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

IV.

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.)]