PAUL, FATHER. 



PAUL, FATHER. 



**-"" more (tern and moroM, showed suspicion of everybody, and 

 waa disliked by all The soldiers detailed him for hi< vexatious 

 minuteness in discipline, the nobility for his rude and often cruel 

 behaviour, and men of information for his proscription of books and 

 journals. 1'aul chose to quarrel with England because she would not 

 give up Malta. He had caused himself to be elected grand-master of 

 the order of SL Juhn, after tha death of the grand-master Hompeaoh 

 aod be expected England to give up the island to him. After the 

 battle of Marengo. Bonaparte bethought himself of profiting by this 

 disposition of Paul, in order to gain his friendship. lie accordingly 

 collected all the Russian prisoners in France, clothed them, supplied 

 them with muskeU, and sent them back to Russia. This produced its 

 effect, and Paul, who had proclaimed himself the champion of legiti- 

 macy, became suddenly a great admirer of Bonaparte. 



Hi* next step waa to seize the English vessels and other property in 

 his harbours, because England had sent a fleet to Copenhagen in 

 August 1800, to oblige Denmark to acknowledge the navigation laws 

 and the right of search of neutral vessels. In December of the same 

 year, Paul concluded a convention with Sweden and Denmark, to 

 which Prussia soon after acceded, by which the right of search of 

 neutral vessels wan declared an attempt againat the sovereign righto of 

 the nation to which they belonged, and a squadron of the four Baltic 

 powers was to be assembled to protect their merchant vessels, and 

 resist any attempt at searching them. In consequence of this step 

 England put an embargo upon the vessels of the Baltic powers. Paul 

 now sent an agent to Bonaparte, and friendly communications wero 

 reestablished between France and Russia. Bonaparte even accepted 

 Paul's mediation in favour of the court of Naples, which was still at 

 war with France. Count Kalitscheff went to Paris as ambassador of 

 Russia, and was received with great distinction. "France," said 

 Bonaparte publicly, " can ally itself only with Russia, lor Russia is 

 mistress of the Baltic and Black seas, and she holds the keys of India 

 in her hands, and the emperor of such a country is truly a great 

 prince. Paul is eccentric, but be has at least a will of his own." 

 (Thibaudeau, ' Le Consulat et 1'Einpire,' ch. xiv.) 



After peace wa* concluded at Luneville between France and Austria, 

 in February 1801, Bouapart* secretly concerted with the court of 

 Russia the plan of an expedition to India. Thirty thousand chosen 

 French troops were to march into Poland, and there join an equal 

 number of Russian infantry, besides 40,000 Cossaks and other irregular 

 cavalry, and thence the allied army was to proceed to the borders of 

 the Caspian Sea, either to embark and cross that sea or march by 

 the way of Persia, whose consent was solicited by the two powers. 

 (Thibaudeau, cb. xv.) Meantime England had sent a fleet into the 

 Baltic under admirals Parker and Nelson, to dissolve the maritime 

 coalition. On the 2nd of April, Nehton attacked the Danish fleet, and 

 i>n the 4th an aruiitice was signed between Denmark and England. 

 While the armistice was being concluded, news arrived of the sudden 

 death of Paul, which happened in the night of the 24th of March. The 

 Bailie coalition was thereby dissolved. A conspiracy bod been formed 

 among the officers near the person of the emperor, who went in a 

 body at night to his apartments, and presented him an act of abdica- 

 tion to sign, on the score of mental weakness. Paul refused, saying 

 " he was emperor, and would remain emperor." A scuffle ensued, in 

 which the unfortunate monarch was overpowered and strangled. His 

 son Alexander was proclaimed emperor. 



When the news arrived in Paris, Bonaparte was greatly vexed and 

 mortified. Talleyrand, to calm him observed that " this was the 

 customary mode of abdication in Russia." According to the practice 

 of those times, the French papers intimated that England was privy 

 to the conspiracy ; but the fact is that the Russians had become weary 

 nl Paul's caprices, which bordered upon insanity, and the plan ol 

 forcing him to abdicate, though not of murdering him, appears for 

 some time previous to have been discussed among the members of the 

 court, and even of the Imperial family, as a measure of absolute neces- 

 sity. At the news of bis death, the whole city of St Petersburg, the 

 army, nobles, and people rejoiced. 



PAUL, FATHER, the celebrated historian of the Council of Trent, 

 whose original name, before he embraced the monastic profession, was 

 1'itrKo HARM, was born at Venice, in the year 1552, of a respectable 

 commercial family. His father however was unsuccessful in trade , 

 and hia mother, a woman of sense and virtue, was early left a widow 

 in indigent circumstances. Fortunately her brother was the master 

 of an excellent school, and under his care she placed her ton, who 

 from infancy displayed an extraordinary aptitude for study. Before 

 the completion of bit fourteenth year, he had made great progress in 

 mathematics and logic, as well as in general literature ; and at that 

 boyish age, having become a pupil of the logician Capella of Cremona, 

 who was of the 8ervite order, this connection led him, contrary to the 

 argent advice of bis uncle and mother, to adopt the same monastic 

 habit and rule with his preceptor. In bis twentieth year he solemnly 

 took the vows of the order. 



At the same period, the ability which he displayed in a public 

 disputation, held at Mantua, during a chapter of his order, attroctec 

 the favourable notice of the reigning prince of the house of Uonsaga, 

 and be was appointed to the professorship of divinity in the cathedra 

 of that city. But though he was honoured with many marks of regan 

 by the Mont tun duke, a public life waa little to hia taste; and he 



shortly resigned his office and returned to the learned seclusion which 

 te loved. In that retirement ho continue 1 to cultivate learning and 

 science ; and in his twenty-second year, he had not only already 

 mastered the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldee language*, but was 

 also a proficient in the civil and the canon law, in various deportments 

 of philosophy, in mathematics and astronomy, in chemistry, medicine, 

 and anatomy. In these lost sciences he became deeply versed for his 

 times, and it hat been alleged that he was acquainted with the circu- 

 ation of the blood. 



The claim of Sarpi to be considered the discoverer of the circulation 

 rests on the authority of Vesltingiun, who states, in hit ' i .1.1-1. An it. 

 ot Medica?,' ep. xxvi., that he had read a manuscript by Sarpi, belonging 

 a his pupil and successor Fulgeutius, in which the circulation waa 

 described. George Kut (Harvey's commentator and friend) adi 

 ;he testimony, but said that whatever Sarpi knew of the circulation, he 

 .earned from Harvey himself. Ridanus, Harvey's chief adversary, 

 jives no credit for the discovery to Sarpi ; and Fulgentiua himself does 

 lot claim it for him. Several writers attribute to Sarpi the discovery 

 of the valves of the veins, which gave Harvey the first idea of a circu- 

 lation; but Fabricius was acquainted with them in 1574, when S.irpi 

 was but twenty-two years old, and it is certain that he (Fabricius) 

 taught Harvey their existence. The above is on the authority of 

 Haller (' Bibliotheca Auutouiica '), who does not attribute any part of 

 the discovery to SarpL 



The pursuit of such studios, and the renown which they procured 

 for him, no leas than thu freedom of his expressed opinions in corre- 

 spondence with the kindred minds of his age, drew upon him the envy 

 and suspicion of the meau and bigoted ; and he was twice arraigned 

 before the Inquisition on a false and absurd accusation of heresy, and 

 on a better-founded charge of having declared in a letter his detestation 

 of the papal court and its corruptions. His high reputation protected 

 him in both cases ; but the court of Rome never forgave him, and, at 

 a subsequent period, revenged and justified his bad opinion of its 

 administration by refusing to reward his unquestionable merits with 

 preferment to a bishopric. The famous dispute which arose between 

 the Roman see and the republic of Venice, during the pontificate of 

 Paul V., in the year 1606, drew the speculative recluse from the 

 quietude which had only been thus partially interrupted, into open 

 aad dangerous collision with the papal power. When Paul V. endea- 

 voured to revive the doctrines of the supremacy of the popedom over 

 all temporal princes and governments, and reduced these pretensions 

 to practice by laying the Venetian state under an interdict and excom- 

 munication for having subjected priests to the secular jurisdiction, 

 the senate of Venice, not contented with setting these papal weapons 

 at defiance, determined to support by argument thu justice of their 

 cause. The most eloquent and successful advocate whom they employed 

 for this purpose was Father Paul ; and animated both by zeal in the 

 service of his native state and by indignant opposition to the Romish 

 usurpations, he fulfilled bis task with equal courage aud ability, and 

 signally exposed the papal pretensions. Paul wus finally coui| !!< i 

 to consent to an accommodation very honourable to the Venetian 

 state. 



The papal party, however, though reduced to yield to the power of 

 that republic and the strength of her cause, was resolved not to forego 

 its vengeance against her defenders, and among them Father Paul was 

 signally marked fora victim. Several attempts were made to assassi- 

 nate him ; and even in the apparent security of his retrt-.it at Venice, 

 he wan attacked one night as he was returning homo to bis monastery 

 by a band of ruffians, who inflicted on him no fower than twenty-three 

 wounds. The assassins escaped in a ten-oared boat; and the papal 

 nuncio and the Jesuits were naturally suspected of being the authors 

 of a plot prepared with such a command of means and expensive 

 precautions. None of the wounds of Father Paul were mortal ; and, 

 preserving one of the stilettoes which the assassins had left in his 

 body, he surmounted it with the inscription, ' Stilo della chiesa 

 Romana ' (' Tho pen (or dagger) of the Romish Church '). 



These attempts upon his life compelled Father Paul to confine him- 

 self to his monastery, and induced him to employ his constrained 

 leisure by engaging in the great literary composition by which he is 

 chiefly remembered 'The History of the Council of Trent:' a work 

 which has been not more deservedly commended for its style as a 

 model of historical composition, than for tho extent of its learning, the 

 generous candour of its spirit, the unbiassed integrity of its principles, 

 and the unostentatious piety of its seutituentg. While occuj>i< -d in 

 this and other labours of minor import, Father Paul was overtaken by 

 death, in his seventieth year. A neglected cold produced a fever, the 

 immediate cause of his dissolution ; and after lying for nearly twelve 

 months on a bed of sickness, which was supported with the most 

 edifying cheerfulness aud piety, he expired in the beginning of the year 

 1623, and his memory was honoured by the gratitude of the Venetian 

 republic with a public funeral. 



The discussion of Father Paul's theological opinions and conduct is 

 beyond our province. His opposition to the papal see has drawn upon 

 his character the severe animadversions of Roman Catholic divines, and 

 procured for it in a consequent degree the favour of Protestant writers. 

 It may here suffice to observe that the uprightness of his motives and 

 the sincerity of his religious faith have never fairly been impugned ; 

 while his leaning to the doctrines of the Protestant churches has becu 



