ledgment of the neceffity they thought they fhould ftand in of it.

The refolutions containing thefe articles being presented to each cardinal, they all fucceffively figned them, except Cardinal Fofcaro, who retired, faying he would fign laft; but when they carried the act to him for that purpose, he declared he never would fign them.

They digested other articles, the obfervation of which they likewife fwore to. These are all printed in Raynaldi's Annals; fo I fhall content myself with a curfory mention of fome of them.

By the first, the pope was to confirm all these articles by bulls, having the force of decretals, which were to be published four days after his coronation; the second regulated the contributions of the pope and cardinals, to the expences of a war against the Turks, if it fhould take place; by the third, the pope obliged himself to reform the Roman court, both in its head and members, within three months after his coronation, agreeable to the advice of a majority of the cardinals.

By others he declared, that he would not remove his court from Rome, without the confent, in writing, of the greater number of cardinals; that he would immediately call a general council; that he would not create any cardinal under thirty years of age; and their creation fhould always be public; nor would he create more than one of his own family that their number fhould never exceed twenty-four, and that no nomination fhould take place until they were reduced to that number.

There were articles, by which he was forbid to alienate the patrimony of the church, to conclude treaties, or to declare war, without the exprefs confent of two-thirds of the cardinals; not to intruft the government of the caftle of Saint Angelo, or of any other strong place, or the

poft of captain-general of the church,> &c. to any of his relations. All this was to be ratified before the election was declared, and the form of the ratification was prescribed; thefe ar ticles, like the former, were figned by the cardinals.

A difficulty arofe on the fubject of one of the cardinals (Afcagno Sforza, made cardinal by Sixtus IV. the 17th March 1484, a little before his death,) he had arrived at Rome after the pope's death, who confequently could not possibly open his mouth; but it was answered, that neither had he fhut it; and agreeable to former examples, they deter. mined that he had a right to vote, which he would have been deprived of, had the pope fhut his mouth, and died before he had opened it.

To be elected pope, two-thirds of the fuffrages must be obtained; the electors were twenty-five: he who had moft votes on the firft fcrutiny, had only ten; but the 29th of Auguft, the fourth day of the fcrutiny, John Baptifte Cibo, cardinal of Malfi, had a fufficient number of fuffrages, and was elected pope. Bur card does not tell us how the cardinals fettled it among themselves; he only relates that they had fome conferences in the evening, when they were affured of feventeen votes for the cardinal de Malfi; the latter was feen on the following night on his knees before a table, where be figned many inftruments which fome cardinals waited for, standing about him; and the cardinal of Sienna, who was of the number, faid then, How wrong this is, the pope figns on his knees, and we who petition are standing.' Burcard reports the Italian words which the cardinal made ufe of.

This nomination therefore was forefeen fo certainly, that in the morning the conclavifts had all ftripped their apartments, except Cardinal Malfi, whofe furniture, accord

ing to the agreement, belonged to them. As foon as the pope was acknowledged, they put on his finger the ring of Sixtus IV. placed him on a feat, brought him near a table, and produced to him the articles agreed on; he had before figned them as cardinal, and now ratified them as fovereign pontiff, in the prescribed form; the breach of them was to be deemed perjury, and subject to an anathema, with a claufe, that he fhould not have power either to abfolve himself, or caufe himself to be abfolved.. Immediately the cardinal of Sienna, having opened a window, announced the election to the people, who were affembled in the court of the palace.

Mean time the cardinals haftened to prefent different petitions to him; he figned them all as well as thofe

This had been practifed, not only at Rome, but even at Bafle, at the installation of Felix V. When it was done at Rome, it was in a public place, through which the new pope paffed, in going to St John of Lateran to be crowned; but the Jews had often been infulted there. Innocent permitted them this time to present the book at the caftle of St Angelo, from the battlement of the lower wall, which they did. I Thall tranflate the very fingular form of this prefentation, and the pope's anfwer.

We, the Hebrews, in the name of our fynagogue, befeech your holiness to deign to confirm and approve the law of Mofes, our fhepherd, which was given unto him, for us, upon mount Sinai, in the fame manner as the predecef

them; he not only confirmed to them the furrender of all the moveables in the conclave which belonged to him, but conferred many other fa

vours.

The cardinal de Malfi took the name of Innocent VIII. From his election to his coronation, every day was marked by fome conceffions made to the cardinals, agreeable to the convention he had figned. Burcard however adds, that he did not acquit himself of all he had agreed

to.

I pafs over the ceremonies of the coronation; of which Burcard, who had the direction, does not omit any particular. I fhall only cite two circumftances, which appear to me worthy to be remarked; the one refpects the Jews, and the other the pretended probationary chair; the origin of which is attributed to the adventure of pope Joan.

The Jews were accufomed, at the coronation of every pope, to meet him on his paffage, and prefent him with the book of their law, requesting the confirmation of it.

and confirmed it.'

The pope answered, 'We refpect your law, but we condemn the manner in which you observe and interpret it; for the church teaches and tells us, that he who you fay is yet to come, is Jefus Chrift, our Lord.'

It is thought that the ufe of the pretended probationary chair, ended at the installation of Innocent VIII. They cite, on this fubject, an epigram of the poet Marullus; where, it is faid, they had no occafion to enquire after the fex of this pope, which was evident by the number of his children. Yet Burcard fays, that one of the ceremonies of his coronation was his fitting in fede marmorea nuncupatur ftercorarias, which appears to me the fame as the probationary chair. It was a feat of marble, on which the prior and the canons of the Lateran made the new pope fit down; the cardinals afterwards raised him up, finging the verfe, fufcitat de pulvere egenum et de ftercore erigit pauperum: this is clear. ly what has given this chair the name

of

of ftercorary. Now this name conveying an idea very different from that of a feat of honour, they have fought to find a reafon why they ufed fuch a ceremony: and the enemies of the court of Rome, taking occafion, from the fimilitude of ideas, which gave birth to this equivoque, have fuppofed, that this chair had been invented to avoid a fimilar error into which they had fallen, in electing a woman pope: thus the ftercorary became a probationary chair.

They say that the epigram of Marullus turns on their omitting to place pope Innocent VIII. on this chair he fpeaks of, and that confequently, what he relates, cannot apply to the fercorary chair; but, according to Burcard, when the pope was arrived before the palace of Lateran, the crowd and tumult became fo great, that he was in fome danger, and they could not, in the ufual place, put in practice the ceremony alluded to. There was nothing more wanted to give birth to this epigram. There is every reason to believe, that the ftercorary chair was only an emblem, like the flax they burnt before the pope, finging fie tranfit gloria mundi. By this double allegory, they reminded him of the inftability of human greatness, and of the rank to which he had just been raised.

The pope had thrown, or caufed to be thrown, much filver among the populace, during the ceremony; par

the coronation of Alphonfo II. During his stay at Naples, he visited the environs; and we find in his Journal an account of this journey, of which there is not one word in the printed copy. This piece is interefting, because it enables us to draw a comparison between the state of thofe places he defcribes, as they were three hundred years ago, with the fituation in which they are now; a comparison the more acceptable, as the foil of the country spoken of has fince undergone ftrange revolutions. I think it will not be useless to tranflate the whole of this account, which is a real anecdote.

Tuesday, the 13th of May 1494. I departed from Naples, in the morning, on horse-back, to view the antiquities. The perfon whom the king had charged with the expenditure of my household, went with me; he took with him a mule loaded with wine, bread, meats, fweatmeats, torches, and all that 'might most commodiously fubfift us, or ferve to the fuccefs of our voyage: fix friends of mine joined company, to satisfy their curiofity. We arrived firft at Aqua-viva four miles diftant from Naples; there feveral fubterraneous vaults had 'been constructed, so heated by the • warmth of the earth, that a man who spends but half an hour there returns in a general perspiration, which has caufed them to be call

fed by the crowd. When he arrived at the church of Saint Peter, where he was to make his offering, he per

ous disorders; and there is a place, where the person that enters is inftantly fuffocated, unless he be

is found near it, and which restores 'him to life.

Burcard made a journey to Naples, in 1494, to affift as mafter of the ceremonies of the court of Rome, at

At a mile from thence is Lumera, a place where alum is fabricated. They calcine the ftones, which they take from a neighbouring mountain; they then range them in order, and throw water fe