OF THE ROMAS EMPIRE.

2(>o

nard, with the sharpness of his wit and zeal, has chap.stigmatised the vices of the rebellious people. 9“ Who is ignorant,” says the monk of Clairvaux, character“ of the vanity and arrogance of the Romans? a“ nation nursed in sedition, cruel, untractable, Bern »rd.

“ and scorning to obey, unless they are too fee-“ ble to resist. When they promise to serve,

“ they aspire to reign; if they swear allegiance,

“ they watch the opportunity of revolt; yet they“ vent their discontent in loud clamours if your“ doors or your councils are shut against them.

“ Dextrous in mischief, they have never learnt“ the science of doing good. Odious to earth“ and heaven, impious to God , seditious among“ themselves, jealous of their neighbours, inhu-“ man to strangers, they love no one, by no one“ are they beloved; and while they wish to in-“ spire fear, they live in base and continual ap-“ prehension. They will not submit; they know“ how to govern; faithless to their superiors, in-“ tolerable to their equals, ungrateful to their“ benefactors, and alike impudent in their de-“ mands and their refusals. Lofty in promise,

“ poor in execution: adulation and calumny,

“ perfidy and treason, are the familiar arts of“ their policy.” Surely this dark portrait is notcoloured by the pencil of Christian charity;' yet

* Quid tam notum seculis quam protervia et cervicositas Romano-rum ? Gens insueta paei, tnmultui assueta, gens immitis et intracta-bills usque adhuc, subdi nescia, nisi cum non valet resistere (de Consi-dtiat. I. iv, c. 2, p 441). The saint takes breath, and then beginsagain: Hi, invisi terra* et coelo, iitiique injecere manus, &c. p. 443).

r As a Roman citizen, Petrarch takes leave to obstrve,that Bernard,though a saint, was a man ; that lie might be provoked L>y resentment,and possibly repent of his hasty passion, (Mcmoires sur la Vie deIMrarque. tom. i, p. 330).