1

31

LXX.

or majestic courtesy of a fovereign 29. The moft CHAP.
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 perfidioufly ftrangled by Jane queen of
Naples 30 her guilt or innocence was pleaded in
a folemn trial at Rome; but after hearing the
advocates ", the tribune adjourned this weighty
and invidious caufe, which was foon determined
by the fword of the Hungarian. Beyond the
Alps, more especially at Avignon, the revolution.
was the theme of curiofity, wonder, and applause.
Petrarch had been the private friend, perhaps the and cele-
brated by
fecret counsellor, of Rienzi: his writings breathe Petrarch.
the most ardent spirit of patriotifm and joy; and
all refpect for the pope, all gratitude for the
Colonna, was loft in the superior duties of a
Roman citizen. The poet-laureat of the Capitol

29 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 (fee 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 ftation.

30 See the causes, circumftançes, and effects of the death of Andrew, in Giannone (tom. ii. 1. xxiii. p. 220-229.), and the Life of Petrarch (Memoires, tom. ii. p. 143-148. 245-250. 375-379. notes, p. 21-37.). The Abbé de Sade wishes to extenuate her guilt.

31 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 poteftatis in regno, neglecta vindicta, vir alter fufceptus, et excufatio fubfequens, necis viri tui te probant fuiffe participem et confortem. Jane of Naples, and Mary of Scotland, have a fingular conformity.

LXX.

CHAP. maintains the act, applauds the hero, and mingles with fome apprehenfion and advice the most lofty hopes of the permanent and rifing greatness of the republic 32.

His vices and follies.

While Petrarch indulged thefe prophetic vifions, 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 viciffitudes of light and obfcurity. More eloquent than judicious, more enterprising than refolute, the faculties of Rienzi were not balanced by cool and commanding reafon: he magnified in a tenfold proportion the objects of hope and fear; and prudence, which could not have erected, did not prefume to fortify, his throne. In the blaze of profperity, his virtues were infenfibly tinctured with the adjacent vices; justice with cruelty, liberality with profufion, and the defire of fame with puerile and oftentatious vanity. He might have learned, that the ancient tribunes, so strong and facred in the public opinion, were not diftinguished in style, habit, or appearance, from an ordinary plebeian 33; and that as often as they vifited the city on foot, a

fingle

32 See the Epiftola Hortatoria de Capeffenda Republica, from Petrarch to Nicholas Rienzi (Opp. p. 535-540.), and the vth eclogue or paftoral, a perpetual and obfcure allegory.

33 In his Roman Queftions, Plutarch (Opufcul. tom.i. p. 505, 506. edit. Græc. Hen. Steph.) ftates, on the most constitutional principles, the fimple greatness of the tribunes, who were not properly magiftrates, but a check on magiftracy. It was their duty and intereft ὁμοιεσθαι σχηματι, και πόλη και διαιτη της επιτυγχάνεσι TWY BORITWV •••• XATAmarda de (a faying of C. Curio) na un pro

είναι

LXX.

fingle viator, or beadle, attended the exercife of CHA P.
their office. The Gracchi would have frowned
or fmiled, could they have read the fonorous
titles and epithets of their fucceffor, "NICHOLAs,

34

66 SEVERE AND MERCIFUL; DELIVERER OF "ROME; DEFENDER OF ITALY ; FRIEND OF CC MANKIND, AND OF LIBERTY,

PEACE, AND
his theatrical

JUSTICE; TRIBUNE AUGUST:"
pageants had prepared the revolution; but Rienzi
abufed, in luxury and pride, the political maxim
of speaking to the eyes, as well as the understand-
ing, of the multitude. From nature he had
received the gift of an handsome perfon 3, till it
was fwelled and disfigured by intemperance; and
his propensity to laughter was corrected in the
magistrate by the affectation of gravity and stern-
nefs. He was cloathed, at leaft on public occa-
fions, in a party-coloured robe of velvet or fattin,
lined with fur, and embroidered with gold: the
rod of justice, which he carried in his hand, was
a fceptre of polished steel, crowned with a globe
and crofs of gold, and inclofing a small fragment
of the true and holy wood. In his civil and re-

είναι τη δημαρχον οψει. .
. . . . οσῳ δε μαλλον εκταπείνεται τω σωματι, τοσετα
paddov augstai în duvaμel, &C. Rienzi, and Petrarch himself, were
incapable perhaps of reading a Greek philofopher; but they
might have imbibed the fame modeft doctrines from their fa
vourite Latins, Livy and Valerius Maximus,

34 I could not express in English the forcible, though barbarous title of Zelator Italiæ, which Rienzi affumed.

35 Era bell' homo (l. ii. c. 1. p. 399.). It is remarkable, that the rifo farcaftico of the Bracciano edition is wanting in the Roman MS. from which Muratori has given the text. In his fecond reign, when he is painted almost as a monfter, Rienzi traveà una ventrefca tonna trionfalę, a modo de uno Abbate Afiano, or Afinino (1. iii. c. 18, p. 523.).

ligious

1

LXX.

CHAP. ligious proceffions through the city, he rode on a white steed, the symbol of royalty: the great banner of the republic, a fun with a circle of stars, a dove with an olive branch, was displayed over his head; a fhower of gold and filver was scattered among the populace; fifty guards with halberds encompassed his perfon; a troop of horfe preceded his march; and their tymbals and trumpets were of maffy filver.

The pomp

of his knightbood, A. D. 1347,

36

The ambition of the honours of chivalry 3 betrayed the meanness of his birth, and degraded the importance of his office; and the equestrian tribune was not lefs odious to the nobles, whom Auguft. he adopted, than to the plebeians, whom he deferted. All that yet remained of treasure, or luxury, or art, was exhausted on that folemn day. Rienzi led the proceffion from the Capitol to the Lateran; the tedioufnefs of the way was relieved with decorations and games; the ecclefiaftical, civil, and military orders marched under their various banners; the Roman ladies attended his wife; and the ambaffadors of Italy might loudly applaud, or fecretly deride, the novelty of the pomp. In the evening, when they had reached the church and palace of Conftantine, he thanked and difmiffed the numerous affembly, with an invitation to the festival of the enfuing day. From

36 Strange as it may feem, this feftival was not without a precedent. In the year 1327, two barons, a Colonna, and an Urfini, the usual balance, were created knights by the Roman people: their bath was of rofe-water, their beds were decked with royal magnificence, and they were ferved at St. Maria of Araceli in the Capitol, by the twenty-eight buoni huomini. They afterwards received from Robert king of Naples the fword of chivalry (Hift. Rom. 1. i. c. 2. p. 259.).

the

37

LXX.

the hands of a venerable knight he received the CHAP. order of the Holy Ghoft; the purification of the bath was a previous ceremony; but in no step of his life did Rienzi excite fuch scandal and cenfure as by the prophane ufe of the porphyry vase, in which Conftantine (a foolish legend) had been healed of his leprofy by pope Sylvefter ". With equal prefumption the tribune watched or reposed within the confecrated precincts of the baptiftery; and the failure of his ftate-bed was interpreted as an omen of his approaching downfal. At the hour of worship he fhewed himself to the returning crowds in a majestic attitude, with a robe of purple, his fword, and gilt fpurs; but the holy rites were foon interrupted by his levity and infolence. Rifing from his throne, and advancing towards the congregation, he proclaimed in a loud voice: "We fummon to our tribunal pope "Clement; and command him to refide in his "diocese of Rome: we alfo fummon the facred "college of cardinals 38. We again fummon the "two pretenders, Charles of Bohemia and Lewis "of Bavaria, who ftyle themselves emperors: "we likewife fummon all the electors of Ger66 many, to inform us on what pretence they have

37 All parties believed in the leprofy and bath of Conftantine (Petrarch, Epist. Famil. vi. 2.), and Rienzi juftified his own conduct by obferving to the court of Avignon, that a vafe which had been used by a Pagaf, could not be profaned by a pious Chriftian. Yet this crime is specified in the bull of excommunication (Hocfemius, apud du Cerçeau, p. 189, 190.).

38 This verbal fummons of pope Clement VI. which rests on the authority of the Roman historian and a Vatican MS. is dif puted 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 chufe to agitate this delicate queftion.

❝ ufurped