the datary Cecchino, Donna Clementia, proceeded in a similar
manner ; Christmas, in particular, was the great harvest-time
for presents. The refusal of Don Camillo Astalli to share these
gifts on one occasion with Donna Olimpia, to whom he had
given hopes that he would do so, excited her most violent anger,
and was the first cause of his downfall. To what frauds and
forgeries did bribery conduct Mascambruno ! It was his habit
to affix false summaries to the decrees that he laid before the
Pope, and as his holiness read only the summaries, he signed
things of which he had not the slightest suspicion, and which
covered the Roman Court with infamy.^ One cannot but feel
pained and revolted when reading the remark that Don Mario,
the brother of Alexander VII, became rich for this cause,
among others, that the jurisdiction of the Borgo was in his
hands.

For, unhappily, even the administration of justice was in-
fected with this grievous plague.

We possess a statement of the abuses which had crept into
the tribunal of the Rota, and which was laid before Alexander
VII by a man who had practised in it during twenty-eight
years.- He computes that there was no auditor of the Rota who
did not receive presents at Christmas to the amount of 500
scudi. Those who could not gain access to the person of the
auditor still found means to approach his relations, his assist-
ants, or his servants.

^» See Appendix, No. 126. ^ " Disordini che occorrono nel su-

* Pallavicini seeks to excuse this on premo tribunale della rota nella corte

the grounds that the proceedings of the Romana e gli ordini con i quali si

dataria were written " in the French potrebbe riformare, scrittura fatta da

character, as has remained the custom un avvocato da presentarsi alia Sta. de

from the time when the Papal See held N. Sre. Alessandro VII.," MS. Rang.

its court in Avignon," and which the at Vienna, No. 23.
Pope did not readily or willingly read.
See Appendix, Nos. 125, 126.



84 RANKE

And no less injurious were the effects produced by the secret
injunctions and influence of the court and the great. The very
judges were sometimes known to apologize to the parties for
the unjust judgment pronounced, declaring that justice was
restrained by force.

How corrupt an administration of the laws was this ! There
were four months of vacation, and even the remainder of the
year was passed in a life of idleness and amusement. Judg-
ments were most unduly delayed, yet, when given, presented
every mark of precipitation : appeals were altogether useless.
It is true that the affair was in such case transferred to other
members of the court, but what could secure these last from
being equally subject to the influences by which the former
judge had been corrupted ? The courts of appeal were, more-
over, biassed in their decisions by the judgment previously
given.

These were evils that extended from the supreme court of
judicature to the very lowest of the tribunals, and equally
affected the course of justice and general government in the
provinces.^

In a document which is still extant we find these circum-
stances represented by Cardinal Sacchetti, in the most earnest
manner to Alexander VII : — the oppression of the poor — who
found none to help them — ^by the powerful ; the perversion of
justice by the intrigues of cardinals, princes, and dependents of
the palace ; the delay of business, which was sometimes pro-
longed for years, though it might have been concluded in a
few days — nay, even tens of years ; the violence and tyranny
experienced by anyone who ventured to appeal from an in-
ferior ofiicial to one above him ; the executions and forfeitures
imposed for the enforcement of the levies — measures of cruelty
calculated only to make the sovereign odious to his people while
his servants enriched themselves. " Oppressions, most holy
father," he exclaims, " exceeding those inflicted on the Israel-
ites in Egypt! People, not conquered by the sword, but sub-
jected to the Holy See, either by their free accord, or the dona-
tions of princes, are more inhumanly treated than the slaves in

'Disordini: "By the unjust decisions States, the judges being careful to_ de-

of this supreme tribunal [of the Rota], cide in accordance with the previous

justice is corrupted in all the inferior false judgment."
courts, at least in the Ecclesiastical



THE HISTORY OF THE POPES 85

Syria or Africa. Who can witness these things without tears of
sorrow ! "*

Such was the condition of the Ecclesiastical States even as
early as the middle of the seventeenth century.



And now could it be reasonably expected that the administra-
tion of the Church should remain free from abuses of a similar
kind?

That administration depended on the court, equally with the
civil government, and received its impulse from the same spirit.

It is true that certain restrictions were imposed on the Curia,
with respect to this department. In France, for example, im-
portant prerogatives were possessed by the crown ; in Germany
the chapters preserved their independence ; in Italy and Spain,
on the contrary, the hands of the Curia were unfettered, and its
lucrative privileges were accordingly exercised in the most un-
scrupulous manner.

The Roman Court possessed the right of nomination to all
the less important ecclesiastical employments and benefices. In
Italy it appointed even to the highest. The sums that flowed
into the coffers of the dataria, from Spain, are of an amount
almost incredible ; their principal sources were the installation
to appointments, the spolia, and the revenues of vacant benefices.
Yet the Curia, considered in regard to its own body, drew still
greater advantage, perhaps from its relations with the Italian
States ; the richest bishoprics and abbeys, with a large number
of priories, commanderies, and other benefices, went immediate-
ly to the profit of its members.

And it would have been well had the evil rested there !

But to the rights, which of themselves were of very question-
able character, there were added the most ruinous abuses. I
will mention one only — but that, indeed, was perhaps the
worst. The practice was introduced, and by the middle of the
nineteenth century was in full operation, that every benefice

* " Lettre du Cardinal Sacchetti ecrite tura sopra il governo di Roma," of the

peu avant sa mort au Papa Alexandre same time (Altieri library). " The peo-

VII en 1663, copie tiree des ' Manu- pie having no more silver or copper, or

scritti della regina di Suezia,' " in linen, or furniture, to satisfy the ra-

Arckenholtz, " Memoires," torn. iv. pacity of the commissaries, will be next

App. No. xxxii. : a very instructive obliged to sell themselves as slaves to

document, corroborated by very many pay the burdens laid on by the Camera."

others; as, for example, by a " Scrit- See Appendix, No. 145,



86 RANKE

conferred by the Curia was burdened with a pension to one or
other of the members of that body.

This practice was expressly prohibited in Spain, and there
too, as the benefices themselves were to be conferred on natives
exclusively, so pensions were to be granted only to them ; but
a device was invented in Rome for evading these enactments.
The pension was made out in the name of a native or natural-
ized Spaniard ; but this latter bound himself by a civil contract
to pay a stipulated yearly amount into some Roman bank or
commercial house, for the actual recipient of the pension. In
Italy these considerations and contrivances were not even re-
quired, and the bishoprics were often loaded with intolerable
burdens. In the year 1663 Monsignore de Angelis, Bishop of
Urbino, complained that all he had remaining to his own share
from that rich bishopric, was sixty scudi yearly ; and that he
had already sent in his resignation, which the court refused to
accept. The conditions annexed to the bishoprics of Ancona
and Pesaro were so oppressive that for years they were left un-
occupied, because none could be found to accept them with those
impositions. In the year 1667 twenty-eight bishops and arch-
bishops were counted in Naples, all of whom were ejected from
their offices because they did not pay the pensions imposed on
them. From the bishoprics this corruption descended to the
parochial benefices : the richest parishes frequently yielded their
incumbents but a very slender subsistence ; even the poor coun-
try curates in some places had their very fees charged with bur-
dens.^ Many were so much discouraged that they resigned
their cures, but in time new candidates always presented them-
selves ; nay, they sometimes outbade each other, vicing which
should oflfer the Curia the largest pension.

But how deplorable a state of depravity in the government
do these things betray ! The least evil that could result from

* The sarcastic Basadona (see Appen- also again introduced. Deone, " Diario,
dix, No. 134) remarks: "To make ar" 7 Genn. 1645," after alluding to the
end, we may fairly describe every bene- archbishopric of Bologna, transferred
fice, capable of bearing a pension, as to Albregati by Cardinal Colonna, con-
loaded like the ass of Apuleius, which, tinues to the effect that " by this ex-
unable to bear its burden, thought of ample the door is opened for admitting
throwing itself on the earth; but, see- the practice of transferrence; an'd, ac-
ing its fallen companion immediately cordingly, this morning, the transfer of
flayed by the carters, he held it good the church of Ravenna by Cardinal Cap-
to support the insupportable load." All poni to his nephew Monsr. Tungianni
contemporary writers agree in the de- is made known; he reserves a pension
scription of the evil. The practice of to himself, which at his death goes in
resigning the benefice to another while good part to Cardinal Pamfilio."
retaining a portion of the revenue, was



THE HISTORY OF THE POPES 87

such a system was the entire corruption of the parochial clergy,
and the utter neglect of their flocks.

Much wiser had been the decision of the Protestant Church
in having from the first abolished all superfluities, and subjected
itself to order and rule.

It is beyond doubt that the wealth of the Catholic Church, and
the worldly rank attached to ecclesiastical dignities, induced the
higher aristocracy to devote themselves to her service. It was
even a maxim with Pope Alexander to bestow church prefer-
ment chiefly on men of good birth : he entertained the extraordi-
nary idea that as earthly princes are fond of seeing themselves
surrounded ly servants of high descent, so must it be pleasing
to God that his service should be undertaken by men exalted
in rank above their fellows. Yet it was certainly not by such
principles that the Church had raised herself in earlier ages, nor
had she been restored by such in later times. The monasteries
and congregations, which had contributed so largely to the res-
toration of Catholicism, were at this time suffered to fall into
contempt. The papal families had little value for any person
who was bound by conventual obligations, if it were only be-
cause men thus occupied could not be constantly paying court
to themselves. Whenever there was a competition, the candi-
date obtaining the place was almost always of the secular clergy,
even though his merits and talents were inferior to those of the
monastic clergy. " The opinion seems to prevail," says Gri-
mani, " that the episcopal office, or the purple, would be degrad-
ed by being conferred on the brother of a convent." He even
thinks he perceives that the regular clergy no longer dare confi-
dently to show themselves at court, where they were frequently
exposed to mockery and insult. It already began to be re-
marked that none but men of the lowest origin were now dis-
posed to enter the monasteries. " Even a bankrupt shopkeeper,"
he exclaims, " considers himself too good to wear the cowl."^

Since the monasteries thus lost their intrinsic importance, it
can occasion no surprise that they soon began to be considered
altogether superfluous ; but it is a very remarkable fact that this

_" Grimani further adds: "Every de- ion that the popes would do well to

sire for study and all care for the de- take measures for the restoration of the

fence of religion are entirely sup- regular clergy to their former credit,

pressed. That the number of learned by giving them imoortant charges from

and exemplary monks should diminish time to time: eminent men would thus

so rapidly may ere long be detrimental he induced again to enter the orders."

to the court itself, whence it is my opin- See Appendix, No. 138.



88 RANKE

opinion first found expression in Rome itself — that the neces-
sity for restricting monastic institutions was first asserted in
that court. As early as the year 1649 ^ bull was published by
Innocent X forbidding new admissions into any of the regular
orders until the incomes of the several convents had been com-
puted, and the number of persons that each could maintain
was determined J A bull issued on October 15, 1652, is still
more important. In this the Pope complained that there were
many small convents, wherein the offices could not be duly
performed, either by day or night, nor spiritual exercises prac-
tised, nor seclusion properly maintained ; he declared these
places to be mere receptacles for licentiousness and crime, af-
firmed that their number had now increased beyond all meas-
ure, and suppressed them all at one blow, with the observation
that it was necessary to separate the tares from the wheat.^
The plan was very soon suggested (and again it was first pro-
posed in Rome) of alleviating the financial necessities, even
of foreign States, by the confiscation, not of separate con-
vents only, but of entire monastic orders. When Alexander
VII was requested by the Venetians, shortly after his acces-
sion, to support them in the war of Candia against the Turks,
he proposed to them of himself the suppression of several
orders in their own territories. The Venetians were averse
to this plan, because these orders still afforded a provision
for the poorer nobili; but the Pope accomplished his pur-
pose. He maintained that the existence of these convents was
rather an offence than edification to the faithful, and com-
pared his mode of proceeding to that of the gardener, who re-
moves all useless branches from the vine to render it more fruit-
ful.«

Yet it could not be asserted that among those who now re-
ceived promotion any remarkably splendid talents were found.
There was, on the contrary, a general complaint throughout the
seventeenth century, of the dearth of distinguished men.^" Men

'' Our diary, January i, 1650 (Deone), * " Constitutio super extinctione et
describes the impression produce'd by suppressione parvorum conventuum,
this "constitution": "As this cause eorumque reductione ad statum sec-
does not affect the Capuchins and other ularem, et bonorurn applicatione, et
reformed orders who possess no reve- prohibitione erigendi nova loca regu-
nues, it is feared that the prohibition laria in Italia et insulis adjacentibus."
may be perpetual ;■ and I believe it will — Idibus, October, 1652.
be so, until the number of regular ® " Relatione de' iv. Ambasciatori,
clergy, which is now excessive, shall be i6,s6." See Appendix, No. 129.
reduced to moderation, and the com- ^oGrimani: "When due regulations
monwealth be no longer oppressed by are neglected, all things deteriorate;
t'lem." . . . the court is at present barren in



THE HISTORY OF THE POPES 89

of eminent powers were, indeed, very frequently excluded from
the prelacy, because they were too poor to comply with the regu-
lations established for their admission.^ Advancement depend-
ed almost entirely on the favor of the papal families; and this
was only to be obtained by an excessive adulation and servility
that could not be favorable to a free development of the nobler
qualities of the intellect. This state of things affected the whole
body of the clergy.

It is certainly a remarkable fact that in the most important
branches of theological study, there scarcely appeared a single
original Italian author, whether as regarded exposition of
scripture, on which subject nothing was presented but repeti-
tions of works belonging to the sixteenth century, or as relating
to morals — although that subject of inquiry was much cultivat-
ed elsewhere — nor even in relation to dogmatic theology. In
the congregations, foreigners alone appeared on the arena in the
disputations concerning the means of grace ; in those of a later
period also, concerning free-will and faith, Italians took but
little part. After Girolamo da Narni, no distinguished preacher
appeared even in Rome itself. In the journal before referred
to, and kept by a very strict Catholic, from 1640 to 1650, this
fact is remarked with astonishment. " With the commence-
ment of Lent," he observes, '' comedies ceased to be performed
in theatres and houses, beginning in the pulpits of the churches.
The holy office of the preacher is employed to secure celebrity,
or made subservient to the purposes of the flatterer. Meta-
physics are brought forward, of which the speaker knows very
little, and his hearers nothing whatever. In place of teaching
and admonition, encomiums are pronounced, solely for the fur-
therance of the speaker's promotion. As regards the choice of
the preacher also, everything now depends on connection and
favor, and no longer on the merit of the man."

To sum up the whole, that mighty internal impulse by which
the court, Church, and State were formerly governed, and from
which they had received their strictly religious character, was
now extinguished. The tendency toward restoration and con-

the highest degree of men possessing prelates only, and that the prelacy is

worth or talent." See Appendix, No. granted to none but those who have

138- revenues to support its dignity, the

^ " Relatione di Roma sotto demente consequence has followed that really

IX.": " Since the custom is prevalent able men are for tlie most part ex-

that high offices are conferred on the eluded." See Appendix, No. 136.



90



RANKE



quest had passed away; other motives were now predominant,
urging only to the struggle for power and pleasure. The spir-
itual element again received its tone from worldly impulses.

And here the question naturally presents itself, what direction
was taken under these circumstances, by that society, which had
been so peculiarly founded on the principles of Catholic restora-
tion? We allude to the order of Jesuits.



Section XI. — The Jesuits in the Middle of the Seventeenth

Century

The most important change that had taken place in the consti-
tution of the Society of Jesus, consisted in the fact that the
" professed " members had become advanced to the possession
of power.

Of the " professed," those who took the four vows, there were
at first very few. Living apart from the colleges, and subsist-
ing on alms, they had confined themselves to the exercise of
spiritual authority. Appointments requiring the activity of
men of the world, such as those of rectors and provincials, with
the general management of the colleges, had formerly been in
the hands of the coadjutors. But all this was now entirely
changed. The " professed " themselves attained to places in
the administration ; they took part in the revenues of the col-
leges and became rectors or provincials.^

The most immediate consequence of this alteration was that
those severe practices of private devotion which had been main-
tained in their fervor, principally by the rigid separation of the
" houses of the professed," now gradually declined ; even at the
first reception of a member into the society, it was no longer
possible to examine with the minuteness first practised, into his
capacity or vocation for an ascetic life. Vitelleschi, in particu-
lar, gave admission to many who were certainly without any
vocation. The highest station was the object now aimed at, the
rank by which its possessors at once secured ecclesiastical dig-

1 In a collection of papers entitled la religione de' padri Gesuiti e lore

" Scritture politiche, morali e satiriche modo di governare," written between

sopra le massime, institui e governo 1681 and 1686, apparently by a person

della compagnia di Gesu " (MS., Rome) deeply initiated, from which the follow-

will be found a circumstantial treatise ing notices are for the most part taken,

of nearly 400 pages, " Discorso sopra See Appendix, No. 150.



THE HISTORY OF THE POPES



91



nity and secular power. But this combination was moreover
shown to be highly prejudicial in its effects generally; formerly
the coadjutors and professed had exercised superintendence
over each other; but temporal importance and spiritual claims
were now united in the same persons. Men of the meanest en-
dowments considered themselves of high ability, because no one
now ventured to gainsay them. Having attained exclusive do-
minion, they began quietly and at their ease to enjoy those large
possessions which the colleges had acquired in the course of
time, and to think principally of the means by which their wealth
might be increased. The actual direction of business, and the
duties, whether of churches or schools, were abandoned to the
younger members.- Even as regarded the general of the order,
the professed assumed a deportment of extreme independence.
That the alteration was a great and essential one, is made ob-
vious, among other things, by the characters and fortunes of the
generals, the sort of men chosen as supreme rulers, and the
mode in which these chiefs were treated.

How different was Mutio Vitelleschi from his predecessor,
the calm, self-ruling, crafty, and inflexible Aquaviva! Vitel-
leschi was by nature mild, indulgent, and conciliatory ; his inti-
mates called him the angel of peace ; and he found consolation
on his death-bed from the conviction that he had never injured
anyone. These were admirable qualities of a most amiable man,
but did not suffice to fit him for the government of an order so
widely extended, active, and powerful. He was unable to en-
force strictness of discipline, even with regard to dress, still less
could he oppose an effectual resistance to the demands of deter-
mined ambition. It was during his administration, from 1615
to 1645, that the change above referred to was effected.

His immediate successors proceeded in a similar spirit. Vin-
cenzo Caraffa ( 1649) "^^^^ a man of the utmost piety and humil-
ity ;^ he even rejected all personal attendance, and was in all re-

^"Discorso:" "There are many to rarely witnessed. With regard to his
make a show, but few to work. The own person, he would not have a car-
poor are not visited, the lands are not riage in his service, nor permit himself
cultivated. . . . Excepting a few, to be treated differently from the
mostly young men, who attend the meanest of the order, whether in food
schools, all the others, whether pro- or clothing; and as to other matters, he
fessors, or procurators, or rectors, or would have had the Jesuit fathers live
preachers, scarcely have a particle of as became those bound by vows of re-
labor." ligion, not mingling in politics nor fre-

* " Diario, Deone, 12 Giugno, 1640:" quenting courts; but in seeking to se-

" On Tuesday morning died the gen- cure that object, he found insurmount-

eral of the Jesuits: a m.an of few ac- able difificulties, and these were the

quirements, but of a sanctity of life cause of his death."



92



RANKE



spects most exemplary. Yet he could effect nothing, whether
by his example or admonitions. Piccolomini (1651) was by
nature disposed to measures of energy and decision ; but these
he now abandoned altogether, and thought only of how he might
best give satisfaction to his brethren of the order.

For it had already become manifest that an attempt at change
in this respect was no longer advisable. Alessandro Gottofredi
(from January to March, 1651) would gladly have labored to
effect alterations, and strove at least to restrict the aspiring am-
bition that sought only its own advancement; but the two
months of his administration sufficed to make him generally
hated, and his death was hailed as the deliverance from a tyrant.
A still more decided antipathy was encountered by the succeed-
ing general, Goswin Nickel. Yet he could not be said to have
contemplated any very deeply searching reforms : he suffered
things to proceed, upon the whole, as they had previously