Master Alan, the celebrated doctor, but still poor, was invited to dinner by a former disciple already a bishop, who, seeing his poverty, said, “Master, I marvel not a little that your scholars are already become great men: one is an abbot, another is a bishop, another an archbishop, and you are left in ridiculous poverty.” Alan, indeed, thinking otherwise—for he had a true and right judgment as to the gradations of merit—is said to have answered thus: “You do not know,” quoth he, “what is the height of the most perfect dignity, and the true greatness of man? It is not to be a great bishop, but a good clerk. Everybody knows that by the voice of three rascally canons, to whom is given the power of election, a bishop is made; but if all the saints in Paradise and all the sensible men in the world said together in one voice before God, ‘Martin is a good clergyman,’ Martin would not on that account be a good clergyman if he remained an ignoramus.”
A SULTAN WHO ABDICATED TWICE (A.D. 1451).
Sultan Amurath II., who died in 1451, was the only sultan who has twice abdicated, being a great warrior as well as learned, merciful, religious, charitable, and a patron of merit. He was a zealous Mussulman; and though the scimitar was their usual instrument of converting unbelievers, his moderation was attested by the Christians. His most striking characteristic was that, in the plenitude of his power at the age of forty, he discerned the vanity of human greatness, resigned the crown, and retired to join a society of saints and hermits in Magnesia. He there submitted to fast and pray and rotate with the dervishes. In two years, owing to a sudden invasion of Hungarians, his son and successor, as well as his former subjects, implored him to return and take command of his janizaries; and, after fighting and conquering, he a second time resigned the crown and resumed his monkish life. A second time he was recalled by another danger of the State, and again resumed the crown. He had not another opportunity of becoming a dancing dervish, as he died as Sultan at the age of forty-nine.
POPE NICHOLAS V. A GREAT COLLECTOR OF MANUSCRIPTS (A.D. 1447).
When Pope Nicholas V. was elected in 1447, he had had a reputation for universal knowledge, and within the short period of eighteen months became bishop, cardinal, and Pope. A little spare man, with a keen eye and overweening self-confidence, he soon made up his mind to proclaim a crusade against the antipope, and authorised the French King to seize his territories, though this became unnecessary, owing to the antipope’s resignation. This Pope lived in an age of great intellectual progress, and he took pleasure in inviting men of letters and scholars. He soon gratified a long-standing desire to collect manuscripts, and caused many monastic libraries to be ransacked for treasures. He added in eight years five thousand manuscripts to the Vatican library, and kept a staff of copyists and translators, and even carried out in part a new translation of the Bible. It was under his patronage that Laurence Valla, the eminent scholar, produced a treatise on the donation of Constantine, exposing the impudent forgery which had so long been palmed off by preceding Popes for the foundation of their jurisdiction over the world in general. The author, however, was astute enough to withdraw from Rome before the effect of his researches became known, for he was soon arrested by the Inquisition, and would have been burned but for the intercession of King Alfonso. The literary men whom Nicholas encouraged were given to quarrels and jealousies, and even tended towards too great an admiration of Paganism. Nicholas was also bent on rebuilding the Vatican quarter of Rome, and proceeded to act on a design of a new structure in the form of a Greek cross with a cupola; but the execution of the work had only risen a few feet above ground when the Pope died, and a yet more magnificent structure was carried out in the following century. Though these great palatial schemes were not executed, he gave his contemporaries a taste for magnificence of every kind in the services of the Church, and for mitres, vestments, altar-coverings, and gold inwoven curtains. He patronised the saintly painter Angelico, and sculptors and architects. He also had a most successful jubilee in 1450, which recouped his great expenditure, though the occurrence of a plague acted adversely. It happened that Constantinople fell a prey in Nicholas’s time to the Mohammedans, who despoiled and profaned the churches and dispersed the treasures of Greek literature. This disaster, which happened in 1453, caused much sympathy; for the Emperor Frederick was said to weep at the news and express a vague wish for a crusade, though he took no active step. At a great festival at Lille, a lady representing the Church appeared before the Duke of Burgundy seated on an elephant led by a giant, and in a versified speech invoked assistance, which led the Duke to register a vow to succour the Church; but the enthusiasm soon died away. The Pope, however, consoled the chiefs of Christendom by issuing a bull, in which he declared the founder of Islam to be the great red dragon of the Apocalypse, and invited the princes to buy indulgences in order to raise a fund to exterminate the infidels. It was maliciously insinuated, however, that the money thus raised only went to pay for needless fortifications at Rome, and nowise to influence affairs in the East. The Pope died in 1455 before any of these great enterprises were begun. It was said that Pope Nicholas’s example stirred up the Florentine merchant Cosmo de Medicis to carry on similar researches for old manuscripts, and his grandson Lorenzo de Medicis procured from the East a further treasure of two hundred writings. The Greek language came to be publicly taught in the University of Oxford towards the end of the fifteenth century.
A FOP ELECTED POPE PAUL II. (A.D. 1464).
In 1464 the choice of the cardinals for a new Pope fell on Peter Barbo, a Venetian of high descent. He had been made a cardinal at twenty-two by his uncle, and had always been noted for his elegant and foppish manners. The previous Pope, Pius II., used to call him Maria pientissima, on account of his soft and affected manner, coupled with a faculty of shedding tears at will when urging any request. He was so vain of his handsome appearance that he proposed to assume the name of Formosus, till some cardinals laughed him out of it. His love of display and theatrical show led him to spend large sums on jewels, precious stones, and millinery; and to provide means for this great end of his being, he took care to keep in his hands the income of vacant offices, and postpone the appointments. He not only clothed himself in gorgeous attire, but to heighten the dramatic effect he painted his face. One peculiarity of his was to transact all his business by night, probably owing to the artificial manner in which he presented himself, and to prevent cracks in his enamel being detected. He is said to have given an impulse to the festivities of the Roman carnival, and used to watch with congenial interest and enthusiasm the frolics of old and young during the races on the Corso, where Jews, horses, asses, and buffaloes were the performers. The cardinals, on appointing this Pope, bound him over to many urgent duties and stipulations, but he threw off these incumbrances as he would put off his cloak. He spent most of his energies in seeking and buying alliances in Germany and in selling offices. He also entertained the Emperor on a visit of seventeen days, and showed him all the jewels. One day Paul II. was found dead in his bed in 1471, the popular belief being that he had been killed by a devil, which he was said to carry locked up in a signet ring; and this solution was entirely satisfactory.
HOW POPE LEO X. WAS ELECTED (A.D. 1513).
John de Medicis was elected Pope in 1513, and took the title of Leo X. He had been made cardinal at fourteen. He had been dissipated in his youth, and had undergone a serious surgical operation at the time of his predecessor’s death, and was carried in a horse litter to join the conclave of cardinals who were busy in measures for the election. The Cardinal de Medicis made himself so busy in canvassing that his ulcer broke, causing a noisome smell in all the cells he visited. While the cardinals obstinately supported the opposing candidates, and there appeared no hope of agreement, they were yet all satisfied that poor de Medicis had not a month to live. So it occurred to several of them that it would be as well to select him for the present, so as to stave off the discords raging, and give them a few weeks longer to complete their own arrangements and arrive at unanimity. This view led to John de Medicis being at once elected Pope, though only thirty-six years old. He soon recovered his health, and lived eight years longer, so that the old cardinals had occasion to repent of their credulity. The young Pope celebrated his coronation by lavish expenses. He insisted on being crowned on the same day that he lost the battle of Ravenna and was taken prisoner, and rode the same Turkish horse that bore him on that day. This horse was greatly valued, and carefully kept and pampered to an extreme old age. Leo X.’s head was full of the magnificence of ancient Rome, which he sought to perpetuate. His life was voluptuous; he gloried in the pleasures of the chase. He protected men of wit and learning, and kept a poet laureate to make verses and act as buffoon at the revels constantly going on. While he thundered anathemas against Luther, he did not cease in private to ridicule the whole Christian doctrine as a mere fable. It is said he died in a fit of extravagant merrymaking when he heard the news that the Emperor had defeated the French at Milan. Leo X. kept a table of extraordinary luxury. He tried experiments on the cookery of monkeys and crows and peacock sausages. He kept poets and comedians to enliven the diversions. Card-playing for heavy stakes followed the banquet. He used to scatter gold among the spectators of a game.