ecome violent and upon occasion
criminal,[2261] that is to say, they violated the code recognized by all
men in all ages. "Force, which had been substituted for Law in
government, became, as it were, the mainspring of society. Murders,
poisoning, rapes, and treasons were common incidents of private as of
public life. In cities like Naples blood guilt could be atoned for at an
inconceivably low rate. A man's life was worth scarcely more than that
of a horse. The palaces of the nobles swarmed with professional
cutthroats, and the great ecclesiastics claimed for their abodes the
right of sanctuary. Popes sold absolution for the most horrible
excesses, and granted indulgences beforehand for the commission of
crimes of lust and violence. Success was the standard by which acts were
judged; and the man who could help his friends, intimidate his enemies,
and carve a way to fortune for himself by any means he chose was
regarded as a hero."[2262] If we should follow the manners and morals of
the age into detail we should find that they were all characterized by
the same fiction and conventional affectation, and by the same
unrestrainedness of passion. Caterina Sforza avenged the murder of her
lover with such atrocities that she shocked the Borgia pope.[2263] The
artists of the late Renaissance were absorbed in admiration of carnal
beauty. There was vulgarity and coarseness on their finest work.
Cellini's work is marked by "blank animalism."[2264] There was a great
lack of all sentiment. "Parents and children made a virtue of repressing
their emotions." "No period ever exhibited a more marked aversion from
the emotional or the pathetic."[2265] There was no shame at perfidy or
inconsistency, and very little notion of loyalty. It shocks modern taste
that Isabella d'Este should have bought eagerly the art treasures of her
dearest friend when they had been stolen and put on the market, and that
after warm adherence to her brother-in-law, Ludovico il Moro, until he
was ruined, she should have turned to court the victor.[2266] It is not
strange that the age became marked by complete depravity of public and
private morals, that the great men are enigmas as to character and
purpose, and that they are demonic in action. The sack of Rome put an
end to the epoch by a catastrophe which was great enough to strike any
soul with horror, however hardened it might be.[2267] That event seems
to show how the ways of the time would be when practiced by