Saint Pie V (review)

Reviews 153 is described by Le Goff as 'exhaustive', yet it does not contain reference to interesting work that he himself cites on p. xiv, and it includes Chaucer despite the author's assertion (p. xviii) that Chaucer had to be excluded from the coverage of the volume! John O. Ward Department of History University of Sydney Lemaitre, Nicole, Saint Pie V, Paris, Librahe Artheme Fayard, 1994; paper; pp. 432; 3 maps, 8 plates; R.R.P. FF150.00. Pius V was one of only two grand inquisitors to become pope and one of only five popes to become a saint in the last 1000 years. These two accomplishments illustrate the contrasting impressions of him. One side condemns him for his persecution of heresy, his harsh treatment of Jews, including then enclosure in the Roman ghetto, his support for religious war in France, and his excommunication of Queen Elizabeth of England. The other praises him for his efforts to reform the Church according to the decrees of the Council of Trent, to eliminate abuses, immorality, and ignorance, to promote devotion to Mary, to support educational institutions and seminaries, and to establish the tridentine liturgy. Yet most contemporaries would have remembered him primarily for his role in the Holy League that led to the great naval victory of the combined Christian forces at the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Michele Ghislieri was a Dominican friar with a peasant background. He became a cardinal in 1557 as a result of his uncompromising work in the papal inquisition, work that earned him the patronage of the Carafa pope, Paul IV. His election as pope in 1565 was something of a surprise but nonetheless a clear indication that the papacy would not revert to the situation that existed earlier in the century, when Alexander VI, Julius II, and Leo X demonstrated in different ways the worst features of the Renaissance papacy. H e was a Counter Reformation pope rather than a Renaissance one. In one respect he was a medieval pope, for Nicole Lemaitre argues that spme of his aspirations, such as the conversion of the Jews and the recovery of Jerusalem, were linked to his millenarian views that Christ would return and join the faithful in Jerusalem to establish his kingdom on earth. W h e n he died in 1572, the Jews had not converted, 154 Reviews Jerusalem was still in the hands of the infidel, and Christ had not yet returned. Nonetheless, the universal church canonized him in 1712. Lemaitre begins her biography with a justification, almost an apology, for undertaking such a task. But no apologies are necessary, for she produces a tour de force that demonstrates a mature understanding of the sixteenth-century context, and she succeeds in placing Pius V in that context. However, perhaps she devotes too much attention to some issues and not enough to others; for example, describing the battle of Lepanto in great detail but devoting far too little attention to the diplomatic activities of Pius V in France during the Wars of Religion. Her prose is lively, her erudition is commendable, and her biography of this unsympathetic and unappealing pope, while not making him sympathetic and appealing, makes him understandable. A. Lynn Martin Department of History The University of Adelaide Long, James R., ed., Philosophy and the God of Abraham: essays in memory of James A. Weisheipl, Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1991; paper; pp. x, 296; R.R.P. CAN$31.00. In the words of Edward A. Synan ('Aquinas and the children of Abraham', p. 203): 'The career of James A. Weisheipl, OP, was marked by passionate devotion to the problematic of medieval scientific conceptions as well as to the theological traditions of his Church and Order, and the Thomistic tradition pre-eminent in both'. This provides a fair guide in fact to the general character of the collection itself, except that one must note that the emphasis falls quite definitely on Thomistic philosophy within the theological traditions of the Church. To this extent, the essays fail to do full justice to Weisheipl's philosophical concerns, especially his contribution to natural philosophy. Weisheipl is perhaps best known for his biography...