, and died on the 5th of October, 1241, uncon-
secrated. He was interred in the Vatican.
The Holy See remamed vacant one year, eight months, and seventeen
days. The cardinals were dispersed, and Frederic kept most of them in
prison.

422 LIVES OF THE POPES.

182. INNOCENT IV.— a. d. 1243.

*1§& NNOCENT IV., whose name in the world was

M

II Sinibald Fieschi, belonged to one of the first
If famUies of Genoa. He was at first bishop of

ft Albenga, and vice-chanceUor of the Holy Roman
! S|§li§ Church. ¦ Gregory IX. had created him cardinal-
^j^_ priest of Saint Lawrence in Lucina, and legate of
the Marches. He was elected pope at Anagni,
after an interregnum of more than twenty months,
on the 24th of June, 1243, and consecrated on the 29th.
Towards the end of October he approached Rome, and as usual, when
the popes enter that city, he was received with acclamations by the senator
and people of Rome. But their joy was short-lived ; some merchants
demanded payment of a large sum which had been lent to the preceding
pope, Gregory. The insolence of those merchants, escorted by a crowd of
the populace, was such, that they invaded a large portion of the palace, so
that Innocent was obliged to hide himself in the most obscure place, in
order to take nourishment. At length, on receiving a portion of their claim,
these merchants retired.
Innocent had previously contracted a close friendship with Frederic II.
Then, Fieschi was only a private individual ; now that he was pope he was
obhged to sustain the interests of the Church, and the emperor incessantly
and violently insulted him. However, Frederic sent an embassy to Rome
to propose peace ; and to obtain it, the ambassadors, on Maundy-Thursday,
March 31st, 1244, swore solemnly in presence of the Emperor Baldwin, of
the cardinals, prelates, the senator, and of the people of Rome, that
Frederic would give satisfaction to the Church for aU the wrongs with
which she had to reproach him, before and after the excommunication pro
nounced against him by Gregory IX.
Innocent was rejoiced at seeing so happy a contrition ; but his joy was
speedily changed into sadness. Frederic relapsing into his original perfidy,
protested that he could not be bound by the oath taken by his ambassadors,
as it was too prejudicial to his interests. The better to convince Frederic,
and to bring him back into the right way, Innocent repaired to Citta di
CasteUo, that he might treat directly with the prince, who was then living
at Terni But the pontiff soon learned that snares were laid for him, and
that the emperor intended to seize upon the head of the Church, that he

INNOCENT IV.

423

might have no opponent. After a stay of nineteen days at Citta di CasteUo,
Innocent went to Sutri, whence he wrote to the Genoese to send him their
gaUeys to Civita Vecchia. Learning that they had reached there, he de
termined to cross the mountains, reached Civita Vecchia by that road, and
saUed from that city to Genoa, where he disembarked, and safely traveUed
by land to Lyons, though suffering severely on the way.
In the quarrels between the pope and Frederic, the city of Lyons was
neutral, but not so weakly neutral that it could be prevented from affording
an asylum to the head of the Church.
In that city Innocent convoked a general councU (the 13th), which was
to assemble in 1245. He presided over it, assisted by several cardinals.
At this council there were three patriarchs and a hundred and forty bishops.
The Emperor Baldwin was present, as were the ambassadors of France
and England. There Frederic II. was excommunicated, and deposed
from the kingdom of Sicily and from the empire, as having outraged the
Church. It has been said that this prince was the first who appealed to a
future councU, more numerous and solemn, from such a sentence of one
councU ; but Novaes justly remarks,* that forty-five years earher, in 1200,
the hke appeal had been made by Philip Augustus, king of France. In this
CouncU of Lyons the reform of discipline was debated, as also was the
subject of the crusades for Palestine, and Louis IX., king of France, was
chosen to head the expedition. Meanwhile, Thaddeus of Suessia defended
the cause of Frederic, whose ambassador he was ; but it was difficult for
him to produce arguments calculated to soften the evU impression that was
made upon men's minds by the violence of the prince towards the pontiff
and the cardinals, and, especiaUy, by the tenacity with which he opposed
what had been done to put an end to the vacancy in the Holy See. The
sentence of deposition was substantiaUy as foUows :
Pope Innocent first recounted the steps that he had taken from the com
mencement of his pontificate to bring about peace with Frederic, and the
promises sworn to in the name of the emperor on Maundy- Thursday, in the
preceding year, 1244. " Therefore," continued the pope, " we can no longer
tolerate his iniquity without partaking of it, and it has become matter of con
science to punish him." He then reduced the crimes of Frederic to four prin
cipal acts, averred to be of pubhc notoriety — perjury, sacrilege, heresy, and
felony. He proved the perjury by Frederic's breach of the peace made
with the Church, that is to say, with Pope Gregory IX., in 1230, and by
several other violated oaths ; the sacrilege, by the capture of the legates
and other prelates whUe on board the Genoese galleys on their way to a
councU ; the heresy, by his contempt of the censures, notwithstanding which
* Novaes, iii. p. 211.

424 LIVES OF THE POPES.
he caused divine service to be celebrated ; by his connection with the Sara
cens, by his alliance with the Emperor Vatacius, a schismatic, to whom he
gave his daughter, and by other conjectures, exciting vehement suspicion.
The felony was proved by Frederic's vexation of the subjects of the king
dom of SicUy. a fief of the Roman Church, and the non-payment of the
tribute during nine years.
In that same councU, it was settled that the cardinals should wear the
red hat, as they now do ; by that symbol the pope notified them that they
should be prepared to shed their blood in defence of the hberty of the
Christian people. However, the cardinals did not receive the red hat until
afterwards, at Cluny, when the pope went thither to consult with the king
of France and his brothers. The pope, at the same time, ordered cardinals
thenceforth to ride on horseback in ceremonies : tiU then, • in a spirit of
moderation and humility, they had attended on foot.*
Thaddeus of Suessia then demanded that the guarantee of the kings of
England and France should be taken for Frederic's future conduct ; but
Innocent refused to accept it. He described the emperor as the declared
enemy, not of the person of the pontiff, but of the Church herseK ; and he
declared that it was impossible to clear the accused from suspicion of un
faithfulness to his promises. Frederic continued to apply to the king of
France, Louis IX., and, no doubt, regretted the violent tone in which he
had formerly addressed that monarch. The kindly Louis held secret con
ferences with the pope, at Cluny, but it did not appear that they could agree
as to the withdrawal of the sentence upon the emperor.
The excommunication, and, according to the jurisprudence of that day,
its necessary result, deposition, had been made known to Frederic. In
1246, there would be an election of a king of the Romans. The pope ex
horted the electing princes to choose Henry, landgrave of Thuringia, who
was deemed to be a sound defender of the Church and of the empire. The
majority of the electors accordingly named him on Ascension-day, May 17th,
in the same year. The Landgrave Henry dying, Innocent desired that his
successor should be William, count of HoUand, who was elected king of the
Romans on the 29th of the foUowing September.
Daniel, duke of Russia, had led his people into the Catholic religion* and
had recovered them from the Greek schism ; the Holy Father caused Dan
iel to be crowned king, and granted him the royal insignia; the same
favor being sohcited by Joachim, king of Norway, was not refused. In
1247, the pope approved the order of Sylvestrive monks, instituted about

' The cardinals continued to go on horseback or in litters until the middle of the fifteenth
century, when the first carriage appeared in Italy, where it was used by the marchionesses of
llassa, of the house of Cibo ; then the cardinals also used carriages.

INNOCENT IV. 425
the year 1231, near Fabriano, under the rule of Saint Dominic, by Saint
Sylvester Guzzohni, canon of Osimo, who died in 1261, aged ninety years.
This order did not spread beyond Italy, but only in the March of Ancona,
Umbria, Rome, and Tuscany. The Sclavonians obtained from the Pontiffs
Adrian II. and John VIIL permission to celebrate Mass in their own lan
guage. But that right had afterwards been taken from them by Popes
Alexander II., and Gregory VII. In 1248, the bishops and clergy of that
nation having solicited Pope Innocent to restore them the privilege that
had been granted by Adrian II. and John VIIL, he deigned to restore it
to them ; but it has been deemed most unwisely.
Innocent, grateful to the canons of Saint Just, in Lyons, granted them
the golden rose. He had enjoyed their hospitality during seven years. The
piety of the Lyonese has at aU times been admirable. He also sent the
golden rose to Raymond, count of Provence, who had visited him at Lyons.
We find a proof of that fact in a diploma of the 10th of April, in the sixth
year of the pontificate. Novaes, while quoting the opinions of several
authors as to the date- of the commencement of the ceremony of blessing
the golden rose, expresses no precise opinion of his own ; so that both those
who believe the ceremony to be an ancient one, and those who differ from
them, may each enjoy their own opinion.
As Innocent took great care to encourage the study of the canon and
civU law, at Rome, he is supposed to have been the founder of the Univer
sity of Rome ; be that as it may, it is certain that it was Boniface VIIL
who rendered it iUustrious in Italy.
In 1246, the Holy Father canonized, at Lyons, Saint Edmond, archbishop
of Canterbury, who had taken refuge in France, on the 16th of November,
1234. He also canonized, in 1247, Saint WiUiam, bishop of Saint Brieuc,
in Lower Brittany ; and in 1253, he canonized at Perugia, Saint Peter of
Verona, a Dominican, who was martyred in the previous year by the Man
ichseans. FinaUy, he canonized at Assisi, on the 19th of September, 1253,
Saint Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow, martyred by order of Boleslas, king of
Poland, while that saint was celebrating Mass, on the 10th of March,
1079. God continued his blessings to Spain ; Ferdinand took SeviUe, which had
for five hundred and thirty-four years been in the power of the Moors.
Frederic, however, continued to arm against Innocent, and at Lyons,
emissaries were even discovered, sent to attempt the hfe of the pope. The
zealous care of the canons of Saint Just prevented the crime.
A crusade having been preached against Frederic, armies were assembled
in Germany and Italy; Marcellinus, bishop of Arezzo, whom Innocent had
placed at the head of his interests in Tuscany, was seized and hanged by-
order of the emperor, who respected neither the age, nor the Episcopal

426 LIVES OF THE POPES.
character, nor the situation of his prisoner. The unfortunate prelate was
dragged, bound hand and foot, at the tail of a horse to the gaUows.
In 1248, King Louis, who had gone to the crusade, disembarked in the
i.sle of Cyprus. In 1249, he took Damietta. It is to JoinviUe especiaUy
that a Frenchman should look for the details of the victories and the mis
fortunes of Saint Louis. Alas ! why did not a wise pohcy teach that prince
that it was not by occupying Damietta, and afterwards marching upon Cairo,
had that been possible, that he could usefully serve the interests of re
ligion? At that moment of such passion, enthusiasm, and Catholic zeal, it
was stiU Jerusalem that he should have sought ; it was Jerusalem that it
was necessary to recapture ; Jerusalem, where there was no longer a Saladin
with what have been truly caUed his fatal virtues. MeanwlrUe, Frederic
died penitent, on the 13th of December, 1250. By his wiU he ordered his
son Conrad to restore to the Church what she had been unjustly deprived
of seven years before. Innocent determined to go to Rome ; but before
carrying his resolve into action, he with great feeling granted to Louis IX.,
king of that France which had given so many proofs of attachment to
the courageous Pope Gregory IX., ten days indulgence in favor of those
who should pray for the sovereigns of that country. This example was
followed by Urban IV., who on the same condition granted twenty days; by
Clement IV., who extended the indulgence to a hundred days ; and by Leo
X., who extended it to a whole year.* In 1251, Innocent, after celebrating
Mass on Easter-day, and dining in public in the monastery of Saint Just,
set out for Rome, with William king of Germany, and the cardinals and
prelates of the Roman court. He stayed for some time at Genoa and at
Milan : from Milan he went to Brescia, visited Mantua, Ferrara, and Bologna,
and stopped at Perugia, where he remained nearly a year and a haK. In
1253 he went to Assisi, where he visited Saint Clare, who was at the point
of death. At length, entreated to go to Rome, and even threatened K he
should not go, he set out thither and made his entry in the month of Oc
tober, amidst the ordinary acclamations which, as we have already remark
ed, always welcome the entry of the popes into the capital of the Christian
world. Innocent, afflicted with the reverses which Saint Louis had met with,
sincerely rejoiced when he learned that that monarch had effected his re
turn to France. He was not to see once more his mother, Blanche of'
Castile ; but the vows of the French, their prayers, and their tears of affec
tion somewhat softened the affliction of the prince so beloved by his iUus
tiious nation.
WhUe marching against Manfred, son of Frederic, the pope feU sick at
* Spondanus, Annal. Eccles., Leo X.

INNOCENT IV. 427
Naples, and died there on the 7th of December, 1254. He had governed
the Church eleven years, five months, and about fourteen days. He was
buried in the cathedral of that city. This pope, profound in jurisprudence,
was also called monarch of the divine and human laics. He left a work in
foho, which has often been reprinted, Apparatus super Becretales.
We may say a few words about that work, which was among the latest
transactions of Innocent. He had always promised a treatise on studies,
and his decretals were anxiously looked for. When they were ready, he
addressed them to aU the prelates of France, England, Scotland, Wales,
Spain, Germany, and Hungary. In an accompanying letter he said : " We
are grieved to learn* that all students, quitting phUosophy, to say nothing
now about theology, apply themselves to the study of the secular laws.
And what is stUl more lamentable is, that the bishops in most countries
take for benefices and ecclesiastical dignities only lawyers and professors of
law, who should be excluded K not otherwise commendable. Hence, those
who study philosophy remain in want of food and clothing, not venturing
to show themselves, while lawyers, riding pompously on well-harnessed
steeds, robed in sUk, glittering with gold, sUver, and jewels, draw down the
indignation of the laity, not only on themselves, but on the whole Church.
" Anxious to repress this insolence, and exalt the study of theology, or at
least of philosophy, which even without piety leads to science and diverts
from avarice, we order that in future no professor of laws or advocate,
distinguished as he may be in the profession, shall be promoted to eccle
siastical dignities and benefices, unless he is instructed in the hberal arts,
and recommended by good morals. If any prelate venture to violate this
constitution, his appointment shall be nuU and void, and he shall lose the
right, for that case, of making one."
We see with what exemplary regularity the popes intervened in the busi
ness of aU orders ; and what could more happily, more promptly, or more
effectuaUy intervene ? After the death of Innocent IV. the Holy See was
vacant only four days.
I insert here an extract from the Credo of JoinvUle,t in which, after his
profession of faith, he relates various incidents relating to the taking of the
king near Damietta, in 1250, and which occurred in the presence of the
legate of Innocent.
Saint Gregory of Tours, named bishop in 573, left us a Credo. That of
Dante is much esteemed in France, where numerous commentaries have
made him so weU known. Then comes the Credo of JoinviUe, which he
composed at Acre, in 1253, for the edification of the Catholic knights. He
returned from Syria with King Louis IX. in 1254, and in 1287, he finaUy
* Fleury, v., p. 496. f Published in 1837, by the Societe des Bibliophiles Francai*

428 LIVES OF THE POPES.
completed this Credo, which is of the most precise orthodoxy.* A single ex
tract wUl show the author's veneration for Holy Church. " We should be
lieve the Holy Church of Rome. We should believe the commands given
to us by the apostles and the prelates of the Holy Church, and perform all
the penances that they impose upon us."
The Credo is based upon the Apostles' Creed ; then the author explains
the various prophecies wliich announced the facts of the New Testament.
The work is ornamented with illuminations of that era, which in color re
semble those of the Roman Catacombs, in the frequent use of ultramarine,
ochre, and scarlet. It appears that the Credo was read before the sick who
were cared for by the Knights Hospitallers, and that copies were given to
the convalescent.
The closing- passage of the work, which I have translated as closely as
possible from the original, is as follows. It is JoinviUe who speaks :
" Now you perceive that it is fitting to have both good faith and good
works. To deprive us of either the one or the other, enemies are daily
attacking us, and they wUl attack us, even more than they do now, at the
last day, that is to say, the day of death, in which day may God and God's
Holy Mother Mary, and all the saints help us ! At that last day, the fiend
will see that he cannot deprive us of the good that we have done ; and he
wiU see that he cannot make us do evil, all the strength of the body having
left us. Then he wiU assail us in the other direction, and wUl do all in his
power to tempt us into sin against faith or otherwise, so that we may die in
evil thought, which God forbid. And then wUl be serviceable books, with
images of the points of our faith, even to the very moment of our death.
And in order that the enemy may work no delusion before the patient, let
the book be read, which sets forth and teaches the points of our faith, so
that both by eyes and ears the heart of the dying may be so filled with true
knowledge, that the enemy neither here nor elsewhere can put aught of his
evil into that dying heart ; as from such evU thought may God preserve us
at that death-hour and always !
" I have taught you, to the best of my knowledge, how you should hold
God embraced in both arms — that is to say, in the arm of firm faith and in
the arm of good works. For they are in great peril whom the enemy can
ahenate from God ! God threatens to smite them with his sword, and to
pierce them with his arrows, which are not to be feared by those who are
his friends, and who hold him in their embrace. Now, let us not leave him,
* The manuscript, of which a fac-simile and translation are given, is in the Imperial Library
(No. 2,016), and was first noticed, by Mr. Paulin Paris, member of the Academy of Inscriptions
and Belles-Lettres. Thirty copies were printed on vellum, and thirty on 4to paper, by Ambrose
Fermin Dedot. No copies were sold ; forty-eight were given to members, and ten to foreign as
sociates of the Society ; the other two were placed in the Imperial Library.

ALEXANDER IV.

429

and we shall do wisely ; and let us hold unto him until he shall give us his
blessing, and until he shaU change our name of Jacob, which signifies com
batant, into the name of Israel, which signifies Him who sees God ; and may
God grant that we may see him face to face, to the salvation of our souls
and bodies ! And may he grant us this in answer to the prayers of his sweet
Mother, of Saint Michael, and of aU the saints ! Amen."
JoinviUe, the warrior, in composing that Credo, which any priest might
have avowed, revived the courage of the laity, who might venture, subse
quently, to concern themselves with the dogmas and the precepts of
rehgion.

183. ALEXANDER IV.— a. d. 1254.

sp^T the commencement of the reign of Gregory the
Great, we presented the reader with a summary of
the events which preceded his pontificate. We
now give another, no less necessary ; it wiU rapidly
touch upon the host of new circumstances which
accumulated from the reign of Gregory the Great,
in the year 590, to the death of Innocent IV., in
&)' 1254. It is easy to perceive, at the outset, that
under Gregory the Great the pontifical power was consolidated ; both East
and West accepted its laws. An eloquent writer and a consummate states
man, such as Saint Leo had been, the great Gregory also taught the people
their duties, and made them bless his authority. It was he who brought
under his immediate authority Rome, its environs, and very many adjacent
countries. Bossuet justly praises Gregory, under whom dawned that science
of government which was subsequently to rule the world.
The Lombard and the imperial Exarch, both opposing each other and
embarrassing the Church, were both repressed ; and though their efforts
were sometimes united, yet even then a supernatural genius watched over
the destinies of the Church that they dared to oppress.
The Roman clergy and people, in the election of the pontiffs, still sought
to please the emperors of the East ; but these latter, in their uncertainties,
their mistakes, and the perfidies by which they embarrassed themselves,
daily lost the prestige which had previously upheld them.
Mahomet began to appear in 625. He prepared his arms in silence.

430 LIVES OF THE POPES.
However, it was already felt that monarchy is universal in the Church,
and that its government could not become obscure or uncertain.
Councils assemble at the voice of the successor of Saint Peter. He is the
head and father of all the bishops assembled in council. These very names
are given to him by the CouncU of Chalcedon, in the letter to Saint Leo :
" Summitas tua filiis quod deest adimpleat — Bet thy elevation supply what is
wanting in thy sons."* Some acts of Honorius could not be mentioned
without pain.- Dom CapeUari defends him with prudence and decision,
foUowing an opinion of Bolgeni : " Those are heretics who maintain wri
tings that have been condemned as formaUy heretical, I admit; as indi
rectly heretical, I deny. Now the letters of Honorius were condemned as
indirectly heretical, I admit ; as formaUy heretical, I deny."
Was there ever martyrdom so long and so courageously borne as that of
Pope Martin ? Yes — that of Pius VII. ; but this latter terminated in glory
and in immortal clemency.
The foUowers of Mahomet inundate Europe. Charles Martel, instrument
of a great miracle of God in favor of his people, hurled them back into
Spain, whence Pelayo pursues them even into Africa.
Charlemagne appears ; Saint Leo III. rewards his valor. A terrible
blow, a death-blow, is given to the indolent emperors of Constantinople.
Their future is a career of cowardly decline. In good faith, Charlemagne
gave other principalities to the popes. They learned at once the rules of
ecclesiastical and of temporal government. Impassioned writers before us
have treated of these annals. We have analyzed their works ; doing full
justice to their researches, but dealing plainly too with their errors, calum
nies, and the false direction that they would give to Cathohcity.
A succession of popes form links in that chain that is to extend to our
own days.
Saint Leo IV. found in Rome traces of the force of Charlemagne's action.
The Saracens threatened Rome. Without waiting to summon to his aid
Lothaire, the successor of Charlemagne, the pope raised an army and drove
them from the neighborhood of the capital.
Sylvester II., a Frenchman, also brought to the throne the knowledge and ,
the skiU of some of his predecessors : he speaks of penance at the com
mencement of that tenth century which is about to be so ferocious as to
recall the times of the most ignorant barbarism. Saint Leo IV., in spite of
the patronage of a German emperor, declares that he wiU owe the pontifi
cate only to the clergy and the Roman people. Subhme example of sub
mission to laws which had often freed the Holy See from the usurpations of

* See Triumph of the Holy See and of the Church, by Dom Mauro Capellari, afterwards Greg
ory XVI., translated into French by the Abbe Jammes ; 8vo, Lyons, 1833 ; vol. i., p. 74.

ALEXANDER IV. . 431
its enemies, desirous of disturbing pubhc order and the course of received
customs. By a celebrated excommunication, this pope attacks aU heresies, old and
new ; the wicked who assail the Cathohcity of the primitive times, the inno
vators who, with names of yesterday, recaU to the bosom of the Church
passions from which she had already freed herself.
Saint Gregory VII. comes forward to put an end to the horrible excesses
of the eleventh century, wliich equals the tenth hi perversity. This pope
endowed with rare vigor, a logical mind, all the dignity of the deathless
arguments which then governed the world. He inflicts chastisements at the
c-all of justice ; he makes relentless war on simony, adultery, the contempt
of divine and human laws. The age required him. The nations led him
triumphantly into the capitol of their king, and there they loudly demanded
respect for property, true liberty, the honor of women, and the sanctifica-
tion of the name of Jesus Christ. If Saint Gregory VII. is not better de
fended here it is our fault ; we confess our weakness. At aU hazards, we
persistently maintain, in the face of those who can see only the circum
stances of the present, that his compulsory acts, from 1073 to 1085, were in
their places indispensably necessary ; and that they estabhshed each master
in his own sphere on conditions of honesty, wisdom, and truth, which we
hope wiU be maintained for the happiness of the existing nations spread
over the world. The example of Gregory VII. encouraged a Victor, an
Urban II., in the pursuit of the real good of Christendom.
The latter reign was Ulustrated by Godfrey de BouUlon, who conquered
Jerusalem. " When," says de Maistre, " we went into Asia in the middle
ages, sword in hand,* to crush, K it might so be, on its own soil, the terrible
crescent which threatened aU the hberties of Europe, the French led the
way in that memorable enterprise. A man of the people, who has left to
posterity only his baptismal name of Peter, and the humble surname of
the Hermit, with no power but his faith and unconquered wiU, aroused Eu
rope, startled Asia, broke down feudahsm, ennobled the serfs, brought in
the torch of science, and changed aU Europe.
" The French name made such an impression in the East,t that it has
ever since been in the East the name for European ; and the greatest poet
of Italy, writing in the sixteenth century, does not disdain to use the same
expression.^ " The French sceptre ruled at Jerusalem. What might not have been
expected from it ! It should have aggrandized Europe, repulsed Islamism
forever, and stifled schism ; unhappUy it could not maintain itseK."
* The Pope. — Preliminary discourse, vol. i., p. 28. t B<dV> P- 30.
X It popol franco ; Tasso— The Crusaders, Godfrey's army.

432

LIVES OF THE POPES.

We shaU have to write but a few lines without having to deplore the loss
of that conquest. And God, for our more complete punishment, raises up
in the camp of the enemy a thunderbolt of war to be on the point of con
quering us alike in glory and in generosity. But let us drain the cup of
bitterness ! After the tender and Cathohc joy of Urban II. came Pascal,
Gelasius, Calixtus, Honorius II., Innocent II., the great Alexander III.,
Gregory VIIL, and Clement III., hi whose reign ive lost Jerusalem, and Ce
lestine III. ; and at length we reach Innocent III., the one hundred and
seventy-eighth pope.
Aided by Hurter, we have deemed it our duty to bestow particular care
upon that reign of strength, virtue, and eloquence. AU Cathohcs know the
promises of God to his Church ; but have aU paid proper attention to the
fidelity with which those promises are fulfilled ? He has tolerated weak
nesses, errors, and culpable excesses on the part of isolated individuals ;
but how great should be the gratitude of the faithful for that series of mer
cies bestowed from time to time through privileged pontiffs ! The histo
rian of the Church should preserve in his most precious pages the great
character of Gregory VII. ; but, as time went on, civUization having ame
liorated manners, the year 1198 needs a no less skUful, though perhaps a
milder hand. But even yet we have not got free from crimes, especiaUy
political crimes. When the French and Venetians usurped the throne of
Constantinople, mark the ineffable grief of Innocent III., that they have
stopped so far short on their way to the Holy Sepulchre ! Alas ! another
crime is committed. An emperor disappears like another Romulus, and the'
guilty are not certainly known. Another monarch, who has no longer a rival
to fear, presents himseK to be crowned ; he wiU even marry the daughter of
the victim. But evU in the other classes of society is not so intense. In
nocent III. wiU appreciate these new circumstances that few men of his
time understood. And as the spirit of conciliation, the doctrine of pardon,
or, at the least, the sentiment of indulgence and justice, which requires
incontestable proof of every crime, wUl accompany every decision of Inno
cent III. Although he anticipates the approaching ingratitude, he wUl turn
aside his head, and, amidst painful vicissitudes, wUl continue that reign
which we have sketched, and which was one of the most glorious that we
have had to mention in these annals. Innocent is succeeded by Honorius.
This pope approved of the rule of Saint Dominic. I have dwelt with
praise on the order, iUustrated in our clay by Father Lacordaire. Nor have
I overlooked the spirit of concord reigning between the Dominicans and
Franciscans. It has seemed to me that I ought not to omit any of the de
tails which recommend to admiration Saint Francis, that noble friend of
poverty, who, on account of the miracle of the stigmata, is caUed in history
by the name of Seraphic.

ALEXANDER IV. 433
Further on I have mentioned, with the especial esteem which they merit,
the Carmelites, who owed their first rule to Saint Albert, patriarch of Jeru
salem., The reign of Honorius III. was desolated by the ravages made by the
conquering Genghis Khan. Gregory IX. solemnly canonized the great
Saint Francis of Assisium, the father of so many pious orders, and of that
of the Minor Observantins, to whom the care of the Holy Sepulchre was
intrusted. We have rendered homage to the zeal of Gregory IX., in pub
lishing the collection of Decretals that bears his name ; he redoubled his
efforts to bring back to the faith the Jacobites and the Nestorians in Asia,
and to encourage the Maronites remaining intrepidly faithful to the voice of
the Holy See.
Celestine IV. had only time to leave his name in the list of popes.
Innocent IV. creates kings, carries far and wide the standard of Christ,
blesses Spain, victorious over the Saracens, consoles Saint Louis on the
disasters in Egypt, and gives his Apparatus ad Decretales, received with such
applause by all the universities of Europe. The legate of Innocent IV.
encouraged JoinviUe to compose a Credo wliich became the formula of faith
of the sick and wounded at Saint Jean d'Acre. To conclude, we may add
that after the horrors of the ninth, the tenth, and portions of the eleventh
and thirteenth centuries, the popes continued their noble mission of civili
zation, and prepared for the Holy See new triumphs which we have yet to
relate. Alexander IV, originaUy called Raynold or Roland, belonged to the
Conti famUy. Gregory IX. made him cardinal-deacon of Saint Eustace,
and then bishop of Ostia and Veletri. Conti was elected pope at Naples,
against his wiU, on the 12th of December, 1254, and crowned on the 20th
of that month.
In 1255, the new pontiff, who resided at Anagni, there canonized Saint
Clare, of the Second Order of Saint Francis.
The faculty of theology of Paris, having decided, in 1525, that it was not
aUowable to confess to any priest without the permission of the parish
priest, the Franciscans and Dominicans appealed from the decision, which
they deemed an invasion of the privUege of the mendicant orders. They
were therefore excluded from that university at the instigation of William
of Saint Amaur, who wrote on this subject a book entitled, On the Perils of
the Batter Times, and the Eternal Gospel of the Franciscans. This book con
tained many errors and attacks on the Franciscans : the Holy Father con
demned it, and having, hke his uncle, Gregory IX., taken the friars under
his protection, he demanded their readmission into the university, and
restoration to all the privUeges which they had been deprived. The Holy
Vol. 1.— 28

434 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Father wrote a very courteous letter to the university, paying many weU-
deserved compliments to that illustrious body. " The school of Paris,"
says one passage in that letter, " is like the love of life in the earthly para
dise, or like the alabaster lamp in the House of the Lord." About the
same time the pope confirmed the institution of the University of Sala
manca, founded, or restored, by Alphonso X., king of Castile.
In 1256, the Holy Father approved the order of the Servants af Mary, or
Servites, under the rule of Saint Augustine. WUliam, count of HoUand,
elected king of the Romans, having died in December, 1255, Alexander
threatened to excommunicate the electors, should they elect, as the deceased
king's successor, Conradine, son of Conrad, and grandson of the Emperor
Frederic II.
The pope ordered that the bishops should be consecrated within six
months after their election. Anxious to reconcile the Greek and Latin
Churches, he sent the bishop of Orvieto to Theodore Lascaris, but the
embassy had not the hoped for success.
New disturbances excited at Rome by Manfred, obliged the pope to
retire to Viterbo, and thence to another city of those States.
WhUe in that conchtion of exUe, Alexander is said to have granted priv
ileges with unexampled facility.
King Louis IX. continued to govern France with glory, and daily gave
tokens of an exemplary piety. Among all the religious orders he especially
loved the two mendicant orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans : he said
if he could give away his body, each of those orders should have haK of it.
About 1256, Saint Bonaventure began to be famous. He was born at
Bagnarea, in Tuscany, in the year 1221. At the age of twenty-two he
entered the order of Saint Francis, and became the eighth minister-general
of that order.
About 1259, Italy witnessed a tiU then unexampled religious movement.
It commenced at Perugia, and passed thence to Rome, and the rest of the
country .* Nobles and commons, old and young, even children only five
years old, touched by the fear of God's anger for the crimes with wliich
Italy was inundated, went about the streets of the city almost naked. They
went in procession, by two and two, each carrying a leather whip, and,
with groans and tears, so violently beat their shoulders that they were
covered with blood. At the same time they implored the mercy of God,
and the help of the Virgin Mary. These FlageUants, so caUed, were sus
pected by Manfred, king of Naples, even before iixej were accused of any
errors of faith ; and he forbade, under pain of death, such austerities in
any part of his kingdom. * Fleury, v., p. 439.

URBAN IV.

435

The Holy Father returned from Anagni to Viterbo, to hold a general
councU, and restore peace between Genoa and Venice, but fell iU and died
in that city, on the 25th of March, 1261, after governing the Church six
years, five months, and fourteen days. He was interred in the cathedral of
Saint Lawrence.
The Holy See remained vacant three months and three days.

184. URBAN IV.— a. d. 1261.

| HE original name of Urban IV. was James or Hy
acinth Pantaleon ; he was born at Troyes, in Cham
pagne, and was the son of a shoemaker. Bury
says that the father was sutor veteramentarius.
Pantaleon embraced the ecclesiastical state, and
after prolonged studies became archdeacon of
Laon, and then of Liege, and subsequently pon
tifical legate in Pomerania, in Livonia, and in
Prussia. Innocent IV. had known him at the
CouncU of Lyons, and had often heard him speak with ability in the affairs
of the Church. In 1252, he was named fifty-eighth bishop of Verdun.
Alexander wished to make him patriarch of Jerusalem, with the title of
legate to the Holy Land and to the army there.
Pantaleon at that time came to the place then occupied by the Roman
Court, on business of his church, and, though he was not then a cardinal,
he was elected pontiff at Viterbo, by eight of the nine cardinals who were
there, and who then constituted the whole of the Sacred College. Being
elected on the 29th of August, 1261, he was consecrated on the 4th of Sep
tember, and received the name of Urban.
The commencement of his pontificate saw the end of the empire of the
Latins in Constantinople, which had lasted fifty-seven years. Michael
Paleologus, with the aid of the Greeks, recaptured that capital, which had
always longed for the old authority. Paleologus, to avoid the war with
which he was threatened by Urban, proposed the union of the two Churches,.
but that was not effected till the time of Gregory X.
Urban, a few days after his coronation, wrote to Louis, king of France,
and Phihp, the king's eldest son, to grant a year and forty days' indulgence
to them and to aU who were present at the consecration of any church

436 LIVES OF THE POPES.
or chapel. Urban, perceiving that the sacred coUege was too limited in
number, at the Ember Days, in December, 1261, increased the number by
seven new cardinals, aU men worthy of that honor by their learning and
piety. The next year, he created seven more. In this second promotion,
Urban included one of his nephews, Antherus, canon of Bayeux, archdeacon
of Laen, then cardinal of Saint Praxedes, and legate in various kingdoms.
That nephew acquired great wealth, with which he founded a collegiale of
twelve canons.
Urban employed representations and entreaties, in language by turns
firm and pathetic, to bring back into the right way Manfred, king of Sicily,
but in vain ; that prince continued to harass the Church and afflict Italy.
Then the pope ordered a holy war against him. The army of the allies,
commanded by Guy, bishop of Auxerre, and Robert, son of the count of
Flanders, defeated the army of Manfred, in Lombardy; but the king
speedily retrieved the honor of his arms, and laid siege to Rome. Urban
has been blamed for employing Itahan crusaders against Manfred ; but it
should be remembered that Manfred's army was composed almost entirely
of Saracens, who had declared war to the death against the faithful
Cathohcs. Having retired to Orvieto, the pope instituted the feast of Corpus Christi,
which he celebrated for the first time on the Thursday within the Octave of
Pentecost, in 1264.* By his direction, Saint Thomas Aquinas, then professor
of phUosophy, composed the office of this feast, which is stiU recited. But
when Pope Urban died at Perugia, the celebration' of the solemnity was
interrupted for more than forty years. It had been ordered in the year
1246, by Robert of Torota, bishop of Liege, in consequence of the revela
tions of a holy nun of the order of the HospitaUers, Saint Juhana Falco-
nieri. When the festival had been established at Liege, Urban IV., then
James Pantaleon, had been consulted, and had approved it. As pope,
he did not lose his interest in it ; but he postponed an answer to those who
wished the festival made universal throughout the Church.
About the same time a German pilgrim priest, who celebrated the Mass
at Bolsena, near Orvieto, ventured to doubt whether the bread and wine
became the body and blood of Christ, when suddenly the blood issued from
the host and stained the corporal. The priest, to conceal his want of faith,
folded the corporal, but there remained the form of a man on every fold.
The miracle was at once divulged. The pontiff, who tiU then had been
irresolute, had the corporal brought to Orvieto and solemnly received. Sub-
* Panvini states that Urban instituted the procession now held on this feast. Others attribute
the institution of the procession to John XXlI., Urban in his bull speaking only of the festival.
The sexcentennial anniversary of that institution was celebrated at Liege. A great number ol
bishops were present at it.

urban rv. 437
sequently, at the prayer of the Cathohcs of Spain, who stated that a hke
prodigy had been witnessed at Daroca, in Valencia, and at the same time
to put down the heresy of Berengarius, denying the presence of Jesus
Christ in the Eucharist, the pope ordered the whole Church to celebrate
the festival of Corpus Christi. The corporal is stiU preserved in the Cathe
dral of Orvieto. All know Raphael's magnificent fresco, representing that
miracle. Urban forbade any interments whatever in the Vatican without a pon
tifical permission. He was the first .pope to add his number to his name ;
he signed Urban, Pope IV. It is said that there is a buU extant, signed
Pelagius, Pp. II. ; but many authors consider that buU apocryphal.
Urban died on the 22d of October, 1264, at Perugia. He governed the
Church three years, one month, and four days. He was a man of lofty
inteUect and prudence. His heart was fiUed with clemency, kindness,
generosity, and many other virtues that may be caUed truly royal. He
left a Paraphrase of the Fathers, and sixty-one letters breathing wisdom and
goodness. ,
The Holy See was vacant five months and two days'.
I rarely shrink from matters the discussion of which may seem delicate
and offensive. The Protestants have endeavored to cast ridicule upon the
profession of Urban's father. Aristocratic sneers of the kind may weU
astonish us, coming as they do from men who so often preach equahty and
republicanism. What is done when the son of a poor man is intended for
the ecclesiastical career ? He is placed in a monastery where he is enabled
to study. At the time of which we speak, the contract that existed between
the Latin Church and the Greek Church, either in agreement or in contro
versy, rendered familiar to even the learned of Italy the study of the lan
guage of Demosthenes. The traces of the language of Cicero were not
effaced. Saint Augustine, that master of masters, was in the hands of aU the pupils
who desired to become learned. The cleric who had the least resources, the
least aid to hope from his famUy, was, as is almost always the case, pre
cisely that one who studied the most. When a distinguished scholar be
came known for ability, he was pointed out as one who would be found use
ful to the Church. Rome profited by all among the pupils who, whether
in Italy or in France, were known to be the most studious. Innocent IV.
found at his hand a Frenchman who united aU the qualifications neces
sary for a couragious nuncio ; Innocent IV. knew that in the difficulties of
the Church it is talent, knowledge, devotion, that is needful worthUy to sus
tain and vindicate the work of Jesus Christ. Innocent IV. did not ask
whence James Pantaleon came. After speaking with him, His Hohness
perceived in him a merit worthy of esteem, and named him legate to the

438 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Holy Land, and men's eyes were necessarily turned upon him who was to
animate the crusaders to conquer the tomb of our Lord. James Pantaleon
having become celebrated, had but a short time to wait ere becoming pope.
In that sublime elevation, courage, learning, and experience can freely man-
Kest themselves. Philosophers may talk as they please about the rights of
aU men ; those rights have been most constantly recognized by the Holy
See. With pleasure, with interest, nay, with preference, K people wiU have it
so, it honors patrician birth and those historic descents which oblige to vir
tue, but it is none the less attentive to reward services rendered to religion.
Can any country be mentioned in which more than in Rome the equality
that should obtain among men is understood in a consistent, ever true, and
ever certain spirit ? Upon that point, as upon so many others, Rome;
without calling people to revolt, gives the most judicious lessons and prac
tises the pure and essentially phUosophical precepts of the Gospel, that in
exhaustible well-spring of instruction which, properly foUowed, cannot fail
to secure happiness in this hfe and salvation in the next. One of my reasons
for writing the Lives of the Popes is the consideration I have just men
tioned. Parties and sects may agitate the multitudes, poor and born in the
lower ranks of society ; but these parties and these sects can only repeat to
a few what Rome has unceasingly taught to aU. Rome, in constituting the
monarchical principle, has not forgotten the consolations that she owes to
the classes that everywhere else are degraded, to the classes in which, in aU
countries, by cultivating with care and in the spirit dictated by the Gospel,
abundant fruits may be produced, unhoped for riches, and riches more than
aU others inexhaustible. Rome operates on a scale of very different extent
from that on which so many exclusively pohtical governments confine their
action.

CLEMENT IV. 439

185. CLEMENT IV. — a. d. 1265.
LEMENT IV., originally named Guy Foulquois,
belonged to a noble family of Saint Gilles, on the
Rhone. It is to be remarked here, that a French
man succeeded a Frenchman. Guy was succes-
fi3 sively soldier, jurisconsult, secretary to Louis IX.,
married, father of a famUy, widowed, priest, canon,
archdeacon, bishop, cardinal, and pope. Some
authors state that Guy was also a Carthusian, but
it seems they confound him with his father, who did really enter the order
of Saint Bruno. Clement himself, if we may judge from a letter written at
Viterbo, on the 21st of November, in the fourth year of his pontificate,
speaks of the entrance of his father into a monastery, but he does not say
that he himseK had ever been a monk.
When Guy Foulquois embraced the ecclesiastical state, he contracted
friendship with the holy doctors Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bona-
venture ; Urban IV., who had great confidence in Guy, made him cardinal-
bishop of Sabina, to reward the ability with which he had filled the office
of legate to England, when sent there to appease the differences between
the king, Henry III., and Simon de Montfort. The cardinal-bishop of
Sabina was absent when Urban IV. died ; nevertheless the sacred college
elected him pontiff. Being informed of his election, he repaired to Viterbo,
and on his knees entreated the electors not to persist in their choice ; but
they were inflexible. He ascended the throne with the name of Clement
IV., and was crowned on the 22d of February, 1265.*
That same year, Clement, after expressly reserving the Duchy of Bene
vento, gave to Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX., the investiture of
the Two Sicihes. Charles received them in fief, without the salic law, and
promised an annual payment of eight thousand ounces of gold and one
palfrey. The tribute was to be paid on Saint Peter's eve. The Church
was to resume possession of the kingdoms should Charles leave no heir, or
in case of any such heir leaving none. On the day of the Epiphany, Clement
crowned Charles at the great altar of the Vatican BasUica. There is a paint
ing of the ceremony in the Farnese palace at Rome.
Villani has left the foUowing description of Charles of Anjou :
* The same year in which Dante Alighieri, the great poet, was born.

440 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" Charles was a wise and prudent man, sage in council, brave in battle,
respected and feared by aU the monarchs in the world, magnanimous, and
with a mind aspiring to great achievements ;* confident in himself, firm in
adversity, and faithful to all his promises ; he spoke but little and acted
much ; rarely laughed ; was pure and Cathohc as a religious ; stern in his
justice, and haughty in his glance. His stature was lofty and remarkably
athletic ; he had an olive complexion, and a large nose. There was majesty
in his bearing. He slept but little, and was accustomed to say that sleep
ing was a waste of time. Lavish with his soldiers, he was also greedy of
lordships and castles ; he loved money, come to him as it might, to meet the
expenses of war. He never diverted himseK with the courtiers, minstrels,
or mimics. His arms were those of France, azure, fieurs de lis or, with
a lambel gules, to distinguish his arms from those of the king of France.
When Charles presented himseK in Italy, he was forty-six years old, and he
reigned nineteen years.''
(A portrait, that, worthy of Saint Simon.)
After his coronation, Charles advanced towards Naples, to attack the
army of Manfred. The courageous son of Frederic II. did not decline
battle, but was defeated on the 26th of February, 1266, and, rashly expos
ing himseK, lost his hfe.
After the death of Manfred, king of Sicily, another competitor refused to
yield to the pretensions of Charles. This competitor was Conradine, son of
King Conrad, and grandson of the Emperor Frederic. Conradine, not con
tented with the title of king of Jerusalem, which the pontiff had left him,
aimed also at being king of Sicily. Censured for this by Clement, Conradine
levied an army, but was defeated by Charles, put to flight, and then be
trayed by faithless nobles, who gave him up to Charles. When Charles
had his rival in his hands, he took that stern and bitter vengeance which
wiU forever be the subject of universal reprobation. Some writers have
accused the pontiff of having consented to the death of Conradine, and they
have quoted certain antithetical phrases to justify the charge. We shall
not pause to refute the dastardly calumny. Though very properly disdained
by almost aU French writers, it has nevertheless been quoted by Velly, and
has left him in some doubt as to the part that Clement may have had in the
event to which it relates. But the sarcasm which is imputed to the pontiff
is utterly incompatible with his gentle manner, t Fleury and Muratori also
justify the pope from that false imputation ; and Father James Spon still
better, by proving that Conradine did not ascend the scaffold until a year
after the death of the pope.}

* Italy, p. 95. -f Biog. Univ., ix., p. 20.
X On this point, Fleury says (v., p. 497) that the execution took place on the 26th of October,

CLEMENT IV. 441
ViUani mentions the conduct of Robert, son of the count of Flanders,
and a relative of King Charles. Hearing a Provencal judge read the con
demnation of Conradine, in the presence of the king, Robert struck him with
his sword, exclaiming that it was not for him to condemn to death so great
and iUustrious a prince. The judge died of the blow, and not a word was
said about it. King Charles and the French nobles thought that Robert
had acted as a noble should. The death of Conradine is none the less an
ineffaceable stain upon the sovereign who permitted it.
Conradine, in his prison, was playing chess when his sentence was an
nounced to him, and he was almost immediately led forth to execution.
When he was in the hands of the executioner, he threw off his cloak, and
remembering the piety and the tenderness of his mother, Ehzabeth of Ba
varia, who had been unwilling that he, so young, should engage in a terri
ble war, he knelt in prayer, and, as he rose, exclaimed : " Oh, mother !
how deeply grieved you wiU be when you have tidings of my death !" Then
he turned towards the spectators, and hearing their pitying sobs, he proudly
drew off one of his gloves and threw it among them. We shall see how the
gauntlet thus thrown down was taken up.
Clement, weakened by old age and sickness, but full of glory, and of
merits in the administration of Holy Church, died at Viterbo, on the 29th
of November, 1268, and was interred in the church of the Dominicans. He
was the first pontiff on whose tomb armorial bearings were placed. This
pontiff, who never entered Rome, governed the Church three years, nine
months, and twenty days.
The popes, thus far, have, in some cases, not sufficiently restrained the
ambition of their families. The very opposite conduct of Clement IV. wUl
command the admiration of posterity.* He would not allow his relations
to be near him, and he forbade them to make any recommendations to him.
He married his niece to a simple knight, and promised only a moderate sum
as her marriage portion. He showed no greater eagerness for the settle
ment in IKe of two daughters left him by his marriage ; and they became
nuns in the abbey of Saint Saviour's, at Nismes.
Father Martene has coUected some works and the letters of this pope, in
the Thesaurus Anecclot. (tome ii.) The most curious of the letters is that
which he wrote to his nephew Peter, to prevent his exaltation from giving
any hopes to his relatives.
Novaes is untiring in his admiration of Clement IV. " He was," says
that historian, "an eloquent preacher and a consummate jurisconsult.
1268, and that Clement died on the 29th of November, in the same year, almost a month after.
Still, it is to be remembered that Clement IV. was then so feeble from suffering that he could
not have uttered the ferocious words attributed to him.
g. Univ., ix., 20.

442

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Durand calls him light of the law, illustrious in penance, in prayer, in apostolic
zecd, in modesty, and in morals, so that the higher he rose in dignity, the more he
flourished in sanctity. During his whole reign, he undertook nothing of con
sequence without first consulting the sacred coUege." Novaes then eulo
gizes this pope's horror of nepotism ; so greatly was this pontff detached
from his oivn blood.
The Holy See remained vacant two years, nine months, and two days.

186. BLESSED GREGORY X. — a. d. 1271.

'\tvf—^:^r~^~^\^f\ HE interval which separates the reign of Clement
-i ¦ yX\\*-j IV. from that of Gregory X., was signalized by an
^ilWV^ eTen^ which cannot be forgotten in history, the
death of Louis IX., before Tunis.
Louis left Aigues-Mortes on the 3d of July, 1270,
with a fleet conveying sixty thousand combatants.
On the 21st of July, the naval divisions united
before Tunis, five leagues southeast of the ruins of
Carthage.
The arrival of Edward, of England, and his wKe Eleanor, of Castile, at
the same moment, crowned the general satisfaction.* Faithful to a treaty,
that son of King Henry III. had embarked at Bordeaux, but contrary winds
had prevented his reaching Aigues-Mortes before the departure of the
royal fleet.
The heir of the Plantagenets did not, however, long remain under the
French banner. Dissenting from the plan of attacking Tunis, Edward,
against the opinions expressed in the council of the leaders, insisted upon
marching directly upon Syria, and towards Jerusalem. Despairing of con
verting them to his opinions, and convinced that to act otherwise would be
to hazard the safety of his knights, he withdrew from the army.
Noble and touching reparation made by a prince of the blood of Richard
the Lion-hearted, who, on another occasion, was less pious and less obedient
than Edward ! We should remark here, that at that period there was no
Pope. Clement IV. had died in 1268, and the conclave of Viterbo, as we
shall see, could not agree upon a successor. The ship of Christianity

*¦ History of Saint Louis, king of France, by the Marquis of Villeneuve-Trans ; vol. iii., p. 389.

BLESSED GREGORY X. 443
floated without a pilot, — left to the treacherous winds of statecraft. The
crusaders had lost sight of the road to the Holy Sepulchre.
The debarkation being completed, a camp was formed; it was an im
mense street of tents, open at each end, and having the arms and aU muni
tions in the centre.
Peter de Condet, chaplain to the king, presented to Mahomet, the bey of
Tunis, a cartel, which ran thus : " I proclaim to you the ban of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and of his sergeant, Louis of France, in July, 1270, 666 of the
Hegira, the last day of the moon of ZUkade." The reply to the king said :
•' 0 Frenchman, learn that Tunis is the sister of Cairo.* Expect the same
that feU to your lot there ;t you wiU find here the house of the son Lokman
for your tomb, where the eunuch Sabih wiU supply the place of the terrible
angels Moukir and Nakir, who, as saith the Koran, question the dead in
these words — Who is thy Lord ? Who is thy Prophet ?"
After several battles very advantageous to the king, the plague broke
out. The first Christian baron, Matthew III. de Montmorency, died on. the
1st of August. The sons of the king, Philip, Tristan, Peter of France, and
the king himseK, were attacked. On the 7th of the month, the contagion
struck down the pontifical legate, Raoul de Grosparmy, who was acting by
virtue of the powers oonferred by the late Pope Clement IV., who had
died in 1268.
The health of Phihp of France was somewhat improved, but the king felt
that for himself there remained but a few hours of life.
On Monday, the 25th, the sun had scarcely glinted on the sea, when the
lilied flags slowly descended. At this announcement the whole camp shud-
* The keenness of this may be well seen. Had Louis remained conqueror, as at-Mansora, he
might have hoped to occupy Cairo, which he beheld no nearer than he did Tunis, sister of Cairo.
ManSora is fourteen leagues from Damietta, and twenty-two from Cairo. I have these distances
from the Chevalier Jaubert, a companion of Napoleon, in Egypt. According to the Chevalier
Jaubert, Napoleon often blamed Saint Louis's expedition. It seemed to him undertaken at a
wrong season ; the Nile had but just retired ; the land was but an impracticable field of mud.
The impetuosity of the Count d'Artois and his bannerets could have no successful issue. Pru
dence, a knowledge of the ground, all those considerations which create success, were wanting.
Napoleon, after blaming, in language worthy of Caesar, Turenne and Frederic, the members of
Saint Louis's council, who knew so little of the seat of the war they were to wage, expatiated on
the courage and patience of the king, and said warmly, that nothing in history deserved higher
honor than his hero courage and saint-like patience. Endowed with a quick and ardent mind,
Napoleon gave to conversation, new, burning, even Oriental expressions. Those who heard
such language from the great general, could not withhold their admiration. There were no
ministers of religion in that army, but there were, in spite of the times, many noble sons of
ancient France, who were delighted to see such noble justice paid to their sires. Wherever
glory is to be won, parties mingle and are confounded. Beneath the laurel, beneath distant
suffering, the anger and animosity of opinions is appeased, and peace, not yet seen at home, is
found. t It is a very slight consolation to find Mahomet exaggerate the glory of Louis to humble him
the more.

444 LIVES OF THE POPES. ,
dered. Knights, men at arms, the sick, the wounded, all rushed from their
tents in terror ; one side of the royal tent was raised, and Louis, sup
ported by attendants, made his appearance, clad in haircloth to his feet ;
his already hvid hands bearing a crucifix, and his eyes fixed upon a bed
of ashes, spread upon the parched earth. The last breath of the head of
the army was to be drawn upon that humble couch ; it was his last com
mand, and he had scarcely strength enough left to lie down upon it, and to
motion for the crucifix to be again placed before him.
Isabella of Aragon, Amicia d'Artois, the queen of Navarre, and the coun
tess of Poitiers, stifled their sobs ; their noble husbands, Peter d'Alencon,
the high barons, chaplains, almoners, and imperial ambassadors of Michael
Paleologus, knelt in a circle around the dying king, whose majesty never
shone in a purer light than on this throne of sorrow; his sceptre and
hand of justice, the crucifix ; his diadem, the martyr's halo ; his canopy,
the sky of Carthage ; his court, a weeping army ; and his kingdom, Eter
nity. Horrible convulsions seemed to rack his frame, and yet no complaint, no
regret, no murmur escaped his lips. AU that his dying voice was heard to
utter was : " Noble Sire, God, have mercy upon this people that has fol
lowed me to this shore ! Oh, conduct it to its own land, lest it be forced to
deny thy holy name." The very last words of the king were : " Jerusalem !
We will go to Jerusalem !"* So the prince regretted that he had not fol
lowed 'the advice of Rome, which had always been that he should go to
Jerusalem. " The king is dead ! Long live tlie king /" This old cry of monarchy was
arrested by grief. The heralds and the great officers of the crown were
silent ; sobs alone proclaimed the great loss of the crusaders.
Charles, king of Naples, arrived with his fleet ; but not to see his brother
alive. He caused PhUip III. to be recognized as king of France. The de
tails of the battles, of the treaty, of the embarkation, and the return which
followed, belongs to other annals.
Thus died Louis IX. We have said that the Holy See was vacant. The
legate who should have attended the king, had himself perished ; but the
love of the -cross was so deep in the heart of the monarch and of the French,
that Rome, notwithstanding- her widowhood, had not to deplore any misfor
tune to the faith. The throne of Peter was vacant, but, Louis IX. aiding,
religion had no tears to shed. Yet, it were not good that the great moder
ator should often be wanting to his children. Had Gregory X. been sooner
elected, the expedition against Tunis would probably have been abandoned,
and Louis, upon the road to Syria, and in the port of Antipatris, would
' Marquis de Villenauve-Trans ; iii., p. 415.

BLESSED GREGORY X. 445
have preserved his strength to lead the Christians a second time to the
Temple of the Saviour.
Let us now return to the high deeds of the holy pontiffs, of those men of
wisdom who formed a king like Louis IX.,* and who, by the lips of one of
their successors, wiU place upon the altar that model of monarchs and of
Christians. The blessed Gregory X., originally called Theobald. Visconti, was of the
family of that name at Placenza, supposed to derive its origin from the
Flavia family, to which Constantine the Great belonged. Other authors
maintain that the Visconti sprang from Desiderius, king of the Lombards.
Theobald, son of Hubert, a brother of Otho Visconti, archbishop of
Milan and lord of that city, was at first canon of Lyons, archdeacon of
Liege, and then became legate in Syria. While there he was elected pontiff
at Viterbo, on the 1st of September, 1271. The fifteen cardinals who com
posed the sacred college, could not agree upon a candidate. One of them
proposed to authorize six cardinals to name the pope, aU promising to re
cognize the one thus named by compromise. It was necessary to have re
course to such an expedient, for the conclave had lasted three years.
Ranieri Gatti, captain of the city, had already had the roof uncovered so
that the inclemency of the weather might dispose the cardinals to make a
final choice. In proceeding by compromise, the six cardinals put an end to
the longest vacancy of the Holy See that had taken place since the perse
cutions. At first they thought of Saint Phihp Benizi, of the order of Ser-
vites, who was then famous for his miracles ; but learning the design from
cardinals Ottobono, Fieschi, and Ubaldino, who had proposed him, Saint
Philip went and hid himseK on the top of Mount Tuniato until another was
elected. The six cardinals having agreed upon electing Theobald Visconti, on the
1st of September, 1271, a courier was dispatched to Saint Jean d'Acre,
where he was with Prince Edward, eldest son of the king of England, wait
ing for a favorable moment to go to Jerusalem. Theobald having received
the news on the 27th of October, took the road for Italy, and disembarked
at Brindisi, on the 1st of January, 1272.
* "Among his virtues," says Michaud, "we must remark especially that passion for justice,
wliich ever animated him ; that respect for human life, of which he had given so many exam
ples amid dangers, and which is so rarely found among the lords of earth. What affected him
alone, moved him not ; what affected religion and the good of his people, raised him above all
fear and all consideration.''
"Louis IX.," says Voltaire, " rendered France triumphant and well governed ; he was, in all
respects, a model for men. His piety, though that of an anchorite, did not compromise his royal
virtues ; his liberality was never at variance with wise economy ; he reconciled profound states
manship with strict justice, and is, perhaps, the only prince who deserves this praise. Prudent
and firm in council, intrepid without being headlong in combat, as compassionate as though he
had known only misfortune, it is hardly given to man to carry virtue further."

446 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Accompanied by Charles, king of the Two Sicilies, he went to Benevento,
and thence, by way of Capua, to Viterbo, where he found the cardinals.
Thence he proceeded to Rome, and was crowned at the Vatican by Car
dinal John Orsini, on the 27th of March, 1272. On the day of the corona
tion he took possession at Saint John Lateran, preceded by a magnificent
cavalcade ; the king of the Two Sicilies held the pontiff's stirrup, and, at
the solemn banquet which followed, presented him with water to wash his
hands,* and served him with the first dish.
In 1273, the German electors, excepting the king of Bohemia, elected as
king of the Romans Rodolph, count of Hapsburg, the head of that glorious
house of Austria which has uninterruptedly produced such a briUiant series
of emperors. The Holy Father approved the election, and induced Al-
phonso X., king of Castile, to renounce his claims upon the imperial dia
dem, to which he beheved himself entitled, which that prince generously
and promptly did, to show himself obedient to the Holy Father.
The same year, Visconti, who had taken the name of Gregory X., wrote
to Philip the Bold, king of France, to thank him for restoring to the Holy
See the Venaissin, situated between Provence and Dauphiny, which was
left to the Roman Church by Raymond, count of Toulouse, who died in
1249, and wliich the kings of France had since held. It does not appear,
from the relations that existed between the pope and Philip the Bold, that
the pontiff had opposed the sixth article of what is caUed the Pragmatic
Sanction of Louis IX., published in 1269, before the departure for Tunis,
with the five other articles of that document. Fleury states that that
article ran thus : " We do not allow that there be paid or received the pecu
niary exactions and the very heavy burdens that the court of Rome has
imposed upon the Church of our kingdom, by which it is miserably im
poverished, unless for some reasonable and very urgent cause, or from an
inevitable necessity, and with the free and express consent of ourselves and
of the Church."
ViUeneuve-Trans gives this as the fifth, and must have found it thus
transposed. Upon this point Marchetti thus replies to Fleury : " We
see how exact our historian is in scrupulously relating whatever in any way
opposes Rome. In his preface, Fleury had said that in his history he would
insert only such facts as should appear, at least to him, to have a moral
certainty ; and we have seen that he adopted as certain a host of mere pop
ular stories of Matthew Paris and others, which that same Fleury carefully
included in his history. He acted thus with the sixth article of the Prag
matic Sanction of Louis IX., king of France, and certainly every one does
not look upon that article as an indubitable idea of the pious mind of that
* See Cancellieri, Hist, des Possessi Solennels, p. 18.

BLESSED GREGORY X. 447
great king. On the contrary, let any examine the reasons adduced by
Natahs Alexander, for asserting the spurious character of that article, and
decide whether Natahs Alexander has not demonstratively rephed to his
opponents. The article is at least a subject for serious controversy, when
it is added to the Pragmatic by a strange hand. But it is directed against
the exactions of the Roman Church ; that renders it a monument of an
tiquity, and Fleury inserts it unquestioned. On the contrary, in that Prag
matic, which is nothing but an instruction written by the king for his son's
guidance, we find these words : ' Be devout and obedient to our mother, the
Eoman Church, and to tJw sovereign pontiff as to the Spiritual Fcdher.' Natahs
Alexander has taken care not to omit these words. The Abbe de Choisy
has faithfully transcribed them in his Life of Saint Louis, printed at Paris
in 1689, and he invokes the testimony of Geoffry de Beauheu, confessor of
the pious king, who was an eye-witness (chap, vi.)
" Theveneau, advocate of the parliament of Paris, in his work, Precepts
of State, gives us its ancient form, and in that form even the entire intro
duction ; it has been registered in the Cliambre des Comptes. That writer,
to the words which we have cited, adds this observation : ' The precept, not
icithout cause, lias been registered in the Chambre des Comptes, so that it might serve
as a memorial to the kings of their duty toivards the Church of Rome.''* W ell !
Fleury, who nevertheless was the preceptor of some of the royal successors
to the French crown, shows himseK less disposed than Louis IX. to make
such documents known to them ; Fleury did not desire that posterity should
read these words in his Ecclesiastical History ; he therefore did not direct it
towards as worthy an end as did the immortal King Louis IX."
These reflections, made calmly, and in part taken from other French
authorities, deserve sincere praise, and I share those sentiments and that
opinion with aU my wUl and with aU my soul.
It was a pious, able, and generous thought, that led the cardinals to
elect a pope whose duties had led him to the Holy Land, and who knew
the distress of that unfortunate country.
The recovery of the Holy Land almost exclusively engaged the thoughts
of Gregory. On the first of the preceding April he pubhshed a decree,
convoking at Lyons the fourteenth general councU, and the second of Lyons,
which was celebrated in that city in 1274. The pope was there even in
1273. On his way he crossed Tuscany, and paused at Florence to endeavor
to restore peace between the Guelphs and the Ghibelhnes of that city.
I wUl repeat here some facts already related in the History of Dante, page
468. History cannot ignore the conduct of Gregory X., at Florence. At
* Marchetti, Criticism on Fleury, p. 118. The archbishop of Ancyra, in printing this pas
sage, cites Fleury's 76th book ; he should have said the 86th.

448 LIVES OF THE POPES.
first he was accompanied by Baldwin II., son of Henry, brother of Baldwin
I., and afterwards by Charles of Anjou, king of Naples and brother of
Saint Louis.*
The pope, delighted with the coolness of the water and the purity of the
air, proposed to his august companions to pass the summer in that beauti
ful city. The Guelphs at that time had exiled the Ghibelhnes, and treated
them with undue rigor. On the 2d of July, the pope assembled the people
of Florence and the vicinity on the banks of the Arno, at the foot of the
Rubaconte bridge. A platform having been erected to afford seats for the
two princes, the pope from his throne forbade, on pain of interdict, any
distinction to be made in future between Guelph and Ghibelhne, and com
manded the syndics of the Guelphs to embrace in his presence the syndics
of the Ghibelhnes (the pope was head and protector of the Guelph fac
tion), t Gregory in his address to the people said : " He is a Ghibelhne —
yes ; but he is a Christian, he is a citizen, and he is your neighbor. Is so
much that we have done to bring about a union to be ineffectual ? Is the
very name of GhibeUine ( Weibling, no one knows what it means), empty as
it is, to be more powerful for hatred than so many clear and substantial
reasons for charity ? You declare that you have embraced this party spirit
in favor of the popes and against their enemies ? We, Roman pontiffs, we
have received these men to our heart, although they formerly offended us —
these men, your fellow-citizens, who have returned to us ; we have pardoned
their insults, and now regard them as our chUdren. WiU you disobey your
pontiff, and in his presence ?"
Is not the pontifical conciliation here seen in aU the subhmity of its glory
and of its power ? What reply could be made to Gregory, to that great
heart, by the mad passions which, roused into a feeling of hatred and the
ignoble promptings of vengeance, breathed only hatred and vengeance
and reveUed in slaughter ? Gregory pronounced sentence of interdict upon
these men whom no feeling of sensibility, patriotism, religion, or charity
could bend ; and he left in grief that city, since so iUustrious, mother of so
many geniuses, and of minds so often generous and noble. A single man,
with no armies to sustain him, had the right to utter such remonstrances ;
and he had the right, too, to punish those who despised them.
From Florence, which no doubt he secretly blessed, Gregory went to
Placenza, his native city, and arrived there on the 3d of October. He
took with him Otho Visconti, made archbishop of Milan bv Pope Urban IV.,
who had not been able yet to take possession of his See, because the Tur-
riani, a revolted family, desired an archbishop of their own name. Having
entered MUan, Gregory could not induce the people to accept Otho Visconti,
* J. Villani, p. 219. f Ibid.

BLESSED GREGORY X.

449

though regularly appointed, and the bearer of bulls recently confirmed, and
he was obliged to leave Milan in the same grief that had afflicted Florence.
The direction of the General CouncU of Lyons was intrusted to Saint
Bonaventure. This fact is attested by the buU of canonization of that
saint, issued by Sixtus IV. In that assemblage there were fifteen cardi
nals, two Latin patriarchs, seventy archbishops, five hundred bishops, and
more than a thousand prelates and abbots. Never had there been a more
numerous councU. The Greeks confessed that the Holy Ghost proceeded
from both Fathee and Son, and, for the fourteenth time, were reconciled to
the Latin Church.*
It was first decreed that considerable succor should be sent to the Holy
Land. It must have been an imposing scene when the pontiff said : " We
have seen the sufferings of those pUgrims ; one by one we have foUowed aU
their misfortunes. Their courage never tires, no piety can be more sub
missive than theirs ; they are true children of Jesus Christ, hke the com
panions of Godfrey, but they have not wherewith to support hfe. Those
who had money when they went hence, have been robbed of that money,
and even of their clothes. Can our brethren in the desert ask alms of the
wild beasts ? These give only death. The Turk and the Jew sometimes
hearken to a cry of distress ; but on that long pilgrimage there are so many
cries ! It is to the Holy Land that aid must go ; there must be no ambi
tion for kingdoms and provinces of Asia ; Jerusalem and the Holy Sepul
chre must be dehvered."
The flagellants, wherever they were not suppressed, asserted that baptism
by water was useless ; that flageUation alone was effectual, which they caUed
baptism by blood ; that aU religion consisted in flagellation. Baronius, ac
cording to Novaes, reproached Saint Peter Damian with having been, if not
the founder, at least the propagator of this sect, so censured by the Church,
and so wrong in deducing from a simple ordinary penance the impious
consequences of the flageUants.
Tournaments were discussed, and it was agreed that those fatal shows
should everywhere be abohshed.
This councU passed thirty-one canons on ecclesiastical discipline. AU
except the nineteenth concern the sixth book of the Decretals. It was this
councU that enjoined every Cathohc to bow the head as often as he hears
the holy name of Jesus.t
* Spondanus, ad an. 1274, n. 8.
t Novaes (iii., p. 254) quotes, as usual, the councils of Father Labbe. Care must always be
taken when the name of that Father occurs in Italian authors not to write it as Italians do ; they
have no mute e as we have. With them, Father Labbe is either Blather Labbe or 1'Abbe. An
Italian purist, wishing to respect our pronunciation, and yet endeavoring to make us understand
him, would write the name thus : Lab. Then they would pronounce the name as we do, and this
alteration would arrest an error which always a little annoys us in ecclesiastical writers of Italy.
Vol. I.— 29

450 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The Holy Father, remembering the length of the conclave in which he at
last had been elected, passed laws to prevent like delays in future. These
laws may be found in the introduction to Novaes' Lives of the Pontiffs (vol.
i, dissertation U.) They were frequently suspended and then restored,
whenever there was too long a conclave.
During this council, the great Saint Thomas Aquinas died in the monas
tery of Fossa Nuova, whence he was about to repair to Lyons.
The council having terminated its sessions, the pontiff set out on the 6th
of March, 1275, for Italy. He met Rodolph of Hapsburg, king of the Ro
mans, at Lausanne, on the 10th October, and that prince swore to guaran
tee to His Holiness the exarchate of Ravenna, and other Itahan lands
belonging to the Roman Church. Ptolemy of Lucca (Hist. Eccles., hv. ii,
iii, chap, iv.) affirms that fact. Moreover, there are extant two diplomas
of Rodolph's relating to that subject, which are given by Rainaldi, year
1275 (Nos. 37, 38).
The same year, Gregory united the two bishoprics of Valence and Die, in
France, but they were separated again in 1692.
Gregory had governed four years, four months, and ten days, reckoning
from his election ; and only three. years, nine months, and fifteen days, reck
oning from his consecration, when he died at Arezzo, aged sixty-six years,
on the 10th of January, 1276 (a fatal year, in which four pontiffs died), and
he was interred in the cathedral of that city.
Monsignor Benedict Falconcini de Volterra, bishop of Arezzo, in 1704,
sohcited and obtained, under Pope Clement XL, in 1713, at his own ex
pense, the beatification of this illustrious pontiff.
Gregory had but little learning (Novaes, hi., p. 257), but he was endowed
with rare prudence. He always was the courageous defender of the faith
and of the divine worship, inclined to peace and a conciliatory spirit, and
an enemy to all partiahty.
The Holy See remained vacant ten days.
Saint Antoninus (3 par., Ut. xx., cap. 2), and afterwards Steffanardo de
Vicomercato, and Galvaneo deUa Fiamma (the two latter Dominicans),
George Menda, and Paulus Jovius, affirm that this pope knew of the attempt
of the Turriani to kUl Otho,' archbishop of Milan. When Gregory's beati
fication was debated, this terrible charge was forcibly opposed, but Peter-
Maria Campi, who was the postulant for the beatification, defended the
pope, and proved that the aUegation was only an imposture, like so many
others that have been tried to blacken the memory of some popes. The
well-reasoned and eloquent apology of Campi is in the second part of his
History of the Church of Placenza. And in truth, K that great pope excom
municated the Turriani, and subjected the city of MUan to interdict, only
because they sequestered the ecclesiastical revenues of Archbishop Otho,

BLESSED GREGORY X. 451
how could the same pontiff dissemble the great crime of attempting the hfe
of that prelate ?
No celebrated author of that time testifies to this indolence of Gregory
(Novaes, hi., p. 257), quite contrary to his noble inchnation. Some writers
give the accusation, misled by false reports or party spirit. It is known
that the two Dominicans mentioned above were attached to Otho and to
the Visconti. Paul Jovius gave way to fits of love or hatred ; he was ready
to sell his pen, and even in writing history was still the slave of money.
Lambertini,* moreover affirms, that this imposture did not prejudice the
pontiff in the cause of his canonization. Father Antonio Maria Bonucci,
a Jesuit, wrote the History of the Blessed Pontiff Gregory X. (4to, Rome,
1711). Besides another hfe of the same pope, pubhshed anonymously, and
inserted by Campi in his history of Placenza (vol. ii), and by Muratori in
his Script. R'er. Ital. (vol. iii), there is another hfe of that pope by the same
Campi. It has been translated from the Itahan into Latin by the Jesuit
Sylvester Peter Santa, under the title of Vita Gregorii X., exfamilia Vice-
comitum (4to, Rome, 1635). There is also a hfe of Gregory X. by Claude
Clement (12mo, Lyons, 1632).
Platina gives the foUowing judgment upon Gregory : " He was a man il
lustrious in hfe for prudence in affairs ; for the strength of soul with which
he disdained money and all low considerations ; for his humanity, clemency,
'benevolence to poor Christians, and especiaUy those who took refuge in the
bosom of the Apostohc See.
FoUowing our custom of mentioning at the end of each pontificate the
great writers who died under that reign, we must speak of the works of
Saint Thomas Aquinas. Fleury (v., hv. 86, p. 519) says : " The IKe of this
saint, who died at forty-nine years of age, seems short in comparison to his
writings. The five first volumes are commentaries on most of the writings
of Aristotle ; then come the commentaries on Peter Lombard, the master
of sentences ; then a volume of theological questions, the Summa against
the gentiles, the Summa Theologica, many commentaries on the Holy Scrip
ture, and finaUy short treatises to the number of seventy-three, some of
which are doubted. In general, the best critics beheve that many works
are attributed to Saint Thomas which are only notes of his pubhc lectures,
caUed reportata in those days, and that a similarity of name has confounded
with him Thomas the Englishman, or Jorzi, a friar of the same order, who
hved in the same century and at the beginning of the next.
William de Tocco, in his life of the saint, also says : "It is known from
the faithful report of his companion, and of those who wrote under him,
that he sometimes dictated in his room to three and even four secretaries at
* Be Canon., hv. ii., cap. 42, n. 3.

452 LIVES OF THE POPES.
a time, upon different subjects. He slept but httle, and passed a great
portion of the night in prayer, and it was to prayer rather than to study
that he attributed his science. He always prayed before study and before
composing, and in great difficulties redoubled his prayers and added
fasting." The article of FeUer upon Saint Thomas (v., p. 264) should be consulted.
Saint Louis had summoned him to Paris, and treated him with distinction.
Thomas was also in high consideration with the Roman pontiffs. John
XXII. placed him among the saints in 1313, thirty-nine years after his
death. Let FeUer speak for a moment. " Of all the scholastics of that
barbarous time, he undoubtedly is the most solid, the most judicious, and
the clearest. The titles of Angel of the School, Angelic Boctor, and Eagle of
the Theologians, cannot have seemed exaggerated to his contemporaries.
His works, says a competent critic, attest a vast and profound genius, an
exquisite judgment, an admirable clearness, and a rare precision. Whether
he estabhshed the truths of the faith, or rephes to difficulties, it is seldom
that any thing can be added to what he has said ; this, considering the early
age at which he finished his career, causes him to be properly considered as
an inteUect almost superhuman, and extraordinarily raised up to enlighten
the schools."
All his works were printed at Rome in 1570-1571, in eighteen foho
volumes ; at Venice in 1745-1760, in twenty-eight volumes, 4to. Under his
name appears a work entitled Secreta Alchymice Magnolia (Cologne, 1579,
4to), a work neither by him nor worthy of him. FeUer regrets that scho
lastic studies are not more in vogue ; he would like them pursued moder
ately. When scholastic questions were debated, the great truths of the
faith, morality, and the constituent maxims of the governments of civU and
ecclesiastical society were safe from contradiction. There was no dispute
upon those great subjects ; they were not contested, because the natural
restlessness of mind nourished itself on speculations in which eternal truths
and the happiness of men were not compromised. In our day, reason
carries its rash and destructive glances to aU questions.
The office of Corpus Christi is one of the finest of the Roman bre
viary. The hymns, Sacris Solemnis, Verbum Supernum, Pange Lingua, and
especially the Lauda Sion, blend the unction of piety and the language of
exact theology. The choice of words is so correct, the expressions so
happy, the cadence so sonorous and so natural, that they are rightly con
sidered as the production of a rare genius, and still more as the work of a
man selected by Providence to celebrate with dignity the most august of
the Christian Mysteries. (See the hfe of the saint, by Father Tournon ;
4to, Paris, 1737.)

INNOCENT V.

453

187. INNOCENT V.— a. d. 1276.

NNOCENT V, Peter Tarentasio, was born at Sen-
tron, near that city. Having entered the order
of Saint Dominic, he was master of theology, pro
vincial of France, archbishop of Lyons, and then
made cardinal-bishop of Ostia by Gregory X. He
was presented at the council of Lyons, and took a
considerable part in aU relating to the Cathohc
dogma of the procession of the Holy Ghost. He
was the first Dominican who became pontiff. On the 21st of January, 1276,
the cardinals, ten in number, elected him at Arezzo, on the second day of
the conclave.
This pope was crowned at Rome on the 22d of February, the day dedi
cated to the Chair of Saint Peter.
Rodolph, king of the Romans, preparing to go to Rome to be crowned as
emperor, Innocent sent the bishop of Albi to advise him not to enter Italy
without first making peace with Charles, king of SicUy. The pope feared
that the presence of the two princes would cause a war between the Guelphs
and the Ghibelhnes. Innocent reconciled to the Church, the Florentines,
upon whom Gregory X. had laid an interdict, and he made peace between
the people of Lucca and those of Pisa ; but whUe the Church was indulging
stiU more glorious hopes, Innocent died on the 22d of June, 1276, after a
reign of five months and two days. He was interred in the BasUica of Saint
John Lateran. He left Notes on the Epistles of Saint Paul, under the name
of Nicholas de Goram (foho, Cologne, 1478) ; and commentaries upon the
Book of Sentences, printed at Toulouse. There are also four letters of his
to be found in UgheUi and Campi (Istoria Ecclesiastica di Piacenza) ; Pos-
tiUa in Genesim et Exodum, a manuscript, preserved in the library of Turin ;
and many other still unpublished works.*
His eulogium, by the Count de Saint Raphael, is in the fifth volume of
Piemontese IUustri. His enemies imputed errors to him, but Saint Thomas
justified him. His hfe is in Muratori' s Scriptores Rerum Italicarum.
The Holy See was vacant eighteen days.

* Fleury, iii., p. 601.

454

LIVES OF THE POPES.

188. ADRIAN V.— a. d. 1276.

DRIAN V. was originaUy named Ottoboni Fieschi,
of the counts of Lavagna, one of the most iUustri
ous Genoese families. He was archdeacon of the
churches of Canterbury, Rheims, and Parma. His
uncle, Innocent IV., created him cardinal-deacon
of Saint Adrian, and he became, in succession,
legate to England, Spain, and Germany.
On the 10th of July, 1276, he was raised to the
pontificate, as had been predicted by Saint Phihp Benizi, the Servite.
On the death of Clement IV., the sacred coUege deputed Cardinal Fieschi
to offer the tiara to Saint PhUip Benizi, who replied : " It befits you rather
than me." When Adrian was elected and congratulated by his relatives,
he rephed : " Would to God you were congratulating a healthy cardinal,
instead of a dying pope !"
Forty days after his election, Adrian went to Viterbo to smooth away
some disagreements between the Church and Rodolph of Hapsburg. WhUe
there, he suspended the buU of Gregory X., relating to the conclave, wishing
to make some useful additions to it. Shortly afterwards, he died at Viterbo,
and was interred in the Church of the Franciscans, and not, as Father
Jacob has stated, in that of the Dominicans. Novaes maintains that Adrian
had not received the priesthood, and had not been consecrated,* which does
not prevent him from ranking among the popes, because at that time a
-legitimate election, and the acceptance of the elected, sufficed to make a
lawful pontiff. In the first ten centuries of the Church, on the contrary, a
pope was not legitimate until after consecration. Adrian governed the
Church thirty-eight days.
The Holy See was vacant twenty-seven days before the election of John
XXI.
* Novaes, iii., p. 251. I quote Novaes here because it is a delicate question, and I prefer to
rely on a work printed at Rome.

JOHN XXI.

455

189. JOHN XXL— a. d. 1276.

OHN XXL, born of a noble famUy in the city of
Lisbon, Portugal, was originaUy named Peter, son
of Juhan. He was sent by his father to Paris,
where he studied with brilliant success. Succes
sively dean and master of the schools of Lisbon,
and next archdeacon of the church of Braga, he was
created cardinal-bishop of Frascati by Gregory X.,
and finally elected pope at Viterbo, on the 15th of
September, 1276, and crowned on the 20th of the same month. On the
same day he suspended the constitution of Gregory X., on conclaves
(already verbaUy suspended by Adrian V), with the intention of improving
it. On the 17th of October he received from Charles, king of Sicily, the
oath of homage for that kingdom, which the prince had obtained in fief from
the Roman Church.
A question arose between PhUip, king of France, and Alphonso, king of
CastUe. John, in order to restore peace, wrote letters to each of them.
He induced Alphonso III., king of Portugal, to cease oppressing the
churches in his country, and depriving them of their property. He dis
patched legates to Michael Paleologus to obtain from that prince the rati
fication of the peace concluded between the two churches, and sworn to by
his ambassadors at the CouncU of Lyons ; and, finaUy, he happily exerted
himseK for the preservation to the crusaders of the lands which they stiU
possessed in the Holy Land. John condemned the errors professed in the
University of Paris, — errors which resulted from the misreasoning of a false
philosophy. He died on the 16th of March, 1277, of a braise on the head,
received whUe visiting a pontifical palace erecting at Viterbo, one of the
rooms falling in upon him.
He had governed the Church eight months and a few days. This pope
possessed vast erudition, especiaUy in medicine. He was affable towards
inferiors, and an especial friend to men of letters of aU countries. Some
monastic writers have described him unfavorably. The reason assigned for
that is, that he was unfriendly to religious order ; and had his reign been
prolonged, he would have pubhshed a decree for reforming them. John,
however, showed great affection for the Franciscans, and it is considered
certain that His Hohness was on the point of giving a cardinal's hat to
John of Parma, general of that order.

456

LIVES OF THE POPES.

The Holy See was vacant ten months and eight days ; and the conclave
would have lasted stiU longer, if the people of Viterbo had not shut up the
cardinals in the city palace, to compel them to make a choice.
Under this reign, the Venetians besieged Ancona, because the inhabit
ants traded with Dalmatia, to the great vexation of the senate. John XXI.
had not the means to protect the people of Ancona, but they redoubled
their efforts, and the siege of their city was raised.
Platina says that this pope wrote a book, entitled The Treasures of the
Poor. On the whole, that author speaks in unbecoming terms of this pope,
whom he calls homo stolidus, because he promised himseK a long hfe, and
was kiUed accidentaUy.

190. NICHOLAS III.— a. d. 1277.

HE original name of Nicholas III. was John Cajetan
Orsini ; he was a member of that celebrated famUy,
and a Roman. John Cajetan was created cardinal-
deacon of Saint Nicholas in Carcere, by Innocent
IV. The sacred college then consisted of only
eight cardinals. He was elected at Viterbo on the
25th of November, 1277, ordained priest at Rome on
the 18th of December, consecrated on the 19th, and
crowned on the 26th. Saint Francis had predicted
to him that he would be pope and protector of the Franciscan order.
Nicholas induced Rodolph, king of the Romans, to approve, by a diploma,
aU the concessions, privileges, and confirmations given to the Church by
his predecessors, kings of the Romans, and emperors. In order to anticipate
any differences that might arise upon thos'e questions at a future time, Nicho
las sent to Rodolph the original diplomas given by Louis the Pious, Otho
the Great, and Henry II., in order that those documents might be equaUy
confirmed. Rodolph agreed to these demands, and among the number of
the possessions recognized as belonging to the Church, were Ferrara and
Comacchio. Finally, that there might be no more doubt as to the posses
sions, the Holy Father had the diplomas confirmed by the electors of the
Holy Roman empire.
Nicholas requested King Charles to renounce the title of senator of Rome,
and, by a constitution, forbade that dignity to be given to any foreign king
or prince. It was subsequently determined to give the title to no one for

NICHOLAS III. 457
more than a year. A member of the Orsini family received the title of
senator. Under the next pontificate, the title was restored to King Charles,
and in 1316, John XXII. conferred it upon Robert, also king of SicUy.
The pope wrote to the emperor of the East, Paleologus, to his son An-
dronicus, to the patriarchs, and the other Greek prelates, to induce them to
confirm that peace between the two churches which had been estabhshed
in the CouncU of Lyons. Nicholas subsequently received letters from the
emperor, in which that prince acknowledged the authority of the sovereign
pontiff over aU the churches, and protested that he regarded the pope with
aU due veneration. The emperor further affirmed that he had condemned
the schism in the form prescribed to him by the apostohc Holy See, and
that he would employ aU fitting means to withdraw the Greeks from their
schism. Nicholas caused a sumptuous palace to be built near Saint Peter's, for
the pontiffs and their court.
Having learned that tournaments, which various councUs had condemned,
were re-established in France, Nicholas wrote in a firm tone to the cardinal
of Saint Cecilia, his legate in Paris, ordering him to cause the suspension of
those exercises, in which some deplorable misfortunes always happen. The
pope said that the disasters of the Holy Land should be thought of, and not
vain amusements of no benefit to rehgion.
In 1279, on account of the great heat, the Holy Father retired to Viterbo,
and died there of apoplexy, on the 22d of August, 1280. The body was
conveyed to the Vatican and deposited in the chapel of Saint Nicholas, which
he had buUt.
Nicholas governed two years, eight months, and twenty-seven days.
He was endowed with great prudence, and a singular spirit of justice.
He fiUed more quickly than any of his predecessors the bishoprics that
became vacant. When he conferred the priesthood, he scrupulously chose
the hohest men rather than the most learned men ; saying, " that knowledge
without goodness was a poison without antidote. He had a great soul, and
untiring activity; he loved the religious orders, especiaUy that of Saint
Francis. In approving the judgment of Gregory IV. upon the stigmata of
that saint, he did not forget that, when cardinal, he had been named pro
tector of that order. The purity of his hfe and conduct was such, that he
was surnamed il composto, the Pohte. Every one knew him by that name,
at which he took no offence. Generous in almsgiving, he was also endowed
with other exceUent virtues. It were to be wished that he had not some
what weakened those virtues by a spirit of nepotism, that prompted him to
enrich his family. *
It has been affirmed that he designed to divide the empire into four king
doms—Germany, Vienne in Dauphiny, Lombardy, and Tuscany, But,

458

LIVES OF THE POPES

while revolving such a project, Nicholas must have left France out of his
calculation, — a country which would not suffer itseK with impunity to be
thus dismembered.
It has been imagined that upon one of those thrones he would have
placed at least one of the members of his own family. The Orsini had
then an idea which the Medici entertained. A pope, born a prince, who
had enriched his family, was more blamable than a pope who had risen
from the lower ranks of society. The aggrandizement of princes already
powerful, increased that facUity of Roman rebellion which produced so
many evils in those times. The Holy See was vacant ten months and one day.

191. MARTIN II.— a. d. 1281.

Y some authors Martin II. is .ranked as Martin IV.
We have seen that the seventy-fifth pope was
called Martin I., and the one hundred and tenth
pope was caUed Marin (Marinus) I. But then
Martin or Marin was the same name ; so, Marin I.
was Martin H. The hundred and thirty-first pope
was caUed Marinus II., which is equivalent to
Martin HI. He, therefore, who is named by
some, and particularly in the Biario of Rome, Martin II., is, properly speak
ing, to be caUed Martin IV., for the subsequent Pope Martin, whom we
shall find reigning in 1417, is officiaUy recognized as Martin V. We are
here treating of Martin IV, and close with him the confusion of the names
of Marinus and Martin. The original name of this pope was Simon de
Brion, and he was born in the castle of Montpensier, in Touraine. He for
a long time resided in Tours, where he was a regular canon, and treasurer
of the church of Saint Martin. Saint Louis named Simon keeper of the
seals, in 1260. Urban IV., in 1262, made him cardinal-priest of Saint
Cecilia. Gregory X. sent him to France as apostohcal legate.
Simon was unanimously elected to the pontificate, in the city of Viterbo,
on the 11th of February, 1281. He then made so strong and determined a
resistance that the cardinals, inflamed with a holy zeal, tore away from him
his costume as cardinal, and forcibly clad him in the papal habits. Yield
ing to force, and no longer venturing to resist, he was crowned on the 23d
of March at Orvieto.

MARTIN II. „ 459
The Roman people having suffered great evUs because the powerful fam
ilies of Orsini and Annibaldi had each named a senator during the conclave,
now gave to the new pope the rank of senator of Rome, and the pope re
stored it to Charles, king of Sicily, from whom it had been taken by
Nicholas IH.
Martin excommunicated Michael Paleologus, because he had perpetu
ated the schism, after promising by his ambassadors to Lyons, and after
wards in person between the hands of the legate, that he would remove all
division between the two Churches.
In 1282, he excommunicated the authors of the Sicilian Vespers — that
massacre in which the Sicilians assassinated four thousand Provencals.
He also excluded from communion Peter III., king of Aragon, an accom
plice of the conspirators, and deposed that prince from the throne of Aragon,
which he conferred upon Charles of Valois, son of King Phihp of France.
H it is surprising that the popes, as is often said, gave away kingdoms
which did not belong to them, is it any less so that princes accepted such
gifts ? Did not that acceptance confess the right of the popes to depose a
monarch, and dispose of a crown as they deemed fitting ? What proves
that this jurisprudence was then generaUy accepted is, that the kings them
selves did not dispute it. It is wrong to impute the blame of this solely to
the popes. " The conduct of other courts," says the Count d'Albon (Bis-
cours sur V Histoire le Gouvernement, etc., de plusieurs Nations de V Europe),
"is not less reprehensible, and is far more inconceivable. In those un
settled times, when the pope had pronounced sentence of excommunication
against a prince, the other potentates hastened to enter with aU their forces
into the States of the unfortunate prince, not to preserve them for him, but
to seize upon them and inhumanly enrich themselves with his spoils. Could
they more strongly accredit error ? And could the usurpers complain K the
example they had given became fatal to themselves ? At the second Coun
cil of Lyons, the Enghsh ambassador was the only one who ventured to
speak in defence of the rights of the Emperor Frederic II.; the ministers
of all the other courts preserved a profound sUence. This tacit consent, on
which modern writers affect silence, is far more astonishing than what was
done in the assembly against Frederic. Moreover, even had the sovereign
pontiffs been the first to give currency to that false opinion, they did not
take advantage of it to subject new countries to their rule. They derived
no advantage from their pohcy. Why then attribute it to them as a crime,
while saying nothing about those who more than once knew how to profit
by the consent ?" Novaes,* in his hfe of Martin IV., professes the same
doctrine. * Novaes, iv., p. 7.

460 LIVES OF THE POPES.
In 1285, the pope complained of the violence of Ranieri, governor of
Orvieto, and being unable to go to Rome, he took refuge in Perugia. There
he feU sick, and died in four days.
Martin governed four years, one month, and four days. He was magnifi
cent, of great courage in the affairs of the Church, learned, pmdent, adorned
by shining virtues, and detached from his relatives. One of them having
visited him, he gave him a smaU sum to pay his travelhng expenses, and
said : " The property we have belongs to, the Church and not to us. We
cannot dispose of it."
The Holy See was vacant three days. Martin has been accused of being
too favorable to Charles of Anjou, and of having on several occasions shown
him undue partiahty, but the miracles that accompanied the death of this
pope, and the prodigies that were witnessed around his tomb, sufficiently
prove that the pontiff never exceeded the Umits of justice. We did not
dweU upon Martin's excommunication of the actors on the massacre known
as the Sidlian Vespers. That catastrophe is always reported in the same
manner, and writers do not perceive that, in our days, when we cultivate
the study of facts, it would be as weU not to continue to say exactly the same
thing about an event which is now better understood.
The foUowing details we take from Italie (p. 98) :
" Charles being unable further to extend his domination in Italy, where
he was stopped by the same obstacle which had repressed the Lombards,
meditated an expedition against Constantinople ; but John da Procida of
Salerno, on beholding Conradine throw his glove from the scaffold on which
he was executed, had sworn to revenge the death of that prince. John
retired to the court of Constantia, daughter of Manfred and queen of Ara
gon, the last heiress of Suabia, because Frederic II., by his wUl, had, in
default of legitimate heirs, declared Manfred, his natural son, heir to aU
his rights of sovereignty. John da Procida was welcomed as a faithful
friend. " Peter III, caUed the Great, the husband of Constantia, had been solemnly
crowned king of Aragon. To indemnKy John for his seignorial rights in
the island of Procida (the same island which traveUers now visit to see the
manners and dress of the Greeks, which its inhabitants stiU preserve), the
king made him a baron of the kingdom of Valencia. Procida gave little
heed to that dignity. Of a firm nature and an inflexible wiU, he passed no
day without seeking means of avenging the death of his master. He had
twice travelled to Constantinople to engage Paleologus to assist Peter of
Aragon with money, and had obtained thirty thousand ounces of gold, which
was to serve to hasten the preparations for the invasion in Sicily. Many
authors have represented the events in Palermo as the result of an assault
by a Provencal upon a young woman. That Provencal is said to have been

MARTIN II. 461
named Drouet.* There was, in fact, at the hour of Vespers, on Easter
Monday, 1282, a quarrel between the Provencals and the Palermitans ; but
that quarrel, hke many that had preceded it, would probably have had no
serious consequences, had there not existed a formidable conspiracy, in
which Peter of Aragon, some Sicilian nobles, and the emperor of the Greeks,
who at the same time flattered the pope with promises of a return to Cath
ohcity, aU engaged. It is true that the discontents of the Sicilians had so
irritated them, that only a shght spark was needed to kindle that great fire.
This point of history, however, has not been sufficiently studied. An atten
tive perusal of John VUlani wUl suffice to make it clear that a vast conspir
acy had been in existence for two years ; that John da Procida was to give
the signal when Peter of Aragon should be at hand ; that it was not tiU the
moment the latter was off the neighboring coast, that the cry was raised
of — 'A woman has been attacked by a Provencal, in a pubhc festival.'
Then le genti erano tenere — the people — were ripe ; the whole nation was ex
cited against the soldiers of Charles ; and yet the young woman, the Pro
vencal Drouet, and the insulting attack, were just so many falsehoods
invented for the purpose of forwarding the views of the conspirators.
"In fact, the battle having once begun, the massacre was continued
throughout SicUy by the efforts of the conspiracy, which became univer
sal, and which demanded to the very last victim the many foreigners there,
including, no doubt, some virtuous knights."t
The Itahans, without consulting one of the fathers of their history, John
VUlani, have almost aU given to that frightful event the color which it stiU
bears. I can conceive that national pride has dehghted to keep its remem
brance ahve ; I can conceive that it is preserved as an eternal menace to
foreigners who should invade and Ul-treat that beautiful country ; and I can
conceive its provoking enthusiastic applause in a peninsular theatre ; but I
cannot conceive how European historians have needed such a lapse of time
to enable them to discover the truth, the august and eternal truth, which is
surely not to be found in tales almost always founded on hostUe chronicles.
Charles had committed a crime in putting Conradine to death, but both
West and East had witnessed that crime without denouncing it. Clement
IV. was dead or dying before the execution of Conradine, and the conclave
which named his successor, Gregory X., lasted three years. That fact is
not to be overlooked. That crime would have been reproached and
punished, had there been a pontiff in a condition to make his authority
respected. * It is impossible without disgust to read the note of Voltaire to this passage, on the Man
ners, Morals, &c, of Nations; in Desoer's edition, Paris, 1817. In vol. iv., p. 374, line 41, there
is a word which belongs only to the vile language of the most depraved.
t Italy, p. 99.

462 LIVES OF THE POPES.
It chanced at the same time that there was at Salerno a nobleman who
had been the confident of Frederic II., and educated in that court of ele
gance and pleasure ; that that confidant of Frederic had been the friend of
that prince's son Manfred— a prince of warlike qualities ; that that friend of
Manfred had been the faithful counseUor of the grandson of Frederic ; and
it happened that this Salernian noble had sworn to avenge his late masters,
both slain by Charles,— the one, nobly in battle, the other, vUely on the
scaffold. It also happened that in Spain that nobleman had said to Peter,
a vahant and ambitious king : " How, do you not find yourseK pent up here
in Aragon, and do you not think of adding to your states that Sicily which
ought to be yours ?" And that at Constantinople that nobleman had said
to Michael Paleologus : " Charles wants to be the sixth French king in your
capital ; give Peter gold to pay his armaments, and you wiU not lose your
empire." Thence a conspiracy, with a thousand inextricable ramifications, confided
to malcontents who were often seriously offended by Charles, carried on
under the eyes of a credulous, presumptuous, and iU-discipUned army.
Michael lavished gold, and Peter embarked soldiers. John da Procida ex
claimed that a woman was insulted by a Provencal, and fourteen thousand
Provencals are pitilessly butchered, — not that Charles shaU be driven from
Italy, for his son and grandson wiU reign at Naples, and Conradine wUl not
be completely avenged, but only that Michael shaU remain in peace in Con
stantinople, and Peter be crowned king in Palermo.
We shall have no difficulty in reversing falsehoods. Should we not give
to every one his due ? — to Charles his ranks ill taken and ill kept ; to Michael
his native perfidy ; to Peter his greed, based on the rights of iUegimate chU-
dren — rights which were then recognized ; to Procida his fidelity and his
skUful constancy ; and, finaUy, to Pope Martin — one of the successors of
Clement IV., who had given Naples and SicUy to Charles, because kingdoms
were thus given in those days — to Martin the idea of aiding Charles, of
repulsing Peter, and of indirectly punishing Paleologus for so many insults
to the Holy See ?
It seems to us that we have here written history in its fitting language ;
it should respect aU that is confirmed by good sense, but it should have no
mercy upon romances, however long an existence they may have usurped.
Novaes (iv., p. 6) declares that a document exists, pubhshed on the square
of Saint Flavian's church, at Montefiascone, in 1282, which renews the
excommunication pronounced by Martin against Peter III., king of Aragon,
guilty of having usurped the throne of Sicily. Rainaldi, under the date of
6th of February, 1283, reports another document, from which it appears
that the said Peter III. was again excommunicated for having, at Bordeaux,
challenged King Charles of SicUy to single combat. The latter, is excom-

HONORIUS rv.

463

municated too, K he accepts the chaUenge ; " that kind of combat," says the
pope, " being prohibited and condemned, by both the holy canons and the
ecclesiastical laws."

192. HONORIUS IV.— a. d. 1285.

ONORIUS IV, James SaveUi, belonged to a very
distinguished Roman famUy. He was a canon of
Barcelona. Urban IV. made him cardinal-deacon
of Saint Mary in Gosmedin. Adrian V. sent him,
with two other cardinals, to terminate the differ
ences which still existed between Rodolph, king of
the Romans, and Charles, king of Sicily. James
was elected supreme pontiff, in spite of his resist
ance, on the second day of the conclave, held at Perugia on the 2d of AprU,
1285. At Rome, he received the priesthood on the 14th of May, was con
secrated on the 15th, and crowned on the 20th. He was so tortured by the
gout that he could not celebrate Mass without instruments which assisted
him to move his hands.
In 1286, the Holy Father condemned an order caUed the Order of the
Apostles, which was founded or obstinately propagated by Gerard SegareUi,
of Parma. This innovator, having been expeUed from the Franciscan order,
dressed, as he told his foUowers, after the manner of the apostles. He said
that at length they had reached the time of the Holy Ghost and of charity.
These fanatics, moreover, foUowed the errors of the Albigenses or of the
Waldenses, and of the Patarini.
The Holy Father excommunicated James of Aragon, son of Peter III.,
king of Aragon ; because he continued to usurp the royal power in Sicily.
Honorius IV. had studied in the University of Paris, and was much
attached to that establishment, which enjoyed great celebrity. The pope
ordered Arabic and other oriental languages, necessary to those sent to
strengthen the faith among the schismatics and the Saracens, to be taught
in that university.
The pope governed two years and two days. He died on the 3d of April,
1287. He was interred in the Vatican, and by order of Paul III. his body
was removed afterwards to the church of Araceli.
The Holy See remained vacant ten months and eighteen days. This
delay was caused by no misunderstanding or want of agreement among the

464 LIVES OF THE POPES.
cardinals. When they were assembled in conclave, in the palace of Saint
Sabina, a pestilence broke out, which obhged them to seek change of air,
six of them having faUen victims, and the others being sick. They did not
name a pope until the scourge had ceased its ravages. Their choice then
feU upon Cardinal Tineus, who, in spite of the pestUence, had not quitted
that palace, but contented himseK with having a great fire kept burning aU
around the building, to purify the air. This, he said, was the remedy
that Hippocrates recommended to the Athenians.*
In Wadding's Annals and UgheUi's Italia there are some letters of this
pope, fuU of wisdom and mUdness ; yet he must be deemed somewhat
too liberal towards his famUy. Many of the princely families of Rome,
when they obtained the tiara for a member, often wearied him with re
quests that he lacked courage to refuse.

193. NICHOLAS IV.— a. d. 1288.
(Sik&^-'~ 7$$\ IC'HOLAS IV., named Tineus, of an obscure famUy
Wf8^||i 1 .'-i' |l(lS\ in Alessiano, in the diocese of Ascoh, was a
yJIKsyfe S[ft) '1 Minor Observantine, and became the first gen-
Wj|P--s 'I, #JfJk eral of the Franciscans after Saint Bonaventure,
l™Sv^^~ '^ and the first pope of that order. As legate from
^#n\wR\\i r t^l Gregory X. to Constantinople, he contributed to
' \ ^n bring the Greeks back for a moment to the Roman
W^mSs^SmmK^S^^ Church. We have seen that he alone would not
leave the palace of Saint Sabina, in which the conclave was assembled.
This courageous conduct was not dictated by any paltry seK-interest.
When the tiara was offered to him he rejected it, and endeavored to put
forth the greater merits of other cardinals. On the 22d of February, 1288,
he was unanimously proclaimed, and he was obhged to submit to his coro
nation on the 24th. In the first year of his pontificate, Pope Nicholas
granted privUeges to the brethren of his order. Firstly, as many doubted
their exemption, he declared them immediately subject to the Holy See, and
* This fact is mentioned in a life of Hippocrates of the second century, but it is now consid
ered apocryphal. Fires have been lighted in times of pestilence, but without arresting the
scourge. Feller, like many others, repeats this ancient fiction, attributed to Soranus, of whom
Regnauldin, in the Biog. Univ., speaks as a Greek and uncertain writer. This rectification does
not diminish the glory of the prince of physicians and the founder of the healing art. More
over, perhaps his writings and advice combated the contagion of which Thucydides has left us
so terrible a description.

NICHOLAS rv. 465
absolutely exempt from every other jurisdiction ; adding, that aU the prop
erty, fixed or movable, of which they had the use, was the property of
Saint Peter, in conformity to the buU Exiit qui seminat of Nicholas III. This
buU of Nicholas IV. is dated at Rome, AprU 30th, 1288. By another, of
May 6th, given at Rieti, he ordered that no Friar Minor who, after profes
sion, should pass into another order, should be raised to any charge,
dignity, or prelacy, without the express permission of the Holy See. In
case the place of their abode should faU under interdict, he permitted them
to confess each other, receive absolution, recite the office, and say Mass
with closed doors, without the beUs being rung, and without being obhged
to admit any one but the members of the order ; and, finaUy, to communi
cate on the accustomed days, and in case of need to receive extreme
unction. He also gave special privUeges to some houses of the order,
among others to that at Assisi. He forbade any other rehgious to settle in
that city : if necessity compeUed them to do so, their estabhshment was to
be four hundred yards from the waUs. He intended thereby to prevent any
diminution of the alms on which the brothers and sisters of the order of
Saint Francis subsisted.
In 1289, Nicholas removed the interdict which, sixteen years before, Greg
ory X. had laid upon the kingdom of Portugal, when Alphonso III. had
usurped the property of the Church, and reduced aU the ecclesiastics to
beggary. On the 29th of May, the pope crowned, in the Vatican Basihca,
Charles II., king of Sicily, on the same conditions that had been imposed
on the father of that prince by Clement TV. In virtue of a constitution
(Rainaldi, 1289, n. 69), he divided the income of the Roman Church into
two parts, the one aUotted to the pontiff and the other to the cardinals.
This constitution has not been in force for many years ; other arrangements
are made for the income of the cardinals, which is very limited considering
their high dignity.
To Nicholas is due the foundation of the University of Montpelier, which
the founder, in his diploma of the 26th of October, calls a city created for
study. Subsequently, he granted great privileges to the university estab
hshed at Lisbon by King Dennis.
Nicholas, ever watchful for the maintenance and propagation of rehgion,
exhorted aU the princes upon the earth with unwearied zeal, to form a
numerous crusade to arrest the progress of the victorious sultan of Babylon,
who in 1290 took the city of Tripoli from the Christians. As the aid was
not sent as quickly as the Holy Father desired, the city of Acre, the last
that the Christians stiU possessed in Syria, was attacked and taken by the
same sultan. This deeply grieved Nicholas, who made new but stiU vain
efforts to stimulate the zeal of the Cathohc princes. The loss was irrepa-
Vol. L— 30

466 LIVES OF THE POPES.
rable. It was no longer Saladin who fought against the Christians ; the
Sultan CahU was an odious barbarian. In spite of the efforts of Henry,
king of Cyprus and of Jerusalem, of the Templars, Hospitallers, and the
Christians in Palestine, the city of Acre was taken by storm.
The master of the Templars was killed fighting vahantly. The patriarch
of Jerusalem, Nicolas, was urged to escape by open sea, the port being stiU
free. The holy man was dragged against his will, by his people, to a boat,
that they might convey him to a galley not far off. But he charitably re
ceived so many fugitives into the boat that she went down. Thus perished
the last Latin patriarch of Jerusalem who resided in the country.
In Acre there was a famous convent of Poor Clares. The superior being
informed that the Saracens were in the city, assembled aU the sisterhood in
chapter and said : " My daughters, let us despise this hfe, in order that
we may preserve for our heavenly Spouse pure hearts in pure bodies : do .
as you see me do." Immediately she cut off her nose, and her face was
bathed in blood. The others foUowed her example, and cut their faces in
various manners. The Saracens entering the convent scimeter in hand,
were astounded at the sight ; then, horror turning into fury, they butchered
aU the holy women. The Franciscan friars of Saint Jean d'Acre were also
aU kiUed.
The Saracens carried off more than thirty thousand prisoners, after hav
ing killed a Uke number of the inhabitants. On the day of the taking of
Acre, the inhabitants of Tyre abandoned their city without making any
defence. Those of Beyrout also surrendered without resistance. The
Latin Christians lost every thing that had remained to them in the country.
Most of those who, escaped retired to the isle of Cyprus.
So closed the wars for the conquest and recovery of the Holy Land,
which had lasted one hundred and ninety-five years, from 1098 to 1291.
Nicholas added pure intentions to the talents necessary to fulfil the duties
of his high station. He had been employed in the most delicate business,
and the popes who had given him their confidence had reason to rejoice
over the success of so enlightened a nuncio. It is remarkable that in the
affairs of Rome the ablest and most experienced persons generaUy attained
the tiara ; their being acquainted with men and things has given so many
popes truly great, and possessed of the difficult art of governing.
Nicholas was a prudent plniosopher and a good theologian ; he governed
the Church wisely, and he appeased some of the dissensions which had
arisen at Rome and in the Ecclesiastical States. Father Fehx Mattei pub
lished a life of Nicholas, from a manuscript in the Vatican, the author of
which was Jerome Rubeo.
This pope governed the Church four years, one month, and fourteen days.
He died on the 4th of April, Good Friday, 1292, and, as he had desired,

SAINT CELESTINE V.

467

was interred in a simple tomb in Saint Mary Major. He was so humble,
this worthy rehgious, that he said : " We would rather be the cook to our
brethren, than a cardinal ; we accepted the purple only from fear of offend
ing our order." He was also accustomed to say : " We have relations :
these relations are aU men who are distinguished by knowledge and virtue."
The Holy See was vacant two years, three months, and two days. There
were twelve cardinals, but they were divided in opinion, — six Romans, four
Itahans, and two French. VUlani (hv. i, chap. 150) says : " Quozrentibus
Mis qumsua, non quce Jesu Christi, tantum dilata est dectio — The election was so
long delayed because they cared for their own interest, and not for that of
Christ."

194. ST. CELESTINE V.— a. d. 1294.

ALNT CELESTINE V. was originally caUed Peter of
Morroni, from a mountain near Suhnona, where he
led a sohtary hfe. He was born near the castle of
Mohsa in the territory of Lavoro, in the year 1215,
and was the eleventh of twelve sons of Angelerio, a
farmer. He was first a Benedictine monk in the monastery
of FaKoli, in the diocese of Benevento, which he
entered at the age of twenty. He left in 1239, with the permission of the
' abbot, to go and do penance in the caves of Morroni, where he spent five
years. Thence he went to the mountain of MajeUa, in Apulia, where he
founded the order of the Celestines. He was prior of the order when he
was elected pope at Perugia, on the 5th of July, 1294, principaUy at the
solicitation of the cardinal-bishop of Ostia, a Roman of the Malabranca
famUy. This cardinal, to put an end to the discords which rent the sacred coUege,
proposed that they should choose this hermit, weU known for his sanctity,
and who was then at Rome on a visit to a house of his order, which had just
been founded there.
Peter of Morroni, therefore, was unanimously elected, and the decree of
his election was forwarded to him ; but he firmly refused to accept. His
refusal was only overcome by the entreaties of the cardinals and of King
Charles II., of Naples, and of Andrew, king of Hungary. Those princes
went to him and entreated him to accept. They told him that there was

468 LIVES OF THE POPES.
no other method of remedying the evils suffered by Christianity, and that
it was his duty to accept the pontificate to which God had caUed him.
Francis Petrarch writes* that Peter had meditated escaping from their
importunities by flight, but the people flocked about him, and he was obhged
to yield to their cries and commands. Almost frenzied, Peter set out for
Aquila, which he entered mounted on an ass, the bridle of which was held
by King Charles and the king of Hungary. He had written to the cardinals
that, on account of the heat, he could not proceed to Perugia, and they
repaired to Aquila to take part in the ceremonies of his coronation, on the
29th" of August, in the church of the Celestines, of CoUemaggio. After
wards, mounted no longer on an ass, but upon a beautiful white horse, he
made his entrance into the city amidst the acclamations of a multitude of
people, who had gathered from aU parts to see the first personage in the
world, who so recently had been only a lowly hermit, poor, often suffering
from hunger.
Shortly after the coronation, the Holy Father made a promotion of twelve
cardinals, seven of whom were French ; and then he resolved upon going to
Naples. MeanwhUe, Celestine, regretting his hberty, resolved to recover it. He
showed that resolution more plainly after the death of Cardinal Latino, to
whom he had intrusted the principal business of the pontificate. Celes
tine knew that the cardinals were iU pleased with him. The twelve new
members of the sacred coUege, seven French, as we have said, and five
Itahans, had been created without the former cardinals being consulted.
He began to be spoken of as a man reared in the woods, and unfit to wear
the tiara. Impelled by such considerations, he first declared that the pope
might freely renounce the pontificate, and then he soon desired to make
that renunciation; not, as some authors have pretended, because Cardinal'
Benedict Gaetani, who succeeded him, told him through a trumpet, as
though the voice came from heaven, that he ought to resign the tiara. This
is a wretched fable, unsupported by any contemporary evidence.
He voluntarily resigned the pontificate at Naples, on the 13th of Decem
ber, 1294, after governing five months and nine days.
Chacon gives the formula of his renunciation :
" We, Celestine, Pope V., moved by legitimate reasons, that is to say, for
the sake of humihty, of a better hfe, and an unspotted conscience, of weak
ness of body and of want of knowledge, the malignity of the people, and
personal infirmity, to recover the tranquiUity and consolation of our former
life, do freely and voluntarily resign the pontificate, the place, the dignity,
occupation, and honors of which we expressly renounce and we give full
* Lib. ii., de Vit. Solit. ; sect. 3, cap. 18.

SAINT CLEMENTINE V. 469
and free faculty to the coUege of cardinals eanonicaUy to elect a Pastor of
the Universal Church."*
This done, in a consistory pubhcly held in the city of Naples, he laid
aside aU the pontifical insignia, and with a noble and modest, yet lofty
bearing, seated himseK at the feet of the cardinals.
The Holy See was vacant ten days. For the first time the law of Greg
ory X., confirmed by Celestine V., was observed, which provided that a con
clave should not be commenced until nine days after death or renunciation
of a pope.
WeU pleased, he who had again become Peter of Morroni retired to his
hermitage of MajeUa, to devote himseK to perpetual prayer and uninter
rupted mortification. His successor, Boniface, fearing some schism that
was or speedUy might be threatened, t not from the will of the holy hermit,
who was far from having such a thought, but because the simphcity of his
heart might not be proof against the wUes of the enemies of the new pope,
his successor — BonKace, we say, caused search to be made after Peter, that
he might be carefuUy guarded against all danger. The saint was informed
of this, and although he had no thought but to give himself entirely to God,
he kept himseK concealed during two months. Some time after, he deter
mined to go to Dalmatia, but a storm drove him to Viesta, a city of the
Capitanate, where he was recognized by the governor, who sent him to
Anagni, where his successor was. Thence he was sent to the castle of
Fumone, a short distance from Ferentino, where, for ten months, he lan
guished in prison.^ Celestine, at the age of eighty-one years, bore this
treatment with an apostohcal constancy. He died on the 19th of March,
1296, and, by order of BonKace, his body was carried with pomp to Feren
tino. His heart is preserved in the church of the Poor Clares. Subse
quently, his body was removed to the monastery of the Celestines, at Aquila.
Clement V. canonized Celestine at Avignon, on the 5th of March, 1313,
seventeen years after his death.
The hfe of Saint Celestine has been written by various authors. First,
by Celestino Talera, abbot of the Celestines. That hfe precedes the works
of the pontiffs printed at Naples, in 1640. Among the works are : Relatio
vitce suaz; de Virtutibus, de Vitiis, de Hominis vanitate, de Exemplis, et de
Sententiis patrum. Other Celestine monks have also written his hfe. Car
dinal Peter d'AiUy is the author of another hfe in Latin ; which was im
proved in style by Dionysius Faber, prior of the Celestines of Paris, and
printed in that city, 4to, in 1539. There is another hfe of this pontiff by
Vincent SpineUi, procurator-general of the order ; Rome, 1664, 8vo. Leho
Marini, also pubhshed the hfe of the holy pontiff in Itahan ; 4to, MUan, 1637.
* See also Novaes, iv., 28. 1 Ibid., 29. t Ibid., 28.

470

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Under this reign occurred the miracle of the removal of the Santa Casa,
or holy house, into Italy. I wiU quote Novaes (iv., p. 33) : " In 1291, in the
same year when the infidels got possession of Saint Jean d'Acre, on the
ninth day of May, the Holy House, in which the divine Word was made
flesh, was carried by angels into Dalmatia, between Tersate and Fiume, on
the Adriatic. Three years and seven months after, that is to say, on the
10th of December, 1294, the same Holy House was transported to a spot
near Ancona, in a wood belonging to a woman named Lereto ; and eight
months after, moved to another place, not far off — the same where the church
now stands. It is the most celebrated sanctuary in the Christian world.
Before it was despoiled of its riches, it had twenty gold lamps, given chiefly
by the repubhc of Venice, and sixty other lamps of silver. The church
which contains the Casa Santa, or Holy House, was commenced by Paul II.,
the two hundred and fifteenth pope, and finished in 1577, under Gregory XL
" France possesses, at Loretto, property given for the purpose by Car
dinal de Joyeuse. Pious persons, travelhng in Italy, never faU to make a
holy pUgrimage to Our Lady of Loretto. Many excellent works give a
description of this imposing sanctuary."

195. BONIFACE VIIL— a. d. 1294.

ONIFACE VIIL, originaUy named Benedict Gaeta-
ni, was a member of that iUustrious famUy, and
born at Anagni. He was successively canon of
Todi, of Paris, of Lyons, and the Vatican Basihca,
consistorial advocate, and apostolical prothonotary.
, On the 12th of April, 1281, he was created cardinal
by Martin IV. ; then Nicholas IV. named him car
dinal-priest of Saints Sylvester and Martin. Martin
IV., who knew him to be a man of talent, dexterity, and fidelity, sent him as
legate to King Charles, of Sicily, to prevent him from warring against the
king of Aragon, and to keep the subjects of both kings in their devotion to
the Roman court. He was afterwards sent with another cardinal to restore
peace between King Phihp, of France, and Edward, of England, and to
defend the rights of the Church in both countries. Nicholas IV. deputed
him, with other cardinals, to inquire into and arrange the differences be
tween Dennis, king of Portugal, and the clergy of that kingdom. After
these many signal services, Cardinal Gaetani was unanimously elected pope

(Basra QF&;rE vaa

23EW YORK.Li.JK ,T. SAELIE'R «c C°

BONIFACE VIH. 474
1
on the 24th of December, 1294, at Castel Nuovo, near the city of Naples,
where the cardinals were assembled in conclave.
After accepting the pontificate on the 2d of January, 1295, he, in com
pany with Charles II., king of Sicily, and Charles Martel, his son, king of
Hungary, set out for Rome, where he was consecrated and crowned by
Cardinal Matthew Rosso Orsini, the first deacon, on the 16th of the month.
of January. When he went to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran he rode
a magnificent palfrey, of which the two kings held the bridle reins. They
also, wearing their crowns, presented him at table with the first two dishes,
and then seated themselves at the cardinals' table.
The first cares of BonKace were directed to the pacification of Italy. He
reduced SicUy to obedience to the Holy See ; and he succeeded in restoring
a sufficient concord between the kings of France and England. He, dis
suaded the king of the Romans from his intention of attacking France, and
sought means to destroy aU the factions that divided the Christian princes.
New efforts were made to reunite the Greeks to the faith ; and, finaUy, every
effort was made to aid in the recovery of the Holy Land, from which the
Cathohcs had been driven by the Mussulmans.
At the conclusion of a peace between Charles H., of Naples, and the king
of Aragon, Charles swore fidelity to Pope BonKace, in the church of Saint
Sabina. In the year 1295, Boniface ordered the feasts of the Holy Evangehsts,
and of the four Doctors of the Church — Gregory, Augustine, Ambrose, and
Jerome — to be celebrated as doubles. He ordered that at Rome there
should be for the future a general academy of aU the faculties.
BonKace, perceiving that some princes oppressed the clergy with imposts,
pubhshed, on the 21st of September, 1296, a buU which he caused to be
inserted in the sixth book of the Decretals, to remedy that evil. The clauses
of the buU were singularly softened for France, at the request of some of
the prelates of the kingdom. The sixth book, entitled the Sexte, was printed
at Mayence in 1465, folio. The editions pubhshed about the end of the
fifteenth century are without value.
The buU in question is caUed the buU Clericis laicos. In it the pope
says : " Antiquity shows us the enmity of laymen against the clergy, and
our experience in the present time manKestly supports that teaching, since,
without considering that they have no power over the persons or the property
of ecclesiastics, the laity lay imposts upon the prelates and the clergy, both
regular and secular ; and we grieve to say, that some prelates and other
ecclesiastics, having more fear of the temporal majesty than of the eternal,
acquiesce in that abuse. That we may obviate this, we order that aU the
prelates and ecclesiastics, regular or secular, who pay to the laymen tithes
or any other portion of their revenues, under the name of aid, subvention,

472 LIVES OF THE POPES.
or any other, without the authority of the Holy See, and the kings, princes,
and magistrates, and aU others who shaU impose such burdens, or who shaU
give aid and counsel thereto, shaU incur excommunication, absolution from
which is reserved to the Holy See, notwithstanding any privilege."
Fleury adds, brusquely : " The aversion of the laity to the clergy, which
. the pope speaks of at the outset, goes back to no ancient date, for during
the first five or six centuries, the clergy attracted universal respect and
affection by a charitable and disinterested conduct."*
This bitter reflection, which does not touch the depth of the matter, is aU
the more unseasonable, since, as we have said, the measures prescribed by
that bull were modified, as Fleury himself admits, on the representations of
several bishops of France.
So, having pretended to point out the prepotency of Rome, Fleury is com-
peUed to confess that this prepotency kept within just bounds. Grieved as
I am at the undue bias of an author who has so long formed the opinions
of French seminaries, I yet do not wish to say of Fleury, as was said of
Benno, obtrectatio et livor. I only remark that it is not astonishing that
in the first five or six centuries the popes spoke less warmly in favor of the
clergy. Fleury is one of those authors who have best taught us that the
popes did not then possess so much power ; but he is an author, too, who
often in spite of himself has taught us that nations laid at the feet of the
popes the confidence, the power, and we may almost say the keys of the cap-
itcds of all countries, circumstances which often embarrassed them in the
necessary development of the great interests of the Cathohc cause.
Boniface being at Orvieto on the 11th of August, 1297, canonized Louis
IX., king of France, who died at Tunis on the 25th of August, 1270.
Fleury gives with precision the details concerning the labors and negotia
tions relating to the canonization. This part of Fleury's account is very
satisfactory, and the more interesting to us because foreign writers seem to
have attached but httle importance to those facts. But Fleury had his own
fixed opinion ; he did not hke BonKace VIIL Such prejudices are deplor
able in a historian.
He says :t " At length Boniface determined that King Louis should be
included among the saints.
" He dehvered two sermons upon the subject at Orvieto, the first in his
palace, the Tuesday before Saint Lawrence, that is to say on the 6th of
August, 1297, and in them summed up the proceedings prehminary to the
canonization. Among other things he said : ' Pope Nicholas in. affirmed
that the virtues of that saint were so weU known to him that he would have
canonized him if he had seen two or three miracles.' And again : ' The
* Fleury, v., pp. 89, 655. \ Ibid, v., lxxxix., p. 641.

BONIFACE VHI. 473
matter has been so often inquired into that the documents about it are more
than an ass could carry.' Boniface dehvered the other sermon in the church
of the Friars Minors, in Orvieto, on the same day that he pubhshed the
buU of canonization, wliich was the eleventh of August. The bull, which
is dated on the same day, and addressed to all the ,bishops of France, gives
an abridged hfe of the saint, with many of his miracles, and orders his .
feast to be celebrated on the anniversary of his death, the morrow of Saint
Bartholomew, that is to say, the 25th of August."
That is aU that Fleury finds to say upon one of the most beautiful bulls
a pontiff ever sent forth. It is the sub-preceptor of the king of France
who thus calmly speaks of one of the greatest princes of the earth, of the
grandfather of the monarch who, by Robert de Clermont, sixth son of Louis
IX., descended directly from the great king. Was there in France another
dynasty that was jealous of the glories of the preceding kings ? And that
fine selection of phrase :" More writings than an ass could carry /" Ah ! this
time ungrateful and partial historian, corrupter of your pupU's sensibUities,
you have deserved what Marchetti has directly and positively said of you
(vol. i, p. 231 of his Critica), with reference to less censurable passages.*
The Archbishop of Ancyra adds : " The general reader relishes censure
of the most distinguished personages, because at bottom men hke these
censures as true, though they are not only companions of malignity but
even worse than it." Marchetti continues : " But the duty of the historian
is to say that which is the most true, and not that which is the most agree
able. In that case only the applause of the minority wiU be obtained, be
cause wise men are few in number, but stultorum infinitus est numerus — •
infinite is tlie number of the fools ; but, for my part, I value more the estima
tion of those who love truth, than I do the approval of men of no weight :
Suffidt units Plato pro cuncto populo — one Plato outweighs a whole unreasoning
mob." I wUl not interrupt the archbishop in his judgment. " Let it not be sup
posed that I wish to carry things to an extreme, and to deny aU that is said
in so many tales about the personal failings of the popes. The great
master of ecclesiastical history, Baronius, had not ears so dehcate that he
would refuse to hear the fruits of man ; suffice ' it to say that Muratori, in
the Itahan annals of the tenth century, has, by new monuments, proved
that the personal vices of the pontiffs of that time were less than those that
have been registered by Baronius himseK."
What reply can be made to the holy indignation of the archbishop of
Ancyra? * Critica de la Storia Ecclesiastica del sig. Abate Claudio Fleury : 8vo., Rome, 1819 ; third
edition.

474 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Now that I am writing the history of Boniface, I may be permitted to ex
amine one of the great acts of that pontificate — that bull of canonization
which interests not only the sovereigns of France, but aU sovereigns upon
the earth. It matters not from what country a great example comes;
when it is so noble, so precisely known, it belongs to the whole universe.
On examining the style of the document, too, we shaU see whether we can
detect the low and unbecoming language ascribed to a sermon of this pope.
This Constitution,* so honorable to the royal famUy of France, and evin
cing so clearly the great literary talent of Boniface VOL, for the elegance
of the Latinity is remarkable, is too httle known. I wUl make some quo
tations from the history of Dante Alighieri, in which that act is reported at
some length.f The pope commences thus: "Let aU who cultivate the
orthodox faith, and whose hope is in God, exclaim in the tenderest accents
of devotion, Glory, praise, and honor% to the Father of Light, who giveth aU
that is great and perfect ! How the multitudes of the denizens of heaven
rejoice at the arrival of a new, and so eminent and glorious inhabitant !§
How the glorious inhabitants of heaven sing hymns of joy, and they
behold such a fellow-citizen of the New Jerusalem arrive among them!
How the venerable assembly of the saints exults in joyful rapture over the
addition of such a consort ! Arise, numerous multitudes of the faithful, and
sing with the Church the hymns of praise !" II
Then follows the portrait of Louis : " He was assuredly of the most iUus
trious birth, opulent in wealth, subhme in virtues, elegant in manners, excel
lent in wisdom, abhorring aU evU and shameful thought.
" He so purely adhered to the ways and works of modesty, he so weU
knew how to avoid the contagion of the flesh, that many beheved that he
would have been a virgin throughout hfe had he not accepted the tie wliich
bound him to a wife. He long held the reins of State in France, and held
the helm there, when surrounded by shoals, with a far-seeing circumspec
tion ; he was never fatal, or insulting, or violent to any one ; he marveUously
confined himseK within the hmits of justice, which he ardently loved, never
stepping to the right hand or to the left from the path of equity."
Further on, the buU with a most energetic vivacity of style describes the

* Gloria, laus, et honor. Bidlar. Boman., vol. iii., part 3, p. 88.
f Hist, de Bante Alighieri, p. 88.
X The modern idiom places the words that occur first in the bull in the second or third line.
§ Boniface does not here accuse Louis of having dictated the sixth article of the Pragmatic
Sanction which, considering its date and the approaching danger of a crusade, we still consider
a forgery, and perhaps of the time of a hostile king. As in 1269 there was no pope, the Roman
court could exact neither justly nor unjustly. The whole of the article is uncivil, bitter, and
passionate. Louis IX. needed Rome in that fatal voyage he had undertaken, and in no station
of life do men insult those of whom they have need. The dates alone prove the interpolation.
| Here the bull is Ciceronian in both imagination and Latin.

BONIFACE VIH. 475
strife of courtesy between the king and his brothers, when he alone
was permitted to embark in Egypt for France, on condition of giving
hostages. After the canonization of the monarch, the buU closes by congratulating
the whole French people in the following eloquent terms : " Rejoice, O lofty
house of France that hast given birth to a prince whose merits' so honor
thee! Abandon thyseK to joy, O devout nation of the Gauls that hast
been deemed worthy to have a master so virtuous and so elect I* Chair of
the prelates and of the clergy, rejoice and triumph that this kingdom is
magnificently adorned by the brilliant miracles of its own king ! Rejoice,
spirits of princes, nobles, and warriors, rejoice that by the holy works of
that king the splendor of the kingdom is honored with an increased bril
liancy, shining in some sort hke the sun's rays."
Ah, Louis, great grandson of Louis XIV., why did not your sub-preceptor
make you read those few lines, which would perhaps have shown you an
other way ?
It was in the year 1297 that quarrels between the pope and the Colonna
family began to appear. He confiscated their palace, condemned them as
schismatics, compeUed them to leave Rome, and took the purple from James
and Peter, belonging to that iUustrious famUy. Those measures were cer
tainly too severe. The Colonnas had done evU to the Church, but that was
no reason for being thus wanting in prudence and even in generosity.
There are enemies who should never be driven to desperation. It is true
that the animosity of those princes had been beyond aU bounds ; they had
circulated a manifesto which affirmed that Celestine had no power to re
nounce the pontificate, and that Boniface, consequently, could not be
legitimately elected.
That was a grave insult, for it accused the pope of being an intruder, an
antipope ; but whatever the offence given, it should not be avenged in an
unchristian spirit, calculated to produce stiU more dangerous evils.
We now gladly hasten to add, that the two cardinals having appealed to
the clemency of Boniface, he granted their pardon, released them from the
interdict, and restored them to their dignity.
Led away by bad advice, the two cardinals again revolted. Here we
must praise the conduct of Boniface. He again condemned them. But
there was too much severity in the order to raze the town of Palestrina.
Violence of this kind can never be either useful or excusable, and it is gen-
erahy useless. At the same time it was astonishing that at that very mo
ment Boniface pubhshed a Constitution which, like one that had been pub-
* So elect, tarn electum, is a stroke of genius ; Boniface here combines exquisite style with the
dignity proper to the pontiff.

476 LIVES OF THE POPES.
hshed by Honorius III, punished all who sacrilegiously wronged the car
dinals of the Holy Roman Church.
The Holy Father perceiving that at the close of the century a great
number of pilgrims arrived at Rome, because their fathers had told them
that every hundred years, at the close of the century, they ought to visit
the tomb of the apostles to acquire the benefits of the jubilee, he in the
year 1300, did not institute, but renewed that plenary indulgence. He
ordered the feast to be renewed every hundred years ; Clement V. ordered
that it should be every fifty years ; Urban VI. every thirty-three years ;
and, finally, Paul II. ordered that it should take place every fifty years,
which is the present arrangement, excepting some irremediable cause of
prevention arise, as was the case in the year 1800.
At the jubilee of the year 1300 there was an immense concourse* of pil
grims. Boniface ordained ' that to obtain the benefits of the jubilee the
Romans should visit Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's thirty times and the
pilgrims only fifteen times.
In 1301, the differences between PhUip the Fair and the pope were stUl
further envenomed because the pope confirmed the buU by which he forbade
ecclesiastics to pay any thing to laymenf without, the apostolical authoriza
tion. Philip then confirmed a former decree, prohibiting the sending of any
money to Rome. One of the king's partisans, WUliam of Nogaret, a fiery
magistrate, accused the pope of simony, magic, and atheism; and the bish
ops, theologians, and doctors who would not embrace the party of the king
were exiled. Phihp even went so far as to forbid aU the prelates of his king
dom to attend a councU about to be held in Italy. The pope, being at Rome
on the 6th of November, is said to have pubhshed there the celebrated
constitution Unam Sanctam,\ in which, in order to re-establish the papal
authority, oppressed by the councillors of the king, he declared it to be
heretical to say that any Christian is not subject to the pope ; and he
excommunicated those who had prohibited the prelates from going to
Rome. Although neither at Rome nor elsewhere is the buU Unam Sanctam, or In
Ccena Domini, any longer officiaUy mentioned, I should deserve censure K
I passed over in silence the principal arrangement, or points, or merely
specified others without detail.
* See History of Leo XII. f Novaes, iv., p. 43.
X This bull, which is also termed In Casna Bomini, is still attributed to Boniface, although it
can scarcely be of his time, and though many more additions of later date can be detected. It
contains extended views, for the most part useful to the prosperity of States, and to the relief of
their people ; but, as the pontiff assumes a tone of command, it appeared to impugn the power
of the kings, and their independence in the administration of their States. For this reason,
Clement XIV. and Pius VI. interrupted its annual publication on Maundy-Thursday, and since
that time it has no longer been quoted in public.

BONIFACE "VTH. 477
Here De Maistre comes to my aid, and I wiU give what he says in his
second volume of the work, entitled The Pope, vol. ii., chap. xv. :
" Probably there is no one in Europe who has not heard of the buU In
Ccena Domini. But how many men in Europe have taken the pains to read
it? I know not.* I beheve I shaU do no useless thing to the general
reader in giving here the substance of that famous buU. When children
are frightened by some distant object, which their imagination enlarges and
disfigures, the best way to refute a credulous nurse, who teUs them that it
is an ogre or a ghost, is to take them by the hand, laughing or singing, and
lead them right up to it.
" The foUowing is an analysis of the buU In Ccena Domini. The pope
excommunicates :
" Art. I. AU heretics.t
" Art. II. AU who appeal to future councUs.J
" Art. HI. AU pirates traversing the sea without letters of marque.
" Art. IV. AU who plunder shipwrecked vessels.
" Art. V. AU who estabhsh in their territories new imposts, or increase
the old ones, except in cases authorized by law, or without the express per
mission of the Holy See.§
" Art. VI. The falsifiers of apostohcal letters.
" Art. VH. Those who supply arms or any kind of munitions of war to
Turks, Saracens, or heretics.l
" Art. VEIL Those who intercept food or other provisions on the way to
Rome for the use of the pope.
* It was selected as the text of insults, sarcasms, and accusations, even where unread ; which
is not honest on the part of our opponents. Like De Maistre, I have read that bull, of which he
speaks wisely and in the spirit of justice, with which he mingles a tone of pleasantry which is
quite in place.
f I hope there .is no difficulty here ! — Be Maistre.
\ Whatever some may think as to the question of appeals to future councils, no blame can be
attached to the pope, and especially a pope in the fourteenth century, who sternly repressed such
appeals as absolutely subversive of all ecclesiastical government. Saint Augustine had already
said to certain appellants — And who, tlixn, are you, that you are to disturb the universe ? — (Note
by Be Maistre) To which we may add, What would kings say, if to every law the subjects
could reply, We appeal to the future king ? What would the tribunals say if, to every sen
tence it could be answered, I appeal to the magistrates who will come after you ?
§ The pope accepts the case provided for by the national law ; and, moreover, we must bear
in mind in what century that decision was given by the religious authority ; let us not forget
that all nations applauded such reserves, and that only the kings and their ministers com
plained. 1 Dante, who lived in that time, says in his burning verse far more than is said in that seventh
article ; and Boniface, if he was the author of the bull, evidently justified these verses of Dante :
E nessuno era stato a vincer Acri,
Ne mercatante in terra del soldano.
And yet Dante was accusing Boniface.

478 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" Art. IX. Those who kiU, mutUate, despoil, or poison persons going to
the pope or returning from him.
" Art. X. Those who simUarly injure pilgrims whose devotion leads them
to Rome.
" Art. XL Those who are guilty of Uke violence towards the cardinals,
patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and the legates of the Holy See.*
" Art. XII. Those who strike, despoU, or maltreat any one on account of
any suit that he has at the court of Rome.f
" Art. XIII. Those who, on pretence of a frivolous appeal, transfer causes
from the ecclesiastical to the secular tribunal.
" Art. XIV. Those who carry causes relating to benefices or tithes to lay
courts.J "Art. XV. Those who- cite ecclesiastics before lay tribunals.
" Art. XVI. Those who deprive prelates of their legitimate jurisdiction.
"Art. XVII. Those who sequestrate the jurisdictions or revenues that
legitimately belong to the pope.
" Art. XVIII. Those who impose upon the Church new tributes, without
the permission of the Holy See.
" Art. XX. Those who usurp the territory of the pope's sovereignty."§
The rest of the buU is unimportant.
In 1303, Boniface founded at Rome the university commonly known as
the Sapienza.
* The four previous articles portray the epoch which rendered them necessary. The acts of
sovereigns should not be judged without regard to the time and place which they relate to ; and
supposing the pope to have gone somewhat too far in some of these regulations, it would be
sufficient to say, they went too far. All oratorical declamation is entirely out of place. — (Note by
Be Maistre.)
f On the one side, they smite, they despoil, they maltreat, those who go to seek redress at Rome ;
and, on the other side, they excommunicate those who smite, despoil, and maltreat. Where lies
the wrong, and who should be blamed 1 If all eyes were not wilfully closed, all eyes would see
that when there is wrong on both sides, it is the height of inj ustice to see Only the wrong on
one side, that there are no means of avoiding such combats, and that the fermentation which
disturbs the wine is the indispensable preliminary to its clarification. — (Note by Be Maistre)
X At that time it was as necessary to respect an ecclesiastical court as it now is to respect a
royal court. We are in the fourteenth century.
§ Whoever will read over our existing penal code, will find a host of articles providing pun
ishment for a part of the contraventions pointed at by the bull. See the second title — Crimes
and offences against the person ; see chapter ii. — Crimes and offences against property : the roads
must be safe and free ; then as now, every recognized proprietor — even the pope ! — was to pos
sess and keep his own property.
The bull In Coma Bomini established legislation where there was none. But for five cen
turies the cry has been repeated, " How abominable is that bull In Ccena Bomini!" And who
had read that bull ?
Its provisions, as a whole, repressed robbers ; and as concerns the authority of the pope, it
only gave him back his, what all knew to be his own, and that every one would have desired in
the case of himself. Definitely, it must be observed that our bold innovators have shed torrents
of blood to obtain only, or almost only, what the bull provided for, and what it would have been
unreasonable to expect from the concession of the secular sovereigns of that time. >

BONIFACE VIII. 479
The usage of cloistering nuns was. very ancient, as is proved by the fourth
century, nevertheless it was not yet generally recognized. BonKace made
it a law for all nuns in Christendom.
In 1303, there were disturbances in Rome, and the pope deemed it pru
dent to retire to Anagni. But Sciarra Colonna, his irreconcilable enemy,
and William Nogaret, PhUip's councillor, after corrupting some of the ser
vants of the court, and many of the prmcipal inhabitants of the city, entered
it at the head of armed men, shouting : " Death to Pope Boniface ! Long
hve the king of France !" They then attacked the palace of the pontiff,
and found him seated on his throne, in his pontifical attire, with the crown
on his head,* and holding in his hand the keys of the Church.
The unfortunate pope was abandoned by aU his court, except the car
dinals of Sabina, Peter of Spain, of Ostia, and Bonasini, who was his suc
cessor. God watching over the holy papal dignity, no one ventured to touch
BonKace. The invaders, however, piUaged the treasury, and left the pope,
stiU clad as we have described, under the guard of some soldiers, after hav
ing insulted him. Nogaret even threatened to take him to France as a
prisoner, and to have him deposed by a general council. At that threat the
magnanimous pontiff rephed : " We shaU be weU content to be deposed by
Patarini (heretic Albigenses) such as you are, and such as were your father
and mother, who were punished as such."t
Novaes says not a word about Sciarra Colonna having struck the pope in
the face with his gauntlet. FeUer thinks the blow was given. £ The Bio-
graphie UniverseUe% says on the subject : " Some historians add that Colonna
carried his brutahty so far as to strike the pope on the cheek with his
gauntlet. Fortunately for the memory of Colonna, there is stiU some doubt
as to this excess, which would have been dastardly as weU as inhuman
against an unarmed and aged man." After so cruel and ignoble an attack,
the inhabitants of Anagni, who had not interfered, repented of then- in
gratitude to their compatriot and their sovereign, who had heaped benefits
upon them. Suddenly, stimulated by the Cardinal Luca Fieschi, they
rashed to arms, attacked the pope's enemies, who were few in number, put
them to flight, and took prisoner Nogaret himseK, whom the pope ordered
to be treated gently.
Hearing of that success, Boniface with unheard of clemency set Nogaret
at hberty, and he retired without suffering the penalty of his crime.
The pope, finding himseK free, determined to return to Rome. But

* It was Boniface who added to the tiara a second circle or crown.
f See what we have said on p. 355 about Patarins— from pati, destined to suffer.
X Feller i., p. 549. § V., p. 113.

480

LIVES OF THE POPES.

he was so violently shocked by these insults and sacrileges, that thirty
days after, on the 11th of October, 1303, he died from the excitement he
had suffered. He had governed eight years, nine months, and eighteen
days. BonKace was a man of remarkable quahties. His character must
not be judged by what French writers say. Both those of his time,
and those who foUowed them, wrote under the guidance of unreasonable
prejudices, because they knew only French facts, or were under the impres
sion of some momentary quarrel with the Roman court. Many of the acts
of BonKace may have been reprehensible, but those of Phihp the Fair were
no less so ; nay, they were even so much more unjust and more violent as to
cause the wrong-doing of BonKace to disappear.
Boniface showed himself to be a consummate jurisconsult, a man of
elevated ideas, and an intrepid conservator of the rights of the Church.
So Saint Antoninus describes him.
God deigned to vindicate the honor of this pope, that had been defamed
by his enemies. It was affirmed that frenzied with grief he had gnawed
his own flesh ; but, on the 11th of October, 1605, three hundred years after
his death, he was found in his tomb without the least sign of decomposition,
and with the flesh entirely uninjured.
The Holy See was vacant eleven days. In the hbrary of the Gesu at
Rome there is preserved a manuscript in three volumes folio, the Life of
Boniface VIIL, composed by Monsignor Christopher Gaetani, bishop of
Fuligno. A hfe of this pope, by John de Rossi, a Benedictine, was pubhshed in
Rome, 4to, in 1651, under the title of Be Vita et Rebus gestis Bonifari.i VIIL,
Pars altera, altera defendit.

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BLESSED BENEDICT XI.

481

196. BLESSED BENEDICT XL — a. d. 1303.

LESSED BENEDICT XL was born in 1240, at Tre-
visa, and his original name was Nicholas Bonasio
Bonasini. He is said to have been the son of a notary.
In his early youth Nicholas went to Florence,
and being almost without resources, he became
preceptor to the chUdren of a knight of the Qui-
rini famUy. He subsequently took the Dominican
habit (he was the second pontiff of that order),
steadfastly devoted himseK to study during fourteen years, and became
reader and general of the order. In the second year of his generalship,
notwithstanding his opposition, hys was created cardinal of Saint Sabina, by
Boniface VTJI. Having become bishop of Ostia and Veletri, he stood
firmly by the pope during the day of the terrible assault on Anagni, stand
ing unmoved on the right hand of the pontiff and gazing upon him with
admiration.* The pope deemed him qualified for business and gave him
many marks of confidence.
As it was settled that all usurpations were amenable to Rome, the pope
sent Nicholas, as his legate, into Hungary to oppose the civil wars. A
part of that country had elected, as king, Charles, son of Charles Martel,
and nephew of Charles II., king of Naples. Another faction elected Wen-
ceslas, son of the king of Bohemia.
BonKace having died in the Vatican palace, the law of Gregory X., con
firmed by BonKace, was observed. The funeral ceremonies were celebrated
during nine days (the same custom still obtains), and then the Mass of the
Holy Ghost was sung. The sacred electors met on the 21st of October,
and on the foUowing day Nicholas was unanimously elected pope, in the
first scrutiny.
He represented to the cardinals that he was not worthy of that honor,
but his objections were repeUed and he accepted the tiara. That feehng of
humihty and modesty by which we see that so many popes were animated,
should always be remembered ; it did honor to a very great number of those
whose history we have undertaken.

* The painters have not yet thought of presenting that imposing scene of Boniface VIIL
looking proudly upon Colonna and Nogaret. Should any artist repair that forgetfulness, and
transmit that great pontifical scene to posterity, he should remember the cardinal of Ostia ad
miringly gazing upon the sublime pontiff. •
Vol. I.— 31

482 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Nicholas took the name of Benedict, the baptismal name of his benefac
tor, BonKace VEIL, and he was crowned on the 27th of October by Napo
leon Orsini, first of the order of deacons.
Frederic, king of Sicily, not having paid this year the accustomed
tribute of three thousand ounces of gold, the pope declared that prince
threatened with excommunication, and his kingdom was laid under inter
dict. But Frederic having protested, and given satisfactory explanations,
the pope immediately reconcUed him .with the Church. The pope then
issued a buU of excommunication against those who had stolen the treasure
of Boniface VIIL
In 1304, Benedict, whose disposition was gentle and full of placability,
restored to his good graces James Colonna, and Peter,, his nephew, who
had asked his pardon. Their property was restored to them at the same
time. Phihp the Fair desired to be absolved from the censures that he had in
curred. When excommunication is spoken of the popes are always
brought upon the stage, and nothing is said about the strange hatreds that
sharpened the agonies of an excommunicated prince. If it was easy for
the conduct of kings and entreaties of their subjects to induce the popes to
be but httle chary of their interdicts, it must also be admitted that, when
those hates and entreaties no longer acted against the crowned victim, the
popes showed unbounded clemency. Philip the Fair had secured the neu
trality of his neighbors, and when he had only the pope to concihate, he
immediately obtained from that beneficeut father the obhvion of so many
insults. A buU of the 2d of April, 1304, granted entire absolution to PhUip the
Fair. On that subject Benedict said these touching words : " The guilty
are so numerous ! Where the multitude sins, rigor must be moderated."
We here are at the proper point of view from which to form a judgment
upon the interdicts of the time. The popes seldom pronounced it on their
own account, and they were always ready to pardon, sometimes even on
promises that were not fulfilled.
We must notice the exquisite dehcacy of Benedict. He wrote to PhUip,
and in his letter he made no mention of the censure, the interdict, or the
excommunication. He simply resumed a friendly correspondence as though
it had never been interrupted.
This unheard of clemency of Benedict reminds one of the coolness of an
offended father, who, on the submission of a culpable child, is satisfied with
the first penitent words, looks, and tones, and resumes where it had ceased
the friendly and consoling tone of the parent who wishes to hear no more,
and who restores between himseK and his chUd those tender relations
which nature dictates, and which no spirit of vengeance can ever alter.

BLESSED BENEDICT XI. 483
Sciarra Colonna and Nogaret persisted in their rebellion, and their ex
communication was continued.
War ravaged Tuscany ; the Guelphs and the Ghibelhnes, the Whites and
the Blacks, all the parties that Dante so eloquently describes, declared a
Carthaginian hate against each other. Benedict sent to them a Dominican
cardinal, Nicholas di Prato ; but he was obhged to issue an interdict against
the Guelphs and the Blacks, and the inhabitants of Lucca and Prato.
The ambassadors of James of Aragon swore faith and did homage for
the kingdoms of Corsica and Sardinia, which James had received in fief
from the Holy See, in virtue of a diploma of Boniface, dated on the 3d of
AprU, 1297. Frederic, king of SicUy, also swore faith and homage for
that kingdom. Boniface had given it to him by naming him king of Tri
nacria* WhUe the Holy Father continued his apostohcal labors in the convent of
the Dominicans of Perugia, he was presented with some figs, of which he
was very fond. They were brought by a young man disguised as a woman,
who was supposed to come from the nuns of Saint PetronUla. The fruit
was poisoned. Novaes names the presumed culprits. But great circum-
spectiont is necessary upon such subjects. No doubt the senders were
enemies of Benedict, and perhaps to the Holy See. The consequences of
so dastardly and horrible a crime remain to be seen.
The pope died shortly after eating the fruit. He had governed the
ChUrch one year, eight months, and a few days.
Benedict was at once holy and learned. He would not make his nephew
a cardinal, though deserving of the honor. StiU more ; his mother was one
day presented to him, sumptuously dressed. He pretended not to recognize
her, and said : " This person cannot be our mother, for our mother is poor
and cannot dress in silks." She returned more humbly dressed, and was
received with the most Uvely tokens of love and tenderness. This pontiff
was beatified by Benedict XIV.
The Roman pontificate was vacant ten months and twenty-eight days,
because the cardinals in the,conclave of Perugia were divided into two par
ties. The heads of the first were Napoleon Orsini del Monte and Nicholas
di Prato. They strove to elect a pontiff who would restore their kinsmen,
the Colonnas, to their ancient condition. Moreover, they favored France,
and they also desired to elect a cardinal who was not attached to the mem
ory of BonKace VIH.
The heads of the other party were Matthias Rosso Orsini and Francis
* SicUy was anciently called Trinacria on account of the three promontories which terminate
it. Trinacria comes from the Greek words Tf>ta, and iK9a ; the letter n is added for the sake of
euphony. t Platina does not mention this poisoning.

484 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Gaetani, nephews of Boniface. The annals of the foUowing pontificate will
inform the reader how those differences were terminated.
Martene gives the circular letter which Benedict wrote to the Dominicans
when he was elected general of the order. This pope wrote commentaries
on some books of the Holy Scripture.

197. CLEMENT V.— a. d. 1305.
JLEMENT V, known previously as Bertrand de Got,
was born at VUlandreau, in the diocese of Bor
deaux. His father was a knight of the first nobih
ty of the country. Bertrand de Got, having been
made bishop of Comminges in 1295, was promoted
to the archbishopric of Bordeaux in 1299.
The conclave, assembled after the death of Bene
dict, had already lasted nearly ten months, when
the heads of the two parties adopted a measure which they beheved calcu
lated to put an end to the uncertainty. The Colonnas, persecuted by Boni
face VIIL, were interested in making an election that would be acceptable
to France, and they proposed to the Orsini to make their own selection oi
three candidates, from among whom the opposite party should definitely
select a pope. The Orsini named those candidates, among whom was Ber
trand de Got, upon whom they thought they could rely most, because he was
opposed to the king of France, who had greatly wronged the archbishop's
family. Mention is made of a courier sent to the king, and advice given to
that prince to ingratiate himseK beforehand with Bertrand de Got. Six
conditions are stated to have been imposed by the king, and accepted by
Bertrand. Those anecdotes are given on the authority of VUlani, a Floren
tine author, much interested in decrying the French popes, but whose state
ments later writers have copied without much examination. Some critics,
such as Baluze, Fleury, Hardion, and Bertier have not quite such extensive
faith in the veracity of VUlani. Fleury remarks that the decree of election
mentions none of the facts stated by that author.
On the whole, it seems to be proven that the cardinals, being divided into
two nearly equal factions, and being unable to agree upon a candidate
among themselves, preferred to make choice of a foreigner.
FeUer says nothing about the six conditions, which would be six inexcu
sably simoniacal crimes. Novaes seems to believe that VUlani is right. I

CLEMENT V. 485
am sorry to see so safe a guide as Novaes so careless as to the truth in this
instance ; for aU those conditions are disgraceful facts which should not be
hghtly related ; and whatever may the vivacity of the judgment of some
Romans upon the subject of Gascon popes, it still remains evident that it is
not right to brand in a series of pontiffs some names wliich must appear
less respectable than others. Novaes says, in a note : "-The six promises
are to be found in Rainaldi, under the year 1305. The Abbe de Bercastel,
in his History of the Church (vol. xiii, p. 252 ; Maestricht, 1782), blames the
torrent of Italian authors, without excepting Saint Antoninus, and many oi
the French, as Spondanus, Fagi, Dupin, Natalis Alexander, Daniel, and
Fleury, because, deceived and seduced by VUlani, the Florentine historian
of those times, they have received and pubhshed as true those promises of
Clement to the king of France. He grounds his opinion upon the authority
of five authors of the life of Clement V., who are rather his panegyrists, and
who, far from guaranteeing the tale of ViUani, consider the election of
Clement and the buU of the electing cardinals as an entirely simple matter,
and accomplished in the settled forms. It is thus that Bercastel expresses
himseK; but is this sufficient to overthrow the authority of the above-
mentioned authors as to this statement? Let my readers determine."
For my part, I do not hesitate to believe that it is time that unjust accu
sations against the popes should cease to be hstened to. The present his
tory shows to what dangers the popes were exposed in Italy. According to
various authors, Benedict XL was poisoned there. When it was the duty
of a pope to brave such dangers, experienced men perhaps believed that
the nomination of a foreigner would put an end to those troubles, and the
nomination of Bertrand, as has already been said, seemed to be the only
means of stifling the storm for a time.
Finally, the anecdote in itseK is at once so complete, so mysterious, and
so complicated, that it must be regarded rather as a fable than as a truth.
When Bertrand de Got accepted the tiara, he set out for Lyons, at the
end of August, and was crowned on the 14th of November, in the church of
. Saint Juste, that hospitable church which was nobly generous to Gregory X.,
at the time of the councU of the year 1275.
Cardinal Theodoric Ranieri had himself brought from Rome the papal
crown which was placed on the head of Bertrand, who was recognized as
pope under the name of Clement. V.
The ceremony was very briUiant. King James of Aragon was present, as
also was the king of France, accompanied by Charles of Valois, and Louis,
count of Evreux, his brothers, and John, duke of Brittany. During the
ceremony of the cavalcade, which took place in imitation of the Roman
custom, an accident occurred. A wall feU down, and the pope's horse took
fright. Clement fell, the tiara roUed upon the ground, and a ruby of great

486 LIVES OF THE POPES.
value was detached from it, and vainly searched for after the accident
John of Brittany, who held the bridle of the pope's horse, was knocked
down, and perished during the tumult. The king and his brothers were
themselves wounded.
On the 15th of December, the pope made a promotion of cardinals ; nine
were French, the tenth an Enghshman ; among the nine French, one was
his nephew, and three were his relations. It was a very reprehensible act
of double nepotism,/amt7t/ and national.
Clement, who had not as yet manKested any choice as to his place of
residence, seeing that Italy was a prey to the factions of the Guelphs and
GhibeUines, declared that he estabhshed the pontifical See in the city of
Avignon ; and he appointed three cardinals, with the title of senators, to
govern Rome and the pontifical possessions in Italy. Before the pope had
made known his intention to be, in the words of Petrarch, the first among five
pontiffs to prefer the wild shores of the Rhone to the fortunate banks of five Tiber,
one cardinal had divined the pontiff's idea, the senior of the sacred coUege,
Rosso Orsini, had said to Cardinal di Prato, who was so influentially active
in the election of Clement : " You have obtained your desire ; if I know
the Gascons, you wiU very soon see the Rhone ; nor wUl the Tiber soon see
the popes again."
Yet it was one of those popes caUed Gascons, Gregory XL, who took
back the authority of the Holy See to Rome. In so doing, Gregory XI.
repaired the immense error of Clement V.
To restore peace among the French, for everywhere discord prevailed
with impunity, the Holy Father gave some explanations upon the bull
Unam Sanctam, attributed to Boniface VIIL ; and he declared that, by that
buU, the French and their kings were no more subject than before to the
Roman Church. Subsequently, he revoked the bull Clericis laicos ; and he
re-established all that his predecessors had ordered in the CouncU of
Lateran, and in other general councUs, against laymen unduly exacting,
from a church or an ecclesiastic, tributes or impositions of any sort what
ever, or who give favor, counsel, or assistance in so doing.
That certainly showed a spirit jealous of the rights of the Holy See.
From Bordeaux, whither he had gone for his health, the Holy Father
went to Poitiers, where there was a kind of political congress relating to the
affairs of Syria. The king of France was at that city, with his four sons
and two brothers.
The question was agitated, too, of the conquest of the empire of Constan
tinople, recovered by the Greeks, and faUen back into schism.
At that time the Holy Land also was the subject of debate. The pope
had summoned into France the masters of the Temple, and the Hospitallers
(order of Saint John of Jerusalem) who were in the Levant. To the latter,

CLEMENT. V. 487
he wrote : " We are powerfully incited to succor the Holy Land, the king of
Armenia, and the king bf Cyprus ; we think of sending aid to them. To
that end we have resolved to deliberate with you and the master of the
Temple, chiefly because you can give advice more understandingly than
any other, as to what should be done, qualified as you are by proximity of
place, long experience, and reflection, but partly because, next after the
Roman Church, you are principally concerned in this affair. We order you,
then, to prepare to c6me as secretly as you can, and with few followers,
as on this side of the sea you wiU find enough brothers of your order. But,
take care to leave in the country a good lieutenant, and knights capable of
defending it, so that no harm will be done by your absence, which wiU not
be long. Bring with you, however, some persons whose wisdom and fidelity
quahfy them to join you in advising us."
The master of the Temple immediately obeyed the order of the pope, and
proceeded to France. But the master of the Hospital, having set out for
Cyprus, halted on the road to attack the island of. Rhodes, occupied by the
Turks, under the dependence of the emperor of Constantinople.* The
HospitaUers there won much glory, and the title of the Knights of Rhodes,
which they continuaUy made more Ulustrious by victories at sea, where they
destroyed many Saracenic fleets, and especially by their magnanimous
defence of the city of Rhodes,, which they lost only when there was but a
handful of knights left in a condition to bear arms. We shall speak of that
feat of arms in due time and place ; it excited the highest gratitude of the
Holy See.
Pope Clement, faithful to the 'spirit of concihation, which animated the
pontiffs, confirmed the peace concluded between the king of France and
Robert, count of Flanders ; and he advised that more attention should be
given to that which was in preparation between France and England. He
hstened favorably to Charles II., king of Sicily, who owed large sums to
the Holy See. The pope commenced by abandoning one third of that sum,
gave a considerable time for the payment of the rest, and then assigned the
whole to Robert, son of Charles, by virtue of a consistorial buU.f
The king of France demanded that Clement should condemn the memory
of Boniface. The pope constantly refused, and, to persist in doing So
more securely, he endeavored to leave Poitiers secretly for Bordeaux, but
he was captured by the king's guards, and compelled to return to Poitiers.
After an iUness caused by vexations, Clement confirmed Charles in the pos
session of the kingdom of Hungary, which belonged to him by the right
left to him by his grandmother, daughter of King Stephen, and sister of
King Ladislas. Wenceslas, king of Bohemia, had been elected to the pos-
* Baluze, vol. i., p. 65. t Ibid - vo1- "¦> P- 158-

488 LIVES OF THE POPES.
session of Hungary, and Boniface decreed that respect should be paid to
the right of succession, and not to the right of election. Clement com
manded Wenceslas, on pain of excommunication, to quit the kingdom of
Hungary, and at the same time gave him permission to give his reasons to
the Holy See for the action he had taken.
In 1308, part of the Basihca of Saint John Lateran was consumed- by
fire. It spared only the chapel of the Holy of Holies, in which were de
posited the heads of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul.* The Holy
Father sent deputies to Rome with a sum of money to commence repairs,
and he requested the kings of Sicily and Naples to supply the wood neces
sary to restore the Basilica.
In 1309, the Holy Father went by way of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Carcas-
sone, Montpellier, and Nismes, accompanied by nine cardinals, to Avignon,
where he lodged in the palace of the Dominicans. On leaving Poitiers, he
declared that he would transfer the Holy See to a city devoted to the
Roman Church ; and four years after his election, he estabhshed his resi
dence at Avignon. Settled at Avignon at the close of the month of March,
the epoch from which the popes date their residence, in that city, Clement,
to comply with the request of the king of France, which was repeated at
Lyons and at Poitiers with an impetuosity that savored httle of rehgion,
considering that Benedict XL had reconcUed that prince to the Church, the
pope pronounced in full consistory that it was permissible to any one to
institute proceedings against the memory of Boniface. Had Clement V.
been in Italy, he would not so easUy have been constrained to such a com
pliance. Three cardinals were named to receive the accusations. At the
same time others were sent to Rome to hear such witnesses as should pre
sent themselves as accusers of Boniface. A scandal was about to recom
mence which had already occupied too large a space in history. William de
Nogaret, William de Plessis, Peter de GaiUard, and Peter de Manosque,
accompanied by a clerk, Master Alain de LambaUe, aU five sent by the king
of France, and certainly determined foes to Boniface, drew up an accusa
tion in the form of a public document, and put it into the hands of Clement.
This document is now in the archives of the Vatican.
On learning this, the king of CastUe and the king of Aragon sent ambas
sadors to Avignon, and complained to the Holy Father of the great scandal
which would be feU by all Christendom."!" Those princes could not without
* Those relics now occupy the high altar of the Basilica. They were moved thither by Urban
V., on the 16th of April, 1370. They are inclosed in two silver busts, each of which weighs
more than seven hundred pounds. They are ornamented with all sorts of precious stones, given
by the munificence of Charles V., king of France. Each of the busts had on the breast a large
lily, ornamented with diamonds ; owing to subsequent events, they are no longer there.
t Novaes, iv., p. 67.

CLEMENT V. 489
grief and horror see that a sovereign pontiff was about to be accused of
heresy. Clement, foreseeing that the Church could in no wise suffer, be
cause the memory of Boniface would be justified, and persuaded that it
was impossible that heresy could exist in one who, like Boniface, had con
fessed and confirmed the Catholic faith, insisted upon the dehberation
being continued, and named, in 1310, criminal judges who were further to
examine the witnesses and prepare aU the details for the trial.
The calumniators of BonKace and the enemies of the Church might have
rephed that the witnesses, being under fear, could not speak freely ; but the
Holy Father gave leave to aU to present their accusations to that tribunal,
and menaced with excommunication aU who should prevent the free render
ing of testimony in the cause.
The pope had named twelve defenders of Boniface, at the head of whom
was James of Modena. The Cardinals Riccardi and Petroni wrote in favor
of the accused. An infinite number of theologians and jurisconsults from
aU parts of Christendom devoted their pens to the defence. of this cause,
the most celebrated of the past times ; and two Catalan knights,* Carocci
and Wiliiani Deboli, repaired to Avignon and offered to fight, in open field,
in defence of the memory of Boniface.
Foreigners, then, had to come into France to defend the memory of the
pontiff, who had canonized the immortal Saint Louis, grandfather of the
accusing king !f Oh, time of ingratitude !
However, Phihp, becoming ashamed of that frantic hatred which trans
ported him beyond aU bounds where BonKace was concerned, consented
that Clement should end the cause with his council of cardinals, without
waiting for the deliberations of a council which was to assemble at Vienne.
In 1310, the pope declared Boniface innocent upon all the charges
brought against him, recognized him as fuUy Catholic, and, consequently,
true pontiff. No doubt it was a flattery to add that the king of France had
had no part in the violences exercised against that pope, and that Nogaret
and Colonna had committed them without order or incitement from the
king. That prince paid to the apostohc chamber a hundred thousand
florins for the expenses of that long trial.
The same year, the pope approved the election of Henry of Luxemburg,
asking of the Romans, on condition, that the prince should repair to Rome
to be there crowned as emperor. He was so, in fact, in 1312, not by the
hands of the pope or by those of the cardinals of Ostia, to whom that honor
belonged, but by the hands of the cardinal of Sabina, who was sent thither

* Fanton, Hist, d' Avignon, liv. ii., p. 158.
t See, above, the bull of canonization given by Boniface VIII. See the felicitations and bene
dictions addressed to the holy king.'

490 LIVES OF THE POPES.
by order of Clement, and who performed the ceremony in conjunction with
four other cardinals.
The emperor, on his way to be crowned at Rome, was met at Lausanne
by Baldwin, archbishop of Treves, and John de Molans, canon of Toul,
who had both been sent by the pope. Between their hands he made,
as he had already done at Avignon by his commissioners, the oath to
defend the Catholic faith, to exterminate heretics, to contract no alliance
with the enemies of the Church, to protect the pope, and to preserve the
rights of the Holy See. He renewed and confirmed the donations made to
the Church by Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, Otho the Great, Henry III.,
and other emperors.
Having arrived at Milan, the prince and his wKe were crowned king and
queen of Lombardy on the 6th of January, 1311, by Gaston de la Torre,
archbishop of Milan, commissioned to that end by the pope.
Here it must be confessed to the glory of the court of Avignon, that what
ever were its errors in other respects, never were the rights of the Holy See
better preserved at Rome itself. Unfortunately, Henry of Luxemburg did
not keep his oaths, and he died, in 1313, excommunicated by Clement.
A circumstance which preceded the death of Henry shows us what ex
communications had become ; and here we must consider them only as
political weapons, no longer exclusively in the hands of the clergy. Henry
of Luxemburg, unable to find a pontiff or an archbishop willing to serve his
resentment against Florence, which refused to recognize him, erected at
Pisa an imperial tribunal, and he undertook to subdue by its sentences
what escaped his victories. He condemned the Florentines to lose their
privileges, their franchises, and their right to coin money; he would not
recognize the head they had elected, and he removed their notaries and
their judges, ordering the erasure from the register of the acts of the one
and the ordinances of the others ; he declared that King Robert had for
feited the throne of Naples, as guilty of the crime of high treason, released
that prince's subjects from the oath of fidelity, and forbade them to obey a
prince who was no longer their king. Then he allied himself with Frederic,
king of Sicily, and won over the Genoese, who took up arms against Ro
bert. He alone was able to defend the Florentines, blockaded on aU sides ;
and these republicans, at first so animated, named him governor-rector,
protector, and lord of Florence.
So, for those who now decide upon the doings of that long past time, and"
utter passionate words, as is conventional when the popes are in question,
the popes would be blamed for pronouncing an excommunication, which is
a separation from communion ; and an emperor could politicaUy excom
municate his enemies, weaken their power, and usurp", at least in words, a
power then solely belonging to the Church !

CLEMENT V. 491
Let us leave men's quarrels to transport them so unreasonably, and re
turn to the annals of the pontiffs, which we must not interrupt.
In 1310, the Venetians had occupied the city of Ferrara, belonging to the
Holy See ; Clement excommunicated them, and sent an army against them,
under Cardinal Arnaud, who gained a victory over the Venetians and re
covered the city.
The Ferrarese then sent an embassy to the Holy Father. The embassy,
in a public consistory, confessed that the city of Ferrara was a fief of the
Church, and that if the Marquises of Este had subjected it to their jurisdic
tion, they did so by force and not by justice. Oppressed by the house of
Este, the Ferrarese had recourse to the Venetians, in order to recover their
hberty. But the Venetians had reduced the Ferrarese to the most desola
ting misery. So, they now as faithful vassals had recourse to the Holy See.
Clement pubhshed a buU, in which he proved that Ferrara belonged to the
domain of the Holy See from the time of Charlemagne, who dehvered that
city from the tyranny of Desiderius, king of the Lombards. The Venetians
then asked for absolution of the evil that they had done at Ferrara, and
they were released from excommunication on the 26th of January, 1313.
Clement, who had visited aU the Venaissin province, gave it the title of a
County. He had silver coined, on which he called himself count of the
Venaissin ; he selected a favorable locality upon that territory, and built a
castle there. It was thence that, when consulted from almost aU parts 'of
Europe, he dated the pontifical decisions that were necessary to the clue
administration of ecclesiastical discipline, and the defence of the rights of
the Holy See. In a second promotion of' cardinals, Clement gave the pur
ple to Frenchmen only : they were five in number. The Itahans complained
of this kind of forfeiture. •
The pontificate of Clement was rendered celebrated by the fifteenth gen
eral council, held at Vienne. It commenced on the 11th, or, as some say,
on the 16th of October, 1311, and closed, after three sessions, on the 6th
of May, 1312. There were present at it many cardinals, two patriarchs,
three hundred bishops, the king of France, and his three sons, who aU
reigned after him, Edward II., king of England, James II., king of Aragon,
and many other iUustrious persons. In that councU means were adopted
for maintaining the faith, weakened by frequent heresies, reforming eccle
siastical discipline, sending succor to the Holy Land, and examining the
case of the Templars, who were accused by the king of a host of offences,
on wliich the pope wished to ascertain the truth, the more especially as he
thought he could perceive great exaggeration in the charges made against
those rehgious.
Nine French knights, headed by Ugelin de Payens and Geoffrey de Saint
Omer, instituted the order in 1118, taking between the hands of the pa-

492 LIVES OF THE POPES.
triarch of Constantinople the vows of charity and obedience. They were
to defend against the Saracens the pilgrims who should visit the holy places,
and they took the name of Templars, from their habitation near the temple
of the holy city. The knights, having been extremely useful during the
times of the crusades, were enriched by the Christians. But, the wars
ceasing, they lost their usual occupation, and sank into the evil habits
which idleness so often engenders. The whole order was accused of com
mitting the most enormous offences ; among others, of denying Jesus Christ,
and abandoning themselves to idolatry. Those crimes and others are de
tailed in Rainaldi (year 1308, number 5). In the CouncU of Paris, assem
bled in 1310, by the archbishop of Sens, fifty-four of the knights were
condemned on their own confession, and burned by order of the secular
judges. Subsequently, four, and then nine others of them, were condemned
in the Council of Senlis, on the same charges ; but in the Councils of Mayence,
Treves, and Ravenna, held in the same year, they were declared innocent.
[t must be confessed that the case of the knights of that order is at present
among the most difficult problems in ecclesiastical history. It is possible
that their wealth, joined to much vice in individuals, and a vanity which
made them odious, was their only crime. The vivacity with which they
were attacked by their mortal enemy, King Philip, must not be overlooked.
They were almost at the head of the revolution which was threatened when
that prince sought to increase, by two-thirds, the nominal value of money.
It probably was chiefly on that account that the king caused the arrest of
those knights on the 13th of October, 1307.
Be that as it may, two thousand witnesses were summoned. A hundred
and forty of the arrested knights made confessions ; only three persisted in
denial. The council condemned the order in the second session, celebrated
on the 3d of April, 1312. The pope had already, in a secret consistory, on
the 22d of March, abolished the order, but rather provisionaUy than by way
of condemnation. Their immense wealth, except such property as they had
in Castile, Aragon, and Portugal, was given to the knights of Saint John of
Jerusalem, now called Knights of Malta. The personal property was almost
aU given to King Phihp. Consult, on this question, the work of Pierre
Dupuy, printed at Brussels in 1741, and the passages in which Bercastel
discusses this most obscure question.
In. our days, we can only with great circumspection speak of those terrible
events, since Bossuet uttered these striking words : " The Templars con
fessed under torture ; they denied on the scaffold." All sentences pronounced
hi trials in which the examinations are made by torture, are sentences to be
very circumspectly considered by posterity. Feller says upon this subject :*
* Feller, ii., p. 2S0.

CLEMENT V. 493
"Clement joined Phihp the Fair, in exterminating the order of the Tem
plars. Various historians, we know, have pronounced different judgments
upon that abohtion ; but it seems to be beyond doubt that the pope and
the king were very wrong, at aU events, in the manner of proceeding."
In fact, it appears to be certain that had the pope been in Italy, the con
demnation bf the Templars might have taken place, but with different forms,
more lenity, and a greater spirit of impartial justice ; and that the trial
would not have commenced by the preliminary tortures more terrible than
death itself, which punishment was finaUy pronounced when it was thought
that the cause had been sufficiently tried — that is to say, when they had ex
torted cries of agony.
Here another reflection presents itself. In an evil, perverse, and perfidious
policy, it sometimes happens that to obtain a result opposed by grave ob
stacles and a sincere and generous spirit of equity, the affair is comphcated
by another accusation, invented in aid of the first, to be readily abandoned
K the other completely succeed. For instance, in this case the councUlors
of PhUip the Fair demand the property rather than the life of the Templars ;
then those councUlors mingle with that affair of the goods, already vUe
enough, a demand for a condemnation against Boniface VIIL Could a
pope grant that condemnation ? No ! I weU know that he ought not to
have granted either the one or the other. But in fact it happened that the
councUlors abandoned the second pursuit, holding themselves prepared to
renew it, had the first demand been refused. Those times wUl teach nothing
to the evil of our own day, said to be so skUled in evil. Far from being
laudator temporis acti, a crier up of the good old times, I firmly beheve that
no one in our day has ever had so infernal an idea as that of demanding
and obtaining the property of the Templars, to whom their life no doubt
would have been left if the fourteenth century had not already learned that
" it is only the dead who never return."
The CouncU of Vienne condemned Jean d'Olive, a Franciscan apostate
born near Beziers. He pretended that the evangehcal IKe consisted in this :
that it is necessary to possess nothing, even in common ; and that aU clerics,
secular or regular, who so possess hve in sin.
The councU condemned the fraticeUi or bizochi. Those heretics, corrupt
ers of widows, wives, and maidens, attracted them by a feigned devoutness
to nocturnal sacrifices. Their leaders, in 1294, were two apostate Francis
cans, Peter of Macerata, and Peter of Fossombrone. Among other errors,
they taught that the pope had not authority to interpret the rale of Saint
Francis ; that they alone formed the true Church ; that, themselves alone
excepted, no one could rightly be caUed pope or bishop ; and that the
churches and ecclesiastics could rightfuUy neither acquire nor possess any
goods or property.

494 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The councU condemned the Dolcinists, founded towards the year 1305 by
Dolcini of Novara, a disciple of Gerard SegareUi, a Parmesan. Under a
religious and grave exterior they authorized the most abominable debauch
eries, and pretended that their doctrine was the third law which perfected
that of Christ.
The Begards or the Beguins were also condemned. Their crimes were
such that prudence forbade Clement to mention them in the buU of condem
nation. These heretics took their name from a society of devout ladies
instituted in the Low Countries, where they have subsisted to the general
edification, even to our own days. They were not included in the sentence
of the CouncU of Vienne, which expressly excepted them.
In that councU the feast of Corpus Christi, instituted by Urban IV, was
enjoined on all Christendom.
Then the laws of Gregory X., on the election of the popes, were con
firmed. On the 5th of March, 1313, Clement canonized Celestine V. Soon after
wards, the news from Italy became more afflicting. The Guelphs and Ghib
elhnes maintained an implacable war. The pope speedily determined to
go to Bordeaux, hoping that the journey would restore his health. But he
grew so ill on the way that he could not proceed, and he died on the 20th
of April, 1314, the very day on which, two years before, the grand master
of the Templars had been burnt.* The same year King Philip died on the
29th of November.
Clement had governed the Church eight years, ten months, and fifteen
days, and he was interred at Carpentras, and thence removed to near Bazas,
in Gascony.
The Holy See remained vacant two years, five months, and seventeen
days. * Platinas takes no interest in the Templars. He says : Templarios sustvlit in maximas
errorcs prolapsos, qui Christum, scilicet negabant, eorumque bona Hyerosolymitanis militibus
addixit—"The pope abolished the Templars, who had fallen into great errors. They denied
Christ, and he gave their goods to the knights of the order of Jerusalem." To deny Christ
is more than an error, it is » horrible impiety. Fine latinity is a great merit in writing, in
writing in the language of Suetonius, who uses the word sustvlit when speaking of Nero's
crime against his mother. But fine latinity does not dispense with that care of expres
sion, that study of shadings, that truthful logic, in a word, with that piety of words, in religious
questions, wliich the ancients in their manner so well possessed, and of which they have left us
such elegant models.

JOHN XXH.

495

198. JOHN XXII.— a. d. 1316.

|OHN XXIL, originaUy named James d'Euse, was
born at Cahors, the son of Armand d'Euse, whom
Saint Antoninus believes to have been a cobbler,
whom ViUani affirms to have been an innkeeper,
but whom Albert of Strasburg, a contemporaneous
writer, maintains to have belonged to a noble fam
Uy. This is the most probable, for Albert was sent
to Avignon by the bishop of Strasburg, in the
time of Benedict XH. However it may be as to this last theory, which
Baluze does not doubt, James was transferred from the bishopric of Frejus
to that of Avignon by Clement V., who, in 1312, made him cardinal-bishop
of Porto.
After the death of Clement V, six Itahan and seventeen French cardinals
shut themselves up in conclave in the palace of Carpentras. They were
not, for the most part, determined to name a Gascon cardinal, as some' of
the cardinals of that province wished. Then the relatives of Clement V.,
as has been said, wearied by the result of the scrutinies, and the heat of the
weather, set fire to the building, and the electors had to make a hasty re
treat through -an opening made in the waU of the palace. This occurred
on the 23d of July, 1313, when the conclave had been three months in
session. The inhabitants of Carpentras were much excited upon this sub
ject ; the servants of the cardinals had been exacting towards the inhabit
ants, who resisted unreasonable demands. The cardinals dispersed to as
semble no more, and during that time the Church languished in a shameful
anarchy. Phihp, count of Poitiers, brother of King Louis X., whom he
succeeded, compelled the cardinals to return into conclave on the 23d of
June, 1316, the convent of the Dominicans at Lyons having been prepared
to receive them. Forty days after, setting aside two cardinals, who each
received the same number of votes, the electors created pope, James
d'Euse, who took the name of John XXIL He was crowned in the city of
Lyons, on the 5th of September, in the same year, by the Cardinal Napo
leon Orsini, the dean of the order of deacons, and the same who had placed
the tiara on the heads of Benedict XL and Clement V.*
* It has been averred that the cardinals being unable to agree charged James d'Euse to name
the pope, and that he said, " Ego sum papa." This fable is no longer admitted by any writer ;
on the contrary, with the exception mentioned above, James was unanimously elected. More
over, he would have said, Nos sumus-papa. Falsifiers are always clumsy.

496 LIVES OF THE POPES.
On the 17th of December he appointed eight cardinals, seven French and
one Italian. This step, like the simUar one in the preceding reign, produced
an unfavorable impression even upon the inhabitants of Avignon. Among
the French cardinals was Jacques de Voye, of Cahors, son of a sister of
the pontiff. The Italian cardinal was Cajetan Orsini.
The king of England, Edward II., sent ambassadors to John XXIL, to
apologize for not having paid the tribute promised by King John, his pre
decessor, to Pope Innocent III. The tribute had not been paid for twenty-
four years. The ambassadors alleged in excuse the exhaustion of the royal
treasury. They'brought the pope a thousand marks in payment for one
year's tribute, and promised to pay in six years the arrears claimed by the
Roman court.
James of Aragon also sent ambassadors to take the oath of fidelity in
the name of that prince, tributary king of the kingdoms of Sardinia and
Corsica, "in quality of gonfalier, admiral, and captain-general of the
Roman Church." AU those titles are recited in a letter preserved in the
castle of Saint Angelo.
Phihp the Long, brother of Louis X., the Hutin, having been crowned
king of France, and subsequently written to the pope, promising constant
readiness to serve the Church, the pope affectionately thanked him, and in
a private letter afterwards made known exhorted him not to talk during
the divine offices ; to wear, like his ancestors, a long cloak ; to prevent
courts sitting on holy-days ; to read for himself aU letters sent by the pope,
or by kings or princes, and to destroy them immediately, or at least to place
them in safety. Had the king foUowed such advice, he would have avoided
great dangers. The advice is singular, but it is probable that the king
needed it.
At that period, domestic troubles having arisen at the court of Denis,
king of Portugal, the pope had the satisfaction of appeasing them.
On the 7th of April, 1317, the pope canonized the son of Charles II.,
Saint Louis, bishop of Toulouse, who had been his disciple, and he erected
the See of Toulouse into an archbishopric. John himseK founded many
bishoprics in France ; — Montauban, Rieux, Riez, Lombez, Saint Papoul,
Lavaur, and Mirepoix, aU suffragans of Toulouse ; then Limoux, which
was transferred to Aleth ; Saint Pons, near Narbonne ; Castres, taken from
Albi ; Condom, which was an abbey hke that of Tulle ; Perigueux, taken
from Sarlat ; Saint Flour, Vabres, MaiUezais, and Lucon.
John, seeing that in the kingdom of Aragon there was no other arch
bishopric than that of Tarragona, erected the cathedral of Saragossa into
a metropolitan church.
Saint Bonaventure, in the General Chapter celebrated at Pisa, in 1263,
while he was general of the Franciscans, ordained that the friars should,

JOHN xxn. 497
at sunset, exhort the faithful by the sound of the beU to salute the Blessed
Virgin with three Hail Marys, the Angelical Salutation having taken place, it
was supposed, at that hour. The church of Saintes, in France, having
adopted that custom, John XXIL confirmed it by a buU of the 13th of
October, 1318, and afterwards by another bull of the 7th of May, 1327/
Ten days indulgence were granted to those who recited the salutation
thrice, kneeling. It was also ordered that the pontifical vicar at Rome
should prescribe the same custom there, granting the same indulgences.
Denis, king of Portugal, had founded the mihtary order of Christ, to
repress in that kingdom the depredations of the Saracens. John confirmed
this order in the month of March, 1319, giving it for its first grand master
Giles Martins, already grand master of the order of Avis.
The pontiffs were concerned in aU pohtical affairs. It wiU not be useless
to prove that they thoroughly comprehended them, entered into them with
zeal, and could, when necessary, give a good account of the negotiations of
the entire world. Philip the Long showed some inchnation to fulfil his vow
to go to the Holy Land. John urged delay, for the foUowing reasons :
" The peace necessary for such an enterprise is almost banished from Chris
tendom ; England and Scotland are inflamed against each other ; the princes
of Germany are at war ; the kings of SicUy and Trinacria have made a short
lived truce, and are not inchned to peace ; and the kings of Cyprus and
Armenia continuaUy doubt and suspect each other. The kings of Spain
have enough to do to guard their frontiers against the king of Granada ; the
cities of Lombardy are in arms against each other, and are in discord within
themselves, fiUed with hatred and intrigues; and the country is full of
tyrants, who with fire and sword persecute those who refuse to obey them.
Genoa, that celebrated city and convenient seaport for movements on the
Mediterranean, is itseK desolated by strifes, and almost destitute of aU aid.
The sea is unsafe in those quarters, and by land the roads are not free.
FinaUy, aU those countries are more likely to harm than to help the enter
prise. FinaUy, consider the miserable state of the HospitaUers, whose
order is almost ready to faU to ruin, for it owes to two companies alone
more than three hundred and sixty thousand florins.* And yet it was from
that order that the most aid was expected." The crusade was deferred. It
must be confessed that the nuncios of John were able and zealous men,
as they kept him so weU informed of the state of things in the Cathohc
world. John was much attached to the order of Saint Augustine, of which he had
been a member ; and in token of his gratitude, he assigned to it three im-
* What had become of the immense wealth of the Templars, of which a great portion was to
have been given to the Hospitallers ? Often in a corner of history we find the explanation of
that frightful iniquity, carefully as it was kept in the dark— The Hospitallers never received it.
Vol. I.— 32

498 LIVES OF THE POPES.
portant offices in the Roman Church — that of sacristan, librarian, and con
fessor of the pope. They enjoyed those offices untU 1472. Then Sixtus TV.,
having founded the Vatican hbrary, took these offices from the Augustinians
and divided them. Under Alexander VI. the Augustinians regained the
•office of sacristan, which was granted to them in perpetuity, and which they
still possess. The other two offices are given at the pope's pleasure.
In 1320, there was no place in Europe that was not ravaged by war ; the
Holy Father spared no pains to appease men's excited minds ; like his pre
decessors, he thought this the noblest mission of the popes. At the same
time he advised Christians to spare each other, and to turn their arms
against the enemies of Christ in Syria.
In 1320, there was a promotion of seven French cardinals ; aU men dis
tinguished by their learning and piety. The appointment to the cardinalate
of Raymond Ruffo, a Neapohtan by descent, but born at Cahors, was deemed
a great concession. It was more than ever beheved that, for the future, the
sacred college should consist entirely of Frenchmen. It might be a great
honor for France, but a great evil for Christendom.
A theologian of Paris affirmed that it was necessary for a Cathohc to
repeat to his parish priest the confession that he had made to a rehgious.
According to him, the pope could not permit the faithful, at Easter, to con
fess to any one but their own pastor. The pope ordered this turbulent
spirit to defend his doctrine in a consistory, where he was convicted of error.
Then he was ordered to retract his doctrine, and he instantly showed an
exemplary obedience.
An affair of great interest at this time called for all the attention of the
Father of Christendom, and of the supreme head of all the orders of knight
hood that were founded for the dehverance of the Holy Land. He had
received complaints against the Teutonic knights. John wrote them a
letter, which commenced by saying : " Gedemius, duke of the Lithuanians,
informs us by letter, and by his ambassadors, that he desires to embrace
the Christian religion, and begs us to send persons able to instruct and
baptize him. We have received his request with great joy, hoping that his
conversion may lead to that of a multitude of pagans in those parts."
The letter of the duke then complained of the Teutonic knights. He said
that Mindouf, his predecessor, and aU his subjects, had been converted to
Christianity in 1255, and he added, " but they have returned to idolatry, in
consequence of the insults and the violence of the Teutonic knights. They
drive away missionaries, whether secular or regular, who labor for the con
version of the infidels, and refuse them safe passage over their lands. Far
from encouraging the new converts to bring other pagans over to the faith,
they reduce them to an insupportable slavery. They oppress even the
ecclesiastics, maltreat and even kill them; despoU and puU down or burn

JOHN xxil. 499
the churches ; and after having thus treated the ecclesiastics, they compel
them, by imprisonment or threats, to promise not to seek redress. They
have caballed to weaken. in the country the authority of the Holy See, and
to prevent appeals to Rome. They usurp the rights of the archbishop of
Riga and of his church ; they plunder the citizens, close the ports, and ob
struct the hberty of commerce. FinaUy, when any of their brotherhood are
wounded by the enemy, they themselves put them to death."
' The Teutonic knights were rich, and probably abused their wealth, but if
is difficult not to perceive exaggeration in these complaints. The court of
Avignon perhaps gave too much credit to these denunciations, but it had
good reason to redouble its watchfulness. To settle the famous question
raised in 1322, between the Dominicans and the Franciscans, as to the
question of the poverty of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, John, in 1323,
declared that the constitution in which Nicholas III. had granted to the
Friars Minor the use of the things of which he reserved the property to the
Roman Church, which constitution was explained and confirmed by Clement
V, was not to be understood as to things which are consumed by use. The
pOpe added, that those who affirmed that Christ and the apostles possessed
nothing, individuaUy, or in common, should be rejected as heretics. In
1324, he condemned those who ventured to contradict his decision. *"
In presence of so solemn a decision by the pope, Vitalius and Bertrand
de la Tour, Franciscan cardinals, and some bishops of the same order, im
mediately obeyed. They had written books discussing the questions. But
there was a dissident, Michael of Cesena, also of the Franciscan order, who
was afterwards unanimously condemned by his own brethren as weU as by
his pupils. They had aU embraced that side of the question, to pay court
to Louis of Bavaria, in his celebrated controversy with Pope John. The
controversy arose in this way. The Emperor Henry dying on the 2d of
August, 1314, the electors of the empire assembled in the foUowing year to
elect a successor. Some elected Louis of Bavaria ; others Frederic, son of
Albert of Austria. Each supported his pretension by arms. The Holy
Father seeing that the Bavarian caused himseK to be treated as emperor,
without awaiting the papal confirmation, begged him to remember that it
was necessary that the matter of the election should be treated before the
Holy See. The two competitors were cited, and called upon to show the
reasons upon which they based their rights to the imperial crown. Louis
would not submit to this judgment ; and he even, on many occasions, de
fended those who were condemned for heresy. John ordered that there
should be no communion with those who supported Louis as to what con
cerned the empire.
The Bavarian appealed to the pope better informed, and to a general
councU. Then the Holy Father deprived the prince of all rights, and ex-

500 LIVES OF THE POPES.
communicated him as the patron of the heretical fraticelli* Louis hired
writers to draw up works in which they pretended that John was not a true
pope. On the 20th of October, 1327, John excommunicated Louis, as
having 'a court consisting of heretics, schismatics, and apostates. Louis
declared that he would go to Rome, where some of the seditious promised
him their aid. Some more faithful Romans had also called upon the pope
to go to Rome, but he was sick, and eighty years of age, and could not
venture upon such a journey.
Louis, having arrived at Rome, caused himseK to be crowned king of the
Romans, in the Vatican Basihca, by James Alberti, bishop of Venice, and
Gerard Orlandini, an Augustinian bishop of Aleria, both already deposed
and excommunicated. Louis then set a very scandalous example of con
tempt of Christian duty. He coUected the accusations that had been
brought against the pope, pronounced him degraded from the papacy, and
condemned him to be burned alive as a heretic, and guUty of high treason,
for having usurped the rights of the emperor, and for appointing vicars of
the empire in Italy. Louis granted full power to the secular authority to
punish John, and he caused the election of an antipope, Nicholas, of whom
we shaU speak hereafter.
The Holy Father, after ordering pubhc prayers for the extinction of the
schism, again condemned the Bavarian, and excommunicated the antipope,
as well as aU who had assisted in his intrusive election.
Louis continued his violence ; he caUed the pope John of Cahors, and
also gave him the title of Prester-John.
The pope, meantime, neglected none of his duties. He canonized the
great Saint Thomas Aquinas, the immortal glory of the Dominicans, who
died at the age of forty-nine, in the year 1274, as we have related, at the
Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, in the diocese of Terracina, whUe on
his way from Naples to Lyons. Subsequently, Saint Pius V., of the Domin
ican order, by a buU of the 11th of AprU, 1567, declared Saint Thomas the
fifth of the holy Doctors of the Church.
An attempt was made to raise new difficulties for the pope, because as a
private doctor, and not as the Universal Doctor, he had appeared to beheve
that souls purged from aU sin, and entering heaven, could not before the
last day enjoy the sight of God. The pope, on his death-bed, declared, in
the presence of the cardinals, that purified souls at once enjoyed the beatific
vision. He protested that he had never intended to advance any thing
contrary to the faith, and that K he had hazarded a proposition contrary to
sound doctrine, he formally retracted it. Unfortunately, the document
which by his order was drawn up on the subject, could not be completed
* See Life of Clement V.

JOHN XXH. 501
in consequence of his death. But the successor of John, to reply to the:
calumniators, pubhshed a buU, on the 29th of January, 1336, in which he
estabhshed the doctrine to which John was strongly attached before his
death — namely, that souls purged from aU sin, instantly enjoy the intuitive
sight of God. The same bull forbade the teaching of the contrary, on pain
of excommunication.
In his promotion of cardinals in 1331, John had given the purple to
TaUeyrand de Perigord, a French nobleman, of the counts of that name,
and allied to almost aU the princes of France. He was bishop of Limoges
in 1324. In 1328, he was transferred to Auxerre : then, at the request of
King PhUip VI., created cardinal-priest of Saint Peter, in vincoli. He next
became bishop of Albano. Being afterwards accused by Louis of Hungary
of compUcity in the affairs of the succession of the king of Naples, Talley
rand was declared innocent. Appointed in 1356 to restore peace between
the kings of England and France, he was obhged to leave the latter king
dom. He was next named legate d latere for the Holy Land, but died before,
he could set out. Novaes (iv., p. 104) says that he was a cardinal of great
authority ; at Toulouse he had founded the Perigord coUege, and at Peri-
gueux the famous Carthusian Vauclair (Valle Chiara).
We must here, in justice to John XXIL, state that he had resolved to
change the pontifical residence from Avignon to Bologna, as he often prom
ised Cardinal Napoleon Orsini ; but there was an obstacle. He was told
that, before his departure, he ought to be assured that Phihp de Valois
had actuaUy begun his march to the Holy Land. Philip having deferred,
John could not accomphsh his project, which was the more honorable to
him because his great age rendered the design so perilous as to lead to the
behef that he would not be able to accomphsh it. This pope was born in
1244. In 1334, the pope reformed (not instituted, as some authors have said) the
tribune of the Rota, so caUed because each member performed his duty in
turn, per rota. The members were fourteen in number ; Sixtus IV. reduced
them to twelve ;— three Romans, one German, one French, one Castilian,
one Aragonese, one Venetian, one of MUan, one alternately from Florence
and Perugia ; one from Bologna, and one from Ferrara.
To John XXIL has been attributed the buU called Sabbatine, which com
mences thus: Sacratissimo uti culmine, containing indulgences granted to
the Carmelites and their associates ; but the document is disputed * We
shaU speak of this buU again under the reign of Paul V.
John XXIL did not shrink from the most painful labors. " He had paci
fied England, aided the king of Majorca against the Saracens, and sent
* Papebroke, Natalis Alexander.

502 LIVES OF THE POPES.
missionaries to preach the faith to the infidels. The Eastern Church en
deavored to triumph over the Turks. A league against them was formed
by the kings of France, Sicily, Cyprus, and Armenia, and the Emperor
Andronicus. The Venetians also promised their aid. All the princes had
respectfuUy Ustened to the exhortations of John, but an outbreak in Bo
logna deeply excited his grief, and caused his death on the 4th of Decem
ber, 1334. He is affirmed to have been ninety years of age. In the morn
ing, having heard Mass and communicated, he felt weaker than usual ; he
sent for six cardinals, recommended the care of the Church to them, and
added a few words about his relatives to whom he had given the purple,
but whom he left poor.
" John," says Novaes,* " carried great constancy into his enterprises. '
He was low in stature, but he had acquired vast knowledge ; his mind was
profound and sagacious, his heart magnanimous, and his prudence consum
mate. He was known to be eloquent, sober, frugal, humble, and just.
Notwithstanding his advanced age, he was hvely and easUy irritated ; but
his anger was of brief duration, and suddenly, in the midst of a fit of petu
lance, his countenance would become serene, and he would laugh at the
excitement he had but just ceased to feel."
His body was found intact when, in 1759, his mausoleum was removed to
another part of the cathedral. It was said that he left in the treasury
twenty-five mUlions of florins in gold, eighteen in sUver, and seven in gold
and sUver plate and jewels. Novaes believes that there is some exaggera
tion in this statement, reported by ViUani, httle favorable to the French
popes. The Holy See was vacant fifteen days. Peter Corbario, in French Cor-
biere, who was anti-pope under John XXIL, had for forty years been a
Franciscan in the convent of Araceli. He obtained the favor of Louis of
Bavaria, and although as a fraticello he should have disdained honors, he
surrounded himself with a pompous retinue. In order to maintain tfiis
magnificence, he sold the sacred vessels, dignities, and privileges, and, for
money, annulled the privileges granted by the true pontiff. Abandoned at
length by aU, he went to Avignon and begged pardon from John, who
treated him kindly, but would not restore him to the hberty which he might
abuse. Corbario hved three years and one month under strict surveiUance,
and died in the month of September, 1333. He was buried in the church
of the Franciscans, in their habit, and with proper honors.
During the reign of John XXIL, Helyon de VUleneuve was named grand
master of the HospitaUers by a chapter assembled at Avignon, under the
very eyes of the pope. Foulques de VUlaret, the previous grand master, .
* Novaes, iv., p. 110.

BENEDICT XII.

503

and the conqueror of the island of Rhodes in 1310, had been intrusted by
the court of Rome with a great secret. It was decided in the pontifical
councils that the HospitaUers, in order that they might avoid the fate of the
Templars, should become sovereigns somewhere, whence they could con
tinue to protect the Holy Land. But Foulques thinking more of his own
interests, perhaps, than of those of his order, and led by a foohsh pride,
excited a revolt. The pontiff thought that Helyon would be at once a more
faithful depository of that secret, and a Knight HospitaUer disposed to love
and care for his brethren without wishing to oppress them, and so it proved.

199. BENEDICT XII. — a. d. 1334.

.ENEDICT XII. was originaUy named Founder,
and surnamed Be Nouveau. He was the son of a
mUler, and nephew, on the mother's side, of Pope
John XXIL He was born at Saverdun, near
Toulouse. After embracing the ecclesiastical hfe in .the
abbey of Bolbona, of the Cistercian order, he went
to Paris to study, and was bachelor when he was
elected abbot of Fontfroide, of the same order. He was bishop of Pamiers
nine years, then of Mirepoix twenty-two months, and at length cardinal-
priest of Santa Prisca. He owed this honor to John XXIL, in 1327. He
was caUed the White Cardinal, because he had been a Cistercian, and not a
Garmelite, as some authors have said, who are refuted by Baluze.
On the 13th of December, twenty-four cardinals assembled in conclave
at Avignon, under the care of the Count Monasi, seneschal to Robert king
of Naples, sovereign of Avignon and of the county of Noailles, marshal of
the Roman court, and governor of the county Venaissin. The pontificate
was then offered to Cardinal John de Comminges, on condition that he
would not return to Rome. He rephed that such a compact would be
prejudicial to the Church, and that he would rather be deprived of his red
hat than obtain the pontificate on such unworthy conditions. He added,
that such proposals prolonged the dangers of the Church, which wasv re
moved from its legitimate and natural seat. Then they began to speak in
directly of the White Cardinal, who was deemed the least important mem
ber of the sacred coUege. By degrees the cardinals thought more seriously

504 LIVES OF THE POPES.
about him. Comminges was of opinion that aU the votes should be given
to the White Cardinal, who very soon, without a scrutiny, was unanimously
elected. AU who had concurred in the vote were astonished at the result. No one
more so than James Fournier himself. " What have you 'done, my
brothers ?" he said ; " among aU you have chosen the least worthy." But
they insisted, and he accepted the tiara. He took the name of Benedict,
in memory of the patriarch Saint Benedict, whose rule he had followed
during many years, and was crowned on the 8th of January, 1335, in the
convent of the Dominicans, by Cardinal Napoleon Orsini, who, as we have
seen, crowned the three preceding popes.
On the foUowing day, Benedict wrote a circular letter to aU the bishops
and to aU the Christian princes, except Louis of Bavaria, excommunicated
by John XXIL, and Frederic, king of SicUy, who had refused to pay
homage for that kingdom.
The cardinals were poor : Benedict gave them 120,000 gold florins to
enable them to supply their needs ; and he gave 50,000 more towards re
pairing the decaying churches and palaces of Rome.
He then sought means to eradicate simony, which continued its mischiefs,
to make a wholesome reform in the religious orders, and to- provide the
churches with worthy pastors. He desired that the priesthood should be
conferred only upon men of prudence, goodness, and learning, saying that
he did not wish to make mud splendid. He ordered the bishops and abbots
who were at Avignon to return to their residences. He condemned the
custom of Clement V. and John XXIL, of giving benefices in commendam,
and only excepted those given to the cardinals and titular patriarchs of the
East, who had no other resources. In a spirit of order, he suppressed the
expectatives, by which benefices were conferred before they were vacant.
France, England, and Germany abounded in these illicit favors.
He reformed the chancery, and estabhshed rules there which stiU subsist.
Benedict had formed the design of returning to Rome, because upon that
point he shared the noble sentiments of Cardinal Comminges. The Ro
mans, by their ambassadors, entreated the new pontiff promptly to effect
that return of the Holy See ; but some cardinals, already accustomed to
the air of Provence, were not of the hke inclination, and under the pretext
that the Bolognese, invited at first to receive the pope and his cortege, sent
only dilatory repUes, the same cardinals persuaded Benedict that the old
pontifical palace at Avignon ought to be pulled down, and a new one erected
on its site. MeanwhUe Alphonso, king of Aragon, and King Robert, swore
faith and rendered homage, and paid the stipulated tribute.
At this time the pope learning that men intrusted by the pilgrims to in
terpret to confessors the details of their sins and offences, had sacrilegiously

BENEDICT XII.

505

divulged the confessions, ordered that they should be punished, and it was
then estabhshed that the penitentiaries ' should belong to various nations,
and should speak the most generally diffused languages.
Louis of Bavaria at length deplored his excesses towards the Holy See.
Benedict hearing of his repentance, encouraged him ; but imprudent alli
ances contracted by 'that prince, threw him back into heresy, and he in
curred new excommunications.
It was at this period that Benedict published the buU of which we have
spoken above, in which he declared that the souls of the just, when scarcely
freed from the body, if they had not to suffer the pains of purgatory,
pass instantly to the heavenly beatitude, which consists in the sight of
God. In 1338, Benedict created six cardinals, five French and one Italian.
Here was stUl the same favoritism. The Italians continued to complain,
and the Bolognese would not submit. The pope revoked the privileges of
the University of Bologna, and ordered the professors and students to leave
it. It had thus lost its splendor and its wealth, and to get back their uni
versity, the Bolognese finaUy recognized the, authority of the Holy See.
During the whole term of his pontificate, Benedict showed that he knew
no kindred.
He died on the 25th of AprU, after governing the Church seven years,
four months, and six days. He sometimes said that a pope had no famUy,
and that the true priest, after the order of Melchisedech, ought to have
neither father nor genealogy. Benedict had but one niece, and he married
her to a trader in Toulouse, refusing her to high personages who earnestly
sought her hand.
Benedict, though unacquainted with political affairs, had great know
ledge, was full of holy intentions, and of great integrity of morals. God
permitted miracles to foUow the death of this pope. The Holy See re
mained vacant eleven days.
Benedict scarcely ever submitted to the wiU of the king of France.
Platina says that Benedict loved and sought out the good, but hated and
repeUed the wicked. Platina also said : " He intended to invite Zorus, a
famous painter of that time, to paint the history of the martyrs in the
palace he had erected." I suspect that there is an error of the press here,
and that we should read Zotum, or rather Joctum, — that is to say, Giotto, a
celebrated painter, who left such fine frescoes at Assisi, who had already
painted at Avignon, and who died in 1336, two years after the election of
Benedict XII.
Here is another pope born in an obscure rank, who, nevertheless, was
one of the noble pontiffs of Catholicity. Nothing arrests the action of the
papacy, even beyond its principal and first domain. Often represented by

506 LIVES OF THE POPES
men whom society condemns to a kind of nuUity, the papacy seems to say
that all elements, be they what they may, must obey it.
Thus far it has controlled the events of five centuries, from the time of
Charlemagne. Let us stiU consider its power as immense. AU is good in
its eyes, the great and the smaU — the son of the prince and the son of a
miUer ; it must love, console, teach, and civUize ; it establishes academies,
which, receiving pupils from aU points, return with noble usury more than
they have received. Among the universahty of the various conditions, the
papacy chooses with discernment : all that which is pious and learned
becomes its ornament and glory. Human equahty was invented and
practised there before modern philosophers had begun to dream of it.

200. CLEMENT VI.— a. d. 1342.
| LEMENT VI., originaUy Peter Roger, was of the
Pg noble family of Beaufort, whose genealogy is given
by Baluze. He was born in a vUlage dependent on
the castle of Maumort, diocese of Limoges, in
France. At the age of ten he took the Benedictine
| habit, in the monastery of Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne.
At thirty-one years of age he was professor of the
ology at Paris, preceptor of Charles, marquis of
Moravia, who was afterwards emperor under the name of Charles IV., and
at length proviseur of the Sorbonne. Having become abbot of the monas
tery of Fecamp, in Normandy, he was sent by John XXIL as nuncio to
London and Paris, to put an end to the war between those two capitals.
He then became bishop of Arras, and at the same time keeper of the seals
and chancellor to the king ; then, in 1329, he was archbishop of Sens and
of Rouen. Benedict XII. gave him the title of cardinal of Saints Nereus
and AchiUes.
The second dav of the conclave, in which there were seventeen cardinals
(one being absent from an attack of gout), and thirteen days after tlfe de
cease of Benedict XII., Peter Roger was elected pope, at the age of fifty,
on the 7th of May, 1342. The pontificate had been predicted to him by
Stephen Aldebrand, prior of a monastery, when Peter, leaving Paris to go
to Chaise-Dieu, was plundered by robbers in the wood of Randan. The
prior gave Peter clothes to continue his journey ; and Peter full of gratitude,

CLEMENT VI. 507
said to the prior — " And when shaU I return this favor?" " When you are
pope," replied the prior, with great presence of mind. And, in fact, when
he was pope, Peter sent for the prior, made him chamberlain of honor,
then archbishop of Aries, and afterwards of Toulouse.
The new pontiff took the name of Clement VI. ; he was crowned on
Whitsunday, the 19th of May, in the church of the Dominicans, which
he quitted to traverse, in magnificent pomp, the finest streets of Avignon.
John, duke of Normandy, heir to the crown of France, held the bridle of the
pope's horse ; and there were also present Philip, duke of Burgundy, and
Humbert, the dauphin, duke of Viennois.
The pope made known his promotion to all the sovereigns of Europe,
exhorting them to govern their people mUdly, to maintain religion with all
their strength, and to preserve the purity of the faith.
He ordered aU the favors asked of him to be expedited gratuitously dur
ing two months. On this occasion, all the ecclesiastics of Europe rushed
to enjoy the fruits of that new favor. Nearly a hundred thousand of them
arrived, who returned to their own countries overwhelmed with favors and
with gratitude. Benedict, from his strictness, left many benefices unfilled ;
Clement left none vacant. He made a great many reserves in the bishop
rics and abbeys, disregarding the elections of chapters and communities ;
and when it was represented to him that his predecessors had not held the
same course, he rephed that " then they did not know how to be popes."
As soon as the news of the election of the pontiff reached Rome, the Ro
mans, as they had done under Clement V., John XXIL, and Benedict XII.,
dispatched eighteen ambassadors, six from each of the three estates, se
lected by the first families of Rome. At the head of the embassy were
Stephen Colonna and Francis de Vico.
Then another embassy was sent; it included the celebrated Francis
Petrarch, who the year before had received the poetic laurel crown. Both
embassies were directed to insist upon the pope's return to Rome with his
court. The pope said that that was not as yet possible, and he gave as a reason
the necessity of reconcUing the Catholic princes ; for the war still continued
between France and England. He also alleged as a reason the necessity of
remedying the evils of Spain, which was in an unfortunate condition.
Clement, after honestly alleging these motives, employed his utmost
activity to destroy the scourge of war. He published a sentence of excom
munication against whomsoever should arm a vessel to make a descent upon
France, and against any one who should make an incursion into England.
By these various means he produced an armistice for three years. At the
same time he restored peace between Peter, king of Aragon, and James,
king of Majorca.

508 LIVES OF THE POPES.
In 1342, there was a promotion of cardinals, in which there were nine
French cardinals, and one Itahan. The majority of the French were blood
relations of the pope. We shall henceforth abstain from all animadversion
on that head. Apparently, the minds of the popes of Avignon were acted
upon by a violent and fatal necessity.
On the 19th of January, 1343, Robert, surnamed the Wise, king of Na
ples, died, and left his States to Jane, daughter of his son Charles, and wKe
of Andrew, king of Hungary. The States were to be governed by a regency
named by the king, until the young princess and her youthful husband
attained the age of twenty-five years.
The Holy Father affirmed that he alone had the right to administer that
kingdom, which was dependent on the Holy See, and he appointed Car
dinal Aymery de ChasteUux as governor, in his name, until Queen Jane
attained her majority. The regents, appointed by Robert, themselves
obeyed the orders of the pontiff, who, by his legate, tranquilly governed the
kingdom. The royal pair were about to be crowned, when, on the night preceding
the day appointed for that ceremony, the unfortunate prince, Andrew, was
found strangled.
Some traitors it was said, by the order of his own wKe, had committed
the crime. On hearing this, the pope sent to Naples Cardinal Bernard de
Poyet, with instructions to follow the proceedings against the queen, sus
pected of having ordered the death of her husband, a young man only nine
teen jrears old. She was never convicted of the crime, and in the foUowing
year she married Louis, prince of Tarento.
On the 27th of February, 1344, the pope gave the cardinal's hat to two
Frenchmen. Clement, in 1344, crowned as king of the Fortunate Islands (now known
as the Canaries), Louis de la Cerda, count of Clermont, and prince royal of
Spain, who took the oath to remain tributary to the Holy See, and pay the
annual sum of four hundred gold florins. It now remained for the new king
to gain possession of his kingdom, obtained on condition of establishing the
Catholic faith there. The enterprise was executed by another. The de
scendants of La Cerda are now a part of the Medina Ceh family.
Clement continued to invite the princes to hold themselves in readiness
for another crusade, which he had, published in 1343. In regard to this
enterprise, he wrote to the grand master of the Knights HospitaUers of
Saint John of Jerusalem a letter which is worth citing, as it refers indirectly
to the Knights Templars.
Helyon de VUleneuve, grand master of the Knights of Rhodes, was thus
remonstrated with :
"We learn from many persons of consideration that you and your

CLEMENT VI. 509
brothers make no good use of the innumerable possessions* that you hold
on both sides of the sea.t Those who have the management of them can
ride fine horses and make good cheer, are superbly dressed, and eat off
gold and "sUver plate, keep dogs and falcons for the chase, amass great
wealth, and dispense smaU alms.
" And then, they do not trouble themselves about the Christian faith, or
the defence of Christian people, chiefly those beyond sea, for which defence
their great wealth was given to tliem. For these reasons it has been debated
whether it would not be well for the Holy See to create a new military
order, to be endowed with a portion of this property of yours, so that there
should be emulation between the two orders, as formerly there was between
yours and the Templars.
" There is about to be another expedition, in which you are invited to
partake. Many complain that you have great dissensions among your
selves, and that you do not pay your serving brothers and your priests." '
The reproof is bitter, but it was dated from near the spot on which
Jacques Molay was burned.
VUlaret had labored selfishly, and he was punished for it. VUieneuve
looked only to the order and his own sovereign power. Some of the mem
bers took advantage of the virtues of their grand master. VUieneuve did
no wrong, and he had to suffer for the misdeeds of others.
The Christian army set out; besieged and took Smyrna. The Hospital
lers rephed by their victories to the accusations which their enemies made
against them to the pope.
Then the Holy Father granted to Otho, duke of Burgundy, and to John,
duke of Normandy, as weU as to Phihp, king of France, and his queen, the
privUege of communicating in both kinds. Those sovereigns made use of
that privUege only on the day of their coronation and at the point of death.
Bercastlef says that communion under both kinds was the ordinary cus
tom at the commencement of the twelfth century, but from the thirteenth
century was exclusively reserved to priests, in the Latin Church. " But,"
adds Novaes,§ " we find neither law nor constitution for the change, which
was introduced insensibly."
James being despoiled of his kingdom of Majorca by Peter, the king of
Aragon, apphed to the sovereign refuge common to aU princes, and he ob
tained from the court of Avignon complete protection and reparation.
* The Knights of Rhodes had become rich, though they were so overloaded with debt in the
reign of John XXH. Did the nuncios of that pope give less correct information than those of
Clement VI. ? (See our Life of John XXH.)
f Some Italian writers have pretended that the treasures of the Templars were confiscated to
the treasury in France, and that a portion of the landed property had really been given to the
Hospitallers. X Novaes, iv., p. 134. § Hist, de VEgl., tome xiv., p. 111.

510 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Louis of Bavaria did not return, as he endeavored to do, to better senti
ments. The excommunication issued against him by Clement's predeces
sors was renewed. At the caU of the pope, the electors assembled and
named as king of the Romans Charles IV., of the house of Luxemburg,
Marquis of Moravia, and son of John, king of Bohemia. He was crowned
at Rome, and remained in peaceful possession of the empire after the death
of Louis, which occurred in 1347. Then those great evils ceased which had
caused so much disturbance in Germany and Italy.
We have now to give an account of the attempt made in 1347 by Cola de
Rienzi. He made himself tyrant of Rome, persuading the populace that
the ancient splendor of the Roman repubhc should be restored, and he
declared himseK the Tribune of the new repubhc. The pope's legate was
not slow to profit by the faults of the senseless revivor of an authority which
time and change had rendered impossible. After several months of tyranny
(1348), he was excommunicated. He voluntarUy resigned the insignia of
his Tribune power, and feU into the hands of the agents of the Holy Father,
who kept him prisoner. Under the reign of Innocent VI. we shaU again
have to make mention of Rienzi.
The same year, Clement canonized Saint Yvo de Treguier, and Robert,
founder and first abbot of the monastery of the Chaise-Dieu.
It was in 1348 that the pope purchased from Queen Jane, of Provence,
the city and dependencies of Avignon, for the sum of eighty thousand gold
florins. ViUani says that the sum demanded was only three thousand, but a host
of writers state it at eighty thousand. The Emperor Charles IV. confirmed
the deed of sale by an edict of the first of November foUowing.
The sect of the flagellants, which took its rise in Italy about the year 1260,
was condemned by the pope in most severe terms. Those wretched people
continued to teach, among other impieties, that no one could be saved
unless baptized in his own blood, drawn from him by scourging. In their
eyes, baptism by water was useless. Clement's bull especiaUy condemned
those who, coming from Hungary, scourged themselves pubhcly in the
streets, thus giving a spectacle at once disgusting and cruel.
When Clement ascended the papal throne, the Romans asked him to do
them three favors : first, to accept for life, not as pope, but as Peter Roger,
the title of senator, captain, and of other charges of the city ; second, to
inhabit the Lateran palace, near the church, the mother of aU the churches,
and the peculiar See of the pontiff; the third, to reflect how few people
could enjoy the jubilee granted centennially by BonKace VIIL, and to ap
point the jubilee for every fifty years.
Two months after, the pope replied to the first request, that he accepted
the charges, which he well knew were rightfully his, and that he would des-

CLEMENT VI. 511
ignate persons who, in his name, should govern Rome, without prejudice
to his pontifical authority.
To the second request, he replied that he would continue to inhabit Avig
non, for the purpose of reconciling the Catholic princes, and more closely
attending to the negotiations. This determination of Clement we have
already mentioned.
To the third request, he replied that he willingly did what was agreeable
to the Romans ; the jubUee of the holy year should be celebrated every fif
tieth year, and that the next jubilee should take place in 1350. The same
constitution provided that to the visiting of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
should be added the visiting of Saint John Lateran. Gregory XL, by his
constitution Salvator noster, dated at Avignon, 29th of April, 1373, ordered
that the visit to Saint John Lateran should also be made.
Cardinal Annibah de Ceccano, the legate at Rome, had orders to take aU
necessary measures to prevent the peace from being disturbed at the ap
proaching jubUee, and for securing to the pUgrims the necessary aid, pro
visions, and protection.
From Easter to Christmas, twelve hundred thousand pilgrims were com
puted to have arrived, including personages of high rank ; among them was
Louis, king of Hungary.
At this time Florence solicited the privUege of erecting a university.
In the promotion of cardinals, in 1350, we find nine French ; Capocci, a
noble Roman, great nephew of Honorius IV., and Giles Albornoz, a noble
Spaniard, born at Cuenca, a relation of the king of Aragon. It was this
cardinal, formerly a mihtary man, who in less than five years reduced a
great number -of revolted principahties and cities to obedience to the
popes. He had the keys of aU the conquered cities dehvered to him, and
when he was afterwards accused of improper administration of the property
of the Church, he presented to Urban V, who was then at Viterbo, several
wagons filled with the keys of the castles and cities that he had recovered
for the Holy See. Among the French cardinals we find a Montesquieu,
born in the diocese of Auch, in Gascony.
Armenia, in 1351, governed by Leo, was a prey to disturbances which de
stroyed the faith, and encouraged the enterprises of schismatics. As was
then the custom, for the good of the Church, and for both the morahty and
the interests of the nations, the pontiff interposed in questions of pubhc
order wherever they arose. As the history of the Church, touching such
occurrences, was that of the world, it must be said that Clement determined
to purge Armenia of many fatal and inveterate errors.
Fresh efforts were made to induce the Christian princes to send reinforce
ments and money to the Armenians, to enable them to resist their enemies.
Clement especiaUy exerted himseK to make known to the princes that

512 LIVES OF THE POPES.
there was in Asia a people that held the Catholic faith. To assist them
would be to diminish the expense of the crusades, as the crusaders would
thus find on the spot friends and brothers who would render it easier for
them to conquer the Turks. From the great number of missionaries whom
he sent into those countries, Clement, better than any other prince in
Europe, knew the extent of the evils and the kind of succor that was re
quired ; and he might hope for great success, facilitated by the enthusi
asm and the gratitude of the Catholics of the country.
John Visconti, archbishop of Milan, had received investiture of that city
and of its castles ; but he had usurped Bologna, and that city, which had
refused to receive the Holy Father, groaned beneath the yoke imposed upon
it by the Visconti. As usual in such cases, Bologna recurred to her former
master for deliverance. The pope repressed the invasions of the arch
bishop, and then, by virtue of arrangements provided for cases of tyranny,
he granted the investiture of Bologna to that same prelate. This circum
stance was due solely to the false position in which the popes were placed,
in sometimes having more power at the courts of other sovereigns than in
the cities which were the absolute and recognized property of the Holy
See. Some complaint was made against a portion of the constitution of Greg
ory X., concerning the conclave. . A new buU aUowed the sacred electors to
eat meat, fish, herbs, eggs, and fruit, at the time when the use of such food
is permitted.This pope, who was indefatigable in labor, began, however, to lose his
strength, and he died, almost suddenly, on the 6th of December, 1352. He
had governed the Church ten years and seven months, aU but one day.
Before his death he recommended the interests of the Holy See to the
cardinals. His body was removed, in the foUowing year, from Avignon to the abbey
of Chaise-Dieu, where he had been made a monk.
Some time before his death, the pious and scrupulous pontiff had said in
a constitution : " If, formerly, being in a lower rank, or since we were raised
to the apostohc chair, we have, either in controversy or in preaching, said
any thing contrary to Catholic faith or Christian morahty, we revoke it, and
we submit it to the correction of the Holy See."
We read in Feller :* " Fleury has drawn an unfavorable portrait of this
pope, upon the simple authority of Michael ViUani, who was a passionate
historian, and the creature of Louis of Bavaria, and who is aU the more to
be distrusted in his account of Clement because he considered every thing
in him odious, with the exception of his learning, which he endeavors to
* Feller, ii., p. 281.

INNOCENT VI.

513

underrate, while a host of other historians attribute to him superior en
lightenment and learning, an extreme beneficence, and a fund of humanity,
kindhness, and gentleness, which caused Petrarch himself to say that never
did any one more rightfuUy bear the name of Clement. The confident
facility with which Fleury repeats VUlani's calumnies, should suffice to keep
the reader on his guard against the judgments pronounced by that historian
of the Church upon many iUustrious men, and especiaUy upon some of the
sovereign pontiffs." Our own opinion is already known asi to most of
Fleury's judgments.
Novaes* says : " Clement had profound knowledge, and so singularly
faithful a memory that he never forgot what he had once read. He was
mild, polished, courteous, and of agreeable aspect. No one saw him with
out loving him. Clement was magnificent and splendid in aU his actions.
he had a great number of attendants, and especiaUy of physicians, whom
he supported without needing them.
" He spent 100,000 florins upon the poor, and much more upon his rela
tions, of whom he was too fond." It has been said of him that he humanized
the too strict virtues of Benedict XII.
Saint Peter Thomas of Aquitaine, of the order of the Carmelites, in
twelve funeral orations, celebrated the merits of this pontiff, as is attested
by Father Jacob in the Pontifical Library, hb. i, p. 55.
The Holy See remained vacant eleven days.

201. INNOCENT VI.— a. d. 1352.

HE name of Innocent VI. was Stephen Aubert. He
was born at Brissac, near Pompadour (Limousin),
of parents in middling circumstances. At first
professor of civil law, he became, in succession,
auditor of the tribunal of the Rota, and bishop of
Noyon. After being translated to the See of Cler
mont, 'he was created by Clement VI. cardinal of
Saints John and Paul ; the same pope then named
him legate to the courts of France and England, to
negotiate a peace between those kingdoms, and, finaUy, bishop of Ostia and
grand penitentiary.

Novaes, iv., p. 147.

Vol. I.— 33

514 LIVES OF THE POPES..
In 1352, Stephen was elected pope on the 18th of December, twelve days
after the death of Clement VI. Twenty-eight cardinals were in the con
clave. The majority were inclined to give the tiara to John Birel, the holy
general of the Carthusians ; but Cardinal de TaUeyrand,* who feared that
he would be too strict, dissuaded them from so doing. Subsequently, Tal
leyrand, seeing the miracles wrought by that great monk, abandoned his
prejudice, and acquired such esteem for the Carthusians, that he founded
and richly endowed a magnificent monastery of that order in France. Car
dinal de CouUlac obtained eighteen votes, but nineteen being required,
Stephen Aubert was very suddenly elected, because John H., king of France,
was making forced marches upon Avignon, to compel the election of a pope
to his own liking, which that king might weU promise himseK, as many of
the cardinals were his own subjects.
The new pontiff took the name of Innocent VI., and was crowned in the
cathedral church, on the 23d of the same month of December, by Cardinal
GaiUard de la Mothe, first cardinal-deacon ; but he would not have the cus
tomary cavalcade in the city after the coronation, declaring that he avoided
the pomp of that ceremony in order to avoid the expense.
Innocent proceeded without delay to the reform of many abuses which
were then complained of. He revoked the constitution by which Clement
VI. had reserved to certain cardinals some dignities, and some benefices in
cathedrals, as weU as in coUegiate and reUgious churches. He annuUed
the commendam of the churches and monasteries, excepting those which
had been granted to cardinals. He enjoined residence upon the bishops,
on pain of excommunication. He exacted it with equal strictness from the
holders of benefices who had the cure of souls, and who rushed to the
pontifical court to sohcit more lucrative benefices. " The sheep," said he,
" must be taken care of by their own shepherd." He reformed, beyond
what had been done by his predecessors, the excessive luxury of the court,
and retained, to the necessary number, those domestics who deserved it by
their good conduct. He estabhshed a fixed salary for the auditor of the
Rota, and ordered that thenceforth the priesthood and the benefices should
be conferred only upon persons of great merit, saying that the ecclesiastical
dignities were not the reward of high birth but of virtue. He firmly re
proved the young cardinals who, under the preceding pontificate, had
abused their rank and power. FinaUy, he annuUed aU the laws that the
cardinals had estabhshed in the recent conclave.
The object of these laws was to limit the power of the pope. The sub
stance of them was as foUows : " The pope wiU create no cardinals until
the number shaU be reduced to sixteen ; to those he can add only four, to
* Novaes, iv., p. 150.

INNOCENT VI. 515
form at most the number of twenty ; and he cannot create them without the
Consent of aU the cardinals, or, at least, of two-thirds. He will not touch
their property while they live, nor after their death.* He is not to alienate
or unfief the lands of the Roman Church, in whatever province or place they
may be, according to the privUege of Nicholas IV. No relation or connec
tion of the pope shaU have the office of marshal of the Roman court, or
governor of the provinces and territories of the Church. The pope is to
grant to no prince tithes or other subsidies, nor reserve them to the cham-.
ber, without the advice of two-thirds of the cardinals ; and he is to leave
them freedom of voting in their deliberations. AU the present cardinals
swear that the one who shall become pope wUl invariably observe the fore
going, and any one elected pope or cardinal shall, on the same day, make
the same promise."
Some of the arrangements in the above, those which relate to favors of
nepotism, may be excused. The other articles of that law, calculated to
introduce into the noble pontifical power a fatal aristocracy, must be cen
sured. On the 25th of December, 1352, the pope raised to the purple his nephew,
Aldouin Aubert, who was bishop of Paris in 1349, and then promoted to the
bishopric of Auxerre. t After receiving the purple, Aldouin Aubert was
transferred to the bishopric of MagueUone. At that time, the cardinals
bore the name of the bishopric each had fiUed. As Talleyrand Perigord
and Pierre Courson had been bishops of Auxerre, in order to avoid a three
fold confusion the pope's nephew became bishop of MagueUone. Thus the
confusion became only twofold, and then the family name was added, to
estabUsh a precise distinction between TaUeyrand and Courson. It was in
1353 that, in order to make the pontifical authority respected in many parts
of Italy, the pope sent hither Cardinal GUes Alvarez Albornoz, a Spaniard.^
At this time a disturbance broke out in Rome. The people revolted
against the senators StefaneUo Colonna and Berthold Orsini, appointed to
that dignity by the pope ; and Francis Baroncelli, notary of the senate, was
made tribune of the city. The Holy Father ordered the hberation of Cola di
Rienzi, who promised to restore quiet to the city. Baroncelli was rewarded
with death for his senseless confidence in the people ; and Cola di Rienzi
was named senator by the pope. Cola subjected to a stern justice the
principal insurgents of the city.§ But in 1354, a conspiracy was formed
* Rainaldi, 1352, n. 26. t Novaes, iv., p. 152. X See Life °f Clement VI, p.
§ There is a life of Rienzi by Tomas Fortifiocca, scribe to the senate (Bracciano, 1624, 12mo ;
reprinted at Bracciano, in 1631, without the author's name). The French Jesuit Sanadon, trans
lated that work, but the translation has not been published. Father du Cerceau wrote another
life of Rienzi upon this first one, and with the testimony of more than forty authors. His work
was published by another Jesuit, Father Brumoy, in 1734. There is still another life of Rienzi
by Boispreaux.

516 LIVES OF THE POPES.
against Rienzi, and he was assassinated at the foot of the capitol. After
these events, a great number of senators rapidly succeeded each other, and
the people at length created Bannerets, about whom we shaU speak hereafter.
Peter, king of Aragon, went to Avignon, and, as he had done in the reign
of Clement VI., swore fealty and did homage for the fief of Sardinia and
Corsica, conformably to the oath that he had taken between the hands of
Boniface to make that oath to every pope the first year of his pontificate.
Innocent sent Guy, cardinal-bishop of Palestrina, to effect a peace be
tween England and France, but, after the preliminaries, the negotiations
were broken off by the French king, according to Enghsh authors, but ac
cording to French authors, by the Enghsh king. It is needful, therefore,
to review at a later time the annals of the period, in order to do justice to
each, and praise and blame where praise and blame are due. Probably
both princes were in the wrong.
In 1354, Innocent granted to Germany and Bohemia the privUege of cel
ebrating, on the Friday after Low-Sunday, the Feast of the Lance and the
Nails, which were the instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ.
The city of Rome showed signs of desiring internal peace. Albornoz
was ordered to nominate magistrates and to receive with the customary
honors the king of the Romans, Charles IV, who was about to be crowned
as emperor.
The king arrived on Maundy-Thursday, 1355, under the strictest incog
nito, and visited the principal churches of Rome. On Easter-day, he was
crowned emperor by the cardinal-bishop of Ostia, Peter Bertrand. Anne,
wife of the emperor, was crowned as empress. She had come from Ger
many escorted by five thousand German cavalry, and more than ten thou
sand infantry, subjects of the emperor in Italy.
The emperor on the same day accepted a dinner given with great pomp
by the cardinal in the palace of Saint John Lateran. The emperor then
went to pass the night beyond the city limits, in obedience to the Holy
Father, who had required that the emperor, when once crowned, should not
remain a single day in the city.
The Emperor Charles IV. is the same who is caUed the priests' emperor?
on account of his union with the Holy See, and the respect that he showed
to the popes. To him was owing the constitutive buUa which was formed
by the famous Bartolus, and is known as the Caroline, or the Golden BuU,
because it bore a gold seal. This buU served as the fundamental law in the
election of the emperors.t
* Novaes, iv., p. 155.
f There is a treatise on this bull by George Theodore Dietrich, entitled, Ad Buttam Auream
(Frankfort, 1558, 4to). There are other works on the same subject, which were printed at Heidel
berg, Stuttgard, and Jena.

INNOCENT VI. 517
Queen Jane and her husband had not paid the tribute due to the Holy
See ; but upon the pope making some rather sharp remonstrances, it was
paid, and a good understanding restored between Naples and Rome. Inno
cent, feehng for the misfortunes of the Greek empire, and more than ever
desiring the union of the two Churches, sent legates to Cantacuzenus, who
governed the empire during the minority of John Paleologus. Cantacu
zenus, who was no less skilful in theology than in the science of history and
pohtics, beheved that that union could only be effected by a general council
at which the bishops of both Churches should be present.
When Paleologus ascended the throne and governed for himseK, he bound
himseh by oath to obey the pope in the same manner as other Catholic
emperors and kings, to render due honors to apostolic legates, and so to
act as to cause the Greeks to recognize the authority of the Holy See. At
the same time, Paleologus begged the pope to send an army to put down
at once the Turks and the rebellious Greeks. , A treaty was signed with the
bishop of Smyrna, apostohc nuncio. Greek ambassadors went to Innocent,
and he sent two bishops to Constantinople to strengthen the feeling of con-
chiation. But perceiving that this enterprise did not succeed, owing to the
perfidy of some Christians who favored ihe Turk, he ordered the king of
Cyprus, the Venetians, the Genoese, and the Knights of Rhodes,' to get
together in the port of Smyrna the number of gaUeys prescribed by Cle
ment VI., to maintain the rights of religion. In order to bring about the
difficult peace between England and France, Innocent sent Cardinals Tal
leyrand and Capocci The Most Christian king drove TaUeyrand away,
with threats of death, and refused the good offices of the Holy Father.
When, however, the cardinal learned that the king of France, John II., had
unfortunately become a prisoner to the Enghsh, he redoubled his efforts
with the emperor, and especiaUy with the king of England, who, at the re
quest of the pope, urged with much dignity by Talleyrand, treated his
prisoner generously. Each in his turn experienced the beneficial effects of
the conciliatory spirit of the popes.
Albornoz being caUed to Avignon, was received there with the greatest
honors. The cardinals went to meet him, and the pope, in fuU consistory,
called him Father of the Church.
The University of Bologna lacking a faculty of theology, Innocent found
ed one with the same privUeges enjoyed by the other faculties.
There was a dispute between Peter, king of Aragon, and the senate of
Genoa, relative to Sardinia and Corsica. John, marquis of Montferrat,
having been named arbiter between them, decided in favor of Genoa. The
Genoese immediately took the oath of fidelity for Corsica, which they oc
cupied, between the hands of the pope's legate, Andrew, bishop of Rimini.
As though they could endure no authority, the Romans, after having

518 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tried almost aU, even that of Lelio Pocadota, a shoemaker, promised to be
faithful to Innocent. He sent Hugh de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, who
was then at Avignon, to govern them. For a time that prince was respected,
but ere long disturbances recommenced.
Innocent had a thousand times endeavored to restore peace among the
princes of whom he was the common father. He had lavished generous
aid during the plague of 1361, which carried off nine cardinals and a hun
dred bishops, and decimated the people. He had governed the Church
nine years, eight months, and twenty-six days, when he died on the 12th of
September, 1362. He was interred at ViUeneuve, in the church of the
Carthusians, a monastery which he had had built in 1356.
Innocent was a great canonist. He loved uprightness and justice. His
own life was upright, and his zeal for rehgion was unalterable. He was
rather too much attached to his relatives, but it must be added that aU
those he favored deserved it. He cherished men of letters, and granted
them favors.
He founded, at Toulouse, the college of Saint Martial for twenty students
from the diocese of Limoges ; and his nephew, Cardinal Peter de Monturc
de Donzenac, founded at the same place that of Saint Catherine. In Mar-
tene's Thesaurus there are some letters of this pope.
The Holy See was vacant one month and fifteen days.
Under this reign, Marino Fahero, doge of Venice, was raised to that
dignity at the age of seventy-six years. He formed- the project of perma--
nently keeping the power which had been intrusted to him only for a few
months. The conspiracy was discovered, and he was beheaded on the 17th
of April, 1355, at the age of eighty years.
The kingdoms usurped or legitimately conquered in the Levant, had dis
turbed aU imaginations. The commandant of a town of a hundred inhab
itants was sure to endeavor to render himself despotic.
The counterpoise of the good sense, the courage, and the firmness of the
popes was therefore more than ever necessary : no voice was raised in
Avignon to prevent the action of justice against the usurpers who had per
verted authority to their own ends, and which they were bound to surrender.
at a given time.

URBAN V.

519

202. URBAN V.— a. d. 1362.

HE original name of Urban V. was WiUiam de Gri
moard. He was the son of the baron du Roure,
and of Emphelise de Sabran, sister of Saint Elzear,
and was born at Grisae, in the diocese of Mende
in the Gevandan. Some authors, however, state
that he was not born at Grisae.
Roderick Sanchez, a Spanish historian, calls him
a Lombard; Thomas Walsingham says he was
English ; Anthony Yepes maintains that he was
born at Toulouse ; Bernadine Cori, that he was born at Sulmona ; Matthew
VUlani thinks that he was born at Beaucaire ; while Stephen Baluze de
clares that this pope was born at Limoges, and supports his opinion by
reference to fifty-seven authors, and to an ancient inscription in the cloister
of the Augustinian fathers at Toulouse. On comparing this opinion with
that of many others, we may affirm that this pontiff, of Limoges origin, was
born at Grisae in the diocese of Mende, in the county of Gevandan. At a
' very early age he entered a Benedictine monastery of the priory of Clairac,
and became a very renowned professor at Montpellier, Toulouse, Paris, and
Avignon, and then vicar-general to the bishops of Clermont and of Uzes.
He was afterwards made abbot of Saint Germain d' Auxerre, whence he was
sent to the abbey of Saint Victor of MarseiUes.
Innocent VI. summoned him to Avignon, and accredited him to Queen
Jane, at Naples, to assist her in governing her States, after the death of her
second husband, Louis of Tarento, which occurred on the 26th of May,
1362 ; and he finaUy discharged the duties of papal nuncio to the Visconti
of MUan. On the 22d of September, after the death of Innocent, twenty
cardinals assembled in conclave. The conclave was divided into two
parties ; the Gascon cardinals, subjects of the king of England as duke of
Aquitaine on the one side, and the French cardinals on the other. How
ever, on the 28th of September they agreed to elect Hugh Roger, a Bene
dictine monk, and brother of Clement VI. But Hugh, with rare courage,
and with uncommon modesty, refused the pontificate, and persisted in his
refusal. Subsequently, WiUiam Grimoard was elected pope, on the 28th of
October, at the earnest recommendation of Cardinal d'Aigrefeuille, although
he was nuncio at Naples, and was not a cardinal. The author of the Lives
. of the Popes of Avignon, states that this election took place on the 27th.

520 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The sacred electors dispatched to the nuncio the decree of his election : he
received it secretly, as some say at Florence, and others at MarseiUe"s, on
his way back from Naples, whence he had been summoned on pretext of.
consulting him upon the differences of opinion in the conclave. The parti
sans of Grimoard kept the election secret, lest the Italians on learning it
should throw obstacles in the way of the new pope's arrival, or that he
should refuse the tiara. The election, therefore, was not made pubhc until
he reached Avignon, on the 31st of October.
On that day he was enthroned, consecrated on the 6th of November, and
crowned by Cardinal Aldouin Aubert, bishop of Ostia.
Every thing was prepared for the ceremony of the cavalcade, but the
pope refused thus to show himself in pubhc, for two reasons ; he had a
horror of pomp, and then, from a sentiment of noble pontifical modesty,
he regarded the papacy as being exUed, as long as it remained at Avig
non. In 1362, and in 1363, Urban condemned Barnabo Visconti, usurper of
many of the Church territories, as infidel, heretical, atheist, and impious,
and he declared war against him. If, in 1364, Barnabo appeared to repent,
it was not long before he yielded to the fury which rendered him one of the
most abominable princes of that time.
We wUl now glance at the principal labors of Urban. He organized a
crusade against the Saracens ; it was to be headed by John H., king of
France. Cardinal TaUeyrand, bishop of Albano, was named papal legate for ¦
the expedition. The cares of the pope and his Christian watchfulness pre
vented a war breaking out between the Genoese and the Venetians. The
Genoese were incited to new combats by the Candiotes, then in revolt
against Venice. SkiU and prudence extinguished the discord between the
archbishop of Salzburg and Rodolph, duke of Bavaria. All the prmces of
Germany had taken a part in it, each in his own interest. Timely repre
sentations caused the delay of the hostilities which were in preparation
between Charles V., king of France, and the king of Navarre, on the subject
of the duchy of Burgundy, that John had given to Philip, whUe the king of
Navarre affirmed that it was his inheritance.
MeanwhUe the king of Aragon, ungrateful to the Holy See, appropriated
to himself the funds received by the Roman exactors ; and he also usurped
those of the cardinals and of the bishops who resided away from their
churches, even with the permission of the pope. Urban, not willing to
aUow ecclesiastical hberty to be oppressed, exhorted the king, in paternal
letters, to restore what he had forcibly taken. He conjured him, also,
to revoke an edict which enjoined the disposal of the property of the absent
clergy. The king replied that he had acted on the advice of wise men ; and
the pope then cited the king to appear before the Holy See. Urban also

URBAN V.

521

demanded the payment of the tribute that had been agreed upon, which
was now ten years in arrear.
FoUowing the example of the kings of France, of Denmark, and of Cy
prus, the Emperor Charles IV., in 1365, paid a visit to Urban.
The pope celebrated Mass solemnly on Whitsunday. The emperor was
present, wearing the imperial cloak, with his crown and sceptre.
Charles, in a numerous assemblage of crowned heads, deliberated with
Peter de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, upon the means of re-establishing the
Cathohc faith in Asia, and of extirpating in France and Italy certain bands
of adventurers and assassins who threatened to approach Avignon, and
threw the court into such consternation that the pope was obhged to pur
chase his hberty with a large sum of money.
The leader of these assassins, called Arnaud of Servola, vulgarly known
as the archpriest, was invited to enter Avignon, and he was received there
with as great honors as though he had been a son of the king of France.
He had the honor to be seated at the table of the pope and his cardinals ;
and after giving proofs of respect, he departed with the absolution which
he had asked and merited by promising no longer to annoy the papal court
at Avignon, and to renounce his depredations, which would have drawn
down upon him the indignation of the king of France.
It was then that the famous Petrarch strongly urged the pope to leave
France, and to restore to the people of Rome the presence of the Holy See.
It is certain that before that event, so weU calculated to excite terror in
Avignon, which saw itseK on the point of being pUlaged, the pope had
formed the design of at least visiting the holy places of Rome. Cardinal
Albornoz had caused the roads to be repaired, and had re-estabhshed the
influence of the pontifical authority- wherever the pope was to make a halt.
In 1366, Urban created two cardinals — the first was Giles de Grimoard,
his brother, born at Grisae, a canon-regular of Saint Augustine. The
second was WiUiam Sudre, a French noble, born in the diocese of- TuUe, a
celebrated monk of the Dominican order, then bishop of MarseiUes, and
subsequently of Ostia.
The pope could not forget the great business of reuniting the Latin and
Greek Churches. He dispatched legates to Michael Paleologus to hasten
its success.
At the same time, Urban made public his great desire to return to Rome.
He set out accompanied by five Venetian gaUeys, three Pisan galleys, and
many other vessels of the Genoese navy, on the 20th of May, 1367, notwith
standing the representations of many sovereigns, some cardinals, and almost
aU the courtiers. Four days afterwards he was at Genoa.
We now revert in succession to several of the past events. Clement V.,
in 1305, was the first to remove the Holy See into France ; Urban V. was

522 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the sixth pope who resided at Avignon. After Clement V, and before
Urban V., John XXIL, Benedict XII., Clement VI., and Innocent VI.', had
continued to impose upon themselves that voluntary exUe, far from their.
capital and flock* Indeed, these pastors had established themselves at
Avignon, as though they were never to leave it. They had purchased the
sovereignty of it from Queen Jane, countess of Provence ; they built palaces
there ; they showed great affection for that abode, amidst a people without
turbulence and a nobihty without ambition. They were more desirous of
festivals and pleasures than of rehgious ceremonies ; yet, was it prudent to
yield to enervation, and thus to abandon Rome, even in real fear of perse
cution ? The subjection in which France and England at times sought to
keep the popes, excited the complaints of Christendom ; but there was no
reproach due to the reigning pontiff. Urban had set out for Rome.
He entered Genoa, where he was received by the nobihty in a splendid
palace. On the 11th of June the pope reached Corneto, where he was met by
Cardinal Albornoz, and a great number of prelates and noble Romans.
From Viterbo, the pope set out for Rome, where he made his entrance
sixty-three years after the death of Benedict XL He was received with aU
the honors due to a sovereign and the head of the Church ; and he was
visited by the Emperor Charles IV., Peter, king of Cyprus, and Queen Jane,
of Naples. The emperor had advanced to Viterbo to meet the pope. When
Urban entered on horseback, the emperor and the count of Savoy walked
beside him, holding his bridle. The empress arrived a few days later, and
the pope crowned her on AU Saints' day ; at Mass the emperor is said to
have served as deacon, t but he did not read the Gospels, which he could
only do on Christmas-day.
Wishing to avoid the heat of Rome, the pope left there on the 11th of
March, 1367, and took the road for Viterbo, where he decided in favor of
the Dominicans, in a cause which they maintained against the Franciscans,
relating to the body of Saint Thomas, which the latter possessed at Fossa-
Nuova, whence the sacred remains were transferred to the church of the
Dominicans at Toulouse, as the BoUandists state. £
The order of the Jesuats had been founded in 1360, by the Blessed John
Colombini, a noble of Sienna, formerly fining the post of Gonfalonier, the
highest dignity in his republic. After separating from his wife, by mutual
consent, the founder, at the head of sixty of his companions, crowned with
ohve leaves, met this pope, who approved the order, placing it under the
rule of Saint Augustine.
The pious founder died on the 31st of July, 1367, the same day on which,
* Italy, p. 136. f Biog. Univ., xlvii., p. 195. J Vol. i. of March, p. 725.

URBAN V. 523
subsequently, died Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. The order
of the Jesuats was extinguished by Clement IX., on the 6th of December,
, 1668. Colombini was placed by Gregory XIII. in the Roman martyrology.
On the 5th of April, 1369, Urban canonized Saint Elzear, count of Sa-
bran ; then he went to Viterbo, to avoid the heat. There the Perugians,
Who wished to shake off the authority of the Holy See, declared war against
him. They made raids up to the gates of Viterbo, carrying fire and sword
wherever they appeared. The Holy Father perceiving how much these
attacks strengthened the party of those who wished to return to Avignon,
pubhshed a crusade against the Perugians, and succeeded in reducing them
to order.
This year, 1370, Paleologus, persuaded of the benevolent intentions of the
Holy Father, repaired to Rome. He prostrated himself at the feet of the
pontiff, who received him with nearly the same honors that were rendered
to the emperor of Germany. There, in the church of the Holy Ghost, Pa
leologus abjured the schism ; he swore that the Holy Ghost proceeded from
both the Father and the Son, that the Eucharist might be celebrated with
unleavened bread, and that the Roman pontiff had the primacy over aU the
Churches of the world. The oath was drawn up both in the Latin and the
Greek languages. The emperor sealed it with a golden seal, and delivered
it to the pope, that it might be kept in the archives of the Church.
On the 21st of October, the emperor went to Saint Peter's. The pope, in
his pontificals, received him at the head of the steps. The emperor knelt
and kissed the feet of the pontiff, then rose and kissed his hand and mouth.
They entered the church together, where Urban intoned the Te Beum, and
celebrated Mass, and afterwards gave a magnificent repast.
In 1370, Urban had the satisfaction to learn that the Greeks began sin
cerely to recognize the supremacy of the Roman Church. The Princess
Clara, widow of Prince Alexander, chief of the WaUachians, had embraced
the Cathohc faith. One of the daughters of the prince of Bulgaria foUowed
that example. The Moldavians, the Albanians, the Russians, and the Geor
gians, aU at once returned to the faith.
The war between the kings of Aragon and Navarre, and between the
French and English, and perhaps also the revolt of the Perugians, witnessed
by the pope himseK, induced some cardinals, who loved the pleasures of
Provence and the peace which they enjoyed among a people so gentle, and
already lovers of art, to represent to the pope that he ought to return to
Avignon. Urban yielded, but he now perceived the magnitude of his error
in naming so many cardinals belonging to France or Aquitaine.
The tears of the Romans, who certainly had given the Holy Father no
oause of complaint, had no effect. The pope contented himseK with de
claring that he and his couH were sensible of the marks of respect that

524 LIVES OF THE POPES.
they had received, and that the pope had no other motive for leaving them
than the new needs of the Church, and the continued state of hostUity pre
vailing* in a great part of Europe. Peter, prince royal of Aragon, and a
friar of the order of Saint Francis, one of the friends of the Holy See, who
had most earnestly urged Urban to return to Rome, now implored the pope
not to go back to Avignon, and declared that his doing so might produce a
schism, in which a host of innocent Christians would perish. FinaUy, Saint
Bridget told the pope that she had had a revelation from the Blessed Virgin,
that if he went to Avignon he would die almost as soon as he arrived, which
was actuaUy the case. t
Nothing, however, could detain Urban ; he persisted in his dangerous de
termination. He had inhabited the ecclesiastical state three years and nine
months. On the 26th of August he set out from Montefiascone, embarked
near Corneto on the 5th of September, 1370, on a fine ship, escorted by
many vessels of various nations. He entered MarseiUes on the 16th of
September, and saw his palace at Avignon on the 24th of that month.
Urban had commenced writing touching letters, recommending peace, when
he was attacked by a continual fever, during which he would not lay aside
his rehgious habit.
The disease constantly grew worse ; then he had himseK removed from
the pontifical palace to the palace of his brother, the cardinal of Albano,
where he died on the 19th of December, at the age of sixty-one years.
Urban had governed the Church eight years, one month, and twenty-
three days.
He was at first buried, dressed in the habit of his order, in the chapel
of John XXIL, forming a part of the church of Saint Mary in Bompnis*
The last day of March, 1371, he was removed to MarseiUes, where he was
interred in the church of Saint Victor, of which he had been abbot. Greg
ory XL, his successor, ordered ten cardinals to accompany the body, and
to honor the funeral pomp that he himself had ordered.
Urban was adorned by the finest virtues, and with aU which befitted his
supreme dignity. The kings of France for a long time exempted from tax
ation the place where he was born. Waldemar, king of Denmark, in view
of the miracles wrought by this pope after his death, continued during five
years to urge Gregory XL to canonize him. Urban held great pomps in
contempt. He was a patron of men of letters. He instituted the academy
of Cracow, in Poland, and increased the privileges of that of Bologna. He
founded at MontpeUier a coUege for twelve youths of the city and of the
diocese, where they were to be instructed in the science of medicine. He
also, at his own expense, kept other students in several universities. He
* Note to Dr. Nelligan : sic in orig. I suspect a misprint.

GREGORY XL 525
was very hberal to the poor, and especiaUy to the rich who had fallen into
poverty from unforeseen misfortunes. He was inimitable in works of piety.
It was he who caused the heads of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to be" sump
tuously encased in the church of Saint John Lateran. Cancelheri, in his
history of the Possessi, has given an exact description of those two cases.
In the revolutions since then, part of the rich ornaments of the busts have
disappeared. Urban granted favors to his relatives with moderation. He promoted
none of them \excepting on the ground of great personal merit. He en
riched none of his lay relatives, and from respect to the pontifical dignity
he ordered his father to give up a pension of six hundred livres aUowed
him by the king of France. He had only one nephew, whom he married to
the daughter of a merchant in Marseilles, whom the nephew would not
have sought had the uncle been less modest.
He weU remembered the insults he had received while in a private station,
but he never avenged himseK for them. WiUiam, archbishop of Sens, had
treated him with some severity about a contribution which was not due,
and which Abbot Grimoard therefore dechned to pay ; and the archbishop
had gone so far as to say : " You wiU avenge yourself when you become
pope." Having become pope, Urban sent for the archbishop and said to
him.: " We do not intend to take any revenge for an outrage which doubt
less you have not forgotten ; on the contrary, we shaU promote you. You
have now but one cross, you shall have two, we name you patriarch of Je
rusalem." The pope, moreover, secured to the archbishop the revenues he
previously enjoyed.
The Holy See was vacant ten days.

203. GREGORY XL— a. d. 1370.
REGORY XL, originally named Peter Roger de
Beaufort, was son of WUliam, count of Beaufort,
who, during his hfe, saw his brother and his son
become pope, and another brother, two nephews,
and five cousins, become cardinals.
Peter Roger was bom at Marmont, an estate in
' the diocese of Limoges. He was, successively,
canon of Paris, archdeacon of Rouen, and apostol
ical notary. He was a man of excellent disposition, who distinguished
himseK by great apphcation to study, especiaUy .that of legislation. It is

526

LIVES OF THE POPES.

said that in the University of Perugia he studied under the celebrated
Peter Balde, of whom he thought so highly that he consulted him on im
portant business.
When scarcely seventeen years old, he was created cardinal by his ma
ternal uncle, Clement VI., and received the title of Saint Mary Nuova, on
the 29th of March, 1348 ; then he became cardinal-archpriest of the Lateran
Basilica. On the 30th of December, 1370, he was against his wiU elected pontiff,
by the nineteen cardinals who were assembled with him in conclave.
He was only thirty-nine years old, but of very matured intellect.
Cardinal Guy de Boulogne, bishop of Porto, ordained him priest on the
4th of January, 1371. On the following day he was consecrated bishop
and solemnly crowned.* After that ceremony came that of the cavalcade
in the city of Avignon. The duke of Anjou, brother of Charles V, king of
France, held the bridle of the pope's horse. '
By his first constitution,-)" the pope, who had taken the name of Gregory
XL, declared that the Basilica of Saint John Lateran was the principal
seat of the sovereign pontiff, and the first in dignity of all the churches.
FoUowing the traces of his predecessor, Gregory undertook to restore
peace between the kings of France and England, but aU his efforts were
vain. The two legates employed on that mission do not seem to have suf
ficiently seconded the views of the pope. The legate to Paris, Cardinal
de Dormans, had been chancellor of France, and considered only the inter
ests of that court. Cardinal Simon de Langham, formerly archbishop of
Canterbury, and legate in England, had cause of complaint against King
Edward. This double partiahty defeated the negotiations.
Other legates, who were sent to Henry, king of Castile, to Peter, king of
Aragon, and to Ferdinand, king of Portugal, were more successful, and
concluded truces of some years. Ferdinand, king of Portugal, ceased for
some time to retain the free domain of many cities in the archbishopric of
Braga, and Amadeus, count of Savoy, promised to desist from all spoliation
of the bishop of Geneva, till then recognized as the lord of that city.
In 1371, about the 6th of June, Gregory made at Avignon a promotion
of twelve cardinals. One of them was a Spaniard ; one belonged to the
famUy of the counts of Geneva. This was Raoul, afterwards anti-pope,
who took the name of Clement VII. $
* Novaes, iv., p. 193. f Super universas Bullas, tome i., p. 203. See Cherubini.
X Fleury says : " Robert of Geneva, brother of the count of the same city, afterwards Pope
Clement VII." We are at the year 1371, and it should be said that there was no true Pope
Clement VII. until the Cardinal de Medicis, created iu 1523, the predecessor of Paul III., Farnese.
These allegations of Fleury can only lead into error the young seminarians who read a statement
so completely heterodox. However, I do not deny that the false Clement was recognized by
France. It was one of the errors of Charles V. (See Fleury, vi., p. 214, edition of 1840-44.)

GREGORY XI. 527
The ten others were French, and five of those were from the province of
the Limousin, and countrymen or relations of the pope. Novaes (iv., p.
197) says that Gregory acted thus in order to counterbalance the author
ity of the old cardinals, who, knowing Gregory's gentle and modest dispo
sition, had undertaken to govern him "imperiously.*
In the year 1372, Gregory first ordered the feast of the Presentation
of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be celebrated in the West on the 21st of
November. Peter, king of Cyprus, sent to the pontiff the office of that
solemnity, set to music, as chanted in the East. Gregory approved it, and
had it executed in the church of the Franciscans of Avignon, whence it
spread throughout the West. This feast, inasmuch as it did not date from
a very high antiquity, was subsequently suppressed by Saint Pius V., in the
Breviary ; but the Jesuit Father Francis Turriano having proved, by va
rious testimonies from the Greek and Latin Fathers, that it was anciently
celebrated, Sixtus V. replaced 'it in the calendar.f
Barnabo Visconti continued to invade the territories of the Church, and
to excite the most violent hatred at Milan.
This monster,:]: unworthy of the name of man and Christian, endeavoring
to terrify his enemies by such tortures as before him no one had ever
thought of, ordered, by an edict which is given literally by Peter Azario,
notary of Novara, that the execution of State criminals should be prolonged
through forty-one days. The tortures were to be inflicted only on alternate
days. On the first, third, fifth, and seventh days the condemned were to
be five times beaten ; on the even days, second, fourth, etc., they were left
to a frightful rest ; on the ninth and eleventh days they were forced to
drink water mixed with chalk and vinegar ; on the thirteenth and fifteenth
days the skin was taken from the soles of their feet ; on the seventeenth
and eighteenth days they were deprived, one* after the other, of an eye and
a foot. And finaUy, K at the forty-first day, after a series of other atroci
ties, any life still remained in the mutUated trunk, it was broken on the
wheel. When sentence of excommunication was pronounced against Barnabo,
there was not one voice in Europe to object to it.
Civil war stiU desolated Italy. It was at this period agreed that when
a treaty had been subscribed, if any conditions of peace were contravened,
the pope should judge the case, and the infractor should be subject to ex
communication and interdict.
Here we have excommunication and interdict formaUy recognized by the
* See Bercastel, Hist, of the Church, tome xiv., p. 228.
t See Spondanus, Annates Ecclesiast. ad an. 1372, No. 9 ; Lambertini, Befestis B. Mar. Vwg.,
pars 2, No. 181 and 182. Also Sandini, Hist. Fam. Sacrm., cap. 3, de Maria Virgine.
X Italy, p. 133.

528 LIVES OF THE POPES.
secular power as a legal chastisement which they agree to suffer in case of
perjury. The question of excommunication is here settled ; it was part of
the legislation of the time, and an indispensable part when such as Barnabo
were in power.
Although the Emperor Paleologus had returned into the bosom of the
mother Church, there yet were numerous Greeks who persisted in their old
errors. Gregory thought fit, in 1373, to send two nuncios to them ;— one of
the order of Saint Dominic ; the other of the order of Saint Francis.. The
pope exhorted the people and the clergy of Constantinople to condemn
absolutely and forever the schism which they stUl maintained.
Then, to defend the Catholic religion and bridle the pride of the Mussul-,
mans, he had a crusade preached in Germany and other countries, granting
indulgences to all who took up arms against the enemies of the Christian
name. At the same time the continuance of the complaints against the
barbarities of Barnabo Visconti, having excited universal indignation, Greg
ory, on the 7th of March, cited him to appear before the Holy See, to hear
the sentence pronounced upon him, according to the canons against sacri
lege, assassins, the persecutors of the Church and of ecclesiastics, and,
finaUy, the inventors of punishments unknown in history. The citation was
supported by an army under the command "of Amedeus, count of Savoy,
brother of Cardinal Robert.
The ceremony of the jubUee was at hand ; the pope ordered that in addi
tion to the visits to the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, beyond the
walls, Saint Mary Major should also be visited.
In the year 1375, whUe the jubUee was celebrated, Gregory, by a buU,
on the 29th of March, ordered aU prelates to repair to their churches.
He had already often recommended this since his elevation. The patri
archs, the archbishops, the bishops, abbots, and other superiors' of religious,
were within two months to return to their churches or monasteries, and not
cease to reside there. This order was not to apply to the legates, cardi
nals, the four patriarchs of the East, the nuncios, and other officers of the
Roman court.
At this time, the pope one day met in Avignon a bishop, and said to him :
" What are you doing here ? Why do you not return to your church, which
you should love as your spouse ?"
The bishop as boldly as justly rephed : " And you also, Holy Father,
why do you not return to your spouse, infinitely more illustrious and attrac
tive than mine?"*
The freedom of this reply only served to confirm Gregory in the resolution
¦* Baluze, Lives of the Popes of Avignon, tome i., p. 479. Bercastel, Hist, de I'Eglise, xiv.,
p. 242.

GREGORY XI. 529
he had long since made to put an end to that widowhood which so afflicted
the Rbman Church, transported from its natural abode.
Moreover, the Holy Father was continuaUy exhorted to return by Peter,
the infante of Aragon, that holy personage who had made so many efforts
to retain Urban V. at Rome.
The pontiff had often, too, to reply to the entreaties of Saint Catharine of
Sienna and of Saint Bridget, who incessantly repeated that the pope ought
to return to Rome.* It is certain that, independent of those solicitations,
the Holy Father had received an embassy of the Romans ; they had secretly
determined that in case of the resistance of the pontiff, their feUow-citizen,t
the abbot of Monte Cassino, should be elected,"]: as he had promised never
to abandon Rome. Then Gregory declared his intention to depart ; in fact,
he announced it officiaUy to the emperor, to divers other sovereigns, and to
the lords and aU the people of Italy.
Scarcely was that positive resolution of the Holy Father made known to
the king of CastUe, when that sovereign, because the neighborhood of the
pope was an encouragement to making war upon the Saracens, wrote an
urgent letter in deprecation of his departure. Gregory rephed that having
before God considered the benefit that would result to the Church from that
return of the authorities to Rome, he was obhged to perform his promise,
but that he should not cease to feel deep interest in the king and his sub
jects. . At the same time, he offered aU the apostohcal favors in his power.
Charles V. also made various efforts to detain Gregory. The care of
those negotiations was intrusted to the duke of Anjou, brother to that mon
arch. The duke represented that his departure alarmed the king, and that
the Holy Father would ran great risk in returning to ungrateful Rome,
which could render the pope's residence there insupportable.
Some of the cardinals added their complaints to those of the two mon-
* Novaes, iv., p. 202. The same Novaes, without fearing to weaken what he has previously
said, adds, in a note to the same page: "Gerson (in Tract. Examinatione Boctrinarum, p. 11,
consid. 3) says that Gregory, when about to die, and having in his hand the body of Jesus Christ,
conjured all who were then present to be upon their guard against certain men and women who,
circulating under pretext of religion the visions of their own imaginations, had deceived him
into neglecting the prudent advice of his own counsellors, and who would thus have involved
the Church in the danger of a schism, if her spouse, Jesus Christ, had not provided against it."
Novaes continues: "Spondanus (Annal. Eccles., ann. 1378) also believes that those words of
Gregory were pointed at the solicitations of Peter of Aragon, Saint Catharine of Sienna, and
Saint Bridget. But Natalis Alexander, in the life of that pontiff, thinks, with more reason,
that the statement of Gerson is false. Moreover, Gerson named neither Saint Catharine nor
Saint Bridget. He who did name them, in order to breathe a greater scandal upon the canoni
zations of the saints, was the apostate Mark Anthony de Dominis ; various authors refute the
idea of the perfidious archbishop of Spalatro." See Lambertini, On the Beatification of the Ser
vants of God, last chapter n. 16 ; and Jerome Gigli, in Epist. S. Catlmrinas Senensis, pars ii.
Ep. 9, p. 59.
\ Novaes, iv., p. 203. t Baluze, 1195.
Vol. I.— 34

530 LIVES OF THE POPES.
archs ; then came the pope's own relations, wearying him with their inters
ested murmurs : relatives have easy access to the courts of princes, and can
harass wavering minds by their reiterated croakings.
Gregory remained inflexible, and rephed that he could not forget his
word ; that he had made a vow to God, and that he would keep the promise
which no one could cause him to break.
The author of the fourth life of Gregory, in Baluze, further states that
Gregory's mother, kneehng in front of the palace, endeavored to delay the
departure of her son. But that is not true. We are writing of what took
place in 1375, and Gregory's mother died in 1346.
However, the pope deemed that he ought to grant some delay to the two
princes, the king of Aragon and the king of France, who so indiscreetly
begged him to prefer their isolated, and, as it were, personal wishes to those
of aU Christendom. France and England were about to sign a treaty of
peace, under the pontifical mediation. Gregory consented to defer his de
parture for a few months ; and during aU that negotiating he had the hap
piness, on occasion of various hasty executions of some convicts, to obtain
a rule that thenceforward, in France and elsewhere, the old rule should no
longer be enforced, of refusing sacramental confession to the condemned,
to whom it was always refused, even when sohcited with aU the signs of a
sincere repentance. It was not until later that those noble and generous
souls, those true chUdren of Jesus Christ, who abound among the French
clergy, had permission to accompany, even in the fatal cart, the condemned
to the very last moment of their IKe. Foreigners have often told me that
the sight of the worthy priest, pale and tearful, offering the condemned
the crucifix to kiss, whUe the executioner and his assistants were beside him
waiting for their prey, presented a spectacle which they never could forget.
On the 20th of December, 1375, Gregory made a promotion of cardinals,
the last that took place in Avignon. It included seven French, one Itahan,
and one Spaniard. We have often enough spoken of that fatal partiality of
the popes of Avignon.
In 1376, the Holy Father excommunicated the Florentines, convicted of
having Ul-treated the apostohcal legates. The Florentines then sent Saint
Catharine of Sienna as their ambassadress* to offer fitting satisfaction to
the pope. He accepted it, and reopened the bosom of the Church, but the
peace was of no long duration.
On the 10th of September, in the same year, the pope, with a cortege of
cardinals, left Avignon. Six cardinals remained there ; among them was
Jean de Blandiac, who received the quality of vicar to govern the Venais
sin State. * Novaes, iv., p. 207.

GREGORY XI. 531
On the 12th of October, His Hohness embarked at MarseiUes on board
the Capitana, of the Knights of Saint John of Jerasalem, at the helm of
which was the grand master of the order, Ferdinand Heredia, whose skiU
and experience saved the pope from a threatening danger on the always
somewhat tempestuous coast of Provence. Gregory disembarked at Genoa,
remained there for a few days, and sailed again on the 28th of October for
Leghorn. There he received from the Pisans aU the provisions and refresh
ments that he required. Another tempest cast the pope upon the shores of
Piombino, and at length he disembarked near Corneto, where he celebrated
Christmas. In the month of January, 1377, after new perils, which he sur
mounted with great courage, Gregory entered Ostia, ascended the Tiber,
and finaUy disembarked near the gate of Saint Paul, at Rome.* The
magistrates of Romet received their sovereign with great demonstrations
of respect, joy, and affection. The solemn entrance took place on the 17th
of January.
Thus did Gregory restore to the desolated city of Rome']: the Apostolic
See, which had been exiled at Avignon during seventy-one years, seven
months, and eleven days ; that is to say, from the 5th of June, 1305, the
day on which Clement V. officiaUy estabhshed himself there, to the 17th of
January, 1377, the day of Gregory XL entering Rome.
He was on horseback, § accompanied by thirteen cardinals, foUoWed by a
* Peter Amelio, an Augustinian, Bishop of Sinigaglia, wrote a detailed account of the voy
age ; he was in the suite of His Holiness. Alphonsus Chacon has inserted it in his Vit. Pontif.,
and Muratori in his Script. Ber. Ital., tome iii., part ii., p. 690.
f Novaes, iv., p. 208.
X In our day (1851), the population of Rome is about 167,121 souls ; under the reign of Innocent
III. it was reduced to 35,000. That pontiff, in his work BeOontemptu Mundi, cap.ix., p. 298 (see
Life of Innocent III. in this work), says that few of the inhabitants then reached forty years of age,
and a far smaller number reached sixty. When Gregory XI. returned from Avignon, the city of
Rome numbered scarcely 17,000 souls. It was completely dismantled. The celebrated physician,
Monsignor Lancisi, in his book, Be Nativis deque adventitiis romani coAi qualitatibus (p. 120,
Rome, 1745), assigns the principal causes of the depopulation to the long residence of the Popes
in Avignon. He adds a statement drawn up from the year 1800. In 1800, the population was
153,000; in 1801, under Pius VIL, and in the spasmodic state in which the battle of Marengo
left Italy, it was only 146,000; in 1802, it was 144,000; in 1803, 140,000; in 1804, 136,000;
thence to 1809 it remained almost stationary. In 1810, after the kidnapping of Pius VII., it fell
to 123,000 ; in 1811, it ascended to 128,000 ; in 1812, it fell again to 121,000 ; and in 1813, to
117,000. We shall now see the effect of the restoration of 1814. Then the population rose to
120,000 ; in 1815, to 128,000. There was not much difference in 1816 ; France was occupied by
foreigners, and the war might recommence. In 1817, we find 131,000 ; in 1818, 133,000 ; in
1819, 134,000 ; in 1820, 135,000 ; in 1824, 138,000 ; in 1827, under Leo XII., 140,000 ; in 1828,
142,000; in 1830, 147,000; in 1831, 150,000. Thence to 1834 the population diminished: In
1835, it was 152>000; in 1836, 153,000; in 1837, 156,000; in 1838, it diminished by 8,000; in
1841, it rose again to 158,000, and, as we have already stated, it is now, in 1843, under the pa
ternal government of Gregory XVL, 167,121, and it is anticipated that in 1846 it will exceed
170,000 inhabitants.
§ Spondanus, Annul, eccles. ad ann. 1377, No. 1.

532 LIVES OF THE POPES.
great multitude of the people of Rome, but more especiaUy of the environs
and from the river-side. In the evening, amidst universal applause, he
visited the Church of Saint Peter, which was briUiantly lighted up by
torches and many-colored lamps.
One of the first cares of the pope, on his recovery from the fatigues of
his travel, was to a'ttend to the heresy of Wyckhff, and he wrote as foUows
to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the Bishop of London :
" We learn with grief that John Wyckhff, doctor in theology, and rector
of Butterworth, in the diocese of Lincoln, maintains and publicly preaches
many false and erroneous propositions, some of which relate to the errors
of Marsilius of Padua, and John of Jaudun, the fraticeUi, and others con
demned by our predecessors. You should feel shame and remorse of con
science that you have thus long tolerated those errors. We therefore order
you to inform us whether it is true that Wyckhff has maintained the propo
sitions of which we send you a copy."
Another buU directed the same prelates to communicate this matter to
King Edward, his children, the princess of Wales, and the nobihty of
England. A third buU was addressed to the University of Oxford, and
contained similar reproaches upon the conduct of the doctors for their
tardiness in repressing the errors of Wyckhff, whose progress the Pope
ordered them to oppose.*
The errors of Wyckhff had already spread in Great Britain. The heresi-
arch attacked the Church, the pope, and the rehgious orders ; he showed
no respect for the sacraments or the ecclesiastical hierarchy. For a time,
Wyckhff seemed to abjure his blasphemies, but ere long he loudly defended
the doctrine of Berengarius, the Waldenses, and the Albigenses ; he put no
limit to his fury, and, being supported by nine powerful nobles, inveighing
against the dogma of the omnipotence of God, he endeavored to introduce
idolatry and atheism. We shaU see at a later period the CouncU of Con
stance condemn those pernicious errors.
Before the buUs of Pope Gregory could reach England, King Edward
was no more. He died on the 27th of June, 1377, having reigned nearly
fifty-one years. His successor was Richard II., son of Edward, prince of
Wales, who died in the previous year. Richard was only eleven years old.
He was crowned at Westminster on the 16th of July, and reigned under
the guardianship of his uncle, John, duke of Lancaster. The duke of Lan
caster and Henry Percy, marshal of the kingdom, supported Wyckhff.
Gregory, fearing the summer maladies of Rome, resolved to go with his
whole court to Anagni, and he took up his abode there untU the end of No
vember, 1377. * Fleury, vi., p. 26.

GREGORY XI. 533
The pope began to be tormented with the idea of returning to France,
and the French cardinals daUy renewed their entreaties to that end. Con
sequently, wishing to provide for the election of his successor, he signed a
bull on the 19th of March, 1378, in which he made some important arrange
ments. In case of the death of the pontiff, the cardinals who should then
be in Rome, or a majority of them, might, without summoning the absent,
or waiting for them, choose, either in or out of Rome, a place to assemble
in conclave. Notwithstanding the opposition of a minority, the majority
could act, and disregarding the law requiring a two-thirds vote, the election
could be made by a simple majority of the cardinals present, — for instance,
a majority of seven to six. The election thus made was to be valid for that
time, and whoever should be elected, even though there was a very strong
minority, should be the true pontiff, and pastor of the Universal Church.
But death came before the pope could effect his return. He observed*
that Rome was no longer a fitting place for him, and that the Romans
despised his decisions, whUe they were received with respect by aU Catholic
potentates. One of the circumstances which most afflicted the pope was that of the
disobedience of the banderesi (bannerets), who had laid at his feet their
banners, the symbol of their authority, and had taken them up again to
continue to govern independently. Gregory found himseK obliged to yield
to their prepotence, otherwise he would have had to fear violence.
Further, some rebellious cities had promised submission ; but, far from
acting upon that prudent determination, they excited to revolt the comuni,
who had remained faithful. Everywhere petty tyrants sprang up who in
sulted the pontifical dignity ; and the Florentines (aU Guelphs as they were),
that is to say, professedly protectors of Rome, supported the resistance of
the refractory podestats. Afflicted by so much disorder in public affairs,
and no longer able to bear the tortures of the gravel, which extinguished
aU his strength and courage, Gregory became seriously Ul, and died on the
28th of March, 1378, at the age of forty-seven years, lacking a few days,
having governed the Holy See seven years, two months, and twenty-eight
days, as well at Avignon as at Rome. Novaes cites the judgment of Ber
castel upon the pontiffs of Avignon, and adds his own opinion.t
" Gregory XL," says Bercastel,-]: " was the seventh and the last of the
pontiffs whom for a period of over seventy years the Church of France con
secutively gave to the Universal Church. Although these pontiffs were all,
without exception, iUustrious for their knowledge and talents, and though
most of them were also distinguished for sanctity of hfe, and though some
* Novaes, iv., p. 211 t mi-> iv-. P- 313-
± Hist, de I'Eglise, tome xiv., p. 251.

534 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of them even had the gift of miracles, their names are not in high repute
in the Roman Church, which makes them responsible for fatal disturbances,
and the desolation that she suffered during more than a century. The
strange translation of the Apostohc See into France stamps on their nation
a stigma which the brilliancy of their talents and much virtue have not
been able to efface, and which, even centuries hence, wiU at most be only
weakened." Novaes then adds : " Thus in our time writes a Frenchman,
who observes in his own countrymen, as weU as in the Itahans, a blind par
tiality when they treat on this subject. This Frenchman, holding himseh
between the two parties, nevertheless shows how deserving of reproach is
that translation to Avignon of the Chair of Saint Peter, thus taking from
Rome that to which it was for so many reasons entitled, to remove it to a
place which for so many reasons was unfit for it. I cite this French writer
upon this point because he treats it with judgment and experience in the
thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of his history."
The opinion of Bercastel appears to me to be sound and judicious ; it is
calculated to destroy, partly at least, those recriminations which are the
more useless, because the evU is now remedied. Novaes, who accedes with
courtesy, reserve, and yet with a very complete determination to the dictum
of Bercastel, seems to me to speak hke a man of peace, conciliation, and
order. Novaes also mildly, yet firmly, blames that usurpation which was
undoubtedly culpable. Constantly restrained within the limit of consider
ation, and calm, but of a calm that does not always sleep, I too beheve that
pardon should be granted. But it should be one of those conditional par
dons that do not aUow of a relapse into the same offence. Who knows
whether the bitterness of exaggerated rancors, whether the obstinacy which
defends misunderstood rights, whether the ignoble misapprehensions which
in every quarrel spring up from reciprocal denunciations— who knows
whether all those circumstances, mischievous to both Rome and France,
may not sometimes have postponed peace and concord? These should
never cease to exist between the mother, who has aU the rights, and the
daughter, whose love so greatly aids the mother, and whose hate or indiffer
ence can bring so many troubles upon the metropolis of Christendom. In
truth, over-timid pontiffs erred, no doubt, in quitting Rome, and in seem
ing to advise then successors to abandon that city. Clement V. set an ex
ample which produced great evUs, but his successors should more warmly
have demanded their country, for every pontiff, in whatever country born,
became Roman on the day of his consecration. The error was serious on
the part of the French popes ; it was no less so on the part of the French
sovereigns, disposed to beheve it useful to have a pope always at hand, or,
as we may say, under their thumb. Those sovereigns, it must be remarked
by my readers, had occasion to learn that those same French pontiffs them-

GREGORY XL 535
selves sometimes resisted that monarchical nepotism, more perUbus than
any famUy nepotism. There are some Avignon buUs which seem to have
been signed in Roman independence. There were also emperors who met
with refusal, and were irritated at their own miscalculations. I need not
mention instances, we have seen them accumulate in these annals for the
period to which they belong.
Every important capital, every cabinet which desires success in its affairs,
if they are just, grossly blunders in attempting snares, falsehoods, threats,
when it imprisons the high pontifical power so deeply rooted in Rome, binds
it in perfidious fetters in order to extort comphances, abandonments, and
hollow benedictions. Is it not very dangerous for one power thus to en
deavor to oppress the rehgious pohty of another ? The designs of God
are impenetrable. He may permit here or elsewhere displacements which
disturb the equilibrium ; he can bring back weaknesses, proud impulses, the
vocKerations of declaimers, armed sophisms, and forgetfulness of aU human
dignity. Those faUibiUties of reason, that brutishness, are weU known to
us. So in the case that must be supposed that Rome would be a stubborn
field to Saint Peter, the true course must be this : the happiness that she
should try to misunderstand and cast from her should be restored to her in
spite of herself; she must not be permitted to disorganize that immense
Christian worship which does so much good, and which can and ought to
continua to do it. H kings knew how easy it is for them to obtain from
the Holy See, each for himseK, what is useful and salutary ; K kings knew
that each commands in that dty of all, but commands only on condition
of demanding only his own, without seeking to despoil his neighbors ; that
when they keep within that law of right that the wisdom of Rome indicates,
K they do not see very clear, they yet wiU promptly obtain by abstaining
from that fury which is always hurtful in affairs ; — K kings knew aU this,
they would not make so many blunders.
Not in vain has Rome for so many centuries been the city of negotiations,
of treaties, of skilful reconciliations ; there, without fortune, and almost
without salary, hves a race of sagacious men who find, in the chanceries
which abound in the secrets of aU the world, explanations and counsels which,
clothed in a noble Ciceronian latinity, they send to you for your chart and
your compass.
This digression naturaUy finds its place at the moment of the disappear
ance of the last Avignon pope. Unfortunately, we shaU stiU have to teU
of pohtical disasters wliich foUowed the death of Gregory XL That pontiff
at least repaired, as far as he could, the evUs which he partly caused ; for,
in fact, schism— odious schism—- was planted in the soU of the Church, and
its numerous branches were thrown abroad hke those of the upas of Bor
neo. But let us draw the character of this pope, who, on many occasions,

536

LIVES OF THE POPES.

apart from the question about Avignon, deserved weU of Christendom.
Gregory was one of the most learned men of his time, celebrated for his
knowledge of canon law, easy of approach, and gentle in manner, with
much of that peculiar courtesy which so weU becomes princes. In aU the
actions of Gregory we see traces of his modesty, his benevolence, his pru
dence, his frankness, and his natural UberaUty. He cheerfully gave proofs
of patronage and generosity to the learned. It must be admitted that this
pope was too partial to his relations, but he would not aggrandize them more
than they had been by his uncle Clement. Upon that point, Father Berthier,
in the Ecclesiastical History of France, says : " This pope constantly had
with him his father, his brothers, and his nephews ; and at their sohcitation
he granted favors which were not always wisely bestowed."
Gregory was interred in the church of Santa Maria Nuova, the old title,
but commonly caUed Santa Francisca Romana. There terminated the
novendiali (nine days' funeral rites), which were commenced at Saint Peter's.
In 1584, the Roman senate* placed on his tomb an epitaph, which Father
Jacob gives in his Bibliotheque Pontificale (page 97), and which is also given
in the Lives of the Popes of Avignon (page 522).
The French historians of that time have, in general, spoken favorably of
this pope, because he was the first to restore the Holy See to Rome ; and he
is in no favor with the Italian historians, because, in the peninsula, he was
constantly at war and in dispute with most of the governments, of that
country. The Holy See remained vacant eleven days.

204. URBAN VI.— a. d. 1378.

were

HIS pope was originaUy named Bartholomew ButUh
Prignani ; he was of an iUustrious f amUy of Naples.
and archbishop of Bari, whither he was transferred
from the bishopric of Acerenza by Gregory XL
Although it was known that he was not decorated
with the purple, he was unanimously elected pontiff,
at the age of sixty years, on the 8th of AprU, 1378,
by sixteen cardinals who were in Rome, and formed
the conclave there. Among those cardinals four
Itahan, eleven French, and one Spanish. The sacred coUege consisted

* Novaes, iv., p. 213.

t Ibid., iv., p. 214.

URBAN VI. 537
of twenty-three cardinals. Six had remamed at Avignon, and one, John de
la Grange, was legate at Florence. We shaU enter into some detaUs upon
this election.
On the 7th of April those sixteen cardinals were assembled in conclave.
A caporione (chief of the quarter) of the banderesi, who governed the muni
cipal quarters or divisions of Rome, presented himseK with a message from
the Romans, informing the electors that the people desired a Roman pope.
He reminded them that before the death of Gregory the cardinals them
selves had determined that it should be so, that the pontiff might no more
retire from Rome, which his departure would plunge into ruin and desola
tion. Cardinal de Glandeve rephed that they would choose a worthy man,
capable of rightly governing the Church, and the caporione took his leave,
saying : " God grant that you give us a Roman ; K you do not, you will
repent it !" He had scarcely gone when they unanimously elected the arch-
. bishop of Bari, upon whom they had fixed their choice even before they
entered into conclave. His election, entirely free and exempt from aU
violence, was the sole work of the Holy Ghost. Such was the language in
which the sixteen electors described that election to the cardinals who had
remained at Avignon. Their letter is in the Lives of the Popes of Avignon
(page 338). A vague rumor announced this election in Rome. The Ro
mans, who would fain have seen the tiara on the brow of Cardinal Orsini,
although, the caporione had not said so, and who had forgotten that this
one of the two Roman cardinals was too young to be elected, rushed to
arms, and began to assault the Vatican, exclaiming, " We will have a
Roman! we will have a Roman!" Now, besides Cardinal James Orsini,
who was too young, there was but one other Roman, Francis Tebaldeschi,
cardinal of Saint Peter's, who was very old, and of obscure condition.
He was caUed cardinal of Saint Peter's because he had been the senior
canon of that basihca. In reahty, he should have been styled cardinal
of Saint Sabina, as that was his title. The cardinals, with Tebaldeschi's
consent, pubhshed that he was the elected pontiff, and that he was a Ro
man. The good cardinal lent himseK to this feint. He was attired in
the pontifical habits, and the populace hastened to pay their homage to
him. AU this appeared easy, because the really elected pope was absent,
so that it was not necessary that two cardinals should combine to mislead
the populace.
Meantime the sacred coUege secretly made known to the archbishop of
Bari his own legitimate election.
The "cardinal of Saint Peter's," quite decrepit with age, could not any
longer endure the pain that he felt as often as the populace came to kiss his
hands, which were swoUen and stiffened with the gout. At length he tried,
with all the strength that was left in his voice, to make the people understand

538 LIVES OF THE POPES.
that not he but the archbishop of Bari was the newly elected pope, elected
by his — the cardinal of Saint Peter's — and his coUeagues unanimous votes.
As soon as the populace confusedly understood his words they burst into
a terrific fury. They rushed hither and thither about the Vatican, threaten
ing to kiU the cardinals K they would not elect a Roman. But the cries of
the people were only in vain ; there were only two Roman cardinals, one too
old, who would not be elected, and the other too yo.ung, who therefore could
not be.
The cardinals were then shut up in conclave, when they simply confirmed
the election aheady made ; then they dispatched Agapetus Colonna to teU
the populace that they might kiU them, but that they were aU determined to
make no. other choice. Colonna was also to point out that the electing car
dinals had favored none of themselves, but that their choice had faUen on
an absent archbishop.
The fury of the Romans began to calm down. It was therefore resolved,
in the conclave of the 9th of AprU, to attire the new pope (who chose to
take the name of Urban VI.) in the pontifical habits, to place him in the
Chair of Saint Peter, and to go through the usual ceremonies. The cardi
nals, who had retired, to conceal themselves from the fury of the populace,
again assembled to the number of twelve, and they were enabled to proceed,
with some quietness, to the exaltation. On the 10th, Easter-day, Urban
was crowned by Cardinal James Orsini. The four absent cardinals, who
had been sheltered in Zagarolo, a fortified castle, took part in the ceremony;
and the same day the pope was enabled to take possession of Saint John
Lateran. Scarcely two months had elapsed, when the cardinals perceived that Urban
showed smaU respect to them. He had determined to reform some abuses.
Moreover, he did not agree with them on some most important questions.
Most of the eardinals were for returning to Avignon, to which Urban would
not consent. Eleven of the cardinals, those who were French, and the
Spaniard, de Luna, under the pretext of the excessive heat, retired to the
city of Anagni, whUe Urban, with the few Itahan cardinals, went to Tivoli.
The opposing cardinals, secure of the protection of the king of France, de
nounced the violence that the Romans had exercised towards them. EvU
counsels then prevaUed, and that part of the sacred coUege had the audacity
to depose Urban from the pontificate — that same Urban whom they had aU
freely elected, with even a resolute and courageous firmness, in presence of
the fury of the Roman populace. The pope, deposed by them, was also de
clared contumacious. After such a decision, those cardinals knew no feehng
of moderation ; they went to Fondi, a city subject to Count Honorius
Gaetani, at a short distance from Gaeta, with the permission, and even at
the earnest request, of Queen Jane, who pretended that she also had

URBAN VI. 539
reason to complain of Urban. There they brought into their party three
other Itahan cardinals, which made the number of the opposition fifteen.
On the 20th of September, they elected Robert of Geneva, of whom we
shaU speak by and by, and who thus became antipope.
Let us speak plainly. These cardinals had no just reason for deposing
Urban, who had been very truly elected without any symptoms of violence,
whUe they resorted to violence for the destruction of their own work. Let
us give a summary of the .facts. The Romans had besieged and maltreated
the eardinals to make them elect a Roman, and the cardinals had elected
one who was not a Roman, and had done so in spite of the clamor of the
inliabitants of Rome. The tumult being appeased, those cardinals, with
then own hands, had clothed Urban in the pontifical habits. Did they, not,
by that very act, ratify freely the election they aheady had freely made, and
validate it, even had it not been, as here we must see that it was, legitimate
throughout ?
Nay more, the cardinal of Limoges, John de Gros, hearing that his brother
Pierre de Gros, chamberlain, had, asked the bishop of Cassano, who states
the fact, whether the archbishop of Bari was the legitimate pope, rephed,
taking a missal in his hand, " I swear by these Holy Gospels that Monsignor
of Bari is truly pope, elected by aU of us cardinals unanimously, as truly
as Saint Peter was the veritable pope and vicar of Jesus Christ."
Peter de Luna, Spaniard, who also became antipope, and who prolonged
that schism of which we now see the inception, being questioned on the
same occasion, replied, swearing (as was his fatal habit), " I swear, and I
beheve, that from Saint Peter to the present time there has never been a
truer pope in the Church of God, nor one more legitimately or more unani
mously elected, both before and after we went into the conclave."
Letters from the cardinal of Geneva, afterwards an antipope, affirmed the
same legitimacy. They were addressed to the Emperor Charles IV., to the
Count of Flanders, and to the Duke of Burgundy. Subsequently, those
princes, learning that that cardinal had changed his opinion, read again the
letters which they had received, and held in contempt the contrary opinion,
which he sought to advance. There is also extant another letter, written
by the sacred college to the Emperor Charles ; it was sealed with the
imperial seal and with that of five barons of the empire, and it was pub
hshed by Henry de Knigton to confound the apostacy of the rebeUious car
dinals. StUl another letter is extant from the sixteen electing cardinals to
the cardinals who remained at Avignon, who at once recognized Urban as
the true pope.
Notwithstanding so many proofs, taken from the signatures and the words
of the rebels themselves, they persisted in the act of deposition that they had
settled. And thus commenced the twenty-second schism of the Western

540 LIVES OF THE POEPS.
Church, at once the longest and the most pernicious, for it lasted fifty-one
years, from the 20th of September, 1378, to the 26th of July, 1429. At this
latter period, as we shaU see, Clement VIIL, the antipope, submitted to the
true pontiff Martin V.
Let us return to the period which immediately concerns us.
The faithful, during this time, knew not who was the time head of the
Church whom they should obey. For, K Saint Catharine of Sienna; if
Peter, prince-royal of Spain, a Franciscan friar, iUustrious by his virtues,
and honored as possessing the gift of prophecy ; K Alphonso, the Spaniard,
who from the bishopric of Jena had gone to a sohtary and apostohcal life,
and was the companion of Saint Bridget in her pUgrimages; K Saint
Catherine, who was the daughter of Saint Bridget; if such personages, I
say, sustained the side of Urban VI., Robert of Geneva, caUed Clement VIL,
was supported by Saint Vincent Ferrer, the oracle of Spain, confessor of
the archbishop of Bari before his pontificate, and by Peter of Luxembourg,
the model of holy prelates.
Pope Urban VI. was obeyed by Italy, England, Germany, Bohemia, Hun
gary, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Prussia, and Friseland.
On the other hand, Robert, caUed Clement VII., was recognized by France,
Spain, Scotland, Cyprus, SicUy, Naples, and by many provinces that changed
their fealty as often as they deemed it to their interest. Others remained
neutral until a council should decide. Urban returned from TivoU to Rome,
escorted by the troops of Queen Jane, who ere long declared against him.
From Saint Mary Major he went to the palace of Saint Mary in Trastevere,
and on the 18th of September he made a promotion of twenty-six cardinals,
but three of them declined to accept the dignity.
On the 6th of November, in the same year, 1378, the pope deposed and
deprived of the purple and of ecclesiastical benefices, and inflicted other
penalties, on the antipope Clement VIL, as weU as the principal authors of
the schism. On the 29th of the same month he condemned the abettors,
clerical or lay, of the same Clement. With the other cardinals he dissembled,
especiaUy with the three Itahan deserters, in order that he might ascertain
K by forgiveness he might not bring them back to obedience. But in this
he did not succeed. Among the twenty-six newly promoted cardinals there
were three French : — PhUip d'Alencon, of the branch of the Valois, bishop
of Beauvais, then patriarch of Jerusalem, and bishop of Ostia; Rainulph
de Gerza de Monturc, near Limoges, bishop of Sisteron ; and Elzear de
Sabran. Another cardinal, Eston, was Enghsh, born at Hereford, in England,
of mean condition ; a Benedictine monk, of vast erudition, and very pious^-
he had merited the dignity of bishop of London. Another of those cardi
nals, a rehgious of the Order of Mercy, was a Spaniard. The other twenty-
one were Itahans, from various parts of the peninsula.

URBAN VI. 541
In 1379, the antipope sent an army against Urban ; but the generals com
manding for the latter beat the antipope's troops, and made their general a
prisoner. As a result of this victory, the French, who occupied the castle
of Saint Angelo, were obliged to dehver it to the Romans, who, irritated
against the foreigners, dismantled the place and carried away the marbles
and other valuable objects. Fortunately, BonKace IX. restored that fortress,
to which he added some outworks beyond the mausoleum of Adrian.
The schism would now have come to an end had not Queen Jane given an
asylum to the antipope. She had written to Saint Catharine that she would
rather lose both kingdom and hfe than remain in schism, and she aided
Clement. The Bolognese having revolted against the temporal delegates of Urban,
Clement thought there was a good opportunity of bringing over that city to
his side ; but he was told in reply that, notwithstanding their revolt, they
would remain faithful in their present obedience, until it should be fuUy de
cided who was the true pontiff.
Urban made a second promotion of cardinals. It included one Bohemian,
John Oczko, secretary to Charles IV., and bishop of Olmutz ; and two
Hungarians, Demetrius, ambassador to Rome from King Louis I., and Val
entine, bishop of Funfkirchen (Five Churches), also ambassador to Urban
from the same prince.
The pope, in 1380, ordered proceedings to commence against Jane, queen
of Naples, and he declared her schismatic, heretical, and guUty of high
treason. He deposed her, deprived her of the kingdom that she held in fief
from the Holy See, and he invited to the possession of those states Charles
Durazzo, prince of Hungary, son of the count of Gaeta, and then a general
in the service of Louis, king of Hungary, Jane's nearest relation.
Charles arrived in Rome in 1381. Having taken before Urban the oath
of fidelity, he was raised to the rank of senator, and received the crown of
the kingdom of Naples. The Holy Father advanced him 80,000 golden
crowns to enable him speedUy to conquer the kingdom.
The new king ratified the gift made to Francis Prignani, nephew to the
pope, of several provinces which his uncle had secured to him. On this
occasion Urban was as imprudent as censurable in his nepotism.
Charles Durazzo having presented himseK before Naples, experienced no
resistance, and made prisoners of Queen Anne and her husband, Otho of
Brunswick. But as soon as Charles, who was styled Charles HI., had taken
possession of the kingdom, he refused to dismember it in favor of the
nephew of Urban, and declared that it was unjust to do so, and a bad ex
ample to set before the other nephews of the pope. From this resulted wars
between the king, who broke his word, and the pope, who had so much de
sire to aggrandize his famUy.

542 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The gift of the pope to Prignani included the principality of Capua, the
duchy of Amalfi, and the county of Caserto, with Fondi, Minervino, Alta-
mura, Aversa, Gaeta, Capri, Sorrento, Nocera, Somma, and many other
cities, as weU as castles and fortresses. Amidst these possessions Naples
remained isolated, almost blockaded by the sea, and it was not difficult to
drive Charles III. out, and thus almost entirely deprive him of the whole
of the kingdom.
In the Ember-days of Advent, in the year 1381, Urban made a promotion
of cardinals, among whom he included the archbishops of Cologne' and
of Treves, but both refused the dignity; most of the other cardinals be
longed to Italy. This time there was not one Frenchman — a very fitting
abstinence. In 1382, the Romans, under various pretexts, revolted against the pope
and the cardinals. The latter hid themselves in various places, but Urban,
in full pontificals, courageously faced the populace. Carrying the cross in
his hand, he looked so stern and angry that the revolted feU on their knees
and asked pardon, which he granted.
However, Louis of Anjou, having been adopted by Queen Jane, seized
upon Provence.
Louis of Anjou, son of John, king of France, brother of Charles V, and
regent of the kingdom at the commencement of the reign of Charles VI.,
threatened Charles in. with a terrible vengeance, because the latter had
strangled Jane, whose states he occupied. Louis advanced towards Italy
to reconquer the kingdom of Naples and to depose Urban.
The pontiff declared Louis and his abettors schismatics, apostates, sacri
legious, and guUty of treason to the pontifical majesty, and at the same
time ordered a crusade against the army of Louis. The French prince
ventured to enter the Abruzzi. Charles III., after evacuating Naples, com
menced a defensive war, more prudent than that of Manfred and Conradine,
and waited for the chmate and the fevers to make the usual havoc in the
ranks of the French. His anticipation was realized ; Louis of Anjou died
of disease at Bari on the 10th of October, 1384, and his army voluntarUy
disbanded. The pope, who had previously thought right to go to Naples, was kept
prisoner there by Charles ; but after various vicissitudes they became recon
cUed. Unfortunately, the question stUl remained about the investitures that
Urban had granted to his nephew Prignani.
Peter of Aragon, who had as yet seemed to be neutral between Urban
and the antipope, sent ambassadors to Urban, begging him to grant him
the province of Naples, to exempt him from the annual tribute for Sardinia,
and soliciting such a host of other favors as proved that his accession to
Urban's side must be dearly paid for. But Urban refused aU these con-

URBAN VI. 543
ditions, and Peter, in a spirit of disappointment and vengeance, then de
clared against the legitimate pope.
The relations between Urban and Charles became more and more em
bittered every day. Then the king and some of the cardinals formed a
conspiracy against Urban, who had retired to Nocera.*
He had become odious to the cardinals, because he had exposed them to
a thousand dangers, because he would not return to Rome, and because he
refused to make peace with King Charles. On these grounds several aban
doned him ; others seemed to think that they could not yet quit him. Of
these latter the Holy Father caused six to be arrested, on the charge of
having conspired against him. It is affirmed that Cardinal Thomas Orsini
revealed the conspiracy. The names of those arrested were Cardinal GentU
de Sangro, Louis of Venise, Adam Eston, Bartholomew, archbishop of
Genoa, John Doria, archbishop of Corfu, and Marinus del Giudice, arch
bishop of Tarento.
Urban blindly foUowed the counsels of his infuriated nephew Prignani.
The latter demanded the deposition of the six cardinals, and had them put
to the torture. Novaes faUs to describe the frightful torments they endured,
for it would be to confess that the fourteenth century was no less abominable
than the tenth. We have already made a sad comparison between the
latter and the tweKth, and accordingly Novaes refers us to Bercastel. The
conspirators, who were not in the power of Urban, held him besieged in
Noeera, where he obstinately defended himself. Being unexpectedly re
heved, he wandered about for a long time in the kingdom of Naples, at
Messina, at Corneto, and near Rome. At length he reached Genoa, having
with him the six captive cardinals, as Richelieu had proudly conducted his
prisoners upon the Rhone. Prignani, who, in his frantic desire to reign,
had occasioned so much mischief, was in the power of Charles, and that
' nephew could no longer be charged with the treatment endured by the six
prisoners. At length those unfortunate cardinals, with the exception of the
Enghsh cardinal, were put to death in their prison at Genoa. Monsignor
Bechetti gives the history of this tragedy in his Ecclesiastical History of
the Western Schism (vol. i, page 209). It seems that Cardinal Eston, so
eminent for his piety and his learning, obtained his IKe, and at length his
hberty, on the demand of Richard, king of England. Authors friendly
to Urban have held that the other five cardinals only perished because
their friends attempted to poison the pope. What odious crimes each
party charges upon the other ! Fatal nepotism, what infamies you then
caused !
At this time news was received of the death of Wyckhff, but the state of
* Novaes, iv., p. 240.

544 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the Church forbade attention to any other events than those which imme
diately concerned her in the person of the pope himseK.
The Genoese refusing some honors to Urban, he left their city and re
paired to Lucca, and thence to Perugia, Tivoli, and Ferentino ; and having
no longer an asylum, he accepted the generous invitation of some Romans,
and repaired to Rome. , . ¦,
On arriving in that city, he ordered the jubUee to be reduced to thirty-
three years, in memory of the years of the hfe of Jesus Christ, ami that the
next jubilee should be held in the year 1390. He instituted the festival of
the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, become so celebrated, with the double
rite ; on the day foUowing the octave of Saint John the Baptist, with vigil
and octave, and the office composed by Cardinal Eston ; and decreed that
Corpus Christi might be celebrated, notwithstanding the interdict. He
also granted an indulgence of a hundred days to aU who accompany the
Holy Viaticum from the church to the abode of the sick, and thence back
to the church.
At length, Urban enjoyed in Rome that peace which he had vainly sought
in so many of the cities of Italy, and,amidst the terrible vicissitudes of his
disputed pontificate, but a violent poison was administered to him. He
suffered frightful pains, and died on the 15th of October, 1389, aged seventy-
two years. He had governed eleven years, six months, and eight days, in
a time of schism, of a thousand objects of terror, and of ferocious horrors
committed and retaliated. The right-minded now hoped, that. those evils
would cease, as the motives that had produced them no longer existed.
"But that disturbed state," says Novaes,* "was stiU long to continue ere
the faithful would fuUy recognize all the value of Cathohc unity." "And
that is not to be wondered at,t K we compare the fraUties of that pontiff
with those which he lacked to cause him to be loved."
Urban was of low stature, and corpulent ; his dark countenance had a
somewhat stern expression. It is conceded that he. was an exceUent writer
on canonical science. The qualities of his heart may be considered under
two aspects, as we learn from contemporary writers. Before his pontificate,
he loved justice, and the purity of language ; he hated simony ; he was
favorable to the good, and unfavorable to the evU ; he gave a good recep
tion to the learned, and was fond of sohtude. He was humble, pious,
tractable, patient in his own adversity and compassionate of that of others.
It is urged that aU those virtues disappeared when he attained the pon^
tificate, and that losing then aU his advantages, he was assaUed by impru
dence, hardship, and haughtiness ; especially caused by the facility with
which he listened to flatterers and inconsiderate. advisers.
k Novaes, iv., p. 247. t IDid-

URBAN VI. 545
Let us conceal no portion of the truth.
Urban would have been the worthiest of the papacy, had he never be
come pope ; and one of the popes most deserving of praise, if he had been
more gentle, more docile, more tranquil, and less eager for the advancement
of his famUy, who, however, after his death, could not retain all the honors
that he had heaped upon them.
His nephew, Francis Prignani, who, despairing of the life of his uncle,
had taken refuge in the March of Ancona, where he had some castles, fell
into the hands of his enemies, and was thrown into prison at Perugia.
There, in order to regain his liberty, he surrendered his fiefs. Under the
foUowing pontificate, he went to Rome. Poor and abject, and finding him
seK despised by aU, he went to Apuha. At the end of about six years, he
determined to go to Venice, and on the passage, during a terrible storm on
the Adriatic, he perished miserably, together with his mother, his sons,, and
his servants.
With him ended the family of Urban, which had been so unjustly enriched
by the favors of the pontiff.
The Holy See was vacant seventeen days.
The antipope, caUed Clement VIL, was son of Amadeus, count of Ge
neva, and of MatUda of Boulogne. The male hne of that famUy ended
with the Robert of whom we speak, and the county passed to the count of
Savoy. Robert was lame from his birth, but otherwise enjoyed good health. He
had at first been prothonotary of the Holy See, and then the forty-fourth
bishop of Terrouan, a See since transferred to Boulogne; subsequently
ecclesiastic of Cambray ; and finaUy, named by Gregory XL cardinal-priest
of the Holy Apostles. The same pontiff created him, in 1376, legate and
commandant of an army sent from Avignon info Italy.
He was thirty-six years old when he was named pope at Fondi, by the
eleven French cardinals, and the Spanish Cardinal de Luna, the enemy of
Urban. Although the French cardinals had seduced to them three of the four
Itahan cardinals, who had remained faithful to Urban, by promising their
votes to each of the three, yet the French cardinals gave their votes to no
Itahan cardinals, and did not oppose Clement, who was crowned on the
21st of September, in presence of Otho of Brunswick, and of the ambassa
dors of Queen Jane. The ceremony took place six months after the election
of Urban VI.
Clement, after the rout of an army which he had opposed to that of Ur
ban, retired to Splonata, near Gaeta, and thence to Naples, where the queen
received him with honors. But the Neapolitan people, better advised than
their queen, would not lend themselves to the intrigues of an intruding
Vol. I.— 35

546 LIVES OF THE POPES.
pope. He was therefore obliged to retire to Gaeta, and thence to Avignon,
which latter he entered on the 20th of June.
There he pretended to estabhsh his pestUential chair, in which he was
recognized by the countries that we have aheady enumerated. After many
wrongful proceedings instituted against Urban, he pubhshed decrees against
that pontiff's successor, Boniface, and "at the same time he crowned as king
of Naples, Louis, duke of Anjou, son of him who had died in Apulia.
Charles V., king of France, was present at that ceremony, and presented
the basin to the celebrant, whom he was unfortunate enough to recognize as
legitimate. WhUe the doctors of the Sorbonne, among whom were then included
Peter d'AUly, and other eminent personages, proposed, after the death of
Urban, some means of putting an end to the delusion, an endeavor which
incensed Clement, that perverse prelate, after a schismatic government of
fifteen years, eleven months, and twenty-eight days, died on the 16th of
September, 1394, of an apoplexy, caused by his anger at the opinions of the
Sorbonne, and was buried in the cathedral of Avignon, whence, on the 17th
of September, 1401, he was transferred to the church of the monastery of
the Celestines, which he had founded.
Clement was of so unamiable a disposition, that Saint Antoninus com
pares him to Herod and Nero. He is accused of sanguinary cruelty when
he commanded the pontifical army. He was succeeded in the anti-papacy
by Benedict XIIL, of whom we shaU speak hereafter, and who must not be
confounded with Benedict XHL, the true pontiff, who was created in 1724.

205. BONIFACE IX.— a. d. 1389.
ONIFACE IX. was originaUy named Pietro Toma-
zeUi. He belonged to a poor but noble famUy of
the city of Naples, the stem of which was the Cibo
famUy of Genoa. Pietro was born at CarasaneUo,
an old fief of his famUy. At first a canon of the
cathedral of Naples, he went to Rome, where, by
the purity of his morals and his attention to his
duty, he gained the esteem and the confidence of
Urban VI., who nominated him apostohc prothonotary, and, in 1381, created
him cardinal. Scarcely fifteen years before, Peter went into Rome an ex
ceedingly poor cleric, utterly destitute of resources.

BONIFACE IX. 547
It is only at Rome that such changes of fortune can be seen.
He was thirty years old, according to Platina, Bury, and TurseUini ; thirty-
four according to Buoninsegui and Saint Antoninus ; and forty-five accord
ing to some other writers, when he was elected pope, on the 2d of November,
1389, by fourteen cardinals of the party of Urban VI. He was crowned on
the 9th of the same month.
A few days later, on the 10th of September, he created four cardinals ;
two were Neapolitans, one Paduan, and one Roman. Among the Neapoli
tans was Cosmo Mighorati, who succeeded Boniface under the name of
Innocent VII.
In the same consistory, the pope restored the hat to four cardinals who
had been deposed by Urban ; and among them was Adam Eston, bishop of
London, one of those who had been kept captive by Urban, and who owed
his hfe to the courageous interference of Richard H., king of England.
One of the other restored cardinals was named Pileo, of the family of the
counts of Prota. He was born at Concordia, in Friuli, and was bishop of
Trevisa, of Padua, and of Ravenna. From that time he was surnamed de
tre capeUi — the thrice-hatted, because he had been made cardinal by Urban,
who afterwards imprisoned him ; by Clement, who, being master at Avignon,
received PUeo, when he escaped to that city. This hat, given by an intru
der, did not satisfy PUeo, who declined it. The hat which he received from
BonKace was the third, and from these circumstances he obtained his sin
gular surname of the thrice-hatted.
In 1390, the Holy Father invited aU bishops and princes to endeavor to
put an end to the schism.
Soon after his accession,* he carefuUy considered the situation in Italy.
Charles HI., king of Naples, who had also caused himseK to be named king
of Hungary, had been poisoned on the 3d of June, 1386. His wife, Mar
garet, remained at Naples, as regent for her son Ladislas, aged nineteen.
But the nobihty of the city gave its fuU confidence to a magistracy inde
pendent of the crown, under the name of the eight of buon governo-, an
aristocratic magistracy that disputed the authority of the queen. The
opposite party had proclaimed as king, Louis II., the son of Louis of An
jou, under the regency of his mother, Mary. Thus there were two minor
kings, and two regents, but of unequal degrees of legitimacy.
Boniface declared in favor of Ladislas, and caused him to be crowned
king of Naples, in the month of March, 1390. That prince, by an authentic
act pubhshed at Gaeta, on the 22d of March, declared that he had received
his kingdom from the Holy Church, and he swore constantly to give aid to
the Holy See against the antipope and the false cardinals. Moreover, the
* Italy; 1835, Firmin Didot.

; i
i i

548 LIVES OF THE POPES.
compacts were renewed that had been signed by Charles, his father, or
revoking the donations made to Urban's nephew, Prignani. The parti
sans of Louis of Anjou, having taken up arms against Ladislas, the pope
sent cavalry to his assistance, and endeavored to get the money necessary
for him to keep up the war.
In the same year, the pope celebrated the jubilee to which Urban had
caUed the faithful. According to Thierry de Niem (lib. i, cap. 68), a great
number of pUgrims attended, but no French, nor any of the inhabitants of
any of the countries that acknowledged Clement.
The pope granted to some of the cities of Germany the power to enjoy
the jubilee, on condition of visiting their churches and subscribing towards
the restoration of the churches of Rome. Some offences were committed
in the matter, and Boniface ordered the punishment of the guilty.
In 1391, the pope, learning that some Sicilians had sent aid to Louis of
Anjou against Ladislas, king of Naples, ordered the archbishop of that
island to excommunicate the supporters of Louis. Unfortunately, in Eng
land, the king's ministers, infected with the errors of Wycklifl, engaged
their sovereign to renew the laws of the first two Edwards, which authorized
the conferring of benefices and bishoprics without the sanction of the Holy
See, and declared any one who appealed to Rome on the subject guUty of
a praemunire. Boniface, by a diploma of the month of February, in that
year, 1391, annulled these laws, as well as others which were contrary to
ecclesiastical liberty.
In the same year, he canonized Saint Bridget, the foundress of the order
called of The Saviour, and gave the constitution of the new university of
Ferrara. Subsequently, that constitution not appearing to Clement XIV.
to be adapted to the new state of things, he reformed its statutes by a new
constitution, pubhshed in 1771. The Ecclesiastical States were then ravaged
by war, but Boniface, being a man of courage (uomo di petto cli egli era), did
not fail to find a prompt remedy, and endeavored to reduce the revolted to
obedience. The Perugians, weary of the divisions which so strongly animated the
Beccarino and Raspante parties, solicited Boniface to lend them the aid of
his presence. He was at that time displeased with the Romans, whose
caporioni had become insolent. He therefore resolved to comply with the
request of the Perugians, and reconciled them to the Roman Church. The
liaspanti had obtained, by the intercession of BonKace, permission to return
to that city ; but they showed themselves ungrateful. BonKace, leaving the
two factions to their own devices, and learning that the Romans desired his
return, because, as soon as the pontiff left that city, it was desolated by
famine and murders, returned to Rome on the 15th of September in that
year.

BONIFACE IX. 549
In 1394, Peter de Luna, a Spaniard, succeeded the antipope Robert. On
that occasion BonKace endeavored to recall aU the schismatics.
Incorrigible Rome was afflicted with new troubles. Some called for
Louis, the rival of Ladislas ; others were for a personal and local authority.
Boniface summoned up aU his great courage, and it may be affirmed that
he was the first pope who exercised absolide temporal power in Rome, and
in the Patrimony of Saint Peter. He took away all usurped authority from
the Romans, and declared that the government of the country belonged to
the pontiffs ; that the people should not at its own pleasure elect the magis
trates, and that the banderesi were suppressed. He named as senator
Malatesta, son of PandoKo of Pesara, a man distinguished for virtue and
ability. He in great pomp restored the oastle of Saint Angelo, which be
came a fortress, and which the Romans themselves had partiaUy destroyed.
To the mole he added imposing bulwarks,, which were afterwards kept up
and added to by Nicholas V., Alexander VI., Pius IV., Urban VIIL, Clement
X., and Innocent XL In addition, BonKace fortified the capitol and the
weaker portions of the pontifical palace.
Ladislas no longer held Naples, but the aid of the Holy Father enabled
him to conquer a portion of the surrounding country. In those times it
occasionaUy happened that the princes either awakened or encouraged in
the bosoms of the popes an inchnation to nepotism. Ladislas gave to the
nephews of the Holy Father the county of Sora, with other territory, at
the moment when the wreck of the famUy of Prignani, the nephew of Pope
Urban, so miserably perished.
However, Peter de Luna, who had taken the name of Benedict XL, had
organized a conspiracy against BonKace. A faithless governor had promised
to give up to Martin, king of Aragon, the city of Civita Vecchia for twelve
thousand crowns, and the count of Fondi undertook to make the pope pris
oner on the appearance of Martin's army. But the conspiracy was dis
covered before it was executed.
In 1399, BonKace determined to punish Honorius, count of Fondi, the
principal abettor of the schism. He declared him guUty of apostacy, out
rage upon the pontifical majesty, and rebellion.
In 1400, the Colonnas and Honorius Gaetani again attempted to seize the
person of the pope, but the guards at the capitol repulsed the rebels at their
first attack. In the same year Boniface had the satisfaction to see Ladislas
at length master of Naples and of the kingdom, and showing his affection
for the Holy See.
In the foUowing year the electors of the empire having deposed Ladislas,
king of the Romans, and elected in his stead Robert, duke of Bavaria, sur
named the little, BonKace, in 1403, confirmed that election.
It is affirmed that BonKace estabhshed the perpetual annates-— i. e., one

550 LIVES OF THE POPES.
year's revenue of each bishopric, to be paid to the Roman court. Benedict
XIII. having written a letter to BonKace proposing means of reuniting
the Universal Church, BonKace was greatly annoyed, because he knew that
Peter de Luna was not sincere. BonKace was seized by a violent fever, and
died on the 1st of October, 1404, after governing the Church fourteen years
and eleven months.
The physicians, to cure him of the gravel,* proposed a remedy, efficacious
perhaps, but certainly shameful, and he preferred death to a breach of
chastity. This pontiff possessed distinguished quahties which made him
worthy of his supreme ministry. With a handsome person, he had an im
posing countenance ; he was weU skiUed in the chants of the Church and in
grammar,! although httle addicted to higher studies ; he was affable, modest,
able, prudent in temporal government, and courageous in defending his
authority. Nevertheless, being but httle acquainted with the peculiar style
and business of the Roman court, he signed, without reading them, the re
plies sent by his ministers, and sometimes blindly decided in accordance
with the reports of his officers.
The disastrous time in which he hved prevented him from achieving aU
the glory that might be hoped for from a great pope.
The necessity of disheartening the antipope, and of recovering the ma
liciously usurped territories of the Church, compeUed him to seek money
by every means. But it must be added that in this he was not urged by
avarice, for at his death only one golden florin was found in his possession.
Besides, he knew not how to resist the sohcitations of his mother, brothers,
and nephews, whom he enriched beyond measure. But the whole famUy,
after the death of the pope, was reduced to beggary, that by their example
(says Saint Antoninus):]: others might learn not to seek to enrich themselves
at the expense of the goods of the Crucified.
The Holy See was vacant fifteen days.
Benedict XIIL, the antipope, Pierre de Luna by real name, belonged to
one of the most iUustrious famiUes of Aragon. He abandoned jurisprudence
for the career of arms. After a few years he resumed his studies, and be
came professor of canon law in the university of MontpeUier, archdeacon of
Saragossa, and provost of Valencia.
On the 28th of September, 1394, he was elected at Avignon, to be opposed to
BonKace IX., by twenty cardinals of the obedience of the false Clement VII.
On the 3d of October, Cardinal Guido, bishop of Frascati, ordained him
pope ; on the following day he celebrated Mass, and was consecrated on
the 11th, and crowned by the Cardinal-deacon Hugo, and afterwards made
his solemn cavalcade in Avignon.
* Novaes, iv., p. 263. ¦)¦ Novaes, ibid. J In Chron., part iii., tit. 22, cap. 3.

BONIFACE IX. 551
He several times swore that he would give peace to the Church by his
renunciation, K he should ever be elected. That promise blinded those who
gave him their votes. His insincerity was soon discovered, as weU as the
tergiversations- with which he tried to impose upon the ambassadors of
Charles, king of France, who, in the year 1395, begged him to resign the
pontifical insignia, in order that the Church might at length be restored to
peace. The kings of France, CastUe, and Naples suspended obedience in 1398,
but the French renewed it to him on the 28th of March, 1403, after keeping
him imprisoned five years in the castle of Avignon. In the time of Gregory
XII. Benedict again promised to resign, but did not. In 1407, the king
sent ambassadors to him at MarseiUes, where he then was, to entreat him
to refuse the title of pope, assuring him that otherwise he would be aban
doned by the whole kingdom. I dweU upon these particulars in order to
show that the French indirectly renounced the schism before it was at an
end. Benedict received that threat haughtily, and issued a bull excom
municating aU who separated from his obedience. The Sorbonne having
pubhshed firm opinions on that subject, Benedict was unconcerned, and
quite cooUy beheld himseK declared heretical, schismatic, and a disturber
of the peace of Christendom. It was rephed that he ought not to be caUed
either pope or cardinal, and that he and all his abettors ought to be punished
with aU the severity of the canons.
France seemed determined to deal more sharply with him ; a councU was
to be assembled at Pisa. Benedict escaped, first to Calhoure and then to
Perpignan. In 1408, he assembled a council of bishops of his party, who
advised him to give peace to the Church by refusing the papacy. He gave
fair words of promise to comply with that request, but he had not the cour
age to yield, and continued obstinate. Peter de Luna excited universal
indignation. Gerson, punning upon his name, which is Latin for moon,
said, "Nothing but an echpse of the moon can give peace to the Church."
It is affirmed that when Gregory XL gave him the deaconry of Saint Mary
in Cosmedin, he said to him : " Take care that your moon does not suffer an
echpse." But it is now considered that that saying is only based upon that
of Gerson.
At length a council was convoked at Pisa, in which, in spite of them
selves, Gregory XII. and Benedict XHI. were both deposed.
We shaU see more details in the article on Gregory XIII. The persist
ency of the obstinate Benedict induced the Emperor Sigismund to make a
journey to Spain to endeavor to obtain from the intrader the much-desired
renunciation, but the prince was unsuccessful. In the councU of Constance
Benedict was deposed, and deprived of ail his grades, titles, honors, and
dignities. He was also excommunicated as a scandalizer of the Church, a

552 LIVES OF THE POPES.
promoter of the old schism, a disturber of the universal peace, schismatic,
heretic, and a pertinacious breaker of the article of faith, Unam sanctam
ecclesiam. He lost the friendship of all the princes, except Alphons'o, king of Ara
gon. As a last blow, he was given up by Saint Vincent Ferrer, his former
confessor and defender, who at last denounced him as a perfidious deceiver
of God's people, and a perjurer, who deserved the contempt and indignation
of the faithful.
StiU, however, he had with him four cardinals, with a physician, and a
Jew who had become a Catholic. Obstinate in the schism, Benedict died,
in the ninetieth year of his age, on the 29th of November, 1424, at Peniscola.
He was a dangerous man, who braved six pontiffs and two councUs. Ber
castel aUowed him virtues, but they were obscured by the thirst for great
ness and the passion for governing. Avignon, Avignon, behold the fruits
of the fatal hospitality which too timid popes received from you ! You are
not guilty of these things, no doubt; but certainly you must not boast of
them. To these remarks let us address one fact. The city of Avignon,
though no longer the abode of the popes, continued to belong to them ; and
was stiU a devoted and faithful city. In the convulsions of the French revo
lution it was torn from its masters. When Pius VII. passed an hour there,
the most sincere respect was paid to him. Then, without disdaining its new
country, it did not cease to show itself profoundly Cathohc. That loving
city, which deserves also to be beloved, contains a host of distinguished and
generous men, who, with its delicious climate, present an assemblage of
qualities and virtues that render it an ever desirable abode. The wit and
the odors of Provence abound there, and any sovereign losing such subjects
might justly envy the good fortune of him to whose lot it fell to gain them.
Glen thus positively speaks of Boniface IX. : " By his great courage he
transferred to the papacy aU the power of the Roman people, and created
magistrates depending on himseK."* The preceding facts sufficiently prove
that Boniface was right thus to quiet the ever rising troubles in that unquiet
and discontented capital.
* Histoire Pontificate, by F. John Baptist de Glen, prior of the Augustinians of liege. Paris,
1615. 4o

INNOCENT VII. 553

206. INNOCENT VIL— a. d. 1404.
NNOCENT VII. (Cosmas Mighorati) belonged to
a respectable but not important famUy of Sulmo-
na, a city of the Abruzzi, in the kingdom of Naples.
After being a notary at Capua, he went to Bo
logna, to study law, and having attended the lec
tures of the famous John de Lignano, was made
a doctor. John, having been sent by the com
mune of Bologna on a mission to Urban VI.,
3trongly recommended Mighorati to the pontiff, who, on ascertaining his
virtues and talents, retained him in his service. The new retainer of the
pope was named auditor of the Rota, and then clerk of the chamber, and
was sent to England as coUector of the rents of the Roman Church. Re
turning to Rome in 1386, he obtained the bishopric of Bologna, but, the
inhabitants of that city showing some resistance, Urban promoted him to
the archbishopric of Ravenna. Boniface created him a cardinal, and in
trusted him with the most important affairs. On the 17th of October, 1404,
Mighorati was elected pope by seven cardinals, who had been in the obedi
ence of the deceased pope.
On the 11th of November, he was solemnly crowned, and on the same
day he took possession of Saint John Lateran.
Ladislas, king of Naples, having learned that Innocent had promised to
abdicate the pontificate, if that was necessary to the putting an end to the
schism, and fearing that at the conclusion of a general peace he would lose
his own Ul-secured crown, induced the pope to publish a constitution de
claring that he would consent to no treaty of peace, unless it were estab
lished as a prehminary that Ladislas should remain in peaceable possession
of his State. This favor of the pope which preferred private interest to the
weal of the Church, could not be accepted by the French cardinals. Such
a circumstance made it difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to put an end
to the schism. It did not even prevent Ladislas, always miserably ahve to
his own interests, from invading the properties of the Church, and com
mitting acts which Innocent endeavored mUdly to reprove. In vain he
remitted the tribute, many years due, from the kingdom, and even waived
it for three years to come ; these favors apparently only increased the per
versity and ingratitude of Ladislas. WhUe pretending personal regard for
the pope, this perjured prince aspired to rule absolutely in the Pontifical
States. The Romans were excited by this revolt, long famUiar to them, and

554 LIVES OF THE POPES.
their demands became so unreasonable, that the pope one day said : " Do
you wish also to wear our vestments ?" He thus declared that he would
sooner lose his pontificate than tolerate such insults as were offered him.
On the other hand, Alberic Barbiano, constable of Naples, and feudatory
of the Holy See, breaking his promise, suddenly occupied some portion of
the territory of Bologna, and even endeavored to seize upon its capital.
To repress the insolence of the constable, Innocent wrote to aU the govern
ors of the Ecclesiastical States, ordering that, on pain of excommunication
no one should give assistance or encouragement to Barbiano, and that all
the inhabitants should take up arms against him at the first call of the
cardinal legate.
By the death of Francis Ordelafli, who left no chUdren, Forti and Cesena,
of which he was lord, returned to the Holy See.
When the cardinal legate, Balthazar Coscia, tried to take possession, he
was opposed by some of the people of Forli, and thus new embarrassments
sprang up to torment Innocent.
On the 12th of June, the pope created eleven cardinals, six of whom were
Romans. He hoped thus to increase his party in Rome, and to destroy the
influence of the faction sustained by Ladislas.
But this concession to the Romans did not queU the spirit of revolt.
They endeavored to seize upon the Ponte-MoUe, over the Tiber, which was
occupied by a detachment of the pontifical troops, but they were fortunately
repulsed. After that check, the Romans began to treat. Then occurred
an accident which disturbed the pope's councU and embittered the malcon
tents. At the moment when two of the seven governors of the city were
returning from an audience given to them by the pope, Louis de Mighorati,
nephew of Innocent, without the knowledge of the pope, seized the regents
and the distinguished citizens who were with them, and ordered them to be
put to death in his own palace. The Romans were scarcely informed of
this perfidy, when the beU of the capitol rang, and the citizens rushed to
arms and imprisoned some of the most respectable ecclesiastics.
Innocent relying but httle upon the fidelity of Antonio Tomazelh, the
commandant of the castle of Saint Angelo, who was in correspondence
with Ladislas, thought fit to go to Viterbo. WhUe he was on his way
thither, the heat was so oppressive that many persons in his suite died of
thrist. The pope remained in that city seven months, and was then recaUed by
the Romans, who, though always ready to revolt, were always brought to a
better way of thinking by the sufferings which revolt always brought upon
them. They bethought them of the indignation with which he deplored
the cilme of his nephew ; but why had the pope a nephew ?
The Holy Father, when thus recaUed, consented to return. He had

GREGORY XII. 555
possession taken of the city, the capitol, aU the gates, and the castle of
St. Angelo, and then re-entered Rome.
Further nostihties having been committed, he excommunicated Ladislas
and deprived him of the kingdom of Naples. The effect of that terrible
chastisement was what might be expected. Ladislas, as indefatigable in
perfidy as in dastardy, sohcited his pardon. Innocent was a compound of
kindness, sincerity, and benevolent credulity. He pardoned Ladislas, and
thereby made the bad man worse than ever.
After governing two years and twenty-one days, Innocent died at Rome,
of apoplexy, aged sixty-eight years, on the 6th of November, 1406. He
was buried in the Vatican, in the chapel of St. Thomas.
Innocent was taU, and one of those handsome Neapolitans such as are
still seen. He was known to have great legal science, and was intimately
acquainted with aU the relations between the Holy See and Europe. But
he could not weU attend to them, embarrassed as he was by Ladislas and
the turbulent Romans. He was everywhere praised for his affability, good
nature, and piety, and for his patience in giving audience. He had a horror
of haughtiness and of simony. He desired to do good to aU. He so
a<hnirably united these quahties, that he would have been an irreproachable
pope, had such a prodigy been possible in such a time as that he hved in.
Innocent did not look upon the abdication of his throne with the same
eye with which he looked upon it when Cardinal Mighorati. When he
became pope, therefore, he beheved that he could absolve the cardinal from
the oaths he had taken in the conclave. Yet these oaths bound him to
sacrifice, K necessary, his own greatness to the peace of the Church.
The Holy See remained vacant twenty-five days.

207. GREGORY XII.— a. d. 1406.
iREGORY XII., originaUy Angelo Carraro, was a
patrician of Venice, of the family now known by
the name of Correr. Angelo, famous as a theolo
gian, and praised as such by Saint Antoninus,
Leonard d' Arezzo, Biondi, and Sanders, at first a
canon -regular, became, in succession, bishop of
Venice, bishop of Chalcis, in the island of Negro-
pont, and then titular patriarch of Constantinople,
still retaining the see of Chalcis.
In 1399 he was sent to Naples as pontifical nuncio by Boniface IX., to

556 LIVES OF THE POPES.
recall that city to its due obedience to King Ladislas, whom it had deserted
to foUow the party of the count of Anjou.
Innocent VII. had subsequently sent Angelo to the Marches, as legate.
and then, in 1405, named him cardinal-priest of Saint Mark. Fourteen
cardinals who had adhered to Innocent, and who were at Rome when that
pontiff died, created Angelo Carraro pope, on the 1st of December, 1406.
He was then nearly eighty years old,* though Saint Antoninus and various
other writers give him a less advanced age.
On the 19th of December he was solemnly crowned, and on the same day
he took possession of Saint John Lateran.
When the cardinals entered the conclave, on the 10th of November, they
had well considered the evils of the Church, and subscribed an oath, already
without effect, which bound each of them, K elected pope, to hold himself
ready to renounce the pontificate, K his doing so could extinguish the
schism and restore peace to the Church. t
Gregory ratified the oath with such appearance of sincerity that he often
saicl, " If for the union of the Church we should lack other means or horses
to our carriage, we would walk staff in hand to establish that union ; and U
no galley could be had to take us across the sea for that purpose, we would
take the first fishing-bark we could get."
Accordingly, on the 10th day of his pontificate, he wrote to the antipope
Benedict, and to the cardinals who obeyed him, offering to lay down the pon
tificate if Benedict would do the same, in order that both coUeges should
unite and elect a single pontiff, thus extinguishing a pernicious schism.
On the other hand, the antipope, Benedict, on the 31st of January, 1407,
wrote a letter to Gregory full of sentiments of peace and concord. Bene
dict declared, however, that previous to laying clown the pontificate he
wished to meet Gregory in friendly conference. Gregory therefore sent
nuncios to MarseiUes to treat about the place, time, and etiquette ; and on
the 20th of AprU it was settled that Gregory and Benedict should meet at
Savona, a city of the republic of Genoa. But the States of that repubhc
were then in the power of France. At the latest, the meeting was to take
place on St. Nicholas' day, in the month of September, 1407. Gregory
ratified that agreement on the 30th of July, and accordingly commenced
his journey on the 9th of August. He proceeded to Viterbo and thence to
Sienna, which he entered, surrounded by twelve cardinals, on the 4th of
September. He was about to continue his journey, when events occurred
which prevented him from leaving Sienna, where he remained till the end of
the year 1407.

* Fleury, v., 496.
f The form of that oath is given in Rinaldi's continuation of Baronius, year 1406, No. 11.

GREGORY XII. 557
At the end of January, 1408, he went to Lucca, where he made a promo
tion of four cardinals. The events which had disquieted Gregory looked
still darker. He had assured the. possession of Naples to King Ladislas.
That king, fearing that in the congress at Savona resolutions fatal to him
might be adopted favorable to his rival, Louis of Anjou, excited disturb
ances in the Ecclesiastical States, hoping that he might succeed in seizing
them. Then he advised Gregory to take the government of the Marches
from Louis Mighorati. This perfidious advice being foUowed, Ladislas
offered his support to the dispossessed governor, and thus indirectly aimed
at getting possession of the Marches. He then put a Neapohtan garrison
in Ascoh and Fermo and chspatched a body of soldiers to Rome, who made
a breach by razing a portion of the waUs. Cardinal Annibalcleschi and
Paul Orsini, who commanded in the name of Gregory, were obliged to
consent to an occupation of the city. The language of the general led to
the behef that the occupation would be but brief.
On the other hand, Gregory, while at Lucca, near to Savona, to which
he was about to proceed, saw that the French were concentrating trJPps in
the latter city, and that Benedict was trying to ensnare him. Between the
embarrassments raised at Rome, and the entreaties of Benedict, who was
weU known as an inflexible Aragonese, Gregory could not make up his
mind to travel the short distance that separated Lucca and Savona, and
he guarded himseK and his cardinals with great vigilance. At length he
determined to inform Benedict that for many prudential reasons, and for
their mutual interest, the place of the congress must be changed.
Benedict, seeing tiiat his designs were penetrated, addressed a reproach
ful letter to Gregory, and asked him why he had increased the number of
his cardinals. Gregory had, in fact, engaged to create none, except in case
of being required to do so by the necessity of making his cardinals equal in
number to that of his adversaries. Unfortunately, he seemed to have for
gotten that engagement. Among the cardinals who obeyed him were some
old ones who did not love him, and he had therefore created sbme on whose
fidelity he could rely. It was said that that creation did not contravene
the oath, and had been necessitated by the new state of affairs. ^,
Moreover, those new cardinals passed for men whose merits made them,
worthy of that honor. The first of them was John de Donienico, since de
clared Blessed, son of Branching a Florentine artisan. Having entered the
order of the Dominicans, he acquired immense renown for learning.
The second was Antoine Corraro, patrician of Venice, and the pope's
nephew, and one of the founders of the congregation of Saint George in
alga, who died in 1445, dean of the sacred coUege.
The third new cardinal was Gabriel Condolmieri, a Venetian patrician.
For a moment we leave family nepotism for national nepotism. But let us

558 LIVES OF THE POPES.
endeavor to excuse Gregory. Nearly eighty years of age, he more than
others needed the sohcitude of a relation. Pursued by rivals who were
laying plots for him, he endeavored to aid his policy by Venetian experi
ence, the Venetian policy being considered the. most skilful in Italy.
The fourth new cardinal was James of Udina, in Friuli, whose family
name has not been ascertained. From the medical profession he passed to
the ecclesiastical state. He died in 1410, at Rimini, leaving the reputation
of a learned and profoundly rehgious man. We have given some detail
upon these facts, because of their melancholy consequences.
The old cardinals, irritated at the promotion which they could not pre
vent, promised each other not to recognize their new coUeagues as true
cardinals. On the 4th of May, Gregory having forbidden his whole sacred
coUege to have any communication with the French ambassadors there, the
malcontents resolved to abandon the pope. The cardinal of Liege was the
first to execute that fatal project. On the 11th of May, he escaped from
Lucca to Pisa. Pursued by Paul, a nephew of Gregory, the cardinal used
sueh^lihgence that he could not be overtaken. On the 12th of May, six
other cardinals — Cardinal d'AquUea, bishop of Palestrina, Cardinal Malte
Conrad, Francis, cardinal of Bordeaux, John Orsini, Renaud Braneacci,
and Otho Colonna (afterwards Martin V.) — also fled.
Those six cardinals, finding themselves in safety, avowed, on the 31st of
July, a resolution to constrain Gregory and the antipope to resign the
pontificate. Mamfestoes were pubhshed on both sides. Those of the cardinals did
not bear the calm character of fidelity, and of grief for the Uls that afflicted
the Church. The pope, in his turn, showed the injustice of those who had
deserted him, and who accused him of being unwilling to restore peace to
the Church.* He did not refuse the medium of a councU, on the eve of still
more threatening troubles. He rightly maintained that the cardinals could
not convoke that councU. The election of the pope had been legitimate
and canonical. Consequently, it was indubitable that it belonged only to
the pope to convene general councils. He determined that he would con
voke it t & meet at a place in the patriarchate of AquUea, to be named by the
cardinals themselves. Finally, Gregory, in the most courteous terms, ex
horted them to return to him, -and promised them entire pardon of the past.
At that moment, three other cardinals joined the malcontents. Henry,
bishop of Frascati, Angelo, of the title of Saint-Pudenziana, and Landolpho,
of the title of Saint Nicholas in carcere. The first two had been with the
pope in Lucca, the third was at Perugia, of which he was governor.
Gregory, learning that the cardinals were about to assemble a councU at
* Novaes, v., p. 601.

GREGORY XII. 559
Pisa, declared that it would be of no force, because the convoking cardinals
were from that moment deposed from the cardinalate.
Here it is opportune to glance at what the Aragonese who styled himseK
Benedict XIII. was doing. For some time he had hoped for the constant
protection of Charles VI., king of France. But that prince's councU knew
that such a character could never be maintained in the papacy, and that to
treat with him was only to invite him to revolt ; and it was in that sense that
the French ministers finaUy acted with his envoys. As though he had not
yet shown sufficiently how fiery and unusual his acts could be, the antipope
Benedict gave way to an act- almost of frenzy, and addressed a buU to
Charles VI.
On the 14th of May, 1408, Sancho Lopez, watching the opportunity of
finding the king unattended by any prince of the blood, presented, on the
part of Benedict, a sealed letter to the king. It was addressed to the king,
the princes of the blood, and to the members of the councU.* The king
said to Sancho : " Those to whom this letter is addressed are not here at
present, but I wiU send for them : they wUl open the letter, and give you an
answer to-morrow." Accordingly the following noblemen assembled in the
king's presence : Louis of Anjou, king of SicUy (the rival of Ladislas) ; the
dukes of Berry and Burgundy ; Peter, brother of the count of Navarre ; the
count de Nevers, brother of the duke of Burgundy ; and the brother of the
queen of France, the fatal IsabeUa of Bavaria.
The buU was opened, and contained, in substance, these five propositions :
1. Pope Benedict (antipope) excommunicates aU those, of whatever rank,
even kings and prmces, who reject the means of a conference to ar
range the affairs of the Church. 2. Also aU those who approve the means
of an abdication of the pontificate. 3. All those who hold an opinion con
trary to that of Benedict. 4. Those who withdraw from obedience to him,
or refuse the levies of Peter's pence, or the coUation of benefices. 5. In
case of any one leaning to a contrary opinion, if within twenty days he do
not restore things to their first state, he pronounces a general interdict, sus
pense against the beneficiaries, and gives a dispensation of the oath of
fidelity made to the king and the other princes.
Could the acts of Gregory VH and Innocent III. be parodied with worse
taste, or with such an Ul-.timed audacity ? And it was a man without rights,
an Aragonese full of himself, that spoke thus in his own cause, which for a
long time had ceased to be that of the Church.
On the 21st of May, Benedict received this reply: "Peter de Luna ap
pears to be a schismatic, obstinate, and even heretical, a disturber of the
peace and union of the Church. He ought no longer to be caUed Benedict,
* Du Boulay, vol. v., p. 158.

560 LIVES OF THE POPES.
nor pope, nor cardinal, nor any other name of dignity, and no one ought to
obey him." Benedict then thought best to hide his shame in Perpignan, on
the frontier of Catalonia, where he pretended to assemble a councU.
Warned in time of that fact, Gregory felt his courage revive, but his po
sition, on account of the desertion of the cardinals, was none the less pain
ful. He had taken the road to Aquilea, and had aheady reached the
Marches. His friend, Charles Malatesta, sent him an express, announcing
that that road was not safe, as Cardinal Balthazar Coscia lay in wait to take
him prisoner. At that news the pope took refuge in Sienna, and deprived
Coscia of the government of Bologna, where he constituted himseK a kind
of tyrant.
One misfortune often produces another. At Sienna, Gregory found him
seK obhged to create nine cardinals, in order to oppose them to those who
were endeavoring to convene a council at Pisa. Only two of the new
cardinals were Venetians. There were one English and one Pole, named
Matthew Cracow,* one Spaniard, and four Italians from various parts of the
peninsula. One of the four was from Lucca, that city which had afforded
the pope a generous asylum.
After a stay of three months at Sienna, Gregory departed for Rimini,
where his friends, the Malatestas, lords of the country, awaited him. From
Rimini he sent the bishop of Porto to Rupert of Bavaria, king of the Ro
mans, to ask that prince to oppose the celebration of the council of Pisa.
During that time three of the dissenting cardinals departed, one to France,
another to England, and the third to Germany. Their errand was to
induce the sovereigns of those countries to repulse every sohcitation that
Gregory might make.
Notwithstanding the repugnance of the true pontiff, and the obstacles
which he naturaUy raised, they commenced on the 25th of March, 1409, at
Pisa, that councU which the venerable BeUarminet says was neither ap
proved nor reprobated.
After twenty-three sessions, it ended on the 27th of August, in the same
year. There were present twenty-two cardinals of the two parties of
Gregory XH. and the antipope, the patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem,
a hundred and eighty bishops,! two hundred and eighty doctors, and three
hundred regular prelates, besides the ambassadors of France, England,
Portugal, Poland, Cyprus, and Bohemia. Rupert, king of Germany,
sent ambassadors, but not being satisfied with the rephes to several
* Not Be Cracovie, as several authors have mistakenly said.
f Be Cone, lib. i., cap. 8. Saint Antoninus, in Chron., part iii., tit. 22, cap. 5, paragraph 2,
calls it conciliabule, because it was assembled by none of those who were treated as popes in dif
ferent countries.
X Novaes, v., p. 24.

GREGORY XII. 561
doubts that he had expressed as to the legitimacy of the council, he with
drew them.
The cardinal of Pavia, the dean of both coUeges, presided. On the 5th
of June, in the fifteenth session, the council deposed* Gregory XII., and
him who styled himseK Benedict XIIL, and on the 26th of June, in the
nineteenth session, elected Alexander Y., as we shaU hereafter see.
The faithful flattered themselves that this would put an end to the schism,
but they soon perceived their mistake. In fact, instead of the single pope
they wanted, there were now three, for Gregory, Benedict, and Alexander
were aU treated as popes.
Saint Antoninust thus judges the event.
Novaes here says, in a note, that according to Rainaldi, Azorio, and Na
talis Alexander, the council and the pope elect were, and should be con
sidered, legitimate.
Gregory, relying upon the protection of King Rupert, at first thought of
convoking a councU at Cividal of Austria or FriuU, to oppose that of Pisa ;
and on the 6th of June he reaUy celebrated the first session of that council,
still maintaining, as he was undoubtedly right in doing, that to the pontiff
alone belonged the power legitimately to convoke a general council. But
he could only assemble at Cividal a smaU number of prelates. Then, on
the 6th of September, he, by a pubhc document, promised to divest himseK
of the pontifical insignia K he who was called Alexander V. and the pre
tended Benedict XLH. would do the same ; so that, by the creation of an
other, the schism would be terminated. To that end Gregory deputed Ru
pert, king of the Romans, Sigismund, king of Hungary, and Ladislas, king
of Naples, to agree with the princes of the other party in the councU in the
choice of a place where another council should afterwards be assembled.
For the same end Gregory sent legates into aU Christendom ; but very
shortly afterwards, instead of obtaining what he desired, he found himself
abandoned by the senate of Venice, by the Hungarians, and by the Bohe
mians, in such wise that he was in some personal danger ; whUe the patriarch
of Aquilea, whom he had deposed, tried to have him captured by armed
men. Warned by friends, he put off his pontifical attire, and caused a man
in his retinue to assume them. The man was arrested, on the supposition
that he was the pope. Accompanied by two secretaries, and vainly pursued
by his enemies, he arrived at the port to which Ladislas had sent galleys ;
thence he went to the Abrazzi, then to Ortona, Fondi, and, finaUy, Gaeta.
The king of Naples, who, in appearance, had become faithful, impatiently
awaited him there. But the fidelity of the king was more than doubtful.
He hoped, by this mask of friendship, to obtain the domination of Rome,
* Novaes, v., p. 24 t Chron., part iii., tit. 22, cap. 5, parag. 2
Vol. L— 36

562 LIVES OF THE POPES.
where the fugitive pope would have appeared less like a sovereign pontiff
than a hopeless exUe.
In 1410 Gregory dispatched John, archbishop of Riga, into the northern
parts of Europe, to confirm those people in their obedience to him. He
also created, as legate of the Marches, Angelo, cardinal of Saint Stephen in
Monte Celio ; and, by a letter of the 18th of November, having given the
government of Fermo to Louis Mighorati, he declared him general of the
army of the Church, and ordered him to act with the troops of Ladislas.
Gregory, stiU defended by Ladislas in the ramparts of Gaeta, pubhshed,
it is affirmed, in 1411, according to the ritual and the customs of the
Roman court, the bull entitled In Ccena Bomini, against heretics and
schismatics. On that head he excommunicated, by name, Louis d' Anjou,
calling himself king of Naples, Peter de Luna, antipope, and Balthazar
Coscia, claiming to be John XXHL, as well as the cardinals who adhered
to this last-named.
In 1412, to support his adherents, who daily decreased in numbers, Greg
ory sent out several legates, especiaUy into Germany, and pubhshed buUs,
chiefly against those who molested the Margrave Hermann, who was con
stantly obedient to Gregory.
Subsequently, Ladislas, who seemed to be still attached to Gregory XII.,
yielded to the entreaties of John XXIIL, and basely deserted the legitimate
pope. Then Gregory, having learned that two Venetian vessels had chanced
to run into Gaeta, went on board one of them, accompanied by his two
nephews, Carraro and Condolmieri, and by Barbarigo ; and at length reach
ing the Adriatic, he was able to get to Rimini, that old shelter which he
had already found with his incorruptible friend, Charles Malatesta.
John XXIIL, elected instead of Alexander V, who only reigned ten
months, having, in 1413, convoked the Council of Constance, Gregory was
informed that K he reaUy desired the union and the concord of the
Churches and of aU Christendom, he and his cardinals were requested to be
present at the council. The result showed that he reaUy did desire that
union and concord ; but, fearing the plots of his enemies, who repaired to
that councU, he endeavored to show that it was assembled without legiti
mate authority, because he, Gregory, was the only true pastor of the
Church. He complained of Sigismund, king of Hungary, who had re
cently embraced the party of John. He sent to that prince the cardinal of
Ragusa, a Dominican, and the patriarch of Constantinople, to show the
justice of his cause ; and he ordered the same cardinal of Ragusa to
defend, in the council, the interests of the legitimate pontiff.
The cardinal arrived at Constance, and immediately put up before his
palace the armorial bearings of Gregory ; but the same night they were
torn down. Proceedings were taken on that matter, and the decision was

GREGORY XH. 563
that the arms ought not to have been put up in a city which recognized
John and not Gregory. This sufficed to show that the assembled bishops
were httle inclined to defend Gregory. Consequently, the cardinal lost all
hope of bringing them back to Gregory XII.
The cardinal knew that Sigismund was in the same mind. That
monarch reproached Gregory for not going to Constance, saying that he
ought to have done so in order to put an end to the schism in the Church.
The pope rephed that he had not refused to recognize the councU, but that
he blamed a congress which was convoked by John, who was not the Vicar
of Jesus Christ, successor of Saint Peter.
AU these unfavorable circumstances being weU understood, Gregory, who
| strongly desired the peace of the Church, wrote, in 1415, a letter in which
he gave to the cardinal of Ragusa, and others in obedience to the true
pope, fuU powers to declare in his name the congress of Constance a legiti
mate general councU, but not as being convoked by Balthazar Coscia ; and
with the express condition that the said Balthazar should not preside there,
or even be present.
At length a constitution was pubhshed, in which it was declared that the
Church had no longer more than one head, and that the faithful who had
obeyed Gregory and John wordd recognize only that head. Gregory dis
patched from Rimini his plenipotentiary, Charles Malatesta, lord of many
cities ; and in the fourteenth session, on the 4th of July, 1415, by the said
Malatesta, he renounced the pontificate and declared that Gregory XII.
would become Angelo Carraro again. Having learned what had taken place
at Constance by his orders, Angelo became Gregory XH. once more for a
moment, assembled a consistory, and appeared in it in his pontifical habits.
He approved aU that had been done by his locum tenens, Malatesta, laid
down the tiara and other insignia of his dignity, and protested that he
would never resume them. This took place at Rimini.
Malatesta, empowered to consummate that abdication at Constance, was
placed there on a throne like that wliich would have been raised for Pope
Gregory XH., and after having finished the declaration before the council,
descended from the throne, and, no longer representing the pontiff, seated
himself as an ordinary spectator.
The council then, to show its sense of Gregory's conduct, made him
bishop of Porto and perpetual legate of the Marches, and further recognized
him as the dean of the sacred coUege.
Moreover, aU his former acts were confirmed, and a constitution was
published stating that the determination of the councU not to re-elect Greg
ory XH* was no sign of depreciation of him, but had for its absolute and
* Novaes v., p. 29.

564 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sole object the restoration of peace to the Church. The same constitution
expressed that the things done by Gregory during his pontificate should
never be brought against him, and that he should never be caUed upon to
defend himseK concerning them. Other honors were at the same time
granted to him, which he only enjoyed for two years, for he was over ninety
years old. He had governed the Church, up to his deposition at Pisa, two
years, ten months, and three days, and, up to his free and true renunciation
at Constance, eight years, seven months, and five days.
On the 4th of July, 1417, he died at Recanati, and was buried in the
cathedral, where a tomb was raised for him. In 1623 that tomb was
opened when repairs were being made in the church, and his body was
found in preservation, and stUl clad in the pontifical habits.* Let us do
full justice ! Whatever criticisms have been heaped upon the memory of
this pontiff, he was endowedt with a sanctity so sublime, that Saint Anto
ninus, speaking of the constancy of that pope amidst so many adversities,
compares him to the martyred Saint Stephen.!
To that sanctity, so worthy of admiration, Gregory XII. joined learning,
experience, and piety.
The vacancy of the Holy See after the renunciation, continued twenty
days. The article devoted to this reign by Platina§ is entirely insufficient ; he
has given no detail of that noble act of renunciation which has immortalized
Gregory XII. That great pope defended his rights foot by foot ; it is to
him alone that Christendom owes the commencement "of the calm resulting
from the re-establishment of universal peace in the Church.

* Vittorelli, in his Addit. to Chacon, tome ii., p. 754. See also Quirini, Porpora e Tiara
Veneta, p. 3.
t Novaes, v., p 30.
X Saint Anton., Chron., part iii., tit. 22, cap. 5. See also Leonard d' Arezzo, in Commentar.,
rer. gest. in Italia, apud Muratori, tome ix., p. 936.
g Platina, p. 541.

ALEXANDER V

565

208. ALEXANDER V.— a.d. 1409.

LEXANDER V, originaUy named Peter PhUarchus,
was born in the island of Candia. At an early
age he became a Franciscan friar (he is the sec
ond pope of that order). He was sent to Oxford
and to Paris io study phUosophy and theology.
He became so able that he was caUed il doctor
refulgido. From Paris he went into Lombardy,
where John Galeas Visconti, lord of MUan, con
sidering him a man of distinguished intellect and great learning, named
him professor at Pavia, court theologian and privy councillor, and promised
him further honors.
Peter was successively bishop of Placenza and of Vicenza, and arch
bishop of MUan.
Visconti sent him to Bohemia to Wenceslaus, to obtain from that prince
the title and insignia of duke of MUan, and at his death left him as guar
dian of his two minor sons. Innocent VII. created Peter a cardinal on the
11th of July, 1405.
He was elected pope on the 16th of June, 1409, at the age of sixty, or, as
some say, seventy, in the nineteenth session of the CouncU of Pisa, by
twenty-three cardinals, of whom thirteen were of the Roman party, and ten
of the party of Avignon. He was publicly crowned on the 7th of July in
the cathedral of the city, whence he made the solemn cavalcade, thus imi
tating the possesso of Saint John Lateran.
In the same councU of Pisa, Alexander, for the peace of the Church,
accepted and admitted into the sacred coUege nine cardinals who had been
created in the unhappy times by the antipopes Clement VH. and Benedict
XHL Alexander, finding himseK recognized by the greater part of Chris
tendom, apphed himseK to the task of recovering the States of the Church
and expelling Ladislas. The duke of Anjou promised on that subject his
whole support to the pope, who gave him the title of king of SicUy, and
made him gonfalonier (standard-bearer) of the Church.
From Pisa, Alexander went to Prato, and then to Pistoia. There he
pubhshed a buU on the 25th of December, 1409, to prevent the progress in
Bohemia of the errors of Wyckhff, which had been introduced there by
John Hus. The pope was about to visit Rome, where the inhabitants only
awaited his arrival to restore him aU his authority ; but Cardinal Coscia

566

LIVES OF THE POPES.

urged His Hohness first to visit Bologna. Alexander had scarcely reached
the city, when he feU sick, and he died on the 4th of March, 1410, after
reigning ten months and eight days. He was interred in the church of the
Conventual Franciscans.
He was a personage of great prudence, constantly mUd and gentle,
liberal to the poor, and distinguished by eminent quahties ; an eloquent
orator, a consummate theologian, and worthy of aU the praise that numer
ous authors have bestowed upon him. The cardinals, on electing him,
exclaimed that the Christian world would not fail to do them justice, as
they could not possibly have made a better choice. Unfortunately, this
pope shaped his measures too much according to the advice of the
Cardinal Coscia, the same who succeeded him under the name of John
XXIIL Some bishoprics, abbeys, and benefices were imprudently distributed.
As regards nepotism, this pope used to say, that being raised to the papacy
he had not been tempted to enrich his relations, inasmuch as he knew of
none. His generosity often reduced him to a kind of distress ; and, accord
ingly, he sometimes remarked — We were a rich bishop, a poor cardinal, and
now ive are a mendicant pope.
The Holy See was vacant thirteen days.

209. JOHN XXIIL— a. d. 1410.

OHN XXIIL, originally named Balthazar Coscia, or
Cossa, was born at Naples, and was son of John,
count of Traja and lord of Procida. After being
archdeacon of Bologna, auditor of the Rota, and
bishop of Ischia, he was created cardinal in 1402.
The conclave consisted of only sixteen cardinals,
seven being absent. He was elected pope on the
7th of May, 1410. On the 24th of the same month
he was ordained priest by the cardinal-bishop of Ostia, then consecrated in
the basUica of Saint Petrona, and afterwards crowned by the Cardinal Ri-
naldo Brancacci.
At the time of the election there were some prejudices against choosing
him. He was said to have governed Bologna tyrannicaUy, and to have
led. a worldly life there. Saint Antoninus describes him as a person capable

john xxni. 567
of great things in temporal affairs, a skUful pohtician, and an audacious and
warhke man, who, in his youth, had even been a corsair ; but at the same
time, as a priest, but Ul calculated to make himself a reputation in spiritual
affairs. It is certain that the two successors of Boniface — Innocent VII.
and Gregory XH. — had much reason to complain of the conduct of Cosciaj
and Gregory had even deprived him of the purple, as having usurped a
despotic authority at Bologna ; but Alexander V. restored him the cardi-
nalate and the legation of Bologna, and added that of the Marches and the
presidency of some other provinces.
It was at this precise period that Rupert, king of the Romans, died. A
successor had to be named. John wrote to the electors, to induce them to
name Sigismund of Luxemburg, king of Hungary, son of the Emperor
Charles IV., and brother of Wenceslaus. He was a prince of great prudence,
firm, magnanimous, pious, hberal, weU read, master of several languages,
of good person and a majestic bearing. The city of Rome was again upon
the point of falling into the hands of Ladislas, king of Naples. The pope,
in 1411, resolved to go in person to the defence of his capital. He com
menced by declaring that the kingdom of Naples rightfully belonged to
Louis of Anjou, and he joined that prince to march upon Rome by way of
Florence and Sienna. At length the pope appeared among the Romans in
a sort of triumph, Louis of Anjou holding the bridle of the pontiff's horse.
John, formerly a warrior, knew that celerity is sometimes necessary in mili
tary expeditions. He added to the army of Louis some troops commanded
by Paul Orsini, general of the Church, by Francis Sforza, and other famous
captains, who, encountering Ladislas on the 19th of May, at Roccasecca,
boldly dispersed his troops, and would have taken the throne from him, had
they not been prevented from continuing the attack by their desire for
plunder. On the other hand, on the 9th of December, John excommuni
cated Ladislas, deprived him of the , kingdom of Naples and Jerusalem,
released the Neapolitans from their oath of fidelity, and pubhshed against
that prince a crusade, to which he called nearly all the States of Europe.
Ladislas, pursued by his enemies, thought it time to abandon the cause
of Gregory XII. and submit to John. That pope, contented with this vic
tory, received Ladislas into his good graces, and by caprice, or in the desire
to augment his own power, being tired of his relations with Louis of Anjou,
he restored the kingdom of Naples to Ladislas, created him general of the
Roman Church, and even furnished him with an immense sum of money.
But Ladislas, who had aheady deceived so many popes, only sought to lead
John into a snare. He secretly approached Rome, entered by breaching
the walls, forced the pope to fly, and ravaged the city.
John then resorted to the power of Sigismund. The pontiff and that
prince had an interview, to consult upon the means of pacifying Christen-

568 LIVES OF THE POPES.
dom. They visited, together, Parma, Placenza, and Cremona. In this last
city, which had always been Guelph — that is to say, of the party sustained
by the pope, the party that protected true hberty in Italy — the emperor,
who was the head of the Ghibelhne party, thought it advisable, in order to
win that commune over to his interests, to grant privUeges to Gabrino Fon-
dolo, who had made himseK be considered a kind of master there. Let us
now see how the head of the Holy See, the bold protector of the city, and
the emperor, his new benefactor, were on the point of being rewarded.
They had both ascended the tower of Cremona, whence aU Lombardy and
the majestic course of the pope could be seen.'"" Gambrino Fondolo, who
only by perfidy had obtained the sovereignty that he enjoyed, had for an
instant the idea of hurling both pope and emperor from the top of the cam
panile, or beU-tower, and thus to cause in Christendom a sudden revolution,
out of which he could obtain profit to himseK. Eleven years after
wards, when that same tyrant was condemned, at MUan, to be be
headed, by order of the Duke Philippe Maria, he declared before his
execution that he only regretted that he had been cowardly enough to
abandon that idea.
The troubles of the Holy See were complete. Sigismund afterwards had
the idea of referring the important affairs of the Church to a councU, to be
assembled at Constance. Some cardinals of the pope's party received from
the emperor a communication stating that if John would go in person to
Constance, he should there without opposition exert the supreme authority,
receive aU the honors due to the sovereign pontiff, and leave the city when
he chose.
Ladislas died on the 8th of August, 1414. Italy enjoyed apparent calm.
Shortly after, John had the affliction of learning that' in the marquisate
of Misnia some heretics had been discovered, who caUed themselves the
Brothers of the Cross, and pretended to base their doctrine upon a writing
laid by angels at the foot of the altar of Saint Peter, at Rome, about the
year 343, apparently in the time of Julius I.
" It is since that time," said they, " that we go about the world scourg
ing ourselves. God has abohshed the law of baptism and instituted bap
tism in our own blood." To those perverse inspirations they added, that
flagellation with conviction sufficed for salvation. The insensates also
maintained that no feast ought to be celebrated excepting Christmas
and the Assumption,! which were to be celebrated on Sunday. These
* Italy, 163.
f This idea of only celebrating Christmas and the Assumption was borrowed in 1801 from a
citation of Fleury's (Fleury, liv. 100, vi., p. 339), and urged when the concordat was being dis
cussed. It was seriously proposed to suppress all holidays except the two that we have men
tioned. But that proposition, so odious to Catholicity, was courageously repulsed.

JOHN XXIIL 569
heretics were condemned, but their adherents appeared again in other
provinces. John still feared to go to Constance, thinking that he would leave it not
as pope but as a private person. However, stimulated by the entreaties of
the cardinals, and by the assurances given to him by Sigismund, he at
length resolved to go. He entered Constance on horseback, attended by
his court of nearly six hundred persons. He advanced sadly, like a victim
adorned for the sacrifice.
By his own consent he opened the sixteenth general councU, known as
that of Constance, on the 5th of November 1414. That solemn assembly
lasted four years. It was attended by about a thousand fathers, among
whom were twenty-nine cardinals, four patriarchs, and three hundred
bishops. The emperor Sigismund" was present. AU the princes of Europe
had sent their ambassadors ; and there were besides above thirty-two thou
sand persons drawn thither by the immense interest of the greatest event
of the fifteenth century: for two popes renounced their authority; the
third also retired, and a new one was elected who was recognized by aU
Christian nations.
The councU had forty-five sessions. At the first two John XXIIL pre
sided. Pierre d'AUly, cardinal of Cambray, presided at the third ; Jordan
Orsini, cardinal of Albano, at the fourth and at the fifth. John de Brogni,
cardinal of Viviers, presided at aU the following sessions, until the election
of Martin V. in the forty-first. The last four were presided over by the
new pope elect. In that assembly the errors of Jerome of Prague and his
disciple John Hus were proscribed. Some authors, even Cathohcs, have
been of opinion that the condemnation of those sectaries, though substan-
tiahy just, was perhaps too hasty, and led to fatal consequences.
The Emperor Sigismund was accompanied by the Empress Barbara de
CUley, his wKe ; by IsabeUa, queen of Bosnia ; Rodolph, elector of Sax
ony ; Frederic, burgave of Nuremberg, afterwards elector of Brandenburg ;
Louis, count palatine of the Rhine and duke of Bavaria ; the archbishop of
Mentz, and many other iUustrious personages.
At the Mass which was celebrated by the pope on Christmas day, Sigis
mund, attired as a deacon, and having a drawn sword in his hand, sang the
-Gospel — Exiit edictum a Ccesare Augusto — There iveni forth an edict from the
Emperor Augustus ; and the count de CUley, the emperor's father-in-law,
held in his hand the golden apple, or imperial globe.
In the second session, held on the 2d of March, 1415, John swore to
renounce the pontificate, K Gregory XII. and Benedict XIH. did the same ;
he himseK, after celebrating in the cathedral the Mass of the Holy Ghost,
pronounced in the midst of that imposing assembly the oath. Having de
scended from the throne, he knelt before the altar, and with his hand upon

570 LIVES OF THE POPES.
his heart said : " Spondeo, voveo, et juro, Beo — I promise, Lord, and I swear
to God." The emperor was so touched by the humble and solemn tone of
the pope, that rising suddenly from his throne, and taking off his crown, he
knelt at the feet of the pontiff to thank him, and manKested his joy at the
generous resolution, as honorable for the pope as for the councU. Unfor
tunately, that good resolution of John did not long continue. Some time
afterwards he refused to give his sanction for the drawing up of the Act of
Renunciation, pretending that he wished to make it in person.
Being then informed that he would be compeUed to sign the power, and
not doubting that he would be arrested, he fled in the disguise of a mer
chant, and with the aid of Frederic, duke of Austria, who protected him.
That prince, to favor the departure of John, gave a tournament against the
count de CiUey, the brother-in-law of the emperor. In the confusion
attending that kind of .exhibition, the pope quitted Constance, and went to
Schaffhausen, Lauffenburg, and then to Friburg. No one now knew who
was the true pope. FKty-five heads of accusation were drawn up against
John, which had been read before him with aU formahty. FinaUy, the
council pronounced the definitive sentence against him on the 25th of May,
1415 — that is to say, five years and thirteen days after his elevation to the
pontificate. For the first time, then, a pope was suddenly deprived by those who had
recognized him as supreme pontiff.
Such were the operations of the CouncU of Constance. The first person
age in the Church was reduced to a private station, and destined to the
rigors of a prison. For, being stopped at Friburg, he was betrayed by his
protector and friend, the Duke Frederic, who cared only for his own inter
est. John, at the commencement of June, was sent prisoner to Heidelberg,
escorted by the guards of Louis, count palatine and duke of Bavaria, and
thence to Munich, where for four years he was strictly kept by Germans,
who did not understand his language ; neither did he understand theirs.
If John was guilty of the faults which have been charged against him,
they deserved an eternal oblivion, for his humihty and resignation when he
heard his sentence* sufficed to expiate those faults, as Bercastel remarks,
who with great circumspection writes the history of that event. Gregory
Xn., who, as we have stated in our sketch of him, had given to the cardinal
of Ragusa and other cardinals the faculty to form a councU of the assem
bly of Constance, in the fourteenth session, on the 4th of July, through the
medium of his generous friend Charles Malatesta, lord of Rimini, pubhshed
anew his voluntary renunciation of the pontificate, saying that he desired
only the weal of the Church. * Novaes, v., p. 54.

JOHN XXIIL 571
When the thirty-seventh session was held, on the 26th of June, 1417,
Benedict XIII. persevered in his obstinacy, although Sigismund had made
the journey to persuade that antipope to renounce. Then he was deposed
and excommunicated as obstinate, schismatical, and departed from the
faith. After his deposition, it was proposed that no one of the deposed
should be chosen in the new election, so that the Church might be rendered
more sohd.
Great concord had always reigned in this councU. It was divided, into
five chambers— the German, Italian, French, Enghsh, and Spanish. It was
determined that for this single occasion the election of the Head of the
Church shotdd be intrusted to a double coUege. One of these was formed
of thirty deputies named by the five nations, six for each of them ; the other
of twenty-three cardinals of the three obediences. Those fifty-three electors
were shut up together on the 7th of November, 1417, and on the 11th of
that month they came forth and proclaimed their choice of Otho Colonna,
cardinal of the title of Saint George. He took the name of the holy pon
tiff Martin of Todi, that angel of peace, that courageous successor of the
apostles, that deplorable victim of the fury of the Emperor Constantine
H. (see LKe of Pope Martin), and declared that he would be caUed
Martin V.
Colonna had, in 1405, received from Innocent III. the cardinal's hat, and
he had constantly shown his attachment to the pontiff up to the period of
the CouncU of Pisa, when he embraced the cause of Alexander V, and his
legitimate successor John XXHL The choice, then, had now fallen upon ,
that one of the cardinals who had shown the most attachment to the regu
lar Church, and the most dislike of intruders.
The Council of Constance deemed aU those measures requisite, and that
it was necessary to depose the three pontiffs in order to the total extinction
of the schism that those three pretensions had fomented. And in that the
fathers remembered the ancient and holy times when those hundred African
bishops agreed to abandon their episcopal sees to put an end to a schism
of the Donatists.
Persuaded that the unity of the Church is the greatest of aU goods,
the fathers thought that it should be preferred to every other interest,
and that it was for the advantage of the Church that the true pastor
should be the only pastor. They remained faithful to the maxims of
Saint Augustine, the soul of that august assemblage of African bishops.
On that occasion that great saint said: "It is for our people that we
are bishops. Now, what we are to our brethren, we are only in so far
as we can be useful to them. We should not be bishops to their
injury. When the Son of God has come down from heaven that we
Should become his members, should we feel pain in leaving our sees,

572 LIVES OF THE POPES.
when we leave them only that the members of Christ may not be braised
by a fatal delusion?" Those words of Saint Augustine are admirable in
their generosity. "That being settled," adds Novaes (v., p. 55), "I have
great reason to fehcitate myseK upon the zeal and magnanimity of Pope
Pius VIL, who, supported by the holy maxims of the African bishops,
would restore the unity of the Galhcan Church, lacerated and divided by
the fatal divisions of France, and whom we have also seen weeping in most
hvely sorrow. Pius VII. found it necessary to exhort, to constrain the
bishops of France, dispersed hither and thither by the furies of the tem
pest, to quit their flocks, and, with true greatness of soul, to renounce their
own sees. For the sake of the unity of the Church he displaced both the
true pastors and the intruders. The legitimate mission of the new pastors
has been estabhshed and maintained ; and accordingly since that period
my tears of bitterness have been changed into tears of tenderness and joy,
because I remember the happiness of the union which the great pontiff
restored to the Most Christian nation."*
In the following session of the CouncU of Constance, held under the new
pontiff Martin, it was ordered that Balthazar Coscia, formerly known as
John XXIIL, should pass from the prison of the duke of Bavaria into the
hands of the ministers of the Holy See. Thirty thousand golden crowns
were paid to that duke for the expenses of that imprisonment, and John
was dehvered to the care of the bishop of Lubeck. But John escaped in
1419, and went to Florence and threw himseK at the feet of Martin. He, a
scion of the most iUustrious of the princely houses of Italy, and made
pontiff by a most magnificent and solemn election, had sentiments of the
most lofty generosity and greatness. He received John with marks of the
most lively tenderness and affability. Martin immediately created John
bishop of Frascati and dean of the sacred coUege, and gave him a seat
loftier than that of the other cardinals. But he did not long enjoy those
honors which in no other rank of the human hierarchies would have been
lavished by the conqueror upon the conquered. It is in the famUy of the
sovereign pontiffs that we see those virtues which are exhibited by no other
family of princes.
John XXIIL died on the 22d of December, at Florence, and was interred ,
in a sumptuous tomb in the cathedral of Saint John, by his friend Cosmas
de Medicis.
The Holy See was vacant, reckoning from his deposition to the election
of Martin V., two years, five months, and eight days.
We have seen persons elected popes, and with more or less of right
* Novaes here very opportunely gives to the nation the title enjoyed by its ancient kings, who
were uo more.

john xxin. 573
believing it right to retain, with a seemingly inexcusable pertinacity, the
authority which has been conferred upon them. We do not think that
to detect the cause of so long a resistance it is necessary to penetrate the
folds of ordinary obstinacy which binds some men to the love of worldly
things. Perhaps we should not attribute to the defects of human nature
that tenacity so loth to give up what has been recognized by cardinals, by
nations, and by princes, and to look upon it as a pecuhar property which no
human power has the right to take away. A Christian who has heard
himseK saluted pope, head of Christendom, sovereign of sovereigns, arbiter
of the disputes of kings, raised to the honorable power of binding and
loosing here on earth, to be the successor and vicar of Jesus Christ, must
fear to hold loosely and with tremulous hand the greatness which has
devolved upon him. I cannot beheve in the weakness of him who resists.
I do not suspect him of a foolishly proud spirit ; I believe that, in a situa
tion in which not a backward step can be made, one is, as it were, naUed,
in spite of himseK, to that greatness. Perhaps it is no longer desired, and
yet it is not to be abnegated. One cannot easUy renounce it. The more
one loves Christ, the more that sacred trust envelops the whole man ; it
becomes veritably part of his flesh and of his bone. The Gospel forbids us
to die by our own hand. We must hve ; and so, unyielding, a pope must
hold his pontificate.
It seems to me that it is forbidden even to historians, and stUl more to
the multitude, to enter into such questions, and to judge of the thoughts
and actions of that small number of men who are placed, as it were, on the
confines of Divinity, and who neither would nor could confide to any other
man their sufferings, their doubts, their impossibility of action, their fet
tered generosity, their feet bound to the earth, their hands chained to the
altar when they would fain lay down the tiara. Christians, as no one has
told us such secrets, and as, with the help of God, we shaU see such scenes
no more, let us abstain from stern judgments, and from useless and sense
less denunciations. God has not made us men so strong that we should
often renew such strifes. Some authors,* remarking that John XXIIL had
been deposed, have thence inferred consequences which, under other cir
cumstances, could not but be erroneous. Although most of the prelates
who deposed him had recognized John XXIIL as the true pope, they could
not be unaware that the legitimacy of his election was doubted by a great
portion of the Christian world. They also knew that the prudent course in
an extreme case, involving the safety of Church or State, can never be taken
as a general rule, and that, even in strict mUitary or civU subordination,
there are cases which must necessarUy be exceptions to the general rule.
* Feller, iii., p. 652.

574

LIVES OF THE POPES.

210. MARTIN V.— a. d. 1417.

r_ OR the first time we see in the Chair of Saint Peter
' a cardinal belonging to the house of Colonna, so
often aU-powerful at Rome. Its rival, the cele
brated famUy of the Orsini, had given a Pole in
the person of Nicholas IH., elected in 1277, and
the predecessor of Martin IV. Nicholas incurred
the reproach of nepotism, a temper truly repre
hensible, which has so often injured the Holy See,
and which may now be denounced without scandal, because for more than
haK a century no Roman pontiff can be accused of it, and the wise Pius
IX. wiU assuredly not set the example. It may be asked, on a close exam
ination of the numberless revolutions that we have undertaken to report,
how it happened that, amidst so many absurd desires, when the meanest
soldier and the most obscure adventurer everywhere claimed the rule of
cities, no one belonging to those iUustrious families of the Colonnas and the
Orsini ever thought of usurping the sovereign authority in Rome ?
Those famUies produced men eminent for talents, wealth, and courage.
If they were great, wealthy, and courageous, they might also be ambitious ;
and yet amidst all those intrigues, attacks, seditions of every kind, revolts,
sometimes with, sometimes against the people, the patronage now given to
the tribune Rienzi, and anon withdrawn, no Colonna and no Orsini ever ap
peared in the front rank to claim the supreme authority. We cannot hesi
tate to attribute this spirit of reserve and moderation to an unalterable
respect for the rights of the Holy See. AU honor to those two great
families !
The Colonnas, among others, were personal enemies of many of the popes.
The violence of Sciarra Colonna has been sufficiently described, even though
he did not smite a pontiff with his gauntlet. A Colonna assisting at the coro
nation of Louis of Bavaria was presumptuous, no doubt ; but in welcoming
an intruder to Rome, if he offended John XXIH., who resided at Avignon,
he did not directly mamfest any ambition to reign. The Orsini, who had
so much power, who fortified the Cohseum, and made it the asylum of Alex
ander IH., who attentively watched aU the plans of the Colonna, apparently
to baffle them, so entirely gave themselves up to that famUy jealousy, and
to the secondary passions it evolves, that they were equaUy strangers to
any project for making themselves kings of Rome. When service has been

MARTIN V. 575
rendered, or mischief done, it is natural to seek power to obtain impunity,
or escape ingratitude ; yet no member of either of those two great famihes
ever appears to have desired to usurp authority in Rome. Those nobles
were by turns factious and faithful ; undisciphned and obedient ; fierce
against some popes, and subservient to others; but the dignity of the
Holy See and the possession of Rome were always respected by these
princes. FinaUy, amidst all the disturbances at the close of the last and
the commencement of the present centuries, neither the Colonnas nor the
Orsini have been seen among those who rejoiced over the misfortunes of
the pontificate. This signal justice was due to those two noble famUies.*
Martin V., Otho Colonna, was born, according to some authors, in 1365.
He studied canon law and other sciences at Perugia, and he was loved for
his learning, integrity, mUdness, affability, and modesty. He was caUed
tliefelidty of his times. Urban VI. made him prothonotary and referendary ;
BonKace IX., auditor of the Rota and apostohc nuncio to the courts of
Italy. Innocent VII. created him cardinal-deacon of Saint George, vicar
of Rome, and archpriest of the Basihca of the Lateran. John XXHL gave
him the administration of the patrimony of Saint Peter, of the duchy of
Spoleto, and of the cities of Todi, Orvieto, Terni, and Amelia. In aU those
employments he showed rare prudence. In 1380, he was archbishop of
Urbino. At last, he was elected pontiff in the forty-first session of the
CouncU of Constance, on the 11th of November, 1417.
It had been decided, as we mentioned in our hfe of John XXHL, that
besides the twenty-three cardinals who were present, there should be an
assemblage of thirty prelates, and that these cardinals and prelates should
name a new pope, who should have the suffrages of two-thirds of both col
leges. They were within ten days to elect him whom they deemed the most
worthy. On the third day they named Colonna, who took the name of Mar
tin V. But as the pontiffs Marinus I. and Marinus II. were also popularly
known under the name of Martin, and as the successor of Nicholas III. was
commonly caUed Martin IV, Colonna took the name of Martin V. ' More
over, he was elected on Saint Martin's day, and he placed himseK under the
protection of that great saint.
On the 12th of .November, Martin was made deacon ; on the 13th, he re
ceived the priesthood ; on the 14th, he was consecrated bishop, and seven
days later, he was solemnly crowned. He then made the grand cavalcade
in the city of Constance, to the cathedral church of Saint Augustine. The
bridle of his horse was held on the right by the Emperor Sigismund, and on
* It is known that Fabricius Colonna is the interlocutor of Machiavelli, in his treatise on The
Art of War ; and that Bartholomew Orsini, of Alviano, lent France the aid of his courage in the
battle of Murignano.

576 • LIVES OF THE POPES.
the left by Frederic, marquis of Brandenburg and elector of the empire.
At the close of the ceremony, a dispute arose between the pope's servants
and the burgomaster of the city, as to who should have the horse that had
been ridden by the pope. Cancelheri says that it was adjudged to the
burgomaster.* In the forty-third, session, on the 22d of March, 1418, the pope revoked
aU the favors granted by the recent popes, from Gregory XL downward.
He ordered that the bishoprics and benefices should be administered as they
had been before Urban VI. He made numerous decisions on ecclesiastical
discipline. Regarding the doctrines of John Huss, the pope repeated, by a
buU of the 22d of February, 1418, that they were condemned. The errors
of that sectary consisted in stiU maintaining that the necessity of commu
nicating under both kinds was a dogma of faith. He taught that the bread
and wine existed, as such, after consecration. He beheved that sacraments
administered by ministers of the altar who were in a state of mortal sin
were of no value. He admitted to the holy mysteries aU laymen in the
grace of God ; he maintained that the Church ought not to have any tem
poral possessions, and that the order of the hierarchy should be altered,
maintaining that aU priests were equal, and that there was no difference
between them and the pope, the cardinals, the archbishops, and the bishops.
On the 23d of AprU, in the forty-fifth session, the pope terminated the
Council of Constance, which had lasted three years and nearly six months,
and he approved its decrees concerning matters of faith. On this head we
quote Feller :f
" The first article of the buU against the Hussites is remarkable in making
the pope require that a man suspected of heresy shaU swear that he receives
the general councils, and especiaUy that of Constance, representing the uni
versal Church, and admit that ' aU that that council received or condemned
is to be received or condemned."
It seems a natural inference that Martin V. approves the superiority of
the councils over the popes, which was decided in the fourth and fifth ses- .
sions. But others maintain that Martin spoke only of the doctrinal decrees
against the sectaries ; and they rely upon an authentic document to serve
as a monument to posterity, in which the pope solemnly declared in the last
session " that he would inviolably hold and observe aU that has been de
creed, concluded, and determined, condliariter, in matters of faith in the
CouncU of Constance ; that he approved and ratified aU that had been thus
done in matters of faith, but not aught done otherwise and in another
manner." They add, that the decrees of the fourth and fifth session apply only to
* Storia de' Possessi, p. 40. f Feller, iv., 360.

MARTIN V. 577
times of schism and to popes whose legitimacy might be contested, as had
been the case, at times, previously.
The words of Martin are given by Labbe, in his Councils, vol. xii, p. 258 :
Becreta in materia fidei, per prwsens concilium, condliariter teneri et invidlabili-
ter observari.
By these words, which Novaes* repeats in a note, Martin meant that he
did not approve of what had been determined in the fourth and fifth ses
sions relative to the authority of the councUs over the pope. It is true,
moreover, as both Spondanus and BeUarmine teach, that the CouncU of
Constance did not absolutely define that the general councils had received
from Jesus Christ power over the pontiffs. It only declared that that power
existed in time of schism, when it was not known which was the true pope ;
and K they have power over doubtful popes, they have it not, properly speak
ing, over five pope. That is also the opinion of Torre Cremata, of Sanders,
and of Compeggio ; and it appears to us to be dictated by the highest spirit
of wisdom and foresight.
LadislauSj king of Poland, endeavored, by aU the most efficacious means,
to facUitate the reunion of the Greek and Roman churches. Martin
wrote to him in congratulation upon his zeal, confirmed the favors granted
to him by other pontiffs, and declared him vicar-general of the Roman
Church in his own States, with the especial charge to protect the evangelic
hght among the barbarians, and to invite the Greeks to return to the Holy
See. At the same time John, king of Portugal, not content with having taken
the town of Ceuta, belonging to the Moors, resolved to war stiU more
sharply upon them, in order to propagate the Christian faith. Martin, de
sirous of aiding him in his holy enterprise, urged aU the Christian princes
to share the dangers that John was about to run, and pubhshed a crusade
against the Africans. Two years later, the Portuguese fleets made their
way to the East Indies. They first took the island of Madeira, and then
coasted Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. They thus reached the Indies,
which had not previously been visited from Europe by sea.
Martin, justly believing that these conquests would benefit rehgion,
granted to the king of Portugal aU the territories that should be discovered
by his navigators from the mouth of the Black Sea to the extremities "bf the
Indies. AU the business of the councU being finished, the pope, in 1418, set out
on his return to Italy, accompanied by twelve cardinals.
Martin embarked on the Rhine to go to Schaffhausen ; he passed through
Rome, Geneva, Susa, Turin, Pavia, and MUan. On the 7th of October he
* Novaes, v., p. 64.
Vol. I.— 37

578 LIVES OF THE POPES.
arrived at Mantua, where he remained tiU the end of the year. He con
tinued his journey by Romagna, and stopped at Florence.
Martin had just terminated a difficult affair. John, count of Foix, asked
permission to marry Blanche, daughter of Charles, king of Navarre, who
was sister to his former wKe Jane. It was his design to estabhsh his race
legitimately in the kingdom of Navarre, of which Blanche had become the
heiress. Martin granted the dispensation, notwithstanding the degree of
affinity. This clearly proves that Juhus II., at a subsequent period, had a
precedent for the dispensation which he granted to Henry VIIL of England,
and that that prince had not on that account a reasonable pretext for foment
ing the Enghsh schism.
In gratitude to the Florentines for their welcome, Martin erected their
bishopric into a Metropohtan See ; he at the same time confirmed the
canonization of Saint Bridget, decreed in 1391 by BonKace IX., and con
firmed in 1415 by John XXIIL Martin ordered this confirmation for the
purpose of showing that Boniface and John were true popes. And thus, as
the immortal Lambertini remarks, their legitimacy is weU proven.*
Martin's entrance into Rome was impatiently expected. The passage in
which Platina gives the facts relating to that event is very touching. The
fine latinity of the author becomes more brilliant than ever as he speaks of
the feelings which the Romans must naturaUy have experienced.
" Martin, leaving Florence, at length arrived at Rome. The whole popu
lation and the princes hastened to meet him, as though he were no mere
man, but as it were a saving star, or the sole father of the land. The Ro
mans in their calendar stUl preserve the memory of that day, the tenth of
the calends of October (22 Sept.), 1421. The pope found Rome so devas
tated and wasted, that the very form of a city was gone ; everywhere were
ruinous houses, temples overthrown, streets deserted, the whole city sunk
in sloughs and oblivion, suffering from the scarcity and dearness of every
thing. What more can be said ? No- appearance of an inhabited place was
to be seen ; no indication of what constitutes a city. You would have
taken aU these citizens for mere denizens, or immigrants of the vUest scum
of the earth."
Not without a purpose have we quoted this frightful account of the con
dition in which Martin found Rome. Every time that she has repulsed the
popes, that city, almost losing her very name, has presented so frightful a
spectacle, evidenced so terrible a chastisement. Advise then revolts, that
that renowned majesty, that venerable grandeur, may again be seen peopled
only by the vilest scum of the earth !
We saw Rome three months after the return of Pius VH., in 1814. As-
* Be Canonizatione, 55, liv. i., cap. ix., No. 10.

MARTIN V. 579
suredly, as far as they could, the French had carefully and generously pre
served all the celebrated monuments ; nevertheless the population seemed
to have lost its energy, and forgotten its first joy ; deep grief was still im
printed on aU countenances.* I know not whether that magnanimous cap
ital is reserved for simUar calamities, but at least she should not boast of
those fatal and mortifying faUs which must always be succeeded by the re
turn of the beneficent authority wliich should never have been banished !
No one has mission, authority, capacity, or skiU to govern Rome better than
the pontiffs. There are misunderstandings as to certain concessions useful
to municipal existence : eventuaUy they wUl be consented to. Rome needed
some modification for its real progress, and from the administration of Con-
salvi to the present time, that city has prospered no less and progressed no ¦
less than others on the way to prosperity. The pontifical authorities are
opposed to no real improvement. Complaint may, possibly, be weU founded
in some obscure corners of the State, but at Rome there has been exaggera
tion ; more has been demanded than was reaUy desired. H it is just to
ask that sovereigns do their duty, it is no less just to ask of the people,
prudence, truthfulness, and temperance ; such a people wiU ask only for
what is just, and therefore wiU surely obtain it. Rome, on the arrival of
Martin V, immediately assumed a new aspect. Money circulated abun
dantly, agriculture furnished its rich supplies, and strangers from aU parts
flowed in. PUgrims came to teach the inhabitants, for the most part cold and
ungrateful, how much the popes should be loved. Moreover, wherever the
pope resided, affairs soon connected that place with aU the rest of the
world. Queen Jane knew that after her death the kingdom of Naples would
remain under the authority of the Holy See. To avoid this, and to deprive
the pope of his rights, she adopted the king of Aragon, who, she declared,
was to succeed her as though he were a son.
Martin, on that subject, determined to defend Louis of Anjou, to whom
he sent a reinforcement of cavalry. At the same time there was a
continued propagation in Italy of the heresy of the fraticelli, caUed also of
(lie opinion, because they opined that John XXIIL was deprived of the
pontificate on account of the constitutions that he had decreed upon the
poverty of Christ and his apostles. Martin deputed two cardinals to con
duct the proceedings necessary to be taken against the sectaries.
MeanwhUe the Hussites, under the leadership of Zisca, defended their
heresies in Bohemia. They crueUy persecuted the Catholics in that king
dom ; they destroyed the churches ; they profaned the altars and the sacred
images, and they burned the priests ; the violences of those impious people
* The number of the population at that period is given in our life of Gregory XI.

580 LIVES OF THE POPES.
became innumerable. Martin invited the emperor and the electors of Ger
many to commence a war against those barbarians.
In the forty-fourth session of the CouncU of Constance it had been
decreed that another general council should be celebrated. It was con
voked at Pavia, where it opened on 'the 22d of June, 1423, three legates of
the pope presiding. Shortly afterwards the plague appeared in that city ;
the council removed to Sienna, and commenced its business on the 21st of
August. But the proceedings closed on the 26th of February, 1424,
because the war prevented the bishops from going into Italy. Then
another councU was convoked at Bale, for the year 1431. In conformity to
the law of Urban VI., Martin, in 1423, celebrated the jubUee of the holy
year. The pilgrims were not very numerous, on account of the wars in
volving Italy, France, and Germany.
We have seen that Jane II. had adopted as her son the king of Aragon ;
but that prince having proved very culpably ungrateful, the queen revoked
her act of adoption and substituted for the king of Aragon Louis of Anjou,
so as to unite in the son of that latter prince the rights of the branches of
Durazzo, both of which were issues of Charles of Anjou, brother to Saint
Louis. This new adoption was approved by Martin, and in 1424 he con
firmed Charles in the possession of the kingdom, of which he had been
deprived in 1421*
The same year the pope forbade the cardinals to accept the title of pro
tectors or patrons of kings or princes. In cases of their having aheady
promised it, they were to renounce it, in order that they might be the more
entirely free to advise the pope on aU the business of the court. Alphonso,
king of Aragon, irritated against the Holy Father, who had maintained his
own rights, pubhshed an edict infringing the ecclesiastical immunities. In
1429, the pope was obliged severely to reprove the archbishop of Canter
bury. That prelate, arrogating to himseK an authority which belonged
solely to the Roman pontiff, had instituted, in England," a kind of jubilee,
simUar to that of the holy year, granting to those who within a given time
should visit the cathedral church of Canterbury the same indulgences which
were granted to the pilgrims visiting Rome at the time of the true jubilee.
Martin continued his apostohc labors : he had extinguished the heresies
which ravaged Bohemia ; he had pacified afflicted Italy, restored desolated
Rome, and merited the title that was given to him, of father of the country.
He had governed thirteen years, three months, and nine days, when he died
of apoplexy, at the age of sixty-three years, on the night of the 19th- to
20th of February, 1431. This pontiff was interred in a very beautiful
bronze tomb, in the middle of the church of Saint John Lateran, before the
* Novaes, v., p. 75.

MARTIN V. 581
altar where repose the heads of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. It is
there that he is described as the felicity of his time. He was worthy of that
proud title, he to whom the Church owed the extinction of the schism, Italy
repose, and Rome its complete restoration.
Martin was both a good man and a statesman. He was regretted aftei
his death even by those who detested him in hfe. His affability, his pru
dence, his power to advise weU, and his pure morahty, made him the first
personage of that time. When an ecclesiastical dignity was to be conferred,
he was an austere inquirer into the talent of the candidate. He granted
powers only to those who deserved them. He was admired for his firmness,
courage, and magnanimity in circumstances painful enough to queU the
courage of most men. He had two brothers whom he tenderly loved, An
tonio, prince of Salerno, and Lorenzo. The same day he learned that one
of them had died of the plague, and that the other had perished in an acci
dental fire in a tower. The pope, on hearing this fatal news, gave not tho
shghtest indication of unguarded grief, but merely raised his eyes towards
heaven, without uttering a word. The Holy See remained vacant eleven days.
Under this reign there was an antipope caUed Clement VIIL ; his real
name was Sancho de Muiioz. He was created by two cardinals whom
Benedict XHI. had invested with that title a day before his death. That
Clement voluntarily renounced the insignia of the papacy (because he was
only recognized by the Aragonese) on the 20th of July, 1429, after four
years and seven days of his anti-papacy. Then Martin created him bishop
of Majorca-
After that cession, which was confirmed by the CouncU of Tortosa, the
two false cardinals, and another that this Clement had created, completely
to terminate the schism which had so long afflicted the Church, held an
absurd conclave and elected Pope Martin V., who had aheady for twelve
years been legitimate pope.
Another antipope is also mentioned, who caUed himseK Benedict XIV.
We give some detaUs of that affair, and about the name thus prematurely
profaned, but destined to be borne by one of the great heads of the Church.
Bercastel does not treat the schism as being completely ended with
the renunciation of the antipope Clement, whUe aU the other authors
beheve this schism at an end.
John Carriere, according to Bercastel, one of the anti-cardinals of the
antipope Benedict XHL, after acceding to the absurd creation of this pseudo
Clement VIIL, had retired to France. There, become" aware of the in
trigues that preceded and foUowed the election of Clement, he had protested
against that of MuQoz. And believing that he alone had the right to give
a moderator to the Church, he had, on his own authority, named as pope a
Frenchman, who took the title of Benedict XIV. This phantom of a sov-

582 LIVES OF THE POPES.
ereign pontiff speedUy retired into obscurity. He is only known by a letter
of Cariiere to the Count d' Armagnac, and by a consultation that the count,
scarcely detached from the schism, addressed on that point to the Maid of
Orleans, who was regarded as a soul Uluminated by the greatest favors of
Heaven.* According to du Molinet,-t it was only under the reign of Martin V, towards
1430, that medals began to be struck in honor of the pontiffs ; or, rather,
that custom, which had prevaUed among certain Roman famihes, was revived
in favor of personages who had reached the exalted position of the pontifi
cate. In this species of artistic labor no one was more renowned than Vic
tor PisaneUo, of Verona, who was also a celebrated painter. He modeUed in
wax the features of Martin V. According to Paulus Jovius, he afterwards
engraved them, and aU the princes of that time wished to receive the same
homage. CoUections stiU preserve medals with this inscription, Opus Pi-
sani, Pictoris, and the portraits of Alphonso, king of SicUy, of John Paleolo
gus, and of Francis Sforza. We are concerned here only with the medals
struck in honor of Martin V.
The first that we know of as belonging to this pope has for exergue the
words, Martinets V. Columna, Pontdjex Maximus. On the reverse is a column,
surmounted by the two pontifical keys, interlaced. The Colonna family
was originaUy from Parma. It had a column or pillar in its armorial bear
ings, whence it took the name of Colonna. Some historians say that the
name was given to them because a cardinal of Saint Praxedes, of the same
house, had brought from Palestine, in 1220, the column or piUar to which
Jesus Christ had been bound by the Jews. A crown, which surmounts the
column, was added in virtue of pontifical concession, because Stephen Co
lonna was appointed to place the diadem upon the head of an emperor,
consecrated at Rome in the time of one of the popes of Avignon.
The second medal has for exergue the words, Optimo Pontietci — To the
Most Excellent Pontiff, and represents Rome, seated upon a buckler, having
in one hand a balance and in the other a cornucopia. The author intended
to express the pontiff's spirit of justice and the abundance which he intro
duced into impoverished Rome. Martin said to aU the ministers to whom
he intrusted a mission the memorable words : Diligite justitiam, quijudicatis
terram — Bove justice, ye who judge the earth. On the reverse are the words :
Dieutas ac labentes Uebis Restaur. Ecclesias. Colvmnjs hujus itrma Petea.
He restored the churches of the city, which were falling into ruins, and was the key-
* Novaes, v., p. 88.
f Historia Summorum Pontificum, a Martino V. ad Innocentem XL per eorum numismata—
History of the Sovereign Pontiffs, from Martin V. to Innocent XL, by their Medals, from the
year 1417 to the year 1678, by Claude dn Molinet, canon of Saint Genevieve. Paris, Billaine,
1679, folio.

•MARTIN V. 583
stone of the column. It is easy to perceive, in the field of the medal, the
facade of the Church of the Holy Apostles, restored by Martin V.*
I sometimes depart from du Molinet's description ; he either foUowed in
accurate drawings or'faUed to read the medals correctly. I am practised in
numismatic studies, and I have the noble present of Pius VIL under my
eyes when I describe a pontifical medal. t
* I have these two medals in a numismatic coUection, presented to me by Pius VII. I shall
have frequent occasion to mention that collection.
f Before terminating the reign of Martin V., I must mention what is called, in the edition of
Fleury that I use, a " Continuation de VHistoire Eeclesiastique de I' Abbe Fleury, par Fleury lui-
meme; publiee pour la premiere fois, d'apres un manuscrit appartenant d la Bibliotheque royale."
Fleury having published a hundred chapters, the first of these four additional ones is num
bered one hundred and one. In it we read :
" Pope John XXIII., the reproaches of whose conscience allowed him no rest, employed every
possible artifice to disturb the council. He always had men in his employment whom he made
use of in his simoniacal speculations, and by whose means he won over some bishops and other
persons'of consideration in the council, granting them favors and making them promises. Ac
cordingly, nothing was so secretly said or done in the council but that he was daily informed of
it. But he could not keep the secret, and he made it known to his confidants. Often his spies
came to him by night to tell him what they had learned during the day, and he gave them abso
lution of the perjury which they committed against the oath they had made to keep secret the
deliberations of the council. He thus was enabled to retard progress by exciting divisions
among the nations of which the council was composed. Those intrigues of the pope could not
long be concealed, on account of the multitude of his spies, most of whom, being discovered and
cited by the council, withdrew." (Vol. vi., p. 344.)
Further on (page 346), mention is made of the ambassadors of the University of Paris.
There are no new facts in Books 101 and 102 that require mention. I will merely remark
here that Fleury, who, on the whole, in his preceding books, often wrote with due consideration,
loses all prudence in regard to the Council of Constance. The three popes upon whom the cession
deposed, are all three judged unfavorably. John XXIII. is treated more harshly than the
others, and yet he is well and duly the two hundred and ninth official pope. Yet, for a wonder,
the author, whoever he was, does not treat the Fathers of the council better. Now, Fleury, in
his animadversions upon the popes, when his anger carried him too far, at least spared the coun
cils. I do not say that Fleury did not write these chapters ; I do not say that his tone, his style,
and his excessive severity are not perceptible, but his habitual judgment is very often absent. I
cannot readily believe that he wrote thus about the spies of John XXIII., and the absolution of
perjury. Let us not forget that Fleury wrote under the eyes of the court of France.
That he wrote but did not publish such words, is possible ; but it is difficult to think that he
did not destroy such a manuscript. We will not dwell upon the ambassadors of the University.
If Fleury found the word legatus Universitatis, he was too intelligent to say ambassadors of the
university. However, be it that he said it. At present, diplomatic operations is the name given
to those of consuls, to whom only commercial interests are intrusted. The words minister and am
bassador are used indifferently ; only ambassadors are seen from Prussia. Some of them, in our
time, have assisted at congresses ; and since then, not a single Prussian exists but has the title
of ambassador.
In chapter ci., page 364, of this new edition, with reference to a decree of the council, ordering
general councils to assemble more frequently, the author says :
" Here we perceive how pernicious is ignorance of the ancient discipline of the Church. The
fathers in the Council of Constance would not have passed that decree, had they known that
there were no general councils during the whole of the first three centuries, or until the Council
oi Nice, held in the year 825 ;* and yet during those first three centuries many heresies were
* The uncontested Fleury says, at the end of his fifth book, that John XXIII. opened the council in the presence of

584

LIVES OF THE POPES

211. EUGENE IV— a. d. 1431.

UGENE TV. (Gabriel Condulmieri), was a patrician
of Venice, descended from a Pavian family that
removed to the repubhc in its early days. During
the war with the Genoese, Angelo Condulmieri
and his son fitted out some vessels and defended
the city of Venice. The senate thought it right to
grant nobihty to that part of the famUy which had
rendered such services, but the rest of the famUy
remained in the ranks of the people. Gabriel descended from the noble
branch. His father was Angelo Condulmieri, and his mother Beriola Cor-
extinguished, and many errors were condemned. The discipUne was more vigorous, and the
Church more flourishing than ever. The provincial councils were as frequent as the persecu
tions would allow, and it was an established rule to hold two every year. The general councils
have always been extremely rare ; there were but thirteen of them in the fourteen centuries
which preceded the Council of Constance, and even in some of them the Eastern Church took
no part. And experience has shown the impossibility of executing that decree of the Council
of Constance, for in three following centuries only three general councils were held, those of
Bale, Florence, and Trent." We have already replied to the charge of ignorance imputed indis
criminately to the fathers of Constance. Let us meet the charge. " There were but thirteen
general councils during the fourteen centuries which preceded the Council of Constance." Ac
cording to the Continuator, then, the Council of Constance was only the fourteenth general
council, but it was the sixteenth, unless the editor refuses to allow the Council of Pisa. The
general councils are— Nice, 325 ; Constantinople, 381 ; Ephesus, 431 ; Chalcedon, 451 ; Constan
tinople, 553 ; Constantinople, 680 ; Nice, 787 ; Constantinople, 869 ; Lateran, 1123 ; Lateran,
1139 ; Lateran, 1179 ; Lateran, 1215 ; Lyons, 1245 ; Lyons, 1274 ; Vienne, 1311 ; Constance, 1414
What is meant, then, by thirteen councils before that of Constance 1 In his own.writing Fleury
recognizes all these councils, and now he would reduce them to thirteen. We admit that there
were only three general councils in the three centuries since the Council of Constance. Bale, 1431 ;
Florence, 1439 ; Lateran, 1512 ; and, finaUy, the twentieth, in the city of Trent, which lasted
eighteen years, from 1545 to 1563. In many passages taken from the Continuator, whioh we have
quoted above, de Hardt is quoted ten times as authority, although Fleury, in his hundredth chap
ter, which comes down to the year 1414, never quotes him at all. Is it Ukely that he would do bo
for the single year 1415 1 De Hardt, a Protestant, a very learned OrientaUst, wrote the his
tory of the Council of Constance, at the request of the duke of Brunswick, under the following
title : Magnum Constantiense Concilium de universali Ecclesim reformatione, unione et fide—
The Great Council of Constance on the Universal Reformation, Union, and Faith of the Church.
Frankfort, 1697. 3 vols., fol. 1700-1742, 6 vols., fol. I am not acquainted with either of those
editions; but if any volumes appeared after Fleury's death, it is very unjust to ascribe' to his
pen reflections that he never wrote. De Hardt also published autographs of Luther and other
celebrated personages. Under the simple title of Council of Constance, De Hardt may be re-
fifteen cardinals, twenty-three archbishops, twenty-seven bishops, some abbots, and all the clergy who were in the city.
And among those cardinals, those archbishops, those bishops, those abbots, and that clergy, no one knew that there were
no general councils during the first three centuries, and prior to the Council of Nice ! Can such a proposition be sus
tained in the name of Fleury ?

EUGENE IV. 585
raro. Angelo saw three of his nearest relatives in the pontificate ; Gregory
XII. was his brother, Eugene IV. his son, and Paul II. son of his daughter
Polixena. Beriola, besides being sister, mother, and grandmother, of three
sovereign pontiffs, was also grandmother, aunt, and great-grandmother to
nine cardinals, six patriarchs, and eleven bishops.
After his father's death Gabriel distributed to the poor twenty-five thou
sand ducats of his rich patrimony, and became canon of the Celestine con
gregation of Saint George in alga. He was one day acting as janitor there,
when a hermit said to him, " You wiU be a cardinal ; then you .will be pope
for sixteen years (he feU short of it only by ten days) ; you will suffer
many adversities, and then you wUl die."* The pontificate was also prom
ised to Eugene by another hermit. Gabriel was going to Egypt with
Francis Fascani, and the hermit said to the latter, "You wiU be father of
your country;" and to Gabriel he said, "You will be father of the whole
Cathohc world." Gregory XII., his uncle, named him treasurer and bishop
of Sienna, when he was only twenty-six years of age, but recaUed him a
year afterwards, learning that the Siennese desired to have a townsman for
bishop. In 1488, Gabriel was made cardinal-priest of Saint Clement. Martin V.,
in 1424, sent him as legate to the Marches, and then to Bologna.
After the funeral of Martin, thirteen cardinals met in conclave at the
convent of La Minerva, and on the foUowing day unanimously elected
futed by Catholic writers. Thierri de Niem is also quoted. Fleury had already consulted him ;
but Thierri, author of the Journal of what took place at Constance, launched into violent invec
tive against John XXIII., his benefactor. Feller thus speaks of that author : " Thierri, an austere
and disappointed man, gives a hyperbolical account of the court of Rome and of the clergy oi
his time.- He writes in a harsh and barbarous style, and will be scarcely read by any who have
more taste and judgment.than himself." (Feller, v., p. 620.) But I have some further details to
make. I forbear condemnation on aU other points, but there is one upon which I cannot yield.
It is said in the title of the work attributed to Fleury, "Continuation published, for the nrst
time, from a manuscript belonging to the Royal (now Imperial) Library." I went to that library
and asked for the manuscript belonging to it. The chief nbrarian told me that some fourteen
years before, a Uterary man had examined Fleury's unpubUshed writings. On his receipt, some
detached pieces were delivered to him, taken from two cases containing unpublished writings of
Fleury Nothing was ever returned to the establishment ; and the four chapters m question
were pubhshed. When they appeared, other literary men asked for a sight of the originals
The person who is supposed to have received those four chapters said that he had returned
them, but they were not to be found among the manuscripts belonging to the library. The two
cases that I have mentioned were placed at my disposal ; but in all that I read and examined
there was nothing connected with those four chapters. I do not affirm that they are not m ex
istence somewhere ; in the existing state of things they possibly may belong to the library,^
thev are not visible there. My inquiries produced fresh exertions for the recover? "of -the , b i-
rowed manuscript. Meanwhile the receipt for Fleury's pieces remains on the registers bu no
mention is made there of their return. It may be that the person who took ^V»™*T
the Hbrary lost them, and can give no account of the nfcu» *lueh others made : by interpola
tions, so as to produce a book which was needed, and would thus be assured of success.
* Vespasian, the Florentine, in the life of Eugene.

586 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Gabriel Condulmieri, aged forty-eight years. He announced that he would
assume the name of Eugene IV. He was solemnly crowned on the steps
of the Vatican Basihca on the 11th of the same month.
In that same year commenced the predicted adversities of the new pope.
Three princes of the Colonna family seized upon the treasure . amassed by
Martin V., their uncle. This treasure had been destined to pay the ex
penses of the Greeks who were to come to the council to concert the defin
itive union of the two Churches, and to meet the expenses of the war that
Avas declared against the Turks. Those Colonnas, unworthy of the praise
Ave bestowed upon that famUy at the commencement of the article on Mar
tin V., used the money they had embezzled against the Holy Father,
whom they endeavored to disturb in the possession of his dignity. At the
head of other conspirators, they endeavored to seize upon Rome, but they
were repulsed by the pontifical army, aided by troops sent by Florence to
the aid of the pope. The Venetians, also, on that occasion, lent their aid
to their compatriot Gabriel. By degrees the Colonnas, returning to more
honorable feehngs, restored a part of the treasure ; and the pope, who had
excommunicated them, granted them the pardon they sohcited.
One of the first cares of Eugene was to confirm the legation of Cardinal
Julian Cesarini, deputed by Martin V. to celebrate in his name, in the city
of Bale, the councU which had been convoked there to humble the pride of
the Hussites.
Reformation, with the Hussites, had every character of ferocity. They
considered themselves called* to overturn the empire of the Demons — that
was the doctrine of the Pauhcians ;t and to correct by fire and sword the
reviving iniquities of the world. AU human weaknesses, drunkenness,
studied demeanor, and elegant dress, appeared to these Hussites, caUed
Taborites,J sins deserving of death ; these Taborites were the sternest of
aU the sectaries, and their attack extended to aU who might have commit
ted a single deadly sin. They did not perceive, the wretches, of how many
mortal sins they were daUy guUty themselves.
The Hussites were persuaded, and very sOon persuaded the armies sent
against them, that they were the avengers of Heaven, and the scourge of
God. A panic terror preceded their battahons, and dispeUed at their
appearance the most formidable resistance. Many districts, appaUed by
the bravery of these fanatics, earnestly sought peace. The Bohemians,
Avho did not aspire to dominating over the others, and only wished for their
own freedom, readUy granted peace ; but as soon as tidings of these invol
untary treaties reached Rome, Eugene annuUed them, and commanded the
* Italy, p. 181. f The Paulicians called themselves reformed Manichreans.
t From the name of that circle of Bohemia called Tabor.

EUGENE rv. 587
renewal of an impracticable war ; but time alone and better circumstances,
which weakens the madness of a populace, could put a stop to such disas
ters. Sigismund, no longer knowing how from afar off to protect the
Church, the Church tormented in the very temple of Saint Peter, wrote
that the calamities nearer at his hand detained him in Germany. Eugene
was then attacked by the populace, who proclaimed again the fantastic
repubhc of Rienzi. The pope, in disguise, escaped on board of a vessel,
and sought shelter in Florence, whUe the pontifical provinces were at the
mercy of the condottieri, Francis Sforza and Forte Braccio, Avho rav
aged the States at the instigation of Philip-Mary Visconti. The latter was
more than ever considered in Italy as the essentiaUy evil principle of the
Hussites— that is to say, the devil, matter, or darkness.
The CouncU of Bale (seventeenth general councU) commenced on the
14th of July, 1431. Shortly afterwards, the pope, for weighty reasons that
supervened, ordered it to be suspended, and transferred two years later
from Bale to Bologna. The fathers of Bale resisted the decree, and con
tinued in 1432 to dehberate as at first.
The next year, Eugene was obhged to aUow that councU to continue, for
fear of a new schism, and at the request of Sigismund, whom he crowned
as emperor, on the 31st of May, 1433. After the ceremony, the emperor
held the pope's stirrup in the cavalcade for three paces, then mounted a
horse and accompanied him to the castle of Saint Angelo, where he took
leave of the pope ; then, his majesty, on his way to the palace of Saint
John Lateran, stopped at the bridge of Saint Angelo, where he created
some knights.
Nicholas Forte Braccio, the condottiere, continued to vex the Romans
with his exactions. They revolted, rightfuUy this time, for the yoke im
posed by that ferocious leader had become intolerable. Duke Phihp-Mary,
tyrant of MUan, stUl cherished the project of seizing the person of the
Holy Father, hoping thus to subjugate the city of Rome. To this end he
employed Riccio, a Spaniard, whom Novaes caUs a great architect of trea
sons ; but the conspiracy faUed.
Queen Jane being dead, the kingdom of Naples now belonged to the
Holy See, not only on account of the agreement made with Charles I., of
Anjou, but also as the consequence of those which had been concluded with
his successors, including Jane herself, the last of Charles's race.
Eugene then intrusted the government of the kingdom to Vitteleschi,
bishop of Recanati, and he warned the Neapolitans that they would have
no other king than the one he should name, according to the old custom.
But the Neapohtans revolted against the orders of the pope. Some
nobles caUed to the throne Rene, brother of Louis of Anjou, whUe others
wanted for their master Alphonso, king of Aragon. The latter, accom-

588 LIVES OF THE POPES.
panied by his brothers, John, king of Navarre, Henry and Peter, laid siege
to Gaeta. But the duke of MUan having sent relief to the city, many of
the Spanish princes were taken prisoners, but released without ransom by
the duke. The Holy Father, under such circumstances, had to choose a
king in order to bring those quarrels to an end.
He decided in favor of Rene of Anjou, but he was a prisoner to the duke
of Burgundy. Eugene wrote to that prince, begging him to restore Rene
to liberty.
The misfortunes of Eugene had eompeUed him to approve what had
been done by the Council of Bale. That assemblage beheved itself
strong in this extorted consent, and it had aheady reckoned from the
seventeenth session to the twenty-fifth when a discord broke out among the
fathers. The question was as to the place at which to treat with the Greeks for
the reunion of the two Churches. The Greeks were not willing to go to
Bale ; many of the fathers desired that the councU should be convoked at
Florence or Udino, or in such other place as the Holy See should appoint.
Others insisted on Bale,, and some advocated Avignon or some city of Savoy.
Eugene ordered that the CouncU of Bale should be transferred to Ferrara.
The majority of the fathers went thither, and the pope soon took that road,
and with seventy-two bishops was present at the second session. Shortly
afterwards the Emperor Paleologus arrived at Florence, and the council
having removed thither, the pope entered that city on the 14th of January,
1439. There were one hundred and forty bishops debating in presence of
the pope and of John Paleologus, accompanied by one of his brothers,
Demetrius. A decree was pubhshed there for the union of the Greeks, and
it was signed by the deputies of the Greek and Latin Churches, and by
Paleologus himself. He signed, according to the Constantinopolitan custom,
with red ink.
Would to God that that union had been of longer duration! But
scarcely had the Greeks returned to their own country, when, seduced b)
Mark, bishop of Ephesus, who had refused to sign the decree, they re
turned to their first schism, which they adopted anew in 1445, — that schism
in which they still persevere, after having fifteen times been reconcUed to
the Latin Church.
The CouncU of Bale continued ; though, after the departure of the
legate Cesarini, it had become a conciliabule. In 1438, Charles VIL, king
of France, pubhshed, in thirty-eight articles, the famous Pragmatic Sanc
tion, drawn from the decrees of the concUiabule that Eugene had con
demned. In 1439, the few fathers who had remained at Bale — eleven bishops,
seven abbots, and fourteen doctors, with the president, Louis Alamand,

EUGENE IV. 589
cardinal of Aries, who pretended to have been offended by Eugene* — de
clared, in the thirty-third session, as a truth of the faith, that the authority
of the general councU was superior to that of the sovereign pontiff. They
presented various heads of accusation against Eugene, degraded him from
the pontificate, and elected in his place Fehx V., of whom we shaU speak
hereafter. The good pontiff, in spite of that insult, retained his courage,
and in 1440 he excommunicated the antipope and his abettors, and annulled
aU the senseless decisions given at Bale, after the legal removal of the coun
cil to Ferrara.
The iniquitous condemnation pronounced by the Bale fathers was elo
quently refuted by Saint John Capistrano, in his book, On the Authority of
the Popes and of the Council; and by the Cardinal Torre Cremata, in Be
Eccles. lib. ii, cap. 100.
Eugene at this time created a great number of cardinals, among whom
was Bessarion, born at Trebisond, in 1395, monk of Saint Basil and arch
bishop of Nice, who had accompanied John Paleologus to the CouncU of
Ferrara, and who was created cardinal at the Council of Florence. t
After the departure of the Greeks, Eugene found himseK again in the
CouncU of Florence, which terminated in its sixth session, on the 6th of
April, 1442. He had published the famous decree by virtue of which he
received into the Roman Church the Armenians, who had sent ambassadors
to sohcit that favor.
The CouncU of Florence was then removed to Rome, that it might have
more authority. At that moment the pope received into communion the
Abyssinians and their king, Constantine Zara James, commonly called
Prester John. The ambassadors of that prince, who announced that he had
embraced the Catholic religion, were received by Eugene with especial be
nevolence. Alphonso, king of Aragon, had seized upon Naples. For the sake of
peace, Eugene gave him the investiture of that kingdom on the same condi
tions which had previously been subscribe'd by Charles I., duke of Anjou,
under Pope Clement IV.
* Nevertheless, this cardinal was beatified by Clement VII. See the Apparatus Eruditionis
of Father Biner, vol. i.
t It has been said that he died of grief, after thirty-seven years of cardinalate, from being ill-
treated by King Louis XL, of France, during a legation to that kingdom. Other authors think
tbat his death was caused by the neglect of his physician. Cardinal Bessarion would have been
named pope at the death of Nicholas V., had not a Latin cardinal urged that the election of a
Greek pope would be injurious to the Latin Church. The Latin cardinal was mistaken. The
nomination of a Greek cardinal of so great learning, and celebrated for his prudence, wisdom,
and generosity, could only have tended to bring the Greeks to the definitive acknowledgment of
the supremacy of the Latin Church. The ancient Church appointed Syrians, Galileans, Byzan-
tine Greeks, and Africans, and the result was a feeling of concord between the Eastern and
Western fathers.

590 LIVES OF THE POPES.
In 1447, Eugene canonized Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, so caUed because
he was born and hved in that city. Soon afterwards, Eugene, worn out by
the troubles of a stormy pontificate, feU sick. Before he died he renewed
the condemnation of the last operations of the CouncU of Bale. He ordered
that his successor should be named in conformity to the laws of Gregory X.,
in the Council of Lyons, and of Clement V, in that of Vienne, and he ex
horted the cardinals to elect a pontiff capable of maintaining the dignity of
the Holy See. He died on the 23d of February, 1447, in the arms of Saint
Antoninus, after governing, amidst the sharpest tribulations, fifteen years,
eleven months, and twenty days. He had the honor of being the only pon
tiff to Avhom two emperors— one Greek and the other Latin — had come,
in order to acknowledge him as universal pastor,, He was interred at the
Vatican, beside the tomb of Eugene III.
Eugene IV. was of lofty stature and of courageous spirit. He was re
marked for his grave and melancholy countenance. He was not learned,
but he exceUed in the knowledge of history. In his palace he treated his
relatives no better than other guests. In brief, Eugene was one of the
greatest, and at the same time one of the least happy, of the popes. He
gave free access to two Benedictine monks of the abbey of Florence, two
Celestines, and a secular priest. He liked them to be present when he
supped, that they might tell him what was said about his government, in
order, as he said, to alter his actions, if a feeling of justice required it.
In his last moments he is said to have exclaimed, " Gabriel, Gabriel, how
much better would it have been had you been neither cardinal nor pope, but
to have ended your days as you began them, quietly foUowing, in your
monastery, the rule of your order !" FeUer (U. 78) says : " One historian
accuses Eugene of an odious ambition, and reproaches him with having
kept up schism solely in order to maintain his own authority." But would
he not have been more justly reproached with imprudence and pusiUanimi-
ty, neglect of duty, and even treason and the prostitution of the Church of
Christ, if, at the order of eleven bishops and a motley band of clerics, tra
vestied as successors of the apostles, he had descended from the apostohc
chair to admit an intruder ?
He had the grief to see the progress of the Turks in Europe.
The Holy See was vacant ten days. Fehx V., the last antipope, was pre
viously known as Amadeus VIL, duke of Savoy. He had governed his
States with so much justice and prudence, that the code of his laws, pub
lished in the year 1430, under the title of Statutes of Savoy, excited the ad
miration of Europe, and obtained him the surname of the Solomon of his age.
Disgusted with the world, he abdicated power in favor of his eldest son,
Duke Louis, and created his other son, Phihp, duke of Geneva. On the
7th of November, 1444, he retired to the hermitage of RipaUle, near the

EUGENE VI. 59I
Lake of Geneva, where, with seven nobles of his court, he founded the mih
tary order of Saint Maurice.
Many years after, several of the bishops and others, who continued at
Bale the councU which Eugene had ordered to remove to Ferrara, thought
of electing Amadeus as head of the Church. According to iEneas Sylvius
Pipcolomini, who, as clerk of the ceremonies, was present at the conclave
of thirty-three electors, who gave rise to the new schism, Amadeus obtained
twenty-six votes to be antipope, although in three preceding scrutinies six
teen electors had excluded him. The election, made on the 5th of Novem
ber, 1439, was ratified and approved in the session of the 25th of that
month. Twenty-two deputies conveyed to RipaiUe the decree of his elec
tion. His councUlors made some difficulty in giving access to him ; but the
deputies were at length admitted, and asked his consent, with so many ar
guments, that, says Fleury, they persuaded him that he ought to take the
government of the Church. FinaUy, he, with great difficulty, consented, not
without shedding many tears. He took the name of Felix V., and aUowed
himself to be saluted pope in the church of RipaiUe. On the foUowing day
he went to Thonon, in the Chablais, officiated as pope at the vigil of Christ
mas, and cut off his long beard, which was disliked by the multitude.
Accompanied by Louis, .duke of Savoy, and the duke of Geneva, his two
sons, and by three hundred gentlemen of their States, he made his solemn
entrance into Bale on the 24th of June, 1440. On the 24th of July he was
consecrated bishop and crowned by the cardinal of Ales, who placed upon
his head a tiara, which .ZEneas Sylvius values at thirty thousand golden
crowns. Although, in various promotions, he created twenty-three cardinals, and
although he was acknowledged by Switzerland, Savoy, -Piedmont, and many
of the universities, Fehx V. could never bring to his obedience the emperor,
or the kings of France, England, Scotland, and Italy.
After the death of Eugene IV., and the election of Nicholas V, the Em
peror Frederic and aU the princes of Germany renounced aU communica
tion with Felix. And further, the emperor, by an edict of the 21st of April,
1447, ordered all the subjects of the empire to recognize Nicholas V. as the
only true and legitimate pope. The thunder-bolt at once crushed the abettors
of the schism, and from that moment Fehx, who loved Cathohc unity and
peace, thought seriously of restoring them to the Church.
Louis, his son, unceasingly exhorted him frankly to put that design into
execution, and he at the same time exerted himself with the kings of France
and England, that that schism might be radicaUy put an end to, without
injury to the honor of his father or the fair fame of his house. Peace being
on aU sides wished for, an assembly was convoked at Lyons ; and it was
attended by the ambassadors of France, England, and SicUy, and the

592 LIVES OF THE POPES.
electors of Germany, and even by the ambassadors of Fehx V., who were
accompanied by the cardinals of Aries.
When all difficulties had been raised as to the conditions and mode of the
renunciation of Felix, the king of France sent the result to Nicholas V.,
who, fuU of zeal, mildness, and true Christian charity, listened to the pro
posals of the eldest son of the Church. Subsequently, on the 9th of April,
1449, at Lausanne, Amadeus renounced the supreme pontificate Avhich he
had occupied, under the name of Felix V., for eight years, eight months,
and fifteen days.
Nicholas V., by three buUs, dated from Spoleto, released from censures
those who had been assembled at Bale, and afterwards at Bausanne, under the
name of council general, and confirmed in their old benefices those who had
adhered to that schism. At the same time, the pope annulled' aU that had
been Avritten against Fehx, the assembly of Bale, and their adherents ; the
pontiff willing that the whole should be erased from the registers of Eugene
IV., and that it should never more be mentioned.'
Amadeus was also declared cardinal of Saint Sabina, dean of the sacred
college, and perpetual legate in Savoy. The pontifical insignia were also
granted to him, with the exception of the fisherman's ring, the cross on the
slippers, and other privileges inherent in the person of the sovereign pontiff.
Thus ended the last schism of the Church. God grant that it might be
the last of schisms ! Amadeus died in the odor of sanctity, at Geneva, on
the 7th of January, 1451. He was interred at RipaiUe, whence he was .
removed to Turin.
Felix V. dated his documents from Geneva. His buUs, to the number of
about three thousand, coUected in eight folio volumes, were presented, in
the year 1754, to the -king of Sardinia, Charles Emanuel III., by the repub
lic of Geneva.*
* The collection of which I have spoken contains three medals, bearing the effigy of Eugene
IV. The first present his features ; on the head is the tiara. The exergue is, Eugenius IIII.,
Pont. Max. On the reverse are the words, " Qtjem creant Adorant Rom.e — At Borne they adore
him whom they create." Two cardinals place the tiara on the head of the pope, who is seated.
The second medal has the same exergue as the first. On the reverse are the words, " Redde
Cviqtje bvym — Give every one his due." One hand holds a balance ; the two scales are in exact
equilibrium. The third medal has the same exergue as the first and second. On the reverse are
the words, "Nicolai Tolentinatis sanctitas Celebris reddittjr — The sanctity of Nieliolas
of Tolentino is celebrated ;" and beneath, " Sic triumphant electi — Thus triumph the elect."
Above, the Holy Ghost is seen surrounded by a glory. The pope pronounces the words of canoni
zation.

IH

NICHOLAS V. 593

212. NICHOLAS V.— a. d. 1447.
ICHOLAS V. (Thomas ParentaceUi), was bom in
Sarzana, a city belonging to the repubhc of
Genoa. His father was a physician. It is said
that his mother reared poultry. But JEneas Picco-
lomini, who knew him at "Bale, says, on the con
trary, that he was of a noble famUy. He took the
clerical habit at an early age, and received minor
orders. At twelve years old he went to Bologna
to study beUes-lettres ; but being unable to get any assistance from his
mother, who had remarried, he, at eighteen, went to Florence, and became
tutor .to the two sons of a patrician of that city. Returning to Bologna, he
had the good fortune to be received with friendship among the honorary
attendants of the Blessed Albergati, Bishop of that city, who made him his
major-domo, and whom he never afterwards left.
He was ordained priest at twenty-five, and, after filling several important
embassies, he received the purple from Eugene IV. The faithful ambassa
dor had succeeded in inducing the Germans to acknowledge the legitimate
, pope, to the great benefit of the affairs of the Church in Italy. Then
Thomas became archbishop of Bologna. On the 4th of March, 1447, six
teen electors entered into the convent of Ba Minerva at Rome. The first
door was kept by four prelates, and the second by iEneas Sylvius Picco-
lomini, ambassador of the emperor. Cardinal Thomas harangued the car
dinals on the election of a new pope, and on the 6th of March they elected
himseK. He was then forty-eight years of age.
In the first scrutiny, on the 5th of March, eight votes had been given' for
Cardinal Capranica, and ten for Cardinal Prosper Colonna ; many of the
cardinals were favorable to Prosper. He was said to be supported by
several princes, and by the king of Aragon and Sicily, who was then at
SicUy ; other cardinals were in favor of Cardinal Lejeune ; and the Portu
guese, Antonio Martius de Chaves, was on the point of obtaining the tiara ;
but, on the same day, Prosper and other electors thought of the cardinal of
Bologna. The new pontiff took the name of Nicholas out of veneration for
the Blessed Nicholas Albergati, his generous benefactor, whom he had long
served, and who had always predicted that he would be pope. On the
19th of March, the pope was solemnly crowned in Saint Peter's ; then,
mounted on a white horse, and having a golden rose in his hand, he went
to take possession of the church of Saint John Lateran, a ceremony not
Vol. I.— 38

594 LIVES OF THE POPES.
indicated in any previous possesso. When Nicholas V. received the reins
of the pontificate, the Christian repubhc was suffering much. The schism
of Bale, not yet extinct, crueUy divided the Church. Germany and HoUand
groaned under their long domestic wars. France and England were never
solidly at peace. The union of the Greeks with the Roman Church was
beginning to dissolve. Italy, spht into factions, could no longer resist the
adventurers who ravaged all her provinces. In the Ecclesiastical States,
the barons who had become vicars of the Church, had become tyrants.
The Venetians, the Genoese, and the Florentines were constantly in arms.
Nicholas was anxious to find a remedy for so many evils, which from aU
parts were reported to him.
We have seen what pains His Holiness took to extinguish the schism,
and how constantly he devoted himseK to the vast interests of rehgion.
As the Infessura testifies, it was Nicholas who first introduced the custom
of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in the procession of Corpus Christi. He
himseK carried it from Saint Peter's to the CasteUo gate. At the request of
Henry, king of England, the pope, by a diploma of the 25th of February,
permitted the extension of the Pragmatic Sanction, as concerned the vacancy
of churches and the coUation of the bishoprics, and of aU other benefices
in Normandy and Lower Brittany.
Cardinal Carvajal, legate in Germany, effected a concordat between the
Holy See and the German nation. Justice was there done as to aU com
plaints made to Eugene IV. by the magnates of Germany, ^who complained
of the expenses they endured relating to ecclesiastical benefices. Eugene,
when at the point of death, had granted the rehef sohcited by his ambassa
dor iEneas Sylvius, stipulating, however, that it was to be without preju
dice to the Holy See.
The concordat then signed was in full force at the commencement of this
century (1803). On the occasion of that concordat, which estabhshed that
after the death of a bishop in Germany, the Cathedral church should choose
as his successor a suitable person, who should ask his confirmation from
the Holy See, Frederic, archbishop of Salzburg, feared that his right of
electing and instituting his suffragans in various dioceses would thereby be
suppressed. But the Holy Father, by a buU, declared that the concordat
iook away no advantages from the archbishops of Salzburg, who should
/enjoy .all the rights that they had previously possessed.
¦In 1450, the pope celebrated the jubUee that he had announced in the
preceding year, and visited aU the stations with the cardinals. So great a
number of pUgrims arrived, that, unhappUy, there were some deplorable
accidents in crossing the Saint Angelo bridge, and precautions were taken
to prevent such disasters in future.
In a Grand Chapter of Franciscans, consisting of three thousand eight

NICHOLAS V. 595
hundred friars, the pope, in presence of forty-four cardinals, canonized
Saint Bernardino of Sienna, minor observantine. In the eulogium of the
saint, he was felicitated for having, by preaching, teaching, admonitions,
and prayers, contributed to restore peace between the Guelphs and Ghibel
hnes. This, one of the noblest triumphs of religion, was due to one of the
sons of Saint Francis of Assisium. Amurath, emperor of the Turks, was
succeeded by Mahomet II., who immediately declared war against John,
king of Cyprus. To obtain help for that monarch, Nicholas wrote most
urgent letters to the king of the Romans, Frederic III., and to the kings
of France, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Bohemia, SicUy, England, and Scot
land, exhorting them to send troops into John's kingdom. He exhorted
John to fortify Nicosia, and he granted a plenary indulgence to aU the
faithful in Europe who would aid that prince in his urgent distress. In this
he foUowed the example of Pope Alexander H.
In 1452, Frederic HI. visited the pope, who sent, to meet the prince on
Mount Marius, thirteen cardinals, many prelates, and aU the clergy, forming
a long procession. Already the Colonna, the Orsini, the other barons, the
pope's guards, the vice-chamberlain, and the prefect of Rome, the senators,
the conservators, the Roman citizens, and the pontifical court, had gone six
rmles further to salute the prince and form his escort. Frederic III. was
accompanied by Ladislaus, king of Hungary and of Bohemia, a prince only
twelve years old, remarkable for his great beauty; by Albert of Austria,
brother of Frederic ; by the duke of SUesia ; and by a crowd of nobles ;
making the number of the escort, including servants, amount to more than
six thousand persons.
Every thing was prepared for the coronation of Frederic, who was to re
ceive the imperial sceptre.
On the 16th of May, the pope placed on the head of Frederic the crown
of the Lombards, which the prince had been prevented from receiving at
MUan, owing to the seditious spirit of Francis Sforza, whom the king of the
Romans would not confirm as duke. On the 18th, the prince was crowned
emperor, and Leonora of Portugal, his wKe, was crowned empress. In the
cavalcade, the emperOr held the pope's stirrup.
On the Saint Angelo. bridge, the emperor created twenty-eight knights.
In the evening, the pope and the emperor completed the regulation of the
Germanic concordat.
Nicholas stiU solicited the Greek princes not to raise obstacles to a defin
itive union of the Churches, and to take aU the necessary means to prevent
there being, for the future, the shghtest difference between a Greek Christian
and a Latin Christian. The pope endeavored to make it clear to Constan
tine, son of Emmanuel Paleologus, that the Latin crusaders would more will
ingly give the necessary aid to Constantinople absolutely Cathohc, than to

596 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Constantinople endeavoring to keep up the schism, and confiding in an
independence which was purely delusive, an error, a very dangerous con
fusion of ideas, and almost a signal for imminent pohtical destruction by
the warhke soldiers, and the audacity of Mahomet II.
The Greeks rephed in ambiguous terms ; but it was evident that they stiU
remembered the usurpation of those Latins who had made themselves kings
of Constantinople. These latter had asked only for permission to pass
into Asia, and as they passed had driven from the throne its legitimate
masters. Under the new circumstances, argued the Greeks, we might ob
tain some efficient aid from the Latins ; but those circumstances would but
be a reason the more for their usurping our possessions again. There are
faults which are punished late ; there are perfidies which are uselessly re
pented, even after many centuries. The pope endeavored to explain the
true situation of the Greeks, who, finaUy, could not defend themselves
unaided. Nicholas, hke his predecessors, prophesied to Constantinople the misfor
tunes that were in store for it.
" From the moment," says Gotti,* " when the Greeks begin to turn a deaf
ear to the popes, the popes, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, begin to
prophesy that the Greeks will lose their empire."
The first prophet was Saint Leo ; the second, Saint Gregory ; there were
stiU others. Finally, the last was Nicholas V. Gennadius, who was then
patriarch of Constantinople, preserves the terrible words of Nicholas.
Saint Bridget had also announced the same ruin unless the Greeks, with
true humihty, would devoutly submit to the Roman Church and faith, in
conformity to the rules of the sacred constitution of the Holy See. How
ever, the Greeks, reduced to their OAvn efforts, did not make the fitting
preparations to resist the enemy. Mahomet H., the greatest emperor of
the Turks, marched upon Constantinople with a formidable army. The
auxUiary troops of the pope, of the Venetians, and of Alphonso, had
scarcely arrived in the island of Negropont : there they learned that Con
stantinople was already occupied. That city, after fifty-seven days' siege,
was taken on the 23d of May, 1453, precisely eleven hundred and twenty-
three years and eighteen hours after its dedication by Constantine the
Great. The city was carried by assault, in spite of the prodigies of valor
of John Justinian, a Genoese, who commanded two thousand trained
foreigners.f The Emperor Constantine XIV. (Paleologus), surnamed
Dragasus, was butchered, with forty thousand Christians. A great number
of Itahan merchants, especiaUy Venetians, who inhabited that ancient
capital of the East, lost all their property by piUage, and were reduced to
* Tome ii., Verm Ecclesm, eap. vii., parag. 3, No. 20, p. 325. f Italy, p. 187.

NICHOLAS V. 597
I |;, captivity. The Turks, whose arrogance was redoubled, threatened to sub
ject aU the rest of Europe to the empire of the Crescent. That Greek em
pire had for its last, as for its first emperor, a Constantine ; that is the only
resemblance that can be traced between its beginning and its end.
The pope, overwhelmed with grief at such tidings, pubhshed a buU in
which he invited the Christians to prosecute the war against the Turks
more vigorously. He abandoned on his qwn account aU the revenues of
the Church, the tenths due to his treasury, and aU the imposts of which he
had the disposal. Never was there witnessed more splendid generosity, or
a more magnanimous disinterestedness.
With the help of aU those reserves, and with the intervention of Alphonso
of Aragon, king of SicUy, the pope was able to send a very considerable
sum of money to George Scanderberg, who gained several victories over
the Turks in Epirus.
The pope gave a magnificent welcome to a host of men of letters who
had been compeUed to quit Constantinople, and Avho, bringing with them
many of the works of the Holy Fathers, increased in the West a love of
Greek hterature. It was at that moment, especiaUy, that numbers of man
uscripts were received of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint Gregory
Nazianzen, Saint BasU, and Saint CyrU. By order of Nicholas, Pozzio
Bracciohni translated into Latin, Xenophon and Diodorus Siculus. Gregory
of Trebisond translated into Latin, Eusebius, De Preparatione Evangelica ;
Plato, DeLegibus ; the Almageste of Claudius Ptolemy ; eighty-one homilies
of Saint John Chrysostom, upon Saint Matthew ; and two discourses of Saint
Gregory Nazianzen, in praise of Saint Athanasius and Saint Basil. Nich
olas Perotto translated Polybius ; and Lorenzo VaUa translated Herodotus
and Thucydides. For this last version, the pope, with his own hand, gave
VaUa five hundred crowns. Guarino of Verona, and Gregory of Citta di
CasteUo, translated Strabo's geography. Theodore Gaza translated some
of the works of Aristotle, and the History of Plants, by Theophrastus ;
GUes LibeUius, some of the minor works of PhUo Judseus. FinaUy, Gi-
annozzo Manetti translated the Old and New Testaments.
Petrarch, a hundred years before, because he read Virgil to Innocent VI.,
a pope Uttle accustomed to the reading of profane authors, was looked
upon as a misbehever : under the pontificate of Nicholas V, the Riad and
Odyssey of Homer were translated by Horatio Romano, by the express
order of the pontiff. Part of these marvels has been attributed to Leo :
due justice must be done to Nicholas V. We wiU give an instance of the
interest that he took in hterature, and even in the hfe of its professors. In
1449 to 1450, on account of the pestilence which was scourging Rome, he
had to seek refuge in Fabriano, Spoleto, Assisi, and Tolentino. Even then
he would have about him translators, bookseUers, and binders, so that they

598 LIVES OF THE POPES.
should not be infected by the contagion, and that his noble zeal and mag
nificently hberal love of learning and the learned should not be fettered.
FinaUy, the pope desired to do stiU more. He promised five thousand ducats
to whomsoever should bring him the Gospel of Saint Matthew in Hebrew.
Under the reign of Nicholas, Poggio found the works of Quintilian in an
old tower of the monastery of Saint GaU. Enoch d'Ascoh found Marcus
Cohus Apicius, and Pomponius Porphyrion, who wrote in the works of
Horace.* Nicholas may be considered as the most active founder of the Vatican
library. This pope, though so good, great, and worthy of the tiara, yet had his
enemies. Some Romans, headed by Stephen Porcaro, formed a conspiracy
against him. Porcaro had received favors from the pope ; but that Roman
was insatiable, and he had the restless and riotous disposition of so many
Romans who were ingrates to the popes. He was by nature bold, eloquent,
and qualified to seduce the masses. Banished to Bologna, he secretly re
turned to Rome. He aUowed himseK to be selected to kUl the pope, and
any of the cardinals whom he could attack. It was agreed that the crime
should be committed during Mass. After the death of the pope, the cry of
liberty ! was to be raised. Jacopo Lavagnoli, senator of Rome, discovered
the conspiracy. Porcaro, to avoid arrest, took shelter with one of his
sisters, and was for some time concealed in a chest. Being discovered and
arrested, he was condemned to an ignominious death, which he suffered in
the castle of Saint Angelo.
The pontiff, who had granted so many favors to the Romans, was deeply
grieved by these things, and from that time suffered the most violent tor
tures of the gout, so that he could scarcely move. And stiU the thought of
Constantinople subjected to the Crescent tormented him. The pain of his
disease increased, until a fierce attack deprived him of hfe, on the 24th of
March, 1455. Nicholas had governed the Church eight years and nineteen
days. The memory of this pontiff wiU always be in benediction, because
he was a prudent pastor of the Church. He restored peace in Italy, and
constantly kept himself free from nepotism. His hberahty to the poor was
immense. He sought out impoverished nobles who had lost their fortune
from no odious prodigality and dissipation. He said that men of letters
were his relations. We have shown how he treated them and wished to
have them in his company.
Pubhc monuments erected in Rome and elsewhere ; palaces, churches,
bridges, and fortifications ; the Greeks hospitably received, and poor nobles,
as we have said, hberaUy reheved ; maidens honorably given in marriage ;
* Platina, p. 613.

=u

NICHOLAS V. 599
benefices and trusts conferred solely on account of merit ; — all these things
bear witness to the inclination of this pontiff towards the weal of the
people, the interests of hterature, and the glory of rehgion. Monsignor
Giorgi pubhshed, in 1742, at Rome, a hfe of Nicholas. " That interosting
work," says FeUer* "based on the most authentic documents, does honor
alike to the hero and to the eulogist."
It is also affirmed that Nicholas was acquainted with the art of medicine.
The Biographic Universdle says, that the letters of indulgence which he
granted to the kingdom of Cyprus, just before his death, form the most
curious monument of typography known.t
To estabhsh stiU more strongly the obligation of the Church to Nicholas,
we have to add the thought of beginning and finishing the Basilica in
a more magnificent form, and of erecting before the church the noble obe
lisk which Sixtus V. transported thither, more than a century later.
We learn from Manetti that this pope was of short stature, and had a
large mouth, loud, sonorous voice, and black eyes. As cardinal he enjoyed
good health ; when he became pope he grew weaker, and the multiplied
cares of the pontificate reduced him to a state of suffering wliich every day
became more intense.
It is affirmed that he was often moved to anger, but speedily checked
himseK and laughed at his own first feeling of irritation. He has been
accused of being curious in precious wines, but it is known that that is
only an unworthy calumny. This pope was interred at the Vatican. His
funeral oration was pronounced the first day by Nicholas Palmieri, a Sici
lian, a hermit of Saint Augustine, and then bishop of Catanzaro ; and a
second was pronounced by James, bishop of Arras, of the blood royal of
Portugal, afterwards created cardinal by CaUixtus III. (Novaes, v., p. 177.)
The Holy See remained vacant fourteen days.J
* FeUer, iv., p. 98. t Brunet, Manuel du IAhrai/re (3d edition), ii., p. 559.
X I have four medals of Nicholas V. AU four bear the same legend, Nicolavs V., Pont. Max.
—Nicholas V., Sovereign Pontiff. He has the tiara on his head. The first represents, on the
reverse, the holy gate closed ; above, the Holy Ghost. Around are the words : anno, ivbil.
alma, roma — The year of jubilee, sublime Borne. In the exergue, we read 1450. The second
represents the pontiff closing the holy gate, and these words : Reseravit et clavsit. Ann.
ivb. MD. — He opens and closes the year of jubilee, 1500. The reverse must be the same that was re
stored in 1500 under Alexander VI. I have not that which belongs to the reign of Nicholas I. ; it
must bear date MCDL.
The third medal bears these words : Tomas lvcano di Sarzana, MCDIHI. The tiara sur
mounts a shield, on which are the two keys. It is a compUment paid to Nicholas, who was
formerly called Thomas of Sarzana, near Lucca.
The fourth medal bears : Victrix, casta, fides — 37*6 chaste faith is victorious. There is a
cross in which are two palms, interlaced. This piece has no date. Du Molinet mentions a fifth
medal, by Guagaloti ; this, too, is in homage to Nicholas, after his death. The pontiff, bearing
a standard in the form of a cross, is seated in a vessel, on the stern of which is the word
BCCLESIA.

600 LIVES OF THE POPES.

213. CALLIXTUS III.— a. d. 1455.
?ALLIXTUS HI., originaUy named Alphonso Borgia,
belonged to one of the noblest famUies in Valentia,
Spain. He was bom on the 31st of December,.
1378, at Xativa, an estate in the diocese of Valencia.
Made canon of Lerida by the antipope Benedict
XIIL, he next became secretary to Alphonso, king
of Aragon. Martin V, finding him governor of the
church of Majorca, raised .him to the See of Valen
cia, his birthplace, in reward of his efforts to obtain the renunciation of the
antipope Clement VIIL Eugene IV. named Alphonso a cardinal, and
called him to Rome. Contrary- to the expectation of the whole court, on
the fifth day of the conclave he was elected pope by fifteen cardinals. He
owed his election mainly to Bessarion, a Greek cardinal. It is known that
the violent harangue of one of the coUege prevented the election of Bes
sarion himseK. The dissatisfied cardinal was Alain de Cehf, archbishop of
Avignon. His speech, the eloquence of which is disfigured by the vehe
mence of the accusation, was as foUows : " ShaU we give a Greek pope to
the Latin Church ? ShaU we make a neophyte the supreme head ? Bessa
rion has not yet shaven his beard, and shaU we make him our chief ? How
poor, then, must be our Latin Church, if we can find no worthy ,man in it,
but must needs resort to a Greek, and to one, too, who but yesterday at
tacked the Roman faith ! And because he has now returned, shall he be
our master and the leader of the Christian army ? Behold ! Such is the
poverty of the Latin Church that she cannot find an apostohc sovereign
without resorting to a Greek ! Oh, fathers ! do what you think fit ; but for
myseK and those who think with me, we wiU never consent to a Greek head
of the Church!"*
Doubtless Alain would not have thus spoken before the taking of Con
stantinople. Perhaps that may explain his anger, but it in no wise jus
tifies it.
It is among the duties of history, when compeUed to report such harsh
words, to add the necessary explanations, so that the violence of Cardinal
Alain may not destroy his otherwise well-earned renown.
Bessarion, titular patriarch of Constantinople (FeUer, i, 476) and arch
bishop of Nice, was bom at Trebisond, about the year 1389. At the close
* Bury, page 253. Mention has already been made of this fact in our life of Eugene IV.

CALLIXTUS III. 601
of his early studies, he ardently desired the union of the Greek Church with
the Latin, and he engaged the Emperor Paleologus to consummate that
Avise and noble enterprise. He went to Italy, appeared at the CouncU of
Ferrara, afterwards transferred to Florence (see Ufe of Eugene IV.), ha
rangued the fathers, and excited their admiration, equaUy by his talents
and his modesty. He spoke Latin correctly, with a slight Greek accent,
which gave a charm to his pronunciation. Of his Latin speeches it was re
marked, " They are Greek, that is understood by Latins who do not under
stand Greek." The Greeks, remaining schismatic, conceived such an aver
sion for him that he was obhged to remain in Italy, where Eugene IV.
honored him with the purple in 1439. He then fixed his abode at Rome.
His merits would have placed him in the pontifical chair but for that out
burst of Alain which we have just cited. Bessarion was afterwards em
ployed in various legations, but that of France proved distasteful to him.
It is said, that the legate having written upon the subject of his mission to
the duke of Burgundy, previous to paying his visit to Louis XL, that sus
picious and stern king gave him a very bad reception, and laying his hand
on the legate's flowing beard, said to him : " Barbara Grozca genus retinebant
quod habere solebant." It is said that that affront grieved him so deeply that
it caused his death on his way home, while passing through Ravenna.* A
king of France showed no more moderation than an archbishop of Avignon.
Our respect for one and deference for the other must not prevent us from
remarking here, that sweeping accusations against a whole nation are very
wrong. They produce mischievous consequences, and though intended as
an insult to an individual, they excite the just indignation of an entire
people. In war we strike only the enemy. We should not strike a thou
sand through one. A host of disgusts spring from this inconsiderate con
duct, which gives birth to hatred, perpetuated from century to century, and
to recriminations quite opposed to the spirit of charity and of civihzation.
Moreover, Bessarion was a united Greek in aU sincerity, and an eminent
scholar ; and who knows whether, had he been placed in the chair of Saint
Peter, he would not have rendered eminent services to Cathohcism ?
Callixtus, elected at the age of seventy-seven, on the 8th of April, 1455,
was crowned on the 20th. What is astonishing is, that some years pre
viously he had said that he should undoubtedly be pope.
In the same year, on the 8th of May, he declared that the treasurer and
the clerks of the apostohc chamber, belonging to the famUy of the sovereign
pontiff, were chaplains of His Hohness and of the Holy See.
On the 29th of June, 1455, the pope canonized Saint Vincent Ferrer, of
* The principal works of Bessarion are, " Adversum Calumiatorem Platonis," Uv. v., Roma,
1469, foUo ; Epistola et Orationes de BeUo Turds inferendo, Paris, 1471 ; Orazione contra U
Turco, 1471.

602 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the order of Saint Dominic, born at Valencia, in Spain, on the 23d of Janu
ary, 1357, and who died 25th AprU, 1418, at Vannes, in Lower Brittany. He
had converted to the Cathohc Church twenty-five thousand Jews, and he
traversed Europe, successfuUy propagating the Cathohc faith.
' CaUixtus, while cardinal, had made a vow to continue the war against the
Turks, and to endeavor to recover the city of Constantinople, and also that
of Jerusalem.
In 1456, Mahomet, at the head of one hundred and fifty thousand Turks,
attacked Belgrade, which had become the bulwark of Christianity. On the
6th of August, Hunniades, the vaivode of Transylvania, assisted ,by the
Cardinal Carvajal, the pope's legate, and by Saint John Capistrano, a Fran
ciscan, whose preachings had gathered an army of forty thousand fighting
men, hurled themselves upon the Turks with such impetuosity that they,
with Mahomet himseK, fled in haste ; and had the Christian princes but
seconded the views of the pontiff, the Turks would certainly have lost the
empire of Constantinople, and would not have conquered Trebisond. Saint
John Capistrano, in his account of that famous victory, calls Hunniades the
terror of the Turks and the true defender of the Christians. In order to
render piety more serviceable in the expedition against the Turks, CaUixtus
ordered that at noon, daily, the beUs should be rung three times, to warn
the faithful to pray for the warriors engaged against the Turks. The faith
ful, therefore, recited at noon the Angelic Salutation. Lambertini states
that the prayers of the Ave were said at morning, noon, and evening, and
seems to be of opinion that the custom originated only in the sixteenth cen
tury, and by order of Francis Dupuy, prior of the Great Chartreuse, in
France. In 1458, CaUixtus canonized Saint Rose, who was born at Viterbo, of poor
parents. The feast of Saint Rose is stUl pompously celebrated. We have
seen her body, wliich is miraculously preserved.
After many cares, sufferings, anxieties, and labors, for the weKare of the
Church, CaUixtus, warn out with age and infirmity, died on the 6th of Au
gust, 1458, aged eighty. He had governed the Church three years, three
months, and twenty-nine clays.
He was interred in the Vatican. He left a treasure of a hundred and
fifty thousand crowns, coUected to support the efforts of the Christians
against the Turks.
Calhxtus was profoundly versed in canon and civU law. Although very
old, he quoted the texts as though he had stUl been a professor. When his
pontifical labors left him leisure, he read much, or had read to him histori
cal works or canonical dissertations.
He displayed great firmness of character. It is related that the king of
Aragon, to whose service he had been attached, and who stUl affected to

CALLIXTUS III. 603
rule CalUxtus after he became pope, directed his ambassadors to ask on
what terms the pope wished himself and the king to hve. " Let him govern
his own States," rephed the pope, " and leave me to govern the Church."
Like his predecessor, Nicholas V., CaUixtus aided nobles reduced to pov
erty by no fault of their own.
The government of CaUixtus is remarkable* for an act of justice very
acceptable to the French. It was he who empowered an ecclesiastical com
mission to revise the trial and sentence of the unfortunate Joan of Arc.
That commission, by its sentence of the 7th of July, 1456, declared that she
died a martyr, in defence of her rdigion, her country, and her king. CaUixtus
did not canonize her, but he ordered rehgious expiations on 'the heroine's
tomb, at Rouen.
Calhxtus had many virtues ; but he is reproached with nepotism. In one
day, he gave the purple to two nephews who were unworthy of it.t He
made another nephew duke of Spoleto, though there were serious reports
to his prejudice. Nor was that aU, he created that same nephew prefect of
Rome and commandant of the castle of Saint Angelo. Nevertheless, the
reign of this pope stands high in the annals of the Church.
According to most authors, the Holy See remained vacant twelve days.J
* Biog. Univ., p. 533. t Novaes, v., p. 191.
X I can present three medals with the effigy of CaUixtus. He does not wear the tiara, but
a mitre with a single crown near the forehead. The upper part of the mitre is ornamented with
precious stones. There is the inscription— Calixtvs III., Pont. Max. On the reverse, Hoc
vovr Deo ; the exergue has, Vt fedei hostes perderem elexit me — I have vowed this to
God : He has elected me that I should destroy the enemies of Hie faith.
This pope bunt, at Rome, sixteen triremes (gaUeys with three banks of oars), which were sent
to Ostia to join the Christian fleet.
Eleven of the triremes are represented : the waves of the sea, heaving as in a tempest, upUfts
them. The artist has weU expressed the movement of the waves, and gives an exact idea of the
shape of the gaUeys of that time.
A second medal, with the same effigy and the same inscription, has these words on the ex
ergue : Ne mtjltorvm svbratvr secvritas — That the security of many of our subjects be not
destroyed. The field represents a fortified city ; on the face of the bastions are the pontifical

A third medal, with the same effigy, bears a cross, surmounted by the pontifical tiara. Around
it are the words : Omnes reges servient Ei — All the kings shall be subject to him. Du Molinet
has not engraved this medal in his work. If the pope had spoken of himself, one would conceive
that the censure of 1679 had prohibited this work ; but the cross is evidently the subject. The
tiara is only there to prove that true worship is only paid to the cross when it appears with the
symbol of the authority of the pontiff, successor to Saint Peter.
Apparently, in place of the suppressed medal, Du Molinet chose to give another. I do not
know it. • It bears these words : Axfonsvs Borgia Gloria Hispante— Alphonsus Borgia, tlie
glory of Spain. In the field, a shield or lozenge bearing a buU passant (the Borgia cognizance),
and surmounted by a crown. On the right and the left, the two keys.

604

LIVES OF THE POPES.

214. PIUS II— a. d. 1458.

IUS II. was originaUy named .ZEneas Sylvius Bar
tholomew Piccolomini. He was bom on the 19th
October, 1405, and was son of Sylvius Piccolo-
mini and Victoria Fortiguerri, nobles of Sienna.
He was born at Corsignano, afterwards declared
an episcopal city. .ZEneas, who was one of the ten
children of Sylvius, studied at Sienna. Then, be
ing obhged to leave on account of the war between
the Siennese and the Florentines, he asked his
father for some money for the journey. His father could give him only six
crowns, obtained by the sale of a mule. 2Eneas first entered the service of
Cardinal Capranica, who was a member of the Council of Bale. But that
cardinal was very soon reduced to great poverty, because his famUy could
not send him any assistance, as they dared not resist the order of Eugene
IV., who had prohibited them from sending any thing to a rebel, as long as
he persisted in remaining at Bale. .ZEneas obtained the same employment,
as secretary to the antipope Fehx V, and, afterwards, to Cardinal Alber
gati, legate in France. Later still, he was chosen to draw up the apostolic
briefs. Very soon he was named president of the tribunal of the faith in
the same councU, which had become a conciliabule ; and he obtained letters
accrediting him as legate, thrice to Strasburg, twice to Constance, and once
each to Frankfort and Savoy. Successively, he became secretary, coun
cillor, and ambassador of the Emperor Frederic III., twice to MUan and
Naples, and three times to Rome. FinaUy, he went to Rome and confessed
his fault to Eugene IV., and declared that he repented having formerly been
among the warmest supporters of the conciliabule at Bale, and of the
party of the antipope Felix. Eugene kindly pardoned him, and made
him his secretary. After the death of Eugene, .ZEneas was named one of
the guardians of the conclave. Nicholas V, on obtaining the tiara, made
.Eneas his secretary, named him apostohcal subdeacon, and ordered that,
at his own coronation, the same secretary should carry the cross. .ZEneas
at length was created bishop of Trieste, and then of Sienna, in 1456. That
dignity was awarded to him in acknowledgment of the zeal that he had
shown in a negotiation in SicUy. At Naples, he concluded the marriage of
Leonora of Portugal with Frederic III. More than ever satisfied with the
service of .ZEneas, Nicholas V. sent him as nuncio to Austria, Hungary, Bo

Pius H. 605
hernia, Moravia, and SUesia, and to three diets in Germany, where he was
absolute arbiter.
CaUixtus HI., grateful for so many labors which had often brought that
servant of the Holy See to the brink of the grave, resolved to raise .ZEneas
to the purple, and he created him cardinal of Saint Sabina. At last, on the
death of CaUixtus, .ZEneas, after a scrutiny and an accesso, was elected pon
tiff on the 14th of August, 1458, the third day of the conclave.
It is a remarkable fact, that on the night before the election, the eighteen
cardinals present had resolved to elect Cardinal EstouteviUe, a French
man of great abihty, and in great consideration for his prudence, his no
bility, and his immense wealth. But the merit of Piccolomini prevaUed over
aU other considerations, and notwithstanding his weak health he was pre
ferred to the French cardinal.
On this subject there were, several prognostics ; the first dating at the
birth of .ZEneas. Victoria, his mother, on the night before his birth dreamed
that she would give birth to a son with a mitre on his head. The second
prognostic was, that .ZEneas, when seven years old, whUe playing with his
companions near the house of Saint Catharine, they created him pontiff,
crowned him with a mitre composed of green leaves, and then kissed his
feet. It was also said' that when .ZEneas appeared before King Alphonso,
at Naples, that prince, pointing to .ZEneas, said to his courtiers : " There is
the Roman pontiff." Finally, it was rumored that as the Emperor Fred
eric III. was surveying Latium from the top of Mont Cimino, he caUed to
the nuncio, and said to him : " .ZEneas, you wUl one day reign over aU these
places, and we who now command you wUl then be commanded by you."
AU those tales, in which Novaes dehghts (v. 196), are not yet finished. A
cardinal seeing at Rome the armorial bearings of .ZEneas (crescents on a
cross, placed one, three, and one), exclaimed that .ZEneas would be pope,
because he, the cardinal, had been told in Calabria that the future pope
would bear those arms.
In aU the conclaves simUar predictions are mentioned ; sensible men re
gard them as of but smaU consequence, but as imaginative minds take
them seriously, such dreams may be mentioned in this history.
On the 3d of September, .ZEneas, who had taken the name of Pius II.,
was croAvned in the Basilica of the Vatican, and not at Saint John Lateran,
as Muratori has erroneously stated.*
On the same day he took possession of Saint John Lateran. But he ran
some danger from the sham fights, with drawn swords, of some soldiers in
front of his horse, which they wanted to appropriate, according to custom,
as soon as he alighted. This diversion was not very becoming in presence
* Annul, d'ltalie, tome ix., p. 467.

606 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of a pontiff who prohibited tournaments. In the tournaments there were
at least some regulations ; the laws of the field were known, and the career
was not commenced untU the signal was given. Fighting around a horse,
that the greed of each combatant wished to appropriate, might degenerate
into violence and trickery, and lead to serious disorders, especiaUy as time
was scarcely given to the pontiff to enter the palace, and avoid the blows
of which the innocent animal was sometimes the victim before it feU to the
lot of an undisputed conqueror.
However, those were times of a magnificence which is not witnessed now.
On ascending the steps of the Vatican, the pontiff invited the cardinals,
ambassadors, and grandees of Rome to a sumptuous banquet. The chief
of the ambassadors from the Florentines was Saint Antoninus, who dehv
ered an elegant discourse, which he afterwards appended to his Chronicle,
divided into three parts. Among the ambassadors sent by the princes were
especiaUy distinguished those of Ferdinand, king of Aragon, iUegitimate
son of King Alphonso, who had formerly been the intimate friend of
.ZEneas, and whom we have seen among those who prognosticated the future
greatness of the apostolic nuncio.
When in the former reign questions arose as to the succession of
Naples, Calhxtus had deprived Ferdinand of that heritage, declaring that
Rome rightfuUy inherited that kingdom by the terms of the ancient con
cessions. Pius annuUed the decree of CaUixtus, invested Ferdinand with
that kingdom, removed the interdict which had been pronounced against
aU who should remain faithful to the son of Alphonso, and restored him to
aU his rights, imposing upon him, however, a tribute of eight thousand
ounces of gold and a palfrey. The conditions, also, were removed which
had been prescribed to Charles of Anjou, when he received the kingdom in
fief. (See life of Clement IV.)
Calhxtus had shown great anxiety to engage the princes to make war
against the Turks ; and Pius, when he had become pope, showed no less
zeal against the common enemy.
The pope ordered a solemn congress to assemble at Mantua, at which
were to be present the ambassadors of Italy and of aU the Christian king
doms. In that congress means were discussed for organizing a war advan
tageous to the interests of religion. Pius said : " Such a war does not
concern merely this or that particular kingdom ; it is an enterprise which
concerns the totahty of the Christian repubhc." *
It was at that precise period that the same pope founded a mihtary order
" Leodrisio CriveUi, a contemporary author, in a treatise Be Expeditions Pii H. in Turcas
(see Muratori, Script, rer Ital., tome xxiii., col. 35), speaks of the efforts made by the pope to
render that war successful. Nicholas Reutner published, in four volumes, 4to., a coUection en
titled, Orationes et Consultationes de Bello Turcico. Leipsic, 1596.

Pius n. 607
of knights, under the title of Knights of Saint Mary of Bethlehem. They
swore to defend Lemnos and the other isles of the' iEgean Sea, and to war
upon the Turks as the Knights of Jerusalem.
A great portion of the preparations agreed upon by the congress was
finished. Then the pope, regardless of the coldness of the season, of the
attacks of gout to which he was subject, and of the melancholy presages
which he heard around him, set out for Mantua on the 22d of January,
1459. He left as legate at Rome, during his absence, Cardinal de Cusa,
and as governor and prefect, Prince Colonna. They were assisted by other
cardinals, by the auditors of the Rota, and by many prelates, to form the
Roman court ad interim.
At Perugia a pope had not been seen for seventy years. Pius remained
there three weeks, and dedicated the noble temple to Saint Dominic.
Then he went to Carsignano, his native place, where he may have thought
of the homage paid to him in 1412 by his young playmates. There he
celebrated the feast of St. Peter's Chair.
He arrived, on the 25th of February, in the city of Sienna, and gave it
Radicofani, which belonged to the Church. Novaes makes no reflection
upon this point of history ; but, K the nepotism of family is wrong, the
nepotism of nation is not right. The gift was not recaUed by any pontiff,
and RadicOfani stiU belongs to Florence, which acquired it when she con
quered aU the Siennese States.
Sienna was made a metropohs. There Pius was right ; as head of the
Church, he could at his own pleasure grant that favor.
In the same city the pope pronounced a solemn discourse on the fourth
Sunday in Lent, blessed the Golden Rose, and presented it to the Siennese
senate. On the 25th of AprU he entered Florence. Cosmas de Medicis, regent of
that repubhc, received His Holiness with a royal splendor. He was the
wealthiest and most honorable citizen of that time. Pius, after giving
audience to some ambassadors from various parts of the world, departed,
on the 5th of March, for Bologna, which he entered on the 9th. The
principal nobles of the city volunteered to carry him themselves in a kind
of decorated htter, caUed the sedia gestatoria. He next visited Ferrara.
There, Borso d'Este, the feudatory, presented himseK before the pope, and
preceded him on foot^until expressly permitted to mount a horse. That
honor was granted to him because he was related to the pope, as being the
son of SteUa Tolomei, a Siennese lady whose famUy was closely connected
with that of the Piccolomini.
On the 27th of May, Pius made a triumphal entry into Mantua. He now
sought for nothing but the means of organizing the crusaders, and hasten
ing their departure. The Turk was daUy becoming more formidable ; he

608 LIVES OF -THE POPES.
was continuaUy subjugating cities in the East. Then a decision of the
congress was made pubhc. It ordered, that for that holy war there should
be paid during three years, by clerics, the tenth part of their revenues, by
the laity the thirtieth, and by the Jews the twentieth. Many populations
promised to add further sacrifices to sacrifices aheady onerous. Among
those who did so were the Florentines, the Siennese, the Ragusans, the
Genoese, and the Rhodians, subjects of the order of Saint John of Jeru
salem. The Bolognese also announced that they would generously con
tribute. Pius, by a bull of the 15th of January, 1460, made the determination of
the congress known to the whole world.
Notwithstanding the good-wiU of the pope, those succors were not punc-
tuaUy given, partly on account of the war which had broken out between
the French and English, and partly on account of the differences which
arose at Naples between King Ferdinand of Aragon, so greatly patronized
by the pope, and John, duke of Anjou, son of King Rene, and partly on
account of the embarrassments caused in the Ecclesiastical States by the
Manfredi and the Malatesta.
Then appeared another bull, in which it was forbidden to appeal from the
pope to a future council. Such appeals were declared to be abusive,
erroneous, and deserA'ing of condemnation. Bercastel, in his History of the
Church (vol. xvi, page 149, et seq.), reports the discontent of the French,
who felt offended by that buU, and he details what they did concerning it,
and Noaves thinks that that author speaks impartiaUy.*
Nevertheless, those appeals are injurious to the Church ; they obstruct
business, and are generaUy of no use to those who resort to them as a tem
porary refuge ; nothing ever results from them but indecisive pretensions,
calculated to decrease the veneration that is due to the Holy See.
On the 5th of March, 1460, Pius made a promotion of cardinals.
Meantime, Sigismund, duke of Austria, had arrested, in the castle of
Brunech, Cardinal de Cusa, in consequence of some differences as to eccle
siastical rights. On the 8th of August the Holy Father excommunicated
Sigismund and his accomplices, by virtue of a constitution, since introduced
by Gregory XHI. and by Paul V. into the bull In Ccena Bomini. Pius
repeated the prohibition to appeal from the pope to a future councU, after
the example of Sigismund. The same pope condemned appeUants as guflty
of heresy and high treason.
The Holy Father, having returned to Rome in 1461, solemnly canonized
Saint Catharine of Sienna, of the order of Saint Dominic. She was born
in the quarter of Fontebranda, in 1347, the daughter of Jacope Benincasa,
* Novaes, v., p. 201.

Pius II. 609
by trade a dyer, and she died at Rome, aged thirty-three, on the 29th
of AprU, 1380. Urban VL, Innocent VIL, and Gregory XIII. had desired
to canonize her, but could not do so on account of the schism. This, says
Novaes (v., 205), was determined by the divine wUl, so that, amidst the tem
pests of clashing opinions, some should not regard as profane her whom
others beheved holy.*
MeanwhUe, Mahomet, in spite of the exertions of the Knights of Bethle
hem, of whom we spoke just now, had occupied the isles of Lemnos and
Lesbos, which, in the reign of CaUixtus III., the Christians had reconquered.
The Turks had also seized upon the isle of Negropont. The Holy Fathers
received, with great kindness, Thomas Paleologus (despote), prince of the
Morea, and brother of Constantine Paleologus, the last of the Greek empe
rors. Thomas was at Rome on the fourth Sunday of Lent; the pope
blessed the golden rose, and presented it to that prince. Thomas then
presented to the pope the head of the apostle Saint Andrew, which he had
brought from the Peloponnesus. His Holiness placed it with great pomp on
the altar of Saint Gregory the Great, at the Vatican.
At the death of Charles VH., on the 22d of July, 1461, Pius II. demanded
from that prince's successor, Louis XL, the revocation of the Pragmatic
Sanction.t The new king denounced it as being born in the bosom of the
schism, and destructive of the right and authority of the sovereign pontiff, from
which authority aU other is derived.% This news was very joyfuUy haUed at
Rome ; but, after the death of Pius, the pragmatic was re-established. This
controversy, which the popes held in horror as directly resulting from a
schism, and upon which they had disputed with the kings of France for
seventy years, was terminated only in 1515, by the concordat concluded be
tween France and Leo X.', as we shall show in our hfe of that pontiff.
In 1462, the city of Rome was ravaged by a violent pestUence. The pope
went to the baths of Viterbo (the sulphurous baths of Buhcamo), but as
there were traces of contagion there too, he went to Bolsena, and thence to
Corsignano, his native place, which he was always glad to revisit, and where
he had estabhshed a bishopric, at the same time giving to the city the name
of Pienza, derived from the name of Pius.
* Pius n. expressly says this in his bull : Ne sasviente divisionis procella, quod sanctum una
dbedientia decrevisset, profanum altera censuisset.
t Novaes, gives this note on the above passage. " The Pragmatic Sanction, attributed to Louis.
IX., and reported in vol. vii. of the Councils by Hardouin, p. 643, is entirely supposititious, as is
said by Father Thomassin, Be Vet., et Nov. Biscipl., part ii., Ub. ii., cap. in ; part iii., lib. 1., cap.
xliii. ; part xxvii. Lambertini, Be Serv. Bei Beatifi, ch. 36, n. 15, demonstrates that it was not
well known until about two centuries after the death of Saint Louis, that is to say, m 1461, and
that if it had been true the French would have invoked it during the dispute between Boniiace
VIII. and Philip the Fair.
X Letter of Louis XI. to Pius II. (Rainaldi, ad an. 1461, No. 188 ; Labbe, Condi., toma xiv., p.
97 ; Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccles., tome viU, dissert, xi., art. i. and ii., p. 001, et seq.
Vol. I.— 39

610 LIVES OF THE POPES.
For a long time the pope had felt remorse, because he had formerly ap
proved doctrines contrary to the customs and rights of the Holy See. He
now thought fit to sign, on the 25th qf April, a constitution by which he
annuUed aU that he had pubhshed in favor of the conciliabule of Bale,
against Eugene IV., and the authority of the Roman Church. He exhorted
all and each to foUow him, old and not young, pontiff, and not private man,
to reject .ZEneas, and to embrace Pius.*
Previously, in a letter addressed to Jordan, rector of the University of
Cologne, dated 13th of August, 1447, Pius, whUe he was bishop of Trieste,
that is to say, nine years before he became cardinal, and eleven years before
he became pope, had positively retracted aU opinions contrary to the senti
ments and prerogatives of Rome.
The pope also annuUed all the preliminaries agreed upon between the
legates of the Council of Bale and the Bohemians,t by virtue of which the
Bohemians renounced aU the erroneous articles, except communion under
both kinds, which the false council approved. There then arose a dissen
sion between the Dominicans and the Franciscans, relative to the blood of
Jesus Christ shed during the Passion. The Dominicans had on their side
the opinions of many learned men, and especially that of the pope. The
dispute grew warm. Pius enjoined on the dissidents a strict and perpetual
silence on that point. Many popes had similarly decided in reference to diffi
cult opinions, and we shaU see that this system of prudence, circumspection,
and wisdom wiU be foUowed by some of the successors of Pius H. It is
under simUar circumstances that we should bless the authority of the suc
cessors of Peter. No rehgious order, no opinion, should resist such friendly
counsel ; that decision which prevents aU war of pens and tongues, that
commandment from which there is no appeal, which directs towards other
objects the zeal, the learning, the vigUs, and the innumerable labors of the
noble writers of aU rehgious orders.
Amidst the anxious cares to aUow no abuse to escape his attention, Pius
did not lose sight of the threats of Mahomet II. He had conquered the
empire of Trebisond, after expelling from it the house of Comnenus, which
had established itseK there in 1204, and maintained itseK there for fifty-
seven years. The insatiable Turk had also invaded the kingdom of Bosnia,
and ordered its fifth and last king, Stephen, -to be flayed ahve.
The pope thought fit to write to Mahomet himseK a letter, in which he
conjured him to act more gently towards the Christians, and also exhorted
him to embrace the Christian religion. " Thus," said the pope, " you will
* That noble constitution is the tenth in the Roman Bullary, tome i.. p. 392, and Labbe re
ports it in his vol. xiii. of the Councils, p. 1409.
f They were caUed Compactata Bohemorum. Natalis Alexander speaks of them in his vol
iii. of the Hist. Eccles., p. 91, and foUowing.

pius II. 611
be legitimately emperor of the East." But the barbarian was by that
only rendered more cruel, and he turned aU his fury against the Ragusans.
A holy war, according to the terms of the decision of the congress of, Man
tua, was proclaimed by a buU of the 23d of October, 1463. The pope pub
hshed the treaty which he had concluded with Phihp, duke of Burgundy,
and Christopher Moro, doge of Venice. Cardinal Fortiguerra, a relation of
His Holiness, was named general of the galleys which the pope had buUt
at Pisa, and which he was to take to Ancona, whither the pope went by land,
in order to saU, K necessary, to the Levant. But money was wanting.
That obstacle was soon removed. The pope devoted to the expenses of
the Avar the product of the alum mines, which had recently been discovered
in the mountain of La ToKa, near Civita Vecchia.*
The pope hoped that the doge of Venice would furnish stUl more aid than
he had promised; and subsidies were also expected from other Italian
prmces. Cardinal Roderic Borgia, who was very wealthy, had alone prom
ised to furnish a gaUey equipped at his own expense.
A multitude of other letters, briefs, supphcations, orders, and entreaties,
went forth at the same time from the Vatican, addressed to various coun
tries. It was necessary to consider the arrangements necessary to the firm
administration of the government during the absence of the pope. Before
he left the city, aU measures were taken to secure the complete provisioning
of Rome, and the undisturbed continuance of pubhc tranquillity. On leav
ing the Vatican, the pope went to pray in Saint Peter's ; then he made an
affecting address to the cardinals, and proceeded in a Utter as far as the
PontemoUe, where he embarked on the Tiber, which was more navigable in
* These mines were discovered in 1462, by John de Castro, son of the celebrated jurisconsult,
Paul de Castro. Pins II. reports in his Commentaries, liv. vu., p. 185, how that discovery was
made. The product of the mines rose to the sum of about a hundred thousand crowns, so great
was the demand for this alum. It serves to prevent the putrefaction of animal substances,
to prevent ink from running on paper, and to set the colors of dyed stuffs. In medicine it is
employed as an astringent. The Roman alum is in smaU cubical fragments, covered with a
roseate powder. In 1733, the sale was less considerable ; nevertheless, it was farmed at nearly
forty thousand crowns.
In the conclave after the death of Sixtus IV., the electors swore that they would apply this
revenue only to the defence of the Christians against the Turks, and to the relief of the nobles
whom the violence of the Infidels had driven in exile from the East. And accordingly we find
that, in the taxation of the apostolic servants, established in 1487 by Innocent VIIL, the farmer
of these mines is called the Farmer of the Alum of the Holy Crusade. Leo X., to prevent any
fraud in that administration, instituted, in 1522, an order of four hundred and one persons,
named knights, or soldiers of Saint Peter. They were to take care of all business relating to
this alum ; he also created them knights, counts of the palace of Lateran, and gave them a gold
chain, with the head of Saint Peter on one side, and of the pope on the other. Further, they
had many special privileges. This order preserved its primitive splendor, and the honors paid
to it, up to the reign of Paul IV., (Farnese, who confirmed the rights granted to it by Leo X.)
Subsequently, the institution began to languish. It lost its equestrian dignity, and the care of
the alum mines. The coUege is stiU extant, distributed into many offices caUed vacabili

612 LIVES OF THE POPES.
that part then than it is now. It was imprudent thus to embark on the
Tiber in the month of June. The fever which prevails along the banks of
the river began to torment the Holy Father ; but he persisted in concealing
it, lest his physicians should make him turn back. Moreover, could he not
go forward by land ? This method satisfied the pious wishes of the Holy
Father and the tender sohcitude of his subjects.
Having, without quitting the Tiber, arrived at Fiano, the pope went to
the monastery of the Benedictines on Mount Soracte, and thence took the
road by the Marches to visit Loretto. On the 19th of July, he entered
Ancona. A multitude of Cathohcs from aU points of Christendom had
visited that city to see a pontiff, himseK going forth at the. head of a
crusade. Christopher Moro, doge of Venice, being detained by foul weather, could
not reach Ancona untU the 12th of August, and the pope was then in no
condition to embark ; but he would witness the entrance of the Venetian
army. It was the last time that he appeared in pubhc. Two days after,
he could scarcely speak. However, he was heard to blame his physician,
and to say : " Hoc quoque Prindpum miseria est, ne in morte, quidem, carere
assentatoribus — One of the miseries of princes is to have flatterers even around
their death-bed."
Pius II. was right ; but it is also true that the patient ought not to deceive
physicians who are disposed to flatter. It was in giving so noble an exam
ple, calculated to excite the Christians to look to their own interests and
their own perUs, that Pius H. died, on the l4th of August, 1464, aged "fifty-
eight years, nine months, and twenty-eight days, after having sought the
aids of rehgion. He had governed the Church five years, eleven months,
and twenty-five days.
Pius had received Extreme Unction when he was attacked by the pesti
lence during the CouncU of Bale. Some theologians, seeing the pope in
such extremity at Ancona, thought that he ought not to receive that sacra
ment a second time. Pius was not unaware that this opinion had been
maintained by the Doctors of the 12th century ; but he did not agree with
it, and he required that that sacrament should be administered to him.*
We have to notice a fine trait of disinterestedness and fidelity to his word.
The pope had promised pecuniary aid to the doge of Venice. The sacred
coUege finding among the effects of the deceased pope a sum of fifty thou
sand crowns, dehvered it to the doge, towards the expenses of the war.
Pius was a wise legist, and weU versed in the literature of the ancients.
He was esteemed for his eloquence, his kindness, his justice, and his love
of peace. The cardinal of Pavia said : " He was a sovereign pontiff filled
* Bercastel, Hist, de VEglise, tome xvi., p. 169.

PIUS II. 613
with the finest virtues, and admirable for the purity of his morals, the firm
ness of his mind, and his rare attainments in every branch of knowledge."*
He was of short stature. He lost his hair prematurely. His face was
pale, and looked of greater age. His eyes alternately expressed severity
and benevolence. His body was strong, but extenuated by the fatigues of
long and frequent journeys, and by the annoyances of an obstinate cough,
the gravel, and the gout, which reduced him to a chronic state of disorder.
Although so great a sufferer, he readUy gave audience ; he spoke but httle,
but when he was in a cheerful mood, he did not disdain refined wit.t
A good friend, he always liked to see at his table those whose company
he Inked. Then he would have his table set up in a terrace, or other place
in the open air. He was not particular in his eating, preferring simple food
without rich seasoning. He was stern towards hars, and those who abused
his confidence. He was easUy thrown into a sort of excitement, but could
suddenly recover aU his calmness ; and it was perceptible that he internally
reproached himseK for his momentary loss of it. He pardoned affronts.
He never reprimanded those who spoke Ul of him ; he said that in a free
dty aU should be free to speak.
The funeral ceremonies took place. The doge of Venice pronounced the
funeral oration, and then took his seat between the two cardinal deacons.
The cardinals who had accompanied Pius II. returned with the body to
Rome, where he was interred in the Vatican.^
* Novaes, v., p. 222.
f Sales interdum libenter audiebat, negotiis prmsertim vacuus — He willingly Ustened to deU-
cate jesting, especiaUy when he was not busy.
X Three medals which are before me belong to the reign of Pius II. AU three have the same
effigy. On the head of the pope is a plain cap, entirely covering it, and hiding even the ears.
Such would necessarily be habituaUy worn by an invalid pope. On the reverse of the first
medal are the words, in large characters: Optimo Prinoipi — To the excellent prince. On the
reverse of the second medal are the words : Gloria Senensi D. C. Piccolomini. In the field
is a shield bearing five crescents, placed 1, 3, and 1, surmounted by the keys and the tiara.
These are the crescents aUuded to in the prognostic. The third medal has on its exergue these
words : Ne tanti Eccleslsi Pacisqtje amantis deleatur memoria — That his memory be not
effaced, who so loved the Church and peace. In the field is a table covered with books, inclosed
within these words: Velociter scribentis soboles— The children of a swift writer. Pius II.
could not be better characterized than by showing that quantity of books from which he obtained
knowledge, and those manuscripts, aU from his own pen, which testified the continual labor of
an industrious secretary. We have shown that this pope acted in that quaUty to several illus
trious personages. JEneas employed almost his whole life in writing. He was for a long time
the abbreviator of the apostoUc letters, and copied with his own hand a great part of the letters
of Nicholas V. Du MoUnet erroneously gives, in the exergue of the third medal, the word
AMANTTSSIMI, instead of amantis. He also describes a very fine medal of this reign which I do
not possess. It represents a pelican with its opened heart, the blood from which feeds the young
brood of the mother bird. Around the field are the words : Ales ut ~b.mss cordis pavi de san
guine natos — Like this bird, I have fed my little ones with my heart's blood. The engraver of
this work was Andrew Cremona. The author of the legend was Monsignor Campani, author
of a Life of Pius II.

614 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The pope erected a tomb at Sienna, to the memory of his mother and
father. The foUowing distich, by the pope himself, is supposed to be
spoken by his father :
"Sylvius hicjaceo, conjux Victoria mecum est,
Filius hoc clausit marmore Papa Pius."
A multitude of happy sayings is attributed to Pius II.
"Letters," said he, " are silver for the poor, gold for nobles, and precious
stones for princes."
Without knowing it, or possibly, weU knowing it, Pius here gives his own
history. Poor, he found in letters his means of support ; as cardinal, he
made them the recreation and the ornament of his hfe ; when prince, they
consoled him under more than one misfortune, and enabled him to support
the weight of the miseries of greatness. He weU knew those miseries, he
who, in a moment when httle is spoken, said—" One of the miseries of
princes is to be surrounded by flatterers even omjtiae death-bed."
The foUowing are sayings of the same pope :
" Every sect which is supported only by human authority is wrong."
" It is more beautiful than useful to explore the course of the stars."
" A miser never has enough money ; a scholar never has enough know
ledge." " The citizen subjects his house to the city, the city to the nation, the
nation to the world, and the world to God."
" The king who confides in no one is useless ; and he is no better who
trusts every one."
" A heavy burden is the pontificate ! But it is light when weU borne."
" No treasure should be valued above a faithful friend."
" He nurtures a foe who pardons his son too much."
" AU phUosophers agree that it is better to die nobly than hve in shame."
The above sentences are extracted from Platina (pp. 544, 645). There
are some more, but I have rejected them because I beheve them to be in
terpolated, and of course apocryphal.

PAUL n.

615

215. PAUL II— a. d. 1464.
AUL n. (Pietro), was born at Venice of a noble
famUy, on the 26th of February, 1418 ; son of
Nicholas Barbo and Polyxena Condulmieri, a lady
of great piety, and sister of Pope Eugene IV.
It is affirmed that he was about to go to the
East, on a vessel which he had freighted with
merchandise,* when, hearing that his uncle Eugene
was made pope, he abandoned his voyage, and
turned his attention to belles lettres, which he had neglected in his youth.
Others say that Eugene, as he passed through Ferrara, caUed upon his
nephew there, gave him good masters, and shortly afterwards named him
archbishop of Bologna, and commandatory of the bishopric of Cervia.
On the 22d of June, 1440, Eugene made him cardinal-deacon of Saint
Mary Nuova, whence he succeeded to the title of cardinal-priest of Saint
Mark. The cardinals who had accompanied Pius II. to Ancona had returned to
Rome to open the conclave there, because most of the sacred electors being
too old to travel to Ancona, the electors who remained in Rome were some
what anxious because Antonio, duke of Amalfi, the late pope's nephew, held
the castle of Saint Angelo as of his own right. In their uncertainty as to
the intentions of Antonio, some of the cardinals wished the conclave to
meet at the Minerva, while others desired it to meet at the Vatican. The
latter was finaUy preferred, and twenty-two cardinals at length assembled
there. The electors began by passing eighteen laws for the good administration
of the pontificate, which aU swore to obey. Thence came the custom of
often decreeing, more or less reasonably, new laws before an election.
At the first scrutiny, to the astonishment of aU, Cardinal Barbo was
elected, on the 30th of August, 1464 ; and on the same day, as Avas at that
time customary, and the custom prevailed until Gregory Xni., he went to
take possession of Saint John Lateran. Sinoe then, the taking possession
may have been deferred.
He wished to take the name of Formosus, in which case he would have
been Formosus II., but the cardinals pointed out that as he was very hand-

* Platina on that point says : " Commerce is an honor to Venice ; and Solon formerly did not
disapprove of it."

616 LIVES OF THE POPES.
some, that choice might be imputed to vanity.* Then he thought of can
ing himseK Mark, but he feared that that name might be supposed to
evince a national preference ; finaUy, he changed his name of Peter into
that of Paul.
As cardinal he had singular habits ; he sat up all night, dined in the
evening, and took supper at dawn of day. Wishing to retain the same
habits as pontiff, he could give audiences only in the evening.
Pius II., besides what he took to Ancona, had left at Rome a. sum of
forty-eight thousand ducats for the Turkish expedition.
A part of this sum was sent to Scanderberg, who was caUed the new
Alexander and the Christian Gideon. That intrepid general took Albania
from the Turks ; but, unhappUy, the hero survived his triumph only a short
time, and Italy was deeply grieved by his death.
As Paul II. was very magnificent in his taste, he had a tiara made at
great cost, ornamented with a considerable number of precious stones.
It was he who gave the cardinals the red cap, to distinguish them the
more from the prelates.
To the cardinals whose income was less than four thousand crowns, he
assigned a hundred golden crowns a month, which is vulgarly caUed il
piatto di cardinal povero. It is stiU caUed il piatto, but without the fore
going explanation.
The cardinals were not readUy distinguished from the prelates, when
both were in fuU dress ; he therefore permitted the cardinals to wear the
damask mitre, and ordered that their benches in the consistories should,
like those in the papal chapels, be higher than those of the prelates.
In 1466, by a sentence, which he renewed in the foUowing year, the pope
excommunicated George Pogebrac, king of Bohemia, a supporter of the
Hussites, who had given him that kingdom, although it rightfuhy belonged
to Casimir, king of Poland, entitled to it in1 right of his wKe IsabeUa, sister
of Ladislaus, the last sovereign.
At the same time, he reproved the archbishops of Benevento, who, on the
solemn days when the prelates were adorned with the mitre, in imitation
of the sovereign pontiffs, assumed to wear a tiara, formed of three crowns,
and had the Holy Eucharist carried before them. Eugene IV. had re
placed the secular canons at the Basihca of Saint John Lateran by canons
regular of Saint Augustine. The Romans had petitioned Calhxtus
III. to restore the canonries to seculars, which he did by taking those
benefices from the regulars. The fury of the Romans had become so great
that the regulars were insulted. Paul, whUe cardinal, had courageously
opposed this violence, and one of the rabble threatened him with a sword
* Formosus means handsome.

PAUL II. 617
thrust K he should persist in defending the regulars. Then he made a vow
that, should he ever have the power, he would take them back to that
church in procession. When he became pope, Paul fuLfiUed his vow. The
secular canons were divided among other estabhshments without the loss of
any of their emoluments. Those of them who were worthy of it were made
bishops, and the regulars were restored, with considerable stipends, to their
former places.
For the gradual reform of some abuses which had crept into the adminis
tration of affairs, the pope signed a 'Constitution, afterwards confirmed by
Sixtus IV. It ordered aU legates, governors, and judges of the provinces,
to refuse to receive any presents of whatsoever' kind,, except meat and drink,
not more than would be consumed in two days. The object of the decree
was to release the administrators from a heavy obhgation, and place them
in a better position to administer justice without authorizing corruption.
Italy, hke the East, is often the country of presents. Such a custom can
not be uprooted, and perhaps it helps to maintain among the populace ideas
of subordination and justice. When so inveterate a custom exists, the true
pohcy is, not to declare war against it, but to regulate it.
The pope was informed of some abuses in the administration of the
isle of Rhodes. He invited the grand master to Rome, where he re
served him as a sovereign prince, and gave him a solemn audience.
This pope was the first who gave the keeping of fortresses to prelates
and ecclesiastics, that they might be the more faithful in preserving those
defences of the power of the sovereign pontiffs.
The same pope openly attacked simony, and would have around him in
aU the places of trust only men of the purest probity.
He destroyed a culpable academy which had been formed at Rome, which
had iniquitous customs, injurious to true rehgion. It taught that it was
permitted every one to seek aU kinds of pleasures ; that the names received
in baptism should be renounced, and in their stead old pagan names
adopted ; it professed other odious maxims, even sanctioning attempts on
the hfe of the pontiff.
The founder of that academy was Damian Toscano, who took the name
of Calhmachus, and the principal personage was Pomponius Leti, a Cala-
brian, a bastard of the San Severino. famUy, who at his baptism had re
ceived the name of Juhus, or of Bernardine, and who was reader of the Col
lege of the Sapienza.
Paul, in 1468, forbade, by a constitution, the alienation of ecclesiastical
property, or the farming it for more than three years.
Meantime, Ferdinand, king of Naples, who had received favors from the
Church, almost avowed a design to seize Rome, and took measures to
weaken the power of the Holy See. Paul, therefore, signed a league for

618 LIVES OF THE POPES.
twenty-five years with the repubhc of Venice. Clauses were inserted, obli
gatory upon both parties. The mind of the Holy Father was occupied upon
a project worthy of him. He determined to get back the provinces unjustly
taken or withheld from the Holy See. Among them were the city of Ri
mini and some other provinces that had been obtained from the Holy See
and held in fief by Sigismund Malatesta, and which he had treated as his
own independent property. They were now in the possession of Sigis-
mund's natural son, Robert, and he having, by the law of the land, no right
to inherit them, they rightfuUy reverted to the Holy See.
Careful to recover what belonged to Rome, Paul was no less so to pre
serve what had not yet been taken from her. He ordered the building of
the fortress of Todi, and then those of Cascia and Monteleone, to add to the
security of the frontiers towards the Abruzzi.
The Turks continued their incursions. The pope, that vigUant guardian,
could not but foresee fresh misfortunes for the Church. He wrote to Fer
dinand : " We renounce the tribute of the palfrey and the falcons, which
form part of the hege homage, if you wiU furnish a sum of money to pay
for the preparations for a war against the Turks." The royal ambassadors
refused the sum asked for, and said that rather than pay it, then prince
would join the Turks. Paul rephed to them : " Go and repeat to your king
what you say. H he resolves to join the Turks, we have already the means
to drive the king from the kingdom and the Turk from the Cathohc States."
Nevertheless, the pope, faithful to aU those principles of conciliation which
so well characterize the actions of the Holy See, received with great kind
ness the son of Ferdinand, when on his way to MUan, and gave him the
golden rose.
It was in this year (1471) that Paul, by a constitution, ordered that the
Jubilee should be celebrated every twenty-five years, commencing with the
year 1475. The custom has been preserved to our own day, without inter
ruption, except in 1800, in consequence of the misfortunes of the Church.
But Paul did not hve to see the fulfilment of his project. He died before
he could celebrate the JubUee.
On the 18th of March, 1471, Paul honored with the title of duke of Fer
rara, Borso of Este, duke of Modena, who previously was only caUed vicar
of Ferrara. That prince came to Rome to receive his new title. On the
road and on his arrival he displayed so royal a hberality that even the City
of Grandeur was astonished at it, and felt obliged to respond to so much
magnificence by a magnificence no less sumptuous. The presents mutuaUy
made were worthy of such noble sovereigns.
The Holy Father continued his pontifical labors, and rendered himseU
more and more honorable to Christianity, when he was stricken down by
apoplexy, at the age of fifty-three years, on the 26th of July, 1471. He had

PAUL n. 619
governed the Church six years, ten months, and twenty-six days. He
would not take the necessary precautions, and he unhappUy affected to for
get that he had aheady had two attacks.
Paul was of lofty stature. PhUelphus says his figure was heroic. His
face was graceful, attractive, and truly beautiful.
He was a great lover of antiquities, and he -had formed a very rich mu
seum of the most elegant rehcs of ancient Rome. It was under him that
the revival of sculpture commenced.
It has been said that he could weep at wiU, and that he would obtain by
tears the concessions which were denied to his words. Such a weakness
should not belong to so great a heart. But aU authors are not agreed as
to that gKt of tears, which may be a calumny invented by his enemies.
He was interred in the Vatican. Cardinal Angelo Quirini pubhshed the
life of this pope, written by Michael Caneso, bishop of Castro.
This pope, who deserves to rank among the most pious, was so zealous
for ecclesiastical discipline, that he said : " In some things the pontiff may
be a man, but when he has to appoint pastors of the Church, he ought to
be an angel ; and when he has to appoint to the sacred coUege, he ought to
a God."* (This last expression seems to us to be somewhat bold.) " If,"
continues the pope, " he faUs in his first choice (the bishop), he prostitutes
the Church, by delivering her to one who is destitute of the necessary
merits, and who, therefore, is not truly united to her. If he faU in the
second duty, the pontiff becomes a demon, because he exposes aU the
churches to the danger of falling into ruin, so important is that which the
sacred coUege clearly decides ; moreover, the sacred coUege often indicates
the pastors that should be selected." The pope added : " The ecclesiastical
dignities should be distributed neither hastUy nor in compUance with the
requests and recommendations of distinguished personages, but solely after
mature and prudent consideration of the actual personal merits." With
such principles, it was often seen that the pope honored the virtue of emi
nent men, who, though absent and unconscious of what was said of them,
suddenly received the reward of their merit.
Paul embellished the church of Saint Mark, at present one of the most
remarkable in Rome. But, unfortunately, to get the materials for the
neighboring palace, he took marbles from the Cohseum, which was fast
falling into ruin. His bad example was foUowed by the nephew of Sixtus
IV., and by Cardinal Famese, afterwards Paul HI. It was under this pope
that what Quirini caUs divine typography, was introduced at Rome.
In 1468, some German printers, who, three years previously, had worked
at Subiaco, being invited thither by some monks from their country, re-
* Egidio, cardinal di Viterbo, quoted by Rainaldi, ann. 1471. See, also, Novaes, v., p. 242.

320 LIVES OF THE POPES.
moved to Rome, and, under the patronage of Paul, pubhshed editions which
are now eagerly purchased at any price, by the chief libraries of the world.
He thought it not unbecoming to be known as a frank and joyous per
son, and, in company of a prince or cardinal, he could enjoy, in spite of
etiquette, a hearty laugh. One day, learning that the cardinals were dining
with the cardinal of Saint Eusebius, he went there, secretly, and made his
appearance among them, cheerful as themselves, and taking the lowest seat
at table, saying that it was not a time to take the highest, and ordering no
one to leave his place.
To the Roman populace, he gave feasts like the most generous of the
ancient emperors. It was under him that the principal street of Rome was
named the Strada dd Cor so, on account of the races that he introduced.
Paul II. is blamed by Platina, who says that, as abridger, he apphed to
the pope, who had suppressed that office, and begged him to refer the
matter to the auditors of the Rota. According to Platina, Paul, looking
askant at him, said : " So, you send us to judges, as though you know not
that we carry aU the laws in the casket of our own bosom." And the pope,
throwing aside the first person plural, might have said : " Such is the sen
tence ; let aU yield to it ; let them go whither they think fit, I do not keep
them. I am pontiff, and it is for me to sustain or to annul the acts of
others." Platina relates that he appealed from the pope to the kings and
the princes. Paul, irritated at this letter, threw the author into prison. It.
must be admitted that the account of Platina's sufferings, which are proba
bly true, excited a lively interest. The poor man was subjected to torments ;
but these ceased before the pope's death. Cardinal Bessarion was a kind
friend to Platina, who ends by saying — Justus, tamen, habitus et clemens —
Yet, this pope teas just and merciful; though this acknowledgment was
accompanied by much insulting language. According to the tone that
Platina frequently assumes in his History of the Popes, it would be reason
ably inferred that he was not quite so innocent as he claims to have been,
and that, without being actuaUy one of the conspirators, he at least was
one of the harshest speakers among the malcontents of that time. Platina
closes his history with Paul II. The successor of that pope, Sixtus IV.,
reinstated Platina in his posts. That historian ended his hfe quietly, laden
with honors and favors, of which he was worthy, excepting when he gave
way to that insulting acerbity which effects no reform, and when aided by
ability, becomes an evU that every prince should banish from his States.
The Holy See remained vacant fourteen days.*

* In the casket which was presented to us by Pius VIL, we have only three medals of Paul II.
All have the same effigy, with the words : Pavlvs II., Venetvs. Pont. Max. The head ol
Paul is uncovered. In 1464, the first was struck. On the reverse we read these words: Anno

sixtus rv. 621

216. SIXTUS IV.— a. d. 1471.
IXTUS IV., originaUy named Francis de la Rovera,
was born in a viUa of his family, a short distance
from the city of Savona, on the 21st of July, 1414.
Many authors caU him a fisherman's son ; but No
vaes, with whom I agree on this point, does not
admit that fact. Francis at an early age entered
the order of Saint Francis, and was professor of
^^lill^B^ phUosophy and theology at Padua, at Bologna, at
Pavia, at Sienna, at Florence, and at Perugia. His renown was greatly
increased in the general chapter of the order which was held at Genoa in
1424. He was then pronounced to be the most eloquent of the friars.
Petrarch calls him a most penetrating theologian, and an orator of the first
merit. He subsequently became procurator-general at Rome, vicar-general
of Italy, and, in 1464, he was elected general of the Franciscans. Paul II.
made him cardinal of Saint Peter, in vinculis, on the 18th of September, 1467.
He was elected pontiff on the 9th of August, 1471, in a conclave of
eighteen cardinals. They were a second time inclined to elect ' Cardinal
Bessarion, one of the most iUustrious personages of that age of learning,
M.CD.LXIV. Roma. In the field are the armorial bearings of the Barbos, a lion passant, or, on a
band argent, surmounted by the tiara and keys.
The second has on the exergue : " Solvm: in Feras Prvs bellatvr Pastor— The pious shep
herd combats only savage beasts." Hunters, on horse and a-fbot, armed with pikes, are cheering
dogs on in pursuit of a boar and a stag. Peter Damian, under Alexander IL, censures the taste
of ecclesiastics for hunting and falconry. What would he say in this case ? A medal proves
that a Venetian pope indulged in the pleasures of the chase.
The third medal bears only in the field these words : Anno Christt, MCCCCLXX. Has ^des
Condidit— In the year of Christ 1470, the pope erected these buildings. A memorial, apparently,
of the time when Paul II. built the Venetian palace, near the church of Saint Mark.
Du Molinet was richer than I ; he gives other medals. 1. This : Pabvlvm salvtis— The
nourishment of salvation, the lamb without spot or blemish; below, Peter and Paul, with seven
lambs which have returned to the fold. 2. Avdientia Pvblica Pontificis Maxtmi. Paul
II., upon his throne, a cardinal on his right, gives public audience to the Grand Master of the
Hospitallers of Rhodes, accompanied by several knights. 4. Sacrvm Pvblicvm Apostolicvm
Consistorivm Pavlvs Venetvs P. P. II. Paul H. on his throne, the cardinals, in their hats,
seated on his right and left. In the middle, the ambassadors of the princes. 5. TRrBVNA S.
Petri. It is the tribune of Saint Peter, such as it was, before the rebuUding of the Church.
6. Hilaritas Pvblica. PubUc joy, accompanied by two children to whom she gives palm-
branches. 7. L^titia Scholastica. A. Bo. The joy of the schools. Joy giving flowers to two
children. A. Bo stand for Academy of Bologna. 8. CoNVrvroM Pub. erga Popvlvm Roma-
NVM— Public banquet given to the Boman people. Two cornucopias intertwined; above, the
word Roma.

622 LIVES OF THE POPES.
virtue, and greatness of soul ; but he excused himseK on the ground of his
great age — eighty years — and he aided in inducing them to elect Cardinal
Rovera, who was then fifty-sevem The new pope took the name of Sixtus
TV., in memory of Saint Sixtus, pope and martyr, because it was on the
day of that saint that the conclave was opened.
He was consecrated bishop by the French cardinal d'EstoutevUle, and
then cro-wned, on the 25th of August, and afterwards, on the same day, he
went to take possession of Saint John Lateran. The pontifical guard hav
ing violently repulsed the populace that crowded the streets, a great tumult
arose, and stones struck the pope himseK before Cardinal Orsini could
queU the riot.
The first thought of Sixtus was devoted to the means of preventing the
progress of the Turks. He dispatched five legates to the various princes
in Europe, to warn them of the dangers which threatened Cathohcity.
Cardinal Bessarion was sent to France, Cardinal Borgia to Spain, Cardinal
Barbo to Germany and Hungary, and Cardinal Caraffa, celebrated for his-
mUitary zeal, was put in command of the fleet against the infidels. It con
sisted of a hundred and four gaUeys, of which eighteen belonged to the
Church, thirty to the king of Naples, and fifty-six to the Venetians. The
expedition had the good fortune to take Smyrna, but so smaU a victory
could not shake such a power as that of Mahomet H., who had conquered
from the -Christians two empires, four kingdoms, twenty provinces, and two
hundred cities.
The Hussites continued their ravages and their insults, torch in hand,
and blasphemy in their mouth. Sixtus, , in concert with the Bohemians,
attributed their kingdom to Matthias, king of Hungary. To preserve the
peace in Italy, he gave the duchy of Ferrara to Hercules d'Este, son of the
Duke Borso, enjoining him to pay a tribute of five thousand crowns. He
exempted Ferdinand, king of Naples, for his whole IKe, from the tribute
due on account of his provinces, on condition that he should present a pal
frey to the Holy See, protect the Roman shore against the pirates that in
fested it, and succor the pope at his first demand for such succor.
Sixtus, by buU, ordered that henceforth instead of fourteen auditors of
the Rota there should be only twelve.
In 1473, Sixtus, in his second promotion of cardinals, included a French
man, distinguished for his great piety, PhUip de Levis, lord of Cousansaud
and of Quelus, born on the 4th of November, 1435, apostohc referendary,
bishop of Agde, and then archbishop of Auch and Aries.
On the 23d of May, 1474, Sixtus, by buU, founded the order of the Monks
of Saint Francis de Paula, who caUed themselves Penitentiary Hermits,
and whom Alexander VI. ordered to caU themselves Minims, according to
the wish of their founder. St. Francis, besides the device he gave to his

sixtus rv. 623
monks (the word Charity), bound them, by a fourth vow, to hve constantly
upon lenten fare, except in case of serious illness.
In conformity with the decree of Paul n., that the JubUee should be cele
brated every twenty-five years, Sixtus celebrated that which was indicated
for 1475.
About this period Rome was visited by several sovereigns : Christian,
king of Denmark ; John, duke of Saxony ; Ferdinand, king of Naples, and
his wKe, Queen Charlotte of Cyprus ; and Catherine, queen of Bosnia.
The same year, Sixtus erected Avignon into a metropolitan See ; then he
secularized the Chapter of Avignon, which, under Urban IL, had embraced
the rule of Saint Augustine.
MeanwhUe, the year 1476 was to witness other successes of the Turks.
Mahomet conquered Theodosia, now caUed Caffa, and he even contemplated
a descent upon Italy. The pope made new efforts to prevent those evUs ;
and K, on the one hand, the Christian princes were deaf to the voice of the
pontiff, it happUy occurred that Mahomet deferred his mischievous designs,
at least upon Italy. During the winter the Tiber overflowed its banks. In
the spring Rome was afflicted by a contagion, and the pope was obhged to
go some mUes from his capital, where he left as his legate Cardinal Cibo,
who succeeded him in the papacy. The courageous stay of Cardinal Cibo
made him popular, and he more and more deserved the affection of the
Romans. In a new promotion,- the pope named as cardinal Raphael Sansoni, com
monly caUed Riario, from an inheritance which he received from his ma
ternal uncle, Cardinal Pietro Riario. Raphael was born at Savona ;
he was as yet only seventeen years old, and was a student in the
University of Pisa. The pope gave this young man the title of his
nephew, and the dignity of vice-chanceUor and chamberlain. This
cardinal was deeply imphcated in the conspiracy of the Pazzi against the
Medicis. The two famihes of the Pazzi and the Medicis exceeded all others in
wealth, and were rivals for authority in the city of Florence. The Pazzi
founded their pretensions on the antiquity of their race, the Medicis upon
the immense credit obtained by their ancestor Cosmas de Medicis, whose
unprecedented reputation and prosperity accompanied him to his death.
It is affirmed that the pope could not endure the Medicis, but that feeling
was moderated by the mildness of his nature, and by his acquaintance
with his more sacred duties. The Medicis opposed the increasing power of
his nephew Jerome Riario, who had become prince of Forh ; and for the
same reason, the Pazzi endeavored to ingratiate themselves with the pope.
The latter conspired against the Medicis, and invited the young Cardinal
Raphael Sansoni Riario to visit Florence and see its splendor, but without

624 LIVES OF THE POPES.
disclosing the cruel project in hand. The cardinal received in that city a
generous reception from Lorenzo and Julian de Medicis. There was to be
a grand ceremony at the church of the Duomo, at which the cardinal was to
be present ; and the two Medicis could not faU to be present in compliment
to the cardinal. The conspirators resolved to assassinate both brothers,
their enemies ; and even the thought of their horrible sacrilege could not
stop their fury. It was agreed that the signal for the blow should be the
communion of the celebrant of the principal Mass; This point settled, they
went to the church at the moment when Lorenzo and the cardinal entered.
The church was crowded, and divine service had commenced. The assas
sins had their hands on their daggers. Those who were to strike Lorenzo
were able to get quite close to him, without exciting any suspicion, so great
was the crowd ; the others kept watch upon Julian. Bernard Bandini, one
of the conspirators, stabbed Juhan to the heart ; the wounded man stag
gered a few paces and then feU. Francis de Pazzi then threw himself upon
him and covered him with wounds, striking him so crueUy that in his blind
fury he wounded himseK quite seriously in the leg. Antonio Volterra, aided
by an accomplice, attacked Lorenzo ; but though he struck at him several
times, he only succeeded in shghtly wounding him in the throat. Lorenzo,
foUowed by his friends, fled to the sacristy, and closed the bronze gates
which separated it from the body of the church. In the midst of the fright
ful tumult Raphael fled to the altar, where the priest with great difficulty
saved him. He had to wait until the seignory could escort him to his palace,
where he remained under guard until his entire liberation. Novaes, whose
statement I have followed, although I do not feel quite convinced that he
knew the whole truth, believes that the cardinal was ignorant of the con
spiracy. The author of the article Sixtus IV, in the Biographie Universdle,
is not so indulgent to the cardinal. He says : " It does not seem easy to
justify Riario. He obtained from his uncle permission, on a very frivolous
pretext, to go to Florence with the Cardinal Saint George, another nephew
of the pope ; but he might have concealed his perfidious design, even if
guilty. Sixtus IV, though somewhat headstrong, was not of a disposition
prone to such dark deeds ; his nephew may have deceived him. The pope
would scarcely refrain from punishing the Florentines with the utmost se
verity for their terrible sacrUege. At length he pardoned them, and that
indulgence caUs at least for hesitation on so serious a case."
The biographer then examines the opinion of various authors.
" Moderate historians," he says, " have naturaUy weighed the arguments
on both sides. Bayle does not venture to affirm any thing. The continuer
of Fleury is in a state of complete doubt. The Abbe Racine, in his Abridg
ment of Ecclesiastical History, expressly says that the pope was una
ware of the project of his nephews. AU these authors were unfavorable to

SIXTUS IV. 625
the popes. It is a reason not to disdain contrary opinions, and not to pro
nounce a judgment which can only result from obvious demonstration."
I wUl add, that it seems to me to be certain that Sixtus did not knoAV of
that project. Useless revelations are not made in such cases. And then,
even whUe not beUeving in the perfect innocence of Raphael, I think that
nothing would be communicated to a young man whose imprudence might
be feared. Novaes states that so great was the terror of the young cardi
nal, that during the remainder of his hfe he remained deadly pale. Francis
de Pazzi, the chief in the conspiracy, was a deep-thinking man, who
would not put his secret in danger of being discovered by the want of
firmness of a boy upon who terror made so lasting an impression. We
must conclude, from aU, that Sixtus IV. knew nothing about it. Examining
the affair more calmly, I persist in the opinion I have pronounced. One
fact must be further subjected to an impartial consideration : the Floren
tines were excommunicated, and from that it has been deduced that Rome
knew of the conspiracy.
The excommunication was issued on account of the sacrUege and the
murder of the archbishop of Pisa, whom the partisans of the Medicis
kanged at the window of the old palace. The pope declared that that
prince of the Church should have been tried in concert with the authorities
of Rome ; and this demand was perfectly legitimate, and conformable to the
laws of the time.
Queen Catharine, wKe and heiress of Thomas, king of Bosnia, dying at
Rome, left by her wUl aU her rights in the kingdom to the pope and his
successors ; and to testify the acceptance of the pope, he was presented
with the sword and spurs as a sign of sovereignty over Bosnia.
In 1478, King Ferdinand, the Cathohc, " a prince," says Novaes, " who
was useful to rdigion, but to whom religion was more useful still, sohcited
from Sixtus a buU authorizing the estabhshment in Spain of the formidable
tribunal of the Inquisition, under the authority of the king." Here Noaves
praises the impartiality of Bercastel. " I trust to that learned writer,"
says Novaes, " who very clearly proves what the tribunal of the Inquisition
reaUy was." - ,
Notwithstanding the exhortations of the pontiff, the Christian princes
gave no heed to the enterprises for which Mahomet was preparing. He
sent an army to the island of Rhodes. The knights made a vigorous
defence, and compeUed the Turks to retreat. Sixtus congratulated the
noble knights and highly praised their courage ; but Italy, long threatened,
could not escape the mahgnity of the Turks. They surprised the city of
Otranto, and to give an idea of the fate that was in store for other cities,
which they might afterwards take, they put to the sword a great number
of men, women, and chUdren, threw rehcs to the dogs, and violated young
Vol. I.--40

626 LIVES OF THE POPES.
maidens upon the very altars. They condemned aU the nobles to be be
headed ; the archbishop they sawed in two ; and committed a host of abom
inable crimes, which warned the Christians to defend themselves to the
utmost, and not to forget, for miserable local prejudices, the real situation
of Cathohcity in presence of barbarians so ferocious and audacious. In
the first moment, the dastardly advice was given to Sixtus to take refuge at
Avignon, but his wise heart gave wider and more magnanimous advice.
By an energetic buU, he ordered aU the princes of Italy instantly to make
truces with each other, and prepare to arm against the common enemy.
On Ascension-day he signed a league with the Venetians, and he sent as
legate to Naples, Cardinal Rangoni, who was to give the Cross to the faith
ful. He wrote to the kings of the West for their aid and protection, and he
prepared an army of twenty-five gaUeys to join that of the Neapolitan fleet,
which counted forty gaUeys.
From Otranto the Turks pushed further into the Adriatic, and presented
themselves before Ancona, Avith the intention of piUaging Loretto, but God
heard the prayers of the inhabitants of the Marches, and the Turks disap
peared as though seized by panic.
In 1481 Mahomet II. died. He had reigned thirty-two years without
ceasing to be the most terrible and cruel scourge of Christendom.
On the 14th of AprU, 1402, the pope canonized Saint Bonaventure, the
friend of Saint Thomas Aquinas, with whom, as is known, he had been a
professor at Paris. After his many labors and anxieties, Sixtus died on
the 13th of August, 1404, at the age of seventy. He had governed the
Church fourteen years and four days, and he was interred at the Vatican
in a tomb erected in 1473, which stands in the chapel of the Blessed Sac
rament. Some authors speak unfavorably of Sixtus IV., among them Raphael de
Volterra ; but it is certain that that pope was distinguished for many vir
tues, purity of morals, extraordinary learning, consummate talents, a care
ful application to business,* a noble and generous soul, and a decided taste
for letters, of which he was a constant patron. In fact, such was his
nature that he might have almost been termed faultless, had he not been so
greatly afflicted with the disease of nepotism. As soon as he was elected
pope, he made two of his stiU young nephews cardinals, and afterwards
sent the purple to three other nephews. This facility of granting favors
produced grave abuses, and set a bad example not only to the pontiffs, but
also to the sovereigns. Sixtus did not hesitate to aUow Alphonso, the bas
tard of Ferdinand, son of King John of Aragon, a chUd only six years old,
to possess the archbishopric of Saragossa in perpetual commendam. Not-
* Novaes vi., p. 49.

SIXTUS IV. 627
withstanding the decree of a former councU, he increased the number of the
cardinals ; but after him it was increased stUl more.
Rome received magnificent embellishments from this pontiff,' and owes to
him the bridge which bears his name. The Vatican hbrary, commenced by
Nicholas V., was enriched by Sixtus with a great number of precious books.
He gave the direction of that hbrary to the celebrated Platina. Rome pre
sents so many inscriptions placed upon the monuments that he had con
structed, that it has been said that these stones alone would serve to buUd
a large edifice.
Sixtus deserves great praise for the zeal he displayed in maintaining
rehgion. He propagated it in the Canaries, whither he sent missions. He
had the happiness to receive an embassy from the czar of Muscovy, John
BasUowitz, one of the greatest men of his time, to whom Russia owed her
first brilliancy.
After freeing the Russians from the yoke of the Tartars, that prince sent
ambassadors to say that having refused to recognize the patriarch of Con
stantinople, he accepted the union of with the Roman Church sworn in the
CouncU of Florence.
Sixtus IV. possessed in an eminent degree the sciences of theology and
phflosopby, and he wrote with elegance. He was not taU, but he Avas
admired for his gentle and friendly manners.
The Regulce Cancellarice Romance is attributed to' him. It was pubhshed
in 4to, in 1471, and translated into French by du Pinet, in 8vo, in 1564.
This book has made some Protestants, who do not attend to either the
spirit or the object of the thing, declaim loudly against the Roman court.
This pope was the author of several Latin treatises. One, Upon the Blood
of Jesus Christ, 1473, in folio ; and another upon The Power of God ; and
an explanation of the treatise of Nicholas Richard, touching indulgences.'"'
* We present to the reader three medals of Sixtus IV. AU three have the same effigy ;
around the head of Sixtus IV., crowned with the tiara, are the words : Sixtvs III., Pont. Max.
The first presents the arms of the Roveras ; an oak, with the words : Etsi Annosa germinat—
Though old, it yet branches. An old oak in leaf is surmounted by the pontifical keys, above
which is the tiara. Molinet does not contain this medal.
The second represents the opening of the holy gate. This piece must have been struck at
Christmas, 1474, for the anniversary of the Holy Gate. In the exergue are the words : Cita
Aperitio bbeves .eternat dies — A prompt opening eternizes short days. Paul II. had
ordered that the Jubilee should be celebrated every thirty-three years ; Sixtus IV. fixed the
term at twenty-five years. Hence this medal says that when the opening of the Holy Gate is
prompt, that ceremony eternizes days which are only of too short duration. Here half of the
gate is broken down, and the pope seems to be continuing the work alone. Now it is no
longer so. The Holy Gate is sawed beforehand the night before, and at a mere touch, rather
than an actual blow from the pope, it falls backward into the church of Saint Peter. A path is
made at once by pushing the fragments aside, and the pope enters the Basilica on his knees.
The third medal represents the Holy Gate as it was closed in 1475, at Christmas. Around are
the words : Constitvit BVM Domhtvm Domvs bym. Roma— fig has made him lord of his house,

11

628

LIVES OF THE POPES.

We have censured the propensity of Sixtus to nepotism. On this subject
Monsignor Nicolai, a witty Roman, said in 1816 : " I, for my part, hke
Sixtus IV, though he too much enriched his nephews. He did not know
how to refuse ; he granted whatever he was asked. Tutti gli erano nipoti—
every one was his nephew." Only his real nephews more easily got into his
house than the others. Though I insert this jest, I nevertheless beheve
the subject far too serious to be passed over by a joke. Nepotism was a
great scourge to Rome. It no longer exists, nor do I think it can easUy
return. We must forget, moreover, that it was in the moral of the times,
and that the sovereigns of Europe obstinately urged it on the popes.
The Holy See remained vacant eleven days.

217. INNOCENT VIIL— a. d. 1484.

NNOCENT VHL, originaUy John Baptist Cibo,
was born at Genoa, in 1432. He belonged to the
iUustrious famUy of that name, which migrated
into Italy from Greece, and which originaUy
was named Cubea or Cibocca. He embraced
the ecclesiastical career, and, in 1467, Paul H.
made him bishop of Savona. Sixtus IV, in
1472, transferred him to the bishopric of Mol-
fetta, then named him Datary, and on the 7th of
May created him cardinal, and intrusted him, as we have seen, with the gov
ernment of Rome, when the pestUence drove the pope from the city.
It was by his management that peace was signed between the pontiff, the
king of Naples, the. duke of Milan, and the Florentines.
Borne. This medal is a restoration of that which was struck under Nicholas V., which is de
scribed in our life of that pope.
Du Molinet gives other medals. 1. One representing the queens of Cyprus and Bosnia, who,
being despoiled of their kingdoms, go to Rome for shelter. In the exergue OP. (opus, the
work) Victoris Camelio— The work of Victor Camelio. 2. Saint Francis and Saint Anthony of
Padua, placing the tiara on the head of Sixtus, who is seated on the throne. Around are the words :
Hjsc damvs lnterris. Sterna dabvntvr Oltmpo- We give this on earth, eternal things will
be given in heaven. 3. Ivl. Card, nepos in Ostio Itssert&o— Julius, cardinal-nephew, in the
Port of Ostia. The piece represents the fortifications of Ostia, consisting of three bastions sur
mounted by three high towers. It was the cardinal-nephew, bishop of Ostia, who ordered
those fortifications. Here we have the title of cardinal-nephew pubhcly and officially given.
We knew none of this under Pius VII., Leo Xn., Pius VIH., or Gregory XVI., and we see it no
more under Pius IX. 4. Cvra rervm pvblicarvm— The care of the public monuments. This
medal was struck when the still standing Sixtine bridge was thrown across the Tiber. It rep-

INNOCENT VIH.

629

On the 26th of August, 1484, after the funeral of Sixtus IV, twenty-six
cardinals entered into conclave. Mark Barbo having refused the tiara,
which was offered' to him by eleven cardinals, they aU turned to Cardinal
John Baptist Cibo, and unanimously elected him on the 29th of August.
He was then fifty-two years of age. He took the name of Innocent VIIL,
in memory of Innocent IV., his feUow-citizen, was crowned on the 12th of
September, and on the same day, mounted on a white horse, he went to take
possession of Saint John Lateran. He commenced his reign by confirming
all the agreements made by the cardinals in the case of any of them being
elected pope, a custom introduced into the conclave that elected Paul II.
The popes, those high justices of the peace of Europe, always strove to
reconcUe the differences of their sons the Christian princes. More than
ever peace between them was necessary now. Innocent wrote to aU the
sovereigns to hve in peace, and to think of the threats of the Turks.
Alphonso, duke of Calabria, son of Ferdinand king of Naples, seeking to
usurp the wealth of the barons of his kingdom, caused the count of Mon-
toro and his wKe to be imprisoned, and gave plausible reasons for occupy
ing the city of AquUa. The inhabitants revolted and appealed to the pope,
the supreme lord of the city and of the whole kingdom. The pope de
fended his rights ; but Ferdinand made him enemies, and at the moment
when all attention ought to have been fixed upon the Turks, a guUty war
arose between Ferdinand, the Florentines, and the duke of MUan, allied
together on the one side, and Innocent VHL, in league with the Genoese,
on the other side.
On the 6th of January, 1485, the pope canonized Saint Leopold, sur
named Pious, fourth marquis of Austria, married to Agnes, daughter of
Henry IV., king of the Romans, by whom he had had eighteen chUdren.
Leopold died on the 15th of November, 1136.
Meanwhile, Innocent concluded peace with Ferdinand of Naples, by the
exertions of Ferdinand, king of Aragon. The latter feared that if the throne
of Naples should escape from Ferdinand, who held it in investiture, the
pope would substitute the French, who had pretensions on that State, and
that thus Naples would shp from the Aragonese, who might hope to estab
hsh themselves by force of arms in place of Ferdinand of Naples. It was
stipulated in that peace that the latter should punctually pay the tribute of
eight thousand ounces of gold, which were to be presented to the pope with
the paKrey.
resents a four-arched bridge. 5. Parcere bvbjectis et debellare svperbis— To spare tlie
conquered and put down the proud. In the exergue, Constantia. The verse from Virgil was
placed upon this medal, to express the constancy with which Sixtus repUed to those who had
the boldness to caU upon him to appear almost as a supplicant at the time of the Florentine war,
which was the consequence of the frightful and impious conspiracy of the Pazzi.

630 LIVES OF THE POPES.
But Ferdinand was not faithful to his word, and the Roman court caUed
to the throne Charles VIIL, king of France.
Rene, known in France under the name of King Rene, had died in 1480,
without male heirs. His generous son, John, who, hke the son of Ferdi
nand the Neapohtan, bore the title of duke of Calabria — a title stUl in our
own day corresponding to that of presumptive heir to the kingdom of Na
ples — had left, by his marriage with Mary of Bourbon, two sons, John and
Nicholas, who died in childhood. But a daughter of Rene, Yolanda, had
been married to Ferry, count of Vaudemont. From this marriage sprang
Rene II. , duke of Lorraine, who, by the death of his cousins, John and
Nicholas, became heir to aU the claims of the house of Anjou upon the
kingdom of Naples. But Rene thought he could deprive Rene II. of that
heritage and give it to a son of one of his brothers, Charles of Anjou, count
of Maine. Monstretet gives a lucid account of these particulars. The pre
tensions of Charles, king of France, son of Louis XL, upon the kingdom of
Naples, had been transmitted to him by Charles, count of Maine, who had
bequeathed all his rights to Louis XL and his descendants.
To such pretensions the Venetians and the Florentines, in spite of their
predUection far France, and afterwards nearly aU Italy, rephed that the
kingdom of Naples was a feminine fief, without salic law, and that as long as
even a female descendant in direct hne remained from the last sovereign,
coUaterals could have no right ; and they consequently persisted in recog
nizing Rene II. , who, they averred, had been unjustly despoUed by Rene I.,
his maternal grandfather. At this time the son of Alphonso, the magnani
mous Ferdinand, maintained that an intermediate adoption, signed by Jane
•IL, although revoked, and the actual and positive possession, powerfully
estabhshed the rights of the house of Anjou. Then the question could only
be settled by arms.
At this time Innocent wished to extinguish the fires of war in Great
Britain. There were serious differences between the houses of York and
Lancaster as to the succession to the throne. The pope confirmed the
rights of the first house, and gave a dispensation to set aside the obstacle
wliich existed to the marriage of Henry VII. and Elizabeth, heiress of the
duke of York. The fatal Henry VIIL was the offspring of that marriage.
A former bishop, having apostatized, had restored in Bohemia the de
plorable heresy of the Hussites. Innocent succeeded in repressing that
schism for the time, though, to the misfortune of rehgion, it reappeared, ¦
with some modifications, under Luther.
In 1487, Innocent renewed with Augustine Barbarigo, doge of Venice,
the treaty which had previously been made and concluded between hig
brother Mark and the Roman Church. Soon, seeing that the Turks again
began to advance towards Germany, and that the tyrant Bocoloni had ad-

INNOCENT VIIL 631
mitted them to Osimo, in Italy, the pope pubhshed a holy war, the command
of which he gave to the Emperor Frederic. Sentences of death had been
usually executed on the Tarpeian rock, at Rome, or even at the capitol ;
but for reasons which he deemed sufficient, the pope ordered that thence
forth they should take place upon the square of the castle of Saint Angelo,
at the entrance of the bridge leading to that fortress.
The princes of Europe continued to live on terms of misunderstanding.
The king of Hungary, in alliance with Ferdinand of Naples, supported him
against the pope. Maximilian, king of the Romans, made war upon the
king of France. The king of Poland attacked the possessions of the
knights of Prussia ; John, king of Denmark, was at strife with the princes
of his kingdom ; the duke of Calabria occupied a part of the patrimony of
Saint Peter ; the dukes of Bracciano had entered Perugia as usurpers, and
the Guelphs and GMbellmes were pitUessly at war. It was more than ever
needful to make war upon the Turks, in the first place to daunt and restrain
them, and then to produce peace among the Christians. Those divisions,
discord and jealousy, envy and usurpation, explain the faU of empires. A
conqueror arises, minds are divided, he meets with few obstacles, because
neighbors have absurdly resolved to seize a town or a castle, and because
old rancors, recriminations, and desire of vengeance, have prepared the
way for the foreigner, who estabhshes a kind of peace by laying the same
yoke on aU. It was thus that the Greek emperors lost their capital ; and it-
was thus that Italy would have been conquered had not God himseK
watched over the safety of the peninsula and the Pontifical States.
At this time a new discord arose between the pope and Ferdinand of
Naples. That prince having invited to a banquet the barons of the kingdom
who in the preceding war had pronounced in favor of the interests of the
Church, ordered them aU to be thrown into the sea. Then, pretending that
they were imprisoned in a fortress, he had food taken there daUy. He sub
sequently indulged in the worst excesses in the government of his kingdom.
On Saint Peter's day, the pope cited him to appear at the papal tribunal, on
pain of excommunication should he not appear within two months. Ferdi
nand in his irritation threatened to invade the Roman territory. It was his
last threat. The pope pronounced the throne vacant, and formaUy caUed
upon Charles VIIL to occupy it,, as heir of the rights of Rene I. of Anjou.
Innocent, in his gratitude, granted the purple to Peter d'Anbusson, grand
master and preserver of Rhodes. " He figured," says Novaes, " as weU as
a prelate as he had as a hero."* In the same promotion, the pope raised
to the cardinalate John de Medicis, who was afterwards pope under the
name of Leo X.
* Novaes here says, in a note, that Father Bouhours wrote the life of that warrior, and that
this printed life is the first model of veritable biography.

632 LIVES OF THE POPES.
An unforeseen difference arose in the court of Constantinople. Mahomet
had left two sons, who disputed the throne. Dgem urged, as his right to
the succession, that he was porphyrogenitus (born in the porphyry haUs, that
is, in the palace of Constantinople), and while his father was on the throne,
a pretension which had formerly served the Greek princes of Byzantium.
Dgem said that that fact made him superior to his elder brother, born when
their father was a simple warrior, and most probably in a tent. That vain
distinction would have been sufficient to kindle war in a country stUl ad
dicted to the subtleties of the Greeks. But in a despotic State, there is no
real right but what force gives.
Dgem fought and was defeated, and fled to Rhodes to seek protection
from the knights, who sent him to France. He was then caUed for*by aU
his brothers' enemies, who wished to put him at the head of an army ; — by
Cait Bey, the soldan of Egypt ; by Matthias Cervinus, king of Hungary,
the same Avho had the honor to arrest Mahomet n. in the midst of his con
quests; by Ferdinand, king of SicUy and Aragon; by Ferdinand, son of
Alphonso the Magnanimous, the actual king of Naples,- K the pretensions
of France were denied. On the other hand, Bajazet wrote to Charles VIII.
to demand Dgem. The councU of Charles VIIL decided that the Turkish
prince ought to be sent to Pope Innocent. The credit enjoyed by the popes
and the confidence that they inspired dictated that course, and Dgem set
out for the capital of the Christian world. On the day of his entrance, the
soldan of Egypt's ambassador, who was at Rome, went to meet the prince,
and kissed the feet of his horse. When presented to the pope, the prince
pressed his hps upon the right shoulder of the pontiff. A singular inter-
"riew that: — a young Turkish prince claiming a throne, and asking shelter
from the head Christendom !
From the first, Charles of Anjou,* brother of Saint Louis, from PhUip and
Charles of Valois, the popes, the Neapohtan barons, the Tuscans, the Vene
tians, the Lombards, and the Genoese had, nearly every ten years, endeav
ored to draw the French into Italy. Louis I., Louis IL, Louis IH., of the
first house of Anjou, and Rene de Lorraine, had either personaUy or by their
heutenants, endeavored to conquer the kingdom of Naples with French
armies and Italian allies. FinaUy, Innocent VIIL had anew declared war
against Ferdinand of Naples, and had caUed in the aid of Charles VEIL,
the heir of aU the French princes, and joining to that right those which
resulted from the donation of the count of Maine, nephew of King Rene.
Some jurists of that time, disregarding the donation, maintained that it was
sufficient that the branch of the Valois, to which Charles Vin. belonged,
should prove himseK related to the first branch of Anjou, by ascending to
* Holy, 206.

INNOCENT VIIL 633
the common source, Louis the Lion, father of Saint Louis, and of the first
count of Anjou.' Between Louis the Lion and Charles VHL, there was only
an interval of two hundred and fifty-seven years (1226 to 1483), making nine
generations. Dgem, then, was at Rome, where the pope received him magnificently ;
and Charles VEIL was about to commence his expedition. In the interval,
Bajazet endeavored to poison Dgem, and the pope too. The hireling who
had promised to commit the crime was named Christopher Macrinus. He
had been driven from Rome, and was at Constantinople. He was sent
thence to Rome, but had scarcely entered the latter city when he was ar
rested, tried, and sentenced to the punishment decreed for poisoners.
In 1492, the pope received intelligence of the taking of Grenada, which
implied the extinction of Mahometanism in Spain.
There was at this time in Rome a prodigy of learning. Pico Mirandola,
only twenty-four years of age, proposed nine hundred questions, taken from
Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Chaldee authors. They were directly con
nected with aU the sciences. He maintained these questions in those four
languages. But several points of those controversies seemed to be opposed
to the doctrines of the Church. The Holy Father, therefore, condemned
this kind of discussion, and the works in which these questions were con-
tained .* But, under the foUowing pontificate, these works having appa
rently been corrected, were approved by a buU of the 13th of June, 1493.
The pope meditated new efforts to extend rehgion. But he was subject
to serious infirmities. He died on the 26th of July, 1492, after governing
the Church seven years, ten months, and twenty-seven days. He was in
terred at the Vatican.t
It was under this pontificate that Christopher Columbus discovered the
New World.
Innocent had a striking countenance, and his figure was taU and elegant.
He loved to reUeve the poor and the afflicted ; and he cherished men of
letters, and encouraged them with benefits.
* The works of Pio de Mirandola, that mostro senza vizio, as Scaliger caUs him, that faultless
monster, were published at Bale in 1573 and in 1607, with his life.
f We have only two medals of Innocent VHI. Innocentivs VIIL Pont. Max. The pope is
represented with the tiara. The first presents his armorial bearings— argent, a cross, gules, sup
ported by cubes on transversal fasces. The field is surmounted by the tiara, beneath which are
interlaced the two keys. Around were the words : Anno Domini M.C.D.L.XXXIV.
The second medal represents the pope on his throne. A cardinal seated near ; on the other
side a cardinal standing. At the feet of the, pope, a prince kneeling.* Around are the words :
Ecce Benedicetvr Homo. Roma— Behold tlie man shall be blessed. Borne.
Du Molinet gives a third medal: Ivstitia, Pax, Copia— Justice, peace, and plenty. Justice
holds a balance ; Peace holds an oUve-branch; Plenty has the cornucopia and fruits.
* This must be Ferdinand, son of Alphonsus, dnke of Calabria.

634 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Before embracing the ecclesiastical life, he was married to a Neapohtan
lady, and two of his children were stUl living when he was made pope.
Franceschetto, one of his chUdren, was enriched by his father, but in a
manner not deserving severe rebuke. He is charged with having created
new offices, and with having sold them at high prices. But those offices
had become necessary; and the needs of the Church had so exhausted
the treasury, that the principal tiara, ornamented with precious stones, had
been pledged to some Roman merchant for a considerable amount.
The Holy See was vacant fifteen days.

218. ALEXANDER VI— a. d. 1492.
|LEXANDER VL, originaUy named Roderic Len-
zuoU, or Lansol Borgia, was born on the 1st of
January, 1431, at Valencia, in Spain, of Geoffry
or Jofre Lenzuoh and IsabeUa Borgia, sister of
CaUixtus IH. That pontiff, who gave Roderic
his name and his arms, made him bishop of Va
lencia, and on the 18th of September, 1456, created
him cardinal-deacon of Saint Nicholas in Carcere.
After the funeral of Innocent VHL, the cardi
nals, to the number of twenty-three, met in conclave, and on the 11th of
August, 1492, they elected Roderic Lenzuoh Borgia, who took the name of
Alexander VI. On the 26th of August he was crowned, and the same day
he went to take possession of Saint John Lateran. WhUe he was before
the high altar, the pontiff feU fainting into the arms of Cardinal Saint
George. There was then a kind of tumult in the Church. Alexander was
only restored by having water thrown on his face. Between the illness of
Innocent and the coronation of his successor there were more than two
hundred unpunished assassinations committed in the Ecclesiastical States.
The pope named four commissioners to inquire into those things, and de
clared that on every Tuesday he would personaUy hear aU complaints that
should be made by the families ; and he did justice to aU in a manner that
gave great pubhc satisfaction.
It must be confessed that subsequently the attention of Borgia was more
particularly directed to the affairs of Spain. He raised his former bishopric
of Valencia to a metropohtan See, and he gave the new archbishopric to his
son, Cassar Borgia, who aheady was bishop of Pampeluna.

ALEXANDER VI. 635
On the 31st of August, 1492, he created his nephew, on the maternal side,
John Borgia, a cardinal.
Ferdinand V., king of Castile and Aragon, destroyed in Spain that poAver
of the Saracens which had lasted seven hundred and eighty years. Ferdi
nand had driven from Spain eight hundred thousand Jews and Saracens ; a
consummation only reached after the Spaniards had in nine successive
centuries fought nearly five thousand battles. The peninsula, moreover,
was not whoUy delivered from these enemies until under PhUip III., in
1610. He was obhged to expel nearly nine hundred thousand men. And
if the Jews and Saracens had not been repulsed into Mauritania, they
assuredly would have entirely conquered Spain, enslaved the proudest and
bravest of the Spaniards, and destroyed Christianity in that country.
It has been stated that the Inquisition was then estabhshed in Spain for
the punishment of those who in mere pohcy embraced Christianity, and
profaned it by a horrible mixture of Judaism and Mahometanism. But we
have aheady shown that that tribunal was estabhshed in Spain under Sixtus
IV. It can only be said that Alexander did not weaken the buU of his pre
decessor. A war was about to break out on the subject of the new countries
discovered by the kings of Spain and the kings of Portugal. Each sovereign
claimed the absolute dominion of the countries in question, and on many
points they seemed to have equal pretensions. Alexander wished to prevent
the war ; he ordered commissioners to arrange for a partition satisfactory to
both parties,
John H., king of Portugal, obstinately maintained that aU the New World,
without any exception, belonged to him, in consequence of grants of the
Roman pontiffs, especiaUy of Eugene IV. Ferdinand, contrariwise, sup
ported his claim by a subsequent concession made to him by Alexander.
The pope ordered a line to be drawn from the north pole to the southward,
thirty-seven degrees west of the Cape de Verde Islands, and thus divided
the whole map of the earth. What lay to the east he gave to John IL, in
right of the antiquity of his claim ; that to the west he granted to King
Ferdinand, to whom, moreover, the Holy Father confirmed the title of
Catholic king, already conferred upon that prince by Innocent VIIL Fer
dinand was further authorized to subject Africa to his authority, and, on
doing so, to add to his other titles that of Africanus.
The CouncU of Charles VIIL, who, as we have shown, had obtained the
approbation of the Roman court in the affair of the Neapohtan succession,
continued to make formidable preparations for war. Alexander feared such
a neighborhood, and, to prevent the king from undertaking the expedition
to Italy, he made a league with the Venetians and the duke of MUan.
Among other cardinals, in a promotion, Alexander gave the purple to his
son, Caesar Borgia.

636 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The occupation of Naples was the common subject of conversation hi
France. Alexander sent, as legate to Charles, Cardinal Piccolomini, to dis
suade the king from such an expechtion. The prince rephed that a great
number of Neapolitan nobles, compromised as having formerly defended
the interests of the Holy See, had caUed France to Naples. Alexander per
sisted ; and the king then stated that he should appeal to a fuUer councU.
Alexander then threatened the king with excommunication and ecclesiasti
cal censures, according to a. decree of Pius II.
Charles commenced a kind of triumphal march,* for he encountered no
enemies. The description of the French army has been left to us by Itahan
authors. Paulus Jovius says that that army was the most superb, and the
most furious, in arms, countenances, garb, and bearing, and that it was a
terrifying thing to see such a force of French, Germans, and Swiss. Charles
entered Rome on the 31st of December, 1494 Novaes says :f " The pope,
intimidated by his arrival, retired Avith Cardinals Orsini and Caraffa into
the castle of Saint Angelo."
At the same time some of the other cardinals endeavored judiciaUy to
depose him, on the charge of his having obtained the pontificate by simony,
and of having led a life not befitting that dignity.
" The French monarch, to whom the Romans dehvered the keys of the
city, considering that it was better to tolerate the head of the Church, even
though culpable, than to depose him and cause a schism, made a treaty
with the pope in 1495, in which there were some conditions contrary to the
pontifical majesty." H, among these unbecoming conditions, Novaes
includes the payment of a contribution in gold, we have to remark that the
sum was not large, and that the king generously placed it at the disposal of
Francis de Paula, afterwards canonized by Leo X., and that the sum was
devoted by the saint to purchasing the site of land on which now stands the
French convent of Trinita dei Monti, long occupied by the French Min
ims, and at present belonging to the ladies of the Sacred Heart.
It is also probable that one of those conditions imposed on Alexander
was the dehvery of Dgem, the brother of Bajazet. That young Turk,
when presented to the king, testified his gratitude by kissing the hand, and
then the right shoulder of the prince.
After the treaty, Alexander, at the request of King Charles, celebrated
Mass at the Vatican on the day of Saints Fabian and Sebastian. The Most
Christian king sat by the first cardinal-bishop,:): and presented water to the
pope after having kissed his feet.
On the 25th of January, Charles departed for Naples, having on his left
Cardinal Caesar Borgia, who had the title of legate, but who might rather
* Italy, p. 210. \ Novaes, vi., p. 91. • X Novaes, vi., p. 911.

ALEXANDER VI. 637
be considered a hostage ; he, in fact, at Veletri, took flight, and returned to
Rome. Charles entered Naples on the 21st of February, 1495. Errors often
foUow close on triumphs. Charles VIIL, after having been crowned, and
after assuming the imperial insignia, which had never been granted to
Charles,* brother of Saint Louis, faUed to govern the country wisely. His
army of various nations exacted contributions and oppressed the people.
It was resolved in councU that the king should return to Amboise. When
this was known, the Neapohtan populace, feehng assured that Naples would
have no court, with its luxury and its expenditure, but would become a
mere province of France, could not conceal their discontent.
Charles, however, left Naples, and took the road to Rome. The pope, to
avoid signing stUl more onerous treaties, went to Orvieto and thence to
Perugia, secretly intending to go to Venice, should the danger become more
pressing. The king stayed only two days in Rome, and when he reached
Viterbo, endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to obtain an interview with the
pope. However, the prince renounced the most important advantage stip
ulated in the preceding treaty. AU else that concerns that expedition of
Charles VHI. is foreign to our present recital.
The pope, in 1496, had the pleasure to receive, as ambassador from Con
stantine, king of Georgia, NUus, a monk of Saint Basil, appointed to make
an act of obedience to the Holy Father. NUus asked the pope for aid
against the Saracens : he also desired to obtain a copy of the decree of the
CouncU of Florence, in which the Greek errors had been condemned ; and
the act of their reunion to the Roman Church, which King Constantine
desired thenceforth to recognize as the only true one. The pope, in reply,
sent the decree, in which it is established that the Holy Ghost proceeds
from the Father and the Son as from one sole principle, and by which
decree it is ordered that the primacy of the Roman pontiff be acknowledged
by aU the churches in the world.
A better understanding then existed between the pope and the. king of
France. At the' request of Charles VIL, Alexander confirmed the order of
the Knights of Saint Michael, instituted by Louis XL
Florence was much agitated by the preaching of Jerome Savanorola. a
Dominican of Ferrara, who at that time excited the warmest sympathies of
some and the deepest detestation of others. Some called him a wretch and
a revolter, whUe others deemed him a saint, prophet, and a martyr. No
vaes agrees with Bercastel, whom he quotes as follows : " Bercastel's judg
ment upon this unfortunate celebrityf seems to me quite correct. He was
inexcusable for his opposition to Alexander. However vicious the pope
* Italic, p. 212. t Bercastel, Hist, de I'Fglise, tome xvi., p. 399.

638 LIVES OF THE POPES.
may have been, that friar had no right to' despise the injunctions of Rome.
Savanorola was neither a heretic nor a martyr, and those who have given
him either title, had in view only their own interest. He was probably, at
certain periods of his life, a hot-headed fanatic, who ought to have been shut
up, not burned."
It Avas Avith great prejudice to aU ideas of pontifical decorum, that Alex
ander sought to transfer to his sons the patrimony of Saint Peter ; and yet,
by a bull of June, 1497, he erected into a duchy the principality of Bene
vento, and gave it, as well as the city of Terracina, to John Borgia, duke of
Gandia, another of his sons. AU the cardinals who were present in the
secret consistory consented to the alienation, except the cardinal of Sienna,
who constantly and intrepidly opposed it. But John Borgia did not long
enjoy that favor, for almost aU historians agree that he was assassinated by
his own brother Caesar, and thrown into the Tiber, whence he was drawn
out, covered with mortal Avounds.
Alexander, deeply afflicted, and remembering some of the acts by which
he had obtained the pontificate, for some time thought of abdicating. He
consulted Ferdinand, king of Spain, upon the subject, and that prince told
him that a project so important required mature consideration.
The pontiff, moreover, beheved that he could alter his way of hfe, restore
the ecclesiastical discipline to its primitive candor, and estabhsh a better
state of things in Christendom.* This project had some results. A depu
tation of six cardinals, known for their sanctity, were charged to draw up
holy laws ; but they were not executed. When the pontiff's grief for the
duke of Gandia was nearly consoled, he would not enforce these wise laws,
saying that they were subversive of the pontifical hberty. However, he sent
his son Caesar Borgia to place the royal crown upon the head of Frederic,
son of Ferdinand II. of Aragon, who received it in a grand and sumptuous
solemnity. In 1498, Alexander promoted to the cardinalate George d'Amboise, sur
named the elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, created in 1545, by
Paul III. George the elder was at that time prime minister of King Louis
XII. That the province of Brittany should not be separated from the kingdom
of France, Alexander, at the request of Louis XII. annuUed the marriage
between that prince and Jane of Valois, duchess of Berri, daughter of
Louis XL, and sister of Charles VIIL According to Novaes, some pious
persons censured Alexander for his comphance ; but he hastens to add, that
this separation was determined upon with impartiahty and circumspection
by eight bishops and several directors of renown, who were intrusted
* Novaes, vi., p. 96.

ALEXANDER VI. 639
to inquire into the affair. The Holy Father, on the statement of their
conclusions, aUowed Louis to espouse Anne of Brittany, widow of
Charles VIIL
It was with feehngs of sublime virtue that Jane consented to the divorce.
She retired to Bourges, and there founded the order of the Annunciade, un
der the rule of Saint Francis. Many of the statutes are taken from the ten
principal virtues of the most Blessed Virgin, as given in the Gospels. The
tenth, for instance, is taken from these words : Stdbat juxta crucem Jesu
Mater ejus— There stood by the cross of Jesus his Mother. To condole with the
immense grief of Mary, the rule enjoined a fast on Friday and Saturday.
The habit of the nuns was prescribed by the blessed foundress. It was to
be of three colors, in memory of the three colors of the vestments worn by
Jesus on the day of the Passion. The order was approved by Alexander in
1501, and subsequently confirmed by Julius II. and Leo X.*
Before the end of the last year of the fifteenth century, Alexander, ac
cording to the custom of his predecessors, from BonKace VIIL, the hundred
and ninety-fifth pope, announced the JubUee, which was celebrated in the
year 1500. He ordered that no cardinal should leave Rome, and that a
broader and more convenient street should be laid out between the castle
of Saint Angelo and Saint Peter's. It was caUed the Alexandrine street,
from the name of the Pope. It was paved in 1565 by Juhus IL, and is now
caUed the Borgo-Nuovo.
On Saint Peter's day, in the year of the JubUee, Alexander was in danger
of losing his hfe. An enormous chimney of the Vatican palace feU with a
great crash, crushing in the ceiling of the room in which the pope was sit
ting. Many persons were killed, as the pope himseK would have been, but
that the principal beam just over him remained firm, and thus protected
Mm more than those who were in other parts of the room.
On the 25th of July the pope went in solemn procession to the church of
the Madonna delpopolo, to return thanks to God for having saved him from
a death which seemed inevitable.
Alexander thought fit to confirm a decree of CaUixtus III., his uncle,
which ordered that the beUs should be thrice rung at noon, so that the
faithful, by reciting the Angelic Salutation, should obtain the aid of God
against the Turks.
The custom of sounding the great beUs in High Mass, both before and
after the elevation of the Host, commenced in SicUy, and was adopted

* The Order of the Annunciades was widely spread in France and Flanders, under the direc
tion of the Minor Observantines. The foundress was beatified by Benedict XIV. The order of
the Annunciades in Italy, vulgarly called the Turchina, was founded a century after that of
France.

640 LIVES OF THE POPES.
thence by aU Christendom, on account of a sacrilege committed on that
island by John Baptist Rizzio. That fanatic, on Easter-day, 1513, snatched
the consecrated Host from the hands of the celebrant, and vainly en
deavored to break it in his hands. It was taken unbroken from his impious
hands and shown to the people, who rushed upon the sacrUegious man, and
without waiting for any sentence immolated him to pubhc indignation. It
was then resolved in SicUy that the beUs should sound at the commence
ment of the Preface, and at the elevation of the Host, to invite the people
to enter the church^in greater numbers, and thus prevent similar crimes.
Dgem was deUvered to Charles VIIL, but died shortly afterwards. King
Charles was deeply grieved. It was pretended by some that he was already
poisoned when given up. Desportes, in the Biographie Universelle, thus
speaks of that case : " The unfortunate prince died from the effects of a
dysentery, a disease very common, and indeed almost inevitable in an army
at aU numerous, coUected in a strange chmate. In aU such accusations there
is an obscurity which should make copyists more suspicious, and teach them
to imitate the reserve of the President Henault, who gives it as a vulgar
rumor, but not as a weU-founded one.
The hfe of Dgem was precious to aU who had any thing to fear from the
Turks. Alexander especially knew how useful he was, as a hostage, to both
Rome and France. Who could be unaware that, that hostage being dead,
Bajazet, no matter what he had promised, would break his word, his reh
gion releasing him pretty nearly from all scruple as to the execution of
treaties made with Christians ? On other occasions we do not attempt to
excuse Alexander, but in this he must be held innocent. Charles marched
upon Naples, and he would return by Rome and see the pope again. Charles
left him at Orvieto, because he did not think fit to foUow him further. If he
had Avished to seize upon the person of the pope, he could have done so.
In such an extradition of the poisoned Dgem, there would have been an
offensive complication, an additional insult, a formal breach of one of the
noblest articles of the treaty. No ; Dgem was not poisoned. He died of
fatigue, grief, anger at being dragged about after an army which, in the
expedition to Naples, had it succeeded, proposed to march upon Constan
tinople ; an army in which almost every one commanded, although there
was one nominal chief — the king of France, a young prince, under the influ
ence of ambitious men, one of whom even aspired to the tiara. Yet he was
a prince of great wisdom ; but the wisest are not always free from error.
At length Bajazet was free from the fear which he had felt about his brother,
and he now declared war against the Venetians. Alexander (and this is
another proof of his innocence in that affair) took the defence of the Vene
tians, and threatened Bajazet with a general war of the Christians against
the Turks.

J

ALEXANDER VI. 641
WUl it be said that there might be an understanding between the Turk
and the Roman ministers ?* These are impossibUities, and to create phan
toms is merely to distract ourselves. Bajazet discontinued his preparations
for war, and contented himseK with rejoicing over the death of his rival,
who, however, even in the pubhc law of the Effendis, had no right to claim
the throne, for it was not to the customs of the conquered Greeks that the
conquering Turks would pay respect with scimitar in hand.
Be that as it may, Bajazet discontinued his preparations ; but the genius
of his nation aUowed its chief no long repose. Local conspiracies, and
especiaUy those among the troops, imperatively caUed upon the prince to
engage them in war. Bajazet determined to attack the Christians, and he
took Modon, a city of the Morea, from the Venetians.
Alexander again caUed upon the Christians to show more union and more
zeal for rehgion. He even went so far as to declare that were the king of
France or the king of Spain to head a crusade, the pontiff himseK would
march with it.
Those warlike feelings soon yielded to the obstinate nepotism which ruled
the heart of Alexander. Apparently, he thought Caesar Borgia was not
sufficiently loaded with favors and principalities ; or, perhaps, he was glad
to remove him to a distance at any cost.t Caesar was appointed duke of
Romagna. Alexander had also a daughter, Lucretia Borgia. She received a kind of
power as governess of Rome, during an absence of her father. We shaU
have to speak further of this princess when we reach the reign of Leo X.
Caesar Borgia, created by France duke of Valentinois, committed in the
Marches crimes which excited a feeling of horror, and he would have pro
ceeded in his abominable course, had it not pleased God to put an end to a
power which could but plunge the Church into the most terrible iUs. Alex
ander was attacked by mahgnant fever, at the end of a week of suffering, and
died on the 18th of August, 1503, at the age of seventy-two, after a reign of
eleven years and eight days. He was buried at the Vatican, in the chapel
of his uncle, CaUixtus III., whence they were both removed, in 1610, to the
church of Saint Mary in Montserrato.
Novaes does not beheve the great story about the poisons prepared for
the cardinals, and by a change in the position of the bottles served to Caesar
by Alexander. Novaes is right, no diary of the time mentions any such
* There is a perfect understanding between bad men previous to the commission of the crime
on which they are agreed, but very rarely after its commission ; and in that is the first' chastise
ment of all the perverse.
t Alexander must necessarily have looked with horror upon Cajsar. We have seen, a. few
pages back, that a brother of that wretch Ceesar was beloved by Alexander, who recogniaed m
him virtues and talents. Nothing more was needed to cause Caesar to assassinate -the duke, of
Gandia. Vol. I.— 41

642 LIVES OF THE POPES.
circumstance. Alexander — an old man — died in his bed of mahgnant fever,
and the contrary reports were unheard of untU after the machinations of
Luther, so unfortunately patronized in the pohtical interests of the German
princes. Desportes* thus speaks of the falsely aUeged poisoning of Alexander :
" The pretended circumstances of the death of Alexander have excited no
less doubt. Voltaire himself, whom no one wUl suspect of partiahty in
favor of a pope, exclaims, with the utmost vehemence, against that asser
tion in his dissertation on the death of Henri IV. ' I dare to say to Guic-
cardini," he exclaims, ' you have deceived Europe, and you have deceived
yourseK in your own prejudice and passion. You- were the enemy of the
pope, and you have too easUy credited your own hatred, and the actions of
his life. No doubt, he took at times cruel and perfidious revenge upon
enemies no less cruel and perfidious,' &c. Those few words from an histori
cal discussion, which it is needless to quote more largely, contain an impar
tial judgment upon that part of the hfe of Alexander."
Fellerf thus speaks on the same subject : " Protestants have often taunted
Cathohcs with the vices of Alexander VI., as K the depravity of a pontiff
could render a holy religion less holy ; as if Christianity, to be the work of
God, must annihilate in its ministers the germs of human passions. It was
not the tiara that rendered Alexander vicious ; it was his disposition. He
would have been the same in whatever sphere he moved. ' Proridence
grants that his crimes should not disturb the Church, and that, in these
critical circumstances, there were neither schisms nor heresies to battle
against. It is chiefly since that pontiff, that the popes have played their
part in the world as secular princes. (Here FeUer should have given a
second thought to some far earher pontiffs.) Those who compared him to
Nero, are ignorant that the pohty of Alexander was as adroit as that of the
Roman emperor was senseless. For instance, the bull Inter ccetera, dividing
the new-discovered countries between the kings of Spain and Portugal, has
given rise to many clumsy declamations about the temporal power of the
pope. Besides, that this power was then fixed and justified by public opin
ion, it is evident that that bull was a conciliatory decision, admirably cal
culated to obviate disputes and wars between two powerful princes. What
seems to have the tone of a veritable concession, is only the language of an
arbitrator in a dispute, who settles the shares of the contestants. Far from
blaming such a decree, should Ave not rather lament the departure of those
times when the pontiffs, by a single word, could regulate the conduct of
kings, and when, at the voice of the common father of Christians, the seeds
of long and most sanguinary contests were destroyed ?"
* Biog. Univ., 1., 525. t FeUer, i., p. 112. •

ALEXANDER VI. 643
Alexander was endowed with a lively wit and an excellent memory ; he
was an eloquent speaker ; he loved letters without cultivating them, and he
rewarded the learned ; he treated his numerous troops magnificently, and,
says Novaes, " he was the first pontiff who placed his successors in a situa
tion to figure in the world as sovereigns." Here Novaes partly approves
what FeUer says in our quotation ; but among the lives of the pontiffs which
we have aheady given, have we not shown pontiffs both able and ready to
protect not only their own States, but also those of their neighbors ? (See
the reign of Leo IV., and others not less glorious in this respect.) His
pleasure never caused him to neglect business, and his indulgence did not
diminish his courage ; but his general conduct deserves more blame than
praise. His IKe was rather that of a rival of Alexander the Conqueror,
whose name he took in pride, than that of the vicar of the Good Shepherd,
the only model that a pope should strive to imitate. Some natural quali
ties, as WeU as some other virtues, more apparent than real,* must not in
duce us to forget the vices with which aU authors, even the sacred -annalists,
reproached Alexander, such as avarice and cruelty ;t who accuse him of
obtaining the pontificate by gifts and promises; who accuse him of de
bauchery ; and who have convicted him of recognizing, during his pontifi
cate, four sons and a daughter, aU the offspring of an uninterrupted adul
tery with Lucretia Vannozia, a famous courtesan, the wife of Domenico
Avignani, one of the Roman grandees.
In one word, the Roman Church, under that vicious chief, had as much
cause for lamentation as in the worst times, seeing, as for the first time she
saw, upon the pontifical throne, examples of faults and crimes such as she
previously had not known.
Thoroughly to understand the history of Alexander, consult Burcardi
Historia Arcana, edited by Leibnitz, Hanover, 1697, 4to ; the Biarium Curice
Bomanm, inserted in John Eckard's History of the Middle Age, vol. ii., p.
2017 ; and Jerome Porcio, in his Commentaries on Alexander VL, Rome,
1493, 8vo.
We have not spared Alexander. But it must not be forgotten that the
time in which he hved was stiU an age of crimes, although accompanied by
the benefits of a more marked civilization, for the beneficent Louis XII.
then reigned.
The son of Alexander, Caesar, was stUl worse than his father.
I wUl here repeat my judgment upon that wretch Caesar, given in another
historical work.J The passage relates to the mission of the Florentine
* Novaes, ii., p. 17.
f Novaes, vi., p. 17. Could I, in an absurd zeal, contradict history, when I. find such passages
as this in a book printed at Rome ?
X Machiavelli, his Genius and his Errors, vol. i., p. 116.

641 LIVES OF THE POPES.
secretary to inquire into the nature of the government of the Duke de Va-
lentinois, lord of Romagna. I acquit MachiaveUi and the Florentines of
having any share in the crimes of Borgia.*
" All the infamy rests with that Borgia, that genius of evU, that impene
trable man, who taking no feUow-conspirator into his confidence, had no
thing to fear from indiscretion or treachery ; that tyrant Avho, far more than
ViteUozzo, his victim, was the firebrand of Italy, the scourge of that country.
He only too weU knew hoAv to profit by the support given to him at Rome
by an authority which forgot the maxims of the Gospel, and who thus gave
birth to so many evUs in the Church and prepared the way for the disasters
she had to suffer.
" To Caesar Borgia aU these crimes are attributable. That monster, born
in Spain, reared in Italy, ennobled in France, belonged to neither Spain, nor
to Italy, nor to France. Those three peoples aU repudiated him.
" That wretch, without a country, a sort of brigand on the throne, and of
whom, one may say, that he had not a father, for he dared not name him,
was not without a kind of talent, eloquence, and dexterity in business. He
even knew how to punish justly, as is proved by his sentence of Ramiro,
who, without his order, had committed some abominable crimes. But these
last considerations only make him the more guilty, for not having sought to
found his authority on fidelity to his faith, and upon those virtues of which
some princes of that time set him an example."
The Holy See was vacant one month and three days.t
* Borgia, cardinal in 1493, was secularized in 1498.
f We shaU describe three medals of Alexander VI. AU three have the same effigy : Ales-
sandro VI., Pont. Mass. It is to be remarked that the orthography here is not Latin, the usual
language of medals, but Italian. The head of the pope is covered only with a white calotte.
The first medal gives the armorial bearings of the Borgias ; but here the bull is placed differ
ently in the shield, where it is figured on the right in a field or, on the left three bands or, and
three argent. Around are the words: A. Roderico Lenzuola Borgia. S. P. MCDXCII. — To
Boderic Lenzuola Borgia, Sovereign Pontiff, 1492. That medal was struck at the time of Alex
ander's election.
The second represents the opening of the Holy Gate in 1199. We have already given the
exergue, Cito aperitio, in our Ufe of Sixtus IV. Du Molinet did not know this medal.
The third is a repetition of that which we have seen under Nicholas, Reseravit et Clavsit,
etc. The pope closes the Holy Gate in 1500.
Du Molinet also gives the two foUowing medals. In the exergue of the first is the word,
Coronat — He crowns. The cardinal-deacon crowns Alexander ; cardinals surround him ; on the
right guards, one of them on horseback.
In the field of the second is the Borgia bull, to which an angel presents a kind of yoke, accord
ing to some authors, while others say that it is not a yoke but a saU, in allusion to the word
Lenzuola. Around are the words : Ob sapientiam cvm* fortvna contvnc. — For the union of
fortune and wisdom.
Du Molinet, by the yoke, means the regency and government of the Church ; but if a sail is to
be preferred, then Du Molinet takes it to mean that the pontiff crowded all sail on his ship-
* Du Molinet's engraving, instead of cwm (witb), has com.

pius m.

645

219. PIUS III.— a. d. 1503.

IUS III. (Francis Todeschini Piccolomini) was
born May 9th, 1439, at Sienna, of Nanno Todes
chini, a very wealthy man of the town of Sarteano,
in the county of Sienna, and of Laodinica Piccolo
mini, sister of Pius II. The latter pope adopted
Francis, giving him the name and arms of the
Piccolomini, a famUy stUl existing at Naples, and
knoAvn as the Piccolomini di Aragon, — Angelo
Piccolomini having married Mary, daughter of
Ferdinand, king of Naples. Their present title is that of counts of Celano,
princes of VaUe.
Francis, from his earhest years, apphed himseK to the study of hterature
and law, and received the degree of doctor at Perugia. His uncle, Pius II. ,
made him archbishop of Sienna in 1460, when he was only twenty > years
old. Soon after, the same year, the pope created him cardinal-deacon of
Saint Eustace.
WhUe stUl very young, he was sent as legate to the Marches, and he
obtained the same title at Rome when his uncle, Pius, proceeded to Ancona.
In the last years of the reign of Paul IL, Francis was sent to the Empe
ror Frederic, and he manfuUy defended the rights of the Church at the diet
of Ratisbonne, in the presence of the emperor and the German nobles.
RecaUed to Rome by Sixtus IV, he there preserved the reputation ac
quired by his irreproachable hfe. Innocent VIIL sent him to Umbria to
restore peace, disturbed by turbulent factions.
Alexander VI. sent him as legate to Charles VIIL, when marching against
the Aragonese of Naples ; but the king would not see him, in consequence of
the hatred felt in France against Pius IL, who, on the strife between the
Aragonese and the prince of Anjou, had shown a perhaps over-partial favor
to the former.
On the death of Alexander VL, Caesar Borgia, duke de Valentinois, or-
Some writers, neglecting the words Ob Sapientiam, wiU have it that a yoke is meant, to curb the
self-wiU of the pontiff. But medals being a kind of official documents, admit of neither flattery
nor epigram. The sails were certainly a flattery ; and in such times as those, rulers were more
likely to be flattered than taught.
I return to the word sapientiam. PoUtian, speaking of Alexander, says : In te siquidem
sapientia singularis, prcestans animi magnitudo qua mortales omnes crederis antecellere— -Thou
hast a singular wisdom, and a greatness of soul beyond aU men. That, no doubt, was true
before the end of the pontificate.

646 LIVES OF THE POPES.
dered the Vatican to be piUaged, and carried off over three hundred thou
sand ducats. This violence was a natural consequence of the authority
which the nephews assumed even after the death of their papal relation.
In our days, a somewhat legitimate authority of prime minister subsists,
but when the fisherman's ring is broken, no family exists at Rome to tyran
nize in the name of an extinct absolute authority.
Borgia, who is to be classed with papal nephews, did not stop here. At
the head of twelve thousand men, he besieged the castle of Saint Angelo,
and invested the Vatican, where the conclave was to open, in order to force
the electors to impossible concessions. The cardinals, to escape the immi
nent danger, assembled in the church of La Minerva. They were besieged
there by Borgia's troops under MicheUetto Caregha, but rescued by the
Roman people, who suddenly ran to arms to defend the sacred college.
Valentinois, at the request of the ambassadors of France, Spain, and
Prosper Colonna, came expressly to Rome, and being struck down by a
stubborn fever that prevented his mounting a horse or even directing any
mihtary operations, had himseK carried on a Utter to Nepi.
The cardinals breathing more freely, armed four thousand Romans, and
celebrated the obsequies of Alexander VI. in the Vatican.
MeanwhUe a French army was also in Rome, on its march to attack the
Aragonese in Naples, another consequence of French pretensions to the
Neapolitan throne. To leave the sacred coUege at hberty, the French gen
eral, at the request of the cardinals, marched out of Rome.
On the 30th day after Alexander's death, thirty-six cardinals met. They
began by laying down several stipulations that the new pope was to sign,
and deemed by them essential to the reform of ecclesiastical discipline.
Their next thought was to elect a successor to the late pope.
One of the candidates was Cardinal George d'Amboise, archbishop of
Rouen ; but the Avignon popes were stiU remembered by the Itahan cardi
nals. George, moreover, a man of mild and affable manners, deemed him
self weU supported by his own desire, by the undisputed power of his
master Louis XII., and by the respected virtues of that great prince.
Cardinal de la Rovera, on his side, was no less ambitious of the tiara. Spon-
danus and Oldoini speak at length of the means employed by de la Rovera
to defeat the ambition of George, who had taken him into his confidence.
Some cardinals were disposed to favor the views of their old coUeague,
Caesar Borgia ; but his views were not very clear. Others belonged to httle
aimless factions. At last, aU united in electing, September 22, 1503, the
first cardinal-deacon, Francis Todeschini Piccolomini, who, in memory of his
uncle, chose the name of Pius III.
On the 30th of the same month, the pope elect was ordained priest by the
cardinal of San Pietro in vincoli ; for he had enjoyed the title of archbishop

PIUS III.

647

of Sienna for forty-three years, without being a priest (such things were
possible then) ; Pius II. having given his nephew as suffragan, the Blessed
Anthony Fatah, who fulfilled aU the episcopal duties. Pius III. Avas con
secrated bishop, October 1st, in one of the chambers of the Vatican, and
solemnly crowned on the 8th, on the steps of Saint Peter's, by Cardinal
Riario. Unable to go on horseback to take possession of Saint John Late
ran, on account of a disease in his leg, the new pope, contrary to custom,
performed the act of taking possession in the Vatican church. The Jews
were summoned to present the law to him in one of the haUs of the palace.
This extraordinary fact is related by Cancelheri*
The day after election, there was a consistory, an unexampled act before
coronation. Peace between France and Spain was discussed, and the pope
promised to use aU means in his power to revive the splendor of ancient
disciphne, and to reform the Roman court as regarded the cardinals and
officers. The French army continuing near Rome, imposed heavy burdens
on the people. On the 26th of September, Pius permitted them to advance
on Naples by the road under the walls of Rome, but not to enter the city.
At the same time Caesar received a safe conduct to enter the capital, but
simply with an escort, unattended by troops. He pretended to thank the
cardinals for the selection which they had made, affirming that it would
have been his own, which was not hkely. Pius was too virtuous a man to
have Avorn the approval of Caesar.
Under the reign of Alexander, the Orsini had been especially oppressed,
and Caesar had shown himseK the pitiless butcher of one. The outraged
family seeing the pope confined to his bed by the disease which prevented
his visiting Saint John Lateran, resolved, in spite of the safe conduct, to
take vengeance on Caesar. His captain, Coreglia, had quite recently given
the chief palace of the Orsini to the flames : this act of cruelty, added to the
scenes of the Romagna, where, in 1502, Paul Orsini, and Orsini, duke of
Gravina, had been strangled by Caesar's order, Avithin a few steps of his
room, had aroused in the hearts of this powerful famUy the keenest desire
of vengeance. They took arms and pubhcly provoked Caesar. The pope
hearing of this disobedience of his orders, had Caesar taken to the castle of
Saint Angelo to be detained sotto cortese guardia. The pope's council
thought it a favorable moment to demand from Caesar the restoration of
the principalities which he had usurped from the Holy See, or unjustly
received from his father. The man who but a few days before had been
the terror of Italy, tyrannizing over it armato di Francesi,\ was now under
the protection of a prison.
* History of the Possessi down to Pius VIL, p. 54.
\ Armato di Francesi, is the expression of MachiaveUi. This is the reward of interference in

648 LIVES OF THE POPES.
At the very moment when Borgia was confined, peace returned to Rome
and the Papal States and aU the sacred ceremonies could proceed without
interruption. The guardia cortese answered for Valentinois.*
Thus did Pius III. begin his pontificate ; but his health was feeble : the
ulcer on his leg suddenly began to mortify. At the time, an accusation was
brought against Pandulph Petrucci of Sienna, tyrant of that repubhc, whose
anger was excited to see the elevation of a noble of that city, whose family
had long been persecuted by the faction. The pope's disorder was aggra
vated, and he died after governing only twenty-six days. He was sixty-four
years, ten months, and five days old.t
Pius III. promised to assemble a general councU before the expiration of
three years, and repeatedly renewed the engagement to proceed with the
Christian armies to Turkey.
"This pope," says Garumberto, "was incessantly admired and praised
for his eloquence, prudence, his spirit of rehgion, the purity of his IKe, and
his grave demeanor. It was hoped that he would not foUow Pius II. in his
undue preference for Sienna.
He was interred in the Vatican, in a fine marble tomb, beside Pius II. ;
but both bodies were subsequently translated to San Andrea deUa VaUe, by
Alexander Peretti, Cardinal Montalto.
The Holy See was vacant twelve days4
the affairs of other countries, to the neglect of our own. To retrieve a blunder, to prolong a stay
in countries we oppress, we resort to vile instruments. Genius, to wither it, invents an expres
sion not apparently scorching, but weighed, it proves full of accusation. Here the French are com
pared to . the soldiery without intelligence, who are placed around a scaffold to carry out an
execution of one guilty, perhaps, only of a political crime, in opposing Borgia without sufficient
power. * Qui modo prostrates jactarat cornibus ursos
In latebras taurus concitus esse fugit,
Nee latebras putat esse satis sibi, Tybride toto
Cingitur, et notis vix bene fidit aquis.- — Sannazar.
Taurus refers to the arms of the Borgia, as Ursos to those of the Orsini. The castle of Saint
Angelo is nearly surrounded by the Tiber, and Csesar may well be said to know the waters into
which he had hurled the duke of Gandia, his own brother.
f When the master of ceremonies at the coronation burned the tow, saying, Pater sancte, sic
transit gloria mundi, Pius, as Chacon assures us, burst into tears, saying that death would soon
claim him.
X There was time in this twenty-six days' reign to strike medals of Pius III. The obverse is
the same in aU, the head entirely bare, with the legend : Pivs III. Pont. Max. MDIH.
The first medal, without being an exact restoration of that of Pius II., has the same legend on
the reverse : Gloria Senensi. D. C. Piccolomini — Glory to the Siennese of the Counts Piccolo
mini. In the middle of the shield, surmounted by the tiara and keys, are the arms of the family —
a cross, with crescents 1, 3, 1.
The second represents the pope in his tiara, throned, blessing a warrior who has his right arm
extended and his left on his breast. Two mitred cardinals right and left of the throne. Du MoU-
net very plausibly supposes this warrior to be Caesar Borgia. Legend : Svb. vmbra alarvm
tvarvm. M.D.HI — Under the shadow of thy wings, 1503. We have seen that Borgia, menaced

D QJ [L D OJ S D D o
( G1ULIANO DELLA ROVERa)

FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE BY RAFFAELLE.

jttlius n. 649

220. JULIUS IL— a. d. 1503.
ULIUS IL, originaUy named JuUan de la Rovera,
was born on the 15th of December, 1443, at Albisola, •
near Savona, and was the son of Raphael de la
Rovera, brother of Pope Sixtus IV. and Theodora
Manerola. In 1471, his uncle named him Bishop of Carpen
tras, and on the 15th of December, in the same
year, created him cardinal-priest of Saint Peter in
vinculis. It is said that Alexander VI. begged the cardinals not to elect the
Cardinal de la Rovera. Nevertheless, when they entered the conclave, they
commenced by declaring against their coUeague Cardinal George d'Amboise,
prime minister of France, and then elected, on the 31st of October, the
Cardinal de la Rovera, who took the name of Juhus II. He was crowned
on the 26th of November, and on the 5th of December he took possession
of Saint John Lateran.
To give some idea of the manner, in those times, of negotiating when it
was known that the conclave had assembled to choose a pope, we shall give
a letter received by MachiaveUi from the seignory of Florence on the death
of Pius III.
MachiaveUi had been sent on the 24th of October, 1503, to Rome. Nat
uraUy it was uncertain who would be pope, and the letters of credit were
to be presented to Cardinal Soderini, brother of the gonfalonier of Florence.
"Nicholas, you wiU promptly repair to Rome. You wUl present our
letters to many of the cardinals to whom sincere respect is due, as Rouen,*
Saint George (Raphael Rivario), San Severino (a MUanese), San Pietro, in
vincoli (Julius de la Rovera). You wiU visit them in our name, and make
known to them that, just as we had appointed ambassadors, we were in
formed of the death of the pope, at wliich the whole city is much concerned.
by the Orsini, sought the pope's protection. Before Caesar is a cardinal's hat ; the artist, mali
ciously perhaps, wishing to declare the cardinalship indelible. The prince is, however, armed
as a warrior, with gauntlets and greave.
There is stiU another medal of Pius III. Reverse : Three staffs interlaced in a crown. Le
gend : Tentanda via.— The way is to be tried. AU the explanation given of it are mysterious.
Typotius, in his Symbola Bivina Pontificum, &c, 1603, 3 vols., folio, speaks of it at length. The
three staffs are, according to him, the aids offered by the Holy Trinity to tread the paths of life,
and win the eternal crown. Some authors mention a medal of Alexander VL, with the same
reverse. * Cardinal d'Amboise, archbishop of Rouen.

650 LIVES OF THE POPES.
That, in consequence, our ambassadors have been recaUed ; that, neverthe
less, Ave deshe to make known to the cardinals our great grief, and how
much we desire that a new pontiff may be elected adequate to the needs of
Christendom and of Italy.
" That, knowing their disposition on that head, we offer them aU our aid.
" To each you wiU address the language which you deem fitting, consist
ently with the instructions which you receive from our most reverend Car
dinal Soderini, with whom you wiU confer before you fulfil your mission."
The first letter of MachiaveUi is-not to be found. By the second, bearing
date Rome, 28th of October, he announces that he has had a conference
with Cardinal d'Amboise, who accepts and reciprocates the affection of' the
repubhc. On the 1st of November, MachiaveUi writes : " Magnificent lords, I in
form you, with the grace of God, that this morning the cardinal of Saint
Peter in vincoli was proclaimed pope. May God make him a pastor service
able to Christendom !"
At a later period, he writes that the creation and the pubhcation were ex
traordinary. " This pope," MachiaveUi writes, " was elected in open conclave. Who
ever wiU reflect upon*the favors this cardinal has received must deem them
miraculous. All the factions in the conclave were for him; the king of
Spain and the king of France both wrote to the sacred coUege in his favor.
The barons of the different parties lent him their support. Saint George
(Riario da Savona) favored him, and so did the duke of Valentinois* It is
evident he has powerful friends, and it is said that that is because he has
always been a good friend, and therefore has good friends."
On the 2d of November, the tent sent Machiavelh fresh credentials for
Pope Juhus, and on the 8th, the Florentine secretary had an audience with
the pontiff. Nicholas, in the name of the repubhc, congratulated the pope
on his accession. Then, taking occasion to speak of the attacks upon Ro
magna meditated by the Venetians, he made this somewhat satirical reflec
tion : " If the Venetians are successful there, then there wiU be no more
hberty for Florence, and the pope wiU become chaplain to the Venetians."
The duke of Valentinois, also, was attacked in the heart of his States.
MachiaveUi relates that, having an interview with Cardinal d'Amboise, the
latter said : " Hitherto, God has aUowed no crime to go unpunished ; He
¦will punish the crimes of this duke."|
* This shows that Valentinois was no longer in the castle of Saint Angelo under the guardia
cortese. f The magistracy who governed the State under the direction of the gonfalonier Soderini.
He was already master in the fashion of the Medicis, who, at a later date, after much fair speech,
usurped all authority.
X The cardinal was right, but the crimes of the duke were twofold: some low and vile, con-

julius n. 651
Juhus said nothing about his plans. MachiaveUi endeavored to pene
trate the intentions of the pope and the influential cardinals as respected
Valentinois, the impure dregs of a late reign, and destined to become the
embarrassment of the new one. The Florentine weU remarks that that
Eomagnol was not liked by the pope, who, however, feared to break faith
with him. All were wiUing enough to drive him from Rome. It was re
quired that he should embark at Ostia, and that his exacting and undisci
plined army should go to Sinigaglia.
A letter of the 14th of November contains some particulars about the
contagious disease which broke out at Rome at the very time of the elec
tion. Residence in that city had become perilous, because want of police
and the neglect of the government aUowed that scourge to extend its
ravages. However, MachiaveUi, reUshing his post, evinced no desire to re
turn to Florence. In another letter he speaks of the contagion thus indK-
ferently, and almost gayly : " The pest does its duty right AveU ; it does not
spare the houses of the cardinals, or any other in which it can have its own
way. But no one cares much about it."
We must finish with Caesar Borgia.
Driven on by the pontifical government, which expeUed him, and by the
Tuscans, who refused him a safe conduct, he went so far as to say to Machi
aveUi, " I wiU make it up with my enemies the Venetians, or even with the
devil. I wiU go to Pisa with aU the money, troops, and friends that I can
command, and I wiU do you aU the harm that I possibly can do you."
Juhus displayed great ability. He succeeded in getting rid of Valentinois,
who was no more seen in Rome. Subsequently, a refugee in Spain, he
perished at the siege of a city that he was sent to reduce.
In aU quarters the first steps of Juhus were waited for with anxiety.
By circular letters he notified aU the sovereigns of his exaltation, and of
his desire to abate the Turkish power ; and he entreated them to make
peace among themselves.
At the same time, foUowing the example of Alexander VL, who had
aUowed Manuel, king of Portugal, to marry in succession two sisters, Juhus,
on the 26th of December, 1503, granted to Henry VIIL, son of the king of
England, aged eighteen years, the necessary dispensation to marry Catharine,
aged twenty-three years, daughter of Ferdinand and IsabeUa of Spain, and
widow of Arthur, elder brother of Henry. She had no chUdren by Arthur,
who married her when he was only fifteen, and who, on account of his deli
cate health, had never met her- except in the midst of the Enghsh court.
AU these facts appear in the report which Juhus ordered to be made to him.
fined to a town or castle ; some high, proud, insolent, crimes that are a pubhc scourge, and are
committed under the patronage of a foreign power. In the first class of crimes there is but one
culprit, for the second class there are two.

652 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Juhus ascended the throne with the inflexible purpose of recovering all
the possessions belonging of right to the Church. Accordingly, in 1504, he
announced to Loredano, doge of Venice, that that repubhc must restore to
the Holy See Faenza, Rimini, and other places which had been usurped
since "the death of Alexander VI. That pope had given to his nephew,
Caesar Borgia, a part of Romagna. He and Caesar now promised to order
his officers to restore the fortresses in that province ; but the Venetians had
also other restitutions to make on the frontiers of the same country.
Julius recalled the Colonnas from exUe, and restored their lands, wliich
Alexander had usurped. Then he gave his sister Luchina's daughter, Lu-
cretia, in marriage to Antonio Colonna, and gave, as her marriage portion,
the seignorial rights of the city of Frascati.
At length Forli, in spite of the intrigues of Valentinois, returned to its
legitimate owner.
Julius then persistently demanded Rimini and Ravenna from the Vene
tians, Perugia from Baghoni, and Bologna from Bentivogho.
Henry VIIL of England, seeing that his paternal uncle, Henry VI. , was
honored as a saint by the Enghsh, asked leave from Julius to remove the
body of that prince from the unfit tomb in which it had been laid by men
envious of his virtues, to the royal burial-place in Westminster ; and alsc
besought the pope to canonize that prince. Juhus willingly granted the
first request ; as to the second, foUowing the example of Innocent VIIL and
Alexander VL, the pope ordered that the archbishop of Canterbury and
three other prelates should obtain authentic information as to the virtues
and miracles of the princely servant of God.
Louis XII. having recovered from a serious ,iUness, under circumstances
which had increased the devotion of the French, Juhus ordered that solemn
processions should be made in the kingdom in thanksgiving to God for the
preservation of a good prince.
By a constitution, pubhshed on the 14th of January, 1505, the. pope
annulled the ulterior election of any pope, although aheady crowned and
recognized by the nations, K the election is tainted by simony. He also
ordered the deposition of cardinals who should be guilty of the hke crime,
and gave power to cardinals who had not been guUty of it to convoke a
general councU, and sohcit the support of the secular princes against every
pontiff thus elected. Michaud, in the Biographie Universdle (xx., p. 117),
pronounces the foUowing judgment upon this fact : " Juhus was anxious to
satisfy the requirements of his new dignity by a bull which annuUed, for
the future, every election of a pope tainted by intrigue or simony ; fettering
the ambition of those who might succeed him by a measure no longer appli
cable to himself."
We now come to one of the finest of this pope's labors. Julius, consider-

julius ii. 653
ing that, owing to its antiquity, the BasUica of Saint Peter had become
ruinous, conceived in his vast mind the idea of buUding a temple worthy
of the Prince of the Apostles. He was the first pontiff who could justly
pride himseK upon laying the foundation-stone of one of the most mag
nificent buUdings in the world. He adopted the designs of Lazarus Bra-
mante, who was succeeded in the direction of the buUdings by Fra Jocondo
di Verona, Raphael d'Urbino, Juhus de San-GaUo, Michel Angelo Buona-
rotti, Jacopo Barazzi da Vignola, Jacopo della Porta, Carlo Maderno, Lo
renzo Bernini, and Domenico and Carlo Fontana, all names dear to the
arts, and especiaUy so to the science of architecture.
The cost of this temple, says Novaes in a note,* reached, in 1694, the
sum of forty-six millions of Roman crowns ;t and that sum did not include
the expenses of the models, of the demolished waUs, of the tower erected
by Urban VIH., nor the aUowances of the workmen, and of the vestments
of the altar. ¦%
France was at that time at peace with the Holy See, and she sohcited' and
obtained privUeges for the Minims, founded at Rome by Charles VIIL
(See hfe of CaUixtus IH.) That order had been solemnly approved by the
pontiffs Sixtus IV, Innocent VIIL, and Alexander VI.
The Holy See recovered aU that had been occupied by Caesar Borgia.
But the demands made upon the Baglioni, tyrants of Perugia, and the
Bentivogho, masters of Bologna, notwithstanding some appearances of
success, had not the results which were so earnestly desired by Juhan II.
Leaving the cardinal-bishop of Frascati as his legate at Rome, he marched
against Perugia at the head of an army. The Baghoni fled at the news of
the pope's approach ; and as he advanced upon Bologna the Bentivogho
made no greater resistance. The pope entered that city on the 10th of
November, 1506, under thirteen triumphal arches. He had not a single
battle, and his triumph cost not a single human hfe.
, MachiaveUi, the Florentine ambassador to Julius II. , was an eye-witness
of that campaign, and his account of it wiU be read with some interest.
The pope, after being assured of the consent of France and Venice, im
mediately began his march.J MachiaveUi was at Civita CasteUana on the
28th of August, and Juhus gave him audience in presence of Cardinal
Soderini. The secretary began by stating to the pope what were the basis
of his instructions. He somewhat exaggerated them, stating that the re
pubhc beheld with pleasure the confirmation of the support of France, and
applauded the courage and consistency of His Hohness on this occasion.
He then deemed it expedient to read the instructions themselves, word for
* Novaes, vi., p. 144. t The crown is about the same as our dollar.
X MachiaveUi, Son Genie et ses Erreurs, vol. i., p. 148.

654 LIVES OF THE POPES.
toord. The pope listened very attentively both to the secretary's introduc
tory speech and to the reading of the instructions ; and then said that it
appeared to him that the Florentines feared three things : 1. That the sup
port of France was not certain ; 2. That the Holy See might be lukewarm
in this business ; and, 3. That the Holy See might come to an agreement
with Bentivogho, and so either not drive him from Bologna, or, after ex-
peUing, aUow him to return.
" To the first fear, the pope rephed that he could give no better proof of
the support of King Louis XH., than by producing his majesty's own hand
writing ; for his own part, he, the pope, was quite content with that prince's
signature. He then asked the archbishop of Aix for the commission which
he had brought from France. He showed the Florentine ambassador the
French king's own signature, and read two "articles concerning Bologna.
His majesty urged His Hohness to make that expedition, presto, presto —
quickly, quickly ; and promised him the aid of four or five hundred lances,
commanded by a vahant knight, Monseigneur d'Alegre, and the marquis of
Mantua. " To the second fear, the pope replied that he could not be accused of
lukewarmness ; that he was on the road, and that it was impossible to show
greater Avarmth in the cause than by being there in person.
" To the third fear, the pontiff rephed that he would not leave Bentivogho
at Bologna ; that he, Bentivogho, would not be so insane as to remain there
as a private man ; that the papal government would so arrange matters that
Bentivogho should never return to that city during the hfe of the present
pope, and that Juhus II. did not know what might after his death be done
by another pope."
In the evening, MachiaveUi having encountered His Hohness as he was
going to Visit the fortress of Civita CasteUana, as a rare thing, His Holiness
repeated to the Florentine, word for Avord, what had been said in the morning.
On the 13th of September, the pope entered Perugia in triumph. " But,"
says MachiaveUi, " the troops of Baghano are in greater force than those of
the pope, who is thus at the discretion of the lord from whom he has just
wrested his possessions.
" The pope continued on his way and reached San Marino,* and thence,
* That wisely administered republic has constantly been fortunate enough, even down to our
own day, to make its independence respected. When the Austrian army marched against
Naples, in 1820, it had to cross a part of the territory of San Marino, and the Austrian general
officiaUy asked permission to do so. In 1824, intriguing subalterns caused it to be feared,
wrongly no doubt, that a neighboring power would molest that independence, until then re
spected. This circumstance having enabled me to render some service to that repubhc, it ad
dressed me a patent declaring me inscribed upon its Golden Book, a testimonial which I received
with equal gratification and gratitude. I believe that I am at present the only Frenchman on
the Golden Book of San Marino — i. e., in the lists of that repubUc's patricians.

JULIUS II. 655
Cesena. In that city two ambassadors from the emperor to the pope were
announced, the cardinal-bishop of Brixen (Melchior Cops, created cardinal
by Alexander VI., in 1503), and the marquis of Brandenburg, one of the an
cestors of the present king of Prussia.
" In the mean time, Bolognese ambassadors arrived and were admitted to
the presence of the pope. They kissed his feet, and retired without utter
ing a word. On the foUoAving day, in a long discourse, they endeavored to
touch his feelings by describing their former absolute dependence upon the
Holy See. They quoted the treaties made by that city with many pontiffs,
treaties confirmed by Juhus himself, and they complacently aUuded to the
pohte conduct of their citizens, their rehgious feelings, and their submission
to the laws. The pope replied, that if that people was submissive to the
State of the Church, it was no more than was its duty, for such was its
covenanted obligation, and the Holy See was as good a master as the people
could be faithful subjects. His Holiness had come in person to deliver the
people from their tyrants. That with respect to treaties, the pope would go
into no examination of what had been done by other popes or by himself,
for they and he could only act as they did ; that necessity, and not choice,
had decided the confirmations that had been obtained : that it was time to
revise the treaties ; that it seemed to him that he should be inexcusably
guUty before God K he were to neglect that revision, and that he came for
that purpose. That he desired the happiness of Bologna ; that therefore
he would personaUy enter Bologna : that if he found laws that pleased him,
he would confirm them — if otherwise, he would alter them ;, and that K arms
were needed to effect it, he would come with forces to dominate not only
Bologna but aU Italy."
We make this extract from the correspondence of MachiaveUi, in order to
show the vigorous policy of Juhus. He owed aU the advantage obtained
in this war to France. From that time, with the exception of the brief ex
istence of the Cisalpine Repubhc, and of the kingdom of Italy, Bologna
has always acknowledged the supremacy of the popes.
At the commencement of the foUowing year, the pope returned to Rome
and made a promotion of cardinals, among whom was the celebrated
Ximenes, who for a long time was prime minister of Spain, and was justly
renowned as one of the ablest statesmen of the time.
Cardinal Carvajal, pontifical legate, had the happiness to induce the Em
peror Maximilian and the king of France to sign a peace. At that time the
Venetians had invaded Trieste and the county of Goritia, and the Holy
Father had not obtained the restitutions that he had called for ; and there
fore he did not hesitate to give his adhesion to the treaty of Cambray, the
object of which was to humble the pride of Venice.
In that treaty, which the king of Spain approved, Julius was engaged to

656 LIVES OF THE POPES.
lay an interdict on Venice and its possessions. In this case the excommu
nication was not the work of the pope ; it was called for by three of the
most powerful princes of Europe, the emperor, and the kings of France
and Spain, which proves yet once again that the much-calumniated measure
of excommunication was part and parcel of five jurisprudence of the age.
The Venetians, in spite of the buU of Pius IL, which forbade that kind
of resistance, appealed to a future council. The pope condemned their ap
peal by an edict of 1509, adding the gravest censures. - The battle of Agna-
del, Avhich Avas gained by the French, and in which the Venetians lost
eight thousand of their best troops, compeUed the republic to make peace,
to restore Brescia, Bergamo, Como, and Cremona, and to ask the Holy
Father's pardon, promising him that they would restore the usurped terri
tories, and make many concessions serviceable to ecclesiastical discipline
and the maintenance of the pontifical authority.
In 1510, the Venetian embassy appointed to effect this reparation arrived
at Rome. The pope, seated on his throne, at the door of the Vatican Ba
sihca, pronounced absolution from the penalties incurred, only imposing
the penance of visiting the seven churches. It was noticed that Julius, on
this occasion, ordered that the ambassadors should not receive the slight
blow with a wand, usually given to those who received absolution from cen
sures or excommunication.
The pope subsequently declared that, in order to show himseK reaUy the
common father of the faithful, he should retire from the league of Cambray.
This time it was the lay powers that persisted in the apphcation of ecclesi
astical penalties, and the spiritual power that abstained from prolonging
them. But those weapons were not to sleep. The .French wished the pope to
remain in the league of Cambray ; and at the same time were for protecting
the duke of Ferrara, a feudatory of the Holy See, who refused to restore
the salt-works of Cammachio to the pope. An army of Louis XH. aided
the resistance of the duke. Juhus excommunicated the commanders of that
army, and this first discord led to fatal results.
In order to support his censures by his presence, Juhus repaired to Bo
logna. Some of the French and Spanish cardinals disapproved of the pope's
course. These cardinals were men whom it was prudent to respect.
Among them were Carvajal, WiUiam Brissonet, Francis Borgia, Renaud de
Prie, and Frederic di San Severino. It must be added, that their opposi
tion was not expressed in sufficiently guarded terms.
Louis XII. also shared a marked desire to know the pontifical authority.
He consulted his clergy at Orleans, and then at Tours, where decisions were
arrived at that were but httle favorable to the rights of Julius. The pope

julius IL 657
now thought it necessary to draw to his side the Catholic king, Ferdinand
V. Louis XII., since the death of Charles VIIL, had not done homage
and made oath for the kingdom of Naples, which he possessed ; and he had
alienated many of the rights of that kingdom without the consent of the
papal agents, and even in their presence and in spite of their absolute pro
hibition. Juhus, exerting his ancient right, declared that the seignories of
Naples and Gaeta had reverted to the Holy See, and he gave them to Fer
dinand, under the known conditions, thus annuUing the compacts between
the pontiff and the Most Christian king.
The pope personally continued an active war in the neighborhood of Fer
rara, and after a defeat he retired to Bologna. There he was in danger of
falling into the hands of the Marshal de Chaumont, commanding the French
army. The pope was afterwards nearly made prisoner by the Chevaher
Bayard ; but the weather being stormy, Julius suspended his journey, and
turned back, thus "avoiding the tov/ns in which the che\Talier awaited him.
Among the blessings granted to " the good knight Bayard, without fear and
without reproach," was that of his faUure in that enterprise. It would have
been a most deplorable success for Bayard, especiaUy if the passions of that
unhappy time had not left him free to foUow the promptings of the generous
sentiments which we doubt not would have been awakened in him at sight
of such a prisoner. It may be feared that the military would have fet
tered the Christian, and perhaps have tarnished some pages of a hfe so
beautiful and worthy of admiration in the sight of men and of rehgion.
It is but too certain that Bayard would not then have been able to say to
his sword what he said to it when he knighted Francis I. : " You are for
tunate to have this day knighted so virtuous and powerful a king ! Certes,
my good sword, you wiU be much better kept and honored, and I shaU
wield you no more, unless against Turks, Saracens, or Moors."
We cannot omit to notice here a compact honorable to Juhus. For many
years, the houses of the Colonna and Orsini had hved in a state of suspi
cion, discord, and even hatred, which had disturbed many pontiffs. Under
Juhus those two iUustrious houses swore a perpetual peace, by an act signed
at the capitol, on the 27th of August, 1511. The pontiff, in honor of this
happy event, had a medal struck, on the exergue of Avhich were these words,
honorable to those powerful princes : Pax Romana.*
At this time the schismatic cardinals (we are compelled to use that phrase)
convoked a conciliabule at Pisa. There they drew up several charges
against the pontiff. Among the things charged were, that he had gained
the pontificate by improper means, for the purpose of fomenting discords
* Unfortunately, we cannot describe this medal at the end of this reign, the die being lost.
Probably it was broken in consequence of some new quarrels between these famiUes.
Vol. I.— 42

658 LIVES OF THE POPES
among Christian princes ; and that he had neglected to execute the decree
of the Council of Constance, which ordered that a councU should be assem
bled every ten years. It might have been answered, that that decree had
been neglected by the predecessors of Julius because experience had shown
that the frequency of councUs caused more chsorders in the Church, so feAV
bishops attending them, and thus men prone to revolt had opportunity to
demand new and often mischievous institutions.
It is true that many authors have accused Juhus of obtaining the pontifi
cate by gifts, promises, entreaties, and threats; and the Biographic Uni-
verselle, cited above, shares that opinion. But Novaes quotes Father
Oldoini, who, in his appendices to Chacon (vol. hi., p. 143), maintains the
accusation to be a calumny. Julius, says he, was magnificent, liberal , a
great lover of the truth, and a zealous defender of ecclesiastical hberty
and of the pontifical dignity ; such were his claims which raised him to the
pontificate. He would not during his reign have been So great an enemy
to simony if he had become pope by that means, nor would he so sternly
have condemned the simoniacs.
Formal interdict was pronounced against the city of Pisa.
The people expelled the cardinals who had brought such a misfortune
upon the city. The cardinals then removed their congress to MUan. But,
there the clergy spontaneously closed the churches against them, and they
were obhged to go to Lyons, which ere long was laid under interdict.
Juhus was undismayed by the threats of the conciliabule of Pisa, which
in its best day was but a revival of the most degraded period of the con
ciliabule of Bale, with a mixture of that of Lausanne.
That courageous pontiff infused new order into his troops. That means
was then indispensable ; the strictest mind must confess that. He sum
moned to him his aUies, and preserved to himseK that high degree of power
to which he had raised the authority of the sovereign pontiffs.
Heedless of perU, he rejoined his troops, accompanied by only three car
dinals, and he ventured to lay siege to Mirandola. He took up his quarters
in a peasant's cot, exposed to the fire of the artiUery of the fortress. In
the depth of winter (I rapidly recount facts, and do not pause for discus
sions), at the age of seventy, he went by night from post to post; he urged
on the works,* and encouraged the soldiers ; often several of his servants
we're stricken down at his side At length the city, despairing of relief,
surrendered, and he, the conquering general, entered the breach like some
young soldier of twenty years.
At length, doubtless by the advice of the pious cardinal del Monte, more
pontifical sentiments prevailed. It was resolved in the sacred coUege that
* Novaes, vi., p. 157.

JULIUS II. 659
councU should be opposed to council, as had been done in the time of
Eugene IV., against the fathers of Bale. And by a buU of the 18th of
July, 1511, a general councU, the nineteenth, was convoked for the 19th of
AprU, 1512, in the palace of Saint John Lateran. But it could not be com
menced until the 3d of May, because in the month of AprU the French took
the cities of Faenza, Imola, and Forh, and because a conspiracy was dis
covered for the expulsion of the pope from Rome.
The Holy Father presided over the labors of the councU, which was not
concluded until the reign of Leo X., in the year 1517. In the mean time,
Julius signed a league with the emperor, the king of Spain, and the king of
England, against Louis XH. The last-named king was again excommuni
cated in 1512, at the request of the aUies. But already the pope began to
feel the approaches of death ; he was suffering under an incurable disorder.
On the 17th of August, he feU so seriously Ul that for some time his ser
vants thought IKe extinct. The report of his death spread so rapidly, that
some of the malcontent cardinals entered Rome. Some seditious people,
headed by Pompey Colonna, incited the populace to demand their ancient
liberties, — only another word, in the existing circumstances, for new disasters
to Rome. Juhus was restored to consciousness by his physician, Scipio
LanceUoti, who administered a peach. He immediately summoned the
cardinals around him. He pardoned his nephew, the duke of Urbino, for a
grave offence the pontiff had received from him — no less than the death of
Cardinal Alidosi, ordered by the duke. But, says Novaes, in this instance
an imprudent flatterer, there was no time to recur to the formahties of law.*
Juhus declared to the cardinals that it was for them alone, and not for the
councU, to name his successor ; that they could grant the right of voting to
the absent cardinals, but not to the schismatic cardinals. By these latter
he meant the heads of the CouncU of Pisa. As regarded these, he added :
" As Julian de Rovera, I pardon them in aU sincerity of heart ; but as
Juhus, head of the Church, we must vindicate our right, and we exclude
them from the election."
He then turned his thoughts to the mode of electing his successor. He
confirmed the constitution we described some pages back, which invalidated
every election stained by simony, even though foUowed by a coronation and
official recognition by the States of Christendom. Juhus then resumed his
usual occupations, but with weakened faculties and sinking health. He
died on the 21st of February, 1513, after a reign of nine years, three
months, and twenty days. He had received the sacraments with marks of
the greatest piety, and regulated his funeral, excluding all magnificence.
He was at first interred at the Vatican, beside the tomb of his uncle, Sixtus
* Novaes, vi., p. 128.

660 LIVES OF THE POPES.
IV., whence he was removed into a magnificent mausoleum, the admirable
work of Michael Angelo, at Saint Peter in vinculis.
Some authors declare this tomb to be only a cenotaph, and say that Juhus
was interred in the vaults of Saint Peter's. Writers who describe the monu
ments of that basilica say that Juhus stUl remains there. Every one who
has visited Rome knows that on this tomb, at Saint Peter in vinculis,
stands the statue of Moses, the finest piece of modern sculpture, of wliich
we shaU speak more in detail.
The glory of Juhus was in its zenith. He had fiUed Italy and aU Europe
with his renown : he saw at his feet the most powerful of his enemies. The
cardinal of Luxemburg, one of the first who had abandoned the party of
the revolt, asked for peace in the name of Louis XII. Queen Anne, who
shuddered at the mere name of schism, and the duke de Valois, afterwards
King Francis I., wrote to the pope in terms of the most pious submission.
But the melancholy spectacle of the tomb, says Novaes,* threw its dark
shadows over aU the objects which had agitated the hfe of the pontiff ; and
in his last moments he said : " Would to God that we had never been pope,
or at least that we could have turned aU the arms of rehgion against the
enemies of the Holy See !" In this last penitent wish there Avas stiU the
old passion for military glory.
Juhus was of unconquerable fortitude in adversity, and implacable towards
rebels ; and he would not brook a single affront. On the other hand, he
Avas liberal, courteous, faithful to his word, magnificent, constant, and an
indomitable defender of ecclesiastical hberty and the papal dignity.
His memory has been attacked by many writers. The most furious of
those unjust men was Peter Soave, in his detestable History of the CouncU
of Trent. Novaes here indulges in some reflections upon the adventurous
nature of Juhus. Was he the first warrior-pope ? Saint Leo III., after
crowning Charlemagne, made a treaty with him for the expulsion of the
Lombards and other enemies of the Church from Italy. Other popes fol
lowed his example. Saint Leo IV. drove the Saracens from Ostia. Leo
IX. personaUy fought the Normans, to expel them from Benevento. He
was unfortunately beaten and made prisoner. Clement IV. summoned
Charles of Anjou to vanquish the obstinacy of Manfred, who retained the
fief of Naples, belonging to the Holy See. Innocent II. took arms against
Roger, count of Sicily, who had subjected Apuha ; but this pontiff also was
defeated, and feU into the hands of WiUiam, the son of Roger. Innocent
VL, by means of his legate, Albornoz, recovered part of his States ; and
Pius H. personaUy marched against the Turks. f However, it may be the
* Novaes, vi., p. 160.
f There is a book by Henry Louis de Rocheperay, entitled as foUows : " An Apology against

JULIUS II 661
peaceful doctrme of our modern popes, as we shaU see further on, is worthy
of the highest praise ; and affection wiU be more readUy granted to such
popes as Pius VIL than to such as Juhus II. It must not be forgotten that
Juhus sought to punish rebels, and recover provinces that other princes
would have usurped, and that they would certainly have never restored to
the Holy See.
Friends to the glory and the virtues of Louis XII. of France have been
unjust to Juhus. It is difficult to find so good a king as Louis XII. less
than admirable under aU circumstances ; but it must not be concealed that
that prince, in his rehgious wars, foUowed the advice of ardent and interested
ministers, whose conduct the stern tribunal of history must often condemn.
Juhus II. was the first pope who aUowed his beard to grow, to give him
self a more majestic and imposing appearance ; he was imitated by Francis
V, and afterwards by Charles V. That fashion passed to the courtiers, and
from them to the multitude. FeUer,* at the end of his article on Juhus,
gives the foUowing judgment :
" John SteUa, in his Lives of the Popes, paints this pontiff in the fairest
colors ; nothing can be added to the praises that he bestows upon him.
Other writers give a frightful account of Juhus. One can scarcely rely
upon what authors say of the great men who have lived in troublous times ;
each speaks of them in the spirit of party. However, our own opinion is,
that the sublimity of his station was forgotten by this pope. He did not per
ceive what his wise successors in our days so weU understand, that the
Roman pontiff is the common Father, and that he should be the arbiter of
peace, and not the firebrand of war."
It is not true that Juhus one day threw into tlie Tiber the keys of Saint
Peter to use only the sword of Saint Paul, as so many historians, both Catho-
. he and Protestant, have affirmed, after the scurrilous verse of a poor satiri
cal poet.
It is a mere invention of the enemies of rehgion and of the popes. Bayle
quotes the verses in question, as foUows :
Cum Petri nihil efficiant ad praalia claves,
Auxilio Pauli, forsitan ensis erit.
From an unfriendly supposition, a fact is manufactured. It should be
condemned to the sewer, that swarms with libels on popes.
The Holy See was vacant seventeen days.t
those who affirm that Ecclesiastics ought not to resort to arms in case of necessity." 1615. 8 vo
We do not think this book of much authority.
* FeUer, iii., p. 177.
t I wiU now notice some of the medals of Julius which adorn my coUection.
I have three of them, all bearing the same effigy. The head of the pope is bare. Around

662

LIVES OF THE POPES.

221. LEO X.— a. d. 1513.

EFORE we enter upon the great age of Leo X.,
we wiU take a retrospective glance.
Alexander IV., hke most of his predecessors,
endeavored to reconcUe the Greek to the Latin
Church. Urban IV. instituted the feast of Cor
pus Christi; under Clement IV., and in spite of
him, politicians committed an odious crime, pun
ished by a no less cruel Sicilian conspiracy.
AU pious hearts should grieve over the fate of Louis IX., who died hohiy
before Tunis.

two of these medals are the words : Ivxrvs Ligvr Papa secvndvs. Around the third, after the
word Papa, is the word secondvs.
The first represents the facade of Saint Peter, as it was at first designed. On the exergue :
Vaticanvs Mons. By the advice of Bramante and Michael Angelo, Julius ordered & new facade
for Saint Peter's. AU the central portion is preserved as it Avas then built ; but on the sides
there are towers which no longer exist. The die for this medal is split at the part representing
the portico, and does not give a clear and correct idea of the monument. The second medal was
struck at the time of the restoration of the port of Civita Vecchia, portvs CENTVMCELL2E.
In the centre is a very high tower, built on piles, which must have served as an observatory.
It does not now exist in that form.
Around the third medal we read : Benedic. qvi vbnit. in. no. D — Blessed is he who cometh
in the name of the Lord. In the middle of the field the oak, the cognizance of the Roveras, as
we have already described in a medal of Sixtus IV. They are surmounted by the tiara and the
crossed keys.
Du Molinet gives other medals. 1. Ivstiti^b. Pacis Fidel Q. recvperator. Justice clasps
the hand of Peace before an altar on which burns the sacred fire. 2. Ivr. Redd. — Juri Beddo — 1
restore to right. Near the church of Saint Blaise, Julius laid the first stone of a building intended
to serve as the supreme court. It is no longer in existence, and is replaced by the palace of
Monte Uiterio, near the pillar of Antoninus. 3. Contra stimvlvm ne calcitres — Bo not kick
against the goad. This medal must refer to the war of Julius against Alphonso, duke of Ferrara.
A man on horseback about to be overthrown. Near the horse is a buckler, with the letters
S. P. Q. R. — The Boman senate and people. Two figures in front of the horse seem to animate
him to a forward course. 4. Justice and Plenty join hands. 5. Pedo Servatas oves ad re
quiem ago — With a crook I lead to their rest the lambs that I have saved. The city of Rome ;
a triumphal gate ; above, a sun ; a shepherd leading his flock ; Justice and Time before a palace
surmounted by a lofty tower, flanked by two smaller towers. 7. Templvm Vlrginis Lavbeti—
The Temple of the Virgin of Loretto. A very beautiful temple, but it is not that which we ejW
admire in that magnificent sanctuary. 8. Annona Pvblica. A woman walking swiftly with
ears of wheat and an olive-branch. 9. Tvtela. A shepherd seated, with a crook ; sheep right
and left. 10. I mention another very interesting medal which is not given in Du Molinet
Pascite, qvi in vobis est, Grbgem Dei— Feed the flock that God hath given to you.
Christ seated, blesses a kneeling pope, to whom Saint Peter deUvers the keys.
That medal tells the whole history Of Christianity, and of the rights of the pontifical govern
ment.

LPOlPLE \L\L© 3S„

MEWYDRK;!).* J. SADEIER & C°

LEO X. 663
The Blessed Gregory X. heroicaUy places in the pages of history the
august famUy of Rodolph of Hapsburg, which, bore so eminent a part in
guaranteeing the exarchate of Ravenna to the Holy See. That noble race
has firmly kept the promise given by the founder of that iUustrious
dynasty. Martin II. excommunicated Paleologus, who kept up the schism which
had been abjured by the Greeks in the General CouncU of Lyons. Under
Nicholas IV. the Christians lost the city of Saint Jean d'Acre, in Syria.
That only rendered the pontiffs more ardent in showing the crusaders that
their banners ought to wave before Jerusalem.
BonKace VHL canonized Louis IX. The pontiff essayed to display, in
s, buU, briUiant in its pure latinity, all the sublime virtues of that hero of
the faith. His aU but celestial virtues are even more briUiant than the
exquisitely Ciceronian latinity in which they are described. The renewal
of the JubUee is due to BonKace VIIL Tens of thousands of pilgrims
hastened to Rome.*
The buU, In Ccena Domini, is attributed to Boniface VIIL After being
unfavorably judged for centuries that never read it, it wiU now, perhaps,
be better appreciated.
In the city of Anagni, a Roman subject, confiding in his wealth, in the
splendor of his name, and in the protection of a powerful king, insulted
BonKace whUe seated on his throne, in his sacred robes and tiara. God
watched over the pontifical dignity ; no one dared to strike at the pontiff.
A Frenchman has been accused of doing so. That Frenchman was capable
of doing it, but he did not commit that crime, hateful ahke to rehgion, to
common propriety, and to the respect due to the aged. Some annahsts
persist in attributing that disgrace to him, but history contradicts them.
That crime was not committed, either by the rebelhous subject or the coun-
cUlor of a foreign monarch.
The Blessed Benedict XL forgives the king who had persecuted Boniface.
Benedict is poisoned, and that crime throws the papacy upon the unworthy
road to Avignon.
Clement V. wiU not trust his 'hfe in the hands of the Roman people. He
has been, but unjustly, accused of many acts of simony.
The pope summoned to France the grand master of the Templars, and
the head of the HospitaUers (the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem).
The grand master of the Templars obeys, but, without the pope's know-
* At present, it seems to be feared that Catholics may have too much enjoyment. Rome still
throws her gates wide open. But the other gates leading to her from all parts are closely shut,
or at best but set ajar, so that they may come only in single file, so great is the liberty on the
subject of religion ! Pilgrims in travelling carriages drawn by four horses can come freely
enough, it is true ; but the pedestrian pilgrim with staff and scrip passes not so easily.

364 LIVES OF THE POPES.
ledge that obedience becomes a mischief. The master of the Knight?
HospitaUers, who, on his way, attacked the island of Rhodes, was at once
less obedient, and more prudent and able. H the Templars had made
Cyprus their property, or any other and even smaUer island, the mis
fortunes of their order would probably have been less fatal. Their posses
sions in France might stiU have been confiscated, but the hves of the
knights would have been safe ; and, hfe being preserved, lost property can
always, God aiding, be replaced. We must regret that VUlaret, grand
master of the HospitaUers, labored too exclusively in the conquered islands
for his own glory, and for his own personal aggrandizement, and by that
censurable conduct excited a justifiable spirit of revolt in that fiery aristo
cratic repubhc, in which a sovereign can hold power only on condition of
respecting the right of election and the laws of the State. We shaU
shortly see Helyon de ViUeneuve better comprehending the glorious secret
of the pontificate, receiving the crown from the head of Cathohcism, and
leaving it pure in the hands of the Bailli elected to succeed him.
But the king who aUowed BonKace to be insulted, caUs upon Clement to
insult the memory of that pontiff. The fault, the imprudence, the timidity,
and the too lively attachment to life which caused the abandonment of
Rome stiU existed. But that skiU which had been transmitted from his
predecessors, something apostohc which had ascended the Rhine, and the
impossibility of subscribing an iniquitous compact, strengthened Clement
in his resistance. He used his right ; Boniface was defended, and as the
injustice of the period would compel him to aUow BonKace to be accused,
at least he was able to secure his acquittal. Phihp lost his case, and weU
it was for his memory that he did so. It was enough that in plotting
against the Holy See, and stUl meditating grievous wrong against the Tem
plars, he did not himseK incur the severest condemnation. The tamperer
with the currency, who thus reversed aU the laws of commercial confidence,
left BonKace in peace, and did not renew the persecution which at a later
period might have served as a welcome rather than as an odious precedent.
As yet, we have come only to the trial of kings and queens.
BonKace, then, was stiU recognized as having been a true pontiff. Prince
Gaetani of Anagni was saved by a noble Aquitanian, born in the diocese of
Bordeaux. Clement V, exposed as he was to be forced to bend beneath
the pohtical yoke of France, yet, in spite of the king of that country, could
recognize Henry of Luxemburg as legitimate emperor. To the glory of
Avignon, it must be confessed that the rights and the proprieties of the
Holy See, under such circumstances, could have been no better protected
at Rome herseK. We can say here neither more nor otherAvise than we
have aheady said about the condemnation and execution of the Templars.
History has aheady said much upon that subject, but history has not yet

LEO X. 665
developed aU. And it must be added, that if the pope had been in Rome
the condemnation of the Templars would, not haA'e been so easy. Let us
pass from that dark and sanguinary scene. The first of the Templars were
arrested in 1307. Clement had just begun to reign. In the CouncU of
Paris, in 1310, fifty-four of those rehgious brethren and chivahous soldiers
were condemned and burned by the dvil courts* Afterwards four more, and
then nine more, were condemned. But in the CouncUs of Mentz, Treves,
and Ravenna, countries enjoying greater freedom, they were declared inno
cent. The Holy See must have influenced men's minds to make that gener
ous declaration. On the 11th of March, 1314, the death-songs had ceased.
Clement, who had long been sick, died on the 20th of April, thirty-nine
days after the execution of the Templars ; and Phihp the Fair died on the
29th of November of the same year, 1314. If the Templars were entirely
innocent, they were avenged in the course of the same year ; and if they
were guUty on some points, their judges did not long survive, the one his
rigor, and the other his subserviency. As I have elsewhere said, as the
study of facts is now so courageously practised, it is possible that documents
may be discovered that wUl throw some hght upon that grave and terrible
historical question. At aU events, a favorable hearing is secured for those
who beheve that the condemnation was pitUess, and that the scales were
not equaUy balanced in the hands of justice in that trial of men who had
so eminently served rehgion, and who unhesitatingly had shed their blood
in so many honorable battles.
In 1317, John XXn. canonized another Louis, bishop of Toulouse,
brother of Charles n. of Naples.
Under the same reign the Teutonic Knights were accused. ' More fortunate,
or perhaps more powerful than the Templars, they, belonging to a princely
caste, obtained a patronage which, after aU, was but another death. Some
of them subsequently embraced the Protestant rehgion, others yielded their
last breath to a dynasty which embraced them, indeed, in its powerful arms,
but left them no separate existence, lost as they were into the ranks of the
nobihty of that country in which aU are brave, and in which they could not
preserve that independence which, for a time, the Hospitallers had enjoyed.
These had carried from one iUustrious isle to another, not less celebrated,
the immense renown which at length was only terminated by a political
earthquake. The great career of Saint Thomas is one of the glories that surround the
reign of John XXH.
Benedict XH., bom in a low condition, was none the less one of the most
* At that time aU capital crimes were punished by burning. That kind of execution must not
be attributed to the Inquisition. It was the frightful capital punishment in those days, what
ever the condemnation.

666 LIVES OF THE POPES.
honorable of Cathohc pontiffs. Urban V. determined to go to Rome ; but
Rome failed to retain him. Gregory IX. excommunicated Barnabo Viscenti,
and thus taught Europe that there are some crimes of princes that only a
pope can punish, and that in such case other monarchs wiU applaud the
sentence. No other sovereign has the mission openly to repress guilt that
terrifies the whole world.
Gregory XL, foUowing the example of Urban V, desired to visit Rome.
That city had then a population of only 17,000 souls. An accurate account
of the statistics shows that, under' her popes, Rome always flourishes, and
has a numerous population. Gregory XVL left to Pius IX. his Rome with
a population of 170,000.
Avignon, hke some melancholy shade — Avignon, always innocent of re
volt, seemed so calm and seductive to Gregory XL that he was about to
quit Rome, but death came, and prevented him from committing that error.
It is with regret that we advert to the time of the schism that was to dis
turb the peninsula and aU Europe.
Urban VI. was an Italian ; a false Clement VII. was set up against him.
Boniface IX., with the magnanimity of a true pope, resisted the new
attacks of the Romans. An antipope, calling himseK Benedict XIH., agi
tated the hfe of the true sovereign.
Innocent VIL, a Neapohtan, is elected by seven cardinals of the obedience
of BonKace IX.
We cannot cast a second glance upon the disasters which overwhelmed
Gregory XH., deposed by a rebeUious councU at Pisa, against that peace-
loving pope, and renouncing his authority in the fourteenth session of the
CouncU of Constance.
John XXIII. thought it his duty also to yield to the powerful wiU of that
council, and Martin V. (Colonna) was elected. That reign of reparation,
and of return to sound principle, to prudent and regular ideas, was a happy
reign, after so many griefs and troubles.
We now come to a reign in which the arts already began to flourish. We
here begin the medaUic series by this pope, conscious that not unfrequently
medals are a reign struck in bronze.
Eugene IV. beheld at his feet the emperor of Constantinople and the
emperor of Germany.
He loved war, and actuaUy wept when he spoke of the growing power of
the Mussulman in Asia.
Nicholas V. celebrated the Jubilee in 1450. Under this great pope learn
ing revived in splendor. He caused many Greek works to be translated.
He endeavored to enlist the Christian monarchs in the cause of Catho
Ucity against the Mussulman. But he could not dispel the lukewarmness
of the princes, and he died of the grief lie felt at their dissensions. The

LEO X. 667
first pope of the name of Borgia (CaUixtus HI.), was a pope who did honor
to his dignity, and whose virtues, knowledge, and unselfishness are worthy
of aU praise. He it was, who, by his advice and encouragement, raised the
siege of Belgrade, that outwork of Christendom, when it was besieged by
Mahomet at the head of a hundred and fifty thousand Turks. But though
we owe him these praises, we nevertheless must confess that he was too
partial to his nephews, and made no good use of the goods of the Church.
We are not inclined to derogate from the glory of Pius H. ; on the con
trary, we have taken particular care to display the great genius of that
pope. He retracted his Ul-advised writings before bis elevation. He was
about to depart for the Holy Land. He had done aU that God willed him
to do. Arrived at Ancona, he sank under his fatigue, but not tUl he had
shown what a man of heart and brain can do, even when aged. The Vene- •
tians, learning that Pius would embark on their fleet, hastened, with the
doge at their head, to enjoy so wonderful a spectacle. H the pope could
have got as far even as the Morea, the crusaders would probably have re
covered a portion of that which the Turks had torn from the Greeks, who
had no better defended their islands than they had the capital of their
kingdom. Paul II. was a pontiff of magnificent habits ; his whole reign was blessed
by aU Christendom.
In 1475, Sixtus IV. celebrated the great JubUee. We must deplore the
scenes which accompanied the conspiracy of the Pazzi against the Medicis.
There are some things which, though not fuUy comprehended, are yet suffi
ciently noted to tarnish an otherwise glorious reign. If, subsequently,
greedy nephews endeavored to piUage the property of the Church, it ought
to be, K it is not, weU considered whether virtues, talents, truth, Cathohc
zeal, and earnest Cathohc works, and great benefits to Rome, should not be
taken as great offsets against the errors with which the tiara ought never
to be reproached.
Under the pontificate of Innocent VHL, Christopher Columbus discov
ered America, giving new motives for vigUance and labor on the part of
the Holy See.
Another Borgia was to reign. With him came nephews, monsters ; with
them came crimes and abominations.
Charles VIIL seems about to enter Italy. A Turkish" prince, claiming
the rights of hospitahty, perishes miserably. If a crime has been com
mitted, pubhc disgust will brand it. The Jubilee of the year 1300 wiU pro
duce new circumstances. The piety of Christendom wUl be manKested from
aU quarters. This pope ascended the throne at a fearful time. Let us see
what Voltaire says upon that point : " The long quarrel between the em
perors and the popes," says Voltaire, "the obstinate struggle of Roman

668 LIVES OF THE POPES.
liberty against the German emperors and the Roman popes, the frequent
schisms, and, finally, the great Western schism,* forbade the popes, elected
amidst so much disturbance, to show the virtues with which peaceable times
would have inspired them. Might not the corruption of manners reach
them also ? AU men are moulded by the time in Avhich they live. Few
rise above the morahty of their time. The crimes into which several popes
were drawn, and their scandals, authorized and caused by the general scan
dal and evU example, cannot be buried in obhvion. What can be learned
from a description of their vices and disorders? $ leaches how fortunate
Rome is since decency and peace preside tliere."f
Pius III. ably rescued Rome from the tyranny of Caesar Borgia, who
seemed to revive the reign of Alexander VI. His usurpation was de
stroyed, and a similarly tyrannical nepotism has never since diffused the
like terror.
We have now reached the reign of Julius II. He was not the first, war
rior pope. By his strong and perhaps haughty temper he induced the
French to grant him a support which, possibly, they would have refused to
* Under Alexander VI. the embers of the fire were scarcely cooled. There was already some
little civilization, but there was stUl much crime.
f Voltaire, Histoire Generate, vol. iv., 8vo, p. 468, Desoer's edit., Paris, 1817. No doubt, by
this quotation, we shaU, in the estimation of our enemies, depreciate the reign of Alexander, but
just as surely we shaU much exalt, in the opinion of our friends, the angelic glory of Pius IX.
Monsignor Marchetti, archbishop of Anticyra, cites, as I do, the passage of Voltaire, page 175,
vol. ii., of the Critique on Fleury, 8vo, Rome, 1820. The archbishop adds this note: "Voltaire
lived at a time when he could skim rather than read (reading, properly so called, was not his
fashion), the thirty-six volumes of Fleury ; and perhaps it might be suspected that his levity
made him impartial towards the popes. Another writer, ejusdem furfuris, professes to have read
Fleury more attentively, and he has left us his own testimony to his own experience. It is with
some reluctance that I quote it here, so much does it alarm one as to certain consequences that
may follow from the bitter gall which, surely without foreseeing those consequences, Fleury
scattered over his pages. I speak of the celebrated Count Alfieri. In his Life, which prefaces
the edition bearing date, Italy, 1809, at page 81, speaking of the studies of his early youth, the
count says : "I devoured the thirty-six volumes of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History; I read them
with a perfect fury, nearly aU through, and I even proceeded to make extracts from them, in the
French language, and with these extracts I proceeded as far as the eighteenth book. It was
that book that destroyed all my belief in priests, and aU that is theirs."
Further on, ALfieri, page 113, speaks of an interview which, in 1767, he was honored with by
Pope Clement XIII. The count says : " The handsome old man, of a venerable majesty, and
the local magnificence of the palace of Monte CavaUo, produced so much effect upon me, that I
did not shrink from the customary prostration and the kissing of the foot, although I had read
the Ecclesiastical History, and weU knew what that foot was worth.
 ' Chi vuol sapere appieno
Sefu saggio il cultor, guardi il terreno —
He who the farmer's skiU would know,
Must keenly look upon the earth below.' "
Alfieri often mentioned that interview to Madame the countess of Albany, who repeated it,
adding that Alfieri was much changed.

LEO X. 669

a less determined pope. Had Julius been weak, timid, and inclined to trust
for safety to his Itahan neighbors, he doubtless would have lost some part
of the patrimony of Saint Peter. The French granted their aid, sent their
most distinguished generals, including Bayard, for an expedition under the
personal command of a pope ; but, unless under precisely identical circum
stances, the example should not be foUowed. HoAvever, the campaigns of
that pope should be read as they are reported by the most celebrated pub-
heist of that day, the Florentine secretary, MachiaveUi.
Let us honor Juhus, who was invincible in adversity, and who so boldly
made war upon those same French ; and let us now at length prepare to
speak of Leo X. Let us be prepared with admiration, with enthusiasm ;
let us prepare the most briUiant for that picture which others have aheady
attempted, and which neither they nor we can finish. A glory was wanting
to the Holy See. Pericles had given his name to his age : Augustus had
the same honor. A pope named Medicis saw the most poignant griefs in
flicted upon the rehgion that was intrusted to his care ; and at the same time,
by his talents, virtues, and what Dante emphaticaUy caUs his superhuman
generosity, that same pope deserved to have his name transmitted to the
rkost distant posterity as the very type of magnificence. And even after
the glory of Louis XTV., who is emphaticaUy caUed the great king, Leo
wiU merit the tribute of a universal glory, ahke before those faithful to
him, and those perverse sons who misunderstood their father and their
friend. Leo X., originaUy named John de Medicis, was born at Florence on the
11th of December, 1475, a year before Michael Angelo, who was born at
Chiusa, in the same country. The father of John was Lorenzo de Medicis,
surnamed the Magnificent ; his mother was Clara, or Clarissa, of the great
famUy of the Orsini.
Louis XI., king of France, granted to John, whUe he was stiU very young,
the dignity of archbishop ; and Innocent VIIL, who, when John was only
seven years old, had named him apostohc prothonotary, created him cardi
nal when he was only fourteen, but under the condition that he was not to
bear the insignia of the cardinalate untU three years later, in 1492. That
honor was in comphment to Lorenzo, because he had given his daughter
Magdalen in marriage to Franceschetto Cibo, son of the same pontiff.
John, in the same year, was named legate and appointed to reside at
Florence. Juhus H. afterwards sent John as legate in Romagna. There he was
obhged to be present at the celebrated battle of Ravenna, in 1512. Cardi
nal John, who had the entire confidence of Juhus, and was in command of
his troops, was encamped at Budrio, and prepared to reheve Brescia. Un
fortunately, his heutenants spent more time to take counsel than it cost

670 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Gaston de Nemours to take a citadel.* It was only the aged Juhus II. who
was able to rival in activity a young man of twenty-four.
Gaston was not only a captain of prodigious activity, he was also en
dowed with great penetration. Fearlessly exposing Brescia, he offered
battle to the Spaniards. Fabricius Colonna and Navarra,t who occupied a
formidable position on a height, where the artiUery, especiaUy commanded
by the latter, and well served, endeavored to check the furia Francese.X
But when the hostUe banners; commanded by Gaston, were seen, a thrill
ran through the tiU then motionless masses. The soldiers broke their
ranks, rushed to the tent of Cardinal John de Medicis, and knelt to implore
his blessing, which the cardinal gave with a silver cross blessed by the pope.
This pious spectacle could be seen from the French camp. We shaU caU it
to mind at a fatal moment in the reign of Clement VIL Gaston was eager
to fight ; but Yves d'Allegre prudently restrained his young friend, pointing
out to him those kneehng masses of soldiers whose beards were blanched
in a hundred fights, and made him take note of the sloping ground which
was so favorable to artiUery practice. The battle was deferred. The whole
of the aUied army was under the command of the cardinal,§ as head of the
holy league. He had neither sword nor coat of maU ; his costume was that
proper to his rank, a red robe, a pectoral cross, and the berretta. Mounted
on a white horse, he passed from the Spanish ranks to the Italian ranks, sa
luting the officers, and encouraging the soldiers, and exhorting aU to do
their duty, to serve Julius II. , their sphitual master, in the name of Italy,
their motherland, or country of adoption.!
H we glance at the French ranks, we shaU discern in the corps commanded
by la Pahce another cardinal, Frederic of San Severino, marching at their
head fuUy armed, helmet on his head, sword by his side, and baldrick on
his shoulder.^ He was conspicuous for his taU stature, his thick beard, and
the legatine insignia borne before him ; for he represented in the French
camp the cardinals opposed to Juhus.

* Audin's History of Leo X., 2d ed., 1846, p. 205. This book abounds in details of all sorts
about Leo X., and, Italiam redolet, it shows that it was composed in Italy.
Audin has strength, vivacity, and an impulsive religious fidelity which appears on every page.
The Catholic spirit never leaves him.
\ In many histories Navarra is spoken of as a prince belonging to the family of Navarre in
Spain. That is a mistake. The family name of Peter Navarre is not weU ascertained. He
was a celebrated engineer, said to be of Moorish descent, and born in Navarre. His skiU and
experience caused him to be consulted as though he had been one of the leading generals.
X Audin, ii., p. 206.
§ Audin, p. 208.
| Julius IL, forgetting the French valor which opened Bologna to him, caUed the French bar
barians. There is one style for a state of alliance, and quite another style for the state of war.
1[ The proprieties were better observed by the Cardinal de Medicis than by the cardinal of
San Severino.

LEO x. 671
The battle at length began, and the Spaniards were beaten. John de
Medicis was taken prisoner and conveyed to MUan, where the French and
the MUanese received him with respect, bowing before the representative of
that august papacy that had aheady done so much to civUize Italy and the
rest of Europe. UnhappUy, Germany was to reward the Holy See by
letting loose the most odious enemies against it. But we must not antici
pate disasters tiU then unforeseen.
Regaining his hberty through the courage of one of his servants, the
cardinal succeeded in reaching Rome.
Juhus II. was dead, and in a conclave that was opened on the 4th of
March, 1513, John was elected pope in comphance with the sohcitations of
the youngest cardinals, who desired a pope only thirty-seven years old. It
has been said that Cardinal Antonio Petrucci, after announcing the election
to the people in the ordinary terms, added : " Ac vigeant valeant quejuvenes !
And let the youngest flourish and avail !" But this cannot be true ; no cardi
nal pubhcly addressing the people can depart from the ordinary form. The
cardinal said what it was his duty to say, and nothing more. Moreover,
the announcement of the election of John was made by Cardinal Alexander
Farnese, the first deacon who made it in the usual form. It is possible that
Cardinal Petrucci may have whispered some such words to a cardinal near
him, but history takes no note of such frivolous confidences.
Lenglet, in his Prindpes d'Histoire pour la Jeunesse (tome vii, p. 11),
affirms that the Emperor Maximilian sought to exchange his imperial in
signia for the papal robe. He was a widower, and flattered himself that he
could become pope.* The accession of John de Medicis, who took, the
name of Leo X., put an end to such hopes.
Holy Week approached : the new pope was ordained priest on the 15th
of March, and consecrated on the 17th.
The coronation took place on the 19th. The ornamenting the streets
alone cost a hundred thousand Roman crowns, and a like sum was given to
the poor.f
On the 11th of AprU, Leo took possession of Saint John Lateran ;\ riding
the same white horse that bore him when captured by the French, at the
battle of Ravenna.
In this ceremony, he was the last pope who sat on the porphyry seat,
placed under the vestibule of the church. The standard of the Church was
borne before the pope by the duke of Ferrara, who walked on the right of
His Holiness, who was also accompanied by the duke of Urbino and by the
* There is a letter extant written by the Archduchess Margaret, his daughter. The testimony
of this strange design was published by Godefroy. See Mariana, Ub. xxx., cap. v.
t Life of Leo X., by Fabroni, p. 65.
J Novaes, vi., p. 166.

672 LIVES OF THE POPES.
duke of Camerino. Before the pope, mounted on a noble steed, rode his
cousin, afterwards Clement VIL, bearing the standard of the Order of Saint
John of Jerusalem.
Leo, before leaving the conclave, had chosen two secretaries, Peter Bem-
bo and James Sadolet. The latter, born at Modena on the 14th of July.
. 1477, was one of those robust organizations, with massive brow, ruddy com
plexion, weU-developed muscles, and athletic build, such as mountain coun
tries produce, and such as Juho Romano has introduced into his picture of
the battle between Constantine and Maxentius. When advanced in years,
Sadolet must have resembled one of those old men pictured by Rubens, in
his descent from the cross, in' the cathedral of Antwerp. Like Juhus IL,
Sadolet wore his beard,* — long, bushy, trimmed to a point, and surmounted
by two semicircular moustaches. But for his ecclesiastical habit, no one
would have taken this hirsute countenance for a scholar ; he would have
passed for an old warrior. Sadolet had adopted VirgU as his favorite poet.
When eighteen years old, he abandoned VirgU for Aristotle ; but he soon
preferred Saint Paul to either, and he commented that apostle in search of
an explanation of those minor mysteries of which revelation alone could
give him the complete solution.
Bembo and Sadolet had been friends from chUdhood. Son of the
patrician, who, at Ravenna, had reared the tomb of Dante,t Bembo had
learned Latin under Alexander Urticio. His professor was a skilful rhet
orician, with a complete mania for classical antiquity, which he deemed
adorable in every thing, — manners, institutions, theogony, and idioms.^ No
doubt he inspired into his pupil that fanatical adoration of paganism of
which, even when he became cardinal, Bembo could not entirely divest
himself. Thus when the scholar was about to be sent to SicUy, we are as
tonished at finding him asking for the protection, of the gods. Amidst such
instruction, there was but httle room left for sound Cathohc teaching, but a
prodigious natural wit and the good example of Leo did the rest.
At the age of twenty-six, Bembo was considered one of the best HeUenists
of that time. At twenty-eight, he was honorably received a-t Ferrara, by
Duke Alphonso and his wife, the Duchess Lucretia.
Concerning this princess, we quote the following from Audin :
" Lucretia Borgia, who has been charged with more crimes than, proba
bly, any casuist has ever heard of, was then in her prime. H we may credit
Bembo, she not only was one of the stars of the Itahan sky, a model of
grace, but also a young woman who, to aU the gKts of nature, had added
those of the soul ; a Florentine in her sweet tones, and a poet whose strains
the nine muses would have owned ; another Lucretia, in fact."
* Audin. -f Histoire de Bante, p. 490. J Audin, p. 29C

LEO X. " 673
To her Bembo inscribed his Asolani. In the dedication of the work, the
author enthusiasticaUy celebrates the charms, the wit, the learning, and the
virtues of the duchess. It may be asked how Bembo, rich, of noble birth,
and known in the hterary world, could have ventured in the face of all Italy
to sing the praises of a woman who had even the shghtest resemblance to
the portrait given of her by Saunazar and Pontano.
Let these writers say on ; aU is explained by the character of those times,
and by the fact that Lucretia was a Borgia, and that in striking at her,
they, through her, struck at Pope Alexander VI.
The Asolani of Bembo enjoyed great success. He composed that book
in the castle of Asola, on a mountain-top. The author is said to have
intended to imitate Cicero's TusciUah Disputation, but there is no resem
blance between the works, either in subject or in tone.
Sadolet and Bembo were the two men who countersigned those beautiful
and eloquent letters left us by Leo X.
A third companion (we may use that word when speaking of the private
and domestic hfe of this pope) adorned a company that aU quitted with
regret to go into the world of business and of duties. His third friend was
Bibiena* ExUed with Cardinal John, Bibiena had more than once, by his
gayety, consoledyoung Medicis in his griefs. Bibiena was a great admirer of
Michael Angelo and of Raphael, whom he compared to Phidias and ApeUes.
" There," says Audin (p. 302), " we have the three types of the inteUectual
hfe with which Leo X. surrounded himself when he assumed the tiara.
Bembo represents the pagan hterary element; Bibiena the pagan artist
element; and Sadolet the Christian element. Was that single Christian
element enough to meet the many disasters about to afflict the Church of
Christ?" Leo had received from nature a loving soul and a heart fiUed with clem
ency. Seeing that the Colonnas, who had some reason to complain of
Juhus H., did not wait upon him early enough, not to ask pardon, but only
to show that they valued the favor of the pontiff, he evinced some impa
tience at their not yet having appeared in the inner circle of his court.
Cardinal Pompey Colonna, one of the first who heard of the pontiff's feel
ing, hastened to kneel in homage at the Vatican. The pope raised him,
pressed him in his arms, and with singular kindness restored him the in
signia of the purple. He showed the same hberahty to Fabricius Colonna,
and he gave to them both those fine gardens opposite the Quirinal, and the
palace buUt beside the church of the Holy Apostles. "From that time,"
says Novaes (vi, p. 167), "the great moderation of the pope caused him to
be named the lamb, while Juhus II. was stiU spoken of as the lion.
* Raphael has placed him beside Leo X„ in his Camera di Torre Borgia, in the Vatican.
Vol. I.— 43

674 LIVES OF THE POPES.
One of the first cares bf the pope was to endeavor to terminate the nine
teenth general councU — the fifth of Lateran. It had been commenced by
Juhus IL, on the 3d of May, 1512, and continued to the fifth session, which
was held on the 16th of February, 1513. Leo X. termmated it in 1517. It
had been attended successively by sixteen cardinals, three patriarchs, and a
hundred and fourteen bishops and regular prelates.
On the 17th of December, 1513, in the eighth session, the acts of the
pseudo councU of Pisa were condemned, and penalties imposed upon two
cardinals who had already been deposed by Juhus IL, Carvajal and San
Severino, the latter of whom we have aheady seen in the ranks of that
French army that captured Cardinal John di Medicis. These cardinals, hav
ing returned from France, were arrested at Leghorn, placed in prison at
Civita Vecchia, and thence secretly taken to Rome. The pope chose the
councU haU as the scene of the reconcihation of the two sinners to their
holy mother, the Church.
The two culprits, being introduced into the haU,* knelt, bowed their heads
respectfully, and after some moments, both rose. Then Carvajal, address
ing His Holiness, said : " Pardon us our offences ! Have pity upon us, our
tears, our penitence ; and reckon not with our iniquities, which are more
numerous than the sands of the sea."
There was a brief sUence, aU eyes being fixed upon the suppUcants.
Looking kindly upon them, the pope said : " The Church is a tender mother,
she pardons those who return to her. But the Church wiU not, by a culpa
ble lenity, encourage the sinner to err again. In order, therefore, that you
may not glory in your iniquity, we have determined to punish you."
Then, amidst a mournful sUence, every one present breathlessly listening
for the sentence,t the pope proceeded to put a series of questions to the
culprits :
"Have you not," he asked, in a stern tone, "saddened the heart, by your
ingratitude, of your benefactor, your father, your judge, JuliuS H., of glo
rious memory ?
" Did you not, at Pisa, wicked as you are, incite the people to disobey
your holy mother, the Apostolic Church ?
" Did you not place upon the waUs of the house of God a sentence of
deposition against the vicar of Christ ?
" Answer ; and then pronounce your own sentence."
The two cardinals, confused, hung down their heads in sUence.
"WeU," said the pope, "here is a schedule which you wUl sign. If
you subscribe it, you wUl obtain mercy from the Holy Apostolical See.
Read." * Audin, Histoire de Leo X., p. 307. f Ibid.

leo x. / 675
Carvajal took the document, read it rapidly in a low voice, and laid his
hand upon his heart, in token of his formal adhesion to what he had read.
" Read it aloud," said the pope.
" Most Holy Father," said Carvajal, " I cannot ; I am Ul, and have no
voice." "You cannot?" said the pope, with a slight smile. "There must be no
hesitation. You are free : K you frankly subscribe this paper, say so : K
not, you can go freely back to France, whence you came, Avith our safe
conduct." San Severino then took the confession from the hands of Carvajal, and
read it aloud, in the tone of a bold captain, addressing soldiers, such as he
had commanded at Ravenna, in company with the French. The paper
contained a complete disavowal of aU the acts of which both had been
guUty towards the authority of the Holy See. That done, they took a pen
and signed the document, and then knelt and received the absolution of the
pope, who pronounced it in a tone of dignity, mingled with paternal tender
ness, calculated to draw tears from the most hardened. The pope descended
from the throne : he was no longer the judge ; he was the Father.* He
approached Carvajal, took his hands, and said : " Now you are our brother
in our Father, since you have obeyed our wiU ; you are the lost sheep of the
Gospel, and are found again. Let us rejoice in the Lord !"
The pope then simUarly embraced and addressed San Severino, whom he
had seen at MUan, in the position of a conqueror ; and these two new sons
of the Church, with their former insignia, and their places assigned in a true
councU, recovered peace of conscience, the friendship of the pope, and the
esteem of the members of the sacred coUege. A single canonical penance
was imposed upon them, and it was of the hghtest, in order that on that
day every thing should be at once regular, pious, and magnanimous. Car
vajal and San Severino were to fast at least once a month during the whole
remainder of their hfe.
Three other cardinals had been abettors of the CouncU of Pisa — Borgia,
De Prie, and Briconnet.
The first was dead, the two others were included in the act of reconcUi
ation which was addressed to the king of France.
In the tenth session the estabhshment of Monts de Piete\ was approved,
and aU were threatened with excommunication who should condemn them,
or consider them as favoring usury. The pubhcation of books was for
bidden until approved by the bishops, and by those appointed to detect
heretical depravities.
* Audin, p. 307.
t Establishments at which, at a reasonable interest, the poor can borrow money on pledges of
smaU value, and thus escape the exactions of usurers and pawnbrokers.

676 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The labors of the council were occasionaUy interrupted, and Leo vigi
lantly attended to the numerous affairs which from all parts were sent to
Rome for consideration.
Erasmus congratulated Leo upon his glorious labors, and we naturaUy
find in these few words an opportunity to repeat a portion of what we have
said of the popes bearing the name of Leo. It wUl be seen that our judg
ments cannot contradict that of the iUustrious sage of Rotterdam. He
thus writes to the pope :
" Leo X., you wiU give us again the prosperous government of Leo I. ;
the erudite piety and musical taste of Leo II. ; the fertUe eloquence of Leo
IH. ; the combined simphcity and prudence, recommended by Christ, of
Leo IV. ; the tolerance of Leo V. ; the love of peace of Leo VI. ; the truly
heavenly hfe of Leo VII. ; the integrity of Leo VHL ; and the kindliness
of Leo IX., which diffused itseK upon aU. Such are the blessings you wiU
give back to us ; we have the guaranty alike of those sacred names, which
are as so many oracles, and of your own past, present, and future."
At this time letters of credit were given to legates, sent on the one part
to the Muscovites, and on the other hand to the Maronites ; and at the
same time- missionaries went out to destroy the errors that had been em
braced by those nations.
Manuel, king of Poland, who in the preceding year had made himseK
master of the Erythrean Sea,* where he had found parts favorable to com
merce, sent three ambassadors to renew his oath of obedience. He at the
same time sent presents, accruing from his conquests in the East Indies.
Among other gifts, the prince sent an elephant, caUed Annon, endowed with
singular quahties that are described by Oldoini in his additions to Chacon.
The sagacious animal so greatly pleased the pope that he often went to
see that he was weU taken care of, and supplied with the food proper for
him.t The pope dismissed the ambassadors after entertaining them splendidly,
and he sent by them to their king the Golden Rose, blessed, according to
custom, on the fourth Sunday in Lent. To the Golden Rose were added
the stocco (sword), and the berettone (hat), which were blessed at Christmas,
and which it was already customary to send to Christian princes who had
distinguished themselves in battles in the cause of Cathohcity.
In 1515, Francis I. succeeded Louis XII. The new king of France, to
secure the possession of the duchy of Milan, concluded peace with England,
* The Erythrean Sea is the name of aU that portion of the Indian Sea now known as the
Gulf of Oman, including the Persian and Arabian gulfs.
f That elephant died two years afterwards, and Raphael was requested to paint him near the
tower of the palace gate, where he Avas buried. An elegant epitaph was placed there, written
!n the character of the animal's keeper.

LEO X. 677
' and formed an alliance with the Venetians, This gave rise to an opposing
league between the Emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand, king of Spain, the
duke of MUan, and the Swiss. At the same time, Octavian Fregosa, doge
of Genoa, to rid himseK of the insults of the Adomi famUy, granted, with
the permission of his feUow-citizens, the lordship of the repubhc to the
French king. That prince then endeavored to add to his party the pope,
who felt more inclined to embrace that of the emperor and the king of
Spain. Leo, Ul-advised just then by his pohtical affinities, and by fortune,
could not divine who would be the victor, and declared against the hero of
Ravenna. Francis I.,* born on the 12th of September, 1494, was great-grandson of
Louis, duke of Orleans, son of Charles V, and husband of Valentine of
MUan. " This prince," says Daru, " young, ardent, and fuU of that hot courage
characteristic of the wars of the period and the nation, kept aloof from the
army during the reign of Louis XII. ; but, roused in his indolent ease by
the exploits of Gaston, he wrote to the Venetians, promising to join their
General Alviani on the Adda in the course of four months ; and he kept his
word." Very soon the king appeared in the fields of Marignan, where the
Swiss, marching out of MUan, attacked him. Their army marched to the
sound of the redoubtable horns of Uri and Unterwalden,+ reserved for
fields of battle. The combat lasted two days. Alviani, who had sought his
troops at Lodi, arrived on the field in the middle of the second day's battle,
but only at the head of fifty-six cuirassiers, who raised the Venetian battle-
cry, Marco ! Marco ! Both armies thought that the whole of the Venetian
troops were in line. The courage of the French was redoubled ; that of the
Swiss began to yield, but they made a skUful retreat, with their redoubtable
horns stUl with their rear-guard, and thus incessantly threatening to resume
the battle. After the battle, which Trivulzo caUed a combat of giants,
Francis I. claimed, as his own personal reward, that he should be knighted
by the Chevalier Bayard ;% and afterwards he himseK created several other
knights. The intrepid Alviani, who had so weU seconded the king, belonged
to the Orsini famUy, and was nearly related to Leo X. by his mother Cla
rissa. The grief of the pope was mitigated by his famUy joy, which did
not last long, for it was very soon known that the heroic Alviani had died of

* Italve, p. 236.
f These men of Uri and Unterwalden have contributed in our own day to the victory gained
over the radicals at Lucerne.
X The constable of Bourbon, Avhom we may still praise, acted so courageously in this battle
that the king laughingly said to him : " Thou sparest thyself in this affair no more than a wild
boar." In fact, Charles of Bourbon had behaved with admirable constancy and devotion. And
he was to die so unworthily !

678 LIVES OF THE POPES.
his wounds. The consequences of victories gained in Italy are immediate,'
and often embrace a very long course of years.
A treaty of peace soon attached Rome to the glory of Francis. The
pope agreed to break off his alliance with Maximilian and the king of Spain,
and to withdraw his garrisons from Placenza and Ferrara, which a short
time previously had been restored to the Holy See. Francis, on his part,
promised to defend the Ecclesiastical States, the Medicis, and the repubhc of
Florence. An interview was proposed between the pope and the French king. Some
cardinals objected to Leo going to Bologna, where the king was to meet
him. But the pope had more extended views ; he desired to avoid the mis
take of Alexander VL, who awaited in Rome the passage of the army of
Charles VHL Leo therefore commenced his journey, accompanied by
eighteen cardinals, thirty prelates, and a portion of the Roman court.
To welcome her iUustrious son Florence spared no expense. Painters,
sculptors, architects, and especiaUy poets, came in numbers,* eager to show
their gratitude to the enhghtened prince who reigned at Rome. The archi
tects opened ways in the ancient waUs, that the papal procession might
deploy in all its magnificence. Scholars invented devices and inscriptions
in the antique style ; poets improvised odes in Latin and in French, which
choirs of youths and maidens sang as His Holiness passed. Leo X. evinced
his gratification at these ingenious manifestations of love. He stopped to
listen to the songs improvised in his honor ; to read the Latin inscriptions
which adorned every triumphal arch ; to admire the inspirations of the
painters, sculptors, and architects; and to contemplate the columns, the
statues, and the trophies that Florence had reared at every step. When he
beheld the statue of his father Lorenzo, he bowed his head in token of re
spect, and he was seen to shed tears. He felt a strange emotion as he saw
upon the pedestal of the statue the words, Hie estfilius mens dilectus. The
people crowding the streets, and clustering on hastUy constructed balconies,
and even on the roofs of the houses,- shouted, Palle ! Palle !\ The treasurer
of His Hohness threw pieces of money among the crowd.
On the 8th of December, the pope arrived at Bologna, and Fran6is I.
reached there three days later. On the day of audience, the pope, wearing
his' pontifical habits, awaited the monarch in the haU of the consistory.
The king walked between two cardinals, the seniors of the sacred college.
So great was the crowd in the apartments that for some time the king re
mained, as it were, imprisoned amidst the swaying mass of Italian and
French nobles4 He laughed at his misadventure, as he held the hand of
'* Audin, p. 403. + Pallet— the Balls ; the arms of the Medicis.
X Account by Paris de Grassi, bishop of Pesaro, first master of the ceremonies to Leo X.

leo x. 679
the master of the ceremonies, whom he had taken as his introducer. Hav
ing at length got near to the throne, the king knelt and kissed the cross em
broidered on the pope's shpper. His Holiness took the monarch's hand
and presented him his cheek. Francis I. addressed a few animated words*
to the pope, to which Leo rephed in a style of which he alone was the
master, and which, as we learn from the bishop of Pesaro, seemed on that
day even more dehcate, witty, and tender than usual. At a sign from the
master of the ceremonies, the king took his place on a magnificent seat, at
the right hand of His Holiness. The French chanceUor, Duprat, then ap
proached, with head bared, and pronounced the address of obedience.
The whole assemblage then admired both the young monarch, aheady a
hero, though only twenty-two years of age, and one of the greatest of the
Roman pontiffs, who was only forty. The feeling dominated aU minds,
whatever efforts they could make to listen to the words of Duprat.
"The address of the chanceUor," says Audin, "was a manifesto in honor
of the Holy See. The orator proclaimed the titles of Rome to the love no
less than to the obedience of the kingdom of France. It was, at the same
time, a profession of faith of the Most Christian king towards the authority
of the head of the Church."
It was beautiful to hear the victor of Marignano exclaim, by the voice of
his chanceUor : Most Holy Father, the army of the Most Christian king is
yours, dispose of it at your pleasure ; the forces of France and her standards
are yours. Leo, behold before you your most submissive son, tuus a religione,
tuusjure, tuus more majorum, tuus consuetudine, tuus fide, tuus voluntate — Thine
by religion, thine by right, thine by the custom of his ancestors, thine by habit, thine
by faith, and thine in heart.
The address being ended, the king bowed in token of his assent, and Leo
rephed in terms fuU of benevolence, and, as usual, simple, sweet, and har
monious.? His Holiness then took Francis by the hand, and led him to an apartment
where His Holiness was to take off his pontifical costume. The king went
to the window, where the pope soon joined him.
, The pope then celebrated Mass in presence of the king in the church of Saint
Petrona. The king would not use the fald-stool set before him, but either
stood or knelt, with clasped hands and bowed head. The French officers
aU wished to receive the communion at the pope's hands, but this the crowd
prevented. The king selected those whose valor or rank deserved prefer
ence. Then one of those not thus selected said aloud : " Most Holy Father,
since I cannot receive from your own hand, nor confess to the ear of your
* Audin, p. 408.
\ For further particulars of this meeting, consult Spondanns, Ann. Eccles., ad ann. 1515 ;
and Fabbroni, Vie de Leon X., p. 95, et seq.

LIVES OF THE POPES.
Hohness, I wiU confess my sinfulness in public. " I fought with aU my
strength against the late pope, Julius II." The king, with his natural vi
vacity and frankness, said : " In truth, Holy Father, it is my case too ;* but
that pontiff was our haughtiest enemy, and would have been more in place
at the head of an army than in the chair of Saint Peter."
Most of the commanders confessed the same fault. Then the pope, with
an appositeness fuU of dignity; and bowing, as though in approval of that
brusque reparation, absolved aU present from such censures as they might
have incurred.
The pope himseK, and ChanceUor Duprat, had prepared the document
which was to be signed by both parties, and which estabhshed a host of
points tending to make peace between the Holy See and France in aU that
concerned religious interests.
I wiU briefly sum up the concordat signed between Leo X. and Francis
I., and explain several particulars of this important negotiation.
In the commencement of the Capetian dynasty, the election of bishops,
in order to be canonical, had to be made by the clergy. BuUs announcing
consent on the part of the Roman court confirmed that right. The metro
pohtan and the bishops of the ecclesiastical province put the seal upon that
choice by adhering to it, and by consecrating the newly elected. It is cer
tain that the CouncU of Rheims, held in 1049, ordered that the elections
should be the attribute only of the clergy. As regards the people, to whom
it has been affirmed that the same attribution was delegated, we think it
may be useful to offer what seems to us to be a judicious explanation. It
was true that it was customary to consult the people upon the persons
whom it was proposed to elect, but the consent of the people was never
necessary to render the election canonical. It was only endeavored to avoid
the election of bishops who would be unpopular with the mass of the
faithful.t Time, whose action we cannot prevent, modifies the actions of men.
About 1215, the chapters had deprived the clergy of their rights, and in so
doing deprived the people of the power of approving, by acclamation, the
choice of the clergy. At the same time the chapters declared that they
would continue to exercise the rights of the clergy, and thus avoid the fre
quent dissensions of the elections, the intrigues, cabals, quarrels, and the
difficulty of concentrating upon one person the suffrages of so many lords
and communities divided in views and in interests. Only, before electing,
the chapters asked the king's permission.
* Novaes, vi., p. 174.
t Some of these details I owe to Father Hilarion Lucas, Superior of the Missions at Picpus
formerly theologian of the embassy of the bishop of Saint Malo, at Rome. Father Hilarion is
respected for piety, profound knowledge, and devotion to the Roman court.

LEO X. 681
Innocent IH. then reigning, celebrated the twelth general councU (fourth
Lateran), whUe France was in a sort of sphitual anarchy, fomented by the
Albigenses. In 1458, under Eugene IV., at the assembly of Bourges, the celebrated
regulation caUed the Pragmatic Sanction was adopted. It was determined,
in spite of the opposition of Eugene, that the bishoprics and other great
benefices should be fiUed according to former custom, without the usurpa
tion of the election by the chapters. While Charles VH. survived, that rule
was a law of State ; Louis XL was not its very zealous partisan. The par
liaments and university ardently supported the institution.
The Concordat of Leo X. and Francis I. abolished the pragmatic, re
nounced the elective mode in aU the metropolitan churches and cathedrals
of the kingdom. The pragmatic had been a work wanting in regularity and
good right, as it recognized in nothing the intervention of the pope and the
councU. It was now agreed that the king was to name and the pope insti
tute the bishops. The struggle made by the clergy, parhaments, and uni
versities, against the Concordat of 1515, was more violent than successful.
It lasted untU the reign of Charles IX. I have before me, as I write, the
actual copy of the Concordat which belonged to Louis XLV.
In the exordium of the first buU it is said, in the French of that day :
" Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for perpetual remembrance
of what has been done.
" This primitive Church, founded by our Saviour Jesus Christ upon the
comer-stone, raised by the preaching of the Apostles, consecrated and in
creased by the blood of the martyrs, in the times past, when first she com
menced by the help of God to extend her arms around the earth, wisely
considering how many burdens she had to bear, how many sheep to guard
and nurture, and in how many far-distant places it behooved her to keep a
watchful eye ; by a certain divine counsel instituted parishes and separate
dioceses, created bishops and proposed archbishops, in order that, as mem
bers obeying one head, they, according to his wiU, should well govern all
things in our Lord ; and hke httle streams proceeding from the unfailing
fountain (to wit, the .Roman Church), should leave no single corner of the
Lord's earth without irrigation, just as the other popes, our predecessors in
their times, labored and made it their whole study to render the said Church
united, to preserve her in that holy union without spot or wrinkle, and to
root out aU thorns and briers from said Church, whose property it is, with
the grace of God, to love virtues, and to extirpate vices even to the very
roots. We, in like manner, in this our own time, and during the present
council, should do and procure all things that are known to conduce to the
union and preservation of the said Church."
The commencement of this buU is an admirable piece of ecclesiastical

682 LIVES OF THE POPES.
constitution. It restates in a few words much that we have detaUed in this
history. The situation of the primitive Church, the organization of the
worship, the necessity of extending its arms around the earth, the pope the
head who must be obeyed ; the bishops, httle streams proceeding from the
unfailing fountain (the Roman Church) ; the example of preceding popes,
the need of unity, the love of virtue, the extirpation of vice — nothing is
wanting in this subhme recital. The men of talent sketched as companions
and advisers of Leo, did not faU him on this occasion ; and the French of
that time, where aU the clearness of the langue d'oil puts each word in its
proper place at the beginning, middle, or end, did no wrong to these periods,
worthy of the Roman orator.
After this preamble, which so nobly explains the state of things, the pon
tiff announces that he wiU uproot aU the thorns and brambles that are
injurious to the union. He abolishes the Pragmatic Sanction, which the
French king has with a prompt and frank courage consented to abolish.
Further on, the pope says that he knows, from the frequent absolutions
and restorations asked for and obtained, that many persons have, before
the elections, sworn to choose the most worthy, and have voluntarily per
jured themselves by knowingly choosing the unfit. He then grants to the
king of France for the time being the right to nominate for bishop a grave
master, or hcentiate in theology, or doctor or licentiate in either or both
laws, who has graduated after strict examination in some famous university,
aged at least twenty-seven years, and in aU other things properly qualified.
But if a person not thus qualified be named by the king, then the pope may
refuse such person. Within three months after such refusal the king must
name another ; and if that one be also unqualified, then the pope for the
time being wiU make the nomination.
This article was one of those which excited the most opposition,* because
it might on either side give rise to long recriminations and disagreements ;
and that, finaUy, a hostUe party in the Roman court, by obstinately refusing
aU, on the plea of not deeming them qualified, might end by pretending to
name aU. But it should be observed, that to that end there must be such
times, and so many wicked men as could not long exist, K at aU.
The pope had said, in speaking of the pragmatic, that it exposed the
Church of France to intrigue, insolence, and simony. Audin says : " This
accusation was weU founded." It is an undeniable truth, that the canonical
elections, as restored by the CouncU of Bale, were a mere sham. In every
province, the nobles made themselves masters of at least aU the principal
dignities. They imagined that they in some sort had the right of nomina
tion as patrons of the churches, or as descendants of the pious founders.
* Histoire du Pope Pie VIL, 3d ed., tome i., p. 129.

LEO X. 683
Audin (p. 420) adds: "The great reproach made against Leo by the
GaUican clergy, the universities, the parliaments, and the learned, K we
may so say, was that his buU destroyed a disciplinary work, which had long
been in vigor in the Church of France. In this they evidently misunder
stood the rights of the Holy See. Are there not circumstances in which a
departure from common rules becomes a necessity ? And who is to decide
upon the time when such circumstances exist ? Is it the priest, who has
not the sacerdotal plenitude, but is the branch only, as Thomassin says of
the divine tree, of which the bishop is the trunk ? Is it the bishop, whose
jurisdiction, though divine, can only be exercised within limits assigned by
the sovereign pontiff, who can either extend or diminish it, as the cardinal
of Lorraine proclaimed in the CouncU of Trent?"
" The primacy having been given to Saint Peter," says Saint Jerome, " in
order to prevent aU opportunity for schism, the pope alone has the right to
make laws obhgatory upon the Church ; but these laws, variable in their
very nature, cannot bind him, so that he may not derogate from them for
just reasons, of which he alone is the judge."
In this clear and absolute passage of Audin, we recognize aU the superior
wisdom and strong enlightenment of that Italy where he gathered the ma
terials for his exceUent history of Leo X., far superior to the hfe of that
pope by Roscoe. If we had undertaken a complete monograph on Leo,
we should speak more at length of a conspiracy against him in 1516 and
1517. Soderini, Sauli, Riario, and others of the accused deeply imphcated,
confessed their guilt and obtained pardon. Notwithstanding the pope's
natural clemency, his government caused some of the other conspirators to
be punished.
In 1516, Leo beatified Philip Benizi, a Florentine, a zealous extender of
his order, The Servants of Mary ; and at the sohcitation of Emmanuel, king
of Portugal, he permitted the annual celebration in honor of Saint Elizabeth,
queen of that kingdom, subsequently canonized by Pope Urban VHL
By a brief that same year, the Holy Father permitted the cultus of seven
Franciscan martyrs — Daniel, Samuel, Angelo, Donno, Lei, Nicholas, and
Ugolino, butchered in the kingdom of Morocco for opposing Mahomet-
anism. It was about that time that Leo, judiciaUy informed of a felonious act of
Francis Mary de la Rovera, duke of Urbino, and being informed subse
quently that he had treacherously put Cardinal Ahdosi to death, deprived
him of his duchy, and gave the investiture of it to Lorenzo de Medicis, son
of Leo's brother Juhan.
It was an act of the old nepotism, reversed by another, no less contrary
to the rights of the Holy See. The successor of Leo X. restored la Rovera
to the enjoyment of that principahty. We shaU see whether Clement VIL,

684 LIVES OF THE POPES.
when in need of the support of Francis Mary de la Rovera, wUl find that
prince ready to serve the Holy See when its very authority was at stake.
But those other historical griefs must not just now engage our attention.
Leo, finding the thirteen cardinals then constituting the sacred coUege
not sufficiently favorable, made, on the 1st of April, 1517, a promotion of
two cardinals. One of them was the archbishop of Bourges, in France ;
the other, the archbishop of Cambray, a Fleming.
On the 1st of July, in the same year, Leo created thirty-one cardinals at
once. So numerous a promotion had never before been made. Among
those cardinals, who were chosen from aU the Itahan principalities, was
John Salviati, a noble Florentine, related to King Francis I.* The last on
the hst was Alphonso of Portugal, sixth son of King Emmanuel. Alphonso
was only seven years old, and was not to receive and wear the insignia of
the cardinalate until he was fourteen.t Among the new cardinals, eight
were Romans, and three were said to be allied to the famUy of the pope.
Leo did not lose sight of preparations for war against Turkey. He knew
that there were in Germany machinations against the Holy See, and he
wished the princes to occupy themselves more about the interests of Catho
hcity, and to conclude a lasting peace among themselves.
In 1518, MaximUian had assembled, at Augsburg, several German princes,
who were to concert measures for securing the success of the new crusade.
To aid these glorious efforts, Leo sent but four legates. Cardinal Cam-
peggio went to the king of England, where for two hundred years a cardinal
a latere had not been seen ; Cardinal Egidio went to Spain ; Cardinal Far-
nesi, and subsequently Cardinal Gaetani, to Maximilian ; and, finaUy, Car
dinal Bibiena was to solicit further marks of friendship from the faithful
Francis I. A few days after giving their credentials to these cardinals, Leo
ordered a solemn procession, in which the pope and his cardinals walked
barefooted. This was to return thanks to God that the princes had prom
ised to be at peace with each other for five years, and to make war upon
the Turks. Leo addressed fervent prayers to God for the restoration of
Jerusalem and Constantinople to the Christian empire.
By order of His Hohness, Cardinal Gaetani delivered to MaximUian the
sword and the hat that had recently been blessed by the pope.
But the unexpected death of MaximUian, in 1519, cooled the partisans of
the Cathohc war. The frenzy of Luther had already declared a fatal war
* At the time of the marriage of Prince Camillo Borghese with Pauline Bonaparte, sister of
Napoleon, it was remarked that Prince Camillo was related, through his mother, a Salviate, to
the French princes, then refugees in England.
f This cardinal was considered one of the ornaments of the sacred coUege. He died in 1530.
He was the first to introduce into the churches of Portugal the custom of instructing children in
the Christian doctrine.

LEO X. 685
against the Roman Church. This heresiarch was supported by Frederic,
duke of Saxony, to whom, nevertheless, the pope had lately sent the golden
rose, blessed at Saint Peter's, as a gift justly bestowed upon his wisdom,
his courage, his disinterestedness, and his generosity. But aU these provi
sions and others, such as sending the cardinal's hat to Albert (son of John
IV., elector of Brandenburg), aheady archbishop of Magdeburg and Mentz,
and the dispatch of letters, strong or pathetic, and requests even to ac
tual supplication, were all useless. A moral conflagration terrified all
Germany. Old interests were severed, and pride and greed put on deceit
ful masks. Never was the Holy See more externally honored : never was
its ruin more perfidiously sworn.
The commencements of Luther's schism belong to the reign of Leo X.
We shaU not notice the attacks of the apostate monk earlier than the year
1521. Those Avho desire more information than we can give, may profitably
consult Audin's remarkable work on Luther.*
Audin opens with these wise and eloquent words :
" The Reformation is a double phenomenon, social and religious. In the
outset, Luther found gathered at his hand the elements of that movement
that was to disturb the world. He did not create them, as it has often been
asserted that he did : he only used them. The germ of Protestantism ex
isted when Luther appeared. The action of the doctor of Wittemberg
upon his century has been the subject of hosts of works, in which his lan
guage is said to have been more powerful than that of any other writer : his
thought represented as piercing intuitively the future. His knowledge of
the divine Word is rated above that of aU Catholic geniuses, and his work
compared to revelation.
" We shall see, in his duel with authority, whether the Augustine monk
was not a man, and whether he was free from the frailities of our nature.
" The Reformation was violent from the beginning. It was not contented
with expelling our reUgious from their convents, and our priests from their
churches ; it calumniated them in their morals and in their doctrines, it be
littled them, and dispersed or burned their books, those Catholic books
especially, in wliich the writer, priest, religious, or jurist opposed the doctor
on his evangelical mission, on his household, his private hfe, and his doc
trines, and exhibited him, in his turn, upon the stage on which he so piti
lessly had exhibited his adversaries.
" When the drama of the Reformation was complete, Luther remained
alone upon the scene, without rivals and without contradictors.
"In the interest of history, we in our turn, as of our right, sit in judgment
on a man who so severely judged his brothers.
* History of the Life, Works, and Boctrines of Luther, by Audin, 12mo, 4th ed., 1845.

686 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" There is not a writer who took even a subordinate part in these discus
sions, whether for or against us, whose productions we have not carefully
studied. " Such a man as Luther survives not only in his works and in the narra
tives of his contemporaries ; wherever he has set down his foot he has left
imperishable traces. The hfe of the doctor was at once a combat and a
pUgrimage across Germany. Enthusiasts now visit the scenes of the great
events of the Reformation as formerly our fathers visited the Holy Land.
Nor have we neglected to make the same journey. We have visited Eisle-
ben, Eisenach, Erfurt, Worms, Spire, and Wittemberg, gathering recoUec-
tions and pictures which wiU assist in explaining our narration, and which
will sometimes furnish us with useful lessons. Thus, if, with an idolatrous
respect, they show us the glass that was pressed by the lips of Luther, we
demand an explanation of their disdain for the bones of the martyrs of our
faith. H the Protestant sits with emotion beneath the tree which sheltered
Luther near Oppenheim, surely we may demand permission to kiss the
hand of one of our saints who preferred death to perjury. And if they
show us the drops of ink that feU from the inkstand that Luther threw at
the devU's head, we ought to have the less difficulty in obtaining pardon for
the legends of some of our provinces. Our history is a book of firm con
viction and entire good faith ; let it be judged in the same spirit in which it
is written."
Martin Luther was born in 1483 ; his father, Hans Luther, was a poor
peasant of the httle vUlage of Maehra (Moer), in the county of Mansfeld.
His mother, Margaret Lindemann, was a servant at a bathing-house ; she
was a virtuous woman, fearing God, and loving prayer. She was considered
the ornament of her sex at Eisleben. Hans had abandoned the calling of a
husbandman for that of miner ; he soon became a master workman, and
could maintain a numerous famUy. At Eisenach, Martin studied grammar,
and was soon able to read Cicero, VirgU, and Livy fluently. Then he en
tered a convent of Augustinians, and became a priest. His superior sent
him to Rome ; he saw courtiers around Juhus II. , and conceived a hatred
of Rome and of its government.*
Audin's reflections on this predisposition of Luther's mind are laudable,
and come naturaUy into these memoirs. " AU the past," says Audin, "was
dead for Luther. He knew not what Rome had done for humanity ; of aU
the popes who had been seated in the chair of Saint Peter he ignores the
claims to admiration and gratitude. He left a country that was threatened
* Audin falls into an error here in saying that Luther saw nothing at Rome in 1510, and no
ray of the crown of the infant Raphael or the youth Michael Angelo dazzled the eyes of the
Augustinian. Raphael Avas born the same year as Luther, and in 1510 was not a chUd, but a
man of twenty-seven ; Michael Angelo, born in 1474, was thirty-six.

LEO x. 687
by the Turk ; and he forgot that if the Koran is not the Gospel, it is because
a pope checked the progress of the former. He knew nothing of the cru
sades preached by Pius IL, Innocent VIIL, and Juhus IL, and many
others. He had fuU opportunity to see the reign of brute force in Germany,
whose barons crushed with their gauntlet every inteUigence that was not
submissive to their wiU ; yet he never suspected that inteUigence has, under
God, no protector but the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth ; and that the
papacy, in breaking material strength, and compelling it to bow before moral
law, gave the most beautiful spectacle that man can look upon."*
Leo published Indulgences. We have seen that the custom Avas very
ancient. t The pope asked contributions, help towards the building of the
temple of Saint Peter, that marveUous work of Bramante which Juhus II.
could not complete. A new Rome, which the papacy had determined to
make more magnificent than pagan Rome, began to spring from the earth.J
The piety of the faithful was entreated to continue the colossal work. Lu
ther declares that he wiU preach against Indulgences. But very soon it is
not merely the abuse that he combats ; he is no less angry with the spiritual
remedy.§ The whole future hfe of Luther is foreshadowed in that sermon ;
there you wiU find it with his presumptuous J, only /, ostensibly supported
by the words of the Biblex his disdain of tradition, and his ostentatious con
tempt of the schools, and that laugh Avhich never leaves him when Scotist or
Aristotelian is in question.
Luther said to those who reproached him :
" H this is not from God, it wiU faU ; K it comes from His holy name, it
wUl go on."
It was the idea of John Huss and of Wyckhff — success making right, the
glorification of the Koran.|[
Luther, however, paused for a moment in his fury, and Pope Leo said :
" Now, then, let us hve in peace. The axe strikes no more at the foot of the
tree, it only trims the branches."
The pope was right.!
" At no Christian epoch," says Audin, " had the tiara shone with such
splendor ; aU crowns faded before it.** The pope was truly the universal
monarch. "Kings, princes, the great ones of the earth, and the populace,
* These observations are exceUent, and are nobly expressed, as weU as germane to the matter.
In Audin we never remark more than those sUght blemishes, which, no doubt, will disappear
from new issues of his exceUent book, of which so many editions have already appeared in
Paris and elsewhere.
f See reign of Alexander IL, A. D. 1063.
X Audin, Life of Luther, p. 39. § Ibid., p. 42.
1 Ibid., p. 42. I History of Luther, p. 55.
** Let us remember Francis I. at Bologna, and MaximUian hoping to exchange the empire
for the papacy. Voltaire says of the Middle Age at that time, " The papacy -was— opinion."

688 LIVES OF THE POPES.
aU were rivals for a glance at him ; he was sung and praised in aU idioms,
and his image was alike in every palace and in every cottage. For the
name of Leo X. awakened at once aU the ideas of religion, art, poetry, and
of glory."
Yet he was the sovereign whom horrible disorders were, not indeed to
arrest, but to harass in his vast power.
Luther pubhshed theses subversive of aU Cathohc order, yet deemed it
wise to seek the good-wiU of the pope.
" Never were words more humble, with a more bitter humihty : in his
letter there is nothing of inspiration or of spontaneity, it everywhere shows
study, restraint, head-work."
Leo X. ordered Gaetani, legate at Augsburg, to endeavor to bring Luther
back. Gaetani was a learned man, eloquent, and the enemy of aU violence.
But aU was useless. Luther met gentleness with sarcasms. He appealed
to the universities : they condemned him. He rephed by railing and insult,
and refused to recognize the pontifical authority, without knowing what to
substitute for the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Bible rightly read, tra
ditions, and to the representations addressed to him from Rome.
Audin is never beneath the requirements of his task ; he thus continues :
" At the same time that the old tree of Catholicity lost some branches,
others grew up on it, beneath the sun of America. God raised up a man
whose disciples were to carry the faith into the most distant lands, and to
win to the papacy more souls than Luther's revolt swept away. Ignatius
Loyola was born, and with him that army that for centuries has fiUed the
world with the prodigies of its preaching, learning, faith, and zeal."*
Audin, in his life of Luther, pauses at the moment when the papacy was
about to lose Leo X., and he thus enumerates the mischief which Luther
had aheady done to Catholicism :
" Now, would we know the wounds which the Saxon revolt has inflicted
upon rehgion ? These : The abohtion of confession, the Mass, prayer for
the repose of the dead, the veneration of the saints and of images, sacer
dotal unction, monastic vows, fasting, abstinence, extreme unction, good-
works, free-wUl. WiU it be beheved ? It would stifle even the cry that the
suffering soul incessantly sends up to the throne of aU mercy. For, says
Luther, it is sufficient to pray once or twice, for God has said (Matt. n. 22),
' Ask, and it shall be given to you.' To pray, and pray repeatedly, then, is
to show that you have not confidence in God."t
WhUe these troubles were devastating Germany, Leo X., endowed with a
spirit born for great things, continued his labors on the Vatican Basihca ;
he determined, if possible, to finish the work of Juhus II.
* Audin, History of Luther, p. 103. f ¦**«*¦> p- 183.

LEO X. 689
Bramante had received from that pontiff the order to rear a temple more
splendid than that which Solomon formerly built to the Lord. Saint Peter's
at Rome may weU be styled the work of Juhus II. It was his conception,*
its gigantic proportions were his dream, in spite, says a contemporary his
torian, of the opposition of aU the cardinals, who grieved over the fall of
that old church of Constantine, sanctified by the bones of aU the blessed,
venerated in aU Christendom, and the seat of such high Cathohc deeds.
The church to be demolished at the period we describe was precisely that
temple, with its flights of steps, its doors, its countless altars scattered here
and there, made known aheady to our readers by the glowing picture of
Hurter.f The Constantinian BasUica received aU honorable names. Let us men
tion these historic titles, since the trace of what they were apphed to is
about to be entirely effaced. Leo the Great caUed that BasUica the Glorious
seat of the Prindpality of Saint Peter ; Gregory IX., The Star of this Earth ;
Nicholas EH., The Head of the Catholic Church.% Bramante had no pity for
the imperial work. Every thing crumbled beneath the strokes of his ham
mer ; columns of alabaster, bas-reliefs adorned with gold, marble statues,
Greek mosaics, gates of bronze and sUver.§
After three years' preliminary labor, the first stone of the new temple was
laid. A solemn Mass was celebrated, at which thirty cardinals assisted.
As soon as a prelate is clothed in the purple, whatever may have been his
previous studies, he is seized upon by the love of the arts, and, with more
or less practical knowledge, he becomes one of the patrons of the taste for
monumental buUdings, which is one of the chief glories of Rome. Juhus
IL, with his cardinals, went down to the foundations of the piUar of the
dome supporting the statue of Saint Veronica, || and blessed a block of
marble inscribed thus : 2Edem Pelncipis Apostolobvm
In Vaticano Vetvstate et Srrv
Squalentem a Fvndamentis
Restitvet Jvltvs Ligvr
Pont. Max. An. mdvi.
Bramante was then sixty-six years old. He had finished the four piUars
of the dome, and arched the arcades which connect them. He had begun
the circular entablature which separates the dome from the arcades on which
* Hixtory of Leo X., by Audin, 1846, p. 241. t See ante, p. g73.
X History of Leo X., by Audin, pp. 241, 242. § Glance once more at Hurter's description.
I This gives us the exact age of the pillar, the construction of which had been attributed to
Pope Clement VH.
Vol. I.— 44

690 LIVES OF THE POPES.
it rests, and he was about to finish the western branch of the cross, when
he died.
He was buried in Saint Peter's. Unfortunately, no inscription marks the
resting-place of the great architect. He carried with him from the world
the secret of his plan, for, according to the custom of that time, he had only
simple masons to assist him in his work. When dying, he named Raphael
d'Urbino' to succeed him in the great work, to whom were added Julian de
San-Gallo and his brother Jocundo. As soon as the new architects glanced
at the work of Bramante they noticed signal disproportions between the
dome and the pillars intended for its support. The dome, almost equal in
size to the Pantheon of Agrippa, was overloaded with columns and crowned
by a cupola. The piUars were overtasked, and threatened to faU. The
plan of Bramante had to be modified. To carry out so much magnificence
and so much admirable perfection, it was necessary that a Leo X. should
succeed a Julius II. Leo did not conceal that he, too, desired it to be a
marveUous building. Bembo drew up a brief on this subject, which ex
presses Leo's confidence and affection.
"Raphael d'Urbino,* independently of the art of painting, in which
every one knows your exceUence, you, also, according to the testimony of
the architect Bramante, possess the art of building. This Bramante testi
fied when about to die, deeming you the man to be intrusted with the care
of continuing the buUding of the Temple of the Prince of the Apostles.
You have ably confirmed his opinion by the plan which you have presented
to us. Earnestly desiring to complete the church promptly, and with the
greatest magnificence, we appoint you superintendent of the work, and
award you three hundred gold crowns, payable annuaUy by the superin
tendents of the funds reserved in our hands, and appropriated to the pay
ment of the expenses of the Temple.
" We further command, that, without delay, and even monthly if you de
sire it, they shaU pay you on demand such sums as at such times shaU be
due. We further exhort you so to undertake and fulfil the duties of that
employment, as to show care for our esteem and for your honorable name.
To that end you must, as a valiant young man, look weU to the foundation
of your reputation, so as to justify the hopes we have conceived of you, and
our paternal good-wUl. You must bear in mind the dignity and renown of
that Temple, which has always been the greatest and hohest in the world,
and also our devotion to the Prince of the Apostles."
Raphael's plan was a Latin cross, with a dome at the intersection of the
arms of the cross.f The interior was to have three naves, each of the wings
* I translate this letter from the original Itahan, which forms part of the appendix to the
History of the Life and Works of Bapliael, by M. Quatrernere de Quincy, 2d ed., large 8vo., Paris,
1833, p. 438 \ Audin's Life of Leo X.

LEO X. 691
five chapels, each pUlar a niche ; the choir and the lateral gaUeries also had
niches, each over a hoUowed base, supported by two piUars and twelve
columns connected in four. The facade presented three principal entrances.
The portico, raised by steps, rested on thirty-six columns, in three rows, so
arranged that the inner and outer lines were always double.
I give these detaUs at once, for the sake of unity. The commencement of
the building of Saint Peter's belongs to the reigns of Juhus II. and Leo X.
This part of the pontifical history should not be divided. We have not,
however, told aU the zeal of the popes ; but must note, especially, that of
Paul V, Borghese, whose name is stUl inscribed on the facade of the finest
temple ever erected by man.
There is another point of history that belongs to my picture of the ser
vices of Julius II. and Leo X. to the arts. I cannot speak of aU the great
masters who Ulustrated these two reigns, so rich in all the most perfect
creations of human art and science. We must leave Raphael. We shall
not yet close Michael Angelo, whom we shaU meet again in 1533, in front of
his Moses, the finest sculpture of the tomb of Juhus*
* I may here insert the paraUel that M. Quatremere de Quincy has given us between those
two great men as painters.
In the first place, we shaU give his opinion upon two subjects of study and meditation, which
are germain to the objects that I have assembled here, so as to render them more easy of com
prehension. I refer to the portraits of JuUus II. and Leo X., by Raphael.
Upoq tniB point, Quatremere says: "Whatever may have been said in praise of Raphael's
portraits, we wiU observe that they cannot give a full idea of Raphael's talents to any one who
has not seen his portraits; in oU, of Popes Julius H. and Leo X.
" That of Julius was painted four or five years earlier than the other. Its coloring is vigorous.
Its effect is in the second manner of Raphael, which some prefer to his third, as having more
clearness in the tints, more elaboration in the working, yet more simplicity in the finish. Let
us add that, as regards this portrait, the head of that pontiff has an energetic expression that
Raphael never surpassed.
"It is not merely the common-place merits of resemblance. It is not sufficient praise of such
a. work, to remark the precision of the handling, the exact form of the head, or of the several
features of the countenance ; such praise belongs to many portraits which represent only the
exterior of the person. But of what consequence is that exterior, if it is not also the faithful
mirror of the interior, that is to say, of the morals, habits, passions, and disposition of the man 1
Yes ; to every one who knows the moral history of JuUus II., this history is rewritten in his por
trait. After so many years, one still feels inclined to say with Vasari, Faceva temere il ritratto
a vederh, come se proprio fosse vivo— The portrait inspires fear, as though Julius himself were
alive." I do not agree with Vasari here. JuUus II., in Raphael's portrait, meditates rather than
threatens ; moreover, it must be said that Julius was not so stern as he seemed to be. He ad
not readily pardon those who braved his authority ; but in private life, he was kind and famil
iar ; he could control Ms own vivacity. The Bolognese, who complained that he was so furious,
had richly deserved his anger. Raphael has placed the pope's left hand upon the arm of the
throne ; the right hand is half closed, and holds a fold of the white robe. In all this there is
no indication or preoccupation that would be unbecoming in a pope. Raphael, a wiser friend
of truth than Vasari, saw Julius in his home-hours, when more inclined to bless than to anathe
matize. Raphael needs no teaching ; he knows every thing. And, then, what a notion it is to
suppose that the painter represented a threatening pope, when JuUus, in giving himself, calm

692 LIVES OF THE POPES.
These two men deserve to be thus introduced into the history of the two
popes, whom it is our privilege just now to speak of. Michael Angelo de
served to be inspired by Juhus H. with terrible scenes, analogous to the
stern authority which Juhus II. loved to defend. Raphael deserved the
and docile, to the penetrating gaze of the artist, must surely have expected, in exchange for his
lost time, that immortality which, like history, gives to the great earthly renown.
" The portrait of Leo X. between two cardinals, is still more remarkable, says Quatremere.
" The pope, at somewhat more than half length, is sitting at a table ; he appears to be pre
siding at a council or listening to a report. Cardinal Julius de Medicis and De Rossi are beside
him, as his principal ministers."
If it be insisted upon that the attitude in which Raphael has placed Julius II. indicates a
threatening, mood, it must be observed that Leo is seated at a table, with his eye-glass in his
hand, while Julius is seated on a true pontifical throne. The two rounded ornaments which
surmount the pontifical throne in the apartments of the pope, though they are not higher than
the head, yet frame it tastefully. Any one may be seated, like Leo X., on an armchair, of small
proportions, but not every one sits upon a lofty throne, like Julius II. And it is by design, not
chance, that the left hand lightly lies upon the arm of the throne-chair. I further remark, that
the flowing robe of Julius II. has one of its folds covering the third and fourth fingers of the
right hand. The others are shown, extended, as when the pope gives his benediction. Shall
we ever completely read Raphael? Vasari and Quatremere are mistaken. Julius II. does not
alarm, as though he were living, as they have represented ; on the contrary, though, as they
truly say, he is life-like, yet he inspires respect, not terror.
" It is so difficult, with the pen, or with the living voice, to convey to the mind a full compre
hension of the beauty and perfection of the works of the painter, that, naturally, and at all times,
hyperbole supplements description by ampUfying the idea that the mind ought to form, lest
the idea should fall below the reality. Thence arose tales, which, though more or less fabulous,
contain at least some truth. This should be our judgment on what is related of the portrait of
Charles V. by Titian, and of that of Leo X. by Raphael. Of the former, it is said that the illusion
was so great, that the portrait being placed near a table, the emperor's son approached to speak
to his father-on business. The work of Raphael is said to have given rise to a similar mistake.
It is stated that Cardinal de Rossi, datary to Leo X., knelt before that pontiff's portrait to ask
for his signature to a bull.
" There is some truth in these tales. It is impossible to look upon the portrait of Leo X., even
after the lapse of three centuries must have somewhat dimmed that brilliancy of color which
contributes so much to illusion, without feeling that power of art that impels the mind to yield
to that prestige which the artist may well ambition.
" Now this power is felt as we look on the portrait of Leo X. We cannot resist it, as we
examine the depth of truth and character in the head of the pope; the noble simplicity of his
attitude, the accuracy of the whole, the vigor of the coloring, the reUef, and the careful and
exquisite finish of all the accessories."
Such is Quatremere's parallel between Michael Angelo and Raphael, as painters. Leo, in his
intercourse with men of letters, would himself have bestowed upon his judgment its meed of
praise. But one epoch does not possess every talent. Leo doubtless felt what Quatremere has
so well expressed in our own day, when he says :
" Those two geniuses, in truth, had nothing in common ; the germ of the two talents was
different, and could not produce the same results.
" To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to imagine ourselves living in their time.
Michael Angelo was accustomed, in his study of the outward individual, to see only the phy
sical man — bones, muscle, and the mechanical play. But when anatomical knowledge domin
ates the rest of the painter's learning, there is this inconvenience, that he is led to replace by
the energetic expression of the corporeal form, the moral expression of the inner man ; that is to
say, of the soul, of the feeling, of the various affections and passions.
" Thus, Michael Angelo, in his paintings, seemed to think more of how his figures should seem

LEO X. 693
famUiar confidence of Leo X., — amiable, beneficent, great, and capable of
recognizing greatness in others.
Many other pontiffs have patronized art, hence I cannot often dweU upon
a subject which, otherwise, is so attractive. But when treating of such an
age as that of Leo X., who that loves art can be sUent? I shall be the less
overwhelmed by the name of Michael Angelo when I have to speak of his
continued labors at the Vatican, and the tomb of Julius II. , at Saint Peter
in vincoli. And besides, it seems to me that in this digression, I have not
lost sight of my real subject. The two magnificent portraits of Julius and
Leo are part of my subject ; and this mention of them seemed to me a fitting
recreation after a grave and stern task.
When printing was making its first essays, the ,arts, perhaps, had even
more power than the sciences. A manuscript book was only elaborated
with great toil and trouble, and remamed in the hands of a jealous owner.
A painting or a fresco instructed the whole world. They, therefore, were
privileged to give lessons — to teach virtue, and to denounce crime. Preach
ing was doubtless powerful : the arts could not strike so certainly, but they
had their own strength ; and among a people who loved images, and had
saved them from the brutahty of the Emperor Constantius, they had power
over the mind as formerly they had at Athens and at Rome. We do not
now see what Raphael may have been. He held high position in the capi-
to move (and in that he has no equal), than of how they should seem to think. GeneraUy there
is no sensibility in his heads, no grace in his compositions, no pretension whether to express
beauty or whether to present varieties of age, sex, conditions, costumes, &c. He discerns in forms
no qualities but energy and force; in his head, no expression but severity and sternness.
"Raphael's talent, made up of many elements, was purified and ruled by his taste for the
antique. Inclined from his childhood to embrace all the qualities which make the painter, he
constantly had an onward and upward tendency, from his first work to his last, towards that
sort of moral point of view which places the impressions of sentiment before those of science.
This latter was not properly his object ; it especiaUy was not his sole object. Science was to him
what it ought to be, a means of giving the best form to his thoughts, and fitly to express the
disposition of each subject. Thus, while Michael Angelo, in the diversity of his figures and com
positions, seems to have but one tone, and, if we may so express it, one model, Raphael changes
his at wiU ; or, if it be preferred, he varies his modes and treatment according to his object.
Finally, we cannot but remark to his praise, that he- has worked upon aU kinds of subjects, from
the simplest to the most subUme. Biblical, reUgious, historical, mythological, and aUegorical,
he has treated aU. Of him, if of any painter, it may truly be said :
"'Nihil quod non tetigit— nihil tetigit quod non ornavit—Re revived among the moderns the
entire poetical world of the Greeks.'*
" If Michael Angelo was the greatest of draughtsmen, Raphael was the greatest of painters.
Now the painter requires many qualities that are not needed by the draughtsman. If Michael
Angelo had the advantage, by his scientific and original style of drawing, of being, in that branch
of the art, beyond and above all rivalry, Raphael had the merit of daring, in every style, all the
points of parallel, and especially those of the antique."
» Raphael alone could paint a Leo X., after having painted a Julius II. I have the engravings of both portraits before
mo. (We omit the long note in which the author enters into art discussion of Raphael's works.)

694 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tal. Ceho Calcagnini caUs him vir prcedives — a very rich man ; and Vasari
says that he hved non da pittore, ma da prindpe — not like a painter, but like a
prince. If grief is to be measured by the loss, no loss of this kind can have caused
a mourning comparable to that of the death of Raphael, at the zenith of
the highest reputation that talent can give, and snatched away at an age
which to most men is not that of mastery, but only of hope. How many
master-pieces, pure and Cathohc master-pieces, were thus snatched from
the admiration of ages ! How many grand and beautiful ideas was he
ready to give to the light, when the demon of darkness was flashing an evil
torch over morality, obedience, and truth ! How many grand and beautiful
ideas were consigned to nothingness !*
All that fives, every thing in nature reproduces itseK; seasons, years,
generations, communities, empires, and usurpations, succeed each other.
Genius has no successor, and ages wiU pass away before we can — not op
pose, but — compare our painters to Raphael.
Providence sent to Rome an interpreter, chaste and elegant, of the most
sacred mysteries of religion. Such was the pubhc lament, and those melan
choly thoughts might be likened to a funereal veU cast over all feelings,
and, to use Bembo's expression, over Nature herself.
Raphael, after death (1520), according to the custom of the time and
country, was exposed in his own house in the studio, where stiU stood on
the frame the picture of the Transfiguration, finished in parts, but wanting
in others the last finishing touches. His death drew tears from Leo X., who,
in truth, had intended to give a cardinal's hat to Raphael ; and, in doing so,
be it remarked, the pope would have contravened no custom, and infringed
upon no pontifical right. In giving the hat, the pope would have conferred
a distinction, and secured to the artist the title and the revenue of a cardi
nal, whUe dispensing him from aU ecclesiastical duties. Leo thought art
as deserving of honor as science. More than twenty scholars were invested
with the purple ; and it is well known that obscure birth, even, formed no
obstacle to such favors. We have sufficiently shown that no heraldic quar-
terings were necessary to reach even the pontificate.
The grief of a whole briUiant court, that mourning which interrupted aU
business, those tears of an entire generation of the inteUectual and the
learned, had in some sort mitigated the calamities of the times. Rome,
whUe beAvailing her great man, still combated that fanatical monk who was
still for the gauntlet, for the bare temples, for war, and for the innumerable
evils that accompany war. At length spiritual labors, momentarUy inter
rupted, resumed their conservative influence.
* Quatremere, p. 367.

leo x. 695
The East demands our attention for a moment : serious affairs continued
to interest the Holy See. An endeavor was made to estabhsh a correspond
ence with Sehm I., emperor of Constantinople, who had just conquered
Jerusalem. Of the result of these negotiations we shall speak hereafter.
At this period it was known that the establishment of the Spaniards in
America had ceased to prosper ; there was an insurrection of the Indians,
in consequence of an outrage that a Spanish officer had committed upon
the wKe of the cacique, Don Henri, who had embraced Christianity.
That cacique, having vainly demanded justice, retired with his people to
the mountains of Beoruko, whence for fourteen years he made war on the
Spaniards. Peace was restored in 1533, by the celebrated Las Casas, who
was then in Saint Domingo, and of whom we shall hereafter have further
occasion to speak.
In 1320, Leo canonized Saint Casimir, one of the thirteen chUdren of
Casimir IV., king of Poland. He also beatified Elizabeth, queen of Portu
gal, and Margaret of Cortona, who was afterwards canonized by Urban
vin. Charles V., having become emperor in spite of Francis I., asked permis
sion to retain the kingdom of Spain, as weU .as the empire ; which Leo
granted. France took offence, the accumulation of the two powers being a novelty
prohibited by the ancient constitutions.
War ensued. The pope recovered Parma and Placenza, and helped to
drive the French from Milan. What excuses Leo in this matter, though
he perhaps would have done better to remain at peace with aU, is the fact
that Charles V. promised to put down the seditious monk, Luther ; and
Charles certainly had more power than Francis in the matter. Sometimes,
however, God sends joys to sovereigns only on painful conditions. Festi
vals had been ordered at Rome, but in the midst of the preparations, the
pope, although only sixty-six, sank under an attack of apoplexy, after reign
ing eight years, eight months, and twenty days. He was interred at the
Vatican, in a sarcophagus but httle worthy of him. Under Paul III. he
was removed to the choir of La Minerva, the church of the Dominicans,
where a tomb was raised for him beside that of Clement VIL, who, hke
himseK, was of the Medici family.
Leo was taU, and well formed, excepting that his head was somewhat dis
proportionately large. He loved music, conversation, and the chase. In
church he was of grave and serious appearance ; and for majesty in the
sacred functions, dignity, and sovereign majesty of bearing, he surpassed
some of his predecessors. His morals were exemplary. On this point
Roscoe defends him against some Protestants. We shaU insert a charac
teristic trait of his generosity. It was his custom after dinner or supper to

696 LIVES OF THE POPES.
distribute among those present, whom he thought deserving, httle rolls of
paper fuU of gold crowns. Seeing one day among those who served him at
table a man whom he knew to be deserving, he determined to give him
twenty-five crowns when he presented the basin for the pontiff to wash his
hands. The man, not imagining the pope's kind intention, retired before
the repast was over. The pope then said to himseK : " This poor man's
Ul luck must not intercept our liberality." He therefore resolved to double
the sum, and to give the man fifty crowns when he saw him again. On the
following day the servant again attended, but again left the room before the
end of the repast. StiU preserving the same intention, the pope placed
twice twenty-five crowns for each of the two days. The man did not appear,
but Leo would not yield, and at length, at twenty-five crowns for each day
of the man's absence, the sum amounted to three hundred. Leo said to
himseK again : " Why, how unfortunate it is that this servant cannot get
this smaU assistance."
At length the servant appeared. Leo did not wait tiU the end of the re
past, but caUed the man to him. " Friend, we do not wish you to compel
us to give you the papacy ; here, take this money, which by five-and-twenties
has risen to three hundred. It is, however, a usury that we have made for
your benefit ; take it, and begone quickly, or we shaU be ruined !"*
Leo X. instituted an order of four hundred knights, who each received
from the alum-duties an income of a hundred crowns. He made sixty new
chamberlains, restored the royal academy, and repaired the baptistery of
Constantine. Paul Jovius wrote a life of this pope in 1548, in folio. It was translated
from the Latin into Itahan by Louis de Domenichi. There is another hfe
by Monsignor Angelo Fabbroni Roscoe pubhshed a hfe of Leo X., which
was translated into French by Henri.
The best hfe of this pontiff is that by Audin, which we have often con
sulted, as has been seen by our quotations from it.
I cannot take leave of Leo X. without quoting from the English Roscoe
the foUowing judgment. As Roscoe was a Protestant, his testimony wUl
not be suspected of flattery.
" The pontificate of Leo X. is celebrated in the Roman annals as one of
their happiest epochs. When he took the chair of Saint Peter the misfor
tunes of Italy were at their worst, that country having been the theatre of
a war in which aU its governments had been engaged, and also, and still
worse, having been devastated by the French, the Swiss, and the Spaniards.
A councU that had been estabhshed at Pisa, by the authority of the king of
* I take this anecdote from a manuscript in my library, entitled, Notitia della descendenza,
della realfamiglia di Medici, tome i., p. 112, verso.

LEO X 697
France, traversed aU the measures, and sometimes even affected to deny the
authority of the Holy See ; and, independently of all those calamities, Italy
was constantly tormented by fear of the Turks, who every now and then
threatened a descent upon her shores. His moderation and prudence sur
mounted the difficulties which presented themselves to him, and during his
entire pontificate the territories of the Church enjoyed greater tranquUhty
than any other State in Italy. Amidst the fierce quarrels that raged
between the two powerful monarchs, Charles V. and Francis I., he dis
tinguished himself by his vigUance, his wisdom, and his able policy."*
Robertson also says, that Leo was the only prince who, with a prudent cir
cumspection, watched the acts, views, and pretensions of the rival monarchs,
and shared a most generous anxiety for the tranquUhty of Europe.f
If we have to deplore the divisions which cut from our communion so
many reared in the same faith, it is right to add -that subsequently there
were Ulustrious Protestants who, amidst all their accusations, mamfested a
wise regret. Leibnitz, who won the admiration of Europe by the singular
variety of his labors, gives, in one of his letters, the foUowing opinion ; and
it must be weU borne in mind that it is a Protestant who thus speaks after
the Reformation :
" The result was, that those who asked too many advantages lost those
which were justly theirs, and which it was the interest of Christianity that
they should preserve."-!"
In his letter to Fabricius§ (tome v., p. 228), he goes still further :
" As God is the God of order, and the body of the Church is one, Cathohc
and Apostolical, under a government which is one, and with a hierarchy
which includes aU its members, is of right, divine ; it foUows that there must
* Roscoe, Life of Lorenzo de Medicis, vol.-ii., p. 347.
f Robertson, History of Charles V., book i.
X Preface to Codex juris gentium diplomaticus. Hanover, 1693, fol.
§ Before I pass to another reign, I will justify myself from a charge which may perhaps be
brought against me on account of what I have said about the arts. Some Aristarchus may say :
" Why have you given so much space to a temple, a tomb, a painter, and a sculptor, and to the
two portraits of two popes ?" It is because these two popes, who have full right to command,
on moral and physical grounds, themselves gave such great space to the men and the arts here
treated of. The books of science and Uterature composed at Rome have their glory. But is
there one of them which, at first view, excels the glory of the geniuses that reared Saint Peter's ?
What sight more potently commands the gaze of the traveller ? He hastens to Saint Peter's, or
to the tomb of JuUus II. ; the first wish is to contemplate at the earUest moment the works of
the two popes who so thoroughly understood their century. Rome is the land where artists are
themselves a power. We have not yet mentioned that the coffin of Raphael was carried by four
cardinals, and that the dean of the sacred coUege and four other cardinals were the pall-bearers
The works of the great publicists, and the meditations of the learned, have done good service to
the noble cause of Rome, but who, in distributing titles of honor, would refuse to assign an im
mense part to arts ? And we say this, not overlooking the pre-eminence due to the spiritual acts,
to the salutary bulls, the regulating briefs ; and Ave are the less likely to do so, because the arts
were the first to promulgate, in favor of the popes, this right divine to occupy the place of honor.

698

LIVES OF THE POPES.

be, by that same right, in the same body, a spiritual sovereign magistrate,
confining himseK within just hmits (I now add these words, provided with
a directing power, and with the faculty of doing aU that is necessary to dis
charge his duties), for the interest and safety of the Church."
The Holy See remained vacant one month and seven days.*

222. ADRIAN VI— a. d. 1522.

JDRIAN VI. was originaUy named Florian Boyers,
He was born at Utrecht; his father being, as
some say, a weaver, a shipbuUder, a pUot's mate,
or a brewer. His father sent him to the college
of Louvain, and Adrian subsequently received
the title of doctor from the university of that city.
Margaret, aunt of Charles V., daughter of
Maximilian, king of the Romans, and governor-
general of Flanders, made Adrian vicar of Lou
vain, and dean of the cathedral. In the latter capacity, he held the
office of vice-chanceUor of the university. MaximUian appointed him tutor
to Charles V., when that prince was seven years old. Adrian was then sent
Let me, in conclusion, cite the homage of Pope to Leo X. :
" But see 1 each muse in Leo's golden days
Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays.
Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread,
Shakes off the dust, and rears his reverend head.
Then Sculpture and her sister arts revive ;
Stones leap'd to form and rocks began to live ;
With sweeter notes each rising temple rung ;
A Raphael painted and a Vida sung.
* In our collection we have three medals of Leo X. Around the head are these words : Leo
X., Pontifex Max. On the reverse of the first medal are the arms of the Medici, surmounted
by the tiara and the keys (six besants, ranged 1-2-2-1), with the fleur-de-lis of France. The
inscription is, Globia et Honobe coronasti bvm. Roma — Thou hast crowned him with glory
and honor. Borne.
The second and the third have on the reverse the words : Ltbeealitas Ponttficia — Pon
tifical Liberality.
The third is larger than the second : on one side a mitre and cardinal's hat ; on the other,
musical instruments. In this conjunction there is, perhaps, something inconsistent with pon
tifical gravity. Flattery has gone so far as to strike this medal in two sizes. Sovereigns never
escape from flattery ; it is partly their own fault.
Du Molinet gives four other medals : Sovta combvket igni — He will burn up tlie bucklers
with fire.
This reverse is imitated from the Psalmist, who says : Confringet arma, et scuta comburet
igni — He will breaJc the weapons, and give the bucklers to the fire (Ps. xlv., 10). This medal was
struck on the occasion of peace with Francis I., and the signing of the Concordat.

ADRIAN VI. 699
by Maximilian ambassador to Ferdinand, king of Spain, who gave him the
bishopric of Tortosa.
Charles having become king of Spain on the death of Ferdinand, his ma
ternal grandfather, that prince intrusted his former tutor, Adrian, with the
management of aU his affairs. Adrian was aheady a cardinal, having been
appointed by Leo X. in the month of July, 1517. He became, in succes
sion, inquisitor-general, and absolute master of the kingdom, — which Charles,
king of Spain, under the name of Charles I., had to leave in order to take
possession of the empire, under the name of Charles V.
Thirty-nine cardinals were in conclave on the 27th of November, 1521,
the greatest number, says Spondanus, that had ever met in conclave. Then
Juhus de Medici, and the Cardinal Gaetani, without even knowing Adrian,
with the single opposition of Franciotto Orsini, raised him to the pontifi
cate on the 9th of January, 1522. He was then sixty-three years old. All
this took place quickly, though Adrian was absent,, a stranger, without
birth, and unacquainted with Church government. The sacred electors
argued, that as Adrian enjoyed the favor of the emperor, he was better
qualified than any other to put down the Lutheran impiety, which was then
the most important business of the Church.
But the sacred coUege forgot that Adrian, raised so high in Spain, had
not realized the idea formed of his talents. At Madrid there had arisen a
kind of revolt, caUed the Holy League, caused by the general discontent of
a portion of the nobihty, the clergy, and the populace, who felt offended at
the preference that had been shown to the Flemings. The greatest proof
of that preference was the almost sovereign authority conferred upon the
son of a Louvain burgher. Adrian acted feebly, and it was not by his ex
ertions that the insurrection was put down in Madrid.
The election was not pleasing to the Romans ; they thought that the new
pope would remain in Spain, and remove the Holy See to that country ; and

A medal without inscription represents an antique chariot drawn by four horses. Victory
hovers in the air in front, presenting a crown.
Another represents Rome seated upon bucklers, and holding Victory by the hand. In the
field are the letters C. P., signifying, Carissimo Parenti.
A fourth medal has on the reverse : View Leo de Teibv Ivda — The Lion of the Tribe of
Judah has conquered. A lion has his foot upon the world ; above, a winged Victory. Bo-
nanni, who wrote upon pontifical numismatics after Du MoUnet, notes these other medals in
his Numismata Pontificum Bomanorum. Rome, 1699.
1. Svave — Gentle. This word is above a yoke. The yoke of wise laws is a gentle authority.
2. Leo Pont. Max.— S. P., S. P. — Leo, Sovereign Pontiff.— Saint Peter, Saint Paul. Ha
loed heads of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, with the besants of the Medicis below.
3. Pacem Meam Do Vobis ; in the exergue, Roma. — My peace I give unto you, Borne. Jesus
blesses his kneeling disciples.
4. Lvx Veea m tenebeis lvcet. Roma. — The true light shineth in the darkness. Borne.
The three Magi on horseback, watching the star.

700 LIVES OF THE POPES.
accordingly, Avhen the cardinals left the conclave, they were subjected to
serious insults.
When Adrian received the news of his election, he was at Vittoria, in
Biscay. He accepted it after mature dehberation. Singularly enough, he
dechned to change his name, though the popes had for five centuries been
accustomed to do so. He fitted out a fleet of fifty vessels, under Ferdi-
nando de Andrada, and on the 8th of July he went to sea, with a numerous
escort of prelates, and four thousand soldiers, — leaving in Spain, as his vicar-
general, with the title of Apostolic Nuncio, Bernardino Pimentel, a married
man. This novelty caused much remark. On his arrival at Genoa, he was
complimented by the duke of MUan, the marquis of Pescara, and Prosper
Colonna, captain of the papal and imperial army. As Genoa, had been
given up to an unbridled soldiery, and as those who had done so 'had in
curred censures, they asked to be absolved from them. Adrian rephed :.
" We cannot, we should not, and we wiU not."*
On the 28th of August, Adrian landed at Ostia : there he re-embarked on
the Tiber, and landed at Saint Paul, outside the waUs. There he stayed
one night in the convent of the Benedictines, to whom that church had been
granted in 1425, by Pope Martin V.
Being informed that a triumphal arch, costing five hundred crowns, was
commenced before the Portese gate for his entrance, he ordered the work
discontinued, and observed that pomp of that kind better became pagans
than Christians and rehgious. It was already discussed in the councils,
whether the pope ought not to be crowned at Saint Paul, so that he should
enter Rome as a crowned pontiff. But the general opinion was, that it was
best to abide by the old custom, and crown the pontiff in the church of the
Vatican. On the 20th of August, the cardinals went in solemn conclave to Saint
Paul's. The pope said Mass, and then went down into the cloister, where
the cardinals kissed his hand and paid him obeisance.
Thence Adrian went into the sacristy, and thanked the cardinals for his
election. He explained the cause of his delay in arriving. He then begged
that they would harbor neither criminals nor debtors in then palaces as
places of sanctuary, and he asked that the barigel (chief of police) should
be at liberty to enter the palaces of the cardinals, to which they instantly
consented. Then, aU got on horseback. His Hohness, carried in a chair
to the front of the door of Saint Paul's, there mounted a white horse, with
the Holy Sacrament carried before him (this custom has been abolished),
and rode towards the palace of the Vatican. On the 31st of August, the
* Those noble words were borrowed by the French parliaments in their refusal to register
the ministerial edicts, and by Pius VII. in his disputes with Napoleon.

ADRIAN VI. 701
pope was solemnly crowned by Cardinal Mark Cornaro, first deacon, upon
the staircase of the Basihca. There was no great concourse present, on
account of the pestUence.
One of the first measures of the pope was to issue an edict against
persons found carrying weapons. This year, too, Adrian summoned Eras
mus to him. " Arise, arise," said the pope to Erasmus, " arise in defence
of the Lord, and for his glory ; use, as hitherto you have done, the marvel
lous gifts that he has bestowed upon you."
Audin records the correspondence between the pope and the great
scholar. Erasmus hesitated ; he did not dare to join in the work which was pro
posed to him by the head of the Church. He gave hesitating and doubtful
apologies on the score of age, infirmities, his imagination as frozen at his
fingers ; and he especiaUy dwelt upon his unfitness to journey, as the pope
wished him, to Rome. To hear him, however, he saw the evils of the
Church and their remedy. But the remedies, he wrote, he could explain
only by trustworthy messengers, and he had none such. He ended by say
ing, that his advice had aheady been rejected. Adrian soon understood
that he could not reckon upon the co-operation of Erasmus.
Audin thus gives the portrait of Adrian :
" Pope Adrian was thoroughly German ; German in language, attire,*
manners, and faith ; which last needed not, like that of the Itahans, the aid
of symbols and images to excite it.f He was a true Christian of the prim
itive Church, who, unfortunately, did not perceive that the external forms, if
they are to endure, must change with the manners and customs of the
people. " More than plainly dressed,:): he was only to be distinguished, when going
about the streets of Rome, by his escort of the halt, the lame, and the bhnd,
the poor and the mendicant of both sexes, who thronged upon his path,
and to whom he distributed alms.§ No artists were there, for he loved them
not;| he taunted them with 'robbing the poor.'"
* It is difficult for a pope to be German in attire. Every fold of his dress is studied for him.
Manners, countenance, and tastes may remain German, but the robes, the capes, the cap, etc.,
must be Roman. The masters of the ceremonies at Rome see to that.
f Too severe ; images in Italy do not injure faith, though faith was before images.
X What does this mean? German as he was, he must have been dressed as he fittingly should
be on the day of his enthronement ; admitting all difference of taste and preference.
§ My readers can testify that I have more than once shown them such papal pictures. With
out, reckoning the thirteen paupers of Saint Gregory, have we not seen very many pontiffs
walking with that escort of paupers, and giving them at once benediction and alms? The true
pontiff of Rome must thus be called pastor amans inopum.
|| True, but we think, not the better. The greatness and the poverty of Rome might both be
attended to without mischief to either. The poor profit largely by the influx of travellers who
come to admire the magnificence of art.

702 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Further on, Audin shows himseK just to Leo X. ; and he was very near
faUing worthUy to appreciate that magnanimous sovereign. " Leo X.," says
Audin, " and Adrian VL, both did their appointed work. Leo, in associat
ing himseK to the movement of ideas, in raising and magnificently endow
ing the artistic, showed the populace that the papacy, far from being
inimical to enhghtenment, glorified it as the gift of God. Adrian, when art
was beyond the sweeping of the tempest, forgetting for a moment the out
ward form, thought only of the Uls of the Church ; that is to say, to do a
work which has its own greatness, and for which Adrian was weU qualified."
When, the balance is thus held, a grain of sand would turn it either way,
and the reader is kept in a hne of moderation, in which he always should be
kept. But, Avhat was going on in that city of which we lately spoke as
being scourged by the plague ?
In the month of December, the contagion redoubled its ravages; the
courts had to be closed, many of the cardinals left Rome, and the pope and
his servants shut themselves up in the palace, into which those only were
aUowed to enter who were summoned, and from which no one was aUowed
to go without permission.
In the spring of 1523, the pestilence ceased, and the courts resumed their
sittings. The pope did not take possession of Saint John Lateran, although,
in a consistory in January, it had been debated whether the pope could take
possession by proxy.
Much was said about the disorders of this Roman court. Innovators
made complaints, which were not always weU founded, and urged the pope
to make reforms. Adrian, harassed on aU hands, and besides, urged by his
own zeal to establish order, especially in ecclesiastical disciphne, caUed to
his aid two of the most distinguished men for goodness, learning, and pru
dence, — John Peter Carafa, archbishop of Chieti, and Saint Cajetan Tienee.
In concert with them, the pope began to examine attentively the question
which had first kindled the Luthern fire — the question of indulgences.
Abuses had crept in, which the pope and the cardinals determined to repress.
They began by being very chary of those indulgences which were to the
advantage of the chancery office, which gave universal satisfaction. Dis
interestedness on the part of men in power, is always agreeable to the
people. On the 1st of September, after the coronation, Adrian revoked aU indults
granted by the cardinals, at which they were displeased. The referenda
ries were at that time thirty in number ; Adrian reduced them to eight, so
that the apostolical chamber might economize in that direction.
On the 9th of that month, he received solemnly, and in the midst of an
immense concourse of people, the paKrey and the tribute of seven thousand
ounces of gold for the kingdom of Sicily ; they were presented by John

ADRIAN VI 703
Monoel, ambassador from Charles V, and Jane, queen of Aragon and Sicily.
On that occasion, the pope ratified the investiture of the kingdom of Naples
in favor of Charles.
On the 9th of December, Adrian published the revocation that he had
made in the month of April, at Saragossa, of aU the expedaiives of benefices.
These expedatives were a kind of privilege granted by the popes, the cardi
nals, and the bishops, to ecclesiastical persons, who thus were secured the
survivorship of the actual titularies ; or, what we now caU, as to bishoprics,
coadjutor ships, and, for seculars, reversions.
The Holy Father was absolutely bent upon putting down Lutheranism.
He wrote urgent letters to those princes who had remained faithful, and he
sent his nuncio, Francis Cheregat, to the Diet of Nuremberg. It Avas there
determined to enforce the decrees of Charles V. and Leo X., against Luther.
The apostate monk seemed to pay httle attention to these decrees, as he
was protected by several princes who held his doctrines, and were repaid
by his granting to them bishoprics and the greater part of the ecclesiastical
property. By the same Cheregat, Adrian sent a paternal brief to Frederic, duke of
Saxony, in which, reminding him of the piety of his ancestors, he exhorted
him to abandon Luther and return into the bosom of the Church.
Terms offensive to the Roman court have been ascribed to Adrian. In
his instructions, he said : " Avow frankly that God has permitted this schism
and this persecution on account of the sins of men, and especiaUy those of
the priests and prelates of the Church." This avowal, made in deep humil
ity, but scarcely in accordance with human prudence, contained an imphcit
censure of many acts prior to his pontificate ; and it was a subject of
triumph for the partisans of the Reformation, and of blame for writers
attached to the court of Rome. On this subject, the Cardinal PaUaicini
said of Adrian VL : " He was an exceUent ecclesiastic, but, in the main, a
very ordinary pope." Moreover, those proceedings belonged not exclusively
to the Roman court, pernicious examples had been given everywhere. We
have seen how often the popes had to reprove and caU to better sentiments
the ecclesiastics of various countries. Schisms had been maintained only
by comphances, by abuses, and by forgetfulness of aU dignity and of all
duty. The pope was disobeyed, that men might buy and seU in the house
of the Lord.
Adrian learned that the nations of America sohcited missionaries, and he
sent them some Franciscans, fuU of zeal for the propagation of the faith;
giving those courageous athletes a proof of confidence and genuine love.
A buU, to be found in VerriceUi,* enacted that in the Indies, wherever no
* Be Missionn. Apost., tit. iv, p. 221.

704 LIVES OF THE POPES.
bishopric had as yet been founded, or where, though bishoprics existed, the
bishops and their vicars could not go, rehgious, expressly authorized by
their superiors, might exercise episcopal authority, except in such things as
absolutely required the personal authority of a bishop. Formerly, John
XXIL had, by buU, granted to the Franciscans, on missions, the use of a
quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, in places where there was no Cathohc bishop.
This privUege was recognized by the Congregation of Rites, on the 5th of
AprU, 1704, as is shown by Lambertini.*
At this time, the island of Rhodes, the residence of the knights of that
name, was besieged by two hundred thousand Turks, commanded by Soli-
man H. Adrian sent provisions to the knights, but contrary winds delayed
the flotiUa, and the besieged were reduced to the last extremities. How
ever, as the knights continued to display their usual courage, the Turks
prepared to raise the siege. Then the chanceUor of the order, Andrew
d'Amaral, a Portuguese, irritated because PhUip de Villiers l'He Adam was
preferred to him for the dignity of grand master, caused a slinger to throw
a paper into the Turkish camp, giving the besiegers notice that the place
was no longer defensible, and Soliman consequently continued the attack.
After a siege of six months, the place was surrendered on honorable terms,
and the sultan, who entered in triumph, paid the highest honors to the
grand master. The knights had wrested the island from the Saracens two
hundred and thirteen years before, and had held it as sovereigns. It was
the fifth residence of those brave knights, and they now only lost it by the
treachery of the Portuguese knight. They afterwards wandered about from
place to place, until Charles V. gave them the island of Malta, on condition
of their presenting a falcon to the king of Naples, the sovereign of that
island. Though the warlike disposition of Juhus II. cannot be entirely justified,
yet we must not be too strongly prejudiced against it. We now find Adrian,
though opposed to such habits, and accustomed to retirement and prayer,
forced into sending against Malatesta, lord of Rimini, the Spanish army
which had escorted the new pontiff to Italy. The same army was employed
to restore the duchy of Urbino to Francis Mary de la Rovera, who had
been deprived of it by Leo X. Alphonso d'Este at the same time received
the duchy of Ferrara. The same pope labored to separate the Venetians
from the league with the French. Not content with this success, he engaged
the repubhc to contract an alhance "with the Emperor Ferdinand of Austria,
and the duke of MUan. By that means Adrian deemed himseK secured
against any attack by the French.
These politic provisions were successful, but Adrian at the same time is
* Be Canohizatione S. S., Ub. n., cap. 11, No. 4.

ADRIAN VI. 705
censurable for having shown such an excessive gratitude towards the im
perial court, as to render it in some sort the arbiter of the decisions of the
Vatican. In the midst of so much condescension, Adrian, httle accustomed to gov
ernment, did not discover that Cardinal Soderini, in whom he had great
confidence, had a secret understanding with Francis I., and advised him to
take advantage of the disturbances to conquer the island of Sicily. The
treachery was at last discovered, the property of the cardinal confiscated,
and he was confined in the castle of Saint Angelo.
It is but justice to Adrian to say, that what he could least forget was the
interest of the priesthood. On the 13th of May, 1523, he canonized Saint
Benno, abbot and provost in the city of HUdesheim, and then bishop of
Meissen, in Lower Saxony, and apostle of the Slavonians. He had been a
great defender of Gregory VII. against Henry IV., king of the Romans,
whom he even ventured to excommunicate. A thousand griefs and pains,
aggravated by his great age, caused his death on the 16th of June, 1106, in
his seventy-sixth year, after being the most courageous of bishops during
forty years. The process of his canonization had been pursued under Alex
ander VI., Juhus H., and Leo X.
In the same solemnity, Adrian also canonized Saint Antoninus, thus
named on account of his smaU size— Antoninus being the diminutive of his
real name, Antonio. He belonged to the Dominicans, and had been arch
bishop of Florence. Adrian extended to the kings of Spain the right granted
by Leo X. to the French kings, to choose and nominate bishops. At the
same time the kings of Spain obtained the privUege of being perpetual
grand masters of the orders of Saint James, of Calatrava, and of Alcantara.
Adrian, worn out by the fatigues and anxieties to which he was subjected
between Luther and the Turks, found his health daily failing, and he at
length died on the 14th of September, 1523, at the age of sixty-four, after
governing the Church one year, eight months, and six days. He had
created only one cardinal. He had long suffered with the stone. He was
interred at the Vatican, between the two Piccolomini popes — Pius H. and
Pius in*
Adrian was afterwards removed into the Church of Santa Maria, de
HAnima, the national church of the Germans, buUt after the designs of
Balthazar Perazzi, by Cardinal William Enchenvoert, the single member of
the sacred coUege created by him.
Adrian, though a stranger to family nepotism, was not so to national nep
otism. * Novaes (vi., p. 215) relates that upon his tomb was placed tha shameful inscription :
Hiejacet Impius inter Pios —
Between the pious, here the impious lies.
Vol. I.— 45

706 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Adrian had a handsome countenance : it was a pleasure to look upon his
fair and ruddy face. He was tall, but naturaUy, or from the effect of age,
his head drooped down. He seemed inclined to gayety of temper, and every
one found his conversation frank and agreeable. There was much to admhe
in the courage with which he said — We will not adorn the priests and the
churches, but we will adorn tlie church with the priests. He often issued bulls,
and insisted on their being gratis.
Adrian, as we have said, had, hke some other popes, no inclination to
family nepotism. Many of his relations ventured to go to Rome in hope of
malting their fortune. Adrian gave them a smaU sum of money to pay
their travelling expenses, and sent them back to Flanders on foot. He, hke
Adrian IV., said that he owed more to Christ than to the flesh, on which he
would notlmild*
Adrian Avas not splendid ; he was reputed to love neither poets nor luxury,
and we have seen that he was no patron of antiquarians. At Rome this
was deemed a great misfortune. As to the reproach that he did not spend
* Before they discovered, in an excavation, the statue of Patroclus,f killed by Hector in the
Trojan war, and carried out of the battle by Menelaus, there was a tailor, named Pasquin, fa
mous for his witty sayings, and the idlers of the time used to haunt his shop to hear him, and
to draw out his satire. After the death of that buffoon, his friends having no longer occasion to
assemble in that shop, hit upon the plan of putting their witticisms in writing, and stick them
on the statue of Patroclus, newly discovered, and set up on a spot near that on which afterwards
the Braschi palace was built. That mutilated statue received from the populace the name of
Pasquin, and the satires pasted on it were called Pasquinades. For a long time, nobles, prelates,
and foreign princes were exposed to these always biting satires. It was astonishing that a city
where impertinence can as easily be silenced as elsewhere, no means could be found to silence
a mutilated marble, devoid of nose, legs, and arms, although of such exquisite sculpture that
Bernini considered it the finest he had ever seen, and always stopped to admire it when he was
in that part of the city. Pope Adrian VL, Uttle acquainted with the habits of the Romans, and
unaware that in that often disturbed city civU war had only ceased on being replaced by the
Pasquinades, and that the bitterest of taunts and jeers were very much preferable to assassina
tion and civil war — Adrian, who, moreover, attached but small value to antiquities, and lacked
Roman sagacity on the matter, thought of having the statue removed and thrown into the Tiber,
or burned. But one of his courtiers diverted him by telling him that if Pasquin were thrown
into the river, a croaking would be heard louder than of the frogs in their marshes ; and that if
he were burned, the poets, Avith a natural turn for evil speaking, would yearly assemble at the
place of the execution of their advocate!, to celebrate his funeral, and to blacken the memory of
the pontiff who had condemned him. This was sufficient to stop a man of sense like Adrian;
Pasquin lost neither his existence nor his privilege, and he continues to this day to lacerate
with impunity the living and even the dead, and especially those who lay violent hands upon
the country.
Generally, Pasquin is feigned to converse with another statue called Marforio, supposed to be
so named from having been found in the forum of Mars. One statue asks a question, and the
other replies. Marforio, according to Fea, is an ancient statue representing the river Rhine, and
probably belonged to the colossal bronze statue of the Emperor Domitian, formerly standing in
the Forum. — (Fea, Bescription of Borne : Rome, 1821, p. 196.)
+ See Cancellieri, in his notices of the two famous statues of a river and Patroclus, vulgarly called Marforio and Pas
quin. Eome, 17S9, 8vo.
% Novaes, vi., p. 218. •

ADRIAN VI. 707
much, it may be repUed that he found the treasury empty, and that aU
Christian princes, and even Charles, had refused to aid him. However, by
dint of effort and solicitation, and, especiaUy, self-denial, he sent Cardinal
Gaetani, a. Dominican, to Hungary, with a succor of 40,000 ducats, the ut
most that he could raise.
Adrian1 sometimes said that his greatest misfortune was that of being in
power. His epitaph, ascribed to hiinseK, thus states that fact : Adrianus VI. ,
hie dtus est, qui nil sibi infelidus in vita quam quod imperard, duxit — Here lies
Adrian VL, wlw deemed his being called to reign his greatest misfortune.
This pope ranks among the ecclesiastical writers, by his Commentary upon
the book of Sentences. Paris, folio, 1512.
This book, first printed when he was a professor at Louvain, was reprinted
without the author's sanction when he was the head of Christendom. In it
one proposition is, that the pope can err even in what concerns the faith,* a pro
position which proves nothing in favor of the Protestants, though they
often repeat it in their attacks upon the infaUibUity of the sovereign pontiff,
as it may be understood of the private opinions of the popes, and not be
essentiaUy applicable to their solemn decisions, stiU less to their decrees
accepted by the body of the bishops. Adrian, on the throne, retracted the
censurable opinions contained in this book. He was the author, also, of the
QwBstiones Quodlibeticce, 8 vo., 1521. Gerard Mating wrote a IKe of Adrian
VI., in 4to., printed at Louvain in 1536. Paul Jovius, bishop of Nocera,
pubhshed the hfe of Adrian VI., at Florence, 1548. This hfe, translated
into Itahan by Louis Domenichi, was pubhshed in 8vo., with that of Leo
X., by Paul Jovius. Gaspar Burman, pubhshed in 1727, at Utrecht, an
other hfe of Adrian. MiUot treats this pontiff with unjust and cruel se-
verity.t The Holy See was vacant two months and four days.
* Feller, i., p. 55.
t We present two medals of this reign. They represent the head of Adrian covered with a
large white cap. Around are these words : Adbianvs VL, Pont. Maxim. On the reverse of
the first we read : Qtjem cbeant adoeant, Rom^e — They adore whom they create, at Borne.
We have seen this type under the reign of Martin V. This piece, therefore, is a restoration.
The second bears in the exergue Roma, and around, Spteitvs Saptentle— The Spirit, of
Wisdom. Open books, surmounted by the keys and the tiara ; above, the Holy Ghost. Du
Molinet gives this medal, and speaks of Adrian in the most pompous terms. Medals with the
effigy of Adrian VI., struck at Louvain, are believed to exist. I am not acquainted with them.
Bonanni (vol. i., p. 184), gives the foUowing medal : Vt ipse finiam— That I shall finish it
myself. A tower building, surrounded by scaffolding. Bonanni thinks that by this tower com
menced, is to be understood the sending of an envoy to Nuremberg to combat Luther. The
pope reserved the finishing strokes to be given by himself, in the endeavor to put down the ad
versary, and to oppose a tower to the invasion which menaced Catholicity. De Glen, in his
Histoire Pontificate, p. 862, already quoted, thus speaks of Luther a century after : "Satan,
wishing to make a final effort against the Church, found a proper tool in the apostate Martin
Luther, the noted architect or renovator of aU the heresies that had been condemned and buried
centuries before." De Glen, like Adrian, was «, Fleming, but speaks in unbecoming terms of
his feUow-countryman.

708 LIVES OF THE POPES.

223. CLEMENT VIL— a. d. 1523.
gLEMENT VH. (Juhus de Medici) was the legitimate
son of the Julian de Medici whose assassination by
the Florentine conspirators of the Pazzi faction on
the 26th of April, 1478, a month before the birth of
Juhus, we have aheady described. His mother was
Antonia del Cittadino, or of the Gorini. To prove
the authenticity of her marriage with Juhan, two
cardinals were appointed to make inquiry, and they
found witnesses who had been present at a secret marriage.
During his exile, Julius, at the age of eighteen, entered the order of the
Knights of Rhodes, and was prior of Capua. He next became archbishop
of Embrun, and then obtained the archbishopric of Florence. In 1513,
Leo X., his cousin, created him cardinal-deacon of Saint Mary in dominica.
He was legate in the league of Leo X. and Charles V., against the French,
and did not quit the army sent to meet them.
After the funeral of Adrian VL, thirty-three sacred electors entered into
conclave on the 1st of October. The guard was intrusted to the grand
master of Rhodes, L'He Adam, who had been summoned to Rome by Adrian
VL, and received with the most flattering honors.
Julius, aged forty-five, was elected pope on the 18th of November, 1523,
and promulgated on the 19th, after fifty days of conclave — that is to say,
the very day on which, two years before, he had entered Milan as a con
queror. He owed his elevation especiaUy to the younger cardinals. He
had been named by way of adoration — that is to say, pubhcly and by accla
mation ; but he desired that there should be a scrutiny, declaring that, though
it Avas in his power to invoke an act of adoration, he would forego all right
resulting from it. It was possible that, on the scrutiny, his election might
be lost, but it elected him unanimously, with the exception of his own vote ,
and Cardinal Mark Cornaro crowned him under the name of Clement VIL,
at Saint Peter's, on the 26th of December, but he did not take solemn pos
session of Saint John Lateran. He thought of doing so on Saint John the
Baptist's day, in 1525, but the project was not carried into execution.
The new pontiff received into his good graces Cardinal Sederini, who left
the castle of Saint Angelo to enter the conclave, though in the previous
negotiations as to the choice of a pope, he had been opposed to Juhus.
" On this occasion," said the Romans, " the pontiff showed himseK Clement

CLEMENT VIL 709
by both name and nature." Some authors affirm that he wished to keep
his OAvn name of Juhus, but it was objected that a pope who preserved his
own name would die in a few years, as had been the case with Adrian. He
accordingly consented to change his name to Clement VIL, paying no atten
tion to the fact that an antipope, in the time of Urban V., had usurped the
name. The pope immediately sent into Germany Cardinal Campeggio, the most
skilful member of the sacred coUege, and one of the most respected for piety
and virtue. , It was he who, with many princes of the empire, assembled at
Ratisbon, pubhshed a reform of the clergy, consisting of thirty-five chap
ters. Subsequently, Clement, whose views were truly pacific, diligently
applied himseK to restore the most perfect concord among the Christian
prmces, to diminish the scandal of their dissensions, and thus to show a
more formidable front to the enemies of rehgion. But if the commence
ment of this reign was pacific as the pontiff himseK, the continuation be
came so frightfuUy painful, that the Church, from its birth, had never,
under any other pope, experienced so much misery, violence, and unfore
seen catastrophe.
By a bull of the 24th of June, 1524, Clement approved the order of the
Theatines, regular clerics, instituted by John Peter Carafa, then archbishop
of Chieti. Theate is the Latin name of Chieti, and thence these rehgious
took the name of Theatines. The other founders of the order were two per
sons of an exemplary piety, BonKace del CaUe, an Alexandrian noble, and
Paul Consigheri, a Roman knight, aided in that great work by Saint Caje
tan Tienee, a noble of Vicenza, commonly caUed the Founder. He recom-
. mended to his rehgious so austere a poverty, that he said: "You must
have no rehance but on Divine Providence." They are stiU known under the
same name. They were chiefly in Italy ; having only four houses in Ger
many, five in Spain, one in France,* three in Portugal, one in Poland, and
one at Goa, in Hindostan. The Theatine nuns who, in 1583, were founded
at Naples, are scarcely known beyond the limit of that kingdom. They are
divided into two congregations, those who take simple vows and those who
take irrevocable vows : the superiors of both are the Theatines.
In the year 1525, Clement celebrated the JubUee of the Holy Year — that
is to say, the eighth after that of BonKace, and the second since the cele
bration was fixed for every twenty-five years.
On the 1st of May, after the pontifical Mass of Saint John Lateran, Clem
ent published the league concluded against the Turk, between Charles V,
the kings of France and England, the Florentines, and the dukes of MUan
* They were established in that kingdom in 1647, by King Louis XIV. and Cardinal Maza
nn. The latter left them in his wiU a hundred thousand crowns to build their house.

710 LIVES OF THE POPES.
and Mantua. In this ceremony, the pope granted to aU present plenary
indulgence and the pontifical benediction.
On account of the pestUence, there were not many pilgrims present this
Holy Year; they dreaded the wars in Italy, rebeUion in Germany, and
tumults in Hungary ; and, finaUy, there were the troubles excited by Luther,
who, that same year, in the forty-fifth year of his age, had married the nun
Catherine de Bora, abbess of a convent of the city of Nimptsch, near Grim-
ma, a city of the kingdom of Saxony, about seven leagues from Leipsic. He
lived with her until the 18th of February, 1546, on which day the apostate
died, after a fit of debauchery. From this wretched and sacrilegious union
there were three sons — John, Martin, and Paul.
At the entreaty of Andrew Gritti, doge of Venice, Clement beatified Saint
Lawrence Giustiniani, patriarch of that city, subsequently canonized by
Alexander VIIL
But we must now prepare to contemplate fatal scenes. It has been easy
to anticipate the evUs that Luther caused ; we now behold his partisans
marching in arms on Rome. The Cathohc reader must summon up aU his
courage. The Constable of Bourbon, irritated beyond measure by the injus
tice he had suffered at the court of France, resolved on vengeance for it.
He abandoned the service of Francis I., and by an inexcusable desertion
passed into the service of Charles V. While weakening the king of France,
this augmented the strength and influence of the king of Spain and of the
king of the Romans.
Francis I., defeated at Pavia, could not defend Clement, who was on bad
terms with Charles V. In 1526, at the moment of his deliverance, Francis
concluded a treaty with the pope, and desired to drive Charles from the
peninsula ; but neither at Rome nor in Paris were the requisite measures
taken to prevent the enemy from marching upon Rome. Bourbon com
manded this army, made up of Lutherans and Spaniards, and he advanced
without artiUery, baggage-wagons, or munitions. Such boldness deserved
a better cause and a nobler aim. It would be difficult to prove that the
Romans then did not regret the absence of the warhke energy of Pope
Julius II.
Renzo di Ceri, of the Orsini family, undertook to save Rome, but the
pope had sent away some foreign troops on whom he could rely, and the
city was left to its own citizens, long unused to war.
On the 4th of March, 1527,* Charles de Bourbon led his soldiers to the
assault. Benvenuto Cellini, in his hfe, states that he was an eye-witness,
and thus proceeds : " The whole city took up arms. We then proceeded
?long the waUs of the Campo Santo, and thence we saw that immense army
* Italy, p. 245.

CLEMENT VII. 71 J
making every effort to remain at that part of the wall which we were ap
proaching. We saw the bodies of many young men, kUled by the assailants.
A dense fog prevailed. I turned towards Alexander del Bene, one of my
companions, and said to him : ' Let us get back to the house as soon as
possible, for there is no remedy in the world. You see the enemy enter,
our people flee.' Alexander, much alarmed, exclaimed : ' Would to God
that we had not come !' and then he hastUy turned to go away. But I
detained him, saying : ' Since you have brought me here, we must do some
thing honorable.' And pointing my arquebus where I saw the soldiers
thickest, I aimed at a person taUer than the rest. The fog prevented me
from being sure whether he was mounted or on foot. Looking at Alexan
der and my other companion Cecchino, I told them to fire their pieces, and
I placed them so that they would not receive a shot from the enemy. When
each of us had fired two shots, I looked cautiously over the wall ; I remarked
a great bustle among the assailants, because one of our shots had kUled
Bourbon, and he was the first man that I saw taken up by the others, as we
afterwards clearly perceived.
" We retired by the Campo Santo, and entered by Saint Peter's. Coming
out behind the church of Saint Angelo, we with great difficulty reached the
gate of the castle, for Renzo di Ceri and Horace Baghoni wounded or kUled
those who avoided fighting at the walls. The drawbridge was lowered, for
the enemy was aheady in the city, and I got into the fort at the moment
when Pope Clement arrived by the corridors."*
Furious on learning the death of their general, kUled early in the assault,
either by Benvenuto CeUini, or some other hand, the soldiers at first gave no
quarter. The first day, nearly eight thousand Romans were butchered in a
single portion of the city, although they implored mercy on their knees.
"Never, probably, in the history of the world," says Sismondi, "has a
great capital been abandoned to a more atrocious abuse of victory ; never
has a powerful army been composed of more ferocious soldiers, or more
frightfuUy shaken off the yoke of disciphne. It was not enough that the
whole wealth, sacred and profane, that piety or industry had amassed, was
given over to the rapacity of the plundering soldiers, the very persons of
the unfortunate inhabitants were equaUy deUvered over to the brutal
caprices of the soldiers. While women of rank feU victims to insatiable
lust, those suspected of possessing hidden wealth were tortured. They
were forced by torments to sign notes, and to exhaust the means of any
* There are corridors leading from the palace of the Vatican to the castle of Saint Angelo.
They are buUt like aqueducts. When they extend the length of a street, they are, as it were,
built against the wall, and intercept the light from the first story. Few persons visit those
corridors, which stiU exist. To do so requires express permission, but it is a very curious and
memorable journey.

712 LIVES OF THE POPES.
friends they might have in other countries. Many prelates sank under
those sufferings'. After paying ransom, and believing themselves safe from
any further attacks, they were obhged to ransom themselves anew ; and
many died of violence, grief, or fear. German soldiers, doubly drunk with
wine and blood, led bishops about mounted on asses, and clothed in their
canonical habits, or dragged cardinals through the streets, loading them
with blows and insults. In their greed, those soldiers broke open the tab
ernacles and mutilated master-pieces of the arts. The Vatican hbrary was
sacked ; the squares and the churches became markets, where the soldiers
sold young women and horses ; and these abominable excesses, committed
even in the Basihca of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, an asylum venerated by
Attila,* the piUage of which, under Genseric, lasted only a fortnight, was
now kept up without mitigation for two months."
Amidst so many atrocities, no respect was paid even to that class of
talents which, having no great wealth, offered no temptation to cupidity.
Relying on that feehng of dignity Avhich is venerated by the most barbarous
nations, artists of aU nations who hved in Rome, after asking for hberty and
hfe, uttered words of honor, of courage, and of piety. But what could you
say to those monsters, nurtured in crime and bloodshed, who, during five
years, had pitUessly plundered and overwhelmed with grief other provinces
of the peninsula ? What was your mistake ! You adorned the temples
with elegance, you embellished them with sacred images, and you placed in
the tombs the allegories of the Church ; against you, also, war is declared.
The iconoclasts of Leo,- that low-born, wicked soldier, have returned. What
need of you and of those fictions ? they ask. The temples must be bare ;
hke the other Romans, you wUl perish if you do not flee. The very soldiers
who revered Nuestra Senora del PUar, and doubtless asked pardon at her
shrine on their return, even they, led away by the fatal society of their com
panions in wickedness, forgot the voice of then- priests, and would blush to
kneel even before their Saint James of ComposteUa.
Halberds in a moment scattered the learned school of Michael Angelo and
of Raphael.
Let us specKy, as Rome in her enthusiastic and poetic language has done,
the ravages that she had to deplore.
Antonio SangaUo abandoned his pUasters, half reared in Saint Peter's,
where they had burned even his scaffolding. From the summit of the castle
of Saint Angelo, sole refuge of Cathohc Rome, scarcely can he distinguish
the last stories of the Vatican which he has been appointed to adorn.
Polydore takes flight in Salerno. He only risks returning towards Na
ples. Juho Romano only resumes his brushes when he reaches Mantua.
* Italy, p. 247.

CLEMENT VII. 713
PeUegiino carries his grace, his taste, and' his freshness to Modena. Gau-
denzio Ferrari igives lessons of the loggia and of the stanze to his ac'imirers
in Milan. Perrino del Vaga establishes an academy at Genoa. One artist
alone, Rosso, who afterwards constructed and ornamented with pictures the
great gaUery of Fontainebleau, would not hide in Rome, where religion is
no longer free or art protected'. Rosso is bound, beaten, chained, caUed
impious and idolatrous. If he appeals to the Spaniards, the violence is re
peated ; as he loves and defends his life, he of course must have hidden gold !
The pupils of him who placed in the church of La Minerva, Christ em
bracing the cross, which no one any longer respects, rash to the side of
Michael Angelo, who, throwing down the compasses, has seized the sword,
and offers himseK for the defence of Florence, which is also threatened.
So, many iUustrious fugitives carry everywhere with them their resent
ment of those outrageous wrongs. In their language of imagination, elo
quence, and ardor, they recount their sufferings. I do not speak of the
outrages inflicted upon the learned. That was not the day when the house
of Archimedes was to be respected.
As it is pleasing to see arts and sciences lavish their gratitude on a pro
tector, a gratitude which survives even an empire, equally painful it is to
perceive that when outraged they give way to the passion of vengeance.
This idea must always pain our Christian feelings. When the day of grief
and terror comes to those whom Luther caUs to discord (that fatal day will
come before the end of the century, and as the History of the Popes is
endless, we shaU have to give an account of that day) in Rome herself,
the stiU indignant arts wUl too weU remember their disasters.
During that time Charles V. went in mourning for his victory ! The
hypocrite had public prayers offered for the hberty of the Holy Father, who
was besieged in the castle of Saint Angelo, and for the return of that peace
in Christendom which he alone disturbed. What dastardy in his orders
sent from Aranjuez for the deliverance of Rome, so long in the power of the
Lutheran soldiery ! He who thus commanded prayers was the A^ery head
and master of that army to which, a very Janus of piety and revolt, he
privately sent re-enforcements from Germany.
At this news, and having so odious an enemy, the pope deemed that he-
ought not yet to think of yielding. They required four hundred thousand
gold ducats to aUow him to leave the castle of Saint Angelo ; and further,
to dehver to the Mussulman's troops, who held him besieged, Ostia, Civita
Vecchia, Parma, Placenza, and Modena, without any stipulation for their
eventual restoration. The pope hesitated to accept these conditions. If
he had not the mihtary courage of Julius IL, he had civU courage and the
gift of prudence.
MeanwhUe, Cardinal Pompey Colonna, another enemy of Clement VIL,

714 LIVES OF THE POPES.
had entered Rome at the head of a troop of the tenants of his fiefs. He
had, with a sacrUegious ardor, embraced the cause of the emperor. The
eardinal enjoyed at first the humiliation of the pope, and the annoyance of
Renzo di Ceri ; but we must quickly add, that this prince of the Church,
this Roman, could not long endure the sight of the profanation of the
temples, and the grief of his country. The peasantry of Colonna wanted
to piUage what had been left by the Spaniards and the Lutherans.
This was too much. Colonna was moved by a deep pity ; he shed tears of
repentance ; he promptly sent away the brigands whom he had brought,
and kept with him only a faithful and obedient troop. Very soon he threw
open his palace to those who desired shelter there ; with his own money he
ransomed the captive cardinals, without distinction of faction, friend and
foe alike. In the generous frankness of his penitence he would have held
out his hand even to an Orsini ! He distributed provisions to crowds of
wretched people, who, having lost aU, were perishing with hunger. Great
crimes often caU forth great virtues.*
When the Spanish-German army consented to acknowledge a general, it
was Philibert de Chalons, prince of Orange, who commanded it, and in time
he enforced some respect to his authority.
Clement VII. again entreated the duke of Urbino to encamp on Monte
Maria, a very strong position, whence it was easy to harass or attack Rome.
What could the conqueror fear ? All that he did not fear. But La Rovera,
enemy to the Medicis and to Leo X., who for a time had deprived him of
his principality [a new instance of the evil results of nepotism], with the
vUest obstinacy, incessantly repeated that his army was not sufficiently sup
plied with munitions. The Venetians conjured him to act, but he was deaf
to all entreaties.
Rome had been sacked by the Gauls three hundred and sixty-two years
after its foundation ; by Alaric, king of the Goths, on the 24th of August,
A. D. 410 ; by Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 455 ; by Odoacer, in 467 ;
by the Ostrogoths, in 536 ; by the Goths, in 538 ; by Totila, king of the
Goths, in 546 ; and again on the 17th of September, 548,— on that occasion
the first famihes were reduced to such misery that patrician ladies were
forced to beg at the gates of the Goths ; by the Emperor Constantius H,
on the 5th of July, 665 ; by the Lombards, in 750 ; by Astolphus, king of
the same nation, in 755 ; by the African Saracens, in 896 ; by the Emperor
Arnold, in 996 ; and by the Emperor Henry IV., in 1084. But the excesses
and the carnage committed by the army of Charles V, caused the Romans
to forget the rapacity of the barbarians who had despoUed them.
* Italy, p. 249. On Saint Bartholomew's day, the duke of Guise, guilty as he was, saved a
hundred Protestants in his house.

CLEMENT VII. 715
The German Lutherans and Spanish Cathohcs, after having committed the
most bestial enormities, insulted Rome with yet one more act of audacity.
Assembling in one of the chapels of the Vatican, and wearing the insignia of
the cardinalate, they deposed Pope Clement, and proceeded to elect a new
pontiff. Imitating the ceremonies of the conclave, each gave his vote to
Luther, the patriarch of the revolt, and in Rome herseK he was created
pope by that crew of miscreants.
Meantime, Clement, overwhelmed by so many frightful misfortunes,
dragged on a hfe of grief and tears in the castle of Saint Angelo. He was
besieged seven months, from the 6th of March to the 9th of December, and
was at length obhged to submit to the severest conditions. His ransom
was fixed at four hundred thousand golden crowns, which he was obhged
to pay. He was caUed upon for hostages, and he had to dehver up some of
his best friends — Cardinals Franciotto Orsini, Paulus EmUius Cesi, Alexan
der Cesarini, Augustine Trivulzi, and Nicholas Gaddi ; as well as John Mat
thew Giberto, bishop of Verona; Antonio Pucci, bishop of Pistoia, and
Onofrius Bartohni Salimbeni, archbishop of Pisa. AU were shut up in the
palace of Cardinal Pompey Colonna, and thence removed to Naples.
The pope, who still had thirteen cardinals with him, was closely kept
prisoner by the Spaniard AUcornio, who had been the jailer of Francis I.,
when captured- at Pavia. The Spaniard treated the pope as though he had
been a chief of banditti. Then Clement, more than ever doubtful of the
good faith of Charles V, fled to Orvieto, disguised as a merchant, and
escorted by Louis Gonzaga. There he was hospitably received by his
relative, Nicolas Ridolfi, bishop of that city. In the interval, Bourbon's
army having left Rome, Clement, at the invitation of Cardinal Campeggio,
legate of the Holy See, went to Viterbo, and thence to Rome, which city he
re-entered on the 6th of October, 1528.
When the Emperor Charles V. learned the continued calamities of the
Catholic capital of the world, and of the head of the Church, he continued
to feign the most lively grief, suspended the festivities that had been ordered
on account of the birth of his son PhUip, exaggerated his outward garb of
mourning, and caused other prayers to be put up for the assistance of
HeaA-en against so many evUs. But every one perceived the imperial hypoc
risy when Charles, instead of setting the pontiff at hberty, still kept him
prisoner, and stiU dishonored himseK by his Ulusory prayers for the deliv
erance of his own prisoner, whom he might at any time have restored to
Rome in less than a month, had he chosen. Such spectacles form a dark
page in history. It is affirmed that Charles would have vviUingly removed
Clement to Madrid, to show the populace a fettered pope, after having so
long gratified them Avith the sight of an imprisoned king of France ; but
Charles feared that this fresh excess might render him odious in the sight

716 LIVES OF THE POPES.
of his own people, and especiaUy of his bishops, who detested the mere idea
of so Aiolent an outrage upon the vicar of Jesus Christ.
Clement, shortly before these sad scenes, had beatified Peter of Luxem
burg, of the counts of Ligny, a celebrated family which had given kings to
Bohemia and emperors to Germany.
It is knoAvn that Henry VIIL, king of England, had married Catharine of
Aragon, widow of his brother Arthur, and aunt of Charles V. To that end
he had obtained a dispensation from Juhus III., as mentioned in our hfe
of that pope. But that prince afterwards plunging into illicit connec
tion with Anne Boleyn, although he had been twenty-eight years the hus
band of Catharine, sohcited in 1528 from Pope Clement, then at Viterbo,
that the Holy See should annul his marriage with Catharine, so that Henry
might marry Anne Boleyn. It was not his mere love of Anne Boleyn, hoAv-
ever, that impeUed him to make that demand. Courtiers, theologians, dis
obedient to Rome, persuaded the wretched king that he ought not to con
sider valid the dispensation that had previously been granted, and that he
ought not to Ijave married his brother's widow. We repeat it, these scru
ples tormented the perverse prince after twenty-eight years of cohabitation
with Catharine, and after that long rehance upon the validity of the dispen
sation granted by Juhus IL, legitimately elected pontiff. The jurisconsults
who gave such advice were actuated rather by the love of. gain than by
reasoning. It is evident that such a dispensation, which is absolutely and
undoubtedly within the power of the pope, had not been of rare occurrence.
Martin V., a predecessor of Juhus IL, had granted to the Count de Foix
permission to marry the widow of his brother ; Pagi, Thomassin, Rainaldi,
and Natahs Alexander, all confirm it.
Alexander VI. gave a dispensation to Manuel, king of Portugal, who suc
cessively married two sisters. And, to quote later examples, after the Coun
cil of Trent, Clement VIIL aUowed the king of Poland to marry his brother's
widoAv. Louisa Maria de Gonzaga successively married, with the pontifi
cal dispensation, the two brothers — Ladislas Sigismund and John Casimir,
both kings of Poland. Urban VIIL granted thirteen dispensations ; Alex
ander VII. granted eight ; the same number were granted by Clement X.
two by Innocent XL, and the same number by Innocent XII. ; various
others were granted by Clement XL ; and aU those pontiffs, both before
and after the time of Henry VIIL, were men iUustrious alike for their doc
trine and their virtues. They were convinced that the prohibition of trans
versal affinity is not a law of nature, and they knew that the Mosaic law
ordered that, on pain of infamy, a brother should marry his brother's widoAv*
* Novaes, Elementi della Storia de' Sommi Pontefici, vol. iv., p. 241. I am not familiar with
such important doctrines, and I only insert this summary statement because I am supported by
so respectable a writer as Novaes. If he did not actually write the note, he at least permitted

CLEMENT VII. 717
I return to Clement VII. He gave provisionaUy a severe reply to the
request of Henry VTII. ; at the same time intrusting the examination of the
question to Cardinals Campeggio and Wolsey. Queen Catharine appealed
from a judgment that she rightly considered too favorable to the debaucn-
ery of the king and insulting to the memory of Juhus II. We seem to be
almost brought back to the time when men sought to compel another
Clement to brand the memory of one of his predecessors.
The cause being carried to Rome, was placed in the hands of Paul Capi-
zucchi, dean of the Rota, who examined it during three years, in the hope
that the king, repenting, would abandon his demand.
Henry then had the audacity to constitute himseK judge in his own cause,
and assuming that he was a fitting arbiter in such a dispute, he married
Anne Boleyn in 1533. She had constantly irritated the king's desires by
protesting that she Avould never consent to his Avishes, unless as his laAvful
queen, although it is said that she had previously been less severe with
others to whom she had sacrificed her honor, as both her mother and sister
had sacrificed theirs to Henry VIIL, the fatal debauchee who was to work
so much evU to the Church.
Henry had sent Cardinal Campeggio out of Great Britain, and had Avith-
dra-wn his favor from Wolsey. The pontiff, informed of what was passing
in England, issued a buU excommunicating Henry, unless within one month
lie took back bis lawful wife Catharine, and dismissed the courtesan Anne
Boleyn. But entreaties, wholesome advice, threats, exhortations, and
promises of affection, were aU alike ineffectual upon the mind of Henry.
This business was treated with much dehcacy, and aU Europe knew that an
excommunication Avas almost always foUowed by pardon, when the guUty
made the least show of repentance. Clement assembled a consistory on the
23d of March, 1534. There were present twenty-two cardinals, all who
were then in Rome, and there the pope declared the marriage between
Henry and Catharine vahd. Only three cardinals were in favor of granting
the divorce ; the other nineteen condemned the king to respect the mar
riage. The sentence pronounced by the pope, the cardinals consenting, was
a consequence of this decision ; the censures were confirmed, and it was
said that the king had aheady incurred them.
Those who, from an unforeseen case, make a rule for anterior facts,*
accuse Clement of imprudence in this deliberation. They say : " H that
pontifical sentence had been deferred, as suggested by Francis I., king of
France, the English schism would not have occurred ; for, six days after
it to be written by a skilful theologian, at Rome., for insertion in this work. I wiU add that
such dispensations were granted during the ministry of the Cardinal de Bernis, and that, in ny
own time, at Rome, such Avere successfully soUcited.
* Novaes, vi., p. 243.

718 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the excommunication was pronounced, letters arrived at Rome, in which
the king of France announced that Henry submitted to the Holy See, and.
promised to obey the pontifical judgments, provided that the pope did not
cut him off from the communion of the faithful. Henry further desired
that those who were under his suspicions should be excluded from the
examination of the cause, and that commissioners should be sent to Cam
bray to hear the arguments, motives, and excuses that would be presented
by the king's delegates."
Moreover, Clement's accusers add that scarcely twenty-one months elapsed
between the separation and the death of Catharine, and that with her death
the controversy would necessarUy have ended, had it lasted till then. But
it wiU be rephed, in favor of Clement, that he had not, with the pontificate,
received the gift of prophecy, and that he had to deal, not with what might
(or might not) be in the hidden future, but with what was before him in the
active visible present. Catharine might long survive, and Henry, who had
married Anne Boleyn in 1533, remained in a state of divorce. Clement had
long waited : perhaps some of his advisers hoped that circumstances would
arise to change the state of the question. The frightful debauchery of
Henry, the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage trampled under foot, the
arrogant contempt with which he had treated the words of the head of the
Church, aU these circumstances demanded that power should remain with
God. And then, who knows whether the promises of the king, blinded as
he was by passion, promises which came only after sentence, would have
proved sincere, docUe, and durable ?
Novaes here praises Bercastel, whose sentiments he entirely approves.
There are other motives to add. The king no longer listened to the sug
gestions of reason, and would not yield : the English clergy was rich, and
might be plundere'd without the king renouncing his passion.
Immense abbeys, considerable lands, income, benefices, a portion of the
landed revenue of England, passed into the hands of the king's minions.
Clement, who had waited so long, might have waited stiU longer, and the
same events would have taken place, without aUowing history to praise, as
it can, and must do, the firmness of the Roman pontiff, and his inflexible
attachment to the rules of church discipline. Those rules Clement never
for an instant lost sight of.
We grieve to have to give these details upon the extinction of the faith
in England. The Britons received the Catholic faith by the preaching of
Joseph of Arimathea : that faith, when almost forgotten, was revived by the
son of King Lucius, who solicited Pope Saint Eleutherius to send him mis
sionaries. They induced the king and his people to receive the faith, which
reigned there untU the fury of Diocletian almost entirely destroyed it. It
flourished again by the zeal of Gregory the Great, who, towards the close

CLEMENT VII. 719
of the fifth century, sent thither some holy monks ; and from that time, for
a thousand years, the faith flourished : always solid, pure, and spotless.*
On receiving news of the excommunication, Henry entirely abohshed the
pontifical authority in his kingdom. He refused the annual tribute which
had been paid to the Holy See from the days of Ina, king of the West
Saxons of England, under the reign of Innocent III. He threatened with
death all who recognized the pope's supremacy. He forbade prayers for
the pope, for which he substituted those impious words : " From the tyran
ny of the bishop of Rome and from detestable enormities, good Lord deliver
us." He compeUed the clergy to recognize him by oath as head of the
Church, constituted immediately by Christ. For this, he made a new ordi
nation of bishops. He adopted a host of the Lutheran errors, and they
named him the Postillion of the Reformation ; and, finaUy, from aU the vari
ous sects, he formed such a mixture as banished the Cathohc rehgion from
the entire kingdom.
MeanwhUe a Diet had assembled at Worms, to which Clement sent his
nuncio, in order to conciliate the Lutherans, who had so greatly increased
the disturbances in Europe. Ferdinand, brother of Charles V, had decided,
in that Diet, in concert with most of the princes and cities of the empire,
that the decree should be acted upon, which the emperor had pubhshed at
Worms, with some orders calculated to arrest the progress of heresy. But
some other princes, partisans of Lutheranism, John, elector of Saxony ;
George, elector of Brandeburg ; Ernest and Francis, dukes of Lunenburg ;
PhUip, landgrave of Hesse, and WoKgang, prince of Anhalt, with but too
many of the imperial cities — Strasburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Constance, Mem-
mingen, Lindau, HeUbronn, Saint GaU, and others — protested against the
decree of the Diet. It was by this act of protestation that the Lutherans
acquired the name of Protestants, which distinguishes them from other
heretics. During aU these misfortunes, during aU these poignant griefs of the faith,
other disasters seemed to menace the Church. Soliman, with a terrible
mihtary array, prepared in person to invade the kingdom of Hungary.
King Ferdinand caUed on the Holy Father for assistance. Clement, still
generous, in spite of aU that had occurred in Rome, neglected no opportu
nity to connect himseK more closely with Charles V. He asked that prince
whether he would receive the pontiff in Spain, or would himself go to Italy,
that they might hold a conference. Charles, with a respectful deference,
rephed that the pope should himseK appoint their place of meeting. It
was agreed that the pope should go to Bologna, and that Charles would
* The Jesuit Father Parsons wrote, in EngUsh, " The Three Conversions of England, from
Paganism to the Christian Beligion."

720 LIVES OF THE POPES.
meet him there. But Clement, Avorn down by a cruel disease, was obhged
to defer his journey, and even for some time to renounce the fatigues of gov
ernment ; and, accordingly, he named for the temporary government of Rome
four cardinals— Alexander Farnese, Andrew deUa VaUe, Augustine Spinola,
and Paul Cesi. Shortly afterwards, his health enabled the pope to set out.
We have aheady adverted to some facts relating to the Enghsh schism,
more recent than those which now occupy our attention ; but we could not
interrupt our recital of such misfortunes, and we are obliged to revert to
circumstances which preceded that most lamentable separation. In the
congress which took place at Bologna, the pope had the happiness of seeing
peace concluded between the emperor and the Venetians, and the dukes of
Milan, Savoy, and Mantua.
On the 24th of February, 1530, Clement solemnly gave the crown to
Charles V. He was the last emperor who received it from the hands of the
pope. The ancient ceremonies were observed. Charles V, wearing the
crown, held the stirrup of the horse that the pope mounted for the solemn
cavalcade. The ceremony was also fulfiUed of receiving the emperor elect
as canon of the Vatican, previous to the coronation, in the chapel of Saint
Mary, between two towers which are near the BasUica. In the church of
Saint Petrona, at Bologna, a magnificent chapel was buUt, which was to -
replace that of Saint Mary.
Several days after, the pope pubhshed a buU to make up for any cere
monies of the old rite that might have been omitted. Then, foUowing the
example of Leo X., Clement granted that the kingdom of Naples should,
during the IKe of Charles, be considered part and parcel of the Germanic
empire. Clement, thus friendly with Charles V., would not neglect to become also
more intimately and undoubtedly the friend of Francis I.
On the 9th of September, 1533, the pope proceeded to Pisa. Thence he
embarked on the French gaUeys, and disembarked at MarseiUes to discuss
the proposed marriage of his niece, Catharine de Medici (afterwards mother
of three kings— Francis II. , Charles IX., and Henry III.)— to the duke of
Orleans, afterwards Henry II.
On this occasion, Clement, considering himseK a traveUer, renounced an
ancient custom, and sat at table with the_ queen, wife of Francis I. Bercas
tel, in the History of the Church (vol. xvil, p. 343), describes the magnifi
cence of Clement's entrance into MarseiUes.
Clement returned to Rome, Avhere he had decided that his successor
should be chosen in case of his own death during this journey. At
Rome he feU sick, and after six months suffering, died on the 25th of
September, 1534, after governing the Church ten years, ten months, and
seven days.

CLEMENT VII. 721
He appointed as testamentary executors Cardinal Cibo, Salviati, Ridolfi,
and Medici ; leaving them a sum ofmoney to pay the expenses of his tomb
and that of Leo X. The tomb, in the church of La Minerva, contains the
bodies of Leo X. and Clement VII.
Clement VH. was a pope of invincible firmness in the calamities and
miseries of his time, which oppressed not only Rome, but all Christendom.
He had been a successful cardinal ; for, under Leo X., he administered aU
things prosperously.
But it is certain that his pontificate was fatal to Rome, K we take into
consideration the progress of Lutheranism, the Enghsh schism, and that
abominable invasion of Rome.
Many writers say that Clement was odious to the courts, suspected by
the princes, of doubtful faith, niggardly, and but little addicted to distrib
uting benefits ; but they cannot help confessing that, in his actions, he was
grave, sagacious, and of great genius, when unforeseen circumstances did
not compel him to change his resolution.
One of his greatest virtues was the clemency with which he pardoned
Cardinal Soderini, who was his sworn enemy, and who afterwards was his
friend and panegyrist. On the provisional tomb, erected for him at the
Vatican, the foUowing inscription was very justly placed : "To Clement VIL,
sovereign pontiff, whose invincible firmness was only exceeded by his clem
ency." Clement enriched the Vatican hbrary with a great number of volumes.
A great many of this pope's letters are extant, to the king of France, the
king of England, and some men of learning. His letters to Charles V.,
pubhshed under the title, EpistdUe dementis VII. ad Carolum V. ; alterce
Caroli V. dementi respondentis (4to, 1527), are very rare.
We mention here the connection of Michael Angelo with this pope.
After continuing the plans relating to the mausoleum of Juhus IL, Mi
chael Angelo, previous to the misfortunes of Rome, went to Florence ;*
thence he returned to Rome. He intended, on settling there, to divide his
time, according to the wish of Clement VIL, between preparations for the
new painting in the. Sixtine chapel and finishing the works on the mauso
leum of Juhus IL, which were to be terminated on an extremely reduced
plan. Under Clement was commenced the fresco of the Last Judgment, which
was not finished untU 1541, under Paul III. In connection with that work,
* We have in our cabinet an original document in his autograph. Michael Angelo, when
lie Avrote this, must have been in bad circumstances, for he speaks of being obliged to sell his
horse for a very moderate sum. This document, in which the great artist writes his name
Buonarroti correctly, is, I beUeve, the only autograph of that great man to be found in
France. Vol.. L— 46

722 LIVES OF THE POPES.
we may apply to Michael Angelo a passage of Pliny, lib. xxxv. : Pinxit et
qucepingi non possunt — He painted even those things which cannot be painted.
We shaU speak hereafter of this subhme composition.
The Holy See remained vacant seventeen days.*
* The medals of Clement VII. have around the head the words : Clemens VII. Pont. Max.
The first has on the reverse, the words, Glokia et honobe coeonasti evm — Thou hast
crowned him with glory and honor. It is a repetition of that of Leo X., of which we spoke in
our life of that pope. In the field are balls or besants of the Medicis.
A second represents the opening of the Holy Gate : M.D.XXV. Resebavit et Clavsit — He
has opened and shut. It is a repetition of a medal of Alexander VI.
A third medal in this collection has these words on the reverse, at the top of the field : Eao
bvm Ioseph Featee Vestek — lam Joseph, your brother. Joseph, seated on a kind of throne,
is making himself known to his brethren. This is an aUusion to a convention made by Clement,
when a captive, promising Hugo Moncada, one of the generals of Charles V., that he would par
don the Colonna who had brought his army into Italy.
Du Molinet gives other medals :
1. The opening of the Holy Gate, with a different exergue : Svnt et Port.s: cceli apebt^; —
The gates of heaven are opened.
2. Post mvlta plvelma eestant — After many, still more remain. Alluding to the captivity
of the pope. Christ is bound to the piUar; below are the rods with which he has been scourged.
3. Clavdvntve Belli foet.e — The gates of war are closed. Discord chained near the gates
of the temple of Janus. Alluding to the peace between Francis I. and Charles V. Abundance
appears with the cornucopia in hand.
4. Vt Popvlvs blbat — That the people may drink. Moses smites the rock with his rod. The
pope had caused a well to be constructed, into which, by descents, even mules, with their bur
dens, could be taken down.
Without epigraph : Joseph, standing, receives the homage of his brethren ; some on horse
back. Bonanni (vol. i., p. 185) gives other medals of Clement VII. ;
1. Hoote salvs facta est mvndo ; in the exergue, Clemens VIL, Anno Jubilei — This
day salvation has been granted to the world. Clement' VIL, the year of Jubilee. The stable, the
infant Jesus, the Virgin, Saint Joseph, the ox, and the ass ; above, the star, which has stopped.
2. Misit D. Angelvm swm et libeeavit ; in the exergue, me — God lias sent his angel, and
delivered me. An angel conducts Saint Peter, who holds the keys. Alluding to the deUverance
of Clement VII., leaving the castle of Saint Angelo, where he had been besieged. Louis Gon-
zaga, who awaited him in the neighboring meadows, conducted him to the mountain of Viterbo.
3. Candoe iliuESVS — An unalterable candor. A leafless tree alludes to the burning of Rome.
The sun darts its rays upon one of the besants of the Medicis. This medal, with a few varia
tions, has been thrice repeated.
4. In the exergue : Ivstitia ex Deo — Justice comes from God. Clement VII. on a mule, and "
wearing his mitre ; two soldiers, disguised as Spaniards, are at his knees. The artist would not
represent the pope as disguised. The disguised soldiers are Louis de Gonzaga and one of his
generals. 5. Ecce Homo, in the field ; around, the words, Peo eo at me dilioeeent — Behold the man !
I have suffered for him, that they should love me. Ecce Homo are the words of Pilate, the rest
is spoken by Clement for Jesus Christ : "I have received this insult that Christians might love
me." Christ, robed, has his hands bound.

PAULHL

723

224 PAUL III.— a. d. 1534.

AUL IH., previously styled Alexander Famese, of
an ancient Roman famUy, was the son of Louis
Farnese and of GiovaneUa Gaetani, daughter of
the duke of Sermoneta. He was born at Rome,
on the 28th of February, 1468. The tutor of his
earher years was Pomponius Leti ; but being sub
sequently sent to Florence, he there made rapid
progress in Greek and Latin.
'•^ On his return to Rome, he was appointed apos
tolical prothonotary, by Innocent VHL Alexander VI. made him treasurer
of the chamber ; and on the 21st of September, 1493, created him cardinal,
when he was only twenty-five or twenty-six years of age.
When Charles VLH. entered Italy, the pope sent Cardinal Alexander to
meet the king. Juhus II. made him bishop of Parma. It was Cardinal
Alexander Famese who crowned Leo X., by whom he was created bishop
of Frascati.
The rare quahties of Farnese made him a favorite of Clement VII. That
pontiff, when at the point of death, exclaimed : " H the pontificate was
given by bequest, we should in our last wiU and testament name Cardinal
Farnese as our successor."
For forty years Cardinal Famese had maintained the dignity of the
purple ; he was wanting in no quahfication, and aU judged him worthy of
the tiara.
After the funeral of the deceased pope, on the 11th of October, 1534,
thirty-seven electors met in conclave ; the first day by inspiration, and the
second by scratiny, they elected, as pontiff, Cardinal Alexander Farnese,
who was then sixty-seven years of age.
There was universal joy in Rome ; it was the first time, since Martin V.,
and after the lapse of one hundred and three years, that the city had seen
a Roman seated in the chair of Saint Peters-
Alexander took the name of Paul, because he was born under the reign
of Paul H.

* De Thou is mistaken, when he says in his History (lib. i., p. 25), that, after the election, this
pope Avished to take the name of Onofrius V., and that, at the coronation, he changed that name
for that of Paul IH. Where did De Thou find four popes Onofrius, that Alexander Farnese
should be the fifth of that name? Other authors say that Farnese wanted to take the name of
Honorius V., and that the electors persuaded him not to do so.

724 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Henry VIIL continued to exhibit his senseless rage. It was discovered
that long before he received the buU of excommunication he had aheady
decided in council upon the fatal separation with which he threatened the
Holy See.
Rome had not been wanting in prudence, and throughout the affair had
fulfilled her most sacred duties, without neglecting any of the rules of cir
cumspection, humanity, or that spirit of concord which distinguished her.
It was not in the power of Rome to do more, and no human power could
have warded off' the blow. Henry at length sent Anne Boleyn to the block,
and married his third wKe, Jane Seymour, one of Anne Boleyn's maids of
honor. A fourth wife, Anne, sister of the duke of Cleves, succeeded Jane,
who probably escaped the axe only by dying in chUdbed. Let us pass over
the execution of the fifth wKe, Catherine Howard, convicted, it was said, of
adultery, and condemned to be beheaded.
Henry had destroyed two cardinals, three archbishops, eighteen bishops,
thirteen abbots, five hundred priests and monks, and quite innumerable vic
tims among the lower ranks.
From all parts arose loud protestations against so hateful a ferocity.
Paul, by a buU of the 29th of November, 1535, again excommunicated
Henry. That prince was cited to appear at Rome, in person or by ambas
sador, Avithin ninety days, to answer for his abominable conduct. As he
did not obey, the Holy Father confirmed the excommunication on the 27th
of December, 1538.
The Church was now afflicted by a vast number of heretical sects. Be
sides Luther and the Anabaptists, the lists had to be kept against no less
hostUe writers, the adepts of Zuinglius, Picard, Occhin, Bucer, Melanethon,
Beza, and Calvin. The partisans of this last received different names in
the different countries in which they spread themselves. They were caUed
Calvinists in Germany, Sacramentarians in Switzerland, Picardins in Bo
hemia, Gueux (or beggars) in Flanders, Puritans in England, and Huguenots
in France.*
The apostacy of Occhin Avas one of the livehest sorroAvs of Rome. He .
was general of the Capuchins, and the extinction of that order had been
spoken of, on the plea that it was infected by the errors of its head. Paul
held a secret consistory, and proposed, in presence of aU the cardinals, to
abolish that order. AU the cardinals were on the point of agreeing with
the Holy Father, when Cardinal Antonio San Severino spoke. In an elo
quent and generous speech, he urged that it was necessary to act with per
fect justice in the matter. He dwelt upon the services which the Capuchins
* For a fuU account of Calvin and his work, see the remarkable life of that heresiarch by
Audin, translated by the Right Reverend J. McGiU, D. D.. bishop of Richmond.

Paul ni. 725
had rendered, their learning, their zeal for preaching, and the courage with
which they suffered poverty and gloried in it. Cardinal da Caspi was ap
pointed to examine the dogmatic conduct of the members of the order ;
and those useful friars, so beloved by the people, so simple and so docile,
were maintained in their privUeges, which the pope was even inclined to
augment. For the purpose of endeavoring absolutely to destroy all the heresies, the
pope dispatched nuncios to aU the Christian princes to announce his inten
tion of assembling a general councU, to afford a remedy for aU those evils ;
and on the 2d of June, 1536, he pubhshed a bull, which was signed by
twenty-six cardinals. In it he declared that the sacred congress would
assemble at Mantua. Duke Frederic having suggested reasons why that
would not be the fitting place, the pope decided, in 1537, that the council
should be held at Vicenza. The German bishops raised some difficulties ;
at that time difficulties were raised at every step towards doing good to the
Church. At length the city of Trent was named, situated on the German
and Itahan frontier, and much desire was felt for the first session, which
was not commenced until later.
The complaints of the opponents had chiefly related to infractions of
ecclesiastical disciphne. Paul knew the evil, and he desired to give satis
faction on that subject to aU good Cathohcs. He formed a congregation
consisting of nine persons, equaUy distinguished for learning and piety,
from among those superior persons who are never rare in Rome. They
were Cardinals Gaspar Contarini, John Peter Carafa, James Sadolet, Regi
nald Pole; Frederic Fregosa, archbishop of Salerno; Jerome Aleandri,
archbishop of Brindisi ; John Matthew Giberti, bishop of Verona ; Gregorio
Cortese, abbot of Saint George of Venice ; and Thomas Badia, master of the
sacred palace.
These commissioners drew up a book which contained the principal arti
cles necessary to the good discipline of the Church, and presented it to the
pope ; but he deferred its pubhcation, wishing that, being first received by
the councU, it should have the greater authority.
The chapters contained in this work were then published in Germany,
with explanations by the heretic Sturm. That is the reason why this counsel
of this commission is named in the index of forbidden books, as is proved
by several authors ; but that is explained by the poison of the explanation
which Sturm added to a work otherwise advantageous to the Church.
Paul, grieving that war was kindled between Charles V. and Francit L,
and judging that it was hkely to be prejudicial to religion, proposed to
those two great kings that they should meet him in consultation, and mu
tually give proofs of a union proper to extirpate heresies fatal to both
kingdoms. The place for that interview was to be the city of Nice. Paul

726 LIVES OF THE POPES.
set out from Rome, while the emperor disembarked at ViUa Franca, and the
Most Christian king went by land to VUlanova.
The princes separately paid their homage to the pontiff, but he could not
induce them to meet him together. In the interview with the king of
France, the pope confirmed the privUege given by Eugene IV. to Charles
VII. ; which indult authorized the parhament of Paris, even the lay mem
bers, to name, at their pleasure, persons qualified mentaUy and moraUy to
the benefices beneath two hundred livres tournois.
The Holy Father had the sweet consolation of inducing the princes to
sign a truce for ten years. Another piece of inteUigence gladdened the
heart of Paul. Ferdinand, king of the Romans, wrote word that it would
probably be not difficult to bring about an agreement between the Catholics
and the Protestants, if His Holiness would send into Germany some envoy
illustrious alike for morals and for learning. Paul immediately cast his
eyes upon the Cardinal Aleandri ; but he, constantly deceived by the eva
sions of the Protestants, could effect nothing, and, by the pope's order,
returned to Rome.
About this time the mausoleum of Juhus II. was completed. Clement
VII. wished the ornamentation of the Sixtine chapel to be all Michael
Angelo. He freed the artist from his disputes with the famUy of Juhus.
The original plan, as we mentioned sometime back, was very hmited.
Michael Angelo Avas only to make three figures ; the others, to the number
of seven, were to be modeUed, only, by Michael Angelo, but finished under
his direction.*
* To describe the new composition, we must observe that JuUus, everywhere the first, is repre
sented on the second. elevation, reclining, and scarcely visible. But it is generally true, that
when one is dead, much attention is not paid to one's Uving claims. As if some sort of fatality*
had denied that he should occupy, even in his funereal monument, a place proportionate to his
ambition, his figure is so placed and so treated, that it scarcely attracts the eyes of the spectator.
Beneath, and in a niche, is the figure of the infant Jesus, the work of Scherano de Settignano,
who, according to Vasari, executed it according to a. model of Michael Angelo. The two other
side-niches, of that elevation, are occupied by statues in a sitting posture. One represents a
prophet ; the other is a sibyl, and is the work of Raphael de Montelupo, with which Michael
Angelo is said to have been ill pleased.
This description starts from the summit of the monument, which is finished with an entabla
ture with the arms of the pope, an oak, and candelabra. In the lower portion are the works
which properly belong to Michael Angelo, and which consist of two statues, in niches, represent
ing the contemplative life, and the active life, under the names of Rachel and Leah.
The figure of active life, larger than nature, is on the left of the statue of Moses ; the statue
of contemplative life is on the right. Notwithstanding the genius of Michael Angelo, and the
wealth of Julius II., who had striven to prepare for hijnseU yet one other earthly glory, while
awaiting the heaA'enly judgment, this monument shows a relapse into errors of the preceding
century. I have always suspected that Michael Angelo, fettered in his imagination by jealousies, had
* M. Quatremere, Hist, de Michet-Ange, p. 107.

PAUL III. 727
Meantime, Ignatius Loyola had founded the Society of Jesus. In spite
of the immense opposition and formidable warfare carried on against it, this
society increased with marveUous success. On the 15th of September, 1539,
Paul, at Tivoli, approved the institution, vivce vods oraculo, and confirmed it
by buU, dated 27th of December, 1540. This delay proves with what wis
dom and prudence affairs are decided upon at Rome. It was only on the
31st of July, 1543, that the pontiff approved the Spiritual Exercises, com
posed by the iUustrious founder.
Ignatius was the first writer of his order. A century later it could num
ber as authors no fewer than two thousand two hundred and thirty-eight of
its sons, a number which increased wonderfuUy up to the time of the sup
pression of the society under Clement XIV.
In fact, it may be asserted, that, up to this sad epoch, the order, in th
course of a httle more than two centuries, reckoned among its sons about
twenty thousand writers, without reckoning those who wrote after its sup
pression. Zaccaria began to make a catalogue of them, and was only pre
vented by death from continuing that reaUy prodigious series of authors.*
In the year 1539, some citizens and zealous Romans, formed, in the
church of the Minerva, of the Dominican Fathers, the Society of the Most
Holy Sacrament. It was to see that the Blessed Sacrament was exposed,
in aU the churches, with becoming decency and veneration : it was also to
take every care that the Viaticum was conveyed to the sick. The pope ap
proved that holy institution, and granted it indulgences and privUeges
enjoyed by other societies under the same name, whether aheady then ex
isting or subsequently to be instituted.
In 1541, on Christmas-day, Paul HI. ordered the uncovering of the great
work of Michael Angelo, representing the Last Judgment.!
in some sort been compeUed to underrate Julius H., and that he loved to represent in this Moses,
at once pontiff and warrior, that poUtic and warlike pope ; and that the secret has been long kept,
if, in truth, Michael Angelo really felt that regret, and desired to bring his hero once more (and
may we not add, permanently) upon the stage. Be that as it may, the colossal statue of Moses
excites universal enthusiasm.
This work has many merits, and in more than one part. Certainly the head and face of Moses
are the work of a lofty thought, and of a most practised chisel. There are a breadth of design
and a firmness of touch, animated by a lively and deep feehng, and a grandeur of form, an im-
posing boldness, and an expression of power and of activity, that makes us cast down our eyes
and shun criticism. l
Such is the opinion of all who, on arriving in Rome, rush to the Moses, unless they have first
rushed to the Last Judgment, of wliich we shall presently speak.
* The Belgian Jesuits, the Fathers De Baeker, have, in a series of volumes, since given a fuU
bibliography of the writers of the Society of Jesus.
t Quatremere says, at p. 117 of his history of Michael Angelo : " We ask you if the subject
of the Last Judgment, altogether beyond or above the order of sensible things, a subject un
known, immense, innumerable, infinite, and beyond aU expression and aU conception-we ask
you whether such a subject is of a nature to be treated by any kind of imitation? We boldly
reply : No !

728 LIVES OF THE POPES.
At this period he gave the cardinalate to Henry, infant of Portugal, whom
hereafter we shaU have to mention as king of that country.
We now hasten to record one of the most glorious epochs of the reign of
Paul III.
" If you insist that it is, we reply, that according to aU that the imagination can suggest of
such an immense catastrophe — of the convulsion of aU the elements, of the appearance of the
Supreme Tribunal, before which aU mankind must appear, and of the resurrection of the dead —
to give to such a scene, not indeed its full extent, but even a, mere sketch proportioned to the
visual faculty, would require in a single painter an assemblage of aU powers, many of them
incompatible Avith each other, from the mere nature of the human faculties."
According to Quatremere, it would be possible, if we admit the merely imaginary possibility
of the assemblage of all the quahties necessary for a subject so multitudinously composite — it
would be possible, we say, to picture to one's self the upper part, or that of the angels, with the
effects of luminous harmony, which only a Tintoretto or a Rubens could paint. The middle
portion, or that of the blessed surrounding Christ, uniting all the beauties of the predes
tined, already introduced into the celestial escort, would be rendered visible by the brush of a
Raphael 6t a Corregio. The lower region would belong, of right, to Michael Angelo ; it would
be the portion of his bold drawing and violent expression, and, if it is to be said, of his execu
tion, in a manner which seems to find facility only in the difficult. As much as to say, conse
quently, that such a subject, if not inaccessible to painting, is so to any single painter.
" Yes,'' exclaims Quatremere, "such a subject can in truth belong only to the art of the poet."
Poetry can do all, because it addresses itself to the moral sense of mankind, which itseU is
capable of foUowing it and traveUing Avith it into all the worlds.
Well 1 that is what Michael Angelo, working within the Umits of his art, and especially of
that portion of his to which the nature of his talent confined him, ably conceived and executed,
within a space which, though undoubtedly large for a picture, must still be very limited for
such a subject.
He could command but a smaU space. And so, starting from the top, and in the semicircular
spaces formed by the springing of the two arches, at the end of the chapel, Michael Angelo
painted groups in the air, bearing the instruments of the Passion.
A dozen of those young persons, in attitudes more appropriate to art than to the duties in
which they are engaged, are carrying the cross ; another group of five or six similar figures,
accompany the cross, bearing with them the crown of thorns.
In the corresponding curved space is a group of eight or ten young men (or angels without
wings), of the-same proportions and apparent age as the preceding, gathered around the instru
ments of the Passion, which they carry, such as the pillar, the ladder, the spear, and the sponge.
Below the spaces occupied by these groups, on both sides, and on a much larger scale, are two
crowds, not mere groups of personages, composing the celestial army of the patriarchs, of the
just of the Old Law, of the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and aU the heroes of the Old and New
Testaments, carrying or presenting, in homage to the Supreme Judge, the instruments of their
martyrdom, or the wounds received in it.
What wise and good servants of God, what skilful, generous, and A-igUant sentinels have been
. those pontiffs, who, seeing the influx of Christians to this chiefest of earthly temples, addressed
to them so powerful a precept, a lesson so ardent and so true, whUe these Christians still im
agined that they only came in search of a pleasure, an emotion of joy, a satisfaction of curi
osity, a mere recreation after so long a journey ! This was one of the noblest inspirations of
the popes ; and it was not one of them alone who Avas inspired by that noble thought. Julius
IL, Leo X., Adrian VL himself, in not prohibiting, and Paul III., all joined in contributing to
the same end ; each of them, in turn, held, as it were, the painter's brush. And yet some deem
, n- j rai-ney to Rome unproductive I It has brought into the bosom of the Church more than
one Protestant, unable to resist such teaching.
Jbut ui r Uu.y returning thanks to the patrons who so long and so firmly supported Michael
Angelo, let us deprive him of no portion of his glory.

PAUL ill. 729
On the 13th of December, 1545, the twentieth general. council, known as
the CouncU of Trent, and extending to 1563, held its first session in that
city. The eighth was held on the 11th of March, 1547. At that time a
terrible epidemic prevaUed in the place, and the council was transferred to
Bologna, where two sessions were held, in spite of the repugnance of Charles
V, who pretended that the French had offended him, and who continued
pubhcly to manifest serious discontent. That prince also showed great irri
tation against the pope. Paul, in 1545, had given Parma and Placenza in
fief to Peter Louis Farnese. That prince being kiUed by a conspiracy
among his subjects, the emperor wished to treat Parma and Placenza as be
longing to the imperial domain, under the pretext that they formed part of
the duchy of MUan.
We have said that in the composition there are two crowds. In fact, only those of the first
places around Christ are represented fully. In the perspective, on either side, are a multitude
of heads, difficult to number, which more or less diminish in height, in the distance of each
group. In the midst of these groups appears the figure of Christ, at whose side is the Blessed
Virgin. He seems to turn towards the spot where the reprobate are seen. At some distance
below, Michael Angelo has depicted a group of eight young people. No doubt, though they
are not winged, they represent the angels sounding the trumpet that is to call up the dead.
Michael Angelo seizes, in turn, aU the arguments that the Church uses to encourage the good
and to alarm the Aricked.
The group of angels separates two other groups, of which the one on the side of Christ con
sists of the risen ; some of whom, by their attitude and' apparent motions, are about to ascend to
heaven ; others, to whom protecting hands, and efforts variously expressed (the effect of gener
ous prayer could not be more generously expressed), facilitate the means of rising to the regions
of the blest.
The other group, in paraUel as to place, but in opposition as to subject, is the mass of those
whom the supreme sentence hurls into the abyss. As in the preceding group, the action of
rising in accordance Avith physical laws is made sensible to the eye by the aid of those who
evidently facilitate the ascent ; so, by the motions of a contrary action, all the reprobate bodies
are seen carried and urged towards the abyss in positions and attitudes most frightfully com
plicated, but with a tendency that indicates most clearly a diametrically opposite direction,
leaving no doubt that they are drawn towards the regions of the damned.
Fea said, that in the countenances of those who aided in causing that fall, he could perceive
the physiognomies of flatterers, of perfidious advisers, and of aU those who in life urge others
to yield to the passions. This supposition of Fea's, however, would imply that aU these per
verse sinners would stiU have the mission to continue their crimes. It would be more reason
able, to believe that the celestial sentence has caused a supernatural force to inflict that punish
ment. AU at that moment is mysterious, prodigious ; a miracle the more should not astonish
us in a cataclysm which proves to men of little faith what they deserve by their abandonment
of justice, of charity, of honor, and of the virtues by the aid of which eternal beatitude is to be
attained. It is in these groups that Michael Angelo has multiplied, beyond the powers of description,
with a bold disregard of the greatest difHculties, and yet with incredible truth and correctness
of design, multitudes of figures, in attitudes that seem possible only in dreams, and in which,
however, truth and correct drawing defy criticism.
Such is the first painting one seeks at Rome, after viewing the paintings of Raphael, or be
fore ascending to the chambers and lodges. And what emotion is felt when a ceremony in
which the pope officiates, caUs you to the Sixtine chapel, and this master-piece is before your
eyes for some hours !

730 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Among the cardinals created in the eleventh promotion by Paul was
Charles de Lorraine, son of Claude de Lorraine, first duke of Guise, and of
Antoinette de Bourbon, and brother of cardinals John and Louis de Lor
raine, and of Mary of Guise, wKe of James Stuart, king of Scotland.
Charles was born at JoinviUe, in Champagne, on the 17th of February,
1525. In 1538, when only thirteen years old, he was named archbishop of
Rheims, and as such he successively crowned three kings of France— Henry
IL, in 1547 ; Francis IL, in 1557 ; and Charles IX., in 1561. He was a
prince endowed with eminent qualities, but of such imperious disposition
that Pius V. caUed him "the tramontane pope." Pius IV. had aheady
named him " the second pope."
In the twelfth promotion of cardinals, 1548, were included Charles de
Bourbon, son of the duke of Vendome, brother of Anthony, king of Na
varre, and uncle of Henry IV., king of France ; and the other, Cardinal de
Bourbon, who was proclaimed king by the League on the 21st of November,
1589. Peace was not restored between the pope and the emperor. That
monarch thought fit to publish at Augsburg a profession of faith that was
drawn up by the bishop of Nuremberg, the bishop of Sinodia, and some
writers ; but at Rome it was considered that the emperor, in endeavoring to
terminate the differences with the rehgious dissenters, had overstepped the
rights of a temporal sovereign. For, in the twenty-six chapters of which
that confession consisted, it treated on the principal dogmas of rehgion, on
the sacraments, and on the ceremonies of the Church. There were two
chapters contrary to the disciphne of the Latin Church ; one of them
granted marriage to priests, the other permitted the laity to receive com
munion under both kinds. This formula having been pubhshed in Germany,
to serve as a rule there untU the council should decide and regulate points
of faith, the name of Interim was given to this celebrated imperial deter
mination. It is quite true that many other formulas of the same name were
at various times granted by Charles V. on the subject of rehgion, untU
formal decisions could be given by the council ; but that which had the
greatest circulation under the name of Interim was the one pubhshed on
the 15th of May, 1548, when the councU was actuaUy in session. It was
also caUed Interitus, because it was mortal to those who embraced it.
Some authors compare this formula to the simUar ones caUed enoticos,
ccflvesis, and type, and compare Charles V. to the emperors Zeno, Herachus,
and Constantius, authors of those three famous formulas.
It is certain that the Interim was disapproved by the pope, who thought
it extraordinary that the emperor should undertake on his own part to regu
late matters of rehgion in the empire. The Interim was also attacked by
Catholic and even by Protestant writers. Among the former were Robert,
bishop of Avranches; Conrad Clingius, theologian of the order of Saint

PAUL III. 731

Francis at Rome ; and Francis Remee, general of the Dominicans. Among
Protestants were Gaspar d'AquUa, PhUip Melancthon, and John Calvin
himseK. To obviate the evUs which might arise from that Interim, the Holy Father
sent into Germany the bishops of Fano, Verona, and Ferentino, as apos
tohc nuncios. They had fuU powers to treat with Charles V., and induce
him to desist from his unfortunate course. The pope recommended a con
duct fuU of mildness : he gave them faculty of dispensation as to the two
articles, provided always that the purity of our rehgion should suffer no
prejudice.* But the nuncios soon perceived that the obstinacy of the
Protestants would yield not a jot on the subject of the partaking of the
cup, and that their preachers, who, for the most part, were apostate monks,
would by no means consent to leave the women with whom they had con
tracted a sacrUegious union; so the vigUant and courageous pope could
effect nothing by the negotiation. It is estabhshed, then, that in this affair
Paul was only conciliatory, and merits none of the reproaches which have
been.rashly addressed to him after the event. No less under Paul than
under so many other popes, has the most consummate prudence constantly
guided the wise Roman court.
Charles V had occupied the State of Placenza, and the pope had ground
to fear that the State of Parma would also be occupied. The son of the
assassinated prince claimed to rule, as successor to his father. AU these
affairs, besides other circumstances that might be blamed, could not be
brought to a happy issue, because the pope was old and suffering. The
conduct of Octavius Farnese so violently irritated the pope that he became
dangerously iU. Prompt remedies brought him to himseK, but the death
blow was struck. A fever came on, which terminated the pontiff's hfe on
the 10th of November, 1549, at the age of eighty-one years, eight months,
and ten days, after having governed the Church fifteen years and twenty-
nine days. It has been remarked that he created seventy-one cardinals,
among whom two were his nephews, and four his successors, Juhus in.,
MarceUus IL, Paul IV., and Pius IV.
Paul died in the palace of the heirs of Cardinal Carafa, at the Quirinal,
which he had occupied on account of the purity of the air. He was then
removed without pomp to the Vatican Basihca, and placed in a temporary
tomb. Afterwards he was laid in a magnificent tomb, the work of the
famous WiUiam deUa Porta, called the Bead Brother (ddpiombo), because
it was his office to affix the leaden seal to the pontifical bolls. This tomb
was executed under the direction of Michael, Angelo, and the superintend
ence of Annibal Caro. * Novaes, vil, p. 49.

732 LIVES OF THE POPES.
It is said that Paul III., just before his death, repeated these words : "If
mine shaU have no dominion over me, then I shaU be without spot, and I
shaU be cleansed from the greatest sin." — Ps. xvin. 13.
In the Biographic Universelle (vol. xxii, p. 74), it is said : " Paul III. was
naturaUy gentle and moderate ; he loved poetry, and wrote it with facility.
His letters to Erasmus and Sadolet are fuU of erudition. FeUer (iv., p. 278)
says that this pope wrote dissertations on some of the writings of Cicero."
Novaes, in his notice of Paul III., bestows great praises upon his virtue,
his prudence, his justice, his greatness of soul, his firmness in adversity, his
moderation, his magnificence, and his acquaintance with both divine and
human things.*
*¦ Our collection contains three medals of this reign. In one, the head is bare ; in the second,
the head is covered by the long white cap worn by aged popes. The third has the tiara. On
the embroidery of the copes are seen the opening of the Holy Gate, acts of benediction, and a
temple like that of Vesta.
On the reverse of the first, we read : Annona Pontificia. Abundance holding the cornuco
pia in the left and a statue in the right hand. A basket of fruits and flowers. On the left a
helmet. On the reverse of the second is seen the palace Farnese, with thirteen windows. Legend :
Fvndatob Habvm .Sdivm. This, the finest palace in Rome, was begun by Paul HI., after
the plans of Antonio de Sangallo, and finished by Alexander Farnese, under the direction of
Michael Angelo.
The third medal has the legend : icfvh Z^St efipaivEi — Tlie favor of Jupiter refreshes and glad
dens. Ganymede watering Mies. The word fcpvri aUudes to the name Farnese. The idea is
somewhat complicated. The water is the gift of the sky (Jupiter). We give this explanation
only for just what it is worth. The Ulies in the arms of France are doubtless alluded to by the
floAver. The pope restored peace in France, and that peace rejoiced her provinces as .water re
joices plants. The young man is too naked, but is very elegantly modelled on the antique.
Some think that the sculptor should have written the word clf/atva, instead of the word cttyaira.
Du MoUnet gives also :'l. Nec peimvs teetio, nec secvndvs. In the field, Fvtvea atevm
ostendent — Neitlier the first nor the second is greater than the third. The future will show the
man. This refers to the three popes who have borne the name of Paul. Saint Paul I., a great
pontiff; a friend of King Pepin of France, and a zealous patron of images. Paul II., a Venetian,
was active in preventing the progress of the Turks. He was a zealous upholder of ecclesiastical
discipline. The legend is not a happy one. Erasmus praised Leo X., without doing wrong1 to
the other Leos, whom he mentions. Here preference seems to be given to the third Paul.
Legends of medals require tact, and great deUcacy of expression. The iUustrious Pope Paul
III. might have been differently and yet fully eulogized.
2. Savle, savle, qvid me peeseqvebis. In the exergue, Vas electionis — Saul, Saul, why
dost thou persecute me ? The vessel of election. In the field, Saint Paul is seen faUing from hie
horse on the Damascus road.
3. Dominvs ovstodit te. Dominvs peotectio tv a — Tlie Lord guardeth thee; the Lord is thy
protection. Two horsemen struck by lighting, but not injured : in commemoration of an accident
which befeU Cardinal Farnese before he was pope.
4. An ancient chariot, drawn by four horses. In the front, Peace holding an oUve-branch.
Without epigraph. Struck to commemorate a victory over the Perugians.
5. Secveitas tempoevm — The security of the times. In the field, three horses prancingi
6. In the field, secveitati PEBPETViE — To perpetual security. Around, Pavlvs III., Pont
Max. Leonianam aggeeibvs commvnivit — Paul III. surrounded the Leonine city with walls.
That part of Rome in which the Vatican is situated. The churches, walls, and certain of the
seven hills are shown.

Paul in. 733
Rome was disfigured by many deserted and neglected streets : the houses
were isolated from each other. Paul gave them a better form : he made the
streets straight and clean. The Romans thanked him by dedicating a
statue to him in the capitol. He it was who set up the bronze equestrian
7. Secveitas. P. R. — The security of the Boman people. A young Roman sleeping on an
antique seat ; beneath, an extinguished torch.
8. Omnes eeges sebvient ei — All kings shall serve him. We have seen this same coin
under the reign of CaUixtus III. In the medal of CaUixtus III. there is a cross surmounted by a
tiara ; a temple towards which three persons extend their hands. On the left, Rome, helmeted,
holding a buckler in the left hand. One of the persons is supposed to represent Andrew Doria.
The allusion is to a treaty of peace between the pope, Charles V, and Venice, against the em
peror of the Turks.
9. Domvs mea do. oe. — My house is the house of prayer. Christ, armed with a scourge, is
driving the dealers from the temple.
10. dieigentvb pedes' mei in viam pacis — My feet will be kept in the paths of peace. In the
midst of the field a lily of France beneath the rainbow, and then these words : F(edeee tvo,
Devs — By Thy alliance, 0 God. Struck at the peace between Charles V. and Francis I., brought
about by the mediation of Paul.
11. Alma boma — Sublime Borne. Rome covered with buildings, and surrounded by walls.
The temples, streets, and several hiUs are seen.
12. In the field : Faeneslna domvs ctvba ejvsd. Impendiis q. In the field : A solo exci-
tata — The Farnese palace, built by the care and at the expense of the same pontiff. Facade of the
Farnese palace. It is the same we have seen above, but with some variations. Here we must
not omit to say, that to buUd this palace, a great part of the stones were taken from the Coliseum.
Such a profanation of so fine an ancient monument could not take place now.
13. Rvflna, in the middle of a great mass of fortifications. In the exergue, Tvscvlo best. —
Tusculum restored. Rufina, now the Rufinella house, which belonged to the Jesuits, and was
afterwards occupied by Lucien Bonaparte. The RufineUa is buUt not far from the ruins of Tus
culum. The restoration must have been inconsiderable, for it is deserted now.
14. Anno rvBiLEO M.D.L. — The year of Jubilee, 1550. The church of Saint Peter was some
thing as it now is. I think, therefore, that this medal is more recent. . However, Bramante had
received his instructions from JuUus II. The two side domes are higher than they now are.
The central dome terminates in a point, in a kind of Gothic form.
In the exergue, Peteo. Apost. Pein. — To Peter, prince of the Apostles.
15. The Holy Gate, in which are the words : JLec poeta Dmi — This is the gate of the Lord.
Around : Jvsti inteab"vnt pee eam — The just shall enter through it.
16. Hanc petvnt mibacula sedem — Miracles seek this holy seat. In 1538, Michael Angelo, by
Paul's direction, removed the ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius to the capitol square.
17. Flexv apto pbjECVeee. A figure in a two-horse chariot, about to pass the goal.. Chacon
says that Paul could guide hearts as he would guide coursers. (Du Molinet.)
18. Pietati et commodo Pontipicvm— To the" piety and convenience of the pontiffs. The
Pauline chapel of the Vatican.
19. Vnit^b mentes vntvnt — United hearts shall unite. AUusion to the eloquence of Paul,
who united the efforts of the kings of France and Spain against the Turks. The cascade of
Terni is seen for the first time. The waters, amassed by the care of the pope, rush swiftly down
and prevent the flooding of the neighbormg lands of Rieti.
20. Benedictio Domini svpeb vos— The blessing of the Lord upon you. The pope blesses a
fleet going to meet the Turks.
In Bonanni, vol. i., p. 199, there are some other medals :
1. AviTiB Fabnesioevm stlbpis — Tlie ancestors of the Farnese family. In the shield six
lilies, placed 1, 2, 2, 1. A mark of affection for the French.
2. Without inscription. A serpent entAvining a Griffin in his folds. It is thought that the
serpent is Prudence (the Holy See) resisting the efforts of the Griffin, Henry VIH.

734

LIVES OF THE POPES.

statue of Marcus Aurelius on the capitol square. In the barbarous tenth
century the populace caUed it the statue of Constantine. Sixtus IV. re
moved it to the square of Saint John Lateran, as being an admirable sculp
ture of the ancient Romans. Whenever Pietro of Cortona passed that
Vorse, he would exclaim, " Why do you not walk ; do you not know that you
are alive?"
To those readers who have been at Rome, we should say, that it was
Paul III. who opened the street that connects the bridge of Saint Angelo
with the Strada Giuha, which, finished in 1543, stiU bears the name of the
Pauhne street. On the Aventine, he constructed a very fine bulwark, which
is stiU the admiration of engineers. He completely restored the BasUica of
Saint John Lateran. To him also the Vatican is indebted for the Pauline
chapel and the Royal HaU, in which solemn embassies were received. Rome
was not the only recipient of his favors ; the fortress of Perugia is also due to
him, and he added some fine defensive Avorks to the citadel of Ancona. The
whole Christian world lamented the death of Paul IH:
The Holy See was vacant two months and twenty-five days.

225. JULIUS III.— a. d. 1550.

ULIUS III. (John Maria de' Ciocehi del Monte), the
jj^jll^fr son of a famous Roman jurisconsult, was born on the
" 10th of September, 1487.
Juhus IL, in 1512, made him archbishop of Man-
fredonia, when he was only twenty-five years of age.
Paul III. created him cardinal in 1536. He was the
first who presided as apostohc nuncio at the Council
of Trent. On all occasions, Cardinal del Monte dis
played so much inteUect, justice, prudence, and skiU, that he had the
reputation of being the most distinguished member of the sacred coUege.
It was he who, in concert with the Cardinal Guidiccioni, reformed the tribu
nal of the Rota.
As soon as the death of Paul HI. was known, Cardinals Salviati,
Gonzaga, Cibo, deUa Rovera, Madrucci, del Monte, Truchsess, Doria, and
Pacheco, who were at Trent and Bologna, set out for Rome. The electors
formed three factions — the Csesarians, the French, and the Farnesians.
Before they assembled in conclave, they resolved to choose the best candi
date among those worthy of the tiara, and in that number were Cardinal

julius in. 735
Pole, Sfondrati, father of the future Gregory XIV, da Carpi, and Ridolfi.
Serious fears were felt in the conclave, because Pompey Colonna, after the
death of the pope, had occupied PaUiano, and other castles of his family
wliich had been confiscated, and which he had retaken, as he stated, to
maintain his rights. In consequence, the protection of Rome was intrusted
to Horatio Farnese, who had four thousand men under his command, and
who was supported and assisted by four tribunes — Torquato Conti, Juhus
Orsini, Nestor Baghoni, and Papirio Capizucchi. UsuaUy the conclave met
on the eleventh day after the death of a pope, but, on this occasion, it did
not meet until the nineteenth day. The delay was sohcited by the French
cardinals, to give the other cardinals time to come from France. For the
first time, there were introduced into the conclave six physicians and six
surgeons, of various nationalities.
After the customary ceremonies, Cardinal Pole, of the royal blood of
England, was proposed for pope. He was iUustrious for both knowledge
and piety. In a scrutiny he needed only two votes, and the cardinals im
mediately determined to elect him by way of adoration. The day Avas
drawing to a close, and it was beheved that this impulsive movement of
adoration, which leads the cardinals to proclaim aloud the name of the
pontiff elect, was about to decide the question, when Cardinal Pole, with
unmoved countenance, and opposing the strength of his virtue to that livery
impulse, observed that, God being the author of hght, it was not right thus
to decide in the dark, and he entreated the conclave to postpone the elec
tion untU the next day. Nothing could be more welcome to his adversaries.
They made use of the authority of Cardinal Carafa, afterwards Paul
IV., who was renowned as a learned and pious man, and they insinuated
that Pole was suspected of Lutheranism, because, when legate at Viterbo,
he had not displayed great energy against those accused of heresy. Then
Cardinal Alvarez de Toledo was thought of, a relation of the duke of Alba,
viceroy of Naples. He had the favor of the emperor and of Cosmas, duke
of Florence ; but he also lacked two votes, which he could not obtain.
Farnese was favorable to Cardinal Cervini, but the emperor was against
him. The French proposed Salviati, a Florentine, and Rodolph da Carpi ;—
3. Mattbe — Speedily. A dolphin fights a crocodile, and pierce his back with fins armed with
sharp points. AUusion to the aid given by the pope to the Venetians, when at war with the
Egyptian Turks. Mature means that the assistance arrived in time, and was the cause of the
Victory. 4. Without epigraph. NIKHTHPION— The prize of victory. The ancient Romans used to
strike medals after victory, and throw them among the populace, and the custom was preserved
in modern Rome. AUusion to the defeat of the Tunisians by Charles V., to whom Paul III. had
sent gaUeys to re-enforce his fleet.
5. Pavlvs IH. Pont. Max. An. XHII. In the field, Apxiepei ™ nANr— To the sovereign
prince of the priests. Another aUusion to the above-mentioned victory.

736 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the former celebrated as a negotiator under Leo X., Clement VIL, and
Paul III. ; the other, recommended by Catharine de Medici, queen of
France. Neither of them was agreeable to Cardinal Farnese. The king of
France had vainly put forward Cardinal d'Este. The struggle lasted two
months, and an agreement seemed impossible, when the votes suddenly
centred on Cardinal del Monte, though he had been opposed by aU three
parties, the Imperialists, the French, aad Farnese himseK. The election was
decided on the 7th of February at three o'clock at night, by Itahan reckon
ing of time (i. e., nine o'clock in the evening). The conclave consisted of
forty-eight cardinals, — twelve French, two Germans, five Spaniards, and one
English. The other twenty-eight were Itahans or Romans. , Thirty-two
votes, two-thirds of the whole, were requisite.
The new pope was sixty-three years of age. He was crowned on the 22d
of February by Cardinal Cibo, first deacon, and took the name of Juhus
III., in memory of Julius IL, who had given the cardinal's hat to Antonio
del Monte, uncle of the new pontiff.
On the 24th of June, 1550, the day of the Feast of Saint John, Juhus
took possession of Saint John Lateran .
On theJirst day of his pontificate the pope reduced the amount of im
posts, and especiaUy that on wheat. This measure, contemplated by Paul
III., had been prevented by his death.
During the conclave, the forty-eight electors had agreed that whoever
should be elected would be held pledged to recaU Orsini, governor of Parma,
and restore that principality to Octavius Farnese. Juhus III., on his acces-,
sion, was faithful to his engagement, and gave the government of Parma to
Octavius, with the title of Vessilifere (standard-bearer) of the Holy See.
The JubUee, announced by Paul IH., was then opened, and it was in this
year (1550) that the pious institution of the Santissima Trinitd de Pelegrini
commenced its charitable operations. • This distinguished work, founded by
Saint Phihp Neri, may, as Novaes* suggests, be caUed the miracle of Chris
tian charity. It is intended for the reception of all convalescents who are
discharged from the hospitals of the city, and of the pUgrims who go to
Rome to visit the holy places. Pilgrims receive hospitahty there for three
days. This year Italy suffered much from a great scarcity, and Rome was
burdened by the presence of an immense number of paupers. Juhus im
ported breadstuffs, and his action restored plenty.
During the Jubilee, the Indulgences are suspended throughout the world.
The pope excepted those which were granted to the Society of Jesus. At
Trent, Julius had known Faber, Lainez, and Salmeron, theologians of the
* Novaes, vn., p. 66.

JULIUS HI. 737
pope, and therefore he gave the society numerous marks of 'his favor, and
confirmed it by new buUs.
On the 31st of May, 1550, Juhus made his first promotion of- cardinals ;
he gave the hat to Innocent del Monte, who, it is said, had been adopted as
a son by Baldwin del Monte, brother of the pope. This selection made an
unfavorable impression ; Innocent del Monte not appearing worthy of such
an honor. On account of the care he had bestowed upon a domestic animal
belonging to the pope, this favorite was caUed at Rome the Cardinal della
Scimia. He had neither talents nor conduct to recommend him : the other
cardinals never showed him any regard. In a second promotion the selec
tion was wisely made, and included men from aU parts of Christendom who
were worthy of such a dignity.
Juhus knew how useful the Council General, of which he had been presi
dent, might be made, and he convoked it to meet at Trent, with the Cardinal
MarceUus Crescenzi as president. To that cardinal he added, as nuncios,
Sebastian Pighini, bishop of Manfredonia, and Louis Lipomani, bishop of
Verona, desiring to do honor to the episcopacy that the heretics sought to
abase. The councU, notwithstanding the opposition of the Protestant princes,
opened its eleventh session on the 1st of May, 1551, and continued to its
sixteenth session, celebrated on the 28th of AprU, 1552. Then the labors
of that august assembly were interrupted by the war of Parma, and by
that which the Lutherans had declared against Charles V., in concert with
Henry IL, king of France, who desired to weaken the emperor, and could
not see that he at the same time was aUying himseK with the enemies of
the faith.
In this conjuncture a Diet was assembled at Passau, on the Danube, in
which the Protestant princes, by a solemn treaty concluded in the year
1552, obtained hberty to exercise their religion* This treaty is called The
Religious Peace, and formed part of the pubhc law of the empire. By
this agreement, confirmed at Augsburg in 1555, the emperor, and the
members of the empire, both Cathohc and Protestant, engaged that they
would do no violence to princes or States who embraced the novelties of
Luther, or who persisted in the old and true rehgion. They promised that
this union should not be disturbed by any differences of faith. The two
parties, weary of the wars produced by the new heresy, concluded that
treaty in which Charles V., besides restoring liberty to the Landgrave of
Hesse, who had been arrested in breach of good faith, made numerous con
cessions to the Lutherans, thenceforward called Protestants, because they
had protested against the decrees of the Diet oi Spires, which ordered all
* Novaes, vii., p. 76.
Vol. I.— 47

738 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the members of the empire to respect the ancient doctrine. Hence Protest
ants may caU that Religious Peace the real foundation of the hberty which
they have since enjoyed. How much of evil to the Church !
However, the behef that peace was perfectly restored was but vain ; the
heretics took advantage of various wars to propagate their errors. In order
to obviate new afflictions, the pontiff, who feared that the ravages of the
schism might extend stiU more in Germany, founded at Rome, by the care
of Saint Ignatius Loyola, a coUege for the instruction of young Germans
and Hungarians. They were intended for the priesthood in their own
countries, to sustain the Cathohc faith K it were shaken, and to restore it if
it were destroyed. The pope contributed from his own funds towards the
maintenance of the college, and each cardinal contributed according to his
means. There was thus provided an annual income of three thousand and
sixty-five croAvns, which the beneficent Gregory XIH. subsequently in
creased to the sum of ten thousand.
By a brief of the 31st of July, Saint Ignatius was himseK invested with
the direction of the coUege ; his order, the Jesuits, being the principal pro
fessors. At that time the Siennese expeUed the Spanish troops from their city,
and from the mihtary posts on the coast, and gave their aUegiance to Henry
IL, king of France. Peter de Toledo, viceroy of Naples, then sent into
Tuscany an army of twenty thousand infantry. It had to pass by the fron
tier of the Ecclesiastical States ; and Juhus, fearing a repetition of what had
happened to Clement VIL, guarded his frontier with eight thousand men.
But the French and the imperiahsts carried into aU the neighboring States
the furies of the war. Juhus endeavored, but in vain, to mediate between
the belligerents. He then resolved to aid Cosmas de Medici against the
Siennese. By a buU of the 26th of January, 1554, Juhus ordered that there should
never be two brothers cardinals at the same time in the sacred coUege.*
Edward VL, king of England, dying on the 6th of July, 1553, Mary, his
sister, succeeded to the throne. Juhus employed the fitting means to bring
back that nation to the faith. Cardinal Pole, whose sentiments were Avidely
different from those attributed to him by Cardinal Carafa, was sent to ne
gotiate the return to concord and unity. Already, even, a solemn embassy
was about to leave London for Rome to offer respectful obedience to the
pope. But Julius had not the consolation of receiving these ambassadors ;
he ched on the 23d of March, 1555, at the age of sixty-seven, after reigning
five years, one month, and sixteen days.
* That buU was confirmed by Pius IV. on the 12th of January, 1560, but subsequently be
came obsolete. I have seen in our own day two brothers, Joseph and Antonio Doria, in the
sacred coUege together, and in 1851 there were two princes there named Riario.

JULIUS III. 739.
Various reports have been circulated as to the cause of his death ; the
true cause was an uninterrupted succession of fits of the gout. He went
to inspect the works going on at the famous villa, outside the Gate of the
People, which stiU bears his name : braving the weather too much, he was
attacked by the fever under which he sank.
Julius was of lofty stature. His eyes sparkled, his nose Avas long, and
his countenance sometimes indicated irritability. But habituaUy he was
mild, liberal, the friend of justice and of peace ; and to those virtues he
added knowledge and the gKt of a captivating eloquence. Repenting of
having annoyed the cardinals by giving the purple to the adopted son of
his brother, he tried by every means to destroy the repugnance which that
choice had caused to his own authority. Juhus loved to grant to the cardi
nals aU just and possible favors that they might ask, and even suggested
such favors, and tried every method by which to make himself agreeable to
the sacred coUege. H he had not done something to oblige them, he was
sleepless on the ensuing night. It is also remarked that Julius was often
obliging to his enemies. Bercastel describes him as one of those subaltern
spirits that shine in the second rank, but suffer eclipse in the first ; a firm
soul, but short-sighted: fit to execute, but not to command. But too
much has been said about that vUla and the recreation that he sought
there, which could be not otherwise than pure and innocent, as many
cardinals daUy visited him there, when the pope, retired for the time from
strict etiquette, could welcome them to his table, and loved to assemble
them there.*
* Medals of Julius HI.— 1. Julius in. Pont. Max. In two medals, the head is bare ; in the
third, it is covered by the tiara. 1 and 2, the embroidery of the cope shows the pope on his
throne, giving the staff of command to a captain-general of the Church ; 3. A part of the church
of Saint Peter's, which a procession of various personages is approaching. On the reverse of the
first medal is the Greek word Kparovpai—I am conquered. Prudence, -with the symbols of the
serpent and the mirror, seizes fortune by the hair. This is copied, with questionable taste, from
a Greek medal, struck by Agathocles, and bears the same device. The workmanship, both on
the side of the head and on the reverse, is exceedingly deUcate.
2. Vlhgo tva globia PABTVS— 0 Virgin, the nativity is thy glory. Halo around the heads of
the mother and chUd. The Virgin, imitated from Raphael.
3. .Fons vteginis. Vill^: jvlle— Fountain of virgin water, at tlie Julian villa. The medal
represents the viUa buUt by the pope. It is now abandoned, but there are stUl traces of the
building. That cool and shaded villa, watered by the Acqua Vergine, or virgin Avaters, was a
pleasure-house, to which the pope retired for restoration from the fatigues of his sovereign sta
tion ; though, even there, he sometimes convoked the cardinals, to consult with them on political
affairs. The Acqua Vergine had formerly been brought to Rome by Marcus Agnppa, but the
aqueducts had fallen into ruin. JuUus rediscovered this fountain, renowned among the Romans
Adrian I., as early as the year 790, intended to conduct it to Rome. JuUus successfully finished
the works that Adrian had begun. When the aged cardinals, to whom the ascent of the lofty stair-
cases of the Vatican was irksome, consented to pass the October evenings at the villa, the pope
frequently went there. Absurd accusations have been made against him on that subject. It
has been written, for instance, that on one occasion, a master of the ceremonies accosted His
Holiness with the inquiry : " Beatissime pater, eras erit consistorium- Will there be a consistory

•740 LIVES OF THE POPES.
We shaU enter, with Novaes, into details upon some important acts 01
Julius. He introduced reforms into the Roman chancery. He founded a congre
gation of six cardinals, Avhose duty it was to ascertain the needed improve
ments in the collation of benefices. He ordered that any cardinal who
possessed several bishoprics, should choose one, at his own pleasure, and
vacate the others within six months. He pubhshed a bull against laymen
who meddled in the investigation of points of heresy; his object was to
check the Venetians who had added lay inquisitors to the ecclesiastical
inquisitors. Julius was incessantly watchful to preserve the peace of the
to-morrow, most Holy Father?" and that the pope repUed: "Craserit vinea — To-morrow there
will be Villa." That reply has been ignorantly blamed. The most important business was
transacted by the pope and his cardinals at the Villa. And as to the word vinea, vineyard, it is
j u^t simply a mere modest synonym of the word villa. The country-seat of a great man of Rome
is called a viUa ; the country-seat of a citizen of Rome is caUed a vineyard.
Du MoUnet gives two other medals of Julius III. :
1. D. Ivltvs III. eeipvb. Cheistianjs: eex ac patee — B. Julius, king and father of the
Christian republic. D. may be an abbreviation of Bivus (saint) ; but if so, the artist has erred, as
that title did not belong to Julius. More probably, the D. signifies Bominus. This medal also
shows the Holy Gate. It is a repetition of a medal of Paul III.
2. Nulla caeioh. In the exergue, Bononia — None dearer. Bologna. Bologna seated on a
trophy, Avith books, presents one on the right hand ; in front, wheat on three Uttle hills, sym
bolic of the name of the pope, who studied in his youth at Bologna.
3. Gens et eeonvm qvod non sebviebit tibi peblbit — The people and the kingdom that
uill not serve thee will perish. An aUusion to the EngUsh schism. The threat has not been
verified. 4. Pax Italle Restitvta — Peace restored to Italy. Italy seated, holding out the right hand
in sign of alliance, the cornucopia in the left. JuUus III. never commenced a war, and he, as
speedily as he could, put an end to that which was forced upon him, on account of Parma. On
that subject, Chacon says: "However the popes may abound in the spirit and sense of their
duty, and however pacific their habits, it is impossible but that they shaU be sometimes removed
from the port of tranquUhty to the stormy sea of pubUc affairs."
5. Nos avtem Popvlvs ejvs et oves Pascv^b eivs — For we are his people, and the sheep of
his pasture. The English are supposed to say this when negotiating for a return to the Holy
See. Upon the mountains, in imitation of the seven hiUs of Rome, appear sheep and shepherds'
dogs. This medal was circulated in Great Britain, and especially in Ireland, and rejoiced all
Christians who had remained faithful.
G. Poktvs et Refvgivm Nationvm — The port and refuge of tlie nations. Emblem announ
cing that Rome is the Catholic city. This medal was struck on the arrival of Simon Sulaca,
patriarch elect of Babylon, by whom the inhabitants of this country sent letters to the pope in
Syriac, protesting then- attachment to the Holy See. A fortified port has one opening, by which
two ships are entering at fuU sail.
7. Pondvs immane, vibes inpeact^b— An enormous weight, strength invincible. Atlas, kneel
ing, supports the globe. Adrian IV., less confident, speaks differently. He says, "The pontifi
cal dignity is a weight that crushes the strongest."
8. Anglia eesueges. In the exergue: vt nvnc in novisslmo die — England, thou shalt rise
"gain ; as now, at the last day. In the field, Julius, with the tiara on his head, between two
kings, supposed to be the Emperor Ferdinand and PhiUp II. ; on the right, Cardinal Reginald
Pole ; on the left, a third sovereign — probably, like the two others, a mediator for peace.
9. Ego svm via, veeitas, et vita — lam the way, tlie truth, and the life. The Eternal Father
'¦I a cloud, holding in the left hand a globe and cross, and blessing with the right hand

MARCELLUS II.

741

Church and of Europe. He maintained the ecclesiastical immunity which
many magistrates had violated in Spain, and which the French had attacked
in Corsica. He restored the Concordats of Nicolas V., for the collation of
benefices in Germany.
In Naples he appeased the disturbances caused by the censures of the
holy Inquisition, in such wise that while the guilty, who had agitated the
kingdom, should be punished, their property should accrue to their nearest
relatives, and not to the treasury, as the viceroy Peter de Toledo wished,
who maintained that there, as in Spain, the property of heretics should go
to the king's treasury.
Aided by Cardinal Cervini, he reformed the coUege of the cardinals, and
freed it from some abuses. He repressed the cupidity of several rehgious
who were ambitious of the mitre, by ordering that no one of them should
ever be made bishop, unless with the express consent of his superior, and of
the cardinal-protector of the order.
Julius with inexpressible joy received Simon Sulaca, monk of Saint BasU,
patriarch elect of the East, sent by the Nestorians, who wished him to be
confirmed and consecrated at Rome. Simon received this favor, and was
sent back to his country with considerable gKts.
Juhus founded at Rome the archiconfraternity of the Holy. Sepulchre ; he
wrote tovaU the Cathohc princes, exhorting them to give alms for the restor
ation of the churches in Syria ; and he granted to the society of the Holy
Crucifix, at Saint MarceUus, the privUege of annuaUy deUvering one pris
oner condemned to death, provided that he was not guUty of the crime of
treason. The same privUege was granted to many other cities in Chris
tendom. The Holy See was vacant sixteen days.

226. MARCELLUS IL— a. d. 1555.

HIS pope was celebrated for his horror of nepotism ;
he forbid all his nephews to come to Rome. He
was bom on the 6th of May, 1501, at Monte Sano,
in the March, in the diocese of Osimo, near Loretto,
and was originaUy named MarceUus Cervini de
Spannocchi. In his infancy he was of very feeble
constitution, but gifted in mind. He became
versed in Greek and Latin-; he loved arts, and
himself drew and sculptured with elegance.

742 LIVES OF THE POPES.
A false report obtained circulation in Italy. It was affirmed, with aU the
effrontery of false science, that Italy was threatened by a general deluge,
which would make no less ravage than that of Noe. It was even reported
that Clement VIL, at the advice of some fanatics, had taken refuge at
Tivoh, hoping that its mountains would protect him against that scourge.
But, if he went there, he no doubt had some sounder reason for it. Be
that as it may, the populace, and a great number of noblemen (for on such
occasions aU ranks sink to the populace), took precautions, as if any
could avail them to escape ! MarceUus thought that it was only needful
for him to oppose to such absurdity the language of reason, wisdom, and
sound natural philosophy. He wrote a dissertation upon that panic terror,
and presented it to the pope ; and the rumors which had disturbed the
peninsula were quieted.
On the death of Clement VIL, MarceUus was regarded with favor by
Paul III.
On the 18th of December, 1539, MarceUus being in France as apostohc
nuncio, was created cardinal-priest, and then sent to Germany as legate a
latere to Charles V., and subsequently accompanied that prince to Madrid.
When the nuncio left Spain, Charles V. wished to reward him with a
pension of ten thousand doUars. But MarceUus declined, saying : " Hither
to I have been the minister of the pope ; and such I wish to continue, with
out binding myself to any foreign prince." He had the title of bishop of
Reggio ; but the friendship of the pope retained him at Rome, and to ad
minister his diocese he deputed James Lainez, one of the companions of
Saint Ignatius.
In 1545, Paul created MarceUus president of the General CouncU of
Trent, but recaUed his friend to Rome when that Interim was pubhshed.
On the 5th of AprU, 1555, the electors, to the number of thirty-six,
entered into conclave. Cardinals Ranucci Farnese, and Guido Ascanius
Sforza, immediately thought of placing Cervini, then aged fifty-four years,
upon the throne of Saint Peter. That report having reached the ear of
Cardinal Carafa, he approached Cervini, and kneeling, venerated him as
pope, exhorting all the cardinals to elect him.
Thence they went to the chapel, where he was unanimously elected. On
the 10th of April he was consecrated under his own name of MarceUus,
because Saint MarceUus had always been' invoked by the Cervini family.
The new pope had always been known for his piety, his knowledge, and
his constant virtue. The universal Church expected great good from this
pontiff. From the first moment he showed great courage. The ambassador
of his Cathohc majesty solicited the pardon of a criminal condemned for
murder. MarceUus repUed that it did not seem fitting to commence a
pontificate by pardoning a homicide.

MARCELLUS II. 743
He always rose early, and, withoutcaUing for any of his servants, hghted
his own lamp. This pope was accustomed to quote the words of Adrian V. :
"No man is more wretched than the Roman pontiff; aU his fehcity is
bitterness. The chair of Saint Peter is fuU of thorns; and, moreover, its
weight wiU oppress the strongest."
The austerity of MarceUus was such that he thought of banishing music
from aU the ceremonies of the Church. Palestrina, then chapel-master in
the Vatican BasUica, begged him to postpone the execution of this project
until he heard a Mass composed according to true ecclesiastical style.
When MarceUus heard it sung by six voices, on Easter-day, he was affected
even to tears, and he abandoned his first idea. This Mass was pubhshed
under the title of the Mass of Pope MarceUus, and dedicated to his succes
sor, Paul rv.
MarceUus, the implacable enemy of luxury, loved temperance alike in his
food and in his expenses. It has been said that he intended to suppress
the Swiss Guard, saying : " It would be better for the pontiff to die by the
hands of the wicked, should such a thing happen, than set an example of
a disgraceful fear, or an unnecessary pomp." Yet without exaggeration,
there are circumstances under which the Swiss Guard at Rome is indispen
sable. Moreover, a motive of pohcy has always existed for employing such
troops. The Swiss, who have been on guard at the Vatican, take back into
their own country a love of Rome which especiaUy maintains the Cathohc
feeling of Uri, Unterwald, Luzerne, and of many other cantons.
The maintenance of our rehgion in Switzerland is a miracle, traversed
as that country has been by schisms and grievous separations. The resi
dence of some S-sviss at Rome, during a certain time, has been a remedy for
a part of those evUs ; and I repeat, that those frank and candid people take
back into their mountain homes habits of respect for Rome that no system
of negotiation could replace.
I speak now of the Swiss Guard of the Vatican ; with respect to the Swiss
regiments, K Clement VII. had had two thousand men of that nation in
Rome, it is probable that the city would not so easUy have been taken by
the army of Charles V. The Swiss are brave, true warriors. No general
when opposed to them attacks without great caution.
The zeal of the pontiff for the reform of clerical discipline caused him to
say that ecclesiastics with the care of souls should never be employed in
pubhc occupations. And it was his intention to confide the civU govern
ment of his States to laymen. He aUowed none of his relatives, not even
his brother Alexander, to approach Rome, where, says Novaes* the relatives
of new popes always flock to receive the fertilizing dews of the Vatican.
* Novaes, vii., p. 99.

744 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Being urged to receive his nephews Richard and Herennius, and give
them apartments in the palace, MarceUus repUed : " What business have
our nephews in the apostolical palace ? Is it their patrimony ?"
WhateA'er he promised he hastened to perform. " We would not have to
blush," said he, "for being unfaithful, should we have promised and not
kept our word."
All these virtues were extinguished by a violent fit of apoplexy, and he died
after governing the Church only twenty-one days. He was interred at the
Vatican. A surgeon was accused of having poisoned a wound in this pon
tiff's leg, caused by his faU from a horse ; but the autopsy proved -that that
was false.
MarceUus was distinguished by his lofty stature. His face was thin, his
eyes black, and his countenance agreeable. One of his eyebrows was
higher than the other. He rarely smUed; but sometimes he suddenly
showed gayety. Theodore Bibhander, a Protestant, praises this pope as
being both holy and learned. Pietro Pohdori wrote the hfe of MarceUus
in very pure Latin.
The Holy See was vacant twenty-one days.*
* Medals. — 1. Head of MarceUus, bare : Maecellvs H., Pont. Max. — MarceUus H., Sovereign
Pontiff. Reverse, Hilabitas Pontieica — Pontifical joy. Female figure, standing. A palm
and a crown of wheat ears.
2. Reverse, Claves eegni ccslobvm — The keys of the kingdom of heaven. On the exergue,
Roma. Jesus Christ, head surrounded by a glory, gives the keys to Saint Peter kneehng.
Du Molinet describes two others :
1. Without epigraph. A female seated, and having a book in her right hand ; in her left a
helm. 2. Fiat tax in atetvte tua. In the exergue, Memobie opt. peincipis. — Let peace be from
thy courage. To the memory of the excellent pontiff. Figures of Peace, Justice, and Abundance,
standing. Bonanni mentions other medals of MarceUus II. :
Nostra latens — Ours is hidden. In the field, a star above an antique altar, upon which are
bright flames. Typotius gives this explanation : " A star shining and an altar smoking must
allude to tortures and vows." Bonanni justly rejects this explanation. Perhaps, however, it
may mean : A star gives light, a fire gives flame and smoke. Our lot is hidden from us, we
know not as yet God's judgment upon us.

PAUL IV.

745

227. PAUL IV.— a. d. 1555.

J( ^- ^JJL IV (John Peter Carafa) was born on the 28th
of June, 1476, at Capriglia, in the kingdom of
Naples. At an early age he applied himself to the
study of Scripture, and afterwards made great
progress in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew lan
guages. By order of Leo X. he resided at Venice.
He was able not only to discuss points of dogma
with the Greeks, but could with facility converse
with the Jews in their own language.
Juhus II. , in 1505, made him archbishop of Chieti. It is not correct to
say that in his youth he took the habit of the Dominicans, nor that he re
signed his archbishopric to assume the habit of the Benedictines ; it is cer
tain that he was always attached with the sons of Saint Dominic. It is
also thought he at one time wished to enter the order of the Camaldulen-
sians, but their superior, Paul Giustiani, his great friend, would not receive
Mm. As our readers know, he subsequently, with Saint Cajetan, founded
the Theatines.
Juhus n. sent him to England, to coUect the " Peter's Pence" which that
kingdom paid to Rome. During the siege of Rome, John Peter Avas vio
lently persecuted by the Germans, and to escape the sight of such disasters
he retired to Verona, and afterwards to Venice, with his monks.
Paul HI. summoned him to Rome to aid him with his advice, alike as to
the reform of church disciphne and the labors of the council. Carafa firmly
and modestly refused, but the pope having thrice repeated his request, he
was obhged to comply.
On his arrival at Rome he feU iU, and the pope resolved to give him the
purple, which he received on the 22d of December, 1536. It is said that
when the secretary, whose duty it was, presented the red hat with the usual
compliments, Carafa briefly thanked him, and then said : " Now hang the
hat up on a naU."
Paul HI., on the 15th of December, 1549, named John Peter Carafa
archbishop of Naples ; but in consequence of the opposition of the viceroy,
Peter of Toledo, Carafa Was unable to take possession of that See until
1550, under the reign of JuUus HI.
After the funeral of MarceUus, forty-five cardinals, then in Rome, met in
conclave on the 15th of May. The imperial ambassador at that time
warned Carafa not to become a candidate, as the emperor had excluded

746 LIVES OF THE POPES.
him. On receiving this unbecoming notice, Carafa bravely rephed : " H it
is the wiU of God that I become pontiff, the emperor cannot prevent it •
and I shaU be aU the more thankful, because I shaU owe it to God alone."
The electors were upright. The imperial partisans preferred cardinals da
Carpi, Pole, and Moroni ; but the cardinals attached to France would have
none of them. To remove aU subject of difference, Cardinal Alexander
Farnese, in conjunction with Cardinal d'Este, proposed Carafa. The
French, who did not dislike that proposal, hastened to his room. Then da
Carpi and the cardinal of Toledo arrived, and they conducted him to the
Pauhne Chapel. Carafa excused himseK, and proposed the nomination of
Cardinal Nobili, a man of exemplary piety ; but his appeal was disregarded.
Carafa was placed in a chair to receive adoration. He resisted, and en
deavored to get away. Farnese detained him. Cardinal Carafa was almost
infirm, and his hands were fastened to his chair. His lips alone still re
sisted, and asked to be spared, but exclamations drowned his words. How
ever, notwithstanding the noise, it was perceived that three votes were
wanting, and in that case the mode of adoration often becomes mischievous
to the objects of it. Then cardinals Pazzo, Moroni, and Sforza, leaders of
the imperial party, clearly perceiving that they would lose in the scrutiny,
gave their votes; and Carafa, dean of the sacred coUege, at the age of
seventy-seven years, was elected by the way of adoration, on Ascension-day,
May 23, 1555.
He declared that he retained his see of Naples, and that he would take
the name of Paul, in evidence of the devotion he had always felt towards
Saint Paul, and also to show his gratitude towards Paul TTT. and the Far
nese, who were the chief authors of his exaltation.
On the 26th of the same month he was croAvned by Cardinal Pisani upon
the steps of the Vatican, near the portico.*
On the foUowing day, reviving an old custom, he gave a banquet to the
cardinals, the dukes of Ferrara and Urbino, and the ambassadors of the
princes. So sumptuous a papal coronation was not previously known. The
ceremony took place on a Sunday, according to ancient custom, which, how
ever, had not been observed by Juhus H., Leo X., Clement VIL, Paul TTT.,
or Juhus III.
The taking possession of Saint John Lateran occurred on the 28th of
October, 1555.
Shortly after his exaltation, Paul summoned to his palace, as his secre
taries, Casa, Gualenghi, Bird, and Fiorabelh, the most skUful Latin and
Itahan writers of that day.
Although the new pontiff, up to the time of his exaltation, had hved in
* The steps of the portico are shown on a medal of Paul III.

paul rv. 747
the poverty-prescribed tbq%ie Theatines, he determined to support with due
splendor his sovereign dignity. His steward, inquiring how- he desired the
appearance of his court and person to be provided for, he rephed, magnifi
cently, as becomes princes.
Subsequently, considering the austerity of his former hfe had inspired
the Romans with some fear, he showed himseK great and generous. He
loaded them with favors, renewed old privileges, and gave them the city of
"Tivoli, the adrninistration of which he took from Cardinal d'Este, whom he
recompensed otherwise. The Romans soon learned to caU him the dehght
of their city, and in their gratitude erected a marble statue to him at the
capitol, the work of Pirro Liguorio. StiU more, they formed a company of
one hundred and twenty horsemen, as an unpaid body-guard of the pontiff.
Ten of them daUy did duty in that honorable service, with which the pope
showed himseK much gratified. These guards were known as Knights of
the Faith, or Knights of the Dove. Circumstances, however, brought
about difficulties. The pope's declaration of war against Phihp of Spain
occasioned discontent in the guard, which depriving it of the pope's favor,
it dwindled to insignificance.
Three Enghsh ambassadors arrived in Rome. They were sent to the
Holy See by Phihp, and Mary, his wKe, queen of England. They asked
pardon for the past errors of England. Paul affectionately embraced them,
released the kingdom from aU the censures it had incurred, and- to increase
the dignity of its sovereign, he erected the island of Ireland into a kingdom,
a title which had been given to it by Henry VIIL and Edward VL, but
without the sanction of the Holy See.
In his first promotion, Paul created only one cardinal, his nephew, Charles
Carafa. Charles V., weary of governing Spain, where he had reigned thirty-eight
years, and Germany, where he had reigned thirty-six years, a period during
which he had gained forty victories, and undertaken fifty journeys — nine in
Germany, six in Spain, seven in Italy, ten in Flanders, four in France, two
in England, two in Africa, eight in voyages on the Mediterranean, and two
on the ocean — determined upon a voluntary abdication.
In 1556 he resigned the government of Spain to his son PhUip IL, hus
band of the queen of England, and the administration of the empire to
Ferdinand I., his brother. He reserved for his personal disposal a
hundred thousand crowns, twelve servants, and a horse which he needed"
for exercise, and he retired to the monastery of Saint Just, of the order of
Saint Jerome, upon the confines of CastUe, where he died in 1558.
Ferdinand was then elected emperor ; but Paul refused to approve the
election, because, he said, it derogated from the apostolical dignity.
Neither the abdication of Charles V., nor the election of Ferdinand, could

748 LIVES OF THE POPES.
be recognized without the consent of the Holy See, and the empire could
only be considered vacant on the death of Charles V.
Meantime, the East Indies had in a great measure been converted to the
Catholic faith, by the apostle of the East, Saint Francis Xavier, one of the
coadjutors of Saint Ignatius in founding the Society of Jesus.
While the Lutherans in Europe were caUing for the destruction of the
order, Francis, with his own hands, had baptized in Asia a million two
hundred pagans. In fact, according to the calculation of Segner and
Pichler, Francis won to the Church more souls than had been taken from
her by all the heretics from Simon the Magician down to Luther and Cal
vin, in the course of fifteen hundred years ! When God in his goodness
designs to grant a recompense, he usuaUy gives a thousand for one*
At the solicitation of John III., king of Portugal, the Holy Father, in
the month of February, 1658, erected the Church of God into an arch
bishopric, and estabhshed new sees in the places converted by Xavier.
On the 16th of December, in the same year, Paul published a buU against
aU engaged in intrigues to reach the pontificate. Saint Charles Borronieo
so strongly approved of this bull, that when he returned to Rome he abso
lutely declined to talk about the future pope, to either the duke of Florence
or Mark Antony Colonna.
For some months Paul had felt suspicious of his nephews, and his love
for them began to cool.
The first to speak to the pontiff about the conduct of his nephews Avas
the duke of Guise, who on his return from an unsuccessful expedition
against Naples, told the pope that his nephews had betrayed the Holy See.
On the other hand, PhUip, king of Spain, ordered his ambassadors to pre
vent the pope from giving his confidence to Cardinal Carafa, who had pre
vented the prince from giving his favor to Mark Antony Colonna.
In this state, it happened that the pope, in a congregation of the Holy
Office, spoke warmly against an abuse which was charged against Cardinal
del Monte, whom on that account the pope proposed to deprive of the
purple. Cardinal Pacheco attributed the fault to the youth of del Monte.
Then, the pope, inflamed with a holy zeal, exclaimed, " Reform ! Reform !"
" Most hohly spoken," replied Pacheco, " but it must begin with us, with
ourselves." The Holy Father was sUent, thinking that these words applied
to his nephews, who were guilty of greater excesses than those imputed to
del Monte.
The last blow to the influence of the nephews was given by Bongiano
Gianfihazzi, minister of the duke of Florence, who complained of grave
* That was the remark of Cardinal Borgia, prefect of the Propaganda at Rome, and he spoke
on the authority of innumerable and incontestable documents in his keeeping.

Paul rv. 749
insults received from Cardinal Carafa. The cardinal had closed the door
in the face of that minister, who had waited upon His Hohness on import
ant business, to expose, in the name of his prince, great wrongs on the
part of the cardinal ; among others, that of levying intolerable contributions
upon the clergy. The pope then privately consulted a pious Theatine, in
whom he had fuU confidence, who completely enhghtened him as to the dis
orders of which the Carafas were guilty.
Paul, convinced of the misconduct of his nephews, assembled an extra
ordinary consistory, explained his famUy misfortune, and by a decree
ordered that his nephews and all belonging to them, their mother, the wKe
of one of them, their sons, and all their servants, should leave Rome within
twelve hours. And then he deprived his nephews of their dignity, and of
the power which they had abused.
Cardinal Carafa was exUed to Civita Lavinia, near Albano, and then to
Marino. John Carafa, duke of PaUiano, general of the pontifical State,
and prefect of the gaUeys, lost those high offices, and was exUed at GaUese.
Anthony Carafa, marquis of MontebeUo, was compeUed to retire to his
marquisate, situated in Romagna. AU three were to be tried for high
treason if they should leave their place of exUe.
Some cardinals endeavored to intercede for the culprits, but the pope
forbade their names to be mentioned. However, he retained near him Car
dinal Alphonso, son of MontebeUo, a young man only eighteen years old,
because he was of an ingenuous disposition.
When the three exUes had left Rome, the pope said : " Now, we both can
say, and ought to say, Of our pontificate the first year.
Paul could say that, believing himself freed from the fetters of nepotism,
but he might have added that it was also the last year of his pontificate, for
very soon after he was attacked by a fever, which, at eighty-three, he had
no strength to resist, and he died three months after his severe but most
just sentence. Like Vespasian, he said that a sovereign ought not to die in
bed, and he ordered his pontifical vestments to be brought to him ; but he
was so weak that he could not rise, and he breathed his last on the 18th of
August, 1559, after governing the Church four years, two months, and
twenty-seven days. He was interred in the Vatican. In 1559 his remains
were removed to the Dominican church of La Minerva, by order of Saint
Pius V.
The Biographie Universelle thus speaks of this pope's opinion of medicine :
" This pontiff was passionately fond of the science of medicine, but though
he considered physicians the first among the learned, he kept himseK free
from needing their cares. He had read the best authors on -that science,
especially Galen, in the Greek original. Caraccioli, in his manuscript life
of Paul IV., spoken of by Marini, says that that pope was his own physician

750 LIVES OF THE POPES.
to the end of his days, and kept himseK in an invariable state of vigor. He
took no medicine and was never bled. Yet he so honored and favored phy
sicians, that all of them who Avere distinguished in Rome for their skiU,
desired the title of archiatro, or chief physician to the pope, in the hope
that by this title and the pope's favor they would attain success.
Paul IV. was of lofty stature ; he had a pale complexion, a stern glance
eyes sunken but bright, short nose, and scanty beard. His voice was deep
and his gestures indicated both modesty and dignity.*
He was the author of that Confession of Faith which is now made by
bishops when they take possession of their Sees. He forbade the opening
of any passages across churches, or mendicants begging in them, that peo
ple might not be disturbed in their devotions. He instituted the ceremony
of the Cavalcade to the Minerva, on the day of the feast of the Annunciation,
and also the Pontifical Chapel, celebrated on the day appointed for honor
ing the memory of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
* The three medals in our possession have the head covered by a long white cap. Legend :
Pavlvs IIII. Pont. Opt. M. — Paul IV, sovereign and excellent pontiff.
The reverse are — first : Roma eesvugens — Borne uprising. Rome, armed and surrounded by
trophies. Javelin in the right hand, and a buckler in the left. At her feet are drums, clarions,
and an amphora, and a book with the letters S. P. Q. R., &c.
Second : Domvs mea Domvs oeationis voc — My house is called the house of prayer. Jesus
Christ on the left, armed with a. scourge. The ground is covered with pieces of money that
have fallen from the table of a money-changer. An old man, falling on his knees, as he endeav
ors to make his escape. A merchant with a casket, and a woman Avith a water-pot on her head.
Third : In flvctibvs emebgens — Coming forth from the waves. Christ in Peter's bark, bis
companions drawing their nets.
Du Molinet adds :
1. Anno Domini M.D.L.VI. Pont. svi. Peimo. Struck on the creation of the noble guard.
Faith presents her symbols, the chaUce and Gospels. A medal of elegant workmanship.
¦2. The arms of the house of Carafa, Avithout inscription. The tiara surmounting the keys ; and
in the field, gold, with two bands of sUver.
3. Beata spes — Blessed hope. Hope holding in the right hand a flower ; in the left, a bunch
of poppies. At the foot of the figure is a fuU ear of wheat.
4. Beati qvi CvsTODrrNT atlas meas — Happy are those wlw keep my ways. A head of Christ,
young and majestic.
5. Discite justitiam moniti — Learn justice, you who are learned. Justice holding the even
scales and the sword.
6. Claves begni cxelobvm — The keys of the kingdom of the lieavens. Christ giving the keys
to Saint Peter.
7. ELeres. Rest. — Heresy repressed. The pope crowned, on his throne ; three bishops on his
right. Two men are kneeling before the throne.
Bonanni, vol. i., p. 263, adds :
1. Ne deteeius vobis contingat — Lest something worse befall you. Christ blessing the people.
2. Dueabis in peepetwm — Thou shalt last forever. In the field, in the middle a death's
head, surmounted by an hour-glass ; on the right, a bridge ; on the left, the cross upon an open
book. 3. Sede Vacante — Buring the vacancy of the See. The arms of the cardinal chamberlain,
Ascanius Sforza, surmounted by crossed keys. The chamberlain has the right to strike money
during the vacancy of the Holy See.

PIUS IV.

751

Paul was the first to order awnings to be placed to prevent the rain or
the sun from interrupting the feast of Corpus Christi, which traverses the
square of Saint Peter's.
Every year during the Carnival, he on one day invited the whole of the
sacred coUege to dinner. He said it was fitting that the prince should
sometimes recreate himseK with his brethren and his sons.
He twice saved Rome from famine at the expense of the treasury, which
he weU knew how to administer.
His table was magnificently served, but what he ate was barely sufficient
to support hfe.
' His fasts were not confined to those of obligation, and he contributed to
restore the custom of fasting in the Church.
His sleep was very short, and much interrupted. When unable to sleep
at night, he would rise, but not disturb his servants, for fear, as he said,
that he should deprive them of the gift of God, as he styled sleep.
Great as were his virtues, they could not secure the constant affection of
the Romans. His severity made him many enemies, so that after his death,
although he had done justice upon his nephews, the people leveUed the
pontifical statue set up in the capitol, threw the head into the Tiber, and
destroyed the armorial bearings, and aU the monuments of the Carafa
famUy. This violence was punished in the following reign.
Several works of this pontiff are extant : Be Symbolo, Be Emendanda Ec-
clesia, and the Rule of the Theatines, of which he was the founder.
The Holy .See was vacant four months and eight days.

228. PIUS IV— a. d. 1559.

IUS IV. (John Angelo de Medici) born at MUan
on the 31st of March, 1499 (Novaes, vn., p.
142), was the son of Bernardino de Medici and
Cecilia SerbeUoni, an iUustrious lady of Milan,
where some members of the Medici family, driven
from Florence by the violence of the civU wars,
had taken refuge. John Angelo took the doctor's
cap at the university of Bologna. He reached
• -^ Rome on the 26th of December, 1527, the same
day and at the same hour when, thirty-two years later, he was raised to the
throne of Saint Peter. Clement VIL named him apostohc prothonotary,

752 LIVES OF THE POPES.
and Paul made him governor, first of Ascoh, and then of Citta di CasteUo ;
five years afterwards of Fano, and then of Parma. Thence he was sent
into Hungary with the general of the Itahan troops. When he returned to
Rome, in 1543, Paul commissioned him to settle a boundary dispute between
Bologna and Ferrara.
John Angelo was next sent to Poland, as commissary against the Turks
and Lutherans. He accompanied John Baptist SaveUi, general of the pon
tifical troops, and auxiliary of Ferdinand, king of Hungary. John Angelo
became, in succession, governor of Ancona, archbishop of Ragusa, vice-
legate of Bologna, under the Cardinal Moroni, and then governor of Pe
rugia and Umbria. FinaUy, on the 8th of AprU, 1549, he was created
cardinal-priest of Saint Pudentiana.
Pope Juhus III. sent him as legate Avith the pontifical army that marched
against Octavius Farnese. Peace being made in 1553, Charles V. named
him bishop of Cassano, Avhence Paul IV., in 1556, transferred him to the
see of Fuligno. From the title of Saint Pudentiana, Cardinal de Medici
passed to other titles, and at length to that of Saint Prisca.
After the novendiali, which commenced on the 23d of August, but from
some unforeseen delays did not end tiU the 4th of September, the conclave
assembled. It lasted four months. Forty-four electors could not agree upon
a successor to Paul IV. At length, on the night foUowing Christmas, Car
dinal de Medici was elected, not at the scrutiny, but by acclamation. He
owed his elevation chiefly to cardinals Farnese, Sforza, de Guise, and Carafa.
The next day the Cardinals repaired to the Chapel of the Scrutiny, and al
though there was nothing informal in the acclamation of the previous
evening, they confirmed it by the ordinary baUot.
We must not forget to mention a stratagem employed in that same con
clave to cause the choice to fall upon Cardinal Bartolomeo deUa Cueva, a
Spaniard. His conclavist, an able man, secretly visited thirty-two of the
cardinals separately, begging each to give a single baUot to his master, who
would be very grateful for this solitary token of esteem. Each cardinal
thus sohcited, imagining that he alone was asked for that graceful act
of pohteness, promised his vote. When aU met in the chapel, and each
asked the other how he intended to vote, and each rephed that for
that single time he should give it to Cardinal deUa Cueva, the trick of
Torres was discovered; but they could not prevent his master from ob
taining seventeen votes. As thirty were needful, however, the trick was
useless. The newly elected pope, who took the name of Pius IV., was crowned on
the 6th of January, 1560. Panvinio, in his hfe of this pontiff, observes
that he was born on Easter-day, elected on Christmas-day, and crowned on
Epiphany.

Pius iv. 753
On the 28th of January, Pius IV., preceded by thirty-one cardinals, took
''possession of Saint John Lateran.
The pope immediately determined to show his zealous practice, as pontiff,
of the virtues which had distinguished him when cardinal. At the instance
of the sacred coUege, and especially of Cardinal Carafa, he pardoned the
Romans for their violence at the death of Paul. However, he ordered that '
the senate should be present at the Mass celebrated on the 17th of January
in expiation bf the tumult, and that the city should pay the indemnities due
for the damage done on that occasion.
Pius TV. did not show equal leniency to Pompey Colonna, who, under the
reign of Julius HI., had kUled his mother-in-laAV, and now solicited pardon.
"God forbid," rephed Pius, "that we should commence our reign by the
absolution of a parricide."
Shortly after, the pope confirmed Ferdinand in the imperial dignity, and
received his ambassadors as those of a legitimate emperor, because Charles
V. being dead, the reasons on which Paul had grounded the exclusion no
longer existed.
The pope was urged to decide upon the fate of the ministers and nephews
of his predecessor, who were detested by the populace. Pius IV. then
determined to show how he desired to be served in the government. On
the 7th of June, the two cardinals Carafa, Charles, nephew of Paul, and
his great-nephew, Alphonsus, were put in prison. At the same time, John
Carafa, count of Montorio and duke of PaUiano, and the nephew of Paul,
together with various lords, were thrown into prison as accomplices in a
crime committed upon the person of Brianza di Ascalona, wife of the saicl
duke of PaUiano. Pius named a deputation of eight cardinals to conduct
the trial of their coUeagues Charles and Alphonsus Carafa. It lasted until
the 3d of March, 1561. In a consistory of that day the draft of the sen
tence was read. The populace impatiently awaited the satisfaction given
to the enemies of nepotism.
Charles was convicted of high treason. It was proved that he had de
ceived his uncle by perfidious and dangerous opinions, especially on the
subject of the Neapohtan war. He had persecuted various respectable
persons, and kindled war between France and Spain by forged letters and
signatures. That same night Cardinal Charles was put to death in the
castle o,f Saint Angelo. Some time after, the duke of PaUiano was be
headed. The same punishment was inflicted upon the other prisoners.
Cardinal Alphonsus Carafa was declared innocent, and set free. But he
was ordered to pay a hundred thousand Roman crowns damages to the
apostohc chamber.*
* The judgment against Cardinal Charles and his brother the duke, as weU as the rest, was
reversed under Saint Pius V.
Vol. I.— 48 '

754 LIVES OF THE POPES.
By this example of terrible severity, which undoubtedly dims the renown
of .this reign, the ministers were warned of the rigorous views and inten
tions of Pope Pius IV, Ul apphed as that rigor was.
To secure at the same time the fidelity of his subjects, although he had
so sternly declared war against nepotism, he would intrust the care of his
person and of his most important affairs only to one of his nephews, Charles
Borromeo, aged tAventy-three years. The Romans applauded the choice,
although, they detested the motive of relationship which had dictated it.
Other relatives also received the purple : among them were John de
Medici, son of Cosmas, grand duke of Tuscany. Cardinal John, according
to Florentine historians, was assassinated at the age of nineteen, by his
brother, Don Garcia, who pursued him with an envious and ferocious
hatred. MeanwhUe, Cardinal Moroni, who had presided at the Council of Trent,
and whom Paul IV. had caused to be arrested upon several charges, so
licited a trial, and entreated Pius IV. to order it to be conducted with the
utmost . rigor. A commission of cardinals, of whom Ghisheri, afterwards
Pope Pius V., was one, declared, after deliberate examination, Cardinal
Moroni absolutely innocent. Was some remorse already felt for the pre
vious judgment ?
Shortly after, the pope turned his whole attention to the Council of Trent,
which he wished to close. Revolutions in Europe had constantly interrupted
it ; and in the last conclave every cardinal had promised, if elected, to close
it. Pius IV. was resolved to keep his promise, and his former coUeagues
were no less sincere in inviting him to do so.
By a bull of the 23d of November, 1560, Pius IV. convoked the continu
ation of that august assembly, Avhich reopened on the 28th of January,
1562. That buU, however, met with some difficulties, because the king of
France was not named in it, although the Eldest Son of the Church.*
* The duke of Saint Aignan, ambassador from the king of France, in the discourse he pro
nounced at the moment when the conclave elected Benedict XIV., says that the king his master
alone had the right to take the title of Eldest Son of the Church, and that he had enjoyed that
right during several centuries. On that point a letter Avas pubhshed in 1745, and in 1754, in
Avhich the author ascribes that privilege rather to the emperors. The author says that the first
Son of the Church was the Emperor Constantine, and that he transmitted that title to his suc
cessors, who during more than two centuries after Clovis, first king of France, were called Sons
and Most Christian. The author adds, that in the coronation ceremonial of the emperors, it is
not shoAvn that that title has been attributed to any but them. Finally, that writer draws the
inference that the first traces of such a name being attributed to the kings of France, go no
further back than the half of the then last century, according to the Vindicim Hispanicce of
John James Chifflet. In 1754, a reply was published' to this kind of pamphlet, showing that
that title of the king of France was mentioned by George Dietrich, in his notes on the Golden
Bull ; by Ernest Cokel ; by Conrad Schurzfleisch, and by n treaty between Alexander VII. and
Louis XIV., signed at Pisa in 1664. There is a fine extract from the pubUcations relating to
to the dispute, in vol. x., of Lilt. Hist, of Italy, by Father Zaccaria, p. 224, et seq. As regards

Pius IV. 755
The sessions proceeded but slowly with business, owing to the preten
sions of Claudius Vigihus de Guiiionez, count of Luna, ambassador from
PhUip II. of Spain, who, contrary to custom, insisted that his ambassadors
should have precedence of the ambassadors of France. On the other hand,
Arnold de Ferrier, president of the parhament of Paris, and Guy de Pibrac,
of Toulouse, the French ambassadors, strongly maintained the pre-emi
nence of their court. The pontiff decided in favor of the latter.* The
Spanish ambassador protested, and set out for Rome, to represent to Pius
TV. that SvinsiUa, king of Spain, was called by Honorius I., in 637, the
Catholic king, before Gregory HI. had caUed Charles Martel most Christian
king. Catholic king was one title, most Christian king was another title. The
debates on this dispute were renewed at Rome in 1564. . Pius IV. a second
time decided in favor of the kings of France, and if we may credit Mura
tori, t Phihp H. took no offence at it.
On the 26th of February, 1561, Pius made another promotion, including
Bernard Salviati, originaUy a warrior, much feared by the Turks, then
almoner to Catharine of Medicis, and afterwards cardinal of Saint Prisca.
He had buUt at Rome, at the Bungara, the famous Salviati palace, wliich
still exists, though in ruins. It was in that palace that he prepared to
receive Henry IH., who had promised to go to Rome, but was unable to
accomphsh that journey. 2. Sanislaus Osius, born at Cracow, son of King
Sigismund Augustus, afterwards ambassador from the Emperor Ferdinand
to the council. 3. Anthony Perrenot de GranveUe, born of a noble famUy
at Ornans, in the diocese of Besancon, afterwards appointed by PhUip II.
as councillor to Margaret, duchess of Parma, governess-general of Flan
ders. He spoke, correctly, seven languages. 4. Louis d'Este, of the family
of the dukes of Ferrara. 5. Louis Madrucci, a noble of the city of Trent.
His family generously attended to all requests concerning the accommoda
tion of the members of the council in that city. He was cardinal fifty-nine
years, and attended seven conclaves. He is only accused of having some
what too haughtily defended the interests of. Spain. 6. Mark Sitticus
Altemps, a German, baron of Hohenemps, born in his fief of Emps, and
nephew on the maternal side of Pius IV. 7. Francis Gonzaga, of the
famUy of the dukes of Ariano. 8. Ifiigo Avalos di Aragon, a noble Ne-
the title of Most Christian, see ante in this work— reign of Gregory HI.,— where that pontiff,
in a letter to Charles Martel, gives him the title of Most Christian. For the title of Eldest Son
of the Church, the strictest French writers think it is as old, at least, as the time of Louis XL
* Charles Bulteau, brother of the famous Louis Bulteau, printed a treatise concerning the
precedence of the kings of France over the kings of Spain.
t Annals of Italy, vol. x., ad Ann. 1564. Spondanus also has written on this question, and
gives some extent to his arguments in favor of the French.

756 LIVES OF THE POPES. •
apolitan, knight of Santiago of Spain, and chanceUor of the kingdom of
Spain. 9. Francis Pacheco, a noble Spaniard. 10. John Francis Gambara,
a noble of Brescia, celebrated for his prodigiously penetrating mind. It was
seldom that in the most important affairs this cardinal failed to predict the
issue. He was one of the chief ornaments of the conclaves at which he
was present.
Other prelates, distinguished in literature, also obtained the purple in the
same consistory. The list we have given shows that the purple was sought
by the first families of Europe, and even by the sons of sovereigns.
It was by such cares and such precautions that Rome rephed to the
Lutherans, AArho persisted in representing the sacred coUege as fiUed by
people without rank, celebrity, talent, or priestly quahties. All the subjects
Avhoni we have named deserved universal esteem for their piety and sincere
attachment to their duties. From time to time, the princes who were parti
sans of Luther insisted that the council should be celebrated in Germany.
But it was replied, that it Avould be wrong, deliberately to dehver the lambs
into the power of ravenous wolves. The Protestants also made the intoler
able demand that the pope should not preside, and that the ministers of
the Confession of Augsburg might speak and vote.
Those unjust demands might produce fatal consequences-. The pope
feared that the Calvinists might do in France what the Lutherans had done
in Germany. And then he earnestly endeavored to put an end to the
councU while the Church was stiU at peace.
The twenty-fifth and last session, then, was celebrated, and on the 3d and
4th of December all the chapters and canons, formed under various popes,
were read. Those decrees were approved by the Fathers, without the
unity of the councU being injured by its interruption.
Paul III. had convoked it at Mantua, in 1536 ; and the following year,
without any effect, at Vicenza ; then, in 1542, at Trent, where it opened in
1545. After seven sessions it was transferred, in 1547, to Bologna, where
for four years nothing was done. Under Julius IH., in 1551, it was re
sumed at Trent, and suspended in the same city tiU 1562. Then it was
again convoked under Pius IV., who, as we have said, successfuUy termin
ated it.
There has been no council, if we consult aU the venerable past, in Avkich
so many questions were treated on dogmas, disciphne, and morals. These
matters have never been better defined than in that assembly, which may
be regarded as the faithful image and perfect completion of aU other coun
cils.* Finally, to sum up, after tAventy-seven, counting from the meeting at
* The celebrated Jesuit, Sforza Pallavicini (afterwards cardinal), wrote in most elegant
Italian u, historv of the Council of Trent. (Rome 1656, 2 vols. ; Augsburg, 1755, 2 vols., folio.

Pius rv. 757
Mantua, and after eighteen years, counting from the first session at Trent,
that great councU was ended and signed by two hundred and thirty-five
Fathers ; that is to say, four legates, two cardinals, three patriarchs, twenty-
five archbishops, one hundred and sixty-eight bishops, seven abbots, thirty-
nine proxies for absent bishops, and seven generals. of religious orders.
At the earnest request of the Fathers, Pius IV., by his buU of the 26th of
January, 1564, solemnly approved the council, prohibiting and annuUing aU
commentary or interpretation. By another bull of the 18th of July, he
declared that aU the decrees of the CouncU of Trent, relating to reform and
positive right, were obligatory from the 1st of the May preceding. To
insure strict obedience to its decrees, the pope by his bull, Benedictus Beus,
estabhshed a congregation, consisting of eight cardinals, who Avere to have
the right of inspection over the execution of the canons, reserving to himseK
the interpretation of the decrees ; excluding aU others from interference, on
pain of excommunication.
Sixtus V. subsequently limited the jurisdiction of this congregation to
questions on the reformation of morals, and not those relating to faith.
Ecclesiastics possess, in their libraries, the canons and decrees of the
CouncU of Trent ; we, therefore, confine ourselves, for the information of
laymen, to an extract from the buU Injundum, pubhshed by Pius IV., under
the form of the oath of the profession of faith.
After the Credo, as it is said in our churches, these Avords are read, which
every ecclesiastic, on receiving a benefice, should read aloud, and intelligi
bly, or write with his own hand.
" I, N  , beUeve and profess with a firm faith, aU and every one of those
things which are contained in the symbol of faith used in the Holy Catho
hc (Roman) Church, viz. :
" I beheve in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
and of aU things visible and invisible ; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before aU ages ; God of
God ; Light of Light ; true God of true God. Begotten, not made ; con-
substantial to the Father, by whom aU things were made ; who for us men,
and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, AND WAS MADE MAN. Was crucified
also for us under Pontius PUate ; he suffered and was buried ; and rose
again the third day according to the Scripture, and ascended into heaven ;
sits at the right hand of the Father, and shaU come again with glory to
judge both the Uving and the dead, of whose kingdom there shall be no end.
It is the best work to meet the calumnious history of Fra Paol Sarpi. Pallavicini Avrote from
the archives of the council, preserved in the castle of Saint Angelo. His work was translated
into Latin by Father Joseph Giattini, a Jesuit of Palermo (Antwerp, 3 vols., 4to). An edition
appeared at Faenza, in 5 vols., 4to, under the direction of Francis Anthony Zaccaria.

758 LIVES OF THE POPES.
And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of Life, who proceeds from the
Father and the Son, who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored
and glorified ; who spoke by the Prophets. And One, Holy, Cathohc and
Apostohc Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And
I expect the resurrection of the dead ; and the IKe of the world to come.
Amen.
" I most firmly admit and embrace apostohcal and ecclesiastical Tradi
tions, and aU other constitutions and observances of the same Church.
" I also admit the sacred Scriptures, according to the sense in which our
Holy Mother, the Church, has held, and does hold them, to whom it belongs
to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy Scriptures ; nor wiU
I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous
consent of the Fathers.
" I profess also, that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments of the
new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, for the salvation of mankind,
though not aU necessary for every one : viz., Baptism, Confirmation, Eu
charist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Order, and Matrimony ; and that
they confer grace : and that of these, Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Order,
cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. I also receive and admit the Cere
monies, which the Cathohc Church admits and approves of, in the solemn
administration of aU the aforesaid sacraments.
" I receive and embrace aU and every one of the things wliich have been
defined and declared in the holy CouncU of Trent, concerning original sin
and justification.
" I profess hke wise, that in the Mass is offered to God a true, proper, and
propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead : and that in the most holy
sacrament of Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially present, the body
and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and
that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into
the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood ; which
conversion the Catholic Church caUs Transubstantiation.
" I confess also that, under each kind, Christ is whole and entire, and a
true sacrament is received.
" I constantly hold that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls therein
detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. Likewise, that the
saints reigning together with Christ, are to be honored and invocated ; that
liey offer prayers to God for us ; and that their relics ought to be venerated.
" I most- firmly assert that the images of Christ, and of the Mother of God,
ever a virgin, and also of the Saints, are to be had and retained, and that
due honor and veneration are to be given them.
•' I also affirm that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ to the
Church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people.

Pius iv. 759
" I acknowledge the Holy Cathohc Apostolic Roman Church to be the
Mother and Mistress of all Churches ; and I promise true obedience to the
Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and
ricar of Jesus Christ on earth.
" I also undoubtedly receive and profess aU other things delivered, de
fined, and declared by the sacred Canons and general Councils, and par
ticularly by the holy CouncU of Trent ; and I also condemn, reject, and
anathematize all things contrary thereto, and aU heresies whatsoever con
demned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church.
" This true Cathohc Faith, out of which none can be saved, I now truly
profess and truly hold. And I, N  , promise to hold, and profess the same
whole and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life. Amen."
We shaU here leave the Council of Trent, for in the sequel of this work
the acts of the councU wUl be very often cited, and wUl support the doc
trinal decrees caUed forth by new embarrassments of the Church.
The first sovereign who showed his zeal in submitting to the Council of
Trent was the young King Sebastian of Portugal, who, seven years earher,
had succeeded his pious grandfather John III. As soon as Sebastian
received the buU of confirmation, he thanked the pope with the most tender
respect ; congratulated His Hohness upon the happy issue of his labors,
and promised with his whole strength to support the authority of the Holy
See and that of the council, and protested that he had nothing so deeply at
heart as to cause the faithful execution, of aU the decisions, dogmatical or
disciplinary, given by the holy synod.
The Venetians also earnestly accepted the councU.* The pope, on - that
subject, warmly praised them, and pointed to the senate as an example for
other powers. Not contented with that, the pope presented to the republic the
palace of Saint Mark, at Rome, which was put at the disposal of the Venetian
ambassador. Venice gratefuUy gave, in her turn, to the Holy See, the mag
nificent palace Gritti, which became the residence of the apostohc nuncio.t
The council did not immediately find equal acceptance in the kingdoms
of Spain and France.J The decrees on faith, doctrine, and discipline, op
posed by the heretics, were accepted, but some touching reform and 'disci
phne were not absolutely admitted.§ Such reservations do not appear to
obtain noAv.
At this time there arrived at Rome Abdisu (servant of Jesus), a monk of
the order of Saint Anthony, a very learned personage. He sought the
pope's confirmation in the title of patriarch of Muzale, in Eastern Syria.

* Jacques Diedo, Hist, of the Bep. of Venice, vol. ii., Uv. v., p. 196.
t Andrew Morosini, History of Venice, liv. viii., an. 1564, p. 309. X Novaes, vn., p. 165.
§ See on this subject, Bercastel, vol. xix., p. 9, et seq.

760 LIVES OF THE POPES.
He made his profession of faith,* which had already been read in the
twenty-second session of the councU, and he signed it for presentation to
the pope, who sent him back to his country with rich presents.
The pontiff permitted Cosmas, first duke of Tuscany, to found, for the
defence of the faith, and the safety of the Mediterranean, the mihtary order
of Saint Stephen, pope and martyr, t Pius IV., after receiving the requisite
information, approved the statutes of that order, which was to foUow the
rale of Saint Benedict, and the three vows of charity, conjugal chastity,
and obedience to superiors. The buU of the pope named Cosmas and his
successors grand masters of the order. Honorable privileges were granted
to them. The habit of the order was of great magnificence. The Grand
Duke Ferdinand reformed those statutes in 1590, and other popes granted
new honorary rights. Among others, Benedict XIV. granted them the
privUege to speak to the pope without previously depositing their swords
in the anteroom. The same privUege — which, moreover, is granted to the
entire diplomatic body — has also been granted to the knights of the royal
order of Charles III. of Spain.
The cross of the Knights of Saint Stephen is red, and very httle different
from that of the Knights of Malta. J
Phihp II. had honored with his patronage Mark Antony Colonna, who
had addressed many petitions to the Holy See. The pope restored to that
Roman prince the lands of his famUy, which had been confiscated by Paul
IV. The Cathohc king, under these circumstances, favoring the views of
pontifical nepotism, gave to the nephew of Pius IV., Frederic, count of
Arona, the duchy of Oira, in the kingdom of Naples, together with a con
siderable pension.
At this time a great promotion of eardinals occurred. The pope created
as members of the sacred coUege — 1. Frederic Gonzaga, of the dukes of
Mantua ; 2. Ferdinand de Medici, of the famUy of the dukes of Tuscany,
who subsequently, not being in holy orders, resigned the hat,, and became
grand duke of Tuscany in 1588.
To put an end to the dispute as to precedence between the regular canons
of Saint Augustine and the Benedictine Monies, Pius decreed, in 1564, that
the first, as clerics, should precede the monks in acts pubhc and private ; but
that in the councils and other places in which both gave their votes, the
precedence should belong to each of the abbots of those orders according
to the seniority of promotion in their abbeys. §
* It is in Spondanus, num. xxxiv.
f See the reign of Saint Stephen I. It was that admirable pope who said : " We must not
lead religion where we wish, but let it lead us whither it Avill."
X See Spondanus, n. v., an. 1562, num. xxxix.
§ Pannotti, Hist, of the Canons-Begular, lib. U., cap. lxxi.

Pius iv. 761
In the consistoiy held on the 27th of November, 1564, the pope exhorted
the cardinals not to make use of carriages, which had been introduced by
the marchioness of Mantua* and other ladies. It was his wiU that the car
dinals should ride on horseback in the city. Charles V., in fact, on his re
turn from Rome, said that the sight that most struck him in that city was
the procession of cardinals going on horseback to the consistories. It is
certain, moreover, that in 1582, according to Mark Antony Valena, the car
dinals, Avhen they went to the palace, went pontificaUy, on horseback, and
even had the power, K they met a criminal on his Avay to death, to pardon
him on the spot.t
Important business kept Pius IV. much engaged. Many Germans m
various dioceses asked permission to communicate under both kinds ; and
at first the Holy Father thought that rehgion would thereby be extended.
Various princes, including the Emperor Ferdinand, Albert of Bavaria, and
Charles, archduke of Austria, joined their solicitation to this wish of their
subjects. The matter had been discussed in the CouncU of Trent : that
assemblage of wisdom, prudence, circumspection, knowledge, and courage,
and the pope, had deigned to grant the permission. But in the briefs on
that subject which he addressed to the electors and to the archbishops, he
declared that he granted them the faculty to administer the Communion
under both kinds,:): K they deemed fit, to such as should devoutly beg that
favor, and who should confess that each kind contained the true body of
Jesus Christ, and that the Church had not erred in giving only the one
kind, any more than she erred in giving both.§
In the course of time it became evident that this concession only em
boldened the mischievous temper of the Lutherans, and did serious mis
chief to the faith, as Cardinal Commendon, on the 6th of June, 1565, wrote
to Cardinal Borromeo. In consequence, Phis' V. and Gregory XIII. entirely
revoked the permission, and restored the custom, practised during so many
ages, of giving Communion to the laity only under one kind.ll
In 1565, on the 4th of May, the Holy Father pubhshed a constitution, by
which, in concert with Giannotto Castighoni, his relation, and grand master
of the order, he restored and amplified the order of the Knights of Saint
Lazarus, in Italy, founded, according to Saint Gregory Nazianzen,f and
confirmed by Pope Saint Damasus, to aid the pilgrims at Jerusalem, and
especiaUy those attacked by leprosy.
* Subsequently, carriages were in such general use in Rome that Saint Charles Borromeo
used to say : " Omnia vanitas, prater currum in urbe—All is vanity, except a carriage, in Borne.'
f This privUege belonged to the Vestal Virgins in old Rome, but they had to make oath that
it was only accident that caused them to meet the criminal.
X No\-aes, vii., p. 169. § Lambertini, Be Sacrificio Missas, sect, i., num. 368.
1 See Lambertini, and also Bossuet on the Mass. T Orat. xx., De Laudibus BasUic.

762 LIVES OF THE POPES.
These same knights, whom subsequently we shah' see united to those oi
the order of Saint Maurice, founded by the duke of Savoy, had been con
firmed in 1255 by Alexander IV, placed under the rule of Saint Augustine,
and favored with many privUeges by several popes.*
By another constitution, subsequently confirmed by Gregory XIH., Pius
IV. forbid the palaces of the cardinals and the ambassadors any longer to
serve as asylums for delinquents and malefactors.
Pius IV., having been seriously ill during the celebration of the council,
it was reported about that that assembly would elect his successor. On
that subject the pontiff decreed that a pontifical election should be made
only at Rome, and that the faculty of election belonged only to the cardi
nals, the sole depositaries of that right. Further, by a buU of the 18th of
January, 1565,t renewing a law of Boniface IL, he ordered that no pontiff
should ever choose either a successor or coadjutor, even though the cardi
nals should agree among themselves upon that subject. By the same con
stitution, Pius renewed, decreed, and amplified the laws laid down upon
papal election by his predecessors Alexander IH., Gregory X., Clement V,
Clement VI., and Juhus II.
To reward those Avho had deserved weU from the Church in the Council
of Trent, Pius IV. made a considerable promotion of cardinals. Among
others who received the hat were — 1. Mark Antony Colonna, disciple in
theological studies of brother Fehx Peretti, afterwards Sixtus V. ; 2. Angelo
Nicohni, a noble Florentine ; 3. Louis Pisani, a noble Venetian ; 4. Prosper
Publicola Santacroce, a noble Roman. The last-mentioned at a very early
age lost his nearest relations, and at the time of the sack of Rome, in 1527,
every thing belonging to him had either been pillaged or destroyed. He
then so diligently applied himself to study, that he became one of the most
distinguished men at the Roman court. He was nuncio to Henry II. of
France, and then was sent to Portugal in the same capacity, and again re
turned as nuncio to France, where he received the purple. 5. Hugo Buon-
compagni, who was afterwards Gregory XIII. 6. Simon Pascal de' Negri, a
noble Genoese, and an excellent physician, who subsequently filled the most
important offices. (It is evident that though Rome, then probably more
than ever before, employed so many of iUustrious birth, she did not over
look talents, deserts, and knowledge, in the less exalted classes.) 7. Charles
Visconti, who had settled so many difficult affairs in the holy synod. 8.
Francis Abondio Castighoni, of the famUy of Celestine IV., who was pope
in 1241. 9. Anthony de Crequy, of the Ulustrious French famUy of that

* The graces and privileges granted by the popes to this order are mentioned by Pius IV. in
his Constitution 95. Spondanus also speaks of them at the year 1565, num. xvi., xvii.
\ Constitution 63. Cherubini, Bullarium Bomanum, tome ii.

Pius iv. 763
name. 10. John Francis Commendono, a Venetian, whose father was a
physician.* This, promotion, which gave twenty-two new cardinals to the Church, Avas
a worthy reward of many toUs, and much resolution and patience, and all
Europe was a sharer in. the benefit.
MeanwhUe, Solyman IL, having unconsciously become the partisan of
Luther, because that heresiarch had disturbed Christendom, ordered Mus-
ta'pha, one of his braA'est generals, to lay siege to the island of Malta, then
held by the Knights of Rhodes.
Eorty thousand Turks invested the forts, but Pius IV., who was so
zealous for the weal of rehgion, powerfuUy re-enforcing the fleet of PhUip
IL, Mustapha was obhged to raise the siege, after losing thirty thousand
men. We shaU speak more at length of this siege in the reign of Pius V.I"
The magnificence of Pius IV. was not limited to aiding aU Christendom
against the Mussulmans, his generosity also embraced Rome and the Papal
State. He erected at Diocletian's baths, the Carthusian convent, one of the
finest buUdings in Rome. From the palace of Monte CavaUo he laid out a
fine street, ending in the beautiful gate in the city waU, caUed after him
the Porta Pia, and standing on the site of the ancient Porta Nomentana.J
Pius opened stiU another gate, near the ancient gate Cassia, and it was
named Porta Angelica, in commemoration of the name of Angelo, which
the pope bore before his elevation. Not far from the castle of Saint Angelo
he buUt another gate, caUed di CasteUo, communicating with the Angelica
gate. Another of his favors in this Avay was the rebuUding of the Fla-
minian gate, caUed Bel Popolo, on the road entering Rome from Florence
and the March of Ancona. The square by that gate Avas greatly embel
lished by Pius VII. and Leo XII.
Pius restored the ViUa Julia, and also commenced the palace of the Con-
* Cardinal Commendon, says Novaes (vii., p. 177), was raised to the most eminent posts. He
died at Padua, December 25, 1 584, aged sixty-two, more advanced in glory than in age, with
the reputation of being one of the greatest men of his time as an eloquent impromptu orator,
See his life, by Anthony Mary Graziani, bishop of Amelia. Paris, 1699.
t For details of this siege, see Bercastel, vol. xix., p. 64, et seq.
X The architect of this gate was Michael Angelo. It has been imagined that in the orna
ments of the Porta Pia, there are proofs that the great artist persisted in considering the Medicis
to be descended from a family of barber-surgeons. It has been asserted that in those ornaments
there are basins, towels, and pills. We reply, that those accessories, in the first place, are very
imperfectly expressed ; and in the next place, may have been added by malignants of a later day.
For, if Michael Angelo had that idea, would he have been prompted by it to make a satire in
stone, under the patronage and under the direction of a pontiff of that house— of a. pontiff
who, it must be owned, had httle wish to claim descent from a family of that rank and profes
sion ? To understand that the assertion is a mere calumny, we need only calculate— if we ever
attribute to Michael Angelo a malignity from which he was exempt— the vast amount of money
that the Medicean pope paid for that building. He literally spared no expense.

764 LIVES OF THE POPES.
servation at the capitol. Michael Angelo stUl gave his advice. Indeed, it
would take long to mention all the pubhc works due to this pontiff.
He founded a printing-office in the Vatican, and gave the superintendence
of it to the celebrated Paul Manutius, whom he sent for to Rome on that
especial account. He continued the mighty centre-piece of the buUdings,
of the Vatican, commenced by Juhus II. He opened new roads and re
stored the old ; and he perfected the researches commenced by Julius for
retracing every feeder of the Virgin Water.*
Finally, he strengthened the fortifications of Ostia, Civita Vecchia, and
Ancona. This led, unfortunately, to an increase of taxation. Turbulent men, ever
ready to profit by popular discontent,' and having nothing to lose in case of
failure, formed a conspiracy against the pope. Among the confederates
were Thaddeus Manfredi, the Chevaher PeUizoni, Count Antonio Canasini,
and Prosper Pittorl They intended to assassinate the pope. Benedict
Accolti was to present a petition to the pope, and when His Holiness held
out his hand to take it, the vUe hireling was to stab his master. His cour
age faUed him as often as he had an opportunity to commit the sacrilegious
crime, which therefore was deferred ; the conspirators began to disagree,
and one of them revealed the plot. All were arrested on the same night,
tried, and condemned to death.
Pius had scarcely escaped from this barbarous treason, when he was at
tacked by a catarrhal fever, and after only a week's illness, died on the 10th
of December, 1565, attended by Saint Phihp Neri, who the year before had
founded his congregation of Oratorians, and by Saint Charles Borromeo,
who, arriving in Rome on the first inteUigence of his uncle's Ulness, warned
him that he Avas in danger of death, and administered the Sacraments of
the Church.
Pius IV. was sixty years, eight months, and nine days old ; his pontificate
had lasted five years, eleven months, and fifteen days. During his reign he
created forty-six cardinals. He was interred at the Vatican. On the 4th
of January, 1583, his remains were removed without pomp to the Carthusian
Church of the Madonna degli Angeli, which he himseK had founded and con
secrated.'!" * In Papire Masson, Be Episcopis Urbis (Paris, 1586, 4to., p. 412), is this distich. Rome is
supposed to speak : Marmoream me fecit, eram quum terrea Caesar,
Aurea sub quarto sum modo facta Pio.
+ We have three medals of Pius IV. Around the head we read : Pivs MI. Pont. Max.
In two smaller medals, of the commencement of the reign, the head is bare. In a large medal,
inscribed An. III., the head is covered with the great white cap.
The first medal has Instaveata — Bestored. Outworks, communicating with the castle, on tha
country side, are represented Avith their scarps and counterscarps. These fortifications still exist

Pius iv. 765
Pius IV. was of ordinary stature, but strong. His face was large, his
eyes were blue, and did not correspond ; nose large, and the beard scanty.
He seemed more disposed towards cheerfulness than towards the stern
gravity his station required. His memory was so retentive, that he could
on the instant recite aloud long passages from jurisconsults, historians, and
poets. When he chose, he could speak briUiantly ; and he excited wonder
by his experience in business, and by his patience in labor.
2d. Around the field and on the reverse, Mendicis in Ptochoteophivm Redact; s — Mendi
cants gathered in the poorhouse. Attributed to Leo X., but really of Pius IV., who buUt the
Mendicant Asylum. Beneficence, surrounded by four little chUdren,
3d. Dive Cathaeine Templvm Anno Cheisti ; and in the exergue, M.DLXI — Temple dedi
cated to Saint Catharine, in the year of Christ, 1561. This church stiU exists. Cardinal Raphael
Cesio had commenced it amidst the ruins of the Flaminian circus. The completing works on it
are due to Pius IV. The facade is pleasing and elegant ; it is called Saint Catharine of the
Funari (Ropemakers). The Saint Catharine, on the High Altar, and the holy apostles Peter
and Paul, and the Annunciation, that are seen above, were executed by Livius Agresti.
Da Molinet adds :— 1. Hodie in teeea canvnt Angeli — The Angels sing upon earth to-day.
Adoration ; the Blessed Virgin, with the infant Jesus lying naked upon straw. A shepherd and
two Magi near her ; the ox and ass.
2. Pio UH. Pont. Max. S. P. Q. Bon — Pius IV., the sovereign pontiff, the senate and people of
Bologna. The pope crowned and throned ; serpents under his feet. In his right hand a key,
in Ha left a book.
3. Indulgentia Pont. — Pontifical Indulgence. The pope, crowned and throned, pardons the
Eomans for their insults to Paul IV.
4. Tu avtem idem ipse es— But thou art thei self-same. Christ, in a temple, standing before
old men, seated and holding books : aUuding to the Council of Trent.
5. Tvi sectatoe — I follow thy laws. A piece of money was struck at Milan when Louis XII.
occupied that city. On the one part is the crowned head of the monarch ; on the other, Saint
Ambrose, on horseback, driving away the Manicheans, the PrisciUianists, and the heretics of the
time. This medal supposes Pius IV. to say to Saint Ambrose : " I foUow thy example :" In the
Council of Trent, I combated the new heretics, the Lutherans and Calvinists.
6. Instavbatio Colleg. I. C. Mediol. When he became pontiff, he restored the law-school at
Milan, and granted it some privUeges. Law seated before the buUding. Three kneeling figures.
7. Peovidentia Pont — The foresight of the pope. A standing figure holds the cornucopia ;
on the right, the bushel and ears of wheat.
8. Poeta Pia. In the exergue : Roma. Above the gate the arms of the Medicis, between two
turrets. 9. On the left, in four lines, Prvs nil. Pont. Max. Poetam in hanc amplitudinem extulit.
Viam Flamtniam Steavit Anno III. — Pius IV, sovereign pontiff, thus magnificently reared
this gate. He repaired the Flaminian way in the year 3. The pope, escorted by cardinals, leav
ing Rome. The gate meant is the Porta del Popolo. The Flaminian owes its name to Caius
Flaminius, twice consul. Commencing at Rome, it traversed a portion of Etruria and Umbria
to Rimini. His son extended it to Bologna, and thence to Aquileia, on the slope of the Alps.
10. Antidotvm yit& — The antidote of life. It ia said that Pius IV. himself dictated both the
epigraph and the subject of this medal, dedicated to Patience. Pius IV. was somewhat disposed
to vivacity, perhaps even to anger. He endeavored to correct his foible by invoking Patience-
The ox and the yoke are a symbol of that virtue.
11. Exvbgat Deus— Let God arise. The Resurrection. The aUusion is to Ps. lxvii. 2.
Bonanni (vol. i., p. 289) gives also :
1. Desidebio Desidebamvs — With desire have we desired. A hen and her chickens. Struck
to thank the pope for his beneficence to the poor, in erecting an asylum for them.
2. Hvmilia eespicit — He looketh upon the lowly ; Ps. cxii. 6. The lamb upon the altar.

766

LIVES OF THE POPES.

By a constitution, he approved the Index of the books which the council
had prohibited, and he knew why those books had been forbidden. The
labor which he undertook, in order by his own eyes to ascertain that the
Index was needed, lasted three months. Already, in 1548, an index of pro
hibited books had been published, but it was neither authentic nor furnished
with the special authority of the pope, though it was composed by Mon
signor della Casa, the pope's nuncio at Venice.
The first person who attacked the Index was the Abbe de Saint Cyran, in
France ; then came Quesnel and others. Rome having prohibited their
books, these writers replied by insults. To their confusion, and to the jus
tification of the Holy See, it must be mentioned that Benedict XIV., in his
constitution of 1753, estabhshed that the sacred congregation of the Index
should condemn the book of no Catholic by name without hearing it de
fended by the author, or a consulter, acting ex-qfficio as defender. But it is
unnecessary to point out here that the Holy See, in its judgments, is' always
benevolent and indulgent, though it always remains just. Elsewhere we
shall have more than are proof of this.*
Pius IV. bestowed much care upon the reform of the clergy, both secular
and regular, in revoking aU concessions, privileges, and favors contrary to
the regulations of the Council of Trent. By vigUant and reiterated consti
tutions, he compeUed the bishops to reside at their Sees ; and he condemned
the benefices in confidenm — that is to say, with simony. He reformed vari
ous tribunals in Rome, into which abuses had crept. He instituted the
formula, or profession of faith, which was to be pronounced by any one pro
moted to a chair in the public schools, and another simUar profession of
faith imposed upon aU enjoying ecclesiastical benefices.
At the request of his nephew, Saint Charles Borromeo, Pius TV insti
tuted a monastery for women who, having lived irregularly, desired to re
form, and to lead an irreproachable hfe. This monastery, situated near
the Minerva, was caUed Casa Pia.
The Holy See was vacant twenty-eight days.
* See Zaccharia, in his Antifebronius, tome i., Introd., chap, ii., and chiefly in his Polemical
History of Prohibited Books, p. 147, et seq.

'/O , •*¦<¦>- f'O. , jr
¦ ri-hC- V_ ' :'!d ¦'

'-TF.M fni-.K, 0 ,t J "AM.IKR.

SAINT PIUS V.

767

229. ST. PIUS V— -a. d. 1556.

( HERE is nothing, not even the most sacred or the
most A7enerable, that human malignity wiU not abuse
to its own ends. This is especiaUy the case when
it seeks to destroy faith and religion. We are
assaUed by a prodigious and daily increasing array
of volumes on ecclesiastical history, extended or
abridged. Who would beheve that in a project so
pious and instructive is a conspiracy against the
"*¦ Church; and that in a golden cup, adorned with,.
sacred images, poison is presented to the majority of the faithful?"
Those reflections of Canon Muzzarelli, theologian of the sacred peniten
tiary, which occur in one of his finest works,* cannot, apply to a book
pubhshed by the Viscount de FaUoux, having for title, History of Saint
Pius V. (2 vols., 8vo, Angers, 1844.)
Having reached the reign of this great pope, I cannot too warmly ac
knowledge, in advance, the obligations I shah owe to that author. He is
one of those who the most truly apply themselves to the study of facts, and,
with regard to Saint Pius V., there were many facts misrepresented.
De FaUoux is among the best of those who labor to restore Christianity
and inaugurate the movement of reparation in France. He thus explains
the first success of this vast enterprise. " The disciples, following the
masters, -searched' the archives of history and of Catholic philosophy,t
despised.for so many ages. The' object of the most habitual calumnies
became ^he'object of an impartial examination; which soon led to a respect
ful gratitude ; and then the divine action, day by day, threw aside the veils
of oblivion. Rome, that had been thought reduced to a. subaltern part by
the invasion of her territory, recovered her primacy in every event. The
sovereign pontiff is exposed at once to every violence and treachery; he is
crossed by those who wish to seduce him, and threatened by those who
would fain crush him ; the hon, by turns, growls and roars : aU in vain-
Pius VII. remamed unshaken, and Napoleon, exhausted, feU before the pope
did. The simple apostohc weapons, prayer and humihty, which had de
feated so many Csesars, resumed the old irresistible temper ; and God, who
had hidden his mysteries in that strife, at length desires that aU hearts

* II Buono uso della Logica in materia di
t De FaUoux : Introduction, p. 12.

Belligione. (4th edition, vol. iii., Rome, 1807, p. 63.)

768 LIVES OF THE POPES.
shaU know them ; it is His wUl that we contemplate in aU its details that
instructive fulfilment of his infallible promise."'""
The author wiU now foUow Saint Pius V. in each of his actions, and he
will cast the broad bright hght of truth over a hfe that is httle understood
and much calumniated, and one which, having been mixed up with the
pohtical disasters and rehgious furies of France, seemed to give an additional
opportunity for attacking the popes, and heaping the language of maledic
tion and horror upon them, when they, on the contrary, were striving to
lead nations into the ways of wisdom and prudence, and to turn ambi
tious princes from an at once guilty and impossible usurpation ; guUty in
intent, and incapable of permanent success. Both nations and princes,
misunderstanding a voice, alternately gentle and stern, feU into hor
rifying excesses. The Holy See, however, never faUed in its difficult
duties. I wiU do justice to the present. Upon such questions, long prohibited
either by flattery or by the habitual use of a thousand worn-out elements
that usurp the domain of history, men foUow estabhshed opinions.
In 1572, the Guises had attempted nothing against their kings, and the
people had wished nothing. A woman and some of her sons did aU. The
victims had no ground of self-reproach ; they had not abandoned the faith
of their fathers ; they had not dreamed of a fantastic repubhc. Every thing
Avas weU known. The historians had only to copy what had been coUected
and repeated for them. An ignorant and slavish century had taught aU,
and had proclaimed that the facts could not be altered. AU was settled —
the guUt lay at Rome.
Rome alone had ruined pohtical systems ; she was told so in prose and
verse, in flippant pamphlet and in bulky tome ; and K Rome rephed, the
Apennines would not aUow the reply to arrive.
Let us endeavor, with the generous aid of French and Itahans, to speak,
not differently, but, if our humble faculties wiU aUow, to speak better. In
these new assizes let us patiently hear aU witnesses. They have cost time,
and even blootl. If aU feehngs are not uniform, at least the curiosity is
general. At least, let that Avhich is new have a fair hearing. Of what
benefit is peace, if amid the utmost facUity for disseminating fashions,
romances, theatrical trifles, and even worse, Ave alone are denied hberty to
express freely our Catholic ideas, which are the basis of real happiness for
men, the bright light of august truth, strict justice to aU ? Let us see if he
Avhose duty it was to teach morahty faUed to do so, and let us become
more circumspect as we learn that he had constantly been that which he
ought to be, the bold propagator of good, and the persistent enemy of evU ;
* De FaUoux : Introduction, p. 14.

SAINT PIUS V. 769
and whether the reigning pontiff held with a firm hand the helm of the
bark that was intrusted to his vigUance and his courage.
The biographies just read wiU invest with new interest that of Pius V
Let us see what he drew from the example of Gregory VII. and Alexander
ni., and what he himseK added, as the especial fruit of his own disposi
tion, to the lessons that the papacy had received from those great models.
Saint Pius V, Michael Ghisheri, was born at Bosco, near Tortona, the son
of Paul Ghisheri and Domenica Angeria. The famUy, though reduced, was
a distinguished one at Bologna. De Thou represents Michael as born in -
a low condition ; but that writer was misinformed. According to JacobiUi,
who -wrote the hfe of the Saint, he is supposed to descend from Ghisheri of
Constantinople, whose chUdren settled in Rome, Perugia, and many other
Itahan cities. Pompey Scipio Dolfi, author of the chronology of the noble
houses of Florence, affirms that that famUy, in 1445, under the reign of
Eugene TV"., was driven from Bologna, where it had enjoyed the right of
nobihty ; and that a Thomas Ghisheri found refuge at Vicenza, Francis
Ghisheri at Ferrara, and Lippo Ghisheri at Bosco. A son of Lippo was
grandfather of the future pontiff. Michael was born on the 17th of Jan
uary, 1504, and received from his parents a pious education, as they des
tined him for the service of the Church. At the age of fourteen he took
the habit of Saint Dominic, in the convent of Vigevano, and in 1519 made
his profession, a practice permitted at that time. His superiors sent him
to the coUege of Bologna, where he was to study theology, and then to
Genoa to be ordained. Obhged to teach a course of phUosophy, he went
to a convent of Pavia to teach theology, and he remained a professor
there for sixteen years, to the great satisfaction of his superiors.
In 1543 he was sent to a chapter of his province, held at Parma, and he
there maintained what are caUed public conclusions. Successively elected
superior of several residences, he governed his brethren with firmness and
mUdness.* The congregation of the Supreme Inquisition, at Rome, sent him to
Coira, a district of the Grisons, where his mission was to settle several
disputes. In 1551, Juhus H. named him commissary-general of the Congregation,
on the recommendation of Cardinal Carafa. The latter having become
pope, under the name of Paul IV, made Michael, in spite of his unwilling
ness, bishop of Sutri and Nepi, in 1556. At length, on the 15th of March,
1557, that pontiff created him cardinal, of the title of Saint Mary of Ba
Minerva. At the same time, Michael was established as perpetual supreme
inquisitor, an office reserved to the pope exclusively, and which, therefore,
* Novaes, vii., p. 190.
Vol. L— 49

770 LIVES OF THE POPES.
seemed to promise the pontificate. Subsequently, Cardinal Michael left the
bishopric of Sutri for that of Mondovi, in Piedmont, and thus got nearer to
his famUy.
We have hitherto given facts transmitted to us by Itahan authors. I Avill
now foUow de FaUoux, as, with rare exceptions, our views, in the composi
tion of our histories, are often the same.
After speaking of the childhood of Michael, he adds : " Lavish disposers
of their temporal influence, Julius n. and Leo X. rather resembled the
heirs of the faUen empire of Constantinople than the successors of Peter in
the pontificate. A profane emulation dividing the schools, ushered in the
passions of the sectarian spirit. At the eve of the hostilities between indi
vidual reason and revealed authority, the void was fiUed by grammatical
disputes and scientific chaUenges. Plato attacked Aristotle, in the bosom
of the universities. Pico de la Mirandola dethroned the Fathers of the
Church, whose latinity was reputed barbarous. Mythological learning
invaded even the science of theology, to the great injury of Cathohc sim
plicity.* In the sacred chairs, only Ciceronian eloquence was heard. The
popular processions of the great brotherhoods of the middle age were
eclipsed by the triumphs of the capitol, where Ariosto was crowned, t In
the very house of the Lord, his name was often disguised under that of
Jupiter; and Diana the Chaste was not seldom compared to the Virgin
Mary. " Julius IL, some said, chose the name Juhus Csesar, whom he resembled
in ambitious designs, and whose helmet he assumed to oppose it to the
imperial crown. Leo substituted for this warlike impulse a purely pacific
impulse, but one not less worldly, and not less unknown to the ancient
traditions of the Holy See. Rome, under Julius II. , was transformed into
an arsenal ; under Leo X., into a Pantheon. Academies succeeded to coun
cUs of war ; the astonished Vatican with difficulty recognized its new ten
ants, archers covered with armor, or artists effeminately garbed in silks
and velvets."
I wiU go no further. The charm of the style wiU not bhnd me to the
injustice Avhich so agreeably plays through that eloquent description.
I have commended monographs, and have mentioned how they assist
historians ; but while praising the former, I must warn the latter that such
presents are not always to be accepted with the same complaisance. We
wiU not repeat the reproach that we are about to make ; but make it once
* De FaUoux, vol. i., p. 2.0.
f Petrarch was crowned in the capitol, under Benedict XII., who reigned at Avignon. Under
Leo X., Ariosto was not crowned. True, there was a buffoon, named Barbarello, who was con
ducted on an elephant to the capitol, but feU from it before he got there. Afterwards, a triumph
was prepared for Tasso, under Clement VIIL, in 1595, but the poet died before it took place.

SAINT PIUS V. 77]
for aU. A biographer, in his monograph, sees only his especial hero ; aU his
incense is for the one idol whose predecessors and successors are mere ac
cessories. The historian who has embraced the entire series may adopt,
occasionaUy, a stern accusation, whencesoever it may come ; but beyond and
apart from the picture of the acts of one, he has a duty to fulfil towards all.
Each may receive merited reproach, yet even admiration for a magnificent
life of greatness must not be indulged at the expense of other popes, who,
in their time, have carefuUy kept the stronghold. Another pope has ap
peared, but he has obhgations to his predecessor. With aU this, I do not
the less feel justly towards labors generaUy complete, that have staked out
the ground regularly, and trace out the path for him who has not leisure to
pause long, forbidden as it is by the very nature of his task.
We shaU now foUow Novaes, who, like ourselves, passes as rapidly as he
can to the principal facts of the reign.
After the funeral of Pius IV., fifty sacred electors entered into conclave
to elect a successor to the late pontiff! SpineUo Benci, in the History of
Monte-Pulciano, says that Cardinal Angelo Nicolini should have been that
successor. He had been seriously spoken of, but he was so close a friend
of Cosmas, grand duke of Tuscany, that this very circumstance mihtated
against his election. Then Cardinal Ricci was thought of. Afterwards, it
seemed that the choice would fall upon Cardinal Moroni, supported by Car
dinal Borromeo.' Enemies exerted themselves, Moroni was excluded ; and
Borromeo thus • repulsed, supported Cardinals Sirlet and Buoncompagni.
The difficulties increased. At length Cardinals Altemps and Farnese united
in favor of Cardinal Alessandrino, as Michael Ghisheri was caUed, because
born at Bosco, in the district of Alexandria deUa PagUa ; and, moreover,
Michael's provincial had so named him when a simple friar.
Some of the electors represented to Borromeo that Alessandrino was a
nephew, of Paul IV. ; that a reaction was to be feared against the chastise
ment inflicted by that pope upon the Carafas ; and that, perhaps, Ghisheri
would harass the famUy of Pius IV
But the great Borromeo was not to be influenced by worldly considera
tions in an affair of such importance.
That worthy son of the Church considered nothing but the service of God
and the glory of the Holy See ; he declared himseK for Alessandrino, and
never rested untU he had brought to the same mind, not only all the cardi
nals of his ovm numerous party, but also those of the opposing parties.
Alessandrino, when made aware of this, resisted even the entreaties of his
friends. " To render the election valid, it was necessary to get his consent, and
that he should seem inclined to pronounce the solemn words of accept
ance. It was not obtained without new demonstrations of his alarm and

772 LIVES OF THE POPES.
unwiUingness, and protestations of his unwUlingness, accompanied by abun
dant tears."* At length, Cardinal Michael was elected pontiff, on the 7tb
of January, 1566.t
To show himseK grateful to Charles Borromeo, and to do honor to the
memory of the uncle of that Saint, instead of taking the name of Paul,
which naturaUy presented itself, he took that of Pius V. The name of
Michael, perhaps, would have been preferred, but Saint Charles observed
that it was a new name in the pontificate. However, aU was not yet at an
end. Ghisheri seemed plunged into a stupefaction which kept him motion
less. His hps had pronounced the consent ; but his heart, his mind, his
modesty, and his natural humihty, had not yet pronounced. He was asked
the cause of his silence, and he rephed : " In our Dominican convent, living
solely to God, and occupied with our salvation, we firmly hoped to be saved ;
elected bishop and cardinal, we began to fear ; now that we are elected
pontiff, we despair of our salvation."
On the 17th of January, the day on which he completed the sixty-second
year of his hfe, the usual ceremonies proceeded. At the coronation he
would not allow money to be thrown to the people, inasmuch as the prac
tice had resulted in fatal catastrophes at the coronation of Pius IV., when
women and children perished ; but he ordered the money to be distributed
to the poor of the various churches in their own homes. Money was also
given to noble families known to be indigent.
Pius V. being informed that the Romans seemed but Ul pleased with his
election, because they feared he might be too severe, rephed : " We trust in
God, and we hope so to reign that our death wiU be stiU less pleasing to
the people than our accession."
On the 27th of January, he went in a htter to take possession of Saint
John Lateran. As he passed before the church of the Gesu, he saw Saint
Francis Borgia, general of the order, who, with his rehgious, stood at the
church door, waiting to receive the papal benediction. He ordered the
procession to halt, called Saint Francis Borgia to his side, and conversed
with him for more than a quarter of an hour, addressing to his order the
most flattering congratulations, and praising the general himseK for having
abandoned the grandeurs of the world, to embrace a hfe of sacrifice and
pain ; a hfe which most frequently leads only to martyrdom.
To those first proofs of piety the pontiff added acts of magnificence,
and the Romans began to hope that his reign would be a glorious
one. Eighty thousand crowns were distributed to thirty poor cardinals, two
hundred to each of the auditors of the Rota, fifty thousand to the Duke
* De FaUoux, i., p. 84. f Novaes, vii., p. 192.

SAINT PIUS V. 773
Altemps for the dowry of his wife, sister of Cardinal Borromeo, as prom
ised before his death by Pius IV.*
To show his gratitude to his benefactor, Paul IV, Pius V. caused a toinb
to be erected to him in the church of the Minerva. After consulting the
sacred coUege, he ordered the restitution to the prmces of the Carafa
family, of the property and honors of which they had been deprived by
Pius TV. ; and then he gave the purple to Anthony Carafa, son of Rinaldo
Carafa, and included in the disgrace of his family.
On the 6th of June, 1566, the pope wrote a letter with his own hand to
Mary Queen of Scots, consoling her under the tribulations inflicted upon
her by Queen Elizabeth of England ; and he at the same time sent to the
august captive a sum of twenty thousand gold crowns, with the promise to
send her more when a favorable opportunity should present itseK. t
The Roman people having been tormented, in the month of August, by
the rigors of a contagion which carried off many victims, the pope visited
the sick in person, giving them medicines and pecuniary aid.
A circumstance occurred wliich led Pius to show his horror of nepotism.
His nephew, Paul Ghisheri, having been taken prisoner, by Turkish pirates,
the pope ransomed him, had him brought into Rome stiU clad as a slave,
and gave him an office with a salary of one hundred crowns, and a horse to
enable him to go home. Paul was ordered to teU his other relations that
the pope would not give them the property of the Church. Subsequently,
however, the pope thought differently. He sent for Paul to Rome, and said
to him : " As you are worthy of our esteem, and as the Holy See can em
ploy you, we name you governor of Borgo, and captain of our guard."
UnhappUy, Paul Ghisheri, in that high office, committed a fault, and en
deavored to escape its consequences by means of a falsehood. The pope
then deprived him of his post, sent for him, and, pointing to a hghted taper,
said : " Before that burns out you must leave Rome and the Papal States."
Meantime, Paul had left in poverty five young children : the pope provided
for their wants, and tacitly permitted Bonelli de Bosco, his sister's husband,
to receive, from a foreign prince, favors which raised him to a very dis
tinguished position. On the whole, Pius loved his relations, and was very
AvUling to make them prosperous ; but he also desired them to be virtuous,
free from luxury and show, and in general, to obtain at Rome only such
favors as they deserved. Such is the only aUowable nepotism.
Pius V. also labored to make wise regulations in disciphne. The better
to succeed, he exhorted the bishops of aU Christendom to cause the decrees
of the CouncU of Trent to be observed, and to reform their churches. He
* This generous act is mentioned by Gabuzzi in the Life of Pius V, Uv. i., chap. ix.
f A work by Samuel Jebb was published in London in 1725, in two volumes, containing a list
of aU the authors who had written on the misfortunes of Mary.

774 LIVES OF THE POPES.
first set the example by reforming his court. He provided the tribunals
Avith judges known for their probity, declaring pubhcly that employments
would be bestowed only on merit and virtue, and not on influence and
intrigue. Every bishop possessing benefices with the cure of souls, was to
obey the law of residence, in conformity to the laws of the council. Pre
lates were either to proceed to their residence within a month, or to forfeit
their benefices ; and many bishops lost theirs by disobedience.
In compliance with the decrees of the CouncU of Trent, Pius caused the
demolition of the tombs erected in several churches, ordering that the
bodies should be buried in the ground or removed to the cemeteries.*
The Germans, by permission of Pius IV., communicated under" both
kinds. Pius V. revoked this permission, which Protestants regarded as a
condescension to the novelties which they sought to establish.
Boniface VIIL, by a constitution which the Council of Trent confirmed
in its fifth session, had ordered nuns to be cloistered, and to make the
solemn profession of the three vows. But the cloister was not strictly ob
served in the time of Pius V., and under various pretexts the rule was
evaded. The Holy Father forbade nuns, under penalty of major excommu
nication, to leave their cloister excepting in case of fire, leprosy, or pesti
lence ; and when these motives ceased to exist, the nuns were to return to
their convents. The buU, Regularium personarum, also forbade any nun to
enter a monastery of monks, and any monk to enter a convent of nuns.
Bishops alone, according to custom, could grant permission.
Latin priests had been occasionaUy authorized to celebrate the divine
offices according to the Greek rite, and Greeks to celebrate them in Latin.
Pius V. revoked all permissions of the kind.
The Hollanders having revolted, against the Church and against Philip
II. , their lawful sovereign, the Holy Father, in order to promote among the
Flemings due sentiments of fidelity to the Church and the sovereign, was the
first pontiff to introduce the use of blessed medals, and to grant indul
gences to those wearing them.f At the same time the pope encouraged
the duke of Alva, who had gained victories over the Gueux (the name
adopted by the Calvinists in Flanders),:): and sent him the stocco (sword)
and the berretone (ornamented hat), which had been blessed with various
ceremonies on Christmas night.
The origin of the custom of sending the SAvord and hat, which have often
* That infection should not corrupt the air, the ancient Romans, by the law of the twelve
tables, forbade interment of bodies in cities, excepting of those personages who had triumphed
This law, grown obsolete, was revived by Theodoric, king of Italy, and afterwards annuUed by
the Emperor Leo, surnamed the Philosopher. (Rainaldi, an. 226.)
f Oldoin, Addit. to Chacon, tome iU., col. 1,006.
X See de Thou, Histoire, tome ii., lib. 40, p. 524, and Spondanus, Ann. Eccles., an. 1566, n. 21 et
seq., and our own Life of Paul III.

SAINT PIUS v. 775
since been given to generals meriting the approval of the Holy See, is not
precisely known* Some authors think that it is one of the most ancient
customs of the Church ; others beheve it to be more modern. Various
opinions are reported by Father TheophUus Reynaud, of the Society of
Jesus, in " A Treatise on the Pileus and other Coverings for tlie Head, both
Sacred and Profane." (Lyons, 1665, 4to.)
The Monts de Piete were instituted by Barnaby de Terni, a Franciscan, in
order to stop the exactions of Jewish pawnbrokers, and relieve the poor
from their oppression. The first Mont de Piete owed its origin to Paul HI.
In 1559, Pius, by his buU Inter multiplices, completed his measures of pre
caution against usurers, by granting signal encouragement to the develop
ment of those charitable institutions.'!"
Considering, too, that in many classes the want of instruction was the
prmcipal source of the disorders that afflicted the Church, he instituted the
Confraternity of the Christian Bodrine, the members of which are bound to
explain the Catechism to chUdren every Sunday and holyday, in certain
appointed churches. Subsequently, perceiving the great benefit which the
people received from these instructions, he granted indulgences to the
teachers and pupUs. A bull, the one hundred and thirty-seventh, finally
exhorted aU patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and prelates, to establish the
Confraternity of the Christian Bodrine in aU the churches of their dioceses
and dependencies.*
The island of Malta had remained in the most deplorable misery ever
since its siege by Solyman. The knights learning that he was making new
preparations, thought of abandoning the island, the only bulwark of Italy
against the infidels, and seeking shelter in Sicily. To dissuade the grand
master, Pius, at his own expense, sent three thousand good soldiers. A
nuncio was at the same time to dehver fifteen thousand gold crowns, and to
promise thirty-five thousand more within seven months. The pope also
sent, on the 24th of March, 1566, a brief, in which he affirmed that he
would not hesitate to shed his own blood in defence of the honor of God,
and the safety of the inhabitants of Malta. At the same time, he solicited
aid from France ; and at Rome he compelled unfaithful agents to repay
considerable sums to the State. It was by this aid that the knights
began to build the new city, called Valetta, after the name of the grand
master. That city is now one of the most formidable fortresses in the
world. In bestowing so much attention upon the island that was again to repel
the Turks, Pius V. was not neglectful of the dangers of the Ecclesiastical
States. On that account, the Holy Father thought it his duty to go in per-
* Novaes, vii., p. 202. f De FaUoux, i., p. 108. X Ibid-, p. 109.

776 LIVES OF THE POPES.
son to Ancona. The infidels might attack by the Adriatic sea, as weU as
by the Mediterranean. In a war so important, every probabUity must be
attended to. The duke of Bracciano was named general of the armies of
the Pontifical States, and received the standard of the holy Church.
Shortly afterwards the pope returned to Rome, and was not long in dis
covering a part of Solyman's plans. That emperor had suddenly, by treach
ery, seized the isle of Scio, whUe the Christians were celebrating Easter.
Almost aU were massacred. Pius V. convoked a consistory, in which he
informed the cardinals of the disaster. His aUocution was interrupted by
sobs. Letters were dispatched to aU the faithful courts in Christendom,
and money sent to ransom the children of the celebrated Justiniani family.
Charles IX., who had an ambassador at Constantinople, read the pope's
letters with deep emotion ; and the young Justiniani, restored to hberty on
the demand of Charles, went to Rome to beg that the pope would thank
the king.
The great theatre of affairs is now transferred to Germany. De FaUoux
eloquently explains the state of things in that country. In his picture wiU
be recognized the same feehng which animated us when we had to speak of
the ravages of the doctrine of Luther. "WhUe the Church," says he,
"bore herseK vahantly, as the advanced guard of Christendom, against
barbarism, what aid did she receive in the strife from the Germanic em
pire ? It became indispensable to probe the wound that tormented Ger
many.* " Luther, stupefying the world with the noise of his clamor, or the strange
ness of his audacity, and slandering all who ventured to oppose him, at
tracted universal attention, and carried, as by assault, those minds that
were the easiest to surprise. John Huss, his predecessor, had perished at
the stake more than a century before. Luther took a hint from that exam
ple. He did not, hke the Bohemian, link his cause with that of the op
pressed and lowly ; far from it. AU the violence that he safely displayed
against the pope and the papists, turned into equaUy gross adulation
towards princes and barons ; and when he found himseK obhged to seek
a shelter, the ramparts of Wartburg appeared preferable to the roof of the
poor that had sheltered the Apostles. '
"Once shielded by the temporal buckler, he boldly entered upon his
definitive issue. He announced that the only way of putting an end to the
disorders of the cloister and the weaknesses of the priesthood, was to
abolish both the cloister and the priesthood ; and the better to recommend
those maxims, he threw to the first comer the spoUs of the monasteries, the
gold or the brass of the tabernacles. Authorizing, by his own example, a
* De FaUoux, i., p. 163.

SAINT PIUS v. 777
double sacrUege in marriage, he freed from aU bridle the passions of others,
by sanctioning the bigamy of the landgrave of Hesse. " On the death of
Luther, his fatal heritage was eagerly divided among his lieutenants, ever
since invariably divided against each other,* and faith daUy expired in
hearts given up to aU the tumults of anarchy.
" Men of calmer temperament than that of Luther, such as Melanthon
and Beza, attempted a sort of mediation. But these faint velleities of con
ciliation were soon buried in their own bosoms, or only exhaled in groans.
'•Our people,' wrote Beza to a friend, ' wander hither and thither at the
mercy of every breath of every doctrine ; and after having risen, speedily
faU, now on the one side and now on the other. What their rehgion is to
day, you may learn ; what it wiU be to-morrow, you cannot even guess.' "*
De FaUoux closes that passage Avith this short and expressive, as weU as
sweetly consoling phrase :
" The lifetime of a man -witnessed the dawn, the noon, and the decline of
those- haughty errors."
De FaUoux vriU present a summary account of Germany as it was in 1566.
He traverses places and epochs, and has been sovereignly just.
Sometimes twenty lines, or ten, or four, or even a single line, wiU suffice
to explain the rehgious situation of a country. De FaUoux commences by
estabhshing what is, and then he enters into detaUs which often explain
how it became so. The sobriety of the author wiU be such, that after
having spared his colors, he wiU have enough left also to paint the state of
those northern countries which nightly enjoy the glorious brightness of the
polar star.
" From one end of Germany to the other confusion reigned in ideas, in
morals, in institutions, and in tendencies.
"In Switzerland, the spirit of revolt changed its name without changing
in character. Zwinglius and Calvin divided men's minds.
" Very soon we shaU have to pause before Calvinism in France.
" As to Zwinghus, at first a soldier, then a priest, and afterwards canon
of Constance, he sold his benefice in order to marry, and then founded a
new schism in his country. Zurich, Berne, Bale, and Schaffhausen foUowed
him. The Swiss cantons were divided, and flew to arms. ' Fire must be
quenched by blood !' exclaimed Zwinglius, resuming his old trade, and he
* De FaUoux has weU defined these variations, which at last gave us the victory. The Sacra-
mentarians were the offspring of the Lutherans, the Anabaptists of the Sacramentarians ; and
the sinister memories of Munster tortured the last unquiet hours of the reformer. And we, we
have remained Catholic ; yes, CathoUcs have succeeded to CathoUcs, and it is not our ranks that
are now being thinned. _ _
t Epist. ad Andream Budith. Dudith published translations of Longinus, Dionysius of Hah-
carnassus, and of BeccateUi's Life of Cardinal Pole.

778 LIVES OF THE POPES.
perished in battle. His doctrine had had time to breed fanatics. Judicial
executions succeeded to popular outbreaks. Gentihs having begun to dog
matize in his turn, the reformed BaiUi of Berne arrested and beheaded
him on the pubhc square.
" At Geneva, Calvin personaUy attended the execution of Michael Ser-
vetus. " Frederick III., count palatine of the Rhine, embraced Calvinism, and
ardently supported it.
"William, duke of Brans-wick, son of Duke Ernest, had entered the
league of Smalkalde, and maintained aU its errors.
" Carlostadt, the friend of Luther, kindled the fire in Saxony.
" Prussia was divided betAveen Joachim, Margrave of Brandenburg, and
Duke Albert, both of the same house, and both Protestants. Prussia had
remained longer than the other German countries in a barbarous state, and
owed the light of civilization to the Holy See. The Teutonic knights,
driven from Syria by the Saracens, had asked an asylum from the Holy See,
which His Hohness gave them at Culm and at Kcenigsberg.
" This Christian soldiery, designedly placed among savage tribes, soon
subjugated them as much by superiority of morals as by that of arms.
The knights very soon ruled as sovereigns over almost aU Prussia. The
title of grand master was esteemed an honor to the most iUustrious famUies
of Germany, and among the princes of the blood-royal.
" As long as the Teutonic knights found barbarians to combat and prov
inces to subject, they showed themselves as noble as their mission. But
when they had nothing to do but to enjoy the possession of a secondary
power and immense wealth, aU the disorders of idleness attacked them,
corrupted their hearts, and tarnished their faith. The Lutheran uprising
presented the opportunity for throwing off the yoke, easy and distant as it
was, of the sovereign pontiffs. The opportunity was seized. Albert of
Brandenburg, then grand master of the order, Stipulating, at the expense of
the order, for the wages of his treason, concluded, on the 8th of April,
1526, a treaty with his uncle, the king of Poland, which recognized him as
hereditary grand duke of aU the domains of the Teutonic order, except the
cities abandoned to the greed of. the Poles, to which they lent the strong
hand for the execution of its clauses. He threw off the habit of the order,
deprived the knights, who had raised him to the chief command, of aU
their privileges, and drove the Cathohcs from his new States. Albert, dying
at a very advanced age, was succeeded by his son Albert Frederick. The
order had found shelter in Franconia, and George Hund, of Wenckeim, who
was grand master at the accession of Pius V., vainly urged his incessant
protests upon the attention of the German Diets.
" In the North, Sweden and 'Denmark had seen the Cathohc Church

SAINT PIUS V. 779
perish under atrocious persecutions. Gustavus Vasa, after delivering his
country from the tyranny of Christiern IL, held at Orebro, in 1529, a national
councU, in which he abohshed Cathohcity, and adopted the Augsburg Con-
fession. " John III., his son and successor, married- a daughter of Sigis
mund, king of Poland, and took as his favorite minister a Frenchman named
La Gardie. Those two influences won him back towards the old faith, and
he showed an inclination towards its re-estabhshment ; but the death of his
queen, and the shipwreck of La Gardie on his return from Rome, rendered
the first efforts fruitless, and deprived the Catholics of their last support in
the kingdom.
"Frederick H., king of Denmark and duke of Holstein, grandson of the
ferocious Christiern, found Lutheranism estabhshed in his States, and main
tained it there.
" Ivan IV. had reigned in Russia from the year 1534. He was the first
sovereign of that vast empire who exchanged the title of duke, prince, or
grand duke of Muscovy, for the title of Tzar, or Czar, an obvious corrup
tion of the Roman and imperial title Caesar. He had subjected the kingdom
of Astracan, brought the Tartars of the Kasan under the yoke, and seized
upon the Pohsh frontier. Manifesting some desire for reunion with the
Holy See, he invited and received at Moscow the celebrated Father Possevin ;
but the instinct of the despot could not bow beneath the laws of the. Church,
and he died without realizing any of the hopes that he had inspired. He
was married seven times, and that single fact Ulustrates the state of a
country withdrawn from the authority of the sovereign pontiff.
" Such, in summary, was the picture of the north of Europe in 1566."
The nuncios of Pius V. kept him informed of aU that they observed, and
he perceived that aid could not too early be given to the emperor, sur
rounded as he was by dangers alike from the Turks and from the Luther
ans. In consequence, the zealous pope published a jubUee, instituted the
devotion of the Quarant ' Ore, or forty hours ; urged the faithful to fulfil
their duties, and granted a plenary indulgence to aU who, after confession
and communicating, addressed fervent prayers to God in favor of the em
peror. During the greatest heats of the season, the pope said Mass at Saint
Mark's, on the very day of the commencement of the forty hours, and gave
such pubhc marks of devotion as had not been witnessed for three hundred
years, by going, on foot, first to Saint John Lateran, the day foUowing to
Saint Mary Major, and the third day to the church of Araceli, the principal
church of the Observantine Franciscans. Soon after, tidings came that
Solyrnan, besieging Sighet, a place on the confines of Croatia and Hungary,
had fought a battle in which he lost thirty thousand men, and then died
suddenly before the place was taken.

780 LIVES OF THE POPES.
To the deep grief of Saint Pius, France was disturbed by the heresy of
the Huguenots,* and he resolved to send to Paris, as apostohc nuncio,
Michael Turriani, bishop of Ceneda, and afterwards cardinal. He was to
exhort the sovereign and Queen Catharine, to be firm in the Cathohc re
ligion, whose authority had been weakened in so many countries, and to
keep in his duty Cardinal Odet de" ChatiUon, who had been excommunicated
in fuU consistory by Pius IV.
To secure Avignon and the Venaissin State against persecution by the
heretics, he sent troops, money, and munitions. Cardinal d'Armagnac,
governor of the county, was exhorted to redoubled vigUance, and to neglect
no means of preparing to defend it against aU enemies. At the same time,
the Count de Santa Fiora was sent with troops to maintain the author
ity of the Holy See.
The pontifical treasury had aheady given assistance to Malta, to the
emperor, to the county of Avignon, and to Hungary, and Pius now hastened
to coUect further sums to be distributed in proper portions to each of those
countries. Subsequently, the king of France sent to the pope twelve standards,
captured from his enemies,t whom he had defeated at Jarnac and Mon-
contour. Pius V. sought every opportunity of sustaining the power and dignity of
Rome. On that subject he pubhshed his thirty-fifth constitution, Admonet
Nos, which was. signed by thirty-nine cardinals, assembled in congress, and
subsequently confirmed by Gregory XIIL, Sixtus V., Gregory XIV., Cle
ment VIIL, and Paul V. In that buU it is forbidden to give in fief any
city whatever in the Ecclesiastical States, either for life or to the third gen
eration, or to consent to any clause importing alienation. It was ordered
that every cardinal, on receiving the hat, or previous to going into conclave
to elect a pope, should swear never to aUow the derogation of that buU, and
to refuse all consent to be absolved from his oath upon the subject. The
pope ventured to enjoin it upon future pontiffs to swear to the maintenance
and confirmation of that buU, as soon as they should be raised to the
pontificate ; they were to declare that they would take aU necessary pains
to have it executed in the most complete manner.
In fact, Gregory XIIL not only swore pubhcly to maintain that btdl, but
he thought fit, in 1581, to ratify it. And such is the power of a determina-
* The origin of the Avord Huguenot is doubtful. Some derive it from a gate at Tours, called
after King Ugon, as the Calvinists held their meetings near it. Others say that King Ugon was
like Bugaboo, an expression to terrify children, being supposed to prowl around the walls, at
night, and the Huguenots got the name from their nocturnal meetings. Novaes, vii., p. 205.
Spondanus, an. 1560, n. 10 ; De Thou, Ub. xxiv., vol. i., p. 827.
f Maffei, Life of Pius V., Uv. ii., chap. xn. ; see also Gabuzzi and Spondanus.

SAINT PIUS V. 781
tion which is just, effective, and conservative of order, that aU the cardinals
spontaneously took the same oath, after preparing first by the most solemn
ceremonies.* On the other hand, to estabhsh unKormity in his states, Pius confirmed
aU the constitutions of his predecessors, Pius IL, Paul IL, Sixtus IV.
Julius IL, Leo X., Clement VIL, and Pius IV., relating to proceedings
against the banditti and assassins, and to the estabhshment of a strict
police. The abettors of the assassins were also held up to pubhc detes
tation. \The pope at the same time concluded extraordinary treaties with the
governments of Naples and Tuscany ; to the effect that brigands who should
seek shelter in either of those countries, should be dehvered to the pontifi
cal authorities, — Rome promising the extradition, without formal demand,
of aU who committed crimes in either of those countries.
In Germany, Cathohcity suffered no new losses. Poland remained faith
ful. Notwithstanding the weakness of MaximUian, the provinces subject
to Austria recognized the voice of the Holy Father. In Bavaria, Albert
de Wittel had reigned in peace from the year 1558 ; but the character of
MaximUian, more undecided than ever, caused deep anxiety. His father,
Ferdinand, brother of Charles V., had had violent disputes with Paul IV,
and but from fear of the devoted character of the people, there was httle
doubt that very serious embarrassments would have resulted. As we said
in our hfe of Adrian VL, an abuse had crept in which stiU continued to
disturb the city. Some authors, in their greed, sold their pens, to destroy,
by pasquinades or avvisi segretti, the honor and good reputation of many
quiet people, whom they compeUed to purchase sUence. Such culprits had
been punished, either very shghtly, by the authorities, or punished only by
the sUent contempt of the pubhc. Pius V. determined that such an abuse
should, if possible, be put down ; and upon that subject he pubhshed a buU,
by which he renewed the old canonical and civil laws against offenders of
that stamp. He ordered the prosecution of aU who wrote or hawked such
libels, as weU as of aU who sent them out of Rome, and thus sought to dis
turb pubhc order and the domestic peace of Roman citizens.
It was necessary to grant a poAverful patronage to agriculture. New
regulations were made, and disputes were to be promptly settled, even when
arising between persons relying upon their privUeges. The wooUen and
sUk manufactures were protected as at Florence, and stuffs of that kind
were in demand in Italy, or at least became cheaper wear for the people,
because freed from aU duties. The Holy Father approved the act caUed
the "Statute of the Roman People." It was a code drawn up by
* Maffei, Annals of Gregory XIH., vol. ii., year 1581, liv. v., no. 32, p. 225.

782 LIVES OF THE POPES.
learned jurisconsults, Anthony Velho and Marc Antony Borghese, consis-
torial advocates.
They were associated with other skUful men, doctors of law, and had
pubhshed a treatise on marriage portions and the presents made to young
Roman women on their betrothal. No portion was to exceed four thousand
five hundred Roman crowns, somewhat less than five thousand doUars, and
there was also to be a tariff for the presents between married people and
relations. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, that law did not long re
main in force. Dispensations allowed a greater liberahty, and the dealers
in plate, jewelry, silks, and pictures, whom it was also necessary to encour
age, united with the rich nobility to prevent the law from reaching more
considerable gifts.
From the goodness of heart of some benevolent men, who took pity upon
Christian slaves, whom they ransomed, arose an unforeseen abuse. The
ransomed remained in the houses of those good friends of the poor, where
they continued to be assisted. But by degrees that situation became a
second slavery, and it might sometimes be said that the first slavery among
the Turks had not been as painful as that which had to be endured in the
houses of the hberators. The upper servants, those subaltern tyrants, who
are found in every palace, made the ransomed hate their new condition. A
beneficent constitution ordered all just complaints to be considered ; and
that, even at the expense of the treasury, assistance should be given to
those who, after being iU-treated by the Turks, had not recovered with their
hberty a pleasanter and more Christian hfe.
Pius V. took new measures concerning the Jews. They were scattered
among many towns in the Ecclesiastical States. At Rome and Ancona they
were assembled in certain special quarters. The state of these unfortunate
people has since been ameliorated. It has been urged that it can be stiU
further improved without danger to our rehgion ; and there is reason to be
lieve that in our time we shaU witness this new act of humanity.
In 1567, the pope declared the great Saint Thomas Aquinas the fifth
doctor of the Church, thus assimUating him to Saint Ambrose, Saint Augus
tine, Saint Jerome, and Saint Gregory.
One of the most necessary measures, and of the most important as to the
future, that we owe to Saint Pius V., is his condemnation of the propo
sitions of Michael Baius, a famous doctor of the university of Louvain.
These doctrines were as the first seeds of the tares which in the foUowing
century infected the fields stiU left to the Church. Baius had scattered
through his writingsf upon free-will, human works and merits, various sen
tences which increased the scandal of the schools and the disturbance of
* Novaes, vii., p. 216. \ Pallavicini, History of the Council of Trent, liv. xv., ch. vii.

SAINT PIUS V. 783
conscience. These sentences had been condemned by the Sorbonne in
eighteen articles. The partisans of Baius replied by an apology mixed
with sarcasms. The Holy Father, seeing that discord stifled in the hearts
of the innovators every feeling of obedience, and threatened fatal danger
to the Church, prepared to deal with that question himseK ; and by the
constitution Ex omnibus affdctionibus, without naming Baius, from indulgence
for him, he condemned seventy-nine propositions in his works, but without
specifying the censure that might befit each. In this the Holy Father
foUowed the example of the CouncU of Constance against the heresy of
Wyckhff, and that of Pope Leo X. against the attacks of Luther.
In a feeling full of moderation, and, as says Novaes, of suavity, the pope
ordered the bull to be communicated privately by the archbishop of Mechlin
to the university of Louvain. We shaU have to speak further upon, this
painful subject.
But the affairs of France daUy tormented the heart of the Holy Father.
The Calvinists were everywhere in arms. Pius V. addressed sohcitations to
all the courts to take into their consideration the evUs of France. That
great country, which when its sons were in peace with each other was dic
tated to by no one, now torn by civU war, disdained no assistance. Royahst
and insurgent alike sohcited aid in men and money, and Pius V. was not
one of the latest to recommend the cause of the king, which was also that
of rehgion.
The pope wrote the following letter to Jerome Priuli, doge of Venice :
" As soon as we, to our great pain, became aware of the danger of our
most dear son, Charles IX., king of France, and the civU war which so
crueUy rends his States, we resolved to assist him to the utmost of our
power, and even beyond our power, against his subjects guilty of treason
to both divine and human majesty ; and because the ruin of France would
infaUibly produce that of the neighboring States,* it being indubitable that
the fire would soon spread aU over Italy, we beUeved it to be our pastoral
duty to exhort your highness to aid the most Christian king with all your
efforts at this critical moment to lay the tempest wliich equaUy threatens you.
In truth, we are not unaware how much your highness is embarrassed with
your own affairs, t but the danger which I point out to you is so imminent,
that aU those who labor for the common tranquUhty should without delay
make common efforts- against the common enemy. It wiU be as agreeable
to God, as glorious and noble for your republic, ever anxious to ac-
* Here let us admire the great sagacity of Pius V. Nothing was more true in his time, or is
more true in our own. It is only great statesmen who know the eternal truths of the policy and
the necessary situation of Europe.
t Fra Paolo was afterAvards to envenom them still more.

784 LIVES OF THE PUi-iiS.
quire true glory, to have come under such serious circumstances to the
aid of so powerful a king, and, at the same time, to the aid of the Catholic re
ligion. "Given at Rome, near Saint Peter's, the 18th of October, in the year
1567, and of our pontificate the second. "Pius, PP.V."
De FaUoux attentively examines and considers the circumstances under
which Pius V. reigned, and which his successors could not escape. Here,
assuredly, we have observations strong, novel, and bearing the impress of a
masterly style :
" Thus the sixteenth century, as is superabundantly proven, was from end
to end agitated by three very distinct pohcies : the Protestant pohcy, which
convulsively exerted itseK in inteUectual and social disorder; the state
pohcy of sovereigns, which reasoned, fought, or yielded as circumstances
seemed to require ; and the resistance of the Church, which appeals to eternal
and divine principles.*
" In France, those three separate lines led to three different issues. The
Huguenots, constantly adverse in feehng to the nation at large, deriving
their whole strength from the discontent of the great, and the passions they evoked,
dwindled away as the complaints were either satisfied or vanquished. They
could attain only the consistency of a party raUying upon that hmited foot
hold, and they fought by the aid of powerful chiefs and distant auxiliaries,
and declined as the gates of the kingdom closed on them and their strong
holds were dismantled, and at length succumbed when Richeheu's cannon
demolished the waUs of RocheUe, and put their very existence at the mercy
of an edict. The system of Catharine, who had used the torch and the
poignard, tottered from weakness into violence, to perish by the dirk with
the iU-fated Henry III. The Christian pohcy alone survived aU those
strange vicissitudes, and triumphed when Henry of Navarre, who was then
caUed Henry IV, begged for the holy unction beneath the haUowed vaults
of the cathedral of Chartres, and, freely converted, transformed his rebel
friends into faithful subjects."
Faithfully to report the actions of a pope, it is necessary to glance rapidly
from one part of Europe to the other, but it is also necessary to recur fre
quently to the various phases of the temporal administration of the Pontifi
cal States. At the least rumor, at the shghtest disagreement, the discon
tented started fiercely and insulted the tiara. It was too busy with the
temporal interests of other countries to attend sufficiently to the country
which it governed. This does not in the shghtest degree apply to Pius V.
* De FaUoux, i., p. 248.

SAINT PIUS V. 785
Disputes, perhaps even quarrels, had arisen in various parts of the State,
concerning the rights claimed by mendicant orders, but not recognized by
the treasury. Something was still wanting to the safety, the peace, and the
decorum of the religious, and especiaUy of the mendicant orders. The
attempt was made to subject them to exactions, and to bUlet soldiers upon
them. The soldiers, being Ul-received, iU-treated the religious, and the
latter vainly complained to prejudiced governors.
Pius investigated the matter, and ascertained all these insults and blas
phemies ; and although he needed soldiers, as he was already levying for his
defence, he endeavored to restore order, and he succeeded. The bull Beum
ad uberes declared the mendicant orders free from the poU-tax law, and their
convents were not to have soldiers bUleted upon them.
Then it was inquired : "Who are the mendicant orders?" A bull of the
1st of October, 1567, declared that, as others had ordered, that term should
belong to the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the hermits of Saint Augustine,
the Carmehtes, and the Servites, or servants of Mary. At the same time,
it directed that the minims of Saint Francis de Paula, the Jesuates (some
few existed still, but were absolutely isolated), and the Jesuits, should be
regarded as such also. The privileges recognized by the Council of Trent
were also augmented ; and, finally, it was arranged that the Dominicans
should have pre-eminence over aU the other mendicant orders, alike in the
pontifical chapel and in the processions and other public ceremonies.
The State of Corsica had for a long time attracted the attention of the
popes. "Corsica," says de FaUoux (i, 253), "which about the middle of the
fourteenth century had passed from the domination of Pisa to that of
Genoa, was, in the year 1564, torn by cruel factions. The quarrel of a
private individual led in Corsica to a general rising against the Genoese."
Sampietri, a Corsican, who had bled in the service of France, took part
in these fatal divisions. Denounced and banished, he had to fly. His wKe
imagined that she could dispose the Genoese to clemency. The irritated
husband would not pardon what he deemed his wife's crime of submission,
and he strangled her with his sash. There was no law extant to punish the
crime. In the face of such horrors, Pius V. incessantly labored for a gen
eral reconcUiation, and he obtained it.
"The Corsican insurrection," says de FaUoux, whom we have warmly
approved, " had revealed manners utterly savage ; and the Church, which
in the person of pacificator had visited those mountains, was to, leave her
footprints there. And, in her train, it Avas her mission to take Christian
civilization and the instruction which at once corrects, enhghtens, and puri
fies ; for the Church is never opposed to knowledge, when that knowledge
flows untainted from its natural sources."
Vol. I.— 50

786 LIVES OF THE POPES.
From the particular pains taken by the pontiff, and which indirectly recaU
to mind the political measure of which we have aheady spoken, arose feel
ings of love and esteem between Rome and Corsica. A multitude of Cor
sicans have, during several ages, studied law and medicine at Rome. It is
only since the beginning of this century that the annexation to France, and
the marvels worked by a genius born in Corsica, have established the new
nationahty. At the same time, it must not be forgotten, that in Rome some
of the best physicians and most learned jurisconsults have been natives of
Bastia and Ajaccio. We shaU not speak of the Corsican guard. No doubi
it was somewhat turbulent, and even ventured to insult the French ambas
sadors ; but the feeling that caused this fault, a fault which the government
of that day should have prevented, was a sentiment of fidelity, of courage,
and of attachment to the flag which they had sworn to defend. Rome dis
charged the Corsicans, but not without pensioning them ; and when calm
was restored, the only troops who, with the Swiss, could pacKy Rome, re
turned to keep down the thieves and banditti who too often swarmed there.
We saw, at the commencement of this reign, that Pius V. sent consola
tion and aid to the unfortunate Mary, queen of Scots. She belonged to the
great Cathohc league that Pius V exerted himself to form. Elizabeth, on
the contrary, adhering to the error of Henry VIIL, which had for a few
years been interrupted, placed her people at the head of Protestant Europe.
The two reigns, then, of Henry VIIL and Elizabeth, were a long antago
nism against Rome, an antagonism in which aU the advantages were given
beforehand in favor of heresy. The misfortunes of Mary so long occupied
the Holy See, which gave so many proofs of solicitude and of grief, and
made so much effort to soften the sufferings of that princess, that it is
necessary here to exhibit her as she was known at Rome, which foUowed
day by day that IKe of tears, of weakness, no doubt, but nevertheless a
Christian IKe in faith, destined to close in a long and cruel martyrdom.
Mary Stuart was born on the 5th of December, 1542 ; the daughter of
James V, king of Scotland, and of Mary of Guise, dowager duchess of Lon-
gueville. On the 13th of December, James V. died, and Mary Stuart, only
eight days old, succeeded him, under the regency of James HamUton, earl
of Arran. On the 1st of July, 1543, the regent concluded a treaty with
Henry VIIL, king of England, that king who was so fatal a husband. By
virtue of that treaty, Mary Stuart was to be sent to England at ten years of
age, and subsequently to be married to Edward, son of Henry VIIL On
the 16th of December, 1543, Mary, stUl in her swaddling-clothes, was
crowned queen of Scotland.
The parliament of Scotland having annulled the treaty made between the
regent and Henry VIIL, war commenced, and lasted two years.
In 1548, at the moment when the English demanded from the Scotch the

SAINT PIUS V. 787
hand of their queen, then only six years old, for Edward VI., successor of
Henry VIH., the Scotch peers offered Mary Stuart in marriage to the
dauphin of France, son of Henry II. It was at the court of that king that
the education of the young queen of Scots was to be finished, and on the
13th of August, she was betrothed to the dauphin, amidst the most splendid
festivities. On the 6th of July, 1533, Edward VI. died, and left the throne of Eng
land to his sister Mary, who restored the Cathohc religion.
On the 4th of AprU, 1558, Mary Stuart gave her kingdom to the king of
France and his successors. Such treaties necessarUy imphed quite irrecon-
cUable dissensions. H we call to mind the Enghsh in France, the Enghsh
could easUy fancy what the French would be in Scotland, at less than three
hundred leagues from London.
Seventy days after that donation, Mary was married to the dauphin, and
with her OAvn lips, and with aU youthful graces, saluted him as king of Scot
land. In the same year, Mary, queen of England, died, and left the throne
to her haK-sister, Elizabeth, who was crowned with all the ceremonies of
the Cathohc ritual. This occurred in the month of January, 1559. In
March, the Enghsh parliament repealed the statutes passed under the pre
ceding reign, and restored the so-called reformed religion.
On the 10th of July, four months later, Henry II. died, and the dauphin,
under the name of Francis II. , succeeded him as king of France and Scotland.
Few pages of history recount such rapidly succeeding deaths of sove
reigns. On the 5th of December, Francis II. died. His brother Charles IX.
succeeded, at the age of ten years, and his mother, Catharine de Medici, gov
erned. Mary Stuart, a widow, on the very day on which she completed
her eighteenth year, left the court, and passed the winter at Rheims, with
her uncle, Cardinal Charles de Lorraine.
In 1561, Mary asked permission to cross England, on her way to Scot
land, and Ehzabeth, with much bitterness, refused it.
On the 15th of August, Mary saUed from Calais, bidding adieu to that
beautiful land of France. She was accompanied by three of her uncles, and
by many French and Scotch nobles, among whom were also Brantome and
Catelnau de Mauvissiere. An epistolary correspondence, sufficiently polite,
K we consider the irritation of their minds, took place between Ehzabeth
and Mary.
In May, 1562, it was proposed that the two queens should meet at York.
Mary eagerly accepted the proposal, but, six weeks before the appointed
time, Flizabeth made several pretexts for dechning the interview.
On the 14th of AprU, 1564, the countess of Lenox, daughter of Margaret,
eldest sister of Henry VIIL, sohcited for her son, Henry Darnley, the hand
of the queen of Scotland.

788 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Charles IX., to reheve Mary from embarrassment, renounced aU claim tc
Scotland, naturally terminated by the death of Francis II.
On the 18th of April, 1565, Queen Mary decided to marry her cousin,
Lord Henry Darnley. In the month of June, Murray, the bastard haK-
brother of Mary, conspired to dethrone her. On the 29th of July, 1565,
Mary, having received the approbation of her brother-in-law, the king of
France, and of her former mother-in-law, the queen regent, celebrated her
marriage with Darnley, and gave him' the title of king-consort.
On the 7th of January, 1565, as we have seen, Pope Pius V. ascended the
throne of Saint Peter, and from the first, understood how august, a ward
God had committed to his care. He kept anxious watch over her and over
Scotland, and connected that queen, only twenty-four years of age, Avith the
hopes of the Cathohc faith, which had only seen better days in England to
faU more terribly into the dark depths of Protestantism.
A faithful priest was accredited to Edinburg; he sometimes saw the
queen, and assured her that the pontiff would constantly watch over her,
and by agents and counsel, by aU the means which the interest and the
pohcy of men suggest, would do every thing to fortify the rehgious spirit of
that princess.
Darnley, speedUy forgetting his duty to the queen, sank into daUy de
bauches, and insulted her by the most unworthy and humiliating behavior.
When tlie princess was in the seventh month of her pregnancy, some nobles,
whose names history should not deign to record, were introduced by the
guilty Darnley into the chamber of the queen, where they assassinated an
Itahan musician, Rizzio, who was in attendance.* The dastardly murderers
soon fled, and the queen recovered her authority. On the 17th of June,
1566, in the castle of Edinburg, she gave birth to a prince, subsequently
James VI. of Scotland. FinaUy, a conspiracy was formed against Darnley,
and he was blown up with gunpowder. On the 15th of May, she was com
pelled to marry BothweU, one of the assassins of Darnley. In 1568, she
revoked an abdication that she had been coerced into signing. At length
the queen, weary of so many treasons, and unable any longer to endure an
abode in a country where she was surrounded by so many traitors, deter
mined to seek shelter in England.t We shall hereafter teU how she
was treated there, after having been received with the honors due to her
rank. Meantime, in 1570, the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, the
secret leaders of the Enghsh Cathohcs, opened their minds to Ridolfi, a

* Rizzio was already aged and deformed ; but he had, when possible, supported her interests,
r.nd advised her for the preservation of her authority
t Labanoff, Lettres Inedites de Marie Stuart.

SAINT PIUS V. 789
Florentine banker, and envoy of Pius V. They attached great value to the
approbation of the pope, who rephed to them in the foUowing brief.
" DEAR SONS, HEALTH AND APOSTOLICAL BENEDICTION :
" Knowing Avith greater certainty, and in more detail, from your letter of
the 8th of November (to which we rephed on the 16th of February) the
misfortunes of that (Enghsh) kingdom that once was so flourishing, we
have been overwhelmed by a grief such as your undeserved sufferings —
which we endure in your persons — could not faU to excite in our heart, and
by our entirely paternal feeling towards you and the other Cathohcs of that
kingdom. Ln fact, besides the common duty in virtue of which we must
rejoice or lament the salvation or ruin of aU Christian people, we feel es
pecial benevolence and love for that kingdom. We remember that, under
God, it was by the care and the zeal of the most blessed Gregory, Roman
pontiff, our predecessor, that that kingdom was converted from the worship
of stocks and stones to the Christian faith, and formed its most faithful labor
ers to the doctrine of the Holy Roman Cathohc faith. It is therefore that
we cannot easUy find expression for the affliction and trouble that we feel
for your individual sufferings and those of the kingdom, which you deplore
in that same letter in terms no less true than calculated to draw from us the
tears of compassion.*
" We are greatly afflicted that it has been reserved for the time of our
pontificate to see the venom of so many abominable heresies strike so many
deadly blows at the Christian republic.
" But, nevertheless, we remember the efficacy of the prayer of Him who
asks for the blessed Saint Peter that his faith faU not, and who, extending
His Church even in the midst of so many tribulations, governed it aU the
more admirably by the secret promptings of Providence as he kneAV it to
be the more agitated and tempest-tossed. We do not despair to see in our
own day, with the aid of the Lord, what was done and seen in other days ;
so that this same rehgion, which seems to be trampled under foot, shaU re
turn, at the first signal of the Lord, to its former felicity, and receive in
crease from what seemed fraught with evU.
" And now, perchance, He who can render the old new, and the new old,
our Lord Jesus Christ, has resolved to make use of you, men no less iUus
trious by the nobUity of your birth than distinguished by your devotion to
the Catholic faith, to renew and confirm the union between that kingdom
and the Roman Church ; and to that end perchance it is that he has in
spired the thought, so worthy of your zeal, to endeavor to restore both
* The pope does not speak here of Mary Stuart. His brief might be intercepted, and the fate
of the queen Avould be stUl more compromised.

790 LIVES OF THE POPES.
yourselves and the kingdom to the old submission, after snatching that king
dom from the shameful slavery in which it is kept by the passion of a woman.*
" We grant, in the Lord, as it is just, to those pious and rehgious efforts
the praises that they merit, and we bestow the benedictions that you so
licit from us ; and as your lordships seek a refuge beneath the. shadow of
our power and that of the Holy See, to which you submit yourselves, we
receive you with the tenderness you deserve. Moreover, we exhort you in
the name of the Lord, and we pray with aU the ardor of which our heart
is capable,' constantly to persevere in these laudable resolutions and precious
dispositions, holding it for certain that God Almighty, whose works are per
fect, and avIio has inspired you to deserve weU of the Cathohc faith in that
kingdom, will assist you. And even should it be that for the enfranchise
ment of the Cathohc faith and the authority of the Holy See you must
meet death and shed your blood, it is far more advantageous to you to speed
to eternal life by the short road of a glorious death, than to hve on in shame
and ignominy, the tool of an impotent woman and the destroyers of your
own souls.
" Think not, in fact, weU-beloved sons in Jesus Christ, that the bishops
and princes in that kingdom which you name are unfortunate, because,
having refused to renounce their faith, they have been undeservedly cast
into prison, or otherwise persecuted. In truth, no one can sufficiently praise
the courage and constancy of these men, which, as we deem, are confirmed
by the still recent example of the blessed Thomas, archbishop of Canter
bury. Do you, also, imitate that same constancy ; be courageous and firm,
and let no threat, nor the sight of any perU, cause you to abandon your
enterprise. He, in truth, is powerful enough, that God in whom you trust,
He AA'ho overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh in the Red
Sea, also to crush the power of these adversaries ; He is powerful enough
to render you His instruments in restoring that kingdom to its ancient re
ligion and dignity.
" Towards procuring that result, not -only wiU we aid you in rendering you
our services, with the Christian princes whom you mention, but stiU further,
in forwarding to you such sums of money as, upon your demand, our personal
resources will permit us to furnish, as our dear son Robert Ridolfi, clearly
and in more detail, wUl explain to you. We are also disposed to aid you
A\ith a larger sum than the weakness of our resources can at present sup
port, as well as promptly and heartUy to aid your pious efforts by aU the
means which, with God's aid, we may be able to command. Receive, dear
sons, our apostolical benediction.

* Had this brief been known in London, it would have caused Westmoreland and Northum
berland to lose their heads.

SAINT PIUS V. 791
" Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the 20th of February, in the year
one thousand five hundred and seventy, and of our Dontificate the fifth.
"Pius, PP. V."
But this brief gave only indirect aid to Mary, and Ridolfi was ordered to
announce that a direct buU against Ehzabeth was drawn up, and would
subsequently be published.*
¦ A painful captivity commenced for Mary ; she was detained at Carlisle.
However, she was treated with some distinction in the palace which she
occupied. In November, 1569, the Enghsh privy councU proposed to put
Mary to death, on various pretexts : as, 1. For her two marriages, to which
she had been enforced ; 2. As being an accomphce in the death of one of
her husbands ; 3. As the enemy of England. This last charge might have
some connection with the gift to France of the kingdom of Scotland, but
that gift had never produced any effect. Elizabeth dared not consent to
sign the sentence ; but she proposed to Murray, the bastard brother of
Mary, who had, with the title of regent, a kind of royal power in Scotland,
that Mary should be dehvered to him.
In the month of January, 1570, Mary, stiU considered a prisoner, was
taken to Sutbury.
At this period, Pius V. made his utmost efforts to procure her hberation ;
but the buU of excommunication issued against EUzabeth put a stop to
aU negotiations. It had been supposed that it would help instead of hinder
ing them : it is certain at least that the murder of Mary was postponed.
We give, not an extract, but in full, that buU, Regnans in Excelsis, Avhich
feU like a thunderbolt upon England and Scotland.
" Pius, servant of the servants of God, for the perpetual remembrance of
the fact.
" He who reigneth on high, to whom aU power has been given, alike upon
earth and in heaven, has intrusted to one alone, that is to say, to Peter,
prince of the apostles, the care of governing, with plenitude of power, the
CathoUc Church, One, Holy, out of which there is no salvation.
* As documents of great interest which various authors have left us, with various dates, will
have to be referred to, we must observe that in the sixteenth century dates were a continual
source of error. In the short space of eighteen years two most important changes were made.
First, in 1564, the edict of Roussillon fixed the commencement of the year in France, on the first
of January, instead of leaving it at the Holy Saturday-Easter-eve— as for centuries had been
the custom, and as in some parts of France it remained until 1567 ; and, secondly, on the fifth
of October, 1582, as we shall presently see, the reformation of the calendar was introduced into
Catholic countries by a buU of Gregory XIIL ; but as the alteration was not then admitted into
either England or Scotland, which did not adopt the correct mode tiU 1752, Mary continued to
-late her letters in the old style, whUe the king of France and his ambassadors made use oS
the new. Hence a difference of ten days.

792 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" He has constituted it alone over aU the nations, and ever aU the king
doms, that it should root out, destroy, overturn, plant, and edify, in order
that it should continue in the unity of the Holy Ghost, and that it should
deliver to the Saviour, safe and free from aU danger, the faithful people,
bound together in the bond of mutual charity.
" We, being, by the great goodness of God, caUed to hold the helm of the
Church, devote ourselves unceasingly" to our charge, and omit no labor to
preserve intact the unity itself, and the Catholic rehgion, which its Author -
has left exposed to tempest, in order to try the faith of his people and cor
rect us for our faults.
" But the number of the impious has usurped so much power, that there
is no place in the world which they have not endeavored to corrupt with
their perverse doctrines. Among others, Ehzabeth, the servant of crime,
and pretended queen of England, has offered them an asylum in which they
find shelter.
" This same Ehzabeth, after seizing the throne,* has usurped throughout
England the authority of supreme head of the Church. She has mon
strously exercised that power and that jurisdiction, and she has again cast
into the way of a deplorable perdition that kingdom, once devoted to the
Catholic faith and the recipient of its blessings.
" Elizabeth has destroyed the worship of the true rehgion, which was over
turned by Henry VIIL, and which the legitimate Queen Mary, so com
mendable to the respect of posterity, had succeeded in estabhshing by the
efforts of her own powerful hand, and with the assistance of the Holy See.
Elizabeth, embracing and foUowing the errors of the heretics, has dismissed
the royal council of England, composed of members of the Enghsh nobility,
and has replaced them by obscure heretics. She has oppressed those who
cultivated the Cathohc faith, and has replaced them by evU speakers and
ministers of impiety. She has abohshed the sacrifice of. the Mass, prayers.
fasting, distractions of meat, cehbacy, and Cathohc rites. She has ordered
the circulation of books containing a system of manKest heresy, and of
impious mysteries. She has commanded her subjects to receive, observe,
and preserve precepts which she has adopted from Calvin. She has dared
to decree that the bishops, rectors of churches, and the other Cathohc
priests, be driven from their churches and deprived of their benefices.
She has disposed of them and of other ecclesiastical things in favor of the
heretics ; and she has also decided upon causes the decision of which rightly
belongs only to the Church.
* At Rome, Elizabeth Avas considered a usurper. The crown of England was deemed to be
long of right to Mary queen of Scots, grand-niece of Henry VIII., the marriage of Elizabeth's
mother never having been recognized, and Elizabeth, as illegitimate, excluded from the succes
sion.

SAINT PIUS V. 793
" She has forbidden the prelates, clergy, and people to recognize the
Roman Church, and to obey its laws and its canonical sanctions. She has
constrained most of her subjects to recognize her culpable laws, and to
abjure the obedience due to the sovereign pontiff. She has prescribed, that,
by oath, they shall recognize her as sole mistress, alike in things spiritual
and temporal. She has inflicted penalties and punishments upon those
whom she could not persuade,* and those who persevered in the unity of
the faith and in obedience.
" She has also thrown into prison bishops and rectors of churches, and
many of them have perished there in misery.
" These things are weU known to all nations ; they are proved by the
gravest testimony, and no room is left for tergiversation, excuse, or defence.
"We, seeing these impieties multiplied, and seeing that stiU other
crimes are added to the first ; seeing that the persecutions against the faith
ful are increasing, in consequence of the compulsion and self-wiU of the
said Ehzabeth, we are persuaded that her heart is more than ever hardened.
Not only does she despise the pious prayers of good Catholics, that she
should be converted and brought back to her right mind, but, further, she
has even refused to receive in England the nuncios whom we have sent.
We, then, forced by necessity to resort to the arms of justice against her,
cannot soften our grief that we have not severely dealt with a princess
whose ancestors had so weU deserved the praise of the Christian republic.
" We, therefore, supported by the authority of Him whose wiU has called
us to the throne, although we are unAvorthy of such a charge, in the name
of the apostohcal authority, we declare the said Elizabeth a heretic, and
aider and fautor of heretics, and that her adherents in the above cited acts
have incurred the sentence of anathema, and are separated from the unity
of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
" We declare her deprived of the pretended right to that kingdom, and of
aU domain, dignity, and privUege. We declare the subjects, the -nobihty
and people of that kingdom, free from their oaths, and from all debt of
subjection, of fideUty, and of respect ; and by the authority of these presents,
we deprive the said Elizabeth of the right to_ her pretended kingdom. By
this prescription we further forbid aU nobles, people, subjects, and others,
to venture to obey the orders, advice, or laws of the said Ehzabeth. As to
those who shaU act otherwise than as we here authorize and order, we in
clude them in the same sentence of anathema.
" As it is difficult to carry these presents wherever necessary, we wUl and
command that a written notarial copy, under the seal of a bishop and of _
* Hume gives eight hundred as the number who up to that time had perished under the hand
of the executioner.

794 LIVES OF THE POPES.
this court, have the same authority in any tribunal and without, and have
hke force and value as K these actual presents were exhibited.
" Given at Rome, near Saint Peter's, the 26th of February, in the year
1570, and of our pontificate the fifth. " Pius, PP. V."
Such, without any omission, was the sentence of the pontiff. Isolated,
thrown into another history, and thus abandoned to itseK, this sentence
would excite a general consternation. But we have seen the reign of Greg
ory VIL, and that of Innocent III., and we are compeUed to add that we
have seen some laxity under Leo X., in combating Luther ; and we have
seen the consequence of that kind of condescension in the sack of Rome,
where the Lutherans succeeded . in making the pious Spaniards their ac
compUces in the most disgraceful scenes.
During that frightful series of attacks against the Holy See, Philip IL,
the husband of Mary, predecessor of Elizabeth on the Enghsh throne, laid
the whole weight of his sword upon the rest of Europe, and perhaps the
Aveight of the Indian gold upon some foreign ministers, whose importunities,
complaints, and predictions might easUy excite the just resentment of Pius
V. Such decrees no longer issue from the Vatican ; but what we have be
fore spoken of as tlie jurisprudence of that time, and the cries of the Enghsh
dying in dungeons or on scaffolds, explain, and more than explain, the con
duct of the pontiff.
Elizabeth had been crowned in 1559, with great pomp and by a Catholic
bishop, lest she should excite alarm ; nevertheless, she was a Protestant at
heart, and did not long delay to endeavor to establish that false rehgion by
fire and sAvord. In spite of the solemn oath she took at her coronation to
defend the known Cathohc rehgion, and to protect its ministers, Ehzabeth
convoked a parliament which established the Anglican, such as it now is.
It is a medley of the Calvinistic dogmas, with some remains of the disciphne
and ceremonies of the Cathohc worship. The bishops, canons, and rectors
were tolerated ; the church ornaments, organs, and music were preserved ;
tithes, annats, and the privUeges of the benefices were abohshed ;* confes
sion permitted, but not ordered ; the real presence admitted, but without
transubstantiation ; — a system purely human, without any sanction and with
out any rehgious foundation. To complete the inconsistency, the new queen
made herseK head of the religion, under the title of Sovereign Governess of
the Church of England, in spirituals and temporals. The bishops who op
posed those novelties were threatened with expulsion from their churches ;
* The author is here in error ; tithes and annats have existed to our day, and benefices are
bought and sold.

SAINT PIUS V. 795
but most of them obeyed. Firm men and generous friends are rare at aU
periods and in all countries. Of the nine thousand four hundred holders
of benefices in England, there were only fourteen bishops, fifty canons, and
eighty parish priests who lost their benefices by refusing to accept the
reform.* As energeticaUy as we could, we have presented the defence of the actions
of Gregory VIL, and his imitators. Here let us point out a -difference.
Under those first reforming popes, it was the people who took their groans
and plaints to the throne of Saint Peter. In fact, they asked only for the
immediate consequences of the Gospel. AU the kings, more or less, fol
lowed the footsteps of him among them whom they wanted to repress.
Thence those specious censures against an apparent degradation of the
royal authority ; but here, further, K it is the people that stiU complains, it is
the monarchical doctrine itseK which resorts to the high power of the supreme
concUiator. A crime, the most abominable that could be imagined, was
about to be committed. A woman, seated on a usurped throne, abuses
the laws imposed by hospitahty. A neighboring queen, who has aheady
been harassed by revolts, assassinations, and fires, flies to an asylum which
she imagines to be sacred and secure, and is met Avith menaces of death.
Pius V. might beheve that towards the end of the sixteenth century the
most difficult duties were reserved for him. Here we have the project of a
new crime, surpassing in audacity aU that preceded it, and aiming at the
monarchical dodrine, the noble, salutary, and often unique, idea of the Holy
See. That vUe and wretched crime, which, after its execution, became a
frightful precedent, received at Rome only the usual punishment, the ana
thema, a revocable chastisement, whose power, during eight centuries, aU
the monarchs of Europe had learned to respect. In the present state of
civilization, excommunication, even had no Luther»or Calvin arisen, would
have become useless. But let us resume our narrative.
Spain was not free from trouble. The letter of Philip II. to Pope Pius
V., concerning Philip's son, Don Carlos, should be read, and may be found at
length in de FaUoux. When PhUip IL, after complaining to the pope of the
conduct of Don Carlos, asked the pontiff's advice, and spoke of subjecting
the young prince to a trial, a document was extracted from the archives of
Barcelona to serve as a model for the charge. This was the trial of Charles,
prince of Viana and Gerona, by bis father, John IL, great-grandfather of
Phihp. At the risk of giving offence to unjust or prejudiced minds, who
are unwUling to aUow historical facts their proper place, and who Avish facts
* How the CathoUc clergy of England of Elizabeth's day, pale before the French clergy when
impiety gained the supreme power in France ! Of one hundred and ten French bishops, only
three abjured; of one hundred and fifty thousand priests, not ten thousand allowed themselves
to be intimidated.

796 LIVES OF THE POPES.
condemned uneited, and would attack the reputation of those who acted at
that period, and perhaps the expression of discontent exceeds the just hmit
of criticism— at the risk of incurring this other kind of excommunication,
we insert at length the buU of Pius V., addressed to Ehzabeth, Avhen she
meditated a crime against a relative by blood and a sister in royalty. It
behooves us now to present another sight. A royal father contemplates
the trial of his son, guilty of intending to rebel, and it is to the same Pius
V. that this father turns to confide important secrets.
Ehzabeth, deprived of aU communication with Rome, braved all perils,
like an inconsiderate woman. Philip II. would not have the agitations of
his heart unknown in that Rome where wise counsels are so often found.
He wrote to the pope thus :
" Most Holt Father — I feel obhged, not only by a duty which I owe in
common with aU Christian princes, but chiefly by the filial submission which,
as an obedient son, I shall always render your Holiness, and by the pro
found respect that I feel for the Holy See, to inform you, who are my Fa
ther, of my conduct and of every thing remarkable that happens to me.
" It is in fulfilment of this duty that I acquaint your Hohness with my
intention to arrest the most serene prince Charles, my son. Your Holiness
can judge of the powerful necessity which forces me to this action, by the
\iolence I must do my OAvn feelings in order to come to such an extremity.
It is enough to say, that I am a father, and a father interested in the honor
of his son. My government is sufficiently known to your Hohness and to
all Europe ; and aU must feel that I have not come to this resolution with
out having maturely dehberated with my councU upon a subject of so great
importance, or without. having been forced to this dehberation and to that
conclusion by the misconduct of the prince, my son, whose natural depravity
has resisted the salutary instructions of his masters, and the cares they
have bestowed upon his education.
" I have employed every means to correct his vicious inchnations, and to
repress his excesses. I have essayed the ways of gentleness ; and seeing,
Avith a pain which your Holiness can imagine, that such remedies have
utterly failed to inspire him with piety towards God, or with any of the
qualities essential to a prince who is the presumptive heir to the many
kingdoms that God has subjected to my rule, I at length find myself com
pelled to secure his person, to see if severity, instead of too great mUdness,
Avill bring him to his duty. I find great consolation in giving this informa
tion to your Holiness, and I hope that my conduct wiU convince you that I
have no other view in this action than the glory of God, the interest of my
States, and the weal and peace of my peoples, which I prefer to all the ten
derness that nature inspires me with for my only son. I shall take care to

SAINT PIUS V. 797
inform your Holiness of every thing concerning this affair. I entreat your
Hohness, especially, to consider me your most obedient son, and to pray to
God in my behaK, for hght to know, and in aU things fulfil His holy wiU.
I pray God, most Holy Father, that he wiU preserve you and prolong your
days for the general good of his whole Church.
" The King.
" Given at the Palace (20th January, 1568)."
The reply was, as it should be, confiding, paternal, and consolatory. Phis
V. united a tender and generous heart to a strong mind.
At the moment when sentence was about to be pronounced, the judges of
Don Carlos, Cardinal Espinosa, the prince of Evoli, and Don Diego Mulla-
tones paused, as K terrified by the importance of the judgment about to be
pronounced. Cardinal Espinosa entreated the king to leave the proceeding
unfinished, and to keep the prince in perpetual confinement. No doubt it
was at the suggestion of Pius V that the cardinal proposed thus to termi
nate so terrible an affair. Philip replied, that his conscience as a monarch
could not agree to this derogation of justice ; that he was answerable before
God for the fate of the peoples subjected to his sceptre, and that he should
faU in the most sacred of his duties K he left Spain a prey to the calamities
which might result from the existence of a prince destitute of aU correct
judgment, and carried away by such perverse inclinations. Considering,
however, that the state of his son's health left but httle reason to believe
that his IKe would be prolonged, the termination of his malady might be
awaited, and the decrees of Providence left to their own fulfilment. Then he
ordered that his son should not be left in ignorance of his danger, and that
he should be induced to concern himself only with his eternal salvation.*
No sentence, therefore, was either pubhshed or written ; and Don Carlos
himself, considering his illness beyond remedy, summoned to his bedside
Don Diego de Chaves, his usual confessor. The prince instantly asked that
rehgious to ask the king's pardon in his name. Philip repUed that fuU par
don was granted, with the hope that this repentance would also secure God's
mercy. On the same day extreme unction was administered to him ; and then he
dictated his wiU to his secretary, Don Martin de Gaztala. The agonies of
death now appeared, and Phihp asked to come in person and give his bless
ing to his son. The two rehgious replied that there was ground to fear that
the sight of the king would disturb the mind of the prince, now whoUy ab
sorbed in his religious duties. This motive restrained PhUip. Neverthe
less, learning in the course of the night that the last moments of the prince
* De FaUoux, U, p. 24.

798 LIVES OF THE POPES.
were at hand, he went to the apartment of his son, and placing himseK
behind the prince of Evoh and the grand prior, tearfuUy gazed at his dying
son, and, without being perceived by Carlos, extended his arms above his
head, and then retired in a state of the deepest emotion.*
What a hfe of grief for Pius V. ! And yet none of the duties of the pon
tificate, some of which were foreign to the time, were neglected.
The illustrious order of Saint John of Jerusalem had obtained singular
privileges, alike useful and honorable, from Leo X., Clement VIL, Paul HI.,
and Paul IV. Saint Pius V. would not do less than his predecessors. Con
firming warmly aU preceding privUeges, and especiaUy that exempting the
members of the order, their squires, and their servants, from tithes and aU
taxes, the Holy Father at the same time deprived bishops of aU right to
interfere in the affairs of the order under pretext of executing the decrees
of the Council of Trent (session xxiii, chap, xviii). The pope ordered that,
the case occurring, this arrangement was derogated by the new constitution,
Etsi cuncta.
Some innovations were introduced into the tribunal of the penitentiary ;
Pius undertook to reform it wisely, or, rather, newly to construct it.
By the buU In omnibus rebus, and by another bull In earum rerum, he com
mitted the direction of the penitentiary of Saint Peter, consisting of regular
and secular priests, to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. They were to
be thirteen in number, including the rector : two for the Itahan language,
tAvo for the French language, two for the Spanish and Portuguese, one for
the German, one for the Hungarian, one for the Flemish and Pohsh, one for
the English, one for the Greek, and one for the Hlyrian.
The penitentiary of Saint Mary Major was given to the Dominicans, and
that of Saint John Lateran to the Observantine Franciscans.
The holy pontiff was forced to be inexorable to the Humiliati. The
Emperor Henry III. having conquered the city 'of MUan, sent into Germany
aU the knights whom he found in that city. To recognize each other, they
adopted a white dress. Thus attired, they presented themselves to the
emperor, and begged to return home, and the prince thought himseK in
some sort obhged to grant that favor. Many of them, under the venerable
John de Meda, retained the white dress, and bound themselves by vow to
lead a hfe of poverty, maintaining themselves by aU sorts of painful labor.
* Ranke says : " It is enough to say that it was Philip's misery to be placed in a position
where he had every thing to fear from his son, or was forced to sacrifice him without pity."
Llorente, a foul-mouthed abuser of PhUip, thus gives theUe to aU the fictions invented in regard
to Don Carlos : "lam firmly convinced that the death of this monster was a blessing to Spain."
(History of the Inquisition, iii., p. 126.) " Don Carlos," says de FaUoux, " was suspected of being'
in league with the rebels in the Netherland, who attacked at once the sovereignty of Philip and
Catholicity. Don Carlos is even suspected of having attempted his father's Ufe. Vet Philip H
is hold up to the execrations of posterity."

SAINT PIUS V. 799

They took the name of the Humiliati, and were approved by an apostohc
decree ; but their way of hfe having been three times changed, Pope Inno
cent, in 1200, ordered them to hve in community, and recite the divine
office. They were to have neither linen shirts nor sheets. Subsequently
they were confirmed, and ordered to foUoAV the rule of Saint Benedict. This
occurred by Honorius III., in 1219 ; by Gregory IX., in 1227 ; by Innocent
IV., in 1246 ; and by Nicholas IV., in 1288. They were especiaUy employed
in recaUing the Patarine heretics to the one fold. But time and wealth pro
duced a great laxity of life in this order, so that the rehgious had more
vices themselves than the worst among the laity. Then Pius V. issued a
brief, addressed to the archbishop of MUan, Cardinal Charles Borromeo,
empowering him to reform them, and to take a tenth part of their abundant
property, and apply it to estabhsh a novitiate according to their primitive
rule. St. Charles used mildness to recaU the order to its pristine beauty,
but the provosts of. the order, seeing themselves deprived of their benefices,
that is to say, of the convents of which they had usurped the income, as
though they were then: personal property, resolved in revenge to kill
Saint Charles. Three of these unworthy superiors, among whom was
Jerome Iignana, provost of Saint Christopher of VerceUi, selected a re
hgious named Jerome Donati* surnamed Farina, to carry out their infamous
design, paying him forty crowns, stolen by another sacrilege from a neigh
boring church. Donati, escaping from the convent of Brera, after robbing
the church, went to the archbishop's palace, and finding him at prayer with
his servants, he fired an arquebus at him, loaded with, a large bullet and a
bolt. The saint was not wounded ; the whole charge fell at his feet, after
piercing the rochet and other garments.
Notwithstanding the entreaty of the archbishop, who desired no punish
ment to be inflicted upon the would-be assassin, the Holy Father ascertain
ing the identity of the guUty parties, Farina, Lignano, and two others were
punished with death.
At length, as the rehgious of this order took no steps to reform, the Holy
Father, by his buU Quemadmodum, of the 7th of February, in the following
year, signed by forty-three cardinals, abolished the order.
Pius also renewed the decree of BonKace, making it high treason to
attempt the hfe of a cardinal.
For a long time, a dispute had existed between Cosmas de Medici, duke
of Florence, and Alphonso IL, duke of Ferrara, as to the right of prece
dence.* Pius V., who had an especial affection for Tuscany, on account of ¦
the aid which, in the preceding century, it had given to the pontiffs Inno
cent IV., Clement IV., Gregory X., Benedict XL, Martin V, and Leo X.,
* Novaes, vu., p. 223. t See de Thou, Hist., vol. 2, liv. 46, parag. 16, p. 753.

800 LIVES OF THE POPES.
and who ever loved Cosmas, a prince sincere in faith and strongly at
tached to the Holy See, declared that, foUowing the example of Alexan
der III, Innocent III., and Paul IV., who, respectively, had created a king
of Portugal, a king of the Bulgarians, and a king of Ireland, he of his
own will, and Avithout any request being made to him, created Cosmas
grand duke.
The buU Romanus Pontifex was carried to Florence by Michael Ghisheri,
brother of Cardinal Alexandrino, and it was accompanied by a design, from
the pope's own hand, for the royal crown that Cosmas was to wear. Below
was written : Pivs V. Pont. Max., Ob eximiam Dilectionem ac Catholicte
Religionis" Zelum Precipvvmqve Ivstitlze Stvdivm, Donavit — Given by
Pius V, on account of his tender affection for Cosmas for his zeal for the
Catholic religion and his care for justice. Cosmas had a croAvn made after
that design, which cost one hundred and twenty thousand crowns, with
which His Hohness solemnly crowned the grand duke, on the 5th of March,
1570, in the pontifical chapel, and also, on the day of the consecration, gave
him the Golden Rose.*
That event led to scenes long unexampled. The emperor and the
king of Spain protested that the pope had no right to crown their vas
sal. But Pius replied that, as we have aheady remarked, Benedict IX.
had created Demetrius king of Croatia and Dalmatia, although those pro
vinces were dependent on Hungary, and, with such a precedent, he would
not listen to their opposition ; and with an apostolical firmness, he thus
addressed the imperial ambassador, who made his protest against the coro
nation, before entering the chapel : " Upon Avhat ground can you deny that
power to the Church ? Who but the Church hath given to the emperors
the name and the honor of their dignity ? Who gave them the empire ?
Who transferred that of the East to the West, if not the pontiffs, our pre
decessors ?"
Amidst so many cares of the pontifical ministry, the pope, on the 17th of
May, 1570, made his third promotion. Among those new members of the
sacred coUege were : 1. Gaspar Zufliga AveUaneda, a noble Spaniard of the
family -of the counts of Miranda, professor of theology at Salamanca, and
successively bishop of Segovia, ComposteUa, and SeviUe; 2. Gaspar Cer
vantes, a Spaniard, born at Caceres, archbishop of Messina, in 1554, and
afterwards of Tarragona ; 3. Nicholas de PeUeve, a noble Frenchman, pro
fessor of laAV in the university of Bourges, master of the requests, and sub
sequently bishop of Amiens ; 4. Charles d'Angennes, a noble Frenchman,
ambassador from Charles IX. to Pius V. ; 5. Felix Peretti, afterwards Pope
Sixtus V. ; 6. The Blessed Paul Borah d' Arezzo ; 7. John Jerome Albani,
* Maffei describes the ceremony in his Life of Pius V., liv. iii., ch. 19.

SAINT PIUS V. 801
a celebrated jurisconsult, and afterwards a famous captain of the Venetian
republic. One of the great glories of Pius V. was the aUiance which he concluded
on the 20th of May, 1571, between the Holy See, Phihp n., of Spain, and
the repubhc of Venice, against Sehm II. , emperor of the Turks, son of Soly
man IL, and Roxelana, a very beautKul Siennese, whom Solyman had raised
from the condition of a slave to that of wife.*
In pursuance of this treaty, a combined fleet was fitted out, which soon
consisted of two hundred and nineteen gaUeys, six galeases, and about
seventy vessels, large and smaU, manned by twenty thousand men, exclusive
of the saUors, gunners, and gaUey-slaves. The supreme general of the ex
pedition was Don John of Austria, natural son of the Emperor Charles V.
The high-constable, Marc Antony Colonna, duke of PaUiano and Tagli-
acozzo, was the commander of the pontifical fleet, consisting of twelve
gaUeys, manned by fifteen hundred men.
Andrew Doria, a famous Genoese captain, commanded ' the Spanish divi
sion, and Sebastian Venier the Venetian force, its first commander, Bar-
barigo, having faUen at the very outset of the battle.
The Christian army, joined by the Knights of Malta and the galeases of
the duke of Savoy, sailed for the Levant. On the 7th of October, 1571,
they came up "with the Turkish fleet of two hundred and forty-five gaUeys,
and eighty-seven vessels of various sizes, as it lay in the GuK of Lepanto.
It was once more incumbent to drive the Turk from Italy ; once more the
prodigies of Charles Martel and those of the heroes of Malta were to be
renewed. The battle lasted five hours. As the fifth hour closed, victory
declared for the Christians, bought, however, at the loss of seven thousand
five hundred and sixty-six men, including the greater number of the Vene
tians. The Turks lost Ali Pacha, general of the whole army ; the famous
corsair, Carascosa ; Hassan Pacha, renowned for his ability, son of the
celebrated Barbarossa ; and, finaUy, Hassan, bey of Rhodes. The Turkish
army also lost thirty-nine rais, or commanders of gaUeys, and more than
thirty-one thousand men. The Christians, as day dechned, took ten thou-^
sand prisoners, and rescued fifteen thousand Christian slaves, who at once
fiUed the sadly thinned ranks of the Itahan gaUeys.
AU authors consider this as one of the most signal victories ever won by
the Christians over the Mussulmans, but they do not agree as to the loss
sustained on both sides. We have reason to believe, however, that the
particulars given above are the nearest to the truth.
Meantime, Elizabeth, in Great Britain, continued to imprison all who
* See the Historical Dictionary of the Lives of all the Ottoman Monarchs, vol. U, p. 206 ;
Venice, 1788. It gives some curious particulars about this Siennese Sultana.
Vol. I.— 61

802 LIVES OF THE POPES.
professed the Cathohc faith. Pius sent nuncios to aU the powers, to invite
them to aid the English who were suffering for the faith. In various places
the exUed Enghsh were assembled, and the pope zealously undertook the
care of ministering to their wants.
The Emperor Maximilian seemed inchned to aUow the Confession of
Augsburg to be followed in Austria. Cardinal Commendon was sent as
legate to that province, and persuaded him to protect the Cathohc rehgion.
Phihp II. assisted the cardinal by negotiation ; and Rome, which had
vanquished the Turks, had reason to believe that she had also been suc
cessful against the Lutherans. Yet it was withal necessary to reform in all
parts clergy who, retaining the faith, did not in their- lives come up to the
standard of duty.
A pragmatic of the pope forbade clerks- and ecclesiastics to indulge in
luxury, whether in dress or at table. He forbade them to be present in
theatres, and endeavored to root up the disorders that had recently crept
into the Church. He annulled wUls, otherwise legal, made by ecclesiastics
in favor of their bastards. A buU took away the power to resign benefices
to relations. Among others, it contained these words : " The Holy Father
cannot suffer the patrimony of Jesus Christ to be given as a heritage, and
become a prey to the cupidity of laymen." Some one having represented
to the Holy Father that so much strictness would be ruinous to the Roman
court, he rephed : " Better that the court should perish, and with it aU those
who are in favor of such corruptions and such disorders ; at least we should
not see the Church and religion perish, which are profaned by such enor
mous abuses."
An edict forbade Roman householders to frequent taverns to eat, drink,
and play, aUeging that such places were only intended for strangers who
had no settled homes. This prohibition, necessary in aU cities and towns
to prevent disorder, was, says Muratori in the Annals of Italy, of no long
duration. A severe law was directed against the great number of lewd women who
. infected the city. The Roman senate endeavored to interfere, on the "plea
that the expulsion of so many would reduce the Aralue of lodgings. Pius
replied : "Is it just and decent that the Roman senate should defend lewd
Avomen, and take upon itseK the defence of immodesty ? We assure you,
that if these women do not leave Rome, we and all our court wUl leave it."
To fulfil the decrees of the CouncU of Trent (session xxiv., chap, iv.), the
pontiff ordered all bishops more than ever to labor for the erection of the
Congregations of the Christian Doctrine, to secure the "instruction of chil
dren and uneducated adults ignorant of the commandments of our holy
religion. The same councU had (session xxv., chap, i), in imitation of the third

SALNT PIUS V 803
and fourth CouncUs of Lateran, estabhshed theological prebends for the
instruction of the respective chapters. Pius V., by his buU Ineminenti* in
stituted in the Vatican BasUica a theological prebend, and assigned it, as
weU as a canonship of the same church, to the master of the sacred palace,
Thomas Manriquez, a Spanish Dominican, and his successors. These hav
ing imbibed in the order of Saint Dominic the doctrine of Saint Thomas,
the most used and the safest in the Church,t could thus teach it to the
members of the chapter and to those who foUowed their instruction in the
apostohc palace.
The pope further declared this rehgious to be a true canon, entitled to a
place in the choir, and possessed of the right of voting and being chosen
to office in chapters, entitled to his income as canon, and, in fine, to all the
honors of his dignity as canon4
At the same period, Saint Pius V. corrected and regulated the Roman
breviary, the Missal, and the office of the Blessed Virgin. He purged the
offices of much that had been added by the caprice of the printers. This
pope, too, ordered aU priests to recite the Gospel of Saint John at the end
of the Mass.§ Some had been in the habit of reciting, and some of omit
ting it. At the present day it is not recited by the Carthusians, nor by those
who sing the Mass in the papal chapel : the latter commence it at the altar,
and continue to recite it tiU they reach the sacristy.
This pope also added to the Academy of Pavia the Ghisheri coUege.
That Rome might not complain of this foundation in another city, Pius or
dered the completion of the Sapienza, where he placed new professors, with
considerable emoluments.
At the beginning of 1572 the pope was attacked by dysury, which de
prived him of sleep ; II and in the month of March the symptoms became
alarming. Without hstening to the physicians, or aUowing them to examine
him, or to touch the seat of the malady, he had recourse to his usual remedy,
ass's milk, which had formerly reheved him, but which had now no effect on
a debilitated body.
The remedy in which Pius had so much confidence did not diminish his
sufferings. Then the good pontiff turned to the sole remedy— patience.
Amidst the tortures that he endured from the gravel, he exclaimed:
* Bullarium Bomanum, vol. iv., part iii, p. 117. . t Novaes, vii, p. 245.
X This determination of Pius V. was not long recognized. Manriquez died on the 11th
01 January, 1573. Gregory XIH, thinking that the determination of Saint Pius V. might
seem injurious to the secular clergy of Rome, as inferring that the Roman clergy could
not fiU the post, revoked the buU of Pius V, and ordered that for the future the theological
prebend and the Vatican canonship should be fiUed by a doctor in theology of the Roman
clergy. § Novaes, vii, p. 249.
| It was of this disease that Pope Pius VII. died.

804 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" Lord, increase the suffering ; but, K it please thee, increase the patience.
also."* A report of the pope's death was circulated one day, and the ambassadors
sent couriers to their respective courts. The Romans manifested hvely re
grets. But the report was not then true. He recovered consciousness after
a prolonged swoon. His Hohness was told of the regret that the Romans
had expressed at his supposed death, and he determined to give them his
last benediction. On Saturday, attired in his pontifical habits, he ordered
himself to be carried to the great lodge of the Vatican, and there, with
abundant tears, he blessed bis people.
On the 21st of April, notwithstanding the entreaties of Marc Antony
Colonna, Pius visited the seven churches, sometimes on foot, and then in a
litter. On arriving at Saint John Lateran, he was unable to ascend the
scala santa, but assisted by a cardinal he kissed the lowest step. There he
had agreed to meet a number of Enghsh Cathohc exiles. He spoke to
them with the most lively sensibility, and ordered assistance to be given to
them. Then he returned to the Vatican, and was obhged to be assisted to
his bed. Cardinal Alexandrino, his nephew, promptly administered the
sacraments, which he received with the sincerest joy. A few days after-
Avards he died, on the 1st of May, 1572, aged sixty-eight years. He was
interred at the Vatican, in the chapel of Saint Andrew. The celebrated
Muretus pronounced the funeral oration, in presence of the cardinals. Saint
Pius V. was of ordinary stature. His countenance, serious, modest, and
calm, breathed sanctity. His face was thin and pale, but often much
flushed. He was bald, had blue eyes, an aquiline nose, and wore a long beard.
His memory was so prodigious, that, even after the lapse of many years, he
recognized a person to whom he had spoken only once, — a valuable gift in
the affairs of life. As soon as he had heard explained a view, a project, an
object of association, or a secret of any kind, he understood at the first
Avord all that was subsequently said to him as to any one of those affairs,
and often corrected or prompted his ministers whose memory was not so
faithful. When he became pope, he ordered that to the expense of his table,
when cardinal, only four pauls (about forty cents) should be added. But
his liberahty to the poor of Rome, and to the Enghsh ruined for preserving
the Cathohc faith, might aU but UteraUy be said to know no hmit. His
charities and generosity were said to have cost two millions of gold
croAvns ; yet, in spite of this expense, this pope left in the treasury a miUion
of crowns, besides a hundred thousand crowns receivable in the foUowing
month. In his chamber were found thirteen thousand crowns, which his
* This fact is related by Lambertini, who was Promoter of the Faith when Pius V. was can-
jnized.

SAINT PIUS V. 805
master of the chamber held at the disposal of so noble a benefactor for the
rehef of unforeseen apphcations from Enghsh Cathohcs.
In faet, the virtues of Saint Pius V. were so numerous, that they excited
a feeling of confidence in the faithful, and his beatification was seriously
thought of, and was zealously prosecuted under Gregory XV. It was defin
itively pronounced one hundred and one years after his death. Subse
quently, by a decree of the 4th of August, 1710, the canonization was pro
nounced* I possess a very curious painting representing Pius V. seated, and bless
ing Saint Francis Borgia kneeling. We mentioned that as Pius went to
take possession of Saint John Lateran, he stopped his litter in front of the
* We shaU now mention the medals of that reign which are in our own cabinet, then those
explained by Du Molinet and Bonanni. Two of mine have the same effigy, and the words :
Prvs V. Pont. Opt. Max. an. V. The head of the pope is uncovered, and is extremely meagre.
The third medal has, in addition to the effigy — Prvs V. Pont. Opt. Max. An. VI. The head is
covered with a long white cap. In the exergue, F. P.
On the reverse of the first : Fosdeeis in tvbcas sanctio — Sanction of tlie alliance against tlie
Turks. Rome, with tiara on head, holds the hands of two figures. The first, on the left, is Philip II,
king of Spain ; under Philip an eagle. The figure on the left represents the republic of Venice,
wearing the ducal hat, and having at the feet the Avinged Uon of Saint Mark. Beneath the
figure of Rome is the Lamb.
2. Illvminabe hteevsalem — Enlighten Jerusalem. The star over the stable, the Virgin,
the infant Jesus in her arms, Saint Joseph, the magi, the shepherds, the ass and the ox.
3. A domino factvm est istvd — This is the Lord's doing. The Christian fleet attacking that
of the Turks at the battle of Lepanto.
1. There is one which bears on the reverse the effigy of Paul TV, and these words : Pavlvs
IIII. Pont. Max. — Paul IV., sovereign pontiff. A token of affection for that pontiff by his
successor. 2. In the exergue, Colleg. Ghisleeivm. A. B. Pio V. faple eeectvm — The Ghislerian Col
lege, erected at Pavia by the Blessed Pius V. As Pius V. is here caUed Blessed, it must belong
to the period of his beatification, in 1698. It displays the front of the college ; above, a terrace
on which is an observatory surmounted by the Holy Ghost.
3. Dexteea tva Domine peecvssit inimicvm, An. 1571 — Thy hand, 0 Lord, smote the enemy :
1751. On a bark, an angel holding the cross and a chaUce. In the sky, Saint Peter over
whelming a Turkish galley.
4. Fecit potentiam in beachio bvo, Dispeebit svpeebos — He hath displayed might in his
arm; he hath dispersed the proud. The pope, surrounded by his suite, is in prayer. Beyond, a
crowd of combatants. In the sky, Saint Peter on a cloud. Du Molinet thinks that this is an
other medal struck on account of the victory of Lepanto. Bonanni judiciously repUes, that it
exhibits not a naval, but a land fight of infantry. It may allude to some victory gained in Flan
ders by the duke of Alba.
5. Contbibvlasti Capita Dbaconis — Thou hast crushed the serpents' heads. A crowned figure
smites the serpent with a sceptre. It is, perhaps, an aUusion to the excommunication of Eliza
beth of England.
6. In the exergue, E tenebeis, dies ; E lvco lvx lvcet — Bay cometh from darkness, light
from the grove. A temple, surmounted by the Holy Ghost. A forest, and a river which divides
into three branches. The ancients called a grove or wood lucus : it may here allude to the
name of Bosco (a grove), the name of the pontiff's birthplace. He loved to say that he was born
at Bosco ; and in one of his medals he takes the title of Boschensis, " of Bosco."

806 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Gesu, and conversed with Saint Francis Borgia, the general of the Jesuits.
On the foUowing day Saint Francis went to thank the pope, who again
blessed him with great tenderness.
There was apparently a desire at that time to commemorate this visit to
the Vatican, made on the 28th of January, by a picture representing Borgia
kneehng to receive the benediction of Pius V. This picture I got at Paris
from Angelo Bonelli, who in 1814 carried it to England. Bonelh attributes
the picture to Vasari, and adds : " By the coloring and by the admirable
finish of the hands of the pope and the general, I am inclined to beheve it
was made about 1570, in Spain, and sent to Rome."
The Holy See was vacant eleven days.

236. GREGORY XIIL— a. d. 1572.
|REGORY XIIL (Hugh Buoncompagni) was born at
Bologna, on the 7th of February, 1502,* the son of
Christopher Buoncompagni and Agnola Marescal-
chi, noble and very distinguished persons of that
city. Gifted with an inteUect which facihtated the ac
quisition of knowledge, Hugh had, in the univer
sity of Bologna, as guides, four celebrated juris
consults, Louis Mozzoli, Annibal Caccianemici, Louis Gozadini, and Charles
Rovini. At twenty-eight years of age, he was received doctor of both laws.
While professor for some months, he had among his pupUs Alexander Far
nese, Christopher Madruzzi, Otho Truchsess, Reginald Pole, and Charles
Borromeo, aU subsequently cardinals.
Hugh had the honor to be summoned to Rome at thirty-six years of age,
by Cardinal Peter Paul Parizzio, a renowned jurisconsult. Paul III. named
Hugh, in succession, first judge of the capitol, and abbreviator and' referen
dary of the two signatures. In 1545, the pope sent him to the CouncU of
Trent, that great and majestic school in wliich so many sublime talents of
that age were formed. In 1555, Buoncompagni was vice-legate of the Com-
pagna of Rome. In aU his employments, he distinguished himself by his
knowledge, his abilities, and the noblest religious sentiments.
* Novaes, viU, p. 3.

Eng by IH. Dudensmg

(SKE©®^ XOQQ.

GREGORY XIIL 807
By Paul IV. he was assigned as datary to Cardinal Carafa, legate in
France. Subsequently, Pius IV. made Buoncompagni his most confiden
tial deputy at the CouncU of Trent, and then created him cardinal-priest
of Saint Sixtus. That pope, in giving him the hat, said, Behold a man in
whom there is no guile.
Two months after, Cardinal Buoncompagni was sent as legate to Spain,
to investigate the case of Bartholomew Miranda y Carranza, of the order of
preachers, archbishop of Toledo, one of the theologians of the CouncU of
Trent, and confessor to the queen of Spain, who had for six years been
imprisoned by the Inquisition, on suspicion of heresy ; an accusation founded
simply on a few notes written on the margins of some heretical books.
The pope gave Buoncompagni, as theologians, Fehx Peretti, and Stephen
Bonucci, a Servite. Two other prelates, John Raphael Castagna and John
Aldobrandini, were also attached to the legation. Three among them. —
Buoncompagni, Peretti, and Castagna — became popes.*
Before returning to Rome, the legate, whose virtues were admired, was
appointed secretary of the briefs by the same Pius IV.t
On the death of the latter, Buoncompagni woidd have succeeded, but for
the envy of some members of the conclave. He did not, indeed, arrive in
season to participate in it. When he obtained his first audience of Pius V,
the pope said to him, in a tone of tender esteem : " My Lord Cardinal, we
have occupied your place :" words worth repeating, as expressive of the
kmdliness, the pohteness, and the elegant manners of the popes.
On the 12th of May, 1572, after the funeral of Pius V., fifty-two cardinals
entered into conclave. Cardinals Altemps, Sforza, Orsini, Cesi, and Como,
who supported Cardinal Farnese, saw that his youth made it impossible to
raise him to the throne. Cardinal de Granvelle declared, in the name of
the king of Spain, that his selection was impossible, in the presence of so
many aged and deserving cardinals. Then a great many other cardinals,
in addition to those we have just named, put forward Buoncompagni, and
the choice being rehshed, they resolved, on the 13th of May, to elect him
on the foUowing day, the 14th. He was seventy years of age. Cardinal
Como then visited Buoncompagni, from whom every thing had been care
fully concealed, and said to him : " Come immediately to the chapel, and
you wUl be elected by adoration."
Buoncompagni, without the shghtest change of countenance, rephed:
"Are there sufficient votes?"
" More than sufficient," was the reply. Then Buoncompagni, as if nothing
* PhUip II. had a jester, who, seeing the king, at dinner one day with these envoys of Pius IV,
take three soups, said to the prince : " Tour majesty dines with three pappi." The play upon
words was sufficiently absurd ; pappi meaning soups, an&papi meaning popes.
f Novaes, vUi, p. 7.

808 LIVES OF THE POPES.
strange had occurred, continued quite calmly to write on some important
business. When he had finished, he placed the papers in his bosom and
rose to go to the chapel, saying : " Let us go, in the name of the Lord."
In memory of Saint Gregory the Great, whom he had, from chUdhood,
always venerated as his patron, the new pope took the name of Gregory
XIIL, and chose as his motto the words of Psalm lxvn. 26 : " Confirma
hoc Beus, quod operatus es in nobis— 0 God, confirm that which thou hast
wrought in us."
On Whitsunday, May 20th, the pope was solemnly crowned ; and on the
27th, mounted on a white paKrey, went to take possession of Saint John
Lateran. Like Saint Pius V., he forbade money to be thrown among the people,
ordering abundant alms to be distributed among the poor.
He immediately appointed secretary of state Cardinal GaUi, usuaUy
caUed Cardinal Como, being bishop of that city. In the first consistory,
the pontiff had the buU read which forbade the alienation of the property
of the Church ; and, laying his hand on his heart, swore to suffer no infrac
tion of that law.
A commission, consisting of Cardinals Borromeo, Paleotti, Aldobrandini,
and Arezzo, was appointed to destroy all abuses that had crept into eccle
siastical discipline.
Gregory insisted on the inviolable observance of the decrees of his pre
decessor regarding the CouncU of Trent ; and he declared that no implied
permission of the pope authorized cardinal-bishops to avoid the law of
residence. The better to enforce the spirit of the holy councU, the pope
decreed that, in future, no bishop should be employed at court, and that
the clerks of the chamber and the auditors of the rota, who were bishops,
should resign either the office or their See.
To facUitate access to the pope, and apply to him in need, Gregory ap
pointed one day in each week for a public audience, during which he dis
played singular patience.
Before the close of the audience, chamberlains went to ascertain that no
one had been forgotten ; and he often said that the pope was, after aU, only
an honored servant.
Gregory, says Novaes (vUi, p. 10), was attentive in Ustening, judicious in
evincing his entire comprehension of each case, serious in his bearing, rare
in interruption,* favorable in language, and at aU times benevolent and
merciful. To show his desire of relieving his people, he diminished the tax
on meat, and abohshed that on wine in the province of Romagna.
* A man, when not interrupted, often says both for himself and against himself more than
he means to say.

GREGORY XIH. 809
The Turks regarded the death of Saint Pius V. as a dehverance from all
their enemies, and celebrated his death by pubhc feasts. Gregory thought
that the head of Catholicity ought never to cease from striving to repress
the ambition of the Turks, and he sohcited new armaments from the Chris
tian princes.
A considerable fleet encountered the Turks at Navarino, but retired with
httle honor to the Christian standard ; and Venice, Ul-advised, concluded
peace with the porte, without forewarning the allies, the Holy See, and
PhUip II.
In the same year, 1572, on the 2d of June, Gregory made his first promo
tion. It included only the creation of his nephew, Phihp Buoncompagni,
who was declared cardinal of the title of Saint Sixtus.
But terrible symptoms of frenzy were appearing in France. Elizabeth of
England, on being excommunicated, made a treaty with the Huguenots, and
upheld their power. The court, hesitating between the religious innovators
and the ambitious Guises, was agitated, yet unable to resolve upon a firm
and prudent course. Catharine de Medici, who had gone to France in her
youth, ill-acquainted with the morals, the habits, and the polity of her own
country, which was unjustly reputed to be perverse and dissimulating, and
being stUl less acquainted with the character of the French whom she was
called upon to govern, rushed into difficulties from which there seemed to
be no issue, and every thing boded those frightful disasters which necessarily
result from indecision and ignorance. Could Rome, when the pontifical
authority was scarcely assured, address counsels able to calm and restrain
agitated minds ?
At the commencement of the reign of Gregory, that state of things ex
isted at Rome which usuaUy marks the first months after an election, and
especiaUy one by adoration,* when every elector believes himseK one of the
most active in creating the new pope.
AU the factions sohcited rewards, and a pope seventy years old could
only reply by smUes, and consent to those interested petitions. It takes at
least a year for these importunities to cease, and the pope's power to become
Vested again in himself alone on a firm and sohd basis.
At that juncture Cardinal de Lorraine arrived in Rome, stiU occupied
with his desire to avenge the death of his brother Francis, the glorious de
fender of Metz in 1552, the proudest general of the king's armies, who had
exalted the French name in the estimation of Italy in 1559, the wise lieu
tenant-general of the kingdom in 1563, and at the same period shot, without
his widow, Anne of Ferrara, having been able to procure the condemnation
of his assassin, Poltrot de Mene, who belonged to the Huguenot party.
* Holy, p. 261.

810 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The cardinal was discontented with the peace made by Charles IX. with the
Huguenots in 1570. He also urged that aU Italy should enter into the
league against the Turks, a league which would naturaUy distract the pub
lic mind from those hypocritical plottings, and those audacious provocations
which produce the forgetfulness of all reUgious feeUng, and lead to the dis
honor of nations. AU at once Rome heard of the frightful massacre of
Saint Bartholomew. That terrible event, that sanguinary page of the his
tory of France, merits hvely comment, especially K new detaUs can throw
broader and brighter hght upon so deplorable a scene. There is a work by
the duke of Saint Simon,* entitled, A very brief Summary of the History of
France and Foreign Countries, so far as connected with Bates, commendng with
Hugh Capet. Those notes, coUected by a man so judicious, and living
so much nearer to those times than we do, and knovm, also, to have
been frank, sincere, and incorruptible, are remarkable, considering the ex
traordinary facts that they include ; and stiU more so if they be compared
with the scenes which took place at Rome on the occasion of that catas
trophe, and which must be recaUed in our narrative. The foUowing are
Saint Simon's notes, which are stUl in the department of foreign affairs at
Paris. They are data and reminiscences without form, without attention to
style, yet they are characterized by the depth and the elevation of that elo
quent annalist, who often deserves the title of the French Tacitus.
" 1572. Secret dehberations upon the massacre. The Guises are for in
cluding the new king of Navarre, the Montmorencies, and Catholics odious
to them, the Duke d' Anjou, and Marshal de Retz. Alone in the secret with
Catharine de Medici, the Guises insist upon the death of the king of Na
varre and the young Louis de Conde, AArhich proves that the Guises aspired
to the throne, and wished to destroy the branch next in claim to the palais.
"The queen hesitates, from fear of being dependent upon the Guises.
Charles IX. keeps the secret during all those long intrigues, but embarrasses
them by his uncertainty, especiaUy with regard to the admiral (Coligny),
Avhom he rather likes ; since to attract the Huguenots, he was with all, under
pretext of the war of the Low Countries, of which he was to be the chief,
to support their revolt against the Inquisition of Spain. The rudeness of
the king to his mother or brother, after a long conversation with the ad
miral, but Avhich he never disclosed, drove them to definitive action. The
massacre began by wounding the admiral, and a visit to the king and his
mother, fuU of the most perfidious demonstrations. The admiral is kUled
at the same time as the others, and is never so admirably great as at his
end. Indignities upon his body by the third duke of Guise. Butchery,
which includes aU Cathohcs who were to be removed. The Montmorencies
* Italy, p. 262.

GREGORY XIIL 811
are saved by the absence of one of them, and of one Cosse. The king of Na
varre and the prince de Conde become Cathohcs, with the dagger at their
throats. The massacre, dissimulated at first, is avowed by pubhc edict, at
the instigation of the Guises, who do not choose to be alone in bearing that
eternal infamy of the nation."
Here Saint Simon- continues his statement of facts for the foUowing year.
Such were the events which France had witnessed. Henry of Guise,
under the pretext of avenging his father, had led into a series of crimes a
boy king, who had nevertheless shown rudeness to his mother and brother
after a long conversation with the admiral, of which he would never speak,
and his rudeness drove them to end the matter at once. Henry of Guise
could easUy prevaU with Catharine de Medici, who had heard the Marshal
de Saint Andre say : " We shaU have no happiness tUl we put this woman
into a sack and throw her into the Seine." In Catharine's heart, moreover,
ambition stifled every feeling of humanity. There had been no difficulty in
making fraud acceptable to the duke of Anjou, who subsequently, as Henry
HI., invited that same Henry of Guise to Blois, made him lieutenant-gen
eral, promised him the sword of constable, and then had him poignarded
upward, " lest he might wear a shirt of mail."
What remained for Cardinal Charles de Lorraine to do, enjoying as he
did great credit at Rome, where the new administration was not yet fairly
instaUed? On the morning of the 6th of September, the letters which Salviati,
the pope's legate, had written from France, were read before the pope, in a
meeting of cardinals. These letters stated, that according to the declara
tions of the French court, Coligni and the Huguenots having conspired
against the monarch, had been put to death by the king's wish and consent.*
Then it was decided, on the somewhat violently worded demand of Cardinal
de Lorraine, that the pope and the sacred coUege should, on the foUowing
Monday, be present at a solemn celebration. Many artists came forward
to decorate the church of Saint Mark, where the celebration was to be held.
Tlie day of grief and terror had come for those whom Luther had summoned
to discord. The cardinal pubhcly gave a thousand crowns to the courier
who brought him the news he so much desired. On the 8th of September,
the French had a grand procession in the church of Saint Louis, a sanctu
ary much enriched by the endowments of Catharine de Medici. Most of
* In a Voyage en Italie (BruxeUes, 1816), speaking of these frescoes, the author says : " Who
is the other king firing on the people ? It is Charles IX. giving the signal for the massacre."
This is aU wrong. Vasari's paintings are poor enough, and incorrect in costume, but Charles
appears only before his parUament. The charge that Charles fired on the people is now ad
mitted to be false. See the article on ChanceUor de Pastoret, in the supplement to the Bio-

812 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the Roman nobUity, and crowds of people, flocked to the ceremony in Avhieli
the Protestants were pubhcly cursed. " The emperor's ambassador," says
a contemporary account, " held the train of the pope's robe for the honor
that he did to the emperor above aU others." The cardinal had fastened
on the three doors of the church, between the statues of Charlemagne and
Saint Louis, a notification addressed to the pope, to the cardinals, to the
senate, and people of Rome, in which he lauded the massacre in Paris, and
recalled all that Rome had suffered under the Lutherans. He also said that
" he greatly rejoiced that his house had been the chief actors in so great
and so memorable a deed."
This whole document was a mixture of braggadocio, delirium, and ferocity,
and to affix it to the church door was an audacious act, and an affront to the
sovereignty of Gregory XIIL For, what right had a cardinal to use such
language, in a city which was not under his rule ? But it must again be
remarked, that the nobility and people of Rome, and more especiaUy the
artists, regarded the death of the Huguenots, kUled, as was affirmed, for
attempting high treason, simply as a just punishment, and a vengeance
upon the crimes committed in 1527. Forty-five years after the sack of
Rome, there remained vtitnesses of both sexes, and even victims who had
suffered from those crimes ; and it Avas by those witnesses and by those
victims that the blind hatred of the populace was animated. Vasari, a
pupil of Rosso, who had been so inhumanly treated — -Vasari, who had often
heard his master relate his misfortunes of that terrible time, proposed to
preserve, in a fresco, the memory of those events. He died two years
afterwards, but not before he had sketched two works — Charles IX. in his
Parliament, and the Scenes of the Massacre of Paris.*
Gregory subsequently secured aU the authority rightfully his, in his own
capital, and he alone regulated the pohcy of the Holy See, which thence
forth was wise and moderate. It was evident that during the rejoicings at
Rome he had been carried away irresistibly by the tumultuous movement of
a disorderly populace. The aUocutions and the buUs of the pontiff speedily
proved his real sentiments as to a pohtical crime, which the sacking of
Rome could not justify.
I have reported the facts with new circumstances, giving in more detail
the causes and consequences of party cruelty. It was a horrible crime, that
six months massacre of the Roman people ; nor was it less so, perfidiously
to massacre men living quietly on the faith of a treaty. And we can but
deplore the joy manifested on the receipt of the news of what Cardinal de
Lorraine styled, la strage degli Ugonotti — " the massacre of the Huguenots."
But let us pause. The annals of a learned and pious reign, and the ap-
* Italie, p. 263. The expressions are singular ; Avish needs no consent.

GREGORY XIIL 813
proach of the Holy Year, which was celebrated with great pomp, summon
us to a different narrative.
At that period, the Maronites, that same people* whose misfortunes have
been in our day so grievous, apphed to Gregory for his protection. They
occupied Mount Lebanon and some towns in Syria, and from time imme
morial had conformed to the Latin dogma. Yet there was a fear that under
Turkish persecution errors might creep in. With the consent of the patri
arch, Michael de Citaravia, two ambassadors were sent to the pope, who
received them with especial kindness. He confirmed their patriarch, as is
customary to the present day, and he read with pleasure the letters they
exhibited, letters addressed to them by Pope Innocent III., in the year 1200,
congratulating them on their firm union with the Western Church. They
also exhibited missions sent to the Maronites by Saint Louis, authorizing
their prince to give letters of French hobUity. The pope sent these Cath
ohcs home with rich presents, and accompanied by two Jesuits, appointed
visitors of the Lebanon. Subsequently, Sixtus V. granted privUeges to the
coUege of the Maronites, established at Rome.t
In 1578, Gregory, who, when professor at Bologna, had been engaged in
correcting Gratian's Decretal, and the canon law generaUy, ordered inves
tigations to be made for any fragments of the councils there cited, so that
the Corpus Juris Canonid might be reprinted at Rome, purged of accumu
lated errors.^
Gratian, a celebrated canonist, born at Chiusi, in the Siennese, about the
year 1100, pubhshed a decretal, consisting of — 1. Texts of the holy Scrip
ture ; 2. The apostohcal canons ; 3. About a hundred and five councils, the
first nine being oecumenical ; 4. The decretals of the popes ; 5. Extracts
from the Holy Fathers, as Saint Gregory, Saint Jerome, and Saint Augus
tine, and extracts from the ecclesiastical writers, pontifical books, Theodo-
sian Code, the Capitularies of the kings of France, &c. Gratian styled his
work, Concordantia Biscordantium Canonum, because it was his study to
reconcUe, either by authority or by reasoning, the apparently contradictory
canons.§ The manuscript of Gratian's work began to circulate in 1151.
Other writers had previously undertaken similar compUations. At the end
of the ninth century, or the beginning of the tenth, Reginon, abbot of Prum,
made a coUection of canons and ecclesiastical regulations. Burchard or
Bouchard, bishop of Worms, in the year 1000, also gave a coUection of
canons, in twenty books ; and Yvo, of Chartres, who died in 1115, formed a
similar coUection. Gratian, according to some a Benedictine, but accord
ing to Savioli, in the Annali Bolognesi, was not a monk, profited by the
* Coisiderations sur le regne des quinze premiers popes qui ont porte le nom de Greg aire,
p. 142.
f Novaes, viii, p. 17. 1 Ibid, p. 44. § Biog. Univ., vol. xviii, p. 334.

814 LIVES OF THE POPES.
labors of his predecessors, — occasionaUy, it must be confessed, "without suffi
cient discrimination; but he surpassed them by avoiding the lamentable
confusion prevalent in their coUections. He arranged his in the order of
the subjects, and divided it into three parts. In the first, he gives aU rela
tive to law and to the ministers of the Church ; in the second, judgments ;
and under the head De Consecratione, in the third, he gives aU that concerns
sacraments and ceremonies. Gratian's work, on its appearance, echpsed
aU former coUections, even that of Yvo of Chartres, tiU then of great au
thority. Eugene III. is said to have approved it. It is certain, at least,
that the Decretal was received with a kind of enthusiasm in the school of
Bologna, and that from that school, then one of the most famous, it passed
into France, and was taught at Paris, Orleans, and in the other universities.
It speedily became the text upon which the professors of canon law com
mented in their lectures and in their writings. Nevertheless, it was very
far from perfection, for disputed documents were inserted, besides some
of the most authentic that have come down to us from antiquity. In pro
portion as light increased, these defects were more sensibly felt. In France,
Spain, and Italy, it was conceded that Gratian needed revision. The cele
brated popes, Pius IV. and Pius V., employed several learned men on the
work; among others, Buoncompagni,' when a professor. When he became
pope, he approved his work by a buU.
The first dated edition of Gratian, is that of Strasburg, 1471, folio, Henry
Eggestein ; an edition the more remarkable, as being the first specimen of
typography emanating from the city of Strasburg. The same printer, in
the same city, reprinted it in the foUowing year, and P. Schceffer gave an
edition in 1472, at Mentz, in two volumes, foho.
The work has . since often been reprinted, and forms the first volume of
the Corpus Juris Canonici. The corrections accepted by Gregory XHI.
were printed at Rome.
The Holy Year now approached, and Gregory, a far-seeing prince, deter
mined that it should be celebrated with order and magnificence ; and he
gave orders to the governors of the Ecclesiastical States to take the neces
sary measures for a good and prudent police.
They were to provide against the possibility of scarcity of the necessaries
of life, and to have roads and bridges in the best possible order. The Com
missioners of Abundance in Rome were to lay in a great quantity of bread-
stuffs, wine, and vegetables. The proprietors of lodgings were invited to
keep them at the usual rents, and to turn no one away until the expiration
of the Holy Year. To induce the cardinals to embeUish the churches of their
titles, the pope ordered that in aU the BasUicas needful repairs should be
immediately made. The porches of Saint Peter and Saint Mary Major,
which previously had been somewhat neglected, were almost rebuUt, and

GREGORY XIIL 815
from the latter to Saint John Lateran, a wide street was opened, more con
venient for both carriages and foot-passenger s.
The pope strove to keep John, king of Sweden, true to the Cathohc faith ;
and he also endeavored to maintain Henry of Valois upon the throne of
Poland ; but on the death of his brother, Charles IX., Henry preferred to
return to France.
Meantime, Ernest, second son of the duke of Bavaria, arriving in Rome,
had a magnificent reception, and Gregory ordered aU that was splendid or
beautiful in Rome to be shown him. Charles Frederic, duke of Cleves,
cousin of Ernest, afterwards visited Rome, and met with a similar recep--
tion. The grand duke of Tuscany and the duke of Parma, who afterwards
arrived in Rome, with their numerous retinues, were treated with a royal
luxury. The ceremonies of the JubUee commenced. The holy door was opened :
the concourse of pUgrims was so great, that in one single day the Hos
pital of the Trinity received eight thousand. No tumult occurred. A
stUl greater concourse, in spite of the winter, witnessed the closing of
the holy door; and scarcely, was the Holy Father freed from these labors,
when he zealously resumed those ever incumbent upon the Supreme
Pontiff. The errors of the Confession of Augsburg prevailed more than ever in
Bohemia. Gregory induced the bishops of that country to combat the
schism, and the good people were speedUy brought back to the worship of
their fathers.
MaximUian had not yet gone to Rome to receive the imperial crown.
Without doubt he was emperor elect, but he had deferred fulfilling a duty
which would have strongly confirmed his rights. The pope at the same
time endeavored to procure Maximilian's election as king of Poland. No
alarming schism was visible in the country of JageUon, and K Maximilian
had governed at Cracow, the tendency of that prince to weakness of action
in regard to the doctrines of Luther might have been neutrahzed by the
strongly Cathohc sentiment of Poland.
Italy presented some dangerous agitations. Gregory sent Cardinal Mo
roni to Genoa to restore concord among the nobles, whose envenomed
quarrels were ruining the commerce of the country, and its important trade
with the Levant.
A treaty had been concluded some time before between Gregory and
PhUip II. , with a view to mitigating the evUs which Ehzabeth had inflicted
upon England, as weU as to obtain the release of Mary, queen of Scots, and
cause her to marry Don John of Austria, the conqueror at Lepanto, who
had so recently saved Italy from an incursion of the Mussulman. But this
scheme of the Spanish court was not relished. The efforts in favor of Mary

816 LIVES OF THE POPES.
were therefore hmited to words, mere wishes that she might obtain her
hberty, and so escape what the celebrated Madame de Stael caUs " the san
guinary coquetry" of EUzabeth.
In the fatal year 1576 the plague appeared in Europe, and extended its
ravages into Germany, France, Spain, and many parts of Italy, especially
Venice and MUan.
Everywhere the religious orders covered themselves with glory. The
Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, in a word, all, at the least sign
from the head of the Church, hastened to relieve and exhort the sick, to
console those who in an instant lost their whole family, and to distribute
money to the poor. The people who, when not misled by falsehood, well
know how to recognize their benefactors, visited, when the pestUence had
disappeared, with a deep grief the almost deserted convents, where there re
mained only infirm old men, and a few of those men, so dear to God, who
can support fatigue, watching, and the constant sight of death ; those men
whom Providence has marked out by a particular sign to survive so much
suffering, very often out of aU proportion to the strength given to us here
below for the preservation of our miserable fives.
Gregory felt more alarm than other European princes. His correspond
ence with Constantinople, Syria, and Jerusalem informed him that the
Turks were arming, and he feared that under the protection of that scourge,
with which they constantly live, as it were, on friendly terms, and encour
aged by their senseless doctrine of fatahsm, they might be preparing for a
sudden attack upon some Ul-guarded point. The vigUant pontiff feared
lest the Turks, summoned by the plague, might become the aUies of that
almost irremediable evU, which their effendis call their compatriot and their
friend against the greed of the Western nations. But God looked down
with pity upon His Church. The report spread that aU the Greeks Avhom
commerce had attracted to Genoa, and aU the Turkish prisoners on the
peninsula, had been the first victims of the plague, aggravated by home
sickness. Moreover, Malta and Venice made new efforts to repulse the
Mussulmans, should they venture to attack Christendom.
When calm was somewhat restored in Germany and Italy, and communi
cation became easier, Gregory raised to the cardinalate Andrew of Austria,
natural son of the Archduke Ferdinand and Philippine Vetzler, and grand
nephew of the Emperor Charles V. and Ferdinand I. The young prince
Avas only eighteen years of age. But no one regretted the favors granted
to Austria to maintain her in that truly Christian constancy which she has
never betrayed.
Rodolph, who had succeeded his father Maximihan, asked no confirma
tion from Rome. Gregory invited him to send an ambassador to Rome,
with the special mission to sohcit the customary confirmation. Rodolph

GREGORY XIH. 817
rephed that the delay arose from some circumstances which he was about
to examine carefuUy.
It was not imagined at Rome that any serious difficulty would arise.
At Rome a document was carefully preserved, signed by the seven electors,
by which they recognized the right of the Holy See to elect the emperor.
They stated that it was their duty and that of the emperor not to oppose
the Holy See as to that right, and that they were bound to pay to the Holy
See obedience, subjection, and, as the document expresses it, honorificence.
In fact, that right had been recognized by several emperors. Otho IV.
recognized it towards Innocent HI., and Frederic II. towards Honorius III.
Coming to more recent periods, we find iEneas Piccolomini, afterwards Pius
H., ambassador from Frederic III., pronouncing the address of obedience
to Pope Cahxtus III. MaximUian I. signed peace with Julius II. , and took
the oath of obedience ; and Charles V., after the disasters of Rome, when
the pontifical authority was so weakened, did not refuse it.
Rodolph, though he seemed so much inclined to foUow the example of
MaximUian IL, his father, in refusing obedience, nevertheless sent John
Zenner to Rome. That envoy, in the address which he had prepared,
changed the term obedience into respect. Gregory would not recognize the
substitution. He gave a private audience to Zenner and his coUeagues, in
which no business was transacted, and then wrote an autograph letter to
Rodolph, entreating him to foUow the example of his predecessors. Ro
dolph finaUy consented to be caUed in the discourse the most obedient son of
His Holiness, and he sent the decree of his election, which tiU then had
been retained in Vienna. Then the pope, in a pubhc consistory, confirmed
the election, and caused an act of the confirmation to be drawn up .and
signed by aU the cardinals*
About this time, John, king of Sweden, sent an ambassador to Rome
The king by his letters, and by the mouth of his envoy, testified his deshe
to belong to the Cathohc rehgion, and he also desired that a person worthy
of confidence should be sent to his court to conclude a treaty with him.
The Holy Father intrusted the embassy to the Jesuit Father Possevin. It
was in the hands of that wise missionary that the king, urged by his wKe,
Catharine of Poland, abjured the errors of Lutheranism; and then both
king and queen sought means to restore the doctrines of the Catholic re
hgion throughout their kingdom. But the sweet joys of the Holy See are
often traversed by bitter disappointment. Cardinal Gesualdo, protector of
the kingdom of Naples, had proposed, in consistory, the vacant church
of Trani as a patronal rightt of the crown of Spain, and shortly after-
* Maffei, an. 1577, Uv. vi, n. 7.
f Concessions permitting laymen to confer benefices, and even to name bishops.
Vol. I.— 52

818 LIVES OF THE POPES.
wards he in the same form proposed the same as to the church of Catania
in SicUy. Gregory felt obUged to reply to both these proposals. To the
first, he declared that the king had the nomination only by apostohcal priv
Uege ; to the second, it was admitted that, in 1530, Clement VH. had
granted to Charles V. the nomination to the churches of SicUy and Sar
dinia, but only during the hfe of that prince ; and since that time no such
concession had been made. Then the king's ministers, ceasing to ask as
for a right, resorted to entreaties and solicitations. In consequence, the
pope, for that time only, granted the patronage for the nomination to the
Sees of Catania and Palermo, then vacant.
Subsequently, in the same year, 1577, the pontiff erected in South Amer
ica three cathedrals, with the right of patronage — Santa Marta, Truxillo,
and Arequipa.
King Sebastian, a prince of whom the most briUiant hopes were formed,
reigned in Portugal. He contemplated extensive conquests in Africa, and
would not hsten to any of his councUlors who endeavored to dissuade him
from that project. Gregory granted various spiritual advantages, which he
had ardently sohcited.
New iron mines were discovered in Spoleto, and Gregory farmed them
out, to the profit of the treasury, at very high royalties. The apostolic
chamber had thus a new source of revenue.
For six years Buoncompagni, father of the cardinal of Saint Sixtus, and
brother of the pope, had hved in Bologna without visiting the pope after
his elevation. This year, desiring to see the pontificate more closely, he
privately set out for Rome. The Holy Father, informed of his journey,
and resolved to give no cause of complaint, was dismclined to have more of
his famUy at court, and especiaUy not his sister-in-law, Cecilia Bargehni, a
woman of haughty character. When the party reached Otricoli, they
were met by orders to return. With equal courage Gregory confined at
.^Perugia one of his relatives, for having on his own authority rescued an
esteemed servitor from prison. In vain influential princes represented that
the fault had been immediately repaired, and that the servant had been
voluntarUy returned to the prison : the pope was inflexible, and would not
overlook the infractions of the laws of the land, which set so dangerous an
example to other relatives of the sovereign.
On the 4th of March, 1577, Gregory created cardinal Albert of Austria,
sixth son of Maximihan II. (and of Mary of Austria, daughter of Charles
V.), and brother of the Emperor Rodolph II. This cardinal, only nineteen
years old when promoted, subsequently renounced the purple to marry
Isabella, daughter of Philip II. , who received as her dowry the provinces
of Flanders and Franche-Comte. Albert died Avithout issue, at Brussels,
on the 13th of July, 1621.

GREGORY Xin. 819
Good tidings arrived from the East. The condition of the pUgrims was
not yet improved, perhaps, at Jerusalem, notwithstanding the solicitations
of the Franciscan custos, Father Jeremias of Brescia ; but other countries
had eagerly welcomed our pious missionaries.
Near the town of Naxivan, on the river Tigris, in Lesser Armenia, twenty-
five vUlages, by the exertions of Friar Bartholomew, a Dominican, and
bishop of Armenia, had recognized the Roman Church, and long persevered
in their obedience. During subsequent wars some schismatic prelates en
deavored to lure the Cathohcs from their duty, and in some cases succeeded ;
but the rest, under the direction of a Dominican, archbishop of Naxivan,
continued to recognize the Holy See. This rehgious having visited Rome
to expose the state of affairs, sohcited aid to recover the lost sheep. Greg
ory granted him a sum of money, letters of protection for the neighboring
authorities, and a quantity of vestments.
In the city of Aleppo, and in many other parts of Syria and Mesopota
mia, there were a great many ^houses of Chaldean Jacobites, offshoots of
the Eutychian sect. For twenty years they had been governed by the
patriarch Nehem, a man of faith and worth, who had already restored
several churches. He determined to write letters of submission to Juhus
IH. and Pius IV., and he asked an estabhshment at Rome for his flock:
Shortly afterwards a war broke out in that country, and the Turks seized
Nehem and closely confined him in prison, where he unhappily apostatized,
in his terror. Resuming his true Cathohc feehng, he hoped to obtain his
pardon from the Holy Father. Resigning the care of his flock and his title
of patriarch to his brother David, and under the pretext of a visit to Con
stantinople, he repaired to Rome. There he abjured his apostasy, and de
tested the errors of the false master Dioscorus, and pubhcly renewed his
profession of faith. As Nehem could never return to his own country, the
pope aUowed him to remain in Rome, lodged him in the palace, and as
signed him an annual pension befitting his rank as patriarch.
There also arrived, just then, envoys from the Maronites, who were re
ceived with the same friendship.
At that moment, the pope received letters of obedience from the arch
bishop of Cranganor* metropohtan of Malabar. The Jesuits had decided
him to abandon the Nestorian errors and return to the CathoUc truth. The
reply of the pope was accompanied by precious rehcs and by sacred pres
ents of every description.
At the same time that he dispatched his reply, the pontiff judged it right
to encourage, by new favors, and by testimonies of tenderness, father An
drew de Oviedo, of the Society of Jesus, whom Paul IV. had sent to the
* Novaes, viii, p. 42.

820 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Abyssinians of Ethiopia. The missionary had been appointed patriarch,
but his hfe was daily menaced ; he did not however ask leave to retire.
Gregory omitted no exertion to estabhsh a league between the kings of
Poland, Sweden, and Spain, for the purpose of an expedition into England,
to put a stop to the persecutions ordered by Elizabeth. They had become
so intolerable as to spread terror through England and Scotland. King
Henry III. desired to create an order of knighthood in France, the more
strongly to attach to the Roman faith the nobles who might receive this
honor at the hands of the king. The endowment of the order was to con
sist of a regular aUowance from the royal treasury, and of two hundred
thousand crowns, to be paid by the French clergy, — exempting, however, the
incomes of the parish priests. To obtain a confirmation of that institution,
the king sent to Rome Mr. l'Aubepin, and then Mr. de Lancosme. The
pope assembled a congregation of thirteen cardinals, and represented that
the terms of the request were offensive to the glory of God, and perverted
the employment of the property of the Church. In fact, the clergy, bur
dened with this new impost, would no longer have the means of fulfiUing
their duties, relieving the poor and providing for divine worship.
Before receiving this reply, or rather anticipating that the reply would
not be favorable, the king inaugurated the institution with great pomp, and
caUed it the order of the Holy Ghost. Properly speaking, it had been in
stituted at Naples in 1352, by Louis I. of Tarento, under the name of the
ordei of " The Holy Ghost — au droit desir." Henry, at the same time, de
sired to reconstruct the order of Saint Michael, the coUar of which had
fallen into such disrepute that it was commonly spoken of as every beast's
collar. The king, therefore, ordered that every noble, to be affiliated to his
order of the Holy Ghost, must previously belong to that of Saint Michael,
which was the case up to 1830.
The bishop of Geneva was commissioned by the pope to ask and to give
explanations, and accord was not disturbed between the pope and the king.
The order was not to be granted, and in fact never was, except to nobles
who SAvore unbounded attachment to the Cathohc faith.
Here arises a question of great importance. I shall treat it on the au
thority of Novaes, who says (vol. vUi, p. 53) :
" By the death of Sebastian, king of Portugal, which occurred in the year
1578, when he was kUled fighting against the Moors of Africa, Cardinal
Henry, his uncle, succeeded to the throne. The latter was then sixty-seven
years of age, and in feeble health. Perceiving the danger to the sceptre
that would arise, at his death, from the numerous aspirants to the throne,
his councUlors exhorted him to marry, saying that by that means, if he had
any children, the anticipated dangers would be averted, and the authority
would remain in Portuguese hands. Henry, yielding, after a long resist-

GREGORY XIIL 821
ance however, to their instances, felt it necessary to apply to the pope
for the necessary dispensation, seeing that he was not only cardinal but
also archbishop of Evora. Gregory studied the case with singular atten
tion, and replied that he could not comply with such a request. It was
true that, under other circumstances, the dispensation had been granted
to. a monk or priest* But, in the present case, there were serious circum
stances ; the applicant was a cardinal and a bishop. It was an absolutely
novel case, of which there had been no previous instance in the Church.
With this argument and others, Gregory endeavored to convince Henry's
envoy ; and the pope's nuncio, Sauh, made the same representations to the
king in person. Then that prince changed his design, and though the com
mons of his kingdom entreated him to continue his attempts, he remained
firm in his refusal."
So, on the one hand, reasons of State were urged in support of this fear
ful infraction of ecclesiastical law, which threatened to introduce Protestant
customs into our Church ; and on the other hand, it was said, as though that
were an argument, that Henry had long been a priest. In vain did politi
cal considerations, with threats, seductions, and powerful intercessions, assail
Gregory. Immovable as a rock, that trusty depository of the faith re
fused his consent, thorough pontiff that he was. But at the same time, still
animated by a spirit of conciliation, he refused without anger. He did not
for an instant suppose, this true father even of the insensate, that the peti
tion was serious ; and he had the glory to obtain from King Henry a formal
withdrawal of it, and the natural repentance which a wise priest must expe
rience for having been drawn aside by such sohcitations.
What would now be said had they succeeded? But no such advantage
have its enemies over the court of Rome. Let us hope that such an appli
cation wiU never be repeated, certain as aU must feel that it wiU never
succeed. Gregory, learning that the Greek Basihan monks, spread over many dio
ceses of Naples and SicUy, did not observe the rule of Saint Basil which
they professed, had an Itahan translation carefuUy printed, and copies sent
into those provinces for gratuitous distribution. As copies of the Greek
Bible were scarce, the pope appointed a congregation, consisting of singu
larly learned men, who revised the ordinary text which had been so much
* There had been an example under Alexander III. "The doge of Venice," says Novaes
(iii, p. 113), "had sent out an expedition against the _ Saracens, in which all the lords of the
iUustrious house of Giustiniani perished. The pope, to save the family from extinction, dis
pensed from his vows and reUgious profession the Blessed Nicholas Giustiniani, a Benedictine
and a priest. He married Anne Vitale, daughter of the doge of Michele, and had five sons and
three daughters. Being no longer necessary in the world, having secured the perpetuation of
his family, he returned to his monastery and died hc-hly."

822 LIVES OF THE POPES.
altered, and restored it so as to conform to the Septuagint. Pius IV and
Saint Pius V., in conformity to a decree of the CouncU of Trent, had also
taken steps on this matter ; but the glory of terminating so lofty an enter
prise was reserved to Sixtus V. and Clement VIIL
Gregory now announced his intention to create new cardinals. In this
promotion were : 1. Claude de la Baume, of the marquises of Montrevel.
Phihp II. granted him great rewards for having preserved Burgundy from
the errors of Calvinism, and caused it to accept the CouncU of Trent. 2.
Louis II. de Lorraine, of the dukes of Guise, brother to the celebrated Charles
de Lorraine, and, like him, uncle of Mary queen of Scots, in whose behaK
he never ceased to intercede with the pope. 3. Rene Birago, a noble
MUanese, driven from MUan by Francis Sforza, as convicted of being
attached to France. He had been employed by- Francis I. as counseUor to
the parliament of Paris. He then became chanceUor and viceroy of Charles
IX. in the province of Lyons. He died at Paris in 1583, on the 5th of
January, surnamed the hammer of heretics and the defender of the Catholic faith,
and with such a reputation for disinterestedness that he died in the greatest
poverty. Birago served five kings of France : Francis I., Henry H., Francis
II. , Charles IX., and Henry III. He used to say of himself, "lama car
dinal without a title, a priest without a benefice, and chanceUor without the
seals." 4. Ferdinand of Toledo, a noble Spaniard, of the counts of Oropesa.
In his humility he returned the hat to the pope, together with the brief
which created him cardinal. He handsomely rewarded the ablegate who
brought them to him, and then retired to preach the Gospel in obscurity
in Spain.
An ambassador now arrived from the king of Poland, Stephen Battori,
in order to take between the hands of the pope the oath of aUegiance in
his master's name. Gregory received him in the royal haU, amidst a pubUc
consistory. Just before the Pole entered, the ambassador of France de
manded that the act of obedience that was about to be confirmed should
not in any wise prejudice the rights of the most Christian King Henry, also
king of Poland, pretending that Henry, and no other, was the legitimate
king of that country.
For a long time urgent endeavors, at the request of Anselm Dandini,
nuncio in France, had been made to have the decrees of the CouncU of
Trent pubUshed in that country. The Sorbonne opposed the power of
the sovereign pontiff over general councils, and were dissatisfied in regard
to the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, a point Avhich had
been left undecided by the CouncU of Trent.
Novaes* affirms that, upon the latter point, many of the universities
* Novaes, viii, p. 52.

GREGORY XIII. 823
agreed in the same sentiment, and forbade the doubting of the Immaculate
Conception. Among those universities were those of Cologne, Mentz,
Vienne, Valencia, Salamanca, Alcala, Louvain, Barcelona, Evora, and Coim-
bra. They raised no one to the grade of doctor unless he swore to defend
the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, untU that point should be
decided by the Church. A host of theologians then maintained that Rome
could not and would not disapprove that point of doctrine. Hereafter we
shaU see the decision of the Holy See.
Baius continued to circulate his errors, aheady condemned by Pope Pius
V. Gregory learning that renewed insult, even from the letters of the king
of Spain, solemnly pubhshed the bull Of his predecessor, which he inserted
in another newly proposed in consistory, and by which he confirmed the
former. These errors continued their ravages in the Loav Countries. The pope
therefore sent thither the Jesuit Francis Toledo, a celebrated theologian,
and his ordinary preacher in the apostolical palace. Toledo employed
gentle means to induce Baius completely to abjure errors that had been
twice proscribed; and on the 24th of March, 1580, Baius consented
to sign a formal retractation. Toledo returned to Rome, where he after
wards received the cardinal's hat from the hands of Clement VIIL Few
obtain so much glory as this modest rehgious. Gregory, in 1584, addressed
to him a brief, in which he appointed him censor of his own writings. The
same confidence was subsequently reposed in him by Sixtus V., Urban VIL,
Gregory XIV., and Innocent IX. To deserve and retain so noble an em
ployment was an honor to Toledo, whom good Catholics cannot too highly
praise. The abjuration of Baius caused great joy in Rome. Gregory, the most
generous of princes, who only sought opportunities to show the greatness
of his benevolence, sent a considerable present to the university of Louvain,
which the ravages of war had ruined. Unfortunately, the ungrateful Baius
renewed his attacks, maintaining that he had thoroughly read the bulls of
the pontiffs, and that they only enjoined upon him a respectful silence. We
shaU hereafter see the Jansenists employ the same plea. Such, however,
had not been the intention of Saint Pius V. and Gregory XIII. They
specified the propositions on which descended direct and absolute condem
nation. The provinces of Styria and Carinthia complained of the continual
attacks made by the Protestant system. The Archduke Charles, though a
prince of exemplary virtue, and though devoted to the Holy See, and the
friend and protector of rehgious, and himseK strongly attached to the
dogmas in which he had been reared, showed himseK, as it were, vanquished
by the importunities of the heretical party. Subsequently, deceived and

824 LIVES OF THE POPES.
betrayed by his favorities and by his own servants,* he graduaUy lost
authority from fear of a greater evU, and was falling into complete con
tempt with his subjects, the princes, and his vassals. In a short time, the
Archduke Ferdinand, and Albert of Bavaria, whose daughter Charles had
married, resolved to ask pardon of the pope for the concessions wrung from
the weakness of Charles, to the prejudice of the divine honor. Then that
prince begged the pope to accredit a nuncio to inquire into the state of
embarrassment of his affairs, and to restore the government to the right
way. Gregory sent Germanicus Malatesta, who so successfully acted in the
diet assembled at Gratz, that the cause of rehgion triumphed. After the
disputes, misunderstandings, and accusations, such as always occur in
difficulties of the kind, the archduke pubhshed an edict which banished
from that country the enemies of the Roman faith and the apostohc tra
ditions. It was nearly four centuries since certain Greek nuns, flying from perse-
cutionf in the East, had brought with them the bones of Saint Gregory of
Nazianzen. Born in the city of Nazianzen, in Cappadocia, Saint Gregory went to
Athens with Saint BasU, after having studied at Cesarea, in Palestine, and
at Alexandria. Both of them had declined the favor of Julian the Apos
tate, who, on the report of their merits, wished to attract them to his court,
and reminded them that he had known them at Athens.
Saint Gregory was successively bishop of a smaU city caUed Sasima, then
of the church of Nazianzen, and then of Constantinople. There, tormented
by the Arians, he resigned his dignity, and after many painful vicissitudes,
retired into solitude, where he died in 389.
No one can read the writings of this father without admitting that he has
gained the prize of eloquence over aU the orators of his century,! for the
purity of his terms, the nobleness of his expressions, the elegance of his
style, the variety of his figures, the strength of his argument, and the lofti
ness of his ideas. He is, with aU his elevation of thought, natural, flowery,
and pleasing. His periods are full, and weU sustained to the end, evincing
an exquisite and cultivated taste. His poetry was almost exclusively the
fruit of his sohtude and his old age, yet it has the fire and vigor of a young
poet. It was upon that Ulustrious Father that Gregory XIII. endeavored to fix
the attention of the Romans. The bones of the Saint reposed obscurely
in the church of the nuns of Campo Marzo. The pope determined that they
should be removed to the Vatican. The ceremony took place on the 11th
of June, 1580. That it might be a pubhc feast, Gregory pubhshed a
* Novaes, vlii, p. 60. \ Ibid, viii., p. 62. J FeUer, iii., p. 385.

GREGORY XIII. 825
plenary indulgence, and released from prison those guilty of only slight
offences, such as disputes,-' and wordy quarrels without bloodshed. He
lowered the price of bread. He had all the streets through which the sacred
relics passed adorned ; and over a space of more than two miles, carpets,
hangings, pictures, images, and holy paintings were arranged. From
distance to distance, resting places for the 'procession were ornamented with
flowers and redolent of perfumes. The canons of Saint Peter carried the
shrine containing the bones. The pope, accompanied by the sacred col
lege and prelates, went before the procession to the end of the stairs.
There he quitted the sedia gestatoria, laid down the mitre, and knelt : then,
hfting up his, eyes, bathed in tears, he kissed the shrine, and followed it to
the chapel caUed the Gregorian, in which it Avas to be placed. This chapel,
finished by Jacopo deUa Porta, after the designs of Michael Angelo, is one
of the most beautKul in the church of Saint Peter. The dome is fifty-six
feet in diameter, and a hundred and twenty-seven feet in height, exclusive
of the cupola, which is seventeen feet high. The mosaics Avhich adorn it
represent the attributes of the Virgin ; and the four doctors, below, were
done from the originals of Muziani and Nicolas de Piccola* The picture
of the Virgin, above the altar, is a work of the time of Pascal II. (tweKth
century). It is caUed the Madonna del Soccorso, and in the old Basilica was
venerated in the oratory of Saint Leo I. The body of Saint Gregory of
Nazianzen, excepting an arm left with the nuns of Campo Marzo, reposes
under the altar of the Gregorian chapel.
Gregory had not renounced a deshe evinced from the commencement of
his pontificate, to destroy or weaken the Mussulman power. But an un
foreseen point intervened : PhUip IL, king of Spain, granted Amurath an
additional truce for three years. This had been concealed from the pontiff,
to whom it now became a subject of deep grief, more especiaUy as the mo
ment was an apposite one to wrest advantages from the Turks, then pressed
by the sovereign of Persia. From the Persians Europe had nothing to fear,
unless, indeed, they should produce one of those emperors who astonish the
world ; but the Turks, and especiaUy those of Africa, daUy threatened Italy,
France, and Spain.
Philip's ministers stiU further embittered a debate which was sufficiently
painful in itseK. They endeavored to deny the fact from time to time, and
then, when they were told of the rejoicings at Constantinople, about which
the Franciscan missionaries there fiUed their correspondence, the Spanish
ministers went so far as to maintain that they had signed the treaty with
out King Philip's knowledge. The answer was, that Spain held no council
lors daring enough to sign a truce of that importance without the know-
* Description of Borne, by Fea. (12mo, Rome, 1821.)

826 LIVES OF THE POPES.
ledge of such a sovereign as Phihp II. The name, the reputation, the
authority of him whom they dared to represent as a man of such smaU
consideration in the cabinet of Aranjuez, at once branded that cabinet with
disgraceful falsehood, and proved that it had not been capable of so fool
hardy an act.
Meantime, the king of Spain levied immense contributions upon the
clergy of the country, granted solely for a case of war. Gregory suspended
the execution of the buU that authorized the impost. It was evident, that
even supposing that a king who had deceived so many other kings had
himseK been deceived, it was impossible to deceive Gregory. He knew his
rights and the value of his promises, as weU as . the scope and bearing of
his concessions, and he considered himself the indefatigable protector of
the clergy of the Peninsula and the Indies ; for the impost was levied also
in the most distant quarters of the Spanish dominions.
It seemed thenceforth that affairs so violent as to be calculated to pro
duce scandals and even intestine wars, were reserved for the reign of Greg
ory. But the genius of that great pope was equal to every thing.* Sud
denly, there broke out, in the island of Malta, a revolt against the grand
master, Brother John l'Evesque de la Cassiere, marshal of the order at
the time of the death of the grand master de Monte, successor of the im
mortal la Valette. La Cassiere, of the language of Auvergne, was elected
in 1572, that year of sad memory. His administration was at first disturbed
in various ways by accusations of abuse in the distribution of priories.
But no knight had yet ventured upon reprehensible excesses. It is related
that when^ in 1577, Amurath III. had shown to Bongianni Gianfighazzi, am
bassador of the grand duke of Tuscany, a plan of the city of Valetta, and
had asked him if it was correct, and K the place was as strongly fortified
as it there appeared to be, the ambassador rephed : " Sire, he who drew
that plan forgot one of the main defences, the courage and firmness of
more than a thousand knights, ready to shed their blood in defence of that
place."t But this state of things did not long continue, and horrible discords soon
appeared. They were almost similar to those which in 1798 distinguished
the last moments of an order so iUustrious — discords that made Napoleon
master of the island. La Cassiere had excited the anger of some lax
knights for three reasons : he forbade the knights of the different languages
from speaking with partiality in favor of the nations and sovereigns to
* History of the first Fifteen Popes named Gregory, p. 158-
t That reply of Bongianni is the finer because the grand duke of Tuscany had founded the
military order of Saint Stephen, Pope and Martyr, the knights of which Avere sometimes in
rivalry with those of Malta. The grand duke often treated with Constantinople, in the interest
of the commerce of Tuscany, and the Knights of Malta never signed peace or truce.

GREGORY XIII. 827
which they belonged. Was there in that any thing unwise or unworthy of
a prince who rightly estimates the interests of religion ?
That prohibition especiaUy irritated the Spaniards, reared from the time
of Charles V. beneath the shadow of the formidable power of the house of
Austria, and desirous that the whole order should bow beneath that power —
that is to say, beneath that of the Spaniards then present in the island.
The second cause was that the grand master,* by a pubhc ban, had driven
from the suburbs and city of Valetta dissolute women, and forced them to
leave the island and retire to the islands of Gozo and Cumino, at a distance
from the houses of the order.
The third cause was the ambition of some of the grand crosses, who
aspired to the magistracy, and who, seeing that the grand master, though
aged, enjoyed vigorous health, feared that they might not survive him, and
therefore sought to force him to abdicate his dignity.
In Malta, as elsewhere, the massacre of Saint Bartholomew had sowed
germs of hatred, K not of contempt, for France. Among the Parisian
French, one party had assassinated the other. Some of them were ignoble
murderers ; the. others had been worse than imprudent, foreseeing nothing,
and making no preparations for seK-defence. Woe to the nations who make
themselves so much talked of ! The French Knights of Malta were not less
animated ; they perhaps said that they would have been generous, but on
the whole they seemed neither to praise the crime nor to pity the victims.
One might have thought them of another nation, and therefore entitled
thus to play the indifferent on that exciting topic, on which the conversa
tion of the auberges was so often to turn ;t and for that reason, and others
which we have given, the island was in a frightful state of agitation. The
languages of Castile and Portugal (some add those of Aragon and Ger
many), and many knights of the three languages of France, headed by
Mathurin de l'Eseur and Romegas, assembled with much outcry and men
ace, exclaiming that the grand master, by his various orders, politic and
rehgious as they were, had sufficiently, proved that his mind was impaired,
and that he paid more attention to the Maltese women than to the enter
prises of the Turks and the Barbary pirates. (WhUe watchful in the interest
of morahty, la Cassiere had not forgotten the interests of rehgion, and Cha-
briUan, one of the bravest of the knights, was then at sea in defence of them.)
To the accusations it was added, that the sovereign had not replenished the
granaries of Malta ; that at aU the councUs he slumbered, and never seemed
to be fuUy awake excepting to vex his knights. They then sent a deputa
tion to the grand master to caU upon him to resign a government for which
* Vertot, Hist, de Malte, 1761, v, p. 155.
t At Malta, the term auberges is appUed to the places at which the knights of the different
orders respectively meet.

828 LIVES OF THE POPES
he was incapacitated, and to name a heutenant. Upon his refusal, the
councU of the malcontents assembled at the quarters of Brother Crescini,
prior of the church, the principal mover of the sedition, and Romegas,
prior of Toulouse and Ireland, was named lieutenant. The Spanish
knights, in order to interest the languages of France, preferred him to
others of the conspirators of their nation. Such was the result of that
seditious assemblage. It tended to suspend the legitimate authority of a
grand master venerable alike for his wisdom, his piety, and his courage ;
who, moreover, had preserved all his powers of inteUigence, action, and
sagacity, as aU were compelled to admit who were not prejudiced against
him by envy or ambition. Romegas Avas brave, in truth, and till then suc
cessful in his caravans ; but he was reproached with cruelty towards his
enemies, and more of a pitiless Turk than generous Christian knight in his
cruises. The heads of this sedition, seeing la Cassiere meet their attacks with
intrepidity, at the head of their accomphces burst into the apartment of the
grand master, placed him in an uncovered sedan, and carried him off under
a guard of soldiers to the common prison, known as the castle of Saint
Angelo. It is painful to add, that on his way from the city of Valetta to
the dungeon, the unfortunate captive experienced the insults of young
knights and prostitutes, who, though formally expelled from the city, had
contrived to return.
Dreading the vengeance and power of Gregory XIIL, the insurgents sent
three ambassadors : SacquenviUe, a Frenchman ; Cosmas de Luna, a Span
iard ; and Bernardo Capece, an Itahan. The grand master, although closely
confined, found means to send four ambassadors : Blot-Viviers, Pierre Roux
de Beauvais, Brother Dom Francis de Gusman, and Brother Angelo
Pellegrini. Two days later, ChabriUan, general of the galleys, whom la Cassiere had
sent to unfurl before the foe the terrible and iUustrious banner of the order,
sailed into the port of Malta with the knights at his command. No sooner
had he landed than he demanded audience of the grand master. The
rebels durst not refuse. The faithful brother of Saint John of Jerusalem
hastened to the castle of Saint Angelo, kissed the hands of his sovereign,
and offered to restore him to his authority and lead him back to his palace
at the head of two thousand men, the force on his galleys, and the knights
and worthy men of the island who detested the crime of the rebels.
" What !" exclaimed Chabrillan, " have the Turks then come hither in the
garb of knights?" But la Cassiere, who would have been forced to punish,
rephed with wisdom, evincing how well he deserved to retain the sover
eignty : " I await my restoration from the energetic authority of Gregory
XIIL, the supreme superior of the order. I would rather end my days in

GREGORY XIII. 829
prison than see my knights, whom I have ever regarded as my chUdren,
batthng on my account against each other."
¦ Gregory, hearing of the arrival of the ambassadors of legitimacy and re
beUion, ordered gaUeys to be equipped in haste, under the command of
Gaspar Visconti, auditor of the rota, with others, to go to Malta and in
stantly to set at liberty the grand master, and convey both him and Romegas
to Rome. La Cassiere appeared in the capital of the Christian world with
eight hundred knights, and traversed the city in triumph. The papal court,
and the households of the cardinals, the ambassadors, and the princes had
met him at a considerable distance on the road to Civita Vecchia. The
pope received the grand master with the greatest marks of esteem, pitied
and consoled him. Romegas sohcited an audience,* but the pope refused to
admit him. The chastisement of the rebels had begun. Romegas was coun-
seUed to abdicate the title of Lieutenant of the Mastery. On receiving this
order, Romegas fainted, and soon after died of fever. When Commander
de SacquenvUle approached the grand master with an indifferent ah, merely
asking his hand to kiss, a cardinal cried out : " Down, rebel knight, on your
knees! But for your good-hearted grand master your head would have
roUed days ago on the square Navona !"+ The bold speaker was Cardinal
Montalto, afterwards Sixtus V. He did not then affect aU that courtesy
ascribed to him by that vUe herd of historical scribblers who accuse him of
hypocrisy. Meantime, Cardinal d'Este, protector of the crown of France, entertained
la Cassiere in his palace, treating him and his knights with a royal mag
nificence. At Malta, aU had returned to order. La Cassiere was about
to return, but the excitement had been too much for the almost octogenarian
prince, and he died at Rome, after a residence of three months.
On the late grand master's tomb an inscription, from the hand of Anthony
Muretus, attested that the integrity of the grand master shone the more
brightly when attacked by calumny, as gold is purified by fire. The in
scription adds, that la Cassiere was seventy-eight years old, and that he
died at Rome on the 21st of December, 1581.
This sudden death impelled the pope to take measures to have the high
est honors paid to the memory of the deceased ; and to save the order from
simUar disorders, he issued a bull.
The death of la Cassiere at Rome caused the whole order to fear that
the pope, as supreme superior, would name a grand master. This led to
an embassy, and a celebrated deputation sent by the convent of Malta to
Gregory XIII. He caused the registers of his predecessors to be consulted,
especiaUy those, of BonKace IX., Innocent VH., and Gregory XII. ; and
* Vertot, Hist, de Malte, 1761, v, p. 160 t Ibid.

«30 LIVES OF THE POPES.
having formed in his own mind a plan founded on right, and calculated to
restore peace, he dismissed the ambassadors, with the assurance that he
would shortly send a brief to Visconti to enable the knights to proceed to
an election. And, in fact, on the 12th of January, 1582, the chapter being
assembled, and the sixteen electors chosen, the nuncio of His Hohness pre
sented them with .a brief, recommending them to confine their choice to
three candidates whom the pope proposed: Verdalle, knight of the lan
guage of Provence, and grand commander; Panisse, grand prior of Saint
GUes ; and ChabriUan, baUh of Manosca, that type of noble fidelity. Ver-
dale, who had long been ambassador of the order at Rome, and who was a
favorite with Gregory and aU his court (for with good sense and frankness
it is easy to make one's seK loved at Rome), found the chapter equaUy weU
disposed towards him. He was chosen, and proclaimed grand master ; and
the pope, happy to have restored peace among these generous defenders of
Christianity, ratified the election, and advised VerdaUe to conciliation, show
ing himself, by turns, as circumstances required, gracefully benevolent or
justly stern. By the terms of the buU of the 3d of September, the pope
took from the knights aU their pretended power, in certain cases, to proceed
against the person of their superior,* as they had lately done, and had pre
viously done in the reign of John XXIL By this constitution, Gregory
declared that in future the pope alone was to decide upon the conduct of
the grand master. A general pardon was granted to aU who had been
guilty, weak, or indirectly compromised.
Fortunately, during aU these discords, Arnurath, either Ul-informed or
lacking means, did not renew his attacks upon the island of Malta.t
A new opportunity was presented to Gregory to show his constancy and
zeal for reform. By the pope's order, Italy had adopted various disciplinary
measures for restoring order and good faith in its government. A system
of visitation was needed to receive just complaints, and restrict excesses of
power. The nuncio Bolognetti was sent to the Venetians on a subject of great
difficulty. The pontifical envoy, acting cautiously, associated with him two
citizens of the repubhc, Augustin Valerio, bishop of Verona, and Frederic
Cornaro, bishop of Padua, both subsequently cardinals. The repubhc took
alarm, and the doge went so far as to say, in fuU senate, that thenceforth,

* Novaes, viii, p. 66.
f I have thought best to give these details as coUected and submitted to Pius VII. and Napoleon
in 1802, when a successor was to be appointed to de Hompesch. Napoleon was one of the first
to decide that the nomination belonged to Pius. The circumstances of the case, the dispersion
of the order, the existence of many schismatic knights in Russia, influenced this decision. Un
fortunately, the refusal of the English to restore Malta neutralized the efforts of the pope and
of Cardinal Consalvi.

GREGORY Xni. 831
separated from the Latins, the Venetians would go over to the Greek Church,
and would receive the sacraments only from its ministers. Undismayed by
such childish threats, Gregory, by courier, ordered the nuncio immediately
to commence the projected visitation. The senators, thus placed between
a schism and its ravages on the one hand, and on the other a reason
able requirement of the court of Rome, foreseeing, too, the advantage
which the Lutherans would derive from such a perUous separation, no longer
indulged in threats they never meant to carry out, and passed a decree au
thorizing the visitation. The patriarch of Venice naturaUy was favorable
to the decrees of Rome ; and Venice herself was glad to see abuses reme
died from which she had never derived any benefit. The affair ended to
the advantage of divine worship, and to the great glory of the pontiff.
Gregory's project in regard to Sweden had not completely succeeded.
Another hght, says Novaes, arose in a part almost as northern.
John BasU, duke of Muscovy, had Avrested Livonia from the Poles.
Stephen Battori, avenger of his country's honor, marched with a great
army against BasU, who immediately apphed to the Holy Father, and
begged him to send a nuncio to Moscow to restore peace between Poland
and Muscovy.
The Holy Father easily saw through the views of the schismatic princes,
grounded only on temporal interests. Nevertheless, he deemed it his duty .
to give the attention of a pastor to that dehcate affair.* He said : " We
must sometimes seek the strayed sheep without waiting untU they volun
tarily return to the fold." The Jesuit, Anthony Possevin, who had returned
from Sweden with three of his companions, Avas sent to Moscow. Con
siderable sums were given to him on his departure, with presents for the
Grand Duke John and Anastasia his wKe. Possevin was also to present a
faithful copy of the operations of the CouncU of Trent in relation to the union
of the two churches. Peace was to be concluded, although the detaUs were
difficult, as both princes had usurped from each other. The Muscovite
restored what he had seized in Lithuania, and the Pole restored what she
had intended to keep in Muscovy. The moment the Lithuanian cities were
restored, PosseAin, in the name of the Holy Father, introduced Cathohc
bishops there.
Gregory, whose zeal extended to every thing demanding the supervision
of the pontifical State, would not neglect to insist upon the restitution of
fiefs belonging to the Holy See, and of investitures that had lapsed. Ho
norius SaveUi had received one, from the beneficence of the popes, and,
his lineage being extinct, the apostohcal chamber resumed the estates.
The Paduans, neglecting to pay the dues on an old contract, Piedulugo was
* Novaes, viii, p. 67.

832 LIVES OF THE POPES.
reclaimed, and placed under the authority of the chamber. Other possessions
in the Romagna reverted ; and some, even as far as Cistema, in Piedmont.
In fine, it seems that Providence had reserved to Gregory the glory of
correcting, with the utmost possible perfection, the calendar used by the
Church. The year is the time the earth requires for one entire revolution
in its orbit. During this time the sun appears to us to traverse the whole
ecliptic, or the twelve signs of the zodiac.
The ancients did not at first measure time exactly. The Egyptians con
sidered it as only three hundred and sixty-five days. Yet the earth, in an
entire revolution in its orbit, makes three hundred and sixty-five revolu
tions on its axis, and about a fourth of another. Hence it is evident that
the equinoxes recede every four years nearly a day.* To remedy this
inconvenience, it was proposed to make in every four years a year com
prising one day more than the others ; so that in that year there are three
hundred and sixty-six days. This year is caUed BissextUe, because among
the Romans that day was the sixth before the calends of March ; and in
Enghsh, is styled Leap Year. This reformation is caUed Juhan, because
made by Juhus Csesar. The Roman calendar was formed originally by
Romulus, and rearranged by Numa PompUius. Sosigenes, a celebrated
mathematician of Alexandria, developed the advantages of its reform, and
styled the new calendar the Juhan reformation. The Juhan year com
menced forty-five years before the birth of our Saviour. Some changes
were made by the Council of Nice, in the year 325. The councUs of Con
stance in 1414, of Basle in 1439, and of Lateran in 1516, discussed that
question. Pope Nicholas V. was not insensible of its importance ; and thirty
years later, Sixtus IV. employed the mathematician Regiomontanus — John
MuUer — upon it. The Council of Trent finaUy referred the whole matter to
the supreme pontiff.
Under Juhus Csesar, the end was approached, but not exactly reached ;
for, in order to the total avoidance of error, it would require the time em
ployed by the earth in traversing its orbit to be exactly three hundred and
sixty-five days and six hours, but about eleven minutes were wanting to
perfect exactness, and this quantity, though very smaU in itseK, became, in
the course of centuries, so considerable, that the equinoxes by the end of
the sixteenth century had advanced ten days. The eleven minutes (or
thereabouts) neglected by Csesar, and not observed by the CouncU of Nice,
formed, after a hundred and thirty-three years, a day of twenty-four hours.
In four centuries this amounted to three days.
From the time of the Nicean correction in 325 to the tenth year of the
pontificate of Gregory in 1582, there had been a lapse of one thousand two
* Novaes, viii, p. 170.

GREGORY XIIL 833
hundred and fifty-seven years, or nearly ten times the number one hun
dred and thirty-three ; it immediately foUows that the vernal equinox which,
in the time of the CouncU of Nice, feU between the 20th and 21st of March,
advanced by ten days, and feU between the 10th and the 11th of the same
month. This led to the confusion in regard to Easter, which, by order of
the CouncU of Nice,* should be celebrated on the Sunday foUowing the
fourteenth moon, falling in the vernal equinox, between the 20th and 21st
of March.
To put an end to this disorder, which had already engaged the attention
of many able men, Gregory assembled at Rome the most celebrated mathe
maticians, among whom were Cardinal Sirlet ; Ignatius Neemel, patriarch
of the Syrians ; Peter Chacon, a priest, caUed the Spanish Varro ; Ignatius
Danti, a Dominican of Perugia; Anthony Liho, a Calabrian physician;
Vincent Lauri, a Neapohtan, afterwards cardinal; Christopher Clavius, a
German Jesuit, caUed the Euclid of his time ; and James Mazzoni, a re
nowned literary man of Cesena.
Louis Liho, a Calabrian and a famous mathematician, after a toil of ten
years, had prepared a plan for the correction of the solar year, but dying,
left his labor to his brother Anthony. This explains why part of the glory
is ascribed to Louis ; but he did not enjoy it during his hfe, and it was his
brother Anthony who was present at the deliberations.
Be that as it may, Anthony LUio presented the memoir of Louis to Pope
Gregory XHL, soliciting the privilege of printing it as a reward for the
vigUs and innumerable calculations of his brother. The pope, always wise,
always circumspect, always provident, worthy successor of so many great
men who had often restored peace by reconcUing the interests of the princes
with those of the peoples of the earth, determined that the earth also should
have a spirit of order in its relations with the firmament. He sent the
printed book to aU the sovereigns of Europe, requesting them to have it
examined by the most eminent mathematicians in their realms. AU, or
almost aU, applauded that work so strongly reasoned and demonstrated,
praised the calculations of Louis Lilio, and eagerly accepted them.
To cause this correction to be adopted, Gregory then published a consti
tution, which commences thus, Inter Gravissimas, and which is dated from
Frascati, 24th February, 1582. — (Roman Bullarium, vol. iv., part iv., p. 10.)
In this buU, the pope, endowed with incomparable knowledge and with
a sagacity beyond all praise, ordered that, dating from the 5th of October,
inclusive, in the same year, ten days should be suppressed ; so that what
* Every word of this explanation proves how strictly the care of that reformation belonged to
the supreme head of the Church. We cannot go away from the authority of the councils or that
of the popes ; and our sublime anniversary of Easter is always there to tell us on Avhat day we
should celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour.
Vol. I.— 53

834 LIVES OF THE POPES.
would have been the 6th of October, would be the 15th of that month, which
would re-estabhsh order for the time past.
In order to provide also for the eleven minutes which Sosigenes and the
Council of Nice had neglected, and which in the future would cause that
variation of the equinoxes of which we have aheady spoken, the Holy
Father ordered that from the year 1700 to the year 2000 one bissextUe year
should be omitted in every century. Thus, the year 1600 would be bissex
tile, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 would not. This imposing manner
of providing laws for the centuries to come weU befits him to whom Jesus
Christ commits the care of a Church which is not to perish.
We have obeyed the learned men assembled by Gregory XIII. ; the years
1700 and 1800 were not bissextiles, and our grandsons wiU see to it that
the year 1900 shall not be so.
The reformation of the calendar was adopted in France in the same year
in which that bull was pubhshed, and also, a httle whUe after, by the other
Catholic States. The Enghsh, and some Protestants, in their hatred of the
Roman court, continued to use the old Juhan calendar, " as K," remarks
Bossuet, " a reasonable man should not receive reason, come whence it
may." But they were obUged to adopt two computations, and to date
according to both the old and the new style. The marquis of Branden
burg, Avhose letters we have before us as we write, wrote to Louis XIH. in
1622, and he used both styles. England at length adopted the new style in
1752, Sweden in 1753, and the German Protestants in 1777. At present
only Russia adopts the old style, or rather recaUs it, for Easter is celebrated
there on the same day as with us. It results from the labor analyzed above
that Easter was on the same day in 1583 as at the CouncU of Nice.
It wiU readily be supposed that we can find no room here for the calendar
which was composed during the French revolution. In this book I can
speak only of serious questions which have a positive relation to rehgion
and true science. Many books have been written against the Gregorian
reform of the calendar. The first authors who entered the hsts were
Michael Metshn and Joseph Scahger. The Jesuits, Clavius and Petavius,
rephed with great clearness and on the instant. Metslin renounced the dis
pute ; and Scaliger, whom his partisans styled the Time Corrector, Avas speedUy
abandoned. Another Jesuit, very learned in astronomy, Father Riccioli,
under the name of Michael Manfredi, Avrote a work entitled Vindidas Calen-
darii Gregoriani (Bologna, 1666, fol). There were stUl other defenders in
Spain, France, and Italy.
Cassini undertook to write against the Gregorian epacts,* and sohcited
* An epact is the number of days, or fractions of days, by which lunar and solar revolutions
differ. The Julian epact differs by eleven days from the Gregorian. Write the numbers 1 to

GREGORY XIII. 835
the approval of Pope Clement XII. for his work. The reply he obtained
was : " The pontiff thinks there is nothing to change in tltem."
We wiU conclude on this subject by saying that the well-known work
L'Art de Verifier les Dates contains an immense amount of information
necessary to the right understanding of the dates of ancient titles.
We shaU never tire recalling the marvels of the reign of Gregory. Uni
versal applause was accorded to the sovereign pontiff, when he conceived
the idea of adding to the correction of the year another important work,
that of the essentiaUy pontifical one of correcting the Roman martyrology.
The neghgence of copyists, in the first place, and then that of the print
ers, had rendered the martyrology both defective and incorrect.
Learned and pious scholars purged it from errors, augmented it in some
parts, thanks to the intervention of many bishops, and everywhere sub
jected it to the fidelity of history.
In that same year, 1582, sterility threw Rome into despair. The popu
lace suffered, and, for a moment, asked what Gregory was doing ; but speed-
Uy considerable sums were drawn from the treasury, and breadstuffs arrived
from MarseiUes, often the granary of Rome.
On the 10th of December of the same year, Gregory raised to the rank
of an archbishopric the Church of Bologna, his native place, whose first
bishop had been Saint Zama. Nine of the successors of that saint had
been canonized. The pope appointed as suffragans the churches of Parma,
Placentia, Reggio, Modena, Imola, Servia, and Crema .* The Bolognese, in
their joy, raised a bronze statue to the pope their benefactor.
At this period, the pope secretly sent to Mary, queen of Scots, a conse
crated Host, with which that princess was to communicate, if Elizabeth,
in her brutal rage, condemned Mary to death.
On the 2d of December, 1583, Gregory made his seventh promotion of
30, representing 30 by a star in inverse order along the days of the month, so that the star cor
responds to January 1, 29 to January 2, 28 to January 3, etc. These epacts represent the 30
lunar days. But as six months in the lunar year are short, xxiv. and xxv. are put together at
February 5, April 5, June 3, August 1, September 29, November 27. To determine the epact of
a year, 1840, for instance, take 15, the epact of 1839 ; add 11 ; 26 is the epact of 1840. If this
should exceed 30, deduct that number. So for 1841, 26+11=37 ; 37-30=7, the epact. The
new moon in January falls the day before that marked by the epact, which thus determines the
new moon — an important point to determine Easter.
The change in the cycle of the epacts was necessary, because in four centuries the first year
is three times not a leap-year, and this was the objection to the Gregorian calendar. Clement
VHI, in 1603, confirmed the epacts of Gregory.. (See the Jesuit Father Gabriel Daniel, De la
Biscvpline des quarto decimans, pour la celebration de la Pdque, Paris, 1724, vol. iii. William
Bonjour, Rome, 1701, fol. Memoires de Trevoux, Feb, 1704.) Under Clement XL a reform in
the calendar was demanded, but in vain. [Indeed, the fact that Protestant countries, more than
a century and a half after Gregory adopted his calendar, not rashly, but by the best scientific
advice, settles the fact.]
* The arrangement has often been changed since.

836 LIVES OF THE POPES.
cardinals. Among the nineteen then created, four became pontiffs : John
Antonio Facchinetti, made pope in 1591, under the name of Innocent IX. ;
John Baptist Castagna, afterwards pope under the name of Urban VII. ;
Alexander de Medici, pontiff in 1605, under the name of Leo XI. ; Nicho
las Sfrondati, pope in 1590, under the name of Gregory XIV.
We have now reached the close of Gregory's reign. We have yet to add,
however, that before he died he experienced one of those pontifical joys he
so weU deserved.
In 1549, the Jesuit, Saint Francis Xavier, had proclaimed Gospel truth
to the empire of Japan, where missionaries of his order continued to in
struct the people, among whom, in thirty years,.two hundred thousand had
become Christians.* Among these Christians, three kings distinguished
themselves by their Catholic faith — the kings of Bungo, Arima, and Omura.
These determined to render obedience to the reigning pope, and they sent
four ambassadors to him, young princes of the blood-royal, scarcely fifteen
years of age, but already possessed of the quahties of more mature age.
They saUed from Nangasaki, on board a Portuguese ship, on the 22d of
February, 1582, and after a voyage of three years arrived in Rome. The
capital of the world had never received an embassy from a more distant
country. The Emperor Augustus had received envoys from India, but those from
Japan came from a more eastern point. On the 23d of August, 1585, an
immense cavalcade escorted them to the Vatican.f On being admitted into
pubhc consistory, they kissed the feet of the pope, and presented him with
the letters of their respective sovereigns. Gregory had the letters read
aloud, and then he repeatedly embraced the four ambassadors.!
The pope did not long survive this great glory. Oppressed by the weight
of eighty-three years, he yet, against the advice of his physicians, insisted
upon rigidly observing Lent, and in enduring aU the fatigues of his govern
ment. But on the 5th of April he was attacked by fever, and the tonsfls
swelled so as to impede respiration. The physicians again counseUed rest.
Nevertheless he persisted in his lenten diet, and in paying the same atten
tion to his wearing duties. Then the disorder became more and more vio
lent, and he expired on the 10th of April, 1585, after filling the Holy See
twelve years, ten months, and eighteen days.
He Avas interred in the Gregorian chapel of the Vatican, where a noble
tomb was erected in 1723 by CaniUus Rusconi, at the order of Cardinal
James Buoncompagni, his grand-nephew. The virtues of this pope were
* Novaes, vUi, p. 88. \ Ibid, p. 89.
X [It is worth noting, that one of the three Japanese ambassadors sent to the United States in
our times, was, as he assured the writer of this note, descended from one of the ambassadors
sent to Rome.]

GREGORY XIIL 837
lauded in an eloquent discourse by Father Stephen Tucci, of the Society of
Jesus. On account of the Easter hohdays, the ceremonies of novendiali lasted
only five days, instead of the customary nine, indicated by the name.
The eminent virtues of this pope, one of the most illustrious that have
occupied the Holy See,* which would have procured him the surname of
great, had not Saint Gregory previously received it, excited the admiration
of the Roman people as one of the finest models of sovereign greatness.
Gregory was somewhat above the middle stature. He had blue eyes, an
aquiline nose, thick beard, and his habits and bearing were such as to
attract veneration, and give him an air at once mUd and majestic.
He was patient in audiences, but his resolutions were generally prompt,
as he quickly saw the course to pursue.
In the first eight years of his pontificate, his personal expenses did not
exceed three hundred ducats a year. He wore, in preference, clothes
aheady worn by his predecessors ; and he even had clothes capable of being
repaired purchased from the heirs of deceased prelates. But this personal
seK-denial concealed a passion for magnificence in his treatment of all but
himself. In pubhc ceremonies he displayed unusual prodigality. We have
mentioned what he ordered at the translation of the relics of Saint Gregory
of Nazianzen. On subsequently recapitulating his gKts to Christian princes
and peoples, his accounts showed that he had sent a hundred thousand
gold crowns to the Emperor MaximUian, a hundred thousand to the arch
duke of Austria, three hundred thousand to the king of France,! two hundred
thousand to Ernest of Bavaria, to say nothing of the sums sent to Basil,
duke of Russia. VittoreUiJ enumerates the hberalities of Gregory. One
cannot conceive, far less describe, the pleasure with which this pope, wear
ing threadbare and perhaps soiled habits, scattered gold abroad to mitigate
the miseries of the times. The Uberahty of this pope (a Leo X. in a differ
ent way) had no limits. Greeks, Cypriots, Germans, Irish, Enghsh, Scotch
(in these three points Gregory was another Saint Pius V.), Poles, Musco
vites, Indians, Japanese, Armenians, Maronites, Spaniards, Hungarians,
IUyrians, Bohemians, Moravians, Lithuanians, Transylvanians, Saxons, Bur-
gundians, Swiss, French, Italians, the poor of Jerusalem,! all Christendom,
the learned and the ignorant, the noble and the plebeian, virgins, married
Avomen and widows, orphans, tlie pious places, and rehgious communities and
* Novaes, vni, p. 91. f Ibid., p. 92. X &* his Notes <"* Chacon, vol. iv, col. 6.
§ The secret of this last alms was confined to four Franciscan custos or wardens— Jeremias de
Brescia, Anthony of the Angels, of Apulia, John of Bergamo, and Angelo Stella, of Venice.
The last was employed in 1582 to report the proceedings of a council assembled at Cairo, in
which the pope attempted to bring back the Copts to unity, and induce them to abjure Euty-
chianism.

838 LIVES OF THE POPES.
private families received their portion of that treasury of liberality which
may truly be caUed Gregorian. What a prodigy that these coffers were
ever pouring out, yet God never left them empty ! Might one not say, that
that golden star enriched the whole world ?
We dweU with delight on the reign of a pontiff who, on so many accounts,
must be held up as a model to the future ages promised to the Church.
We have appreciated his profound knowledge of the human heart, and that
great abUity which could both consult science and direct it so as to make it
bear undying fruits.*
Gregory XHL, an administrator probably unequaUed, would never im
pose neAv taxes. He levied only those Avhich had been imposed before his
pontificate ; and he even suppressed some very heavy burdens. And yet,
after throwing to the children of Christ that salutary manna that we cannot
sufficiently characterize, he left a treasure of seven hundred thousand
crowns, and not a trace of debt due by the State ; and yet he had buUt
fountains on the squares of Navona, the Pantheon, and Del Popolo. He
had also fortified Ancona, a precaution which no pontiff should neglect.
To him Rome owes the bridge upon the Pagha, caUed the Ponte Centino,
near Aquapendento ; and we have seen his armorial bearings shamefuUy
mutilated by ignorant soldiers, who pretended to have come to restore the
Roman repubhc. He conferred many favors upon Civita Vecchia, where
he passed his autumns. At page 29 of a Discours Politique sur I'Etat de
Rome (12mo, Paris, 1626), composed by order of Cardinal Richelieu, we read :
" The strong places in the States of the Church are very numerous, consid
ering the situation and nature of the places. Few however are scientificaUy
built. Pope Pius IV. began to fortify the part of Rome caUed the Borgo,
in which are the church and palace of Saint Peter, where the popes reside,
and the castle of Saint Angelo. Gregory XIII. continued this design at a
great expense."
Rome, perhaps, knows not how much she owes to Gregory XIII. His
benefits seem to exceed the power of one man. We may once more remark
that no censurable exaction brought aU this money into the Roman treas
ury, of which he made such noble uses. AU these resources were due to a
wise direction of the finances, and a vigUant watch over the Datary, for it is
known that the penitentiary received no reward. The revenues of Rome
were able to meet all this munificence, and that noble mother of so many

* Gregory never aUowed his dinner to cost over half a dollar. If abusing this, his servants
brought him scarcely enough to eat, he would smilingly say that they could evidently economize
even on his half-dollar. " Moreover," he added, " sobriety, whether intended or not, is always
a great virtue, and most seasonably in our age." Like Louis XIV. and Colbert, he had a list of
literary men of all countries whom he assisted, to the number of forty-seven, and he would never
receive replies of thanks.

GREGORY XIII. 839
sons scattered upon the earth, returned by this care of her children more
than she received from then piety, and from their desire to propagate the
glory of that capital of the Christian world. However, we will give the
secret to aU governments that are inclined to be prudent and generous.
By the aid of the first savings a treasury was commenced. That treasury at
the fitting time was opened, and magnificently lavished gold, which, subse
quently, alms, gratitude, and the natural movement of a weU-administered
State in a time of abundance, promptly restored to the pubhc chest, leav
ing it only on fitting occasion to bring blessings upon the sovereign, and to
secure the happiness of the people, who were generaUy happy under the
pontificate of Gregory.*
* Some new facts appear in his medals. I Avill first mention the three medals in my oivn
coUection. 1. Geegobivs XHI. Pont. Maximvs ; rev, Svpee hanc Petbam. In the exergue : Roma—
Upon this stone. Borne. The facade of Saint Peter's, far advanced ; the centre dome and the two
side domes complete, but no terrace or statues. #
2. Ugonotobvm Stbages, 1572 — The massacre of the Huguenots, 1572. This famous medal
was struck at Rome on the first arrival of the terrible tidings. See our account of the affair.
The exterminating angel, armed with a, sword, is in pursuit of retreating warriors ; some
have already faUen ; one of them raises his broken sword ; halberts lie here and there upon the
ground. Du Molinet, in his explanation, seems to think that Gregory approved that crime ; and
he says that the angel, the minister of the divine vengeance, sufficiently explains the sense of
the medal.
Bonanni speaks more at length of this catastrophe, which he calls a horrible butchery —
lanienam horrMlem. He declared that Vasari had orders to paint in the palace of the Vatican
a monument of religion avenged, and a trophy for the defeat of heresy.
Bonanni adds: "Richard de Saint Victor teaches us that the angels, in the divine Scriptures,
signify the divine inspiration. Jerome recognizes them as the ministers of the vengeance of
God. In the fourth book of the Kings, chapter xix, and in Isaiah, chapter xxxvii, we read that
" in one night the angel of the Lord destroyed a great number of Assyrians who were encamped
around Jerusalem." Bonanni says nothing about the intervention of Cardinal Charles de Lor
raine, and he is mistaken in attributing to Gregory that which was done without him, and,
assuredly, in spite of him. A man so great, so noble, and so truly a pontiff as Gregory XIII.
could not but know that the duties of a pope remove him by thousands and thousands of leagues
from those party angers, that fury of ambition, and those excesses which may enter into the
mind of man, but which are contrary to the lofty views that come from God, and are proper to
the successor of Saint Peter, to the vicar of Jesus Christ, that eternal announcer of clemency,
of forgiveness, of sincerity, and of eternal benevolence. Doubtless God has permitted war, and
that which has been undertaken in his name has often succeeded ; but he has never permitted
treachery, fraud, and perfidious attack upon him who sleeps, trusting to a pledge of safety.
However, Ave must not forget the nature of those times. I am discussing, not Saint Bartholo
mew's day, as enacted in blood at the Louvre, but the news of the event as it arrived at Rome,
stOl embittered against the Lutherans of Charles V. The medal, of 1572— for the date is as precise
as the fact of the massacre— is here an unchristian applause. When from this applause we omit
the part taken by the cardinal of Lorraine, enacting as far as possible at Rcme his share in the
Saint Bartholomew at Paris ; and when Ave consider what belongs to the city which had scarcely
repaired its ruined temples and habitations, and to the artists and the ItaUan fervor and imagin
ation,- but little will be left of spot or stain upon the robe of Gregory. Nations that resort to
reprisals, it must be confessed, are at the least very unfortunate.
However, as in spite of all that can be said in candid defence, some wiU persist in condemning
Rome for having commemorated such an atrocity by a medal to excite only horror, I will say

840

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Yet aU must be said ; with so much praise some censure must be min
gled. That innate kindliness, that angehc charity by which Gregory was
distinguished, frequently held his hand when he ought to have chastised the
brigands who infested the peninsula. Hiding themselves in various princi-

that at present it matters but Uttle how much Rome may be reproached on thiB score. It is a
different Rome now, and its mint is employed on more civilized principles. ,For a long time
past an uninterrupted series of pontiffs reigns gloriously ; and the spirit of true Christianity en
lightens, inspires, and dictates with grandeur, witji majesty, and with an unwearying gentle
ness all the resolutions of the Roman court.
And if it was desirable that that system should be perfected, it has been and will stUl more
be perfected under the reigning pontiff Pius IX. Those detaUs upon the medal of 1572 seemed
indispensable. It Avas a repugnant but necessary duty.
3. The third medal was struck on account of the reformation of the calendar.
There are the words : Anno Restittjto, M.DLXXXII. — The year restored, 1582. In the field
a ram's head, from which, on either side, hangs a garland of flowers ; below, the figure of a ser
pent with his taU in his mouth, the emblem of eternity. The head of the ram is supported by
a tress of flowers elegantly intertwined ; between the head and the tress, a star.
This medal is much better engraved in Bonanni than in du Molinet. The ram's head indi
cates the beginning of the year.
Bonanni sees in the serpent, a dragon, which constitutes the arms of Gregory, a symbol of
the eternity assured to the work ordered by that great pontiff. A pope alone could effect so
necessary a reform, and his pre-eminence shines in the act as in so many others which are not to
be expected in this world, excepting from the sovereign pontiff.
Du Molinet gives also —
1. Veevs Dei Cvltvs — The true worship of God. A female figure holding a medallion, in
scribed, Rom. Ec. — The Church of Borne. Another female figure holding the keys ; at her feet
books, open and closed ; on her left the tiara, on a bosk.
2. Tvtvm Regimen. Roma— A secure government. Rome helmeted, and seated, holds in
the right hand a Avinged dragon (the heraldic cognizance of the pope) ; in the left a sword. On
a table a crozier, a mitre, and a crucifix ; on the left, pikes, clarions, standards.
3. Peovtdentia Chiusti— The providence of Christ. A standing figure with one hand on the
helm and the other holding a lance.
4. Et in nationes geatia spieitvs sancti — The grace of the Holy Spirit diffused over the
nations. Saint Peter preaching. Temple, crowd of the converted. The Holy Ghost at the
right of the Temple.
5. Secveitas popvli Romani — Tlie security of the Soman people. A man with a staff tran-
quiUy sleeping. A tripod. A restitution of a medal of Paul III.
6. Restaveavit — He has restored. Bridge over the Tiber, which has been successively called
the Sacred Bridge, the Sublician Bridge, the Palatine Bridge, and Saint Mary's Bridge. At
the middle of the bridge a statue of the Blessed Virgin. Tiber rising from the stream, resting
on an urn. The bridge was carried away by an inundation in 1598, under Clement VIH.
7. In .ZEqvitate abvsvAlSTIA— Abundance in equity. Abundance, with the scales and a
cornucopia. 8. Magnificently: begni Tvl — To the magnificence of thy reign. Distributed to pilgrims in
the year of Jubilee, 1595. The holy door open, above ; the Holy Ghost. Beneath the door an
angel in the air sounding a trumpet : in the exergue, Roma.
9. Invent hominem secvndvm cob mevm — I have found a man after mine own hea/rt. In the
exergue, Jvbilate Deo, omnis teeea (Ps. lxxxxvii. 4.) — Let all the earth rejoice to God. Greg
ory — under the figure of David — crowned, kneels before a tree. The harp is at the feet of the
king. Above, God in a cloud.
10. Levata oneee pateia — The country relieved of a burden. Bologna complained of hav
ing a citadel which might injure her Uberty. Gregory ordered it to be razed. PaUas herself
presides over that labor ; the earth is covered with wreck ; a knight's armor lies there neglected.

GREGORY Xin. 841
palities, they seemed to have taken Rome to be their privUeged residence.
Gregory did not punish these miscreants Avith sufficient severity. This
glory, and it was no trifling one, was reserved to. Sixtus V. History accused
that pope of undue severity: hence the necessity of adding here that Greg
ory was too merciful. Mercy and justice should go hand in hand.
It must be admitted that K the strong wUl of Sixtus V., relative to the
police and pubhc tranquUhty, a seK-wUl somewhat exaggerated, had existed
in Gregory XIH., he would not at the same time have displayed those
sweet, those peaceable, those angehc virtues, and that in some sort com
plete piety, which render this reign one of the most briUiant, the most
affecting, and the most admirable of the Roman pontificate.
The Holy See was vacant thirteen days.
As Gregory was a Bolognese, the medal says : " The country of the prince is delivered from the
burdens of war."
11. In nom. Iesv svege et amb. In the exergue, 1575 — In the name of Jesus, rise and walk.
Gregory, under the figure of Saint Peter, tells the paralyzed to rise and walk.
12. Iwentvti Germanics: — To the German youth. Gregory founded a college for young
Germans. He thought it his duty to offer that asylum to a country which saw the birth of the
heresies of Luther. A superior of the Society of Jesus receives eight young men, clad in the
habit of the order. On the top of the buUding, the dragon of Gregory's arms.
13. Gbegoeiana D. Nazianceno dicata — The Gregorian Chapel, dedicated to the Saint of
Nazianzen. Beneath the chapel, a portion of the vault of the temple prolonged.
14. Vtgtt.at — He watches. The dragon of Gregory at the gate of the palace.
15. Via ab vebe ad saceam vebem expedita — Way opened from Borne to the sacred city.
Gregory opened a wide convenient road from Rome to Loretto, the existing one being often im
practicable on horseback or on foot. The Santa Casa of Loretto is seen surmounted by a
Madonna and child.
16. Seminans in benedictionlbvs de benedictionibvs et metit— Sowing blessings, he reaps
blessings. In the field, in other characters, are the words : Ite, opeeamini in vinea domini—
Go and labor in the vineyard of the Lord. Gregory on the throne, crowned, blessing mission
aries. 17. Geegobius XLU, Pont. Max. collegivm societatis iesv omnivm nationvm semina-
ErVM PEO sva in Chbistianam Religionem et oedinem illtjm pietate a pvndamentis
extsexvtt et dotavit, An. Sal. CIODCLXXXII. Pont. Svi. X B.oum— Gregory XIIL,
sovereign pontiff, erected and endowed this college of the Society of Jesus, a seminary for all na
tions, and endowed it from his love of religion and of that order, in the year of salvation 1582,
and of his pontificate the tenth. The inscription is arranged in fifteen lines, which fill the field
and the exergue. This refers to the celebrated Germanic coUege, proudly caUed the College of
aU Nations.
Many other medals were struck with reference to that coUege. Gregory's affection for the
fathers of the society never cooled for an instant during his whole reign.
18. S. P. Q. R.— The Senate and People of Borne. Facade of the capitol as it stiU is, but with
the Rome triumphing.
19. Ab Regibvs Iaponioe. peima ad Roman. Pont, legatto et obedientia— First lega
tion of obedience of tlie Japanese kings to the Soman pontiffs.
20. Domine adiwa Nos— Lord, help us. The bark of the Church, the Lord at the helm ;
the companions of Jesus Christ implore his aid.
21. Ego svm lvx mundi— / am the light of the world. Head of Christ. Executed with great
care. It has been repeated, with this inscription : Beati qvi cvstodivnt vias meas— Blessed
are they who keep my ways. The head of our Lord is surrounded by a halo.

842 LIVES OF THE POPES

231. SIXTUS V.— a. d. 1585
IXTUS V. (Fehx Peretti) was born December 15,
1521, at Grotte d Mare, in the diocese of Fermo, in
the March. It was a place almost deserted, to which
the Peretti famUy had retired after quitting Montal-
to, in order, as it is said, to avoid prosecution for
debt. The common opinion is that Peretto de' Pe
retti, Fehx's father, was a peasant of Montalto. Two
authors, GaUi and Tempesti, rejecting this opinion,
say that Peretto was of noble famUy ; but we know what value to place' on
genealogies got up after a man's rise to greatness.
At the age of seven, Fehx was permitted to study in the Augustinian con
vent, of Grotte a, Mare, and at ten he took the Franciscan habit in the
convent of that order at Montalto, and continued to study with exemplary
zeal. In 1538 he was sent to Pesaro, for his course of phUosophy ; in 1539 he
was sent to the convent of Jesi ; in 1540, after remaining at RoUa Contrada,
he went to Ferrara, and thence, in 1543, to Bologna, as professor. A year
after, he taught canon law in the convent of Rimini. He fulfiUed the same
functions at Sienna. In 1547 he received the priesthood, and became doc
tor on the 26th of July, 1548.
Named regent at Sienna, he was appointed to maintain the pubhc theses,
and then taught successively at Naples and Venice, often preaching in both
those cities.* He was subsequently appointed theologian to Cardinal
Ridolfo Pio. Then Pope Pius IV. made him the theologian of the General
CouncU of Trent, and counciUor of the holy office, an office then for the first
time conferred upon a Franciscan. At forty years of age he was procura
tor-general of his order. In 1565 he became theologian of Cardinal Buon
compagni, legate in Spain. In 1566, Fehx was elected vicar-general of the
Conventuals. Pius V, on the 17th day of May, 1570, named him cardinal.
The works of Saint Ambrose, badly printed, needed revising. Cardinal
Montalto successfully undertook this great work, and continued to devote
his time to it after he became pontiff.!
* I draw these facts from a manuscript in the library of Prince Augustine Chigi, one of the
most eminent men in Rome for talent and learning. The manuscript is an autograph of Father
Felix, stating where he studied, taught, and preached, detailing all his labors as a Conventual.
t This great Avork appeared from 1579 to 1585, in five vols, folio. It was reprinted in Paris,
in 1604, in two volumes. The revision of Pope Sixtus was so esteemed in France, that it was

sixtus v. 843
After the funeral of Pope Gregory XIIL, the Mass of the Holy Ghost was
chanted. Muretus dehvered the sermon for the election of the new pope,
and on the 21st of AprU, 1585, forty-two cardinals entered into conclave. In
that number were included many Papabili, cardinals worthy of the papacy.
Among the cardinals created by Paul in., Farnese and Savelli were most
distinguished ; among those of Pius IV, Sirlet, Paleotto, Saint George, and
Santa Croce ; among those of Pius V., Montalto, Cesi, and San Severina ;
among those of Gregory XHL, Torres, Mondovi, Santi Quattro, and Castag
na. After various unsuccessful attempts, Cardinal Torres was taken up, and
he was so beloved by the sacred coUege, that, had he been present, there
is httle doubt but that he would have been elected. At aU events, some
electors showed a desire to present his name again, but several eminent per
sonages proposed Cardinal Montalto. The project was successful ; forty-
one cardinals named him pope by acclamation, on Wednesday, the 24th of
AprU, 1585. This time, again the mode of adoration was foUowed, without
secret scrutiny. To please Cardinal San Sisto, and to honor the memory of
Sixtus IV., also a Conventual, and, hke himseK, risen from a low degree,
Montalto took the name of Sixtus V. This pope remarked that Wednesday
had always been an auspicious day for him : on Wednesday he took the
habit, and on Wednesday he was created general of his order, cardinal, and
pope ; he was, also, crowned on a Wednesday.
When he went to take possession of Saint John Lateran, the bridle of his
horse was held by one of the Japanese ambassadors then at Rome.*
To show his gratitude to the Buoncompagni who had earnestly and faith-
fuUy supported him in the conclave, Sixtus confirmed James Buoncompagni
in the post of general of the Church.
When the pope was asked to throw money to the people, he rephed :
" But that causes accidents ; the strongest and not the neediest get money
thus scrambled for." He caused proper sums to be distributed in the
houses of the poor and in hospitals. It was proposed to him to give a ban
quet to the cardinals. He replied : " We should not hke a repetition of the
Pasquinade addressed to Octavius Augustus, who, during a scarcity, gave a
banquet to the Roman senators. A pressing scarcity exists in our city to
day, and the people must have no reason to complain of our want of natural
respect in their misery."
reprinted almost every ten years up to 1742. One of the finest editions is that of the Benedictines,
which was reprinted at Venice in 1751, and again, with new appendices, in 1782.
* It was a custom of the day to compose anagrams on names. WUUam Bianco, from the
Avords Sextus V. de Montalto, made this anagram: Tantas exules domuit—He 7ms subdued so
many exiles. Cardinal de Vendome, from the same words, only substituting the word Quintus
for the cipher V, formed the following anagram : Mores tutus in quo stat lex Beir—Secure us the.
mountain where reigns the law of God.

844 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Venetian ambassadors having come to comphment the pope, he granted
the repubhc various priAileges ; among others, that of applying the third
part of the income of ecclesiastical benefices towards the expenses of the
Turkish war.
Sixtus first introduced the custom of pubhshing a jubUee at the com
mencement of a pontificate, to obtain from God a successful and wholesome
government of the Christian repubhc.
The Japanese ambassadors, who had taken the oath of obedience in the
name of their sovereigns, were about to return home. Sixtus celebrated
Mass privately before them, gave them communion, created them Knights
of the Golden Spur,* enroUed them among the patricians of Rome, admit
ted them to his table at the city of Montalto,t and gave them presents for
their monarchs, gave three thousand crowns to each of the young princes,
and inspired them Avith so much love for the Holy See, that on their arrival at
home they took the habit of the order, and labored courageously in the
vineyard of the Lord, which the emperor of Japan, Taicosama, had begun
to persecute. $
Italy was full of thieves and brigands. Malefactors of every description
odiously afflicted the peninsula. After committing a crime in one princi
pality, they fled, as in the time of Gregory XIIL, into another. Sixtus
confirmed the constitutions of his predecessors against aU criminals, and
especially the laws of Gregory XIIL, against hired assassins, bandits, and
incendiaries. In one year from the date of the commencement of severe
proceedings, Italy was purged of that abominable horde of miscreants.
The name of Sixtus V. at last inspired a wholesome terror.§
Other cares employed the mind of Sixtus V. He created a commission
of three cardinals, charged to watch over the interests of wards, young
maidens, and aU who had to complain of infractions of the laws.
The. cardinal-commissioners were to render to the pope an exact account
of their operations.
Time and the barbarians had destroyed the numerous aqueducts for sup
plying Rome with water from the surrounding mountains. Those pro
digious works of the repubhc and of the Csesars were no longer entire, and
every neighboring proprietor, and even the passing wayfarer, had helped to
displace, and, as it were, to root up from the ground those bold aqueducts
which had rendered water so abundant in ancient Rome. Some authors

* An order then held in honor. The number of the knights having been too freely multi
plied, it lost its lustre. Gregory XVI. restored it by giving it its old name, the Order of Saint
Sylvester! f Now caUed Negroni. J Novaes, viii, p. 108.
§ Even to this day they menace children with the name of Sixtus, and the little ones groAV
as stiU as mice when they hear it.

SIXTUS V. 845

have maintained the number of aqueducts to have been eighteen ; but there
are confusions in the modern plans, and it is safer to hmit the number to
nine. The first and the largest, according to Frontinus, as quoted by Pansa
in his Vatican Library, was that of the new Anienus ; the second was that of
Claudius,- perfected by that emperor. It brought water from the sources of
the Curzia and Cerulea, on the road to Subiaco, a distance of forty miles.
For thirty-five mUes the water ran in a Umpid stream in a subterranean
canal, passing for a space of thirteen mUes under arches, and was from time
to time stopped in ninety-two reservoirs, that it might deposit any sedi
ments injurious to health. Thus confined and purified it parted with some
noxious substances, and with the natural impetuosity given by so long a
course. The third was the Julian aqueduct, between the Saint LaAvrence
gate and the trophies of Mars, and brought the water from Frascati, a vil
lage about tAvelve mUes from Rome, running seven miles and a haK of that
distance under an arched way. The fourth and fifth aqueducts were called
Tepulo and Marzio. The sixth was the old Anienus ; the seventh, the Aqua
Vergine, heretofore mentioned, the only one which remains at this day;
the eighth, the Appia ; and the ninth, the Alseatina.
For a long time water had been sold in Rome. It was drawn from pri
vate weUs and fountains, and carried about in barrels on the backs of asses.
The famous tribune, Cola di Rienzi was the son of a woman who lived by
this traffic. This custom lasted up to the reign of Sixtus V., who built the
aqueduct caUed from him the Acqua Felice. His example was imitated by
Paul V., who brought into Rome the water of Lake Bracciano ; and by
Clement XII., who brought in the waters of Trevi, aheady successfully col
lected by Nicholas V. and Pius IV.
Sixtus seeing that the supply of the Quirinal quarter absolutely depended
upon the water merchants, who were often extortionate, declared that he
would bring water into the loftiest houses in Rome, and that he would be
daunted neither by the difficulty of the enterprise nor by the expense.
Engineers weU skill ed in hydrauhcs examined for springs capable of sup
plying those quarters which lacked water.
There were vast springs at about twenty mUes from Rome, near an old
castle caUed Agra Colonna. Appius Claudius Crassus had aheady brought
this water into some of the lower parts of Rome ; but subsequently, form
ing a lake, it lost ItseK in the river Teverone.
Sixtus purchased the source at an expense of twenty-five thousand gold
doUars, and sweUed it by several other waters, including the mouths of the
Marzia water, the salubrity of which was vaunted by the ancients. Not
content with that first care, he determined upon a personal inspection of
the places ; and he went thither accompanied only by Cardinals Montalto,
Azzolino, and Rusticucci, so that his usu.al attendants should not be bur-

846 LIVES OF THE POPES.
densome to Prince Mark Antony Colonna, who was to entertain the pope ;
and he blessed a project which was to be useful to many, without injury to
any one.
The Romans, in their iU-timed jeers, for the aqueduct was a permanent
benefit to the city, said that the work would not be finished tiU the days of
their grandchUdren ; and those same Romans, to their shame, beheld it
fuUy and magnificently finished in 1588, only three years after. So powerful
is the action of genius, firm in its noble and strong determination !
The water runs for thirteen mUes in subterranean channels, as was done
in the time of the Csesars, and seven mUes through arched viaducts, equal
in height to those of ancient times.
The pope then erected a- fountain of travertine, a yeUowish white tufa,
on the square of Saint Susanna, at the baths of Diocletian, where the water
falls into three marble basins, ornamented with two statues. One statue
represents Moses striking with his rod the rock from which the living waters
leap before the parched Israelites. The sculptor of this statue of Moses,
Prosper de Brescia, having had the misfortune to miss the correct propor
tions, and being criticised by the best artists in Rome, actuaUy died of grief,
though he was only twenty-eight years of age.* The other statue, from the
chisel of John Baptist deUa Porta, represents Aaron bringing the multitude
to the waters.
There is, besides, a bas-relief, by Flaminius Vacca, of Gedeon selecting
his soldiers by their way of drinking. By the bull Suprema cura regiminis,
Sixtus ordered that the water thus brought to Rome should be caUed
Aqua Felice.
Amidst those ideas of vast magnificence, Sixtus directed his attention to
the economy of discipline and divine worship.
From the primitive times of the Church, bishops, before they were con
secrated, swore, according to a pious custom, to visit in person, or K per
sonaUy unable, by deputy, the tombs of Saint Peter and Saint Paul at
Rome. At the same time they reported to the pope, or to a congregation,
the state of the flock intrusted to their pastoral care, and received instruc
tions calculated to render their ministry the more efficacious and consoling.
The custom was faUing into oblivion, but Sixtus, in view of the evUs hence
resulting, issued a buU, subsequently confirmed by Benedict XIV, requiring
all bishops to visit the holy tomb, and pay obedience to the vicar upon
earth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The time at which this was to be done
Avas determined by the distance. For Italy and the adjacent islands, the
bishops Avere to be in Rome, at furthest, within the third year after their
consecration ; the bishops of Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, England,
* The statue is not more favorably judged now.

SIXTUS v 847
and other provinces beyond the German Ocean, and the Baltic, and those
in aU the islands of the Mediterranean, were to be in Rome within the fourth
year of their consecration. Bishops of more remote parts of Europe, of the
African coasts, and the New World, were to come in the fifth year; the
bishops of Asia and other neAV-discovered regions, eastern and western,
northern and southern, aU over the world, were to visit Rome, at furthest,
Avithin the tenth year ; and the visits of all bishops were to be renewed at
times in like proportion to distances. The pope further commanded, that
every bishop, at the moment of his consecration, should swear to the same
holy observance ; and that whoever transgressed the rule should never after
wards enter his church, administer it either as to temporals or spirituals, or
receive the fruits of his bishopric.
What an imposing sight that, of this great pope thus solemnly taking
possession of the whole Cathohc world !
At present, this buU is not in entire operation as concerns the visit of the
bishops, but it is only the pope who can dispense with it. The want of
agreement is an evU, though occasionaUy circumstances may render it a
benefit. For aU that, it is certain that a bishop who has been at Rome
possesses in a high degree a kind of experience which cannot but do him
personal honor, edify his flock, nobly instruct his conscience, and increase
the power of his sacred teaching.
In the month of September, 1585, Sixtus, taking part in the affairs of the
league, excommunicated Henry, king of Navarre, and the prince de Conde,
declaring them to have incurred censures; and then he ordered aU the
bishops of France and Navarre to promulgate that buU.
Henry HI., king of France, would not publish it. Sixtus, of an imperious
temper, and especiaUy impatient of affronts, remonstrated warmly with the
prince, and stUl more so with the apostohc nuncio, Monsignor James
Ragazzoni, whom the pope accused of lukewarmness in the matter. He
instantly recaUed Ragazzoni, and sent in his stead Monsignor Fabio Mirto
Frangipani, a Neapolitan, archbishop of Nazareth, who had formerly been
nuncio to that kingdom under Pius V. Sixtus summoned to his presence
the French ambassador at Rome, to announce his intention of recalling
Ragazzoni and sending Frangipani in his stead, so that the king of France
might be forewarned of that change. The ambassador, Pisani, having re
phed that France would refuse to admit Frangipani, who was a partisan of
the league, Sixtus rephed emphatically : " As long as we have breath we
wiU not appoint our nuncios at the dictation of other princes. We have
appointed Mirto Frangipani, and it is our wiU and pleasure that he go to
Paris. H he be not received there, then we, and not others, will direct him
to return to Rome ; and then we know what steps to take." Mirto Frangi
pani was in fact not received by the king, who ordered his ambassador at

LIVES OF THE POPES.
Rome to make his excuses to the pope, aUeging that Mirto was a subject of
Spain. The French ambassador accordingly requested an audience, but
the guards at the palace refused him admittance ; and on that very day he
received orders to leave Rome on the instant, and the Papal States in a
few days. This dispute lasted until the king of France consented to re
ceive Mirto, and then Sixtus consented to receive the king's ambassador,
Pisani. The winter of 1585 to 1586 was very severe, and the people suffered
much from both cold and scarcity. Sixtus had ordered that grain should
be sold at a low price, but the prudent measures that he had decreed had
not been carried out, and the conservators of the senate of Rome were
guUty of negligence. When, they presented themselves to wish the pontiff
a happy neAV year, he interrupted their comphment by saying : " We per
ceive that you are determined to lose the Uttle that the kindness of the
Holy See has left to 'you, and also what httle ideas you have of the true
principles of government. You still have charge of aU relating to meat
and bread, and your conduct strongly inclines us to take that from you, in
order that the poor may not, to our great displeasure, suffer so much by
your neglect. Do you understand ? — (Avete capito ?)"
Subsequently, learning that many wealthy men who had concealed stores
of grain, nevertheless kept buying bread in the markets, he ordered Car
dinals Cesi, Gaetani, and GuastaviUani, John PeUicano, senator of Rome,
Benedict Giustiniani, treasurer-general, and Fabio de la Corgna, clerk of the
chamber, to enforce an edict compelling aU citizens to declare the quantity
of grain in their possession, and to seU in open market the portion indicated
by the edict. In fact, investigation brought to hght so much grain, that
abundance immediately prevaUed.
The carnival of Rome was a constant occasion of insult, robbery, murder,
and conflagrations. Determined to bring these city pleasures within the
bounds of order, Sixtus erected a gibbet at each end of the Corso, with the
rope banging ready, declaring that whoever committed a murder and avowed
it, should be hanged on the spot. As long as Sixtus lived, miscreants were
kept in awe by those gibbets, always erected before them during the carni
val, and there Avas no further occasion to threaten the populace with so
terrible a justice. In the course of that year, the Holy Father approved
the congregation of the regular clerks, ministers of the sick, instituted at
Rome by Saint CamiUus de LeUis, and permitted them to wear a red cross
• on the right side of their habit. The same role was approved and confirmed
by Gregory XIV., who erected it into an order on the 1st of October, 1591,
adding to the previous three vows a fourth — to assist the dying. It was
afterwards reformed by Clement VIIL, in 1600.
. On the 5th of May, the pope approved the congregation of Saint Mary

SIXTUS V. 849
des Feuillants, of the strictest Cistercian observance, of the order of Saint
Benedict, founded near Toulouse, in 1577, by John de la Barriere.
But nothing can compare with the magnificence with which Sixtus en
deavored to embelhsh the pubhc places of Rome. Obehsks were first set
up in Egypt. GeneraUy, they are monohths, single stones, cut into a py
ramidal form, and of wonderful height and size. This Egyptian grandeur
excited the envy of the idolatrous masters of Rome, and as obelisks could
not be formed on the Itahan peninsula, which had no* quarries of oriental
granite, the Csesars, at great cost, brought obelisks from Egypt into Italy. .
Forty-two of these monuments, large and smaU, Avere brought by the
emperors into the capital of the world. Noncorius, son of Sesostris, had
erected one a hundred and fifty cubits high. A portion of that monument,
stUl seventy-five feet high, was brought from Egypt to the Vatican at Rome,
by order of the Emperor Caligula, and dedicated to the memory of Augus
tus and Tiberius.
Under Sixtus V. this obehsk was found haK buried, near the sacristy of
the BasUica of Saint Peter. Nicholas IV. is said to have thought of re
placing it on the spot it occupied in ancient Rome, and Julius II. and Paul
HI. to have discussed the subject with Michael Angelo Buonarroti, who
dechned to attempt it, deterred by the expense and the danger of its being
broken in its removal. Sixtus admitted no difficulties in even the most
arduous projects. In truth, he encountered obstacles which seemed insur
mountable to aU but him. Pliny teUs us, in his third book, that the empe
rors employed twenty thousand men, with costly machinery, to manage the
enormous weight of the monohth. What Phny says was enough to daunt
the Holy Father, but he pubhcly declared that he had determined to pros
ecute the work. As soon as the pontifical intention was known, more than
five hundred architects arrived in Rome, each with his own project. One
of them, Bartholomew Ammanati, sent by the grand duke of Tuscany, was
presented to the pope, who asked him how long it would take him to remove
and set up the obehsk. The artist rephed that it would take a year to plan
and prepare the machinery and iron-work. Sixtus, with his usual impetu
osity, replied : " A year ! a year ! You wiU not do for us ;— Non fate per
noi !" At the same moment he summoned Dominic Fontana, an architect
of great ability from Como, and, by liberal offers, induced him to undertake
the great removal. The pope promised hberal payment, but demanded
celerity of action. Fontana commenced by ascertaining, by fragments of
other obehsks, the weight of a cubic palm* of that particular granite. Then
having measured the height of the obelisk, which he found to contain eleven
thousand cubic palms, he found that the obehsk weighed 963,537 pounds.
* The Roman cubic palm is about nine inches, English, each way.
Y«l. I.— 54

850 LIVES OF THE POPES.
To this weight he added, that of the machine necessary to remove and up
hold it, and he found that the united weight of the machinery and obehsk
was 1,043,537 pounds. And then he ascertained how many men and horses
would be required to hft, move, and set up the obehsk ; and being of as reso
lute a temper as the magnanimous pope himseK, he commenced his work.
When every thing was in its place, on the 30th of April, 1586, nine hun
dred workmen confessed and communicated before dawn in the Basihca of
Saint Peter's, and then each of them was stationed at his appointed place.
The architect ascended an elevated scaffold, with a speaking-trumpet, with
which to give the signal to the workmen. Raised in twelve movements, the
obelisk Avas set up the same day, at the hour of twenty, Italian time ; equiv
alent to three o'clock in the afternoon. On the instant, there was one
universal burst of joy. The people, attracted to the spectacle, could not
restrain their applauses or even their tears. The workmen and the people
ahke rushed to Fontana and bore him to the pope, who was present, amid
the sound of drums, and of aU the beUs of Rome, as on a day of ^pubhc fes
tivity, the cannon of the castle of Saint Angelo adding its thunders.
During the work an incident occurred which it may not be useless to in
sert. In order that the signals of the architect might be heard,* Sixtus
had forbidden any one to speak under pain of death, to prevent aU con
fusion whUe Fontana was giving his orders. But at the moment that he
was watching the play of the machinery, and when the vast crowd stood
awed into deepest sUence, a Genoese of the Bresca famUy of San Remo,
a seaman, seeing that the windlasses were taking fire from the intense fric
tion, and that, consequently, the obelisk might faU, entaUing its own de
struction and the death of many, dared to cry out : "Water to the ropes!"
(Aqua alle corde /f) Fontana saw the danger, and moistened the ropes.
Bresca was instantly arrested. He asked to be taken before the pope. AU
trembled for his life, for Sixtus never pardoned disobedience of his orders.
But on this occasion, Sixtus, even greater than himseK, seeing that Bresca
had prevented the ruin of the immense work, pubhcly embraced the Genoese,
and told him to name his own reward. Then Bresca asked that he and his
descendants might have the privilege of providing the apostolic palace with
the palms for Palm Sunday, which Sixtus immediately granted. And the
Bresca family of San Remo, a place fertUe in palms, annuaUy sends to Ripa
Grande the branches necessary for the apostolic palace, with a hundred and
twenty others that are separately sent by the bishop of Albenga and the
Chapter of San Remo.
After a week's rest, the work was resumed. The obelisk, now erect and
* Novaes, viii, p. 139.
f It has been said that there is no historical authority for this incident ; but it is painted in
the frescoes of the Vatican Ubrary. (See the chambers leading to the Papyrus rooms.)

SIXTUS V. 851
cleansed from the mud that had covered its base, was slightly inclined
towards the earth. The curiosity of the spectators was so great, and the
heat of the season so intense, that the work was not continued during the
months of June, July, and August. On the 10th of September, after simi
lar pious ceremonies, the work was resumed at sunrise. At three o'clock in
the afternoon, after fifty-two turns of the windlasses, the obelisk was placed
on four hons of gilt bronze. On the 27th the casings were removed, and
the colossal monument of the glory of pagan Egypt was exposed to the
gaze of Catholic Rome.
The pope, faithful to his promise to Fontana, created him a Knight of
the Golden Spur, gave him a pension of ten thousand doUars to himself and
his heirs, and five thousand doUars in hand, besides all the materials em
ployed in the work.
WhUe on the subject, we wUl here mention some other obelisks erected by
Sixtus, without regard to chronology.
In the foUoAving year he set up, and dedicated to the Holy Cross, upon
the square behind Saint Mary Major, the obelisk, sixty palms high, made
by order of Smarra, or Efra, both kings of Egypt, and transported to Rome
by the Emperor Claudius, and dedicated to the Mausoleum' of Augustus.
The barbarians had thrown it down and broken it. Sixtus V. had it re
stored and set up, in the place we have mentioned, by the same Dominic
Fontana. Then the pope set up and consecrated to the Holy Cross that obehsk
which is on the square of Saint John Lateran. It is of red granite, and
broken into three pieces. It is the largest of aU. It was originaUy at
Thebes, and dedicated to the sun by Rameses, king of Egypt. Constantine
had it brought down the NUe to Alexandria. The emperor intended it for
his new Rome, Constantinople ; "but Constans, his son, had it transported to-
the true Rome, on an immense raft impeUed by three hundred rowers. It
was brought up the Tiber to the Ostia gate, and set up in the great circus,
where the barbarians overturned it.
In 1589 the same pope set up on the square del Popolo the fourth Egyp
tian obehsk, one hundred and three hands high, exclusive of the pedestal
and cross. It had been erected originaUy by Sammesettus, king of Egypt
(582 B. C), and transported from Hehopohs to Rome by Augustus Csesar,
and dedicated to the sun, in the great circus. Sixtus dedicated it to the
wood of the Holy Cross.
Amidst these works the heart of Sixtus was torn by the most poignant
sufferings. He had endeavored to infuse into the soul of Ehzabeth feelings
more favorable to Mary, queen of Scots. AU the Catholic sovereigns, and
even, some of the Protestant sovereigns, were entreated by him to interest
themselves in Mary. But Elizabeth either made no reply, or vaguely inti-

852 LIVES OF THE POPES.
mated that a violent party controUed her, and demanded the death of tli6
queen of Scotland.
In the month of December, 1585, Mary knew that her condemnation was
near at hand. She instantly wrote the foUowing letter to her cousin the
duke de Guise, thinking that that prince would forward it to Rome.
Mary was accused of comphcity in a conspiracy against the hfe of Eliza
beth. The pope's nuncio at Paris declared that from aU he knew of the
disposition of Mary she was incapable of such a crime. Her secret letter
to the duke de Guise fuUy proves the feelings of resignation in which that
princess dragged on a hfe of pain.
We transcribe the letter, because it is in some sort prefatory to that which
Mary addressed to Sixtus V, an important letter which we shaU also insert.
The letter to the duke de Guise, nephew, as she was niece, to Cardinal
Charles of Lorraine, ran thus :
" My good cousin, if God, and under Him, you do not find means of im
mediate succor, aU is over. The bearer of this wUl teU you the treatment
I and my two secretaries (Naue and Curie) receive. For God's sake, succor
and save them if you can. They accuse us of disturbing the State, and
practising against the life of this queen, or of having consented thereto ;
but I have truly told them that I know nothing about it. They say that
they have found certain letters upon one Babington and one Charles Paget
and his brother, which prove the conspiracy, and that Naue and Curie have
confessed it. I say that they can confess no such thing, unless falsehood
be Avrung from them by torture. That is aU that has been said to me, but
I am informed that they greatly threaten you and your league, and are
strengthening themselves with princes of their rehgion. I have declared
to them that I, for my part, am resolved to die for mine, as she protested
that she would die for the Protestant. And herein, my cousin, whatever
rumors you may hear, spread abroad by their spies and false sowers of ru
mors, be assured that, God aiding, I shaU die in the Roman Cathohc Church,
and for its maintenance ; and I shaU do so firmly, and without dishonor to
the race of Lorraine, accustomed to die for the maintenance of the faith.
Have prayers to God said for me, and endeavor to obtain my body, that it
may be laid in holy ground ; and have pity on my poor discharged servants,
for I am deprived here of every thing, and expect poison or some other
secret death, for they have rendered me so helpless here that this right hand
is so swoUen and painful that I can scarcely hold my pen or take food.
But, in spite of that, my heart does not faU me, in the hope that He who
created me as I am wUl give me grace to die in His cause, which is the sole
happiness that I now desire in this world, in order that I may by that means
obtain the mercy of God in the other world.

SIXTUS V. 853
" I desire that my body may rest at Rheims* with my late dear mother,
and my heart beside the late king my lord. The bearer wiU give you many
particulars. H at this time there is any care for me, and any desire to see
me again and avenge this quarrel that concerns the common cause,t much
wonder wiU be felt at the agitation on this side. Adieu, my good cousin.
Communicate aU this to my ambassador ; and if my son wiU not join in mak
ing this attempt on my behaK, I discard him, and I beg that my relatives
wUl do the same. I beg you to remember me to Bernardino ;£ and teU him
that I shaU hold to aU that I have promised my friends, and that they ought
not to desert me.
" I recommend to you my poor desolated friends, and especially the three§
he knows of. God preserve you and aU of ours for his service, and grant
me pardon in this world and in the other !
" Your affectionate cousin,
"Maby, R."
On the 25th of September, the queen of Scots was removed to Fother-
ingay castle,! never to leave it alive.
On the 6th of October, Ehzabeth appointed a commission of forty-six,
selected from the peers of the realm and the members of the council, to try
the queen of Scotland. Summoned to appear before this commission, Mary
refused to do so. After a long resistance, she, on the 12th of October, con
sented ; but on condition that her protest against the right over her arro
gated by Ehzabeth should be inserted in the report of the proceedings.
Then she energeticaUy defended herseK against all participation in any plot
formed against the queen, and after refuting with great force the evidence
adduced against her, from her correspondence with Babington, she de-
* Whither she had retired after the death of her husband, Francis II, of France.
f No one then thought of this common cause. Innovators could recaU precedents, and the
scaffold of Mary was foUowed by those of Charles I, Louis XVI, and Maria Antoinette. A gen
tleman of Edinburg, unable during the reign of terror to leave Paris, where he was from August
10, 1792, told me that he was an involuntary spectator of the death of Maria Antoinette. Tears
and sobs betrayed him, and he hastened away from the street where they were applauding the
frightful spectacle. I owe to this gentlemen many references as to Mary. " With us," said he,
" the great pursued royal victims ; with you, the people. With us, a stiff pedantic aristocracy for
bid our queen to be called Your Majesty, and styled her Your Grace, as though she were a
duchess; with you, spectators ready to take the place of the executioner. With us, the most
civilized part ; with you, wretches that nothing can civilize. EngUsh as I am, I do not hesitate
to say that our aristocrats, calm and unexcited, were more wicked, in proportion, in their bru
tality than your mob, maddened by brandy, gross and blunted in its fury.
X The Spanish ambassador in France, Don Bernard de Mendoza.
6 Good queen ! Her servants had become her friends.
\ Fotheringay castle was situated near Peterborough, in Northamptonshire. It is said to be
demolished. But the duchess of Devonshire, born a Hervey, told me that it was stiU inhabited,
and that there is a fine picture there of the ill-fated Mary

354 LIVES OF THE POPES.
manded the production of the original letters, and also demanded, as of
right, to be confronted with her two secretaries, Nau and Curie. Neither
one nor the other was granted. It was at this session that she accused
Walsingham of having plotted her death and that of her son, and of having
himself formed that plot of which he endeavored to make her responsible.
On the 25th of October, the commission met at Westminster, and pronounced
sentence of death against the queen of Scotland, declaring, in addition, that
this sentence was in no wise to prejudice the rights of James IV.
The English parliament, some days after, confirmed the sentence, and
petitioned Ehzabeth to carry it speedUy into execution. The parhamentary
butchers kneAv Avell that crowned heads, condemned to death, must not be
left long in prison.
On the 14th of November, Ehzabeth caused the parliament to be asked
Avhether her hfe could not be placed in safety without the death of Mary
Stuart. Both houses, with detestable hypocrisy and dastardly haste, de
clared it impossible.*
On the 19th of November, Lord Buckhurst, and Beale, clerk of the coun
cil, arrived at Fotheringay, to inform Mary of the sentence pronounced
against her. She received them with dignified calmness, though protesting
her innocence. At the same time she addressed a letter to Elizabeth.
Mary now determined to think of nothing but her salvation. She deter
mined to Avrite to Pope Sixtus V. ; that was to be the last thought from wliich
nothing was to distract her mind. In the mean time, however, she deter
mined to rid herself of aU the interests that still surrounded her in this hfe,
that she might be alone with God and with his vicar here below.
The foUowing is her letter to Ehzabeth. In the confusion of her ideas,
Mary did not date her letter ; but aU authors agree that it was written on
the 20th of November.
"With aU my heart, madam, do I render thanks to God that He, by
means of your commands, hath pleased to put an end to my wearisome
pilgrimage of hfe. I do not wish it prolonged, having already had too
much time to learn its bitterness. Only, I implore your Majesty, that as I
can expect no favor from the zealous ministers who hold the first places in
the Enghsh State, I may obtain from you only, and not from others, these
foUowing kindnesses.
" First. Since I may not hope for a burial in England according to the
Catholic solemnities, practised by the ancient kings, your ancestors and
mine ; and since in Scotland they have violated and defiled the ashes of my
fathers, grant that when my adversaries shall be suUied with my innocent
* Lingard, Hist, of Eng., vol. viii, p. 221.

SIXTUS v. 855
blood, my domestics may bear my body to some consecrated earth, to be
there entombed ; preferably in France, where repose the bones of the queen
my most honored mother ; so that this poor body, which never knew repose
so long as it was united with my soul, may find it at last when separated.
" Secondly. Because I fear the tyranny of those into whose power you
have abandoned me, I beseech your Majesty that I may not be executed in
any hidden place, but in the sight of my domestics and others, who may be
witnesses of my faith and of my obedience to the true Church, and who may
defend my last hours and my latest sighs from the false reports that my
adversaries may circulate.
" In the third place, I request that my domestics, who have served me so
faithfuUy through so much annoyance, may retire freely whither they may de
sire, and enjoy the modest benefices that my poverty has left them in my wUl.
" I conjure you, madam, by the blood of Jesus Christ, by our kindred, by
the memory of Henry VIL, our common father, and by the title of Queen,
which I bear stiU, even unto death, not to refuse me such reasonable de
mands, and to assure me of them by a word from your own hand ; and
thereupon I wiU die as I have hved,
" Your affectionate sister and prisoner,
" Mary, Queen."*
Elizabeth made no reply. But this did not disturb Mary ; aU her thoughts
had now but one object, to recoUect herself in God, and to write to Pope
Sixtus V. Even for that, her servants had to keep vigilant watch at her
chamber door, and she could only write at night. She wished to write a
long letter, and nothing was prepared. At length, by devoting several
nights to her rehgious task, she succeeded in writing with her own hand the
letter which I am about to transcribe, which I have often touched and
kissed at the Vatican, after reading it over and over.

JEHSUS MARIA.
" Holy Fathee :
" Inasmuch as it has pleased God in his divine providence to order in
his Church, that, under his crucified Son, Jesus Christ, aU those who
believe in him and are baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, should
recognize as mother one Universal Cathohc Church, whose commands,
with the ten of the law, are to be kept under pain of damnation, it is
requisite that aU who aspire to eternal hfe shovdd keep their gaze stead
fastly fixed thereon. Therefore, I, born of royal parents, who were, as I
* Labanoff, vi. 444.

856 LIVES OF THE POPES.
also was, baptized in it. Nay more, I, unworthy as I am, was from the
breast caUed to the throne, and anointed and crowned by the authority and
ministers of that Church, and nourished and reared under her wing and on
her bosom, and by her instructed in the obedience owed by aU Christians
to him whom she, guided by the Holy Ghost, has elected according to the
ancient decrees and order of the primitive Church to the Apostohcal Holy
See, as our head on earth, to whom Jesus Christ, in his last testament,
speaking to Saint Peter of the foundation of this Church, to bind and to
loose poor sinners from the bonds of satan, absolving us by him, or by his
ministers for that appointed, from aU crimes and sins that we commit and
perpetrate, we being penitent, and as far as in us hes making satisfaction
for them, after having confessed according to the ordinance of the Church.
I call to witness my Saviour Jesus Christ, the Most Blessed Trinity, the
glorious Virgin Mary, aU the angels and archangels, Saint Peter the shep
herd, my pecuhar intercessor and special advocate ; Saint Paul, the apostle
of the GentUes ; Saint Andrew, and aU the saints in heaven, that I have
always hved in that faith, which is that of the Universal Church Cathohc,
universal and Roman, in which being regenerated I have always intended
to do my duty to the Holy Apostohc See, of which to my great regret I
have not been able to render due testimony to Your Holiness, owing to my
detention in this captivity, and my long sickness together. But now that it
has pleased God, Most Holy Father, to permit for my sins and those of this
unfortunate island, that I, the sole remnant of the blood of England and
Scotland possessing that faith, should, after twenty years captivity, confined
in a strait prison, and at length condemned to death by the States and
heretical assembly of this country, as was this day communicated to me by
Lord Buckhurst, Amias Paulet, my keeper, one Druw Drouri, knight, and
a secretary named Beal, in the name of their queen, commanding me to
prepare to receive death, and offering me one of their bishops and a dean
for my consolation, a priest whom I had having been by them taken away
and kept, I know not where, in their hands. I have considered it my first
duty to return to God, and then with my own hand to signify to Your
Hohness, in order that though I cannot make it known to you before my
death, yet after the intent may be manifest to you ; which is, the whole
being duly sifted and considered, the subversion of their rehgion in this
island, by me, they say, designed, and in my favor attempted, as weU by
their own subjects, obedient to your laws, and their declared enemies, as by
foreigners, especiaUy the Catholic princes and my famUy, who aU (as they
reproach) maintain my right to the crown of England, naming me as such
in their prayers, by the churches and the ministers of the same in this
nation, and professing obedience and subjection to me. I leave it to Your
Holiness to consider the consequence of such a sentence, entreating you to

SLXTUS v. 857
have prayers said for my poor soul [and] the souls of aU those who are
dead or dying, for the same or the hke judgment, and even in honor of God
to distribute our alms, and incite the kings to do the same, to those Avho
survive this shipwreck. And my intention being, according to the constitu
tion of the Church, to confess, do such penance as I can, and receive my
Viaticum, K I can obtain my chaplain or other lawful minister to administer
to me my said sacraments. In default whereof, with a contrite and penitent
heart, I prostrate myself at the feet of Your Holiness, confessing myself to
God and to his saints, and to this your paternity, most unworthy sinner and
guilty of eternal damnation, K it do not please the good God, who died for
penitent sinners, to have mercy ; entreating you to take this my general sub
mission as a testimony of my intention to accomplish the remainder in the
form ordered and commanded by the Church, and the salvation of my poor
soul, between which and the justice of God I interpose the blood of Jesus
Christ, crucified for me and for aU sinners, the most execrable of whom I
confess myseK to be. Considering the infinite favors from him received,
and by me so Ul employed, which render me unworthy of pardon, K his
promise made to aU who heavy laden with sins and spiritual afflictions
(come to him), to be by him afflicted, and his mercy did not embolden me,
foUowing his commandment to come to him carrying my burden, in order
to be by him reheved of it, after the example of the prodigal son. Nay,
more, voluntarUy offering at the foot of his cross my blood for the adher
ence and faithful zeal I feel for his Church, without the restoration of which
I never deshe to hve in this wretched world. Further stiU, Holy Father,
leaving no worldly property, I entreat Your Hohness to intercede for me
Avith the Most Christian king, that my dowry may be charged with the pay
ment of my debts, and the wages of my poor desolate servants, and for an
annual obit for my soul and for the souls of aU our brethren and sisters who
in this just quarrel have died. Never having had other private intention,
as my poor servants present in my affliction wiU testify, and as I have wil
lingly offered my IKe in their heretical assembly, to maintain my Cathohc,
Apostohc, and Roman rehgion, and bring back the wanderers of this island,
that is themselves, protesting that in that case I would voluntarUy lay
down aU title and dignity of queen, and do aU honor and service to theirs,
K she would cease to persecute the Cathohcs, which I protest is the sole
end at which I have aimed since I have been in this country ; and I have
neither ambition nor desire to reign, nor to dispossess another for my sake,
being, from sickness and long affliction, so enfeebled that I have no desire
to exert myseK in this world except in the service of his Church, and to
regain the souls of this island to God. In testimony whereof, at my end I
wiU not faU to prefer the pubhc safety to the individual interest of flesh and
blood. This makes me to entreat you, in my mortal regret for the perdi

858 LIVES OF THE POPES.
tion of my poor chUd, after endeavoring by aU means to regain him, yoii
being his true father in the faith, as Saint John the Evangehst was to the
poor youth whom he took from among thieves, to assume in fine aU author
ity over him that I can give to constrain him. And, if it please Your Holi
ness, caU upon the Catholic king to assist you as regards temporals, and
both join in endeavoring to aUy him in marriage. And K God for my sins
allow my son to be obstinate, as I know no Christian prince of these times
who has labored so much for the faith, or who has so great means of re
ducing this island to the CathoUc faith, as the Cathohc king to whom I am
much indebted, as it was he alone who aided me with both money and ad
vice in my need, under your good pleasure, I leave aU that I have of right
or interest in the government of this kingdom, my son remaining obstinately
out of the pale of the Church. Should he be regained, I desire that he be
by that prince and my relations the Guises, aided, supported, and advised,
enjoining him Avith my last wiU to hold them, next to you, as his fathers, and
to marry with their advice, or into one of their houses ; and if it so please
God, I should like him to become the son-in-law of the Cathohc king. Be
hold the secret of my heart, and the sum of my worldly desires, tending, as
I understand it, to the good of his Church and to the discharge of my con
science, that I lay at the feet of Your Holiness, which I most humbly kiss.
" You will have a true account of the manner of my last hour and cap
ture, and of aU the proceedings both against me and by me, in order that,
understanding the truth, the calumnies upon me of the enemies of the
Church may by you be refuted and the truth known. And to this I dis
patch the bearer to you, requesting for the end your benediction, and saying
to you the last adieu, praying God long to preserve your person in his
grace for the welfare of his Church and of your desolate flock, especiaUy
of this island, which I leave much erring and deluded, without God's mercy
and your paternal care.
"From Fodringay, this xxiii November, 1586.
" Excuse my writing, on account of the weakness of my arm. I, to my
great regret, hear evU reports about some who are near Your Holiness, who
are said to receive bribes from this State to betray the cause of God, and
that cardinals are imphcated.
" I leave it to Your Holiness to examine into that, and to watch a certain
Lord Samt John, who is strongly suspected of being a spy of the Great
Treasurer. There are false brethren, and I answer that those whom I
have recommended to you are altogether different.
" Of Your Holiness the most humble and devoted daughter,*
" Mary, queen of Scotland, dowager of France."
* This important document Avas sent from Rome to Prince Labanoff by Monsignor Marino

SIXTUS v. 859
James Belton, archbishop of Glasgow, ambassador from Scotland to the
Most Christian' king, forwarded this letter to Louis Audouin, bishop of
Cassano, who was then at Rome, and was to dehver it to the pope.
The Roman court, hearing of the condemnation of Mary, redoubled its
efforts to save her. It is probable its earnest sohcitations had the effect of
suspending the execution of the sentence of death, for it did not take place
until the following year, on the 8th of February according to the old calen
dar, and the 18th according to the new.
On the eve of the execution she wrote to Preau, her chaplain, thus : " I
have to-day been attacked on my rehgion, and to receive its consolation.
The heretics wiU learn by Bourgois* and others that I have faithfuUy made
protestations of my faith, in which I wiU die. I have requested to have
you to make my confession and receive my sacrament, which has been
crueUy refused me, as well as the transport of my body and the power freely
to make my wiU, or write any thing but through their hands and at the
good pleasure of their mistress. In default of this, I confess in general the
grievousness of my sinsj as I had intended to confess to you in particular,
begging you, in the name of God, to watch and pray with me this night
for the satisfaction of my sins, and to send me your absolution and your
pardon for aU the offences I have given to you. I wiU endeavor to see you
in their presence, as they have granted my major-domo, Andrew MelviUe ;
and K permitted to do so, I wUl on my knees ask your benediction in the
presence of them aU. Advise me of the most appropriate prayers for this
night and for to-morrow morning, for the time is short, and I have not
leisure to write. I wiU recommend you to the king — I have no more
leisure."Marini, on the fifteenth of the calends of January, 1838, the eleventh indiction, and the eighth
year of the pontificate of our most Holy Father, Pope Gregory XVL
Monsignor Marini, who, in 1811, had brought it back from Paris, whither General Radet took
it, attests in his certificate that he caused the copy to be made from the autograph deposited in
the archives of the Vatican. In the copy, says Monsignor Marini, we have scrupulously copied
the orthography and the accents upon the signature. I wiU add that I saw that letter in 1824.
Monsignor Marini was good enough to show it to me. The paper is common — the coarse paper
used in the public offices. The letter contains four closely written pages, and the signature is at
the foot of the crowded fourth.
When I was at Rome it was supposed that this letter contained secrets of State and confes
sions. The letter reaUy is just as I have given it, and such as it appears in the magnificent work
of the Prince Labanoff (2d edition), entitled "Letters, Instructions, and Memoirs of Mary Stuart,
Queen of "Scotland, &c." accompanied by a chronological summary by Prince Alexander La>
banoff. 8 vols, 8vo. London, Charles Dolman, 61 New Bond-street, 1844. (The queen's letter
is in vol. vi, p. 447.)
On comparing the orthography of this letter with that of the letters to the duke of Guise and
Elizabeth, » difference wUl be perceived, these two letters being from collections in which the
copyists have adopted modern orthography, whUe the letter to Sixtus V. is copied exactly from
the queen's autograph, which renders it the more precious.
* The queen's physician.

860 LIVES OF THE POPES.
A copy of this letter was sent to Rome by Preau, the almoner, who had
received it. The vicegerent of that city had ordered -prayers for the queen
in aU the churches.
The faithful chaplain succeeded during the night in making his way to
Mary's servants, who introduced him for a moment into her chamber, when
he gave her communion with a Host that Pius V, in his pious solicitude for
the queen, had formerly sent her.
Preau subsequently addressed to the Holy Father an account of the exe
cution, drawn up under the eyes of a Protestant, Nicholas Andrews, sheriff
of the county of Northampton, present at the execution.
There are many copies of this narrative in various hbraries. There is
one in the imperial library at Paris, French supplement, no. 311, fol. 127.
It is believed that Preau was invited to set out for Rome, where rewards
awaited him for his fidelity and courage. He would, doubtless, have been
raised to the rank of bishop, at the request of France, but I have not yet
discovered any traces of this journey.
We have described scenes of martyrdom, we have depicted in the early
centuries the strength of wiU which supported the confessors of the faith.
But times changed, and it might be supposed that that hvely ardor of Ca
tholicity had expired. The example given by Mary avenged the new era,
which might have been supposed colder and less generous. In vain does a
minister of the Anglican worship summon the noble queen to those hereti
cal demonstrations which she had always held in horror; the subhme
princess died, as she herself had promised, as a true Scotchwoman and a true
Frenchwoman. The heroine of the Roman faith ceased not to pray for her
murderers ; and Sixtus, who had taken so much pains to encourage and
console her, failed not in the duties of his lofty ministry. AU admit that
his exertions postponed the execution of the sentence, which, though pro
nounced on the 12th of October, was not executed tiU four months later.
But there are fatal destinies to be suffered in this hfe ; and Mary Stuart, if
she had to reproach herself with some weaknesses, inconsistencies, and po
htical errors difficult for men to avoid, atoned nobly for them all by so
glorious a death.
The labors of a pope are, as we have aheady remarked, innumerable.
Every day in the temples Mary Stuart was prayed for ; but already the
dagger was whetted which, two years later, was to pierce the heart of the
king of France. Rome was obhged to direct its gaze to that unfortunate
country, where men turn a deaf ear to reason, and where the Holy See per
haps scarcely knew what part to take.
MeanwhUe immense and magnificent works could no longer be inter
rupted. The head of the State, who alone knew aU the misfortunes of the
Church, hved in pain and grief, and every night he lost that sleep which

SIXTUS v. 861
our readers wUl remember, Pius V. caUed five gift of God. The workman,
unconscious of the trials of statesmen, impatiently caUs for work, and can
not conceive how prmces can hve without building, repairing, and complet
ing monuments.
In his desire to protect antiquities and surround them with respect, Sixtus,
in 1586, ordered the restoration of the superb column of Trajan, reared,
after seven years' labor, by the Roman senate, in the year 106, to the Em
peror Trajan. Around it are sculptures representing the actions of that
prince, and especially the facts of the Dacian war.
The Holy Father having ordered the removal of the urn which had con
tained the ashes of Trajan tiU the barbarians scattered them, had a statue
of the Prince of the Apostles cast by Sebastian Torresani, after a model of
Thomas deUa Porta.
Nothing could escape the zeal of so magnificent a pontiff. He commanded
the restoration of the Antonine column,- and surmounted it by a bronze
statue of Saint Paul, nineteen palms high, also cast by Sebastian Torresani
from the designs of Thomas deUa Porta. This column is a hundred and
seventy-five feet high.
Looking upon aU these works, we cannot too much admire the greatness
of Sixtus V., his love of the arts, and that irresistible attraction which led
him everywhere to erect sumptuous monuments to the Catholic religion.
We do not speak of streets opened in the city, or of the numberless em
bellishments ordered by this pope. He deemed himseK bound to fulfil his
sovereign duties in his city of Rome, and he overwhelmed it with favors,
rendering it the finest, as it was the most rehgious, city in the world.
The repairs which this pope ordered to be made at Saint John Lateran,
rendered more imposing that Basihca which is called the head and mother
of the world.
Switzerland having, in most of the cantons, embraced Calvinism, the
popes had ceased to send nuncios, for fear of exposing them to insults
and persecutions. But Sixtus, knowing that the Cathohc cantons desired
the presence of an apostolical nuncio, sent thither Monsignor John Baptist
Santorio, who was received with great demonstrations of joy at Luzerne,
then and now pre-eminently the Swiss city of the faith. The sacred college
had lost many members. Sixtus determined to create two. However, pre
vious to proceeding to a nomination, he pubhshed a buU, signed by thirty-
seven cardinals, containing exceUent arrangements upon their creation, their
numbers, their quahfications, and the manner of IKe incumbent upon them.
Among other things, it was his order that there should be seventy cardi
nals, and that any election in excess of that number should be void. They
could be chosen from any Christian nation, provided that they should be
adorned by the virtues indicated by the law, virtues that must be known to

862 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the pope and to the sacred coUege. It was necessary to their creation that
they should receive at least minor orders, and have worn, for a year pre
viously, the clerical habit and tonsure. They were to be created only on
fast-days in December, according to the ancient custom of the popes Ana
cletus, Saint Clement, Saint Evaristus, Saint Alexander, and others, during
more than six hundred years.
The law rendered ehgible to that dignity any one, who, though having
sons or grandsons, by lawful marriage, had remained for some time a
widower. During the IKe of a cardinal, no one could be promoted to that
dignity who was his brother, his uncle, his nephew, or related to him in the
first or second degree.
Of the seventy cardinals, there were to be, at the least, four masters in
theology of the -regular mendicant orders.
To complete the number of seventy, there were to be six suburbican
bishops, fifty priests, and fourteen deacons. These last could not be elected
under the age of twenty-two. In the year of their creation, they must take
deacon's orders, K not already ordained ; in defaxdt of which, they can nei
ther vote nor be voted for in the sacred coUege. Cardinal-deacons, when
ordained priests, remain in the order of deacons, until the number of four
teen has been filled by other creations.
Illegitimate sons were incapable of the cardinalate, even though legiti
matized by a subsequent marriage of their parents, or by apostolical au
thority, or were of the blood-royal.
The law further ordains that the cardinals at a distance from Rome
should visit that city in the course of the year, and must swear to do so
before receiving the red hat.
When Sixtus ascended the throne, he found the treasury entirely empty.
The vast ideas of that pontiff, the immense expenses of the embeUishment
of Rome, and the immediate wants of the Church, all required much money,
which the apostolic chamber did not possess. To meet the heavy drain,
Sixtus, in imitation of his predecessors, began to reform the vacabili, — offices
conferred on persons who exercise them for life, by purchase. As they
lapse on becoming vacant by the death of the incumbent, they were called
vacabili. Sixtus suppressed the vacabili that he found in existence, and
created others.* Aided by a good administration of these offices, Sixtus
was able to provide for his heavy expenses, without burdening the people
with imposts, and left in the treasury an amount estimated at three millions
of doUars. Many of his foundations stiU endure; hke that.of the Presepio ^
at Saint Mary Major, which we cannot describe Avithin our narrow hmits.
* There are important detaUs on this subject in Tempesti's Life of Sixtus V., books vi. and
tdi, of vol. i.

SIXTUS V. 863
The vacabili were a source of money ; that is to say, the places were sold,
not given. Sixtus introduced a formidable order into the financial depart
ment. Nothing was stolen, all reached the treasury which the treasury had
the right to receive, and nothing went out again without special, precise,
and explicit order. The accounts were inspected and balanced every week :
hopes became neither delusions nor faUures. Great financial and adminis
trative skill is the boast of many courts in Europe ; yet never, perhaps, was
there a government more upright or more watchful than that of Sixtus V. :
and he has obtained renown for so much, that this has been forgotten,
though it is by no means the least honorable to a sovereign. In this he,
with a noble emulation, followed the example of Gregory XIII.
It wiU not be too much to say that the admirable administrations of Greg
ory and of SixtusV. contributed to create in the Romans a profound affection
for the Holy See. Rome, seeing that she had a father so attentive, a guar
dian so vigUant, could not but love with a new tenderness her generous
benefactor, the pope. In fact, it is not sufficient to praise the good fortune
that ehcited the gratitude of Rome, for it extended aU over the Cathohc
world. The Roman throne became too firmly set to move : the subjects,
even the most undisciplined and the oldest, wore a submissive countenance ;
and thoughts of revolt and disobedience, arising at times in Rome, no
longer detracted from the veneration due the Holy See. But the isolated
respect of Rome did not suffice Sixtus V.
John Pepoh, one of the wealthiest and most Ulustrious knights of Bolo
gna, held an assassin as a prisoner, in one of his castles. Cardinal Salviati
demanded him from Pepoh, who rephed : " On my own domain, I knoAV no
pope, no prince." The cardinal arrested the insolent noble, and reported
the affair to Sixtus, who ordered the case to be investigated at Rome. It
was proven that the assassin had actuaUy been hberated to disturb the pub
hc peace ; but also, that Pepoh had spoken of the Holy See in terms that
might become a pretext for fresh rebellions. Sixtus, on the one hand,
ordered, the sentence against John Pepoh to be executed ; and then, to
prove that no passion had dictated the sentence, and to prevent aU insult to
that Ulustrious famUy, he' gave the cardinal's hat to Guido Pepoli, brother
of John.
These labors did not prevent the pope from watching over the mainte
nance of ecclesiastical discipline. In two years he issued more than
seventy-two buUs of this character. Since that time, in some of the secre
taryships of the congregations of the cardinals,* it is customary to pay a
¦ smaU fee, especiaUy in that of "bishops and regulars," "immunity," "dis-
* Sixtus established fifteen congregations of cardinals ; afterwards, others were created. The
Roman Diario gives the complete list.

864 LIVES OF THE POPES.
cipline," and " repairs."* The fee pays the copyists, the translators, and the
expense of parchment, paper, and seal. But in the other secretaryships, no
fees whatever are paid. The other secretaryships, independent of a few
which still receive nothing, not even a farthing, are those of the peniten
tiary, holy office, index, council ; and the faithful are served gratuitously,
not even the price of stationary being demanded.
We do not speak here of the datary, where fees are paid, but where a
great abatement is readUy granted.
The Vatican Basihca had up to this time remained incomplete, and that
house of God caUed for the most anxious cares of the pontiff. He in
trusted the continuation of the works to Jacopo deUa Porta and Dominic
Fontana, that energetic artist justly favored by a pope who knew the value
of time. Sixtus was never alarmed by the most difficult enterprises ; such
dangers flattered and stimulated his courage. He sent for the two archi
tects, and told them that he had only two things to recommend to them ;
and we shall recognize the bold spirit of him who said these words — " Do
not mind the cost : do it quickly." That great pontiff had, as it were, a
commission from God to accomphsh the most admirable works ; and in the
fulfilment of that mission he only found that he had not time to finish so
many truly gigantic and superhuman enterprises.
The architects began their work on the 15th of July, 1558, by employing
fifteen hundred masons ; and on the 14th of May the vast cupola was fin
ished, even to the lantern and the little cupola (cupolina). Thence to the
cross, took seven months to finish.
This Avonder-working pope did not rest, taking even scarcely time for sleep
at night. He issued almost simultaneously four very important edicts.
The first forbade insult to the Jews ; who were not to be provoked, stUl less
to be struck. The second forbade excavating the ground in or out of Rome,
in inhabited places, as such excavations, imprudently conducted, ruined
many buildings. The third related to attempts at Ulicit conversation with
nuns. The fourth ordered the streets to be kept in the most perfect state
of cleanliness, so that the atmosphere should not be infected with putrid or
poisonous miasma.
Towards the close of 1588, the pope, on the request of John Baptist de
Montegiano, of the March, guardian of Jerusalem, sent him aid for the
pilgrims, and urged him to redouble his zeal in guarding the holy places*
Tolerance, prudence, discipline, and the principal duties of the JEdUeship
received at once a homage and an incitement from this charitable, far-
seeing, pious prince, so careful of the hfe of his feUoAV-citizens.,
The Holy Father, in the midst of a grand solemnity in the Church of the
* Novaes, viii, p. 699.

sixtus -v. .865
Vatican, on the 14th of May, 1588, placed among the holy doctors Saint
Bonaventure, a religious of his order; as Saint Pius had done, who had
granted the same honor to Saint Thomas Aquinas, of his order. The 2d of
July foUowing, at the request of the Catholic king, Sixtus canonized the
blessed Diego of Saint Nicholas, a Franciscan lay brother, who was bom in
a low condition at Porto, in the diocese of Seville, and died in the convent
of Alcala de Xenares, on the 12th of November, 1463. The altar upon
which the pope accomplished the ceremony was declared papal, and sent to
ThUip IL, with a buU of the 20th of August, 1588, prescribing the persons
who alone were to celebrate Mass on that privUeged altar.
The books in the library of Saint John Lateran had previously been re
moved to the Vatican. This hbrary is said to have been restored by Saint
Zachary I., and some of his successors. Sixtus, seeing the insufficiency of
the old locahty, ordered the books' to be removed to a place, in the same
palace, caUed the Belvidere. Fontana again, by order of Sixtus, prepared
the rooms in which the hbrary is kept.
It may not be useless to give some more exact detaUs as to the origin, of
the Vatican hbrary, detaUs which we owe to Monsignor Rocca. Whatever
pains may have been taken by Saint Zachary in founding the Vatican
hbrary, since become such an inestimable treasure, it began, as German
scholars admit,* with biblical manuscripts, ehiefly by the Gospels, the
Epistles of Saint Peter, of Saint Paul, of Saint James, of Saint John, and
of Saint Jude, of the Acts of the Apostles, and of the Apocalypse, of the
Decretals, of the Synodal Constitutions, and of a host of decrees published
by laborious pontiffs, vicars of Jesus Christ, and worthy successors, of the
Prince of the Apostles.
Rome bases her opinion upon the testimony of Saint Jerome, who affirms
that, from aU parts of the Christian world, it was usual to have recourse to
the Roman archives, where the acts of the general councils were filed.
There application was made for the decision of questions, and to ascertain
whether a canon had been altered or corrupted. Saint Gregory the Great,
in reference to a controversy which arose in the Council of Ephesus, re
phed : " The Latin manuscripts are more genuine than the Greek." Now,
these Roman manuscripts were somewhere, and the place in which they
were kept was naturally caUed the library.
In the celebrated Roman council under Saint Gelasius, the fiftieth pope,
elected in 492, mention is made of the Roman archive and scrinio, of the
hbrary, scribes, notaries, and scrinaries ; whence it may be inferred that,
towards the fifth century, the Roman Church possessed a great number of
books, which it was very necessary to preserve in a hbrary.
* Catalogue of the Ubrary, vol. i, Cod.MSS., BibKot. Vatican®, preface.
Vol. I.— 55

866 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Panvinius ascribes the institution of the Vatican library to Saint Clement,
pope in the year .91.
Saint Julius I., the thirty-fifth pope, elected in 337, ordered every thing
relative to the preservation and extension of the faith to be brought to
gether by the notaries of the Holy Roman Church, and required the chief
notaries to deposit it in the church. That pope also ordered aU bonds,
acts, donations, traditions, testimonies, aUegations, and the manumissions
of the clerics to be collected in the archives. Cenni regards this step as
the formal commencement of the papal hbrary.
Whatever may have been the commencement, a point upon which authors
do not agree, it is certain that we speak here of a very ancient institution.
It is ancient, because anciently it could not have been dispensed with, and
without a hbrary there could have been no ecclesiastical administration.
Now, an admirable ecclesiastical administration, more or less universal, has
existed since Saint Peter.
By the Liber Pontificalis, attributed to Anastasius the librarian, we are
told that Saint HUary, the forty-second, pope (A. D. 461), formed two
libraries in the baptistry of Saint John Lateran ; and that Gregory III.,
ninety-first pope, formed one in the Lateran palace. We must suppose
them united, for Saint Gregory the Great, without making any distinction,
speaks of the Roman hbrary, of which he was made guardian by Saint
Sergius I. While the p'opes inhabited Saint John Lateran, the hbrary was
preserved there. At this juncture a great event occurred — the removal of
the Holy See to Avignon ; and the library was also transferred to that city.
At the end of the schism, Martin V. had it restored to the Vatican, except
ing a part, which remained at Avignon, but Pius V. recovered a portion of
what was wanting. There stUl remained some ancient and important docu
ments, which Pius VI. providentially restored to Rome in 1784, with aU the
documents of the administration of the popes at Avignon; so that this
hbrary became more and more celebrated.
However, we have properly only to speak of its condition under Sixtus
V. We have seen the reception given by Nicholas V. to the Greeks who
had been driven from Constantinople, and his care to have ancient works
-translated by them. AU those labors, and many subsequent ones, increased
his treasure. CaUixtus III. and Sixtus IV. still further enriched that
precious deposit. Sixtus V. ordered the accumulated mass of books and
manuscripts to be arranged, and he erected the beautKul bunding noAv so
generaUy admired.
Paul V. enriched it with some rare manuscripts. In 1622, it was con
siderably increased by the donation of the library of Heidelberg. That
city having fallen into the power of the Count de TiUy, the emperor pre
sented Urban VIIL with the hbrary of the elector palatine, which, in fact,

SIXTUS V. ggy
MaximUian, duke of Bavaria, had already given to Gregory XV. It was
rich in aU the hterary wealth possessed by the monasteries before the
Reformation. Alexander VII. added the books of the dukes of Urbino,
and Alexander VHL the books purchased at the death of Queen Christina
of SAveden. , #
There, also, were coUected the manuscripts of the Maronite Ecchelense, of
the noble Roman, Pietro de la Valle, and the private hbrary of Pius IL
Clement Xn., faithful to the plan of Sixtus V, added another wing ; and &U
his successors deserve the praise of enriching it stiU further by new acqui
sitions of hterary wealth from the Cathohc world.
Sixtus estabhshed a press here, on which he finaUy issued his edition of
Saint Ambrose. There, also, were printed the works of Gregory the Great,
Saint Bonaventure, and of other holy Fathers'; the great Roman BuUa-
rium of Laertius Cherubini ; both editions of the holy Scripture, the Septu-;
agint, and the Vulgate, which was published in 1590.
This gave the stamp of immortality to that great Sixtus V, who with his
own hand corrected the proofs of those monuments of divine goodness and
human wisdom. Unfortunately, some errors crept in, which gave rise to
many remarks in the Catholic world ; but Gregory XIV. had them corrected,
and the printing of the revised text began under Clement VIIL
It is impossible further to enumerate the advantage of the benefits Ave owe
to Sixtus V. Civita- Vecchia lacked water, and he had an aqueduct con
structed to convey it to that city ; he commenced the draining of the Ponr
tine marshes, and he ordered the raising of the beautiful Scala Santa, be?
cause it was the stairway by which Jesus Christ ascended and descended
from the palace of Pontius PUate at Jerasalem. He began the Ponte Felice,
near Otricoli, and he placed in the Quirinal the two magnificent, marble
horses, held by two young men, which Constantine the Great had removed
to Rome.
At this moment the affairs of France required the attention of the pope.
He had excommunicated Henry III., on account of the assassination of the
Guises, which had excited just indignation at Rome. Henry III., in his .
turn, died by the hand of an assassin ; and Sixtus, no longer cognizant of
the real state of affairsf recaUed his nuncio. Another was now to be sent.
Cardinal Gaetani was sent to Paris to ascertain Avhich party was most in
the right. The sentiments of the pontiff could not be penetrated — he man.
Kested no preference. *
"Gaetani was enthusiastically received by the League. Henry IV and
the princes of the blood thought it advisable to send an ambassador to
Rome to give proper information to SixtusV. The duke of Luxemburg
had entered Rome. Olivares, Philip's ambassador, hastened to the palace
of the pope, and said to His Holiness, with some vivacity, that K Luxem-

868 LIVES OF THE POPES.
burg, the abettOr of the prince of Navarre, were not driven from Rome, the
ambassador of his Catholic majesty would protest. Sixtus rephed : " Pro
test ! what protest can you make -? You offend the majesty of your king.
We know how wise a prince he is. You also offend our majesty. Our lovo
for the Catholic king is a fortunate circumstance for you. Now, you under
stand us ?" He immediately rang his bell, and had the ambassador shown
out, only adding tlie single word—" Retire ! "
In the mean time, King Henry, at the head bf only six thousand infantry
and two thousand cavalry, had gained, at Ivry, a briUiant victory over the
Leaguers, commanded by the duke of Mayenne, who was at the head of
three thousand cavalry and twelve thousand infantry.
The news of this event had scarcely reached Rome when the ambassador
of the League demanded an audience of the pope, and presented to His
Holiness the supphcation of the Leaguers for aid. Sixtus replied : " WeU!
well ! As long as we imagined that the Leaguers were laboring for religion,
we assisted them ; but now that we have learned that you fight for ambi
tion, founded upon a false pretence, you have nothing to hope for from us."
And he dismissed him.
Such was the state of things when the indefatigable pope was attacked
by a tertian ague, which, changing to an intermitting fever, soon became
mortal. Sixtus, whose illness was aggravated by his being compelled ? to
keep his bed, beheld with calm courage the approach of his last moments,
and died on the 27th of August, 1590, aged sixty-nine years, after governing
the Church five years, four months, and three days*
* The complete numismatic collection of the reign of Sixtus V. is a real treasure. I wUl
commence by describing the medals which are in my own collection. AU bear the words : Srx-
¦rvs V. Pont. Max. The head of the pope, with- a large white cap.
1. On the reverse of the first, Pebfecta Secubitas. A traveUer sleeping under a fruit-tree ;
aUuding to the fact that Sixtus restored security to the roads. His severity was terrible, and
perhaps carried too far, but he made travelling safe in all parts of his States.
2. Exaltaatt Hvmtles— He has exalted the humble. The statues of SS. Peter and Paul, on
the Trajan aid Antonine columns.
3. Mem. Fl. Constant. Restitvta — The memory of Flavins Constantine Jionored. The two
horses of Monte Cavallo. On the plinth of the first are the letters Opvs Pmv.-^The work of
Phidias; on that of the second, Opvs Pk-ax.— The work of Praxiteles. These are not correct in
Du Molinet.
The two groups ornamented the adjacent baths of Constantine. Sixtus V. placed them at the
gate of his palace of Monte'Cavallo. Fea says: "One of these two monuments is attributed to
Phidias ; the other to Prasiteles. They are also said to represent Alexander taming Bucepha
lus. But if they really were executed by those artists, they cannot represent Alexander, for both
lived before his time. It was only to render those groups more highly esteemed, that they were
attributed to those celebrated sculptors. All scholars of the present day admit them to be Castor
and Pollux, although they do not agree as to the sculptors.
Du Molinet describes thirty-one, and Bonanni forty medals of Sixtus V.
1. Domine tvbe me AD TE venere. Peter in his bark, Avith two apostles.
2. Cvka Pontificia. Four streets opened to Saint Mary Major. The execution is not happy.

SIXTUS v. 869
The body was taken from the palace of Monte CavaUo, which he had in
habited, to the Vatican.
Ohvares endeavored to incite the mob to demolish the statue of Sixtus at
the capitol ; but the cardinals arrested the tumult. The Romans could not
3. Vade Fean. eepaea. Saint Francis, with a scroU in his hands, supports a tottering build
ing. Sixtus having repaired Saint John Lateran, aUudes to the account that Saint Francis
supported a part of the church from falling.
4. Pavpeeibvs Pie Alendis est. A woman throned, consoUng a poor man ; two children
asking aid.
5. Fecit in monte convtvivm plngvtvm. The three mounts — arms of Sixtus V. — surmounted
by the sword of justice ; the scales above, adorned with a cross. On the other mountains, a cor
nucopia and olive-branch. The legend alludes apparently to Isaias xxv. 6.
6. Vigilat sacei Thesavei cvstos. A lion watches a chest clamped with iron. Near the
lion, the three mountains surmounted by a star. Sixtus had an iron chest to hold the gold and
silver, in the castle of Saint Angelo. The chest had six different locks, the keys of which were
in the hands of six different persons of dignity.
7. Sacra peophanis pe^feeend, The obelisk on Saint Peter's. The church has three
domes, but less majestic in appearance than they really are-
8. Vebs laveetana, 1586. Loretto, surrounded by fortifications. In the midst, upon a cloud,
the Blessed Virgin, and the Santa Casa borne by angels. Du Molinet is again in error here.
Bonanni is more exact.
9. Fieri fecit. On a cloud, the Blessed Virgin ; in the background, the Holy House. Sixtus
raised Loretto to the rank of a city and Episcopal See.
10. Felix pbjESidivm, 1588. Five three-banked galleys, with their lateen sails, in the port of
Civita Vecchia.
11. Popvli Chbistiani teophjevm. The obelisk before the church 'of Saint Mary Major.
12. Sacea ocvlo spectat ieeetoeto — With vigilant eye he watches over the sacred treasure,
1587. The Uon seated upon a chest, one paw on the three mountains, and the dther holding a
star surmounted by a flower. ,
13. Tbrea mabi qve secvbitas — Security by sea and land. The galleys, as in medal 10.
14. Svpeb hanc peteam — Upon this rock. Medal oi Gregory XIII. restored, representing
the front of Saint Peter's.
15. Ecce begnvm Dei. The Holy Ghost descending on a tiara. Saint Francis and Sixtus V.
praying opposite to each other. Saint Peter's in the background. In the exergue, a column
between a lion and a dog, both attesting vigilance.
16. Domts Mabi.e LAVEETANffi facta civitas. The house of Loretto, in which the Virgin is
seated with the infant Jesus in her arms.
17. Ponttnas falvdes concess, 1588. Sixtus V. ordered the Pontine marshes to be drained.
We shaU hereafter see the prodigies wrought by Pius VI. in this same attempt. In the field
of the medal canals are seen running in different directions.
18. Cvs Diego D. Alcala in Spagna. Ca. D. P. Sixt.— Saint Diego, of Alcala in Spain,
canonized by Pope Sixtus. In the background, the town of Alcala. In the middle of the field,
Saint Diego, an Observantine. He holds a cross of rush in his hand.
lfl. Beat^ Maele D. Pop. Qvabtvm anno qvaeto eeexit— He erected the fourth obelisk in
honor of the Blessed Mary of tlie People, in the fourth year of the pontificate. The obelisk of the
People's gate in front of the Corso.
20. Pvb. beneficivm. A woman holds in her hands two urns, from which Avater flows intc
subterranean pipes. The Aqua Felice.
21. Ad Latebanatm P. Consistorivm celebbav. In the field, the facade of the church, and
the newly raised obelisk.
22. In the exergue : Sic omnia tvta— Thus all is safe. This inscription, has been placed on
two different medals. On the first, two cities, roads, and the Uon holding a pike protruding from
the three mountains, and surmounted by the keys and a star. Another medal has the sam«

870 LIVES OF THE POPES.
but love this pope. Although born in a low rank of society, his views weie
never mean ; every thing in him was grand, every thing in his conduct was
firm., He was hberal, splendid, magnificent. He gave office to deserving
men. He rewarded good ministers, leaving them no room to care for their
own fortunes. The declared protector of the orphans, the poor, and the
sick, he was endowed with great penetration and an impetuous wUl. The
more difficult the project, the more readUy he undertook it ; and he sur
mounted all obstacles. He never lost his presence of mind ; his memory
was tenacious, and he was the declared enemy of vice. He conversed
words in the upper part. The towns are more distinct, and darts proceed from them towards a
group of reptiles. On the right, a tower. '
23. Another medal, struck on the occasion of the canonization of Saint Diego of Alcala : B.
Didacvm Hisp. in SS. Nvm. Retvlit, 1588. The pope, throned, blesses Cardinal Dega, minister
of the Catholic king. Three cardinals seated on the right hand of the pope, and two on his left.
24. Pons Felix— The Felix bridge. In the exergue : An. Dom. M.D.L.XXXIX. The bridge,
beaten by the Avaters, is ornamented with buildings surmounted by a cross.
25. Vnda semper Felix. In the field : Sixt. P. Max. The Felice fountain.
26. Bonanni gives a very fine medal, unknown to Du MoUnet. On the reverse of a portrait of,
Sixtus V. are the letters : Ivstitia et Clementia complex^: svnt. Two female figures simi
larly dressed, without emblems. As to the character of the pope, it is certain that he forgave
when he became pope many who had offended him ; but he was animated by a kind of passion
for justice, and he did not delay in making that feeling known, when, at the coronation, the mas
ter of the ceremonies said to him, when burning the tapers, " Sic transit, Pater Sancte, gloria
mundi — Holy Father, thus passeth away the glory of the world." Sixtus, in a loud tone, re
plied : " Gloria nostra pertransibit nunquam, quia solum justitiam habemus in voto — Our glory
will neA'er pass away, because we look only to justice." Yet the courage with which he pursued
the brigands, whom he at length destroyed, as Leo XII. did subsequently, wiU eternally illus
trate the reign of Sixtus. The cardinals, according to ancient custom, asked him on the eA-e of
a holiday for the release of the prisoners in Rome. He replied : " There are villains enough in
the city ; there is no need of increasing the number by releasing those who are in confinement.
Our duty is to save the innocent by the punishment of the guilty, and not to corrupt the innocent
by the presence of the perverse.
27. The following are in Bonanni alone: In te sitio. On the exergue: Rom-e — I thirst for
thee, Borne. In the field, Saint Francis, on mount Alvernia, receiving the stigmata. On the
ground, an open book. Father Bonanni, of the Society of Jesus, gives a pious and learned ex
planation of this medal, referring to the bulls of Sixtus IV.
28. Cbvci Felicivs conseceata. In the field, four obelisks. That sort of addition of the
four monuments of that kind, raised by Sixtus, is an idea at once happy, elegant, and novel.
Such an honor could only be attributed to Sixtus V. The obelisks, which are not of equal
height, are all surmounted by crosses.
29. GasARis obeijscvm mib.s: magnitvdinis aspoetavit atqve in fobo d. Peteipeligiter
Excit. An. D. 1586. The letters occupy the whole field, and are cut into eight lines on each side
' of the obelisk, which rises in the middle. The three mountains are seen placed on the top of
what is called the pyramidion.
30. In the field : Ancona Doeica civitas fidei. Above, a large French fleur-de4is between
two stars ; beneath, a mounted warrior between two small fleurs-de-lis.
31. In the exergue : Montalto. The birthplace of the pope. In the field, the Blessed Virgin
crowned and enthroned ; her head is surrounded by twelve stars. On the right, Saint Law
rence holding his gridiron and a palm branch. On the left, Saint ApolloniuB praying.
32. Bibliotheca Vaticana. The Vatican library is represented with its two stories and
its nine arcades.

J

SLXTUS v. 87X
affably, but always without a laugh. When he spoke in pubhc he was
occasionaUy too emphatic, but he was none the less eloquent and majestic.
His temper was at times somewhat fiery, and when angry his eyes seemed
to flash fire.
He ate and drank but httle. His ordinary attire was very simple, but
he would have sumptuous ecclesiastical vestments. His tiara surpassed in
richness those of all his predecessors.
He was weU versed in both phUosophy and theology, and no stranger to
poetry. If we consider this pope in the regularity of his private hfe, in
pubhc administration, or in the management of the most apparently inex
tricable affairs, we must consider him to have been one of those rare men
Avho do honor to humanity, and have scarcely any thing of its weakness.
We forget the immense distance between his father's humble cot and. the
exalted throne of the Vatican ; in brief, that he was a sovereign weU worthy
to reign.*
As regards his personal portrait, this pope was robust, though he was of
only ordinary stature. His complexion was neither dark nor pale. His recep
tion of those admitted to audience was that of a great man inclined to affa
bility, and who controls himseK. His eyes were smaU but bright, and his
eyebrows black and arched. His forehead was spacious, and somewhat
wrinkled. The nose and mouth were weU proportioned, and his beard thick,
white, and long, as princes then wore it.
The History of Sixtus, by Gregory Leti, a starveling scribbler, should not
be read, but that qf Casimir Tempesti, a conventual Franciscan (Venice,
Remondini, 1754, 2 vols. 4to).
The Holy See was vacant eighteen days.
* See Bercastel, tome xix, p. 422.

872

LIVES OF THE POPES.

232. URBAN YII— a. d. 1590.

OHN BAPTIST CASTAGNA (Urban VII.) was bom
at Rome, on the 4th of August, 1521, of a noble
Genoese famUy. He took the degree of doctor in,
the civU and canon law at Bologna. His uncle; Car
dinal VeraUo, being legate in France, John Baptist
became his auditor. Juhus III. made him referen
dary of the signature of justice ; and then, about
1553, archbishop of Rossano : as such he attended
the CouncU of Trent. By order of Pius IV., no decree affecting the pon
tifical authority was to be adopted without the sanction of Castagna.
The Fathers, seeing his talent and his aptitude, made him prefect of tho
congregations. He gave much advice that secured a happy. issue; to the
operations of that assembly. Juhus III. made him governor of Fano, and
Paul IV. invested him with similar authority over Perugia and Umbria.
By command of Pius IV he accompanied to Spain Cardinal Buoncom
pagni, subsequently Pope Gregory XIII. John Baptist had been made
nuncio, and for seven years resided with that title at Madrid, where he
held, at the baptismal font, Isabella, the eldest daughter of Phihp II. On
his return to Rome he resigned, without a pension, tho archbishopric of
Rossano ; and Gregory XIII. sent him as nuncio to Venice, whence Greg
ory removed him to be for a year governor of Bologna. Thence he passed
to Cologne, to aid the bishop of Liege in bringing about a treaty that would
restore peace between the Catholic king and the United Provinces. At
length, after this active life, fuU of important services to the Church, he was
created by Gregory XIII. cardinal, on the 12th of December, 1583, and
sent as legate to Bologna.
After the funeral of Sixtus V, on the 7th of September, when Anthony
Boccapaduli had dehvered a discourse for the election of the successor,
^fifty-three cardinals entered into' conclave. An attempt was first made to
place the tiara on the head of Mark Antony Colonna; but they could
not agree upon him, and then, by common consent, they elected Cardinal
Castagna, on the 15th of September, 1590. He chose the name of Urban
VIL, that he might not forget, as he said, the urbanity which he wished to
show to every one. It was said that Sixtus V., who greatly loved him, pre
dicted his elevation. It is related that, as they dined together at a country
house, Sixtus helping himseK to some pears, found a decayed one, and said :

URBAN VIL 873
" Just now the Romans do not like pears (Peretti) ; they wiU soon have (Cas
tagna) chestnuts." Desirous of showing the fitness of his name, Urban caused
the poor of Rome to be numbered, that he might give them alms ; and he
at the same time granted hberal aid to cardinals whose income was in
sufficient. Very early in his reign he ordered the reform of the datary, and deter
mined upon continuing the buUdings commenced by Sixtus V., saying that
when they were finished inscriptions should be placed upon them in honor
of J3ixtus, and not tha armorial bearings of the new pope.
Some of his relations hastened to Rome. He sent them back by the same
road, without office, dignity, or any other advantage. He signified to his
nephew, Mario MUlini, governor of the castle of Saint Angelo, that he was
not to accept the title of excellency, which is commonly given by courtesy
to near relations of a pope, and forbid any of his kindred to assume a title
superior to that previously enjoyed. Nevertheless, he gave a canonship of
Saint Peter's to Fabricius Verallo, his nephew, exhorting him to keep
within the primitive moderation, and religiously to exercise the office of
canon. He would not employ any of his relations in the court offices, in order
that he might the more severely punish agents guilty of misconduct.
The fine qualities of this pope excited hopes of a corresponding adminis
tration, when symptoms of illness, which appeared on the day after his
election, excited fears for his IKe. From that moment untU his death he
daUy confessed and communicated, and the whole city of Rome incessantly
put up prayers to God in his behalf. Public processions were made, the
Holy Sacrament was exposed, and no pious exercise was omitted to obtain
from God the restoration of so good a pope.
Then he thought of removing to Monte Cavallo, where the air is purer,
and many of the cardinals prepared to accompany him. But the etiquette
which is so austerely observed by the masters of the ceremonies at Rome
would not aUow the pope to be seen in Rome before he was crowned ; and
instead of his being removed by night, when no one would have seen him,
the projected removal was abandoned altogether.
The pope continued to grow weaker. He confirmed his will, by which he
left to the Brotherhood of the Annunciation his whole patrimony, amount
ing to thirty thousand crowns, to furnish marriage portions for poor girls.
He then returned thanks to God for recalling him so soon, so that he would
have no account to give of his papacy. Yet surely he would not have
blasted the favorable hopes entertained of him. But, at the end of a reign
of only thirteen days, he died, at not quite sixty years of age, on the 27th
of December, 1590, without having been crowned. However, the medal for
his coronation had aheady been struck, and it served for his successor, with

874 LIVES OF THE POPES.
only the alteration of the name and head. Urban was deposited at the
Vatican until a tomb was raised for him in the Church of the Minerva.
The Holy See was vacant two months and seven days.*
* Short as this reign was, many medals were struck. The following are in my collection :
1. Vrbanvs VII, Pont. Max. Anno I. Beverse: Sponsvm mevm decoeavit coeona.
Medal prepared for his coronation. A woman seated, a cross in her left hand, and a mitre in her
right. 2. Sic lvceat lvx vestba. A seven branched lamp, resembling that of Jerusalem on the
arch of Titus. It is believed that this medal was struck during the conclave, and that the ob
ject of the inscription was to solicit a choice such as that which placed the tiara on the head" of
Urban. 3. Dexteba Domini faciat virtvtem. The pope on his throne gives a standard to a kneel
ing warrior. This medal is supposed to belong properly to the reign of Gregory XIV, who gave
the standard of the Church to Count Hercules Sfrondati, his nepheAv, on his departure for
France. In the middle of the standard is seen Jesus Christ upon the cross, and two holy women.
Du Molinet describes another medal :
Non potest abscondi. Alluding to Matt. v. 14. The medal represents a city upon a moun
tain. A church with a dome, and a column surmounted by a statue, resembling the column of
Trajan or the Antonine column. The mystical sense of this medal is, that the Church can no
more be hidden than a city on the top of a mountain.
Bonanni describes these other medals :
1. Omnibvs geatvs. On the eve of the death of the pope, the churches of Rome were filled
by the priests and the faithfid, praying God to restore the Holy Father to health. After his
death, this medal was struck in attestation of the tenderness of all for the pontiff. This piece
presents in the field the tiara suspended. Near the exergue, the globe of the earth attached to
the pontifical crozier and cross. The globe, here, is the symbol of the uni\-ersality of Catho-
licitj'. 2. Roma. The scene of the Annunciation. This type is often repeated in papal medals.
3. Popvli qvies et secveitas — The repose and security of the people. A young man holding
the spear and a balance. On the left, at the feet of the young man, a helmet. In the exergue :
Gen. P. R. — Genius of the Soman people. No donbt it Avas less a fact than an augury which
suggested this medal.
4. In veebo tvo. Saint Peter, surrounded by a glory, in the bark drawing the nets filled
with fishes. It is another posthumous homage.
Venuti, in a work upon the pontifical medals* gives, under the reign of Urban VII, still an
other medal :
Ivstitia et clementia oscvlat^b satjt. Two women embracing. Subsequently, the same
author says that this piece belongs to the reign of Clement XIII. Medals struck from two dies
that do not properly belong together, like this, are not uncommon. They are styled mules.
« Xumismnia fiomanorvm PontiJlcwm,prmtantioraptr BodoJphmvm Venuti Corionensem aucta et illustrata.
Bocae, mi, «K.,

GREGORY XIV. 875

233. GREGORY XIV.— a. d. 1590
=g| REGORY XIV., originaUy named Nicholas Sfronda-
ti, belonged to a noble famUy of Milan, which was
founded by Conrad, a German, who, in the time of
Otho IV., estabhshed himseK in Italy.
The mother of Nicholas, Anna Visconti, died, and
by the caesarean operation Nicholas was brought into
the world on the 11th of February, 1535. The infant;
though for some time very weak, graduaUy gained a
httle strength. In the course of years he studied, successively, at Perugia,
Padua, and Pavia, at Avhich last he received the doctorate. ' While still
young, he became a member of the household of Charles Borromeo. On
the 12th of March, 1560, being then twenty-five years old, he was named
bishop of Cremona, by Pius IV., who sent him to Trent, in Avhich council
he drew up the celebrated decree which prohibited the plurahty of benei
fices.* The Holy See was so satisfied with the services of Nicholas, that
without his own consent he was promoted to the purple by Gregory XIH.,
on the 12th of December, 1583, under the title of Saint Cecilia.
The sacred electors having entered into conclave, to the number of fifty-
two, on the 8th of October, named as governor of it Octavius Bandini, who
was afterwards a cardinal. There were several candidates in view for the
tiara. Cardinal Montalto supported Cardinal Scipio Gonzaga, who op
posed that design with a persistency as noble as it was courageous, and
compeUed Montalto to abandon his project.
A great number of votes were united on Cardinal Gabriel Paleotto, but
he had not a sufficient number; two new cardinals arriving, thirty-six
votes were requisite. At length, on the 5th of December, 1590, at about
seven o'clock (Italian time as to reckoning, but in reality noon), the fifty-
six electors elected, with open votes, Cardinal Sfrondati, then aged fifty-five
years. He thus on the instant found himself honored with a charge Avhich
he had not expected or desired. At the moment he was so astonished,
that, turning to the cardinals, who saluted him as Holy Father, he said :
" God forgive you ! What have you done ?"t
However, he burst into tears, and refused to walk, and his voice was
* Oldi ni, in the additions to Chacon. f VittoreUi, in Chacon, vol. iv., col. 216.

876 LIVES OF THE POPES
choked with sobs. The sedia gestatoria was brought in, and he was carried
in spite of himseK into the Basihca of the Vatican, amidst the acclama
tions of the populace, who wished him a long reign.
It is known that Gregory XIII. gave the purple to Nicholas, and that he
endeavored to refuse it, exclaiming : " Why, there is a host of prelates more
^ deserving of' it than I!" When the cardinals elected him pontiff they ex
perienced still greater resistance, but only became the more animated to
conquer each new repulse* ' Although he would not utter a Ayord, it was
necessary that a name should be selected for him, if he should persist in not
selecting one for himself. That of Gregory was pronounced, and a feeling of
gratitude, evidenced by a slight smile, Avas his, only reply; but it was taken
for a tacit consent. That slight sign was taken advantage of to prepare for
the ceremony of the coronation of Gregory XIV., which took place on the
8th of December.
On the 13th of the same month, Gregory took possession of Saint John
Lateran. While he was cardinal, his modesty, his knowledge, and the purity of his
morals, endeared him to Saint Phihp Neri and Saint Ignatius Loyola.
Gregory, deeming it a duty to offer the purple to Saint Phihp, the saint
declined it, alleging the same reasons that had formerly been urged by
Gregory himself; and while warmly thanking him, would not accept that
honor. It is related that when Saint Philip went to pay his respects to
Gregory, the latter rose, hastened to meet him, and said to him : " We
are greater than you in dignity, but you are far greater than Ave in sanctity."
He immediately ordered the saint to be seated, and even to resume his
biretta. To show his respect for the virtues of Ignatius, Gregory, in 1591, confirmed
the institute and the constitution of the Society of Jesus.
We sliaU here see the famous Arnauld d'Ossat, afterwards cardinal,
figure in a remarkable manner. He will be more particularly spoken of
when honored with the fuU confidence of Henry IV. of France. At
present we confine ourselves to mentioning his proceedings in the service
and name of Queen Louisa of Lorraine, who wished the Roman court to
cause solemn obsequies to be celebrated in honor of Henry III., king of
France, her deceased husband. But that prince had died excommunicated,
and it was difficult to obtain such a compliance from the court of Rome,
which had not deigned to make a reply. D'Ossat at length obtained a
brief, but it could not have been quite satisfactory to her majesty. The
pope, after congratulating her majesty upon her having had Masses said,
and imposed upon herself fasting and almsgiving for the salvation of souls, ,
proceeded thus : " Omatus sepulturai, doloris castrum, et funeris pompa,
vivotuin solatia sunt, non subsidia mortuorum. Pits, certe, animabusque,

GREGORY XIV. 877
nuUisjam culpis dbnoxia ad Dominum migrarunt, vilis aut nulla sepullura non
nocet, sicut impiis et peccatorum nexibus detentis pretiosa non prodest — The or
namentation of a tomb, the show of mourning, and the funereal pomps, are
consolations for the survivors, not benefits to the dead. For pious souls
who, free from sins, have flown to the Lord, it matters httle that their boches
have a sordid tomb, or none ; even as the costhest tomb does nothing for
the impious, and those who are stiU bound in the bonds of sin."
FoUowing the example of Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V., the pope pub
hcly renewed, by the constitution Romanus Pontifex, that of Saint Pius V.,
which forbade to alienate or grant in fief the property of the Roman Church.
The whole city of Rome applauded that just and courageous act. At that
precise time Alphonsus H., duke of Ferrara, visited Rome, accompanied by
a suite of six hundred -gentlemen. Gregory gave him a magnificent recep
tion, lodged him in the palace, and treated him the same as he would have
treated the most powerful of sovereigns. The secret object of Alphonsus'
journey was to solicit, in favor of another family than his own, the d'Este
family, the reversion of the duchy of Ferrara. Alphonsus was the last
of the house of Este who had enjoyed that duchy, and before dying he
wished to present that possession to a friendly family, instead of restoring
it to the Holy See, which was the sovereign of the duchy. Gregory, in
trusted the examination of that demand to thirteen cardinals, and, on' their
report, decided that he could not grant that favor without infringing the ,
constitution Romanus Pontifex*
Unfortunately, attacked by a feehng of nepotism, Gregory named as car
dinal his nephew, Paulus EmUius Sfrondati, who was only thirty-one years
of age.
By a neAv constitution, Gregory confirmed that given by Pius IV. regard
ing wagers upon the length of hfe and the death of the pontiffs, and upon
the creation of cardinals. Some persons engaged in that iUicit and inde
cent wagering, in order to save themselves from loss, sometimes disturbed
the elections ; and others, to increase their chance of winning, did not blush
to circulate calumnies against worthy men who were thought likely to be
raised to the purple.
He forbade the Capuchins to administer the- sacrament of penance, in
order that they might have the more time for the contemplation of divine
things. But Clement VHL, in 1598, again permitted them to hear the con
fessions of the faithful.
He pubhshed a law upon the immunity of the churches, and rendered many
decrees concerning promotions to bishoprics and other consistorial dignities.
* It is in the Bullarium, vol. v, part i, p. 246. In the official reply expressions were chosen
which seemed to soften the severity of the refusal.

878 LIVES OF THE POPES.
On the 6th of March, 1591, Gregory made a second promotion of cardi
nals. Among others, it included Octavius PaUavicini, a noble Roman;
Odoard Farnese, of the famUy of the dukes of Parma, and nephew of
Cardinal Farnese. Odoard was declared protector of the crowns of Ara
gon, Portugal, England, and Scotland.
After consulting the cardinals, the pope issued a buU, at the solicitation
of Cardinal BoneUi, a Dominican, nephew of Saint Pius V. That buU
granted to the cardinals who belonged to a rehgious order, the right to
wear red hats. TU1 then they had had to wear hats of the same color with
the habit of their order. On the 9th of June, the pope himseK, previous to
leaving the Quirinal palace for the Church of the Holy Apostles, to, hold a
papal chapel, placed the red hats on the heads of Cardinals BoneUi and
Berner, Dominicans ; Boccafuoco, Minor Conventual ; and Pettrochini,
Hermit of Saint Augustine.
Gregory erected into a rehgious order the congregation of the regular
derlts, ministers to the infirm, founded at Rome by Saint CamiUus de Lellis,
priest of Buclano, in the diocese of Chieti. By the constitution Ex omnibus,
of the 18th of March, 1586, Sixtus V. had -approved the congregation, but
declared that the vows must be spontaneous.
In the castle of Zagarolo, an estate situated twenty miles from Rome,
which belonged first to the hoiise of Colonna, then to that of Ludovisi, and
then to that of Rospigliosi, the final correction was given to the Bible.
That care had been intrusted to six able theologians, presided over by
Cardinal Mark Antony Colonna.
Few persons had as yet noticed the tendency towards nepotism from
which Gregory had been unable to free himseK. That disease of the pon
tifical court soon manifested itseK more fatally. The pope named his
nephew, Hercules Sfrondati, general of the Holy Church,* and sent him
into France at the head of an army of six thousand Swiss, two thousand
Italian infantry, and a thousand horse. These troops were to assist the
French Leaguers, who were fighting against Henry TV". Subsequently, the
pope sent into France, as his nuncio, Marsihus Landriani, who Avas the
bearer of two monitions. One of those documents concerned aU persons
who should espouse the party of Henry, and the other was especiaUy di
rected against such nobles as should not abstain from encouraging heresy.
„Spondanust affirms that besides these monitions, Hercules Sfrondati was
provided with a bull which directly excommunicated Henry of Navarre.
That was the last effort of this pope's power. He was suddenly taken
Ul. He was removed to the palace of Saint Mark, at Rome, which the re-
* See, in life of Urban VH, p. 874, a medal attributed to him, but evidently belonging to
Gregory XIV.
f Annal. Eccles., an. 1591, n. 4.

GREGORY XIV. 879
pubhc of Venice had momentarily restored, and that buUding was sur
rounded by gates and guards to prevent approach. But the condition of
the pope was not to be ameliorated, and he himself considered that he was
in great danger. Then he had all the cardinals summoned around him.
He represented that his incapacity for government was still further in
creased by his infirmities, and he entreated that, even during his hfe, they
would elect a successor. That demand was in opposition to a host of con
stitutions that had always been respected. The cardinals at once declared
that they would not consent to be guilty of such an act. Then he exhorted
them to choose, after his death, a successor worthy of the pontificate, and
to choose him promptly, without cabals and without contests.*
To the other sufferings of Gregory were added those of the disease
known by the name of the stone. LKe was no longer for him any thing
but a long torture.
Campana relates, that to reheve the sufferings of the patient, even pul
verized precious stones and gold were administered to him. Muratori, on
that subject, remarks : " This good pope, then, was surrounded ' either by
stupid physicians or culpable ministers." The pope soon sank under the
violence of his sufferings, and died on the 15th of October, 1591, at the age
of fifty-six. He had governed ten months and ten days. He was interred
in the Vatican, towards the middle of the Gregorian chapel, near Gregory
XIIL, in a tomb almost destitute of ornament.f
This pontiff, although he yielded to nepotism, was distinguished for his
noble virtues. During his short pontificate, he expended considerable
sums in favor of the poor. Some of his ministers did not serve him with
that sentiment of obedience which a minister ought never to forget. Dur
ing a scarcity, the pope himself was left to see personaUy to the care of
obtaining a supply of grain. A great number of people in Rome and the
vicinity died, nevertheless, in consequence of that scarcity. Gregory per
sonaUy visited the sick, and only consented to take a httle nourishment
after he had assisted those who were on the point of sinking under so much
suffering. AU admired his constancy, his piety, his temperance, and a fund of moral
* Cardinal Augustine Valerio wrote a little work on this allocution of Gregory. He breathed
the most pious sentiments, and an invitation to concord which drew tears from aU present.
f I possess three medals of this reign.
1. Geegoeivs XIV, Pont. Max. Beverse, same inscription. In the field, the tiara and keys.
On a shield of four quarters, the arms of the Sfrondati family. 1 and 4, a branch stripped of
leaves ; 2 >and 3, a laurel. The origin of the name of that family is said to be as follows.
Conrad, the founder of it, one day in battle, broke his sword. On the instant, he tore a limb from
a tree, stripped the leaves from it, and thus rendered it sfrondata, literally leafless, and with that
new weapon resumed the fight. Being victorious on that occasion, he placed that branch in two
quarters of his blazon, and for the other quarters he received permission from Henry III. to place

-880 LIVES OF THE POPES.
purity, Which had made him remarkable from the period of his being
created a bishop. Little inclined to interfere in foreign politics, he un
fortunately listened, sometimes, too trustingly to PhUip H., who was the
avowed enemy of Henry IV, of France. The buU which was issued
against the latter prince, Avho was already prepared to learn and to profess
our holy rehgion, retarded the success of that difficult negotiation. Threats
were the least likely of aU means to succeed with Henry TV.
The Holy See was vacant thirteen days.
the laurel. In each of the quarters 1 and 3, stars are also distinguished. This medal is engraved
with great freedom and boldness.
2. Conseceatio. Not in Du Molinet or Bonanni; given in Venuti, p. 181. The pontiff is
consecrating a bishop ; two cardinals and other assistants holding the candles.
3. Diebvs PAMis satveab. Du Molinet has given the inscription correctly. Bonanni gives
the legend incorrectly. Abundance, with a cornucopia and an ear of wheat. Struck after the
scarcity. On the three medals the head of the pope has a long white cap, which almost entirely covers it
Du Molinet gives also :
1. Dexteea Domini faciat atrtvtem. Described by us as a medal of Urban VII.
2. A temporali ad jsternvm. Roma. The Blessed Virgin throned, holding the infant
Jesus, who places a tiara upon the head of a kneeling pope.
3. In Gram Phtlippinaevm. Roma, 1591. The Holy Ghost descending on Christ and the
Blessed Virgin. The Philippines Avere discovered in 1521, and occupied by the Spaniards in 1542,
under Charles V. The Hermits of Saint Augustine, and the Reformed Franciscans, carried the
faith thither. The first bishop of Manilla was Dominic de Salazar, who, from the order of the
Dominicans had passed into that of the Jesuits. Urban VII. and Gregory XIV. had granted
many privileges to those islands. This medal was struck by order of Cardinal Paul Sfrondati,
nephew of that last pope. Ten thousand of these medals were sent into those islands, with in
dulgences attached to their possession.
The head of Jesus is surrounded by the nimbus, as also is that of the Virgin. The Mother Of
God has a veil like that seen upon Philistis, queen of Syracuse.
4. Gregem ne deseeas. The pope in prayer, his crozier in his left hand. On the right,
three sheep ; on the left, the tiara on a hill. Bonanni, who thinks that the medal does not belong
to this reign, gives also :
Ivpitee plve mel. Some authors think the three trees represent the Universal Church.
The shower of honey is ill expressed by the artist ; it rather suggests rays of light descend
ing in perpendicular lines from heaven. A shower of honey should be expressed by something
thicker and less distinct. The shower of honey so solemnly invoked fell not upon 'the reign of
Gregory XIV.

INNOCENT IX

881

234. INNOCENT IX. — a. d. 1591.

|NNOCENT IX. was previously named John Anthony
Facchinetti. He was born on the 20th of July,
1519, at Bologna, of a senatorial, family, native
of Novara. After receiving the grade of doctor,
John Anthony set out for Rome, where he be
came secretary to Cardinal ArdingheUi. Sub
sequently, he was governor of Parma, and bishop
E. of Nicastro, in Calabria. In 1561, he went to the,
Council of Trent. Gregory XIV. named him
cardinal on the 12th of December, 1583. After the funeral ceremonies of
Pope Gregory XIV., fifty-six cardinals met in conclave, and on the 29th of
October, 1591, they elected, in open scrutiny, Cardinal Facchinetti, who
was then seventy-two years of age. He took the name of Innocent IX., in
memory of Innocent IH., a famous jurisconsult, and was privately crowned
on the 3d of November, in the same year. On the 8th of that month he
went, mounted on a white mule, to take possession of Saint John Lateran.
Faithful to ancient custom, the pope announced the news of his exalta- •
tion to the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops.
. He immediately confirmed the buU of Saint Pius V, which forbade the
alienation of the territories of the Roman Church.*
Then a scarcity occurred ; and the pestUence, though weaker, still con
tinued its ravages. The pope caused the price of bread to be lowered, and
distributed relief to the poor. To meet this, he preferred to borrow
forty thousand crowns, rather than touch the treasure left by Sixtus V, in
the castle of Saint Angelo. Innocent said that it was useful that a treasure
should remain in Rome, at the disposal of the Christian repubhc. Car
dinal Gaetani, having sohcited the pardon of John Anthony Orsini, Avith a

* We have only two medals of this pontiff.
1. L\NOCENTrcm IX. Pont. Max. Reverse : Roma eesuegens-. We have seen this same type
under Paul IV 2. Rectis cobde, 1591. Angel offers the tiara.
In Du Molinet, we find :
1. Pbo Phtlippinis et aliis. The figure of Christ. 2. In veebo tvo laxabo eete. Saint
Peter casts the net upon the shore. Christ extends his left hand.
In Bonanni, we find :
Pnnocentio IX. Pont. Max. Argent, an oak vert-— the arms of the Facchinetti. Above, the
keys and tiara. We have mentioned a simUar medal under JuUus II.
Almost aU the other medals are repetitions.
Vol. I.— 56

882 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sum of money as the price of that pardon, the pope was indignant, and
rephed : " We require not money, but obedience." From all circumstances,
it has been concluded that K the reign of Innocent had been longer, it would
have been a happy one. The Romans agreed in recognizing, in this pope,
a matured wisdom, a pure hfe, hberahty, magnificence, and experience in
business. On the 30th of December, 1591, he feU dangerously UL and died, having
governed the Church only a little more than two months.
Rome then had to bewail the loss of three sovereign pontiffs in lesa than
sixteen months after the death of Sixtus V.
Innocent IX. was removed from Monte CavaUo to the Vatican, where his
ashes repose in the subterranean church.
He had a handsome countenance and a lofty stature. Fasting, however,
had injured his health. It was his custom to eat only once a day, and in
the evening. Among his effects was found a small mirror, divided into two
parts: upon the one was painted a death's head, and upon the other a
funeral procession. It was thus that he reminded himseK of death, for
which he daUy accustomed himself by looking at that mirror.
The Holy See remained vacant one month.

235. CLEMENT VIIL — a. d. 1592.
^4 LEMENT VIIL (Hippolytus Aldobrandini), of a very
|fc iUustrious Florentine family, was born on the 24th
of February, 1535, in the city of Fano, where his
father, Sylvester Aldobrandini was pontifical gov
ernor, haA'ing been driven from Florence, Avhere he
had been secretary of state, by the enmity of Duke
Alexander de Medici. Hippolytus studied juris
prudence, and took the degree of doctor. At an
early age he excelled in Greek and Latin poetry. At Rome he became con-
sistorial auditor. Sixtus V. — and it was a striking mark of confidence —
made him datary, on the 17th of May, 1585. On the 18th of December, of
the same year, the pope created Hippolytus cardinal, and sent him as
legate to Poland to sohcit the hberation of Maximilian, archduke of Austria,
who was held prisoner by the Poles. The Holy See never ceases to take
an interest in the sufferings of the unfortunate. The nuncio succeeded in

,

CLEMENT VIH. 883
his mission, and restored peace between Austria arid Sigismund, who had
succeeded Stephen Battory.
After the funeral of Innocent IX., fifty-two electors entered into conclave
on the 10th of January, 1592. In this conclave several parties arose : on
the one side, the Montaltists, headed by Cardinal Montalto, nephew of
Pope Sixtus V. ; and on the other side, the Spanish party. The latter
shoAved a preference for Cardinal Santorio, Avho, on the 11th, was on the
point of being elected by adoration. Thirty-five of the electors had given
their votes ;, but Cardinals Altemps, Gesualdi, and Colonna put a stop to
the tumult, which for several hours prevailed in the chapel. They con
strained those who were clamoring for the adoration to consent to the scru
tiny. Here Santorio, a fanatical partisan of the Spanish faction, had no
more than thirty votes — five too few. But Providence had decreed the
tiara to Aldobrandini. A single cardinal was here seen to exercise, a sort
of power of exclusion. Cancellieri thus relates the fact : " The cardinals
were divided into two parties. Ascanius Colonna desiring the elevation of
Santorio, cardinal of San Severino, wished the electors to proceed by way
of adoration. The -excitement of the two parties was so intense, that the
Spanish party shut themselves up in the haU of scrutiny, -while the other
party retired to the Pauline chapel, and every thing seemed to menace
scenes of violence. The tumult was such, that the senior cardinals could
not count the votes, wliich, at that instant, were sufficient— thirty-five.
Ascanius received a slip of paper from his relative, Mark Anthony Colonna.
Ascanius read it, and exclaimed, Ascanius will not have San Severino for
pope, because he. is not the choice of God. And he rushed from the chapel, in
spite of the efforts of the other cardinals to detain him. The effect of this-
renunciation was so rapid, that Santorio (San Severino) was at once excluded
by a very great number of A'ote's. Other candidates were proposed, but
rejected. A cardinal suddenly named Aldobrandini. He was accepted with
acclamation, and elected at nineteen o'clock (Itahan reckoning), i. e., noon,
on the 19th of January, 1592.
" The electors had been impeUed towards, that choice, not only by the
esteem in which they held Cardinal Aldobrandini, but also from his being
only fifty-six years old ; ,for aU the cardinals observed that they had had to
deplore the death of three pontiffs, whose united reigns had occupied only
sixteen months." AU these observations of CanceUieri are confirmed by
Novaes. Before accepting the dignity, which he had not contemplated, Aldobran
dini demanded permission to approach the altar. Yielding to an impulse
of sublime humility, he said, with an emotion that excited universal enthu
siasm : "O my God! let my tongue dry up, that I may not constent to
this election, unless it be for the good of thy Church, which I love from the

884 LIVES QF THE POPES.
very bottom of my heart, and of Cliristendom, whose glory and prosperity I
desire." This admirable manifestation of modesty greatly impressed the car
dinals. They sent for the pontifical vestments. They almost forcibly seized
the cardinal, and atthed him. He kept silence, but, when he saw them
remove his red cassock, which he was never to see again, he exclaimed:
" Give us back our beads and the office of the B. Virgin, which are the
witnesses of our devotion." Aldobrandini could no longer withhold his
consent, as he had used the papal first person plural — " Give us back our
beads ;" and he declared that he would take the name of Clement VIIL
The name had once been given him by Saint PhUip Neri, who predicted
that he would one day become pope. On the 2d of February, the pope was
ordained bishop by Cardinal Alphonsus Gesualdi, dean of the sacred col
lege, and then crowned by Cardinal Sforza, first deacon ; and on the 12th
of AprU he solemnly took possession of Saint John Lateran. Clement
made the distribution (presbyterium) of the . pieces of gold and sUver, that
had not been made for some time previously.
When the pope had regulated some urgently important matters, he estab
hshed a congregation under the title of The Visitation. It was to examine,
in detail, aU the churches, monasteries, coUeges, hospitals, and brother
hoods of Rome. The first visit was made to Saint John Lateran, so that the
example should strike aU the administrators, and warn them to bring under
better regulation the affairs intrusted to them. On aU sides divine worship
was restored, and a strict decorum was re-established: abuses were cor
rected : the eye of the master was everywhere, and every subaltern knew it.
The guardian was ever there, watchful, and determined to maintain order.
Every one could make his complaint. There are many other countries
where such visitations Avould be permanently useful. It is not easy to say
how much would be profitably borrowed from Rome, in the way of whole
some customs.
The constitution, Graves et Diuturnas, of the 25th of November, 1592, in
stituted the exposition named of the Forty Hours, in aU the churches of
Rome, so that the Holy Sacrament should be exposed day and night on
every day in the year.
This pious institution, which Paul V. renewed, by granting a great num
ber of indulgences, on the 10th of May, 1606, was adopted in many cities,
not only in Italy, but in many other nations. Moreover, it had been already
knoAvn in many churches of the first order.
Two sons of the elector of Bavaria at this time visited Rome, to offer, in
the name of their father, their veneration to Pope Clement. The pontiff
receiA'ed them with tender affection, and in a consistory seated them next to
the cardinals.
At this tiroe died Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, one of the most

fif*

/. CLEMENT VIIL 885
famous captains of his time, who had commanded armies against Henry
IV., king of France. Clement bewaUed Farnese, and ordered magnificent
funeral ceremonies for him in the Vatican BasUica.
The pontiff was also much afflicted by the death of Alphonsus Gonzaga,
lord of Castelgiufredo, which was under the pontifical protection.
The fatal custom of dueUing, somewhat abated since the Council of Trent,
again required the attention of the popes. Clement forbade those combats,
under the severest penalties, by his constitution thirty, of the 17th' of
August, 1592, requiring dueUists and seconds to be prosecuted. He also
threatened to lay under interdict any places which by their law authorized
or even tolerated duelling. He exhorted princes to enforce the execu
tion of the measures prescribed by that bull, and severely to punish de
linquents. Many sovereigns promised to put it in practice, as far as they
had power, those wise instructions ; for at that time, in the habits of the
people, and in some remnants of the feudal law, there were obstacles that
only rehgion could overcome.
About the year 1586, Sixtus V. had erected into a religious order the
HospitaUers, known as the Fate bene Fratelli. Clement, in 1592, restored
the order to the position it held under the reign of Pius V., so that it no
longer Avas a rehgious order.
Clement's brief for the suppression was accepted in Italy, but not in
Spain, where Phihp H. refused to give it the royal exequatur. The same
occurred in Russia, in 1763, at the suppression of the Jesuits by the brief
of Clement XIV. But this state of things did not last. Paul V., by two
briefs, in 1611 and 1617, restored them to the dignity of a religious order,
and inferred that the Spanish members had not ceased to be rehgious,
although the brief of Clement VIH. had not been received in Spain.
MeanwhUe, the Holy Father, by letters of the 15th of April, 1592, com
manded his legate to the League of Paris, Cardinal PhUip Sega, to watch
that the faith did not suffer in France, which had recognized a king who
was stiU a Calvinist. On the other hand, Henry, gently urged by the
Roman court, with aU the delicacy that such chcumstances required, and
seeing that he could not easily hold the throne of France if he persisted in
the errors of Calvinism, asked his Huguenot ministers if he could be
saved in the event of his becoming a Catholic. They replied affirmatively!
Then he said to them, " Certainly, then, it wiU be better that I shall go to
heaven as. king of France, than only as king of Navarre." From that mo
ment, the prince received instructions in the dogmas of our religion from
David du Perron, a former Calvinist, but sincerely converted to the faith.
The particulars of the negotiation tending to restore Henry to the bosom
of the Church naturaUy find their place here.
We have aheady mentioned that a French agent, Arnauld d'Ossat, em-

886 LIVES OF THE POPES.
ployed in the French king's embassy at Rome, had sohcited from Pope
Gregory XIV., on behaK of Louisa of Lorraine, widow of Henry III., that
solemn obsequies should be performed in honor of that prince, and that
thus the excommunication should be revoked which had been pronounced
against him by Sixtus V. D'Ossat, as we shaU see, was to become the
almost sole confidential servant of Henry IV., and it wiU not be useless to
give some particular description of a personage who was to earn so honor
able a reputation in a difficult negotiation.*
The papal absolution of King Henry IV. "was thwarted," says d'Ossat,
"by the duke de Sesso, the Spanish ambassador, and by the Lorraine
princes." The French Huguenots themselves, much attached as they Avere
to Henry IV., whom they had assisted with both sword and purse, did not
desire his reconciliation with the Holy See, preferring, as they did, their
OAvn individual passion to the safety of the royal person and the pacification
of the kingdom, which depended entirely upon the Roman absolution.
Henry IV., whose sincerity was beyond aU doubt, attentively read d'Os-
sat's correspondence, Avhich exposed aU the difficulty, and he deemed it so
prudent and judicious, that he Avrote to d'Ossat, announcing the departure
of the duke of Nevers for Rome, and requesting d'Ossat to act in concert
A\ith him.

* Arnauld d'Ossat was born on the 23d of August, 1536, at Cassagnabere, a village in the
diocese cf Auch. His father died when he was nine years old, and so poor that he was buried
by charity. Thomas de Marca, a neighboring gentleman, educated him with the young lord of
Castelnau de Magnoac, hjs lordship's nephew and ward. D'Ossat so applied himseK, that four
years later he was tutor to his former fellow-student. In May, 1559, they both went to Paris,
and Thomas de Marca, pleased with d'Ossat's prudent conduct, placed other young relatives
under his care. In 1562 he read law at Bourges, under Cujas, and became a licentiate, on which
he was admitted as an advocate in the Parliament of Paris, trusting to assiduous study for suc
cess. In 1564 he sent to the press a defence of the Dialectic of Pierre de la Ramee against
Jacques Charpentier, a doctor of medicine. Charpentier replied in terms of insult. Paul de
Foix took d'Ossat to Rome in 1574, and when appointed ambassador in 1580, made him secre
tary. D'Ossat then commenced the diplomatic career. Mr. de Foix dying at Rome, at the close
of 1582, Cardinal d'Este, protector of the affairs of France, offered his house to d'Ossat. Car
dinal d'Este, feeling that he was dangerously ill, signed a will, in which, among other bequests,
he left d'Ossat the sum of four thousand Roman crowns. Doubting the zeal and promptitude of
the executors Avhom he had named, he ordered that a diamond, valued at twenty thousand
crowns, should be at once given to d'Ossat, as an instalment of the bequest D'Ossat had only
the small emolument of his post as councillor to the presidency of Melun. He had no benefice,
yet he refused to accept the pledge which the cardinal wished him to have. Cardinal de
Joyeuse having succeeded to Cardinal d'Este as protector, received d'Ossat kindly, and gave him
a priory. Henry III. offered him the post of secretary of state ; but d'Ossat declined it, beUeving
it sought by de VUleroy. who had befriended him. D'Ossat's delicacy excited in de VUleroy a
feeling of grateful respect, which never left him. .D'Ossat in vain endeavored to obtain the cel
ebration of the obsequies of Henry III, at the instance of that prince's widow, Louisa of Lor
raine. Nevertheless, it was not thought at Paris that the negotiator had been Avanting in zeal
or ability. See Life of Cardinal d'Ossat, in the Letters du Cardinal d'Ossat. (Amsterdam, 5
vols, 12mo, 1714.)

CLEMENT VIII. 887
Clement VEIL congratulated d'Ossat, and told him that he should be
pleased to treat with him, and that the Selection of such a plenipotentiary
could not but increase the favorable disposition of the Roman court. Mean
time, the king's ministry at Paris imagined that the French prelates could
give absolution to the king at Paris, saving the authority of tlw Holy Apos
tolic See.
The cardinal of Placentia, legate in France, endeavored to prevent such
an invalid absolution, by a letter which he addressed to aU the CathoUcs of
the kingdom. In that letter, the cardinal stated that Henry of Bourbon,
A\ho styles himself king of France and Navarre, having called upon the
French prelates to give him absolution, the legate beheves it to be his duty
to announce that the excommunication pronounced by Sixtus V. against
Henry is and still remains effectual, and that the sovereign pontiff Clement
alone can absolve the king from it.
Notwithstanding this notice, Henry IV. allowed himseK to be persuaded
that he could make his abjuration in the hands of the archbishop of
Bourges, in the presence of Cardinal de Bourbon Vendome, and of seven
or eight bishops. ChanceUor de Chiverny says that the king deter
mined to perform the ceremony in the abbey church of Saint Denis,
in testimony that he desired to live and die, like the kings who are buried
there, in the bosom of the Roman Church. As to the absolution, the arch
bishop pronounced it in these terms : " Saving the authority of the Holy
See, I absolve thee from the crime of heresy and apostacy ; I restore thee
to the holy Roman Church, and admit thee to her sacraments. La the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." According
to this condition, the king was stiU in need of the absolution of the pope,
or, at the least, the confirmation of that of the bishops. On that account
it was that he wrote the foUoAving letter to Clement VIIL, in his own hand :
" Most Holy Father :
" Having, by the inspiration which it has pleased God to give me, become
convinced that the Roman Cathohc Apostohc Church is the true Church,
fuU of truth, and in which hes the salvation of men ; comforted stiU further
in that faith and' credence by the instruction given to me by the prelates
and doctors in the holy faculty of theology, whom to that end I have caUed
together, on the points which in past time had separated me from the
Church ; I am resolved to unite myself to that holy Church, and to live and
die in her, with the aid of Him who has mercifully caUed me to her ; and
to make a beginning in that good work, after having been received to do so
by the said prelates, with the forms and ceremonies which they judged
necessary, accordingly I have willingly submitted myseK. On Sunday, the
25th of July, I heard Mass, and joined my prayers to those of other good

LIVES OF THE POPES.
Cathohcs, as incorporated in the said Church, with the firm intention to
persevere in the same aU my hfe, and to pay due obedience and respect to
Your Holiness, as was done by aU the Most Christian kings my predeces
sors. And assuring myself, most Holy Father, that Your Hohness wUl
rejoice over this holy act, so fitting to the place where it has pleased God
that it should be done, I have deemed fit, whUe waiting to pay my duty
more fully by a formal embassy, to give by these few hnes from my OAvn
hand the first testimony of my filial devotion to Your Hohness, earnestly
entreating you to receive it in the spirit in which it is dictated by a
most sincere and affectionate heart, hoping by my actions to merit your
holy benediction. And with this, most Holy Father, I pray God that he
will preserve you in perfect health, for the good government of his holy
Church.
" Henry.
" From Saint Denis, the 18th of August, 1593."
Reasoning from a letter written by this prince to the duchess of Beaufort,
it has been said that he had manifested less decided sentiments ; that he
had said that he should be made to hate Saint Denis. And something was
said about a perUous leap. We must reply that Henry had not yet sub
jected Paris, and was in a really dangerous position. Commanding a mixed
army of Cathohcs and Protestants, he was closely watched by both parties.
As he passed in front of his guards, he saw a crowd of those Protestants
who had been mutUated in his service, and who looked upon him with a
respect that was mingled with grief and compassion, perhaps, and even with
something of menace. On entering his council,' he saw Rosny, with his
stern brow, and ardent Cathohcs who were unwilling to be disappointed in
their hopes, and who were ready to desert a sovereign whom they supposed
to be uncertain in his plans. He had promised that he would believe as
they did ; and they awaited, but with no great confidence, the fulfilment Of
that promise. A third party consisted of friends, both Cathohc and Prot
estant, of the duchess of Beaufort's faction, who knew not what to advise.
By turns they blamed or applauded. Their sole view was to favor the king's
passion for a woman who already aspired to share his 'throne. In such
circumstances, a warrior who knew how devotedly the Calvinists had shed
ttieir blood for him, a prince whose line had so long aspired to the French
sceptre, and who now saw the day come on which he could, as of right,
wear a crown which belonged to him, and return into the true religion in
¦which he had been reared, and which he had only abandoned on compul
sion, and at an age when strength and courage are not yet fuUy developed ;
a man — and here he is only a man to be pitied, carried away by a frantic
love which he knew not how to control, and who feared the austerity of

CLEMENT VIIL 889
Rome, as it was necessary to bend her and sohcit a divorce, with the secret
intention of a misaUiance, which made it aU the more difficult; — a man thus
distracted might weU be inconsistent.
Clement VIIL was aware of, but disapproved, the step intended to be
taken by the archbishop and bishops assembled at Saint Denis ; and ac
cordingly, they did not hesitate to give an account of it to the Holy Father,
in the foUowing letter :
" Most Holy Father :
" Post humillima beatorum pedum oscula — After having humbly kissed the
feet of Your Holiness.
" We, archbishop, bishops, and ecclesiastics, who are yours in the bands
of our zeal and of our tenderness, we who have labored for the act concern
ing Henry our king returning to the holy Roman Catholic Church, we beg you
not to see in that act, dictated by the imperative urgency of our affairs, any
thing to lead you to beheve that we have rashly and arrogantly presumed
or usurped. Your Holiness will judge and openly perceive that all was set
tled and concluded without offence to the dignity of the Holy See, or the
respect due to Your Hohness. We shaU speedUy send one of our number
to Your Hohness, further and more clearly to expose and explain what has
been done ; in the mean time, we earnestly entreat Your Hohness to con
sider us true sons of the Church, and fiUed with love and veneration for
Your Holiness. May God for many years preserve Your Holiness to his
Church !
" Given at Saint Denis, the 6th of August, 1593."
Besides the signature of Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, this letter bore
the signatures of an archbishop, seven bishops, and eleven abbots and doc
tors — twenty signatures in aU.
A truce had been entered into, in order to suspend hostilities ; but the
Spanish and the Leaguers were for preventing the people from leaving
Paris for Saint Denis. In -spite of that prohibition, a great number of the
citizens contrived, by urgency and entreaty, to pass the guard, and quite a
multitude of Parisians reached the king, whom they loudly applauded as he
passed. D'Ossat having reported to the pope the feeling in France on the
king's conversion, another negotiation commenced more serious than the
first. D'Ossat represented that the reduction of Paris had become more easy
and more probable ; that the French bishops appeared to have rendered a
service to the kingdom and to the king, Avithout offending the pope, who

890 LIVES OF THE POPES.
definitively had the sovereign authority in the matter of absolution. At thn
same time Spain insisted that Clement should meet the king's request
Avith a direct refusal, and the language of the Spanish ambassador was so
unmeasured as to give serious offence to the Holy See.
Clement Avould not refuse audiences to d'Ossat, whom the Itahans loved,
because, as they said, he Avas " fertUe in expedients." But the negotiation
lasted several months.
Meantime, Paris had recognized the king of France. The 22d of March,
1594, was a holiday for almost the entire kingdom ; and by the effect of a
singular state of the pubhc mind, the king's councU did not so firmly press
the request that had so long before been presented at Rome. Some of the
ministers had raised the dangerous cry — " Let us temporize ! Spain has too
much power at the Vatican ; let us await another reign in Rome !" That
wish became known to the sacred college. D'Ossat thought it his duty to
oppose that opinion, and wrote to Henry on the 23d of December. He
commenced by agreeing with those who anticipated the death of the pope ;
and he then declared that that expectation, too much prolonged, was of no
advantage to the interests of the king, and shows how aU Avould- have to be
begun anew with a neAv pontiff.
An animated correspondence ensued between the king and d'Ossat. The
latter also kept in constant communication with the pope's nephew, Cardinal
Aldobrandini, a man greatly distinguished for his inteUect. Though scarcely
tAventy-four years of ¦ age, he had obtained the entire confidence of his uncle.
D'Ossat having asked permission from Clement VIIL to communicate the
general state of affairs to that nephew, the pope replied : " TeU him every
thing, eAren to what we have said in this audience." Thus the French min
ister on this occasion found an opportunity to repeat and strengthen aU
that he had before said, and he gathered the replies which, though substan
tially the same, yet often aUowed admissions or concealments to be suffi
ciently visible to give the negotiator the advantage.
Cardinal Delfino, minister from Venice to Rome during the years 1596,
1597, and 1598, spoke thus of Cardinal Aldobrandini: "He is of a most
noble nature, and amiable and graceful as can be imagined. We may add
that he was very amiable, and thoroughly to be relied upon." *
However, there was one point upon which Aldobrandini, with aU his ele
gance, and d'Ossat with all his zeal, could not come to an agreement.
Clement, hi measured and paternal terms, had expressed his opinion upon

* It is noticeable, says Comines, that all the men who have been great and have done noble
things b-gan when very young.
Scilicet ingenium et rerum prudentia velox
Ante pilos venit, dieenda tacendaque calles. — Phrshjs.

CLEMENT VIIL 891
the absolution pronounced by the French archbishop and bishops. Aldo
brandini, with aU the forms of the most exquisite politeness, explained the
consequences of that act of the French episcopate. The pope must needs
treat as a nuUity the absolution given by the bishops of France,* who, ac
cording to the laws of Rome, had no authority to revoke, or even to moderate,
or interpret the judgments and censures of the Holy See. It was said at
Rome that nothing like that procedure of the French bishops had ever be
fore been witnessed, where, in a single morning, instruction, conversion,
satisfaction, penance, and absolution had been hurried through simultane
ously. That was the reason why the pope and Aldobrandini made no reply
when d'Ossat, a good servant and somewhat exacting Frenchman, spoke so
much about the Cathohcity of the king, and his inflexible determination to
hve and die in the apostolical Roman Cathohc religion.
Meanwhile, Seraphin Olivier, auditor of the rota, an able and courageous
personage,t said one day very bluntly to the pope : " Most Holy Father,
permit me to teU you that Clement VII. lost England through being too
complaisant to Charles V. ; and that Clement VIH. wiU lose France K he
continue to be too complaisant to PhUip II."
This was not quite true. Even without taking into account the inde
cision of Charles V., England was destined to faU under the yoke of Calvin.
Moreover, in our IKe of Clement VIL, we have shown how much Clement
VIL did to prevent that misfortune. Nevertheless, the words of Monsignor
Seraphin made a deep impression on the mind of His Hohness.
D'Ossat being made aware of this incident, returned to the charge, Avas
better received, and so wrote to Henry.
A suspicion was felt by the CouncU of Paris, from the idea that it was
sought to impose humiliating terms upon the king.
On this subject d'Ossat thus expresses himself in a letter to the king : " I
told the pope that you had been assured that he sought to force your ma
jesty to a rehabihtation ; that, as regards your private person, you would
not hesitate to take both absolution and rehabihtation, or even more than
that, receiving aU as tending the more to your advantage, but that the dig
nity of a king of France, which centres in your person, and which has
devolved upon you by the Salic law, without your even taking it from any
of your predecessors, together with the pre-eminence of the crown of France,
and the unanimous consent of the French people, made that remedy repug
nant, and required the substitution of some good expedient. Such an ex-
* Amelot de la Hbussaye, Lettres de d'Ossat, i, p. 353.
\ Seraphin Olivier Avas born at Lyons, but brought up at Bologna, his mother's town. He be
longed to the Olivier family which had given chancellors' to France. He was made auditor of
the Rota by Sain Paul V, on the recommendation of Charles IX. He was a witty, companion
able man.

892 LIVES OF THE POPES.
pedient was sought for and found by d'Ossat, because the king, fiUed with
prudence and penetration, left freedom of action to that man so rich in ex
pedients. At length, Davy du Perron,* bishop elect of Evreux, was sent to act, in
conjunction with d'Ossat, as proxy of his majesty, in the great ceremony of
the absolution.
D'Ossat, who at first singly conducted that negotiation, had acted so ably,
that when du Perron arrived he had Uttle more to do than to reap the
fruits. After several conciliatory proceedings, which were approved by the pope,
du Perron and d'Ossat, on the 30th of June, 1595, presented a formal ap
plication to His Holiness.
It is true that he treated Avith two personages of singular integrity in
business, and who preserved that reputation during their whole lives.
" The Holy Father," says d'Ossat, " on Wednesday, the 2d of August,
summoned aU the cardinals to a general congregation, and caUed their at
tention to the said business, informing them of all that had been done in it
from the commencement of his pontificate. He pointed out aU the severities
which he had used concerning it, and how ineffectual such severities had
been, seeing that the king had still prospered and estabhshed himself in the
kingdom, notwithstanding all the resistance that could be opposed to him.
His Holiness proceeded to state that at length he had informed Cardinal
de Gondi that His Holiness would give audience to any new envoy from
the Most Christian king, and that thereupon the king had sent Mr. du Perron
as the bearer of two letters from his majesty, one of which was in his own
* James Davy du Perron, reader to Henry III, was born on the 25th of November, 1556, of
Protestant parents. His father was a Protestant minister, named Julian Davy. From his
eariiest years James showed the happiest dispositions, which a good education and the love of
study perfected. His memory was prodigious, and his progress was surprising in every study,
but more especially in logic, a science then in great request. Moreover, he had a supple and
amusing wit, and attracted a great number of friends and patrons. Fortune called him to court.
He immediately renounced Protestantism, and became one of the most zealous defenders of the
Catholic religion. In 1576, being then only twenty years of age, he lectured publicly, in the
great hall of the Augustinians, upon peripatetic philosophy and mathematics. In aU his dispu
tations Avith the Protestant authors who attacked him he was victorious.
After the death of Henry III, du Perron passed into the service of Cardinal Charles de Bour
bon ; and formed the third party in favor of that cardinal, whom he had proclaimed king under
the name of Charles the Tenth, which has subsequently been more honorably borne. The
bishop elect of Evreux took a prominent part in the conversion of Henry IV, and on the day
when the absolution of the king was pronounced at Saint Denis he was at the side of that prince,
and r( joicing in his own share of bringing him to the foot of the altar. .During the truce, of
which we spoke some time back, du Perron gained another complete victory at the assembly of
Nantes, on the 7th of December ; he silenced in debate fourteen ministers, among whom were
the famous Berau and Rotan. (See Du Cardinal d'Ossat, 1771, vol. i, p. 375.) About the month
3f April, 1595, Henry IV. gave du Perron the title of counciUor of state and first almoner, that
he might be able to send him to Rome.

CLEMENT VIIL 893
handwriting, and explained his request. His Hohness urged that this was
tlie most important business that the Holy See had had before it in several centu
ries; and His Hohness begged, prayed, and exhorted those assembled
princes of the Church to consider it well, and to lay aside all human passion
and interest, and to have no thought but for the honor of God, the preser-i
vation and extension of the Cathohc faith, and the common benefit of aUl
Christendom. His Hohness reminded them that in this instance they had
not to deal with the case of a private man detained in prison, but with that
of a very great and most potent prince, commanding armies and much
people, and that they ought to consider less that prince himseK than that
whole great kingdom Avhich foUowed and depended upon him, and not to be
as strict in absolving from censures as in absolving from sins. The pope
added that in four or five days from that time he would separately consult
each of the cardinals, in their rank and order, so that in his own chamber
he might have the true opinion and best advice of each of them ; and he
desired that they would aU be prepared. After thus speaking, he caused
to be read in the said assembly the two letters of the king and the written
request."* " On the foUowing Monday, the 7th of August, the pope began to hear
the opinions of the said lords cardinals, and partly on account of the slow
ness which is natural to Rome, and partly because His Holiness could not
neglect the general business of that court, he did not finish hearing them
untU Wednesday, the 23d of that month. More than three-fourths of the
cardinals we.ve of opinion that His Hohness should give the absolution. In
the week which has elapsed since the pope finished hearing the said
opinions, we have solicited and treated upon the conditions of the future
absolution, and have come to agreement upon the same. At the least, we
have said to them, and guarantied in writing, aU that we could grant them,
without reserving any thing to ourselves, and we have declared that Ave
could add no more. It would seem that they require more, but more they
wiU not have from us ;t and we require that the business should be ended
without delay, as we entreated of the Holy Father in the third audience
given to us by His Holiness, on Monday, the 28th day of this month. We
then made him, in person, the above declaration,^: that we could add
nothing to the conditions by us previously conceded. Accordingly, to-day,
the 30th of August, His Holiness held a consistory, in which he declared to
the cardinals that, having coUected their votes, he found that nearly aU were
* B'Ossat's Letters, i, p. 562.
f This refers to the opposing cardinals, who still wanted to dictate new conditions and espe
cial! y to Cardinal Santorio, or San Severino, the ardent partisan of Spain.
X It is to be observed here that d'Ossat no longer Avrites singly, and that du Perron also gives
his opinion, which, throughout the negotiation, is a Uttle less favorable to Rome.

894 LIVES OF THE POPES.
in favor of granting the absolution, and accordingly he had determined to
give it, and had aheady consulted with the proxies as to their conditions,
the principal and most important of which they had heard from him ; add
ing, that he would endeavor to obtain more if possible, and what he could
not obtain at present, he would endeavor subsequently to obtain by means
of a legate, whom he would send, and by means of nuncios whom he would
keep near the king, and by the ambassadors from his majesty. It now re
mains for us to sign the above-mentioned conditions and promises, and for
His Holiness to make and publish the decree of the absolution.
" Meantime there is great eagerness to draw up the form of the abjura
tion and confession of faith that we shaU have to make here in the name*of
the king ; and the form of the bull of absolution, of which we are to have a
copy, and on which nothing is to be done without previous consultation
with us. That done, His Holiness wUl pubhcly perform the solemnity of
the said abjuration and confession of faith, and of the absolution which wUl
govern with reference to it, and of the same tenor. And we have the hope,
almost the certainty, that that wiU occur on the day of the Nativity of Our
Lady, the 8th of next month,* and that the same buU, signed and sealed,
wiU be conveyed to the king and pubhshed in France and in aU Christendom.
" The Spanish ambassador (the duke of Sessa) has always persisted in
maintaining the king to be impenitent, and that he should on no account be
absolved ; and in the mean time he has a great number of venal tools who
have privately aided him, by urging aU sorts of pretexts on wliich the abso
lution might be denied altogether, or deferred as long as possible.
" Now, the more malignant spirits endeavored to prevent or postpone so
great a benefit, the more our Holy Father has caused pubhc or private.
prayer to be offered up by aU good people in Rome ; and the more he has
himself been assiduous in prayer and in the invocation of the grace and
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Besides his customary devotions, which at
all times are great, on Saturday, the 5th of this month, the feast of the
dedication of Saint Mary's of the Snows, accompanied by a smaU number
of servants, both he and they being barefooted, he went at daybreak from
his palace of Monte CavaUo to Saint Mary Major,t where he prayed at
* It did not occur till the 17th day of September.
¦f «Saint Mary Major is one of the four patriarchal Basilicas, and one of the finest churches
in Rome. It was built in the year 352, by John Patrizi, a Roman, one of the ancestors of the
house of the Patrizi, and under Pope Liberius. (Bee Life of Pope Liberius). The ground-plan
ot it was miraculously suggested to that pope by a snow that fell on the Esquiline HU1 on the
5th of August ; the church was consequently caUed Saint Mary of tlie Snow, and Basilica Li-
beriana. (Fea, 1821, vol. ii, p. 82.) On the tablet of the fine altar of Our Lady, in the Borghese
chapel, there is a bas-reUef, in gUt bronze, representing the miracle of the snow. On the 5th of
August, the Feast of Our Lady of the Snow, jessamine petals are scattered from the roof in im
itation of snow.

CLEMENT VUI. 895
great length. He returned thence, still barefooted, to his palace, weeping,
with downcast face, without giving his benediction or looking at any one.
And on the day of the Assumption of Our Lady, the 15th of the month, he
returned at the same hour to the above-mentioned church, barefooted, and
again prayed earnestly, and stUl barefooted, said Mass ; and then he held
the chapel of that day, attended by the cardinals in state, whom he awaited
there more than two hours after finishing his devotions. And, as he daily
makes some new demonstration of his devotion and piety, so, in the audi
ence that we had of His Hohness, on the 28th of the month, he gave us a
very great and distinguished testimony of his esteem for the king and
kingdom of France, and of his paternal affection for both, as wiU be de
clared to you at more secure time and place."
We may now give the letter to M. de VUleroy, in which d'Ossat announces
the termination of that business of the absolution.
" Monseigneur :
" Though not quite so quickly a-s had been announced to you, yet this
morning the absolution was given to the king by our Holy Father the pope,
with aU the solemnity and amidst all the pubhc joy that you could desire.
To communicate this news to you, we dispatch Baptist Mancini,* whom we
have directed to travel by the safest roads, and to be less careful about
speed than about safe arrival.
" In addition to the letters we now write, he wiU deUver to you the dupli
cates of the two previous dispatches, the copy of our written petition to the
pope, the articles that have been granted in order to obtain the absolution,
and those which we declined. And if the said Mancini do not so very
speedUy arrive, he is not to be held blameworthy therefor.
" Since my letters of the 30th of August and 1st of September, we have
had much discussion and labor to come to an agreement upon a more terse
demand Avhich was required from us, and upon the form of the decree of
absolution that our Holy Father was to give, and the abjuration and con
fession of faith which we had to make this morning, immediately before the
absolution. But, at length, all has been done consistently with the dignity of
the Most Christian crown and the tranquUhty Avhich is necessary for France,
so much afflicted by the past civil wars, those being the tAvo objects which
we have kept in view, next after the honor and glory of God, throughout
this negotiation.
" It now remains to put in form the said acts, and to expechte the buU of
absolution, upon which we are laboring with aU diligence, in order that hia
* Thus fort-jne in sport raises the humblest to the highest places. (Note by Amelot dela
Houssaye.)

896 LIVES OF THE POPES.
majesty may receive the whole as speedily as possible, and that his majesty
and aU France may as speedily reap the anticipated benefit.
" However, the Spaniards have never yielded, although, in the consistory,
the pope declared his intention to give the absolution. And when they found
that they could not prevent its being given, and that, too, at Rome, they did
their utmost to delay it ; at least, to prevent it from being pubhcly given, and
to have it unannounced by the guns of the castle of Saint Angelo, and unac
companied by any public rejoicings, until, as they urged, the conditions
should be ratified in France, and an ambassador sent thence to this court,
at which time they thought that the guns of Saint Angelo might salute.*
But the guns were fired this morning, no doubt to the great annoyance of
Spanish ears, and this evening there are signs of rejoicing which must be
equaUy annoying to Spanish eyes.f
" In my letter of the 30th of August, I mentioned that, in our audience of
His Hohness on the 28th of August, he gave great proof of his esteem for
the king and for France, and of his paternal affection for both. It was that,
* This .obstinacy in interfering with the pope's peculiar concerns, criticising his acts, insulting
his conscience, and misrepresenting his authority, is here courageously expressed. It should
never be forgotten that if the Spaniard, Cardinal Toledo, had carried into the Spanish camp
his strength of will, his knowledge, his love of religion, his zeal for peace, his spirit of concord,
and the just predilections of his order, the French ministers would have encountered almost
insurmountable obstacles.
f Francis Toledo, whom the French writers call Tolet, Avas of neither wealthy nor illustrious
family. He was born in 1532, at Cordova, a city of Spain, distinguished as the birthplace of the
two Senecas. He studied at the university of Salamaca. His master in philosophy always called
him the monster of intellect. {Life of Cardinal d'Ossat, vol. i, p. 368.) The reputation of Tole
do was suchj that he was appointed professor of philosophy when only fifteen years of age. He
then became a Jesuit. His superiors sent him to Rome, as a place of observation worthy of his
talents. Popes Saint Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus' V, Urban V, Gregory XIV, Innocent IX,
and Clement VHL, honored him with their esteem and confidence. The first four of those popes
chose him for their preacher, and the last three employed him as their theologian in ordinary.
He Avas also appointed to accompany Cardinal John Francis Commendon, in his legation to
Germany. He exerted himself to form, with the Emperor Maximilian and Sigismund Augustus,
king of Poland, a league against the Turk. Toledo also showed himself as good a negotiator as
he was a theologian. In 1593, Clement VIIL rewarded his services and his merits by raising
him to the purple. De Thou remarks that he Avas the first of his order Avho was raised to that
dignity. The friend of justice and truth, Cardinal Toledo did not lend himself, Spaniard though he
was, to the ambitious views of the king of Spain, but constantly labored for the reconciliation of
Henry IV. to the Holy See: The duke of Sesso one day said to him : " Were you as good a Span-
imrd as you are a good theologian, you would not advocate the absolution of Henry i V." " And
you," replied Toledo, " were you as good a theologian as you are an able ambassador, would be of
my opinion."
Henry IV. showed his gratitude to Toledo on every opportunity, and when he received informa
tion of the death of that cardinal, he publicly testified his grief, and honored the memory of that
great man by having solemn services performed in both Paris and Rome.
Cardinal Toledo left several theological works worthy of his great reputation ; but what still
further proves his profound knowledge, is the brief addressed to him in 1584, by Oregory XIH.,
by which he was made censor of the pope's own writings.

CLEMENT VIIL 897
regardless of personal fatigue and great expense, and of the inconvenience
of leaving his Italian States, he offered to us that he would go to Avignon,
and if the king would trust himself there, he would there give him the abso
lution ; or, if his majesty would not go to Avignon, then His Holiness would
go whithersoever tlie king pleased, and give the king the absolution in the place
of the king's oavu appointment. But considering the length of time that
would be required, and the infinite accidents that might occur to prevent
that journey, and the doubts and suspicions that the past had caused, and
that this journey might revive in many minds, we entreated His Holiness to7
reserve the execution of that good intent for some other opportunity that
time might produce for doing some other general good to Christendom, and
give us speedily the absolution which it was thought was already given, in
France, at that moment when His Holiness was speaking."*
Here we may usefully give some detaUs upon the ceremony 01 the abso
lution. A scaffolding was erected on Saint Peter's square, on which was placed
a very lofty throne for the pope ; and aU the cardinals took their places
below him. The ceremony Avas commenced by the reading of a decree of
His Hohness. The pope approved and confirmed all the acts of religion
that had followed the absolution at Saint Denis. The request of the king
was then read that had been presented by du Perron and d'Ossat, who were
then introduced. Kneeling, they abjured the errors of Calvinism in the
usual form. Then the conditions of the absolution were read. Especial
stress Avas laid upon a peace to be concluded with Spain ; after which du
Perron and d'Ossat, in the name of the king, promised, upon the holy Gos
pels, that he would persevere in the Apostohc Roman Catholic faith. They
were then conducted to the foot of the throne of His Holiness, where, again
kneeling, with downcast eyes and bowed heads', they recited the Psalm
Miserere. At each verse the pope, having in his hand a long and slender
wand, like those which the Romans termed Vindida, and used for the- en
franchisement of slaves, slightly touched with that wand the ministers; of
the king, as was the custom of the Church, to signify that Christian Mserty
was restored to those who had been in the bonds of censure.f
Then the pope rose, and having, with uncovered head, recited the- umal
prayers, resumed his tiara, and, seating himself upon his throne, he raised
his voice and declared, that by the authority of the Almighty, by that of
the blessed apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and by his own, he gave
•
* No pope had then been in France subsequent to the reign of Clement VII, who, in 1533,
went to MarseiUes to see Francis I, and negotiate the marriage of Catherine de Medici with the
duke of Orleans, afterwards Henry II.
f De Thou, t. xii, book c. xiU, p. 477.
Vol. I.— 57

898 LIVES OF THE POPES.
to Henry of Bourbon, king of France, absolution from the ecclesiastical
censures incurred by reason of heresy. Then the pope gave his benedic
tion to the ministers of the king, and said to them : " You aaIU make known
to the king your master, that we have opened to him the gate of the Church
militant here on earth, and that it is for himself, by a lively faith and by
works of piety, hereafter to enter into the Church triumphant in heaven."
Then, by order of the pope, the hitherto closed doors of the church were
thrown open, and the Cardinal of San Severino, grand penitentiary, con
ducted the French envoys to the church, where the Te Deum was sung
amidst a great concourse of all orders of the people. Cardinal de Joyeuse
then conducted them to the church of Saint Louis, the national church of
the French, where the Te Deum was again sung with an equally numerous
concourse, and WUliam d'Avanson, archbishop of Enibrun, celebrated the
Mass. In the afternoon the Te Deum was sung the third time at the
Trinita de' Monti, a convent of the French Minims, where the bishop of
Lisieux* officiated. All the prelates, and the gentlemen, who were subjects
of the Ijing, and even a great number of Roman prelates and gentlemen,
foUowed by an immense crowd, were present at the religious acts of that
day. The king was prayed for in aU the churches, and the Te Deum was sung.
For three days there were fireworks and Uluminations at Rome, in token
of rejoicing, the Spaniards alone standing aloof. The popular joy evinced
on this occasion was the more humiliating to the enemies of the king, be
cause it especiaUy proceeded from the attachment of the people for Henry
IV. For, not only were the arms of France seen upon many houses, but
even the poorest people bought Henry's portrait, which had recently been
engraved, and which was fixed upon the waUs amidst cries of Vive le Roi.de
France, who is restored to us ! In brief, aU were eager to give tokens of
affection for Henry TV,, and of joy at his reconcUiation to the Holy See.f
* Anne-des Cars of Givry, to whom the pope, on his own motion, gave the purple, in 1596.
'f Unjust. writers in several countries have alluded to some circumstances in the absolution of
Henry IV, pretending that the pope gave blows with a stick to the two ministers of the king.
Can bad faith go beyond this ?
We must give such Avriters more correct information. As we have already briefly said, the
enfranchisement by the Vindicta was customary among the Romans. It Avas introduced in the
year following the expulsion of the kings, by P. Valerius Publicola, when, to reward the slave
who had .discovered the conspiracy of the young Romans in favor of the Tarquins, he gave him
.Ms Mberty. That slave was named Vindex or Vindicius. It was from that name that the cere
mony was called Vindicta. After having the slave's hair cut quite close, his master took him to
the prsetor, to whom, presenting the slave, he said: " I wish this man to be free." The prsetor -
" Hell thee that thou art free, according to the custom of the Somans." (Persius, sat. 5.) As he
said these words, he tapped him lightly on the head with a wand, and on the instant the slave
became free and master of himseff.
At the present day, especially in the morning, in the churches which have penitentiaries, the
pilgrims kneel at about three yards from the confessional ; they cast down their eyes, and can
scarcely feel the waaad of the penitentiary which is laid for an instant upon their head

CLEMENT VIH. 899
Bonanni (U., p. 483), treating of the pontifical medals of this reign, gives
the following details upon the ceremony of the absolution.
" Sixtus V. disapproved of the actions of Henry, king of Navarre. As
that pontiff was of warm temper, and was not timid towards offenders, he
launched his anathema, in 1575s against Henry, as a heretic and the patron
of heretics. Gregory XIV, in 1591, ordered the archbishops and bishops
of France, and all the members of the clergy, to break off all relation with
the same Henry. Subsequently, Clement VIIL made every effort to save
the Church of France. He loved that Church, so celebrated for its an
tiquity, its sanctity, and its knowledge, and he assiduously prayed for it.
According to Baronius (vol. vi.), he unceasingly and with tears entreated
God on behaK of that Church. And that France, daughter of the Clementine
tears, saw that Church flourish in tenderness, in piety, and in veritable love,
under Henry IV. and his son. Clement had warned the confederates that
they were to recognize rights to the crown of France only in a Cathohc
prince. " In the midst of these perturbations, Henry, struck by the divine light,
and by the arguments of the ' Apostohc Church, was instructed in her
dogmas, learned to detest errors, and professed in Saint Denis the Roman
rehgion, which was that of the holy kings of France.
" He successively sent, to ask absolution in his name, Peter de Gondi and
the Marquis de Pisani. Clement would not listen to either of them. Then
Henry sent the duke de Nevers, who succeeded in discovering in Clement
an inclination towards pardon. Subsequently, du Perron and d'Ossat re
newed the attempts. They affirmed that Henry from the bottom of his
heart had renounced ah his previous errors. Saint Phihp Neri interposed,
and zealously supported the efforts of the king. On the 20th of December,
1595,* Clement, in consistory, declared that he had collected the opinions of
aU the cardinals, and that a great portion of them inclined to the reconcili
ation. The king's agents were treated with : the Saint Denis absolution
was declared nuU and void. The king was to abjure again between the
hands of a legate. The prince de Conde was to be recaUed from Rochelle
and reared at Paris, as presumptive heir to the king. The Catholic religion
was to be re-estabhshed in Beam. ' The Council of Trent was to be pub
lished and observed. FinaUy, the king was to notify all the Catholic
princes of his conversion."*
Bonanni subsequently says that the two agents, taken before the pope,
pronounced the abjuration — du Perron aloud, and d'Ossat in a loAver
tone. They swore upon the Gospels of God, which were placed before
* Here Bonanni is in error; for the absolution took place on the 17th of September, in that
same year. For the 20th of December we should read the 30th of August, 1595.

900 LIVES OF THE POPES.
them, and Don Cosmas de Angelis then read the decree of absolution.
Then the pope, with mitre on head, recited the psalm Miserere, and at each
verse touched the heads of the king's agents (the wand is not mentioned).
All was conducted in the pontifical form, but in that form the wand caUed
the Vindicta is concerned.
When the doors of Saint Peter's were thrown, the Cardinal San Severina
said to the king's two envoys : " Enter, 0 you whom 'your king has empowered
to act for him, enter into the Church of God; recognize that he inconsiderately
departed from it, and that he has escaped from the bonds of death ; let all hold
lieretical depravity in horror, and adore AlrAghty God 1"
Bonanni subsequently relates that letters from Henry testified to his
lively gratitude to the pope ; and Henry, in his own letters, speaks of his
intention to go to Rome to return thanks in person.
In commemoration of those events a granite column was set up in front
of the church of Saint Anthony the Abbot, near Saint Mary Major. The
inscription is given by Bonanni, thus :
D. o. M.
CLEMENTE OCTAVO PONT. MAX.
AD MEMORIAM
, ABSOLVTIONIS HENRICI QVARTI
FRANCLE ET NAVARRE
REGIS CHRISTIANISSDII
Q. P. A. D. XV. KAL. OCTOBER MDXCV.
The pope, in addition to aU the demonstrations of joy permitted at Rome,
struck a medal, with his own head on one side, and that of Henry IV. on
the other.*
On this occasion, also, the king gave the cardinals the title of cousin. TU1
then, he addressed them only as dearfriend.f
The League from that moment was destroyed, and was no longer men
tioned, excepting in detestation and in denunciation of the' fact, that, under
the pretext of religion, Frenchmen had allied themselves with the enemies
of France herseK ; and that, consequently, that fair land had for forty years
been the theatre of scenes which she should long have to deplore.
At the same time, the pope considering that "Henry had no children by
Margaret of Valois (daughter of Henry IL, and sister of the three last kings
* John Paul Mucante, master of pontifical ceremonies, and Muzio Piacentini, wrote accounts
of this benediction of Henry IV. The first of these works was pubUshed at Viterbo, 4to, in
1595 ; the second, also 4to, at Ferrara, 1595.
f It was about that time that Henry gave to the Chapter of Saint John Lateran the abbey oi
Clairac, in the diocese of Agen. The chapter enjoyed the revenues till 1789.

CLEMENT Vin. 901
of France, Francis IL, Charles IX., and Henry III.), to whom the young
king of Navarre had been married by force, ordered the dehcate circum
stances of the case to be carefully examined ; and at length complied with
the entreaties of the king, who subsequently apphed for a divorce, that he
might be enabled to marry Mary de Medici, daughter of the grand duke of
Tuscany. Previous to the absolution, two fanatics, Peter Barriere and John Chatel,
attempted the king's hfe. The enemies of the Jesuits did not neglect that
opportunity to teU the prince that those rehgious had incited the assassins
to that crime, the assassins being recognized as having studied in the
schools of .the society. The Jesuits were expelled from the kingdom ; but
Clement, who yielded to no one in esteem and good-wUl of the society (as
he himseK wrote to the archbishop of Lima), so urgently pressed the mon
arch, who did not share the error of a part of his councU, that the Fathers
were recaUed to the kingdom and their colleges. Subsequently, in 1604, in
spite of the representations of the parhament, the prince gave them the
magnificent coUege of La Fleche, where, in token of his affection, his last
wiU ordered his heart to be deposited.
On the subject of the Jesuits, the king was accustomed to say : " I ob
serve that two classes of persons are opposed to their return ; first, the
partisans of the pretended reformation, that is to say, the Huguenots ; and
then ecclesiastics, whose, hfe is not very edKying."
The barefooted Carmelites having been instituted in 1562 by Saint
Teresa, assisted by Saint John of the Cross, Gregory XIII. approAred the
reform on the 22d of June, 1580, and separated them from the Great Car
melites. Clement completed the separation, and included the discalced Car
melites among the mendicant orders.
In a promotion of cardinals, Clement gave the purple to two of his
nephews. The missionaries sent to distant countries had not discontinued their holy
labors. The patriarch of Alexandria, stimulated by the exhortations of
missionaries, sent to Rome two Egyptian ambassadors, who were received
with honors by the pope. At his feet they made their profession of faith,
abjuring the errors of the Greek sect on the procession of the Holy Ghost,
and on the repetition of Baptism. They admitted seven sacraments, and
declared that they received the first CouncU of Nice, the first and second
Council of Constantinople, and those of Ephesus and Chalcedon ; they repro
bated the Eutychian heresy ; and finaUy, in the name of their patriarch,
they acknowledged the primacy of Rome, received the Councils of Florence
and Trent, and earnestly entreated the pope to unite the churches of Egypt
to the Apostohc Church. The Holy Father sent those ambassadors home
fiUed with joy, giving them rich presents, and holy relics.

902 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The sufferings of the Catholics of Mount Lebanon were from time to
time made known at Rome by monks who visited there, and Clement in
trusted an important mission to the Jesuits Dandini and Bruno, who were
directed to visit in that distant part such Cathohcs as recognized the Holy
See, and to present them with various gifts in money, church plate, books,
vestments, and a Pontifical, intended for the patriarch. The arrival of those
Jesuits w"as joyfully greeted -on the mountain, and the andent cedars shook
with joy.
In 1596, there was a great promotion of cardinals, among whom were —
Anne de Cars de Givry, of the counts of Limoges, and related to the royal
house of France, who had several times been ambassador to Rome from the
princes of the Valois branch, — Saussay has included him in the GaUican mar
tyrology; 2. CamiUus Borghese, who became pontiff in 1605, under the
name of Paul V. : 3. Csesar Baronius, born of an honorable family at Sora,
and sent at an early age to Rome, where he placed himseK under the direc
tion of Saint Phihp, in his congregation of the Oratory. There, by order
of that saint, he composed that immortal work, the Ecclesiastical Annals,
which obtained him the surname of the Father of Ecclesiastical History.
That noble and learned personage, after eloquently preaching in the
churches of the Florentines, of the Charity, and of the ValhceUa, was
named Librarian of the Holy Church. In 1605, in the conclave which
elected Paul V, Baronius would have been made pope, there being thirty-
five votes for him, but that his humility and his eloquence turned the elec
tors from their determination. He begged so earnestly, and spoke so elo
quently, that he succeeded in preventing his own election.
One of the most glorious works of the pontificate of Clement VIIL was,
doubtless, the union of the Duchy of Ferrara to the States of the Holy See.
Duke Alphonsus IL, of Este, being without legitimate heir, asked Gregory
XIV. for permission to bequeath the principality to some of his relations of
the house of Este, and it is said that Gregory XIV. made no very great re
sistance. Alphonsus dying on the 27th of October, 1597, it was found that
he had left a will, by which he left as his heir Caesar d'Este, a distant rela
tion : and Cassar, with the favor of the emperor, caused himseK to be crowned
duke of Ferrara. It was thought that Clement would consent, but whUe he
was still a cardinal, he, as strongly as was consistent with respect, opposed
the concession that had been asked from Gregory. Now that he had be
come pope, Clement acted in concert with Henry IV. That prince declared
that Ferrara was a dependency of the exarchate of Ravenna, formerly given
to the popes by Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis the Pious. In consequence,
Clement, assured of 'his right and of a powerful support, Avould not recog
nize Cfesar d'Este. On these grounds, enumerated in the BuUarium Ro-
manum (pages 175, 176, and 181), he declared that the duchy had reverted

CLEMENT VIIL 9133
to the Holy See. He fulminated serious penalties to deter the usurper from
taking possession ; and having levied an army, he gave the command of it to
his nephew, Peter Aldobrandini, with orders to resist the pretensions of
Caesar. The latter, aheady duke of Modena and Reggio, and confident of
obtaining from the Holy See the rights enjoyed by Alphonsus, at once re
nounced his pretensions, and the papal army occupied Ferrara on the 24th
of January, 1598. Clement, by the bull Sandissimus, declared the duchy of
Ferrara restored to the Holy See, because, in addition to all other reasons,
by the terms of a constitution of Saint Pius V. it was forbidden to alienate
the property of the Church. The duchy was attributed in perpetuity to the
patronage of the holy apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. But the pope
granted to the duchy of Ferrara the right to keep an ambassador at Rome,
with the same privileges as all the other members of the diplomatic body.
A dispute then arose between the Ferrarese ambassador and the ambas
sador of Bologna as to precedence. Each wished to precede the other in
the ceremonies of the papal chapel. Clement ordered that they should only
attend there alternately, and never together, so that the question of prece
dence Avas forever decided between them.
Clement next determined to give his subjects the benefit of his presence.
He left at Rome, as legate and vice-pontiff,* Cardinal Innico Avalos, of Ara
gon, and set out to take possession of the duchy, attended by twenty-seven
cardinals, and by a large number of, prelates. According to ancient cus
tom, a priest bore in front of the pope the Most Holy Sacrament, in a costly
shrine, under a rich canopy of cloth of gold. The Ferrarese received some
privUeges ; an imposing citadel was erected, and the pope returned to Rome
with the blessings of aU his subjects.
He had returned to the city only three days, when, on the 23d of Decem
ber, the Tiber furiously overflowed its banks/I" and a great number of per-
* Novaes, ix, p. 34.
t The famous Jesuit Riccioli having with his usual exactitude collected the dates of the inun
dations of the Tiber (t. iii, Ind. iii. of his Chronology ; Bologna, folio, 1651), gives the following
particulars. " There were inundations in the years 364, 214, 206, 195, 103, and 10 B. C. The
Tiber overflowed so A'iolently in the year 3 A. C. as to destroy the Publicius bridge ; and another
in the year 14, which injured that bridge, which had been rebuilt (see Suetonius and Tacitus).
Such mischief did not occur until the year 83. Again, in 132, there was an inundation of the
Tiber (see Spartian in Adrian) ; and one in 141, under the reign of Antoninus. That emperor, at
his own cost, rebuilt both public and private edifices that the waters had destroyed. Ten years
later, in 151, the Tiber renewed its ravages ; and again in 161. Other inundations occurred in
222, 411, 555, 570, 685, and 717. In this last year the waters flooded the city for seven days.
Platinus says that large boate passed from Ponte MoUe to Saint Peter's. The same scourge
afflicted Rome in 778, 791, and 860. During nearly four centuries the Tiber was a less danger
ous neighbor, and did not revisit the Pantheon (always the first place in Rome to be submerged)
until 1260 ; and in 1280, it rose to above four feet at the high altar of the Pantheon. On the 8th
of November, 1379, the river rose to the height of ten palms, as is stated on the column of the
Minerva. In the fifteenth century there were three inundations — in 1412, in 1476, and in 1495.

904 LIVES OF THE POPES.
sons perished in the fields. A bridge, serving as a dam, was constructed
between Rieti and Terni, so that the waters could not again accumulate so
disastrously to the citizens of Rome.
This year, 1598, is famous. Philip II. died on the 13th of September,
and about the month of October an agent of Rosny procured the last
will of that prince, or, rather, the copy of the discourse or treatise which,
when dying, he addressed to his son. We give it, because it often
touches on the pohcy of the court of Rome at that time, and is a confes
sion of all the sentiments which, during a long reign, animated the son of
Charles V.
The king of Spain thuS addresses his son, who was about to be Phihp III.
" Prince : — Seeing that I have reached the end of the time ordained by
Heaven for my earthly rule,* as you are at the commencement of yours ;t it
seems to me that I might reasonably be blamed for lack of prudent judg
ment, or a faUure in affectionate care for you, were I to leave you, young as
you are, heir to so many great kingdoms, states, territories, and lordships,
without at the same time giving the precepts, advice, and opinions that an
almost unhmited experience, difficulties, labors, projects, and pretensions,
mainly useless, have taught me (though too late for my own good and repose,
and those of my peoples and my neighbors), to be not at aU necessary to
render so important a government as yours is about to be (extending over
so many peoples, languages, and various nations, so distant from each other,
and separated by such vast extent of land and sea), wise, just, and prudent,
and consequently mild, fortunate, and prosperous, and far less rife than
mine has been of griefs, cares, and anxieties, of which you wiU one day
have to give an account, as I shortly must, to Him who is the King of kings,
in whose presence all subterfuges and disguises are vain. He knoAvs the
inclinations, the intentions, and the secrets of the hearts of aU men, even
before they have conceived their thoughts. And he can fulfil his judg
ments upon the greatest and most powerful earthly monarchs, as, without
seeking proofs in older histories, I at this moment am a proof, by the ex
treme languor to Avhich I have for months been reduced, together with
Subsequently there were inundations in 1514 and 1530, the latter being higher by eight palms
than any former one. Then followed those of 1547, 1571, 1589, and 1598 ; 1606, 1637, 1047, and
1060. I saw that of 1805, under Pius VII. The pontiff was then at Paris, but his worthy min
ister Consalvi encouraged the people, and personally, in his cardinal's attire, took bread to the
inhabitants who had fled to their house-tops.
* He was born at Valladolid, in 1527, the year of the sack of Rome, and Avas the son of
Charles V. and Isabella of Portugal. When twenty-nine years old, he became king of Spain
by the abdication of his father.
| PhUip III. was born at Madrid, son of Philip II. and Isabella of France, daughter of Henry
II, on the 14th of April, 1578. ' At twenty years of age he was master of most of the Avealth of
both worlds.

CLEMENT VHL 905
pains and infirmities so strange that I am a torture to myseK, and from
which I pray that good God speedily to release me by calling me from
earth to heaven. I pray him to make more favorable use of his compas
sion and mercy than I and mine have heretofore done, towards an infinity
of peoples who wiU require them at our hands ; and that he wiU vouchsafe
to be satisfied with my present intense pains and poignant griefs for the ex
piation and satisfaction of my past errors. Now, as the examples and ex
periences of others, and especially of our elders of the same lineage, affect
us more sensibly, and are more efficacious in disposing the mind to excel
lent things, especiaUy in the fierce fever-heat of youth, which cannot brook
the requisite meditation, or subdue its boiling temperament, — are more effi
cacious, I say, than all remonstrances, arguments, and fine speeches that
can be uttered, — I will not waste time upon remonstrances and long dis
cussions, but will content myself AA'ith telhng you very summarily (because
I have already written this course, and noAv speak only with difficulty), what
I consider to have been the most remarkable and instructive in the lives of
the emperor my father and myself. This wUl serve you as a reduced pic
ture in which you will see the perfect features, the natural hneaments, and
-the infaUible traces of what you must follow, and upon which you will have
to form your designs and regulate your actions, so that they may be honest,
honorable, and useful to you, to your States, your peoples, and your suc
cessors. In that true mirror you wiU perceive that there is nothing so diffi
cult to govern as the ardent affections of a youth ambitious and greedy of
honors, nor so difficult to subdue as the pride of a lofty domination flattered
by fortune with success. The emperor my father, While still younger than
you are, succeeded, hke you, to so many crowns, territories, and lordships,
and soon after, in spite of aU the intrigues, and practices of the greatest
kings in Christendom, being elected as emperor among the Christians, it
became very plausible to that admirable, and generous mind to indulge
a delusive hope of being able to make himseK not merely the sole mon
arch of Europe, but also, by uniting the various States of Europe, to go
stiU further, as was his device, and undertake the destruction of the in
fidels. " You will also learn that that great prince at length encountered so
many obstacles to his high and magnificent designs, that they were mingled
with as much misfortnne and loss in the close as they had been blessed with
glory and advantage in the beginning ; which caused him so much grief and
vexation that he resolved to seek, away from earthly domination and worldly
affairs, cares, and intrigues, the rest of body and tranquUhty of mind which
they had never been able to give him. Vigorous and healthy, he resigned
all these States to me, and gave me much good and wholesome advice, had
I bu t known how rightly to ponder it, and act upon it at proper time and

s)06 LIVES OF THE POPES.
place. But the ambitious boldness of a young prince,* caressed by aU, and
inflated with the breath of a thousand fine hopes, to Avhich none had dared
to tell a disagreeable truth ; the proud successes of a favorable fortune, and
two battiest gained in the first two years of my reign, alienated my mind
not only from the advice of the emperor my father, — Avhich especially warned
me not to aspire to the monarchy of Christendom, as a thing which experi
ence had taught him to be impossible for any of its kings to succeed in, on
account of the diversities of religion, which render nations too obstinate
against a prince Avhose creed is different from theirs — and their levity and
inconstancy, which make them desirous of the neAv, and weary of the old —
the infinite number of great and strong cities, and the universal warhke
inclination to which aU the nations of Europe incline, — but also ahenated my
mind from all pacific and tranquil thought. Thus I suddenly threw myself
upon the.high seas of extravagances, and ambitious projects and designs,
among the impetuous Avaves of which it has since been impossible for me
to find any port, harbor, or haven of certain shelter. High enterprises,
and the troubles and cares that attend them, followed each other with
out cessation in my mind, like the boiling and bounding waves of ocean
when tormented by contrary winds. I am uoav obliged to confess, by
the truth of things, and the success of those far removed from my at
tentions, that after having envied my uncle Ferdinand the empire, and
vainly made aU sorts of attempts to induce him to name me, after the
example of the emperor my father, king of the Romans, instead of his own
son Maximilian, and aspired to get myseK named emperor of the New
World, to take possession of Italy, to dominate my rebellious subjects of
the Loav Countries, to get myself elected king of Ireland, to conquer Eng
land by means of the greatest and most formidable naval force that has
ever been seen, in the composition of which I employed more than ten years
of my life, and more than twenty millions of ducats ; and also to conquer
France by means of my understanding, very dearly bought with the great
est and most ambitious among the French, founded upon the indolence of
the then reigning king, and upon the religious differences that I nurtured
by means of ecclesiastics who Avere in my pay ; and after having in all those
designs employed thirty-tAvo years of my hfe, and spent more than six
hundred of millions of ducats in extraordinary expenses, paid within my
own knowledge, of Avhich you avUI find my Avritten accounts in my private
* That royalty was not so very youngs it had been on the throne twenty-nine years. It is
true, however, that iii 1554, when he was but twenty-seven years old, his father caused him to
be recognized as king of Naples.
t The first of these battles, that of Saint Quentin, Avas gained on the 11th of August, 1C57,
over the French. Tho Spanish army was commanded by PhUibert Emmanuel duke of Savoy.
The second battle, that of Gravelines, was also gained over the French, and compeUed them tc
sign the peace of Chateau-Cambresis, 13th of April. 1559.

CLEMENT VIIL 907
cabinet, after having been the cause of the death, if not the murder, of
tAventy miUions of men, and the destruction and depopulation of more
provinces and extent of country than I possessed in Europe ;— after aU this,
I find that I have gained nothing from all these magnificent designs, this
expense, fatigue, and ruin, except the petty kingdom of Portugal. For that
of Ireland escaped me through the little fidelity there is in those savages;
the difficulty of approaching the island, and the tediousness of a stay in it ;
that of England by a furious tempest ; and that of France by the natural
fickleness of the French, the incompatibility of that nation with all others,
and the admirable ability 'and good fortune of the new king (with whom I
now wish to leave you at peace) ; Germany by the jealousy of my own-
relatives ; and the whole, generaUy, by the absolute will and poAver of God.
Upon aU which things, enjoining you carefuUy to meditate, I now proceed
to the instructions which I judge to be the most necessary for you ; and I
wiU commence by telUng you my intentions upon those domestic matters
which now most affect my mind.
" Firstly, as to your marriage ; I have left my advice upon that, written in
my own hand and carefuUy sealed, in the hands of Loo, which advice you
wUl please me by foUowing. Dearly love your sister, as I do ; loyally keep
your faith sworn upon the Gospels with respect to what I have done to the
advantage of her and of her husband. Do good to the doctors OUias and
Wergeais, who carefully attend me in my sufferings. Love Christopher de
Mora, who has always been to me an agreeable, most trusty, and most use
ful servant, having always preferred the prosperity of my affairs to care for
his own, which is but seldom the case with servants. If you retain him in
your service, as I desire and beg that you wiU (though I do not expect it,
for it is one of the commonest faults of kings to have little liking for the
servants of their predecessors), you will act both wisely and profitably.
Preserve the archbishopric of Toledo to Garcia Loyola, and do not tax its
revenues unless compeUed by war. Take care of aU my other servants to
Avhom I have shown friendship or confidence ; and take care not to diminish
their property, offices, honors, or profits, for their injury would redound to
my shame. Endeavor to effect a reconciliation with Antonio Peres, but do
not aUoAv him to reside in Spain, France, or the Low Countries. He wiU be
better placed in Italy than in any other country. Have a watchful eye
upon those whom you make your confidants, counciUors, and secretaries.
Make yourseK acquainted with ciphers. See and reply to aU the most im
portant dispatches ; do not let one go by neglecting to look at it. Never
outrage noble and courageous men — your elder brother experienced the mis-
chief of that.* * The unfortunate Don Carlos.

908 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" Encourage and pay virtue and senices rendered, no matter in whom
you may find them. Do not mingle or confound together new and imagin
ary nobUity with what is old and true. Make use of the latter, and foster
among them faith, honor, and modesty, and distribute among them the
wealth, dignity, and offices that are at your disposal. For, besides that
wealth and.honors, when joined to iUustrious descent, increase courage and
occasionally give birth to ambitious aspirations, it is equaUy true that
dastardy, disloyalty, and treason are more rare among such men than
among those who have sprung from a sordid and plebeian stock. Make use,
in your more urgent need, of the too ample wealth of the ecclesiastics ; for
the too great abundance of their wealth often tends to plunge them into
luxury and sensuality, and sometimes even into impiety. Diminish as far
as you possibly can the number of ecclesiastics, domestic officers, and
financial and judicial officers, for such men consume the wealth of your
estates and never increase it. But increase as much as you can the number
of merchants, artisans, laborers, shepherds, and soldiery, among whom I
include the nobility ; for the former cost httle and enrich the provinces,* and
the latter by their valor and mihtary discipline wiU make you feared and
respected by your' neighbors, defend your dominions, and preserve peace
within them, and thus trade, commerce, and manufactures will flourish, and
money and provisions abound. So far as to the interior of your States.
As to the exterior, keep on good terms with the pope and the cardinals. Have a
number of votes in the conclave. Pay aU your pensioners UberaUy, and
by sure and secret hands. Carefully and dUigently cultivate the bishops
and prelates of Germany, and especiaUy those who are electors : let what
you pay them pass through the hands only of your oavu ministers, and not
by those of the emperor or his servants. Yet keep constantly on good
terms with him, and aU those of our house, and, when opportunity serves,
patronize them. CarefuUy keep in your own power the entire and absolute
navigation of both Indies, in which you need not fear being thwarted by
France or any other Christian kingdom, because they are either weak or
neglectful of the sea, — with the exception of England and the rebels of the
Low Countries, who abound in every thing that is calculated to annoy you.
Make frequent changes among the principal officers in those places, lest
wealth, poAver, and distance should incite them to ambitious designs of
usurping for themselves. Refuse no conditions to the rebels of the Low
Countries, provided they wiU recognize your authority ; but in any case
endeavor to have peace with them if you can, so as to withdraw them from
their close, and to them necessary, alliance with France and England, as the
courageous and generous sovereigns, now ruhng those countries, might give
* Here is a commencement of the syBtem of centralization which has spread aU over Europe

CLEMENT VIIL 909
the rebels a support fatal to you. Fear no attack on the side of Germany
or of Italy. Those countries are parceUed out among too many princes
who wUl not yield to each other, being so diverse in temper, affections, and
interests. Nor on the side of Poland, however ample the dominion of its
king, for he is too far removed from your States, and has too powerful
neighbors who keep him in a state of anxiety for his own territory ; and,
moreover, he is rather the servant than the lord of his people. Neither
does there seem any reason to fear the kings of Denmark and Sweden, for
they are too far off; and, sunk in their frozen seas, marshes, woods, and
desert lands, are too needy, and their people too httle experienced in war,
and stiU less disciplined for it.
But never, for a moment, faU to keep your gaze and your thoughts
constantly bent upon the British islands and seas ; especiaUy K it should
happen, as seems likely, that the three kingdoms should be united under
the single crown of an active and warlike prince, sincerely allying himseK
with France, and with your Low Country rebels, in a common design against
you. For from them you have all sorts of dangers to fear, should they con
jointly undertake to attack you simultaneously by sea and land ; for those
three powers, united, abound in their numbers of good soldiers, ships,
money, munitions of war, and provisions. Therefore, spare neither money
nor seductions, neither practices nor inducements, to break up their good
understanding, and to disturb their friendship, making good use of State
interests, founded on the pretensions of England in France, and the diver
sity of their religion. Do not neglect, however, to get rid of the old Eng
hsh spies, who, being now suspected, can no longer be of use to you. Get
new ones in their stead. Get rid also of your French pensioners, whom the
altered temper of the people, and the popularity their king has acquired, as
weU as the peace in which I leave you with him, render as useless as ex
pensive.* "If, nevertheless, contempt of my experience and advice, which tend
rather towards the preservation than the increase of your States, and the
anxieties of your mind, shall urge you into the vanity of conquering the
States of others, and dispose you to try whether you cannot prove more
fortunate in that than my father the emperor or myself ; take especial heed
to the changes, and bad quahties of governors, as weU as their necessities,
lest K you neglect to take timely advantage of their discord or weak
ness, your undertaking be without profit, and with danger. Often read
these memoirs and instructions, as weU as those which were left to me by
the emperor my father, which I have folded and sealed together, so that
* No one can fai. to observe this firebrand, Ughted at both ends and thrown upon both France
and England

910 LIVES OF THE POPES.
they may be seen by none but yourSeK and those whom you choose to
intrust ; and those should be feAv in number. Compare them together,
ascertain where they agree and where they differ, so that you may use them
with prudence, as occasion may arise. This is aU that my pains of body
and disturbance of mind permit me to leave you in writing, praying you,
my son, to love and serve God, to be prudent, and not to despise my pre
cepts. "I the King."*
Rome is somewhat roughly treated in this document. Phihp repeats
what Mary Stuart had aheady said, that many votes and influences at
Rome were purchased by foreigners. This is not easUy credible as regards
the Roman prelates. The Holy See must be flattered to perceive that
Phihp advises and requires of his son and successor a constant aUiance
with the pontiffs.
Rome being concerned in the pubhc affairs of the whole world, it seemed
to me fitting to quote one of the most important documents of the reign of
PhUip, a document which, at least in the main, emanated from his own
genius, one of those conceptions most characteristic of that insatiable am
bition which was inconsolable on having conquered only the dngle little king
dom of Portugal, and which regretted England, as though it were aUowable
to regret that which could never be preserved.?

* Rosny affirms that this document was sent to him by Bongars, the king's agent in Germany.
Rosny's secretaries also say that the letter of BongarB is in existence, but they are unaware
whether the document is entirely exact. It is certain, on the one hand, that it contains facts
which, probably, were known only to Philip. "Yet we find in it little of that imagery and Span
ish grandeur which are peculiar to Castile. In some respects, and especially in the accumulation
of substantives of the same meaning, there are indications of the French composition of that day,
and some resemblance to the style of Rosny himself. For the rest, the document may have been
sent to Bongars from Hesse and Genoa. The latter city, like Venice, was truly the best informed
as to European affairs, and so continued till 1792.
However it may be as to the authenticity of the document, it certainly gives a rapid sketch of the
whole life of the king. It is said that when Philip read it to his successor, Isabella, daughter of
Philip, was present. That is not very likely, for Isabella was affianced to Albert of Austria, and'
such secrets were not fitted to travel into Germany. There would be no harm in that as to the
past ; but with respect to the instructions as to the future, to aUow them to cross the Alps would
be a serious mistake on the part of a monarch surnamed the prudent.
v. f This document includes a eulogy of Henry IV. We shaU not be incredulous as to this
homage paid to so great a king ; and then truth readily seats itseU on the Ups of the most hypo-'
critical and unjust man, when he sees the shroud and the coffin near at hand. There, as often
in history, the French are reproached with levity, fickleness ; which, however, did not prevent
the conquests of Louis XIV. or Napoleon.
One fact, hitherto secret, shows the profound wisdom of Rome under preceding popes. Philip
sought to be king of the Romans, in order subsequently to become emperor. He was not only
opposed by the unwillingness of his uncle Ferdinand ; let no one doubt that he had also against
bim the wisdom of Rome, which repeUed such a danger from Italy.

CLEMENT VIIL 911
At the time of the unexpected pubhcation of this confession, France was
beginning to be strong ; and for her this document was in effect a series of
historical lessons, and a warning, more or less essential, as to the measures
that Spain would adopt in the pursuit of her own interest. But Rome found
in that communication most important information and caution ; she could
beware, without risking any thing in investigations uncertain of success.
She could warily make inquiries and researches around herself, and thence
forth more completely understand her position, and weigh and measure the
perils that threatened her, and the trials of attacks and meddlings which
Avere to torment the wise Clement VIIL, and, by associating the Roman
policy with violences useful in other countries, deprive him in his own capi
tal of that peace which he so much desired to secure to every country in
the world.
I shaU always repeat it — there is no rest for Rome, whose glance must
contemplate at once the openly hostile and the seemingly peaceful and
friendly. The Protestants complained to Henry IV. about some administrative em
barrassments which had affected them, and of which Henry had been
unaware. The edict of Nantes was published. On occasion of that pubhcation, the
Holy Father addressed to aU the bishops of France the constitution Dives
in misericordia sua Deus. He exhorted them to propagate the increase of
the Catholic faith, the observance of ecclesiastical discipline, and the extir
pation of viee, especiaUy in the cities to which the exercise of the Catholic
rehgion was restored.*
On the 3d of March, 1599, in a very numerous promotion of cardinals,
the pope gave the purple to Arnaud d'Ossat. All who have read our work
thus far, must be aware of the title of that negotiator to even that high
reward. Du Perron did not obtain the hat until 1604. D'Ossat had mer
ited it far more than du' Perron, but Henry chose to show himseK grateful
to both negotiators.
In the same promotion, the purple was granted to Robert BeUarmine, a
noble Tuscan of Montepulciano, nephew of MarceUus IL, by his mother
The reader will readUy discern for himself many shrewd points in this discourse ; as, for in
stance, this: The king of Poland is rather the servant than tlie lord of his people.
We must lament, as we close this examination of a system of espionage, corruption, shameful
bribes and dastardly treasons, and all the infernal snares laid by PhUip II. to the poverty, the
greed 'and the sordid avarice of every country in which he had no other power— we must lament
the existence of such a system ; and we must rejoice that in our own time the press would suc-
cessfuUy expose and hunt down such abominable, dealing, such shameful desertions, which are
among the most fatal poisons of society. f
* Cardinal Valerio published on that subject a little work entitled, " On the Paternal Charity
of the Sovereign Pontiff Clement towards the very vast Kingdom of France."

912 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Cynthia Cervini. That Jesuit, celebrated by his lectures in the schools,
and by his Latin sermons against the errors of Lutheranism, had so high a
reputation that Protestants from England and HoUand traveUed to Italy
for the purpose of hearing him. He was named professor in the Roman
college founded by Gregory XIII. Sixtus V. assigned him as theologian to
Cardinal Gaetani, legate in France ; and Gregory XIV. appointed him as
one of the seA'en learned persons to revise the edition of the Vulgate, pub
lished under SixtusV., and corrected under Clement VIIL On the death
of the Jesuit Cardinal Toledo, the pope named BeUarmine his theologian,
consulter of the holy office, examiner of the bishops, and finaUy, as we
have just shown, promoted him to the purple. In the allocution to the
consistory, Clement expressed himseK thus : " We select Father BeUarmine
because he has not his equal in the Church in learning."
BeUarmine died at Rome in the novitiate of the Jesuits, where he was
visited by Gregory XV. On the death of Leo XL, Bellarmine would have
been pope, if he had not, with sincere firmness, opposed his own election.
The cardinals could not resist so formal and so subhme a renunciation of
the highest dignity within the reach of man.
Under Clement VIIL, in 1599, took place the trial of the celebrated
Beatrice Cenci, accused of having, with her step-mother Lucretia, murdered
her father. The whole city of Rome, in consequence of the fceauty of that
young Roman lady, and stiU more on account of some doubts which arose
on the trial, as weU as of the horrible charges brought against the father,
were upon the very point of pardoning her, when a Roman lord was guilty
of the disgraceful crime of matricide. That fresh abomination aroused the
indignatio°n of the pope. He summoned Monsignor Taverna, the governor
of Rome, and intrusted the Cenci case to him. Taverna, after a most care
ful examination, pronounced sentence of death against all the parties con
cerned ; and Beatrice was executed on the 11th of September, 1599, on the
square of the palace of Saint Angelo. The detaUs of that terrible affair
have been given by a host of authors.*
The Roman lord, whose crime had intercepted the pope's clemency, was
subsequently punished with the same severity.
D'Ossat become cardinal through the expressed wish of Henry IV., could
* See the " Melanges publics par la Societe des Bibliophiles Francais" (Paris, Firmin Didot, 1822,
vol ii ) for a translation, by the Countess Malartic, of an Italian account of that affair. The fideli
ty and the elegance of style of that translation deserve the highest praise. In the same volume
we find the original Italian, entitled: La Funesta morte di Giacomo e Beatrice Cenci frateUi.e
di Lucrezia Petroni loro Matrigna, seguita in Boma, net Pontificato di Clemenza JUL, a tu
Uth Septembre, 1599-2%e terrible death of Giacomo and Beatrice Cenci, brother andmter, and
their step-mother, Lucretia Petroni^ executed at Some, in the pontificate of Clement VIII., on the
Uth of September, 1599. . . . . ,
The Miscellanies of the Bibliophiles are very rare, only twenty-nine copies having been pnnted.

CLEMENT VHL g-[3
not be otherwise than doubly zealous in the stiU difficult business of his
royal master. The interests of France, those of Rome, and doubtless, indi
rectly, those of all Europe, required Henry IV. to strengthen his glorious
dynasty by a marriage which would secure to that family the succession to
the throne in the person of a legitimate son. Henry, at the time of the
massacre of Saint Bartholomew, in 1572, had been compeUed to marry
Margaret of Valois ; her brother, Charles IX., and her mother, Catharine de
Medici, deeming that marriage useful to their cause.
Margaret of France, queen of France and Navarre, had thrown obstacles
in the way of the divorce, as long as there was any hope of the duchess of
Beaufort marrying the king. But the duchess having died suddenly and
terribly in 1599, in a manner which history has not even yet sufficiently
explained, Margaret was again sohcited to consent to the divorce. Clement
VJJLL., on his part, caused the princess to be spoken to by several pious and
devout persons ; and SuUy was charged, without concealing any thing from
Henry IV., with various measures for ascertaining the inclinations of the
king's wKe.
A correspondence between Rosny and the queen* being laid before Pope
Clement, he saw in them a favorable augury. D'Ossat negotiated, and the
sentence dissolving the marriage was pronounced on the 17th of December,
1599. In the year 1600, Clement celebrated the eleventh JubUee of the Holy
Year, wliich he had pubhshed on the 19th of May in the previous year.
Independently of the pUgrims who were received into private houses, the
hospital of the Trinita de' Pelegrini received five hundred thousand. It
was calculated that in the course of the year they reached three million two
hundred thousand. On Easter-day two hundred thousand pilgrims were
present. From France alone there successively arrived three hundred thou
sand, which caused an immense joy to France, and to the enemies of France
a great confusion. They had represented that nation as thoroughly Prot
estantized ; an accusation as false then as now. Among the personages of
rank at Rome, at this JubUee, were the duke of Bavaria, concealed beneath
the simple habit of a pUgrim, the duke of Bar, the duke of Parma, and Car
dinal Andrew of Austria, who chose to visit the churches incognito. The
pope, in spite of his age and infirmities, made seventy visits to the churches,
although the number of visits prescribed to Roman residents was thirty,
and to strangers fifteen. Clement, on his knees, ascended the Scala Santa,
accompanied, barefooted, the processions, washed the feet of the pUgrims,
served them at table, heard their confessions, and distributed alms among
them to the amount of more than three hundred thousand crowns. He had
* The letters are given in the original.
Vol. I.— 58

914 LIVES OF THE POPES.
had a palace fitted up in the Borgo of Saint Peter's, for the reception of all
bishops, prelates, and clerics, who were at hberty to remain there ten days.
At the sight of so tender a proof of practical piety, and at the example
given by the pope, the cardinals, and the prelates, who seemed to vie with
each other in works of piety, even Turks asked and received baptism,
and many Protestants, indignant at the calumnious epithets of Antichrist
and Babylon, so insolently apphed to the pope of Rome, detested their
past bhndness, and abjured, with execration, the heresy which inspired such
an unjust fury, and distinguished themselves as the most exemplary and
docile sons of the Roman Church. Among that number was Stephen Cal
vin, a relation of the heresiarch, John Calvin ; the pope confirmed him,
treated him as a son, and provided magnificently for the expenses of his
stay in Rome untU the moment of his admission into the order of the bare
footed Carmelites, in which he died piously.*
The same year, at the request of Cardinal Baronius and of the pious
Fulvia Sforza, the Holy Father instituted the order of the Nuns of Saint
Clare, caUed of Saint Urban, from the name of their church. They were
poor girls who were caUed the scattered, because they had no fixed resting-
place in the city ; they were then coUected in the conservatory of Saint
Euphemia, and placed under the direction of the cardinal-vicar. Four
years previously, the pope had given a constitution in favor of poor youths
of the other sex who were equaUy scattered, and who, having been got to
gether by a learned though poor man, were caUed poveri literati.
We must not forget the institution of the CoUege for the Scotch, in which
young men of that country were so instructed that, on their return home,
they should take with them a love of the faith, and a desire to restore the
primitive Christian rehgion. Another coUege, also, was created at Rome,
for Itahan youth ; it was caUed the Clementine college, and stiU, to the
present day, preserves that glorious name. In 1604, the pope intrusted the
care of it to the fathers of Somasco, who discharged their duties with untold
zeal. They thus trained to piety and knowledge the flower of the Italian
nobihty. The IUyrian coUege, which, at first, was annexed to the Christian
coUege, was afterwards removed to the city of Loretto by Urban VIIL
Gregory XIIL had ordered that none but the Jesuits should propagate
the faith in Japan and China. That pope knew that it was they who first
successfully introduced the Cathohc religion there. Clement extended that
privUege to aU religious orders, especially the mendicants, so illustrious for
their -doctrinal purity and their piety. The privilege was granted, on con
dition that all the missionaries should be sent from Portugal to their re
spective superiors in the East Indies, belonging to that kingdom, which,
* Novaes, ix, p. 54.

CLEMENT VIH. 915
although then united to Spain, wished to keep the Portuguese and the
Spanish conquests apart.
To the commencement of the year 1600 must be referred a deed which
was not useful to religion, and which indicates a certain serfdom to the
mahgnant and cruel pohcy of PhUip III. ; a deed which some hold up to
excuse the infamous cruelties committed by the servile agents of Elizabeth
of England against the Catholics. I allude to the execution of Jordano
Bruno, a Neapolitan, who perished at Rome, in the field of Flora, in conse
quence of a trial that had been commenced a long time previously in Venice,
but was continued in Rome herself.
" The Escurial," says Bartholomes,* " at that time, gave the law to
Rome." Phihp IL, as his last wiU and testament has shown us, would not
have required such an obedience from Clement VIIL To the son of
Charles V., it sufficed that the holy office should extend the terror of the
name of the Inquisition over the vast provinces subject to Spain, wherever
the sun rose on them." No doubt, Philip II. had oppressed or tried to
oppress Rome in his demand for the refusal of the absolution of Henry IV. ;
but that opposition, violent as it was, and bitter as d'Ossat describes it to
have been, was yet made within, bounds, and yielded before the wisdom of
the Vatican.
Let us now consider what interest the cabinet of Madrid could have in
persecuting a Neapolitan friar, formerly attached to the school of the Do
minicans, but become, it must be confessed, an implacable heretic. Madrid
cared far less about the friar, guilty of denying the dogmas of our faith,
than about that friar who was flatterer of a queen, especiaUy hateful to the
leaders of Spanish pohty.
Bruno, born at Nola, in the kingdom of Naples, about 1550, Avas very
carefuUy educated. After mathematical, or rather the phUosophical studies,
he devoted himseK to literature and theology, exhibiting from his youth
upward great power of memory, a facile comprehension, and a mind natu
rally tending to enthusiasm. To pursue stiU higher studies, he entered the
Dominican order. Unfortunately, such advantages as this, when impru
dently directed, lead to error. Bruno manifested his peculiar opinions upon
the Immaculate Conception, a question upon which others had previously
written. His opinions were condemned by some of his superiors. Then
Bruno quitted his convent and retired to Geneva, in 1580. In that city he
embraced Calvinism, and exerted in defence of that heresy the talents
which he ought to have exerted against it. This sectary was at Paris in
1582. A seK-constituted professor, he attacked the doctrine of Aristotle.
Repulsed by the disciples of the Stagyrite, Bruno took refuge in England.
* See Jordano Bruno, by Christian Bartholomes, (2 vols, 8vo, Paris, 18471, vol. 1, p. 10.

916 LIVES OF THE POPES.
It was at that period that Gregory XIII. sent a consecrated Host to Mary,
queen of Scots, who was daily threatened with death by Queen Ehzabeth.
There, almost at the very moment when Sixtus V. received the sublime
letter of Mary, Bruno, braving the Roman court and the buU of Saint
Pius V., called upon aU the pagan divinities to assist him in chanting the
praises of Elizabeth.
An historian may sometimes find himseK in an embarrassment which
startles his love of unity of views and consistency in principles.
We have inserted documents unfavorable to Ehzabeth, and have not en
deavored to soften the accusations accumulated against her spirit of perse
cution. We now see a miscreant cast upon the shores of England by
hunger and distress. Elizabeth gives him not only food and raiment, but
even honors.
Bruno, in his gratitude, wrote, under the title of the Song of the Swan, an
apotheosis to the glory of his benefactress. To him, Ehzabeth was so great
that her kingdom resembled none of the States of the continent, and every
where, under her reign, the verses of Virgil had become a reahty :
"Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos."
It is my duty to mention this document, because this act incited the
Spanish government to destroy Bruno. PhUip IL, after marrying Mary,
queen of England and sister of Elizabeth, had lost the throne by the death
of Mary. England, under Ehzabeth, who succeeded Mary, - crushed the
hopes of Spain. An Italian had eulogized Ehzabeth in the most fulsome
terms, and irritated the vexations of Madrid. That Italian would have
long been confined, could he have been taken. When asked K he composed
that panegyric, read to him, he acknowledged to the minutest shade the
exaggerations of his rancor. The poem becomes a document of his trial,
and as it is necessary to explain here in an important particular the action
of Clement VIIL, that document must be included in the narrative de
voted to making known the events of his reign.
The Neapohtan thus expressed himseK :
" Endowed, raised, favored, and supported by Heaven, neither speech nor
force wiU succeed in injuring the divine Elizabeth. No noble of her empire
equals her in dignity or heroism ; no statesman equals her in wisdom.* As
to beauty, and knowledge of languages,! both vulgar and learned ; as to ac
quaintance Avith the arts and sciences ; as to talent for governing — the fruit
* I emphatically maintain here what I said a feAV pages back, in a note, especiaUy as relates
to the qualities necessary for the understanding of religious government.
f The talent of Mary Stuart in th*c particular was very much more distinguished. She
spoke Latin promptly and elegant]' and spoke nobly in that language to the Polish ambassadors
accredited *a the court of the kLig of France, her husband. Elizabeth did not possess equal ad
vantages; though it is true that Elizabeth was weU acquainted with foreign languages.

CLEMENT VIIL 917
of a long experience ; as to the other natural and acquired qualities, what
to her were the Sophonisbas, the Faustinas, Semiramis, Didos, Cleopatras,
and aU those female glories of Avhom Italy, Greece, and Egypt in the old
day made their boast ? To me, the best proof of genius is to be found in
deeds — in success.
" Our century beholds that princess with astonishment, with admiration.
While pohtical tempests swept over the whole face of Europe, the queen,
by the majesty of her flashing gaze, imposed upon the great ocean a peace
which has now endured more than five lustres.* She constrained it, amidst
its perpetual ebb and flow, to receive serenely into its vast bosom that
dear Thames, which, fearless and unfatigued, winds tranquilly and gayly
between its flowery banks.
" That extraordinary ladyt rose like a briUiant hght, to diffuse itseK over
the whole Avorld by her title and by her royal dignity. She is inferior to no
monarch in the world. For the judgment, prudence, and reflection that
she displays in governing, it is difficult to discover a queen who approaches
her. Certainly, if the empire given by fortune were in proportion to the
empire merited by the finest and most generous genius, this new Amphitrite
would dominate not England and Ireland only, but the entire globe, and
her potent hand would sustain a universal monarchy.^ StiU, it is not for
me to speak of those designs of such profound maturity, with which that
heroic soul has made peace and rest to triumph, as though by a single
glance of her eyes,§ during more than twenty-five years, and amidst a sea
of adversities."!
After this eulogy, Bruno pubhshed at London his famous book on the ex
pulsion of the Triumphant Beast. It has been supposed that he aUuded to the
pontifical power. Several authors, and among them Bartholomes, think
the accusation Ul-founded. It does not even appear that the Roman tri
bunals laid much stress upon that accusation, among those which were to
press hard upon Bruno. Bartholomes says, on that point : " We must re
member, that that word, so often misinterpreted,!" has more than one sense,
* This fixes the date of this rhapsody at about 1584, for Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558.
f See M. Bartholomes, vol. i, p. 110.
X That mania for dominating the whole world is not a thing of to-day ; Charles V, PhUip II,
and Henry IV, a Uttle by the too impetuous advice of Rosny (see the CEconomies Boyales, vol. ii.),
without counting so many Eastern despots, and him who from Alexandria brought such ideas
to Paris, had similar projects. We may add, that some of the English in our day might be sup
posed to have, read the dreams of Bruno. But let me return to the pontiffs, as my plan and my
conviction prescribe to me. They have always combated those unnatural notions, and that, too,
with equal ability and courage.
§ Not to be too serious, let us grant the possibility of that universal monarchy, but let us in
sist that in the hands of a woman the helm of State would necessarily need the hand of a man
little occupied by the petty interests of life.
II At aU times, and as to aU queens, this is untrue. 1 Vol. i, p. 73.

918 LIVES OF THE POPES
as well as the book of which it is the summary. Strictly speaking, it refers
to the beasts,* that is to say, the animals, that astronomy and mythology
put in the sky ; figuratively, it refers to the popular superstitions as to the
influence of the stars upon the destinies and volitions of men. The beast
is called triumphant, because the signs of the zodiac and the notions of
starry influences, Avith the Avhole tribe of cognate prejudices, were things
generaUy received."
Moreover, that time would have been Ul-chosen for calling the authority
of Rome triumphant. Pretended reformers and monarchs of both sexes
denied it. More correctly judged, that book seems to contain a pitUess and
exaggerated attack, sometimes Ul-founded, upon the humanists in all coun
tries. In thus violently attacking the humanists, and accusing them of
ignorance, almost ferocious hatred was aroused ; and this was the blunder
of a man who thought a woman worthy of universal monarchy. That suf
ficed to bring Spain upon the battle-field, and caused her to form an
alliance with the humanists so crueUy handled. In my private opinion, it
is clearly proven that K Rome (Clement VIIL) had any insult to complain
of, the Holy See, as far as that was concerned, had pardoned the offender,
and the prolixity of the proceedings favors that opinion.
Bruno, meanwhile, kept up some correspondence with Rome. The
friends whom he still possessed there, saw, in aU that series of libels, only
attacks upon the humanists. Perhaps Spain had not yet seriously thought
of making use of her pensions, her hirelings, and her rage, which she
claimed had aU privUege at Rome. The pope had as dexterously as gener
ously shown his clemency in the business of Henry IV. Bruno persuaded
himself also that Cardinal Aldobrandini shared the sentiments of his uncle.
Home-sickness too misled Bruno. Whithersoever he had taken his bitter
ness and his disorderly eccentricities, he had been but little hked. From
Wittemberg, the primitive country of Protestantism, for which the restless
Dominican doubtless appeared to be stiU too much of a Catholic, he went
to Prague ; from Prague, where the halo of Nepomucenet was stiU too bril
liant upon the banks of the Moldau, he Avent to Brunswick, and thence to
Helmstadt ; and at length was in Frankfort, which, in 1591, was stUl a
* The Avord beast is taken collectively for the whole animal kingdom in the abstract, for
every kind of brutes. (See Ozanani's Dante, and the Catholic Philosophy of the Thirteenth
Century, p. 101, first edition.)
f Saint John Nepomucene, thus called because he Avas born at Nepomuk, was confessor of
the Empress Jane, wife of Wenceslas, king of Bohemia, who Avished him to divulge the confes
sion of Jane. He would not do so, and the king had him bound hand and foot and thrown into
the river Moldau, which river traverses Prague. It is not generally pointed out to travellers,
that on reaching Rome, by the way of Tuscany, towards one of the extremities of the Ponte
MoUe, there is the statue of Saint John Nepomucene, admirably placed at the entrance of the
nugust capital, the residence of the great penitentiary.

CLEMENT VIH. 919
somewhat mixed city. FinaUy, he thought he might venture to Venice,
which seemed to observe a judicious obedience to the Holy See ; but there
he was arrested, thrown into a dungeon, and then transferred to Rome. In
that city, more than one humanist, instead of observing in the mild Chris
tian spirit that some terrible sentence might be pronounced, united with the
pensioners of Madrid. No doubt the Avhole hfe of Bruno had been devoted
to labors very Ul-befitting a son of Saint Dominic. But he had done still
worse than that : he had told the professors of all Europe that they were
ignorant, and he had lauded the adversary of Madrid in the pursuit of a
sceptre so heavy that no human hand could support it. Bruno had heaped
errors upon errors ; nevertheless, he might change his conduct. A devoted
subject of the monarchy of Spain, why should not he, the exile, aspire to
revisit Naples or Nola ? He was caUed upon to abandon his errors. There
commenced an error of another kind. The Song of the Swan, in favor of
Ehzabeth, had its excuse in hunger and distress. The insults to the
humanists were for the most part dictated by his peculiar pride. He knew
that no reform is made in the arts and sciences by insult, contumely, and
gross imputations.
At Rome, Clement VIIL and Cardinal Aldobrandini reigned : we knoAV
them both. The astronomical doctrine of Bruno alone could be attacked,
because experience had not yet produced the triumph of that which noAV is
received as incontestable truth at Rome, at London, at Stockholm, and in
Spain. But the requirements of paltry and contemptible vengeance, the
great mace left by Charles V. and Phihp to a prince who, without expe
rience, resigned his power to subalterns more imbecile than energetic,
decided the question differently.
In his agonies, Bruno neither asked nor accepted quarter, entered into
no explanations, remamed obstinately plunged in his books, and seemed to
disdain the clemency on the throne. He was sentenced to be burned, and
the sentence was executed in the field of Flora, on the 17th of February,
1600.* * It may be noted here, that Voltaire represents the punishment of burning to have been in
vented by the Christians against the heretics. This is quite untrue. The stake and the fire were
the punishment which the secular authorities most frequently inflicted upon all offenders — upon
robbers, and traitors against king or country, or those who were represented as being such. So
true is it that Calvin took care not to dispense Avith that mode of execution when he determined
to rid his tyranny of the presence of Servetus. Dante was condemned by the Guelfs, as were
several other Florentines, for the pretended crime of Barrateria. The sentence is thus worded :
" Ut si quis prmdiatorum ullo tempore in fortiam dicti comunis pervenerit talis pervemens igne
coniburatur, sic quod moriatur — If any of the above sliall at any time fall into the power of this
community, such individual shall be burned to death." (Portirelli's edition of Dante, vol. i, pp.
37 and 38.) Barrateria is not heresy. Here is yet another fact Avhich proves that the Christians
did not invent burning as the punishment of heretics. We have previously related, that, "in
the year 259, Saint Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona, was martyrized. The governor, Emilius.

920 LIVES OF THE POPES.
And now, with the candor of an historian, let us examine whether Phihp
IL, so jealous of his authority, would have required such a vengeance. I do
not beheve it. He would readily, in his kingly hauteur, have perceived that
it was not for him to pander to the rancor and indignation of certain hu
manists, who had been insulted in their works. If Phihp had been stiU
ahve in the year 1600, the Song of the Swan would have passed far enough
out of his memory ; and the satisfaction of having a rebel subject put to
death would have httle affected him, who said to his son in 1598, as some
pages back we related, Keep up a good understanding Amth the pope and the
cardinals. The execution of Bruno, that fatal exigence, deeply humihated and
wounded Clement VIIL ; and the more so, because it was obstinately de
manded by Santorio de San Severina, his rival in the conclave of 1592.
In this purely Spanish affair, we may almost say that no one did his duty.
There was a natural and appropriate punishment that might have been
inflicted upon Bruno. He had been repulsed by every country into which
he had carried his absurd imaginations. Venice should have thrown him
into a gondola, and from Mestre had him conveyed to Germany ; though
there, also, he was not wanted. If the Ten could not adopt that course,
they should have required his trial to take place at Venice, in order that
the sentence should not be dictated by Spain.*
But we restrain ourselves. In thus describing the deeds of other ages,
we have no desire to arm ourselves with that factitious indignation by which
certain restless minds are animated, who beheve that such times may return
again. Such sentiments belonged to such times, and no one is justified in
adding to the horror that they inspire, the pretended fear of their revival.
Such times, we love to repeat it aloud, such times wiU never return.
Here we feel obUged to insert a very extraordinary historical fact, which
Rosny records .in a single page of his (Economies.1*; The scene takes place
between Rosny himseK and Cardinal Aldobrandini, who was at Chambery
with the French army. It was difficult to conclude peace between Henry
IV. and the duke of Savoy. Yet that peace was concluded in a few hours,
' under memorable circumstances.
asked him : ' Art thou a bishop ?' ' Yes.' ' Thou art no longer so ;' and he was ordered away to
be burned alive. Servetus was burned aUve at Geneva on the 27th of October, 1553 ; and it is
said that his brother heretic, John Calvin, was present at that brutal execution."
* Another sectary, Palearius, perished at Rome by the gibbet and the fire, in 1570; and
Vanini, a Neapolitan like Bruno, did he not perish on the gibbet, to be afterwards cast into the
fiames, at Toulouse, in 1619 ? He was accused of composing a book, entitled De Admirandis
Naturm, regina deozque mortalium,arcanis (Paris, small 8vo) — On tlie Admirable Secrets of Na
ture, the Queen and Goddess of Mortals. It was a sort of imitation of the poem of Lucretius, but
failed to overthrow holy and invulnerable Catholicity. The goddess of nature fails as signally
as did the goddess of reason to destroy our faith in Christ.
f GSconomies Boyales, vol. i, p. 456.

CLEMENT VIH. 921
So much can be done by two honest men of ability, enjoying the fuU con
fidence of their respective masters. One required only three turns around
his room to settle what he could grant, and the other needed to say only a
few words to the king to persuade him ; and thus the difficult treaty of
Saluces was concluded between the high contracting parties. It has been
said, in reference to this treaty, that the king of France acted hke a mer
chant, and the duke of Savoy hke a prince. But I do not agree with the
judgment. The little marquisate of Saluces interfered with the habitual
measures of French pohcy.* This rognure, as the Florentine secretary
caUed it, compeUed France to convey troops thither by sea, and to see
that almost useless strip, producing no considerable revenue, become a kind
of battle-field, where French honor was at every moment compromised.
Henry TV. received in exchange la Bresse, wliich enlarged several provinces
of eastern France and our Burgundy. As to the duke of Savoy, he con
sented to enormous sacrifices to possess a country surrounded as it were by
his States, whence he could be much injured ; and the result was, that a
succeeding duke became powerful enough to be made king of a most im
portant part of Italy. When it is remembered that in 1815 Genoa ended
by falling into the net that was spread in 1600, one cannot but admire the
foresight of the house of Savoy, those who, with the Bourbons, the house of
Lorraine, and Saxony, are among the first houses in Europe. La Bresse
did not lead to Genoa. Saluces, in the course of time, opened the ports of
the States of that old repubhc, doomed to perish without a crime, and only
in consequence of that existing tendency which there is everywhere to
efface nations. As to France, it must be observed that, in presence of the
danger which we have here pointed out, she early felt the value of those
annexations Avhich resulted in forming a whole so formidable that the teeth
of her neighbors could no longer harass or dismember her.
With respect to the negotiator, Aldobrandini, that man who was at once
so prudent and yet so capable of taking a sudden resolution, he preferred
* The marquisate of Saluces was formerly a fief of Dauphiny. belonging to the Dauphins of
Viennois, as is proven by the faith and homage paid in the name of the marquises of Saluces to
those princes, and to their heirs, the kings of France.
The counts or dukes of Savoy sometimes disputed that right Avith the kings of France, on the
plea that the marquises of Saluces, having had some quarrels with the Dauphins of Viennois,
had asked the protection of the princes of Savoy. That dispute was settled by a sentence of the
parliament of Paris, on the 10th of May, 1370. It occurred on the occasion of the difference that
• arose as to the tenure of that marquisate, between King Charles V, Anne, count of Savoy, and
Frederic, marquis of Saluces. By that sentence, the king was maintained in his right of a suze
rain, and the marquis in possession of his marquisate, on the condition of his owing faith and
homage to the king of France, on account of Dauphiny, which belonged to that prince. After
various vicissitudes, John Louis, marquis of Saluces, dying without issue, devised it to Charles
IX, who declined it in favor of Gabriel, brother of John, on whose death without issue it
reverted to the king. Charles Emmanuel, during the troubles of the League, invaded Saluces in
1588, and the dukes of Savoy constantly refused to restore it.

922 LIVES OF THE POPES.
seeing in Italy a stiU feeble duke of Savoy, than to see there a nucleus of
Frenchmen planted, within eighty leagues of Rome.
In 1601, Clement was the first to introduce the practice of sending blessed
hnen to the infants of Catholic princes. The Holy Father dispatched Maf-
feo Barberini to France, to take such clothes to the dauphin, afterwards
Louis XIIL, son of Henry IV. and Mary de Medici, born on the 27th of
September. The same year, Clement solemnly canonized Saint Raymond de Penna-
fort, third general of the order of Saint Dominic, and chaplain to Gregory
IX. Raymond died at the age of one hundred, on the 6th of January,
1275. In 1538, there was printed, at Lisbon, a book entitled, " On the Agreement
of Grace and Free Will," by Louis de Molina, a Spanish Jesuit. That book,
which had been circulated aU over Europe without any opposition, and with
great success, was denounced to the Inquisition of Rome. Clement ordered
the matter to be most strictly examined. In 1602, he named eight theolo
gians, who, after a deliberation of three months, declared sixty of Molina's
propositions to be erroneous and rash. The Jesuits rephed, and a second
and more numerous congregation reduced the said sixty propositions to
twenty.* Then the Holy Father ordered that, with the assistance of the cardinals
of the supreme Inquisition, of the deputed examiners, and of the two gen
erals of the two disputing orders, the Dominicans and the Jesuits, the two
parties should state their case in his presence.
To determine this affair, forty-seven congregations were held between the
20th of March, 1602, to the 22d of February, 1606. They were termed Be
Auxiliis. The pope presided over tAventy-seven of them. He feU sick
before he could pronounce sentence, and a decision was not given until the
reign of Paul V., who, after being present at the last ten congregations,
where the examination was left to the cardinals only, pronounced, on the
27th of AprU, 1606, that it would be allowed for both orders to teach in
their respective schools the contrasted systems as to grace, provided they
did so with that prudent and respectful moderation which becomes Catholic
theologians in general, and religious in particular.
In the month of AprU, 1603, died Ehzabeth, queen of England ; in some
respects a personage of great merit, but, Avith respect to religion, a scourge
of the Roman faith, which she abhorred, and which she persecuted with aU
the worst zeal of the primitive tyrants of the Church.
By her wiU she called to the throne James, king of Scotland, AA'hose
mother, Mary, had perished on the scaffold, as much by order of the par-
* Novaes, ix, p. 59.

CLEMENT VIH.

923

hament as by order of Ehzabeth,* who persecuted her because she pro
fessed the Catholic religion. The pope thought that with James the faith
would again ascend the throne of England ; but it speedily appeared that
aU the exertions of the pope in that direction were fruitless. The king
embraced the doctrine of the Church of England, and very soon, by his
writings, began to insult the Cathohc rehgion. He was the first to take
the title of king of Great Britain, as he was also the first wrongfuUy to

* In the course of this work, we have often spoken of Elizabeth of England, and truth forbade
us to speak weU of her. The same love of truth now impels us to speak of her under circum
stances in which there is no room, to blame her, and it is due to ourselves to speak in praise as
candidly as in blame. Under her reign, England enjoyed a flourishing position, in respect to
other States of Europe. Its commerce extended to the four quarters of the globe, and its
manufactures were established. And Elizabeth banished luxury, that most cruel enemy of a
State. We may cite, from de Lally Tollendal, an incident which does honor to Elizabeth, The arbi
trary and excessive severity of her general rule, did not prevent her from one day showing the
most generous clemency. A Scotchwoman Avho had been in the service of Queen Mary, one
Margaret Lambrun, had seen her husband die of grief, on learning the cruel end of the queen of
Scots. Bent upon revenging both her murdered queen and her deceased husband, Margaret
went to the EngUsh court, disguised as a man, and provided with two pistols, and Avatched an
opportunity to assassinate the queen, and then kill herself, so as to avoid execution. But, hurry
ing into the crowd, she dropped one of her pistols. She was arrested. Elizabeth personaUy
questioned her, was struck with the audacity of her replies, and coldly said to her: "You
thought, then, that you were doing your duty to your mistress and your husband ? Well, what
do you think is now my duty towards you ?"
'¦I wiU reply frankly to your majesty ; but, do you ask as queen or as judge?" "As queen."
" In that case you ought to pardon me." " But how will you assure me that you wiU not abuse
that pardon, and make another attempt on my life °" " Madam, pardon granted Avith so much
precaution ceases to be pardon; your majesty can act as judge." Turning to her courtiers,
Elizabeth said : " In the thirty years that I have been a queen, I have never received such a
lesson." She then granted the pardon without any reservation, in spite of the opposition of the
president of her council. A council almost always knows how to flatter sovereigns, but rarely
advises what would immortaUze them.
I Avill now return to my own reflections. When we have hidden nothing of the crimes of an
often criminal life, we embrace any opportunity to praise an act of lofty virtue and magnanimous
clemency. But in the present case, who is the grander, the queen or the Scotchwoman ? We
only remind our readers of what Mary said of a Scotchwoman knoAving how to die.
Never Avas Spartan man calmer than this Scotchwoman, Margaret Lambrun. But that pow
erful queen, whose orders, even given by a sign, Avere so promptly obeyed, she too was admirable.
Elizabeth systematically conciliated those whom she had offended. She was right ; to con
ciliate those whose resentment is to be feared, is a part of the art of governing.
Henry VIIL, Elizabeth's father, said that England was the beam that could balance as it
pleased the two scales of Spain and France. The Spanish secretary of State, Antonio Perez, con
fessed as much in one of his Latin letters to the earl of Essex, the favorite of Quoon Elizabeth :
" Quod illic" (he says, alluding to a book. which he sent to that nobleman), "in equilibria Gallics
et Hispanice asseritur Angliam esse Examen Europm, staterasque ilia duo regna ejusdem Euro-
pas, non omnino rejiciendum est a prudenti viro." This shows how important it is to those two
crowns to court the friendship of England, Avho, from the advantage of her situation, is their
veritable beam, and can always give great weight to Avhichever party she may embrace. Eliza
beth well knew how to profit by the prudent lessons of her father, for she made it the funda
mental maxim of her long and prosperous reign. She assisted France, lest its fall should raise
the king of Spain to universal monarchy, while it was to her interest to keep him down.

924 LIVES OF THE POPES.
exercise the rights exclusively belonging to the vicar of Christ. So that all
hope vanished of seeing the true faith restored in the kingdom.
An untoward event at this moment grieved the pope and disturbed all
Rome. An offender, pursued by the police, took shelter in the palace of
Cardinal Odoard Farnese. The sbirri, on entering the palace, were resisted
by the cardinal's domestics, so that the criminal escaped in the confusion.
On being informed of the fact, the pope was much irritated, and ordered
the governor of Rome to prosecute the servants of the cardinal, whom he
rebuked sharply, and ordered to give up the offenders.
Several Roman princes, and the ambassadors of the Cathohc king, waited
upon the pope and endeavored to appease him. Then the cardinal left
Rome, but with so strong an escort, that he had nothing to fear from vio
lence. That circumstance still further irritated the pope, who would no
longer consent to pardon.
Ranutius Farnese, duke of Parma, hastened to Rome to obtain his
brother's restoration to favor. He presented himself before Clement with
such a good mien and such a deeply respectful manner, that he succeeded
in appeasing the pope, and the delinquents obtained their pardon. The
cardinal was recaUed, but did not hasten to return. It was on that occasion
that the pope took into his pay six hundred Corsicans and two hundred
mounted arquebusiers, Avho were to guard the pontifical palace and other
important points of the capital.
In his sixth promotion, Clement gave the purple to Seraphin Olivier,*
whose tart expression in relation to Henry's absolution we have cited.
James Davy du Perron also received the purple in the same promotion.
In 1604, France and Rome deplored the death of Cardinal d'Ossat.
That faithful servant of Henry IV. was only sixty-eight years of age, and
it had been hoped that he would preserve his health in a country where the
air is so mild, and the temperature favorable to the aged. Henry expe
rienced a deep affliction, which he did not attempt to conceal, when he heard
that news.
We have seen that d'Ossat, devoted in his youth to severe study, was
thoroughly acquainted with the learned classics. He had especiaUy studied
and relished Tacitus, Pliny, and Cicero. Ideas from Tacitus frequently
recurred to the mind of our negotiator.
Father Tarquinius Galuzzi, of the Society of Jesus, pronounced the
funeral oration on Cardinal d'Ossat, at Rome, on the 18th of March, 1604.
It is given at length in the collection of his letters.
We shall not attempt to describe the grief that was felt by the Holy
* Monseigneur Seraphin was seventy-one years of age when he was made cardinal. He was
one of the best friends of Cardinal d'Ossat, Avho died without witnessing the promotion of one
whom he so much loved.

CLEMENT VIH. 925
Father. When a political agent has the good fortune to acquire the con
fidence of a sovereign pontiff, His Hohness anxiously hastens to do what
ever is useful or agreeable to the government by whom that agent is em
ployed ; and also consults him, under the seal of secrecy, as a Christian and
a son of the Church, upon other business of the Holy See. Such a priest
did Clement VIIL lose when d'Ossat* died ; and Clement feU seriously ill.
In the following year he was attacked by an intermittent fever. It Avas
so violent that he at times was delirious ; suddenly losing his memory, and
that understanding which had been so vast and profound, he died, aged
sixty-nine, on the 3d of March, 1605, after having governed the Church
thirteen years, one month, and four days. He was interred in the Vatican,
and afterwards removed, on the 26th of April, 1646, to a magnificent
tomb, in the Borghese chapel at Saint Mary Major.
Clement was endowed with many virtues. He was zealous for the propa
gation of the Gospel, for the extirpation of the heresies which then flooded
aU Europe, for the conversion of the schismatics of the East, and for the
restoration of morals and of discipline. Unwearied in the discharge of
duty, age and infirmity in naught diminished his courage. Humble in
heart, he nevertheless distinguished himseK by a certain air of command,
and by an absolute tone, as was shown in the business of Cardinal Farnese.
Extremely kind of heart, he could protect his just rights and avoid dangers
fatal to some of his predecessors. More than once he was seen at the con
fessional, receiving, like some good parish priest, all those who presented
themselves, who desired to have it to say that they had received absolution
from the Ups of the pope himseK. He said Mass daUy, often in tears, and
every evening confessed to Cardinal Baronius. He fasted every Wednes
day, and had only bread and water every Saturday. A hair shirt, next to
his infirm body, attested his spirit of penance. He often went barefoot in
ceremonies. He daUy invited to a frugal repast as many paupers as there
were years in his pontificate, served them with water to wash, blessed their
table, and sent the dishes to them from his own. He visited the unfortu
nate, he consoled the afflicted, and he spent considerable sums in redeeming
from slavery Catholics who had fallen into the power of the infidels. Such
was the pope whom the impudent sectaries' would represent as the Anti
christ. Literary men received his rich favors, and he gloried to be numbered
among them. He gave the purple to Baronius, BeUarmine, d'Ossat, du
* De Thou (Hist., lib. cxxxU.) gives a eulogy on d'Ossat. Cardinal Pallavicini calls him one
of the principal and wisest ministers the kingdom of France ever had.— (Chap, x, book 24, of
Hist, of Council of Trent.) Finally, Wicquefort says (sect. 3 of the 54th book of his Ambassa
dor) the negotiations of Cardinal d'Ossat and of President Jeannin, are alone almost sufficient to
form an ambassador.

926 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Perron, and Marzali — the first of the Capuchins who received the hat— and
to the Jesuit Toledo. Toledo and BeUarmine were the first of their order to
obtain that honor.*
He forbade Itahans to reside in any places out of Italy, where they had
not liberty to exercise the Cathohc religion in public, — a rule confirmed by
* The following medals are in my own collection :
1. Clement VIH, Pont. Max. Head of Clement VIIL Sev. : Salva vos Domine. The
bark, altogether modern in style, sinking. The disciples invoke Christ, who is properly at the
helm. Du Molinet, Bonanni, and Venuti have overlooked this.
2. Ivbilei Indictio. In the exergue : An. M. D. C. Pope crowned and throned ; cardinals.
A prelate reading. In front, heralds sounding trumpets.
3. Ferraria recvpbrata. The city of Ferrara.
Du Molinet gives thirty-eight others :
1. Fvndata SVPRA jtrmam petram. The Holy Ghost descending on a seated female figure
with a crucifix and tiara.
2. Fortitvdo mea, et refvgivm iievm. Clement praying before Christ crucified ; the tiara
on the ground. Struck during the negotiation Avith Henry IV.
3. Domine IV33E AD te venise. Saint Peter on the vessel.
4. In verbo tvo. (See Life of Innocent IX.)
5. Consecratio. (See Life of Gregory XIV.)
6. Et non pcenitebit bvm. In the exergue : CIDIC.XCIIII. The pontiff, as Melchisedech,
places bread and wine in a chalice. Andrew de Nevers, the ambassador of Henry IV, kneels to
receive, as proxy for his royal master, the first absolution.
7. Heneicvs IIII, D. G. Franc. Nav. Rex. Christia. (Here a lily that Bonanni has over
looked.) The head of Henry.
8. Rvteenis receptis. In the exergue : CIOICXCVI. (1596). The pope blesses the kneel
ing Russian bishops. Several Russian bishops, wishing to return to the Roman faith, sent two
of their number to the pope — Hypalius, bishop of Bresta, and Cyrillus Terleczki, exarch of the
metropolitan of Kiow. They asked Clement to permit them to retain the Greek rite. The en-
A'oys read, from their own handwriting, the required profession of faith, and kissed the feet of
the Holy Father ; and then the ambassadors requested that their suite, and their fellow country
men, might have the same permission.
9. Tv scis Domine. Jesus Christ, Saint Peter, and another disciple.
10. Veni dllecta mea. " The Holy Father receives Margaret of Austria, who offers him a,
flower. Margaret, who is affianced to Philip III. of Spain, on her way to Madrid to be crOAvned,
passed through Ferrara. Near the two figures are the keys of the Church, surmounted by the
pontifical canopy." (Du MoUnet, Bonanni.) Venuti thinks the figure seated upon the throne
cannot represent Clement ; it is in fact, rather, a female. The other figure has no characteristic
of a queen. Venuti, consequently, thinks the seated figure tlie Church, and the other the city
of Ferrara. The recovery of Ferrara just then occupied all minds, and I incline to follow the
idea of Venuti.
11. Christians pax reipublkle. Jfenry IV. and Philip II. An ear of wheat, the symbol of
peace, betAveen the two heads. Struck at the peace of Vervins, in 1598.
12. Remigavit eridantjs. A crowned river Ues near two pines. Upon the stream are
several aquatic birds.
.,13. Hinc pax, hinc victoria. The cross erected on a hillock ; on one side an olive branch,
on the other a palm. Venuti takes this to be a new aUusion to the restoration of Ferrara. Bo
nanni says that the inscription is taken from Saint Chrysostom, who, in his fifty-fifth homily on
Saint Matthew, exhorts us to have a representation of the cross in the most retired parts of our
houses, on the walls, on the windows, and in some sort to carry it upon our brows and within
our hearts — Unde pax et victoria.
14. Ivstitia et Clementia complexes sunt se. Du Molinet and Bonanni give it incorrectly.
15. ExvitGAT D. ET DissiP. rani. Ervs. The pope, throned, gives the standard of the Church

CLEMENT VIIL 927
Gregory XVI. He declared that it was not allowable for any one to confess
by letter or by message to an absent confessor, or in such manner to receive
absolution ; for though the Council of Trent had decided that those who,
after baptism, had sinned, were to present themselves at the tribunal of
penance, to be absolved by the competent minister, yet the scholastics,
to John Francis Aldobrandini, going to the assistance of Rodolph, engaged in a long war against
the Turks.
16. Luia propagantvb IN orbe. Henry IV. and Mary de Medici, fuU face. Between them,
and above the head, the Golden Rose sent to Mary before she left Florence for Paris. (Du
Molinet.) 17. Magnum gratis sacramenttjm. In the exergue : Laterani. The tabernacle, with the
Blessed Sacrament exposed. "In the other Sacraments," says Bonanni (ii, p. 454), "God gives
us divine graces — in the Eucharist he gives us tho very source of grace. So, Saint Paul calls
the Eucharist the great Sacrament of piety." Medal struck in commemoration of the embel-
Ushrnents made to Saint John Lateran by Clement VIIL There is another medal which bears
the same inscription, but represents the Last Supper.
18. Ivsti intrabtjnt pep. eam, MDC. On the right, the holy door. On the left, two angels in
the clouds. Above the door, in smaU characters, Clemens Pont. Max. Jubilee medal.
19. Absolvto. A. tvbilei. The pope closes the holy door.
20. Portam sanctam apervit clavsit anno ivb. MDC. The holy door, with a cross on it.
21. Latjdate nomen Domini. MDC. A procession entering a church. An angel with an
oUve branch. According to du Molinet, struck to commemorate a pilgrimage of a hundred
Benedictines from Florence. Bonanni calls it an assemblage of pilgrims who had previously
been heretics, and had newly returned to Catholicity. Among them was that relative of Cal
vin already mentioned.
22. Ego vos reficiam. Du Molinet attributes this also to the Florentine Benedictines. The
medal represents nine pilgrims of both sexes entering the holy door. Our Saviour, on clouds
borne by cherubim, blessing them.
23. Introite in exvltatione, An. MDC. The Holy Father, kneeling, watches a flock of
sheep going in at the holy door.
24. Regnis nattjs et orbi. A boy running, holding in his right hand a sceptre, with a lily
at the end, and holding in the other hand a, large Uly ; before him, a cock carrying a crown.
The boy is Louis, dauphin of France, boru on the 27th of September, 1601, to occupy the thrones
of France and Navarre.
25. Vnvs Devs, vna fides, MDCI. Religion, standing, holds the cross and chalice.
26. Pax et salvs a Domino. MDCI. A crowned female holds the cross in her right hand,
and with her left applies a torch to bucklers. It is an allusion to the peace between the French
king and the duke of Savoy.
27. Vellino emisso. An. MDC. The cascade of Terni is one of the finest sights that the
traveller to Rome can witness. It is formed by the fall of the Vellino, which rushes into the
Nera from a height of 1063 Roman feet, by a channel which Mark Antony Dentatus cut in the
solid rock, in the year of Rome 480, to give an outlet to the Avaters of Lake Lucus, which, jjre-
viously, sometimes flooded the vaUey of Rieti. Those admirable Avorks of the Romans, so long
neglected, though for a time attended to by Paul III, Avere in urgent need of repair. Clement
VIIL intrusted that duty to the Marquis John Baptist CasteUi, of Saint Eustace. His Holiness,
therefore, had a right to transmit to posterity the memorial of it. The medal represents the
fall, which, towards the centre, is spanned by a bridge, which the architect, John Fontana, threw
across the river just above the fall.
28. Da qvod ivbes, MDCIII. The Holy Father, kneeling before Christ, uses tho words of
Saint Augustine. BetAveen our Lord and the pope, sheep are grazing. At the feet of the pope
is the tiara, which is always loAvered before Jesus Christ.
29. S. P. Q. R, MDCIIII. The south front of the palace of the capitol. Clement VIIL laid the
first stone of it. The designs of that front were left by the great Michael Angelo Buonarotti

928 LWES OF THE POPES.
fertUe in subtleties, had taught that confession could be made, and absolu
tion received, by letters or by proxy. Nothing could be more convenient
than to commit one's sins to paper, that raises no blush ; or to confess them,
like the Sacramentaries, only to the Eternal Father. In that wise, Confes
sion would be deprived of its most rigorous quahty, because it is necessary
to confess viva voce our own proper departures from the right path. The
sacred tribunal would thus be deprived of what it has of the most salutary,
for Confession is a great part of the penance for the past, and one of the
most efficient preservatives against relapse. On those grounds, Clement
was obhged to condemn. the new opinion as false, erroneous, and rash, for
bidding it to be maintained either in public or in private, even as merely
probable, under pain of excommunication, reserved to the pope. He con
demned the opinion of those who affirmed that Christians ought not to hear
Mass except in their own parish churches, or to confess to any one but
their own parish priest. The pope declared that both were perfectly law
ful, provided each one duly received communion at Easter in his own parish
church. He forbade any litany* to be chanted in pubhc offices except the
30. Ab origins mundi. Pope Clement, as. Abel, offers a ram in sacrifice to God.
31. Portv centvm cellarvm instavrato. In 1604. Clement VIIL extended the fortifica
tions of that city. The principal works were devoted to the antimural, built by Trajan. In
addition, the pope built two light-houses. One of them is ruinous and useless ; the other has
prevented and will prevent many shipwrecks.
32. Seqvere me. Saint Peter near Christ ; three other disciples follow.
33. Confregisti draconvm capita (Ps. Ixxiii. 13). A cross, in which a serpent is entwined.
In the field, on the right, a church. Du Molinet takes the serpent to represent Calvinism. Bo
nanni and Venuti take it to represent the Turk.
34. Annona publica. A female running ; wheat ears in one hand and the cornucopia in the
other. The popes have frequently borrowed this reverse from the emperors of old Rome.
Bonanni also gives :
1. Sine clade. Struck on the recapture of Ferrara, where not a drop of blood was spilt. In
the field, two crossed keys ; above, a crown ; lower down, a cross, with this monogram : Gi, 1598.
This medal is genuine, and was seen by Fea in the magnificent collection of pontifical medals
belonging to Prince Augustin Chigi.
2. Porta cceli. In the exergue : Domvs Dei, 1600. Clement opens the holy door. To the
right and left, cardinals and bishops.
3. The face of Clement VIH. On the reverse, without an inscription, a circus, a very minia
ture likeness of the colonnade of Saint Peter's ; in the centre, a fountain. It is evidently the
front garden of the Belvedere viUa at Frascati, built by Cardinal Aldobrandini, under the reign
of Clement VIIL No doubt, it is without inscription because it refers to none of the monu
mental works of that pope.
4. Philippvs III, hispaniarvm rex Catholicvs, arch. Austria, &c. Philip III, decorated
with the order of the Golden Fleece. Medal struck on the occasion of the reconciliation between
Henry IV. and Philip IH.
5. The Aldobrandini arms, Avithout inscription. In the field, behind the shield, the keys, sur
mounted by the tiara. Beneath, the heads of two Cherubim. That family, originaUy of
Florence, had — azure, a fasces, toothed argent, the teeth pointing to the top of the shield ; above
the fasces, three stars or ; beneath, also, three stars or.
* See the dissertation of Mondelli upon the Litany of Loretto ; it is the eleventh of the Ec-
r.lpsiastical Dissertations collected by Zaccaria. (Rome, 1795, 8vo.)

LEO XI.

929

Litany of the Saints and Litany of Loretto. He corrected the Roman
pontifical, breviary, and the ceremonial of the bishops.
Bartholomes, a recent writer (vol. i, p. 220), passes this judgment on
Clement : " This pope was one of the most eminent of modern times. He
was prodigiously active and untiring ; an experienced and adroit administra
tor ; jealous to govern by himseK ; a persevering statesman ; circumspect
even to taciturnity ; rarely inclined to even an innocent duplicity ; an
enemy to Spain and to the Medicis."
The Holy See was vacant twenty-eight days.

236. LEO XL— a. d. 1605.

; EO XL (Alexander Octavian de Medici) was born
at Florence in 1535, son of Octavian de Medici
and of Frances, daughter of James Salviati and
Lucretia de Medici, sister of Leo X.
As he evinced from youth an inchnation for the
priesthood, his mother, to dissuade him, placed
him at the court of her cousin, Cosmas, grand
duke of Tuscany, who immediately made him a
knight of the order of Saint Stephen. On his mother's death, he resumed
his first intention, and was sent by Cosmas as ambassador to the court of
Saint Pius V. at Rome, where he spent several years.
In 1573, he was made bishop of Pistoia, and in 1574, promoted to the
archbishopric of Florence. Gregory XIIL, in 1583, made him cardinal of
the title of Saint Quirico and Giuhtta, which he exchanged successively for
those of Saint Peter in vinculis, Saint Praxedes, and Saints John and Paul.
As cardinal, he took part in the election of Sixtus V., Urban VIL, Gregory
XTV, Innocent IX., and Clement VEIL The last of whom sent him, in
1596, as legate a latere into France, where he remained two years, to the
great satisfaction of Henry IV, who thanked the Holy Father in a letter
dated on the 8th of December, 1596.
In 1600, Clement VIIL made the archbishop of Florence suburbican
bishop of Albano, and of Palestrina in 1602.
After the funeral of Clement VIIL, sixty-two cardinals entered into con
clave on the 14th of March, 1605. Cardinals Zacchia, Blandrata, and de
Medici were proposed as candidates. A strong party was disposed to elect
Cardinal Baronius. Spain was opposed to him, because, in his Annals,
vol. I.— 59

930 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Baronius had combated the claims of the kings of Spain to the monarchy
of Sicily ; and because, moreover, he had .been in favor of absolving Henry
IV. Some of the cardinals having left the conclave from Ulness, only forty
votes were required to render the election canonical. Baronius at first
obtained twenty, and then thirty-seven, so that only three votes were lack
ing to enable his friends to congratulate him. But the truthful historian
and dispassionate annahst, speaking nothing but what he beheved to be
true, exempt from every kind of adulation, and utterly free from the use of
equivocal language, would not advance his cause by a single smUe, or by a
poUteness not strictly caUed for by the occasion. He passed amid his
brethren in the conclave, thoroughly sincere, seeing nothing and saying
nothing, alone with himseK in that crowd, as though, pen in hand, he were
at work in his study. He left friends and electors to themselves, — impartial
men to take part according to their individual convictions, and thus to con
spire against the repose and the hberty of the historian. He asked nothing,
and he repelled nothing. Let us explain that situation, which exists only
in Rome.
There, the highest, the most imposing, the most terrible of earthly digni
ties is conferred. I cannot say that views of personal ambition may not
sometimes actuate those who have been more or less successful. I may not
seem to launch an indirect moral anathema against any who have erred in
soliciting, but' subsequently have done good on reaching the throne. I wiU
say that a noble, generous, though perhaps aspiring, and so far reprehensi
ble sentiment, animates some ; but a stUl nobler feehng of resignation, of
obedience, necessary and wUled on high, also animates other members of the
sacred coUege.
In general, the agreeable days of the pontificate are those of the first
year. Then come disgusts, embarrassments, from which there is no escape,
men who demand impossible concessions, men who believe immobility the
true science of government, and men who seek to throw off old shackles
only to put on others. Men of inteUect, learning, experience, and observa
tion know all this on the eve of an election. The crown placed upon the
head of the elect announces a great favor of God ; but beneath that crown
the mental eye discerns the tumultuous bUlows that are to replace the bril
liancy of the pomp. At such a moment, after the inebriating effect of the
triumph, the adorations, the sedia gestatoria, and the chanted Ecce Sacerdos
Magnus has passed away, when the pope considers calmly the course of public
affairs, one may form some just idea of what is beneath the pontifical robe.
And then, what other feehng arises, not in the mind, but in the heart of the
upright priest ? Baronius may have thought that he woiUd make a distin
guished pope (every man has his value, and should know it)- ; and then he
might reflect upon the dangers of the papacy. Were there not dangers to

LEO XL 931
be discerned in Spain and France, — pacified, but stUl ready to come into
coUision ? The Turks were then a people without history, whose soldiers
might return, because they knew not of the lesson given by Charles Martel,
nor of the crescent driven from the Iberian peninsula, nor Malta delivered,
nor Lepanto made iUustrious by the defeat of Islam. There was America,
source of labors and duties, seemingly too great for human faculties. Ba
ronius saw what the pontificate had become : he took not a single step to
court an elevation, nor give expression to any desire to avoid it.
But Spain labored to exclude from the papacy the friend of order and the
friend of truth — he who taught the powerful ones of earth that one day they
also would be judged, even on that earth on which they had kindled so
many useless wars ; and Baronius accordingly was excluded.
Another cardinal had also been named, BeUarmine, who obtained ten
votes ; but the choice feU upon Alexander de Medici, who was at length
named by adoration. Moved by a sense of duty and honor, Cardinal Alex
ander accepted the tiara, and chose the name of Leo XL He was crowned
in the Vatican, June 10, 1605, and on Low Sunday took possession of Saint
John Lateran.
Cardinal Gallo having sohcited the suppression of some imposts, he not
only readUy granted it, but thanked the cardinal for having given him the
opportunity instantly to do a public service.
The Spanish ambassador, the marquis of VUlena, having shown some
discontent with the election, Leo said to him : " We were well treated in
your country ; write to your court that we shaU be its friend as far as it
depends upon us."
gome time after, Leo made Cardinal Cinthius Aldobrandini high peniten
tiary, and distributed generous aid among poor cardinals. On his return
from taking possession of Saint John Lateran, the pope was attacked by a
disorder which was speedily aggravated by his age. Fever set in, and having
been compeUed to take his bed, the disease increased. AU the court en
treated the pope to name as cardinal one of his nephews, a man of pure
morals, and to whom he was very partial. But he resisted aU entreaty, even
that of his confessor, to whom he replied : " Do not suggest to us any care
for earthly interests ; you must speak to us now only about things eternal."
Leo died on the 29th of April, having occupied the pontificate scarcely
twenty-six days.
* 1. 1 possess one medal : Leo XL Pont. Max. Anno I. Reverse : De Forti. Dulced. MDCV.
The dead lion of Samson. Beneath it, Giov. PA.
2 A laurel wreath inclosing a bouquet of roses : on the ribbon, Sic florvi. Sftruck after the
death of the pope. It aUudes evidently to the graceful line of Ausonius, often attributed to
Virgil : Una dies aperit, conficit una dies. See, too, Job xiv. 5— (Du MoUnet.)
3. Bonanni gives another medal, with the same words around the wreath.

932 LIVES OF THE POPES.
He was a prince of grave but agreeable countenance, liberal, affable, type
of the good Medicis, full of candor, and the enemy of every kind of fraud in
either word or deed.
He was interred in the Vatican Basilica ; but Cardinal Pompey Ugoni,
his nephew, removed his body to a magnificent tomb reared on the left side
of that Basilica by the celebrated Algardi.
The Holy See was vacant eighteen days.

237. PAUL V.— a. d. 1605.
jAUL V. (CamUlus Borghese) was born at Rome on
the 17th of September, 1552, of an Ulustrious fami
ly of Siennese origin. After studying phUosophy
at Perugia, and law at Padua, he became a consis-
torial advocate, then prelate-abbreviator, referen
dary of the two signatures,* and subsequently vicar
at Saint Mary Major. In 1588, he was sent by
Sixtus V. to Bologna, as vice-legate. Gregory
XIV. recalled him to employ him as auditor of the chamber, vacant by the
death of his brother, Horatius Borghese.
Clement VIIL dispatched CamiUus into Spain with extraordinary powers,
and created him cardinal of Saint Eusebius, on the 15th of June, 1596. He
was surnamed the exceUent cardinal, and already spoken of as likely to be
come pope. The cardinals entering into conclave May 8th, showed a dispo
sition to elect Cardinal Toschi of Modena, and some proposed to go into
the chapel and adore that cardinal ; but Cardinal Baronius said that the
election of Toschi was not for the good of the Church.
Toschi, according to Tiraboschi, retained from his early education and
associations some low words and expressions, which, to the severe Baro
nius, seemed unbecoming in a vicar of Christ. This unexpected declaration
diverted the votes from Toschi, and thirty-tAvo cardinals declared for Baro
nius. The latter was justified in excluding Toschi, who had been a servant
to John Baptist Brugnolo, auditor of Monsignor Archinto, the pope's vicar.
Toschi's rise had been rapid, for at an early age he was governor of Rome,
and purity of language apart, aU admitted him to be a man of courage, an
able jurisconsult, and the author of useful works.
* The signatures of pardons and justice are two important tribunals presided at by the pope
or a cardinal.

PAUL V. 933
But Baronius, m excluding nis coUeague for good reasons, did not expect
to be himself declared pope. He wished one chosen who would govern the
Church weU, but he did not wish to be the one.
The great cardinal did not remain neutral, as in the election of Leo XL,
but felt obhged to oppose his new friends : he proposed BeUarmine, who
employed the same eloquence to prove that another choice would be prefer
able. Such rare and sublime modesty deserves the highest eulogy of his
tory. A Baronius and a BeUarmine, two eminent men, on this occasion,
set an example of admirable magnanimity ; and the more they depreciated
themselves, the more their greatness is to be admired.
Cardinals Montalto and Aldobrandini were next mentioned, the heads of
the two parties who divided the power in the conclave.
The French cardinals had not as yet pronounced their opinion; but,
seeing that Montalto sincerely supported Borghese, they joined with the
Montaltists, and Borghese was named pope on the evening of the 16th of
May, 1605, at the age of fifty-five, though he appeared to be scarcely forty.
On the 29th of May he was crowned under the name of Paul V., and on the
6th of November he took possession of Saint John Lateran.*
One of the first cares of Paul V. was to pubhsh a special jubUee, to obtain
from the divine mercy a prosperous government of the Universal Church.
He then ordered his vicar, Cardinal Pamfili, to notify all bishops then in
Rome to return to their dioceses.
He at first abstained from distributing favors, saying that asking and
giving inconsiderately were both too easy at such times. The early months
of the reign of Gregory XIII. prove how judicious these words are.
In the month of August, 1605, Henry IV. sent d'Hahncourt, marquis de
ViUeroy, as ambassador extraordinary, to compliment Pope Paul V.
D'Ossat was no longer in the Eternal City.t
Paul V., in order to put an end to the controversy on grace, that was
carried on between the Dominicans and the Jesuits, once more revived the
congregations de Auxiliis, instituted by Clement VIIL, and finaUy per
mitted each party to maintain its own opinion. On the 18th of July, of the
same year, Paul raised to the purple Scipio Caffarelh Borghese,. a noble
Roman, and his maternal nephew, who, by his direction, dropped the name
of CaffareUi. This selection, it may be remarked, pleased the whole city of
Rome. Scipio was distinguished for such gentle and kindly manners, that
he was caUed Belizia di Roma. He buUt the magnificent vUla the Pinciana
* Before the latter date he had already created cardinals, issued many bulls, and performed
aU other acts of the supreme dignity. This shows the incorrectness and inconsistency of those
who maintain that the pope possesses the papal authority only when he has received the two
keys in Saint John Lateran.
f Artaud gives at length the instructions of Henry IV. to his ambassador.

934 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Borghese, where, notwithstanding losses and sales of many of the statues,
a host of most costly objects is stiU to be seen.
Paul V. at this time addressed to Rosny (Bethune de SuUy) the foUowing
letter :
" Paul V., pope, to you, Ulustrious man, health, grace, and divine light.
" We have so great an affection for our beloved son, Mr. de Bethune, your
brother, for his rare prudence and piety, and for the courtesy and respect
with which he treated us when we were stiU among the number of the car
dinals, that the memory of his person and of his actions is always pleasant
to our mind. Considering the close ties with which nature has connected
you in consanguinity, and knowing your great experience and courage,
which are represented to us as very special both in arts of peace and war,
we feel urged by an extreme desire to find an opportunity to testify how
much we desire to embrace you in the Lord. But in our charity there re
mains mingled this regret, that what should serve as our consolation, turns
to our displeasure, we being aU the more anxious for your salvation because
we recognize the infinite mental gifts that nature has developed in you, and
see that they are led so far away from the way to salvation ; for, in truth,
it is impossible to be acceptable to God without confessing the orthodox
faith professed by the holy Roman Catholic Church, the mother and
mistress of aU the others. And in this we must not presume any thing be
cause we are daUy loaded with the favors of his divine bounty, for all the
servants may easily receive the talent from the father of the family, but it
does not follow that therefore all are to enter into the joy of the Lord. On
the contrary, the riches acquired in this world by sinners resemble dreams,
which vanish when the sleeper awakens, it being necessary that he who de
parts from God shall perish. We the more, therefore, desire that your
abundant temporal gKts shaU be accompanied by spiritual blessings ; and
to that end we constantly pray the Almighty to enlighten your understand
ing with the hght of his Holy Spirit, so that you may the more easily arrive
at the knowledge of the truth of the Catholic faith. Surely, if among the
great labors of the pontificate we were permitted to add our zeal and our
teachings to our prayers, we should omit nothing that might aid in your
conversion, so greatly do we desire it. We should think and act with the
good shepherd in the Gospel, who left the ninety-nine sheep of his flock to
seek the one that was lost. In hke manner, we should wiUingly forego aU
other anxieties for the sake of bringing back your soul, that we so deshe to
be among the blessed. Nevertheless, as that is a thing whoUy forbidden to
labors such as ours, in default of it, we have determined to testify to you
our ardent zeal for your salvation, in which zeal we shaU aU the more con
stantly persevere because we are informed of the generosity of your mind.

PAUL v. 935
which we easUy beUeve to be great. Your ancestors and yourself being
descendants of so illustrious a house as that of the former counts of Flanders,
we feel sure that you wUl receive in the best spirit the proof of our sincere
good-wiU, and we trust that we soon shall receive proof that our advice is
acceptable.* It is a thing very easy of execution, provided you aUoAv your
self to be instructed in the truth of the Cathohc religion ; for if upon that
subject you question your fathers, they wiU teU you Avho were their prede
cessors. Inquire what was taught them by Saint Dennis, Saint Remigius,
Saint Hilary, Saint Martin, and Saint Bernard, who preached Christianity
in France, and you wiU judge whether there is any difference between their
doctrine and that of the holy Roman Church. Learn what was the belief
of Clovis, Charlemagne, Saint Louis, and, in fact, all the kings of France,
and then you wiU perceive that they were always united in faith with the ¦
most holy pontiffs, our predecessors. But especially interrogate our most
dear son in Jesus Christ, King Henry, at present reigning,* and he himseK
wUl clearly show you what it is to believe in his most dear mother, the
Roman Church. In truth, in doing this, you wUl do what wiU be very
agreeable to him ; and we aU the more ardently exhort you to yield to our
will, because it is an occasion in which, in a single moment, and by a single
act, you can give unbounded pleasure to us and to your king, while providing
for the salvation of your own soul. It has been represented to us, that on
many subjects concerning the dignity of the Holy See, you have always
obeyed the instructions or intentions of our predecessor of happy memory,
Clement VIIL, and that you have also rendered good offices to the legates
and apostohc nuncios, by which we are made to feel the more assured that
we may expect the accomplishment of our wishes, and, chiefly, since this
concerns your own salvation, and since we, equally with that holy pontiff,
desire that you should be received with open arms, to remain in the Temple
of our Lord Jesus Christ, with much rejoicing — that is to say, in the Catho
lic Church. Further, our hope is stUl increased since we learned that you
greatly honor (as is quite reasonable) the sanctity of a Saint Alpinus de
Bethune, one of your own race. For, certainly, that blessed person pro
fessed the Cathohc and Apostohc faith of the Roman Church. It foUows,
therefore, that you must either follow his example, or cease to appropriate
to yourseK any portion of the glory of his hfe. For, if you exalt and laud
his sanctity, while persisting in your present creed, you must necessarily be
in self-contradiction, since you cannot both persist in your first belief and
form a right judgment of his doctrine and actions.
* How delicately Godfrey of Boulogne is indicated here, without being named ! There had
been an aUiance between the house of Lower Lorraine, to which Godfrey belonged, and the
family of Bethune.

936 LIVES OF THE POPES.
" Now, it seems to be time that we should here terminate this letter. We
therefore conclude it, but not with it do we conclude the care and interest
we take in you, nor the devout prayers that we offer up to God for your
salvation. On the contrary, we shaU redouble them, in order that the
Eternal, in his mercy, may dispel the clouds and shadows from your under
standing, and not permit you, thus entreated by our charity, to refuse the
brightness of his diAine hght.
" Given at Rome, at Saint Mark's, under the seal of the Fisherman, on
the 5th of October, 1605, and of our pontificate the first.
"Paul, PP. V."
To this letter, replete with wisdom, paternal feeling, and real power,
Rosny rephed :
" Most Holy Fathee :
" The infinite benedictions and graces, as weU spiritual as temporal, with
which the great eternal God has in such plenitude favored Your Holiness,
and the signal testimonies of paternal affection which Your Hohness has so
continuaUy lavished on my king and my country, had already exercised
such power over my wiU, and so thoroughly disposed my heart to be the
very humble and very faithful servant of Your Hohness, that I did not deem'
it possible for any thing to add to the extreme passion I felt to be honored
by the commands of Your Holiness, to which I have vowed perpetual
obedience. But at present, seeing, by the brief with which Your Hohness
has been pleased to honor me, aU my designs and my hopes overpassed by
such an excess of kindness, charity, and courtesy, I wUl not attempt to find
words in which to express the feehngs they have excited in my soul, nor the
bonds Avith wliich so special and pecuhar a grace binds me to the service of
Your Holiness, but content myseK with admiring them as effects proceed
ing from Heaven, and from a virtue unequaUed. But for my fear of being
suspected of ingratitude, and to aU appearance not unjustly suspected, I
should deem it more becoming me to remain sUent than to speak ; confess
ing, by a sUence fuU of humihty, at once my faults and the infinite merits
of Your Holiness, which lead me to hope that — after the example of Him
who has been so hberal of his graces to you, and who, without distinction
of persons, receives with pleasure and acceptance the praises and the offer
ings of even the meanest of his creatures, when they proceed from a sincere
heart — your piety and clemency would inchne you to accept the vows of my
humble service and of my dedication of my days and my life to be employed
in obedience to Your Holiness, however useless I might prove to be ; pro
testing, nevertheless, that if my misfortune deprives me of the means of
proportioning my services to my duty and to my devotion, my deshe to

PAUL V. 937
have that happiness remain eternal, and that I shaU publish in aU places
your glory and immortal praise, returning a thousand thanks to Your
Holiness for the beautKul admonitions with which you have been pleased
to honor me ; and in all humility entreating you not to be offended if,
believing myseK incapable of doing more praiseworthily than by striving
to imitate Your Hohness, I address my most ardent prayers to that great
God, the creator of aU things, that it may please him, who is the father of
resplendent hght, to assist and illuminate with his Holy Spirit your zeal
and beatitude, and to give you more and more entire knowledge of his
truth and good-wiU, in which consist the salvation and the eternal felicity
of all creatures. In that devotion, I most humbly kiss the feet of Your
Hohness and Greatness, as one on whom Your Holiness has imposed the
strictest obligations, and who desires to preserve during the whole re
mainder of his hfe, the quahty of
" Your most humble, most obedient, and most faithful servant,
" Bethune de Sully.
"At Paris, this 17th of November, 1605."
How tender, generous, and paternal is the letter of the pope ! The reply
of Rosny is somewhat studied and embarrassed. In one passage he makes
it evident that it is in vain that he desires to devote his days and his life to
employment under obedience to the pope ; and Saint Alpinus de Bethune,
one of the race of the Rosnys, and so skilfuUy aUuded to by Paul V.,
would seem not to have been noticed by Rosny. Did the pride of Ros
ny find itseK at fault? The pope has all the advantage, and Rosny
always retreats Avith a few Parthian phrases, which strongly smack of Cal
vinism. But let us leave aside that baffled vanity, and confess that he has the
merit of having informed us of the facts which have been transmitted to us
solely in his (Economies Royales. Did Sully wish to conceal the fact that
his race had been Ulustrated by a saint ?' And having sUently obtained the
smaU advantage of not recognizing that saint, did he deem that a sufficient
victory, and so retire ?
Let us noAv speak of other labors of Paul V.
At this time there arose a dispute between the pontiff and the republic
of Venice. Two causes are assigned for that serious quarrel. Two eccle
siastics had been accused before the CouncU of Ten, of crime, rapine, and
even of homicide. The two accused, Scipio Saraceni, canon of Vicenza,
and Brandolino Valmarino, a native of Forh and abbot of Narvesa, had
been tried and imprisoned, in 1606, without any notice of the facts being
given to the Roman court.
The other cause was the pubhcation of two decrees of the senate, one of

938 LIVES OF THE POPES.
which forbade the founding of hospitals or monasteries, the institution of
new rehgious orders, the buUding of churches, or the establishment of con
fraternities without the permission of the senate. The second decree for
bade, throughout the whole repubhc (what had been forbidden as to the
city and duchy of Venice under Paul III.), to leave by wiU, or to alienate
by sale or otherwise, any real estate of the Church for more than two years,
and equally forbade the purchase or other acquisition of such real estate,
without the consent of the senate.
Paul, a zealous defender of ecclesiastical immunities, seeing them attacked
and menaced with annihilation by this decree, ordered his nephew Horace
Mattis to demand the hberty of the two prisoners, and the revocation of
the decrees in question. He himseK, in an' audience which he gave the
Chevalier Nani, the Venetian ambassador, complained warmly of this con
duct ; and he hoped to bring Venice to reason, as he had done Genoa.
Venice, however, would not yield.
The Holy Father then held a consistory embracing forty cardinals, aU
those at Rome, with the exception of one, who, as a subject of the repubhc,
very properly abstained from voting.
It was there determined to issue a monition to the republic of Venice,
and if, within twenty-four days, the doge and the repubhc should not
obey the Holy Father, the doge and the senate were to be excommuni
cated ; and, three days later, the same punishment was to be inflicted upon
all the subjects of the republic. The Venetian government forbade aU
obedience to the interdict, on pain of exile. The nuncio quitted Venice,
The Jesuits instantly submitted to the pontifical order, departed in formal
procession, and were declared to be perpetually banished from the
State. The Theatines and Capuchins represented to the government that they
were prepared to keep their churches open for foreign priests, and at the
same time prayed that they might be aUowed to perform their offices in
private ; and this being refused, they also departed into exUe. The Capu
chins in the territory of Brescia and Bergamo continued in their con
vents, because they had not observed the interdict.*
Many writings appeared on both sides.t It was said that the cause of the
Venetians was that of aU princes, who would aU be gainers by a victory
over the Holy See.
Among the writers who defended the Venetians were Fra Paolo Sarpi,
and Brother Fulgentius, his worthy riyal, who poured forth a torrent of
bold invective against the Roman court. But the cause of the court
was eloquently defended by Baronius and BeUarmine, those two men
* Muratori, Annates d'ltalie, an. 1606, et seq. f Novaes, ix, p. 92.

PAUL v. 939
of glory and of genius who could not be persuaded to accept the tiara, but
never ceased to be the boldest defenders of the Church*
A war seemed imminent between Venice and the Holy See, when the
Catholic king, Philip III., offered to the pope the troops stationed in the
Milanese, and promised to reduce the Venetians to obedience. At the same
time, that prince secretly encouraged the Venetians to resist. Henry IV.,
sincerely attached to the Holy See, offered his mediation to the two powers,
and reaUy desired to restore peace to Italy, where, as everywhere, it was
much needed. Cardinal de Joyeuse, dean of the sacred college, was sent
to Venice to treat in the name of the pope and of the king. Returning to
Rome on the 22d of March, 1607, he obtained the pope's full authority to
absolve the Venetians from the censures which they had incurred, to raise
the interdict, and conclude a definitive peace Avith the repubhc. The two
parties were in the first place to discontinue hostihties. The interdict was
revoked, and the two decrees were declared void. In this negotiation, Car
dinal Joyeuse displayed remarkable ability and zeal. On the 21st of April,
the Venetians having given up the two prisoners, Scipio Saraceni and
Brandolino Vahnarino, peace was restored.
The Venetians promised to send to Rome an ambassador to thank the
pope for restoring them to his affection, but they sought to avoid aU men
tion of absolution. The great soul of Paul was displayed on that occasion.
After having shown a just pride, he reverted to feehngs of concihation, as
so often had been done by his august predecessors, who feared to lose too
much by insisting upon a false point of honor.t The Holy See and the
repubhc of Venice expressed in several letters their gratitude to Henry IV.
However, there was one point upon which the Venetians, when the exe
cution of the treaty was in question, would not yield. AU the exiled reh
gious returned to their houses, except the Jesuits, who were not readmitted
untU 1657, under Pope Alexander VII.
There Avas now a new promotion of ^cardinals. Paul gave the purple to
MarceUus Lante, his relation, one of the richest and most beneficent pre
lates in Rome. On account of his sumptuous charities, he was called a new
John the Almoner.
On the 29th of March, 1608, the pope terminated the process of the
canonization of Saint Frances, a Roman lady, born in 1384, founder of the
Oblates of Saint Benedict, of the congregation of Mont' Olivetole, com
monly caUed the ladies of the Tor de Specchi.
Henry IV had instituted, in opposition to the heretics, the military order
of Saint Mary of Carmel. The pope approving the step, on the 31st of
October, 1608, united the order to that of the Knights of Saint Lazarus.
* Spondanus, Annal. Eccl., an. 1606. t Novaes, ix, p. 93.

940 LIVES OF THE POPES.
The order was to bear, for the future, both names, as regarded the French,
and the name of Saints Maurice and Lazarus was reserved for the Savoy
ards and the Italians. The knights of the order were subsequently limited
by order of Louis XV. to one hundred. Eight of these might be ecclesias
tics, and aU must be thirty years of age, and be able to prove four degrees
of paternal nobility.
The armies of the king of Spain, commanded by the Archduke Albert, in
Flanders, were often defeated by the Dutch, who would listen to no pro
posals of peace, nor consent to lay down their arms, except on the recog
nition of their independence, and other conditions very unpalatable to Spain,
but to which she had to submit.
The pope, learning that at Madrid frequent councils of State were held in
order to conclude the desired accommodation, lost no time in exhorting
King PhUip to demand, as one of the conditions of the treaty, the free exer
cise of the Catholic rehgion in HoUand. This the Protestant provinces
constantly opposed ; and then the Spaniards, unable to continue the war,
concluded a peace of twelve years, and thus abandoned the interests of
religion, notwithstanding the bitter complaints of the pope. Philip, though
unable at this juncture to save the interests of religion in the crash of
politics, sought to retain the good-wUl of the Holy Father.
The Moors stUl continued to occupy the kingdoms of Valentia and Cas
tile. They conspired against the king, and sought in every direction for
supporters in their revolt. They sent agents into France to obtain alli
ances ; they disturbed the king even upon his throne in Madrid, not far
distant from the headquarters of those insurrectionary plots. Those at
tempts had prevented the prosecution of the war in HoUand. The king of
Spain, after mature deliberation, ordered the Moors to be simultaneously
expeUed from the kingdom which they inhabited on the Spanish peninsula.
Spain sought praise for this as zeal for religion ; but Muratori and Spon
danus attribute it to motives purely pohtical. At the same time, the duke
of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel, made another attempt to surprise Geneva;
but the enterprise was discovered, and the partisans of the duke had to seek
safety in flight.
The pope was greatly afflicted by the death of Henry IV., whose assas
sination plunged the pontiff into a profound grief and depression. He
assembled a consistory, to Avhich he expressed the agonies that had been
inflicted upon him by tidings so sad to Catholicity. Then he addressed to
the queen regent letters in which, after showing the pain and difficulty of
the Holy See, he exhorted her to defend the faith, and to rear her son in
love for religion, Avhich had lost in Henry so powerful a protector .*
* A host of memoirs have been published on the causes of the assassinatibn of Henry IV. A

PAUL v. 941
Paul V, attentive and vigilant, incessantly endeavored to maintain Mary
de Medici in religious feelings favorable to the Holy See ; and when he did
not find his efforts resisted by her insatiable domestic ambition, he had
reason to hope that he should see her a faithful friend of the Roman court.
Moreover, the bishop of Lucon (Richelieu) kept Mary well inclined to the
Holy See. She had always been accustomed to honor and respect Rome
and its ministers ; and we shaU see clearer marks of her feelings in 1625,
when that queen gave her daughter Henrietta in marriage to the prince of
Wales, afterwards King Charles I.
On the 1st of November, 1610, the pope canonized Saint Charles Borro
meo, born at Arma, a fief of his family, on the 2d of October, 1538, the son
of Giberto Borromeo and Margaret de Medici, sister of Pius IV. Clement
VIIL, in 1601, had commenced the preliminaries of that canonization, and
in 1604 had beatified Charles. Benedict XIIL, on the 14th of July, 1724,
work by Count Tieopolo, which embraces many phases of the Venetian history (Discorsi sopra
la Storia Veneta, Udina, 1828), has suggested theories and facts which, at present, are but little
kno-wn. The author cites passages from an Essay on the History of the House of Austria, which
he attributes to de Girecourt. (6 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1778.)
In the second volume of that work, p. 176, after details of the siege of Ostend in 1604, we read :
" At the end of the year, Spinola went to Spain to induce Philip to allow the raising of some
ItaUan regiments, and got the plan adopted of removing the theatre of war beyond the Rhine in
the foUowing spring. The Council of Madrid, in the mean time, was much occupied in finding
means to excite risings in France. It had been the mover of two conspiracies against the person
of Henry IV, by Marshal de Biron and by the count d'Auvergne, and the marchioness de Ver-
neuil. It is known that though the king of France affected ignorance of those outrages, he
was fully resolved in his own heart to take ample revenge, when he had put his finances
in good condition, and repaired the losses which the civil wars had inflicted upon his king
dom. " It appears to be proven, that these plots were carried on without the knowledge of Philip
in, a prince naturally pious and equitable. It is even maintained that the duke of Lerma, al
though he performed the duties of prime minister, knew nothing of them, which seems incredi
ble. Calderon, and those who shared with him the government of the State, really were the
authors, and in concert with the most turbulent prince of his time, and for a long time, the
sworn enemy of the king of France."
De Girecourt thus speaks of the assassination of Henry IV. :
" Henry was preparing to attack the house of Austria, in Germany, in the Loav Countries, and
in- Holland. Secure of the Hollanders and of the princes of the Evangelical Union, he had con
cluded an alliance with the duke of Savoy, who already entertained the hope of conquering the
Milanese. The court of Madrid was scarcely in a condition to resist the storm, when a tragical
event released it from the embarrassment. Henry was assassinated in his own capital, on the 14th
of May, 1610. The wretch who dealt the fatal blow was one RavaiUac, a native of Augouleme.
Those who have accused Philip III. of being privy to that crime, have done so without proof.
The plans which the French monarch had formed for humbling the house of Austria, were
buried with that monarch. In a short time, Mary de Medici, regent of France during the mi
nority of her son, Louis XIII, made terms with, the court of Spain ; and, not long afterwards,
even contracted a double alUance with that court."
It was on the accession of Philip IV. that Calderon was condemned. Alliances with France
gave another direction to affairs. Could the same court bear to see, at once, Philip IV. seated on
the throne beside the noble and exceUent Elizabeth, daughter of Henry IV, and, in the political
secretaryship, Calderon, who had endeavored to do so much injury to France ?

942 LIVES OF THE POPES.
granted a plenary indulgence to aU who, on the day of that saint, visit a
church of the rehgious of Saint John of God.
Meantime, Pope Paul V. effected peace between France and Spain. The
treaty was pubhshed at Rome amid pubhc rejoicings. Paul had also the
satisfaction of settling the disputes which had arisen between the Emperor
Rudolph and the Archduke Matthias, who was crowned at Prague as king
of Bohemia. Cardinal MeUini, Paul's legate, had obtained from the two
contestants aU that the Holy Father required.
On the 24th of September, Paul approved the order of the Ursulines, as
estabhshed at Paris by Marie d'Huilher. It foUowed the rule of Saint
Augustine, Avith special statutes, and devoted itseK to the education and
training of girls. The Ursuhne order, originating at Brescia in 1527, had
been approved by Gregory XIII. on the 24th of November, 1572. It
spread in France, and extended to Flanders and Germany, whither the
Ursuhnes were invited by the Empress Eleanor, mother of Leopold I. ; and
it afterwards extended to Canada, Louisiana, Hungary, and finaUy to Rome.
Paul V. also showed his love of the arts, and his desire to adorn the
capital of the Christian world.
The Vatican BasUica, commenced by Juhus IL, and extended by his
successors, especiaUy by Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V., was not yet com
pleted. It was not sufficient for the majesty of the sacred ashes of the
numerous saints that it contained, notwithstanding the vast idea conceived
by Bramante, and improved by Michael Angelo Buonarotti. Paul en
deavored to perfect the basihca. He continued the buildings from the
Gregorian chapel to the facade ; he erected some chapels, the choir, the
lower portico adjoining, a church, and the upper portico for the papal
benediction. In the interior of the first portico were representations of the
acts of Saint Peter. On the upper portico were placed thirteen statues,
that of the Redeemer and those of the twelve apostles.
In the middle of that august temple Paul opened the sacred Confession,
in which repose the bodies of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Subsequently,
His Holiness turned his attention to the subterranean church. The palace
of the Vatican was next enlarged, and rendered stUl more magnificent. The
Vatican library and secretariat were made such as we now see them.
No less beautKul embellishments were bestowed upon Saint Mary Major.
The Borghese chapel there is worthy of admiration.
In order to avoid the unhealthy summer ah* of the Vatican, the popes in
warm weather usuaUy remove to the Quirinal ; but that palace not being
large enough for the pope's household, the Rota, and other tribunals, Paul,
looking to the public wants, brought the Quirinal to its actual elegance.
The pope took up his residence there on the 14th of January, 1614. Bulls
issued here are dated from Saint Mary Major, because that is the nearest

PAUL v. 943
basUica. Formerly, Saint Mark's was dated from, but Saint Mark's is not
a basihca. Paul erected a lighthouse at Civita Vecchia, and added new
works to the fortress. He brought to Rome the water called Paola ; the
same which, under Trajan, was known as the Alsietina. That Paola Avater
was at that time one of the great benefits of Rome.
It is impossible to enumerate aU the works of Paul, who so well foUowed
the example of Sixtus V. And he stUl imitated him when, after so many
gigantic and expensive enterprises, he left in the castle of Saint Angelo a
treasure which rendered it for the time unnecessary to touch that of Sixtus.
At the instance of Mary de Medici, queen of France, the Holy Father, on
the 16th of May, 1613, approved the congregation of the Oratory of Christ,
instituted in France on the 4th of November, 1611, by Peter de BeruUe, a
priest of Paris (afterwards made cardinal by Urban VHL), in memory of the
prayers offered by Jesus Christ while he deigned to dweU among men
in the flesh. UntU recent revolutions in France, that congregation formed
a body of priests under the jurisdiction of the bishops, and it had been
admitted only on that condition. It is altogether distinct from the Con
gregation of the Oratory founded by Saint Phihp Neri, and approved by
Gregory XHI.
The care of Paul extended over the world, and embraced aU questions,
even those relating to the customs of various countries.
In the empire of China, for instance, it is deemed indecent and signifi
cant of great irreverence to have the head uncovered. Paul V, therefore,
granted to the missionaries to that empire leave to wear a cap whUe saying
Mass, provided that it should be a different one from that worn at other
time and place. The Chinese neophytes had a new kind of birette made
on purpose for Mass, and different from the ordinary one.
The same missionaries asked and obtained from the Holy Father yet
another grace. He issued a decree permitting the divine service to be
celebrated and the Mass to be said in the Chinese language. But the
decree was not sent to those missionaries who had sohcited it. In 1658,
the same request being made to Alexander VIL, a congregation was assem
bled, but came to no decision. In 1681, a missal Avas translated into the
Chinese language. Father Couplet, procurator-general of the mission, went
to Rome to sohcit an approbation and authority -to use it, but did not suc
ceed.* By a bull of the 30th of August, 1617, Paul V. renewed the constitution
of Sixtus IV, upon the Immaculate Conception of the mother of God, to
terminate the dispute that had arisen between the Spanish Dominicans and
* See Papebrok, in the Life of Nicholas I, Adrian IL, and John III; Pallavicini, Hist, of
the Council of Trent, book xvin, chap, x ; and Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccles., centuries 15 and
16, dissertation xii, art. 12.

944 LIVES OF THE POPES.
the Franciscans. The Holy Father was then urged to make the mystery
of the conception an article of faith; but he merely forbade the pubhc
teaching of the contrary. The same pope, in 1618, approved the order of
the Visitation, instituted in 1610, in the city of Annecy, in Savoy, by Saint
Jane Frances Fremyot, widow of Christopher de Rabutin, baron de Chantal.
The name was given to the order on account of the visits which, previous to
being subjected to the cloister, those rehgious made to the poor and the
sick in memory of the visitation of the Blessed Virgin to Saint Ehzabeth.
Saint Francis de Sales, who had chiefly contributed to the foundation of
the institute, gave it a rule closely foUowing that of Saint Augustine, which
was afterwards confirmed, in 1626, by Urban Vin.
To draw up those statutes, the holy bishop of Geneva studied those of
aU the other rehgious orders, and finally fixed upon those of the Jesuits,
which he admired for their wisdom and exactitude. He especiaUy did justice
to the admirable foresight which provided for every thing calculated to
maintain piety in the bosom of an order occupied with the salvation of
others in so many and diverse duties.
The congregation of the Visitation, erected into a rehgious order by Paul
V., began to extend so rapidly, that the holy foundress had the happiness
of seeing eighty-seven houses founded in France and in Savoy, Avhence the
order extended into Germany and Poland. At the end of the eighteenth
century there were six thousand six hundred nuns, in a hundred and
fifty monasteries, who had lost none of their original fervor. It was to
those nuns, who were under the direction of the bishops, that the king of
Spain, in 1757, intrusted a community after the model of the iUustrious
house of Saint Cyr, in France. They daUy recited the office of the Blessed
Virgin ; and as, after entering the cloister, they could no longer render to
the poor the services rendered in their former visitations, they are bound to
admit into their convents young women of dehcate health, widows and
old women, and women generaUy incapable of being admitted into other
orders. In 1520, the congregation of the Reformed Camaldulensian Hermits, caUed
of Monte Corona, had been founded by the venerable Paul Giustiniani, a
Venetian, who died at fifty-two years of age, in 1528. The Holy Father
granted them a convenient site at Frascato to erect a monastery, which
they still possess.
This congregation is a reform of the Camaldulensians, so caUed from the
first monastery founded in 1022, by Saint Romualdo, a nobleman of Raven
na, at the hermitage of Campo Maldolo, situated in the Apennines, near
Arezzo, and foUowing the rule of Saint Benedict. To that order, confirmed
by the pontiffs Leo IX., Nicholas II. , and Alexander II. , is united another
congregation, of the Hermits of Fontevellana, founded at the same period

PAUL v. 945
in Umbria. This latter congregation owes a portion of its renown to Saint
Peter Damian, who was its abbot.
On the 16th of March, 1618, the pope made a promotion of two cardinals, —
a Frenchman, Cardinal Henry de Gondi, uncle of the famous Cardinal de
Retz, Paul de Gondi ; and a Spaniard, Cardinal Francis Rojas de Sandoval,
of the famUy of the dukes of Lerma, the famous minister of, PhUip IH. By
this promotion, Paul showed his desire to do honor at the same time to
France and to Spain. The Emperor Matthias dying, was succeeded in the
States of Austria and in the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia by Ferdi
nand IL, his cousin. A party in Bohemia, however, sought to wrest the
imperial crown from the house of Austria, offering it to the duke of Savoy,
K he would support them in their rebeUion ; but Ferdinand H. was crowned
nevertheless. On the 29th of August, the Bohemians declared him deprived
of the throne, which they proffered to several prmces ; none of whom would
attempt to ascend it, except Frederic, the elector Palatine, an ambitious
young man, stimulated to the enterprise by his wKe, who, being the daugh
ter of James king of England, repined at not wearing also a royal crown.
That prince was solemnly proclaimed king of Bohemia. Pope Paul was
opposed to Frederic, a Protestant prince, and he ordered his nuncio to
recognize Ferdinand H., emperor, as legitimate successor to Matthias.
God prospered the arms of Ferdinand, and the celebrated victory of
Prague gave him Bohemia, which 'could then freely return to the Cathohc
faith. But the term assigned by God as the limit of the hfe of Paul had
arrived ; and on the 28th of January, 1621, he died, after reciting the creed,
at the age of sixty-nine years. He had governed the Church fifteen years,
seven months, and thirteen days.
He was interred at the Vatican.*

* I possess three medals of Paul V. :
1. Pavi Pont. Max. Ann. VI. The head of the Pope, uncovered. Sever se : Compleat
gloria Marls; domvm istam. The chapel of the Blessed Virgin, erected by Paul V. (1607-12),
in the church of Saint Mary Major, half finished. Paul placed here the portrait of the Blessed
Virgin, by Saint Luke, and adorned it Arith precious stones.
2. Pavlvs V. Pont. Max. A. XIIII. Obv. : Pope's head, fuU face ; they are usuaUy profile.
Bev. : Tv. Dominvs et Magister. Our Lord washing the feet of the Apostles. This medal is
of very small size.
3. Pavlvs V. Bveghesivs, Ro. P. Max. A. XVI. Roman. Bev. : Sacellvm in palatto
Qatrin. An. MDCXLX. The facade of the Quirinal, showing the bas-reUefs on the doors. Over
one are the words Pavlvs V.
Du MoUnet describes the foUowing :
1. Spirat "vbi yvlt. The Holy Ghost amid rays.
2. Dei Genttrici, semper Virgini. MDCXn. Struck on the building of the Borghese
chapel in Saint Mary Major. The facade is shown.
3. Another medal, nearly simUar, but with some variation in the order of the columns of the
facade. 4. Aperit et clavdit. MDCVn. Saint Peter holding the pontifical keys.
Vol. 1—60

946 LIVES OF THE POPES.
Paul was taU and majestic. Every thing in his gait and bearing, as weU
as his countenance, prepossessed people in his favor ; but his virtues more
especiaUy recommended him to those who came into immediate contact
with him. He fiUed with Gospel laborers aU heathen countries that soh
cited missionaries.
5. In honorem Princtpis Apost. An. MDCXIII. The facade of Saint Peter's, with one
dome. 6. Tem. D. Petri in Vaticano. Exergue : Et port^: tnfern. non prjevalebunt. The
facade of Saint Peter's, with the great dome, and the two side domes which we now see there.
7. Et Congv. adgnoscit pastorem swm. The king of Congo had been baptized, and
sent an ambassador to recognize Paul V. as head of the Church. The pope is on his throne,
and blesses the ambassador.
That moral conquest was due to a mission of twelve Capuchins. They had sufficiently mas
tered the language of the country, and their zeal and courage had triumphed over aU obstacles.
Congo is a kingdom of Lower Guinea, extending between 2° 40' and 8° 25' S, and between 10"
30' and 17° 30' E. It is two hundred leagues in length by eight leagues in breadth. Of the
numerous rivers and streams which water the country, the Zaire, which forms many cataracts
in its course, is the most considerable. San Salvador is the capital of the kingdom.
The king's ambassador was a black of the finest build ; but he arrived so Ul, that he died
before he could have an audience. The medal was already struck, and Bonanni states that it
was not thought necessary to make any change. He might have added, that it is likely that
one of the ambassadorial suite, the most distinguished after the ambassador, had the honor to
be presented to the pope.
8. Et tv Franctsca. S. Vocaberis, An. 1608. The pope canonizing Saint Frances, in pres
ence of six mitred cardinals.
Saint Frances, a Roman lady, of the Borghese family, widow of Laurentius Pontiani, was
proposed for beatification, and then for canonization, under Eugene IV, Nicholas V, Julius II,
and Clement VHI. ; finaUy, Paul V. placed her in the ranks of the saints.
9. PuBLioas commoditati restttvit. An. 1609. A succession of aqueducts.
ID. Secvritas popvli. Exergue: Ferraria.
11. Inter sanctos refert. Exergue: Card. Borromevm. The pope canonizing Saint
Charles Borromeo.
12, Dei ^bdificatio est. Exergue : S. Carolvs. (See 1 Cor. Ui. 9.) The church of Saint
Charles is seen on the medal as it now exists on the Corso. On the right of the church, in a
cloud, Saint Charles, in prayer.
13. Palatii Vatic ani porta restitvta — The gate of the Vatican palace restored. A gate of
antique form, and raised upon a bearing wall. It was puUed doAvn under Alexander VH, who
had it rebuUt in a grander and more elegant style.
14. Another medal represents the restoration of the gate of the Vatican, Avith the same in
scription. 15. Fatnda N08 IN pace. Exergue : An. MDCXHI. In front of Saint Mary Major there is a
magnificent fluted Corinthian column of Parian marble, one of the eight belonging to the Temple
of Peace, and shoAvn in this medal. Paul V. removed it to its present place, under the direction
of the architect Charles Maderno, in 1613, and placed on the top the bronze statue of the
Virgin and Child.
This column is fifty-eight feet high, by a diameter of five feet eight inches. From the ground
to the summit, it is a hundred and thirty feet high.
16. Pro tvi nominis gloria — For the glory of thy name. The Isame grooved column from
the Temple of Peace, already mentioned ; on the second side, the facade of Saint Mary Major. On
one of the sides to the right, we read: Impvra falsi templa qvondam nvminis tybente
M03STA SVSTINEBAM C^ESARE. NVNC LS1TA VBRI PERFERENS MATREM DEI. Te PAVLE NA7L-
LIS OBTICEBO SiBCVLIS.
The column is thus made to say : " Formerly, by order of Caesar, I sustained the temples of a

PAUL v. 947
Paul used to say that he gained two advantages by embellishing and im
proving Rome : in the first place, he rendered the city more august ; and in
the next place, he gave employment to a host of artisans, who, but for him,
would have .been destitute.
This pope always showed great affection for the Jesuits. He protested
false god ; now, joyfully, I bear the Mother of the true God. 0 Paul, in no age to come will
I forget thy name." I quote that inscription two hundred and thirty-four years after it was
chiseUed, that the column may not promise in vain.
On the left is the following inscription, which testifies to the antiquity of the column, which
is no longer supposed to speak : Vasta colvmnam mole qv.s: stetit div Pacis prophana in
mbe Paatlvs transtvlit est Exqutlinvm Qvtntvs pax vnde vera est dedicavtt VntGINI.
The column of vast size which long ornamented the profane Temple of Peace, Paul V. trans
ported to the Esquiline, and dedicated to the Virgin, from whom comes true peace.
It is with pleasure that I quote these testimonies to the greatness of Paul V.
17. PORTV BVRGESIO A FVNDAMENTIS EXTRVCTO COLONIA IVLIA FANESTRI8. The pope
formed a port at Fano, in Umbria, between Pesaro and Sinigaglia. Fano was caUed the Julian
colony, because JuUus Csosar sent a colony thither. This medal shows the port, Avith its forti
fied gate.
18. SS. Agnetis et Emerentiajsle ossa. Exergue: Honordjtcata. PaulV, in 1615,
erected an altar to the -virgin martyrs Agnes and Emerentiana, in their church without the
city, and placed their reUcs in a costly silver shrine. The medal shows the altar, the pope hold
ing the reUquary, and around the pope cardinals and bishops.
19. Pontificvm commoditati. An. MDCXVI. The palace of Monte CavaUo, nearly as we
now see it.
20. Sacra Petri confessio exornata. It is one of the most beautiful marvels of Saint
Peter's. Some embeUishments have since been added, which give it another form ; it stands in
the subterranean church, in the middle of the church, where lie the two apostles whose gilded
statues are seen.
Of the Confession, VittoreUi says : " One must see it, in order to form any idea of its magnifi
cence." 21. Ceperani Pons svper Ltrim. Exergue : Rbstitvtvs. Paul rebuUt a bridge over the
Qagliano, on the road from the Campagna. The head of the bridge, on the right, is fortified by
bastions and towers.
Bonanni adds :
1. Domine I. M. A. T. Ventre. Exergue : Roma. Saint Peter in his bark, with two apostles.
2. Ecclesiam S. Marls:. In Campitello Congreg. Matris dei vnivtt. Anno MDCXIX.
This church, consecrated by Pope Honorius in, in 1217, had been abandoned ; but, as it con
tained the reUcs of many martyrs, Paul V. granted it to the clergy of the congregation of the
Mother of God, by whom it was enlarged. It was then reconsecrated by Mellini, cardinal-vicar.
3. Hvmtles exaltavtt. Struck at the canonization of Saint Charles Borromeo, whose famUy
bore on their arms the word Humilitas, in Lombard characters. The medal represents two
winged angels supporting a crown of gold ; beneath which is the word Humilitas.
4. Tales ambio fvndatores. Exergue : Fvndamentvm. Beneath, the crown of gold, ac
companied by the word Hvmtlitas. A church with three doors ; in the middle, Saint Charles
praying ; on the right, the statue of Saint Paul ; on the left, that of Saint Blaise ; at the summit,
a cross between the letters A and a ; below, the eagle and the dragon— the arms of the Borghese
family. 5. In the field, without figures, are the foUowing words : D. 0. M. Pavlo V. P. M. favente
Ad ampliandam .sodem S. Cabol-i nomine Rom^e prlmo dedicatam lapidem fvndambn-
talem per archtp. S. Petri. Clerici regvl. S. Pavli poni cvrakvnt. Anno MDCXII. It
refers to the church of Saint Charles a Catenari, which was begun in 1612, and completed at
the expense of Cardinal John Baptist Leni, after the designs of Rosatus Rosati, with the excep
tion of the facade, which was designed by Soria. That locaUty having originaUy been occupied

948 LIVES OF THE POPES.
against the condemnation of a work of Suarez, by the parliament of Paris,
and after long debates the sentence was suspended. And he protested
against the book of Richer, a doctor of the Sorbonne, who spoke disrespect-
fuUy of the rights of the Holy See. The work was censured, and the pope
was appeased.
by the makers of the wooden vessels caUed Catini, whose house had been burned down, it was
called, as now, de' Catinari, which name remains to designate the place and the church dedi
cated to Saint Charles. It is served by the Barnabite fathers, one of the most estimable congre
gations in Rome, always eminent for learning and piety. These fathers had warmly urged the
canonization of Saint Charles Borromeo.
6. Pvbblioe commoditati Restitvta. A long succession of aqueducts, arranged spirally,
terminating in a sort of triumphal arch, conducted to Rome an abundance of water, which espe
cially supplies the two imposing fountains of Saint Peter's.
7. Pvbbblioe commoditati. Anno MDCX. One of the finest fountains of Rome — Saint Peter
in Montorio. The water escapes from three openings with the rapidity of a torrent. It is on
the Janiculum, and from it you can see all Rome, with its hills, its churches, its CoUseum, and
its roads, one of the most magnificent views that the eye of man can look upon.
8. Angvlaris fvndamentvm lapis christvs missvs est. In the field : Vt pro peccatis
POPVLI ORET SACERDOS. VlRGO CVTVS VTERV8 TEMPLVM DEI FACTVS EST. S. P. Q. BoNONTEN-
sis templvm HOC Tvo nomini extrv. The barefooted Carmelites had formerly built a small
church in Bologna, dedicated to the Tearful (a lachrymis) Virgin. It contained an ancient statue
of the Mother of God, and was so much resorted to, that Cardinal Capponi, Paul's legate, re
solved to replace the smaU church by a much more spacious one, of which he laid the first stone
in 1619.
9. Cvivs regni non erit finis. The shield, containing the arms of the Borghese (the eagle
at the top of the field, the griffin below), is surmounted by the pontifical keys and the tiara.
10. Vas electionis. Saint Paul has fallen from his horse.
11. Mortifera non NOCEBVNT. Saint Paul at Malta, holding the viper ; Acts xxviU. 8-5.
12. Ivstitia et Clementia complex.s{ svnt. Two female figures are embracing. This
same reverse has already been given on a medal described in our Ufe of Clement VIII.
We cannot omit to say a few words here about the Borghese palace, which stiU exists at Rome.
It is one of the richest and most magnificent residences in that city. The building was com
menced in a spirit of family pride, by Cardinal Deza, who undertook it in 1590. That noble
Spaniard, born at Toro, in the diocese of Zamora, on the 24th of February, 1523, and created
cardinal by Gregory XIII, in 1578, had the idea of calling his family to Rome, and leaving it a .
palace worthy of the family and himseff; but that cardinal, dying in 1600, bishop of Albano,
the undertaking was not continued. It was resumed under Paul V, who desired to present ii
to his maternal nephew, Cardinal Scipio Borghese. He was handsome, courteous, and generous,
and so popular in consequence that he was called the delight of Rome — Delizia di Boma. The
pope, Paul V, purchased the site, and the foundations that had been commenced, from the heirs
of Cardinal Deza. The palace was speedUy finished after the designs of Martin Longhi the elder.
The courtyard of the palace is inclosed by two rows of arches, above which is a Corinthian
attic. The whole is supported by ninety-six granite columns, which form two open porticoes,
one above the other. The lower portico is ornamented by three colossal statues, representing
Julia Pia, a Muse, and ApoUo harping ; to the Apollo is given the head of the Muse, and to the
Muse the head of the Apollo, — a singular change, Avhich has not hitherto been remarked. The
antiquaries employed by Cardinal Scipio Borghese, had not as practised eyes as the antiquaries
of our own day.
The twelve rooms on the ground-floor are ornamented with pictures of great value. It Avas
that same cardinal who built the Pinciana or Borghesian villa, which is about three miles
round. It was subsequently much embellished by Prince Mark Anthony, by his son Camillus,
and by the present prince, son of Prince Aldobrandini and nephew of Prince CamUlus. This
villa contains a portrait of Pope Paul V, by Caravaggio.

PAUL V.

949

As to the opinions of Galileo, which began to circulate under Paul V.,
Guicciardini, ambassador from the grand duke of Tuscany, in a dispatch
of the 4th of March, 1616, wrote thus to his master :
" Gahieo insisted on obtaining from the pope and the holy office, a decla
ration that the system of Copernicus was founded on the Scriptures. He
haunted the antechambers of the court and the palaces of the cardinals ;
he composed memorial after memorial.* GalUeo thought more of his own
opinions than of those of his friends. After having persecuted and wearied
many other cardinals, he at length won over Cardinal Orsini. The latter,
with more warmth than prudence, urged His Holiness to favor the wishes
of GalUeo. The pope, tiring of the conversation, broke it off. Gahieo
carried into aU these proceedings an extreme heat, which he had neither
the strength nor the prudence to control. He might throw us aU into
great embarrassment, and I cannot see what he is likely to gain by a
longer stay here."t
Citing a modern historian, FeUer says :
" Never has any pope approved more orders and various congregations,
persuaded as he was that there cannot be too many asylums for piety, and
that as God does not lead all men by the same way, it is fit that we should
open various roads by which men may seek him. It results from aU this
recital, that Paul was a great and a generous pope."
After the death of this pope the Holy See was vacant eleven days.
* FeUer, vol. iv, p. 279.
f We shaU have occasion hereafter to speak more at length about Galileo.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE POPES.

Teak of
No. Name. Accession. Page.
1. Saint Peter  42 11
2. Saint Linus  67 18
3. Saint Anacletus  — 20
4. Saint Clement  91 21
5. Saint Evaristus  100 23
6. Saint Alexander I  109 25
7. Saint Sixtus 1  119 28
8. Saint Telesphorus  127 31
9. Saint Htglnus  139 31
10. Saint Pius 1  142 32
11. Saint Anicetus  157 35
12. Saint Soter  168 36
13. Saint Eleutherius  177 3?
14. Saint Victor  193 38
15. Saint Zephyrinus  202 39
16. Saint Calllxtus 1  219 42
17. Saint Urran 1  223 43
18. Saint Pontianus  230 44
19. Saint Anterus  235 45
20. Saint Fabian  236 45
21. Saint Cornelius  251 48
22. Saint Lucius  252 51
23. Saint Stephen  253 52
24. Salnt Sixtus II  257 54
25. Salnt Dionysius  259 57
26. Salnt Felix 1  269 58

if  954
No.27.
28.29.
30. 31.
32.
33.34.
35.36.
37.38.39.
40.41.42.
43.44. 45.
46.
47.48.49.50.51.52.53.54.
55.56.57.58.59.60.61.62.
63.64.65.66.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OP THE POPES.
Name.
Saint Eutychtanus 
Saint Caius 
Salnt Marcellinus 

Year of
accesson.
. 275
2$5
.. 296

Page. 606163
6566677174 '
75
78
81
838891
929596
98
101 102
106108 109 111
112113116 119
120
121122
123 125127130132133134 135
142

Saint Marcellus I  ,

308

Salnt Eusebius I 
Salnt Melchiades 

311
.. 314

Salnt Sylvester I 

Salnt Mare 
Saint Juhus I 

336
352366
384
398
417432 461 467 483492
496498 514
535536538

Llberius 

Saint Felix II 

Saint Damasus 

Saint Siricius 
Salnt Anastasius I 
Saint Innocent I 

Salnt Zozlmus 
Saint Boniface I 
Satntt Ow.T.TCSTrNrn'. T.

Saint Sixtus III. 
Saint Leo I 

Salnt Hilary 
Saint Simphcius 

Salnt Felix III 

Saint Anastasius II 

Salnt Symmachus 

Saint Hormisdas 

Salnt Agapetus 
Saint Sylverius 
Vigllius  ,
John III  ,
Benedict I 
Sabinianus 
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE POPES. 955
Yeah of
No. Name. Accession. Page.
67. Boniface III  607 144
68. Boniface IV  608 145
69. Saint Deusdedit  615 147
70. Salnt Boniface V  619 148
71. Honorius 1  625 149
72. Severinus  640 152
73. John IV  640 153
74. Theodore 1  642 154
75. Salnt Martin 1  649 156
76. Eugene I  654 160
77. Salnt Vitalian  , 657 161
78. Adeodatus 1  672 164
79. Salnt Donus 1  676 165
80. Salnt Agatho  678 165
81. Saint Leo H  '682 167
82. Salnt Bened-ict II  684 168
83. JohnV  685 169
84. Conon  .*  687 170
85. Salnt Sergius 1  687 171
86. John VI  ¦ • . 701 173
87. John VH  705 174
88. Sisinnius  708 176
89. Constantine  708 176
90. Saint Gregory II  715 179
91. Saint Gregory IH  731 186
92. Saint Zachary  741 190
93. Stephen II  752 193
94. Stephen III  752 193
95. Salnt Paul I  757 196
96. Stephen IV  768 198
97. Adrian 1  772 201
98. Salnt Leo HI  '  795 203
99. Stephen V  816 207
100. Saint Pascal 1  817 208
101. Eugene II  824 209
102. Valentine  827 211
103. Gregory IV  827 211
104. Sergius II  844 214
105. Salnt Leo IV.  847 215
106. Benedict HI  855 220

956 No.
107.
108.109.110.111.
112.113. 114.
115. 116.117.118.119. 120.121.122.123.124.125. 126.127.128.129.130.131.132. 133.134.135.136.137.138.139.140. 141.142.143.144. 145.
146.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE POPES.
Name.
Saint Nicholas I 

Yeae of
Accession. 85886.7872882
884885891896896
898 898
898900903903904911 913 914
928929
931 936 939943946956964965
972972 975
. 984985 985996 999
10031009

Page. 222225227
230231231
233 234
235236236237 238
241242242244 244 245 246
247247248 248249250 252255
256
258 259259260 261261263 266 270270 271

Adrian II 

John VIII 

Boniface VI 

Stephen VII 

Bomanus 

Theodore II 

John IX 

Benedict IV 

Leo V 

Sergius III 

Anastasius III 

Lando  * 

John X 

Leo VI 

Stephen III 

John XI 

Leo VII 

Stephen IX 

Marinus II. (Martin III.) 
Agapetus 
John XII 

Benedict V 

John XIII 

Benedict VI 

Donus II 

Benedict VII 

John XIV 

John XV 

John XVI 

Gregory V 

Sylvester II 

John XVIII 

John XIX 

Sergius IV 

chronological list of the popes., 957
Year of
No. Name. Accession. Page.
147. Benedict VIH  1012 272
148. John XX  1024 275
149. Benedict IX  '.  1033 276
150. Gregory VI  1044 277
151. Clement H  1046 278
152. Damasus H  1048 279
153. Saint Leo IX  1049 280
154. Victor II  1055 286
155. Stephen X  1057 287
156. Benedict X  1058 288
157. Nicholas II  .'  1058 288
158. Alexander II  1061 290
159. Saint Gregory VII  1073 294
160. Victor IH  1086 316
161. Urban H  1088 318
162. Pascal II  1099 321
163. Gelasius H  1118 327
164. Calixtus II  1119 329
165. Honorius II  1124 332
166. Innocent II  1130 333
167. Celestine H  ,. 1143 338
168. Lucius II  '. 1144 340
169. Eugene IH  1145 341
170. Anastasius IV  1153 346
171. Adrian IV  1154 347
172. Alexander HI  1159 350
173. Lucius III  1181 357
174. Urban ni  1185 359
175. Gregory VHI  1187 364
176. Clement in  1187 365
177. Celestine III  1191 367
178. Innocent HI  1198 373
179. Honorius III  1216 399
180. Gregory IX  1227 407
181. .Celestine IV  1241 421
182. Innocent IV  1343 422
183. Alexander IV  1254 429
184. Urban IV  1261 435
185. Clement IV  1265 439
186. Blessed Gregory X  1271 442

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chronological list of the popes.

959

Year of
No. Name. Accession. Paoe.
227. Paul TV  1555 745
228. Pius IV  1559 751
229. Saint Pius V  1566 767
230. Gregory XHI  1572 806
231. Sixtus V  1585 842
232. Urban VIL  1590 872
233. Gregory XIV  '  1590 875
234. Innocent IX  1591 881
235. Clement VLH  .'  1592 882
236. Leo XI  1605 929
237. Paul V  1605 932

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