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

II.

Never perhaps has the energy and effect of a single mind been
more remarkably felt than in the sudden, though transient,
reformation of Rome by the tribune Rienzi. A den of robbers was
converted to the discipline of a camp or convent: patient to
hear, swift to redress, inexorable to punish, his tribunal was
always accessible to the poor and stranger; nor could birth, or
dignity, or the immunities of the church, protect the offender or
his accomplices. The privileged houses, the private sanctuaries
in Rome, on which no officer of justice would presume to
trespass, were abolished; and he applied the timber and iron of
their barricades in the fortifications of the Capitol. The
venerable father of the Colonna was exposed in his own palace to
the double shame of being desirous, and of being unable, to
protect a criminal. A mule, with a jar of oil, had been stolen
near Capranica; and the lord of the Ursini family was condemned
to restore the damage, and to discharge a fine of four hundred
florins for his negligence in guarding the highways. Nor were the
persons of the barons more inviolate than their lands or houses;
and, either from accident or design, the same impartial rigor was
exercised against the heads of the adverse factions. Peter Agapet
Colonna, who had himself been senator of Rome, was arrested in
the street for injury or debt; and justice was appeased by the
tardy execution of Martin Ursini, who, among his various acts of
violence and rapine, had pillaged a shipwrecked vessel at the
mouth of the Tyber. 28 His name, the purple of two cardinals, his
uncles, a recent marriage, and a mortal disease were disregarded
by the inflexible tribune, who had chosen his victim. The public
officers dragged him from his palace and nuptial bed: his trial
was short and satisfactory: the bell of the Capitol convened the
people: stripped of his mantle, on his knees, with his hands
bound behind his back, he heard the sentence of death; and after
a brief confession, Ursini was led away to the gallows. After
such an example, none who were conscious of guilt could hope for
impunity, and the flight of the wicked, the licentious, and the
idle, soon purified the city and territory of Rome. In this time
(says the historian,) the woods began to rejoice that they were
no longer infested with robbers; the oxen began to plough; the
pilgrims visited the sanctuaries; the roads and inns were
replenished with travellers; trade, plenty, and good faith, were
restored in the markets; and a purse of gold might be exposed
without danger in the midst of the highway. As soon as the life
and property of the subject are secure, the labors and rewards of
industry spontaneously revive: Rome was still the metropolis of
the Christian world; and the fame and fortunes of the tribune
were diffused in every country by the strangers who had enjoyed
the blessings of his government.

28 (return) [ Fortifiocca, l. ii. c. 11. From the account of this
shipwreck, we learn some circumstances of the trade and
navigation of the age. 1. The ship was built and freighted at
Naples for the ports of Marseilles and Avignon. 2. The sailors
were of Naples and the Isle of naria less skilful than those of
Sicily and Genoa. 3. The navigation from Marseilles was a
coasting voyage to the mouth of the Tyber, where they took
shelter in a storm; but, instead of finding the current,
unfortunately ran on a shoal: the vessel was stranded, the
mariners escaped. 4. The cargo, which was pillaged, consisted of
the revenue of Provence for the royal treasury, many bags of
pepper and cinnamon, and bales of French cloth, to the value of
20,000 florins; a rich prize.]

The deliverance of his country inspired Rienzi with a vast, and
perhaps visionary, idea of uniting Italy in a great federative
republic, of which Rome should be the ancient and lawful head,
and the free cities and princes the members and associates. His
pen was not less eloquent than his tongue; and his numerous
epistles were delivered to swift and trusty messengers. On foot,
with a white wand in their hand, they traversed the forests and
mountains; enjoyed, in the most hostile states, the sacred
security of ambassadors; and reported, in the style of flattery
or truth, that the highways along their passage were lined with
kneeling multitudes, who implored Heaven for the success of their
undertaking. Could passion have listened to reason; could private
interest have yielded to the public welfare; the supreme tribunal
and confederate union of the Italian republic might have healed
their intestine discord, and closed the Alps against the
Barbarians of the North. But the propitious season had elapsed;
and if Venice, Florence, Sienna, Perugia, and many inferior
cities offered their lives and fortunes to the good estate, the
tyrants of Lombardy and Tuscany must despise, or hate, the
plebeian author of a free constitution. From them, however, and
from every part of Italy, the tribune received the most friendly
and respectful answers: they were followed by the ambassadors of
the princes and republics; and in this foreign conflux, on all
the occasions of pleasure or business, the low born notary could
assume the familiar or majestic courtesy of a sovereign. 29 The
most glorious circumstance of his reign was an appeal to his
justice from Lewis, king of Hungary, who complained, that his
brother and her husband had been perfidiously strangled by Jane,
queen of Naples: 30 her guilt or innocence was pleaded in a
solemn trial at Rome; but after hearing the advocates, 31 the
tribune adjourned this weighty and invidious cause, which was
soon determined by the sword of the Hungarian. Beyond the Alps,
more especially at Avignon, the revolution was the theme of
curiosity, wonder, and applause. 311 Petrarch had been the
private friend, perhaps the secret counsellor, of Rienzi: his
writings breathe the most ardent spirit of patriotism and joy;
and all respect for the pope, all gratitude for the Colonna, was
lost in the superior duties of a Roman citizen. The poet-laureate
of the Capitol maintains the act, applauds the hero, and mingles
with some apprehension and advice, the most lofty hopes of the
permanent and rising greatness of the republic. 32

29 (return) [ It was thus that Oliver Cromwell’s old
acquaintance, who remembered his vulgar and ungracious entrance
into the House of Commons, were astonished at the ease and
majesty of the protector on his throne, (See Harris’s Life of
Cromwell, p. 27—34, from Clarendon Warwick, Whitelocke, Waller,
&c.) The consciousness of merit and power will sometimes elevate
the manners to the station.]

30 (return) [ See the causes, circumstances, and effects of the
death of Andrew in Giannone, (tom. iii. l. xxiii. p. 220—229,)
and the Life of Petrarch (Mémoires, tom. ii. p. 143—148, 245—250,
375—379, notes, p. 21—37.) The abbé de Sade _wishes_ to extenuate
her guilt.]

31 (return) [ The advocate who pleaded against Jane could add
nothing to the logical force and brevity of his master’s epistle.
Johanna! inordinata vita præcedens, retentio potestatis in regno,
neglecta vindicta, vir alter susceptus, et excusatio subsequens,
necis viri tui te probant fuisse participem et consortem. Jane of
Naples, and Mary of Scotland, have a singular conformity.]

311 (return) [ In his letter to the archbishop of Prague, Rienzi
thus describes the effect of his elevation on Italy and on the
world: “Did I not restore real peace among the cities which were
distracted by factions? did I not cause all the citizens, exiled
by party violence, with their wretched wives and children, to be
readmitted? had I not begun to extinguish the factious names
(scismatica nomina) of Guelf and Ghibelline, for which countless
thousands had perished body and soul, under the eyes of their
pastors, by the reduction of the city of Rome and all Italy into
one amicable, peaceful, holy, and united confederacy? the
consecrated standards and banners having been by me collected and
blended together, and, in witness to our holy association and
perfect union, offered up in the presence of the ambassadors of
all the cities of Italy, on the day of the assumption of our
Blessed Lady.” p. xlvii. ——In the Libellus ad Cæsarem: “I
received the homage and submission of all the sovereigns of
Apulia, the barons and counts, and almost all the people of
Italy. I was honored by solemn embassies and letters by the
emperor of Constantinople and the king of England. The queen of
Naples submitted herself and her kingdom to the protection of the
tribune. The king of Hungary, by two solemn embassies, brought
his cause against his queen and his nobles before my tribunal;
and I venture to say further, that the fame of the tribune
alarmed the soldan of Babylon. When the Christian pilgrims to the
sepulchre of our Lord related to the Christian and Jewish
inhabitants of Jerusalem all the yet unheard-of and wonderful
circumstances of the reformation in Rome, both Jews and
Christians celebrated the event with unusual festivities. When
the soldan inquired the cause of these rejoicings, and received
this intelligence about Rome, he ordered all the havens and
cities on the coast to be fortified, and put in a state of
defence,” p. xxxv.—M. 1845.]

32 (return) [ See the Epistola Hortatoria de Capessenda
Republica, from Petrarch to Nicholas Rienzi, (Opp. p. 535—540,)
and the vth eclogue or pastoral, a perpetual and obscure
allegory.]

While Petrarch indulged these prophetic visions, the Roman hero
was fast declining from the meridian of fame and power; and the
people, who had gazed with astonishment on the ascending meteor,
began to mark the irregularity of its course, and the
vicissitudes of light and obscurity. More eloquent than
judicious, more enterprising than resolute, the faculties of
Rienzi were not balanced by cool and commanding reason: he
magnified in a tenfold proportion the objects of hope and fear;
and prudence, which could not have erected, did not presume to
fortify, his throne. In the blaze of prosperity, his virtues were
insensibly tinctured with the adjacent vices; justice with
cruelty, liberality with profusion, and the desire of fame with
puerile and ostentatious vanity. 321 He might have learned, that
the ancient tribunes, so strong and sacred in the public opinion,
were not distinguished in style, habit, or appearance, from an
ordinary plebeian; 33 and that as often as they visited the city
on foot, a single viator, or beadle, attended the exercise of
their office. The Gracchi would have frowned or smiled, could
they have read the sonorous titles and epithets of their
successor, “Nicholas, severe and merciful; deliverer of Rome;
defender of Italy; 34 friend of mankind, and of liberty, peace,
and justice; tribune august:” his theatrical pageants had
prepared the revolution; but Rienzi abused, in luxury and pride,
the political maxim of speaking to the eyes, as well as the
understanding, of the multitude. From nature he had received the
gift of a handsome person, 35 till it was swelled and disfigured
by intemperance: and his propensity to laughter was corrected in
the magistrate by the affectation of gravity and sternness. He
was clothed, at least on public occasions, in a party-colored
robe of velvet or satin, lined with fur, and embroidered with
gold: the rod of justice, which he carried in his hand, was a
sceptre of polished steel, crowned with a globe and cross of
gold, and enclosing a small fragment of the true and holy wood.
In his civil and religious processions through the city, he rode
on a white steed, the symbol of royalty: the great banner of the
republic, a sun with a circle of stars, a dove with an olive
branch, was displayed over his head; a shower of gold and silver
was scattered among the populace, fifty guards with halberds
encompassed his person; a troop of horse preceded his march; and
their tymbals and trumpets were of massy silver.

321 (return) [ An illustrious female writer has drawn, with a
single stroke, the character of Rienzi, Crescentius, and Arnold
of Brescia, the fond restorers of Roman liberty: ‘Qui ont pris
les souvenirs pour les espérances.’ Corinne, tom. i. p. 159.
“Could Tacitus have excelled this?” Hallam, vol i p. 418.—M.]

33 (return) [ In his Roman Questions, Plutarch (Opuscul. tom. i.
p. 505, 506, edit. Græc. Hen. Steph.) states, on the most
constitutional principles, the simple greatness of the tribunes,
who were not properly magistrates, but a check on magistracy. It
was their duty and interest omoiousqai schmati, kai stolh kai
diaithtoiV epitugcanousi tvn politvn.... katapateisqai dei (a
saying of C. Curio) kai mh semnon einai th oyei mhde
dusprosodon... osw de mallon ektapeinoutai tv swmati, tosoutw
mallon auxetai th dunamei, &c. Rienzi, and Petrarch himself, were
incapable perhaps of reading a Greek philosopher; but they might
have imbibed the same modest doctrines from their favorite
Latins, Livy and Valerius Maximus.]

34 (return) [ I could not express in English the forcible, though
barbarous, title of _Zelator_ Italiæ, which Rienzi assumed.]

35 (return) [ Era bell’ homo, (l. ii. c. l. p. 399.) It is
remarkable, that the riso sarcastico of the Bracciano edition is
wanting in the Roman MS., from which Muratori has given the text.
In his second reign, when he is painted almost as a monster,
Rienzi travea una ventresca tonna trionfale, a modo de uno Abbate
Asiano, or Asinino, (l. iii. c. 18, p. 523.)]

The ambition of the honors of chivalry 36 betrayed the meanness
of his birth, and degraded the importance of his office; and the
equestrian tribune was not less odious to the nobles, whom he
adopted, than to the plebeians, whom he deserted. All that yet
remained of treasure, or luxury, or art, was exhausted on that
solemn day. Rienzi led the procession from the Capitol to the
Lateran; the tediousness of the way was relieved with decorations
and games; the ecclesiastical, civil, and military orders marched
under their various banners; the Roman ladies attended his wife;
and the ambassadors of Italy might loudly applaud or secretly
deride the novelty of the pomp. In the evening, which they had
reached the church and palace of Constantine, he thanked and
dismissed the numerous assembly, with an invitation to the
festival of the ensuing day. From the hands of a venerable knight
he received the order of the Holy Ghost; the purification of the
bath was a previous ceremony; but in no step of his life did
Rienzi excite such scandal and censure as by the profane use of
the porphyry vase, in which Constantine (a foolish legend) had
been healed of his leprosy by Pope Sylvester. 37 With equal
presumption the tribune watched or reposed within the consecrated
precincts of the baptistery; and the failure of his state-bed was
interpreted as an omen of his approaching downfall. At the hour
of worship, he showed himself to the returning crowds in a
majestic attitude, with a robe of purple, his sword, and gilt
spurs; but the holy rites were soon interrupted by his levity and
insolence. Rising from his throne, and advancing towards the
congregation, he proclaimed in a loud voice: “We summon to our
tribunal Pope Clement: and command him to reside in his diocese
of Rome: we also summon the sacred college of cardinals. 38 We
again summon the two pretenders, Charles of Bohemia and Lewis of
Bavaria, who style themselves emperors: we likewise summon all
the electors of Germany, to inform us on what pretence they have
usurped the inalienable right of the Roman people, the ancient
and lawful sovereigns of the empire.” 39 Unsheathing his maiden
sword, he thrice brandished it to the three parts of the world,
and thrice repeated the extravagant declaration, “And this too is
mine!” The pope’s vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, attempted to
check this career of folly; but his feeble protest was silenced
by martial music; and instead of withdrawing from the assembly,
he consented to dine with his brother tribune, at a table which
had hitherto been reserved for the supreme pontiff. A banquet,
such as the Cæsars had given, was prepared for the Romans. The
apartments, porticos, and courts of the Lateran were spread with
innumerable tables for either sex, and every condition; a stream
of wine flowed from the nostrils of Constantine’s brazen horse;
no complaint, except of the scarcity of water, could be heard;
and the licentiousness of the multitude was curbed by discipline
and fear. A subsequent day was appointed for the coronation of
Rienzi; 40 seven crowns of different leaves or metals were
successively placed on his head by the most eminent of the Roman
clergy; they represented the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; and
he still professed to imitate the example of the ancient
tribunes. 401 These extraordinary spectacles might deceive or
flatter the people; and their own vanity was gratified in the
vanity of their leader. But in his private life he soon deviated
from the strict rule of frugality and abstinence; and the
plebeians, who were awed by the splendor of the nobles, were
provoked by the luxury of their equal. His wife, his son, his
uncle, (a barber in name and profession,) exposed the contrast of
vulgar manners and princely expense; and without acquiring the
majesty, Rienzi degenerated into the vices, of a king.

36 (return) [ Strange as it may seem, this festival was not
without a precedent. In the year 1327, two barons, a Colonna and
an Ursini, the usual balance, were created knights by the Roman
people: their bath was of rose-water, their beds were decked with
royal magnificence, and they were served at St. Maria of Araceli
in the Capitol, by the twenty-eight _buoni huomini_. They
afterwards received from Robert, king of Naples, the sword of
chivalry, (Hist. Rom. l. i. c. 2, p. 259.)]

37 (return) [ All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of
Constantine (Petrarch. Epist. Famil. vi. 2,) and Rienzi justified
his own conduct by observing to the court of Avignon, that a vase
which had been used by a Pagan could not be profaned by a pious
Christian. Yet this crime is specified in the bull of
excommunication, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerçeau, p. 189, 190.)]

38 (return) [ This _verbal_ summons of Pope Clement VI., which
rests on the authority of the Roman historian and a Vatican MS.,
is disputed by the biographer of Petrarch, (tom. ii. not. p.
70—76), with arguments rather of decency than of weight. The
court of Avignon might not choose to agitate this delicate
question.]

39 (return) [ The summons of the two rival emperors, a monument
of freedom and folly, is extant in Hocsemius, (Cerçeau, p.
163—166.)]

40 (return) [ It is singular, that the Roman historian should
have overlooked this sevenfold coronation, which is sufficiently
proved by internal evidence, and the testimony of Hocsemius, and
even of Rienzi, (Cercean p. 167—170, 229.)]

401 (return) [ It was on this occasion that he made the profane
comparison between himself and our Lord; and the striking
circumstance took place which he relates in his letter to the
archbishop of Prague. In the midst of all the wild and joyous
exultation of the people, one of his most zealous supporters, a
monk, who was in high repute for his sanctity, stood apart in a
corner of the church and wept bitterly! A domestic chaplain of
Rienzi’s inquired the cause of his grief. “Now,” replied the man
of God, “is thy master cast down from heaven—never saw I man so
proud. By the aid of the Holy Ghost he has driven the tyrants
from the city without drawing a sword; the cities and the
sovereigns of Italy have submitted to his power. Why is he so
arrogant and ungrateful towards the Most High? Why does he seek
earthly and transitory rewards for his labors, and in his wanton
speech liken himself to the Creator? Tell thy master that he can
only atone for this offence by tears of penitence.” In the
evening the chaplain communicated this solemn rebuke to the
tribune: it appalled him for the time, but was soon forgotten in
the tumult and hurry of business.—M. 1845.]

A simple citizen describes with pity, or perhaps with pleasure,
the humiliation of the barons of Rome. “Bareheaded, their hands
crossed on their breast, they stood with downcast looks in the
presence of the tribune; and they trembled, good God, how they
trembled!” 41 As long as the yoke of Rienzi was that of justice
and their country, their conscience forced them to esteem the
man, whom pride and interest provoked them to hate: his
extravagant conduct soon fortified their hatred by contempt; and
they conceived the hope of subverting a power which was no longer
so deeply rooted in the public confidence. The old animosity of
the Colonna and Ursini was suspended for a moment by their common
disgrace: they associated their wishes, and perhaps their
designs; an assassin was seized and tortured; he accused the
nobles; and as soon as Rienzi deserved the fate, he adopted the
suspicions and maxims, of a tyrant. On the same day, under
various pretences, he invited to the Capitol his principal
enemies, among whom were five members of the Ursini and three of
the Colonna name. But instead of a council or a banquet, they
found themselves prisoners under the sword of despotism or
justice; and the consciousness of innocence or guilt might
inspire them with equal apprehensions of danger. At the sound of
the great bell the people assembled; they were arraigned for a
conspiracy against the tribune’s life; and though some might
sympathize in their distress, not a hand, nor a voice, was raised
to rescue the first of the nobility from their impending doom.
Their apparent boldness was prompted by despair; they passed in
separate chambers a sleepless and painful night; and the
venerable hero, Stephen Colonna, striking against the door of his
prison, repeatedly urged his guards to deliver him by a speedy
death from such ignominious servitude. In the morning they
understood their sentence from the visit of a confessor and the
tolling of the bell. The great hall of the Capitol had been
decorated for the bloody scene with red and white hangings: the
countenance of the tribune was dark and severe; the swords of the
executioners were unsheathed; and the barons were interrupted in
their dying speeches by the sound of trumpets. But in this
decisive moment, Rienzi was not less anxious or apprehensive than
his captives: he dreaded the splendor of their names, their
surviving kinsmen, the inconstancy of the people, the reproaches
of the world, and, after rashly offering a mortal injury, he
vainly presumed that, if he could forgive, he might himself be
forgiven. His elaborate oration was that of a Christian and a
suppliant; and, as the humble minister of the commons, he
entreated his masters to pardon these noble criminals, for whose
repentance and future service he pledged his faith and authority.
“If you are spared,” said the tribune, “by the mercy of the
Romans, will you not promise to support the good estate with your
lives and fortunes?” Astonished by this marvellous clemency, the
barons bowed their heads; and while they devoutly repeated the
oath of allegiance, might whisper a secret, and more sincere,
assurance of revenge. A priest, in the name of the people,
pronounced their absolution: they received the communion with the
tribune, assisted at the banquet, followed the procession; and,
after every spiritual and temporal sign of reconciliation, were
dismissed in safety to their respective homes, with the new
honors and titles of generals, consuls, and patricians. 42

41 (return) [ Puoi se faceva stare denante a se, mentre sedeva,
li baroni tutti in piedi ritti co le vraccia piecate, e co li
capucci tratti. Deh como stavano paurosi! (Hist. Rom. l. ii. c.
20, p. 439.) He saw them, and we see them.]

42 (return) [ The original letter, in which Rienzi justifies his
treatment of the Colonna, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerçeau, p.
222—229,) displays, in genuine colors, the mixture of the knave
and the madman.]

During some weeks they were checked by the memory of their
danger, rather than of their deliverance, till the most powerful
of the Ursini, escaping with the Colonna from the city, erected
at Marino the standard of rebellion. The fortifications of the
castle were instantly restored; the vassals attended their lord;
the outlaws armed against the magistrate; the flocks and herds,
the harvests and vineyards, from Marino to the gates of Rome,
were swept away or destroyed; and the people arraigned Rienzi as
the author of the calamities which his government had taught them
to forget. In the camp, Rienzi appeared to less advantage than in
the rostrum; and he neglected the progress of the rebel barons
till their numbers were strong, and their castles impregnable.
From the pages of Livy he had not imbibed the art, or even the
courage, of a general: an army of twenty thousand Romans returned
without honor or effect from the attack of Marino; and his
vengeance was amused by painting his enemies, their heads
downwards, and drowning two dogs (at least they should have been
bears) as the representatives of the Ursini. The belief of his
incapacity encouraged their operations: they were invited by
their secret adherents; and the barons attempted, with four
thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horse, to enter Rome by force
or surprise. The city was prepared for their reception; the
alarm-bell rung all night; the gates were strictly guarded, or
insolently open; and after some hesitation they sounded a
retreat. The two first divisions had passed along the walls, but
the prospect of a free entrance tempted the headstrong valor of
the nobles in the rear; and after a successful skirmish, they
were overthrown and massacred without quarter by the crowds of
the Roman people. Stephen Colonna the younger, the noble spirit
to whom Petrarch ascribed the restoration of Italy, was preceded
or accompanied in death by his son John, a gallant youth, by his
brother Peter, who might regret the ease and honors of the
church, by a nephew of legitimate birth, and by two bastards of
the Colonna race; and the number of seven, the seven crowns, as
Rienzi styled them, of the Holy Ghost, was completed by the agony
of the deplorable parent, and the veteran chief, who had survived
the hope and fortune of his house. The vision and prophecies of
St. Martin and Pope Boniface had been used by the tribune to
animate his troops: 43 he displayed, at least in the pursuit, the
spirit of a hero; but he forgot the maxims of the ancient Romans,
who abhorred the triumphs of civil war. The conqueror ascended
the Capitol; deposited his crown and sceptre on the altar; and
boasted, with some truth, that he had cut off an ear, which
neither pope nor emperor had been able to amputate. 44 His base
and implacable revenge denied the honors of burial; and the
bodies of the Colonna, which he threatened to expose with those
of the vilest malefactors, were secretly interred by the holy
virgins of their name and family. 45 The people sympathized in
their grief, repented of their own fury, and detested the
indecent joy of Rienzi, who visited the spot where these
illustrious victims had fallen. It was on that fatal spot that he
conferred on his son the honor of knighthood: and the ceremony
was accomplished by a slight blow from each of the horsemen of
the guard, and by a ridiculous and inhuman ablution from a pool
of water, which was yet polluted with patrician blood. 46

43 (return) [ Rienzi, in the above-mentioned letter, ascribes to
St. Martin the tribune, Boniface VIII. the enemy of Colonna,
himself, and the Roman people, the glory of the day, which
Villani likewise (l. 12, c. 104) describes as a regular battle.
The disorderly skirmish, the flight of the Romans, and the
cowardice of Rienzi, are painted in the simple and minute
narrative of Fortifiocca, or the anonymous citizen, (l. i. c.
34—37.)]

44 (return) [ In describing the fall of the Colonna, I speak only
of the family of Stephen the elder, who is often confounded by
the P. du Cerçeau with his son. That family was extinguished, but
the house has been perpetuated in the collateral branches, of
which I have not a very accurate knowledge. Circumspice (says
Petrarch) familiæ tuæ statum, Columniensium _domos_: solito
pauciores habeat columnas. Quid ad rem modo fundamentum stabile,
solidumque permaneat.]

45 (return) [ The convent of St. Silvester was founded, endowed,
and protected by the Colonna cardinals, for the daughters of the
family who embraced a monastic life, and who, in the year 1318,
were twelve in number. The others were allowed to marry with
their kinsmen in the fourth degree, and the dispensation was
justified by the small number and close alliances of the noble
families of Rome, (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 110, tom.
ii. p. 401.)]

46 (return) [ Petrarch wrote a stiff and pedantic letter of
consolation, (Fam. l. vii. epist. 13, p. 682, 683.) The friend
was lost in the patriot. Nulla toto orbe principum familia
carior; carior tamen respublica, carior Roma, carior Italia. ——Je
rends graces aux Dieux de n’être pas Romain.]

A short delay would have saved the Colonna, the delay of a single
month, which elapsed between the triumph and the exile of Rienzi.
In the pride of victory, he forfeited what yet remained of his
civil virtues, without acquiring the fame of military prowess. A
free and vigorous opposition was formed in the city; and when the
tribune proposed in the public council 47 to impose a new tax,
and to regulate the government of Perugia, thirty-nine members
voted against his measures; repelled the injurious charge of
treachery and corruption; and urged him to prove, by their
forcible exclusion, that if the populace adhered to his cause, it
was already disclaimed by the most respectable citizens. The pope
and the sacred college had never been dazzled by his specious
professions; they were justly offended by the insolence of his
conduct; a cardinal legate was sent to Italy, and after some
fruitless treaty, and two personal interviews, he fulminated a
bull of excommunication, in which the tribune is degraded from
his office, and branded with the guilt of rebellion, sacrilege,
and heresy. 48 The surviving barons of Rome were now humbled to a
sense of allegiance; their interest and revenge engaged them in
the service of the church; but as the fate of the Colonna was
before their eyes, they abandoned to a private adventurer the
peril and glory of the revolution. John Pepin, count of
Minorbino, 49 in the kingdom of Naples, had been condemned for
his crimes, or his riches, to perpetual imprisonment; and
Petrarch, by soliciting his release, indirectly contributed to
the ruin of his friend. At the head of one hundred and fifty
soldiers, the count of Minorbino introduced himself into Rome;
barricaded the quarter of the Colonna: and found the enterprise
as easy as it had seemed impossible. From the first alarm, the
bell of the Capitol incessantly tolled; but, instead of repairing
to the well-known sound, the people were silent and inactive; and
the pusillanimous Rienzi, deploring their ingratitude with sighs
and tears, abdicated the government and palace of the republic.

47 (return) [ This council and opposition is obscurely mentioned
by Pollistore, a contemporary writer, who has preserved some
curious and original facts, (Rer. Italicarum, tom. xxv. c. 31, p.
798—804.)]

48 (return) [ The briefs and bulls of Clement VI. against Rienzi
are translated by the P. du Cerçeau, (p. 196, 232,) from the
Ecclesiastical Annals of Odericus Raynaldus, (A.D. 1347, No. 15,
17, 21, &c.,) who found them in the archives of the Vatican.]

49 (return) [ Matteo Villani describes the origin, character, and
death of this count of Minorbino, a man da natura inconstante e
senza fede, whose grandfather, a crafty notary, was enriched and
ennobled by the spoils of the Saracens of Nocera, (l. vii. c.
102, 103.) See his imprisonment, and the efforts of Petrarch,
(tom. ii. p. 149—151.)]