very obstinate, and that his expulsion would prove a difficult task;
moreover, he recounted to ten or twelve gentlemen who were present
divers histories concerning this science of exorcism and his common
experience thereof, notably how the day before he had cast out of a
certain woman a great devil, who in leaving her had caused her to vomit
from her mouth nails and pins and a bit of his hairy skin. And when
her friends told him that she was not yet quite herself, he replied
that this was because of another sort of spirit, easier to deal with
and less malicious, who had taken possession of her this same morning.
This kind (for he knew the names and the divisions and the minutest
differences) was very easy to exorcise. But I saw no further proof of
his skill. The man who had been under treatment gave no other facial
sign than grinding his teeth and twisting his mouth when the _Corpus
Domini_ was put before him; he muttered, indeed, several times the
words _Si fata volent_, for he was a notary and knew a word or two of
Latin.
On the first day of March I went to the service at the Sistine Chapel.
At the high altar the priest who said mass stood beyond the altar with
his face turned towards the people, no one being behind him. On this
occasion the Pope was present, for he had some days before excluded
therefrom the nuns who had hitherto been wont to be present, so as
to make more room. In their place he installed, by a most excellent
regulation, the poor folk who beg about the city. Each one of the
cardinals gave twenty crowns in aid of the movement, and very liberal
alms were given by other private persons. To their hospital the Pope
has given five hundred crowns a month.
In Rome there is a vast amount of private devotion, and many
confraternities in which are manifest striking testimonies of piety,
but it seems to me that in general there is less devotion than in the
better ordered towns of France. They set more store here on ceremonies,
in which they go to great lengths. Here I may write what I will with
a free conscience, so I will give two illustrations of my meaning. A
certain man was with a courtesan, lying in bed and enjoying the full
liberty of the situation, when, at the twenty-fourth hour, the _Ave
Maria_ sounded, and the girl sprang out of bed and knelt down on the
floor to say her prayer. Shortly afterwards he was with another, when
suddenly the good mother (for these girls are always in the hands of
some old bawd whom they call mother or aunt) knocked at the door and,
having entered in a transport of rage, tore off from the girl’s neck a
ribbon from which was hanging a little image of Our Lady, so that it
might not be contaminated by the sinful act of the wearer. The young
girl showed herself exceedingly penitent, in that she had omitted her
customary practice of first removing this image from her person.
The ambassador of the Muscovite[93] was present at this service,
clad in a scarlet mantle, a long coat of cloth of gold, and a hat of
cloth of gold made in the shape of a nightcap and trimmed with fur,
under which was a smaller cap of cloth of silver. This is the second
ambassador of Muscovy who has been sent to the papal court, the other
having come here in the time of Paul III. Report said that this man’s
mission was to stir up the Pope to interfere in the war which the
King of Poland was waging against his master. His plea was that the
Muscovite ruler must needs sustain the first onslaught of the Turk, and
that, should he be weakened by fighting Poland, he would be unable to
undertake war elsewhere, thus leaving open a wide breach through which
the Turk might enter and attack us all. The Muscovite also offered to
make certain concessions in the religious controversies at present
pending between himself and the Roman Church. The ambassador had
lodging with the Castellan, as had the other in Pope Paul’s time, and
was maintained at the Pope’s charges. He resisted stiffly to conform to
the usage of kissing the Pope’s foot, consenting only to kiss his right
hand, and remained obstinate until it was pointed out to him that even
the Emperor was not exempt from this ceremonial duty, the instances of
kings being insufficient to convince him. He could speak no language
other than his own, and had come unaccompanied by an interpreter, and
with only three or four men in his train. It is said he was in great
peril as he journeyed in disguise through Poland. In his country there
is such great ignorance of external affairs, that he took to Venice
letters from his master addressed to the High Governor of the Signiory
of Venice; and, being asked what might be the meaning of this style,
replied that in Muscovy they believed that Venice was under the command
of the Pope, who sent thither governors, as he did to Bologna and other
cities. God knows in what mood the Magnificoes must have listened
to such ignorant discourse. Both to them and to the Pope he brought
presents of sables, and of furs still more rich and rare, to wit, skins
of the black fox.
On the 6th of March I went to see the library of the Vatican, which
is contained in five or six rooms all communicating one with the
other. There are many rows of desks, each desk having a great number
of books chained thereto. Also, in the chests, which were all opened
for my inspection, I saw many manuscripts, of which I chiefly remarked
a Seneca and the _Opuscula_ of Plutarch. Amongst the noteworthy
sights I saw was the statue of the good Aristides,[94] with a fine
head, bald and thickly bearded, a grand forehead, and an expression
full of sweetness and majesty. The base is very ancient, and has his
name written thereupon. I saw likewise a Chinese book writ in strange
characters, on leaves made of a certain stuff much more tender and
transparent than the paper we use, and because this fabric is not thick
enough to bear the stain of ink, they write on only one side of the
sheet, and the sheets are all doubled and folded at the outside edges
by which they are held together. It is said that these sheets are the
bark of a certain tree, as is a fragment of ancient papyrus which I
saw covered with unknown characters. I saw also the Breviary of Saint
Gregory in manuscript, which has no date, but the account they give of
it states that it has come down from one hand to another from Saint
Gregory’s time. It is a missal not unlike our own, and it was taken to
the recent Council at Trent as an authority for the ceremonies of our
Church. Next, a book by Saint Thomas Aquinas, containing corrections
made by the author himself, who wrote badly, using a small character
worse even than my own. Next, a Bible printed on parchment, one of
those which Plantin[95] has recently printed in four languages, which
book King Philip presented to the Pope, according to an inscription on
the cover. Next, the original manuscript of the book which King Henry
of England wrote against Luther and sent fifty years ago to Pope Leo
X.[96] It contains a subscription and a graceful Latin distich, both
written by his own hand:--
“Anglorum Rex Henricus, Leo decime, mittit
Hoc opus, & fidei testem & amicitæ.”
I read both the prefaces, one to the Pope and the other to the reader.
The king claims indulgence for any literary shortcomings on the score
of his military occupations, but the style is good scholastic Latin. I
inspected the library without any difficulty; indeed, any one may visit
it and make what extracts he likes; it is open almost every morning. I
was taken to every part thereof by a gentleman, who invited me to make
use of it as often as I might desire.
Our ambassador quitted Rome just at this time without having ever seen
the library, and he complained because pressure had been put upon him
to beg this favour of Cardinal Charlet,[97] and that he had never been
allowed to inspect the manuscript Seneca, which he desired greatly to
see. It was my good luck which carried me on to success, for, having
heard of the ambassador’s failure, I was in despair. Thus it seems all
things come easily to men of a certain temper, and are unattainable
by others. Right occasion and opportunity have their privileges, and
often hold out to ordinary folk what they deny to kings. Curiosity
often stands in its own way, and the like may be affirmed of greatness
and power. In the library I saw also a manuscript Virgil[98] in an
exceedingly large handwriting, of that long and narrow character which
we see in Rome in inscriptions of the age of the Emperors somewhere
about the reign of Constantine, a character which takes somewhat of
Gothic form, and misses that square proportion which the old Latin
inscriptions possess. The sight of this Virgil confirmed a belief
which I have always held, to wit, that the four lines usually put at
the opening of the Æneid are borrowed, since this copy has them not.
Also a copy of the Acts of the Apostles, written in very fair Greek
golden character. The lettering is massive, solid in substance, and
raised upon the paper, so that any one who may pass his finger over the
same will detect the thickness thereof. We have, I believe, lost all
knowledge of this method.
On March 13th an old Antiochan patriarch, an Arabian, and well versed
in five or six of the languages of those regions, and quite ignorant
of Greek or of the other tongues we use, a personage with whom I had
become very intimate, gave me a certain compound for the relief of
my gravel, and written directions for the employment of the same. He
bestowed it for me in a little earthen pot, where I might keep it
ten or even twenty years, and assured me that I might anticipate a
complete cure of my distemper by the first dose I should take. In case
I might lose the writing he gave me, I will set down his instructions
here. The drug should be taken at bedtime after a light supper; a piece
the size of two peas should be mixed in lukewarm water, after having
been crumbled in the fingers. This will make five doses, one to be
taken every alternate day.
One day I dined with our ambassador at Rome, where Muret[99] and other
learned men were of the company. I spoke concerning the translation of
Plutarch into French, and controverted those who esteem it less than
I do. I maintained at least that, in passages where the translator
may have missed the exact meaning of Plutarch, he has given instead
one verisimilar and in accurate combination with what is writ before
and after. To show me that I was hereby claiming too much for this
work, they brought forward two passages; one (the criticism of which
they assigned to a son of M. Mangot,[100] a Parisian advocate, who had
just quitted Rome) was from the life of Solon--somewhere about the
middle--in which the translator says that Solon claimed for himself
that he had given freedom to Attica, and had removed the boundary
stones which divided inherited plots of land. Here he had made a
mistake, for the Greek word in question[101] is rather used to denote
certain signposts which were wont to be set up on lands which were
pledged or under bond, so that buyers might be forewarned that these
were mortgaged. The word which the translator employed has none of the
meaning of the original, inasmuch as it would lead the reader to infer
that the lands alluded to were not separate freeholds, but were held
in common. The Latin of Estienne comes nearer to the truth.[102] The
second passage was one near the end of the treatise on the “Nurture
of Children.” This the translator gives as follows: “The observation
of these rules is rather to be desired than advised.” But his critics
now affirmed the real meaning of the Greek to be: “That thing is more
to be desired than to be hoped for.” The same proverb may be found
elsewhere under different form. In place of this clear and intelligible
meaning the translator has substituted one which is weak and foreign.
Wherefore, accepting their presupposition of the true sense of the
passage in question, I professed myself entirely of their opinion.[103]
In Rome the churches are inferior to those of the generality of the
large towns of Italy; indeed, speaking generally of Italy and Germany,
the churches will rarely be found to equal those of France. At Saint
Peter’s, at the door of the new church, are to be seen certain flags
draped as trophies, bearing inscriptions which tell that they are
ensigns captured by the king from the Huguenots, but these inscriptions
do not say where or when. Near to the Gregorian Chapel, where may be
seen attached to the wall a vast number of _ex votos_, there is a small
square picture, wretched and badly painted, which represents the battle
of Moncontour. In the hall, in front of the Sistine Chapel,[104] or
upon the partition wall, are several paintings of memorable events
touching the Holy See--for instance, the sea fight of Don John of
Austria; also a representation of that Pope who trod under foot the
head of the Emperor when he came to entreat pardon and to kiss the
Pope’s feet; but on the same is no trace of the words which according
to history were spoken by each one of them. There are two other
pictures which accurately represent the wounding and the death of the
Admiral of Chatillon.
[Illustration: ISLAND ON THE TIBER
_From Piranesi’s Views of Rome_
_To face p. 126_, vol. ii.
]
On March 15th M. de Monluc[105] came to me at daybreak, and we set
about the execution of the plan which we had made the day previous to
go to see Ostia. We crossed the Tiber by the bridge of Our Lady, and
left the city by the _Porta del Porto_, anciently called _Portuensis_,
and thence we followed a rough road through a region only moderately
productive of wine and corn. Having gone about eight miles and once
more struck the bank of the Tiber, the road descended into a vast plain
of meadow and pasturage, at the end of which stood formerly a large
town. Of this some fine and stately ruins may yet be seen on the shore
of the Lake of Trajan, which is itself an overflow of the Tyrrhenian
sea, and was in ancient times navigable for ships, but now very little
seawater finds its way thereinto, and still less into another lake a
little above it, which they call the Arch of Claudius.[106]
We might have taken our dinner with the cardinal of Perugia, who was
residing there.[107] In sooth there is nothing anywhere to equal the
courtesy of the gentlefolk of these parts, and of their dependents. The
cardinal aforesaid sent word to me by one of my servants who had passed
by his house that he has some cause of complaint against me, in that I
had not called upon him, this servant having been taken for refreshment
into the cardinal’s pantry; the cardinal had no acquaintance with
me, and in this case was only showing the hospitality he was wont to
give to strangers of any mark. On my part I heard that the day would
hardly be long enough to allow us to complete the round I wished to
make, seeing that I had gone many miles out of my way in order to get
a sight of both banks of the Tiber. Here we crossed in a boat over a
small branch of the Tiber to the Sacred Isle, a good Gascon league in
length, where we found plenty of grazing land and divers ruins and
columns of marble, which are abundant in all the parts about Porto,
where stood the ancient city built by Trajan. Every day something of
the kind is dug up by the Pope’s workmen and sent to Rome. When we had
crossed this island we found we had still the Tiber to pass, and, as
we had no means of transporting our horses, we were just thinking of
retracing our steps, when, by good luck, we espied on the opposite bank
M. de Bellai, M. le Baron de Chasai, M. de Marivau, and certain others.
Whereupon I crossed the stream and made an arrangement with these
gentlemen that we should exchange horses. Thus they returned to Rome by
the road by which we had come out, and we took theirs, which led direct
to Ostia.
Ostia,[108] fifteen miles from Rome, is situated by the ancient channel
of the Tiber, for this stream has changed its course somewhat, and
is receding still more every day. We breakfasted in haste at a mean
tavern, beyond which we could see La Rocca, a small castle strong
enough in itself, but now bare of a garrison. The Popes, and notably
the present one, have built along this coast high towers or look-outs,
about a mile apart, to guard against the raids often made by the
Turks, especially in the vintage season, and the capture of men and
cattle. By the discharge of a cannon from these towers they advise one
another so rapidly that the alarm is sped to Rome forthwith. Round
Ostia are the salt works, situated in a wide marshy plain into which
the sea flows, and these supply all the States of the Church.[109]
This road from Ostia to Rome, the _Via Ostensis_, abounds in vestiges
of its ancient splendour, such as causeways and ruins of aqueducts;
moreover, all along it is set with mighty ruins, and for two-thirds of
its length it is still paved with those large black squares of stone
which they used formerly as pavement. In looking at this bank of the
Tiber it is easy to believe that of old the road all the way from
Rome to Ostia ran past the habitations of men. Amongst other ruins we
saw, about midway and on our left, a very beautiful tomb of a Roman
prætor with an inscription quite perfect thereon. In Rome, the ruins,
as a rule, only manifest themselves to us by the massive solidity of
their construction. The ancients built thick walls of brick, and these
they lined either with strips of marble or some other white stone, or
with a kind of cement, or with thick tiles set thereupon. This outside
crust, on which the inscriptions were written, has almost everywhere
been ruined by the lapse of years, wherefore we have now but little
knowledge as to all these matters. Inscriptions still remain where the
walls were originally built in solid fashion.
The approaches to Rome in almost every case have a barren and
uncultivated look, whether through the unfitness of the soil for
cultivation, or whether, as seems more likely, through the absence
of husbandmen and handicraftsmen in the city. On my journey hither
I met divers troops of villagers from the Grisons and Savoy on their
way to seek work in the Roman vineyards and gardens, and they told me
they gained this wage every year. The city is all for the court and
the nobility, every one adapting himself to the ease and idleness of
ecclesiastic surroundings. There are no main streets of trade; what
there are would seem small in a small town, palaces and gardens take
up all the space. Nothing is to be seen like the Rue de la Harpe or de
Saint Denis; I always fancied I must be walking in the Rue de Seine
or on the Quai des Augustins at Paris. The aspect of the city differs
little whether the day be a feast or a working day. Services go on all
through Lent, and the crowds are just as great on a working day as any
other, the streets being full of coaches, prelates, and ladies at this
season.
On the 16th of March, after our return to Rome, I was taken to make
trial of the Roman hot baths at St. Mark’s, which have the best
repute. I underwent a treatment of moderate strength, and, though I
went alone, met with all possible respect. The usual custom is to take
a lady as companion, who like yourself will be rubbed by the men in
attendance. I learned here the composition of the unguent used for
removing hair from the skin. It is made of two parts of quick lime and
one of arsenic, blended with lye, and will have effect in less than a
quarter of an hour after application. On the 17th I was troubled, not
insupportably, with colic for five or six hours, and afterwards passed
a large stone the shape of a pine kernel.
At this season we had roses and artichokes as well, but the heat,
according to my judgment, was not excessive. I wore the same clothes
as I wear at home. We got less fish than in France; their pike is a
useless beast, and is reckoned poor man’s diet. Soles and trout are
rarely seen, but the sea barbel are very good and much larger than at
Bordeaux, albeit dear. John Dorys and mullets, larger and less firm
than ours, are very costly. The oil is so good that I never feel that
irritation of the throat which always troubles me in France when I
have partaken generously of it. Here you may eat grapes all the year
round, and even up to this date fine bunches may be seen hanging on the
trellises. The mutton is worthless and is in no esteem.
On the 18th the Portuguese ambassador did homage to the Pope for the
kingdom of Portugal, on behalf of King Philip. This same ambassador
represented on other occasions the late King of Portugal, and likewise
those states of King Philip with which he was at variance.[110] On
my way back from Saint Peter’s I met a certain man who gave me an
interesting account of two occurrences. The first was that the
Portuguese had done their homage in Passion week, the service being
held in the church of Saint John at the Porta Latina; and the second,
that in this very same church, several years ago, certain Portuguese
had established a very strange confraternity. These were men who
joined themselves in matrimony, using the mass and the same religious
ceremonies as we use at our weddings, taking the sacrament together,
and reading our marriage service. Then they went and lived together
after the fashion of married folk. These fanatics declared that the
marriage ceremony alone rendered lawful the union of man and woman, and
that their own form of union would become equally lawful should it be
sanctioned by the ceremonies and mysteries of the Church. Nine or ten
Portuguese belonging to this execrable sect were burnt.[111]
I witnessed the homage done by Spain for the kingdom of Portugal. A
salvo of artillery was fired from Saint Angelo and from the palace,
and the ambassador was escorted by trumpets and drums and the Pope’s
archers. I did not go inside to be present at the speech-making and
the other ceremonies. The Muscovite ambassador, who sat at a decorated
window to behold the procession, remarked that he had been brought
there to witness a great gathering; but in his country, when men spoke
of troops of horses, they had in mind twenty-five or thirty thousand,
wherefore he made light of the show before him. This I heard from a
gentleman who was sent to converse with him through an interpreter. On
Palm Sunday, in a church where I went for vespers, I saw a child seated
in a chair beside the altar clad in a long gown of new blue taffetas,
bareheaded, crowned with olive branches, and holding in his hand a
lighted candle of white wax. This boy was about fifteen years old, and
had just been discharged by the Pope’s order from prison, having been
sent there for killing another boy. At Saint John Lateran they showed
me some transparent marble.
On the next day the Pope visited the seven churches.[112] He wore boots
of flesh-colour, with a cross of lighter-coloured leather upon each
boot. He always takes with him a Spanish horse, a hackney, a mule, and
a litter, all equipped in the same fashion, but to-day the horse was
lacking. His esquire, with two or three pairs of gilded spurs in his
hand, awaited him at the foot of Saint Peter’s Stairs; but he put the
spurs aside and asked for his litter, in which were hanging two red
hats of the same sort.
This evening they brought back to me the volume of my Essays,
castigated and brought into harmony with the opinions of the monkish
doctors. The _Maestro del Sacro Palazzo_ could only pronounce judgment
on them from the report of a certain French monk, for he himself was
ignorant of our language; but he was so fully satisfied with the
explanations I gave him of all those passages to which exception had
been taken by the Frenchman, that he left to me the task of correcting,
according to my conscience, everything which might appear wanting in
good taste. In return I begged him to follow the advice of the censor
of my book, and I avowed that in certain matters--for instance, in
my use of the word Fortune[113] in discoursing on heretical poets;
in my apology for Julian;[114] in my remark that when a man prays he
ought for the time to be free of all vicious inclinations; in certain
statements that it is cruelty to inflict upon men greater pain than is
necessary to kill them; that children should be brought up to examine
all sides of a question;[115] and in many others--I did not admit I
was in error. Moreover, in certain additional instances, I denied
that my critic had caught my meaning. The aforesaid Maestro, who was
a man of parts, completely exonerated me, and was anxious to let me
see that he set small value on these emendations; moreover, he argued
very ingeniously on my behalf against another man, an Italian, who was
opposed to me. They kept back my copy of “The History of the Swiss,”
translated into French,[116] simply because they had found out that the
translator was a heretic, though his name did not appear anywhere in
the volume. It is wonderful what a wide knowledge they have of men and
foreign lands, and the most singular part of it was they told me the
preface of the aforesaid book was condemned.