260 
1 
St. Paul, was fuch as had been predifted 
by thofe who were acquainted with his 
character ; an inflexible fupporter of the 
monattic difcipline, and, at the lame time, 
an accomplifhed gentleman in mildnefs, 
affability, and politenefs. It was ufual 
for him to fpend the whole winter in the 
convent of St. Paul, and the remainder of 
the year in that of St. Callifio, in Trafte- 
vere; as the former place, owing to the 
ftaenation of waters in the Tyber, was 
inwholefome and dangerous in fummer 
time. His holinefs’s income, as abbot, 
was full 5000 Roman crowns (1000). 
fterling)}, of which the greatef part-he be- 
ftowed in aéts of charity, chiefly directed 
to relieve honeft families in diftrefs. 
Tt hag already been obferved that real 
and eminent merit, howfoever it riay be 
concealed in the receffes of obfcurity, or 
wrapped in the veil of modefly, cannot 
fail at length to tran{pire and attract the 
public notice. The abbot Chiaramonte, 
quite unexpectedly, was, by the late Pope, 
his countryman, appointed bifhop of Ti- 
' voli, inthe neighbourhood of Rome! This 
election did certainly great honour tc Pius 
the VIth; as it proved how fagacious he 
was in difcovering, and forward in pro- 
moting, a worthy clergyman out of the 
circle cf an ambitious court; as to the 
candidate himfelf, however, it muft, we 
venture to fay, have been utterly indiffe- 
rent. Fer, except the honour of belong- 
ing actually to the fecular hierarchy of the 
Roman clergy, and the vanity, if he had 
any, of being ¢ claufiris in aujam revoca- 
tus, he was rather a lofer through the pro- 
motion. The bifhopric cf Tivoli yielded 
little above 5000 crowns, and his holinefs 
was too goed a clergyman, and too well 
aware of the ecclefiaftical laws, not to 
know that the income of a bifhop is more 
rigoroufly than that cf a Benedictine abbot, 
the eftate of the poor! 
His holinefs had hitherto difplayed his 
moral character, merely as a chief of a 
religious order; and his intellectual powers, 
only as an excellent divine. His new dig- 
nity foon enabled him to acquire alfo the 
reputation of a fuitable governor to a fe- 
_ cular clergy, and of an emiment canonift 
and civilian. Never, perhaps, the diocefe 
of Tivoli was happier, than under’ his 
epifcopate! He was a fevere guardian of 
the morals of his clergy, and an attentive 
obferver of their improvement in {cience. 
He punifhed their faults rigoroufly, and, 
neverthelefs, he was generally beloved by 
them. He performed towards the people 
at.large all the duties of his flation, and, 
MMéemoirs of Pius the VItth: 
[May 1, 
very often, the fun&tions of a common 
clergyman. And, as his religious fenti- 
ments had no mixture of hypocrify or fa- 
naticifm, he fometimes indulged in the 
pleafures of fociety, fpent his evenings in 
familiar converfations with a fele& number 
of friends ; and when he had opportuni- 
ties, gave alfo concerts of mufic in his 
palace, where ladies and gentlemen were 
admitted, and treated with uncommon 
kindnefs and liberality. The confequence 
of this behaviour towards the Tivolefe 
was their univerfal regret, when he hap- 
pened three years after to be promoted to 
the bifhopric of Imola, in Romagna, and 
to the cardinalfhip. 
The bifhopric of Imola is one of the 
beft benefices of the kind, in the Roman 
fate. It yields upwards of 12,000 crowns 
(nearly 2500ib. fterling}. - Chiaramonte 
was, however, far from being rich, as 2 
cardinal, by the fole reyenues of his epif= _ 
copal fee; and, by a peculiar circumftance / 
which is deferving of record, he was not 
able to abtain any farther favour from his 
court, at the time of his promotion to the 
purple, as he might juftly have expeéted, — 
and as it reaily was the cufiom of the 
papal government in fuch cafes. The late 
Pope had, ‘contemporarily with him, con- 
ferred the fame dignity on two Neapolitan 
prelates, refiding in Rome, Pignatelli and | 
Ruffo, in hopes that his Sicilian majefty 
would grant to thefe two cardinals, his 
fubjects, fome of the rich abbeys in the 
kingdom of Naples, which then-.happened 
ta be vacant. Pius the Vith was, as 
ufually, difappointed by the nated cabals 
of the Neapolitan Paglietii and Pulcinelli. 
He felt, therefore, the neceffity of provid- 
ing for Ruffo and Pignatelli many com- © 
manderies, abbeys, and benefices, in the 
Rgman State; and was obliged, of courfe, 
to-deprive his own fubjeéts of thefe import- 
ant emoluments, \ 
‘The bifhep of Imoia always lived in his 
diocefe, and very feldem vifited Rome. 
For, belides the fente of his paftoral du- 
ties towards his clergy and people, he 
might alfo have been induced to keep far | 
from the metropolis, by the additional 
confideration that he was not able to fup- 
port, with his fmail income, the high ityle 
of a cardinal ‘at court. He was at Imola 
at the approach of the French, and obliged 
of courle to fly, like the greateft part of 
his colleagues. On the 11th of March 
laft, in the 58th year of his age, he was] 
eleted pope by the conclave -at Venice, 
and proclaimed under the name of Pius 
the Vjith;-with the highelt rejolemgs ee 
— the 
