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extended to any who should implore it, and to show CHAP. himself inexorable to all." With an infatuation that would almost be incredible, if his own words were not before us, he asserts to the too willing ear of the cardinal Lorraine, and desires him to convince the king, that he cannot satisfy his REDEEMER, without this inexorability to all who shall petition him in their behalf;45 a combination of ideas so incongruous, that it drives us into the supposition that the New Testament was a book, which if not unknown to Pius V. had at least been either unread or wholly forgotten by him, amid the more pleasing duties of his beloved inquisition. Yet, how natural were such sentiments to the sainted head of an institution which existed solely on such principles ! How congenial to a system which interprets the Scriptures by its convenient traditions, and not the traditions by the unalterable and therefore less expedient Scriptures!

46

No human sympathies seem to have reigned in this pontiff's soul. He solicited the French sovereign to listen neither to the claims of blood or friendship and repeats his solicitation, not to forgive those who should petition for his mercy to such offenders." 'Sin not by indulgence' was the lesson;48 and to diminish any necessity for doing so,

47

**Lett. of 13 April 1569 to duc d'Anjou. 'Debes omnium pro illis rogantium, preces repudiare et æque omnibus inexorabilem te præbere.' ib. 52.

45. Cherchez a le conviancre que sa majesté ne pourra satisfaire le redempteur, quam, si omnibus qui pro sceleratissimis hominibus rogare audebunt, se inexorabilem præbeat.' Letter to cardinal Lorraine, ib. p. 56.

46 Qua in re, nullius preces admittere, nihil cujusquam sanguini et propinquitati concedere.' Lett. to Charles IX. ib. 61. 47 Ib. 48 Nihil in ea re indulgentia peccatur.' Lett. to d'Anjou, 26 April,

p. 63.

11.

BOOK he sent to Charles all the cavalry and infantry which he could provide, and regrets that his treasury did not enable him to do more.40 He inveighs against the time-honored and long-respected admiral of France, de Coligny, as the most execrable of all men," and doubting if he was a human being, because the ablest supporter of the Huguenot cause; and he also discloses the great, the horrible principle, on which he urged his incentives and vituperations; it is, that other Catholic princes will be guided and stimulated by the example of Charles IX. to act in the same manner towards the heretics in their dominions."1 Thus the spirit and aims of Pius V. extended to the gigantic effect of exterminating, as soon as possible, all the Protestants in Europe. It was a natural emanation of personal habit, and its connected character, that he should exhort the king to place inquisitors of heresy in every one of his towns.52 It

49 Lett. to d'Anjou, 26 April, p. 64.

50

Execrandum illum ac detestabilem hominem.' Yet he is so disposed to make him something more than man, that he adds, ‘si modo appellandus est.' Letter to Charles IX. of 12 October, p. 75. Five days afterwards his epithets of him were, hominem unum omnium fallacissimum, execrandæ que memoriæ Gasparem de Colignis.' ib. 79. And in another letter he also calls him perditionis filio.' p. 81. Abuse is sometimes our highest honor, and it is often greatest when the merit is most felt and most striking. It is a weakness to be disturbed by it.

51 In persecuting the most bitter enemy of the Catholic religion, you honored the Deity before all the world. But you have done more. You have thereby emboldened other Catholic princes, by your example, to act in the same manner towards the heretics in their states.' Letter to Charles IX. of 12 Oct. p. 76.

52 It is his exulting letter to Charles of 20 Oct. 1569, after his victory at Moncontour, that Pius urges this plan, p. 87; and, while claiming to be the vicar of HIM who both sighed and wept, and also died for human sins and errors, also tells this young king, that nothing was more cruel than mercy and pity to these Protestants. Nihil est, enim, ea pietate misericordia que crudelius, quæ in impios, et ultima supplicia meritos, confertur.' ib. On 3d Nov. he intreated his legate to urge Charles to pursue the enemies who had escaped, and to avenge himself upon them. p. 92. I am not aware that any other

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was an act of consistency that he should intreat the CHAP. queen mother to inflame her son's mind to the execution of the cruelties he commanded,53 and that he should express the highest indignation and alarm at the idea, that the French government meant to grant a peace to its Protestant subjects," and should implore the cardinals in France to defeat its accomplishment.55

To state of any man, that he is the advocate or author of murder, is to ascribe to him such a lamentable exemplification of human depravity in its most revolting sense, that the mind dislikes, on any evidence, to express, and even to conceive the imputation; and yet the preceding facts press the judg ment towards that conclusion: nor is their effect abated, when we observe the directions and wishes of Pius V. as to the French general d'Assier. The pope's conduct on his capture, seems to furnish an additional illustration of what is possible in men of the highest station, when mercy, pity, charity, forgiveness, and benevolence, are superseded by a misconception of sacerdotal duty; which, separating

pope has been so perseveringly exterminating, so insatiable in his desire of extirpating the reformers.

53 Inflame the spirit of your son, that he may annihilate the relics of this civil war; that he may apply to the common enemies the punishments they have so justly merited.' Lett. 29 January 1570, p. 103.

See his letters of 29 January 1570, to Charles, p. 98; to Catherine, of the same date, p. 101; to the duc d'Anjou, the king's brother, p. 105. 55 Exert all your efforts to overturn these projects of a peace; never suffer France to deal so fatal a blow to the Catholic faith;' is his language, on 14 August 1570, to the cardinal Lorraine. p. 116. He wrote in similar terms to the cardinal of Bourbon, p. 119; and he told the latter, on 23d September, that he could not think of such a peace without shedding tears. p. 121. It had made every thing worse than ever in France. The orthodox faith would now decline every day, from the malignity of the heretics, and the lukewarmness of the Catholics. ib. p. 126.

BOOK
II.

itself from the moral obligations of life, and extinguishing all human sympathies, seeks to acquire a supposed merit by its unsocial and desolating intolerance.56 Wonderful perversion of a religion whose benevolence is, above all others, adapted to make mankind an affectionate family of gentle and generous brothers! Strange contradiction to its clearest and most indissoluble precepts! But the doctrine of preferring the tradition to the record, admits of the holiest laws being deformed by the most nullifying anomalies; by the most superseding contradictions. The will of the sovereign becomes then subjected to the convenience of the viceroy. The vicar, whenever he pleases, may thus displace his master. The worldly benefit of this device has occasioned it to be used in all systems, and in all ages.

As there was no hypocrisy in Pius V. we may anticipate that his transactions as to Elizabeth, were in congruity with his dealings in France. He sent money to assist Mary in Scotland against her Pro

56 It is his friendly biographer, Catena, the secretary of his successor, Sixtus Quintus, who has recorded the following circumstance. In mentioning the victory of the French count in 1569 at Moncontour, Catena states, that they made prisoner monsieur d'Assier, a leading Huguenot and general of the infantry, who had offered ten thousand crowns for his ransom.' Catena adds, ‘the pontiff being assured of this, was vexed with the count, that he had not observed his command TO PUT TO DEATH IMMEDIATELY whatever heretic should fall into his hands.' The Italian is, 'Di che accertato il pontifice si dolce al conte, che non avesse IL COMMANDAMENTO DE LUI observato D'AMMAZZAR SUBITO qualunque heretico gli fosse venuto alle mani.' Cat. Vita Pio Quinto, p. 85. There can be no mistake in the meaning of the word ammazzare. In the common Italian dictionary, we find it ammazzare, to murder.' But it is remarkable, that the right of being himself the personal destroyer of heretics was claimed either by or for this pontiff; for before going to the stake, Palearius was compelled to sign a paper, that, like Samuel towards Agag, a pope might with his own hand in some cases put heretics to death: 'Quod ipsemet summus pontifex, in casu aliquo potest, etiam per se, hæreticos, occidere, ut legimus de Samuele.' Pott. Int. xx.

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testant subjects," and dispatched his secret priestly CHAP. envoy to England, in 1569, to declare privately from him, to certain of the nobility," that as a heretic, Elizabeth had forfeited all right to her crown, and that they should obey her no longer.59 He seconded this by his bull in the ensuing February," in which, asserting his power to overthrow and to destroy," and declaring this princess to be the slave of wickedness, and but a pretended queen; he denounces an anathema against her; deprives her of her king

63

62

61

57 Pour aider la reine d'Ecosse.' Lett. Pius V. of 16th October 1567, p.5. The bishop of Ross states, that he acted, in 1568, in his officia et obsequia, for propagating the Catholic religion, by the pope's command: Pio V. incitante et mandante. Vita, in Anders. 1. p. 6. That the bishop's offices were of the most treasonable nature, our subsequent pages will shew.

56 Sanders, then a confidential agent of the papacy, has transmitted this fact to us, and calls him Rev. Presbyterum Nicolaum Mortonum, Anglicum. De Visib. Monarchia, 1. 7. p. 730. I find the same fact thus mentioned in Natali Conte's contemporary history: At the same time his holiness sent Nicolas Morton to England, to publish, by the apostolic authority which he had, to some Catholic lords of the island, queen Elizabeth to be a heretic; for which he deprived her of all jurisdiction over the Catholics, who might, without any punishment, brand her as a heathen, and were not bound to obey her.' N. Conte Hist. v. 2. p. 52. ed. Venice, 1589.

59 6

'Hereticam esse; ob eamque causam, omni dominio et potestate excedisse; impune que ab illis velut ethicam haberi posse; nec eos illixes legibus aut mandatis deincep obedire cogi.' Sand. ib.

60 This is dated 5 kal. Martii, or 25 Feb. 1570. It is printed in Cherubini's Bullarum ; in Sanders de Schism. 423; in Ribadineira, p. 252; in Camden Eliz. p. 125, and elsewhere. I shall quote it from Sanders, as the Catholic authority most accessible to others.

61 He states Peter (and therefore every pope as his successor) to have been appointed Principem super omnes gentes et omnia regna; qui evellat destruat, dissipet, disperdat, plantet et odificet.' Sand. Schis. p. 423.

2Serva flagitiorum: prætensa Angliæ regina,' ib. 424; with whom the infestissimi of all nations have found a refuge as their asylum.' ib. A noble character to our queen, 'The refuge of the persecuted of every other country.' Pius could scarcely have inscribed to her a more dignifying epithet.

Declaramus predictam Elizabetham hæreticam et hæreticorum fautricem, ei que adhærentes in prædictis, anathematis sententiam incurrisse, esse que a Christi corporis unitate præcisos.' ib. 426.