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CENT.ing every where its utmost vigilance and art to SECT. III. Support the authority of the Roman pontifs, and PARTI. to save them from the contempt, of which they must have been naturally apprehensive, in consequence of a revolution that opened the eyes of a great part of mankind.

All these circumstances placed the order of Jesuits in a conspicuous point of light. Their capacity, their influence, and their zeal for the papacy, had a very advantageous retrospect upon themselves, as it swelled the sources of their opulence, and procured to their society an uncommon, and indeed an excessive degree of veneration and respect. But it is also true, that these signal honours, and advantages exposed them, at the same time, to the envy of other religious orders; that their enemies multiplied from day to day; and that they were often involved in the greatest perplexities and perils. Monks, courtiers, civil magistrates, public schools, united their ef forts to crush this rising fabric of ambition and policy; and a prodigious number of books were published to prove, that nothing could be more detrimental to the interests of religion, and the well-being of society, than the institution of the Jesuits. In France, Poland, and other countries, they were declared public enemies of their country, traitors and parricides, and were even banished with ignominy [x]. But the prudence, or rather the cunning and artifice, of the disciples of Loyola, calmed this storm of opposition, and, by gentle and imperceptible methods, restored the credit and authority of their order, delivered it from the perils with which it had been threatened, and even

put

[x] See the Histoire des Religieux de la Campagnie de Je sus, tom iii. passim.-Boulay, Hist. Acedem. Paris. tom. vi. p. 559-648, et passim.-As well as almost all the writers who have given accounts of the sixteenth century.

put it in a state of defence [against the future at-CENT tempts of its adversaries [a].

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SICT, III.

Roman

XIII. The pontifs of this century that ruled PART I. the church after the decease of ALEXANDER VI. were Pope PIUS III. JULIUS II. [b], LEO X. pontifs. ADRIAN

[a] The character and spirit of the Jesuits were admirably described, and their transactions and fate foretold, with a sagacity almost prophetic, so early as the year 1551, in a sermon preached in Christ Church, Dublin, by Dr George Brown, bishop of that see; a copy of which was given to Sir James Ware, and may be found in the Harleian Miscellany (vol. v. p. 566.) The remarkable passage that relates to the Jesuits is as follows: "But there are a new fraternity of late sprung up, who call "themselves Jesuits, which will deceive many, who are much "after the Scribes and Pharisees' manner. Amongst the Jews "they shall strive to abolish the truth, and shall come very near 66 to do it. For these sorts will turn themselves into several "forms; with the heathens a heathenist, with the Atheists an Atheist, with the Jews a Jew, with the Reformers a Re"formade, purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, and your inclinations, and thereby bring you at 46 last to be like the fool that said in his heart There was no "God. These shall spread over the whole world, shall be "admitted into the councils of princes, and they never the wiser; charming of them, yea, making your princes "reveal their hearts and the secrets therein, and yet they not perceive it; which will happen from falling from the "law of God, by neglect of fulfilling the law of God, and by winking at their sins; yet in the end, God, to justify his law "shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the hands of those "who have most succoured them, and made use of them; so

66

66

46

that, at the end, they shall become odious to all nations. "They shall be worse than Jews, having no resting place upon "earth, and then shall a Jew have more favour than a Jesuit." -This singular passage, I had almost said prediction, seems to be accomplished in part, by the present suppression of the Jesuits in France, (I write this note in the year 1762); and by the universal indignation which the perfidious stratagems, iniquitous avarice, and ambitious views of that society, have excited among all the orders of the French nation, from the throne to the cottage.

[b] It was from a foolish ambition of resembling Cæsar (a very singular model for a Christian pontif,) that this pope, whose name was Rovere, assumed the denomination of Julius II. It may be indeed said, that Caesar was sovereign pontif (pontifex maximus), and that the pope of Rome enjoyed the same dignity though with some change in the title.

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CENT. ADRIAN Vl. whose characters and transactions SECT. III. have been already taken notice of; Clement VII: PARTI. of the house of Medicis,-Paul III. of the illus

trious family of Farnese [c], Julius III. [d]; whose name was John Maria Giocci,-Marcellus II.-Paul IV. [e], whose name, before

his

[c] The sentiments and character of Paul III. have given rise to much debate, even in our time, especially between the late Cardinal Quirini, and Keisling, Schelhorn, and some other writers. The cardinal has used his utmost efforts to defend the probity and merit of this pontif; while the two learned men above-mentioned represent him as a perfidious politician, whose predominant qualities were dissimulation and fraud. See Quirinus, De gestis Pauli III. Farnesii Brixiæ, 1745, in 4to. PAmong the res gesta of Paul III. were two bastards, whose offspring, Farnese and Sforza, were made cardinals in their infancy. See Keislingii Epist. de gestis Pauli III. Schelhorn. Amanitates Hist. Eccles. et Liter. But the licentious exploits of this pope do not end here. He was reproached, in a book published before his death under the name of Ochino, with having poisoned his mother and his nephew, with having ravished a young virgin at Ancona, with an incestuous and adulterous commerce with his daughter Constantia, who died of poison administered by the pope, to prevent any interruption in his odious amours. It is said, in the same book, that being caught in bed with his niece Laura Farnese, who was the wife of Nic Quercei, he received from this incensed husband a stab of a dagger, of which he bore the marks to his death. See Skeidan, Comment. de Statu Relig. et Republica, Carolo Quinto Cesare, lib. xxi. p. 667. edit. Argentor.

[d] This was the worthy pontif, who was scarcely seated in the papal chair, when he bestowed the cardinal's hat on the keeper of his monkeys, a boy chosen from among the lowest of the populace, and who was also the infamous object of his unnatural pleasures. See Thuan. lib. vi. & xv.-Hoffing. Hist. Eccl. tom. v. p. 572.—and more especially Sleidan, Histor. lib. xxi. Folio, m. 609.-When Julius was reproached by the cardinals for introducing such an unworthy member into the sacred college, a person who had neither learning, nor virtue, nor merit of any kind, he impudently replied by asking them, "What virtue or merit they had found in him, that could induce them' to place him (Julius) in the papal chair ?”

[e] Nothing could exceed the arrogance and ambition of this violent and impetuous pontif, as appears from his

treatment

XVI.

his elevation to the potificate, was John Peter Ca. CENT. raffa,-Pius IV. who was ambitious of being look-SECT. III. ed upon as a branch of the house of Medicis, and PARTI who had been known, before his promotion, by the name of John Angeli de Medicis,-Pius V. a Dominican, called Michael Ghisleri, a man of an austere and melancholy turn of mind, by which, and other similar qualities, he obtained a place in the kalendar, Gregory XIII. who was known previously by the name of Hugo Buoncompagno [f], -Sixtus V. otherwise named Felix Peretti di Montalto, who, in pride, magnificence, intrepidity, and strength of mind, and in other great virtues and vices, surpassed by far all his predecessors,-Urban VIII. Gregory XIV. Innocent IX. the shortness of whose reigns prevented them from acqui ring reputation, or falling into reproach.

Among these pontifs there were better and worse [g]; but they were all men of exemplary characters,

treatment of Queen Elizabeth. See Burnet's History of the Reformation: It was he who, by a bull, pretended to raise Ireland to the privilege and quality of an independent kingdom; and it was he also who first instituted the Index of prohibited books, mentioned above, sect. IX.

[f] See Jo. Petr. Maffei Annales Gregorii XIII. Rom. 1742, in 4to.

[g] Pius V. and Sixtus V. made a much greater figure in the annals of fame, than the other pontifs here mentioned; the former on account of his excessive severity against heretics, and the famous bull In Cana Domini, which is read publicly at Rome every year on the Festival of the Holy Sacrament; and the latter, in consequence of many services rendered to the church, and numberless attempts, carried on with spirit, fortitude, generosity, and perseverance, to promote its glory, and maintain its authority.-Several modern writers employed their pens in describing the life and actions of Pius V. so soon as they saw him canonised, in the year 1712, by Clement XI. Of his bull, entitled, In Cæna Domini, and the tumults it occasioned, there is an ample account in Giannone's Histoire Civile de Naples, tom. iv. p. 248. The life of Sixtes V. has been written by Gregory Leti, and tranflated into seVOL. IV.

veral

E

XVI.

CENT characters, when compared with the greatest part Ser. . of those who governed the church before the RePART formation. The number of adversaries, both foreign and domestic, that arose to set limits to the despotism of Rome, and to call in question the authority and jurisdiction of its pontif, rendered the college of cardinals, and the Roman nobility more cautious and circumspect in the choice of a spiritual ruler; nor did they almost dare, in these critical circumstances of opposition and danger, to entrust such an important dignity to any ecclesiastic, whose bare-faced licentiousness, frontless arrogance, or inconsiderate youth, might render him peculiarly obnoxious to reproach, and furnish thereby new matter of censure to their adversaries. It is also worthy of observation, that from this period of opposition, occasioned by the ministry of the Reformers, the Roman pontifs have never pretended to such an exclusive authority, as they had formerly usurped; nor could they, indeed, make good such pretensions, were they so extravagant as to avow them. They claim, therefore, no longer a power of deciding, by their single authority, matters of the highest moment and importance; but, for the most part, pronounce according to the sentiments that prevail in the college of cardinals, and in the different congregations, which are intrusted with their respective parts in the government of the church. Nor do they any more venture to foment divisions in sovereign states, to arm subjects against their rulers, or to level the thunder of their excommunications at the heads of princes. All such proceedings, which were formerly so frequent at the court of Rome, have been prudently suspended since the gradual

veral languages; it is however a very indifferent work, and the relations it contains are, in many places, inaccurate and w.far.hful.