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 UrsÊ (_Ursi?_)
Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis
Fascibus in clero, pompasque experta senat˚s,
Bellorumque man˚ grandi stipata parentum
Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum
Papat˚s _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.]
[Footnote 106: Filii Ursi, quondam Clestini papÊ nepotes, de bonis
ecclesiÊ RomanÊ 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.]
[Footnote 107: In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian
Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and
Ghibelines.]
[Footnote 108: 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.]
[Footnote 109: The abbÈ 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 ‡ se danno. 11]
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 CÊsars 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.
[Footnote 1: The MÈmoires sur la Vie de FranÁois PÈtrarque, (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.]
[Footnote 2: 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.]
[Footnote 3: 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.]
[Footnote 4: Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these is
issued, in the tenth degree, the abbÈ 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.)]
[Footnote 5: Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is
described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge of
his biographer, (MÈmoires, 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.]
[Footnote 6: Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the xvith
century, but without the date of the year. The abbÈ 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.]
[Footnote 7: 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.]
[Footnote 8: 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.]
[Footnote 9: 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
PanathenÊa 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.)]
[Footnote 10: 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 nostrÊ inficiata lyrÊ, 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.]
[Footnote 11: 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 RÈpublique des Lettres, tom. i. p.
150--220.) The victors in the Capitol were crowned with a garland of oak
leaves, (Martial, l. iv. epigram 54.)]
[Footnote 12: 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 RhÙne 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]
[Footnote 13: The whole process of Petrarch's coronation is accurately
described by the abbÈ 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.]
[Footnote 14: The original act is printed among the Pieces
Justificatives in the MÈmoires sur PÈtrarque, tom. iii. p. 50--53.]
[Footnote 15: 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.]
[Footnote 16: 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. ∆vi,
tom. iii. p. 273, tom. iv. p. 85.)]
[Footnote 17: The abbÈ 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, (MÈmoires, 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.]
[Footnote 18: Giovanni Villani, l. xii. c. 89, 104, in Muratori, Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p. 969, 970, 981--983.]
[Footnote 19: In his third volume of Italian antiquities, (p. 249--548,)
Muratori has inserted the Fragmenta HistoriÊ RomanÊ 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 Prague; 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, CÊsar, 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.
[Footnote 20: 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.]
[Footnote 201: 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.]
[Footnote 21: The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the original
idiom: FÚ 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!"]
[Footnote 211: 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.]
[Footnote 22: Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans with the easy
temper of the husbands of Avignon, (MÈmoires, tom. i. p. 330.)]
[Footnote 221: 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.]
[Footnote 23: 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.]
[Footnote 24: 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.]
[Footnote 25: Priori (_Bruto_) tamen similior, juvenis uterque, longe
ingenio quam cujus simulationem induerat, ut sub hoc obtent˚ 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.]