DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0175
ROME.
139
cardinals of her court, her intrigues proved fatal both
to her life and fame. While she was proceeding one
day, accompanied by all the pomp and splendour of
her state, to the church of the Lateran, she was sud-
denly taken ill, and, being obliged to stop, was in the
sight of all present delivered of a child. Her almost
instant death relieved her from the ignominious fate to
which she would most probably have been doomed ■, but
she was immediately stripped of all the badges of her
former dignity, and was buried with no indication of the
conspicuous part she had so lately played.
The character of John the Thirteenth has also ren-
dered him conspicuous in the annals of the pontificate.
Besides being accused of every crime which could dis-
grace him as a churchman, he is likewise charged with
having committed those dark and deadly sins, which gave
a sort of terrific gloom to the vices of the age. In a
synod held before the Emperor Otho, he was publicly
accused with having ordained deacons in his stables and
among his horses, with having made a mockery of the
sacraments, and drunk a cup of wine to the devil. The
character, however, of this pontiff is exceeded in deformity
by that of the celebrated Hildebrand, or Gregory the
Seventh, who is reported, by the old chroniclers, to have
exercised, both before and after his elevation, the ma-
gical arts, which he is said to have learnt from a pro-
fessed sorceror in Etruria. By the assistance of this
man, it is also supposed that he succeeded in removing
several of the popes who preceded him. Having at
length succeeded in his purpose, the unbounded ambi-
tion of his nature was speedily manifested; and his love
139
cardinals of her court, her intrigues proved fatal both
to her life and fame. While she was proceeding one
day, accompanied by all the pomp and splendour of
her state, to the church of the Lateran, she was sud-
denly taken ill, and, being obliged to stop, was in the
sight of all present delivered of a child. Her almost
instant death relieved her from the ignominious fate to
which she would most probably have been doomed ■, but
she was immediately stripped of all the badges of her
former dignity, and was buried with no indication of the
conspicuous part she had so lately played.
The character of John the Thirteenth has also ren-
dered him conspicuous in the annals of the pontificate.
Besides being accused of every crime which could dis-
grace him as a churchman, he is likewise charged with
having committed those dark and deadly sins, which gave
a sort of terrific gloom to the vices of the age. In a
synod held before the Emperor Otho, he was publicly
accused with having ordained deacons in his stables and
among his horses, with having made a mockery of the
sacraments, and drunk a cup of wine to the devil. The
character, however, of this pontiff is exceeded in deformity
by that of the celebrated Hildebrand, or Gregory the
Seventh, who is reported, by the old chroniclers, to have
exercised, both before and after his elevation, the ma-
gical arts, which he is said to have learnt from a pro-
fessed sorceror in Etruria. By the assistance of this
man, it is also supposed that he succeeded in removing
several of the popes who preceded him. Having at
length succeeded in his purpose, the unbounded ambi-
tion of his nature was speedily manifested; and his love