Character of the Popes who preceded the Reformation-Sixtus IV. a purely Political Ruler-Open Immorality of Innocent VIII.-Alexander VI. and the Borgias-Pius III. also the Father of 2 Family-Julius II.-Shameless Intrigues of Pontifical Elections-Political Ability of JuliusFounder of the Papal States-Extraordinary Contemporary Satire upon this Pope-The Medicæan Leo X-His Magnificence and Patronage of Art and Letters-Attempted Reform under Adrian VI. -His Sincerity, but utter Failure-Clement VII.-His Simoniacal Conduct--Sack of Rome under his Papacy-Paul IV. and his Illegitimate Family-Papal Patronage of Art and Letters. T HE line of Popes who filled the principal and most influential position in the religious world of the west during the half century which preceded the Reformation in England, no doubt largely contributed to the public feeling which demanded and obtained the great change. With rare exceptions, they were worldly men rather than spiritual guides; energetic and often unscrupulous statesmen and princes, rather than churchmen. Purely secular and self-seeking men, with a cynical disbelief in the doctrines they professed to teach, and with a shameless disregard of the ascetic virtues held in estimation by the church in which they were the chief pastors, it may well be con ceived that such men utterly failed to see what was lacking in the church of their time; they were blind-utterly blind-to the wants and needs of the peoples whose religion they professed to guide and direct. Indeed, such men as Innocent VIII., Julius II., and Leo X. could never have been expected to enter into any questions connected with vital religion. They lived in another atmosphere altogether than that breathed by Colet and More in England, or Luther and Melancthon in Germany. Vital religion to the Popes of this period, distinguished and for the most part able men that they were, was quite outside their lives. The principal work under taken by a Sixtus IV. and a Julius II., up of the States of the Church was the Let us rapidly glance over the careers and characters of this line of mighty prelates, with their awful claims to a supreme spiritual power. them his own acknowledged son, to high and important offices. Indeed, with bitter but not untrue irony this pontiff has been described as setting the example of an estimable father of a family. His example, as might have been expected from a Pope who openly recognised in the Vatican a son and daughter, was generally disastrous to the discipline and the whole moral tone of the church. Bacon, alluding to a bull of privileges granted by Innocent VIII. to king Henry VII., in grateful return for a complimentary oration delivered by the English ambassador, writes: "The Pope, knowing himself to be lazy and unprofitable to the Christian Sixtus IV., who filled the papal chair world, was wonderfully glad to hear that A.D. 1471 to 1484, began what may be termed the secularisation of the Papacy. Of him Machiavelli writes: "He was the first Pope who began to show the extent of the papal power, and how things that before were called errors could be hidden behind the papal authority." The historian of these popes thus explains these weighty words: "The papal power which Machiavelli had before his eyes was not the moral authority of the head of Christendom, but the power of an Italian prince who was engaged in consolidating his dominions into an important state . . . This object Sixtus IV. pursued passionately, to the exclusion of the other duties of his office." His successor, Innocent VIII. (A.D. 1484 to 1492), who pursued the same policy, in his private life openly disregarded the most venerable traditions of the mediæval church preferring his relations, among Bishop Creighton: "History of the Papacy during the Reformation," book v., chap. iv. there were such echoes of him sounding in so distant parts." Alexander VI. (cardinal Borgia), who reigned in Rome from 1492 to 1503, was yet more active in the work of the secularisation of the Papacy. His career as head of the Christian church of the west was rather that of an active and utterly unscrupulous statesman, than that of a Christian bishop of the highest rank. None can deny that he was devoted to business and state affairs, and unsparing of himself in the discharge of his public duties as a ruler. He ever punctually discharged the ecclesiastical duties of a Pope so far as mere ritual was concerned. But his private life before his election to the Papacy was notoriously immoral, and these immoralities continued, without any attempt to conceal them, after he became Pope. Of his children, Cæsar and Lucretia have become historical, and the story of the first is disfigured with shameful intrigue and even crime. 1503-1513] ALEXANDER VI. AND JULIUS II. Alexander VI. (Borgia) was followed by cardinal Piccolomini, who took the title of Pius III. He only lived a few months. He, too, is known in the history of these popes as the father of several children. He was a man, however, of some learning, and his character in other respects generally stood high, Julius II. (cardinal Rovere) took up the thread of the tortuous papal policy the same year (1503), and for ten years until 1513 was a prominent figure in European history. As a secular prince, his reign was distinguished for conspicuous ability. He carried on and developed the plans of his predecessors, which aimed at making the Papacy an important territorial power in Italy, and was successful generally in these purely secular schemes; but nothing was done in his reign to restore a spiritual tone into the Roman court. Still, it must be conceded to Julius II. that he endeavoured to provide for a purer election of future popes, and to infuse some spirit of earnestness into the college of cardinals. The manner of life, the greed and lawlessness of these princes of the church, during this period, is one of the saddest chapters in a generally sad history. They gave and received bribes; they lived with all imaginable ostentation. Their stately Roman palaces were fortified and strengthened with towers; great numbers of armed retainers were housed in these palacefortresses; and there they too often bid defiance to all justice and right. These men, often relations of the reigning pope, had most of them sons and nephews whom they enriched with the spoils of the church, regardless of the open scandal which their conduct occasioned. There 3 were, of course, some exceptions; but the general reputation of the members of the once famous and still most powerful collège of cardinals was evil. One of the gloomiest features of this time was the network of intrigue and plotting which enveloped every succeeding papal election. The choice of the supreme pontiff was entirely in the hands of the cardinals; and as the choice necessarily fell upon one of their body, the antecedents, the public and private life, the ambitions, tastes, aims, and hopes of the cardinal deliberately chosen for the august office of bishop of Rome, was intimately known to the electoral body. Yet with the knowledge of the man, these, electors, after long and careful consideration, with ceremonies handed down from a remote antiquity, in solemn conclave assembled, elected a cardinal Borgia (Alexander VI.), a cardinal Rovere (Julius II.), a cardinal Medici (Leo X.) to fulfil an office which carried with it such enormous responsibilities and which involved such tremendous claims. Apart from utter lack of spirituality, and from a merely secular point of view, this was a great reign. Julius II. made the Papacy the centre of the politics, not of the religion of Europe. Guicciardini, the Florentine historian, writes of the Pope how, "had he been a secular prince, he would deserve the highest glory; how he was extolled by those who, having lost the right use of words and confused the distinctions of accurate speech, judge that it is the office of the Popes to bring empire to the apostolic seat by arms and by the shedding of Christian blood, more than to trouble themselves by setting an example of holy life and arresting the decay of morals, for the salvation of those souls for whose sake they boast that Christ set them as His vicars on earth." Julius II. may be looked upon as the Pope who completed the foundation of the Papal States, the dissolution of which strange and unhappy mixture of spiritual and secular things our own age has witnessed. In this curious reign of a bishop of Rome, we see the so-styled head of Christendom leading his armies to attack his enemies-those who were opposed to his schemes for territorial aggrandisement. It was this Pope, with his wars and intrigues, who was the subject of a bitter. contemporary satire, in the shape of a strange dialogue with St. Peter at the gate of Paradise. In this dialogue he is represented as claiming, but claiming in vain, the right of entry:Peter (to the shade of Julius): "Have you taught true doctrine?" Julius (replies): "Not I. "Not I. I have been too busy fighting. There are monks to look after doctrine, if that is of any consequence." 66 Peter: Who are those dark ones with the scars?" Julius: "Those are my soldiers and generals who were killed fighting for me. They all deserve heaven. I promised it them under hand and seal if they lost their lives in my service, no matter how wicked they might be." Peter: "How about the duke of Ferrara?" Julius: "I wanted the duchy of Ferrara for a son of my own, who could be depended on to be true to the church, and who had just poniarded the cardinal of Pavia." Peter: "What! Popes with wives and children?" Julius: "Wives! No, not wives. But why not children?" Peter: "Were the opposition cardinals bad men?" Julius: "I know no harm of their morals. The cardinal of Rouen was sanctimonious—always crying for reform in the church. Anyhow, death relieved me of him, and I was glad. Another, the cardinal of St. Cross, a Spaniard, was also a good sort of man, but he was rigid, austere, and given to theology, a class of man always unfriendly to the Popes." Peter: "How have you increased the church?" Julius: "I found it poor: I have made it splendid." Peter: "Splendid with what? With faith?" Julius: "These are words. I have filled Rome with palaces, troops of servants, armies and officers, with purple and gold, with glory, hoards of treasure." Peter: "At any rate, this is the worldly side. How about the other?" Julius: "You are thinking about the old affair, when you starved as Pope, with a handful of poor hunted bishops about you. Time has changed all that. Look now at our gorgeous churches, our priests by thousands, bishops like kings, with retinues and with palaces, cardinals in their purple gloriously attended, horses and mules decked with gold and jewels, shod with gold and silver. Beyond all, myself supreme Pontiff, borne on soldiers' shoulders in soldiers' shoulders in a golden chair. Hearken to the roar of cannon, the bugle notes, the drums-kings of the earth |