69 (return) [ The origin, titles, import_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

&c., of the Roman cardinals, are very ably discussed by

Thomassin, (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p. 1262—1287;) but

their purple is now much faded. The sacred college was raised to

the definite number of seventy-two, to represent, under his

vicar, the disciples of Christ.]

70 (return) [ See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro

concilio, in the _Sexts_ of the Canon Law, (l. i. tit. 6, c. 3,)

a supplement to the Decretals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated

at Rome in 1298, and addressed in all the universities of

Europe.]

71 (return) [ The genius of Cardinal de Retz had a right to paint

a conclave, (of 1665,) in which he was a spectator and an actor,

(Mémoires, tom. iv. p. 15—57;) but I am at a loss to appreciate

the knowledge or authority of an anonymous Italian, whose history

(Conclavi de’ Pontifici Romani, in 4to. 1667) has been continued

since the reign of Alexander VII. The accidental form of the work

furnishes a lesson, though not an antidote, to ambition. From a

labyrinth of intrigues, we emerge to the adoration of the

successful candidate; but the next page opens with his funeral.]

72 (return) [ The expressions of Cardinal de Retz are positive

and picturesque: On y vecut toujours ensemble avec le même

respect, et la même civilité que l’on observe dans le cabinet des

rois, avec la même politesse qu’on avoit dans la cour de Henri

III., avec la même familiarité que l’on voit dans les colleges;

avec la même modestie, qui se remarque dans les noviciats; et

avec la même charité, du moins en apparence, qui pourroit ètre

entre des frères parfaitement unis.]

73 (return) [ Richiesti per bando (says John Villani) sanatori di

Roma, e 52 del popolo, et capitani de’ 25, e consoli,

(_consoli?_) et 13 buone huomini, uno per rione. Our knowledge is

too imperfect to pronounce how much of this constitution was

temporary, and how much ordinary and permanent. Yet it is faintly

illustrated by the ancient statutes of Rome.]

74 (return) [ Villani (l. x. c. 68—71, in Muratori, Script. tom.

xiii. p. 641—645) relates this law, and the whole transaction,

with much less abhorrence than the prudent Muratori. Any one

conversant with the darker ages must have observed how much the

sense (I mean the nonsense) of superstition is fluctuating and

inconsistent.]

75 (return) [ In the first volume of the Popes of Avignon, see

the second original Life of John XXII. p. 142—145, the confession

of the antipope p. 145—152, and the laborious notes of Baluze, p.

714, 715.]

Had the election been always held in the Vatican, the rights of

the senate and people would not have been violated with impunity.

But the Romans forgot, and were forgotten. in the absence of the

successors of Gregory the Seventh, who did not keep as a divine

precept their ordinary residence in the city and diocese. The

care of that diocese was less important than the government of

the universal church; nor could the popes delight in a city in

which their authority was always opposed, and their person was

often endangered. From the persecution of the emperors, and the

wars of Italy, they escaped beyond the Alps into the hospitable

bosom of France; from the tumults of Rome they prudently withdrew

to live and die in the more tranquil stations of Anagni, Perugia,

Viterbo, and the adjacent cities. When the flock was offended or

impoverished by the absence of the shepherd, they were recalled

by a stern admonition, that St. Peter had fixed his chair, not in

an obscure village, but in the capital of the world; by a

ferocious menace, that the Romans would march in arms to destroy

the place and people that should dare to afford them a retreat.

They returned with timorous obedience; and were saluted with the

account of a heavy debt, of all the losses which their desertion

had occasioned, the hire of lodgings, the sale of provisions, and

the various expenses of servants and strangers who attended the

court. 76 After a short interval of peace, and perhaps of

authority, they were again banished by new tumults, and again

summoned by the imperious or respectful invitation of the senate.

In these occasional retreats, the exiles and fugitives of the

Vatican were seldom long, or far, distant from the metropolis;

but in the beginning of the fourteenth century, the apostolic

throne was transported, as it might seem forever, from the Tyber

to the Rhône; and the cause of the transmigration may be deduced

from the furious contest between Boniface the Eighth and the king

of France. 77 The spiritual arms of excommunication and interdict

were repulsed by the union of the three estates, and the

privileges of the Gallican church; but the pope was not prepared

against the carnal weapons which Philip the Fair had courage to

employ. As the pope resided at Anagni, without the suspicion of

danger, his palace and person were assaulted by three hundred

horse, who had been secretly levied by William of Nogaret, a

French minister, and Sciarra Colonna, of a noble but hostile

family of Rome. The cardinals fled; the inhabitants of Anagni

were seduced from their allegiance and gratitude; but the

dauntless Boniface, unarmed and alone, seated himself in his

chair, and awaited, like the conscript fathers of old, the swords

of the Gauls. Nogaret, a foreign adversary, was content to

execute the orders of his master: by the domestic enmity of

Colonna, he was insulted with words and blows; and during a

confinement of three days his life was threatened by the

hardships which they inflicted on the obstinacy which they

provoked. Their strange delay gave time and courage to the

adherents of the church, who rescued him from sacrilegious

violence; but his imperious soul was wounded in the vital part;

and Boniface expired at Rome in a frenzy of rage and revenge. His

memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride;

nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this ecclesiastical

champion to the honors of a saint; a magnanimous sinner, (say the

chronicles of the times,) who entered like a fox, reigned like a

lion, and died like a dog. He was succeeded by Benedict the

Eleventh, the mildest of mankind. Yet he excommunicated the

impious emissaries of Philip, and devoted the city and people of

Anagni by a tremendous curse, whose effects are still visible to

the eyes of superstition. 78

76 (return) [ Romani autem non valentes nec volentes ultra suam

celare cupiditatem gravissimam, contra papam movere cperunt

questionem, exigentes ab eo urgentissime omnia quæ subierant per

ejus absentiam damna et jacturas, videlicet in hispitiis

locandis, in mercimoniis, in usuris, in redditibus, in

provisionibus, et in aliis modis innumerabilibus. Quòd cum

audisset papa, præcordialiter ingemuit, et se comperiens

_muscipulatum_, &c., Matt. Paris, p. 757. For the ordinary

history of the popes, their life and death, their residence and

absence, it is enough to refer to the ecclesiastical annalists,

Spondanus and Fleury.]

77 (return) [ Besides the general historians of the church of

Italy and of France, we possess a valuable treatise composed by a

learned friend of Thuanus, which his last and best editors have

published in the appendix (Histoire particulière du grand

Différend entre Boniface VIII et Philippe le Bel, par Pierre du

Puis, tom. vii. P. xi. p. 61—82.)]

78 (return) [ It is difficult to know whether Labat (tom. iv. p.

53—57) be in jest or in earnest, when he supposes that Anagni

still feels the weight of this curse, and that the cornfields, or

vineyards, or olive-trees, are annually blasted by Nature, the

obsequious handmaid of the popes.]

Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.—Part IV.

After his decease, the tedious and equal suspense of the conclave

was fixed by the dexterity of the French faction. A specious

offer was made and accepted, that, in the term of forty days,

they would elect one of the three candidates who should be named

by their opponents. The archbishop of Bourdeaux, a furious enemy

of his king and country, was the first on the list; but his

ambition was known; and his conscience obeyed the calls of

fortune and the commands of a benefactor, who had been informed

by a swift messenger that the choice of a pope was now in his

hands. The terms were regulated in a private interview; and with

such speed and secrecy was the business transacted, that the

unanimous conclave applauded the elevation of Clement the Fifth.

79 The cardinals of both parties were soon astonished by a

summons to attend him beyond the Alps; from whence, as they soon

discovered, they must never hope to return. He was engaged, by

promise and affection, to prefer the residence of France; and,

after dragging his court through Poitou and Gascony, and

devouring, by his expense, the cities and convents on the road,

he finally reposed at Avignon, 80 which flourished above seventy

years 81 the seat of the Roman pontiff and the metropolis of

Christendom. By land, by sea, by the Rhône, the position of

Avignon was on all sides accessible; the southern provinces of

France do not yield to Italy itself; new palaces arose for the

accommodation of the pope and cardinals; and the arts of luxury

were soon attracted by the treasures of the church. They were

already possessed of the adjacent territory, the Venaissin

county, 82 a populous and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of

Avignon was afterwards purchased from the youth and distress of

Jane, the first queen of Naples and countess of Provence, for the

inadequate price of fourscore thousand florins. 83 Under the

shadow of a French monarchy, amidst an obedient people, the popes

enjoyed an honorable and tranquil state, to which they long had

been strangers: but Italy deplored their absence; and Rome, in

solitude and poverty, might repent of the ungovernable freedom

which had driven from the Vatican the successor of St. Peter. Her

repentance was tardy and fruitless: after the death of the old

members, the sacred college was filled with French cardinals, 84

who beheld Rome and Italy with abhorrence and contempt, and

perpetuated a series of national, and even provincial, popes,

attached by the most indissoluble ties to their native country.

79 (return) [ See, in the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani, (l.

viii. c. 63, 64, 80, in Muratori, tom. xiii.,) the imprisonment

of Boniface VIII., and the election of Clement V., the last of

which, like most anecdotes, is embarrassed with some

difficulties.]

80 (return) [ The original lives of the eight popes of Avignon,

Clement V., John XXII., Benedict XI., Clement VI., Innocent VI.,

Urban V., Gregory XI., and Clement VII., are published by Stephen

Baluze, (Vitæ Paparum Avenionensium; Paris, 1693, 2 vols. in

4to.,) with copious and elaborate notes, and a second volume of

acts and documents. With the true zeal of an editor and a

patriot, he devoutly justifies or excuses the characters of his

countrymen.]

81 (return) [ The exile of Avignon is compared by the Italians

with Babylon, and the Babylonish captivity. Such furious

metaphors, more suitable to the ardor of Petrarch than to the

judgment of Muratori, are gravely refuted in Baluze’s preface.

The abbé de Sade is distracted between the love of Petrarch and

of his country. Yet he modestly pleads, that many of the local

inconveniences of Avignon are now removed; and many of the vices

against which the poet declaims, had been imported with the Roman

court by the strangers of Italy, (tom. i. p. 23—28.)]

82 (return) [ The comtat Venaissin was ceded to the popes in 1273

by Philip III. king of France, after he had inherited the

dominions of the count of Thoulouse. Forty years before, the

heresy of Count Raymond had given them a pretence of seizure, and

they derived some obscure claim from the xith century to some

lands citra Rhodanum, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 495, 610.

Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 376—381.)]

83 (return) [ If a possession of four centuries were not itself a

title, such objections might annul the bargain; but the purchase

money must be refunded, for indeed it was paid. Civitatem

Avenionem emit.... per ejusmodi venditionem pecuniâ redundates,

&c., (iida Vita Clement. VI. in Baluz. tom. i. p. 272. Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 565.) The only temptation for Jane

and her second husband was ready money, and without it they could

not have returned to the throne of Naples.]

84 (return) [ Clement V immediately promoted ten cardinals, nine

French and one English, (Vita ivta, p. 63, et Baluz. p. 625, &c.)

In 1331, the pope refused two candidates recommended by the king

of France, quod xx. Cardinales, de quibus xvii. de regno Franciæ

originem traxisse noscuntur in memorato collegio existant,

(Thomassin, Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p. 1281.)]

The progress of industry had produced and enriched the Italian

republics: the æra of their liberty is the most flourishing

period of population and agriculture, of manufactures and

commerce; and their mechanic labors were gradually refined into

the arts of elegance and genius. But the position of Rome was

less favorable, the territory less fruitful: the character of the

inhabitants was debased by indolence and elated by pride; and

they fondly conceived that the tribute of subjects must forever

nourish the metropolis of the church and empire. This prejudice

was encouraged in some degree by the resort of pilgrims to the

shrines of the apostles; and the last legacy of the popes, the

institution of the holy year, 85 was not less beneficial to the

people than to the clergy. Since the loss of Palestine, the gift

of plenary indulgences, which had been applied to the crusades,

remained without an object; and the most valuable treasure of the

church was sequestered above eight years from public circulation.

A new channel was opened by the diligence of Boniface the Eighth,

who reconciled the vices of ambition and avarice; and the pope

had sufficient learning to recollect and revive the secular games

which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of every century.

To sound without danger the depth of popular credulity, a sermon

was seasonably pronounced, a report was artfully scattered, some

aged witnesses were produced; and on the first of January of the

year thirteen hundred, the church of St. Peter was crowded with

the faithful, who demanded the customary indulgence of the holy

time. The pontiff, who watched and irritated their devout

impatience, was soon persuaded by ancient testimony of the

justice of their claim; and he proclaimed a plenary absolution to

all Catholics who, in the course of that year, and at every

similar period, should respectfully visit the apostolic churches

of St. Peter and St. Paul. The welcome sound was propagated

through Christendom; and at first from the nearest provinces of

Italy, and at length from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and

Britain, the highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims who

sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however costly or

laborious, which was exempt from the perils of military service.

All exceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity, were

forgotten in the common transport; and in the streets and

churches many persons were trampled to death by the eagerness of

devotion. The calculation of their numbers could not be easy nor

accurate; and they have probably been magnified by a dexterous

clergy, well apprised of the contagion of example: yet we are

assured by a judicious historian, who assisted at the ceremony,

that Rome was never replenished with less than two hundred

thousand strangers; and another spectator has fixed at two

millions the total concourse of the year. A trifling oblation

from each individual would accumulate a royal treasure; and two

priests stood night and day, with rakes in their hands, to

collect, without counting, the heaps of gold and silver that were

poured on the altar of St. Paul. 86 It was fortunately a season

of peace and plenty; and if forage was scarce, if inns and

lodgings were extravagantly dear, an inexhaustible supply of

bread and wine, of meat and fish, was provided by the policy of

Boniface and the venal hospitality of the Romans. From a city

without trade or industry, all casual riches will speedily

evaporate: but the avarice and envy of the next generation

solicited Clement the Sixth 87 to anticipate the distant period

of the century. The gracious pontiff complied with their wishes;

afforded Rome this poor consolation for his loss; and justified

the change by the name and practice of the Mosaic Jubilee. 88 His

summons was obeyed; and the number, zeal, and liberality of the

pilgrims did not yield to the primitive festival. But they

encountered the triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine:

many wives and virgins were violated in the castles of Italy; and

many strangers were pillaged or murdered by the savage Romans, no

longer moderated by the presence of their bishops. 89 To the

impatience of the popes we may ascribe the successive reduction

to fifty, thirty-three, and twenty-five years; although the

second of these terms is commensurate with the life of Christ.

The profusion of indulgences, the revolt of the Protestants, and

the decline of superstition, have much diminished the value of

the jubilee; yet even the nineteenth and last festival was a year

of pleasure and profit to the Romans; and a philosophic smile

will not disturb the triumph of the priest or the happiness of

the people. 90

85 (return) [ Our primitive account is from Cardinal James

Caietan, (Maxima Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xxv.;) and I am at a loss

to determine whether the nephew of Boniface VIII. be a fool or a

knave: the uncle is a much clearer character.]

86 (return) [ See John Villani (l. viii. c. 36) in the xiith, and

the Chronicon Astense, in the xith volume (p. 191, 192) of

Muratori’s Collection Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab eisdem

accepit, nam duo clerici, cum rastris, &c.]

87 (return) [ The two bulls of Boniface VIII. and Clement VI. are

inserted on the Corpus Juris Canonici, Extravagant. (Commun. l.

v. tit. ix c 1, 2.)]

88 (return) [ The sabbatic years and jubilees of the Mosaic law,

(Car. Sigon. de Republica Hebræorum, Opp. tom. iv. l. iii. c. 14,

14, p. 151, 152,) the suspension of all care and labor, the

periodical release of lands, debts, servitude, &c., may seem a

noble idea, but the execution would be impracticable in a

_profane_ republic; and I should be glad to learn that this

ruinous festival was observed by the Jewish people.]

89 (return) [ See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani, (l. i. c. 56,)

in the xivth vol. of Muratori, and the Mémoires sur la Vie de

Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 75—89.]

90 (return) [ The subject is exhausted by M. Chais, a French

minister at the Hague, in his Lettres Historiques et Dogmatiques,

sur les Jubilés et es Indulgences; la Haye, 1751, 3 vols. in

12mo.; an elaborate and pleasing work, had not the author

preferred the character of a polemic to that of a philosopher.]

In the beginning of the eleventh century, Italy was exposed to

the feudal tyranny, alike oppressive to the sovereign and the

people. The rights of human nature were vindicated by her

numerous republics, who soon extended their liberty and dominion

from the city to the adjacent country. The sword of the nobles

was broken; their slaves were enfranchised; their castles were

demolished; they assumed the habits of society and obedience;

their ambition was confined to municipal honors, and in the

proudest aristocracy of Venice on Genoa, each patrician was

subject to the laws. 91 But the feeble and disorderly government

of Rome was unequal to the task of curbing her rebellious sons,

who scorned the authority of the magistrate within and without

the walls. It was no longer a civil contention between the nobles

and plebeians for the government of the state: the barons

asserted in arms their personal independence; their palaces and

castles were fortified against a siege; and their private

quarrels were maintained by the numbers of their vassals and

retainers. In origin and affection, they were aliens to their

country: 92 and a genuine Roman, could such have been produced,

might have renounced these haughty strangers, who disdained the

appellation of citizens, and proudly styled themselves the

princes, of Rome. 93 After a dark series of revolutions, all

records of pedigree were lost; the distinction of surnames was

abolished; the blood of the nations was mingled in a thousand

channels; and the Goths and Lombards, the Greeks and Franks, the

Germans and Normans, had obtained the fairest possessions by

royal bounty, or the prerogative of valor. These examples might

be readily presumed; but the elevation of a Hebrew race to the

rank of senators and consuls is an event without a parallel in

the long captivity of these miserable exiles. 94 In the time of

Leo the Ninth, a wealthy and learned Jew was converted to

Christianity, and honored at his baptism with the name of his

godfather, the reigning Pope. The zeal and courage of Peter the

son of Leo were signalized in the cause of Gregory the Seventh,

who intrusted his faithful adherent with the government of

Adrian’s mole, the tower of Crescentius, or, as it is now called,

the castle of St. Angelo. Both the father and the son were the

parents of a numerous progeny: their riches, the fruits of usury,

were shared with the noblest families of the city; and so

extensive was their alliance, that the grandson of the proselyte

was exalted by the weight of his kindred to the throne of St.

Peter. A majority of the clergy and people supported his cause:

he reigned several years in the Vatican; and it is only the

eloquence of St. Bernard, and the final triumph of Innocence the

Second, that has branded Anacletus with the epithet of antipope.

After his defeat and death, the posterity of Leo is no longer

conspicuous; and none will be found of the modern nobles

ambitious of descending from a Jewish stock. It is not my design

to enumerate the Roman families which have failed at different

periods, or those which are continued in different degrees of

splendor to the present time. 95 The old consular line of the

_Frangipani_ discover their name in the generous act of

_breaking_ or dividing bread in a time of famine; and such

benevolence is more truly glorious than to have enclosed, with

their allies the _Corsi_, a spacious quarter of the city in the

chains of their fortifications; the _Savelli_, as it should seem

a Sabine race, have maintained their original dignity; the

obsolete surname of the _Capizucchi_ is inscribed on the coins of

the first senators; the _Conti_ preserve the honor, without the

estate, of the counts of Signia; and the _Annibaldi_ must have

been very ignorant, or very modest, if they had not descended

from the Carthaginian hero. 96

91 (return) [ Muratori (Dissert. xlvii.) alleges the Annals of

Florence, Padua, Genoa, &c., the analogy of the rest, the

evidence of Otho of Frisingen, (de Gest. Fred. I. l. ii. c. 13,)

and the submission of the marquis of Este.]

92 (return) [ As early as the year 824, the emperor Lothaire I.

found it expedient to interrogate the Roman people, to learn from

each individual by what national law he chose to be governed.

(Muratori, Dissertat xxii.)]

93 (return) [ Petrarch attacks these foreigners, the tyrants of

Rome, in a declamation or epistle, full of bold truths and absurd

pedantry, in which he applies the maxims, and even prejudices, of

the old republic to the state of the xivth century, (Mémoires,

tom. iii. p. 157—169.)]

94 (return) [ The origin and adventures of the Jewish family are

noticed by Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 435, A.D. 1124, No. 3, 4,)

who draws his information from the Chronographus Maurigniacensis,

and Arnulphus Sagiensis de Schismate, (in Muratori, Script. Ital.

tom. iii. P. i. p. 423—432.) The fact must in some degree be

true; yet I could wish that it had been coolly related, before it

was turned into a reproach against the antipope.]

95 (return) [ Muratori has given two dissertations (xli. and

xlii.) to the names, surnames, and families of Italy. Some

nobles, who glory in their domestic fables, may be offended with

his firm and temperate criticism; yet surely some ounces of pure

gold are of more value than many pounds of base metal.]

96 (return) [ The cardinal of St. George, in his poetical, or

rather metrical history of the election and coronation of

Boniface VIII., (Muratori Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 641,

&c.,) describes the state and families of Rome at the coronation

of Boniface VIII., (A.D. 1295.)

Interea titulis redimiti sanguine et armis Illustresque

viri Romanâ a stirpe trahentes Nomen in emeritos tantæ

virtutis honores Insulerant sese medios festumque

colebant Aurata fulgente togâ, sociante catervâ. Ex

ipsis devota domus præstantis ab _Ursâ_ Ecclesiæ,

vultumque gerens demissius altum Festa _Columna_ jocis,

necnon _Sabellia_ mitis; Stephanides senior, _Comites_,

_Annibalica_ proles, Præfectusque urbis magnum sine

viribus nomen. (l. ii. c. 5, 100, p. 647, 648.)

The ancient statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 59, p. 174, 175)

distinguish eleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear

in concilio communi, before the senator, that they would not

harbor or protect any malefactors, outlaws, &c.—a feeble

security!]

But among, perhaps above, the peers and princes of the city, I

distinguish the rival houses of Colonna and Ursini, whose private

story is an essential part of the annals of modern Rome. I. The

name and arms of Colonna 97 have been the theme of much doubtful

etymology; nor have the orators and antiquarians overlooked

either Trajan’s pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or the pillar

of Christ’s flagellation, or the luminous column that guided the

Israelites in the desert. Their first historical appearance in

the year eleven hundred and four attests the power and antiquity,

while it explains the simple meaning, of the name. By the

usurpation of Cavæ, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal the

Second; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of Rome the

hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and _Colonna_; and the latter of

these towns was probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the

relic of a villa or temple. 98 They likewise possessed one moiety

of the neighboring city of Tusculum, a strong presumption of

their descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the tenth

century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. According to their

own and the public opinion, the primitive and remote source was

derived from the banks of the Rhine; 99 and the sovereigns of

Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a

noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred years has

been often illustrated by merit and always by fortune. 100 About

the end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was

composed of an uncle and six bothers, all conspicuous in arms, or

in the honors of the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator

of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphal car, and hailed

in some vain acclamations with the title of Cæsar; while John and

Stephen were declared marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna, by

Nicholas the Fourth, a patron so partial to their family, that he

has been delineated in satirical portraits, imprisoned as it were

in a hollow pillar. 101 After his decease their haughty behavior

provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of mankind. The

two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of

Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna were oppressed for a moment

by his temporal and spiritual arms. 102 He proclaimed a crusade

against his personal enemies; their estates were confiscated;

their fortresses on either side of the Tyber were besieged by the

troops of St. Peter and those of the rival nobles; and after the

ruin of Palestrina or Præneste, their principal seat, the ground

was marked with a ploughshare, the emblem of perpetual

desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed, the six brothers, in

disguise and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the

hope of deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the French

court was their surest asylum; they prompted and directed the

enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their magnanimity, had

they respected the misfortune and courage of the captive tyrant.

His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored

the honors and possessions of the Colonna; and some estimate may

be formed of their wealth by their losses, of their losses by the

damages of one hundred thousand gold florins which were granted

them against the accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope. All

the spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished 103

by his prudent successors; and the fortune of the house was more

firmly established by this transient hurricane. The boldness of

Sciarra Colonna was signalized in the captivity of Boniface, and

long afterwards in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the

gratitude of the emperor, the pillar in their arms was encircled

with a royal crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit

was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero

superior to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome.

Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in

peace and war; in his distress he was an object, not of pity, but

of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his name

and country; and when he was asked, “Where is now your fortress?”

he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, “Here.” He supported

with the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin

of his declining age, the ancestors, the character, and the

children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman

republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated

from Spoleto; 104 the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the

twelfth century, from some eminent person, who is only known as

the father of their race. But they were soon distinguished among

the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen,

the strength of their towers, the honors of the senate and sacred

college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third and

Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage. 105 Their riches

may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism: the estates of St.

Peter were alienated in their favor by the liberal Celestin; 106

and Nicholas was ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance

of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and

to invest them with the perpetual office of senators of Rome. All

that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna will

likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and

equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted

above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The

jealously of preeminence and power was the true ground of their

quarrel; but as a specious badge of distinction, the Colonna

embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the

Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church.

The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners;

and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the

origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. 107

After the retreat of the popes to Avignon they disputed in arms

the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were

perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two

rival senators. By their private hostilities the city and country

were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with their

alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by the

sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was

surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna. 108 His

triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce;

their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the

church door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the

victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared

senator of Rome during the term of five years. And the muse of

Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous

youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and

Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate

the wolves and lions, the serpents and _bears_, who labored to

subvert the eternal basis of the marble column. 109

97 (return) [ It is pity that the Colonna themselves have not

favored the world with a complete and critical history of their

illustrious house. I adhere to Muratori, (Dissert. xlii. tom.

iii. p. 647, 648.)]

98 (return) [ Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. in Muratori,

Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 335. The family has still great

possessions in the Campagna of Rome; but they have alienated to

the Rospigliosi this original fief of _Colonna_, (Eschinard, p.

258, 259.)]

99 (return) [ “Te longinqua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni,” says

Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders and Juliers

acknowledges (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p.

539) his descent from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:)

but the royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that

the sceptre in his arms has been confounded with the column. To

maintain the Roman origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously

supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii.

p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero escaped from the city,

and founded Mentz in Germany.]

100 (return) [ I cannot overlook the Roman triumph of ovation on

Marce Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope’s galleys at

the naval victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p.

55, 56. Muret. Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180—190.)]

101 (return) [ Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]

102 (return) [ Petrarch’s attachment to the Colonna has

authorized the abbé de Sade to expatiate on the state of the

family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface

VIII., the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with

the Ursini, &c., (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 98—110,

146—148, 174—176, 222—230, 275—280.) His criticism often

rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the

less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be

now extinct.]

103 (return) [ Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who

adhered to the emperor Frederic I. incapable of holding any

ecclesiastical benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last

stains of annual excommunication were purified by Sixtus V.,

(Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and

proscription are often the best titles of ancient nobility.]

104 (return) [

————Vallis te proxima misit, Appenninigenæ qua prata

virentia sylvæ Spoletana metunt armenta gregesque

protervi.

Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a

French origin, which may be remotely true.]

105 (return) [ In the metrical life of Celestine V. by the

cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.,)

we find a luminous, and not inelegant, passage, (l. i. c. 3, p.

203 &c.:)—

————genuit quem nobilis Ursæ (_Ursi?_) Progenies, Romana

domus, veterataque magnis Fascibus in clero, pompasque

experta senatûs, Bellorumque manû grandi stipata

parentum Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum Papatûs

_iterata_ tenens.

Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first

Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined

to read _Ursi_ progenies.]

106 (return) [ Filii Ursi, quondam Clestini papæ nepotes, de

bonis ecclesiæ Romanæ ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III.

is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would

disdain the nephews of a _modern_ pope.]

107 (return) [ In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian

Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and

Ghibelines.]

108 (return) [ Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222—230) has celebrated this

victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a

Florentine (Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a Roman,

(Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 532—534,) are less favorable to their

arms.]

109 (return) [ The abbé de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61—66) has

applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, _Spirto Gentil_, &c., to

Stephen Colonna the younger:

Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi Al una gran marmorea

_colexna_ Fanno noja sovente e à se danno.]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.—Part

Character And Coronation Of Petrarch.—Restoration Of The Freedom

And Government Of Rome By The Tribune Rienzi.—His Virtues And

Vices, His Expulsion And Death.—Return Of The Popes From

Avignon.—Great Schism Of The West.—Reunion Of The Latin

Church.—Last Struggles Of Roman Liberty.— Statutes Of Rome.—Final

Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch 1 is the Italian

songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes,

Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry;

and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the

enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may

be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial

knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned

nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not

compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the

sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of

Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety

of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still

less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a

metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence

has been questioned; 2 for a matron so prolific, 3 that she was

delivered of eleven legitimate children, 4 while her amorous

swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. 5 But in the

eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his

love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amusement. His

Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, established his

serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over

France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in

every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings 6 be now

abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man,

who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the

Augustan age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the

poetic crown. The academical honors of the three faculties had

introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of

poetry; 7 and the title of poet-laureate, which custom, rather

than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, 8 was first

invented by the Cæsars of Germany. In the musical games of

antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: 9 the belief that

Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the

emulation of a Latin bard; 10 and the laurel 11 was endeared to

the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress.

The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of

the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was

inexorable, 12 he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph

of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind, since he

applauds the success of his own _labors_; his name was popular;

his friends were active; the open or secret opposition of envy

and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient merit.

In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to accept

the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of

Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the

senate of Rome and the university of Paris. The learning of a

theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, were

alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though immortal wreath

which genius may obtain from the free applause of the public and

of posterity: but the candidate dismissed this troublesome

reflection; and after some moments of complacency and suspense,

preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world.

1 (return) [ The Mémoires sur la Vie de François Pétrarque,

(Amsterdam, 1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a copious,

original, and entertaining work, a labor of love, composed from

the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the

hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the

author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and

gallantry. In the preface to his first volume, he enumerates and

weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have professedly treated

of the same subject.]

2 (return) [ The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth

century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they

should understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed

virgin, or————. See the prefaces to the first and second volume.]

3 (return) [ Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was

married in January 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of

Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he

married a second wife within seven months of her death, which

happened the 6th of April, 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years

after Petrarch had seen and loved her.]

4 (return) [ Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these

is issued, in the tenth degree, the abbé de Sade, the fond and

grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most

probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire

into every circumstance that could affect the history and

character of his grandmother, (see particularly tom. i. p.

122—133, notes, p. 7—58, tom. ii. p. 455—495 not. p. 76—82.)]

5 (return) [ Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is

described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge

of his biographer, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 340—359.) It was, in

truth, the retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much

mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto.]

6 (return) [ Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the

xvith century, but without the date of the year. The abbé de Sade

calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch’s Latin works; but I

much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the

bookseller, or the amusement of the public.]

7 (return) [ Consult Selden’s Titles of Honor, in his works,

(vol. iii. p. 457—466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St.

Francis received the visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore fuerat

coronatus et exinde rex versuum dictus.]

8 (return) [ From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been

false and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can

produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in

every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year

a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel,

and, I believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the

more freely, as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous

custom is while the prince is a man of virtue and the poet a man

of genius.]

9 (return) [ Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit.

Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native Athens the glory of

first instituting and recommending the alwnaV—kai ta aqla

megista—mh monon tacouV kai rwmhV, alla kai logwn kai gnwmhV. The

example of the Panathenæa was imitated at Delphi; but the Olympic

games were ignorant of a musical crown, till it was extorted by

the vain tyranny of Nero, (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat.

apud Casaubon ad locum; Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, l. lxiii. p.

1032, 1041. Potter’s Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445, 450.)]

10 (return) [ The Capitoline games (certamen quinquenale,

_musicum_, equestre, gymnicum) were instituted by Domitian

(Sueton. c. 4) in the year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die

Natali, c. 18, p. 100, edit. Havercamp.) and were not abolished

in the ivth century, (Ausonius de Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If

the crown were given to superior merit, the exclusion of Statius

(Capitolia nostræ inficiata lyræ, Sylv. l. iii. v. 31) may do

honor to the games of the Capitol; but the Latin poets who lived

before Domitian were crowned only in the public opinion.]

11 (return) [ Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant

that the laurel was not the Capitoline, but the Delphic crown,

(Plin. Hist. Natur p. 39. Hist. Critique de la République des

Lettres, tom. i. p. 150—220.) The victors in the Capitol were

crowned with a garland of oak eaves, (Martial, l. iv. epigram

54.)]

12 (return) [ The pious grandson of Laura has labored, and not

without success, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the

censures of the grave and the sneers of the profane, (tom. ii.

notes, p. 76—82.)]

The ceremony of his coronation 13 was performed in the Capitol,

by his friend and patron the supreme magistrate of the republic.

Twelve patrician youths were arrayed in scarlet; six

representatives of the most illustrious families, in green robes,

with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in the

midst of the princes and nobles, the senator, count of

Anguillara, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed his throne; and at

the voice of a herald Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a text

of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity of

Rome, he knelt before the throne, and received from the senator a

laurel crown, with a more precious declaration, “This is the

reward of merit.” The people shouted, “Long life to the Capitol

and the poet!” A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as the

effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole procession

had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended before

the shrine of St. Peter. In the act or diploma 14 which was

presented to Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of

poet-laureate are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of

thirteen hundred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege

of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of

assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing,

interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all

subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority

of the senate and people; and the character of citizen was the

recompense of his affection for the Roman name. They did him

honor, but they did him justice. In the familiar society of

Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot;

and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment, and every

sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their

majestic ruins confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a

country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted.

The poverty and debasement of Rome excited the indignation and

pity of her grateful son; he dissembled the faults of his

fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of

their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in

the hopes of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of

the present time. Rome was still the lawful mistress of the

world: the pope and the emperor, the bishop and general, had

abdicated their station by an inglorious retreat to the Rhône and

the Danube; but if she could resume her virtue, the republic

might again vindicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the

indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence, 15 Petrarch, Italy, and

Europe, were astonished by a revolution which realized for a

moment his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the

tribune Rienzi will occupy the following pages: 16 the subject is

interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a patriot

bard 17 will sometimes vivify the copious, but simple, narrative

of the Florentine, 18 and more especially of the Roman,

historian. 19

13 (return) [ The whole process of Petrarch’s coronation is

accurately described by the abbé de Sade, (tom. i. p. 425—435,

tom. ii. p. 1—6, notes, p. 1—13,) from his own writings, and the

Roman diary of Ludovico, Monaldeschi, without mixing in this

authentic narrative the more recent fables of Sannuccio Delbene.]

14 (return) [ The original act is printed among the Pieces

Justificatives in the Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. iii. p.

50—53.]

15 (return) [ To find the proofs of his enthusiasm for Rome, I

need only request that the reader would open, by chance, either

Petrarch, or his French biographer. The latter has described the

poet’s first visit to Rome, (tom. i. p. 323—335.) But in the

place of much idle rhetoric and morality, Petrarch might have

amused the present and future age with an original account of the

city and his coronation.]

16 (return) [ It has been treated by the pen of a Jesuit, the P.

de Cerceau whose posthumous work (Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini,

dit de Rienzi, Tyran de Rome, en 1347) was published at Paris,

1748, in 12mo. I am indebted to him for some facts and documents

in John Hocsemius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian,

(Fabricius Bibliot. Lat. Med. Ævi, tom. iii. p. 273, tom. iv. p.

85.)]

17 (return) [ The abbé de Sade, who so freely expatiates on the

history of the xivth century, might treat, as his proper subject,

a revolution in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply

engaged, (Mémoires, tom. ii. p. 50, 51, 320—417, notes, p. 70—76,

tom. iii. p. 221—243, 366—375.) Not an idea or a fact in the

writings of Petrarch has probably escaped him.]

18 (return) [ Giovanni Villani, l. xii. c. 89, 104, in Muratori,

Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p. 969, 970, 981—983.]

19 (return) [ In his third volume of Italian antiquities, (p.

249—548,) Muratori has inserted the Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ ab

Anno 1327 usque ad Annum 1354, in the original dialect of Rome or

Naples in the xivth century, and a Latin version for the benefit

of strangers. It contains the most particular and authentic life

of Cola (Nicholas) di Rienzi; which had been printed at

Bracciano, 1627, in 4to., under the name of Tomaso Fortifiocca,

who is only mentioned in this work as having been punished by the

tribune for forgery. Human nature is scarcely capable of such

sublime or stupid impartiality: but whosoever in the author of

these Fragments, he wrote on the spot and at the time, and

paints, without design or art, the manners of Rome and the

character of the tribune. * Note: Since the publication of my

first edition of Gibbon, some new and very remarkable documents

have been brought to light in a life of Nicolas Rienzi,—Cola di

Rienzo und seine Zeit,—by Dr. Felix Papencordt. The most

important of these documents are letters from Rienzi to Charles

the Fourth, emperor and king of Bohemia, and to the archbishop of

Praque; they enter into the whole history of his adventurous

career during its first period, and throw a strong light upon his

extraordinary character. These documents were first discovered

and made use of, to a certain extent, by Pelzel, the historian of

Bohemia. The originals have disappeared, but a copy made by

Pelzel for his own use is now in the library of Count Thun at

Teschen. There seems no doubt of their authenticity. Dr.

Papencordt has printed the whole in his Urkunden, with the

exception of one long theological paper.—M. 1845.]

In a quarter of the city which was inhabited only by mechanics

and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a washer woman

produced the future deliverer of Rome. 20 201 From such parents

Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor

fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which they

painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end.

The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero,

Seneca, Livy, Cæsar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his

equals and contemporaries the genius of the young plebeian: he

perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles

of antiquity; loved to dispense his knowledge in familiar

language; and was often provoked to exclaim, “Where are now these

Romans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why was I not

born in those happy times?” 21 When the republic addressed to the

throne of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit and

eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen

deputies of the commons. The orator had the honor of haranguing

Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of conversing with

Petrarch, a congenial mind: but his aspiring hopes were chilled

by disgrace and poverty and the patriot was reduced to a single

garment and the charity of the hospital. 211 From this misery he

was relieved by the sense of merit or the smile of favor; and the

employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of

five gold florins, a more honorable and extensive connection, and

the right of contrasting, both in words and actions, his own

integrity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Rienzi

was prompt and persuasive: the multitude is always prone to envy

and censure: he was stimulated by the loss of a brother and the

impunity of the assassins; nor was it possible to excuse or

exaggerate the public calamities. The blessings of peace and

justice, for which civil society has been instituted, were

banished from Rome: the jealous citizens, who might have endured

every personal or pecuniary injury, were most deeply wounded in

the dishonor of their wives and daughters: 22 they were equally

oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of

the magistrates; 221 and the abuse of arms or of laws was the

only circumstance that distinguished the lions from the dogs and

serpents of the Capitol. These allegorical emblems were variously

repeated in the pictures which Rienzi exhibited in the streets

and churches; and while the spectators gazed with curious wonder,

the bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied the

satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a distant hope of

comfort and deliverance. The privileges of Rome, her eternal

sovereignty over her princes and provinces, was the theme of his

public and private discourse; and a monument of servitude became

in his hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of the

senate, which granted the most ample prerogatives to the emperor

Vespasian, had been inscribed on a copper plate still extant in

the choir of the church of St. John Lateran. 23 A numerous

assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political

lecture, and a convenient theatre was erected for their

reception. The notary appeared in a magnificent and mysterious

habit, explained the inscription by a version and commentary, 24

and descanted with eloquence and zeal on the ancient glories of

the senate and people, from whom all legal authority was derived.

The supine ignorance of the nobles was incapable of discerning

the serious tendency of such representations: they might

sometimes chastise with words and blows the plebeian reformer;

but he was often suffered in the Colonna palace to amuse the

company with his threats and predictions; and the modern Brutus

25 was concealed under the mask of folly and the character of a

buffoon. While they indulged their contempt, the restoration of

the _good estate_, his favorite expression, was entertained among

the people as a desirable, a possible, and at length as an

approaching, event; and while all had the disposition to applaud,

some had the courage to assist, their promised deliverer.

20 (return) [ The first and splendid period of Rienzi, his

tribunitian government, is contained in the xviiith chapter of

the Fragments, (p. 399—479,) which, in the new division, forms

the iid book of the history in xxxviii. smaller chapters or

sections.]

201 (return) [ But see in Dr. Papencordt’s work, and in Rienzi’s

own words, his claim to be a bastard son of the emperor Henry the

Seventh, whose intrigue with his mother Rienzi relates with a

sort of proud shamelessness. Compare account by the editor of Dr.

Papencordt’s work in Quarterly Review vol. lxix.—M. 1845.]

21 (return) [ The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the

original idiom: Fò da soa juventutine nutricato di latte de

eloquentia, bono gramatico, megliore rettuorico, autorista bravo.

Deh como et quanto era veloce leitore! moito usava Tito Livio,

Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio Massimo, moito li dilettava le

magnificentie di Julio Cesare raccontare. Tutta la die se

speculava negl’ intagli di marmo lequali iaccio intorno Roma. Non

era altri che esso, che sapesse lejere li antichi pataffii. Tutte

scritture antiche vulgarizzava; quesse fiure di marmo justamente

interpretava. On come spesso diceva, “Dove suono quelli buoni

Romani? dove ene loro somma justitia? poleramme trovare in tempo

che quessi fiuriano!”]

211 (return) [ Sir J. Hobhouse published (in his Illustrations of

Childe Harold) Rienzi’s joyful letter to the people of Rome on

the apparently favorable termination of this mission.—M. 1845.]

22 (return) [ Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans with

the easy temper of the husbands of Avignon, (Mémoires, tom. i. p.

330.)]

221 (return) [ All this Rienzi, writing at a later period to the

archbishop of Prague, attributed to the criminal abandonment of

his flock by the supreme pontiff. See Urkunde apud Papencordt, p.

xliv. Quarterly Review, p. 255.—M. 1845.]

23 (return) [ The fragments of the _Lex regia_ may be found in

the Inscriptions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242, and at the end of the

Tacitus of Ernesti, with some learned notes of the editor, tom.

ii.]

24 (return) [ I cannot overlook a stupendous and laughable

blunder of Rienzi. The Lex regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge

the Pomrium, a word familiar to every antiquary. It was not so to

the tribune; he confounds it with pom_a_rium, an orchard,

translates lo Jardino de Roma cioene Italia, and is copied by the

less excusable ignorance of the Latin translator (p. 406) and the

French historian, (p. 33.) Even the learning of Muratori has

slumbered over the passage.]

25 (return) [ Priori (_Bruto_) tamen similior, juvenis uterque,

longe ingenio quam cujus simulationem induerat, ut sub hoc

obtentû liberator ille P R. aperiretur tempore suo.... Ille

regibus, hic tyrannis contemptus, (Opp. p. 536.) * Note: Fatcor

attamen quod-nunc fatuum. nunc hystrionem, nunc gravem nunc

simplicem, nunc astutum, nunc fervidum, nunc timidum simulatorem,

et dissimulatorem ad hunc caritativum finem, quem dixi,

constitusepius memet ipsum. Writing to an archbishop, (of

Prague,) Rienzi alleges scriptural examples. Saltator coram archa

David et insanus apparuit coram Rege; blanda, astuta, et tecta

Judith astitit Holoferni; et astute Jacob meruit benedici,

Urkunde xlix.—M. 1845.]

A prophecy, or rather a summons, affixed on the church door of

St. 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 nobles, 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

251 (return) [ Et ego, Deo semper auctore, ipsa die pristinâ

(leg. primâ) Tribunatus, quæ quidem dignitas a tempore deflorati

Imperii, et per annos Vo et ultra sub tyrannicà occupatione

vacavit, ipsos omnes potentes indifferenter Deum at justitiam

odientes, a meâ, ymo a Dei facie fugiendo vehementi Spiritu

dissipavi, et nullo effuso cruore trementes expuli, sine ictu

remanente Romane terre facie renovatâ. Libellus Tribuni ad

Cæsarem, p. xxxiv.—M. 1845.]

26 (return) [ 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.]

27 (return) [ Hocsemius, p. 498, apud du Cerçeau, 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.

28 (return) [ 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 naria 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

29 (return) [ 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.]

30 (return) [ 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 (Mémoires, tom. ii. p. 143—148, 245—250,

375—379, notes, p. 21—37.) The abbé de Sade _wishes_ to extenuate

her guilt.]

31 (return) [ The advocate who pleaded against Jane could add

nothing to the logical force and brevity of his master’s epistle.

Johanna! inordinata vita præcedens, 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.]

311 (return) [ 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 Cæsarem: “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.]

32 (return) [ 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

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.

321 (return) [ 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 espérances.’ Corinne, tom. i. p. 159.

“Could Tacitus have excelled this?” Hallam, vol i p. 418.—M.]

33 (return) [ In his Roman Questions, Plutarch (Opuscul. tom. i.

p. 505, 506, edit. Græc. 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.]

34 (return) [ I could not express in English the forcible, though

barbarous, title of _Zelator_ Italiæ, which Rienzi assumed.]

35 (return) [ 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.)]

The ambition of the honors of chivalry 36 betrayed the meanness

of his birth, and degraded the importance of his office; and the

equestrian tribune was not less odious to the nobles, whom he

adopted, than to the plebeians, whom he deserted. All that yet

remained of treasure, or luxury, or art, was exhausted on that

solemn day. Rienzi led the procession from the Capitol to the

Lateran; the tediousness of the way was relieved with decorations

and games; the ecclesiastical, civil, and military orders marched

under their various banners; the Roman ladies attended his wife;

and the ambassadors of Italy might loudly applaud or secretly

deride the novelty of the pomp. In the evening, which they had

reached the church and palace of Constantine, he thanked and

dismissed the numerous assembly, with an invitation to the

festival of the ensuing day. From the hands of a venerable knight

he received the order of the Holy Ghost; the purification of the

bath was a previous ceremony; but in no step of his life did

Rienzi excite such scandal and censure as by the profane use of

the porphyry vase, in which Constantine (a foolish legend) had

been healed of his leprosy by Pope Sylvester. 37 With equal

presumption the tribune watched or reposed within the consecrated

precincts of the baptistery; and the failure of his state-bed was

interpreted as an omen of his approaching downfall. At the hour

of worship, he showed himself to the returning crowds in a

majestic attitude, with a robe of purple, his sword, and gilt

spurs; but the holy rites were soon interrupted by his levity and

insolence. Rising from his throne, and advancing towards the

congregation, he proclaimed in a loud voice: “We summon to our

tribunal Pope Clement: and command him to reside in his diocese

of Rome: we also summon the sacred college of cardinals. 38 We

again summon the two pretenders, Charles of Bohemia and Lewis of

Bavaria, who style themselves emperors: we likewise summon all

the electors of Germany, to inform us on what pretence they have

usurped the inalienable right of the Roman people, the ancient

and lawful sovereigns of the empire.” 39 Unsheathing his maiden

sword, he thrice brandished it to the three parts of the world,

and thrice repeated the extravagant declaration, “And this too is

mine!” The pope’s vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, attempted to

check this career of folly; but his feeble protest was silenced

by martial music; and instead of withdrawing from the assembly,

he consented to dine with his brother tribune, at a table which

had hitherto been reserved for the supreme pontiff. A banquet,

such as the Cæsars had given, was prepared for the Romans. The

apartments, porticos, and courts of the Lateran were spread with

innumerable tables for either sex, and every condition; a stream

of wine flowed from the nostrils of Constantine’s brazen horse;

no complaint, except of the scarcity of water, could be heard;

and the licentiousness of the multitude was curbed by discipline

and fear. A subsequent day was appointed for the coronation of

Rienzi; 40 seven crowns of different leaves or metals were

successively placed on his head by the most eminent of the Roman

clergy; they represented the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; and

he still professed to imitate the example of the ancient

tribunes. 401 These extraordinary spectacles might deceive or

flatter the people; and their own vanity was gratified in the

vanity of their leader. But in his private life he soon deviated

from the strict rule of frugality and abstinence; and the

plebeians, who were awed by the splendor of the nobles, were

provoked by the luxury of their equal. His wife, his son, his

uncle, (a barber in name and profession,) exposed the contrast of

vulgar manners and princely expense; and without acquiring the

majesty, Rienzi degenerated into the vices, of a king.

36 (return) [ Strange as it may seem, this festival was not

without a precedent. In the year 1327, two barons, a Colonna and

an Ursini, the usual balance, were created knights by the Roman

people: their bath was of rose-water, their beds were decked with

royal magnificence, and they were served at St. Maria of Araceli

in the Capitol, by the twenty-eight _buoni huomini_. They

afterwards received from Robert, king of Naples, the sword of

chivalry, (Hist. Rom. l. i. c. 2, p. 259.)]

37 (return) [ All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of

Constantine (Petrarch. Epist. Famil. vi. 2,) and Rienzi justified

his own conduct by observing to the court of Avignon, that a vase

which had been used by a Pagan could not be profaned by a pious

Christian. Yet this crime is specified in the bull of

excommunication, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerçeau, p. 189, 190.)]

38 (return) [ This _verbal_ summons of Pope Clement VI., which

rests on the authority of the Roman historian and a Vatican MS.,

is disputed by the biographer of Petrarch, (tom. ii. not. p.

70—76), with arguments rather of decency than of weight. The

court of Avignon might not choose to agitate this delicate

question.]

39 (return) [ The summons of the two rival emperors, a monument

of freedom and folly, is extant in Hocsemius, (Cerçeau, p.

163—166.)]

40 (return) [ It is singular, that the Roman historian should

have overlooked this sevenfold coronation, which is sufficiently

proved by internal evidence, and the testimony of Hocsemius, and

even of Rienzi, (Cercean p. 167—170, 229.)]

401 (return) [ It was on this occasion that he made the profane

comparison between himself and our Lord; and the striking

circumstance took place which he relates in his letter to the

archbishop of Prague. In the midst of all the wild and joyous

exultation of the people, one of his most zealous supporters, a

monk, who was in high repute for his sanctity, stood apart in a

corner of the church and wept bitterly! A domestic chaplain of

Rienzi’s inquired the cause of his grief. “Now,” replied the man

of God, “is thy master cast down from heaven—never saw I man so

proud. By the aid of the Holy Ghost he has driven the tyrants

from the city without drawing a sword; the cities and the

sovereigns of Italy have submitted to his power. Why is he so

arrogant and ungrateful towards the Most High? Why does he seek

earthly and transitory rewards for his labors, and in his wanton

speech liken himself to the Creator? Tell thy master that he can

only atone for this offence by tears of penitence.” In the

evening the chaplain communicated this solemn rebuke to the

tribune: it appalled him for the time, but was soon forgotten in

the tumult and hurry of business.—M. 1845.]

A simple citizen describes with pity, or perhaps with pleasure,

the humiliation of the barons of Rome. “Bareheaded, their hands

crossed on their breast, they stood with downcast looks in the

presence of the tribune; and they trembled, good God, how they

trembled!” 41 As long as the yoke of Rienzi was that of justice

and their country, their conscience forced them to esteem the

man, whom pride and interest provoked them to hate: his

extravagant conduct soon fortified their hatred by contempt; and

they conceived the hope of subverting a power which was no longer

so deeply rooted in the public confidence. The old animosity of

the Colonna and Ursini was suspended for a moment by their common

disgrace: they associated their wishes, and perhaps their

designs; an assassin was seized and tortured; he accused the

nobles; and as soon as Rienzi deserved the fate, he adopted the

suspicions and maxims, of a tyrant. On the same day, under

various pretences, he invited to the Capitol his principal

enemies, among whom were five members of the Ursini and three of

the Colonna name. But instead of a council or a banquet, they

found themselves prisoners under the sword of despotism or

justice; and the consciousness of innocence or guilt might

inspire them with equal apprehensions of danger. At the sound of

the great bell the people assembled; they were arraigned for a

conspiracy against the tribune’s life; and though some might

sympathize in their distress, not a hand, nor a voice, was raised

to rescue the first of the nobility from their impending doom.

Their apparent boldness was prompted by despair; they passed in

separate chambers a sleepless and painful night; and the

venerable hero, Stephen Colonna, striking against the door of his

prison, repeatedly urged his guards to deliver him by a speedy

death from such ignominious servitude. In the morning they

understood their sentence from the visit of a confessor and the

tolling of the bell. The great hall of the Capitol had been

decorated for the bloody scene with red and white hangings: the

countenance of the tribune was dark and severe; the swords of the

executioners were unsheathed; and the barons were interrupted in

their dying speeches by the sound of trumpets. But in this

decisive moment, Rienzi was not less anxious or apprehensive than

his captives: he dreaded the splendor of their names, their

surviving kinsmen, the inconstancy of the people, the reproaches

of the world, and, after rashly offering a mortal injury, he

vainly presumed that, if he could forgive, he might himself be

forgiven. His elaborate oration was that of a Christian and a

suppliant; and, as the humble minister of the commons, he

entreated his masters to pardon these noble criminals, for whose

repentance and future service he pledged his faith and authority.

“If you are spared,” said the tribune, “by the mercy of the

Romans, will you not promise to support the good estate with your

lives and fortunes?” Astonished by this marvellous clemency, the

barons bowed their heads; and while they devoutly repeated the

oath of allegiance, might whisper a secret, and more sincere,

assurance of revenge. A priest, in the name of the people,

pronounced their absolution: they received the communion with the

tribune, assisted at the banquet, followed the procession; and,

after every spiritual and temporal sign of reconciliation, were

dismissed in safety to their respective homes, with the new

honors and titles of generals, consuls, and patricians. 42

41 (return) [ Puoi se faceva stare denante a se, mentre sedeva,

li baroni tutti in piedi ritti co le vraccia piecate, e co li

capucci tratti. Deh como stavano paurosi! (Hist. Rom. l. ii. c.

20, p. 439.) He saw them, and we see them.]

42 (return) [ The original letter, in which Rienzi justifies his

treatment of the Colonna, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerçeau, p.

222—229,) displays, in genuine colors, the mixture of the knave

and the madman.]

During some weeks they were checked by the memory of their

danger, rather than of their deliverance, till the most powerful

of the Ursini, escaping with the Colonna from the city, erected

at Marino the standard of rebellion. The fortifications of the

castle were instantly restored; the vassals attended their lord;

the outlaws armed against the magistrate; the flocks and herds,

the harvests and vineyards, from Marino to the gates of Rome,

were swept away or destroyed; and the people arraigned Rienzi as

the author of the calamities which his government had taught them

to forget. In the camp, Rienzi appeared to less advantage than in

the rostrum; and he neglected the progress of the rebel barons

till their numbers were strong, and their castles impregnable.

From the pages of Livy he had not imbibed the art, or even the

courage, of a general: an army of twenty thousand Romans returned

without honor or effect from the attack of Marino; and his

vengeance was amused by painting his enemies, their heads

downwards, and drowning two dogs (at least they should have been

bears) as the representatives of the Ursini. The belief of his

incapacity encouraged their operations: they were invited by

their secret adherents; and the barons attempted, with four

thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horse, to enter Rome by force

or surprise. The city was prepared for their reception; the

alarm-bell rung all night; the gates were strictly guarded, or

insolently open; and after some hesitation they sounded a

retreat. The two first divisions had passed along the walls, but

the prospect of a free entrance tempted the headstrong valor of

the nobles in the rear; and after a successful skirmish, they

were overthrown and massacred without quarter by the crowds of

the Roman people. Stephen Colonna the younger, the noble spirit

to whom Petrarch ascribed the restoration of Italy, was preceded

or accompanied in death by his son John, a gallant youth, by his

brother Peter, who might regret the ease and honors of the

church, by a nephew of legitimate birth, and by two bastards of

the Colonna race; and the number of seven, the seven crowns, as

Rienzi styled them, of the Holy Ghost, was completed by the agony

of the deplorable parent, and the veteran chief, who had survived

the hope and fortune of his house. The vision and prophecies of

St. Martin and Pope Boniface had been used by the tribune to

animate his troops: 43 he displayed, at least in the pursuit, the

spirit of a hero; but he forgot the maxims of the ancient Romans,

who abhorred the triumphs of civil war. The conqueror ascended

the Capitol; deposited his crown and sceptre on the altar; and

boasted, with some truth, that he had cut off an ear, which

neither pope nor emperor had been able to amputate. 44 His base

and implacable revenge denied the honors of burial; and the

bodies of the Colonna, which he threatened to expose with those

of the vilest malefactors, were secretly interred by the holy

virgins of their name and family. 45 The people sympathized in

their grief, repented of their own fury, and detested the

indecent joy of Rienzi, who visited the spot where these

illustrious victims had fallen. It was on that fatal spot that he

conferred on his son the honor of knighthood: and the ceremony

was accomplished by a slight blow from each of the horsemen of

the guard, and by a ridiculous and inhuman ablution from a pool

of water, which was yet polluted with patrician blood. 46

43 (return) [ Rienzi, in the above-mentioned letter, ascribes to

St. Martin the tribune, Boniface VIII. the enemy of Colonna,

himself, and the Roman people, the glory of the day, which

Villani likewise (l. 12, c. 104) describes as a regular battle.

The disorderly skirmish, the flight of the Romans, and the

cowardice of Rienzi, are painted in the simple and minute

narrative of Fortifiocca, or the anonymous citizen, (l. i. c.

34—37.)]

44 (return) [ In describing the fall of the Colonna, I speak only

of the family of Stephen the elder, who is often confounded by

the P. du Cerçeau with his son. That family was extinguished, but

the house has been perpetuated in the collateral branches, of

which I have not a very accurate knowledge. Circumspice (says

Petrarch) familiæ tuæ statum, Columniensium _domos_: solito

pauciores habeat columnas. Quid ad rem modo fundamentum stabile,

solidumque permaneat.]

45 (return) [ The convent of St. Silvester was founded, endowed,

and protected by the Colonna cardinals, for the daughters of the

family who embraced a monastic life, and who, in the year 1318,

were twelve in number. The others were allowed to marry with

their kinsmen in the fourth degree, and the dispensation was

justified by the small number and close alliances of the noble

families of Rome, (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 110, tom.

ii. p. 401.)]

46 (return) [ Petrarch wrote a stiff and pedantic letter of

consolation, (Fam. l. vii. epist. 13, p. 682, 683.) The friend

was lost in the patriot. Nulla toto orbe principum familia

carior; carior tamen respublica, carior Roma, carior Italia. ——Je

rends graces aux Dieux de n’être pas Romain.]

A short delay would have saved the Colonna, the delay of a single

month, which elapsed between the triumph and the exile of Rienzi.

In the pride of victory, he forfeited what yet remained of his

civil virtues, without acquiring the fame of military prowess. A

free and vigorous opposition was formed in the city; and when the

tribune proposed in the public council 47 to impose a new tax,

and to regulate the government of Perugia, thirty-nine members

voted against his measures; repelled the injurious charge of

treachery and corruption; and urged him to prove, by their

forcible exclusion, that if the populace adhered to his cause, it

was already disclaimed by the most respectable citizens. The pope

and the sacred college had never been dazzled by his specious

professions; they were justly offended by the insolence of his

conduct; a cardinal legate was sent to Italy, and after some

fruitless treaty, and two personal interviews, he fulminated a

bull of excommunication, in which the tribune is degraded from

his office, and branded with the guilt of rebellion, sacrilege,

and heresy. 48 The surviving barons of Rome were now humbled to a

sense of allegiance; their interest and revenge engaged them in

the service of the church; but as the fate of the Colonna was

before their eyes, they abandoned to a private adventurer the

peril and glory of the revolution. John Pepin, count of

Minorbino, 49 in the kingdom of Naples, had been condemned for

his crimes, or his riches, to perpetual imprisonment; and

Petrarch, by soliciting his release, indirectly contributed to

the ruin of his friend. At the head of one hundred and fifty

soldiers, the count of Minorbino introduced himself into Rome;

barricaded the quarter of the Colonna: and found the enterprise

as easy as it had seemed impossible. From the first alarm, the

bell of the Capitol incessantly tolled; but, instead of repairing

to the well-known sound, the people were silent and inactive; and

the pusillanimous Rienzi, deploring their ingratitude with sighs

and tears, abdicated the government and palace of the republic.

47 (return) [ This council and opposition is obscurely mentioned

by Pollistore, a contemporary writer, who has preserved some

curious and original facts, (Rer. Italicarum, tom. xxv. c. 31, p.

798—804.)]

48 (return) [ The briefs and bulls of Clement VI. against Rienzi

are translated by the P. du Cerçeau, (p. 196, 232,) from the

Ecclesiastical Annals of Odericus Raynaldus, (A.D. 1347, No. 15,

17, 21, &c.,) who found them in the archives of the Vatican.]

49 (return) [ Matteo Villani describes the origin, character, and

death of this count of Minorbino, a man da natura inconstante e

senza fede, whose grandfather, a crafty notary, was enriched and

ennobled by the spoils of the Saracens of Nocera, (l. vii. c.

102, 103.) See his imprisonment, and the efforts of Petrarch,

(tom. ii. p. 149—151.)]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.—Part

III.

Without drawing his sword, count Pepin restored the aristocracy

and the church; three senators were chosen, and the legate,

assuming the first rank, accepted his two colleagues from the

rival families of Colonna and Ursini. The acts of the tribune

were abolished, his head was proscribed; yet such was the terror

of his name, that the barons hesitated three days before they

would trust themselves in the city, and Rienzi was left above a

month in the castle of St. Angelo, from whence he peaceably

withdrew, after laboring, without effect, to revive the affection

and courage of the Romans. The vision of freedom and empire had

vanished: their fallen spirit would have acquiesced in servitude,

had it been smoothed by tranquillity and order; and it was

scarcely observed, that the new senators derived their authority

from the Apostolic See; that four cardinals were appointed to

reform, with dictatorial power, the state of the republic. Rome

was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, who

detested each other, and despised the commons: their hostile

fortresses, both in town and country, again rose, and were again

demolished: and the peaceful citizens, a flock of sheep, were

devoured, says the Florentine historian, by these rapacious

wolves. But when their pride and avarice had exhausted the

patience of the Romans, a confraternity of the Virgin Mary

protected or avenged the republic: the bell of the Capitol was

again tolled, the nobles in arms trembled in the presence of an

unarmed multitude; and of the two senators, Colonna escaped from

the window of the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of

the altar. The dangerous office of tribune was successively

occupied by two plebeians, Cerroni and Baroncelli. The mildness

of Cerroni was unequal to the times; and after a faint struggle,

he retired with a fair reputation and a decent fortune to the

comforts of rural life. Devoid of eloquence or genius, Baroncelli

was distinguished by a resolute spirit: he spoke the language of

a patriot, and trod in the footsteps of tyrants; his suspicion

was a sentence of death, and his own death was the reward of his

cruelties. Amidst the public misfortunes, the faults of Rienzi

were forgotten; and the Romans sighed for the peace and

prosperity of their good estate. 50

50 (return) [ The troubles of Rome, from the departure to the

return of Rienzi, are related by Matteo Villani (l. ii. c. 47, l.

iii. c. 33, 57, 78) and Thomas Fortifiocca, (l. iii. c. 1—4.) I

have slightly passed over these secondary characters, who

imitated the original tribune.]

After an exile of seven years, the first deliverer was again

restored to his country. In the disguise of a monk or a pilgrim,

he escaped from the castle of St. Angelo, implored the friendship

of the king of Hungary at Naples, tempted the ambition of every

bold adventurer, mingled at Rome with the pilgrims of the

jubilee, lay concealed among the hermits of the Apennine, and

wandered through the cities of Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. His

person was invisible, his name was yet formidable; and the

anxiety of the court of Avignon supposes, and even magnifies, his

personal merit. The emperor Charles the Fourth gave audience to a

stranger, who frankly revealed himself as the tribune of the

republic; and astonished an assembly of ambassadors and princes,

by the eloquence of a patriot and the visions of a prophet, the

downfall of tyranny and the kingdom of the Holy Ghost. 51

Whatever had been his hopes, Rienzi found himself a captive; but

he supported a character of independence and dignity, and obeyed,

as his own choice, the irresistible summons of the supreme

pontiff. The zeal of Petrarch, which had been cooled by the

unworthy conduct, was rekindled by the sufferings and the

presence, of his friend; and he boldly complains of the times, in

which the savior of Rome was delivered by her emperor into the

hands of her bishop. Rienzi was transported slowly, but in safe

custody, from Prague to Avignon: his entrance into the city was

that of a malefactor; in his prison he was chained by the leg;

and four cardinals were named to inquire into the crimes of

heresy and rebellion. But his trial and condemnation would have

involved some questions, which it was more prudent to leave under

the veil of mystery: the temporal supremacy of the popes; the

duty of residence; the civil and ecclesiastical privileges of the

clergy and people of Rome. The reigning pontiff well deserved the

appellation of _Clement_: the strange vicissitudes and

magnanimous spirit of the captive excited his pity and esteem;

and Petrarch believes that he respected in the hero the name and

sacred character of a poet. 52 Rienzi was indulged with an easy

confinement and the use of books; and in the assiduous study of

Livy and the Bible, he sought the cause and the consolation of

his misfortunes.

51 (return) [ These visions, of which the friends and enemies of

Rienzi seem alike ignorant, are surely magnified by the zeal of

Pollistore, a Dominican inquisitor, (Rer. Ital. tom. xxv. c. 36,

p. 819.) Had the tribune taught, that Christ was succeeded by the

Holy Ghost, that the tyranny of the pope would be abolished, he

might have been convicted of heresy and treason, without

offending the Roman people. * Note: So far from having magnified

these visions, Pollistore is more than confirmed by the documents

published by Papencordt. The adoption of all the wild doctrines

of the Fratricelli, the Spirituals, in which, for the time at

least, Rienzi appears to have been in earnest; his magnificent

offers to the emperor, and the whole history of his life, from

his first escape from Rome to his imprisonment at Avignon, are

among the most curious chapters of his eventful life.—M. 1845.]

52 (return) [ The astonishment, the envy almost, of Petrarch is a

proof, if not of the truth of this incredible fact, at least of

his own veracity. The abbé de Sade (Mémoires, tom. iii. p. 242)

quotes the vith epistle of the xiiith book of Petrarch, but it is

of the royal MS., which he consulted, and not of the ordinary

Basil edition, (p. 920.)]

The succeeding pontificate of Innocent the Sixth opened a new

prospect of his deliverance and restoration; and the court of

Avignon was persuaded, that the successful rebel could alone

appease and reform the anarchy of the metropolis. After a solemn

profession of fidelity, the Roman tribune was sent into Italy,

with the title of senator; but the death of Baroncelli appeared

to supersede the use of his mission; and the legate, Cardinal

Albornoz, 53 a consummate statesman, allowed him with reluctance,

and without aid, to undertake the perilous experiment. His first

reception was equal to his wishes: the day of his entrance was a

public festival; and his eloquence and authority revived the laws

of the good estate. But this momentary sunshine was soon clouded

by his own vices and those of the people: in the Capitol, he

might often regret the prison of Avignon; and after a second

administration of four months, Rienzi was massacred in a tumult

which had been fomented by the Roman barons. In the society of

the Germans and Bohemians, he is said to have contracted the

habits of intemperance and cruelty: adversity had chilled his

enthusiasm, without fortifying his reason or virtue; and that

youthful hope, that lively assurance, which is the pledge of

success, was now succeeded by the cold impotence of distrust and

despair. The tribune had reigned with absolute dominion, by the

choice, and in the hearts, of the Romans: the senator was the

servile minister of a foreign court; and while he was suspected

by the people, he was abandoned by the prince. The legate

Albornoz, who seemed desirous of his ruin, inflexibly refused all

supplies of men and money; a faithful subject could no longer

presume to touch the revenues of the apostolical chamber; and the

first idea of a tax was the signal of clamor and sedition. Even

his justice was tainted with the guilt or reproach of selfish

cruelty: the most virtuous citizen of Rome was sacrificed to his

jealousy; and in the execution of a public robber, from whose

purse he had been assisted, the magistrate too much forgot, or

too much remembered, the obligations of the debtor. 54 A civil

war exhausted his treasures, and the patience of the city: the

Colonna maintained their hostile station at Palestrina; and his

mercenaries soon despised a leader whose ignorance and fear were

envious of all subordinate merit. In the death, as in the life,

of Rienzi, the hero and the coward were strangely mingled. When

the Capitol was invested by a furious multitude, when he was

basely deserted by his civil and military servants, the intrepid

senator, waving the banner of liberty, presented himself on the

balcony, addressed his eloquence to the various passions of the

Romans, and labored to persuade them, that in the same cause

himself and the republic must either stand or fall. His oration

was interrupted by a volley of imprecations and stones; and after

an arrow had transpierced his hand, he sunk into abject despair,

and fled weeping to the inner chambers, from whence he was let

down by a sheet before the windows of the prison. Destitute of

aid or hope, he was besieged till the evening: the doors of the

Capitol were destroyed with axes and fire; and while the senator

attempted to escape in a plebeian habit, he was discovered and

dragged to the platform of the palace, the fatal scene of his

judgments and executions. A whole hour, without voice or motion,

he stood amidst the multitude half naked and half dead: their

rage was hushed into curiosity and wonder: the last feelings of

reverence and compassion yet struggled in his favor; and they

might have prevailed, if a bold assassin had not plunged a dagger

in his breast. He fell senseless with the first stroke: the

impotent revenge of his enemies inflicted a thousand wounds: and

the senator’s body was abandoned to the dogs, to the Jews, and to

the flames. Posterity will compare the virtues and failings of

this extraordinary man; but in a long period of anarchy and

servitude, the name of Rienzi has often been celebrated as the

deliverer of his country, and the last of the Roman patriots. 55

53 (return) [ Ægidius, or Giles Albornoz, a noble Spaniard,

archbishop of Toledo, and cardinal legate in Italy, (A.D.

1353—1367,) restored, by his arms and counsels, the temporal

dominion of the popes. His life has been separately written by

Sepulveda; but Dryden could not reasonably suppose, that his

name, or that of Wolsey, had reached the ears of the Mufti in Don

Sebastian.]

54 (return) [ From Matteo Villani and Fortifiocca, the P. du

Cerçeau (p. 344—394) has extracted the life and death of the

chevalier Montreal, the life of a robber and the death of a hero.

At the head of a free company, the first that desolated Italy, he

became rich and formidable be had money in all the banks,—60,000

ducats in Padua alone.]

55 (return) [ The exile, second government, and death of Rienzi,

are minutely related by the anonymous Roman, who appears neither

his friend nor his enemy, (l. iii. c. 12—25.) Petrarch, who loved

the _tribune_, was indifferent to the fate of the _senator_.]

The first and most generous wish of Petrarch was the restoration

of a free republic; but after the exile and death of his plebeian

hero, he turned his eyes from the tribune, to the king, of the

Romans. The Capitol was yet stained with the blood of Rienzi,

when Charles the Fourth descended from the Alps to obtain the

Italian and Imperial crowns. In his passage through Milan he

received the visit, and repaid the flattery, of the

poet-laureate; accepted a medal of Augustus; and promised,

without a smile, to imitate the founder of the Roman monarchy. A

false application of the name and maxims of antiquity was the

source of the hopes and disappointments of Petrarch; yet he could

not overlook the difference of times and characters; the

immeasurable distance between the first Cæsars and a Bohemian

prince, who by the favor of the clergy had been elected the

titular head of the German aristocracy. Instead of restoring to

Rome her glory and her provinces, he had bound himself by a

secret treaty with the pope, to evacuate the city on the day of

his coronation; and his shameful retreat was pursued by the

reproaches of the patriot bard. 56

56 (return) [ The hopes and the disappointment of Petrarch are

agreeably described in his own words by the French biographer,

(Mémoires, tom. iii. p. 375—413;) but the deep, though secret,

wound was the coronation of Zanubi, the poet-laureate, by Charles

IV.]

After the loss of liberty and empire, his third and more humble

wish was to reconcile the shepherd with his flock; to recall the

Roman bishop to his ancient and peculiar diocese. In the fervor

of youth, with the authority of age, Petrarch addressed his

exhortations to five successive popes, and his eloquence was

always inspired by the enthusiasm of sentiment and the freedom of

language. 57 The son of a citizen of Florence invariably

preferred the country of his birth to that of his education; and

Italy, in his eyes, was the queen and garden of the world. Amidst

her domestic factions, she was doubtless superior to France both

in art and science, in wealth and politeness; but the difference

could scarcely support the epithet of barbarous, which he

promiscuously bestows on the countries beyond the Alps. Avignon,

the mystic Babylon, the sink of vice and corruption, was the

object of his hatred and contempt; but he forgets that her

scandalous vices were not the growth of the soil, and that in

every residence they would adhere to the power and luxury of the

papal court. He confesses that the successor of St. Peter is the

bishop of the universal church; yet it was not on the banks of

the Rhône, but of the Tyber, that the apostle had fixed his

everlasting throne; and while every city in the Christian world

was blessed with a bishop, the metropolis alone was desolate and

forlorn. Since the removal of the Holy See, the sacred buildings

of the Lateran and the Vatican, their altars and their saints,

were left in a state of poverty and decay; and Rome was often

painted under the image of a disconsolate matron, as if the

wandering husband could be reclaimed by the homely portrait of

the age and infirmities of his weeping spouse. 58 But the cloud

which hung over the seven hills would be dispelled by the

presence of their lawful sovereign: eternal fame, the prosperity

of Rome, and the peace of Italy, would be the recompense of the

pope who should dare to embrace this generous resolution. Of the

five whom Petrarch exhorted, the three first, John the

Twenty-second, Benedict the Twelfth, and Clement the Sixth, were

importuned or amused by the boldness of the orator; but the

memorable change which had been attempted by Urban the Fifth was

finally accomplished by Gregory the Eleventh. The execution of

their design was opposed by weighty and almost insuperable

obstacles. A king of France, who has deserved the epithet of

wise, was unwilling to release them from a local dependence: the

cardinals, for the most part his subjects, were attached to the

language, manners, and climate of Avignon; to their stately

palaces; above all, to the wines of Burgundy. In their eyes,

Italy was foreign or hostile; and they reluctantly embarked at

Marseilles, as if they had been sold or banished into the land of

the Saracens. Urban the Fifth resided three years in the Vatican

with safety and honor: his sanctity was protected by a guard of

two thousand horse; and the king of Cyprus, the queen of Naples,

and the emperors of the East and West, devoutly saluted their

common father in the chair of St. Peter. But the joy of Petrarch

and the Italians was soon turned into grief and indignation. Some

reasons of public or private moment, his own impatience or the

prayers of the cardinals, recalled Urban to France; and the

approaching election was saved from the tyrannic patriotism of

the Romans. The powers of heaven were interested in their cause:

Bridget of Sweden, a saint and pilgrim, disapproved the return,

and foretold the death, of Urban the Fifth: the migration of

Gregory the Eleventh was encouraged by St. Catharine of Sienna,

the spouse of Christ and ambassadress of the Florentines; and the

popes themselves, the great masters of human credulity, appear to

have listened to these visionary females. 59 Yet those celestial

admonitions were supported by some arguments of temporal policy.

The residents of Avignon had been invaded by hostile violence: at

the head of thirty thousand robbers, a hero had extorted ransom

and absolution from the vicar of Christ and the sacred college;

and the maxim of the French warriors, to spare the people and

plunder the church, was a new heresy of the most dangerous

import. 60 While the pope was driven from Avignon, he was

strenuously invited to Rome. The senate and people acknowledged

him as their lawful sovereign, and laid at his feet the keys of

the gates, the bridges, and the fortresses; of the quarter at

least beyond the Tyber. 61 But this loyal offer was accompanied

by a declaration, that they could no longer suffer the scandal

and calamity of his absence; and that his obstinacy would finally

provoke them to revive and assert the primitive right of

election. The abbot of Mount Cassin had been consulted, whether

he would accept the triple crown 62 from the clergy and people:

“I am a citizen of Rome,” 63 replied that venerable ecclesiastic,

“and my first law is, the voice of my country.” 64

57 (return) [ See, in his accurate and amusing biographer, the

application of Petrarch and Rome to Benedict XII. in the year

1334, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 261—265,) to Clement VI. in 1342,

(tom. ii. p. 45—47,) and to Urban V. in 1366, (tom. iii. p.

677—691:) his praise (p. 711—715) and excuse (p. 771) of the last

of these pontiffs. His angry controversy on the respective merits

of France and Italy may be found, Opp. p. 1068—1085.]

58 (return) [

Squalida sed quoniam facies, neglectaque cultû Cæsaries;

multisque malis lassata senectus Eripuit solitam

effigiem: vetus accipe nomen; Roma vocor. (Carm. l. 2,

p. 77.)

He spins this allegory beyond all measure or patience. The

Epistles to Urban V in prose are more simple and persuasive,

(Senilium, l. vii. p. 811—827 l. ix. epist. i. p. 844—854.)]

59 (return) [ I have not leisure to expatiate on the legends of

St. Bridget or St. Catharine, the last of which might furnish

some amusing stories. Their effect on the mind of Gregory XI. is

attested by the last solemn words of the dying pope, who

admonished the assistants, ut caverent ab hominibus, sive viris,

sive mulieribus, sub specie religionis loquentibus visiones sui

capitis, quia per tales ipse seductus, &c., (Baluz. Not ad Vit.

Pap. Avenionensium, tom. i. p. 1224.)]

60 (return) [ This predatory expedition is related by Froissard,

(Chronique, tom. i. p. 230,) and in the life of Du Guesclin,

(Collection Générale des Mémoires Historiques, tom. iv. c. 16, p.

107—113.) As early as the year 1361, the court of Avignon had

been molested by similar freebooters, who afterwards passed the

Alps, (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 563—569.)]

61 (return) [ Fleury alleges, from the annals of Odericus

Raynaldus, the original treaty which was signed the 21st of

December, 1376, between Gregory XI. and the Romans, (Hist.

Ecclés. tom. xx. p. 275.)]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 78 / 79 章

69 (return) [ The origin, titles, importance, dress, precedency,