ON THE REVIVAL OF LITERATURE. 



319 



the Complutensian polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes ; which, with the strictest 

 justice and propriety, was dedicated to him upon its completion: so that, 

 with perhaps a single exception, we may adopt the following elegant eulogy 

 of Mr. Pope : — 



" But see, each Muse in Leo's golden days 

 Starts from her trance, and trims her wither'd bays ; 

 Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread. 

 Shakes off the dust, and rears her reverend head 

 Then Sculpture and her sister-arts revive ; 

 Stones leap'd to form, and rocks began to live : 

 With sweeter notes each rising temple rung ; 

 A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung." 



The exception in these verses, to which I refer, is the intimation that the 

 service of the temple was now more pure and appropriate. For the general 

 history of Leo's pontificate, as well domestic as public, abundantly shows 

 that pure, undefiled religion was a very subordinate concern in the estimate 

 of this accomplished high priest. He is accused, indeed, of having been a 

 direct infidel ; and of having invented the blasphemous exclamation I have 

 already noticed, " What wealth does this fiction of Christ obtain for us !" I 

 cannot aflirm that he never repeated this burst of blasphemy, but it is well 

 known to have been in use long before his day. Nor ought it to be forgotten 

 that it was Leo X. who excited Vida, as he himself tells us, to write his 

 Christiad, upon the simple unadulterated language of the Bible, with an 

 utter omission, for the first time, of all that absurd introduction of heathen 

 mythology into its sacred mysteries, in which Sannazaro, Torquato Tasso, 

 and even Camoens, have so largely indulged : an omission, which it is diffi- 

 cult to conceive that an infidel, whether secret or open, could ever have sug- 

 gested or ever allowed. Yet the measures he too often pursued, and espe- 

 cially the sale of indulgences, which we have already touched upon, and shall 

 once more have to notice presently, and the profligate characters whom he 

 employed, or knowingly allowed to be employed, as his delegates in nego- 

 tiating their sale, as well as in eff'ecting various other objects ; more particu- 

 larly that abandoned wretch, John Tetzel, some of whose exploits have 

 already passed before us, give abundant proof that he was satisfied with the 

 pomp and splendour of the church, and had no religious principle at heart. 

 He had a love for its ceremonials, as they gratified his leading propensity of 

 unbounded splendour and magnificence. And as the externals of the church 

 displayed to him a v^^ider field for an encouragement of learning, and criticism, 

 and translations ; of founding professorships for foreign tongues ; of hunting 

 up sacred manuscripts and records from the East ; and for building churches 

 and palaces of unrivalled grandeur and beauty, than any thing else could 

 open to him ; he was eager, and even profligate in following up such pursuits, 

 and adding them to his earnest desires to obtain the finest poetry, and music, 

 and eloquence, and sculpture, of his own or any former age : but of genuine 

 vital religion, the spiritualized breathings of Gregory I., we have no proofs 

 whatever in any part of the pontificate of Leo X. 



^ In few words, such was the general taste for learning and science that 

 characterized the immediate period before us, that there was scarcely an Ita- 

 lian state which had not its university, its printing press, numerous literary 

 institutions, and poets, historians, grammarians, architects, and musicians, of 

 high and deserved celebrity ; while the sacred flame, spreading in every direc- 

 tion, arts, literature, and a bold and adventurous spirit of philosophical research, 

 f\/<'(;ign travel, and commercial speculation, blazed forth, in every direction, 

 from the Po to the Elbe, from the Thames to the Tagus. 



V. I have said, that ignorance and vice are inseparable associates. But is 

 the converse of this proposition equally true ] We have now seen mankind 

 advancing in the path of knowledge— are knowledge and virtue equally inse- 

 parable ] I have a pride in answering this question ; and dare appeal to every 

 page in the history o*f the times before us for the truth'of its affirmative. 

 From the first moment that the dawn of literature began to glimmer in the 



