SIXTENE ROME
FEW figures among the successors of St. Peter are more familiar to the imagination than that of the Fifth Sextus. The cardinals—so the legend runs—were in doubt whom they should elect ; two opposing parties were equally matched in strength. It was agreed to postpone the decision by choosing some one who was obviously near his end. Cardinal Peretti seemed to be in the last stage of decrepitude, and he was unanimously elected. All the formalities concluded, he stood up erect and 'vigorous and gave his intonations in a voice of thunder. Dr. Orbaan does not think the tale historical. Anyhow the electors were not far wrong, for Sixtus lived for little more than five years, less than the average, small as it is, of Roman pontificates. The reign, however, was long enough for Sixtus to work a great change in Rome, and it is this change which our author describes. His book is admir- ably written : any one may read it with pleasure, though he will certainly appreciate it better the more thor- oughly he knows the city. Any one who has never seen it or whose impressions are confused or dim will find himself somewhat at a loss to follow the description. Our only complaint is that such readers have not sufficient help. A plan in which all the Sixtine constructions and destructions—these, alas ! were not wholly absent—should be plainly marked would have been highly useful. There is, it. is true, a map of Sixtine Rome ; but it is on too small a scale. The hand of the great Pontiff is to be seen in many parts of Rome, perhaps most conspicuously in the Vatican Library. He had always been a lover of books—the catalogue of his private possessions still exists and is certainly significant of his tastes—and he did not forget his affection among the many cares of his new position. It cost, we are told, if we are to use this practical measure of importance, between 37,000 and 38,000 scudi ; on the Sixtine Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore double as much was spent ; and on the great aque- duct, the Acqua Felice, nearly seven times. There are more reasons than the magnitude of the cost for regarding this last as the Pope's greatest work. The mention of these details naturally suggests the remarkable personality of Sixtus' right-hand man, the great architect, Domenico Fontana. He was a man of infinite resource, a suitable servant for so peremptory a master as the Pope, who grudged every moment of time that intervened between the conception of an idea and its execution. One of the most remarkable and, at the same time, most easily intelligible of his exploits is the moving of the great Obelisk of St. Peter's. When we come to the category of "Destruction," we find the most conspicuous item in the Septizonium. It was built by Septimius Severus, and, though it had not escaped change, it still stood when Sixtus came to the throne. He and his architect used it for a quarry. There are few instances of what we find to be common fate in such matters of a more deplorable kind. It "mars the reign," as Dr. Orbaan puts it.
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