ell:--

"Tartara tentemus, facilis descensus Averni."

The fifteen years of the pontificate of Clement's successor, Paul
III.,--years, for the most part, of quiet and prosperity at
Rome,--afforded ample opportunities for the display of Pasquin's
spirit. The personal character of the Pope, the exactions which he
laid upon the Romans for the profit of his favorites and his family,
and his unblushing nepotism were the subjects of frequent satire. The
Farnese palace, built in great part with stone taken from the
Colosseum, is a standing monument of the justice of Pasquin's rebukes,
the sharpness of which is concentrated in a single telling epigram.
"Let us pray for Pope Paul," said Pasquin, "for zeal for his house is
consuming him":--

"Oremus pro Papa Paulo, quia zelus
Domus suae comedit illum."

At another time Marforio addressed a letter to Pasquin, in which he
tells him of the Pope's reply to an angel who had been sent to him
with the message, "Feed my sheep" "Charity begins at home," had been
the answer of the Pope. And when the Roman people had prayed Paul to
have pity on his people, Paul had replied, "It is not right to take
the children's bread and give it to dogs."

But Pasquin was now to be brought into greater notoriety than ever. In
spite of the efforts of the successors of Adrian, the Reformation had
rapidly advanced, and the Reformers, scorning no weapons that might
serve their cause, determined to turn the wit of Pasquin to their
account. In the year 1544, a little, but thick, volume appeared, with
the title, "Pasquillorum Tomi duo." It bore no name of editor or
printer, and professed to be published at Eleutheropolis, the City of
Freedom, or, as it might be rendered in a free translation, the City
of _Luther_. Its 637 pages were filled with satire; it was not merely
a collection of Pasquin's sayings, but it contained epigrams and
dialogues derived from other sources as well. The book was of a kind
to be popular, as well as to excite the bitterest aversion of the
adherents of the Roman Church. It long since became a volume of
excessive rarity, most of the copies having been destroyed by zealous
Romanists. The famous scholar, Daniel Heinsius, within a century after
its publication, believed that a copy which he purchased, at a cost of
a hundred ducats, was the only one remaining in the world, and he
inscribed the following lines upon one of its blank pages:--

"Roma meos fratres igni dedit. Uni