XV.

CENT bited to the world was in the year 1463, when he PART II Published a solemn retractation of all that he had written in favour of the council of Basil, and declared, without either shame or hesitation, that, as ENEAS SYLVIUS, he was a damnable heretic ; but, as Pius II. he was an orthodox pontif. This indecent declaration was the last circumstance, worthy of notice, that happened during his pontificate; for he departed this life in the month of July, in the year 1464 [0].

Paulus II.

XVII. PAUL II. a Venetian by birth, whose name was PETER BARD, was raised to the head of the church in the year 1464, and died in the year 1471. His administration was distinguished by some measures, which, if we consider the genius of the times, were worthy of praise; though it must, at the same time, be confessed, that he did many things, which were evidently inexcusable, not to mention his reducing the jubilee circle to twenty-five years; and thus accelerating the return of that most absurd and superstitions ceremony. So that his reputation became at least dubious in after-times, and was viewed in differ

ent

and his successors, the title of Most Christian) to abolish, by a solemn declaration, the full execution of which was, however, prevented by the noble stand made by the university of Paris in favour of the Pragmatic Sanction. LEWIS also perceiving that he had been deluded into this declaration by the treacherous insinuations of GEOFFRY, bishop of Arras (whom the pope had bribed with a cardinal's cap, and large promises of a more lucrative kind) took no sort of pains to have it executed, but published, on the contrary, new edicts against the pecuniary pretensions and extortions of the court of Rome. So that in reality the Pragmatic Sanction was not abolished before the Concordate, or agreement, which was transacted between FRANCIS I. 2nd LEO X. in the year 1517, and was forced upon the French nation in opposition to the united efforts of the clergy, the university, the parliament, and the people. See, for a farther account of this matter, DU CLOS, Histoire de Louis XI. vol. i, p. 115--132. [o] Besides the writers of Ecclesiastical History, see Nouveaux Diction. Histor. et Gritique, tom. ii. at the article ENEE SYLVIUS, p. 26.

XV.

ent lights by different persons [p]. The follow-CENT. ing pontifs, SIXTUS IV. and INNOCENT VIII. PART II. whose names were FRANCIS ALBESCOLA and JOHN BAPTIST SIBO, were neither remarkable for their virtues nor their vices. The former departed this life in the year 1484, and the latter in 1492. Filled with the most terrible apprehensions of the danger that threatened Europe in general, and Italy in particular, from the growing power of the Turks, they both attempted putting themselves in a posture of defence, and warmly exhorted the European princes to put a stop to the progress of that warlike people. But many obstacles arose, which prevented the execution of this important design, and rendered the exhortations of these zealous pontifs without effect. The other undertakings that were projected or carried on, during their continuance at the head of the church, are not of importance sufficient to require particular notice.

XVIII. In the serious of pontifs that ruled the Alexandex church during this century, the last, in order of VI. time, was ALEXANDER VI. a Spaniard by birth, whose name was RODERIC BORGIA. The life and actions of this man shew, that there was a Nero among the popes as well as among the emperors. The crimes and enormities that history has imputed to this papal Nero, evidently prove him to have been not only destitute of all religious and virtuous principles, but even regardless of decency, and hardened against the very feeling of shame. And, though it may be possible,

that

[] PAUL II. has had the good fortune to find, in one of the most eminent and learned men of this age (the famous cardinal LUIRINI), a zealous apologist. See among the productions of that illustrious prelate, the piece, entitled, Pauli II. Vita ex Codice Anglice Bibliothecae desumpta, præmissis ipsius vindiciis adversus Platinam, aliosque obtrectatores, Roma, 1740,” in

PART II

CEN T. that the malignity of his enemies may have forged XV.,, false accusations against him, and, in some instances, exaggerated the horror of his real crimes; yet there is upon record, an authentic list of undoubted facts, which, both by their number and their atrocity, are sufficient to render the name and memory of ALEXANDER VI. odious and detestable in the esteem even of such as have the smallest tincture of virtuous principles and feelings. An inordinate affection for his children was the principal source from whence proceeded a great part of the crimes he committed. He had four sons of a concubine with whom he had lived many years, among whom was the infamous CÆSAR BORGIA. A daughter, named LUCRETIA, was likewise among the fruits of this unlawful commerce. The tenderness of the pontif for this spurious offspring was excessive beyond all expression; his only aim was to load them with riches and honours; and, in the execution of this purpose, he trampled with contempt upon every obstacle, which the demands of justice, the dictates of reason, and the remonstránces of religion, laid in his way [q]. Thus he went on in his profligate career until the year 1503, when the poison, which he and his son CÆSAR had mingled for others who stood in the 'way of their avarice and ambition, 'cut short, by a happy mistake, his own days [r].

XIX. The

[9] The life of this execrable tyrant has been written in English by Mr ALEXANDER GORDON, whose work was translated into French, and published at Amsterdam in 1732. The same subject has, however, been handled with more moderation by the ingenious and learned author of the Histoire du Droit Publ Eccles. Francois, to which History are subjoined the lives of ALEXANDER VI. and LEO X.

[r] Such is the account which the best historians have given of the death of ALEXANDER VI. VOLTAIRE, notwithstanding, has pretended to prove that this pontif died a natural death.

XV.

II.

XIX. The monastic societies, as we learn from C EN T. a multitude of authentic records. and from the tes- PA timonies of the best writers, were, at this time, so many herds of lazy, illiterate, profligate, and The monks. licentious Epicureans, whose views in life were confined to opulence, idleness, and pleasure. The rich monks, particularly those of the Benedictine and Augustine orders, perverted their revenues to the gratification of their lusts; and renouncing, in their conduct, all regard to their respective rules of discipline, drew upon themselves a popular odium by their sensuality and licentiousness [s]. This was matter of affliction to many wise and good men, especially in France and Germany, who formed the pious design of stemming the torrent of monkish luxury, and excited a spirit of reformation among that degenerate order [t]. Among the German reformers, who undertook the restoration of virtue and temperance in the convents, Nicholas de Mazen, an Austrian abbot, and Nicholas Dunkelspuhl, professor at Vienna, held the first rank. They attempted, with unparalleled zeal and assiduity, the reformation of the Benedictines throughout all Germany, and succeeded so far, as to restore, at least, a certain air of decency and virtue in the monasteries of Swabia, Franconia, and Bavaria [u]. The reformation of the same order was attempted in France by many, and particularly by Guido, or Guy Juvenal, a learned man, whose writings, upon that and on other Vol. III. Ff subjects,

[] See Martini Senging, Teutiones Ordinis S. Benedicti, seu Oratio in Concilio Basiliensi, A. 1433, contra vitia Benedict. recitata, in Bernh. Pezii Biblioth. Ascetica, tom. viii. p. 517. [] See Leibnitii Præf. ad tom. ii. Scriptor. Brunsvic, P. 40.

[u] For an account of these Reformers, see Martin Kropf. Bibliotheca Mellicensis, seu de vitis et Scriptis Benedictinor. Mellicensium, p. 143, 163, 203, 206.

XV.

CEN T. subjects, were received with applause [w]. It is PART II, however certain, that the greatest part of the monks, both in France and elsewhere, resisted, with obstinacy, the salutary attempts of these spiritual physicians, and returned their zeal with the worst treatment that it was possible to shew them.

'The Mendicants.

XX. While the opulent monks exhibited to the world scandalous examples of luxury, ignorance, laziness, and licentiousness, accompanied with a barbarous aversion to every thing that carried the remotest aspect of science, the Mendicants, and more especially the Dominicans and Franciscans, were chargeable with irregularities of another kind. Besides their arrogance, which was excessive, a quarrelsome and litigious spirit, an ambitious desire of encroaching upon the rights and privileges of others, an insatiable zeal for the propagation of superstition, and the itch of disputing and of starting absurd and intricate questions of a religious kind, prevailed among them, and drew upon them justly the displeasure and indignation of many. It was this wrangling spirit that perpetuated the controversies which had subsisted so long between them and the bishops, and indeed the whole sacerdotal order ; and it was their vain curiosity, and their inordinate passion for novelty, that made the divines, in the greatest part of the European academies, complain of the dangerous and destructive errors they had introduced into religion. These complaints were repeated, without interruption, in all the provinces where the Mendicants had any credit; and the same complaints were often presented to the court of Rome, where they exercised sufficiently both the patience and subtilty of the pontifs and their ministers. The different pontifs

[w] See Liron, Singularités Historiques et Litteraires, tom. iii. p. 49.