Lyndon Orr on Kristina and Monaldeschi, year 1914, part 3

Source:

Famous Affinities of History, pages 82 to 88, by Lyndon Orr, 1914; original at the University of Virginia

https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk8aAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=dronning+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The account:

The Swedes remembered that Christina was the daughter of their greatest king, and that, apart from personal scandals, she had ruled them well; and so they let her go regretfully and accepted her cousin as their king. Christina, on her side, went joyfully and in the spirit of a grand adventuress. With a numerous suite she entered Germany, and then stayed for a year at Brussels [sic], where she renounced Lutheranism. After this she traveled slowly into Italy, where she entered Rome on horseback, and was received by the Pope, Alexander VII., who lodged her in a magnificent palace, accepted her conversion, and baptized her, giving her a new name, Alexandra.

In Rome she was a brilliant but erratic personage, living sumptuously, even though her revenues from Sweden came in slowly, partly because the Swedes disliked her change of religion. She was surrounded by men of letters, with whom she amused herself, and she took to herself a lover, the Marquis Monaldeschi. She thought that at last she had really found her true affinity, while Monaldeschi believed that he could count on the queen's fidelity.

He was in attendance upon her daily, and they were almost inseparable. He swore allegiance to her and thereby made himself one of the subjects over whom she had absolute power. For a time he was the master of those intense emotions which, in her, alternated with moods of coldness and even cruelty.

Monaldeschi was a handsome Italian, who bore himself with a fine air of breeding. He understood the art of charming, but he did not know that beyond a certain time no one could hold the affections of Christina.

However, after she had quarreled with various cardinals and decided to leave Rome for a while, Monaldeschi accompanied her to France, where she had an immense vogue at the court of Louis XIV. She attracted wide attention because of her eccentricity and utter lack of manners. It gave her the greatest delight to criticize the ladies of the French court — their looks, their gowns, and their jewels. They, in return, would speak of Christina's deformed shoulder and skinny frame; but the king was very gracious to her and invited her to his hunting-palace at Fontainebleau.

While she had been winning triumphs of sarcasm[,] the infatuated Monaldeschi had gradually come to suspect, and then to know, that his royal mistress was no longer true to him. He had been supplanted in her favor by another Italian, one Sentanelli [sic], who was the captain of her guard.

Monaldeschi took a tortuous and roundabout revenge. He did not let the queen know of his discovery; nor did he, like a man, send a challenge to Sentanelli. Instead he began by betraying her secrets to Oliver Cromwell, with whom she had tried to establish a correspondence. Again, imitating the hand and seal of Sentanelli, he set in circulation a series of the most scandalous and insulting letters about Christina. By this treacherous trick he hoped to end the relations between his rival and the queen; but when the letters were carried to Christina[,] she instantly recognized their true source. She saw that she was betrayed by her former favorite and that he had taken a revenge which might seriously compromise her.

This led to a tragedy, of which the facts were long obscure. They were carefully recorded, however, by the queen's household chaplain, Father Le Bel; and there is also a narrative written by one Marco Antonio Conti, which confirms the story. Both were published privately in 1865, with notes by Louis Lacour.

The narration of the priest is dreadful in its simplicity and minuteness of detail. It may be summed up briefly here, because it is the testimony of an eye-witness who knew Christina and understood her enigmatic character.

Christina, with the marquis and a large retinue, was at Fontainebleau in November, 1657. A little after midnight, when all was still, the priest, Father Le Bel, was aroused [woken up] and ordered to go at once to the Galerie des Cerfs, or Hall of Stags, in another part of the palace. When he asked why, he was told:

"It is by the order of her majesty the Swedish queen."

The priest, wondering, hurried on his garments. On reaching the gloomy hall he saw the Marquis Monaldeschi, evidently in great agitation, and at the end of the corridor the queen in somber robes. Beside the queen, as if awaiting orders, stood three figures, who could with some difficulty be made out as three soldiers of her guard, wearing corselets under their cloaks and swords buckled to their belts.

The queen motioned to Father Le Bel and asked him for a packet which she had given him for safekeeping some little time before. He gave it to her, and she opened it. In it were letters and other documents, which, with a steely glance, she displayed to Monaldeschi. He was confused by the sight of them and by the incisive words in which Christina showed how he had both insulted her and had tried to shift the blame upon Sentanelli.

Monaldeschi broke down completely. He fell at the queen's feet and wept piteously, begging for pardon, only to be met by the cold answer:

"You are my subject and a traitor to me. Marquis, you must prepare to die!"

Then she turned away and left the hall, in spite of the cries of Monaldeschi, to whom she merely added the advice that he should make his peace with God by confessing to Father Le Bel.

After she had gone[,] the marquis fell into a torrent of self-exculpation and cried for mercy. The three armed men drew near and urged him to confess for the good of his soul. They seemed to have no malice against him, but to feel that they must obey the orders given them. At the frantic urging of the marquis[,] their leader even went to the queen to ask whether she would relent; but he returned shaking his head, and said:

"Marquis, you must die."

Father Le Bel undertook a like mission, but returned with the message that there was no hope. So the marquis made his confession in French and Latin and Italian, but even then he hoped; for he did not wait to receive absolution, but begged still further for delay or pardon.

Then the three armed men approached, having drawn their swords. The absolution was pronounced; and, following it, one of the guards slashed the marquis across the forehead. He stumbled and fell forward, making signs as if to ask that he might have his throat cut. But his throat was partly protected by a coat of mail, so that three or four strokes delivered there had slight effect. Finally, however, a long, narrow sword was thrust into his side, after which the marquis made no sound.

Father Le Bel at once left the Galerie des Cerfs and went into the queen's apartment, with the smell of blood in his nostrils. He found her calm and ready to justify himself. Was she not still queen over all who had voluntarily become members of her suite? This had been agreed to in her act of abdication. Wherever she set her foot, there, over her own, she was still a monarch, with full power to punish traitors at her will. This power she had exercised, and with justice. What mattered it that she was in France?

The story was not long in getting out, but the truth was not wholly known until a much later day. It was said that Sentanelli had stabbed the marquis in a fit of jealousy, though some added that it was done with the connivance of the queen. King Louis, the incarnation of absolutism, knew the truth, but he was slow to act. He sympathized with the theory of Christina's sovereignty. It was only after a time that word was sent to Christina that she must leave Fontainebleau. She took no notice of the order until it suited her convenience, and then she went forth with all the honors of a reigning monarch.

This was the most striking episode in all the strange story of her private life. When her cousin Charles, whom she had made king, died without an heir [sic][,] she sought to recover her crown; but the estates of the realm refused her claim, reduced her income, and imposed restraints upon her power. She then sought the vacant throne of Poland; but the Polish nobles, who desired a weak ruler for their own purposes, made another choice. So at last she returned to Rome, where the Pope received her with a splendid procession and granted twelve her [sic] thousand crowns a year to make up for her lessened Swedish revenue.

From this time she lived a life which she made interesting by her patronage of learning and exciting by her rather unseemly quarrels with cardinals and even with the Pope. Her armed retinue marched through the streets with drawn swords and gave open protection to criminals who had taken refuge with her. She dared to criticize the pontiff, who merely smiled and said:

"She is a woman!"

On the whole, the end of her life was pleasant. She was much admired for her sagacity in politics. Her words were listened to at every court in Europe. She annotated the classics, she made beautiful collections, and she was regarded as a privileged person whose acts no one took amiss. She died at fifty-three [sic], and was buried in St. Peter's.

She was bred a man, she was almost a son to her great father; and yet, instead of the sonorous epitaph that is inscribed beside her tomb, perhaps a truer one would be the words of the vexed Pope:

"É donna!"

Above: Kristina.

Above: Kristina condemns Monaldeschi to die, painted by Johan Fredrik Höckert.

Notes: Kristina and Monaldeschi were never lovers.

Kristina was 62 at the time of her death.

Lyndon Orr on Kristina and Monaldeschi, year 1914, part 2

Source:

Famous Affinities of History, pages 78 to 82, by Lyndon Orr, 1914; original at the University of Virginia

https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk8aAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=dronning+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The account:

When her eighteenth year arrived, the demand for her coronation was impossible to resist. All Sweden wished to see a ruling queen, who might marry and have children to succeed her through the royal line of her great father. Christina consented to be crowned, but she absolutely refused all thought of marriage. She had more suitors from all parts of Europe than even Elizabeth of England; but, unlike Elizabeth, she did not dally with them, give them false hopes, or use them for the political advantage of her kingdom.

At that time Sweden was stronger than England, and was so situated as to be independent of alliances. So Christina said, in her harsh, peremptory voice:

"I shall never marry; and why should you speak of my having children? I am just as likely to give birth to a Nero as to an Augustus."

Having assumed the throne, she ruled with a strictness of government such as Sweden had not known before. She took the reins of state into her own hands and carried out a foreign policy of her own, over the heads of her ministers, and even against the wishes of her people. The fighting upon the Continent had dragged out to a weary length, but the Swedes, on the whole, had scored a marked advantage. For this reason the war was popular, and every one wished it to go on; but Christina, of her own will, decided that it must stop, that mere glory was not to be considered against material advantages. Sweden had had enough of glory; she must now look to her enrichment and prosperity through the channels of peace.

Therefore, in 1648, against Oxenstierna, against her generals, and against her people, she exercised her royal power and brought the Thirty Years' War to an end by the so-called Peace of Westphalia. At this time she was twenty-two [sic], and by her personal influence she had ended one of the greatest struggles of history. Nor had she done it to her country's loss. Denmark yielded up rich provinces, while Germany was compelled to grant Sweden membership in the German diet.

Then came a period of immense prosperity through commerce, through economies in government, through the improvement of agriculture and the opening of mines. This girl queen, without intrigue, without descending from her native nobility to peep and whisper with shady diplomats, showed herself in reality a great monarch, a true Semiramis of the north, more worthy of respect and reverence than Elizabeth of England. She was highly trained in many arts. She was fond of study, spoke Latin fluently, and could argue with Salmasius, Descartes, and other accomplished scholars without showing any inferiority to them.

She gathered at her court distinguished persons from all countries. She repelled those who sought her hand, and she was pure and truthful and worthy of all men's admiration. Had she died at this time history would rank her with the greatest of women sovereigns. Naudé, the librarian of Cardinal Mazarin, wrote of her to the scientist Gassendi in these words:

"To say truth, I am sometimes afraid lest the common saying should be verified in her, that short is the life and rare the old age of those who surpass the common limits. Do not imagine that she is learned only in books, for she is equally so in painting, architecture, sculpture, medals, antiquities, and all curiosities. There is not a cunning workman in these arts but she has him fetched. There are as good workers in wax and in enamel, engravers, singers, players, dancers here as will be found anywhere.

She has a gallery of statues, bronze and marble, medals of gold, silver, and bronze, pieces of ivory, amber, coral, worked crystal, steel mirrors, clocks and tables, bas-reliefs and other things of the kind; richer I have never seen even in Italy; finally, a great quantity of pictures. In short, her mind is open to all impressions."

But after she began to make her court a sort of home for art and letters[,] it ceased to be the sort of court that Sweden was prepared for. Christina's subjects were still rude and lacking in accomplishments; therefore she had to summon men of genius from other countries, especially from France and Italy. Many of these were illustrious artists or scholars, but among them were also some who used their mental gifts for harm.

Among these latter was a French physician named Bourdelot — a man of keen intellect, of winning manners, and of a profound cynicism, which was not apparent on the surface, but the effect of which was lasting. To Bourdelot we must chiefly ascribe the mysterious change which gradually came over Queen Christina. With his associates he taught her a distaste for the simple and healthy life that she had been accustomed to lead. She ceased to think of the welfare of the state and began to look down with scorn upon her unsophisticated Swedes. Foreign luxury displayed itself at Stockholm, and her palaces overflowed with beautiful things.

By subtle means Bourdelot undermined her principles. Having been a Stoic, she now became an Epicurean. She was by nature devoid of sentiment. She would not spend her time in the niceties of love-making, as did Elizabeth; but beneath the surface she had a sort of tigerish, passionate nature, which would break forth at intervals, and which demanded satisfaction from a series of favourites. It is probable that Bourdelot was her first lover, but there were many others whose names are recorded in the annals of the time.

When she threw aside her virtue[,] Christina ceased to care about appearances. She squandered her revenues upon her favorites. What she retained of her former self was a carelessness that braved the opinion of her subjects. She dressed almost without thought, and it is said that she combed her hair not more than twice a month. She caroused with male companions to the scandal of her people, and she swore like a trooper whenever she was displeased.

Christina's philosophy of life appears to have been compounded of an almost brutal licentiousness, a strong love of power, and a strange, freakish longing for something new. Her political ambitions were checked by the rising discontent of her people, who began to look down upon her and to feel ashamed of her shame. Knowing herself as she did, she did not care to marry.

Yet Sweden must have an heir. Therefore she chose out her cousin Charles, declared that he was to be her successor, and finally caused him to be proclaimed as such before the assembled estates of the realm. She even had him crowned; and finally, in her twenty-eighth year [sic], she abdicated altogether and prepared to leave Sweden. When asked whither she would go, she replied in a Latin quotation:

"The Fates will show the way."

In her act of abdication she reserved to herself the revenues of some of the richest provinces in Sweden and absolute power over such of her subjects as should accompany her. They were to be her subjects until the end.

Above: Kristina.

Lyndon Orr on Kristina and Monaldeschi, year 1914, part 1

Source:

Famous Affinities of History, pages 73 to 78, by Lyndon Orr, 1914; original at the University of Virginia

https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk8aAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=dronning+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The account:

QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHI

SWEDEN to-day is one of the peaceful kingdoms of the world, whose people are prosperous, well governed, and somewhat apart from the clash and turmoil of other states and nations. Even the secession of Norway, a few years ago, was accomplished without bloodshed, and now the two kingdoms exist side by side as free from strife as they are with Denmark, which once domineered and tyrannized over both.

It is difficult to believe that long ago, in the Middle Ages, the cities of southern Sweden were among the great commercial centers of the world. Stockholm and Lund ranked with London and Paris. They absorbed the commerce of the northern seas, and were the admiration of thousands of travelers and merchants who passed through them and trafficked with them.

Much nearer to our own time, Sweden was the great military power of northern Europe. The ambassadors of the Swedish kings were received with the utmost deference in every court. Her soldiers won great battles and ended mighty wars. The England of Cromwell and Charles II. was unimportant and isolated in comparison with this northern kingdom, which could pour forth armies of gigantic blond warriors, headed by generals astute as well as brave.

It was no small matter, then, in 1626, that the loyal Swedes were hoping that their queen would give birth to a male heir to succeed his splendid father, Gustavus Adolphus, ranked by military historians as one of the six great generals whom the world had so far produced. The queen, a German princess of Brandenburg, had already borne two daughters, who died in infancy. The expectation was wide-spread and intense that she should now become the mother of a son; and the king himself was no less anxious.

When the event occurred, the child was seen to be completely covered with hair, and for this reason the attendants at first believed that it was the desired boy. When their mistake was discovered they were afraid to tell the king, who was waiting in his study for the announcement to be made. At last, when no one else would go to him, his sister, the Princess Caroline [sic], volunteered to break the news.

Gustavus was in truth a chivalrous, high-bred monarch. Though he must have been disappointed at the advent of a daughter, he showed no sign of dissatisfaction or even of surprise; but, rising, he embraced his sister, saying:

"Let us thank God. I hope this girl will be as good as a boy to me. May God preserve her now that He has sent her!"

It is customary at almost all courts to pay less attention to the birth of a princess than to that of a prince; but Gustavus displayed his chivalry toward this little daughter, whom he named Christina. He ordered that the full royal salute should be fired in every fortress of his kingdom and that displays of fireworks, balls of honor, and court functions should take place; "for", as he said, "this is the heir to my throne." And so from the first he took his child under his own keeping and treated her as if she were a much-loved son as well as a successor.

He joked about her looks when she was born, when she was mistaken for a boy.

"She will be clever", he said, "for she has taken us all in!"

The Swedish people were as delighted with their little princess as were the people of Holland when the present Queen Wilhelmina was born, to carry on the succession of the House of Orange. On one occasion the king and the small Christina, who were inseparable companions, happened to approach a fortress where they expected to spend the night. The commander of the castle was bound to fire a royal salute of fifty cannon in honor of his sovereign; yet he dreaded the effect upon the princess of such a roaring and bellowing of artillery. He therefore sent a swift horseman to meet the royal party at a distance and explain his perplexity. Should he fire these guns or not? Would the king give an order?

Gustavus thought for a moment, and then replied:

"My daughter is the daughter of a soldier, and she must learn to lead a soldier's life. Let the guns be fired!"

The procession moved on. Presently fire spurted from the embrasures of the fort, and its batteries thundered in one great roar. The king looked down at Christina. Her face was aglow with pleasure and excitement; she clapped her little hands and laughed, and cried out:

"More bang! More! More!"

This is only one of a score of stories that were circulated about the princess, and the Swedes were more and more delighted with the girl who was to be their queen.

Somewhat curiously, Christina's mother, Queen Maria, cared little for the child, and, in fact, came at last to detest her almost as much as the king loved her. It is hard to explain this dislike. Perhaps she had a morbid desire for a son and begrudged the honors given to a daughter. Perhaps she was a little jealous of her own child, who took so much of the king's attention. Afterward, in writing of her mother, Christina excuses her, and says quite frankly:

"She could not bear to see me, because I was a girl, and an ugly girl at that. And she was right enough, for I was as tawny as a little Turk."

This candid description of herself is hardly just. Christina was never beautiful, and she had a strong, harsh voice. She was apt to be overbearing even as a little girl. Yet she was a most interesting child, with an expressive face, large eyes, an aquiline nose, and the blond hair of her people. There was nothing in this to account for her mother's intense dislike for her.

It was currently reported at the time that attempts were made to maim or seriously injure the little princess. By what was made to seem an accident, she would be dropped upon the floor, and heavy articles of furniture would somehow manage to strike her. More than once a great beam fell mysteriously close to her, either in the palace or while she was passing through the streets. None of these things did her serious harm, however. Most of them she luckily escaped; but when she had grown to be a woman[,] one of her shoulders was permanently higher than the other.

"I suppose", said Christina, "that I could be straightened if I would let the surgeons attend to it; but it isn't worth while to take the trouble."

When Christina was four [sic], Sweden became involved in the great war that had been raging for a dozen years between the Protestant and the Catholic states of Germany. Gradually the neighboring powers had been drawn into the struggle, either to serve their own ends or to support the faith to which they adhered. Gustavus Adolphus took up the sword with mixed motives, for he was full of enthusiasm for the imperiled cause of the Reformation, and at the same time he deemed it a favorable opportunity to assert his control over the shores of the Baltic.

The warrior king summoned his army and prepared to invade Germany. Before departing[,] he took his little daughter by the hand and led her among the assembled nobles and councilors of state. To them he intrusted the princess, making them kneel and vow that they would regard her as his heir, and, if aught should happen to him, as his successor. Amid the clashing of swords and the clang of armor this vow was taken, and the king went forth to war.

He met the ablest generals of his enemies, and the fortunes of battles swayed hither and thither; but the climax came when his soldiers encountered those of Wallenstein — that strange, overbearing, arrogant, mysterious creature whom many regarded with a sort of awe. The clash came at Lützen, in Saxony. The Swedish king fought long and hard, and so did his mighty opponent; but at last, in the very midst of a tremendous onset that swept all before him, Gustavus received a mortal wound and died, even while Wallenstein was fleeing from the field of battle.

The battle of Lützen made Christina Queen of Sweden at the age of six. Of course, she could not yet be crowned, but a council of able ministers continued the policy of the late king and taught the young queen her first lessons in statecraft. Her intellect soon showed itself as more than that of a child. She understood all that was taking place, and all that was planned and arranged. Her tact was unusual. Her discretion was admired by every one; and after a while she had the advice and training of the great Swedish chancellor, Oxenstierna, whose wisdom she shared to a remarkable degree.

Before she was sixteen she had so approved herself to her counselors, and especially to the people at large, that there was a wide-spread clamor that she should take the throne and govern in her own person. To this she gave no heed, but said:

"I am not yet ready."

All this time she bore herself like a king. There was nothing distinctly feminine about her. She took but slight interest in her appearance. She wore sword and armor in the presence of her troops, and often she dressed entirely in men's clothes. She would take long, lonely gallops through the forests, brooding over problems of state and feeling no fatigue or fear. And[,] indeed[,] why should she fear, who was beloved by all her subjects?

Above: Kristina.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 7

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 240 to 243, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

The collections she had brought from Sweden she now arranged and enlarged with liberal purchases, showing so much good judgment that her palace surpassed in its treasures the houses of the ancient nobles, and the pursuit was raised at once out of the lines of curiosity into those of profound scholarship. Sante Bartolo described her cameos. Havercamp has described her coins in his work, "Nummophylacium Reginæ Christinæ["] (in the Museum Odescaleum); Spanheim wrote on her coins and medals; and Schroder wrote his "Berichte über die Gemählde und Statuen der Königen Christine." Her collection of paintings by Correggio made her name forever famous among students of the old masters. Her collection of manuscripts and autographs is now in the Vatican Library. She spent nearly all of her working time in labors of this kind, which were vastly for the good of history, and built herself a solid and durable name, so that, after all, her earthly desire for a greater celebrity than could come to a small northern sovereign was answered more favorably than she could know.

When the learned Doctor Borelli was exiled because he had studied the mechanics of animal motion, he was compelled to teach in his extreme age. Not only did Christina come to his assistance with a pension, but she printed at her own cost his work, which instantly became renowned, and overturned some of the theories of the time.

Ranke, in his "Lives of the Popes", thinks that, when her character and intellect had been improved and matured, she exercised an efficient and enduring influence on Italian literature. "The labyrinth of perverted metaphor, inflated extravagance, labored conceit, and vapid triviality", says he, "into which Italian poetry had then wandered is well known. Christina was too highly cultivated and too solidly endowed to be ensnared by such a fashion — it was her utter aversion. In the year 1680 she founded an academy in her own residence for the discussion of literary and political subjects. The first rule of this institution was, that its members should carefully abstain from the turgid style, overloaded with false ornament, which prevailed at the time, and be guided only by sound sense. From the Queen's academy proceeded such men as Alessandro Guido, who had been previously addicted to the style then used, but, after some time passed in the society of Christina, not only resolved to abandon it, but formed a league to abolish it altogether." The celebrated Arcadia at Rome grew out of Christina's labors.

In the politics of Rome she warmly attached herself to Cardinal Azzolini, chief of the Squadronisti party. She held that Azzolini was the most God-like and spiritual-minded man in the world — the only person she would exalt above her father's Chancellor, Oxenstiern. Ranke says she desired to do Azzolini justice in her memoirs, but that was accomplished only in part, yet sufficiently "to give proof of earnestness and uprightness of purpose in her dealings with herself, with a freedom and firmness of mind before which all calumny is silenced."

Arckenholtz has collected Christina's apothegms and leisure-hour thoughts. They betoken great knowledge of the world, and an acquaintance with the passions, such as could be attained by experience only, with the most subtle remarks on them. She had a vital conviction of the power of self-direction residing in the mind, and was a believer in the high nobility of the better order of human beings. She sought to follow only her own ideas of what would satisfy the Creator.

She died in high regard at Rome in 1689, aged 63, and was buried with pomp in St. Peter's, the Pope himself writing her epitaph. Her monument to-day may be seen in the Chapel of St. Colonna. It is decorated with a representation of her abjuration of Protestantism in Inspruck Cathedral in 1665 [sic]. Her manuscripts went to the Vatican, and a part of her paintings and antiques was purchased by Odeschalchi, nephew of Pope Innocent XI. The other part went to France, being purchased by the Regent Duke of Orleans in the minority of Louis XV, and may now be found in the Louvre.

A Swedish historian, Fryxell, in accounting for the vagaries of Christina's earlier years, which almost disappeared in the end, traces the cause to a taint of insanity in the blood of the royal line of Sweden. Erik, the poet, before her, and Charles XII, after her, were worse afflicted with similar misfortunes.

We have here reviewed briefly the career of a woman who, when all is said, made a vast sacrifice in order to satisfy her conscience. Whatever the anger of Protestants, and however serious the imputations caused by her eccentricities, she gave an example of doing right according to her conscience that must remain as a bright example to the race. She had the mettle that Joan of Arc possessed in a darker age, and she was more soundly trained in art, thought and learning than any woman of these pages this side of Aspasia. She ought not to be ranked with the women of greatest literary genius, yet she probably was the most scholarly and meditative woman who has worn a crown in Christendom.

Above: Kristina.

Note: Kristina died at age 62, not 63.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 6

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 239 to 240, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

She had hopes of being elected Queen of Poland, where she could reign as a Catholic, but failed in the negotiations. The Swedes neglected the payment of her annuity, notwithstanding the extreme care with which she had provided for her financial future before abdication. And though she was by this time quarreling with the Pope, she was forced to accept from him an annuity of only 1,200 scudi. In 1660, when the short reign of Charles Gustavus (Karl X) ended in his death, she hastened to Stockholm to claim the throne, for several reasons, the main ones being pecuniary. But the throne belonged to the son of Charles, Charles XI, a minor. Christina was a Catholic, and the Swedes had been horrified by the license and vulgarity of her career, which had brought ill-repute on their race. In order to assure herself of her income, she was compelled to sign a more binding deed of abdication, which, while it might wound her pride, materially advanced her condition at Rome, for we hear no more of financial embarrassments. It seems that the Prince who owed his throne to her was meaner in his payments than the son who succeeded on the throne. The next seven or eight years she spent in the cities of Europe, where, after many rebuffs, she learned that she could not be received as a visiting sovereign, nor could she be permitted the public practice of her religion in countries where Protestant bigotry ran high in revenge for Catholic fanaticism elsewhere. She would have visited Cromwell, but that hard-hearted Puritan would not welcome her. At last, after she was convinced that she could not be Queen of Poland, she returned to reside permanently at Rome, where the Holy Father, regarding her as a spoiled child, allowed her many indulgences. She abhorred the direction of father-confessors, who at that time directed domestic life. She entered gaily into the amusements of the carnival, concerts, dramatic entertainments, or whatever else would amuse her. Yet by degrees her character grew milder, and she entered on the last twenty years of her life in a manner and with tranquil habits that have reflected no ordinary luster on her name. She became well pleased with the life of the Romans, and, in her advancing years, reaped the honor and distinction due to her attainments. She took a constantly increasing part in the splendor, the life, and the business of the Roman Curia or court, and believed she could live happily nowhere else.

Above: Kristina.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 5

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 238 to 239, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

In the autumn of 1657 she returned to France, establishing her sorry court at Fontainebleau. Her arrival aroused no attention, as her affair was no longer a novelty. She wrote with eagerness to the heads of the Fronde faction, offering to arbitrate on the differences of princes who had been at war a hundred years. She began a course of political intrigue which warned the cabinets that she was likely to become a dangerous visitor in any land. She learned that Louis XIV, then very young, was in love with Mademoiselle de Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin. She encouraged the affair of the lovers, and offered her services. "I would fain be your confidante", said she, "if you love, you must marry." While she was rude to the court ladies, and gave trouble to the ministry, she was oblivious of public opinion, and still often wore men's clothes. She seemed to the French like a Russian or barbarian potentate, and soon, to the horror of the court, performed an act of absolute sovereignty at Fontainebleau worthy of the son of Catherine de' Medici. She had always, when angry, threatened death to her offenders. When she sent her secretary to Stockholm to see about her delayed annuity payment, she said: "If you fail in your duty, not all the power of the King of Sweden shall save your life, though you take shelter in his very arms." A musician left her to perform for the Duke of Savoy. She wrote, in a high rage, "If he do not sing for me, he shall not sing long for anybody." Thus she was likely to gather about her people of unbridled passions and loose manners, and the quarrels of her household became the talk of Rome. When she established herself at Fontainebleau she learned that the Master of her Horse, the Marquis Monaldeschi, her favorite, had been guilty of a breech [sic] of trust. This charge was made by Ludovico [Santinelli], on letters from his brother in Rome. Ludovico was a rival lover of Christina. The accused man was brought before the Queen, and confessed his deeds. She chose to interpret his act as high treason, sentenced him to death, appointed his rival as his executioner, told him to confess his soul to Father Lebel, and, in the presence of that terrified priest, the equerry was slain, his blood staining the walls and floor of the gallery. In one of the rooms of the palace to-day is an inscription pointing out the place where Monaldeschi fell. She held that it was beneath her dignity to place him before any tribunal, however high it might be. "To acknowledge no superior", she exclaimed, "is worth more than to govern the whole world." The French Government, while it made no inquiry into the murder, ordered her out of France, but she did not at once obey even this order, returning to Rome in the spring of 1658.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Kristina condemns Monaldeschi to die, painted by Johan Fredrik Höckert.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 4

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 236 to 238, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

The principal mistake that Christina made, and the one that showed she was insane, was her failure to understand that she had resigned her rule, and was only a private person. We shall see her, to the end of her life, acting as a crowned head, therefore a pretender. She set up an expensive establishment at Rome, began the purchase of antiquities, curios, and paintings, and was soon robbed by servants of all her ready money. Then she pawned her jewels, and all the money so obtained was used or wasted. Contemplating a journey to Paris, she wrote to the Pope, begging that his Holiness would recommend some merchant to lend her money. The Pope, rather than to assume the responsibility of the debts that might accrue, sent a confidential ecclesiastic with a present of 10,000 scudi, with certain medals of gold and silver that had been struck in honor of the Queen's entry, excusing the smallness of the sum by the exhaustion of the treasury. The Queen, in thanking him, wept more than once, both from motives of gratitude and mortification.

In 1656 she traveled in France, to Compiegne, Paris and Fontain[e]bleau, as Queen Christine Alexandrie [sic]. The learned men of Europe who had been her guests and pensioners, prepared for her a brilliant reception, at least in the world of letters, and the women of fashion were on tip-toe to see her. She affected to disdain their good will. "What makes these women so fond of me?" she asked. "Is it because I am so like a man?" Upon this the women turned on her, almost with one accord. They criticised her high shoulder, her small figure, the negligence of her attire, and her miserable retinue. On her return toward Italy she visited the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos at her country seat, who was the only woman in France to whom Christina made any profession of warm esteem. France was conventional, and its women did not approve the manners or conversation of Christina.

When Christina met the poet Scarron and his wife in Paris[,] the following colloquy ensued:

"I permit you", Christina said to Scarron, "to fall in love with me. The Queen of France created you her patient; I will create you my Orlando."

"You do well to appoint me your lover", he replied, "for I should have usurped the office."

The Queen, looking at Madame Scarron (afterward Maintenon)[,] who was pretty — "Nothing less than a Queen could make a man unfaithful to this lady. I am not surprised that, with the most amiable woman in Paris you are, in spite of your infirmities, the merriest man in France."

Above: Kristina.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 3

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 234 to 236, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

June 24 [sic], 1654, the last direct scion of the race of Vasa stood before her Senate. The aged Count Brahé refused to take the crown from her head which he had placed there a few years before. He considered the bond between Prince and subject to be indissoluble, and held the proceedings before him to be unlawful. It was in opposition to the will of God, to the common right of nations, and to the oath by which she was bound to the realm of Sweden and to her subjects — he was no honest man who had given her Majesty such counsel (Schlözer's Swedische Biographie, article Peter Brahé.). The Queen was on this account compelled to lift the crown from her own head, as this was the only way the aged statesman would receive it. With crown and scepter laid aside, in a plain white dress, Christina then received the last homage of her estates, or houses. The speaker of the House of Peasants knelt before her, shook her hand and kissed it repeatedly, burst into tears, and thus departed from the daughter of his adored Gustavus Adolphus. This was the very moving sentimental side of the scene, but the machinations of the Jesuits were known to at least a few, and the operations of Christina were carefully watched, so that she feared her plans might yet miscarry. A fleet awaited her, but while she intrusted her property to the ships, she did not intend to so intrust her person. She was by this time almost a foe of her country, and the Swedes did well to be careful. The blunt warriors of the Northland had made a jest of Christina's dead languages; her disputes about vortices, innate ideas, etc.; her taste for medals, statues, pictures; her payments to the makers of books, like Salmasius. In this way she had come to despise her fellow-countrymen as barbarians. She took everything curious or valuable out of the royal palace, put it on the ship, and then, giving everybody the slip, set out by carriage for Hamburg. When she came to a little brook that then separated Sweden from Denmark, she got out of her carriage, and, leaping to the other side, cried out: "At last I am free, and out of Sweden, whither, I hope, I shall never return." She dismissed her women and assumed the dress of a man, not an unusual thing to do when traveling in those times. "I would become a man", she said, "yet I do not love men because they are men, but because they are not women." She prepared to publicly embrace the ancient faith at Brussels, and solemnly renounced Lutheranism at Innspruck. Her act was the reigning sensation in France. At Brussels she met the great Condé, who made that city his asylum. "Cousin", said she, "who would have thought, ten years ago, that we should have met at this distance from our countries?" "How great is the magnanimity of a Princess", said he, "who could so easily give up that for which the rest of mankind are continually destroying each other, and pursue throughout their whole lives without attaining?" The venerable Pope Innocent, suspecting that a public reception at Rome would be expensive, saved his money and reserved the honor for his successor, Alexander VII, by suggesting delay. When Alexander invited her, promising his benediction, she hastened towards Rome, and offered her crown and scepter to the Virgin at Loretto. All the cities of the Roman states gave her a public reception, and the new Pope, whose ambition was gratified by this Catholic triumph over Protestantism, exhausted the apostolic treasury to celebrate with due solemnity the conversion of the learned daughter of the great heretic. It was at Rome, that, in honor of the Pope, she adopted the second name of Alexandra, which she afterward bore. She rode on horseback in Amazon costume[,] and the vast crowds that Rome turns out were astir with exultation. Triumphal arches, illuminations, feasts, flags, and processions celebrated her act of homage to the Pope.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Pope Alexander VII.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 2

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 230 to 234, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Coupled with Christina's distaste for marriage came a contemplation of the nuns of the Catholic Church. She heard about them when she was but nine years old, and that the unmarried state was held to be meritorious. "Ah", cried the child, "how fine that is! That shall be my religion!" For such thoughts, of course, she was gravely reprimanded — no Catholic could rule in Sweden. Later on, the same desire revealed itself in her conversation. She expressed the want of that gratification she would feel if she could believe as "so many noble spirits had believed for 1,600 years; if she could belong to a faith attested by millions of martyrs, confirmed by millions of miracles — above all", she would conclude, showing here her main thought, "which has produced so many admirable virgins, who have risen above the frailties of their sex, and consecrated their lives to God."

With these ideas uppermost in her mind she set out to study religion, and for this purpose was desirous of hearing the most eloquent advocates of each sect and faith. This may have been the ruling cause which brought scholars to the court. The arguments of any one sect against its adversary she turned back against itself. Thus she would compare the acts of Moses with those of Mohammed; she contemplated the thoughts of the ancients, the gentiles, and the atheists. She remained a natural believer in the existence of God, and thus returned ever and again to the thought that there must be some way of worshiping Him more becoming than another. At last she began to believe that the eternal safety of the soul was in question. At this stage in her contemplations she began to intrigue, it may be said, with the Catholic Church.

There was at the court a Portuguese Ambassador who could speak no Swedish; when he came into the royal presence, he was compelled to address the Queen through his confessor, a Jesuit named Father Macedo. While the Ambassador vainly imagined the Queen was talking on Portuguese relations, she was engaged in religious controversies with Macedo. Finally, in this manner, she confided to him the astounding intelligence that she desired to join the Catholic Church. On this Macedo disappeared. Christina proposed to pursue him with officers. But she had secretly dispatched him to the general of the Jesuits at Rome, who was entreated to send to her some of the most trusted members of his order. She received answer that Malines and Casati, two highly trusted fathers, would arrive in Stockholm toward the end of February.

While the Queen was at supper, two gentlemen who had traveled complained of the cold, but General Wachmeister rallied them, and said the two Italians on the journey with them had not shown such fear of the cold. The Queen asked if the Italians were musicians; the general said they were two gentlemen traveling to see the country. The Queen said she would by all manner of means like to see them. The next day they were presented to Magnus, the favorite, who at once took them to her majesty. She, on her part, reckoning the time to be ripe for the Jesuits to come, took occasion to secretly say, "Perhaps you have letters for me!" To this Casati, without turning his head, said yes. "Do not mention them to anyone!" whispered Christina. Later she secretly received the letters. "When she was alone with us", says Casati, (writing to Alexander VII afterward and signing himself "the most humble and obedient son in Christ of your Holiness, Paolo Casati, of the Company of Jesus") "her Majesty began to thank us in the most courteous terms for the pains we had taken in making the voyage on her account. She assured us that whatever danger might arise to us from being discovered, we should not fear, since she would not suffer that evil should befall us. She charged us to be secret and not to confide in anyone, pointing out by name some of those to whom she feared we might give our confidence in process of time. She encouraged us to hope that if she should receive satisfaction, our journey should not have been made in vain."

The Jesuits thought to begin with the catechism, but Christina set out on questions of the most recondite nature — namely, good and evil, Providence, immortality, external forms and their utility. The Jesuits were somewhat puzzled for arguments to uphold the invocation of the saints, and the veneration of images and saints, but Christina, being the better controvertist, supplied these missing defences, to the joy of the fathers, who at once decided that she was under the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost. Some days she would coquette with them. They would do well to go, she would tell them, she thought she would never be wholly reconciled. This the fathers would attribute to Satan. "What would you say", she would then ask suddenly, "if I were nearer to becoming a Catholic than you suppose?" "We seemed like men raised from the dead", says Casati. Could not the Pope grant permission to receive the Lord's supper once a year according to Luther's rite? The fathers said nay. "Then", said Christina, "there is no help. I must resign the crown."

The Jesuits departed for Rome, to acquaint the Church with its victory over a Queen of the heretics, and to prepare for her solemn and triumphant entry into the pale of the true faith. As early as October, 1651, when Father Macedo disappeared, Christina had mentioned officially the possibility of her abdication. It had been first talked of at Paris, the literary coterie having posted off the news. Christina told her Senate that, if she resigned, [Charles] Gustavus, the heir, her cousin, could secure a more desirable marriage. The Senate pleaded, and Christina withdrew her resignation, but with the condition that she should not be pressed to marry. Yet [Charles] Gustavus did not despair of winning her, and renewed his court without success. Two years later, the news spread over Sweden that the Queen still meant to abdicate. Because she was the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, and because her reign had been very prosperous, a change to the young generalissimo was regarded with gloomy apprehensions. Her religious state of mind was still a secret. The Senate met at Upsal and responded eloquently to her speech announcing abdication, that they had expected her promises to continue the government would have been of longer duration. The new Prince, Charles (Karl X), was put under obligations to pay her 200,000 rix-dollars a year, and several provinces were signed over to her to assure her pension. On the 21st of May she solemnly fixed on the 24th [sic] of June, 1654, as the day when she should cease to be Queen. Her oration drew tears from the eyes of the Senate. The day before the time when she would no more be Queen, she insulted the Portuguese minister-resident, ordering him by private letter to quit Sweden, but the Senate, on learning of her mad act, sent privately to the minister, and told him to be patient, for the Queen's power would endure but a few days longer, when amends should be made to him. It seems probable that this proceeding was merely a ruse, to shield the Portuguese people.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Karl Gustav.

Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 1

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 227 to 230, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

CHRISTINA

A. D. 1626-1689.

WHO RESIGNED A CROWN

When the great and self-sacrificing Gustavus Adolphus fell mortally wounded on the field of Lutzen, where he led on a knightly war of defense against the Catholics, he left as heir to the throne of Sweden, Christina, a Princess only seven years old [sic]. This child was destined to arouse the interest and evoke the astonishment of the world. The stricken nation committed the regency to the chiefs of the five colleges, and Oxenstiern, the chancellor of Gustavus Adolphus, remained at the head of affairs. When Christina was 23 years old peace had been established on a basis that was glorious for Sweden, and Christina had proved herself a diligent scholar, who promised to be a worthy daughter of the noble and valorous King who had died for a principle. Yet she had already exhibited many evidences of eccentricity. She early took to violent exercise, and discovered an invincible repugnance to both the employments and the conversation of women. She invited Descartes, Vossius, Grotius and other famous scholars to her court, and liberally rewarded them out of a treasury that had been sorely taxed by the wars. The jealous Swedes declared that she even made peace, so that she could give more hours to study. "I think I see the devil", she said, "when my secretary enters with his dispatches." Meanwhile she read the lives of Elizabeth and Isabella, and concluded that Elizabeth did wisely to keep free from a Ferdinand of her own. Like Elizabeth, Christina loved to study the ancient authors, and Polybius and Thucydides were her favorite authors. As she was an only daughter and child, the statesmen of Sweden, of course, were kept in anxiety regarding her successor, as their own estates might be swallowed up in a civil war should she die without an heir. All the eligible Princes of Europe offered their hands — the Prince of Denmark, the Elector Palatine, the Elector of Brandenburg, the King of Spain, the King of the Romans, Don John of Austria, Sigismund of Cassovia, the King of Poland, and John Casimir his brother, and, above all, her first cousin, son of her aunt, her father's sister, Charles Gustavus, generalissimo of the armies, who was her devoted flatterer and lover. While he had been absent in Germany he had obtained permission to correspond with the young Queen, and lost no opportunity to advance his own interests; indeed, those interests served to conspire with the needs of the state. Arckenholtz, the principal biographer of the Queen, says that the ardent lover declared, in one of his letters, that, if her Majesty persisted in her refusal to marry him, he on his side would decline the honour she proposed for him of reigning after her, and would banish himself forever from Sweden.

In February, 1650 [sic], Christina called her Senate together, announced her unwillingness to marry, and nominated Charles Gustavus to be her successor on the throne. To this the statesmen finally assented, and preparations for the coronation began. Custom demanded that the ceremony should take place at Upsal, but the desire for a magnificent spectacle carried it to Stockholm, whereat the superstitious foresaw evil. Moreover, Christina had constantly complained of the duties of office. She desired reflection and retirement, philosophical tranquillity, and affected an aversion for pomp, power, grandeur, and all the dress and splendor of a court. She had a wide correspondence with scholars. She purchased Titian's paintings at a great price, yet cut the canvases to make them fit the panels of her walls. "She aspired", says Arckenholtz, "to become the sovereign of the learned; to dictate in the lyceum as she had done in the Senate." "Do not force me to marry", she would say to her ministers, "for, if I should have a son, it is not more probable that he should be an Augustus than a Nero."

While she was at the chapel of the Castle of Stockholm, assisting at divine service with the principal lords, an insane assassin made an attack on her life. He chose the moment in which the assembly was engaged in what in the Swedish Church was called an "act of recollection", a silent act of devotion, performed by each individual, who knelt and covered the face with the hand. Taking this opportunity, when no one would be looking, he rushed through the crowd and mounted a balustrade within which the Queen was on her knees. The Baron Braki [sic] (or Brahé) was alarmed, and cried out; the guards interposed with their pikes, but the assassin got past them, and aimed a blow at the Queen with a knife. The Queen avoided the blow, and pushed the captain of her guards, who threw himself on the assassin, and seized him by the hair. The man was known to be mad, and was locked up. The Queen proceeded with the service, without emotion.

At another time, some ships-of-war were finishing at Stockholm, and she went to inspect them. As Admiral Fleming was going on board, across a narrow plank, holding the Queen by the hand, his foot slipped and he fell in the sea, carrying her with him. Steinberg, the Queen's first equerry, threw himself in the water, laid hold of her robe, and, with assistance, pulled her ashore. The moment her lips were above water, she cried: "Take care of the Admiral!" She was not violently agitated, and dined the same day in public, where she gave a humorous account of her adventure.

Christina's court soon became a veritable academy. There came Saumaise, Paschal, Bochart, Gassendi, Naude, Heinsius, Meibon [sic], Scuderi, Menage, Lucas, Holstenius, Lambecius, Bayle (of Bayle's Dictionary or Encyclopedia), Madam Dacier, and many others. These people of genius all celebrate her in the works which they have left to the world, once more proving that it is profitable for a Prince to patronize the arts. Yet it may be clearly seen that she had enough literary material on hand for a big row, and it came when Saumaise (Salmasius) introduced the adventurer Michon, who called himself Bourdelot. He attempted the rôle of Aristophanes, and made sport of the scholars, thus amusing the Queen. The Count Magnus de la Gardie, son of the Constable of Sweden, was the favorite and lover of Christina, but he aroused her jealousy because he revealed a tendency to govern. Bourdelot, to the great scandal of the Swedes, supplanted Magnus, and gained such an ascendancy over the Queen that public indignation compelled her to banish him. Soon after, she spoke of him with hatred and contempt. But the incident was painful, and awoke some resentment in her mind against the Swedes, who, all along, had detested her associates and regarded them with the aversion usually bestowed on foreigners.

Above: Kristina.

Note: The man who tried to assassinate Kristina was Christoffer Presbeckius.

Bildt edition: "L'Ouvrage du Loisir", part 12

Source:

Pensées de Christine, reine de Suède, pages 162 to 167, edited and published by Baron Carl Bildt, 1906; original at Harvard University

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnnd3d&seq=166

Compare this with the edition published by Arckenholtz (1751):

https://kingkristina.blogspot.com/2024/04/kristinas-maxims-ouvrage-de-loisir-part_7.html

The "Pensées":

1101.

De l'art de penser dépend toute la félicité des hommes.

1102.

Le chagrin et l'austérité ne sont pas la vertu.

1103.

La vertu et l'austérité subsistent à part.

1104.

On doit faire du bien et s'abstenir du mal uniquement parce que Dieu le veut.

1105.

La Providence a ses martyrs aussi bien que la foi. Ce martyre fait moins de bruit; il est plus secret, mais il n'est pas moins cruel, ni moins glorieux.

1106.

La conscience nous empêche d'être nos premiers flatteurs.

1107.

La conscience parle aux hommes malgré eux d'une manière à se faire écouter.

1108.

Dieu récompense les hommes plus qu'ils ne méritent et les punit moins; il faut l'imiter.

1109.

Il faut se défier des saints vivants.

1110.

On est héros et saint à bon marché, dans l'opinion des hommes.

1111.

Il faut être saint à la mode de Dieu.

1112.

Dieu hait tout ce qui est faux.

1113.

Les bigots croient donner tout ce qu'ils n'ôtent pas.

1114.

Les bigots prêchent l'aumône, mais ils ne la donnent jamais.

1115.

Les aumônes et les libéralités des bigots ne sont que trafic.

1116.

L'on ne saurait faire subsister les grandes communautés sans leur persuader qu'il faut manger peu et s'habiller mal.

1117.

Il y a de certaines choses que les sots font aussi bien que les plus habiles.

1118.

Ceux qui sont nés pour la haine, n'aiment guère.

1119.

Ceux qui sont nés pour l'amour, haïssent peu.

1120.

Il y a des gens qui aiment et haïssent avec violence, mais ils sont rares et dangereux.

1121.

L'on ressemble en quelque façon à Dieu, en ne disant que la vérité, et en ne faisant que du bien.

1122.

Otez l'intérêt et la vanité de la dévotion de certaines gens, et voyez ce qui en reste.

1123.

La sage et héroïque antiquité adorait l'auteur de la nature sous les diverses figures et noms de leurs dieux.

1124.

Le peuple a été sot et superstitieux en tous les siècles et en toutes les religions. Il l'est et le sera toujours.

1125.

La plus pardonnable de toutes les idolâtries est celle du soleil.

[Christine avait mis ici la note suivante: «Il n'y a pas de devise qui dise moins et plus sottement ce qu'elle veut dire que celle qu'on a faite pour le roi Louis XIV. Les Français, qui changent tout, devraient la changer ou déterminer si le monde est capable (de) plusieurs soleils tels que leur roi, ce qui est très vrai, ou si leur roi est capable de plusieurs mondes imaginaires. C'est ce que veut dire le mot Nec pluribus impar.»

Elle a ajouté: «Cet article doit être mis en quelque autre lieu», mais cela n'a pas été fait.]

1126.

Quelque agréable et glorieuse que soit la vie, on serait très malheureux si elle ne finissait pas.

1127.

La vie est un passage.

1128.

Ce monde doit être considéré comme une espèce d'auberge où l'on ne passe que peu de moments.

1129.

On doit employer dignement tous les moments de la vie jusqu'au dernier.

1130.

Il n'importe de quelle manière l'on naisse, mais il importe fort de quelle manière l'on meurt.

1131.

La longue vie n'est qu'une longue attente de la mort.

1132.

Puisqu'enfin il faut mourir, heureux ceux qui sortent au plus tôt d'affaire.

1133.

Survivre à soi-même est un malheur, dont il faut se consoler comme du reste.

1134.

La philosophie ne change ni ne corrige pas les hommes.

1135.

La nature et la sagesse sont presque toujours d'accord.

1136.

Les hommes vivent d'une manière à persuader qu'ils ne croient rien des grandes vérités dont il n'est pas permis de douter.

1137.

Il faut se préparer à la mort par un entier détachement de toutes les créatures; il ne suffit pas d'avoir renoncé à ses espérances, à ses désirs, à tous ses amours; il faut encore s'arracher à soi-même, il ne faut pas attendre le dernier moment de la vie pour perdre de vue tout l'univers. Il disparaîtra infailliblement à celle de tous les hommes, mais il faut prévenir cet abandon et se résoudre à tout quitter. Il faut rester avec Dieu, puisque seul Il suffit dans le temps et dans l'éternité.

1138.

Savoir que Dieu est Dieu et le sera éternellement, suffit pour vivre et mourir content.

1139.

Enfin, quelque beau raisonnement que l'on fasse, et quelque belle résolution que l'on prenne, il faut savoir que sans Dieu on ne fera rien qui vaille.

—

Cet ouvrage est de qui ne désire, ni ne craint rien, et qui n'impose aussi rien à personne.

Swedish translation (my own):

1101.

All mänsklig lycka beror på tänkandets konst.

1102.

Sorg och stränghet är inte dygd.

1103.

Dygd och stränghet existerar separat.

1104.

Man måste göra gott och avstå från ont endast för att Gud vill det.

1105.

Försynen har sina martyrer såväl som tron. Detta martyrskap för mindre oväsen; det är mer hemligt, men det är varken mindre grymt eller mindre ärorikt.

1106.

Samvetet hindrar oss från att vara våra första smickrare.

1107.

Samvetet talar till människor trots sig själva på ett sätt som får dem att lyssna.

1108.

Gud belönar människor mer än de förtjänar och straffar dem mindre; vi måste imitera honom.

1109.

Vi måste vara misstrogna mot levande helgon.

1110.

Enligt människors åsikt är man en hjälte och ett helgon för billig skull.

1111.

Man måste vara helig på Guds sätt.

1112.

Gud hatar allt som är falskt.

1113.

Bigotter tror att de ger allt de inte tar ifrån andra.

1114.

Bigotter predikar allmosor, men de ger dem aldrig.

1115.

Bigotters allmosor och frikostigheter är inget annat än handel.

1116.

Stora samhällen kan inte upprätthållas utan att övertyga dem om att de måste äta lite och klä sig illa.

1117.

Det finns vissa saker som dårar gör lika bra som de klokaste.

1118.

De som är födda för hat älskar lite.

1119.

De som är födda för kärlek hatar lite.

1120.

Det finns människor som älskar och hatar med våld, men de är sällsynta och farliga.

1121.

Man liknar Gud på något sätt genom att bara tala sanning och bara göra gott.

1122.

Ta bort intresse och fåfänga från vissa människors hängivenhet och se vad som återstår.

1123.

Den kloka och heroiska forntiden dyrkade naturens upphovsman under sina gudars olika gestalter och namn.

1124.

Människor har varit dåraktiga och vidskepliga i alla sekler och i alla religioner. De är det och kommer alltid att vara det.

1125.

Den mest förlåtliga av alla avgudadyrkan är solens.

[Kristina hade lagt till följande anteckning här: »Det finns inget valspråk som säger mindre och mer dumt vad det betyder än det som skapades för konung Ludvig XIV. Fransmännen, som förändrar allt, borde förändra det eller avgöra om världen är kapabel till flera solar som deras konung, vilket är mycket sant, eller om deras konung är kapabel till flera imaginära världar. Det är vad ordet Nec pluribus impar [Inte ojämlik för många] betyder.«

Hon tillade: »Denna artikel borde placeras någon annanstans«, men detta gjordes inte.]

1126.

Hur behagligt och härligt livet än må vara, skulle vi vara mycket olyckliga om det inte tog slut.

1127.

Livet är en passage.

1128.

Denna värld bör betraktas som ett slags värdshus där vi bara tillbringar några få ögonblick.

1129.

Vi måste använda varje ögonblick av livet värdigt, ända till det sista.

1130.

Det spelar liten roll hur man föds, men det spelar stor roll hur man dör.

1131.

Ett långt liv är inget annat än en lång väntan på döden.

1132.

Eftersom man slutligen måste dö, är lyckliga de som kommer ut ur den olyckan så snabbt som möjligt.

1133.

Att överleva sig själv är en olycka som man måste trösta sig med, liksom med allt annat.

1134.

Filosofi varken förändrar eller korrigerar människor.

1135.

Natur och visdom är nästan alltid i överensstämmelse.

1136.

Människor lever på ett sådant sätt att de övertygar sig själva om att de inte tror på någonting om de stora sanningar som man inte får tvivla på.

1137.

Man måste förbereda sig för döden genom en fullständig distansering från alla varelser; det räcker inte att ha avsagt sig sina hopp, sina önskningar, all sin kärlek; man måste också slita sig loss från sig själv; man får inte vänta till livets sista ögonblick för att förlora hela universum ur sikte. Det kommer oundvikligen att försvinna med alla människors liv, men man måste förhindra denna övergivenhet och besluta sig för att lämna allt bakom sig. Man måste stanna kvar hos Gud, ty han ensam är tillräcklig i tid och evighet.

1138.

Att veta att Gud är Gud och kommer att vara det för evigt är tillräckligt för att leva och dö nöjd.

1139.

Slutligen, oavsett vilket vackert resonemang man förföljer, och oavsett vilket vackert beslut man tar, måste man veta att utan Gud kommer man inte att uppnå något värdefullt.

—

Detta verk är av en som varken önskar eller fruktar någonting som helst, och som inte heller påtvingar någon som helst någonting som helst.

English translation (my own):

1101.

All human felicity depends on the art of thinking.

1102.

Grief and austerity are not virtue.

1103.

Virtue and austerity subsist separately.

1104.

One must do good and abstain from evil only because God wills it.

1105.

Providence has its martyrs as well as the faith. This martyrdom makes less noise; it is more secret, but it is no less cruel nor less glorious.

1106.

Conscience prevents us from being our first flatterers.

1107.

Conscience speaks to men in spite of themselves in a way that makes them listen.

1108.

God rewards men more than they deserve and punishes them less; we must imitate Him.

1109.

We must be distrustful of living saints.

1110.

In the opinion of men, one is a hero and a saint for cheap.

1111.

One must be holy in God's fashion.

1112.

God hates everything that is false.

1113.

Bigots believe they give everything they do not take away.

1114.

Bigots preach alms, but they never give them.

1115.

The alms and liberalities of bigots are nothing but traffic.

1116.

Large communities cannot be sustained without persuading them that they must eat little and dress badly.

1117.

There are certain things that fools do as well as the most clever.

1118.

Those born for hate love little.

1119.

Those born for love hate little.

1120.

There are people who love and hate with violence, but they are rare and dangerous.

1121.

One resembles God in some way by speaking only the truth and doing only good.

1122.

Take away interest and vanity from the devotion of certain people, and see what remains.

1123.

Wise and heroic antiquity worshipped the author of nature under the various figures and names of their gods.

1124.

People have been foolish and superstitious in all centuries and in all religions. They are and always will be.

1125.

The most forgivable of all idolatries is that of the sun.

[Kristina had added the following note here: "There is no motto that says less and more foolishly what it means than the one created for King Louis XIV. The French, who change everything, should change it or determine whether the world is capable of several suns such as their king, which is very true, or whether their king is capable of several imaginary worlds. This is what the word Nec pluribus impar [Not unequal to many] means."

She added: "This article should be placed somewhere else", but this was not done.]

1126.

However agreeable and glorious life may be, we would be very unhappy if it did not end.

1127.

Life is a passage.

1128.

This world should be considered a kind of inn where we spend only a few moments.

1129.

We must use every moment of life worthily, until the last.

1130.

It matters little how one is born, but it matters greatly how one dies.

1131.

Long life is nothing but a long wait for death.

1132.

Since one must finally die, happy are those who emerge from the affair as quickly as possible.

1133.

To survive oneself is a misfortune for which one must console oneself, as with everything else.

1134.

Philosophy neither changes nor corrects men.

1135.

Nature and wisdom are almost always in accord.

1136.

Men live in such a way as to persuade themselves that they believe nothing of the great truths which one is not permitted to doubt.

1137.

One must prepare for death by a complete detachment from all creatures; it is not enough to have renounced one's hopes, one's desires, all one's loves; one must also tear oneself away from oneself; one must not wait until the last moment of life to lose sight of the entire universe. It will inevitably disappear with the life of all men, but one must prevent this abandonment and resolve to leave everything behind. One must remain with God, as He alone is sufficient in time and in eternity.

1138.

Knowing that God is God and will be so eternally is enough to live and die content.

1139.

Finally, whatever beautiful reasoning one pursues, and whatever beautiful resolution one takes, one must know that without God, one will achieve nothing worthwhile.

—

This work is by one who neither desires nor fears anything, and who also does not impose anything on anyone.

Above: Kristina.