the present pope, who has assumed the name of pius the sixth, is a tall, well-made man, about sixty years of age, but retaining in his look all the freshness of a much earlier period of life. he lays a greater stress on the ceremonious part of religion than his predecessor ganganelli, in whose reign a great relaxation of church-discipline is thought to have taken place. the late pope was a man of moderation, good sense, and simplicity of manners; and could not go through all the ostentatious parade which his station required, without reluctance, and marks of disgust. he knew that the opinions of mankind had undergone a very great[22] change since those ceremonies were established; and that some of the most respectable of the spectators considered as perfectly frivolous many things which formerly had been held as sacred. a man of good sense may seem to lay the greatest weight on ceremonies which he himself considers as ridiculous, provided he thinks the people, in whose sight he goes through them, are impressed with a conviction of their importance; but if he knows that some of the beholders are entirely of a different way of thinking, he will be strongly tempted to evince, by some means or other, that he despises the fooleries he performs, as much as any of them. this, in all probability, was the case with ganganelli; who, besides, was an enemy to fraud and hypocrisy of every kind. but, however remiss he may have been with regard to the etiquette of his spiritual functions, every body acknowledges his diligence and activity in promoting the temporal good of his[23] subjects. he did all in his power to revive trade, and to encourage manufactures and industry of every kind. he built no churches, but he repaired the roads all over the ecclesiastical state; he restrained the malevolence of bigots, removed absurd prejudices, and promoted sentiments of charity and good-will to mankind in general, without excepting even heretics. his enemies, the jesuits, with an intention to make him odious in the eyes of his own subjects, gave him the name of the protestant pope. if they supposed that this calumny would be credited, on account of the conduct above mentioned, they at once paid the highest compliment to the pope and the protestant religion. the careless manner in which ganganelli performed certain functions, and the general tenour of his life and sentiments, were lamented by politicians, as well as by bigots. however frivolous the former might think many ceremonies in themselves, they still considered[24] them as of political importance, in such a government as that of rome; and the conclave held on the death of the late pope, are thought to have been in some degree influenced by such considerations in chusing his successor. the present pope, before he was raised to that dignity, was considered as a firm believer in all the tenets of the roman church, and a strict and scrupulous observer of all its injunctions and ceremonials. as his pretensions, in point of family, fortune, and connexions, were smaller than those of most of his brother cardinals, it is the more probable that he owed his elevation to this part of his character, which rendered him a proper person to check the progress of abuses that had been entirely neglected by the late pope; under whose administration free-thinking was said to have been countenanced, protestantism in general regarded with diminished abhorrence, and the calvinists in particular treated with a degree[25] of indulgence, to which their inveterate enmity to the church of rome gave them no title. several instances of this are enumerated, and one in particular, which, i dare say, you will think a stronger proof of the late pope’s good sense and good humour, than of that negligence to which his enemies imputed it.
a scotch presbyterian having heated his brain, by reading the book of martyrs, the cruelties of the spanish inquisition, and the histories of all the persecutions that ever were raised by the roman catholics against the protestants, was seized with a dread, that the same horrors were just about to be renewed. this terrible idea disturbed his imagination day and night; he thought of nothing but racks and scaffolds; and, on one occasion, he dreamt that there was a continued train of bonfires, with a tar-barrel and a protestant in each, all the way from smithfield to st. andrews.
[26]
he communicated the anxiety and distress of his mind to a worthy sensible clergyman who lived in the neighbourhood. this gentleman took great pains to quiet his fears, proving to him, by strong and obvious arguments, that there was little or no danger of such an event as he dreaded. these reasonings had a powerful effect while they were delivering, but the impression did not last, and was always effaced by a few pages of the book of martyrs. as soon as the clergyman remarked this, he advised the relations to remove that, and every book which treated of persecution or martyrdom, entirely out of the poor man’s reach. this was done accordingly, and books of a less gloomy complexion were substituted in their place; but as all of them formed a strong contrast with the colour of his mind, he could not bear their perusal, but betook himself to the study of the bible, which was the only book of his ancient library which had[27] been left; and so strong a hold had his former studies taken of his imagination, that he could relish no part of the bible, except the revelation of st. john, a great part of which, he thought, referred to the whore of babylon, or in other words, the pope of rome. this part of the scripture he perused continually with unabating ardor and delight. his friend the clergyman, having observed this, took occasion to say, that every part of the holy bible was, without doubt, most sublime, and wonderfully instructive; yet he was surprised to see that he limited his studies entirely to the last book, and neglected all the rest. to which the other replied, that he who was a divine, and a man of learning, might, with propriety, read all the sacred volume from beginning to end; but, for his own part, he thought proper to confine himself to what he could understand; and therefore, though he had a due respect for all the scripture, he acknowledged[28] he gave a preference to the revelation of st. john. this answer entirely satisfied the clergyman; he did not think it expedient to question him any farther; he took his leave, after having requested the people of the family with whom this person lived, to have a watchful eye on their relation. in the mean time, this poor man’s terrors, with regard to the revival of popery and persecution, daily augmented; and nature, in all probability, would have sunk under the weight of such accumulated anxiety, had not a thought occurred which relieved his mind in an instant, by suggesting an infallible method of preventing all the evils which his imagination had been brooding over for so long a time. the happy idea which afforded him so much comfort, was no other, than that he should immediately go to rome, and convert the pope from the roman catholic to the presbyterian religion. the moment he hit on this[29] fortunate expedient, he felt at once the strongest impulse to undertake the task, and the fullest conviction that his undertaking would be crowned with success; it is no wonder, therefore, that his countenance threw off its former gloom, and that all his features brightened with the heart-felt thrillings of happiness and self-applause. while his relations congratulated each other on this agreeable change, the exulting visionary, without communicating his design to any mortal, set out for london, took his passage to leghorn, and, in a short time after, arrived in perfect health of body, and in exalted spirits, at rome.
he directly applied to an ecclesiastic of his own country, of whose obliging temper he had previously heard, and whom he considered as a proper person to procure him an interview necessary for the accomplishment of his project. he informed[30] that gentleman, that he earnestly wished to have a conference with the pope, on a business of infinite importance, and which admitted of no delay. it was not difficult to perceive the state of this poor man’s mind; the good-natured ecclesiastic endeavoured to sooth and amuse him, putting off the conference till a distant day; in hopes that means might be fallen on, during the interval, to prevail on him to return to his own country. a few days after this, however, he happened to go to st. peter’s church, at the very time when his holiness was performing some religious ceremony. at this sight our impatient missionary felt all his passions inflamed with irresistible ardour; he could no longer wait for the expected conference, but bursting out with zealous indignation, he exclaimed, “o thou beast of nature, with seven heads and ten horns! thou mother of harlots, arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious[31] stones and pearls! throw away the golden cup of abominations, and the filthiness of thy fornication!”
you may easily imagine the astonishment and hubbub that such an apostrophe, from such a person, in such a place, would occasion; he was immediately carried to prison by the swiss halberdiers.
when it was known that he was a british subject, some who understood english were ordered to attend his examination. the first question asked of him was, “what had brought him to rome?” he answered, “to anoint the eyes of the scarlet whore with eye-salve, that she might see her wickedness.” they asked, “who he meant by the scarlet whore?” he answered, “who else could he mean, but her who sitteth upon seven mountains, who hath seduced the kings of the earth to commit fornication, and who hath gotten[32] drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs?” many other questions were asked, and such provoking answers returned, that some suspected the man affected madness, that he might give vent to his rancour and petulance with impunity; and they were for condemning him to the gallies, that he might be taught more sense, and better manners. but when they communicated their sentiments to clement the fourteenth, he said, with great good humour, “that he never had heard of any body whose understanding, or politeness, had been much improved at that school; that although the poor man’s first address had been a little rough and abrupt, yet he could not help considering himself as obliged to him for his good intentions, and for his undertaking such a long journey with a view to do good.” he afterwards gave orders to treat the man with gentleness while he remained in confinement, and[33] to put him on board the first ship bound from civita vecchia to england, defraying the expence of his passage. however humane and reasonable this conduct may be thought by many, there were people who condemned it as an injudicious piece of lenity, which might have a tendency to sink the dignity of the sacred office, and expose it to future insults. if such behaviour as this did not pass without blame, it may be easily supposed, that few of the late pope’s actions escaped uncensured; and many who loved the easy amiable dispositions of the man, were of opinion, that the spirit of the times required a different character on the papal throne. this idea prevailed among the cardinals at the late election, and the conclave is supposed to have fixed on cardinal braschi to be pope, from the same motive that the roman senate sometimes chose a dictator to restore and enforce the ancient discipline.
