"drunk with the blood of the faints, and "the blood of the martyrs ?" Many other questions were asked, and such provoking anfwers returned, that fome fufpected 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 fenfe, and better manners. But when they communicated their fentiments to Clement the Fourteenth, he faid, with great good humour, "That he never had heard. "of any body whofe understanding, or "politeness, had been much improved at "that fchool; that although the poor "man's firft address had been a little rough "and abrupt, yet he could not help confidering himself as obliged to him for

66

"his good intentions, and for his under

taking fuch 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

4

to

to put him on board the first ship bound from Civita Vecchia to England, defraying the expence of his paffage. 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 fink the dignity of the facred office, and expofe it to future infults. If fuch behaviour as this did not pass without blame, it may be easily fuppofed, that few of the late Pope's actions efcaped uncenfured; and many who loved the eafy 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 fuppofed to have fixed on Cardinal Braschi to be Pope, from the fame motive that the Roman fenate fometimes chofe a Dictator to reftore and enforce the ancient difcipline.

LETTER XLVIII.

Rome.

IUS the Sixth performs all the religious functions of his office in the moft folemn manner; not only on public and extraordinary occafions, but alfo in the moft common acts of devotion. I happened lately to be at St. Peter's church, when there was fcarcely any other body there: while I lounged from chapel to chapel, looking at the fculpture and paintings, the Pope entered with a very few attendants; when he came to the ftatue of St. Peter, he was not fatisfied with bowing, which is the ufual mark of refpect fhewn to that image; or with kneeling, which is performed by more zealous perfons; or with kiffing the foot, which I formerly imagined concluded the climax of devotion;

*9

votion; he bowed, he knelt, he kiffed the foot, and then he rubbed his brow and his whole head with every mark of humility, fervour, and adoration, upon the facred ftump. It is no more, one half of the foot having been long fince worn away by the lips of the pious; and if the example of his Holiness is univerfally imitated, nothing but a miracle can prevent the leg, thigh, and other parts from meeting with the fame fate. This uncommon appearance of zeal in the Pope, is not imputed to hypocrify or to policy, but is fuppofed to proceed entirely from a conviction of the efficacy of those holy frictions; an opinion which has given people a much higher idea of the ftrength of his faith, than of his understanding. This being jubilee year, he may poffibly think a greater appearance of devotion neceffary now, than at any other time. The first jubilee was inftituted by Boniface the Eighth, in the year 1300. Many ceremonies

D 2

monies and inftitutions of the Roman Catholic church are founded on those of the old Heathens. This is evidently an imitation of the Roman fecular games, which were exhibited every hundredth year in honour of the gods*; they lafted three days and three nights; they were attended with great pomp, and drew vaft numbers of people to Rome, from all parts of Italy, and the moft diftant provinces. Boniface, recollecting this, determined to inftitute fomething analogous, which would immortalize his own name, and promote the intereft of the Roman Catholic religion in general, and that of the city of Rome in particular. He embraced the favourable opportunity which the beginning of a century prefented; he invented a few extraordinary ceremonies, and declared the year 1300 the first jubilee

*The Carmen Seculare of Horace was compofed on occafion of those celebrated by Auguftus in the year of Rome 736.

year,