military capacity, and now held the office of counsellor and apostolic chamberlain, was entrusted with this difficult commission, which a secular envoy was likely to transact better than an ecclesiastic. To avoid the appearance of sending expressly to treat with Luther, he was charged with the consecrated rose for the elector of Saxony. The elector had already imbibed so much of the reforming spirit, that he received this special mark of favour with coldness or contempt. Miltitz however found Luther in a tractable mood, and by his seening candour, and by the public censure which he passed upon Tetzel, as the cause of all this dissension, by his misconduct and violence, he influenced him soon to write to Leo in a pacific and obedient tone. Leo replied in the same temper; and here, perhaps, the Reformation might have been nipt in the bud, if the champions of the church would have imitated the prudence of the pope. But Eccius mean time was imprudent enough to agree publicly to dispute with Carlostadt upon the opinions of Luther. The great question which Carlostadt maintained was, that the human will had no operation in the performance of good works, but was merely passive to the power of divine grace. Eccius perhaps expected a sure victory, because the common sense and common feeling of mankind contradicted this absurdity; but his own religion ought to have taught him that those doctrines which most impudently set both at defiance, have usually been the most eagerly adopted, and the most obstinately believed. Luther could not keep from the lists; in the heat of argument, he advanced farther than he had yet done, and asserted that purgatory could not be proved by scripture, and that the primacy of the pope was supported by human, not by divine authority. Still Meltitz persisted in his conciliatory measures, confessing the corruptions of the Roman court, and bearing testimony to the talents and virtues of Luther, with imprudent candour, in the hope of soothing an opponent whom he saw it was not, possible to intimidate. Finding these means fail, he requested the Augustine monks to send a deputation to their erring brother, for the purpose of recalling him to a sense of his duty. Luther listened apparent satisfaction at this mark of respect, and promised to write again to the pope, in explanation of his conduct. Availing himself therefore of the oppatunity, says the historian, he addressed with another letter to Leo X., which in its purport may be considered as one of the most singular, and in its consequences as one of the most important, that ever the pen of an individual produced. Under the pretext of obedience, respect, and even affection for the pontiff, he has conveyed the most determined opposition, the most bitter satire, and the most marked cou tempt, insomuch that it is scarcely possible to conceive a composition more replete with insult and offence than that which Luther affected to allow himself to be prevailed on to write by the representations of his own fraternity." Protestant writers have either affected not to perceive the bitter irony of this letter, or have less impudently passed over it in silence. The passages which Mr. Roscoe has introduced amply justify the character of it which he has given. It was impossible to affect farther moderation after so decided, and it may be added, so unprovoked an insult, and accordingly the bull of condemnation was fulminated against the offender. This bull Luther publicly burnt. Leo now called upon the secular am, and Luther appeared before the diet. This most important trial, if so it may be called, is well related, and an excellent abstract given of that memorable speech which Luther concluded by saying, in his own language, Here I take my stand-I can do no other God be my help!Amen. Happy had it been for Christendom if Charles had now inclined towards those opinions which he is supposed to have entertained in his latter days. It is not to be wondered at that he chose to become the defender of the catholic faith; he might have seen that when the main pillars of authority were shaken by so mighty, a hand, if the temple of Dagon fell, down would come "the lords and the Philistines." Luther was ordered to quit the imperial dominions within twenty days; and a month after this decree, another was issued, whereby all persons were required to seize him and his adherents. The elector of Saxony effectually concealed him mean time in the castle of Wartburg, and in this Patres; as he called it, he remained till the death of Leo. The character of Luther is summed up with strict impartiality: as the opponent of the papal power he is praised as he deserves; as the founder of a new church, Jabouring to establish a new tyranny in th♬ place of that which he had overthrown, he is as justly censured. "Whilst he was engaged in his opposition to the church of Rome, he asserted the right of private judgment in matters of faith with the confidence and courage of a martyr; but no sooner had he freed his followers from the chains of papal domination, than he forged others, in many respects equally intolerable, and it was the employment of his latter years, to counteract the beneficial effects produced by his former fabours. The great example of freedom which he had exhibited, could not, however, be so soon forgotten; and many who had thrown off the authority of the Romish see, refused to submit their consciences to the controul of a monk, who had arrogated to himself the sole right of expounding those scriptures which he had contended were open to all. The moderation and candour of MeFuncthon in some degree mitigated the severity of his doctrines; but the example of Luther descended to his followers, and the uncharitable spirit evinced by the Lutheran doctors, in prescribing the articles of their faith, has often been the subject of just and severe reprehension. Happy indeed had it been for mankind, had this great reformer discovered, that between perfect freedom and perfect obedience, there can be no medium; that he who rejects one kind of human anthority in matters of religion, is not likely to submit to another; and that there cannot be a more dangerous nor a more odious encroachment on the rights of an individual, than officiously and unsolicited to interfere with the sacred intercourse that subsists between him and his God." Did our limits permit us we should will ingly copy the whole of this passage, and make farther extracts from the concluding remarks upon the effects of the Reformation, and the intolerance of the reformers. Some dreadful particulars are given, in a note, of the martyrdom of Servetus. An essay was published last year by one of the united Calvinist preachers upon the conduct of Calvin in that atrocious murder, to show that Melancthon, the mildest of the reformers, not only approved the deed, but was astonished that any person should disapprove it, and to justify the action. We noticed it at the time, and we repeat the notice here, that it may be known what are the principles of these men, and what would be their practice, if their power were but according to their inclination. In our last volume we said that if the Devil were to die, St. Domingo would have better claims to succeed him than any other soul in his dominions-we beg John Calvin's pardon for forgetting him upon the occasion-he might certainly contest the election. It is to be wished that more of the history of the Reformation had fallen within the bounds of Mr. Roscoe's subject; he has treated it not with the asperity and dishonesty which (perhaps with the solitary exception of Robert Robinson) all ecclealike have displayed; not with the coldsiastical historians, papists and protestants, hearted and mischievous indifference of infidelity, like Hume; but as one alive to all honourable and ennobling feelings, zealous for the best interests of human kind, and convinced that those interests are most certainly promoted by an inflexible adherence to the great and permanent principles of morality. Had his tory always been written in this spirit, the world would not have been in its present state of oppression and ignorance. Persecutors and conquerors have done less evil than the writers who have justified and extolled them. Over the two next chapters we must hurry with unwilling rapidity:-the one relates to the metaphysics, and the natural and moral philosophy of the age; the other to the establishment of the Laurenteum and Vatican libraries, and to the contemporary Italian historians. Chapter XXII. We now come to consider Leo as the patron of the fine arts. unquestionably the most favourable ligh in which his character can be viewed His predecessors had prepared the way for him; more especially Julius II. who, it he could have changed places with Maximilian, would have recovered Constantinople, and built a new tower of Babel then on a larger scale, in monument of his conquest. With three such artists as Bra mante, Michelagnolo, and Raffaello, what would not such a man have accomplished had he but found an Adept for his trea surer! Bramante died, during the ponti ficate of Leo. Michelagnolo owes hi nothing; he called off this great man from the tomb of Julius, his favourite task, and sent him to work at Florence upon ba marble; they quarrelled-the artist was in tractable, and the pope was less disposed to conciliate than even Julius had been, who as his mind was of a higher character, ha a truer reverence for genius; and during Leo's administration, the greatest of me dern artists was unemployed. It is Raf ello who is the glory of this pontificat Mr. Roscoe discovers much taste, at much penetration, in commenting up the pictures of this wonderful man, an explaining their political allegories. Chapters XXIII. XXIV. The short mainder of Leo's life was disgraced by action of perfidy which equals any cris * Vol. III. page 587. of Borgia or his father. Gian-Paolo Baglione governed the city of Perugia:-he is represented as an impious and cruel man, and perhaps was so; at least if he were not, he was unlike most other statesmen of his age and country. This, however, is certain, that he never could have committed a more deliberate villainy than that which Leo made use of to destroy him. The pope pretended that he wished to consult with him upon affairs of import ance, and invited him to Rome. Baglione affected sickness, and sent his son to discover the intentions of the pontiff, whom Leo treated with the greatest kindness, and after some time sent back with a safe-conduct for his father. Baglione, being a little sovereign himself, ought to have known at what value oaths and safe-conducts passed current among princes: he went to Rome, and had the honour to kiss the pope's feet; and the next day was tortured, till he had confessed crimes which were made a pretext for beheading him. Leo seized his states, and proceeded to clear the march of Ancona of its petty tyrants; the particulars are not related, but enough is said to show that they were little honourable to his character. A conspiracy which he formed against the dominions of the duke of Ferrara, if not against his life, was discovered and defeated. Excel cious crimes in fond admiration! "It is impossible that the conduct of Leo X. as a temporal prince, can either be justified or extenuated. If a sovereign expects to in his subjects, he ought to consider his own meet with fidelity in his allies, or obedience engagements as sacred, and his promises as inviolable. In condescending to make use of treachery against his adversaries, he sets an example which shakes the foundations of his own authority, and endangers his own safety; and it is by no means improbable, that the untimely death of the pontiff was the conseconduct which probably shortened his days, quence of an act of revenge. The same mishas also been injurious to his fame; and the certainty, that he on many occasions resorted to indirect and treacherous means to circum vent or destroy. his adversaries, has caused him to be accused of crimes which are not only unsupported by any positive evidence, He has, However, sufficient to answer for in but are in the highest degree improbable. this respect, without being charged with conjectural offences. Under the plea of freeing the territory of the church from the dominion of its usurpers, he became an usurper himself; and on the pretext of punishing the guilt of others, was himself guilty of great atrocities. If the example of the crimes of one could justify those of another, the world would soon become only a great theatre of human race would excel the brute creation treachery, of rapine, and of blood; and the only in the superior talents displayed in pro While Leo was thus recovering the territories of the church, he was planning schemes for the delivery of Italy from the French and Spaniards; a great design, worthy of Julius II. whose merits as a prince may atone upon earth for his mis-moting their mutual destruction." deeds as pope. He succeeded so far as to recover Parma and Piacenza, and to expel the French from Milan. Never had his political prospects promised so fairly. That it was his intention to keep the Milanese is certain: those territories, united with Tuscany and the papal states, and with the help of the Swiss, would have enabled him to attack, and probably to conquer, Naples; but at this very time he was seized with his death-sickness. There can be little doubt that he was poisoned: vengeance had overtaken him at last. Mrs. Hannah More has well noticed Mr. Noble's curious eulogium upon the house of the Medici. Their having restored knowledge and elegance,' says this gentleman, will in time obliterate their faults. Their usurpation, tyranny, pride, perfidy, vindictive cruelty, parricides, and incest, will be remembered no inore, Future ages will forget their atroANN. REV. VOL. IV. His ecclesiastical character stands trial better. Catholics accuse him of want of vigour: they blame him for not nipping the Reformation in the bud; that is, for not being a persecutor. The censure which protestant writers bestow upon him, falls rather upon his rank than himself. Undoubtedly, he who accepts the situation of pope, acts in violation of the express words of Christ; there can be as little doubt that to believe in Christ, and knowingly to disobey his precepts, is sinful; but it must not be forgotten how easily we are deluded, how easily we delude ourselves, and how few are entitled to throw the first stone at such an offender. To accuse him for being pope is ridicu lous; in that station of life to which he was called, no man could have acted better; he promoted learning; he restored decency in a court from whence it had long been banished; and he did his utmost Hh to establish peace in Christendom, and to arm Christendom against the Turks. The tales of his impiety rest on no better authority than Jolin Bale and Luther, witnesses altogether unworthy of credit upon such a subject. That he was an infidel is very probable, but it is by no means probable that he himself should have said so; he had no want of prudence. Paullus Jovius has slandered his moral character by the foulest of all imputations; Paullus Jovius was a liar, who invented facts like Vertot and Raynal, and made calumny his trade as systematically as if he had served his apprenticeship to a ministerial news-editor in England. The slander is confuted by abundant evidence; and it is indisputable that Leo's conduct exhibited, not only in his early years, but also after his elevation to the pontificate, an example of chastity and decorum, the more remarkable, as it was the more unusual in the age in which he lived.' He was more fond of cards, of buffoonery, and of hunting, than bescemed his station. Mr. Roscoe concludes by examining what are his claims to the gratitude of after-times, as a munificent encourager of literature and the arts. No contemporary rivalled him, for the summer days of Naples were over. "That an astonishing proficiency in the improvement of the human intellect occurred during the pontificate of Leo X. is universally allowed. That such proficiency is principally to be attributed to the exertions of that poutiff, will now perhaps be thought equally indisputable. Of the predominating influence of a powerful, an accomplished, or a fortunate individual, on the character and manters of the age, the history of mankind furnishes innumerable instances; and happy is it for the world, when the pursuits of such individuals, instead of being devoted, through blind ambition, to the subjugation or destruction of the human race, are directed towards those beneficent and generous ends, which, amidst all his avocations, Leo the Tenth appears to have kept continually in view.” We have analysed this work at length, as its magnitude and importance required. Mr. Roscoe had surprized the world by his history of Lorenzo de Medici; his reputation, as was said of sir John Denham, broke out like the Irish rebellion, eighty thousand strong. The life of Leo was eagerly called for by the public, and eagerly expected, and such high-raised expectations always affect a work unfavour ably, be it ever so excellent. The public knew not what it was which they ought to have expected. Because the age of Leo X. was the golden age of Italy and the fine arts, it was supposed to be a splendid subject for history; a strange mistake, which a school-boy's experience of history might have corrected. The reign of Augustus is the splendid age of Rome, and the least interesting period of its whole annals. Poets and painters supply matter for the critic, and sometimes anecdotes for the biographer, but they are poor personages in the history of kingdoms and revolutions: pageants, and pictures, and processions, are as dull in de scription as they are brilliant in reality; a feast is better than a fray; but every reader is curious to see bloody news from abroad in the newspapers, while notedy cares for an account of the lord-mayor's dinner. What we have said of the expedition of Charles VIII. applies to the whole age cf Leo, except that little part which relates to the commencement of the Reformation, which is of a higher character. Great changes were produced by mean causes and unworthy agents. We feel no interest for any of the contending parties; nothing in which man is concerned is at stake; the point in dispute always is, who shall be master of that to which neither claimant has any other right than the law of the strongest. To feel a hope or a fear for the issue of such contests, is as impessible as it would be to shed tears at the Beggar's Opera, if it were turned into tragedy, and Macheath were hung in good earnest. For these reasons Mr. Roscoe's book will disappoint common curiosity, but it will satisfy, and fully satisfy, those who knew what they ought to expect, and it will please better upon a second perusti than a first. Nor is the period the les important; the system of European po!!tics then first began to settle into that form in which it has remained till our own eventful days. Perhaps the appendix is too copious. It is desirable that rare documents should be adduced, but it should be remembered to how very small a proportion of readers they are of any value, and how materially they increase the bulk and the price of the book. Without these documents the work might have been comprized in two volumes, of no inconvenient magnitude. The prevalent fashion of thin volumes is to be reprobated for this reason among others, that it so heavily increases the heavy expence of binding. There is an other point of nearer interest which au thors may find it their advantage to take into consideration. Mr. Godwin has informed us, on the authority of his bookseller, that two quarto volumes were as much as Chaucer would bear, and we know Chaucer was made to bear as much as he could. This seems to be a limit beyond which an author in these days of of indolence must not venture. Let us not deceive ourselves: this is a read ing age, but it is an age of such reading as might as well be left alone. The main motive which induces the majority of readers to take the trouble of perusing a new book, (old ones they never lock into any thing new?' is the question at the bookseller's, as it is at the milliner's) the main motive is, that they may have the pleasure of criticising it in conversation; and to give them much trouble is the fault of all others which they are least willing to forgive. Brevity is the humour of the times; a tragedy must not exceed fifteen hundred lines, a fashionable preacher must not trespass above fifteen minutes upon his congregation. We have short waistcoats and short campaigns; every thing must be short except law-suits, speeches in parliament, and tax-tables. Thus much as to what might have been expedient for the sake of immediate popularity. It is of more consequence to enquire if any alteration could advantageously be made in the form of a work which is destined to hold a permanent rank in English literature. It might, we think, have been better, if Mr. Roscoe had divided it into two parts, keeping the political and the literary histories distinct from each other. The arrangement of the chapters upon literature is capricious, not in that necessary sequence which order requires: they come in like music between the acts of the play, and interrupt the series of events. Mr. Roscoe adheres to the original orthography in his French and Italian names he should have done the same with the Spanish; and if he had extended this very desirable improvement to the names of places also, such an innovation would have derived great weight from his authority. If a thing so trifling deserves to be mentioned, we may notice that the literary biographies are introduced with too much of a ro damaμouevos formality, and it is too frequently said that a particular account of such an author cannot but be interesting, or cannot be uninteresting.' Industry is the first great and indispensable requisite in an historian, and in this our English writers have usually been deficient; the want of industry in this case is want of honesty. Hume is chargeable with this fault, and Robertson in a far greater degree, beyond any other writer of eminence, not even excepting the abbé Raynal. The present work discovers a wide and well-directed range of research. Mr. Roscoe has sought for materials in the whole contemporary literature of Italy. His style is easy and perspicuous, and with the public this is the one thing needful. The school of Chesterfield predominates in letters as well as in life, and books make their way by style, as men by manners, with little reference to the real merits of either. But the peculiar excellence of Mr. Roscoe's work, is the admirable rectitude of mind which it every where and always evinces, and which distinguishes him above all other historians. We must not close our account without noticing the wooden vignettes. They would not have disgraced the best Italy. age of ART. II.A general View of the Writings of Linnæus, by RICHARD PULTENEY, M. D. F. R. S. The second Edition, with Corrections, considerable Additions, and Memoirs of the Author, by WILLIAM GEORGE MATON, M. D. F. R. S. F. S. A. Fellow, of the Royal College of Physicians, and a Vice president of the Linnean Society. 4to. pp. 600. THE first edition of this work was published in 1781; and although it was so favourably received, as, in the technical language of booksellers, to be cut of print at the end of the year 1785, it was not republished by its author, who lived till 1801. A writer who had uniformly manifested a warm regard to the interests of natural science, and who, by his unwearied exertions, had actually contributed much to the diffusion and accept ance of the Linnæan system in England, might have been expected to have speedily gratified the public with a new edition. It seems probable that he was induced to delay it by the hope of obtaining a‹iditional materials, and of rendering it more interesting and useful. He had originally, committed it to the press, not as a complete life of Linnæus, for which he acknowledged his sources of intelligenc were not sufficiently copious, but as a 'ge |