eunuch Narses, (the first Exarch) governor of Italy, in the name of the Emperor. But he governed a half desert country. How changed from the Italy which the Goths had first invaded, two centuries before; and Rome, its great capital, nearly obliterated from the list of cities! I am not attempting to trace the march of history in these reminiscences of the fate of Rome, but to revive the recollection of such events as influenced the partial preservation of the city and its monuments. To follow the history of the city we must just hint at its state during the government of the Exarchs, who ruled over Italy till the year 728, although their sway, continually reduced by the incursions of the new enemy, the Lombards, scarcely extended eventually beyond the limits of the present Roman states. The old city, though little benefited by this connection with the eastern empire, enjoyed, nevertheless, comparative tranquillity, disturbed only by the disputes of the clergy, who in the heat of the controversies of the iconoclasts and their adversaries, separated the churches of Constantinople and Rome; and the Popes, at last throwing off their allegiance to the eastern Emperor, commenced their temporal reign, with which the fortunes of the city are hereafter to be connected; though the Exarchs of Ravenna were allowed still a nominal sway, in the name of the successors of Constantine, till the crowning of Charlemagne as a new Emperor of the west, A.D. 800, where ends the civil, and commences the ecclesiastical history of Rome.

One feels at a loss, however, whether to divide ancient from modern history, at the point where Rome falls under the arms of Alaric, or at the point where the northern nations first assume a political importance, about the period of Charlemagne; and, perhaps, the latter would be the more correct division, though it is tempting to mark the close of ancient story with the striking catastrophe of Rome; and painful and uninteresting to drag along the drama after the great denouement; merely, as it were, to shew the spectators the funeral, and read them the epitaph of the heroine.

At the period of the revolt of the Popes from the power of the eastern emperors, the boundary of the Roman empire, so far as the city of Rome was the centre of it, had receded from the ocean, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; and the city of Romulus was again reduced to her ancient territory; from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to the mouth of the Tiber. So that the empire of the crozier commenced within the same limits as its precursor of the sword. For the Lombards had encroached upon the Exarchate, as far as Viterbo on the north, whilst the same enemy hedged it in as far as Terracina on the south; occupying, as the Dutchy of Beneventum, about the same space as the modern kingdom of Naples.

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The Popes, however, were not left in quiet enjoyment of their independence of the Exarchs; for the king of the Lombards was soon at the gates of Rome, which was only delivered by the arms of Charles Martel; who fresh from that victory over the Saracens, which perhaps saved all Europe from Mahomedanism, hastened at the call of the Pope to his assistance, and dispersed the Lombards, who retreated to their own territories. His reward was the title of Patrician of Rome, a title which, in the chronology of princes, succeeds that of Exarch in the government of middle Italy. The Exarchate, now by virtue of conquest possessed by Martel, was presented by him to the Popes, as the estate of the church; and being confirmed by Pepin, his successor, and Charlemagne the son of Pepin, at his coronation, by Leo III. at Rome, in the year 800 of the Christian era, may be considered as the true commencement of the rule of the Popes as temporal princes: they were, however, considered for a time as vassals of the empire; the title of Patrician conferring the actual supreme power upon the Emperor, who now reigning over Spain, France, Germany, and Italy, might in point of extent of territory be worthily deemed a new Emperor of the west. But the city of Rome was not the centre of that empire, and consequently derived but little benefit from the new state of things; indeed, many precious things were carried away from her precincts for the decoration of the northern capital of her barbarian 'lord; who also, with the permission of the Popes, stripped the palace of Ravenna of its mosaics, for the decoration of his halls at Aix-la-Chapelle.

The succeeding revolutions of Italy had but little influence on the fate of the city, which, however, in the quarrels and feuds which soon took place between the Popes and the Emperors, suffered still further injury: the remains of her great public buildings became converted into fortresses; and what the fierce strife of the Guelph and Ghibbeline factions did not effect, the intestine quarrels between the Pontiffs and the Roman people, or at a later period the contentions of the Colonna and Ursini, completed.

Through all this discord, however, the power of the Popes gradually increased, as the influence of Christianity became more deeply felt; driving half Europe into the mad enterprise of the Crusades, and enabling Gregory the Seventh, without wealth and without arms, to triumph over the great Barbarossa. Nor was the progress of their power much impeded by their temporary residence in Avignon, or by the republican attempts, at distant periods, of Crescentius or Rienzi.

Still, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, while the various republics of Italy which had arisen from the wrecks of the ancient municipal cities of the empire, began to enrich themselves by peaceful commerce, and encourage arts

and letters, Rome was still a sunken and impoverished city; her ancient monuments were disappearing, and even her aqueducts had become ruinous and useless. But Boniface the Eighth by a happy expedient, restored its sinking star to its zenith. He had sufficient learning to recollect and revive the secular games which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of every century; and announced to pilgrims visiting Rome at that period, the customary indulgences of the holy time. The consequence of this proclamation was, that on the 1st of January, 1300, Rome was thronged with a multitude from all parts of Europe. Some state at two millions the number of pilgrims attracted by this experiment; others, at the more moderate computation of two hundred thousand.

A trifling oblation from each individual would accumulate a royal treasure; and priests stood night and day, with rakes in their hands, to collect the heaps of gold and silver that were poured on the altar of St. Paul. This was the talisman that was wanting to lift the Popedom to the zenith of its power; and the city soon felt the influence of its greatness. The nobles, who had hitherto lived in fortress-houses that resembled prisons, now, in emulation of the efforts of the Pisans and Florentines, began to build themselves noble palaces, and Rome began again to assume the appearance of a capital. The people, too, felt the advantage of such an influx of peaceful visitors, and thought it a long period to wait for another occasion of profit; whilst Clement the Sixth, obligingly complying with their wishes, proclaimed the festival for the end of the half century; the result of which was equally profitable with the first, both to the church and the people of Rome.

The impatience of the Popes subsequently reduced the period again to thirtythree years, and then to twenty-five years, and the great wealth thus flowing in, though it corrupted the church, restored Rome. St. Peter's was rebuilt; two of the ancient aqueducts restored; splendid fountains arose in every quarter of the city, and Rome became a worthy capital of Christendom. Her churches, glittering in the gold and silver that their votaries had so profusely lavished, surpassed the splendours of her once-famed pagan temples; and a Michael Angelo and a Raphael were found to decorate the great christian metropolis with works rivalling the wonders of ancient art.

Sixtus V. carried these improvements forward with the greatest spirit, and during his reign Rome was so changed from a confused mass of rude fortresses, filth, and ruins, to a regular and beautiful city, that those who had been absent some years scarcely believed it the same city. Streets were cleared and made regular; obelisks that had lain buried for centuries were again reared upon handsome

pedestals, in conspicuous situations; many ancient remains were cleared from the surrounding rubbish, and opened to the admiration of the awakening Romans, whilst excavations were daily bringing to light a whole people of statues, whose beauty and perfection were the astonishment of Europe.

But this overflow of gold presented more temptations than the fortitude of man could withstand. And the great abuses in the state of the too profitable indulgences had already produced the Reformation-that first great blow to the power of the Popes. About the same time, too, that the Reformation struck its blow at the supremacy of the church, the city received a shock little less severe. Its capture by the troops of Charles V., under the Constable Bourbon, were little less calamitous than that by the Goths of Alaric. Indeed, it has been said that the Christian soldiery, of the sixteenth century, did more to mutilate and destroy the ancient buildings of Rome, than the Goths of the fifth; and that the labours of the great Sixtus had been rendered more necessary by those recent spoliations, than by the devastation of Alaric.

The loss by the reformation of the great revenues, previously collected from the piety of great part of Germany and England, with portions of Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, were, however, not at first materially injurious to the splendour of the Romish church, or her metropolitan city; and up to the close of the seventeenth century she continued to decorate with new offerings her splendid shrines. During the eighteenth century, however, the decline of the revenues and influence of the papacy was rapid; yet a last gleam of splendour was shed over the sinking power, by the magnificent outlays of Ganganelli, and his successor Braschi; in the formation and decoration of the Vatican Museums, under the influence of the classical furor with which Winckelman and other enthusiastic antiquaries had inoculated the scientific world. Notwithstanding these marks of remaining splendour, both the government and people were greatly impoverished, and the city was sinking into a third decay. The French revolution broke in upon the scene; and the proclamation declaring the Roman states a French province, under the title of department du Tibre, was, perhaps, eventually an improvement, even to the condition of the clergy. It most certainly was to the general state of the city and people; for there can be no doubt but that the French effected more salutary reforms, both legislative and administrative, than all the Popes of the preceding century combined; whilst the cleansing and opening of the streets, the decoration and clearing of public places, and the means taken to protect and preserve the ruins, effected under their regime, have been the commencement of a new era for Rome. Pius the Seventh, on his restoration, after

the fall of Napoleon, continued and completed many improvements which he had commenced; and Gregory the Sixteenth, the present Pontiff, though possessing but the shadow of the revenue of a Pope, and little more influence in Europe than any other petty sovereign of an unimportant principality, does much to advance the general amelioration. I am anxious, in my next promenade, to examine in detail the present state of the "eternal city," and behold at leisure all that time has spared, or the church created to embellish the ever interesting precincts of Rome.