After his decease, the tedious and equal suspense of the conclave was fixed by the dexterity of the French faction. A specious offer was made and accepted, that, in the term of forty days, they would elect one of the three candidates who should be named by their opponents. The archbishop of Bourdeaux, a furious enemy of his king and country, was the first on the list; but his ambition was known; and his conscience obeyed the calls of fortune and the commands of a benefactor, who had been informed by a swift messenger that the choice of a pope was now in his hands. The terms were regulated in a private interview; and with such speed and secrecy was the business transacted, that the unanimous conclave applauded the elevation of Clement the Fifth. 79 The cardinals of both parties were soon astonished by a summons to attend him beyond the Alps; from whence, as they soon discovered, they must never hope to return. He was engaged, by promise and affection, to prefer the residence of France; and, after dragging his court through Poitou and Gascony, and devouring, by his expense, the cities and convents on the road, he finally reposed at Avignon, 80 which flourished above seventy years 81 the seat of the Roman pontiff and the metropolis of Christendom. By land, by sea, by the Rhône, the position of Avignon was on all sides accessible; the southern provinces of France do not yield to Italy itself; new palaces arose for the accommodation of the pope and cardinals; and the arts of luxury were soon attracted by the treasures of the church. They were already possessed of the adjacent territory, the Venaissin county, 82 a populous and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of Avignon was afterwards purchased from the youth and distress of Jane, the first queen of Naples and countess of Provence, for the inadequate price of fourscore thousand florins. 83 Under the shadow of a French monarchy, amidst an obedient people, the popes enjoyed an honorable and tranquil state, to which they long had been strangers: but Italy deplored their absence; and Rome, in solitude and poverty, might repent of the ungovernable freedom which had driven from the Vatican the successor of St. Peter. Her repentance was tardy and fruitless: after the death of the old members, the sacred college was filled with French cardinals, 84 who beheld Rome and Italy with abhorrence and contempt, and perpetuated a series of national, and even provincial, popes, attached by the most indissoluble ties to their native country.
79 (return)
[ See, in the Chronicle of
Giovanni Villani, (l. viii. c. 63, 64, 80, in Muratori, tom. xiii.,) the
imprisonment of Boniface VIII., and the election of Clement V., the last
of which, like most anecdotes, is embarrassed with some difficulties.]
80 (return)
[ The original lives of
the eight popes of Avignon, Clement V., John XXII., Benedict XI., Clement
VI., Innocent VI., Urban V., Gregory XI., and Clement VII., are published
by Stephen Baluze, (Vitæ Paparum Avenionensium; Paris, 1693, 2 vols. in
4to.,) with copious and elaborate Knotes, and a second volume of acts and
documents. With the true zeal of an editor and a patriot, he devoutly
justifies or excuses the characters of his countrymen.]
81 (return)
[ The exile of Avignon is
compared by the Italians with Babylon, and the Babylonish captivity. Such
furious metaphors, more suitable to the ardor of Petrarch than to the
judgment of Muratori, are gravely refuted in Baluze's preface. The abbé de
Sade is distracted between the love of Petrarch and of his country. Yet he
modestly pleads, that many of the local inconveniences of Avignon are now
removed; and many of the vices against which the poet declaims, had been
imported with the Roman court by the strangers of Italy, (tom. i. p. 23—28.)]
82 (return)
[ The comtat Venaissin was
ceded to the popes in 1273 by Philip III. king of France, after he had
inherited the dominions of the count of Thoulouse. Forty years before, the
heresy of Count Raymond had given them a pretence of seizure, and they
derived some obscure claim from the xith century to some lands citra
Rhodanum, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 495, 610. Longuerue, Description
de la France, tom. i. p. 376—381.)]
83 (return)
[ If a possession of four
centuries were not itself a title, such objections might annul the
bargain; but the purchase money must be refunded, for indeed it was paid.
Civitatem Avenionem emit.... per ejusmodi venditionem pecuniâ redundates,
&c., (iida Vita Clement. VI. in Baluz. tom. i. p. 272. Muratori,
Script. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 565.) The only temptation for Jane and her
second husband was ready money, and without it they could not have
returned to the throne of Naples.]
84 (return)
[ Clement V immediately
promoted ten cardinals, nine French and one English, (Vita ivta, p. 63, et
Baluz. p. 625, &c.) In 1331, the pope refused two candidates
recommended by the king of France, quod xx. Cardinales, de quibus xvii. de
regno Franciæ originem traxisse noscuntur in memorato collegio existant,
(Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1281.)]
The progress of industry had produced and enriched the Italian republics: the æra of their liberty is the most flourishing period of population and agriculture, of manufactures and commerce; and their mechanic labors were gradually refined into the arts of elegance and genius. But the position of Rome was less favorable, the territory less fruitful: the character of the inhabitants was debased by indolence and elated by pride; and they fondly conceived that the tribute of subjects must forever nourish the metropolis of the church and empire. This prejudice was encouraged in some degree by the resort of pilgrims to the shrines of the apostles; and the last legacy of the popes, the institution of the holy year, 85 was not less beneficial to the people than to the clergy. Since the loss of Palestine, the gift of plenary indulgences, which had been applied to the crusades, remained without an object; and the most valuable treasure of the church was sequestered above eight years from public circulation. A new channel was opened by the diligence of Boniface the Eighth, who reconciled the vices of ambition and avarice; and the pope had sufficient learning to recollect and revive the secular games which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of every century. To sound without danger the depth of popular credulity, a sermon was seasonably pronounced, a report was artfully scattered, some aged witnesses were produced; and on the first of January of the year thirteen hundred, the church of St. Peter was crowded with the faithful, who demanded the customary indulgence of the holy time. The pontiff, who watched and irritated their devout impatience, was soon persuaded by ancient testimony of the justice of their claim; and he proclaimed a plenary absolution to all Catholics who, in the course of that year, and at every similar period, should respectfully visit the apostolic churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. The welcome sound was propagated through Christendom; and at first from the nearest provinces of Italy, and at length from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and Britain, the highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims who sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however costly or laborious, which was exempt from the perils of military service. All exceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity, were forgotten in the common transport; and in the streets and churches many persons were trampled to death by the eagerness of devotion. The calculation of their numbers could not be easy nor accurate; and they have probably been magnified by a dexterous clergy, well apprised of the contagion of example: yet we are assured by a judicious historian, who assisted at the ceremony, that Rome was never replenished with less than two hundred thousand strangers; and another spectator has fixed at two millions the total concourse of the year. A trifling oblation from each individual would accumulate a royal treasure; and two priests stood night and day, with rakes in their hands, to collect, without counting, the heaps of gold and silver that were poured on the altar of St. Paul. 86 It was fortunately a season of peace and plenty; and if forage was scarce, if inns and lodgings were extravagantly dear, an inexhaustible supply of bread and wine, of meat and fish, was provided by the policy of Boniface and the venal hospitality of the Romans. From a city without trade or industry, all casual riches will speedily evaporate: but the avarice and envy of the next generation solicited Clement the Sixth 87 to anticipate the distant period of the century. The gracious pontiff complied with their wishes; afforded Rome this poor consolation for his loss; and justified the change by the name and practice of the Mosaic Jubilee. 88 His summons was obeyed; and the number, zeal, and liberality of the pilgrims did not yield to the primitive festival. But they encountered the triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine: many wives and virgins were violated in the castles of Italy; and many strangers were pillaged or murdered by the savage Romans, no longer moderated by the presence of their bishops. 89 To the impatience of the popes we may ascribe the successive reduction to fifty, thirty-three, and twenty-five years; although the second of these terms is commensurate with the life of Christ. The profusion of indulgences, the revolt of the Protestants, and the decline of superstition, have much diminished the value of the jubilee; yet even the nineteenth and last festival was a year of pleasure and profit to the Romans; and a philosophic smile will not disturb the triumph of the priest or the happiness of the people. 90
85 (return)
[ Our primitive account is
from Cardinal James Caietan, (Maxima Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xxv.;) and I am
at a loss to determine whether the nephew of Boniface VIII. be a fool or a
knave: the uncle is a much clearer character.]
86 (return)
[ See John Villani (l.
viii. c. 36) in the xiith, and the Chronicon Astense, in the xith volume
(p. 191, 192) of Muratori's Collection Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab
eisdem accepit, nam duo clerici, cum rastris, &c.]
87 (return)
[ The two bulls of
Boniface VIII. and Clement VI. are inserted on the Corpus Juris Canonici,
Extravagant. (Commun. l. v. tit. ix c 1, 2.)]
88 (return)
[ The sabbatic years and
jubilees of the Mosaic law, (Car. Sigon. de Republica Hebræorum, Opp. tom.
iv. l. iii. c. 14, 14, p. 151, 152,) the suspension of all care and labor,
the periodical release of lands, debts, servitude, &c., may seem a
noble idea, but the execution would be impracticable in a profane
republic; and I should be glad to learn that this ruinous festival was
observed by the Jewish people.]
89 (return)
[ See the Chronicle of
Matteo Villani, (l. i. c. 56,) in the xivth vol. of Muratori, and the
Mémoires sur la Vie de Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 75—89.]
90 (return)
[ The subject is exhausted
by M. Chais, a French minister at the Hague, in his Lettres Historiques et
Dogmatiques, sur les Jubilés et es Indulgences; la Haye, 1751, 3 vols. in
12mo.; an elaborate and pleasing work, had not the author preferred the
character of a polemic to that of a philosopher.]
In the beginning of the eleventh century, Italy was exposed to the feudal tyranny, alike oppressive to the sovereign and the people. The rights of human nature were vindicated by her numerous republics, who soon extended their liberty and dominion from the city to the adjacent country. The sword of the nobles was broken; their slaves were enfranchised; their castles were demolished; they assumed the habits of society and obedience; their ambition was confined to municipal honors, and in the proudest aristocracy of Venice on Genoa, each patrician was subject to the laws. 91 But the feeble and disorderly government of Rome was unequal to the task of curbing her rebellious sons, who scorned the authority of the magistrate within and without the walls. It was no longer a civil contention between the nobles and plebeians for the government of the state: the barons asserted in arms their personal independence; their palaces and castles were fortified against a siege; and their private quarrels were maintained by the numbers of their vassals and retainers. In origin and affection, they were aliens to their country: 92 and a genuine Roman, could such have been produced, might have renounced these haughty strangers, who disdained the appellation of citizens, and proudly styled themselves the princes, of Rome. 93 After a dark series of revolutions, all records of pedigree were lost; the distinction of surnames was abolished; the blood of the nations was mingled in a thousand channels; and the Goths and Lombards, the Greeks and Franks, the Germans and Normans, had obtained the fairest possessions by royal bounty, or the prerogative of valor. These examples might be readily presumed; but the elevation of a Hebrew race to the rank of senators and consuls is an event without a parallel in the long captivity of these miserable exiles. 94 In the time of Leo the Ninth, a wealthy and learned Jew was converted to Christianity, and honored at his baptism with the name of his godfather, the reigning Pope. The zeal and courage of Peter the son of Leo were signalized in the cause of Gregory the Seventh, who intrusted his faithful adherent with the government of Adrian's mole, the tower of Crescentius, or, as it is now called, the castle of St. Angelo. Both the father and the son were the parents of a numerous progeny: their riches, the fruits of usury, were shared with the noblest families of the city; and so extensive was their alliance, that the grandson of the proselyte was exalted by the weight of his kindred to the throne of St. Peter. A majority of the clergy and people supported his cause: he reigned several years in the Vatican; and it is only the eloquence of St. Bernard, and the final triumph of Innocence the Second, that has branded Anacletus with the epithet of antipope. After his defeat and death, the posterity of Leo is no longer conspicuous; and none will be found of the modern nobles ambitious of descending from a Jewish stock. It is not my design to enumerate the Roman families which have failed at different periods, or those which are continued in different degrees of splendor to the present time. 95 The old consular line of the Frangipani discover their name in the generous act of breaking or dividing bread in a time of famine; and such benevolence is more truly glorious than to have enclosed, with their allies the Corsi, a spacious quarter of the city in the chains of their fortifications; the Savelli, as it should seem a Sabine race, have maintained their original dignity; the obsolete surname of the Capizucchi is inscribed on the coins of the first senators; the Conti preserve the honor, without the estate, of the counts of Signia; and the Annibaldi must have been very ignorant, or very modest, if they had not descended from the Carthaginian hero. 96
91 (return)
[ Muratori (Dissert.
xlvii.) alleges the Annals of Florence, Padua, Genoa, &c., the analogy
of the rest, the evidence of Otho of Frisingen, (de Gest. Fred. I. l. ii.
c. 13,) and the submission of the marquis of Este.]
92 (return)
[ As early as the year
824, the emperor Lothaire I. found it expedient to interrogate the Roman
people, to learn from each individual by what national law he chose to be
governed. (Muratori, Dissertat xxii.)]
93 (return)
[ Petrarch attacks these
foreigners, the tyrants of Rome, in a declamation or epistle, full of bold
truths and absurd pedantry, in which he applies the maxims, and even
prejudices, of the old republic to the state of the xivth century,
(Mémoires, tom. iii. p. 157—169.)]
94 (return)
[ The origin and
adventures of the Jewish family are noticed by Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p.
435, A.D. 1124, No. 3, 4,) who draws his information from the
Chronographus Maurigniacensis, and Arnulphus Sagiensis de Schismate, (in
Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 423—432.) The fact must
in some degree be true; yet I could wish that it had been coolly related,
before it was turned into a reproach against the antipope.]
95 (return)
[ Muratori has given two
dissertations (xli. and xlii.) to the names, surnames, and families of
Italy. Some nobles, who glory in their domestic fables, may be offended
with his firm and temperate criticism; yet surely some ounces of pure gold
are of more value than many pounds of base metal.]
96 (return)
[ The cardinal of St.
George, in his poetical, or rather metrical history of the election and
coronation of Boniface VIII., (Muratori Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p.
641, &c.,) describes the state and families of Rome at the coronation
of Boniface VIII., (A.D. 1295.)
The ancient statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 59, p. 174, 175) distinguish eleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear in concilio communi, before the senator, that they would not harbor or protect any malefactors, outlaws, &c.—a feeble security!]
But among, perhaps above, the peers and princes of the city, I distinguish the rival houses of Colonna and Ursini, whose private story is an essential part of the annals of modern Rome. I. The name and arms of Colonna 97 have been the theme of much doubtful etymology; nor have the orators and antiquarians overlooked either Trajan's pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or the pillar of Christ's flagellation, or the luminous column that guided the Israelites in the desert. Their first historical appearance in the year eleven hundred and four attests the power and antiquity, while it explains the simple meaning, of the name. By the usurpation of Cavæ, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal the Second; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of Rome the hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and Colonna; and the latter of these towns was probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the relic of a villa or temple. 98 They likewise possessed one moiety of the neighboring city of Tusculum, a strong presumption of their descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the tenth century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. According to their own and the public opinion, the primitive and remote source was derived from the banks of the Rhine; 99 and the sovereigns of Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred years has been often illustrated by merit and always by fortune. 100 About the end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was composed of an uncle and six bothers, all conspicuous in arms, or in the honors of the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphal car, and hailed in some vain acclamations with the title of Cæsar; while John and Stephen were declared marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna, by Nicholas the Fourth, a patron so partial to their family, that he has been delineated in satirical portraits, imprisoned as it were in a hollow pillar. 101 After his decease their haughty behavior provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of mankind. The two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna were oppressed for a moment by his temporal and spiritual arms. 102 He proclaimed a crusade against his personal enemies; their estates were confiscated; their fortresses on either side of the Tyber were besieged by the troops of St. Peter and those of the rival nobles; and after the ruin of Palestrina or Præneste, their principal seat, the ground was marked with a ploughshare, the emblem of perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed, the six brothers, in disguise and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the hope of deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the French court was their surest asylum; they prompted and directed the enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their magnanimity, had they respected the misfortune and courage of the captive tyrant. His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored the honors and possessions of the Colonna; and some estimate may be formed of their wealth by their losses, of their losses by the damages of one hundred thousand gold florins which were granted them against the accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope. All the spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished 103 by his prudent successors; and the fortune of the house was more firmly established by this transient hurricane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna was signalized in the captivity of Boniface, and long afterwards in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the gratitude of the emperor, the pillar in their arms was encircled with a royal crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero superior to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome. Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in peace and war; in his distress he was an object, not of pity, but of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his name and country; and when he was asked, "Where is now your fortress?" he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, "Here." He supported with the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin of his declining age, the ancestors, the character, and the children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated from Spoleto; 104 the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the twelfth century, from some eminent person, who is only known as the father of their race. But they were soon distinguished among the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen, the strength of their towers, the honors of the senate and sacred college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third and Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage. 105 Their riches may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism: the estates of St. Peter were alienated in their favor by the liberal Celestin; 106 and Nicholas was ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and to invest them with the perpetual office of senators of Rome. All that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna will likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The jealously of preeminence and power was the true ground of their quarrel; but as a specious badge of distinction, the Colonna embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church. The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners; and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. 107 After the retreat of the popes to Avignon they disputed in arms the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two rival senators. By their private hostilities the city and country were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with their alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by the sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna. 108 His triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce; their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the church door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared senator of Rome during the term of five years. And the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate the wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who labored to subvert the eternal basis of the marble column. 109
97 (return)
[ It is pity that the
Colonna themselves have not favored the world with a complete and critical
history of their illustrious house. I adhere to Muratori, (Dissert. xlii.
tom. iii. p. 647, 648.)]
98 (return)
[ Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit.
Paschal. II. in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 335. The family
has still great possessions in the Campagna of Rome; but they have
alienated to the Rospigliosi this original fief of Colonna,
(Eschinard, p. 258, 259.)]
99 (return)
[ "Te longinqua dedit
tellus et pascua Rheni," says Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders
and Juliers acknowledges (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii.
p. 539) his descent from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:) but
the royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that the sceptre
in his arms has been confounded with the column. To maintain the Roman
origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi,
in the Script. Ital. tom. xii. p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero
escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in Germany.]
100 (return)
[ I cannot overlook the
Roman triumph of ovation on Marce Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the
pope's galleys at the naval victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom.
iii. p. 55, 56. Muret. Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180—190.)]
101 (return)
[ Muratori, Annali
d'Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]
102 (return)
[ Petrarch's attachment
to the Colonna has authorized the abbé de Sade to expatiate on the state
of the family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface
VIII., the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with the
Ursini, &c., (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 98—110, 146—148,
174—176, 222—230, 275—280.) His criticism often
rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the less
diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be now extinct.]
103 (return)
[ Alexander III. had
declared the Colonna who adhered to the emperor Frederic I. incapable of
holding any ecclesiastical benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last
stains of annual excommunication were purified by Sixtus V., (Vita di
Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and proscription are often
the best titles of ancient nobility.]
104 (return)
[
Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a French origin, which may be remotely true.]
105 (return)
[ In the metrical life
of Celestine V. by the cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i.
p. 613, &c.,) we find a luminous, and not inelegant, passage, (l. i.
c. 3, p. 203 &c.:)—
Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined to read Ursi progenies.]
106 (return)
[ Filii Ursi, quondam
Clestini papæ nepotes, de bonis ecclesiæ Romanæ ditati, (Vit. Innocent.
III. in Muratori, Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of
Nicholas III. is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini
would disdain the nephews of a modern pope.]
107 (return)
[ In his fifty-first
Dissertation on the Italian Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of
the Guelphs and Ghibelines.]
108 (return)
[ Petrarch (tom. i. p.
222—230) has celebrated this victory according to the Colonna; but
two contemporaries, a Florentine (Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a
Roman, (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 532—534,) are less favorable to
their arms.]
109 (return)
[ The abbé de Sade (tom.
i. Notes, p. 61—66) has applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto
Gentil, &c., to Stephen Colonna the younger:
In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch 1 is the Italian songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry; and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence has been questioned; 2 for a matron so prolific, 3 that she was delivered of eleven legitimate children, 4 while her amorous swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. 5 But in the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amusement. His Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, established his serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings 6 be now abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man, who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the Augustan age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The academical honors of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of poetry; 7 and the title of poet-laureate, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, 8 was first invented by the Cæsars of Germany. In the musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: 9 the belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard; 10 and the laurel 11 was endeared to the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress. The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, 12 he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind, since he applauds the success of his own labors; his name was popular; his friends were active; the open or secret opposition of envy and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to accept the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the senate of Rome and the university of Paris. The learning of a theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, were alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though immortal wreath which genius may obtain from the free applause of the public and of posterity: but the candidate dismissed this troublesome reflection; and after some moments of complacency and suspense, preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world.
1 (return)
[ The Mémoires sur la Vie de
François Pétrarque, (Amsterdam, 1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a
copious, original, and entertaining work, a labor of love, composed from
the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the hero is too
often lost in the general history of the age, and the author too often
languishes in the affectation of politeness and gallantry. In the preface
to his first volume, he enumerates and weighs twenty Italian biographers,
who have professedly treated of the same subject.]
2 (return)
[ The allegorical
interpretation prevailed in the xvth century; but the wise commentators
were not agreed whether they should understand by Laura, religion, or
virtue, or the blessed virgin, or————. See the
prefaces to the first and second volume.]
3 (return)
[ Laure de Noves, born about
the year 1307, was married in January 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a noble
citizen of Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he
married a second wife within seven months of her death, which happened the
6th of April, 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years after Petrarch had seen
and loved her.]
4 (return)
[ Corpus crebris partubus
exhaustum: from one of these is issued, in the tenth degree, the abbé de
Sade, the fond and grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic
motive most probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to
inquire into every circumstance that could affect the history and
character of his grandmother, (see particularly tom. i. p. 122—133,
Notes, p. 7—58, tom. ii. p. 455—495 not. p. 76—82.)]
5 (return)
[ Vaucluse, so familiar to
our English travellers, is described from the writings of Petrarch, and
the local knowledge of his biographer, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 340—359.)
It was, in truth, the retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much
mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto.]
6 (return)
[ Of 1250 pages, in a close
print, at Basil in the xvith century, but without the date of the year.
The abbé de Sade calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works;
but I much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the bookseller,
or the amusement of the public.]
7 (return)
[ Consult Selden's Titles of
Honor, in his works, (vol. iii. p. 457—466.) A hundred years before
Petrarch, St. Francis received the visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore
fuerat coronatus et exinde rex versuum dictus.]
8 (return)
[ From Augustus to Louis,
the muse has too often been false and venal: but I much doubt whether any
age or court can produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet,
who in every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year a
measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I
believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the more freely, as
the best time for abolishing this ridiculous custom is while the prince is
a man of virtue and the poet a man of genius.]
9 (return)
[ Isocrates (in Panegyrico,
tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit. Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native
Athens the glory of first instituting and recommending the alwnaV—kai
ta aqla megista—mh monon tacouV kai rwmhV, alla kai logwn kai
gnwmhV. The example of the Panathenæa was imitated at Delphi; but the
Olympic games were ignorant of a musical crown, till it was extorted by
the vain tyranny of Nero, (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat. apud
Casaubon ad locum; Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, l. lxiii. p. 1032, 1041.
Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445, 450.)]
10 (return)
[ The Capitoline games
(certamen quinquenale, musicum, equestre, gymnicum) were instituted
by Domitian (Sueton. c. 4) in the year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die
Natali, c. 18, p. 100, edit. Havercamp.) and were not abolished in the
ivth century, (Ausonius de Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If the crown were
given to superior merit, the exclusion of Statius (Capitolia nostræ
inficiata lyræ, Sylv. l. iii. v. 31) may do honor to the games of the
Capitol; but the Latin poets who lived before Domitian were crowned only
in the public opinion.]
11 (return)
[ Petrarch and the
senators of Rome were ignorant that the laurel was not the Capitoline, but
the Delphic crown, (Plin. Hist. Natur p. 39. Hist. Critique de la
République des Lettres, tom. i. p. 150—220.) The victors in the
Capitol were crowned with a garland of oak leaves, (Martial, l. iv. epigram
54.)]
12 (return)
[ The pious grandson of
Laura has labored, and not without success, to vindicate her immaculate
chastity against the censures of the grave and the sneers of the profane,
(tom. ii. Notes, p. 76—82.)]
The ceremony of his coronation 13 was performed in the Capitol, by his friend and patron the supreme magistrate of the republic. Twelve patrician youths were arrayed in scarlet; six representatives of the most illustrious families, in green robes, with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in the midst of the princes and nobles, the senator, count of Anguillara, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed his throne; and at the voice of a herald Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a text of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity of Rome, he knelt before the throne, and received from the senator a laurel crown, with a more precious declaration, "This is the reward of merit." The people shouted, "Long life to the Capitol and the poet!" A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole procession had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended before the shrine of St. Peter. In the act or diploma 14 which was presented to Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of poet-laureate are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing, interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority of the senate and people; and the character of citizen was the recompense of his affection for the Roman name. They did him honor, but they did him justice. In the familiar society of Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot; and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment, and every sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their majestic ruins confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted. The poverty and debasement of Rome excited the indignation and pity of her grateful son; he dissembled the faults of his fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in the hopes of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of the present time. Rome was still the lawful mistress of the world: the pope and the emperor, the bishop and general, had abdicated their station by an inglorious retreat to the Rhône and the Danube; but if she could resume her virtue, the republic might again vindicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence, 15 Petrarch, Italy, and Europe, were astonished by a revolution which realized for a moment his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the tribune Rienzi will occupy the following pages: 16 the subject is interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a patriot bard 17 will sometimes vivify the copious, but simple, narrative of the Florentine, 18 and more especially of the Roman, historian. 19
13 (return)
[ The whole process of
Petrarch's coronation is accurately described by the abbé de Sade, (tom.
i. p. 425—435, tom. ii. p. 1—6, Notes, p. 1—13,) from
his own writings, and the Roman diary of Ludovico Monaldeschi, without
mixing in this authentic narrative the more recent fables of Sannuccio
Delbene.]
14 (return)
[ The original act is
printed among the Pieces Justificatives in the Mémoires sur Pétrarque,
tom. iii. p. 50—53.]
15 (return)
[ To find the proofs of
his enthusiasm for Rome, I need only request that the reader would open,
by chance, either Petrarch, or his French biographer. The latter has
described the poet's first visit to Rome, (tom. i. p. 323—335.) But
in the place of much idle rhetoric and morality, Petrarch might have
amused the present and future age with an original account of the city and
his coronation.]
16 (return)
[ It has been treated by
the pen of a Jesuit, the P. de Cerceau whose posthumous work (Conjuration
de Nicolas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, Tyran de Rome, en 1347) was published
at Paris, 1748, in 12mo. I am indebted to him for some facts and documents
in John Hocsemius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian, (Fabricius
Bibliot. Lat. Med. Ævi, tom. iii. p. 273, tom. iv. p. 85.)]
17 (return)
[ The abbé de Sade, who so
freely expatiates on the history of the xivth century, might treat, as his
proper subject, a revolution in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply
engaged, (Mémoires, tom. ii. p. 50, 51, 320—417, Notes, p. 70—76,
tom. iii. p. 221—243, 366—375.) Not an idea or a fact in the
writings of Petrarch has probably escaped him.]
18 (return)
[ Giovanni Villani, l.
xii. c. 89, 104, in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p.
969, 970, 981—983.]
19 (return)
[ In his third volume of
Italian antiquities, (p. 249—548,) Muratori has inserted the
Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ ab Anno 1327 usque ad Annum 1354, in the
original dialect of Rome or Naples in the xivth century, and a Latin
version for the benefit of strangers. It contains the most particular and
authentic life of Cola (Nicholas) di Rienzi; which had been printed at
Bracciano, 1627, in 4to., under the name of Tomaso Fortifiocca, who is
only mentioned in this work as having been punished by the tribune for
forgery. Human nature is scarcely capable of such sublime or stupid
impartiality: but whosoever in the author of these Fragments, he wrote on
the spot and at the time, and paints, without design or art, the manners
of Rome and the character of the tribune. * Note: Since the publication of
my first edition of Gibbon, some new and very remarkable documents have
been brought to light in a life of Nicolas Rienzi,—Cola di Rienzo
und seine Zeit,—by Dr. Felix Papencordt. The most important of these
documents are letters from Rienzi to Charles the Fourth, emperor and king
of Bohemia, and to the archbishop of Prague; they enter into the whole
history of his adventurous career during its first period, and throw a
strong light upon his extraordinary character. These documents were first
discovered and made use of, to a certain extent, by Pelzel, the historian
of Bohemia. The originals have disappeared, but a copy made by Pelzel for
his own use is now in the library of Count Thun at Teschen. There seems no
doubt of their authenticity. Dr. Papencordt has printed the whole in his
Urkunden, with the exception of one long theological paper.—M.
1845.]
In a quarter of the city which was inhabited only by mechanics and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a washer woman produced the future deliverer of Rome. 20 201 From such parents Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which they painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end. The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero, Seneca, Livy, Cæsar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his equals and contemporaries the genius of the young plebeian: he perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles of antiquity; loved to dispense his knowledge in familiar language; and was often provoked to exclaim, "Where are now these Romans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why was I not born in those happy times?" 21 When the republic addressed to the throne of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit and eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen deputies of the commons. The orator had the honor of haranguing Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of conversing with Petrarch, a congenial mind: but his aspiring hopes were chilled by disgrace and poverty and the patriot was reduced to a single garment and the charity of the hospital. 211 From this misery he was relieved by the sense of merit or the smile of favor; and the employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of five gold florins, a more honorable and extensive connection, and the right of contrasting, both in words and actions, his own integrity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Rienzi was prompt and persuasive: the multitude is always prone to envy and censure: he was stimulated by the loss of a brother and the impunity of the assassins; nor was it possible to excuse or exaggerate the public calamities. The blessings of peace and justice, for which civil society has been instituted, were banished from Rome: the jealous citizens, who might have endured every personal or pecuniary injury, were most deeply wounded in the dishonor of their wives and daughters: 22 they were equally oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of the magistrates; 221 and the abuse of arms or of laws was the only circumstance that distinguished the lions from the dogs and serpents of the Capitol. These allegorical emblems were variously repeated in the pictures which Rienzi exhibited in the streets and churches; and while the spectators gazed with curious wonder, the bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied the satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a distant hope of comfort and deliverance. The privileges of Rome, her eternal sovereignty over her princes and provinces, was the theme of his public and private discourse; and a monument of servitude became in his hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of the senate, which granted the most ample prerogatives to the emperor Vespasian, had been inscribed on a copper plate still extant in the choir of the church of St. John Lateran. 23 A numerous assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political lecture, and a convenient theatre was erected for their reception. The notary appeared in a magnificent and mysterious habit, explained the inscription by a version and commentary, 24 and descanted with eloquence and zeal on the ancient glories of the senate and people, from whom all legal authority was derived. The supine ignorance of the nobles was incapable of discerning the serious tendency of such representations: they might sometimes chastise with words and blows the plebeian reformer; but he was often suffered in the Colonna palace to amuse the company with his threats and predictions; and the modern Brutus 25 was concealed under the mask of folly and the character of a buffoon. While they indulged their contempt, the restoration of the good estate, his favorite expression, was entertained among the people as a desirable, a possible, and at length as an approaching, event; and while all had the disposition to applaud, some had the courage to assist, their promised deliverer.
20 (return)
[ The first and splendid
period of Rienzi, his tribunitian government, is contained in the xviiith
chapter of the Fragments, (p. 399—479,) which, in the new division,
forms the iid book of the history in xxxviii. smaller chapters or
sections.]
201 (return)
[ But see in Dr.
Papencordt's work, and in Rienzi's own words, his claim to be a bastard
son of the emperor Henry the Seventh, whose intrigue with his mother
Rienzi relates with a sort of proud shamelessness. Compare account by the
editor of Dr. Papencordt's work in Quarterly Review vol. lxix.—M.
1845.]
21 (return)
[ The reader may be
pleased with a specimen of the original idiom: Fò da soa juventutine
nutricato di latte de eloquentia, bono gramatico, megliore rettuorico,
autorista bravo. Deh como et quanto era veloce leitore! moito usava Tito
Livio, Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio Massimo, moito li dilettava le
magnificentie di Julio Cesare raccontare. Tutta la die se speculava negl'
intagli di marmo lequali iaccio intorno Roma. Non era altri che esso, che
sapesse lejere li antichi pataffii. Tutte scritture antiche vulgarizzava;
quesse fiure di marmo justamente interpretava. On come spesso diceva,
"Dove suono quelli buoni Romani? dove ene loro somma justitia? poleramme
trovare in tempo che quessi fiuriano!"]
211 (return)
[ Sir J. Hobhouse
published (in his Illustrations of Childe Harold) Rienzi's joyful letter
to the people of Rome on the apparently favorable termination of this
mission.—M. 1845.]
22 (return)
[ Petrarch compares the
jealousy of the Romans with the easy temper of the husbands of Avignon,
(Mémoires, tom. i. p. 330.)]
221 (return)
[ All this Rienzi,
writing at a later period to the archbishop of Prague, attributed to the
criminal abandonment of his flock by the supreme pontiff. See Urkunde apud
Papencordt, p. xliv. Quarterly Review, p. 255.—M. 1845.]
23 (return)
[ The fragments of the Lex
regia may be found in the Inscriptions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242, and
at the end of the Tacitus of Ernesti, with some learned Notes of the
editor, tom. ii.]
24 (return)
[ I cannot overlook a
stupendous and laughable blunder of Rienzi. The Lex regia empowers
Vespasian to enlarge the Pomrium, a word familiar to every antiquary. It
was not so to the tribune; he confounds it with pomarium, an
orchard, translates lo Jardino de Roma cioene Italia, and is copied by the
less excusable ignorance of the Latin translator (p. 406) and the French
historian, (p. 33.) Even the learning of Muratori has slumbered over the
passage.]
25 (return)
[ Priori (Bruto)
tamen similior, juvenis uterque, longe ingenio quam cujus simulationem
induerat, ut sub hoc obtentû liberator ille P R. aperiretur tempore
suo.... Ille regibus, hic tyrannis contemptus, (Opp. p. 536.) * Note:
Fatcor attamen quod-nunc fatuum. nunc hystrionem, nunc gravem nunc
simplicem, nunc astutum, nunc fervidum, nunc timidum simulatorem, et
dissimulatorem ad hunc caritativum finem, quem dixi, constitusepius memet
ipsum. Writing to an archbishop, (of Prague,) Rienzi alleges scriptural
examples. Saltator coram archa David et insanus apparuit coram Rege;
blanda, astuta, et tecta Judith astitit Holoferni; et astute Jacob meruit
benedici, Urkunde xlix.—M. 1845.]
A prophecy, or rather a summons, affixed on the church door of St. George, was the first public evidence of his designs; a nocturnal assembly of a hundred citizens on Mount Aventine, the first step to their execution. After an oath of secrecy and aid, he represented to the conspirators the importance and facility of their enterprise; that the nobles, without union or resources, were strong only in the fear 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.