Note 15 — Chapter VIII

This, from what I have heard since, was not true of the last Pope, Leo XII., who was an odious, tyrannical bigot, but a man of activity, talent, and strength of mind, a good man of business, and his own Minister. He was detested here, and there are many stories of his violent exertions of authority. He was a sort of bastard Sixtus V., but at an immense distance from that great man, ‘following him of old, with steps unequal.’ He used, however, to interfere with the private transactions of society, and banish and imprison people, even of high rank, for immorality.