vices of three _bravi_, valiant fellows up to any mischief, with whom
he retired to his country house.' Or again: 'The Marquis, perceiving
that his neighbor had a grudge against him on account of the Signora
Lucrezia, thought it prudent to increase his bodyguard, and therefore
added Pepi and Lo Scarabone, bandits from Tuscany for murders of a
priest and a citizen, to his household.' Or again: 'During the vacation
of the Holy See the Baron X had, as usual, engaged men-at-arms for the
protection of his palace.'

In course of time it became the mark of birth and wealth to lodge a
rabble of such rascals. They lived on terms of familiarity with their
employer, shared his secrets, served him in his amours, and executed any
devil's job he chose to command. Apartments in the basement of the
palace were assigned to them, so that a nobleman's house continued to
resemble the castle of a mediaeval baron. But the _bravi_, unlike
soldiery, were rarely employed in honorable business. They formed a
permanent element of treachery and violence within the social organism.
Not a little singular were the relations thus established. The community
of crime, involving common interests and common perils, established a
peculiar bond between the noble and his _bravo_. This was complexioned
by a certain sense of 'honor rooted in dishonor,' and by a faint
reflection from elder retainership. The compact struck between
landowner and bandit parodied that which drew feudal lord and wandering
squire together. There was something ignobly noble in it, corresponding
to the confused conscience and perilous conditions of the epoch.

While studying this organized and half-tolerated system of social
violence, we are surprised to observe how largely it was countenanced
and how frequently it was set in motion by the Church. In a previous
chapter on the Jesuits, I have adverted to their encouragement of
assassination for ends which they considered sacred. In a coming chapter
upon Sarpi, I shall show to what extent the Roman prelacy was implicated
in more than one attempt to take away his life. The chiefs of the
Church, then, instead of protesting against this vice of corrupt
civilization in Italy, lent the weight of their encouragement to what
strikes us now, not only as eminently unchristian, but also as
pernicious to healthy national conditions of existence. We may draw two
conclusions from these observations: first, that religions, except in
the first fervor