is increased tenfold when the age presents such rapid transitions and such bewildering complexities as mark the Renaissance.  Yet we cannot omit to notice the attitude of the Italians at large in relation to the Church, and to determine in some degree the character of their national morality.  Against the corruption of Rome one cry of hatred and contempt arises from a crowd of witnesses.  Dante’s fiery denunciations, Jacopone’s threats, the fierce invectives of Petrarch, and the thundering prophecies of Joachim lead the chorus.  Boccaccio follows with his scathing irony.  ‘Send the most obstinate Jew to Rome,’ he says, ’and the profligacy of the Papal Court will not fail to convert him to the faith that can resist such obloquy.’[1] Another glaring scandal was the condition of the convents.  All novelists combine in painting the depravity of the religious houses as a patent fact in social life.  Boccaccio, Sacchetti, Bandello, and Masuccio may be mentioned in particular for their familiar delineation of a profligacy which was interwoven with the national existence.[2] The comic poets take the same course, and delight in ridiculing the gross manners of the clergy.  Nor do the ecclesiasties spare themselves.  Poggio, the author of the Facetiae, held benefices and places at the Papal Court.  Bandello was a Dominican and nephew of the General of his order.  Folengo was a Benedictine.  Bibbiena became a cardinal.  Berni received a Canonry in the Cathedral of Florence.  Such was the open and acknowledged immorality of the priests in Rome that more than one Papal edict was issued forbidding them to keep houses of bad repute or to act as panders.[3] Among the aphorisms of Pius II. is recorded the saying that if there were good reasons for enjoining celibacy on the clergy, there were far better and stronger arguments for insisting on their marriage.[4]

    [1] We may compare this Umbrian Rispetto for the opposite view.

          A Roma Santa ce so gito anch’io,
          E ho visto co’miei occhi il fatto mio: 
          E quando a Roma ce s’e posto il piede,
          Resta la rabbia e se ne va la fede.

[2] It may not be out of place to collect some passages from Masuccio’s Novelle on the Clergy, premising that what he writes with the fierceness of indignation is repeated with the cynicism of indulgence by contemporary novelists.  Speaking of the Popes, he says (ed, Napoli, Morano, 1874):  ’me tacero non solo de loro scelesti ed enormissimi vizi e pubblici e occulti adoperati, e de li officii, de beneficil, prelature, i vermigli cappelli, che all’ incanto per loro morte vendono, ma del camauro del principe San Pietro che ne e gia stato latto partuito baratto non faro alcuna mentione.’  Descending to prelates, he uses similar language (p. 64):  ’non possa mai pervenire ad alcun grado di prelatura se non col favore del maestro della zecca, e quelle conviensela comprare all’ incanto come si fa dei cavalli in fiera.’  A