1555. had got possession of this invaluable attainment, they all B O O K claimed and exercised, as far as they were able, the rights XI. which it was supposed to convey. The Roman Catholics, as their system rested on the decisions of an infallible judge, never doubted that truth was on their side, and openly called on the civil power to repel the impious and heretical innovators who had risen up against it. The Protestants, no less confident that their doctrine was well founded, required, with equal ardour, the Princes of their party to check such as presumed to impugn it. Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox, the founders of the reformed church in their respective countries, as far as they had power and opportunity, inflicted the same punishments upon such as called in question any article in their creeds, which were denounced against their own disciples by the church of Rome. To their followers, and perhaps to their opponents, it would have appeared a symptom of diffidence in the goodness of their cause, or an acknowledgment that it was not well founded, if they had not employed in its defence all those means which it was supposed truth had a right to employ. It was towards the close of the seventeenth century, before Toleration, under its present form, was admitted first into the republic of the United Provinces, and from thence introduced into England. Long experience of the calamities flowing from mutual persecution, the influence of free government, the light and humanity acquired by the progress of science, together with the prudence and authority of the civil magistrate, were all requisite in order to establish a regulation, so repugnant to the ideas which all the different sects had adopted, from mistaken conceptions concerning the nature of religion and the rights of truth, or which all of them had derived from the erroneous maxims established by the church of Rome. THE Recess of Augsburg, it is evident, was founded on Advantano such liberal and enlarged sentiments concerning freedom ges of the religious of religious inquiry, or the nature of Toleration. It was peace to nothing more than a scheme of pacification, which political considerations alone had suggested to the contending parties, the Luthe rans; XI. 1555. BOOK and regard for their mutual tranquillity and safety had rendered necessary. Of this there can be no stronger proof than an article in the Recess itself, by which the benefits of the pacification are declared to extend only to the Catholics on the one side, and to such as adhered to the confession of Augsburg on the other. The followers of Zuinglius and Calvin remained, in consequence of that exclusion, without any protection from the rigour of the laws denounced against heretics. Nor did they obtain any legal security, until the treaty of Westphalia, near a century after this period, provided, that they should be admitted to enjoy, in as ample a manner as the Lutherans, all the advantages and protection. which the Recess of Augsburg affords. and to the Catholics. BUT if the followers of Luther were highly pleased with the security which they acquired by this Recess, such as adhered to the ancient system had no less reason to be satisfied with that article in it which preserved entire to the Roman Catholic church the benefices of such ecclesiastics as should hereafter renounce its doctrines. This article, known in Germany by the name of the Ecclesiastical Reservation, was apparently so conformable to the idea and to the rights of an established church, and it seemed so equitable to prevent revenues, which had been originally appropriated for the maintenance of persons attached to a certain system, from being alienated to any other purpose, that the Protestants, though they foresaw its consequences, were obliged to relinquish their opposition to it. As the Roman Catholic Princes of the Empire have taken care to see this article exactly observed in every case where there was an opportunity of putting it in execution, it has proved the great barrier of the Romish church in Germany against the Reformation; and as, from this period, the same temptation of interest did not allure ecclesiastics to relinquish the established system, there have been few of that order, who have loved truth with such disinterested and ardent affection, as for its sake, to abandon the rich benefices which they had in posses, sion. Marcellus DURING the sitting of the Diet, Marcellus Cervino, Cardi, nal of Santo Croce, was elected Pope in room of Julius. II elected pope. XI. 1555. His cha racter. He, in imitation of Adrian, did not change his name on BOOK being exalted to the papal chair. As he equalled that Pontiff in purity of intention, while he excelled him much in the arts of government, and still more in knowledge of the April 9. state and genius of the papal court; as he had capacity to discern what reformation it needed, as well as what it could bear; such regulations were expected from his virtue and wisdom, as would have removed many of its grossest and most flagrant corruptions, and have contributed towards reconciling to the church such as, from indignation at these enormities, had abandoned its communion. But this excellent Pontiff was only shown to the church, and immediately snatched away. The confinement in the conclave had impaired His death. his health, and the fatigue of tedious ceremonies upon his accession, together with too intense and anxious application of mind to the schemes of improvement which he meditated, exhausted so entirely the vigour of his feeble constitu tion, that he sickened on the twelfth, and died on the twenti eth day after his election". The elec tion of Paul IV. ALL the refinements in artifice and intrigue, peculiar to conclaves, were displayed in that which was held for electing a successor to Marcellus; the Cardinals of the Imperial and French factions labouring, with equal ardour, to gain the necessary number of suffrages for one of their own party. But, after a struggle of no long duration, though conducted with all the warmth and eagerness natural to men contending for so great an object, they united in choosing John Peter May 23. Caraffa, the eldest member of the sacred college, and the son of Count Montorio, a nobleman of an illustrious family in the kingdom of Naples. The address and influence of Cardinal Farnese, who favoured his pretensions, Caraffa's own merit, and perhaps his great age, which soothed all the disappointed candidates with the near prospect of a new vacancy, concurred in bringing about this speedy union of suffrages. In order to testify his respect for the memory of Paul III. by whom he had been created Cardinal, as well as his gratitude to the family of Farnese, he assumed the name of Paul IV. p Thuan. 520. F. Paul, 365. Omuph. Panvin. 321, &c. BOOK XI. 1555. His rise and character. THE choice of a prelate of such a singular character, and who had long held a course extremely different from that which usually led to the dignity now conferred upon him, filled the Italians, who had nearest access to observe his manners and deportment, with astonishment, and kept them in suspense and solicitude with regard to his future conduct. Paul, though born in a rank of life which, without any other merit, might have secured to him the highest ecclesiastical preferments, had, from his early years, applied to study with all the assiduity of a man who had nothing but his personal attainments to render him conspicuous. By means of this, he not only acquired profound skill in scholastic theology, but added to that a considerable knowledge of the learned languages and of polite literature, the study of which had been lately revived in Italy, and was pursued at this time with great ardour. His mind, however, naturally gloomy and severe, was more formed to imbibe the sour spirit of the former, than to receive any tincture of elegance or liberality of sentiment from the latter; so that he acquired rather the qualities and passions of a recluse ecclesiastic, than the talents necessary for the conduct of great affairs. Accordingly, when he entered into orders, although several rich benefices were bestowed upon him, and he was early employed as nuncio in different courts, he soon became disgusted with that course of life, and languished to be in a situation more suited to his taste and temper. With this view, he resigned at once all his ecclesiastical preferments, and having instituted an order of regular priests, whom he denominated Theatines, from the name of the archbishopric which he had held, he associated himself as a member of their fraternity, conformed to all the rigorous rules to which he had subjected them, and preferred the solitude of a monastic life, with the honour of being the founder of a new order, to all the great objects which the court of Rome presented to his ambition. In this retreat he remained for many years, until Paul III. induced by the fame of his sanctity and knowledge, called him to Rome, in order to consult with him concerning the measures which might be most proper and effectual for suppressing heresy, and re-establishing the ancient authority of the church. XI. 1555. Having thus allured him from his solitude, the Pope, partly by B O O K his entreaties, and partly by his authority, prevailed on him to accept of a Cardinal's hat, to re-assume the benefices which he had resigned, and to return again into the usual path of ecclesiastical ambition which he seemed to have relinquished. But, during two successive Pontificates, under the first of which the court of Rome was the most artful and interested, and under the second the most dissolute of any in Europe, Caraffa retained his monastic austerity. He was an avowed and bitter enemy not only of all innovation in opinion, but of every irregularity in practice; he was the chief instrument in establishing the formidable and odious tribunal of the Inquisition in the papal territories; he appeared a violent advocate on all occasions for the jurisdiction and discipline of the church, and a severe censurer of every measure which seemed to flow from motives of policy or interest, rather than from zeal for the honour of the ecclesiastical order, and the dignity of the Holy See. Under a prelate of such a character, the Roman courtiers expected a severe and violent Pontificate, during which the principles of sound policy would be sacrificed to the narrow prejudices of priestly zeal ; while the people of Rome were apprehensive of seeing the sordid and forbidding rigour of monastic manners substituted in place of the magnificence to which they had long been accustomed in the papal court. These apprehensions Paul was extremely solicitous to remove. At his first entrance The first upon the administration, he laid aside that austerity which steps of his had hitherto distinguished his person and family, and when tration. the master of his house-hold inquired in what manner he would choose to live, he haughtily replied, " As becomes a great Prince." He ordered the ceremony of his coronation to be conducted with more than usual pomp; and endeavoured to render himself popular by several acts of liberality and indulgence towards the inhabitants of Rome. adminis of his attachment His natural severity of temper, however, would have The excess soon returned upon him, and would have justified the conjectures of the courtiers, as well as the fears of the people, to his ne q Platina, p. 327. Castaldo Vita di Paolo IV. Rom. 1615. p. 70. phews. |