and if that opinion be supplanted by reason or passion, the sound may
idly waste itself in the air; and the helpless priest is exposed to
the brutal violence of a noble or a plebeian adversary. But after their
return from Avignon, the keys of St. Peter were guarded by the sword
of St. Paul. Rome was commanded by an impregnable citadel: the use of
cannon is a powerful engine against popular seditions: a regular force
of cavalry and infantry was enlisted under the banners of the pope: his
ample revenues supplied the resources of war: and, from the extent of
his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city an army of hostile
neighbors and loyal subjects. [88] Since the union of the duchies
of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the
Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the
banks of the Po; and as early as the sixteenth century, the greater part
of that spacious and fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and
temporal sovereignty of the Roman pontiffs. Their claims were readily
deduced from the genuine, or fabulous, donations of the darker ages: the
successive steps of their final settlement would engage us too far in
the transactions of Italy, and even of Europe; the crimes of Alexander
the Sixth, the martial operations of Julius the Second, and the liberal
policy of Leo the Tenth, a theme which has been adorned by the pens of
the noblest historians of the times. [89] In the first period of their
conquests, till the expedition of Charles the Eighth, the popes might
successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose
military force was equal, or inferior, to their own. But as soon as the
monarchs of France, Germany and Spain, contended with gigantic arms
for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with art the deficiency of
strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and treaties, their
aspiring views, and the immortal hope of chasing the Barbarians beyond
the Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the
soldiers of the North and West, who were united under the standard of
Charles the Fifth: the feeble and fluctuating policy of Clement the
Seventh exposed his person and dominions to the conqueror; and Rome was
abandoned seven months to a lawless army, more cruel and rapacious
than the Goths and Vandals. [90] After this severe lesson, the popes
contracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed
the character of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive
hostilities, except in a hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and
the Turkish sultan were armed at the same time against the kingdom of
Naples. [91] The French and Germans at length withdrew from the field of
battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the sea-coast of Tuscany,
were firmly possessed by the Spaniards; and it became their interest
to maintain the peace and dependence of Italy, which continued almost
without disturbance from the middle of the sixteenth to the opening
of the eighteenth century. The Vatican was swayed and protected by
the religious policy of the Catholic king: his prejudice and interest
disposed him in every dispute to support the prince against the people;
and instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum, which they
obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the
enemies of law, were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle
of despotism. The long habits of obedience and education subdued the
turbulent spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. The barons forgot
the arms and factions of their ancestors, and insensibly became the
servants of luxury and government. Instead of maintaining a crowd of
tenants and followers, the produce of their estates was consumed in the
private expenses which multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power,
of the lord. [92] The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the
decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique splendor was
rivalled or surpassed by the sudden opulence of the papal families. In
Rome the voice of freedom and discord is no longer heard; and, instead
of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant lake reflects the image of
idleness and servitude.
[Footnote 88: By the conomy of Sixtus V. the revenue of the
ecclesiastical state was raised to two millions and a half of Roman
crowns, (Vita, tom. ii. p. 291--296;) and so regular was the military
establishment, that in one month Clement VIII. could invade the duchy of
Ferrara with three thousand horse and twenty thousand foot, (tom. iii.
p. 64) Since that time (A.D. 1597) the papal arms are happily rusted:
but the revenue must have gained some nominal increase. * Note:
On the financial measures of Sixtus V. see Ranke, Dio Rˆmischen
P‰pste, i. p. 459.--M.]
[Footnote 89: More especially by Guicciardini and Machiavel; in the
general history of the former, in the Florentine history, the Prince,
and the political discourses of the latter. These, with their worthy
successors, Fra Paolo and Davila, were justly esteemed the first
historians of modern languages, till, in the present age, Scotland
arose, to dispute the prize with Italy herself.]
[Footnote 90: In the history of the Gothic siege, I have compared the
Barbarians with the subjects of Charles V., (vol. iii. p. 289, 290;) an
anticipation, which, like that of the Tartar conquests, I indulged with
the less scruple, as I could scarcely hope to reach the conclusion of my
work.]
[Footnote 91: The ambitious and feeble hostilities of the Caraffa pope,
Paul IV. may be seen in Thuanus (l. xvi.--xviii.) and Giannone, (tom.
iv p. 149--163.) Those Catholic bigots, Philip II. and the duke of Alva,
presumed to separate the Roman prince from the vicar of Christ, yet the
holy character, which would have sanctified his victory was decently
applied to protect his defeat. * Note: But compare Ranke, Die Rˆmischen
P‰pste, i. p. 289.--M.]
[Footnote 92: This gradual change of manners and expense is admirably
explained by Dr. Adam Smith, (Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 495--504,)
who proves, perhaps too severely, that the most salutary effects have
flowed from the meanest and most selfish causes.]
A Christian, a philosopher, [93] and a patriot, will be equally
scandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majesty
of Rome, the remembrance of her consuls and triumphs, may seem to
imbitter the sense, and aggravate the shame, of her slavery. If we
calmly weigh the merits and defects of the ecclesiastical government,
it may be praised in its present state, as a mild, decent, and tranquil
system, exempt from the dangers of a minority, the sallies of youth, the
expenses of luxury, and the calamities of war. But these advantages
are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a septennial, election of a
sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country; the reign of a _young_
statesman of threescore, in the decline of his life and abilities,
without hope to accomplish, and without children to inherit, the labors
of his transitory reign. The successful candidate is drawn from the
church, and even the convent; from the mode of education and life
the most adverse to reason, humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of
servile faith, he has learned to believe because it is absurd, to revere
all that is contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the
esteem of a rational being; to punish error as a crime, to reward
mortification and celibacy as the first of virtues; to place the saints
of the calendar [94] above the heroes of Rome and the sages of Athens;
and to consider the missal, or the crucifix, as more useful instruments
than the plough or the loom. In the office of nuncio, or the rank of
cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the primitive
stain will adhere to his mind and manners: from study and experience
he may suspect the mystery of his profession; but the sacerdotal artist
will imbibe some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. The genius
of Sixtus the Fifth [95] burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister.
In a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti,
abolished the _profane_ sanctuaries of Rome, [96] formed a naval and
military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity,
and after a liberal use and large increase of the revenue, left five
millions of crowns in the castle of St. Angelo. But his justice was
sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of
conquest: after his decease the abuses revived; the treasure was
dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new taxes and the
venality of offices; and, after his death, his statue was demolished
by an ungrateful, or an injured, people. [97] The wild and original
character of Sixtus the Fifth stands alone in the series of the
pontiffs; the maxims and effects of their temporal government may
be collected from the positive and comparative view of the arts and
philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and population, of
the ecclesiastical state. For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity
with all mankind, nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend
even the pope and clergy of Rome. [98]
[Footnote 93: Mr. Hume (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 389) too hastily
conclude that if the civil and ecclesiastical powers be united in the
same person, it is of little moment whether he be styled prince or
prelate since the temporal character will always predominate.]
[Footnote 94: A Protestant may disdain the unworthy preference of St.
Francis or St. Dominic, but he will not rashly condemn the zeal or
judgment of Sixtus V., who placed the statues of the apostles St. Peter
and St. Paul on the vacant columns of Trajan and Antonine.]
[Footnote 95: A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti, has given the Vita di
Sisto-Quinto, (Amstel. 1721, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) a copious and amusing
work, but which does not command our absolute confidence. Yet the
character of the man, and the principal facts, are supported by
the annals of Spondanus and Muratori, (A.D. 1585--1590,) and the
contemporary history of the great Thuanus, (l. lxxxii. c. 1, 2, l.
lxxxiv. c. 10, l. c. c. 8.) * Note: The industry of M. Ranke has
discovered the document, a kind of scandalous chronicle of the time,
from which Leti wrought up his amusing romances. See also M. Ranke's
observations on the Life of Sixtus. by Tempesti, b. iii. p. 317, 324.--
M.]
[Footnote 96: These privileged places, the _quartieri_ or _franchises_,
were adopted from the Roman nobles by the foreign ministers. Julius
II. had once abolished the abominandum et detestandum franchitiarum
hujusmodi nomen: and after Sixtus V. they again revived. I cannot
discern either the justice or magnanimity of Louis XIV., who, in 1687,
sent his ambassador, the marquis de Lavardin, to Rome, with an armed
force of a thousand officers, guards, and domestics, to maintain this
iniquitous claim, and insult Pope Innocent XI. in the heart of his
capital, (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 260--278. Muratori, Annali
d'Italia, tom. xv. p. 494--496, and Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. tom.
i. c. 14, p. 58, 59.)]
[Footnote 97: This outrage produced a decree, which was inscribed on
marble, and placed in the Capitol. It is expressed in a style of manly
simplicity and freedom: Si quis, sive privatus, sive magistratum gerens
de collocand‚ _vivo_ pontifici statu‚ mentionem facere ausit, legitimo
S. P. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum infamis et publicorum munerum expers
esto. MDXC. mense Augusto, (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 469.) I
believe that this decree is still observed, and I know that every
monarch who deserves a statue should himself impose the prohibition.]
[Footnote 98: The histories of the church, Italy, and Christendom, have
contributed to the chapter which I now conclude. In the original Lives
of the Popes, we often discover the city and republic of Rome: and the
events of the xivth and xvth centuries are preserved in the rude
and domestic chronicles which I have carefully inspected, and shall
recapitulate in the order of time.
1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium Roman. A.D.
1328, in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. xii. p.
525. N. B. The credit of this fragment is somewhat hurt by a singular
interpolation, in which the author relates his own death at the age of
115 years.
2. Fragmenta HistoriÊ RomanÊ (vulgo Thomas FortifioccÊ) in Romana
Dialecto vulgari, (A.D. 1327--1354, in Muratori, Antiquitat. Medii ∆vi
ItaliÊ, tom. iii. p. 247--548;) the authentic groundwork of the history
of Rienzi.
3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1370--1410,) in the Rerum
Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846.
4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1404--1417,) tom. xxiv. p. 699.
5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana, (A.D. 1433--1446,) tom.
xxiv. p. 1101.
6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1472--1484,) tom. xxiii p.
81.
7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis RomÊ, (A.D. 1481--1492,) tom. iii. P. ii. p.
1069.
8. InfessurÊ (Stephani) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1294, or 1378--1494,)
tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109.
9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi,
(A.D. 1492--1503,) edita a Godefr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Hanover, 697, in
14to. The large and valuable Journal of Burcard might be completed from
the MSS. in different libraries of Italy and France, (M. de Foncemagne,
in the MÈmoires de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xvii. p. 597--606.)
Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the
Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy.
His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works
on that subject: 1. _Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, (A.D. 500--1500,)
_quorum potissima pars nunc primum in lucem prodit_, &c., xxviii.
vols. in folio, Milan, 1723--1738, 1751. A volume of chronological and
alphabetical tables is still wanting as a key to this great work, which
is yet in a disorderly and defective state. 2. _Antiquitates ItaliÊ
Medii ∆vi_, vi. vols. in folio, Milan, 1738--1743, in lxxv. curious
dissertations, on the manners, government, religion, &c., of the
Italians of the darker ages, with a large supplement of charters,
chronicles, &c. 3. _Dissertazioni sopra le Antiquita Italiane_, iii.
vols. in 4to., Milano, 1751, a free version by the author, which may be
quoted with the same confidence as the Latin text of the Antiquities.
_Annali d' Italia_, xviii. vols. in octavo, Milan, 1753--1756, a dry,
though accurate and useful, abridgment of the history of Italy, from
the birth of Christ to the middle of the xviiith century. 5. _Dell'
Antichita Estense ed Italiane_, ii. vols. in folio, Modena, 1717, 1740.
In the history of this illustrious race, the parent of our Brunswick
kings, the critic is not seduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the
subject. In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and
laborious writer, who aspires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest.
He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after passing
near 60 years in the libraries of Milan and Modena, (Vita del Proposto
Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and successor Gian. Francesco
Soli Muratori Venezia, 1756 m 4to.)]
Chapter LXXI: Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth
Century.--Part I.
Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century.--
Four Causes Of Decay And Destruction.--Example Of The
Coliseum.--Renovation Of The City.--Conclusion Of The Whole
Work.
In the last days of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, [101] two of his servants,
the learned Poggius [1] and a friend, ascended the Capitoline hill;
reposed themselves among the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed
from that commanding spot the wide and various prospect of desolation.
[2] The place and the object gave ample scope for moralizing on the
vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of
his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was
agreed, that in proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was
the more awful and deplorable. "Her primeval state, such as she might
appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger of Troy,
[3] has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was
then a savage and solitary thicket: in the time of the poet, it was
crowned with the golden roofs of a temple; the temple is overthrown,
the gold has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished her
revolution, and the sacred ground is again disfigured with thorns and
brambles. The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the
head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings;
illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the
spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world,
how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! The path of victory is
obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by
a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the
shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the
colossal statues, the porticos of Nero's palace: survey the other hills
of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens.
The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws
and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of
pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes.
The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie
prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the
ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived
the injuries of time and fortune." [4]
[Footnote 101: It should be Pope Martin the Fifth. See Gibbon's own
note, ch. lxv, note 51 and Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe Harold, p.
155.--M.]
[Footnote 1: I have already (notes 50, 51, on chap. lxv.) mentioned the
age, character, and writings of Poggius; and particularly noticed the
date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune.]
[Footnote 2: Consedimus in ipsis TarpeiÊ arcis ruinis, pone ingens
portÊ cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim
confractas columnas, unde magn‚ ex parte prospectus urbis patet, (p.
5.)]
[Footnote 3: ∆neid viii. 97--369. This ancient picture, so artfully
introduced, and so exquisitely finished, must have been highly
interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early studies allow us to
sympathize in the feelings of a Roman.]
[Footnote 4: Capitolium adeo.... immutatum ut vineÊ in senatorum
subsellia successerint, stercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum.
Respice ad Palatinum montem..... vasta rudera.... cÊteros colles
perlustra omnia vacua Êdificiis, ruinis vineisque oppleta conspicies,
(Poggius, de Varietat. FortunÊ p. 21.)]
These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the first who
raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of classic,
superstition. [5] _1._Besides a bridge, an arch, a sepulchre, and the
pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the age of the republic, a
double row of vaults, in the salt-office of the Capitol, which were
inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. _2._ Eleven temples
were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon,
to the three arches and a marble column of the temple of Peace, which
Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. _3._ Of
the number, which he rashly defines, of seven _therm_, or public baths,
none were sufficiently entire to represent the use and distribution of
the several parts: but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla
still retained the titles of the founders, and astonished the curious
spectator, who, in observing their solidity and extent, the variety of
marbles, the size and multitude of the columns, compared the labor and
expense with the use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of
Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be
found. _4._ The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Constantine,
were entire, both the structure and the inscriptions; a falling fragment
was honored with the name of Trajan; and two arches, then extant, in the
Flaminian way, have been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and
Gallienus. [501] _5._ After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have
overlooked small amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use of the
prÊtorian camp: the theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied in
a great measure by public and private buildings; and in the Circus,
Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the situation and the form could
be investigated. _6._ The columns of Trajan and Antonine were still
erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people of gods
and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian figure
of gilt brass, and to five marble statues, of which the most conspicuous
were the two horses of Phidias and Praxiteles. _7._ The two mausoleums
or sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not totally be lost: but the
former was only visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the
castle of St. Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern
fortress. With the addition of some separate and nameless columns, such
were the remains of the ancient city; for the marks of a more recent
structure might be detected in the walls, which formed a circumference
of ten miles, included three hundred and seventy-nine turrets, and
opened into the country by thirteen gates.
[Footnote 5: See Poggius, p. 8--22.]
[Footnote 501: One was in the Via Nomentana; est alter prÊterea Gallieno
principi dicatus, ut superscriptio indicat, _Vi‚ Nomentana_. Hobhouse,
p. 154. Poggio likewise mentions the building which Gibbon ambiguously
says be "might have overlooked."--M.]
This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred years after the
fall of the Western empire, and even of the Gothic kingdom of Italy.
A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts,
and riches had migrated from the banks of the Tyber, was incapable
of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must
retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened
the ruin of the works of antiquity. To measure the progress of decay,
and to ascertain, at each Êra, the state of each edifice, would be
an endless and a useless labor; and I shall content myself with two
observations, which will introduce a short inquiry into the general
causes and effects. _1._ Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint
of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome. [6] His
ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and fabulous names.
Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears; he could observe the
visible remains; he could listen to the tradition of the people; and he
distinctly enumerates seven theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches,
and eighteen palaces, of which many had disappeared before the time
of Poggius. It is apparent, that many stately monuments of antiquity
survived till a late period, [7] and that the principles of destruction
acted with vigorous and increasing energy in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. _2._ The same reflection must be applied to the
three last ages; and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of Severus;
[8] which is celebrated by Petrarch and the antiquarians of the sixteenth
century. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the first blows,
however weighty and impetuous, were resisted by the solidity of the mass
and the harmony of the parts; but the slightest touch would precipitate
the fragments of arches and columns, that already nodded to their fall.
[Footnote 6: Liber de Mirabilibus RomÊ ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis de
Arragoni‚ in Bibliothec‚ St. Isidori Armario IV., No. 69. This treatise,
with some short but pertinent notes, has been published by Montfaucon,
(Diarium Italicum, p. 283--301,) who thus delivers his own critical
opinion: Scriptor xiiimi. circiter sÊculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariÊ
rei imperitus et, ut ab illo Êvo, nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus:
sed, quia monumenta, quÊ iis temporibus RomÊ supererant pro modulo
recenset, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qui Romanis antiquitatibus
indagandis operam navabit, (p. 283.)]