CHAP. IV.] DEMAND FOR A GENERAL COUNCIL.

73

Catholic world, made no resistance. The work was completed under his pontificate. That work was now to be made to bear fruit, and to do this was what his immediate successors considered their most important duty, a duty which they performed to the best of their ability. Could the great ecclesiastical Parliament have been assembled in the midst of the general indifference which in religious matters characterised the Italy of the Renaissance? We may question it. In all probability the repugnance of Leo X., of Clement VII., of Paul III., founded on the general apathy of the public, would have carried the day against the pressing demands of the Emperor. But in the sixteenth century this dislike dwindled away under the pressure of the Catholic opinion, which had become irresistible. How are we to explain why the Popes, who should in their capacity of Heads of the Church have been the promoters of the reaction, were, on the contrary, as regards the Council, the last to follow it? Leo X., Clement VII., and to a certain degree Paul III., were men of their times, of those times which had not seen them reign, but had given them birth, had seen them grow and advance in their career. They were children of the Renaissance, and of that essentially political era of the Papacy. Questions besides specially affecting the interests of their position made them necessarily diffident towards so extreme a party. In every sense it appeared to them to be dangerous that

1 Rel. Ven. Girol. Soranzo. Si deve per certo credere che Sua Santità si movesse a così santa opera per sua propria elezione con fine di ridur sotto un solo pastore tutto il gregge: non di meno si sa che la necessità vi ha havuto una gran parte.'

the examination, and, maybe, the solution, of those grave questions which were mooted in the Church should be entrusted to a Council. Would it be possible, asked Paul III., to direct, restrain, and at last dissolve, an assembly composed of so many different elements, a prey to changeable influences, and even accessible to the influence of those sovereign princes whose representatives were to sit in the Council? What would be the result? None could foresee it. But then was it not leaving matters to chance, to place them in the hands of that areopagus, so profoundly to alter the constitution of the Church, or exchange its monarchical for a synodal character? These hesitations had, therefore, a locus standi, and it would be unfair to accuse Paul III. of egotism and lukewarmness, only because he disliked to rush into the unknown, or to expose to risks which he could not measure, those interests of which he was at once the guardian and the receptacle. But in the highest region it was finally felt that a great effort must be made to bring back the dissenters, which already implied negotiations in the future, and to reform the Catholic clergy, which necessarily required their free concourse.

This double object, the reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics, if possible, and the reformation of Catholic existence, could only be obtained by the dangerous but unavoidable means of a Council. This conviction once acquired, all the fears and hence the resistance of the Popes disappeared at once to make way for other feelings. Throwing aside all considerations in respect of person or position, the Popes

CHAP. IV.]

RESULT OF THE COUNCIL.

75

then headed the reaction, brought to a satisfactory conclusion the business of the Council, insured the execution of its decrees, and, in a word, saved the Church which had been so near its ruin. The wonderful results obtained are to be accounted for by the equally wonderful forces which were gathered almost by a miracle in so short a space of time,' by the advantage taken of it, by the energetic measures adopted. The Protestants had adopted equally strong measures, and these contrast powerfully by their severity with the gentle customs of the present day, but were in harmony with those of the age, and answered to the exigencies of the occasion. These results are finally accounted for by the then recognised fact, that the Protestant Reformation had, in the hands of those princes who were its leaders, become an instrument of war and a flag which covered interested projects,2 while the Catholic reaction was a purely religious

1 To be convinced of this it is only necessary to cast a glance at the dates of the births and deaths of the saints whose names we have already given. St. Ignatius, 1491-1556; St. John of God, 1495-1550; Padre John d'Avila, 1569; St. Peter of Alcantara, 1499–1562; St. Francis Xavier, 1506-1552; St. Francis Borgia, 1510-1572; St. Theresa, 1515-1582; St. Philip Neri, 1513-1595; St. Charles Borromeo, 1538-1584; St. John of the Cross, 1542-1591; the blessed John Leonardi, 1543-1609; St. Francis Solano, 1549-1610; blessed John Baptist of the Conception, 1561-1613; St. Francis Caracciolo, 1563–1608.

2 There are abundant proofs. We shall only quote here the statement of Girol. Soranzo, Rome, 1563. Questi affetti [of the Popes for their nephews] adunque et interessi mondani, che sono stati tanto palesi al mondo, hanno causato che prencipi temporali, presa occasione di tali esempi e della suscitazione di tanta eresia, hanno pensato di impadronirsi anche loro dei beni della Chiesa; il che non potendosi fare senza alienarsi dall' obbedienza della sede apostolica, ha fatto che essi ne sono in tutto partiti. E per mio credere nell' alienazione della Germania ed Inghilterra ha avuto molto maggior parte il proprio interesse dei prencipi che la opinione di Martino Lutero e del Melantone; e dei presenti moti di

movement, born in the inmost recesses of hearts, and based upon dogmas of faith which are inaccessible to the action of individual reason, the essence and starting point of Protestantism. Ambition, no doubt,

played a great part in promoting the movement. The wars of the League, and the favour with which Philip II. honoured it, are so many proofs. Nor was the Protestant camp wanting altogether in religious aspirations, but the two changes, taken all in all, were remarkable for being the one an essentially religious, and the other a political movement the temporal interests of a limited number of individuals, on the one part; the religious belief of a whole and compact mass of individuals, on the other. All the moral advantages of the fight were on the side of the Church, and her triumph would have been complete had the success of those princes who defended her in the field been equal to the display of her spiritual forces.

Francia sa molto bene la Serenità Vostra che non il Calvino ne il Beza, ma le inimicizie particolari e il desiderio di governare sono state principal cagione.'

CHAP. V.] ROME, THE LEADER OF THE REACTION.

77

CHAPTER V.

THE ROMAN CHURCH AND COURT.

SUCH was, at the death of Gregory XIII., the nature of that religious movement which it is agreed to call the great Catholic reaction, and of which we have attempted to give a slight sketch. Rome was, though not its cradle (for the reaction belongs by birth to every Catholic country), at least the great centre where the flood and ebb tides of the new ideas met. To the head of the Church, residing in Rome, devolved the care of directing, enlightening, and restraining it. The Pope, however, is not only a pontiff, but he is likewise a king. He exercises the temporal power which has been entrusted to him without control, either personally, which is seldom the case, or, as is usual, through ministers freely chosen by him from among the members of the Sacred College. These formerly were members of the Pope's family, or at least compatriots, and ever-faithful executors of his will. Made Pope by an election the results of which cannot be foreseen, and invested with a supreme power which has no political limits, the Pontiff governs the state during a more or less limited space of time, the maximum of which, twenty-five years, has as yet been reached by