Source:
Queen Christina of Sweden: Lothian Prize Essay for 1880, pages 52 to 54, by Arthur Henry Hardinge, 1880; original at the University of Michigan
The essay:
Meanwhile she began to think of leaving Belgium, and proceeding to Italy, whither her thoughts had long tended. Early in 1655, Innocent X. died, and Cardinal Chigi ascended the Papal throne as Alexander VII. The new Pope was a good but weak-minded man, whose chief fault, perhaps, was an overweening and almost ridiculous vanity. He was so delighted at the idea of so brilliant a conversion as Christina's having occurred during his pontificate, that he seems to have persuaded himself, and at last actually seems to have believed, that it had been entirely his own work. He went so far, in fact, as to declare, in a pompous speech which he made on the subject to the Consistory, that he himself had been the special instrument chosen by God to bring the queen of Sweden to a knowledge of the truth. "He used every endeavour", says Cardinal de Retz, "to impress this fact clearly on our minds, although everybody was perfectly aware that he had had absolutely nothing to do with it." He was therefore naturally pleased at the idea of receiving Christina at Rome, and prepared to do so with every honour. As soon as the needful arrangements had been made, she left Brussels in the autumn, (Sept. 25 [sic], 1655), accompanied by Piementelle, and an escort of about 200 persons.
She passed rapidly by way of Cologne and the Rhine to Frankfort, where she received the Elector of Mayence, and a number of German princes; and after a short stay, pushed on into Bavaria. She was now in a land where every step must have recalled to her some of the most famous events in the history of her country's greatness, and of the Protestant religion, with which that greatness was so closely bound up. She passed near the battle-fields where her father, the great Gustavus, and after him her own generals, Baner, Wrangel, and Torstenson, had won some of their most brilliant victories over the Bavarian and Imperial armies. She stopped at Augsburg, the city where Luther and Melancthon had drawn up the first authoritative statement of the Protestant beliefs, that Confession of Augsburg which was still the official catechism of her native Church. She crossed the Austrian frontier into the dominions of that House of Hapsburg which had been the implacable enemy of her country and its religion, but to whose creed she had now become a convert, and whose European policy she was doing all in her power to support, in its struggle against the old traditional ally of Sweden.
On the 26th of October she entered Inspruck, accompanied by several archdukes; and about a week afterwards was publicly and solemnly received into the Roman Catholic Church in the cathedral of that city. The service was performed by Lucas Holstenius, Canon of St. Peter's, Rome, and especially chosen for this purpose, as being both a literary man and himself a convert from Lutheranism. In addition to the regular profession of faith, Christina promised to use every effort to bring her subjects, or those over whom she possessed influence, to the knowledge of the true religion. A German Jesuit then preached a sermon, from the text: "Hearken, O daughter; consider and incline thine ear: forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;" after which there was a Te Deum, much triumphant firing of cannon, and a comedy in the evening. It is on this occasion that Christina is reported to have said, "It is only fair that you should treat me to a comedy this evening, as I have treated you this morning to a farce." The story, however, rests only on the authority of Chevreau, to whom most of the irreverent remarks of Christina can be traced. It is not, indeed, likely that, with all her love for sharp sayings, she would have gone out of her way to shock, by so profane a sentiment, the members of the solemn and bigotedly orthodox court of Austria; but the story gained general credence at the time, and, together with the report of Christina's careless behaviour during the service of admission, helped to acquire for her a reputation for complete irreligion.
From Inspruck she wrote two important letters, to the Pope and to the King of Sweden, informing them of her conversion. That to the Pope is couched in a spirit of effusive devotion. To the king she writes more shortly, and with greater independence, to express a hope that he will respect the motives for her change of faith — a change which will in no way alter the love she has always felt for Sweden. She now resumed her journey through the Venetian and Mantuan territories; but it is hardly necessary to enter into the details of her progress, or to recount the honours and ceremonies which awaited her on the frontiers of the Papal states, and at Bologna, Ancona, Turin, and other towns through which she passed on her way to Rome. She entered the Eternal City in a hunting-costume, with a feathered hat, and riding in man's fashion astride upon a white horse, to the great surprise of the Italian ladies. The Farnese Palace was assigned to her as a residence; every possible honour was shewn her by the Pope; and innumerable Latin sonnets and epigrams were written — some clever, others wretchedly bad — on the subject of her "sublime and glorious conversion."
Above: Kristina.
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