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
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]
[Footnote 251: Et ego, Deo semper auctore, ipsa die pristin‚ (leg. prim‚)
Tribunatus, quÊ quidem dignitas a tempore deflorati Imperii, et per
annos Vo et ultra sub tyrannic‡ occupatione vacavit, ipsos omnes
potentes indifferenter Deum at justitiam odientes, a me‚, ymo a Dei
facie fugiendo vehementi Spiritu dissipavi, et nullo effuso cruore
trementes expuli, sine ictu remanente Romane terre facie renovat‚.
Libellus Tribuni ad CÊsarem, p. xxxiv.--M. 1845.]
[Footnote 26: 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.]
[Footnote 27: Hocsemius, p. 498, apud du CerÁeau, 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.
[Footnote 28: 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
Oenaria, 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.]
The deliverance of his country inspired Rienzi with a vast, and perhaps
visionary, idea of uniting Italy in a great federative republic, of
which Rome should be the ancient and lawful head, and the free cities
and princes the members and associates. His pen was not less eloquent
than his tongue; and his numerous epistles were delivered to swift
and trusty messengers. On foot, with a white wand in their hand, they
traversed the forests and mountains; enjoyed, in the most hostile
states, the sacred security of ambassadors; and reported, in the style
of flattery or truth, that the highways along their passage were lined
with kneeling multitudes, who implored Heaven for the success of their
undertaking. Could passion have listened to reason; could private
interest have yielded to the public welfare; the supreme tribunal
and confederate union of the Italian republic might have healed their
intestine discord, and closed the Alps against the Barbarians of the
North. But the propitious season had elapsed; and if Venice, Florence,
Sienna, Perugia, and many inferior cities offered their lives and
fortunes to the good estate, the tyrants of Lombardy and Tuscany must
despise, or hate, the plebeian author of a free constitution. From them,
however, and from every part of Italy, the tribune received the most
friendly and respectful answers: they were followed by the ambassadors
of the princes and republics; and in this foreign conflux, on all the
occasions of pleasure or business, the low born notary could assume
the familiar or majestic courtesy of a sovereign. [29] The most glorious
circumstance of his reign was an appeal to his justice from Lewis, king
of Hungary, who complained, that his brother and her husband had been
perfidiously strangled by Jane, queen of Naples: [30] her guilt or
innocence was pleaded in a solemn trial at Rome; but after hearing the
advocates, [31] the tribune adjourned this weighty and invidious cause,
which was soon determined by the sword of the Hungarian. Beyond the
Alps, more especially at Avignon, the revolution was the theme of
curiosity, wonder, and applause. [311] Petrarch had been the private
friend, perhaps the secret counsellor, of Rienzi: his writings breathe
the most ardent spirit of patriotism and joy; and all respect for the
pope, all gratitude for the Colonna, was lost in the superior duties
of a Roman citizen. The poet-laureate of the Capitol maintains the act,
applauds the hero, and mingles with some apprehension and advice, the
most lofty hopes of the permanent and rising greatness of the republic.
[32]
[Footnote 29: It was thus that Oliver Cromwell's old acquaintance, who
remembered his vulgar and ungracious entrance into the House of Commons,
were astonished at the ease and majesty of the protector on his throne,
(See Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 27--34, from Clarendon Warwick,
Whitelocke, Waller, &c.) The consciousness of merit and power will
sometimes elevate the manners to the station.]
[Footnote 30: See the causes, circumstances, and effects of the death of
Andrew in Giannone, (tom. iii. l. xxiii. p. 220--229,) and the Life of
Petrarch (MÈmoires, tom. ii. p. 143--148, 245--250, 375--379, notes, p.
21--37.) The abbÈ de Sade _wishes_ to extenuate her guilt.]
[Footnote 31: The advocate who pleaded against Jane could add nothing
to the logical force and brevity of his master's epistle. Johanna!
inordinata vita prÊcedens, retentio potestatis in regno, neglecta
vindicta, vir alter susceptus, et excusatio subsequens, necis viri tui
te probant fuisse participem et consortem. Jane of Naples, and Mary of
Scotland, have a singular conformity.]
[Footnote 311]: In his letter to the archbishop of Prague, Rienzi thus
describes the effect of his elevation on Italy and on the world: "Did
I not restore real peace among the cities which were distracted by
factions? did I not cause all the citizens, exiled by party violence,
with their wretched wives and children, to be readmitted? had I not
begun to extinguish the factious names (scismatica nomina) of Guelf and
Ghibelline, for which countless thousands had perished body and soul,
under the eyes of their pastors, by the reduction of the city of Rome
and all Italy into one amicable, peaceful, holy, and united confederacy?
the consecrated standards and banners having been by me collected and
blended together, and, in witness to our holy association and perfect
union, offered up in the presence of the ambassadors of all the cities
of Italy, on the day of the assumption of our Blessed Lady." p. xlvii.
----In the Libellus ad CÊsarem: "I received the homage and submission of
all the sovereigns of Apulia, the barons and counts, and almost all the
people of Italy. I was honored by solemn embassies and letters by the
emperor of Constantinople and the king of England. The queen of Naples
submitted herself and her kingdom to the protection of the tribune. The
king of Hungary, by two solemn embassies, brought his cause against his
queen and his nobles before my tribunal; and I venture to say further,
that the fame of the tribune alarmed the soldan of Babylon. When the
Christian pilgrims to the sepulchre of our Lord related to the Christian
and Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem all the yet unheard-of and wonderful
circumstances of the reformation in Rome, both Jews and Christians
celebrated the event with unusual festivities. When the soldan inquired
the cause of these rejoicings, and received this intelligence about
Rome, he ordered all the havens and cities on the coast to be fortified,
and put in a state of defence," p. xxxv.--M. 1845.]
[Footnote 32: See the Epistola Hortatoria de Capessenda Republica, from
Petrarch to Nicholas Rienzi, (Opp. p. 535--540,) and the vth eclogue or
pastoral, a perpetual and obscure allegory.]
While Petrarch indulged these prophetic visions, the Roman hero was fast
declining from the meridian of fame and power; and the people, who
had gazed with astonishment on the ascending meteor, began to mark the
irregularity of its course, and the vicissitudes of light and obscurity.
More eloquent than judicious, more enterprising than resolute, the
faculties of Rienzi were not balanced by cool and commanding reason:
he magnified in a tenfold proportion the objects of hope and fear; and
prudence, which could not have erected, did not presume to fortify,
his throne. In the blaze of prosperity, his virtues were insensibly
tinctured with the adjacent vices; justice with cruelly, cruelty,
liberality with profusion, and the desire of fame with puerile and
ostentatious vanity. [321] He might have learned, that the ancient
tribunes, so strong and sacred in the public opinion, were not
distinguished in style, habit, or appearance, from an ordinary plebeian;
[33] and that as often as they visited the city on foot, a single viator,
or beadle, attended the exercise of their office. The Gracchi would have
frowned or smiled, could they have read the sonorous titles and epithets
of their successor, "Nicholas, severe and merciful; deliverer of Rome;
defender of Italy; [34] friend of mankind, and of liberty, peace, and
justice; tribune august:" his theatrical pageants had prepared the
revolution; but Rienzi abused, in luxury and pride, the political maxim
of speaking to the eyes, as well as the understanding, of the multitude.
From nature he had received the gift of a handsome person, [35] till
it was swelled and disfigured by intemperance: and his propensity to
laughter was corrected in the magistrate by the affectation of gravity
and sternness. He was clothed, at least on public occasions, in a
party-colored robe of velvet or satin, lined with fur, and embroidered
with gold: the rod of justice, which he carried in his hand, was a
sceptre of polished steel, crowned with a globe and cross of gold, and
enclosing a small fragment of the true and holy wood. In his civil and
religious processions through the city, he rode on a white steed, the
symbol of royalty: the great banner of the republic, a sun with a circle
of stars, a dove with an olive branch, was displayed over his head; a
shower of gold and silver was scattered among the populace, fifty guards
with halberds encompassed his person; a troop of horse preceded his
march; and their tymbals and trumpets were of massy silver.
[Footnote 321: An illustrious female writer has drawn, with a single
stroke, the character of Rienzi, Crescentius, and Arnold of Brescia, the
fond restorers of Roman liberty: 'Qui ont pris les souvenirs pour les
espÈrances.' Corinne, tom. i. p. 159. "Could Tacitus have excelled this?"
Hallam, vol i p. 418.--M.]
[Footnote 33: In his Roman Questions, Plutarch (Opuscul. tom. i. p.
505, 506, edit. GrÊc. Hen. Steph.) states, on the most constitutional
principles, the simple greatness of the tribunes, who were not properly
magistrates, but a check on magistracy. It was their duty and interest
omoiousqai schmati, kai stolh kai diaithtoiV epitugcanousi tvn
politvn.... katapateisqai dei (a saying of C. Curio) kai mh semnon
einai th oyei mhde dusprosodon... osw de mallon ektapeinoutai tv swmati,
tosoutw mallon auxetai th dunamei, &c. Rienzi, and Petrarch himself,
were incapable perhaps of reading a Greek philosopher; but they might
have imbibed the same modest doctrines from their favorite Latins, Livy
and Valerius Maximus.]
[Footnote 34: I could not express in English the forcible, though
barbarous, title of _Zelator_ ItaliÊ, which Rienzi assumed.]
[Footnote 35: Era bell' homo, (l. ii. c. l. p. 399.) It is remarkable,
that the riso sarcastico of the Bracciano edition is wanting in the
Roman MS., from which Muratori has given the text. In his second reign,
when he is painted almost as a monster, Rienzi travea una ventresca
tonna trionfale, a modo de uno Abbate Asiano, or Asinino, (l. iii. c.
18, p. 523.)]