monte; and thus mulcted, he sold it once more for 50,000 golden scudi. In the next place he began to sell certain employments that up to bis time had always been conferred gratuitously; as, for example, the notariates, the office of fiscal, with those of commissary-general, solicitor to the camera, and advocate of the poor: for all these he now obtained considerable sums; as 30,000 scudi for a notariate, 20,000 for a commissariat-general, &c. Finally, he created a multitude of new offices, many of them very important ones, as were those of treasurer to the dataria, prefect of the prisons, &c., and some others. Of his invention are, besides, the "twenty-four referendaries," from which, as from notariates in the principal cities of the state, and from " two hundred cavalierates," he derived very large sums of money.

When all these means are taken into account, the mode by which Sixtus amassed his treasure is no longer problematical. The sale of offices is computed to have brought him 608,510 golden scudi, and 401,805 silver scudi, making together nearly a million and a half of silver scudi ;* but if this sale of places had before caused undue pressure on the state, from their involving, as we have shewn, a share in the rights of government under plea of a loan, which rights were most rigorously enforced against the tax-payer, while the duties of these offices were never performed, how greatly was this evil now augmented! Offices were, in fact, considered as property conferring certain rights, rather than as an obligation demanding labour.

In addition to all this, an extraordinary increase was made by Pope Sixtus in the number of the monti; of these he founded three " non vacabili," and eight "vacabili,” more than any one of his predecessors.

The monti were always secured, as we have seen, on new taxes; to this expedient Sixtus was at first most reluctant to have recourse, but he could devise no other. When he brought forward in the consistory his project of an investment of treasure for the church, Cardinal Farnese opposed the idea, by observing that his grandfather Paul III. had thought

* Calculation of the Roman Finances under Clement VIII., in a tailed MS. of the Bibl. Barberini in Rome.

of this plan, but had resigned it on perceiving that it could not be accomplished without imposing new taxes. The pope turned on him fiercely; the intimation that a previous pontif had been wiser than himself put him in a fury. That," he retorted, was because there were certain great spendthrifts under Paul III., who by the blessing of God are not permitted to exist in our times." Farnese reddened and made no reply, but the result shewed that he was right.

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In the year 1587, Sixtus would no longer endure restraint from considerations of this kind: he laid heavy imposts on the most indispensable articles of daily use, such as firewood, and the wine sold by retail in the wine-shops of the city, as also on the most toilsome occupations, that of towing barges up the Tiber by means of buffaloes or horses, for example: with the money thus gained he established monti. He debased the coinage, and a small money-changing trade having arisen from this fact, he turned even that circumstance to account, by selling permission to those who stationed themselves at the corners of the streets with a view to such traffic. His attachment to the March did not prevent him from burthening the trade of Ancona by a duty of two per cent. on her imports. Even the manufactures, which were but just commencing their existence, he compelled to afford him at least an indirect advantage.‡ In these and similar operations his principal adviser was one Lopez, a Portuguese

[Changing countenance as Farnese spoke, the pope replied angrily, "There is no marvel, Monsignore, if in the time of your grandfather the ordinary receipts and revenues were insufficient to found a treasure for the church, because in that day there were many and great squanderers (scialaquatori, a word he was very fond of using), but we have, thank God, none of them in our times." He remarked bitterly on the multitude of sons, daughters, and nephews of all kinds surrounding Paul III. At all this Farnese coloured somewhat, and remained silent.]

For an old Giulio, besides ten bajocchi of the coin of Sixtus, a premium of from four to six quatrini was demanded.

Here we have an eloquent example of his administration: [Hc exacted that no silk or wool, raw or woven, should be sold without permission from officers appointed by him, nor come into the market without their license this prevented fraud; but, better still, it aided the treasury, because the fees on licenses and stamps brought large sums to the purse of the pontiff.] This was but little likely to promote the welfare of trade.

Jew, who had fled his country from fear of the Inquisition, and having gained the confidence of the datary and of Signora Camilla, at length obtained that of the pontiff himself. The mode in which Cardinal Farnese had been silenced, rendered the whole college very cautious in their opposition of the pope; when the wine-tax just referred to was discussed in the consistory, Albano of Bergamo remarked, "Whatever pleases your holiness, I approve; but should this impost displease your holiness, I shall approve still more."

By all these means so many new sources of income were rendered available, that the pontiff was enabled to take up a loan of two millions and a half of scudi (or to be exact 2,424,725), and pay interest thereon.

It must be admitted, however, that in this system of finance there is something exceedingly difficult to comprehend.

The country was most oppressively burthened by these taxes and by the multitude of places. Of the latter the salaries were made to depend on perquisites and fees, which must of necessity embarrass the course of justice and the administration. The taxes were imposed on the trade of the country, wholesale and retail, and could not but seriously impair its activity. And to what end was all this suffering inflicted?

If we add the proceeds of the monti to those of the offices, we shall find that the whole sum thus produced to the camera was about equal to the treasure shut up by Sixtus in the castle of St. Angelo,-four millions and a half of scudi, and very little more. All the undertakings for which this pope has been so highly praised might very well have been accomplished with the amount of his savings.

To collect and hoard superfluous revenues is a proceeding sufficiently intelligible: to raise a loan for some present necessity is also easily comprehended, and in the course of things; but to borrow money and impose heavy imposts, merely for the purpose of locking up the proceeds in a fortress, as a treasure for some future contingency, this is altogether foreign to the general practice of governments. Such was nevertheless the process which has gained the admiration of the world for the government of Sixtus V.

There was doubtless much tyranny and many unpopular characteristics in the administration of Gregory XIII. The reaction of these was most pernicious; but I am decidedly of opinion that if he had succeeded in rendering the papal treasury independent of new loans and imposts for the future, the result would have been highly beneficial to the Roman states, and would probably have rendered their progress much more prosperous.

But the energy required to carry the views of Gregory into all their consequences, was not fully possessed by that pontiff; it was more especially wanting in the last year of his life.

This practical force it was, this power of executing what he willed, that characterized Sixtus V. His accumulation of treasure by means of loans, imposts, and venal offices, did but add burthen to burthen; nor shall we fail to perceive the consequence, but the world was dazzled by his success, which, for the moment, did certainly give the papal see increased importance. For the states surrounding those of the church were in most cases always pressed for money, and the possession of wealth inspiring the pontiffs with a more perfect confidence in themselves, procured for them a more influential position in the eyes of their neighbours.

This mode of administering the state was indeed an essential part of the Catholic system of those times. Gathering all the financial strength of the realm into the hands of the ecclesiastical chief, it first rendered him the complete and exclusive organ of spiritual influence. For to what purpose could all this treasure be applied, if not to the defence and extension of the Catholic faith?

And in projects having these ends in view did Sixtus live, move, and have his being. His enterprises were sometimes directed against the East and the Turks, but more frequently against the West and the Protestants. Between these two confessions, the Catholic and Protestant, a war broke out, in which the pontiff's took most earnest part and interest.

This war we shall treat of in the following book: for the present let us remain a little longer with Rome herself, which now made her influence once more felt by the whole world.

§ 8. The Public Works of Sixtus V.

Even in her external form, the city now assumed for the third time the aspect of capital of the world.

The splendour and extent of ancient Rome are familiar to all; its ruins and its history have alike contributed to bring it clearly before our eyes: these have been zealously explored, nor would the Rome of the middle ages less richly repay our diligence. This too was a noble city. The majesty of her basilicas, the divine worship ever proceeding in her grottoes and catacombs, the patriarchal temples of her pontiffs, preserving as they did the most revered monuments of early Christianity, all aided to render her august and imposing. The palace of the Cæsars, still magnificent, and then possessed by the German kings, with the many fortresses erected by independent races, as if in defiance of those numerous powers by which they were surrounded, added further to the interest awakened.

But during the absence of the popes at Avignon, this Rome of the middle ages had fallen into decay, equally with the long-ruined Rome of antiquity.

In the year 1443, when Eugenius IV. returned to Rome, the city was become a mere dwelling of herdsmen; her inhabitants were in no way distinguished from the peasants and shepherds of the surrounding country. The hills had been long abandoned, and the dwellings were gathered together in the levels along the windings of the Tiber: no pavements were found in the narrow streets, and these were darkened by projecting balconies and by the buttresses that served to prop one house against another. Cattle wandered about as in a village. From San Silvestro to the Porta del Popolo all was garden and marsh, the resort of wild-ducks. The very

memory of antiquity was fast sinking; the capital had become "the hill of goats," the Forum Romanum was "the cow's field." To the few monuments yet remaining the people attached the most absurd legends. The church of St. Peter was on the point of falling to pieces.

When Nicholas at length regained the allegiance of all Christendom, and had become enriched by the offerings of