ON THE REVIVAL OP LITERATURE. 



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

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

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

 Shakes off the dust, and rears her reverend hea^. 

 Then sculpture and her sister-arts revive ; 

 Stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live 5 

 With sweeter notes each rising temple rung ; 

 A Raphaei. painted, and a Vida sung." 



V 



The exception in these verses, to which I refej, 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, abun- 

 dantly 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 !" 1 cannot affirm 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 difl[icult to conceive that an infidel, 

 whether secret or open, could ever have suggested or ever allowed. Yet 

 the measures he too often pursued, and especially 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 negociating their sale, as weft 

 as in effecting various other objects, more particularly 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 wider 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 eag^r 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 L, 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 tha^ 

 characterized the immediate period before us, that there was scarcely 

 an Italian 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, spread- 

 ing in 6very direction, arts, literature, and a bold and adventurous spirit 

 of philosophical research, foreign travel, and commercial speculation, 

 blazed forth in every direction, from the Po to the Elbe, from the Thaihes 

 to the Tagus. 



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



