Chap. XI Of Popes, Saints, and Bishops, That Used to Get Drunk
After having spoken of the drunkenness of churchmen in general, it will not, perhaps, be a thing altogether needless, to put the whole in the clearest light, to confirm what has been said, by the example of Popes, Saints, and Bishops, who have practised that laudable custom of getting drunk.
A little song, mentioned by H. Stephens, in his apology for Herodotus, affords matter of speculation in relation to the sobriety of sovereign pontiffs.
“Le Pape qui est a Rome,
Boit du vin comme un autre homme
Et de l’Hypocras aussi.”
The Pope at Rome, his holiness,
Of wine drinks many a hearty glass,
And pleasant Hypocras also,
As any other man I trow.
If one reads over the popes lives, we shall be fully convinced that these holy fathers were no enemies to wine. Alexander the Fifth was a great drinker, and that too of strong wines, says his own historian, Theoderic de Neim. If one may give any credit to the letters of the king of Spain’s ambassador to his master, Sixtus Quintus was a terrible drunkard1.
And Pope Boniface instituted indulgencies for those who should drink a cup after grace (called since St. Boniface’s cup). A plain argument that his sanctity did not hate wine.
This puts me in my mind of what I have formerly read, though the author’s name is now slipped out of my memory, that when cardinal Pignatelli, afterwards Innocent the Twelfth, was advanced to the papacy, his name signifying little pots or mugs, three of which he bore for his arms; and whose mother was of the house of Caraffa, which signifies a jug, a Frenchman made these lines:—
“Nous devons tous boire en repos
Sous le regne de ce saint pere
Son nom ses armes sont des pots
Une Caraffe etoit sa mere.
Celebrons donc avec eclat
Cet auguste Pontificat.”
Under this holy father’s reign
Hang sorrow, let us ne’er complain;
I think all of us should turn sots,
And fuddle with one another,
His name, and so his arms, are pots,
And a gallon pot was his mother;
Then let us brightly celebrate
This most august Pontificate.
In the main, this is nothing but a little punning or playing with words, but it is one of those agreeable trifles that may now and then be worth our thinking on.
One may add to the number of such popes as loved fuddling, all those who sat at Avignon; for if we believe Petrarch2, the long residence that the court of Rome made at Avignon, was only to taste the good French wines; and that it was merely on that account they stayed so long in Provence, and removed with so much reluctance.
Let us now pass on to Saints and Bishops. I shall only instance one of each, because I hate prolixity. The first Saint that presents himself to me, is the renowned St. Augustin, who himself owns, that he used to get drunk sometimes. Crapula autem nonnunquam surrepit servo tuo misereberis ut longe fiat à me. Thy servant has been sometimes crop-sick through excess of wine, have mercy on me, that it may be ever far from me. It is true, 3M. Cousin maintains against my author, M. Petit, the Journal des Sçavans, of the year 1689, 27th June, that St. Augustin, however, never got drunk. The arguments on both sides you may find in Bayle’s Dictionary, under the article Augustin. But yet there are somewhere in St. Augustin these words, viz. My soul certainly being a spirit cannot dwell in a dry place. Anima mea certè quia spiritus est, in sicco habitare non potest.
I shall make no comment upon these words, only insert one already made, which I take from M. Duchat in his Remarks on Rabelais4. On these words of Saint Augustin, says he, mentioned in the second part of the Decretals, caus. 32, q. 2, c. 9, the commentator says, “And this is an argument for the Normans, English, and Poles, that they may drink largely, that the soul may not live in the dry. Et est argumentum pro Normannis, Anglicis, et Polonis, ut possint fortiter bibere, ne anima habitet in sicco. To which Peter Chatelain, a Flemish physician, made this pleasant addition, It is very probable, that the commentator was an entire stranger to the nature of the Flemings. Verisimile est glossatorem ignorasse naturam Belgarum.”
And, perhaps, this argument from St. Augustine’s words, is as just as one of a merry fellow I knew, who would prove, from St. Paul’s going to the Three Taverns5, That he loved a hearty bottle.
Amongst the Bishops, I cannot instance a more illustrious example of a great drinker than that of Pontus de Thiard. We are told6, “That this gentleman, after having repented of the sins of his youth, came to be bishop of Chalons sur Soane; but, however, he did not renounce the power of drinking heartily, which seemed then inseparable from the quality of a good poet. He had a stomach big enough to empty the largest cellar; and the best wines of Burgundy were too gross for the subtility of the fire which devoured him. Every night, at going to bed, besides the ordinary doses of the day, in which he would not suffer the least drop of water, he used to drink a bottle before he slept. He enjoyed a strong, robust, and vigorous health; to the age of fourscore.
1. Thuan. p. 447.
2. Perron, p. 387.
3. Petit Nepænth, p. 137.
4. Liv. i. ch. 5.
5. Acts, cap. xxviii. v. 15.
6. Rep. des Lett. Febr. 1687, art. 7.