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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 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 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.
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 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)
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) (A)
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 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. (B) 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; (C) 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.
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;
(D) 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)
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.
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. (32)
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. (33)
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. (E) 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; (34) and that as often
as they visited the city on foot, a single viator, or
meadle, 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;
(35) 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, (36) 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 ambition of the honors of chivalry (37) 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. (38) 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. (39) 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." (40)
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. A
subsequent day was appointed for the coronation of Rienzi;
(41) 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. (F) 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.
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!" (42) 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. (43)
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: (44) 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. (45) 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. (46) 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. (47)
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 (48) 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. (49) 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, (50) 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.
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. (51)
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. (52)
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. (53) 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.
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, (54) 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. (55) 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. (56)
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 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. (57)
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. (58) 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. (59) 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. (60) 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. (61) 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. (62) 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 (63) from
the clergy and people: "I am a citizen of Rome," (64) replied
that venerable ecclesiastic, "and my first law is, the voice
of my country." (65)
If superstition will interpret an untimely death, (66) 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. 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, 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, (67) 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. (68)
The vanity, rather than the interest, of the nation
determined the court and clergy of France. (69) 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, (70) 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.
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. (71) 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; 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
neighbor, 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. (72)
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. (73) 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
(74) 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 honor 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." (75)
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. 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 honor 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 honorable 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: (76) the interference of strangers was softened by
their generous preference of an Italian and a Roman; 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 state
was 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. (77)
The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been
exercised near three hundred years by the senate, was first
resumed by Martin the Fifth, (78) and his image and
superscription introduce the series of the papal medals. Of
his two immediate successors, Eugenius the Fourth was the
last pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman people, (79)
and Nicholas the Fifth, the last who was importuned by the
presence of a Roman emperor. (80) 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. 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 (81) 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
honor 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.
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. (82)
According to the laws of Rome, (83) 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 color 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 intrusted 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: (84) 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. (85) 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.
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 honorable 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. (86) 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.
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. (87) 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. (88)
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 neighbors and loyal subjects. (89) 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.
(90) 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. (91) 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. (92) 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.
(93) The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the
decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique
splendor 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.
A Christian, a philosopher, (94) 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 imbitter 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 labors 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 (95) 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. The genius of Sixtus the Fifth (96)
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, (97) 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. (98) 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. (99)