throne of the universe for a cell, this aged monk, as weary of scientific
and religious seclusion as Charles of pomp and power, had abdicated his
scholastic pre-eminence, and exchanged his rosary for the keys and sword.
A pontifical Faustus, he had become disgusted with the results of a life
of study and abnegation, and immediately upon his election appeared to be
glowing with mundane passions, and inspired by the fiercest ambition of a
warrior. He had rushed from the cloister as eagerly as Charles had
sought it. He panted for the tempests of the great external world as
earnestly as the conqueror who had so long ridden upon the whirlwind of
human affairs sighed for a haven of repose. None of his predecessors
had been more despotic, more belligerent, more disposed to elevate and
strengthen the temporal power of Rome. In the inquisition he saw the
grand machine by which this purpose could be accomplished, and yet found
himself for a period the antagonist of Philip. The single circumstance
would have been sufficient, had other proofs been wanting, to make
manifest that the part which he had chosen to play was above his genius.
Had his capacity been at all commensurate with his ambition, he might
have deeply influenced the fate of the world; but fortunately no wizard's
charm came to the aid of Paul Caraffa, and the triple-crowned monk sat
upon the pontifical throne, a fierce, peevish, querulous, and quarrelsome
dotard; the prey and the tool of his vigorous enemies and his intriguing
relations. His hatred of Spain and Spaniards was unbounded. He raved at
them as "heretics, schismatics, accursed of God, the spawn of Jews and
Moors, the very dregs of the earth." To play upon such insane passions
was not difficult, and a skilful artist stood ever ready to strike the
chords thus vibrating with age and fury. The master spirit and principal
mischief-maker of the papal court was the well-known Cardinal Caraffa,
once a wild and dissolute soldier, nephew to the Pope. He inflamed the
anger of the pontiff by his representations, that the rival house of
Colonna, sustained by the Duke of Alva, now viceroy of Naples, and by the