An Introduction to the History of Western Europe Part 38

[Sidenote: The popes since the Great Schism.]

The next power with which Charles VIII had to deal was represented by a person in every way the opposite of the Dominican monk--Pope Alexander VI. After the troubles of the Great Schism and the councils, the popes had set to work to organize their possessions in central Italy into a compact princ.i.p.ality. For a time they seemed to be little more than Italian princes. But they did not make rapid progress in their political enterprises because, in the first place, they were usually advanced in years before they came to power and so had little time to carry out their projects; and, in the second place, they showed too much anxiety to promote the interests of their relatives. The selfish, unscrupulous means employed by these worldly prelates naturally brought great discredit upon the Church.

[Sidenote: Pope Alexander VI and Caesar Borgia.]

There was probably never a more openly profligate Italian despot than Alexander VI (1493-1503) of the notorious Spanish house of Borgia. He frankly set to work to advance the interests of his children, as if he were merely a secular ruler. For one of his sons, Caesar Borgia, he proposed to form a duchy east of Florence. Caesar outdid his father in crime. He not only entrapped and mercilessly slaughtered his enemies, but had his brother a.s.sa.s.sinated and thrown into the Tiber. Both he and his father were accused of constant recourse to poisoning, in which art they were popularly supposed to have gained extraordinary proficiency.

It is noteworthy that when Machiavelli prepared his _Prince_,[259] he chose for his hero Caesar Borgia, as possessing in the highest degree those qualities which went to make up a successful Italian ruler.

The pope was greatly perturbed by the French invasion, and in spite of the fact that he was the head of Christendom, he entered into negotiations with the Turkish sultan in the hope of gaining aid against the French king. He could not, however, prevent Charles from entering Rome and later continuing on his way to Naples.

[Sidenote: Charles VIII leaves Italy unconquered.]

The success of the French king seemed marvelous, for even Naples speedily fell into his hands. But he and his troops were demoralized by the wines and other pleasures of the South, and meanwhile his enemies at last began to form a combination against him. Ferdinand of Aragon was fearful lest he might lose Sicily, and Maximilian objected to having the French control Italy. Charles' situation became so precarious that he may well have thought himself fortunate, at the close of 1495, to escape, with the loss of only a single battle, from the country he had hoped to conquer.

[Sidenote: Results of Charles' expedition.]

The results of Charles' expedition appear at first sight trivial; in reality they were momentous. In the first place, it was now clear to Europe that the Italians had no real national feeling, however much they might despise the "barbarians" who lived north of the Alps. From this time down to the latter half of the nineteenth century, Italy was dominated by foreign nations, especially Spain and Austria. In the second place, the French learned to admire the art and culture of Italy.

The n.o.bles began to change their feudal castles, which since the invention of gunpowder were no longer impregnable, into luxurious country houses. The new scholars.h.i.+p of Italy took root and flourished not only in France, but in England and Germany as well. Consequently, just as Italy was becoming, politically, the victim of foreign aggressions, it was also losing, never to regain, that intellectual preeminence which it had enjoyed since the revival of interest in cla.s.sical literature.

[Sidenote: Savonarola's reforms in Florence.]

After Charles VIII's departure, Savonarola continued his reformation with the hope of making Florence a model state which should lead to the regeneration of the world. At first he carried all before him, and at the Carnival of 1496 there were no more of the gorgeous exhibitions and reckless gayety which had pleased the people under Lorenzo the Magnificent. The next year the people were induced to make a great bonfire, in the s.p.a.cious square before the City Hall, of all the "vanities" which stood in the way of a G.o.dly life--frivolous and immoral books, pictures, jewels, and trinkets.

[Sidenote: Savonarola condemned and executed, 1498.]

Savonarola had enemies, however, even in his own Dominican order, while the Franciscans were naturally jealous of his renown and maintained that he was no real prophet. What was more serious, Alexander VI was bitterly hostile to the reforming friar because he urged the Florentines to remain in alliance with France. Before long even the people began to lose confidence in him. He was arrested by the pope's order in 1497 and condemned as a heretic and despiser of the Holy See. He was hanged, and his body burned, in the same square where the "vanities" had been sacrificed hardly more than a twelvemonth before.

[Sidenote: Louis XII's Italian policy.]

In the same year (1498), the romantic Charles VIII died without leaving any male heirs and was succeeded by a distant relative, Louis XII, who renewed the Italian adventures of his predecessor. As his grandmother was a member of the Milanese house of the Visconti, Louis laid claim to Milan as well as to Naples. He quickly conquered Milan, and then arranged a secret treaty with Ferdinand of Aragon (1500) for the division of the kingdom of Naples between them. It was not hard for the combined French and Spanish troops to conquer the country, but the two allies soon disagreed, and four years later Louis sold his t.i.tle to Naples for a large sum to Ferdinand.

[Sidenote: Pope Julius II.]

132. Pope Julius II, who succeeded the unspeakable Alexander VI (1503), was hardly more spiritual than his predecessor. He was a warlike and intrepid old man, who did not hesitate on at least one occasion to put on a soldier's armor and lead his troops in person. Julius was a Genoese, and harbored an inveterate hatred against Genoa's great commercial rival, Venice. The Venetians especially enraged the pope by taking possession of some of the towns on the northern border of his dominions, and he threatened to reduce their city to a fis.h.i.+ng village.

The Venetian amba.s.sador replied, "As for you, Holy Father, if you are not more reasonable, we shall reduce you to a village priest."

[Sidenote: League of Cambray against Venice, 1508.]

With the pope's encouragement, the League of Cambray was formed in 1508 for the express purpose of destroying one of the most important Italian states. The Empire, France, Spain, and the pope were to divide among them Venice's possessions on the mainland. Maximilian was anxious to gain the districts bordering upon Austria, Louis XII to extend the boundaries of his new duchy of Milan, while the pope and Ferdinand were also to have their appropriate shares.

Venice was quickly reduced to a few remnants of its Italian domains, but the Venetians hastened to make their peace with the pope, who, after receiving their humble submission, gave them his forgiveness. In spite of his previous pledges to his allies, the pope now swore to exterminate the "barbarians" whom he had so recklessly called in. He formed an alliance with Venice and induced the new king of England, Henry VIII, to attack the French king. As for Maximilian, the pope declared him as "harmless as a newborn babe." This "Holy League" against the French led to their loss of Milan and their expulsion from the Italian peninsula in 1512, but it in no way put an end to the troubles in Italy.

[Sidenote: Pope Leo X, 1513-1521.]

The bellicose Julius was followed in 1513 by Leo X, a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Like his father, he loved art and literature, but he was apparently utterly without religious feelings. He was willing that the war should continue, in the hope that he might be able to gain a couple of duchies for his nephews.

[Sidenote: Francis I of France, 1515-1547.]

Louis XII died and left his brilliant cousin and successor, Francis I, to attempt once more to regain Milan. The new king was but twenty years old, gracious in manner, and chivalrous in his ideals of conduct. His proudest t.i.tle was "the gentleman king." Like his contemporaries, Leo X, and Henry VIII of England, he patronized the arts, and literature flourished during his reign. He was not, however, a wise statesman; he was unable to pursue a consistent policy, but, as Voltaire says, "did everything by fits and starts."

[Sidenote: Francis I in Italy.]

[Sidenote: The republic of Florence becomes the grand duchy of Tuscany.]

He opened his reign by a very astonis.h.i.+ng victory. He led his troops into Italy over a pa.s.s which had hitherto been regarded as impracticable for cavalry, and defeated the Swiss--who were in the pope's pay--at Marignano. He then occupied Milan and opened negotiations with Leo X, who was glad to make terms with the victorious young king. The pope agreed that Francis should retain Milan, and Francis on his part acceded to Leo's plan for turning over Florence once more to the Medici. This was done, and some years later this wonderful republic became the grand duchy of Tuscany, governed by a line of petty princes under whom its former glories were never renewed.[260]

[Sidenote: Sources of discord between France and the Hapsburgs.]

Friendly relations existed at first between the two young sovereigns, Francis I and Charles V, but there were several circ.u.mstances which led to an almost incessant series of wars between them. France was clamped in between the northern and southern possessions of Charles, and had at that time no natural boundaries. Moreover, there was a standing dispute over portions of the Burgundian realms, for both Charles and Francis claimed the _duchy_ of Burgundy and the neighboring _county_ of Burgundy--commonly called Franche-Comte. Charles also believed that, through his grandfather, Maximilian, he was ent.i.tled to Milan, which the French kings had set their hearts upon acquiring. For a generation the rivals fought over these and other matters, and the wars between Charles and Francis were but the prelude to a conflict lasting over two centuries between France and the overgrown power of the house of Hapsburg.

[Sidenote: Henry VIII of England, 1509-1547.]

In the impending struggle it was natural that both monarchs should try to gain the aid of the king of England, whose friends.h.i.+p was of the greatest importance to each of them, and who was by no means loath to take a hand in European affairs. Henry VIII had succeeded his father (Henry VII) in 1509 at the age of eighteen. Like Francis, he was good-looking and graceful, and in his early years made a very happy impression upon those who came in contact with him. He gained much popularity by condemning to death the two men who had been most active in extorting the "benevolences" which his father had been wont to require of unwilling givers. With a small but important cla.s.s, his learning brought him credit. He married, for his first wife, an aunt of Charles V, Catherine of Aragon, and chose as his chief adviser Thomas Wolsey, whose career and sudden downfall were to be strangely a.s.sociated with the fate of the unfortunate Spanish princess.[261]

[Sidenote: Charles V goes to Germany.]

In 1520 Charles V started for Germany to receive the imperial crown at Aix-la-Chapelle. On his way he landed in England with the purpose of keeping Henry from forming an alliance with Francis. He judged the best means to be that of freely bribing Wolsey, who had been made a cardinal by Leo X, and who was all-powerful with Henry. Charles therefore bestowed on the cardinal a large annuity in addition to one which he had granted him somewhat earlier. He then set sail for the Netherlands, where he was duly crowned king of the Romans. From there he proceeded, for the first time, to Germany, where he summoned his first diet at Worms. The most important business of the a.s.sembly proved to be the consideration of the case of a university professor, Martin Luther, who was accused of writing heretical books, and who had in reality begun what proved to be the first successful revolt against the seemingly all-powerful mediaeval Church.

General Reading.--For the Italian wars of Charles VIII and Louis XII, _Cambridge Modern History_ (The Macmillan Company, $3.75 per vol.), Vol. I, Chapter IV; JOHNSON, _Europe in the Sixteenth Century_ (The Macmillan Company, $1.75), Chapter I; DYER and Ha.s.sALL, _Modern Europe_ (The Macmillan Company, 6 vols., $2.00 each), Vol. I; CREIGHTON, _History of the Papacy_ (see above, p.

320), Vols. IV, V. For Savonarola, _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol.

I, Chapter V; CREIGHTON, Vol. IV, Chapter VIII; LEA, _History of the Inquisition_ (see above, p. 232), Vol. III, pp. 209-237; SYMONDS, _Age of Despots_ (see above, p. 352), Chapter IX; PASTOR, _History of the Popes_ (see above, p. 320), Vol. V. For Spain, _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. I, Chapter XI.

CHAPTER XXIV

GERMANY BEFORE THE PROTESTANT REVOLT

[Sidenote: Two unsuccessful revolts preceded the Protestant revolution.]

133. By far the most important event in the sixteenth century and one of the most momentous in the history of the western world, was the revolt of a considerable portion of northern and western Europe from the mediaeval Church. There had been but two serious rebellions earlier. The first of these was that of the Albigenses in southern France in the thirteenth century; this had been fearfully punished, and the Inquisition had been established to ferret out and bring to trial those who were disloyal to the Church. Then, some two centuries later, the Bohemians, under the inspiration of Wycliffe's writings, had attempted to introduce customs different from those which prevailed elsewhere in the Church. They, too, had been forced, after a terrific series of conflicts, once more to accept the old system.

[Sidenote: Luther secedes from the Church, 1520.]

Finally, however, in spite of the great strength and the wonderful organization of the Church, it became apparent that it was no longer possible to keep all of western Europe under the sway of the pope. In the autumn of 1520, Professor Martin Luther called together the students of the University of Wittenberg, led them outside the town walls, and there burned the const.i.tution and statutes of the mediaeval Church, i.e., the canon law. In this way he publicly proclaimed and ill.u.s.trated his purpose to repudiate the existing Church with many of its doctrines and practices. Its head he defied by destroying the papal bull directed against his teachings.

[Sidenote: Origin of the two great religious parties in western Europe,--the Catholics and Protestants.]

Other leaders, in Germany, Switzerland, England, and elsewhere, organized separate revolts; rulers decided to accept the teachings of the reformers, and used their power to promote the establishment of churches independent of the pope. In this way western Europe came to be divided into two great religious parties. The majority of its people continued to regard the pope as their religious head and to accept the inst.i.tutions under which their forefathers had lived since the times of Theodosius. In general, those regions (except England) which had formed a part of the Roman empire remained Roman Catholic in their belief. On the other hand, northern Germany, a part of Switzerland, England, Scotland, and the Scandinavian countries sooner or later rejected the heads.h.i.+p of the pope and many of the inst.i.tutions and doctrines of the mediaeval Church, and organized new religious inst.i.tutions. The Protestants, as those who seceded from the Church of Rome were called, by no means agreed among themselves what particular system should replace the old one. They were at one, however, in ceasing to obey the pope and in proposing to revert to the early Church as their model and accepting the Bible as their sole guide.[262]

[Sidenote: Revolt against the mediaeval Church implied a general revolution.]

To revolt against the Church was to inaugurate a fundamental revolution in many of the habits and customs of the people. It was not merely a change of religious belief, for the Church permeated every occupation and dominated every social interest. For centuries it had directed and largely controlled education, high and low. Each and every important act in the home, in the guild, in the town, was accompanied by religious ceremonies. The clergy of the Roman Catholic Church had hitherto written most of the books; they sat in the government a.s.semblies, acted as the rulers' most trusted ministers, const.i.tuted, in short, outside of Italy, the only really educated cla.s.s. Their role and the role of the Church were incomparably more important than that of any church which exists to-day.

[Sidenote: The wars of religion.]