Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/341

Rh REFORMATION 323 Oldcastle, its chief leader, although he suffered martyrdom, altogether failed to win the popularity or the reverence which waited on the memories of the two Hussite leaders. The religious tenets of his followers were not, indeed, alto- gether suppressed, and continued to command a certain fol- lowing down to the 1 6th century. As a tradition, however, they would seem to have survived in connexion with the early English Puritanism rather than with the Reformation ; while between the Hussite movement and the Reformation the connexion is unquestionable and was recognized by Luther himself. ew During the very time that the Roman pontiffs were U S- wielding thus effectually the weapons of bigotry and per- secution against all manifestations of independent religious thought, their influence and patronage were largely given to the fostering of other influences, which ultimately proved highly favourable to that very freedom of judgment and of philosophic speculation which the Roman see has invariably sought to suppress. The relations in which the " New Learning," as it was then called, is to be found successively standing to the representatives of orthodox belief constitute an interesting and instructive study. At one time Greek had been held in reverence as the official language of the Roman Church ; but, from the period when the popes were first enabled to shake off the yoke of the Eastern emperor in Italy, the use of the Greek language had been discontinued, its literature placed under a ban, and the study of both systematically discouraged in Western Chris- tendom. Then came the Renaissance ; and under the patronage of pontiffs like Nicholas V. (1447-1455), and cardinals like Julian and Bessarion, Greek became as much in favour at the Curia as it had before been discredited. At first it seemed not improbable that this literary re- volution might prove a powerful aid not only in promot- ing Christian culture but in diffusing a more genuinely Christian and catholic spirit. While eminent ecclesiastics sought to bring about the reconciliation of the churches of the East and West, original thinkers like Pius II. and Maffeus Vegius put forth views on the whole subject of education which involved a decisive rupture with the traditions of medisevalism. It is unnecessary to describe the manner in which this promising future became over- clouded ; how learning in Italy became associated at once with scepticism and immorality; and how men of letters like Politian and Poggio and Bembo and Beccadelli, under the favour of pontiffs like Leo X., at once scandalized the devout and amused the fancy of the polite scholar. " This fable of Christ has been to us a source of great gain," a cardinal at the Vatican was overheard to observe. Such a tone of feeling, however, was not consonant with the spirit of the persecutor, and if the religions spirit was shocked by profanity it was less disgraced by bigotry. Earnestness of conviction was derided and disbelieved in ; and the prevalent sentiments at the Curia at the outbreak of the Reformation were those of idle and careless security. Signs, however, were not wanting to prove to a later generation how little that false security was justifiable. Foremost among those who advocated reform and a policy of reconciliation in the first half of the 1 5th century was Nicolas de Cusa, who, though German by birth, embraced with ardour the schemes projected for the regeneration of Italy and of the church at large. Neither Pius II. nor Nicholas V., who alike promoted him and honoured him, appears to have discerned the dangerous element that lurked in his bold spirit of inquiry. From Cusa, however, Laurentius Valla derived the guidance which led him on to his memorable attack on the fiction of the Donation of Constantine, and to that more general investigation of the claims of the popedom which marks the commencement of the historical scepticism which now began to develop with such startling results. To Valla succeeded Gregory of Heimburg, who exposed the papal pretensions with equal vigour, and made it for the first time apparent how formidable a weapon the New Learning might prove in the defence of those imperial and popular rights in Germany which Rome at that time contemptuously ig- nored. The conflict between Heimburg and Eugenius IV. foreshadowed, indeed, the greater 'contest between the Teutonic and the Latin power, and Heimburg has more than once been designated the prototype of Ulrich von Hutten. In the whole history of the Reformation, and of the Political period by which it was immediately preceded, the political aims of relations of the popedom to the other European powers? 01 " and more especially to Germany, constitute, in fact, elements of primary importance. In the latter part of the 15th century those relations were still further em- bittered by the personal character and aims of the reigning pontiffs. At the very time when the existence of the popedom as a temporal power was menaced by the rising spirit of innovation, the reverence and sympathy of Europe were still further alienated by the spectacle of the career of Alexander VI. and of his end, the result, it was commonly reported, of the poison which he had designed for the de- struction of another. The character of his successor, Julius II. (1503-1513), might well seem virtuous by comparison; but at no period in the history of the pontificate does its religious character seem more completely lost sight of in purely secular interests. It had long before (see POPEDOM) been the aim of each more ambitious pope to become a great territorial prince and thus to lay the foundation of the private fortunes of his house. But Julius aimed at something more than this, at the assertion of political supremacy throughout Italy and of the right to rank with the great powers of Europe as wielding at once material resources but little inferior to theirs, and as commanding a widespread organization to the like of which not one of them could aspire. Such were the objects to which his untiring energies were systematically directed. Within four years of his accession he had added Perugia and Bologna to the possessions of the church, and from Piacenza to Terracina his sway extended over all the great strongholds and the most fertile territory ; even the great powers of France and Spain, notwithstanding their newly consolidated strength, could not but regard with jealousy and apprehension his genius and his policy. " Before," wrote Machiavelli, " there was no baron so petty as not to look with contempt on that popedom which now even a king of France regards with respect." The means by which this remarkable change was effected involved, however, a recourse to fiscal expedients which eventually proved eminently detrimental to the Roman see ; 1 while for nearly a quarter of a century we find the policy of the great powers in relation to Rome almost entirely determined by purely political considerations and Italy itself becoming the arena of their contending ambi- tions. In the year 1494 Charles VIII. of France effected his memorable passage of the Alps to grasp the crown of Naples. It was currently believed that he had been incited to the enterprise by Alexander VI. himself, a cir- cumstance which alone suffices to explain the failure which attended that pontiff's efforts when he subsequently sought to prevail upon the invader to submit his claims to the arbitration of the holy see. In the year 1508 the invasion 1 "Sub quibus " (i.e., Alexander VI. arid Julius II.) "etiam in negotiatione prebendaria multoe novae technse repertae suut ad pecunias undique corradendas, et ab illis receptae sunt approbataeque, magis fisci quam Christi rein agenlibus." See the remarkable letter of Eubulus Cordatius to Montesius, prefixed to the reprints of the Treatise? of Nicolas de Clemenges, ed. 1519.