II. CHAP. XXVII. HISTORY AND PROJECTS OF PIUS V.-HIS EFFORTS TO DE- BOOK THE best of men, by adopting wrong principles of action, and by enforcing them with violence, transform themselves, more or less, into the likeness of those evil beings, whom we make our ethical and poetical illustrations of all that is most wicked and abhorrent among intelligent natures. All the virtues of the individual become, in his misdirected activity, but fearful and pernicious vices; by strengthening him in his course of mischief, by multiplying his means of perpetrating it, and by hallowing, both in his own estimation and in that of others, his most censurable conduct. The resolution to exterminate the Protestant Reformation by force, and therefore by human bloodshed, and by all the sufferings which vengeance and power could bring upon human sensitivity, was one of those unfortunate principles, which could not but create a character like that which we call Satanic, and produce a conduct to which a similar epithet is applicable, in every king and pope, in proportion as any one acted zealously upon it. In no one did these mischievous effects become more manifest, and more criminal, than in Pius V., whose real merit, in many important respects, would have XXVII. entitled him to the applause of those whose approba- CHAP. tion becomes lasting celebrity, if, by making the extirpating determination one of the undeviating rules of his official actions, he had not placed himself among those, whom the human sympathies consign to a reprobation, which must continue as long as memory survives. The papacy of Pius V. tho short in its chronological length,' became unusually extensive and destructive in its operations, from the lamentable principle to which we have adverted. Among these, he distinguished himself by commencing, and acrimoniously pursuing, a personal and deadly warfare against the only maiden queen, that has swayed the English sceptre. Elizabeth was no amazon, and was as inoffensive to this particular pope, as one individual could be to any contemporary member of European society; and yet from his intellectual bigotry and pontifical hostility, Pius V. has the distinguishing notoriety of assailing this illustrious female, who was shedding more lustre on her throne than most of her male predecessors, since the death of Alfred, had imparted to it, with the combined mischiefs of personal conspiracy, of interior rebellion, and of external invasion. Yet Pius V. might allege, that he only put into more strong and unlimited action, the antient principles of his see, which many of his predecessors had exemplified or inculcated,2 His pontificate began 7th January 1566, and ended 1st May 1572: 2 The bull of Nicolaus III. dated 3d March 1280, against heretics, contains a summary of the most objectionable severities against them; and as it was a precedent and groundwork of what were afterwards inflicted, may be taken as the specimen of the spirit and practice of II. CHAP. XXVII. HISTORY AND PROJECTS OF PIUS V.-HIS EFFORTS TO DE- BOOK THE best of men, by adopting wrong principles of action, and by enforcing them with violence, transform themselves, more or less, into the likeness of those evil beings, whom we make our ethical and poetical illustrations of all that is most wicked and abhorrent among intelligent natures. All the virtues of the individual become, in his misdirected activity, but fearful and pernicious vices; by strengthening him in his course of mischief, by multiplying his means of perpetrating it, and by hallowing, both in his own estimation and in that of others, his most censurable conduct. The resolution to exterminate the Protestant Reformation by force, and therefore by human bloodshed, and by all the sufferings which vengeance and power could bring upon human sensitivity, was one of those unfortunate principles, which could not but create a character like that which we call Satanic, and produce a conduct to which a similar epithet is applicable, in every king and pope, in proportion as any one acted zealously upon it. In no one did these mischievous effects become more manifest, and more criminal, than in Pius V., whose real merit, in many important respects, would have XXVII. entitled him to the applause of those whose approba- CHAP. tion becomes lasting celebrity, if, by making the extirpating determination one of the undeviating rules of his official actions, he had not placed himself among those, whom the human sympathies consign to a reprobation, which must continue as long as memory survives. The papacy of Pius V. tho short in its chronological length,' became unusually extensive and destructive in its operations, from the lamentable principle to which we have adverted. Among these, he distinguished himself by commencing, and acrimoniously pursuing, a personal and deadly warfare against the only maiden queen, that has swayed the English sceptre. Elizabeth was no amazon, and was as inoffensive to this particular pope, as one individual could be to any contemporary member of European society; and yet from his intellectual bigotry and pontifical hostility, Pius V. has the distinguishing notoriety of assailing this illustrious female, who was shedding more lustre on her throne than most of her male predecessors, since the death of Alfred, had imparted to it, with the combined mischiefs of personal conspiracy, of interior rebellion, and of external invasion. Yet Pius V. might allege, that he only put into more strong and unlimited action, the antient principles of his see, which many of his predecessors had exemplified or inculcated,2 1 His pontificate began 7th January 1566, and ended 1st May 1572: 2 The bull of Nicolaus III. dated 3d March 1280, against heretics, contains a summary of the most objectionable severities against them; and as it was a precedent and groundwork of what were afterwards inflicted, may be taken as the specimen of the spirit and practice of II. BOOK when he began that career of violence and homicide, which blends his memory so inseparably with the reign and biography of the endangered Elizabeth.3 The pride and passion of his mature life was to be a Roman inquisitor. If experience had not proved that it is possible to be this dreaded and dreadful description of human character, without any visible marks of an atrocious disposition," we might have inferred from his taste for it, that he was of a fierce and merciless nature. But having so perverted his judgment, and deadened his moral sensibilities, as to select it as his pleasure and as his merit, he exercised this cruel office effectually against those who wished reformation at Como, even tho of episcopal dignity; and pursuing it afterwards at Pergamo, he was at the Bullarium, v. 3. part 2. p. 26. Gregory IX. emulated the principle so far as to declare, that not to have built any churches, monasteries, or pious places, justified a suspicion that the emperor Frederic II. was an heretic. Labb. Concil. 2. p. 644. 3 So soon after his becoming pope as 29th December 1567, Thobias Eglinus wrote from Italy, that persons of all ranks were promiscuously subjected to the same imprisonment, tortures, and death.’ And on 2d March 1568, his letter was, 'At Rome some are every day burnt, hanged, or beheaded. All the prisons and places of confinement are full. They are obliged to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish gaols for the number of pious persons who are continually apprehended.' M'Crie's Reformation in Italy, p. 272, 3. He was of the Ghislieri family, which had become 'debole e ridotta a pochi.' He came in poverty on foot to Rome a private and destitute Dominican friar; but in fifteen years raised himself to be a bishop, cardinal, and the supreme governor of the inquisition. T. Porcacchi da Castiglione Vite, p. 627. 'Wolff tells us, that an inquisitor of Spain, whom I met with in the Propaganda of Rome, said that the members of the inquisition in Spain are very gentlemanlike men, and of a very mild and cool disposition.' Journal, v.2.p.38. This description leads me to recollect Mr. Keppel's account of the Arab Moolah Ali: One with whom murder and every other crime had long been familiar. Yet there was nothing in his appearance to justify the supposition. His mild eye beamed with intelligence when he spoke; and his mouth was lighted up with so pleasing a smile, that the diabolical matter of his speech was often lost in attending to the pleasing manner of his delivery.' Kepp. Journey from India. "Against its bishop Vittor Loranzo.' Porc. p. 627. |