XXXI. 324 CHAP. ning of the fixteenth century, the manners of Italy exhibited a remarkable scene of the depravity of mankind. They united the fanguinary crimes that prevail in an unfettled ftate of fociety, with the polished vices that fpring from the abufe of art and luxury: and the loose adventurers, who had violated every prejudice of patriotism and fuperftition to affault the palace of the Roman pontiff, must deserve to be considered as the most At the fame æra, the profligate of the Italians. Spaniards were the terror both of the Old and New World: but their high-fpirited valour was difgraced by gloomy pride, rapacious avarice, and unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable in the pursuit of fame and riches, they had improved, by repeated practice, the moft exquifite and effectual methods of torturing their prisoners; many of the Caftillans, who pillaged Rome, were familiars of the holy inquifition; and fome volunteers, perhaps, were lately returned from the conqueft of Mexico. The Germans were lefs corrupt than the Italians, lefs cruel than the Spaniards; and the ruftic, or even favage, afpect of those Tramontane warriors, often disguised a simple and merciful difpofition. But they had imbibed, in the first fervour of the reformation, the spirit, as well as the principles, of Luther. It was their favourite amusement to infult, or deftroy, the confecrated objects of Catholic fuperftition; they indulged, without pity, or remorfe, a devout hatred against the clergy of every denomination and degree, who form so considerable a part of the XXXI. the inhabitants of modern Rome; and their fana- CHAP. tic zeal might afpire to fubvert the throne of Antichrift, to purify, with blood and fire, the abominations of the spiritual Babylon " The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome on the fixth day ", might be the refult of prudence; but it was not furely the effect of fear 18. At the head of an army, encumbered with rich and weighty fpoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy, deftroying whatever dared to oppofe his paffage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unrefifting country. The fate of Capua, the proud and luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which was refpected, even in its decay, as the eighth city of the empire "9, is buried in oblivion; whilft the adjacent town of Nola 120 has been illustrated, on this occafion, by 119 -116 The furious fpirit of Luther, the effect of temper and enthufiafm, has been forcibly attacked (Boffuet, Hift. des Variations des Eglifes Proteftantes, livre i. p. 20-36.), and feebly defended (Seckendorf, Comment. de Lutheranismo, especially 1. i. No 78. p. 120. and 1. iii. N° 122. p. 556.). 117 Marcellinus, in Chron. Orofius (1. vii. c. 39. p. 575.) afferts, that he left Rome on the third day; but this difference is easily reconciled by the fucceffive motions of great bodies of troops. 118 Socrates (1. vii. c. 10.) pretends, without any colour of truth, or reafon, that Alaric fled on the report, that the armies of the Eaftern empire were in full march to attack him. 119 Aufonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 233. edit. Toll. The luxury of Capua had formerly furpaffed that of Sybaris itself. See Athenæus Deipnofophift. 1. xii. p. 528. edit. Cafaubon. 120 Forty eight years before the foundation of Rome (about 800 before the Chriftian æra), the Tufcans built Capua and Nola, at the distance of twenty-three miles from each other: but the latter of the two cities never emerged from a state of mediocrity. Alaric evacuates CHAP. the fanctity of Paulinus ", who was fucceffively XXXI. a conful, a monk, and a bifhop. At the age of forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth and honour, of fociety and literature, to embrace a life of folitude and penance; and the loud applause of the clergy encouraged him to despise the reproaches of his worldly friends, who afcribed this defperate act to fome diforder of the mind or body 122. An early and paffionate attachment determined him to fix his humble dwelling in one of the fuburbs of Nola, near the miraculous tomb of St. Felix, which the public devotion had already furrounded with five large and populous: churches. The remains of his fortune, and of his understanding, were dedicated to the fervice of the glorious martyr; whofe praife, on the day of his feftival, Paulinus never failed to celebrate by a folemn hymn; and in whofe name he erected a fixth church, of fuperior elegance and beauty, which was decorated with many curious pictures, from the Hiftory of the Old and New Teftament. Such affiduous zeal fecured the favour of the faint 123, or at leaft of the people; and, after 121 Tillemont (Mem. Ecclef. tom. xiv. p. 1–146.) has compiled, with his ufual diligence, all that relates to the life and writings of Paulinus, whofe retreat is celebrated by his own pen, and by the praifes of St. Ambrofe, St. Jerom, St. Auguttin, Salpicius Severus, &c. his Chridian friends and contemporaries. 122 See the affectionate letters of Aufonius (epift. xix-xxv. p. 650-698. edit. Toll.), to his colleague, his friend, and his difciple Paulinus. The religion of Aufonius is still a problem (see Mem. de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xv. p. 123-138.). I believe that it was fuch in his own time, and, confequently, that in his heart he was a Pagan. 123 The humble Paulinus once prefumed to fay, that he believed St Fælix did love him; at least, as a mafter loves his little dog. fifteen XXXI. fifteen years retirement, the Roman conful was CHAP. compelled to accept the bishopric of Nola, a few months before the city was invested by the Goths. During the fiege, fome religious perfons were fatisfied that they had feen, either in dreams or vifions, the divine form of their tutelar patron; yet it foon appeared by the event, that Fælix wanted power, or inclination, to preserve the flock, of which he had formerly been the fhepherd. Nola was not faved from the general devaftation 124; and the captive bishop was protected only by the general opinion of his innocence and poverty. Above four years elapfed from the fuccefsful invafion of Italy by the arms of Alaric, to the voluntary retreat of the Goths under the conduct of his fucceffor Adolphus; and, during the whole time, they reigned without controul over a country, which, in the opinion of the ancients, had united all the various excellencies of nature and art. The profperity, indeed, which Italy had attained in the aufpicious age of the Antonines, had gradually declined with the decline of the empire. The fruits of a long peace perished under the rude grasp of the Barbarians; and they themselves were incapable of tafting the more elegant refinements of luxury, which had been prepared for the ufe of the foft and polished Italians. Each foldier, however, claimed an ample portion of the substantial plenty, 124 See Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30. p. 653. Philoftorgius, 1. xii. c. 3. Augustin, de Civ. Dei, l. i. c. 10. Baronius, Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 410. No 45, 46. Poffeffion the Goths, of Italy by A. D. 408-412. XXXI. CHAP. the corn and cattle, oil and wine, that was daily collected, and confumed, in the Gothic camp; and the principal warriors infulted the villas, and gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the beauteous coaft of Campania. Their trembling captives, the fons and daughters of Roman fenators, prefented, in goblets of gold and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine, to the haughty victors; who stretched their huge limbs under the fhade of plane-trees 125, artificially difpofed to exclude the fcorching rays, and to admit the genial warmth, of the fun. These delights were enhanced by the memory of past hardships the comparison of their native foil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the frozen banks of the Elbe, and Danube, added new charms to the felicity of the Italian climate 2 125 The platanus, or plane-tree, was a favourite of the ancients, by whom it was propagated, for the fake of fhade, from the Eaft to Gaul. Pliny, Hift. Natur. xii. 3, 4, 5. He mentions feveral of an enormous fize; one in the Imperial villa at Velitræ, which Caligula called his neft, as the branches were capable of holding a large table, the proper attendants, and the emperor himself, whom Pliny quaintly styles pars umbra; an expreffion which might, with equal reafon, be applied to Alaric, 126 The proftrate South to the destroyer yields Her boafted titles, and her golden fields : See Gray's Poems, published by Mr. Mason, p. 197. Instead of com. Whether |