XIV. were removed, or alleviated, by the constant CHAP. presence of those friends whose fidelity he had before experienced. In the gratification of his natural propensity to liberality and in the aggrandizement of his friends and favourites, he found an additional satisfaction, by contributing towards the respectability 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. (a) On the death of Sixtus della Rovere, the nephew of Sixtus IV.(b) in the year 1517, Leo appointed (a)" Pauper is habitus fuisset, cui non redirent quotan"nis ex sacerdotiis decem vel octo saltem nummûm aureorum millia." Fabron. Leon. x. 66 p. 127. (b) The annual income of this debauched ecclesiastic amounted to upwards of 40,000 ducats, although Paris de Grassis informs us, that he was so ignorant as not to be able either A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. XIV. CHAP pointed his cousin Giulio de' Medici vicechancellor 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 amusements of Rome, supported their rank and supplied their dissipation by contributions from the re motest 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. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 4. A. Pont. V. By the example of the supreme pontiff, who well knew how to unite magnificence with taste, the chiefs and princes of the Roman church either to write or read; to which he adds, in allusion to the disease under which he laboured, "ab umbilico ad plantas "pedum totum perditus, ut nec stare nec incedere posset." v. Fabron. Leon, x, in adnot. 53, p. 287. XIV. Leo X. pro motes the of his sub jects. church emulated each other in the grandeur CHAP. of their palaces, the sumptuousness of their apparel, the elegance of their entertainments, and the number and respectability of their attendants ;(a) nor can it be denied, that their wealth and influence were frequently devoted to the encouragement of the fine arts, and the happiness 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.(b) The Ro man (a)" Pavimenta, aulæ, thalami, cameræ, Pontificia domus ❝omnis tota die cardinalium salutationibus patescunt; benig"ne invitantur, paratis accipiuntur epulis ad lætitiam unius"cujusque; non ad necem instructis, ut olim, cum quos divi"tiis amicos suos Pontifex saginarat, immixto cibis aut potui veneno, tollere cogitaret." Mat. Herculanus, ap. Fabron vita Leon. x. in adnot. 51. p. 286. (b) A great storm is said to have happened on this day, which was supposed to portend some disaster to the church: "Adfirmat Schelhornius, Amanitat. Hist. Eccle siast. et literar. eo die quo ad cænam vocati fuerunt recenter creati Cardinales, subito tantam ac tam turbidam 4 tempestatem coortam fuisse, ut ex eo rem Romanam pub ❝licam A. D. 1517. A. t. 4. A. Pont. V. CHAP. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. A. Pout. V. man citizens, who partook of the affluence of "licam miserrimam fore multi augurati fuerint; nec sine (a) The inhabitants of Rome at this period are enumerated by Jovius at 85,000 persons, including strangers; but after the dreadful sackage of the city, in the pontificate of Clement VII. and the other calamities which that place experienced, they were reduced at the time Jovius wrote to 32,000. Jovii, vila Leon. x. lib. iv. p. 83. 1 XIV. ty.(a) The happiness enjoyed by the Roman CHAP. 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. RESTAVRATAMQ. ARTES. ADSCITOS. PATRES. ἐκ (a) Exercuit et supra naturæ consuetudinem, summum jus in damnandis, qui falsos libellos ipsius subscri"bentis manum mentiti, in judiciis protulissent; adeo ut "Sebastianum Tarvisinum, tum in Gymnasio Romano leges "profitentem, & alioqui ea calamitate indignum, in Campo "Floræ concremarit." Jovii, vita Leon. x. lib. vi. 38. In the punishment of other offences, he seldom deviated from the well known lenity of his disposition: "Ut ad cle"mentiæ laudem avide properare, remissa severitate, dice"retur." Jovius, ut sup. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. |