NICHOLAS V. AND THE VATICAN

“Dans son règne trop bref de huit années il dépassa par l’ampleur inouïe de ses plans tout ce que les imaginations les plus ardentes avaient pu concevoir.... Nicolas V. voulut égaler la Rome papale à la Rome des empereurs; il la voulut reine du monde. _Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi._ Il fallait que cette fière devise inscrite, deux siècles auparavant, par Louis de Bavière en exergue de sa bulle d’or, fût enfin pleinement réalisée: _Rome centre de la Renaissance, et mère de toute civilization!_ Seul peutêtre des papes du quinzième siècle, Nicolas V. fut poussé à ce puissant dessein par autre chose que l’immensité d’un orgueil cherchant à se combler, le désir effréné d’une gloire qui se veut immortelle; il regarda plus loin et plus haut” (André Pératé, _Les Papes et les Arts_).

The Vatican, like Florence, played a protagonist’s part in the Renaissance. It cannot be denied, I think, that it had its inspiration from Florence, for Thomas of Sarzana, Tommaso Parentucelli, the wizened little scholar born in the last years of the fourteenth century, who found himself at forty-nine, in the year of grace 1447, the head of a liberal Christendom, had, as he was climbing the ladder to the pinnacle of earthly greatness, himself been a librarian and copyist of manuscripts in Florence. While he was climbing the ladder his eyes had ever rested on the same rung as his hands instead of gazing at the top. He had done the work of the day without a thought above it, and when the mutual jealousies of others had, to his utter astonishment, lifted him to the throne of St. Peter as Nicholas V., he fulfilled a scholar’s ambitions and ladled out with both hands to other scholars the wealth which seemed as bottomless as the sea.

He gave a thousand crowns to Guarino for executing a translation of Strabo for him. He offered ten thousand gold ducats for a translation of Homer; five thousand gold ducats for a MS. of St. Matthew in the original Greek; while he paid the greatest painters of his day from seven to fifteen ducats a month. Scholarship has never had such a Mæcenas as Nicholas V. When scholars did not come to him of their own accord he wrote to them to ask why.

Supreme events happened in the short reign (it only lasted from 1447-1455) of the Little Man of Sarzana. For in 1453 Mahomet II. accomplished the long purpose of the Falcon of the Prophet in conquering Constantinople; and in 1454 Europe at length achieved what Corea, a century before, and China perhaps many centuries before, had achieved, in the printing of books from movable types.

Nicholas has left eternally recorded his wish to help the cause of scholarship, for the first two documents printed in Europe, bearing the very date of that year--1454--were the Thirty-Line and Thirty-One-Line Indulgences printed at Mainz, by the order of the Pope on behalf of the Kingdom of Cyprus against the Turks.

Unfortunately for the printers they did not wend their way to Rome for another ten years, when Nicholas had long lain in the stately tomb of which the fragments are gathered up in the crypt of St. Peter’s. Calixtus III., his successor, was a man of a very different stamp; he could only think of crusades. Pius II., who succeeded him, had been, as Æneas Sylvius, one of the greatest humanists of his age; but he, like Calixtus, thought that everything should give way to the paramount necessity of organizing a Christian League against the Turks. Paul II., the luxurious Venetian who was elected in 1464, was more interested in forming a museum. To their eternal honour, the Massimi, who claim to be the oldest family in Rome, and the lineal descendants of Fabius Maximus, who saved the city from Hannibal, though they are not ranked as the oldest of the Roman nobility, received the wandering printers into their grim ancient palace, which still stands unchanged nearly opposite the Church of S. Andrea della Valle. Pius II., the humanist, lies buried in S. Andrea, for the chief glory of his Papacy was the reception of the head of the Apostle Andrew, which the wily Greek, Thomas Palæologus, brought with him, as a peace offering, when he arrived in Rome as a refugee from the conquering Turk.

present Cathedral rest upon the Circus of Nero.--_From Pistolesi’s “Il Vaticano.”_]

Nicholas V. tried to raise Christendom against the Turks with indulgences, but he saw more clearly another aspect of the case--the importance of collecting the manuscripts carried away by Greek refugees from Constantinople and other conquered cities. He had two soaring ideas: the Renaissance of the world by learning, and the turning of the eyes of Christendom to a Vatican which should outshine in magnificence the Palatine of the Emperors. He once said that his wish was to spend all that he possessed on books and buildings: he did not dream then that he would ever have anything to spend except his health and his time; but when he was unexpectedly elevated to the Papacy he was as good as his word, and his ruling passion was strong even in death. On his very death-bed he addressed a Latin speech to his Cardinals, which his biographer, Manetti, preserved, and the historian, Pastor, has picked out for us. “Only the learned,” says the Pope, “who have studied the origin and development of the authority of the Roman Church, can really understand its greatness. Thus, to create solid and stable convictions in the minds of the uncultured masses, there must be something that appeals to the eye; a popular faith, sustained only on doctrines, will never be anything but feeble and vacillating. But if the authority of the Holy See were visibly displayed in majestic buildings, imperishable memorials, and witnesses seemingly planted by the Hand of God Himself, belief would grow and strengthen like a tradition from one generation to another, and all the world would accept and revere it. Noble edifices, combining taste and beauty with imposing proportions, would immensely conduce to the exaltation of the chair of St. Peter.” ... “If,” said Nicholas, “we had been able to accomplish all that We wished, Our successors would find themselves more respected by all Christian nations, and would be able to dwell in Rome with greater security, both from external and internal foes. Thus it is not out of ostentation, or ambition, or a vainglorious desire of immortalizing Our name, that We have conceived and commenced all these great works, but for the exaltation of the power of the Holy See throughout Christendom, and in order that future Popes should no longer be in danger of being driven away, taken prisoners, besieged, and otherwise oppressed.”

Pastor quotes this to show the falsity of the idea that love of fame guided Nicholas in all his actions and was the true explanation of the splendour of his court--his buildings, his library, and his liberality to learned men and artists.

Gregorovius says that all Nicholas undertook was directed towards exaltation; the one object of his ambition was to increase his dignity and authority by the visible splendour of its monuments, and the intellectual influence it would exert if it became the centre of the learning of the world. I must quote the summary of Nicholas’s plans which Pastor takes from Manetti. “The tomb of St. Peter, actually situated at the one extremity, was to be the ideal centre of this grandiose plan. The opposite extremity was to be formed, by a large square in front of the Castle and Bridge of Sant’ Angelo. From this square three straight and broad avenues were to start, and terminate in another vast open space at the foot of the Vatican Hill; the central avenue was to lead to the basilica; the one on the right to the Vatican Palace, that on the left to the buildings facing it. These streets were to be flanked with spacious colonnades to serve as a protection against sun and rain, and the lower stories of the houses were to be shops, the whole street being divided into sections, each section assigned to a separate craft or trade. The upper stories were to serve as dwelling-houses for the members of the Papal Court; architectural effects and salubrity were to be equally considered in their construction.

“The principal square, into which these three streets were to run, and of which the right side was to be formed by the entrance to the Papal Palace, and the left by the houses of the clergy, was to measure five hundred and fifty feet in length and two hundred and seventy-five in breadth. In its centre there was to be a group of colossal figures representing the four Evangelists, which was to support the obelisk of Nero; and this again was to be surmounted by a bronze statue of the Saviour, holding a golden cross in His right hand. At the end of the square,” continues Manetti, “where the ground begins to rise, broad steps ascend to a high platform, with a handsome belfry, adorned with splendid marbles, on the right hand and on the left. Between and behind these is a double portico having five portals, of which the three central ones correspond with the principal avenue coming from the Bridge of Sant’ Angelo, and the two side ones with the two other streets. This quasi-triumphal arch leads into a court surrounded with pillars and having a fountain in the centre, and finally through this into the church itself.

“All that the progress of art and science had achieved in the way of beauty and magnificence was to be displayed in the new St. Peter’s. The plan of the church was that of a basilica with nave and double aisles, divided by pillars, and having a row of chapels along each of the outermost aisles. Its length was to be six hundred and forty feet, the breadth of the nave three hundred and twenty, the height of the dome inside two hundred and twenty; this was to be richly decorated, and the upper part of the wall was to be pierced with large circular windows, freely admitting the light. The high altar was to be placed at the intersection of the nave and transepts, and the Papal Throne and the stalls for the Cardinals and the Court within the apse. The roof was to be of lead, the pavement of coloured marbles, and behind the church was to be a Campo Santo, where the Popes and prelates should be interred, ‘in order that a temple, so glorious and beautiful that it seemed rather a divine than a human creation, should not be polluted by the presence of the dead.’ An immense pile of buildings at the side was destined for the accommodation of the clergy.

“The Papal city, which, by its natural site, was detached from the rest of Rome, was to be fortified in such a manner,” says Manetti, “that no living thing but a bird could get into it. The new Vatican was to be a citadel, but at the same time to contain all the elegance and splendour of a palace of the Renaissance. A magnificent triumphal arch was to adorn the entrance. The ground floors, with spacious halls, corridors, and pavilions, surrounding a garden traversed by cool rivulets and filled with fruit trees and flowers of all sorts, was to be the summer habitation. The first floor was to be furnished with all that was required to make winter agreeable; while the airy upper story was to serve as a spring and autumn residence. The Papal Palace was also to include quarters for the College of Cardinals, accommodation for all the various offices and requirements of the Papal Court, a sumptuous hall for the coronations of the Popes and the reception of Emperors, Princes, and Ambassadors, suitable apartments for the Conclave, and for keeping the treasures of the Church, several Chapels, and a magnificent library.”

Pastor does not blame Nicholas for his share in the destruction of Old St. Peter’s as much as most writers--he quotes architectural evidence to show that it had become unsatisfactory; but surely it would have been a simple matter for an architectural genius like Alberti to take down the unsafe portions and rebuild them, if measures less drastic were unavailing. I fear that we must acknowledge that the glamour of the Renaissance and the theories of Alberti had fascinated Nicholas.

Of all the vast architectural works executed for Nicholas only one, and that the smallest, attracts the attention of most people--the little chapel, built, according to one interpretation of the documents, as his study, which is still called the Chapel of Nicholas V., and was decorated with the masterpieces of Fra Angelico, the frescoes of the stories of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen. Of all the pictures painted for him by the greatest artists of his day, we have practically nothing else left. And of the stained glass, with which he so liberally embellished the Vatican, doubtless in memory of the great Florentine churches, I do not know of one inch in existence. Not only St. Peter’s, but all the rooms in the Vatican had painted windows. The minor arts were equally recognized by this Pope. “For many hundred years,” says a contemporary writer, “so much silken apparel and so many jewels and precious stones had not been seen in Rome.”

Nicholas founded the first manufactory of tapestries in Rome. The goldsmiths and gold embroiderers, not only of Rome, but of Florence, Venice, and Paris, were unable to keep pace with his orders. The splendid vestments and Church jewels and the superb magnificence of the Church service were for the same purpose as his architectural grandeur. Even in all the lesser details of its accessories and details, says Pastor, the Church was to reflect the splendour of the heavenly Jerusalem.

It is significant of the character of Nicholas that we so constantly meet the name of his bookseller, Vespasiano da Bisticci. It was to him that, when he was elected Pope, Thomas of Sarzana said: “It will disturb the pride of many that a priest who was only good for ringing bells has been made Pope, and would the Florentines have believed it?”

This Vespasiano not only sold books and took orders for them to be copied in these last days before printing burst upon the Western world, but wrote little biographies of the famous men of his time, chief among them Pope Nicholas. The forty-five copyists produced two thousand volumes in twenty-two months. Gregorovius gives some of the prices of them:--

“A Bible costs from twenty-five to forty gold ducats; a small copy of Cicero’s Letters ‘ad Familiares’ costs ten ducats; while Poggio Bracciolini made Lionel of Este pay a hundred gold florins for a copy of the ‘Letters of Jerome,’ and made the poet Beccadelli pay a hundred and twenty ducats for a Livy which he had copied himself.”

Poggio Bracciolini was one of the most extraordinary figures of his time. For nearly fifty years he was in the service of the Roman Court, but he was hardly ever in Rome; he held various ecclesiastical offices, but remained a layman and seems to have taken no interest in ecclesiastical affairs, though his duties as Secretary made him take part in some of the greatest events of ecclesiastical history, such as the Council of Constance in 1414-1418, and the Council of Basle in 1431-1443. When his duties called him to Constance, says John Addington Symonds, he employed his leisure in exploring the libraries of Swiss and Swabian convents, especially St. Gall. He recovered the hitherto lost Quintilian and part of Valerius Flaccus at St. Gall, and unearthed manuscripts of Lucretius, Columella, Silius Italicus, and Vitruvius, all of which he copied out with his own hand and communicated to the learned. Resolute in recognizing erudition as the chief concern of man, he sighed over the follies of Popes and Princes, who spent their time in wars and ecclesiastical disputes when they might have been more profitably employed in reviving the lost learning of antiquity. “This point of view is eminently characteristic of the earlier Italian Renaissance. The men of that nation and of that epoch were bent on creating a new intellectual atmosphere for Europe by means of vital contact with antiquity.”

It is small wonder that Nicholas V. determined to get hold of him, and in spite of his merciless attacks on the Church, recalled him to Rome, where he employed him to write a scurrilous attack on the Anti-Pope Felix. But Symonds tells us that his most scurrilous attacks were made on rival scholars like Filelfo and Valla, that he used all the resources of a copious and unclean Latin vocabulary to degrade the objects of his satire, and ascribed to them without discrimination every crime of which humanity is capable. The most decent action of his life was his generous tribute to Jerome of Prague, the heretic at whose condemnation he was present. Gregorovius sums him up in a few brief sentences: “Poggio is the chief representative of humanism; a man of many sides, he lacked depth, and made Cicero his model. To his contemporaries he seemed a genius of eloquence; knowledge of art was alone wanting to make him complete.” He also tells us that one of the most widely circulated of his books was his celebrated _Facetiæ_, a collection of indecent anecdotes.

Nicholas was equally ready to be the patron of Filelfo and Valla. Gregorovius has given us a still more scathing portrait of Filelfo, “whose life forms a true mirror of the period of humanistic vagrance; a genuine type of the sophist, egotist, and boaster, a vulgar courtier, a marvellous slanderer, an insatiable pleasure-seeker, but nevertheless an enthusiastic student and an untiringly active virtuoso in the Professor’s chair.”

Before he was twenty-two he was a Professor at Venice, and at that age went to Constantinople as the Secretary to the Venetian Legation. It was there that he became equally great as a Latin and Greek scholar. Seven years later, after various diplomatic employments, he returned to Venice with a beautiful Greek wife and a valuable collection of Greek books. After being a Professor at Bologna for two years he went to Florence, and narrowly escaped assassination from some people whom he had lampooned. Being banished, he attempted to murder Cosimo de’ Medici by the hands of a hired assassin. He was a Professor at Bologna again for the next ten years, then went to the court of Milan for fourteen years, and in 1453, while on his way to Naples to be crowned as poet by King Alfonso, he passed through Rome.

Gregorovius says that he determined not to visit Nicholas, whom he had assailed with impudent demands for preferment in the Church and the request to be made a Cardinal. But he was sent for by the Pope and spent several days with him reading scurrilous attacks on Nicholas’s best friends. Nevertheless, Nicholas appointed him a Papal secretary, and with his own hand presented him with a purse containing five hundred ducats. More than twenty years after he took up a post at Rome under Sixtus IV., and was so charmed “by the city, its climate, the wealth and beauty of life, and the freedom, that he lamented that he had only come to inhabit it at the end of his life.” Gregorovius tells us how the world resounded with Filelfo’s fame, and the important part played by his innumerable writings in the sphere of Latin learning. But he concludes with another of his scathing summarizations: “Nevertheless, they were able to secure him--who deemed himself a demi-god--nothing more than the ‘paper-immortality’ of the library.”

The ablest of all these scholars was Lorenzo Valla, who, if Paul IV. had been Pope instead of Nicholas V., would have ended his days as a heretic at the stake instead of as a Canon of the Lateran. It was he who established the spuriousness of the Donation of Constantine which gave the Popes their temporal power. He added that “if the donation were genuine it would be already rendered null by the crimes of the Papacy alone.” He said that the Popes possessed no rights over Rome or the secular state. He called the Papal Government “the source of all evil, a rule of executioners and enemies,” and called on Eugenius IV. to abdicate. When Valla wished for a reconciliation Eugenius would not forgive him, but Nicholas V., the successor of Eugenius IV., was wise and generous; he made him an apostolic secretary, although he had attacked the Papacy with greater violence than Wyclif, and reduced him to silence in a characteristic way by keeping him hard at work translating Herodotus and Thucydides, for which no man living was more admirably fitted.

Nicholas, though, fine scholar as he was, he knew no Greek, was nevertheless a patron of Greek scholars. His liberal patronage of Manetti, the famous Hebrew scholar, was rewarded by Manetti’s enthusiastic biography, which has made us so familiar with the greatness and generosity of this remarkable Pontiff. Unfortunately his chief Greek protégé was the charlatan, George of Trebizond, who executed various inferior translations for him. It was not Nicholas, but his predecessor, Eugenius IV., who made the famous Bessarion a Cardinal.

Bessarion was a Greek, created Archbishop of Nicæa in 1437 by John Palæologus, whom he accompanied to Italy to bring about a union between the Greek and Latin Churches. Failing in this he passed over to the Latin Church. He held various Italian archbishoprics, and was titular Patriarch of Constantinople. He is honourably immortal for making his Palace near the Church of SS. Apostoli a court and refuge for the Greek scholars exiled by the fall of Constantinople.

Theodore of Gaza, to whom Gregorovius is unwontedly gentle, as “the first scholar of his time, as a model of humanism, and unblemished virtue,” was a friend of Bessarion, who entered the service of Nicholas