honourably But all that money would be reserv'd either for the Chamber or for the Nephews or for the Pope because Princes receive not the Cap out of any regard to the profit of the Cardinalship but by their being Cardinals to adde profit to the Church On the other side the Court of Rome is so far Majestick and reckon'd among the principal of the World by how far the Cardinals do render it so for by how much the persons are considerable that carry the Purple by so much is the Court more splendid and magnificent because the Court is made magnificent by the Cardinals To this purpose I remember I was speaking one day with a Foreign Gentleman of the Grandeur of the Court of Rome and I having said that its greatest ornament and glory consisted in the persons of the Cardinals who resembling Kings the Court by consequence was adorn'd with as many Kings as Cardinals But he having been in Rome and holding particular intelligence had good information of the interests and policies of the Popes answered me thus Sir the habit makes not the Monk but the Monk the habit An ill man though he wears a Religious habit is but an ill man still but a good man in the worst habit shall be esteem'd good notwithstanding In like manner it is not the Purple that makes the Cardinal but the Cardinal the Purple so that the Cardinals would be Kings indeed if the Popes would choose them amongst the Princes and not amongst such as they too often do To speak the truth how can that Cardinal be an honour to the Court that cannot read how can he adde splendor to the Papacy that cannot write how can he give Majesty to an Imperial City that is but the off-spring of a Country Village how can he merit the Title of a King that never convers'd but with the vilest of the people Yet of such kind of stuff the Popes make their Cardinals too often and then how can that Court be thought great or serviceable to the Church if they that serve it are Kings indeed by name but Scoundrils in fact Let that Cap be bestow'd on those that know how to wear it let him be advanc'd to the Cardinalship that has deserv'd to be a King In short those Popes that desire to see the Church and the Court shining in Majesty and splendor let not them conferr that honour upon the quantity but the quality of the Persons Innocent the tenth began his promotions with the greatest glory in the World having open'd his Creation by giving his first Cap to the most Serene Prince Gio. Carlo di Medici Brother to the Great Duke of Tuscany and that on the 14th of November 1644. a person of that worth that for those twenty years he liv'd a Cardinal he may be said to have been the glory of the Colledge The next year continuing in that good humour he created Francisco Maria Farnese Brother to the Duke of Parma who joyning the Highness of his Birth to the Eminence of the Cardinalship added honour to the Order and had done it more had not the untimeliness of his death prevented it The third year he gave the Cap to Giovanni Casimiro the King of Polands Brother which he afterwards resign'd in the year 1648. being call'd back to receive that Crown in the room of his Brother that was lately dead by that means making it clear that the Purple can produce a Scepter if the Purple be taken from the Scepters And last of all in the last year but one of his Pontificate ambitious perhaps to immortalize his Name by admitting the most Eminent persons into the Colledge he created Prince Frederick Lantgrave of Hassia Cardinal of whom we have spoken already in his proper place Paul the fifth had a particular aim thorow the whole course of his Popedom to ennoble the Court to adde new Majesty to the Colledge and to select such persons as were proper by their own grandeur to defend the honour of the Church and accordingly in three promotions he advanc'd five Princes of very great quality to the Cardinalship viz. Mauritio Son to the Duke of Savoy who renounc'd it afterwards to marry one of the Neeces holding it less scandal to subject himself to a Lady than to be a slave to the Nipotisme of Vrban the eighth Ferdinando and Vicenzo Gonsaga both Sons to the Duke of Mantoa Carlo di Medici Son to the Duke of Tuscany and Ferdinando Infante di Spagna who as Histories report immortaliz'd the honour of the Cardinalship by fighting for the Faith of Christ Vrban the eighth that lived Pope so long although he created three Princes Cardinals viz. Nicolo Francisco Brother to the Duke of Lorain Gio. Alberto Brother to the King of Poland and Rinald d'Este Brother to the Duke of Modena yet for all that he was either diverted by his Kindred afterwards or else his own inclinations were not fix'd upon such Noble objects and he endeavour'd to keep at a distance from the Colledge such persons as deserv'd the Cap not only for the glory of their Birth but for the many services they had perform'd for the Church In this manner Vrban kept several Princes as far from the Cardinalship as was possible and amongst the rest Francisco Maria Farnese Brother to the Duke of Parma who as many wayes deserv'd it as any one But the Pope postponing the publick interest of the Church to the fancy and Capriccio of his Kindred depriv'd the Colledge of so Honourable a Member the Church of so considerable a Protector his own Family of so potent a support and his own person of the acquisition of a Fame more immortal than that of his being Pope For when the Popes do give occasion and matter to have it immortaliz'd they immortalize their own Names themselves nor can they find any more honourable way than by filling the Cardinalitial Colledge with persons of Honour But that which is most considerable is he not only disoblig'd the Cardinal Princes that were created by Paulus but those few also that he created himself being forc'd thereto for certain pittifull and poor-spirited reasons in so much that they were leaving of the Court and retiring out of Rome rather than to see the Prerogative of their Births prostituted to a few persons that had not wit nor education enough to use them civilly especially such as had deserv'd their promotion by their other virtues And it is most certain I beg the pardon of their relations that are living because I write only the common opinion and what is declar'd in several Histories the Church would have been in great perplexity to see it self out of all hopes of being serv'd by Princes if another Vrban had succeeded the former and not an Innocent But that God that governs all things above the comprehension of man put clear other thoughts into the heart of Innocent who by his Divine providence was call'd to the Papacy than what were in Vrban for as
Cardinal cry'd out as loud as they could some of them long may Rotomagensis live others long may the Genoese and others the Medanese So that it was not known which of them was Pope a thing very displeasing to the said Cardinals who began to curse those who were the occasion of their exclusion as receiving no ordinary disturbance from so unusual an affront The people were obstreperous and in a tumult but when they were assured Cardinal Aeneas Piccolomini was the person which was plac'd in the Chair of Saint Peter as universal Father and Governour of the Church they immediately laid down the arms they had taken up to satisfie their vehemence and passion having no confidence but in their sword and the face of the City was alter'd in a moment so that that City which a little before seem'd dedicated to Mars in the twinkling of an eye became I will not say the City of Venus the Mother of the Trojan Aeneas but a Paradice of Peace and an Epitomy of tranquility which every one expected from the Exaltation of such a Pope This Election was generally to the satisfaction of all the Princes of Christendom particularly Ferdinand King of Sicily was very well pleas'd to see so good a friend of his Fathers admitted to the Government of the Church Borso Duke of Modena was so much over-joyed at this Election of Pius as one with whom he had a mutual correspondence and friendship from the time he obtain'd that Dukedom from Frederick the Emperour in which concession also Aeneas had been instrumental that in testimony of his congratulation he made Tournements or Tiltings hoping under his Pontificate to meliorate his fortune and augment his Estate To that end in Ferrara and in all other places of his Dominion he commanded solemn Festivals to be kept for the Election of that Pope which the people fail'd not to observe Francis Sforza Duke of Milan though perhaps his wishes were to have seen another Pope nevertheless understanding Aeneas was Elected he made his expressions of joy having receiv'd him honourably in his own lodgings in Milan and treated him with great generosity a little before his Election The Marquesses of Mantoa Monâ—â—rrat and Salussi who were all Aeneas his great friends were very much pleas'd and order'd their Subjects to make demonstration of their joy The Venetians and the Florentines were the only people dissatisfied with this Election the Florentine from a natural fear and animosity they had to the Sieneses their Neighbours with whom they had frequent disputes about their Confines took so great a disgust at the assumption of Aeneas that as he was walking in the Street and saluted by those which met him with a Dio vi salvi they reply'd with great contumacy ci salvera perche no the Venetian likewise had no great correspondence with him yet for all that both the one and other dispatch'd most sumptuous Embassies to him to congratulate and pay him the usual obedience The Nobility of Siena being jealous of the house of Piccolomini as well for other considerable respects as for fear the Pope should usurp upon the liberty of the City and make it a Principality hereditary to his own Family receiv'd but little delight at the news of Aeneas his Election However the generallity of the people seeing a fellow Citizen of theirs exalted above the Cardinals of all other Cities celebrated his Eâ—ection for several days with bone-fires and such other transcendant Expressions of their joy as seem'd madness and extravagance as commonly most of your popular solemnities are But that which was most remarkable and most for the glory and reputation of the Pope was that almost all the Barons of Rome assembled themselves on horseback to Congratulate and on the 28 of August about shutting in of the Evening they made a solemn Cavalcade every one with his lighted Torch in his hand attended with a great number of Lacqueys and Grooms with Torches likewise which train being disposed into order extended all along from the Castle of Saint Angelo to the Church of Saint Peter The Ceremony was so Pompous his Holiness stood at the Window all the while to behold so illustrious a spectacle design'd and dedicated to the honour of his Exaltation But above all the Princes of Christendom Frederick the Emperour was the most satisfied and not without reason because it was by his instance and mediation Aeneas was made a Cardinal and therefore transported with joy he not only dispatch'd Ambassadors to congratulate his Creation but he commanded Justs and Tiltings to be celebrated for several days The King of Spain did the same and indeed all the Princes of Christendom except the Kings of France of Scotland of Denmark of Poland Hungary and Cyprus who for several reasons had no great opinion of that Election But all the rest of the world I mean of Christendome were glad I will not omit though I shall mention it but by the way to remember the great zeal this Pope exprest towards the recovery of the Holy Land especially when he saw the Turk had got possession of Greece and Sclavonia it brought tears of compassion from his Eyes as oft as he heard of the miseries which the poor Christians suffered who were under the Dominion I may say Bondage of the Barbarians This zeal carry'd him in person to the Councel of Mantua in which he negotiated the cause of Christ so well with his most excellent eloquence that all the Cardinals and Fathers concluded that enterprise into the East was necessary in which he confaederated with the King of Hungary the Venetian and the Duke of Burgundie as knowing those Princes most dispos'd to so sacred a work against which all good Popes ought principally to bend their whole power and designs and lay aside deprive themselves of their passion to their Nephews rather than see the Church ruin'd by its barbarous Enemies Pius sent his Legates about through all Christendome injoyning the Bishops to excite and inanimate their Subjects to an expedition of that advantage and importance to the Church In the City of Siena as he was making his journey to Ancona he understood that Philip Duke of Burgundy who had promis'd to go himself with an numerous Army had chang'd his resolution and united with several other Princes and People as well Italians as strangers and out of envious and ambitious ends were using all possible means to divert others from so holy a design pretending and declaring that the consequence of that expedition could be nothing but certain danger and uncertain reward This news troubled his Holiness to the very soul so that he sent away Legates immediately to try if he could reduce them to more rational resolutions at least to sit still and not discourage others if they would do no good themselves From Siena he return'd to Rome upon some new occasion and afterwards departed again for Ancona in which Port the whole Christian Army was to Rendezvouz at least that of
of Placenza Preaching upon the same Text before the same Duke reiterated three or four times That those Princes that had the honour to wear Crowns upon their heads ought not to come in competition with the Priests They wearing their Miters to show that as the high Priest which is God himself intitled himself King of Heaven so the Priests who are but inferior Deities ought to be receiv'd by all the world as Kings and Supreme Lords of the Earth In Cenoa in the presence of the Duke and by consequence of the whole Senate there was a Carmelite with great gravity and as if he had been actuated by some Spirit delivered this Doctrine That Kings Princes and Senators were as good as nothing That the Priest was all in all That if their Dignity was much greater than it was it was to be thrown down at the feet of the Priests forasmuch as their Office was but Humane and the Priests Divine they were men and not Gods but the Priests both Gods and Men. Not much unlike this was the discourse held by a Franciscan in a Church in Milan in the presence of the Marquess Caracena having made a parallel before betwixt God and a Priest he pronounc'd this very boldly That God as he was God had preceedence of a Priest but that a Priest as God and Priest too was to have preceedence of our Saviour so as those two were to be united before a Priest could be equall'd But that which in my judgement savour'd most of Buffonry and Blasphemy in the whole Sermon was another Comparison he had betwixt a King and a Priest in these very termes That Kings were made up of Humane flesh but Priests of the Spirit of God That Kings were indeed above other men but that Priests were Superiour to Kings That Kings did converse with their Courtiers but Priests with Angels the Courtiers of Heaven That Kings had a Temporal Jurisdiction but that the Authority of the Priesthood was Spiritual And lastly That Kings could command the Creature 't was true but 't was the Priest that commanded the Creator That Kings had much trouble and difficulty to make the people obey them but that the Priests by virtue of the words of Consecration constrain'd God Almighty himself to descend into their hands upon the very first signal Never in my whole life was my mind under greater disturbance than at that time to hear that Beast of a Priest deseminate such Doctrine and that which aggravated my indignation was that I could not resolve with my self whose indiscretion was greatest the Franciscan in preaching after that rate or Carazens in hearing him Before this time I made it my business to magnifie the Valour and Prudence of that person after this I could never have that reverence for him to see him prostitute his attention to such wicked discourse and with patience endure such insufferable insolence the whole Sermon being but a drol and derision of Kings and their Ministers as if he had design'd to mock and jeer the veneration they had for their lawfull Prince out of the breasts of the people But this was Venial in respect of what was maintain'd by another Father who deserv'd the next day to have ascended again but to the Gallows and not the Pulpit and I am confident my Reader will be of the same mind God Almighty be my witness if I add or diminish any thing in my Relation Being in the City of Naples in Lent 1647. it was my fortune to hear a Franciscan Preach in the Church dedicated to Saint Mary but with more Volubility than Virtue True it is I was not present at the beginning I came time enough to understand that the principal drift of his discourse was to evince the people that the Religious which he restrain'd to their Preachers and Priests were oblig'd to reprehend the Errors and Enormities of all people but especially of Kings and advancing in this manner with great Oratory he pronounc'd the Priests to be as Gods to all Princes and to prove it produc'd that place of Scripture where God Almighty commanded Moses to go unto Pharaoh said this to him I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet c. From which words he drew several consequences and amongst the rest this That the Princes of this Age were the Pharaohs of Christendome and the Priests the Gods of those Pharaohs and in the height of his Rapture he cryed out two or three times Ah Pharaohs Pharaohs why will you be disobedient to the Priests that are your Gods From such kind of discourses as this it is that all the Tumults and Revolutions of the people do proceed as was too lately manifest in the Kingdom of Naples Nay would to God that furious Rebellion had not been hatch'd in the Studies of the Priest where 't is to be fear'd the ruine of Secular Monarchie is principally contriv'd For my part I could swear without much scruple that the Ecclesiasticks are the greatest Rebels because in their Commotions they pervert the zeal of the people towards God joyning it with their passion and indignation towards man In the presence of Madam Royall in Turin a certain Priest that is still living and therefore I will not name him in a Sermon he was preaching upon the Excellence of the Sacerdotal dignity could not hold from crying out twice or thrice Princes Princes so many Priests so many Princes But that which pleas'd me most of all was the conclusion of his Sermon in which casting up his eyes very gratefully to Heaven he us'd this Expression O Lord I give thee thanks thou hast decreed me to be a Priest and not a Prince I believe my Priesthood of more value than all the Principalities in the world as I am a Priest I am a Prince whereas had I been a Prince I should have been nothing And these are the excellent Harangues the Italian Preachers do frequently make in the presence of their Soveraigns From hence it is the Grandeur and Lordlyness of the Cardinals does spring From such discourses as these it is that the Sacerdotal Monarchy is sprung which gnaws and devours insensibly the very bowells of Secular Principalities whilst the Ecclesiasticks advance themselves dayly by preaching up themselves Monarchs and Gods upon Earth whereby they secure what they have got are adding hourly new dignities to their Priesthood and that to such a height that at this time it may be said as properly at Rome as the good Father said at Turin Princes Princes as many Princes as Cardinals God Almighty has been pleas'd I should be a poor man not a Prince so as my condition is to obey not to command Yet had the Divine Providence seen it fit to have alter'd my Station and brought me forth a Prince into the world I should not certainly have suffer'd such liberty of publique discourse within my Dominions or that Christians by such Gibberish should be brought into a
lodg'd at the expence of the Cardinal the first Festival day that happens they come all to the Cardinals house as well he that brought the Cap as he that is to give it him and in short all such as are desirous to serve the Cardinal in the performance of that ceremony The Cardinal in the mean time riding with his Cappuchins hood and a black Cap upon his head with all his Train and the Mace before by express order from his Holiness to Church where being arriv'd he makes a short prayer at the Altar and hears Mass That done the Prelat design'd for that office dresses him in his Robes very solemnly and then disposes him into some eminent place where all the people may see him Then he that carryes the Mace who is the same that brought it from Rome puts it upon the Altar and presents the Prelat with the Bull who receiving it with great reverence and ordering it to be read by one of his Familiars he makes an Oration in praise of his Holiness and of his own readiness to execute his commands That Oration being ended which must be short if it be thought good the Cardinal advances to the Altar and falling down upon his knees he swears to all the particulars contain'd in the Popes Bull in manner and form as is ordained at Rome The Prelat orders the Miter to be taken out upon this and says some prayers over the Cardinal which are to be found in the Ritual for that purpose that done the Cardinal puts off his hood and the Prelat the Miter and then he that brought the Cap delivers it to the Prelat who receives it and puts it upon the Cardinals head and gives him an Osculum Pacis which Cap is presently taken off again and given to him that brought it After which they sing a Te Deum and blesses the people and then all of them accompany him back to his house he riding with his red Cap upon his head and shewing all courtesie imaginable to such as have favour'd him in that ceremony feasting and entertaining them within whilst the Conduits run with Wine at his Gate The Cardinals receive and make visits with the greatest circumspection in the world their Masters of Ceremonies studying and contriving from morning to night after what manner it is to be done lest they should be any way defective in their office Those who go to Audience of the Pope wear the same habits they do when they go to any Congregation held in the presence of the Pope at which times they kiss not his feet unless at their first Audience only or when they have been six months at least out of Rome or when they take their leaves and are sent Legats into any place or when they return The Pope gives them the privilege of setting before him upon a back'd chair he makes them be cover'd and uses them as Brethren whereas the Ambassadors of Princes do commonly stand bare and if at any time they be permitted to sit down it is upon a chair without a back Many do much admire the manner of receiving Ambassadors at Rome and I much more that Kings should be oblig'd to receive and treat his Nuntio's like their equals almosts suffering them to be cover'd in their presence alwayes and placing them in the most honourable seats whilst the good Pope without any reflection upon the Majesty of a King entertains their Ambassadors with so little Decorum that one would in his presence believe them some inferiour Officers of the Kings Chamber rather than the Representatives of the Majesty of a King In my judgement it was sufficient if the Ambassadors look'd upon them as Gods Vice-Gerents upon Earth whilst they are upon matters of Religion or dress'd up in their Pontificalibus and performing some Ecclesiastical duty at such times I could allow them to advance themselves above other people But that as a Temporal Prince he should receive Ambassadors and negotiate with them of matters of Policy and State only without paying them that honour one Prince does usually to the Ministers of another in my opinion is not suitable to the dignity of a King for what greater indecency can there be than to see a Cardinal the most wretched and despicable creature perhaps that is to be seen standing with his Cap on his head or else sitting on his back'd Chair cheek by jole with his Holiness and the Ambassador of a King and one of the greatest Lords of his Kingdom to stand sneaking at a distance and uncover'd or else setting on a a stool like a School-boy But I shall leave the care of these things to themselves who if they saw the difference that is made they would doubtless find out some way to redress it and proceed to the ceremonies the Cardinals use commonly in their visits If at any time the Cardinals be ill they receive no visits unless their distempers be such as will permit them to receive their Visitants in habits suitable to such visits and 't is the same case at the death of any of their kindred though never so near they seldom give audience to any body for which reason some of them to avoid the importunity of such as will visit them though they know the custom to the contrary do retire into some private place either within the City or without I speak this of the generality of Cardinals for there are some of them in spight of all customs will be visited in case of sickness or condoling and without any great absurdity it being at their choise to receive them or not though others with good reason forbear it If they that make the visit be Cardinals the Cardinal meets them in the waiting Chamber or perhaps a little further but no further to be sure than the top of the Stairs if they be Princes with the Title of Serenissimo they are receiv'd as the Cardinals if they be Ambassadors of some King two or three Chambers off if there be so many if less they go but to the first which is that that is next the Chamber of his Audience if they be Brothers or Nephews of the Pope that is living they receive them as they do the Ambassadors of Kings if they be Ambassadors from Savoy Tuscany Dukes and Peers of France Grandees of Spain Nephews to preceedent Popes Generals for the Church or Heads of some of the most eminent Families in Rome they meet them a Chamber and a half and no more The Agents of Serene Princes the Ambassadors of Malta Bologna and Ferara have half a Stanza or a little more but the Malta Ambassador has usually some paces more than those of Bologna and Ferara and not without reason All these are permitted to sit down and be cover'd without any distinction yet the Cardinals and Serene Princes set alwayes right against the Cardinal that they visit both of them with their sides towards the door but the rest sit a little of one side and not directly
no mans person I am Pope and 't is in my power to null or confirm their Acts as I think good my self Let not the Cardinals inquire now what means the Popes made use of to invade and usurp the authority they formerly injoy'd because they are sure to be answer'd with nothing but violence insolence and threats against which they having not courage enough to defend themselves do sit down contented only with the Title and appearance and it is certain at this day that the Cardinals have no more authority over the Church than the Duke of Savoy has over the Kingdom of Cyprus of which he will be call'd King notwithstanding so the Cardinals will be call'd Princes of the Church whilst the Pope runs away with the power doing and undoing as he pleases giving offices and preferments at his pleasure and imposing his own Laws without contradiction insomuch that the Consistories Congregations and Colledges are only for the service and assistance of the Pope who suffers not the Cardinals to transact any thing but by his direction and if they do he revoaks it so that it is too true they have nothing left but a bare outside authority All this would be past over nevertheless and their affliction would not be so great were it the Popes only that commanded the Cardinals but the misery is for more than an age past so many Nephews as have been in Rome so many Popes have there been to command them for the Popes communicating the authority they usurp'd with each of their Nephews they know very well which way to put in execution and have no need to be taught how to make their advantages Is it not a melancholly and most deplorable sight to see two sorry little-headed Nephews make so many Logger-headed Cardinals to tremble that one poor single Nephew should keep the whole Colledge in awe That two pittiful Relations of the Pope's born and brought up in obscurity should be more considerable in Rome than so many Princes of most noble Extraction That the Popes should give more ear to the advice of a Nephew newly taken from School and many times from the Shop than to the Councels of so many Cardinals us'd and accustom'd to publick affairs and zealous of the Service of God That they should command that know not how to command and they be forc'd to obey those they ought in all equity to command That the foreign and extraneous Nephews should have freer and more uninterrupted access to the Vatican than the Cardinals that are born in Rome Now if affairs be carry'd in this manner in the Court of Rome in respect of Spiritual and Temporal Things how can the Cardinals be properly call'd Princes that leave the Church in the hands of other people It is the Nephews that are the Princes that hold the Patrimony of Saint Peter in their possession that divide it from the Church without any resistance and appropriate it as a Patrimony for their particular Families Nor ought the Nephews on the other side to permit seeing they have the authority in them the Cardinals to bear the Title of Princes of the Church lest very ill consequences should follow They have no other right of Dominion over them than by Usurpation and Tyranny and Tyranny is sometimes rais'd above the Majesty of Princes Now if the Cardinals be Princes of the Church without any Soveraignty the Nephews that have got that Soveraignty without any title must be Tyrants and therefore to remove this inconvenience it is necessary either to leave the Dominion of the Church to the Cardinals that have the Title or to give the Nephews the Title that have the Power already and exercise it with great Authority There is not a Heretick a Gentile a Jew a Catholick nor a Protestant but knows the Government of the Church by the Nephews is Tyrannical because the Authority they have to govern it is deriv'd only from the Popes who have no Authority to dispose of that which belongs legally to the Cardinals Christ as if on purpose to prevent disputes said expresly when he gave the power of the Keyes to Saint Peter Tibi dabo claves Regni coelorum observe the word Tibi to Thee that is to Peter I give the Keyes of my Church and not to his Nephews It is my pleasure that you Command and give Laws not your Relations and Kindred Tibi dabo claves Regni coelorum And therefore Saint Peter who understood his duty very well would never admit any of his own Relations to the Government of the Church but only such as were call'd by the Divine mouth of our most blessed Saviour Now a dayes the Popes proceed quite contrary glossing as they please upon the Gospel robbing them as soon as they are entred into the Vatican of all their Authority and giving it to their Nephews and instead of governing the Church with the assistance of the Cardinals in whom the power is directly from our Saviour they govern with the assistance of their Nephews that cannot with any justice enter into the Vatican nor take possession of an Authority that belongs only to the Cardinals It is clear the Cardinals are the true successors of the Apostles so that if the Apostles receiv'd none of their Jurisdiction from Saint Peter but immediately from God and if Saint Peter did never command them neither can nor ought the Popes to command the Cardinals nor are they oblig'd to obey them in what relates to the Government of the Church seeing they have as much power in those affairs as the Popes For my part when I shall see the Popes hold the same correspondence with the Cardinals that Saint Peter did with the Apostles I shall believe them true Popes so on the other side I shall believe the Cardinals true Princes of the Holy Church when I shall see them replete with holy zeal and labouring for the recovery of that Jurisidiction which hath been so unjustly taken from them If they shall at any time be restor'd to the exercise of that Authority they formerly for several ages possess'd they will make the Popes the Church and themselves happy and fortunate and bless'd themselves bless'd because that respect which at present is given by the Faithfull to the Purple only will be kindled in the hearts of all Christendom and break out into a flame of devotion to behold them with such passion and solicitousness endeavouring the good of Christianity the Church fortunate because it shall be no more worryed nor tormented with the tongues and pens of Historians but see every day new Christians sprouting up in her bosom And lastly the Popes shall be happy in having Companions in the care of the Flock of Christ in discharging themselves of a part of that burthen that is not to be sustain'd by one but with great danger of sinking under it Let not the Cardinals therefore any longer delay the wresting again that Dominion out of the hands of the Nephews that by Divine
they desire any favour for the Barons his Holiness should grant it at their Suit By which means the Sacred Colledge will become more estimable to every body but if the Pope villifies them all the world contemns them which was very wise Councel All the pleasant and facetious things that are said in the Court are father'd upon this person of which he never so much as thought and this proceeds from the liberty he takes in his discourse having lived alwayes with that freedom He is a man that perplexes his enemies by the multitude of his civilities and has never ceas'd to assist them who were the cause of his coming to Rome although since he was a Cardinal it was in his power to have mischiev'd them but he confesses himself beholding to them and that if it had not been for their threats he had never come from Cesenna A rare virtue to draw good out of evil But to return Spada was talk'd of both without the Conclave and within for some certain dayes and had it not been for the obstinacy in the creatures of Chigi to have no other Pope but a creature of Alexanders he would doubtless have put fairer for the Papacy than Barbarino himself or any other creature either of Vrbans or Innocents Barbarino had a great affection for him and finding he could not compass it himself he set his interest on foot and endeavour'd to bend and incline the minds of some people to him by crying him up for one of the greatest Polititians in the world affirming the Church had need of such a Pope in such times as these But all this was only in satisfaction to the said Spada he knew very well he was not likely to succeed besides Cardinal Rospigliosi driving at the same thing with more zeal and better means and being oblig'd to Barbarino more than if he had been his creature Barbarino would never have propos'd it to Spada lest he should take away the Papacy from the creatures of Chigi or give an occasion of jealousie to the Grand Duke by hindring the Exaltation of a common friend and creating one of his own only Two reasons oblig'd the Grand Duke to deny his assistance to Santa Susanna who is vulgarly call'd Spada The first was his being a Luccaese that is a worthy Citizen of a Republique upon which the Great Duke looks with an eye of compassion and would rather have it in his own hands than in the midst of his State But if the interests of his Countrey had not been of importance his immoderate affection and dependance upon the will of Barbarino would have made him resolve upon his Exclusion The Spaniards look upon him as their friend and would not have fail'd to have assisted him effectually both for the confidence they had in him and the opinion that he was a quiet and peaceable man which is the thing the Spaniards do principally regard but either by the natural iniquity of that Nation or the want of fidelity in the Ministers of that Crown it appears that it is enough to exclude any one from the Papacy to be propos'd and recommended by the Spaniard as Innocent said very plesantly At first they believ'd they might obtain their design and so much the more zealous were they for his promotion by how much they were inform'd of the King of France's resolution to fall into Flanders with his Army judging it convenient for the quiet of Italy to put a Pope into the Vatican inclinable to peace and affectionate to Spain The French pretended very fairly they would exclude nobody and his Majesty had given them such order but underhand they labour'd the contrary endeavouring to turn away that water from the Mill which the Spaniard supply'd There were certain Satyrical Libels publish'd against Santa Susanna suppos'd to have come out of the Family of Cardinal Farnese who being farther engag'd for the Papacy than any of the rest he had a mind to dismount every body else and remain on horseback himself The Court would have desir'd his exaltation because he was generally beloved but his having so few Adherents especially of the Cap except Barbarino was no small prejudice to his affairs It was believ'd it was a great advantage to him that there was never a Cardinal of the house of Medici and that the interests of the Great Duke were manag'd by Cardinal Rosetti who is a good Cardinal though unfortunate in his Negotiations and indeed it had not been ill for him had the Spaniards had Cardinals of Authority to have manag'd their Factions for 't is the head which gives vigour to all the rest of the Members And now I shall pass to the person of Cardinal Farnese a true Roman and of whom they discours'd as if he were created already there were certain Parasites and Flatterers which fail'd not to assure him of the Papacy but he refus'd with great prudence to put his Nose to that incense And to the end the Reader may be better inform'd of all passages I will set down the reasons upon which they believ'd him Pope and which gave him so great probability and afterwards give an account of the impediments which obstructed him and the first thing that enabled him to contend for the Papacy with any of the rest was his age he being above 70. years old of a weakly complexion and of a very extravagant course of life going to dinner when others went to bed and to supper when others rose another was the many and principal charges which he exercised in Rome after his return from his Nuntiature in Switzerland another his great zeal and incorruption in matters of Justice which he exercis'd with that excess as one may say that he became very terrible to the wicked and very grateful to the good for his uprightness and diligence in business another reason was that he was the last of his Family having only two Nephews by his Sister one in Bolonia and the other in Rome This latter was a Prelate of a competent age but both of them hated by their Unkle who by natural instinct bears a kind of natural aversion to his own Kindred and servants Which humour made the Cardinals open their Eyes and judge him worthy of the Papacy in these times when the Church was so lacerated and perplex'd by the Hereticks and so ruin'd and destroy'd by the Nephews of the Popes The French and the Spaniard were inclin'd to concur with him either in appearance or in earnest for one and the same reason he being descended from the same house with the Dukes of Parma and by consequence not in any suspicion with the Spaniard there being at present a Brother of the said Duke of Parma's in the King of Spains service against Portugal besides the honourable memory of the tryumphs of Alexander Farnese in Flanders in the service of the said Crown So that the Spaniard could not desire greater security than to have a Prince of the Farneses as it
were a hostage in the middle of Spain which said Prince is reported to have recommended the interests of the said Cardinal Farnese his Kinsman to the Spaniards And this very consideration was thought sufficient to prevail with the French King to concur likewise he having undertaken the Protection of the Duke of Parma as to the restitution of the Dutchy of Castro according to the agreement with the Apostolick Chamber under Alexander the 7th in the Treaty of Pisa but without effect they being forc'd to attend the conclusion of that Treaty from the new Pope but that is not done neither So that in respect to that Protection his most Christian Majesty could not as many believ'd refuse his assistance to the said Farnese the Dukes Kinsman but they which look'd further into the secrets of their intrigues have discerned that to be obstacle clearly and a reason to destroy as well as to obstruct that machination and therefore they never esteem'd their mediations for his promotion to the Papacy to be real For first it facilitated to the house of Chigi the acquisition of the Lands of Farnese which were his jurisdiction by which means at present Don Augustino is Prince of them and suggested a way to Pope Alexander to exclude the Duke of Parma who in default of this branch of Farnese was to succeed Whereupon the Duke was not a little disgusted with the said Cardinal who kept little or no correspondence with him all along especially when he was Legate of Bolonia and therefore it was not to be believ'd the Duke would desire the exaltation of a person who upon the score of the interests of his family has for a long time had so little intelligence with him though for some years since upon his particular advantage the Cardinal procur'd a reconciliation in appearance rather than in sincerity and so perhaps the Duke did believe who was wise enough to understand the drift of that reconciliation and therefore appearances not being able to remove what is fix'd and imprest in the hearts of Princes it is to be believ'd the Papacy could not fall into the hands of this Cardinal by means of the Dukes recommendation Moreover he had many other impediments besides but the greatest was the real and verbal aversion of the Spaniard Farnese having render'd himself suspicious to that Crown by his excellent qualities and the opinion they had of the headiness and turbulence of nature which as I have often said before is an occasion that such persons are never desir'd by the Catholick Crown and perhaps they would obstruct the creation of such a Cardinal if they could though he was born in the very Court at Madrid In short though the Duke of Parma should have recommended him as his Kinsman yet could not Farnese expect to be Pope because the Spaniards have an eye at present upon the house of Parma as being oblig'd to France in several particulars so that in such a conjuncture they would not have consented to the exaltation of a Kinsman of the Dukes nay I will go further and say that if the Duke as his Kinsman had undertaken his assistance the Colledge would have oppos'd it at least those Cardinals which are promoters of the Grandure of the Ecclesiastick State if for no other reasons but the interests of Castro which are so considerable The French on the other side could not be sincere in his Election not only upon the score of the affronts offer'd the 25th of November 1650 to the Ambassador the crime of the offendors being by a policy of Innocents thrown upon the back of his Minister which was Farnese and by the French who could do no other acknowledg'd to be such but because they knew also they could not have any intire confidence in him To all this there was added a private disgust betwixt him or to speak more properly his Confidents and some other Competitors for the Papacy as particularly Celsi and Santa Susanna whose infirmities and defects were publish'd in writing but little comporting with the decorum or honour of the Church which upon good grounds were suppos'd to have proceeded from his Family so as they were oblig'd to pay them in their own Coyn. A loss that cannot be counterpoys'd by his private league with Pallotta Albici and Pallavicino which league by the death of the last came to nothing and now all these things being presuppos'd and consider'd together Farnese's exaltation could not be expected yet the French did not fail to assist him whether it was that they knew him to be a proper person to interrupt and disturb the repose of the Spaniards or for any thing else I know not it is sufficient that either to please or oblige him or for some other reasons they did assist him Some there were who pry'd more narrowly into the policies of the French and found that the exaltation which they endeavour'd for Farnese was but to bring him into disgrace with the Spaniard and draw him over wholly to their party the French being assured that the more they sollicited his creation the more jealous would the Spaniards be of him and by consequence more zealous for his exclusion and he finding himself afterwards without hopes would not fail to resent and revenge it upon the Spaniards but they being more practis'd and prying into the intrigues both of Rome and of France knew how to save both their Goat and their Cabbadge Bonvisi was the only person and object that Chigi aim'd at amongst all his creatures believing for certain to make him Pope being his creature so well deserving and the Spaniards concurring out of a desire they had to a young Pope that they might not be lyable to continual mutations and changes there being less exception against this person also than against any of the rest of the creatures of Chigi and the more because as a dextrous and discreet man Bonvisi shunn'd all occasions of shewing himself violent for any of the Crowns and therefore could not be formally excluded by them Cardinal Anthonio likewise acknowledging Bonvisi for his greatest Confident from the time of Vrban his Unckle and of whom he made use as his most faithfull Minister at the breaking out of the Wars endeavour'd his exaltation likewise and fail'd not to invite all the French party to his side But he also was found to have his share of exceptions and that so large as was sufficient to put his designs upon the Papacy out of his head The first objection was against his age being but 62. and no more and which is considerable strong and sound and likely to live twenty years longer and the rather because he was a man that loved his recreations and did not apply himself too fiercely to business So that the rest of the Cardinals who desir'd to have their share in other Conclaves besides this thought of nothing less than giving the Keys to one that would open a door to them all into another world Nor was his
extracted from their own books which are Printed by the Permission and Approbation of the Superiours of their Society Written in French by a Serbon Doctor and faithfully Englished in Folio Il CARDINALISMO di Santa Chiesa OR THE HISTORY OF CARDINALS In III. Parts PART I. BOOK I. The Contents In which is discoursed concerning the weakness of Humane Vnderstanding The manner of God's speaking to Men in old time and at present The Excellencies of the H. Scripture How R. Catholicks live in Protestant Countries and Protestants in those of R. Catholicks Of turning from one Religion to another Of those who relinquish the Church wherein they were born and know not for what reason The promiscuous admission of Doctors in the Vniversitie of Valenza applyed by a Protestant Preacher in discourse with a R. Catholick Of some Missionary Priests who receive licentious persons for Converts What answers the Priests and Friars of Italy make to their Superiors when these go about to punish their Miscarriages An Example of a certain Florentine who went to Geneva to change his Religion Another of a Neapolitane to the same purpose Of those Missionary Priests who buy their Faculty of Mission from some Courtier at Rome What remedy is requisite in these matters Of the Protestant Ministers who are contented to live in their Pastoral charge without thrusting themselves into matters of State Of Liberty of Conscience so much talk'd of amongst Christians What Authority the Emperors and Magistrates had over Church-men in the Primitive times In what particulars the several parties of Christian Professors lament their miseries in these dayes Of the zeal of Princes towards their Subjects What Effect the Magistrate's diligence in visiting the people's Actions produceth Of the neglect of Princes in observing the wayes and proceedings of Church-men How the respect given antiently by the people to Princes and Magistrates differs from what is given to them at this day Of Church-men who assume authority to pry into the actions of Soveraign Princes A Parallel between the Princes and people in reference to the Exercise of Religion Of the Policy of Church-men how exquisite to preserve their Grandeur Some Examples of Preachers as to the matter of Ecclesiastical Grandeur Of the disaffection of Ecclesiasticks to the Soveraignty of Princes Of some Differences wont to arise between R. Catholicks and Protestants in the Elections of Preachers The Example of Moses appointed a Preacher to Pharoah Of the Vigilance of France in maintaining the Gallicane Rites Of a Book printed at Rome in diminution of the Soveraignty of Princes The Jesuites question'd by the Parliament of Paris concerning the Impression of the said Book Their Answer to the Parliament The great Devotion of the Venetians to the service of God and the preservation of their Liberties and Privileges Of some pretendedly scrupulous whâ— blame the Venetians for being too jealous of their Soveraignty Of the danger wherein all Princes would be were it not for the resistance which France and Venice make to the ambition of Church-men Of some discourses concerning the Authority of the Pope Of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and Temporal compared together What effects the Excommunication of the Venetians by Paul V. produc'd to the Church Of the blame those Popes incurr who by their Excommunications forbid Subjects to obey their Natural Princes What Obedience both people and Magistrates owe to the Pope The Opinion of a Dominican Divine The heady Opinions of the Roman Divines concerning the Popes Authority The subjection of such Princes as are constrained by the Pope to obey the caprichio of those Divines who write accommodately to the Pope's humour How easily the Popes may Excommunicate Soveraign Princes and what mischief that easiness produceth How the Popes deal with Princes who have deserv'd well of the Church The chief causes which mov'd Paul V. and Urban VIII to thunder out Excommunications against the Venetians the Commonwealth of Lucca and the Duke of Parma In what manner the Pope ought to be honour'd by Princes and their people Of the difference betwixt being of the Church in the dayes of the Apostles and now Of the effects wrought in the persons of Popes by the H. Ghost Of the Offences arising daily between Popes and Princes by reason of the misdemeanours of Churchmen VVhat great fear Popes of the Primitive Church had of falling into any Error prejudicial to the publick good of Christendome How little now adayes they regard the Vniversal Good Of the great zeal wherewith of old they exercis'd their Pastoral charge VVhat Esteem all people had of Popes in consideration of their holy Lives VVhat kind of persons ascend the Papal Throne in these times VVhat persecutions they suffer who either by tongue or pen reprove the faults of Popes and Churchmen Of the praises attributed to the Popes by some writers Of the Flatteries which sound well in the Popes ears Of those who are look'd upon well or ill by the Pope Of those who write of the Pope's Impeccability Sâ—me Reasons and Instances proving the Pope fallible like other men Some Conclusions and Disputes maintain'd at Paris by the Jesuits in defence of the Popes power and Infallibility The cause why Popes are deficient in Miracles The corruption of the Age. Some deserving persons kept farr from the Court. Of the scandals committed by Churchmen in Rome Of a Bull of Boniface VIII Of an Opinion written by John XXII VVhat was the judgement of Paul II. concerning the Infallibility of the Pope Of a Book written by Pope Adrian VI. The Error Princes commit in suffering publick disputes touching the Popes Infallibility to be held in their Dominions Of some disgusts given by Alexander VII to the most Christian King A Bull put forth by the said Alexander against some Decrees of the Parliament of Paris which rejected the Popes Infallibility The censure of the Faculty of Sorbonne of writings which defended the Papal Infallibity Of Odoardo Farness Duke of Parma who of a friend became an Enemy to Urban VVhat the Author thinks the Pope conceives of him The Popes desire that no Pens were in the world but those which write in their favour Of the Rodomontadoes which the Roman Theologues write in magnification of the Pope The Opinion of a certain Theologue That a Pope cannot be damn'd though never so wicked The Impeccability of the Pope which the Jesuits begin to teach Of the Opinion of those who hold the Pope not subject to General Councils Of the Title of Eternity which some Flatterers would apply to the person of the Pope The Obligation of people to reverence and honour the Popes whilst they are good and to blame and avoid them when they are wicked Divers other particulars touching the Popes Grandeur THE dulness of Humane Understanding renders us uncapable of comprehending the mysterious conduct of Divine Providence whose Counsels and Designs are as to us involv'd in a most profound night of impenetrable Obscurity The Apostle St. Paul after a Transport even into
When Christ came down from Heaven for the Redemption of man-kind he acknowledg'd with his own most holy Lipps that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Now that Kings and Princes have been been alwayes acknowledg'd as Gods Ministers by the people there are a thousand places of Scripture that prove whereas the Popes can hardly produce one Text to confirm that Authority they challenge over Princes And to speak impartially and without interest what reason have the Romanists to withdraw themselves as they do from their obedience to their Soveraigns are they more holy than the Apostles are they more zealous than St. Peter or more politique than St. Paul Yet these who were the founders of Christianity as I may say and the propagators of our Faith paid tribute to Kings obey'd their Magistrates never enterpris'd any thing without leave of the Governours of places whether they went and in short have not only left us their Examples to walk by but this express praecept and command That we give Obedience to all powers for there is no power but from God The Abbot was touch'd to the quick he fix'd his eyes upon me repeated my words one after another and gave me so many tokens of his indignation that I was very well satisfy'd he could have wish'd me in the Inquisition however I took no notice and he thought fit to change the discourse and I in compliance with him took occasion to commend the Countrey through which we travell'd By this relation it is manifest what is the principal thing that the Churchmen drives at namely the ruine of the Authority of Princes and the exaltation of the Pope who is their Prince and Supreme Nor indeed can I see with what policy I had almost said Conscience Princes suffer books to be printed and sold in their Territories which speak with that liberty or rather insolence in behalf of the Majesty and Jurisdiction not only of the Pope but of all Ecclesiasticks against their own Soveraignty and such books as these are the great Volume of Sorbou Bellarmine Toletus Diana Candidus Palavicino and the aforesaid Santerelli with hundreds of other Ecclesiastical Writers whose preferrment depending upon the Church they are by their own interest prompted to such expressions whilst on the other side they prohibit books which directly offend not the Church they profess but only the Authority of the Pope and that too in nothing but what respects their incroachments upon the Civil power And in this manner the Jurisdiction of the Pope and the Ecclesiasticks and the Majesty and Soveraignty of Princes stand as it were in a ballance the Subjects of each party contending with might and main to gain upon the other and to make their own side preponderant the former endeavour daily to lighten the latter and 't were good that the Ministers of Princes would use the like diligence to diminish the Papal power lest in time it swallow up both Princes and Principalities too That the Pope should be Reverenc'd as first Minister in the Church That he should be acknowledg'd Superior to the rest of the Bishops That he should be esteem'd as Christs Vicar in Spirituals and respected as Successor to the Apostles I do hold very reasonable but that he should impugne the Soveraignty of Princes justifie Rebellion exempt four pittiful Ecclesiasticks from Obedience to their Soveraigns and excite others to the same height of disobedience is in my judgement intollerable St. Peter receiv'd the Keys of Ecclesiastical power from the hands of our Saviour and his office was acknowledg'd independant in Spiritual affairs Yet whilst he had the Government of the Church both at Rome and at Antioch he was imprison'd and several times persecuted by Temporal Princes and yet he never threatned any Temporal Minister with his Censures and Excommunications all which notwithstanding the Popes at present do not only make no scruple of menacing with their Bulls and Arms the lesser Princes that are near them but with their Armies and Excommunications they have the confidence to infest the greatest Monarchs in Europe and such as have deserved very well of the Church But the most Reverend Casuists of the Church of Rome will tell me the Pope may lawfully and with a good Conscience dispence with the Obedience a Subject owes to his Prince What has he Authority to invert the order of Nature I am certain he that fears God will not say so When Pope Vrban at the instance of his Nephews Excommunicated Odoardo Farnise Duke of Parma a Prince that had deserv'd very well of the Church he was not content to interdict him the Sacrament but he Excommunicated all such as paid him the ordinary obedience and respect that was due to him as a Duke decreeing expresly that he should be look'd upon as an Enemy and not as a Prince by this means subverting his Authority and to the universal scandal of Christendome making a Prince a Subject and his Subjects Princes Paul the fifth did no less to the Senate of Venice by the fulminations of his Interdict pronouncing all people Excommunicate that should any wayes obey them All the Historians and all the Orators in the world shall never perswade me that there can be any thing more barbarous and Tyrannical than to forbid a Subjects Obedience to his Prince to restrain the people from communicating their interests to their Prince to prohibit to a Magistrate the protection of his Subjects to chase the Judges from the Throne of Justice to shut up the doors of Churches and give Liberty to Vice to imprison Princes and put their Subjects in confusion Oh God what greater barbarity and injustice can be thought of amongst men than to bring a State to be without Justice a people without a Prince and a Prince without a people Nero Heliogabalus Tarquin Caligula and Dionisius who were in a manner the Founders and Contrivers of Tyranny never arriv'd at that perfection of wickedness as to divide betwixt the Subject and his Prince and yet this Cruelty which was too great to be practis'd amidst Barbarism is familiar now where Holiness reigns And perhaps the Divine providence has order'd that Christians should suffer more now in the time of Christianity than formerly under all the Tyranny and Iniquity of Heathenish Ages Whence it is that so many Kingdoms have been lost from the Christian Faith so many Nations have revolted from the Papal Obedience and so many Provinces have deserted the Roman Church but from these practises and actions of the Court of Rome The Protestants make no scruple to deny both the Spiritual Authority of the Pope and his Temporal too and for what reason but because they observe with what audacity and arrogance under pretence of his Spiritual power he Usurps upon the Temporal as if Christ had given him Spiritual Dominion for nothing else but the subversion of the Civil Though for my part I am far enough from thinking as they do It is one thing to
persons is the most vile and abject man in the world of as great esteem in the Church as the greatest Monarch The good Father as if he had recollected himself and found out a most profound way of satisfying the Quaere return'd this answer That the people were not the Members of the Church's body figur'd by Nebuchadnezzars Statue as he had said before but the Guts rather as he had found upon second thoughts This Answer set three or four Protestants that were in my Company and had heard our discourse into a great laughter which indeed it deserv'd and I my self having had my share â—ook my leave as perceiving him fuller of smoak than of meat and indeed I entred into that Dialogue only to pass away the time and take off the tediousness of the way But I have been too long in this digression to return therefore where I left I must needs assert that almost all the discourses of all the Roman Divines are altogether of the same strein and deliver'd almost in the very same words upon all occasions for in hopes of a Cardinals Cap or some other preferment from the Pope they all conspire to advance his Prerogative contrary to the interest of Temporal Princes whose cause is so clear that the whole world wonders it could ever be brought in question To what misery are poor Princes brought who not only lye at the mercy of the Pope chief Sheepherd of Christ's Flock and his Vicar General upon Earth but are inslav'd and prostituted to the caprichio and fantastical humour of every pedantick Theologer who undertakes to assassinate their rights of Soveraignty Nor are the Popes indeed so much to be blam'd by Princes as the Theologers and themselves the Theologers in that they dare infuse such principles of ambition into the Hearts of Popes which otherwise perhaps they had never been inclin'd to And themselves for admitting without any consideration such Books and such Divines into their Dominions as diffuse Doctrines into the people utterly destructive to their Soveraignty Nor can I imagine how Princes are able to endure so many Bulls Decrees Writs and Ordinances to be pasted up dayly at every corner of their Streets and so many books to be printed and publish'd expresly against their Supremacy neither can I on the other side conceive why the Pope should suffer himself to be flatter'd by his Divines to the perpetual disturbance of all the Princes of Christendome by the intrenchment their discourses and writings make upon their Soveraignty How deplorable a thing is it and almost above the patience of a Saint to see a Prince though never so good never so holy and never so innocent Excommunicated by a Pope perhaps a thousand times more wicked and perverse who nevertheless cannot be Excommunicated by any other That is should be lawfull for the Pope to inhibit the Subjects conversation with his Prince though never so worthy and no body should have power to prohibit Subjects conversing with the Pope though never so bad I remember being in discourse with a great Churchman of Spolito about ten years since he told me That the Pope had not only an Arbitrary Power of Excommunicating what Princes he pleas'd without any occasion but that his Authority was so great that he could fetch a Saint out of Paradice if he thought good and cast him headlong into Hell I gave him no answer but smil'd to my self and wish'd him in Paradice and some Pope his Enemy who might remove his Quarters for him and give him the gentle toss to the Devil For these two last Ages especially there have been Barbarous Tyrannical Cruel Scandalous and Lascivious Popes in the Church of God that flea'd and devour'd this Flock instead of nourishing and preserving them Yet the people were constrain'd not only to obey and converse with them but upon their very knees to adore them Yet during this time even such Popes have taken the liberty to Excommunicate Princes motu proprio to interdict the people to suspend the proceeding of Courts to forbid Commerce and in short to form a new Scheme of Government rendring the people without a Prince and the Prince without a people than which if a greater Calamity can befall any Nation let the world judge In respect therefore of these manner of peoceedings with Christian Princes it is obvious that the Subjects in the Dominions of the Church have better times of it and injoy more privileges than Temporal Princes themselves do for these though born to command rather than to obey may fall under the displeasure of some capricious Pope be Excommunicated and deprived of the Obedience of their Subjects as Odoardo Duke of Parma was for not condescending to the humour of the Barbarini whereas the Popes Subjects know no such matter Because though the Pope may dispense with the Obedience of other Princes Subjects yet 't is not to be imagin'd he is so foolish as to Excommunicate himself and discharge his own Subjects from their Allegiance Pope Alexander the sixth whose memory is scandalous to the Church to this day Tyrannis'd over the people at his pleasure took delight to threaten his Neighbour Princes and clapt several great Prelats in prison and all to satisfie the impetuosity of his Revenge and took away the Jewels and Plate from the Altars to inrich his Bastards so that those miserable poor Romans that liv'd in the time of Nero and seem'd born for nothing but to see their own Bowels pull'd out by their Governours were not under half that affliction that the Church was under in the time of this Pope The Cryes of the people for the innumerable Extortions and Oppressions that were committed upon them and the Tears and Compassionate Groans that were heard for the Expulsion of Justice and Equity were enough to have melted and wrought pity in the very Marble it self But alas are there such great Iniquities committed and shall no punishment follow Shall the Pope satisfie the Exorbitance of his nature in the destruction of the people and no remedy 't is too true Is there no Temporal Prince that will appear for the Glory of God for the Honour of the Church and for the Interest of the Saints Fye say his Theologers what against the Head of the Church Christs Vicar and Gods Vicegerent upon Earth God forbid he cannot sin by virtue of his being Pope so they believe and those actions that to humane appearance seem wicked are indeed effects of Sanctity in the person of Alexander the sixth and such like Popes A Churchman of Note Travelling in Cardinal Chigi's Train into France had occasion one day to discourse with certain Protestants of that Kingdom with whom himself introduc'd a dispute about the power and impeccability of the Pope The Protestants declin'd it as much as they could knowing very well it could not be done without exasperating the Churchman but at last being press'd on all sides they were oblig'd to say something against the Churchman's positions
which were that the Pope could not be deceived nor err in any matter whatsoever to the publick prejudice of Christianity but being unable to oppose the numerous examples brought by the Protestants of Popes that had erred he concluded at last that though the Pope should commit a considerable error or be a Tyrant yet being Superior to all other people of the world there was no body had Authority enough to correct him and therefore that in such cases both Princes and people were to commit that matter to God Almighty who had the sole power to chastise him An excellent remedy indeed and of great Comfort to the Afflicted If things were to go after this manner Judges would have no more to do but to pardon the Malefactors and allege for their excuse to the people that God will revenge all in the other world Christ himself knew very well the State of the Case and yet he advises St. Peter to repent and bewail his offences not in the next world but in this not in the presence of Angels but of Men in the sight of the Church Militant and not in the sight of the Church Triumphant What greater injustice can the heart of man imagine than to see a wicked Pope Governing the Church ill the People worse but the Princes and Magistrates worst of all and yet be secure and uncapable of Correction not enduring the least injury himself and yet committing all insufferable outrages upon others crying up his own wicked actions as Sanctify'd and good and decrying other peoples good actions as unholy Whoever will but reflect upon the Excommunication publish'd against the State of Venice and the Duke of Parma and the Commonwealth of Lucca will without doubt find them full of nothing but carnal passion The Venetians were Excommunicated by Paul the fifth for zealously preserving their antient privileges pertaining to them both by Humane and Divine right and ratified by so many Emperors and Popes but that which is the principal remark is that Paul the fifth who went about to destroy the said privileges was a great hater of this Common-wealth although it had deserv'd so well of the Church so that his actions towards them were not like those of a Father but of a particular and profess'd Enemy The Commonwealth of Lucca's case was no better I may say indeed it was worse for where the Popes find weaker resistance they lay'd about them so impetuously that they resemble Furies as the poor Luccesses experienc'd who were forc'd to defend themselves against the Rage which Vrban the 8. had conceiv'd against them for no other reason but for taking the courage to chastise the insolences of some Priests who under pretence of being exempt from the Jurisdiction of that Commonwealth had committed more Villanies than they had said Masses in their lives But all this is nothing in respect of Barbarini's usage of Odoardo Farnise Duke of Parma whom he Excommunicated Interdicted Declar'd an Apostate from the Church and Depriv'd of his Dutchy and for what reason Marry because the Duke did not as he past from Capraruola to Rome to see the Pope give a visit to Donna Anna Barbarina Wife of Don Tadco his Nephew who had a great ambition to see him at her house which his Highness for some reasons did not judge convenient at that time And this was the true occasion which the Barbarini took to persecute the Duke and still to this day they swear they will be reveng'd of him This was the original of the Ecclesiastical Excommunications and this is the manner of the Popes proceedings with Princes let the world judge whether they can deal worse with their Slaves It were indeed to be wish'd that Princes would alwayes seek occasions to testifie to the world the great respect they bear to the visible Head of the Catholics Church were it not that experiences teaches them that the Popes exaltation to St. Peters Chair or rather the transfiguration of a Man into a Pope does not extinguish all humane passions nor quench that fire of ambition and revenge which is wont to consume even Holyness it self much more in those persons that borrow only the title of Holyness most of whose actions are very contrary to that quality Upon very good grounds therefore and for good reasons of State are the Princes oblig'd to distinguish betwixt the effects of the Popes power and those of his passion and not confound and mingle as the Popes would fain have them Divine things with Humane Spiritual with Temporal the Church with the World the Gown with the Sword and Priests with Princes I could wish that the Princes would receive these Orders Bulls and Decrees of the Pope which respect the Edification of the Church and the Salvation of the people with all Reverence and Submission but not that they prostitute and debase themselves to the pleasure and humors of the Pope in matters conducting to their honor and to the conservation of their Temporal Majesty which the Popes with all diligence endeavour to destroy As the Popes are St. Peters Successors though like nothing less than St. Peter and as they are Shepherds of the Flock of Christ though they have nothing of Shepherds but the Sheers to clip and as they are indued with a great Dignity and Character it is fit they should be honoured by Princes But I would not have them forget that the Election of a Pope is made by the Cardinals who are but men and swayed too by a thousand worldly interests and designs there being scarce a person not only in Italy but in the whole world that is ignorant of the intrigues and canvasings in the Conclave so that that Sentence of the Apostle St. Paul is fit to be remembred as in a manner expresly intended for instruction of Princes Omnis Pontifex ex hominibus assumptus circumdatus est infirmitate I think it fit that Princes should own and acknowledge the good actions of the Popes before the people but 't is fit too that they take notice of their wicked actions which the people perhaps imagine to be good according to St. Leo's judgement That 't is not enough to oblige the Faithfull to respect the Pope as lawfull Successor of St. Peter but the Successor of St. Peter should indeavour to imitate the good works of St. Peter as his works of justice and piety to the end they may be really styl'd his true and lawfull Successors Manet Petri privilegium quoties ex ejus aequitate fertur judicium I would know whether any Court of Justice in Christendom or elsewhere would declare a man Heir without obliging him to perform the duties and discharge the debts of the Inheritance Certainly I think not because Justice requires alwayes that the Heir be charg'd with the debts upon the Estate otherwise he is to be excluded and the Inheritance divided amongst the Creditors But this Law seems to be repeal'd at Rome the Pope can be contented with St. Peters
made innocent and the innocent guilty However if the Pope did really believe so the Ambassador was of another opinion he knew very well that when his Holiness call'd that Consistory in which Pope Paulus resolution of Excommunicating the Venetian was for several dayes in debate there were three factions of Cardinals one of them deny'd absolutely to concurr and with good reasons demonstrated the Errour his Holiness was in the second was of opinion to protract a while to consider more of it and to try if by another means the Venetian might be brought to accommodate with his Holiness his demands The third faction which consisted of Cardinals either created by him or oblig'd to him for some Bishopricks Offices or Preferments gave their voices clearly for the Interdiction Not but that they knew in their Consciences the prejudice the Church would receive and the danger of introducing some new Heresie into Italy but seeing the Pope resolute and impatient to be thundring his Excommunications amongst them to satisfie his designs they stuck close to him and would have done the same to the detriment of the whole World if the Pope had desir'd it And therefore it was that Paulus insinuated that he had done nothing but with the advice of his Cardinals but he said not that he had follow'd the bad part of them and neglected the good The case of Vrban the eighth is not much unlike it he was a Pope otherwise of great worth and had left a nobler memory of his actions had he not towards the end of his Papacy obscur'd the splendor of his labours by suffering himself to be transported by the furious counsel of his Nephews to a certain violence destructive to the Ecclesiastical Decorum the reputation of his own person and the peace and repose of all Italy I say then when he undertook the invasion of the Duke of Parma who had deserv'd very well of the Church turning all Europe as it were top-si-turvy and obliging all the Princes in Italy to stand upon their guard against those Armes that were taken up and manag'd with passion Vrban at that time excus'd himself with the same pretence that Paulus did assuring all the Ministers that were then in his Court negotiating a Peace That he was certain he had not erred for besides that as he was Christs Vicar he could not erre himself he had not resolv'd upon that War without the deliberation and advice of the whole Consistory of Cardinals Which thing was so said but not so done for the least thing that prevail'd with his Holiness was the opinion of his Cardinals who with all the prayers and exhortations imaginable beseech'd him to desist laying before him the universal scandal it would give to all Christendom and the insufferable calamities it would bring upon the people but there was no room for such arguments in the breast of the Pope the Nephews had resolv'd to turn the Cross into a Sword and the Rochet into a Mantle de la guerre not at all regarding those counsels that were inclining to peace But let us leave this and grant that that War was undertaken by the advice of the greatest part of the Cardinals Let it be as Vrban said but what then shall the Pope be excusable by that or the Cardinals blam'd Oh no I affirm that though the Cardinals had given their voices for the undertaking of that War it would have been to be pardon'd And that this is true let us see what kind of Cardinals they were that were present when Vrban propos'd this War against the Duke of Parma They were either Cardinals created at the instance of Francisco or Anthonio Cardinals oblig'd for their Caps to the whole House of the Barbarini Now what could such Cardinals do deny to satisfie the desires of the Barbarini who had given them their Dignity refuse to give their voices for the War if Francisco and Anthonio recommended it I know very well Reason ought to take place of Passion that Gods interest is to be preferr'd before Mans the universal advantage to the particular the honour of the Church before any private person and I know again there is not any of the Cardinals so weak but they know it but the business is the Ecclesiasticks are fed with Flesh and not with Divinity and the interest of this world outweighs the interest of the next and the reason is they are not Angels but Men. Afterwards Alexander who was I speak under the permission of the House of Chigi Master of the turnings and equivocations the jugglings and pretences that he us'd understood this point better than the rest and some are of opinion that for many years backward there was not to be found in the Vatican a Pope more inclin'd to Monarchy than he taking no small pleasure in humouring and indulging himself according to the dictates of his own fancy nevertheless he broke the brains as it were of the Consistories and hourly tormented the Congregations and by his usual equivocations and falacies he appear'd dis-interested in all things committing all things to the Councels of the Cardinals in so much that in the beginning of his Papacy there was a certain Cardinal so far deluded by his outward appearance that he cry'd out one day in company where he was God be prais'd we have at last found a Pope that is a lover of good Councell But when the sack came to be shak'd there was nothing but dust for whilst he said all the trouble upon the Cardinals to lull and inebriate the World he himself went away with the wealth not deviating in the least from the Capriccious Monarchy that was exercis'd by his Predecessors unless it were in this that he did it with more neatness and cunning And indeed he not only left his Treaties and matters of greatest importance to be lifted in the Congregations and Consistories but his common and more ordinary affairs and yet he did but refer the cause from Herod to Pilate by a Maxim of policy spun and contriv'd in his own brain If the Judgements and Votes of the Cardinals did not agree with his desires though the business was determin'd and concluded in this Consistory or in that Congregation he would still refer it to another but if they were suitable with his designs then there was an end of the business and the Cardinals discharg'd from any further trouble In short Alexander made the affairs that were to be discuss'd to be so much tumbled and toss'd in the Consistories that at last things would of necessity fall out as he would have them It happen'd one day a Consistory being call'd for I know not what business already examin'd and perhaps several times decided two of the Cardinals going together to the said Consistory and discoursing of the subject they were again to deliberate the one said to the other The Pope will make us come and go in this manner till we guess out his mind 't is better to make an end
false opinion some people had that Cardinal Francisco bought the Papacy in the last Conclave with the disbursment of a round sum of money Of Cardinal Ginetti of the difference of his manners and inclinations from Cardinal Barbarino's Of his immoderate covetousness Of the Vicarship and other Benefices conferr'd upon him by Pope Urban the eighth Of the number of Nephews that he hath and of their virtues and vices Of some particulars of Cardinal d'Arach and how little he was regarded in the Court of Rome Of his zeal in the reprehension of the iniquities of that Court in their secret Congregations Of Cardinal Antonio Barbarino and the reason why he was call'd Romano Of the Dignities conferr'd upon him before his Cardinalship Of his inclination towards Women Of the prudence he us'd in defence of the French Interest Of the grëat severity Cardinal Palotta us'd in his administrations of justice Of his sentencing Cecca Buffona a famous Courtezan and Cardinal Anthonio's Mistress to be whipp'd Of the animosities it begot and the great persecutions that follow'd thereupon Of the dis-intereâ—t he shew'd towards the Crowns Of the manner how Cardinal Brancaccio obtain'd the Cap. Of a notable saying of a witty man Of the great number of his Kindred Of the assiduity wherewith Cardinal Carpegna was alwayes ready to serve the Barbarini Of his humour that was something melancholly Of one of his Brothers call'd Don Mario Of the difference betwixt the Youth and the Age of Cardinal Durazzo Of the way by which he arriv'd at the Cardinalship Of his affability in conversation and other particulars of his nature Of his death Of the advancement of Mr. Julio Gabrielli from being Clerk of the Chamber to the Cardinalship Of his Bishoprick of Ascoli and his Legation from Urban Of his nature and his ignorance in letters Of the great merit of the House of Ursino and the promotion of Virginio Ursino to the Cardinalship Of his protection of Portugal and the great ardour with which he defended the Interest of France Of the good life of Cardinal d' Este Of his art in equivocating and his affability in conversation Of Cardinal Facchinetti and his reputation in the Colledge Of Urbans promotion of Girolamo Grimaldi a Genoese to the Cardinalship Of the esteem they had for him in the Court of Rome and in Paris Of Cardinal Rosetti and his Negotiation into England Of that which exalted Cardinal Donghi to the Cardinalship and of the reputation he got in his Legation to Ferrara Of the principal causes that mov'd the Pope to conferr a Cap upon Monsignor Rondanini Of the fortune Nicolo Ludovisi had to he advanc'd to the Cardinalship and other particulars of his nature Of the kindness Innocent had for the Cardinal Cibo and of the esteem he had in the Court for his good behaviour Of the great respect and reputation Cardinal Sforza is in Of his humour that has more of a Souldier in it than of a Prelate Of the Cap that was given to Cardinal Odescalco upon the importunity of Donna Olimpia and of the opinion they have of him at the Court. Of the promotion of Monsignor Raggi to the Cardinalship of his comportment and what they thought of him at Court before his promotion Of Cardinal Maldachini his humour his promotion and other particulars of his life Of the promotion and Persecution of Cardinal Rhetz Of the ambition Cardinal Homodei had for the Cardinalship and of his virtues Of Cardinal Ottobuono and his qualities Of the Cardinal Imperial and his qualities Of Cardinal Borromeo and of his promotion Of Cardinal Santa Croce Of the Cardinal d'Hassia Of the Cardinal Charles Barbarino Of the Cardinal Spada Of Cardinal Albici Of Cardinal Aquaviva Of Cardinal Pio. Of Cardinal Gualtieri Of Cardinal Azolini and several particulars of the Cardinals aforesaid Of the number of Cardinals created by Pope Urban the eight Of the saying of a great Wit upon the number of those Cardinals Of the number of Cardinals created by Pope Innocent Of the principal end the Popes ought to have in the promotion of Cardinals Of the causes that render the Court of Rome so Majestick Of the opinion of a Tuscan Gentleman thereupon Of the glory wherewith Innocent began his promotions Of the Cardinal Princes created by Innocent the tenth Of the little inclination Urban had for the creation of Cardinal Princes and the disgust given to the creatures of Paul the fifth Of the zeal wherewith Alexander the seventh began his Papacy Of his intention at first to make many Cardinal Princes Of the discourse he held thereupon with his Domestiques Of the power given to Signour Majetta Ambassador from the Duke of Savoy Of the misery the Colledge is in at this present for not having a greater number of Cardinal Princes Of the great pleasure the Popes take at the news of the death of any Cardinal Of the Cardinals that are created by the Douzanes and oblig'd to follow the interest of the Nephews Of the cause why the Cardinal Princes do wear the Purple and of the great honour to receive it THE Magnificence of the Cardinalitial Colledge is so great and its splendor so immense the Cardinals themselves could not wish it to be greater The respect and observance that is paid them is very little different from what is given to Kings and in some things they exceed the condition of Princes Yet the Grandeur of the Sacred Colledge would have been much greater if after its first institution or at least after the multitude of Prerogatives conferr'd upon it by so many several Popes by whom it hath been inrich'd it had maintain'd and continu'd its antient virtue and decorum But I know not how it is come to pass that the Popes either repenting that they had rais'd the Cardinals to so high a pitch of magnificence or that they did not regard as it is too likely the pulique benefit of the Church postponing it to their own private interests It is sufficient that they have endeavour'd not the conservation or advancement of the Cardinalitial Majesty but the abasement and destruction of it and that two several wayes but one much more pernicious than the other The first is in having admitted into the Colledge persons of mean extraction and of as little virtue with which they are not able to cover in the least the baseness of their birth for certainly it would be a less evil had they either virtue or learning to attone for their natural defects Nor would this be so despicable and dishonourable for the reputation of the Colledge were the Caps given only to persons of mean extraction but the worst is they are conferr'd upon most infamous persons abounding with all wickedness and mischief and perhaps fitter for the Galleys than the Colledge The second is that the same Popes who with so many Bulls and Ordinances have ingâ—andiz'd the Colledge either forgetful of their former policy or blinded by some Mundane passion have for a certain
recited at a Carneval When the Nephew Lorenzo was made Treasurer as aforesaid he call'd him to him and in the presence of all his Courtiers told him Nephew if you have a desire to arrive at that dignity I am at you must study and be sure you follow my steps which words of his set not only his Servants a laughing but the Nephew himself This Nephew who at present is Cardinal Raggi his Unckle being dead was by the Barbarini made Superintendant General of the Gabels through the whole State Ecclesiastick and that for no other reason but because he was known to be a great friend to Parsimony and Thrift and the Barbarini believing that he being ambitious of a Cap he would not fail to be a friend to their Coffers nor were they mistaken for Monsignor Raggi that he might be serviceable to them in heaping up money and to satisfie himself in his covetous humour carry'd himself so ill in his imployment that he gave occasion to several disorders and particularly in the raising Armes against the Duke of Parma and the Princes of the League at which time the Souldiers could not receive their money though the Pope had given express order they should have four Musters pay In so much that the next day after the Election of Innocent the tenth the Souldiers appointed as a Guard to the Conclave fell a plundering whatever they met with and because Raggi would give them but one half of their pay they took it so ill they with great fury fell upon the place where their money was broke up the Chests and carry'd all away they could find and in that rage they assaulted the Palace of Don Tadeo searching every where up and down for Raggi but he having notice of their designs leap'd out of a window to save his life And indeed so highly were they incens'd every body was affraid of some popular revolution which had certainly fallen out had not Pope Innocent who was but newly elected apply'd remedy immediately Such a business as this could do no less than give offence to the whole Court and to imprint a disgust against the person of Raggi in the breast of the Pope so that every one believ'd his Office would be taken away because it was privately hinted to him that he should offer to resign it But it happen'd clear contrary for in the year 1647. in the month of October he was created Cardinal to the admiration of the whole Court though afterwards when he was promoted to that Dignity he fram'd himself exceedingly to the Customes of the Court of Rome which in him appear'd more remarkable than in any other person because he understood how to accompany them with such Ceremonies as allure and inveagle the hearts of all such as have business with him But when it comes to the drawing of his purse-strings he does no great matter all that is to be got is but civility and good words he has a smattering in Learning and if he would study more he would become more considerable His manners and humour would not be ill were they not obscured by his ambition and avarice vices that have too great dominion over him In the Court he passes for an indifferent person and is spoken of only as he makes himself notorious by his defending the interest of Spain he being one of the most Spanioliz'd Cardinals of them all To be short he is about 45. years of age he abounds not over much with charity he is a Genoese and by consequence out of all hope of being Pope unless the face of affairs be alter'd But he seems not to have any ambition for it because he does not take the right way to arrive at the Papacy so that though the face of affairs should alter there would be but little hopes for him FRANCISCO MALDACHINO is the Son of Marquess Andrea Maldachino that was Collateral General to all the State of the Church he was promoted to the Cardinalship out of the great affection his Holiness bore to Donna Olimpia Sister to the said Marquess and Cousin to the Pope the seventh of October 1647. to the wonder not only of the Court but of all Christendom His Holiness to speak the truth was with great difficulty brought to condescend for six months together he refus'd all the importunities his Cousin could make as not willing to burden his Conscience by admitting such a Monster in Nature into the number of so great Princes and into a Colledge of worthy men but he could not resist her multiply'd prayers any longer but as it were blind-fold he created him Cardinal in the 18th year of his age But that which is most strange is that Donna Olimpia not contented to see her Nephew in Scarlet notwithstanding the irregularities both of his person and manners would needs introduce him to the Government of the Ecclesiastick State and give him possession of the same credit and authority that Cardinal Barbarino had during the Popedom of Vrban the eighth seeing his Holiness her Cousin resolv'd that he might have assistance in the sustaining so great a weight to adopt a counterfeit Nephew because he could have no real one since Pamfilio that was his Nephew indeed had renounc'd the Cardinalship to marry the Princess of Rosanno as noble a resolution perhaps as ever fell into the heart of man though dislik'd both by his Unckle the Pope and Donna Olimpia his Mother he having by that marriage perpetuated the Name of Pamfilio by two little Sons that he has worthy of such a Princess to their Mother and which do contribute much to the honour of Rome Donna Olimpia imploy'd her utmost interest with the Pope to have made him Cardinal Padrone or Cardinal Nephew and because his Holiness was I know not how engaged in his affections to this Lady his Kinswoman and durst not absolutely deny her so on the other side being unwilling to promise it he temporiz'd and dally'd with her that he might not displease her But she to make all sure by his Holiness consent put him under the institution of the Cardinals Panzirolo and Cherubino that he might be well instructed in the affairs of Court But this was no more than to sow Corn upon a Rock Maldachini had no capacity to receive any thing at all having brought an incredible stupidity along with him even from his Mothers belly Panzirolo that understood very well the humour of Maldachini and the Popes resolution not to entertain such a Statue into business of State advis'd his Holiness to create Astalli Cardinal Nephew and he did so but with so much dissatisfaction to Donna Olimpia when she heard it that she fell almost mad upon it thundering out her maledictions and invectives against Panzirolo with such fury that it was a great cause of her falling out of favour with his Holiness All the while Innocent liv'd after the Creation of Maldachini he express'd great regret for having made such a person a Cardinal and could
the one endeavour'd what he could to keep the Purple from the shoulders of the Princes the more did the other labour to place it there Alexander the seventh that began his Pontificate with the zeal of a Saint and the magnificence of Alexander the Great express'd a great ambition that he had to see in his time the Court more Majestick than ever and he sought out all the wayes he could to adorn it not only by endeavouring the number of Ambassadors of Foreign Princes might be encreas'd who do adde indeed great splendor to a Court but he declar'd also he would fill up the Colledge with more Eminent persons than had ever been seen there before and at this rate he discours'd frequently not only with the Cardinals themselves but with his Familiars and Domesticks protesting his whole design was to promote half a dozen Princes at the least which being related to an old Courtier he told a Friend of his that had a mind to a Cap Sir till now I look'd upon you as a Cardinal because Cardinals were made formerly of any thing but now the Pope is resolv'd to make them of the best only there is but little hopes for you I understand you reply'd the other and I had rather wave the services I have done to the Church for the sake of a Prince than of an ignoble Competitor To the Marquess of Majetta Ambassador from the Duke of Savoy Alexander made no small protestations that he was very sorry he could not find one person in that Royal Family of the Duke that was capable of the Cardinalitial Dignity whereby he might satisfie his natural inclination of adding new splendor to the Colledge by introducing persons of that eminence and extraction And such pretences as these he us'd to the Ambassadors of other Princes that is of such in whose Families he saw no hopes of finding a person proper for so great an honour But it was known very well he us'd no such discourses but in meer hypocrisie because he never made any such Propositions to those Princes that were able to have furnish'd him And this piece of dissimulation for which he was suspected at Court was verified towards his latter end when as there being two Cardinals of the House of Medici dead who without doubt had been the greatest Ornament of that Sacred Colledge and it being in his power to have immortaliz'd his Name by the promotion of others out of the same he shut his eyes and his ears against all the overtures that were made so that instead of re-admitting one at least of the said Family into the vacancy he fill'd them both up with Sieneses choosing rather to rob the Church of so great an honour than deny himself the latitude of his passions in so much as after his last promotion which he made dying as it were and in his Bed many people began to cry out that it was but fit the Church should remain a Widdow without a Pastor seeing it was his will the Colledge should remain a Widdow without any more of the House of Medici And indeed for a whole age to this time there has not been found in the Colledge so few Cardinal Princes as at present especially of the House of Medici the Cardinals of which have not only labour'd by their outward magnificence to preserve the splendor of the Court but upon several occasions have demonstrated to the Popes that it was necessary to continue such persons in the Colledge for defence of the reputation of the Popedom and the honour of the Church and this the House of Chigi above all others would acknowledge did not their passions blind their belief for without the assistance of the two Cardinals of the House of Medici Alexander would have found himself more than once or twice either in such a Labyrinth of business as would have been prejudicial not only to his own Family but to the common good of Christendom and particularly in the time of that accident to the Duke of Crequy But for all that he regarded not to deprive his own House of the protection of that it being the custom by natural instinct of such as are born Subjects to kick and repine against their natural Lords and this was manifest in Pope Alexander who in the beginning of his Papacy spake of nothing more in all his Consistories both publick and private than of the transcendent worth in the House and Person of the Great Duke but afterwards towards his latter end having opportunity of shewing the effects of his pretended affection and the obligations he ought to him as his Subject by promoting some person of the House of Medici to the Cardinalship forgetting what he had talk'd in the beginning the Grand Duke was the last person in his thoughts It is most certain that for these hundred years and more there has not been a Pope like Alexander in the Church so little inclin'd to make Cardinal Princes he not having had the honour to have created one in his whole time a thing that has not happen'd in a whole age before some Popes having created two some three some more some less as is to be seen in the Catalogue of the Popes only Alexander alone created not one But this I cannot attribute so much to the ill disposition of Alexander as to the ill fortune of his Pontificate that could not accommodate the times to the will of Alexander nor the will of Alexander to the times in so much that the Church was the greatest sufferer When the Cardinal Princes dye the Popes may well mourn especially if they have not an intention to fill up their places with new Princes And now I speak of mourning I will be bold to say before I pass any further that instead of that the greatest pleasure the Popes receive at any time is the news of the death of a Cardinal and on the other side the Cardinals are as glad at the death of the Pope and that either out of hopes to arrive at the Popedom themselves or at least by virtue of their own negotiations to preferr some person depending upon their amity and beck The Popes rejoyce to have vacancies in the Colledge out of a desire to leave great numbers of Creatures oblig'd to follow the interest of the Nipotisme And because the Cardinal Princes do usually walk in wayes that are independant and most agreeable to the interest of their own Families and to the publick advantage of the Church or rather because they are asham'd to give their Votes at the direction of the Nephews therefore are the Popes so carefull of their interest so shy and cautious in promoting them holding this as a Maxime that so many Caps as are given to the Princes so many Votes are given away from the Nephews And this it is that inclines them to make Cardinals rather of such persons as will with Reverence be it spoken be led by the Nose by the Nipotisme than of the Princes
Eufemia which by Seniority belong'd to Brancacci another of the Knights at which the Grand Master being disgusted threatned to turn the Inquisitor out of the Island and gave him other tokens of his Resentment but all was compos'd by the good conduct of his Holiness in such manner that Brancaccio was satisfi'd by the perswasion of a Cardinal of that name that for the Popes interest and his Nephews accommodated all The Nobility of his Holiness and the Family of the Rospigliosi is as considerable as the City of Pistoia can make it it is reckon'd amongst the most antient of that place and has not oâ—â—y maintain'd it self in the principal Honours that Town could afford and ally'd it self with Families their equals but has in all ages afforded eminent men in Tuscany and elsewhere so as it may well stand in competition with any that enveighs it in several respects his Holiness however aims to aggrandize his Family in spight of them all especially in the person of the new Cardinal his Nephew whom we shall yet consider as Abbot Rospigliosi and indeed there are many Provisions and Offices suspended till the said Abbot arrives in Rome who by unhappy accident sell sick by the way all people being big with expectation parturiunt montes but they know not whether they may say nascetur ridiculus Mus or laugh out as is hop'd nascetur ingens Elephas His Holiness in the mean time being alwayes intent upon the easing and indulging of the people under his Care has order'd it to be publish'd in all the Parishes and to all the Ecclesiastick Ministers within the district of Rome that the several Diocesans be call'd to the end that if they find themselves aggriev'd by the Roman Barons or other Governours they should appeal immediately to him and he would relieve them with all possible justice But all was but shew as many believ'd it being the property of the Romans to complain with excess of ill Government and to call what is good but Hypocrisie so that this benignity of his Holiness was look'd upon but as a Copy of his Countenance He was reported likewise to be too easie in granting favours to the Ladies but that report was rais'd upon the Lady Marchess of Paleotti's prevailing by her insinuations and the prettiness of her discourse with his Holiness to bestow upon her Father the Duke of Nortumbia a Pension of five hundred Crowns a year with this additional favour that it might be paid from time to time by the Congregation de propaganda side From this bounty of the Popes the Romans took occasion to say that his Holiness was very ready to gratifie the Ladies in any thing but the contrary appears in the person of the very same Lady who thinking to find the same easiness as she did in the Pension she adventur'd so far as to desire to be divorc'd from her Husband but she found his Holiness impenetrable as to that who reproving her for her demand sent her away much discontented The Pope was highly accus'd upon the resolution he took as soon as he was leap'd into the Vatican to confirm the Invenstiture of the Prefectship of Rome given by Vrban the eighth to Don Tadco and to his third Generation although Innocent and Alexander his Predecessors had refus'd to confirm the same to Don Maâ—tâ—o his Son the Prince of Palestrina however Clement was willing to gratifie him in remembrance of the obligations he had alwayes profess'd to the Barbarini but with this condition notwithstanding that the said Prefect should give place to the Ambassadors of Crowns only allowing them precedence not only before all Roman Barons but even before the Popes Nephews pro tempore A business that did not please the Barons at all and gave great disgust to the Historiographers who all of them knowing this Minister to be a second Emperor and that all the former Popes except Vrban for his own interest had endeavour'd out of a politick maxime to abolish the very memory of it did wonder to see Clement confirming it at his very first entrance into the Chair The first of his Nephews that came to Rome were two one of them call'd Fra Vincenzo a Knight of Malta and the other Tomaso They were persons of no great noise but resolute modest courteous and full of humility in a word not unlike their Unckle in their modesty who though he had call'd them to Rome declar'd notwithstanding that he would not suffer them to fix their Families in Rome nor take any other Titles upon them than what belong'd to their Births But that resolution was of no long continuance for he left them at liberty to their Titles and whatever preheminence they pleas'd in so much that his Holiness one day did solemnly rebuke Seignour Giacinto del Bufalo Mastro di Camera to Fra. Vincent because he had made Gio. Battista Vallasi to stay at dinner with the said Cavalier and his brother as a person that not being of Noble Extraction did not deserve to dine with his Holinesses Nephews a clear sign he intended to render them Majestique having given likewise eighty thousand Crowns toward the furnishing of Ludovisi's Pallace designed for the residence of the Nephews besides thirty thousand he sent the Abbot at one time and above fifty thousand at another to help to defray his charges in his Journey I shall now pass to the Promotion of Cardinals by Clement the ninth about the end of Decemb. 1667. and the first that presents himself is Prince Leopald di Medici brother to the Grand Duke Whilst Alexander was living several instances were made to him that he would do the Colledge of Cardinals that honour as to bestow a Cap upon such a Prince as this of a Family that was of a Neighbour State and had deserv'd well of the Church but Alexander reserving it for his Successor deny'd himself that glory as it happen'd afterwards indeed for no sooner was Clement got into the Vatican but either moved by the natural merit of his person or by a desire to do good he declar'd he would promote the said Prince Leopald to the Cardinalship without attending the Grand Dukes mediation which fell out afterwards but rather to preserve I know not what kind of right of nomination the Grand Duke pretended to than for any thing else The Popes having ordinarily contended to satisfie the instances of the Great Dukes by the Promotion of some person of the house of Medici as well for the benefit of the Church as the State Ecclesiastick From this new Prince Cardinal and call'd Cardinal in quality of a Prince there can be nothing expected but good actions favourable propitious and equitable to the common good of Italy as the rest of the Cardinals of the house of Medici's have upon all occasions express'd particularly Gio. Carlo and Carlo that dyed last who with great prudence promoted the advantage of all Italy as zealously as the benefit of their own Families so that it
nevertheless amongst those there were Vrsin Este and Grimaldi who were indifferent which way Barbarino steer'd it was enough for them if they follow'd their instructions from France there were amongst them Harach and Donghi likewise both of them Spaniards and Rosetti for the Great Duke who were all Creatures of Barbarino and follow'd him rather to give him counsel than to receive any from him every one of them endeavouring the advantages of their particular Princes without any design at all to favour the interest of Barbarino who recommended himself to them So that there were at the absolute disposal of Barbarino but 7 Votes with which number he would not have been able to have done any thing either Pro or Con and yet he was able because amongst the other two Factions there were certain Cardinals who deny'd to concur in the persons propos'd to them by their heads to exclude them therefore they joyn'd with Barbarino's party who were resolv'd upon their Exclusion likewise And by â—â—is means the Faction of Barbarino became stronger and able at least to prevail for the Exclusion of any one And this that is spoken of one of the Factions is intended of them all for my part I esteem little the uniformity of so many Factions as having nothing but Title and some little appearance for in one and the same Faction there are oftentimes four or five several opinions and every opinion attended with two or three Cardinals which is the true reason of the difficultie in Elections If it were otherwise and the Factionists follow'd the directions of their Heads the Pope would be made in a moment because it would be sufficient to accommodate two persons only which are the Heads but things are carryed after another manner there being for the most part in every Conclave as many Factions as Cardinals a many Heads as Factions and as many Popes as Heads confounding themselves by their conjunctions and divisions and doing too much they do nothing at all And here I will beg leave of the Reader for one moment to insert an example very worthy in my judgement to be added to this Treatise It is not two years since there was a Muster of the horse in a City where I was then present in the Company of a Roman Abbot who had the curiosity to see the said Muster The Captains had never been in the Wars and perhaps not so much as on Horse-back the Souldiers were all of them either Porters or Shooemakers or Taylors or Bargemen and therefore better skill'd in any thing than fighting insomuch that I think it impossible to see any thing more pleasant than the disorders of that Muster The Captains commanded as if they were to obey and the Souldiers obey'd as they were to command some of them ran whether they were never call'd and others refus'd to go to that post to which they were commanded That Captain call'd two or three Souldiers out of his own Company and there came five or six out of another When they were to double their files there was neither head nor foot to be found they which were before instead of standing firm where they were ran tumbling upon one another to the Rear and those which were in the Rear thrust themselves so forward they left no body near them The Captains swagger'd that they were not obey'd by their Souldiers and the Souldiers curs'd that their Captains knew not how to command them The Abbot look'd upon them with great satisfaction smiling and seeming to laugh though he did not I who observ'd him desiring to know what it was ask'd his opinion of their Exercising to which he answer'd that it seem'd to him not much unlike to the Conclave of Cardinals and so returning to his house he told me that he was present in Innocent the tenth's Conclave in which Pope Alexander was created where he had found no better Order in the disposition and management of the Cardinals than he had seen in the training of those Souldiers I being curious to know something more particularly intreated him that he would give me a more particular accompt but he finding he had said enough already added no more but that the Cardinals in the Conclave observ'd the same Orders the Captains and Souldiers had done in their Muster And indeed when afterwards I had occasion to see with mine own eyes their Discipline in the Conclave as I did in this of Clement that Muster came into my mind and I thought a hundred times of what the Abbot had told me finding by experience the application to be very proper and good It is not to be imagin'd the way the Cardinals take to accomplish their designs The Heads of the Factions are they which prevail the least and do many times negotiate what their Creatures will never confirm and for the most part the Creatures do oblige their Heads to follow them one word is enough to make three or four Factions and one thing mis-understood does frustrate sometimes the designs of the whole The Heads do unite to endeavour the union of their Creatures and the Creatures divide that they might not see the union of their Heads Some of them run thither from whence others run away and neither can give a reason for what either of them do Every one pretends to obey them who have the Government of them and yet every one obeys and no body commands Sometimes 't is believ'd one man has got the votes of them all and sometimes all together cannot get the vote of one man In short the Cardinals in the Conclave are like an Eele in ones hand that slips out when one thinks to hold it the fastest And this is the Muster which is made in the Conclave Let us return now to our three Factions in our particular Conclave and if we have said any thing of the Faction of Barbarino let us say something particularly of the Faction of Chigi which consisted of certain Cardinals created by his Unckle At first this Faction seem'd to be numerous of 24 Cardinals at least though his Unckle created but about 30 in all But in strictness it was not so numerous as it ought to have been not only because there was none either of the Spanish nor French who were oblig'd to adhere to what orders they receiv'd from their Crowns as two of the Venetians were to the Orders of that Commonwealth but others being unsatisfy'd with the ill conduct of Chigi turn'd tayl and forsook him yet he had enough remaining to serve for an exclusion The French by themselves and by the mediation of others endeavour'd to perswade him to concur in Farnese The Spaniards in whom his confidence was greatest left him to his choice of several persons suspending and forbearing by a conceal'd policy the nomination of any body as if they would depend wholly upon him and all this to gain him to follow their designs For all this according as Caraffa advis'd him he would not declare his intentions