The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been exercised near three hundred years by the senate, was first resumed by Martin the Fifth, 77 and his image and superscription introduce the series of the papal medals. Of his two immediate successors, Eugenius the Fourth was the last pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman people, 78 and Nicholas the Fifth, the last who was importuned by the presence of a Roman emperor. 79 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 80 and treaties, Nicholas received with a smiling countenance the faithful advocate and vassal of the church. So tame were the times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his coronation was accomplished with order and harmony: but the superfluous 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.
77 (return)
[ See the xxviith
Dissertation of the Antiquities of Muratori, and the 1st Instruction of
the Science des Medailles of the Père Joubert and the Baron de la Bastie.
The Metallic History of Martin V. and his successors has been composed by
two monks, Moulinet, a Frenchman, and Bonanni, an Italian: but I
understand, that the first part of the series is restored from more recent
coins.]
78 (return)
[ Besides the Lives of
Eugenius IV., (Rerum Italic. tom. iii. P. i. p. 869, and tom. xxv. p.
256,) the Diaries of Paul Petroni and Stephen Infessura are the best
original evidence for the revolt of the Romans against Eugenius IV. The
former, who lived at the time and on the spot, speaks the language of a
citizen, equally afraid of priestly and popular tyranny.]
79 (return)
[ The coronation of
Frederic III. is described by Lenfant, (Concile de Basle, tom. ii. p. 276—288,)
from Æneas Sylvius, a spectator and actor in that splendid scene.]
80 (return)
[ The oath of fidelity
imposed on the emperor by the pope is recorded and sanctified in the
Clementines, (l. ii. tit. ix.;) and Æneas Sylvius, who objects to this new
demand, could not foresee, that in a few years he should ascend the
throne, and imbibe the maxims, of Boniface VIII.]
A citizen has remarked, with pride and pleasure, that the king of the Romans, after passing with a slight salute the cardinals and prelates who met him at the gate, distinguished the dress and person of the senator of Rome; and in this last farewell, the pageants of the empire and the republic were clasped in a friendly embrace. 81 According to the laws of Rome, 82 her first magistrate was required to be a doctor of laws, an alien, of a place at least forty miles from the city; with whose inhabitants he must not be connected in the third canonical degree of blood or alliance. The election was annual: a severe scrutiny was instituted into the conduct of the departing senator; nor could he be recalled to the same office till after the expiration of two years. A liberal salary of three thousand florins was assigned for his expense and reward; and his public appearance represented the majesty of the republic. His robes were of gold brocade or crimson velvet, or in the summer season of a lighter silk: he bore in his hand an ivory sceptre; the sound of trumpets announced his approach; and his solemn steps were preceded at least by four lictors or attendants, whose red wands were enveloped with bands or streamers of the golden 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: 83 this civil and criminal code is the modern law of the city; and, if the popular assemblies have been abolished, a foreign senator, with the three conservators, still resides in the palace of the Capitol. 84 The policy of the Cæsars 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.
81 (return)
[ Lo senatore di Roma,
vestito di brocarto con quella beretta, e con quelle maniche, et ornamenti
di pelle, co' quali va alle feste di Testaccio e Nagone, might escape the
eye of Æneas Sylvius, but he is viewed with admiration and complacency by
the Roman citizen, (Diario di Stephano Infessura, p. 1133.)]
82 (return)
[ See, in the statutes of
Rome, the senator and three judges, (l. i. c. 3—14,) the conservators,
(l. i. c. 15, 16, 17, l. iii. c. 4,) the caporioni (l. i. c. 18, l.
iii. c. 8,) the secret council, (l. iii. c. 2,) the common
council, (l. iii. c. 3.) The title of feuds, defiances,
acts of violence, &c., is spread through many a chapter (c. 14—40)
of the second book.]
83 (return)
[ Statuta alm Urbis Rom
Auctoritate S. D. N. Gregorii XIII Pont. Max. a Senatu Populoque Rom.
reformata et edita. Rom, 1580, in folio. The obsolete, repugnant
statutes of antiquity were confounded in five books, and Lucas Pætus, a
lawyer and antiquarian, was appointed to act as the modern Tribonian. Yet
I regret the old code, with the rugged crust of freedom and barbarism.]
84 (return)
[ In my time (1765) and in
M. Grosley's, (Observations sur l'Italie torn. ii. p. 361,) the senator of
Rome was M. Bielke, a noble Swede and a proselyte to the Catholic faith.
The pope's right to appoint the senator and the conservator is implied,
rather than affirmed, in the statutes.]
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. 85 But their applause was mute, their pity ineffectual, their liberty forever extinct; and, if they have since risen in a vacancy of the throne or a scarcity of bread, such accidental tumults may be found in the bosom of the most abject servitude.
85 (return)
[ Besides the curious,
though concise, narrative of Machiavel, (Istoria Florentina, l. vi. Opere,
tom. i. p. 210, 211, edit. Londra, 1747, in 4to.) the Porcarian conspiracy
is related in the Diary of Stephen Infessura, (Rer. Ital. tom. iii. P. ii.
p. 1134, 1135,) and in a separate tract by Leo Baptista Alberti, (Rer.
Ital. tom. xxv. p. 609—614.) It is amusing to compare the style and
sentiments of the courtier and citizen. Facinus profecto quo.... neque
periculo horribilius, neque audaciâ detestabilius, neque crudelitate
tetrius, a quoquam perditissimo uspiam excogitatum sit.... Perdette la
vita quell' huomo da bene, e amatore dello bene e libertà di Roma.]
But the independence of the nobles, which was fomented by discord, survived the freedom of the commons, which must be founded in union. A privilege of rapine and oppression was long maintained by the barons of Rome; their houses were a fortress and a sanctuary: and the ferocious train of banditti and criminals whom they protected from the law repaid the hospitality with the service of their swords and daggers. The private interest of the pontiffs, or their nephews, sometimes involved them in these domestic feuds. Under the reign of Sixtus the Fourth, Rome was distracted by the battles and sieges of the rival houses: after the conflagration of his palace, the prothonotary Colonna was tortured and beheaded; and Savelli, his captive friend, was murdered on the spot, for refusing to join in the acclamations of the victorious Ursini. 86 But the popes no longer trembled in the Vatican: they had strength to command, if they had resolution to claim, the obedience of their subjects; and the strangers, who observed these partial disorders, admired the easy taxes and wise administration of the ecclesiastical state. 87
86 (return)
[ The disorders of Rome,
which were much inflamed by the partiality of Sixtus IV. are exposed in
the Diaries of two spectators, Stephen Infessura, and an anonymous
citizen. See the troubles of the year 1484, and the death of the
prothonotary Colonna, in tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1083, 1158.]
87 (return)
[ Est toute la terre de
l'église troublée pour cette partialité (des Colonnes et des Ursins) come
nous dirions Luce et Grammont, ou en Hollande Houc et Caballan; et quand
ce ne seroit ce différend la terre de l'église seroit la plus heureuse
habitation pour les sujets qui soit dans toute le monde (car ils ne payent
ni tailles ni guères autres choses,) et seroient toujours bien conduits,
(car toujours les papes sont sages et bien consellies;) mais très souvent
en advient de grands et cruels meurtres et pilleries.]
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. 88 Since the union of the duchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po; and as early as the sixteenth century, the greater part of that spacious and fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal sovereignty of the Roman pontiffs. Their claims were readily deduced from the genuine, or fabulous, donations of the darker ages: the successive steps of their final settlement would engage us too far in the transactions of Italy, and even of Europe; the crimes of Alexander the Sixth, the martial operations of Julius the Second, and the liberal policy of Leo the Tenth, a theme which has been adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the times. 89 In the first period of their conquests, till the expedition of Charles the Eighth, the popes might successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to their own. But as soon as the monarchs of France, Germany and Spain, contended with gigantic arms for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with art the deficiency of strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and treaties, their aspiring views, and the immortal hope of chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the soldiers of the North and West, who were united under the standard of Charles the Fifth: the feeble and fluctuating policy of Clement the Seventh exposed his person and dominions to the conqueror; and Rome was abandoned seven months to a lawless army, more cruel and rapacious than the Goths and Vandals. 90 After this severe lesson, the popes contracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed the character of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities, except in a hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish sultan were armed at the same time against the kingdom of Naples. 91 The French and Germans at length withdrew from the field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the sea-coast of Tuscany, were firmly possessed by the Spaniards; and it became their interest to maintain the peace and dependence of Italy, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle of the sixteenth to the opening of the eighteenth century. The Vatican was swayed and protected by the religious policy of the Catholic king: his prejudice and interest disposed him in every dispute to support the prince against the people; and instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum, which they obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the enemies of law, were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle of despotism. The long habits of obedience and education subdued the turbulent spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. The barons forgot the arms and factions of their ancestors, and insensibly became the servants of luxury and government. Instead of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce of their estates was consumed in the private expenses which multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord. 92 The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique 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.
88 (return)
[ By the conomy of Sixtus
V. the revenue of the ecclesiastical state was raised to two millions and
a half of Roman crowns, (Vita, tom. ii. p. 291—296;) and so regular
was the military establishment, that in one month Clement VIII. could
invade the duchy of Ferrara with three thousand horse and twenty thousand
foot, (tom. iii. p. 64) Since that time (A.D. 1597) the papal arms are
happily rusted: but the revenue must have gained some nominal increase. *
Note: On the financial measures of Sixtus V. see Ranke, Dio Römischen
Päpste, i. p. 459.—M.]
89 (return)
[ More especially by
Guicciardini and Machiavel; in the general history of the former, in the
Florentine history, the Prince, and the political discourses of the
latter. These, with their worthy successors, Fra Paolo and Davila, were
justly esteemed the first historians of modern languages, till, in the
present age, Scotland arose, to dispute the prize with Italy herself.]
90 (return)
[ In the history of the
Gothic siege, I have compared the Barbarians with the subjects of Charles
V., (vol. iii. p. 289, 290;) an anticipation, which, like that of the
Tartar conquests, I indulged with the less scruple, as I could scarcely
hope to reach the conclusion of my work.]
91 (return)
[ The ambitious and feeble
hostilities of the Caraffa pope, Paul IV. may be seen in Thuanus (l. xvi.—xviii.)
and Giannone, (tom. iv p. 149—163.) Those Catholic bigots, Philip
II. and the duke of Alva, presumed to separate the Roman prince from the
vicar of Christ, yet the holy character, which would have sanctified his
victory was decently applied to protect his defeat. * Note: But compare
Ranke, Die Römischen Päpste, i. p. 289.—M.]
92 (return)
[ This gradual change of
manners and expense is admirably explained by Dr. Adam Smith, (Wealth of
Nations, vol. i. p. 495—504,) who proves, perhaps too severely, that
the most salutary effects have flowed from the meanest and most selfish
causes.]
A Christian, a philosopher, 93 and a patriot, will be equally scandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majesty of Rome, the remembrance of her consuls and triumphs, may seem to 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 94 above the heroes of Rome and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal, or the crucifix, as more useful instruments than the plough or the loom. In the office of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners: from study and experience he may suspect the mystery of his profession; but the sacerdotal artist will imbibe some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. The genius of Sixtus the Fifth 95 burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane sanctuaries of Rome, 96 formed a naval and military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity, and after a liberal use and large increase of the revenue, left five millions of crowns in the castle of St. Angelo. But his justice was sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of conquest: after his decease the abuses revived; the treasure was dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new taxes and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his statue was demolished by an ungrateful, or an injured, people. 97 The wild and original character of Sixtus the Fifth stands alone in the series of the pontiffs; the maxims and effects of their temporal government may be collected from the positive and comparative view of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and population, of the ecclesiastical state. For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity with all mankind, nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend even the pope and clergy of Rome. 98
93 (return)
[ Mr. Hume (Hist. of
England, vol. i. p. 389) too hastily conclude that if the civil and
ecclesiastical powers be united in the same person, it is of little moment
whether he be styled prince or prelate since the temporal character will
always predominate.]
94 (return)
[ A Protestant may disdain
the unworthy preference of St. Francis or St. Dominic, but he will not
rashly condemn the zeal or judgment of Sixtus V., who placed the statues
of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul on the vacant columns of Trajan and
Antonine.]
95 (return)
[ A wandering Italian,
Gregorio Leti, has given the Vita di Sisto-Quinto, (Amstel. 1721, 3 vols.
in 12mo.,) a copious and amusing work, but which does not command our
absolute confidence. Yet the character of the man, and the principal
facts, are supported by the annals of Spondanus and Muratori, (A.D. 1585—1590,)
and the contemporary history of the great Thuanus, (l. lxxxii. c. 1, 2, l.
lxxxiv. c. 10, l. c. c. 8.) * Note: The industry of M. Ranke has
discovered the document, a kind of scandalous chronicle of the time, from
which Leti wrought up his amusing romances. See also M. Ranke's
observations on the Life of Sixtus. by Tempesti, b. iii. p. 317, 324.—
M.]
96 (return)
[ These privileged places,
the quartieri or franchises, were adopted from the Roman
nobles by the foreign ministers. Julius II. had once abolished the
abominandum et detestandum franchitiarum hujusmodi nomen: and after Sixtus
V. they again revived. I cannot discern either the justice or magnanimity
of Louis XIV., who, in 1687, sent his ambassador, the marquis de Lavardin,
to Rome, with an armed force of a thousand officers, guards, and
domestics, to maintain this iniquitous claim, and insult Pope Innocent XI.
in the heart of his capital, (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 260—278.
Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. xv. p. 494—496, and Voltaire, Siecle
de Louis XIV. tom. i. c. 14, p. 58, 59.)]
97 (return)
[ This outrage produced a
decree, which was inscribed on marble, and placed in the Capitol. It is
expressed in a style of manly simplicity and freedom: Si quis, sive
privatus, sive magistratum gerens de collocandâ vivo pontifici
statuâ mentionem facere ausit, legitimo S. P. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum
infamis et publicorum munerum expers esto. MDXC. mense Augusto, (Vita di
Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 469.) I believe that this decree is still observed,
and I know that every monarch who deserves a statue should himself impose
the prohibition.]
98 (return)
[ The histories of the
church, Italy, and Christendom, have contributed to the chapter which I
now conclude. In the original Lives of the Popes, we often discover the
city and republic of Rome: and the events of the xivth and xvth centuries
are preserved in the rude and domestic chronicles which I have carefully
inspected, and shall recapitulate in the order of time.
1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium Roman. A.D. 1328, in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. xii. p. 525. N. B. The credit of this fragment is somewhat hurt by a singular interpolation, in which the author relates his own death at the age of 115 years.
2. Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ (vulgo Thomas Fortifioccæ) in Romana Dialecto vulgari, (A.D. 1327—1354, in Muratori, Antiquitat. Medii Ævi Italiæ, tom. iii. p. 247—548;) the authentic groundwork of the history of Rienzi.
3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1370—1410,) in the Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846.
4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1404—1417,) tom. xxiv. p. 699.
5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana, (A.D. 1433—1446,) tom. xxiv. p. 1101.
6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1472—1484,) tom. xxiii p. 81.
7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romæ, (A.D. 1481—1492,) tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1069.
8. Infessuræ (Stephani) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1294, or 1378—1494,) tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109.
9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi, (A.D. 1492—1503,) edita a Godefr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Hanover, 697, in 14to. The large and valuable Journal of Burcard might be completed from the MSS. in different libraries of Italy and France, (M. de Foncemagne, in the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xvii. p. 597—606.)
Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy. His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works on that subject: 1. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, (A.D. 500—1500,) quorum potissima pars nunc primum in lucem prodit, &c., xxviii. vols. in folio, Milan, 1723—1738, 1751. A volume of chronological and alphabetical tables is still wanting as a key to this great work, which is yet in a disorderly and defective state. 2. Antiquitates Italiæ Medii Ævi, vi. vols. in folio, Milan, 1738—1743, in lxxv. curious dissertations, on the manners, government, religion, &c., of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large supplement of charters, chronicles, &c. 3. Dissertazioni sopra le Antiquita Italiane, iii. vols. in 4to., Milano, 1751, a free version by the author, which may be quoted with the same confidence as the Latin text of the Antiquities. Annali d' Italia, xviii. vols. in octavo, Milan, 1753—1756, a dry, though accurate and useful, abridgment of the history of Italy, from the birth of Christ to the middle of the xviiith century. 5. Dell' Antichita Estense ed Italiane, ii. vols. in folio, Modena, 1717, 1740. In the history of this illustrious race, the parent of our Brunswick kings, the critic is not seduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the subject. In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who aspires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after passing near 60 years in the libraries of Milan and Modena, (Vita del Proposto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and successor Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori Venezia, 1756 m 4to.)]
In the last days of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, 101 two of his servants, the learned Poggius 1 and a friend, ascended the Capitoline hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed from that commanding spot the wide and various prospect of desolation. 2 The place and the object gave ample scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable. "Her primeval state, such as she might appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger of Troy, 3 has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thicket: in the time of the poet, it was crowned with the golden roofs of a temple; the temple is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred ground is again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! The path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticos of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune." 4
101 (return)
[ It should be Pope
Martin the Fifth. See Gibbon's own Mnote, ch. lxv, Mnote 51 and Hobhouse,
Illustrations of Childe Harold, p. 155.—M.]
1 (return)
[ I have already (Mnotes 50,
51, on chap. lxv.) mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius;
and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the
varieties of fortune.]
2 (return)
[ Consedimus in ipsis
Tarpeiæ arcis ruinis, pone ingens portæ cujusdam, ut puto, templi,
marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim confractas columnas, unde magnâ ex
parte prospectus urbis patet, (p. 5.)]
3 (return)
[ Æneid viii. 97—369.
This ancient picture, so artfully introduced, and so exquisitely finished,
must have been highly interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early
studies allow us to sympathize in the feelings of a Roman.]
4 (return)
[ Capitolium adeo....
immutatum ut vineæ in senatorum subsellia successerint, stercorum ac
purgamentorum receptaculum factum. Respice ad Palatinum montem..... vasta
rudera.... cæteros colles perlustra omnia vacua ædificiis, ruinis
vineisque oppleta conspicies, (Poggius, de Varietat. Fortunæ p. 21.)]
These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of classic, superstition. 5 1.Besides a bridge, an arch, a sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the age of the republic, a double row of vaults, in the salt-office of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three arches and a marble column of the temple of Peace, which Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven thermæ, or public baths, none were sufficiently entire to represent the use and distribution of the several parts: but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of the founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in observing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the size and multitude of the columns, compared the labor and expense with the use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found. 4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Constantine, were entire, both the structure and the inscriptions; a falling fragment was honored with the name of Trajan; and two arches, then extant, in the Flaminian way, have been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus. 501 5. After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have overlooked small amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use of the prætorian camp: the theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied in a great measure by public and private buildings; and in the Circus, Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the situation and the form could be investigated. 6. The columns of Trajan and Antonine were still erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people of gods and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian figure of gilt brass, and to five marble statues, of which the most conspicuous were the two horses of Phidias and Praxiteles. 7. The two mausoleums or sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not totally be lost: but the former was only visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the castle of St. Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern fortress. With the addition of some separate and nameless columns, such were the remains of the ancient city; for the marks of a more recent structure might be detected in the walls, which formed a circumference of ten miles, included three hundred and seventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country by thirteen gates.
5 (return)
[ See Poggius, p. 8—22.]
501 (return)
[ One was in the Via
Nomentana; est alter præterea Gallieno principi dicatus, ut superscriptio
indicat, Viâ Nomentana. Hobhouse, p. 154. Poggio likewise mentions
the building which Gibbon ambiguously says be "might have overlooked."—M.]
This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred years after the fall of the Western empire, and even of the Gothic kingdom of Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts, and riches had migrated from the banks of the Tyber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works of antiquity. To measure the progress of decay, and to ascertain, at each æra, the state of each edifice, would be an endless and a useless labor; and I shall content myself with two observations, which will introduce a short inquiry into the general causes and effects. 1. Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome. 6 His ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and fabulous names. Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears; he could observe the visible remains; he could listen to the tradition of the people; and he distinctly enumerates seven theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches, and eighteen palaces, of which many had disappeared before the time of Poggius. It is apparent, that many stately monuments of antiquity survived till a late period, 7 and that the principles of destruction acted with vigorous and increasing energy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 2. The same reflection must be applied to the three last ages; and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of Severus; 8 which is celebrated by Petrarch and the antiquarians of the sixteenth century. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were resisted by the solidity of the mass and the harmony of the parts; but the slightest touch would precipitate the fragments of arches and columns, that already nodded to their fall.
6 (return)
[ Liber de Mirabilibus Romæ
ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis de Arragoniâ in Bibliothecâ St. Isidori
Armario IV., No. 69. This treatise, with some short but pertinent Mnotes,
has been published by Montfaucon, (Diarium Italicum, p. 283—301,)
who thus delivers his own critical opinion: Scriptor xiiimi. circiter
sæculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariæ rei imperitus et, ut ab illo ævo,
nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus: sed, quia monumenta, quæ iis
temporibus Romæ supererant pro modulo recenset, non parum inde lucis
mutuabitur qui Romanis antiquitatibus indagandis operam navabit, (p.
283.)]
7 (return)
[ The Père Mabillon
(Analecta, tom. iv. p. 502) has published an anonymous pilgrim of the ixth
century, who, in his visit round the churches and holy places at Rome,
touches on several buildings, especially porticos, which had disappeared
before the xiiith century.]
8 (return)
[ On the Septizonium, see
the Mémoires sur Pétrarque, (tom. i. p. 325,) Donatus, (p. 338,) and
Nardini, (p. 117, 414.)]
After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal causes of the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and nature. II. The hostile attacks of the Barbarians and Christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. And, IV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans.
I. The art of man is able to construct monuments far more permanent than the narrow span of his own existence; yet these monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail; and in the boundless annals of time, his life and his labors must equally be measured as a fleeting moment. Of a simple and solid edifice, it is not easy, however, to circumscribe the duration. As the wonders of ancient days, the pyramids 9 attracted the curiosity of the ancients: a hundred generations, the leaves of autumn, have dropped 10 into the grave; and after the fall of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Cæsars and caliphs, the same pyramids stand erect and unshaken above the floods of the Nile. A complex figure of various and minute parts to more accessible to injury and decay; and the silent lapse of time is often accelerated by hurricanes and earthquakes, by fires and inundations. The air and earth have doubtless been shaken; and the lofty turrets of Rome have tottered from their foundations; but the seven hills do not appear to be placed on the great cavities of the globe; nor has the city, in any age, been exposed to the convulsions of nature, which, in the climate of Antioch, Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled in a few moments the works of ages into dust. Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death: the rapid mischief may be kindled and propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind; and every period of the Roman annals is marked by the repetition of similar calamities. A memorable conflagration, the guilt or misfortune of Nero's reign, continued, though with unequal fury, either six or nine days. 11 Innumerable buildings, crowded in close and crooked streets, supplied perpetual fuel for the flames; and when they ceased, four only of the fourteen regions were left entire; three were totally destroyed, and seven were deformed by the relics of smoking and lacerated edifices. 12 In the full meridian of empire, the metropolis arose with fresh beauty from her ashes; yet the memory of the old deplored their irreparable losses, the arts of Greece, the trophies of victory, the monuments of primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the days of distress and anarchy, every wound is mortal, every fall irretrievable; nor can the damage be restored either by the public care of government, or the activity of private interest. Yet two causes may be alleged, which render the calamity of fire more destructive to a flourishing than a decayed city. 1. The more combustible materials of brick, timber, and metals, are first melted or consumed; but the flames may play without injury or effect on the naked walls, and massy arches, that have been despoiled of their ornaments. 2. It is among the common and plebeian habitations, that a mischievous spark is most easily blown to a conflagration; but as soon as they are devoured, the greater edifices, which have resisted or escaped, are left as so many islands in a state of solitude and safety. From her situation, Rome is exposed to the danger of frequent inundations. Without excepting the Tyber, the rivers that descend from either side of the Apennine have a short and irregular course; a shallow stream in the summer heats; an impetuous torrent, when it is swelled in the spring or winter, by the fall of rain, and the melting of the snows. When the current is repelled from the sea by adverse winds, when the ordinary bed is inadequate to the weight of waters, they rise above the banks, and overspread, without limits or control, the plains and cities of the adjacent country. Soon after the triumph of the first Punic war, the Tyber was increased by unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing all former measure of time and place, destroyed all the buildings that were situated below the hills of Rome. According to the variety of ground, the same mischief was produced by different means; and the edifices were either swept away by the sudden impulse, or dissolved and undermined by the long continuance, of the flood. 13 Under the reign of Augustus, the same calamity was renewed: the lawless river overturned the palaces and temples on its banks; 14 and, after the labors of the emperor in cleansing and widening the bed that was encumbered with ruins, 15 the vigilance of his successors was exercised by similar dangers and designs. The project of diverting into new channels the Tyber itself, or some of the dependent streams, was long opposed by superstition and local interests; 16 nor did the use compensate the toil and cost of the tardy and imperfect execution. The servitude of rivers is the noblest and most important victory which man has obtained over the licentiousness of nature; 17 and if such were the ravages of the Tyber under a firm and active government, what could oppose, or who can enumerate, the injuries of the city, after the fall of the Western empire? A remedy was at length produced by the evil itself: the accumulation of rubbish and the earth, that has been washed down from the hills, is supposed to have elevated the plain of Rome, fourteen or fifteen feet, perhaps, above the ancient level; 18 and the modern city is less accessible to the attacks of the river. 19
9 (return)
[ The age of the pyramids is
remote and unknown, since Diodorus Siculus (tom. i l. i. c. 44, p. 72) is
unable to decide whether they were constructed 1000, or 3400, years before
the clxxxth Olympiad. Sir John Marsham's contracted scale of the Egyptian
dynasties would fix them about 2000 years before Christ, (Canon.
Chronicus, p. 47.)]
10 (return)
[ See the speech of
Glaucus in the Iliad, (Z. 146.) This natural but melancholy image is
peculiar to Homer.]
11 (return)
[ The learning and
criticism of M. des Vignoles (Histoire Critique de la République des
Lettres, tom. viii. p. 47—118, ix. p. 172—187) dates the fire
of Rome from A.D. 64, July 19, and the subsequent persecution of the
Christians from November 15 of the same year.]
12 (return)
[ Quippe in regiones
quatuordecim Roma dividitur, quarum quatuor integræ manebant, tres solo
tenus dejectæ: septem reliquis pauca testorum vestigia supererant, lacera
et semiusta. Among the old relics that were irreparably lost, Tacitus
enumerates the temple of the moon of Servius Tullius; the fane and altar
consecrated by Evander præsenti Herculi; the temple of Jupiter Stator, a
vow of Romulus; the palace of Numa; the temple of Vesta cum Penatibus
populi Romani. He then deplores the opes tot victoriis quæsitæ et Græcarum
artium decora.... multa quæ seniores meminerant, quæ reparari nequibant,
(Annal. xv. 40, 41.)]
13 (return)
[ A. U. C. 507, repentina
subversio ipsius Romæ prævenit triumphum Romanorum.... diversæ ignium
aquarumque clades pene absumsere urbem Nam Tiberis insolitis auctus
imbribus et ultra opinionem, vel diuturnitate vel maguitudine redundans,
omnia Romæ ædificia in plano posita delevit. Diversæ qualitates
locorum ad unam convenere perniciem: quoniam et quæ segnior inundatio
tenuit madefacta dissolvit, et quæ cursus torrentis invenit impulsa
dejecit, (Orosius, Hist. l. iv. c. 11, p. 244, edit. Havercamp.) Yet we
may observe, that it is the plan and study of the Christian apologist to
magnify the calamities of the Pagan world.]
14 (return)
[
Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis, Ire dejectum monumenta Regis Templaque Vestæ. (Horat. Carm. I. 2.)
If the palace of Numa and temple of Vesta were thrown down in Horace's time, what was consumed of those buildings by Nero's fire could hardly deserve the epithets of vetustissima or incorrupta.]
15 (return)
[ Ad coercendas
inundationes alveum Tiberis laxavit, ac repurgavit, completum olim
ruderibus, et ædificiorum prolapsionibus coarctatum, (Suetonius in
Augusto, c. 30.)]
16 (return)
[ Tacitus (Annal. i. 79)
reports the petitions of the different towns of Italy to the senate
against the measure; and we may applaud the progress of reason. On a
similar occasion, local interests would undoubtedly be consulted: but an
English House of Commons would reject with contempt the arguments of
superstition, "that nature had assigned to the rivers their proper
course," &c.]
17 (return)
[ See the Epoques de la
Nature of the eloquent and philosophic Buffon. His picture of Guyana, in
South America, is that of a new and savage land, in which the waters are
abandoned to themselves without being regulated by human industry, (p.
212, 561, quarto edition.)]
18 (return)
[ In his travels in Italy,
Mr. Addison (his works, vol. ii. p. 98, Baskerville's edition) has
observed this curious and unquestionable fact.]
19 (return)
[ Yet in modern times, the
Tyber has sometimes damaged the city, and in the years 1530, 1557, 1598,
the annals of Muratori record three mischievous and memorable inundations,
(tom. xiv. p. 268, 429, tom. xv. p. 99, &c.) * Note: The level of the
Tyber was at one time supposed to be considerably raised: recent
investigations seem to be conclusive against this supposition. See a
brief, but satisfactory statement of the question in Bunsen and Platner,
Roms Beschreibung. vol. i. p. 29.—M.]
II. The crowd of writers of every nation, who impute the destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths and the Christians, have neglected to inquire how far they were animated by a hostile principle, and how far they possessed the means and the leisure to satiate their enmity. In the preceding volumes of this History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion; and I can only resume, in a few words, their real or imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome. Our fancy may create, or adopt, a pleasing romance, that the Goths and Vandals sallied from Scandinavia, ardent to avenge the flight of Odin; 20 to break the chains, and to chastise the oppressors, of mankind; that they wished to burn the records of classic literature, and to found their national architecture on the broken members of the Tuscan and Corinthian orders. But in simple truth, the northern conquerors were neither sufficiently savage, nor sufficiently refined, to entertain such aspiring ideas of destruction and revenge. The shepherds of Scythia and Germany had been educated in the armies of the empire, whose discipline they acquired, and whose weakness they invaded: with the familiar use of the Latin tongue, they had learned to reverence the name and titles of Rome; and, though incapable of emulating, they were more inclined to admire, than to abolish, the arts and studies of a brighter period. In the transient possession of a rich and unresisting capital, the soldiers of Alaric and Genseric were stimulated by the passions of a victorious army; amidst the wanton indulgence of lust or cruelty, portable wealth was the object of their search; nor could they derive either pride or pleasure from the unprofitable reflection, that they had battered to the ground the works of the consuls and Cæsars. Their moments were indeed precious; the Goths evacuated Rome on the sixth, 21 the Vandals on the fifteenth, day: 22 and, though it be far more difficult to build than to destroy, their hasty assault would have made a slight impression on the solid piles of antiquity. We may remember, that both Alaric and Genseric affected to spare the buildings of the city; that they subsisted in strength and beauty under the auspicious government of Theodoric; 23 and that the momentary resentment of Totila 24 was disarmed by his own temper and the advice of his friends and enemies. From these innocent Barbarians, the reproach may be transferred to the Catholics of Rome. The statues, altars, and houses, of the dæmons, were an abomination in their eyes; and in the absolute command of the city, they might labor with zeal and perseverance to erase the idolatry of their ancestors. The demolition of the temples in the East 25 affords to them an example of conduct, and to us an argument of belief; and it is probable that a portion of guilt or merit may be imputed with justice to the Roman proselytes. Yet their abhorrence was confined to the monuments of heathen superstition; and the civil structures that were dedicated to the business or pleasure of society might be preserved without injury or scandal. The change of religion was accomplished, not by a popular tumult, but by the decrees of the emperors, of the senate, and of time. Of the Christian hierarchy, the bishops of Rome were commonly the most prudent and least fanatic; nor can any positive charge be opposed to the meritorious act of saving or converting the majestic structure of the Pantheon. 26 261
20 (return)
[ I take this opportunity
of declaring, that in the course of twelve years, I have forgotten, or
renounced, the flight of Odin from Azoph to Sweden, which I never very
seriously believed, (vol. i. p. 283.) The Goths are apparently Germans:
but all beyond Cæsar and Tacitus is darkness or fable, in the antiquities
of Germany.]
21 (return)
[ History of the Decline,
&c., vol. iii. p. 291.]
22 (return)
[———————————vol.
iii. p. 464.]
23 (return)
[———————————vol.
iv. p. 23—25.]
24 (return)
[———————————vol.
iv. p. 258.]
25 (return)
[———————————vol.
iii. c. xxviii. p. 139—148.]
26 (return)
[ Eodem tempore petiit a
Phocate principe templum, quod appellatur Pantheon, in quo fecit
ecclesiam Sanctæ Mariæ semper Virginis, et omnium martyrum; in quâ
ecclesiæ princeps multa bona obtulit, (Anastasius vel potius Liber
Pontificalis in Bonifacio IV., in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom.
iii. P. i. p. 135.) According to the anonymous writer in Montfaucon, the
Pantheon had been vowed by Agrippa to Cybele and Neptune, and was
dedicated by Boniface IV., on the calends of November, to the Virgin, quæ
est mater omnium sanctorum, (p. 297, 298.)]