SAVONA
The city and port—Pope Sixtus IV.—The Della Rovere
family—Nepotism—Assassination of Giuliano di Medici—Methods of
filling the treasury—Sixtus and the Spirituals—Julius II.—A
fighting pope: his portrait by Raphael—Pius VII. at Savona: his
removal from Rome—Death of Princess Borgia—Bishop Grossulano—The
Margravate of Savona—The Sanctuario—Crowned images—Jacques de
Voragine—The Albizzola Palace: and Gardens—Mme. de Genlis and
travelling on Corniche Road—Ruined palaces of Liguria.
SAVONA, with its port, its towers, its engirdling mountains, and its
wide-stretching orange and lemon orchards, is a very charming town.
The port, with its picturesque tower, engages the eye at once. The
cathedral, built in 1604, is in the uninteresting style of that period.
It contains some good pictures by Brea, 1495, and Aurelio Robertelli,
1449; and the tomb of the parents of Pope Sixtus IV. who was a native
of Celle, near Savona. His father was a poor boat or fisherman called
della Rovere; but it was the whim of Francesco della Rovere, when he
became Pope under the title of Sixtus IV., to be thought a scion of the
ancient house of the same name at Turin. A false pedigree was forged,
and he purchased the complaisance of the Turin family, and silenced
their jibes, by giving them two cardinal’s hats. He assumed their
arms—a golden oak tree on an azure ground—which figures on the tomb
at Savona, and which Michael Angelo painted on the roof of the Sistine
Chapel, in compliment to Pope Sixtus and to his nephew Julius.
Francis de la Rovere was born in 1414, and entered the Franciscan
order, became provincial of Liguria, and finally general of the order.
He was elevated to be Cardinal by the advice of Bessarion, who had
conceived a high notion of his learning and abilities. He became Pope
in 1471 and occupied the papal chair till 1484, and was perhaps the
second wickedest pontiff seated on that throne, coming only a short way
after Alexander VI.
“He began his career with a lie,” says Mr. Addington Symonds, “for
though he succeeded to the avaricious Paul, who had spent his time
in amassing money which he did not use, he declared that he had only
found 5,000 florins in the Papal treasury. This assertion was proved
false by the prodigality with which he lavished wealth immediately
upon his nephews. It is difficult even to hint at the horrible
suspicions which were cast upon the birth of two of the Pope’s
nephews. Yet the private life of Sixtus rendered the most monstrous
stories plausible. We may, however, dwell on the principal features
of his nepotism; for Sixtus was the first pontiff who deliberately
organised a system for pillaging the Church in order to exalt his
own family to principalities. The names of the Pope’s nephews were
Leonardo, Giuliano, and Giovanni della Rovere, the three sons of his
brother Raffiello; Pietro and Girolamo Riario, the two sons of his
sister Jolanda; and Girolamo, the son of another sister, married to
Giovanno Basso. With the notable exception of Giuliano della Rovere,
these young men had no claim to distinction beyond good looks and
a certain martial spirit which ill suited with the ecclesiastical
dignities thrust upon some of them. Leonardo was made Prefect of
Rome and married to a natural daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples.
Giuliano received a cardinal’s hat, and after a tempestuous warfare
with the intervening Popes, ascended the holy chair as Julius II.
Girolamo Basso was created Cardinal of San Cristogono.”
But the favourite nephew of all was Pedro Riario, whom his uncle loaded
with ecclesiastical benefices, though aged only five-and-twenty.
Scandal asserted, and Muratori believed it, that this Pietro was really
the son of the Pope. When scarce out of the hobbledehoy age, he was
made Cardinal Patriarch of Constantinople and Archbishop of Florence.
His annual income was 60,000 gold florins, in our money about £100,000;
and yet when he died, broken down by his debaucheries, in 1474, three
years after he had been made Cardinal Archbishop, he was deep in debt.
“He had no virtues, no abilities, nothing but his beauty, the
scandalous affection of the Pope, and the extravagant profligacy of
his own life, to recommend him to the notice of posterity. All Italy
during two years rang with the noise of his debaucheries. When Leonora
of Aragon passed through Rome, on her way to wed the Marquess of
Ferrara, this fop of a Patriarch erected a pavilion in the Piazza di’
Sante Apostole for her entertainment. The air of the banquet hall was
cooled with pure water; on a column in the centre stood a naked gilded
boy, who poured forth water from an urn. The servants were arrayed in
silk, and the seneschal changed his dress of richest stuffs and jewels
four times in the course of the banquet. Nymphs and centaurs, singers
and buffoons, drank choice wines from golden goblets.... Happily for
the Church and for Italy, he expired at Rome in January, 1474, after
parading his impudent debaucheries through Milan and Venice, as the
Pope’s Legate.”
Another nephew was Girolamo Riario, who married a natural daughter
of Galeazzo Sforza. For him the Pope bought the town of Imola with
Church money. He had created him Count of Bosco in 1472. As Imola did
not content his ambition, his uncle gave him Forli, and elevated
this boatboy to a dukedom. The young ruffian found that the Medici
family stood in the way of extending his power over Florence, and he
formed a plot for their destruction. In the conspiracy were involved
Francis di Pazzi, head of the bank of that name in Rome, and Salviati,
a Florentine, Archbishop of Pisa, whose elevation had been opposed by
the Medici. The plot was atrocious; it was no less than to assassinate
Giuliano and Lorenzo di Medici in the duomo at Florence on Easter
Day at high mass. It had the hearty concurrence of him who held the
keys of heaven and hell. Into the wicked confederacy was taken a
Captain Montesecco, an intimate friend of Girolamo Riario, the Pope’s
nephew, and Bandini, a hired murderer. It was arranged among them that
Montesecco was to poignard Giuliano, and Bandini was to stab Lorenzo;
and the signal for the deed was to be the Elevation of the Host. On
the Sunday appointed, 1478, the assassin Montesecco embraced the two
Medici as they entered the church and assured himself by his touch that
they were unprotected with coats of chain-mail, such as they usually
wore under their silken habits. But at the last moment this captain,
cut-throat though he was, felt hesitation at committing the deed in
the sacred building and at such a solemn moment, and communicated his
scruples to Girolamo Riario; and the latter had hastily to open his
scheme to a couple of priests and induce them to undertake the murder.
As a chronicler of the time says: “Another man was found, who, being a
priest, was more accustomed to the place and therefore less scrupulous
about its sanctity.” The second priest was to take the place of Bandini
should he entertain qualms.
But this change of persons spoiled all. The priest, though more
irreligious, was less expert. Giuliano was indeed stabbed to death
by Bandini di Pazzi, at the moment of the Elevation of the Host, but
Lorenzo escaped with a flesh wound from the inexperienced hand of
the priest, and fled into the sacristy. The congregation, the whole
populace of Florence, rose as a man, and pursued the murderers. The
Archbishop Salviati di Pazzi, and some of the others, were seized and
hung from the windows of the Palazzo Pubblico, the same day; and the
eighteen-year-old Cardinal Raphael Riario was flung into prison.
Sixtus was furious at the failure of the plot, and demanded the
liberation of his great nephew, the boy-Cardinal, and at the same time
the expulsion of the Medici from Florence. As the citizens refused to
do this, he excommunicated Lorenzo di Medici, and all the heads of the
Republic, and placed Florence under an interdict. After a few days
the boy was released; but that was as far as the Florentines would
go. Accordingly the Pope, his nephew Riario, and the King of Naples,
who had entered into league with the Pope, raised armies to attack
Florence, and a savage war of revenge raged for years. It was not till
1481 that a descent of the Turks on Otranto made Sixtus tremble for his
own safety, and forced him to make peace with Florence.
After the death of Pietro, Sixtus took his nephew, Giovanni della
Rovere, into the favour that Pietro had enjoyed. He married him to
Giovanna, daughter of the Duke of Urbino, and created him Duke of
Sinigaglia. This fellow founded the second dynasty of the Dukes of
Urbino.
[Illustration: SAVONA]
“The plebeian violence of the Della Rovere temper,” says Mr. Addington
Symonds, “reached a climax in Giovanni’s son, the Duke Francesco
Maria, who murdered his sister’s lover with his own hands, when a
youth of sixteen, and stabbed the Papal Legate to death in the streets
of Bologna, when at the age of twenty, and knocked Guicciardini, the
historian, down with a blow of his fist during a council of war in
1526.
“Christendom beheld in Sixtus the spectacle of a Pope who trafficked
in the bodies of his subjects, and the holy things of God, to squander
basely-gotten gold upon abandoned minions. The peace of Italy was
destroyed by desolating wars in the advancement of the same worthless
favourites. Sixtus destroyed to annex Ferrara to the dominions of
Girolamo Riario. Nothing stood in his way but the House of Este,
firmly planted for centuries and connected by marriage or alliance
with the chief families of Italy. The Pope, whose lust for blood and
broils were equalled only by his avarice and his libertinism, rushed
with wild delight into a project which involved the discord of the
whole peninsula. He made treaties with Venice and unmade them, stirred
up all the passions of the despots and set them together by the ears,
called the Swiss mercenaries into Lombardy, and when, finally, tired
of fighting for his nephew, the Italian powers concluded the peace
of Bagnolo, he died of rage in 1484. The Pope did actually die of
disappointed fury, because peace had been restored to the country he
had mangled for the sake of a favourite nephew.”
This Pope seemed unable to exist without some cringing favourite about
his person. In 1463 he made his valet, a lad of no character and parts,
of base birth, with nothing but his good looks and obsequiousness to
speak for him—Cardinal and Bishop of Parma, when his age was only
twenty.
Sixtus was always impecunious. To replenish his treasury he had two
resources. One was the public sale of places about the Court, and of
benefices and of ecclesiastical privileges. “Our churches, priests,
altars, sacred rites, our prayers, even heaven and our God, are all
purchasable,” is the exclamation of Baptista Mantuanus, a scholar of
the period. His second expedient was the monopoly of corn throughout
the Papal States. Fictitious dearths were created; the value of wheat
was raised to famine prices, and good grain was sold out of the States
of the Church and bad grain was imported, that the Pope might pocket
the profits of the transaction. Sixtus forced his subjects to buy at
his stores, and regarded their sufferings, and the disease bred of
famine, with indifferent eye.
But, bad as he was, Sixtus did some good things. He laid the basis of
the great Vatican library, built a bridge over the Tiber, and widened
some of the streets.
To him is due the introduction into the calendar of the Feasts of the
Conception of the Blessed Virgin, also of the Presentation in the
Temple, and of Ste. Anne, all three of which find their place in the
Anglican calendar; also of S. Joseph.
Sixtus happily put an end to the cruel persecution of the “Spirituals,”
a branch of the Franciscan Order which advocated absolute poverty,
and adherence to the original mandates of the founder. Their prophet
and theologian had been d’Oliva. Pope John XXII. had pronounced the
writings of d’Oliva heretical, and had handed over the “Spirituals”
to the Inquisition, to be dealt with as heretics. Between 1316 and
1352 as many as 114 of them were burnt at the stake; but Sixtus IV.
reversed the judgment of John XXII. and declared this teaching of Oliva
to be orthodox; so that those who had been burnt in accordance with
the judgment of one Pope, were martyrs for the truth according to the
decision of another.
Sixtus died in 1484.
Stephanus Infessura, a contemporary diarist, writes on his death:—
“Sixtus died, on which most happy day God showed His power on earth,
in that He liberated His Christian people from the hand of such an
impious and iniquitous ruler, in whom was no fear of God, no love for
the rule of Christian people, no charity, no tenderness, nothing but
vile lusts, avarice, pride, and vain glory.”
He goes on with a catalogue of his crimes too horrible to be quoted.
So impressed was the College of Cardinals, on the death of Sixtus IV.,
with the injury done to the Church by the nepotism of the deceased
Pope, by his alienation of Church fiefs to his kinsmen and favourites,
that on the election of his successor, Innocent VIII., they made him
swear on every relic and by everything that is held most sacred in
Christendom, that he would not continue the same abuses. He took the
required oath, and no sooner was he enthroned than he absolved himself
from the oaths he had taken.
The same farce was enacted with Julius II. in 1503. It really seemed
like a Nemesis, that the Popes, who, since the time of Gregory VII.,
had shown a rare ingenuity in inventing oaths by means of which to
entangle men’s consciences and bring everything under their power,
now themselves took oaths, which they as regularly broke. Indeed, it
became obvious that no solemn oath taken by a Pope was worth the breath
that uttered it, as he could at once absolve himself from observing
it; and it is a riddle how the cardinals should have persisted in
exacting capitulations from the Popes, when they must have known that
they would break their plighted word as soon as ever they assumed the
tiara. Julius II. pushed on the fortunes of his family, which had been
already aggrandised by Sixtus IV. This done, he could devote himself,
undisturbed by the importunities of his kindred, to the gratification
of that innate love for war and broil which was the ruling passion of
his life.
He was the fighting Pope, stern, resolute, indomitable. The whippings
he had received from his father had steeled his spirit instead of
breaking it. His portrait by Raphael admirably expresses the character
of this second Della Rovere Pope. The hard, cold eye, the set frown,
the determined mouth, about which a smile never quivered, and the
flowing white beard, are eminently characteristic of the man. There is
not in the face a trace of the ecclesiastic, not an indication of his
having led a spiritual life. But for the habit, he might have been a
doge or a military leader.
Ranke thus describes him:—
“Old as Julius was, worn by the vicissitudes of good and evil fortune
experienced through a long life, by the fatigues of war and exile,
and, above all, by the consequences of intemperance and profligacy,
he yet did not know what fear or irresolution meant. In the extremity
of age, he still retained that great characteristic of manhood, an
indomitable spirit. He felt little respect for princes, and believed
himself capable of mastering them all. He took the field in person,
and having stormed Mirandola, he pressed into the city across the
frozen ditches and through the breach; the most disastrous reverses
could not shake his purpose, but seemed rather to waken new resources
in him. He was accordingly successful; not only were his own baronies
rescued from the Venetians, but in the fierce contest that ensued he
finally made himself master of Parma, Placentia, and even Reggio, thus
laying the foundation of a power such as no Pope ever possessed before
him.”
[Illustration: POPE SIXTUS IV]
A shrewd, dissolute, wicked man, he was superior to Sixtus in ability.
He had his mistresses, his luxury, his simony, and his cruelty, as
Macchiavelli wrote of him.[22] Savona has no cause to glory in those
whom she sent to occupy the chair of S. Peter.
But the place is associated with another Pope, and that one of a
different stamp altogether, the unfortunate Pius VII., relegated
there in 1809, and obliged to remain there till 1814. Pius was a
good, quiet man, without force of character. When Napoleon let him
understand that the States of the Church were to be taken from him,
Pius was in dire distress and perplexity. Acting on the advice of his
confidential attendant, Cardinal Pacca, he launched an excommunication
at Bonaparte, Miollis, governor of Rome, all the French, and all such
Romans as participated in the annexation of the States to the kingdom.
The document was nailed up to the doors of several of the Churches of
Rome,—
“But nobody seemed a penny the worse.”
till an event occurred which startled the good people of the Eternal
City.
There was a grand reception at the Chigi Palace, to which persons
of all shades of politics were invited. A large company had already
assembled, when the major-domo announced, “The Princess Borghese!” Now
Prince Borghese had been an active partisan of Bonaparte and of the New
Order. It was felt that the Prince and the Princess were both involved
in the sentence of excommunication, and in former days no one would
have dared to receive into his house those who had fallen under the ban
of the Church. Presently the guests sat down to cards, and all went
merrily until one o’clock struck, when the Princess fell back in her
chair, and though she tried to speak, no intelligible sound issued from
her lips. Helpless and speechless, she was conveyed to her own house,
where she died three days later.
Then, as may be imagined, tongues wagged. It was confidently asserted
that the Princess had been struck down by Providence. Her sudden death
was represented as a just punishment for her sin in espousing the cause
of the Pope’s enemies; and fanatics held her up as an awful example and
a warning.
It was useless to hint that Providence had struck at very poor
game—an already half-paralysed old woman—instead of smiting the real
offenders. The Princess was in indifferent health at the time, had lost
the use of her right arm through one stroke, and the recurrence was
what might have been anticipated. No one would hear a word. She had
reaped what others had sown.
Count Miollis now resolved on removing the Pope from the city. Although
his excommunications and interdicts might safely be laughed at, yet
his presence in Rome was a hindrance to general reform of abuses,
and his person was a centre for every sort of cabal. The Pope was in
the Quirinale, which was close barred. In the evening of June 5th
the palace was surrounded by French soldiers, and pickets of cavalry
patrolled the adjacent streets. Miollis authorised General Radet to
use force if necessary, to enter the Quirinale and get possession of
the Pope. Count Miollis stationed himself in a summer-house in the
Colonna gardens, whence he could issue directions. Large numbers of
the Italian and Roman nobles and people of the middle-class assembled
to see what would take place.
The clock at the Quirinale was striking three-quarters after two when
Miollis made a sign to commence operations. The gates remained fast
shut. The French soldiers tried to scale the garden walls, but failed;
and men were sent in hot haste to borrow ladders for the purpose.
These were obtained; but the first who surmounted the wall, lost his
footing in attempting to descend on the farther side, and broke his
leg. Another judgment! and again levelled at very poor game. He was a
mulatto. General Radet, with a small following, made good his entrance
into the palace through a window, and reached the grand staircase,
which was crowded with papal servants, who offered but a feeble and
half-hearted resistance, and were at once overpowered.
In the meantime the other party had effected an entrance over the
garden wall.
Radet lost no time in gaining the Pope’s apartments. One or two doors
had to be broken open, and then he reached the ante-chamber, where were
drawn up the Papal Swiss guards. They at once laid down their arms,
without a show of fight. When a couple more doors had been forced Radet
reached the Pope’s audience chamber. Pius had rigged himself up so as
to produce an impression. He wore a white silk cassock, a _mozetta_ on
his head of crimson silk, and a gold stole. He was seated at a table
with Cardinals Pacca and Despuig. But Radet was not overawed, as were
the Gauls by the sight of the white-bearded senators. Advancing, he
said, with courtesy,—
“I have a most painful and trying commission to execute, but I have
sworn fidelity and obedience to the Emperor, and I must obey his
orders. On the part, therefore, of his Majesty, I have to intimate to
your Holiness that you must renounce all temporal sovereignty over Rome
and the Roman States.”
The Pope replied calmly: “I believed that I had complied with the
Emperor’s orders, when I took the oath of fealty and obedience to him.
We cannot cede or renounce what is not our own. The temporal power
belongs to the Roman Church, and we are only the administrators. Must
we go alone?”
“No; your Holiness can take Cardinal Pacca with you.”
A quarter of an hour afterwards the Pope, wearing his red hat and
mantle, left the Quirinale, and, along with Cardinal Pacca, entered a
carriage. General Radet and an officer took seats opposite, and the
blinds were drawn down on the side on which sat the Pope.
When the carriage was on its way Pius suddenly exclaimed: “I have
forgotten to bring my money; all I have in my pocket is twenty
bajocchi.”
“And I,” said the Cardinal, “have only five.”
“Then,” said the Pope, “this may be regarded as a truly apostolic
journey, with one franc seventy-five centimes between us.”
The Pope was conveyed somewhat hastily to Savona, where he was well
received, but kept under surveillance for nearly six years.
Savona was made the capital of the department of Montenotte by
Napoleon. The see was founded in 680. From 1499 to 1528 it was
entirely in the hands of the Della Rovere and Riario families for five
successions. In 1098 it was the see of the bishop Peter Grossulano,
whose story is strange enough. Anselm, Archbishop of Milan, died at
Constantinople on his return from a crusade early in October, 1100.
During his absence Grossulano had been constituted by him administrator
of the archdiocese, of which Savona was a suffragan. When Grossulano
heard of the death of Anselm, he proceeded to an election of a
successor, and was himself chosen by the majority of the clergy and
people. He at once mounted the archiepiscopal throne.
Milan had not long before passed through the furious and savage
troubles of Ariald and Herlembald over the marriage of the clergy.
There still remained in Milan the turbulent Liprand, dissatisfied
that peace had settled down on the place. Possibly Grossulano was not
sufficiently rigorous against married clergy, perhaps he had in some
unknown way offended Liprand’s vanity, for the latter at once ranged
himself in opposition and sent to the Pope to entreat him to withhold
the pall from the newly elected bishop. But Paschal would not listen to
his remonstrances, and, acting on the advice of S. Bernard, abbot of
Valumbrosa, he confirmed the election and sent the pall.
Angry at this, Liprand did his utmost to rouse the people against their
archbishop, and became such a nuisance that Grossulano summoned a
provincial council, and, addressing the people, said: “If any one has
aught against me, let him proclaim it openly, otherwise he shall not be
heard.”
Thereupon Liprand gathered a crowd of the disaffected in his church
of S. Paul, and in it denounced the archbishop as simonacal, and he
appealed to the judgment of God against him. He would have a fire
lighted and pass through it to establish his assertion. But the bishops
assembled in council forbade the ordeal.
However, as he continued to be a source of evil in Milan, Grossulano
told him that he must either pass through the flames or quit Milan.
Liprand chose the first alternative, but arranged the matter so that
there were two fires made at a convenient distance apart, and he
marched between them unhurt. Two years later Liprand was summoned to
Rome and sharply reprimanded; nevertheless, Milan continued to be
torn by factions, Liprand and his followers refusing to receive the
ministrations of Grossulano and his clergy.
At last the Archbishop departed for Jerusalem. During his absence
Liprand became more abusive and uproarious, and managed to gather
together a sufficient party to elect in the room of Grossulano an
ignorant, uneducated man called Giordano, to be archbishop; and the
three suffragans of Asti, Genoa, and Turin consecrated him. The bishop
of Turin hurried to Rome to obtain the pall for Giordano. Paschal was
in the midst of his strife with Henry V., and it was essential that he
should have the support of the Archbishop of Milan. He could not be
certain of Grossulano, whether he were anti-imperial or not; besides,
he was absent. Giordano he hoped to use as a tool. Accordingly he
sent the pall to him, but stipulated that he was not to be arrayed in
it till he had sworn absolute submission to the Pope, and to refuse
investiture from the Emperor.
For six months Giordano steadfastly refused to receive the pall on
these terms, but his scruples vanished on the return of Grossulano,
and he submitted unreservedly to the Pope, who summoned a council in
the Lateran Palace, 1116, when a mock hearing of the case took place;
Grossulano was dismissed to Savona, and Giordano was confirmed in his
usurpation.
Savona was a margravate held by a junior branch of the great house of
Monferrat. The Emperor Otto I. raised Aleram, Count of Monferrat, to
the dignity of margrave. Boniface, descended from a junior son, became
Margrave of Saluzzo. He died in 1130, and his second son Enrico became
Margrave of Savona. These margravates were much like sea-anemones; when
divided up, each several parcel became an entire margravate complete
in itself. In 1215 Savona was gripped by rapacious Genoa, and the last
margravate died in 1233.
A pretty drive of an hour takes one up the valley to Santuario, a
pilgrimage church with hospice, founded in 1536. The church, which is
rich in marbles, contains a miraculous image of the Virgin, tricked
out with velvet and jewels. She wears a diamond collar given by King
Charles Albert, and a jewelled crown presented by Pope Pius VII. The
chapter of S. Peter’s claims the right to decide what miraculous images
are to be honoured with crowns, but the crowns themselves are conferred
by the popes. In 1632 a certain Count Alessandro Sforza, a fanatic from
Piacenza, by his will left rents of a large estate to furnish gold
and jewels for this purpose; as time went on, the property grew in
value, and the crowns at the same time became more splendid. The honour
is usually reserved for the Virgin, but occasionally the Bambino is
remembered as well. Figures of Christ are, however, never deemed worthy
of being crowned, except He be represented as a babe.
The story of this image is not particularly novel and interesting. It
was found by a peasant where now stands a little circular chapel on the
hill above the present sanctuary. He saw the Virgin in a vision, who
bade him go to Savona and bid the people erect a church to enshrine
her. He did as bidden, but the good folk in Savona would not believe
him, thought him crazed, and locked him up. In the night the Virgin
released him. After some further trouble, and some further miracles,
the story was believed and the sanctuary was erected.
Beside the image is a little marble figure representing the countryman
who started the cult. Beneath the feet of the Virgin issues a spring of
water that is supposed to cure all diseases, but is so intensely cold
as to be more likely to do harm than good.
At Varazzi, near Savona, was born the famous Jacques de Voragine, about
the year 1230. Nothing is known of the social position of his parents.
In one of his writings he speaks of the eclipse of 1239, and says that
he was still a child when it occurred. He became a dominican in 1244,
and in 1292 was elected to the bishopric of Genoa. He laboured hard to
effect a truce between the Ghibelline and Guelf factions, which for
two whole months converted the streets of the capital of Liguria into
a field of battle. He succeeded. But the peace was soon broken again.
The story goes of him that, being present in S. Peter’s along with
Boniface VIII. on Ash Wednesday, during the ceremonies, the pontiff,
supposing him to belong to the imperial party, dashed the ashes in
his face, shouting, “Remember, thou Ghibelline, that thou and thy
Ghibellines will be reduced to dust.” Jacques is chiefly known through
his _Legenda Aurea_, a collection of the most outrageous, but also the
most romantic fables of the saints; a work that had an enormous sale in
the Middle Ages, and was copied again and again, and read everywhere,
and, incredible as it may seem, was believed as gospel. He died 1298.
At Albizzola Superiore is the palace of the Della Rovere family.
Giuliano, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV., as a boy was wont to carry the
farm produce from his father’s farm to Savona, either by boat or
mule, however rough the season might be, and, if he did not sell in
the market, was unmercifully thrashed by his father on his return.
But when his uncle became Pope, all this was altered. He entered the
ecclesiastical profession, became a cardinal, and finally Pope, as
already told. The palace was built out of the plunder of the Church.
Mme. de Genlis visited the Della Rovere palace at Albizzola. She says:—
“The gardens are vast, but tasteless. I remarked there one thing very
singular—there were none of the charming flowers one sees growing
naturally in the fields; only oranges were there, and box; this
latter cultivated with the utmost care, in the most superb vases that
decorate the terraces. This villainous box, planted in splendid vases,
occupies its position solely because it is more rare and costly a
plant than myrtles, jessamines, and oleanders.”
She has given us an account of her journey to Albenga, over rocks, the
mountain road being so steep and so dangerous that descents had to be
made on foot. “I may almost say that we arrived barefooted, for the
stones during three days had so worn and pierced our shoes, that the
soles were nearly gone.” And beyond Savona she says
“the journey is most dangerous, but at the same time most interesting.
The horror of the precipices made me walk three-quarters of the way,
over stones and cutting rocks. I arrived at Genoa with my feet swollen
and full of blisters, but otherwise in rude health.”
How the journey from Marseilles to Genoa has changed since Mme. de
Genlis took that road with the Duchesse de Chartres a few years before
the outbreak of the Revolution, may be judged by some further instances.
When the party left Antibes for Nice, they went by sea, because of the
badness of the road; and were obliged to be accompanied by a felucca
with a whole regiment on board, to protect them against corsairs.
At Ospidaletta
“we were forced to halt and spend the night, one of the most frightful
places that hospitality ever provided. We slept three in one room, and
we made up a sort of bed for Mme. the Duchess of Chartres with mule
cloths and leaves. In one room were two great heaps of corn, and the
master of the house assured us that we should sleep well if we buried
ourselves in the grain. The gentlemen gave us their cloaks to cover
the corn. One had to go to bed in the most extraordinary attitude—in
fact, almost upright. We passed the night in continual interruptions,
caused by slidings down and by the upset of masses of corn. With joy
we saw the day dawn; and as we had slept in our clothes, our toilettes
did not occupy us long.”
The whole of the Riviera from Nice to Genoa—indeed, the whole of
Provence—is studded with ruined castles and palaces: of these, only
the most mean, that house of cards, Monaco, remains intact. They tell
us of a time when the great families lived in lordly state, under
the absolutism of the French crown or the despotism of the Genoese
Republic. In Genoa itself the families inscribed on the Golden Book,
and alone having the right to sit in council and direct the affairs of
state, and mismanage and oppress the Ligurian coast and Corsica, did
not exceed one hundred and seventy. But in Liguria there were at least
four hundred and fifty noble families decorated with titles, possessing
vast estates, commanderies, and hereditary wealth, who were excluded
from all share in the government.
All have gone under, not in the wars for the Milanese, but in the
Revolution; and these ruined castles and palaces are their tombstones.
Who can doubt that it is well that so it should have been. In the words
of Macaulay:—
“The volcano has spent its rage. The wide waste produced by its
outbreak is forgotten. The landmarks which were swept away have been
replaced. The ruined edifices have been repaired. The lava has covered
with a rich incrustation the fields which it once devastated, and,
after having turned a beautiful and fruitful garden into a desert,
has again turned the desert into a still more beautiful and fruitful
garden. The marks of its ravages are still all around us. The ashes
are beneath our feet. In some directions the deluge of fire still
continues to spread. Yet experience surely entitles us to believe
that this explosion will fertilise the soil which it has devastated.
Already, in those parts which have suffered most severely, rich
cultivation and secure dwellings have begun to appear amidst the
waste.”
The palaces of the Lascaris, the Grimaldis, the Durazzos, the Della
Roveres, the Dorias, are in ruins, but in their places rise hotels de
Paris, de l’Univers, the Metropole; and the bands of bravos entertained
by the nobles are replaced by Italian and Swiss waiters.
“The more we read the history of past ages, the more we observe the
signs of our own times, the more do we feel our hearts filled and
swelled up by a good hope for the future destinies of the human race.”
INDEX
Absolution from vows, 164-5, 303
Adam de Craponne, 8
Addison, 53-4
Ægitna, 180
Æschylus, 8
Agay, 152
Agricola, 121-2
Aix, 14, 55-71
Alassio, 288-90
Albenga, 293-5
Albizzola, 312-3
Algerine pirates, 225
Aloes, 7
Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, 209
Ambrons and Teutons, 56-9
Ambrose, S., 28-9
Andora, 290
Ampelio, S., 273-4
Amphitheatres, 14, 15, 119, 120, 206
Andrew, King, 136
Angers, 70
Annulling of marriage, 239-40
Antibes, 3, 14, 165, 187-8, 190
Architecture, domestic, 279-80;
Gothic, 22-3
Arco Romans, 289
Argens River, 97, 114
Arles, 6, 13, 15, 16, 18, 25, 39
Arluc, 185-6
Armentarius, S., 131
Augustine predestination, 100-1
Augustus, Emperor, 241-2
Aurelian Way, 55, 118, 148, 261, 272
Avignon, sale of, 3, 137;
union with France, 17
Baal, 13, 121
Bagne, 76-7
Balaun, Pierre de, 35
Balbs, Bertrand de, 208
Baptistery, 272, 294
Bar, le, 174
Barbarossa, 211, 292
Barjac, Pierre de, 35
Barma Grande, 261
Barras, 82
Baux, les, 236
Bazaine, Marshal, 195-9
Belzunce, Bishop, 51
Berengarius, Marquess, 107
Bishop and chapter, 179
Blanc, M., 237-8
Boccaccio, 37-8, 139, 143
Bonaparte, Joseph, 52-3
— Napoleon. _See_ Napoleon
Bordighera, 264, 267, 273-5
Bormes, 175
Bourbon, Constable de, 48-9
Bozo, King of Arles, 17, 207
Bravade, 111-12
Bresca family, 285-6
Brougham, Lord, 2
Brumaire, the 18th, 126
Burning Bush, triptych, 70-1
Butillo Prignano, 142, 144
Cabane, Philippine, 135-7
— Raymond, 135-6
Cabasse, 11
Cabastaing, William de, 37
Cabris, Louise de, 169-72
Cæsar, Julius, 27, 41-3, 118
Cagnes, 224-5
Californie, la, 183
Calvinus, 14, 56
Camporosso, 273
Cannes, 2, 180-204
Cap Roux, 153
Carbo, 57
Carcists and Razats, 90, 111, 132, 176-7
Carlone, 225
Carnival, 19, 127-8
Carob tree, 100-1
Carteaux, 79, 80
Cassien, S. 185-6
Castellar, 259-60
Castellaro, 282
Cavalaire, 98
_Caveau Moderne_, 127
Cemenelium, 206
Chalk, 8-9
Charles of Anjou, 134-51 160-4, 269
— of Durazzo, 135-42, 144, 209
— the Lame, 163-5
— V., Emperor, 149, 150, 210-12
Choirs at West End, 23, 167
Cians, Gorge of, 226
Cimbri, 56-9
Cimiez, 206-7
Clary damsels, 52-3
Clement IV., 160
— VI., 136-7
— VII., 141-2
Clus, 4, 222
Cœpio, 58
Cognard, 77-9
Cogolin, 109, 110
Colouring of Provence, 10
Collet, 217-24
Conradin, 134, 163
Cork trees, 99, 100
Corniche Road, 148, 156, 225, 241, 256, 261
Court of Love, 33
Crowned images, 311
Dance of Death, 174
Dancing in churches, 19
David, the artist, 225-6
Desangiers, 126-9
Devota, Ste., 243-4
Dolceacqua, 273
Dolmen, 131
Dome falls in, 213
Doria, Andrew, 232-3, 290-2
— Bartholomew, 231-2
— family, 269, 273, 278
Durance, River, 6, 7, 49
Embues, 204
Estérel, 4, 9, 147-56, 183
Eze, 225-6
Farcing canticles, 21
Faron, 72, 81
Fauxbourdons, 20-1
Fayence, 132-3
Feast of Fools, 69
Fieschi family, 293
Flowers at Grasse, 179
Folk song, 18-22
Font, large, 272, 294
Fos family, 88
Foux, 4, 158, 204
Fragonard, 178
Francis I., 210, 212, 291
Franks, 206
Fraxinet, 113, 114, 126
Frederick II., 268
Fréjus, 113, 114-26
Fréron, 82
Fronde, 131-2
Gallinaria, 289-90
Galley slaves, 74-5
Gambling, 244-54
Garlenda, 295-6
Gapeau, River, 87, 88, 97
Garagoul, le, 62
Gaspard de Besse, 150-1
Genlis, Mme. de, 52-3, 313-4
Genoa, 266-7, 278, 314
Geology, 4-6, 8
Gerard de Roussillon, 31-2
Gibbets, 234-5
Godeau, Bishop, 165-7
Gold dust, 4
Gorge of the Loup, 172-4
Granite, 97
Grasse, 18, 23, 157-9
Gregory IX., 159
Grimaud, 109, 110
Grimaldi family, 109, 208-9, 224-5, 229-37, 258-9, 269
Grossulano, Bishop, 308-10
Guelfs and Ghibellines, 267, 278, 317
Hamilton, Lady Mary, 239-40
Hanbury, Sir Thomas, 261
Hannibal, 14, 294
Henry IV., 73
Heraclea, 12
— cacabarea, 110
Heracles, 8, 12
Hermits, 185
Hilary, S., 122-4, 153
Honoratus, S., 123, 153-6, 200
Hospice, S., 207
Hugh of Provence, 104-7
Huguenots, 174-6
Hyères, 84-96, 138
Hymn, lucky number of, 233-4
Hymns, 25-9
Iron Mask, 191-5
James, of Aragon, 139
Jeannette, Ste., 158
Jenkins’s Ear, 181-2
Jerusalem, Crown of, 133, 134
Joanna I. of Naples, 3, 133-143
” II. ” 133, 145-6
John XI., 106
Jouvines, les, 18
Julius II., 304-5, 313
Lampedusa, 282-3
Langue d’Oc, 24, 29
Lascaris family, 269-71
Lazarus, S., 47-8
Lemons, 275-6
Leprosy, 281
Lerins, Iles of, 181, 183, 186, 190-203
Levant, Ile of, 93-5
Ligurians, 8, 11, 12, 14, 39-41, 121, 148, 180-1, 206
Limestone, 9
Lombards, 206
Louis of Tarentum, 137-9
” XI., 67;
annexes Provence, 70
Louis XIV., 191-3, 242
Loup, Gorges of the, 158, 172-4, 284
Love, Troubadour, 31-7
Lympia, 205
Majolus, S., 107-8
Marceau, General, 216
Margaret, Queen, 66-7
Marius, 14, 56, 59-61
Marozia, 105-6
Marseilles, 4, 12, 13, 18, 39-54, 118, 138;
Marquesate, 88
Marie, sister of Joanna I., 143
Marquisates, 311-2
Martha, Ste., 48;
sorceress, 60
Marriage, Troubadour idea of, 31-7
Martin, S., 289-90
” IV., 164
Mary Magdalen, Ste., 48
Masséna, 213-6
Massacre at Toulon, 82-3
Matthews, Admiral, 181-2
Mattioli, 193
Maures, Montagnes des, 3, 4, 9, 87, 97-112, 114, 138
Maxim, Sir Hiram, 248
Maximin, S., 23
Megalithic monuments, 11, 131
Melkarth, 12, 13, 227
Mentone, 228, 231, 255-63
Merle, Captain, 91-2
Mellin, 151-2
Mirabeau family, 169-172
Miramas, 8
Mistral, 7, 88, 113, 257
Monaco, 12, 226-54, 259
Monte Carlo, 1, 239-54
Montpellier, 1
Monans Sartoux, 174-6
Mulberry trees, 101
Music, 26-29
Muy, le, 149, 150
Napoleon I., 4, 80-3, 115-8, 126, 193-5, 305
Napoule, La, 186-7
Narbonne, 16
Nervia, River, 273
Nice, 12, 13, 205-226, 255
Nicolas IV., 164
Nîmes, 16
Obelisk at Rome, 285-6
Olives, 7, 84-6
Ollioules, 79
Oneglia, 290-1
Opimus, Quintus, 180-1
Oranges, 86-7, 275-6
Ospidaletta, 314
Pagan customs, 17-18
Paillon, River, 205-6
Palaces, Italian, 314-5
Palermo, 163-4
Palestrina, 22
Palms, 285-7
Patrick, S., 202
Paul III., 210-1
Peter of Aragon, 163-4
Phaeton, fall of, 225
Phocœans, 13, 14, 39, 206
Phœnicians, 12, 13, 39
Pius VII., 305
Plague at Marseilles, 49-51
Pompée de Grasse, 175
Pompey, 41
Pomponiana, 89
Pons, S., 207
Porcarius, 203
Pourrières, 61
Predestination, 200-2
Prehistoric man, 261-3
Procession at Aix, 67-9
Provence, Roman colony, 14, 206;
union with France, 70
Puget Théniers, 226
Pytheas, 43-6
Quarries, Roman, 153
Rancher, 216-17
Raphael, S., 113-19
Raymond Berenger, 158-60
Red caps, 75
— ochre, 262
Reformatory, insurrection in, 93-6
Reign of Terror, 52, 81-2
Relics, 274-5
Remo, San, 274, 276-86
Réné, King, 3, 62-71, 101, 286
Rhone, River, 5-6
_Robinet de Donzère_, 5
Roman settlements, 14, 206
Romeo de Villeneuve, 158-61
Romulus, S., 278, 281
Roquebrune, 236, 259
Roslyn, Lord, 248-9
Roulette, 246-9
Roya, River, 271
Rudel, Geoffrey, 34
Ruffini, 282, 285
Sabreurs and Canifets, 111, 132
Salt, 88, 89
Sans phrases, 125
Santuario, 311
Saracens, 3, 16, 47, 73, 90, 101-9, 202-3, 207-8, 260
Saussure, 151
Savona, 296-315
Sea-fight, 42-3, 290-2
Ségurane, 211-12
Sicilian vespers, 163
Sieyès, 124-6
Silkworms, 201
Sixtus IV., 296-303
— V., 285-6
Spélunges, les, 238
Springs in the sea, 203
Stones, cult of, 188-90
Suicides, 245-6
Sumac, 87
Susanne de Villeneuve, 175-7
Taggia, River, 284
Taia River, 186
Templars, 92
Tende, county of, 269-70
Terpon, 188
Teutons, 56-61
Théas-Thorenc, 177
Theatre, Greek, 15, 16
Théoule, 156
Thouet-de-Beuil, 226
Toulon, 4, 72-83
Towns, structure of, 10, 11
Tropez, S., 110-12
Troubadours, 29-37
Turbie, la, 227, 240-1, 256
Tyrian dye 73
Umbrella pines, 110
Urban IV., 134
— VI., 140-4
Utriculares, 190
Valence, 5
Valescure, 114
Var River, 130, 158, 212, 226
Varazzi, 312
Vauban, 73
Vegetation, tropical, 5, 184, 277
Veille, la, 254
Venaisin, bought, 3, 137;
annexed to France, 17
Vence, 23, 167-8
Venus Victrix, 62
Ventimiglia, 264, 266-72, 275, 278
Vesubie, River, 226
Via Aurelia. _See_ Aurelian Way
Victoire, Ste., 61-2
Victor, S. Abbey, 47-8
Voragine, Jacques de, 312
Weihe, Captain, 245-6, 249-50
William, Count of Provence, 108, 207
York, Duke of, 254
PLYMOUTH:
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS
FOOTNOTES:
[1] VINET, _L’Art et l’Archæologie_, Mission de Phénicée, Paris, 1862.
[2] FAURIEL, _Hist. de la Poésie Provençale_, 1846, i., pp. 169-171.
[3] _Renaissance in Italy_: “The Catholic Revival,” ii. c. 12.
[4] So Virgil speaks of the soldiers singing as they marched, according
to rhythmic music—
“With measured pace they march along, And make their monarch’s deeds
their song.”
_Æneid_, viii., 698-9.
[5] _Renaissance in Italy._ “Italian Literature,” i., c. 2.
[6] See ELTON’S _Origins of English History_. London: 1890, pp. 6-32.
[7] STANLEY POOLE, _The Barbary Pirates_.
[8] _La Provence Maritime_, 1897, p. 356.
[9] The tomb of Raimond de Cabane, the maître d’hôtel, is in the Church
of S. Chiara, Naples.
[10] The portraits of Joanna and of Louis of Tarentum may be seen in
the Church of Sta. Maria l’Incarnata, which she built in Naples. Her
marriage is there represented in a fresco by one of the pupils of
Giotto; again, another picture is of her in Confession. She is also
represented on the tomb of King Robert, her grandfather, in the Church
of S. Chiara, Naples.
[11] His tomb and statue, a life-like portrait, by Ciaccione, is in the
church of S. Giovanni a Carbonara, Naples.
[12] _La Provence Maritime_, Paris, 1897.
[13] _Les Grands Artistes_, Fragonard, par C. MAUCLAIR, Paris (_n.d._)
[14] A fantastic derivation. Actually, Arluc is By the Mere.
[15] HOPKINS (TIGHE) _The Man in the Iron Mask_, Lond. 1901.
[16] A fine head, dug out from the ruins, and supposed to be that of
Drusus, is now in the Copenhagen museum.
[17] BENNET, _Winter and Spring on the Mediterranean_. London, 1870.
[18] _Age of the Despots_, ch. ii.
[19] J. A. SYMONDS, _Age of the Despots_.
[20] HARE, _Cities of Northern Italy_, i. p. 34.
[21] LANE POOLE, _The Barbary Corsairs_, p. 104.
[22] “Tre sue famigliari e care anzelle, lussuria, simonia, e
crudeltade” (_Opere_, Flor., 1843, p. 882).
End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of The Riviera, by S. Baring-Gould