to Leo to attempt a revival of the ancient crusades, by means of an alliance between all Christian princes; he probably hoped, by this show of zeal for the Christian cause, that he should recover some of his lost credit as head of the church. He had, likewise, another object in view, that of recruiting his finances by the contributions which his emissaries levied upon the devotees in different countries. By the death of Maximilian in 1519, a competition for the imperial crown between Charles V. and Francis I. took place. Leo was decidedly against the claims of both the rival candidates, and attempted to raise a competitor in one of the German princes, but he was unable to resist the fortune of Charles. At this period he incurred a very severe domestic misfortune, in the death of his nephew Lorenzo, who left an infant daughter, afterwards the celebrated Catherine de Medicis, queen and regent of France. The death of Lorenzo led to the immediate annexation of the duchy of Urbino with its dependencies to the see of Rome, and to the appointment of Giulio, Leo's cousin, to the supreme direction of the state of Florence. The rapid progress of the Reformation forcibly recalled the attention of the papal court, and Leo, anxious for an amicable negociation, employed a Saxon nobleman to treat in person with Luther, but the matter was, at this period, carried too far to admit of reconciliation. Luther appealed to the Scripture for his authority; and he insisted upon unqualified submission to the decrees of the catholic church. The Reformer was persuaded to address a letter to his holiness; but, instead of expressions of humiliation, it contained much bitter invective against the court of Rome. It was therefore determined to condemn him and his doctrines; and a bull to that purpose was issued June 15th, 1520, which occasioned a total separation between the papal see and the reformers. The writings of Luther were publicly burnt, an insult which he boldly retaliated by an equally solemn and public conflagration of the papal decrees and constitutions, and the bull itself. Leo was not satisfied with his own exertions, but was desirous of gaining on his side the imperial court. Before, however, the emperor would condemn, he determined to hear, in person, what Luther had to say in his own justification, and a mandate was issued for his appearance at Worms. We may here observe, that Leo conferred on Henry VIII. of England, the title of "Defender of the Faith," for his appearance on the side of the church as a controversial writer. The tranquil state of Italy, at this period, allowed the pope to indulge his taste for magnificence in shows and spectacles, and in the employment of those great artists who have reflected so much lustre on his pontificate. His private hours were chiefly devoted to indolence, or to amusements, frequently of a kind little suited to VOL. IV.

น.

the dignity of his high station. He was not, however, so much absorbed in them as to neglect the aggrandizement of his family and see. Several cities and districts in the vicinity of the papal territories, and to which the church had claims, had been seized by powerful citizens, or military adventurers; some of these the pope summoned to his court to answer for their conduct; and in default of an exculpation of their crimes, he caused them to be put to death. His holiness next laid a plan to get into his possession the city and territory of Ferrara. He had set his heart upon this object, and being unable to obtain it by open means, he had recourse to treachery, and it has been asserted that his plan included the assassination of the duke. The commander of a body of German troops, was bribed to deliver up one of the gates to the papal forces, which were to be in readiness; but he took the pope's money, and apprized the duke of the plot, which was thus happily defeated. Another project, which entered deeply into the views of the pope, was the expulsion of the French from Italy. In 1521, he formed a treaty with the emperor for the re-establishment of the family of Sforza in the duchy of Milan. He engaged a large body of Swiss in his service, who, under the pretence of different measures, made much progress against the French, and drove their troops before them; but in the midst of these successes, and whilst public rejoicings were making in Rome on account of them, the pope was seized with an illness which at first was considered as a slight cold only, but which put an end to his life in a few days. This event happened December 1, 1521, when Leo was in the forty-sixth year of his age, and the ninth of his pontificate. The people at large expressed much concern at his death, but the honours rendered to his memory were not such as might have been expected. An exhausted treasury was the pretext for an economical funeral, and amidst all the eminent scholars of his court, an illiterate chamberlain was appointed to pronounce his funeral oration. Leo was himself but moderately furnished with solid erudition; he afforded liberal encouragement to useful and reputable studies, but he also lavished his patronage upon productions and persons of an opposite character. The merit of a sovereign in promoting those ornamental arts, by which alone he can display a magnificence superior to that of a private citizen, can rank no higher than an exertion of good taste; and this quality may be undoubtedly conceded to Leo. He was, however, rather the unfortunate inheritor, than the creator of great talents. Michael Angelo and Raphael have both risen to fame under his predecessor, Julius II., who had planned and made a commencement of the stupendous edifice of St. Peter's; the Vatican palace had likewise received some of its noblest ornaments in his and the former pontificates. The

7.

character of this pontiff has been finely celebrated by Pope, in the following lines:

But see! each muse, in Leo's golden days,

Starts from her trance, and trims her wither'd bays,
Rom's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread,
Shikes off the dust, and rears his rev'rend head.
Then sculpture and her sister arts revive;
Stones leap to form, and rocks begin to live;
With sweeter notes each rising temple rung,
A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung.

It

ADRIAN VI., pope, who succeeded Leo X. in January 1522, was a native of Utrecht in Holland, the son of Florent Boyens, a tapestry weaver, or according to some, a brewer's servant. His father, observing in him an early disposition towards learning, procured him admission into the pope's college at Louvain, where poor scholars were educated gratuitously. Here he distinguished himself by his diligence. is reported that he used to read in the night by the light of the lamps in the churches or streets. He made a considerable progress in all the sciences; and led an exemplary life. He took his degree of D.D. at Louvain; was soon after made canon of St. Peter's, and professor of divinity at Utrecht, and then dean of St. Peter's, and vice-chancellor of the university. He was obliged to give up an academical life, to be tutor to the archduke Charles, who, however, made no great progress under him; but never was a tutor more highly rewarded; for it was by Charles V.'s credit he was raised to the papal throne. Leo X. had given him the cardinal's hat in 1517. After this pope's death, several cabals in the conclave ended in the election of Adrian, with which the people of Rome were very much displeased. He would not change his name, and in every thing he showed a great dislike for all ostentation and sensual pleasures, though such an aversion had been long out of date. He was very partial to Charles V., and did not njoy much tranquillity under the triple crown. He lamented mich the immorality of the clergy, and wished to establish a reformation of manners among them. He died in December, 1523. On his tomb was inscribed an epitaph, which informs posterity, that the greatest misfortune which he experienced in life, was, that he had been called to govern.

Adrianus Papa VI. hic situs est
qui nihil sibi infelicius
in vita,

quam quod imperar et
duxit.

Adrian VI., though an honest man, and adorned with many private virtues, wanted that strength and energy of mind, which his difficult station required. Timid, irresolute, and inconsistent, his real virtues were mistaken for defects and where, with greater firmness he might have commanded applause, he undeservedly incurred contempt. Perhaps, with so ew faults, no man ever incurred so much popular dislike, or was loaded with so many calumnies. It is said, that the night after his death, some young men adorned the door of his physician with garlands, and this inscription, " To the Deliverer of his Cou try." This circumstance, however, was an honour to his memory; for it seemed to have proceeded from the joy of the dissolute, on being released from the apprehension of the bulls, which this rigid disciplinarian was about to issue against various irregularities and enormities. It must be acknowledged that this pontiff had more piety than taste for the fine arts. When he was shown the statue of Laocöon, he turned away his head, to show his aversion to pagan images; and he held the race of poets so cheap, that he gave them the appellation of Terentians. He was, nevertheless, well versed in theology and scholastic philosophy. While he was professor of divinity at Louvain, he wrote, "A Commentary upon the Book of Sentences, by Peter Lombard;" "Epistles;" and "Quæstiones Quodlibetica;" printed at Louvain in 1515, and at Paris in 1516, and 1531.

CLEMENT VII., pope, was the illegitimate son of Julian de Medicis, brother of Lorenzo, who was killed in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, at Florence, in 1470. Young Julius, so he was named, was carefully educated by his uncle Lorenzo. He was brought up to the military life, and entered into the order of the Knights at Rhodes, whose standard he bore at the coronation of his kinsman, pope Leo X. That pontiff declared him legitimate, and created him archbishop of Florence. He was sent legate to Bologna, and afterwards promoted to the cardinalate, and made chancellor of the Roman church. During the pontificate of Leo, who was averse to business, cardinal Julius had the chief management of affairs, and acquire great reputation for prudence and ability. After the death of Adrian VI., he was, by a coalition of parties unanimously elected to the vacant chair, in 1523, when he assumed the name of Clement VII. The affairs of Europe and of the church were at this period involved in great difficulties on account of the rivalry of Charles V. and Francis I., and the progress of Lutheranism. Clement, who began to be jealous of the emperor's power, refused to accede to a league against Francis, and used his endeavours, though in vain, to effect an accommodation between them. He sent Campeggi as his legate into Germany, in order to urge violent measures against the Lutherans, and to

elude the demand of a general council, and an effectual reformation; but he obtained little satisfaction. After the battle of Pavia, in 1525, his fears led him to enter into a separate treaty with Charles, to whom he advanced a considerable sum of money; but not long after, the same fears induced him to join in a league against him, with the French, the Venetians, and the duke of Milan. This shuffling and temporizing policy, to which he was always too much addicted, brought upon him the imperial arms under the constable Bourbon, who invaded the papal territories, and stormed the city of Rome. Clement fled to the castle of St. Angelo, where he was besieged; and being forced to capitulate, he marched as a prisoner, till he purchased his liberty upon hard conditions. He was even obliged at last to make his escape in disguise. In the meantime the Florentines revolted from him and his family, and recovered their freedom. Clement, whose sufferings had rather taught him more caution, than inflamed him with resentment, declined joining the kings of France and England against the emperor, and negociated with the latter, as the most formidable, and best able to promote his private views. In 1529 he made a separate treaty with Charles, by virtue of which, Alexander de Medicis, the pope's nephew, was to be reinstated in his former authority at Florence, and was to marry the emperor's natural daughter, with a large dowry; and all the territories of the ecclesiastical state, occupied by the emperor's arms, were to be restored to it. In return, the pope granted the emperor the investiture of the kingdom of Naples without tribute, absolved all concerned in the sack of Rome, and permitted Charles and his brother Ferdinand, to levy the fourth of ecclesiastical revenues in their dominions. After this agreement, the pope and emperor had an interview at Bologna, where they gave each other all the demonstrations of perfect friendship, and the latter received the imperial crown at the hands of the former. They had much deliberation concerning the means of opposing the progress of the Reformation; and Clement used all his arts. to dissuade the emperor from calling a general council, to which measure he was strongly inclined. They had another interview at Bologna in 1532, in which Clement again employed every artifice to protract the meeting of a council, which he could no longer openly oppose. As nothing was so much at Clement's heart, as the aggrandizement of his family, a proposal from Francis to marry his second son Henry to Catharine the pope's niece, was received by him with great pleasure, notwithstanding his engagements with the emperor; and he did not scruple to take a voyage to Marseilles, where he had an interview with Francis, and the marriage was consummated. An affair which threw Clement into no less perplexity than the rivalry of Charles and Francis, was the divorce of Henry VIII.,