XV. A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. at Wittemberg, attracted the notice of the CHA P. Roman court, and led the way to that schism which has now for nearly three centuries A. D. 1517. 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. Supersti norance of For some centuries after the establishment of the Christian religion, the annals of the tion and igchurch have preserved the remembrance of the middle various persecutions, which sufficiently attest ages. the intolerant character of paganism and the inflexible constancy of the first martyrs. The subsequent conversion of the Roman emperors to the Christian faith, and the acknowledged supremacy of the bishops of Rome, gave however at length a decided ascendency to the new opinions; and it would have been well if those who professed them had not, whilst they assumed the ensigns of authority, imbibed the intolerant spirit of their former tyrants. How this authority, was exercised, may in some degree appear from the bloody and mutilated records of the middle ages. For our present purpose it may be sufficient to observe, that the papal power was, for a long course of years, almost uni .. 02 formly XV. CHAP. formly devoted to destroy the remains of science and the memorials of art, and to perpetuate among the nations of Europe that ignorance to which superstition has ever been indebted for her security. In reviewing the progress of the human race from the earliest assignable period, the chief part of their course seems to have lain through a cheerless desert, where a few scanty spots of verdure have only served to increase the horrors of the surrounding desolation. Such has been the powerful effect of moral causes on the character and happiness of mankind. Nor ought we to forget, that on ourselves alone depends our exemption from a similar debasement; and that without a vigilant exertion of the faculties which we possess, ages of ignorance, darker than the world has hitherto experienced, may yet succeed. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. moters Early pro arraign the In the fourteenth century, when the huof man mind began to be emancipated from its literature long thraldom, one of the first indications of misconduct liberty appeared in the bold and presumptuof the cler- ous 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, gy. XV. priesthood, the voice of censure had hitherto CHAP. 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.(a) The milder spirit of Petrarca appears upon Petrarca. 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. (b) If the genius and cha racter * (a) Inferno, cant. xi. v. vi. &c. also the whole nineteenth canto, where Dante finds Nicholas III. (Orsini) in hell, planted with his heels upwards, waiting till Boniface VIII. arrives, who is to take his place; and who is to be -again relieved, in due time, by Clement V. "Un pastor 66 senza legge." (b) v. The sonnets of Petrarca, beginning, Dell' A. D. 1517. A. Pont. V. Dante. XV. CHAP. racter 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 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. A. D. 1517. A Et. 42. Boccaccio and others expose the ridicule. Whilst these and similar productions were calculated to bring the church into odium clergy to and disgrace, those of the celebrated Boccaccio were at least equally calculated to ex.pose 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 Dell' empia Babilonia ond' è fuggita, printed in some editions of his works. Should it be contended that these sonnets relate only to the papal court at Avignon, it will not invalidate the purpose for which they are here cited. XV. A. Et. 42. of the papal power, cannot, indeed, be doubt- CHAP. Accusati ons against the clergy If the foregoing instances of a rising spirit of opposition to the Roman see were not sufficient to shew the decided hostility which justly already subsisted between literature and superstition, it would be easy to multiply them from the founded. |