ST. CHARLES BORROMEO

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1915, Page 9

ST. CHARLES BORROMEO

(Bor the N.Z. Tablet by the Rev. J. Kelly, Ph.d.) When the Middle Age ended the new era began with the Renaissance. Nicholas V. wrought wonders during the eight years of his reign (1447-1455). And in the half century that followed the Popes strove to realise the ideal union of Religion and Art which in name alone the Renaissance stands for. The men of the fifteenth century were, however, too much of ‘ such stuff as dreams are made of ’ and too lacking in moral earnestness and intellectual virility to bring about the realisation of the dream.

Art did, indeed, advance with wonderful strides. The Sistine Chapel still shows us the work of Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Michel Angelo. On its walls we see those immortal triumphs of painting in which the wisdom of the pagan and the prophecy of the Old Testament lead up to the fulfilment of the New Law. The Popes did all that in. them lay to make Rome ‘ the true seat and home of all Latin culture,’ and ‘the common country of learned men.’ The names of Michel Angelo, Ariosto, Da Vinci, and Raphael still shine with undimmed brilliancy. The marble palaces, churches, and fountains of Rome, Florence, and Venice built under the impulse of the Renaissance, have been surpassed in no modern city. Yet the Renaissance was a failure. Greek scholars were made much of, and Greek manuscripts bought up eagerly. Young , poets recited musical Greek verses, wealthy princes discussed Plato in the cool shaded walks of the Medici gardens. But it was in the main a pose. And beneath it all there was a laxity of moral and intellectual fibre and a readiness to, assimilate Greek vices as well as Greek philosophy. A um, via, Venus imperitahat . The seven Deadly Sins had their grip on the heart of man. At the end of the fifteenth century a man arose who had the courage to denounce the corruption of the age. Fra Girolamo Savonarola saw the sword impending over Italy, and his fiery heart was consumed by wrath and grief for the condition of the Church. He was no respecter of persons; He spared neither Pope nor prince. And if his zeal ended in martyrdom it was not till he had opened the eyes of the Florentines to the corruption of morals beneath the show of learning and polished manners.

Savonarola was the prophet of the great Catholic reformation which Came after his day. But before it was yet to come about the movement, so falsely called The Reformation, was to convulse Europe. Martin Luther and Henry VIII. came on the stage in the role of reformers. They did not make a pretence of setting their own houses in order; rather did they attempt to pull down every ordinance and law that did not square with their ideas, of order. Henry’s lusts and Luther’s incontinence had to be hallowed somehow. And the Mother of Christ was torn from His side; His Sacraments were trod in the mire; His saints treated with contumely the virtue dearest to His Heart and those who loved it made a mark for unspeakable obscenity. And - Henry murdered wife alter wife ; and Luther and his boon-companions revelled • and swore, and exhausted the German tongue’s, capabilities for scurrility, by way of reforming the Church of Christ./ Within the Church meanwhile the real Reformation was taking place. >ln the year 1534 ,Paul' : 111.

became Pope, and the new era dawned. In contrast to the * Cardinals of past years, men-like Cardinals 'Pole and Contarini were called to the purple now. ' The Society of Jesus was founded and approved.' In Spain, St. Thomas of Villanova, Cardinals ' Mendoza, and Ximfenes succeeded in imbuing the clergy with high ideals and with new life. ‘ln. a single generation,' says Macaulay, ‘ the whole spirit of the Church of Rome underwent a change/ That change consisted in the real Reformation, a reversion to Catholic ideals

and principles; a revival of charity, of self-denial, of discipline, of learning. It was due in the first place to St. Ignatius of Loyola, who organised and marshalled in true soldierly fashion the resources of the Church. It was "due, too, to that dear saint, Philip Neri, who kindled the fire of God’s love in men’s hearts in Rome herself. And greatly, also, was it due to the superhuman labors and the apostolic zeal of Charles Borromeo,. whose feast we keep on November 4. Charles Borromeo was born in the Castle of Arena,

on the shore of the beautiful Lago Maggiore, on October 2, 1538. His father was Count Giberto Borromeo, and his mother, Margherita dei Medici, sister to Cardinal Giovanni Angelo dei Medici, afterwards Pope Pius IV. His childhood was passed in Arena and in the family palace at Milan. When he was twelve years old he began to study Latin at Milan, and when he was fourteen he went to the University of Pavia, where he remained until 1558, when his father died. Family affairs for some time interrupted his studies but in 1559 he successfully completed them, becoming a doctor of civil and canon law.

In the same year his uncle was elected Pope, and took the name of Pius IV. Charles was now summoned to Rome to help in the administration of the Papal States. In 1560 he was made a Cardinal-Deacon. In the same year he was appointed administrator of the vacant See of Milan, and a little later, Legate of Bologna and Protector of the Kingdom of Portugal, of Lower Germany, and of the Catholic Swiss Cantons. In the past Popes had merited reproach for heaping honors on youthful relatives ; and no small scandal to the Church had come about in this way. But the serious young noble on whom such honors were falling remained unspoiled by them. His irreproachable life, his devotion to duty, his ardor for the promotion of studies made him a tower of strength in the court of his uncle. It was largely due to his patience and perseverance that the Council of Trent was resumed in January, 1562. During the sitting of the Council his elder brother, Federigo, died. Charles was still a layman, and now became head of the family. Great pressure was brought to bear on him to turn aside from the ecclesiastical state. But Charles had already resolved, oTi his brother’s death, to devote himself more wholly than ever to spiritual affairs. In September, 1563, he was ordained by Cardinal Cesa in the beautiful church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, and in December of the same,year was consecrated bishop in

the Sistine Chapel. In the autumn of that year the Venerable Bartholomew of Braga came to Rome, where the Pope introduced him to Charles. Speaking of the necessity of carrying out the reforms of the Council of Trent, the Pope jestingly said they should begin with Charles. Bartholomew answered that if all the. Cardinals were like Cardinal Borromeo he would have held them up as models for the rest of the clergy. Charles was secretly anxious to retire from the world and enter a monastery, but Bartholomew persuaded him that it was God’s will that he should not abandon the post to which

he had been called. Besides the care of his diocese, which, in view of his work in Rome, he had mainly to entrust to one of his suffragan bishops, he was now busy in preparing the catechism embodying the teaching of Trent, and in revising the Breviary and the Missel. Through his friend, Philip Neri, he became acquainted with Palestrina, who % at his request composed three Masses as models of j Church music, one of which was the famous ■Mass of Pope Marcellus. ,

’ ■ -' But the great 'work of his; life'was- the carrying : out ; of the reform outlined by the Council of Trent. kvlhr response to the -attacks of the so-called Reformers, the ■ Fathers .of Trent formulated in • clear - language the, doctrines of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolical Church, and insisted that it' was not by destroying ’ Christ’s teaching, but by working it out in their lives that men were to ©scape corruption. Charles labored incessantly towards this end. ' He was constantly directing the work of the restoration of. strict ecclesiastical discipline. , ; The obligation of preaching, the manner and matter of the discourses, ceremonies. Church music, studies, the observance of rule in convents and monasteries were all gone into thoroughly and in the minutest detail.

On December 10, 4565, Pius IV.,died, being attended by Charles Borromeo and Philip Neri. On January 7, 1566, Cardinal Ghislieri was elected, taking the name of Pius V. The new Pop© reluctantly allowed Charles to leave Rome for -Milan in April. But Charles was glad to get back to his diocese to carry on his beloved task of renewing all things in Christ. He began in his own household, practising the greatest economy and carrying out both in the spirit and the letter the regulations laid down for the life of a bishop. He founded confraternities of Christian Doctrine for the education of children, realising that without this there could be no' real progress made. Nothing was neglected that could be done for the promotion of God’s glory. But it was not always plain sailing. The officials of the King of Spain opposed his jurisdiction ; the Canons of La Scala barred the doors of their church against him a member of the Order of the Humiliati attempted to assassinate him. But Charles went steadily forward, bearing down every opposing force, and removing abuses and restoring religion in every part of his vast diocese. In 1576, the plague broke out at Milan. Charles was at Lodi for the funeral of the bishop, and he returned at once. He accepted the plague as a chastisement sent by God and gave himself more and more to prayer. He prepared for death and' made his will. Then he gave himself wholly to the service of the people. He went from house to house visiting the sick. In the hospital of St. Gregory, where the worst cases were, he came to comfort the poor sufferers." In those days of panic, so fearfully depicted in Manzoni’s great novel, Charles moved about the city as calmly and fearlessly as an angel. Hard as he worked he had great difficulty in inducing many of the clergy to imitate him, but at last his example won them all over to follow him. In the beginning of 1578, the plague disappeared, and in the end of that year Charles held his fifth diocesan council. It was after this council that he founded an Order of priests under the patronage of Our Lady and St. Ambrose. He felt the need of a body of men who could act as his assistants and be in complete union with him, and who, specially trained under his own guidance, could be relied oh to help him in the cares of the diocese. The rules for the new Order he submitted to his friend St. Philip, who advised Charles to exclude the vow of poverty. Charles wished to retain it. They agreed to consult St. Felix of Cantalice, then a simple Capuchin lay-brother in Rome. Felix read the rules, and, putting his finger on the one dealing with the vow of poverty, said This should be effaced.’ -

In 1582 he visited Rome for the last time. Nearly all the following year was spent in visitation work; and 1584 found him failing fast in health but still burning with' zeal and, in spite of fevers and illnesses of various kinds, working with unfaltering : courage. In the end of October, the month in which he was born forty-eight years previously, he came ho, his - native Arona, and stayed at the Jesuits’ ; novitiate 'he '■had founded himself. There, on All Saints’ Day; he fsaid Mass for the last time. Next day his cousin, Rend Borromeo, accompanied him to Milan://When he came there it was seen how ill. he was. ~ The Viaticum was given him, and ;he was anointed. After that he’showed little signs of life.. While the prayers for the dying

were being said they heard him murmur: ‘Behold I ,come.’ These were his last words. He died on November 3, 1584. Zeal, - zeal .for the Church, was the dominant note in his life. There have been few greater churchmen. In his character of a reformer and in his unswerving perseverance and firmness one is prone to look on him as a stern, strong-willed master. But his intercourse with St. Philip and the sunshine that is revealed in their relations with each other show us that Charles was humanly very lovable. And then let us remember how he laid aside his life’s work— as well as his scarlet hat and his robes to labor and watch with the tenderness and love of another Christ by the bedsides of the dying, during the plague in Milan. - Beneath the high altar of that beautiful Gothic church, the Duomo of Milan, you may see his body to-day. The features are fairly well preserved still after all the years. And looking on that dead face one feels that he is still with us, with Milan, and with the Church, which had few greater champions in all her history than St. Charles Borrnmeo.