the time of the emperor Constantine, various grants, endowments, and donations of extensive territories, are said to have been conferred by different princes on the bishops of Rome; insomuch, that there is scarcely any part of Italy to which they have not at some period asserted a claim. That many of these grants are supposititious is generally acknowledged; whilst the validity of others, which are admitted to have existed, frequently rests merely on the temporary right of some intruder, whose only title was his sword, and who, in many instances gave to the pontiff what he could no longer retain for himself. Under the colour, however, of these donations, the popes possessed themselves of different parts of Italy; and among the rest, of

enjoyed that privilege ab antiquo. * Other writers have assigned an earlier date, which opinion they have founded on a coin of Zacharia, who filled the pontifical chair from the year 740 to 751-v. Dissertaz. del Conte Giacono Acami dell'origine ed antichita della Zecca Pontificia, p. 8, Ed. Rom. 1752. This subject has given rise to serious controversy, even among the firmest adherents to the church. Muratori and Fontanini have embraced different opinions, which they have endeavoured to support in several learned publications, in which the ancient rights of the emperors and the popes to various parts of Italy are particularly discussed. All collectors however agree in commencing their series from Adrian I., created pope in 782, from which time Acami has given a succession of thirty-four coins of different pontiffs, some of which are, however, supposed to have issued from the metropolitan sees of England, for the purpose of paying tribute to Rome.

the whole exarchate of Ravenna, extending along a considerable part of the Adriatic coast, to which they gave the name of Romania or Romagna. The subsequent dissensions between the popes and the emperors, the frequent schisms which occurred in the church, the unwarlike nature of the papal government, and above all, the impolitic transfer of the residence of the supreme pontiffs from Rome to Avignon, in the fourteenth century, combined to weaken the authority which the popes had in the course of so many ages acquired; and in particular the cities of Romagna, throwing off their dependence on the papal see, either formed for themselves peculiar and independent governments, or became subject to some successful adventurer, who acquired his superiority by force of arms. No longer able to maintain an actual authority, the Roman pontiffs endeavoured to reserve at least a paramount or confirmatory right; and as the sanction of the pope was not a matter of indifference to these subordinate sovereigns, he delegated to them his power on easy conditions, by investing them with the title of vicars of the church.* It was

The passage

*Guicciardini Historia d'Italia. lib. iv. here referred to, in which the historian has traced with great ability the rise and vicissitudes of the temporal authority of the popes, is omitted in the general editions of his works, and even in that of Torrentino, Flor. 1561, fol. but may found in those of Stoer, 1636, 1645. Geneva. Mr. Roscoe

be

might

thus the family of Este obtained the dominion of Ferrara, which they had extended, in fact, to an independent principality. Thus the cities of Rimini and Cesena were held by the family of Malatesta; Faenza and Imola by the Manfredi; and many other cities of Italy became subject to petty sovereigns, who governed with despotic authority, and by their dissensions frequently rendered that fertile, but unhappy country, the theatre of contest, of rapine, and of blood.

From this period the temporal authority of the popes was chiefly confined to the districts entitled the patrimony of St. Peter, with some detached parts of Umbria, and the Marca d'Ancona. The claims of the church were not, however, suffered to remain dormant, whenever an opportunity of enforcing them occurred, and the recovery of its ancient possessions had long been considered as a duty indispensably incumbent on the supreme pontiff. But although for this purpose he scrupled not to avail himself of the arms, the alliances, and the treasures of the church, yet, when the enterprise proved successful, it generally happened, that the conquered territory only exchanged its former lord for some near kinsman of the reign

might have added, that this passage, or, as it is there called, this digression, so offensive to the Roman Court, has been restored in the third edition of Fenton's translation of Guicciardini's History, lib. iv. p. 173-178. 1618.

ing pontiff, who during the life of his benefactor, endeavoured to secure and extend his authority by all the means in his power.

The Roman pontiffs have always possessed an advantage over the other sovereigns of Europe, from the singular union of ecclesiastical and temporal power in the same person; two engines, which long experience had taught them to use with a dexterity equal to that, with which the heroes of antiquity availed themselves by turns of the shield and the spear. When schemes of ambition and aggrandizement were to be pursued, the pope, as a temporal prince, could enter into alliances, raise supplies, and furnish his contingent of troops, so as effectually to carry on an offensive war: but no sooner was he endangered by defeat, and alarmed for the safety of his own dominions, than he resorted for shelter to his pontifical robes, and loudly called upon all Christendom to defend from violation the head of the holy church.*

Thus we have seen that the temporal power and property of the popes of Rome, stand on grounds as fair and legitimate as the property or dominions of any other princes. It would, perhaps, hardly be a proper investigation at this time of day, to inquire by what means any

* Roscoe's Leo X. vol. i. p. 8-14. 8vo. ed.

monarchy in Europe first acquired its powers and territories, for the divine right is now happily exploded. Such speculations would lead to an inquiry into the chimerical principles of agrarian law not entirely creditable to the memories of some of our ancestors. It is only necessary to observe, that the monarchs of Rome have as fair a title to their dominions as any other monarchs; and that the robberies and plunders, by Bonaparte, of the Pope's temporal possessions are as great and as unjust as any other of that tyrant's usurpations over the princes of the continent. Yet I am sorry to find that some persons seem to rejoice at the downfall of the Pope, as they call it; as if the plundering him of his property were an act of Christian obedience to the commands of the gospel, and a righteous fulfilment of scriptural prophecy. How any one can palliate an usurpation so flagrant, and a robbery so palpable, I am at a loss to discover; only that all is fair against the man who has "the mark of the beast in his forehead!" that we may make perfectly free with the possessions of antichrist, and walk off, like gentlemen, with the patrimony of St. Peter, just as our "most gracious and religious king and governor," the first Head of the true Church, Henry VIII., of reforming memory, did with the property of the clergy, the monks and the nuns of his enlightened days!

At the period when the Church became rich, commenced her pride, her insolence, and her