A. D. 1585 humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of servile faith, he CHAP. has learned to believe, because it is absurd to revere, all that is LXX. 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 calendar94 above the heroes of Rome and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal, or 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 Sixtus V. genius of Sixtus the Fifth95 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," 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.97 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 96 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. 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, 1. lxxxiv. c. 10, I. 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 collocanda vivo pontifici statua 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. CHAP. arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and LXX. population, of the ecclesiastical state. 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. 3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1370-1410,) in the Rerum 4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1404-1417,) tom. xxiv. p. 969. 6. Volaterrani (Jacob) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1472-1484,) tom. xxiii. p. 81. 1069. 8. Infessuræ (Stephani) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1294, or 1378-1494,) 9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi (A. Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the Collections of OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. CHAPTER LXXI. Prospect of the Ruins of Rome in the Fifteenth Century-Four discourse of from the hill, IN the last days of pope Eugenius the Fourth, two of his ser- CHAP. vants, the learned Poggius1 and a friend, ascended the Capito. LXXI. line hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed from that commanding spot the wide View and and various prospect of desolation.2 The place and the ob- Poggius ject gave ample scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of Capitoline fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his A. D. 113 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 primeval state, such as she might appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger of Troy,3 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 golden 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 again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill 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 victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments, the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticos of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant 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 potherbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, 1 I have already (not. 50, 51, on chap. 65,) mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius; and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune. 2 Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeiæ arcis, ruinis, pone ingens portæ cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim confractas columnas, unde magna ex parte prospectus urbis patet, (p. 5.) 3 Eneid, 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 sympathize in the feelings of a Roman. 412 CHAP like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visi LXXI. ble, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune."4 His descriprou of the These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of classic, superstition." 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 Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven therma or public baths, none were sufficiently entire to represent the use and distribution of the several parts; but those of Dioclesian and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of the founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in ob serving 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 fragment 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. 5. After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius night have overlooked a small amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use of the prætorian camp; the theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied in a great measure by public and private buildings; and in the Circus, Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the situation and the form could be investigated. 6. The columns of Trajan and Antonine were still erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people of gods and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian figure of gilt brass, and to five marble statues, of which the most conspicuous were the two horses of Phidias and Praxiteles. 7. The two mausoleums or sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not totally be lost: but the former was only visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the castle of St. Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern fortress. With the addition of some separate and nameless columns, such were the remains 4 Capitolium adeo....immutatum ut vinea in senatorum subsellia successe – int, stercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum. Respice ad Palatinu montem....vasta rudera....cæteros colles perlustra omnia vacua ædificiis, 2uinis vineisque oppleta conspicies (Poggius de Varietal, Fortunæ, p. 21.) See Poggius, p. 8~22. of the ancient city: for the marks of a more recent structure CHAP. might be detected in the walls, which formed a circumference LXXI. of ten miles, included three hundred and seventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country by thirteen gates. decay of Rome. This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred Gradual years after the fall of the Western empire, and even of the Gothic kingdom of Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated from the banks of the Tiber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works of antiquity. To measure the progress of decay, and to ascertain at each era, the state of each edifice, would be an endless and useless labour, and I shall content myself with two observations, which will introduce a short inquiry into the general causes and effects. 1. Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome. His ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and fabulous names. Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears, he could observe the visible remains, he could listen. to the tradition of the people, and he distinctly enumerates seven theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches, and eighteen palaces, of which many had disappeared before the time of Poggius. It is apparent, that many stately monuments of antiquity survived till a late period, and that the principles of destruction acted with vigorous and increasing energy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 2. The same reflection must be applied to the three last ages; and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of Severus, which is celebrated by Petrarch, and the antiquarians of the sixteenth century. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were resisted by the solidity of the mass and the harmony of the parts; but the slightest touch would precipitate the fragments of arches and columns, that already nodded to their fall. After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal causes Four of the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period destru 6 Liber de Mirabilibus Romæ, ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis de Arragonia, in Bibliotheca St. Isidori Armario IV. No. 69. This treatise, with some short, but pertinent notes, has been published by Montfaucon (Diarium Italicum, p. 283-301,) who thus delivers his own critical opinion: Scriptor xiiimi circiter sæculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariæ rei imperitus, et, ut ab illo ævo, nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus: sed, quia monumenta quæ iis temporibus Romæ supererant pro modulo recensit, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qui Romanis antiquitatibus indagandis operam navabit (p. 283.) 7 The Pere Mabillon (Analecta, tom. iv. p. 502,) has published an anonymous pilgrim of the ninth century, who, in his visit round the churches and holy places of Rome, touches on several buildings, especially porticos, which had disappeared before the thirteenth century. 8 On the Septizonium, see the Memoires sur Petrarque (tom. i. p. 325,) Do nalus (p. 338,) and Nardini (p. 117. 414.) causes of destruction: |