empire, I shall briefly mention the great collection of Byzantine
writers whose names and testimonies have been successively repeated in
this work. The Greeks presses of Aldus and the Italians were confined to
the classics of a better age; and the first rude editions of Procopius,
Agathias, Cedrenus, Zonaras, &c., were published by the learned
diligence of the Germans. The whole Byzantine series (xxxvi. volumes in
folio) has gradually issued (A.D. 1648, &c.) from the royal press of the
Louvre, with some collateral aid from Rome and Leipsic; but the Venetian
edition, (A.D. 1729,) though cheaper and more copious, is not less
inferior in correctness than in magnificence to that of Paris. The
merits of the French editors are various; but the value of Anna Comnena,
Cinnamus, Villehardouin, &c., is enhanced by the historical notes of
Charles de Fresne du Cange. His supplemental works, the Greek Glossary,
the Constantinopolis Christiana, the FamiliÊ ByzantinÊ, diffuse a steady
light over the darkness of the Lower Empire. * Note: The new edition of
the Byzantines, projected by Niebuhr, and continued under the patronage
of the Prussian government, is the most convenient in size, and contains
some authors (Leo Diaconus, Johannes Lydus, Corippus, the new fragment
of Dexippus, Eunapius, &c., discovered by Mai) which could not be
comprised in the former collections; but the names of such editors as
Bekker, the Dindorfs, &c., raised hopes of something more than the mere
republication of the text, and the notes of former editors. Little, I
regret to say, has been added of annotation, and in some cases, the old
incorrect versions have been retained.--M.]
Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.--Part I.
State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.--Temporal Dominion
Of The Popes.--Seditions Of The City.--Political Heresy Of
Arnold Of Brescia.--Restoration Of The Republic.--The
Senators.--Pride Of The Romans.--Their Wars.--They Are
Deprived Of The Election And Presence Of The Popes, Who
Retire To Avignon.--The Jubilee.--Noble Families Of Rome.--
Feud Of The Colonna And Ursini.
In the first ages of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, our
eye is invariably fixed on the royal city, which had given laws to the
fairest portion of the globe. We contemplate her fortunes, at first with
admiration, at length with pity, always with attention, and when that
attention is diverted from the capital to the provinces, they are
considered as so many branches which have been successively severed from
the Imperial trunk. The foundation of a second Rome, on the shores of
the Bosphorus, has compelled the historian to follow the successors of
Constantine; and our curiosity has been tempted to visit the most remote
countries of Europe and Asia, to explore the causes and the authors of
the long decay of the Byzantine monarchy. By the conquest of Justinian,
we have been recalled to the banks of the Tyber, to the deliverance of
the ancient metropolis; but that deliverance was a change, or perhaps
an aggravation, of servitude. Rome had been already stripped of her
trophies, her gods, and her CÊsars; nor was the Gothic dominion more
inglorious and oppressive than the tyranny of the Greeks. In the eighth
century of the Christian Êra, a religious quarrel, the worship of
images, provoked the Romans to assert their independence: their bishop
became the temporal, as well as the spiritual, father of a free people;
and of the Western empire, which was restored by Charlemagne, the title
and image still decorate the singular constitution of modern Germany.
The name of Rome must yet command our involuntary respect: the climate
(whatsoever may be its influence) was no longer the same: [1] the purity
of blood had been contaminated through a thousand channels; but the
venerable aspect of her ruins, and the memory of past greatness,
rekindled a spark of the national character. The darkness of the middle
ages exhibits some scenes not unworthy of our notice. Nor shall I
dismiss the present work till I have reviewed the state and revolutions
of the Roman City, which acquiesced under the absolute dominion of
the popes, about the same time that Constantinople was enslaved by the
Turkish arms.
[Footnote 1: The abbÈ Dubos, who, with less genius than his successor
Montesquieu, has asserted and magnified the influence of climate,
objects to himself the degeneracy of the Romans and Batavians. To the
first of these examples he replies, 1. That the change is less real than
apparent, and that the modern Romans prudently conceal in themselves the
virtues of their ancestors. 2. That the air, the soil, and the climate
of Rome have suffered a great and visible alteration, (RÈflexions sur la
PoÎsie et sur la Peinture, part ii. sect. 16.) * Note: This question is
discussed at considerable length in Dr. Arnold's History of Rome, ch.
xxiii. See likewise Bunsen's Dissertation on the Aria Cattiva Roms
Beschreibung, pp. 82, 108.--M.]
In the beginning of the twelfth century, [2] the Êra of the first
crusade, Rome was revered by the Latins, as the metropolis of the world,
as the throne of the pope and the emperor, who, from the eternal city,
derived their title, their honors, and the right or exercise of temporal
dominion. After so long an interruption, it may not be useless to repeat
that the successors of Charlemagne and the Othos were chosen beyond the
Rhine in a national diet; but that these princes were content with the
humble names of kings of Germany and Italy, till they had passed the
Alps and the Apennine, to seek their Imperial crown on the banks of the
Tyber. [3] At some distance from the city, their approach was saluted by
a long procession of the clergy and people with palms and crosses; and
the terrific emblems of wolves and lions, of dragons and eagles, that
floated in the military banners, represented the departed legions and
cohorts of the republic. The royal path to maintain the liberties of
Rome was thrice reiterated, at the bridge, the gate, and on the stairs
of the Vatican; and the distribution of a customary donative feebly
imitated the magnificence of the first CÊsars. In the church of St.
Peter, the coronation was performed by his successor: the voice of
God was confounded with that of the people; and the public consent was
declared in the acclamations of "Long life and victory to our lord
the pope! long life and victory to our lord the emperor! long life and
victory to the Roman and Teutonic armies!" [4] The names of CÊsar
and Augustus, the laws of Constantine and Justinian, the example of
Charlemagne and Otho, established the supreme dominion of the emperors:
their title and image was engraved on the papal coins; [5] and their
jurisdiction was marked by the sword of justice, which they delivered to
the prÊfect of the city. But every Roman prejudice was awakened by the
name, the language, and the manners, of a Barbarian lord. The CÊsars of
Saxony or Franconia were the chiefs of a feudal aristocracy; nor could
they exercise the discipline of civil and military power, which alone
secures the obedience of a distant people, impatient of servitude,
though perhaps incapable of freedom. Once, and once only, in his life,
each emperor, with an army of Teutonic vassals, descended from the Alps.
I have described the peaceful order of his entry and coronation; but
that order was commonly disturbed by the clamor and sedition of the
Romans, who encountered their sovereign as a foreign invader: his
departure was always speedy, and often shameful; and, in the absence of
a long reign, his authority was insulted, and his name was forgotten.
The progress of independence in Germany and Italy undermined the
foundations of the Imperial sovereignty, and the triumph of the popes
was the deliverance of Rome.
[Footnote 2: The reader has been so long absent from Rome, that I would
advise him to recollect or review the xlixth chapter of this History.]
[Footnote 3: The coronation of the German emperors at Rome, more
especially in the xith century, is best represented from the original
monuments by Muratori (Antiquitat. ItaliÊ Medii ∆vi, tom. i. dissertat.
ii. p. 99, &c.) and Cenni, (Monument. Domin. Pontif. tom. ii. diss.
vi. p. 261,) the latter of whom I only know from the copious extract of
Schmidt, (Hist. des Allemands tom. iii. p. 255--266.)]
[Footnote 4: Exercitui Romano et Teutonico! The latter was both seen and
felt; but the former was no more than magni nominis umbra.]
[Footnote 5: Muratori has given the series of the papal coins,
(Antiquitat. tom. ii. diss. xxvii. p. 548--554.) He finds only two more
early than the year 800: fifty are still extant from Leo III. to Leo
IX., with the addition of the reigning emperor none remain of Gregory
VII. or Urban II.; but in those of Paschal II. he seems to have
renounced this badge of dependence.]
Of her two sovereigns, the emperor had precariously reigned by the right
of conquest; but the authority of the pope was founded on the soft,
though more solid, basis of opinion and habit. The removal of a foreign
influence restored and endeared the shepherd to his flock. Instead of
the arbitrary or venal nomination of a German court, the vicar of Christ
was freely chosen by the college of cardinals, most of whom were either
natives or inhabitants of the city. The applause of the magistrates and
people confirmed his election, and the ecclesiastical power that was
obeyed in Sweden and Britain had been ultimately derived from the
suffrage of the Romans. The same suffrage gave a prince, as well as a
pontiff, to the capital. It was universally believed, that Constantine
had invested the popes with the temporal dominion of Rome; and the
boldest civilians, the most profane skeptics, were satisfied with
disputing the right of the emperor and the validity of his gift. The
truth of the fact, the authenticity of his donation, was deeply rooted
in the ignorance and tradition of four centuries; and the fabulous
origin was lost in the real and permanent effects. The name of _Dominus_
or Lord was inscribed on the coin of the bishops: their title was
acknowledged by acclamations and oaths of allegiance, and with the free,
or reluctant, consent of the German CÊsars, they had long exercised a
supreme or subordinate jurisdiction over the city and patrimony of St.
Peter. The reign of the popes, which gratified the prejudices, was not
incompatible with the liberties, of Rome; and a more critical inquiry
would have revealed a still nobler source of their power; the gratitude
of a nation, whom they had rescued from the heresy and oppression of the
Greek tyrant. In an age of superstition, it should seem that the union
of the royal and sacerdotal characters would mutually fortify each
other; and that the keys of Paradise would be the surest pledge of
earthly obedience. The sanctity of the office might indeed be degraded
by the personal vices of the man. But the scandals of the tenth century
were obliterated by the austere and more dangerous virtues of Gregory
the Seventh and his successors; and in the ambitious contests which
they maintained for the rights of the church, their sufferings or their
success must equally tend to increase the popular veneration. They
sometimes wandered in poverty and exile, the victims of persecution; and
the apostolic zeal with which they offered themselves to martyrdom must
engage the favor and sympathy of every Catholic breast. And sometimes,
thundering from the Vatican, they created, judged, and deposed the kings
of the world; nor could the proudest Roman be disgraced by submitting
to a priest, whose feet were kissed, and whose stirrup was held, by the
successors of Charlemagne. [6] Even the temporal interest of the city
should have protected in peace and honor the residence of the popes;
from whence a vain and lazy people derived the greatest part of their
subsistence and riches. The fixed revenue of the popes was probably
impaired; many of the old patrimonial estates, both in Italy and the
provinces, had been invaded by sacrilegious hands; nor could the loss be
compensated by the claim, rather than the possession, of the more ample
gifts of Pepin and his descendants. But the Vatican and Capitol were
nourished by the incessant and increasing swarms of pilgrims and
suppliants: the pale of Christianity was enlarged, and the pope and
cardinals were overwhelmed by the judgment of ecclesiastical and secular
causes. A new jurisprudence had established in the Latin church the
right and practice of appeals; [7] and from the North and West the
bishops and abbots were invited or summoned to solicit, to complain,
to accuse, or to justify, before the threshold of the apostles. A rare
prodigy is once recorded, that two horses, belonging to the archbishops
of Mentz and Cologne, repassed the Alps, yet laden with gold and silver:
[8] but it was soon understood, that the success, both of the pilgrims
and clients, depended much less on the justice of their cause than on
the value of their offering. The wealth and piety of these strangers
were ostentatiously displayed; and their expenses, sacred or profane,
circulated in various channels for the emolument of the Romans.
[Footnote 6: See Ducange, Gloss. mediÊ et infimÊ Latinitat. tom. vi. p.
364, 365, Staffa. This homage was paid by kings to archbishops, and
by vassals to their lords, (Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 262;) and it was the
nicest policy of Rome to confound the marks of filial and of feudal
subjection.]
[Footnote 7: The appeals from all the churches to the Roman pontiff are
deplored by the zeal of St. Bernard (de Consideratione, l. iii. tom. ii.
p. 431--442, edit. Mabillon, Venet. 1750) and the judgment of Fleury,
(Discours sur l'Hist. EcclÈsiastique, iv. et vii.) But the saint,
who believed in the false decretals condemns only the abuse of these
appeals; the more enlightened historian investigates the origin, and
rejects the principles, of this new jurisprudence.]
[Footnote 8: Germanici.... summarii non levatis sarcinis onusti
nihilominus repatriant inviti. Nova res! quando hactenus aurum Roma
refudit? Et nunc Romanorum consilio id usurpatum non credimus, (Bernard,
de Consideratione, l. iii. c. 3, p. 437.) The first words of the passage
are obscure, and probably corrupt.]
Such powerful motives should have firmly attached the voluntary and
pious obedience of the Roman people to their spiritual and temporal
father. But the operation of prejudice and interest is often disturbed
by the sallies of ungovernable passion. The Indian who fells the tree,
that he may gather the fruit, [9] and the Arab who plunders the caravans
of commerce, are actuated by the same impulse of savage nature, which
overlooks the future in the present, and relinquishes for momentary
rapine the long and secure possession of the most important blessings.
And it was thus, that the shrine of St. Peter was profaned by the
thoughtless Romans; who pillaged the offerings, and wounded the
pilgrims, without computing the number and value of similar visits,
which they prevented by their inhospitable sacrilege. Even the influence
of superstition is fluctuating and precarious; and the slave, whose
reason is subdued, will often be delivered by his avarice or pride. A
credulous devotion for the fables and oracles of the priesthood most
powerfully acts on the mind of a Barbarian; yet such a mind is the least
capable of preferring imagination to sense, of sacrificing to a distant
motive, to an invisible, perhaps an ideal, object, the appetites and
interests of the present world. In the vigor of health and youth, his
practice will perpetually contradict his belief; till the pressure of
age, or sickness, or calamity, awakens his terrors, and compels him to
satisfy the double debt of piety and remorse. I have already observed,
that the modern times of religious indifference are the most
favorable to the peace and security of the clergy. Under the reign of
superstition, they had much to hope from the ignorance, and much to fear
from the violence, of mankind. The wealth, whose constant increase must
have rendered them the sole proprietors of the earth, was alternately
bestowed by the repentant father and plundered by the rapacious son:
their persons were adored or violated; and the same idol, by the hands
of the same votaries, was placed on the altar, or trampled in the dust.
In the feudal system of Europe, arms were the title of distinction and
the measure of allegiance; and amidst their tumult, the still voice
of law and reason was seldom heard or obeyed. The turbulent Romans
disdained the yoke, and insulted the impotence, of their bishop: [10] nor
would his education or character allow him to exercise, with decency
or effect, the power of the sword. The motives of his election and the
frailties of his life were exposed to their familiar observation; and
proximity must diminish the reverence which his name and his decrees
impressed on a barbarous world. This difference has not escaped the
notice of our philosophic historian: "Though the name and authority of
the court of Rome were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe,
which were sunk in profound ignorance, and were entirely unacquainted
with its character and conduct, the pope was so little revered at home,
that his inveterate enemies surrounded the gates of Rome itself, and
even controlled his government in that city; and the ambassadors, who,
from a distant extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble, or rather
abject, submissions of the greatest potentate of the age, found the
utmost difficulty to make their way to him, and to throw themselves at
his feet." [11]
[Footnote 9: Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulent avoir du fruit,
ils coupent l'arbre au pied et cueillent le fruit. Voila le gouvernement
despotique, (Esprit des Loix, l. v. c. 13;) and passion and ignorance
are always despotic.]
[Footnote 10: In a free conversation with his countryman Adrian
IV., John of Salisbury accuses the avarice of the pope and clergy:
Provinciarum diripiunt spolia, ac si thesauros Crsi studeant reparare.
Sed recte cum eis agit Altissimus, quoniam et ipsi aliis et sÊpe
vilissimis hominibus dati sunt in direptionem, (de Nugis Curialium,
l. vi. c. 24, p. 387.) In the next page, he blames the rashness and
infidelity of the Romans, whom their bishops vainly strove to conciliate
by gifts, instead of virtues. It is pity that this miscellaneous writer
has not given us less morality and erudition, and more pictures of
himself and the times.]
[Footnote 11: Hume's History of England, vol. i. p. 419. The same writer
has given us, from Fitz-Stephen, a singular act of cruelty perpetrated
on the clergy by Geoffrey, the father of Henry II. "When he was master
of Normandy, the chapter of Seez presumed, without his consent, to
proceed to the election of a bishop: upon which he ordered all of them,
with the bishop elect, to be castrated, and made all their testicles
be brought him in a platter." Of the pain and danger they might justly
complain; yet since they had vowed chastity he deprived them of a
superfluous treasure.]