"Rome gave my brothers to the flames, but I survive a solitary Phœnix. Heinsius bought me for a hundred golden ducats."
This collection contains a great number of pieces composed at different times, against the popes, cardinals, &c. They are not, indeed, materials for the historian, and they must be taken with grains of allowance. We find sarcastic epigrams on Leo X., and the infamous Lucretia, daughter of Alexander VI.: even the corrupt Romans of the day were capable of expressing themselves with the utmost freedom. Of Alexander VI. we have an apology for his conduct:
Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum;
Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest.
"Alexander sells the keys, the altars, and Christ;
As he bought them first, he had a right to sell them!"
On Lucretia:—
Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re
Thais; Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus!
"Beneath this stone sleeps Lucretia by name, but by nature Thais; the daughter, the wife, and the daughter-in-law of Alexander!"
Leo X. was a frequent butt for the arrows of Pasquin:—
Sacra sub extremâ, si forte requiritis, horâ
Cur Leo non potuit sumere; vendiderat.
"Do you ask why Leo did not take the sacrament on his death-bed?—How could he? He had sold it!"