386

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

LXX.

Sixtus V.A- D. 15S51590.

transitory reign. The successful candidate isdrawn from the church, and even the convent;from the mode of education and life the mostadverse to reason, humanity, and freedom. Inthe trammels of servile faith, he has learned tobelieve because it is absurd, to revere all that iscontemptible, and to despise whatever mightdeserve the esteem of a rational being: topunish error as a crime, to reward mortificationand celibacy as the first of virtues; to place thesaints of the kalendar 51 above the heroes of Romeand the sages of Athens; and to consider themissal, or the crucifix, as more useful instru-ments than the plough or the loom. In theoffice of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he mayacquire some knowledge of the world; but theprimitive stain will adhere to his mind and man-ners: from study and experience he may sus-pect the mystery of his profession; but the sa-cerdotal artist will imbibe some portion of thebigotry which he inculcates. The genius ofSixtus the fifth' burst from the gloom of a Fran-ciscan cloister. In a reign of five years, he ex-terminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished

b A protestaut may disdain the unworthy preference of St. Francisor St. Dominic , but he will not rashly condemn the zeal or judgmentof Sixtus V. who placed the statues of the apostles, St. Peter and St.Paul, on the vacant columns ofTrajan and Antonine.

' A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti , has given the Vita di Sisto-Quinto (Ainstel. 1721, 3 vols. in 12mo ), a copious and amusing work,but which does not command our absolute confidence. Yet the cha-racter of the man, and the principal facts, are supported by the annalsof Spondanus and Muratori (a. d. 1585-1590), and the contemporaryhistory of the great Tbuanus (1. lxxxii, c. 1, 2. 1. lxxxiv, c. 10,1. o*«. 8 ).