CHA P. LXX. Urban V. A. D. 1367, October 16 A. D. 1370, which had been attempted by Urban the fifth, was finally accomplished by Gregory the eleventh. The execution of their defign was oppofed by weighty and almost infuperable obstacles. A king of France who has deferved the epithet of wife, was unwilling to release them from a local dependence the cardinals, for the most part his fubjects, were attached to the language, manners, and climate, of Avignon; to their stately palaces; above all, to the wines of Burgundy. In their Return of eyes, Italy was foreign or hoftile; and they reluctantly embarked at Marseilles, as if they had been fold or banished into the land of the Saracens. Urban the fifth refided three years in the Vatican with fafety and honour: his fanctity was protected April 17. by a guard of two thousand horfe; and the king of Cyprus, the queen of Naples, and the emperors of the Eaft and Weft devoutly faluted their common father in the chair of St. Peter. But the joy of Petrarch and the Italians was foon 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 faved from the tyrannic patriotifm of the Romans. The powers of heaven were interested in their cause: Bridget of Sweden, a faint and pilgrim, difapproved the return, and foretold the death, of Urban the fifth the migration of Gregory the eleventh Final re was encouraged by St. Catherine of Sienna, the turn of Gregory fpoufe of Chrift and ambaffadrefs of the Floren- XI. tines; and the popes themselves, the great masters of human credulity, appear to have liftened to thefe A. D. 1377, Jan. 17. 1 CHAP. these vifionary females ". Yet thofe celeftial ad LXX. temporal policy. The refidence of Avignon had been invaded by hoftile violence: at the head of thirty thousand robbers, an hero had extorted ranfom and absolution from the vicar of Chrift and the facred college; and the maxim of the French warriors, to fpare the people and plunder the church, was a new herefy of the most danger-. ous import. While the pope was driven from Avignon, he was ftrenuously invited to Rome. The fenate and people acknowledged him as their lawful fovereign, and laid at his feet the keys of the gates, the bridges, and the fortreffes; of the quarter at leaft beyond the Tyber". But this loyal offer was accompanied by a declaration, that they could no longer fuffer the scandal and calamity of his abfence; and that his obftinacy would finally provoke them to revive and affert the primitive right of election. The abbot of mount 59 I have not leifure to expatjate on the legends of St. Bridget or St. Catherine, the aft of which might furnish fome amufing ftories. Their effect on the mind of Gregory XI. is attested by the laft folemn words of the, dying pope, who admonished the affifiants, ut caverent ab hominibus, five viris, five mulieribus, fub fpecie religionis loquentibus vifiones fui capitis, quia per tales ipfe feductus, &c. (Baluz. Not. ad Vit. Pap. Avenionenfium, tom. i. P. 1223). 60 This predatory expedition is related by Froiffard (Chronique, tom. i. p. 230.), and in the life of du Guefclin (Collection Generale des Memoires Hiftoriques, tom. iv. c. 16. p. 107-113.). As early as the year 1361, the court of Avignon had been molefted by fimilar freebooters, who afterwards pafled the Alps (Memoires fur Pe trarque, tom. iii. p. 563—569.). 61 Fleury alleges, from the annals of Odericus Raynaldus, the original treaty which was figned the 21st of December 1376, between Gregory XI. and the Romans (Hift. Ecclef. tom. xx. P. 275-). 12 Caffin LXX Caffin had been confulted, whether he would ac- CHAP. cept the triple crown 2 from the clergy and people; "I am a citizen of Rome "3," replied that venerable ecclefiaftic, "and my first law is the "voice of my country 64 19 If superstition will interpret an untimely death 65; if the merit of counfels be judged from the event; the heavens may feem to frown on a measure of fuch apparent reafon and propriety. Gregory the eleventh did not furvive above fourteen months his return to the Vatican; and his decease was followed by the great fchifm of the Weft, which distracted the Latin church above forty years. 62 The first crown or regnum (Ducange, Gloff. Latin. tom. v. p. 702.) on the epifcopal mitre of the popes, is afcribed to the gift of Conftantine, or Clovis. The fecond was added by Boniface VIII. as the emblem not only of a fpiritual, but of a temporal, kingdom. The three states of the church are reprefented by the triple crown which was introduced by John XXII. or Benedict XII. (Memoires fur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 258,259.). 63 Baluze (Not. ad Pap. Avenion, tom. i. p. 1194, 1795.) produces the original evidence which attefts the threats of the Roman ambaffadors, and the refignation of the abbot of mount Caffin, qui ultro fe offerens, refpondit fe civem Romanum effe, et illud velle quod ipfi vellent. 64 The return of the popes from Avignon to Rome, and their reception by the people, are related in the original Lives of Urban V. and Gregory XI. in Baluze (Vit. Paparum Avenionenfium, tom. i. p. 363-486.) and Muratori (Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i. p. 610---716.). In the difputes of the fchifm, every circumftance was feverely, though partially, fcrutinifed; more especially in the great inqueft, which decided the obedience of Caftile, and to which Baluze, in his notes, fo often and fo largely appeals, from a MS. volume in the Harlay library (p. 1281, &c.). His death, 1378, March 27. A. D. 65 Can the death of a good man be esteemed a punishment by thofe who believe in the immortality of the foul? They betray the inftability of their faith. Yet, as a mere philofopher, I cannot agree with, the Greeks, os De Qi8o amolinoxes veos (Brunck, Poeta Gnomici, p. 231.). See in Herodotus (1. i. c. 31.) the moral and pleafing tale of the Argive youths. The LXX. Election of April 9. CHAP. The facred college was then compofed of twentytwo cardinals: fix of thefe had remained at Avignon; eleven Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and four Italians, entered the conclave in the ufual form. Their choice was not yet limited to the purple ; and their unanimous votes acquiefced in the archUrban VI. bishop of Bari, a fubject of Naples, confpicuous for his zeal and learning, who afcended the throne of St. Peter under the name of Urban the fixth. The epiftle of the facred college affirms his free and regular election; which had been inspired, as usual, by the Holy Ghoft: he was adored, invefted, and crowned, with the customary rights; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome and Avignon, and his ecclefiaftical fupremacy was acknowledged in the Latin world. During feveral weeks, the cardinals attended their new mafter with the faireft profeffions of attachment and loyalty; till the fummer heats permitted a decent. escape from the city. But as foon as they were united at Anagni and Fundi, in a place of fecurity, they caft afide the mafk, accused their falfehood and hypocrify, excommunicated the apoftate and antichrift of Rome, and proceeded to a new election of Robert of Geneva, Clement the feventh, whom they announced to the nations as the true and rightful vicar of Chrift. 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 juftified by the strong evidence of probability and fact. The twelve French cardinals, above two-thirds of the votes, were malers of the election; and whatever Election of of Cle ment VII. Sept. 21. own might > LXX. might be their provincial jealoufies, it cannot fairly CHAP. be prefumed that they would have facrificed their right and intereft to a foreign candidate, who would never restore them to their native country. In the various, and often inconfiftent, narratives", the fhades of popular violence are more darkly or faintly coloured: but the licentiousness of the feditious Romans was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and the danger of a second emigration. The conclave was intimidated by the fhouts, and encompaffed 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 univerfal cry; the fame threat was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the quarters, in the form of charitable advice; fome preparations were made for burning the obftinate cardinals; and had they chofen a Tranfalpine fubject, it is probable that they would never have departed alive from the Vatican. The fame constraint imposed the neceffity of diffembling in the eyes of Rome and of the world: the pride and cruelty of Urban presented a more inevitable danger; and they foon discovered the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, while he heard from an adjacent chamber fix cardinals groaning on the rack. His inflexible 66 In the first book of the Hiftoire du Concile de Pife, 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 fupported in the notes of their editor Baluze. VOL. XII. B.b zeal, |