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CHAPTER VIII.
The Great Jubilee of 1600.
A Pope so pious as Clement VIII was certain to have
much at heart the worthy celebration of the universal Jubilee, which fell in
the year 1600. The first preparations were made as early as the beginning of
1599. On March 3rd the Pope appointed two Congregations, each composed of
twelve Cardinals; the first, of which Santori was president, was to devote
itself to the spiritual preparations; the second, presided over by Galli, to
the material ones. Orders were issued to all the authorities in the Papal
States to provide for the maintenance and security of the roads ; the hospices in
Rome received ample subsidies, so that they might get ready to receive the
pilgrims. Clement VIII addressed himself to Philip III for a supply of grain
from Sicily. The governor of Milan was exhorted to repair the roads and assist
the pilgrims. All the Cardinals were to take part in the solemnity. The bulls
of May 19th and 21st, 1599, announced the celebration of the Holy Year, its
duration and the suspension of all other indulgences. On May 22nd letters of
invitation were sent to the Emperor, and the kings and Catholic princes, and on
October 30th was published the invitation to the whole of Christendom. The
princes were urgently exhorted to show themselves kind and generous to the
pilgrims from their own countries, and to those who should pass through them,
and to provide for their safety. In November the Pope prepared a special house
in the Borgo to receive the bishops and poor priests from beyond the Alps; he
also provided refuges for needy layfolk, especially from the countries where
Protestantism was predominant. The prelates of the reform Congregation were
ordered to visit the national hospices in Rome, and to assist in every way the
strangers who came for the jubilee. The prelate Mona was charged with the
pilgrims who came from Spain, Sorbolongo with those
from France, Seneca with those from Germany, Benaglia with those from Venice, Tarugi with those of the
Papal States and Urbino, and Gessi with those from
Poland. The Pope and the Cardinals assisted in a special way the celebrated
Confraternity of the SS. Trinita de’ Pellegrini. Other congregations, such as
that of the Stigmata of St. Francis, founded in 1594, received money for the
entertainment of needy pilgrims. The Pope also gave orders that the pilgrims
should not be exploited by the inn-keepers in their greed for gain, and that
throughout the Holy Year Rome should display the manifestation of the greatest
religious seriousness. The Carnival amusements were prohibited, and
distinguished preachers and good confessors were sent to all the churches. The
Cardinals were ordered not to wear their purple during this time of penance.
According to tradition the Holy Year should have begun
on the vigil of Christmas, with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s,
but as Clement VIII was ill with gout, this ceremony had perforce to be
postponed until the last day of December. Even then the Pope had to do violence
to himself to leave his bed of suffering, and perform the function, at which
eighty thousand persons were present. On the following day, after the High Mass
celebrated by Cardinal Sfondrato in St. Peter’s, he
gave the solemn benediction urbi et orbi.
Although after this the Pope was still very often
unwell, Clement VIII displayed the greatest zeal in gaining the jubilee
indulgence. Thirty visits to the churches had been laid down for the Romans,
and fifteen for strangers, but the Pope made sixty. He began on January 2nd,
and declared that he intended every Sunday to visit the four great basilicas of
St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major’s. He also
frequently made the visit to the Seven Churches. His deep piety edified
everyone. It was exceedingly touching to see him ascend the Scala Santa,
although his gout caused him great pain in his hands and feet. He assisted in
person at the celebration of the Forty Hours in the church of the Gesu, during
which Baronius preached. In spite of his sufferings
he could not be restrained from repeatedly washing the feet of poor pilgrims,
and waiting upon them at table, together with some of the Cardinals. In Lent he
was especially careful to provide good preachers, and himself set a good
example in this by having, in addition to the customary sermon by the Capuchin
Anselmo da Monopoli, special discourses delivered in his private chapel. It
gave him special pleasure to hear the word of God there from the lips of
Cardinals Silvio Antoniano, Bellarmine and Baronius. In
Holy Week, to the general surprise, the Pope took his place in the seat of the
Grand Penitentiary in St. Peter's and confessed for hours together all who
came. He was unwearied in helping poor pilgrims with abundant alms. He also
ordered that the feasts of the Church, especially Easter, Pentecost and that of
the Princes of the Apostles, should be celebrated with the greatest solemnity.
As had happened before, on this occasion as well the
Italian pilgrims came organized in confraternities, and made their entry in
solemn procession. Almost every week fresh bodies arrived on pilgrimage to the
holy places, the greatest crowds coming during the months of May and June. Up
to July 408 confraternities were counted. The entry of these companies, with
their crosses and banners, and figurative representations of saints, made an
imposing spectacle. An extraordinary impression was made on May 9th by the
entry of the Confraternity della Misericordia from
Foligno, which was met by the Confraternity of the Trinita. Evening had already
fallen, and by the light of many torches there were to be seen, first, boys
dressed as angels, with the instruments of the Passion, followed by a number of
cars upon which were shown the whole of the Passion of the Redeemer.
For the most part the Pope received the pilgrims in
the cortile of the Belvedere. The confraternities from his native city,
Florence, were received with special honour, Clement
himself giving communion to the members in St. Peter’s, after which they were
given a sumptuous repast in the Galleria Gregoriana.
Suitable honour was shown to the many important
personages who had come for the jubilee. Among these the first place must be
given to Cardinal Andrew of Austria, to whom in his mortal illness the Pope himself
administered the sacraments, making for him in the early hours of a cold
November morning the pilgrimage to the Seven Churches. Cardinal Count
Dietrichstein and the Duke of Bavaria presented themselves as simple pilgrims.
There also came the Duke of Lorraine, many German prelates and nobles, the
viceroy of Naples, Lemos,5 Archbishop Sourdis of
Bordeaux, accompanied by the historian Spondanus, two
Hungarian bishops, and one from Mexico. The noble Venetian lady, Caterina Zeno,
made the pilgrimage to Rome on foot. Among scholars mention must be made of
Claude de Peiresc, who on that occasion formed a
friendship with Bosio.
It was a great consolation to the Pope to see the
coming of many priests, not only from Germany, but even more from France. The
greater part of the pilgrims had been attracted by true devotion and sincere
piety, but some only by curiosity. Great was the amazement of the Protestants
who came to Rome, whose preachers had again described the solemnity as a mere
financial speculation, when they saw with their own eyes the Pope assiduously
visiting the churches, and imitating, as the true servant of God, the humble
actions of the Saviour, and washing and kissing the
feet of the pilgrims; how he furnished the needy with money, waited upon the
sick, consoled everyone, and heard the confessions of penitents like a simple
priest. Such a man could not be the Antichrist, as the preachers had described
the supreme head of the Catholic Church. It is not surprising then that a
number of Protestants, and even some Mahometans were
converted to the Catholic faith. Clement VIII showed a special interest in the
conversion of the son of a German preacher, at the end of 1600, who bore the
same name as the founder of Calvinism. Justus Calvin came by his invitation to
Rome, and received the sacrament of confirmation on September 1st, 1602, from
the hands of the Pope, while Cardinal Baronius himself was his sponsor in confirmation; the latter allowed Justus to take his
name instead of that other of ill omen.
As the Holy Year had begun on December 31st, 1599, its
completeness demanded that its closure should take place on the same date in
1600. But a fresh attack of gout on the part of the Pope caused a further
delay, and it was only on January 13th, 1601, that he was able to carry out the
solemn function.
According to the testimony of all contemporaries, the
number of pilgrims who went to Rome during the Holy Year was very large,
especially at Easter. The charitable institutions with which Rome was filled,
for it possessed more than the whole of England, stood the test. As before, the
hospice of the Trinita de’ Pellegrini, founded by Philip Neri, was pre-eminent; the Pope, the Cardinals, the aristocracy, and above all Flaminia
Aldobrandini, gave such abundant alms1 that this institution, which hired many
houses, had been able to give hospitality to 8,000 pilgrims by the end of
January 1600. According to careful estimates the hospice gave lodging and
food to half a million pilgrims. As many more found a welcome in
the other hospices, while there were others who were
received in the many convents and private houses. Thus the estimate
of 1,200,000 pilgrims in all is not excessive. In this way the Church and
her head could hail the dawn of the XVIIth century
with high hopes. The past century which, by reason of the great apostacies in
the north and centre of Europe had perhaps been one
of the most disastrous in the long history of the Church, had also been one of
the most consoling, because during its second half there had come the great
change brought about by Catholic reform and restoration.
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