BOOKS.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIXTUS Y.
Mn. JERNINGH_AM has done good service in translating what we must paradoxically call this lively diplomatic history of the times of the great Pope Sixtus, the hero of many a Roman legend which still survives among the people. This Pontiff, before whom the restless nobles of the States of the Church trembled, and who did not fear * 27le gfe and Times of 'Sixtus the Fifth. By Baron Hubner. London: Longoans.
to make brigands of every degree, gentle or simple, expiate their crimes with their blood, was contemporary with our Queen Elizabeth and with Henry of Navarre, both of whom in his heart he liked better than he did Henry of Valois or Philip of Spain.. Of Elizabeth, he said, "She is a valiant woman ; if she were not a. heretic she would be worth a whole world ;" and he struggled per- sistently in the interests of "le Bearnais," believing that he would end in being reconciled to Rome, and foreseeing, with the long- headed shrewdness which never failed Sixtus, that Henri de Bourbon had all the qualities of a really great king. Nor was it. only in his political judgments that Sixtus showed faculty. He was great as an administrator ; he had always ideas in his head and money in his treasury, and he placed the seal of his powerful will upon the very stones of Rome. It was in his time that the- vast dome of St. Peter's crowned the Church of Michael Angelo,. and that his favourite, the stonemason Fontana, succeeded, in the teeth of all mechanical prophecy, in raising the obelisk of Nero,. and placing it in its present position in the midst of the Piazza.
Baron Hubner, himself a diplomatist, enters with amusing gusto into the diplomatic mysteries of that stormy period, and makes the dry bones live. It was an age of great men and great convictions on all sides. Elizabeth, Luther, and Knox are familiar to us in England ; less so are the salient figures of the- wide Catholic reaction induced by the danger to the very exist- ence of the Church. The Order of Jesus had arisen during the early manhood of Sixtus (who did not favour it when be came to. the Pontifical Throne, and who, at the time of his death, was on. the point of insisting on serious modifications in its constitution), and all over Europe a burst of fervour had occurred. St. Charles Borromeo, St. Theresa, St. Francis Borgia, St. John of the Cross,. and St. Philip Neri are but a few of the more famous names belonging to the Church Revival. This movement did not spring from the Pontifical authority ; revivals seldom begin from above.. Just as the Wesleyan movement took its modest rise in the hearts of a few clerical students, so the Catholic reaction against the semi-pagan teaching of the humanist professors in the Universi- ties took its rise among the ranks of the faithful of all classes, and gained by degrees the Conclave of Cardinals and the wearer of the tiara. "The reaction," says Baron Hiibner, "born of the great centre where all the intellects unite (the city of Rome), and all the social energies congregate, after passing in turn through every stage of ecclesiastical distinction, was then obtaining its last success, that of moving the Pope himself The war wan waged, the engagement was general ; to stop the progress of Protestantism, reform the Church, and thus to save it, these were the objects of the reactionary movement, the motives which im- pelled those who guided its course." And the truth was that, but for this out-crop of internal fervour, the Church of Rome might, be said to totter to its foundation. England and a large part of Germany were lost to her ; France hesitated in the balance, and. if France had gone, Italy could not, in the judgment of con- temporary politicians, have been saved. Sixtus V. appeara to have had a most singular intuition that the power of Spain, was sapped. He never relied on Philip for the rebuilding of the Catholic edifice, though it would have seemed most natural for him to do so. On the contrary, all his efforts were directed to the hindering of France becoming a mere fief of Spain, and to her resuming a wholesome and integral national life. In, pursuit of this idea he actually threw his weight against the two Catholic factions which were tearing the realm—namely, the' Guises and the Valois King—and favoured the strong man in. whom he saw a capable sovereign. The story of the diplomatie struggles at Rome is very curious, and the Pope's triumph was complete. During the century which succeeded his death France revived politically and morally, and the Catholic Church of France- was honoured by some of her noblest sons,—such as Bossuet, Fenelon, and St. Vincent de Paul. Sixtus could not foresee the heavy tyranny of the lad thirty years of the reign of Louis XIV., nor the total triumph of the Jesuits, whom he loved not. Had he been living when the battle of Port Royal was fought, we can imagine the severe thorough-going old Pontiff inclining to the aide of the Arnaulds rather than to that of their antagonists. As it was, he at least prevented France from dismemberment and, moral annihilation. The worth of his work will be estimated from various points of view, according as the integrity of the French Church, the value of the French character, and the chances of the future of France are estimated by the readers of Baron Hiibner's book.
But Sixtus did not triumph over Philip without a struggle which actually appears to have hastened his death. The intrigues of which Rome was the centre are admirably described, and soma- what painful to read of. For instance, Olivares, the Spanish Ambassador, led the Pontiff a well-nigh intolerable life. Gregory SUL had greatly favoured Spain, and had secured for Olivares the first place among the representatives of the great Courts. He was inclined to despise the new Pope as a mere monk, and was deeply astonished and mortified when he found himself face to face with a master mind. Olivares was wealthy, magnificent, and haughty ; he thought that his master Philip ought to rule in Europe as a sort of lay Pope. Philip thought so too. Olivares began with thinking the Pope ignorant "He attributed to impetuosity of character the rich mine of ideas with which he [Sixtus] was gifted, and which, though unripe as yet, even impracticable at times, but ever bold and pro- found, revealed the man who was rather in trouble as to which way to begin than as to the means of realising his views. Attacked openly, the ambassador tried not only to defend himself, but to place himself on the offensive." We think this view of the rela- tions of Rome and Spain very remarkable and suggestive. Here we have the French Ambassador, M. de Pisany, married to a Roman wife, "a loyal, brave man, a true knight of the old style, quick, punctilious, ever ready to draw his sword, intelligent and devoted to his master," but very unlucky in that master, whom the Pope could not abide. And the wise, courtly men of Venice, always prudent, who got on admirably with Sixtus ; here is Baron Hiibner's picture of the queen of the Adriatic, then "materially and socially at the zenith of its grandeur. Nations and states are like individuals. Rest comes after work, a halt after the march which had constituted progress, and down the hill after going up. Then only do peoples, like individuals, fully enjoy the fruit of past labours. In the eyes of the multitude, those nations seem most power- ful which have already passed the meridian of their strength."
Let us turn to the pages on the Spanish Armada, as seen from the stand-point of foreign diplomatists. Philip, says Baron Hiibner, was obliged by the necessity of his situation to strike a blow at the "incipient navy" of England. That terrible Drake had dared to attack the immense power and prestige which Philip enjoyed across the ocean ; Drake it was who "captured his galleons under the guns of Cadiz, kept up the insurrec- tion of Portugal, and threw into the shade the legendary glory of the Scandinavian Kings." Drake must be destroyed ; but how ! His swift English clippers outstrip the heavy Royal Navy, used to roll along at ease. "Nothing was left but to attack the enemy in his home, to organise an expedition, not against the uncatchable Drake, but against the country from which his vessels sailed without maritime supremacy, the possession of Flanders, Sardinia, of Naples, of Sicily, and of the Indies was compromised and likely to be lost. The history of the following centuries proved it." The paramount necessity of self-preservation obliged Philip to attack England. If he succeeds, he will be master of the kingdom ; but the conquest of England is not the object, but the consequence only of the under- taking. But Philip is very slow ; he is ill, and the Pope expresses the gravest apprehensions of the result to the Venetian Ambas- sador. Why does not a leader, a Constantine, a Theodosius, come forward ? "For goodness' sake" (Sixtus when he got warm spoke in forcible vernacular) "let Venice and Rome help each other. The king and his Armada are becoming ridiculous, while Queen Elizabeth knows how to manage her affairs. If that woman were only a Catholic, she would be loved by us more than any other Sovereign, for she has great qualities. See what Drake is !" So grumbled the fiery Pontiff, he who was by nature energetic and successful. Obstacles always presented themselves. In fine weather the Armada was not ready, in bad weather it could not start without a harbour of refuge in France. "The Pope was in- consolable, and regretted all the money that had been spent without profit. The Spaniards, he said with a sigh to the Venetian Envoy, are like the gardener's dog, who does noteat the cauliflowers, but does not allow others to eat them." And when the news of the catastrophe reached Rome, the relations between Sixtus and Philip went from bad to worse. From the first the Pope saw, and his insight was always good, the whole extent of the disaster, and the impending fall of the Spanish monarchy. And he attributed it not to the elements alone, but to "the courage of the woman whom he admired, while he hated her ; to the want of resolution and practical sense in Philip, who henceforth fell in his opinion."
Baron Hiibner expends much pains on his pictures of places and people, witness the chapter on Rome and its society in the latter end of the sixteenth century. He tells us how travellers entered the city by the Porto del Popolo, and if they were people of rank, went to the Bear Inn, an establishment which still exists, though gone down in the world ! The Corso was even then the most animated, though not the busiest street in Rome, whose activity was coneentrated down by the river. The Pincio was covered with vineyards ; it was the painters of the coming generation,. Caracci, Domenichino, Guido, who first walked in it after it had become a public garden ; it is they who were "pointed out by the first cicerone to the first tourists, as they walked, exchanging angry looks with their rivals." St. Peter's (strange to think) was domeleas, but a forest of towers were visl4le on every side. Some. were of prodigious height. The Transtevere had so many that it presented the appearance of a reversed comb ! There were com- paratively few churches, and bells were rare ; it was not till the next generation that Rome wore the aspect of the Church triumphant. Of the social life a vivid account is given, partly Irons the authority of Montaigne, who is frequently quoted. It was a populous, gay, luxurious city. St. Charles Borromeo had said that two things were necessary in Rome,—"Love God and have a carriage." Ladies of rank are never seen on foot. When Sixtus passes, it is in slitter which is open on all aides, preceded and followed by officers ; the cardinals and bishops are on mules. We recom- mend the whole of the second chapter of the second volume to the lovers of picturesque gossip. in the third is found the description of the great Pope's plans for the improvement of Rome, which are very interesting for those who know the modern city. "That marvel of the world, the cupola of St. Peter's, was begun and COM- pleted in twenty-two months. Men were at work on it both day and night, and even on feast-days, Sundays excepted. When he died, all that was wanted was the lead covering and the lantern. His last work was the wing of the Palace of the Vatican which was finished by Clement VIII., and which has never since ceased to be the residence of the Popes."
Sixtus had one great affection,—his sister Camilla. The brother and sister were children of a gardener, who was of a fallen, but respectable family of Dalmatian emigrants, and when, as Frk Felice Perettl, he had been promoted to the important dignity of Vicar-General of his Order (the conventual Minors), he "had sent for his sister Camilla, whom he loved dearly and compared to St. Monica, declaring when he was Pope that to her he owed his hav- ing honourably gone through the many long years of his poverty, and that to her prayers he was indebted for his exaltation. Though very devout, Donna Camilla, who was very like her brother in the face, had a thorough acquaintance with the things of this world ; she directed the Cardinal's house, and was all her life the temporal providence of her family." Her husband had been a farmer, but we find her as a widow in Rome with her illustrious brother, and her children and grandchildren rose to great estate.
A more interesting realisation of a former and most important historical epoch has rarely been made than in this book of Baron Hitbner's. We see the great Pope with his faults, which were those of greatness, a real monarch of men, who might have wrought immense good in Europe, but for the shortness of his reign ; a man terribly.stern, yet just, and even generous withal. We see the "valiant woman" by glimpses, just as Sixtus saw her with his mind's eye ; we see the slow, bigoted Philip ; the weak, murderous Valois ; the capable Bearnais. And with them we see all their diplomatists intriguing and quarrelling ; read their pri- vate letters and the reports of intimate conversations. And we close the volumes with the reflection that happy are they whose lot is not cast in the troubled waters where the kingdom of this world meets and wrestles with the kingdom of God.
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