18or. } 
would have redreffed the grievance, and 
returned them to his coufin according to 
the original inveftiture, and to the com- 
mon feudal-laws of the kingdom. He 
would have done it with fo much greater 
gacility, as their annual revenues ‘can 
hardly amount to four hundred thoufand 
ducats, (under feventy thoufand pounds 
fterling) ; a trifling object to a powerful 
monarch, and an important one for a pet- 
ty prince ! 
The greateft uneatinefs his Royal High- 
mefs ever felt, was given from the Court 
- of Rome, in the year «767, when he was 
ftilla minor. It originated inthe affertion 
of the paramount fovereignty of the Holy 
See over the Dukedom of Parma. Now 
that the delufions cf the philofophy of 
the laft age are vanithed, we fhall not 
{cruple to fay that the Holy See was al- 
together right in the conteft; and the Mi- 
nifters of his Royal Highnels deferve the 
jut blame of pofterity, for having expoled 
their prudent and religious fovereign to 
the mortification of an ecclefiaftical cen- 
fure, and having rendered him the fubjeé& of 
univerfal {candal in the Catholic world! 
Although the cities of Parma and Pia- 
cenza had undergone many revolutions 
inthe middle ages, and had been fome- 
times under a Republican Government of 
their own, fometimes under the domina- 
tion of the Emperors and the Dukes of 
Milan, and occafionally alfo under the 
protection of the Holy See; it is a no- 
torious fact that Pope Leo X. conquered 
them, in the year 1521, by force of arms, 
and the Church enjoyed the mof lawful 
and tranquil poffeffion of them until the 
year 1534. Paul III. of the Houfe of 
Farnefe, with the confent of the facred 
college, ereéted them intoa dukedom, and 
granted them to Peter Lewis, his fon, 
Duke of Caftro and Lord of Nepi and 
Fra{cati, upon condition that the two lat- 
fer citiés fhould remain incorporated with 
the Holy See, as an indemnification, or 
rather as an equivalent for Parma and Pia- 
cenza; that he and his fucceffors fhould 
pay 8c00 crowns a-yeat to the apoftolic 
chamber, as an acknowledgement of the 
paramount dominion, and that no new 
taxes fhould be raifed on the pious founda- 
tions, religious communities and-church- 
eftates of every defcription in the duke- 
dom. This lat condition was, perhaps, 
too exorbitant for a fovereign prince. 
But as it really was a fundamental feudal 
compat, itwas fully obferved by the fubfe- 
vent Princes of the Houfe of Farnefe, nor 
could i¢ ever have been repealed or modi. 
Memoirs of the Duke of Parmé. 
417 
fied without the confent of the Pararnount 
Lord. The Minitter of his Royal Highnefs 
(a Frenchnobleman of the name of {zilot, if 
we recollect rightly) attempted to make a 
fudden innovation againft the above- men- 
tioned Jaws of the feudal, inveftiture. 
The Court of Rome made, as was to 
be expected, ftrong remonftrances againf 
the attempt: noattent:on being given to 
the remonftrances, it was Jikewife natural 
that the Duke, acccording to the feudal 
laws, fhould be declared as having forfeited 
his fiefs to the benefit of the Paramount 
Lord; and this alfo being unattended 
with any effeét, the ecclefiatical cenfitres 
were reforted to. Clement XTII. launched 
a foleran excommunication againft the 
Duke of Parma! 
This was, certainly, a lamentable e- 
vent, in the midft of an enlightened cen- 
tury, and almoft unaccountable, if an in- 
quifitive hiftorian takes a review of the 
characters of the two eminent perfons then 
acting on the fcene. Had the Duke been 
a Prince like Phillip le Bel, or Henry 
VIII. or the Pope, Rke Boniface VIII, 
or Sixtus V. the event would create no 
aftonifhment ; but it was quite the re. 
verfe: the former was a mild, inoffenfive, 
and religious prince ; the latter was a pra- 
dent and fober man, and one of the beft 
pontiffs in modern times. He had for- 
merly been Governor of the towns of 
Rieti and Fano, and afterwards Bifhop of 
Padua, where he had deferved the eftecma 
and admiration of all the inhabitants, 
from his uncommon piety and generofity., 
He was diftinguifhed for his unalterable 
mildnefs and beneficent humanity towards 
people of every defcription, and exacted 
refpect even from the enemies of the 
church. 
Nothing can better prove the perverfion 
of the human mind’ at the peried we now 
allude to than this event! Not afingle per- 
fon was then found in the Catholic coun- 
tries, who thought it worth while te pub- 
lith any occafional pamphlet for the fup- 
port of the church! On the contrary, the 
greateft humiliations were thrown upon it 
in the political and literary world. The 
Court of Verfailles, little examining which 
of the two parties was in the right, only © 
reflected that the offended Prince was. a 
Bourbon; and accordingly they took from 
the Holy See Avignon and the depend- 
ing eftates in Provence. ~The CGovern- 
ment of Naples likewife, # order to avenge 
(as the difoatches lated) the ixjuries in- 
jiucted upon a Royal Prince, fevzed Bene- | 
vento ond Pontecorvo. The Courtof Spain 
was 
