CHAPTER VIII.

Activity of the Roman Inquisition in Italy.—Spread of Heresy in Germany, Poland and France.

 

In his struggle against the Protestant movement which threatened the unity of the faith in Italy, Julius III. followed in the footsteps of his predecessor. One of the first acts of his reign was the confirmation of the Roman Inquisition, recently founded by the Farnese Pope. On February 27th, 1550, he appointed six Cardinals as members of this tribunal : de Cupis, Carafa, Sfondrato, Morone, Crescenzi and Pole. Their first duty was to decide on an answer, which had been asked for by the nuncio, Prospero Santa Croce, then at the court of King Ferdinand I, with regard to the matter of the Bohemian Utraquists. It is, therefore, evident, and this is confirmed by other documents, that the Roman Inquisition was to be considered as a central court for all the countries of Christendom, although its principal sphere of activity was in Italy, where, now as always, countless false doctrines were con­tinually making their appearance. Besides Modena and Ferrara, the dominions of the Republic of Venice were in special danger. Julius III, in the year 1550, carried on an active correspondence with the nuncio, Beccadelli, concerning this matter. The Signoria was not remiss in taking measures against the heretics, among whom were many Anabaptists; the agreement between Rome and Venice was, however, seriously interfered with when the Council of Ten resolved, in November, 1550, that a representative of the secular authority should always be present at the final judgment of a heretic. The Pope saw in this a threat to ecclesiastical liberty, and a transgression of the old canons, and expressed his disapproval of the decision to the Venetian ambassador, as well as to the nuncio.

As such a procedure was often followed, Julius II. issued a Bull for the protection of ecclesiastical rights against the encroachment of the secular power. He laid the document before the Roman Inquisition, whose sanction it first received in a sitting of December 30th, 1550, and again on January 2nd, 1551. The Bull was published on March 27th, 1551; it expressly laid down, under the threat of excommunication, that no one except the persons authorized by the Roman Inquisition should occupy themselves with the proceedings against heretics, by which regulation, however, the rights of the bishops should not be prejudiced. Thanks to the skill of the nuncio, Beccadelli, the question was settled by an arrangement with the Venetian Republic, which was also sanctioned by Achille de’ Grassi, who was expressly sent to Venice by the Pope.

It had often happened, even under Clement VII, that heretical opinions were proclaimed from the pulpit. The Roman Inquisition therefore issued a decree, on May 20th, 1550, according to which all those who expounded the Word of God were bound to preach openly against Lutheran tenets, otherwise they would be regarded with suspicion, and steps taken against them.

In the following year the members of the Roman Inquisition took part in deliberations concerning the issue of a Bull by which the system of preaching and hearing confessions should be reformed. In the summer of 1552 they were also engaged in an inquiry against members of the new orders of the Barnabites and Angeliche, who had fallen into a dangerous position, through the over-excited behaviour and arrogance of Paola Antonia Negri. The end of the proceedings, in which Cardinal Carafa had displayed all his energies, was the expulsion of Paola Negri from the order of the Angeliche, the separation of the latter from the Barnabites, and the condemnation of the writings of the late (d. 1534) Fra Battista da Crema, from whom Paola Negri and her followers had taken many dangerous views. In order to prevent such abuses for the future, Julius III appointed, on July 29th, 1552, a friend of Carafa, Cardinal Alvarez de Toledo, who held the same views as the latter, as protector of the Barnabites, and he was authorized to visit both them and the Angeliche.1 The jurisdiction of the tribunal was considerably extended by a severe edict which Julius III. published on February 1st, 1554, against blasphemers. The Roman Inquisitors were appointed as judges for this crime, and authority was bestowed on them to inflict corporal punishments.

One of the principal reasons for the spread of Protestant opinions in Italy was the inundation of the country with heretical books. The permission to read such books, reserved to the Pope by the Bull In Coena, had been very extensively granted since the time of Leo X. ; the hoped for advantage of a more effective fight against error had not, however, been gained. The evil consequences which ensued were all the more to be deplored, as such writings were widely read by monks and lay persons, under the pretext that they had the necessary permission for doing so. Carafa had, as early as 1532, demanded the withdrawal of all such permissions in the programme for reform addressed to Clement VII. Julius III carried out these measures, and by a Bull of April 29th, 1550, recalled all those authorizations to read or keep Lutheran or other heretical or suspect books, which had been granted by his predecessors, by Papal legates, by grand penitentiaries or by anyone else. Everybody, no matter what their rank or position, was bound to deliver such works to the Inquisition within sixty days, the sole exception to this regulation being the Inquisitors or the commissaries of the Inquisition, during the term of their office; measures against disobedience to this order were to be taken by the Inquisitors-General. The fact that a burning of heretical books took place in Rome, as early as June 3rd, 1550, shows with what expedition this regulation was carried out.

The Pope who, in spite of his clemency, was repeatedly obliged to take stricter measures against the Jews, had agreed that the Inquisition should confiscate and burn the Talmudical books in the year 1553. He also authorized an edict of the. Inquisition of September 12th, 1553, whereby all the princes, bishops and inquisitors received instructions to do the same thing. The Jews begged the Pope to recall the decree, or at least to allow them the use of the simple rabbinical writings. Thereupon there followed a Bull of May 29th, 1554, ordering the Jewish communities to deliver up all books containing blasphemies and aspersions against Christ, within four months; no one was to trouble them with regard to other books, which did not contain such blasphemies. The Inquisition speedily set about the execution of this decree in the States of the Church.

As regards the activity of the Roman Inquisition against heresy, the latest investigations of the time of Paul III go far to confirm the expert opinion of Seripando, that the proceedings of this tribunal were conducted in a moderate and clement manner, in keeping with the nature of the Farnese Pope, that severe corporal punishment and executions were of rare occurrence, and that many acquittals took place when the contrary had been expected. The same thing is also true of the time of Julius III, as far as an opinion can be formed without the perusal of the inaccessible documents of the Roman Inquisition. It is expressly declared that Cardinal Carafa, who had great influence in matters concerning the Inquisition, was not pleased with the moderate measures of Julius III. The ambassador of Bologna also declares that the Pope had much milder views concerning proceedings against heretics than those held by Cardinal Juan Alvarez de Toledo, a man whose ideas resembled those of Cardinal Carafa. In the case which the ambassador had in mind, it can be proved that the procedure was in accordance with his statement. The naturalist, Ulisse Aldrovandi, who was sent from Bologna to Rome in 1549, was at once set at liberty, while others escaped with slight punishment.

At the same time, Julius III did what his office required from him, for the protection and purification of the faith. He repeatedly took part in person at the sittings of the Roman Inquisition, especially in the early years of his pontificate. The data concerning the members of the tribunal do not allow the membership to be established with certainty. Massarelli counts seven Cardinals as Inquisitors-General in February, 1551, namely Carafa, Carpi, Alvarez de Toledo, Cervini, Crescenzi, Verallo and Pole. In March of the same year, the Inquisition was engaged on an examination of the bishops, Thomas Planta of Coire, and Vettore Soranzo of Bergamo, who were suspected of heretical views. The investigation ended with an acquittal in both cases.

Julius III, who had, even as Cardinal, shown himself opposed to personal severity to those who were accused of heresy, granted, by a Bull of April 29th, 1550, absolution to all those who had fallen into heresy, and were only prevented from retractation by fear of the public penance and the shame attached to it, on condition of their presenting themselves privately before the Inquisition, abjuring their errors and performing a secret penance. Those subject to the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, however, and especially the relapsed Jews in those countries, were excluded from this absolution.

The execution of those who obstinately persevered in their heresy, only took place in Rome in isolated cases under Julius III. The diary of the native of Trastevere, Cola Coleine, mentions on June 6th, 1552, that seven Lutherans were led to S. Maria sopra Minerva, where they abjured their errors. From the same source we learn that on March 21st, 1553, eleven Lutherans, among them the Minorite, Giovanni Buzio from Montalcino, were likewise taken there. On September 4th, 1553, a silk-weaver was executed with Buzjo on the Campo de’ Fiori, who not only denied Purgatory, the authority of the Pope, and the doctrine of Indulgences, but also declared that Julius III. was Antichrist. According to Coleine, the reconciliation of sixteen Lutherans to the Church again took place before S. Maria sopra Minerva on November 4th. If the Pope urged the execution of the relapsed heretic Fanino in Ferrara, this was more on account of the dangerous state of affairs prevailing there, the palace of the Duchess Renee being known as the “Refuge of the Heretics.”

The few cases in which heresy was punished by death under Julius III. were described in detail in Germany by means of pamphlets, in order to give the impression in that country that a violent persecution of Italian Protestants was being carried on. What actually took place is best understood from the letter of Vergerio to Bullinger, on October 8th, 1553, concerning the state of affairs in Italy. He says : “ People might believe that hundreds were being burned daily, but this is by no means the case; not a single person has been put to death, although in some places heretics are, to a certain extent, persecuted.”

In the Florentine ambassadorial dispatches mention is repeatedly made of heretics being sent from Tuscany to Rome. That the same thing was true of Naples can be seen from a letter of the commissary-general of the Roman Inquisition, the Dominican, Michele Ghislieri, to Cardinal Cervini, on August 4th, 1553. Ghislieri, who was specially zealous for the work of the Inquisition, saved in 1551 the gifted Minorite, Sisto da Siena, a converted Jew, from the threatened death by fire, reconciled him to the Church, and thus gained a useful champion for the faith. On September 19th, 1554, Ghislieri sent to Cervini a list of sixteen names of Servites, who had preached Lutheran sermons. It is evident, from a pro­nouncement of the tribunal of the faith in Bologna, how frequently members of the Servite Order were at that time convicted of heresy. The religious ferment in that town had also taken possession of the youthful students. Proceedings had to be instituted in 1553 against a large number of the students of the Spanish college, some of whom belonged to very distinguished families, on account of their Protestant opinions. The moderate and shrewd manner in which the inquiry was conducted would have been impossible under such a man as Carafa. The benevolent Julius III. succeeded in arranging this painful matter in private. Notice of the spread of heresy reached the Roman Inquisition specially from the duchy of Urbino, the diocese of Lucca and the territory of Milan. It was rather difficult to intervene in Milan, as the archbishop repeatedly got into conflict with the Inquisitors. Added to this there was constantly in this diocese great inter­ference on the part of the secular authorities, which caused the Cardinals of the Roman Inquisition to lay a complaint against the Milanese Senate before the Emperor and the Governor in the August of 1553. During these disputes, Rome was at great pains to prevent the Spanish government from making use of the Inquisition for political purposes.

The territory of Milan was all the more threatened by the innovators because of its proximity to Switzerland, but the Catholics in that country also rose successfully against them, an undertaking which Julius III. supported, as far as possible, through his nuncios.

Most disquieting news from Naples, which under Paul III had been a rallying point of the innovators, had repeatedly reached Cervini. Great excitement had been specially caused when, in 1551, a grand-nephew of Cardinal Carafa, the Marquis of Vico, Galeazzo Caracciolo, fled to Geneva and became the intimate friend and supporter of Calvin. In order to provide the Neapolitan district with vigorous assistance, a delegate of the Roman Inquisition was installed there in the year 1553. Concerning the proceedings instituted against the Neapolitan, Matteo da Aversa, Ghislieri writes from Rome to Cardinal Cervini on August 4th, 1553: “The accused had undergone the torture of the scavenger’s daughter, but remained firm ; it was only after three or four days that he was brought to acknowledge many errors, as for example, that he had found it impossible to believe that Christ was God.” Cardinal Pole would not consent to the employment of this frightful measure in the case of Aversa. In a conversation with Carafa, the English Cardinal told him that although he approved of the object, he repudiated such means of attaining it.

The Jesuits, who were, in principle, in agreement with the inquisition, chiefly made use of peaceable instruction as a means of converting heretics. It was reported from many places that they had succeeded in reconciling many to the Church, even when they had gone so far, as several did in Venice, as to deny the immortality of the soul. In Ferrara, the Jesuit, Pelletier, united his efforts with those of the King of France and the Duke, Ercole, to obtain the conversion of the Duchess Renee. She confessed with many tears to Pelletier and received Holy Communion from his hands in 1554; it is, however, true that she afterwards relapsed into heresy.

Besides peaceable persuasion the Jesuits principally sought to counter the Protestant invasion of Italy by the instruction of the young. This they did in Genoa and Naples. In the latter city, the followers of Juan Valdes instigated a violent persecution against them in the year 1552. This did not prevent Salmeron from preaching against the reformers in the following year, with such success that very many were converted. The measures employed by the reformers to frustrate the activity of the Jesuits is evidenced by a characteristic case of which we learn in Rome. A Calabrian, 33 years of age, was sent by them to the Jesuits so that he might spy out their pursuits, as a novice, and attempt to seduce some of them. His outward life was blameless, and he confessed and communicated frequently. When, however, it became evident that he held heretical views, he was dismissed, but on leaving the noviciate he was arrested by the Inquisition. As he proved to be repentant, he got off with being condemned to the galleys.

Very often quite innocent persons were accused of heresy. This fate overtook, not only the above-mentioned Bishop of Bergamo, but other prelates as well. Even a Cardinal, and such a distinguished personage as Morone, came under suspicion. A certain Frate Bernardo of Viterbo, who had been brought before the Inquisition, called his orthodoxy in question. Perhaps it might have gone as far as the arrest of Morone by the Roman tribunal, if Julius III had not informed the Cardinal, and afforded him the opportunity of at once justifying himself, whereupon the Frate retracted the unjust allegations he had brought against him. The defence of the suspected Archbishop of Otranto, Pietro Antonio de Capua, and of the Patriarch Giovanni Grimani of Venice was not so easy. The Emperor had repeatedly and urgently requested the purple for de Capua, but always in vain, as the inquisition had instituted an investigation against the archbishop, on a charge of hetero­doxy. Even though the accused succeeded in proving himself innocent, the dignity of the cardinalate was not conferred on him. The absolute want of foundation for the accusation against the Patriarch Grimani was shown in a similar manner, but although nothing could be proved against him but a few imprudences, the red hat was refused to him as well, in spite of urgent requests from the Republic of St. Mark. The scandal and shame of having been brought before the Inquisition for examination was so great that Julius III assured the Venetian ambassador that all the waters of the Tiber could not wash it away.

While Italy succeeded in warding off the dangers threatening the Church, the state of affairs in the countries beyond the Alps was steadily growing more gloomy. The issue in Germany was no longer doubtful, since the revolt of the Elector Maurice of Saxony and his fellow conspirators had been successful and the treaty of Passau had confirmed it (August 15th, 1552). Neither the Pope nor the Emperor was in a position to give a different turn to affairs. Julius III. resolved, with a view to saving what was still possible, and strongly defending his own position, to send to the assistance of the nuncio, Zaccaria Delfino,1 then at the Court of Ferdinand I, for the Diet convoked at Augsburg, an experienced diplomatist and a shrewd judge of conditions in Germany, in the person of Cardinal Morone. On account of the painful experiences which the representative of the Pope had had at former Diets, there were at first misgivings in Rome, when, in accordance with the wishes of Charles V, it was proposed that a Cardinal-Legate should be allowed to take part in the contemplated discussions concerning religion. Cardinal Otto von Truchsess alone represented, in a letter addressed directly to His Holiness, the urgent necessity for an able Cardinal-Legate, well acquainted with the state of affairs in Germany. Truchsess also repeatedly begged the influential Cardinal Cervini to take steps in Rome to gain this end. The appointment of Morone as Legate to Ferdinand I followed on January 7th, 1555; on February 13th, the Pope, who was at that time confined to bed with the gout, gave him the Cross, and five days later Morone left the Eternal City. His office, as may well be imagined, was a most difficult one, for, as Delfino states, a considerable number, even of Catholics, were inclined to assent to the dangerous agreement of Passau. Julius III gave the Cardinal strict injunctions to defend, in a fitting manner, at least the Papal authority during the impending negotiations. In Morone’s company were the Jesuits, James Lainez and Jerome Nadal, to act as his theological advisers.

For a long time before his departure on this mission, Morone had been co-operating in a work which was to be of the greatest importance for the Catholic regeneration of Germany.

All those who thoroughly understood the conditions in Germany, the bishops as well as the Papal nuncios, had been pointing out for years that the state of religious neglect of the people in the districts which were still Catholic, arose chiefly from the extraordinary scarcity of priests, a thing which had made itself felt still more since the political and ecclesiastical revolution. The Catholic clergy, whom the reformers represented as the source of all evil, and endeavoured to bring into contempt by every means in their power, were threatened with extinction. No one understood better than Ignatius of Loyola that a thorough change must take place, if the Catholic regeneration of Germany was to be taken in hand in an energetic manner. The idea of founding in Rome a training college for secular priests who should distinguish themselves by their piety and learning, and would be capable of acting as spiritual advisers, preachers, professors, and as bishops, and of planting them like leaven in the German dioceses, was maturing in his mind. Such a college could not be founded in Germany itself, for, as Ignatius pointed out in a memorandum intended for Charles V, not only was heresy openly rampant there, but everything had been so ruined by many pretended Catholics, that their bad example could only have the most injurious effect on the young students. The justice of this consideration was shown by the fate of the college founded by Cardinal Truchsess in Dillingen in the year 1549, for the training of priests. Although Julius III raised this institution to be a university in 1551, and the Cardinal devoted the whole of his fortune and income to it, it never realized the expectations of its founder, until it was given into the hands of the Jesuits in the year 1564.

A further reason which Ignatius had for wishing this training college for German priests to be in Rome lay in the difficulty of finding in Germany the pecuniary support for such an institution, and of providing it with suitable professors. Added to this there was the dislike for the Papacy which was prevalent in Germany, in many cases even among Catholics, which not infrequently degenerated into actual hatred. In order to combat this feeling, the students were to be given an opportunity of convincing themselves, by personal observation, of the “love, benevolence, and the desire to help and to save” of the Holy See, and in this manner to induce people to change their opinions.

The idea of founding such an establishment first took shape in the mind of Cardinal Morone. After he had conferred about the matter with Ignatius of Loyola, the latter placed his Order at the disposal of the Cardinal for this important undertaking. After Morone had communicated his plan to Cardinals Cervini, Carpi and Alvarez de Toledo, he went with Cervini to Julius III, who joyfully gave his consent to the proposal. He said he had already thought of something similar himself, and would be glad to further the design.

The first steps were taken as early as 1551, but on account of the unhappy war about Parma and the financial difficulties connected with it, the carrying out of the undertaking was deferred. Ignatius, however, did not lose heart, but continued his preparations full of confidence in Providence. In May, 1552, he drew up a memorandum concerning the manner in which the foundation was to be proceeded with. Those accepted should as a rule be between 16 and 21, of good disposition, healthy, and not in any way deformed; they should moreover be of average intelligence, capable of forming correct judgments and possessed of agreeable manners. The rudiments of learning and noble birth were desirable, and they should also come from different dioceses. In order to obtain such students, the Pope was desired to apply to the Emperor and the King of the Romans, as well as to the princes and prelates of the Empire, either directly or through his nuncios. A promise should be given that all the expenses of maintenance for the students would be met, and the youths chosen should clearly be given to understand that they would return to their own country armed with learning and piety, and provided with ecclesiastical benefices. In order that a beginning should be made at once with the college, the Cardinals were begged to decide as soon as possible the sums they intended to provide, and to give their donation without loss of time, as the expenses would be twice as great in the first year as later on. For the present the establishment could be started in a hired house; this, however, should be as near to the Roman College as possible, as the students were to attend the lectures there.

In July, 1552, Julius III. took the final steps for the foundation of the “Germanicum,” by appointing six Cardinals : Morone, Cervini, Alvarez de Toledo, Carpi, Truchsess and de Puy, as protectors of the institution. In accordance with the scheme which Ignatius laid before them, a Bull was drawn up on August 31st, 1552, by which the new college was founded and placed in the hands of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius had already written to the Jesuits in Vienna and Cologne, in order that they might send students for the German College. The opening took place in October, and by December, twenty-four students were already in residence, which number was increased to about sixty two years later. Ignatius composed the regulations for the establishment, and the rules for the students, just as he had drawn up the draft for the Bull of foundation. His wise constitutions, which the Saint, in the absence of older models, had to draft almost from the beginning, are “in their pregnant brevity, decision and moderation, a masterpiece, which has served as a model for countless seminaries.” Concerning the progress of the students in learning and their moral development, letters from Roman Jesuits of the year 1554 express themselves in very favourable terms ; on the other hand, Ignatius had much trouble and labour through the want of sufficient means for their maintenance. According to the original idea, the Jesuit Order was to have nothing to do with the financial affairs of the college, but circumstances forced Ignatius to take this burden as well on his shoulders. The question of funds repeatedly occurs in his memorandum concerning the college, for there lay the greatest danger lest the whole undertaking should suffer shipwreck. In the September of 1552, he made a proposal that, first the Cardinals, and then the prelates and secular princes should be applied to for voluntary contributions, and that annual payments should be asked for from the rich orders, abbeys and benefices. Thereupon an appeal for donations was circulated among the fifty­eight Cardinals at the beginning of December; the Pope himself entered his name for 500 ducats yearly, and thirty- three Cardinals for larger or smaller sums, so that an annual income of 3565 ducats seemed to be assured for the time being. This source of revenue, however, being dependent on the good-will of the donors, was, of necessity, somewhat uncertain, besides which, it was only sufficient for a very limited number of students, while Ignatius would have gladly seen these increased to 200 or 300; for this, however, a yearly income of from 8000 to 9000 ducats would be necessary. The financial position of the Curia made it impossible to grant a fixed, assured, annual income to the college for all time, instead of the voluntary contributions now bestowed. Ignatius, however, did not despair. He was determined to keep true to his purpose, the importance of which was fully recognised by Julius III, who, in January, 1554, pointed out to the Emperor, through his nuncio, the importance of the new college, and requested him to support it.

An all important part in the spread of religious dissension in Germany had been taken by Henry II of France, when he supported the Protestant princes in their revolt against Charles V. This alliance, however, did not in the least prevent the king from proceeding with fire and sword against the propa­gators of the new doctrines in his own kingdom, when he saw in them rebels against his royal authority and the laws of the realm, and disturbers of internal peace and national unity. The Edict of Chateaubriant of June 27th, 1551, included all the proscriptions already issued against the Protestants, and rendered them more severe in many points. This Edict was published on the same day, September 3rd, 1551, on which Henry II forbade his subjects to send any money to Rome, on account of the attitude of Julius III with regard to the war about Parma. Shortly afterwards, on October 3rd, 1551, the French “Defender of the Faith” concluded his alliance at Lochau with the Protestant princes who were conspiring against Charles V. Before taking the field in their support, he impressed upon the Parliament, on January 12th, 1552, that they should carefully watch over all matters concerning the faith, and see to the eradication of heresy by the exemplary punishment of the guilty. Proceedings in France were, therefore, conducted strictly in accordance with these directions. In Agen, Troyes, Nimes, Paris, Toulouse and Rouen the heretics were sent to the stake; this was above all the case in Lyons, which had become the principal market for the heretical writings smuggled in from Geneva. In 1554, the Pope, through his nuncio, Gualterio, specially requested the king to suppress these publications, to which the writings of the gallican Charles du Moulin were also added. The relations between Rome and Paris were, and for the present remained, very strained; the neutral position taken up by Julius III in political affairs displeased Henry II and, in addition to this, there were perpetual disputes with regard to the application of the Concordat.

Julius III had, in this respect, made important concessions to the king in October, 1550, and in March, 1553. These were, however, in spite of repeated explanations on the part of Henry II, by no means observed. As had previously been the case with Santa Croce, so had his successor, Gualterio, over and over again to struggle against the encroachments of the secular power. Henry II maintained, in this matter, an attitude in keeping with the state of political affairs at the moment; if the Pope was necessary to him, he made him fair promises, but when conditions altered, he simply broke them.

In Poland, the development of conditions which were very dangerous to the continued existence of the Catholic Church in that country, had first become apparent under Paul III, but still continued to spread under Julius III. In the summer of 1550 exceedingly grave machinations were brought to light in the Diet at Petrikau. The king would not agree to the demand for the reform of the Church in the sense demanded by the innovators, and he appointed the eminent Bishop of Kulm, Stanislaus Hosius, as his ambassador at Trent. On December 13th, 1550, the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops was confirmed by a royal decree, and the followers of the new doctrines were deprived of all their dignities and offices. The danger for the Church was, however, by no means lessened by these measures, for a great part of the nobility had embraced the Protestant doctrines, and the defiant attitude of their adherents is proved by the excesses which they permitted themselves against everything which the Catholics held most holy. In a suburb of Cracow they pulled the crucifix down and threw it in the mud; in the village of Chrencice the church was robbed of all its ornaments, and even the Sacred Host was thrown into the fire. It was especially to be deplored that at such a dangerous time, only a few of the bishops, such as those of Gnesen and Cracow, fulfilled their duty. The bishops, moreover, took things very easily in preparing for the Council, and it was not until June, 1551, that they deliberated about it in a synod at Petrikau. Hosius, whom Julius III, at the request of the king, had confirmed as Bishop of Ermland, on May 11th, 1551, took part in this synod; he drew up, at that time, his celebrated Confession of Faith, which the members of the synod accepted. Several of the bishops now bestirred themselves, and carried out wholesome reforms in their dioceses. Many, however, forgot only too soon what they had recognized as their duty at the synod, and again lapsed into their former state of indifference. The funds for the embassy to Trent could only be collected with difficulty; the mission was at last entrusted to Peter Glogowski, who also visited Rome, where he represented the conditions in Poland in such a favourable light to the Pope, that Julius III was deceived as to the real state of affairs. How dangerous things really were, came to light in the Diet opened at the end of January, 1552. John Sigismund was openly called upon to sanction the new teaching as to justification, the marriage of priests, and communion under both kinds. The king, however, could not be induced to give way to such revolutionary proposals. In his heart the last of the Jagellons was a sincere Catholic, and faithful in the discharge of his religious duties, but, good-natured as he was, he did not possess the strength of character to offer a determined opposition to these dangerous proposals. In the matter of the Council, he allowed himself to be influenced by his hesitating, visionary secretary, Modrzewski, who had the idea of a free council in his mind. The resolute Catholic, Hosius, was passed over, and men appointed to proceed to Trent, who were as compliant as they were uncertain in their views.

In Rome, it was soon realized that Glogowski had reported much too favourably. On September 20th, 1552, the Pope addressed a letter to the inquisitor at Cracow, telling him to make investigations concerning the suspicious proceedings of several Polish bishops with regard to heresy. When King John Sigismund remarried in the year 1553, the Pope made use of his letter of congratulation to point out to him earnestly that the king should, by his authority, protect the Catholic Faith against abuse and attack. Similar exhortations were addressed, some time afterwards, to the bishops and the  Polish nobility, as well as once more to the king and queen. The latter did not justify the hopes which the Catholics of Poland had placed in her, and her husband, now as before, let matters take their course, although Hosius never wearied in urgently recommending the protection of the Catholic religion, by work of mouth as well as by letter. If the king allowed the Church to be torn to pieces, Hosius prophesied to him on March 12th, 1554, then God would also allow his kingdom to go to pieces. The want of zeal of the greater number of the bishops is shown by the fact that, at the synod at Petrikau, in 1554, besides the Primate of Gnesen and Hosius, only the Bishops of Cracow and Plozk appeared. There was nothing to be done but arrange for a new synod. The Pope was requested to send a nuncio to this, in the person of Lippomano. The appointment of Lippomano, on January 13th, 1555, was one of the last official acts in the pontificate of Julius III.

 

CHAPTER IX.

Accession of Queen Mary of England.—Her Marriage to Philip of Spain.

 

At this time the Church found some compensation for the severe losses which she had sustained in various European states, especially in Germany, by the success which crowned her efforts elsewhere, and, apart from the development of the missions outside Europe, the Catholic Restoration in England must hold the first place among these successes.

During the pontificate of Julius III, England went through two great religious revolutions, in the first of which doctrine and liturgy were subverted in favour of the already far-advanced Protestantism, this period being followed by a complete return to the old religion.

Shortly before the death of Paul III, the Protector Somerset, the uncle of the young King Edward VI, was overthrown, and was succeeded by the Earl of Warwick, who became Duke of Northumberland in 1551. This change in the government had, at first, raised hopes in the minds of Catholics that the old religion might be restored, and Mass, as of old, was at once celebrated in various parishes of London and Oxford. The first events of the year 1550, however, soon put an end to these hopes; on January 25th, a decree was issued, according to which the old Latin missals, breviaries, etc., were to be delivered up for destruction, the pictures in the churches being likewise destroyed, except in so far as they represented princes and other dignitaries who could not during their lives have been suspected of sanctity

Other decrees of January, 1550, aimed at the framing of new church laws, and a new formula for the consecration of bishops and other ministers of religion. Many valuable manuscripts shared the fate of the ecclesiastical books, at the end of 1550 whole waggon loads of manuscripts from the Oxford Library being destroyed, of which many had nothing more in common with “Mass-books” than the red capitals of the title page, and of the headings of the chapters. Very many of these were thrown away on hucksters, while shiploads of manuscripts crossed the sea for the use of bookbinders.

The most decisive innovation, however, was shown in the “Book of Common Prayer,” of the year 1552, which was really a remodelling of the original edition authorized by Parliament in 1549.

Somerset had taken great pains, on the death of Henry VIII, to bring the influence of Protestant ideas to bear on the almost completely Catholic state of religion at that time. The introduction of communion under both kinds, the permission for priests to marry, and the use of the vernacular in the services of the church, did not of themselves form an essential ground for a break with Catholic doctrine. A general confession of sin before communion was, it is true, declared to be sufficient in the Book, of Common Prayer of 1549, but confession to a priest was also allowed. Alterations, pregnant with fateful results, were now introduced in respect to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, which, amid a flood of vulgar publications, now became the central point of the most violent attack and insult. Under Somerset, however, some care was still exercised, the liturgy of the Mass in the first Book of Common Prayer having included many of the outward ceremonies in order that the uneducated might still believe that nothing essential had been altered, while the educated could still infer, from many expressions which still remained, the doctrines of the Catholic Faith.

Quite another spirit, however, pervaded the second Book of Common Prayer of 1552. If the doctrine of Luther had been the standard of the first changes in the liturgy of the Mass in the year 1549, the second compilation was made in the spirit of Zwingli and Calvin. The Book of Common Prayer in its original form did away with everything which caused the Mass to appear as a sacrifice, but the second, on the other hand, removed everything which could form an acknowledgment of the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament.

The way to this change to the most extreme Protestantism had already been prepared under Somerset. Theologians of the most advanced tendencies found, at that time, a refuge in England, which was denied them everywhere else; Bucer came to England in April, 1549, from Strasbourg, flying before the Interim, and was at once made professor of theology in Cambridge; a little time before, the Italian, Peter Martyr Vermigli, who had come to England at the invitation of Cranmer, in 1547, received a professor’s chair at Oxford. A visitation of both universities in May, 1549, removed various Catholic professors. Countless abusive publications, introduced from the continent, and allowed to be freely printed in England, prepared public opinion for Calvinistic teaching, while the defenders of the old faith had to publish their answers abroad. As far as Cranmer himself was concerned he was always receding in his writings further and further from both Catholic and Lutheran doctrines, and, as he himself confessed, had only allowed a few Catholic expressions still to appear in the first compilation of the Book of Common Prayer, in order not to arouse too great excitement among the people.

Northumberland was never, as he acknowledged later, at the hour of death, really persuaded of the truth of the Protestant doctrines, but he showed himself, none the less, the zealous friend and the active promoter of the new religion. In order to gain greater freedom for this purpose, the first thing to be done was to remove the Catholic bishops. Bonner, Bishop of London, was the first to be cast into prison, on December 4th, 1549. Bishop Gardiner, of Winchester, had long been in the Tower, and he was deprived of his bishopric on February 14th, 1551, while Heath, of Worcester, was thrown into prison on March 4th, 1550. Day, of Chichester, was declared to have forfeited his see on October 1st, 1551; Tunstall, of Durham, who had been a prisoner in his house since May 20th, 1551, suffered the same fate on October 3rd, 1552. Several other suspected prelates had to resign, while Thirlby, of Westminster, was removed to the unimportant diocese of Norwich.

Among the bishops who took the places of the deposed prelates, Ridley, of London, was particularly active in promoting the spread of the new doctrines. He was inducted into Bonner’s see on April 1st, 1550, and on May 5th, he ordered a strict visitation of his diocese, in the course of which everything which was reminiscent of the old idea of the Catholic Mass was specially to be rooted out. Particular instructions were given in this visitation that the altars were to be thrown down in the churches, as the conception of the Mass as a sacrifice was strongly bound up with the idea of an altar. “So long as there is an altar,” preached Hooper, “the ignorant people will always dream of a sacrifice.” Ridley himself gave the example of destruction. On the night of June nth, 1550, he had the high altar removed from St. Paul’s in London, and during Whitsun week the same thing was done in all the churches of London. By a royal decree of November 24th, all the bishops were instructed to proceed in a like manner. The work of destruction was completed by the end of 1550. The Venetian ambassador, Barbaro, wrote at the end of May, 1551, that bells and organs were still used, but that they no longer had any altars or pictures. The altars had been everywhere removed, without consideration for their artistic value or their venerable old age. Scarcely a voice was raised against these revolutionary proceedings, for, although many bishops might feel uneasy in their consciences, their authority had been swept away with that of the Pope. The people lost all respect for the desecrated churches, in which dealers bought and sold, bringing in their horses and mules, while bloody conflicts and mortal combats not infrequently took place there. “People are turning the churches,” says a royal decree of 1552, “into common inns, or rather into dens and sinks of iniquity.”

The introduction of Calvinism into public worship was inaugurated by the destruction of the altars. Apart from this the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549 had really pleased nobody. The people stood aloof from the new services, while Cranmer himself only regarded the liturgy of 1549 as a temporary measure. Excited by reforming preachers, the young king declared that if the bishops would not alter the Book of Common Prayer, he would do so himself. Above all, however, the foreign theologians who had sought refuge in England urged more extreme measures. So it came about that a country which was desirous of throwing off the authority of the Pope, on the ground that he was a foreign bishop, actually made over to foreign influence the remodelling of its religion.

As early as April, 1549, Cranmer, in a meeting with Bucer, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Fagius, Dryander and Tremellius deliberated on the reform of the liturgy. Calvin himself wrote in January to King Edward as the new Josias, and exhorted him to extirpate the “great abyss of superstition” which still remained over from the Papal supremacy. Bucer had the greatest influence in bringing about the new development in public worship, and after his death (February 28th, 1551) the still more advanced Peter Martyr took his place. On March 9th, 1552, the new Book of Common Prayer was laid before the House of Lords, and was accepted by both Houses on April 14th.

The introduction to the new Bill refers to the second edition of the Book of Common Prayer as if it were only an improved edition of the first, but in all essential points identical with it. This is, however, by no means the case. The liturgy of 1549 was an attempt at conciliation, which endeavoured to satisfy Protestants as well as Catholics, as far as was possible; the liturgy of 1552, on the contrary, had the fullest intention of avoiding every expression and every ceremony which the followers of the old religion could construe in accordance with their own views. Nothing of the Catholic Mass remains in the new Order of Communion. Besides this, the second Book of Common Prayer abolishes private Confession and Extreme Unction. As far as the Sacrament of Holy Orders was concerned, they still retained the grades of deacons, priests and bishops, at least in name. One result of the totally altered conception of Holy Communion was the fact that the ordina­tion of priests possessing the real power of consecration was no longer proposed, indeed the very idea of ordaining priests in this Catholic sense was completely excluded. The new Prayer Book could, therefore, receive the unqualified approbation of the most advanced Protestants. Peter Martyr wrote on June 14th, 1552, to Bullinger that all the traces which might have still nourished superstition were expurgated from it. Bullinger and Calvin, who were begged to give their opinion of it by English refugees in 1554, considered that fault could only be found with it in points of no great importance.

As in the case of the Book of Common Prayer, the other confession of the faith of the Anglican Church, the Thirty-nine Articles, can also be traced to Cranmer. As early as 1549 he had drawn up a list of tenets which every preacher had to sign before receiving license to preach. There were originally forty-five of these, then forty-two, and finally thirty-nine. King Edward VI signed forty-two Articles on June 12th, 1553. They formed a mixture of Lutheran, Zwinglian and Calvinistic doctrinal propositions, with a trace of Catholicism running through them, the chief point being the Protestant principle that the Bible is the sole rule of faith. The doctrine of justification was presented in the Lutheran sense, that of communion in that of Calvin. The royal supremacy over the Church was enjoined in the widest sense of the word.

On the 6th of the following month, the fifteen year old king, who had long been an invalid, died, and with his death, the carefully planned work of ecclesiastical revolution seemed as if it would again fall to pieces. It is true that the dying king had, under the influence of Northumberland, been induced to attempt, by his own power, to alter the succession, and leave the sceptre in safe Protestant hands. In accordance with this arrangement, the sixteen year old Lady Jane Grey, the grand­daughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary, and the wife of Lord Guildford Dudley, Northumberland’s son, was proclaimed queen on July 10th. This alteration in the succession, as it had taken place without the consent of Parliament, was too plainly illegal, and too clearly the result of Northumberland’s ambitious intrigues, for the people to give it their approval, and when the rightful heiress to the throne, Henry’s eldest daughter Mary, unfolded her royal banner, defenders flocked round her in countless numbers. Northumberland’s army went over to her, and on July 19th, Mary was proclaimed queen in London amid the joyful acclamations of her people.

Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, had not only received a careful and indeed learned education for court life under the direction of Margaret Pole, the mother of the future Cardinal, and who was to die as a martyr in 1541, but also a deeply religious training in a Catholic sense. Her religious feelings were yet more strengthened in the hard school of suffering, through which she had to pass after the repudiation of her mother. Separated from the latter, and assigned to the household of her sister Elizabeth, she received the worst apartments in the house, her jewels and costly clothes were taken from her, the attendants who were faithful to her were sent away, while her confessor was replaced by a Lutheran. She was given over to the care of a relative of Anne Boleyn, who daily caused her much sorrow, neglecting her in her ill­nesses, and even striking her in the face. Anne Boleyn, her sworn enemy, thought of making her one of her train-bearers, and would have been most happy to have seen her on the scaffold. Indeed, her father threatened her with death, and she had only to thank the energetic intervention of the Emperor for her escape. In spite of all this severity, however, they did not succeed in what they aimed at, namely, in making her renounce her title and right to the throne. She could not, she said, declare her parents to be adulterers, or be disobedient to the Church.

After the death of Anne Boleyn and her own mother, Mary was, indeed, induced, under fear of death, and in order to obtain the acknowledgment of her right to the throne, to sign a document recognizing the supremacy of the king, and declaring that her mother’s marriage was invalid. Before doing so, however, she signed a protest declaring that document to have been obtained by force, and consequently illegal. She absolutely refused to hear of the Protestantism introduced by Somerset and Northumberland, and steadfastly refused, under the latter, to have the new liturgy celebrated in her house, until the king attained his majority; rather than do this she was prepared to lay her head on the block, and at length they ceased to press her any further.

The first acts of Mary’s reign bore the stamp of that mildness which she everywhere displayed when she acted according to her own judgment, and followed the dictates of her own heart. Only seven of the conspirators against her were brought before the courts, and only three were executed. She would willingly have pardoned even Northumberland, if her Council had not opposed her. Lady Jane Grey, whose execution was represented to Mary as inevitable, found a defender in her. She was only brought before the courts and condemned after three months (on November 13th, 1553), but even then Mary endeavoured to have her kept in mild captivity. When the sermon of the royal chaplain, Bourne, was interrupted on August 13th, a decree followed declaring that the queen did not wish to force anyone’s conscience, but to convert the people by the preaching of learned men. On the 18th of the same month a Royal Proclamation was issued, in which her subjects were enjoined to live peacefully and in Christian love with one another, by avoiding the newly discovered devilish expressions, “papist” and “heretic.” The queen desired that everyone should be of her religion, but no force would be used until a final decision was arrived at.

True to these principles, the queen was satisfied, in the meantime, by repealing various measures of the time of Edward VI, the legality of which she had never acknowledged. Bishops Bonner, Tunstall and Voysey were restored to their sees, while Gardiner, Heath and Day were again recognized as rightful bishops. Mary raised the distinguished statesman, Gardiner, to the dignity of chancellor. At the wish of the congregations, the celebration of the Latin Mass was again begun in several London churches on the Feast of St. Bartholomew, and the same was done in the cathedral on the following Sunday; Mass was not, however, regularly celebrated until the decision of Parliament was promulgated on December 21st.1 For the deceased king a funeral service was, however, publicly held in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer, but a Requiem Mass was celebrated in the Tower in the presence of only 300 chosen participators.  The chancellors, Mason and Gardiner, restored the old statutes and the old religion in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The foreign Protest­ants left the country, provided with passports, as did Vermigli and the French Protestants in London, to whom a special per­mission to leave was given, as well as letters to the mayors of Dover and Rye. Among the Protestant bishops who had usurped the places of the rightful occupants of the sees, Ridley, Coverdale and Hooper were sent to prison Cranmer remained confined to his palace till insulting letters from his pen against the Holy Mass were publicly read in the streets, whereupon he and Latimer were sent to the Tower in September. Until the opening of Parliament, nothing had so far been said of the reconciliation of England with the Holy See.

In the Eternal City, however, and especially in the Pope’s immediate surroundings, men eagerly discussed the question. Julius III wept for joy when he learned, on August 5th, 1553, from a dispatch of the French nuncio, of Mary’s victory and accession to the throne. Cardinal Pole, who, as an Englishman, a relative of the queen, and the companion of her youth, took the deepest personal interest in these events, said in his answer to the Duchess of Mantua’s letter of congratulation, that a more remarkable dispensation of Providence had not been experienced for many centuries.

Deliberations were at once begun, as to how the interests of the Church could best be served in this favourable state of affairs. Pole, who had received the joyful intelligence one day later than the Pope, in the solitude of the Benedictine abbey of Maguzzano on the Lake of Garda, at once sent the abbot, Vincenzo Parpaglia, with a letter of congratulation to Julius III. He enjoined him to inform the Pope, by word of mouth, that in his, Pole’s, opinion, everything that was good was to be hoped for from the new queen, who had steadfastly repudiated all the innovations during her brother’s life, and had clung to the dogmas and rites of the Universal Church. The most serious matter, however, was the schismatical separation from Rome, against which no one in England had protested after the death of More and Fisher, and to which Mary herself had consented. As far as the queen personally was concerned, she would easily be persuaded to return, not only from conscientious motives, but also out of respect for her mother. For many others, however, the restoration of the Church property which had been seized, would prove a stumbling block ; in his opinion, the whole difficulty lay precisely in this point. He thought, however, that the following measures might, in the meantime, be adopted. The Pope could, through his legates, cause the other sovereigns to take steps to approach Mary, and, in the same way, unofficial intermediaries, who, he hoped, would not be repulsed on this occasion, could appear in Pole’s name, and endeavour to win over the queen. Should Mary agree to the sending of a Papal legate, then everything was gained ; should she, on the other hand, raise difficulties, then English members of Parliament could negotiate in friendly conferences with a legate and learned theologians in Flanders or in Picardy. It was to be hoped that the queen would not send bigoted persons to such a conference, for an endeavour must be made to win them over, so that they might work for the reconciliation of their own country.

Before Parpaglia reached Rome with these instructions, he returned once more to Pole in Maguzzano, on August 12th, 1553, accompanied by a Papal envoy. Julius III had anticipated the proposals of the English Cardinal. Immediately after he had learned of Mary’s accession he summoned, on the same day, a consistory of the Cardinals, in which Pole was appointed legate “to the Christian princes, and especially to the new queen.” The matter appeared so urgent to the Pope that he would not wait for the drawing up of the Bull bestowing full powers on the legate, but sent an envoy to Pole on the following day with the brief of appointment. The Papal envoy met Parpaglia in Bologna, and he, in view of the altered conditions, did not continue his journey to Rome.

Pole had now, as legate, to open communication with the queen and the Emperor. He sent Henry Penning with a letter to Mary on August 13th, and Antonio Fiordibello to Charles V with a letter on the 21st of the same month. He earnestly exhorted the queen to the restoration of ecclesiastical unity, introduced himself as legate and begged her to state the time and manner in which he was to perform his mission. He besought the Emperor to promote the restoration of England to the Universal Church. Should Charles V. not consider that the proper time had arrived for taking such steps, then Fiordibello was instructed to declare that the interests of Catholics could only be jeopardized by any procrastination. It was the custom in England that all those who considered that their rights had been infringed, should lay their complaints before the first Parliament of a new reign, and it would be an irreparable loss for Catholics did they not use this opportunity of vindicating their rights.

Pole sent a second letter to Mary on August 27th;  every body, he said, was anxiously waiting to know what the queen would do, and especially whether she would restore the title of Head of the Church to him upon whom the Lord of heaven and earth had bestowed it. The great importance of this question, Mary could, without the study of learned books, draw from the testimony of the men who had been looked upon as the most learned and pious in the land, More and Fisher, and which they had sealed with their blood. He himself had always founded his hopes for the restoration of England to the faith on these facts, in the face of many doubters, for the blood of the martyrs for the Holy See, and the prayers of so many persecuted Catholics, could not, in his opinion, remain for ever unanswered. This alliance with the centre of unity would be more valuable to the queen than the favour of foreign princes.

If Pole, at the close of his letter, spoke of himself as being about to leave Maguzzano, he was soon to be disappointed, for he was urged on all sides not to start for England for the time being.

When Pole, soon after his appointment as legate, sent Parpaglia to the Pope with the letter of August 13th, he had proposed, before taking any further steps, to apply to the nuncio in Brussels, Girolamo Dandino, and through him to obtain more detailed news as to the religious conditions in England. Dandino had already anticipated this request; immediately on receiving the news of Mary’s accession, he had sent the youthful Francesco Commendone to London, in order that he might privately collect information. What Commendone learned in England, however, was not very satisfactory. He certainly found the queen, with whom, in the deepest secrecy, and through the Venetian ambassador, he obtained an audience, filled with the best will to restore her country to the Church, but she was prevented from doing so by the feeling of the people, who, for the most part, cherished a deadly hatred for the Holy See, by the self-interest of the many who had taken possession of the property of the Church and who sat among her councillors, and by the influence of her “heretical and schismatical” sister, Elizabeth, whom her father had preferred to the rightful queen, and “whose name was in the heart and mouth of everybody.” For all these reasons Mary wished that proceedings should be conducted with the greatest caution; no one was to know that there was any understanding between her and the Holy See.

Commendone returned to Dandino with this news at the end of August, and was at once sent by him to Rome. On September 15th, he communicated his experiences in London to the Cardinals in a consistory, without, however, referring to his audience with the Queen. His report made a deep impression, and it was quite evident that there was no need to hurry in sending a legate to England. The news which Dandino sent from Brussels also made any other decision impossible.

Even before Commendone’s return to Brussels from England, Dandino had a conversation with Granvelle on August 14th. The Imperial minister emphasized the fact that they must give the queen time to gain a firm footing, as otherwise a revolt would break out which could certainly reckon on the ready support of France. Diego di Mendoza, who had been for two years ambassador in England, also thought that there were fewer well-disposed people there than was supposed. The question of Church property was not a matter of indifference, even to the lower classes, on account of the duty of tithes, and they had now been for a long time accustomed to the freedom from these which heresy afforded them. On August 27th the Emperor informed Dandino, through Granvelle, that he thought it inadvisable that Pole should go to England by way of Trent.

In the midst of all these reports Julius II. resolved to try a middle course. He sent Pole to Brussels so that he might be nearer to England, but not with the title of legate to England, so that he might, together with Dandino, act as a mediator between the Emperor and France. On September 27th the legate received his new instructions, and on the 29th he left the Lake of Garda.

Soon after his departure from Maguzzano Pole learned that Queen Mary also considered the presence of a legate in England impossible for the present. Penning, who had gone to London with a letter from Pole at the beginning of August, had at last sent news of the success of his mission. He only arrived in London on September 18th, 1553, and had a three hours’ audience with the queen on the following day. She declared that she would give the half of her kingdom to have a legate in the country, but that the heretics were capable of anything when irritated, and that drastic measures were out of the question. The queen then repeated a request which she had already entrusted to Commendone, that permission should be given to hold regular church services in England, even before the interdict and censures against the country were removed. She especially wished to have a solemn High Mass celebrated as of old at her approaching coronation, which could not be deferred. Pole contented himself, in the meantime, by absolving Mary herself, and by exhorting her from Trent on October 2nd, not to depend too much on a purely secular policy, but to fix her trust more on God, repeating, at the same time, his request that he might be allowed to return to his own country before the opening of her first Parliament.

Before this letter, however, reached its destination, the queen had been crowned on October 1st, and on the 5th, Parliament had begun its sittings. Before its opening the queen, with all the members of both Houses, had, in accordance with the ancient custom, been present at a Mass of the Holy Ghost, and at the opening session congratulatory addresses, expressing affection for the queen’s person, were offered on all sides. There were two questions, above all others, which Mary desired to have settled by her first Parliament : that the marriage of Catherine of Aragon should be recognized as valid, and that the ecclesiastical problem should be solved. As far as the latter was concerned the repudiation of the little loved liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, and the return to the old form of service, offered little difficulty, but the submission to the Papal See was another matter. For thirty years preachers had been inveighing against the Pope, and the return to his authority seemed inextricably bound up with the restitution of Church property.

First of all the draft of a Bill, drawn up in quite ordinary terms, was laid before Parliament, which at a single stroke declared all the enactments of the last two reigns, relating either to the marriage of Catherine of Aragon or to the religion of the country, to be invalid. In the Upper House this met with no opposition, but the contrary was the case in the Lower House, where every attempt to establish the Papal authority was viewed with suspicion and violently opposed. The Lower House, wrote the queen on October 28th to Pole, could never be reconciled to the idea that the Crown should renounce the title of Head of the Church. She herself resolved that she would never, on any conditions, make use of such a title, and in the torturing uncertainty of how she was to act, should Parliament insist on her retaining it, she begged the legate to give her his advice.

The first attempt to win everything by a bold stroke had thus been frustrated by the hatred against the Papacy. The government therefore proceeded very cautiously. In the second session two new Bills were laid before Parliament, one of which related to the marriage, of Queen Catherine, every reference to the Papal dispensation which had rendered it possible being carefully avoided. The object of the second Bill was to. abolish all the religious laws issued under Edward VI. If this passed, the Catholic Church would not, it was true, be established, but Calvinism would at least be abolished. No opposition was raised in either House against the first Bill, but the other was debated for two days, and was finally, it appears, unanimously accepted on November 8th, nor did the people raise any particular objection to it. It is true that placards with the new regulations were in many places torn down, and several Protestants held a meeting to consider what was to be done, but after some ten or twelve unruly agitators had been arrested, and two of them hanged, the others lost courage.

A letter from the queen to Pole on November 15th informed him of the victory gained. The composition of the Parlia­ment did not give much hope of winning anything further, but in three or four months another Parliament would be convoked, and the success already attained was, in the opinion of all the queen’s friends, an auspicious beginning, which would pave the way for a return to the Church. The Bill concerning the marriage of her mother in itself constituted a recognition of the Holy See, as it was only on the authority of the latter that the validity of the marriage could be founded.

The bearer of this letter, Henry Penning, met Pole on November 30th in Dillingen, where the Cardinal had been detained, very much against his will, since the middle of October. At first he had been kept back for some time by the necessity of obtaining passports through the different German territories, and when he had at last started, on October 22nd, his journey was suddenly brought to an end two days lacer in Heidenheim (in the Jaxt-Circle), by the wish of the Emperor. An Imperial envoy, the distinguished courtier, Juan de Mendoza, declared, in the name of his master, that the excited feeling in England might break out into open rebellion if a Papal legate were even to approach the country; Pole was, therefore, enjoined to wait, at least until the Emperor had come to an understanding with the Pope.

Nothing now remained for the legate to do but to return to Dillingen, to the Bishop of Augsburg. A letter addressed to the Emperor on October 29th did not advance matters, nor nor did another letter sent to the Pope at the same time have any more success, for the Emperor had been working for a long time to prevent the mission of Pole, and he succeeded at length in winning Julius III over to his views.

Even at the time when the nuncio, Dandino, the very man whom the English Cardinal was to replace as peacemaker, took leave of the Emperor in Brussels, on October 5th, Charles V spoke plainly against the mission of Pole. Dandino endeavoured in that audience to represent the return of England to Catholic unity as an easy matter, and recommended Pole as the most suitable man for the position of English legate. The Emperor replied that Pole’s appearance in England would afford the enemies of the Holy See in that country a pretext for stirring up a rebellion, in which case they were certain of being supported by France. One must not, he said, begin by sending a legate, but proceed carefully, step by step. These considerations made an impression on Dandino, and he returned to Rome thoroughly convinced of the truth of the Emperor’s arguments.

Similar views were put forward by a messenger, Francesco Vimercato, whom Dandino, shortly before his departure from Brussels, had sent to England. Vimercato also came to the conclusion that conditions in England were not yet ready for the work of a Papal legate. The mere report that one was to be sent had already caused great excitement. Matters, therefore, must be very carefully considered. Why pluck the fruit before it was ripe, when it might still, by the grace of God, become mature? The devil had acquired such power in that country, which had sunk so deep in the mire of heresy that many people did not even believe in the immortality of the soul, and no longer knew God or honoured Him. Vimercato considered it almost a miracle that Mass was nearly everywhere restored.

Julius III was discouraged by these reports, and sent word to his legate on October 28th, that, for the present, he had better remain where he was. The Emperor was of opinion that the role of mediator between himself and France was not sufficient to justify Pole’s presence in Brussels, and that people looked on the peace mediation as a mere transparent subterfuge. The Pope was so fully persuaded of the good-will of Charles V that he unhesitatingly followed his advice.

On the same day, October 28th, and again on November 15th, Pole also received most solemn warning from the queen against entering English territory. A premature appearance on the part of a Roman legate, in the prevailing state of sus­picion and hatred against the Pope, would only do more harm than good. The people would murder him rather than allow him to exercise the duties of his office. Penning received a verbal communication from Mary that it was at her urgent request that the Emperor had restrained the English Cardinal from his purpose. “It is true, however,” remarks Penning, “that this caution on the part of the queen is entirely owing to the representations of the Imperial ambassador, with whom she discusses all her affairs.” Several members of Parliament had assured him that the arrival of the Cardinal would give pleasure to everyone, and that the only difficulty in the way of reconciliation to Rome was the return of Church property. Noailles, the French ambassador in London, also declared, at this time, that Pole’s appearance in England was desired by Protestants as well as Catholics. Great hopes were placed in the influence Noailles had over Mary, for the settlement of a question which for the moment occupied England to the exclusion of all others—this was the marriage of the queen.

Up to this time, the idea of a reigning queen on the throne of England had been something unheard of, and nobody in the country believed that Mary could maintain her position without a consort. Her ministers therefore urged from the very beginning, that she should, in spite of her thirty-seven years, seek a husband. Many different proposals were made. From among her subjects, Edward Courtenay, a scion of the royal house of York, who had been placed in the Tower at the age of twelve, after the execution of his father in 1539, but whom Mary had set at liberty and created Earl of Devonshire, was specially put forward; Mary is said also to have considered Cardinal Pole, who was not yet a priest. Many foreign princes were named as candidates, as for example, the King of Denmark, Philip of Spain, a son of Ferdinand, King of the Romans, the Infante of Portugal, and the Duke of Savoy. The queen, it appears, would have preferred Courtenay, who was beloved by the people on account of his youth and good looks, and because of his unjust imprisonment in the Tower, and he was also the chosen candidate of Gardiner. Mary, however, laid this important matter before the Emperor, her usual adviser.

Charles V had already proved himself a true friend and protector of Mary in the troubles of her youth, and she thought that she could trust him above all others, now that she was queen. She had already asked his advice when it was a question of the punishment of Lady Jane Grey and the rebels, as well as in the solution of the religious problems, and if she had considered his decision regarding the rebellion too severe, and had repudiated, at least in the beginning, his advice concerning the religious question, as a sort of cowardice, she nevertheless came round more and more to his way of thinking, and her confidence in him remained unshaken to the end.

The accession of Mary opened new and brilliant prospects for the policy of Charles V. His constant adversary, the King of France, seemed to have succeeded in uniting the crowns of Scotland and France on the head of his son, Francis, and the Scottish queen, Mary Stuart, was already receiving her education at the French court, as the bride of the heir to the throne. If the Emperor could now succeed in marrying his son Philip to the English queen, then the House of Hapsburg would have obtained a new crown, and perhaps a new kingdom, by marriage, and the brilliant diplomatic success of his French rival would be eclipsed. These plans of the Emperor were, at any rate, one reason why Charles wished to keep the Papal legate far from England, for Pole was looked upon as an opponent of the Spanish marriage, and the religious change might call troubles into being which would cross or, in any case, delay the Imperial designs.

As early as August 14th, 1553, Charles V gave his ambassador in England, Simon Renard, instructions, written in his own hand, to proceed carefully, and step by step, until he had brought about Mary’s marriage with Philip. Renard’s task was rendered easier by the behaviour of Philip’s most dangerous rival, Courtenay. This young man was wanting in firmness and moral rectitude; he endeavoured to compensate himself for all his deprivations during his years of captivity, by unbridled licence in the company of notorious women, and he thereby lost more and more the respect of the virtuous queen. On September 20th, Renard was able, to inform his master that Mary had definitely given up all thought of Courtenay. The Emperor then caused it to be pointed out to her that a foreign prince would be more suitable for the position of royal consort than either Courtenay or Pole. He was himself too old to have the honour of sueing for her hand, but although he might not offer himself as a bridegroom, he would at least solicit her favour for the one who was nearest his heart, his son Philip.

Although Philip was eleven years younger than she was, this proposal made an impression on Mary. The union with “so powerful and so Catholic a Prince” appeared to offer the necessary guarantee that she “would be able to re-establish and confirm religion in England”; as she afterwards made known to Pole, it was especially for this reason, and because she wished to reassure the country by the hope of an heir, that she had consented to marry at all.

The intention of the queen was hardly rumoured before it aroused violent opposition. The greater nobles were dis­satisfied because they did not wish for a powerful prince, and the Protestant party because they feared a Catholic Regent. The common people were excited by the illusion that England’s independence would be endangered by the connection with the power of Spain. The jealousy of France was naturally aroused to the highest pitch by a union between England and the Hapsburgs. The French ambassador in London, Noailles, joined the Protestant party and all the other malcontents, and incited the people against the queen by every means in his power.

Among the confidants of the queen, Gardiner advised her in the most decided manner against the Spanish marriage, and he had the greater part of the nobility on his side, although a few of them, with Norfolk, Arundel and Paget at their head, approved of the queen’s plan. The Commons resolved on an address in which the queen was indeed requested to marry, but only to choose her husband from among the nobles of England. This opposition, however, in which Mary thought she saw only an intrigue of Gardiner, irritated the queen. On October 30th, the day on which Parliament had passed the address, she summoned Renard to her presence. She led him into her oratory, knelt down before the Blessed Sacrament, and after invoking the Holy Ghost, made a solemn vow that she would take no other husband than Philip. When the Commons appeared before her on November 17th and read her the address, Mary answered them in person. Hitherto, she said, the rulers of England have been independent and free to arrange their marriages, and I am not prepared to give up this right ; in the choice of a husband I shall think of my own happiness as well as of the well-being of the kingdom.

Opposition had gradually to give way before such deter­mination, and the Imperial envoys, the Count of Egmont and Laing, accompanied by two others, landed in Kent on January 2nd, 1554, to ask, in proper form, on the part of Philip, for Mary’s hand. Mary referred them to the Royal Council, who, she said, knew her intentions ; her first husband, however, was her kingdom, and nothing would induce her to be untrue to the fidelity which she had promised it in her coronation oath. On the 14th the marriage settlement was signed and made public. It had been drawn up by the clever statesman, Gardiner, and made any dependence of England on Spain absolutely impossible. Philip was to assist the queen in the government of the kingdom, but all the offices of state were only to be held by natives of the country; if Philip should outlive the queen, he would have no right to the succession.

In spite of these careful provisions, however, the official announcement of the marriage gave the Protestant party in the country a welcome pretext for instigating the people to rise, and in the choice of means for so doing they were by no means too particular. The most incredible stories were circulated; the country, it was said, would be inundated with foreigners, and the English would be made slaves and dragged away to the mines of Mexico. A plot was set on foot to marry Elizabeth to Courtenay, and to place them both on the throne ; this plot was to be put into execution after the arrival of Philip.

The shrewd Gardiner, however, succeeded in getting the whole secret from Courtenay, and thereby forced the conspirators to put their plans into immediate execution, in spite of their want of preparation. In order to organize the revolt, Carew went to Devonshire, Croft to the borders of Wales, the Duke of Suffolk, who probably hoped to place his daughter, Lady Jane Grey, upon the throne, into Warwickshire, and Thomas Wyatt into Kent. The success of these instigators of revolt was, on the whole, very small, and after a fortnight, the Duke of Suffolk was again in the Tower, from which he had only a little while before been released by the clemency of Mary, while Carew was a fugitive in France, and Croft a prisoner of the crown.

The only dangerous rising was that stirred up by Sir Thomas Wyatt in Kent. The enthusiasm of the 1500 men who were soon under arms, quickly died away, it is true, so that numbers of them soon began to desert, but when the troops which Mary had sent against them under the Duke of Norfolk went over to Wyatt, an army several thousand strong was soon marching on London. In the general panic which seized the Council, the queen remained full of courage and confidence in her victory. She had sent an envoy at the commencement of the rising to find out what were the demands of Wyatt, but when he brought back an insolent answer and conditions impossible of fulfilment, she resolved to face the danger boldly. She ordered the Lord Mayor to summon an extraordinary meeting of the citizens of London in the Guildhall on February 1st, 1554. Mary appeared there, with the royal sceptre in her hand, surrounded by her ladies and officers of state, and made a speech to those assembled, full of masculine power and determination. She complained, in dignified words, of the disobedience and insolence of the rebels. They had at first only attacked her marriage with the Spaniard, but now it was clear what the actual intentions of her enemies were. She was to entrust her person, the guarding of the Tower, and the appointment of her councillors to rebellious subjects who were striving after the possession of the royal power and the abolition of religion. She, however, trusted her people, who would not deliver her over to the insurgents. As regards the Spanish marriage, she had only acted on the advice of her Council; she had so far remained unmarried, and with the help of God, could continue to do so. Should, however, the marriage with Philip not gain the approval of Parliament, then she gave her royal word that she would never marry all the days of her life.

This speech had an immediate success. Next morning more than 20,000 men had volunteered for the defence of the capital. Wyatt, meanwhile, continued his march, and on February 3rd he encamped on the right bank of the Thames, in Southwark. Here, however, he was exposed to the fire of the cannon in the Tower, and withdrew from his position within three days. The danger was not yet over, however. On February 7th, at two o’clock in the morning, Mary received the news, in her palace at Whitehall, that Wyatt was advancing and was already not far away, and that she had better seek refuge in the Tower as quickly as possible. The bold leader had succeeded, in spite of the fact that the bridges were destroyed, in crossing the river, and, with the connivance of several traitors, who were waiting to open one of the gates to him, he was now marching, not far from Whitehall, on the city of London. Everybody in the palace thought of treachery, Gardiner on his knees besought the queen to flee to Windsor, but when Renard assured her that her flight would be the signal for a general rising of the malcontents and the massacre of the Catholics, and as, moreover, the leaders of the royal troops swore fealty, Mary declared firmly and steadfastly that she would remain at her post. Wyatt’s attempt proved to be a complete failure; half of his undisciplined levies had already run away on their approach to London, while others made their escape in the darkness of the night. The royal troops succeeded in cutting Wyatt off from the main body of his army, and he was captured and subsequently executed, the remainder of his force being dispersed.

The Spanish marriage had only been a pretext for the rising in the case of Wyatt, as well as in that of the Duke of Suffolk. The true reason lay in the fear of the Protestants that Mary would restore the Catholic religion.1 Wyatt expressed himself to this effect in private, and his followers venerated him after his death on account of his “zeal for God’s truth ” as a martyr.

In spite of its want of success, the rising of Wyatt forms a landmark in the reign of Mary. Till then it had made little impression on her when the Emperor and his ministers had recommended severity against the malcontents, and had impressed upon her that such people were not to be won by clemency, but were only confirmed in their arrogance and incited to fresh disobedience. The recent events, and especi­ally the rising of the Duke of Suffolk, now came as a clear proof of monstrous ingratitude. Mary resolved, therefore, to take stern measures. Fifty of the soldiers who deserted were hanged, as well as six of the rebels in Kent. Four of the ringleaders were sent to the scaffold, namely, the Duke of Suffolk, his brother and principal adviser, Thomas Grey, Thomas Wyatt and the former secretary of the Council, William Thomas, who had urged the murder of the queen. Four hundred rebels were also made to appear before the queen with halters round their necks and beg for forgiveness upon their knees, whereupon she graciously pardoned them.

These punishments could certainly not be quoted as a proof of undue severity, but it must be regretted that the queen allowed herself to be persuaded into abandoning her former attitude of clemency towards Lady Jane Grey. On February 8th, when she had hardly escaped from the attack of Wyatt, and was still feeling the effects of the recent dangers and anxieties, she was induced to give the order for the carrying out of the sentence pronounced in November, 1553, but afterwards deferred, on the unhappy tool of a criminal policy. On February 12th, 1554, Lady Jane Grey, as well as her husband, suffered death with great courage at the hands of the executioner.

The victory which had been gained, however, strengthened the position of the government more than any measures of severity. The Spanish marriage, concerning which many had despaired during the rising, now met with hardly any oppo­sition. Parliament unanimously confirmed the marriage treaty on May-5th. The representatives of the country had been given to understand that the only means of providing a counterpoise to the threatened union between France and Scotland lay in the marriage of Mary with the Spanish prince, as the heir of Philip and Mary would bring Flanders to the English crown. No prejudice to England or the English people could follow on the marriage. On July 19th, Philip, accompanied by the united fleets of England, Spain and Flanders, appeared in sight of the English coast, and on the following day he landed on English soil. On July 25th, the Feast of the Patron Saint of Spain, St. James, the marriage was celebrated at Winchester, with the greatest pomp. Before the ceremony, Gardiner read aloud the documents by which Charles V. abdicated the thrones of Naples and the Duchy of Milan in favour of his son, so that Philip might give his hand to the English queen as a reigning sovereign.

The plan of the Spanish marriage had been joyfully wel­comed in Rome from the beginning. When the negotiations concerning this union which was so warmly desired by the Emperor were concluded in December, 1553, Charles at once sent the joyful news to Rome. The Pope received the an­nouncement on the morning of New Year’s Day, and he con­gratulated the Emperor in a warmly expressed brief, oi the same date. Among the Cardinals, Morone, in particular, had done everything he could to promote the union of Mary with the heir to the Spanish throne.

Cardinal Pole, on the other hand, was regarded in Rome, as well as by the Emperor and in France, as an opponent of the Spanish marriage. He seems to have made his views known as early as October 2nd, at the very beginning of his English legation, when he addressed a letter from Trent to Edward Courtenay. On October 27th, in a report to the Pope, he declared that he was kept in Dillingen and away from England because it was feared that he would never co-operate in delivering his country into the hands of a foreigner. In February, 1554, the English ambassador in France wrote that people there were of the opinion that Pole had worked against the marriage of the queen with Philip. This report, however, was unjust ; at the same time the Cardinal, as he himself acknowledged, had, from the first, been of opinion that Mary had better, at her age, remain unmarried.

In Rome, the news of the legate’s attitude was received with disquietude. Cardinal Morone was enjoined to inform him, on behalf of the Pope, on December 21st, 1553, that an am­bassador had no right to put forward his own views, but only those of his sovereign. The Pope was convinced, for many reasons, that the English queen should bestow her hand on the Spanish prince ; he considered the queen too weak to be able permanently to govern, without the support of a husband, her violent and unsettled subjects, who were, moreover, infected by the religious innovations. He, further, did not believe that one of the nobles of England would be in a position, as husband of the queen, to reduce the country to obedience, both on account of the different parties in the state, and of the intrigues of foreign powers, while, in order to sweep his rivals from the field, a native prince would be much more likely to have recourse to dangerous concessions. On the other hand, the King of Spain, who was England’s neighbour by reason of his possessions in Spain and Flanders, could re-establish ecclesiastical unity in England by his great authority, and defend the queen against her enemies at home and abroad. For these reasons the Pope considered it not only a rash thing to oppose the marriage, but also detrimental to religion and the interests of the Holy See, and he therefore wished Pole to adopt this view. Should he appear at the Imperial court, he was requested to show himself favourable, by word and deed, to the Spanish marriage, so as to satisfy the Emperor. As Morone added, the Pope was not without anxiety as to whether Pole would yield to him. Julius had often said that it was folly to oppose oneself to a rushing stream ; to wear oneself out in vain and win nothing was the height of folly. Morone believed that he could allay the Pope’s fears ; he said that Pole would keep God before his eyes and would never act contrary to the will of His Holiness. Pole was also requested to keep these representations of the Pope a secret, out of consideration for Italian and foreign princes. A brief of the same time from Julius III. to Pole, enjoined the latter to have confidence in the advice of Morone.

 

 

CHAPTER X.

Legation of Cardinal Pole.—The Reconciliation of England with the Holy See.

 

Mary had, even before her marriage with Philip, been encouraged by the increased respect felt for the Crown since the victory over the rebels, to take further steps towards a Catholic restoration.

In so doing, she was entering upon an undertaking, the prospects of which were by no means hopeless. Paget wrote to Somerset, in the year 1549, that eleven-twelfths of the coun­try was Catholic at heart. According to the opinion of an English Protestant, who had taken refuge on the continent, the country people still clung so firmly to the Papacy in 1553, that the nobles could only allow themselves the preaching of the “Gospel” within their four walls. When Commendone and Vimercato had depicted conditions in England in such dark colours, they had only the state of affairs in the capital in their minds. “The people of London,” wrote Dandino in reference to this, “ are, it is true, hardened in their heresy, but in the rest of the country it is not so to the same extent.”

It was especially from two classes of the population that Mary had to fear resistance to her attempts at restoration : first, from the lowest orders, who had been the most influenced by the foreign preachers, and consequently gave free vent to their hatred in the most crude manner, and secondly, from the wealthy and noble class, who wished to hear nothing of a return to the old religion because they feared that they would be forced to restore the Church property ; from these, however, there was less opposition to a Catholic restoration on the ground of any religious conviction. In the confusion of con­stantly changing doctrines and confessions of faith, they had for the most part lost all hold on religion, and were ready, at the word of the government, to accept almost any doctrine.

Among the measures of 1554, several related to the restora­tion of the old form of worship, while the Mass had already been re-established by an Act of Parliament in December, 1553; now, on March 21st, 1554, an ordinance of the Council was promulgated, according to which the nobility of the country districts were ordered to erect altars in their village churches, within fourteen days. In Holy Week and Easter Week the ceremonies of the Church were carried out in the old Catholic manner, while Mary herself, accompanied by four bishops, took part in the processions during the Rogation Days.

Mary’s principal care, however, was directed to bringing about a thorough reform of the clergy, and on March 1st, measures were taken against married clergy. As the eccle­siastical edicts of Edward VI. had already been repealed by Mary’s first Parliament, the old law of the Church, which allows of no married priesthood, again came into force, and the government considered that it was, therefore, justified in ex­pelling them. About a fifth or a sixth part of the entire clergy, and a fourth in the diocese of London, were affected by this measure. A considerable number, however, received new appointments, when they had done penance, and had put away their wives. Many of the Protestant bishops had already been deprived of their offices, and quite apart from the fact that many of them were guilty of high treason, the govern­ment had the right to proceed independently in their case, for the bishops appointed by Edward acknowledged themselves that they had received their power from the king, so that the sovereign was entitled again to withdraw it from them. It was another matter, however, when it came to the question of appointing new bishops in the place of those who had been removed, as, for this, it was necessary to have the sanction of the Pope. In a letter of February 24th Mary laid the matter before Pole, and thus, for the first time after his long period of waiting, Pole was called upon to act in his official capacity as Papal legate.

Pole had been obliged, since the middle of October, 1553, to spend the remainder of the year in painful inactivity in Dillingen. Not until December 28th did the longed for invitation of the Emperor reach him, not indeed to proceed to England, but to begin to carry out his mission as peace-maker between Charles and the King of France. On January 25th, 1554, he made his solemn entry into Brussels, and in February he repaired to the French court. Henry II received him in a friendly manner, but Pole was unable to accomplish any more in his case than he had previously been able to do with the Emperor.

Pole received Mary’s letter in France. The English queen was exceedingly anxious that the new bishops should be consecrated before the opening of Parliament on April 2nd, so that they could take part at once in the sessions, and in the religious discussions throw their influence into the scales. She enclosed a list of ten or twelve suitable candidates.

Pole’s powers, however, did not extend so far as to enable him fully to satisfy the queen’s wishes, since no one could have foreseen such a remarkable state of things at the beginning of his legation, as that there should be an appointment of bishops before the reconciliation of the kingdom with the Holy See. As the matter, however, was urgent, Pole sent a confidential messenger to London to tell the queen that it was necessary that the bishops chosen should, before their consecration, at least reconcile themselves with the Holy See ; they must either apply to the Papal legate individually, or they could send him an authorized representative, who would seek recon­ciliation in the name of all of them, or, again, Pole would send an envoy to England fully empowered to arrange the matter. Pole wrote on March 2nd to Julius III, who sent him a brief on the 8th of the same month, giving him the full authority required. In accordance with this brief Pole could elevate to offices in metropolitan and cathedral churches such persons as had accepted ecclesiastical positions from laymen and schismatics, even in the case of those who had themselves been tainted with heresy. These concessions, however, appeared so unusual to the Pope himself, that he did not venture to lay them before the Cardinals for approval, from fear of opposition, but only discussed the matter with Morone.

On April 1st, the eve of the opening of Parliament, Gardiner was able to consecrate .six new bishops. In a letter written on April 7th in her own hand Mary begged the Pope to give his explicit confirmation, thereby acknowledging for the first time, publicly and solemnly, the Papal Supremacy. Julius III read the royal letter, with many tears, five times to the assembled Cardinals, granted the desired confirmation in a consistory of July 6th, and in a brief of July 10th, joyfully acknowledged the queen’s zeal.

The Parliament which met on April 2nd was rather concerned with the marriage of the queen than with the religious question. While the sessions were being held, much attention was attracted by a debate conducted by the Convocation of the clergy at Oxford with the three leaders of the Protestants, Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, which was held simultaneously with the Parliamentary sittings from April 14th to the 20th. On the 27th the result, which was favourable to the Catholics, was announced, and on the 30th the Dean of Rochester, Walter Philips, acknowledged once more the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and retracted his former views. As had happened formerly under Edward VI, when the Catholics had complained, in similar circumstances, of the want of freedom of speech, so did the Protestants now raise similar objections.

Among the Bills laid before Parliament, one is deserving of particular attention, although it was rejected in the House of Lords. All bishops, and especially the Bishop of Rome, were expressly forbidden by the Bill to demand the restitution of Church property. The matter which formed the last and greatest obstacle to the return of the country to the Church, was here plainly put forward. In order that she might succeed in settling this difficult question, the queen had once more to seek the help of the legate, who had returned to Brussels on April 19th.

Pole was much perplexed by Mary’s request. In the brief appointing him legate for England, the Cardinal had only received authority to forego the restoration of the revenues which had been drawn by the wrongful possessors from the sequestrated Church property. Of the renunciation of the said real estate of the Church, there had been no mention ; on the contrary, the text of the brief made it pretty clear that, as a rule, the return of the real estate wrested from the Church was insisted upon previous to the giving up of the revenues. It had become quite clear by this time that the legate’s authority was not sufficiently comprehensive, so Pole sent Niccolò Ormanetto from Brussels to Rome on April 24th, and Henry Penning to London on May 4th, to negotiate further with the Pope and the queen concerning this burning question. Ormanetto had, besides this, to report on the legate’s mission to France.

Mary pressed for a speedy answer. In the first audience granted to Penning, she at once asked what was being arranged with regard to the Church property, and as often as she saw him, she returned to the same subject. In her own the Pope should show himself as generous as possible, and absolutely forego the return of the Church property. Pole, on the other hand, would not consent to such a solution. Such a procedure he thought would give an appearance of bargaining about the return of the country to the Church; England should, he maintained, first come back to the Church, and leave everything else to the Pope’s generosity. This view of the matter, however, appeared too severe to Muzzarelli, the nuncio in Brussels, and also to the Pope himself. In a brief of June 28th, Julius III gave his legate the fullest authority to leave all Church property, moveable and real, in the hands of the present possessors. Unfortunately, however, the terms of the brief[604] did not exclude all doubt as to the Pope’s intentions, and later on aroused distrust in the hearts of suspicious persons.

The brief arrived in Brussels on July 29th. A few days before, the Spanish marriage had been celebrated, and it now seemed as though the longed-for hour had at last come when Pole could perform the duties of his office as legate on English soil. In the meantime, however, fresh difficulties had arisen, of such a serious character that Pole himself regarded his mission as no longer possible of execution, and begged the Pope to recall him.

The Cardinal had had no success in his peace mission to France, and he had aroused the displeasure of the Emperor by his premature departure. When he presented himself before Charles V on April 21st, and made his report concerning the unfortunate result of his mission, the Emperor, instead of answering him, declared that if he had nothing further to say, it would be much better if he did not appear before him again. The Cardinal had made his position still worse by omitting to send the Emperor any communication from France concerning the steps he had taken with the king, and by never referring, by a single word, to the Spanish marriage, in his correspondence with the queen. The old suspicion that he was opposed to the marriage was again revived, and people even went so far as to suspect him of favouring Wyatt’s insurrection. His very sojourn on French soil was regarded as an expression of friendship for the power which was Mary’s worst enemy, and gave rise to a demonstration, from which Pole withdrew by a speedy departure.

Not only had Pole’s work as peacemaker completely failed, but his mission to England, which could not take place without the agreement of the Emperor, seemed quite hopeless. The deeply offended legate withdrew to the abbey of Dilighem near Brussels, and it was from there that he conducted the above mentioned negotiations concerning the Church property, but otherwise he completely withdrew from political life. As early as the beginning of May he had begged the Pope to appoint someone else in his place as legate for England. In Rome, however, under no circumstances could such an idea be entertained; by the recall of a Prince of the Church, once appointed and so solemnly dispatched, they would have compromised themselves in the eyes of the whole world, and, perhaps, have irretrievably endangered the return of England to the Church. Pole’s painful position during these months of uncertainty and delay, was rendered still more bitter by the knowledge that his attitude was not sanctioned in every respect in Rome. Morone pointed out to him that he should have expressed himself clearly in favour of Philip’s marriage with Mary, and thus have removed all ground for suspicion. Even now he might make up for this omission by truthfully explaining to the Emperor his position with regard to the marriage. The legate answered that he had always, since his arrival in Brussels, expressed himself as being in agreement with the Emperor regarding the union of Philip with Mary. The determination with which Charles and Granvelle had repulsed him could only have been greater if they had proceeded to blows. He therefore persisted in his request for recall.

In this apparently hopeless entanglement, the relations between England and the Pope found a shrewd agent[608] in the person of the nuncio in Brussels, the Archbishop of Conza, Girolamo Muzzarelli, a Dominican, on whose skill and modera­tion Morone had already bestowed the greatest praise. Muzzarelli understood how to induce the Emperor gradually to form a more favourable estimate of Pole, and, as early as June 10th, he was able to write to Rome that the Emperor would no longer oppose the journey of the legate to England. The actual conclusion of the Spanish marriage on July 25th, gave Pole himself the courage to come out once more from his retirement. On July nth he sent a messenger to England with a letter of congratulation to Philip. A little later he also ventured to apply again to Charles V and to congratulate him. The bearer of this letter, Ormanetto, had to seek the Emperor in his camp; he avoided Ormanetto’s urgent requests that he would at last allow the Papal legate to fulfil his duties, by evasive answers, and declared that he must first enquire as to the state of affairs in England.

Repulsed by the Emperor, the English Cardinal applied to King Philip on September 21st, and complained in suitable terms of this “eternal postponement” of his hopes. Who was this prelate who was kept so long standing knocking at the door ? It was a man, who on account of his defence of the rights of Philip’s consort to the throne, had been driven from his home and his country, and had now been eating the bread of exile for twenty years. -Besides this, Pole was not begging admittance as a private individual. As Peter, when freed from his prison, had, according to the Acts of the Apos­tles, to stand knocking at the door of Mary, the mother of John, till it was at length opened to him, so now another Peter had to stand knocking at the door of another Mary. He could understand that she had been afraid to open to him before, but now she had the support of her husband, and the interests of the queen herself required that Peter should be allowed to enter, for her legitimacy, as well as her right, depended on the acknowledgment of the Pope.

On September 28th Pole repeated the same arguments in a letter to the Emperor, which he again sent by Ormanetto. Charles, however, once more answered that the right moment had not yet come, and that he would speak further with the legate after his return.

The audience which he had thus promised to the English Cardinal took place on October nth at Brussels.[616] Pole explained that two obstacles stood in the way of the return of England to the Church, namely, the errors in matters of faith, and the question of Church property. In the case of the former the Pope could not yield, but in the matter of Church property, he was prepared to make concessions. Pole did not, indeed, inform the Emperor to what extent Julius III. had already modified his claims, in the brief of September 28th, but he spoke of the powers with which the brief given him at the beginning of his legation had invested him. The Emperor answered that there was no cause for anxiety as far as the question of doctrine was concerned, as they had to deal with a people who had no firm convictions about religion at all ; as he had learned from his experiences in Germany, the whole matter resolved itself into a question of the Church property, and in this connection he desired to see the full powers of the legate, and would wait for the return of his ambassador, Erasso, before coming to any further decision.

As had been the case in this audience, Pole did not explain the full extent of his powers either to the Emperor or Mary. He had already anticipated the desire of the Emperor to see the brief of September 28th, by handing it to Granvelle before the audience, but he kept another important document a profound secret. The Pope had promised him, in a brief of August 5th, that he would always confirm and consider valid anything which his legate might do. His reason for keeping this back lay in his anxiety to avoid anything in the negotiations about the return to ecclesiastical unity which might, in his opinion, be regarded as a business transaction, or the Papal concessions in the light of a bargain. The no less conscientious Muzzarelli, however, did not share Pole’s views on this point. He impressed on the legate that he must, of necessity, inform the Emperor, as well as the English sovereigns, of the full extent of his powers ; they must have an exact knowledge of this, in order to be in a position to take the most suitable measures for bringing back England to the faith. In consequence of Pole’s reserve, the goodwill of the Pope was called in question in Brussels as well as in London, and he was suspected of first wishing to gain the submission of England to the Holy See, and of intending then to have recourse to stern measures by demanding the return of the Church property.

As the powers conferred by the brief of September 28th did not appear to either Philip or Charles to be sufficiently comprehensive, the Emperor, enjoined his ambassador in Rome, Manrique, to request Julius III to amplify them. People in Rome, he wrote to Manrique, appeared to think that the present possessors of the Church property thought more of their material prosperity than of the welfare of their souls, and also that they were very numerous, and that, in their endeavours to secure their property, they would make desperate attempts to stir up the people. Pole, who preferred to have special powers and authorization to those contained generally in the brief of August 5th, added his request to that of the Emperor. Besides the authority conferred in the brief of September 28th, to enter into agreements and negotiations with regard to Church property, they begged that the further brief might confer the right, expressed in clear and distinct terms, of absolutely renouncing Church property, and that the clause in the former brief, to the effect that, in cases of special importance, application should be made to Rome, should be completely withdrawn.

Before the answer to this application arrived, the last obstacles in the way of Pole’s appearance in England were removed. As the steps which he had taken with regard to the Pope showed, the Emperor was now in earnest about his promise to allow the legate to fulfil the duties of his office, while Philip also wished to be a ruler in a Catholic kingdom. Mary openly declared that she was ready to give her life for the re-establishment of ecclesiastical unity. Two Dominicans and two Franciscans, one of whom was the learned Alfonso de Castro, had come to England with Philip, and preached in London in their habits ; although they had, at first, been mocked at, on this account, they soon gained great influence by their learning. It made a great impression, also, when Gardiner, on September 30th, openly acknowledged, in a sermon preached before a large congregation at St. Paul’s Cross, that he had grievously erred by his co-operation in the schism under Henry VIII, and that his imprisonment under Edward VI had been a just punishment for what he had done.

If the favourable opportunity was not to be missed, the departure of Pole for England was very urgent, for Parliament was to be opened on November 12th, and the question of reunion must then be discussed.

The Imperial ambassador in London, Simon Renard, arrived in Brussels just at the right moment, on October 20th. On the 22nd, he explained the state of affairs in England to Pole, in the presence of the nuncio. He said that three classes of people there were opponents of reconciliation with Rome : those in whose eyes religious freedom meant the same thing as carnal freedom; those who had been enriched by the goods of the Church ; and, finally, the ambitious, to whom risings and unrest in the country were ever welcome. The expressions in the brief of September 28th had aroused fears in England that Pole would take legal proceedings against the holders of Church property after the reunion with Rome, and demand restitution. Then Renard laid the following questions before the English Cardinal. Did he propose to make a solemn entry into London, invested with the insignia of his office as legate? Would he exercise his powers in agreement with Mary and Philip? Would the Pope grant him an amplification of the powers he had already received? Pole, answered that they must, above all things, cease to expect that the breach could be healed by this prolonged delay. He would make no difficulty about appearing in England as a simple Papal envoy, without the insignia of a legate, he would not hesitate to seek the advice of their Majesties in the exercise of his powers, and he had no doubt as to the readiness of the Pope to meet their wishes.

In a further meeting on October 25th, Renard again returned to the question of Church property, and the extension of the powers given him by the Pope. In order to satisfy him, Pole showed him the secret brief of August 5th, in which Julius III had, from the first, promised his concurrence with all the decisions of the legate. Renard was exceedingly pleased and declared that if the existence of this document had been known earlier, all the recent steps which had been taken with regard to the Pope would have been unnecessary. On Renard’s advice, the brief was also laid before the Emperor, who remarked in astonishment to Muzzarelli : “If the legate is not already in England, he has only himself to thank for it.’’

Pole’s time, therefore, had at last arrived. His joy, as Muzzarelli wrote was “inconceivably great,’’ and in his letters to London and Rome he expressed it in the strongest terms. His satisfaction could only be increased by a letter from the queen, on November 6th. She informed him that she had, on the previous Saturday, announced to her Council, in a formal sitting and in the presence of her husband, that in her opinion the time had now come to summon the legate and to complete the reconciliation with Rome. All had unanimously agreed with this opinion of the queen, and two of the most influential members, Lord Paget and Lord Edward Hastings, had at once been commissioned to repair to Brussels and invite the legate to England in the name of the Royal Council. On November 8th the English ambassador in Brussels, John Mason, showed this official invitation to the Emperor, and on the following day, Granvelle informed the English Cardinal that it was now time to prepare for the journey to London.

On November nth Paget and Hastings presented themselves before the legate, and again at once referred to the burning question of the Church property, which now formed the only obstacle to the reconciliation of their country with the Pope. Pole had his farewell audience with the Emperor on the 12th, and on the following day he left Brussels. His journey to London was like a triumphal procession. On November 19th he was received at Calais, on his first entering into English territory, in the most solemn manner, by the marshall at the head of the garrison, and all the officials. When he landed at Dover he was welcomed by Lord Montague and Thirlby, the Bishop of Ely, who were accompanied by a great number of the nobility, in the name of the queen and King Philip. The further he advanced, the greater was the number of the nobles of the country who joined him, until at last 1800 gentlemen formed his retinue.

At Canterbury Pole was received with joyful acclamations by the people. From thence he sent Richard Pate, Bishop of Worcester, to their Majesties, to ask when they would grant him an audience. When he proceeded, two days later, two members of Parliament brought him the news at Gravesend that the sentence of attainder pronounced against him by Henry VIII. had been reversed by Parliament, amid cries of jubilation, in the presence of the queen and King Philip. In handing him the document which had been drawn up concerning this, the two members informed him that their Majesties desired him to appear before them as legate, wearing all the insignia of his office.

The same proposal had been made to Pole at Canterbury, but then he had declined to accept it, but now, as their Majesties wished it, he had to give way. The large silver legate’s cross was affixed to the prow of the royal barge which the queen had sent to meet him at Gravesend, and the Cardinal, accompanied by a great number of vessels, which carried the greatest nobles of the land, sailed up the Thames to Westminster. There he was welcomed on landing by Gardiner, at the gate by King Philip, and at the top of the steps, which he ascended in the company of Philip, by the queen, who was radiantly happy, and declared that she had not felt such gladness on her accession to the throne. This memorable day was November 24th. Pole took up his temporary residence in the archiepiscopal palace at Lambeth.

The task which had brought the legate to England could only be accomplished with the help of Parliament, which had been sitting since November 12th. In the opening speech, Gardiner declared that the first Parliament of the queen’s reign had restored the former religious conditions, the second had confirmed her marriage treaty, and the third was asked to bring about the union of the kingdom with the Universal Church. No opposition to the royal wishes was expected, and both Houses had very willingly reversed the sentence of attainder on Pole. The manner in which the reconciliation with Rome was now to be effected in Parliament was discussed by Pole and Gardiner on November 25th. This was determined by the legate on the following day, and carried into execution, as had been already arranged, on November 28th, 29th and 30th. It happened very fortunately that, just as Pole was deliberating with the sovereigns, the Papal Bull, containing all the alterations asked for by the Cardinal, should have been delivered to him.

On November 28th Parliament assembled in the royal palace of Whitehall. Pole was solemnly brought in and delivered a long discourse setting forth the purpose of his mission. He thanked them, first of all, for having, by their repeal of the act of attainder, restored to him his native land, his estates and his title of nobility. He had returned, he said, to restore to his country her title of nobility, which in the sorrowful events of the preceding decades she had forfeited. Till now, England had distinguished herself by her devotion to Christ and the Holy See; this devotion she had fostered, and through Boniface, had spread among other nations. She had been deprived of this great prerogative and noble title because the Holy See would not give way to a criminal passion, and because, in contradiction to their forefathers, she had gone to foreign nations in order to be indoctrinated with the abom­inations of their false teaching. Now, however, God had raised up a queen who would lead her country out of this house of bondage, and the two highest powers on earth, the Pope and the Emperor, had come to support her. King Philip, as the representative of the Emperor, would establish temporal peace, and he himself, as the representative of the Pope, had come to give his countrymen spiritual peace. Only two conditions were necessarily bound up with the reunion of the country with the Holy See: they must acknowledge their transgression, and they must repeal the laws against the Papal supremacy.

After this speech, Pole retired, and Gardiner continued the discussion. His exhortation to reunion with the Church was received with universal applause, and on the following day the proposal was formally voted upon and carried.

On November 30th, Parliament again assembled in the great hall of the royal palace. Philip sat at the queen’s left hand, and the Cardinal on her right, but at a greater distance from the throne. Gardiner announced the decision of the previous day, and begged their Majesties to act as mediators between the representatives of the people and the legate. A petition to this effect was then read aloud, which all present loudly acclaimed, after which the queen and King Philip handed it to the legate and begged absolution for schism and all censures. Pole then caused the Bull concerning his powers and authority to be read, and gave thanks to God in a short speech for England’s reconciliation. Then all, the queen and king not excepted, fell upon their knees and received absolution in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. A loud and oft repeated “Amen” resounded on all sides, and a solemn Te Deum in the royal chapel closed the proceedings.

Two days later, on the first Sunday in Advent, Pole made his entry into London, amid universal enthusiasm. After Bishop Bonner had celebrated High Mass in the presence of the legate and King Philip, Gardiner preached at St. Paul’s Cross on the text from the liturgy of the day : “ Now is the time to arouse from sleep.” He was listened to by 25,000 people. When Pole returned to the archiepiscopal palace, the people thronged round him in such crowds to receive his blessings, that Parpaglia writes that he could not have believed that London contained so many inhabitants.

The burning question of the Church property was finally settled immediately after the reconciliation. Two petitions on the matter were addressed to the Crown, one from Parliament, and the other from the clergy. In the former, Parliament besought their Majesties to obtain from the legate all those dispensations which the changes during the time of schism made necessary, and they desired, in particular, that the right of possession should be assured to the present holders of Church lands. In the other petition the clergy renounced all claim on the stolen ecclesiastical property. Pole issued the desired decree on December 24th. In accordance with this, all the charitable institutions and schools founded during the schism were to remain in being, and all the marriages and episcopal “acta” concluded during this period without the necessary Papal dispensation were declared valid, while the possessors of Church property were not to be disturbed, either now or in the future, on ecclesiastical grounds. A comprehensive Bill of January 1555 then declared that all the statutes promulgated since the twentieth year of Henry VIII against the Papal authority were invalid, and confirmed the legate’s decree.

As a sign that a new era had begun and that the old troubles were forgotten, at the return of England to the Universal Church, all those who still remained in prison on account of their participation in the rebellion of Northumberland and Wyatt, were released from the Tower on January 18th, 1555, Elizabeth returned to court, while Courtenay received “permission” to travel for the purpose of improving his education. He died suddenly in Venice in 1556.

Viscount Montague, Bishop Thirlby and Sir Edward Carne were appointed ambassadors to Rome on February 18th, to announce officially to the Pope the happy news of England’s return to the Church.

Julius III received the first news of the events of St. Andrew’s Day, on December 14th, in a letter from the hand of King Philip. The Feast of St. Andrew, to which he owed his deliverance at the sack of Rome, again became for him a day of rejoicing. He caused the royal letter to be read to as many Cardinals, prelates and others as the Hall of Consistory could contain, and then proceeded to St. Peter’s in order to assist at a Mass of thanksgiving in St. Andrew’s Chapel. Afterwards, prayers of thanksgiving for fourteen days were prescribed and a Jubilee indulgence proclaimed. The joyful events were celebrated in other parts of Italy, as well as in Rome, by solemn thanksgivings and bonfires, while pamphlets announced the great triumph in the most distant lands. The auditor of the Rota, Antonio Agostini, was commissioned to present Queen Mary with the Golden Rose, her consort receiving a consecrated sword and hat of state.

 

 

 

CHAPTER XI.

Spread of Christianity in the New World.

 

 

The Apostolic See devoted special attention to the missions in the New World during the reign of Julius III. A brief of July 20th, 1554, made an attempt to provide for the scarcity of missionaries in America, in accordance with which suitable members of the Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian Orders could receive permission to go as missionaries to America from the Archbishop of Seville, the Bishops of Avila, the Patriarch of the West Indies, and the former Bishop of Pamplona, Antonio Fonseca, even without the sanction of the superiors of their own Order. A new bishopric was founded at la Plata on June 27th, 1552, in the modern Bolivia, for Spanish South America. Portuguese South America had always been under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Funchal, in Madeira, whom Clement VII. had appointed metropolitan for the whole of the Portuguese colonies. This arrangement was brought to an end on February 25th, 1551, and San Salvador (Bahia) was founded as a bishopric for Brazil. Soon afterwards, on June 26th, 1551, Funchal lost its metropolitan rights as an independent see, and became a suffragan bishopric of Lisbon.

The superior of the Jesuit mission in Brazil, Manoel Nobrega, had, in particular, worked, in his letters to Europe, for the establishment of a separate bishopric there. It was his opinion that only the respect felt for a bishop, and the power which he could wield, would be sufficient to improve the moral conditions of the country, of which Nobrega’s letters give such a sad picture.

For some time after his arrival, Nobrega’s letters bore the stamp of joyful anticipation. In spite of their cannibalism and polygamy, the savages seemed to be easily capable of civilization. They asked for instruction in reading and writing, as well as in Christian doctrine; they came willingly to the Christian church, and behaved there like white people. “Nowhere in the world,” wrote Nobrega on August 10th, 1549, “had such favourable prospects been opened to Christianity,” while again, on September 14th, 1551, he thought the savages in Pernambuco would be easy to convert, but that he would require a larger number of priests than was at present at his disposal to continue the good work. By the end of 1553, four Jesuit settlements had already been founded, in Bahia, Porto Seguro, Espirito Santo and San Vincente, to which Piratininga, the present San Paolo, was added in January, 1554. The instruction of the Indian children, to which the missionaries zealously devoted themselves, seemed specially full of promise.

The atrocities committed by the white people, who were for the most part deported criminals, soon destroyed these hopes. Nobrega complains that they spoke of the natives as dogs and treated them as such. They introduced slave raids (saltos), induced the aborigines to embark on ships under false pretences, and sailed away with them and sold them as slaves. Their owners, moreover, troubled themselves very little about the welfare of their slaves, they worked them to death and then threw them in heaps on dunghills. Frequently they took possession of the Indian women, white women having only left Europe in small numbers, and real marriages with coloured people not being considered fitting, the consequence of these conditions was a most shocking state of immorality.

Here as elsewhere, the missionaries proved themselves almost the only friends of the oppressed people. They ex­horted and protested in their sermons, and backed up their protests by the refusal of the Sacraments; they assembled the slaves to instruct them in Christianity, and wrote to the King of Portugal to send out free labourers1 and white women. They met with a certain amount of success, and in some cases astonishing results were obtained. Everything was spoilt however, as far as the immediate future was concerned, by the arrival of the bishop, upon whom such hopes had been built. Pedro Fernandez Sardinha, who reached Bahia on June 22nd, 1552, was not capable, in spite of his zeal, of filling his difficult post in a successful manner ; the clergy, too, whom he had brought with him from Portugal, were the dregs of their sacred calling, and destroyed by their bad example and their indiscriminate dispensation of the Sacraments, everything which the missionaries had, with so much trouble, attained. The activities of the Jesuits among the white population in Bahia were thus quite brought to an end. Nobrega retired to some distance from the town, leaving only one missionary behind for the benefit of the children. The bishop fell into the hands of the cannibals in 1556 and was eaten by them.

The Indians of the primeval forests had no fixed place of abode ; it might easily happen that the missionary who instructed them would find, on his return, nothing but their burnt down village. Besides this, the different hamlets often consisted of no more than six or seven huts, and this scattered condition of the Indians greatly increased the difficulty of instructing them. Marriages worthy of the name were also almost unknown among them, and they had neither chiefs nor any idea of community life; each one was king in his own hut and did as he pleased.

The missionaries were, therefore, convinced that until a certain amount of civilization and order had been introduced among them, there could be no question of lasting success, and they were extremely careful in baptizing them, chiefly on this ground.

As far as lay in their power, the missionaries themselves endeavoured to pave the way for more civilized conditions, by uniting several hamlets into one larger village, with a view to rendering the work of instruction easier, or, in accordance with the principle adopted in the later settlements, by collecting the converts into special communities. Law and order, however, could only be introduced among the Indians on a large scale, when the state lent its assistance for this purpose. Nobrega, therefore, wrote in 1554 that everything was again going to ruin among the savages in the neighbourhood of Bahia; tribes were destroying and devouring one another in marauding expeditions, while families were living in a per­petual state of feud with each other. It was the duty of the authorities to intervene at this juncture, for the savages themselves would prefer a mild condition of dependence to the present state of affairs.

The only obstacle was that the whites took little interest in the civilization of the natives. On the contrary, it was considered sound policy to encourage the dissensions among them, for the safety of the white people was based on the fact of the Indians destroying one another. Therefore they incited one tribe against the next, encouraging them in the enjoyment of human flesh, while there were not wanting even white people who shared their dreadful feasts, with a view to giving them an example. The Creoles, cross-breeds between whites and Indians, also worked in direct opposition to the missionaries, by trying to make the natives who had been baptized renounce Christianity, and treating them as cowards or women if they would not do so.

It is astonishing and worthy of all admiration that the missionaries did not lose heart under such difficulties. Living in the greatest poverty, hated by the rich on account of their sermons against the slave raids, hindered sometimes by the governor, who did not pay them the cost of maintenance settled on them by the king, hampered by differences of opin­ion with the bishop, and crushed by the consciousness that their success did not correspond to the labour it involved, they never ceased to defend the rights of humanity, in disputations and in letters to Portugal laying their complaints before the king, and all the time continuing their efforts to comfort and alleviate the miseries of the unfortunate natives, in as far as it lay in their power to do so.

As the labours of the Jesuits met, for the present, with so much opposition in the Portuguese settlements on the coast, they earnestly hoped that better prospects would open before them somewhere else. This seemed to be the case in Para­guay.[666] That country had been subject to the Spaniards for years, and what the missionaries had been vainly trying to do in Brazil, namely, to establish law and order among the Indians, had been already accomplished there. The natives had been instructed in Christianity by travelling missionaries of the Franciscan Order, and afterwards by secular priests ; as, however, there was a great need of spiritual assistance, the Indians had repeatedly, since 1552, sent messages to the Jesuits in Brazil to come to their aid. There was no want of readiness on the part of the Jesuits to grant their request, but the plan fell through on account of the opposition of the Portuguese authorities.

In 1557, with the arrival of a new governor, Men de Sa, conditions in Brazil took a more favourable turn. Men de Sa supported the missionaries in every way. He at once reunited the natives in the neighbourhood of Bahia in three large villages, each of which contained a church ; schools arose for the Indian children, while law and justice were administered among the natives in a humane manner. These efforts were not, it is true, received with any thanks by the colonists.

While the mission on the Brazilian coast was thus preparing for its period of greatest development by a time of probation, the conversion of the Indians in Mexico was being definitely provided for.

Fernando Cortez had been accompanied by two priests when he first landed in the New World, and on the news of the completion of the conquest of Mexico in 1523, five Franciscans had immediately set sail for America. The actual founders of Christianity in New Spain, however, were the twelve Franciscans who, invested with the fullest powers by Leo X on April 25th, 1521, and by Adrian VI on May 13th, 1522, entered the capital in 1524 under Martin of Valencia, who died in 1534. Cortez himself went out to meet them with a brilliant retinue, falling on his knees and kissing their hands, to the amazement of the numerous natives who had flocked to the spot, and introducing them to the chiefs as the ambassadors of heaven. Numerous members of the other Orders now joined this first band of Franciscan missionaries, lists of whose names are still in existence. In the years 1529 and 1530 no less than twenty-six, in 1538 thirty-one, and in 1542 eighty-six priests received the royal permission to proceed to Mexico.[672] Two reports which Martin of Valencia and Juan Zumarraga sent to Europe on June 12th, 1531, telling of the success of their labours, awakened great enthusiasm in many persons for the vocation to the missionary life.[673] According to Martin of Valencia, in 1531 there were already twenty Franciscan convents in Mexico, of which the greater number were, indeed, little more than Indian huts, but in 1555 the number of Franciscan settlements had increased to fifty, and at the close of the XVIth century to seventy. The Franciscans were joined in 1526 by the Dominicans and in 1533 by the Augustinians. In 1528 Juan Zumarraga, chosen by Charles V, arrived in the capital of the country as bishop-elect of Mexico and protector of the Indians. He was consecrated bishop in Spain in 1532, and returned to his diocese with numerous new missionaries. As early as 1546 the city of Mexico was able to be raised to be an archbishopric, with the suffragan sees of Oaxaca, Mechoacan, Tlaxcala, Guatemala and Chiapa.

The Franciscans in Mexico from the very beginning made the instructions of youth the chief aim of their work. In each of their convents great halls were erected, in which on an average 500 native boys, and sometimes as many as between 800 and 1000, received instruction in reading, writing and ecclesiastical chant. They had, especially at first, the sons of the more influential natives in view, who would later occupy the more important positions. The education of the girls was also looked after, and for this purpose pious women, mostly members of the Third Order, were brought over from Spain to act as teachers. Bishop Zumarraga, in a letter to Charles V on December 21st, 1537, declared that it was one of the most pressing requirements of the mission that a large college for boys should be built in each diocese, and a second one for girls. The instruction given to the boys should be extended so as to include Latin grammar, while the girls should be educated from about their sixth year by nuns and pious women, and be married when they attained the age of twelve. By their zeal in the erection of schools the Franciscans must be regarded as the founders of the Mexican system of public education, for in the old Aztec kingdom instruction by means of schools was still unknown.

A simple lay-brother, Peter of Ghent (died 1572) won special renown as an instructor of youth, teaching the children of the capital for almost fifty years. In the morning they learned reading, writing and singing, while in the afternoon he gave them lessons in Christian doctrine. He had chosen fifty of the most advanced pupils and sent them out on Sundays, two by two, so that they might fill the office of catechists to their countrymen. Peter was also one of the most influential men in Mexico, from his knowledge of building and his skill in many crafts, so that Alonso de Montufar, Zumarraga’s successor in the archiepiscopal see (1551-1569) said that it was not he, but Brother Peter, who was the real bishop of Mexico. Peter of Ghent could actually have become Archbishop of Mexico, if he had not preferred to remain in his humble position.

While the missionaries were teaching the young people Spanish, they themselves learned the Mexican language from their pupils, and one of their chief reasons for beginning operations by the instruction of the young was that they saw in this the easiest way of acquiring the idioms of the country.

After they had attained to sufficient proficiency in this, the conversion of the actual Aztec territory was accomplished in a comparatively short time. The heathen temples were for the most part destroyed, and the images broken. Zumarraga writes as early as 1531 that 500 temples had been cast down and 20,000 idols burned. Catholic chapels arose on every side, of which Peter of Ghent had already erected 100 by 1529,4 and to these the Indians flocked in great numbers.

The capital of the country might serve as a symbol of the religious change which had taken place, for it had arisen in less than four years from the ruins of the city destroyed by Cortez, more beautiful and magnificent than before. Where the temple of the god of war had formerly stood, the cathedral, dedicated to St. Francis, now arose, into the foundations of which the broken images of the Aztec gods had been thrown. In the part of the city called Tlatelolco a second cathedral was to be found, besides which there were about thirty churches for the natives.

In many cases, it is true, the conversions were only superficial; Bishop Zumarraga complains in 1537 that Indians of advanced age kept up their old superstitious customs, and relinquished their idols and habits, especially that of polygamy, most unwillingly; the missionaries, therefore, had above all things to endeavour to confirm the youth in the Christian religion. The learned Bernadino of Sahagun (died 1590) thought that the early missionaries had been wanting in the “wisdom of the serpent”, for they had not discovered that the Indians went to the Christian church, while still retaining their old idols. The missionaries, however, who lived in the closest touch with the people, could not be permanently mistaken as to their mentality, and there are many reasons which explain the rapid conversion of such great masses of the natives.

The victory over the old Mexico was, in the eyes of the Indians, also a victory over the Mexican gods, and they had to explain to themselves the fact that the Spaniards were able to destroy the idols unpunished, in the same way. Besides this the old religion had been a hard yoke for those of the lower classes. The blood of their own children was sometimes demanded of them, and the prospect of immortality was held out to them, not as a state which would depend on their moral conduct, but rather on their rank in life, or the manner of their death. The contrast between the arrogant Mexican priests, who considered themselves far above the common people, and the simple unselfish Franciscans could not fail to bring out the superiority of the missionaries. It made a great impression on the Indians, that the religious went about barefoot, and were content with as poor nourishment as they had themselves. Of still greater weight was the fact that the missionaries showed a comprehension of the needs of the poor natives, and defended and protected them whenever they could. That the conquerors, whom they looked up to as “ white gods ” should so reverence these poor missionaries, increased still more the esteem in which they held them. The national place of pilgrimage, Guadelupe, had also a great influence on the conversion of the Indians ; they were firmly convinced that Our Lady had appeared in 1531 to one of their own people there, and had left her picture painted on an Indian cloak, as a palpable proof that the Christian religion was not for the white man alone.

The greatest obstacle to the christianizing of Mexico came, here as elsewhere, from the whites. “The Indians,” writes Peter of Ghent on February 15th, 1552,3 to the Emperor, “are overwhelmed with work and cannot earn enough to live. They must perform compulsory labour for their masters for a whole month, perhaps at a distance of forty or fifty miles from their homes, and are not, during that time, able to till their own fields, and when they return to their huts they find their wives and children in misery, with hardly enough to cover them, and their little property has then to be sold to provide them with the means of existence.” As a consequence of this, the Indian population began to die out. On March 8th, 1594, the missionaries wrote to the Spanish government that the tax­paying Indians had diminished by 300,000 in seven years, and that without any pestilence.

The Spanish government cannot be blamed altogether for this state of affairs. A great many royal regulations were issued in favour of the natives of Mexico, and the first vice­roys, Mendoza and Velasco, also showed much good will. The work in the mines by the Indians, was, for example, abolished by Velasco, who said that the freedom of the Indians was of more value than all the mines in the world, and that all human and divine laws could not be trampled underfoot for the sake of profit. In consequence, the condition of the natives really did improve; they won more and more freedom, were able to do their work as they desired, and, except in the towns on the coast, actual slavery never seems to have gained a firm footing in Mexico. They were not condemned to extinction, as in so many other colonies ; among the thirteen and a half millions of inhabitants of Mexico today, there are little more than two million white people, the others being, with the exception of 80,000 negroes, all Indians or Mestizoes.

But, in the early times after the conquest, and especially in the years when no viceroy ruled in Mexico, and the country was under an “Audiencia” or Court of Justice, the condition of the natives was indeed unbearable. The good will of the viceroy was not able to cope with the force of prevailing circumstances, and nobody in Mexico troubled much about laws which had been made in Spain. In the struggle against these evils the Franciscans rendered services both to Mexico and to humanity which cannot be too highly esteemed. They never ceased to preach against the oppression of the defenceless, and addressed complaint after complaint to Spain. On this account they were calumniated, alms were refused to them, the Indians were taught to be suspicious of them, and their correspondence with Spain was watched. They succeeded, however, by seizing favourable opportunities, in getting their letters of complaint through to Spain, with the result that the “Audiencia” was abolished, and another court, favourable to the Franciscans, was set up in its place.

It was, above all, Bishop Zumarraga who carried on the struggle against the “Audiencia” and later on, after he had been, on February 24th, 1528, together with the Dominican, Julian Garces, first Bishop of Tlaxcala, appointed “Protector of the Indians,” he did not cease to enter the lists on behalf of his clients. The Franciscans, Motolinia (died 1569) and Mendieta (died 1604) were also the champions of freedom for the Indians. The provincials of all the Orders working in Mexico addressed a joint petition to Philip II in 1562, begging him to avert the ruin which threatened the new Church in Mexico. Indeed, it was the belief of many people in the country that the Indians there would have been exterminated, as were those of the Antilles and elsewhere, had it not been for the determination of the Franciscans.

As in the actual territory of the Aztecs, the Franciscans also spread the faith in the neighbouring countries. They went very early to Mechoacan, which was able to be formed into a separate province of the Order with fifty convents in 1575. They had a great deal to suffer in Yucatan, where the Spaniards endeavoured in every way to prevent the christianizing of the natives, but in spite of this some thirty-seven mission centres were founded between 1534 and 1600. The Franciscans began their work in Guatemala in 1539; in the year 1603 they had already twenty-four convents, while Nicaragua and Costa Rica formed an independent province in 1579, with twelve settlements. They had been working among the savage tribes of Zacatecas since 1546 at least, and suffered much persecution there, not a few of them losing their lives.

In Guatemala the Dominicans had preceded the Franciscans in 1538. Under the guidance of Dominic of Betanzos their sphere of activity was also extended over many provinces. They had three large convents, in the capital of the country, in Oaxaca and Puebla, besides twenty-two settlements in Mexico proper, twenty-one in the territory of the Zapotecas, seventeen among the Mixtecas, as well as one in Vera Cruz and another in S. Juan d’Uloa. They were specially active in Nicaragua, as well as in Guatemala. To the north of Guatemala there was a tract of land named Terra de Guerra, so called on account of the savagery of the inhabitants and the vain attempts which had been made to subdue it. When Las Casas’ book concerning the conversion of the Indians was written, many Spaniards scornfully challenged the Dominicans to attempt in this country the use of the purely peaceful means of conversion advocated by the member of their Order. The Dominicans accepted the challenge, and they succeeded, without the support of armed power, in gaining an entrance into the country and in changing the former “land of war” into the present day Veia Paz. Royal decrees assured the freedom of the converted Indians.

Among the Dominican bishops, Julian Garces, first Bishop of Tlaxcala, was, together with Las Casas, a zealous champion of the Indians, as well as their defender. He addressed a memorandum to Paul III, calling on the authority of the Holy See itself against those who would deny to the Indians all power of being received as members of the Christian body. In this he represents in glowing terms, the good moral behaviour of his proteges. Paul III answered this memorandum by his celebrated brief against slavery.

The zealous labours of the missionaries in Mexico also bore great fruit in the advancement of learning. The science of languages has absolutely no other source of information with regard to the ancient languages of Mexico than their researches. Two of the first Franciscans, Alonso Molina and Bernardino de Sahagun had mastered all the intricacies of the prevailing language of the country, the Aztec. Molina composed a dic­tionary and grammar of Aztec, and we may specially mention Sahagun’s translation of the Epistles and Gospels into classical Aztec. Franciscans and Dominicans in the XVIth century also composed dictionaries and grammars of the other languages of Mexico, Miztec, Zapotec, Maya and a number of other dialects, which were in part printed at the time, for use in spreading the faith.

The necessity of gaining a knowledge of the ideas and cus­toms of the Aztecs, also led to the study of the antiquities of this remarkable people. Bernardino de Sahagun succeeded, after the most exhaustive and diligent study, in providing data which are acknowledged to be the most complete which are to be obtained in this field of research. A work, planned on a very large scale, which deals with the antiquities of Mexico from heathen times, as well as with its ecclesiastical history, was composed by Juan de Torquemada, the “Livy of New Spain.” The same subject was treated by Toribio de Benavente, one of the twelve missionaries who came to Mexico in 1524. He was greeted at the time by the Indians with the name of “Motolinia,” which means “poor,” on account of his poverty-stricken appearance, and from that he always made use of the name. In his fight for the freedom of the Indians he was keenly opposed to Las Casas, whose ideas seemed to him exaggerated. Jeronimo de Mendieta deals in his Indian ecclesiastical history with the christianizing of Mexico. Almost everything that we know concerning ancient Mexico and its wonderful civilization can be directly traced to these historical works of the Franciscans, which, for the most part, were only published during the XIXth century.

 

 

CHAPTER XII.

The East Indies and the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier.

 

In the East Indies, the work of the missions was not greatly developed under Julius III, although it gained a firmer footing and struck deeper roots. “We are not yet troubling,” writes the Jesuit, Melchior Nunez, on December 7th, 1552, from Bassein,”1 to make many Christians. Those whom we gain we first and above all things thoroughly instruct, and make it our chief endeavour to retain those already won over to the faith and to teach them, for up to the present matters have been very serious in this respect.”

On the first arrival of the Portuguese in India, rough soldiers had endeavoured, in their own way, to assist in the spreading of Christianity by immediately baptizing the native prisoners of war. Priests, too, had been in the habit of administering baptism in the same “military” way. There were, happily, exceptions, and Nunez speaks of the Franciscan, Antonio do Porto, who took great pains with the instruction of the new converts, as being one of these. Fra Antonio is known to have not only destroyed temples and erected churches, but also to have founded several institutions for the education of orphan boys. It was not the same everywhere, however. The vicar of Goa, had, according to his own testimony, baptized no fewer than 120,000 heathens on the Fishing Coast in three years, and often from 1000 to 1500 a day. Yet all these had, as Francis Xavier wrote in 1542, nothing of Christianity about them but the name.

Francis Xavier had recognized from the first that the principal work to be done lay in the instruction of the new converts, and he, therefore, laid the greatest stress on this point. He did not, by any means, bring a cut and dried scheme with him from Europe for the furtherance of this object, for we find him, in 1542, earnestly begging, in a letter from India, the advice of his colleagues in Rome, as to how he had better proceed with his missionary work. He also, at first, administered baptism immediately after the most essential lessons had been given, leaving further instruction for the future.

Experience, however, soon showed that much more care must be exercised, as so many begged to be received into the Church from merely human motives.[708] These nominal Christians afterwards either refused to listen to instruction, or eventually returned to the worship of their idols and to their heathen customs. The Jesuits, therefore, instituted a catechumenate of from three to four months, and those who were found to be insincere were sternly sent away.

Ignatius of Loyola had given twofold advice for the purpose of confirming Christianity in India: first, the instruction of the children must be provided for, and, secondly, houses for the instruction of the catechumens must be established for the adults. His advice was joyfully followed by the Jesuits in India. The principal care of Francis Xavier was to gather the children together in the first place, and through them influence the parents ; he introduced this method of procedure throughout the whole of India. At a period when instruction was nowhere given to foreigners in the Jesuit colleges in Europe, schools arose everywhere in India where the Jesuits were to be found, in which the native children were taught reading, writing and catechism. It was not, at first, possible to build houses for catechumens in each place, but, in 1555, several rooms were set apart in the college of Goa, where from twelve to fifteen catechumens were constantly receiving instruction, which lasted for two or three months. Female catechumens received the necessary instruction under the supervision of a respectable matron in the hospital.

Further progress was made, especially by Henrico Henriquez, to whom it was of great advantage in his mission on the Fishing Coast, that all the natives belonged to the same tribe, and that the whole population, as such, had embraced Christianity. To make up, to some extent, for the want of priests, Henriquez introduced a system of instruction given by catechists. He chose the most gifted among the new converts, and appointed them to give Christian instruction in the various villages, and in cases of necessity to baptize, while serious offences were to be brought to the knowledge of the missionaries. As Henriquez was very careful in choosing his catechists, their number did not exceed nine or ten ; they discharged their duties to the complete satisfaction of the missionaries, so that Henriquez thought that, should the priests all die, Christianity might still be maintained by these catechists on the Fishing Coast. A trustworthy man was also appointed in each village, who held meetings for prayer, and gave religious instruction in the native tongue. The new converts learned the usual prayers in Latin, according to the Roman custom, although Henriquez soon allowed them much liberty in this respect.

A further praiseworthy practice of Henriquez and his companions lay in the fact that they earnestly devoted themselves to the study of the language of the country. The first Jesuit missionaries, who found themselves confronted by a multiplicity of native dialects, and did not wish to confine their activities to limited districts, had to make use of an interpreter for their sermons. With these, however, they often had unpleasant experiences. When Henriquez understood Tamil better, he found many mistakes made by the interpreter in the translation of the ordinary prayers. The new translation, as he wrote to Rome, cost him from three to four months hard work, as no words existed in the language for Christian ideas. He reported this so that the missionaries on the Congo might be warned ; they should not attempt the translation of the prayers until they had a thorough command of the language. Nicholas Lancilotti also said frequently in his letters to Ignatius that the missionaries in India should have special districts assigned to them for their labours, and should be strictly enjoined to master the language of the country. Little confidence could be placed in interpreters, and Henriquez owed his success in great measure to the fact that he had thoroughly learned the language of the natives. It was Henriquez who drew up the first Tamil grammar, which he printed for the use of the missionaries.

The Portuguese officials formed the greatest obstacle in the way of the advancement of the mission. Xavier had already written to Rodriguez in Portugal, telling him that he should never agree to any of his friends being sent to India as an official; however upright a man might be at home, they all fell into dishonourable ways in India. A post in India was considered as much a reward for services rendered as an easy way of making money; the native tribes who had both embraced Christianity and submitted to the Portuguese rule, were especially plundered in the most ruthless manner. It had already happened, writes a missionary from the Fishing Coast in 1555, that an official with a salary of 2000 or 3000 ducats, had in the course of one or two years gathered together from 100,000 to 200,000 ducats of the royal revenue, by extortion from the poor pearl fishers. Such people were, naturally, hostile to the missionaries, as the protectors of the poor, did not pay them the sums the king had appointed for them, and raised obstacles in their way whenever they could. Lancilotti also wrote from the Fishing Coast, that it was hardly possible to describe the ruin they caused ; all that the missionaries had taken many years to bring about, was destroyed in a few months by their avarice, and there was a real danger lest the whole of the 70,000 Christians on this coast should fall away through their behaviour. Francis Xavier therefore wrote to John III that he would “flee” to Japan, so as not to lose his time in India; it was a “martyrdom” to see everything destroyed which had been built up with so much trouble. Henriquez also was of opinion that with a good official, much more would be gained in the matter of the conversion of the natives with a single priest, than with twenty under a bad one.

The immorality of the Portuguese was almost a greater obstacle to the spread of Christianity than their avarice. Alfonso Cyprian, for example, writes from S. Thome that the ecclesiastical as well as the secular authorities conducted themselves in such a manner that it was a scandal to the natives when the Europeans led such lives ; the new converts fell away again, while others refused baptism when they saw the abandoned way in which Christians lived. It is true that S. Thome, which lay on the extreme borders of the Portuguese territory, had become a place of refuge for all those who dared not live elsewhere. Similar complaints were also heard, however, from other parts of India. The ease with which slaves could be procured in India furthered the general immorality in a special way. Rich Portuguese possessed as many as 300 or more, so that it was, in many cases, possible for them to have regular harems of twenty or more slaves.

To all this was added the invasion of southern India by Islam, in which the missionaries not only found a powerful rival, concerning whose progress the Jesuits often complained, but also a dangerous enemy. In a petition to King John III the missionaries relate that in 1554 the Arabs had caused the loss of two Christian missions in Travancore, by inducing the king, with presents of money, to forbid the Christian priests to preach or build churches. The new’ converts, especially in the Moluccas, where the natives had eagerly embraced Christianity, suffered from the attacks of Saracen pirates. Many Christians were murdered or plundered, others being thrown into the sea if no one offered to buy them, while many Christian villages were burned to the ground.

As they had done in the East Indies, so did the Jesuits penetrate into Abyssinia as the pioneers of the Church. The hope of again being able to reunite the Abyssinian Church with Rome had first arisen under Paul III, and was still entertained under Julius III. As of old, the Holy See again made use of the mediation of Portugal. At the beginning of the year 1555 the Pope thought he was able to take a decisive step; in consideration of the distance of the country, he appointed, on January 23rd, three bishops chosen from the Society of Jesus ; of these he fixed on Nunez Barreto as patriarch, and Fathers Andreas Oviedo and Melchior Carnero as assistant bishops with the right of succession. His Holiness hoped all the more for the success of this attempt as he had succeeded in 1553 in bringing about the reunion of the Nestorians in Mesopotamia.

What hopes Julius III placed in the Jesuits for the conversion of the East, may best be understood from the fact that he gave them permission, by a Bull of October 6th, 1553, to found three colleges, one in Jerusalem, a second in Cyprus, and a third in Constantinople. These establishments, which might have become of the greatest importance, never came into existence, but, on the other hand, Julius III lived to see the beginning of the mission in far-off Japan. To this island kingdom, possessed of a scenery of indescribable beauty, Providence now sent a man who must be counted one of the most heroic pioneers of the religion of the Cross.

Filled with a burning zeal for the spread of the doctrines of Christianity, the Apostle of India, Francis Xavier, had proceeded, in the last year of the pontificate of the Farnese Pope, to Japan, where he landed in Kagoschima on August 15th. On November 5th, 1549, he sent his first impressions and experiences in an exhortation to his fellow-workers. “The greatest trials you have until now endured are small in comparison with those you will experience in Japan. Prepare yourselves for difficulties, by setting aside all consideration for your own interests.”

The Europeans in Japan really felt as if they had come into a new world. All the habits, customs and forms of courtesy were different, the food was scanty and unusual, and the language was difficult. A missionary wrote later that one must again become a child in Japan, and learn once more how to speak, sit down, walk and eat. Instead of the respect which the Portuguese had paid to the priests, the missionaries found the opposite here, because, with all their ceremonious politeness to one another, the Japanese felt nothing but contempt for strangers, especially when they, as was the case with these messengers of the faith, appeared in poor apparel.

Political conditions, moreover, were not favourable to the spread of Christianity, as the country was in a state of anarchy. Japan was nominally under the dominion of the Emperor and his representative, the Schogun, but both of them were, as a matter of fact, completely powerless. The actual power was in the hands of more than sixty petty princes, the Daimios, who waged perpetual civil war on each other. The well organized Buddhist monasteries, which were well provided with armed forces, had great political influence, perhaps the greatest in the country, and that these would soon attack Christianity, “and not in words alone,” Xavier recognized from the first.

It was fortunate for the missionaries that the Daimios were exceedingly anxious to attract Portuguese ships to their harbours, and hoped to gain this end by protecting the missionaries. It was also favourable to the spread of Christianity that there was no single central government and no universal religion. The dominant form of religion was Buddhism, which was divided into some six opposing sects. Xavier was, however, more filled with confident expectations by the lively interest which the Japanese took in religion, and by their character, which disposed them to be influenced by arguments founded on reason, than by any other circumstances. “If God, our Lord,” he writes, “gives us ten years of life, we shall see great things in this country.”

Soon after his arrival in Kagoschima, Xavier began, with the help of his companion, Paul Anjiro, to draw up a summary of Christian doctrine in the Japanese language. As, however, Anjiro did not know the language sufficiently well, the work was not a success, and educated Japanese laughed at it. Mockery and laughter also were not wanting when Francis, after some time, produced his work in the public streets and began to read it aloud. Nevertheless, the whole bearing of the missionary, the thought that he had come so far only to promote the salvation of a foreign race, and the sublimity of the doctrine which shone through the imperfectly expressed language, gradually made a powerful impression. After the lapse of a year, 100 Christians could be counted in Kagoschima, while the throng round the missionaries was so great that the bonzes obtained from the Daimio a prohibition of further conversions. Francis then repaired to Hirado, an island to the west of Kiuschiu, where Portuguese ships had put in. After very promising beginnings, however, he left this mission to his companion, Cosmas de Torres, and himself proceeded to the largest of the Japanese islands, Nippon.

It had been Xavier’s plan, from the very first, to get as far as the capital of the country, Meaco, the present Kioto, and to penetrate into the presence of the Emperor, in order to obtain from him the permission to preach. After being driven out of Kagoschima, he determined no longer to postpone the carrying out of this plan. He left Hirado at the beginning of October, 1550, and spent a considerable time in Yamaguchi in Nippon, going on from thence in the middle of December to Meaco ; he left this town in February, 1551, in order to return to Hirado. At the most trying time of the year, insufficiently clad, and often barefoot, in the company of the lay-brother, Fernandez, he accomplished an exceedingly difficult journey through the snow-covered country. The travellers often sank to their knees in the snow in the bad roads, and often had to plunge into icy streams to their waists. In the villages they were mocked and laughed at by the people who flocked round them in crowds, and stoned by the children, while in the inns at night they found nothing but a mat and a wooden Japanese pillow, that is to say, if, in their miserable clothing, they were received in the inns at all.

This painful pilgrimage was, moreover, almost without result, as far as their main object was concerned. In Yamaguchi, indeed, Francis was allowed to read his book even to the Daimio for about an hour, but there were no conversions. Nothing could be done in Meaco, on account of the state of war prevailing there, and Francis could only have thought of an interview with the Emperor, because he did not understand the conditions in Japan.

At all events, he brought back one important realization from his journey. He now knew that the Emperor was a mere shadow, who could not vie with the Daimio of Yamaguchi in real power. He had also learned that the poverty and mean­ness of his appearance was an obstacle to the spread of the Gospel. He therefore resolved to dress better, and to offer the presents which he had brought from India for the Emperor to the ruler of Yamaguchi, Ouchi Yoschitaka. He was received in a friendly manner by the latter, who gave him, as a return gift, an old bonze house, with the permission to preach the Gospel freely. The preaching, moreover, was not unsuccessful; in five or six months, they had from five to six hundred baptisms. Xavier’s most important conquest was a half-blind actor who was baptized in the name of Lawrence, and was afterwards received as a lay-brother into the Society of Jesus; in countless sermons and disputations he won thousands for Christianity, among others several Daimios.

Still more favourable prospects were opened to the messengers of the faith by the Daimio of Bungo, Otomo Yoschischige, who invited Francis to go to him at Funai and promised every support to the missionaries.

In the meantime, circumstances had arisen in India, which made the presence of Francis necessary. He therefore returned to Goa in November, 1551, with the intention of endeavouring to introduce Christianity into China, as soon as the troubles in India were settled.

Francis Xavier had long been persuaded that if Christianity was to gain a firm footing in Asia, this, the largest and most important country of the continent, must, above all others, be won over to the faith. He had, therefore, resolved to present himself before the Emperor of Japan in Meaco, in order to obtain from him a passport for China. He had been able to convince himself in his discussions with the Japanese of the respect felt for Chinese learning and wisdom in Eastern Asia, for his arguments were often met with the rejoinder that it was difficult to believe that the Christian doctrine contained the truth, since it was unknown to the Chinese. On the other hand, however, he was fully aware of the difficulty of his undertaking. Foreigners were strictly forbidden to enter Chinese territory; even the Portuguese who were shipwrecked on the Chinese coasts, were loaded with chains and cast into prison for years, while death might easily follow the punishment of the bastinado inflicted by the mandarins. All this, however, did not intimidate Xavier. At first he had hoped to penetrate into China as the companion of a Portuguese envoy, his own friend, Pereira, but this plan was frustrated by the opposition of the commandant of Malacca, Alvaro de Ataide, who retained Pereira there on the pretext that he was required for an expected siege of the town.

Then Xavier determined to carry out his plan alone, and, if necessary, to bear patiently the severity of the Chinese laws  he may have thought that no other course was open to him during the lifetime of Alvaro. “I am journeying,” he writes, “deprived of all human protection, to the island of Canton, in the hope that a friendly heathen will take me over to the continent of China.”

Portuguese ships used often to lie for months at a time off the island of Canton, that is to say off the rocky island of Sanchoan (Sancian, Chang-Tschouen) in order to make a landing there at a favourable opportunity, and carry on smuggling with the Chinese of Canton. The island itself was barren, and during the time of their stay, the Portuguese lived in hastily constructed huts of straw, which they burned on their departure. To this place, therefore, Francis caused himself to be conveyed, in order that he. might risk his lite for the conversion of China.

Abandoned though he had been hitherto, the Saint was now to be thrown still more on his own resources. From among his companions, he was obliged to send back a Portuguese lay-brother, as unfit for work, and an interpreter whom he had secured for Canton soon left him for fear of the punishments of the mandarins. The captain of the ship, who had brought him out of consideration for Alvaro, was not very well-disposed to him. He was, it is true, received into the hut of a Portuguese, who looked after him, but after the departure of this man, he suffered great want, and had to beg for bread. Only a Chinaman of about twenty, who had been brought up in Goa, and had almost forgotten his own language, and a servant, were faithful to him.

In spite of all this, and notwithstanding the warnings he received from the Portuguese, as well as from the Chinese traders, Francis held fast to his resolution. A Chinaman was at last induced, by the promise of a large reward, to undertake to convey him to Canton, and to set him down before daybreak at the gate of the city. He had to trust to this man, in spite of the danger that he might take the reward, and then get rid of the troublesome stranger by throwing him into the sea. Even this danger did not deter him, and when the Portuguese begged him, for fear of his getting them into trouble, to put oft his hazardous enterprise until after the departure of their ships, he was obliged to proceed with his great undertaking quite alone, and deprived of all earthly assistance.

His plans, however, were never carried out. On November 22nd, 1552, he was attacked by a violent fever, and on the 27th, at two o’clock in the morning, he was claimed by death. On this barren island, in a wretched hut, he met his end, as his great soul would have desired it, in the full strength of his manhood, in the full fervour of his love for God and man, in the utmost poverty and abandonment, like in his death to Him, in whose footsteps, in life, he had always endeavoured to tread.

The only witness of his death, the Chinaman Anton, laid his body, according to the Chinese custom, in a sort of coffin, into which was sprinkled lime, to hasten decomposition and enable the bones to be carried away. When the grave was opened once more,1 shortly before the departure of the ship, on February 17th, 1553, they found the body perfectly incorrupt. In Malacca it was solemnly received, but was buried without a coffin. On August 15th, they again found no trace of corruption. The Saint’s body was brought to the church of St. Paul in Goa, at the beginning of Holy Week, 1554, and was later placed in a tomb in the convent of Bom Jesus, where, to this day, it has never fallen into dust.

In Francis Xavier were united qualities, which, at first sight, seem to contradict one another. He was, above all, a man of action, who could never rest, and to whom everything he did seemed trifling and of no importance, because his eyes were always fixed on what yet remained to be done. He would have liked to have been everywhere at the same time, in order to spread Christianity in all directions. His activity, therefore, might appear feverish and unbalanced, his hazardous enterprises foolhardy, his constant journeyings as the expres­sion of a mere love of wandering. Alexander Valignani was alone, in the XVIth century, in pointing out, in contradiction to such a view, the successes of the Saint. “He was guided in all he did,” Valignani remarks, “by a wonderful foresight, for his undertakings succeeded very well, and in all the places where he came, he left a seed of God’s Word, which blossomed later on and brought forth good fruit.” In order to estimate properly the activity of Francis Xavier, we must bear in mind that he did not look upon himself as a single independent missionary, but as the superior of a band of such, whom he had to distribute over the half of a continent. In order to be able to assign to each the sphere of activity to which he was best suited, he had to know the countries and peoples from his own observation. He often used to say, when he sent missionaries to a certain district : “How could send these messengers with a clear conscience, if I did not know the conditions there from my own observation and experience?”. It appeared to him to be his mission to prepare the way everywhere, to take the task of the pioneer on his own shoulders, so that his fellow­workers and those under him should be able to reap the fruits of his labours. “I beg God, our Lord,” he writes in the year of his death, “to grant me the grace to open the way for others even if I attain nothing myself.” It is hardly possible to over­estimate the importance of the fact that, thanks to his travels and hardships, the countries of Asia in which the labours of the missionaries were most likely to be successful were clearly indicated, namely, not the effeminate and dreamy Hindoos and Malays, but rather the Chinese and Japanese.

To this restless activity, Xavier joined the intuition and fervour of the mystic. Already in the early days of his priesthood, the signs of mysticism were to be seen in him.3 He devoted to prayer many hours of the night, and as much time as his labours left him free, and he found such interior delight in it that all his troubles seemed to him “a sweet cross.” The determination with which he clung to his resolutions, he obtained by laying his plans before God. He was undecided for a long time, he wrote, as to whether he should proceed to Japan or not, but when God gave him to understand, in the depths of his soul, that such was His Will, then he could not fail in answering the call without being worse than the heathens of Japan.

In spite of the great sacrifices which Xavier demanded from himself, he was by no means strict or severe towards others, but was of a captivating mildness and humility, and displayed a loveable friendliness in his dealings with his neighbours. He understood how to suit himself to everybody and to win their regard; princes and great dignitaries in Portugal, as well as soldiers and sailors, or the half-civilised barbarians in India. In Malacca, he went to the place where the soldiers were playing, and when they wished to stop out of respect for him, he encouraged them to continue, remarking jokingly that soldiers are not monks, and that he wished to enjoy himself with them. He sent a sharp reprimand to a member of his order in Malacca, who had a severe and abrupt manner. He was full of joy and merriment everywhere, and one of his companions, the Japanese, Bernard, who came later to Europe and died at Coimbra, relates of him, that in their most difficult journeys in Japan, he would often skip for joy, throw an apple into the air and catch it again, while tears of joy would stream from his eyes when he praised God aloud, who had chosen him to publish the joyful tidings in those far lands.

He showed the greatest respect for ecclesiastical dignitaries, and the members of other religious .orders, and required those under him to do likewise. Only once did he appeal to his powers as Papal nuncio, and that was when, in Malacca, Alvaro wished to prevent his journey to China. He thought everything could be attained by humility, and that it was better to do a little good without causing irritation, than much good with bad feeling.

“ The Apostle of the Indies,” so wrote three generations ago the Protestant diplomat, John Crawford, “ deserves to be counted among the greatest men who ever came to Eastern Asia. No one can read his life, so full of virtues and merits, without being carried away by admiration for the unselfishness of this great man.”

The latest researches have fully confirmed this opinion. A Protestant missionary in Japan gives us the results of his investigations concerning Francis Xavier in the following terms: “Whoever contemplates his indefatigable activity in an unprejudiced manner, cannot fail to recognize that he bears the title of apostle with perfect justice. Xavier was not only a disciple of Ignatius, whom he venerated to an almost religious degree, nor only a devoted member of the Society of Jesus... he was also a follower of Jesus Himself, on whose model he had formed himself, learning from Him, in a degree to which few attain, the lessons of humility, modesty, mortification, joyful resignation and loving condescension to the most lowly. In heartfelt intimacy with his Divine Model, this holy man had penetrated into the secrets of God’s kingdom. His whole life showed that he felt himself called, not by men, and not through men, but by Jesus Christ and God... This gave him the intrepid, undaunted courage of a hero, who, fearing God and nothing else in the world, shrank from no danger, and willingly encountered the greatest; this spurred him on to that burning zeal, in which he never tired of working as long as it was day for him ; this filled him with the confidence of victory which is the pledge of success.”

“For such a vocation to the apostolate, Xavier was endowed by nature with qualities which must have proved of the greatest service. He was gifted with a clear understanding and great intellectual activity, he was magnanimous and full of enthusiasm, and with all his mildness and gentleness was full of fire and energy, while through all his humility there shone a perfect confidence in himself ; a moral equipment from which God could well expect great things, when, after he had given up his life, his worldly pleasures and earthly ambitions, he fixed his hopes on Him alone and on eternal life.

At the same time, Xavier was not only a servant of God and a true disciple of Jesus, he was also a son and servant of His church, and a true member of the Society to which he had dedicated himself. His understanding of the doctrine of Christ was that of the Catholic Church, his piety was that of his Order. This ought not, however, to make his Protestant judges blind to the fact that he was a man of God... who with heart and soul clung to his holy and sublime vocation.” In the Catholic world the veneration of Francis Xavier which was inaugurated by his canonization by Gregory XV in 1622, is still living and fruitful. Old Goa is a dead town at the present day, and only awakes to life when the earthly remains of Francis Xavier are exposed to the veneration of thousands of the faithful. Rome, since 1616, possesses, in the right hand of the Saint, with which he baptized countless thousands, a precious relic. The magnificent altar which contains it stands opposite the shrine of the founder of his Order. No greater honour could fall to the lot of the disciple of Ignatius, but he deserves it in the fullest degree, for his heroic labours introduced a new epoch for the christianizing of the whole civilized world of the East.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XIII.

Julius III in Relation to Letters and Art. Michael Angelo and the Rebuilding of Saint Peter’s. The Villa Giulia.

 

Julius III, who had received a classical training from the humanist, Raphael Brandolini Lippo, lived at a time when the Renaissance had reached its zenith. He had always displayed a lively interest in science and art, and it was, therefore, natural that great things should have been expected from him after his elevation to the Papacy. The humanists at once began to hail his election, and openly declared their hopes of the beginning of a Golden Age. It seemed certain that the unusual and well known generosity of the Pope would be favourable to their hopes, but it soon became clear that the means for a true return to the age of Maecenas were not available. The financial distress, which made itself felt only too soon, and which was increased to an almost unbearable degree by the war with Parma, had a paralysing and restraining effect in all other fields of activity. It is significant of the unfavourable circumstances which prevailed, that the wish of the Pope to have the works of his master, Brandolini, published, in token of his gratitude, should not have been fulfilled. Julius III, however, showed no lack of desire to be a patron of learning as his great predecessor had been, and humanists such as Galeazzo Florimonte, Romolo Amaseo and Paolo Sadoleto readily found appointments at his chancery. The Pope also passed over the fact that, now and again, pagan expressions found their way into the documents compiled by these men, even when they dealt with matters of purely ecclesiastical importance, a thing which would justly have been blamed in later times, when stricter views prevailed The traditional and much too great freedom of speech which pre­vailed in Rome at that time, was by no means lessened under Julius III, and Pasquino could again jeer and mock as he had done before in the classical days of the Renaissance.

It was far more to the credit of Julius III., who also collected a library of his own,[742] that he appointed the learned Cardinal Marcello Cervini to be librarian for life of the Vatican Library, as early as February 24th, 1550, and invested him with full powers.[743] It was in accordance with the wishes of Cervini that, three years later, the Pope sent an envoy to the Greek Basilian monasteries, in order to borrow the sacred and profane manuscripts preserved there, for the purpose of having them copied.[744]

In the first year of his pontificate, Julius III. interested himself in the reform of the Roman University. On November 5th, 1550, he entrusted Cardinals Cervini, Morone, Crescenzi and Pole with this task.[745] This commission, to which were

afterwards added Cardinals Guido Ascanio Sforza and Maffei, inaugurated several salutary reforms in 1552. Besides this the efficiency of this institution was doubled by an increase in its revenues German universities, such as Heidelberg, Ingolstadt and Wurzburg, were also favoured by Julius III., and the college in Dillingen was raised by him to the status of a university.[

The evidences of favour for the humanists and literati were, on account of the pecuniary difficulties, not very numerous, but whenever one of these received any promotion, he expressed his thanks in extravagant but unmeaning verses, as was the case with Girolamo Fracastoro, Fausto Sabeo and Francesco Modesto.

Among the teachers whom Julius III provided for the young Roberto de’ Nobili were Giulio Poggiano and the Servite, Ottavio Pantagato, the former celebrated as an elegant stylist, and the latter as an eminent humanist. The noble poetess, Ersilia Cortese, wife of Giovan Battista del Monte, and the learned poet, Onorato Fascitelli, also enjoyed the Pope’s favour. Julius III appointed the eminent Ludovico Beccadelli as nuncio in Venice, and later on his vicar-general in Rome ; when Morone went to Germany, Beccadelli accompanied him, and it was reported that he would be created a cardinal on his return. The learned Guglielmo Sirleto was promoted, and his commentary on the New Testament, which was directed against Valla and Erasmus, was approved.

Unfortunately, Julius III also had relations with literati of quite a different stamp. The Pope had hardly been elected when Paolo Giovio addressed a letter of congratulation to him, which is very characteristic. In this Giovio expresses the hope that he will be able to come to Rome as soon as he has recovered from the gout, and the weather has improved; he takes the liberty of remarking, however, how greatly he was disappointed when the apartments he was to have occupied in the Vatican had been otherwise disposed of; he was quite determined that the Pope should compensate him with a pension. Cardinal Medici was commissioned by the Pope to assure Giovio that a dwelling in the Vatican would be provided for him. Although the said Cardinal informed him once more in June, 1550, that the Pope was well disposed to him, the calculating humanist thought it wise to ingratiate himself still further by the dedication of a work to His Holiness. In the dignified brief of August 15th, 1551, in which Julius III thanked Giovio for the dedication of his “Eulogium of Celebrated Men,” a book of international interest, he promised him an honourable reception on his proposed journey to Rome, and a few months later sent him a reward. Giovio thereupon promised to extol his benefactor with a “ golden pen.” His death, however, on December nth, 1552, put an end to his plan.

Pietro Aretino had at once opened relations with Julius III, and sent him a sonnet on his election. The Pope was weak enough to feel flattered by this, and Aretino was immediately rewarded. On October 31st, 1550, the officious poet sent the Pope some more verses. How well Aretino perceived the changed tendency of the times is shown by the religious writings which he composed, and a new edition of which he dedicated to the Pope. Aretino came, full of hope, to Rome in 1553, where Julius received him very kindly, so that the vain poet at once dreamed of attaining to the dignity of Cardinal; as this, of course, was not bestowed on him, he left the Eternal City a disappointed man.

Although not much was to be hoped for from Julius III. by the humanists, they still continued to extol him in poems. The extravagance and pomposity of this sort of literature, in which all the gods of the ancients play their part, was in singular contrast to the services which the Pope really rendered to the advancement of literature. A still unpublished panegyric in verse by Antonius Franciscus Rainerius, about the pontificate of Julius III, is very characteristic of such men. In this the generous disposition of the Pope is extolled, as are his care in supplying Rome with provisions, the summoning of the Council, and even the war with Parma, which he had waged for the defence of religion! The death of his nephew, Giovan Battista del Monte, is deplored, and Fabiano del Monte is extolled as the comfort of his old age. There is added a well-merited verse of praise for the Pope’s efforts to secure peace, and, finally, the artistic enterprises of Julius are lauded in an altogether extravagant manner; the poet, it may be added, has nothing to say about the advancement of letters. There is no lack of writings, both printed and in manuscript, dedicated to Julius III. Among those which are printed, the “Anatomy of Vice” is noteworthy; this is by Lorenzo Davidico, who, in view of the depravity of the clergy of the cinquecento, which he depicts unsparingly, had fixed his hopes on the new Orders : the Jesuits, the Bamabites and the Theatines.

The most important work dedicated to Julius III was a volume of masses for four voices, by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The composer, afterwards of world-wide celebrity, thus expressed his thanks for the position of director of the choir of St. Peter’s, which had been bestowed on him by the Pope in September, 1551. In January, 1555, Julius III. summoned his protege to become a member of the choir of singers of the papal chapel, omitting in his case the searching examination which had been prescribed for all candidates on August 5th, 1554. As it was a case of a composer of such promise, Julius also overlooked the fact that Palestrina was married, although the charter for the members of the choir of the Papal chapel prescribed celibacy.

Finally, it is also worthy of note that the life of Michael Angelo by Ascanio Condivi, and published in Rome, in July, 1553, by Antonio Blado, was dedicated to Julius III. It is suggested by the author that the dedication will certainly be agreeable to His Holiness, as he so much prized the virtue and genius of the master.

Nothing shows more clearly the contradictory qualities which were combined in the character of Julius III., than the fact that the man who honoured an Aretino should have given expression to the beautiful idea that he would willingly give up the remainder of the years allotted to him to lengthen those of Michael Angelo.

These words were followed up by actions which corresponded with them. Whenever he had an opportunity, the Pope showed his respect for and confidence in the great master, to an even greater extent than had been the case with Paul III. He gave open expression to this by making Michael Angel' sit beside him in the presence of several Cardinals and other great dignitaries, and by giving him the large salary of fifty scudi a month. These tokens of favour were all the more significant, as the disparagers and detractors of Michael Angelo never tired, now as of old, of stirring up intrigues against him. The master, who was already suffering greatly under the weight of years, also had to endure great anguish of mind. Hatred and envy were the outcome of the exceptional position to which he had been called by Paul III, for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s, a matter in which Julius III also showed the greatest interest, and which he zealously promoted. The stern rectitude with which Michael Angelo provided that “promises, emoluments and presents” should play no part in this vast work, added to the number of his enemies from day to day. Untroubled, however, by all this hostility, Michael Angelo remained true to his principle, never to accept any material for the building which was not trustworthy and serviceable, even if it fell from heaven.

As had been the case in the time of Paul III, so now again it was the followers of Sangallo who raised a storm against the director of the rebuilding of St. Peter’s. Although he had been invested with the most unlimited authority, they hoped, in view of the complaisance and irresolution of Julius III, that this time they would attain their end. The anxious fear with which Michael Angelo guarded the secrets of his studio was used to prejudice the members of the Fabbrica di S. Pietro against him. At the end of the year 1550, these latter set themselves to address a letter to the Pope, which was intended to destroy the confidence which Julus III had in the master. The principal accusation, besides that of extravagance, concerned the secrecy with which the plans were kept. “As to the building, and how it will turn out,” says the letter, “the deputies can make no report, as everything is kept secret from them, as if they had nothing to do with it. They have several times protested, and are now protesting again to ease their consciences, that they do not approve of the manner in which Michael Angelo is proceeding, especially as regards the demolition. The destruction has been, and is still today, so great, that all who have witnessed it have been deeply moved. Nevertheless, if Your Holiness approves of it, we, the deputies, shall have no further complaint to make.”

The result of these accusations was the celebrated meeting of the members of the Fabbrica and others engaged on the rebuilding, summoned by Julius III, before whom Michael Angelo was to justify himself. According to the account of Vasari, the Pope himself communicated to the master the most important, and the only detailed accusation, which the building commission, and especially Cardinals Salviati and Cervini had made against him. This concerned the bad lighting of the apse of the new St. Peter’s. Michael Angelo asked permission to be allowed to answer the deputies of the Fabbrica in person. Then followed a dramatic discussion with Cardinal Cervini, who avowed himself to be the originator of the accusation. “Monsignore,” replied Michael Angelo, “ three other windows are to be placed above those already provided.” “You have never let a word as to this be heard,” answered the Cardinal. Michael Angelo replied, “I am not obliged, and have never intended to be obliged to give information concerning my plans to your Eminence, or to anyone else. It is your duty to provide the money and to see that nothing is stolen. It is my business alone to look after the plans of the building.” Then, turning to the Pope, he continued: “Holy Father, see what reward I get; if the afflictions I experience do not prove of advantage for my soul, then indeed do I lose my time and trouble.” Graciously laying his hand on his shoulder, Julius answered him, saying : “You are gaining merit for both body and soul, have no fear.”

The attempt, therefore, to overthrow the master had, on the contrary, the effect of strengthening his position more than ever. In order to put a stop to further troubles, Julius III., on January 23rd, 1552, ratified the motu proprio of Paul III, of October, 1549, sanctioned everything hitherto carried out by Michael Angelo for the building of St. Peter’s, ordered that his models should be carefully preserved, and only altered by himself, and confirmed the extensive powers already bestowed on him as chief architect of St. Peter’s.

This was not, however, the end of Michael Angelo’s difficulties. More painful than the hostility, which did not meanwhile cease, but which, thanks to the favour of the Pope, he had no longer cause to fear, was another disastrous circumstance which now overtook him. The exhaustion of the Papal finances had, by May, 1551, the effect of causing the money necessary for the continuation of the rebuilding of St. Peter’s to come in ever decreasing amounts ; how much this was the case is shown from the fact that from January 1st to May, 1551, 121,554 ducats were provided for the building, while only half this sum was to hand during the next four years. In consequence of this critical situation, and the renewed difficulties of the master, Duke Cosimo I thought that he would at last succeed in getting Michael Angelo to return to Florence. The latter was, however, determined to remain at his post in the Eternal City. In a letter of August 20th, 1554, Vasari employed all his eloquence to induce him to return to Florence, urging the afflictions which beset him in Rome, and the want of appreciation shown for him there. Michael Angelo, whose hand had already begun to tremble greatly, thanked him in a few words. “From your letter,” he wrote,“ I recognise the love you bear me, and you may well believe that I would gladly lay my bones to rest beside those of my father, as you beg me to do ; should I, however, go away from here, then great disadvantages would ensue for the building of St. Peter’s, and I should be the cause of great scandal and misfortune. When everything is so far forward that nothing more can be changed, then I hope to do what you write, should it not be sinful to cause discomfort to several rascals, who expect me to go away from here at once.”

It was, above all, religious motives which caused Michael Angelo to devote his last powers to the great work for which he had refused any earthly payment, as he wished only to work for the love of God, out of veneration for the Prince of the Apostles, and for the salvation of his soul. The thoughts which filled his mind at that time are shown by the touching sonnet which he enclosed in his letter to Vasari:—

Giunto e gia 'l corso della vita mia,

Con tempestoso mar per fragil barca,

Al comun porto, ov’a render si varca

Conto e ragion d’ogn ’opra trista e pia.

Onde l’affettuosa fantasia,

Che l’arte mi fece idol ’e monarca,

Conosco or ben quant’era d’error carca,

E quel ch’a mal suo grado ogn ’uom desia.

Gli amorosi pensier, gia vani e lieti,

Che fieno or, s’ a duo morte m’avvicino ?

D’una so’l certo, e l’altra mi minaccia.

Ne pinger ne scolpir fia piu che quieti

                 L’anima volta a quell’ Amor divino

Ch’aperse, a prender noi, in croce le braccia.

 

Condivi, in his life of Michael Angelo, tells us how Julius III., in his admiration for the aged master, showed the tenderest consideration for his failing strength, and carefully avoided taxing it, though always seeking his opinion and advice in his artistic undertakings. Several special duties also fell to the lot of Michael Angelo. He designed, for example, the plans for the rebuilding of Bramante’s staircase in the Belvedere, and for a fountain which was to be erected there ; he also made the designs for the palace of the Rota, which was to be built alongside S. Rocco. Fabrizio Boschi, in the Casa Buonarotti in Florence, has represented Michael Angelo seated beside the Pope, who is surrounded by his court, and explaining to him the plans for the palace of the Rota.

Michael Angelo’s advice was also sought with regard to an undertaking which still keeps the name of Julius III. alive in Rome, the celebrated Villa or “Vigna di Papa Giulio.” The Pope proved, in the laying out of this villa, how thoroughly he was animated by the joyous, beauty-loving spirit of the Renaissance. The preference shown, at this period, for artistic elaboration in the designing of country seats, and for the gay enjoyment of life, is evidenced here in all its splendour.

Even as a Cardinal, Julius III. possessed, together with his brother Baldovino, a small villa, with a vigna, about a quarter of an hour outside the Porta del Popolo, on the Flaminian Way, which he had inherited from his uncle, Cardinal Antonio Ciocchi. The Campagna, which at that time extended to the gates of Rome, bears a much more kindly appearance on the north than on the south of the city, where the contrasts are greater and the countless relics of antiquity give a very melancholy character to the whole landscape. The charm of rustic solitude which the district outside the Porta del Popolo once possessed has more and more disappeared owing to the encroachments of the modern city, and has been altogether destroyed by the recent drastic changes, the exquisite view on Monte Mario alone remaining. In order fully to appreciate this creation of Julius III one must bring the former conditions before one’s mind. With its gently rising hills, broken by steep limestone rocks crowned with evergreen oaks, with the dips in the valley and the then free open vistas over the blue mountain ranges which encircle Rome on the north, this spot was admirably suited for a villa situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the city, a “villa suburbana” such as the great nobles of the Renaissance loved. Julius III gave evidence of a cultured taste when he resolved to create, by the extension of the already existing grounds, a place of rest and recreation in such lovely surroundings, a place where, freed from the constraints of state, he might enjoy life in his gay manner, give banquets and spend his time in untrammelled conversation with his friends, as well as with poets and artists. The place had also the advantage that the Pope could easily reach it without entering the busy city, by passing through the covered passage from the Vatican to the Castle of St. Angelo, whence a barge could convey him up the Tiber.

It was soon evident that Julius III intended to carry out his plan with true Roman magnificence. By the purchase of numerous vineyards, and plots of ground, a very extensive space was procured, in the centre of which the new villa was to arise. The Pope’s interest was gradually concentrated on this estate to such an extent that his work in the Vatican began to come to a standstill. His Holiness now began to seek for a model for his new country house from among existing residences. The thought of the celebrated Palazzo del Te,-belonging to the Gonzaga family in Mantua, and of the Villa Madama erected by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, smiling across from the cypress-crowned Monte Mario, filled his imagination.

From the information now at our disposal it is not easy to determine either who designed the plans for the Villa Giulia or who carried them into execution. Vasari claims, in the description in his life, the honour of having drawn up the first plans, even if others carried them out. It was, at all events, he who translated the fantastic ideas of the Pope into sketches, which were then corrected by Michael Angelo. Vignola is supposed to have completed the apartments, halls and decoration of the villa from countless plans of his own, but the deep set nymphaeum indisputably owes its origin to Vasari and Ammanati, the latter afterwards executing the loggia over this well-house. Vasari concludes with the significant words : “However, in this work one could display nothing of what one could do, and do nothing in the right way, as, from day to day, the Pope had new ideas, which had to be carried out in accordance with the never-ending instructions of the maestro di camera, Pier Giovanni Aliotti.” In his life of Taddeo Zuccaro, Vasari again refers to his share in the work, emphasizing the fact that he had prepared the drawings for the villa and the nymphaeum before any of the others, and that Vignola and Ammanati had merely followed out his designs. The walls, be adds, were executed by Baronino da Casal Mon ferrato. Only this last statement is confirmed by the docu­ments concerning the building. One seeks in vain among them for the name of Vasari in connection with the sums expended on the villa, while we find on February 1st, 1551, Vignola named as the Pope’s architect, with a monthly salary of thirteen gold scudi. In the life of Girolamo da Carpi, the annoyance of Vasari at the changeable decisions of the Pope, again finds expression, when he mentions that in the evening, His Holiness had rejected what he had sanctioned in the morning.

It is certain that unpleasantness arose between the Pope and Vasari, in consequence of which the latter’s work was limited to making the first design. Vignola, whom Julius III. had known in Bologna, erected the principal part of the villa, and completed his work in the short period between 1551 and 1553, as is proved by the building accounts, while Ammanati executed the nymphaeum court. Nearly all the painters and sculptors in the Rome of that day, especially Taddeo Zuccaro and Prospero Fontana, were employed on the decoration of the interior, which was begun in 1552. The Spanish faience, which was procured in 1554 for the flooring, seems to mark the end of the work.

The laying out of the magnificent gardens and pleasure grounds was carried out with great activity at the same time as the actual building of the villa, as was the purchase of the adjoining land. Besides elms and chestnuts, countless fruit trees were planted, and kitchen gardens and vineyards laid out. Costly shrubs and flowers were procured from Naples, and set in terra cotta vases. The total number of plants and trees purchased amounted to about 36,000, while additional expense was incurred for the erection of aviaries, fish-ponds and various fountains.

In a sense, the church of S. Andrea, which had been erected by Vignola to the north, on the Flaminian Way, on the spot where Cardinal Bessarion, bearing the relics of the Apostle, had once made a halt, belonged to this magnificent villa, which had gradually absorbed the greater part of the land up to Monte Parioli. An exquisite laurel grove adjoined the church, and this elegant little structure is of special interest on account of the employment, presumably for the first time, of an ellipse cut in half lengthwise, to serve as a means of connecting the two. An inscription, which may still be read, requests the visitors, who have been delighted with the contemplation of the beauties of the villa, to pray in this holy spot for the builder and the owner.

It is very difficult to-day to form any idea of the impression which the Vigna di Papa Giulio then made, for, apart from the demolitions of later times, an essential element is wanting, namely the surroundings, which had been laid out with so much artistic taste ; the pleasure grounds and the magnificent gardens, in which cypresses, laurels and myrtles exhaled their perfume, pomegranates and other fruit trees blossomed, and fountains threw their sparkling waters into the air, while in all directions, antique marble statues, inscribed tablets, little temples, grottos and summer-houses gleamed among the dark trees.

A little harbour was constructed on the Tiber, where the Pope, arriving from the Vatican in a magnificently equipped barge, landed. From here a shady arbour, 120 paces in length, led to the point where the Vicolo dell’ Arco Oscuro branches off from the Flaminian Way. Here Julius III had erected a monumental fountain adorned with Corinthian pilasters and columns. In the two side niches were placed the statues of Fortune and Abundance, and in the centre a large inscription, surmounted by the Papal arms, announced that Julius IIP had dedicated this work in the third year of his pontificate, for the benefit of the public. Under the inscription, the water gushed forth from an antique head of Apollo, while the upper corners of the whole structure were adorned with stades of Rome and Minerva, the central pediment with two granite pyramids, and the summit with an antique Neptune.

From the street corner, at which the fountain stood, a private road, bordered with fruit trees, led, alongside the Vicolo dell’ Arco Oscuro, to a circular open space, in which the principal building of the Villa Giulia stood, rising out of a small depression in the valley ; this is the only part of the villa which is in a good state of preservation today. The facade, two storeys in height, with a large rustic porch and pillars supporting a balcony, is severe and simple, for it was considered good taste to, conceal the splendour and magnificence of such a building from the outer world. The visitor realizes this when he penetrates into the interior. Through the gateway one enters first the simple atrium, on each side of which there is a large halt Of the former exceedingly rich decoration of these rooms, there only remain the mythological and allegorical frescoes on the ceiling, the work of Taddeo Zuccaro, and the frieze, richly adorned with stucco and gold. The halls on the ground floor correspond with two others on the upper storey, while over the atrium there is a central hall, as well as several smaller apartments leading towards the courtyard. These form the only dwelling rooms in the villa; they were sufficient, as it was not the Pope’s intention to create a permanent residence, but only a place of rest and recreation, to which he might retire for a short time, in summer or in winter, generally only for a single day, to recruit after the arduous duties of his position. He wished, however, to be surrounded by beauty on all sides, and therefore had these upper rooms richly decorated with stucco and frescoes. Of special interest are the “vedute,” views in perspective with the surrounding landscape, on the frieze, which are still in a good state of preservation, and which represent the appearance of the seven hills in those days, as well as the Villa Giulia itself. This new fashion in pictures, which had already made its appearance in isolated cases, as, for instance, in the Palazzo del Te, was becoming much more common. It inaugurated the period when, in pictorial representations, not the artistic, but the descriptive “motif” takes the first place.

On coming out of the atrium into the first court, one reaches a semi-circular portico, which was richly adorned with stucco and frescoes. The only part which is still comparatively well-preserved, is the decoration of the barrel vaulting, depicting arbours of roses and vines, animated by putti and birds. The statues, of which there were thirty, above the principal cornice and round the walls of the court, have all disappeared. In the centre there was a large and magnificent antique basin, constructed out of a single piece of porphyry. This gift, by which Ascanio Colonna expressed his thanks for the restoration of his dominions, originally came from the Baths of Titus, and was subsequently taken to the Sala Rotonda of the Pio-Clementino Museum in the Vatican. The water flowed into the basin, at the sides of which two shells of green veined marble were fixed, from the bill of a swan, held by a Venus.

The sides of this magnificent court were formed by walls two storeys in height, consisting of round arched blind arcades, separated by columns, with Ionic half-columns in front, and crowned by a plain Attic capital. At either end of the two side walls, exits led out respectively to the gardens and the park.

The transverse building which separates this first court from a second one, was built by Ammanati, as the outline sketches and an inscription on one of the pillars testify. The threefold entrance opens in the centre of the building, and several steps lead to a loggia, the roof of which, once gorgeously decorated with stucco ornamentation and gold, is supported by fourteen Ionic columns of different coloured marbles. To the right and left of this loggia there are rooms, close to which one descends by two external flights of stairs to the sunken fountain-court, with a still lower, and exceedingly graceful grotto, the so-called Fontana Segreta, as it is named in Ammanati’s description of May, 1555. The fountain-court itself consists of two storeys, with niches which were adorned with antique busts and statues. Only a few busts are still preserved, but in the lower storey, where there are two grottos resembling loggias, there are still the colossal figures of the Arno and Tiber, crouching over two basins. The semi-circular centre of the court is surrounded by an open-work railing, which was likewise adorned with statues, and which encloses the actual nymphaeum, the Fontana Segreta, which lies a storey lower down. The roof of this building is borne up by eight female Hermae, made from a design of Vignola. The pavement is composed of costly marbles of different colours, while from the well the waters of the Aqua Virgo gush forth in a glittering stream. Two little winding stairways, which are concealed in the grottos, give access to this central point of attraction of the building. In these apartments the artist has depicted on the roof and walls the saga of the Aqua Virgo, after Frontinus, as well as the signs of the zodiac, the seasons, and the principal deities of the ancients; the paintings after Frontinus are destroyed, but the others still remain. These are, to a great extent, rather free representations, in the taste of the Renaissance period, which prove, as do the figures of the goddess of love, frequently found throughout the villa, that the austere spirit of the Catholic Reformation had not yet found its way into the court of Julius III. Very characteristic, too, are the large tablets of marble, let into the reverse side of the fountain-court, bearing two inscriptions in classical Latin, the one containing the regulations for the gardens (Lex hortorum) and the other, probably inscribed later, relating to the history of the villa, and the testamentary direction that it is to remain in the possession of the family of the del Monte.

As in all such country residences, the nymphaeum, where the owner could enjoy refreshing coolness during the hot months, forms the most attractive feature of the whole building, and is, accordingly, the most richly decorated part. After having been scandalously neglected for a long time, the nymphaeum of the Villa Giulia has been carefully and lovingly restored in recent times, so that one can, at least to a great extent, realize its one-time magnificence. It is true that the figure ornamentation of the building, and the statue of the sleeping Aqua Virgo, the praises of which were sung by the poets of the day, as well as the plane trees which shaded them, are no more, but when it was furnished with costly plants and flowers, and the sparkling waters were in full play, this fountain building must have been a beautiful object, and the same may be said of the whole exquisite villa, even though it was not, as a whole, in perfect unity of style. One can, to a great extent, understand the enthusiasm of the contemporaries who compared the grounds to the gardens of Nero. That is, no doubt, as much an exaggeration as are the 250,000 scudi which the villa is supposed to have cost. The expenses must, however, have been on a very large scale. Julius is more deserving of blame in having at such a critical period devoted so much money to the erection of a sumptuous building, in which, moreover, ecclesiastical decorum was not always observed, than he was in thankfully retiring, suffering in health as he often was, to his beautiful villa, although this does not imply that he was by any means inactive as far as his duties were concerned. As one of the last buildings of this kind, at the end of the Renaissance period, the Villa Giulia clearly shows the worldly tendencies of this Pope, who, though he did not disregard the claims of the new age, by no means drew all the inferences which the altered state of affairs demanded.

In accordance with the bad custom of the time, antique building material was greatly made use of in the construction of the Villa Giulia ; it appears from the accounts, that, as in the time of Paul III, the district that was especially plundered, was that of the Aqua Albulae.

Valuable discoveries at that time proved the inexhaustible wealth of the soil of Rome in the relics of antiquity. Among these, two are deserving of special mention. In 1551, there was found a superb, but unfortunately imperfectly preserved, example of early Christian plastic art, in the statue of St. Hippolytus, which was afterwards placed in the Christian museum of the Lateran. In the Via de’ Leutari, the celebrated statue of Pompey was found, which the Pope bought for 500 scudi and presented to Cardinal Capodiferro, whose palace, afterwards called the Palazzo Spada, it still adorns. Cardinal Ricci also distinguished himself at this time as an indefatigable collector of antiques. Not a few of these treasures went abroad; it is related of the ever generous Pope that he gave to Cardinal Guise, who made use of his stay in Rome to collect antiquities with the most ardent zeal, the valuable collection of coins from the legacy of Cardinal Grimani.

Vignola remained the official architect of Julius III during the whole of his pontificate. It is not, however, certain whether he is the creator of the gracefully simple hall with wings on the Capitol, towards Monte Caprino, which still bears the arms of Julius III. Another task, which is certain to have fallen to the lot of Vignola, was the reconstruction of the palace of the Cardelli family, situated in the Rione Campo Marzo, which received the name of Palazzo di Firenze, after its subsequent possessor, Cosimo de’ Medici.

Julius III had bought this building with the money of the Apostolic Chamber in the first year of his reign, in order to provide his brother Baldovino with a suitable residence of his own. In November, 1552, Baldovino was already living there, but it was a year later that the presentation of the palace and the Villa Giulia was made to him and his heirs. The Palazzo Cardelli had in the meantime been completely rebuilt by Vignola. Not only was the pillared courtyard at the entrance enlarged, and the principal staircase embellished, and made more convenient, but a new connecting building between the courtyard and the garden was erected. This part is adorned, on the side of the garden, with a beautiful double loggia. The interior of the palace was richly and tastefully decorated with stucco ornamentation and frescoes. Unfortunately, sufficient research concerning this important work has not been made. Vasari states that Prospero Fontana was engaged upon it; probably, however, Zuccaro, who nearly always appears in conjunction with Vignola, as well as Primaticcio, co-operated in the work. Besides this palace, Julius III. had instructed Vignola to begin the building of a second one near the Via della Trinita (now del Clementino) the completion of which was delayed by his death. It is evident, from an amusing letter of the Pope to his brother on September 23rd, 1553, that he had personally inspected the beginning of the work.

The love which Julius III felt for his family is also shown by the monuments which he caused to be erected to his grand­father, Fabiano, and his uncle, Cardinal Antonio. He chose for these the last chapel on the epistle side of the church of S. Pietro in Montorio. The plans for this pious work, the first artistic undertaking of Julius III after his election, were furnished by Vasari, although the advice of Michael Angelo was also sought. Vasari had proposed Raffaello da Montelupo for the figures on the monuments, but Michael Angelo would not accept him. They were therefore executed by Bartolomeo Ammanati, to whom are also attributed the sturdy boys on the balustrade of the chapel. The paintings and the vaulting are by Vasari, who also executed the picture over the altar, the baptism of the Apostle Paul by Ananias. The two monuments are opposite to one another, and are symmetrically executed in the same form. The sarcophagus, with the recumbent figure of the deceased, is raised on a bold substructure, the statues of Religion and Justice being placed in niches over the tombs. The epitaph for the Cardinal : “The Church, by his death, has lost, as it were, her father,” sounds, indeed, rather extravagant, but the gratitude of Julius III. here finds suitable expression. Although not without faults, this family monument nevertheless reminds one of a better time, and makes a thoroughly dignified impression.

Besides Ammanati, Vasari and Zuccaro, Julius III employed numerous other artists. Of these special mention may be made of Giovanni da Udine, Daniele da Volterra, Girolamo da Carpi and Pietro da Imola.

In spite of many signs of decline, considerable artistic activity prevailed at this time in Rome, to which, moreover, many artists from northern countries, and especially the Netherlands, came as visitors. Their stay in Rome proved fateful for many of them, because, on the one hand, they acquired the style then in vogue, and on the other, fell under bad influences. Many, however, as, for instance, Antonio More, the court painter of Charles V. and Philip II., derived great benefit from their sojourn in Rome, and developed into eminent colourists. Jan van der Straet, from Bruges, the friend of Vasari, executed pictures in the Vatican between 1550 and 1553.

Artistic crafts reached great perfection and flourished during the pontificate of Julius III, as they had done under his predecessor. In the account books, payments to goldsmiths, jewellers, medallists, and engravers frequently appear. One meets here the name of the celebrated Alessandro Cesati, called “ il Greco,” and of a pupil of Benvenuto Cellini, named Manno Sbarra.

If one compares the artistic activity under Julius III. with that under his predecessor, one finds a great disparity between the two periods. The great impetus which Paul III knew how to give to every enterprise is non-existent in the reign of his successor; apart from the Villa Giulia, few works of importance were executed. This is partly to be attributed to the irresolution of Julius III, and partly to the shortness of his pontificate, but, above all, to his financial difficulties. It was for this reason also that the laying out of the streets and the works for the fortification of the city, and especially of the Borgo, which followed, and which had been begun on a grand scale by the Farnese Pope, were restricted to very moderate limits. The appearance of the city was very little altered during this pontificate, in all essentials it remained as before. This appearance, however, Rome was not to retain for long, she was to undergo a far-reaching metamorphosis during the latter half of the century. It will, therefore, be in place, at this point, to give some description of the city, as it appeared at the close of the period of the Renaissance.

 

 

 

CHAPTER XIV.

Rome at the End of the Renaissance Period.

 

The Rome of the Cinquecento was surpassed in population by Paris and London, and in beauty by Venice, and perhaps also by Florence. The appearance of the city, crowded together as it was in the low-lying district between the Tiber, the Pincio and the Capitol, and filled with busy traffic, made, with its, for the most part, badly saved and dark crooked streets and its hoary buildings, a decidedly unfavourable impression, in spite of its numerous palaces and interesting churches. But, taken as a whole, the dwelling place of the Head of the Church, this “world in miniature,” was the universal patria, because of its historic past, its sacred relics, its artistic treasures, its rare medley of ruins and buildings from classic times, from the Middle Ages and from the Renaissance, because of the austere grandeur of its surroundings, as well as because of the cos­mopolitan character of the population which had flocked together from the most different countries to the central point of the Catholic world—a place, in short, which was like no other in the world.

From a number of sources of different kinds, it is possible to form a fairly true picture of the condition of the capital of the world, which had recovered, during the long and peaceful reign of Paul III, from the terrible catastrophe of 1527, and had taken a new lease of life, owing to the improvement of sanitary conditions, the beautifying of the streets, and the awakening of a revived activity in the sphere of building. All this had been continued under the pontificate of Julius III.

Besides the Italians, Leonardo Bufalini and Ulisse Aldrovandi, it is specially to two men of northern origin that posterity owes a detailed knowledge of the Rome of the Cinquecento. One was Marten Van Heemskerck, a pupil of Jan van Scorel, who, like so many of his countrymen, came to the Eternal City in 1532, to pursue his studies, and lived there till 1535.2 Heemskerck made very good use of his time. A great number of his sketches and drawings have been preserved, and now form a treasure of the cabinet of copper-plate engravings in the Berlin Museum. In this collection there are large and small views of Rome, its hills, ancient monuments, ruins, churches, palaces, galleries of statues and old gardens, which are, from their accuracy, priceless treasures of the greatest historical and archaeological value. Almost always drawn on the spot, they give, with conscientious fidelity, and without additions and embellishment, everything just as it was at the time. Other sketch-books of visitors to Rome, and the copper-plate engravings of the time, afford a valuable supplement to these. Among the latter, the collection of engravings on copper, “Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae,” of the enterprising publisher, Antoine Lafrery, who settled in Rome in the middle forties of the XVIth century, takes a prominent place.

The second northerner is the learned lawyer of Frankfort, Johann Fichard, who, during his residence in Rome in the autumn of 1535, had the happy idea of consigning his varied impressions to writing. The hasty notes, written on the spot in Latin, were not intended for publication, whereby their value is notably increased. They by no means belie the dryness of the legal mind, but are, for that very reason, reliable, coming, as they do, from a prosaic observer. Only very rarely does the enthusiasm of the humanist break forth in Fichard’s impressions. He feels no tremor of delight at the sight of Italy’s splendours, he merely considers them from the point of view of a scholar. His notes are as important as they are interesting, not only for the knowledge of the then con­dition of Rome which they afford us, but also for the glimpses we get of the opinions entertained at that time. The vague­ness of men’s ideas as to the remains of antiquity, the pre­ponderance of antiquarian interest over that of the connoisseur of art, several remaikable errors concerning very important works of the Renaissance, all these, even to the use of magical arts to discover the perpetrator of a theft, are admirably characteristic of the knowledge and ideas of that epoch.

Fichard remarks that three points of view give the best sur­vey of Rome; the summits of the Pantheon, the Castle of St. Angelo and the Capitol. He acknowledges that he has never himself got a satisfactory view of Rome, for everything was separated and cut up by hills and gardens. He cites Monte Caprino (what is now considered to be the Tarpeian Rock), which was not then built over, as affording the best general view. It was just there, where to-day stands the Palazzo Caffarelli, the present seat of the German embassy, that Heemskerck, in the year 1535, sketched his great panorama, which has happily been preserved. The value of this lies in the unusually faithful representation of the actual objects, and it is thereby distinguished from all the earlier attempts, which have a traditionally conventional character. The Netherlander has worked with such genuine national assiduity, and with such painstaking accuracy, that one might well describe his panorama as a memorial drawn as a parting reminder of the Eternal City. The more one studies the details, the better does one realize the immense historical value of his sketches. The artist, who has depicted a panorama before the eye of the spectator, begins on the left hand with the Aventine, and travels through the west, north and east, returning again to the same hill, at the foot of which one sees the neighbourhood of S. Maria in Cosmedin, the Casa di Cola di Rienzi, the not yet destroyed Ponte di S. Maria (Ponte Rotto) and the harbour full of ships, while in the distance appear the Janiculum, with S. Pietro in Montorio and the twin towers of the Porta S. Pancrazio. In the foreground, we see the citadel of the Savelli, built into the Theatre of Marcellus, arising majestically a little to the right, and behind it the old town with its maze of houses, massive towers and churches. The extensive palace of the Cancelleria, the pointed tower of St Agostino, the flat dome of the Pantheon, the column of Marcus Aurelius (not yet crowned with the statue of the apostle) and the Palazzo di S. Marco stand up as salient points in the distance. The artist has been specially successful in reproducing the manner in which the city is dominated by the Castle of St. Angelo, which is shown as a darkly threatening fortress, on the summit of which floats the large standard of the Pope. The Vatican rises high from out the Borgo, with the venerable pile of St. Peter’s and the gigantic construction of the new building of Bramante beside it. Then follows in the foreground, forming the actual central point of the panorama, the Capitoline Hill, shown in profile, and not yet having the form given to it by Michael Angelo. 0ne sees the piazza of the Capitol, with the obelisks and the celebrated palms which stand between the palace of the Senators and the church of S. Maria in Aracoeli. Far away rises the mighty Torre delle Milizie, while farther to the north, in the lonely hill district, which forms a background, appear the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore with the great patriarchal palace, the then very high tower of the Conti, and, only lightly sketched in, the gigantic halls of the Baths of Diocletian, as well as the Lateran. At the feet of the spectator lies the Forum, alive with herds of cattle, with the Basilica of Constantine, the Arch of Septimus Severus, the remains of the Temple of Saturn, the beautiful portico of the Temple of Faustina and Antoninus, as well as the three columns of the Temple of Castor, while to the right we see the mighty mass of the Colosseum, the Arch of Titus and S. Maria Nuova (S. Francesca Romana). To the east one recognizes, at the foot of the Tarpeian Rock, S. Maria della Consolazione, S. Teodoro and the monuments of the Velabro, while above are the ruins of the Palace of the Caesars. The Septizonium is also clearly recognizable, as well as S. Anastasia with its campanile and the steps by which people once entered this church. To the right the Aventine, with the battlement crowned fortress of the Savelli, give the finishing touches to this wonderful panorama.

Viewed as a whole, what strikes one most in this picture is the great preponderance of the mediaeval character. Not only in the Trastevere, but elsewhere as well, countless towers, with which all the dwellings of the nobles, and especially those of the Cardinals, were provided, rose aloft towards the sky. Square, furnished with loopholes, and crowned with battlements, they are a reminder of bloody times. The highest of these towers are the Torre delle Milizie and the legendary Torre di Nerone, which play such an important part in mediaeval views of the Eternal City. The principal tower of the palace of the Senators on the Capitol, with its loopholes and its turrets at the four corners, still bears the stamp of the XIVth century. In the case of the churches, too, one sees hardly anything but mediaeval campanili; the few cupolas which had existed from the time of Sixtus IV are almost entirely invisible on account of their want of height, whereas it is precisely the numerous domes of the baroque period which give the Rome of today her special character of stately majesty.

No less astonishing is the smallness of the actual city, in comparison with the immense still unbuilt district with its chaos of ancient ruins, and its lonely dominating basilicas and monasteries. Everywhere this silent region is sharply divided by the shades of a mighty past from the modern city.

This contrast between the inhabited and the uninhabited districts which are enclosed by the Aurelian walls, is also clearly Lo be seen in the panorama of Hendrik van Cleve, drawn in 1550, and from the large plan of the city, engraved on wood, which Leonardo Bufalini prepared at the end of the pontificate of Paul III., and published in 1551, under Julius III.

Rome had no central point, for the Vatican, the residence of the Renaissance Popes, as well as the Lateran, the seat of the Head of the Church in the Middle Ages, were situated on the borders of the municipal territory. The Leonine City, or the Borgo, remained under Paul III what it had been under Julius II and the Medici Popes, the intellectual quarter, which character had been, once for all, impressed upon it by three mighty buildings, the time-honoured place of burial of the Prince of the apostles, the Castle of St. Angelo and the Palace of the Vatican, which contained the most extensive collection of art treasures. From the Vatican the Rione del Vaticano afterwards took its name, namely that part of the city which was strengthened under Paul III. and Julius III with new fortifications, and which formed, from the time of Sixtus V, the fourteenth of the districts into which Rome was divided. The principal street of the Borgo, called after its builder, Alexander VI., the Via Alessandrina, now the Borgo Nuovo, praised by Fichard as “a royal road”; Paul III caused it to be paved. This quarter, which had suffered terribly in the Sack in 1527, had gradually regained its former character and splendour. To the magnificent palaces which had been erected here for Branconio dell’ Aquila, and for Raphael, as well as for Cardinals Domenico della Rovere, Adriano Castellesi, Soderini, Pucci and Accolti, various new buildings had been added, among which the Palazzo Cesi held a prominent place. After the death of its founder, Cardinal Paolo Emilio Cesi, in 1537, this building, which was situated on the left side of St. Peter’s, near the city wall, came into the hands of the no less aitistic brother of Paolo, Federigo Cesi, who received the purple in 1544. In the Cesi gardens, which Heemskerck sketched, and which every cultivated stranger visited, numer­ous antiquities were to be seen, as, for instance, the Silenus, now in the Villa Albani, and the two statues of barbarians which were placed in the Palace of the Conservatori in 1720. The altered arrangement of these sculptures which was made by Federigo Cesi, is explained in a description of them by him, composed in 1550. Of the whole collection, the most important private one at the time of Paul III, after that of the Valle, only a few unimportant fragments remain.

Fichard describes the Papal palace at the beginning of the reign of the Farnese Pope; he emphasizes its great extent, for the Vatican consisted of a series of palaces. The entrance to it was in the form of a terrace, in the lower part of which the officials lived and worked; in the middle storey, officials of a higher degree resided, among them a few Cardinals, as, for instance, Nicholas von Schonberg, in the reign of Paul III. Fichard extols the size of the Vatican, its splendour, and its wealth of loggias, apartments, halls, and the staircases by which one could ascend to the top floors. As the objects of chief interest, he specially mentions the Sixtine Chapel, the wonderfully well-filled library, and the Belvedere, incomparable both from its position and its view, with Bramante’s winding staircase and the celebrated gallery of statues.

Fichard’s description is the first complete and well arranged account of this world-renowned collection of ancient remains. In one instance, he has observed with even closer attention than Ulisse Aldrovandi, whose statistics, drawn up in 1550, of all the antiquities contained in Rome, is, by reason of its accuracy and reliability, regarded as a most excellent guide. The description of the Frankfort scholar is supplemented by the pen and ink drawings of Heemskerck, while a picture by Hendrik van Cleve, now in the Imperial Picture Gallery in Vienna, reproduces the grounds of the Belvedere and its adornment with statues in 1550.

As was the case with the Capitoline collection, a super­intendent was also appointed for the Belvedere by Paul III. The magnificent examples of sculpture which Julius II, Leo X, and Clement VII had collected there, the Apollo, Venus Felix, Laocoon, Cleopatra, Tiber, Nile, Tigris, and torso of Hercules, was enriched by the Farnese Pope with only one really important example, the statue of the so-called Antinous, found in a garden not far from the Castle of St. Angelo in 1543, but which in reality represents Hermes. The remaining antiquities, as numerous as they were valuable, which were discovered during the long reign of Paul III, were destined by him for his family and their palace.

Julius III had a fountain erected in the vestibule of the Belvedere, where the above-mentioned Torso now stands, which attained a great celebrity, and which formed a most, effective ending to the long corridor of Bramante. He did not enrich the collection himself, as he was too much occupied with the decoration of the Villa Giulia. In spite of this, however, the gallery of statues in the Belvedere of the Vatican with which Ulisse Aldrovandi begins his well-known description of the antiquities in Rome, was the most important of all the museums of ancient remains.

The Vatican, embellished under Paul III by the gorgeous Sala Regia and the Capella Paolina, was considered the largest and most beautiful palace in the world. The Venetian ambassador, Mocenigo, who gives this opinion in 1560, compares it to a small town, about which one can with difficulty find one’s way, and which it is impossible to describe. It was, however, a great disadvantage for the Papal residence that the air in this district proved unhealthy in summer. Strangers were allowed to visit the Vatican in all its parts, with that liberality which most of the Popes displayed; when Julius III was staying at his villa, people were even allowed, under the guidance of an official of the court, to view the magnificently furnished private apartments of the Pope.

The Loggia of the Benediction, adjoining St. Peter’s, which was begun by Pius II. and completed by Julius II, in which the Bull In Coena Domini was read on Maundy Thursday, is erroneously described by Fichard as the palace of the Rota, of which he, as a lawyer, gives an exhaustive description.

The Frankfort scholar gives an essentially correct description of old St. Peter’s, with its five long aisles; he mentions the broad entrance steps, the wide square vestibule and the atrium, with its fountain (Cantharus) adorned with bronze pine cones and gilded peacocks. There were also fragments of ancient statues here at that time. In the vestibule of this venerable basilica of Constantine, which was still for the most part standing, the marble statue of St. Peter, now in the crypt, and Giotto’s Navicella, attracted his particular attention. Of the doors which led into the interior of the stately building, the one to the extreme right, the so-called Porta Santa, was only opened in years of Jubilee. The main entrance, with the bronze door, by Filarete, caused Fichard to fall into the error of providing the side entrance also with a door of bronze, whereas, in reality, it only had a carved wooden one, the work of Fra Antonio di Michele da Viterbo, placed there under Eugenius IV.

The interior of the place of burial of the Princes of the Apostles, made holy by a long and glorious past, with its wealth of chapels, altars, mosaics, frescoes and sepulchral monuments, must have filled every visitor with astonishment and admiration. A walk today through the crypts of St. Peter’s gives some idea of the treasures which had been gathered together there in the course of the centuries.

The basilica formed such a museum of the history of the Church and of art as the world had never seen. Many monuments had been repeatedly changed as to their place. For example, Fichard saw the tomb of the Piccolomini Pope, of such special interest to every German, in the chapel of St. Andrew, then named S. Maria della Febbre. Outside this hallowed spot, in the left hand aisle of the basilica, were the confessionals of the seven penitentiaries, for as many different languages. Opposite, on the right hand wall of the church, one could see Pollajuolo’s monument of Innocent VIII, and then the very neglected resting places of the Medici Popes, Leo X and Clement VII. On the same side was also the celebrated bronze seated statue of St. Peter, which Fichard describes as indiffer­ent, but a very ancient work. The tomb of Pope Nicholas V, with whose accession the Renaissance had ascended the Papal throne, he declares to be superb; it was at that time already within the area of the still unfinished new building. The Doric erection at the Tomb of St. Peter, raised under Leo X, the Frankfort jurist compares to a chapter house, because the throne of the Pope and the seats of the Cardinals were placed there.

The days of the old basilica were numbered, on account of the new building begun by Julius II. Several highly interesting drawings by Heemskerck give us an idea of the state of the work at the beginning of the reign of Paul III; he reproduces some interesting details with the fidelity and conscientiousness peculiar to him. Several of his sketches are uncommonly plastic in their effect. Specially valuable is a sketch of the old and new St. Peter’s, taken from the south. In this one sees the provisional choir of the new building, and the connecting structure of the arches of the south tribune, afterwards broken up; the mighty square pillars, with the south and east connecting arches; of old St. Peter’s there are, first of all, S. Maria della Febbre and the Obelisk, still surmounted with a sphere, which stands in its old place alongside the new building, the choir chapel of Sixtus IV, over against which stands the remaining portion of the nave of the old basilica, the front part with its somewhat projecting gable, and, further to the right, the atrium, shut in by the palace of the archpriest and by that of Innocent VIII, and dominated by the Sixtine Chapel and the top storey of the old Vatican palace. Underneath, the picturesque Leonine belfry and the narrow side of the western galleries belonging to the Loggie of Raphael, still open at that date, appear the Loggia of the Benediction and the front part of the mighty portico of Paul II, with the entrance door to the Vatican erected by Innocent VIII, and close to these the ramparts from which, on festivals, the trumpets were sounded. In the distance one can see the long stretched on gallery of Bramante, the pinnacle-crowned Belvedere, and the Nicchione in its original one-storeyed form. The great interest taken by the artist in the new building is shown by the fact that he made quite a number of further sketches of it. Vasari’s fresco in the Cancelleria shows the progress made with the work under Paul III. We can learn from other sketches made about the year 1550, the state it had reached at the end of the reign of the Farnese Pope, and at the beginning of the pontificate of Julius III.

Fichard praises the square in front of St. Peter’s as the finest in the whole city, although it was then only half as large as today; the obelisk which Sixtus V placed in the centre was not yet in position, nor were the two fountains or the magnificent colonnade of Bernini. The principal adornment of St. Peter’s Square, in which bull-fights were still held in the time of Julius III, as was also the case in front of S. Marco and S. Maria in Trastevere, was then the beautiful fountain, begun by Innocent VIII and completed by Alexander VI. Rome could not yet point to those incomparable fountains which were later on such a feature of Roman art. Heemskerck has also drawn St. Peter’s Square several times, showing the front part of the old building and the Vatican. One of these sketches, lately discovered in the Court library, Vienna, gives an exceedingly instructive picture of the unevenness and difference of level of the square. One can see very clearly in this the difference between the steep ascent which led to the Vatican, and the gentler slope of the ground towards the external flight of steps of the basilica, which had been restored by Pius I, and guarded the entrance to the Vatican; these were first replaced by the Swiss in 1548. The Borgo was very strictly guarded at that time; Fichard particularly points out that no one was allowed to enter by the Porta S. Petri who had not permission from the guard of the Castle of St. Angelo. At the other end of the bridge of St. Angelo the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul had been standing since 1530 as the guardians of the Leonine City. It was only after crossing this bridge that one entered the actual city.

The character of the Rione di Ponte, of which the river forms the boundary on two sides, is clearly indicated by the first great palace to the right of a person coming from the Borgo. Here, on the banks of the Tiber, lived the noble and artistic banker, Bindo Altoviti, the friend of Raphael and Michael Angelo. Besides the banks of the Florentines, among which that of Giovanni Gaddi was pre-eminent, there were also German houses, the best known of which were those of Fugger and Weiser. Perino del Vaga had adorned the palace of the Fugger with mythological frescoes.

As Bufalini’s plan very clearly shows, the streets leading into the heart of the city from the residence of the Head of the Church, radiated in all directions from the Ponte S. Angelo. On the right side of the bridge, one came, through the new Via Paola, to the national church of the Florentines, built by Jacopo Sansovino, past which the longest and most beautiful street in Rome at that time, the Via Giulia, laid out under Julius II by Bramante, and improved by Paul III., followed the course of the river as far as the Ponte Sisto. To the left, the street called after the prison situated there, the Tor di Nona, also running parallel to the Tiber, formed the connection with the Corso; it divided at the church of S. Maria in Posterula, which was built on the banks of the river, into the Via Sistina or del Orso, on the right, which led into the Scrofa, and on the left, into the new Via della Trinita (later Via di S. Lucia, Monte Brianzo, Piazza Nicosia, Fontanella di Borghese and Condotti), which intersected the Scrofa and Corso, and ended in the then unbuilt piazza below the convent of the Trinity de’ Monti. To the latter one ascended by a steep path, shaded by trees.

Paul III had opened out another new street, the Via di Panico, more towards the centre of the city, by which one could reach the fortified Palazzo Orsini on Monte Giordano, from the Castle of St. Angelo; this palace was inhabited in 1550 by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. From the said street, the very busy Via di Tor Sanguigna, afterwards called the Via dei Coronari, from the numerous dealers in rosaries, branched off. This busy thoroughfare of Sixtus IV, which, to this day, affords one of the most characteristic street scenes in Rome, with its beautiful, but unfortunately neglected palaces, and its little Quattrocento houses, dating from the time of the first of the Rovere Popes, led to the tower of the Sanguigni and to the Piazza Navona.

The most important and the finest link between the city and the Vatican was the celebrated Canale di Ponte, which owed its name to the fact that, during the frequent inundations, it resembled a canal in the city of the lagoons. An inscription which has survived all the changes of the centuries, still reminds us of the inundation of 1275. The height to which the Tiber repeatedly invaded the city is also evident from the mark on the church of the Minerva concerning the inundations in the years 1422, 1495 and 1530. It was only the great inundations that were commemorated by such records, for lesser ones took place every few years, as may be gathered from the reports of the embassies. The poorer population in the parts of the city situated close to the Tiber, suffered terribly under these calamities.

In the Canale di Ponte was situated the Papal Mint, or the Zecca, erected by Antonio da Sangallo, and changed by Paul V. into the Banco di S. Spirito, from which comes the present name of Via del Banco di S. Spirito. At the Zecca the Canale di Ponte branched off into two streets : to the left, the Via dei Banchi Nuovi, with its continuation to the palace of the Massimi, leading past S. Marco and forming part of the celebrated old Via Papale, which ended at the Lateran and thus connected the two principal churches in Rome; to the right of the Zecca one reached the Campo di Fiore and further on the Piazza Giudea, the fortress of the Savelli, built into the Theatre of Marcellus, and the foot of the Capitoline hill, through the Via dei Banchi Vecchi and the Via del Pellegrino, laid out by Sixtus IV. Fichard says that these central streets were the most celebrated and the busiest of all, and that one commercial house joined on to another there.

This remark of the Frankfort traveller is confirmed by the plan of Bufalini and by that of Ugo Pinardo, made some years later. One can see clearly from these how the whole life of the city thronged to the quarter nearest to the Bridge of St. Angelo, the highway to the Vatican. All the rich merchants and bankers, many distinguished prelates and artists, as well as countless rich “cortegiane,” lived there. In this neighbourhood the real centre of life in the age of the Renaissance, with all its splendour and all its corruption, was to be found. Here also were the much frequented inns, such as the Albergo del Leone, in the Via Tor di Nona, and a little further on, the Albergo delf Orso. This mediaeval brick building, in the round arches and ornamentation of which an old-world element makes itself felt, is still in existence, and, although much mutilated and rebuilt, still serves as an inn. Not far from the Albergo dell’ Orso, the maestro di camera of Julius III, Giovan Battista Galletti, had his dwelling, which was richly adorned with antiques.

For the great personages who lived crowded together in the Rione di Ponte, distinguished artists of the Renaissance created palaces in the maze of traffic-filled streets of this Quattrocento quarter, mostly on narrow and irregular foundations, but which were distinguished by their splendour and stately magnificence, and contained countless precious antiques, as did almost all the houses of the upper classes. Only too many of these buildings, such as the great Palazzo Altoviti, and the elegant house of the Bini, have been completely destroyed. Others, as, for instance, the one time cardinalitial palace of Alexander VI, which, in the time of Paul III, was inhabited first by Cardinal Antonio Pucci and then by Guido Ascanio Sforza, the so-called old Cancelleria (now the Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini) have been disfigured by alterations. Nevertheless, we can still admire in their original beauty, the picturesque Palazzo Alberini-Cicciaporci, a characteristic building of Giulio Romano, and the masterpiece of Jacopo Sansovino, the Palazzo Niccolini-Amici, originally erected for the banker, Giovanni Gaddi, who made it a centre for the artists and humanists of the time. In the Via Giulia, the severe palatial dwelling (now the Palazzo Sachetti) of the artistic Cardinal Ricci, where Benvenuto Cellini, and, after 1542, Costanza Farnese lived, is still to be seen.

The dwellings of the Quattrocento, which for the most part had only two windows on each storey and a loggia above, are still generally recognizable by the fine and elegantly executed doorways and windows. Not only were the arms of the owner introduced here, but also his name and a motto. Thus one can see on the house of the architect, Prospero Mochi, in the Via dei Coronari (No. 148) over the windows of the first floor, the name of the owner, and over the doorway, the words : Tua puta que tute facis (Thy deeds alone are thy property). The palace of Cardinal Domenico della Rovere (now the Palazzo de’ Penitenzieri) has retained the name of this prince of the Church over the windows of the first floor, and over those of the second floor, his “Impresa,” Soli Deo, which also appears in his Chapel in S. Maria del Popolo. Foreigners also copied this custom of thus distinguishing their dwellings. An example of this is afforded by the house of the Spanish family of Vaca, in the Via della Vignaccia (now del Parlamento No. 60): over the doorway the name of the family is inscribed, and underneath the verse : Ossa et opes tandem partas tibi Roma relinquam (My bones and my wealth I shall at last leave to thee, 0 Rome).

Since the time of Leo X, the exterior of the houses of the better classes had been tastefully decorated with “ sgraffiti ” and frescoes in one tone, a form of decoration the fame of which reached as far as Poland, and was largely used there. Raphael’s pupils, Giovanni da Udine, Perino del Vaga, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Maturino and others produced exquisite works of this kind, which have, unfortunately, almost all gone to ruin, or been defaced until they are unrecognizable. Thus a frieze, which Caravaggio and Maturino painted, show­ing the history of Niobe, on a palace in the Via della Maschera d’Oro, can hardly be made out. Similar work on a house in the Vicolo del Campanile near S. Maria Traspontina, is in a better state of preservation, but that in the Vicolo Calabraga (now Cellini) is almost faded, while that on that most interesting dwelling of the procurator of the Anima, Johann Sander (Via del Anima No. 65) has been painted over and altered. The frescoes on the Palazzo Ricci give us today the best idea of this beautiful street decoration.

Giovanni da Udine had in the time of the first Medici Pope, decorated the palace of Giovan Battista Branconio dell’ Aquila with stucco, while in other cases they used terra cotta for decoration. Since the time of Paul III. it had become more and more the custom to adorn the houses with stucco, paintings, reliefs and statues. An outstanding example of this is afforded, in addition to the Palazzo Capodiferro (now Spada) by the still excellently, preserved house of the celebrated goldsmith, Gianpietro Crivelli; this is situated in the Rione di Ponte, not far from the old confraternity Church of S. Lucia del Gonfalone. Here one can see representations of ancient armour, trophies, coats of arms, lions’ heads, genii, garlands of fruit and other ornamentation. Of special interest are the two bas-reliefs, which represent two events in the reign of Paul III: the reception of Charles V in Rome, and the conclusion of peace at Nice. Crivelli distinguished himself by his great generosity, and when the Franciscan, Giovanni da Calvi, founded a Monte di Pieta, to combat the usury which was one of the great plagues of the Renaissance period, and which was not practised by the Jews alone, he gave the institution, at that time quite small, but always growing, accommodation in his house.

If the Rione di Ponte was especially the home of the bankers and business men, the Rione di Parione was the quarter of the prelates, courtiers, notaries, booksellers, copyists, archeologists and humanists. This quarter contained three open spaces in the Middle Ages, of which the Piazza Parione, near the Church of S. Tommaso, had been built over since the XIVth century, while the two others, the Campo di Fiore and the Piazza Navona, are still in existence. Cardinal Estouteville had removed the market in 1477 from the Piazza of the Capitol to the Piazza Navona. Every Wednesday, as Fichard expressly testifies, the special market for clothing, cloth, arms and other objects, which is now held in the Campo di Fiore, was held in this open space. At carnival time the former circus of Domitian was the scene of the most brilliant pageants and processions (festa di Agone), which attracted curious spectators from all parts.

On one side of the Piazza Navona was to be seen the Spanish national church of S. Giacomo, while on the other side arose, in the neighbourhood of the German national church, S. Maria dell’ Anima, the extensive palace which had come into the possession of Cardinal de Cupis, in which the once powerful but afterwards so unfortunate Cardinal Ascanio Sforza had lived.

South of the Tor Millina, on which, with its pinnacle adorned with sgraffiti, one could ‘still read the name of the family, Cardinal Oliviero Carafa had caused to be erected the statue of Pasquino which was the distinguishing symbol of this Rione. Near the Pasquino, which was regarded by artists as one of the most exquisite examples of sculpture, rose the palace which the artistic Cardinal Antonio del Monte, uncle to Julius III, had had built for himself. According to Bufalini’s plan of the city, the influential Cardinal Alvarez de Toledo also lived in this neighbourhood. In the Via Parione the business house of Antoine Lafrery was to be found, which, until the time of Gregory XIII, was the chief centre of Roman copper-plate engraving. South-west from the Via Parione was situated the Pozzo Bianco (Puteus Albus) which gave its name to the church of Our Lady there. This fountain, which is today on the Janiculum, near Tasso’s Oak, plays, like the Chiavica di S. Lucia, an important part in the documents of the XVth century, as a topographical designation of the district. The appearance of this neighbourhood was afterwards completely changed by the erection of the magnificent church of the Oratorians, founded by St. Philip Neri.

The Rione di Parione was especially rich in remarkable buildings, which, even though they are, to a great extent, changed, and very much neglected, are still capable of arousing the special interest of the lover of arts. In the Via Parione the portal of a palace erected in 1475, and still adorned with the arms of the family, reminds us of Cardinal Stefano Nardini; in the time of Julius III., the administration of the “Mons Julii” had its quarters here. This building, greatly neglected at the present day, was afterwards the residence of the “Governatore” and therefore received the name of Governo Vecchio, after which the street is also named. The residence of Cardinal Cortese adjoined the back of this palace. In this building, which is still in existence, was the original home of the hospital of the Germans of Siebenbiirgen. It became in 1533, by the presentation of Rosa of Siebenbiirgen, the property of the German national church, S. Maria dell’ Anima, by which it was sold in 1542 to Cardinal Cortese.

Cardinal Medici, afterwards Pius IV, resided in 1552 in the palace of Cardinal Fieschi, later called the Palazzo Sora; the elegant residences of the Pichi and Caccialupi families, as well as those of the prelates, Turci and Thomas le Roy, are equally well preserved. All these were, however, sur­passed in beauty by the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne and the Cancelleria.

The Cancelleria was, until the completion of the Palazzo Farnese, which does not appear in Heemskerck’s panorama, the largest and most splendid building of the new Rome. Here the powerful and gifted nephew of Paul III, Alessandro Farnese, had his residence, and through him it became, as well as the Vatican, a centre of diplomatic, literary and artistic life. By the side of this enormous erection, which, in the time of Julius III., was still called after its founder, Cardinal Riario, numerous small houses had been erected. The old basilica of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, which had been incorporated in the Cancelleria, was celebrated, at the time of Fichard’s visit, for the masses of the great composers which were sung there daily.

In the old Palazzo Massimo, in the back part of which Germans had worked as the first printers in Rome, the numerous bookshelves still retained there in the time of Paul III were a reminder of the days when scholars used to assemble there to interchange their views. The original residence of this ancient family had been destroyed in the Sack, but in 1535 Baldassare Peruzzi built a new palace for Pietro Massimo, a truly great work, and wonderfully made to fit in with the curve of the then narrow street. The work of the artist could, it is true, only be fully appreciated by one who was familiar with the former conditions, but even today everyone can take pleasure in the pillared courtyard, which, with its little fountain, and the glimpse of the staircase and the loggia on the first floor, makes a particularly beautiful and picturesque whole. All the details of this noble building belong to the best period of the Golden Age.

In the Rione di Parione were also the houses of the Galli and the Sassi, celebrated for their collections of antiques. Heemskerck in 1535 made pen and ink sketches of the galleries of both and of the statues placed there. One can see from these sketches that the Sassi still possessed the statues which came into the possession of the Farnese in 1546, the Venus Genetrix, the Apollo and the Icarios relief which went to Naples, as well as the Hermes which is now in the British Museum. In the Casa Galli, which was on the north side of the Piazza della Cancelleria, could be seen, among the statues and sarcophagi, the Bacchus of Michael Angelo.

The second great open space of the Rione di Parione was the Campo di Fiore, laid out by Sixtus IV, which was bounded on the south-west by the Rione della Regola. From its central position between this mediaeval part of Rome, which stretched along the Tiber, and the quarters of Parione and Ponte, in which the life of the city pulsated during the Renaissance period, it represented the actual Forum of Rome. The Papal Bulls were affixed there, the regulations of the Governatore published, executions carried out, and the horse market held. On the south-eastern part of this open space the nephew of Eugenius IV, Cardinal Francesco Condulmero, had built a large palace on the ruins of Pompey’s Theatre, which later came into the hands of the Orsini, who let it to members of the Sacred College; at the time of Julius III, Cardinal Francisco de Mendoza lived there. Behind this palace (now the Palazzo Pio) there are two old churches, S. Barbara and S. Maria “in Grotta Pinta.” North of S. Maria was the confraternity church of the German bakers, S. Elisabetta, only recently destroyed.

In consequence of the busy traffic which centred in the Campo di Fiore, numerous vaulted shops and inns were to be found. The celebrated publishers, Antonio Blado and Antonio Salamanca had their business premises there. Of the inns, one, the Albergo della Vacca, was part of the extensive property of Vannozza de’ Catanei, known from the history of Alexander VI, who also had houses let to inn­keepers in other places. To this day, a Quattrocento building close to the Campo di Fiore, in the Vicolo del Gallo (Nos. 12-13) at the corner of the Via de’ Cappellari, bears the name Casa di Vannozza. That it belonged to her is clear from the fact that the marble coat of arms affixed to the front of the house shows the bull of the Borgias. It has been believed up till now that this building, which has been preserved with only trifling alterations, is the Bell Inn, which in accordance with the journal of Burchard, was in the later years of the XVth century, the temporary lodging of German princes. The documents in the archives of the Anima, however, show that this house belonged to the Valle, who let it in 1479 to the German innkeeper Johannes Teufel, whom the Italians euphemistically named Angelo; two years later this man bought part of the building. The celebrated Bell Inn, which was a favourite meeting place of the Germans in Rome, was, there­fore not the house of Vannozza, but was alongside it in the Via de’ Cappellari. Other Germans carried on the profitable business of innkeeping in Rome during the Cinquecento ; in the Borgo there were, as early as the time of Eugenius IV., more than sixty German inns and eating houses.

The Albergo del Sole, as well as the Bell, had a great reputation in the XVth century, and, although much altered, it still exists at the present day in the Via di Biscione (Nos. 73-76). No one now dreams that this ordinary looking building, with the deep arched entrance and dark picturesque courtyard was once a hotel for foreigners of the first rank, in which the ambassador of France was lodged in 1489. It is situated where the poultry market (Piazza Pollarola) adjoins the Via di Biscione ; here the palace of the Pichi may be recognized by a fine doorway bearing the name of the builder. The names of an inn and a street in this neighbourhood remind us still of an old inn named Paradiso, probably on account of its moderate prices. Before the Corso Vittorio Emanuele was laid out one could read at the point where the Via del Paradiso branches off from the Via Papale, the inscription of Girolamo Zorzi concerning the great inundation of the Tiber in the reign of Alexander VI, in December, 1495. The street of the Baullari (trunkmakers), which was appropriately situated in the quarter of the inns, leads to the Palazzo Massimo.

Like the Rioni Ponte and Parione, the Rione della Regola contained a large population. As the name Regola (Arenula), meaning sand or gravel, indicates, this was the quarter along­side the Tiber which was crossed by the Via Giulia and a street parallel to it, which went through the Piazza Farnese to the Ponte Quattro Capi. The sharp contrasts, of which the Eternal City offered so many examples, were, perhaps, nowhere more frequent than in this quarter, The huge luxurious palaces were in acute contrast to the little old churches, and the streets filled with people carrying on their trades, the names of which they still retain to the present day : Via de’ Cappellari (hat makers), Via de’ Giubbonari (doublet makers), Via de’ Pettinari (comb-makers).[868] [869] Many Jews had also settled here, and where they were most numer­ous, the old palace of the Cenci stood. One can best form an idea of the condition of this neighbourhood at that time, for it has been completely changed by the laying out of the Via Arenula, if one enters the dirty Via di S. Bartolomeo de’ Vaccinari, where, above all, a pre-gothic house of the XIIIth century with a pillared portico attracts the notice of the antiquarian. Such open porticos on the ground level afford welcome protection from rain; they are characteristic of mediaeval houses, in most of which a covered loggia was provided. In the porticos antique pillars were often introduced, as in the case of the house in the Via of S. Bartolomeo. Through the last arch of this house one enters the Vicolo del Melangolo, a neighbourhood which represents the mediaeval state of the city in a striking manner.

The Rione della Regola contained three houses for pilgrims : S. Maria di Monserrato for Spaniards, S. Tommaso for Englishmen, and S. Brigida for Swedes. The exiled Archbishop of Upsala, Olaus Magnus, lived in S. Brigida, which was in the Piazza Farnese. S. Girolamo della Carita and the church of S. Benedetto in Arenula, which was in the year 1558 given to the confraternity of the Trinita de’ Pellegrini, also belonged to the Rione della Regola.

This quarter had been notably improved when Sixtus IV had joined it to the Trastevere by the erection of the Ponte Sisto; it received a very great development under Paul III, because the magnificent Palazzo Farnese, begun in 1530 by Antonio da Sangallo, which, in accordance with the will of Paul III, became the property of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, was situated there. This truly regal building,[876] of immense size, which was finished as far as the façade on the Via Giulia soon after 1547, was marked on Bufalini’s plan as the palace of Paul III. It attained a worldwide celebrity, as much because of the share taken by Michael Angelo in its erection, as because of the collection which it contained. Cardinal Alessandro, although he was often in financial difficulties, acquired, in the grand manner of the Medici, treasures of every description : manuscripts, books, and pictures, but above all statues. The latter were partly purchased, and partly obtained by means of special excavations in Rome and the neighbourhood. The Baths of Caracalla afforded the richest finds, for there were brought to light in 1546 and 1547 works of art which threw all former discoveries into the shade. Among these were the group known as the Farnese Bull, the Hercules, the Flora and numerous other valuable pieces of sculpture.

Not far from the Palazzo Farnese, near the Ponte Sisto, is the palace of Girolamo Capodiferro (now Palazzo Spada), built in 1540, and decorated by Giulio Mazzoni, a pupil of Daniele da Volterra. The celebrated house of Branconio dell’ Aquila, in the Borgo, served as a model for this, the imitation being clearly apparent in the facade, which is almost too richly decorated with statues, stucco and other ornamentation. The decoration of the picturesque courtyard is much more successful. Behind the palace, a garden extends down to the Tiber. Julius III. enriched the collection of the Cardinal by the present of the colossal statue of Pompey.

The house of the highly respected physician in ordinary to Paul III, Francesco Fusconi of Norcia, was between the Palazzo Farnese and the Campo di Fiore; he too had collected valuable antiques, as the statue of Meleager, now in the Vatican, testifies. Latino Gio venale, another collector of antiquities, also lived in this neighbourhood.

On the other bank of the river, opposite the Rione della Regola, the Trastevere, rich in old churches and towers, which formed a Rione by itself, spread out on all sides. Foreigners seldom penetrated into this part of the city, which was very thickly populated. It was the quarter of the wine-dealers and sailors. The hospital for mariners, as also that for the Genoese, were not far from the venerable church of St. Cecilia. From the harbour on the Ripa Grande, a steep flight of steps and an easy carriage road led to the hall of the Dogana, close to which was the little church of the sailors, S. Maria della Torre, so called after the tower erected by Leo IV. in the IXth century. The great orphanage of S. Michele rose here towards the end of the XVIIth century.

Almost the whole of this quarter of the city was intersected by a long street, the Via Trastiberina (now Lungarina and Lungaretta) which led from the Ponte di S. Maria (later Ponte Rotto) past the churches of S. Salvatore della Corte and S. Agata, to the piazza and basilica of S. Maria in Trastevere. Right and left of this main artery, which was laid out by Julius II., a maze of dark and tortuous lanes spread out, the most interesting of which have been sacrificed to the embankment of the Tiber. It is very difficult today to form an idea of the former state of the neighbourhood. The houses,, many of which possessed loggie and small perrons, were nowhere so crowded together as here, while among them were numerous small churches and convents, as well as the very substantial dwellings of the old patrician families, such as the Stefaneschi, Ponziani, Papareschi, Normanni, Alberteschi, Mattei, and Anguillara, which were provided with towers, giving them the appearance of fortresses. The quarter of S. Pellegrino in Viterbo1 gives us a better idea today of the mediaeval appearance which the Trastevere presented at the end of the Renaissance period. The numerous towers were specially character­istic, but of these only two have been preserved, the Torre Anguillara and that of the Gaetani on the island at the Ponte Quattro Capi. Of the citadels of the nobles, the exceedingly interesting dwelling of the Mattei at the Ponte S. Bartolomeo still remains*. The very great number of towers, which astonish us in all the representations of the period, gave the name of “De Turribus” to the Church of S. Lorenzo de Janiculo, destroyed at the erection of the Monastery of S. Egidio.

No part of the city approached the Trastevere in picturesque charm, the Ripa Grande affording a most attractive view from the opposite bank; Pieter Brueghel painted it from there in the year 1553.

Through the porta Settimiana, then recently erected by Alexander VI, went the old road of the pilgrims journeying to St. Peter’s, the Via Sancta (now the Lungara) leading to the Porta S. Spirito in the Borgo. Along this road, of which Julius II intended to form a corresponding street to the Via Giulia, only isolated houses and churches were to be found, for this district lay outside the fortifications. It was the district of the large “vignas,” among which those of Cardinals Maffei, Salviati and Farnese were prominent; the celebrated Farnesina of Agostino Chigi also belonged to Cardinal Farnese. Among the churches of the Janiculum, S. Pietro in Montorio goes back to the IXth century, S. Onofrio having only been founded in 1435, by the hermit Niccolo di Forca Palena.

Like the Trastevere, the Rione di S. Angelo was a real quarter of the people. This was enclosed by the Rioni Regola and S. Eustachio on the west, and by Pigna on the north and Campitelli on the east. Numerous Jews lived here, who, besides extensive money transactions, carried on, even at that time, a business which they have continued to practise in Rome to the present day, that of tailors. In Bufalini’s plan there is a street near S. Angelo in Pescaria, which is designated Via de’ Giudei. It is clear from Aldrovandi and others that the later Piazza del Pianto bore, in the Cinquecento, the name of Piazza Giudea. In this neighbourhood, the Santa Croce had their palace, which contained numerous antiquities. Even as early as the beginning of the Renaissance period the citizens of Rome had made some attempt to beautify this quarter as well, a proof of this being a remarkable building of the Quattrocento in the Piazza del Pianto which has su­vived all the transformations which this neighbourhood in particular has undergone in recent times. This building is the dwelling, erected in 1467, of Lorenzo de’ Manili, who, being an enthusiastic lover of antiquity, connected his houses by a large inscription which runs under the windows of the first floor, and which imitates so exactly the Roman capitals of the best period that it might easily be taken for an antique building. This pompous inscription states that when Rome shall be re-born in its ancient form, he, Laurentius Manlius (he described himself in this way, because he was descended from the celebrated old Roman family) would contribute to the adornment of his beloved native city, as far as his modest fortune would permit. As a true representative of the Renais­sance, he dated the inscription according to the foundation of Rome, and had his name cut in Greek letters on the facade, into which fragments of antique sculpture and inscriptions were introduced. On the sills of the windows towards the Piazza Costaguti one may read the characteristic greeting, expressive of the joy of the builder at the new birth of beauty in the Eternal City : Have Roma.

The fish-market was held in the Portico of Octavia, near the adjoining church of S. Angelo in Pescaria. Older visitors to Rome will still remember this exceedingly picturesque— in spite of all the squalor—corner, which has been frequently reproduced by artists.

The most important monument of antiquity in this quarter was the Theatre of Marcellus. This building, owned by the Savelli since 1368, had the appearance of a mediaeval stronghold, imparted to it by its earlier owners, the Pierleone, but greatly lessened by the reconstruction carried out by Baldassare Peruzzi. In the arches on the ground floor were the vaulted warehouses of merchandize, which even to this day retain the impress of the Middle Ages. Of the palaces of the Mattei, only one was in existence at that time ; the others, erected under Pius IV, in the Flaminian Circus, have given quite another character to the neighbourhood near the church of S. Caterina de’ Funari, built in 1544.

The Rione di Ripa followed the Tiber opposite the southern part of Trastevere, the island, with the church of S. Bartolomeo, also belonging to it. In this church, the chapel of the guild of the mill-owners, is still in existence ; one can see on the tombs there, more or less roughly represented, the floating mills which had been anchored not far from the island since the time of Belisarius. The district of the Rione di Ripa, which was covered with buildings without any open spaces, only reached as far as the Ponte di S. Maria, which, restored under Julius III, was destined to fall a victim to the inundation of 1557, and on the landward side, turned in the direction of the Capitol and the Velabro. Not far from the latter, rose the church of S. Giovanni Decollato, the church of the confraternity which provided criminals with the consolations of religion before their execution. There were nothing but smaller houses near the old basilica of S. Maria in Cosmedin. It was a neglected neighbourhood, where the palace of a noble of the XIth century stood in the midst of indescribable filth; this was the dwelling of Nicholas Crescentius, the exterior of which was most curiously adorned with antique fragments, and which then bore, as we can see from Heemskerck’s panorama, the name of Casa di Pilato, later changed to di Rienzo.

To the south the Rione di Ripa included the whole of the Aventine, the Baths of Caracalla and Monte Testaccio. On the open space in front of the latter the traditional coarse amusements of the Roman populace always took place at carnival time, when the municipal officials and the upper classes would also be present. There were no houses of any kind on the Aventine, with its venerable churches and the picturesque remains of the citadel of the Savelli.

The Rione di Campitelli, which extended to the Porta S. Sebastiano, also included a district which was very little built over. In this quarter, to which the Colosseum and the Pala­tine belong, there was no life except at the foot of the Capitol. The principal remains here were the two churches of Our Lady, S. Maria della Consolazione, with an old picture of the Madonna, at which the many votive offerings and pictures testified to the great veneration in which it was held, and the church of the Roman Senate, S. Maria in Aracoeli, built on the ruins of the Capitoline Temple of Juno, and with which the wonderfully poetical legend of the appearance of the Queen of Heaven to the Emperor Augustus is associated.

On the left of the great flight of steps which in 1348 led to the church from the piazza of the Capitol, Fichard saw a considerable number of marble sculptures, several of which have survived to the present day. The church itself, over which the Senate had the right of patronage, was and still is very rich in sepulchral monuments. The Frankfort traveller, however, mentions only the tomb of St. Helena, that of Queen Catherine of Bosnia and the resting place of the humanist, Flavio Biondo.

The Capitol, so celebrated on account of the memories associated with it, was visited by all foreigners because of the bronzes presented by Sixtus IV, the She-Wolf, the Thorn Extractor, Camillus, fragments of the bronze Colossus, and Hercules. Under Paul III it lost the appearance of a mediaeval citadel, which it had until then preserved. In an engraving of the year 1538 we can already see the magnificent external staircase which Guglielmo della Porta executed from the design of Michael Angelo, and the statue of Marcus Aurelius so effectively set up in the middle of the square. The reconstruction of the front of the Palace of the Senators took place soon afterwards, as did that of the porticos at the sides, of which that on the right hand rose during the reign of Julius III.

On the north, the Rione di Campitelli adjoined the Rione della Pigna, which formed a rather irregular square in the middle of the city. This district contained the best preserved monument of antiquity, the Pantheon, called by the people S. Maria Rotonda. The open space in front of it was then much higher, so that one had to descend to the entrance by a flight of steps. Small houses stood round about the building, being even built on to it on the left side. Its condition at that time can be clearly seen from a drawing by Heemskerck. One can here see, behind the point of the gable, the little Romanesque belfry built in 1270 ; the vestibule is on the left side, and is half walled up; Paul III was the first to remove this unsightly masonry. The Egyptian basalt lions, afterwards removed to the Vatican, and the magnificent bath of porphyry, which now adorns the tomb of Clement XII in the Lateran, stood in front of this exquisite circular building. Small houses had also been built into the splendid ruins of the adjacent Baths of Agrippa.

The most important church of the Rione della Pigna was that of the Dominicans, S. Maria sopra Minerva, containing the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. Against the church stood a library which was of special celebrity, as was the small, but excellently arranged collection of books belonging to the Augustinians of S. Maria del Popolo. The houses of the Porcari, in the immediate neighbourhood, were rich in antiquities, as well as the Casa Maffei, not far off, near the Arco di Ciambella, in the picturesque courtyard of which Heemskerck saw the statue of the dead Niobe, which afterwards came into the possession of the Bevilacqua, and eventually reached Munich. This collection, one of the oldest in Rome, had already diminished in the time of Aldrovandi. The house was at that time occupied by the eminent Cardinal Bernardino Maffei.

The little church of S. Giovanni della Pigna, rebuilt by Vittoria Colonna in the piazza of the same name, the Palazzo del Duca d’Urbino (later Doria) and the Palazzo di S. Marco (now di Venezia) also belonged to the Rione della Pigna. The last-named served Paul III, and also occasionally Julius III, as a summer residence. The mighty building, with its magnificent halls, was excellently suited for the reception of the Pope and his extensive suite. A very special curiosity, which did not escape the notice of Fichard, was the gigantic map of the world at the end of the Quattrocento, which was preserved in the palace and was adorned with reproductions of human beings, and land and sea monsters, and which excited much interest and admiration. Not far from the monumental building of the Palazzo di S. Marco was the little church of S. Maria della Strada, given to the Jesuits by the Farnese Pope.

The frequent residences of the Popes in the Palazzo di S. Marco gave an importance to the Rione della Pigna, which was separated from the Rione di Trevi by the Corso (Via Lata), in which the Colonna had their very extensive palace near the SS. Apostoli. The fountain of Trevi still retained the simple form given to it by Nicholas V. A great part of the Rione di Trevi, which reached as far as the Porta Salara and the Porta Nomentana, was uninhabited.

Mighty ruins stood on the Quirinal; the remains of the Baths of Constantine and the Temple of Serapis. In front of the baths, facing towards the piazza, stood the statues of the Horse-breakers, on a clumsy mediaeval base; on account of their size and their good state of preservation, they were among the most popular monuments in Rome, and the Quirinal was named Monte Cavallo after them. It was almost entirely taken up with gardens, vineyards, olive groves and villas. Pomponius Laetus and Platina had already laid out villas and gardens on the Quirinal, which was much esteemed on account of its good air. Cardinals Prospero Colonna, Oliviero Carafa and Ridolfo Pio da Carpi had done likewise. The artistic collection of Cardinal Carpi comprised, besides statues and reliefs, small bronzes, terra cottas, vases, and antique furniture, as well as books, manuscripts, and pictures. The smaller objects of this collection, of which Aldrovandi gives an enthusiastic description, were almost all in the palace of this Cardinal in the Campo Marzo ; the marble statues were nearly all placed in the villa, the extensive gardens of which Aldrovandi calls a paradise on earth.

The collection of Cardinal Carpi was, however, surpassed by that of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, the son of Lucrezia Borgia. This ardent collector of antiquities had filled his residences in the city with treasures of this kind, and since 1554, he had been gradually bringing the most important works of art to his villa on the Quirinal, with the beautifying of which he was still occupied in 1560. This wonderful country house, on the southern slope of the hill, which occupied the site of the grounds of the later Papal palace, was celebrated for the arrangement of the fountains, which were richly adorned with statues.

Paul III was specially fond of staying on the Quirinal. He possessed a garden there as early as 1535, which attracted much notice on account of its beauty. Later on he lived in the villa of Cardinal Carafa, and it was there that the old Pope of eighty-two breathed his last. In the gardens of the Colonna near S. Silvestro, Michael Angelo and Vittoria Colonna carried on those conversations on Sunday afternoons which Francesco de Hollanda has preserved for us, and which have been said to have been the last flickerings of the spirit which made the Renaissance great and noble. Vittoria always had in mind the idea of building a convent of nuns on the ruins of the Temple of Serapis, in order that the last remains of paganism might be trodden under the feet of pure-minded women.

Towards the north, and round that magnificent relic of antiquity, the column of Marcus Aurelius, and named after it, lay the Rione di Colonna. In the middle of the XVIth century, the ambassadors of France and Portugal had their palaces in this quarter, near Monte Citorio, while the Imperial ambassadors resided in the Palazzo Riario (later Altemps) which is still in the Rione di Ponte. Formerly almost all the ambassadors lived in the Rione di Ponte; the transference of their residences into the Rione di Colonna was a sign of the coming change of the centre of life in the city, which was soon to be brought about in an ever increasing degree.

The principal church in the Rione di Colonna was S. Lorenzo in Lucina, which, since May, 1554, had been the title of Cardinal Morone, the largest parish in Rome thereby becoming subject to him. The palace of Cardinal Quiñones (later Fiano) adjoined the church; at this point, where until 1662 an ancient triumphal arch, the Arco di Portogallo, spanned the Corso, the fully built over part of this street ended. Several names still remind us of the end of the houses, such as the Via Capo le Case. To the north the Rione di Colonna reached as far as the Porta Pinciana and the Porta Salara.

Towards the end of the Renaissance period, the Rioni of S. Eustachio and Campo Marzo increased in importance. The Rione di S. Eustachio, called after the church of the same name, stretched eastwards from the Rioni Ponte and Parione. The University was situated there, as well as the much frequented church of S. Agostino, and numerous palaces of the Roman nobles. In the neighbourhood of the University, in the Piazza de’ Lombardi, there stood, near the venerable church of S. Salvatore in Thermis, the Palazzo Medici, the residence of Leo X when a Cardinal. In this palace, which came into the hands of the Farnese under Paul III, the unhappy Duke and Duchess, Ottavio and Margherita Farnese, resided from the year 1538, for which reason it was called the Palazzo Madama. Two drawings by Heemskerck give a complete picture of the costly antiquities which the palace contained. Most of these, which were placed there without any special arrangement, were still in the gallery, when Aldrovandi wrote his description of them. The two Aphrodites, the two statues of Bacchus, and the Tyrannicides were placed here, and on the wall of the adjoining garden the Dying Gaul. The Villa Madama, with its collection, which also belonged to the Duchess Margherita, was a possession of inestimable value.

 

The palaces of the distinguished family of the della Valle, the members of which had been from early times zealous collectors, contained an even greater number of treasures of all kinds. The gallery of the old Palazzo della Valle, of which the diligent Heemskerck has left us a sketch, was adorned by the celebrated statue of Pan, which, while it was in the possession of Leo X, was used for the decoration of the triumphal arch of the Valle, and under Clement VII was placed in the Capitoline museum, by the side of the Marforio. The principal pieces of sculpture, which had also been used for the said triumphal arch, were placed by Cardinal Andrea della Valle (d. 1534) in his palace close by (now the Palazzo Valle-Rustici-Bufalo). This building, the principal entrance of which was adorned by a large head of Zeus, was a real museum. Everywhere, in the entrance hall, in the courtyard, as well as on the upper floors, there were so many marble works of art that the prosaic Fichard cries out in admiration that the real treasures of Roman antiquity were to be found there. In the quadrilateral court, which had been built for the statues, there were at that time, the Venus de’ Medici and the Ganymede of the Uffizi. After the death of the Cardinal, his nephew, Quinzio de’ Rustici, became the owner of these treasures.

Not far from this magnificent residence, Cardinal Andrea had a new palace built by Raphael’s pupil, Lorenzetto, in the present day Piazza di Valle ; this had not been completely finished on account of the catastrophe of 1527. The treasures collected there as well, aroused the admiration of Fichard. The rarest works adorned the celebrated gallery of statues on the upper floor, the corridors at the sides of which opened on to pillared halls. An engraving by Hieronymus Cock, which he perhaps executed from a drawing by Heemskerck, shows this marvellous hall with its precious contents ; a drawing by Francesco de Hollanda, made rather later, gives an exact picture of the right wall. The manner in which antique reliefs, statues in niches, and busts in circular recesses, were arranged, became a model for the whole of Rome. This new palace was inherited by the Capranica family, whose name it still bears. They sold the antiques to Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici in 1584, who used them for the adornment of his villa on the Pincio, but most of them were removed to Florence in the XVIIIth century. In Cock’s engraving one can see the Marsyas of the Uffizi, the so-called Thusnelda and the two large clothed statues of the Loggia de’ Lanzi, the statue of a barbarian of the Giardino Boboli, and many other master­pieces now preserved in the city on the Arno.

Under Leo X the Rione di S. Eustachio was enriched by two new and imposing palaces: the Palazzo Lante ai Capretari, built by Jacopo Sansovino, and the Palazzo Maccarani, which Giulio Romano designed for the Cenci. The Palazzo Patrizi, situated near the French national church, was also celebrated, as were the Palazzo Caffarelli (Vidoni) and the Palazzo Piccolomini in the Piazza Siena. Constanza Piccolomini, Duchess of Amalfi, gave up her residence to the Theatines, under Sixtus V, who transformed it into a monastery, alongside which arose the large baroque church of S. Andrea della Valle. The little church of S. Sebastiano di Via Papae, of which an altar in the new building reminds us, disappeared in the complete reorganization of the district which was undertaken at that time.

The master of ceremonies of Alexander VI, Johannes Burchard, from the diocese of Strasbourg, had built himself a large house in the Rione di S. Eustachio, not far from the Palazzo Cesarini; on the tower of this house one could read the inscription “Argentina,” a name which still lives on in the name of the street and theatre there. This house was an exception in the city of the Renaissance, for it was built in the gothic style, as was customary in Germany. Part of it, though in a deplorable condition, can still be seen.

The Rione di Campo Marzo restricted the former Campus Martius to a much smaller space. The central point of this, the most northern part of Rome, which was bounded on the west by the Tiber, and on the east by the Pincio, was that mighty monument of antiquity, the Mausoleum of the Emperor Augustus. It had served the Colonna as a fortress in the Middle Ages, and had been turned into a garden under Paul III; the Soderini had laid it out by using the remains of the walls which encircled it, and adorning it with statues in the fashion of the period. The obelisk, found in 1519 near S. Rocco, which had once stood at the entrance of the Mausoleum, lay, broken into four pieces, in the Via di Ripetta.

Many foreigners, as the names of the streets prove, had settled in this quarter, on account of the national charitable institutions for the Bretons, the Portuguese, the Sclavonians and the Lombards : S. Ivo, S. Antonio, S. Girolamo and S. Ambrogio (afterwards S. Carlo in Corso). This district had improved a great deal since the time of Leo X. Under Julius III it became still more important, for it was that Pope who had the great Palazzo Cardelli, which had been used by Cardinal Carpi from 1537 to 1547, reconstructed and decorated, to serve as a residence for his brother. The celebrated hospital of S. Giacomo in Augusta, the old Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory Nazianzen, S. Maria, SSma Trinita de’ Monti on the Pincio, the burial place of the Rovere, S. Maria del Popolo, which was filled with the most beautiful works of the Renaissance, all belonged to the Rione di Campo Marzo. The neighbouring gate, by which most of the visitors from the north entered the Eternal City, formed, with the bastions of Sixtus IV, a very picturesque object, as we can see from the sketch of Heemskerck.

The irregular Piazza del Popolo was not yet adorned with the obelisks. Three streets, intersecting the Rione di Colonna, led thence into the city: on the right, the Via di Ripetta, on the left, the Via del Babuino, and in the centre, the Via Lata, or Corso, so called from the races held there in carnival time. These main streets, however, were by no means the busiest; near the gate the houses were few in number, while to the right and left, garden walls arose. The Via Babuino, named after the Silenus on a fountain, was not built over towards the Pincio. The northern part of the Ripetta is called Via Populi in Bufalini’s plan. The small cross-street, joining the Ripetta to the Corso near the Mausoleum of Augustus, received the name of Via de’ Pontefici from the frescoes with which the Spanish humanist and poet, Saturnio Gerona, who lived there, had decorated his house. They were portraits of the Popes under whom Saturnio had served during his fifty years residence in Rome.

If one looks at the above mentioned districts of Rome, the most astonishing thing is the crowding together of the population in the low-lying neighbourhood of the Tiber. The wide hilly districts to the north and south and east, the Pincio, the Quirinal, the Viminal, the Esquiline and the Coelian, were, like the Aventine, almost uninhabited. Besides the venerable basilicas, high towers, dating from mediaeval times, rose up everywhere, but, apart from monasteries, there were in these neighbourhoods, which seemed consecrated for ever to prayer and seclusion, but few dwelling houses. The principal reason for this is given in a remark of Fichard, which seems very surprising in view of the plentiful supply of water now at the disposal of Rome, but which may be understood if we bear in mind the systematic destruction of the Roman aqueducts at the time of the Sack. The Frankfort traveller says that he saw very few fountains in the whole city. The population had to be content with the water from cisterns and from the Tiber, which was daily carried round the city. To what a great extent this was done is evident from the fact that the water-carriers formed a guild of their own (the Compagnia degli Acquarenari). They procured the water at the Porta del Popolo, where it was not yet contaminated, and then left it standing for four or live days. It seems incredible that the water of the yellow Tiber was considered healthy, and was carried about by Paul III as well as by Clement VII, when they were travelling. The physician, Alessandro Petroni, the friend of Ignatius of Loyola, praises the beneficial effects of the water of the Tiber, in a pamphlet dedicated to Julius III.

The uninhabited district, which comprised two-thirds of the space enclosed by the Aurelian walls, was full of the magic of past associations. The mighty remains of antiquity, as well as the venerable basilicas and monasteries, dating from the early days of Christianity and from mediaeval times, lay scattered in magnificent isolation and picturesque solitude. They formed the chief attraction for the pilgrims, who con­tinued to flock in crowds to the centre of ecclesiastical unity, while the wonders of the old churches did not escape the notice of scholars, who, however, as well as educated people in general, were far more attracted by the ancient ruins and buildings, for the study of which the topographical works of Bartolomeo Marliani, of 1544, and of Lucio Fauno, of 1548, gave a great deal of useful information. The ruins of ancient Rome lay quite alone, for the vignas which many Cardinals and nobles had laid out in the hilly districts possessed for the most part only modest country houses, which were only occu­pied in the autumn. The great ostentatious villas, with extensive grounds, had as yet scarcely made their appearance, and the districts which had been the centre of Republican and Imperial life in ancient Rome, were now occupied by vineyards, gardens and fields, presenting a purely rural appearance, with a desolate area of ruins, of the complete desertion and solemn seclusion of which it is difficult at the present time to form any idea.

Surrounded in great measure by old plane trees, dark cypresses, lofty pine trees and thick laurels, these old ruins were the delight of artists. The sketches of Heemskerck, as well as many of the later engravings of Du Pérac, afford a picture of indescribable romantic charm. In many places the ruins served as warehouses or stables, as does the Sette Sale to this day; the Venetian ambassador, Mocenigo, says that it is wonderful to see how vineyards, gardens and little copses have arisen round the antique arches and buildings.

The ancient buildings presented themselves to the spectator in all their splendour ; they were far better preserved than they are today, for, in spite of all the destruction of past centuries, many of them still preserved their old marble facing, their columns and other ornamentation. The creeping plants and brushwood, which had taken root wherever the cracks in the brickwork had been laid bare, had contributed slowly but surely to the work of destruction.

Great ruins always have something sublime in their appear­ance, affecting the spectator no less through the actual mass of stonework than by their appeal to the imagination, which gives a new existence to their former grandeur. Nowhere was such an impressive and affecting picture of the past offered to the traveller as in Rome, by the sight of this world of ancient gods and men lying in fragments. The melancholy which overcomes us “poor sons of a day” at such a spectacle, finds effective expression in the verses with which Joachim du Bellay, in the first book of his “Antiquites de Rome” (1558) speaks of the ruins which he had visited.

In singular contrast to the archaeological cultus, which was so devoted to the worship of the antique, is the ruthless manner in which the ancient buildings were robbed of their marbles and columns during the whole of the Renaissance period, and used as convenient materials for new buildings; in their merciless search for antiquities, much more was destroyed than was ever intended or realized. Very disastrous too were the excavations under the foundations of the ancient buildings. One can clearly see how, in the Cinquecento, the mighty halls of the Baths of Diocletian were undermined and caused to collapse by such excavations. At the beginning of the reign of Julius III, a Sicilian priest had built a little chapel close to these great Baths of the ancient city, but he was driven thence by the vagabonds who used the ruins as a place of refuge. These Thermae, with their majestic halls, gave Fichard the impression of a row of churches. As a building he considered them worthy of the greatest admiration, but it was rather difficult at that time to determine for what purpose they had been erected. Great changes were begun in that neighbourhood by the laying out of the villa, the celebrated Horti Bellajani, which owed its origin to the artistic and ostentatious Cardinal du Bellay.

The Baths of Titus and the Amphitheatrum Castrense, which served the monks of S. Croce in Gerusalemme as a garden, were, at that time, as the engravings show, in a much better state of preservation than they are today. The Colosseum made an immense impression on all visitors to Rome, although the lower storey was still partially buried, up to the capitals of the arches. Fichard describes it as the largest and most beautiful of all the monuments of antiquity; nowhere else, he says, can one realize so well the majesty of the Roman people as in this wonderful work, with the sight of which one can never be satiated. What must it have been, he adds, when it was still in a perfect state, and adorned with all its statues!

Heemskerck’s sketches give a striking picture of the state of the Forum, in which the ruins and columns were half buried in earth and rubbish. They also show how the Arch of Titus was still quite walled in by its mediaeval covering, while the Arch of Severus, on the other hand, had all three openings laid open to a considerable depth, but was still crowned by its mediaeval battlements. Between the Arch of Severus and the Temple of Saturn, and quite close to the ruins of Vespasian’s Temple, stood the old church of SS. Sergio e Bacco, which, more fortunate than others, had escaped destruction at the demolitions of Paul III. in connection with the solemn entry of Charles V into the city. S. Maria Nuova still had the façade of Honorius III. The building alongside the church was connected with the Palatine by the mediaeval fortress of the Frangipani. Fichard could still admire, in the Basilica of Maxentius, then called the Templum Pacis, one of those immense white marble Corinthian columns, which once stood as the central pillars. He declared this column, which was later placed in front of S. Maria Maggiore, to be the most beautiful in Rome. In the Circus Maximus, which served as a vegetable garden, the arches which supported the tiers of seats were still in a good state of preservation; the Romans of older times had had warehouses and taverns arranged there, where they could refresh themselves during the summer months.

With regard to the Palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, at that time called the Palazzo Maggiore, Fichard acknowledged that he could not form any clear idea of what it once had looked like. The hill, still covered with mighty ruins, was partly in the possession of monasteries and private persons, and partly without any owner. Everything was much overgrown with shrubs and trees, between which vineyards had been planted in suitable places. In several of the unfenced parts flocks of cattle and sheep were feeding. An exquisite drawing by Heemskerck gives a very valuable general view of the south-western slope of the Palatine, and the expanse of the Circus Maximus. Heemskerck has also sketched the panorama which unfolds itself before the delighted eye of the visitor to the Palatine, taken from the platform of the Belvedere towards the Colosseum, as well as the picturesque ruins of the Velabro.

Excavations had already been begun on the Palatine under Leo X, and on a more comprehensive scale under Paul III, which were continued under Julius III. Pirro Ligorio describes these as an eyewitness. The transformation, which gave a great part of the Palatine a perfectly different appearance, is chiefly connected with the name of the nephew of the Farnese Pope, Alessandro Farnese having remodelled his vigna built there, and turned it into a magnificent villa. The value the Cardinal attached to this property is clear from the fact that in the document of presentation of his villa near the Palazzo Maggiore in favour of Ottavio Farnese, on April 17th, 1548, he laid it down that it should always remain in the possession of the Farnese family.

Of the principal ornament of the Palatine, the celebrated Septizonium, only the east front then remained. Heemskerck repeatedly sketched this last fragment of the gorgeous facade of the palace of Septimus Severus facing the Appian Way, and, conscientious as ever, he has not omitted the little additions made to the building by the Frangipani in the XIIth century.

The whole neighbourhood of the Imperial Fora, which was essentially altered under Pius V by the laying out of the Via Alessandrina, afforded until then an exceedingly remarkable spectacle. In chaotic confusion the towers of the Conti, Colonna and Gaetani rose above miserable houses and the massive residence of the Knights of St. John, built in the XIVth century. A much greater part of the Forum of Nerva was then preserved than at the present day; of the Forum of Trajan, which surpassed all the others in size and splendour, the ruins of the great Exedra were still standing on the southern slope of the Quirinal. Paul III had uncovered the pedestal of the triumphal arch of the Emperor, and during these excavations the little church of St. Nicholas ad Columnam, built in the XIIth century, was pulled down. A row of houses which surrounded the spot, was only demolished in 1812. The church of S. Maria di Loreto, erected by the Guild of Bakers, was not yet completed. In the immediate neighbourhood, in the Macel de’ Corvi, Michael Angelo had his modest dwelling and studio; the building was modernized later on, but early in the year 1902, the last remains of the house in which the master lived for thirty years disappeared.

The traveller who pursued his lonely way through peaceful vignas to the remains of ancient Rome, was reminded at every step of the power which had subdued the pagan, by the churches and monasteries which he met with at every turn, The book of the world’s history lay here spread out before him, a striking reminder of the transitoriness of all that is earthly, and of the eternal power of God; the realization of this was intensified as the stillness in which this region was wrapt seemed to grow deeper, the only sound that broke the silence being the Angelus bell at noon and eventide. The solemn influence of the surroundings was still further increased when the pilgrim entered the venerable sanctuaries, each with its distinctive features, where, in the days of primitive Christianity, the martyrs and saints had found their resting place. All these were still untouched by the later, and often so devastating alterations and restorations. With their columns, mostly taken from ancient buildings, their gleaming marble floors, and grave mosaic pictures, they must have been eloquent apologists for the one unchanging Church, which had here, for more than a thousand years, untroubled by all outward vicissitudes, prayed and offered sacrifice as in the days of the Apostles.

 

Among all the Christian monuments contained in the Rione de Monti, none was so venerable and rich in holy and great memories of the history of the Church and of the world, as the Lateran Basilica, which, as the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, was named the “Mother and Head of all the churches of the world.” From the adjoining palace, the chapel of which, on account of its particularly sacred and important relics, was called the Sancta Sanctorum, the Popes of ancient and mediaeval times had governed the Christian world; five General Councils had been held there.

The reconstruction begun under Pius IV in 1560 had not yet destroyed the original form of the t exceedingly picturesque palace. It was a very extensive and complicated medley of buildings, designed in a most confused way, which had been collecting there since the IVth century; several drawings of Heemskerck enable us to reconstruct the old palace completely. Even then the building had greatly deteriorated; the Scala Santa, which was connected with the old palace, was on its north facade. On the wide unpaved space there, Heemskerck saw and sketched the statue of Marcus Aurelius, on the base which had been erected by Sixtus IV, and in front of which stood two lions on short pillars. To the left of the north entrance was situated the great Council Hall, with the dainty gothic Loggia of the Benediction, which Boniface VIII. had dedicated in the Jubilee of 1300; to the right was the Baptistery, the entrance to which was opposite to that of today. In front of the principal facade of the basilica, which had three gothic windows, there was a portico with six columns. The interior of the church, which has since been entirely modernized, caused, in its then intact condition, the great memories of the Middle Ages to pass like living pictures before the mind of the spectator. In the portico were the tombs of Alexander II, John X, John XII and Sylvester II. In the interior of the five aisled basilica was the monument of Martin V. Many places showed the traces of the troublous times through which the basilica had passed. Fichard saw, in the beautiful gleaming pavement, which was polished like a mirror, the traces of a conflagration. The learned traveller could still see the “Lex Regia” in the church, and he especially admired the exquisite columns, not yet enclosed in pilasters, as well as the frescoes of Gentile da Fabriano, afterwards completely destroyed.

The basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, which formed the central point of the very extensive Rione de’ Monti, still bore, at that time, the grave impress of the old days. The large side chapels of Sixtus V and Paul V were not in existence, nor were the palatial buildings which form wings on either side of the principal facade, nor the tasteful double portico which Fuga erected between them in 1743. From the summit of the old façade, the mosaics shed their glory on the spectator; these had been executed at the end of the XIIIth century by Filippo Rusutti, to the order of Cardinals Giacomo and Pietro Colonna. The vestibule erected by Eugenius III. was still to be seen, as was the magnificent patriarchal palace, which adjoined the basilica. Four ancient monasteries, among them that of St. Adalbert, formed a fitting environment for this, the most important of the churches dedicated to Our Lady in Rome. S. Croce also still had its old vestibule at that time, but this, as well as the interior, fell a victim to the reconstructions in the baroque style by Gregorini in 1743.

The many tombs and inscriptions which covered the walls and floor of this, as well as all the other churches of Rome, made a deep impression. The inscriptions told of the never ceasing care which the Popes of all centuries had devoted to the restoration and adornment of the churches of their seat of government with relics and indulgences. The epitaphs, which almost covered the floor, as is still the case today in S. Maria in Aracoeli and S. Onofrio, proclaimed the names and deeds of countless distinguished, celebrated, rich or learned men. What a wealth of memories they contain, from the touchingly simple tombstones of the earliest Christian days, to the magnificent marble monuments of the Renaissance, with their elegant Latin inscriptions, partly pious and partly tinged with paganism! A great part of Rome’s history, her Popes, Cardinals, prelates, nobles, scholars, poets, humanists and artists was enshrined here. No part of her history, down to that dreadful year of war and pestilence, 1527, and to the restoring activity of Paul III, but had left its traces on these stones. All states, professions and ages were represented here ; deep piety, true love, bitter grief, as well as verbosity, offensive vain-glory, and not infrequently comic naivete—all these found expression here. The numerous tombs of foreigners bore witness to the eminently cosmopolitan character of Rome, the capital of the world. Representatives of all the provinces of Italy, as of all the different countries of Europe, especially of Spain and Germany, were to be found among them.

More than by all these memories and treasures of art, however, pious pilgrims were attracted by the graces which they could obtain in the Holy Places, and by the relics which were preserved there. The guide for pilgrims, in which the Mirabilia Romae were set forth, described these in the most complete way. Before everything else came the Tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter, the pilgrimage place of the whole world. It was the first spot to which the pilgrims flocked from every land. The pilgrimage to the seven principal churches, for which rich indulgences were granted, was undertaken on a single day. The pilgrim would begin with the church of St. Paul, which was situated far outside the gate of that name. Then came the church of St. Sebastian, on the Via Appia, which was reached by the Via delle Sette Chiese. The opportunity of visiting the neighbouring catacomb was generally taken advantage of when there. Visits to the Lateran, S. Croce, S. Lorenzo fuori le mure, S. Maria Maggiore, and finally St. Peter’s, were also necessary in order to gain the great indulgence. This pilgrimage, always difficult on account of the great distance between the churches, was rendered still more arduous by the bad condition of the roads.

No pilgrim failed to be present at the great ceremonies, at which the Pope either celebrated himself, or at which he assisted. The Pope himself celebrated regularly at Christmas, Easter, and the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, unless prevented by illness. The splendour and magnificence of Catholic ritual was then displayed on the grandest scale, not only in St. Peter’s, but also in all the other principal basilicas. An overwhelming impression was made on all present when the Head of the Church pronounced, on Maundy Thursday and Easter Day, from the Loggia of the Benediction, close to St. Peter’s, the solemn Blessing on the city and the world, “Urbi et Orbi.” In the Jubilee year of 1550, more than 50,000 persons had flocked together to St. Peter’s Square, while in 1554, the number amounted to 30,000.

On the Feast of the Annunciation, it had been customary since the middle of the XVth century for the Pope to proceed in solemn procession, accompanied by the Cardinals, prelates, and nobles to S. Maria sopra Minerva, where, after High Mass, in accordance with a foundation of Cardinal Torquemada, poor maidens—there were 150 of them in 1550—received their dowry. Like their predecessors, Paul III and Julius III never failed to be present on the other great feasts of the Church, unless prevented by illness. Above all, they made a special point of never omitting to take part in the procession of Corpus Christi, and at the Requiem Mass on the anniversary of their predecessor’s death, which, as well as the Coronation Day festivities, took place in the Sixtine Chapel. They also took part in the ceremonies of Holy Week.

The affecting solemnities of Holy Week began on Palm Sunday. The Pope, who generally said mass very early in his private chapel, appeared at nine o’clock in the Sixtine Chapel for High Mass, generally celebrated by one of the Cardinals. Then followed the Blessing of the Palms. The first palm was presented by the Dean of the Sacred College to the Pope, who then distributed palms to the Cardinals, ambassadors, Roman nobles, the Penitentiaries of St. Peter’s, his famiglia, and such persons as had gained admission to the ceremony. On the Wednesday, three hours before the Ave, began the so-called Tenebrae. In St. Peter’s, the Sudarium of St. Veronica was exposed on the morning of this day.

On Maundy Thursday, the Pope said mass very early and gave communion to all the members of his court. At ten o’clock the Capella Papale began in the Sixtine Chapel. After the High Mass, celebrated by a Cardinal, Julius III, accompanied by all the members of the Sacred College, and many bishops and prelates, bore the Blessed Sacrament to the Capella Paolina, built by Paul III. Then followed the reading of the Bull In Coena Domini in Latin and Italian, by a Cardinal from the Loggia of the Benediction, and then the great Papal Blessing. Then, in the Hall of Consistory, came the “Mandatum” when the Pope personally washed the feet of twelve poor men. On the same day the Sudarium of St. Veronica was again exposed in St. Peter’s. In all the churches of the city there was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. A German who visited Rome in the spring of 1554, relates how great was the fervour displayed in the adoration of the Holy Eucharist, which was in happy contrast to the indifference and irreverence which had generally prevailed in the golden age of the Renais­sance. On this day the “sepulchres” were made the central point of attraction for the faithful, and they were adorned in every possible way, with costly rugs, silver candlesticks, and with countless lights and many-coloured lamps. This impetus to the veneration of the Holy Eucharist, which was also shown in other places at the period of the Catholic Reformation, Rome owed to the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, which had been founded by Paul III, in 1539, at the instance of the Dominican, Tommaso Stella.

The solemn and unique ceremonies with which the Church commemorates the death of her Bridegroom, in so affecting a manner, began very early on Good Friday. On this day the Pope personally brought back the Blessed Sacrament from the Pauline Chapel to the Sixtine. The singing of the Passion, according to St. John, was followed by a sermon. Immediately afterwards, the intercessory prayers were sung, in which the necessities of all men are remembered. All present took part in the affecting Adoration of the Holy Cross. First of all the Pope approached the Cross, barefooted and divested of all the outer insignia of his high office, then the Cardinals, prelates and ambassadors. The Mass of the Presanctified was celebrated by a Cardinal. On Good Friday evening, the Brotherhood of the Gonfalone had, since the XIVth century, been in the habit of making a procession, carrying crosses, to the Colosseum. In the year of Jubilee, 1550, 1500 men took, part in this pious pilgrimage, of whom 335 bore large crosses. The Brotherhood of the Cross, of S. Marcello, also arranged a procession in this year, in which 1200 men took part, many of whom scourged themselves. They all visited the four principal churches prescribed for gaining the Jubilee Indulgence.

On the morning of Holy Saturday a Cardinal officiated in the Sixtine Chapel in the presence of the Pope. At the Gloria, the music started, and the bells were again rung. That was the signal for all the churches of Rome to announce the approaching Feast of the Resurrection. The unique impression caused by the wave-like rise and fall of the sound of the bells of every size and depth of tone led Rabelais to make his celebrated comparison of the Eternal City to a chiming island.

At the celebration of High Mass in St. Peter’s on Easter Sunday, the Pope distributed Holy Communion to all the Cardinals, the Canons of the Basilica, the Roman nobles, and whatever princes might be present, as, for example, in 1550, to the Dukes of Urbino and Ferrara.

Not only strangers, but the Romans also, flocked in great numbers to the ecclesiastical ceremonies, while in Lent they assisted regularly at the so-called  Stations” in the different churches. During this time, the otherwise so silent Rione de’ Monti came to life, all classes hastening to the tombs of the martyrs. During the Renaissance period there were proceedings of a very worldly character here. A remarkable and salutary reaction against such unseemly proceedings in holy places was, however, making itself felt. It was the champions of the Catholic Reformation who, in this also, gave the incen­tive to improvement.

Long before the Council of Trent had impressed upon clergy and laity what was to be observed in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and what was to be avoided, those men, burning with the love of God, who had inscribed the reformation of ecclesiastical conditions on their banners, at the head of whom was Ignatius of Loyola, and, soon in keen emulation of him, the youthful Philip Neri, had devoted the whole of their powers to teaching all, by word and example, how to venerate in a fitting manner the House of God, a thing which had so much suffered in the time of the Renaissance. Whoever visited S. Dorotea in Trastevere, the seat of the Oratory of Divine Love, S. Maria della Strada, the church of the founder of the Jesuits, S. Girolamo della Carita or S. Salvatore in Campo, where Philip Neri lived and worked, or the little churches of the Theatines in the Campo Marzo or on the Pincio, or that of the Capuchins, S. Nicola de’ Portiis, on the Quirinal, could not but be deeply moved. Evil-living men of the Renaissance, who visited them out of curiosity, were not infrequently completely converted. Here were to be found priests who, in their lives, were representatives of that reform that was so longed for and so often discussed. These little poorly-equipped houses of God were so eagerly sought after that they could no longer contain the multitude of the faithful who flocked there for the masses and sermons. There is still in existence a petition of the time of Julius III, begging the Pope to commission Ignatius of Loyola to build a larger church, as S. Maria della Strada was too small and inconvenient for the great numbers who wished to hear the word of God there, and to receive the sacrament of penance. This was the first step towards the erection of the magnificent church of the Gesu, to which were afterwards added the great church of the Theatines at S. Andrea della Valle, and that of the Oratorians at S. Maria in Vallicella, which were not only of great importance for the religious life of Rome, but were also a notable addition to the beauty of the city.

For all the ceremonial of the Church which was conducted by the Pope in person, or in his presence, very strict regulations, going into the minutest details, had been fixed from time immemorial, and the exact carrying out of these was carefully watched over by the master of ceremonies. The pomp which was displayed on these solemn occasions by Paul III. and Julius III., found a fitting setting in the majestic music which accompanied them. A German who spent Holy Week and Easter in Rome in 1554, points out that, in this respect, most wonderful effects were obtained, both in the Lateran and at St. Peter’s, where Palestrina was choirmaster.

Not only the church festivals, but the churches themselves made a deep impression on all strangers. It is noteworthy that Fichard, despite all his enthusiasm for antiquity, names, as the principal objects of interest in the Eternal City, the Vatican, with the Library and the Belvedere, the Cancelleria, the Basilica of St. Peter, the Lateran, S. Paul fuori le Mura, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Maria sopra Minerva, S. Maria del Popolo, and the German national church, S. Maria dell’ Anima, with the beautiful tomb of Adrian VI.

Eight years after the visit of the Frankfort traveller, an unknown Florentine pilgrim to Rome wrote some notes concerning the principal creations of Renaissance art which were then to be seen in the Eternal City. These remarks, which are interesting from several points of view, begin with the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, and its reconstruction. The anonymous writer particularly praises, among the works of art in the basilica, the Pieta of Michael Angelo, which had been placed in the Oratory of St. Gregory after the demolition of the chapel of St. Petronilla. Of the remaining monuments in St. Peter’s, only the tombs of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII are mentioned. The Stanze and the Loggie of Raphael, then still in all the fresh glory of their colouring, and the Sixtine Chapel, with its incomparable frescoes, he cites as the most remarkable objects of interest in the Vatican. He complains, with justice, of the destruction of Fra Angelico’s Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Among the churches, he only mentions those which contained prominent examples of Renaissance ait. At S. Agostino, besides Raphael’s Isaias, the Madonna del Parto, by Jacopo Sansovino, and the marble group, representing Our Lady, St. Anne, and the Divine Child by Andrea Sansovino, were regarded, even at that time, as objects of the greatest interest. The former stands today to the right of the entrance, and the latter on the left side, at the third column, under the Isaias. The Florentine praises the Sybils of Raphael, in S. Maria della Pace, as one of the most beautiful of that painter’s works in Rome. He also mentions Baldassare Peruzzi’s Presentation in the Temple, which was not then repainted to such an extent as it is today. Of the many splendid marble tombs in S. Maria del Popolo, he only speaks of the two largest and most beautiful: the monuments of Cardinals Girolamo Basso and Ascanio Maria Sforza, by Andrea Sansovino. Very remarkably, he omits all mention of Pinturrichio’s frescoes on the ceiling of the choir, or of the glass paintings of Claude and Guillaume Marcillat, and even of the wonderful Chigi chapel. On the other hand he tells us of the two pictuies by Raphael: the Madonna di Loreto, which afterwards disappeared, and the celebrated portrait of Julius II, which now adorns the Uffizi; both of these were at that time, hung on the pillars of the church on solemn occasions. In S. Maria in Aracoeli, he admired Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno, and in the church of the Dominicans, S. Maria sopra Minerva, he makes mention of Filippo Lippi’s frescoes in the Carafa chapel, and Michael Angelo’s statue of Christ, as the principal works of art there. The tombs of Leo X and Clement VII are mentioned, but, as may easily be understood, not praised. Of the Moses of Michael Angelo in S. Pietro in Vincoli the Florentine says that it appears to him to be a “divine” work. He also makes mention of the tombs of Pietro and Antonio Pollajuolo in the same church. The statue of St. James, by Jacopo Sansovino was at that time in the Spanish national church of S. Giacomo, and is now in S. Maria in Monserrato.

Among the works of art in the city on the other side of the Tiber, the Florentine extols the fresco decoration of the Farnesina and the incomparable Tempietto of Bramante in S. Pietro in Montorio. In this church, Raphael’s Transfiguration still adorned the high altar at that time. He was also still able to admire in the same church, besides Sebastiano del Piombo’s fresco, the Scourging at the Pillar, which is still preserved, the adjoining picture of St. Francis by Michael Angelo, which afterwards disappeared.

Just as the Florentine traveller only cites works of the Renaissance, so does Ulisse Aldrovandi confine himself almost exclusively to the works of antiquity in his account, drawn up in 1550. Of the modern works of sculpture, he mentions only a few, principally some works of Michael Angelo, to whose Moses he believes he is giving the highest possible praise when he says that it could take its place by the side of any ancient work of art. One looks in vain for the name of any other modern master in Aldrovandi’s list. How little he values them in comparison with the sculptors of antiquity is evident from such remarks as: “A Mercury with a lyre, a beautiful statue, but modern.” “A female figure, with bare breast, but a modern work.” One learns even less from the descriptions of the Bolognese scholar concerning Rome’s wealth of paintings, or of the many costly treasures which the palaces of the nobles, and, above all, of the Cardinals, contained.

How much the interest of most people was captivated by the works of antiquity, is apparent in the guide-books of the time, where most of the space is invariably devoted to these, the details concerning mediaeval objects of interest being mostly confined to lists of the relics and indulgences of the different churches. In one such guide-book of the year 1563, an estimate of the time necessary for a visit to the principal objects of interest in Rome is given, which is very characteristic. The arrangement for a three days’ visit is for a stranger who starts very early, and has a horse at his disposal. The Borgo is taken as a starting point for the first day, after which the Trastevere, the island in the Tiber, Monte Testaccio, S. Paolo fuori le Mura, S. Gregorio, the Baths of Caracalla, S. Stefano Rotondo, and the Lateran are to be visited. A tour is suggested for the second day which makes still greater demands on the traveller with a thirst for knowledge: from the Mausoleum of Augustus to S. Maria del Popolo, the Trinita de’ Monti, Monte Cavallo with the celebrated vignas of Cardinals Carpi and Este, then S. Agnese outside the walls, the Baths of Diocletian, S. Pudenziana, S. Maria Maggiore, the Sette Sale, the Colosseum, the Palatine, the Forum, the Capitol, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Portico of Octavia, and finally the Capodiferro and Farnese palaces. The tour on the third day was to begin at the Piazza Colonna; besides a visit to the Column of Trajan, the church of the Minerva and the Pantheon, the guide-book recommended a visit to one of the valuable private collections of ancient and modern pictures, namely the house of Mgr. Girolamo Garimberti, Bishop of Gallese, on Monte Citorio. The midday meal was to be taken at one of the osterie in the Piazza Navona, near the Pasquino. For the afternoon a visit to the Villa Giulia was recommended.

“In the houses of several Cardinals and many private persons,” continues the same guide, “ there are still many beautiful things to be seen, which I do not name, because they are continually being changed, and I do not wish needlessly to trouble the traveller.” This change was always in the direction of centralization of the ancient works of art. At the beginning of the Cinquecento there were still many small collections, which gradually disappeared. Already in the fourth decade of the century, the larger collections of the Belvedere, the Capitol, the Cesi, Medici and Valle, surpassed the smaller ones in value, whereas formerly, it appears, the really valuable pieces were fairly evenly distributed. At the time of Aldrovandi, the moderate sized collections, containing several really fine works, such as were still to be found in the houses of the Sassi, Maffei and others when Heemskerck was in Rome, had already lost their importance. Admission to several of these depended upon the influence which the traveller could command.

 

The numerous and excellently arranged charitable institu­tions, which were at once a great object of interest and a special feature of Rome, were highly praised by all foreigners. The chief centre of Christianity had, from time immemorial, given a living proof of the fructifying energy of the Catholic faith in her works of charity. As had been the case in the Middle Ages, so now the Popes, Cardinals, prelates and laity of all conditions in the time of the Renaissance were filled with a noble zeal to minister to the needs of the sick, the miserable and the poor. From the point of view of age and comprehensiveness, the hospital of Santo Spirito, which had been re­organized by Sixtus IV, took the first place among the charitable institutions. The hospital of S. Salvatore near the Lateran, and that of S. Giacomo in Augusta, which had been endowed by the Cardinals of the House of Colonna, also enjoyed a great reputation. These, as well as the hospitals attached to S. Maria della Consolazione, S. Antonio and S. Rocco, which the Popes encouraged in every way, by pecuniary support and privileges, were distributed throughout the city in such a way that the needs of the different quarters were well provided for.

The national hospices represented a special form of benevo­lent institution which had been founded by the very numerous foreigners resident in Rome, for the benefit of their fellow-countrymen. In these the Catholic character of Rome as the centre of the Universal Church, found a very characteristic expression. The Germans boasted of the largest number of such institutions in comparison to their number, the first place among these having been taken, since the XIVth century, by the Anima and Campo Santo. To these were added smaller houses for the Flemish and Walloons, the Bohemians and Hungarians. The Spanish, next to the Germans the nation most largely represented in Rome, had, close to S. Giacomo in the Piazza Navona, and S. Maria in Monserrato, houses for the lodging and nursing of their poor and sick pilgrims. In a like manner, the Portuguese, French, English, Scotch, Irish, Poles, Hungarians, Swedes, Dalmatians, and South Slavs, as well as the Lombards, Genoese, Florentines, Sienese and Bergamaschi had their own churches and national hospices, and, in most cases, confraternities in connection with them. Several of these institutions were destroyed by the falling away from the faith of so many peoples, but, in spite of this, the Eternal City preserved, even at that critical time, her old pre-eminence in generous hearted love of her neighbour. In closest union with the silently increasing movement in the direction of Catholic Reformation, Christian charity produced in Rome, as in other cities of Italy, the most glorious fruits. After the members of the Oratory of Divine Love had endowed a department of their own for incurables in the old hospital of S. Giacomo in Augusta, Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, who became Pope Clement VII, founded, in the year 1519, the Confraternita della Carita for the assistance of the poor who were ashamed to ask for charity, for the consolation of prisoners and for the burial of the indigent. It was also Cardinal de’ Medici who prevailed on Leo X to sanction the convent for Magdalens in the Corso, which had been founded by the members of the Oratory of Divine Love. The orphanage near S. Maria in Aquiro owed its origin to another Roman prelate.

A great number of institutes arose under Paul III. and were protected by him, by means of which the ingenious charity of benevolent and holy men sought to combat the material and moral evils of the time. The Minorite, Giovanni da Calvi, the merchant Crivelli, and Cardinal Quinones laid the foundations of the Monte di Pieta at this time. A self-sacrificing son of Spain, Ferrante Ruiz, in conjunction with two nobles of Navarre, founded an establishment for the insane, the care of whom had been up till now, almost neglected. A house of refuge for converted female sinners near S. Marta, the hospice for poor girls in peril, near S. Caterina de’ Funari, the institute for converts near S. Giovanni del Mercatello at the foot of the Capitol, and a society to assist the poor who were ashamed to beg, all these owed their origin to the zeal of another Spaniard, Ignatius of Loyola. Philip Neri founded in the time of Julius III the Compagnia della Trinita for the assistance of needy pilgrims, which had Christ alone as its protector. There were also various other institutions for poor girls.

In yet another manner did the impetus in Catholic life make itself felt in the field of charity. The charitable institutions were better directed, and more care was devoted to the spiritual needs of the sick and incurable. In this also it was the example given by Ignatius, and later by Philip Neri, which was so helpful in recalling to the minds of the clergy and laity the words of Our Lord: '‘As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.”

As in all other things, so in the field of charity preparations were being made for the glorious epoch of Catholic reformation and restoration, in which gentle saints and mighty Popes were indefatigably engaged in the relief of the spiritual and corporal needs of their fellow men. While this remarkable epoch brought about a complete change in spiritual life, so did the “Roma Aeterna,” which had received a very worldly impress in the days of the Renaissance, undergo a similar metamorphosis, and that not in her outward appearance alone. With her great and glorious churches, charitable institutions, great monasteries, and seminaries for priests of all the different nations, she again became, through the increase of the religious sense among her inhabitants, that for which Providence had designed her, as the seat of the successors of St. Peter, the Holy City, which embodied, in the most glorious manner, the Christian ideal.