But he was strictly impartial in administering justice. No clerical offender was screened by the sacredness of his garments. The friar who imposed on the piety of the faithful was scourged from one end of the Corso to the other; the cardinal who was desirous of protecting a guilty servant was threatened with the Castle of St. Angelo; the traitor-priest who gave Queen Elizabeth information of what was occurring at Rome was executed in such a manner as to strike terror into every treacherous breast. No wonder Sixtus became a terror to evil doers, and his very name sufficed to put an end to the brawls in the streets. The time arrived when he could say with grim humor: “Fugit impius nemine persequente”—“The wicked flee when no man pursueth.”
Sixtus V. left proofs of his genius and energy all over Rome. He kept thousands of men constantly employed. The [pg 569] dome of S. Peter's was completed in twenty-two months, though the architect said it would require ten years. He restored a colossal aqueduct that had fallen to ruin, and brought the Acqua Felice into Rome from a distance of about twenty miles. He opened great thoroughfares all through the city, built the Lateran Palace, erected monuments, undertook to drain the Pontine Marshes, encouraged agriculture and the manufacture of silk, established the Congregation of Rites and several others, limited the number of cardinals to seventy, and partly revised the Vulgate with his own hand. His practical nature by no means made him insensible to softer influences. His soul was so alive to music that at the exciting time of his election he lent an ear to Palestrina's music hastily composed for the occasion, and remarked that Pierluigi had forgotten Pope Marcello's Mass—a criticism that mortified the great composer, but which has since been acknowledged to be true.
He won the gratitude of the Israelites by his favor. Amazed Rome saw a Gentile actually scourged on the Corso for insulting a member of that ancient race. To another Israelite was granted special privileges for his success in increasing the production of silk.
Col. Meline's book is not a literal translation of Baron Hübner's Life of Sixtus V.: it is rather a résumé, as the preface explains. It consists of three parts: the first reviews the life of that pope, giving such details as are of interest to the general reader; the second portrays the experience of a Transalpine traveller to Rome three centuries ago; and the third is a vivid picture of Rome at that time: the whole being an improved edition of three essays already given to the public.
The readers of The Catholic World are already too familiar with Mr. Meline's felicitous style and his power of analysis to require any commendation on our part. And to the public at large he has recommended himself by his chivalrous defence of Mary, Queen of Scots. The strong lance he has wielded in the defence of her fair name against that doughty writer of fiction, Mr. James Anthony Froude, has been too universally applauded not to secure a general welcome to whatever comes from his able pen.
The Heart of Myrrha Lake; or, Into the Light of Catholicity. By Minnie Mary Lee. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1872.
The enthusiastic author of this charming little story has succeeded in presenting much logic which is usually dull, in very attractive attire. The arguments and conclusions are so wonderfully clear, that it is to be hoped the book will fall frequently into the hands of the class most in need of it, but, alas! least likely to read it. There is in it much of quiet humor which is irresistible and very “telling”; as, for instance, when to the question, “What Catholic books have you read, sir?” the sturdy Methodist, Abner White, replies: “Fox's Book of Martyrs, Maria Monk, Six Months in a Convent, Romanism at Home, Priest and Nun, etc.” And again, in the interview between Aunt Ruth and the committee of Methodist ladies who had come to wait upon her after her husband's conversion, human nature, and especially Methodist nature, is painted with a very clever pen. Who has not known just such spinsters as Miss Nancy and Miss Sarah? And what a keen dash is this:
“ ‘Then we shall report that you choose to follow your husband, rather than the goodly rules of our Methodist discipline?’
“ ‘I shall go with my husband certainly,’ was the firm, respectful answer.
“ ‘And may God have mercy on your soul,’ solemnly added the spinster, as if addressing a person about to be hanged.