III. GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

The Life and Times of Sixtus the Fifth. By Baron Hübner, formerly Ambassador of Austria in Paris and in Rome. From unpublished Diplomatic Correspondence in the State Archives of the Vatican, Simancas, Venice, Paris, Vienna, and Florence. Translated from the Original French by Hubert E. H. Jerningham. In Two Volumes. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1872.

LIVES of Pope Sixtus the Fifth have not been wanting. The feeble, silly work of Leti, written in a bad spirit and in no good style, was followed by the Storia di Sisto Quinto of the Conventualist monk Padre Tempesti, who sought to redeem the memory of the illustrious member of his own order. Leopold von Ranke, however, was the first to give a just and worthy view of the character of this pontiff, and of the stirring events of his pontificate. His work is well known to English readers. But important diplomatic documents from the principal courts of Europe, which were beyond the reach of even Ranke's diligent search, have recently been made accessible. Of these Baron Hübner has skilfully availed himself in compiling the present volumes. Ranke's work is a mere sketch beside them. The name of the noble author will not encourage any expectations which are not amply redeemed by calm and patient inquiry, by moderation, impartiality, and ample stores of information, by statesmanlike treatment of critical epochs in the history, and by pictorial writing of a high order of merit. We say this, though we complain of an occasional haziness of expression and want of simplicity in some of the sentences, due probably to the overstrained literalness of the translation.

Sixtus the Fifth ascended the throne of St. Peter in the year 1585; his reign extended over five years and a few months. His previous career was fitted to develope in him those powers of self-reliance and independence that marked him in his exalted station. It gave him a thorough knowledge of the conditions of the Church and the country, and roused him to a detestation of the foulness of the one, and an anxiety for the safety of the other.

Italy had gone through the phases of her medieval history; the period of the Renaissance was now bearing its varied fruits. The "humanist" teaching had been widely diffused; the study of the Greek language and literature had threatened to supplant the "vulgar tongue," and to substitute for Christian ideas the images and terms of Paganism; and the sciences and the fine arts had been cultivated with amazing success. But, concurrently, public morals and private virtues, effective government and personal religion, had sunk to a

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deplorably low ebb. Scandal marked the higher spheres of the Church, and immorality the lower clergy; while the common people had descended to almost heathen superstition. Reforms are born of extreme degeneracy. With the origin of Protestantism all are acquainted. It is contemptuously called a schism. It is no disgrace to be in schism from a Church which departed by devious ways from the path of true doctrine, which, if it can trace a connection with the Early Church by a thin line of historic succession in its officers, has lost the spirit of Christ and the semblance of real religion. But it is more truly defined to be a Reformation. For its existence the Church which necessitated it is responsible. The Protestant Reformation, however, was the means of saving the Church; it is coeval with a great Catholic reaction to whose necessity it bore witness, and which it was partly instrumental in bringing about. The same hollow cry of corruption that awoke the spirit of Martin Luther, and evoked the energies of the Protestant Reformers, called forth Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus, John D'Avila and the Fate bene fratelli, St. Peter of Alcantara, the Reformer of Portugal, St. Charles Borromeo at Milan, and St. Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratorians at Florence.

The internal reform continued from the time of Paul III., who instituted the Congregation of the Holy Inquisition, an organisation of which it may be said that, had its means and agents been equal to its avowed object of guarding the purity of the faith, its name had not gained the evil odour that attaches to it, and that no subsequent history can remove. In the days of Paul IV. Rome began to reflect the change the reform in the morals of the clergy commenced. Mocenigo says, "Rome then resembled an honest monastery, wherein whoever wanted to commit a sin had to do so as secretly as possible." Pius V. and Gregory XIII., borne along by the same new current, each added something to the general recovery, or checked deeper degeneracy. Of the latter, Tiepolo, writing in 1576, says, "Gregory XIII., though less severe than Pius V., does as well. He takes great care of the churches, builds and restores several, and promotes, with the help of the clergy, the great work of reform. It is fortunate that two pontiffs of such irreproachable lives should have succeeded one another, for by their example every one has become, or appears to have become, better. The cardinals and prelates of the Court often say mass, live quietly, their households likewise, and the whole town leads a better and incomparably more Christian existence, so that the affairs in Rome, in a religious point of view, are in a good condition, and not far short of that state of perfection which human weakness allows of our attaining."

The future pontiff was of humble origin: " he was born in a castello yclept Grottamare, and his father was a gardener." He was descended from one of a large number of Sclavonian families who, chased by the Turks, had settled in different parts of Italy, many on the coast of the Adriatic, others penetrating further into the interior. Fourth

in descent from Zanetto Peretti, one of the emigrants who had established himself at Montalto, was Piergentile, the father of Sixtus. On the taking and ruin of Montalto by the Duke of Urbino, in 1518, Piergentile repaired to Grottamare and devoted himself to horticulture. He, believing himself destined to be the father of a pope, when his first son was born, called him Felice, to denote the good fortune that awaited him. Young Peretti early showed a love of learning, much to the trouble of his poor father, who could ill afford the few bajocchi necessary to pay for his schooling. At nine years of age he entered the convent of the Cordeliers at Montalto, where his uncle, Frà Galvadore, enjoyed the reputation of a good priest. He made rapid progress in his studies at the school of Fermo and the Universities of Ferrara and Bologna, and when scarcely nineteen years of age was distinguished as a famous preacher. “It was during the Lent of 1552 that, for the first time, his powerful voice was heard in the ecclesiastical world. He was preaching in the Church of the Apostles, before a crowded audience. Together with the Court theologians might be seen all the most distinguished members of the religious orders, rather curious than good listeners, who were already jealous of his incipient reputation. Young noblemen and ladies of the highest Roman circles came, as much for fashion's sake as for piety. Cardinal Carpi was there, whose conquest Frà Felice had made some years before; Cardinal Ghislieri also (Pius V.), Ignatius Loyola, and Philip Neri, who, though not yet encircled with the official glory, were already canonised in the mind of the public. Struck by the ardent spirit which moved him, and was visible in his speech, in his manner, in the young monk's looks, in the exuberance of his diction, the solid science of which he was possessed, the purity of the religion that distinguished him, the spirit of the reaction which moved him, they recognised in him the man that belonged to them by right, and promised to take him in hand, to make him, what they succeeded in doing, one of the great reformers. Hence dates his fortune. From that time Frà Felice lived in the intimacy of men of the highest rank, not in that of Julius III., who was not a zealot, but among those who represented the new Catholic opinion at the Vatican, where that opinion was soon to make its way." Thus raised to distinction and to intimacy with the leading spirits of the day, the young conventualist slowly walked towards the highest point of human ambition.

Concluding his theological course at Ferrara, he removed to Rimini, where he occupied a Lecturer's chair. He received the order of Priesthood at Sienna, at the age of twenty-six, and took the degree of Doctor at Fermo. Having attracted the attention of Cardinal Carpi, he was employed as regent of all the convents of his order, first at Sienna, then at Naples, afterwards at Venice. "As a rector,

his special mission was to reform the convents, to introduce into them a strict observance of the rules, and therefore to fight against the useless or lukewarm. This difficult, and at times painful, task he

fulfilled with indefatigable energy." But not without creating many enmities. He was subsequently appointed Inquisitor Theologian to the Council of Trent (to which, however, he did not proceed) and adviser to the Holy See, gaining by his activity in this office the favour of Pius V., and the confidence of the heads of the Catholic reaction. As General Procurator and Apostolic Vicar he continued in Rome for several years the struggle he had begun with the ignorant, the lukewarm, and the unwilling. His friend Cardinal Ghislieri, being raised to the papal throne, appointed him to the Bishopric of St. Agatha, which was afterwards changed for that of Fermo, and four years later made him a Cardinal. He found less favour during the following pontificate; was treated with haughtiness, and excluded from participation in public affairs; so that, with the exception of the last two years of the reign of Pius V., his Cardinalate was passed in forced retreat. On the 24th of April, 1585, the son of the gardener of Grottamare, the "obscure Cordelier monk of the name of Montalto," took possession of the throne of St. Peter. The minutely circumstantial account of the election affords good opportunity for a faithful exposure of the craft and intrigue by which the Divine election of the Head of the Church is influenced and ascertained. A more forcible, however unintentional, burlesque could hardly have been penned. Then commenced the vigorous and effective government of those five active years, in which felicity of resource, determination and singleness of purpose, enabled this resolute man to guide the entangled affairs of the State and the Church with a wonderful discretion. Reforms were instantly introduced in politics, in public manners, and religious affairs. If we cannot approve all his measures, neither can we condemn all his aims. Many of the former are strange in our eyes, and were marked by a severity which could hardly be justified even by the exceptional necessities of the time; and many of the latter can be excused only from his point of view, most certainly not from ours. It is in the nicer discrimination of motive that the impartiality of Baron Hübner is especially apparent. If he writes with his sympathies engaged for his subject, he does not write merely as a partisan. He exposes the weaknesses, if he glorifies the excellences, of his hero. He honours him for his subtle skill in dealing with political complications of his own State with those of Spain, Austria, France, England, and Germany, But he does not hide his warlike propensities, his irascible temper, his expediency, or his nepotism. Here are details which Protestants and Catholics alike should read. They form

a valuable comment on the temporal sovereignty of the supposed Head of the Church and the Vicar of Christ. To Sixtus belongs the honour of organising the work of the Church by the founding of the "Congregations," one of the most important acts of his reign, showing his astuteness and capacity for government. To him belongs, however, the dishonour of approving the Spanish Armada, which cannot be justified on the alleged ground that "the Church

which is always in want of secular aid (!) could only find it then in the King of Spain," and that "the greatest of all necessities, that of self-preservation, inspired Philip with the idea." His proposed conquest of the Holy Land; his demand for the war against the Huguenots; his enrichment of the Church with treasures of gold, are not condoned by the desire "to re-establish the unity of faith in the Christian world, and to do so, if possible, without injuring the European equilibrium, and to support his intervention by the excellent state of his finances;" which are affirmed to have been the fundamental notions of the policy of Sixtus V. His home policy may admit of more commendation. He deserves all praise for the new edition of the Bible at which he personally worked. For though it was neither begun nor finished in his reign, it seemed likely never to be done unless some one with his resoluteness undertook it. The world, seeing only the visible works of men, and unable to judge of their hidden toils, often estimates their greatness and value by those works alone. To the multitude Sixtus V. is notable mainly for the number and magnificence of the buildings and other monuments begun or finished in his reign, and for the great improvements he effected in the general condition of the city of Rome.

With illustrations of these views these volumes are replete. Diligence in research and carefulness and honesty in statement are conspicuous in every chapter. They cast a new and bright light on a passage of history of surpassing interest, and on the character of a man the impress of whose hand and the traces of whose labours last to the present hour.

Lives of English Popular Leaders. I. Stephen Langton. By C. E. Maurice. London: H. S. King and Co.

THIS is the first volume of a series in which Mr. Maurice, to quote his own words, proposes, "First of all to bring into prominence men whose place in history has been either ignored or misrepresented; secondly, by this means to give, so far as I am able, a new and fresh interest to the study of those events in which these men have taken so prominent a part; thirdly, to endeavour to show how the work done by each of these men has been necessary to the completion and ultimate usefulness of that of their predecessors." The first instalment of the Lives of English Popular Leaders contains the story of Stephen Langton. If all the rest are executed in the same manner, we may congratulate ourselves on the advent of Mr. Maurice as a biographical historian. He has an independent judgment, as will be seen in his criticisms on Newman's so called Life of Langton. "Though Langton's name," he remarks, "is certainly mentioned several times in it, I do not think that the learned writer seems to care very much about giving his readers a clear idea of Langton's character and work." This independence is more strikingly manifest in his respectful variance from Pearson in his History of England in