was entering into the papacy the bent which it has never lost. A man of nearly eighty years of age, tall, muscular, and elastic, of rapid gait; a man of furious temper and ruthless will it was he who founded the Theatines, one of the religious orders of that age, which combined the clerical and monastic life: it was he who had reconstituted the Inquisition sixteen years before, making it central and universal, hiring a house in Rome for headquarters, and generously furnishing it as a gymnasium for heretics with blocks, bars, chains, and the rest of the requisite instruments of exercise.* On his election he renounced his personal humility, and desired to be served "like a prince." His severity toward others he retained, his boundless capacity of rage and hatred: also the overflowing eloquence that had always marked him. This mixture of selfish pomp and secret rigour in the man was typical of the spirit which he breathed, he more than others, but others had gone before him in it, into the institution at the head of which he stood.

The Inquisition, originally a Dominican institute, had long fallen into decay in every country where it had been allowed except Spain. In that unhappy country it had been active enough, and flourished still, because there the original model (in which the inquisitors were friars of the Dominican order, and the order was full of so-called heretics) was departed from, and a supreme tribunal was erected for the kingdom, the head of which was called the Grand Inquisitor. It was Caraffa's idea to have a similar tribunal at Rome, and he stood first among the first six general and universal inquisitors on this side the Alps and beyond them. "The later Inquisition," says Lord Acton," starting with the Spanish, and developing into the Roman, is not so much a prolongation or a revival, as a new creation. The medieval Inquisition strove to control states, and was an engine of government. The modern strove to coerce the Protestants, and was an engine of war. One was subordinate, local, having a kind of head-quarters in the house of St. Dominic at Toulouse. The other was sovereign, universal, centred in the Pope, and exercising its domination, not against obscure men without a literature, but against bishop and archbishop, nuncio and legate, primate and professor." English Historical Review, vol. iii. 774. Wherever the Inquisition was admitted it superseded the ordinaries.

The papacy, under the appearance of generosity, splendour, and culture, had from this time a secret grip which restricted intellectual freedom, stopped the flow of learning, and withered the life of nations. The papacy existed not henceforth for the Christian religion, as under Gregory the Great; not for the human race, as under Hildebrand; not for the arts, as under Nicolas the Fifth but for its own claims, which were continually increased. Whatever the character of the Pope henceforth, the popedom was the same. It was become a system of continuous institutions from which the reigning Pope could never escape. Of these institutions some of the most formidable were now first created, or worked in full power now for the first time: the Society of Jesus, the Roman Inquisition, and that branch of it which strangled intellectual liberty by the Index.*

This Pope held it among his felicities that the English ambassadors with their train of a hundred and forty horse entered Rome in the first days of his pontificate.† They had made their journey very leisurely, detained by the courtesies of France, which were offered by the special commandment of the King. In the first public consis

* The delineation of Paul IV. at the age of eighty, hanging for hours over the bowls of dark thick wine, which seemed to add fuel to the flame of rage in which he lived, and cursing nearly all the world, but above all the Spaniards, as heretics and schismatics, is Ranke's masterpiece. As for the formation of the spirit of the modern papacy, the greatest calamity that humanity has ever known, nothing can be added to the eloquent indignation inspired in Mr. Symonds by his theme of The Catholic Reaction.

+ Paul Sarpi says that the English came on the first day of the Pope, i. e. May 23: and Burnet follows, with others. But the Pope himself says they came five days before his first Consistory, which was held June 10. See his letter quoted below. Perhaps Sarpi's notion rose out of one of Pole's letters to the Pope: "Eorum adventum in Pontificatum Sanctitatis vestræ incidisse valde gaudeo, eique has primitias obedientiæ reservatas esse gratulor." Vol. v. p. 12.

Noailles, iv. 189.

tory after the Pope's coronation, in the presence of the ambassadors of other nations and the Roman nobility, they were heard. They cast themselves at the feet of his Holiness, who raised and embraced them, a papal secretary read the documents concerning the reconciliation which had been already received from England, the orders of the King and Queen for thanksgiving, the submission of the kingdom to be offered to the Holy See, the confirmation sought for the erection of new bishoprics. Then the Bishop of Ely made an cration, in the course of which he exhibited letters patent containing the whole proceedings in the reconciliation, and the repeal of the laws against the papacy: these were read aloud by the papal secretary: the orator proceeded, and in an eloquent peroration acknowledged the errors of the realm, and humbly prayed for pardon. The Pope again raised, again embraced them: the Cardinals added their congratulations, and some in the assembly were so moved that, if they refrained from tears, it was with difficulty.†

"Simul atque a nobis ad paternum pacis et amplexum et osculum admissi fuerunt, primum regium vestrum amplissimumque mandatum ad gratias de data preteriti schismatis venia agendas, debitam nobis et sedi Apostolicæ submissionem et obedientiam vestro ac vestri regni nomine præstandam, Ecclesiarum cathedralium tunc istic erectarum confirmationem petendam, audientibus omnibus ab uno e nostris secretariis perlectum est postea ab ipso Eliensium episcopo habita oratione, eaque nondum finita, redditæ ab eis litteræ patentes, quæ omnem regni istius cum Romano episcopo et S. Sede Apostolica reconciliationis seriem, legumque contra eum latarum abrogationem continebant; eis eodem modo, quo mandatum recitatum fuerat, perlectis ipse idem episcopus, una cum collegis suis, gratiis de data schismatis venia peractis, ipsaque obedientia vestro utriusque et ejusdem regni nomine, peroravit. Nos vero una cum eisdem venerabilibus fratribus nostris cardinalibus obedientiam ipsam admittentes eos et eorum personas utrumque vestrum totumque ipsum regnum referentes, omni charitatis affectu iterum amplexi sumus et exosculati, atque in clementissimæ matris Catholicæ Apostolicæ Ecclesiæ gratiam et gremium recepimus, quod nemini ad eum redeunti unquam clausum est. Paul IV. to Philip and Mary, June 30. Raynaldus, anno 1555, c. 28. He goes on to say that the eloquence of the Bishop of Ely was such, "adeo vestrorum preteritos errores commemoravit, eoque animi

In his private discourses with the ambassadors the Pope intimated that the Peter pence might be paid again, and promised to send a collector; that he himself had formerly collected in England for three years, and had been edified by the readiness of the people to contribute, especially those of the meaner sort. He also insisted on the entire restitution of Church goods: that his authority was not so large that he might profane things dedicated to God.* But it was one of the main purposes of the embassy to secure the goods to the present holders or detainers.

Thirlby and Montague, leaving Carne behind, returned to England about September, bearing several Bulls of Pope Paul. One was a plenary indulgence and a Jubilee, reviving the former Bull of Julius, on account of the reconciliation.† A fast of three days, confession, affectu penitentiam presentem ante omnium qui aderant oculos posuit, ut præ gaudio tanti a Deo accepti beneficii vix nonnulli sibi a lacrymis temperare potuerint." In the Acts of the Consistory the matter is thus related. "Rome, 21 Jun. 1555 fuit Consistorium in quo præstita fuit obedientia per R. D. Episc. Eliensem et D. Edouardum oratores serenissimorum regis et reginæ Angliæ, qui oratione habita Sanctitati suæ et Sedi Apostolicæ devotam præstiterunt obedientiam, quam sanctitas sua una cum fratribus acceptavit, fuitque petita venia de erroribus in preteritum commissis, et eadem sanctitas sua pepercit, et recepit in gremium Ecclesiæ." Ib. cap. 25.

Sarpi's Hist. of Trent: whom Burnet has followed.

+ This Bull was dated July 15. An English version of it from Bonner's Register is given by Collier, ii. 384. Compare the Bull of Julius, of January 1554, in Wilkins, iv. 111, which is very like it. As to Indulgences, the reader may not object to be reminded that they were a remission of the temporal penances, which were assigned to sins under the old canonical discipline, a remission made on the principle of compensation. To grant this in some measure appertained to bishops: to grant it in full, or plenarily, to the Roman Pontiff only. He, on the invariable conditions of confession and communion, for no unrepentent person could be indulged, opened "the Treasures of the Church," which consisted mainly of the supererogations of the merits of Christ, and applied them to compensate for the penances that had been incurred by sins. Indulgences therefore had reference to the temporal penalties of sins of all sorts, that were assigned by the old disciplinary system of the Church: not to Purgatory,

and a general partaking of the Holy Communion were the necessary and usual steps toward the Treasures of the Church, which were then opened to the faithful by the hand of the Pope who allowed them absolution "from any manner of sins, how grievous and enormous soever, even though reserved to the Apostolic See and contained in the Bull of Coena Domini," enjoining, for the satisfaction of the particular penance that might have been incurred, the devout repetition of certain prayers. This was duly proclaimed: the Queen, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Court fasted: and a preacher at Paul's declared the Jubilee and Indulgence.*

Another of the Bulls fulfilled the request of the King and Queen by erecting, or pretending to erect, Ireland into a kingdom.t This especial favour however was

and the shortening of periods of purgatorial expiation, as is often supposed. But still the Pontiff claimed to have power to grant a remission of sins, as it regarded another life, in this way: that if a man were dying with unfulfilled temporal penances hanging over him, he might compound by leaving money for religious purposes. No wonder then that the notion prevails that indulgence meant shortening of purgatory. The system was horribly abused, as all the world knows: but, as in most cases of abuse, it was originally a good thing. It was for the public good that a sinner should give money for some useful object, say, building a bridge, rather than undergo some personal penalty, or, if he were dying, do nothing at all. And at first the monies went to public things, not to the confessors themselves.

"The 4 day of September the Queen's Grace, and my lady Elizabeth, and all the Court, did fast from flesh, and took the Pope's Jubilee and pardon granted to all men." "The 15 day of September did preach at Paul's (blank) and he declared the Pope's Jubilee and pardon from Rome, and as many as will receive his pardon so to be shrived, and fast three days in one week, and to receive the blessed Sacrament the next Sunday after, clean remission of all their sins toties quoties, of all that they ever did." Machyn, 94.

This was done in a Consistory held June 7: no doubt in consequence of the letter of Pole, referred to above, conveying the request of the King and Queen. Burnet says that the Pope hesitated to receive the English ambassadors because the Queen was styled in their credentials queen of Ireland: and that therefore they had to wait at Rome a month before they were admitted to a public audience. (Part II. Bk. ii. Pocock, vol. ii. 498 ;