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CHAP. produce of their estates was consumed in the private exLXX. penses, which multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord. The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique splendour was rivalled or surpassed by the sudden opulence of the papal families. In Rome the voice of freedom and discord is no longer heard; and, instead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant lake reflects the image of idleness and servitude.

The eccle

govern.

ment.

A Christian, a philosopher, and a patriot, will be siastical equally scandalised by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majesty of Rome, the remenbrance of her consuls and triumphs, may seem to embitter the sense, and aggravate the shame, of her slavery. If we calmly weigh the merits and defects of the ecclesiastical government, it may be praised in its present state as a mild, decent, and tranquil system, exempt from the dangers of a minority, the sallies of youth, the expenses of luxury, and the calamities of war. But these advantages are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a septennial, election of a sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country: the reign of a young statesman of threescore, in the decline of his life and abilities, without hope to accomplish, and without children to inherit, the labours of his transitory reign. The successful candidate is drawn from the church, and even the convent; from the mode of education and life the most adverse to reason, humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of servile faith, he has learned to believe because it is absurd to revere all that is contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the esteem of a rational being; to punish error as a crime, to reward mortification and celibacy, as the first of virtues; to place the saints of the kalendar94 above the heroes of Rome

92 This gradual change of manners and expense, is admirably explained by Dr. Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 495-504), who proves, perhaps too severely, that the most salutary effects have flowed from the meanest and most selfish causes.

93 Mr. Hume (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 389.) too hastily concludes, that if the civil and ecclesiastical powers be united in the same person, it is of little moment whether he be styled prince or prelate, since the temporal character will always predominate.

94 A protestant may disdain the unworthy preference of St. Francis or St. Dominic, but he will not rashly condemn the zeal or judgment of Sixtus V. who placed the statues of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, on the va cant columns of Trajan and Antonine.

95

LXX.

A. D. 1585 -1590.

and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal, or CHAP. the crucifix, as more useful instruments than the plough or the loom. In the office of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners; from study and experience he may suspect the mystery of his profession; but the sacerdotal artist will imbibe some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. The genius of Sixtus the fifth burst from the gloom of Sixtus V. a Franciscan cloyster. In a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane sanctuaries of Rome, formed a naval and military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity, and after a liberal use and large increase of the revenue, left five millions of crowns in the castle of St. Angelo. But his justice was sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of conquest; after his decease, the abuses revived; the treasure was dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new taxes and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his statue was demolished by an ungrateful, or an injured, people. The wild and original character of Sixtus the fifth stands alone in the series of the pontiffs: the maxims and effects of their temporal government may be collected from the positive and comparative view of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and popu

95 A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti, has given the Vita di Sisto-Quinto (Amstel. 1721, 3 vols. in 12mo), a copious and amusing work, but which does not command our absolute confidence. Yet the character of the man, and the principal facts, are supported by the Annals of Spondanus and Muratori (À. D. 1585-1590), and the contemporary history of the great Thuanas, (1. lxxxii. c. 1, 2. l. lxxxiv. c. 10. l. c. c. 8.)

96 These privileged places, the quartieri or franchises were adopted from the Roman nobles by the foreign ministers. Julius II. had once abolished the abominandum et detestandum franchitiarum hujusmodi nomen; and after Sixtus V. they again revived. I cannot discern either the justice or magnanimity of Louis XIV. who in 1687 sent his ambassador, the marquis de Lavardin, to Rome, with an armed force of a thousand officers, guards, and domestics, to maintain this iniquitous claim, and insult pope Innocent XI, in the heart of his capital (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 262-278. Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. xv. p. 494-496. and Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. tom. ii. c. 14. p. 58, 59.)

97 This outrage produced a decree, which was inscribed on marble, and placed in the Capitol. It is expressed in a style of manly simplicity and freedom; Si quis, sive privatus, sive magistratum gerens de collocandâ vivo pontifici statuâ mentionem facere ausit, legitimo S. P. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum infamis et publicorum munerum expers esto. MDXC. mense Augusto (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 469.) I believe that this decree is still observed, and I know that every monarch who deserves a statue should him. self impose the prohibition.

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CHAP. lation, of the ecclesiastical state. For myself, it is my LXX. wish to depart in charity with all mankind, nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend even the pope and clergy of Rome".

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98 The histories of the church, Italy, and Christendom, have contributed to the chapter which I now conclude. In the original Lives of the Popes, we often discover the city and republic of Rome; and the events of the xivth and xvth centuries are preserved in the rude and domestic chronicles which I have carefully inspected, and shall recapitulate in the order of time. 1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium Roman. A. D. 1328, in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. i. p. 525. N. B. The credit of this fragment is somewhat hurt by a singular interpolation, in which the author relates his own death at the age of 115 years.

2. Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ (vulgo Thomas Fortifiocca), in Romana Dialecto vulgari (A. D. 1327—1354, in Muratori, Antiquitat. medii Ævi Italiæ, tom. iii. p. 247-548): the authentic ground-work of the history of Rienzi.

3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1370-1410), in the Re-
rum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846.

4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1404-1417), tom. xxiv. p. 969.
5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana (A. D. 1433—1446), tom.
xxiv. p. 1101.

6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1472-1484), tom. xxiii. p.
81.

7. Annonymi Diarium Urbis Romæ (A. D. 1481-1492), tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1069.

8. Infessure (Stephani) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1294, or 1378—1494), tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109.

9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi (A. D. 1492-1503), edita a Godefr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Hanover, 1697, in 4to. The large and valuable Journal of Burchard might be completed from the MSS. in different libraries of Italy and France (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. xvii. p. 597–606.) Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy. His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works on that subject: 1. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (A. D. 500-1500.), quorum potissima pars nunc primum in lucem prodit, &c. xxviii vols. in folio, Milan, 1723-1738. 1751. A volume of chronological and alphabetical tables is still wanting as a key to this great work, which is yet in a disorderly and defective state. 2 Antiquitates Italiæ medii Ævi, vi vols. in folio, Milan, 1738-1743, in lxxv curious dissertations on the manners, government, religion, &c. of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large supplement of charters, chronicles, &c. 3. Dissertioni sopra le Antiquita Italiane, iii vols. in 4to, Milano, 1751, a free version by the author, which may be quoted with the same confidence as the Latin text of the Antiquities. 4. Annali d'Italia, xviii vols. in octavo, Milan, 1753-1756, a dry, though accurate and useful, abridgment of the history of Italy from the birth of Christ to the middle of the xviiith century. 5. Dell' Antichita Estensee et Italiane, ii vols. in folio, Modena, 1717, 1740. In the history of this illustrious race, the parent of our Brunswick kings, the critic is not seduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the subject. In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who as pires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after passing near sixty years in the libra ries of Milan and Modena (Vita del Proposto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and successor Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori, Venezia, 1756, in 4to.)

CHAPTER LXXI.

Prospect of the Ruins of Rome in the Fifteenth Century.-Four
Causes of Decay and Destruction.--Example of the Coliseum.
-Renovation of the City.-Conclusion of the whole Work.

from the

hill, A. D.

1430.

IN the last days of pope Eugenius the fourth, two CHAP. of his servants, the learned Poggius' and a friend, as- LXXI. cended the Capitoline hill; reposed themselves among View and the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed from discourse that commanding spot the wide and various prospect of of Poggius desolation. The place and the object gave ample scope Capitoline for moralising on the vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable. "Her "primæval state, such as she might appear in a remote "age, when Evander entertained the stranger of Troy3, "has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This "Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thicket: "in the time of the poet, it was crowned with the gol"den roofs of a temple; the temple is overthrown, the "gold has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred ground is 46 again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The bill "of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head "of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many "triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so "many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it "fallen! how changed! how defaced! the path of vic"tory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the "senators are concealed by a dung-hill. Cast your eyes "on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless

66

66

1 I have already (not. 50, 51. on chap. 65.) mentioned the age, character, and writing of Poggius; and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune.

2 Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeix arcis, ruinis, pone ingens portæ cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim confractas columnas, unde magnâ ex parte prospectus urbis patet, (p. 5.)

3 Æneid, viii. 97-369. This ancient picture, so artfully introduced, and so exquisitely finished, must have been highly interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early studies allow us to sympathise in the feelings of a Roman.

LXXI.

CHAP. and enormous fragments, the marble theatre, the obe"lisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's pa"lace survey the other hills of the city, the varant 66 space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The "forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to "enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now "enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown "open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eter"nity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs "of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, "from the stupendous relics that have survived the in"juries of time and fortune","9

His de

of the

ruins.

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These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one scription of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of classic, superstitions. 1. Besides a bridge, an arch, a sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the age of the republic, a double row of vaults in the salt-office of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three arches and a marble column of the temple of peace, which Vespasiau erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven thermæ or public baths, none were sufficiently entire to represent the use and distribution of the several parts; but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of the founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in observing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the size and multitude of the columns, compared the labour and expense with the use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found. 4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Constantine, were entire, both the structure and the inscriptions; a falling frag ment was honoured with the name of Trajan; and two arches, then extant, in the Flaminian way, have been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus.

4 Capitolium adeo... immutatum ut vineæ in senatorum subsellia successerint, stercorun, ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum. Respice ad Palatinum montem. . . vasta rudera... cæteros coiles perlustra omnia vacua ædificiis, ruinis vincisque oppleta conspicies (Poggius de Varietat. Fortuna, p. 21.) 5 See Poggius, p. 8-22.

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