Ista superstitio, ducens a Manibus ortum
Tartareis, sancta de religione facessat
Christigenûm! vivis epulas date, sacra sepultis.
A century earlier, when the army of John XXII. entered the Marches to attack the Ghibellines, the pretext was avowedly ‘eresia’ and ‘idolatria.’ Recanti, which surrendered voluntarily, was nevertheless burnt, ‘because idols had been worshipped there,’ in reality, as a revenge for those whom the citizens had killed. Giov. Villani, ix. 139, 141. Under Pius II. we read of an obstinate sun-worshipper, born at Urbino. Æn. Sylv. Opera, p. 289. Hist. Rer. ubique Gestar. c. 12. More wonderful still was what happened in the Forum in Rome under Leo X. (more properly in the interregnum between Hadrian and Leo. June 1522, Gregorovius, viii. 388). To stay the plague, a bull was solemnly offered up with pagan rites. Paul. Jov. Hist. xxi. 8.
[1083] See Sabellico, De Situ Venetae Urbis. He mentions the names of the saints, after the manner of many philologists, without the addition of ‘sanctus’ or ‘divus,’ but speaks frequently of different relics, and in the most respectful tone, and even boasts that he kissed several of them.
[1084] De Laudibus Patavii, in Murat. xxiv. col. 1149 to 1151.
[1085] Prato, Arch. Stor. iii. pp. 408 sqq. Though he is by no means a freethinker, he still protests against the causal nexus.
[1086] Pii II. Comment. l. viii. pp. 352 sqq. ‘Verebatur Pontifex, ne in honore tanti apostoli diminute agere videretur,’ &c.
[1087] Jac. Volaterran. in Murat. xxiii. col. 187. The Pope excused himself on the ground of Louis’ great services to the Church, and by the example of other Popes, e.g. St. Gregory, who had done the like. Louis was able to pay his devotion to the relic, but died after all. The Catacombs were at that time forgotten, yet even Savonarola (l. c. col. 1150) says of Rome: ‘Velut ager Aceldama Sanctorum habita est.’
[1088] Bursellis, Annal. Bonon. in Murat. xxiii. col. 905. It was one of the sixteen patricians, Bartol. della Volta, d. 1485 or 1486.
[1089] Vasari, iii. 111 sqq. note. Vita di Ghiberti.
[1090] Matteo Villani, iii. 15 and 16.