LXX. CHAP. dependence of Italy, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle of the fixteenth to the opening of the eighteenth century. The Vatican was fwayed and protected by the religious policy of the Catholic king: his prejudice and intereft difpofed him in every difpute to support the prince against the people; and inftead of the encouragement, the aid, and the afylum, which they obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the enemies of law, were enclosed on all fides within the iron circle of defpotifm. The long habits of obedience and education fubdued the turbulent fpirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. The barons forgot the arms and factions of their ancestors, and infenfibly became the fervants of luxury and government. Inftead of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce of their eftates was confumed in the private expences, which multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord ". The Colonna and Urfini vied with each other in the decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique fplendour was rivalled or furpaffed by the fudden opulence of the papal families. In Rome the voice of freedom and difcord is no longer heard; and, inftead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant lake reflects the image of idlenefs and fervitude, 92 This gradual change of manners and expence, is admirably explained by Dr. Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 495504.), who proves, perhaps too feverely, that the most salutary effects have flowed from the meanest and most selfish causes. A Christian, LXX. fiaftical ment. A Christian, a philofopher 23, and a patriot, will CHAP. be equally fcandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majefty of Rome, the The eccleremembrance of her confuls and triumphs, may governfeem to embitter the fenfe, and aggravate the fhame, of her flavery. If we calmly weigh the merits and defects of the ecclefiaftical government, it may be praised in its prefent ftate as a mild, decent, and tranquil fyftem, exempt from the dangers of a minority, the fallies of youth, the expences of luxury, and the calamities of war. But thefe advantages are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a feptennial, election of a fovereign, who is feldom a native of the country: the reign of a young statesman of threefcore, in the decline of his life and abilities, without hope to accomplish, and without children to inherit, the labours of his tranfitory reign. The fuccefsful candidate is drawn from the church, and even the convent; from the mode of education and life the moft adverse to reafon, humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of fervile faith, he has learned to believe because it is abfurd, to revere all that is contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the efteem of a rational being; to punish error as a crime, to reward mortification and celibacy, as the first of virtues; to place the faints of the kalendar" above the 93 Mr. Hume (Hift. of England, vol. i. p. 389.) too hastily concludes, that if the civil and ecclefiaftical powers be united in the fame perfon, it is of little moment whether he be styled prince or prelate, fince the temporal character will always predominate. 94 A proteftant may difdain the unworthy preference of St. Francis or St. Dominic, but he will not rafhly condemn the zeal of judgment Cc 4 CHAP. the heroes of Rome and the fages of Athens; LXX. and to confider the miffal, or the crucifix, as more useful inftruments than the plough or the loom. In the office of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire fome knowledge of the world, but the primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners; from study and experience he may fufpect the mystery of his profeffion; but the facerdotal artist will imbibe fome portion of the Sixtus V. bigotry which he inculcates. The genius of Sixtus the fifth burft from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolifhed the profane fanctuaries of Rome ", 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 A. D. 1585* 590. judgment of Sixtus V. who placed the ftatues of the apoftles, St. Peter and St. Paul, on the vacant columns of Trajan and Antonine. 95 A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti, has given the Vita di Sifto-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 fupported by the Annals of Spondanus and Muratori (A. D. 1585—1590), and the contemporary history of the great Thuanus (1. lxxxii. c. 1, 2, 1. lxxxiv. c. 10. l. c. c. 8 ). 96 Thefe privileged places, the quartieri or franchises, were adopted from the Roman nobles by the foreign minifters. Julius II. had once abolished the abominandum et deteftandum franchitiarum hujufmodi nomen; and after Sixtus V. they again revived. I can. not difcern either the justice or magnanimity of Louis XIV. who in 1687 fent his ambaffador, the marquis de Lavardin, to Rome, with an armed force of a thousand officers, guards, and domeftics, to maintain this iniquitous claim, and infult pope Innocent XI. in the heart of his capital (Vita di Sifto 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.)、 in LXX. in the castle of St. Angelo. But his juftice was CHAP. fullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of conqueft; after his deceafe, the abufes revived; the treasure was diffipated; he entailed on pofterity thirty-five new taxes and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his ftatue was demolished by an ungrateful, or an injured, people". The wild and original character of Sixtus the fifth ftands alone in the feries of the pontiffs: the maxims and effects of their temporal government may be collected from the pofitive and comparative view of the arts and philofophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and population, of the ecclefiaftical state. For myfelf, 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". 97 This outrage produced a decree, which was infcribed on marble, and placed in the Capitol. It is expreffed in a style of manly fimpli city and freedom: Si quis, five privatus, five magiftratum gerens de collocandâ vivo pontifici ftatuâ mentionem facere aufit, legitimo S. P. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum infamis et publicorum munerum expers efto. MDXC. menfe Augufto (Vita di Sifto V. tom. iii. p. 469.). I believe that this decree is ftill obferved, and I know that every monarch who deferves a statue, should himself impose the prohibition. 98 The hiftories 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 xyth centuries are preferved in the rude and domeftic chronicles which I have carefully inspected, and fhall recapitulate in the order of time. 1. Monaldefchi (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 fomewhat hurt by a fingular interpolation, in which the author relates bis own death at the age of 115 years. 3. Fragmenta Hiftoriæ Romanæ (vulgo Thomas Fortifiocca), in Romana Dialecto vulgari (A. D. 1327—1354, in Muratori, Antiquitat. CHAP. Antiquitat. medii Ævi Italiæ, tom. iii. p. 247-548.); the authentic ground-work of the hiftory of Rienzi. 3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1370-1410), in the Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846. 4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1404-1417), tom. xxiv. p. 969. 5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Hiftorica Romana (A.D. 1433– 1446), tom. xxiv. p. 1101. 6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1472-1484), tom. xxiii. p. 81. 7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romæ (A. D. 1481–1492), tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1069. 8. Infeffuræ (Stephani) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1294, or 13781494), tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109. 9. Hiftoria Arcana Alexandri VI. five Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi (A.D. 1492—1503), edita a Godefr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Hanover, 1697, in 4to. The large and valuable Journal of Burcard might be completed from the MSS. in different libraries of Italy and France (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Infcrip. tom. xvii. p. 597-606.). Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inferted in the Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the hiftory of Italy. His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works on that fubject: 1. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (A. D. 5001500), quorum potiffima 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 diforderly and defective state. 2. Antiquitates I:aliæ medii Ævi, vi vols. in folio, Milan, 1738-1743, in lxxv curious differtations on the manners, government, religion, &c. of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large fupplement of charters, chronicles, &c. 3. Differtioni fopra le Antiquita Italiane, iii vols. in 4to, Milano, 1751, a free verfion by the author, which may be quoted with the fame confidence as the Latin text of the Antiquities. 4. Anrali d'Italia, xviii vols. in octavo, Milan, 1753-1756, a dry, though accurate and ufeful, abridgement of the history of Italy from the birth of Chrift to the middle of the xviiith century. 5. Dell' Antichita Eftenfee et Italiane, ii vols. in folio, Modena, 1717. 1740. In the hiftory of this illuf trious race, the parent of our Brunswick kings, the critic is not feduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the fubject. In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who afpires above the prejudices of a Catholic prieft. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 17 50, after paffing near fixty years in the libraries of Milan and Modena (Vita del Propofto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and fucceffor Gian. Francefco Soli Muras tori, Venezia, 1756, in 4to). |