stowed upon this biography to be adopted by the Bollandists in their account of the day appointed for the service of the canonized Pius V., the 5th of May*. The work is dedicated to Paul V., a pontiff of congenial character, and suitably called upon by the panegyrist to imitate so illustrious a predecessor; that, as he represents, what 'Pius V., exhausted with age, and suddenly cut off, left but begun, that, and much more, Paul 'the Fifth, in the vigour of age and health, 'might happily prosecute, and accomplish.' He accordingly anticipates bright days of restored discipline, ecclesiastic dignity, repaired rights, and routed heresy, for the church under his patron's pontificate. It is by no means to the credit of this writer, that he has mentioned by name, of his predecessors, Fuenmayor only once †, and Catena not at all; although he is palpably indebted to both for the greater and most valuable portion of his work, not simply for the matter, but for the very expression and struc A sweeping condemnation of three whole months of the Acta Sanctorum, the last, of May, including Gabutius, was issued by a particular decree of the Inquisition of Toledo, in my possession. The main offence was a doubt of one of the editors, whether the Carmelites could justly claim the prophet Elias as a founder. It is in the usual inveterate style, and glances on this subject. The date is November 14, 1695, and it is in Latin and Dutch. The Spanish Index of 1747, limited the general censure to particular specified portions, by the benefit of which Gabutius escapes. † Page 239. ture of the whole. Indeed, Gabutius (I give his name the Latin form, being known, here at least, only as a Latin writer) may be fairly considered as a translator of Catena, excepting his generally unimportant additions, and his sometimes important omissions. Indeed, it would be difficult for literature to produce another instance of such complete and shameless plagiarism. Of this, proof enough will appear in the body of the present work. When no particular references are made for the statements in the following pages, it may be inferred, that the authority for them is one, or other, but principally the first or the last, of these three biographers. The reader, however, will perceive, that perhaps on every important occasion a reference is distinctly made. The next fountain is a very extraordinary, valuable, and rather inaccessible one. It is a Collection of Letters by this pontiff, interspersed with some important letters to him, in five books. I am indebted to Jo. Alb. Fabricius for the information, if such, which I doubt, that there was an Italian edition of these epistles printed at Mantua, 1587, and two Latin ones at Cologne and Rome, in 1629 *. The only edition with *Biblioth. Lat. Med. et Inf. Ætat. under Bullaria, or tom. i. p. 298, Patavii, 1754. I much suspect, from the indistinct reference of Fabri which I am acquainted, and which I use, is that of Goubau, Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Pont. Max. Epistolarum Libri Quinque. Nunc primum in lucem editi operâ et curâ Francisci Goubau. Antverpiæ, ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti. M. DC. XL. This collection embraces the whole six years, and a portion of the seventh, of Pius's pontificate: the first book, containing the letters of the first two years, 1566 and 1567. Catena's Italian collection extends only over the years 1570 and 1571, with the short remaining period in 1572. These letters do not exactly coincide with Goubau's even in the space common to them both. That such a collection existed was well known; and Gabutius, at the close of his biography, expressed his intention of publishing it; but was prevented by death, and the task was performed by the editor now before us, who has assigned the letters, although, as it appears, not always accurately, to the corresponding portions of Gabutius's biography. And in the last edition of the Vitæ Pontt., &c., Ciaconii, in the Addit. Oldoini, occurs the notice, scripsit Pius-Epistolarum libros quinque*. By cius, that the first collection at least is simply the Appendix to the edition of Catena, mentioned above, and printed, in the year assigned, at Mantua. I should think, likewise, that there is some mistake respecting the others, from the very language of Goubau's title. *Tom. iii. col. 1016. '. his own dedication to Prince Ferdinand, governor of the Belgic provinces, Goubau, who had no lack of zeal for the cause of his church, informs us, when some years ago he attended the legate of the king of Spain to Rome, as his scribe, he considered it as suitable to his office to collect these letters, which, in a notice to the reader, he says were buried among old ruins, and to give them to the world, (veteribus Romæ ruinis oppressas, in lucem edere decrevi.) A considerable number of the more important and characteristic of these letters, especially as relating to France, was published in a French translation by De Potter, firstly at Paris, in 1826, and in 1827 at Bruxelles, in a very improved form, with plates, and the addition of a Roman Catholic Catechism, comprehending the whole penal ecclesiastic legislation on the subject of heresy, founded upon the most acknowledged authorities of the Roman church. I will freely confess that this selection first suggested to me the desirableness of an entire life of the pontiff, where the epistles would appear in their proper place and with due effect. The circumstance too that the affairs of this country are so much concerned in them, with other recommendations, and that this is the very portion omitted by the Belgic translator and editor, who has since edited other things, confirmed a resolution, the results of which, it is trusted, will not prove unacceptable to the British and protestant reader. In this epistolary collection the pontiff draws his own picture; and in this respect the work is a specimen of interesting autobiography. De Potter has justly observed that Lacretelle, in his valuable history of the Religious Wars in France, would have derived considerable advantage from these letters, had he been acquainted with them; and it is evident that Sharon Turner, in the portion of his able history contemporary with the date of those letters would have found more matter useful to his purpose, had he enjoyed the opportunity of consulting the original, instead of being obliged to depend upon the selection of the French translator, whose plan admitted a reference to Eng lish history only collaterally. There are likewise dispersed among the Epistles and Orations of Giulio Poggiano, published in four volumes at Rome, 1762, and other years, and in the fourth, twenty-one letters of this pontiff, nineteen in the year 1567, and two in the next. Of these it will be seen that some use has been made. Besides the three professed lives of Pius, which have been described, others have been written, a small one in French, by Moniot, in -- |