Naso was by him banisht in his old age, for the wanton Poems of his youth, was but a meer covert of State over some secret cause: and besides, the Books were neither banisht nor call'd in. From hence we shall meet with little else but tyranny in the Roman Empire, that we may not marvell, if And in his nephew John Philipps's defence of him against an anonymous Opponent, a work written under MILTON's eye, it is said, “ Neque te quicquam ex verbis ejus lucratum esse cen"sisses, quamvis quod dixisse eum falsò accusas, factionem rempubl. dixisset; factionem enim tam in bonam quam in malam "partem olim dici vel pueris notum est." Pr. W. II. 396, ed. 1738. I lean to the more laudable meaning. The stronger MILTON'S aversion to the usurpation of the Cæsars, the less probability is there that he had it in his thoughts to stigmatize Pompey. As little as that Raleigh meant to bring any odium on himself by saying, when under the hands of the executioner, "I was "one of the contrary Faction;" in his denial of any taunt to Essex, as that nobleman was leading to the scaffold. Thus, too, Ben. Jonson : "With such a deal of monstrous and forc'd action, Prologue to Volpone. i. e. “make Bedlam a party;" and Shakspeare, Henry VI. part 3, A. 5, S. 3: "Her faction will be full as strong as ours." Evidently, it is in close connection with this sense, that we are to understand it in Par. Lost, II. 900. "They around the flag "Of each his Faction." A use unobserved by the Commentators on either of these Poets. not so often bad, as good Books were silenc't. I shall therefore deem to have bin large anough in producing what among the Ancients was punishable to write, save only which, all other arguments were free to treat on. By this time the Emperors were become Christians, whose discipline in this point I doe not finde to have bin more severe then what was formerly in practice. The Books of those whom they took to be grand Hereticks were examin'd, refuted, and condemn'd in the generall Councels; and not till then were prohibited, or burnt by autority of the Emperor. As for the writings of heathen Authors, unlesse they were plaine invectives against Christianity, as those of Porphyrius and Proclus, they met with no interdict that can be cited, till about the year 400, in a Carthaginian Councel, wherein Bishops themselves were forbid to read the Books of Gentiles, but Heresies they might read: while others long before them on the contrary scrupl'd Gentiles.] Selden's explanation of this word is curious: "In "the beginning of Christianity, the Fathers writ contra Gentes, "and contra Gentiles, they were all one: but after all were "Christians, the better sort of people still retain'd the name of "Gentiles, throughout the four provinces of the Roman Empire; "as Gentil-homme in French, Gentil-homo in Italian, Gentil"huombre in Spanish, and Gentil-man in English: and they, no question, being Persons of Quality, kept up those Feasts which we borrow from the Gentils; as Christmas, Candlemas, Mayday, &c. continuing what was not directly against Chris"tianity, which the common people would never have en"dured." Table Talk; p. 44, 12mo. 1716. more the Books of Hereticks, then of Gentiles. And that the primitive Councels and Bishops were wont only to declare what Books were not commendable, passing no furder, but leaving it to each ones conscience to read or to lay by, till after the year 800, is observ'd already by Padre Paolo, the great unmasker of the Trentine Councel5. After which Padre Paolo, the great unmasker of the Trentine Councel.] Father Paul was the name assumed by Pietro Sarpi on professing himself of the religious Order dei Serví. Following this rule of designating foreigners by the literal appellations of their native country, MILTON retained the Latin form in Titus Livius, Flaccus, &c. Unaware, it should seem, of the authority of so great a scholar, two eminent Writers of our own time have revived the practice, and vindicated its propriety: (Gibbon, pref. to the concluding vols. of his History; and Roscoe, pref. to Hist. of Leo X.) And surely in the instances where this mode can be pursued without incurring the imputation of singularity, it is to be preferred to forcibly detorting proper names to the genius of another language. In this practice, the French have egregiously erred against propriety: I believe beyond any nation of Europe; ex. gr. Dionysius, Denys; Stephanus, Etienne; Forum Juliense, Frejus; Rotamagus, Rouen; Acquæ sextiæ, Aix; and other misnomers without number. The Greeks in transubstantiating Hormuz into Oromazes; Kosroes into Cyrus; and Shirshah into Xerxes; and perhaps Chemmis into Cheops, did not disguise these names more affectedly. It is pleasant to observe our Authour in the heat of polemical disputation stiffly defending an example, by the association of Anti-prelatical Ministers who wrote under the anagram of Smectymnuus, contrary to his own practice. He thus combats the criticism on them; "If in dealing with an outlandish name, " they thought it best not to screw the English mouth to a harsh foreign termination, so they kept the radical word, they did "no more than the elegantest Authors among the Greeks, D time the Popes of Rome engrossing what they pleas'd of politicall rule into their owne hands, extended their dominion over mens eyes, as they had before over their judgments, burning and prohibiting to be read what they fansied not; yet sparing in their censures, and the Books not many which they so dealt with: till Martin the 5. by his Bull not only prohibited, but was the first that excommunicated the reading of hereticall Books; for about that time Wicklef and Husse growing terrible, were they who first drove the Papall Court to a stricter policy of prohibiting. Which cours Leo the 10, and his successors follow'd' until the "Romans, and at this day the Italians, in scorn of such a ser"vility use to do.”—Pr. W. I. 77. fol. 1738. Concilii Tridentini eviscerator was the inscription Sir Henry Wotton set under a portrait of Father Paul, of which he procured the painting during his diplomatic residence at Venice, and presented it in 1637 to Dr. Samuel Collins, Provost and Professour Regius of Divinity in Cambridge. This character of the determined opposer of the super-eminent dominion which the Pope arrogated to himself over the Potentates and States of his communion approaches so nearly to MILTON's praise, that the resemblance may be more than accidental. reading-] Maseres gives, with the appearance of much plausibility," readers.” "Wicklef and Husse growing terrible, were they who first drove the Papall Court to a stricter policy of prohibiting. Which cours Leo the 10, and his successors follow'd] Terrible had then a shade of meaning it has since lost; i. e. formidable: as again; Virgin majesty with mild "And sweet allay'd, yet terrible to approach." Par. Reg. II. 159. Councell of Trent, and the Spanish Inquisition engendring together brought forth, or perfeted those Catalogues, and expurging Indexes that rake through the entralls of many an old good Author, And Lord Herbert of Cherbury: "Now their army seem'd "terrible; both as it was reinforced by some Regiments of "Suisse, and as the Inhabitants of Naples favour'd them." Life and Reign of Henry VIII. p. 241. fol. So too Sir Edward Walker: "The gaining this place made "the King and his Army terrible." Historical Discourses; p. 128, fol.. To Sixtus IV. posterity are indebted, Mr. Roscoe informs us, for the institution of Inquisitors of the Press, without whose License no work was suffered to be printed. (Life of Lorenzo de' Medici; II. 22, 8vo.) On which this Gentleman has justly observed, "In this indeed, he gave an instance of his prudence; "it being extremely consistent, that those who are conscious of "their own misconduct should endeavour to stifle the voice "that publishes and perpetuates it." When writing of the patronage afforded by the Popes to the restoration of letters, Lord Bolingbroke remarked, that they "proved worse politicians than the Muftis: that the Magicians "themselves broke the charm by which they had bound man"kind for so many ages." (Letter VI. on the Study of His"tory.) This is pointed and brilliant without exaggeration; and he might have pursued his metaphor to add, but no sooner did the Roman Pontiffs take the alarm that the power of the Papal See would be endangered by the emancipation of the human mind from ignorance, than they sought by the black art of the Licenser to raise again the charm which they had heedlessly lent their aid to dissolve. The Monks of Paris, as if prescient that general information would bring ruin on their craft, when the first specimens of printed books were exhibited in that Metropolis, pronounced them to be the handywork of the Devil, and caused the Venders to be sent to prison. |