praising men, because he had found them worse than
he had thought them; yet he had never been wrong when
he had abused them, for there was such a multitude
of rogues amongst men, such an amount of vices and
crimes, such a superabundance of hypocrites, from
people preferring to seem rather than be good, so many
who threw such a veil of honesty over their rascalities,
that it was perilous, and akin to falsehood, to bestow
laudation on anybody.” “‘Cur
in vituperando sis quam in laudando proclivior.’
’Hoc facile est ad explicandum,’ Nicolaus
inquit, ’quod longa aetas et ante acta vita
me docuit. Nam in laudandis hominibus saepius
deceptus sum, cum hi deteriores essent quam existimarem,
in vituperandis vero nunquam me fefellit opinio.
Tanta enim inter homines versatur improborum copia,—ita
sceleribus omnia inficiuntur, ita hypocritae superabundant,
qui videri quam esse boni malunt,—ita quilibet
sua vitia aliquo honesti velamento tegit, ut periculosum
sit et mendacio proximum quempiam laudare’”
(Pog. Op. 394). Though these words are ascribed
to his friend Niccoli, they exactly expressed his
own sentiments, as may be seen in the letter to his
friend, Bartolommeo Fazio, from which we have already
quoted, where he speaks of himself as being “always
excessively averse to the language of praise,”
and further reproves it as “a species of vice":—“non
adulandi causa loquor, nam abfuit a me longissime
semper id vitii genus” (Ep. IX. Bartol.
Facii Epistol).
In that strongly expressed sentiment of the world
being filled with so many knaves that it was dangerous,
and all but destructive of truth, to believe in honesty,
we have the keynote to the whole of the Annals; and
the last six books are marked by a universal cynical
disbelief in human honesty; for from the first character,
Asiaticus, who is accused of every kind of corruption
and abomination (XI. 2), down to Egnatius, with his
perfidy, treachery, avarice, lust, and superficial
virtues (XVI. 32), all are patterns of the vices,
few, except the aged Thrasea, being bright examples
of virtue. I have no doubt this description of
the general depravity of Adam’s descendants,
the dwelling on which was so delectable to the disposition
of Bracciolini, was a very correct portraiture of
the human race in the fifteenth century, when, in
Italy especially, and, above all, in Rome, the light
from the lamp of Diogenes was, I suspect, very much
wanted to find an honest man.
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
I. The intellect and depravity of the age.—II.
Bracciolini as its exponent.—III.
Hunter’s accurate description of him.—IV.
Bracciolini gave way to the impulses of his age.—V.
The Claudius, Nero and Tiberius of the Annals personifications
of the Church of Rome in the fifteenth century.—VI.
Schildius and his doubts.— VII. Bracciolini
not covetous of martyrdom: communicates his fears
to Niccoli.—VIII. The princes and great
men in the Annals the princes and great men of the
XVth century, not of the opening period of the Christian
aera.—IX. Bracciolini, and not Tacitus,
a disparager of persons in high places.
