CHAPTER XIII.

ROME UNDER SIXTUS V.

Parallel with the religious movement, indeed, a great political movement was taking place in Europe, through which the nations were, almost unconsciously, trying to reach a settlement adapted to the new condition of things. While the star of Spain, after having reached its loftiest altitude, was slowly entering on its downward course, and the Empire was reduced to weakness by the heterogeneousness of the elements composing it, England was, with great vigour, laying the foundations of her power, and preparing for the marvellous development of her expansion ; and France, amidst the throes of the religious strife that was tearing her asunder, with the instinctive craving for unity destined to be, in the succeeding centuries, her strength and one of the chief causes of her greatness, seemed to feel that the complete victory of one party over the other had now become a necessity for her. Among the minor States, some were either preparing for their independence or endeavouring to maintain it, while the others, lying eastward, were opposing the invasion of the Turkish Power, which had by now advanced as far as it could go, but did not lay down its arms, and remained a constant threat and peril to Christendom.

Italy felt the reaction of all these movements. Lombardy and the south, being bound to Spain, followed her fortunes and contributed to the influence of her policy. Piedmont, stationed by the Alps like a sentinel, was ruled by wise, ambitious, and tenacious Princes, who carefully balanced their actions between Spain and France, watching for every opportunity to widen their dominion, as though they even then foresaw the great future to which their House was destined. Venice, though she, too, like Spain, was on the verge of inevitable decline, was still a bulwark against the Ottoman Power ; and, by her numerous and widespread interests, as well as by the adherence of her statesmen and of her diplomatists to the ancient traditions of her policy, she was still exercising in Europe a genuine influence. The minor principalities had no great weight in the inner life of the country, save, in a measure, Parma, which became important through the military genius of Alessandro Farnese; and Tuscany, owing to her central position, her frequently sagacious policy, and her relations with the House of France, which in various ways widened the scope of her interests.

The dominating thoughts which determined the political action of Rome in the latter decades of the sixteenth century were the application and development of the decrees of the Council of Trent, the war against Protestantism, and the defence of Christendom against the Turks. Pius V had devoted to these aims the whole ardour-unbending, nay, at times pitiless-of his asceticism and of an unswerving faith, promoting the change from the medieval ideas of the Church to the new ideas and to the new Catholic discipline with a thoroughness that has perhaps not yet been sufficiently gauged by any historian. Gregory XIII followed in his steps, continuing his ideas in his international relations and in the persecution of the heretics, and furthering the tendency he had imposed on the new culture by the reform of the Calendar, and by the support given by him to the Order of the Jesuits, who under him began everywhere to control the instruction of the Catholic youth, and who, by means of the formation of the Collegium Romanum, became for almost three centuries absolute masters of education in Rome. But if this Pontiff7 so far acted in harmony with the central tendencies of the Church, he was not equally efficacious as head of the government. The badly managed finances, the unceasing abuses, and the turbulent and disorderly state of the territories subject to the papal rule, had now brought things to an intolerable pass, with which the strength of the aged and vacillating Gregory was wholly unable to cope.

There are moments in history which seem urgently to demand a strong personality, such as will sum up the tendencies of the time, and stamp them with its own character. The new Pontiff was one of these personalities. His father was descended from a family originating in Dalmatia, which had, like many others, fled across the Adriatic to seek refuge in Italy, when the Turks after invading Illyria were threatening the coasts of Dalmatia, and which had settled at Montalto in the Marches, being possessed of some competence. The father of the future Pope saw his patrimony ruined in 1518, when the Duke of Urbino took and sacked Montalto, and he withdrew to a place not far distant but higher up in the mountains,-the borough of Grottammare, where, on December 13,1521, the son was born to him who was destined to rise so high. The Venetian ambassador Lorenzo Priuli, in telling the Republic what he knew of the new Pope, related how he had heard from a well-informed person that the father had called the child Felice because he had, before its birth, had an omen of its destiny in a dream. This is possible, and it is also possible that, according to the universal tradition, Sixtus in his early youth had charge of the pigs in his father's fields ; but it is as well to bear in mind that, from the very beginning of his pontificate, the strange figure of the Pope was surrounded with a legendary halo which never left him.

According to the legend, which has survived in Rome to the present day, Sixtus, who had entered the conclave bowed down, like a weak and trembling old man, on hearing his name proclaimed, haughtily raised himself up, and, having thrown aside his crutches, cried out that he was now the master and that all were thenceforth bound to bend before his will and to obey him. It is a legend that symbolises the truth. The man who had matured his thoughts of government, while suppressing his own energy during the long years of forced inactivity, showed himself, by a singular contrast, from the very first day of his pontificate ready for his work and inflexibly determined. The first thought to which he turned his mind was the restoration of public order in Rome and in the whole State. With his rapid intuition he quickly saw that he must needs assert himself immediately and strike the minds of men by revealing himself in a kind of terrible majesty. Like Napoleon in a later day, Sixtus V possessed in a singular degree the gift of impressing his immediate surroundings -^ith his personality and of passing this impression on to others at a greater distance. " Now he is gentle, now terrible," was said of him by Lorenzo Priuli, the Venetian ambassador, " now easy, and now difficult, now close and frugal, and now of the most generous disposition ; prudently employing this diversity of character in his relations with private individuals and with princes, according as the times, the places, and the persons differ."

His earliest relations with the ambassadors accredited to the papal Court enabled Sixtus to become acquainted with them and to settle his policy more precisely. He was cautious with the ambassadors of Spain and France, but showed himself more open with the representatives of Venice and of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He did not fail to impress upon the Grand Duke that he had not forgotten the ties of the old friendship and of the gratitude which bound them to each other, and that he was fully conscious of being largely indebted for his election to the Grand Duke's brother, the Cardinal de' Medici. He assured the ambassador of Venice, whom he received at once with great cordiality, that he always intended acting in harmony with the Signoria, that he was well aware of the difficulties of the Republic, surrounded as she was on the one side by the heretics and on the other by the Turks, and that he would always try to help her ; and he kept his word, for during his pontificate he always showed himself favourable to the policy of Venice, and often followed her tendencies and counsels. His caution with the other diplomatists was not uncalled for. Philip II had not viewed the new election with a favourable eye, and dissembled the mistrust aroused in him by his ambassador, Olivarez, who was always hostile to Sixtus ; while, on the contrary, King Henry III of France was, with his usual levity, expecting too much from him, and thinking that he would find in him an easy instrument for his fickle policy.

States were very weak, and perhaps at times even not a little pleased to add by their indifference to the embarrassments of the Pontiff, whose relations with them, especially in ecclesiastical matters, did not always go on smoothly. Under Sixtus, however, this aspect of things changed rapidly. His moderation in maintaining the rights of the Church in the States of his neighbours called for a return, and they became imbued with his own energy. His continuous representations to the princes and their ambassadors bore fruit. The bandits, no longer finding a secure asylum outside the State, were within its bounds hunted like wild beasts, without pity, and at times with a doggedness that resembled ferocity. Above all it was necessary to clear the infested districts immediately round Rome ; and Sixtus committed this task to the Cardinal Colonna, who discharged it with a vigour and promptitude that paralysed all resistance. One by one the chiefs of the bands were captured and put to death with their followers and accomplices, no mercy being shown. Heads fell in great numbers, and were exposed in every corner of the district-a spectacle full of horror and of terror. The capture of the priest Guercino, who was called the King of the Campagna, and who, by the audacity of his crimes, had made himself master of it to such an extent as to force Gregory XIII to come to terms with him, struck a great blow at brigandage in the vicinity of Rome. When his severed head was exposed on the battlements of Castello Sant' Angelo, Rome felt that peace was returning, and applauded the severity displayed, more especially as it was aimed not merely at the brigands outside but also at the evil-doers of every kind within the city, without sparing the nobles, on whose overweening spirit the hand of Sixtus weighed resolutely and relentlessly.

To the ambitious aims of Philip the religious discords opened the prospect of splitting up that kingdom to his advantage, on the pretext of restoring in it the unity of the faith ; whereas the Pope felt that the excessive growth of Spain at the expense of France would be injurious to Europe, and, in the long run, to the cause of Catholicism. The condition of France was exceedingly precarious, and it was not easy to follow a definite and decisive policy with regard to her. Pending the development of events it was better in the meantime to employ one's energy elsewhere. To free the coasts of the Mediterranean from the Muslim by the conquest of Algiers, and to restore England to the bosom of the Church of Rome, were the two pivots on which the Pope would have liked to rest his policy ; but the King of Spain saw the difficulties of the situation, and realised that the war with Flanders in which he was engaged was in itself a sufficiently great undertaking for the moment. Sixtus had to give up the idea of a conquest of Algiers, but he did not give up the conversion of England. It seemed clear that if this island were once snatched away from heresy, the victory of Catholicism on the Continent would be comparatively easy. Queen Elizabeth was to the heart and imagination of Sixtus a source of torment and of hope. She fulfilled his ideal-this sovereign whose woman's breast contained such virile energy, and who understood and seconded with so much decision and self-possession the impetuous strength of a people that was pressing forward to the conquest of a new world, along the unknown paths of the future. To convert her to Catholicism, to unite himself with her in action, to transform Elizabeth into a Countess Matilda, was his dream-the dream of a monk on the throne. It remained a dream, but during a great part of his pontificate it did not leave his thoughts, and several times he lent a ready ear to agents, especially Jesuits, who fed his illusion.

From the earliest days of his pontificate Sixtus had shown his desire to erect a seat worthy of the Popes in the Lateran. During the ceremonies of his coronation he observed, in conversation with some Cardinals, how absurd and inconsistent it was that the basilica of the Lateran, omnium ecclesiarum mater, and the ideal and perpetual domicile of the Popes, should not have a building attached to it suitable for housing them. The idea of erecting one had occurred to two of his predecessors, Nicholas IV and Sixtus IV, both of them Franciscans like himself, but the idea had not been carried out ; now he would put it into execution. And in truth he set to work, and the splendid palace designed by Fontana arose in a short time, as though by enchantment. Soon after there extended along one of the roads he had laid down another papal palace, the Quirinal, part of which had been built by his predecessor, and which was subsequently finished by Paul V ; and to the square in front of the palace were transported the two colossal groups which are still so characteristic a feature of it, and have given it the name of Monte Cavallo.

While he was attending to these great works, he also occupied himself with lesser reforms for the good conduct of the city, such as the reform of the carnival fêtes, which had degenerated into a display of licence that frequently gave rise to grave disorders ; and he established useful and pious foundations. Remembering his Slavonic origin, he erected the church and hospice of San Girolamo degli Schiavoni. He restored the church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine. He improved the condition of the Roman University, the Sapienza, of which he had been Rector, by gifts of money and by enlarging the building. He created monasteries, strengthened and increased the fraternity for ransoming the slaves who had fallen into the hands of the Turks, founded a hospice for the poor near the Ponte Sisto, endowing it with a good revenue, and in the Bull of the foundation affirmed the obligation resting on every city to maintain such of its poor as are incapable of work, and to prevent mendicity and its abuses. He also added to the same hospice a place where the pilgrims who came to Rome might be received and entertained for three days.

Mindful of the benefits of Pius V, to whom he owed his elevation, and whose example and ideas had strengthened in him his fervid aspirations for the triumph of Catholicism and his implacable desire for the destruction of Protestantism, Sixtus contemplated erecting in his honour a memorial sepulchre worthy of the high esteem in which he held him. In the church of Santa Maria Maggiore he had, as has been said, already in the days when he was a Cardinal begun to erect a vast chapel consecrated to the cradle of the Lord ; and this he completed after he had succeeded to the pontificate, lavishing on it a great wealth of marbles, statues, and paintings. In this chapel he had set up the monument to which, with solemn pomp, he transferred the ashes of Pius V, and in it he, too, desired to be buried, so as to rest, after death, by the side of the man who had beeil his friend and had inspired his actions.

Pirro Ligorio, and Giacomo della Porta-had successively worked at the continuation of the cathedral, but the cupola remained unbuilt. Nor did the gigantic task appear an easy one, and, like the aqueduct, it was of such a nature that its completion was not considered possible in the course of a single pontificate, even though this should be a long one. Yet it was precisely this completion of the cupola to which Sixtus V, supplementing Giacomo délia Porta by his faithful architect Fontana^ who subsequently remained alone at the work, addressed himself as to his principal aim. He felt that in the cupola resided, so to speak, the soul of the entire church, and that its completion would suffice to secure and hasten on the completion of that superb artistic efibrt of the Catholic religion, which, entering into a new phase through the impulse of men who were for the most part Southerners, appealed to the imagination of the faithful by setting the pompous magnificence of its rites against the austere and bare simplicity of the Reformed worship. During the pontificate of Sixtus the architect Fontana was able to mould the vault of the cupola as far as the window of the skylight, and on the death of the Pope the work was so near completion that the first seven months of the pontificate of Gregory XIV sufficed to finish the skylight, and to put the last touch to the pinnacle of Michelangelo's grand creation.

To the library was annexed a printing-office, intended, in the words of the epigraph sculptured on the door, ad sanctorum patrum opera restituenda catholicamque rellgionem toto terrarum orbe propagandam. In this printing-office Sixtus V continued his publication of the works of St Ambrose, which he had, while still a Cardinal, begun to print at Milan, with the assistance of the saintly Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo; he promoted the printing of the works of St Gregory and those of St Bonaventura, whom he placed among the Doctors of the Church, and promoted the printing also of the great Bullarium Romanum of Cherubini. He likewise took in hand the publication of the Septuagint and of the text of the Vulgate, over which he presided in person. It was a work the completion of which he had much at heart, as one of the essential results of the Council of Trent. A year before his death he spoke of it to the Venetian ambassador, Alberto Badoer, saying to him that the Council had ordered the revision of the Bible, and that no one had occupied himself with it. He had therefore charged some Cardinals with the task, but, not being satisfied with their work, he had himself taken it in hand, and was in hopes that the printing would soon be finished. Badoer, reporting this conversation to the Doge, added that the Pope had told him that he was engaged on this very work just when he had entered his room, "getting through the labour with great enjoyment, and this was the plan he followed : after having completed a sheet he had it revised by Father Toledo and some Augustinian Fathers, men of the greatest distinction, who, after having diligently revised it, despatched it to the press. And he added that the Pope dwelt on this subject for some time with much gentleness." The Bible was really printed a short time before his death, but it did not appear sufficiently correct; and the definitive edition, still bearing the name of Sixtus Quintus, was published by the authority of Clement VIII in 1592.

By means of these Congregations the new administration of the Church and of the Pontifical State may be said to have been organised in the form that has lasted to the present day, thus acquiring the characteristics of centralisation and of uniformity which have predominated in it till now. They were a strong bulwark for the unity of the ecclesiastical authority, and consolidated the work which the papal diplomacy and the religious Orders endeavoured to achieve, by putting an end to the prevalence of Protestantism in the districts most subject to its influence, and endeavouring to restore Catholicism in those that had detached themselves from it.

In a measure Sixtus shared these suspicions. Although he treated certain Jesuits personally with great distinction-Father Toledo, for instance, to whose sermons he liked to listen and whom he employed for the revision of the Bible-yet he remained cold towards the Order at large, especially in Italy and in the countries where Catholicism was most secure. On certain occasions he supported them, defending them against the attacks of the lay authorities, especially of Philip II, who availed himself of the complaints of the Spanish Inquisition and of the jealousy of the Dominicans to thwart the excessive authority of the General of the Order, who, without any possibility of control on the part of Spain, was from Rome directing his Jesuits according to his pleasure. But although at the beginning Sixtus V had found the claims of Philip excessive, gradually, moved by the King's firm attitude, by the persistence of his ambassador Olivarez, and by the Spanish Inquisition, more and more persistent in its complaints of the Jesuits' contempt for every authority, and more especially by his own deep repugnance against leaving so dangerous a power in the hands of a religious Order, he began seriously to seek an opportunity for revising its constitution and taking in hand its reform.

Even before constituting the Congregations of the Cardinals, Sixtus V had regulated the composition of the Sacred College, fixing the number of the Cardinals at seventy, and taking great care that the choice of them should accord with the importance and dignity of the office. Feeling that at the beginning of his pontificate he had himself not always adopted such a standard, and that he had on this account been the subject of reproofs, the justice of which he could not but recognise in his inner conscience, he subsequently endeavoured in the course of his pontificate to make amends; and the names, among others, of Cusani, Allen, Morosini, and Caetani were certainly such as conferred honour on the purple. Having in this way set up a precedent for his successors and for himself in a matter of high importance, he went on to expound the principles of the Council of Trent, and reinforced himself with assistants capable of aiding him, and of whom he had need, not only for the central administration of the Church, but also in the matter of the manifold international relations which the disturbed religious conditions rendered more delicate and complicated. These relations constituted the most difficult part of the papal activity at the end of the sixteenth century, and, by their uncertainty, reflected the political crisis which now existed in Europe.

Sixtus V, who had ascended the throne with such matured and definite ideas on every other point, for his part felt these uncertainties, and could not always overcome his hesitation as to the course which he should adopt. He had a clear idea of the ends which he strove to attain, but it was not possible for him at once to see clearly the means whereby he might reach them, even when his natural instinct indicated them to him. The essential idea in his policy was the return of the Protestants to the faith of Rome, and this always made him long for the conversion of those princes who had abandoned it. These, however, did not respond to his wishes ; and, while at times he encountered strong opposition and hindrance on the part of the Catholic Princes who were moved by different experiences and different views, he was also involved in frequent difficulties with the most ardent partisans of Catholicism, who, especially in France, struggled against their adversaries out of party hatred even more than out of religious zeal. His mind, though thus firmly fixed, could not but fully acknowledge the superiority of the leading Protestant Princes over the vacillating disposition of many Catholic potentates.

Pope a source of weakness rather than of strength. The Emperor was displeased because, in a question between himself and the Farnese, the Pope had shown himself favourable to the latter, and because, instead of helping the Archbishop of Cologne to recapture Neuss from the Calvinists, he had urged Alessandro Farnese to make himself master of it ; he was also dissatisfied with the attitude of Rome both towards the Protestants and in the questions concerning the succession to the Empire. He therefore exhibited increasing coolness in his relations with Sixtus, who, for his part, showed himself impatient because it seemed to him that the Emperor's shoulders were not broad enough to bear the burden of the projects he would have liked to see him put into execution. Far dearer to the Pontiff was the King of Poland, Stephen Bâthory, on whom he had set many hopes that were soon to be disappointed. The death of this brave prince opened up grave questions with regard to the succession, which led to a war between the two principal claimants, Sigismund of Sweden and the Archduke Maximilian, who suffered defeat under the walls of Cracow, and was taken prisoner. Sixtus, who hoped for the conversion of Sweden, and had little faith in the Habsburgs, was at heart favourable to Sigismund, but he had to be prudent so as not to arouse the uneasiness and irritation of the Emperor, of Philip II, and of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, all of whom together were asking him to intervene on behalf of Maximilian. The Pope conducted the business with cautious tact, and sent the Cardinal Aldobrandini, who later became Pope Clement VIII, as his legate to Poland, to conduct the negotiations that resulted in the conclusion of peace. Maximilian obtained his liberation, but renounced his claims to the kingdom of Poland; and both the Empire, which acceded to the plan, and the kingdom of Poland mutually pledged themselves, in case they should separately conclude treaties with the Turks, not to accept conditions that might in any way be detrimental to the other Power. This clause did not please the Emperor, who regarded it as an inconvenient bond ; but it appeared of great importance to the Pope, who understood the full value of making the two States mutually responsible in their relations as opposed to the Ottoman Power.

England and a large portion of the northern countries had been able to detach themselves from the Catholic Church without destroying its existence, but it is quite clear that the loss of France would have struck a mortal blow at Rome. During the brief pontificate of Sixtus V were developed some of the most decisive events in the civil war which was to settle the religious destiny of France ; and the political direction of the Church with regard to them was for the aged Pontiff a constant care, a mental strain, full of doubts and of passionate and torturing anxiety. Round Henry III, the last scion of the Valois dynasty, a weak man, incapable and without prestige, the rival parties, moved by internal ambitions and stimulated by foreign greed, were in violent agitation. The Guises on the one side, and Henry of Navarre on the other, were aiming at the throne, the former with the support of Spain, the latter with that of the Protestant sovereigns ; and the price of this support seemed to be the predominance of some foreign influence, and perhaps the dismemberment of France. On succeeding to the Pontificate Sixtus had found the tendency in the Sacred College very favourable to the Guises and the League, who, after having chosen the Cardinal of Bourbon to be the heir of the French crown, were making every effort to obtain from Rome a bull that should declare Henry to have forfeited his claim to the succession. The fitful attempts of Henry III to enter into friendly relations with the King of Navarre increased at Rome the influence of the League, which was skilfully supported by the ambassador Olivarez, and at that time not sufficiently counterbalanced by the opposition of the ambassador of France, of the Cardinal d'Esté, and of the representatives of Venice and of Tuscany, who made every effort to demonstrate the danger of having recourse to extreme measures.

This was the last action of his life. It fell to one of his successors actually to receive Henry IV into the bosom of the Catholic Church. The long and implacable struggle with the Spanish ambassador which Sixtus had endured, the tormenting doubts and the anxieties to which he had been a prey for more than a year, had undermined his physical strength and worn him out. His work was done. On August 13, 1590, he held his last Consistory; on the 19th he still saw Olivarez and the Duke of Sessa and disputed with them ; on the 20th he assembled the Congregation for the affairs of France. Though he still endeavoured for a few days to attend to affairs, he was now dying; and on the evening of August 27 he expired. He had reigned only five years and four months, but deep traces of what he had achieved remained behind him. At Rome, in spite of the great works he accomplished, his loss was not regretted; indeed the people tried to pull down a statue that had been erected in his honour on the Capitol. His severity weighed heavily on those who were in immediate contact with him ; and even the nobles could not love a Pontiff who had curbed them so much, and compelled them to submit to the laws. He was, however, respected for his life, which was simple and austere, and disinterested, too, so far as he himself was concerned, although he had conferred a high position on the two grandsons of his sister, and elevated her two granddaughters by marrying them into the houses of the Orsini and of the Colonna. Spain rejoiced at his death as at that of an enemy, while other States regretted him, especially Venice, who felt that she had lost in him a faithful ally.