Chapter IV: Book IV (2)

The calumny that the Lord Calixtus P.P. III gave books to the Bishop of Vich in the manner of a Vandal arose in this way. The Lord Cosimo de Monserrato, Bishop of Vich from 1460 to 1471, was ordered by His Holiness to compile a catalogue of the books in the Vatican library, on the sixteenth of April 1455, four days before His coronation. A copy of this catalogue was brought to Vich by this same Lord Cosimo on his appointment to the bishopric five years later. It was most likely made by one of the Vatican scribes,[12] and it contains numerous marginal notes in the bishop’s handwriting. From these notes, a precise list of the number of books actually given away by the Lord Calixtus P.P. III may be obtained. They were five—not “several hundred”—of no great value, and—duplicates. Two of these, a copy of the Epistles of St. Augustine, annotated by Nicholas of Lira, and a Book on the Truth of the Catholic Faith, were presented to the Pope’s late patron, King Don Alonso de Aragona of Naples, the Two Sicilies, and Jerusalem. The note against them in the catalogue is _S.D.N. dedit hunc domino regi Arag._ (“Our Holy Lord gave this to the lord king of Aragon.”) Now, if He only gave two books to His old friend and former employer who (as may be judged from the fact that he employed the renowned Messeri Lorenzo Valla and Giangiovio Pontano as his secretaries) had a very pretty taste for letters, who was a reigning sovereign, and an extremely serviceable and powerful ally of the Holy See, is He likely to have given “several hundred” to the Cardinal of Ruthenia and Catalan nobles? Finally, the heathen Cardinal Platina, who wrote his History of the Popes in the reign of the Lord Xystus[13] P.P. IV (the third in succession from the Lord Calixtus P.P. III,) expressly mentions the magnificence of the library of the Lord Nicholas P.P. V, which, certainly, he could not have known if it had been destroyed in the manner described by the lying Bishop Vespasiano da Bisticci of Vicenza.

One “philistine” act may be admitted on behalf of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III. He sold the silver from the bindings of those books. He sacrificed them for the crusade in defence of Christendom. He also sold all the Vatican plate. He insisted that the salt-cellar of His Own table should be of earthenware, not gold; and, indeed, He even offered His tiara in pledge for the same admirable object. He was blamed.

The Lord Calixtus P.P. III was by no means the enemy of letters. He made havoc among the decadents, the affected literary poseurs who infested the Borgian as well as the Victorian Era; but He cherished genius, and to scholars of distinction He was a generous patron. The diverting case of Messer Lorenzo Valla will serve for an example. This notable, being one of the secretaries of King Don Alonso I, was well-known to the Holiness of the Pope. He was erudite beyond most of his contemporaries, of a daring temperament, and impatient of bad scholarship, falsehood, and superstition. In 1440 he indited a merciless exposure of the monstrous fiction now known as the Forged Decretals and Donation of Constantine, upon which, in perfect good faith, the temporal dominions of the Papacy then were held. Also, he attacked the leaden Latin of the Vulgate, and lauded the Golden Latin of Vergil and Cicero, or the Silver Latin of Tacitus. The twentieth century—which knows the Latin of the Roman Mass to be the low Latin of Roman plebeians of the first five centuries, from the age of the Lord St. Peter P.P. to that of His successor the Lord St. Gelasius P.P., Whose “Prayer for Peace” is the latest known addition to the canon—will not find Messer Lorenzo Valla to have been guilty of any very shocking crime herein. But the clergy of Naples considered him in the light of a menace to the Christian Palladium, and mentioned him to the Inquisition. When he was brought before them, the Inquisitors invited him formally to assent to a profession of faith, which was neither the Apostles’ nor the Nicene Creed, nor the Creed of St. Athanasius, but one which they had drawn up to suit the fancied needs of his case. The situation was the historical parallel of one which sullied the dying years of the last century. Messer Lorenzo knew too much; took an impish delight in saying what he knew; he was a nuisance, a disturbing influence. To the proposition of the Inquisition he opposed a firm refusal; he would not sign their specimen of a creed. The circumstances now were becoming strained. But the Inquisitors of the fifteenth century had more serpentine wisdom than those of the nineteenth. They did not proceed at once to an abrupt and tactless excommunication, exacerbating to all parties. They tried another line. Would Messer Lorenzo Valla have the courtesy, then, to propound his own creed, that his judges might examine whether it were heretical or no? The reply of Messer Lorenzo was delicious. “I believe,” he said, “I believe what Holy Mother Church believes. She _knows_ nothing. But—I _believe_ what she _believes_.” Just at this stage the king sent a mandate to the Inquisitors of Naples, bidding them to leave his Majesty’s secretary alone; and the process ended here. But when the news of the case travelled to Rome, the Lord Nicholas P.P. V, admiring the wit and learning of Messer Lorenzo Valla, being amused, perhaps, at the way in which he had taken the wind out of the sail of the wily Inquisitors, invited the distinguished scholar to His Court, where He named him Apostolic scribe, with magnificent appointments. On the death of that Pontiff, Messer Lorenzo’s sometime colleague, the Lord Calixtus P.P. III made him Pontifical Secretary, and dignified him with several canonries including one at St. John _in Laterano_, the cathedral-church of Rome. So fifteenth century tact and mental limberness made a friend, where nineteenth century arrogant stupidity made a host of scornful foes.

* * * * *

The first year of the pontificate of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III was occupied by audiences granted to Orators offering the homage of the Powers, and by preparations for the Crusade.

Germany deserved and enjoyed high consideration, because the ruler of Germany held the title of _Romanorum Imperator Caesar Semper Augustus Mundi Totius Dominus Universis Principibus et Populis Semper Venerandus_; and an understanding between Pope and Emperor, a friendship between Peter and Caesar, was desirable for the peace and prosperity of Christendom. This friendship, however, was subject to frequent breaches. Both Papacy and Empire were exceedingly tenacious of their dignity, willing to consider themselves aggrieved, or their rights in danger of encroachment. Each, in fact, was a power of dimensions so gigantic that intermittent paroxysms of megalomania were the order of the day. The violence of these attacks was allayed, from time to time, by cooling lotions in the shape of concessions. There had been a serious relapse not many years before, which temporarily had been retrieved by a treaty, known as the Concordat of the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV.

At the beginning of His reign, while waiting for the formal homage of The Pacific Caesar Friedrich IV, the Lord Calixtus P.P. III observed the terms of this Concordat. When the news of His election in April reached Germany, a Diet of the Empire was held at Neustadt to appoint Orators,[14] and to consider the chances of squeezing fresh concessions. “Now is the time to vindicate our liberty, for hitherto we have only been the handmaid of Holy Church,” said Jacob of Trier; and Caesar Friedrich IV privately grieved that the Papacy gave him little support in his difficulties with turbulent sub-sovereigns and subjects. The celebrated Lord Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini, Bishop of Siena, poured oil upon the troubled waters of the Diet. He had lived many years in Germany, as poet-laureate, orator to Utter Britain[15] (Scotland), novelist, historian, and confidential secretary to Caesar; and he knew his Germany. He deservedly was trusted both by Church and State. He soothed Caesar, saying that the mob was always inconstant, dangerous, and that a ruler did a vain thing when he tried to please. He soothed the Diet, saying that the interests of Papacy and Empire were identical, and that from a new Pope new favours might be gained. The Diet named Bishop Enea Silvio, with the jurist Hans Hagenbach, as orators who were to offer to the Lord Calixtus P.P. III the obedience of the Holy Roman Empire, and to lay before Him the grievances of Caesar.

The Lord Calixtus P.P. III was more independent of Germany than His two predecessors had been; and in a position to command, not compromise. The Lord Eugenius P. P. IV, being in need of temporal support, had purchased Germany’s obedience by secret concessions and promises of money. The Lord Nicholas P.P. V was privy to these arrangements, and, feeling bound by them, had paid His share; but there was a matter of twenty-five thousand ducats yet unpaid. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III had taken no part in these negotiations. During His cardinalate, He had had ample opportunities of reckoning up Caesar Friedrich IV as a feeble, feckless old simpleton, devoid of moral backbone, whom no concessions ever could stiffen into any semblance of imperial capacity. The Pope’s Holiness felt that He could do quite well without the Emperor’s Augustitude.

Therefore, when Caesar’s Orators arrived in Rome, on the tenth of August 1455, and prayed for a private audience, (at which, as the custom was, they would try to squeeze the Holy Father, making the proffer of their sovereign’s homage dependent upon the Pope’s willingness to oblige), the Lord Calixtus P.P. III refused to entertain requests until after the obedience of Germany should have been received.

The Orators were confounded, so they said, by this demand; but, as loyal sons of Holy Mother Church, (Bishop Enea Silvio was the spokesman), and that scandal might be avoided, they would give way. Before a public consistory of cardinals, they presented to the Pope the homage of Caesar, in an elaborate oration containing no mention of unpleasant topics, such as the imperial demands and the Concordat of the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV, but mainly consisting of a string of formal compliments to the Supreme Pontiff, and declamations against the Muslim Infidel. (Pii II. Orationes I, 336.)

After this the Orators could not insist upon the Rights of Caesar. On his behalf, they might only approach the strenuous Pope as suppliants appealing to His clemency, as children begging a father’s favour. They had cut the ground from under their own feet; and, as Bishop Enea Silvio knew quite well, that was precisely what had been intended. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III disclaimed any obligation of paying His predecessor’s debts, having other uses for five and twenty thousand ducats; and the question of Caesar’s rights to nominate to bishoprics, and to have a share of the tithe about to be raised for the Crusade, should be considered in due season, said the Pope to the Orators.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the Eternal City was engaged in making ready for war. Immediately after His coronation, the Lord Calixtus P.P. III privately proclaimed the Crusade. In August, He made the same proclamation in public consistory, and read the following vow: “We, Calixtus the Pontiff, swear to God Almighty, the Holy and Undivided Trinity, that We relentlessly will follow the Turks, the enemies of the Name of Christ, with war, with maledictions, with interdicts, with execrations, and indeed with every means in Our power.” (Ciacconi II., 981.) This oath in holograph, was constantly before the Pope’s eyes during His pontificate, and was found hanging on the wall by His bedside as an ornament of His chamber when at length He died.

The infirmities of age chained the Pontiff to His room: recreation was to Him a thing unknown, for the business of the Crusade consumed His energies. His firm and unrelenting will, set upon this single aim, would brook no control, no influence. He knew Himself to be the “Ruler of the World,” and He shut His mouth down fast against all opposition. To the quarrelsome sovereigns of Christendom He envoyed ablegates charged to reconcile all differences, to urge the setting aside of private squabbles, of petty ambitions, in favour of the greater necessity, resistance to and annihilation of the Muslim Infidel. Through every Christian country He sent Apostolic Missionaries, curial bishops and prelates, friars and monks renowned for eloquence, to preach the sacred duty of fighting against the enemies of the Christian Faith. On every Christian country He imposed tax of a tithe to meet the cost of the Crusade. Archbishop St. Antonino of Florence nobly seconded His efforts, raising the standard of St. George’s rose-red cross, and preaching like a new St. Bernard. The buildings, with which the preceding Pontiff had begun to adorn the city, were stopped, and the swarms of workmen dismissed. The revenues of the Papal States were applied to the construction of a fleet of swift galleys for the harrying of the Turk. Daily the Holy Father descended to St. Peter’s with His Own hands to fix the cross on the breasts of recruits enlisting. The papal jewels were pawned, and their price added to the war-chest. The Pope’s Holiness trusted much in Duke Philip of Burgundy: He tried to persuade the Magnanimous King Don Alonso de Aragona to take the cross.

In the east of Europe, the black cloud of the Muslim Infidel advanced continually. Skanderbeg, a chieftain of romantic past, renowned for military deeds, opposed them. The fame of his achievements is the one brightness in the holy war. His army, composed of divers races naturally antagonistic, only was welded together by the magic of success or of his personal influence. Such a bond is but a weak one. A cause, that rests upon a single man, will stand no strain. Presently his Albanians revolted, at a moment when the Infidel pressed him hard. Defeated, he withdrew to mountain fastnesses; and sent couriers to Rome with an appeal for reinforcement. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III replied with money, wherewith Skanderbeg bought the allegiance of his disaffected troops and retrieved his position. But on the heels of triumph came fresh disaster. To avenge some slight, his own nephew made cause against him, persuaded the Albanians to fresh revolt, and deserted with them to the Infidel.

* * * * *

In the nature of human things, every man, in every rank of life, must submit to some affliction of mind or body. Has any one ever troubled to inquire what may be the special affliction proper to the Pope? It is loneliness—utter loneliness—loneliness in a crowd. The Pope cannot have a friend; for friendship postulates equality: and who is the equal of the Pope? The cardinals who surround Him are of the faction that opposed His election, or of the faction that claims favour in return for support. He, Who sits upon the Throne of Peter, looks down from that pinnacle upon the peoples, the nations, and the tongues, in His heart knowing them to be enemies or suitors. What wonder then that, though His spirit indeed be willing, His humanity shall crave human sympathy!

This consideration is offered to explain the nepotism of the Popes of the Renascence. They surrounded Themselves with men of Their own families; men bound to Them by ties of blood and kinship. Being generally of mature age themselves, They chose Their young relations; and upon these They conferred the rank which qualified them to enter the inner circle of the curia. This action appears to have been dictated by the natural desire of human man for offspring. Certainly a Pope can always create cardinals, who are to Him as spiritual sons; but to create cardinals of those who already are of one’s own family is a thing nearer, a more intimate relation. So the human heart of the Pope would become rejuvenate, would renew its strength, would gratify its natural longing for an entourage of creatures in which it might place confidence and trust. For the cardinal-nephews, loathed by all other cardinals, owing everything to the Pope, would be bound to Him and to His interest as by chains of iron. The system is proved to be liable to abuse. That is the corollary of all human systems. It is indefensible; but it is explicable; and the foregoing is an attempt only in the direction of explanation.

On the twentieth of February 1456, at the beginning of the second year of His reign, the Lord Calixtus P.P. III proclaimed to a stormy consistory the creation of three cardinals, two being His Own nephews, and one the son of the heir to the crown of Portugal. Let it be remarked that He did nothing for His son, Don Francisco de Borja, now a charming and eligible young man of fifteen years.

The Sacred College murmured and objected: but, in this matter the will of the Pope is law. The new creatures were:—

(α) Don Luis Juan de Mila y Borja, of the age of twenty years, celebrated for vigorous physical beauty. He was son of Doña Caterina de Borja (sister of the Pope’s Holiness) by her husband Don Juan de Mila, Baron of Mazalanes. To him the Pontiff gave the scarlet hat, which He had relinquished on His election to the papacy, that of Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santi Quattro Coronati.

(β) Don Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja, of the age of twenty-five years, distinguished by that marvellous Spanish courtliness and magnificence of person which was the theme of admiration until he died. He was son of Doña Juana de Borja, (sister of the Pope’s Holiness,) by her husband Don Jofre de Lançol. To him the Pontiff gave the scarlet hat of Cardinal-Deacon of San Niccolo _in Carcere Tulliano_.

(γ) Don Jayme de Portugal, Archbishop of Lisbon and son of the Infante Don Pedro de Portugal. To him the Pontiff gave the scarlet hat of Cardinal-Deacon of Sant’ Eustachio. There appear to have been reasons of state for the elevation of this young man; and it was usual for the reigning Houses of Europe to have one of their junior scions in the Sacred College. The Cardinal of Portugal lived a retired and saint-like life, distinguished for his modesty and maiden purity. He died in 1459 at the age of five and twenty years; and his tomb, by Messer Antonio Rossellino, in Samminiato al Monte at Florence, one of the most exquisite monuments of the Renascence, bears the touching epitaph:

“Regia stirps Jacobus nomen Lusitana propago,
“Insignis forma, summa pudicitia,
“Cardineus titulus, morum nitor, optima vita,
“Iste fuere mihi: mors iuuenem rapuit;
“Ne se pollueret, maluit iste mori.

Bishop Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini says of these creatures in his commentaries, “All are young, but of an excellent nature.” The only concession that the Pope would make to the objecting cardinals, was the postponement of the ceremonial conferring of insignia until the ensuing September; when many of the malcontents vented vain spleen by quitting Rome.

* * * * *

This was a year of strife. The peace of central Italy was disturbed by the bandit Niccolo Piccinino, a bastard of Visconti; who, believing the country to be about to be denuded of armed men, saw an opportunity for self aggrandisement. He collected mercenaries, and marched against Siena, a small republic, very loyal to the Holy See, which, in this age of culture, had destroyed the lovely Aphrodite of Lusippos in its dread of paganism, and consecrated itself to Madonna under the title “Sena Ciuitas Virginis.” Meeting the Papal and Milanese forces which were concentrating for the Crusade, but quite ready for a little incidental fighting on the way, Piccinino withdrew to the mountains. King Don Alonso of the Regno, as usual, was playing a double part. It did not suit him to show conspicuous friendship for the Pope’s allies, lest the Lord Calixtus P.P. III should become independent. Stipulations were made favourable to Piccinino; and, their appeal to Naples having failed, the Sienesi were forced into a disgraceful peace with the brigand.

Sultàn Muhammed extended his conquests to Servia, and prepared to devour Hungary, launching one hundred and fifty thousand infidels against Belgrade. Fra Jan Capistran’s eloquence and pious zeal roused the Magyars to consciousness of the imminent peril; Cardinal Bernardino Caravajal, the ablegate, inspired their patriotism with his wisdom and devotion; and Jan Hunniades, the Vaivod of Hungary, resolved to resist invasion. Confidence in princes was, as always, vain. The terror-stricken King Wladislaw fled with his court and his guardian, Count de Cilly, from Buda to Venice; and along the valley of the Danube poured the locust-swarms of Infidels to invest Belgrade. The Vaivod Jan Hunniades raised an army at his own expense; whence came the means, the men, is still unknown, for most important documents connected with the siege of Belgrade yet attend discovery: but there was a Magyar army, commanded by Jan Hunniades, ministered to by Fra Jan Capistran, which advanced to relieve Belgrade; and the ablegate, Fra Bernardino Caravajal, remained behind at Buda, by the Vaivod’s request, to collect and forward reinforcements. On the fourteenth day of siege the Magyars collided with the Infidels. Already the walls of Belgrade sorely were shaken: but the arrival of the Vaivod, breaking the Muslim line and winning a complete victory, put courage into the hearts of the beleaguered. In three months time, once more the Muslim concentrated, and on the twenty-first of July the city suffered a second storm. Jan Hunniades and Fra Jan Capistran, from one of the towers, directed the defence. At a crisis in the fray, the heroic friar rushed, like a second Joshua, through the Christian host, waving the crucifix and a banner with the sacred monogram invented by San Bernardino of Siena. Behind him came the Vaivod with aid. Through breaches in the walls many times the Infidels streamed in, and always the stream was dammed and driven back. Fra Jan Capistran himself led a squadron of Magyar huszars[16] who put to flight the fierce janissaries of Islam. And, at last, the day was won; and the air resounded with the Most Holy Name shouted by victorious Crusaders, while Sultàn Muhammed, wounded, was retreating in confusion with the remnant of his conquered army. Belgrade was relieved.

When the news reached Rome, the Holiness of the Pope was lying sick, heart-worn, heart-sore, gazing from His window at the galleys building in shipwrights’ yards on Ripa Grande. The relief of a beleaguered city, even as late as the last century when decorous indifference was the fashionable pose, used to cause deliriously human demonstrations. Men were quite as human in the fifteenth as in the nineteenth century, less compound, and much more simple. Belgrade was relieved, and there was joy in Christendom.

* * * * *

In May the Lord Ludovico Scarampi dell’ Arena Mezzarota, Archbishop of Florence, Patriarch of Aquileia, Ablegate to the Regno, Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of San Lorenzo _in Damaso_, was appointed Admiral of the Pontifical Fleet. Under the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV, as Commander-in-Chief of the Pontifical Army, he had used Rome at his will. Dismissed from office by the Lord Nicholas P.P. V, he had devoted himself to luxurious living, and gained the nickname of _the Lord Lucullus_. His haggard but voluptuous profile makes it probable that he deserved the name. Seeing the Lord Calixtus P.P. III to be an old and feeble man, who conceivably might afford him new preferment and a fresh field for his insatiable ambition, he had come to Rome to offer his service to the Holy Father. But the stalwart cardinal-nephews, the Lord Luis Juan de Mila y Borja, Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santi Quattro Coronati, and the Lord Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja, Cardinal-Deacon of San Niccolo _in Carcere Tulliano_, distrusted the professions of Cardinal Scarampi. Suspecting his bonafides, they mentioned their suspicions to their August Uncle, with the result that he was forbidden to approach the Vatican. Not to be beaten, Cardinal Scarampi discovered a fervent zeal for the Crusade. There could be no surer way into the Pope’s favour. His Holiness considered that this prelate might devote his enormous fortune to the war-fund; and He lost no time in receiving him in audience, and naming him Pontifical Admiral. The Cardinal-Nephews urged the advisability of flying him with a string; and therefore his authority was restricted. A man of his fashion and quality could have put in a fine dignified time ashore. But that would not have suited the Cardinal-Nephews; and the Lord Calixtus P.P. III perceived no signs of the unbuckling of the Cardinal-Admiral’s pouches. So they gave him banquets, and his sailing-orders. A fleet of transports left the Tiber with five thousand troops aboard: but the Cardinal-Admiral stayed in Rome to assure the Pope’s Holiness that these were insufficient for any practical purposes; and that a fleet of thirty galleys was absolutely necessary.

Then the strenuous Pontiff remembered that King Don Alonso had promised to provide Him with such a fleet; and it gently and firmly was intimated to the Cardinal-Admiral that he might go to Naples and collect the same: if he failed to go, he had the alternative of facing a judicial inquiry into his doings as generalissimo under the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV. Thereon the Cardinal-Admiral scoured away hot-foot for Naples; where he found that King Don Alonso the Magnanimous had belied his promises, having sent the ships to settle a little private dispute in which his Majesty was engaged with the Republic of Genoa. This was bad news for the Pope: but it did not alter His determination by the breadth of a single hair. He was quite well-used to the vagaries and magnanimities of the King of Naples, whom He had known for more than forty years. He was equally well-resolved to use the services which the Cardinal-Admiral had volunteered. Men had thought Him to be a feeble old man who could be influenced with ease. They found out their mistake. We are accustomed to think of youth as fiery and headstrong: but what can bend the will of fiery headstrong age? His Holiness sent imperative commands to the Cardinal-Admiral that he must make the best of the ships in hand, and sail for the Ægean Sea, where at least he could help the Crusade by creating a diversion among the islands that the Infidels owned there.

* * * * *

Fresh troubles were at hand in Hungary. Round Belgrade, the putrefying carcases of the Muslim thousands envenomed the air. The rudiments of antiseptic sanitation were unknown. Those who have had to do with Boers, or Cubans, or Filipinos will know the unspeakable horror that this implies. Pest decimated the Christian army. Plague swept away the Magyar host, that Infidels in vain had tried to overcome. When they told him that his end was near, that Viaticum was approaching to be his strength on that dark road which man must tread alone, the noble Vaivod Jan Hunniades, said: “It is not fitting that our Lord should visit his servant”; and, rising from his death-bed, he dragged himself to the nearest altar, where, after confession and communion, in the priest’s hands he fell and yielded up his great and splendid soul, the eleventh of August 1456. On the twenty-third of October Fra Jan Capistrano also died.

From Rome came the voice of the Pope strenuously appealing to the Powers. His ablegates preached in every country. The common people heard Him gladly, and responded to His call: but the nobles lent deaf ears. Upper Germany and Nürnberg equipped battalions of crusaders, which were increased by contingents from England and France.

In November the faineant young King Wladislaw returned to Hungary, and visited the field of Belgrade. Since the death of Jan Hunniades the Count de Cilly had made himself of supreme authority over his royal ward. Belgrade still was mourning the mighty Vaivod; and the nobles under Wladislaw Corvinus, Hunniades’s son, resenting the insolent assumptions and cowardice of De Cilly, slew him there. The young king concealed his wrath, and persuaded the sons of Jan Hunniades to follow him to Buda. All unsuspicious of that treachery of which cowards are capable they obeyed, and, on arrival in the capital, the Majesty of Hungary had them seized, and Wladislaw Corvinus Hunniades publicly beheaded as a traitor. Hungary was now in woeful plight. Deprived by axe and pest of those strong leaders who had merited her trust, her king a venomous child, her throne with no legitimate heir, she waited, in fear and trembling, to hear again the Infidel thundering at her gate. All discipline was at an end; the Magyar huszars were disbanded, and returned to their homes.

* * * * *

In Germany, the question of the Magyar Succession was regarded as confusion worse confounded; and the Electors of the Empire considered the time a suitable one for reapplying the screw to feeble needy Caesar Friedrich IV, their suzerain.

They invited him to preside at a Diet at Nürnberg, on St. Andrew’s Day, 1456; and, indeed, their conduct throughout was thoroughly Caledonian. Their ostensible object was the projection of a new crusade; and they announced an intention of acting independently if Caesar should refuse to come. In reality they meant to pit Pope against Emperor, and Emperor against Pope; so that, in the confusion, they might gratify their private ambitions by snatching concessions from one or other of those Powers. By pretending to desire a new crusade they would gain pontifical favour. By taking independent action they would arouse imperial ire. The Pope might be trusted to grant them what they called Ecclesiastical Reform in return for their alliance to His plans against the Infidel. Caesar might be trusted to concede extension of their political power, in return for their allegiance to him as suzerain. In either case they stood to win something.

Caesar promptly forbade the assembling of the Diet at Nürnberg. His command was slighted; the Diet sat, and was attended by a Papal Ablegate. Purely political discussions ensued; and the Diet adjourned before reaching any conclusion. Then the Elector Albrecht of Brandenberg found it worth his while to form a strong Caesarian party; and the Electors of the papal faction were left in a minority. The cry for Church Reform was raised. The Papacy was threatened with what it was supposed to dread more than a General Council—viz., a Pragmatic Sanction,[17] _i.e._, a definite assertion of Imperial Supremacy. The Electors kept their proceedings secret, and little news was allowed to reach Rome, where the curia was determined to resist in any case.

The cry for Church Reform is a popular one. The expression of desire for the cultivation and consummation of the Christian Ideal invariably wins sympathy. It is, perhaps, a little unfortunate that the soi-disant reformers of the fifteenth century attached to the word Reform a baser meaning than that which it bears in the twentieth.

Rome had her champion ready in the Lord Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de Piccolhuomini, Bishop of Siena, to whom she entrusted the task of her defence; and that he might be well-armed with all authority, the Pope’s Holiness created him Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Sabina. “No cardinal ever entered the college with greater difficulty than I; rust had so spread over the hinges (_cardines_, specimen of fifteenth century pun) that the door could not turn and open. Calixtus used battering rams and every kind of instrument to force it,” said the new Cardinal of Siena to the Lord Giovanni Castelleone, Bishop and Cardinal of Pavia. (Pii II. Ep. 195) The Sacred College had not forgiven the Lord Calixtus P.P. III for the creation of the Cardinal-Nephews; and its policy was to oppose God’s Vicegerent and all His works. This new creature, too, was credited with liberal proclivities; and the conservatism of the Italian cardinals was up in arms. The Cardinal of Siena had been so long a resident in Germany that he was looked upon as more a German than Italian, more of a friend to Caesar than to Peter. Above all, his transcendent talents and versatility were excessively distasteful to mere mediocrity.

The adjourned Diet of Nürnberg resumed its session at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Here it became definitely hostile to Caesar; and, by announcing its intention to resist the collection of tithe, to the Pope also. It committed the strategical error of uniting its two enemies by the bond of a single interest. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III instantly appealed to Caesar Friedrich IV on behalf of the Crusade; and so ended the year of grace 1456.

Let it be conceded that Germany was aggrieved; that there were engagements unfulfilled by Rome. What then? Rome, and all the world, knew Germany’s habit of clamouring for Reform, whenever she saw a chance of being paid for silence. Rome, and all the world, knew that these clamours only originated with insincere and venal prelates and Electors, who would become obsequiously dumb on a sop being thrown to their personal interests.

The leader of the Electors was the Lord Hans of Baden, Prince-Archbishop of Mainz. His chancellor, Martin Mayr, in writing congratulations to the Cardinal of Siena on his elevation, took occasion to be very bellicose about Papal treatment of Germany. “His Holiness observes neither the decrees of the Council of Constance, nor of Basilea, nor the agreements of His predecessors, but sets the German nation at naught,” he said. “Our elections of bishops arbitrarily are annulled. Reservations are made in favour of cardinals and papal secretaries. You yourself have a general reservation of benefices in the provinces of Mainz, Trier, and Köln, to the value of two thousand ducats per annum—an unprecedented and unheard of grant. Annates rigorously are exacted, grants of expectancies habitually are given, and his Holiness is not content with His due. Bishoprics are not given to the most worthy, but to the highest bidder. Fresh tithes are imposed without the consent of our bishops, and are paid to the Pope. In every way Germany, once so glorious, is used as a handmaid. For years she has groaned in slavery. Now her nobles think that the time has come to make her free.”

This letter reads like a genuine cry of distress. The Cardinal of Siena was an adept at dealing with such dishonesty as this, which would deceive one less expert. He could read between the lines; and he knew this Chancellor Mayr. He began by asserting Papal Supremacy, and rejecting the decrees of the schismatic Council of Basilea. He agreed that the Concordat of the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV should be observed. He said that the Lord Calixtus P.P. III was willing to redress grievances, if the Electors would send envoys to lay them before Him in proper form. So far, nothing could be more satisfactory; and then the Cardinal of Siena got to work. Papal interference with elections, he said, was purely judicial intervention, due to the ambition and greed of claimants, not to papal rapacity. If any payments had been made by would-be bishops to bribe officials of the curia, the said would-be bishops justly could not blame His Holiness, but their own ambition, which would do anything for its own aggrandisement. Men were not more angelic in Rome than in Germany: when money was offered they naturally took it. But the Holy Father must not be blamed for that. He wished to stop the extortions of his officials. He Himself received nothing but His due. Every one thinks it a grievance to part with money, and will think so always. Bohemia made the same complaint against Germany as Germany made against Rome, that money was drained from the land: yet Germany, owing to her connection with the papacy, steadily had grown in wealth and importance, and was richer now than at any previous time, despite of her complaints. To descend to personal matters, the Cardinal of Siena thought it very hard that Chancellor Mayr should object to the provisions which had been made in his favour. As poet-laureate of the Empire and orator of Caesar he had lived and laboured in Germany so long, that he now found it hard to be classed as a stranger. In conclusion, _he thanked the Chancellor for his personal offer of help to realise the said provisions; and would be glad to know of any eligible benefices which should fall vacant_.

The sting was in the tail of this letter. It is evident that, while Martin Mayr was writing for publication his precious list of grievances, he also was sending to the cardinal in private a second letter offering his own services as rent-collector. In theory, he pretended to treat his connection with the Lord Enea Silvio as having no existence. In practice, he was very anxious to be employed as agent on commission. To such a venal Janus only one reply was possible; and the Cardinal of Siena exposed the worthless insincerity of Germany’s spokesman by answering his private and his public letters together on the same sheet.

This device, as was intended, provoked a proposition from Chancellor Mayr’s superior, the Prince-Archbishop of Mainz; who sent his secretary to Rome on the tenth of September, 1456, with plenary powers to negotiate with the Cardinal of Siena towards an alliance with the Pope against the Electors. This renegade prelate’s terms were, that he was prepared to desert the German party of reform, if he were conceded the right of confirming episcopal elections throughout Germany as the price of his treachery; a right which would enable him to tax candidates for bishoprics at his will.

The Cardinal of Siena lashed the Prince-Archbishop with courteous but stinging pen. He rejoiced to hear that his High Mightiness no longer cared to be allied with those malignants who attacked the Holy Father; but regretted that he should ask for that which was a right inherent in the Papacy, and which none of his predecessors had enjoyed. No bribe, no secret understanding, was necessary between God’s Vicegerent and His subjects. All were bound to obey. He was sure that the modesty of the Archbishop had been misrepresented by this improper request, which he, for his part, could not dare to lay before a Pope so blameless and so upright as was the Lord Calixtus. (Pii II. Ep. 338)

Now that the venal nature of the cry for reform had been made clear to all the world, the Cardinal of Siena wrote eloquently and reasonably to Caesar Friedrich IV, to the King of Hungary, to the Princes and Prelates of Germany, pointing out the futility of quarrelling with the Pope, from Whom they derived so many benefits. (Pii II. Ep. 320, 344, 349.) He also expanded his letter to the discomfited Chancellor Martin Mayr into a pamphlet called _De ritu, situ, conditione, et moribus Germaniae_, in which he shewed that Germany had received from Rome far more than she ever had given. His wise and irrefragable reasoning, with the diplomatic skill of the papal envoy Lorenzo Rovarella, made Germany pause. To pause was to weaken. Then came the death of King Wladislaw of Hungary on the eve of his marriage with Madame Marguerite de France. His dominions in Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, were claimed by several pretenders. The German Powers became intensely interested. Their attention was diverted from their attempts to blackmail Christ’s Vicar. And so the end of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III was attained; the crisis was averted without issue of a Pragmatic Sanction.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the Cardinal-Admiral was in the Ægean. Being neither hero nor enthusiast he merely cruised from place to place, making a show of activity, capturing a few unimportant islands from the Muslim Infidel, relieving the necessities of the Knights of Rhodes. His sole object was to avoid that judicial inquiry with which the Cardinal-Nephews had threatened him; and hence he showed himself as but a perfunctory crusader. In fact, his influence was bad; for by giving the Ægean islanders the notion that Rome was their defender, he lulled them into false security and destroyed their self-reliance.

The plight of Eastern Christendom became more hopeless. Only the Holiness of the Pope, of all the Western powers, took any practical measures. France promised, but failed to keep her word, and would not pay the tithe. The Duke of Burgundy collected the tithe, and kept it. Norway, Denmark, and Portugal sat still. The Duke of Milan and the Republic of Venice disregarded the Pope’s entreaties. The Signoria of Florence refused to help Him. A few of the Italian barons, tyrants of petty fiefs, provided him with money and men. The Republic of Genoa was loyal; and, in return, the strenuous Lord Calixtus P.P. III protected Genoese colonies on the Black Sea littoral, and conferred honours on her nobles. The dark outlook momentarily was lightened by a victory over the Muslim fleet, in which five and twenty galleys became a Christian spoil. It must be recorded that it was solely the determination, foresight, and energy, with which the aged Pontiff in Rome personally directed naval movements, which inspired His sailors to achieve this triumph. Had the Cardinal-Admiral Scarampi been endowed with the plenary authority which he had desired, very much less enterprising and successful would have been the policy of the papal fleet.

There can be no doubt but that German captiousness prevented the accomplishment of the Pope’s designs for the protection of the Oriental Christians. Skanderbeg had but a handful of huszars wherewith to oppose the Muslim Infidel. And there was no encouragement for him; for the apathy of Caesar and the Powers prevented him from following up his victories. The King of Naples was as a thorn in the Pope’s eye. He had hoped for better things of His old patron who had brought Him to Italy; and He was bitterly enraged by King Don Alonso’s treachery in sending the fleet, which, though constructed in the port of Naples, had been paid for with papal gold, to carry on a private quarrel with a Christian Power, the Republic of Genoa, at the very moment when Christendom was in the direst peril from the Infidel.

The forbearance of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III ended there, as far as Naples was concerned. Henceforward He relentlessly opposed the policy of King Don Alonso, especially his scheme for an alliance with Milan by which he hoped to make doubly sure the succession of the Bastard Ferrando, whose legitimation had been recognised by two preceding Pontiffs.

At the beginning of 1458, György Podiebrad renounced the Hussite heresy on his election to the throne of Bohemia. King György made no difficulty about swearing allegiance to the Holy See; and he also promised to take the cross of the Crusade. Considering that his dominions immediately were menaced by the Infidel, his policy would appear to have been dictated by reasons of state rather than by religious zeal.

The Holiness of the Pope was consoled by this accession to the thinned ranks of His allies. He hoped that the example of King György would be of good effect to the Bohemian heretics; for spiritual matters are not uninteresting to a Roman Pontiff. It seemed that the occasion might be used to bring the powers into line; and He summoned a congress to meet in Rome, whose object was the Unity of Christendom. Pious men have pursued that object ever since—the religious unity. In the days of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III, political unity was the aim desired, and striven-for again, in vain.

* * * * *

After the Crusade, the work nearest to the Pope’s heart was the promotion of His nephews’ interests. Why He should never have done anything for His own most charming son remains a historical mystery. The elevation to the cardinalate of Don Luis Juan de Mila y Borja, and of Don Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja, already has been recorded. There was a younger brother of Cardinal Rodrigo, younger by a year and a half, Don Pedro Luis de Lançol y Borja, a gorgeously beautiful sneak and coward, to whom the Pope extended the envious admiration that feeble age must feel for youth and strength; and for whom nothing had been done. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III, though quite independent of the good opinion of the Sacred College, did not cause a second storm by raising this young man, also, to the purple. He himself preferred a secular career; and it was thought that the hot blood of Borja suited him to cut a military figure. On that account, his Uncle, in the capacity of an Italian despot, named him Duke of Spoleto, Gonfaloniere of the Holy Roman Church, Castellan of all pontifical fortresses, and Governor of the cities of Terni, Narni, Todi, Rieti, Orvieto, Spoleto, Foligno, Nocera, Assisi, Amelia, Civita Castellana, Nepi, and of the Patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany,—an extravagance of generosity which is justifiable solely on the score of goodwill towards His family, which, after long years, an octogenarian was able to put into effect. Of course there arose the usual uproar of protest from the Sacred College, led by the Lord Domenico Capranica, Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Croce _in Gerusalemme_; and something akin to a riot among the citizens of Rome, who always hated foreigners, and especially Catalans. For the idea had got abroad in Spain that in Rome preferment awaited Spaniards, and thither they flocked to receive the good gifts which, they imagined, a Spanish Pope would have in store. Rome was furious at this immigration; but Borja made overtures of friendship to Colonna, and treated the Romans to a display of Spanish arrogance. As for the strenuous Lord Calixtus P.P. III, He announced His defiance of public opinion by installing Don Pedro Luis de Lançol y Borja in the Prefecture of the City, an act which involved the surrender into Borja hands of the Mola of Hadrian, or Castle of Santangelo, the impregnable fortress on Tiber which dominates Rome. Don Pedro Luis was looked upon by Orsini as a mortal foe, on account of his displacing Don Giovantonio Orsini in this Prefecture. Thus the inimical relations of Borja with Orsini very naturally qualified them for an alliance with Colonna, in a simple age when a man’s friends were his friend’s friends, and his enemies his friend’s enemies; and Colonna was the most powerful house in Rome. A nursery ditty of the period will show in what esteem Colonna was held:

“Che possa avere cinque figli maschi,
“E tutti quanti di Casa Colonna,
“Uno Papa, l’altro cardinale,
“Ed uno arcivescovo di Colonia,
“Ed uno possa aver tanta possanza
“Da levar la corona al re di Franza
“E l’altro possa aver tanto valore
“Da levar la corona all’ imperatore.

So, for a brief space, the Eternal City became absolutely an appanage of the House of Borja. Catalans pervaded the streets, engaged in robbery and murder. The intimidated Conservators (equivalent to a modern municipal council) servilely thanked the Pope for the appointment of His nephew, and even suggested that Don Pedro Luis should be made King of Rome.

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On the twenty-seventh of June 1458 died King Don de Alonso Aragona, The Magnanimous, of Naples, the Two Sicilies, and Jerusalem. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III at once refused to acknowledge His quondam pupil, the Bastard Ferrando, as successor; and impetuously threatened to plunge Italy into war, by declaring on His Own account a claim to the Regno as a fief of the Holy See.

A favourite policy of ecclesiastical persons of all ranks, and in all ages, appears correctly to be summarised by Patrizzi in this formula:—_Advance pretensions and presently they will become realities_. The Pope’s Holiness desired to benefit Don Pedro Luis. If His claim, as suzerain of the Regno, could be substantiated, then He would be able to crown Don Pedro Luis as its King. It was an extensive and important domain, including the whole of Southern Italy, the Abruzzi, Apulia, and Calabria, with the Three-Tongued[18] Island of Sicily. From a commercial stand-point, the Pope’s action was distinctly smart and business-like. And there was this further consideration:—Supposing that the Bastard Ferrando were strong enough to make resistance, at least some part of the Regno would have to be sacrificed as a concession for the sake of peace; and so a fief could be created for Don Pedro Luis, who, in any case, stood to win. Failing the Regno, it was the Pope’s intention strenuously to press the reconquest of Constantinople, and to crown His nephew King of Cyprus and Emperor of Byzantium. As an earnest of His goodwill He lost no time in naming him Lieutenant of Benevento and Tarracina within the Neapolitan boundary, confirming him in this post by Brief of the thirty-first of July 1458.

In Rome indignation knew no bounds. It was plain that these strong young men, the pontifical nephews, were, after the Crusade, all-powerful with the Ruler of the World. The city seethed with jealousy and revolt, attacking anything in the shape of a Catalan on sight. Spaniards, rash enough to show themselves in the streets, courted assassination. As for the Pope, age and mortal sickness seemed to fan the flame, to white heat, of His inflexible imperious will. The Cardinal of Santa Croce _in Gerusalemme_ was banished to distant embassages, and threatened with imprisonment if he again broke silence, on account of the protest which he made. The Apostolic Prothonotary, Fra Bernadino Caravajal was sent to Germany. The Cardinal-Admiral Scarampi was kept at sea. Cardinal Latino Orsini and his faction fled into exile. Only four of the Most Illustrious preserved their loyalty to the Pope and the Cardinal-Nephews; these were:—The Roman Lord Prospero Colonna, Cardinal-Deacon of San Giorgio _in Velum Aureum_; the Venetian Lord Pietro Barbo, Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria Nuova; the French Lord Guillaume d’Estouteville, Cardinal-Bishop of Porto; and the Sienese Lord Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini, Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Sabina. Profiting by the temporary absence of opposition, the Holiness of the Pope gave the Bishopric of Lerida to His nephew, Cardinal Luis Juan of Santi Quattro Coronati; and to Cardinal Rodrigo of San Niccolo _in Carcere Tulliano_ he gave the Vicechancellorship of the Holy Roman Church.

At last, the Bastard of Naples decided on his course of action; and summoned the Neapolitan nobles, demanding their acceptance of him as their king. He made no claim upon the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia, in Spain; nor upon Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and Sicily, which King Don Alonso had left by will to his own brother, King Don Juan of Navarre: but for the crown of Naples and the Sovereignty of the Order of the Stola, which his father had founded, he was prepared to fight. Further, in defence of his right, he appealed from the Pope to a General Council—a stupid enough proceeding, but one of the customs peculiar to aggrieved personages of the Borgian Era. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the Lord Calixtus P.P. III, was not the only disputant of Don Ferrando’s claim. Even supposing that the right of King Réné of Anjou were set aside, he had a third rival in the shape of his cousin Don Carlos of Biana, son of King Don Juan of Navarre.

The Pope knew well that, though He might disturb the peace of Italy, He, single-handed, could not hope to triumph in a war with Naples; and He, therefore, tried to win over Don Francesco Sforza-Visconti, Duke of Milan, who, after the Cardinal of Siena, was the greatest and most far-seeing statesman of his time. Duke Francesco answered shortly and sharply, that the Neapolitan Succession had been settled by the Lord Nicholas P.P. V to the satisfaction of all Italian princes, and that he intended to fight for King Don Ferrando I. sooner than see his country devastated by civil war.

This last bitter disappointment caused the collapse of the Pope’s health. With the summer heat plague appeared in Rome. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III lay in the throes of fever; and Orsini took up arms against all Catalans in open war. Of the Pontifical Nephews the layman showed the white feather; the stalwart cardinals were staunch. Don Pedro Luis de Lançol y Borja, as Prefect of Rome, sold the Mola of Hadrian to the Sacred College for two and twenty thousand ducats; and fled from the city, escorted by his Catalans. The Cardinal of Venice helped him to a boat on Tiber, by which means, owing to the darkness of the night, he reached Civita Vecchia in safety, having avoided Orsini who watched for him at the gates of Rome. On the 26th of September, says Lo Spondano, suddenly he died.

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