The impotence of reason and virtue recommended in Italy a more

effectual choice: instead of a private citizen, to whom they

yielded a voluntary and precarious obedience, the Romans elected

for their senator some prince of independent power, who could

defend them from their enemies and themselves. Charles of Anjou

and Provence, the most ambitious and warlike monarch of the age,

accepted at the same time the kingdom of Naples from the pope,

and the office of senator from the Roman people. 50 As he passed

through the city, in his road to victory, he received their oath

of allegiance, lodged in the Lateran palace, and smoothed in a

short visit the harsh features of his despotic character. Yet

even Charles was exposed to the inconstancy of the people, who

saluted with the same acclamations the passage of his rival, the

unfortunate Conradin; and a powerful avenger, who reigned in the

Capitol, alarmed the fears and jealousy of the popes. The

absolute term of his life was superseded by a renewal every third

year; and the enmity of Nicholas the Third obliged the Sicilian

king to abdicate the government of Rome. In his bull, a perpetual

law, the imperious pontiff asserts the truth, validity, and use

of the donation of Constantine, not less essential to the peace

of the city than to the independence of the church; establishes

the annual election of the senator; and formally disqualifies all

emperors, kings, princes, and persons of an eminent and

conspicuous rank. 51 This prohibitory clause was repealed in his

own behalf by Martin the Fourth, who humbly solicited the

suffrage of the Romans. In the presence, and by the authority, of

the people, two electors conferred, not on the pope, but on the

noble and faithful Martin, the dignity of senator, and the

supreme administration of the republic, 52 to hold during his

natural life, and to exercise at pleasure by himself or his

deputies. About fifty years afterwards, the same title was

granted to the emperor Lewis of Bavaria; and the liberty of Rome

was acknowledged by her two sovereigns, who accepted a municipal

office in the government of their own metropolis.

50 (return) [ The election of Charles of Anjou to the office of

perpetual senator of Rome is mentioned by the historians in the

viiith volume of the Collection of Muratori, by Nicholas de

Jamsilla, (p. 592,) the monk of Padua, (p. 724,) Sabas Malaspina,

(l. ii. c. 9, p. 308,) and Ricordano Malespini, (c. 177, p.

999.)]

51 (return) [ The high-sounding bull of Nicholas III., which

founds his temporal sovereignty on the donation of Constantine,

is still extant; and as it has been inserted by Boniface VIII. in

the _Sexte_ of the Decretals, it must be received by the

Catholics, or at least by the Papists, as a sacred and perpetual

law.]

52 (return) [ I am indebted to Fleury (Hist. Ecclés. tom. xviii.

p. 306) for an extract of this Roman act, which he has taken from

the Ecclesiastical Annals of Odericus Raynaldus, A.D. 1281, No.

14, 15.]

In the first moments of rebellion, when Arnold of Brescia had

inflamed their minds against the church, the Romans artfully

labored to conciliate the favor of the empire, and to recommend

their merit and services in the cause of Cæsar. The style of

their ambassadors to Conrad the Third and Frederic the First is a

mixture of flattery and pride, the tradition and the ignorance of

their own history. 53 After some complaint of his silence and

neglect, they exhort the former of these princes to pass the

Alps, and assume from their hands the Imperial crown. “We beseech

your majesty not to disdain the humility of your sons and

vassals, not to listen to the accusations of our common enemies;

who calumniate the senate as hostile to your throne, who sow the

seeds of discord, that they may reap the harvest of destruction.

The pope and the _Sicilian_ are united in an impious league to

oppose _our_ liberty and _your_ coronation. With the blessing of

God, our zeal and courage has hitherto defeated their attempts.

Of their powerful and factious adherents, more especially the

Frangipani, we have taken by assault the houses and turrets: some

of these are occupied by our troops, and some are levelled with

the ground. The Milvian bridge, which they had broken, is

restored and fortified for your safe passage; and your army may

enter the city without being annoyed from the castle of St.

Angelo. All that we have done, and all that we design, is for

your honor and service, in the loyal hope, that you will speedily

appear in person, to vindicate those rights which have been

invaded by the clergy, to revive the dignity of the empire, and

to surpass the fame and glory of your predecessors. May you fix

your residence in Rome, the capital of the world; give laws to

Italy, and the Teutonic kingdom; and imitate the example of

Constantine and Justinian, 54 who, by the vigor of the senate and

people, obtained the sceptre of the earth.” 55 But these splendid

and fallacious wishes were not cherished by Conrad the

Franconian, whose eyes were fixed on the Holy Land, and who died

without visiting Rome soon after his return from the Holy Land.

53 (return) [ These letters and speeches are preserved by Otho

bishop of Frisingen, (Fabric. Bibliot. Lat. Med. et Infim. tom.

v. p. 186, 187,) perhaps the noblest of historians: he was son of

Leopold marquis of Austria; his mother, Agnes, was daughter of

the emperor Henry IV., and he was half-brother and uncle to

Conrad III. and Frederic I. He has left, in seven books, a

Chronicle of the Times; in two, the Gesta Frederici I., the last

of which is inserted in the vith volume of Muratori’s

historians.]

54 (return) [ We desire (said the ignorant Romans) to restore the

empire in um statum, quo fuit tempore Constantini et Justiniani,

qui totum orbem vigore senatûs et populi Romani suis tenuere

manibus.]

55 (return) [ Otho Frising. de Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 28,

p. 662—664.]

His nephew and successor, Frederic Barbarossa, was more ambitious

of the Imperial crown; nor had any of the successors of Otho

acquired such absolute sway over the kingdom of Italy. Surrounded

by his ecclesiastical and secular princes, he gave audience in

his camp at Sutri to the ambassadors of Rome, who thus addressed

him in a free and florid oration: “Incline your ear to the queen

of cities; approach with a peaceful and friendly mind the

precincts of Rome, which has cast away the yoke of the clergy,

and is impatient to crown her legitimate emperor. Under your

auspicious influence, may the primitive times be restored. Assert

the prerogatives of the eternal city, and reduce under her

monarchy the insolence of the world. You are not ignorant, that,

in former ages, by the wisdom of the senate, by the valor and

discipline of the equestrian order, she extended her victorious

arms to the East and West, beyond the Alps, and over the islands

of the ocean. By our sins, in the absence of our princes, the

noble institution of the senate has sunk in oblivion; and with

our prudence, our strength has likewise decreased. We have

revived the senate, and the equestrian order: the counsels of the

one, the arms of the other, will be devoted to your person and

the service of the empire. Do you not hear the language of the

Roman matron? You were a guest, I have adopted you as a citizen;

a Transalpine stranger, I have elected you for my sovereign; 56

and given you myself, and all that is mine. Your first and most

sacred duty is to swear and subscribe, that you will shed your

blood for the republic; that you will maintain in peace and

justice the laws of the city and the charters of your

predecessors; and that you will reward with five thousand pounds

of silver the faithful senators who shall proclaim your titles in

the Capitol. With the name, assume the character, of Augustus.”

The flowers of Latin rhetoric were not yet exhausted; but

Frederic, impatient of their vanity, interrupted the orators in

the high tone of royalty and conquest. “Famous indeed have been

the fortitude and wisdom of the ancient Romans; but your speech

is not seasoned with wisdom, and I could wish that fortitude were

conspicuous in your actions. Like all sublunary things, Rome has

felt the vicissitudes of time and fortune. Your noblest families

were translated to the East, to the royal city of Constantine;

and the remains of your strength and freedom have long since been

exhausted by the Greeks and Franks. Are you desirous of beholding

the ancient glory of Rome, the gravity of the senate, the spirit

of the knights, the discipline of the camp, the valor of the

legions? you will find them in the German republic. It is not

empire, naked and alone, the ornaments and virtues of empire have

likewise migrated beyond the Alps to a more deserving people: 57

they will be employed in your defence, but they claim your

obedience. You pretend that myself or my predecessors have been

invited by the Romans: you mistake the word; they were not

invited, they were implored. From its foreign and domestic

tyrants, the city was rescued by Charlemagne and Otho, whose

ashes repose in our country; and their dominion was the price of

your deliverance. Under that dominion your ancestors lived and

died. I claim by the right of inheritance and possession, and who

shall dare to extort you from my hands? Is the hand of the Franks

58 and Germans enfeebled by age? Am I vanquished? Am I a captive?

Am I not encompassed with the banners of a potent and invincible

army? You impose conditions on your master; you require oaths: if

the conditions are just, an oath is superfluous; if unjust, it is

criminal. Can you doubt my equity? It is extended to the meanest

of my subjects. Will not my sword be unsheathed in the defence of

the Capitol? By that sword the northern kingdom of Denmark has

been restored to the Roman empire. You prescribe the measure and

the objects of my bounty, which flows in a copious but a

voluntary stream. All will be given to patient merit; all will be

denied to rude importunity.” 59 Neither the emperor nor the

senate could maintain these lofty pretensions of dominion and

liberty. United with the pope, and suspicious of the Romans,

Frederic continued his march to the Vatican; his coronation was

disturbed by a sally from the Capitol; and if the numbers and

valor of the Germans prevailed in the bloody conflict, he could

not safely encamp in the presence of a city of which he styled

himself the sovereign. About twelve years afterwards, he besieged

Rome, to seat an antipope in the chair of St. Peter; and twelve

Pisan galleys were introduced into the Tyber: but the senate and

people were saved by the arts of negotiation and the progress of

disease; nor did Frederic or his successors reiterate the hostile

attempt. Their laborious reigns were exercised by the popes, the

crusades, and the independence of Lombardy and Germany: they

courted the alliance of the Romans; and Frederic the Second

offered in the Capitol the great standard, the _Caroccio_ of

Milan. 60 After the extinction of the house of Swabia, they were

banished beyond the Alps: and their last coronations betrayed the

impotence and poverty of the Teutonic Cæsars. 61

56 (return) [ Hospes eras, civem feci. Advena fuisti ex

Transalpinis partibus principem constitui.]

57 (return) [ Non cessit nobis nudum imperium, virtute sua

amictum venit, ornamenta sua secum traxit. Penes nos sunt

consules tui, &c. Cicero or Livy would not have rejected these

images, the eloquence of a Barbarian born and educated in the

Hercynian forest.]

58 (return) [ Otho of Frisingen, who surely understood the

language of the court and diet of Germany, speaks of the Franks

in the xiith century as the reigning nation, (Proceres Franci,

equites Franci, manus Francorum:) he adds, however, the epithet

of _Teutonici_.]

59 (return) [ Otho Frising. de Gestis Frederici I., l. ii. c. 22,

p. 720—733. These original and authentic acts I have translated

and abridged with freedom, yet with fidelity.]

60 (return) [ From the Chronicles of Ricobaldo and Francis Pipin,

Muratori (dissert. xxvi. tom. ii. p. 492) has translated this

curious fact with the doggerel verses that accompanied the gift:—

Ave decus orbis, ave! victus tibi destinor, ave! Cœurrus

ab Augusto Frederico Cæsare justo. Væ Mediolanum! jam

sentis spernere vanum Imperii vires, proprias tibi

tollere vires. Ergo triumphorum urbs potes memor esse

priorum Quos tibi mittebant reges qui bella gerebant.

Ne si dee tacere (I now use the Italian Dissertations, tom. i. p.

444) che nell’ anno 1727, una copia desso Caroccio in marmo

dianzi ignoto si scopri, nel campidoglio, presso alle carcere di

quel luogo, dove Sisto V. l’avea falto rinchiudere. Stava esso

posto sopra quatro colonne di marmo fino colla sequente

inscrizione, &c.; to the same purpose as the old inscription.]

61 (return) [ The decline of the Imperial arms and authority in

Italy is related with impartial learning in the Annals of

Muratori, (tom. x. xi. xii.;) and the reader may compare his

narrative with the Histoires des Allemands (tom. iii. iv.) by

Schmidt, who has deserved the esteem of his countrymen.]

Under the reign of Adrian, when the empire extended from the

Euphrates to the ocean, from Mount Atlas to the Grampian hills, a

fanciful historian 62 amused the Romans with the picture of their

ancient wars. “There was a time,” says Florus, “when Tibur and

Præneste, our summer retreats, were the objects of hostile vows

in the Capitol, when we dreaded the shades of the Arician groves,

when we could triumph without a blush over the nameless villages

of the Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli could afford a title

not unworthy of a victorious general.” The pride of his

contemporaries was gratified by the contrast of the past and the

present: they would have been humbled by the prospect of

futurity; by the prediction, that after a thousand years, Rome,

despoiled of empire, and contracted to her primæval limits, would

renew the same hostilities, on the same ground which was then

decorated with her villas and gardens. The adjacent territory on

either side of the Tyber was always claimed, and sometimes

possessed, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the barons assumed

a lawless independence, and the cities too faithfully copied the

revolt and discord of the metropolis. In the twelfth and

thirteenth centuries the Romans incessantly labored to reduce or

destroy the contumacious vassals of the church and senate; and if

their headstrong and selfish ambition was moderated by the pope,

he often encouraged their zeal by the alliance of his spiritual

arms. Their warfare was that of the first consuls and dictators,

who were taken from the plough. The assembled in arms at the foot

of the Capitol; sallied from the gates, plundered or burnt the

harvests of their neighbors, engaged in tumultuary conflict, and

returned home after an expedition of fifteen or twenty days.

Their sieges were tedious and unskilful: in the use of victory,

they indulged the meaner passions of jealousy and revenge; and

instead of adopting the valor, they trampled on the misfortunes,

of their adversaries. The captives, in their shirts, with a rope

round their necks, solicited their pardon: the fortifications,

and even the buildings, of the rival cities, were demolished, and

the inhabitants were scattered in the adjacent villages. It was

thus that the seats of the cardinal bishops, Porto, Ostia,

Albanum, Tusculum, Præneste, and Tibur or Tivoli, were

successively overthrown by the ferocious hostility of the Romans.

63 Of these, 64 Porto and Ostia, the two keys of the Tyber, are

still vacant and desolate: the marshy and unwholesome banks are

peopled with herds of buffaloes, and the river is lost to every

purpose of navigation and trade. The hills, which afford a shady

retirement from the autumnal heats, have again smiled with the

blessings of peace; Frescati has arisen near the ruins of

Tusculum; Tibur or Tivoli has resumed the honors of a city, 65

and the meaner towns of Albano and Palestrina are decorated with

the villas of the cardinals and princes of Rome. In the work of

destruction, the ambition of the Romans was often checked and

repulsed by the neighboring cities and their allies: in the first

siege of Tibur, they were driven from their camp; and the battles

of Tusculum 66 and Viterbo 67 might be compared in their relative

state to the memorable fields of Thrasymene and Cannæ. In the

first of these petty wars, thirty thousand Romans were overthrown

by a thousand German horse, whom Frederic Barbarossa had detached

to the relief of Tusculum: and if we number the slain at three,

the prisoners at two, thousand, we shall embrace the most

authentic and moderate account. Sixty-eight years afterwards they

marched against Viterbo in the ecclesiastical state with the

whole force of the city; by a rare coalition the Teutonic eagle

was blended, in the adverse banners, with the keys of St. Peter;

and the pope’s auxiliaries were commanded by a count of Thoulouse

and a bishop of Winchester. The Romans were discomfited with

shame and slaughter: but the English prelate must have indulged

the vanity of a pilgrim, if he multiplied their numbers to one

hundred, and their loss in the field to thirty, thousand men. Had

the policy of the senate and the discipline of the legions been

restored with the Capitol, the divided condition of Italy would

have offered the fairest opportunity of a second conquest. But in

arms, the modern Romans were not _above_, and in arts, they were

far _below_, the common level of the neighboring republics. Nor

was their warlike spirit of any long continuance; after some

irregular sallies, they subsided in the national apathy, in the

neglect of military institutions, and in the disgraceful and

dangerous use of foreign mercenaries.

62 (return) [ Tibur nunc suburbanum, et æstivæ Præneste deliciæ,

nuncupatis in Capitolio votis petebantur. The whole passage of

Florus (l. i. c. 11) may be read with pleasure, and has deserved

the praise of a man of genius, (uvres de Montesquieu, tom. iii.

p. 634, 635, quarto edition.)]

63 (return) [ Ne a feritate Romanorum, sicut fuerant Hostienses,

Portuenses, Tusculanenses, Albanenses, Labicenses, et nuper

Tiburtini destruerentur, (Matthew Paris, p. 757.) These events

are marked in the Annals and Index (the xviiith volume) of

Muratori.]

64 (return) [ For the state or ruin of these suburban cities, the

banks of the Tyber, &c., see the lively picture of the P. Labat,

(Voyage en Espagne et en Italiæ,) who had long resided in the

neighborhood of Rome, and the more accurate description of which

P. Eschinard (Roma, 1750, in octavo) has added to the

topographical map of Cingolani.]

65 (return) [ Labat (tom. iii. p. 233) mentions a recent decree

of the Roman government, which has severely mortified the pride

and poverty of Tivoli: in civitate Tiburtinâ non vivitur

civiliter.]

66 (return) [ I depart from my usual method, of quoting only by

the date the Annals of Muratori, in consideration of the critical

balance in which he has weighed nine contemporary writers who

mention the battle of Tusculum, (tom. x. p. 42—44.)]

67 (return) [ Matthew Paris, p. 345. This bishop of Winchester

was Peter de Rupibus, who occupied the see thirty-two years,

(A.D. 1206—1238.) and is described, by the English historian, as

a soldier and a statesman. (p. 178, 399.)]

Ambition is a weed of quick and early vegetation in the vineyard

of Christ. Under the first Christian princes, the chair of St.

Peter was disputed by the votes, the venality, the violence, of a

popular election: the sanctuaries of Rome were polluted with

blood; and, from the third to the twelfth century, the church was

distracted by the mischief of frequent schisms. As long as the

final appeal was determined by the civil magistrate, these

mischiefs were transient and local: the merits were tried by

equity or favor; nor could the unsuccessful competitor long

disturb the triumph of his rival. But after the emperors had been

divested of their prerogatives, after a maxim had been

established that the vicar of Christ is amenable to no earthly

tribunal, each vacancy of the holy see might involve Christendom

in controversy and war. The claims of the cardinals and inferior

clergy, of the nobles and people, were vague and litigious: the

freedom of choice was overruled by the tumults of a city that no

longer owned or obeyed a superior. On the decease of a pope, two

factions proceeded in different churches to a double election:

the number and weight of votes, the priority of time, the merit

of the candidates, might balance each other: the most respectable

of the clergy were divided; and the distant princes, who bowed

before the spiritual throne, could not distinguish the spurious,

from the legitimate, idol. The emperors were often the authors of

the schism, from the political motive of opposing a friendly to a

hostile pontiff; and each of the competitors was reduced to

suffer the insults of his enemies, who were not awed by

conscience, and to purchase the support of his adherents, who

were instigated by avarice or ambition a peaceful and perpetual

succession was ascertained by Alexander the Third, 68 who finally

abolished the tumultuary votes of the clergy and people, and

defined the right of election in the sole college of cardinals.

69 The three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, were

assimilated to each other by this important privilege; the

parochial clergy of Rome obtained the first rank in the

hierarchy: they were indifferently chosen among the nations of

Christendom; and the possession of the richest benefices, of the

most important bishoprics, was not incompatible with their title

and office. The senators of the Catholic church, the coadjutors

and legates of the supreme pontiff, were robed in purple, the

symbol of martyrdom or royalty; they claimed a proud equality

with kings; and their dignity was enhanced by the smallness of

their number, which, till the reign of Leo the Tenth, seldom

exceeded twenty or twenty-five persons. By this wise regulation,

all doubt and scandal were removed, and the root of schism was so

effectually destroyed, that in a period of six hundred years a

double choice has only once divided the unity of the sacred

college. But as the concurrence of two thirds of the votes had

been made necessary, the election was often delayed by the

private interest and passions of the cardinals; and while they

prolonged their independent reign, the Christian world was left

destitute of a head. A vacancy of almost three years had preceded

the elevation of George the Tenth, who resolved to prevent the

future abuse; and his bull, after some opposition, has been

consecrated in the code of the canon law. 70 Nine days are

allowed for the obsequies of the deceased pope, and the arrival

of the absent cardinals; on the tenth, they are imprisoned, each

with one domestic, in a common apartment or _conclave_, without

any separation of walls or curtains: a small window is reserved

for the introduction of necessaries; but the door is locked on

both sides and guarded by the magistrates of the city, to seclude

them from all correspondence with the world. If the election be

not consummated in three days, the luxury of their table is

contracted to a single dish at dinner and supper; and after the

eighth day, they are reduced to a scanty allowance of bread,

water, and wine. During the vacancy of the holy see, the

cardinals are prohibited from touching the revenues, or assuming,

unless in some rare emergency, the government of the church: all

agreements and promises among the electors are formally annulled;

and their integrity is fortified by their solemn oath and the

prayers of the Catholics. Some articles of inconvenient or

superfluous rigor have been gradually relaxed, but the principle

of confinement is vigorous and entire: they are still urged, by

the personal motives of health and freedom, to accelerate the

moment of their deliverance; and the improvement of ballot or

secret votes has wrapped the struggles of the conclave 71 in the

silky veil of charity and politeness. 72 By these institutions

the Romans were excluded from the election of their prince and

bishop; and in the fever of wild and precarious liberty, they

seemed insensible of the loss of this inestimable privilege. The

emperor Lewis of Bavaria revived the example of the great Otho.

After some negotiation with the magistrates, the Roman people

were assembled 73 in the square before St. Peter’s: the pope of

Avignon, John the Twenty-second, was deposed: the choice of his

successor was ratified by their consent and applause. They freely

voted for a new law, that their bishop should never be absent

more than three months in the year, and two days’ journey from

the city; and that if he neglected to return on the third

summons, the public servant should be degraded and dismissed. 74

But Lewis forgot his own debility and the prejudices of the

times: beyond the precincts of a German camp, his useless phantom

was rejected; the Romans despised their own workmanship; the

antipope implored the mercy of his lawful sovereign; 75 and the

exclusive right of the cardinals was more firmly established by

this unseasonable attack.

68 (return) [ See Mosheim, Institut. Histor. Ecclesiast. p. 401,

403. Alexander himself had nearly been the victim of a contested

election; and the doubtful merits of Innocent had only

preponderated by the weight of genius and learning which St.

Bernard cast into the scale, (see his life and writings.)]

69 (return) [ The origin, titles, importance, dress, precedency,

&c., of the Roman cardinals, are very ably discussed by

Thomassin, (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p. 1262—1287;) but

their purple is now much faded. The sacred college was raised to

the definite number of seventy-two, to represent, under his

vicar, the disciples of Christ.]

70 (return) [ See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro

concilio, in the _Sexts_ of the Canon Law, (l. i. tit. 6, c. 3,)

a supplement to the Decretals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated

at Rome in 1298, and addressed in all the universities of

Europe.]

71 (return) [ The genius of Cardinal de Retz had a right to paint

a conclave, (of 1665,) in which he was a spectator and an actor,

(Mémoires, tom. iv. p. 15—57;) but I am at a loss to appreciate

the knowledge or authority of an anonymous Italian, whose history

(Conclavi de’ Pontifici Romani, in 4to. 1667) has been continued

since the reign of Alexander VII. The accidental form of the work

furnishes a lesson, though not an antidote, to ambition. From a

labyrinth of intrigues, we emerge to the adoration of the

successful candidate; but the next page opens with his funeral.]

72 (return) [ The expressions of Cardinal de Retz are positive

and picturesque: On y vecut toujours ensemble avec le même

respect, et la même civilité que l’on observe dans le cabinet des

rois, avec la même politesse qu’on avoit dans la cour de Henri

III., avec la même familiarité que l’on voit dans les colleges;

avec la même modestie, qui se remarque dans les noviciats; et

avec la même charité, du moins en apparence, qui pourroit ètre

entre des frères parfaitement unis.]

73 (return) [ Richiesti per bando (says John Villani) sanatori di

Roma, e 52 del popolo, et capitani de’ 25, e consoli,

(_consoli?_) et 13 buone huomini, uno per rione. Our knowledge is

too imperfect to pronounce how much of this constitution was

temporary, and how much ordinary and permanent. Yet it is faintly

illustrated by the ancient statutes of Rome.]

74 (return) [ Villani (l. x. c. 68—71, in Muratori, Script. tom.

xiii. p. 641—645) relates this law, and the whole transaction,

with much less abhorrence than the prudent Muratori. Any one

conversant with the darker ages must have observed how much the

sense (I mean the nonsense) of superstition is fluctuating and

inconsistent.]

75 (return) [ In the first volume of the Popes of Avignon, see

the second original Life of John XXII. p. 142—145, the confession

of the antipope p. 145—152, and the laborious notes of Baluze, p.

714, 715.]

Had the election been always held in the Vatican, the rights of

the senate and people would not have been violated with impunity.

But the Romans forgot, and were forgotten. in the absence of the

successors of Gregory the Seventh, who did not keep as a divine

precept their ordinary residence in the city and diocese. The

care of that diocese was less important than the government of

the universal church; nor could the popes delight in a city in

which their authority was always opposed, and their person was

often endangered. From the persecution of the emperors, and the

wars of Italy, they escaped beyond the Alps into the hospitable

bosom of France; from the tumults of Rome they prudently withdrew

to live and die in the more tranquil stations of Anagni, Perugia,

Viterbo, and the adjacent cities. When the flock was offended or

impoverished by the absence of the shepherd, they were recalled

by a stern admonition, that St. Peter had fixed his chair, not in

an obscure village, but in the capital of the world; by a

ferocious menace, that the Romans would march in arms to destroy

the place and people that should dare to afford them a retreat.

They returned with timorous obedience; and were saluted with the

account of a heavy debt, of all the losses which their desertion

had occasioned, the hire of lodgings, the sale of provisions, and

the various expenses of servants and strangers who attended the

court. 76 After a short interval of peace, and perhaps of

authority, they were again banished by new tumults, and again

summoned by the imperious or respectful invitation of the senate.

In these occasional retreats, the exiles and fugitives of the

Vatican were seldom long, or far, distant from the metropolis;

but in the beginning of the fourteenth century, the apostolic

throne was transported, as it might seem forever, from the Tyber

to the Rhône; and the cause of the transmigration may be deduced

from the furious contest between Boniface the Eighth and the king

of France. 77 The spiritual arms of excommunication and interdict

were repulsed by the union of the three estates, and the

privileges of the Gallican church; but the pope was not prepared

against the carnal weapons which Philip the Fair had courage to

employ. As the pope resided at Anagni, without the suspicion of

danger, his palace and person were assaulted by three hundred

horse, who had been secretly levied by William of Nogaret, a

French minister, and Sciarra Colonna, of a noble but hostile

family of Rome. The cardinals fled; the inhabitants of Anagni

were seduced from their allegiance and gratitude; but the

dauntless Boniface, unarmed and alone, seated himself in his

chair, and awaited, like the conscript fathers of old, the swords

of the Gauls. Nogaret, a foreign adversary, was content to

execute the orders of his master: by the domestic enmity of

Colonna, he was insulted with words and blows; and during a

confinement of three days his life was threatened by the

hardships which they inflicted on the obstinacy which they

provoked. Their strange delay gave time and courage to the

adherents of the church, who rescued him from sacrilegious

violence; but his imperious soul was wounded in the vital part;

and Boniface expired at Rome in a frenzy of rage and revenge. His

memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride;

nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this ecclesiastical

champion to the honors of a saint; a magnanimous sinner, (say the

chronicles of the times,) who entered like a fox, reigned like a

lion, and died like a dog. He was succeeded by Benedict the

Eleventh, the mildest of mankind. Yet he excommunicated the

impious emissaries of Philip, and devoted the city and people of

Anagni by a tremendous curse, whose effects are still visible to

the eyes of superstition. 78

76 (return) [ Romani autem non valentes nec volentes ultra suam

celare cupiditatem gravissimam, contra papam movere cperunt

questionem, exigentes ab eo urgentissime omnia quæ subierant per

ejus absentiam damna et jacturas, videlicet in hispitiis

locandis, in mercimoniis, in usuris, in redditibus, in

provisionibus, et in aliis modis innumerabilibus. Quòd cum

audisset papa, præcordialiter ingemuit, et se comperiens

_muscipulatum_, &c., Matt. Paris, p. 757. For the ordinary

history of the popes, their life and death, their residence and

absence, it is enough to refer to the ecclesiastical annalists,

Spondanus and Fleury.]

77 (return) [ Besides the general historians of the church of

Italy and of France, we possess a valuable treatise composed by a

learned friend of Thuanus, which his last and best editors have

published in the appendix (Histoire particulière du grand

Différend entre Boniface VIII et Philippe le Bel, par Pierre du

Puis, tom. vii. P. xi. p. 61—82.)]

78 (return) [ It is difficult to know whether Labat (tom. iv. p.

53—57) be in jest or in earnest, when he supposes that Anagni

still feels the weight of this curse, and that the cornfields, or

vineyards, or olive-trees, are annually blasted by Nature, the

obsequious handmaid of the popes.]

Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.—Part IV.

After his decease, the tedious and equal suspense of the conclave

was fixed by the dexterity of the French faction. A specious

offer was made and accepted, that, in the term of forty days,

they would elect one of the three candidates who should be named

by their opponents. The archbishop of Bourdeaux, a furious enemy

of his king and country, was the first on the list; but his

ambition was known; and his conscience obeyed the calls of

fortune and the commands of a benefactor, who had been informed

by a swift messenger that the choice of a pope was now in his

hands. The terms were regulated in a private interview; and with

such speed and secrecy was the business transacted, that the

unanimous conclave applauded the elevation of Clement the Fifth.

79 The cardinals of both parties were soon astonished by a

summons to attend him beyond the Alps; from whence, as they soon

discovered, they must never hope to return. He was engaged, by

promise and affection, to prefer the residence of France; and,

after dragging his court through Poitou and Gascony, and

devouring, by his expense, the cities and convents on the road,

he finally reposed at Avignon, 80 which flourished above seventy

years 81 the seat of the Roman pontiff and the metropolis of

Christendom. By land, by sea, by the Rhône, the position of

Avignon was on all sides accessible; the southern provinces of

France do not yield to Italy itself; new palaces arose for the

accommodation of the pope and cardinals; and the arts of luxury

were soon attracted by the treasures of the church. They were

already possessed of the adjacent territory, the Venaissin

county, 82 a populous and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of

Avignon was afterwards purchased from the youth and distress of

Jane, the first queen of Naples and countess of Provence, for the

inadequate price of fourscore thousand florins. 83 Under the

shadow of a French monarchy, amidst an obedient people, the popes

enjoyed an honorable and tranquil state, to which they long had

been strangers: but Italy deplored their absence; and Rome, in

solitude and poverty, might repent of the ungovernable freedom

which had driven from the Vatican the successor of St. Peter. Her

repentance was tardy and fruitless: after the death of the old

members, the sacred college was filled with French cardinals, 84

who beheld Rome and Italy with abhorrence and contempt, and

perpetuated a series of national, and even provincial, popes,

attached by the most indissoluble ties to their native country.

79 (return) [ See, in the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani, (l.

viii. c. 63, 64, 80, in Muratori, tom. xiii.,) the imprisonment

of Boniface VIII., and the election of Clement V., the last of

which, like most anecdotes, is embarrassed with some

difficulties.]

80 (return) [ The original lives of the eight popes of Avignon,

Clement V., John XXII., Benedict XI., Clement VI., Innocent VI.,

Urban V., Gregory XI., and Clement VII., are published by Stephen

Baluze, (Vitæ Paparum Avenionensium; Paris, 1693, 2 vols. in

4to.,) with copious and elaborate notes, and a second volume of

acts and documents. With the true zeal of an editor and a

patriot, he devoutly justifies or excuses the characters of his

countrymen.]

81 (return) [ The exile of Avignon is compared by the Italians

with Babylon, and the Babylonish captivity. Such furious

metaphors, more suitable to the ardor of Petrarch than to the

judgment of Muratori, are gravely refuted in Baluze’s preface.

The abbé de Sade is distracted between the love of Petrarch and

of his country. Yet he modestly pleads, that many of the local

inconveniences of Avignon are now removed; and many of the vices

against which the poet declaims, had been imported with the Roman

court by the strangers of Italy, (tom. i. p. 23—28.)]

82 (return) [ The comtat Venaissin was ceded to the popes in 1273

by Philip III. king of France, after he had inherited the

dominions of the count of Thoulouse. Forty years before, the

heresy of Count Raymond had given them a pretence of seizure, and

they derived some obscure claim from the xith century to some

lands citra Rhodanum, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 495, 610.

Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 376—381.)]

83 (return) [ If a possession of four centuries were not itself a

title, such objections might annul the bargain; but the purchase

money must be refunded, for indeed it was paid. Civitatem

Avenionem emit.... per ejusmodi venditionem pecuniâ redundates,

&c., (iida Vita Clement. VI. in Baluz. tom. i. p. 272. Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 565.) The only temptation for Jane

and her second husband was ready money, and without it they could

not have returned to the throne of Naples.]

84 (return) [ Clement V immediately promoted ten cardinals, nine

French and one English, (Vita ivta, p. 63, et Baluz. p. 625, &c.)

In 1331, the pope refused two candidates recommended by the king

of France, quod xx. Cardinales, de quibus xvii. de regno Franciæ

originem traxisse noscuntur in memorato collegio existant,

(Thomassin, Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p. 1281.)]

The progress of industry had produced and enriched the Italian

republics: the æra of their liberty is the most flourishing

period of population and agriculture, of manufactures and

commerce; and their mechanic labors were gradually refined into

the arts of elegance and genius. But the position of Rome was

less favorable, the territory less fruitful: the character of the

inhabitants was debased by indolence and elated by pride; and

they fondly conceived that the tribute of subjects must forever

nourish the metropolis of the church and empire. This prejudice

was encouraged in some degree by the resort of pilgrims to the

shrines of the apostles; and the last legacy of the popes, the

institution of the holy year, 85 was not less beneficial to the

people than to the clergy. Since the loss of Palestine, the gift

of plenary indulgences, which had been applied to the crusades,

remained without an object; and the most valuable treasure of the

church was sequestered above eight years from public circulation.

A new channel was opened by the diligence of Boniface the Eighth,

who reconciled the vices of ambition and avarice; and the pope

had sufficient learning to recollect and revive the secular games

which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of every century.

To sound without danger the depth of popular credulity, a sermon

was seasonably pronounced, a report was artfully scattered, some

aged witnesses were produced; and on the first of January of the

year thirteen hundred, the church of St. Peter was crowded with

the faithful, who demanded the customary indulgence of the holy

time. The pontiff, who watched and irritated their devout

impatience, was soon persuaded by ancient testimony of the

justice of their claim; and he proclaimed a plenary absolution to

all Catholics who, in the course of that year, and at every

similar period, should respectfully visit the apostolic churches

of St. Peter and St. Paul. The welcome sound was propagated

through Christendom; and at first from the nearest provinces of

Italy, and at length from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and

Britain, the highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims who

sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however costly or

laborious, which was exempt from the perils of military service.

All exceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity, were

forgotten in the common transport; and in the streets and

churches many persons were trampled to death by the eagerness of

devotion. The calculation of their numbers could not be easy nor

accurate; and they have probably been magnified by a dexterous

clergy, well apprised of the contagion of example: yet we are

assured by a judicious historian, who assisted at the ceremony,

that Rome was never replenished with less than two hundred

thousand strangers; and another spectator has fixed at two

millions the total concourse of the year. A trifling oblation

from each individual would accumulate a royal treasure; and two

priests stood night and day, with rakes in their hands, to

collect, without counting, the heaps of gold and silver that were

poured on the altar of St. Paul. 86 It was fortunately a season

of peace and plenty; and if forage was scarce, if inns and

lodgings were extravagantly dear, an inexhaustible supply of

bread and wine, of meat and fish, was provided by the policy of

Boniface and the venal hospitality of the Romans. From a city

without trade or industry, all casual riches will speedily

evaporate: but the avarice and envy of the next generation

solicited Clement the Sixth 87 to anticipate the distant period

of the century. The gracious pontiff complied with their wishes;

afforded Rome this poor consolation for his loss; and justified

the change by the name and practice of the Mosaic Jubilee. 88 His

summons was obeyed; and the number, zeal, and liberality of the

pilgrims did not yield to the primitive festival. But they

encountered the triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine:

many wives and virgins were violated in the castles of Italy; and

many strangers were pillaged or murdered by the savage Romans, no

longer moderated by the presence of their bishops. 89 To the

impatience of the popes we may ascribe the successive reduction

to fifty, thirty-three, and twenty-five years; although the

second of these terms is commensurate with the life of Christ.

The profusion of indulgences, the revolt of the Protestants, and

the decline of superstition, have much diminished the value of

the jubilee; yet even the nineteenth and last festival was a year

of pleasure and profit to the Romans; and a philosophic smile

will not disturb the triumph of the priest or the happiness of

the people. 90

85 (return) [ Our primitive account is from Cardinal James

Caietan, (Maxima Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xxv.;) and I am at a loss

to determine whether the nephew of Boniface VIII. be a fool or a

knave: the uncle is a much clearer character.]

86 (return) [ See John Villani (l. viii. c. 36) in the xiith, and

the Chronicon Astense, in the xith volume (p. 191, 192) of

Muratori’s Collection Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab eisdem

accepit, nam duo clerici, cum rastris, &c.]

87 (return) [ The two bulls of Boniface VIII. and Clement VI. are

inserted on the Corpus Juris Canonici, Extravagant. (Commun. l.

v. tit. ix c 1, 2.)]

88 (return) [ The sabbatic years and jubilees of the Mosaic law,

(Car. Sigon. de Republica Hebræorum, Opp. tom. iv. l. iii. c. 14,

14, p. 151, 152,) the suspension of all care and labor, the

periodical release of lands, debts, servitude, &c., may seem a

noble idea, but the execution would be impracticable in a

_profane_ republic; and I should be glad to learn that this

ruinous festival was observed by the Jewish people.]

89 (return) [ See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani, (l. i. c. 56,)

in the xivth vol. of Muratori, and the Mémoires sur la Vie de

Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 75—89.]

90 (return) [ The subject is exhausted by M. Chais, a French

minister at the Hague, in his Lettres Historiques et Dogmatiques,

sur les Jubilés et es Indulgences; la Haye, 1751, 3 vols. in

12mo.; an elaborate and pleasing work, had not the author

preferred the character of a polemic to that of a philosopher.]

In the beginning of the eleventh century, Italy was exposed to

the feudal tyranny, alike oppressive to the sovereign and the

people. The rights of human nature were vindicated by her

numerous republics, who soon extended their liberty and dominion

from the city to the adjacent country. The sword of the nobles

was broken; their slaves were enfranchised; their castles were

demolished; they assumed the habits of society and obedience;

their ambition was confined to municipal honors, and in the

proudest aristocracy of Venice on Genoa, each patrician was

subject to the laws. 91 But the feeble and disorderly government

of Rome was unequal to the task of curbing her rebellious sons,

who scorned the authority of the magistrate within and without

the walls. It was no longer a civil contention between the nobles

and plebeians for the government of the state: the barons

asserted in arms their personal independence; their palaces and

castles were fortified against a siege; and their private

quarrels were maintained by the numbers of their vassals and

retainers. In origin and affection, they were aliens to their

country: 92 and a genuine Roman, could such have been produced,

might have renounced these haughty strangers, who disdained the

appellation of citizens, and proudly styled themselves the

princes, of Rome. 93 After a dark series of revolutions, all

records of pedigree were lost; the distinction of surnames was

abolished; the blood of the nations was mingled in a thousand

channels; and the Goths and Lombards, the Greeks and Franks, the

Germans and Normans, had obtained the fairest possessions by

royal bounty, or the prerogative of valor. These examples might

be readily presumed; but the elevation of a Hebrew race to the

rank of senators and consuls is an event without a parallel in

the long captivity of these miserable exiles. 94 In the time of

Leo the Ninth, a wealthy and learned Jew was converted to

Christianity, and honored at his baptism with the name of his

godfather, the reigning Pope. The zeal and courage of Peter the

son of Leo were signalized in the cause of Gregory the Seventh,

who intrusted his faithful adherent with the government of

Adrian’s mole, the tower of Crescentius, or, as it is now called,

the castle of St. Angelo. Both the father and the son were the

parents of a numerous progeny: their riches, the fruits of usury,

were shared with the noblest families of the city; and so

extensive was their alliance, that the grandson of the proselyte

was exalted by the weight of his kindred to the throne of St.

Peter. A majority of the clergy and people supported his cause:

he reigned several years in the Vatican; and it is only the

eloquence of St. Bernard, and the final triumph of Innocence the

Second, that has branded Anacletus with the epithet of antipope.

After his defeat and death, the posterity of Leo is no longer

conspicuous; and none will be found of the modern nobles

ambitious of descending from a Jewish stock. It is not my design

to enumerate the Roman families which have failed at different

periods, or those which are continued in different degrees of

splendor to the present time. 95 The old consular line of the

_Frangipani_ discover their name in the generous act of

_breaking_ or dividing bread in a time of famine; and such

benevolence is more truly glorious than to have enclosed, with

their allies the _Corsi_, a spacious quarter of the city in the

chains of their fortifications; the _Savelli_, as it should seem

a Sabine race, have maintained their original dignity; the

obsolete surname of the _Capizucchi_ is inscribed on the coins of

the first senators; the _Conti_ preserve the honor, without the

estate, of the counts of Signia; and the _Annibaldi_ must have

been very ignorant, or very modest, if they had not descended

from the Carthaginian hero. 96

91 (return) [ Muratori (Dissert. xlvii.) alleges the Annals of

Florence, Padua, Genoa, &c., the analogy of the rest, the

evidence of Otho of Frisingen, (de Gest. Fred. I. l. ii. c. 13,)

and the submission of the marquis of Este.]

92 (return) [ As early as the year 824, the emperor Lothaire I.

found it expedient to interrogate the Roman people, to learn from

each individual by what national law he chose to be governed.

(Muratori, Dissertat xxii.)]

93 (return) [ Petrarch attacks these foreigners, the tyrants of

Rome, in a declamation or epistle, full of bold truths and absurd

pedantry, in which he applies the maxims, and even prejudices, of

the old republic to the state of the xivth century, (Mémoires,

tom. iii. p. 157—169.)]

94 (return) [ The origin and adventures of the Jewish family are

noticed by Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 435, A.D. 1124, No. 3, 4,)

who draws his information from the Chronographus Maurigniacensis,

and Arnulphus Sagiensis de Schismate, (in Muratori, Script. Ital.

tom. iii. P. i. p. 423—432.) The fact must in some degree be

true; yet I could wish that it had been coolly related, before it

was turned into a reproach against the antipope.]

95 (return) [ Muratori has given two dissertations (xli. and

xlii.) to the names, surnames, and families of Italy. Some

nobles, who glory in their domestic fables, may be offended with

his firm and temperate criticism; yet surely some ounces of pure

gold are of more value than many pounds of base metal.]

96 (return) [ The cardinal of St. George, in his poetical, or

rather metrical history of the election and coronation of

Boniface VIII., (Muratori Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 641,

&c.,) describes the state and families of Rome at the coronation

of Boniface VIII., (A.D. 1295.)

Interea titulis redimiti sanguine et armis Illustresque

viri Romanâ a stirpe trahentes Nomen in emeritos tantæ

virtutis honores Insulerant sese medios festumque

colebant Aurata fulgente togâ, sociante catervâ. Ex

ipsis devota domus præstantis ab _Ursâ_ Ecclesiæ,

vultumque gerens demissius altum Festa _Columna_ jocis,

necnon _Sabellia_ mitis; Stephanides senior, _Comites_,

_Annibalica_ proles, Præfectusque urbis magnum sine

viribus nomen. (l. ii. c. 5, 100, p. 647, 648.)

The ancient statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 59, p. 174, 175)

distinguish eleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear

in concilio communi, before the senator, that they would not

harbor or protect any malefactors, outlaws, &c.—a feeble

security!]

But among, perhaps above, the peers and princes of the city, I

distinguish the rival houses of Colonna and Ursini, whose private

story is an essential part of the annals of modern Rome. I. The

name and arms of Colonna 97 have been the theme of much doubtful

etymology; nor have the orators and antiquarians overlooked

either Trajan’s pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or the pillar

of Christ’s flagellation, or the luminous column that guided the

Israelites in the desert. Their first historical appearance in

the year eleven hundred and four attests the power and antiquity,

while it explains the simple meaning, of the name. By the

usurpation of Cavæ, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal the

Second; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of Rome the

hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and _Colonna_; and the latter of

these towns was probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the

relic of a villa or temple. 98 They likewise possessed one moiety

of the neighboring city of Tusculum, a strong presumption of

their descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the tenth

century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. According to their

own and the public opinion, the primitive and remote source was

derived from the banks of the Rhine; 99 and the sovereigns of

Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a

noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred years has

been often illustrated by merit and always by fortune. 100 About

the end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was

composed of an uncle and six bothers, all conspicuous in arms, or

in the honors of the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator

of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphal car, and hailed

in some vain acclamations with the title of Cæsar; while John and

Stephen were declared marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna, by

Nicholas the Fourth, a patron so partial to their family, that he

has been delineated in satirical portraits, imprisoned as it were

in a hollow pillar. 101 After his decease their haughty behavior

provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of mankind. The

two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of

Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna were oppressed for a moment

by his temporal and spiritual arms. 102 He proclaimed a crusade

against his personal enemies; their estates were confiscated;

their fortresses on either side of the Tyber were besieged by the

troops of St. Peter and those of the rival nobles; and after the

ruin of Palestrina or Præneste, their principal seat, the ground

was marked with a ploughshare, the emblem of perpetual

desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed, the six brothers, in

disguise and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the

hope of deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the French

court was their surest asylum; they prompted and directed the

enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their magnanimity, had

they respected the misfortune and courage of the captive tyrant.

His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored

the honors and possessions of the Colonna; and some estimate may

be formed of their wealth by their losses, of their losses by the

damages of one hundred thousand gold florins which were granted

them against the accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope. All

the spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished 103

by his prudent successors; and the fortune of the house was more

firmly established by this transient hurricane. The boldness of

Sciarra Colonna was signalized in the captivity of Boniface, and

long afterwards in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the

gratitude of the emperor, the pillar in their arms was encircled

with a royal crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit

was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero

superior to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome.

Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in

peace and war; in his distress he was an object, not of pity, but

of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his name

and country; and when he was asked, “Where is now your fortress?”

he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, “Here.” He supported

with the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin

of his declining age, the ancestors, the character, and the

children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman

republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated

from Spoleto; 104 the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the

twelfth century, from some eminent person, who is only known as

the father of their race. But they were soon distinguished among

the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen,

the strength of their towers, the honors of the senate and sacred

college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third and

Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage. 105 Their riches

may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism: the estates of St.

Peter were alienated in their favor by the liberal Celestin; 106

and Nicholas was ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance

of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and

to invest them with the perpetual office of senators of Rome. All

that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna will

likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and

equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted

above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The

jealously of preeminence and power was the true ground of their

quarrel; but as a specious badge of distinction, the Colonna

embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the

Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church.

The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners;

and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the

origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. 107

After the retreat of the popes to Avignon they disputed in arms

the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were

perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two

rival senators. By their private hostilities the city and country

were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with their

alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by the

sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was

surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna. 108 His

triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce;

their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the

church door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the

victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared

senator of Rome during the term of five years. And the muse of

Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous

youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and

Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate

the wolves and lions, the serpents and _bears_, who labored to

subvert the eternal basis of the marble column. 109

97 (return) [ It is pity that the Colonna themselves have not

favored the world with a complete and critical history of their

illustrious house. I adhere to Muratori, (Dissert. xlii. tom.

iii. p. 647, 648.)]

98 (return) [ Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. in Muratori,

Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 335. The family has still great

possessions in the Campagna of Rome; but they have alienated to

the Rospigliosi this original fief of _Colonna_, (Eschinard, p.

258, 259.)]

99 (return) [ “Te longinqua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni,” says

Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders and Juliers

acknowledges (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p.

539) his descent from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:)

but the royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that

the sceptre in his arms has been confounded with the column. To

maintain the Roman origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously

supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii.

p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero escaped from the city,

and founded Mentz in Germany.]

100 (return) [ I cannot overlook the Roman triumph of ovation on

Marce Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope’s galleys at

the naval victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p.

55, 56. Muret. Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180—190.)]

101 (return) [ Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]

102 (return) [ Petrarch’s attachment to the Colonna has

authorized the abbé de Sade to expatiate on the state of the

family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface

VIII., the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with

the Ursini, &c., (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 98—110,

146—148, 174—176, 222—230, 275—280.) His criticism often

rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the

less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be

now extinct.]

103 (return) [ Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who

adhered to the emperor Frederic I. incapable of holding any

ecclesiastical benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last

stains of annual excommunication were purified by Sixtus V.,

(Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and

proscription are often the best titles of ancient nobility.]

104 (return) [

————Vallis te proxima misit, Appenninigenæ qua prata

virentia sylvæ Spoletana metunt armenta gregesque

protervi.

Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a

French origin, which may be remotely true.]

105 (return) [ In the metrical life of Celestine V. by the

cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.,)

we find a luminous, and not inelegant, passage, (l. i. c. 3, p.

203 &c.:)—

————genuit quem nobilis Ursæ (_Ursi?_) Progenies, Romana

domus, veterataque magnis Fascibus in clero, pompasque

experta senatûs, Bellorumque manû grandi stipata

parentum Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum Papatûs

_iterata_ tenens.

Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first

Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined

to read _Ursi_ progenies.]

106 (return) [ Filii Ursi, quondam Clestini papæ nepotes, de

bonis ecclesiæ Romanæ ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III.

is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would

disdain the nephews of a _modern_ pope.]

107 (return) [ In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian

Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and

Ghibelines.]

108 (return) [ Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222—230) has celebrated this

victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a

Florentine (Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a Roman,

(Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 532—534,) are less favorable to their

arms.]

109 (return) [ The abbé de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61—66) has

applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, _Spirto Gentil_, &c., to

Stephen Colonna the younger:

Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi Al una gran marmorea

_colexna_ Fanno noja sovente e à se danno.]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.—Part

I.

Character And Coronation Of Petrarch.—Restoration Of The Freedom

And Government Of Rome By The Tribune Rienzi.—His Virtues And

Vices, His Expulsion And Death.—Return Of The Popes From

Avignon.—Great Schism Of The West.—Reunion Of The Latin

Church.—Last Struggles Of Roman Liberty.— Statutes Of Rome.—Final

Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch 1 is the Italian

songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes,

Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry;

and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the

enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may

be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial

knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned

nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not

compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the

sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of

Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety

of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still

less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a

metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence

has been questioned; 2 for a matron so prolific, 3 that she was

delivered of eleven legitimate children, 4 while her amorous

swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. 5 But in the

eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his

love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amusement. His

Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, established his

serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over

France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in

every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings 6 be now

abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man,

who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the

Augustan age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the

poetic crown. The academical honors of the three faculties had

introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of

poetry; 7 and the title of poet-laureate, which custom, rather

than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, 8 was first

invented by the Cæsars of Germany. In the musical games of

antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: 9 the belief that

Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the

emulation of a Latin bard; 10 and the laurel 11 was endeared to

the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress.

The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of

the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was

inexorable, 12 he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph

of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind, since he

applauds the success of his own _labors_; his name was popular;

his friends were active; the open or secret opposition of envy

and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient merit.

In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to accept

the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of

Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the

senate of Rome and the university of Paris. The learning of a

theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, were

alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though immortal wreath

which genius may obtain from the free applause of the public and

of posterity: but the candidate dismissed this troublesome

reflection; and after some moments of complacency and suspense,

preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world.

1 (return) [ The Mémoires sur la Vie de François Pétrarque,

(Amsterdam, 1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a copious,

original, and entertaining work, a labor of love, composed from

the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the

hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the

author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and

gallantry. In the preface to his first volume, he enumerates and

weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have professedly treated

of the same subject.]

2 (return) [ The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth

century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they

should understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed

virgin, or————. See the prefaces to the first and second volume.]

3 (return) [ Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was

married in January 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of

Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he

married a second wife within seven months of her death, which

happened the 6th of April, 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years

after Petrarch had seen and loved her.]

4 (return) [ Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these

is issued, in the tenth degree, the abbé de Sade, the fond and

grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most

probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire

into every circumstance that could affect the history and

character of his grandmother, (see particularly tom. i. p.

122—133, notes, p. 7—58, tom. ii. p. 455—495 not. p. 76—82.)]

5 (return) [ Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is

described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge

of his biographer, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 340—359.) It was, in

truth, the retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much

mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto.]

6 (return) [ Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the

xvith century, but without the date of the year. The abbé de Sade

calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch’s Latin works; but I

much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the

bookseller, or the amusement of the public.]

7 (return) [ Consult Selden’s Titles of Honor, in his works,

(vol. iii. p. 457—466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St.

Francis received the visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore fuerat

coronatus et exinde rex versuum dictus.]

8 (return) [ From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been

false and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can

produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in

every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year

a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel,

and, I believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the

more freely, as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous

custom is while the prince is a man of virtue and the poet a man

of genius.]

9 (return) [ Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit.

Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native Athens the glory of

first instituting and recommending the alwnaV—kai ta aqla

megista—mh monon tacouV kai rwmhV, alla kai logwn kai gnwmhV. The

example of the Panathenæa was imitated at Delphi; but the Olympic

games were ignorant of a musical crown, till it was extorted by

the vain tyranny of Nero, (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat.

apud Casaubon ad locum; Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, l. lxiii. p.

1032, 1041. Potter’s Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445, 450.)]

10 (return) [ The Capitoline games (certamen quinquenale,

_musicum_, equestre, gymnicum) were instituted by Domitian

(Sueton. c. 4) in the year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die

Natali, c. 18, p. 100, edit. Havercamp.) and were not abolished

in the ivth century, (Ausonius de Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If

the crown were given to superior merit, the exclusion of Statius

(Capitolia nostræ inficiata lyræ, Sylv. l. iii. v. 31) may do

honor to the games of the Capitol; but the Latin poets who lived

before Domitian were crowned only in the public opinion.]

11 (return) [ Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant

that the laurel was not the Capitoline, but the Delphic crown,

(Plin. Hist. Natur p. 39. Hist. Critique de la République des

Lettres, tom. i. p. 150—220.) The victors in the Capitol were

crowned with a garland of oak eaves, (Martial, l. iv. epigram

54.)]

12 (return) [ The pious grandson of Laura has labored, and not

without success, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the

censures of the grave and the sneers of the profane, (tom. ii.

notes, p. 76—82.)]

The ceremony of his coronation 13 was performed in the Capitol,

by his friend and patron the supreme magistrate of the republic.

Twelve patrician youths were arrayed in scarlet; six

representatives of the most illustrious families, in green robes,

with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in the

midst of the princes and nobles, the senator, count of

Anguillara, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed his throne; and at

the voice of a herald Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a text

of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity of

Rome, he knelt before the throne, and received from the senator a

laurel crown, with a more precious declaration, “This is the

reward of merit.” The people shouted, “Long life to the Capitol

and the poet!” A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as the

effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole procession

had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended before

the shrine of St. Peter. In the act or diploma 14 which was

presented to Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of

poet-laureate are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of

thirteen hundred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege

of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of

assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing,

interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all

subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority

of the senate and people; and the character of citizen was the

recompense of his affection for the Roman name. They did him

honor, but they did him justice. In the familiar society of

Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot;

and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment, and every

sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their

majestic ruins confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a

country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted.

The poverty and debasement of Rome excited the indignation and

pity of her grateful son; he dissembled the faults of his

fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of

their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in

the hopes of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of

the present time. Rome was still the lawful mistress of the

world: the pope and the emperor, the bishop and general, had

abdicated their station by an inglorious retreat to the Rhône and

the Danube; but if she could resume her virtue, the republic

might again vindicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the

indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence, 15 Petrarch, Italy, and

Europe, were astonished by a revolution which realized for a

moment his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the

tribune Rienzi will occupy the following pages: 16 the subject is

interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a patriot

bard 17 will sometimes vivify the copious, but simple, narrative

of the Florentine, 18 and more especially of the Roman,

historian. 19

13 (return) [ The whole process of Petrarch’s coronation is

accurately described by the abbé de Sade, (tom. i. p. 425—435,

tom. ii. p. 1—6, notes, p. 1—13,) from his own writings, and the

Roman diary of Ludovico, Monaldeschi, without mixing in this

authentic narrative the more recent fables of Sannuccio Delbene.]

14 (return) [ The original act is printed among the Pieces

Justificatives in the Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. iii. p.

50—53.]

15 (return) [ To find the proofs of his enthusiasm for Rome, I

need only request that the reader would open, by chance, either

Petrarch, or his French biographer. The latter has described the

poet’s first visit to Rome, (tom. i. p. 323—335.) But in the

place of much idle rhetoric and morality, Petrarch might have

amused the present and future age with an original account of the

city and his coronation.]

16 (return) [ It has been treated by the pen of a Jesuit, the P.

de Cerceau whose posthumous work (Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini,

dit de Rienzi, Tyran de Rome, en 1347) was published at Paris,

1748, in 12mo. I am indebted to him for some facts and documents

in John Hocsemius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian,

(Fabricius Bibliot. Lat. Med. Ævi, tom. iii. p. 273, tom. iv. p.

85.)]

17 (return) [ The abbé de Sade, who so freely expatiates on the

history of the xivth century, might treat, as his proper subject,

a revolution in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply

engaged, (Mémoires, tom. ii. p. 50, 51, 320—417, notes, p. 70—76,

tom. iii. p. 221—243, 366—375.) Not an idea or a fact in the

writings of Petrarch has probably escaped him.]

18 (return) [ Giovanni Villani, l. xii. c. 89, 104, in Muratori,

Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p. 969, 970, 981—983.]

19 (return) [ In his third volume of Italian antiquities, (p.

249—548,) Muratori has inserted the Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ ab

Anno 1327 usque ad Annum 1354, in the original dialect of Rome or

Naples in the xivth century, and a Latin version for the benefit

of strangers. It contains the most particular and authentic life

of Cola (Nicholas) di Rienzi; which had been printed at

Bracciano, 1627, in 4to., under the name of Tomaso Fortifiocca,

who is only mentioned in this work as having been punished by the

tribune for forgery. Human nature is scarcely capable of such

sublime or stupid impartiality: but whosoever in the author of

these Fragments, he wrote on the spot and at the time, and

paints, without design or art, the manners of Rome and the

character of the tribune. * Note: Since the publication of my

first edition of Gibbon, some new and very remarkable documents

have been brought to light in a life of Nicolas Rienzi,—Cola di

Rienzo und seine Zeit,—by Dr. Felix Papencordt. The most

important of these documents are letters from Rienzi to Charles

the Fourth, emperor and king of Bohemia, and to the archbishop of

Praque; they enter into the whole history of his adventurous

career during its first period, and throw a strong light upon his

extraordinary character. These documents were first discovered

and made use of, to a certain extent, by Pelzel, the historian of

Bohemia. The originals have disappeared, but a copy made by

Pelzel for his own use is now in the library of Count Thun at

Teschen. There seems no doubt of their authenticity. Dr.

Papencordt has printed the whole in his Urkunden, with the

exception of one long theological paper.—M. 1845.]

In a quarter of the city which was inhabited only by mechanics

and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a washer woman

produced the future deliverer of Rome. 20 201 From such parents

Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor

fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which they

painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end.

The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero,

Seneca, Livy, Cæsar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his

equals and contemporaries the genius of the young plebeian: he

perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles

of antiquity; loved to dispense his knowledge in familiar

language; and was often provoked to exclaim, “Where are now these

Romans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why was I not

born in those happy times?” 21 When the republic addressed to the

throne of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit and

eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen

deputies of the commons. The orator had the honor of haranguing

Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of conversing with

Petrarch, a congenial mind: but his aspiring hopes were chilled

by disgrace and poverty and the patriot was reduced to a single

garment and the charity of the hospital. 211 From this misery he

was relieved by the sense of merit or the smile of favor; and the

employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of

five gold florins, a more honorable and extensive connection, and

the right of contrasting, both in words and actions, his own

integrity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Rienzi

was prompt and persuasive: the multitude is always prone to envy

and censure: he was stimulated by the loss of a brother and the

impunity of the assassins; nor was it possible to excuse or

exaggerate the public calamities. The blessings of peace and

justice, for which civil society has been instituted, were

banished from Rome: the jealous citizens, who might have endured

every personal or pecuniary injury, were most deeply wounded in

the dishonor of their wives and daughters: 22 they were equally

oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of

the magistrates; 221 and the abuse of arms or of laws was the

only circumstance that distinguished the lions from the dogs and

serpents of the Capitol. These allegorical emblems were variously

repeated in the pictures which Rienzi exhibited in the streets

and churches; and while the spectators gazed with curious wonder,

the bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied the

satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a distant hope of

comfort and deliverance. The privileges of Rome, her eternal

sovereignty over her princes and provinces, was the theme of his

public and private discourse; and a monument of servitude became

in his hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of the

senate, which granted the most ample prerogatives to the emperor

Vespasian, had been inscribed on a copper plate still extant in

the choir of the church of St. John Lateran. 23 A numerous

assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political

lecture, and a convenient theatre was erected for their

reception. The notary appeared in a magnificent and mysterious

habit, explained the inscription by a version and commentary, 24

and descanted with eloquence and zeal on the ancient glories of

the senate and people, from whom all legal authority was derived.

The supine ignorance of the nobles was incapable of discerning

the serious tendency of such representations: they might

sometimes chastise with words and blows the plebeian reformer;

but he was often suffered in the Colonna palace to amuse the

company with his threats and predictions; and the modern Brutus

25 was concealed under the mask of folly and the character of a

buffoon. While they indulged their contempt, the restoration of

the _good estate_, his favorite expression, was entertained among

the people as a desirable, a possible, and at length as an

approaching, event; and while all had the disposition to applaud,

some had the courage to assist, their promised deliverer.

20 (return) [ The first and splendid period of Rienzi, his

tribunitian government, is contained in the xviiith chapter of

the Fragments, (p. 399—479,) which, in the new division, forms

the iid book of the history in xxxviii. smaller chapters or

sections.]

201 (return) [ But see in Dr. Papencordt’s work, and in Rienzi’s

own words, his claim to be a bastard son of the emperor Henry the

Seventh, whose intrigue with his mother Rienzi relates with a

sort of proud shamelessness. Compare account by the editor of Dr.

Papencordt’s work in Quarterly Review vol. lxix.—M. 1845.]

21 (return) [ The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the

original idiom: Fò da soa juventutine nutricato di latte de

eloquentia, bono gramatico, megliore rettuorico, autorista bravo.

Deh como et quanto era veloce leitore! moito usava Tito Livio,

Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio Massimo, moito li dilettava le

magnificentie di Julio Cesare raccontare. Tutta la die se

speculava negl’ intagli di marmo lequali iaccio intorno Roma. Non

era altri che esso, che sapesse lejere li antichi pataffii. Tutte

scritture antiche vulgarizzava; quesse fiure di marmo justamente

interpretava. On come spesso diceva, “Dove suono quelli buoni

Romani? dove ene loro somma justitia? poleramme trovare in tempo

che quessi fiuriano!”]

211 (return) [ Sir J. Hobhouse published (in his Illustrations of

Childe Harold) Rienzi’s joyful letter to the people of Rome on

the apparently favorable termination of this mission.—M. 1845.]

22 (return) [ Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans with

the easy temper of the husbands of Avignon, (Mémoires, tom. i. p.

330.)]

221 (return) [ All this Rienzi, writing at a later period to the

archbishop of Prague, attributed to the criminal abandonment of

his flock by the supreme pontiff. See Urkunde apud Papencordt, p.

xliv. Quarterly Review, p. 255.—M. 1845.]

23 (return) [ The fragments of the _Lex regia_ may be found in

the Inscriptions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242, and at the end of the

Tacitus of Ernesti, with some learned notes of the editor, tom.

ii.]

24 (return) [ I cannot overlook a stupendous and laughable

blunder of Rienzi. The Lex regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge

the Pomrium, a word familiar to every antiquary. It was not so to

the tribune; he confounds it with pom_a_rium, an orchard,

translates lo Jardino de Roma cioene Italia, and is copied by the

less excusable ignorance of the Latin translator (p. 406) and the

French historian, (p. 33.) Even the learning of Muratori has

slumbered over the passage.]

25 (return) [ Priori (_Bruto_) tamen similior, juvenis uterque,

longe ingenio quam cujus simulationem induerat, ut sub hoc

obtentû liberator ille P R. aperiretur tempore suo.... Ille

regibus, hic tyrannis contemptus, (Opp. p. 536.) * Note: Fatcor

attamen quod-nunc fatuum. nunc hystrionem, nunc gravem nunc

simplicem, nunc astutum, nunc fervidum, nunc timidum simulatorem,

et dissimulatorem ad hunc caritativum finem, quem dixi,

constitusepius memet ipsum. Writing to an archbishop, (of

Prague,) Rienzi alleges scriptural examples. Saltator coram archa

David et insanus apparuit coram Rege; blanda, astuta, et tecta

Judith astitit Holoferni; et astute Jacob meruit benedici,

Urkunde xlix.—M. 1845.]

A prophecy, or rather a summons, affixed on the church door of

St. George, was the first public evidence of his designs; a

nocturnal assembly of a hundred citizens on Mount Aventine, the

first step to their execution. After an oath of secrecy and aid,

he represented to the conspirators the importance and facility of

their enterprise; that the nobles, without union or resources,

were strong only in the fear nobles, of their imaginary strength;

that all power, as well as right, was in the hands of the people;

that the revenues of the apostolical chamber might relieve the

public distress; and that the pope himself would approve their

victory over the common enemies of government and freedom. After

securing a faithful band to protect his first declaration, he

proclaimed through the city, by sound of trumpet, that on the

evening of the following day, all persons should assemble without

arms before the church of St. Angelo, to provide for the

reestablishment of the good estate. The whole night was employed

in the celebration of thirty masses of the Holy Ghost; and in the

morning, Rienzi, bareheaded, but in complete armor, issued from

the church, encompassed by the hundred conspirators. The pope’s

vicar, the simple bishop of Orvieto, who had been persuaded to

sustain a part in this singular ceremony, marched on his right

hand; and three great standards were borne aloft as the emblems

of their design. In the first, the banner of _liberty_, Rome was

seated on two lions, with a palm in one hand and a globe in the

other; St. Paul, with a drawn sword, was delineated in the banner

of _justice_; and in the third, St. Peter held the keys of

_concord_ and _peace_. Rienzi was encouraged by the presence and

applause of an innumerable crowd, who understood little, and

hoped much; and the procession slowly rolled forwards from the

castle of St. Angelo to the Capitol. His triumph was disturbed by

some secret emotions which he labored to suppress: he ascended

without opposition, and with seeming confidence, the citadel of

the republic; harangued the people from the balcony; and received

the most flattering confirmation of his acts and laws. The

nobles, as if destitute of arms and counsels, beheld in silent

consternation this strange revolution; and the moment had been

prudently chosen, when the most formidable, Stephen Colonna, was

absent from the city. On the first rumor, he returned to his

palace, affected to despise this plebeian tumult, and declared to

the messenger of Rienzi, that at his leisure he would cast the

madman from the windows of the Capitol. The great bell instantly

rang an alarm, and so rapid was the tide, so urgent was the

danger, that Colonna escaped with precipitation to the suburb of

St. Laurence: from thence, after a moment’s refreshment, he

continued the same speedy career till he reached in safety his

castle of Palestrina; lamenting his own imprudence, which had not

trampled the spark of this mighty conflagration. A general and

peremptory order was issued from the Capitol to all the nobles,

that they should peaceably retire to their estates: they obeyed;

and their departure secured the tranquillity of the free and

obedient citizens of Rome.

But such voluntary obedience evaporates with the first transports

of zeal; and Rienzi felt the importance of justifying his

usurpation by a regular form and a legal title. At his own

choice, the Roman people would have displayed their attachment

and authority, by lavishing on his head the names of senator or

consul, of king or emperor: he preferred the ancient and modest

appellation of tribune; 251 the protection of the commons was the

essence of that sacred office; and they were ignorant, that it

had never been invested with any share in the legislative or

executive powers of the republic. In this character, and with the

consent of the Roman, the tribune enacted the most salutary laws

for the restoration and maintenance of the good estate. By the

first he fulfils the wish of honesty and inexperience, that no

civil suit should be protracted beyond the term of fifteen days.

The danger of frequent perjury might justify the pronouncing

against a false accuser the same penalty which his evidence would

have inflicted: the disorders of the times might compel the

legislator to punish every homicide with death, and every injury

with equal retaliation. But the execution of justice was hopeless

till he had previously abolished the tyranny of the nobles. It

was formally provided, that none, except the supreme magistrate,

should possess or command the gates, bridges, or towers of the

state; that no private garrisons should be introduced into the

towns or castles of the Roman territory; that none should bear

arms, or presume to fortify their houses in the city or country;

that the barons should be responsible for the safety of the

highways, and the free passage of provisions; and that the

protection of malefactors and robbers should be expiated by a

fine of a thousand marks of silver. But these regulations would

have been impotent and nugatory, had not the licentious nobles

been awed by the sword of the civil power. A sudden alarm from

the bell of the Capitol could still summon to the standard above

twenty thousand volunteers: the support of the tribune and the

laws required a more regular and permanent force. In each harbor

of the coast a vessel was stationed for the assurance of

commerce; a standing militia of three hundred and sixty horse and

thirteen hundred foot was levied, clothed, and paid in the

thirteen quarters of the city: and the spirit of a commonwealth

may be traced in the grateful allowance of one hundred florins,

or pounds, to the heirs of every soldier who lost his life in the

service of his country. For the maintenance of the public

defence, for the establishment of granaries, for the relief of

widows, orphans, and indigent convents, Rienzi applied, without

fear of sacrilege, the revenues of the apostolic chamber: the

three branches of hearth-money, the salt-duty, and the customs,

were each of the annual produce of one hundred thousand florins;

26 and scandalous were the abuses, if in four or five months the

amount of the salt-duty could be trebled by his judicious

economy. After thus restoring the forces and finances of the

republic, the tribune recalled the nobles from their solitary

independence; required their personal appearance in the Capitol;

and imposed an oath of allegiance to the new government, and of

submission to the laws of the good estate. Apprehensive for their

safety, but still more apprehensive of the danger of a refusal,

the princes and barons returned to their houses at Rome in the

garb of simple and peaceful citizens: the Colonna and Ursini, the

Savelli and Frangipani, were confounded before the tribunal of a

plebeian, of the vile buffoon whom they had so often derided, and

their disgrace was aggravated by the indignation which they

vainly struggled to disguise. The same oath was successively

pronounced by the several orders of society, the clergy and

gentlemen, the judges and notaries, the merchants and artisans,

and the gradual descent was marked by the increase of sincerity

and zeal. They swore to live and die with the republic and the

church, whose interest was artfully united by the nominal

association of the bishop of Orvieto, the pope’s vicar, to the

office of tribune. It was the boast of Rienzi, that he had

delivered the throne and patrimony of St. Peter from a rebellious

aristocracy; and Clement the Sixth, who rejoiced in its fall,

affected to believe the professions, to applaud the merits, and

to confirm the title, of his trusty servant. The speech, perhaps

the mind, of the tribune, was inspired with a lively regard for

the purity of the faith: he insinuated his claim to a

supernatural mission from the Holy Ghost; enforced by a heavy

forfeiture the annual duty of confession and communion; and

strictly guarded the spiritual as well as temporal welfare of his

faithful people. 27

251 (return) [ Et ego, Deo semper auctore, ipsa die pristinâ

(leg. primâ) Tribunatus, quæ quidem dignitas a tempore deflorati

Imperii, et per annos Vo et ultra sub tyrannicà occupatione

vacavit, ipsos omnes potentes indifferenter Deum at justitiam

odientes, a meâ, ymo a Dei facie fugiendo vehementi Spiritu

dissipavi, et nullo effuso cruore trementes expuli, sine ictu

remanente Romane terre facie renovatâ. Libellus Tribuni ad

Cæsarem, p. xxxiv.—M. 1845.]

26 (return) [ In one MS. I read (l. ii. c. 4, p. 409) perfumante

quatro _solli_, in another, quatro _florini_, an important

variety, since the florin was worth ten Roman _solidi_,

(Muratori, dissert. xxviii.) The former reading would give us a

population of 25,000, the latter of 250,000 families; and I much

fear, that the former is more consistent with the decay of Rome

and her territory.]

27 (return) [ Hocsemius, p. 498, apud du Cerçeau, Hist. de

Rienzi, p. 194. The fifteen tribunitian laws may be found in the

Roman historian (whom for brevity I shall name) Fortifiocca, l.

ii. c. 4.]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.—Part

II.

Never perhaps has the energy and effect of a single mind been

more remarkably felt than in the sudden, though transient,

reformation of Rome by the tribune Rienzi. A den of robbers was

converted to the discipline of a camp or convent: patient to

hear, swift to redress, inexorable to punish, his tribunal was

always accessible to the poor and stranger; nor could birth, or

dignity, or the immunities of the church, protect the offender or

his accomplices. The privileged houses, the private sanctuaries

in Rome, on which no officer of justice would presume to

trespass, were abolished; and he applied the timber and iron of

their barricades in the fortifications of the Capitol. The

venerable father of the Colonna was exposed in his own palace to

the double shame of being desirous, and of being unable, to

protect a criminal. A mule, with a jar of oil, had been stolen

near Capranica; and the lord of the Ursini family was condemned

to restore the damage, and to discharge a fine of four hundred

florins for his negligence in guarding the highways. Nor were the

persons of the barons more inviolate than their lands or houses;

and, either from accident or design, the same impartial rigor was

exercised against the heads of the adverse factions. Peter Agapet

Colonna, who had himself been senator of Rome, was arrested in

the street for injury or debt; and justice was appeased by the

tardy execution of Martin Ursini, who, among his various acts of

violence and rapine, had pillaged a shipwrecked vessel at the

mouth of the Tyber. 28 His name, the purple of two cardinals, his

uncles, a recent marriage, and a mortal disease were disregarded

by the inflexible tribune, who had chosen his victim. The public

officers dragged him from his palace and nuptial bed: his trial

was short and satisfactory: the bell of the Capitol convened the

people: stripped of his mantle, on his knees, with his hands

bound behind his back, he heard the sentence of death; and after

a brief confession, Ursini was led away to the gallows. After

such an example, none who were conscious of guilt could hope for

impunity, and the flight of the wicked, the licentious, and the

idle, soon purified the city and territory of Rome. In this time

(says the historian,) the woods began to rejoice that they were

no longer infested with robbers; the oxen began to plough; the

pilgrims visited the sanctuaries; the roads and inns were

replenished with travellers; trade, plenty, and good faith, were

restored in the markets; and a purse of gold might be exposed

without danger in the midst of the highway. As soon as the life

and property of the subject are secure, the labors and rewards of

industry spontaneously revive: Rome was still the metropolis of

the Christian world; and the fame and fortunes of the tribune

were diffused in every country by the strangers who had enjoyed

the blessings of his government.

28 (return) [ Fortifiocca, l. ii. c. 11. From the account of this

shipwreck, we learn some circumstances of the trade and

navigation of the age. 1. The ship was built and freighted at

Naples for the ports of Marseilles and Avignon. 2. The sailors

were of Naples and the Isle of naria less skilful than those of

Sicily and Genoa. 3. The navigation from Marseilles was a

coasting voyage to the mouth of the Tyber, where they took

shelter in a storm; but, instead of finding the current,

unfortunately ran on a shoal: the vessel was stranded, the

mariners escaped. 4. The cargo, which was pillaged, consisted of

the revenue of Provence for the royal treasury, many bags of

pepper and cinnamon, and bales of French cloth, to the value of

20,000 florins; a rich prize.]