and honour of that church, of which he was the chief, and which from this time displayed a degree of magnificence which had never before been equalled. The revenues of the numerous benefices, rich abbeys, and other ecclesiastical preferments bestowed upon each of the cardinals and great dignitaries of the church, frequently amounted to a princely sum, and a prelate was considered as comparatively poor, whose annual income did not amount to eight or ten thousand ducats. On the death of Sixtus della Rovere, the nephew of Sixtus IV.,36 in the year 1517, Leo appointed his cousin Giulio de' Medici vice-chancellor of the holy see; which office alone brought him the annual sum of twelve thousand ducats. Nor was it only from within the limits of Italy that the cardinals and prelates of the church derived their wealth and their dignities. All Europe was then tributary to the Roman see; and many of these fortunate ecclesiastics, whilst they passed their days amidst the luxuries and ainusements of Rome, supported their rank, and supplied their dissipation, by contributions from the remotest parts of Christendom. The number of benefices held by an individual was limited only by the will of the pontiff; and by an ubiquity, which although abstractedly impossible, has been found actually and substantially true, the same person was frequently at the same time an archbishop in Germany, a bishop in France or England, an abbot or a prior in Poland or in Spain, and a cardinal at Rome. By the example of the supreme pontiff, who well knew how to unite magnificence with taste, the chiefs and princes of the Roman church emulated each other in the grandeur of their palaces, the sumptuousness of their apparel, the elegance of their entertainments, and the number and respectability of their attendants; nor can it be denied, that their wealth and influence were frequently devoted to the encouragement of the fine arts, and the remuneration of men of genius in every department of intellect. Soon after the creation of the new cardinals, such of them as resided in Rome were invited by the pontiff to a sumptuous entertainment in the apartments of the Vatican, which had then been recently ornamented by those exquisite productions of Raffaello d'Urbino, which have ever since been the theme of universal applause. The Roman citizens, who partook of the affluence the church, in a general abundance of all the necessaries of life, re-echoed the praises of the pontiff; who by a liberal policy abrogated the monopolies by which they had been oppressed, and allowed all kinds of merchandise to be freely imported and exported throughout his dominions. Hence the city of Rome became a granary, always supplied with provisions, and was frequently chosen as a residence by mercantile men from other parts of Italy, who contributed by their wealth and industry to the general prosperity.37 Nor was this prosperity less promoted by the security which the inhabitants enjoyed from a strict and impartial administration of justice; it having been a maxim with the pontiff, not to endanger the safety and tranquillity of the good, by an ill-timed lenity towards the guilty. The happiness enjoyed by the Roman people during the remaining part of the life of Leo X. forms indeed the truest glory of his pontificate. That they were sensible of this happiness, appears not only from the sentiments of admiration and regret with which the golden days of Leo were referred to, by those who survived to experience the calamities of subsequent times, but from a solemn decree of the inhabitants, to perpetuate the remembrance of it by a statue of the pontiff, which was accordingly executed in marble by Domenico Amio, a disciple of Sansovini, and placed in the Capitol, with the following inscription: OPTIMO. PRINCIPI. LEONI. X. MED. IOAN. PONT. MAX. OB. RESTITVTAM. RESTAVRATA M Q. ARTES. ADSCITOS. PATRES. SVBLATVM. VECTIGAL. DATVMQ. CHAPTER XV. 1517-1518. Laco X. dissolves the council of the Lateran-Commencement of the Reformation-The earlier promoters of literature arraign the misconduct of the clergy-Dante-Petrarca-Boccaccio and others expose the clergy to ridiculo -Accusations against the clergy justly founded—Attempts made to restrain the freedom of publication-Effects of the revival of classical literature on the established religion-And of the study of the Platonic philosophy-Restraints imposed by the church on philosophical studies-General spirit of inquiry-Promulgation of indulgences-Impolicy of this measure-Luther opposes the sale of indulgences-They are defended by Tetzel-By EcciusAnd by Prierio-Leo inclines to temperate measures-The emperor Maximilian calls on the pope to interfere--Leo cites Luther to appear at RomeLuther obtains a hearing in Germany-He repairs to Augsburg-Interview between Luther and the cardinal of Gaeta-Luther appeals to Leo X.— Papal decree against the opinions of Luther-He appeals from Leo X. to a general council-Two circumstances which contributed to the success of Luther -I. He combines his cause with that of the promoters of learning-II. He offers to submit his doctrines to the test of reason and scripture. THE Council of the Lateran, which commenced under the pontificate of Julius II., having now sat for nearly five years, approached the termination of its labours. Were we to insinuate that the motive of Julius in convoking this assembly, was that it might operate as his justification, in refusing to submit to the adverse decrees of the council of Pisa, we might incur the imputation, although we should now escape the penalties of heresy. It may, however, with confidence be asserted, that this council was chiefly intended to counteract the proceedings of the Conciliabulum, and in this respect its triumph was complete; the cardinal Carvajal, who had been the leader of the refractory ecclesiastics, having not only made his submission in the seventh session of the council of Lateran, but having accepted the humiliating honour of performing divine service on its final dissolution, which took place on the sixteenth day of March, 1517. On this occasion a solemn excommunication was denounced against all persons who should presume to comment upon, or G 2 interpret its transactions, without the special license of the holy see.* The peace of the church thus restored, by the labours of the council, was not, however, destined to remain long undisturbed. Scarcely had the assembly separated, before the new opinions and refractory conduct of Martin Luther, a monk of the Augustine order, at Wittemberg, attracted the notice of the Roman court, and led the way to that schism, which has now for nearly three centuries divided the Christian world, and introduced new causes of alienation, discord, and persecution, among the professors of that religion which was intended to inculcate universal peace, charity, and good-will. In the fourteenth century, when the human mind began to be emancipated from its long thraldom, one of the first indications of liberty appeared in the bold and presumptuous manner in which the fathers and promoters of literature penetrated into the recesses, and arraigned the conduct of the Roman pontiffs and chief dignitaries of the church. Whatever might have been the crimes of the priesthood, the voice of censure had hitherto been effectually suppressed; and their transactions, like those of the ancient heroes, were buried in eternal silence for want of due celebration. The hardy genius of Dante shrunk not, however, from the dangerous task, and after having met with pope Anastasius in the depths of hell, it is no wonder that he represents the church as sunk under the weight of her crimes, and polluted with mire and filth. The milder spirit of Petrarca appears upon this subject to be roused to a yet higher pitch of indignation. In one of his sonnets he assimilates the papal court to Babylon, and declares that he has quitted it for ever, as a place equally deprived of virtue and of shame, the residence of misery and the mother of error; and in another he seems to have exhausted on this theme every epithet of reproach and abhorrence which his native language could afford.38 If the genius and character of these two great men secured them whilst living from the effects of ecclesiastical resentment, the increasing celebrity which their works acquired after their death, gave additional weight to the opinions which they had so freely expressed. Even the populace, under the sanction of such *S. S. Concil. tom. xiv. P. 335. authority, began to open their eyes to the abuses of the church, and to doubt of that infallibility which had before been as willingly conceded as it was arrogantly assumed. Whilst these and similar productions were calculated to bring the church into odium and disgrace, those of the celebrated Boccaccio were at least equally calculated to expose the priesthood to ridicule and contempt. The debaucheries of the religious of both sexes form the most general theme of his very popular and entertaining work. That Boccaccio was the most dangerous adversary of the papal power, cannot, indeed, be doubted. What we violently abhor, we may still justly dread; but that which we have learnt to despise ceases to be an object of terror. To Boccaccio succeeded several writers, whose works, considered in other points of view, are of little importance; but which, as contributing to sap the foundations of the Roman power, and to weaken in the minds of the people the influence and authority of the holy see, have greatly contributed to the emancipation of the human race. Such are the "Facetiæ " of Poggio, and the writings of Burchiello, Pulci, and Franco. To some of these works the newly-invented art of printing gave a more general circulation. Of the "Facetiæ," upwards of ten editions were printed in the last thirty years of the fifteenth century. They were also published at Antwerp and Leipsic ; an evident proof, in that early state of the art of printing, that the work had obtained great celebrity, not only in Italy, but throughout the whole extent of Christendom.39 If the foregoing instances of a rising spirit of opposition to the Roman see were not sufficient to show the decided hostility which already subsisted between literature and superstition, it would be easy to multiply them from the works of other writers; but it must not be supposed that the animadversions, or the ridicule, of all the learned men of the time could have brought the priesthood into contempt, if its members had not by their own misconduct afforded substantial grounds for such imputations. That a very general relaxation not only of ecclesiastical discipline, but of the morals and manners of the clergy, had taken place, is a fact, for the proof of which it is not necessary to search beyond the records of the church itself. Even in the council of the Lateran, Giovanni Francesco Pico, the nephew of the celebrated Pico of Mirandola, delivered an oration under |