Part 2 — Chapter III. (These four articles abrogated by the four articles following them, 118-122.) Article 118. The Federal Constitution may at any time be amended. (continued 130)

J. A. Froude, Luther: a Short Biography, pages 28-35.

ALSO IN: G. Waddington, History of the Reformation, chapters 13-14 (volume 1).

W. Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V., book 2 (volume 1).

C. Beard, Martin Luther and the Reformation, chapter 9.

J. Köstlin, Life of Luther, part 3, chapter 9.

PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1535. Beginning of the Protestant Reform movement in France. Hesitation of Francis I. His final persecution of the Reformers.

"The long contest for Gallican rights had lowered the prestige of the popes in France, but it had not weakened the Catholic Church, which was older than the monarchy itself, and, in the feeling of the people, was indissolubly associated with it. The College of the Sorbonne, or the Theological Faculty at Paris, and the Parliament, which had together maintained Gallican liberty, were united in stern hostility to all doctrinal innovations. … In Southern France a remnant of the Waldenses had survived, and the recollection of the Catharists was still preserved in popular songs and legends. But the first movements towards reform emanated from the Humanist culture. A literary and scientific spirit was awakened in France through the lively intercourse with Italy which subsisted under Louis XII. and Francis I. By Francis especially, Italian scholars and artists were induced in large numbers to take up their abode in France. Frenchmen likewise visited Italy and brought home the classical culture which they acquired there. Among the scholars who cultivated Greek was Budæus, the foremost of them, whom Erasmus styled the 'wonder of France.' After the 'Peace of the Dames' was concluded at Cambray, in 1529, when Francis surrendered Italy to Charles V., a throng of patriotic Italians who feared or hated the Spanish rule, streamed over the Alps and gave a new impulse to literature and art. Poets, artists, and scholars found in the king a liberal and enthusiastic patron. The new studies, especially Hebrew and Greek, were opposed by all the might of the Sorbonne, the leader of which was the Syndic, Beda. He and his associates were on the watch for heresy, and every author who was suspected of overstepping the bounds of orthodoxy was immediately accused and subjected to persecution. {2453} Thus two parties were formed, the one favorable to the new learning, and the other inimical to it and rigidly wedded to the traditional theology. The Father of the French Reformation, or the one more entitled to this distinction than any other, is Jacques Lefèvre. … Lefèvre was honored among the Humanists as the restorer of philosophy and science in the University. Deeply imbued with a religious spirit, in 1509 he put forth a commentary on the Psalms, and in 1512 a commentary on the Epistles of Paul. As early as about 1512, he said to his pupil Farel: 'God will renovate the world, and you will be a witness of it'; and in the last named work; he says that the signs of the times betoken that a renovation of the Church is near at hand. He teaches the doctrine of gratuitous justification, and deals with the Scriptures as the supreme and sufficient authority. But a mystical, rather than a polemical vein characterizes him; and while this prevented him from breaking with the Church, it also blunted the sharpness of the opposition which his opinions were adapted to produce. One of his pupils was Briçonnet, Bishop of Meaux, who held the same view of justification with Lefèvre, and fostered the evangelical doctrine in his diocese. The enmity of the Sorbonne to Lefèvre and his school took a more aggressive form when the writings of Luther began to be read in the University and elsewhere. … The Sorbonne [1521] formally condemned a dissertation of Lefèvre on a point of evangelical history, in which he had controverted the traditional opinion. He, with Farel, Gérard Roussel, and other preachers, found an asylum with Briçonnet. Lefèvre translated the New Testament from the Vulgate, and, in a commentary on the Gospels, explicitly pronounced the Bible the sole rule of faith, which the individual might interpret for himself, and declared justification to be through faith alone, without human works or merit. It seemed as if Meaux aspired to become another Wittenberg. At length a commission of parliament was appointed to take cognizance of heretics in that district. Briçonnet, either intimidated, as Beza asserts, or recoiling at the sight of an actual secession from the Church, joined in the condemnation of Luther and of his opinions, and even acquiesced in the persecution which fell upon Protestantism within his diocese. Lefèvre fled to Strasburg, was afterwards recalled by Francis I., but ultimately took up his abode in the court of the King's sister, Margaret, the Queen of Navarre. Margaret, from the first, was favorably inclined to the new doctrines. There were two parties at the court. The mother of the King, Louisa of Savoy, and the Chancellor Duprat, were allies of the Sorbonne. … Margaret, on the contrary, a versatile and accomplished princess, cherished a mystical devotion which carried her beyond Briçonnet in her acceptance of the teaching of the Reformers. … Before the death of her first husband, the Duke of Alençon, and while she was a widow, she exerted her influence to the full extent in behalf of the persecuted Protestants, and in opposition to the Sorbonne. After her marriage to Henry d'Albret, the King of Navarre, she continued, in her own little court and principality, to favor the reformed doctrine and its professors. …

See NAVARRE: A. D. 1528-1563].

The drift of her influence appears in the character of her daughter, the heroic Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henry IV., and in the readiness of the people over whom Margaret immediately ruled to receive the Protestant faith. … Francis I., whose generous patronage of artists and men of letters gave him the title of 'Father of Science,' had no love for the Sorbonne, for the Parliament, or for the monks. He entertained the plan of bringing Erasmus to Paris, and placing him at the head of an institution of learning. He read the Bible with his mother and sister, and felt no superstitious aversion to the leaders of reform. … The revolt of the Constable Bourbon [see FRANCE: A. D. 1520-1523] made it necessary for Francis to conciliate the clergy; and the battle of Pavia, followed by the captivity of the King, and the regency of his mother, gave a free rein to the persecutors. An inquisitorial court, composed partly of laymen, was ordained by Parliament. Heretics were burned at Paris and in the provinces. Louis de Berquin, who combined a culture which won the admiration of Erasmus, with the religious earnestness of Luther, was thrown into prison." Three times the King interposed and rescued him from the persecutors; but at last, in November, 1529, Berquin was hanged and burned.

G. P. Fisher, The Reformation, chapter 8.

"Such scenes [as the execution of Berquin], added to the preaching and dissemination of the Scriptures and religious tracts, caused the desire for reform to spread far and wide. In the autumn of 1534, a violent placard against the mass was posted about Paris, and one was even fixed on the king's own chamber. The cry was soon raised, 'Death! death to the heretics!' Francis had long dallied with the Reformation. … Now … he develops into what was quite contrary to his disposition, a cruel persecutor. A certain bourgeois of Paris, unaffected by any heretical notions, kept in those days a diary of what was going on in Paris, and from this precious document … we learn that between the 13th of November, 1534, and the 13th of March, 1535, twenty so-called Lutherans were put to death in Paris. … The panic caused by the Anabaptist outbreak at Munster may perhaps account for the extreme cruelty, … as the siege was in actual progress at the time. It was to defend the memories of the martyrs of the 29th of January, 1535, and of others who had suffered elsewhere, and to save, if possible, those menaced with a similar fate, that Calvin wrote his 'Institution of the Christian Religion.' A timid, feeble-bodied young student, he had fled from France [1535], in the hope of finding some retreat where he might lose himself in the studies he loved. Passing through Geneva [1536] with the intention of staying there only for a night, he met the indefatigable, ubiquitous, enterprising, courageous Farel, who, taking him by the hand, adjured him to stop and carry on the work in that city. Calvin shrank instinctively, but … was forced to yield. … Calvin once settled at Geneva had no more doubt about his calling than if he had been Moses himself."

R. Heath, The Reformation in France, book 1, chapters 2-3.

ALSO IN: H. M. Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France, chapters 2-4 (volume 1).

R. T. Smith, The Church in France, chapter 12.

PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1555. Beginnings of the Reformation in the Netherlands.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1521-1555.

{2454}

PAPACY: A. D. 1522. Election of Adrian VI.

PAPACY: A. D. 1522-1525. The deepening and strengthening of the Lutheran Reformation and its systematic organization. The two diets of Nuremberg. The Catholic League of Ratisbon. The formal adoption of the Reformed Religion in Northern Germany.

"Fortunately for the reformation, the emperor was prevented from executing the edict of Worms by his absence from Germany, by the civil commotions in Spain, and still more by the war with Francis I., which extended into Spain, the Low Countries, and Italy, and for above eight years involved him in a continued series of contests and negotiations at a distance from Germany. His brother, Ferdinand, on whom, as joint president of the council of regency, the administration of affairs devolved, was occupied in quelling the discontents in the Austrian territories, and defending his right to the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia; and thus the government of the empire was left to the council of regency, of which several members were inclined to favour innovation, In consequence of these circumstances, the Lutherans were enabled to overcome the difficulties to which innovators of every kind are exposed; and they were no less favoured by the changes at the court of Rome. Leo dying in 1521, Adrian, his successor, who, by the influence of Charles, was raised to the pontifical chair, on the 9th of January, 1522, saw and lamented the corruptions of the church, and his ingenuous, but impolitic confessions, that the whole church, both in its head and members, required a thorough reformation, strengthened the arguments of his opponents. … Nothing, perhaps, proved more the surprising change of opinion in Germany, the rapid increase of those whom we shall now distinguish by the name of Lutherans, and the commencement of a systematic opposition to the church of Rome, than the transactions of the two diets of Nuremberg, which were summoned by the archduke Ferdinand, principally for the purpose of enforcing the execution of the edict of Worms. In a brief dated in November, 1522, and addressed to the first diet, pope Adrian, after severely censuring the princes of the empire for not carrying into execution the edict of Worms, exhorted them, if mild and moderate measures failed, to cut off Luther from the body of the church, as a gangrened and incurable member. … At the same time, with singular inconsistency, he acknowledged the corruptions of the Roman court as the source of the evils which overspread the church, [and] promised as speedy a reformation as the nature of the abuses would admit. … The members of the diet, availing themselves of his avowal, advised him to assemble a council in Germany for the reformation of abuses, and drew up a list of a hundred grievances which they declared they would no longer tolerate, and, if not speedily delivered from such burdens, would procure relief by the authority with which God had intrusted them. … The recess of the diet, published in March, 1523, was framed with the same spirit; instead of threats of persecution, it only enjoined all persons to wait with patience the determination of a free council, forbade the diffusion of doctrines likely to create disturbances, and subjected all publications to the approbation of men of learning and probity appointed by the magistrate. Finally, it declared, that as priests who had married, or monks who had quitted their convents, were not guilty of a civil crime, they were only amenable to an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and liable at the discretion of the ordinary to be deprived of their ecclesiastical privileges and benefices. The Lutherans derived their greatest advantages from these proceedings, as the gross corruptions of the church of Rome were now proved by the acknowledgment of the pontiff himself. … From this period they confidently appealed to the confession of the pontiff, and as frequently quoted the hundred grievances which were enumerated in a public and authentic act of the Germanic body. They not only regarded the recess as a suspension of the edict of Worms, but construed the articles in their own favour. … Hitherto the innovators had only preached against the doctrines and ceremonies of the Roman church, without exhibiting a regular system of their own." But now "Luther was persuaded, at the instances of the Saxon clergy, to form a regular system of faith and discipline; he translated the service into the German tongue, modified the form of the mass, and omitted many superstitious ceremonies; but he made as few innovations as possible, consistently with his own principles. To prevent also the total alienation or misuse of the ecclesiastical revenues, he digested a project for their administration, by means of an annual committee, and by his writings and influence effected its introduction. Under this judicious system the revenues of the church, after a provision for the clergy, were appropriated for the support of schools; for the relief of the poor, sick, and aged, of orphans and widows; for the reparation of churches and sacred buildings; and for the erection of magazines and the purchase of corn against periods of scarcity. These regulations and ordinances, though not established with the public approbation of the elector, were yet made with his tacit acquiescence, and may be considered as the first institution of a reformed system of worship and ecclesiastical polity; and in this institution the example of the churches of Saxony was followed by all the Lutheran communities in Germany. The effects of these changes were soon visible, and particularly at the meeting of the second diet of Nuremberg, on the 10th of January, 1524. Faber, canon of Strasburgh, who had been enjoined to make a progress through Germany for the purpose of preaching against the Lutheran doctrines, durst not execute his commission, although under the sanction of a safe conduct from the council of regency. Even the legate Campegio could not venture to make his public entry into Nuremberg with the insignia of his dignity, … for fear of being insulted by the populace. … Instead, therefore, of annulling the acts of the preceding diet, the new assembly pursued the same line of conduct. … The recess was, if possible, still more galling to the court of Rome, and more hostile to its prerogatives than that of the former diet. … The Catholics, thus failing in their efforts to obtain the support of the diet, on the 6th of July, 1524, entered into an association at Ratisbon, under the auspices of Campegio, in which the archduke Ferdinand, the duke of Bavaria, and most of the German bishops concurred, for enforcing the edict of Worms. {2455} At the same time, to conciliate the Germans, the legate published 29 articles for, the amendment of some abuses; but these being confined to points of minor importance, and regarding only the inferior clergy, produced no satisfaction, and were attended with no effect. Notwithstanding this formidable union of the Catholic princes, the proceedings of the diet of Nuremberg were but the prelude to more decisive innovations, which followed each other with wonderful rapidity. Frederic the Wise, elector of Saxony, dying in 1525, was succeeded by his brother, John the Constant, who publicly espoused and professed the Lutheran doctrines. The system recently digested by Luther, with many additional alterations, was introduced by his authority, and declared the established religion; and by his order the celebrated Melanchthon drew up an apology in defence of the reformed tenets for the princes who adopted them. Luther himself, who had in the preceding year thrown off the monastic habit, soon after the accession of the new sovereign ventured to give the last proof of his emancipation from the fetters of the church of Rome, by espousing, on the 13th of July, 1525, Catherine Bora, a noble lady, who had escaped from the nunnery at Nimptschen, and taken up her residence at Wittemberg. The example of the elector of Saxony was followed by Philip, landgrave of Hesse Cassel, a prince of great influence and distinguished civil and military talents; by the dukes of Mecklenburgh, Pomerania, and Zell; and by the imperial cities of Nuremberg, Strasburgh, Frankfort, Nordhausen, Magdeburgh, Brunswick, Bremen, and others of less importance. … Albert, margrave of Brandenburgh, grand-master of the Teutonic order, … in 1525, renounced his vow of celibacy, made a public profession of the Lutheran tenets, and, with the consent of Sigismond, king of Poland, secularised Eastern Prussia."

W. Coxe, History of the House of Austria, chapter 28 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: L. von Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany, book 3, chapters 2-5 (volume 2).

P. Bayne, Martin Luther: his Life and Work, books 10-13 (volume 2).

L. Häusser, The Period of the Reformation, chapters 5-6.

PAPACY: A. D. 1523. Election of Clement VII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1523-1527. The double-dealings of Pope Clement VII. with the emperor and the king of France. Imperial revenge. The sack of Rome.

See ITALY: A. D. 1523-1527, and 1527.

PAPACY: A. D. 1524. Institution of the Order of the Theatines.

See THEATINES.

PAPACY: A. D. 1525-1529. The League of Torgau. Contradictory action of the Diets at Spires. The Protest of Lutheran princes which gave rise to the name "Protestants."

"At the Diet of Nuremberg it had been determined to hold an assembly shortly after at Spires for the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs. The princes were to procure beforehand from their councillors and scholars a statement of the points in dispute. The grievances of the nation were to be set forth, and remedies were to be sought for them. The nation was to deliberate and act on the great matter of religious reform. The prospect was that the evangelical party would be in the majority. The papal court saw the danger that was involved in an assembly gathered for such a purpose, and determined to prevent the meeting. At this moment war was breaking out between Charles and Francis. Charles had no inclination to offend the Pope. He forbade the assembly at Spires, and, by letters addressed to the princes individually, endeavored to drive them into the execution of the edict of Worms. In consequence of these threatening movements, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse entered into the defensive league of Torgau, in which they were joined by several Protestant communities. The battle of Pavia and the capture of Francis I. [see FRANCE: A. D. 1523-1525] were events that appeared to be fraught with peril to the Protestant cause. In the Peace of Madrid (January 14, 1526) both sovereigns avowed the determination to suppress heresy. But the dangerous preponderance obtained by the Emperor created an alarm throughout Europe; and the release of Francis was followed by the organization of a confederacy against Charles, of which Clement was the leading promoter.

See ITALY: A. D. 1523-1527.

This changed the imperial policy in reference to the Lutherans. The Diet of Spires in 1526 unanimously resolved that, until the meeting of a general council, every state should act in regard to the edict of Worms as it might answer to God and his imperial majesty. Once more Germany refused to stifle the Reformation, and adopted the principle that each of the component parts of the Empire should be left free to act according to its own will. It was a measure of the highest importance to the cause of Protestantism. It is a great landmark in the history of the German Reformation. The war of the Emperor and the Pope involved the necessity of tolerating the Lutherans. In 1527, an imperial army, composed largely of Lutheran infantry, captured and sacked the city of Rome. For several months the Pope was held a prisoner. For a number of years the position of Charles with respect to France and the Pope, and the fear of Turkish invasion, had operated to embolden and greatly strengthen the cause of Luther. But now that the Emperor had gained a complete victory in Italy, the Catholic party revived its policy of repression."

G. P. Fisher, The Reformation, chapter 4.

"While Charles and Clement were arranging matters in 1529, a new Diet was held at Spires, and the reactionists exerted themselves to obtain a reversal of that ordinance of the Diet of 1526 which had given to the reformed doctrines a legal position in Germany. Had it heen possible, the Papist leaders would have forced back the Diet on the old Edict of Worms, but in this they were baffled. Then they took up another line of defence and aggression. Where the Worms Edict had been enforced, it was, they urged, to be maintained; but all further propagation of the reformed doctrines, all religious innovation whatever, was to be forbidden, pending the assemblage of a General Council. … This doom of arrest and paralysis —this imperious mandate, 'Hitherto shall ye come, but no further,'—could not be brooked by the followers of Luther. They possessed the advantage of being admirably led. Philip of Hesse supplied some elements of sound counsel that were wanting in Luther himself. … Luther regarded with favour … the doctrine of passive obedience. It was too much his notion that devout Germans, if their Emperor commanded them to renounce the truth, should simply die at the stake without a murmur. … {2456} The most ripe and recent inquiries seem to prove that it was about this very time, when the Evangelical Princes and Free Cities of Germany were beginning to put shoulder to shoulder and organise resistance, in arms if necessary, to the Emperor and the Pope, that Luther composed 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott,' a psalm of trust in God, and in God only, as the protector of Christians. He took no fervent interest, however, in the Diet; and Philip and his intrepid associates derived little active support from him. These were inflexibly determined that the decree of the majority should not be assented to. Philip of Hesse, John of Saxony, Markgraf George the Pious of Brandenburg-Anspach, the Dukes of Lunenburg and Brunswick, the Prince of Anhalt, and the representatives of Strasburg, Nürnberg, and twelve other free cities [Ulm, Constance, Reutlingen, Windsheim, Memmingen, Lindau, Kempten, Heilbron, Isna, Weissemburgh, Nordlingen, and St. Gallen], entered a solemn protest against the Popish resolution. They were called Protestants. The name, as is customary with names that felicitously express and embody facts, was caught up in Germany and passed into every country in Europe and the world."

P. Bayne, Martin Luther, his Life and Work, book 14, chapter 4 (volume 2).

ALSO IN: L. von Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany, books 4-5 (volumes 2-3).

J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation, book 10, chapter 14, and book 13, chapter 1-6 (volumes 3-4).

J. Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, section 311 (volume 3).

PAPACY: A. D. 1527-1533. The rupture with England.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1527-1534.

PAPACY: A. D. 1530-1531. The Diet at Augsburg. Presentation and condemnation of the Protestant Confession of Faith. The breach with the Reformation complete.

"In the year 1530, Charles V., seeing France prostrate, Italy quelled, and Solyman driven within his own boundaries, determined upon undertaking the decision of the great question of the Reformation. The two conflicting parties were summoned, and met at Augsburg. The sectaries of Luther, known by the general name of protestants, were desirous to be distinguished from the other enemies of Rome, the excesses committed by whom would have thrown odium upon their cause; to be distinguished from the Zwinglian republicans of Switzerland, odious to the princes and to the nobles; above all, they desired not to be confounded with the anabaptists, proscribed by all as the enemies of society and of social order. Luther, over whom there was still suspended the sentence pronounced against him at Worms, whereby he was declared a heretic, could not appear at Augsburg; his place was supplied by the learned and pacific Melancthon, a man timid and gentle as Erasmus, whose friend he continued to be, despite of Luther. The elector, however, conveyed the great reformer as near to the place of convocation as regard to his friend's personal safety rendered advisable. He had him stationed in the strong fortress of Coburg. From this place, Luther was enabled to maintain with ease and expedition a constant intercourse with the protestant ministers. … Melancthon believed in the possibility of effecting a reconciliation between the two parties. Luther, at a very early period of the schism, saw that they were utterly irreconcilable. In the commencement of the Reformation, he had frequently had recourse to conferences and to public disputations. It was then of moment to him to resort to every effort, to try, by all the means in his power, to preserve the bond of Christianity, before he abandoned all hope of so doing. But towards the close of his life, dating from the period of the Diet of Augsburg, he openly discouraged and disclaimed these wordy contests, in which the vanquished would never avow his defeat. On the 26th of August, 1530, he writes: 'I am utterly opposed to any effort being made to reconcile the two doctrines; for it is an impossibility, unless, indeed, the pope will consent to abjure papacy. Let it suffice us that we have established our belief upon the basis of reason, and that we have asked for peace. Why hope to convert them to the truth?' And on the same day (26th August), he tells Spalatin: 'I understand you have undertaken a notable mission—that of reconciling Luther and the pope. But the pope will not be reconciled and Luther refuses. Be mindful how you sacrifice both time and trouble.' … These prophecies were, however, unheeded: the conferences took place, and the protestants were required to furnish their profession of faith. This was drawn up by Melancthon." The Confession, as drawn up by Melancthon, was adopted and signed by five electors, 30 ecclesiastical princes, 23 secular princes, 22 abbots, 32 counts and barons, and 39 free and imperial cities, and has since been known as the Augsburg Confession.

J. Michelet, Life of Luther, (translated by W. Hazlitt), book 3, chapter 1.

"A difficulty now arose as to the public reading of the Confession in the Diet. The Protestant princes, who had severally signed it, contended against the Catholic princes, that, in fairness, it should be read; and, against the emperor, that, if read at all, it should be read in German, and not in Latin. They were successful in both instances, and the Confession was publicly read in German by Bayer, one of the two chancellors of the Elector of Saxony, during the afternoon session of June 25, held in the chapel of the imperial palace. Campeggio, the Papal Legate, was absent. The reading occupied two hours, and the powerful effect it produced was, in a large measure, due to the rich, sonorous voice of Bayer, and to his distinct articulation and the musical cadence of his periods. Having finished, he handed the Confession to the Emperor, who submitted it for examination to Eck, Conrad Wimpina, Cochlæus, John Faber, and others of the Catholic theologians present in the Diet." These prepared a "Confutation" which was "finally agreed upon and read in a public session of the Diet, held August 3rd, and with which the Emperor and the Catholic princes expressed themselves fully satisfied. The Protestant princes were commanded to disclaim their errors, and return to the allegiance of the ancient faith, and 'should you refuse,' the Emperor added, 'we shall regard it a conscientious duty to proceed as our coronation oath and our office of protector of Holy Church require.' This declaration roused the indignant displeasure of the Protestant princes. Philip of Hesse … excited general alarm by abruptly breaking off the transactions, lately entered upon between the princes and the bishops, and suddenly quitting Augsburg. Charles V. now ordered the controverted points to be discussed in his presence, and appointed seven Protestants and an equal number of Catholics to put forward and defend the views of their respective parties." {2457} Subsequently Melancthon "prepared and published his 'Apology for the Augsburg Confession,' which was intended to be an answer to the 'Confutation' of the Catholic theologians. The Protestant princes laid a copy of the 'Apology' before the emperor, who rejected both it and the Confession. … After many more fruitless attempts to bring about a reconciliation, the emperor, on the 22nd of September, the day previous to that fixed for the departure of the Elector of Saxony, published an edict, in which he stated, among other things, that 'the Protestants have been refuted by sound and irrefragable arguments drawn from Holy Scripture.' 'To deny free-will,' he went on to say, 'and to affirm that faith without works avails for man's salvation, is to assert what is absurdly erroneous; for, as we very well know from past experience, were such doctrines to prevail, all true morality would perish from the earth. But that the Protestants may have sufficient time to consider their future course of action, we grant them from this to the 15th of April of next year for consideration.' On the following day, Joachim, Elector of Brandenburg, speaking in the emperor's name, addressed the evangelic princes and deputies of the Protestant cities as follows: 'His majesty is extremely amazed at your persisting in the assertion that your doctrines are based on Holy Scripture. Were your assertion true, then would it follow that his Majesty's ancestors, including so many kings and emperors, as well as the ancestors of the Elector of Saxony, were heretics!' … The Protestant princes forthwith took their leave of the emperor. On the 13th of October, the 'Recess,' or decree of the Diet, was read to the Catholic States, which on the same day entered into a Catholic League. On the 17th of the same month, sixteen of the more important German cities refused to aid the emperor in repelling the Turks, on the ground that peace had not yet been secured to Germany. The Zwinglian and Lutheran cities were daily becoming more sympathetic and cordial in their relations to each other. Charles V. informed the Holy See, October 23, of his intention of drawing the sword in defence of the faith. The 'Recess' was read to the Protestant princes November 11, and rejected by them on the day following, and the deputies of Hesse and Saxony took their departure immediately after. … The decree was rather more severe than the Protestants had anticipated, inasmuch as the emperor declared that he felt it to be his conscientious duty to defend the ancient faith, and that 'the Catholic princes had promised to aid him to the full extent of their power.' … The appointment of the emperor's brother, Ferdinand, as King of the Romans (1531), gave deep offence to the Protestant princes, who now expressed their determination of withholding all assistance from the emperor until the 'Recess' of Augsburg should have been revoked. Assembling at Smalkald, … they entered into an alliance offensive and defensive, known as the League of Smalkald, on March 29, 1531, to which they severally bound themselves to remain faithful for a period of six years."

J. Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, section 312 (volume 3).

ALSO IN: H. Worsley, Life of Luther, chapter 7 (volume 2).

F. A. Cox, Life of Melancthon, chapter 8 (giving the text of the "Augsburg Confession").

See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1530-1532.

PAPACY: A. D. 1530-1532. Protestant League of Smalkalde and alliance with the king of France. The Pacification of Nuremberg.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1530-1532.

PAPACY: A. D. 1533. Treaty of Pope Clement VII. with Francis I. of France, for the marriage of Catherine d'Medici.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.

PAPACY: A. D. 1533-1546. Mercenary aspects of the Reformation in Germany. The Catholic Holy League. Preparations for war.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1533-1546.

PAPACY: A. D. 1534. Election of Paul III.

PAPACY: A. D. 1534-1540. Beginnings of the Counter-Reformation.

"A well-known sentence in Macaulay's Essay on Ranke's 'History of the Popes' asserts, correctly enough, that in a particular epoch of history 'the Church of Rome, having lost a large part of Europe, not only ceased to lose, but actually regained nearly half of what she had lost.' Any fairly correct use of the familiar phrase 'the Counter-Reformation' must imply that this remarkable result was due to a movement pursuing two objects, originally distinct, though afterwards largely blended, viz., the regeneration of the Church of Rome, and the recovery of the losses inflicted upon her by the early successes of Protestantism. … The earliest continuous endeavour to regenerate the Church of Rome without impairing her cohesion dates from the Papacy of Paul III. [1534-1549], within which also falls the outbreak of the first religious war of the century.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1546-1552.

Thus the two impulses which it was the special task of the Counter-Reformation to fuse were brought into immediate contact. The onset of the combat is marked by the formal establishment of the Jesuit Order [1540] as a militant agency devoted alike to both the purposes of the Counter-Reformation, and by the meeting of the Council of Trent [1545] under conditions excluding from its programme the task of conciliation."

A. W. Ward, The Counter Reformation, pages vii-viii.

"I intend to use this term Counter-Reformation to denote the reform of the Catholic Church, which was stimulated by the German Reformation, and which, when the Council of Trent had fixed the dogmas and discipline of Latin Christianity, enabled the Papacy to assume a militant policy in Europe, whereby it regained a large portion of the provinces that had previously lapsed to Lutheran and Calvinistic dissent. … The centre of the world-wide movement which is termed the Counter-Reformation was naturally Rome. Events had brought the Holy See once more into a position of prominence. It was more powerful as an Italian State now, through the support of Spain and the extinction of national independence, than at any previous period of history. In Catholic Christendom its prestige was immensely augmented by the Council of Trent. At the same epoch, the foreigners who dominated Italy, threw themselves with the enthusiasm of fanaticism into this Revival. Spain furnished Rome with the militia of the Jesuits and with the engines of the Inquisition. The Papacy was thus able to secure successes in Italy which were elsewhere only partially achieved. … In order to understand the transition of Italy from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation manner, it will be well to concentrate attention on the history of the Papacy during the eight reigns [1534-1605] of Paul III., Julius III., Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius V., Gregory XIII., Sixtus V., and Clement VIII. In the first of these reigns we hardly notice that the Renaissance has passed away. In the last we are aware of a completely altered Italy."

J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy: The Catholic Reaction, chapter 2, with foot-note (volume 1).

{2458}

PAPACY: A. D. 1537-1563. Popular weakness of the Reformation movement in Italy. Momentary inclination towards the Reform at Rome. Beginning of the Catholic Reaction. The Council of Trent and its consolidating work.

"The conflict with the hierarchy did not take the same form in Italy as elsewhere. … There is no doubt that the masses saw no cause for discontent under it. We have proof that the hierarchy was popular—that among the people, down to the lowest grades, the undiminished splendour of the Papacy was looked upon as a pledge of the power of Italy. But this did not prevent reform movements from taking place. The Humanistic school had its home here; its opposition tendencies had not spared the Church any more than Scholasticism; it had everywhere been the precursor and ally of the intellectual revolt, and not the least in Italy. There were from the first eminent individuals at Venice, Modena, Ferrara, Florence, even in the States of the Church themselves, who were more or less followers of Luther. The cardinals Contarini and Morone, Bembo and Sadolet, distinguished preachers like Peter Martyr, Johann Valdez, and Bernardino Occhino, and from among the princely families an intellectual lady, Renata of Ferrara, were inclined to the new doctrines. But they were leaders without followers; the number of their adherents among the masses was surprisingly small. The Roman Curia, under the Pontificate of Paul III., 1534-49, vacillated in its policy for a time; between 1537-41, the prevailing sentiments were friendly and conciliatory towards Reform. … They were, in fact, gravely entertaining the question at Rome, whether it would not be better to come to terms with Reform, to adopt the practicable part of its programme, and so put an end to the schism which was spreading so fast in the Church. … An honest desire then still prevailed to effect a reconciliation. Contarini was in favour of it with his whole soul. But it proceeded no further than the attempt; for once the differences seemed likely to be adjusted, so far as this was possible; but in 1542, the revulsion took place, which was never again reversed. Only one result remained. The Pope could no longer refuse to summon a council. The Emperor had been urging it year after year; the Pope had acceded to it further than any of his predecessors had done; and, considering the retreat which now took place, this concession was the least that could be demanded. At length, therefore, three years after it was convened, in May, 1542, the council assembled at Trent in December, 1545. It was the Emperor's great desire that a council should be held in Germany, that thus the confidence of the Germans in the supreme tribunal in the great controversy might be gained; but the selection of Trent, which nominally belonged to Germany, was the utmost concession that could be obtained. The intentions of the Emperor and the Pope with regard to the council were entirely opposed to each other. The Pope was determined to stifle all opposition in the bud, while the Emperor was very desirous of having a counterpoise to the Pope's supremacy in council, provided always that it concurred in the imperial programme. … The assembly consisted of Spanish and Italian monks in overwhelming majority, and this was decisive as to its character. When consulted as to the course of business, the Emperor had expressed a wish that those questions on which agreement between the parties was possible should first be discussed. There were a number of questions on which they were agreed, as, for example, Greek Christianity. Even now there are a number of points on which Protestants and Catholics are agreed, and differ from the Eastern Church. If these questions were considered first, the attendance of the Protestants would be rendered very much easier; it would open the door as widely as possible, they would probably come in considerable numbers, and might in time take a part which at least might not be distasteful to the Emperor, and might influence his ideas on Church reform. The thought that they were heretics was half concealed. But Rome was determined to pursue the opposite course, and at once to agitate those questions on which there was the most essential disagreement, and to declare all who would not submit to be incorrigible heretics. … The first subjects of discussion were, the authority of the Scriptures in the text of the Vulgate, ecclesiastical tradition, the right of interpretation, the doctrine of justification. These were the questions on which the old and new doctrines were irreconcilably at variance; all other differences were insignificant in comparison. And these questions were decided in the old Roman Catholic sense; not precisely as they had been officially treated in 1517—for the stream of time had produced some little effect—but in the main the old statutes were adhered to, and everything rejected which departed from them. This conduct was decisive. … Nevertheless some reforms were carried out. Between the time of meeting and adjournment, December, 1545, to the spring of 1547, the following were the main points decided on:

1. The bishops were to provide better teachers and better schools.

2. The bishops should themselves expound the word of God.

3. Penalties were to be enforced for the neglect of their duties, and various rules were laid down as to the necessary qualifications for the office of a bishop.

Dispensations, licenses, and privileges were abolished. The Church was therefore to be subjected to a reform which abolished sundry abuses, without conceding any change in her teaching. The course the council was taking excited the Emperor's extreme displeasure. … He organized a sort of opposition to Rome; his commissaries kept up a good understanding with the Protestants, and it was evident that he meant to make use of them for an attack on the Pope. This made Rome eager to withdraw the assembly from the influence of German bishops and imperial agents as soon as possible. A fever which had broken out at Trent, but had soon disappeared, was made a pretext for transferring the council to Bologna, in the spring of 1547. The imperial commissioners protested that the decrees of such a hole-and-corner council would be null and void. The contest remained undecided for years. Paul III. died in the midst of it, in November, 1549, and was succeeded by Cardinal del Monte, one of the papal legates at the council, as Pope Julius III. {2459} The Emperor at length came to an understanding with him, and in May, 1551, the council was again opened at Trent. … The assembly remained Catholic; the Protestant elements, which were represented at first, all disappeared after the turn of affairs in 1552.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1546-1552; and 1552-1561.

After that there was no further thought of an understanding with the heretics. The results for reform were very small indeed. The proceedings were dragging wearily on when a fresh adjournment was announced in 1552. Pope Julius III. died in March, 1555. His successor, the noble Cardinal Cervin, elected as Marcellus II., died after only twenty-two days, and was succeeded by Cardinal Caraffa as Paul IV., 1555-9. … He was the Pope of the restoration. The warm Neapolitan blood flowed in his veins, and he was a fiery, energetic character. He was not in favour of any concessions or abatement, but for a complete breach with the new doctrines, and a thorough exclusiveness for the ancient Church. He was one of the ablest men of the time. As early as in 1542, he had advised that no further concessions should be made, but that the Inquisition, of which indeed he was the creator, should be restored. It was he who decidedly initiated the great Catholic reaction. He established the Spanish Inquisition in Italy, instituted the first Index, and gave the Jesuits his powerful support in the interests of the restoration. This turn of affairs was the answer to the German religious Peace. Since the Protestants no longer concerned themselves about Rome, Rome was about to set her house in order without them, and as a matter of course the council stood still." But in answer to demands from several Catholic princes, "the council was convened afresh by the next Pope, Pius IV. (1559-65), in November, 1560, and so the Council of Trent was opened for the third time in January, 1562. Then began the important period of the council, during which the legislation to which it has given a name was enacted. … The Curia reigned supreme, and, in spite of the remonstrances of the Emperor and of France, decided that the council should be considered a continuation of the previous ones, which meant—'All the decrees aimed against the Protestants are in full force; we have no further idea of coming to terms with them.' The next proceeding was to interdict books and arrange an Index. …

See PAPACY: A. D. 1559-1595.

The restoration of the indisputable authority of the Pope was the ruling principle of all the decrees. … The great achievement of the council for the unity of the Catholic Church was this: it formed into a code of laws, on one consistent principle, that which in ancient times had been variable and uncertain, and which had been almost lost sight of in the last great revolution. Controverted questions were replaced by dogmas, doubtful traditions by definite doctrines; a uniformity was established in matters of faith and discipline which had never existed before, and an impregnable bulwark was thus erected against the sectarian spirit and the tendency to innovation. Still when this unity was established upon a solid basis, the universal Church of former times was torn asunder." The Council of Trent was closed December 4, 1563, 18 years after its opening.

L. Häusser, Period of the Reformation, chapters 19 and 16.

ALSO IN: J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy: The Catholic Reaction, chapters 2-3 (volume l).

L. von Ranke, History of the Popes, books 2-3 (volume l).

L. F. Bungener, History of the Council of Trent.

T. R. Evans, The Council of Trent.

A. de Reumont, The Carafas of Maddaloni, book 1, chapter 3.

[IMAGE: Map of CENTRAL EUROPE AT THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES V (1556). AUSTRIAN HAPSBURGS. SPANISH HAPSBURGS. VENETIAN POSSESSIONS. GENOESE POSSESSIONS. ECCLESIASTICAL STATES OF THE EMPIRE. STATES OF THE CHURCH.]

[IMAGE: CENTRAL EUROPE SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIONS ABOUT 1618. LUTHERAN. ZWINGLIAN. CALVINIST. UNITED BRETHREN. CATHOLIC. LANDS RECLAIMED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DURING THE COUNTER REFORMATION SHOWN THUS. GREEK. MOHAMMEDAN.]

PAPACY: A. D. 1540. The founding of the Order of the Jesuits.

See JESUITS: A. D. 1540-1556.

PAPACY: A. D. 1545-1550. Separation of Parma and Placentia from the States of the Church to form a duchy for the Pope's family. The Farnese.

See PARMA: A. D. 1545-1592.

PAPACY: A. D. 1550. Election of Julius III.

PAPACY: A. D. 1555 (April). Election of Marcellus II.

PAPACY: A. D. 1555 (May). Election of Paul IV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1555-1603. The aggressive age of the reinvigorated Church. Attachment and subserviency to Spain.

Giovanni Piero Caraffa, founder of the Order of the Theatines, was raised to the papal chair in 1555, assuming the title of Paul IV. He "entered on his station with the haughty notions of its prerogatives which were natural to his austere and impetuous spirit. Hence his efforts in concert with France, unsuccessful as they proved, to overthrow the Spanish greatness, that he might extricate the popedom from the galling state of dependence to which the absolute ascendancy of that power in Italy had reduced it. Paul IV. is remarkable as the last pontiff who embarked in a contest which had now become hopeless, and as the first who, giving a new direction to the policy of the holy see, employed all the influence, the arts, and the resources of the Roman church against the protestant cause. He had, during the pontificate of Paul III. [1534-1549], already made himself conspicuous for his persecuting zeal. He had been the principal agent in the establishment of the inquisition at Rome, and had himself filled the office of grand inquisitor. He seated himself in the chair of St. Peter with the detestable spirit of that vocation; and the character of his pontificate responded to the violence of his temper. His mantle descended upon a long series of his successors. Pius IV., who replaced him on his death in 1559; Pius V., who received the tiara in the following year; Gregory XIII., who was elected in 1572, and died in 1585; Sixtus V., who next reigned until 1590; Urban VII., Gregory XIV., and Innocent IX., who each filled the papal chair only a few months; and Clement VIII., whose pontificate commenced in 1592 and extended beyond the close of the century [1603]: all pursued the same political and religious system. Resigning the hope, and perhaps the desire, of re-establishing the independence of their see, they maintained an intimate and obsequious alliance with the royal bigot of Spain; they seconded his furious persecution of the protestant faith; they fed the civil wars of the Low Countries, of France, and of Germany."

G. Procter, History of Italy, chapter 9.

"The Papacy and Catholicism had long maintained themselves against these advances of their enemy [the Protestant Reformation], in an attitude of defence it is true, but passive only; upon the whole they were compelled to endure them. Affairs now assumed a different aspect. … It may be affirmed generally that a vital and active force was again manifested, that the church had regenerated her creed in the spirit of the age, and had established reforms in accordance with the demands of the times. {2460} The religious tendencies which had appeared in southern Europe were not suffered to become hostile to herself, she adopted them, and gained the mastery of their movements; thus she renewed her powers, and infused fresh vigour into her system. … The influence of the restored Catholic system was first established in the two southern peninsulas, but this was not accomplished without extreme severities. The Spanish Inquisition received the aid of that lately revived in Rome; every movement of Protestantism was violently suppressed. But at the same time those tendencies of the inward life which renovated Catholicism claimed and enchained as her own, were peculiarly powerful in those countries. "The sovereigns also attached themselves to the interests of the church. It was of the highest importance that Philip II., the most powerful of all, adhered so decidedly to the popedom; with the pride of a Spaniard, by whom unimpeachable Catholicism was regarded as a sign of a purer blood and more noble descent, he rejected every adverse opinion: the character of his policy was however not wholly governed by mere personal feeling. From remote times, and more especially since the regulations established by Isabella, the kingly dignity of Spain had assumed an ecclesiastical character; in every province the royal authority was strengthened by the addition of spiritual power; deprived of the Inquisition, it would not have sufficed to govern the kingdom. Even in his American possessions, the king appeared above all in the light of a disseminator of the Christian and Catholic faith. This was the bond by which all his territories were united in obedience to his rule; he could not have abandoned it, without incurring real danger. The extension of Huguenot opinions in the south of France caused the utmost alarm in Spain; the Inquisition believed itself bound to redoubled vigilance. … The power possessed by Philip in the Netherlands secured to the southern system an immediate influence over the whole of Europe; but besides this, all was far from being lost in other countries. The emperor, the kings of France and Poland, with the duke of Bavaria, still adhered to the Catholic church. On all sides there were spiritual princes whose expiring zeal might be reanimated; there were also many places where Protestant opinions had not yet made their way among the mass of the people. The majority of the peasantry throughout France, Poland, and even Hungary, still remained Catholic. Paris, which even in those days exercised a powerful influence over the other French towns, had not yet been affected by the new doctrines. In England a great part of the nobility and commons were still Catholic; and in Ireland the whole of the ancient native population remained in the old faith. Protestantism had gained no admission into the Tyrolese or Swiss Alps, nor had it made any great progress among the peasantry of Bavaria. Canisius compared the Tyrolese and Bavarians with the two tribes of Israel, 'who alone remained faithful to the Lord.' The internal causes on which this pertinacity, this immovable attachment to tradition, among nations so dissimilar, was founded, might well repay a more minute examination. A similar constancy was exhibited in the Walloon provinces of the Netherlands. And now the papacy resumed a position in which it could once more gain the mastery of all these inclinations, and bind them indissolubly to itself. Although it had experienced great changes, it still possessed the inestimable advantage of having all the externals of the past and the habit of obedience on its side. In the council so prosperously concluded, the popes had even gained an accession of that authority which it had been the purpose of the temporal powers to restrict; and had strengthened their influence over the national churches; they had moreover abandoned that temporal policy by which they had formerly involved Italy and all Europe in confusion. They attached themselves to Spain with perfect confidence and without any reservations, fully returning the devotion evinced by that kingdom to the Roman church. The Italian principality, the enlarged dominions of the pontiff, contributed eminently to the success of his ecclesiastical enterprises; while the interests of the universal Catholic church were for some time essentially promoted by the overplus of its revenues. Thus strengthened internally, thus supported by powerful adherents, and by the idea of which they were the representatives, the popes exchanged the defensive position, with which they had hitherto been forced to content themselves, for that of assailants."

L. von Ranke, History of the Popes, book 5, section 2 (volume 1).

PAPACY: A. D. 1559. Election of Pius IV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1559-1595. The institution of the Index.

"The first 'Index' of prohibited books published by Papal authority, and therefore, unlike the 'catalogi' previously issued by royal, princely, or ecclesiastical authorities, valid for the whole Church, was that authorised by a bull of Paul IV. in 1559. In 1564 followed the Index published by Pius IV., as drawn up in harmony with the decrees of the Council of Trent, which, after all, appears to be a merely superficial revision of its predecessor. Other Indices followed, for which various authorities were responsible, the most important among them being the Index Expurgatorius, sanctioned by a bull of Clement VIII. in 1595, which proved so disastrous to the great printing trade of Venice."

A. W. Ward, The Counter-Reformation, chapter 2.

PAPACY: A. D. 1566. Election of Pius V.

PAPACY: A. D. 1570-1571. Holy League with Venice and Spain against the Turks. Great battle and victory of Lepanto.

See TURKS: A. D. 1566-1571.

PAPACY: A. D. 1572 (May). Election of Gregory XIII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1572. Reception of the news of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1572 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).

PAPACY: A. D. 1585. Election of Sixtus V.

PAPACY: A. D. 1585. The Bull against Henry of Navarre, called "Brutum Fulmen."

See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.

PAPACY: A. D. 1590 (September). Election of Urban VII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1590 (December). Election of Gregory XIV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1591. Election of Innocent IX.

PAPACY: A. D. 1591. Election of Clement VIII.

{2461}

PAPACY: A. D. 1597. Annexation of Ferrara to the States of the Church.

"The loss which the papal states sustained by the alienation of Parma and Placentia was repaired, before the end of the 16th century, by the acquisition of a duchy little inferior in extent to those territories:—that of Ferrara." With the death, in 1597, of Alfonso II., the persecutor of Tasso, "terminated the legitimate Italian branch of the ancient and illustrious line of Este. But there remained an illegitimate representative of his house, whom he designed for his successor; don Cesare da Este, the grandson of Alfonso I. by a natural son of that duke. The inheritance of Ferrara and Modena had passed in the preceding century to bastards, without opposition from the popes, the feudal superiors of the former duchy. But the imbecile character of don Cesare now encouraged the reigning pontiff, Clement VIII., to declare that all the ecclesiastical fiefs of the house of Este reverted, of right, to the holy see on the extinction of the legitimate line. The papal troops, on the death of Alfonso II., invaded the Ferrarese state; and Cesare suffered himself to be terrified by their approach into an ignominious and formal surrender of that duchy to the holy see. By the indifference of the Emperor Rodolph II., he was permitted to retain the investiture of the remaining possessions of his ancestors: the duchies of Modena and Reggio, over which, as imperial and not papal fiefs, the pope could not decently assert any right. In passing beneath the papal yoke, the duchy of Ferrara, which, under the government of the house of Este, had been one of the most fertile provinces of Italy, soon became a desert and marshy waste. The capital itself lost its industrious population and commercial riches; its architectural magnificence crumbled into ruins, and its modern aspect retains no trace of that splendid court in which literature and art repaid the fostering protection of its sovereigns, by reflecting lustre on their heads."

G. Procter, History of Italy, chapter 9.

PAPACY: A. D. 1605 (April). Election of Leo XI.

PAPACY: A. D. 1605 (May). Election of Paul V.

PAPACY: A. D. 1605-1700. The conflict with Venice. Opposition of Urban VIII. to the Emperor. Annexation of Urbino to the States of the Church. Half a century of unimportant history.

"Paul V. (1605-1621) was imbued with mediæval ideas as to the papal authority and the validity of the canon-law. These speedily brought him into collision with the secular power, especially in Venice, which had always maintained an attitude of independence towards the papacy. Ecclesiastical disputes [growing out of a Venetian decree forbidding alienations of secular property in favor of the churches] were aggravated by the fact that the acquisition of Ferrara had extended the papal states to the frontiers of Venice, and that frequent differences arose as to the boundary line between them. The defence of the republic and of the secular authority in church affairs was undertaken with great zeal and ability by Fra Paoli Sarpi, the famous historian of the Council of Trent. Paul V. did not hesitate to excommunicate the Venetians [1606], but the government compelled the clergy to disregard the pope's edict. The Jesuits, Theatines, and Capuchins were the only orders that adhered to the papacy, and they had to leave the city. If Spain had not been under the rule of the pacific Lerma, it would probably have seized the opportunity to punish Venice for its French alliance. But France and Spain were both averse to war, and Paul V. had to learn that the papacy was powerless without secular support. By the mediation of the two great powers, a compromise was arranged in 1607. The Jesuits, however, remained excluded from Venetian territory for another half-century. This was the first serious reverse encountered by the Catholic reaction. …

See VENICE: A. D. 1606-1607.

The attention of the Catholic world was now absorbed in the Austrian schemes for the repression of Protestantism in Germany, which received the unhesitating support both of Paul and of his successor, Gregory XV. [1621-1623]. The latter was a great patron of the Jesuits. Under him the Propaganda was first set on foot. … The pontificate of Urban VIII. (1623-1644) was a period of great importance. He regarded himself rather as a temporal prince than as head of the Church. He fortified Rome and filled his states with troops. The example of Julius II. seemed to find an imitator. Urban was imbued with the old Italian jealousy of the imperial power, and allied himself closely with France. … At the moment when Ferdinand II. had gained his greatest success in Germany he was confronted with the hostility of the pope. Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany, and by a strange coincidence Protestantism found support in the temporal interests of the papacy. The Catholics were astounded and dismayed by Urban's attitude. … Urban VIII. succeeded in making an important addition to the papal states by the annexation of Urbino, in 1631, on the death of Francesco Maria, the last duke of the Della Rovere family. But in the government of the states he met with great difficulties. … Urban VIII.'s relatives, the Barberini, quarreled with the Farnesi, who had held Parma and Piacenza since the pontificate of Paul III. The pope was induced to claim the district of Castro, and this claim aroused a civil war (1641-1644) in which the papacy was completely worsted. Urban was forced to conclude a humiliating treaty and directly afterwards died. His successors [Innocent X., 1644-1655; Alexander VII., 1655-1667; Clement IX., 1667-1669; Clement X., 1670-1676; Innocent XI., 1676-1689; Alexander VIII., 1689-1691; Innocent XII., 1691-1700] are of very slight importance to the history of Europe. … The only important questions in which the papacy was involved in the latter half of the century were the schism of the Jansenists and the relations with Louis XIV."

R. Lodge, History of Modern Europe, chapter 12.

ALSO IN: J. E. Darras, General History of the Catholic Church, period 7, chapter 7; period 8, chapters 1-3 (volume 4).

T. A. Trollope, Paul the Pope and Paul the Friar.

A. Robertson, Fra Paolo Sarpi.

PAPACY: A. D. 1621. Election of Gregory XV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1622. Founding of the College of the Propaganda. [Transcriber's note: 2022: "Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples."]

Cardinal Alexander Ludovisio, elected pope on the 9th of February, 1621, taking the name of Gregory XV., "had always shown the greatest zeal for the conversion of infidels and heretics; this zeal inspired the design of founding the College of the Propaganda (1622). The origin of the Propaganda is properly to be traced to an edict of Gregory XIII., in virtue of which a certain number of cardinals were charged with the direction of missions to the East, and catechisms were ordered to be printed in the less-known languages. But the institution was neither firmly established nor provided with the requisite funds. Gregory XV. gave it a constitution, contributed the necessary funds from his private purse, and as it met a want the existence of which was really felt and acknowledged, its success was daily more and more brilliant. {2462} Who does not know what the Propaganda has done for philological learning? But it chiefly labored, with admirable grandeur of conception and energy, to fulfil its great mission—the propagation of the Catholic faith—with the most splendid results. Urban VIII., the immediate successor of Gregory XV., completed the work by the addition of the 'Collegium de Propaganda Fide,' where youth are trained in the study of all the foreign languages, to bear the name of Christ to every nation on the globe."

J. E. Darras, General History of the Catholic Church, period 7, chapter 7, section. 10 (volume 4).

PAPACY: A. D. 1623. Election of Urban VIII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1623-1626. The Valtelline War.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

PAPACY: A. D. 1644-1667. Pontificates of Innocent X. and Alexander VII. Growth of Nepotism.

Sixtus V. had "invented a system of nepotism which was so actively followed up by his successors, that even a short reign provided the means of accumulating a brilliant fortune. That pontiff raised one nephew to the rank of cardinal, with a share of the public business and an ecclesiastical income of a hundred thousand crowns. Another he created a marquess, with large estates in the Neapolitan territory. The house of Ferretti thus founded, long maintained a high position, and was frequently represented in the College of Cardinals. The Aldobrandini, founded in like manner by Clement VIII., the Borghesi by Paul V., the Ludovisi by Gregory XV., and the Barberini by Urban VIII., now vied in rank and opulence with the ancient Roman houses of Colonna and Orsini, who boasted that for centuries no peace had been concluded in Christendom in which they were not expressly included. On the death of Urban VIII. (29th July 1644) the Barberini commanded the votes of eight-and-forty cardinals, the most powerful faction ever seen in the conclave. Still, the other papal families were able to resist their dictation, and the struggle terminated in the election of Cardinal Pamfili, who took the name of Innocent X. During the interval of three months, the city was abandoned to complete lawlessness; assassinations in the streets were frequent; no private house was safe without a military guard, and a whole army of soldiers found occupation in protecting the property of their employers. This was then the usual state of things during an interregnum. Innocent X., though seventy-two years of age at his election, was full of energy. He restrained the disorders in the city. … Innocent brought the Barberini to strict account for malpractices under his predecessor, and wrested from them large portions of their ill-gotten gain. So far, however, from reforming the system out of which these abuses sprung, his nepotism exhibited itself in a form which scandalised even the Roman courtiers. The pope brought his sister-in-law, Donna Olimpia Maidalchina, from Viterbo to Rome, and established her in a palace, where she received the first visits of foreign ambassadors on their arrival, gave magnificent entertainments, and dispensed for her own benefit the public offices of the government. … Her daughters were married into the noblest families. Her son, having first been appointed the cardinal-nephew, soon after renounced his orders, married, and became the secular-nephew. The struggle for power between his mother and his wife divided Rome into new factions, and the feud was enlarged by the ambition of a more distant kinsman, whom Innocent appointed to the vacant post of cardinal-nephew. The pontiff sank under a deep cloud from the disorders in his family and the palace, and when he died (5th January, 1655) the corpse laid three days uncared for, till an old canon, who had been long dismissed from his household, expended half-a-crown on its interment. … Fabio Chigi, who came next as Alexander VIII. [VII.] brought to the tottering chair a spotless reputation, and abilities long proved in the service of the church. His first act was to banish the scandalous widow; her son was allowed to retain her palace and fortune. Beginning with the loudest protestations against nepotism, now the best established institution at Rome, in the phrase of the time, the pope soon 'became a man.' The courtiers remonstrated on his leaving his family to live a plain citizen's life at Siena: it might involve the Holy See in a misunderstanding with Tuscany. … The question was gravely proposed in consistory, and the flood-gates being there authoritatively unclosed, the waters of preferment flowed abundantly on all who had the merit to be allied with Fabio Chigi. After discharging this arduous duty, the pope relieved himself of further attention to business, and spent his days in literary leisure. His nephews, however, had less power than formerly, from the growth of the constitutional principle. The cardinals, in their different congregations, with the official secretaries, aspired to the functions of responsible advisers."

G. Trevor, Rome, from the Fall of the Western Empire, pages 416-418.

PAPACY: A. D. 1646. The Hostility of Mazarin and France.

See ITALY: A. D. 1646-1654.

PAPACY: A. D. 1653. The first condemnation of Jansenism.

See PORT ROYAL AND THE JANSENISTS: A. D. 1602-1660.

PAPACY: A. D. 1667. Election of Clement IX.

PAPACY: A. D. 1670. Election of Clement X.

PAPACY: A. D. 1676. Election of Innocent XI.

PAPACY: A. D. 1682-1693. Successful contest with Louis XIV. and the Gallican Church.

"It has always been the maxim of the French court, that the papal power is to be restricted by means of the French clergy, and that the clergy, on the other hand, are to be kept in due limits by means of the papal power. But never did a prince hold his clergy in more absolute command than Louis XIV. … The prince of Condé declared it to be his opinion, that if it pleased the king to go over to the Protestant church, the clergy would be the first to follow him. And certainly the clergy of France did support their king without scruple against the pope. The declarations they published were from year to year increasingly decisive in favour of the royal authority. At length there assembled the convocation of 1682. 'It was summoned and dissolved,' remarks a Venetian ambassador, 'at the convenience of the king's ministers, and was guided by their suggestions.' The four articles drawn up by this assembly have from that time been regarded as the manifesto of the Gallican immunities. The first three repeat assertions of principles laid down in earlier times; as, for example, the independence of the secular power, as regarded the spiritual authority; the superiority of councils over the pope; and the inviolable character of the Gallican usages. {2463} But the fourth is more particularly remarkable, since it imposes new limits even to the spiritual authority of the pontiff. 'Even in questions of faith, the decision of the pope is not incapable of amendment, so long as it is without the assent of the church.' We see that the temporal power of the kingdom received support from the spiritual authority, which was in its turn upheld by the secular arm. The king is declared free from the interference of the pope's temporal authority; the clergy are exempted from submission to the unlimited exercise of his spiritual power. It was the opinion of contemporaries, that although France might remain within the pale of the Catholic church, it yet stood on the threshold, in readiness for stepping beyond it. The king exalted the propositions above named into a kind of 'Articles of Faith,' a symbolical book. All schools were to be regulated in conformity with these precepts; and no man could attain to a degree, either in the juridical or theological faculties, who did not swear to maintain them. But the pope also was still possessed of a weapon. The authors of this declaration—the members of this assembly—were promoted and preferred by the king before all other candidates for episcopal offices; but Innocent refused to grant them spiritual institution. They might enjoy the revenues of those sees, but ordination they did not receive; nor could they venture to exercise one spiritual act of the episcopate. These complications were still further perplexed by the fact that Louis XIV. at that moment resolved on that relentless extirpation of the Huguenots, but too well known, and to which he proceeded chiefly for the purpose of proving his own perfect orthodoxy. He believed himself to be rendering a great service to the church. It has indeed been also affirmed that Innocent XI. was aware of his purpose and had approved it, but this was not the fact. The Roman court would not now hear of conversions effected by armed apostles. 'It was not of such methods that Christ availed himself: men must be led to the temple, not dragged into it.' New dissensions continually arose. In the year 1687, the French ambassador entered Rome with so imposing a retinue, certain squadrons of cavalry forming part of it, that the right of asylum, which the ambassadors claimed at that time, not only for their palace, but also for the adjacent streets, could by no means have been easily disputed with him, although the popes had solemnly abolished the usage. With an armed force the ambassador braved the pontiff in his own capital. 'They come with horses and chariots,' said Innocent, 'but we will walk in the name of the Lord.' He pronounced the censures of the church on the ambassador; and the church of St. Louis, in which the latter had attended a solemn high mass, was laid under interdict. The king also then proceeded to extreme measures. He appealed to a general council, took possession of Avignon, and caused the nuncio to be shut up in St. Olon: it was even believed that he had formed the design of creating for Harlai, archbishop of Paris, who, if he had not suggested these proceedings, had approved them, the appointment of patriarch of France. So far had matters proceeded: the French ambassador in Rome excommunicated; the papal nuncio in France detained by force; thirty-five French bishops deprived of canonical institution; a territory of the Holy See occupied by the king: it was, in fact, the actual breaking out of schism; yet did Pope Innocent refuse to yield a single step. If we ask to what he trusted for support on this occasion, we perceive that it was not to the effect of the ecclesiastical censures in France, nor to the influence of his apostolic dignity, but rather, and above all, to that universal resistance which had been aroused in Europe against those enterprises of Louis XIV. that were menacing the existence of its liberties. To this general opposition the pope now also attached himself. … If the pope had promoted the interests of Protestantism by his policy, the Protestants on their side, by maintaining the balance of Europe against the 'exorbitant Power,' also contributed to compel the latter into compliance with the spiritual claims of the papacy. It is true that when this result ensued, Innocent XI. was no longer in existence; but the first French ambassador who appeared in Rome after his death (10th of August, 1689) renounced the right of asylum: the deportment of the king was altered; he restored Avignon, and entered into negotiations. … After the early death of Alexander VIII., the French made all possible efforts to secure the choice of a pontiff disposed to measures of peace and conciliation; a purpose that was indeed effected by the elevation of Antonio Pignatelli, who assumed the tiara with the name of Innocent XII., on the 12th of July, 1691. … The negotiations continued for two years. Innocent more than once rejected the formulas proposed to him by the clergy of France, and they were, in fact, compelled at length to declare that all measures discussed and resolved on in the assembly of 1682 should be considered as not having been discussed or resolved on: 'casting ourselves at the feet of your holiness, we profess our unspeakable grief for what has been done.' It was not until they had made this unreserved recantation that Innocent accorded them canonical institution. Under these conditions only was peace restored. Louis XIV. wrote to the pope that he retracted his edict relating to the four articles. Thus we perceive that the Roman see once more maintained its prerogatives, even though opposed by the most powerful of monarchs."

L. Ranke, History of the Popes, book 8, section 16 (volume 2).

PAPACY:A. D. 1689. Election of Alexander VIII.

PAPACY:A. D. 1691. Election of Innocent XII.

PAPACY:A. D. 1700. Election of Clement XI.

PAPACY:A. D. 1700-1790. Effects of the War of the Spanish Succession. Declining Powers.

The issue of the War of the Spanish Succession "will serve to show us that when the Pope was not, as in his contest with Louis XIV., favoured by political events, he could no longer laugh to scorn the edicts of European potentates. Charles II. of Spain, that wretched specimen of humanity, weak in body, and still weaker in mind, haunted by superstitious terrors which almost unsettled his reason, was now, in the year 1700, about to descend to a premature grave. He was without male issue, and was uncertain to whom he should bequeath the splendid inheritance transmitted to him by his ancestors. The Pope, Innocent XII., who was wholly in the interests of France, urged him to bequeath Spain, with its dependencies, to Philip, Duke of Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV., who claimed through his grandmother, the eldest sister of Charles. {2464} He would thus prevent the execution of the partition treaty concluded between France, England, and Holland, according to which the Archduke Charles … was to have Spain, the Indies, and the Netherlands, while France took the Milanese, or the Province of Lorraine. The Archbishop of Toledo seconded the exhortation of the Pope, and so worked on the superstitious terrors of the dying monarch that he signed a will in favour of the Duke of Anjou, which was the cause of lamentation, and mourning, and woe, for twelve years, throughout Europe, from the Vistula to the Atlantic Ocean. …

See SPAIN: A. D. 1701-1702; and ENGLAND: A. D. 1701-1702.

The Duke of Marlborough's splendid victories of Blenheim and Ramillies … placed the Emperor Joseph (1705-11), the brother of the Archduke Charles, in possession of Germany and the Spanish Netherlands and the victory of Prince Eugene before Turin made him supreme in the north of Italy and the kingdom of Naples

See GERMANY: A. D. 1704; NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1706-1707; ITALY: A. D. 1701-1713.

The Pope, Clement XI., was now reduced to a most humiliating position. Political events had occurred … which served to show very plainly that the Pope, without a protector, could not, as in former days, bid defiance to the monarchs of Europe. His undutiful son, the Emperor, compelled him to resign part of his territories as a security for his peaceful demeanour, and to acknowledge the Archduke Charles, the Austrian claimant to the Spanish throne. The peace of Utrecht, concluded in 1713 [see UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714], which produced the dismemberment of the monarchy, but left Philip in the peaceful occupation of the throne of Spain, did indeed release him from that obligation; but it did not restore him to the 'high and palmy state' which he occupied before he was obliged to submit to the Imperial arms. It inflicted a degradation upon him, for it transferred to other sovereigns, without his consent, his fiefs of Sicily and Sardinia. Now, also, it became manifest that the Pope could no longer assert an indirect sovereignty over the Italian States; for, notwithstanding his opposition, it conferred a large extent of territory on the Duke of Savoy, which has, in our day, been expanded into a kingdom under the sceptre of Victor Emmanuel and his successor. We have a further evidence of the decline of the Papacy in the change in the relative position of the States of Europe as Papal and anti-Papal during the eighteenth century, after the death of Louis XIV. The Papal powers of Spain in the sixteenth century, and of France, Spain, and Austria, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, determined the policy of Europe. … On the other hand, England, Prussia, and Russia became, in the eighteenth century, the great leading powers in the world. … The Pope, then, no longer stood at the head of those powers which swayed the destinies of Europe. … The Papacy, from the death of Louis XIV. till the time of the French Revolution, led a very quiet and obscure life. It had no part in any of the great events which during the eighteenth century were agitating Europe, and gained no spiritual or political victories."

A. R. Pennington, Epochs of the Papacy, chapter 10.

PAPACY: A. D. 1713. The Bull Unigenitus and the Christian doctrines it condemned.

See PORT ROYAL AND THE JANSENISTS: A. D. 1702-1715.

PAPACY: A. D. 1721. Election of Innocent XIII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1724. Election of Benedict XIII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1730. Election of Clement XII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1740. Election of Benedict XIV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1758. Election of Clement XIII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1765-1769. Defense of the Jesuits, on their expulsion from France, Spain, Parma, Venice, Modena and Bavaria.

See JESUITS: A. D. 1761-1769.

PAPACY: A. D. 1769. Election of Clement XIV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1773. Suppression of the Jesuits.

See JESUITS: A. D. 1769-1871.

PAPACY: A. D. 1775. Election of Pius VI.

PAPACY: A. D. 1789-1810. Founding of the Roman Episcopate in the United States of America.

In 1789, the first episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States was founded, at Baltimore, by a bull of Pope Pius VI., which appointed Father John Carroll to be its bishop. In 1810, Bishop Carroll "was raised to the dignity of Archbishop, and four suffragan dioceses were created, with their respective sees at Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Bardstown, in Kentucky."

J. A. Russell, The Catholic Church in the United States (History of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, pages 16-18).

PAPACY: A. D. 1790-1791. Revolution at Avignon. Reunion of the Province with France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1790-1791.

PAPACY: A. D. 1796. First extortions of Bonaparte from the Pope.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).

PAPACY: A. D. 1797. Treaty of Tolentino. Papal territory taken by Bonaparte to add to the Cispadane and Cisalpine Republics.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL).

PAPACY: A. D. 1797-1798. French occupation of Rome. Formation of the Roman Republic. Removal of the Pope.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1798 (DECEMBER-MAY).

PAPACY: A. D. 1800. Election of Pius VII.

PAPACY: A. D. 1802. The Concordat with Napoleon. Its Ultramontane influence.

See FRANCE A. D. 1801-1804.

PAPACY: A. D. 1804. Journey of the Pope to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1804-1805.

PAPACY: A. D. 1808-1814. Conflict of Pius VII. with Napoleon. French seizure of Rome and the Papal States. Captivity of the Pope at Savona and Fontainebleau. The Concordat of 1813 and its retraction.

Napoleon "had long been quarrelling with Pius VII., to make a tool of whom he had imposed the concordat on France. The Pope resisted, as the Emperor might have expected, and, not obtaining the price of his compliance, hindered the latter's plans in every way that he could. He resisted as head of the Church and as temporal sovereign of Rome, refusing to close his dominions either to the English or to Neapolitan refugees of the Bourbon party. Napoleon would not allow the Pope to act as a monarch independent of the Empire, but insisted that he was amenable to the Emperor, as temporal prince, just as his predecessors were amenable to Charlemagne. They could not agree, and Napoleon, losing patience, took military possession of Rome and the Roman State."

H. Martin, Popular History of France, since 1789, volume 2, chapter 12.

{2465}

In February, 1808, "the French troops, who had already taken possession of the whole of Tuscany, in virtue of the resignation forced upon the Queen of Etruria, invaded the Roman territories, and made themselves masters of the ancient capital of the world. They immediately occupied the castle of St. Angelo, and the gates of the city, and entirely dispossessed the papal troops. Two months afterwards, an imperial decree of Napoleon severed the provinces of Ancona, Urbino, Macerata, and Camerino, which had formed part of the ecclesiastical estates, under the gift of Charlemagne, for nearly a thousand years, and annexed them to the kingdom of Italy. The reason assigned for this spoliation was, 'That the actual sovereign of Rome has constantly declined to declare war against the English, and to coalesce with the Kings of Italy and Naples for the defence of the Italian peninsula. The interests of these two kingdoms, as well as of the armies of Naples and Italy, require that their communications should not be interrupted by a hostile power.'"

Sir A. Alison, History of Europe, 1789-1815, chapter 51 (volume 11).

"The pope protested in vain against such violence. Napoleon paid no attention. … He confiscated the wealth of the cardinals who did not return to the place of their birth. He disarmed nearly all the guards of the Holy Father—the nobles of this guard were imprisoned. Finally, Miollis [the French commander] had Cardinal Gabrielle, pro-Secretary of State, carried off, and put seals upon his papers. On May 17, 1809, a decree was issued by Napoleon, dated from Vienna, proclaiming the union (in his quality of successor to Charlemagne) of the States of the pope with the French Empire, ordaining that the city of Rome should be a free and imperial city; that the pope should continue to have his seat there, and that he should enjoy a revenue of 2,000,000 francs. On June 10, he had this decree promulgated at Rome. On this same June 10, the pope protested against all these spoliations, refused all pensions, and recapitulating all the outrages of which he had cause to complain, issued the famous and imprudent bull of excommunication against the authors, favourers, and executors of the acts of violence against him and the Holy See, but without naming anyone. Napoleon was incensed at it, and on the first impulse he wrote to the bishops of France a letter in which he spoke in almost revolutionary terms 'of him who wished,' said he, 'to make dependent upon a perishable temporal power the eternal interest of consciences, and that of all spiritual affairs.' On the 6th of July, 1809, Pius VII., taken from Rome, after he had been asked if he would renounce the temporal sovereignty of Rome and of the States of the Church, was conducted by General Radet as far as Savone, where he arrived alone, August 10, the cardinals having all been previously transported to Paris. And to complete the spoliation of the pope, Napoleon issued on the 17th of February, 1810, a senatus-consultum which bestowed upon the eldest son of the emperor the title of King of Rome, and even ordained that the emperor should be consecrated a second time at Rome, in the first ten years of his reign. It was while oppressed, captive and deprived of all council, that the pope refused the bulls to all the bishops named by the emperor, and then it was that all the discussions relative to the proper measures to put an end to the viduity of the churches were commenced. … The year 1810, far from bringing any alleviation to the situation of the pope and giving him, according to the wishes and prayers of the ecclesiastic commission, a little more liberty, aggravated, on the contrary, this situation, and rendered his captivity harder. In effect, on February 17, 1810, appeared the senatus-consultum pronouncing the union of the Roman States with the French Empire; the independence of the imperial throne of all authority on earth, and annulling the temporal existence of the popes. This senatus-consultum assured a pension to the pope, but it ordained also that the pope should take oath to do nothing in opposition to the four articles of 1682. … The pope must have consoled himself, … even to rejoicing, that they made the insulting pension they offered him depend upon the taking of such an oath, and it is that which furnished him with a reply so nobly apostolic: that he had no need of this pension, and that he would live on the charity of the faithful. … The rigorous treatment to which the Holy Father was subjected at Savona was continued during the winter of 1811-1812, and in the following spring. At this time, it seems there was some fear, on the appearance of an English squadron, that it might carry off the pope; and the emperor gave the order to transfer him to Fontainebleau. This unhappy old man left Savona, June 10, and was forced to travel day and night. He fell quite ill at the hospice of Mont Cenis; but they forced him none the less to continue his journey. They had compelled him to wear such clothes … as not to betray who he was on the way they had to follow. They took great care also to conceal his journey from the public, and the secret was so profoundly kept, that on arriving at Fontainebleau, June 19, the concierge, who had not been, advised of his arrival, and who had made no preparation, was obliged to receive him in his own lodgings. The Holy Father was a long time before recovering from the fatigue of this painful journey, and from the needlessly rigorous treatment to which they had subjected him. The cardinals not disgraced by Napoleon, who were in Paris, as well as the Archbishop of Tours, the Bishop of Nantes, the Bishop of Evreux, and the Bishop of Treves, were ordered to go and see the pope. … The Russian campaign, marked by so many disasters, was getting to a close. The emperor on his return to Paris, December 18, 1812, still cherished chimerical hopes, and was meditating without doubt, more gigantic projects. Before carrying them out, he wished to take up again the affairs of the Church, either because he repented not having finished with them at Savona, or because he had the fancy to prove that he could do more in a two hours' tête-à–tête with the pope, than had been done by the council, its commissions, and its most able negotiators. He had beforehand, however, taken measures which were to facilitate his personal negotiation. The Holy Father had been surrounded for several months by cardinals and prelates, who, either from conviction or from submission to the emperor, depicted the Church as having arrived at a state of anarchy which put its existence in peril. They repeated incessantly to the pope, that if he did not get reconciled with the emperor and secure the aid of his power to arrest the evil, schism would be inevitable. Finally, the Sovereign pontiff overwhelmed by age, by infirmities, by the anxiety and cares with which his mind was worried, found himself well prepared for the scene Napoleon had planned to play, and which was to assure him what he believed to be a success. {2466} On January 19, 1813, the emperor, accompanied by the Empress Marie Louise, entered the apartment of the Holy Father unexpectedly, rushed to him and embraced him with effusion. Pius VII., surprised and affected, allowed himself to be induced, after a few explanations, to give his approbation to the propositions that were imposed, rather than submitted to him. They were drawn up in eleven articles, which were not yet a compact, but which were to serve as the basis of a new act. On January 24, the emperor and the pope affixed their signatures to this strange paper, which was lacking in the usual diplomatic forms, since they were two sovereigns who had treated directly together. It was said in these articles, that the pope would exercise the pontificate in France, and in Italy;—that his ambassadors and those in authority near him, should enjoy all diplomatic privileges;—that such of his domains which were not disposed of should be free from taxes, and that those which were transferred should be replaced by an income of 2,000,000 francs;—that the pope should nominate, whether in France or in Italy, to episcopal sees which should be subsequently fixed; that the suburban sees should be re-established, and depend on the nomination of the pope, and that the unsold lands of these sees should be restored; that the pope should give bishoprics 'in partibus' to the Roman bishops absent from their diocese by force of circumstances, and that he should serve them a pension equal to their former revenue, until such time as they should be appointed to vacant sees; that the emperor and the pope should agree in opportune time as to the reduction to be made if it took place, in the bishoprics of Tuscany and of the country about Geneva, as well as to the institution of bishoprics in Holland, and in the Hanseatic departments; that the propaganda, the confessional, and the archives should be established in the place of sojourn of the Holy Father; finally, that His Imperial Majesty bestowed his good graces upon the cardinals, bishops, priests, and laymen, who had incurred his displeasure in connection with actual events. … The news of the signing of the treaty occasioned great joy among the people, but it appears that that of the pope was of short duration. The sacrifices he had been led to make were hardly consummated, than he experienced bitter grief; this could but be increased in proportion as the exiled and imprisoned cardinals, Consalvi, Pacca, di Pietro, on obtaining their liberty, received also the authorization to repair to Fontainebleau. What passed then between the Holy Father and these cardinals I do not pretend to know; but it must be that Napoleon had been warned by some symptoms of what was about to happen; for, in spite of the agreement he had made with the pope to consider the eleven articles only as preliminaries which were not to be published, he decided nevertheless to make them the object of a message that the arch-chancellor was charged to submit to the senate. This premature publicity given to an act which the pope so strongly regretted having signed must have hastened his retractation which he addressed to the emperor by a brief, on March 24, 1813. … This time, the emperor, although greatly irritated by the retractation, believed it was to his interest not to make any noise about it, and decided to take outwardly no notice of it. He had two decrees published: one of February 13, and the other of March 25, 1813. By the first, the new Concordat of January 25 was declared state law; by the second, he declared it obligatory upon archbishops, bishops, and chapters, and ordered, according to Article IV. of this Concordat that the archbishops should confirm the nominated bishops, and in case of refusal, ordained that they should be summoned before the tribunals. He restricted anew the liberty that had been given momentarily to the Holy Father, and Cardinal di Pietro returned to exile. Thereupon, Napoleon started, soon after, for that campaign of 1813 in Germany, the prelude to that which was to lead to his downfall. The decrees issued 'ab irato' were not executed, and during the vicissitudes of the campaign of 1813, the imperial government attempted several times to renew with the pope negotiations which failed. Matters dragged along thus, and no one could foresee any issue when, on January 23, 1814, it was suddenly learned that the pope had left Fontainebleau that very day, and returned to Rome. … Murat, who had abandoned the cause of the emperor, and who … had treated with the coalition, was then occupying the States of the Church, and it is evident that Napoleon in his indignation against Murat, preferred to allow the pope to re-enter his States, to seeing them in the hands of his brother-in-law. While Pius VII. was en route and the emperor was fighting in Champagne, a decree of March 10, 1814, announced that the pope was taking possession again of the part of his States which formed the departments of Rome and Trasmania. The lion, although vanquished, would not yet let go all the prey he hoped surely to retake. … The pope arrived on April 30, at Cesena, on May 12, at Ancona, and made his solemn entry into Rome on May 24, 1814."

Talleyrand, Memoirs, part 6 (volume 2).

ALSO IN: D. Silvagni, Rome: its Princes, Priests and People, chapters 35-39 (volume 2).

C. Botta, Italy during the Consulate and Empire of Napoleon, chapters 5-8.

M. de Bourrienne, Private Memoirs of Napoleon, volume 4, chapters 6 and 11-12.

Selections from the Letters and Despatches of Napoleon, Captain Bingham, volumes 2-3.

Memoirs of Napoleon dictated at St. Helena, volume 5 (History Miscellany, volume l).

P. Lanfrey, History of Napoleon, volume 3, chapters 13 and 16.