CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER VI.

The Intrigues of Cardinal Soderini and the Rupture with France. —Adrian VI joins the Imperial League. — His Death.

On his arrival in Italy Adrian had found the College of Cardinals split into factions. The anti-Medicean party brought the heaviest reproaches against him, especially with regard to the proceedings connected with the conspiracy of Cardinal Petrucci. Adrian found it impossible to have the case revised a step, moreover, which could not have led to any result. An attempt to reconcile Cardinal Francesco Soderini, whose animosity was exceptionally virulent, with the Vice-Chancellor Cardinal de' Medici, failed completely; this was not surprising, for the latter had information of Soderini’s complicity in the conspiracy contrived in Florence.

Medici, who could not console himself for the loss of his powerful influence in the Curia, had gone back to Florence in October 1522. This left full scope to his opponent Soderini in Rome. Adrian’s misunderstandings with the Emperor and the crafty temporizing of Francis I proved helpful to Soderini, and the former partisan of France gained more and more influence with the Pope. He managed successfully to conceal from Adrian his one­sided devotion to the interests of Francis. He appeared to throw himself eagerly into the Pope's endeavours for peace, and warned him against the warlike and Imperialist leanings of Medici, whom he even accused of enriching himself dishonestly under Leo X. Meanwhile Sessa and the Vice-Chancellor were carefully watching the alliance of their enemy with Francis I. At the end of March 1523 Medici succeeded in securing the person of a Sicilian, Francesco Imperiale, who had been sent by Soderini on a commission to his nephew, then residing in Venice and France; on this man letters of the Cardinals were found to the effect that, if Francis delayed longer his entrance in person into Italy, he would alienate the Venetians and all his other friends in the Peninsula; when the cipher, used in certain passages of the letters, was interpreted, the discovery was made that a plot was on foot to raise an insurrection in Sicily against the Emperor, which, when it had taken shape with French connivance, was to be the signal for the descent of Francis upon Upper Italy. The Pope besides was described in the letters, quite contrary to the truth, as making common cause with the Emperor. Medici at once made known his discovery to the Imperial Ambassador at Rome, who made haste to lay all before the Pope. Medici and the representative of King Ferdinand were overjoyed at having in their hands clear evidence of French knavery; they were confident that Adrian would now be led to renounce his neutrality, and every effort was made to reach this end.

Adrian was, at first, unwilling to believe in the treachery of his friend, but soon he had to convince himself that Soderini had not shrunk from thwarting his ardent wishes for peace and, at the moment when the Turkish danger was at its worst, wantonly stirring up the fury of war in Italy itself He determined to unmask the guilty party and to visit him with heavy punishment; it was also no longer doubtful that Soderini had deceived him as regards Cardinal de' Medici, and before taking any other steps he summoned the latter, the head of the Imperial party in the Sacred College, to Rome. Medici, who till now had been living in Florence, expectant and discontented, obeyed the call with great delight. With an almost royal retinue of more than a thousand horsemen he made his entry into Rome on the 23rd of April 1523; the most notable personages, many Cardinals, and even deadly enemies of long standing such as Francesco Maria della Revere, met him at the Ponte Molle. He was present in Consistory on the 25th and 26th of April; on the latter day the Pope received him after dinner in private audience, and it was said that they both withdrew to the Belvedere and then to a country-house, spending the whole afternoon in one another’s company.

On the next day, the 27th of April, about seven o'clock in the evening, Adrian sent for Cardinal Soderini, who hastened on horseback to the Vatican accompanied by his retainers. As he passed through the streets astonishment was roused that a Cardinal should go to an audience at such an unusual hour. Half an hour later his suite returned without him, and it was soon understood that he had been arrested; such, in fact, was the case.

When Soderini came into the Pope’s presence in the Borgia tower he found there Cardinal de' Medici and Sessa. To Adrian’s inquiry whether he had written to the French King, he answered in the negative; then the Pope at once placed before him the intercepted letters. As he even then tried to persist in a denial, Adrian broke out into great excitement and pronounced him under arrest. Soderini begged in vain to be detained in the Vatican, but he was conveyed to St. Angelo, whither none of his household were allowed to follow him, and that same evening all his papers and valuables were seized. At a Consistory held on the following morning the Pope explained his action, and entrusted to Cardinals Carvajal Accolti, and Cesi the superintendence of Soderini’s trial. In prison the Cardinal refused food until the castellan, in pity, first tasted the dishes in his presence. Even the Pope felt compassion for the aged man, and subsequently allowed three of his servants to wait upon him and restored to him his property. He pushed on the judicial process with all the more expedition because it had become known that, during Adrian’s absence from Italy, Soderini had, with the help of France, worked for a schism.

The fall of Soderini gave at once a commanding position in the Curia to the Vice-Chancellor Cardinal de’ Medici. His palace became a more active centre of life than the Vatican, and his antechambers were crowded with visitors waiting for an audience. Not a day passed without four, or even five, Cardinals coming to see him, and before long he was spoken of as the coming Pope. Henceforward Adrian himself was greatly influenced by Medici, and the Imperialists saw with satisfaction a change for the better in the Pope's feelings towards Charles. But they were deceiving themselves if they believed that Adrian had any intention of identifying himself with the Spanish party. Even if, in giving his sanction on the 4th of May to the permanent incorporation of the three grand­masterships of Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcantara in the Spanish Crown, he made a remarkable concession, yet in the great questions of European politics he continued steadfast to the neutrality becoming the Father of Christendom, and to his efforts on behalf of peace. With this aim in view he issued on the 30th of April a Bull enjoining, in the name of his supreme authority, a truce of three years' duration for the whole of Christendom, compliance with which was demanded from the princes under pain of the heaviest penalties of the Church, immediate interdict and excommunication. There had been enough fraternal bloodshed he said, the sovereigns had already indulged too much in mutual enmity; they had every reason for behaving in such a way as not to forfeit that power which had been lent to them by God.

For Hungary, now in extreme danger, Adrian did all he could. The despatch of the Legates had been delayed, for the nominees, first Colonna and then Campeggio, had declined the post; the greatest difficulties had accompanied the collection of the funds intended for the support of that kingdom, and in view of the vivid descriptions brought to him of the perilous situation there, the Pope was deeply grieved that he could not give immediate help.

Fear was already felt in Rome that the King of Hungary might make peace with the Turk. When at last, in the person of Cajetan, a suitable Legate had been found, it cost a great amount of trouble to raise the 50,000 ducats of which he was to be the bearer. In a Consistory on the 8th of May Cajetan’s appointment as Legate to Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia was announced; but on the 27th of the same month the arrangements for getting in the money were still under consideration. The Romans objected strongly to the payment of the Turkish tax. Many were bold enough to say, in their ill humour with the new imposts, that the Pope’s project of a crusade was a chimera. This lack of self-sacrifice distressed the Pope not less than the continuance of the plague in Rome. About the 19th of May he had himself been suffering from fever; by the 27th he had recovered. On the same day he heard that the ruler of Wallachia had already come to terms of peace with the Turks. “The Turkish trouble”, reported the Portuguese Ambassador, “is the Pope’s daily subject of talk”. The Consistory was repeatedly occupied with appeals for help from Hungary and Croatia. A well-meant suggestion, emanating from the Franciscans, that troops should be raised from each religious order, had to be dismissed by the Pope as fantastic. Adrian was in the extremest perplexity, for he could not send out the Legate empty-handed. At last, on the 1st of July, everything was in order; on that day Cajetan took leave in Consistory, and on the following morning set out post-haste. On the 9th of July the Pope sent his chamberlain Pietro with fresh sums of money to the markets to buy grain for the Hungarian levies. For some time longer fear prevailed in Ragusa, as well as in Rome, that the Turks, by sending a fleet against Italy, might attempt to separate the Christian forces and cut off support from Hungary. “The Pope”, wrote Vianesio Albergati, “has done all that he could possibly do to restore peace, but the hearts of Christians are hardened. Francis I will make any sacrifice to get Milan, Charles V Fuenterrabia, and Henry VIII Brittany. Help now can come from God alone”.

An event that brought joy to Adrian was the final reconciliation of Venice with the Emperor. For this, though for long without success, he had been labouring directly for many months by means of the Nuncio. On the 12th of June he was informed that the reconciliation was at hand;  but this report was premature. As late as the 14th of July the Papal Legate Tommaso Campeggio had to use sharp words to the Doge on account of the little love of peace shown by the Republic. The Pope himself addressed most pressing representations to the Venetian Ambassador in Rome and even threatened him with a monitorium;  but not until considerable concessions had been made by the Imperial envoy did the situation change. At the last hour, though in vain, French diplomacy did all it could to keep the Republic firm. It was of great importance in this respect that Lodovico di Canossa, who had been sent into Italy as early as May, fell ill in Geneva and could not reach Venice until the beginning of July. Thence he wrote to the French Queen, on the 10th of July, that Venice was of so much importance that Francis I should consent to everything rather than lose such an ally. The diplomatic Canossa came too late, for on the 29th of July a treaty was made between the Emperor, his brother Ferdinand, the Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan, and Venice to defend Italy against attack from any European power. For this end the Pope had co-operated without giving up his neutrality; this only gave way owing to the violent behaviour of the French.

The French party in Rome, like Francis himself, looked upon the arrest of Soderini as an overt act of hostility on the part of Adrian, who had unjustly yielded to the wishes of Medici and the Emperor’s party. Cardinal Trivulzio took the liberty of saying to the Pope’s face that they had not elected him in order that he might imprison Cardinals in St. Angelo without cause. Other members of the Sacred College also complained of the Pope’s action, as showing little respect for the dignity of their office. These complaints had as little effect on Adrian as the menaces of Francis I; the trial went on its way. The Pope was determined that it should be conducted in strict accordance with order. As Soderini at first denied everything, fell ill in June, and no advocate could be found to plead for him, the affair was long protracted. The general opinion was that it would end in the deposition of Soderini, whose high treason was proved, but that Adrian would not permit the death sentence to be carried out.

Although, on his return from his mission, in the middle of May, Bernardo Bertolotti brought back very unfavourable accounts of the disposition of the Christian princes towards union, Adrian persisted in his pursuit of peace. The French were willing to suspend hostilities for two months at the utmost, while the Imperialists wished a truce of at least half a year. The Pope was of opinion that it was of the greatest importance that at least a beginning should be made; from the mission, already mentioned, of Canossa to Rome he had hoped favourable things. But that diplomatist did not come, while the negotiations of the Imperialists with Cardinal Clermont proved more and more hopeless. The latter, in complete despair, went back to Avignon on the 23rd of June. On the 15th of June Adrian had asked the French King to open fresh negotiations with the Nuncio he might, urged the Pope, in conformity with his high station and with his name of most Christian King, at last take the step which was so necessary for the protection of Christendom.

The “most Christian” had not the slightest intention of giving ear to such representations. The turn in favour of Charles which had shown itself in the Curia in consequence of Soderini’s treachery had thrown Francis into uncontrollable fury. When Adrian ordered a truce for the sake of the Turkish war, Francis exclaimed that the real Turk was the clergy. To the Venetian Ambassador he remarked in the latter half of June that the Pope was forbidden by Canon Law to impose a truce under penalty of excommunication. If Adrian persisted in so doing, he, Francis, would set up an antipope.

To this period must also belong the quite unprecedented letter in which Francis threatened the Pope with the same fate that had befallen Boniface VIII in Anagni, i.e. the loss of freedom and even of life through violent French intervention in the Vatican. At the beginning of this threatening letter Francis first recounts the services rendered by his kingdom to the Holy See from the days of King Pepin down to his own time. The very persons who ought to acknowledge those services have denied the rights of the French Crown and used their power to prevent the restoration of Milan to France. He further goes on to remind the Pope in incisive language that the Roman Pontiffs had always feared the Imperial power in Italy and had found protection from it on the part of France. The champions of the Papal States now suffer loss, and the enemies reap the advantage. Even if, at first, he had had fears that Pope Adrian would allow himself to be drawn into the policy of Leo X, yet he had become more and more convinced that the Pope’s sense of honour and goodness, as well as considerations for the safety of his soul and for his dignity and age, would never allow him to lose sight, as the common father of Christendom, of impartial justice and equity. Unfortunately his former fears had not proved groundless, since the arrest of Soderini had only taken place because the Pope relied on Medici’s information that the Cardinal was favourable to France; if equal justice prevailed, the enemies of France ought to receive the same treatment. Francis I characterized as strange the Pope’s proclamation, under ecclesiastical censures, of a three years’ peace as if he, the King, were averse to peace. Yet for this very reason he had had an envoy at Calais, he had sent his secretary to the Pope at Nice, and then Cardinal Clermont to Rome, and when Adrian had called upon him to conclude a truce, for the defence of Christendom, he had declared his readi­ness to comply provided that Milan, his lawful possession, was restored to him. When the Pope found this condition excessive, he had sent Ambassadors to Rome to conclude a peace or a truce for two months or longer. More he could not do. When he became aware that the Pope was determined to proclaim an unconditional truce, he had for­bidden his representatives to enter into it, and had explained to the Pope why he considered one lasting for three years useless.

If Adrian ordered a truce under ecclesiastical censures, without consulting the Christian princes, without making any stipulation where the crusading contingents were to be sent, the French army would be attacked on its arrival in Italy. Adrian had given Bulls to raise money to the enemies of Francis but Francis himself had been forgotten. When it was such an easy matter for Popes to excommunicate princes, evil results always followed, and this could be no cause of satisfaction. The privileges of the French Kings would be defended by their subjects with the last drop of their blood; moreover, no censure could be pronounced against him except with the observance of the accompanying forms and ceremonies, Adrian’s predecessors had always observed this. Pope Boniface, to be sure, had taken certain steps against Philip the Fair which had miscarried. “You, in your prudence, will certainly not forget this”. A three years’ truce would tie his, the King’s, hands and hinder him from protecting his dominions, while Charles, during this time, could enter Italy on the pretext of his coronation as Emperor. It was astonishing that the Cardinals, who were now recommending such a truce, did not recommend to the Emperor the course which Leo X had intended, namely, to take Milan from the French, although at that moment the Turks were beleaguering Belgrade. Adrian’s present intentions had certainly the appearance of being directed against the Turks, but were really aimed at him, the King. May the Pope be preserved from bringing about, instead of peace, still greater confusion, which would ill become the part of a good and wise pastor. Ever since the report of the truce had got abroad his enemies had done nothing but increase their strength, which he would yet humble. On the other hand he was ready, if the Turks invaded Hungary or Naples, to take the field against them in person; if, therefore, his Holiness were willing to grant him Bulls to raise money similar to those granted to his enemies, the Pope would only be acting in faithful accordance with his duty.

Simultaneously with this letter of menace the news reached Rome that Francis I had broken off diplomatic relations with the Papal Nuncio. What Adrian had endeavoured to prevent by his strictly neutral attitude he stood, wrote the Ambassador of Henry VIII, as immovable as a rock in the sea—now came to pass, an incurable rupture with France.

Nothing could have been more gratifying to the enemies of Francis than his brusque treatment of the Pope. The Ambassadors of the Emperor and Henry became more urgent than ever in pressing upon Adrian the conclusion of an offensive and defensive alliance to protect Italy against France, the common enemy, and to render Francis incapable of continuing the war. Cardinal de’ Medici, whose influence over Adrian was becoming increasingly great, took their side; the Pope, nevertheless, still refused to enter into party combinations of this sort. His conviction that he was thus doing his duty was strengthened by the knowledge that a final breach with France would be followed by consequences of incalculable gravity. “I shall not declare myself against France”, he wrote to Charles de Lannoy, the Viceroy of Naples, “because such a step would be immediately followed by the stoppage of all supplies of money from that kingdom, on which I chiefly depend for the maintenance of my Court, and because I know on good authority that the French King would become a protector of the Lutheran heresy, and make a resettlement of ecclesiastical order in his dominions”.

Some of the Cardinals, moreover, who were interceding on behalf of Soderini, emphatically pointed out to Adrian the danger of some violent display of French power, prompted by the youthful energy of Francis and his advisers, unfriendly to the Court of Rome. If counsels such as these were kept within the bounds of a wise moderation, there were not wanting others who spoke as open partisans of France. These mischievously represented to the Pope that he could confer no greater advantage on his countrymen and those who had helped to raise him to the tiara than by the strictest observance of his neutrality, otherwise he would make himself con­temptible in the sight of the other sovereigns of Europe. These same advisers laid it down as an axiom that Lombardy must be a French possession.

Although it was known by the beginning of July that Francis I had forbidden all payment of money to Rome, Adrian still put off a final decision. He wished to hear first the opinion of his friend of early days, Lannoy, and in a Brief of the 18th of July he begged him to pay a secret visit to Rome without delay .

Lannoy came at once. He, Sessa and Medici, as well as the English Ambassadors, urged an alliance with the Emperor in the strongest terms. Medici especially, who visited the Pope at least once a day, was untiring. The Ambassadors were able to show that Francis I, had vast forces assembled at the foot of the Pyrenees, in Switzerland, and on the immediate frontiers of Italy, ready to give effect to his long-standing and repeated threats and to begin the war for the reconquest of Milan. At an opportune moment for the Imperialists, a fresh letter from the French King arrived on the 18th of July. This left no room for any further doubt as to his utter want of conscience in respect of the ever-increasing Turkish danger. The Pope now saw that he must give up as hopeless the part of peacemaker to which he had hither­to clung with such tenacity. In so doing he did not believe himself to be untrue to his previous policy, for he had already made it plainly known that, in the event of an invasion of Italy by Francis, he would be compelled to take part against him.

The letter of Francis I threatening Adrian with the fate of Boniface VIII was present all the more persistently to the Pope’s mind because the King, in a letter to the Cardinals written in June, had expressed himself in similar terms. On the 16th of July Adrian appealed for help to Henry VIII. How much he feared an attack from the French is shown by the fact that he took precautions for the security of the gates of Rome. He openly took measures to ensure his own life and freedom, and not until matters had reached an extremity and he was compelled to bend before the force of circumstances did he quit the neutral attitude he had hitherto observed. In spite of the hostile conduct of Francis, he was even now indisposed to make an offensive treaty such as the Imperialists wished. He declared that he was not ready to go beyond a treaty of defence; this attitude he considered due to his position as the common Father of Christendom. The general well-being of Europe, the peace of Italy, and the repulse of the Ottoman power were now as heretofore the ruling principles of his policy.

A Consistory was held on the 29th of July; Adrian opened it with a speech on the Turkish danger and pointed out that the Christian princes, instead of destroying the peace of Europe, should take united action against the infidels. In proof of the warlike intentions of Francis I, the letter, full of threats and complaints, addressed by him to Adrian, was read as well as the other in the same tone sent to the Cardinals. Opinions were exchanged as to the conclusion of an alliance for the protection of Italy in view of the threatened French invasion. When the final vote was taken only four, out of eight-and-twenty present, said “No”. They were Monte, Fieschi, Orsini, and Trivulzio.

By the terms of the League, signed by Adrian on the 3rd of August, the Pope, the Emperor, Henry VIII of England, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Cardinal de' Medici, on behalf of Florence, Genoa, Siena, and Lucca, undertook jointly to raise an army to prevent the French from entering Lombardy; Adrian made himself responsible for a monthly contribution of 15,000 ducats and appointed Lannoy Commander-in-Chief, Charles V signifying his approval.

The Imperialists were in high glee. The League and the agreement between Venice and Charles V have, wrote Sessa, entirely altered European politics. Medici’s influence, it seemed, was now firmly established.  In Rome, as well as throughout Italy, the new turn of affairs met with almost unanimous approval; even those who had formerly been Adrian’s enemies now praised the Pope for the excellence of his dispositions and his conspicuous piety. His behaviour in the trial of Soderini had also remarkably enhanced his reputation, and many now realized that the charges of indecision were not justified. It was widely believed that the danger of a French invasion was over, and that the possibility of a campaign against the Turks was secured. On the 5th of August, the Feast of Our Lady of the Snow, the League was solemnly published in S. Maria Maggiore. For this purpose the Pope went very early to the Basilica; he seems to have feared some attempts by the French party; for, contrary to the custom of Julius II and Leo X, he rode thither surrounded by his Swiss guard. It was the first time he had ridden through Rome in pontifical attire; on his return to the Vatican he was greatly fatigued. The ride in the blazing August sun, followed by a chill and still more, the mental excitement, brought on an attack of illness, and the Pope, whose health for some time had not been of the best, had to take to his bed immediately after the ceremony. The contest between the French and Imperial parties had kept him in a state of constant agitation, and, now that a decision had been reached, he broke down. It was a heavy burden on his soul that, for all his love of peace, he should have been forced, even as a measure of necessity, to take part in a war against the disturber of the peace of Christendom.

Great as was the rejoicing of the Emperor and his adherents, they do not appear to have been satisfied with a merely defensive alliance. They hoped to have been able to bring Adrian to decide in favour of an offensive treaty against Francis I, but for the moment the Pope's condition made all negotiations impossible all audiences were deferred, and when the Datary Enkevoirt also became unwell, business was for some time at a complete standstill. An intolerable heat prevailed, causing much sickness; Cardinal Grimani, among others, was seriously ill.

The Pope’s condition was said to be the result of a chill which had first settled on his neck and then gone down to the kidneys. When an abscess in his neck broke, Adrian felt relieved, and on the 12th of August he was so much better that he was able to receive the Marquis of Pescara, who had come with all speed to Rome on behalf of the Emperor. Although the heat continued, the Pope went on improving; he left his bed, said Mass, and did a certain amount of business; although he had become very thin and still felt very weak, his complete recovery was believed to be at hand. An unexpected legacy enabled him at this time to contribute his quota to the funds of the League.

Cardinal Grimani died in the night of the 27th of August. Adrian, on the other hand, seemed entirely recovered, although he still suffered from loss of appetite. On the 27th of August he granted an audience to the Ambassador of Venice;  peace and the League had been proclaimed there on the Feast of the Assumption. Greatly rejoiced, he bestowed on the Signoria two-tenths of the clerical revenues of the Republic; at the same time he asked the Doge to send troops to places threatened by the French. The Marquis Federigo Gonzaga of Mantua was ordered to join the Imperial army at Piacenza and to undertake the defence of Alessandria. On the 31st, the anniversary of his coronation, the Pope held a Consistory in his own chamber; he was still too weak to take part in the public function.

On the 1st of September, de Lisle Adam, the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, arrived in Rome. Adrian gave him a residence in the Vatican, and showed him every kind of honour; he took steps to find a new home for the exiled Order. From the Grand Master’s lips Adrian heard all the details of the deplorable fall of Rhodes. The narrative could not fail to tell unfavourably on the aged and weakly man. Not less depressing were the accounts of the war now beginning in Lombardy, which threw into the background all his noble designs for the peace of Europe, the Crusade, and the reforming Council. Feelings of sorrow undoubtedly contributed to the fresh attack of illness which declared itself on the 3rd of September.

The report of his death was soon spread through Rome, and the Cardinals began to be busy with the prospects of a Papal election. Adrian’s strong constitution seemed once more to get the better of his malady; on the 6th and 7th of September he felt decidedly better. He then signed the Bull conferring on Charles V and his successors the right to appoint prelates of their own choice to the bishoprics and consistorial abbacies of the Spanish Crown, excepting only when a vacancy in Curia occurred. Adrian’s improvement was deceptive; in the night of the 8th of September he became so much worse that he had no longer any doubt as to the fatal nature of his illness. The next morning he summoned the Cardinals to him and asked them to agree to the nomination of Enkevoirt, consecrated on the 11th of March 1523 Bishop of Tortosa, to the Cardinalate. This request, made by a dying man on behalf of a most deserving friend, met with opposition, for the Datary was greatly disliked on account of his rough and downright ways. In the evening the Pope was so weak that he could hardly speak. On the following morning (the 9th of September) he was no better, and therefore allowed Heeze to make representations to the Cardinals, in consequence of which some of them promised to vote for Enkevoirt’s promotion. On the 10th, Adrian once more, assembled a Consistory in his sick-room. Referring to the ancient custom whereby a Pope bestowed his own Cardinalitial title on a confidential friend, he asked the members of the Sacred College to consent that he should confer this grace on a person of goodness and learning. When all had given their assent, he named the Datary Enkevoirt, who at once, to the vexation of the Court, was received into the ranks of the purple.

After the Consistory the Pope took some food; this was followed by a sharp access of fever. On the next day at noon, the fever having abated, the invalid could not be prevented from again turning his attention, with a touching devotion to duty, to the despatch of business. He sent off some Bulls and Briefs, attached his signature to petitions, and even gave audiences, although speaking was very trying to him. This improvement only lasted till the 12th of September; notwithstanding their efforts, the physicians, who had been assiduous in their attention, held out no hope, since they could do nothing to check the fever and rapid decline of strength. Worn out with sorrow and care, age and sickness, a life was running swiftly to its end, the preservation of which was of the utmost importance to Christendom. With the consent of the Cardinals the dying Pope now made his last dispositions, in which he once more clearly showed his horror of nepotism. His household got only the property which he had brought with him from Spain to Rome, but nothing that had belonged to him as Pope. His possessions in the Netherlands, particularly in Louvain and Utrecht, Enkevoirt was to dispose of for the poor, and for pious purposes for the good of his soul; his house in Louvain he set apart as a college for poor students, giving it a rich endowment. Being asked about his burial, he forbade any funeral pomp; he did not wish more than twenty-five ducats to be spent on his obsequies. He received Extreme Unction with the greatest devotion; so long as he could speak he comforted his friends. “He died”, wrote one of them, “even as he had lived—in peace, piety, and holiness”.

On the 14th of September, at the nineteenth hour, this noble spirit passed away, the last German and last non­Italian Pope. The greedy Romans suspected him of having hoarded great treasures in his carefully guarded study in the Borgia tower. But they found there, together with a few rings and jewels of Leo X, nothing but briefs and other papers. He left behind him, at the highest estimate, not more than 2000 ducats.

As the corpse was disfigured and much swollen, the rumour was at once spread that Adrian had been poisoned, and the Spaniards accused the Netherlanders of carelessness in allowing Frenchmen to come into the Pope’s kitchen. The autopsy of the body afforded no ground for supposing that Adrian had fallen a victim to foul play; nevertheless the suspicion gained ground with many, especially as Prospero Colonna had died from poisoning. The diagnosis of Adrian’s illness affords no proof of other than natural death. In all probability he succumbed to a disease of the kidneys consequent on the exhaustion of a naturally delicate body through exposure to a strange climate, and under the pressure of care and excitement. The reports of poisoning admit of explanation, since the French party and the opponents of reform pursued Adrian, even in the grave, with their fierce hatred, and since, during his lifetime, there had been talk of assassination.

Adrian was laid, provisionally, in the chapel of St. Andrew in St. Peter’s, between Pius II and Pius III, who had been so closely connected with German affairs. The temporary epitaph ran, “Here lies Adrian VI, who looked upon it as his greatest misfortune that he was called upon to rule”.

It was due to the gratitude of Cardinal Enkevoirt that a monument worthy of his master was erected. This was finished ten years after Adrian’s death; on the 11th of August 1533 the body was taken from St. Peter’s and transferred to Santa Maria dell' Anima, the church of the German nation. The monument was raised on the right hand of the choir. Baldassare Peruzzi had prepared the plan ; the execution in marble was carried out by Tribolo, a pupil of Sansovino, and Michelangelo of Siena. The architecture of this somewhat clumsy construction is copied from the tombs of prelates and Cardinals with which previous generations had adorned so many Roman churches, especially that of Santa Maria del Popolo. In the central niche is seen the over-richly decorated sarcophagus with Adrian’s coat of arms and the plain inscription, “Adrianus VI. P. M.”; the supporters are two boys with reversed torches. Above the sarcophagus lies the life-size statue of the Pope on a bed of state; he is represented in full pontifical vesture; as if taking his sleep after exhausting labour, with his left hand he holds on his head the tiara which had been so heavy a burden. On his noble countenance, with its expression of reverential awe, are deep traces of earnestness and sorrow. In the lunette above appears, in accordance with ancient custom, the figure of Our Blessed Lady, the mighty intercessor in the hour of death, with the Apostles Peter and Paul by her side. On the architrave hover two angels carrying branches of palm, and the tiara and keys.

In the side niches, between massive Corinthian columns, are the imposing figures of the four cardinal virtues. Below the sarcophagus a fine relief represents Adrian’s entry into Rome, where a helmeted figure symbolizing the city hastens to meet him at the gates. A broad marble slab on brackets contains the obituary inscription composed by Tranquillus Molossus; on each side, under the niches, boys hold the Cardinal’s hat and armorial bearings of the founder, Enkevoirt. Between the sarcophagus and the relief of the entry into Rome a prominent place is given to the pathetic inscription, “Alas! how much do the efforts, even of the best of men, depend upon time and opportunity”.

Few more appropriate epitaphs have been written than these words of resignation and regret to which the dead Pope had once given utterance respecting himself. In large letters they set forth the life-work of the last German Pontiff, one so often misunderstood and despised, who saw with his dying eyes the unity of the Church and of his beloved Fatherland simultaneously rent asunder. They form the best commentary on the destiny of his life, and on that short span of government in which misfortune and failure followed each other in one unbroken chain. Without ever having sought high place, this humble and devout Netherlander rose, step by step, from the lowliest circumstances, until it was his lot to attain the tiara; he was never dazzled by its splendour. The dignity of the Papacy came to him at a highly critical moment, and he looked upon it as an intolerable burden. Wherever he turned his glance his eye met some threatening evil; in the North a dangerous heresy, in the East the onward advance of the Turk, in the heart of Christendom confusion and war. After an exhausting journey he at last reached his capital, there to find an empty exchequer, a Court composed of officials animated by national pride, personal ambition, and the most unfriendly spirit, and a city ravaged by plague. Moreover, as a thorough northerner, he was neither by bodily nor mental constitution fitted for the position in which Providence had suddenly placed him. Heedless of all these difficulties, he did not flinch, but concentrated all his powers on coping with the almost superhuman tasks set before him. He entered on his work with the purest intentions, and never for a moment turned from the path of duty, which he followed with conscientious fidelity until his wearied eyes were closed in death.

But not one of the objects which he so honestly pursued was he permitted to achieve. Personally an exemplary priest, genuinely pious and firmly attached to the ancient principles of the Church, he threw himself with courage and determination into the titanic struggle with the host of abuses then disfiguring the Roman Curia and well-nigh the universal Church. Strong and inflexible as he was, the difficulties confronting him were so many and so great that at no time was he able to carry out all the reforms he had decreed, as, for example, the rules concerning benefices. His best endeavours were unavailing against the insuperable force of circumstances, and the upshot of his short-lived efforts was that the evils remained as they were before. The generous appeal to his own people to make open confession of their guilt, which he had addressed by his Nuncio to the Diet of the German Empire, was met by the reforming party with scorn and ridicule. So far from checking the schism brought about at Luther’s evil instigation, Adrian had, perforce, to realize that the breach was daily growing wider.

As he laboured in vain for the unity and reform of the Church, so did he also for the protection of Christendom, threatened by the Ottoman power. Although the exchequer was empty and the Holy See burdened with debt, he was called upon to give help on every side. If he saved and taxed in order to help the Knights of Rhodes and the Hungarians, he was called a miser; if he spent money on the Turkish war instead of pensioning artists and men of letters, he was called a barbarian. In vain he grieved over Rhodes and Hungary; in vain he begged, entreated, and threatened the Christian princes who, instead of uniting against their common enemy and that of Western civilization, were tearing each other to pieces in unceasing warfare. The young Emperor, with whom he had so many and such close ties, was unable to understand the neutral position enforced upon his fatherly friend as Head of the Church, if the duties of that great office were to be rightly fulfilled. The Ambassadors of Charles felt nothing but contempt and ridicule for Adrian's actions; their short-sighted policy was exclusively confined to their master’s immediate advantage. The crafty French King rewarded Adrian’s advances with treachery, threats, and deeds of violence. It was the invasion of Italy by Francis which forced the Pope, true to the last to his principle of neutrality, to join the Emperor in a league which, although intended by Adrian to be solely defensive, at length involved him in the war. His death, on the very day on which the French crossed the Ticino, freed the most peace-loving of all the Popes from participation in a sanguinary campaign. He was thus spared from experiencing the shameful ingratitude of those for whose true welfare he had been working.

Few were the Italians who did justice to the stranger Pope; by far the greater number hailed his death as a deliverance, and looked back on his Pontificate as a time of trouble. In Rome the detestation of “barbarians” went hand in hand with the hatred felt by all those whose habits of life were threatened by Adrian’s moral earnestness and efforts for reform. To these motives were added the dissatisfaction caused by the introduction of direct taxation and the withdrawal of the outward splendour to which the Romans, especially since the accession of Leo X, had become accustomed. That Adrian’s physician should have been hailed as a liberator was not by any means the worst insult. The neglected literati took atrocious vengeance in countless attacks on the dead Pope. The most venomous abuse was written up in all the public places. The dead man was assailed as ass, wolf, and harpy, and compared to Caracalla and Nero; Pasquino’s statue was decorated with ribald verses.

The death of the hated Adrian was acclaimed with frantic joy every conceivable vice, drunkenness, and even the grossest immorality were attributed to one of the purest occupants of the Roman See. Every act of the great Pope, the whole tenor of his life and all his surroundings, were distorted by a stinging and mendacious wit, and turned into ridicule with all the refinement of malice. An impudent spirit of calumny, one of the greatest evils of the Renaissance, pervaded all classes slander and vilification were incessant. A month after Adrian’s death a Mantuan envoy reported on the mad excesses of this plague of wits; he sent his master one of the worst sonnets then in circulation, “not in order to defame Adrian, for I dislike those who do so, but in order that your Excellency may know how many wicked tongues there are in this city where everyone indulges in the worst backbiting”.

Adrian with his piety and moral earnestness had become, in the fullest sense of the words, “the burnt-offering of Roman scorn”. It was long before the cavillers ceased to talk. There were some, especially in the literary world, whose hatred was unappeasable. To what extent it was carried may be seen from the report of Vianesio Albergati on the Conclave of Clement VII. While Leo X is there belauded as the chief mainstay of Italy and the wonder of his century, the writer cannot find words enough to depict the greed, the harshness, the stupidity of Adrian. There was no misfortune, not even the fall of Rhodes, for which this barbarian and tyrant was not responsible. Even after the visitation of God on Rome, in the sack of the city, Pierio Valeriano still reviled the “deadly enemy of the Muses, of eloquence, and of all things beautiful, the prolongation of whose life would have meant the sure return of the days of Gothic barbarism”. How deep-rooted was the abhorrence of the foreigner, how habitual it had become to make him matter of burlesque, is best seen in Paolo Giovio’s biography of Adrian. Written at the command of Cardinal Enkevoirt, it ought to be essentially a panegyric; but only a superficial reader can receive this impression. We have scarcely to read between the lines to see that the ungrateful Giovio introduces, when he has the chance, piquant and humorous remarks, and tries in a very coarse way to draw a ludicrous picture of the German Pope, in nervous anxiety for his health, interrupting the weightiest business when a meal draws near, and at last dying from too copious potations of beer. Even those Italians who refrained from the general mockery and abuse of Adrian were not sympathetic. A characteristic instance is the judgment of Francesco Vettori, who remarks, “Adrian was undoubtedly a pious and good man, but he was better fitted for the cloister; moreover, his reign was too short to enable one to form a correct estimate of his government and character.”

At the beginning of Adrian’s pontificate the catchword in political circles was that the Pope was no statesman; this was now repeated. This kind of criticism was uncommonly characteristic of the Renaissance; the men of that period had become so accustomed to look upon the Popes as secular princes, politicians, and patrons of art and letters only, that they had lost the faculty of understanding a Pontiff who placed his ecclesiastical duties before everything, and aimed at being, above all, the shepherd of souls. This saintly man from the Netherlands, with his serious purposes, his indifference to classical and humanist culture, his strict avoidance of Machiavellian statecraft and his single-hearted anxiety to live exclusively for duty, was to the Italians of that age like an apparition from another world, beyond the grasp of their comprehension.

The difficulty of forming a just and thorough appreciation of Adrian was increased to an extraordinary degree by the removal from Rome, by his secretary Heeze, of the most important documents relating to his reign, his correspondence with other princes and with the Nuncios, thus withdrawing sources of the greatest value for historical research. In this way even Pallavicini, adhering to the commonly accepted view of the Italians, sums up Adrian as an admirable priest, bishop, and cardinal, but only a mediocre Pope.

As early as 1536 a fellow-countryman and contem­porary of Adrian, Gerhard Moring, had passed a sounder judgment in a biography which found, however, little circulation. Nor did much success attend the attempts of impartial historians in Italy, such as Panvinio, Raynaldus, Mansi, and Muratori, to defend the memory of their noble Pope. In Germany the effects of Luther’s contemptuous depreciation lasted for a long time. Catholic opinions, such as that of Kilian Leib, that the saintly Pope was too good for his age, gained no hearing. It was not until 1727, when the jurist Kaspar Burmann, of Utrecht, dedicated to the Flemish Pope a collection of materials, compiled with much industry, and full of valuable matter, that an impulse was given to the formation of a new opinion. This Protestant scholar, whose work is of permanent value, deserves the credit of having initiated a change in Adrian’s favour. Subsequently, in the nineteenth century, the labours of Dutch, Belgian, German, French, English, and also Italian  students helped to remove the long-standing misconception.

It is matter for rejoicing that on this point difference of creed has imposed no limitations. A distinguished scholar, of strong Protestant convictions, has recently expressed his view of Adrian in the following terms : “To a judgment unaffected either by his scanty successes or his overt concessions, Adrian VI will appear as one of the noblest occupants of the chair of Peter. He will be recognized as a man of the purest motives, who wished only to promote the welfare of the Church, and, in the selection of means to serve that sacred end, conscientiously chose those that he believed to be truly the most fitting. He will have claims on our pity as a victim sacrificed to men around him immeasurably inferior to himself, tainted by greed and venality, and to the two monarchs who, caring exclusively for their own advantage, and thinking nothing of that of the Church, wove around him the net­work of their schemes and intrigues”.

The history of Adrian VI is full of tragic material. Yet it confirms the maxim of experience that, in the long run, no honest endeavour, however unsuccessful, remains unrecognized and barren of result. The figure of this great Pope, who had written on his banner the peace of Christendom, the repulse of Islam, and the reform of the Church, so long belittled, is once more emerging into the light in full loftiness of stature. He is numbered today by men of all parties among the Popes who have the highest claim on our reverence. No one will again deny him his place among those who serve their cause with a single heart, who seek nothing for themselves, and set themselves valiantly against the flowing stream of corruption. If within the limits of his short term of sovereignty he achieved no positive results, he yet fulfilled the first condition of a healer in laying bare the evils that called for cure. He left behind him suggestions of the highest importance, and pointed out beforehand the principles on which, at a later date, the internal reform of the Church was carried out. In the history of the Papacy his work will always entitle him to a permanent place of honour.