CHAPTER VII. Illness and death of the Pontiff-His body deposited in St. Peter's-Removed to S. Maria Maggiore-Inscription-Beatification-Canonization-Medal-Service in Breviary-Reflexions-Parallel of characters of Saul before conversion, and of Pius V. We now return to the person of Pius. In the midst of the troubles which he was the chief agent in stirring, and while he was meditating more, in the month of January, 1572, when he had completed his sixty-eighth year, the pontiff was attacked by his original complaint in a dangerous degree. Catena notices many supernatural prognostics of an event, which he represents as a general calamity. The pontiff suffered great pain, which he endured with proportionable patience, uttering with sighs towards a crucifix, Lord! increase the sufferings, but with them increase the patience. On Good Friday, the 4th of April, a cross was brought into his chapel, which he adored with fervour both of mind and body. A report was circulated of his death, at which general grief was demonstrated. The Turk, however, who is said to have dreaded his prayers, rejoiced. The pontiff had sufficient strength to deliver the usual benediction from St. Peter's on Easter Day. He felt, however, his end approaching; and having received the sacrament from his nephew, and blessed, as he was anxious to do, the Agnus Deis with many tears, he desired his confessor, by authority from him, to pronounce a plenary indulgence upon him *. He afterwards expressed his intention of visiting, for the last time, the seven churches, on foot, which, with difficulty, he performed † ; and, coming *The reader should be informed that particular directions are given in the Sacrarum Cæremon. Libri, &c., in what manner a pontiff should die, and that Pius accurately conformed to them. The chapter is in the fifteenth, or last, section of the first book, De Ægrotatione, &c. Rom. Pont. in my edition, Colon. 1572, foll. 156, et seq. If his holiness had himself, or wished to impress upon others, any faith in the ocean of indulgences treasured in the Seven Churches, and others, of Rome, his making a point of visiting them is readily to be accounted for. General readers have no conception of the infinitude of this spiritual wealth in Rome. Indulgences, for tens, hundreds, thousands of years; plenary and most plenary; from punishment and guilt; for crimes however enormous; for the living and the dead; for delivering souls out of purgatory-to say nothing of all the temporal benefits-are as abundantly strewed over the areas of the Seven Churches as sand on the sea shore. Let the reader just look into the Mirabilia Romæ, published in all forms and languages, and with due papal sanction, that of Eucharius Silber, in 1509, at Rome, of which a copy is in the Bodleian; the Cose Maravigliose di Roma, by Francino in 1587, and of which I have an edition in 1600, with the privilege of the pope, and printed in Rome; the Fiscus Papalis of W. Crashaw, with an English translation, from a Latin MS. agreeing with the preceding; or, to instance no more, the hooll pardon of Rome, graunted by dyverse Popis, &c., in Arnold's Chronicle, last edition, pp. 145—156, evidently translated-and he will not accuse the caterers of Rome of having neglected to spread a most tempting banquet for sinners of all descriptions in the Eternal City and her churches. Onuphrius Panvinius, and Serranus, to the Scala Santa, with tears he kissed the last step three times, as if taking a final farewell. There he stopped to attend to many English Catholics (Roman), who had fled from their country, and who were permitted to kiss his feet. He received them graciously, and charged cardinal Alessandrino to take down their names in writing, in order to provide for their necessities, and, looking towards heaven, he said, Lord, if it were although they have practised a prudent reserve upon this subject, have yet divulged enough to give credit, if it were wanted, to the more honest and communicative works above referred to. These things do not rest upon tablets and traditions in churches alone, but are extant in various papal bulls accessible at the present day; and an elaborate work, expressly on the subject, by Eusebius Amort, a Regular Canon, printed at Venice, with privilege of Superiors, in 1738, and dedicated to Clement XII., details the whole, almost, if not quite, as unreservedly as the works first adduced. See pp. 180 and following. By why multiply proof upon so evident a point? Our own Hore Sarum, particularly of 1526 and 1527, authentic books of devotion, are full of this profligate species of imposture. Even in the chapel of St. Michael, Macclesfield, there exists, at the present time, a brass tablet, recording 26,000 years and twentysix days of pardon, for saying five paternosters, five aves, and a creed.— See Protestant Guardian, i. pp. 337 et seq. And Dr. Challoner, bishop of Debra, &c., in his Catholic Christian Instructed, contributes his unwilling testimony, when he attempts to account only for these elongated indulgences, though he catches at the hopeless benefit of an if.— p. 117, ed. 1788. In illustration of this subject, I shall add in the ApPENDIX, a copy of a very curious, and, probably, unique, Indulgence, given by a doctor and commissary of the hospital of the Holy Spirit in Saxia de Urbe, to the members of that fraternity, and printed by our Richard Pynson, near the date of the instrument, 1520, for the use of some affiliated society here. It was attached to the binding of a book, and was the only thing valuable in it. I purchased it from Mr. Bohn. own blood.' He likewise desired his nephew, who had command enough of the other cardinals, to hasten the election of a successor after his death, that no interruption might happen to the league. He then directed that the seven penitential psalms should be read to him, and the account of the Saviour's passion; and on the last day of April had the ceremony of extreme unction administered, discoursing of his approaching dissolution without any perturbation. His last act was to place both his hands on a cross, when he quietly expired, on the 1st of May, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon *. * sù le ventidue hore.-Catena. Llorente, in the course of his detailed account of the trial and persecution of Carranza, writes, that 'there were indications which seemed to announce that the death of the 'pope [Pius V.] was not natural, but effected by the agents of the Inqui'sition in Spain, who wished to hinder the determination of the cause, ' of Carranza: I do not,' he adds, 'give credit to conjectures readily, ‘but letters are in existence which contain some propositions of rather 6 a bold description; one says "Little importance ought to be attached 6 to the death of a man who discovers himself so devoted to a Dominican 6 monk, his brother, and who, in conversation, compromises the honour ' of the Inquisition of Spain. The Inquisition would be a great gainer 'by the death of such a pope." -Hist. de l'Inquisit. ed. 2, tome iii. p. 298. If the life of Pius were thus violently abridged, the impatience of his enemies probably deprived him of the satisfaction of seeing with his mortal eyes, or hearing of with his mortal ears, the final success of his efforts in rousing the court of France to exterminating vengeance against the Protestants. Here was the retribution which is often seen in the course of Providence-' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' After his death three stones were discovered in his bladder. To omit minor and usual superstitions, his body was conveyed to St. Peter's, where the attachment of numbers was signalized towards him by kissing his feet; and it is added, that some courtezans who approached him for the purpose of exulting over the departure of so zealous a castigator of their licentiousness, were so affected, that they changed their purpose, and, kissing his feet, bemoaned their sins. The body was then placed in a small temporary tomb in the chapel of St. Andrew, in the cathedral of St. Peter, to be removed in due time, according to his direction, to the monastery of Bosco, his native place, with the following epitaph :— PIUS. V. PONT. Religionis ac pudicitiæ vindex, Recti et justi assertor, Morum et disciplinæ restitutor, Christianæ rei defensor, Gallia conservata, Parta de Turcis victoria, Ingentibus ausis et factis, Pacis belliq. gloria, MAXIMUS PIUS. FELIX. OPT. PRINC. |