CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER XXIII . Clement VII and the internal Affairs of the Church.— His Attitude towards the Questions of the Council and Reform.

While in Europe the ancient Church was suffering loss upon loss, many thousands were coming within her obedience in the newly discovered countries beyond the Atlantic. Exposed in her former domains to the bitterest reproaches and insults, from the lips of the converts of the New World came blessings for their deliverance from the darkness of heathendom, gratitude for protection from the cruelty of their conquerors

To the sons of St. Dominic and St. Francis this beneficent work was mainly due. The two Orders vied with each other in sending out a continuous stream of devoted missionaries to the continent of America, and in this work were supported in many ways by Clement VII. How ample were the measures taken by the Pope to forward the missionary work in Spanish America may be clearly seen from a letter written on the 19th of October 1532 to Charles V, empowering him to choose a hundred and twenty Franciscans, seventy Dominicans, and ten Hieronymites for the East Indian colonies, and to send them there, in case of necessity, even if contrary to the wishes of the rulers of the Orders.

Clement VII gave strong support to the Christianizing of the newly discovered portions of America by constituting a hierarchy for the purpose of providing regular ecclesiastical guidance for those who had become converts. On the nth of May 1524 he created the new Patriarchate of the West Indies, entrusting this post to Antonio Rojas, Bishop of Palencia. On the 28th of December 1528 the two dioceses of Haiti were consolidated into the single bishopric of San Domingo. The autumn of 1530 saw the creation of the see of Mexico and the appointment of Gabriele Merino as Patriarch of the West Indies; in 1531 sees were erected in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Honduras, and in 1534 S. Marta and Panama in Colombia were made bishoprics. Clement bestowed similar attention on the possessions of Portugal. The bishopric of Funchal in Madeira, created by Leo X, was elevated on the 31st of January 1533 into an archbishopric, with four suffragan bishoprics attached to it. These were San Miguel in the Azores, the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde group, St. Thomas in Ecuador, and Goa in the East Indies. This formed certainly the largest Metropolitan see in the world.

In harsh contrast to the happy results in the New World was the complete failure of the attempts to re­unite Russia and the Holy See. Clement had already written on the 25th of May 1524 to the Grand Duke Vasili calling upon him to recognize the Roman Primacy and appealing to the negotiations that had already taken place under Alexander VI and Leo X. This recognition he made conditional to his bestowing upon him the kingly title. Thereupon in the autumn of 1525 Demetrius Gerasimov appeared in Rome as Russian Ambassador and was treated with the most marked attention. Gerasimov was admirably fitted to foster the Pope’s optimism with regard to the views prevalent at the Russian court. At the end of 1525 he went back to Russia accompanied by the Minorite, Francesco da Potentia, Bishop of Skara, as Papal Legate.

The latter certainly was successful in arranging an armistice between Poland and Russia, but on the other hand he failed in the question of ecclesiastical union. In 1527 another embassy visited the Pope from Russia, and a meeting took place at Orvieto in January 1528. From the Briefs handed to them by Clement VII on their return, it is clear that the Pope’s illusions concerning Russia were as strong as ever. The true state of affairs remained hidden from the Roman Curia ; this was not surprising on account of the great distance and the difficulty of means of communication.

Clement VII tried to confirm the Maronites and Armenians in their loyal adherence to the Union of Florence, and with this object he wrote many Briefs and sent many special messengers. During his second meeting with Charles V. at Bologna he received an embassy from the King of ^Ethiopia bearing letters and gifts and tendering solemn obedience.

In the year 1525 the great Jubilee took place. Although the disturbed state of ecclesiastical and political affairs made it seem to many injudicious to hold this solemnity, Clement had already decided on the 18th of April 1524 that it should take place. Nor did the outbreak of the plague in Rome move him from this decision. He took account of the altered circumstances by a reform of the Roman clergy and by setting aside the obligation of paying a sum of money to obtain the Jubilee indulgence. Stringent regulations were enacted to ensure the safety of pilgrims. Nevertheless, principally on account of the rupture of peace and terrible confusion in Germany, the pilgrims came in smaller numbers than at any previous Jubilee. Some alterations in the ceremonial were introduced on this occasion; among others the Pope, on opening the Holy Door, made use of a golden hammer. A noteworthy feature was the resumption of the impressive Passion Play in the Colosseum during the year of Jubilee. To the hindrances already mentioned were soon added the perils of a Turkish descent on the coasts of Italy and a fresh outbreak of the plague in August 1525. Almost up to the end of the Jubilee year the plague prevailed in Rome. Also during the extension of the Jubilee into the following year the Pope insisted that the money contributions of the faithful should be left to their free discretion. Nevertheless, the Protestants continued to declare that the Jubilee was instituted only to gain money, ridiculing it in coarse and odious satires.

The Bull announcing the beatification of Archbishop Antonino of Florence, delayed owing to the death of Adrian VI, was published by Clement VII. He canonized the Venetian, Lorenzo Giustiniani and the  Cardinals Aleman and Peter of Luxembourg. The Pope also sanctioned the cultus of St. Hyacinth of Poland and the office composed by Bernardino da Busti in honour of the Name of Jesus. In many ways he encouraged devotion to Our Lady and the recitation of the Rosary. Special Bulls dealt with the Rota, the Vice-Chancellorship, the observance of the German Concordat, and the prohibition of duelling.

In ecclesiastical policy Clement repeatedly found himself forced to make great concessions to temporal princes who, like the sovereigns of Spain, France, Poland, and Bavaria, did not yield to the inducement to apostatize. Owing to his powerlessness when opposed to the Emperor, his representations of the constantly recurring encroachments on the freedom of the Church in Spain, and especially in Sicily, produced no effect. In this respect the Pope had many causes of complaint against other princes, Francis I in particular. Even King John III. of Portugal, otherwise so friendly to him, had to be strongly admonished in the year 1524 for the arbitrary imprisonment of two bishops At the end of his pontificate the question of the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in Portugal gave rise to serious differences. Clement only gave a partial assent to the wishes of King John when, on the 17th of December 1531, he appointed a Commissary Apostolic and Inquisitor for the whole of Portugal, to institute, in conjunction with the bishops, an inquiry into the accused Jewish Christians, with orders to punish the guilty. As the King, on the 14th of June 1532, by a new law tried to subject the Jews and Jewish Christians to his arbitrary authority, they appealed to the Pope, complaining of the violent treatment and the unjust and harsh proceedings of the King and the Inquisition. 

Clement would not associate himself with the King’s unjust treatment of his subjects. He first suspended, on the 17th of October 1532, the Bull of December 1531. As all his representations remained ineffectual, on the 7th of April 1533, to the entire exclusion of the Portuguese Inquisition, he cited the guilty before his own special court and gave the Nuncio full powers to effect the reconciliation on the easiest terms possible. He thus declared expressly that the Jews who had been treated so severely were not to be punished as heretics. John III raised objections to these injunctions, and forbade their publication. The Pope therefore instructed his Nuncio to defer the publication of the Bull for a while; in a Brief he justified himself against the King’s complaints by explaining the reasons for his clemency towards the Jewish Christians. Already nearing his end, on the 26th of July 1534 he ordered the Nuncio to execute the orders of April 1533, which were as just as they were merciful.

In other instances as well the Pope showed such tenderness and large-hearted good-will towards the Jews that a learned member of their nation of that day did not refrain from calling him “ Clement, the gracious friend of Israel.” The position of the Jews in Rome as well as in the Papal States was, in consequence, a prosperous one.

The absolutism of the Venetian Republic was a source of repeated and angry conflict. Towards the jealous Signoria, Clement, in several questions of ecclesiastical policy, showed great readiness to conciliate; nevertheless, the Venetian Government renewed their claim, abandoned expressly in the treaty of peace of 1510, to the right of appointing to bishoprics within their territory. This treaty was infringed with the utmost disregard of obligations, and treated as if it were non-existent. The disputes about the possession of bishoprics began as early as 1524. Afterwards, particularly between 1530 and 1532, the question played a prominent part and, in the latter year, became acute owing to the Venetian Government taxing, on its own initiative, the clergy of the Republic for the purposes of the Turkish war. In this question of nomination to bishoprics Clement showed great steadfastness; the consequence was that the Signoria finally yielded in June 1533 as far as five bishoprics were concerned, but would make no concession concerning Treviso or Corfu, although Clement VII in May had already threatened the heaviest ecclesiastical penalties. The Pope made passionate complaints to the Venetian Ambassador; in Venice itself the procurator Francesco Donato said that “Christ had deputed the pastoral office to Peter; do not let us interfere in questions of Church benefices which belong to the Pope.” Others pointed to the danger of Clement, in his approaching conference with Francis I, making terms unfavourable to the Republic. The majority therefore decided in favour of giving way as regarded Corfu; on the other hand, the controversy over Treviso, which had been in suspense since 1527, remained unsettled. Up to the last the Venetian diplomatists hoped that from political motives the Pope would in the end give way.

The appointments to the Cardinalate made by Clement VII. are uncommonly characteristic of his reign. The assertion, however, that, of all his nominations, he did not make one as a free agent, is an exaggeration; but, in justice, it must be admitted on the other hand that in the majority of cases the ruling motive in his creations was political expediency or compulsion.

In the first four years of his reign Clement VII was especially reluctant to increase the number of the Sacred College. Although the Emperor had already, in June 1525, asked for the appointment of two new Cardinals, and there was repeatedly talk of approaching creations, the Pope always deferred as long as possible the decisive step. His first creation was not made until the eve of the sack of Rome. To the six Cardinals then appointed seven others were added1 on the 21st of November of the same year, with whom on the 7th of December Quinones, and on the 20th of December 1527 Francesco Cornaro were associated. In the beginning of 1529 Ippolito de’ Medici, who had only entered his eighteenth year, and Girolamo Doria, were made Cardinals. The nomination of Mercurino di Gattinara took place on the 13th of August of the same year.4 During the first conference at Bologna on the 9th of March 1530, Clement agreed to the elevation of four Imperialists (Cles, Loaysa, de Challant, and Stunica). To satisfy Francis I, Tournon was received into the Sacred College on the 19th of March and Gramont on the 8th of June.

On the 24th of March 1530 Clement VII promised the Duke of Savoy that he would make his son, then a child of three years, a Cardinal as soon as he had reached the lawful age. This very strange engagement was never carried out, for the person whom it concerned preferred later on to follow a secular career. The influence of Charles V secured the nomination, on the 22nd of March 1531, of the Spaniards Alfonso Manrico and Juan Tavera; on the 25th of September Antonio Pucci was made Cardinal. During the second conference at Bologna the Emperor only carried one candidate, instead of three, in the person of Gabriele Merino; soon afterwards the Frenchman, Jean d’Orléans, was appointed. Francis I was luckier than Charles V, for at the conference of Marseilles in 1533 he secured the elevation of four of his dependants.

The total number of Cardinals made by Clement, in fourteen creations, amounted to thirty-three, of whom nine were Spaniards, with an equal number of Frenchmen, one a German, and all the rest Italians. The preponderating political character of these appointments shows that spiritual fitness for the post was not made of much account in the selection. Even if all were not personally so unworthy as the youth Ippolito de’ Medici, yet the greater number consisted of worldly men of conspicuous rank. Many of them were only ecclesiastics in garb, and were occupied with any other interests than those of the Church. How accustomed men had become to such incongruous conditions is shown by a very suggestive remark in the report of 1531 of Antonio Soriano, the Venetian envoy: “I will not say that the present Cardinals are saints; yet I cannot but speak of them with respect as of men of lordly rank who live in a manner worthy of their noble station.”

But how was this manner of life to be reconciled with the stringent decrees of the Lateran Council ? This question is closely connected with the attitude assumed by the Pope towards the very necessary removal of ecclesiastical abuses. From the very first it was disastrous that under Clement VII. Church affairs did not, as in the days of Adrian VI, rank before all others. Medici, to his own misfortune and that of the Church, was eminently a political Pope; the necessity of a reform could not have escaped the observation of so clear-sighted an intelligence.

The activity displayed by Clement as Cardinal and Archbishop of Florence in carrying out the reformatory decisions of the Lateran Council led to the hope that as Pope he would also prosecute his work in this sphere.

As a matter of fact, in the first year of his pontificate he showed himself a zealous reformer, acting evidently under the influence of the excellent Giberti.

Already on the 18th of January 1524 Clement had addressed a Consistory on the reform of the Curia and invited the Cardinals to make proposals. Together with this went a scheme for a general reform of the conditions of the Church ; for this purpose prelates and bishops of Italy and other countries, such as Spain, were summoned to Rome, and a special commission of Cardinals was formed to consider the question of reform. On the 24th of February 1524 the Pope made more detailed proposals to the Cardinals on a reform of the Curia and ordered the decisions of the Lateran Council bearing on this point to be strictly enforced. In the autumn of 1524 the conditions of reform were dealt with in a series of consistories and drawn up with greater precision.

With express reference to the coming Jubilee the Pope introduced, on the 9th of September, three administrative proposals: first, a general visitation of the churches of Rome; secondly, an examination of the Roman secular clergy; those among them who were found to be unfitted for their functions should be prohibited from saying Mass at least during the Jubilee year; thirdly, precautions were to be taken to procure qualified confessors during this sacred time. These proposals were carried, and were at once put into operation. A strict supervision was also made of the observation of the rules appertaining to the dress of the priesthood and the disuse of the beard. The measures taken were so stringent that those ardent for reform began to indulge in the brightest hopes. Many of the laxer prelates submitted only with great reluctance to these ordinances, but they did submit. For the visitation a special commission was appointed, which met every Sunday and at the same time exhorted the Cardinals to support this salutary work, and to set good examples to those under their authority. Strong measures were also taken against open immorality. On the 7th of November 1524 Clement again called the attention of the Consistory to the reform of the Curia. He insisted primarily on the observance of the Lateran decrees of the 5th of May 1514 on reform being pressed home, for they were weapons against a legion of abuses. He entrusted Cardinal Pucci with the drawing up of a Bull on this subject4 which was agreed to on the 21st of November and forthwith published.

In the execution of these reforms Giberti and Sadoleto were Clement’s supporters. In the beginning of December the Cardinals were exhorted to take care of their churches; soon after three commissaries were appointed to visit all churches, convents, and hospitals in Rome. Already on the 8th of September the Pope had issued an emphatic decree to remove the scandal of the Minorites frequenting Rome without wearing the habit of their Order. On the 30th of November he commanded the Roman magistrates to throw such vagrants into prison.

A wholesome measure for the improvement of the clergy was the issue of instructions to Bishop Gian Pietro Carafa, then resident in Rome, concerning the candidates for holy orders, by which every form of simony was repressed. In certain cases also Clement showed himself averse to the accumulation of benefices; while recognizing the gravity of this abuse, he was yet often compelled to yield to the force of circumstances. A whole series of Papal enactments for the year 1524 dealt with the reform of the secular and regular clergy of the dioceses of Florence, Parma, Naples, Venice, Milan, Burgos, and Mayence. In the same year the Pope gave orders for a general reform of the Carmelite Order, and in 1525 similar measures were taken in regard to the Order of the Humiliati.

Unhappily these hopeful beginnings had no correspond­ing results. Political distractions soon absorbed more and more the attention of the Pope, and, in consequence, the measures of reform slackened. On the 2nd of March 1526 Clement stated in writing that he had certainly not abandoned his plans for a reformation of morals but that, owing to the adverse conditions of the time, he was forced to defer their execution. During the troubles that afterwards arose practical measures of reform lay almost entirely dormant.

That Clement VII had always realized the necessity of raising the standard of life within the Church is evident from the earnest address made to the Cardinals at Easter 1528, when he spoke of the sack of Rome as a judgment of God. But he still held back from decisive and comprehensive action. Political and ecclesiastical troubles of every kind beset him but, over and above, he was preoccupied by the interests of the house, of Medici.

The years 1529 and 1530 were marked, however, by a series of special enactments of reform, but inadequate to existing circumstances. There was no vigorous attack on abuses in the Curia, no thorough application of the measures already laid down. In this respect Clement lies open to the grave reproach of having receded from the path opened by Adrian VI; he allowed things to drift back into a contrary course. Outside Rome itself the condition of things was no better. The evils had passed beyond the reach of special regulations, and the cure lay  beyond the scope of ordinary remedies. Far and wide the demand for a Council was raised; but this was an heroic measure from which Clement shrank with the utmost misgiving.

Clement dared not openly refuse a Council; but with the innate diplomacy of an Italian he tried by a policy of delay to weaken the necessity of convoking one; he was afraid that more harm than good would result from such an assembly. He weighed beforehand all the dangers that a Council undoubtedly might involve, and in his treatment of the whole matter showed such timidity and indecision that, in the end, he forfeited the belief of all men in his sincerity. The Pope’s objections to the Council were, in the main, half religious and half political. Nor was he unaffected by personal considerations; his illegitimate birth and certain defects of character counted for something, but this could not, as Charles V and his party believed, have formed the decisive motive for the Pope’s behaviour; that was partly grounded on politics and partly on religion.

The synods of Constance and Basle, with their aggressive attempts to weaken Papal authority, were still fresh, with their ominous import, in the memory of the Roman See. What security was there that the controversy over conciliar authority might not revive again. Should this happen, developments beyond the ken of man were to be feared. To the Pope, always a prey to anxiety, a not less serious consideration was the reaction which a thoroughgoing system of reform would effect in the conditions of life in Rome. If we grasp that the mere rumour of the summons of a Council caused a sudden fall in the price of all saleable offices, we can estimate the amount of pressure brought to bear on the Pope in his financial necessity by the officials of the Curia. Further, there was the serious apprehension that the all-powerful Emperor would exercise a preponderant influence in the Council and practically annul the independence of the Holy See.

Again, how often during the previous century had the demand for a Council been basely misused by the Pope’s enemies to subserve the worst purposes. Already in 1526 Charles V had not disdained, in his political contest with Clement, to employ the Council as a weapon against him. How easily might such proceedings be repeated! And a factor of great influence was the policy of the King of France, who laboured assiduously to prevent a general assembly of the Church, and in pursuit of this object did not seem to shrink even from schism. Finally, the conditions tendered by the Protestants with regard to the participation in “a free Christian Council” not merely of the temporal princes but even of heretical preachers, were such that no Pope could entertain them. Thus there was urgent need for the greatest caution. Nevertheless, the most painful feelings were aroused by the Pope’s opposition to a general Council, and especially by his unnatural subordination of the religious and ecclesiastical tasks of his office to those which were political. This unfavourable impression was only partially mitigated by the encouragement given by Clement, in a measure, to the efforts at reform which took practical shape in the hands of men such as Gaetano di Tiene, Giberti, Carafa, Miani, Zaccaria, and others.