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 PrÊneste, 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 primÊval 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,
PrÊneste, 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 CannÊ. 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.
[Footnote 62: Tibur nunc suburbanum, et ÊstivÊ PrÊneste deliciÊ,
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.)]
[Footnote 63: 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.]
[Footnote 64: 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 ItaliÊ,) 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.]
[Footnote 65: 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 Tiburtin‚ non vivitur civiliter.]
[Footnote 66: 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.)]
[Footnote 67: 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.
[Footnote 68: 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.)]
[Footnote 69: 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.]
[Footnote 70: 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.]
[Footnote 71: The genius of Cardinal de Retz had a right to paint
a conclave, (of 1665,) in which he was a spectator and an actor,
(MÈmoires, 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.]
[Footnote 72: The expressions of Cardinal de Retz are positive and
picturesque: On y vecut toujours ensemble avec le mÍme respect, et la
mÍme civilitÈ que l'on observe dans le cabinet des rois, avec la
mÍme politesse qu'on avoit dans la cour de Henri III., avec la mÍme
familiaritÈ que l'on voit dans les colleges; avec la mÍme modestie, qui
se remarque dans les noviciats; et avec la mÍme charitÈ, du moins en
apparence, qui pourroit Ëtre entre des frËres parfaitement unis.]
[Footnote 73: 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.]
[Footnote 74: 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.]
[Footnote 75: 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 RhÙne; 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]
[Footnote 76: Romani autem non valentes nec volentes ultra suam celare
cupiditatem gravissimam, contra papam movere cperunt questionem,
exigentes ab eo urgentissime omnia quÊ subierant per ejus absentiam
damna et jacturas, videlicet in hispitiis locandis, in mercimoniis,
in usuris, in redditibus, in provisionibus, et in aliis modis
innumerabilibus. QuÚd cum audisset papa, prÊcordialiter 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.]
[Footnote 77: 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 particuliËre du grand DiffÈrend entre Boniface VIII
et Philippe le Bel, par Pierre du Puis, tom. vii. P. xi. p. 61--82.)]
[Footnote 78: 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 RhÙne, 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.
[Footnote 79: 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.]
[Footnote 80: 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, (VitÊ
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.]