Of the Albe de S A D E. i §7 



man of barbarous difpofitions, mean and fordid propenfities, and 

 whofe grofs ignorance difgraced the high ftation which he oc- 

 cupied. The anecdote is mentioned by Squarz afichi ; as it 

 is likewife by one of the oldeft editors of the poems of Pe- 

 trarch, in the preface to the Venice edition 1473: though 

 the latter author erroneoufly names the Pope Urban V. who 

 did not afcend the papal chair till fome years after the death 

 of Laura. This uncertainty with regard to the perfon is not, 

 however, fufficient to difcredit the fact itfelf, that the Pope, 

 whoever he was, might, from favour to Petrarch, have ear- 

 neftly defired to fee him united to the object of his paflion. 



The clerical character of Petrarch ought not to be confider- 

 ed as affording any objection to the fuppohtion, that he ardent- 

 ly wifhed to be united to Laura in marriage. Though enjoy- 

 ing ecclefiaftical preferments, he had never accepted of any 

 charge which conferred a care of fouls. He had frequently been 

 folicited with earneftnefs to accept of a bifhopric ; but conflantly 

 refufed it, either from a fenfe of his own demerits, when weigh- 

 ed againfl the qualities he thought requifite for that facred cha- 

 racter, or, more probably, (as he himfelf indeed hints), from a de- 

 lire to preferve his liberty, and follow, without reftraint, thatcourfe 

 of life which he found mod congenial to his tafte. It is pro- 

 bable, therefore, that his views with refpect to Laura had their 

 influence on this determination ; fince he was thus at liberty, 

 merely by the facrifice of fome {lender pecuniary emoluments, to 

 change his condition at any time he might think proper. Ex- 

 amples of this kind were at that time extremely common ; and 

 the ftory above related, if true, is a proof that the Sovereign 

 Pontiffs were -even in ufe to difpenfe with the refignation of be- 

 nefices to their particular favourites in thofe circumftances. 



But, whatever weight we may be inclined to give to this 

 anecdote, it is, on the whole, fufficient to our purpofe, if while, 

 on the one hand, we have fhewn that there is not the fmalleft 



folidity 



