ON the 21st of July, 1414, in the village of Celle, upon the Ligurian coast, near Savona, there was born to Leonardo della Rovere and Luchina Muglione, a male child, who, fifty-seven years thereafter, was called to fill the chair of St. Peter, from whence he showered upon his numerous relations temporal and ecclesiastical dignities. That Pontiff was Sixtus IV.; of these relatives many have already found a place in our pages; and from their stock sprang the second ducal dynasty of Urbino.

Upon the origin of this family a mystery has been thrown, by writers devoted to adulation rather than to truth. There was established near Turin a race of della Rovere, lords of Vinovo, whose nobility is traced from the eighth century, and from whom it was the pride of Sixtus to claim a descent, which his flatterers readily humoured, and which the annalists of Urbino adopted as an article of their political creed. Posterity has repudiated the allegation, for "in Italy, at least, it is vain for heraldry to tell a tale that history will not substantiate."[206] The seigneurs of Vinovo were not, however, loath to admit a blood connection with two Popes, who, in return for such aggregation to the old stock, conferred cardinals' hats upon their cousins of Piedmont. Although the tombstone of Leonardo was said to exhibit the Vinovo bearings, with a suitable difference, his humble birth is universally admitted. The burgess of Savona plied a fisher's trade, and even his son is supposed to have followed in boyhood the same apostolical calling; an occupation singular rather than inappropriate, for one destined to wear "the fisher's ring," and to wield the authority of him who was divinely called to be a netter of men. The superstition or policy of Sixtus stamped with unmerited importance certain quasi-supernatural incidents attending his birth. Whilst pregnant, his mother dreamt that a boy was born to her, whom two Franciscan friars forthwith clad in the tunic, cowl, and cord of their order. The name Francesco was accordingly bestowed on the child, whose gestures seemed to confirm its sacred vocation, the first motions of its little hands being those of benediction. Whilst undergoing the usual ablutions, the infant appeared faint and dying, whereupon its mother vowed that, if preserved to her, it should wear the Franciscan dress for the next six months. The removal of this habit having on two occasions been followed by dangerous illness, the boy's destination to a monastic life was confirmed, and his training conducted accordingly.[*207]

After rapid progress in classical and dialectic studies, he went to the university of Bologna, and in his twentieth year maintained various public disputations before a general chapter of his order at Genoa, with erudition and success which astonished his audience, and gained him the marked commendation of his superiors. He then graduated in philosophy and theology at Pavia, and in his public displays distinguished himself by a simple and perspicuous style of argument comparatively exempt from the jingle of words that usually characterised these exercises. His celebrity extending in all directions, he was engaged by the authorities of many large towns to deliver lectures, which were attended by the most learned ecclesiastics, his preaching being not less acceptable to the people of all ranks. His friendship and counsel were sought by the distinguished men of his time, including Cardinal Bessarion; and he employed his pen in various religious controversies, especially in one, carried by other disputants to blows, between two branches of Franciscans, the Minims and Predicant Friars, as to "whether the blood of Christ shed in his passion partook of his divinity." Having attained the rank of General, he proved most zealous in the inspection and reform of the convents under his jurisdiction, personally visiting them in all quarters. At length, in 1467, he was made Cardinal by Paul II., whom he was chosen to succeed on the 9th of August, 1471.

We have had occasion, in a previous portion of this work, to notice the policy of Sixtus as it affected the duchy of Urbino, and it forms no part of our plan to enter further into the events of his pontificate. Neither need we detail those in that of his nephew Julius II., except in so far as they fall to be narrated in our Third and Sixth Books. Our present purpose is to offer a condensed view of the della Rovere family, preceding its establishment in the sovereignty of Urbino, and to enliven what would otherwise be a dry genealogical sketch, by a few passing observations on the character of its two Pontiffs, and on the influence of their reigns.

The children of Ludovico Leonardo della Rovere by Luchina Stella Muglione were these:—

Raffaele della Rovere, younger brother of Sixtus, had, by Teodora Manerola—

Giovanni della Rovere, Prefect of Rome and Seigneur of Sinigaglia, died in 1501, having married in 1474 Giovanna di Montefeltro, who, dying in 1514, had issue—

On the accession of Sixtus, the papal treasury was supposed to be full of money and jewels, which it had been the passion of Paul II. to accumulate. Yet he declared that but 5000 crowns were found in bullion, and the few precious stones that were forthcoming appeared not to have been paid for. Notwithstanding this seeming disappointment, which was very generally discredited, and the outlay of 20,000 crowns for the funeral of Paul, and for his own coronation, he discharged the debts of several antecedent pontiffs, and particularly those due by Paul for St. Mark's palace. But these heavy expenses, with the alleged simony attending his election, and the enormous sums lavished by his nephews, gave colour to an allegation that he had seized and misapplied large hoardings of his predecessor. The favour bestowed by him upon his nephews was excessive, even in days when nepotism was at its height, and his fondness for the two Riarii originated suspicions casting a dark shadow upon his moral character; while gossip, with its usual inconsistency, lent currency to the surmise that they owed to him their paternity as well as the advancement of their fortunes.[211] One of his early acts was to confer upon Pietro, the elder of them, and upon Giuliano della Rovere, cardinal's hats on the same day. These cousins were, however, of very opposite habits, and so long as Pietro lived, Giuliano's influence with his uncle was small. The former, known as Cardinal of S. Sisto,

"Whom the wild wave of pleasure ever drove Before the sprightly tempest, tossing light,"

was magnificent beyond example, lavish in his tastes for silver and gold stuffs, splendid dresses, spirited horses. He was surrounded by troops of retainers, and filled his house with rising poets and celebrated painters. He was munificent to the learned, generous to the poor, and frequently celebrated public banquets and games at prodigious expense. Though he lived but two years and a half after his elevation to the purple, he had in that brief space completed a rarely equalled career of civil and ecclesiastical preferment, of public extravagance, and personal debauchery. Taddeo Manfredi, Lord of Imola, having been expelled by domestic intrigues, was bribed by the Cardinal with 40,000 crowns to assign that fief to his brother Girolamo Riario, an arrangement sanctioned willingly by Sixtus, reluctantly by the consistory. After making a progress to Lombardy and Venice as papal legate, with a pomp unequalled even in an age of splendour, Pietro returned to Rome, and died in January 1474, of fever aggravated by previous excesses. Panvinio says he seemed born to waste money, and estimates his expenditure whilst cardinal at the enormous sum of 270,000 golden scudi.[212]

The wars into which the Pontiff recklessly plunged, from rage against the Medici and anxiety to consolidate a sovereignty for Count Girolamo, occasioned vast expense, and the deficiency of his exchequer led him to adopt expedients of an eventually dangerous tendency. Panvinio asserts for him a disreputable priority in the creation of places and offices, in order to raise a revenue by their sale. The simony thus systematised tended at once to taint the morals and degrade the reputation of the Roman court. Under Borgia's pontificate we have seen it carried to a frightful height, and attended by scandals the most heinous; in that of Leo X. it became a mainspring of the Reformation.

Yet it was not by wars alone that the papal treasury was embarrassed, nor were the bounties of Sixtus limited to claims of nepotism, for he reaped from many the praises due to a liberality large rather than discriminating. The whirlwind of Turkish invasion had lately swept over the ruins of the Eastern Empire, and for the Christian princes who fled before it, abandoning their states to seek a precarious hospitality, Rome formed the natural refuge. Thither came the expelled despots of Albania and the Morea, the crownless queens of Cyprus and Bosnia, all of whom received from the Pontiff a welcome and honourable entertainment due to their misfortunes and to their virtual martyrdom. To such European princes as visited the Eternal City, in performance of their religious duties, he accorded a splendid reception. But there were other outlays still more creditable to him, as adorning the city and ameliorating the condition of its inhabitants. He was the first pope who earnestly set about rescuing from degradation the monuments of ancient Rome, and improving the modern city. Among numerous public buildings erected, restored, or decorated by him were the Ponte Sisto, the great hospital of Santo Spirito, the old Vatican Library, the aqueduct of Trevi, the churches of La Pace, il Popolo, S. Vitale, S. Sisto, S. Pietro in Vinculis, and many others. To the Riarii, by his encouragement, we owe the Cancelleria Palace and the adjoining church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso. The restoration of that of the SS. Apostoli, begun on a grand scale by his nephew Pietro, was interrupted by the early death of that dissolute minion, whose tomb remains in the choir, finely conceived and beautifully executed. Nor was public convenience overlooked amid such magnificent creations. As Augustus was said to have replaced his capital of brick with one of marble, it became proverbial that Sixtus rebuilt in brick what he found of mud. He paved the streets, re-opened the sewers, conveyed the aqua vergine to the heart of the city. By proclaiming the jubilee at the end of twenty-five years, instead of each half-century, he doubled the influx of pilgrim revenues; and, warned by the catastrophe of its preceding celebration, when crowds had been trodden down on the Ponte S. Angelo, he provided for the devout multitude a new access to S. Peter's by the bridge which bears his name. His beneficial undertakings, however, extended far beyond the Eternal City: he cleared out the choked harbour of Ostia, thoroughly repaired the crumbling church of St. Francis at Assisi,[*213] and began, in honour of the Santa Casa at Loreto, that gorgeous fane which was unworthily finished by the next Pontiff of his name. Neither was he indifferent to the social disorganisation of his metropolis. He curbed its lawless state by a rigorous police. Public begging was strictly suppressed; and all who could not prove some legitimate means of livelihood were banished. Malefactors of every sort, after summary conviction, were whipped through the streets, and consigned to the galleys or the gallows. Daily executions took place for a time, and though the measures adopted were both sanguinary and oppressive, order and security were in a great degree restored to the thoroughfares.

There is reason to fear that the stern discipline, whereby he vindicated public manners, was not applied to his personal habits. Yet the character given of him by Infessura, whereon depends most of the scandal by which his memory has been blackened, appears so grossly exaggerated as to defeat its own end, and to establish a charge of prejudice, if not of malevolence, against its author. To transcribe it would be to stain our pages; but its purport is summed up in some ribald Latin verses, borrowed, probably, from Pasquin, which impute to the Pope every imaginable iniquity and disgraceful indulgence, and congratulate Nero in being at length exceeded in crime.[*214]

Although the name of Sixtus, as a friend of letters and arts, has been dimmed by the more glorious ones of Nicolas V. and Leo X., which at no long intervals preceded and followed him, the memorials remaining of his judicious patronage are interesting and important. Innocent III., in building the Hospital of S. Spirito, had embellished it with six frescoes illustrative of its destination. To these Sixtus added twenty-seven others, forming a cycle of the personal and public incidents of his life, from his mother's miraculous vision, to his anticipated introduction into Paradise by St. Paul, in recompense of his piety. These paintings are no longer visible; nor do we know from whose pencils the vast series emanated, but in the Sistine Chapel, which perpetuates his name, and was his most important artistic undertaking, his choice was unexceptionable. Apart from the celebrity conferred upon it by the subsequent impress of Buonarroti's stupendous inventions, the series wherein the lives of our Saviour and of Moses are contrasted constitutes a chapter of scarcely equalled importance in the progress of Christian painting. Who can view the mighty themes of that oratory,—the types and antitypes of scriptural history on its walls, the creations of Omnipotence on its roof, the final Judgment over its altar,—without gratitude to the della Rovere pontiffs, by whom these triumphs were commissioned, and for the most part carried out? This may, indeed, be called the foundation of the Roman pictorial school. Giotto, Fra Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano, and Masaccio had, indeed, visited the metropolis of Christendom, but no pontiff before Sixtus had summoned hither, and at once employed, all the most distinguished artists of Central Italy. The glorious band, though headed by Perugino,[*215] consisted of Florentines,—Signorelli, Botticelli, Rosselli, della Gatta, and Ghirlandaio; but these soon returned to the art-loving and art-inspiring Arno, leaving on the plain of the Tiber few other works, and a most transient influence, in exchange for the classical ideas which they had imbibed in "august, imperial Rome," and which quickly supplanted the sacred traditions of their native school. Although Pinturicchio was not associated in their labours upon the Sistine, he was busy upon other not less important mural decorations, which still adorn the churches of Aracoeli, Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, and S. Onofrio. But Sta. Maria del Popolo was especially the scene of his triumphs, under the auspices of various Cardinals della Rovere, and other members of the consistory, who were instigated by example of his Holiness to such laudable employment of their exorbitant incomes.

Panvinio speaks of this Pope's solicitude to gather from all Europe additions to the library founded by Nicolas V., and attest his having first put it upon a satisfactory footing, by appointing qualified persons to superintend it, and by assigning it an adequate endowment. Though the rooms in which he placed books have been devoted to other purposes, ever since Sixtus V. removed the augmented collection to its present site, a most interesting memorial of the Pontiff's family and court remains, and has till lately adorned its original locality. It is a fresco, now transported to the Vatican Picture-gallery, wherein Sixtus sits in a noble hall of imposing architecture, with his librarian Bartolomeo Sacchi, surnamed Platina, kneeling at his feet, and pointing to an inscription, which enumerates in rough Latin verses, those ameliorations for which Rome was indebted to his Holiness. In attendance stand his two favourite cardinal nephews; Pietro, with features expressive of unrefined sensualism, wearing the russet habit of the mendicant fraternity, from whose discipline he emerged to lavish ill-gotten gold with rarely equalled prodigality; whilst in the cold and unimpassioned countenance of Giuliano, we vainly seek for those massive features, and that angry scowl, which the pencil of Raffaele subsequently immortalised. The group is completed by the two younger nephews, Girolamo, Lord of ForlÌ, gawky and common-place in figure, with the Prefect Giovanni, of blunt and burly aspect. It would be difficult satisfactorily to render so large a group in these pages, but we give an unedited and speaking likeness of the Pontiff from a miniature of the same size prefixed to the MS. of Platina's Lives of the Popes, dedicated to him and now in the Vatican Library.

Besides the claims of this fresco upon our notice, from representing the important members of the della Rovere family, it would be still more interesting to us, were it, as formerly supposed, from the pencil of Pietro della Francesca, court-painter of Urbino. It is now, however, ascribed, almost beyond question, to a pupil of his, sung by Giovanni Sanzi, as

"Melozzo, dear to me, Who to perspective farther limits gave."

His accurate study of geometrical principles taught him the most difficult art of foreshortening, which he particularly adapted to ceilings and vaulted roofs with a magical effect heretofore unattempted. Applying a like treatment to the human form, he succeeded in giving to the features a relief not inferior to that attained by the plastic manner of Squarcione and his followers, but infinitely excelling them in natural and noble character; and thus, for the first time since the revival, as in the picture just described, he gave to simple portraiture the stamp of historical delineation. Melozzo, by birth a Forlian, had probably attracted the notice of Girolamo Riario, on taking possession of his new state, and the patronage bestowed upon him by the Count and his brother the Cardinal, reflects credit upon their discrimination. In 1473, he was employed by the latter to paint, in the apsis of SS. Apostoli at Rome, our Lord's Ascension in presence of the apostles, one of the grandest works of the time, miserably sacrificed by the destructive alterations of last century. Some much over-daubed fragments of this wonderful composition are built into the great stair at the Quirinal Palace, and single heads are preserved in the sacristy of St. Peter's.

The favour of this Pontiff, whom the prejudiced Infessura has libelled as "the enemy of literary and reputable men," included merit from every quarter. Baccio Pintelli, of Florence, was his chief architect; Antonio Venezianello was conjoined by him with the Umbrian della Francesca and Signorelli to decorate the sacristy at Loreto; he pensioned Andrea d'Assisi, when early blindness had clouded those great gifts ascribed to him by Vasari; the Tuscan Verrocchio, who had come to Rome as a goldsmith, became, by his encouragement, a sculptor of eminence, and the inventor of that charming style which da Vinci brought to perfection in Lombard painting.

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Deferring our notice of Giuliano, the favourite nephew of Sixtus IV., we shall now mention his younger brother Giovanni, immediate ancestor of the della Rovere Dukes of Urbino. He was born in 1458, but we have no information as to his life before his uncle's elevation. The ancient and honourable dignity of Prefect of the favoured [alma] city of Rome was held by the Colonna, from the time of Martin V., until the death of Antonio, Prince of Salerno, in 1472. His son, Pier-Antonio, had been named to that office in reversion by Pius II., but, upon the ground of nonage, Sixtus set aside his claim and appointed his own nephew Leonardo della Rovere. He, too, having died in 1475, the Pontiff conferred the prefecture, (with remainder to his eldest son), on his next brother, Giovanni, to whom, on the 12th of the preceding October, he had given an investiture, in full consistory, of Sinigaglia, Mondavio, Mondolfo, and Sta. Costanza. At the same time, his marriage with Giovanna, second daughter of Federigo, the newly-created Duke of Urbino, was celebrated with becoming pomp, her dowry being 12,000 ducats; and on the 28th the almost childish couple made a festive entry into their tiny state. The Duke's presence and influence, though gladly given, were probably not required to secure them a rapturous welcome, for elevation from obscure provincialism to petty independence was ever a welcome boon to an Italian community. To signalise and commemorate the auspicious event, a young oak tree was planted in the piazza, with the motto in Latin, "Long may it last," and was inaugurated amid boundless and universal joy. A tournament was next day celebrated, succeeded by a ball, in which the sovereigns and their new subjects freely mingled.

From the narrative of Fra Graziano[216] we learn the immense benefit which the new order of things brought to that hitherto obscure town. Though boasting a certain importance under imperial Rome, it had become so decayed as hardly to afford stabling for twenty horses. The Prefect lost not a moment in meeting the exigencies of his position; and though but a boy in years, proved himself possessed of matured wisdom. Summoning from all quarters the best architects and engineers, he opened new streets, and paved them; built palaces, churches, convents, and a large hospital; constructed a harbour, erected a citadel, and fortified his capital. But his most happy expedient was the encouragement of an annual fair, which, gradually extending in importance, rendered Sinigaglia a mart of commerce, and continues to this day the most important in Italy.[*217] Nor were his exertions confined within the city. Mondaino and other places of minor note shared these improvements; and he brought from Lombardy and Romagna a population of skilful agriculturists, to clear and cultivate the forest lands which spread far around, until his state became a fertile and corn-exporting district.

The moral welfare of his people was meanwhile not overlooked; and the strict propriety which he exerted himself to maintain, was enforced by example as well as by precept. In his own practice, and in the circle of his sanctimonious court, the decencies of life were enforced with an almost monastic discipline, strangely at variance with the usages of his age, and the temperament of his near relations. Fra Graziano sums up his character as moderate in his tastes, prudent in his counsels, mild, liberal, and just in his administration, devoutly religious in his observances. His consort possessed virtues, graces, and accomplishments worthy of her husband's merits and her own beauty.

The Prefect does not, however, seem to have been able in person to superintend the beneficent administration which he had the good sense to institute, for the Pontiff's doating nepotism required much of his presence after the loss of Pietro Riario. The youthful couple accordingly spent several years at the Vatican; and on their return home, in 1479, Giovanni was presented by the city of Sinigaglia with twelve silver cups weighing eighteen pounds. In 1482, they were again sent for by Sixtus, who gave his nephew a palace on the Lago di Vico. Even after his uncle's death, the Prefect enjoyed a large share of papal favour, having from Innocent VIII., the baton as captain-general of the Church. But, on the accession of Alexander VI., the star of the della Rovere waned. In Cardinal Giuliano his Holiness saw a powerful and talented rival; in the Prefect an obstacle to his ambitious views for his bastard progeny. The former prudently retired to France; the latter lived quietly in his vicariat.

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In 1494, the Lord of Sinigaglia signalised himself by a feat worthy the freebooting practice of his times. Zizim, or Gem, son of Mahomet II., had right by his father's will to half the Turkish empire, but was expelled by his brother Bajazet, in 1482.[*218] Having fled to Rhodes, and placed himself under the protection of the Grand Master, Bajazet offered the latter a pension of 40,000 (or as some say 450,000) golden ducats, on condition of his being retained in safe custody. From Rhodes he was removed to France, and, in 1489, was brought to Rome, where, though received with much distinction by Innocent VIII., he found himself virtually a prisoner, or hostage. Bajazet, after failure of an attempt to have him assassinated, agreed to pay that Pontiff and his successor, the same yearly subsidy of 40,000 ducats for his custody and entertainment, besides supplying the Holy See with various important Christian relics from Palestine. In 1494, the Sultan's usual annual pension having been remitted to Rome through one Giorgio Bucciardo, accompanied by costly presents for Alexander VI., the envoy, on leaving Ancona, where he had disembarked, was set upon and plundered by Giovanni della Rovere. After appropriating most of the treasure, to extinguish alleged arrears of pay from the Holy See to himself and his troops, the Prefect sanctified the deed by dedicating the residue to pious works, employing the rich oriental stuffs for church ornaments. Soon after, there were circulated in Rome, certified copies of a correspondence between Alexander and the Sultan, with the oral instructions of his Holiness, which Bucciardo had been induced to divulge, and which throws a curious colour on this chapter of diplomacy.[219]

The envoy, on being accredited to the Sultan, had to state to his Highness, that the King of France was advancing upon Rome and Naples, in order to dispossess Alfonso, the Pope's vassal and ally, and to carry off Gem, with the project of providing him with a fleet, and supporting him in an invasion of Turkey. That as his Holiness had incurred great expenses in military preparations against a danger thus affecting the Sultan as well as himself, he prayed from him an advance of the 40,000 ducats due in November, to be remitted by the bearer. And he was further to induce his Highness to adopt every means likely to alienate his Venetian allies from French interests in the approaching struggle, and to attach them to the party of Naples.

The Sultan's answer is contained in a letter addressed to the Pontiff, wherein this passage occurs:—"For these reasons, we began, with Giorgio Bucciardo, to consider that for your Potency's peace, convenience, and honour, and for my satisfaction, it would be well you should make the said Gem, my brother, die, who is deserving of death, and detained in your hands; which would be most useful to himself and your Potency, most conducive to tranquillity, and further, very agreeable to myself! And if your Mightiness is content to oblige me in this matter, as in your discretion we trust you will do, it is desirable, for maintenance of your own authority, and for our full satisfaction, that your Mightiness will, in the manner that seems best to you, have the said Gem removed from the straits of this world, transferring his soul to another life, where it will enjoy more quiet. And if your Potency will do this, and will send us his body to any place on this side of our channel, we, the foresaid Sultan Bajazet Chan, promise to pay 300,000 ducats at any place your Mightiness may stipulate, that your Potency may therewith buy some sovereignties for your sons." To this cold-blooded offer are added many general professions of eternal amity towards his Holiness, and promises that his subjects will everywhere forbear from aggression upon Christians; and after stating that he had in the envoy's presence taken his oath for the performance of all these obligations, he concludes thus:—"And further I, the aforesaid Sultan Bajazet Chan, swear by the true God, who created the heaven, the earth, and all things therein, in whom we believe, and whom we adore, that I shall make performance of every thing contained above, and shall never in any respect countermine or oppose your Mightiness. From our palace at Constantinople, the 15th of September, in the year of Christ's advent, 1494."

Although discredit was thrown upon these documents by the Roman court, and the whole affair was alleged to be a device of Cardinals della Rovere and Gurk, to screen the Prefect at the Pontiff's expense,[220] it appears clear that a bribe was offered by Bajazet for the destruction of his brother, who did not long survive this incident. Alexander accepted 20,000 ducats from Charles VIII. to put Gem into his hands during six months, as a tool for his ambitious design upon the East; and in the treaty between his Holiness and the French monarch, dated 15th January, 1495, there is a special article that the former should consign "the Turk" to his Majesty as a hostage, to be kept in the castle of Terracina, or elsewhere, in the ecclesiastical territories, from whence Charles came under a promise not to remove him "unless in case of need, in order to prevent an invasion of the other Turks, or to make war upon them." He also bound himself to defend the Pope from any descent of the Infidel upon the Adriatic coast, and, on quitting Italy, to restore Gem to his custody, his Holiness meanwhile continuing to draw the Sultan's pension, and for due observance of these conditions, Charles bound himself in a penalty of 800,000 ducats. By another article he undertook to arbitrate in the complaint brought against the Prefect, in the affair of Bucciardo and the captured subsidy. It is further stipulated that the Cardinal della Rovere should be restored to favour, and replaced as legate at Avignon; and that, on termination of the Neapolitan enterprise, Ostia should be again surrendered into his hands.[221]

This oriental Prince's sudden demise, which soon followed, was attributed to various causes, but a general belief imputed it to poison, in implement of the Pope's engagement to Bajazet. Zizim is represented as far superior to his countrymen in mind and attainments; and we shall by and by find him honoured as a Maecenas of literature. A very different impression is, however, left by the amusing, but obviously caricatured, description of him transmitted from Rome in 1489, by Andrea Mantegna, the painter, to his patron the Marquis of Mantua:[222]—"The Turk's brother is here, strictly guarded in the palace of his Holiness, who allows him all sorts of diversion, such as hunting, music, and the like. He often comes to eat in this new palace where I am painting,[223] and for a barbarian, his manners are not amiss. There is a sort of majestic bearing about him, and he never doffs his cap to the Pope, having in fact none; for which reason they don't raise the cowl to him either.[224] He eats five times a-day, and sleeps as often; before meals he drinks sugared water like a monkey. He has the gait of an elephant, but his people praise him much, especially for his horsemanship; it may be so, but I have never seen him take his feet out of the stirrups, or give any other proof of skill. He is a most savage man, and has stabbed, at least, four persons, who are said not to have survived four hours. A few days ago, he gave such a cuffing to one of his interpreters that they had to carry him to the river, in order to bring him round. It is believed that Bacchus pays him many a visit. On the whole he is dreaded by those about him. He takes little heed of any thing, like one who does not understand, or has no reason. His way of life is quite peculiar; he sleeps without undressing, and gives audience sitting cross-legged, in the Parthian fashion. He carries on his head sixty thousand yards of linen, and wears so long a pair of trowsers that he is lost in them, and astonishes all beholders. Once I have well seen him, I shall forward your Excellency a sketch of him, which I should send you with this, but that I have not yet fairly got near him; for when he gives now one sort of look and then another, in the true inamorato style, I cannot impress his features on my memory. Altogether he has a fearful face, especially when Bacchus has been with him. I shall no longer tire your Excellency with this familiar joking style; to whom I again and again commend myself, and pray your pardon if too much at home." Homely it is in good earnest, being written in the Lombardo-Venetian dialect, some passages of which baffle translation.[225]

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It is, however, time to return from the digression into which this singular and romantic history of the Turkish Prince has tempted us. Alexander, greatly exasperated by the insults put upon his envoy, and by the loss of a most opportune remittance, threatened the Prefect with deprivation of his state; but finding his people, and the neighbouring communities prepared to stand by him, deferred his vengeance. Notwithstanding a reference of the whole affair to the French monarch, by the treaty of 1495, nearly six years elapsed ere Giovanni della Rovere was formally absolved from the daring exploit. He was not spared to witness the revival and aggrandisement of his family's fortunes by his elder brother's election to the papal throne. On the 6th of November, 1501, death found him already attired in a winding-sheet appropriate to the devotional habits of the age, the cowl formerly worn by the beatified Fra Giacomo della Marca.

Two miles west from Sinigaglia, on a rising ground which overlooks the city, commanding the fertile vale of the Misa, from its Apennine rampart to the bright waves of the blue Adriatic, there stands a convent of Zoccolantine Franciscans. It was founded by the piety of the Prefect and his consort; it was the chosen retreat of their devotional hours, and was selected by them as the spot for their last repose. There he was laid, agreeably to his dying wish, in the Franciscan habit; and a plain marble slab in the pavement commemorates his titles, and her worth, "in prosperity and adversity comparable, nay preferable, to the best and noblest of her sex." There, too, was composed by Father di Francia, guardian of the convent, that brief record of the merits of his sovereign and patron from which the preceding sketch has in part been compiled. The original MS. has disappeared in the general havoc of ecclesiastical treasures; but in the adjoining church there has been marvellously preserved from the sacrilegious rapine of French invaders, from the selfish gripe of unscrupulous collectors, and from the merciless ignorance of modern restorers, an interesting memorial of the persons, piety, and artistic tastes of this princely pair. Into a small picture of the Madonna and Child are introduced, on either side, portraits of Giovanni della Rovere and his wife, their arms devoutly crossed, their dress displaying no royal gauds except her simple string of pearls, and a large crystal bead suspended from his neck by a double gold chain. Their regular and unimpassioned features are, probably, somewhat idealised by the pencil of one more happy, as well as more habituated, to embody inspirations of religious mysticism, than to portray the indexes of human passion. Nothing is known of the artist, but he must have been among the foremost in the Umbrian school.

By his will, the Prefect left his only son under the joint guardianship of the Venetian senate, his widow, his brother the Cardinal, and the gallant Andrea Doria, whose faithful services we have formerly mentioned. To his consort he bequeathed 20,000 ducats, and 7000 to each of his daughters. On the 18th of November, Francesco Maria rode through Sinigaglia, to receive the allegiance of his subjects; but being only eleven years of age, his mother continued to govern for his behoof, whilst his education was chiefly conducted at the court of her brother, the Duke of Urbino. For a time she was spared the fate of the Romagnese princes; and it was not until Guidobaldo's second flight that the arms of Borgia reached her frontier. Aware how deeply her personal safety was perilled by the approach of so sanguinary a foe, her friend Doria, who commanded the garrison, sent her off disguised in male apparel; and, after a fatiguing flight through mountain-paths, she reached Florence, accompanied only by one confidential servant and a female attendant. The defence of her citadel against an overwhelming force being utterly vain, Doria retired just before the massacre of his allies by Cesare Borgia, which we have recounted in our nineteenth chapter of this work. There, too, we have narrated the young Prefect's escape to France, where he remained under his uncle's auspices, until the latter was called to assume the triple tiara. Giovanna lived until 1514, and passed from worldly trials just before adverse fortune had again exiled her son from his rightful states. Ere we proceed to consider his eventful life, we shall close this chapter with a few brief notices of his uncle Giuliano, the greatest of the della Rovere race.

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An account of Julius II. should be, in a great degree, a history of Italy during the crisis of its fate; but as we have in other portions of this work to glance at those events of his life and pontificate most connected with the politics of Urbino, and with the succession of his nephew to that duchy, we shall here, as in the case of his uncle Sixtus, limit ourselves to a few notices of his character and personal history, including his exertions in behalf of art.

Giuliano della Rovere[*226] was in most respects the reverse of Pietro Riario, his cousin and rival in the affections of Sixtus IV. Moderate in his tastes and habits, his attendants were chosen for their orderly lives; his equipages were as scanty as the exigencies of rank would permit; his table was economical as his apparel, unless when called upon to show fitting hospitality to persons of distinction. Among the virtues with which he adorned the dignity of cardinal, Panvinio enumerates the modesty of his demeanour, the gravity of his address, the elegance of his winning manners. The less partial Volterrano characterises him as somewhat severe in disposition, and of a genius ordinary as his learning. Dignities were conferred upon him in rapid succession by his uncle, including the sees of Albano, Sabina, Ostia, Velletri, and Avignon, with the more important offices of Grand Penitentiary and Legate of Picene and Avignon. The latter appointment occasioned his prolonged residence out of Italy during the reign of Innocent VIII., and afforded him a convenient escape from the snares of his inveterate enemy Alexander VI. Their mutual disgusts, arising from opposite characters and rival interests, were, according to Infessura, brought to a climax by the Cardinal's adherence to Neapolitan interests, in December, 1492, on the question of Leonora Queen of Hungary's divorce. He then retired to his citadel-see at Ostia, where, at the abbey of Grotta Ferrata, his moats and battlements remain, witnesses to his warlike spirit, as well as to the perils of those troubled times. But, considering himself even there insecure, he ere long withdrew to Naples, whence, after narrowly escaping seizure by the Pope's emissaries, he again reached Ostia in an open boat. On the approach of an army under NicolÒ Count of Pittigliano, he fled thence to France, leaving the garrison in charge of the Prefect, who soon capitulated, on condition that neither he nor his brother should incur ecclesiastical censures. Grotto Ferrata was about the same time seized and delivered over to Fabrizio Colonna, on payment of 10,000 ducats.

The outrages which the Cardinal had thus received at the hands of the Borgian Pontiff, in unworthy vengeance for his honest opposition to the nepotism and other scandals which then disgraced the Vatican, galled his pride, tending to rouse that fierce spirit which, although alien to the character ascribed to his earlier years, became the bane of his pontificate. This was, indeed, the turning point of his life, and it developed a policy utterly at variance with his ultimate views. Having attended Charles in his march across the Alps, his ardent temperament often aided to sustain that weak monarch's wavering resolutions. Had he then considered more his country's interests, and less his private wrongs, the storm might yet have been averted, and Italy might have been spared, for a time, from those ultramontane armaments which he now conducted into her bosom, but which it was the aim of his after-life to eject. The French King, having achieved his rapid acquisition of Naples, instigated the Colonna to seize upon Ostia, and, as he passed northward, restored it to its cardinal-bishop, who there once more sought security from the Pope. But Giuliano found in his stronghold no adequate protection against so bitter and unscrupulous a foe. Alexander, on the retirement of the French army, entered into an alliance with the reinstated King of Naples, and in 1497 employed Gonsalvo di Cordova to reduce Ostia, whose garrison had embarrassed the navigation of the Tiber, and intercepted supplies from his capital. Eschewing the risks of an unavailing resistance, the Cardinal once more escaped by sea, and rejoined Charles at Lyons, whilst the Great Captain was rewarded for his easy conquest with the Golden Rose.

Cardinal della Rovere, having in 1597 been declared enemy of the Holy See, and deprived of his benefices by the Pontiff, against the will of the consistory, withdrew for security to his native shores, and awaited at Savona the conclusion of what was to many of his order a reign of terror. At the moment of Cesare Borgia's invasion of Urbino, he narrowly escaped the fate destined for his brother-in-law Guidobaldo, and his nephew, the young Prefect. On pretence of a complimentary mission to Louis XII., the papal fleet had sailed towards Provence, with orders to visit Savona, where, if the Cardinal did not voluntarily pay his respects to the envoys, he was to be inveigled on board, and carried off. But warned by past experience against civilities emanating from such a quarter, he escaped the danger by cautiously evading the perilous invitation.

The sudden and unanimous election of Giuliano to succeed Pius III.—which we have elsewhere narrated—may well be deemed marvellous, considering the various interests that distracted the conclave, and the influence still ostensibly possessed in it by Valentino, the arch-foe of the Rovere race. There could be no more convincing proof that all parties were tired of the recent system, nor of their resolution to put an end to similar enormities. His morals, though hitherto far from immaculate, were pure in comparison with those which prevailed around him; above all, his lapses were neither matter of bravado, nor of open scandal.[227] His errors were of a loftier range, and if more directly perilous to the public, they belonged to a nobler category, and sprang from generous and praiseworthy impulses, and tended to public objects and the elevation of the papacy. Ascending a throne shaken by complicated convulsions, succeeding to a treasury drained for selfish ends, and to an authority waning under long-established abuses, it was his bounden duty to beware ne aliquid detrimenti respublica capiat. But, not content with resisting such further "detriment to the commonwealth," and with recovering the ground recently lost, his conscience, more perhaps than his ambition, urged him to new triumphs. He was a great pontiff after the mediÆval estimate of the papacy. Little occupying himself with the bulwarks of a faith which he presumed impregnable, or the dogmas of a church still paramount over Christendom, he considered the temporal sovereignty and aggrandisement of the Keys to be his special vocation. Like the early Guelphs, he regarded Italy as St. Peter's patrimony, to be vindicated from all intruders: to establish her nationality, and extirpate the barbarian invaders, were merely steps to that end. Italian unity, though not as yet proposed for political aspirations or utopian dreams, was the result towards which this policy would probably have led both Julius and his successor, had the former been longer spared, and had the narrow views with which the latter pursued it not involved him in continual difficulties, and accelerated the decline of papal ascendancy.

But no personal ambition ever dictated the schemes of Julius, nor did a thought for the nations whose destinies he hazarded ever cross his mind. In the spirit of a crusader he marched against Perugia and Bologna; he personally superintended the siege of Mirandula; and when he donned the casque and cuirass, it was because they were to him more familiar than the wiles of diplomacy. A stranger to those dilatory tactics which we shall find marring the reputation of his nephew, the Duke of Urbino, success crowned his aggressive measures and impetuous movements, when greater circumspection might have been attended with less advantageous results; and it was his good fortune not to outlive those reverses which his precipitation almost necessarily incurred. He was, in truth, gifted with qualities and talents befitting the camp rather than the consistory, and Francis I. pronounced him a better general of division than a pope. Had he been bred a condottiere, the political aspect of Italy might have been convulsed by him, and the papacy might have suffered still more from his sword than it did from his policy. Yet if his militant tastes occasioned greater scandal than the less blustering turbulence of Alexander and Leo, and have proved equally detrimental to popery, they are hallowed in the eyes of its champions in consideration of his purer motives. By them accordingly he is upheld as one of its pillars, while by most historians he has been mentioned as a favourable exception to the prevailing bad faith of his times. Yet, though greedy of conquest, he was far from indifferent to those internal reforms requisite for the stability of his government. According to Capello, the Venetian envoy, he possessed great practical sagacity, and was led by no one, though willing to hear all opinions. His judicious measures added two-thirds to the revenue of the Holy See, chiefly by correcting the depreciated currency in which it was paid. In personal expenses he was penuriously sparing, contracting with his house-steward, to whom he allowed but 1500 ducats for the monthly bills of the palace.[228]

But this picture has its reverse. In the two following chapters of these memoirs we shall find the head of the universal Church harassing his flock by perpetual warfare—the high-priest of the Christian hierarchy seemingly indifferent to the purity of Catholic rites, and utterly oblivious of peace and charity.

By lovers of art the memory of Julius II. will ever be embalmed among the foremost of its princely patrons, and his appreciation of literature may be learned from his remark, that letters are silver to the people, gold to the nobles, diamonds to princes. We have elsewhere to speak of his vast undertakings in architecture, sculpture, and painting, which earned from Vasari the reputation of a spirited pontiff, bent upon leaving memorials of a zealous and liberal encouragement of art. His lavish outlay on St. Peter's strikingly contrasts with his habitual economy. To meet it he authorised a general collection, towards which the Franciscans gathered 27,000 ducats, and in 1507 he proclaimed a sale of jubilee indulgences. This device laid all Christendom under contribution, and proved so productive that he and Leo were tempted almost annually to repeat it, little aware what weapons they were thus forging for future schismatics. The example of his uncle Sixtus, in summoning for the decoration of his capital whatever talent merited such patronage, was followed up by him with the energy belonging to his nature. Besides commencing the metropolitan fane, the immense cortile, corridors, and loggie of the Vatican, and the unequalled frescoes of the stanze, he was truly the founder of a museum of ancient art. He rescued the Laocoon and rewarded its discoverer; the Apollo and the Torso took their epithet of Belvidere from the pavilion in which he placed them.

Rome owes to him, among other improvements, one of its longest and finest streets, bearing his name, where he began a series of palaces for public offices and the courts of justice, unfortunately never completed. The churches which he re-founded or decorated include S. Pietro in Montorio, Sta. Agnese, SS. Apostoli, and the Madonna del Popolo. In the last of these are the beautiful windows which he brought two famous glass-painters from Marseilles to execute; and beneath them those purest specimens of the revival, in which he invited Sansovino's exquisite chisel to commemorate his talented rival Ascanio Sforza, and his cousin the Cardinal of Recanati. For objects so laudable the moment was propitious, and fortune seconded his efforts; but it was more than chance which enabled him to select at once the greatest painter, the most gifted sculptor, and the first architect whom the modern world has seen,—to give simultaneous employment worthy of their genius to Raffaele, Michael Angelo, and Bramante.

His successor has found among ourselves a biographer[*229] who brought the enthusiasm of a eulogist to grace the more solid qualifications of a historian, whose eloquence has thrown around the era of Leo a brilliancy leaving in comparative obscurity the pontificate of Julius, whence many of its rays were virtually borrowed. But the progress of our narrative will lead us to introduce some less flattered sketches of the Medicean pontiff. In stimulating the search for choice fragments of antique sculpture, the son of Lorenzo de' Medici but followed the course which his father had indicated, and which Julius had zealously pursued. St. Peter's, perverted under him into a crowning abuse destined to wean men from their old faith, had been founded by his predecessor as the mighty temple of a church, Catholic in fact as well as in name. Michael Angelo, summoned by Julius to decorate his capital with the grandest of his efforts in architecture, sculpture, and painting, was banished by his successor to waste his energies in engineering the marble quarries of Pietra Santa. Raphael was diverted by Leo from that cycle of religious frescoes which the genius of Julius had commissioned, in order to distract his powers upon multifarious, less important, and less congenial occupations.

Nor need we fear a comparison between these pontiffs on more important points of their respective policy. The wars of Julius were undertaken for the aggrandisement of the papacy, and his nephew was used as an instrument to that end. Those of Leo were waged for the interests of his family at the expense of the Holy See. The former is reported to have left five millions of golden ducats in the treasury; the latter unquestionably burdened it with heavy debts. The measures of Julius may have encouraged divisive courses and a schismatic council; but those of Leo matured the Reformation, and permitted a small cloud, which he might have dispersed while forming upon the horizon, to spread unheeded over the heavens, until Central Europe was withdrawn from the light and influence of the Roman church.

In fine, during the pontificates of Sixtus and of Julius more was done for the encouragement of literature and arts, for the temporal extension of the papacy, and for the embellishment of its metropolis, than has ever been effected in any similar period. The combined reigns of the two Medicean popes have left no equal memorials. It cannot be doubted that the patronage bestowed by his ancestors on men of science and letters was liberally continued by Leo; yet it is as much to the zeal of partial historians, as to his own policy of success, that he stands indebted for the halo of glory which marks his as a golden age. In many instances he but followed out the aims of Julius, reaping their undivided glory; in others he fell sadly short of his predecessor in energy and comprehensive views. The bad seed which he freely scattered ripened into irreparable mischiefs under his vacillating nephew, and the sack of Rome, which we shall by and by describe, was their crowning calamity. After that event the proud city was once again left desolate and impoverished, the prey of barbarian spoilers; its population thinned, its court outraged, its glories gone. When the judgment of posterity has passed into a proverb it is too late to question its equity, or to appeal from its fiat, and the name of Leo the Tenth will thus remain identified with his age as the star whence its lustre was derived, although Italy was then brightened by not a few orbs of scarcely inferior brilliancy or less genial influence.

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