by a more virtuous man than Clement the Ninth; his memory should be dear to Christianity, and the mind reposes in contemplating it from the long catalogue of crimes which the history of the popes offers to us. Under Innocent the Eleventh, the persecutious against the Lutherans and the Calvinists recommence; churches are demolished, cities destroyed, eighteen thousand Frenchmen are put to death, and the Protestants driven from the kingdom. Innocent the Eleventh, as Gregory the Thirteenth had done on the occasion of St. Bartholomew, addresses his congratulations to the king of France, and commands public rejoicings to be made in his honour at Rome. The reign of Clement the Eleventh is agitated by religious quarrels. The Jesuits in China are accused of offering there the same worship to Confucius as to Jesus Christ. The pope sends the cardinal Journon to Pekin, charged to reform this culpable idolatry. This virtuous prelate dies a victim to his zeal, in the midst of the cruel persecutions which the Jesuits excite against him. all This terrible congregation, encouraged by the pope, extends its odious power over kingdoms, and inspires terror among people. Clement the Eleventh publishes the famous bull Unigenitus, which excites general indignation, and continues religious quarrels up to his death. Benedict the Thirteenth wishes to renew the scandal occasioned by this bill of disorder; but philosophy now commences to make progress, and his pretensions, which at other times would have caused torrents of blood to flow, only excited contempt. The moderation of Benedict the Fourteenth repairs the evils occasioned by his predecessors. He terminates the religious quarrels, repulses the Jesuits, moderates the bull Unigenitus, and puts an end to the troubles which were afflicting France. This pope, one of the luminaries of the church, carries into the chair of the pontiffs a spirit of toleration, which extends a salutary influence everywhere. The religion of Christ is no longer imposed on the world by persecution and fanaticism. Benedict exhibits, in the high functions of the priesthood, an enlightened mind, great maturity of judgment, a profound wisdom which no passions trouble, a perfect disinterestedness, and an extreme love of justice. He reforms the morals of the clergy, suppresses orders of monks who were odious to all, employs his treasures in founding hospitals, establishing public schools, and rewarding magnificently the arts. He calls upon all to profit by the advantages of science, and to come forth from the shades of ignorance. Clement the Thirteenth imitates neither the virtues nor the moderation of his predecessor; he openly protects the Jesuits, launches forth anathemas, and prepares the ruin of the Holy See. The excesses of the Jesuits had tired out the people, their crimes and their ambition affrighted kings, universal hatred demands their expulsion; they are driven from France. They are banished from the states of the king of Spain in Europe, Asia and America: driven from the two Sicilies, Parma and Malta. The order is exterminated in almost all the countries which had been the theatre of its power, in the Phillipines, Peru, Mexico, Paraguay and Brazil. France bestows upon the pope Avignon and the county of Venaissin, as an appurtenance to his crown. The king of Naples, on the other hand, seized upon the cities of Benevento and Ponte Carvo. The famous bull in Cana Domini, a monument of madness and pride, which the pope yearly fulminated from Rome since the time of Paul the Third, is proscribed. The pontifical darkness commences to be dissipated; princes and people no longer prostrate themselves at the feet of the servant of servants of God. Clement the Thirteenth sees the colossal power of Rome falling to pieces, and dies of chagrin in not being able to retard its fall. Clement the Fourteenth causes philosophy to mount the seat of the popes. For a short period he retains the pontifical power of the Holy See; his character and moderation restoring to him the power which the absurd fanaticism of his predecessors had alienated. Portugal broke with the See of Rome, and wished to have a patriarch of her own. The courts of France, Spain and Naples were indignant at the ridiculous excommunication of the duke of Parma, by the Holy See. Venice reformed, without the assent of the pope, the religious communities which impoverished the nation. Poland wishes to diminish the authority of the Holy See. Even Rome permits its indignation to shine forth, and appears to have forgotten that she had been mistress of the world. Clement, by skilful policy, and consummate wisdom and prudence, arrests this movement; but the priests, the enemies of toleration, did not pardon the pontiff, and he died of poison. Then liberty, that rock of reason, imparted its sublime light to all minds; men commenced to break the dark chains of superstition. An universal disquiet manifested itself in the masses, a happy presage of moral revolutions. Pius the Sixth wishes to seize upon the wonderful power of the pontiffs of Rome, and pursues the execrable policy of his predecessors. The emperor of Austria, Joseph the Second, stops the increase of convents, which threatened to overrun his kingdom, suppresses bishoprics, forms seminaries, and protects his states against the rule of the Holy See. The grand duke of Tuscany prepares the same reforms; dissolves the convents, abolishes the authority of the nuncios, and prohibits the priests from appealing to Rome for judgment. At Naples, a philosophical minister takes from the avarice of the pope indulgences, the collection of benefices, his nomination to vacancies. He refuses the tribute of a hackney, richly caparisoned, shod with silver, and carrying a purse of six thousand duckets a disgraceful tribute, which the nation paid to the pontiff. The sovereign approves the policy of his minister, prohibits the introduction of bulls into his states, orders the bishops to give up the dispensations they had purchased at Rome, takes away from the pope the power of nominating bishops for the Two Sicilies, and drives the internuncio from his kingdom. The French Revolution is at hand. The States General, at Versailles, ordain reforms in the clergy, abolish the monastic vows, and proclaim liberty of conscience. The pope excites bloody troubles in Avignon, in order to reattach it to the Holy See. His pretensions are repulsed by the National Assembly, which solemnly pronounces the union of this city to France. Italy is conquered by the French armies. Pius the Sixth, a coward and a hypocrite, begs for the alliance of the republic. But the justice of a great nation is inflexible. The assassination of general Dupont demands great reparation. The pontiff is carried from Rome, conducted to the fortress of Valence, and terminates his debased career by cowardice and perfidy. The conclave assembles at Venice. After an hundred and four days of intrigue, the Benedictine Chiaramonti was chosen pope, under the name of Pius the Seventh. The pontiff forms an alliance with the republic, and signs the famous concordat. The A new era commences for France; the republic gives place to the empire, and Napoleon mounts the throne. The pope is forced to go to Paris, in order to consecrate the emperor, and augment the magnificence of this imposing ceremony. weakness of character of Pius the Seventh, delivers him up defenceless to the plots which the hatred of the clergy contrive with the enemies of the emperor. Napoleon, indignant at the machinations directed against his power by the counsellors of the pope, made a decree, which changes the government of Rome, declares the reunion of the estates of the church to the empire, and the sovereign pontiffs deprived of temporal authority. The ancient boldness of the clergy has survived revolutions; Pius the Seventh essays the thunders of the Vatican. The bull of excommunication is affixed during the night in the streets of Rome; it calls the people to revolt, excites them to carnage, and designates the French for public vengeance. But Rome, delivered from the sacerdotal yoke, is deaf to the appeal of fanaticism. Wars succeed in Europe, kingdoms are conquered, old governments overthrown, and Napoleon at length falls beneath the blows of the kings whom he has crowned. His catastrophe changes the destinies of nations, and restores to the pope the inheritance of St. Peter. Pius the Seventh makes a triumphant entreé into Rome, and at length dies, surrounded by cardinals, in the pomp and magnificence of power. Since then, two popes have occupied the chair of St. Peter, but their silent passage marks no place in the history of nations. The French Revolution of 1848 again inspires the Romans with a desire for liberty. Austria seizes on some of the Roman cities the people demand the expulsion of the invader-the Pope refuses their request-the Romans assemble and decree that the Popes shall be deprived of their temporal authoritythe Pope flies from his kingdom in the disguise of a footmanenters Naples, and is welcomed by the king, who had just caused about 5,000 of his subjects (including all ages and sexes) to be butchered by his soldiers. The king kneels at the feet of Pius, who blesses him and styles him "The most righteous king in Europe!" Austria leagued with France, then governed by Louis Napoleon, undertakes to reinstate the Pope. Ancona and Bologna are besieged by the Austrians, and the people slaughtered. Rome itself is besieged by the French, who are often repulsed. But the city having at length fallen into their hands, the patriots are massacred, their property confiscated, and the most holy pope reinstated by the French and Austrian bayonets. The proud pontiffs, who launched anathemas on kingdoms, gave or took away empires, extended over the people the yoke of fanaticism and terror, now, protected by Austria, protected by the oppressors of the people, basely seek the protection of kings, in order to trample upon the Romans, and maintain upon their head the pontifical tiara. People of Italy, arise from your lethargic slumber-contemplate the capitol-recall the remembrance of ancient Rome and her glorious destiny! Let but your legions arise, and the shades of the great will march at their head to conquer in the name of liberty. |