OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

103

of the Caesars. So deep was the ignorance and chap.credulity of the times, that the most absurd of XL1X -fables was received, with equal reverence, inGreece and in France , and is still inrolledamong the decrees of the canon law.* Theemperors, and the Romans, were incapable ofdiscerning a forgery, that subverted their rightsand freedom; and the only opposition proceed-ed from a Sabine monastery, which, in the be-ginning of the twelfth century, disputed thetruth and validity of the donation of Constan-tine / In the revival of letters and liberty thisfictitious deed was transpierced by the pen ofLaurentius Valla , the pen of an eloquent criticand a Roman patriot.' His contemporaries ofthe fifteenth century were astonished at his sacri-

• In the year 1059, it was believed (was it believed?) by Pope LeoIX , Cardinal Peter Damiauus, &c. Muratori places (Annali d'ltalia,tom- ix, p 23, 24) the fictitious donations of Louis the Pious the Otbos,

&c. de Donatione Cunstantini. See a Dissertation of Natalis Alexander, seculum iv, diss. 25, p. 335 350.

b See a large account of the controversy, (a.D. 1105) which arosefrom a private lawsuit, in the Chronicon Farsene, (Script. Rerum Ita-licarum, tom. ii, parsii, p. 637, &c.) a copious extract from the archivesof that Benedictine abbey. They were formerly accessible to curiousforeigners, (Le Blanc and Mabillion), and would have enriched the firstvolume of the Historia Monastica Italia of Quirini. But they are nowimprisoned (Muratori, Scriptores R. 1. tom. ii, pars ii, p. 269) by thetimid policy of the court of Rome ; and the fQture cardinal yielded tothe voice of authority and the whispers of ambition (Quirini, Comment,pars ii, p. 123-136).

c 1 have read in the collection of Scbardius (de Potcstate Imperial!Ecclesiastic^, p. 734-780) this animated discourse, which was composedby the author, A. l) 1440, six years after the flight of Pope Eugeniusl T/ . It is a most vehement party pamphlet : Valla justifies and ani-mates the revolt of the Romans, aud would even approve the use of adagger against their sacerdotal tyrant. Such a critic might expect thepersecution of the clergy ; yet he made his peace, and is buried in tbeLateran , (Baylc, Piclionaire Critique, Valla ; Vossius, de Historic'!*

Lalmis, p. 580).