Contarini followed the same principle in his conversations with the champions of the papacy. ‘The unity of the Church is necessary,’ he said; ‘to separate from it is the wildest error; but the cause of the sufferings of Christendom, the root of all the evil, is the unlimited authority ascribed by its adulators to the pontifical legislation. A pope ought not to govern just as he pleases, but only in accordance with God’s commandments, the rules of reason, and the laws of charity.’ Convinced that unity of faith would gradually be restored, he devoted all his efforts to remove from the Church everything that shocked the moral sentiment; he resolutely fought against simony, and advocated the marriage of priests. He entertained no doubt that success would crown the holy work he had commenced. We shall see hereafter what became of it.

At the dawn of the Reformation, when the first gleams heralding the rising of the sun began to appear, they were probably nowhere more brilliant than in Italy, and nowhere foretokened a brighter day. Men’s souls were moved by a spirit from on high, and a new life sanctified their hearts: the primitive relation of man to God, and his personal relation to Him, which sin had destroyed, were restored. It was in the very stronghold of formalism that the adoration of God was manifested with most liberty and grace. From the Alps to Sicily, burning lights had everywhere appeared, and many rejoiced in their brightness.

The Two Camps.

Rome still remained seated on her seven hills—with her excommunications and her burning piles; but it seemed as if a new invasion—that of the Gospel and of liberty—would repair all the mischiefs committed by the inroads of the barbarians and the papacy. Two camps were formed, one to the north, the other to the south of that ancient city. On one side was Naples and the camp of Pausilippo, where a small but gallant army was assembled. A gentle light gilded the hills of Chiaja: no formidable enemy appeared in sight, and everything led to the hope that a final and successful victory would ere long be gained.

The other camp was to the north. It could not boast of such eminent men as those who watched in the ancient city of Parthenope. The throne of Ferrara was occupied by an earnest woman and devoted Christian, the daughter of Louis XII., who gave a welcome to all the fugitive soldiers of Christ; and who had made it her business to build up the city of God in Italy, and thus to work out, in a Christian manner, her father’s device: Perdam Babylonis nomen. About this time she was expecting at her court a young divine, who had confessed Jesus Christ in France with energy, who had just written to Francis I. an eloquent and forcible letter, and published a book in which he had set forth the great doctrines of the faith in admirable order and in language of unequalled beauty. What would be the effect of his presence beyond the Alps? No one could say; but if the duchess had influence enough over her husband to make religious liberty prevail at Ferrara; if Calvin should settle in the birthplace of Savonarola, his faith, his talents, and his activity among a people already moved by the power of God, might gain a glorious victory for the truth.

Thus two great forces met face to face—Rome and the Gospel. Curione, Paleario, Peter Martyr, and many others, asked themselves what would be the issue of the struggle then preparing in Italy. Experiencing in themselves the power of God’s Word, and seeing its marvellous effects around them, they doubted not that the Gospel would triumph in their country, as it had triumphed in other countries more to the north, and where, perhaps, less of light and life were to be found. The Reformation in Italy would doubtless present peculiar features, which, without disturbing Christian unity, would manifest national individuality. Episcopacy existed in England; the primate, Archbishop of Canterbury, remained on his throne, while submitting to the Word of God. Why might not a similar reform be effected in Rome itself? Not only evangelicals, such as Curione and Carnesecchi, but pious catholics were full of hope. ‘Ah!’ they said; ‘at the beginning of his reign the pope wonderfully excited all our expectations.[[951]] Putting aside institutions established by preceding popes, he resolved to conduct the supreme pontificate in a holier manner;[[952]] and to accomplish that task, he gathered round him men whom fame had pointed out as doctors excellent in wisdom and integrity.’ Contarini believed in a reformation which, beginning with the head, would purify all the members. ‘God,’ he said, ‘will not permit the gates of hell to prevail against his Holy Spirit. He is about to accomplish something great in the Church.’[[953]] The flames which he had kindled in the peninsula, and which rose higher and higher every day, appeared as if they would soon reduce to ashes the scaffolding of dead works which the papacy had set up, and to purify the temple of God.

Glory To The Martyrs.

But the times of Rome were not accomplished. The malady, with which the body of the Church was affected in Italy, was (to use the words of Cardinal Sadolet) one of those which incline the sick man to reject the remedies prescribed for him.[[954]] Pope Paul III., who consulted the stars more than he did the Gospel, finding at last that his attempts ended in nothing; that the Reformation was advancing, and threatening to regenerate and deliver the Church, suddenly turned upon it and endeavored to crush it. Those men who would have been the regenerators of Italy, with minds of such activity, with such varied learning and exquisite cultivation, who held converse in the finest parts of the world with the best and most illustrious of their time,—those men, the flower of their nation, soon found themselves constrained to escape beyond the Alps, or saw themselves condemned by cruel pontiffs, insulted by ignorant priests, and conducted ignominiously to some public square in Rome, there to be beheaded and have their bodies cast into the fire.... The heart shrinks at the thought, and an inner voice seems to say: ‘If Carnesecchi, Paleario, and all the noble army of martyrs were disowned by their contemporaries; if coarse monks jeered at them, if they were covered with opprobrium; there are now thousands of Christians in the world who love them as fathers, honor them as victorious heroes of the Gospel of peace, and preserve a grateful remembrance of them in their hearts.

Footnotes

[1]. History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Queen Elizabeth, by J. A. Froude.