he again presumed to send ladies ornithological remarks." Since then the old gentleman has been somewhat quieter, but he frowns or makes some rude grimace when I meet him out in the square gardens; but I have the advantage, for I have kept my temper and he hasn't. A lady's school; a family church-mad-always at church twice a day during Lent, and once every day besides, while fast days and holidays seem wholly spent in church; for my part, wonder they don't take blankets and pillows and sleep there-and a pretty fair sprinkling of ordinary, well-conducted people, make up the rest of our square. Now let us have tea. Ring the bell, Miss Emma-not too loud, else you will rouse the birds. Jane, bring up tea; and don't make it so absurdly strong as you did the last time these young ladies were here. THE CARNESECCHI CORNER. In the old central part of Florence there is a spot still familiarly known as the "Canto de' Carnesecchi"-the Corner of the Carnesecchi family. There are many instances of localities similarly called in Florence from the well-known names of the old families who once had their palaces there; and though these races may have been long since extinct, it cannot be said that their place knows them no longer," for the spots so designated are generally to the present day better known to the genuine Florentine by those names, than by the more legitimately recognised title of the streets in which they are situated. In the present instance the Canto de' Carnesecchi serves to commemorate the very ancient and long since extinct family of the Carnesecchi. A work on Tuscan antiquities, published in 1798, tells us of this ancient race, that it had furnished to the magistracy of the city fortynine "Priori," or presidents, of whom the first held office in 1297; and eleven "Gonfalonieri," or chief magistrates of the republic, of whom the first served in 1358. The author proceeds to give a long list of other magistracies, honours, and distinctions which had rendered the family illustrious, and then concludes his article as follows: "Especially worthy of memory among the illustrious members of this family is the priest Piero, son of the senator Andrea, the son of Paolo. He, from his youth up, applied himself to learning, and became one of the most celebrated men of letters of his day. Having embraced the ecclesiastical career, he obtained various benefices. He was, besides, apostolic protonotary, as well as governor of Tivoli, and commander of the fortress there. He served Pope Clement the Seventh as first secretary, and had the honour of being treated by him as a familiar friend, and of very frequently sitting at his table. He obtained, in 1533, a canonry in the metropolitan church of Florence; and, when Paul the Third ascended the Papal throne, he was named one of his secretaries. This illustrious ecclesiastic died in 1567." We have nothing to add to our author's statement of the learning of Carnesecchi, and of the distinction it obtained for him, save that it is corroborated by many writers. His preferment under Clement the Seventh and his intimacy with that pontiff, together with a full and accurate acquaintance with the court of Rome resulting from the office he held in it, may be noticed as remarkable preparations for the sequel of his career. There was nothing surprising at that time in his holding high office under Clement. He was of a noble Florentine family, which had always adhered to the fortunes of the Medici in their various vicissitudes. He was an ecclesiastic, of high reputation for business, talent, and learning. And these qualifications were sufficient to ensure profitable employment at Rome during the pontificate of the Medicean Pope Clement the Seventh. If men did say that Pietro Carnesecchi had some queer and fantastic notions respecting certain matters of religious doctrine, Clement was not the man to let any such trifle stand in the way of his patronising and employing a political adherent, who was also a very clever fellow. The probability is, however, that men said very little about any such matter in those days. Would Lord Palmerston object to make a man attorneygeneral because he held some special notions on the subject of entomological classification? Was not Clement's very particular crony, counsellor, and banker, Filippo Strozzi, not only a notorious free-thinker, if not an utter unbeliever, but such an open and habitual scoffer, that he could not restrain his wicked wit even at the table of the Pope himself, so that Clement had to look another way, and cry "Fie! fie!" while he laughed in his beard? It is true, this tolerant and easy-going pope starved to death in a horrible dungeon in Castle St. Angelo, the wretched friar Benedetto da Foiano for certain unorthodox preachings: he himself, the pope, finding time amid the cares of state to give daily orders for the gradual diminution of the miserable man's pittance of bread-and-water, till he died at the end of prolonged agonies, such as no less scientifically imagined mode of taking away life could have produced. But then the friar of Foiano had preached republicanism to the Florentines, and this was a heresy that Clement the Seventh could not stand. As for the rest, those were the days when elegantly erudite cardinals and bishops shrugged their shoulders over the barbarism of the Vulgate, and were serious over the Tusculan disputations. A dash of infidelity, in those days, was rather the mode at Rome. Clement died, and that fine old Roman nobleman, "all of the olden time," Farnese, as Paul the Third, succeeded him in 1534: gradually a change, from mere tithe-and-tax-eating paganism to somewhat more ecclesiastical tendencies, began to come over the spirit of Mother Church. Not that the fine old octogenarian Roman nobleman had any prejudices of his own in favour of bothering a crotchety scholar of good family about any little peculiarities in his creed. He was too much one of the olden time of the successful vigour with which the terrible for that. But times are changing, you see! Fra Michele, first as inquisitor and then as There is the council, which cannot by any possi-pope, cleared Italy of heresy, perhaps the most bility be staved off any longer. And really those striking and extraordinary is the fact that no troublesome Germans are making such a pother! single copy of this once popular book is known And Charles the Fifth is talking disagreeable to exist. We are apt to imagine that any things about Church reform. It really is abso- writing once committed to the safe-keeping of lutely necessary to do a little respectability. So type, and disseminated in large quantities, must Paul the Third made cardinals of a whole bunch be secure against the chances of destruction. of the-really-most blameless and most earnest| men he could find in the Church. The Romans rubbed their eyes, and began to think that the Church must truly be in danger when such strong measures were deemed necessary. But, in so flattering ourselves, we reckon without taking into account the energies and perseverance of a Fra Michele. The little book was burned in vast piles in the market-places of the cities by thousands at a time. terests; and the fact reflects the general advance which the new ideas were making in the best minds of Italy. In 1541 we find him residing at Viterbo, again in the midst of a select little society all of his way of thinking. But in 1540 we find Carnesecchi getting into The Church-in-danger tocsin, which was soon very dangerous company at Naples. He became to put a new class of popes on the throne, intimate there, with the notorious Giovanni had not yet rung out. And Carnesecchi, all Valdez, a Spaniard, who did more, perhaps, than canon and papal secretary as he was, could any other one man to infect Italy with heresies indulge in a little speculative heresy in good of the most "insinuating" and pernicious kind. company, without serious inconvenience. But He was a layman, too. As if a layman had any the malady seems to have grown upon him. The business to be troubling his head about how he new thoughts seem to have occupied his mind was to be saved! Your easy-going, live-and-more and more to the exclusion of other inlet-live infidel, who had no objection to a fat bishopric in commendam for himself or his son, who was content with a merry wink exchanged now and then with his good friends of the cloth, and a fie-fie joke under the rose he was a good fellow enough in his way, and A singular feature of that day in Italy was quiet old Mother Church was quite content to the existence of a very notable band of ladies give wink for wink, and let him go to perdition of the highest birth and rank, all gifted, all as he would. But this pestilent fellow Valdez celebrated for their beauty, all more or less was always boring about his "justification!" remarkable for literary culture, and all suspected He was the viceroy's secretary, too, which made of heretical tendencies: all, as a contemporary the matter more annoying. And, moreover, he writer phrases it, lame of the same foot. There was an exceedingly pleasant and gentlemanlike was Vittoria Colonna. There was the lovely and man, an elegant scholar, by no means averse fascinating Giulia Gonzaga. There were Laeither in principle or practice to the rational vinia della Rovere Orsini, and Teodora Sauli. enjoyment of life and its blessings, exceedingly And last, and not least in importance, there was popular among the cultivated nobles of that bril- Renée Duchess of Ferrara; though poor Renée liant court-at that time the most intellectual must be excepted as to the personal beauty in Italy, and, above all, especially, a favourite which characterised others of this blooming among the ladies, confound him! A pretty band of heretics. With all these ladies, our state of things, when high-born dames, in- unorthodox canon was in more or less constead of amusing their leisure with Boccacio stant correspondence. The thing began to be and smilingly accepting from their smiling father unpleasantly talked about. It was "making confessor a penance of six Ave Marias, to be himself too particular" to be thus the centre of repeated in expiation of that naughty pastime, a circle of heretics wherever he went. And we began to ask him questions about justification cannot but agree with the Church writers who by faith! Your Gallio-like heretics the Church complain that it was very provoking to see a could, or thought she could, in those days man living in Rome-for he returned thither, it afford to disregard; but your pious heretic seems, from Viterbo, under the very noses of was intolerable! Then his social position and the Sacred College-and spending the revenues talents made this Valdez an influential man; of very abundant Church preferment in furand he had gathered about him in the gay nishing means to declared enemies to the and brilliant but not unlettered court of Naples, Church to enable them to betake themselves to a little school of more or less gifted men, that hotbed of perdition, Geneva, there to hear, all infected with the same "abominable leprosy." as they audaciously said, the Gospel preached; A friend of his it was, who wrote that celebrated which they could not hear at Rome. Was it to treatise "On the benefits of the death of Christ:" be expected that Mother Church could endure which of them, the most persevering researches to see her children thus forwarded on their road to of modern times have failed to discover. It certain eternal perdition, and that, too, with her an exposition of the doctrine of "jus-own money. tification by faith," adapted to popular use. At last Canon Pietro Carnesecchi was cited Its success was immense. It is known that by that fine old Roman nobleman, Pope Paul the many thousands of copies of it were circulated Third, to give an account of his opinions, and in all parts of Italy. And, of all the indications purge himself of the suspicion of heresy. He was could not be deemed an ascetically severe man, whose principal object was to keep things quiet, that fine octogenarian Roman nobleman, Pope and give as little offence to anybody as might Paul the Third. So, when the noble patrician be. Under this pope, Carnesecchi thought he Florentine canon appeared at his summons, and might venture back to his native Florence. in answer to all accusations of unorthodox lean-Cosmo the First was then reigning there a ings, declared, in a general way, that it was all a politic and long-headed tyrant, to whose influmistake, and protested that he was a very du-ence in the conclave, Pius in great measure owed tiful and affectionate son of his Holiness, what his elevation. This Cosmo was one of the could a fine old gentleman, all of the olden worst of a bad race, whether looked at as a time, do, but say that he was extremely glad to sovereign or a man. His influence on Tuscany hear it, that he doubted not it was all a mistake, was such and so lasting, that it would be and that it gave him much pleasure to confer upon worth while to attempt a somewhat complete the reverend canon Pietro Carnesecchi full ab- portraiture of the prince who earned for himself solution, and apostolical benediction. For the the title of the Tuscan Tiberius, were it not Church-in-danger bell had not rung out yet. that to do so would require more space than we Notwithstanding the satisfactory termination can at present afford to the subject. Suffice it of his first little misunderstanding with the to say compendiously, that as a sovereign, the apostolical successor of St. Peter, Canon Pietro great object of his reign, pursued skilfully, perCarnesecchi deemed it advisable to cease re- severingly, and successfully, was the demoralisiding in Rome. Comfortably provided with sation and enervation of the people he reigned ecclesiastic revenues, he started on a little over; the reduction of them from the stout, heretical tour; passed some time in France; turbulent, independent, spirited republicans they and visited other places, notorious for the ga- were when he came to the throne, to docile, thering together of heretics. In 1552 he re- effeminate, cowed slaves, prepared to be the turned to Italy, but not to Rome. He passed subjects of a line of tyrants. This was Cosmo's some time at "Padua the learned," and resided work as a sovereign. As a man, his conduct was awhile at Venice, and in both these cities spe- stained by the most hideous crimes and proflicially frequented the society of those who were gacy. But he was a great lover of respectknown to favour the "new" opinions, and kept ability, A decent exterior and a veil of impeup a continual correspondence with more decided netrable thickness to hide the reality, was the heretics in other countries. And things were maxim of Cosmo, and of most of his successors. changed in Italy since Carnesecchi had re- He was an exceedingly pious prince, and at ceived his absolution from Paul the Third and all times stood well with the Church-as was started on his travels. A very different Paul, especially desirable to one who had so much the fourth of the name, had recently ascended need of the Church's loosing offices. the Papal throne, in 1555, while Carnesecchi great ambition of his life was to be made, was still at Venice. The Church was by this from being Duke of Florence, Grand-Duke of time thoroughly alarmed. The omnipresent Tuscany. This he hoped to obtain from his good Inquisition was watching the "purity of the friend the pope; and would have obtained it faith" with lynx-eyed vigilance in every city in with little difficulty from Pius the Fourth, had Italy. Paul the Fourth, that fierce old Caraffa, it not been that there were difficulties in the way, was continually stimulating the emissaries of arising from the opposition of the emperor, who the Holy Office to greater severity, and demand-maintained that the making of dukes into granding hecatombs of heretics. A very much less dukes formed no part of his powers. And Pius the overt case of heretical taint than that of Car-Fourth was not one of those who could act in denesecchi would, in those days, have sufficed to draw down the thunders of the Vatican. Thus, in 1557, Canon Pietro Carnesecchi was once more cited to appear at Rome, and answer to the accusation of rank heresy. But he was well aware that he had a very different pope to deal with, now, and a very different spirit in the Roman court generally. And he judged that this time it would be wise not to approach any nearer to the long sweep of the pontifical arm. He disobeyed the citation, was judged by contumacy, and pronounced a rebel to the Church, and a heretic. It was well for him that he was then under the valid protection of the Queen of the Adriatic. No other Italian government of that day, probably, would have hesitated an instant to give him up to the angry pope. Venice was at all times less obsequious to Roman encroachments on her sovereign authority, than any other state of Italy. In 1559 Paul the Fourth died, and was succeeded by the weak and timid Pius the Fourth, The fiance of the emperor. For such a man, Cosmo had to wait till the next pope mounted the throne. Meantime, the weak and yielding Pius the Fourth could not refuse to his good friend and supporter Cosmo, such a small matter as the absolution of a heretic. Carnesecchi, as has been said, had thought he might safely venture to Florence, as soon as Pius the Fourth ascended the throne. He had always been, as well as his fathers before him, an adherent of the Medici. He had been personally favoured with the friendship of Cosmo; and under these circumstances he had little difficulty in obtaining, as he had expected, his absolution from infallible Pius the Fourth, notwithstanding his condemnation by the equally infallible Paul the Fourth. He boldly went to Rome, with a good word of recommendation from his patron Cosmo, and returned fully conciled" to forgiving Mother Church. He was wont even on his return, as ecclesiastical writers recount with extreme indignation and disgust, to speak "with laughter!" of the absolution. re The merriment lasted all the time of the incumbency of Pius the Fourth. With the plenary absolution of the Church in his pocket, Canon Carnesecchi laughed his laugh, kept up his correspondence with Italian heretics in all parts of Europe, lived hand-and-glove with the "tainted ones" in his own city, and was often to be seen at Cosmo's table. we may fancy, sat on the faces of those around the princely board. What answer? What was to be done? To give up a subject to Fra Michele, of terrible fame, omnipotent as sovereign pontiff, was to send him, not only to certain death, but to certain torments. But it is easy to elude, if not to refuse, the demand. A gracious reception, an answer on the morrow, &c., and the hideous treason to humanity may be avoided. The accused may in an hour or two be safe across the frontier. But Cosmo knew well how such favours as he wanted of Rome could be won at the hands of Pius the Fifth. If doubt and consternation sat on every face around his "hospitable" board, the princely host was in no wise affected by either. His answer to the Holy Father's demand was prompt and decisive. There is the man. Take the heretic from among us; and tell the Holy Father that "if he had demanded of me to give up my own son, the heir to my crown, on such a charge, I should have done it as readily!" But in 1566 Pius the Fourth died. And who should be elected to succeed him but that terrible Fra Michele the Inquisitor-he under whose inquisitorship Carnesecchi had been condemned during the papacy of Paul the Fourth! Surely the canon must have turned pale when the news of this election was brought to Florence. Surely had he been wise he would have lost not a moment in putting the Alps-ay, and the ocean-between him and that terrible friar, now grown to be Pope Pius the Fifth. Probably he trusted in his plenary absolution, and in the protection of his powerful patron Cosmo. How grimly the old Inquisitor would have smiled, had he been told that a once-condemned heretic thought so to escape from his hands. The words are historical. Evidently here was Duke Cosmo protect a heretic! Has he no a man to be made grand-duke, or anything else. longer any desire, then, to be made grand-duke? Pope Pius the Fifth felt the full value of A few months after his elevation, the new in- such a pillar of the Church, and was keenly quisitor pope wrote a letter to Duke Cosmo, touched by such exemplary devotion. He reand sent it by the hand of no less a man than turned him a letter of thanks, expressing his the Master of the Sacred Apostolical Palace. extreme satisfaction, and saying that it would "Beloved son, and noble sir," writes the zealous be well indeed for the Church and the service and austere pope to the blood-stained profligate of God if the other princes of Christendom duke, in very apostolical, but not very classical, were like him. He told him that he assuredly Latin, we send you the Master of our Sacred would never forget his good service. And the Apostolical Palace, on a business which in the sincerity of his ferocious gratitude may be estihighest degree concerns the service of the mated from an anecdote preserved for us, of Divine Majesty and the Catholic religion. He his turning to a crucifix, and uttering an earnest will present to you this our letter. And were prayer that his life might be spared until he it not for the exceeding heat of the weather-should have an opportunity of rewarding so (the letter is dated the 20th of July)-we should have entrusted this commission to Cardinal Paceco himself, so earnestly have we the matter at heart, and so important do we consider it. You may receive the communication of the above-mentioned Master of the Palace with as much confidence, as if we ourselves were speaking face to face. And may God so bless you as we give you from our heart our apostolical benediction !" This letter was handed to Duke Cosmo as he sat at table. The Master of the Apostolical Palace was at once admitted. An autograph letter from his Holiness could not be too much honoured by immediate attention. Besides, what could the Holy Father have to say to so excellent a son of the Church as Cosmo, that could mar the conviviality of the banquet? Canon Carnesecchi was among the guests that day. The reverend messenger's business was soon told-much, we may fancy, in the manner of that of the policeman who enters a thieves' house-of-call to tell some member of the fraternity that he is "wanted." The reverend Canon Carnesecchi is wanted at Rome on accusation of heresy! No small consternation, * See volume i., page 412. pious and admirable a prince! It would be of small interest, thank Heaven, to English nineteenth-century readers to be told the thirty-four distinct positions, proved to have been advocated by Carnesecchi, which were all pronounced to be "either heretical, or erroneous, or rash, or scandalous." It is enough to say that none of them contain aught that could not be held by a good Christian, or, indeed, aught that militates against any Church doctrine, except manifest and special abuses. Of course there could be no doubt about the result. To aggravate the unpardonable nature of the guilt proved against Carnesecchi, it was added that he had contemplated escaping to Geneva, there to wallow in heresy unrestrained. The ecclesiastical power handed him over to the secular power. The Pope, that is, as bishop, handed him over to the Pope as king; and as the former feels it incompatible with the sacred nature of his office to take away life, it was left to the latter to condemn the enemy of the former to be burned. It was intimated to him that his life would be spared, if he would retract and recant. But he refused. As he had twice before evaded Rome's persecution by declaring himself or thodox, it must be concluded, either that he had become more earnestly and conscientiously serious in his opinions, or which is more probable -that he had no faith in the promised mercy. A Capuchin friar was sent to convert the condemned heretic. But he came back in horror, saying that the prisoner, instead of being converted to orthodoxy, tried to convert him to heresy. Evidently a dangerous customer to meddle with, and better killed before he bit others! London-the "Raising of Lazarus"-has been pining unpurchased, for years, amongst toys and parrots; and the most recent ambitious effort of joint-stock enterprise-the big ship-is little more, at present, than a disastrous experiment. Every town, and village, and country, can tell its story of some unwieldy local monster, who started into life with every prospect of a brilliant career, and ended as another example of the emptiness of human greatness. It matters little of what material this monster may have been made, for iron and wood have gone the way of flesh and blood, and stone has fallen under the inevitable doom. How, then, in the face of all this, could the villagers of West Pennard expect a happier destiny for that gigantic cheese, whose history has yet to be inserted in the archives of Somerset ? Carnesecchi was executed at the end of September, 1567. The Church historian, Baronius, is extremely indignant with those who assert that he was burned alive. That historian maintains with much virtuous indignation that Rome always either beheaded or strangled her heretics before burning them. The often-described vestment called the san benito, a frock painted with flames and devils, was put on the If the Queen of England had never been precondemned; he was affixed to the stake; the san sented with a gigantic brown loaf (about the year benito was set fire to; and while this was burn-eighteen hundred and forty-eight), it is more than ing, the patient was beheaded. This was the way in which heresy was "put down" in Italy; stunned, one may say, for three hundred years. For assuredly those who know Italy now, will not believe that it was killed. THE LEVIATHAN CHEESE. I THINK if the liberty and the power were given me to punish my bitterest enemy, I should cause him to become a giant. I can conceive no position likely to be more fruitful of misery and annoyance to him, or more fruitful of revengeful gratification to me. He would be one of a limited, but unfortunate, tribe, whose existence must constantly remind them that they are not made to measure. At every turn in the valley of life he would find himself a huge misfit. His head would bump against the upper cornice as he came in at any ordinary door; his legs would be difficult to dispose of, under the widest dining-table; his boots would cost him double the price of any other man's boots; his sixteen-shilling trouser-maker would strike, every time his broad countenance looked in at the shop-window; his appetite would be expensive; his omnibus conductor would never see him; and his cabmen would fly from him as they do from a well-known sixpenny passenger. If he indulged in reading, and were curious about the history of his fellows, he would open one of the most melancholy pages in the whole range of personal records. The general fate of kings seems sad enough, but the fate of giants is surely sadder. Some have been struck down by inspired mannikins: some have sunk under the degrading monotony of being nothing but a constant spectacle; while others have lived only as carriers of advertising placards. The unfortunate destiny of giants animate, is shared by giants inanimate. The wicker representatives of Gog and Magog have, ere now, been half devoured by rats; the Colossus of Rhodes was hurled down by an early earthquake; the Pyramids still exist, but only as unproductive cemeteries; the largest picture in probable that this once famous cheese would never have been heard of. The mind of West Pennard, as represented by its principal farmers, in tavern assembled, had come to the conclusion that a large loaf, without an equally large cheese, was worse than useless. As no presentation, however extraordinary, is considered too extravagant or absurd to make to the British Sovereign, the West Pennard farmers decided that an enormous cheese should be at once manufactured for royalty, and a committee was immediately formed to conduct the necessary business. An active canvass was commenced the next morning throughout the parish for contributions, and not a single farmer refused a liberal supply of milk. Some became so interested in the Leviathan Cheese that they gave their whole day's produce; and the contributions, taken together, amounted to the milk of seven hundred and thirty-seven cows. The next step taken was to get a proper "vat" and "follower" made of solid mahogany; and the latter vessel was handsomely adorned with the royal arms. The eventful day being fixed, seven of the largest cheese-tubs in West Pennard were borrowed, the best dairywoman in the parish was selected, and the lines of the Leviathan Cheese were laid down. A few days afterwards, when the cheese was considered sufficiently pressed, and the donors had assembled in great force to witness the launch of their property, the first hitch occurred in the life of the giant. It stuck to the sides of its mahogany dwelling, and obstinately refused to come out without being taken to pieces. A council was immediately held to consult about this unexpected difficulty, and it was resolved that the experiment should be tried of grinding the curd again, and rubbing it with dry cloths, as too much whey was considered to be the cause of the failure. This second effort was crowned with the desired success, and a real Somersetshire cheese was produced, weighing about half a ton. The fame of this giant cheese soon spread far and wide, and many hundreds of people came 4 |