Who Was Philip of Spain ?

...They have been presented to us by all the historians who have tried to analyze this dark and enigmatic personality...

...The Escorial is Philip II, and Philip II is the Escorial...

...I mean a mastery of these languages, so that this European thought is immediately available...

...It was a terrible death, but it was the death of a brave man and a Christian...

...WHO WAS PHILIP OF SPAIN...

...There must be annexed to the monastery a laboratory...

...Providing, that is, that to his information he would add his prayers...

...His countenance did not change, but when the service was over, he asked the prior to order his monks to intone the Te Deum...

...The patients must be given dressing gowns and slippers, in case they need to get up...

...If so we have to do with such a moral monstrosity that it constitutes a case unique in the annals of history...

...This austere program imposed upon him the clear duty of always hiding his real feelings, of never allowing adversity to overpower him...

...it was also the firm conviction that he was thereby saving occidental civilization, which was being then threatened by the followers of Islam, as well as the Latin culture, menaced by the growing power of Germanism...

...I may add that the extraordinary work of Catholic scholars in Europe, both in quantity and quality, compared with that of American scholars, makes a practical knowledge of both the French and German languages indispensable...

...Until you went away I had forgot That larkspur pierced the air, Blue as the day...

...The other fact which must arrest the attention of all the students of this man's life and of his times, is the horror and the majesty of his death...

...The lise of his known benefactions is enormous...

...The king wi~shes to have the best medical men in Spain for his hospital, the best paleographers to catalogue the numerous books and manuscripts which will in time compose the library of the Escorial...

...It was also to be a school of fine arts, from whence thousands of artists were to emerge, and to spread their knowledge through the entire world...

...Let us not be narrowly institutional and parochial, and let us see, in its broad outlines, the problem and scope of our religion and Church in a democratic society...

...He honored and respected them as the privileged children of Christ...

...He writes in his instructions to the prior: Before they are put to bed, they must be carefully washed and have their hair and beard cut off...

...But in Philip II, it is not monstrosity alone which frightens one...

...August 2I, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 4oi The Protestants were continually reproaching the Catholic clergy with their ignorance...

...Now, what are we to make of all this...

...e.~l]D o c a ]yp s e I had forgot The garden was so fair...

...Placed in a situation in which every vestige of human dignity ought to have disappeared, he remained the king to the last, and died grandly, quietly, majestically, with the firm conviction he was going to stand face to face with his Creator, and that he was ready to give Him a true account of every thought, every word and every deed he had performed throughout his life...

...who, while building up the magnificent edifice called the Escorial, was living like the poorest and meanest of beggars in a narrow cell close by...

...Of course there are certain facts which one is forced to admit...

...If every head of a Catholic institution in this country put this problem to the wealthy men or women he knows, and pointed out the opportunity for social service which lies in it--an opportunity superior to all local or institutional interest, important as that undoubtedly is--we could bring the program to pass...

...Between each two beds there must be a curtain and a small chest to keep medicines...

...When he started its construction, Philip II wanted to make out of this monastery a model institution, not only for Spain but for the whole of Christendom...

...Water must always be boiled before being given to drink, and kept in extremely clean receptacles...

...Or are we to believe tha" he was in a certain sense the victim of circumstances and of his times, times when a man was cursed or blessed according to the personal opinions of those who praised or condemned him...

...There will be a college and a seminary in the monastery, the seminary organized according to the prescriptions of the Council of Trent...

...Philip II was far from being the cruel maniac, stupefied by an excessive religious fervor, that we have been led to believe him...

...who showed himself indulgent almost to the point of weakness in regard to his servants, treating them as if they had been members of his family...

...According to the accepted version, Philip II died terrified by the vision of his victims gathered around his bed...

...But none of the explanations of them offered heretofore can really satisfy us...

...There is an old saying, that "everybody can become a monster, because good and bad is constantly intermingled in human nature...

...The patients must have a small table to eat upon when they are bedridden...

...One of the dominant ideas of Philip II was that the position in which he had been put by Providence not only imposed immense duties upon him, but compelled him to try to become, so far as that was possible to human strength, a perfect king...

...He believed that his office required of him a continual watch over his passions, because to gratify them might be harmful to the welfare of the state over which he ruled...

...August 2I, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 399 are influenced and retained will depend on both the content and the form of what is said...

...In all fairness we ought to consider the good qualities of the man, as well as the crimes and treacheries of the sovereign...

...He was a great builder, and beside the churches, convents and cathedrals which he erected and endowed, one must put the bridges, aqueducts, fortifications, which sprang up as if by enchantment in most of the towns and cities of his vast domains...

...Has this assuredly curious problem perhaps been presented to us from the wrong side ? Would it not be right, before forming a definite opinion on one of the most enigmatical personages of history, to submit to a more rigorous examination than has been the case hitherto, the documents on the strength of which he has, been judged and condemned...

...He wanted it to be a veritable shrine of light...

...Is it possible that the man who had such noble and humanitarian ideas and thoughts, was the same one who so ruthlessly exterminated the Protestants in Flanders, who poisoned his wife, Elizabeth of Valois, and his half-demented son, Don Carlos, as well as his stepbrother, Don Juan of Austria, who strangled the Baron de Montigny, representing at his court the nobility of the Netherlands...

...Their sheets, pillow slips, shirts, handkerchiefs and other linen must be changed every week in summer, and every fortnight in winter, and more often if need be...

...It was the thirteenth day of September of the year I598, the vigil of the Exaltation of the Cross...

...This man who showed himself so absolutely merciless in his repression of the Flanders revolt was the same one who wept bitter tears at the story of Mary Stuart's execution...

...In the Escorial he could be himself, Philip, the humble servant of God, not Philip II, absolute king of Spain...

...He wanted, through extended canalization work, to make this river navigable from Lisbon and the ocean all through its course, and one of his dreams was to transform Toledo into a sea harbor...

...No matter what blows were dealt to him by fate, he never showed discouragement...

...If one tries to form a just idea of the real character of Philip II, one must seek its key in the archives of the Escorial...

...it is rather the feeling that monstrosity can be turned into sanctity, and sanctity into monstrosity...

...He was always projecting something new, and he even tried to bring the waters of the Tage as far as Toledo...

...His one earnest wish was to be allowed by Providence to defend the Catholic faith against outside blows, no matter from what direction they came...

...Thus, in explaining his wishes concerning the care to be bestowed on the sick harbored in the hospital adjoining the monastery, and included within its walls, he displays the earnest wish to help them not only physically, but also morally...

...In presence of these facts, the doubt arises as to whether history has not been altered, or at least colored, by prejudice, hatred and the general repulsion which Philip II seems to have everywhere inspired, perhaps not as a man, but unquestionably as a sovereign...

...On the contrary, he was undoubtedly one of the most intelligent and refined men of his century, and in the implacable struggle which he fought against the Protestant Reformation, civilization was certainly on his side, not on that of his opponents...

...There were things absolutely inexplicable in his life in the way of criminal acts condoned, if not actually committed ; but on the other hand he knew how to display his strength and keep intact a conception of what a sovereign should do or be, such as no other monarch has possessed...

...that Saint Teresa, who was neither kind-hearted nor indulgent in the presence of sin, called Philip II in her letters a "holy king...

...What must be the amount of the unknown, of those he distributed with his right hand, unnoticed by the left...

...Do these facts agree with the notions we all have entertained about the personality of Philip II...

...And so forth...

...There are two points that have been established beyond the power of contradiction...

...There must always be at hand chicken and fresh eggs to feed those who are prevented by a high fever from getting their meals at the customary hours...

...This was not only religious zeal...

...It is better to let time solve the difficulty and assume the task of giving him the place which he really deserves in the annals of history, and to remember only that the monks of San Lorenzo, who assisted him in his last moments, did not doubt that he had died in odor of sanctity...

...When one takes into consideration the many good sides, the hitherto unknown qualities and virtues of a sovereign for whom no one has had anything pleasant to say until now, one feels inclined to reach the perhaps far-fetched theory that he is, and has always been, one of the most calumniated figures in history...

...It is this contrast between the real and the official portrait of Philip to which it is well-nigh impossible to find a satisfactory explanation, and which therefore one must try oneself to account for, independently of the judgments already passed upon him...

...In any case, here is something to think about...

...Everything interested him, and every new scientific discovery absorbed his attention...

...Even in the presence of this doubt, one cannot entirely condemn this man who for so long has been an object of execration...

...And yet it is possible to take up the cudgels in favor of the Spanish monarch...

...A wicked and perverse generation, or that part of the present generation that is wicked and perverse, may reject what is offered because of an invincible ignorance, but many will be reached, and this is almost the only way they can be reached...

...I had forgot That such a bitter lack Could sow such loveliness...

...and that little children who had been used to receive alms from his hands when he was at the Escorial, wept in the streets of the small village adjoining the monastery when they were told he was no more...

...A careful study of the archives of the Escorial proves, on the contrary, that the end of the Spanish king was that of a saint who, in the midst of the most terrible sufferings, preserved an admirable serenity, and a perfect confidence in the justice of God, together with the conviction that he had never been guilty of an intentional injustice, and that the only aim he had had all through his life had been the welfare of his subjects...

...He was never idle, but thought always of what he had still to perform before death overtook him...

...It would have seemed as if nothing in the world could change or modify the accepted version of Philip, especially after Motley had finally underlined it in his remarkable book on The Rise of the Dutch Republic...

...A room into which the Holy Sacrament is to be brought must be thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and perfumed beforehand...

...In the college there will be taught, besides theology, grammar and rhetoric...

...The rules which he laid down for its future management show not only extreme care, but a singular knowledge of sanitary and hygienic requirements, at a time when they were absolutely and totally disregarded...

...Is one not rather entitled to ask whether the animosities which pursued Philip II all through his life have not been powerful enough to create out of him an imaginary being, thirsty for human blood, without pity and without remorse, a being almost unearthly in his savage cruelty...

...Such is Philip II of Spain whose memory and reputation, like that of the Borgias, have never been discussed, but simply accepted on the sole strength of tradition and prejudice...

...The apostleship of press and platform must have an adequate intellectual foundation...

...There are pages and pages of different recommendations which, considering the customs and habits of those times, strike one as more than surprising, and certainly give one a high opinion of the knowledge and intelligence of the man who conceived and wrote them...

...He was sitting beside the monks of the Escorial monastery, chanting vespers with them, when, trembling with emotion, one of his chamberlains appeared and announced to him the victory of Lepanto...

...He founded universities and innumer40o THE COMMONWEAL August 2I, I929 able colleges, not only in Spain, but everywhere in his vast empire, and even in the new world...

...Come back, come back...

...He wrote: They must be not only theologians, but men in possession of ancient and modern languages, men who have studied deeply archaeology, history, geography, astronomy and even astrology, as well as chemistry...

...The king was charitable in all his actions, and never refused to help the poor, the sorrowing and the disinherited of the world...

...He never knew how to refuse or to deny an appeal for help...

...By practical knowledge I do not mean four years of college study under present methods, for that is too often futile...

...One cannot separate the man from the edifice...

...And when the news of the disaster of the Armada reached him, he said simply: "I never pretended I could overcome the elements...

...They must receive clean shirts, and their own garments must be boiled and disinfected, so as to be in good condition when they are returned to them on their leaving the hospital...

...The Escorial is the only place where he allowed himself to forget that he was a king, and to think of himself only as a Christian--and a humble Christian...

...By CATHERINE RADZIWILL HERE are certain historical figures whom it seems well-nigh impossible to look at otherwise than from one particular point of view...

...Can it be possible that the moment he came out of the Escorial and its quiet, holy atmosphere, he became this monstrosity...

...This cathedral, monastery and last resting place of himself and of his successors, which he had built with so much care, retained for him until at last he died within its grey walls, a singular charm and attraction...

...The king wanted his monks to be able to fight scientific as well as religious errors...

...As soon as a patient dies, his bed must be taken away, and thoroughly disinfected...

...And there is no doubt that, in spite of the horrors attributed to and perhaps performed by him, Philip II was a great Christian, and that his soul was filled with scruples, and completely detached from everything that goes by the name of joys and pleasures on this earth...

...When Extreme Unction is administered to a sick person, this must be done in a separate room set aside for the purpose, so as not to frighten the other patients...

...A few minutes before he breathed his last, he kissed the crucifix which had soothed his father's agony, as it was now helping him to undergo his own, and then, with a lighted candle grasped between his fingers, he passed away to the great beyond where Christ his Saviour was awaiting him...

...When he was there he could gratify his religious fervor by leading the ascetic existence of the monks he had brought to it...

...Is it possible to cling still to the old judgments passed on Philip II...

...A few have already done it, or at least are beginning to do it, among them Louis Bertrand, the French Academician, and the famous Spanish scholar, Menendez y Pelayo...

...Twenty-two years were spent in the construction of the building, twenty-two years during which Philip's entire thoughts were centered in the work, and those employed in it...

...He insists on the necessity of treating them kindly, "with charity and patience," and on attention being given to bodily wants and bodily cleanliness...

...who continually wrote his daughters the most affectionate letters, and never forgot to do so, even when assailed by terribly complicated politieal difficulties...

...Those who suffer from sores or open wounds must be kept in a separate room, so as not to inconvenience or annoy others by the bad odor these sores may give off...

...Remorse did not assail him...

...Then there is another side in the king's conception of the Escorial...

...RUTH LAMBlZRTJONES...