“IT

T is, above all, in the conduct of Pius VI. in regard to the Jesuits, that the principal traits of his character are perceptible. He never cordially acquiesced in their proscription. He was sensible that the Roman pontiff had lost in them the principal support of his power; but, at the same time, that their intriguing ambition might render them formidable. During the greater part of his reign they sometimes excited his regret, and sometimes his fears. He never dared either to protect or to prosecute them openly. They were odious to the crowned heads, whose good will it was so much his interest to conciliate. They increased the irresolution to which he was naturally inclined; and often obliged him to act with duplicity, the usual attendant upon weakness. This situation, which would have been embarrassing even to a mind far more energetic than his, gave birth to such a strange inconsistency of conduct, that those

who for more than twenty years had observed him narrowly, could not at the moment of his fall, flatter themselves that they were thoroughly acquainted with his character.

"Heaven forbid, however, that we should wish to paint him in too odious colours. It would be unjust, even were he still in possession of his elevated rank. It would be base, after the catastrophe which has precipitated him from it. No; Pius VI. was neither wicked nor weak; but he had several glaring defects, which could not escape the least discern ing eye; and caprices which formed a striking contrast with the majestic gravity of the part he had to play. Nobody denied him several brilliant qualities, considerable capacity, an agreeable turn of mind, manners at once noble and prepossessing, an easy and florid style of elocution, as much information as could be expected in a priest imbrued with the principles of his profession, and a taste for the arts tolerably correct. 42 Impatient,

Impatient, irascible, obstinate, and susceptible of prejudices, he was, however, neither obstinately rancorous, nor premeditately malevolent. Few instances can be quoted of his sensibility; many may be adduced of his good nature. In less difficult circumstances, and with means proportioned to his views, he would perhaps have passed for a prudent sovereign. But his ruling passion was an excessive love of fame, which was the principal source of his faults and of his misfortunes. It was that love of fame, which, when not joined to a strong mind,often degenerates into puerile vanity. He would have wished to signalise his pontificate in every manner, and to associate his name with the most splendid enterprises. His vanity which was apparent in every thing drew upon him frequent mortifications. Descended from a family scarcely noble, he plumed himself, from the very beginning of his reign, upon his illustrious race. To the modest coat of arms of his ancestors, he added all the vain embellishments of blazonry; and composed an escutcheon which afforded ample room for ridicule. It is well known that the Italian people are more apt, perhaps, than any other, to lay hold of any thing ridiculous with merciless avidity. To two winds, of which the arms of his family consisted, he added an eagle, fleurs-de-lys, and stars. These pompous armorial bearings were cruelly criticised in the following distich:

Redde aquilam imperio, Francorum lii Tia regi,

Sidera redde polo; cætera, Brasche, tua. Restore your eagle to the empire; his lilies to the king of France; and the stars ♦ to heaven, the rest, Braschi, is your own

«His arms, and his name, were repeated a thousand times over in

Rome, and in the rest of the ecclesiastiçal state. They are to be seen, not only upon the monuments which he erected, and upon such as he repaired, but even upon those in which he made the smallest change; and unless Rome be utterly destroy ed, the name of Pius Sextus, thanks to his provident vanity! will descend to the latest posterity. While chang ing the Roman government, the French commissaries expunged it from all the profane monuments but it still exists upon all the sacred edifices in which Pius VI. had the most remote concern. It was cal culated in 1786, that this rage for availing himself of the slightest pretence for immortalising his name had already cost the treasury two hundred thousand crowns. It was this incurable vanity, rather than his piety or taste for the arts, which suggested to him the idea of con structing a sacristy by the side of St. Peter's church. He there dis played a magnificence which may dazzle at first sight, but which cannot conceal its numerous defects from the eye of the connoisseur. Good taste may indeed apply to him the famous sentence pronounced by Apelles upon the Venus of a painter of his time: you have made her fine, because you could not make her bears tiful. In like manner the sacristy of St. Peter's, which cost more than sixteen hundred thousand Roman crowns, is overloaded with all the most gaudy decorations which ar chitecture, sculpture, gilding, and painting, can afford; but it caly appears so much the meaner when compared with the superh edifice by the side of which it stands. It is the design of Carlo Marchionni, an architect of inferior talents, and recalls to mind the defective school of Boromini; the style being altogether low and ignoble. Its dimen

sions are contrary to the rules of art; and it is full of nothing but breaks, niches, and projections, The columns and the altars are, in a manner, concealed in obscure corners; and the whole is surcharged with ornaments of the most tasteless kind.

"In order to erect this monument to his glory, much rather than to that of the God whose vicar he called himself, it was necessary to pull down the temple of Venus, for which Michael Angelo had so much veneration, that he would have considered the mere idea of touching it as sacrilege.

"It may be easily conceived that Pius VI. was not sparing of inscriptions in the sacristy of St. Peter's. Over the principal entrance were inscribed these words:

"Quod at templi Vaticani ornamentum public void flagitabant, Pius VI, pontifex maximus, fecit perfecitque anno, &c.*

"How great must have been his mortification, when under this inscription he found the following insolent lines:

Publica! mentiris. Non publica vota

fuêre,

Sed tumidi ingenii vota fuêre tui.

Thou liest! the public voice was not consulted; thou followedst the dictates of thy vanity alone.'

That motive actuated him in all his enterprizes: before his elevation to the pontificate he had possessed the abbey of Subiaco, at the distance of twenty miles from Rome. There also he displayed, in the most expensive manner, his faste for magnificence, Anabbey in which he had resided, a church in which he celebrated the holy mysteries, could not be suffered to remain in obscurity. He spent con

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siderable sums in embellishing Subiaco; and this is not one of the smallest reproaches that may be brought against his prodigality.

"A protector of the arts, more out of ostentation than taste, he connected his name with the famous museum, which constituted one of the most beautiful and most useful ornaments of the Vatican; and the kind of glory, thence resulting to his pontificate, is not al together usurped. That glory had tempted him when he was as yet only treasurer of the Apostolical Chamber. The famous statue of Apollo Belvédère was, in a man. ner, exiled, with several others, in one of the court-yards of the Vatican. Braschi suggested to Clement XIV. the idea of forming on that spot a collection of ancient mo numents; and, as treasurer, presided over the first rudiments of this establishment., When seated upon the poutifical throne, he added body and consistence to his brilliant project. He built round the court-yard of the Apollo vast apartments, which he ornamented with statues, busts, terms, and bas-reliefs; and gave to the rich collection a title which associated his name with that of his predecessor. He called it the Museum-Pium-Clementinum. That museum gradually became one of the most valuable in Europe; Pius VI. neglecting nothing to enrich it, He claimed the right of pre-emption whenever any antique was dis covered; and by thus eluding the greedy interference of the antiquaries, procured monuments of art at the first hand, and at a moderate price. There it was that his vanity provided abundantly for its own gratification. Beneath each piece of sculpture which he had acquired,

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