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 Pastor : GeschiclUe der Pdpste 36 1 sions or denials; balancing between the chances of escape, by persistent assertions of innocence, and those of condemnation as an impenitente ncgativo, and urged by his so-called advocate to confess and throw him- self on the mercy of the tribunal — it required an exceptionally resolute temperament to endure the prolonged strain, with the knowledge that the opponent in the' deadly game always had in reserve the terrible re- source of the torture-chamber. Yet the picture is not absolutely black. The prisons of the Inquisi- tion, foul though they often were, were at least, thinks Mr. Lea, " less intolerable places of abode than the episcopal and public gaols " (p. 534). An appendix of documents closes the volume. George L. Burr. Gcschichte dcr Pdpste scit dcm Aiisgang dcs Mittelalters. Von LuDWiG Pastor, Vierter Band : Gcschichte dcr Pdpste iin Zcit- alter der Renaissance und der Glaiibensspaltimg von der Wahl Leos X. bis ziim Tode Klemens' VII. (1513-1534)- Erste Abteilung: Leo X. (Freiburg i. B. : Herder. 1906. Pp. xviii, 609.) Since Professor Pastor in 1895 gave us the third volume of his his- tory of the popes, another decade has rounded to the full. He has made good use of it. The new volume is a masterpiece. The flattering reception it has thus far met from scholars, Protestant as well as Cath- olic, is due, indeed, not wholly to its superiority over its predecessors. The last ten years have seen a notable broadening of the horizon of Protestant historians and critics; and the bitter book of Denifle, so able yet so unfair, must have contributed both to abate their complacency and to deepen their appreciation of an opponent who can be at the same time loyal to his own faith and just to its foes. But there is surely progress, too, in Dr. Pastor's work: a clearness of insight, a ripeness of judgment, a charm of style, which his earlier volumes had not reached. His characterizations are veritable cabinet-pieces — none more so than that of Leo himself (pp. 350-351) : The outward appearance of the Pope who gave a name to the beauty- drunk age of the high-Renaissance had in itself nothing attractive. Leo X. was of more than middle size, broad-shouldered and very corpu- lent, yet, as Giovio insists, bloated rather than really strong. His un- usually large and clumsy head, which rested on a thick, short neck, was out of all proportion to his other members. His legs, well-formed themselves, were too short for the heavy body. Handsome were only the snow-white, well-kept hands, which the complacent Medicean loved to adorn with costly rings. The unattractiveness of the flabby, fat face was heightened by the purblind, greatly protruding eyes, whose ex- treme near-sightedness — a family heritage — forced the Pope, despite his early reluctance, to frequent use of a magnifying-glass. . . . But the unpleasant impression of h's exterior vanished almost wholly on nearer association. The surpassingly melodious and pleasing voice, the witty and tactful diction, the wholly dignified yet intimately friendly and