PAUL V. by birth a Roman, was first clerk of the chamber, and afterwards nuncio to Clement VIII. in Spain, who honoured him with a cardinal's hat. He was advanced to the papal chair the 16th of May 1605, after Leo XI. The ancient quarrel between the secular and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, which in former times had occasioned so much bloodshed, revived in the reign of this pontiff. The senate of Venice had condemned by two decrees, 1. The new foundations of monasteries made without their concurrence. 2. The alienation of the estates both ecclesiastical and secular. The first decree passed in 1603, and the second in 1605. About the same time a canon and abbot, accused of rapine and murder, were arrested by order of the senate, and delivered over to the secular court; a circumstance which
could not fail to give offence to the court of Rome. Clement VIII. thought it proper to dissemble or take no notice of the affair; but Paul V. who had managed the Genocide upon a similar occasion, flattered himself with the hopes that the Venetians would be equally pliant. However, he was disappointed; for the senate maintained that they held their power to make laws of God only; and therefore they refused to revoke their decrees and deliver up the ecclesiastical prisoners into the hands of the nuncio, as the pope demanded. Paul, provoked at this behaviour, excommunicated the doge and senate; and threatened to put the whole state under an interdict, if satisfaction was not given him within the space of 24 hours. The senate did no more than protest against this menace, and forbid the publication of it throughout their dominions. A number of pamphlets, from both sides, soon announced the animosity of the two parties. The Capuchins, the Theatins, and Jesuits, were the only religious orders who observed the interdict. The senate shipped them all off for Rome, and the Jesuits were banished for ever. Meantime his holiness was preparing to make the refractory republic submit to his spiritual tyranny by force of arms. He levied troops against the Venetians; but he soon found his design balked, as the cause of the Venetians appeared to be the common cause of all princes. He had recourse, therefore, to Henry IV. to settle the differences; and this prince had all the honour of bringing about a reconciliation between the contending parties. His ambassadors at Rome and Venice began the negotiation, and Cardinal de Joyeuse finished it in 1607. It was agreed upon, that this cardinal should declare at his entry into the senate, that the censures of the church were to be taken off, or that he would remove them; and that the doge should at the same time surrender to him the deeds of revocation and protest. It was also stipulated, that all the religious who were banished, except the Jesuits, should be restored to their former privileges. In fine, the Venetians promised to send an ambassador extraordinary to Rome, in order to thank the pope for the favour he had done them; but they would not allow the legate to speak of his holiness granting them absolution. Paul was wise enough to overlook the whole matter, but endeavoured to put an end to another dispute, which had been long agitated in the congregations de auxiliis. He caused it to be intimated in form to the disputants and counsellors, that, as the congregations were now dissolved, it was his express order that the contending parties should no longer continue to censure one another. Some authors have affirmed that Paul V. had drawn out a bull against the doctrine of Molina, which only wanted to be promulgated; but for this fact there appears to be no other evidence than the draught of this bull, which we meet with in the end of the history of the above-mentioned congregations. Paul was strongly solicited, but in vain, to make the immaculate conception of the holy virgin an article of faith. He contented himself with fairly forbidding the contrary doctrine to be publicly taught, that he might not offend the Dominicans, who, at that time, maintained that she was conceived, like other human creatures, in original sin. His holiness afterwards applied himself to the embellishing of Rome, and was at great pains to collect the works of the most eminent painters and engravers. Rome is indebted to him for its most beautiful
fountains, especially that where the water spouts out from an antique vase taken from the thermæ or hot-baths of Vespasian, and that which they call aqua Paola, an ancient work of Augustus, restored by Paul V. He brought water into it by an aqueduct 35 miles in length, after the example of Sixtus V. He completed the frontispiece of St Peter, and the magnificent palace of Mount Cavallo. He applied himself in a particular manner to the recovering and repairing ancient monuments, which he made to advance, as much as the nature of them would admit, the honour of Christianity; as appears from an elegant inscription placed upon a column of porphyry, taken from the temple of Peace, and bearing a beautiful statue of the Virgin, at the side of the church of St Mary the elder:
"Impura falsi templi
Quondam numinis
Iubente moesta perferere Cæfare:
Nunc læta veri
Perferens matrem Dei
Te, Paule, nullis obticebo sæculis."
His pontificate was honoured with several illustrious embassies. The kings of Japan, Congo, and other Indian princes, sent ambassadors to him. He took care to supply them with missionaries, and to found bishoprics in these countries newly brought over to the faith. He showed the same attention to the Maronites and other eastern Christians. He sent legates to different orthodox princes, both to testify his esteem for them, and to confirm them in their zeal for religion. He died the 28th of January 1621, aged 69; after having confirmed the French Oratory, the Ursulines, the Order of Charity, and some other institutions. Bold in his claims, but of narrow views, he distinguished himself more by his piety and knowledge than by his politics. It has been remarked, that he never passed a single day of his popedom without celebrating mass. He enjoyed all the religious in the prosecution of their studies to have regular professors for Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic; if there were any among themselves properly qualified; or if that was not the case, to take the assistance of laymen for that purpose, until there were some of their own order who had learning enough to instruct their brethren. It was very difficult to carry this decree into execution; and indeed it was always very imperfectly observed.