PIUS. 
565 
Tons to confiderable dignities, who were not drongly 
recommended by their abilities and endowments. In 
his private life he was irreproachable and highly ex¬ 
emplary. He was beatified by Clement VIII. and canon¬ 
ized in 171a, by Clement XI. A volume of his Letters 
was publifhed at Antwerp in 1640, under the title of 
“ Apodolicarum Pii Quinti Pontificis maximi Epiftolarum 
Lib. V.” in 4to. and Felibian, in 1672, publifhed his 
“ Life,” tranflated from the Italian- of Agatio di 
Boinma. 
For farther particulars of the lives of the foregoing 
popes, fee Bower’s Hiltory of the Popes; Eufebius’s Eccl. 
Hill. Cave’s Hid. Lit. Platina de Vit.Pontif. and Rycaut’s 
Continuation; Maclaine’s Mofheim; Robertfon’s Cha. V. 
Watfon’s Philip II. and the articles Germany, Italy, 
Spain, and Rome. 
PIUS VI. (Pope), originally known by the name of 
John-Anthony Brafchi, was descended from a noble but 
reduced family; and born at Cefena, a fmall town belong¬ 
ing to the ecclefiaflical date, in the year 1717. Being 
dellined to the church, and .poffefling a promifing capa¬ 
city, he received the mod liberal education, by which he 
became qualified to run the career of ecclefiadical prefer¬ 
ment with reafonable hope of fuccefs. His abilities re¬ 
commended him to the patronage of cardinal Ruffo, who 
appointed him to the pod of Vditore; a charge which in 
tiie edablifiiment of the Roman church comprifed the 
offices of vicar, counfellor, and afiidant. In this fituation 
he conduced himfelf with fo much good fenfe, probity, 
and zeal, that he fecured the affeftion of the cardinal, 
and acquired the reputation of being one of the bed- 
informed perfons in Rome. As a mark of his edeem for 
Brafchi, this generous prelate, when on his death-bed, 
left him the continuation of his appointment for life; 
and fuch was Brafchi’s veneration for his patron, that, 
out of refpeft to his memory, he retained the fituation of 
Uditore even after he became pope. Upon the death of Ruffo, 
Brafchi was promoted to a canonry of St. Peter’s ; and 
he afterwards recommended himfelf fo powerfully to the 
edeem of PopeBenedift XIV. that he conferred upon him 
the epifcopal dignity, and made him treafurerof the apof- 
tolical chamber. Under the pontificate of Clement XIV. 
(Gangar.elli,) Brafchi was raifed to the purple ; and in 
this progreflive advancement, he condantly difplayed a 
love of juffice, the drifted morality, dole application to 
bufinefs, and the mod tmaffuming manners. After the 
death of Clement XIV. in September 1774, ail the fuffrages 
of the conclave were united in his favour; and, on the 
14th of February, 1775, he was proclaimed pope under 
the title of Pius VI. 
The new pontiff commenced his government with cor- 
refting various abufes which had taken place in the in¬ 
ternal adminiffration of affairs, as well as in the police of 
Rome, and with endeavours to redore the dilapidated 
finances to order and regularity. Soon after his accelfion 
he had a difference with the court of Naples, which led 
hint to difpiay great firnrnefs in fupport of his dignity. 
The king of the TwoSicilies had appointed M. Filangieri, 
formerly viceroy of Sicily, to the archbiftiopric of Naples; 
and, as the law's of that metropolis required that the arch- 
bilhop (hould be a cardinal, application was made to his 
holinefs to bedow on him that dignity. Pius returned 
for anfwer, that, although the laws enafted that a cardinal 
fliould be the archbifliop, it did not follow that the arcli- 
b iff op ffould become a cardinal; and that hismajedy, who 
could not be infenfible of the difference, might have pro¬ 
moted to the archbiffopric fome one or other of the Nea¬ 
politan cardinals redding at Rome, inftead of thus indi- 
reftly affuming authority to confer one of the greated 
dignities of a foreign hierarchy on one of his fubjedls. So 
ffeadily did Pius maintain his refufal to comply with the 
king’s wiffes, that Filangieri foon died of a broken heart, 
occafioned by the mortification of not being able to obtain 
a dignity inherent to his office. 
Puis VI. derived great honour from the works of mag¬ 
nificence and utility on which he expended the revenues 
Vol. XX. No. 1391. 
of his fee. He augmented and completed the noble Cle¬ 
mentine Mufeum in the Vatican, founded by his prede- 
ceffor, as a receptacle for the monuments, vafes, ftatues, 
medals, and other remains of antiquity, which were pro¬ 
cured by excavations in the eilates of the church, or 
other means. The engravings and defcriptions of the 
treafures in this collection were afterwards publifhed, and 
formed fix volumes in folio. Pius projected the defign, 
and by degrees finifhed the ereftion, of the prefent majef- 
tic veitry of St. Peter’s. He built a church and eftabliffed 
a library in the abbey of Subiaco. For the relief of the 
lick and indigent he founded hofpitals. He alfo (bowed 
his regard for the interefts of commerce, by repairing the 
port of Ancona, and erefting the beautiful light-houfe, 
which is at once an ornament to the city, and of the 
higheft utility in the navigation of the Adriatic fea. But 
the greateft economical undertaking of Pius’s adminiftra- 
tion, was the draining of the Pontine marffes; and, if he 
did not completely lucceed in effecting it, he is not the 
lefs entitled to praife for the grandeur and utility of his 
defign. The marffes extended upwards of forty miles in 
every direftion, occupying the whole valley from the 
Apennines to the fea, commencing at the port of Aftura, 
covering the coaff of Terracina, and reaching to the king¬ 
dom of Naples. To fit this vail fpace for the purpofes 
of agriculture, and by fo doing to purify the air from the 
peflilential vapours ariling from it in its marffy ftate, had 
been an objeft which employed the labours of the cenfor 
Appius Claudius, who carried through it the famous 
Way which bears his name. Auguflus, alfo, and others 
of the Roman emperors, as well as feveral of the popes, 
had direfted their attention to the fame defign; and, 
though all their projefts had been baffled, Pius VI. was 
not difcouragcd from attempting the arduous work. To 
accompliff it, he employed the bed engineers in Rome, 
apd went regularly every year to infpeft in perfon the 
progrefs which they made. Hecaufed immenfe canals to 
be dug, for thepurpofeof receiving the water from the 
marfhes; and by this means rendered confiderable trafts 
of land fit for luifbandry. He alfo con.drufted on the 
fide of thcfe canals a large and beautiful road, nearly forty 
miles in length, ornamented with four rows of poplars, and 
interfperfed with houfes of accommodation; and at its 
termination he built a large and elegant palace. It is to 
be hoped that the fucceffors of Pius in the fovereignty of 
the country will not fuffer their attention to be diverted 
from this objeft, till, by perfeverance, the grand end to 
which his labours and the principal revenues of the fiate 
were for a long time devoted, may be happily attained. 
Pius alfo difplayed his magnificence in the reception 
which he gave to feveral royal perfonages from various 
parts of Europe, who came to vifit Rome during his pon¬ 
tificate. Among thefe were Jofeph II. emperor of Ger¬ 
many ; Paul, the grand duke, and afterwards emperor, 
of Ruffia; Guflavus-Adolphus, king of Sweden; the 
duke of Gloucefter, brother to George III. king of Great 
Britain, and prince Auguftus-Frederic, now duke of 
Suflex, brother to his prefent majefty. 
Excepting his difference with the court of Naples, Pius 
fpent the firft fix years of his pontificate in the melt per¬ 
fect tranquillity, both at home and abroad, occupied in 
regulating the internal government of his ftate, and in 
carrying on the undertakings which we have mentioned. 
But foon after the death of the ernprefs queen Maria- 
Therefa, towards the end of the year 17.80, he began to 
meet with events which created to him the moft painful 
mortifications, and by degrees reduced his power and 
authority to the lowed level. That princefs was molt 
religioufly devoted to the court of Rome, and, while foe 
lived, maintained the Andrian dominions in Germany, 
Hungary, Italy, and the Low-Countries, in a drift obe¬ 
dience to the holy fee. But no fooner did her Ion Jofeph 
II. come into the poffeflion of his hereditary territories, 
than he began to carry into execution, without delay, the 
fichemes which lie had long formed for promoting a reform 
in ecclefiadical affairs, and emancipating his fuhjefts from 
7 E papal 
