56 APPLICATION OF THE METALS. CHAP. XVII. 



not confined to ecclesiastics, but extended to the 

 princes, to the richer nobles, and in the free com- 

 mercial cities to the more opulent burghers and 

 merchants. 



It does not seem probable, however, that a 

 large proportion of the metallic wealth of that 

 age would permanently remain in the quiet pos- 

 session of even religious communities. The wars 

 which were almost constantly carried on during 

 the reign of the emperor Charles V., and espe- 

 cially those in Italy betwixt him and Henry I. 

 of France, had exhausted the treasures of the 

 sovereigns, and induced them to seize on much 

 of the ecclesiastical wealth to coin into money to 

 pay and support their armies. Among numerous 

 instances of pillage in that age is a remarkable one 

 of Henry I. of France, who stripped the tomb of 

 St. Martin of a railing of massive silver, with 

 which, in one of his fits of devotion, Louis XI. 

 had encircled it. Another most striking instance 

 is that of the capture of Rome itself by the im- 

 perialists under Bourbon in 1527. It is recorded 

 that neither the barbarous and heathen Huns, 

 nor the Vandals and Goths in former ages, had 

 extorted plunder by such outrageous means as 

 were adopted by the bigoted subjects of a catholic 

 monarch, who spared neither churches, monasteries, 

 nor palaces, nor the houses of private persons, and 

 who collected booty to the amount of a million 

 ducats. 



