Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/448

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CARVAJAL


394


CARVAJAL


placate the strong feelings of the German princes against Eugene IV, to overcome their "neutrality" in the last, and schismatic phase of the Council of Basle, and to bring about the treaties known as the Concordat of the Princes (1447) and the Concordat of Aschaffenburg or Vienna (1448; see Concordat). He was rewarded by Eugene IV (14 December, 1446) with the Cardinal's hat and the Title of St. Angelo in foro piscium. In 1444 and again in 1448 he was sent to Bohemia to promote the cause of religious unity but failed both times, owing to the stubbornness of the Calixtines and the influence of John Roky- zana. Archbishop of Prague, beloved in Bohemia, but whose orthodoxy was suspected at Rome (see Hus- sites).

In 1455 Carvajal was sent by Callistus III to Hun- gary to preach a vigorous crusade against the Turks, and for six years was the soul of the first effectual resistance made by Christian Europe to the ominous progress of the Ottoman conquerors of Constantinople (1453). Aided by the famous Capuchin preacher, St. John Capistran (q. v.), he gathered an army of about 40,000 men, effected a union with the troops of John Hunyady (q. v.), and on 22 July, 1456, the siege of Belgrade, the key of the Danube, was raised by a glorious victor}'- that inaugurated the century-long resistance of Christian Hungary to the propaganda of Islam. He reconciled King Ladislaus (1457), with Emperor Frederick III, and in 1458 made peace between the Magyar nobles in favour of Matthias Corvinus as successor of Ladislaus. He was still in Hungary, organizing the defence of that bulwark of Christendom, when Pius II invited the princes of Christian Europe to meet him at Mantua (1459) to confer on the common danger and the need of a general crusade. While Cardinal Bessarion (q. v.) sought in Germany something more than brilliant promises, Car- vajal continued his labours in Hungary, which he left only in the autumn of 1461, after six years of extra- ordinary service for the common good of Christian Europe, but "grown old and feeble", says Pastor (History of the Popes), "in that severe climate, amid the turmoils of the Court and the camp, and the fa- tigues of travel . . . [in] that bleak count ry of moorlands and marshes ". He was made Cardinal-Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina on his return. He had long held the See of Plasencia in Spain, where a noble bridge across theTagus, built by him, is yet known as " the cardinal's bridge". In spite of his age and feeble health, he was still willing to take a foremost part in the crusade that Pius II was preparing at Ancona in 1464, when the death of that pope (14 August) put an end to the enterprise. His last legation was to Venice in 1466.

From all his journeys Carvajal brought back noth- ing but the reputation of an unspotted priesthood (Pastor, op. cit., IV, 131). "Such a legate", wrote the King of Hungary, " truly corresponds to the great- ness of our need" (op. cit., II, 391). By his contem- poraries he was considered the ornament of the Church, comparable to her ancient Fathers (Cardinal Ammanati) and the sole reminder of the heroic gran- deur of Rome's earliest founders (Pomponius Lastus). Though genial in intercourse, there was something awe-inspiring about this saintly man whose ascetic life enabled him to provide liberally for the poor and for needy churches. Denifle mentions (Die Univer- Bitaten, I, 813) a college founded by him at Sala- manea. His discourse in the papal consistories, says Pastor, was brief, simple, clear, logical, and devoid of n rhetoric; his legal me reports have the same "restrained and impersonal character". Pal- acky, the non-Catholic historian of Bohemia writes of

Carvajal (Geschichte BShmens.IV, ii,372); "Nol only in zeal for the Faith, in moral purity and strength of

Character, was he unsurpassed. 1 nit lie was also un- equalled in knowledge ol the world, in experience of ecclesiastical affairs, and in the services which he ren-


dered to the papal authority. It was chiefly due to his labours, prolonged during a period of twenty years that Rome at last got the better of Constance and Basle, that the nations returned to their allegiance, and that her power and glory again shone before the world with a splendour that they had not seen since the time of Boniface VIII." Pastor says of him that he was absolutely free from the restless ambition and self-glorification so common among the men of the Renaissance, and seemed born for ecclesiastical diplo- macy. His dominant idea was the consecration of his life to the Church and the promotion of the glory and power of Christ's Vicar. "Pars hsec vit:e ultima Christo neganda non est " (I must not refuse to Christ this last portion of my life) were the words in which he offered himself to Pius II as leader of a relief to the diminutive Christian Republic of Ragusa hard pressed in 1464 by the Turks. He left no printed works; among his manuscript remains are a defence of the Holy See, reports of his legations, a volume of letters, and discourses sacred and profane. He was buried in San Marcello al Corso. A monument erected to him there by Bessarion bears these words: Animo Petrus pectore Cssar erat (A Peter in spirit, a Csesar in courage) .

Pastor, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages (tr. London, 1S94), IV, 131-35 and passim; Lopez, De rebus gestis S R. E. Card, Carvajal eommeniarius (Rome, 1754) — the chief source of information; Pray, Annates regni Hungarian (Vienna, 1776), pt. Ill; S. Katona. Hist, eritiea return Hung, stirpis mixta- (Pesth, 1780', VI. xiii. ii. 144S-5.S; Wadding, Annates ( )rd . Mmorum, XII. 332; Antonio. BiM. Hisp. Yetus (17881. II. 296; Vast, he Cardinal Bessarion (Paris, 1S78). — Dr. Pastor says (IV, 145) that a complete and really critical biography of Carvajal would be a valuable work.

Thomas J. Shahan.

Carvajal, Luis de, Friar Minor and Tridentine theologian, b. about 1500; the time of his death is un- certain. Of the noble and wealthy family of Carvajal in the old Spanish province of Bsetica, Carvajal was possessed of extraordinary gifts of mind and heart, and at an early age was sent to the University of Paris, where he completed his studies. Having entered the Franciscan Order, he taught theology at Paris, whence he was sent as legate of Cardinal Angelus to the Council of Trent. During the fifth session, in which the doctrine of original sin was dis- cussed, Carvajal addressed the Council in favour of the Immaculate Conception, in defending which he had already won fame at Paris; it was doubtless owing to him that the Council inserted the words beginning "Declarat tamen" at the end of the fifth canon of this session. The last glimpse we get of Carvajal is at Antwerp in 1548. at which time he brought out the third edition of his "Theologicarum sententiarum liber singular-is". Besides this work, he is the author of the "Declamatio expostulatoria pro immaculate conceptione" (Paris, 1541) and of a defence of the religious orders against Erasmus, entitled "Apologia monastics professionis" (Ant- werp. 1529).

Wadding, Annates Mmorum. XVIII, 154fi. XXIV; Mkrkle, Cone. Trul. Diariorum, etc. (Freiburg, 19012. 1, 491; Hcrter, Nomcnclator, IV, 1177; Acta Ord. Minorum, Dec. (1904'. 47;,.

Stephen M. Donoi in.

Carvajal, Ltjisa de, b. 2 Jan., 1568, at Jaraizejo, Spain; d. 2 Jan., 1614, at London, a lady of high birth, who received from God what appears to have been a special vocation to go to England and minister to those who were suffering for the Faith. Lett in orphan at the age of six, she was brought up by her uncle and aunt at Pampeluna, where she showed evidence of extraordinary sanctity. She resolutely refused to marry; ye1 she had no alt notion to the religious life. On the death of her aunt and uncle she collected B feu women of her uncle's former household, and they led a life of prayer together.

This continued for twelve years, until her Jesuit confessor at length allowed her to fulfil her desire