We have seen Rome besieged in its early days, when its walls were
of mud; we have seen it besieged by its own sons, by the Gauls, by
the barbarians; but it was still, as a warlike city, the head of a
kingdom, a republic, an empire. We have now to see it besieged in a new
character,--as the seat of the head of the Christian world. As if Rome
was destined always to be royal, she took the same place with regard to
the Church she had occupied as a temporal power; and every reader of
history will allow that there has not been much less ambition, strife,
and political chicanery in the latter state than in any of the former.
From its foundation, Rome has always been Rome, seldom or never at
rest, either within itself or with its neighbours.
“The long quarrel of the throne and mitre had been recently kindled by
the zeal and ambition of the haughty Gregory VII. Henry III., king of
Germany and Italy, and afterwards emperor of the West, and the pope
had degraded each other; and each had seated a rival on the temporal
or spiritual throne of his antagonist. After the defeat and death of
his Swabian rebel, Henry descended into Italy to assume the imperial
crown, and to drive from the Vatican the tyrant of the Church. But the
Roman people adhered to the cause of Gregory: their resolution was
fortified by supplies of men and money from Apulia; and the city was
thrice ineffectually besieged by the king of Germany. In the fourth
year he corrupted, it is said, with Byzantine gold, the nobles of Rome.
The gates, the bridges, and fifty hostages were delivered into his
hands; the anti-pope, Clement III., was consecrated in the Lateran; the
grateful pontiff crowned his protector in the Vatican, and the emperor
fixed his residence in the Capitol, as the successor of Augustus and
Charlemagne. The ruins of the Septigonium were still defended by the
nephew of Gregory; the pope himself was invested in the castle of
St. Angelo, and his last hope was in the courage and fidelity of his
Norman vassal. Their friendship had been interrupted by some reciprocal
injuries and complaints; but on this pressing occasion, Guiscard was
urged by the obligation of his oath, by his interest,--more potent
than oaths,--by the love of fame, and his enmity to the two emperors.
Unfurling the holy banner, he resolved to fly to the relief of the
prince of the apostles; the most numerous of his armies, thirty
thousand foot and six thousand horse, was instantly assembled, and
his march from Salerno to Rome was animated by the public applause
and the promise of the divine favour. Henry, invincible in sixty-six
battles, trembled at his approach; recollecting some indispensable
affairs that required his presence in Lombardy, he exhorted the Romans
to persevere in their allegiance, and hastily retired, three days
before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three years, the son
of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of delivering the pope,
and of compelling the two emperors of the East and West to fly before
his victorious arms. But the triumph of Robert was clouded by the
calamities of Rome. By the aid of the friends of Gregory, the walls had
been perforated or scaled, but the imperial faction was still powerful
and active; on the third day the people rose in a furious tumult, and a
hasty word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge, was the signal
of fire and pillage. The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects of Roger, and
the auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this fair occasion of rifling
and profaning the holy city of the Christians; and many thousands of
the citizens, in the sight and by the allies of their spiritual father,
were exposed to violation, captivity, or death; and a spacious quarter
of the city, from the Lateran to the Colosseum, was consumed by the
flames, and devoted to perpetual solitude.”[3]