Rome.
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
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 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.