CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER II.

Early Career of Adrian VI. Projects of Peace and Reform.

The new Pope was indeed a remarkable man, who through untiring diligence and the faithful performance of duty had raised himself from a very humble condition. Adrian was born on the 2nd of March 1459, in the chief city of the Archbishopric of Utrecht. At this date Netherlanders, who did not belong to the nobility, had no family names; they simply added their baptismal name to that of their fathers. Thus Adrian was called Florisse or Florenz (i.e. Florenssohn) of Utrecht; his father Florenz Boeyens (i.e. Boeyenssohn), whose occupation has been variously stated, died early. His excellent mother Gertrude laid deep the foundations of piety in her gifted son. She also took care that he received solid instruction and training, and for this purpose she entrusted him to the Brothers of the Common Life, whose community had been founded in the Netherlands by Gerhard Groot. According to some accounts, Adrian first went to school with them at Zwolle according to others, at Deventer. The impressions thus received lasted throughout his whole life. He learned to look upon religion as the foundation of all true culture, and at the same time acquired a love for intellectual pursuits. His earnest view of life, his high ideal of the priesthood, his horror of all profanation of holy things, his preference for the study of the Bible and the Fathers which he was to display later on all this was due to the powerful influence of his first teachers.

In his seventeenth year he entered, during the summer of 1476, the University of Louvain, which, hardly touched by humanism, enjoyed a high reputation as a school of theology. During his first two years he studied philosophy with distinguished success and then, for other ten, theology and canon law. After thus acquiring a thorough knowledge of the scholastic system, he held a professorship of philosophy at the College at Eber, to which he had been attached at the beginning of his student period. In the year 1490 he became a licentiate in theology, and in 1491 took the degree of Doctor of Theology. Although from the first he had never been in total poverty, and now held two small benefices, his means were yet so limited that his promotion was rendered possible only through the protection of the Princess Margaret, the widow of Charles the Bold. Adrian’s financial position gradually improved as the number of his benefices increased. He saw nothing reprehensible in this abuse, which at that time was general, and at a later date accepted still further preferment. He made, however, the noblest use of the income which he thus accumulated, for his alms were munificent. It is also worthy of remark that as parish priest of Goedereede in South Holland he took pains to secure a substitute of sound character, and yearly, during the University vacations, undertook the pastoral charge of his parishioners.

Adrian’s theological lectures, which even Erasmus attended, as well as his able disputations, steadily increased his reputation; he helped to form such solid scholars as Heeze, Pighius, Tapper, Latomus, and Hasselius. One of his pupils published in 1515 a selection of his disputations, another in 1516 his lectures on the sacraments; both works soon went through many editions. Chosen in 1497 to be Dean of St. Peter’s Church in Louvain, Adrian had also to fulfil the additional duties of Chancellor of the University; twice (in 1493 and 1501) he was appointed Rector. In spite of all these official duties his application to study was as keen as before; he even found time for preaching, and three of his sermons have been preserved, which show extensive learning, but are the dry compositions of a bookworm. In his enthusiasm for study as well as in his strong moral character he showed himself a worthy pupil of the Brothers of the Common Life. It is related that he inveighed especially against the relaxation of the rule of celibacy, in consequence of which the mistress of a Canon tried to take his life by poison. The repute of the unspotted life, the learning, humility, and unselfishness of the Louvain Professor continued to extend, and he became the counsellor of persons in all ranks of life. Monks, clerics, and laymen from all parts of the Netherlands came to him for help. It was no wonder that the Court also coveted his services; probably as early as 1507 the Emperor Maximilian chose him as tutor for his grandson, the Archduke Charles, the future Emperor, to whom he imparted that deep sense of religion which he never lost amid all the storms of life. The Duchess Margaret also employed him in other capacities, and in 1515 she named him a member of her Council.

Alarmed at the growing influence of the learned Professor, the ambitious Chièvres determined to withdraw him from the Netherlands upon some honourable pretext. In October 1515 Adrian was entrusted with a difficult diplomatic mission to Spain. He was there to secure for his pupil Charles the full rights of inheritance to the Spanish Crown, and on Ferdinand’s death was to assume the provisional Government. Ferdinand received the diplomatist, whom Peter Martyr accompanied as secretary, with openly expressed mistrust, but Adrian found a protector in Cardinal Ximenes.

When the King died on the 23rd of January 15 16 the Cardinal and Adrian entered on a joint administration of affairs until the arrival of the new King, Charles. Although within the sphere of politics differences of opinion were not lacking between the two, yet so highly did the Cardinal value the pious Netherlander that he used his influence to raise the latter to places of eminence in the Spanish Church. In June 1516 Adrian was made Bishop of Tortosa; the revenues of the see were not great; nevertheless Adrian at once resigned all his benefices in the Low Countries, with the exception of those at Utrecht. Neither then nor afterwards did he contemplate a permanent residence in Spain. It was long before he was able to adapt himself to the conditions of life in that country, so entirely different from those he had known before. As early as April 1517 he expressed his hope to a friend that the coming of Charles might be his deliverance “from captivity”, since he did not suit the Spaniards and Spain pleased him still less. In July 1517 he wrote in jest, “Even if I were Pope, it would be my desire to live in Utrecht”. At this time he had had a house built there, and made no concealment of his intention, as soon as his Sovereign’s service permitted, of returning to his native land in order to devote himself wholly to study.

Very different from Adrian’s expectations was the actual outcome of events; he was never to see his beloved fatherland again. In the first instance, Spanish affairs detained him Ximenes and Charles contrived that Adrian should be appointed Inquisitor by the Pope in Aragon and Navarre on the 14th of November 1516. Adrian’s conduct of affairs in Spain must have given Charles great satisfaction, for, on the occasion of the great nomination of Cardinals in the summer of 1517, he was recommended by the Emperor for the purple; Leo X consented, and on the 1st of July Adrian received a place and voice in the Senate of the Church; his title was that of St. John and St. Paul. He was able to write, in truth, that he had never sought this honour, and that he had only accepted it under pressure from his friends. From the former tenor of his life, ordered strictly by rule and divided between prayer and study, this man of ascetic piety and scholastic learning never for one moment swerved.

During his sojourn in Spain, the pupil of the Brothers of the Common Life became closely associated with the men who were throwing all their strength into projects for ecclesiastical reform. In this connection the first place must be given to the famous Ximenes, Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo. Although often of divergent views in politics, the Spanish and the Netherlander Cardinal were of one heart and soul where the interests of the Church were concerned; like Ximenes, so also was Adrian (who during the controversy between Reuchlin and the Dominicans of Cologne, took the side of the latter) of opinion that the religious and moral renewal must follow the lines of the old authorized Church principles within the strict limits of the existing order.

Around Ximenes, the leader of Church reform in Spain, grouped themselves three men of kindred spirit, with whom the Cardinal of Tortosa was also on terms of closest intimacy: the Dominican Juan Alvarez di Toledo, son of the Duke of Alba; the jurist Tommaso Gozzella of Gaeta and the latter's close friend, the Nuncio Gian Pietro Caraffa.

On the death of Ximenes, on the 8th of November 1517, the Cardinal of Tortosa carried on the Government alone until the coming of the King, which took place soon afterwards. Charles placed the greatest confidence in his former master, and often employed him on difficult negotiations, and repeatedly lent a willing ear to his counsels. Thus Adrian, who since the 3rd of March 1518 had also become Inquisitor-General of Castille and Leon, was successful in restraining the young King from giving his assent to the demands of the Cortes of Aragon that the existing judicial procedure of the Inquisition should be essentially altered. Against Luther’s errors Adrian had pronounced from the first, and when the University of Louvain asked their former Rector for his opinion of the teaching newly set forth by the Wittenberg professor, he, in a letter intended for publication, remarked that his heresies were so crude that they would hardly be attributed to a theological student. While Adrian encouraged Luther’s condemnation, he at the same time warned the authorities of Louvain to take care that Luther’s own words were accurately quoted. During the Diet of Worms he strongly exhorted the Emperor to protect the Church. Where the faith was in question Adrian was inflexible—in other respects he showed exceptional kindness of heart, and he gave proof of this in repeated instances. When one of his servants fell ill of fever on a journey, the Cardinal gave up his litter to him, and in spite of bodily infirmity made the rest of the toilsome way on horseback.

Before Charles embarked for the Netherlands and Germany, on the 20th of May 1520, he appointed the Cardinal of Tortosa to be his Viceroy in Spain. Charles was justified in thinking that he had chosen the right man. Adrian’s position as a Cardinal and Inquisitor­General was a highly important one yet he by no means failed to secure affection. His independent spirit, as compared with the intrigues of other Netherlanders in Spain, and his unspotted integrity won for him the respect of many. But he was a foreigner; that no Spaniard could overlook, least of all the grandees of the kingdom. Charles had hardly left before the insurrection of the Castilian Comuneros broke out, and Adrian, on foreign soil and without money, found himself in the greatest embarrassment. His sensitive nature was not able to cope with a most difficult situation; moreover, as a foreigner, he misunderstood the actual circumstances confronting him. The experience was for him a real martyrdom, for, now in his sixty-first year, his health was shattered by the dangers and excitement of this time. The full weight of these responsibilities was still pressing upon Adrian when, on the 24th of January 1522, at Vittoria, in the Basque country, he heard through Blasio Ortiz, provisor of the Bishop of Calahorra, the wholly unexpected announcement that a yet heavier burden had been imposed upon him. The news seemed incredible, although confirmed by letters from other quarters. Not until the 9th of February, when Antonio de Studillo, one of Cardinal Carvajal’s chamberlains, who had been delayed by violent snowstorms, entered Vittoria bearing the official despatch of the Sacred College declaring the result of the election, could all doubt be allayed as to the truth of an event of such worldwide importance.

The wish, so often anxiously expressed by the best representatives of Christendom, for a Pope in whom piety, learning and sanctity should be combined, was now granted. The custom, which since 1378 had become an unbroken precedent, of raising only an Italian to the Papal throne, was now interrupted. A conclave, composed almost exclusively of Italians, had, against their own inclinations, for the first time after a lapse of 461 years, elected to this position of great eminence a man of German origin, and one who was worthy, on account of his virtues, as hardly any other, of so great an honour.

Immersed in the whirlpool of secular life and of political affairs, the Popes of the Renaissance and, above all, Leo X, had too often lost sight of the weightiest of all duties, those inherent in their ecclesiastical station. Now the call had come to one who stood entirely aloof from Italian polities, and whose heart was set on the defence of Christendom and the restoration of the relaxed discipline of the Church. A simple, sincerely pious, and humble man, who had fled from rather than sought out titles and honours, had risen from the rank of a poor student to that of University Professor, to become the tutor of an Emperor, a Spanish Bishop, Cardinal, Grand Inquisitor, and Viceroy, and finally Chief Pastor of the universal Church.

On the first reception of the news of his election, Adrian had displayed that immovable calm which was one of his most prominent characteristics, and was in keeping with his racial origin, as well as with his deep piety. All accounts agree that his elevation, so far from being a source of pleasure to him, distressed him, and although all the letters announcing the outcome of that crisis in his life have not been preserved, yet those known to us are sufficient to show the emotions of his soul. On the 2nd of February 1522 he wrote to Henry VIII that he had neither sought nor wished for election; his strength was unequal to his task; did he not fear to injure the cause of God and His Church, he would decline the tiara. In like manner, in a letter to the Emperor, he dwelt on the sorrow which his accession caused him when he considered how weak and powerless he was; rest, and not an unbearable burden, was what he needed.

Adrian also showed imperturbable gravity when, on the 9th of February, Antonio de Studillo, as envoy of the Sacred College, handed him the official announcement of his election. He read the letter without remark, and then, in his dry manner, told Studillo, who was fatigued by the journey, to go and take some repose. On the same day he composed his answer to the College of Cardinals; in this he also reiterated his sense of unfitness for his new dignity and his willingness to have declined it; but, trusting in God, whose honour alone was his aim in all things, and also out of respect for the Cardinals, he acquiesced in his election; as soon as the Legates arrived and the fleet was ready to sail, he would make all haste to reach Rome. But the letters written by him to an intimate friend in the Netherlands reflect still more plainly than these official documents the nobleness and purity of his soul. “Dear friend”, he wrote on the 15th of February 1522 from Vittoria to the Syndic of Utrecht, Florentius Oem van Wyngarden, “there can be no one who would not have been surprised and who was not astonished at the Cardinals’ unanimous choice of one so poor, so well-nigh unknown, and, moreover, so far removed from them as to fill the position of Vicar of Christ. To God only is it easy thus suddenly to uplift the lowly. This honour brings me no gladness, and I dread taking upon me such a burden. I would much rather serve God in my provostship at Utrecht than as Bishop, Cardinal, or Pope. But who am I, to withstand the call of the Lord? And I hope that He will supply in me what is lacking, and continue to grant me strength for my burden. Pray for me, I beseech you, and through your devout prayers may He vouchsafe to teach me how to fulfil His commandments, and make me worthy to serve the best interests of His Church”.

Not until he had received the official notification of his election did Adrian resign his Viceroyalty and assume the title of Pope-elect. Contrary to the custom observed for five hundred years, he adhered to his baptismal name. He was determined, even as Pope, to be the same man as before.

Although Adrian was now in full possession of his Papal prerogatives, he yet resolved, in deference to the urgent wish of the Cardinals, to abstain from using them until the arrival of the Legates. But in order to be secure in every respect, he ordered, on the 16th of February, a notarial deed to be executed registering his consent to his election. This was done in strict secrecy the public declaration was reserved until after the arrival of the Cardinal-Legates, which was delayed in unexpected ways. From day to day Adrian increasingly felt the embarrassment of his position, whereby he seemed to be reconsidering his acceptance of the Papacy. Nor, until he had publicly given consent to his election, could he act effectively as Pope, use his influence with the Princes of Europe for the restoration of peace, or for arbitration. When, in the beginning of March, there were still no tidings of the departure of the Cardinal-Legates, Adrian made up his mind to wait no longer, and on the 8th of that month, in the presence of several bishops and prelates, and before a notary and witnesses, he made the solemn declaration of his acceptance of the Papacy. With emphasis he expressed, on this occasion, his trust that the Divine Founder of the Primacy would endow him, though unworthy, with the strength necessary to protect the Church against the attacks of the Evil One, and to bring back the erring and deceived to the unity of the Church after the example of the Good Shepherd.

Adrian’s biographer pertinently remarks: “It must have been a more than ordinary trust in God which led him to bend his back to a burden the weight of which was immeasurable, and to take over the colossal inheritance of all the strifes and enmities which Leo had been powerless to allay. In the background, apart from the German revolt, lurked also a schism with France, whose King, through the Concordat with Leo, had made himself master of the French Church and was in no haste to acknowledge the German Pope, the creature, as it was asserted, of the Emperor”.

Not less great were the difficulties presented by the States of the Church, and in particular by the condition of Rome itself. The ferment among the youth of the city and the divisions among the Cardinals, many of whom acted quite despotically, gave rise towards the end of January to the worst apprehensions. As time went on the situation became more precarious from week to week. The circumstance that the three Cardinals at the head of affairs changed every month added to the insecurity and brought men into office who were altogether dis­qualified. An unparalleled confusion prevailed; above all, the want of money was pressingly felt, and the Cardinals were reduced to the pawning of the remainder of the Papal mitres and tiaras; this led to the discovery that the costly jewels in the tiara of Paul II had been exchanged for imitation stones. So great was their financial necessity that on one occasion they could not raise fifty ducats for the expenses of an envoy who was deputed to ascertain the state of affairs in Perugia : in order to make up the amount they were obliged to pledge some altar lights.

On the 18th of February the Sacred College concluded a temporary treaty with the Duke of Urbino; they also hoped to come to an understanding with the Baglioni in Perugia. But in the Romagna, especially in Bologna, great unrest was felt ; Ravenna and Foligno showed a readiness to throw off the authority of the Regents appointed by Leo X. The Marquis of Mantua asked in vain for his pay as Captain-General of the Church. The plague broke out in Rome, in addition to which great excesses were committed by the Corsican soldiery; assassinations took place daily with impunity. Nothing else could be expected, since the discord between the Cardinals of French and Imperialist sympathies showed no abatement. When Cardinals Ridolfi and Salviati wished to excuse the Medicean Governor of Loreto, Cardinal Grimani remarked: “Leo X having ruined the Church, his relations now wish to bring all that is left to the ground”.

At the beginning of March little was known in Rome of Adrian’s movements, the report of his death having often been current. At last, on the 18th of that month, Studillo arrived with the first authentic information concerning the new Pope. He was described as a man of middle height, with grey hair, an aquiline nose, and small, lively eyes his complexion was rather pale than sanguine; he was already a little bent, but still vigorous in body, being especially a good walker; he still continued to wear his Cardinal’s dress, kept only a few servants, and loved solitude. In bearing he was extremely reserved, neither giving way to impetuosity nor inclined to jocosity; on receiving the news of his election he had shown no signs of joy, but had sighed deeply; he was in the habit of going early to bed and of rising at daybreak. He said Mass daily, and was an indefatigable worker; his speech was slow and generally in Latin, which he spoke not exactly with polish, but yet not incorrectly he understood Spanish, and sometimes tried to express himself in that language. His most earnest wish was to see the Princes of Christendom united in arms against the Turk. In religious affairs he was very firm, and was determined that no one henceforward should receive more than one ecclesiastical office, since he adhered to the principle that benefices should be supplied with priests, and not priests with benefices.

Such reports made no pleasant impression on the worldly-members of the Curia. At first they had flattered themselves with the hope that, out of conscientious scruples, the pious Netherlander would have declined election; then the opinion gained ground that he would certainly not come to Rome. Now they realized with what a firm hand he intended to direct affairs. A total breach with the traditions of government as embodied not only in the system of Leo X, but in that of all the Renaissance Popes, was to be expected. With fear and trembling the coming of the stranger was awaited; everything about him was matter of dislike, even the circumstance that he had not changed his name.

Studillo handed to the Cardinals Adrian’s letter of thanks dated the 28th of February, to the effect that he only awaited the arrival of the Legates to begin his journey to Rome; the College of Cardinals replied forthwith that it was unnecessary to wait for their coming, but that he ought to hasten with all possible speed to Rome, his true place of residence. Individual Cardinals, such as Campeggio, also adjured the Pope in special letters to expedite his journey in order to bring to an end the confusion and incompetence there prevailing. How much the Cardinals still feared that he might not permanently establish his court in Rome is shown by their original hesitation in sending to the Pope the fisherman’s ring. The longer the Pope’s arrival was delayed, the greater was the general dissatisfaction and the fear that Spain might prove a second Avignon; this last alarm was heightened by a forged brief summoning the Cardinals to Spain.

In reality Adrian had never thought of remaining in Spain. His repeated assurances that it was his most urgent wish to come to Rome have been confirmed by unimpeachable testimony; however, obstacles of various kinds stood in the way of his departure. Adrian had to transfer his functions as Viceroy, and, owing to the voyage being insecure on account of the Turkish pirates, it was necessary to levy troops for the protection of the flotilla to secure them he was forced, owing to his poverty, to rely on foreign, that is Spanish, support. An overland route through France was out of the question, since the Emperor would have seen in such a step an open bid for the favour of his enemy.

The difficulty of the Pope’s position, confronted as he was by two great rival powers, each of whom wished to secure the Papal influence for the attainment of his own objects, showed itself also in other ways. The Imperialists gave the new Pope no rest with their irksome importunity. The Ambassador Manuel took a delight in offering unasked-for advice, sometimes tendered in letters which were frankly discourteous, while Mendoza made attempts to bribe those in Adrian’s confidence. Charles V was assiduous in approaching the Pope with a host of wishes and business concerns, but mainly with the request that he should, like his predecessors, join in the alliance against the French. Adrian’s dealings with his former lord and master were marked by great shrewdness, caution, and reserve where he could he acted as the father and friend, but never at the cost of his high office as head of universal Christendom.

After waiting long, and in vain, in Vittoria for the arrival of La Chaulx, the Emperor’s envoy, Adrian, on the 12th of March, betook himself by S. Domingo and Logroño, in the valley of the Ebro, to Saragossa, which he reached on the 29th of March. Many Spanish bishops and prelates, with a great number of grandees, had assembled in the capital of Aragon to pay homage to the new Pope, the first whom Spain had ever seen. As well as La Chaulx, envoys also soon arrived from England, Portugal, and Savoy whose chief task it was to induce Adrian to enter the anti-French League. In one of the letters in Charles’s own hand which he delivered, the Emperor had permitted himself to remark that Adrian had been elected out of consideration for himself. In his answer, animated by great goodwill, the Pope declared with delicate tact that he was convinced that the Cardinals, in making their choice, had been mindful of the Emperor’s interests; at the same time, he felt very happy that he had not received the tiara, the acquisition of which must be pure and spotless, through Charles's entreaties; thus he would feel himself to be even more the Emperor’s ally than if he had owed the Papacy to his mediation.

Adrian also showed plainly in other ways that, with all his personal liking for the Emperor, he would not, on that account, as Pope, follow the lead of the Imperial policy. He declined positively to take part in the anti-French League. With all the more insistence he called upon Charles to forward the cause of peace by the acceptance of moderate, reasonable, and equitable terms, and provisionally to conclude a longer armistice. Every day made it clearer that he looked upon his Pontificate as an apostolate of peace. The interests he was bent on serving were not those of individual monarchs, but of Christendom in general. On this account he had from the beginning urged the necessity of restoring peace among the Christian states and of uniting them in opposition to the oncoming assaults of the Ottoman power. On behalf of peace it was decided to send at once special envoys to the Emperor and to the Kings of France, England, and Portugal. Stefano Gabriele Merino, Archbishop of Bari, was appointed to proceed as Nuncio to France. Adrian had asked the French King to grant the Nuncio a safe-conduct, and at the same time exhorted Francis and the most important personages of his Court to make for peace. This letter was not despatched until after the 8th of March, when Adrian had publicly and solemnly accepted the Papal office. Francis I complained of this in very harsh terms, saying that the accession of the Pope had been communicated to him later than was customary it would even seem that he went so far as to still address the duly elected Pontiff as Cardinal of Tortosa. Adrian replied to this calmly in a brief of the 21st of April 1522. The apostolic gentleness of tone disarmed the French King in such a way that in his second letter of the 24th of June he evinced a very different temper. Francis avowed his inclination to conclude an armistice, and even invited the Pope to make his journey to Rome by way of France.

Adrian declined this invitation, as he did also that of Henry VIII to pass through England and Germany on his way to Italy. He wished to avoid every appearance of sanctioning by a visit to the English King the latter’s warlike bearing towards France. But he was all the more distrustful of the intentions of Francis, inasmuch as the improved attitude of the French King was undoubtedly connected with his military failures in upper Italy. French domination in that quarter was well-nigh at an end the defeat at Bicocca on the 27th of April was followed on the 30th of May by the loss of Genoa. To the strange advice of Manuel, that he should travel through the Netherlands and Germany to Italy, Adrian also sent a refusal.

Towards the College of Cardinals Adrian maintained the same position of independence with which he had encountered the sovereign powers. Through his intimate friend, Johannes Winkler, he let the former understand that they were in nowise to alienate, divide, or mortgage vacant offices, but that all such must be reserved intact for the Pope's disposal.

Nor was Adrian long in coming forward as a reformer. He set to work in earnest, since, to the amazement of the Curia, he did not simply confine himself to bringing the rules of the Chancery into line with established usage, but in many instances made changes whereby the privileges of the Cardinals were specifically curtailed. Jointly with the publication of these regulations, on the 24th of April 1522 the Pope appointed a special authority to deal with the petitions which were always coming in in large numbers.

In the first week of May, Adrian was anxious to leave Saragossa and to pass through Lerida to Barcelona, but an outbreak of the plague in both cities caused a fresh hindrance, and another port of departure had to be found. In the meantime the Pope wrote to the Cardinals and the Romans on the 19th of May, and at the same time enumerated the difficulties with which he had to contend before he could get together a flotilla to protect him on his voyage to Italy across the Gulf of Lyons, then infested by Turkish pirates. By the 3rd of June he was at last able to inform the Cardinals that these hindrances had been overcome.

On the 11th of June the Pope left Saragossa, and reached Tortosa on the eve of Corpus Christi (June 18th). On the 26th of June he wrote from there that he intended to embark in a few days. As all his vessels were not yet assembled,  new delay arose; and not until the 8th of July was the Pope able to take ship, in spite of the excessive heat, in the neighbouring port of Ampolla. His departure was so unexpected that the greater part of the suite did not reach the harbour until nightfall. Owing to unfavourable weather it was impossible to sail for Tarragona before the 10th of July. Here again a stoppage took place, a sufficient number of ships not being available. At last, on the evening of the 5th of August, the fleet put out to sea. The hour of departure was kept a secret. On board were Cardinal Cesarini, representing the Sacred College, Mendoza on behalf of the Emperor, and nearly two thousand armed men. The galley which conveyed Adrian was recognizable by its awning of crimson damask, bearing the Papal escutcheon.

In addition to Marino Caracciolo, who was already resident at the court of Charles, Adrian VI had, on the 15th of July, sent to the Emperor another intimate friend in the person of Bernardo Pimentel. Charles, who had landed at Santander on the 16th of July, despatched to the Pope as his representative Herr von Zevenbergen, who, among numerous other matters, was to express the Emperor’s wish to see Adrian in person before he left Spain. Adrian, however, on various pleas, evaded the fulfilment of this wish. In a letter of the 27th of July he assured the Emperor of his great desire to effect a meeting, but that he was reluctant to suggest a rapid journey in the great heat, and that he himself could not wait longer, as his departure for Rome had, in other ways, been so long delayed.

Since Adrian, previously, had expressed a repeated wish to see the Emperor before he left Spain, this excuse was hardly sufficient to explain the fact, which was everywhere attracting attention, that the Pope, after a month’s delay, had embarked at the very moment of Charles’s arrival on Spanish soil. Reasons were not wanting why Adrian should avoid a personal interview. He knew well that Charles disapproved of his dealings with France; he also may have feared that Charles would remind him of other wishes now impossible to gratify. Among the latter was the nomination of new Cardinals, a point urgently pressed by Charles, and refused in the letter of excuse above mentioned. But of greater weight than all these considerations was Adrian’s regard for that position of impartiality which, as ruler of the Church, he had determined to adopt; he would not give the French King cause to suppose that by such an interview he was transferring to the side of his adversary the support of the Holy See. But in order that the Emperor might not be offended, Adrian wrote again, on the 5th of August, from on board ship, an affectionate letter, containing, together with valuable advice, a further apology for his departure; letters from Rome and Genoa had informed him how necessary his presence in Italy was. Their different ways of looking at the relations with France were also touched upon: he knew well that the Emperor was averse to a treaty with France until the French King’s plumage, real or borrowed, was closely clipped, so that he could not direct his flight wherever his fancy pleased him; “but we also take into consideration the dangers now threatening Christendom from the Turk, and are of opinion that the greater dangers should be first attacked. If we protect and defend the interests of our faith, even at the loss of our worldly advantage, instead of meeting the evils of Christendom with indifference, the Lord will be our helper”.

Although the fleet on which Adrian was bound for Italy consisted of fifty vessels, the coast-line was followed the whole way for safety. At Barcelona the reception was cordial, but at Marseilles it was impossible to stop owing to distrust of the French. The Pope kept the feast of the Assumption at S. Stefano al Mare, near San Remo  at Savona the Archbishop Tommaso Riario showed all the splendid hospitality of a prelate of the Renaissance. From the 17th to the 19th of August Adrian stayed in Genoa comforting the inhabitants, on whom the visitations of war had fallen heavily. Here came to greet him the Duke of Milan and the Commanders-in-Chief of the Imperialists, Prospero Colonna, the Marquis of Pescara, and Antonio da Leyva.

The passage to Leghorn was hindered by stormy weather, and the Pope was detained for four days in the harbour of Portofino. Amid incessant fear of attacks from Turkish pirates, Leghorn was reached at last on the 23rd of August. Here Adrian was received in state by the representatives of the States of the Church and five Tuscan Cardinals : Medici, Petrucci, Passerini, Ridolfi, and Piccolomini. The latter were in full lay attire, wearing Spanish hats and carrying arms; for this the Pope seriously rebuked them. When he was offered the costly service of silver with which the banquet table in the citadel had been spread, he replied: “Here, of a truth, the Cardinals fare like kings; may they inherit better treasures in heaven”. He disregarded the entreaties of Cardinal Medici and the Florentines that he should visit Pisa and Florence and at first make Bologna his residence, on account of the plague. “To Rome, to Rome”, he replied, “I must needs go”. The presence of the plague there caused him no anxiety; with the first favourable wind he made haste to embark, without informing the Cardinals, who were sitting over their dinner.

Late in the evening, on the 25th of August, Adrian lay off Civita Vecchia, and on the following morning set foot for the first time on the soil of the Papal States. A great concourse of persons, among whom were many members of the Curia, awaited him on the shore; Cardinals Colonna and Orsini were present to represent the Sacred College. To the greetings of the former the Pope made a short but suitable reply. Here, as in all other places visited on his journey, he first made his way to the cathedral; thence he proceeded to the Rocca, where he took a midday collation and held audiences. By the 27th of August the Pope was again on board. To the beggars who pressed around him he said : “I love poverty, and you shall see what I will do for you”. Head-winds made the landing at Ostia on the 28th of August a matter of difficulty. Adrian, in a small boat, with only six companions, was the first to gain the land; he sprang ashore without assistance, and with almost youthful alacrity. Here also he visited the church without delay and prayed. The Cardinals had prepared a repast in the Castle, but the Pope declined their invitation. He ate alone, and, at once mounting a mule, made his way to the cloister of St. Paul without the Walls. The Cardinals and the others who accompanied him followed in the greatest disorder, through mud and heat, the rapid progress of the Pontiff, who was met on his way by sightseers moved by curiosity, and by the Swiss guard carrying a litter. Into this he got reluctantly, but suddenly quitted it and again mounted his mule. His vigorous bearing astonished all who saw him, for during the voyage and even after his arrival Adrian had felt so ill that many were afraid he would not recover; having reached his journey’s end, he seemed to regain youth and strength. He rode in front in animated conversation with the Ambassador Manuel. “His face is long and pale”, writes the Venetian Envoy; “his body is lean, his hands are snow-white. His whole demeanour impresses one with reverence; even his smile has a tinge of seriousness”. All who saw the Pope for the first time were struck by his ascetic appearance. In a letter sent to Venice the writer says, “I could have sworn that he had become a monk”.

The plague being unabated in Rome, many advised the Pope to be crowned in St. Paul’s. Adrian refused, and decided that the ceremony should take place in St. Peter’s with all possible simplicity; the coronation over, he intended to remain in Rome notwithstanding the plague, since he desired by his presence to tranquillize his sorely afflicted subjects and to restore order in the city. Owing to the Pope’s absence and the outbreak of the pestilence, a majority of the court had left Rome, so that Castiglione compared the city to a plundered abbey. The state of affairs was utterly chaotic; while the faithful had recourse to litanies and processions, a Greek named Demetrius was allowed to go through the farce of exorcising the plague by means of an oath sworn over an ox, whereupon the Papal Vicar at last interfered, for it was understood that Adrian was rapidly approaching, and his arrival on the following day was even looked upon as settled.

On the 29th of August, at a very early hour, the Pope said a low Mass—as he had never omitted to do even amid the difficulties of the voyage—and afterwards presented himself to the Cardinals in the noble transept of St. Paul’s. He received them all with a friendly smile, but singled out no one for special recognition. Then followed the first adoration of the Sacred College in the small sacristy adjoining. On this occasion Carvajal, as Dean and Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, delivered an address, in which he frankly bewailed the calamities called down upon the Church by the election of unworthy and simoniacal Popes, and welcomed Adrian the more joyfully inasmuch as he had been chosen by other means. Although in the presence of such a Chief Pastor no special exhortations were necessary, he would yet ask him to lay seven points to heart : first, to remove simony, ignorance, and tyranny, and all other vices which deform the Church, while turning to good counsellors and keeping a firm hand on those in office; secondly, to reform the Church in accordance with her Councils and Canons, so far as the times permitted; thirdly, to honour and exalt the good Cardinals and prelates, and have a care for the poor; fourthly, to see to the impartial administration of justice and to confer offices on the best men fifthly, to support the faithful, especially the nobility and the religious orders, in their necessities; sixthly, the speaker touched on the duty of opposing the Turks in their threatened attacks on Hungary and Rhodes; to do this an armistice among the Christian princes and the levy of money for a crusade were indispensable. In conclusion, Carvajal urged the reconstruction of St. Peter’s, which to his great grief had been pulled down. If the Pope fulfilled these conditions, his glory would shine forth before God and men.

In his short reply the Pope thanked the Cardinals for his election and explained the reasons of his late arrival, at the same time stating his agreement with the programme of reform so comprehensively unfolded by Carvajal; he then asked the Cardinals to waive their right to give asylum to criminals; to this all consented. The second adoration in the basilica of St. Paul then followed, and in a further speech Adrian impressively adjured the Cardinals, prelates, envoys, and Roman dignitaries present to help him with their prayers.

The extraordinary strength of character at once exhibited by the new Pope aroused attention. Out of the numerous petitions presented to him he only countersigned those submitted to him by the conclavists. When Ascanio Colonna ventured to intercede for Lelio della Valle, who had committed a murder, Adrian replied: “Pardons for cases of murder will not be given except for very weighty reasons, and after hearing the case of the injured parties. We are determined to listen to both sides, since it is our intention to see that justice is done, though we perish in the attempt.” Then a palafreniere whom Adrian had brought with him from Spain asked for a canonry. “Canonries,” he was told, “will be given only to those who can be residentiary, not to palafrenieri.” Even the Bishop of Pesaro, on applying for a canonry in St. Peter’s, was met with a flat refusal; to Cardinal Campeggio, who expressed a similar wish, Adrian replied, “We will see.” All sales of dispensations the Pope absolutely refused; the favours which were in his power to bestow he preferred to bestow freely. When, finally, the palafrenieri of Leo X thronged round him in a body, and on their knees begged to be reinstated in their office, he merely gave a sign with his hand that they might arise. To the Romans, who intended to set up a triumphal arch in his honour at the Porta Portese, he intimated his desire that they would discontinue the works, since such an erection was heathenish and out of keeping with Christian piety. The deputation of the city magistrates was met with words of encouragement in view of the prevailing pestilence. “The inhabitants,” he remarked, “must be of good cheer; he personally would be satisfied with very little.

Although, at Adrian’s express wish, all extravagant display was avoided on his entry into Rome, the inhabitants would not allow themselves to be prevented from decorating their houses with tapestries. Delighted, at the end of nine long months, to look once again upon their Pope, they went out to meet him with acclamations of joy. Adrian was carried as far as the Porta S. Paolo; there he mounted a white charger. At the Church of S. Celso he was met by a procession of children with the picture of the Madonna del Portico, which, during thirteen days, had been carried through Rome on account of the plague, Adrian not only removed his hat, but also his skull-cap, and bent low before the sacred picture, while the Cardinals only slightly uncovered. While the cannon thundered from St. Angelo, the procession wended its way under the burning August sun to the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles. On the following Sunday, the 31st of August, the coronation took place in St. Peter’s with the customary ceremonial. On account of the plague the concourse of people was not so great as usual. The festivities, which were carried out with economy, passed off quietly, but the coronation banquet, without being lavish, was not stinted. On rising from table the Pope passed into an adjoining room and conversed with the Cardinals ; he then withdrew to his own apartments.

The Pope’s first edict proscribed under heavy penalties the wearing of arms in the city and banished all disorderly persons from Rome. A second ordinance forbade ecclesiastics to grow beards, a fashion which made them look more like soldiers than priests. Such simplicity, piety, and determination as were displayed by the new Pope had never before been seen by the members of the Curia. They were in sharp contrast to the excessive display, the brilliant secularity, and the refined culture which had pervaded the court of Leo X.

While the Cardinals, prelates, and courtiers of the last pontificate murmured in secret, unbiassed observers did not refrain from expressing their approval of the new Pope. His exemplary and holy life, his great simplicity, piety, and love of justice made a deep impression even on those who were disposed to watch him with critical eyes. “Adrian”, one of this class reports, “is a friend of learning, especially theology. He cannot suffer ignorant priests. His time is divided with strict regularity between prayer and official work. He has only two personal attendants, Netherlanders and homely fellows; in other respects his retinue is composed of as few persons as is possible”. To the Cardinals who begged that he would maintain a household more befitting his rank, he replied that that was impossible until he had first discharged his predecessor’s debts. When he was informed that Leo had employed a hundred palafrenieri, he made the sign of the cross and said that four would suffice for all his needs, but as it was unseemly that he should have fewer than a Cardinal, he would appoint twelve. It was the general opinion that the new Pope’s outward appearance was at once dignified and agreeable; although he was in his sixty-fourth year he did not look more than sixty. He always spoke Latin and, as the Italians did not fail to remark, correctly, seeing that he was a “barbarian”; his guttural pronunciation gave less satisfaction. In contrast to Leo X’s love of recreation, it was observed by all that Adrian did not abate, as Pope, his strict mode of living and, as the Venetian Ambassador remarked, set thereby a thoroughly edifying example.

The Spaniard Blasio Ortiz said that he had seen nothing bad in the Pope, who was a mirror of all the virtues. A strict observer of the canonical hours, Adrian rose in the night to say Matins, returned again to his bed, and was up again by daybreak ready to say Mass and attend that of his chaplain. That a Pope should offer the holy sacrifice daily was such an innovation that even chroniclers of a later day call special attention to this evidence of Adrian’s piety. An hour in the forenoon was devoted to audiences, which Adrian usually gave in the study, lined with books, adjoining his bedchamber. His dinner and supper, which he always ate alone, were of the utmost simplicity; a dish of veal or beef, sometimes a soup, sufficed: on fast days he had fish only. On his personal wants he spent as little as possible; it was even said that he ate off small platters like a poor village priest. An old woman servant, from the Netherlands, looked after the cooking and washing. After his meal he took a siesta, then finished what remained to be said of his office, and again gave audiences. Conscientious in the extreme, circumspect and cautious in his dealings, Adrian, suddenly plunged into an entirely new set of circumstances, appeared to be wanting in resolution. It was further deplored that he was disinclined to relax his studious habits, not only of reading but of writing and composing, for these, combined with his love of solitude, made him difficult of access. Moreover, his curt manner of speech was very displeasing to the loquacious Italians. Adrian’s capital offence, however, in the eyes of the Curia, lay in his being a foreigner. All Italians of that period prided themselves on their high culture; they looked down with contempt on the natives of all other countries, and specially on the coarse “barbarians” of Germany. And now in Rome, hitherto the centre of the Renaissance of art and letters, one of these barbarians was ruling and would settle the direction Italian politics should follow.

The antagonism of nationality between Adrian and the Italians was further intensified by the circumstance that the Pope was now too far advanced in years to adapt himself to those things around him which were indifferent in them­selves and of minor importance. With the speech and social habits of those amongst whom he had come to sojourn he never became familiar; there was even a touch of pedantry in his obstinate clinging to his former way of living. His long years of professorial duty had cut him off completely from the charm of manner and social address on which the Italians set so much value. Even in Rome he remained the same quiet, dry scholar, devoted to the seclusion of his study and easily put out of humour by the bustle of general society. The homeliness of Adrian’s person and his austere asceticism compared with Leo X, presented a contrast a greater than which it is impossible to conceive. This contrast, conspicuous from every point of view, was especially noticeable in Adrian’s attitude towards the culture of the Italian Renaissance.

All persons of culture were then filled with enthusiasm for the art of antiquity. But Adrian, whose turn of mind was pre-eminently serious and unimpassioned, was so absolutely insensible to such forms of beauty that he looked upon them merely as the debris of paganism. To his exclusively religious temperament the array of gleaming marbles set up by his predecessors in the Belvedere afforded not the slightest interest. When the group of the Laocoon, then considered the most remarkable of these works of art, was pointed out to him, he observed in his dry manner: “After all, they are only the effigies of heathen idols”. This might be regarded as merely a bit of gossip if the anecdote were not well authenticated. “He will soon”, said Girolamo Negri, Cardinal Cornaro’s secretary, “be doing as Gregory the Great did, and order the antique statuary to be burned into lime for the building of St. Peter’s”. As a matter of fact, he sold some antiques, and had all the entrances to the Belvedere walled up save one, the key of which he kept in his own custody.

The magnificent art of the Renaissance also seemed to be a closed book to Adrian. The continuation of the paintings in the Hall of Constantine was stopped, and Raphael’s pupils had to seek employment elsewhere. And yet Adrian was not totally wanting in artistic culture, but to his northern taste the Italian art of the Renaissance was unpalatable. He ordered a Dutch painter, Jan Scorel, to paint his portrait. Moreover, his interest in the progress of the reconstruction of St. Peter’s was sincere, although here again his point of view was religious rather than artistic. Another circumstance which contradicts the notion that Adrian held uncivilized views about art is the fact that, in spite of his monetary distress, he redeemed the tapestries of Raphael which had been pledged on the death of Leo X, and restored them once more to the Sixtine Chapel on the anniversary celebration of his coronation.

Adrian was not at home amidst the splendour of the Vatican, and from the first had felt disinclined to occupy it. He wished to have, as a dwelling, a simple house with a garden. The Imperial Ambassador reports with amazement this strange project of the newly elected Pope to whom God had given the noblest palaces in Rome. No small astonishment was likewise caused by Adrian’s abstention from any signs of favour towards the swarm of accomplished poets and humanists with whom Leo X had been so much associated. Although not indifferent to the elegance of a fine Latin style, the practical Netherlander thought little of the gifts of the versifiers; he even sought opportunities for evincing his contempt for them. On appointing Paolo Giovio to a benefice at Como, the Pope remarked that he conferred this distinction upon him because Giovio was an historian and not a poet. What Adrian took especial exception to in the humanist poets of his day was the lax habit of life of the majority, and their frivolous coquetry with the spirit of heathen mythology. Leo X, in his enthusiastic admiration of beauty, had overlooked such excrescences; the serious-minded Teuton rightly judged them by a standard of much greater severity. Yet his reaction was carried too far. He discriminated too little between the good and the bad elements in humanism; even Sadoleto, with his excellence and piety, found no favour in his eyes. He caused simple amazement by his depreciatory criticism of the letters, the theme of general admiration, remarking that they were letters of a poet.

Adrian was completely a stranger in the midst of the intellectual culture of which Leo’s reign had been the culminating point. His entrance into Rome was followed by an abrupt transition, all the more strongly felt since the Medici Pope had flung himself without reserve into every tendency of the Renaissance. Loud were the laments over the new era and its transformation of the Vatican, once echoing with the voices of literature and art, into a silent cloister. All Adrian’s admirable qualities were forgotten he was looked upon only as a foreigner, alien to the arts, manners, and politics of Italy, and his detachment from the literati and artists of Italy was not merely the outcome of a want of intelligent sympathy with the Renaissance; the shortness of his reign and his financial difficulties hindered him from the exercise of any liberal patronage. His contemporaries shut their eyes to this impossibility; they laid all the blame on the “barbarism” of the foreigner.

Nor was less offence taken at his foreign surroundings. Adrian at first recruited his bodyguard from the Spaniards as well as the Swiss. The castellan of St. Angelo was a Spaniard. The Pope’s domestic servants, whose numbers were reduced within the limits of strict necessity, were also chiefly composed of non-Italians. Thus the hopes of Leo’s numerous retainers of all ranks of continuing in busy idleness were disappointed. The chief objects of complaint and ridicule were the Pope’s servants from the Low Countries, who contributed not a little to estrange the feelings of those around them. Even before Adrian’s arrival in Rome, his court was contemptuously spoken of as a collection of insignificant persons. In reality, the Pope’s three principal advisers were men of excellent character and no mean endowments.

This was especially the case with Wilhelm van Enkevoirt, a native of Mierlo in North Brabant, who, attached to Adrian by a friendship of many years’ standing, had entered the Papal Chancery under Julius II. and subsequently became Scriptor apostolic, Protonotary, and Procurator in Rome for Charles V. In character Enkevoirt presented many points of resemblance with the Pope ; like the latter he had a warm affection for his native land, his piety was genuine, and he was of studious habits and gentle disposition. One of Adrian’s first acts was to bestow the important post of Datary on this old friend, who was of proved responsibility and thoroughly versed in Roman affairs. Enkevoirt had before this been described as one with Adrian in heart and soul, and with a zeal which often overstepped due limits, took pains to assert his position as first and foremost of the Pope’s confidential advisers. Besides Enkevoirt, Dietrich von Heeze, Johann Winkler, and Johann Ingenwinkel had free access to the Pope. The last named, from the lower Rhineland, was a man of great ability, who knew how to retain office and confidence under Clement VII; he died as Datary of the second Medici Pope. Johann Winkler was born in Augsburg; he had already, under Leo X, been notary of the Rota, and died, at the beginning of Paul III’s pontificate, a rich and distinguished prelate.

If Winkler, like Ingenwinkel, showed an undue anxiety to take care of his own interests in the matter of benefices, Dirk (Dietrich) van Heeze, on the contrary, was a thoroughly unselfish and high-minded personality. Originally a friend of Erasmus, Heeze, at a later period, did not follow the great scholar on the path which, in some respects, was so open to question, but took up a decided position on behalf of reform on strong Catholic lines. Heeze, who was extolled by his contemporaries for profound learning, modesty, piety, and earnestness of moral character, was placed by Adrian at the head of the Chancery as private secretary; it cost him some trouble to make himself at home in the processes of preparing and sending forth the Papal briefs. After his patron’s early death he left the Curia and returned to his own country, and died at Liege as Canon of St. Lambert’s. Apart from these fellow-countrymen, however, Adrian also honoured with his confidence some Spaniards, such as Blasio Ortiz, and several Italians the Bishops of Feltre and Castellamare, Tommaso Campeggio, and Pietro Fiori, and especially Giovanni Ruffo Teodoli, Archbishop of Cosenza. Girolamo Ghinucci became an Auditor of the Camera. The Italian, Cardinal Campeggio, was also frequently selected by the Pope for important transactions. All this the courtiers of Leo X entirely overlooked in order to vent their dislike of the Netherlanders : “Men as stupid as stones”. Almost all the Italians were as unfriendly to these trusted councillors of the Pope, whose names they could never pronounce aright, as they were to the “foreign” Pontiff himself, whose earnestness and moderation they would not understand. They distrusted their influence and pursued them with their hatred. The poet Berni expressed the general opinion in his satirical lines

Ecco che personaggi, ecco che corte

Che brigate galante cortegiane :

Copis, Vincl, Corizio et Trincheforte!

 Nome di for isbigottir un cane.

The repugnance to the stranger Pope grew into bitter hatred the further Adrian advanced his plans for a thorough reform of the secularized Curia. Had it not been for this project, his native origin and character would have been as readily forgiven him as had once been the Spanish traits and Spanish surroundings of Alexander VI. Ortiz hit the mark exactly when he fixed on the efforts at reform as the seed-plot of all the odium aroused against Adrian VI.