be receiv'd upon its own credit though it had never been back'd with Miracles That there were three Persons in the Godhead not proved to be so by Reason but by considering who said so That those Men who pretended to measure the Heavens and the Earth were rather bold than certain what they did was right That to find out the motion of the Stars had more pleasure in it than proâ—it That God's Friends enjoy'd both this Life and that to come That without Vertue there was no true Joy That as a covetous Man is never satisfied with Money so a Learned Man should not be with Knowledg But that he who knew never so much might yet find somewhat to be studied That common Men should value Learning as Silver Noblemen as Gold and Princes as Jewels That good Physitians did not seek the Money but the health of the party diseas'd That a florid Speech did not move wise Men but Fools That those Laws are Sacred which restrain Licentiousness That the Laws had Power over the Commonalty but were feeble to the greater sort That great Controversies were decided by the Sword and not by the Laws A Citizen should look upon his Family as subject to the City the City to his Country his Country to the World and the World to God That the chief place with Kings was slippery That as all Rivers run into the Sea so do all Vices into Courts That Flatterers draw Kings whether they please That Kings hearken to none more easily than to Sycophants That the tongue of a Flatterer was a King's greatest Plague That a King who would trust no body was good for nothing and he that believed every body was no better That it is necessary he that governs many should himself be rul'd by many That he deserv'd not the name of a King who measur'd the Publick by his private abvantage That he who neglected holy Duties did not deserve the Church Revenue nor a King his Taxes that did not constant Justice He said those that went to Law were the Birds the Court the Field the Judg the Net and the Lawyers the Fowlers That Men ought to be presented to Dignities and not Dignities to the Men. That some Men had Offices and did not deserve 'em whilst others deserv'd 'em and had 'em not That the burthen of a Pope was heavy but he was happy who bore it stoutly That an illiterate Bishop was like an Ass That ill Physicians kill'd the body and ignorant Priests the Soul That a wandring Monk was the Devil's Bondslave That Virtue had enriched the Clergy but Vice made 'em poor That there was great reason for the prohibiting of Priests to marry but greater for allowing it again That no Treasure was preferrable to a faithful Friend That Life was like a Friend and Envy like Death That he cherishes an Enemy who pardons his Son too often That a covetous Man never pleases any body but by his Death That Mens faults are conceal'd by Liberality and discover'd by Avarice That it was a slavish Vice to tell Lyes That the Use of Wine had augmented the Cares and the Distempers of mankind That a Man ought to take as much Wine as would raise and not overwhelm his Soul That Lust did fully and stain every age of Man but quite extinguish old Age. That Gold it self and Jewels could not purchase Content That it was pleasant to the good but terrible to the bad to die That a noble Death was to be preferr'd before a dishonourable Life in the Opinion of all Philosophers And this is all or most that can be written of Pius except I add that he canonized St. Catharine of Siena and laid up St. Andrew's head that was sent from Morea to Rome in St. Peter's Church with great Veneration and Processions perform'd by the Clergy and People in a Chappel built on purpose after he had clear'd the Church in that place especially and removed the Sepulchres of some Popes and Cardinals that took up too much room PAVL II. PAVL the Second formerly called Peter Barbo a Venetian whose Father 's Name was Nicolas and his Mothers Polyxena Cardinal Priest of St. Marks was made Pope August 30. 1664. being Pope Eugenius's Nephew by his Sister he was just going as a Merchant to Sea an Employment not ungentile among the Venetians and not disapproved of by Solon and having carry'd his Scritore and other Implements on Board he heard that his Uncle Gabriel Condelmerius was chosen Pope Whereupon he stay'd ashore and at the request of his Friends and his elder Brother Paul Barbo apply'd himself to his Book though he was pretty well in years under the Discipline and tutelage of James Ricionius who used to commend his Diligence He had also other Masters but made no great proficency considering his Age however he preferr'd 'em all when he came to be Pope excepting only Ricion to shew that it was none of their faults he was not made a Scholar But Paul Barbo who was a stout and a wise Man and knew his Brother's nature inclined him rather to ease than business intreated Eugenius whom he went to visit at Florence to send for Peter and give him some Ecclesiastical preferment He did so and Peter was made first Arch-Deacon of Bologna with which not long after he held the Bishoprick of Cervia in Commendam and was made a Protonotary one of that Rank who receive the greatest Fees In this condition he lived for some years till at last he was made a Cardinal at the same time with Alouisius a Physician of Padua whom they afterward call'd Patriarch and Chamberlain which was done at the request of some Friends of Eugenius's who desired to have a Man that might thwart Alouisius upon occasion And indeed it happened afterward that they grew such Enemies as never were known by the insinuations of others especially whose interest it was to foment the Quarrel For Peter was vexed that he should be inferiour to any Man about Eugenius since he was his Nephew and of a Patrician Family in Venice Upon this account he fell out most grievously with Francis Condelmerius the Vice-Chancellour who was Eugenius's Cousin-german and when he died he turn'd all his fury upon the Patriarch though they two had been often seemingly reconcil'd by the intercession of Friends Hereupon they were such Enemies to one another in several Popes Reigns that they did not spare each others either Estate or honour but mutually reviled each other in words which I will not relate lest I should seem to believe ' em But when Eugenius was dead and Nicolas the Fifth in his place he prevailed so far upon him by his kindness and flattery that he not onely got the uppermost place of all his Nation in Nicolas's Court but by assistance of Nicolas's Brother did so animate him against Alouisius that he retrenched the Chamberlain's Office For Peter Barbo was naturally fair spoken and could feign good nature when occasion serv'd But he was
a remote People were brought to the knowledg and Belief Christianity a certain Captive Woman through the Assistance and Persuasion of their King Bacurius At this time likewise the Authority of Antony the holy Hermite did much towards the Reformation of Mankind Helena did oftentimes both by Letter and Messengers recommend her self and her Sons to his Prayers he was by Countrey an Egyptian his manner of living severe and abstemious eating only Bread and drinking nothing but Water and never making any Meal but about Sun-set a man wholly rapt up in Contemplation His Life was written at large by Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria As for Sylvester himself having at seven Decembrian Ordinations made forty two Presbyters thirty six Deacons sixty five Bishops he dyed and was buried in the Coemetery of Priscilla in the Via Salaria three miles distant from the City on the last day of December He was in the Chair twenty three years ten months eleven days and by his death the See was vacant fifteen days MARCUS I. MARCUS a Roman Son of Priscus lived also in the Reign of Constantine the Great concerning whom Historians differ in their Writings For some affirm that Constantine towards the latter end of his Reign recalled Arius from banishment and became a favourer of his Heresy through the persuasion of his Sister who always insisted that it was nothing but Envy that had caused his Condemnation These I believe to be deceiv'd by the nearness of their names and so to ascribe that to the Father which was the act of the Son For it is not probable that that wise Prince who had all along before disapprov'd of the Arian opinion should now begin to incline to it in that part of his Age wherein men are usually most judicious and discerning They write moreover that Constantine was baptized by Eusebius an Arian Bishop of Nicomedia But that this is a mistake appears both from the Emperours great bounty towards the Orthodox and also from that stately Font upon that occasion erected with wonderful Magnificence at Rome at which after he had been successful in expelling the Tyrants he with his Son Crispus were instructed in the Faith and baptized by Sylvester They who are of the other opinion tell us that Constantine deferred so great an Affair till the time that he might come to the River Jordan in which he had a great desire to be baptized in imitation of our Saviour but that in an Expedition against the Parthians making Inroads upon Mesopotamia in the thirty first year of his Reign and of his Age the sixty sixth he died on the way at Nicomedia before he could reach the River Jordan for the purpose he design'd and was there baptized at the point of Death But let these men confound and perplex the matter as they please we have reason to believe according to the general opinion that Constantine who had so often overcome his Enemies under the Standard of the Cross who had built so many Churches to the honour of God who had been present at holy Councils and who had so often joyned in Devotion with the holy Fathers would desire to be fortified against the Enemy of mankind by the Character of Baptism as soon as ever he came to understand the excellency of our Religion I am not ignorant what Socrates and Zozomen and most other Writers say concerning it but I follow the Truth and that which is most agreeable to the Religion and Piety of this excellent Prince The vulgar story of his having been overspread with Leprosie and cured of it by Baptism with a previous fiction concerning a Bath of the blood of Infants before prescribed for his Cure I can by no means give credit to having herein the Authority of Socrates on my side who affirms that Constantine being now sixty five years of Age fell sick and left the City of Constantinople to go to the hot Baths for the recovery of his health but speaks not a word concerning any Leprosie Besides there is no mention made of it by any Writer either Heathen or Christian and certainly had there been any such thing Orosius Eutropius and others who have most accurately written the Memoirs of Constantine would not have omitted it One thing more concerning this great Prince is certain viz. That a Blazing Star or Comet of extraordinary magnitude appear'd some time before his Death Marcus applying himself to the care of Religion ordained that the Bishop of Ostia whose place it is to consecrate the Bishop of Rome might use a Pall. He appointed likewise that upon solemn days immediately after the Gospel the Nicene Creed should be rehears'd with a loud voice both by the Clergy and People He built also two Churches at Rome one in the Via Ardeatina in which he was buried the other within the City these Churches Constantine presented and endowed very liberally In the time of this Emperour and Bishop lived Juvencus a Spaniard of Noble birth and a Presbyter who in four Books translated almost verbatim into hexametre Verse the four Gospels he wrote also something concerning the Sacraments in the same kind of Metre Our Marcus having at two Decembrian Ordinations made twenty five Presbyters six Deacons twenty eight Bishops died and was buried in the Coemetery of Balbina in the Via Ardeatina Octob. the fifth He was in the Chair two years eight months twenty days and by his death the See was vacant twenty days IULIUS I. IULIUS a Roman the Son of Rusticus lived in the time of Constantius who sharing the Empire with his two Brethren Constantine and Constans reigned twenty four years Among the Successours of Constantine the Great is sometimes reckoned Delmatius Caesar his Nephew who was certainly a very hopeful young Gentleman but was soon cut off in a Tumult of the Soldiers though by the Permission rather than at the Command of Constantius In the mean time the Arian Heresie mightily prevailed being abetted by Constantius who compelled the Orthodox to receive Arius In the second year of his Reign therefore a Council was called at Laodicea a City of Syria or as others have it at Tyre Thither resort both the Catholicks and Arians and their daily debate was whether Christ should be styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same substance with the Father or no. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria asserted it and press'd hard upon them with his Reasons and Arguments for it which when Arius found himself not able to answer he betook himself to Reproach and Calumny accusing the holy Man of Sorcery and to procure credit to his Charge producing out of a Box the pretended Arm of Arsenius whom he falsly asserted that Athanasius had kill'd and was wont to make use of that dead Arm in his Incantations Hereupon Athanasius was violently run down and condemned by the Emperour but making his escape he lay concealed in a dry Cistern for six years together without seeing the Sun but being at length
about Only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Barcelona though he had disturbance given him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Land yet continued firm to the Emperour Our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gifts of Body and Mind and despising the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fortune applyed himself to Works of Bounty and 〈◊〉 and particularly took so much care in the matter of Provision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorts of it and especially Grain was no where cheaper than at 〈◊〉 Moreover he supported the Lives and defended the Cause of the Poor the Fatherless and Widow in such a manner that he deservedly gain'd the name of the Father of the Poor The same course 〈◊〉 living he also took before his Pontificate both while he was a 〈◊〉 of S. Sabina in the Aventine which Church when he came to be Pope he beautified and also while he was Arch-Priest of the Lateran Church from which place he was afterwards for his great Merit by an unanimous Choice advanced to the Papal Chair By his Procurement and Intercession likewise all the Prisoners and Exiles in France returned at 〈◊〉 to Rome who being strip'd of all they 〈◊〉 were relieved and supported by his Charity Nor was it his fault that Sico Duke of Benevent did not quit the Siege of 〈◊〉 which he at this time reduced to great Straits and carried from thence the Body of S. Ianuarius to Benevent where he honourably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Great Church with Desiderius and 〈◊〉 For the Pope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voured to persuade Sico to undertake an Expedition against the Sara cens who had already possess'd themselves of Palermo in Sicily 〈◊〉 good Man having after this manner continued four years in the 〈◊〉 died lamented of all who grieved for themselves rather 〈◊〉 for him to whom Death was a welcom Passage into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was buried in S. Peter's VALENTINE I. VALENTINE a Roman son of Leontius being only a Deacon not a Priest was yet for his extraordinary Sanctity deservedly preferred to the Pontificate Nor will it appear strange if we consider that having from his Youth upwards been instructed in Learning and Piety by chose good Popes Paschal and 〈◊〉 he did not give his Mind to Pleasures and Sports as most young men are wont to do but applied himself to the acquiring of knowledg by the reading of the Antients and the Rule of good living from the Example of holy Bishops He was moreover a Person of such ready Parts and prevailing Eloquence that he had a great Facility in persuading to or against what he pleased without offering any thing that was not found learned and decent Finally both in his private Station and while he was Pope he came 〈◊〉 none of his Predecessours in Devotion Mercy and Charity For these Reasons he was unanimously elected to the Chair but 〈◊〉 as a punishment upon the sins of that Age he died on the fortieth day of his Pontificate and was buried in S. Peter's all People lamenting that they were bereft of such a Man who if he had lived would have been an almost impregnable Support to the Roman Liberty and the Christian Religion While the See was vacant Sicardus Duke of 〈◊〉 who after his Father's Death ruled tyrannically for the want of a Bride which he expected cast Deus-dedit Abbot of Monte Cassino into Prison where he died with the Reputation of being a Holy Man GREGORY IV. GREGORY the fourth a Roman Son of John and Cardinal of S. Mark entred upon the Pontificate at the time when the Saracens possess'd of Asia shut up the Passage to the Holy Land from the Christians and the Moors passing with their Fleet into 〈◊〉 wasted a great part of that Island having as is already said made themselves Masters of Palermo Nor could the Venetians though at the Desire of Michael Emperour of Constantinople they sailed thither check their Proceedings the Moors having more Ships and Men than they The State of Venice was now in its Increase having had it 's Original from the Veneti at the time when Attila with his 〈◊〉 took and destroyed Aquileia Concordia Altino with other Cities of the Province anciently called Venetia that People having no other 〈◊〉 against the Cruelty of the 〈◊〉 but only the Fens and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patricius was now Duke of Venice whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chuse to mention because in his time the Body of S. Mark was by some Venetian Merchants brought from Alexandria to Venice where that Saint is now had in great Veneration a most magnificent Church being in the principal part of the City built and dedicated to him and adorned and enriched with very great Donations And srom hence it was that the Venetians first bore upon their Standards and Banners the Picture of S. Mark as the Patron of their City But Gregory understanding that the Venetians were not able to expel these Barbarians out of the Island sends to Louis and Lotharius desiring them to send Aid to the Sicilians at the first Opportunity They were very shy of the Business allcdging that that War belonged to Michael Emperour of Constantinople but yet declared themselves ready to 〈◊〉 their share of Men and Moneys for the undertaking of it But in the mean time while Ambassadours were sent srom one to the other about that Assair Boniface Earl of Corsica with his Brother Bertarius and the Assistance of some of the People of Tuscany sailing into Asrica engaged four times with the Enemy between Vtica and Carthage where he made so great a Slaughter that the Moors were forced as formerly in Scipio's time to re-call their Forces from Sicily to the Succour of their own Countrey in Distress and by this means Sicily was delivered from them Boniface then returns with his victorious Fleet laden with vast Spoils from Africa into Corsica Some there are that write that during this 〈◊〉 in Italy the Emperour Lotharius envying the preference that his 〈◊〉 Louis did in all matters give to his youngest Brother Charles afterwards surnam'd the Bald he put him in Prison but soon after set him sree and that the Barbarians taking hold of the opportunity embark'd in a great Fleet from Asrica for Italy and arriv'd at Centum Celloe which City since call'd Civilavecchia some will have to be demolish'd by 'em and that from 〈◊〉 marching to Rome they took that City but this is not probable What is said concerning Centum-Celloe I shall not deny and I doubt not but that they attempted the taking of Rome it self but Guy Marquess of Lombardy defended it so stoutly that having burnt the Suburbs and the Churches of SS Peter and Paul in the Via Latina they withdrew to Monte-Cassino where they destroy'd the Town of S. German and the Monastery of S. Benet which slood on the Hill and going down to the Sea-side near the River Garigliano whither their Fleet was brought from Ostia they invaded Tarentum and Sicily and as I said before were recalled home by their own Countrey-men at that time broken in War by the Valour of Boniface I take it to be
Church should be at quiet those two Anti-Cardinals that I told you of were persuaded by Alphonso who was Martin's Enemy to choose Giles Munio a Canon of Barselona and a Nobleman Pope and call'd him Clement VIII He was no sooner chosen but he made Cardinals and acted as Pope But when Martin and Alphonso were friends again he sent Peter de Fuso a Cardinal as Legate from the Sea Apostolick thither to whom Giles resign'd his Title to the Popedom at the command of Alphonso For which Martin was so kind to him afterward that he made him Bishop of Majorca And the Cardinals also that were made by Giles did voluntarily lay down their Dignity But those two that Peter Luna made remain'd still obstinate and therefore because they would not obey the Pope the Legate put them in Prison Thus Martin's industry and prudence removed the Schism from all parts and when the Church was setled he used as much skill and discretion in conferring of Benefices For he did not bestow 'em upon every one that ask'd him but consider'd who was fittest to receive them and to take such a charge upon him And if he did not know any body in the Country where Benefices fell he used to send and enquire of those that knew the place who was qualified with Learning Birth or breeding fit for any Office And thus did he advance the Church and deserving Men at the same time to his great Honour In fine so couragious and resolute he was that though he had two Brothers the elder of which Jordanus Prince of Salerno died of the Plague and the other Lorenzo was burn'd to death in a Turret which was casually set on fire he was not known to say or do any thing that argued Impatience or lowness of mind But this same Person so exactly good in the whole course of his life died at Rome of an Apoplexy in the fourteenth year and the third month of his Pontificate and the sixty third year of his Age and was by his own Order buried in S. Johns Church near the Heads of the Apostles in a brazen Tomb and attended by all the people of Rome and the Clergy weeping as if the Church of God and the City of Rome had been bereft of their onely and their best Parent The Sea at that time was vacant twelve days EVGENIVS IV. EVGENIVS the Fourth a Venetian of the Family of Condelmero a common but ancient name whose Fathers name was Angelo arrived at the Pontificate after this manner When Gregory XII was made Pope who was of the Family of Coraro and a Venetian Anthony Corar Gregory's Nephew a Canon of S. Georges in Alga going to Rome took Gabriel Condelmero who was of the same profession and had lived with him from his Childhood along with him somewhat against his will Gregory was so taken with his Wit and Parts that he first made him his Treasurer and then Bishop of Siena having made his Nephew Anthony Bishop of Bologna The Sieneses refused Gabriel at first and would not have him for their Bishop alledging that a Foreiner ought not to be set over them in that high Function but one that knew the customs and usages of their City But when Gregory afterward upon a distrust of his condition left Rome for Lucca and encreased the number of Cardinals he made Anthony his Nephew and Gabriel Condelmero two who was made use of by Gregory after that and when he was turn'd out by Martin in many great Affairs especially in the Embassy to the Marcha d' Ancona in which he not only confirm'd the Inhabitants in their Allegiance to the Church by punishing some seditious Conspirators but also repaired the Church of S. Agnes at Ancona which was decay'd and the Port of the same City which was Weather-beaten very old and ruinous so as to make it like Trajans And afterward when Martin understood that the Bolognians were set upon innovations he sent Gabriel from Ancona thither who suppress'd the Sedition as soon as he came Where coming to Rome and Martin soon after dying he alone was thought fit to be made Pope out of eighteen Cardinals who at that time were in the Conclave and changing his name to Eugenius was brought immediatey to S. Peters attended by all the People and Clergy in the year 1431. March 3d. And having received the Papal Crown he went to the Lateran and from thence to the Vatican where he set a day for a general Consistory to be held At which there was such a Concourse of People that the Timber of the building where they met and where the publick Consistory now stands gave way and put the people into such a consternation that the Bishop of Sinigaglia a Citizen of Rome of the Family of Mella was trodden to death in the throng For the Popes House was not built at that time as it is now When the Consistory was dismiss'd Eugenius took all care to avoid Tumults But some Sycophants persuading him that Martin who was very covetous had left somewhere a great Treasure behind him of which he might be inform'd by Martin's Friends and Relations they made the Man so mad that he commanded Oddo Poccio Martin's Vice-Chamberlain to be laid hold on and gave the charge of the business to Stephen Colonna his General the onely person of his Party among the Colonna's Cardinal Vrsin and Cardinal Comitum egging him on by whose contrivance 't is thought all these things were done against the Colonneses out of an old grudg between the two Factions Eugenius however commanded that Oddo should be brought to him quietly and civily which was quite contrarily executed by Stephen For not onely his goods were plunder'd by the Soldiers but he was carried by force or rather dragg'd like a Robber publickly into the Pope's presence Eugenius was very angry at this rude usage of him and checked Stephen for it nay threaten'd to punish him severely for bringing not onely Oddo but the Bishop of Tivoli who was formerly Martin's Chamberlain before him after such an unworthy manner Hereupon Stephen fearing the Popes displeasure fled to Palestrina to Prince Colonna and desired him to join with him to drive Eugenius from the City because he said Eugenius had a Design to extinguish the whole Family of Colonna And that he knew that to be so for he was privy to it himself and that he ran away from the City because he knew that he also must bear a part in that common Calamity unless they all avoided it together The Prince moved with what he said and with the misfortunes of such as had been Martin's Friends took up Arms and immediately resolv'd to set upon the Pope staying onely a little till his Brother Prosper a Cardinal Deacon whom he had forewarn'd of the business could get out of the City And as soon as he saw him he march'd from Palestrina to Marino and thence to Rome against Eugenius and having the Gate di Sancto Sebastiano deliver'd
perpetual banishment Thus by the punishment and degradation of several Cardinals the College being wanting and unprovided of its due numbers the Pope with much liberality created one and thirty at one time all persons of quality belonging to several Countries of Christendom some of which were advanced for their Virtue and Merit and others by the Favour and Interest of great Personages This Pope created two and forty Cardinals in all during the time of his Reign besides the restauration of the four rebellious Cardinals deprived by Julio amongst these Cardinals which he had ordained Julio de Medici his Kinsman was one whom he made his Vice-Chancellor and was afterwards Pope under the name of Clement VII About this time Maximilian the Emperor dying Charles King of Spain Naples and Sicily was elected to the great regret and indignation of Francis King of France who with much envy and emulation was displeased to see the Imperial Dignity added to the many Kingdoms and Estates holden by the King of Spain And because according to the ancient Rule and Canon the King of Naples was excluded from all capacity of being Emperor a Dispensation was purchased from the Pope with expence of 7000 Ducats qualifying the King of Naples for the Election Afterwards the Pope having favoured the cause of Charles and he by his assistance being Elected Emperor an Alliance and League was agreed between them to drive the French out of Italy a design ever pleasing to the Popes and particularly to Leo who was impatient of the infamous loss of Parma and Piacenza which being gained with so much glory and trouble by Julio he hoped to regain and restore to the Possessions of the Church In pursuance of this enterprize a considerable Army of Germans and Switzers were sent by the Emperor into Italy and joyned with the Forces of the Pope Prospero Colonna was made Generalissimo and Frederico Gonzaga of Mantoua General of the Army of the Church and Julio de Medici Legate of the whole Army The success proved agreeable to the preparations for the French were droven out of Italy which had long groaned under their pride and tyranny after which Milan was according to Articles surrendred into the hands of Francis Sforza the true and natural Lord and Parma and Piacenza restored to the Church with the news of which the Pope conceived such extremity of joy that he died suddenly on the first of December 1521. at the Village of Magliana where he used often for recreation to retire himself from whence the next day his body was removed to Rome not without suspicion of having been poisoned by his Chamberlain Malâ—spina who thereupon being imprisoned was afterwards released by Cardinal De Medicis so soon as he came to Rome no farther proceedings being made thereupon lest the matter being examined should reflect too far in disgrace of the French King Thus died Leo X. at the age of 45 years 11 months and one day having held the Papal Chair for the space of eight years and twenty days having at the hour of his death testified the great satisfaction he received by the restitution of Parma and Piacenza to the Ecclesiastical State without the effusion of the least drop of blood This Pope was esteemed a great lover of Justice having been severe against Thieves and Robbers He was a great lover of his Recreation and Pleasures spending much time in Hunting and Banquets and was more delighted with Musick than became the gravity and severity of a Pope He was highly magnificent in his Buildings and munificent in his gifts with which and by his Wars he had consumed so profusely beyond his Revenue that for maintenance of this charge he was forced to exact mony for making Cardinals and to set several Offices of his Court to sale He was a great lover of Learning and learned men to whom he was very liberal in his gifts imitating therein the spirit of his Father Laurence de Medicis He enlarged the Power of the Potesta or Civil Magistracy of Rome and bestowed on them several Privileges and Immunities for which reason by a Solemn Decree they made Julian his Brother a Citizen of Rome and treated him at the Campidoglio with Feasting and other Entertainments where they also erected a Statue of Marble and dedicated it to Leo with this Inscription Optimo Principi Leoni X. Med. Joan. Pont. Max. ob restitutam instauratamque Vrbem aucta Sacra bonasque artes adscitos Patres sublatum vectigal datum congiarium S.P.Q.R. In fine the face of the City of Rome was never more pleasant nor chearful than in the time of Leo X. His body was buried for that present in a Sepulchre of Brick erected in S. Peter's Church and for afterwards by direction of Paul III. translated to the Minerva together with the body of Clement VII ADRIAN VI. POPE Leo being dead and his Obsequies solemnly performed the Cardinals on the 16th of December 1521. assembled in the Chappel of Sixtus Quartus in S. Peter's Church and thence adjourned to the Vatican where 29 Cardinals entered into the Conclave and having sang Veni Spiritus they for some days were employed in giving Audiences to Forein Ministers in ordering matters for the more orderly Government of the City and regulating the Conclave in relation to their choice so on the 20th they began seriously to proceed to an Election Cardinal De Medicis aspiring to that dignity seemed to stand the most fair for it because that by the reputation of his greatness and by the interest of his Revenues and his glory lately acquired in the Conquest of Milan he had obtained the Voices of 15 Cardinals howsoever many considerations crossed his desires for it seemed irregular and against the common Policy for one of the same Family to succeed in the place of the Pope deceased for that such Presidents might soon bring the Popedom to a state of being disposed by Succession for which cause all the ancient Cardinals who pretended to be of the French action and all those who were enemies to Leo and discontented by him stood in opposition against him Moreover all the Cardinals who were Competitors and lived in hopes of succeeding could not endure and suffer the Election of a person under the age of fifty years These difficulties occurring retarded the Election for several days at length as they made scrutiny according to the custom of the Conclave Cardinal Adrian a Hollander by Nation was proposed one who had been School-master to the Emperor and by his means made Cardinal under Pope Leo so soon as he was nominated the Cardinal S. Sixtus began to recount and amplifie his Virtues in a long Oration which so took that the Cardinals began to yield and give up their Voices for him the residue followed from one to another seeming guided rather by chance than Counsel so that by the common Suffrages of all the Cardinals Adrian was Elected and Created Pope on the 9th of January 1522. the parties themselves not being
which they knew or of which they could accuse their Judges who had for the space of five or six years sat in the Seat of Judicature By these means every day one poor Judg or other who perhaps also was out of employment was dragged away to Prison and close shut up for what Crime he knew not or perhaps had forgot the Sentence he had passed in the Case for which he was accused These and many such like cases of severity strook such a terrour into the minds of those who sat on the Tribunals of Justice or managed any publick employment that every one became cautious and nice in the Sentences he gave or how by fear or bribery he remitted the least scruple or severity which the Law enjoyned or required Farther he gave strict charge to all Sindics and Governours of Towns and Castles to give in a particular List or account of all Felons within their respective Precincts who had for the space of ten years past been accused or branded with Capital Crimes and also of all such who had been convicted for scandalous and infamous persons and Incorrigible during the time of their Sindicate In which Lists he required such an exact impartiality that upon Information given against the Sindic of Albano how in the List of the Dissolute and Incorrigible he had omitted to insert the name of his Nephew he was sentenced by the Pope himself to undergo the Strapado in the publick Market-place from which punishment all the Intercession and Prayers and Interest which the Spanish Ambassadour could make in his behalf was not able to deliver him By these means the Lists of Dissolute Persons which were immediately directed to the hand of the Pope were so very exact that no person was exempted who was guilty of the least Crime Which when the Pope saw and observed every Week as they were sent him he was greatly pleased and especially with those which were filled with a great number of names for in reading of them he would often say Oh happy Gallies which I intend to build O happy I who have first found Men for my Gallies before I found Gallies for my Men. The which severity of the Pope from whom there could never be any expectation of Pardon so terrified all sorts and conditions of People that every one comported himself with the greatest modesty and gravity imaginable that an Oath or a rude or uncivil word was not heard through any of the streets of Rome but every one being alarm'd and dreading as if he had always a Constable or a Pursuivant at his back walked with his beads in his hand repeating a Pater-Noster or some other Prayer with a sorrowful and penitential countenance By these Methods all the Banditi who being grown licentious under the gentle Government of other Popes and who spoiled and destroyed all Italy were now by the Justice of this Pope almost wholly extirpated for such as fled out of the State of the Church to the Dominions of other Princes he so prosecuted by laying Fines on any who secured or succoured them and setting a price on the head of every considerable Bandito that in a short time he reduced them to a small number and totally suppressed the pride and insolence of that pest of mankind And thus resolutely was Sixtus bent to punish the Enormities of wicked Men that whereas it had been the custom of former Popes to shew acts of mercy and pardon on the day of their Coronation opening the Prison Gates and enlarging the Prisoners this Sixtus absolutely refused to grant releasement to any though instantly urged by the Cardinals alledging That there were Rogues sufficient about the streets without ransacking the Prisons for them That he had taken a resolution when he was first made Pope to chastise the wicked and not suffer their Villanies to corrupt and intermix with the Vertues of good Men. By these severities all people lived in quiet and peace one with the other no Sword was drawn in the City nor quarelsom words or uncivil language uttered it being a common saying to Men at variance together Remember these are the times of Sixtus Thus when the Banditi were suppressed the good and benefit was so great to all Italy that the Citizens of Rome erected a Statue of Brass to the memory of this Rome on which these words were engraven Sixto V. Pont. Max. ob quietem publicam compressa Sicariorum Exulumque licentiâ restitutam Annonae inopiam sublevatam urbem edificiis viis aquaeductu illustratam SPQR And farther to demonstrate the inflexible humour of this Pope it is observable that a poor Youth of about seventeen years of age making a resistance against the Bayliffs who came to distrain an Ass for some Duties owing and by Law ordained to be paid in which seizure though the Officers made a mistake for that the Ass did not belong to the party who owed the Mony yet because he offended against the course of Justice by making opposition to it he was condemned to die nor could the persuasions or Intercessions of the G. Duke's Ambassadour nor of the Cardinal of Medici prevail in his behalf or mitigate the rigour of the Sentence and when the Governour of Rome alledged that the youth being under age could not by Law be put to death for this Crime the Pope replyed If he want years I will lend him ten of mine Nor did Sixtus exercise this severity onely towards his own People but he was brisk and haughty towards all Christian Princes for in a few days after his Coronation or at most in two months after he quarrelled with Henry III. King of France with Henry King of Navarre and with Philip II. King of Spain The occasion of his quarrel with Spain seemed to have had no other cause or foundation than his own pride and desire of usurpation and which happened in this manner It had been the custom ever since the time of the Emperour Charles V. for the King of Spain by his Ambassadour at Rome to present yearly on the 29th day of June which is the Festival of St. Peter a white Horse with a Purse of seven thousand Ducats in Gold to the Pope for a Tribute and acknowledgment for the Kingdom of Naples which that King holds as feudatary to the Ecclesiastical State And now on the usual day Sixtus appearing on a Throne with pomp and mignificence to receive his Tribute which the Ambassadour in a quaint Speech and with fine Complements presented he seemed not very well satisfied therewith but returned this tart and Satyrical Reply You think now said he that you have made a fine Speech and indeed so you have for you have made us change a Kingdom for a Beast and still seeming uneasie as he was about to rise he added these suspitious words But we believe that this business will not proceed long in this manner These words immediately touched the Ambassadour to the quick and giving him just cause of reflection
presence of several Brethren taking hold of my hand This says he is the person whom having been my assistant in all affairs since I came to Rome I constitute Bishop of that City and when I shewed my willingness eo decline so great a Burden he exposulated with me in this manner Wilt thou consult only thine own convenience and deny thy assistance to the poor fluctuating Church of God when it is in thy power to steer it But he being a person of wonderful modesty did freely prefer Linus and Cletus to that dignity before himself undertook it He wrote in the name of the Roman Church a very useful Epistle to the Corinthians not differing in style from that of the Hebrews which is said to be St. Pauls This Epistle was formerly read publickly in several Churches there is another bearing his name which the Ancients did not thing authentick and Eufebius in the third Book of his History does find fault with a long Disputation between St. Peter and Appion said to be written by our Clement 'T is certain that John the Apostle son of Zebedee and Brother of James lived till this time who was the last Penman of the Gospel and confirmed what had been before written by Matthew Mark and Luke The reason why he wrote last is said to be that he might confront and defeat the Heresie of the Ebionites who impudently denied Christ to have had a being before his Birth of the Blessed Virgin and accordingly we find him very particular in demonstrating the Divinity of our Saviour He wrote several other things and among the rest his Revelation during his banishment into the Island Patmos by Domitian who being afterwards slain and his Acts for their excessive severity rescinded by the Senate he returned to Ephesus in the time of Nerva where he continued till the Reign of Trajan supporting the Churches of Asia by his Counsel and Writings till at last being worn out with Age he rested in the Lord the sixty eighth year after the Passion of Christ. Our Clemens by his Piety Religion and Learning made daily many Proselytes to Christianity whereupon P. Tarquinius the High Priest and Mamertinus the City Praefect stir'd up the Emperour against the Christians at whose command Clement was banish'd to an Island where he found near two thousand Christians condemn'd to hew Marble in the Quarries In this Island there being at that time a great scarcity of water which they were forced to fetch at six miles distance Clement going going to the top of a little Hill hard by sees there a Lamb under whose right foot flowed miraculously a plentiful Spring with which all the Islanders were refresh'd and many of them thereupon converted to the Christian faith At which Trajan being enraged sent some of his Guards who threw Clement into the Sea with an Anchor tied about his neck But his blessed Body was not long after cast on the shore and being buried at the place where this miraculous fountain had sprung up a Temple was built over it This is said to have happened September the fourteenth in the third year of the Emperor Trajan He was in the Chair nine years two months and ten days he divided the Wards of the City among seven Notaries who were to register the Acts of the Martyrs and at the Ordinations which he held according to Custom in the Month of December he made ten Presbyters two Deacons and fifteen Bishops By his death the See was vacant two and twenty days S. ANACLETUS ANACLETUS an Athenian son of Antiochus was successor to Clement in the time of Trajanus This Trajans Predecessor Nerva Cocceius was an excellent person both in his private and publick capacity just and equal in all his proceedings and one whose Government was very advantageous to the Republick Through his procurement the Acts of Domitian being repeal'd by Decree of the Senate multitudes thereupon return'd from banishment and several by his bounty had the Goods of which they had before been plundered restor'd to them But being now very old and drawing near to the time of his Death out of his care of the Publick Weal he adopted Trajan and then died in the sixteenth Month of his Reign and of his Age the seventy second year Trajan himself a Spaniard surnamed Ulpius Crinitus coming to the Empire surpassed the best of Princes in in the glory of his Arms the the Goodness of his Temper and the moderation of his Government He extended the bounds of the Empire far and wide reduced that part of Getmany beyond the Rhine to its former state subdued Dacia and several other Nations beyond the Danow recovered Parthia gave a King to the Albanians made Provinces beyond Euphrates and Tygris overcame and kept Armenia Assyria Mesopotamia Seleucia Ctesiphon and Babylon and proceeded as far as the borders of India and the Red Sea where he left a Fleet to infest those Borders The Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions of Anacletus were as followeth viz. That no Prelate or other Clerk should suffer his beard or hair to grow long that no Bishop should be ordained by less than three other Bishops that the Clergy should be admitted into holy Orders in publick only and that all the faithful should after Consecration communicate or be put out of the Church By this means the Christian interest encreas'd that Trajan fearing lest the Roman State might be impaired thereby gave allowance to a third Persecution of the Christians in which multitudes were put to Death and particularly Ignatius the third Bishop of the Church of Antioch after St. Peter Who being taken and condemn'd to suffer by wild beasts as he was carried to Rome by his Guards whom he called his Ten Leopards he all along in his passage encourag'd and confirm'd the Christians by Discourse with some and by Epistle to others declaring his readiness to suffer in this manner Come Cross come Beasts come Wrack come the torture of my whole body and the torments of the Devil upon me so I may enjoy Christ. And upon the occasion of his hearing the Lions roar Corn says he I am let me be ground by the teeth of these beasts that I may be found fine bread He died in Trajan's eleventh year and his bones were afterwards buried in the Suburbs of Antioch But Plinius Secundus who was then Governour of that Province being moved with compassion to see so many executed wrote to the Emperour Trajan informing him that incredible numbers of men were daily put to Death who were persons of an unblameable life and who in no point transgressed the Roman Laws save only that before day-break they would sing Hymns to Christ their God but that Adulteries and the like Crimes were disallowed and abominated by them Hereupon Trajan gave order that the Magistrates should not make search after the Christians but only punish those who voluntarily offered themselves During this Persecution Simeon the kinsman of our Lord son of
Convert from the Cerinthian Heresie should at his reception into the Church be baptized At the request of Praxedes a devout Woman he dedicated a Church at the Baths of Novatus to her Sister S. Pudentiana to which himself made several donations oftentimes celebrated Mass in it and built a Font which he blessed and consecrated and at which he baptized a great number of Proselytes He also appointed a punishment upon those who were negligent in handling the body and blood of Christ. If through the Priests carelesness any of the Cup had fallen upon the ground he was to undergo a Penance of forty days if it fell upon the Altar of three days if upon the Altar-cloth of four days it upon any other Cloth of nine days Whithersoever it fell he was to lick it up if he could if not the board or stone to be wash'd or scraped and what of it could be recovered thereby either burnt or laid up in the Sacrary In his time Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia was much esteem'd who wrote an excellent Apology for Christianity and presented it to Antoninus the second He wrote also against the Montanists who with their two fanatick Prophetesses Priscillia and Maximilla pretended that the descent of the Holy Ghost was not upon the Apostles but themselves an opinion which they had learn'd from their Leader Montanus At this time also the learned Tatianus was in good reputation so long as he swerved not from the Doctrine of his Master Justin Martyr but afterwards being puff'd up with a great conceit of himself he became the Author of a new Heresie which being propagated by one Severus the followers of it were from him called Severians They drank no Wine ate no Flesh rejected the Old Testament and believed not the Resurrection Moreover Philip Bishop of Crete now published an excellent book against Marcion and his followers whose Errours were the same with those of Cerdo Musanus also wrote a book against the Hereticks called Encratitoe or the Abstemious who agreed in opinion with the Severians looking upon all carnal copulation as filthy and unclean and condemning those Meats which God hath given for the use of mankind But to return to Pius having at five Decembrian Ordinations made nineteen Presbyters twenty one Deacons ten Bishops he died and was buried in the Vatican near S. Peter July 11. He was in the Chair eleven years four months three days and by his death the See was vacant thirteen days S. ANICETUS ANICETUS a Syrian the son of one John de Vicomurco lived in the time of Antoninus Verus concerning whom we have spoken in the Life of Pius Which Antoninus though he were a great Phisopher yet neglected not the pursuit of Military glory For together with his Son Commodus Antoninus he did with great courage and success gain a Victory and a Triumph over the Germans Marcomanni Quadi and Sarmatoe At his first enterprizing this War his Exchequer being so low that he had not money to pay his Soldiers he expos'd to publick sale in the Forum Trajani all the furniture of his Palace and all the Jewels of his Empress But afterwards returning home victoriously to those who were willing to restore the Goods they had bought he refunded what they paid for them but used no force against those who refus'd to relinquish their bargains Upon this Victory he was very liberal to all who had done any good service to the publick to some Provinces he remitted their accustomed Tribute he caused to be publickly burnt in the Forum the Writings by which any man was made a Debtor to the Exchequer and by new Constitutions moderated the severity of the old Laws By this means he became so much the darling of the People that any man had a particular brand of infamy set upon him who had not Antoninus his Effigies in his House Anicetus that the reputation of the Church might not suffer by the extravagancy of a few men ordained that no Clergyman should upon any pretence wear long hair and that no Bishop should be consecrated by fewer than three of the same Order a Constitution which was afterwards confirmed by the Council of Nice and that at the Consecration of a Metropolitan all the Bishops of the Province should be present Moreover he ordained as Ptolomy tells us that no Bishop should implead his Metropolitan but before the Primate or the See Apostolick this being also a Constitution which was afterwards confirm'd by the Council of Nice and several succeeding Bishops of Rome and that all Arch-bishops should not be called Primates but only those of them who have a particular title to that denomination the Primates having also the 〈…〉 of Patriarchs whereas the others are simply Arch-bishops or Metropolitans In his time Egestippus was a great propugner of the Christian 〈…〉 who as an imitator of their manner of speaking of whose lives he had been a diligent observer in a very plain unaffected style wrote a History of Ecclesiastical affairs from the Passion of our Lord to the Age in which he lived He says of himself that he came to Rome in the time of Anicetus whom he calls the tenth Bishop from St. Peter and that he staid there to the time of Ele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who had been Deacon to Anicetus He inveighed much against Idolators for building sumptuous Monuments and Temples to the Dead as particularly Adrian the Emperour who in honour to his darling Antinous had instituted solemn Games and Prizes at the City which he built and called by his name Antinoe and also erected a Temple and appointed priests for his Worship Some say that Dionysius lived in the Pontificat of Anicetus but Writers are in this place very confused in their Chronology some placing Pius first others Anicetus and so they are in their 〈…〉 too However in an History of things so remote and of which through the negligence of the Ancients we have so slender an account it will be better to say something of the matters themselves though it be some time before or after they were transacted than altogether to pass them by in silence As for Anicetus having at five Decembrian Ordinations made nineteen Presbyters four Deacons nine Bishops he received a Crown of Martyrdom and was buried in the Sepulchre of 〈◊〉 in the Via Appia April the seventeenth He was in the Chair eleven years four months and three days and by his Death the See was vacant seventeen days S. SOTER SOTER a Campanian of Fundi Son of Concordius lived in the time of L. Antoninus Commodus This Commodus was as Lampridius plays upon his name very 〈◊〉 and hurtful to all his Subjects being in nothing like his Father save that he also thanks to the Christian Soldiers for it fought successfully against the Germans In that War when the Army of Commodus was in great straits for want of Water 't is said that at the Prayers of the Christian Legion God supplied and refreshed
so much smartness in the Translation how much more shall we judg to be in the Original As for 〈◊〉 having at three Decembrian Ordinations made twelve Presbyters eight Deacons fifteen Bishops he died and was buried near S. Peter in the Vatican May 26. He was in the Chair fifteen years three months two days and the See was vacant five days S. VICTOR I. VICTOR an Asian Son of Felix was as I believe in the time of Aelius Pertinax Which Aelius being seventy years of Age was from the Office of City-praefect created Emperour by a Decree of the Senate Being afterwards desired to declare his Lady Augusta and his Son Coesar he refused both saying it was enough that he himself was Emperour against his Will But undergoing the reproach of that unprincely Vice Covetousnes being so sordid as to cause the half of a Lettuce or Artichoke to be served up to his Table he was without any opposition slain in the Palace by Didius Julianus the Lawyer in the sixth month of his Reign This is that Julian who made the perpetual Edict and who in the seventh month after his coming to the Empire was vanquished and slain in a Civil War by Severus at Pons Milvius Victor out of his care of the Affairs of the Church decreed that according to a former constitution of Eleutherius as Damasus tells us Easter should be kept upon the Sunday which fell between the fourteenth and twenty first day after the Phasis or appearance of the Moon in the first Month. Theophilus Bishop of Coesarea Palestinoe was obedient to this Decree and wrote against those who observed that Feast as the Jews did their 〈◊〉 always upon the fourteenth day of the Moon whatever day of the Week it happened to be But Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus very hotly declaimed against this Constitution stifly contending that according to ancient Custom it ought to be celebrated precisely on that day on which the Jews kept their 〈◊〉 For he maintain'd that herein he 〈◊〉 the Example of S. 〈◊〉 the Apostle and others the Ancients We says he observe the exact day neither anticipating nor protracting it Thus did Philip who died at Hierapolis thus did John who leaned on our Lords bosom thus did Polycarp Thraseas Melito and Narcissus Bishop of Hierusalem 〈◊〉 some tell us that a Council was held in Palestine at which were present 〈◊〉 Irenoeus Narcissus Polycarp Bacchylus all Bishops of great Note in Asia But the whole matter was afterwards refer'd to the Council of Nice in which it was decreed that Easter should be kept on the Sunday following the fourteenth day of the Moon to avoid all appearance of Judaizing 〈◊〉 also ordained that in cases of necessity Proselytes might at their 〈◊〉 be baptized in any kind of Water or at any time of the year 〈◊〉 his Pontificate there flourished many learned men As for instance Appion who wrote the Hexaëmeron or account of the six days work of Creation 〈◊〉 Samosatenus who together with Theodotus held our Saviour to have been a meer man Sixtus who wrote of the 〈◊〉 and Arabianus who published several Treatises of Christian Doctrine Now also one Judas wrote a Cronology to the tenth year of Severus the Emperor wherein yet he is guilty of a mistake in asserting that Antichrist would come in his time an Errour into which I suppose him to have fallen from the observation he had made of the Cruelty and other Vices of the Age which he saw now grown to such an heighth that he thought Almighty God could not bear with mankind any longer By which very thing Lactantius and S. Austin themselves were after deceived Our Victor having first written some books concerning Religion died and was buried near S. 〈◊〉 in the Vatican whose Feast we observe on the twenty eighth of July He was in the Chair ten years three months ten days And the See was vacant twelve days S. ZEPHYRINUS ZEPHERINUS a Roman Son of Habundius lived in the time of Severus the Emperour Who being by birth an Asrican of the Town of Leptis upon the death of Julian succeeded in the Empire and took the Surname of Pertinax He was first an Officer of the Exchequer then a Colonel in the Army till by several steps he advanced himself to the Dignity of Imperator He was of a very frugal temper the cruelty of his nature was heightened by the many Wars he had been engaged in and he exercised great Valour in defending and great care in governing his Subjects He was eminent not only for his skill in Arms but in Letters too taking very much delight in the study of Philosophy He conquer'd the Parthians and Adiabeni and made Arabia Interior a Province of the Roman Empire For this Atchievement he triumphed and upon the Arch erected to him in the Capitol he was styled Parthicus Arabicus and Adiabenicus Moreover he adorned the City with publick buildings For he made those 〈◊〉 from his own name are called the Severian Baths and erected the famous Septizonium that part of which noble Pile that is now remaining hardly 〈◊〉 being pull'd down some years ago by order of Pope Paul the second to make the best of the stones But Bishop Zephyrinus 〈◊〉 more intent upon Ecclesiastical than secular Affairs decreed that every Deacon and Priest should be ordained in the presence of the Faithful both Clergy and Laity which was afterwards 〈◊〉 in the Council of Chalcedon He decreed likewise that the 〈◊〉 at the Communion should not be consecrated as had been 〈◊〉 used in a wooden Chalice but in Glass Though this 〈◊〉 was altered in following times wherein order was given that it should 〈◊〉 be in Wood because of its spunginess whereby some of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might soak into it nor of Glass because of its brittleness and the 〈◊〉 of its being broken nor of any ordinary course mettal by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ill taste it might contract from it but only in 〈◊〉 of Gold or Silver or at least of Pewter as appears in the Canons of 〈◊〉 Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Reims He also ordained that all 〈◊〉 of fourteen years of Age should communicate every year upon Easter-day which in after-times Innocent the third extended not only to Communion but Confession too He commanded likewise that no Bishop being 〈◊〉 by his Patriarch or Primate or Metropolitan should have sentence pass'd against him but by the Authority of the See 〈◊〉 Lastly he ordained that when the Bishop celebrated all his Presbyters should be present In his time flourished Heraclius who wrote a Comment upon the Apostle Maximus who in a large book 〈◊〉 the great Controversie of this Age viz. concerning the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Original of Matter Candidus who com posed an 〈◊〉 and Origen who in the tenth year of Severus 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being rais'd against the Christians and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put to death for his Religion whom he himself being yet a Youth did very much confirm in
as they were leading him to Punishment disposed of what he had to Stephen the Arch-deacon and afterwards upon the fifth of May was beheaded Lucina with some of the Clergy buried his body by night in a Grotto of hers in the Via Appia nor far from the Coemetery of Calistus There are some who write that the Bishop suffered under Gallus and Volusianus but I rather give credit to Damasus who affirms Decius to have been the Author of his Martyrdom Cornelius held two Ordinations in the Month of December in which he made four Presbyters four Deacons seven Bishops He sat in the Chair two years three days and by his death the See was vacant thirty five days S. LUCIUS I. LUCIUS by birth a Roman his Father's Name Porphyrius was chosen Bishop when Gallus Hostilianus was Emperour Gallus associated to himself in the Government his Son Volusianus in whose times there arose so great a Plague to revenge the cause of Christianity that there were few Families much less Cities and Provinces which had not their share in the publick Calamity But while Gallus and Volusianus were engaging in a Civil War against Aemilianus who had attempted an alteration of the Government they were both kill'd at 〈◊〉 before they had compleated the second year of their Empire Aemilianus a person of obscure birth was slain e're he had possess'd his usurped Power three months and soon after Valerianus and Gallienus were chosen Emperours the former by the Army in Rhetia and Noricum the latter at Rome by the Senate Their Government proved very pernicious to the Roman State by the means of their own Pusillanimity and the 〈◊〉 they exercised against the Christians For both the Germans had marched forward as far as Ravenna laying all 〈◊〉 where ever they came with Fire and Sword and also Valerianus himself making War in Mesopotamia was taken Prisoner by the Parthians and forced to live in the most ignominious servitude for Sapores King of Persia made use of him for a Footstool when he got up on Horseback A Punishment which justly 〈◊〉 him for this reason that as soon as he was seiz'd of the Empire he was the eighth from Nero who commanded that the Christians should be put to Tortures be made to worship Idols or upon their refusal be put to death Gallienus being terrisied by this manifest Judgment of God suffered the Christians to live quietly But it was now too late for by the Divine Permission the Barbarians had already made Inroads upon the Roman borders and certain pernicious Tyrants arose who overthrew at home what was left undestroyed by the forein Enemy 〈◊〉 hereupon leaves the care of the Publick and spending his time very dissolutely at 〈◊〉 was there slain Lucius upon the death of Volusianus being released from banishment at his return to Rome ordained that every Bishop 〈◊〉 be accompanied where-ever he went with two Presbyters and three Deacons as witnesses of his Life and Actions In his time suffered Saint Cyprian who was first a Professor of Rhetorick and afterward as St. Hierem tells us at the persuasion of Coecilius the Presbyter from whom he took his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 becoming a Christian he gave his Estate to the Poor Having 〈◊〉 first ordained a Presbyter and then Bishop of Carthage he was 〈◊〉 to death under 〈◊〉 and Volusianus His Life and Martyrdom were 〈◊〉 well written by Pontius a Presbyter and his Companion in 〈◊〉 And it ought not to be forgotten that Cyprian before he 〈◊〉 was reconciled to the Opinion of the Church of Rome that 〈◊〉 were not to be re-baptized but to be receiv'd without any further Ceremony than that of Imposition of Hands a matter about which there had been formerly a great Controversie between him and Cornelius But to return to Lucius before his Martyrdom which he suffered at the command of Valerianus he delivered up his Ecclesiastical Power to 〈◊〉 the Arch-deacon He conferred holy Orders thrice in the month of December ordaining four Presbyters four Deacons seven Bishops He was interred in the Coemetery of Calistus in the Via Appia Aug. the 25th He was in the Chair three years three months three days and by his death the See was vacant thirty five days S. STEPHANUS I. STEPHANUS a Roman the Son of Julius was chosen Bishop when the Roman Empire seem'd to be utterly ruin'd and particularly at the time when Posthumus 〈◊〉 his Usurped Power in Gallia though not without great advantage to the Publick For he governed very well ten years together freed the Countrey from Hostility and restored that Province to its ancient Form But being afterwards kill'd at Mentz in a tumult of the Soldiers Victorinus succeeded him who was indeed an excellent Soldier but being exces ssively incontinent and adulterous was slain at Cologne Stephanus applying himself to the Regulation of the Church ordained that the Priests and other Ministers should not use their sacred Vestments any where but in the Church and during the performance of Divine Offices lest otherwise they should incur the Punishment of Belshazzar King of Babylon for touching the holy Vessels with prophane hands Concerning the Re-baptization of those who returned to the Faith he was of the same Judgment with Cornelius his Predecessor and thought it by no means lawful to communicate with those who re-baptized them Whereupon Dionysius who had formerly concurred in opinion about the matter with those of Carthage and the East both his and their Sentiments of it being now altered writes to Stephen and encourages him from the assurance that both the Asian and African Churches were now reconciled to the Judgment of the Roman See concerning it About the same time Malchion a Presbyter of Antioch a person of extraordinary Eloquence became very useful to the Church of God in writing against Paulus Samosatenus the Bishop of that place who endeavoured to revive the Opinion of Artemon affirming Christ to have been a meer man and that he had no Existence till he was conceived by the Virgin Mary An Opinion which being afterwards condemned in the Council of Antioch by general consent this Malchion in the name of the Synod wrote a large Epistle to the Christians concerning it As for Stephanus when he had by his Example and Persuasion converted a multitude of Gentiles to Christianity being seized by Gallienus as some say or else by those who upon the Edict of Decius were appointed to persecute the Christians he himself together with many others his Proselytes was hurried away to Martyrdom and having suffered he was interred in the Coemetery of Calistus in the Via Appia August the 2d after that he had at two Decembrian Ordinations made six Presbyters five Deacons three Bishops He was in the Chair seven years five months two days and the See was vacant two and twenty days S. SIXTUS II. SIXTUS an Athenian of a Philosopher became a Christian the Decian and Valerian Persecution yet continuing But it
discovered by a certain Servant 〈◊〉 when his Enemies were just ready to seize him by Divine Admonition he 〈◊〉 to the Emperour Constans who by Menaces compelled his Brother Constantius to receive him again In the mean time Arius as he was going along in the streets attended with several Bishops and multitudes of people stepping aside to a place of Easement he voided his Entrails into the Privy and immediately died undergoing a Death agreeable to the filthiness of his Life Our Bishop Iulius having been very uneasie amidst this confusion of things at length after ten months banishment returns to Rome especially having receiv'd the news of the death of Constantine the younger who making War upon his Brother Constans and fighting unwarily near Aquileia was there slain But notwithstanding the present face of things Iulius desisted not from censuring the Oriental Bishops and especially the 〈◊〉 for calling a Council at Antioch without the command of the Bishop of Rome pretending it ought not to have been done without his Authority for the preheminence of the Roman above all other Churches To which they of the East returned this Ironical Answer That since the Christian Princes came from them to the West for this reason their Church ought to have the preference as being the fountain and spring from whence so great a blessing flowed But Iulius laying aside that Controversie built two Churches one near the Forum Romanum the other in that part of the City beyond Tyber He erected also three Coemeteries one in the Via Flaminia another in the Via Aurelia the third in the Via Portuensis He constituted likewise that no Clergyman should plead before any but an Ecclesiastical Judg. He appointed likewise that all matters belonging to the Church should be penned by the Notaries or the Protonotary whose Office it was to commit to writing all memorable Occurrences But in our age most of them not to say all are so ignorant that they are scarce able to write their own Names in Latin much less to transmit the actions of others Concerning their Morals I am ashamed to say any thing since Pandars and Parasites have been sometimes preferr'd to that Office During the Reign of Constantine and Constantius Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra was a man of considerable Note and wrote several things particularly against the Arians Asterius and Apollinarius wrote against him and accused him of the Sabellian Heresie as did likewise Hilarius whom while Marcellus is confuting his very Defence shews him to be of a different Opinion from Iulius and Athanasius He was opposed likewise by Basilius Bishop of Ancyra in his Book de Virginitate which Basilius together with Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia were the principal men of the Macedonian Party About this time also Theodorus Bishop of Heraclea in Thrace a person of terse and copious Elequence was a considerable Writer as particularly appears by his Commentaries upon S. Matthew S. John the Psalms and Epistles As for Iulius himself having at three Decembrian Ordinations made eighteen Presbyters three Deacons nine Bishops he died and was buried in the Via Aurelia in the Coemetery of Calepodius three miles from the City Aug. the 12th He sat in the Chair fifteen years two months six days and by his death the See was vacant twenty five days LIBERIUS I. LIBERIUS a Roman the Son of Augustus lived in the times of Constantius and Constans For Constantine as I said before engaging unadvisedly in a War against his Brother Constans was therein slain And Constans himself having fought with various success against the Persians being forced by a Tumult in the Army to joyn Battel at midnight was at last routed and designing afterwards to make an example of his seditious Soldiers he was by the fraud and treachery of Magnentius slain at a Town called Helena in the seventeenth year of his Reign and the thirtieth of his Age. Constans being dead the old Boutefeaus of the Arian Heresie began afresh to make head against Athanasius For in a Council held at Milain all those that favoured Athanasius were banish'd Moreover at the Council of Ariminum because the subtil 〈◊〉 Eastern Prelates were too hard at Argument and 〈◊〉 for the honest well-meaning Bishops of the West it was thought good to let fall the Debate for a time the Orientalist denied Christ to be of the same substance with the Father This because Bishop Liberius did at first oppose and because he refused to condemn Athanasius at the Emperours Command he was banish'd by the Arians and forced to absent from the City for the space of three years In which time the Clergy being assembled in a Synod in the place of Liberius made choice of Felix a Presbyter an excellent person and who immediately after his choice did in a Convention of forty eight Bishops excommunicate Ursatius and Valens two Presbyters for being of the Emperours opinion in Religion Hereupon at their request and importunity Constans recalls Liberius from Exile who being wrought upon by the kindness of the Emperour though he became as some tell us in all other things heretical yet in this particular Tenent he was on the Orthodox side that Hereticks returning to the Church ought not to be re-baptized 'T is said that Liberius did for some time live in the Coemetery of S. Agnes with Constantia the Emperour's Sister that so through her assistance and intercession he might procure a safe return to the City but she being a Catholick and apprehending he might have some ill design utterly refused to engage in it At length Constantius at the Instance of Usatius and Valens deposed Felix and restor'd Liberius Upon which there arose so fierce a Persecution that the 〈◊〉 and other Clergy were in many places murthered in their very Churches Some tell us that they were the Roman Ladies at a Cirque-shew who by their intreaties obtained of the Emperour this Restauration of Liberius Who though he were of the Arian opinion yet was very diligent in beautifying consecrated places and particularly the Coemetery of S. Agnes and the Church which he built and called by his own Name near the Market place of Livia During these calamitous times lived Eusebius Bishop of Emissa who wrote very learnedly and elegantly against the Jews Gentiles and Novatians Triphyllius also Bishop of Ledra or Leutheon in Cyprus wrote a large and exact Commentary upon the Canticles Moreover Donatus an African from whom the Sect of the Donatists are denominated was so industrious in writing against the Catholick Doctrine that he infected almost all Africa and 〈◊〉 with his false Opinions He affirmed the Son to be inferiour to the Father and the holy Spirit inferiour to the Son and rebaptized all those whom he could pervert to his own Sect. Several of his heretical Writings were extant in the time of S. Hierom and particularly one Book of the Holy Spirit agreeing exactly with the Arian Doctrine And that the Arians might neglect no ill Arts of promoting their
Britains yet despising worldly Greatness he became for some time an Hermit and died at length in an obscure Village Pope John having been in the Chair one year nine months nine days died and was buried in the Church of S. Peter October the 12th The See was then vacant one month thirteen days THEODORUS I. THEODORUS a Grecian Son of Theodorus a Bishop born at Jerusalem was no sooner in the Chair but he applyed himself like a good Bishop to all those things which he thought might tend to the advancement of the Christian Religion being a person obliging to all men but extraordinarily bountiful to the poor At this time Heraclius died of a Dropsie in the thirtieth year of his Reign having a little before made Theodorus surnamed Calliopa his Exarch in Italy in the place of Isaacius deceased Heraclius was succeeded by his Son Constantine who in the fourth month after his coming to the Empire was poisoned by the procurement of his Step-mother Martina and her Son Heracleon whom it is said Pyrrhus the Patriarch prompted to commit that Villany Heracleon upon the Death of his Brother takes upon him the Government at that time particularly when Cyrus Sergius and Pyrrhus reviving the Heresie of the Acephali maintained the Opinion of one only Nature in Christ one Operation and one Will. Among these Pyrrhus hearing of the Death of Heraclius and being very desirous to return out of Asrica whither he had been banished into his own Countrey coming to Rome and making an hypocritical Retractation of his Errours was restored by Theodorus and received from him a Form of Belief But he lost his Life before he could accomplish the end which he sought to compass by such ill means For the Senate and people of Constantinople being acquainted with the cause of Constantine's Death first seize Martina and Heracleon and having cut off his Nose and cut out her Tongue banish them both then apprehending Pyrrhus who endeavoured to make his escape they put him to Death Constantius the Son of Constantine who had been thus treacherously murdered they create Emperour and instead of Pyrrhus make Paul their Bishop whom yet Theodorus deprived for being in the like kind Heretical his pertinacy therein being favoured by Constantius who was unadvisedly fallen into the same Heresie But the Pope laying aside this Controversie and applying himself to other cares caused the bones of the Martyrs Primus and Felicianus to be removed out of a sandy Grotto in the Via Nomentana to Rome where he reposited them in the Church of S. Stephen the Proto-martyr sparing no cost in Ornaments both of Silver and Gold upon their Tomb. He also built and adorn'd a Church in the Via Flaminia as likewise two Oratories one near the Lateran Church dedicated to S. Sebastian the other in the Via Ostiensis to Eupolus the Martyr Having finished these things and been in the Chair six years five months eighteen days he died and was buried in S. Peter's May the 14th The See was then vacant fifty two days MARTINUS I. MARTINUS the first born at Todi Son of Fabricius succeeding Theodorus forthwith dispatches his Legates to Constantinople to admonish Paul to quit his Errours and at length to return into the way of Truth But he not only disobeyed the Popes Commands but also being countenanced therein by Constantius offered great indignities to these Legates and then banish'd them into several Islands Martinus highly resenting this usage calls a Synod of an hundred and fifty Bishops at Rome wherein he renews the Condemnation of Cyrus of Alexandria Sergius and Pyrrhus and excommunicates and deprives Paul the Patriarch with the bitterest Anathemas imaginable While these things were transacting the Peace of Italy which had lasted between the Romans and the Lombards thirty years began now to be disturbed For the Lombards took mightily upon them and imposed such unjust conditions upon the Romans as they could not submit to particularly Rhotaris being himself an Arian had scarce any City over which he did not set up an Arian as well as a Catholick Bishop This was an Evil which both Theodorus and Martine had often endeavoured to remedy but in vain For this reason and also at the instance of Theodorus the Exarch a War was proclaimed with the Lombards whereupon they take up Arms and near Scultenna a River of Modena a sharp Engagement there was on both sides But in the end Theodorus was vanquish'd and routed and lost in the fight near seven thousand of his Men. Rhotaris being flush'd with this Victory in a short time easily made himself Master of all Liguria Now Constantius hoping that the change of his General might change his Fortune too recalls Theodorus and sends Olympuis his Exarch into Italy with Instructions both to propagate the Sect of the Monothelites throughout Italy and also either to put Pope Martine to Death or else to take care to have him sent Prisoner to Constantinople Olympius coming to Rome where there had been already a Synod held against this and other the Errours of the Oriental Church and finding that he could not disperse the Contagion as he thought to do sends one of his Officers to seize Martine in the Church of S. Maria Maggiore and either to bring him to him or else to kill him if he refus'd and made resistance The Officer being just ready to execute this Order was by Miracle suddenly struck with blindness and so by divine Providence Martine escaped the danger The Saracens taking heart upon this great dissention between the Eastern and Western Church set sail from Alexandria with a great Fleet and arriving at Rhodes and taking the City they destroyed the famous and celebrated Coloss there with the Brass of which it 's said they loaded nine hundred Camels this Coloss being seventy foot high the Workmanship of Chares the Scholar of Lysippus Afterwards having possessed themselves of several Islands in the Archipelago and thence sailing to Sicily they very much infested the Inhabitants of that Island Hereupon Olympius at the entreaty of Pope Martine makes an Expedition and forces them thence though not without the loss of many of his Ships and Men and even that of his own Life too for he fell sick in Sicily and died there But Constantius who was not in the least bettered by all these Calamities commands Theodorus Calliopa again into Italy with express Order that he should forthwith send Pope Martine bound to him and to assist him in that Affair he joins Paulus Pellarius with him who was to take care to see it done Theodorus having been honourably received by the Romans and going upon pretence of making a Visit to the Pope seizes and puts him in Fetters and so sends him to Constantinople from whence he was afterwards banish'd to the Chersonese the place where Clemens Romanus had formerly been an Exile Now Martine being thus compassed with Calamities and pinch'd with extreme want at length dies in Banishment after he had been in the
arriving in Spain ravage all the Countrey except Granada which was inhabited by those of their own Nation already and at length with their Wives and Children pass as far as Aquitain designing to possess themselves of that Province also Charles Martell the Son of Pipin was at this time famous throughout the World This Pipin after the Death of Grimoald had two other Sons left Caroloman and Charles Martell which Charles this Brother also dying gain'd afterwards to himself the Kingdom of France though not without great opposition especially of Eudo Duke of Aquitain and Chilperic whom some of the French upon the Death of Theodoric had set up to be their King But Martell having passed the River Seine and advanced to Orleans at the first Attaque puts them to flight and becomes sole Possessour of the Kingdom of France After this he passed the Rhine and conquered the Saxons Alemans Sueves and Boiarians But having Intelligence that the Saracens had been invited by Eudo into France by great Marches he comes forth against them and obliging them to fight gains a mighty Victory not far from Tours Historians write that in this Battel there were slain of the Saracens three hundred and sixty thousand but of the French only one thousand one hundred and fifty and 't is said that Eudo hereupon came over to Martel's side The Saracens being by this means through Martel's Valour diverted from any farther Attempts upon the Spaniards and French turn all the Rage and Indignation which upon so great an Overthrow had been raised in them upon the Constantinopolitans whose City they besieged by Sea and Land the space of three years But suffering all the extremities of War being pinched with Hunger and Cold and a Pestilence moreover raging among them they raised the Siege and return'd home 'T is said that of this Plague there died in Constantinople three hundred thousand As for the Affairs of Italy the Lombards now under the Conduct of Luithprandus after a long Siege took and sack'd Ravenna carrying away from thence to Pavia all things of considerable value and amongst the rest as I believe the famous Statue on Horseback in Brass Thus according to the usual Vicissitude of humane Affairs it so fell out that what Theodoric and other Kings of the Goths and after them the Exarchs had taken from Rome and carried to Ravenna was by others afterwards scattered about and dispersed into several places In the mean time there was at Rome a Plot laid by some seditious people against the Pope the Heads of the Conspiracy being Basilius Jordanus a Notary John a Sub-deacon surnamed Lurion and Marinus an Officer of the Guards who at this time was Governour of Rome under the Emperour But upon the Emperour 's recalling Marinus the business was deferred to another time The Conspiratours tampered also with Paul the Exarch being willing in a matter of so great importance to have him to head them The whole Design being at length discovered by the people of Rome they appear in Arms kill John Lurion and dissipate the other Conspiratours Basilius was confined to a Monastery where he died The forementioned Paul being highly enraged at the Pope for prohibiting his levying new Taxes did by the Emperour's Order seek all ways both secret and open of taking away the good mans life but the Romans and Lombards taking up Arms defended him The Emperour Leo hereupon publishes an Edict commanding all those who were Subjects of the Roman Empire to rase out and take away all the Pictures and Images of Saints Martyrs and Angels out of their Churches with design as he ptofessed thereby to prevent Idolatry and declaring that whosoever refused so to do should be accounted a publick Enemy But Gregory not only not obeyed this Order but also encouraged all Catholicks to stand up stoutly against it Whereupon the people of Italy were so animated that they were near chusing another Emperour had not Gregory by his authority interposed to prevent it Notwithstanding which there arose such a Dissention at Ravenna some pleading for Obedience to the Emperour others to the Pope that Paul the Exarch together with his Son was slam in the Tumult To succeed in whose place the Emperour sends Eutychius an Eunuch who by Gifts and Promises was to endeavour to break the Friendship and Alliance between the Lombards and the Pope But that Attempt having been often made in vain was drop'd for a time and the Pope being freed of this trouble began to visit the Hospitals and Churches and to repair those of them which through age or neglect had fallen to decay Moreover he made a Peace between the King of the Lombards and the Dukes of Spoleto and Beneventum which that King had intended to crush but having marched in a peaceable manner as far as Rome to confer with the Pope about the matter Gregory by his Christian Counsel so mollified his mind that laying aside all thoughts of War he offered up his Sword and other Arms in the Church of S. Peter The Emperour Leo now in another wild humour commanded all the Images either of Wood Brass or Marble to be brought to him which he forthwith caused to be burnt and seiz'd upon and put to Death those who refused to bring them Germanus the Patriarch who vigorously opposed it he banished and put into his place Anastasius an Heretick whom Gregory afterwards in a Synod deprived and interdicted the Exercise of sacred Offices if he refused to return to the Catholick Faith Furthermore as became a pious Prelate he oftentimes by Letters admonished the Emperour to quit the erroneous Opinions into which some ill men had seduced him and at length to embrace the Truth and to cease the destroying of the Images of the Saints by whose Example and Memory men might be excited to the Imitation of their Virtues Some write that in this Popes time Boniface came out of Britain to Rome and for his sanctity was of a Monk made a Bishop and sent into Germany that by his Preaching and Example he might confirm that People in the Faith which he performed so well that he was deservedly made Bishop of Mentz but passing thence into Africa he was for his preaching the Word of God put to Death by the Enemies of Christianity 'T is said also that S. Aegidius a Grecian was now famous for the holy Life he led and the miracles he wrought and that Petronax a Citizen of Brescia did by Vow repair at his own Charge the Monastery of S. Benedict which was almost quite left desolate As for Gregory who by his good Example excited all men to the practice of Piety and Virtue having been in the Chair sixteen years nine months eleven days he died and was buried in S. Peter's February the 11th By his Death the See was vacant thirty five days He is said to have consecrated during his Pontificate one hundred forty eight Bishops GREGORY III. GREGORT the third a Syrian his Fathers
Brother who had before as we have already said taken the habit of a Monk and indeed the Lombards generally except those of Tuscany were on his side But Desiderius by making large Promises to the Pope and the Romans wrought them into a favour of his Pretensions and accordingly they with all speed sent Ambassadours and among them Holcadus the Abbat to Rachis to require him to lay down his Arms and submit to Desiderius And so Faenza and Ferrara were at last delivered to the Pope and the name of the Exarchate which had continued from the time of Narses to the taking of Ravenna by Aistulphus an hundred and seventy years was extinguished Things being now peaceably setled and the Jurisdiction of the Church greatly encreased Stephen holding a Synod takes an account of his several Flocks and their Pastors gently chastises those who had offended directs such as had gone astray teaches and instructs the ignorant and finally sets before them the Duty of a Bishop of a Presbyter and of all Orders in the Clergy Moreover he appointed Litanies for the appeasing of the Divine Anger the Procession on the first Saturday to be to S. Marie's ad Proesepe on the second to S. Peter's in the Vatican on the third to S. Paul's in the Via Ostiensis He also repaired several Churches which had been damaged by Aistulphus while he layed Siege to the City yet he did not recover the Reliques of the Saints which that King had carried with him to Pavia and there reposited not dishonourably in divers Churches The good man having by these means proved serviceable to God his Countrey and the Church died in the fifth year and first month of his Pontificate and was buried April the 26th with general lamentation as for the loss of a Common Father The See was then vacant thirty two days PAUL I. PAUL a Roman son of 〈◊〉 Brother of Stephen the second became well skill'd and practiced in all things belonging to a Churchman by his having been educated in the Lateran Palace under Pope Gregory the second and Pope Zachay by which latter he was together with his Brother ordained Deacon and when upon the Vacancy of the Popedom by the Death of Stephen some persons proposed Theophylact the Arch-Deacon for his Successour yet others stood for Paul as one who both for the Integrity of his Life and great Learning deserved to succeed his Brother in that Dignity After a long Dispute therefore Theophylact was rejected and Paul by general suffrage chosen in the time of Constantine and Leo. This Paul was a person of an extraordinary meek and merciful Temper and who in Imitation of our Saviour never returned to any man evil for evil but on the contrary by doing good to them he overcame those ill men that had oftentimes injur'd him He was of so kind and compassionate a Nature as that he would go about by night with only two or three Attendants to the Houses of poor sick people assisting them with his Counsel and relieving them with his Alms. He also frequently visited the Prisons and paying their Creditors discharged thence multitudes of poor Debtours The Fatherless and Widows that were over-reach'd by the tricks of Lawyers he defended by his Authority and supported by his Charity Moreover having assembled the Clergy and People of Rome he did with great solemnity translate the Body of S. Petronilla S. Peter's Daughter with her Tomb of Marble upon which was this Inscription Petronilloe Filioe dulcissimoe from the Via Appia into the Vatican and placed it at the upper end of the Church dedicated to her Father At this time the Emperour Constantine having in all places plucked down the Images and put to death Constantine Patriarch of Constantinople for opposing him therein and made Nicetas an Eunuch his Abettour in the Sacriledg Patriach in his stead the Pope consulting by all means the Interest of Religion sends Nuntios to Constantinople to advise the Emperour to restore and set up again the Images he had taken away or upon his refusal so to do to threaten him with the Censure of Excommunication But Constantine persisting obstinately in what he had done not only despised this good Counsel but also granted Peace to Sabinus King of the Bulgarians because he also made the like havock of Images with himself though he were before engaged in a War against him Having also associated to himself into part of the Empire his Son Leo the fourth whom he had married to the most beautiful Athenian Lady Irene he enters into a League with the Saracens thereby to despite and provoke the Orthodox Christians In the mean time Pipin entirely subdues Taxillo Duke of the Bojarians and admits of a League with the Saxons but upon this Condition that they should be obliged to send three hundred Horsemen to his Assistance as often as he should have occasion to make an Expedition Against the Aquitains he maintained a tedious War which at length he committed to the management of his young Son Charles himself being so worn out with Age that he could not be present at it This War being ended Charles takes by Storm Bourbon Clermont and several other Towns of Auvergne But Pipin who as we have said was now very old not long after dies leaving in the Kingdom his two Sons Charles and Caroloman Some tell us that Aistulphus King of the Lombards who as is above declared had carried away the Bodies of divers Saints from Rome to Pavia died at this time and that he had built Chappels to those Saints aud also a Cloister for Virgins in which his own Daughters became Nuns He was an extraordinary Lover of the Monks and died in their Arms in the sixth year and fifth month of his Reign At the beginning of his Government he was fierce and rash in the end moderate and a person of such Learning that he reduc'd and form'd the Edicts of the Lombards into Laws He was as has been said succeeded by Duke Desiderius the Valour of the Lombards beginning now to dissolve and lose it self in Luxury Our Paul having repaired some old decayed Churches died in S. Paul's in the Via Ostiensis in the tenth year and first month of his Pontificate and his Body was with very great Solemnity carried into the Vatican The See was then vacant one year one month STEPHEN III. STEPHEN the third a Sicilian Son of Olibrius entred upon the Pontificate A. D. 768. a learned man and in the management of Affairs especially those belonging to the Church very active and steddy Coming to Rome very young by appointment of Pope Gregory III. he took Orders and became a Monk in the Monastery of S. Chrysogonus where he was inured to the stricter way of living and instructed in Ecclesiastical Learning Being afterwards called by Pope Zachary into the Lateran Palace and his Life and Learning generally approved of he was constituted Parish-Priest of S. Caetilia and for his great Integrity and readiness in Business both
Salutations and Respects having pass'd on both sides they entred the Church and being come up to the Altar Charles and the Pope the Romans and the French took a mutual Oath to maintain a perpetual Friendship and to be Enemies to the Enemies of each other After which Charles making his Entrance into the City devoutly visited all the Churches and made several Presents to them Four days after his being there he by Oath confirmed and amply enlarged the Donation of his Father Pipin to Gregory the third containing according to Anastasius in 〈◊〉 all that reaches from the long since demolished City Luna to the Alpes the Isle of Corfica and the whole Tract between Luca and Parma together with Friuli the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Dukedoms of Spoleto and Benevent These Affairs being thus setled Charles taking his leave of Adrian returns into Lombardy and becomes Master of Pavia on the sixth month after the investing of it Towards Desiderius however he was so favourable as that though he berest him of his Kingdom yet he spared his Life and only confined him with his Wife and Children to Lyons Advancing thence again Arachis Duke of Benevent who was Son-in-law to Desiderius and had been an Abettour of his rash Proceedings he soon forced him to sue for a Peace and received his two Sons for Hostages After this in his Passage farther he religiously visited Mount Cassino and confirmed all the Grants which had been made by other Princes to the Monastery of S. Benedict And so the Affairs of all Italy being composed and strong Guards left in the most important places of Lombardy he returns with great Spoil and mighty Glory into his Kingdom or France carrying with him his Brother Caroloman's Relict and Sons whom he always treated with Respect and Honour and also Paul a Deacon of the Church of Aquileia a Person for his Parts and Learning highly belov'd by Desiderius to whom he gave his Freedom and had for some time a great Esteem for him But understanding afterwards that the man was assisting to a Design of Desiderius's his Flight he banish'd him into the Island of Tremiti from whence after some years making his Escape and coming to Arachis at the Request of Adelperga Daughter to Desiderius and the Wife of Arachis he added two Books to the History of Eutropius giving an account of what passed from the time of the Emperour Julian to that of Justinian the first After the Death of Arachis he betook himself to the Monastery of Cassino where leading the remainder of his life very devoutly he oftentimes wrote elegant and obliging Letters to Charles and received again the like from that King who had preserved him for the sake of his Learning Thus ended the Kingdom of the Lombards in the two hundred and fourth year after their coming into Italy and in the year of our Lord seven hundred seventy six Charles now without any delay marches against the idolatrous Saxons who during his absence in Italy had rebelled uttterly subdues that People with whom he had been engaged in War for thirty years before and compells them to receive Christianity Then turning his Army against the Spaniards who were also fallen away from the Faith he took the Cities of Pampelona and Saragoza and permitted his Souldiers to plunder them not granting a Peace to these Spaniards but upon condition they would entirely embrace the Christian Doctrine After this returning into France matters having went according to his mind as he passed the Pyrenean Hills he fell into an Ambuscade of the Gascons in engaging with whom though he gallantly defended himself yet he lost Anselmus and Egibardus two brave Commanders Some tell us that in this Encounter Rolandus Charles's Sister's Son perished after he had made a great slaughter of the Enemy though whether he died of Thirst as is commonly said or of the wounds he received is uncertain At length these Gascons were vanquished by Charles and received from him the deserved Punishment of their Revolt and Perfidy At this time Taxillo Duke of Bojaria Desiderius's Son-in-law having gained the Huns to be on his side made an Attempt of War against the French which yet Charles by his great Expedition almost made an end of before it was quite begun and to him also upon Hostages given he granted a Peace While these things were transacting in France Constantine Emperour of the East was seized with a Leprosy from whence perhaps arose the groundless Opinion of the Leprosy of Constantine the Great through the confusion of their Names and dying left Leo the fourth his Successour who so strangely doated upon precious Stones that robbing the Church of S. Sophia of its Jewels he made with them a Crown of a vast weight and value which he wore so often that either through the Weight or from the coldness of the Stones in it he shortly fell sick and died The same I believe to have happened in our Time to Paul the Second who so effeminately prided himself in such Ornaments almost exhausting the Treasury of the 〈◊〉 to purchase Jewels at any rate that as often as he appeared publickly instead of wearing a plain Mitre he looked like the Picture of Cybele with Turrets on her Head from whence what with the weight of the Jewels and the sweat of his gross Body I am apt to think arose that Apoplexy of which he died suddenly After the Death of Leo his Relict Irene and his Son Constantine managing the Empire in a Council of three 〈◊〉 and fifty Bishops held the second time at Nice it was 〈◊〉 that whosoever mantained that the Images of the Saints were to be destroyed should be censured with perpetual Excommunication But young Constantine through the persuasion of some ill men about him treading in the Footsteps of his Father soon after revoked this Constitution and wholly deprived his Mother of any share in the Administration of Affairs Then putting away his Wife he received to his Bed and caused to be crowned Empress Theodora one of her Maids Moreover he gave Order to those Commanders he had in Italy to give disturbance to their Neighbours but they were at the first Message terrified from any Attempts by the prevailing Authority of Charles who at this time was advancing with his Forces against the Sclaves and Hunns or we may call them Hungarians because by their Incursions they had molested all the Countrey about the Danow whom having vanquished he marched into Franconia the Countrey of his Ancestours from whence the Franks or French derive their Name which Province he having with ease brought to his Devotion two years after Theophylact and Stephen two Bishops of great Note held a Synod of Frank and German Bishops wherein that which the Greeks called the Seventh Synod and the Felician Heresie touching the Destruction of Images was condemned Adrian being now by the Interest and Power of Charles secured from the fear of any warlike Incursions applies himself to the repairing the City
Conspiratours against the Pope should be put to Death but the Pope who was all Clemency obtained a Pardon of their Lives and they were only banished into France After this there were some who would have persuaded Charles to ex pell all the Lombards out of Italy But that not appearing to be a safe course because they had mingled in Bloud and Affinity with multitudes of Families in Italy it was determined both by Charles and Leo that the Name of Lombard should remain there only where that Nation had chiefly had their Seat Pipin being now returned to Bonevent and having continued the Siege of that place for several months without success he turns his Arms against the City Chieti of which having after some Opposition made himself Master by Force he plunder'd and burnt it Upon the terrour whereof at his marching thence he had the Cities of Ortona and Luceria surrendred to him and in the latter he took Grimoald Duke of Benevent who not long after died of Grief In the mean time the Empress of Constantinople sending Ambassadours into Italy enters into a League with Charles their several Pretensions to Italy being thus adjusted viz. Irene was to have that Part which beginning on the one side from Naples and from Siponto a City now called Manfredonia on the other lies extended between the two Seas Eastward together with Sicily all Italy beside only excepting always those places which were under the Jurisdiction of the Church were by the Articles of Peace adjudged to be Charle's own But Nicephorus a Patrician stomaching to submit to the Dominion of a Woman having craftily seized Irene and banished her into Lesbos by his Ambassadours renews the League before entred into with Charles Which Charles at this time compelled the Saxons who had so often revolted to remove with their Wives and Children into France following them close in their Passage with his Army to prevent their committing any Disorders as they went along Pope Leo being perpetually disturbed by one Sedition after another leaving Rome goes to Mantua to see the Bloud of Christ which was now in great esteem for the Miracles said to be wrought there by it Having been received with great Respect and Affection by the Mantuans and approved it to be indeed Christ's Blood upon frequent Trial of the miraculous Effects of it he makes a Journey to Charles who was very desirous to know the Truth of this matter that he might certifie him concerning it and also that he might discourse with him about setling the Affairs of Italy Returning then to Rome and being assisted by King Pipin who had his Father's Order therein he proceeded to a gentle punishment of some of the chief Plotters and movers of Sedition Charles being now very aged having intelligence that Pipin was dead at Milain declares Lous his younger Son King of Aquitain and his Successour in the Empire and Bernard his Nephew King of Italy to whom he gave Charge that he should in all things be obedient to Louis To the Extent of the Empire he set these bounds in Gallia the Rhine and the Loyre in Germany the Danow and the Saw and to these Provinces he added Aquitain Gascoigne a great part of Spain Lombardy Saxony both the Pannonia's Istria Croatia and Dalmatia excepting only those parts of it scituate on the Sea-coast which were subject to the Emperour of Constantinople Having thus setled Affairs while he was at Aken for the recovery of his Health by the use of the hot Baths there he died of a Feaver and Pleurisie in the seventy second year of his Age January the 28. An. Dom. 815. His Body was with all imaginable Pomp and Solemnity interred in the Church of S. Mary which himself had built at Aken with this Inscription on his Tomb MAGNI CAROLI REGIS CHRISTIANISSIMI ROMANORVMQVE IMPERATORIS CORPVS HOC SEPVLCHRO CONDITUM JACET He was indeed whether we regard his management of Civil or Military matters so illustrious and excellent an Emperour that none of his Successours have either excelled or equalled him Moreover when leisure from other weighty Affairs permitted him he took such delight in the study of Learning that it was he who at the persuasion of Alcuinus first made Paris an University Of three Tables of Silver which he had one on which was engraven the City of Constantinople he gave to the Church of S. Peter another on which the City of Rome was described to the Church of Ravenna the third which some tell us was of Gold on which was a Map of the whole World he left to his Sons As for Pope Leo having repaired the Roof of S. Paul's which had fallen down in an Earthquake built from the ground a very capacious Hospital for Strangers near S. Peters's and ordained Litanies on the three days before Ascension-day on the first of which the Procession was to be from S Marie's ad Proesepe to the Lateran Chruch on the second from the Church of S. Sabina to S. Paul's and on the third from S. Cross to S. Laurence's without the Walls in the twenty first year of his Pontificate he died which year there appear'd a Comet thought by some to have been a Presage of so great a calamity He was buried in S. Peter's June the 12th and the See was vacant ten days STEPHEN IV. STEPHEN the fourth a Roman Son of Julius in the third Month of his Pontificate went into France to the Emperour Lewis though the reason of his Journey is not certainly known Some conjecture that it was to secure himself from the Reliques of the Faction and Conspiracy of Campulus which upon the Death of Leo prevailed afresh The Emperour Lewis surnamed the Godly was now at Orleans who assoon as he had intelligence of the Popes coming forthwith sends all the Persons of principal Quality to meet him and among others particularly Theudolphus Bishop of Orleans with the Clergy and a great part of the People And Louis Himself going forth a whole Mile for the same purpose assoon as he saw him alighted off his Horse and after mutual Salutations had passed between them introduced him very honourably into the City the Clergy going before and after repeating the Hymn called Te Deum Laudamus For Stephen was not only a Person of Noble Extraction but of such Learning and Integrity that he easily gain'd a general Veneration for Sanctity having been well instructed by an advantageous Education under those two pious Popes Adrian and Leo. Being entred into the City supported by the Emperour because of the croud of the People who press'd out of a desire to see him he was conducted to the Apartment appointed for him in the Palace where he often had Conferences with the Emperour about the composure of the Affairs of Italy besides the other frequent mutual Entertainments and Civilities that pass'd between them 〈◊〉 would have detained the Pope longer with him had he not now been engaged in such important Wars that it was
should with the title of Emperour hold the City of Rome with Italy and that part of France which was formerly call'd Gallia Narbonensis now Provence To this they added that Countrey lying between the Rivers Scheld and Roan which as I suppose now took the name of Lotharingia Lorain from Lotharius Matters being thus composed Lotharius sends his Son Lewis whom he had taken into a Partnership in the Empire into Italy with a mighty Army giving him for Companions Drogon Bishop of Metz and others of the Clergy eminent for Prudence and Gravity by whose advice he was to govern himself But the young man being puss'd up with his great fortune wheresoever he march'd sill'd the Countrey with slaughter rapine and destruction Yet when he approach'd the City and the Citizens of Rome came out of respect to meet him laying by his Gaulish sierceness he grew more mild because contrary to his expectation he found that he might enter the City without force of Arms. The Religious also came a mile out of the City to meet him with their Crucifixes singing Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the Highest Thus they accompanied him as far as the steps of S. Peter's Church where meeting the Pope they reciprocally kissed and greeted each other and went together to the Silver Gates which were not opened Then said the Pope If thou comest hither with peaceable and friendly intentions and if thou hast more regard to the advantage of Christianity than to the pleasure of exercising cruelty and rapine then with my good will thou mayest enter if thou art otherwise minded touch not these Gates for over thy head hangs a Sword which will certainly avenge any such wickedness But when he had given the Pope assurance immediately the doors were thrown open Hereupon a multitude of Romans and Franks entring pel-mel as soon as they came to the Altar of S. Peter they all kneeling down together gave thanks to God Almighty and to the Prince of the Apostles that matters had been carried according to their minds without hurt to any body this was done upon the Monday after Whitson-day But soon after the Suburbs were sack'd by the Soldiers and it wanted little but that they had got into the City for the same end so that the eighth day aster their coming the Pope anointed Lewis with the holy Oil crown'd him and declar'd him King of Italy Soon after came Siconolfus Prince of Beneventum to congratulate him and then the multitude was such that the Trees were lopt the Beasts driven away and even the standing-Corn cut down that their Horses might not want Provender The Pope therefore easily agreed to all their requests if they were reasonable that he might the sooner rid the City of them and the Romans being now delivered from the fear of their tyrannical Barbarity celebrated their Pope as the true Vicar of Christ and the only Father of his Countrey He betaking himself to the beautifying of Churches reslor'd that of SS Sylvester and Martin which time had ruin'd and in it together with those of the two Confessors he plac'd the Bodies of Fabianus Stephanus Sotherius Asterius Cyriacus Maurus Smaragdus Anastasius Innocentius Quirinus Leo Arthemius Theodorus and Nicander He built also near that Church from the foundation a Monaslery dedicated to SS Peter and Paul where Mass was incessantly sung But at last this holy Pope having manag'd the assairs of the Church with great integrity and success in the third year of his Pontisicate died and was buried in S. Peter's Church The Sea was vacant upon his death fifteen days LEO IV. LEO the fourth a Roman son of Radulphus was in the year 848. by a general consent elected Pope and very deservedly for he was one that whilst he liv'd a private life was very eminent for Religion Innocence Piety Good Nature Liberality and especially for Ecclesiastical Learning He was a person of so much Prudence and Courage that as the Gospel directs he could when it was necessary imitate either the Wisdom of the Serpent or the Innocence of the Dove So general was the good Report of him that Pope Sergius II. was persuaded to create this pattern of Virtue a Priest from a Sub-deacon and to give him the Title and Church Sanctorum quatuor Coronatorum from whence upon the death of Sergius he was brought to the Lateran Church and plac'd in S. Peter's Chair being universaily saluted as Pope all that were present according to ancient Custom kissing his feet There are some of opinion that by the prayers of this good man it was that God was mov'd to repress the rage of the Saracens by drowning their Fleet as they were returning home laden with Spoil For they having overcome Theodotius Admiral to the Emperor Michael in a Sea-fight near Tarentum they ravag'd far and near through Italy without opposition and having taken and sack'd Ancona and harass'd the Coast of Dalmatia when they were returning triumphantly to their own Countrey it pleased God they were cast away at Sea by storm So that Leo being free from his fear of the Saracens betook himself to publick works and caused Benches of Marble to be plac'd in the entrance to the Lateran Cloister and finish'd the Gallery which Leo III. had begun This good Prelate ordain'd that yearly in the Church of S. Paul on the Birth-day of that Apostle Vesper's should be said by all the Clergy He prohibited all Lay-men entrance into the Chancel during Divine Service About this time at his command solemn Supplications were made to avert Gods anger which the frequent Earthquakes seem'd to threaten He adorn'd after an extraordinary manner the Cross which Charles the Emperor had given to the Basilica Constantiniana which had been pilfer'd of the precious stones that belong'd to it 'T is sure he was a man of so great sanctity that by his Prayers he drove away out of an Arch in S. Lucie's Church a Basilise call'd by the Latins Regulus which with its breath and poison had kill'd many and by the sign of the Cross he stop'd a great fire which had burn'd down the quarter where the Saxons and Lombards liv'd and reach'd very near S. Peter's Church This happened the eighth day after the Assumption of our Lady which day was afterward kept as a Festival without the walls not far from S. Laurence's Church where stood a Church dedicated to the B. Virgin to which this munificent Pope had made many donaries of Gold and Silver Beside this he finished the Mosaic work in the Churches of SS Martin and Silvester in montibus and the Pargetting which Scrgius had begun as the Inscription shews which is all that is lest the painting being long since perish'd either for want of care or by time and rottenness He took care also that the Cross of Gold which uses to be born before the Pope was deck'd with precious stones and neglected no manner of Ornament that might contribute to the honour
the Saracens who sate before it and with great slaughter of them raised the Siege An. Dom. 1008. at the same time that Jerusalem was taken by the Turks without any violation of the Holy Sepulchre the Church of Mount Sion or Bethlehem The Venetians had a design to have reliev'd Jerusalem too but that they were with held by their Enemies of Zara to whom yet at Loreto they gave so total a rout that they durst never after by War molest any of their Neighbours But Henry having setled the state of Germany coming to Rome received the Imperial Crown and then marching to Capua drove the Saracens out of it and carried on the War against Bubagano a General of the Greeks who favour'd the Moors with so much vigour that he dispossess'd him of Troy a City he had built in the confines of Apulia in a place where Hannibal was said heretofore to have encamp'd The Emperor Henry and his Wife Cunigunda are reported to have led such chast and holy lives that they grew famous for working Miracles omitting no action which might contribute to the glory of God He founded the Bishoprick of Bamberg and married his Daughter to the King of Hungary by whose means that King and all his Subjects received the Christian Faith but Henry died in the eighth year of his Empire to the great loss of his Subjects He being dead of whom in all exigencies Benedict made use as his Protector he was expell'd by a Faction and another Pope chosen in his room though he soon after agreed the matter with his Adversaries who turn'd out again the Pseudo-Pope and restor'd Benedict with honour He died in the eleventh year first month and thirteenth day of his Popedom and was buried in S. Peter's Church 'T is said that a certain Bishop walking in a solitary place Benedict appear'd to him sitting upon a black Horse whereupon the Bishop ask'd him the reason of his appearance in that manner he answer'd that his business was to desire him to take some Money which he had hid in a certain place to which he directed him and to give it to the poor as from him for that the Money had been of no profit to him it consisting of what had been given of Alms or gotten by Rapine The Bishop executed his request and immediately surrendred his Bishoprick and led a Monastic life Vincentius writes that Gerard Bishop of Canobio was in great account about this time for his Learning and exemplary Life as also was Gutherus Bishop of Prague who for his great abilities and holiness suffered Martyrdom from the Enemies of the Christian Religion At this time also so great a Pestilence raged in the World that 't was thought fewer surviv'd it than died of it which Calamity was fore-shew'd by a Well of wholesom Water in Lorain being turn'd into blood JOHN XXI JOHN the twenty first a Roman Son of Gregory was as some will have it Bishop of Porto though others say he never was in holy Orders at all he was made Pope at the same time that Conrade of Schwaben was by a just suffrage elected Emperor in the room of Henry who had been dead three years In this Interregnum I suppose it was that several Cities of Italy revolted from the Empire and stood up for their liberty wherefore Conrade who was a great Soldier and had been for many years in great Command in the Wars under Henry raising an Army speedily enters Italy and marching first against the Milaneses the chief Authors of this defection he sits down before the Town burns the Suburbs and breaths forth nothing but utter ruin to the City but quickly raises his Siege by the persuasion of the Arch-bishop of Cologn who assured him that as he was at Mass S. Ambrose appear'd to him and threaten'd destruction to them all except they departed from the City of which himself was Patron Conrade therefore holds on his Journey to Rome where at the hands of Pope John he receiv'd the Imperial Crown and then march'd against the Hungarians and Sclavonians who had assisted the rebellious Italians and soon subdu'd them Rodolphus also Duke of Burgundy being vex'd by the Seditions of his Subjects put himself under the protection of Conrade and therefore Burgundy has been ever since 〈◊〉 for a good part of it a Province of the Empire It is said of Conrade that he made several very useful Laws among which one was that it should be death for any Prince of the Empire to disturb the peace of it and upon that account he was a fierce Persecutor of Leopold a German Count who was a Ring-leader of some disturbances in his Country He sent Ambassadours to charge the Greeks and Normans who were quarrelling about the Kingdom of Apulia to lay down their Arms and threaten'd ruine to the Romans if they persisted as they had begun to teize their Pope with Seditions In his time Religion was adorn'd in France by the strict life and holiness of several Abbats and Himericus Son of S. Stephen King of Hungary had great reputation for his Miracles But John who is very much to be praised for his life died after he had been Pope eleven years and nine days The Sea was then vacant eight days BENEDICT IX BENEDICT the Ninth as some say the Nephew of John born at Frascati Son of Albericus came to the Pontificate when Canutus a King of England out of devotion and for performance of a Vow came to Rome which having done as he return'd home he married his Daughter to Henry the Son of Conrade Soon after Conrade dying his Son Henry II. succeeded his Father and raising an Army gives battel to Uldericus King of Bohemia but the Victory being doubtful he renew'd the fight overcame him and took him Prisoner but setting him under Tribute he discharg'd him from his imprisonment then marching against the Hungarians who were contending about the Crown he restor'd Peter to his Throne who had been driven out by Alboinus In the mean time the Romans deposed Benedict who was a sluggish Fellow and good for nothing and set up in his room John Bishop of Sabina by the name of Sylvester III. who also after a Popedom of nine and forty days was turn'd out and Benedict restor'd and he finding himself still liable to the same danger again of his own accord resign'd the Chair to John Arch-deacon of S. John at Port Latin afterward called Gregory VI. though some affirm that he sold it to him Wherefore Benedict was ill spoken of by all Men deservedly and condemn'd by the divine judgment for 't is certain that after his death he was seen in a most monstrous likeness and being ask'd why having been Pope he appear'd in such a horrid shape Because says he I led my life without Law or Reason it is the will of God and S. Peter whose Seat I defiled with all manner of wickedness that I bear the shape rather of a Monster than of a Man After he
nenew'd and quarter given to all that desired and would lay down their Arms. But the Christians after such a Victory when they had rested eight days from the toil of War and had visited the holy places of the City and our Lord's Sepulchre took Godfrey upon their shoulders and carry'd him into the Palace where by universal consent they chose him King And he though he did not refuse the Title of King yet he would not have a golden Crown because he thought it unseemly for any one to wear a golden Diadem where Christ the King of Kings wore one of Thorns when he redeemed mankind Then also was Arnulphus the Priest made Patriarch and consecrated by the Bishops that were there present The Citizens of Neapolis in Assyria were so frighted at this Victory that they sent Ambassadours to Godfrey to surrender themselves and all they had Soon after news came that a mighty Army of Soliman King of Babylon was come to Ascalon a City twenty miles from Jerusalem was always in 〈◊〉 with the People of it Godfrey resolv'd to meet 'em and therefore left Peter the Hermit to guard the City and recall'd Eustace and Tancred whom he had sent to Neapoli with two Legions As he march'd against the Enemy he was inform'd by the Prisoners he took that Clement was Soliman's General and had fifty thousand Men under him and a Navy laden with Provision and Artillery but notwithstanding was resolv'd to fight him which he did and Godfrey who had the day kill'd thirty thousand of his Men as the story goes But Clement who led the Enemy escaped away The Ascalonites having received such a blow deliver'd up their City streight to Godfrey in which he found as much Gold and Silver as ever was seen together before Jerusalem being thus retaken many of the Princes who had perform'd their Vow and had their desire began to take their journeys home into Europe among the rest the Earls of S. Giles and Troyes But Godfrey and his Brothers who had great success took Joppa a Sea-port Town and Rama which hinder'd the Christians passage from Ascalon to Jerusalem He also besieged Cassa otherwise called Porfiria at tho foot of Mount Carmel four miles from Acon But whilest the Siege lasted Tiberias a Town of Galilee surrender'd of their own accord and Caffa was not long after yielded upon terms But nothing that Men call Happiness is very lasting For a year after the taking of Jerusalem which cost so much labour and pains Godfrey died of a Fever and the Christians to prevent any damage that might happen by an Interregnum 〈◊〉 Brother Baldwin in his room A. D. 1101. But to return to Paschal whom Gregory the Seventh made Cardinal Priest of S. Clements for his Learning and Vertue He was chosen Pope by the Clergy after Urban's death though he could have been well satisfied with a private life for he was formerly a Monk and made Pope against his will denying himself to be capable of so great a Charge but yet at the desire of the People because the Clergy chose him unanimously and the College of Cardinals approved of it he did take upon him the Pontificate but not till they had thrice repeated these words with acclamations St. Peter has chosen Rainerius a very good Man Pope and the Secretaries and Clerks after that gave him the Title of Paschal Then he put on his Scarlet Cloak or Robe with a Mitre on his Head and was attended to the Lateran by the Clergy and People upon a white Horse until he came to the South Portico that leads to St. Saviours Where when he had sate some time in a Seat made on purpose as the custom is he went up into the Court of the Lateran and put on a Girdle upon which hung seven Keyes and seven Seals to let him know that according to the seven fold grace of the Holy Ghost he had Power to govern the Church under God and to bind loose open or shut Then with a Papal Scepter in his hand he visited those places which are to be enter'd onely to 〈◊〉 and the day following he received his Consecration at St. Peter's where Oddo Bishop of Ostia Maurice of Porto Gualter of Alba Bono of Lavico Milo of Palestrina and Offo of Nepeso anointed him with Chrism at which Ceremony the Bishop of Ostia had the chief Place which continues so till this day After his Unction he return'd into the City and took his Crown according to the Custom That this would so happen Albert Bishop of Alatri had formerly foretold For being ask'd by a Friend of his who he thought would succeed Urban God said he will choose Rainerius for his faith and constancy Nay they say that the same Albert foretold also the exact time that he should live in his Pontificate But Paschal who consulted the good of the Church then like to be ruin'd by seditious Men sent out his Forces against Gibert the Anti-Pope the Ring leader of all the mischief And to render himself sufficient for so great a War he borrowed several Troops of Roger Earl of Sicily and a thousand ounces of Gold Gibert that Villain lived then at Abba de Marsi and when he understood that the Enemy was coming he durst not trust to his own strength which he had procured of Richard Count of Capua but left Alba and went with all speed into the Mountains near Aquila where not long after he died suddenly and paid for all his iniquities But notwithstandstanding his being taken off the Church of God did not rest altogether from troubles For Richard who we told you supply'd him with Men and Mony put up in his room one Albert a Citizen of Aversa between 〈◊〉 and Capua who was compelled immediately by the well-affected Party to quit the place and go into banishment But the People of Cava near Palestrina following the Example of Richard's solly and arrogance made one Frederick Pope But they also repented of what they had done and one hundred and five days after turn'd him out of his Pontificate compelled him to take upon him the habit of an Anchorite and lead a private life Besides these there was a Third also one Maginulphus a Roman who was so bold as to usurp the Title of Pope at Ravenna But the Romans banish'd him and those of Ravenna when he had no Friend left expelled him their City The Roman Church being thus settled Paschal who was a Man of great Wit and Courage diverted his Mind from Religion to Arms and by the help of Roger retook Castellana and Benevento from the Enemies But in the mean time Peter Columna a Roman Citizen by the advice of Richard Count of Capua whose main design was to divide the Pope's Army seiz'd upon Cava a Town in the Pope's Dominions Thereupon the Pope marched against him and not only retook Cava but also took from him Zangarola and Columna two Castles of his paternal Inheritance from whence the Family of
Monuments of his Wit in writing especially his Commentaries upon the Canticles and his considerations of divine Contemplation dedicated to Eugenius the Pope from whence he might learn the duty of a Pope He likewise wrote many Epistles one above the rest to the Romans in which he much blames 'em as also an Apology and some Sermons upon solemn occasions But to return to Paschal who decreed in a Council held at Guardastallo that no Cities of Romagna as Piacenza Parma Reggio Modena nor Bologna should be any longer subject to Ravenna which had been formerly the Metropolis and Mother-Church because the Bishops of Ravenna had often exalted their horns against the Roman Sea But when the Pope came back to the City the People desired him that he would make Peter's Son Governour of the City upon the death of his Father who was so in his life time which the Pope denying to do by reason of his nonage for he was scarce ten years old there was such a tumult of a sudden that he was forced to leave the City for fear of some great mischief for there were many that said it was not fit that such a Boy should be intrusted with such a weighty Employment But that would not do for when he was at Alba and heard that Peter Leo a great friend to the Church was set upon in his own House by the adverse Faction he immediately sent Ptolomy from Ariccia with a good competent number of Men to assist him who drove the Enemy over the Tiber killing some and taking others whom he divided among the several Towns to be kept But there soon appeared great inconstancy in Ptolomy For those whom he had taken but a little before he set upon by surprise as they went through the Selva del Aglio by his Order to the several Towns and took 'em again and carry'd 'em with him to Ariccia among whom was also the dead Governour 's Son Nor was Ptolomy content to do so onely but he possess'd himself of Sarmoneta Nymphaeo Tiberia and the Sea-coasts In the mean time Henry came out of Germany into Italy with an Army which strook terrour into all that heard of it But when he was come to Rome in the Pope's absence who at that time held a Council in Puglia and thought himself deprived of his Imperial Dignity together with the Power of bestowing Bishopricks he was Crown'd a second time before St. Gregory's body by the Arch bishop of Braga who was banish'd by his own Country and so went home again But Paschal when the Council was dismiss'd came out of Puglia to Rome with an Army of Normans and retook many Towns from the Enemy and at 〈◊〉 gave willing Audience to the Ambassadours of Calo Johannes Emperour of Constantinople who succeeded his Father Alexius and bid 'em be sure to animate their Master against the Sarazens Then the Abbat of Farfa and Ptolomy whose ill actions were too great to be pardon'd sculk'd about a good while till at last Paschal who was a very mild Man took 'em into favour When things were thus settled and a Church dedicated to Agapetus built at Palestrina which he consecrated he returned from thence in Pomp to Rome where he was met by the whole City in which croud he fell sick and perceiving his approaching death he received the Sacrament exhorted the Clergy to Peace and Concord and dy'd after he had been Pope eighteen years six months and seven days upon the 14th of January and was honourably buried in the Lateran Church He in his Pontificate made fifty Priests thirty Deacons and an hundred Bishops He also consecrated fifteen Churches at Rome especially that of St. Adrian intrefori which had been prophaned by some of the factions and the Church of St. Mary in Monticello In fine he repaired and consecrated the Church of the Sancti quatuor Coronati which was defaced when Robert Guiscard Prince of Salerno set that part of the City on fire which goes from the Lateran to the Capitol as I have said in the life of Gregory the Seventh GELASIUS II. GELASIUS the Second before nam'd John born at Gaeta his Father's name was Crescentius of a noble Family from his youth up well educated and learned in Monte-Cassino under the religious Abbat Odrisio he learn'd the fundamental Principles of the Christian Faith For this Reason he was sent for to Rome by Urban II. who knew him to be trusty and virtuous and ever had a great esteem for him But his fidelity was then most conspicuous when Pope Urban was besieged by the Germans and sectators of Gilbert the Anti-Pope in the Isle of S. Batholomew between the two Bridges for he only and that noble Person Peter Leone never abandon'd him Urban therefore when he was in his prosperity again mindful of so great kindness and for his learning and fidelity made him his Secretary and because he had an elegant way of writing he committed to him the charge of reforming the style of the Court of Rome which by the ignorance and negligence of former Ages was very much corrupted And afterwards observing the great worth of the Man he resolv'd to make him a Cardinal and proposed it often in the Consistory with the good liking of all But Urban dying soon after Pope Paschal taking notice of his great deserts immediately made him Cardinal-Deacon and upon the death of Pascbal when the Consultation was held for the electing of a new Pope all the Cardinals being to that purpose assembled in the Monastery below the Palace of Leo and Cincio Frangipane by an universal consent John of Gaeta was chosen Pope by the name of Gelasius This Election put Cincio Frangipane into so great a rage because the College had rejected a Creature of his whom he had proposed to them to be Pope that accompanied with many armed Men he 〈◊〉 into the Monastery breaking down the doors and beating down whomsoever he met in his way and taking the Pope himself by the Collar he slung him upon the ground and kick'd him and then made him a Prisoner The Cardinals who endeavour'd to make their escape he threw 〈◊〉 their Horses and Mules not sparing any manner of contumely that could be put upon so venerable an Assembly But the People of Rome would not endure the assront but gathered together in Arms before 〈◊〉 House and threatned death and ruin to himself and his Family 〈◊〉 he did not immediately set 〈◊〉 safe and sound at liberty The Frangipani comply'd with all their demands and Leo in the sight of all falling at the Pope's feet kiss'd 〈◊〉 and most humbly beg'd his Pardon The Pope then mounted his white Horse and attended by the Clergy and People of Rome he rode to the Lateran and was there Crown'd according to custom At this time Baldwin who had been exhorted by the Pope both by Letters and Messengers to withstand 〈◊〉 the Barbarian Forces till some supplies could be sent into Asia to his assistance took Sobal a
thousand pounds every year to the Church of Rome This Pope in all his Reign made but six Cardinal-Presbyters and that at one time who were excellent Persons not of his own kindred as 't is usual now a days but men called forth to receive such a Dignity out of several Nations Yet I do not disapprove of them that are preferr'd to honour because they are related to the person who confers it if they are deserving Besides he was a Man of such constancy that he could not be induced to do an injury either by force by importunity or promises of gain For he loved good Men and on the contrary was an open Enemy to all evil and â—lagitious persons He likewise often attempted by his Legats to make Peace between Philip of France and Edward of England but to no purpose since they were such foes as to have fought many bloody Battels one with another For Edwards Navy engaged with the French above Selusas near Flanders so fiercely that he overcame them and kill'd they say full thirty three thousand French in that one fight But the Pope having tried to effect that business so often at last desisted and betook himself to building a Palace for succeeding Popes with several Towers and making of Orchards which he finished He also repaired the Roof of S. Peter's Church at his own charge as the Inscription under his Statute there shews He died in the seventh year third month and seventeenth day of his Pontificate and left a great quantity of Gold behind him not to his Relations but to the Church He had a Design to have Zoto a famous Painter of that Age to draw the Histories of the Martyrs in the House that he built but was prevented by Death At which every body was grieved he was so good and so learned a Man and shewed their sorrow by their Tears and Sighs whilst they attended at his Funeral CLEMENT VI. CLEMENT the sixth a Limousin formerly called Peter at first a Monk and then Arch-Bishop of Rouen was at last made Pope at Avignion He was a Man of great Learning and exact Eloquence liberal to all men affable and very humane elected Pope the seventh of May and Crowned the sixteenth of June in the year 1342. In the first year of his Pontificate and the Ember-week after his Coronation he created eight Cardinal-Priests and two Deacons that is to say his Brother who was a Monk of Tulle and William his Sisters Son Of those Priests also which he made one was his Relation by Marriage and the following year he made two more of which one was his Nephew by another Sister This Pope when the Romans petition'd and told him that whereas Boniface the eighth had formerly granted a full Remission of sins to all that visited the Shrines of the Apostles Peter and Paul every hundredth year which space of time the Romans anciently called Saeculum an Age and thence their Games once in an hundred years Ludi Saeculares they thought it more convenient the time should be contracted because men seldom lived so long he freely consented that the Jubilee should be kept every fiftieth year But when he sound that all Italy was in an uproar he confirmed onely Luchinus and John two Viscounts his Lieutenants in the Dutchy of Millain without mentioning the other Princes of Italy For he thought that they alone were able to resist the Bavarian who as he gave out himself was coming down into Italy and to requite the Pope confirm'd many Lieutenants in the Towns and places belonging to the Church by his Imperial Authority For he continued John of Vicourles at Viterbo Galeot Malatesia and his Brethren at Rimini Pesaro and Fano Antonio Feletrario at Vrbino Nâ—lphus and Gallasius two Brothers at Callio Allegretus Clavellus at Farriano Bulgarutius at Matelâ—ca Ismedutius at Sancto Severino Gentilis Varraneus at Camerino Michael at Mount Milon Pongonius at Cingoli Nicolas Boscaretus at Esio Guido Polentensis at Ravenna Francis and Synebald at Forli and Caesena John Manfred at Faenza though before some of these men had gotten the same places under them partly by force and partly by the good will of the Inhabitants as I said in the life of Benedict But in the mean time the Frescobaldi who were eminent Citizens of Florence were banish'd by their fellow-Citizens and would have instigated the Pisanes to War but it was at an ill time For the Florentines at that time were just upon buying Parma of the Scaligeri and to that end had sent some of their Sons to Ferrara as Hostages promising to give 'em for it 500000 l. For there were two Arbitrators one chosen by each party out of Ferrara But the Florentines having engaged in several bloody fights one upon the neck of another were extreamly weaken'd both by the Pisanes and their Allies and at last even forced to slip the opportunity of such a bargain Yet they did not neglect to send aids to the people of Lucca when they were besieged by the Pisanes besides that their Allies helped 'em too under the conduct of Malatesta of Rimini surnamed Vngarus who forced the Pisanes from Lucca At that time Robert who was an Ally of the Florentines being moved with the calamities of his Confederates sent one Gualter a French man that they called Governor of Athens with a small party of Horse into Tuscany who having by mere stratagem defeated Malatesta who was but an unskilful Captain he gain'd so cunningly upon the favour of the Florentines that in a short time he was both General of their Forces and Governour of their City and turn'd out all the other Officers in it Those of Arezzo also if Pisâ—oia and Volaterra promoted his success by surrendering themselves immediately to him But when Accio Corrigienses had deliver'd up Parma which he could not keep to Obicio d' Este Philippino Gonzaga provoked to War by Obicio got an Army together and near to Reggio engaged with him so furiously that he routed and pursu'd him as far as Ferrara Then Obicio finding his condition desperate put Parma which he could not defend under the protection of Luchino in the year 1366. But when the Florentines could no longer endure the Tyranny of Gualter and many were put to death every day for conspiring against him how to get their Liberty Angelo Acciaiolo Bishop of the City sends away for the Citizens ready armed into his Bishoprick with a resolution to recover the liberty of his Country At which the Tyrant seeing himself too weak for the Citizens made the Bishop himself Umpire concerning the Terms of Peace and so march'd off in safety with what he had in the tenth month of his Reign But the Rabble of the City shewed themselves ungrateful as indeed they always do and banish'd the Nobility by whose conduct and courage they had gain'd their Liberty spoiling their Goods and demolishing their Houses And lest any thing should be lacking that might disturb all Italy there were great
in Humanity and Divinity that he soon became a publick Reader and wrote very acutely and learnedly upon the Books of the Sentences He was also reckon'd a great Orator and a great Preacher And therefore he was sent for by John Galeatius Duke of Millain and made his chief Counsellor After that at Galeatius's request he was made Bishop of Vincenza then translated to Novara and last of all being made Arch-Bishop of Millain he was created Cardinal of the Twelve Apostles by Innocent VII From which step he rose to the Pontifical Dignity and was deservedly stiled Alexander because he might compare with any Prince for liberality and greatness of mind For he was so munificent to the poor and all that deserved his bounty that in a short time he left himself nothing That made him use to say in a joke that he was a rich Bishop a poor Cardinal and a beggarly Pope For he was free from that desire of getting which increaseth usually with a Mans Estate and his Age. But it is a Vice that cannot be found among good Men that contemn the World who the older they grow the less Viaticum or provision they know they shall want for their Journey and therefore they restrain their Desires bridle their Covetousness and extinquish all evil lusts Nay Alexander was a Person of that Courage as to depose that powerful King Ladislaus who in the absence of several Popes had for a long time much spoil'd and harass'd the Church Dominions and taken some Towns by force at Pisa in the Council there by approbation of all that were present and declared his Kingdom to belong to Lewis Duke of Anjou But when the Council of Pisa brake up the Pope went to Bologna of which Baldesar Cossa Cardinal of S. Eustachius was Governour Him Alexander confirm'd in his Office because by his industry and conduct the Council was held at Pisa and because he was a Man fit to oppose Usurpers or such as encroached upon the Church Revenues Yet there was more of rusticity boldness and worldliness in him than his profession required He led a military Life and his manners were Soldier-like and he took the liberty of doing many things not fit to be named But when Alexander was very sick and knew his death was very near he exhorted the Cardinals that visited him to Concord and Peace and to defend the Honour of the Church And swore by that Death he was just now about to undergo and by the Conscience of his well-acted Life that he did not think or believe that any thing was Decreed in the Pisan Council but with all justice and integrity without any deceit or fraud This said and the People weeping that stood by he repeated that saying of our Saviour with much ado My peace I give unto you my peace I leave with you and immediately dy'd in the eighth month of his Pontificate and was buried at Bologna in the Church of the Friers Minors in which year there was a Famine and a Plague JOHN XXIV JOHN the Twenty Fourth a Noble Neapolitan formerly called Cossa Baldesar was chosen Pope at Bologna by general consent though some say the Election was carried by force because he was not only Legate of Bologna but had Soldiers in the City and Country planted for the purpose so that if he could not get it by fair means he would by foul However it was it is most certain that he was made Pope and always aspired to that Dignity For when he was a Youth and studied Civil Law at Bologna for some years he took his Degree there according to Custom and then went to Rome And being ask'd by some Friends whether he was going he answer'd To the Pontificate When he came to Rome he was entertain'd by Boniface IX and made one of his Privy Chamber Then he was made Cardinal of S. Eustachius's and sent as Legate à Latere to Bologna which he in a short space subjected to the Church together with a great part of Romagna beating aut some Usurpers and putting others to death But after nine years when he had enlarged the City of Bologna in a wonderful manner by a long Peace and gotten a great deal of Money Alexander died and then he used Bribery especially to the Cardinals that Gregory had made who were yet poor and so was made Pope Thereupon he sent Agents to the Electors of the Empire to desire of 'em that they would choose Sigismund of Lucenburg King of Hungary and Bohemia Emperor as being a person very stout and fit as he said for all brave Actions For this was his way to get into Sigismunds's favour And that succeeding according to his mind he told 'em before-hand that whereas it had been order'd in an Assembly at Pisa that a Council should be call'd at such a certain time he would hold it at Rome and no where else And that all might have the freer access thither he endeavour'd to settle Italy especially that part near the Alps in which the War did daily encrease by the instigation of Fazinus Canis who could not keep his mercenary Soldiers under his Command without employment For he used to maintain them by rapine and plunder At that juncture it happen'd that the Pavians whom Philip could not contain in awe by reason of his Minority were grown factious and took up Arms. Then the Gibellins under the conduct of the Beccarian Family brought Fazinus and his Army into the City and were to have the Guelphs Estates for doing it But Fazinus entering the Town with his Soldiers spared neither one nor the other but plunder'd both And when the Gibellins complain'd that their goods too were plunder'd against his Promise he reply'd The Gibellins in their Persons should be safe but their Goods were Guelphs which he would give as Spoil to the Soldiers deriding the folly and covetousness of both Factions When he went from thence he left a good Garison both at the Gates and in the Fort pretending to be Philips Protector till he grew of Age and so went against Pandulphus Malatesta where he teazed the Brescians and the Bergameses with frequent inroads and ravagings nor did he spare those of Cremona at that time govern'd by Cabrinus Fundulus During these transactions the King of Hungary who was going as he pretended to Rome freely to receive the Imperial Crown sent twelve thousand Horse and eight thousand Foot against the Venetians and seizing Friuli he set upon Treviso Against this great Army the Venetians sent Charles Malatesta to keep them off not so much by fighting as by protracting of the time The Venetians had like also to have lost Verona the same year by treachery of some of the Citizens who had more mind to try what they could get by violence than to preserve their Liberty But those that were guilty were punish'd and there was an end of that Fazinus Canis died the same year after which several persons conspiring together kill'd John Maria
them by right of inheritance which for many years they maintained against the power of the Turk who made many attempts to make seizure of it About the same time also Dabuson the Great Master of Rhodes valiantly defended his City against Mahomet causing him to raise his Siege and retire with disgrace The fear of the Turk by their Retreat out of Italy being extinguished Sixtus re-assumed his former designs and in order thereunto favoured the party of the Venetians who made War upon Hercules da Este Duke of Ferrara by these means all Italy was put into a new flame of War being divided into diverse Parties and Factions On one side were the Pope the Venetians Genoueses and those of Siena with other Cities allied in a Confederacy On the other were Ferdinand King of Naples the Florentines Lodowick Sforza Protector of the State of Milan during the minority of the young Duke The Pope in favour of his own Party managed his War with the Spiritual as well as with the Temporal Arms for in the year 1482. he Excommunicated all his Enemies and as many as took their part or favoured their Cause and encouraged René Duke of Lorain and Anjou to return into Italy and recover his Kingdom of Naples But René being otherwise employed could not make use of this opportunity which was offered and therewith Ferdinand being enraged entered the Dominions of the Pope with a great Army and approached to the Gates of Rome with which Sixtus being greatly incensed issued out an Army against him under the command of Robert Malatesta and both Armies joyning Battel in a place called Campo Morto near Velitri Sixtus had the fortune of the day and to overthrow his Enemy many were slain on the place many principal Officers taken and carried in triumph into Rome and Ferdinand himself narrowly escaped by flight Three days after which Victory Malatesta died not without some suspicion of being poisoned Not long after a Peace being concluded between Pope Sixtus and the King of Naples all the Prisoners were set at liberty amongst which were the Cardinals Colonna and Savelli who at the beginning of the War were as disaffected persons committed to custody This War being in this manner ended the Pope turned his Arms upon the Venetians in favour of Hercules Duke of Ferrara lest that State being too powerful for him should augment their Force by the addition of that Dukedom and in regard that State would not give ear to his admonitions and desist from prosecution of their War at his command the Pope made use of his spiritual Arms Excommunicating all the Subjects under the Dominions of Venice and entering into League with all the Confederate Princes of Italy waged the most dangerous War that ever the Venetians had sustained and certainly had proved fatal to them had not Lodowick Sâ—forza Duke of Milan made a separate Peace with them against the sense and opinion of all the other Confederates Sixtus having by these many Wars and several ways exhausted his Treasury contrived by sale of new Offices never before known to replenish his Coffers he also imposed new Taxes and raised the old ones but that which most reflected on his Reputation and blemished him with the character of a covetous person was that he decimated the Prelates and laid new impositions on the Clergy but to do this Pope justice and give him his due never was any more generous or munificent in his gifts or more delighted to do good offices than this for he freely and at his own charge maintain'd Andrew Paleologo Prince of the Morea with Leonard di Focco Despor of Albania who had been deposed and exterminated their Dominions by the Turk he likewise with great magnificence and courtesie treated the Queens of Cyprus and Bosna whom the Turk had forced to abandon their Dominions and fly for refuge under his protection Also when the Kings of Denmark Swedeland Norway and Gothland with the Dukes of Saxony and Calabria being moved and guided by their Devotion came to visit the Roman Sea he received them with great State and treated them with a magnificence becoming Kings And when in the year of Jubile Ferdinand of Aragon King of Naples came to gain Indulgences at Rome he remitted to him the yearly Tribute which he was obliged to pay for that Kingdom and in lieu thereof contented himself with the yearly acknowledgment of a White Horse with its Furniture which is continued to this day And farther to demonstrate his generous and great Soul he re-built the Hospital of S. Spirito for maintainance and education of young Children he built the Church of S. Mary of Peace he adorned the Basilicon of S. Peter with new Windows making the Church more lightsome and pleasant than before he repaired the Palace of Lateran as also the Churches of the Holy Apostles with several other Churches The Pons Janicularis or the Bridg of Janicula being ruined he took up all the Stones and built an other Bridg over Tybur in the place thereof which since that time is called by the name of Ponte Sesto or the Bridg of Sixtus He cleared all the Common sewers of Rome making conveyances for the sullage of the City to run into the Tybur he repaired many Aquaeducts and Fountains and brought the brazen Statue of M. Aurelius from an obscure place and erected it in the more open Area of the Capitol It was he that reduced the Vatican Library into such a condition as hath made it famous through all the world for he not only brought Books thither from all parts of Europe but left also certain Rents and Revenues for the increase of them with Pensions also to the Library-keepers and under-Officers On the Pedestal of his Statue in the Library these Verses are written Templa Domum expositis vicos fora maenia pontes Virgineam Trivii quod reparatis aquam Prisc a licet Nautis Statuas dare commoda Portus Et Vaticanum cingere Christe jugum Plus tamen urbs debet nam quae squalore latebat Cernitur in celebri Bibliotheca loco In short there was nothing which tended to the glory and ornament of the City which was neglected by him and such was his zeal and power in defence of the Privileges of the Church that he would never suffer them to be infringed nor did any Prince offer him an injury or indignity which he did not return with due revenge As for instance appears by the War he made in confederacy with Venice and Genoua against the Duke of Ferrara and his Allies the which he managed with so much heat that when the Venetians made a separate Peace without his consent or approbation he so highly resented it that it brought him to a fit of the Gout which increased on him with that violence that he died thereof on the 13th of August 1484. having held the Pontifical Sea for the space of 13 years and four days having arrived the age of 70 years and 22 days At
occasions of this King with Money he gave license to sell and alienate so much of the Church Lands in France as might suffice for the carrying on of this War in which Trust of Sales the Cardinals of Lorain and Bourbon being made Commissioners the Lands belonging to the Church which were then sold amounted to the value of one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue In the next place it was this Pope Pius V. who out of his great zeal excommunicated Elizabeth Queen of England with all her Subjects of the same profession And in the year 1569. conferred on Cosmo de Medicis Duke of Florence the Title of Great Duke of Tuscany in Gratitude for which the Duke coming to Rome to acknowledg the honour done him was there crowned with a Ducal Crown by the hands of the Pope about the Circle of which this Motto was engraven Pius quintus Pont. Max. ob eximiam Dilectionem ac Catholicae Religionis Zelum praecipuumque Justitiae studium donavit Then to demonstrate his zeal against the Turks the prevailing Enemies over Christianity under the conduct of Solyman the Magnificent who at that time was entered into Hungary with an Army of two hundred thousand fighting Men He instantly desired and exhorted the Christian Princes unto Unity amongst themselves that they might repulse the common Enemy of the Christian Faith and to shew that he would not persuade others to that performance in which he did not readily offer himself to be an Example he freely sent unto the Emperour a Present of ninety thousand Ducats with promise to furnish fifty thousand Crowns more every year so long as the Wars should continue And indeed at that time there needed Counsel and Arms and Money to resist Solyman who had besieged the strong Fortress of Segeth which was then commanded by Count Serini whose Family like that of Hanibal against the Romans had ever sworn enmity and irreconcileable hatred to the Turks It happened that though Solyman died in the Siege against this City yet the assaults and force were continued by Mahomet the Grand Visier who concealed the death of Solyman until he had first advised the news thereof unto his Successour Sultan Selim the Second during which time he plied the Town with such continual storms as reduced the Defendants to the last extremity and to a resolution of selling their Lives at the dearest rate which they accordingly performed by a Sally of five hundred Men in which all of them being slain with their Leader Count Serini the Town was soon after surrendered into the hands of the Turk It was now the year 1570. when Sultan Selim succeeding his Father the Great Solyman and being a Prince as ambitious and as desirous to enlarge his Empire as was his Predecessour resolved upon the Conquest of Cyprus then belonging to the Venetian Dominions But that he might not seem to attempt the Countries of his Neighbour before he had first denounced War he dispatched a Chiaus to Venice demanding the surrender of the Kingdom of Cyprus as a dependance on the City of Constantinople and a Member of the Grecian Empire to which he had gained a Title by the power of his Sword This Message or Summons being delivered in full Senate was seconded by many Incursions made into Dalmatia and Sclavonia and great preparations for transporting Soldiers into Cyprus The Venetians being thus assaulted by the potent Enemy of Christendom applyed themselves to the Pope desiring him that he would be pleased out of his paternal commiseration to the Christian Cause to administer some effectual help from his own hand and exhort all other Christian Princes to enter into a League and unite their Forces against the common Enemy of the Christian Faith In compliance with this Request the Pope prevailed with the King of Spain to furnish the Venetians with fifty Sail of Galleys under the Command of John Andrew d' Oria a valiant and experienced General requiring him to obey Mark Anthony Colonna Commander in Chief of the Pope's Gallies and accordingly in the Month of August 1570. a very considerable Force met at the Rendezvouz in Candia consisting of one hundred and eighty Gallies eleven Galeasses and six Ships of War But the Turks being more forward in this Expedition had a Month before that time landed a formidable Army in the Island of Cyprus where after having taken the Cities of Nicosia and Famagosta with great effusion of blood they made themselves Masters of the whole Island whilest in the mean time the two great Commanders Colonna and D' Oria being at variance for D' Oria refused to yield to Colonna the design was frustrated and the Fleets returned home without any Action considerable in that Voyage which verified the truth of that saying of Livy Quam plurium imperium bello inutile However â—his ill success did not discourage these Allies from making farther trial of their fortune for being all concerned to resist the Turk they renewed their League again for the succeeding year which was An. 1571. And that they might prevent the misunderstandings which the year before had happened between the two Generals it was agreed that Don John d' Austria who was natural Brother to the King of Spain should be Commander or Generalissimo of the whole Navy that Mark Anthony Colonna General of the Pope's Gallies should be his Lieutenant and accordingly preparations being made Messina in the Island of Sicily was appointed for the place of Rendezvouz where about the Month of August the whole Fleet joined together consisting of one hundred Venetian light Gallies 6 Galleasses two Ships besides Brigantines Felucas and other smaller Vessels under Dominico a Nobleman of Venice The Pope's Gallies were twelve commanded by Mark Anthony Colonna and the Fleet or Spain commanded by Don John d' Austria consisted of eighty one Gallies amongst which the three Gallies of Malta were comprehended and twenty two Sail of Ships With this Force this mighty Fleet departed from Messina on the 16th of September 1571. and sailed to Corfu a safe Port belonging to the Venetians in the Adriatick Sea where having advice that the Turks Armata was in the Gulf of Lepanto they weighed Anchor and stood directly for that place where on the 3d of October they joined Battel with the Turks and gave them that memorable overthrow which hath ever since disabled them from forming any considerable Force at Sea against the Christians for in that fight the which continued not above five hours the most formidable Fleet that was ever equipped or set out from Constantinople was destroyed for they lost one hundred and seventeen Gallies eighty Brigantines or smaller Vessels which were sunk or burn'd or put ashoar forty Sail of Gallies or thereabouts were taken in the pursuit Of the Turks were killed thirty two thousand Men amongst which were many Bashaws and Beglerbeges and three thousand five hundred Captives were taken and fifteen thousand poor Christians were released who had been chained to
he commanded his Followers to revenge this affront with their Arms which they readily obeying immediately shot Rustici dead from his Horse and so mortally hurt Orsini and Savello that in two days after they died of their wounds This unhappy accident troubled all Rome but especially incensed the party and Creatures of Orsini to that degree that rising in a tumult they ran with Weapons in their hands to kill all the Sbiri or Bayliffs they could find and having way-laid all the Avenues where they could make an escape the confusion continued for the space of two days and rendered the City a sad spectacle of blood and massacre In the mean time the Pope and civil Government not being able to apply a Remedy gave way to the fury of the people which as it was believed would have been inflamed higher by opposition of the civil Magistrate The Head bayliff having hidden himself for some days was at length taken and beheaded at Rome But this evil ended not here for from this fatal accident another quarrel arose between Vitelli who was Deputy to Buoncompagno General of the Church and Lodwick Orsino Brother of Raimond who was lately killed in prosecution of which Orsino taking with him several persons in disguise and Masks assaulted Vitelli in his way from Monte Magnopoli to Rome and shot him dead with a Carbine in his Coach for which offence Orsino being condemned to banishment he departed from Rome and went to live at Padoua where having taken up his Lodgings he soon after committed a like murther on Vittoria the Wife of Paul Giordano and her Brother for which Crime being prosecuted by the Justice of Venice he fortified himself within his House resolving to preserve himself by force of Arms but not being long able to hold out against the Soldiers which were sent against it the House was almost levelled to the ground and the Defendants taken Prisoners which being all punished by death or other Sentences of Justice this fatal Tragedy was at length ended After these sorrowful Stories the Pope being willing to cheer and comfort the City created nineteen Cardinals amongst which his Nephew was made one with the title of St. Sixtus and John Anthony Fachinesti of Bologna who was afterwards made Pope by the name of Innocent IX After which he received no small contentment to see his Stately Structure of the Jesuits College finished at Rome over the Gate of which these words were Engraven Greg. XIII P.M. Religioni Bonis Artibus MDLXXXIII in memory and in gratitude for which the Jesuits at their own expence painted in their wide Court or Area all the Colleges and Foundations which this Pope had built and endowed in divers parts of the World and particularly in reference to their own College this Inscription was engraven in Capital Letters Gregorio XIII Pont. Max. Hujus Collegii Fundatori Societatis Jesu amplissimis ab eo Privelegiis Munita Ingentibus Aucta Beneficiis Vniversa in hoc totius Ordinis Seminario parentis Optimi Maximi Memoriam suique grati animi Monumentum P. Nor were these favours ill bestowed on the Jesuits who had always been so industrious and true Drudges to the Sea of Rome that they brought Proselytes from the most remote parts of the World and in the year 1585. after a long Navigation of three years conducted four Ambassadours to Rome from the Island of Japan in the East-Indies sent from some great Lords and from the Community of Christians converted in that Country to the Faith of the Gospel The arrival of such Strangers at Rome filled all the City with Discourse and Novelty and were entertained with free treatment at the expence of the Church being lodged in the Jesuits College who were the Authors or Apostles of their conversion though some years afterwards by the indiscreet management of the Jesuits who usurped too much on the civil Jurisdiction and temporal Power of that Kingdom Christianity was totally extirpated by the most cruel persecution that the most fierce Enemies to the Gospel of Christ had ever exercised against his People for the particulars whereof which are most doleful and Tragical to relate and not pertinent to this History we shall refer the Reader to the Writers of the Description of Japan But as to these four Ambassadours who were all young Men not much exceeding the age of twenty years they had remained but few days in Rome before Pope Gregory departed this life He was rather surprized with death than reduced thereunto by long sickness his indisposition being discovered by his countenance before he was really sensible thereof within himself his Distemper was esteemed by the Physitians to be a Quinsy with which he was suffocated and died the tenth day of April 1585. being aged eighty three years and three months He may be numbred amongst the good Popes having ended his days with a general good esteem of all and especially of the people of Rome who bewailed his death and in honour to his memory engraved these words under his Statue of Brass which he had in his life-time caused to be erected in the Capitol Gregorio XIII Opt. Max. ob farinae vectigal sublatum Vrbem Templis Operibus Magnificentis exornatam H.S. Octingenties Singulari beneficentiâ in egenos distributum Ob Seminaria Exterarum Nationum in urbe ac toto pene Terraram Orbe Religionis propagandae causa instituta Ob paternam in omnes gentes caritatem Qua ex ultimis Novi Orbis insulis Japoniorum Regum Legatos Triennii Navigatione Ad obedientiam Apostolicae Sedi Exhibendam Primum venientes Romam Pro Pontificia dignitate accepit S.P.Q.R. The Pope being dead his Corps were with funeral Pomp brought into St. Peter's Church and buried in a Chappel which he himself had erected which was afterwards richly adorned and beautified by his Kindred and Relations He was naturally of a cheerful Countenance and pleasing Aspect and being of a good habit of Body and sound temperament by temperance and sobriety he conserved that good constitution unto old Age he used much Exercise and delighted in Riding being so active that to his latter time he could mount on Horseback without the help of his Servants the place of his Recreation and retirement was Monte Dragone at Frescati about ten Miles distant from Rome where he frequently enjoyed the fresh Air which is accounted the most healthful of all Italy This Palace now belongs to the Prince Borghese and is situated in a most delightful prospect from one of the open Galleries of which I copied these Verses Thessala quid Tempe qui quaeris Adonidis hortos Haec tibi pro cunctis villa Dragonis erit Prospicis hinc Tybur colles rura Catonis Pulchrior aspectu quae tibi Scena subit The greatest care and trouble which this Pope susteined in the time of his Reign was to suppress the unruly numbers of the Banditi who were grown to that bold insolence that they commanded and
speedily the which he accordingly did in the space of two days after in words to this effect That his Holiness would be pleased together with him to render thanks to God Almighty for being pleased to conserve the remnant of his Fleet from such dreadful storms and tempests and for bestowing on him Riches and Power sufficient to set out and equippe an other equal to the former That he had sent his Fleet to fight against the Enemies of Christ but not to Combat with the Seas and Winds and therefore saw no cause to blame his Officers either Civil or Military And in fine perceiving the subtil manner of the Pope to forestall his demands of succours or reparations he concluded his Letter in this manner That the loss did as well concern the Pope as himself by whose directions and encouragement he had undertaken that Enterprise That he having had the glory to have lost a Fleet in the service of Christ had already performed his part and that now for the future the next attempt belonged to the Church in which he promised to follow but not to precede It was believed that the King wrote with this resolution and indifferency of mind to the Pope to let him know that this misfortune did not abate his Courage or force in defence of his own Dominions for the King was jealous and had cause sufficient to suspect that the Gallies which the Pope had lately built and the vast sums of Money which he had lately amassed were with design on the Kingdom of Naples on which the Count Olivarez Ambassadour at Rome having always a vigilant Eye did constantly inculcate to the Pope in his Discourses That so much as his Master had lost in seeking the Conquest of others Kingdoms as much he did not doubt but to recover on any Prince who should attempt on his Dominions This year 1588. famous for the destruction of the Spanish Armada was signalized also towards the end thereof on the 23d of December by the death of the Duke of Guise a Prince of such popular esteem that he appeared greater than the King and to eclipsed the Sovereignty that not longer enduring to be so clouded he resolved to break through the obscurity by the destruction of the Duke whom the King caused to be assassinated by eight Executioners as he was entering into his Closet being thereunto called by his Command these Officers of the King's displeasure so effectually performed their work by the mortal stabs they gave him that he had not time to utter one word but onely breathed out his life with dying groans the same day the Cardinal his Brother was imprisoned and the next day being the Eve of Christmas was put to death the which misfortune to the House of Guise was followed by the imprisonment of the Cardinal of Bourbon the Pope's Legat at Avignon the Arch-bishop of Lions and of the eldest Son of the Duke of Guise The news of the Duke's death was dispeeded to Rome with such diligence by an Express that the Pope received it on the 3d. of January 1589. at the same time that he was discoursing with the Cardinal Joyeuse touching the Affairs and interest of France The Pope at the arrival hereof did not seem troubled or in the least manner surprized for though the Duke was a zealous Defender of the Roman Catholick Religion yet considering that he was ambitious and popular and one who checked the Sovereign power the Pope who was a great Assertor of the Monarchical Authority in its Supreme degree received the news of his unhappy fate without any remorse or resentment and so shrinking up his shoulders said Had we been King of France we should have done the same And when the particulars were all recounted he added Such is commonly the destiny of Men who committed many Errors with subtil Arts but then know not how to conserve themselves with mature judgment and due caution But when about four days after that Intelligence came how that the Cardinal of Guise was likewise put to death and that the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Arch-bishop of Lions were imprisoned he then began to fume and storm like an enraged Bear venting his passion with ten thousand violent expressions against the King clapping his hands and stamping with his feet on the floor in such manner as affrighted all his Servants and Attendance Henry III. of France being acquainted with the humour of Sixtus and how apt he was to resent the least injuries towards Ecclesiastical persons and encroachment on his Authority dispatched Girolamo Gondi a Florentine Gentleman with all expedition to Rome to join with his Ambassadour the Marquess Pisani in making excuses for the death of the Cardinal and the imprisonment of the Cardinal of Bourbon and Arch-Bishop of Lions being thereunto necessitated contrary to his own nature for the conservation of his own life and Crown Gondi being arrived at Rome and having consulted together with the Ambassadour the way and manner to address themselves unto the Pope and being admitted to Audience the Pope with a stern Countenance looked on them and with sharp and severe terms began to reproach the King wondering how he could dare to violate the immunities and priviledges of the Ecclesiastical State and the dignity of Cardinals and against all Laws both Divine and humane could entertain so much wickedness in his heart as to murther a Cardinal and imprison two others of eminent dignity in the Church as if they had been subjected to the Secular power The Ambassadours for Reply hereunto in modest terms but yet with grave and unmoved constancy began to relate the Treason and Plots of which the Cardinal was guilty contrary to the Faith and Allegiance which he owed unto the King with whom also the Cardinal of Bourbon and the Arch-bishop of Lions had been Complices It is true said they it would have best become the righteousness and judgment of a King to have proceeded in a juditiary way according to all the methods and rules of Law but the Cardinal assisted by the power of his Brother and by the Authority of the two other potent Prelates was become too strong for the Law or to be treated by the usual formalities of common Process for they having forced the King to abandon his Palace and fly in disguise through the streets of Paris there remained no mild terms of Accommodation but either the King must become a Subject unto them and divest himself of his Dignity and resign his Power into the hands of those Guardians as if he were in his pupillage or years of minority or else he must serve himself of those means which God appointed him for conservation of his Crown and Regal Office in which he was anointed In fine they concluded that the King was an obedient Son of the Church and was ready to satisfie the desires of his Holiness to the utmost of his power and to that end he had expresly sent this Gondi now present before him
his Death this Distick was made Sistere qui nullo potuit cum foedere Sixtus Audito tantum nomine pacis obit His Body was interred in S. Peters Church under a Monument of Brass which Julian Cardinal of Liens caused to be erected for him before the High-Altar After which the Chair was vacant 16 days INNOCENT VIII SIXTVS being dead the Cardinals entered the Vatican where in the space of 16 days after the decease of the former Pope they elected John Baptista Cibo Cardinal of S. Balbina to succeed in the Papal Chair He was a Native of Genoua and born of an illustrious Family in the year 1432. his Father being a Knight and Count of the Empire and Senator of Rome He lived a long time in the Family and Service of Ferdinand King of Naples and afterwards coming to Rome was received into the Family of the Cardinal of Bologna Brother of Pope Nicolas V. He was created Bishop of Savona by Paul II. and of Melfy and Priest Cardinal with the Title of S. Balfina by Sixtus IV. after whose Decease he was by the common suffrages of 24 Cardinals elected Pope and on the 29th of August 1484. was Crowned by Francis Piccolomini calling himself by the name of Innocent the Eighth and at his Inauguration he used these words Ego autem in Innocentia mea ingressus sum Tho Guiccardin will not allow this Motto to correspond with his manners and Onufrius saith that he often covered his avarice and covetous desires with Drollery and some pleasant expressions Howsoever he is stiled by most Writers with the honorable character of pious and affable and commended for his sanctity of life and profound learning The first business he took in hand after he came to the Papal Chair was to take off the Excommunication which Pope Sixtus had laid on the Venetians and being himself in perfect amity and maintaining a fair correspondence with the Christian Princes he endeavoured so to reconcile them one with another that being united in a strict confederacy they might convert their Arms against the Turk who was now become the formidable and common enemy of Christendom for tho he was naturally averse to War yet his zeal for the Christian Religion moved him to equippe a Fleet at the cost and expence of 150 thousand Crowns which being successful in their enterprise gained him great renown and esteem with all the Christian Princes the which he also improved by various good offices â—nd acts of justice performed towards them for he re-blessed the Venetians after they had been desecrated and attainted by the Excommunication of Sixtus he eased the Church from the burden of extraordinary Taxes he retrenched many superfluous charges of his own Family he conferred many benefits favours and privileges on the Orders of S. Francis S. Augustin and S. Dominick and thundered out his Excommunications against Women that used Poisons and Incantations and such as cheated and purloined from the Dataria or Exchequer But all these good actions and just intentions were interrupted by civil Discords at Rome arisen between the Families of Colonna and Orsini on the ground of ancient hatred and resentments between them and had proceeded to worse effects and more evil consequences had they not been asswaged for a while by the breaking forth of a forein War with Ferdinand King of Naples who having oppressed and ill treated many Lords and great personages and particularly the Count De Montorio who was of great repute and popular in the City of Aquila they all together with the City of Abruzzo had recourse to the Pope for sanctuary protesting that in case he would not receive them into his protection that they should be forced to yield and resign themselves into the hands and power of some Forein Prince The Pope being moved by their supplications and incensed against Ferdinand for his ill deportment towards the Papal See for he had denied to pay the yearly tribute of twenty thousand Ducats and had disposed of the Ecclesiastical Benefices according to his own will and pleasure he therefore resolved to receive Aquila and Abruzzo and the other complainants into his care and protection and to declare War against the King of Naples for carrying on of which with better success he entered into a League with the Venetians and drew to his Party the Princes of Colonna of Bisignano Salerno Altamura and Duke of Oliveto with many other Lords and great men of Naples making Robert Sanseverino the General of his Army On the other side the King combined with the Florentines and joyned the Orsiâ—i to his party and such were the animosities on both sides that a furious and bloody War began which was maintained for some time with changes and variety of fortune the evil consequences of which being by good and wise men esteemed fatal to Italy induced the Count De Pitigliano and the Cardinals of Angioio and Sforza to intercede and mediate between the two parties for a Peace but the Pope who conceived that he had reason and justice on his side refused to condescend unto equal terms and being farther encouraged by the aids given him from Charles the Eighth King of France of 300 thousand Crowns in mony with the recruits of 4000 Savoyards and 3000 Switzers he became inflexible and for some time continued resolute to maintain the War but at length considering the fatal conquences of it and how ill the effusion of blood becomes the gentle spirit of a Prelate he hearkened and condescended to Articles of peace on these following conditions That the King should pardon and forgive all the Lords and Barons who were his Subjects whether they belonged to the City of Aquila or to any other Town or part of his Dominions who had fled to the Pope for his succour and protection That he should not farther pretend to any Collation of Benefices That he should pay all the arrears of his Tribute at a convenient time appointed That Verginio Orsino should humble himself at the foot-stool of the Pope and demand his pardon All which Articles being agreed the King of Spain Lodowick Sforza and Lorenzo de Medicis with two Cardinals and James Trivoltii a great Favourite of the Popes became Guarrenties for the peace But no sooner had the Pope disbanded his Forces and Ferdinand freed from the apprehensions of War but with violation of his own Faith and in despight of the obligation of those who were engaged for him he refused compliance with the conditions he had agreed and concluded for he not only imprisoned the Barons and others who had sided with the Pope and four months after cut off their Heads and confiscated their Estates but likewise denied to pay his annual Tribute to the Papal Sea covering the breach of his Faith and the persidiousness of these acts with vain and frivolous pretences The Pope greatly incensed with extreme indignation against this dishonest treachery in which the Guarantees for the late Peace acknowledged him to have