THE DECLINE AND FALL

306

CHAP.

LXIX.

highways were thronged with a swarm of pil-grims who sought to expiate their sins in a jour-ney, however costly or laborious, which was ex-empt from the perils of military service. Allexceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity,were forgotten in the common transport; and inthe streets and churches many persons weretrampled to death by the eagerness of devotion.The calculation of their numbers could not beeasy nor accurate; and they have probably beenmagnified by a dextrous clergy, well apprised ofthe contagion of example: yet we are assured bya judicious historian, who assisted at the cere-mony, that Rome was never replenished withless than two hundred thousand strangers; andanother spectator has fixed at two millions thetotal concourse of the year. A trifling oblationfrom each individual would accumulate a royaltreasure; and two priests stood night and day,with rakes in their hands, to collect, withoutcounting, the heaps of gold and silver that werepoured on the altar of St. Paul/ It was fortu-nately a season of peace and plenty; and if for-age was scarce, if inns and lodgings w ere extra-vagantly dear, an inexhaustible supply of breadand wine, of meat and fish, was provided by thepolicy of Boniface and the venal hospitality of theRomans. From a city without trade or indus-try, all casual riches will speedily evaporate: butthe avarice and envy of the next generation soli-

' See John Villani (1. viii, c. 3G) in the 12th, and the ChroniconAstense, in the lllh volume (p. 191, 192) of Muratori’s Collection.Papa innmnerabikm pecnniam ab eisdem accepit, nam duo clerici,cum rastris,