CHAP. XLIX. Alberic, profperity, their ambition was diverted by more alluring objects; and in the decay and divifion of the 'empire, they were oppreffed by the defence of their hereditary provinces. Amidst the ruins of Revolt of Italy, the famous Marozia invited one of the ufurp- A. D. 932. ers to affume the character of her third husband; and Hugh, king of Burgundy, was introduced by her faction into the mole of Hadrian or castle of St. Angelo, which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Her fon by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend at the nuptial banquet; but his reluctant and ungraceful fervice. was chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow was productive of a revolution. "Romans,' exclaimed the youth, "once you were the masters "of the world, and thefe Burgundians the most "abject of your flaves. They now reign, these "voracious and brutal favages, and my injury is "the commencement of your fervitude 131." The alarum-bell rung to arms in every quarter of the city; the Burgundians retreated with hafte and fhame; Marozia was imprisoned by her victorious. fon; and his brother, pope John XI. was reduced to the exercise of his fpiritual functions. With the title of prince, Alberic poffeffed above twenty years the government of Rome, and he is faid to have gratified the popular prejudice, by restoring 137 99 137 Romanorum aliquando fervi, fcilicet Burgundiones, Romanis imperent?.... Romanæ urbis dignitas ad tantam est stultitiam ducta, ut meretricum etiam imperio pareat? (Liutprand, 1. iii. c. 12. p. 450.). Sigonius (1. vi. p. 400.) pofitively affirms the renovation of the confulfhip; but in the old writers Albericus is more frequently styled princeps Romanorum. the XLIX. Of pope CHAP. the office, or at least the title, of confuls and tribunes. His fon and heir Octavian affumed, with the pontificate, the name of John XII.; like his predeceffor, he was provoked by the Lombard princes to feek a deliverer for the church and republic; and the fervices of Otho were rewarded with the Imperial dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans were impatient, the feftival of the coronation was disturbed by the secret conflict of prerogative and freedom, and Otho commanded his fword-bearer not to ftir from his perfon, left he should be affaulted and murdered at the foot of the altar 38. Before he repaffed the A. D. 967. Alps, the emperor chastised the revolt of the people and the ingratitude of John XII. The pope was degraded in a fynod; the præfect was mounted on an ass, whipped through the city, and caft into a dungeon; thirteen of the most guilty were hanged, others were mutilated or banished; and this fevere process was juftified by the ancient laws of Theodofius and Juftinian. The voice of fame has accused the second Otho of a perfidious and bloody act, the maffacre of the fenators, whom he had invited to his table under the fair semblance of hofpitality and friendship 139. In the minority of his fon Otho the third, Rome made a bold attempt to fhake off the Saxon yoke, and the conful 138 Ditmar, p. 354. apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 439. 139 This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse, in the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo (Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 436, 437 ), who flourished towards the end of the xiith century (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. med. et infimi Ævi, tom. iii. p. 63. edit. Manfi); but his evidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably fufpected by Muratori (Annali, tom. viii. p. 177.). Crefcen. 1 XLIX. Of the con Crefcentius was the Brutus of the republic. From CHAP. the condition of a fubject and an exile, he twice rofe to the command of the city, oppreffed, ex- ful Crefcen pelled, and created the popes, and formed a con- tius, A. D. 998. fpiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek emperors. In the fortrefs of St. Angelo, he maintained an obftinate fiege, till the unfortunate conful was betrayed by a promise of safety: his body was fufpended on a gibbet, and his head was exposed on the battlements of the caftle. By a reverse of fortune, Otho, after feparating his troops, was befieged three days, without food, in his palace; and a disgraceful escape faved him from the justice or fury of the Romans. The fenator Ptolemy was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crefcentius enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a poison which she administered to her Imperial lover. It was the defign of Otho the third to abandon the ruder countries of the north, to erect his throne in Italy, and to revive the inftitutions of the Roman monarchy. But his fucceffors only once in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tyber, to receive their crown in the Vatican 14°. Their absence was contemptible, their prefence odious and formidable. They defcended from the Alps, at the head of their Barbarians, who were strangers and enemies to the country; and their tranfient vifit was 140 The coronation of the emperor, and some original ceremonies of the xth century, are preferved in the Panegyric on Berengarius (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. 405-414,), illustrated by the Notes of Hadrian Valefius, and Leibnitz. Sigonius has related the whole process of the Roman expedition, in good Latin, but with fome errors of time and fact (1. vii. p. 441-446.). a scene XLIX. CHA P. a scene of tumult and bloodfhed 14. A faint remembrance of their ancestors ftill tormented the Romans; and they beheld with pious indignation the fucceffion of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who ufurped the purple and prerogatives of the Cæfars. The kingdom of Italy, A. D. 774 -1250. There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in oppofition to their inclination and interest. A torrent of Barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extenfive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppreffion; in the centre, an abfolute power, prompt in action, and rich in refources; a fwift and easy communication with the extreme parts: fortifications to check the firft effort of rebellion a regular administration to protect and punish; and a well-difciplined army to infpire fear, without provoking difcontent and defpair. different was the fituation of the German Cæfars, who were ambitious to enflave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial eftates were stretched along the Rhine, or fcattered in the provinces; but this ample domain was alienated by the im prudence or diftrefs of fucceffive princes; and their revenue, from minute and vexatious prerogative, was fcarcely fufficient for the maintenance of their household. Their troops were formed by the legal or voluntary service of their feudal vaffals, who paffed the Alps with reluctance, afsumed Far 141 In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad II. Muratori takes leave to obferve-doveano ben effere allora, indifciplinati, Barbari, e bestiali i Tedefchi. Annal. tom. viii. p. 368. the ་་ XLIX. the licenfe of rapine and diforder, and caprici- CHAP. oufly deserted before the end of the campaign. Whole armies were fwept away by the peftilential influence of the climate; the furvivors brought back the bones of their princes and nobles 142, and the effects of their own intemperance were often imputed to the treachery and malice of the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the calamities of the Barbarians. This irregular tyranny might contend on equal terms with the petty tyrants of Italy; nor can the people, or the reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the -eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards re-kindled the flame of industry and freedom; and the generous example was at length imitated by the republics of Tufcany. In the Italian cities a -municipal government had never been totally abolifhed; and their firft privileges were granted by the favour and policy of the emperors, who were defirous of erecting a plebeian barrier against the independence of the nobles. But their rapid progrefs, the daily extenfion of their power and pretenfions, were founded on the numbers and spirit of thefe rifing communities '43. Each city filled 142 After boiling away the bones. The caldrons for that purpose were a neceffary piece of travelling furniture; and a German who was using it for his brother, promised it to a friend, after it should have been employed for himself (Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 423, 424.). The fame author obferves that the whole Saxon line was extinguished in Italy (tom. ii. p. 440.). 143 Otho bishop of Frisingen has left an important paffage on the Italian cities (1. ii. c. 13. in Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 707–710.); and the rife, progrefs, and government, of these republics are perfectly illuftrated by Muratori (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Ævi, tom, iv. differt. xlvii. p. 167.5. Annal. tom, viii, ix, x.). the |