yet the Civil Government the Magistracy and the power of Judicature in Civil matters is entirely in the hands of the State And by this regulation it is that as the riches of Bologna amaze a stranger it neither being on a Navigable River by which it is not capable of much Trade nor being the Center of a Soveraignty where a Court is kept so the Taxes that the Popes fetch from thence are so considerable that he draws much more from this place of Liberty than from those where his Authority is unlimited and absolute but that are by those means almost quite abandoned for the greatness of a Prince or State rising from the numbers of the Subjects those maxims that retain the Subjects and that draw strangers to come among them are certainly the truest maxims for advancing the greatness of the Master And I could not but with much scorn observe the folly of some Frenchmen who made use of this argument to shew the greatness of their Nation that one found many Frenchmen in all places to which one could come whereas there were no English nor Dutch nor Switzers and very few Germans But is just contrary to the right consequence that ought to be drawn from this observation It is certain that few leave their Country and go to settle elsewhere if they are not pressed with so much uneasiness at home that they cannot well live among their Friends and Kinred so that a mild Government drives out no swarms Whereas it is the sure mark of a severe Government that weakens it self when many of the Subjects find it so hard to subsist at home that they are forced to seek that abroad which they would much rather do in their own Country if Impositions and other severities did not force them to change their habitations But to return to the wealth of Bologna it appears in every corner of the Town and all round it though its scituation is not very favourable for it lies at the foot of the Appenins on the North-side and is extream cold in Winter The houses are built as at Padua and Bern so that one walks all the Town over covered under Piazza's but the walks here are both higher and larger than any where else there are many Noble Palaces all over the Town and the Churches and Convents are incredibly rich within the Town the richest are the Dominicans which is the chief house of the Order where their Founders body is laid in one of the best Chapels of Italy and next to them are the Franciscans the Servites the Jesuites and the Canons Regular of St. Salvator In this last there is a scrowl of the Hebrew Bible which though it is not the tenth part of the Bible they fancy to be the whole Bible and they were made believe by some Jew that hath no doubt sold it at a high rate that it was written by Ezrah's own hand and this hath past long for current but the Manuscript is only a fine Copy like those that the Jews use in their Synagogues that may be perhaps Three or Four Hundred Years old that part of it on which I cast my eye was the book of Esther so by the bulk of the scrowl I judged it to be the collection of those small books of the Old Testament that the Jews set after the Law but those of the house fancy they have a great treasure in it and perhaps such Jews as have seen it are willing to laugh at their ignorance and so suffer them to go on in their error The chief Church in the Town is St. Petrone's and there one sees the curious and exact Meridional-line which that rare Astronomer Cassini laid along a great part of the pavement in a brass Circle it marks the true point of midday from June to January and is one of the best performances that perhaps the World ever saw In the great square before the Church on the one side of which is the Legates Palace among other Statues one surprized me much it was Pope Joans which is so named by the People of the Town it is true the Learned Men say it is the Statue of Pope Nicolas the IV. who had indeed a youthly and womanish face But as I looked at this Statue very attentively through a little prospect that I carried with me it appeared plainly to have the face of a young Woman and was very unlike that of Pope Nicolas the IV. which is in St. Maria Maggiore at Rome For the Statue of that Pope though it hath no beard yet hath an age in it that is very much different from the Statue at Bologna I do not build any thing on this Statue for I do not believe that Story at all and I my self saw in England a Manuscript of Martinus Polonus who is one of the ancient Authors of this matter which did not seem to be written long after the Author's time In it this Story is not in the Text but is added on the margin by another hand On the Hill above Bologna stands the Monastery of St. Michael in Bosco which hath a most charming scituation and prospect and is one of the best Monasteries in Italy it hath many Courts and one that is Cloistered and is Octangular which is so nobly painted in Fresco that it is great pity to see such work exposed to the Air All was retouched by the famous Guido Reni yet it is now again much decayed The Dormitory is very Magnificent the Chappel is little but very fine and the Stalls are richly carved On the other-side of Bologna in the Bottom the Carthusians have also a very rich Monastery Four miles from Bologna there is a Madona of St. Lukes and because many go thither in great devotion there is a portico a building which is already carried on almost half way it is walled towards the North but stands on Pillars to the South and is about Twelve Foot broad and Fifteen Foot high which is carried on very vigorously for in Eight or Ten Years the half is built so that in a little time the whole will be very probably finished and this may prove the bâ—ginning of many such like Portico's in Italy for things of this kind want only a beginning and when they are once set on foot they do quickly spread themselves in a Country that is so intirely subdued by superstition and the artifices of their Priests In Bologna they reckon there are Seventy Thousand Persons I saw not one of the chief glories of this place for the famous Malapighi was out of Town while I was there I saw a Play there but the Poesie was so bad the Farces so rude and all was so ill acted that I was not a little amazed to see the Company express so great a satisfaction in that which would have been hiss'd off the Stage either in England or France From Bologna we go Eight miles in a Plain and then we engage into that range of Hills that carry the
many Pillars of Porphiry and Jasp and above all with the four Horses of Corinthian Brass that Tiridates brought to Tiberius which were carried afterwards to Constantinople and were brought from thence to Venice and in which the gilding is still very bright that when all this is considered one doth no where see so much cost brought together I did not see the Gospel of St. Mark which is one of the valuablest things of the Treasure but they do not now open it to strangers yet Doctor Grandi a famous Physitian there told me that by a particular order he was suffered to open it he told me it was all writ in Capital Letters but the characters were so worn out that though he could discern the ends of some Letters he could not see enough to help him to distinguish them or to know whether the M. S. was in Greek or Latin I will not say one word of the Arsenal for as I saw it in its worst state the War that is now on foot having disfurnished a great deal of it so it hath been often described and it is known to be the Noblest Magazine the best ordered and of the greatest variety that is in the whole World its true it is all that this State hath so that if the Magazines of other Princes which lie spread up and down in the different places of their dominions were gathered together they would make a much greater shew The Noblest Convent of Venice is that of the Dominicans called St. John and S. Paul the Church and Chapels are vastly rich there is one of St. Luke's Madona 's here as they pretend the Dormitory is very great the Room for the Library and every thing in it except the Books is extream fine But St. George which is a Convent of the Benedictines in an Isle intirely possessed by them over against the St. Mark 's square is much the richest the Church is well contrived and well adorned and not only the whole building is very magnificent but which is more extraordinary at Venice they have a large Garden and noble walks in it The Redemptore and the Salute are two Noble Churches that are the effects of Vows that the Senate made when they were afflicted with the Plague the latter is much the finer it is to the Virgin and the other is only to our Saviour so naturally doth the devotion of that Church carry it higher for the Mother than the Son It is true the Salute is later than the other so no wonder if the Architecture and the riches exceed that which is more ancient The School of St. Roch. and the Chapel and Hall are full of great pieces of Tintorets a Cena of Paulo Veronese in the Refectory of St. George and the Picture of St. Peter the Martyr of Titians are the most celebrated pieces of Venice Duke Pesaro's Tomb in the Frairy is the Noblest I ever saw But if the riches of all the Convents and the Parish Churches of Venice amazed me the fronts especially many of which are of white Marble beautified with several Statues the meanness of the Library of St. Mark did no less surprize me There are in the Antichamber to it Statues of vast value and the whole roof of the Library is composed of several pieces of the greatest Masters put in several frames but the Library hath nothing answerable to the riches of the case for the Greek Manuscripts are all modern I turned over a great many and saw none above Five Hundred Years old I was indeed told that the last Library-keeper was accused for having conveyed away many of their Manuscripts and that Four Years ago being clapt in Prison for this by the Inquisitors he to prevent further severities poysoned himself I went to the Convent of the Servi but I found Father Paul was not in such consideration there as he is else where I asked for his Tomb but they made no account of him and seemed not to know where it was it is true the Person to whom I was recommended was not in Venice so perhaps they refined too much in this matter I had great discourse with some at Venice concerning the memorials out of which F. Paul drew his History which are no doubt all preserved with great care in their Archives and since the transactions of the Council of Trent as they are of great importance so they are become now much controverted by the different relations that F. Paul and Cardinal Pallavicini have given the World of that matter the only way to put an end to all disputes in matter of fact is to print the Originals themselves A Person of great credit at Venice promised to me to do his utmost to get that proposition set on foot tho the great exactness that the Government there hath always affected as to the matter of their Archives is held so sacred that this made him apprehend they would not give way to any such search The affinity of the matter brings into my mind a long Conversation that I had with a Person of great Eminence at Venice that as he was long at Constantinople so was learned far beyond what is to be met with in Italy he told me he was at Constantinople when the Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Greek Church was set on foot occasioned by the famous Dispute between Mr. Arnaud and Mr. Claude he being a zealous Roman Catholick was dealt with to assist in that business but being a Man of great Honour and Sincerity he excused himself and said he could not meddle in it He hath a very low and bad opinion of the Greeks and he told me that none of their Priests were more inveterate enemies to the Church of Rome than those that were bred up at Rome for they to free themselves of the prejudices that their Countrey-men are apt to conceive against them because of their education among the Latines do affect to shew an opposition to the Latin Church beyond any other Greeks He told me that he knew the ignorance and corruption of the Greeks was such that as they did not know the Doctrines of their own Church so a very little Money or the hope of Protection from any of the Ambassadors that come from the West would prevail with them to sign any that that coâ—ld be desired of them He added one thing that though he firmly believed Transubstantiation himself he did not think they believed it let them say what they pleased themselves he took his measures of the Doctrine of their Chuâ—ch rather from what they did than from what they said For their Rites not being changed now for a great many ages were the true Indications of the doctrines received among them whereas they were both ignorant of the tradition of their doctrine and very apt to â—revaricate when they saw advantages or protection sâ—t before them therefore he concluded that since they did not adore the Sacrament after the Consecration that was an evident sign that
conduct â—s factious and seditious that this may breed a Schism â—n the Church And because he saith in some places of his Book That the mind may rise up to such a simplicity in its acts that it may rise in some of its Devotions to God immediately without contemplating the Humanity of Christ they have accused him as intending to lay a side the Doctrine of Christ's Humanity tho it is plain that he speaks only of the purity of some single acts Upon all those heads they have set themselves much against Molinos and they have also pretended that some of his Disciples have infused it into their Penitents that they may go and Communicate as they find themselves disposed without going first to Confession which they thought weakned much the Yoke by which the Priests subdue the Consciences of the people to their Conduct Yet he was much supported both in the Kingdom of Naples and in Sicily He had also many friends and followers at Rome So the Jesuites as a Provincial of the Order assured me finding they could not ruine him by their own force got a great King that is now extreamly in the Interests of their Order to interpose and to represent to the Pope the danger of such innovations It is certain the Pope understands the matter very little and that he is possessed with a great opinion of Molino's sanctity yet upon the complaints of some Cardinals that seconded the zeal of that King he and some of his followers were clapt in the Inquisition where they have been now for some months but they are still well used which is believed to flow from the good opinion that the Pope hath of him who saith still that tho he may have erred yet he is certainly a good man Upon this imprisonment Pasquin said a pleasant thing in one week one man had been condemned to the Gallies for somewhat he had said another had been hanged for somewhat he had writ and Molinos was clapt in Prison whose Doctrine consisted chiefly in this that men ought to bring their minds to a State of inward quietness from which the name of Quietisis was given to all his followers The Pasquinade upon all this was Si parliamo in Galere si scrivemmo Impiccati si stiamo in quiete all' Saint ' Officio e che bisogna fare If we speak we are sent to the Gallies if we write we are hanged if we stand quiet we are clapt up in the Inquisition what must we do then Yet his Followers at Naples are not daunâ—ed but they believe he will come out of this Trial victorious The City of Naples as it is the best scituated and in the best climate so it is one of the Noblest Cities of Europe and if it is not above half as big as Paris or London yet it hath much more beauty then either of them the Streets are large and broad the pavement is great and Noble the Stones being generally above a foot square and it is full of Palaces and great Buildings The Town is well supplied by daily Markets so that provisions are ever fresh and in great plenty the Wine is the best of Europe and both the Fish and Flesh is extream good it is scarce ever cold in Winter and there is a fresh Air comes both from the Sea and the Mountains in Summer The Viceroys Palace is no extraordinary Building only the Stair-case is great But it is now very richly furnished within in Pictures and Statues there are in it some Statues of the Aegyptian Deities of Touchstone that are of great value There are no great Antiquities here only there is an ancient Roman Portico that is very Noble before St. Pauls Church But without the City near the Church and Hospital of St. Gennaro that is without the Gates are the Noble Catacombs which because they were beyond any thing I saw in Italy and to which the Catacombs of Rome are not to be compared and since I do nor find any account of them in all the Books that I have yet seen concerning Naples I shall describe them more particularly They are vast and long Galleries cut out of the Rock there are three Stories of them one above another I was in two of them but the Rock is fallen in the lowest so that one cannot go in to it but I saw the passage to it These Galleries are generally about twenty foot broad and about fifteen foot high so that they are Noble and spacious places and not little and narrow as the Catacombs at Rome which are only three or four foot broad and five or six foot high I was made beâ—ieve that these Catacombs of Naples went into the Rock nine mile long but for that I have it only by report yet if that be true they may perhaps run towards Puzzolo and so they may have been the burial places of the Towns on that Bay but of this I have no certainty I walked indeed a great way and found Galleries going off in all hands without end and whereas in the Roman Catacombs there are not above three or four rows of niches that are cut out in the Rock one over another into which the dead bodies were laid Here there are generally six or seven rows of those niches and they are both larger and higher some niches are for Childrens bodies and in many places there are in the Floors as it were great Chests hewn out of the Rock to lay the bones of the dead as they dried in them but I could see no marks either of a cover for thâ—se holes that looked like the bellies of Chests or of a facing to shut up the niches when a dead body was laid in them so that it seems they were monstrous unwholesome and stinking places where some thousands of bodies lay rotting without any thing to shut in so loathsome a sight and so odious a smell For the niches shew plainly that the Bodies were laid in them only wrapt in the dead cloaths they being too low for Coffins In some places of the Rock there is as it were a little Chappel hewen out in the Rock that goes off from the common Gallery and there are niches all round about but I saw no marks of any Wall that shut in such places tho I am apt to think these might be burying places appropriated to particular families There is in some places on the Walls and Arch Old Mosaick work and some Painting the Colours are fresh and the manner and Characters are Gothick which made me conclude that this might have been done by the Normans about six hundred years ago after they drove out the Saracens In some places there are Palm-trees painted and Vines in other places The freshness of the Colours shews these could not have been done while this place was imployed for burying for the steams and rottenness of the Air occasioned by so much corruption must have dissolved both Plaister and Colours In one place there is a man Painted with
the Winds or Brooks carry down from the Hills both which reasons should make a more sensible difference between those wayes and the soil on both sides and this makes me apt to believe that anciently those wayes were a little raised above the level of the ground and that a course of so many Ages hath now brought them to an equality Those wayes were chiefly made for such as go on foot for as nothing is more pleasant then to walk along them so nothing is more inconvenient for Horses and all sorts of carriage and indeed Mulets are the only beasts of burthen that can hold out long in this Road which beats all Horses after they have gone it a little while There are several rests of Roman Antiquities at the Mole of Cajeta but the Isle of Caprea now called Crapa which is a little way into the Sea off from Naples gave me a strange Idea of Tiberius's Reign since it is hard to tell whether it was more extraordinary to see a Prince abandon the best Seats and Palaces of Italy and shut himself up in a little Island in which I was told there was a Tradition of seven little Palaces that he built in it or to see so vast a body as the Roman Empire so governed by such a Tyrannical Prince at such a distance from the chief Scene so that all might have been reversed long before that the news of it could have been brought to him And as there is nothing more wonderfull in Story then to see so vast a State that had so great a sense of liberty subdued by so brutal and so voluptuous a man as Anthony and so raw a youth as Augustus so the wonder is much improved when we see a Prince at a hundred and fifty miles distance shut up in an Island carry the Reins of so great a body in his hand and turn it which way he pleased But now I come to Rome which as it was once the Empress of the World in a succession of many Ages so hath in it at present more curious things to entertain the attention of a Traveller then any other place in Europe On the side of Tuscany the entry in to Rome is very surprizing to strangers for one cometh along for a great many miles upon the remains of the Via Flamminia which is not indeed so entire as the Via Appia yet there is enough left to raise a just Idea of the Roman greatness who laid such cause-ways all Italy over And within the Gate of the Porta di Populo there is a Noble Obelisk a vast Fountain two fine little Churches like two Twins resembling one another as well as placed near one another and on several hands one sees a long Vista of streets There is not a Town in these parts of the World where the Churches Convents and Palaces are so Noble and where the other Buildings are so mean which indeed discovers very visibly the misery under which the Romans groan The Churches of Rome are so well known that I will not adventure on any description of them and indeed I had too Transiâ—nt a view of them to make it with that degree of exactness which the subject requires St. Peters alone would make a big Book not to say a long Letter It s length heighth and breadth are all so exactly proportioned and the eye is so equally possessed with all these that the whole upon the first view doth not appear so vast as it is found to be upon a more particular attention and as the four Pillars upon which the Cupulo rises are of such a prodigious bigness that one would think they were strong enough to bear any superstructure whatsoever so when one climbs up to the top of that vast heighth he wonders what Foundation can bear so huge a weight for as the Chuâ—ch is of a vast heighth so the Cupulo rises four hundred and fifteen big steps above the Roof of the Church In the heighth of the Concave of this Cupulo there is a representation that tho it can hardly be seen from the floor below unless one hath a good sight and so it doth not perhaps give much scandal yet it is a gross indication of the Idolatry of that Church for the Divinity is there pictured as an ancient man compassed about with Angels I will say nothing of thâ— great Altar of the Chair of S. Pâ—ter of the great Tombs of which the three chief are Paul the III. Vrban the VIII and Alexander the VII nor of the vast Vaults under this Church and the remains of Antiquity that are reserved in them nor will I undertake a description of the adjoining Palace where the Painting of the Corridori and of many of the Rooms by Raphael and Michael Angelo are so rich that one is sorry to see work of that value laid on Fresco and which must by consequence ware out too soon as in several places it is almost quite lost already I could not but observe in the Sala Regin that is before the famous Chappel of Sisto V. and that is all Painted in Fresco one corner that represents the murther of the renowned Admiral Chastilion and that hath written under it these words Rex Colinii necem probat The vast length of the Gallery on one side and of the Library in another do surprize one the Gardens have many Statues of a most excessive value and some good Fountains but the Gardens are ill entertained both here and in the Palace on the Quirinal And indeed in most of the Palaces of Rome if there were but a small cost laid out to keep all in good case that is brought together at so vast a charge they would make another sort of shew and be looked at with much more pleasure In the apartments of Rome there are a great many things that offend the sight The Doors are generally mean and the Locks meaner except in the Palace of Prince Borghese where as there is the vastest Collection of the best pieces and of the hands of the greatest Masters that is in all Europe so the Doors and Locks give not that distast to the eye that one finds elsewhere The Flooring of the Palaces is all of Brick which is so very-mean that one sees the disproportion that is between the Floors and the rest of the Room not without a sensible preception and dislike It is true they say their Air is so cold and moist in Winter that they cannot pave with Marble and the heat is sometimes so great in Summer that Flooring of Wood would crack with heat as well as be eat up by the vermin that would nestle in it But if they kept in their great Palaces servants to wash their Floors with that care that is used in Holland where the Air is moister and the climate is more productive of Vermine they would not find such effects from wooden Floors as they pretend In a word there are none that lay out so much wealth all