The bell of the great Lateran church sounded shrill and loud, as the
mighty multitude, greater even than that of the preceding night, swept
on. The appointed officers made way with difficulty for the barons and
ambassadors, and scarcely were those noble visitors admitted ere the
crowd closed in their ranks, poured headlong into the church, and took
the way to the chapel of Boniface VIII. There, filling every cranny,
and blocking up the entrance, the more fortunate of the press beheld the
Tribune surrounded by the splendid court his genius had collected, and
his fortune had subdued. At length, as the solemn and holy music began
to swell through the edifice, preluding the celebration of the mass, the
Tribune stepped forth, and the hush of the music was increased by the
universal and dead silence of the audience. His height, his air, his
countenance, were such as always command the attention of crowds; and at
this time they received every adjunct from the interest of the occasion,
and that peculiar look of intent yet suppressed fervour, which is,
perhaps, the sole gift of the eloquent that Nature alone can give.
“Be it known,” said he, slowly and deliberately, “in virtue of that
authority, power, and jurisdiction, which the Roman people, in general
parliament, have assigned to us, and which the Sovereign Pontiff hath
confirmed, that we, not ungrateful of the gift and grace of the Holy
Spirit--whose soldier we now are--nor of the favour of the Roman people,
declare, that Rome, capital of the world, and base of the Christian
church; and that every City, State, and People of Italy, are henceforth
free. By that freedom, and in the same consecrated authority, we
proclaim, that the election, jurisdiction, and monarchy of the Roman
empire appertain to Rome and Rome’s people, and the whole of Italy. We
cite, then, and summon personally, the illustrious princes, Louis Duke
of Bavaria, and Charles king of Bohemia, who would style themselves
Emperors of Italy, to appear before us, or the other magistrates of
Rome, to plead and to prove their claim between this day and the Day of
Pentecost. We cite also, and within the same term, the Duke of Saxony,
the Prince of Brandenburg, and whosoever else, potentate, prince, or
prelate, asserts the right of Elector to the imperial throne--a
right that, we find it chronicled from ancient and immemorial time,
appertaineth only to the Roman people--and this in vindication of
our civil liberties, without derogation of the spiritual power of
the Church, the Pontiff, and the Sacred College. Herald, proclaim
the citation, at the greater and more formal length, as written and
intrusted to your hands, without the Lateran.”
(“Il tutto senza derogare all’ autorita della Chiesa, del
Papa e del Sacro Collegio.” So concludes this extraordinary
citation, this bold and wonderful assertion of the classic
independence of Italy, in the most feudal time of the
fourteenth century. The anonymous biographer of Rienzi
declares that the Tribune cited also the Pope and the
Cardinals to reside in Rome. De Sade powerfully and
incontrovertibly refutes this addition to the daring or the
extravagance of Rienzi. Gibbon, however, who has rendered
the rest of the citation in terms more abrupt and
discourteous than he was warranted by any authority, copies
the biographer’s blunder, and sneers at De Sade, as using
arguments “rather of decency than of weight.” Without
wearying the reader with all the arguments of the learned
Abbe, it may be sufficient to give the first two.
1st. All the other contemporaneous historians that have
treated of this event, G. Villani, Hocsemius, the Vatican
MSS. and other chroniclers, relating the citation of the
Emperor and Electors, say nothing of that of the Pope and
Cardinals; and the Pope (Clement VI.), in his subsequent
accusations of Rienzi, while very bitter against his
citation of the Emperor, is wholly silent on what would have
been to the Pontiff the much greater offence of citing
himself and the Cardinals.)
2. The literal act of this citation, as published formally
in the Lateran, is extant in Hocsemius, (whence is borrowed,
though not at all its length, the speech in the text of our
present tale;) and in this document the Pope and his
Cardinals are not named in the summons.
Gibbon’s whole account of Rienzi is superficial and unfair.
To the cold and sneering scepticism, which so often deforms
the gigantic work of that great writer, allowing nothing for
that sincere and urgent enthusiasm which, whether of liberty
or religion, is the most common parent of daring action, the
great Roman seems but an ambitious and fantastic madman. In
Gibbon’s hands what would Cromwell have been? what Vane?
what Hampden? The pedant, Julian, with his dirty person and
pompous affectation, was Gibbon’s ideal of a great man.)
As Rienzi concluded this bold proclamation of the liberties of Italy,
the Tuscan ambassadors, and those of some other of the free states,
murmured low approbation. The ambassadors of those States that affected
the party of the Emperor looked at each other in silent amaze and
consternation. The Roman Barons remained with mute lips and downcast
eyes; only over the aged face of Stephen Colonna settled a smile, half
of scorn, half of exultation. But the great mass of the citizens were
caught by words that opened so grand a prospect as the emancipation of
all Italy: and their reverence of the Tribune’s power and fortune was
almost that due to a supernatural being; so that they did not pause to
calculate the means which were to correspond with the boast.
While his eye roved over the crowd, the gorgeous assemblage near him,
the devoted throng beyond;--as on his ear boomed the murmur of thousands
and ten thousands, in the space without, from before the Palace of
Constantine (Palace now his own!) sworn to devote life and fortune to
his cause; in the flush of prosperity that yet had known no check; in
the zenith of power, as yet unconscious of reverse, the heart of
the Tribune swelled proudly: visions of mighty fame and limitless
dominion,--fame and dominion, once his beloved Rome’s and by him to be
restored, rushed before his intoxicated gaze; and in the delirious and
passionate aspirations of the moment, he turned his sword alternately to
the three quarters of the then known globe, and said, in an abstracted
voice, as a man in a dream, “In the right of the Roman people this too
is mine!” (“Questo e mio.”)
Low though the voice, the wild boast was heard by all around as
distinctly as if borne to them in thunder. And vain it were to describe
the various sensations it excited; the extravagance would have moved the
derision of his foes, the grief of his friends, but for the manner of
the speaker, which, solemn and commanding, hushed for the moment even
reason and hatred themselves in awe; afterwards remembered and repeated,
void of the spell they had borrowed from the utterer, the words met the
cold condemnation of the well-judging; but at that moment all
things seemed possible to the hero of the people. He spoke as one
inspired--they trembled and believed; and, as rapt from the spectacle,
he stood a moment silent, his arm still extended--his dark dilating
eye fixed upon space--his lip parted--his proud head towering and erect
above the herd,--his own enthusiasm kindled that of the more humble and
distant spectators; and there was a deep murmur begun by one, echoed by
the rest, “The Lord is with Italy and Rienzi!”
The Tribune turned, he saw the Pope’s Vicar astonished, bewildered,
rising to speak. His sense and foresight returned to him at once, and,
resolved to drown the dangerous disavowal of the Papal authority
for this hardihood, which was ready to burst from Raimond’s lips, he
motioned quickly to the musicians, and the solemn and ringing chant of
the sacred ceremony prevented the Bishop of Orvietto all occasion of
self-exoneration or reply.
The moment the ceremony was over, Rienzi touched the Bishop, and
whispered, “We will explain this to your liking. You feast with us at
the Lateran.--Your arm.” Nor did he leave the good Bishop’s arm, nor
trust him to other companionship, until to the stormy sound of horn
and trumpet, drum and cymbal, and amidst such a concourse as might have
hailed, on the same spot, the legendary baptism of Constantine, the
Tribune and his nobles entered the great gates of the Lateran, then the
Palace of the World.
Thus ended that remarkable ceremony and that proud challenge of the
Northern Powers, in behalf of the Italian liberties, which, had it been
afterwards successful, would have been deemed a sublime daring; which,
unsuccessful, has been construed by the vulgar into a frantic insolence;
but which, calmly considering all the circumstances that urged on
the Tribune, and all the power that surrounded him, was not, perhaps,
altogether so imprudent as it seemed. And, even accepting that
imprudence in the extremest sense,--by the more penetrating judge of
the higher order of character, it will probably be considered as the
magnificent folly of a bold nature, excited at once by position and
prosperity, by religious credulities, by patriotic aspirings, by
scholastic visions too suddenly transferred from revery to action,
beyond that wise and earthward policy which sharpens the weapon ere it
casts the gauntlet.