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XXVII.

length chosen by Paul IV. with the preference and CHAP. discernment of a congenial spirit, as the person most adapted to be appointed commissary of the inquisition at Rome. In this station he so fulfilled his patron's wishes, as to become to his then satisfaction, but to his present disgrace, with every honorable and cultivated mind, the sommo inquisitore."

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7 Catena Vit. 'Summus Inquisitor.' Gabut. 624. Mr. Wolff mentions in his journal, that after his conversations with the learned Jews at Jerusalem, he discovered that, an institution like the Catholic inquisition founded by St. Dominic, had existed among the Jews in the time of our Lord, and has been sanctioned by the Talmud, and even by the celebrated rabbi Mose Ben Maimon.' See Sanhed. p. 36; and Maimon Hilhoth Mamrin. c. 3; Rev. J. Wolff's Journ. v. 1. p. 312. He also remarks, A rich Portuguese Jew, called Cohen, told me, there are Jews in Portugal who are bishops and Roman Catholic priests, but in secret observe the Jewish religion.' ib. p. 82. If these things be true, the Dominican inquisition may have had a very unchristian origin. Renegadoes in all ages have been furious persecutors. It is in Spain that the inquisition has most direfully flourished. Llorente, the secretary of it at Madrid, reckons from its records that 31,912 persons were BURNT by it in Spain before it was suppressed there in 1811; (Hist. Inquis. p. 583 ;) and 17,669 burnt in effigy. Such the inquisition has been. But it is with great pleasure I find that Pius VII. diminished its iniquities. The Gazettes de France, of 14th April and 22d May 1816, announced on the authority of letters from Rome, that his holiness had abolished the use of torture in all the tribunals of the holy office, and had ordered that the procedure of the inquisition was to be similar to that of other tribunals, and to be made public; and that in all trials for heresy, the accuser shall be confronted with the accused in the presence of the judges. He also expressed his intention that the trials should be so conducted as to avoid the punishment of death.

On 3d May he confirmed the annulment of the fatal sentence which the inquisition of Ravenna had pronounced against a relapsed Jew, adding these words, which form so remarkable a contrast with his sainted namesake and predecessor, Pius V.: The divine law is not of the same nature as that of man, but a law of persuasion and gentleness. Persecution, exile, and imprisonment, are suitable only to false prophets and the apostles of false doctrines.'

To this noble conduct there was only wanted to be added the abolition of the obnoxious institution. A letter from Rome, of 17th January 1817, gave some hopes of this: It is reported that the holy office will be reformed this year. The government considers it dangerous to allow a body to exist which is useless, and always armed against the progress of reason.' And in March 1816, we hear of the formal suppression of the inquisition in Portugal. Llorente Hist. Inq. p. 573. Eng. ed. May these improvements continue!

BOOK

II.

On the death of Pius IV. he was perceived, by the cardinal consistory, to be the character who would most resolutely enforce the violent plans which had been resolved on against the Reformation; and was chosen suddenly, and almost unanimously, the new pope: by inspiration, in the opinion of his friends;8 and the claim may be allowed, if the nature of the influence be named from the character of the actions which he most zealously promoted. For these, he has received the highest exaltation which his successors and church could confer. He has been made a saint." One day in every year is devoted to the religious celebration of his memory; and the prayer appointed to be used for this purpose in all the Catholic churches and chapels in the world, aptly expresses the merits for which the celestial elevation has been granted.10 His exertions to exterminate heretics and heresies procured the canonizing

Eletto quasi miracolosamente e fuor d'ogni aspettatione humane, piutosto da Dio, che dagli uomini.' Pollini Ist. Eccl. p. 455. He was elected on 7th January 1566. Porcacch. p. 627. Yet Gabutius owns that a 'moeror ac pavor ingens plurimos invasit, a great dread and grief affected many, especially in the city; nemine fere sibi non timente hominis severitatem; every one fearing for himself the severity of the man.' Vita Pii, p. 629.

9 It was not till 140 years after his death, that sufficient official testimonials of miracles alleged to have occurred a century and a half before, were procured for the papal tribunal of beatification. But these having been furnished to its legal satisfaction, Pius was declared by Clement XI. in due form, in 1712, a saint; and the 1st of May in every year, was appointed to be that of the religious worship that was to be paid him.

10 The prayers appropriated to him in the Roman missal and breviary are, Priest and bishop! worker of miracles! O good shepherd of the people! pray for us to the Lord.

O God! who didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Pius the fifth, chief bishop, to crush the enemies of the church, and repair divine worship! grant that we may be defended by his patronage, and be so obedient to thy commands, that the snares of all enemies being removed, we may enjoy perpetual peace.'

XXVII.

boon. That his zeal was as honest as it was wrongly CHAP. directed; and that he persecuted the Lutherans with as much sincerity of heart, as Luther withstood the popedom, there is no just reason to doubt. But he had adopted the great stain of the Catholic church the firm opinion, that heretics, however virtuous, estimable, pious, learned, or intelligent, were detestable and pernicious reptiles," and were to be crushed as such for the common good; and that all ideas were heresies, and all persons heretics, whom any pope pronounced such; and having interwoven this deranged sentiment with his whole mind and feelings, Pius V. acted upon it with inflexible energy, and to the full stretch of his vast and indefinite influence and powers. He burnt men of talent in his

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This is the English of the prayer as printed in The Ordinary of the Mass,' by J. P. Coghlan, No.37, Duke-street, Grosvenor-square, 1799. It is curious that the same prayer is translated with some softening variations, in the Roman Missal for the use of the laity,' by Keating and Brown, London, 1815. In this it stands, O God! who wast pleased to raise blessed Pius to the dignity of chief bishop, in order to depress the enemies of Thy church, and to restore the divine worship! Make us by Thy grace so diligent in all that concerneth Thy service, that we may defeat the treacherous designs of our enemies, and rejoice in everlasting peace.'

In this translation we find the word 'crush' softened into 'depress,' an improvement of taste and feeling in sixteen years which cannot but be applauded. Yet the first version was most like its Latin original: 'Deus, qui ad conterendos ecclesiæ tuæ hostes et ad divinum cultum reparandum, beatum Pium quintum, pontificem maximum eligere dignatus es: Fac nos ipsius defendi præsidiis; et ita tuis inhærere obsequiis, ut omnium hostium superatis insidiis, perpetua pace lætemur. Coghlan's ed. p. 356, and Antwerp ed. 1781.

"In the thirteenth century the language was Perfidiæ vipereos filios; tanquam materni uteri corrosores: maleficos vivere non passuri; per quorum scientiam seducentem mundus inficitur; lupi rapaces; angeli pessimi; filii pravitatum; hi colubri; serpentes a cauda feriunt,' &c. Labbe, v. 11. p. 619, 20. In the sixteenth century, Pollini terms the reformers, Mostri infernali, and the harpies of the church,' p. 455; 'setta diabolica,' p. 458; and Pius V. calls them in his letters, nefariis; communibus hostibus,' p. 86; Dei hostes,' p. 63; scelestissimis hominibus,' p. 61; sceleratissimorum hominum,' p. 55.

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BOOK
II.

13

own dominions; 12 and devoted himself with a persevering combination of prejudice and principle, to destroy all who did not think, we cannot say as he thought, for we know not his secret mind; but as he and the final decrees of Trent commanded that men should think, or should unvaryingly appear to think, on the doctrines and practice of the papal church. Five great objects occupied his strong and active mind:-to reform his corrupted court and city, his most laudable purpose; to repress and weaken the Turkish power, a patriotic project, because the aggressions of its arrogant fanaticism were perilous; to destroy the Huguenots in France, and Elizabeth in England; and to subvert the Protestant Reformation, and annihilate its adherents in every part of Europe. He succeeded to a great degree in all these schemes, but the two last. He sturdily enforced the long wanted and much resisted correction of the profligacy immediately around him;1 and he annihilated, thro don John of Austria,

12 One of these was the learned Aonius Palearius, for saying that the inquisition was a poignard which intimidated the enlightened. Fr. Celaria Carnesecchi, and Gui Zaneti, were among his other victims, altho the Venetian government endeavoured to save the latter.

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13 It is gratifying to see an indication that a nobler spirit is actuating that throne which, at the darker period of our present volume, and even afterwards, allowed itself to be goaded by the papacy to actions which defamed its reputation, and injured its prosperity. In the French papers we read, to the true honor of CHARLES X. that, unlike his namesake CHARLES IX., when he reached Meux on 31st August 1828; To the harangue of M. Sabonadiere, minister of the Protestant faith, THE KING replied, I receive with great pleasure the expression of your sentiments. I rely on the fidelity and devotedness of my Protestant subjects; and THEY MAY RELY ON MY PROTECTION. Engl. Newsp. 6th Sept. 1828. The first pope that should utter such a sentence, would secure to himself immortality in this world; and might, perhaps, find it conducive to the grander extension of his expectant being in its next locality.

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"He published a severe edict for expelling from the city and papal dominions all the loose women, whose number and petulantia had so increased, that they were occupying the fine houses and public roads

XXVII.

1571.

and the fleet which he at last got together under his CHAP. command, the Ottoman navy, in the celebrated battle in the bay of Lepanto.15 His exertions in France and England, his own letters and panegyrical biographers sufficiently display.

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In the autumn of 1567, we find him urging the king of Spain to send his forces into France against the Huguenots," promising the French king to send him money and soldiers, tho he had no abundance at his disposal; and intreating the doge of Venice to add also his succors; because if the Protestants should conquer, their tenets would soon enter Italy."

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of Rome.' The senate and triumvirs opposing him, he threatened to remove his court from the city if they persisted. He at last allowed them to be limited to an obscure corner of the city, and appointed two or three churches for their use. Illis, vero, duo vel tria templa, quo ad divinam et sacras conciones convenerent, designavit.' Gabutius, Vita, p. 631. A singular adaption of churches and sermons while the mode of life was continued.

15 When the Ottomans had begun to seek the command of the Mediterranean by their fleets, and had been drawn into it by former papal and French governments, Pius V. counselled, urged, and by his own labors and supplies contributed to produce that union of the Venetian and Spanish squadrons with his own, which, on the 7th October 1571, crushed the Turkish navy in that battle in the bay of Lepanto, in which Cervantes gloried to have had a share. Two hundred Mahomedan gallies, and 30,000 Turks perished or were captured. This victory depressed the Mussulman navy for above two centuries. The Russian destruction of their fleet in the bay of Tchesme in 1781 suppressed its subsequent revival; and the late demolition of the Turkish and Egyptian ships in the bay of Navarino, on 20th October 1827, by sir Edward Codrington, in conjunction with the French and Russian admirals De Rigny and count Heiden, seems to preclude its future restoration, at least in the course of the present generation. The Lettere de Principi, vol. 3, contains a contemporary account of the Lepanto conflict.

16 The letters of Pius V. were collected at Rome, by F. Goubau, secretary of the ambassador of Philip IV., and published by him at Antwerp, in their Latin form, in 1640. De Potter printed a French translation of some of them, in an edition at Brussels, in 1827; and another edition at Paris. My quotations are from the Brussels edition. 17 Lett. of Pius, of 13 Oct. 1567. Potter, p. 1-3.

18 Lett. 16 Oct. Potter, p. 4-6.

19 Lett. 19 Oct.

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Au peril de la France est attaché le peril de l'Italie, car si les enemis de Charles étoient vainqueurs, cet incendie auroit bientot atteint les états Italiens.' ib. 8.

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