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 valour 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, Defeat and 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 honours 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 death of the Colonna, 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 splendour 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 abso-parent, of the veteran chief, who had survived the lution: 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 honours and titles of generals, consuls, and patricians.' They oppose Ri During some weeks they were checkenzi in arms. ed 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 honour 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 The original letter, in which Rienzi justifies his treatment of the Colonna, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerceau, p. 222–229.) displays, in genuine colours, the mixture of the knave and the madman. 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 (1. 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. ii. c. 34-37.) 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 Cerceau with his son. That family was extinguished, but the house has been perpetu Nov. 20. 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 :" 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. His base and implacable revenge denied the honours 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. 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 honour 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." A short delay would have saved the Colonna, the delay of a single month, which elapsed between the triumph and exile of Rienzi. In the pride of Fall and flight Rienzi, of the tribune A. D. 1347, Dec. 15. ated 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, solidumq; permaneat, y 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 allances of the noble families of Rome. (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 110. tom. ii. p. 401.) z Petrarch wrote a stiff and pedantic letter of consolation. (Fam. 1. vii. epist. 13. p. 682, 683.) The friend was lost in the patriot. Nulla and empire had vanished: their fallen spirit would have acquiesced in servitude, had it been smoothed by tranquillity and order: and it was scarcely observed, that the new senators derived their authority from the Apostolic See; that four cardinals were appointed to reform, with dictatorial power, the state of the republic. Rome was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, who detested each other, and despised the commons: their hostile fortresses, both in town and country, again rose, and were again demolished; and the peaceful citizens, a flock of sheep, were devoured, says the 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 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 | Florentine historian, by these rapacious wolves, 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. 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 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. Revolutions of A. D. 1347-1354. Without drawing his sword, count Pepin restored the aristocracy of the church; three senators were chosen, and the legate assuming the first rank, accepted his two colleagues from the rival families of Colonna and Ursini. The acts of the tribune were abolished, his head was proscribed; yet such was the terror of his name, that the barons hesitated three days, before they would trust themselves in the city, and Rienzi was left above a month in the castle of St. Angelo, from whence he peaceably withdrew, after labouring, without effect, to revive the affection and courage of the Romans. The vision of freedom toto orbe principum familia carior; carior tamen respublica, carior Roma, carior Italia. Je rends graces aux Dieux de n'etre pas Romain. a 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. b The briefs and bulls of Clement VI. against Rienzi, are translated by the P. du Cerceau (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. e 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 But when their pride and avarice had exhausted the patience of the Romans, a confraternity of the Virgin Mary protected or avenged the republic: the bell of the capitol was again tolled, the nobles in arms trembled in the presence of an unarmed multitude; and of the two senators, Colonna escaped from the window of the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of the altar. The dangerous office of tribune was successively occupied by two plebeians, Cerroni and Baroncelli. The mildness of Cerroni was unequal to the times; and after a faint struggle, he retired with a fair reputation and a decent fortune to the comforts of rural life. Devoid of eloquence or genius, Baroncelli was distinguished by a resolute spirit: he spoke the language of a patriot, and trod in the footsteps of tyrants; his suspicion was a sentence of death, and his own death was the reward of his cruelties. Amidst the public misfortunes, the faults of Rienzi were forgotten; and the Romans sighed for the peace and prosperity of the good estate.d Rienzi. After an exile of seven years, the Adventures of first deliverer was again restored to his country. In the disguise of a monk or a pilgrim, he escaped from the castle of St. Angelo, implored the friendship of the kings of Hungary and Naples, tempted the ambition of every bold adventurer, mingled at Rome with the pilgrims of the jubilee, lay concealed among the hermits of the Apennine, and wandered through the cities of Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. His person was invisible, his name was yet formidable; and the anxiety of the court of Avignon supposes, and even magnifies, his personal merit. The emperor Charles the fourth gave audience to a stranger, who frankly revealed himself as the tribune of the republic; and astonished an assembly of ambassadors and princes, by the eloquence of a patriot and the visions of a prophet, the downfal of tyranny and the kingdom of the Holy Ghost. Whatever had been his hopes, Rienzi of the Saracens of Nocera, (1. vii. c. 102, 103.) See his imprisonment, and the efforts of Petrarch, tom. ii. P. 149-151. d The troubles of Rome, from the departure to the return of Rienzi are related by Matteo Villani, (l. ii. c. 47. 1. iii. c. 33. 57, 78.) and Thomas Fortifiocca. 1. iii. c.-4.) I have slightly passed over these secondary characters, who imitated the original tribune. These visions, of which the friends and the enemies of Rienzi seem alike ignorant, are surely magnified by the zeal of Pollistore, a Domi nican inquisitor. (Rer. Ital, tom, xxv. c. 36. p. 819.) Had the tribune taught, that Christ was succeeded by the Holy Ghost, that the tyranny of the pope would be abolished, he might have been convicted of heresy and treason, without offending the Roman people. A prisoner at | tribune had reigned with absolute dominion, by the choice, and in the hearts, of the Romans: the senator was the servile minister of a foreign court; and while he was suspected by the people, he was found himself a captive; but he supported a character of independence and dignity, and obeyed, as his own choice, the irresistible summons of the supreme pontiff. The zeal of Petrarch, which had been cooled by the unworthy conduct, was rekin-abandoned by the prince. The legate Albornoz, dled by the sufferings and the presence, of his friend; and he boldly complains of the times, in which the saviour of Rome was delivered by her emperor into the hands of her bishop. Rienzi was transported slowly, but in safe custody, from Prague to Avignon: his entrance into the city was that of a malefactor; in his prison he was chained by the leg; and four cardinals were named to inquire into the crimes of heresy and rebellion. But his trial and condemnation would have involved some questions, which it was more prudent to leave under the veil of mystery: the temporal supremacy of the popes; the duty of residence; the civil and ecclesiastical privileges of the clergy and people of Rome. The reigning pontiff well deserved the appellation of Clement: the strange vicissitudes and magnanimous spirit of the captive excited his pity and esteem; and Petrarch believes that he respected in the hero the name and sacred character of a poet. Rienzi was indulged with an easy confinement and the use of books; and in the assiduous study of Livy and the Bible, he sought the cause and the consolation of his misfortunes. Rienzi, senator who seemed desirous of his ruin, inflexibly refused The succeeding pontificate of Innoof Rome, cent the sixth opened a new prospect A. D. 1354. of his deliverance and restoration; and the court of Avignon was persuaded, that the successful rebel could alone appease and reform the anarchy of the metropolis. After a solemn profession of fidelity, the Roman tribune was sent into Italy, with the title of senator; but the death of Baroncelli appeared to supersede the use of his mission; and the legate, cardinal Albornoz, a consummate statesman, allowed him with reluctance, and without aid, to undertake the perilous experiment. His first reception was equal to his wishes: the day of his entrance was a public festival; and his eloquence and authority revived the laws of the good estate. But this momentary sunshine was soon clouded by his own vices and those of the people in the capitol, he might often regret the prison of Avignon; and after a second administration of four months, Rienzi was massacred in a tumult which had been fomented by the Roman barons. In the society of the Germans and Bohe-inflicted a thousand wounds; and the senator's body mians, he is said to have contracted the habits of intemperance and cruelty: adversity had chilled his enthusiasm, without fortifying his reason or virtue; and that youthful hope, that lively assurance, which is the pledge of success, was now succeeded by the cold impotence of distrust and despair. The The astonishment, the envy almost, of Petrarch is a proof, if not of the truth of this incredible fact, at least of his own veracity. The Abbé de Sade (Memoires, tom. iii. p. 242.) quotes the sixth epistle of the thirteenth book of Petrarch, but it is of the royal MS, which he consulted, and not of the ordinary Basil edition, (p. 920.) Ægidius, or Giles Albornoz, a noble Spaniard, archbishop of Toledo, and cardinal legate in Italy, (A. D. 1353-1367.) restored, by his arms and counsels, the temporal dominion of the popes. His life has been separately written by Sepulveda; but Dryden could not reason A. D. 1354. Sept. 8. was abandoned to the dogs, to the Jews, and to the h From Matteo Villani and Fortifiocca, the P. du Cerceau (p. 344– 394.) has extracted the life and death of the chevalier Montreal, the life of a robber and the death of a hero. At the head of a free company, the first that desolated Italy, he became rich and formidable: he had money in all the banks, 60,000 ducats in Padua alone. 1 The exile, second government, and death of Rienzi, are minutely related by the anonymous Roman, who appears neither his friend ner Petrarch invites and upbraids the emperor Charles IV. The first and most generous wish of | Petrarch was the restoration of a free republic; but after the exile and death A. D. 1355. January- of his plebeian hero, he turned his eyes May. from the tribune, to the king, of the Romans. The capitol was yet stained with the blood of Rienzi, when Charles the fourth descended from the Alps to obtain the Italian and imperial crowns. In his passage through Milan he received the visit, and repaid the flattery, of the poet-laureat; accepted a medal of Augustus; and promised, without a smile, to imitate the founder of the Roman monarchy. A false application of the names and maxims of antiquity was the source of the hopes and disappointments of Petrarch; yet he could not overlook the difference of times and characters; the immeasurable distance between the first Cæsars and a Bohemian prince, who by the favour of the clergy had been elected the titular head of the German aristocracy. Instead of restoring to Rome her glory and her provinces, he had bound himself, by a secret treaty with the pope, to evacuate the city on the day of his coronation; and his shameful retreat was pursued by the reproaches of the patriot bard. * He solicits the popes of Avignon to fix their residence at Rome. After the loss of liberty and empire, his third and more humble wish, was to reconcile the shepherd with his flock; to recall the Roman bishop to his ancient and peculiar diocese. In the fervour of youth, with the authority of age, Petrarch addressed his exhortations to five successive popes, and his eloquence was always inspired by the enthusiasm of sentiment and the freedom of language.' The son of a citizen of Florence invariably preferred the country of his birth to that of his education; and Italy, in his eyes, was the queen and garden of the world. Amidst her domestic factions, she was doubtless superior to France both in art and science, in wealth and politeness; but the difference could scarcely support the epithet of barbarous, which he promiscuously bestows on the countries beyond the Alps. Avignon, the mystic Babylon, the sink of vice and corruption, was the object of his hatred and contempt; but he forgets that her scandalous vices were not the growth of the soil, and that in every residence they would adhere to the power and luxury of the papal court. He confesses, that the successor of St. Peter is the bishop of the universal church; yet it was not on the banks of the Rhone, but of the Tiber, that the apostle had fixed his everlasting throne: and while every city in the christian world was blessed with a bishop, the metropolis alone was desolate and forlorn. Since the his enemy, (1. iii. c. 12-25.) Petrarch, who loved the tribune, was indifferent to the fate of the senator. The hopes and the disappointment of Petrarch are agreeably described in his own words by the French biographer; (Memoires, tom. iii. p. 375-413.) but the deep, though secret, wound, was the coronation of Zanubi the poet-laureat, by Charles IV. 1 See in his accurate and amusing biographer, the application of Pe. trarch and Rome to Benedict XII. in the year 1334. (Memoires, tom. i. p. 261-265.) to Clement VI. in 1342. (tom. ii. p. 45-47.) and to Urban V. in 1366, (tom. iii. p. 677-691.) his praise. (p. 711–715.) and excuse, (p. 772.) of the last of these pontiffs. His angry controversy on the respective merits of France and Italy may be found. (Opp. p. 1068-1085.) | Return of Urban V. A. D. 1367. removal of the holy see, the sacred buildings of the Lateran and the Vatican, their altars and their saints, were left in a state of poverty and decay; and Rome was often painted under the image of a disconsolate matron, as if the wandering husband could be reclaimed by the homely portrait of the age and infirmities of his weeping spouse." But the cloud which hung over the seven hills, would be dispelled by the presence of their lawful sovereign: eternal fame, the prosperity of Rome, and the peace of Italy, would be the recompence of the pope who should dare to embrace this generous resolution. Of the five whom Petrarch exhorted, the three first, John the twenty-second, Benedict the twelfth, and Clement the sixth, were importuned or amused by the boldness of the orator; but the memorable change which had been attempted by Urban the fifth, was finally accomplished by Gregory the eleventh. The execution of their design was opposed by weighty and almost insuperable obstacles. A king of France who has deserved the epithet of wise, was unwilling to release them from a local dependence: the cardinals, for the most part his subjects, were attached to the language, manners, and climate, of Avignon; to their stately palaces; above all, to the wines of Burgundy. In their eyes, Italy was foreign or hostile; and they reluctantly embarked at Marseilles, as if they had been sold or banished into the land of the Saracens. Urban the fifth resided three years in the Vatican with safety and honour: his sanctity was protected by a guard of two thousand horse; and the king of Cyprus, the queen of Naples, and the emperors of the east and west, devoutly saluted their common father in the chair of St. Peter. But the joy of Petrarch and the Italians was soon turned into grief and indignation. Some reasons of public or private moment, his own impatience or the prayers of the cardinals, recalled Urban to France; and the approaching election was saved from the tyrannic patriotism of the Romans. The powers of heaven were interested in their cause Bridget of Sweden, a saint and pilgrim, disapproved the return, and foretold the death, of Urban the fifth the migration of Gregory the eleventh was encouraged by St. Catherine of Sienna, the spouse of Christ and ambassadress of the Florentines; and the popes themselves, the great masters of human credulity, appear to have listened to these visionary females." Yet those celestial admonitions were supported by some arguments of temporal policy. The residence of Avignon had been invaded m Squalida sed quoniam facies, neglectaque cultu Caesaries; multisque malis lassata senectus Eripuit solitam effigiem: vetus accipe nomen ; ̧ Roma vocor. (Carm. 1. 2. p. 77.) He spins this allegory beyond all measure or patience. The Epistles to Urban V. in prose are more simple and persuasive. (Senilium, I. vii. p. 811-827. 1. ix. epist. i. p. 844-854.) Final return of A. D. 1377. n I have not leisure to expatiate on the legends of St. Bridget or St. Catherine, the last of which might furnish some amusing stories. Ther effect on the mind of Gregory XI. is attested by the last solemn words of the dying pope, who admonished the assistants, ut caverent ab ho minibus, sive viris, sive mulieribus, sub specie religionis loquentibus visiones sui capitis, quia per tales ipse seductus, &c. (Baluz. Not. ad Vit. Pap. Avenionensium, tom. i. p. 1223.) by hostile violence at the head of thirty thousand robbers, a hero had extorted ransom and absolution from the vicar of Christ and the sacred college; and the maxim of the French warriors, to spare the people and plunder the church, was a new heresy of the most dangerous import. While the pope was driven from Avignon, he was strenuously invited to Rome. The senate and people acknowledged him as their lawful sovereign, and laid at his feet the keys of the gates, the bridges, and the fortresses; of the quarter at least beyond the Tiber." But this loyal offer was accompanied by a declaration, that they could no longer suffer the scandal and calamity of his absence; and that his obstinacy would finally provoke them to revive and assert the primitive right of election. The abbot of mount Cassin had been consulted, whether he would accept the triple crown from the clergy and people: "I am a citizen of Rome," replied that venerable ecclesiastic," and my first law is the voice of my country."s His death, March 27. Election of Urban VI. April 9. If superstition will interpret an unA. D. 1378. timely death; if the merit of counsels be judged from the event; the heavens may seem to frown on a measure of such apparent reason and propriety. Gregory the eleventh did not survive above fourteen months his return to the Vatican; and his decease was followed by the great schism of the west, which distracted the Latin church above forty years. The sacred college was then composed of twenty-two cardinals: six of these had remained at Avignon; eleven Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and four Italians, entered the conclave in the usual form. Their choice was not yet limited to the purple; and their unanimous votes acquiesced in the archbishop of Bari, a subject of Naples, conspicuous for his zeal and learning, who ascended the throne of St. Peter under the name of Urban the sixth. The epistle of the sacred college affirms his free and regular election; which had been inspired, as usual, by the Holy Ghost: he was adorned, invested, and crowned, with the customary rites; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome and Avignon, and his ecclesiastical supremacy was acknowledged in the Latin world. During several weeks, the cardinals attended their new master with the fairest professions of attachment and loyalty; till the summer heats permitted a decent escape from the city. But as soon as they This predatory expedition is related by Froissard, (Chronique, tom. i. p. 230.) and in the life of du Guesclin. (Collection Generale des Memoires Historiques, tom. I. c. 16. p. 107-113.) As early as the year 1361 the court of Avignon had been molested by similar freebooters, who afterwards passed the Alps. (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 563-569.) p Fleury alleges, from the annals of Odericus Raynaldus, the origi. nal treaty which was signed the twenty-first of December 1376, between Gregory XI. and the Romans, (Hist. Eccles, tom, xx. p. 275.) The first crown or regnum (Ducange, Gloss, Latin. tom. v. p. 702.) on the episcopal mitre of the popes, is ascribed to the gift of Constan tine, or Clovis. The second was added by Boniface VIII. as the em. blem not only of a spiritual, but of a temporal, kingdom. The three states of the church are represented by the triple crown which was introduced by John XXII. or Benedict XII. (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 258, 259.) Baluze (Not, ad Pap. Avenion. tom. i. p. 1194, 1195.) produces the original evidence which attests the threats of the Roman ambassadors, and the resiguation of the abbot of mount Cassin, qui ultro se offerens, respondit se civem Romanum esse, et illud velle quod ipsi vellent. The return of the popes from Avignon to Rome, and their recep Election of Cle ment VII. Sept. 21. were united at Anagni and Fundi, in a place of security, they cast aside the mask, accused their own falsehood and hypocrisy, excommunicated the apostate and antichrist of Rome, and proceeded to a new election of Robert of Caneva, Clement the seventh, whom they announced to the nations as the true and rightful vicar of Christ. Their first choice, an involuntary and illegal act, was annulled by the fear of death and the menaces of the Romans; and their complaint is justified by the strong evidence of probability and fact. The twelve French cardinals, above two-thirds of the votes, were masters of the election; and whatever might be their provincial jealousies, it cannot fairly be presumed that they would have sacrificed their right and interest to a foreign candidate, who would never restore them to their native country. In the various, and often inconsistent, narratives," the shades of popular violence are more darkly or faintly coloured; but the licentiousness of the seditious Romans was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and the danger of a second emigration. The conclave was intimidated by the shouts, and encompassed by the arms, of thirty thousand rebels; the bells of the capitol and St. Peter's rang an alarm; "Death, or an Italian pope!" was the universal cry; the same threat was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the quarters, in the form of charitable advice; some preparations were made for burning the obstinate cardinals; and had they chosen a Transalpine subject, it is probable that they would never have departed alive from the Vatican. The same constraint imposed the necessity of dissembling in the eyes of Rome and of the world: the pride and cruelty of Urban presented a more inevitable danger; and they soon discovered the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, while he heard from an adjacent chamber six cardinals groaning on the rack. His inflexible zeal, which loudly censured their luxury and vice, would have attached them to the stations and duties of their parishes at Rome; and had he not fatally delayed a new promotion, the French cardinals would have been reduced to a helpless minority in the sacred college. For these reasons, and in the hope of repassing the Alps, they rashly violated the peace and unity of the church, and the merits of their tion by the people, are related in the original Lives of Urban V, and Gregory XI. in Baluze (Vit. Paparum Avenionensium, tom. i. p. 363– 486.) and Muratori. (Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. iii. p. i. p. 610-–712.) In the disputes of the schism, every circumstance was severely, though partially, scrutinized; more especially in the great inquest, which de. cided the obedience of Castile, and to which Baluze, in his notes, so often and so largely appeals from a MS, volume in the Harlay library, (p. 1281, &c.) t Can the death of a good man be esteemed a punishment by those who believe in the immortality of the soul? They betray the instabi lity of their faith. Yet as a mere philosopher, I cannot agree with the Greeks, év ni teor diλovaiv aπobvηokes veos. (Brunck, Poetæ Gnomici, p. 231.) See in Herodotus (l. i. c. 31.) the moral and pleasing tale of the Argive youths. In the first book of the Histoire du Concile de Pise, M. Lenfant has abridged and compared the original narratives of the adherents of Urban and Clement, of the Italians and Germans, the French and Spaniards. The latter appear to be the most active and loquacious, and every fact and word in the original Lives of Gregory XI, and Clement VII. are supported in the notes of their editor Baluze. |