CHAPTER V.

Clement VIII. and the interior life of the Church.— The Religious Orders.—The Episcopate.—The Sacred College.

Filled with a conviction that the clergy of the Eternal City ought to stand out before all the world for their virtue and piety, Clement VIII immediately after the beginning of his pontificate, proclaimed a general visitation of all the churches, religious houses, and pious institutions of Rome. In the document which was published on June 8th, 1592, it was declared that just as none but a well cultivated field can produce an abundant harvest, so was it also in spiritual matters, and for that reason the Council of Trent had so strongly urged canonical visitations. To this end a commission composed of cardinals and bishops was appointed, which was to begin its labours with a visitation of the Lateran basilica. In order to obtain the divine assistance the Pope ordered the Forty Hours to be celebrated in the principal churches of Rome.

Mindful of the words of Our Divine Lord, that the good shepherd must know his sheep, Clement VIII, regardless of his high dignity, took a personal share in the visitation of the greater number of the Roman churches. In this he was assisted by Cardinals Medici and Valiero, as well as by three bishops, among them the distinguished Lodovico de Torres, Archbishop of Monreale. After the Pope had celebrated high mass in the Lateran basilica on June 18th, 1592, and distributed holy communion to the clergy, he gathered them together in the sacristy, and delivered a discourse to them, in which he spoke of all the duties of their office, threatening grave punishments to those who had failed therein. Then, assisted by four Cardinals, he made a visitation of the church, and especially of the tabernacle, ordering that a place of greater honour should be assigned to it. He also demanded a more splendid reliquary for the heads of the Princes of the Apostles. The visitation was continued in the afternoon and on the following day. When the Pope visited the Lateran Hospital, he found there a sick man at the point of death, and Clement VIII rendered him all assistance with as much fervour as though he had been a simple parish priest. The Pope also carried out in person the visitation of the Lateran clergy, and of the house of the penitentiaries attached to the basilica, where he arrived quite unexpectedly. One penitentiary, in whose room he found a copy of the love­songs of Petrarch, was deprived of his office ; the same fate befel another penitentiary who was found to be unfit. Clement VIII. declared that he would proceed in like manner everywhere, as he preferred to have a few well instructed priests to many who were ignorant.

In the same way as the Lateran basilica, St. Mary Major’s and St. Peter’s were subjected to a strict visitation, and after them one by one according to their rank, all the churches of the city. It was at once realized that Clement VIII knew in every case how to observe a just mean between excessive severity and too great leniency. However much he clung to the splendour of divine worship, he energetically protested against the exaggerated pomp displayed at processions by the Spaniards in their national church. Wherever it was necessary he intervened with great severity The exactitude with which he proceeded could not have been greater, and he paid attention to the smallest details. He made a very searching visitation of the Hospital of Santo Spirito, and at the Aracoeli he went into the cell of every one of the friars. The confessors were everywhere examined with special vigilance. The Pope preferred to make’ his appearance without warning and quite unexpectedly, and, as in the case of all his reforms, he took steps on his own initiative.

The visitation of the Roman churches in 1592 was continued by the Pope in person even after the commencement of the cold season, and the Venetian ambassador reports that in this he displayed a zeal that could not have been greater if he had been a simple bishop. The reforms which he prescribed were all entered in the Acta.

In view of the minuteness with which the visitation was carried out, it is not surprising that it was prolonged from 1593 to 1596. It proved very efficacious so that it was again repeated later on. In July 1603 Clement VIII. took part in the visitation of the church and convent of S. Salvatore in Lauro. The Pope also insisted on taking part in the examinations, begun in 1597 onwards, of the parish-priests of Rome, which were entrusted to a commission of Cardinals, even though it was pointed out to him that in so doing he was fatiguing himself unduly.

Convinced as he was of the importance of the religious Orders to the Church, Clement VIII, in the course of his visitations, devoted special attention to the state of the religious houses of Rome. As early as March 1592 he had summoned before him the generals and procurators of all the Orders, and had exhorted them, with threats of grave penalties, to lead an exemplary life. This warning was repeated in the severest terms in September, when it had transpired that the enactments ordered during the visitation had to a great extent not been carried out. The Pope asked for a list of all those who failed to obey, and said that in the place of so great a number of small houses which were difficult to supervise, he would like to see in every province three or four large houses in which the reform could be carried out exactly. In October 1592 all the gratings and windows in the convents of women which gave upon the street were walled up. At the visitation in 1593 the Capuchins in the convent on the Quirinal had to listen to words of severe reproof. In 1596 there were fresh measures of reform for the religious houses of Rome. Later on too the Pope took advantage of his visits to the houses of the Orders to address serious observations to them, though wherever he found a satisfactory state of affairs he did not spare his praises.

In December 1592 a prohibition, addressed for the time being to the religious houses of Rome, was issued against the making of gifts, which did not apply, however, to alms to the poor. On June 19th, 1594, this ordinance was extended to all the religious houses in the world. In the same way the constitutions concerning the erection of new houses, and the punishment of exempt religious who had committed some fault outside their own houses, were also made universal.

Clement VIII rendered good service to the Orders by his constitution of March 12th, 1596, and four subsequent decrees of the years 1599, 1602 and 1603, concerning the exclusion of those who had no true vocation, and the training in deep piety of young religious. These contained the most salutary prescriptions, limited for the time being to Italy, on the reception of novices.

With what care Clement VIII laboured everywhere for the re-establishment of religious discipline, where it had become relaxed, and for its maintenance, where it still existed, is shown by the visitors whom he sent, by his many instructions to the nuncios, and by a whole series of special enactments. These applied to the Augustinian Hermits, the Basilians, the Camaldolese, the Cistercians, the Cluniacs, the Order of the Holy Ghost, the Hermits of the Hieronymite observance, the Knights of St. John, the Carthusians, the Servites and the Dominicans. Clement VIII introduced more strict rules in the case of the Brothers of Charity and the Fathers of a Good Death. He greatly encouraged among the Franciscan Order the new reforms of the Observants, the Riformati in Italy and the Recollects in France. Francisco Sousa of Toledo who in 1600 was elected General of the Observants in Rome, presented to the Pope a memorial on the state of his Order, in which he had lived for thirty-five years, filling almost all the offices, and making visitations of almost all the provinces. He described in detail the condition, to some extent not very consoling, of the convents in Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and makes suggestions for their improvement. He lays it down as a maxim for reform that it must not be universal, but adapted to the very varied needs of the different districts.

In the Benedictine Order, reform had been carried out, in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, both in Italy and Spain, by means of the institution of congregations; at the beginning of his pontificate Clement VIII gave some salutary ordinances to the Cassinese Congregation. In France, where the system of commendams had exercised a harmful influence, they did not prove of any particular importance, except in the case of the congregation of Saints Vanne and Hydulphe, established in Lorraine at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and in that of the Feuillants. The former was confirmed by Clement VIII, from whom it received new and milder rules. In Germany the most important congregation was that established in 1564 in Swabia, which was confirmed in 1603 with the title of the Congregation of St. Joseph. The most important Benedictine monasteries in Switzerland, St. Gall, Einsiedeln, Muri and Fischingen, were united into one congregation in 1602. Clement VIII confirmed this and also invited other Swiss monasteries to join it. Pfafers and Rheinau did so at once, and all the others later on.

In the matter of the reform of the regular and secular clergy, Clement VIII addressed himself repeatedly to the bishops. If the latter were fulfilling their pastoral duties he expressed his satisfaction, but if not, he addressed severe admonitions to the archbishops, and sometimes even to the princes. Occasionally he also sent special visitors, as was the case with Sardinia in 1598. His nuncios at Naples and Venice laboured incessantly for the reform, which was very much needed in many of the religious houses there.

However cold Clement VIII showed himself towards the Jesuits, he was not blind to their success in popular missions, for which work they were especially fitted. Therefore in 1598 he induced the Jesuits in Rome to preach such missions in the Campania, the Sabines, and the Roman Campagna. The self-denial of the fathers in this work among the poor country folk, in the full heat of summer, was indeed admirable, and their success was in the highest degree consoling. The Bishops of Civita Casteliana and Montepulciano asked that these missions might also be extended to their dioceses.

In Rome, where the Jesuits were doing very useful work, above all encouraging in their churches the devotion to the sufferings of Christ, they were rivalled by the Theatines and the Oratorians. Clement VIII confirmed for the Theatines their emended rule, and granted them many favours. The Capuchinss and the Barnabites who were spreading throughout Italy, received many proofs of the good-will of the Pope. The same was the case with the Oratorians, who were very dear to the Pope, who had Baronius as his confessor. In the matter of the absolution of Henry IV it was seen what influence that distinguished man, as well as Philip Neri, had over him. The relations between Clement VIII and the holy founder of the Oratorians, who died on May 26th, 1595, were both cordial and intimate, as between father and son. Clement VIII, who, like all the Aldobrandini, loved cheerfulness, was well able to adapt himself to the joking and humourous methods which Philip Neri loved to adopt, and we have evidence of this in certain letters which were exchanged between them. But though the Pope willingly yielded to the wishes of Philip Neri, he nevertheless preserved his independence even with him. Thus he remained immovable when the saint presented a plea on behalf of a bandit who had been condemned to death, for Clement judged it necessary that in this case the law should take its course in all its rigour. Nor would he suffer himself to be moved from his intention of making the most beloved of the disciples of Philip Neri, Tarugi, Archbishop of Avignon, and though the saint did all he could to induce the Pope to change his mind, he adhered to his purpose, saying that he could not give way, because it was incumbent upon him to care for the well-being and the betterment of the whole Church.

The Minorite, Angelo del Pas, was held in high esteem by Clement VIII. He had also been esteemed by his predecessors on account of his theological works and the purity of his life ; he died in 1596 in the odour of sanctity. The same was true of Camillus of Lellis, the founder of the Fathers of a Good Death.

Two other saints also found a fervent protector in the Aldobrandini Pope : Giovanni Leonardi and Joseph Calasanctius.

Giovanni Leonardi, who was born in 1543 in a village near Lucca, and who first, by the wish of his parents, became a chemist, only attained to the goal of his desires, the priesthood, later on. Although he was already twenty-six Giovanni took his place once more on the benches of a school in order to learn Latin. Ordained at the end of 1572, he devoted himself with ardent zeal in Lucca to the catechizing of poor children and the instruction of the young in their religion. The first fellow­labourers that he met with there were a hat-maker named Giorgio Arrighini and Giambattista Cioni, the scion of a noble family. Together with these he established himself in 1574 in a room near the church of the Madonna della Rosa. Among the companions who joined them there were above all two brothers, Cesare and Giulio, of the Franciotti family, and related to the della Rovere. Being asked by his companions for a written rule, Leonardi took a sheet of paper and wrote the single word: “Obedience.” Although the members of this new company lived for nothing but their own sanctification and the good of their fellow-citizens, they did not lack persecution, but the Bishop of Lucca, Alessandro Guidiccioni, supported the work of these pious men.

Giovanni Leonardi drew up a catechism, and did such useful work in Lucca and the neighbourhood, that the Bishop of Lucca called him the apostle of his diocese. With unwearied activity he introduced into the cities, on the last Thursday of the Carnival, a general communion, and, following the example of Charles Borromeo, the pious exercise of the Forty Hours during the last three days of the carnival. When he was once again subjected to persecution, the holy man was not discouraged, not even when he and his companions came to lack all means, and their house was taken away from them. His firm trust in God was not in vain ; in 1580, the rector of the church of S. Maria Cortelandini, made over to him, with the consent of the bishop, his presbytery, and in 1583 Leonardi and his zealous companions established there a religious congregation, under the name and patronage of the Madonna, for their own perfection and the preaching of the word of God.

While on a pilgrimage to Rome Leonardi formed a friendship with Philip Neri. This proved very valuable to him when a fresh persecution at Lucca forced him to have recourse to the Holy See. On his return the inhabitants of Lucca closed the gates of the city against him. Although Sixtus V had declared Leonardi innocent, the latter was unwilling to stir up his adversaries against him any further, and he therefore remained in Rome, in close relationship with Philip Neri, and furthering the work in the hospitals and schools. Clement VIII esteemed his labours in the highest degree; it did not seem fitting to him that the work of a religious society, which sought for nothing but the welfare of the inhabitants of Lucca and its own members, should be any longer hampered, and accordingly, on October 13th, 1595, at Leonardi’s request, he approved his congregation.

In 1596 the Pope arranged that this zealous priest should be able once more to return to Lucca. Since men’s minds there were not yet quite calmed, Clement VIII for the time being made use of Leonardi as apostolic commissary for the introduction of reforms into the Order of Montevergine in the province of Naples. After this Leonardi also reformed certain monasteries of the Vallombrosans, and visited Monte Sennaro, the cradle of the Servite Order. Cardinal Tarugi asked for him in 1597 for the reform of his diocese,1 and in the same year he visited his house at Lucca. In 1601 Leonardi was successful in founding a second house in Rome near the church of S. Maria in Portico.

Two years later the Pope entrusted to Cardinal Baronius the protectorate of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, whose first General Leonardi became. A brief of June 24th, 1604, allowed the new congregation to establish houses everywhere, provided the diocesan bishops gave their permission. “Take care of the young,” said the Pope to the founder, when he presented himself before him with Baronius.

There was another saint who was likewise predestined to the priesthood, who was filled with enthusiasm for the good of his neighbour, and whose efforts were encouraged by Clement VIII: this was Joseph Calasanctius, so called from the mountainous hamlet in Aragon, near Petralta de la Sal, where he was born in 1556. After the young nobleman had studied philosophy and jurisprudence at the university of Lerida, and theology at Valencia and Alcala de Henares, he was urged to contract matrimony after the death of his brother without issue, so that his ancient family might not die out. The young man would not hear of this, but it was only after he had been miraculously cured of a grave illness, that his father abandoned the project.

Having been ordained priest at the end of 1583 Joseph Calasanctius devoted himself for nine years to the care of souls in various parts of his native Spain. It seemed that he might confidently look forward to some great ecclesiastical office, but a secret desire drew him to Rome. He arrived there in a state of poverty in the spring of 1592, for after his father's death he had distributed the whole of his inheritance. The inhabitants of the Eternal City were still suffering at that time from the effects of the plague and famine, which had scourged them from 1590 onwards thus there were many orphan children wandering about the streets, without clothing, food or instruction. A friend of Philip Neri, the noble and pious Giovanni Leonardo Ceruso, known as “Il Letterato,” had already in the time of Gregory XIII. founded an institute for abandoned children, of which, after his death on February 13th, 1595, Baronius, by the order of Clement VIII undertook the care. But this alone could not overcome the evil. Joseph Calasanctius, who immediately after his arrival in Rome had become a member of the confraternity for teaching Christian Doctrine, saw with profound grief how many abandoned children were growing up without instruction or supervision. When he applied to the masters of the schools to be allowed to instruct the little ones gratuitously, he was referred by them to the magistracy. But he failed to obtain a hearing there as well. Then it seemed to him that he heard the words of Holy Scripture : “To thee is reserved the care of the poor, and to the orphans thou shalt be a helper.” Thus there sprang up in his mind the idea of founding a special school for the poor, and of becoming its director. To this end he met with his first helper in the parish priest of the church of S. Dorotea in Trastevere, Antonio Brendani, who put a few rooms at his disposal, and promised to help him with the instruction. It was in that church that the Oratory of Divine Love had once sprung into existence, from which the work of Catholic reform and restoration had begun.

It was a strange coincidence that now, at the moment of the highest development of that movement, a new and important institution was to spring up in the same place. As soon as some of the members of the Society of Divine Love had promised their co-operation, the first popular free school in Europe was able to come into existence.

Clement VIII. extended his protection to a work on which the blessing of God visibly rested. The number of children, of whom from the first there were about a hundred, grew from year to year. They were given the necessary books and writing materials gratuitously; they were also given clothing, since, following the example of the open-handed Pontiff, other benefactors as well provided ample alms.

In 1601 it was possible to hire a larger house near S. Andrea in Valle, in which Joseph Calasanctius began to lead a community life with his companions, who had by 1604 reached the number of twelve. Thus were laid the foundations of the Piaristi or Clerks Regular of the Pious Schools, afterwards called the Poor Clerks of the Madonna, the “Scolopi” (Scuole pie) or the Poalini. Since noble and wealthy families also sent their children to the excellent school of Calasanctius, jealousies and envy were aroused, but the Pope convinced himself that the accusations made against the school of the poor children were unfounded, and he continued as before to be their protector.

Clement VIII founded in Rome, for the Roman nobles and foreigners, the “ Collegium Clementinum ” the direction of which he entrusted to the Somaschi. This institution, the Protector of which was Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, soon attained great celebrity.

The Society of Christian Doctrine, founded in 1560 by the noble Milanese Marco de Sadis Cusani, found an ardent protector in Clement VIII. From this sprang in 1596 the Congregation of Clerks Secular of Christian Doctrine and a confraternity in connexion with it. After the death of Cusani (September 17th, 1595) the connexion between the two bodies was severed; the confraternity was given a director of its own, and the Congregation was given a provost and the church of S. Martina near the Forum. In order to confirm both young and old in Christian doctrine, the Society of Christian Doctrine established disputations in the churches, which are still in use today in the Eternal City.

It was of importance too that the Pope confirmed the French teachers of Christian Doctrine founded by Cesar de Bus, and in 1598 charged Bellarmine himself with the composition of a catechism, which by its perfection very quickly superseded all other works of a similar nature.

The attempts of certain Spanish Jesuits to modify the Constitutions, drawn up by Ignatius of Loyola, met with no success in the time of Clement VIII, although the struggle took another aspect after the confirmation of the Constitutions by Gregory XIV. In the time of Sixtus V the two or three dozen malcontents had stormed the Inquisition and the king with an array of memorials, in order that with their help their own schemes might be carried into effect. But in the time of Clement VIII such memorials were but few, so that it seemed that the grave penalties which Gregory XIV had threatened against all attacks on the Constitutions of the Order seemed not to have been without their effect. But the bull of Gregory had not been able to close the last resource to the malcontents ; it had of necessity to leave open the way of appeal to the Pope himself, and to the general congregation of the Order.

It was a strange thing that no less a man than Jose de Acosta adopted this course, for it was he whom Aquaviva had sent a short time before to Rome as his confidant, in order to set matters straight and who had dissuaded the King of Spain from his plan of causing a visitation of the Orders to be made by externs, and had himself carried out the visitation in two provinces. Yet Acosta was no more pleasing to some of his brethren on account of his having made the visitation. It was seen that he was overcome with ambition, and was waiting until the General should confer upon him the office of provincial. The appointment did not come, and a deep despondency and hatred of Aquaviva took possession of him, though he was otherwise very capable and resolute. It seemed to him that the powers of the General ought to be limited by the General Congregation of the Order, and he persuaded King Philip to entrust his task to him, obtaining, should it prove necessary, a command from the Pope for such a restriction. He arrived in Rome on December 2nd, 1592, and through the Spanish ambassador, though without the knowledge of the General of the Order, had an audience with the Pope. He explained to Clement VIII. that the disputes among the Jesuits did not arise so much from the subordinate members, who were acting from simplicity, obedience and the love of God, as from the ambition and worldly outlook of the superiors. The underlying cause of everything lay in the unrestricted power of the General, as that office had come to be in the hands of Aquaviva, and the only means of repairing the trouble was the General Congregation.

At first Clement VIII. was not ill-disposed towards the Jesuits, and recognized their services to the Church, especially in the matter of missions, while he had striven for their readmission to France. He was the first Pope to raise two Jesuits, Toledo and Bellarmine, to the purple. Both of these had great influence with him, and he made use from time to time of the services of Bellarmine as his spiritual father. But Clement VIII. allowed himself to be influenced by the general trend of the moment. Under Gregory XIII. the Jesuits counted for everything, and would have all been looked upon as saints, if certain defects, which are generally inseparable from success, had not manifested themselves among them. They certainly stood in the first rank where it was a question of the welfare of the Church, but there were those who thought that they went too far in their zeal, so as to wish to be first in everything, give their opinion on all subjects, and intrude themselves into matters which did not concern them.

Thus there sprang up in the time of Sixtus V and Clement VIII and still more during the first years of Paul V, a reaction against the high esteem which they had formerly enjoyed. One after another occurrences took place, which were bound to affect their good name. It was certainly an act of too great severity when Sixtus V, publicly and in the full light of day, caused a Jesuit to be carried off to prison, and ordered another to be brought from Spain to be executed at the Bridge of St. Angelo, but there could be no doubt as to the fact that at any rate one of them had allowed himself to make use of unlawful expressions. It was unjust when the Spanish Inquisition, in the time of Sixtus V, imprisoned four Jesuits on vexatious accusations, and entered upon a bitter warfare against them and their privileges,1 though it is highly probable that the Jesuits had not been prudent in the use of these privileges, and in the way in which they spoke of them. When, after the attempt of Chastel on Henry IV, a Jesuit had been put to death in Paris as an accomplice, and the Jesuits were banished from Paris and other cities, this too was a crying injustice ; but after all it was the consequence of the fact that some of them, during the struggle of the League, had meddled in politics. If during the struggle with the English appellants and the secular clergy, there had been such strong feeling against Persons and the Jesuits, part of the blame for this was due to the political writings of Persons. Clement VIII had once clearly expressed the view that he personally blamed the Jesuits, and on the occasion of an appeal which a Jesuit, the confessor of the Queen of Spain, had made against the attacks being made from all quarters upon his Order, the Pope had drily written in the margin of this document the words: God resists the proud. While on the journey which Aldobrandini had made to Poland as legate, the Cardinal was of the opinion that he had convinced himself with his own eyes that the Jesuits were too intimately mixed up with the court and the aristocracy. In a word, dislike of the Jesuits had made itself felt in Rome, Spain, France and England; to this fact were added the internal disturbances of the Order itself, the rebellions in the seminaries in Rome and Valladolid, which injured their reputation as educators, and the accusations made by the Dominicans against their teaching as to grace, which damaged their good name as men of learning. There can be no wonder then if even well-disposed men asked themselves whether all was well with the Order. Charles Borromeo had long before seen the storm approaching, and had sought to avert it, especially by recommending the election of his confessor, the Jesuit Adorno, as General of the Order. That Clement VIII. would have something to say concerning the Order was placed beyond doubt by the remarks which he wrote with his own hand on the reports of his envoys; he was also personally annoyed with Aquaviva, because the latter had refused him the services of the skilled Possevino as his companion on his journey to Poland. Nor was the learned and very influential Cardinal Toledo a friend of the General of the Order. Even in the time of Pius V, when he was preacher to the Apostolic palace, Toledo had taken up his abode there, leading almost a prelate’s life, and thus losing in a distressing way all contact with his Order.

Clement VIII listened attentively to the remonstrances of Acosta ; if the General did not desire the Congregation, said the Pope, then he himself would order it. Aquaviva, with whom Acosta had recently spoken in great detail, was in fact opposed to a General Congregation. In view of the divisions in the Order, he said to Acosta, it might be that even the Congregation might not come to an agreement, and the foreigners would certainly bring pressure to bear to obtain, not what was for the good of the Order, but what would add to their own aggrandizement; moreover deputies could not be sent either from Flanders or France.5 But the attempts of Aquaviva to induce the Pope to change his mind were without effect. In his second audience with Acosta, Clement VIII expressed his firm determination that the Congregation should be held, and on December 15th Toledo had to take orders to this effect to his General. Aquaviva had not been consulted throughout the affair. Alonso Sanchez, a Jesuit visitor of the Spanish provinces, who had gone to Spain four months before Acosta left that country, might perhaps have prevented the carrying out of Acosta’s plans, but he was hindered by illness from speaking to the king until February. He was able during the course of his visitation to remove various abuses, and he changed the provincials, but when he had succeeded in making the king better disposed towards Aquaviva, it was already too late; the General Congregation had already been promulgated.

Thus there was begun a fresh struggle against the Constitutions of the Order, that is to say against one of its fundamental points: the power of the General. When Ignatius of Loyola laid down with such exactitude the choice of the General, placing in the hands of one man the whole of the power to appoint the superiors, he was probably influenced by the wish to keep far from his institute the alarming decadence of the religious Orders of his time with which he found himself faced. His idea was that a capable General would appoint capable superiors, and that everything else would follow of itself. The very disputes in Spain had proved how important it was for the Order to be firmly governed by a single hand. The Spanish superiors were under the dominion of Philip II and his Inquisition; they were in his power and did not dare to take energetic action. Salvation could only therefore come from Rome, and certainly was not to be found by giving the Spaniards a special superior on Spanish soil, nor in entrusting the appointment of the provincials and rectors to men who were bound to be influenced by a thousand other considerations. If Acosta’s plans were to be acted upon, then the great work of Loyola was ruined, and was bound to be broken up into as many parties as there were nations ; in place of an, impressive unity of action there would be division and discord. But the danger of Acosta proving victorious was by no means small; if Clement VIII and Philip II seriously wished to do so, they could bring pressure to bear, to which the General Congregation, whether it liked it or not, was bound to yield.

Fortunately for the work of Loyola, it found a highly intelligent and resolute defender, in the very man against whom the principal attack was directed, the General of the Order, Claudio Aquaviva. Alonso Sanchez was of the opinion that if there could be fused into one man the eight or ten most able Jesuits, both as regarded their natural and their supernatural qualities, this would not produce another Aquaviva. This was his own conviction, and all those with whom he had spoken on the subject admitted that he was right. The young Duke of Bavaria, Maximilian I, later on Prince-Elector, was enthusiastic on his behalf. “ I cannot praise him enough ” he wrote from Rome to his father, “one is forced, so to speak, to fall in love with him, and to look to him alone.”

Deeply penetrated with the ideas of Loyola, Aquaviva stood like a sentinel for some thirty-four years, as his champion. No attack could move him. A man of prayer, who sought his recreation in the Fathers of the Church, and who looked at everything from a supernatural point of view, he gave his decisions clearly and firmly, and without any trace of passion as though they were law incarnate. In the countless writings that came from his pen, he never even once abandoned his dignity or unalterable calm, and it is impossible to tell from these pages whether he was well or ill, or whether they were written by him in youth or old age. The esteem which he thus won was added to by the nobility of his family which held a ducal title, as well as by his relations with his nephews, one of whom was a Cardinal, another Archbishop of Naples, a third Bishop of Cajazzo, while a fourth, also a Jesuit, had won the martyr’s palm in the Indies. Of great advantage to Aquaviva was the fact that before he entered the Society of Jesus, he had been a Papal chamberlain, and thus knew exactly the conditions of the Roman Curia. If, however, Philip II, by the advice of the Inquisition, and Clement VIII, by the advice of Toledo, were to impose their will upon the General Congregation, then the hand of its most skilful pilot would be rendered powerless.

In spite of the efforts of Acosta the malcontents were not successful in obtaining the election of one of their number to the General Congregation. Only in the province of the Society at Toledo was there any probability of the election of a man who, although he was a celebrated scholar, had never been able to overcome the harshness and bitterness of his haughty temperament, and who through all his life remained a burden upon his brethren. This man, who for several years had identified himself with the malcontents, was the celebrated historian Juan de Mariana.

Philip II had not interfered with the freedom of the elections, but he informed those who were elected that he had submitted certain proposals to the General Congregation. By means of a letter addressed to Clement VIII, he arranged for Acosta to participate in the Congregation with the right to vote, but on the other hand the Pope would not consent to his wish that Acosta should present his suggestions to the Congregation in the king’s name. More troublesome to Aquaviva than the presence of Acosta at the Congregation was the fact that a short time before its commencement Toledo was appointed Cardinal, since Acosta had suggested to Philip II that he should ask for the elevation of Toledo so that he might as Cardinal preside at the Congregation, and thus act as a counterweight to the influence of Aquaviva. The General of the Order succeeded, however, in inducing the Pope to abandon the much debated proposal that a Cardinal should act as president.

At the beginning of the Congregation, on November 3rd 1593, Aquaviva and seven other Jesuits presented themselves before the Pope, who received them graciously. “From the beginning of my pontificate,” he said, ‘‘I have heard from, men of judgment that your Society has relaxed its first zeal, and I have therefore assembled the Congregation in order that you may provide a remedy. You can do so better than anyone else ; you have in your hands seven-eights of the Christian people, and thanks to your care they remain firm in the Christian faith. I am an eyewitness to this, and I know how well you are working in Poland and Germany for the Christian religion. If then your Order has anywhere weakened, you must remedy this. Inquire whether the final vows of the professed are not delayed overlong, and whether it is wise that any should hold the office of superior so long. As to learning it is my wish that you should follow Thomas Aquinas, that great master whose writings were confirmed and accepted by the Council of Trent.”

In this discourse Clement VII. had clearly shown his own point of view as regards the Jesuits ; he was not guided by any antipathy for them, but by anxiety on their behalf. He had not formed any definite opinion as to the complaints and accusations brought against them, and he seemed to leave it absolutely to the Congregation to arrive at a decision as to the truth of these.

Thus the first task of the assembly1 would have to be to discuss abuses and the accusations against Aquaviva. Some of the fathers wished to abstain from any judgment upon the General, but Aquaviva insisted upon a full examination. For this purpose Clement VIII. granted all the necessary powers, and sent to the Congregation all the memorials against the Jesuits which had reached him. The examination of the charges against the General, which was carried out by a deputation of five delegates, lasted for a whole month. No blame of any importance was found to rest upon the person or life of Aquaviva. As to his method of government the criticism was made that he clung with too great tenacity to his own opinions, and that he had favoured some more than was fitting. Aquaviva begged to be allowed to present this document to the Pope, who was favourably impressed by it.

Besides the inquiries into the matter of the General, certain points of minor importance were first dealt with. Then began the intervention of Philip II. On November 15th he presented five demands, which were principally concerned with the relations of the Order with the Inquisition ; none of these touched the really burning questions, and the assembly accepted them all without difficulty. But this was far from exhausting the wishes of the Spaniards, and soon afterwards the ambassador of Philip, the Duke of Sessa, presented a memorial in the sense desired by Acosta, concerning certain changes in the Constitutions; he said that the assembly must consider this in all freedom, but at the same time he sought to obtain from the Pope a suggestion to the Jesuits favourable to his wishes ; to this request Clement VIII would not consent at first. From November 24th to December 3rd there were no general meetings, though discussions were held in private as to the proposals made, but between December 3rd and 8th, these were unanimously rejected by vote. Acosta, seeing himself powerless and completely isolated, voted with the rest. In accordance with the renewed pressure brought to bear by Sessa, the Pope had laid down the subject of discussion for the meeting on December 8th ; it must be decided whether the final vows were to be made after a fixed period of time, so that once that period had elapsed, there was a right to make them. The Congregation declared that if it considered this essential point, it was purely out of obedience to the Pope. There then followed once more a unanimous resolve to adhere in this as well to the prescriptions of Loyola.

During the weeks that followed there was a discussion as to the attitude to be adopted towards the theology of Thomas Aquinas, and as to diversity of theological opinions, the members of the Order were forbidden to meddle in politics, and the descendants of Jews and Moors were refused admission to the Order. A decisive factor in this last provision was the discovery that out of the twenty-seven writers of memorials against the Constitutions, at least twenty-five were so-called neo-Christians. On December 31st the Order addressed itself in severe words to its disloyal sons, the disturbers of its peace and the stirrers up of rebellion, as well as against the “false calumnies” which they had “without any justification” brought against the Order. It was true that their memorials bore these words : “So demands the whole of the Society of Jesus,” but actually they were but few in number, and reprobate sons ; they ought as soon as possible to be cut off from the Order as a “plague,” and where this was not possible they should under pain of expulsion, take an oath to the institute of the Society of Jesus, and to the Papal bulls of confirmation. Anyone who should come to learn of their schemes must denounce them; the Pope should be asked for a fresh confirmation of the institute.

These last words show that the assembly felt full confidence in the Pope, but it was soon to be undeceived. Clement VIII, as well as his adviser Toledo and the Duke of Sessa, could not but marvel that in spite of the many memorials on the subject of the dissension in the Order, its representatives turned as one man against the handful of innovators, and declared unreservedly for the Constitutions of Loyola. To Clement VIII this looked like a kind of defiance, which was unwilling to make any change at all. The Spanish ambassador could not feel satisfied at seeing that the exhortations of his king had had no other effect than to cause the decree against the innovators to be followed by a second, which was aimed at further enlightening the king as to the state of affairs.

Toledo too had expected the assembly to have recourse to himself, the great scholar, in frequent consultations, and he was annoyed when he found himself simply ignored. When, on January 3rd, 1594, a fresh decree had laid down the essential points of the Constitutions of the Order, the Duke of Sessa sent a confidant of his to Toledo. The Cardinal complained that the Congregation could not be in worse plight; he said that the Spanish demands were just, that a proof of the bad disposition of the assembly was the fact that, despite the Pope’s orders, they had not asked for any advice, and that they had spoken of the sovereign of Spain as though he were a mere esquire. The Pope, however, would remedy all this on the very next day.

On January 4th, early in the morning, Clement VIII went with six Cardinals to the professed house of the Jesuits, celebrated mass there with great recollection, and then delivered an allocution to the assembled fathers. He began by bringing out the great merits of the Order, but this very thing should be an incentive to humility. After speaking of humility and pride, he blamed the meddling of the Order in politics and in matters that did not concern it, its preference for peculiar doctrines, and its censure of the doctrines of others, and further blamed them in that they had no regard for princes, king or Emperor, that they discussed whether the Pope had or had not the right to do this or that, that they despised monachism and looked upon their own constitutions as being so perfect and inalterable that there was nothing in them that could be improved; they were of the opinion that they stood in no need of visitations or reform. All this he said with great gravity, but at the same time with a manner that was altogether friendly, and he ended with a warning that they must consider a remedy, for otherwise he would himself intervene.

This allocution, with its enumeration of defects, threw the Congregation into confusion. Decrees had already been issued concerning divergence of doctrines and adherence to St. Thomas Aquinas ; but what point in the constitutions could be changed in order to impose upon the Jesuits a greater respect for the King of Spain and the monastic Orders? As far as humility was concerned, Loyola gave place to none as an apostle of that virtue, especially in the case of his own Order, the “lowliest” Society of Jesus, as he often called it, thereby going a step lower even than the friars “minor.” It was decided to have recourse to the Pope himself, so that he might point out the matters that required to be changed. Cardinal Toledo, who was asked to further this request, refused in his ill-temper to present it; as he told the Spanish ambassador, he had presented to Clement VIII, the day before his visit to the Jesuits, a document naming nine points in the constitutions which called for emendation.

But to the Pope it seemed dangerous to change the constitutions of the Order by force, and on January 8th he pointed to the Congregation four matters for their consideration, as to which they were to come to a free decision. The acceptance of the first two points met with no difficulty; these concerned the tenure of their office for only three years by the superiors, and the account which the provincial must render at the termination of his period of office. The third point, the acceptance of the Papal reservation of certain sins, was obvious. It was only the fourth suggestion, that in certain cases the assistant of the General should be given the right of decision, which met with difficulties. By a unanimous vote, with five exceptions, the assembly decided that this restriction of the supreme power was inopportune.

But very soon further demands were put forward, which had their origin in conversations between Toledo, Acosta and the Duke of Sessa. On January 12th Toledo informed Aquaviva that the Congregation must come to a decision as to two questions, namely whether another General Congregation should be held after six years, and whether Aquaviva’s assistants ought not to be changed, with the exception of a German who had only recently been appointed. The Congregation resolved to declare to the Pope its readiness to obey, but to beg him not to press the second demand, and to be allowed to express their reasons against the recurrence of General Congregations at fixed intervals, as well as against the change of the assistants. This explanation was never made, and on January 14th Toledo conveyed to the Congregation an order to accept them without more ado. In accordance with this order three new assistants were elected on January 18th, 1594.

This ended the Congregation, which had brought to the malcontents the opposite of what they desired. All their aims, though not yet dead, had received a mortal blow. Aquaviva had been splendidly justified, and nothing essential had been changed in the constitutions. The order concerning the limitation of the office of superior to three years, was afterwards mitigated by Clement VIII himself, and was later on altogether abrogated. The fixed period for General Congregations also seemed to the Pope, after the six years had elapsed, to be useless, and none was held. The Inquisition in Spain became reconciled with the Jesuits, while the king as well declared himself satisfied with the course of events. Even Acosta realized that his procedure had been a mistake, and he was reconciled with Aquaviva. After the next General Congregation of the Order in 1608, no more was heard of the party of the malcontents, and with Loyola’s beatification in 1609, his constitutions received a new importance.

One of the principal points which had been desired by the king at the Congregation, namely the question whether there should not be appointed a special superior for Spain and the Indies, and whether the life-long duration of the office of General should not be limited, had not even been discussed at the meetings. We learn the reason for this from Acosta, who had been charged, in a special brief to Philip II, to report to him concerning the Congregation. Acosta told the king that not only the Congregation itself, but the Pope himself had been opposed to the discussion of these matters, and that therefore neither the Duke of Sessa nor himself had made any mention of them.

In spite of this Clement VIII was still thinking in 1595 of abolishing the life-duration of the office of General of the Jesuits. According to what was written to the king at that time by the Spanish ambassador, whom the Pope had informed of his proposal, his motives were “the same as those presented at the last General Congregation by Your Majesty” Aquaviva must therefore be removed from his office and sent to Naples as archbishop. Naturally the Jesuits laid their remonstrances before the Pope, but in vain. They then turned to Cardinal Toledo, who had boasted that he held the Pope in his hand; but in his case too all petitions were at first of no avail; it was even bitterly said that Toledo, by getting Aquaviva removed, intended to have a free hand to interfere in the Order. But the Portuguese assistant devised a remedy. He said to Toledo : if Aquaviva has to be an archbishop, then the Jesuits would be very glad to see him a Cardinal ; this could easily be managed by the intercession of the princes, and after that it would remain to be seen which of the two Jesuit Cardinals would have the upper hand in the Order. Aquaviva would not have been a pleasing colleague to Toledo, so he took steps to get the Pope to abandon his plan.

But this did not bring the intrigues against Aquaviva to an end, Ferdinand Mendoza, one of the party of the mal­contents, had already in 1592 been on the point of being expelled from the Order on account of his unseemly behaviour, but he had been treated indulgently and had been sent to the lonely college of Monforte. But this step led to a fresh dispute, in which the Pope intervened several times against Aquaviva. Mendoza, who was well versed in the ways of the world, was able by his savoir faire to win the high esteem of the Count of Lemos, who possessed vast properties in the neighbourhood of Monforte, and still more that of the countess, a sister of the future Duke of Lerma, who was the true king of Spain in the time of Philip III. When Lemos went to Naples as the new viceroy, Aquaviva vainly tried to prevent the rebellious Jesuit from accompanying him as his confessor. Once he was in Italy, Mendoza was very soon able to stir up against his General even the Pope, who was unwilling to annoy the viceroy. Mendoza had addressed to Aquaviva several arrogant letters, which he afterwards wished to have sent back to him. By the Pope’s orders the General was forced to send them. Aquaviva had sent to Naples a man whom he could trust to obtain information as to the conduct of the viceroy’s confessor. Owing to the insistence of the latter, this confidant had to be recalled, and when Mendoza spread the rumour that this had been done by the Pope’s orders, Clement VIII did not dare to deny it. The inquiries that had been begun had brought to light many unseemly things, but Clement VIII forbade all interference, and when further accusations had reached him, “on account of more important considerations” he refused permission even for an inquiry to be begun. After the death of the Count of Lemos in 1601, Mendoza wished to return home with the countess. The Spanish Jesuits made every effort, but in vain, to be freed of his presence; Aquaviva could only reply that if he retained Mendoza, the Pope would give orders to let him go. Armed with a secret brief forbidding all superiors to make any inquiries about him, Mendoza accompanied the countess to the court at Valladolid. There he soon began to make his influence felt, for the all-powerful Duke of Lerma suddenly showed himself opposed to the Jesuits.

Aquaviva took every means to remove this dangerous man from the court. Of the two attempts he made, the first failed to attain its purpose, while the second, even before it had been begun, was rendered impossible by an intrigue. The General then sought to obtain the consent of the Pope to a third attempt. Clement received the remonstrances of the Jesuits graciously, and assured them that he did not wish to hamper the steps they were taking against Mendoza. But Clement VIII. was above all anxious not to offend the Countess of Lemos, as is clear from a letter of Aldobrandini to the Spanish nuncio. Aldobrandini wrote that the Pope had refused to give the Jesuits a brief against Mendoza, as he did not wish to mix himself up with the affair, and that the nuncio must not pay any attention to it.

The Pope was not ill-advised in acting thus; he probably foresaw that in face of the power of Lerma, Aquaviva would not have any more success with his third attempt, and so it proved. Counting upon the Pope, Aquaviva had charged the superior of the professed house at Toledo to take steps against his presumptuous subject. When the superior threatened him with excommunication and other penalties, Mendoza promptly declared himself ready to leave the court. But while the two were still in negotiation, a visit from the nuncio Ginnasio was announced; Lerma and the Countess of Lemos had learned from him what had occurred, and both of them “ spat fire.” Two days later Hojeda was able indeed to repeat to Mendoza in the presence of the provincial and other Jesuits his commands, but on the same day the nuncio summoned the provincial and Mendoza to his presence, forbade Mendoza under grave ecclesiastical penalties to leave Valladolid, and ordered the provincial not to give his consent to his departure. Ginnasio wrote to Aldobrandini that this step had been taken in the interests of the Order itself, and that Aquaviva had not perhaps realized the consequences of his interference. Clement VIII approved the action of his nuncio, and soon afterwards issued a brief to Mendoza withdrawing his correspondence and his relations with the countess from the supervision of his superiors, and permitting him to have a lay-brother and two secretaries in his service, as well as other privileges.

Mendoza had thus won a brilliant victory. In order to humiliate the General yet more, and as it were display his power, there occurred to this arrogant man the strange idea of bringing Aquaviva to Spain and thus tying his hands completely. Philip III was therefore obliged to invite the General to Spain, and a sheet attached to the king’s letter gave a number of reasons for his making the journey. On November 10th, 1604, Aquaviva thanked the king for his kindness and sent to Spain by means of his assistants a refutation of the king’s reasons. But Mendoza found a way out of the difficulty, and a second letter from the king asked the Pope to order the General to set out. Clement VIII. issued this order and adhered to it. Aquaviva pointed out that the summons to Spain was nothing else but an act of vengeance, but to no purpose; the assistants set forth their reasons verbally and in writing, but this too was useless. The Jesuits then succeeded in obtaining some fifty letters on behalf of the General, from the most distinguished persons, among them the Kings of France and Poland. But Clement VIII was unwilling to deprive the sovereign of the two worlds of the modest pleasure of a visit from the General of the Jesuits.

Thus the head of the Society of Jesus found himself faced with the danger of finding himself handed over with tied hands to his rebellious subject, and this proved too much even for the iron constitution of Aquaviva, and he fell dangerously ill. The Pope sent his private physician to ascertain if the illness was really serious, but the latter as well as seven other doctors certified that there could be no question of his thinking of the journey. When Aquaviva recovered, Clement VIII was dead, and there was no longer any talk of the journey to Spain.

Of great importance was the impulse given by Clement VIII to the reform of the Carmelite Order, inaugurated by St. Teresa. This had spread further and further, and in 1593 had reached Rome. In that year Clement VIII allowed the reformed Carmelites to elect a General of their own, and in 1600 approved of their forming congregations independent of each other, a Spanish one with the Indies, and an Italian one called that of St. Elias, which later on included France, Germany and Poland. A Spaniard, Andrea Diaz, introduced, at the beginning of the pontificate of Clement VIII, the discalced Augustinian Hermits into Rome, where they were treated with favour by the Pope. 

There were few Orders to which Clement VIII did not extend his favour. The Barnabites, whom he had once described as the best collaborators of the bishops, were in several cases encouraged by him. He confirmed the privileges of the Somaschi, the separation of the reformed Basilians from the unreformed,[419] the Order of Capuchin nuns the statutes of the Italian Annunziate, and the reform, inaugurated in Spain, of the Orders of the Trinitarians and Mercedari, whose work was the liberation of the slaves.

But however much the interests of the religious Orders occupied the attention of Clement VIII, he did not neglect his care for the secular clergy. Cardinal Rusticucci, who had already been made Cardinal Vicar by Sixtus V, continued to discharge that important office. To him was attached a special commission of reform, which was to carry out the ordinances made during the visitation.1 As he had already done in the case of the Auditors of the Rota, so did Clement VIII at the beginning of his pontificate address to the directors and students of all the pontifical colleges paternal exhortations to live and make progress in virtue. In order to put an end to all abuses he issued salutary ordinances concerning indulgences. Nor did the inscriptions, nor the tomb of the inamorata of Alexander VI in S. Maria del Popolo escape his attention, and these were removed in April 1594. In the same way he caused to be removed from, the cathedral of Siena the image of the so-called Pope Joan which was there.

From the beginning of his pontificate the Pope above all insisted, both in the case of the parish-priests and of the bishops, upon their observance of the duty of residence. In so doing he met with the same difficulties from the bishops as his predecessors had done. Still, as in the past, many bishops remained without necessity at the Curia in Rome. The verbal exhortations of the Pope that they should return to their diocesses only had a partial effect. One made one excuse, another another, and the requests for dispensations grew in number. A new and more severe ordinance became inevitable; this was to include even the Cardinals, and the only diversity of opinion was whether the enactment should be made by bull or by consistorial decree. After a discussion by the Congregation of the Council and Bishops, on July 5th, 1595, Clement VIII laid down a decree, which renewed all the previous enactments concerning the duty of residence, and laid it down that no one could receive the purple who had failed in this respect.

There was then a sensible improvement, but rigorists like Cardinal Bellarmine were not yet satisfied. To the remonstrances made to the Pope by the Cardinal in an outspoken memorial, Clement VII. frankly admitted that he had been wrong in allowing the bishops to come to Rome so easily, so that it was only with difficulty that they could be sent away again. With regard to the eleven non-resident Cardinals whom Bellarmine had named, the Pope was able to point out that in their case there were legitimate excuses, as well as for the employment of bishops as nuncios, because persons suited for that office were only to be found in limited numbers, and because the nature of their business prevented frequent changes. That the state of affairs was very much better than it had been, is clear from the fact, that in the whole of the States of the Church there was only one bishop who held a political office ; another, the Bishop of Camerino, who was vice-legate of the Marches, did not count, because there he was able to go every day to his diocese.

But even Clement VIII was obliged to realize how difficult it was to eradicate the abuse, by which bishops were absent from their dioceses, and remained without excuse in Rome. In spite of his warnings, towards the end of his pontificate, in 1603, there were so many bishops present in the Curia that he was obliged to take fresh steps. Even then it was only with reluctance that some obeyed ; but the Pope insisted upon his order being carried out. In April 1604 almost all the bishops had left Rome, and only a few who had not found the opportunity for going still remained. When the Pope informed the nuncio at Madrid of this success, he urged him to do all he could to see that this example was followed in the Spanish capital as well.

Gregory XIV, who had taken part in the Council of Trent as Bishop of Cremona, in order to comply with the feeling of that Council, which in its twenty-second session had required in the case of the bishops a special training in theology and canon law, had resolved to submit the candidates for the episcopate to a two-fold examination before they were confirmed. In the first place, by means of an informative process, the previous manner of life of the nominee was to be inquired into, and then they were to be examined in their knowledge of the above-mentioned sciences. His premature death had prevented Pope Gregory from carrying out this project. Clement VIII, at the very beginning of his pontificate, gave effect to this by prescribing such an examination in the case of all the bishoprics of free collation in Italy and the neighbouring islands, as well as for those of royal nomination. For this purpose he set up a Congregation, and to the Cardinals appointed to it there were added certain prelates as examiners. The Congregation began its work as early as July, 1592. The Pope himself assisted at the examinations. These were held with great detail and no dispensations were allowed. The greater the success obtained by this method of procedure, the more firmly did the Pope adhere to it. Clement VIII also gave proofs of extraordinary rigour in the matter of granting resignations of ecclesiastical revenues. He would not allow any accumulation of benefices; the only exception he made was in the case of the cardinalitial dioceses, because his predecessors since the Council of Trent had not changed the conditions of those dioceses. 

This careful selection of bishops, as well as the example set by the Pope, as supreme pastor of Rome, had an important effect in the improvement of the Italian episcopate, and Clement VIII. had the joy of seeing how many bishops in Italy were labouring in the spirit of Catholic reform by establishing seminaries, and holding synods and visitations.Thus the following acquired great merit as conscientious pastors and as reforming bishops in the fullest sense of the word : at Adria, the Carmelite Lorenzo Laureti; at Aquileia, Francesco Barbaro; at Venice, Lorenzo Priuli; at Belluno the learned Luigi Lollini; at Ceneda, Marcantonio Mocenigo; at Treviso, Francesco Cornaro; at Verona, Cardinal Agostino Valiero, well known as a Christian humanist; at Pavia and Mantua, the Franciscan Francesco Gonzaga; at Cremona, Cesare Speciani; at Modena, Gaspare Silingardi; at Milan, the great and learned Frederick Borromeo, who was a patron of the arts; at Reggio-Emilia Claudio Rangoni; at Como, Feliciano Ninguarda; at Pavia and Novara, the Barnabites Alessandro Sauli10 and Carlo Bascape, imitators  of Charles Borromeo; at Asti the Franciscan Francesco Panigarola at Saluzzo, Giovanni Giovenale Ancina; at Genoa the Benedictine Matteo Rovarola; at Pisa, Carlo Antonio Pocci; at Colle, Usimbardo de’ Usimbardi; at Volterra, Guido Servidio; at Fiesole the disciple of Philip Neri, Francesco Maria Tarugi; at Bologna, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotto; at Imola, Alessandro Musotti; at Fossombrone, Ottavio Accoramboni; at Camerino, Gentile Dolfino; at Urbino, Antonio Gianotti and Giuseppe Ferreri; at Gubbio, Mariano Sabelli; at Assisi, Marcello Crescenzi; at Amelia, Antonio Maria Graziani; at Spoleto, Alfonso Visconti; at Rossano, Lucio Sanseverino; at Sarno, Antonio de Aquino; at Siponto, Domenico Ginnasio  at Teramo, Vincenzo de Monte Santo; at Capua from 1602 onwards, Cardinal Bellarmine; at Matera, Giovanni de Mira; at Reggio Calabria, Annibale d’ Afflitto; at Messina, Antonio Lombardi; at Monreale, Lodovico de Torres; at Cefalu, Francesco Gonzaga, who there and later on at Pavia and Mantua rendered good service and established the first Tridentine seminary in Sicily.

Clement VIII also displayed a salutary activity in filling the gaps which death had occasioned in the College of Cardinals. These were very considerable, for Clement VIII witnessed the disappearance of altogether forty-five Cardinals, among them men so distinguished as Scipione Gonzaga, William Allen, Francisco Toledo, Gabriele Paleotto, Errico Caetani, Georg Radziwill, Inigo de Avalos de Aragonia, Lodovico Madruzzo, Giulio Santori, Alfonso Gesualdo, Silvio Antoniano, Lucio Sassi, Arnauld d’Ossat and Antonio Maria Salviati. The number of new Cardinals appointed at the seven cardinalitial creations of Clement VIII was as great as fifty-three. In these the Pope accorded hardly any influence to the Cardinals, and far less to the civil governments. “Cardinals who are appointed at the request of the princes”, he said, “almost always follow private interests, as I have myself experienced at the conclaves.”

The Cardinalitial appointments of Clement VIII are almost without exception deserving of praise. Setting aside the too young Giovanni Battista Deti, the Cardinals appointed by Clement VIII proved themselves men of worth; such were the learned Jesuit Toledo, the venerable Sassi, the Oratorian Francesco Maria Tarugi, whose life may be called truly apostolic, Camillo Borghese who was afterwards Paul V, the Auditors of the Rota, Lorenzo Bianchetti, Francesco Mantica and Pompeo Arigoni, the great Bonifacio Bevilacqua, the versatile Alfonso Visconti, Domenico Toschi who had sprung from the lowest ranks purely by his own merits, the disinterested d’Ossat, and lastly like three brilliant stars outshining the rest  Baronius, Silvio Antoniano and Bellarmine, who in their humility had refused to accept so great an honour, so that Clement VIII was forced to constrain them under obedience, threatening them with excommunication. These three Cardinals were assigned apartments at the Vatican, since Baronius was the Pope’s confessor, Silvio Antoniano his secretary of briefs, and Bellarmine, after the death of Toledo his theologian, an office which he exercised with great freedom. The lofty sentiments which animated Cardinals Baronius and Tarugi is clear from a letter of the last-named belonging to the year 1598, only recently discovered, in which he unites himself to Baronius in his desire to renounce the purple, so as to return once more to the peace of the Oratory.

These new Cardinals vied with the older ones, such as Valiero, Frederick Borromeo, Tagliavia, Sfondrato, Aquaviva and Alessandro de’ Medici, who was to succeed Clement VIII. If among these many Cardinals there were to be found two of worldly sentiments, like Sforza1 and Deti, these only served, as Bentivoglio remarks, to bring out all the more brilliantly the virtues of the rest. Clement VIII for his part, left nothing undone to bring back Deti to a better manner of life. He also made use of every opportunity that offered to remind the Cardinals of their duties.

However many eminent men the College of Cardinals contained under Clement VIII., its influence as a college visibly diminished. This was due in great measure to the independence of Clement VIII, which was much felt by the Cardinals, and to the predominant position held by his nephew, Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini; it may also be attributed to the increase of the Papal authority, and to the establishment of the Congregations, by which the power of the Consistory had been considerably lessened. Although certain Cardinals, as for example Paleotto, complained of this and sought to restore the ancient order, the advantages of the new method of transacting business were nevertheless evident. The transaction of affairs by way of process, and the cumbrousness of a conciliar assembly, in which there were always to be found a diversity of opinions, had rendered the treatment of important matters by the Consistory almost impossible. Once the change had been inaugurated, it was no longer possible to stop it, all the more so as it was based upon the strictly monarchical character of the ecclesiastical constitution. From this time onwards the Consistories served more and more to give to more important ecclesiastical matters a fitting conclusion.

CHAPTER VI.

The Roman Inquisition.—Giordano Bruno.— The Index.—The Vulgate.