him went some two hundred horses belonging to personages of the court,
of one robe or the other. Close beside him was the Cardinal dei Medici,
who conversed with him covered, and took him to his house to dinner.
The Pope wore a red hat, a white garment, and a red velvet cowl,
as is the habit. He was mounted on a white hackney, harnessed with
red velvet, and with fringe and lace of gold. Though he was nearly
eighty-one, he mounted without any aid, and every fifteen paces or
so he gave his benediction. After him came three cardinals, and then
some hundred men-at-arms, each with lance on thigh, and fully armoured
save the head. They had in readiness also another hackney with like
equipment, a mule, a handsome white courser, and a litter. Also two
robe-bearers with valises at their saddle-bows.
On January 11th, in the morning, as M. de Montaigne was leaving the
house on horseback to go to the bank, he met Catena,[84] a famous
robber and banditti chief, whom they were taking away from the prison.
This man had raised a panic all through Italy, monstrous tales of
murder being told about him; notably concerning two Capuchins, whom
he forced to deny God, and promised to spare their lives on this
condition. But he slew them afterwards without any motive either of
gain or of vengeance. M. de Montaigne halted to behold the spectacle.
Over and beyond the escort customary in France, they let precede the
criminal a huge crucifix draped with black, at the foot of which went
a great crowd of men wearing cloaks and masks of cloth, and these were
said to be of the chief gentlefolk of Rome, a confraternity sworn to
accompany criminals to execution and corpses to the grave. Two of
these--or two monks in similar garb--helped the condemned man into the
cart and preached to him, one of them letting him kiss continually a
picture of our Lord. This they did so that those in the street might
not see the man’s face. At the gibbet, which was a beam upon two posts,
they held this picture before his face till he was thrown off the
ladder. He died as criminals commonly do, without movement or cry; a
dark man of thirty or thereabout, and after he was strangled they cut
his body in four quarters. It is the custom amongst these people to
kill criminals without torture, and after death to subject the body
to very barbarous usage. M. de Montaigne remarked that he had written
elsewhere how deeply people are moved by the cruelties practised upon
dead bodies,[85] and on this occasion the crowd, who had not felt any
pity at the hanging, cried out in lamentation at every stroke of the
axe. As soon as he was dead divers Jesuits or other churchmen went up
to a high place and cried to the people on all sides that they should
take to heart this example.
We remarked in Italy, and especially in Rome, that very few of the
churches have clocks, there being fewer in Rome than in the meanest
French village. Also very few images are to be seen, save those made
recently, several ancient churches being quite bare thereof. On January
14th M. de Montaigne saw the execution of two brothers, formerly
servants of the Castellan’s secretary, who some days ago slew their
master by night in the palace of Signor Jacomo Buoncompagno, the
Pope’s son. Their flesh was torn with pincers and their hands cut
off, in front of the aforesaid palace, and after this mutilation they
put over the wounds the bodies of capons which they had killed and
cut open just before.[86] This execution took place on a scaffold,
where the criminals were first knocked down with heavy wooden clubs,
and then their throats were cut; it is, so the report goes, a form of
punishment used in Rome from time to time, but some held that it had
been specially appointed for this misdeed, for that the criminals had
killed their master in like manner.
As to the bigness of Rome, M. de Montaigne declared that the space
which the walls enclose, more than a third thereof being void, and the
site of old and new Rome as well, would equal an enclosure made round
Paris to take in all the faubourgs. But, reckoning the bulk of the two
cities by the number and closeness of the houses and inhabitants, he
deemed that Rome would fall short of Paris by one-third. In number and
grandeur of public places, and in beauty of streets and palaces, Rome
seemed far superior.
He found the cold of winter little less bitter than that of Gascony.
About Christmas there were sharp frosts and the wind was intolerably
cold; and after that it frequently thundered, hailed, and lightened.
In the palaces the suites of apartments are large, one room after the
other, and you may have to pass through three or four rooms before
you come to the chief saloon. In certain houses where M. de Montaigne
dined in ceremony the buffet was not set in the dining-room, but in one
adjoining, whither the servants would go to fetch drink for whomsoever
might call for it; there too was displayed the silver plate.
[Illustration: CLOACA MAXIMA
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 94_, vol. ii.
]
On Thursday, January 26th, M. de Montaigne went to see the Janiculum
Hill beyond the Tiber and the curiosities of that part; amongst
others a great fall of masonry from the old walls which had happened
a few days before, and the view of the whole of Rome, which can be
surveyed more clearly from this spot than from any other. Thence he
went down to the Vatican to inspect the statues set in the niches of
the Belvedere, and the fine gallery,[87] now almost completed, which
the Pope is adorning with paintings of all parts of Italy. He lost his
purse and all therein, and deemed this must have happened while he was
giving alms--as he did twice or thrice; the weather was very rainy
and unpleasant, and, instead of returning his purse to his pocket, he
must have thrust it into the slashing of his hose. At this time he
diverted himself entirely in studying Rome. He had at first engaged a
Frenchman as guide, but this fellow took himself off in some ridiculous
humour, whereupon M. de Montaigne prided himself on mastering by his
own efforts the art of a guide. In the evening he would study certain
books and maps, and next day repair to the spot and put in practice his
apprenticeship, so that in a few days he could have shown his guide the
way.
M. de Montaigne affirmed that he could now see nothing more of Rome
than the sky under which it lay and the area of its site; that all the
knowledge he possessed thereof was of an abstract and contemplative
nature, a knowledge in no way to be apprehended by the operation of
the senses; that those who affirmed that they might at least behold
the ruins of Rome, affirmed too much. The ruins of a mechanism of
such terrible power suggested to his own mind reverence and respect
rather than comprehension. What he saw was nought but a sepulchre. The
world, resentful at her long domination, first broke and shattered all
the portions of this marvellous whole, and then, horror-stricken at
this spectacle of death, ruin, and disfigurement, entombed the ruins
themselves. As to these minor indications of her overthrow which yet
lie upon her bier, they have been preserved by fate as a testimony
to that immeasurable greatness which all these centuries, all these
conflagrations, all these repeated alliances of the powers of the
world, have failed to destroy entirely. But it was almost certain that
these defaced fragments which survived were those of the least merit,
for the rage of the enemies of this immortal renown would surely have
prompted them to destroy in the first instance all that was most lovely
and most noble. He declared that the buildings of this bastard Rome,
which were now being joined on to the ancient masonry (what though
they sufficed to kindle the admiration of the present age), reminded
him exactly of the nests the martins and crows were building in the
roofs and on the walls of the French churches which the Huguenots had
destroyed.[88]
[Illustration: THE VILLA OF MECÆNAS
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 98_, vol. ii.
]
Again M. de Montaigne was persuaded, considering the space occupied
by this vast tomb, that the present age failed to realise its full
extent, and that the greater part of the sepulchre itself must be
buried. As to this, one has only to consider the base off-cast of a
great city; how out of the fragments of broken tiles and pots from
ancient days, a mound has been heaped together of so vast a size that
it equals in height and breadth several natural mountains (he compared
this mound as to height with the hill of Gurson, and judged it to be
double the width).[89] It seemed to represent an express decree of
the Fates to make plain to the world how they had conspired to render
this city glorious and paramount; to bear witness to its grandeur
by so strange and extraordinary a token. He declared it was hard to
understand--considering how narrow was the space occupied by some
of the hills, and notably by the most famous, the Capitol and the
Palatine--how such a large number of buildings could be there bestowed.
Looking only at the remains of the Temple of Peace by the side of the
_Forum Romanum_ (of which one may still behold the recent ruin, like
that of a vast mountain broken up into divers ugly crags), it was
apparent that two such edifices could hardly have found room on the
entire summit of the Capitol, where there were twenty-five or thirty
temples, besides several private houses. But in sooth the various
conjectures which have been adopted for the delineation of this ancient
city possess scarcely any verisimilitude, seeing that the very site
thereof has changed its contour beyond measure, and that certain of
its valleys have been filled up. To wit, in the lowest-lying spots,
as, for instance, in the Velabrum, which, on account of its situation,
received the sewage of the city, and had a lake in its midst, there
is now to be found a hill as high as the other natural hills adjacent
thereto.[90] All this has come about by the accumulation of the ruins
and fragments of the huge buildings, the Monte Savello being nought
else than a portion of the theatre of Marcellus. M. de Montaigne did
not deem that an ancient Roman would recognise the site of his city
were he to behold it.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF JANUS
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 98_, vol. ii.
]
It would often happen to one digging deep in the earth to come upon the
capital of a lofty column which still stood on its base far below; and
builders were wont to seek for their erections no other foundations
than some mass of ancient masonry, or on arches such as are commonly
seen in cellars, or on some old wall or substructure existing on the
site. And upon the very wrecks of the ancient buildings, as they fall
to ruin, the builders set out casually the foundations of new houses,
as if these fragments were great masses of rock, firm and trustworthy.
It is evident that many of the old streets lie more than thirty feet
below the level of those now in existence.
On January 28th M. de Montaigne had colic, which, however, did not
interfere with his customary movements, and passed one rather large
stone and some small ones. On the 30th he witnessed the most ancient
religious ceremony that still subsists amongst men--to wit, the
circumcision of the Jews--and gave most attentive and profitable
attention thereto. He had already visited their synagogue one Saturday
morning, and heard their prayers, when they sang in irregular wise
certain portions of the Hebrew Bible suited to the occasion, after the
manner of the Calvinist churches. They are cadences of similar sound,
but the discord is excessive by reason of the mixing together of
voices of all ages, for even the youngest children are of the party,
and all understand Hebrew but indifferently. They are no more attentive
to their prayers than we are, for they talk of other things during
their service, and exhibit little reverence for their mysteries. At
the entrance they wash their hands, and inside they count it a curse
to remove their headgear, but they do reverence, as their worship
ordains, by bowing and kneeling. On the shoulders or on the head they
wear certain pieces of linen decked with fringe; but to describe
these details would take too much time. After dinner their doctors
give instruction by turns upon the passage of the Bible for the day,
speaking in Italian, and next an assistant doctor selects one of the
hearers, or sometimes two or three in succession, to hold argument
with the one who has been teaching upon the subject of his discourse.
It seemed to M. de Montaigne that the man we heard displayed great
eloquence and mental power in arguing his case.
But as to the circumcision itself, this ceremony takes place in the
private house, the lightest and most convenient chamber thereof being
chosen for the purpose. In this particular case, because the dwelling
itself was ill suited therefor, the ceremony took place in the lobby
by the door. As with us a godfather and a godmother are provided for
the child, whom the father names, and the circumcision is performed the
eighth day after birth. The godfather seats himself on a table with
a pillow on his lap, and the godmother brings to him the child and
then withdraws, the child being swaddled after our own fashion. The
godfather then loosens the bandages below, and the assistants and the
one whose duty it is to perform the operation all begin a chant and
continue to sing during the operation, which takes about a quarter of
an hour. He who officiates need not be a rabbi, and any one of them,
whoever he may be, will be anxious to discharge this duty, because they
hold that frequent bidding to such a function is a great blessing:
nay, they will pay to be called in, offering here a vestment and there
something else useful to the child. Moreover, they believe that any
one who may circumcise a particular number of children will enjoy a
certain privilege after death, to wit, that the parts about the mouth
will never be eaten by worms. On the table where the godfather sits
they forthwith lay out plentiful provision of all instruments necessary
for this operation, and in addition to these an assistant holds in his
hands a phial of wine and a glass. There is also an earthen brazier,
at which the operator first warms his hands; and then the child, with
the swaddling bands unloosed, is presented to him by the godfather,
who holds it in his lap with the head towards himself. The operator
then takes hold of the part and pulls forward the skin thereof with
one hand and with the other thrusts back the fleshy substance and
fixes a silver instrument on the skin. This instrument, kept close to
the flesh within, holds the foreskin in proper position and prevents
any injury to the other parts from the act of cutting. This done, he
cuts off the skin and buries it at once in some earth, which along
with other apparatus of the mystery is beside him, ready prepared in
a basin, and then with his bare nails proceeds to remove any other
particle of skin which may be left on the flesh. This operation is one
requiring considerable skill and is somewhat painful, but it is quite
free from danger and the wound is almost always healed after four or
five days. The children cry as ours cry when they are baptized. As
soon as the operation is done, the bystanders hand forthwith to the
operator some wine, who, after having taken some of it into his mouth,
sucks the bleeding flesh and then empties his mouth, repeating this act
thrice. Then they give him in a wrap of paper red powder, which they
call dragon’s blood, and with this he dresses and covers the wound,
and then binds up the same neatly with linen cut for the purpose. He
is offered a glass full of wine which, according to report, he blesses
by the words he speaks over it, and then drinks a mouthful. He next
dips his finger in it and thrice lets the child suck some drops of
wine therefrom. This glass they send as it is to the mother and the
women of the family who are in some other part of the house, that
they may finish the wine that remains. Then another, a third person,
takes a silver instrument, made round like a tennis ball, with a long
handle thereto, and pierced with little holes like our perfume boxes,
and holds it first to the nose of the operator, next to the child,
and last to the godfather. They believe that the odours therein help
to strengthen and purify the soul for devotion. The operator meantime
bears the stains of blood on his mouth.
On the 8th and on to the 12th M. de Montaigne had symptoms of colic
and passed some stones, but without any great pain. This year, by
the Pope’s permission, greater liberty was given for the Carnival
festivities than for many years past, but even now we found them of
little account. Along the Corso, a long street of the city which gets
its name on this account, they start a race, now of children, now of
Jews,[91] and now of old men naked, who ran from one end of the street
to the other; but the onlooker sees nothing of the sport, save when
they run past where he may be posted. There are also races of horses,
ridden by young boys, who urge them on with whips, and of asses and
buffaloes driven along by the goads of horsemen in the rear. In all the
races a prize is offered, called _el palo_ which is given in the form
of pieces of velvet or cloth. In a certain part of the street where the
ladies can best see them certain nobles run the quintain, mounted on
fine horses, and make a graceful show, for the nobility of this country
commonly show greater knowledge of horsemanship than of aught else.
The scaffold which M. de Montaigne caused to be erected cost three
crowns, and was placed in an excellent situation in the street.
At this season all the fair gentlewomen of Rome let themselves be seen
freely, for in Italy they do not go masked as in France, but with all
the face uncovered. As to anything like rare and perfect beauty, M.
de Montaigne declared it was no more to be found here than in France;
and that, except in three or four cases, he found none that was
remarkable. But taken as a whole the women’s faces are more agreeable,
and fewer ugly ones are to be seen than in France. The head is far
more becomingly dressed than with us, and the parts below the girdle
also, but the French ladies have more care to the figure, for here the
girdle is worn too loose, somewhat as our ladies who are with child
wear it. Their countenances are stately, gentle, and sweet. In raiment
they are incomparably more sumptuous than our ladies, everything being
covered with pearls and jewels. Whenever they go abroad, whether in a
coach or to a festivity or to the theatre, they keep apart from men:
nevertheless in certain dances they mix freely enough, and find full
opportunity of conversing and touching hands. The men on all occasions
go clad very simply in black or Florentine serge, and are somewhat
darker in skin than we are. I cannot say why they do not use their
titles of duke, count, and marquis, when they have full right thereto,
seeing that their appearance is somewhat ordinary. Otherwise they are
most courteous, and as gracious as they can be, in spite of what is
asserted by the baser sort of Frenchmen, who never find any gentility
in those who resent their turbulence and insolent carriage. In every
way we do our utmost to win a bad name, nevertheless the Italians nurse
their ancient affection and reverence for France, which secures respect
and welcome for all who deserve the same ever so little, and bear
themselves without offence.
On the following Thursday he went to a feast given by the Castellan
for which vast preparation had been made, notably an amphitheatre very
artistically and sumptuously disposed for the sport of tilting, the
courses being run in the evening before supper. The amphitheatre was
erected in a square barn, a section, oval in form, having been set
out in the centre for the purpose. Amongst other curious devices the
floor was painted with the utmost despatch with certain designs in
red. This floor had previously been covered with plaster, then they
laid thereupon a piece of parchment or leather with designs according
to their taste cut out of the same, and lastly they painted this with
a brush dipped in red paint so as to leave on the plaster under the
openings the design they wished for. So rapid was their work that
they might easily have decorated the nave of a church in two hours.
At supper the ladies were served by their husbands, who stood by them
and gave them to drink and whatever they might ask for. On the table
were many roast fowls, their plumage having been restored to them to
give them the look of living birds, capons cooked whole in vessels of
glass, good store of hares, rabbits, and birds in pies with feathers as
if alive, and the tables admirably laid with linen. The ladies’ table,
which was laid for four courses, could be removed in portions, and
below the first service was a second one of sweetmeats ready prepared.
They use no masks for visiting one another, but they wear them, of
a very cheap sort, when they walk about the town in public or go to
meetings for running at the ring. On Carnival Monday two rich and
well-appointed companies of gentlemen met for the sport aforesaid with
a wealth of superb horses such as we cannot equal.
* * * * *
Having given leave of absence to the one of my followers who has up
to this time written this journal in admirable fashion, I feel that,
albeit it may irk me somewhat, I must needs continue the work with my
own hand, seeing that it is so far advanced.
On February 16th, as I was returning from service, I saw in a small
chapel a priest, fully robed, engaged in healing a man possessed, who
was melancholic and apparently in a trance. They kept him kneeling
before the altar, his neck being bound with some sort of cloth by which
they held him fast. The priest recited in his presence many prayers and
exorcisms out of his breviary, charging the devil to quit the body of
this man;[92] then he addressed his discourse to the patient, speaking
sometimes to the man himself and sometimes to the devil in his body,
railing at him, dealing the poor wretch heavy blows with his fist,
and spitting in his face. To these commands the patient made divers
meaningless replies: now for himself, telling how he was affected by
the operation of his malady; now for the devil, acknowledging his
fear of God and the powerful working of these exorcisms against him.
After this performance, which lasted some time, the priest, by way
of preparation for the final attack, withdrew to the altar and took
in his left hand the pyx which held the _Corpus Domini_, and in his
right a lighted candle, which he held upside down so that it might
melt and consume away, saying certain prayers the while, and ending
with threatenings and denunciations against the devil, uttered in the
loudest and most authoritative voice he could put forth. As soon as
the first candle had burnt itself out close to his fingers, he took
a second and then a third. He next put back the transparent vessel
containing the _Corpus Domini_, and returned to the patient, speaking
to him as to an ordinary man and releasing him from his bonds. He then
delivered the patient over to his friends, and directed them to take
him home.