URBAN VIII

4

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

 

URBAN ruled Rome for twenty-one years, and he has left behind him many abiding memorials. The college of the Propaganda, which faces the Piazza di Spagna, still stands as a record of his zeal for the extension of his church. Near it, at the foot of the steps which lead to the Santa Trinity del Monte, his arms are to be seen on an unpretentious fountain, which now supplies the wants of the flower-sellers of Rome. The Barberini palace in the Via delle Quatro Fontane, though it retains the so-called "Beatrice Cenci" of Guido Reni and its other pictures, has lost the famous library which was collected by Urban and his nephews. The great walls which surround the Vatican and Janiculan hills preserve the memory of the pope's military schemes: the castle of St. Angelo reminds the traveller that, in the seventeenth century, as in the sixteenth, the sovereign pontiff had cause to dread the attack of his spiritual subjects. Within the Vatican, the Scala Regia gives some idea of the magnificence of Urban's court: the library, with its massive doors, still reckons among its benefactors the pontiff who added to it the treasures of Heidelberg. The east wall of St. Peter's bears an inscription which commemorates the work of the Florentine pope:-

URRANITS VIII

PONT. MAX.

VATICANAM BASILICAM

A CONSTANTINO MAGNO EXTRUCTAM

A BEATO SYLVESTRO DEDICATAM

IN AMPLISSIMI TEMPLI FORD/LAM

RELIGIOSA MULTORIIM PONTIFF.

MAGNIFICENTIA

REDACTAM

SOLEMNI RITU CONSECRAVIT

SEPULCRUM APOSTOLICUM

AEREA MOLE DECORAVIT

ODEUM ARAS ET SACELLA

STATUIS AC MULTIPLICIBUS OPERITIIS

ORNAVIT.

The baldachino over the high altar is in harmony with the colossal proportions of the greatest Christian basilica. It is a happy monument of Urban's somewhat grandiose taste: but it is difficult to pardon the Barberini pope who, to build its bronze canopy and to procure "ordnance to warr" against the duke of Parma, laid hands on the great temple of the Pantheon, which even the barbarians had spared.

Despite the enormous load of taxes which he imposed, Urban proved himself a good sovereign to his temporal subjects. As legate at Bologna, he showed, in a subordinate capacity, administrative gifts of the highest order; when he obtained supreme control of the government, he did not belie the promise of his earlier years. He had the usual Florentine love of display, and did not hesitate to spend money lavishly on costly ceremonies, which enhanced, in his eyes, men's respect for the papal power. The receptions given to such august visitors as the grand duke of Tuscany, the duke of Parma and the prince of Poland, were particularly gorgeous. The birth of a son to Louis XIII was celebrated at Rome with sumptuous magnificence. Such a policy necessitated the imposition of severe burdens on his subjects; but then, as now, the Romans preferred to pay heavy taxes and enjoy a splendid court, rather than to contribute little and lose their spectacular pleasures.

Unfortunately a considerable portion of the revenue went into the pockets of the Barberini family. Their palaces, their country seats, their pictures and their books were provided, to a large extent, out of the money of the church. In the course of Urban's pontificate, it is said that no less than 105 million scudi passed into his nephews' hands: in 1635 Taddeo alone drew an income of 100,000 scudi from his landed property. The figures rest on the authority of men who were enemies of the family, but there is little reason to doubt that they are substantially accurate. Ludovico Ludovisi had shown what could be done in two years for the amassing of a fortune. Urban was no worse than his predecessors; he merely reigned longer. But the corruption which such a system produced is the most convincing proof that it was impossible, humanly speaking, for the temporal power of the papacy to work cleanly. Yet it was defended by the secular and the clerical opinion of the day. It was essential that the sovereign of the ecclesiastical states should possess a court, suitable for the reception of foreign princes and ministers: the promotion of the sovereign's family to high offices followed as a matter of course. Urban himself felt uneasy about the riches he had heaped on his family. He appointed a commission to examine into the rights of the pontiff to confer wealth on his family. The temporal aspect of papal rule necessitated the theologians' approval of the general principle; their estimate of the particular sums, which should be handed over to the family, allayed Urban's scruples. But such a decision did not bind his successors, and under Innocent X the Barberini were compelled to restore some of their ill-gotten wealth.

In his last chapters Nicoletti paints in glowing colours the material prosperity of Rome under Urban's rule. The pope endeavoured to promote trade, although it must have been seriously hampered by the taxes he imposed. He fixed the wages of artisans at a reasonable figure. There was a daily distribution of alms to the poor at the Vatican palace. During the years 1630-2 Urban showed great ability in the measures which he took to preserve the health of the city. The war of the Mantuan succession had caused the outbreak of a pestilence, which threatened to spread from the camps in north Italy over the whole peninsula. Urban instituted a commission to deal with the matter; on it served Francesco and Taddeo Barberini, cardinal Ginetti, Grimaldo, the governor of Rome, the prior of the Roman people and cardinal Francesco's medical adviser. While they took measures to secure the health of the capital, Vitelli was entrusted with the provinces of the patrimony, Umbria, and Campagna Maritima, Mattei with Romagna, and Spada with Bologna. The latter district had already been attacked by the pestilence, but the prompt measures which the cardinal took kept the outbreak within due bounds. Many of the roads which led from the ecclesiastical states into the neighbouring territories were closed completely; on others travellers were subjected to strict supervision. In view of the number of troops gathered at Marseilles and Leghorn, it was necessary to watch the seaboard carefully. Urban secured the co-operation of the grand duke to prevent the infection spreading; a system of guardships and coastguards was instituted; vessels from suspected places were not allowed to discharge their cargoes or passengers in the papal ports. At Rome itself a strict quarantine was established. The city was divided into districts, each under its own officer of health. The streets were kept scrupulously clean. A sufficient supply of fish was secured. The danger of the pestilence breaking out among the pauper population was met by segregating the poor of both sexes. The prompt measures of the pope were completely successful. The pestilence, which ravaged many parts of Italy, did no harm to the territory of the church, except at Bologna; Rome was preserved from plague and famine. On March 24, 1632, a thanksgiving service was held at the Ara Coeli. The people of Rome acknowledged the good works of their sovereign, who "with watchful care has secured the welfare of his people by a rule, just, temperate and truly fatherly."

Three years later the papal government was called upon to deal with a threatened famine. Urban's care for agriculture, and the particular attention which he devoted to the Campagna, had previously kept the capital amply supplied with corn. But on this occasion the crops had been ruined by the tramontana. Their sudden destruction caused great suffering at first; the poorer classes began to eat horse flesh. But the pontiff was equal to the emergency, and the arrival of corn from Sicily put an end to the distress.

The Romans certainly liked their splendour-loving Florentine sovereign. His independent policy and his aversion to Spain added to his popularity with them. Their feelings are fairly represented by the inscription on the statue erected on the capitol, after the pope's illness in 1637:

URBANO OCTAVO

PONT. OPTIMO MAXIMO

EXIMIE ET MULTIPLICITER

BENE MERENTI

S.P.Q.R.

GRATI ANIMI MONUMENTUM POSUIT.

 

How far the provinces shared in the feelings of the capital, it is difficult to say. The Venetian ambassador represents the people of Urbino as complaining bitterly of the change from ducal to papal rule, and "calling the government of the priests a tyranny." But it must be remembered that he was angry because the rich heritage of the della Rovere had fallen to Rome, not to Venice. Still the history of the war of Castro does not testify to any great enthusiasm for the ecclesiastical government outside the capital. Most contemporary writers speak unfavourably of the economic condition of the ecclesiastical states in the seventeenth century: in spite of the natural resources of the country, the lot of the poorer classes outside the towns was so unfavourable that many of them emigrated. The incidence of heavy taxes and vexatious monopolies, the multiplication of highly paid sinecures and the restrictions on the corn trade combined to render the rule of the priests extremely unpopular with their lay subjects.

Urban was keenly interested in literature from his earliest years, and always took great delight in the society of men of letters. His collected poems were re-issued during his pontificate. Besides some Tuscan sonnets, he composed verses in both the classical languages. He never managed to write Greek with fluency, but his Latin versification possesses a considerable degree of facility. To modern ears the metre and the language, in which he dealt with sacred subjects, appear somewhat strange. His prose style has a certain vigour, but it is marred by bombastic phraseology. He is continually straining after effect, and the result is often ludicrous. "Hell bath opened wide its month, spewing forth hosts of sins and perils." " The angelical legions do flutter about you, which receive in their golden vials the desires of the faithful." " Your poor religious ... have undergone the raking out of their bowels." 1 In literary style, as in religious opinions, Urban was not in advance of his age, although it was said of his revision of the Roman breviary " accessit Latinitas, recessit pietas."

Men of letters were not the only people who found a welcome at his court. Painters, sculptors, architects and scientists were equally attracted by his patronage. Bernini's florid genius was peculiarly acceptable to the pope, who employed him to beautify St. Peter's and the Vatican, and to fortify St. Angelo. Galileo dedicated his Saggiatore to Urban, a few months after Gregory XV's death. In 1621 he was received with especial honour by the pontiff, who gave him six long audiences in the space of two months. The great scientist hoped to persuade Urban to withdraw the edict which had been promulgated against him in the time of Paul V; but, though he won the pope's friendship, he was unable to obtain his wish. When, in 1632, he published the Dialogo dei due Massimi Sistimi del Mondo, in direct opposition to the edict of the Holy Office and his own promises, he was summoned to Rome to answer for his offence against religion. But even then he was treated with the utmost consideration. His imprisonment only lasted three weeks, and he was well cared for during that time. For a considerable part of his residence in the capital, he stayed with the Tuscan ambassador, and after his recantation he was lodged in the Villa Medici on the Pincian. In his treatment of Galileo, Urban tempered justice with mercy; even when the document, which formally condemned the scientist's defiance of the church, had been signed by the cardinals, the pope could not bring himself to ratify his friend's disgrace.

The Venetian ambassadors and Nicoletti  have left graphic sketches of Urban's personal appearance. They describe him as slightly over the ordinary height, with a well-formed muscular frame, his complexion was olive, his expression commanding; his broad forehead and keen blue eyes gave evidence of great intellectual gifts. His beard, iron-grey when his pontificate began, was cut square and lent an appearance of military vigour to the resolute jaw. The portrait in the Barberini gallery answers to the descriptions of his contemporaries, but there is a pensive, almost mournful look in the eyes, which makes the spectator wonder if he did not sometimes find his burden too heavy for him to bear.

Urban must be written down as one of the world's failures, but his failure was due, not so much to the deficiencies in his own character as to the circumstances of the age in which he lived. He attempted a superhuman task: after his defeat the papacy retired to a humbler position, both as a religious and as a temporal power. To bring Europe once more beneath the sway of Rome was an impossibility, in the face of the growth of national feeling. Yet that was what Urban attempted. Rarely did he yield a point in the great struggle between church and state, which was being fought out then, and is not decided even yet. It was not for the world's good that Christendom should be ruled by a handful of Italian prelates. Yet it was to secure that spiritual domination that many of the noblest men devoted their lives. Although he was often defeated, Urban never lost courage. Whether the enemy was Spain or Sweden, France or the empire, he worked on unremittingly to secure the freedom of the spiritual power, as he understood it, from secular oppression. To the fulfillment of this task he brought great abilities. He does not, it is true, merit all the praises of his biographer, who writes: "Thus ended the life of Pope Urban, in whom were combined all the virtues in a lofty and heroic degree, and all those gifts of nature and intellect which compose a most perfect and a most wise prince ... A most burning zeal for the church and the catholic religion, magnanimity in arduous and difficult affairs, accompanied by a nearly superhuman judgment and by ... a sweet affability." He had many faults; he was hot-headed and apt to be swayed by the impulse of the moment; his excitability sometimes made him tactless; many of his schemes were marred by Florentine parsimony; his liberality to his family is inexcusable to modern eyes. But he had a high ideal of duty and a singular tenacity of purpose. Richelieu succeeded while Urban failed, partly because of his superior abilities, but mainly because the cardinal recognized the dominant tendencies of his age, while the pope strove to realize the ideals of the past. Had Urban lived in the days of the Innocents, he would have ruled Europe with a hand as firm as theirs: as it was, his proud self-confidence only broke itself in its struggle against the rise of nationalities. He did not see that Europe was destined to accept the principle of toleration as the only possible solution of the religious difficulty. Even if he had, he would probably have set his face against a system which was essentially inconsistent with the doctrines of the Roman church.

Yet his very blindness to the significance of the great struggle which was proceeding, gave him strength. It is the refusal to abandon an apparently untenable position, which has not seldom proved the salvation of the papacy.