116 Italy. 



instigation of their secret agents, in order to strengthen more and 

 more their ecclesiastical despotism, because all those invaders gene- 

 rally ended their conquests and butcheries by kissing the foot of his 

 holiness in order to obtain the absolution of all their crimes and 

 depredations. 



To consolidate, or more firmly add to, the usurpation of the Holy 

 See and the absolutism of the petty Italian despots, a nation formed 

 by nature to be united, speaking the same language and professing 

 the same religious creed, was purposely divided into many states, 

 each governed by different laws and princes, who with the Pope at 

 their head did all in their power to render their subjects indifferent 

 to the general welfare of their country, and even jealous of the pros- 

 perity of their neighbours, and thus they succeeded in keeping in 

 degrading bondage and ignorance the liveliest and most interesting 

 nation of Europe. 



During the 18th century Italy began to'arouse from its lethargy; 

 and as philosophy was making rapid progress all over Europe, we 

 find that the Italians, both from the north and from the south, did 

 not remain behind the spirit of the age ; and notwithstanding the 

 rigours of their temporal rulers, and the brutal terrors of the k holy 

 inquisitors, Beccaria, with the publicationof his treaty, " Dei Delitti, 

 a Delle Pane" and, Vico with his " Scienza Nuova" produced an ex- 

 traordinary sensation throughout Italy. The despots trembled, the 

 Popes thundered from the Vatican, the Holy Inquisitors put in readi- 

 ness all their tortures and executioners, and the Italians began to 

 think a little about their moral and political degradation. These 

 works and their authors, having been condemned and prohibited by 

 the Inquisition, and promptly prosecuted by the temporal power, 

 were eagerly sought after, and secretly propagated with great acti- 

 vity. The Roman Pontiffs having in the mean time excommuni- 

 cated, and ordered to be publicly destroyed by the hand of the 

 common executioner, the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, 

 D'Alambert, Locke, and of the greatest part of the German, French, 

 and English philosophers, excited in the Italian mind the ardent wish 

 of reading them. Thus the despotism of Rome, instead of prevent- 

 ing the circulation of those works by its prosecution, forwarded their 

 propagation, and forced the Italians to seek after their unity in favour 

 of the sacred cause of civilization and liberty. Secret societies began 

 therefore to be established in all the great towns, and from the strait 

 of Messina to the Alps a secret philosophical association was formed, 

 notwithstanding the obstacles placed in its way. 



Kingly, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical absolution and tyranny 

 having at last been crushed in 'France by the revolution of 1789, 

 Italy was on the eve of following the example of the French, when 

 the priests and monks, whose temporal interests and welfare were 

 threatened with imminent danger, both from the pulpit and in the 

 public streets, began to declaim so much against what had taken 

 place in France, and through their hypocritical declamations ren- 

 dered the common ignorant and superstitious Italians so averse to 

 liberal principles and institutions that the patriots were compelled to 

 continue under the yoke. 



