_The Baglioni. Paul III. and last years of the City_
So after centuries of steady struggle fate had at last decreed that the
nobles should have their way. Because the way of the Baglioni is the
most picturesque point in all the annals of Perugia, because it was
crowned by one of the most horrible domestic tragedies of Italian
history, and because, moreover, it happens to have been so admirably and
so vividly recorded, we are sometimes inclined to regard it as the most
important fact about the town. We must, however, remember that it was
only one of the infinite points which make the city's history, and that
the rule of the Baglioni covers a period of not more than fifty years.
By a rare coincidence it happened that exactly at this period, _i.e._,
during the ascendency of the Baglioni, there was living in the city of
Perugia a scholar by name Matarazzo or Maturanzio.[23] This scholar took
upon himself to record day by day the extraordinary exploits of a family
in whose good looks and deeds of violence, their jousts and subterfuges,
he may be truly said not only to have delighted but to have revelled.
To understand the Baglioni and the fashion in which they were regarded
by the men of their day: terror, hatred, fear, and a cringing admiration
being pretty well mixed, one must study the chronicles of Matarazzo in
the original.[24] But as it would be impossible, and even impertinent
for us to try and retell the tale of this tragic history in new English
words, we have quoted at length the words of one who studied it
faithfully and recorded it with a strange vibrating echo of the original
language.[25] We have merely inserted here and there a few notes and
details which seemed to add to the narrative.
"It is not until 1495 that the history of the Baglioni becomes
dramatic, possibly because till then they lacked the pen of
Matarazzo. But from this year forward to their final extinction,
every detail of their doings has a picturesque and awful interest.
Domestic furies, like the revel descried by Cassandra above the
palace of Mycenæ, seem to take possession of the fated house; and
the doom which has fallen on them is worked out with pitiless
exactitude to the last generation. In 1495 the heads of the Casa
Baglioni were two brothers, Guido and Ridolfo, who had a numerous
progeny of heroic sons. From Guido sprang Astorre, Adriano--called
for his great strength Morgante--Gismondo, Marcantonio, and
Gentile. Ridolfo owned Troilo, Gianpaolo, and Simonetto. The first
glimpse we get of these young athletes in Matarazzo's chronicle is
on the occasion of a sudden assault upon Perugia made by the Oddi
and the exiles of their faction in September 1495. The foes of the
Baglioni entered the gates and began breaking the iron chains,
_serragli_, which barred the streets against advancing cavalry.
None of the noble house were on the alert except young Simonetto, a
lad of eighteen, fierce and cruel, who had not yet begun to shave
his chin. In spite of all dissuasion, he rushed forth alone,
bareheaded, in his shirt, with a sword in his right hand and a
buckler on his arm, and fought against a squadron. There at the
barrier of the piazza he kept his foes at bay, smiting men-at-arms
to the ground with the sweep of his tremendous sword, and receiving
on his gentle body twenty-two cruel wounds. While thus at fearful
odds, the noble Astorre mounted his charger and joined him. Upon
his helmet flashed the falcon of the Baglioni with the dragon's
tail that swept behind. Bidding Simonetto tend his wounds, he in
his turn held the square. Listen to Matarazzo's description of the
scene; it is as good as any piece of the _Mort Arthur_: "According
to the report of one who told me what he had seen with his own
eyes, never did anvil take so many blows as he upon his person and
his steed; and they all kept striking at his lordship in such
crowds that the one prevented the other. And so many lances,
partisans, and cross bow quarries, and other weapons made upon his
body a most mighty din, that above every other noise and shout was
heard the thud of those great strokes. But he, like one who had the
mastery of war, set his charger where the press was thickest,
jostling now one and now another; so that he ever kept at least ten
men of his foes stretched on the ground beneath his horse's hoofs;
which horse was a most fierce beast, and gave his enemies what
trouble he best could. And now that gentle lord was all fordone
with sweat and toil, he and his charger; and so weary were they
that scarcely could they any longer breathe. Soon after the
Baglioni mustered in force. One by one their heroes rushed from the
palaces. The enemy were driven back with slaughter; and a war
ensued which made the fair land between Assisi and Perugia a
wilderness for many months." It must not be forgotten that at the
time of these great feats of Simonetto and Astorre young Raphael
was painting in the studio of Perugino. What the whole city
witnessed with astonishment and admiration, he, the keenly
sensitive artist-boy, treasured in his memory. Therefore in the St
George of the Louvre, and in the mounted horseman trampling upon
Heliodorus in the Stanze of the Vatican, victorious Astorre lives
for ever, immortalised in all his splendour by the painter's art.
The grinning griffin on the helmet, the resistless frown upon the
forehead of the beardless knight, the terrible right arm, and the
ferocious steed--all are there as Raphael saw and wrote them on his
brain. One characteristic of the Baglioni, as might be plentifully
illustrated from their annalist, was their eminent beauty which
inspired beholders with an enthusiasm and a love they were far
from deserving by their virtues. It is this, in combination with
their personal heroism, which gives a peculiar dramatic interest to
their doings, and makes the chronicle of Matarazzo more fascinating
than a novel."
Matarazzo was not alone in his admiration for the Baglioni. He tells us
that whenever the "magnificent Guido," his son Astorre, or his nephew
Gianpaolo walked in the piazza every citizen paused at his work to
admire them, and if perchance a stranger passed through Perugia he was
certain to make every effort to see them. The soldiers would hurry from
their tents to see Gianpaolo go by, and anyone walking by this noble's
side seemed dwarfed and insignificant by reason of his great stature and
his noble form. Gismondo, another of Guide's sons, was universally
admired for his splendid horsemanship. He would make his horse leap into
the air, while he sat straight and square in the saddle, not stirring
hand or foot. The citizens looked on marvelling at these feats of skill
and daring. Gismondo was slim, and walked with the lightness of a cat,
so that no man in Perugia, however quick of hearing, knew when he was
coming. The richest and perhaps the handsomest of the Baglioni family
was young Grifonetto Baglioni, whose beauty Matarazzo compares to
Ganymede. He was the son of Grifone and Atalanta Baglioni, and nephew to
Guido and Ridolfo. His father had been stabbed at Ponte Ricciolo in
1477, and he lived with his young mother in one of the most beautiful
houses in Perugia. This palace had been commenced by Malatesta Baglioni
and finished by Braccio Baglioni, who, because of the court of learned
men he gathered round him, and the splendid festivals with which he
honoured the lovely ladies of the city, was called "Lorenzo il Magnifico
di Perugia." The palace was entered by a large and richly-ornamented
hall, hung with beautiful pictures. At the opposite end of the room was
a painting of a woman of most venerable and majestic bearing, and over
her head the word _Perusia_. This grave and queenly lady commanded a
view of all the celebrated men of the Umbrian city, for on one side of
the wall were portraits of the famous captains of adventure, and on the
other those of the most learned of the doctors and scholars, with their
names and a description of their mighty deeds written in full below
them. Grifonetto lived in great magnificence. "He kept numbers of
horses, Barbary steeds, to run in the races, jesters and other
properties pertaining to a gentleman. He even kept a lion; and all who
went to the house compared it to a king's court."
"In 1500, when the events about to be related took place,
Grifonetto was quite a youth. Brave, rich, handsome, and married to
a young wife, Zenobia Sforza, he was the admiration of Perugia. He
and his wife loved each other dearly, and how, indeed, could it be
otherwise, since 'l'uno e l'altro sembravano doi angioli di
Paradiso?'[26] At the same time he had fallen into the hands of bad
and desperate counsellors. A bastard of the house, Filippo da
Braccio, his half-uncle, was always at his side, instructing him
not only in the accomplishments of chivalry, but also in wild ways
that brought his name into disrepute. Another of his familiars was
Carlo Barciglia Baglioni, an unquiet spirit, who longed for more
power than his poverty and comparative obscurity allowed. With them
associated Girolamo della Penna, a veritable ruffian, contaminated
from his earliest youth with every form of lust and violence, and
capable of any crime. These three companions, instigated partly by
the lord of Camerino and partly by their own cupidity, conceived a
scheme for massacring the families of Guido and Ridolfo at one
blow. As a consequence of this wholesale murder, Perugia would be
at their discretion. Seeing of what use Grifonetto by his wealth
and name might be to them, they did all they could to persuade him
to join their conjuration. It would appear that the bait first
offered him was the sovereignty of the city, but that he was at
last gained over by being made to believe that his wife, Zenobia,
had carried on an intrigue with Gianpaolo Baglioni. The dissolute
morals of the family gave plausibility to an infernal trick which
worked upon the jealousy of Grifonetto. Thirsting for revenge, he
consented to the scheme. The conspirators were further fortified by
the accession of Jeronimo della Staffa, and three members of the
house of Corgna. It is noticeable that out of the whole number only
two--Bernardo da Corgna and Filippo da Braccio--were above the age
of thirty. Of the rest, few had reached twenty-five. At so early an
age were the men of those times adepts in violence and treason. The
execution of the plot was fixed for the wedding festivities of
Astorre Baglioni with Lavinia, the daughter of Giovanni Colonna and
Giustina Orsini. At that time the whole Baglioni family were to be
assembled in Perugia, with the single exception of Marcantonio, who
was taking baths at Naples for his health. It was known that the
members of the noble house, nearly all of them condottieri by
trade, and eminent for their great strength and skill in arms, took
few precautions for their safety. They occupied several houses
close together between the Porta San Carlo and the Porta Eburnea,
set no regular guard over their sleeping-chambers, and trusted to
their personal bravery and to the fidelity of their attendants. It
was thought that they might be assassinated in their beds. The
wedding festivities began upon the 28th of July, and great is the
particularity with which Matarazzo describes the doings of each
successive day--processions, jousts, triumphal arches, banquets,
balls, and pageants."
Perugia, it seems, was turned into a veritable garden of loveliness on
this occasion. Rich velvets, brocades, and tapestries hung from the
palace windows, their gorgeous colours mingled with long trails of ivy,
with many shrubs and the branches of blossoming trees, which also filled
the streets. Colossal arches spanned the roads at the different gates
into the city. All vied together to erect the finest arch; and one was
hung all over with tapestries showing the military exploits of the young
Astorre. As the Roman bride passed in, the ladies of Perugia went to
meet her, offering her rich presents. Some were dressed in cloth of
gold and silver, others in silk and velvet, and many of them were lovely
to behold. But Lavinia Colonna excelled them all by the glory of her
broidered gown, and by the pearls and jewels twisted in her hair.
Simonetto Baglioni drove round the city in a triumphal car, and as he
went he cast great quantities of sugared dainties to the crowd, thus
trying, by every means in his power, to add to the merriment of the
marriage-day, and to show that love and comradeship united the Baglioni
family.
But down in the Borgo S. Angelo men were silent and morose, for they
hated these tyrants of Perugia, and held aloof from all rejoicings. They
had noted strange auguries of late, and a whisper went round that evil
was impending. On the first night of the festivities a terrible storm
arose, scattering the decorations in the whirlwind. It was an awful
night, and the young Roman bride shuddered, as above the din of the
storm, she heard the sinister roars of the Baglioni lions.[27] Lavinia
and Astorre were lodged in the palace of their traitorous cousin
Grifonetto, and neither dreamt of the treachery that was so near at
hand.
"The night of the 14th of August was finally set apart for the
consummation of _el gran tradimento_: it is thus that Matarazzo
always alludes to the crime of Grifonetto, with a solemnity of
reiteration that is most impressive. A heavy stone let fall into
the courtyard of Guido Baglioni's palace was to be the signal: each
conspirator was then to run to the sleeping-chamber of his
appointed prey. Two of the principals and fifteen _bravi_ were told
off to each victim: rams and crowbars were prepared to force the
doors if needful. All happened as had been anticipated. The crash
of the falling stone was heard. The conspirators rushed to the
scene of operations. Astorre, who was sleeping in the house of his
traitorous cousin Grifonetto, was slain in the arms of his young
bride, crying, as he vainly struggled, 'Misero Astorre che more
come poltrone!'[28] Simonetto flew to arms, exclaiming to his
brother, 'Non dubitare Gismondo, mio fratello!'[29] He, too, was
soon despatched.[30] Filippo da Braccio, after killing him, tore
from a great wound in his side the still quivering heart, into
which he drove his teeth with savage fury. Old Guido died groaning,
'Ora è gionto il ponto mio,'[31] and Gismondo's throat was cut
while he lay holding back his face that he might be spared the
sight of his own massacre. The corpses of Astorre and Simonetto
were stripped and thrown out naked into the streets. Men gathered
round and marvelled to see such heroic forms, with faces so proud
and fierce even in death. In especial the foreign students likened
them to ancient Romans. But on their fingers were rings, and these
the ruffians of the place would fain have hacked off with their
knives. From this indignity the noble limbs were spared; then the
dead Baglioni were hurriedly consigned to an unhonoured tomb.
Meanwhile the rest of the intended victims managed to escape.
Gianpaolo, assailed by Grifonetto and Gianfrancesco della Corgna,
took refuge with his squire, Maraglia, upon a staircase leading
from his room. While the squire held the passage with his pike
against the foe, Gianpaolo effected his flight over neighbouring
house-roofs. He crept into the attic of some foreign students, who,
trembling with terror, gave him food and shelter, clad him in a
scholar's gown, and helped him to fly in this disguise from the
gates at dawn. He then joined his brother Troilo at Marsciano,
whence he returned without delay to punish the traitors. At the
same time Grifonetto's mother Atalanta, taking with her his wife,
Zenobia, and the two young sons of Gianpaolo, Malatesta and Orazio,
afterwards so celebrated in Italian history for their great feats
of arms and their crimes, fled to her country-house at Landona.
Grifonetto in vain sought to see her there. She drove him from her
presence with curses for the treason and the fratricide that he
had planned. It is very characteristic of these wild natures,
framed of fierce instincts and discordant passions, that his
mother's curse weighed like lead upon the unfortunate young man.
Next day, when Gianpaolo returned to try the luck of arms,
Grifonetto, deserted by the companions of his crime and paralysed
by the sense of his guilt, went out alone to meet him on the public
place. The semi-failure of their scheme had terrified the
conspirators: the horrors of that night of blood unnerved them. All
had fled except the next victim of the feud. Putting his sword to
the youth's throat, Gianpaolo looked into his eyes and said, 'Art
thou here, Grifonetto? Go with God's peace: I will not slay thee,
nor plunge my hand in my own blood, as thou hast done in thine.'
Then he turned and left the lad to be hacked in pieces by his
guard. The untranslatable words which Matarazzo uses to describe
his death are touching from the strong impression they convey of
Grifonetto's goodliness: 'Qui ebbe sua signoria sopra sua nobile
persona tante ferite che suoi membra leggiadre stese in terra.'[32]
None but Greeks felt the charm of personal beauty thus.[33] But
while Grifonetto was breathing out his life upon the pavement of
the piazza, his mother, Atalanta, and his wife Zenobia, came to
greet him through the awe-struck city. As they approached, all men
fell aside and slunk away before their grief. None would seem to
have had a share in Grifonetto's murder. Then Atalanta knelt by her
dying son, and ceased from wailing, and prayed and exhorted him to
pardon those who had caused his death. It appears that Grifonetto
was too weak to speak, but that he made a signal of assent, and
received his mother's blessing at the last: "And then the noble
stripling stretched his right hand to his youthful mother, pressing
the white hand of his mother; and afterwards forthwith he breathed
his soul forth from his beauteous body, and died with numberless
blessings of his mother instead of the curses she had given him
before."
"After the death of Grifonetto and the flight of the conspirators,
Gianpaolo took possession of Perugia. All who were suspected of
complicity in the treason were massacred upon the piazza and in
the cathedral. At the expense of more than a hundred murders, the
chief of the Baglioni found himself master of the city on the 17th
of July. First he caused the cathedral to be washed with wine and
reconsecrated. Then he decorated the Palazzo with the heads of the
traitors and with their portraits in fresco, painted hanging head
downwards, as was the fashion in Italy. Next he established himself
in what remained of the palaces of his kindred, hanging the saloons
with black, and arraying his retainers in the deepest mourning.
Sad, indeed, was now the aspect of Perugia. Helpless and
comparatively uninterested, the citizens had been spectators of
these bloody broils. They were now bound to share the desolation of
their masters. Matarazzo's description of the mournful palace and
the silent town, and of the return of Marcantonio from Naples,
presents a picture striking for its vividness.[34] In the true
style of the Baglioni, Marcantonio sought to vent his sorrow not so
much in tears as by new violence. He prepared and lighted torches,
meaning to burn the whole quarter of S. Angelo; and from this
design he was with difficulty dissuaded by his brother. To such mad
freaks of rage and passion were the inhabitants of a mediæval town
in Italy exposed! They make us understand the _ordinanze di
giustizia_, by which to be a noble was a crime in Florence.
"From this time forward the whole history of the Baglioni family is
one of crime and bloodshed. A curse had fallen on the house, and to
the last of its members the penalty was paid. Gianpaolo himself
acquired the highest reputation throughout Italy for his courage
and sagacity both as a general and a governor."
Gianpaolo is the last member of the Baglioni brood who succeeded in
ruling over his native city, maintaining the despotic traditions of his
predecessors by a system of unconscionable brutality. The personality of
this tyrant is strongly brought forward in Italian histories. Frolliere
gives the following account of the fascination of the outward man:
"Gianpaolo during his life-time was the favoured one of Heaven and
of fortune. He was handsome and of a gracious aspect, pleasant and
benign; eloquent in his conversation, and of great prudence; and
every gesture harmonised with his words and manner. In his desire
to please all, even strangers, if perchance he was unable or
unwilling to serve them, he showed himself so gracious and so
willing, that they left him satisfied and pleased. He was much
given to the love of women and he was greatly loved by them by
reason of his delicate and lordly bearing. He was, indeed, a
valiant and a gallant knight, of admirable and almost divine talent
and resource, as was shown in many of his enterprises and his
actions."[35]
But there was a very different side to this in the character of
Gianpaolo, and we hear that on one occasion
... "he had it in his mind to murder four citizens of Perugia, his
enemies. He looked calmly on while his kinsmen Eusebio and Taddeo
Baglioni, who had been accused of treason, were hewn to pieces by
his guard. His wife, Ippolita de' Conti, was poniarded on her Roman
farm; on hearing the news, he ordered a festival in which he was
engaged to proceed with redoubled merriment."[36]
Gianpaolo was also a good diplomatist, as cautious as he was cruel, and
one of the most striking pictures in Perugian history is that of his
reception of Julius II. in 1506, on which occasion the Pope came to
visit the tyrant in person. The Baglioni was perfectly well aware that
Julius had come for the purpose of re-establishing papal dominion in the
city; but he was too cautious to shove His Holiness over a wall which he
was building at the time, and thus to counterfeit the papal plans and
set all Italy ablaze with admiration at the audacity of his action:
"While Michelangelo was planning frescoes and venting his bile in
sonnets, the fiery Pope had started on his perilous career of
conquest. He called the cardinals together, and informed them that
he meant to free the cities of Perugia and Bologna from their
tyrants. God, he said, would protect His Church; he could rely on
the support of France and Florence. Other popes had stirred up wars
and used the services of Generals; he meant to take the field in
person. Louis XII. is reported to have jeered among his courtiers
at the notion of a high-priest riding to the wars. A few days
afterwards, on the 27th of August, the Pope left Rome attended by
twenty-four cardinals and 500 men-at-arms. He had previously
secured the neutrality of Venice and a promise of troops from the
French court. When Julius reached Orvieto, he was met by Gianpaolo,
the bloody and licentious despot of Perugia. Notwithstanding
Baglioni knew that Julius was coming to assert his supremacy, and
notwithstanding the Pope knew that this might drive to desperation
a man so violent and stained with crime as Baglioni, they rode
together to Perugia, where Gianpaolo paid homage and supplied his
haughty guest with soldiers. The rashness of this act of Julius
sent a thrill of admiration throughout Italy, stirring that sense
of _terribilità_ which fascinated the imagination of the men of the
Renaissance. Machiavelli, commenting upon the action of the
Baglioni, remarks that the event proved how difficult it is for a
man to be perfectly and scientifically wicked."[37]
* * * * *
"At last the time came for Gianpaolo to die by fraud and violence.
Leo X., anxious to remove so powerful a rival from Perugia, lured
him in 1520 to Rome under the false protection of a papal
safe-conduct. After a short imprisonment he had him beheaded in the
Castle of S. Angelo. It was thought that Gentile, his first cousin,
sometime Bishop of Orvieto, but afterwards the father of two sons
in wedlock with Giulia Vitelli--such was the discipline of the
Church at this epoch--had contributed to the capture of Gianpaolo,
and had exulted in his execution. If so, he paid dear for his
treachery; for Orazio Baglioni, the second son of Gianpaolo and
captain of the Church under Clement VII., had him murdered in 1527,
together with his two nephews Fileno and Annibale. This Orazio was
one of the most bloodthirsty of the whole brood. Not satisfied with
the assassination of Gentile, he stabbed Galeotto, the son of
Grifonetto, with his own hand in the same year. Afterwards he died
in the kingdom of Naples while leading the Black Bands in the
disastrous war which followed the sack of Rome. He left no son.
Malatesta, his elder brother, became one of the most celebrated
generals of the age, holding the batons of the Venetian and
Florentine republics, and managing to maintain his ascendency in
Perugia in spite of the persistent opposition of successive popes.
But his name is best known in history for one of the greatest
public crimes. Intrusted with the defence of Florence during the
siege of 1530, he sold the city to his enemy, Pope Clement,
receiving for the price of this infamy certain privileges and
immunities which fortified his hold upon Perugia for a season. All
Italy was ringing with the great deeds of the Florentines, who for
the sake of their liberty transformed themselves from merchants
into soldiers, and withstood the united powers of pope and emperor
alone. Meanwhile Malatesta, whose trade was war, and who was being
largely paid for his services by the beleaguered city, contrived by
means of diplomatic procrastination, secret communication with the
enemy, and all the arts that could intimidate an army of recruits,
to push affairs to a point at which Florence was forced to
capitulate without inflicting the last desperate glorious blow she
longed to deal her enemies. The universal voice of Italy condemned
him. When Matteo Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, heard what he had
done, he cried before the Pregadi in conclave, 'He has sold that
people and that city, and the blood of those poor citizens ounce by
ounce, and has donned the cap of the biggest traitor in the world.'
Consumed with shame, corroded by an infamous disease, and
mistrustful of Clement, to whom he had sold his honor, Malatesta
retired to Perugia, and died in 1531. He left one son, Ridolfo, who
was unable to maintain himself in the lordship of his native city.
After killing the papal legate, Cinzio Filonardi, in 1534, he was
dislodged four years afterwards, when Paul III. took final
possession of the place as an appanage of the Church, razed the
houses of the Baglioni to the ground, and built upon their site the
Rocca Paolina....
... "Ridolfo Baglioni and his cousin Braccio, the eldest son of
Grifonetto, were both captains of Florence. The one died in battle
in 1554, the other in 1559. Thus ended the illustrious family. They
are now represented by descendants from females, and by contadini,
who preserve their name and boast a pedigree, of which they have no
written records."[38]
* * * * *
Thus the Baglioni practically killed themselves--stamped out their own
power through their own passions. It remained for the Church to crush if
possible the spirit of liberty and of self-government in the people of
Perugia. It is as though a mighty wheel spun round and we next find the
city wholly and entirely in the clutches of Rome.
* * * * *
When the last strong member of the terrible brood, Ridolfo Baglioni,
forced his way back into Perugia with the evident intention of ruling
there, he seems to have ignored the fact that he had something more
powerful to face than the opposition of the people. Ridolfo set fire to
the people's palace, but he went much further, he assassinated the
Pope's Legate. This outrage gave the final push to Rome, who had so
often and so impotently interfered before, and Paul Farnese, the
reigning Pope, listened, we hear, with the profoundest displeasure to
the account of this barefaced murder. He at once took the high hand. He
sent troops from Rome to drive out Ridolfo, who retired before them to
seek a better fortune elsewhere. He then had the walls of Spello,
Bettona, Bastia, and other strongholds of Ridolfo Baglioni demolished,
and finally, in order to make his policy more permanent and decisive,
the great Farnese Pope arrived in person at Perugia.
Paul's arrival is one of the most impressive points in the annals of the
town. The rule of the Baglioni had been so powerful and so picturesque
that in tracing it one is inclined to ignore the undercurrent of affairs
in the city. As a matter of fact the old order of rule had not really
died out under that of the nobles, and in the description of Paul's
reception we find the familiar names of companies and _Priori_ occurring
again and again with all their followers and titles.
The Perugians, wearied to death by the despotic rule of the nobles,
hailed the advent of a much more despotic Pope with blind and excessive
joy. Paul came in triumph, and in triumph he was received. Great arches
were built for him and for his cardinals to pass beneath, and since the
town had not sufficient money to spend on his reception they even melted
down a beautiful silver ship belonging to the city plate chest. It was
on the last day of August 1535, and at about midnight, that "His Blessed
Holiness" arrived at the gates with fourteen cardinals and some
companies of 600 or 700 horse and 700 infantry. The Pope rode up on
horseback, dressed in scarlet. Drums and tambours heralded his approach.
The cardinals rode by two and two. On either side of His Holiness rode
his two nephews: the Cardinals Alexander Farnese and Guido Ascanio
Sforza. The _Priori_, all in new and gorgeous robes, preceded by the
Holy Eucharist, came out to meet him, and through their ambassador or
_nunzio_ they presented to His Holiness a silver basin containing the
keys of the city. Then a learned doctor of the University delivered "a
short but elegant address," to which the Pope listened attentively, and
for that night the Pope turned in to sleep in the monastery of S.
Pietro. The following day he entered the city with extraordinary pomp
and took up his abode in the Palazzo Pubblico, where the _Priori_ had
vacated their own rooms in order to give him proper space; and thither
all the professors and all the members of the city guilds and
confraternities arrived that afternoon to kiss his foot.
Paul's first visit to Perugia may be called a triumphal progress rather
than anything else. He gave great gifts of grain to the city, and he
conferred countless benefits upon its churches and its clergy. But he
came to rule, and not to pamper or caress. For a time all went well.
The convents and the monasteries grew fat and prosperous, the Baglioni
were away, and the people apparently at peace; but storms were brewing.
After three years of passive submission Perugia found cause to revolt
against her new ruler as she had done against her old. In 1538 Paul III.
sent out his decree for raising the price of salt by one half in all the
pontifical states, and the Perugians revolted at once against an
imposition which they had good reason to feel unjust.[39]
Revolution was declared. Alfano Alfani, the chief of the magistrates,
tried to calm the fury of his countrymen, and at first only humble
entreaties were sent down to Rome imploring Paul III. to remove a tax so
odious to the people. But the Pope was too much in need of money to
listen to these prayers. His only answer was an excommunication, which
punishment was not unfamiliar to the people of Perugia. During the month
of March 1539 the city lay under an interdict, no masses were said, no
sacraments given, and the churches seemed as the monuments of a people
long since dead. Every day the murmurings of the Perugians grew and
strengthened, and finally they took the high-handed measure of arranging
matters for themselves. They elected twenty-five citizens who were
called "the twenty-five defenders of justice in the city of Perugia,"
and before many days were out the "twenty-five" had obtained unlimited
power. They exercised an independent and undisputed authority and pushed
the _priori_ entirely to one side. Their endeavours to protect their
liberty and resist the Pope's authority soon roused his anger. The
Farnese was not a person to be trifled with, and this barefaced
rebellion of the little Umbrian city had to be crushed by prompt and
powerful means; so the Pope sent his son, Pier Luigi Farnese, at the
head of 10,000 Italians and 3000 Spaniards to meet the rulers in the
field.
A strange piece of history follows. The Perugians veer round utterly and
call in as their leader Ridolfo Baglioni to help them against a Pope,
whom but three short years ago they had welcomed as their best
benefactor.
Ridolfo went forth to fight against the Papal troops with a mighty
flourish of trumpets, but we only hear faint rumours of a skirmish near
Ponte S. Giovanni where one or two men were killed, and a few more
tumbled off their chargers. The whole account reads like a farce, and
yet we know that men and women regarded it with deadly earnest at the
time. The city was all unhinged. An extraordinary religious phase which
had nothing to do with the Church came over her. The large crucifix
which is still to be seen in S. Lorenzo, was placed above the main
entrance to the Duomo, and here the people came to pray and tell their
beads with an unwonted fervour. Continual processions wound their slow
way up from S. Domenico to the Cathedral square, and we hear that the
cries for mercy were deafening throughout the city.
On a dark night, by the flickering light of many torches, Maria Podiano,
the Chancellor of the Commune, delivered a touching oration, and in the
sight of all the citizens he placed the city keys at the foot of the
great crucifix on the outside of the Cathedral--Christ was to be their
defender, Christ their leader, to fight against a Pope![40]
But it was impossible that Perugia should be able to stand against such
an army as that of Paul III., and Ridolfo Baglioni was the first to see
that his side must lose. With less loyalty than might have been expected
from this would-be despot of Perugia, he edged towards peace, and
finally, on the 3rd June 1540, peace was concluded between Pier Luigi
Farnese and Ridolfo Baglioni. Thus it happened that once again Perugia
was cast under the shadow of Pontifical Rome. Neighbouring towns had
abandoned her at the moment when she wrestled for her liberty; Ridolfo
Baglioni had given her but a half-hearted help, and the Perugians were
driven to confess that the only course which now lay open to them was an
apology to the Pope. Twenty-five ambassadors were therefore sent to
Rome. Dressed in long black robes with halters round their necks, the
unhappy Perugian envoys crouched in the portico of S. Peter's awaiting
their absolution.
Pardon was obtained, but at a heavy price. The ambassadors returned home
bearing the news that Paul had forgiven the city; but the titles of
Preservers of Ecclesiastical Obedience, borne by the Pope's magistrates,
warned Perugia quite sufficiently that her old forms of government were
wiped away for ever. A few days later and the foundations of Paul III.'s
fortress were laid on the site of the razed palaces of the Baglioni, and
the citizens were compelled to lend their help in the erection of this
colossal stronghold which was to prove their bane for centuries to
follow. On its inner walls it bore the following inscription, which
fully indicated the feelings and intentions of the indomitable Farnese:
_Ad coercendam Perusinorum Audaciam_.[41]
Writhing beneath the yoke of priests, the Perugians soon regretted even
the rule of the Baglioni: "Help me if you can," Malatesta Baglioni had
cried as he lay dying at Bettona in 1531, "for after my death you will
be made to draw the cart like oxen"; and Frolliere, chronicling these
words, remarks: "This has been fulfilled to the last letter, for all
have borne not only the yoke but the goad."[42]
In the same year (1540) as that in which Paul III. laid the foundations
of his famous fortress, a society, which proved of invaluable service in
furthering the work and wishes of the Papacy, sprang forth into vigorous
life, and gradually the chief power in Perugia fell into the hands of
the Jesuits. These agents of the Pope proceeded to convert the city
wholesale by means of religious ceremonies, general confessions,
preachings in every square, and in all the corners of the streets, and
colossal processions, headed by missionaries wearing crowns of thorns
and bearing enormous crosses. Industries died out, poverty, famine, and
pestilence decimated the city, and in 1728, from a petition presented to
Clement X., it appears that Perugia was reduced to such a state of
wretchedness as to bring tears to the eyes of those who remembered her
former prosperity.
* * * * *
The final history of Perugia, down to the present day, may be compressed
into a very few lines. Up to the
[Illustration: FORTRESS OF PAUL III. SHOWING THE UPPER PART NOW OCCUPIED
BY THE PREFETTURA, ETC., AND THE LOWER WING WHICH COVERED THE SITE OF
THE PRESENT PIAZZA D'ARMI
(_From a water-colour sketch now in the possession of Madame Brufani at
Perugia._)]
end of the last century, she was practically ruled by the Popes, and was
a city of the Papal States. Her immense convents and churches were
filled with monks and nuns. In 1549, Julius III. restored to her some of
her ancient privileges of which Paul had deprived her, and in some sort
she regained her old forms of government, but she could never again be
called by her historians an independent State. In 1797, during the
general upheaval of Europe which followed the revolution in France, she
underwent a quite new phase, and became a French Prefecture under the
title of _Departimento del Trasimeno_. General la Valette levied tribute
from the citizens, who were further harassed by the sudden break up of
the Roman Republic and an Austrian occupation. After the Battle of
Marengo, in 1800, Perugia ceased to be Pontifical, and in 1809 she was
formally annexed to the French Empire, and made a canton of Spoleto
under a sub-prefect. By Napoleon's orders the convents of both sexes and
of all orders were suppressed, the bishops and prelates were sent to
Rome in carriage loads, and the poor monks and nuns were unfrocked and
literally carted through the streets to their homes. When a turn came in
the fortunes of the empire, Perugia became the victim of another change,
and with the partial introduction of the papal sway, the monks and nuns
returned to their convents.
In spite of its tyrannies, the Napoleonic occupation had given the
Perugians a taste for better things than a papal despotism, and they
never again found rest in the care of the Pope. They fretted and chafed
under the Pope's people; the Pope's fortress became a veritable eye-sore
to them, the daily sight of its walls burned into their hearts like
red-hot nails, and whenever they could they pulled a part of it down.
At last, in 1859, they rose in open rebellion, and Papal troops were
sent by Pius IX. to besiege the town. Some 2000 of the Swiss Guard, led
by Colonel Schmid, arrived from Rome to quell the insurrection. Bonazzi
gives a vivid account of the atrocities these men committed in the city.
They killed all whom they laid hands on in their raids as they passed
through the streets, crying aloud as they went that "their master the
Pope had given them orders that none should be spared." S. Pietro was
forced, and, notwithstanding the protests of the Abbot and his monks,
its vestments were torn to threads, gold and silver ornaments carried
away, and not even the archives with their wealth of long accumulated
missals escaped the vandalism of the papal troops. (See p. 162.)
In 1860 the Swiss were finally dislodged by Victor Emanuel's envoy,
General Manfredo Fanti; and, unarmed and closely guarded by a double
file of the King's soldiers, the last representatives of papal power
were driven from the fortress of Paul III., and having passed a night in
the cathedral, they were ousted for ever from the precincts of Perugia.
Paul III.'s fortress had now been entirely pulled down by an infinite
number of willing hands, and the present great buildings of the
Prefettura, which represents the modern government of a prosperous town,
took their place on the former site of the Baglioni palaces.
* * * * *
With the loss of Perugia's independent existence in 1540 the light of
romance was lost to her history. But from that minute, and in spite of
all her anguish and humiliation, she learned the final lesson of how to
live at peace within herself, and be at peace with all her neighbours.
This lesson she had never learned through all her battlings in the past.
She had risen fighting, and fighting she had flourished. It would be
inaccurate to say that fighting she fell.
Perugia never fell. She was merely caught and tamed. Anyone familiar
with the cities of Umbria will at once recognise in this, their head,
something forcible, strong, grand, and enduring, which neither nobles,
emperors, nor popes were able to beat out of her; something which has
kept her what she was at the beginning: Perugia, the city of plenty, and
fitted her to be what she is now: Perugia the capital of Umbria; as
grand in her unity with her great mother, as she was powerful in her
strife.