按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
approval of the Austrian government。 To this was added a pious
motto from St。 Augustine; and the approval of Pius VII was
distinctly implied; since the work was never placed upon the
Index; and could not have been published at Venice; stamped as it
was and registered with the privileges of the University; without
the consent of the Vatican。
The memory of Father Paul seemed likely now to be overwhelmed。
There was no longer a Republic of Venice to guard the noble
traditions of his life and service。 The book was recommended and
spread far and wide by preachers and confessors。
But at last came a day of judgment。 The director of the Venetian
archives discovered and had the courage to announce that the work
was a pious fraud of the vilest type; that it was never written
by Fontanini; but that it was simply made up out of the old
scurrilous work of Vaerini; suppressed over thirty years before。
As to the correspondence served up as supplementary to the
biography; it was concocted from letters already published; with
the addition of Jesuitical interpolations and of forgeries。'1'
Now came the inevitable reaction; and with it the inevitable
increase of hatred for Austrian rule and the inevitable question;
how; if the Pope is the infallible teacher of the world in all
matters pertaining to faith and morals; could he virtually
approve this book; and why did he not; by virtue of his divine
inerrancy; detect the fraud and place its condemnation upon the
Index。 The only lasting effect of the book; then; was to revive
the memory of Father Paul's great deeds and to arouse Venetian
pride in them。 The fearful scar on his face in the portrait spoke
more eloquently than ever; and so it was that; early in the
nineteenth century; many men of influence joined in proposing a
suitable and final interment for the poor bones; which had seven
times been buried and reburied; and which had so long been kept
in the sordid box at the Ducal Library。 The one fitting place of
burial was the cemetery of San Michele。 To that beautiful island;
so near the heart of Venice; had; for many years; been borne the
remains of leading Venetians。 There; too; in more recent days;
have been laid to rest many of other lands widely respected and
beloved。
'1' For a full and fair statement of the researches which exposed
this pious fraud; see Castellani; Prefect of the Library of St。
Mark; preface to his Lettere Inedite di F。 P。 S。; p。 xvii。 For
methods used in interpolating or modifying passages in Sarpi's
writings; see Bianchi Giovini; Biografia di Sarpi; Zurigo; 1847;
vol。 ii。 pp。 135; et seq。
But the same persistent hatred which; in our own day; grudged and
delayed due honors at the tombs of Copernicus and Galileo among
Catholics; and of Humboldt among Protestants; was still bitter
against the great Venetian scholar and statesman。 It could not be
forgotten that he had wrested from the Vatican the most terrible
of its weapons。 But patriotic pride was strong; and finally a
compromise was made: it was arranged that Sarpi should be buried
and honored at his burial as an eminent man of science; and that
no word should be spoken of his main services to the Republic and
to the world。 On this condition he was buried with simple honors。
Soon; however; began another chapter of hatred。 There came a pope
who added personal to official hostility。 Gregory XVI; who in his
earlier days had been abbot of the monastery of San Michele; was
indignant that the friar who had thwarted the papacy should lie
buried in the convent which he himself had formerly ruled; and
this feeling took shape; first; in violent speeches at Rome; and
next; in brutal acts at Venice。 The monks broke and removed the
simple stone placed over the remains of Father Paul; and when it
was replaced; they persisted in defacing and breaking it; and
were only prevented from dragging out his bones; dishonoring them
and casting them into the lagoon; by the weight of the massive;
strong; well…anchored sarcophagus; which the wise foresight of
his admirers had provided for them。 At three different visits to
Venice; the present writer sought the spot where they were laid;
and in vain。 At the second of these visits; he found the
Patriarch of Venice; under whose rule various outrages upon
Sarpi's memory had been perpetrated; pontificating gorgeously
about the Grand Piazza; but at his next visit there had come a
change。 The monks had disappeared。 Their insults to the
illustrious dead had been stopped by laws which expelled them
from their convent; and there; little removed from each other in
the vestibule and aisle of the great church; were the tombs of
Father Paul and of the late Patriarch side by side; the great
patriot's simple gravestone was now allowed to rest unbroken。
Better even than this was the reaction provoked by these
outbursts of ecclesiastical hatred。 It was felt; in Venice;
throughout Italy; and indeed throughout the world; that the old
decree for a monument should now be made good。 The first steps
were hesitating。 First; a bust of Father Paul was placed among
those of great Venetians in the court of the Ducal Palace; but
the inscription upon it was timid and double…tongued。 Another
bust was placed on the Pincian Hill at Rome; among those of the
most renowned sons of Italy。 This was not enough: a suitable
monument must be erected。 Yet it was delayed; timid men
deprecating the hostility of the Roman Court。 At last; under the
new Italian monarchy; the patriotic movement became irresistible;
and the same impulse which erected the splendid statue to
Giordano Bruno on the Piazza dei Fiori at Rome;on the very spot
where he was burned;and which adorned it with the medallions of
eight other martyrs to ecclesiastical hatred; erected in 1892;
two hundred and seventy years after it had been decreed; a
statue; hardly less imposing; to Paolo Sarpi; on the Piazza Santa
Fosca at Venice; where he had been left for dead by the Vatican
assassins。 There it stands; noble and serene;a monument of
patriotism and right reason; a worthy tribute to one who; among
intellectual prostitutes and solemnly constituted impostors;
stood forth as a true man; the greatest of his time;one of the
greatest of all times;an honor to Venice; to Italy; and to
humanity。 Andrew D。 White。
*************************************************************
Then came the death of the Empress Frederick。 Even during her
tragic struggle with Bismarck; and the unpopularity which beset
her during my former official term at Berlin; she had been kind
to me and mine。 At my presentation to her in those days; at
Potsdam; when she stood by the side of her husband; afterward the
most beloved of emperors since Marcus Aurelius; she evidently
exerted herself to make the interview pleasant to me。 She talked
of American art and the Colorado pictures of Moran; which she had
seen and admired; of German art and the Madonna painted by Knaus
for the Russian Empress; which Miss Wolfe had given the
Metropolitan Museum at New York; and in reply to my
congratulations upon a recent successful public speech of her
eldest son; a student at Bonn; she had dwelt; in a motherly way;
upon the difficulties which environ a future sovereign at a great
university。 In more recent days; and especially during the years
before her death; she had been; at her table in Berlin and at her
castle of Kronberg; especially courteous。 There comes back to me
pleasantly a kindly retort of hers。 I had spoken to her of a
portrait of George III which had interested me at the old castle
of Homburg nearly forty years before。 It had been sent to his
daughter; the Landgravine of Hesse…Homburg; who had evidently
wished to see her father's face as it had really become; for it
represented the King; not in the gold…laced uniform; not in the
trim wig not in the jauntily tied queue of his official portraits
and statues; but as he was: in confinement; wretched and
demented; in a slouching gown; with a face sad beyond expression;
his long; white hair falling about it and over it; of all
portraits in the world; save that; at Florence; of Charles V in
his old age; the saddest。 So; the conversation drifting upon
George III and upon the old feeling between the United States and
Great Britain; now so happily changed; I happened t