[363] In the time of our short republic, we were once moved to tears by seeing some Trasteverini throw off their hats, and spontaneously, without being told or taught, go and kiss these magical and once respected letters, S.P.Q.R. Indeed I even feel moved in writing them.
[364] St Priest, p. 55.
[365] St Priest, p. 56.
[366] See St Priest, p. 57, who reports all these details, as given by the emperor himself to D’Aubeterre. Joseph enlarged complacently on his contemptuous policy toward the Holy See, and declared, in plain terms, that he knew the Court of Rome too well not to despise it, and thought very little of his admission to the Conclave. “Those people,” said he, speaking of the cardinals, “tried to impress upon me the value of this distinction, but I am not their dupe.”
[367] In Italy, the monasteries of the orders called mendicant are the refuge of three peculiar classes of persons. The first class of those who repair thither are idle, unthinking fellows, who disdain to do any sort of work; the second are those who have but the convent to escape the prison; and the third, those youth who, feeling within themselves the power, the capacity, or the ambition of achieving some great deeds, and seeing no possibility of emerging from the crowd, have recourse to the cloister as the only way left them of arriving at eminence. Almost all the men of mark among the Italian clergy have been monks, born of poor and humble parentage; and many Popes were of the same. It is known that not a penny is requisite to enter into those monasteries, while, to become a secular priest, one requires to possess some little property.
[368] It was he who began that magnificent museum in the Vatican, increased afterwards by Pius VI., which bears the name of Museo Pio-Clementino, and which is the admiration of all Europe.
[369] See Ranke, vol. ii. p. 449, in a note quoting “Aneddoti riguardanti la famiglia e le opere di Clemente.”
[370] Francesco was a lay brother, for whom Ganganelli preserved to the last the most sincere friendship and affection.
[371] St Priest, p. 60. It was in this convent that Ganganelli resided before his exaltation to the pontificate, and he often went thither afterwards to spend some hours.
[372] Ranke (vol. iii. p. 449) exaggerates Ganganelli’s virtues, and represents him as faultless and holy, which brings us to make a remark on the celebrated German historian. His indefatigable industry in searching archives and public and private libraries, and inspecting unpublished manuscripts, has enabled him to throw light on many obscure questions; but we think that often, on the simple authority of some ambassador’s relation, or private letters, or of writings without name, which only express the private opinion of the writer, he has established principles, and deduced consequences, that are not in accordance with what is known or may be ascertained by an accurate examination of the facts. We could give many instances of what we assert.