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. Re-union of the Latin Church. Last Struggles of Roman Liberty. Statutes of Rome. Final Settlement of the Ecclesiastical State.
Petrarch, A.D. 1304, June 19- 1374,July 19.
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
honours 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 Caesars 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 labours; 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.
His poetic coronation at Rome, A.D. 1341,April 8.
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 honour, 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 Rhone 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)
Birth, character, and patriotic designs of Rienzi.
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)
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, Caesar, 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 honour 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. From this misery he was relieved by the sense of merit or the smile of favour; and the employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of five gold florins, a more honourable 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 dishonour of their wives and daughters: (22) they were equally oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of the magistrates; 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 favourite 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.
he assumes the government of Rome, A.D. 1347, May 20;
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 armour, 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 rumour, 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.
with the title and office of tribune.
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;
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. Laws of the good estate. 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 harbour 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)
Freedom and prosperity of the Roman republic.
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 rigour 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 labours 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.
The tribune is respected in Italy, etc.
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. and celebrated by Petrarch. 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)
His vices and follies.
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 cruelly, cruelty,
liberality with profusion, and the desire of fame with puerile and ostentatious vanity. 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.
The pomp of his knighthood, A.D. 1347,August 1.
The ambition of the honours 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 Caesars 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. and coronation. 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. 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 splendour 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.
Fear and hatred of the nobles of Rome.
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 splendour 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 honours and titles of generals, consuls, and patricians. (42)
They oppose Reinzi in arms.
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 honour 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 valour 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. Defeat and death of the Colonna,(Nov. 20.) 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 honours 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 honours 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 honour 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)
Fall and flight of the tribune Rienzi, A.D. 1347, Dec. 15.
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.
Revolutions of Rome, A.D. 1347-1354.
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)
Adventures of Rienzi.
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 saviour of Rome was
delivered by her emperor into the hands of her bishop. A prisoner at Avignon, (A.D. 1351.) 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.
Rienzi, senator of Rome, A.D. 1354.
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 clamour 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. His death, (A.D. 1354, September 8.) 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 favour; 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)
Petrarch invites and upbraids the emperor Charles IV. A.D. 1355, January-May.
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 Caesars and a Bohemian prince,
who by the favour 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)
He solicits the popes of Avignon to fix their residence at Rome.
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 fervour 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 Rhone, 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. Return of Urban V. (A.D. 1367, October 16-1370, April 17.) Urban the Fifth resided three years in the Vatican with safety and honour: 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: Final return of Gregory XI. (A.D. 1377, January 17.) the migration of Gregory the Eleventh was encouraged by St. Catherine 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)
His death, A.D. 1378, March 27.
If superstition will interpret an untimely death, (65) if the merit of counsels be judged from the event, the heavens may seem to frown on a measure of such apparent season and propriety. Gregory the Eleventh did not survive above fourteen months his return to the Vatican; and his decease was followed by the great schism of the West, which distracted the Latin church above forty years. The sacred college was then composed of twenty-two cardinals: six of these had remained at Avignon; eleven Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and four Italians, entered the conclave in the usual form. Election of Urban VI. (April 9.) Their choice was not yet limited to the purple; and their unanimous votes acquiesced in the archbishop of Bari, a subject of Naples, conspicuous for his zeal and learning, who ascended the throne of St. Peter under the name of Urban the Sixth. The epistle of the sacred college affirms his free, and regular, election; which had been inspired, as usual, by the Holy Ghost; he was adored, invested, and crowned, with the customary rites; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome and Avignon, and his ecclesiastical supremacy was acknowledged in the Latin world. During several weeks, the cardinals attended their new master with the fairest professions of attachment and loyalty; till the summer heats permitted a decent escape from the city. But as soon as they were united at Anagni and Fundi, in a place of security, they cast aside the mask, accused their own falsehood and hypocrisy, excommunicated the apostate and antichrist of Rome, Election of Clement VII. (Sept. 21.) and proceeded to a new election of Robert of Geneva, Clement the Seventh, whom they announced to the nations as the true and rightful vicar of Christ. Their first choice, an involuntary and illegal act, was annulled by fear of death and the menaces of the Romans; and their complaint is justified by the strong evidence of probability and fact. The twelve French cardinals, above two thirds of the votes, were masters of the election; and whatever might be their provincial jealousies, it cannot fairly be presumed that they would have sacrificed their right and interest to a foreign candidate, who would never restore them to their native country. In the various, and often inconsistent, narratives, (66) the shades of popular violence are more darkly or faintly colored: but the licentiousness of the seditious Romans was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and the danger of a second emigration. The conclave was intimidated by the shouts, and encompassed by the arms, of thirty thousand rebels; the bells of the Capitol and St. Peter's rang an alarm: "Death, or an Italian pope!" was the universal cry; the same threat was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the quarters, in the form of charitable advice; some preparations were made for burning the obstinate cardinals; and had they chosen a Transalpine subject, it is probable that they would never have departed alive from the Vatican. The same constraint imposed the necessity of dissembling in the eyes of Rome and of the world; the pride and cruelty of Urban presented a more inevitable danger; and they soon discovered the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, while he heard from an adjacent chamber six cardinals groaning on the rack. His inflexible zeal, which loudly censured their luxury and vice, would have attached them to the stations and duties of their parishes at Rome; and had he not fatally delayed a new promotion, the French cardinals would have been reduced to a helpless minority in the sacred college. For these reasons, and the hope of repassing the Alps, they rashly violated the peace and unity of the church; and the merits of their double choice are yet agitated in the Catholic schools. (67) The vanity, rather than the interest, of the nation determined the court and clergy of France. (68) The states of Savoy, Sicily, Cyprus, Arragon, Castille, Navarre, and Scotland were inclined by their example and authority to the obedience of Clement the Seventh, and after his decease, of Benedict the Thirteenth. Rome and the principal states of Italy, Germany, Portugal, England, (69) the Low Countries,
and the kingdoms of the North, adhered to the prior election
of Urban the Sixth, who was succeeded by Boniface the Ninth,
Innocent the Seventh, and Gregory the Twelfth.
Great schism of the West, A.D. 1378-1418.
From the banks of the Tyber and the Rhone, the hostile
pontiffs encountered each other with the pen and the sword:
the civil and ecclesiastical order of society was disturbed;
and the Romans had their full share of the mischiefs of
which they may be arraigned as the primary authors. (70) They
had vainly flattered themselves with the hope of restoring
the seat of the ecclesiastical monarchy, and of relieving
their poverty with the tributes and offerings of the nations; Calamities of Rome. but the separation of France and Spain diverted the stream of lucrative devotion; nor could the loss be compensated by the two jubilees which were crowded into the space of ten years. By the avocations of the schism, by foreign arms, and popular tumults, Urban the Sixth and his three successors were often compelled to interrupt their residence in the Vatican. The Colonna and Ursini still exercised their deadly feuds: the bannerets of Rome asserted and abused the privileges of a republic: the vicars of Christ, who had levied a military force, chastised their
rebellion with the gibbet, the sword, and the dagger; and, in a friendly conference, eleven deputies of the people were perfidiously murdered and cast into the street. Since the invasion of Robert the Norman, the Romans had pursued their domestic quarrels without the dangerous interposition of a stranger. But in the disorders of the schism, an aspiring neighbour, Ladislaus king of Naples, alternately supported and betrayed the pope and the people; by the former he was
declared gonfalonier, or general, of the church, while the latter submitted to his choice the nomination of their magistrates. Besieging Rome by land and water, he thrice entered the gates as a Barbarian conqueror; profaned the altars, violated the virgins, pillaged the merchants, performed his devotions at St. Peter's, and left a garrison in the castle of St. Angelo. His arms were sometimes unfortunate, and to a delay of three days he was indebted
for his life and crown: but Ladislaus triumphed in his turn; and it was only his premature death that could save the metropolis and the ecclesiastical state from the ambitious conqueror, who had assumed the title, or at least the
powers, of king of Rome. (71)
Negotiations for peace and union, A.D. 1392-1407.
I have not undertaken the ecclesiastical history of the schism; but Rome, the object of these last chapters, is deeply interested in the disputed succession of her sovereigns. The first counsels for the peace and union of Christendom arose from the university of Paris, from the faculty of the
Sorbonne, whose doctors were esteemed, at least in the Gallican church, as the most consummate masters of theological science. (72) Prudently waiving all invidious inquiry into the origin and merits of the dispute, they proposed, as a healing measure, that the two pretenders of Rome and Avignon should abdicate at the same time, after
qualifying the cardinals of the adverse factions to join in
a legitimate election; and that the nations should subtract
(73) their obedience, if either of the competitor preferred
his own interest to that of the public. At each vacancy,
these physicians of the church deprecated the mischiefs of a
hasty choice; but the policy of the conclave and the
ambition of its members were deaf to reason and entreaties;
and whatsoever promises were made, the pope could never be
bound by the oaths of the cardinal. During fifteen years,
the pacific designs of the university were eluded by the
arts of the rival pontiffs, the scruples or passions of
their adherents, and the vicissitudes of French factions,
that ruled the insanity of Charles the Sixth. At length a
vigorous resolution was embraced; and a solemn embassy, of
the titular patriarch of Alexandria, two archbishops, five
bishops, five abbots, three knights, and twenty doctors, was
sent to the courts of Avignon and Rome, to require, in the
name of the church and king, the abdication of the two
pretenders, of Peter de Luna, who styled himself Benedict
the Thirteenth, and of Angelo Corrario, who assumed the name
of Gregory the Twelfth. For the ancient honour of Rome, and
the success of their commission, the ambassadors solicited a
conference with the magistrates of the city, whom they
gratified by a positive declaration, that the most Christian
king did not entertain a wish of transporting the holy see
from the Vatican, which he considered as the genuine and
proper seat of the successor of St. Peter. In the name of
the senate and people, an eloquent Roman asserted their
desire to cooperate in the union of the church, deplored the
temporal and spiritual calamities of the long schism, and
requested the protection of France against the arms of the
king of Naples. The answers of Benedict and Gregory were
alike edifying and alike deceitful; and, in evading the
demand of their abdication, the two rivals were animated by
a common spirit. They agreed on the necessity of a previous
interview; but the time, the place, and the manner, could
never be ascertained by mutual consent.
"If the one advances," says a servant of Gregory, "the other retreats; the one appears an animal fearful of the land, the other a creature apprehensive of the water. And thus, for a short remnant of life and power, will these aged priests endanger the peace and salvation of the Christian world." (74)
Council of Pisa, A.D. 1409.
The Christian world was at length provoked by their
obstinacy and fraud: they were deserted by their cardinals,
who embraced each other as friends and colleagues; and their
revolt was supported by a numerous assembly of prelates and
ambassadors. With equal justice, the council of Pisa deposed
the popes of Rome and Avignon; the conclave was unanimous in
the choice of Alexander the Fifth, and his vacant seat was
soon filled by a similar election of John the Twenty-third,
the most profligate of mankind. But instead of
extinguishing the schism, the rashness of the French and Italians had given a third pretender to the chair of St. Peter. Such new claims of the synod and conclave were disputed; three kings, of Germany, Hungary, and Naples, adhered to the cause of Gregory the Twelfth; and Benedict the Thirteenth, himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by the devotion and patriotism of that powerful nation. Council of Constance, (A.D. 1414-1418.) The rash proceedings of Pisa were corrected by the council of Constance; the emperor Sigismond acted a conspicuous part as the advocate or protector of the Catholic church; and the number and weight of civil and ecclesiastical members might seem to constitute the states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, John the Twenty-third was the first victim: he fled and was brought back a prisoner: the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest; and after subscribing his own condemnation, he expiated in prison the imprudence of trusting his person to a free city beyond the Alps. Gregory the Twelfth, whose obedience was reduced to the narrow precincts of Rimini, descended with more honour from the throne; and his ambassador convened the session, in which he renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To vanquish the obstinacy of Benedict the Thirteenth or his adherents, the emperor in person undertook a journey from Constance to Perpignan. The kings of Castile, Arragon, Navarre, and Scotland, obtained an equal and honourable treaty; with the concurrence of the Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the council; but the harmless old man was left in a solitary castle to excommunicate twice each day the rebel kingdoms which had deserted his cause. After thus eradicating the remains of the schism, the synod of Constance proceeded with slow and cautious steps to elect the sovereign of Rome and the head of the church. On this momentous occasion, the college of twenty-three cardinals was fortified with thirty deputies; six of whom were chosen in each of the five great nations of Christendom, — the Italian, the German, the French, the Spanish, and the English: (75) the interference of strangers was softened by
their generous preference of an Italian and a Roman; Election of Martin V. and the hereditary, as well as personal, merit of Otho Colonna recommended him to the conclave. Rome accepted with joy and obedience the noblest of her sons; the ecclesiastical statewas defended by his powerful family; and the elevation of Martin the Fifth is the aera of the restoration and establishment of the popes in the Vatican. (76)
Martin V. A.D. 1417.
The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been exercised near three hundred years by the senate, was first resumed by Martin the Fifth, (77) and his image and superscription introduce the series of the papal medals. Of his two immediate successors, Eugenius IV. (A.D. 1431.) Eugenius the Fourth was the last pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman people, (78) Nicholas V. (A.D. 1447.) and Nicholas the Fifth, the last who was importuned by the presence of a Roman emperor. (79) The last revolt of Rome, (A.D. 1434, May 29-October 26.) I. The conflict of Eugenius with the fathers of Basil, and the weight or apprehension of a new excise, emboldened and provoked the Romans to usurp the temporal government of the city. They rose in arms, elected seven governors of the republic, and a constable of the Capitol; imprisoned the pope's nephew; besieged his person in the palace; and shot volleys of arrows into his bark as he escaped down the Tyber in the habit of a monk. But he still possessed in the castle of St. Angelo a faithful garrison and a train of artillery: their batteries incessantly thundered on the city, and a bullet more dexterously pointed broke down the barricade of the bridge, and scattered with a single shot the heroes of the republic. Their constancy was exhausted by a rebellion of five months. Under the tyranny of the Ghibeline nobles, the wisest patriots regretted the dominion of the church; and their repentance was unanimous and effectual. The troops of St. Peter again occupied the Capitol; the magistrates departed to their homes; the most guilty were executed or exiled; and the legate, at the head of two thousand foot and four thousand horse, was saluted as the father of the city. The synods of Ferrara and Florence, the fear or resentment of Eugenius, prolonged his absence: he was received by a submissive people; but the pontiff understood from the acclamations of his triumphal entry, that to secure their loyalty and his own repose, he must grant without delay the abolition of the odious excise. The last coronation of a German emperor, Frederic III. (A.D. 1452, March 18.) II. Rome was restored, adorned, and enlightened, by the peaceful reign of Nicholas the Fifth. In the midst of these laudable occupations, the pope was alarmed by the approach of Frederic the Third of Austria; though his fears could not be justified by the character or the power of the Imperial candidate. After drawing his military force to the metropolis, and imposing the best security of oaths (80) and treaties, Nicholas received with a smiling countenance the faithful advocate and vassal of the church. So tame were the times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his coronation was accomplished with order and harmony: but the superfluous honour was so disgraceful to an independent nation, that his successors have excused themselves from the toilsome pilgrimage to the Vatican; and rest their Imperial title on the choice of the electors of Germany.
The statutes and government of Rome.
A citizen has remarked, with pride and pleasure, that the king of the Romans, after passing with a slight salute the cardinals and prelates who met him at the gate, distinguished the dress and person of the senator of Rome; and in this last farewell, the pageants of the empire and the republic were clasped in a friendly embrace. (81) According to the laws of Rome, (82) her first magistrate was required to be a doctor of laws, an alien, of a place at least forty miles from the city; with whose inhabitants he must not be connected in the third canonical degree of blood or alliance. The election was annual: a severe scrutiny was instituted into the conduct of the departing senator; nor
could he be recalled to the same office till after the expiration of two years. A liberal salary of three thousand florins was assigned for his expense and reward; and his public appearance represented the majesty of the republic.
His robes were of gold brocade or crimson velvet, or in the summer season of a lighter silk: he bore in his hand an ivory sceptre; the sound of trumpets announced his approach; and his solemn steps were preceded at least by four lictors or attendants, whose red wands were enveloped with bands or streamers of the golden colour or livery of the city. His oath in the Capitol proclaims his right and duty to observe and assert the laws, to control the proud, to protect the poor, and to exercise justice and mercy within the extent of his jurisdiction. In these useful functions he was assisted by three learned strangers; the two collaterals, and the judge of criminal appeals: their frequent trials of robberies, rapes, and murders, are attested by the laws; and
the weakness of these laws connives at the licentiousness of private feuds and armed associations for mutual defence. But the senator was confined to the administration of justice: the Capitol, the treasury, and the government of
the city and its territory, were entrusted to the three conservators, who were changed four times in each year: the militia of the thirteen regions assembled under the banners of their respective chiefs, or caporioni; and the first of these was distinguished by the name and dignity of the
prior. The popular legislature consisted of the secret and the common councils of the Romans. The former was composed of the magistrates and their immediate predecessors, with some fiscal and legal officers, and three classes of thirteen, twenty-six, and forty, counsellors: amounting in the whole to about one hundred and twenty persons. In the common council all male citizens had a right to vote; and the value of their privilege was enhanced by the care with
which any foreigners were prevented from usurping the title and character of Romans. The tumult of a democracy was checked by wise and jealous precautions: except the magistrates, none could propose a question; none were permitted to speak, except from an open pulpit or tribunal; all disorderly acclamations were suppressed; the sense of the majority was decided by a secret ballot; and their
decrees were promulgated in the venerable name of the Roman senate and people. It would not be easy to assign a period in which this theory of government has been reduced to accurate and constant practice, since the establishment of
order has been gradually connected with the decay of liberty. But in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty the ancient statutes were collected, methodized in
three books, and adapted to present use, under the
pontificate, and with the approbation, of Gregory the
Thirteenth: (83) this civil and criminal code is the modern
law of the city; and, if the popular assemblies have been
abolished, a foreign senator, with the three conservators,
still resides in the palace of the Capitol. (84) The policy
of the Caesars has been repeated by the popes; and the
bishop of Rome affected to maintain the form of a republic,
while he reigned with the absolute powers of a temporal, as
well as a spiritual, monarch.
Conspiracy of Porcaro, A.D. 1453, January 9.
It is an obvious truth, that the times must be suited to
extraordinary characters, and that the genius of Cromwell or
Retz might now expire in obscurity. The political
enthusiasm of Rienzi had exalted him to a throne; the same
enthusiasm, in the next century, conducted his imitator to
the gallows. The birth of Stephen Porcaro was noble, his
reputation spotless: his tongue was armed with eloquence,
his mind was enlightened with learning; and he aspired,
beyond the aim of vulgar ambition, to free his country and
immortalize his name. The dominion of priests is most
odious to a liberal spirit: every scruple was removed by the
recent knowledge of the fable and forgery of Constantine's
donation; Petrarch was now the oracle of the Italians; and
as often as Porcaro revolved the ode which describes the
patriot and hero of Rome, he applied to himself the visions
of the prophetic bard. His first trial of the popular
feelings was at the funeral of Eugenius the Fourth: in an
elaborate speech he called the Romans to liberty and arms;
and they listened with apparent pleasure, till Porcaro was
interrupted and answered by a grave advocate, who pleaded
for the church and state. By every law the seditious orator
was guilty of treason; but the benevolence of the new
pontiff, who viewed his character with pity and esteem,
attempted by an honourable office to convert the patriot into
a friend. The inflexible Roman returned from Anagni with an
increase of reputation and zeal; and, on the first
opportunity, the games of the place Navona, he tried to
inflame the casual dispute of some boys and mechanics into a
general rising of the people. Yet the humane Nicholas was
still averse to accept the forfeit of his life; and the
traitor was removed from the scene of temptation to Bologna,
with a liberal allowance for his support, and the easy
obligation of presenting himself each day before the
governor of the city. But Porcaro had learned from the
younger Brutus, that with tyrants no faith or gratitude
should be observed: the exile declaimed against the
arbitrary sentence; a party and a conspiracy were gradually
formed: his nephew, a daring youth, assembled a band of
volunteers; and on the appointed evening a feast was
prepared at his house for the friends of the republic.
Their leader, who had escaped from Bologna, appeared among
them in a robe of purple and gold: his voice, his
countenance, his gestures, bespoke the man who had devoted
his life or death to the glorious cause. In a studied
oration, he expiated on the motives and the means of their
enterprise; the name and liberties of Rome; the sloth and
pride of their ecclesiastical tyrants; the active or passive
consent of their fellow-citizens; three hundred soldiers,
and four hundred exiles, long exercised in arms or in
wrongs; the license of revenge to edge their swords, and a
million of ducats to reward their victory. It would be easy,
(he said,) on the next day, the festival of the Epiphany, to
seize the pope and his cardinals, before the doors, or at
the altar, of St. Peter's; to lead them in chains under the
walls of St. Angelo; to extort by the threat of their
instant death a surrender of the castle; to ascend the
vacant Capitol; to ring the alarm bell; and to restore in a
popular assembly the ancient republic of Rome. While he
triumphed, he was already betrayed. The senator, with a
strong guard, invested the house: the nephew of Porcaro cut
his way through the crowd; but the unfortunate Stephen was
drawn from a chest, lamenting that his enemies had
anticipated by three hours the execution of his design.
After such manifest and repeated guilt, even the mercy of
Nicholas was silent. Porcaro, and nine of his accomplices,
were hanged without the benefit of the sacraments; and,
amidst the fears and invectives of the papal court, the
Romans pitied, and almost applauded, these martyrs of their
country. (85) But their applause was mute, their pity
ineffectual, their liberty forever extinct; and, if they
have since risen in a vacancy of the throne or a scarcity of
bread, such accidental tumults may be found in the bosom of
the most abject servitude.
Last disorders of the nobles of Rome.
But the independence of the nobles, which was fomented by
discord, survived the freedom of the commons, which must be
founded in union. A privilege of rapine and oppression was
long maintained by the barons of Rome; their houses were a
fortress and a sanctuary: and the ferocious train of
banditti and criminals whom they protected from the law
repaid the hospitality with the service of their swords and
daggers. The private interest of the pontiffs, or their
nephews, sometimes involved them in these domestic feuds.
Under the reign of Sixtus the Fourth, Rome was distracted by
the battles and sieges of the rival houses: after the
conflagration of his palace, the prothonotary Colonna was
tortured and beheaded; and Savelli, his captive friend, was
murdered on the spot, for refusing to join in the
acclamations of the victorious Ursini. (86) But the popes no
longer trembled in the Vatican: they had strength to
command, if they had resolution to claim, the obedience of
their subjects; and the strangers, who observed these
partial disorders, admired the easy taxes and wise
administration of the ecclesiastical state. (87)
The popes acquire absolute dominion of Rome, A.D. 1500 etc.
The spiritual thunders of the Vatican depend on the force of
opinion; and if that opinion be supplanted by reason or
passion, the sound may idly waste itself in the air; and the
helpless priest is exposed to the brutal violence of a noble or a plebeian adversary. But after their return from Avignon, the keys of St. Peter were guarded by the sword of St. Paul. Rome was commanded by an impregnable citadel: the use of cannon is a powerful engine against popular seditions: a regular force of cavalry and infantry was enlisted under the banners of the pope: his ample revenues supplied the resources of war: and, from the extent of his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city an army of hostile neighbours and loyal subjects. (88) Since the union of the duchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po; and as early as the sixteenth century, the greater part of that spacious and fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal sovereignty of the Roman pontiffs. Their claims were readily deduced from the genuine, or fabulous, donations of the darker ages: the successive steps of their final settlement would engage us too far in the transactions of Italy, and even of Europe; the crimes of Alexander the Sixth, the martial operations of Julius the Second, and the liberal policy of Leo the Tenth, a theme which has been adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the times. (89) In the first period of their conquests, till the expedition of Charles the Eighth, the popes might successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to their own. But as soon as the monarchs of France, Germany and Spain, contended with gigantic arms for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with art the deficiency of strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and treaties, their aspiring views, and the immortal hope of chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the soldiers of the North and West, who were united under the standard of Charles the Fifth: the feeble and fluctuating policy of Clement the Seventh exposed his person and dominions to the conqueror; and Rome was abandoned seven months to a lawless army, more cruel and rapacious than the Goths and Vandals. (90) After this severe lesson, the popes contracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed the character of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities, except in a hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish sultan were armed at the same time against the kingdom of Naples. (91) The French and Germans at length withdrew from the field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the sea-coast of Tuscany, were
firmly possessed by the Spaniards; and it became their interest to maintain the peace and dependence of Italy, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle of the sixteenth to the opening of the eighteenth century.
The Vatican was swayed and protected by the religious policy of the Catholic king: his prejudice and interest disposed him in every dispute to support the prince against the people; and instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the
asylum, which they obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the enemies of law, were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle of despotism. The long habits of obedience and education subdued the turbulent
spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. The barons forgot the arms and factions of their ancestors, and insensibly became the servants of luxury and government. Instead of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce of their estates was consumed in the private expenses which multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord. (92) The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique
splendour was rivalled or surpassed by the sudden opulence of the papal families. In Rome the voice of freedom and discord is no longer heard; and, instead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant lake reflects the image of idleness and servitude.
The ecclesiastical government.
A Christian, a philosopher, (93) and a patriot, will be equally scandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majesty of Rome, the remembrance of her consuls and triumphs, may seem to embitter the sense, and aggravate the shame, of her slavery. If we calmly weigh the merits and defects of the ecclesiastical government, it may be praised in its present state, as a mild, decent, and tranquil system, exempt from the dangers of a minority, the sallies of youth, the expenses of luxury, and the calamities of war. But these advantages are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a septennial, election of a sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country; the reign of a young statesman of threescore, in the decline of his life and abilities, without hope to accomplish, and without children to inherit, the labours of his transitory reign. The successful candidate is drawn from the church, and even the convent; from the mode of education and life the most adverse to reason, humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of servile faith, he has learned to believe because it is absurd, to revere all that is contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the esteem of a rational being; to punish error as a crime, to reward mortification and celibacy as the first of virtues; to place the saints of the calendar (94) above the heroes of Rome and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal, or the crucifix, as more useful instruments than the plough or the loom. In the office of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners: from study and experience he may suspect the mystery of his profession; but the sacerdotal artist will imbibe some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. Sixtus V. (A.D. 1585-1590.) The genius of Sixtus the Fifth (95) burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane sanctuaries of Rome, (96) formed a naval and military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity, and after a liberal use and large increase of the revenue, left five millions of crowns in the castle of St. Angelo. But his justice was sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of conquest: after his decease the abuses revived; the treasure was dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new taxes and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his statue was demolished by an ungrateful, or an injured, people. (97) The wild and original character of Sixtus the Fifth stands alone in the series of the pontiffs; the maxims and effects of their temporal government may be collected from the positive and comparative view of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and population, of the ecclesiastical state. For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity with all mankind, nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend even the pope and clergy of Rome. (98)
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