CHAP. LXX. absolute do Rome, A. D. The spiritual thunders of the Vatican depend on the force of opinion and, if that opinion be supplanted by reason or The popes passion, the sound may idly waste itself in the air; and the acquire the helpless priest is exposed to the brutal violence of a noble minion of or a plebeian adversary. But after their return from Avignon, the keys of St. Peter were guarded by the sword of St. 1500, &c. Paul. Rome was commanded by an impregnable citadel: the use of cannon is a powerful engine against popular seditions: a regular force of cavalry and infantry was enlisted under the banners of the pope: his ample revenues supplied the resources of war: and, from the extent of his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city an army of hostile neighbours and loyal subjects. Since the union of the dutchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po; and as early as the sixteenth century, the greater part of that spacious and fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal sovereignty of the Roman pontiffs. Their claims were readily deduced from the genuine, or fabulous, donations of the darker ages: the successive steps of their final settlement would engage us too far in the transactions of Italy, and even of Europe; the crimes of Alexander the sixth, the martial operations of Julius the second, and the liberal policy of Leo the tenth, a theme which has been. adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the times.89 In the first period of their conquests, till the expedition of Charles the eighth, the popes might successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to their own. But as soon as the mo narchs of France, Germany, and Spain, contended with gi toujours les papes sont sages et bien conseillés); mais très souvent en advient de grands et cruels meurtres et pilleries. 88 By the economy of Sixtus V. the revenue of the ecclesiastical state was raised to two millions and an half of Roman crowns (Vra, tom. ii. p. 291... 296); and so regular was the military establishment, that in one month Cie. ment VIII. could invade the dutchy of Ferrara with three thousand horse and twenty thousand foot (tom. iii. p. 64). Since that time (A. D. 1597), the pa pal arins are happily rusted; but the revenue must have gained some nominal encrease. 89 More especially by Guicciardini and Machiavel; in the general history of the former, in the Florentine history, the Prince, and the political discourses of the latter. These with their worthy successors, Fra-Palo and Davilla, were justly esteemed the first historians of modern languages, till, in the present age, Scotland arose, to dispute the prize with Italy herself. LXX. gantic arms for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with CHAP. art the deficiency of strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and treaties, their aspiring views, and the immortal hope of chacing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the soldiers of the North and West, who were united under the standard of Charles the fifth: the feeble and fluctuating policy of Clement the seventh exposed his person and dominions to the conqueror; and Rome was abandoned seven months to a lawless army, more cruel and rapacious than the Goths and Vandals." After this severe lesson, the popes contracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed the character of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities, except in an hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish sultan were armed at the same time against the kingdom of Naples." The French and Germans at length withdrew from the field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the sea-coast of Tuscany, were firmly possessed by the Spaniards; and it became their interest to maintain the peace and dependence of Italy, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle of the sixteenth, to the opening of the eighteenth, century. The Vatican was swayed and protected by the religious policy of the Catholic king: his prejudice and interest disposed him in every dispute to support the prince against the people; and instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum, which they obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the enemies of law, were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle of despotism. The long habits of obedience and education subdued the turbulent spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. The barons forgot the arms and factions of their ancestors, and insensibly became the servants of luxury and government. Instead of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce 90 In the history of the Gothic siege, I have compared the Barbarians with the subjects of Charles V. (vol. iv. p. 129...131); an anticipation, which, like that of the Tartar conquests, I indulged with the less scruple, as I could scarcely hope to reach the conclusion of my work. 91 The ambitious and feeble hostilities of the Caraffa pope, Paul IV. may be seen in Thuanus (l. xvi...xvii.) and Giannone (tom. iv. p. 149...163). Those Catholic bigots, Philip II. and the duke of Alva, presumed to separate the Roman prince from the vicar of Christ: yet the holy character, which would have sanctified his victory, was decently applied to protect his defeat. CHAP. of their estates was consumed in the private expenses, which LXX. The eccle siastical government. multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord.92 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. A Christian, a philosopher,93 and a patriot, will be equally scandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majesty of Rome, the remembrance 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 kalendar" 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 vacant columns of Trajan and Antonine. A. D. 1585... 1590.. and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal, or the CHAP. crucifix, as more useful instruments than the plough or the LXX. 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 Sixtus V. fifth burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane sanctuaries of Rome,9 formed a naval and military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity, and after a liberal use and large encrease 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 population, of the ecclesiastical state. 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 (A. D. 1585...1590), and the contemporary history of the great Thuanus, (1.lxxxii, c. 1, 2. l. lxxxiv. c. 10. 1. 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 styl. of manly simplicity and freedom; Si quis, sive privatus, sive magistratum gere de c locandâ 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 himself impose the prohibition. LXX. CHAP. For myself, it is my 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.98 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. xii. 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 3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1370...1410), in the Re- 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 y 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, abridgement of the history of Italy from the birth of Christ to the middle of the xviiith century. 5. Dell' Antichita Estensee et Italiane, ii vois. 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 aspires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after passing near sixty year in the libraries of Milan and Modena (Vita del Proposto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and successor Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori, Venezia, 1756, in 4to). |