Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.—Part II

Yet the courage of Arnold was not devoid of discretion: he was
protected, and had perhaps been invited, by the nobles and
people; and in the service of freedom, his eloquence thundered
over the seven hills. Blending in the same discourse the texts of
Livy and St. Paul, uniting the motives of gospel, and of classic,
enthusiasm, he admonished the Romans, how strangely their
patience and the vices of the clergy had degenerated from the
primitive times of the church and the city. He exhorted them to
assert the inalienable rights of men and Christians; to restore
the laws and magistrates of the republic; to respect the _name_
of the emperor; but to confine their shepherd to the spiritual
government of his flock. 26 Nor could his spiritual government
escape the censure and control of the reformer; and the inferior
clergy were taught by his lessons to resist the cardinals, who
had usurped a despotic command over the twenty-eight regions or
parishes of Rome. 27 The revolution was not accomplished without
rapine and violence, the diffusion of blood and the demolition of
houses: the victorious faction was enriched with the spoils of
the clergy and the adverse nobles. Arnold of Brescia enjoyed, or
deplored, the effects of his mission: his reign continued above
ten years, while two popes, Innocent the Second and Anastasius
the Fourth, either trembled in the Vatican, or wandered as exiles
in the adjacent cities. They were succeeded by a more vigorous
and fortunate pontiff. Adrian the Fourth, 28 the only Englishman
who has ascended the throne of St. Peter; and whose merit emerged
from the mean condition of a monk, and almost a beggar, in the
monastery of St. Albans. On the first provocation, of a cardinal
killed or wounded in the streets, he cast an interdict on the
guilty people; and from Christmas to Easter, Rome was deprived of
the real or imaginary comforts of religious worship. The Romans
had despised their temporal prince: they submitted with grief and
terror to the censures of their spiritual father: their guilt was
expiated by penance, and the banishment of the seditious preacher
was the price of their absolution. But the revenge of Adrian was
yet unsatisfied, and the approaching coronation of Frederic
Barbarossa was fatal to the bold reformer, who had offended,
though not in an equal degree, the heads of the church and state.
In their interview at Viterbo, the pope represented to the
emperor the furious, ungovernable spirit of the Romans; the
insults, the injuries, the fears, to which his person and his
clergy were continually exposed; and the pernicious tendency of
the heresy of Arnold, which must subvert the principles of civil,
as well as ecclesiastical, subordination. Frederic was convinced
by these arguments, or tempted by the desire of the Imperial
crown: in the balance of ambition, the innocence or life of an
individual is of small account; and their common enemy was
sacrificed to a moment of political concord. After his retreat
from Rome, Arnold had been protected by the viscounts of
Campania, from whom he was extorted by the power of Cæsar: the
præfect of the city pronounced his sentence: the martyr of
freedom was burned alive in the presence of a careless and
ungrateful people; and his ashes were cast into the Tyber, lest
the heretics should collect and worship the relics of their
master. 29 The clergy triumphed in his death: with his ashes, his
sect was dispersed; his memory still lived in the minds of the
Romans. From his school they had probably derived a new article
of faith, that the metropolis of the Catholic church is exempt
from the penalties of excommunication and interdict. Their
bishops might argue, that the supreme jurisdiction, which they
exercised over kings and nations, more especially embraced the
city and diocese of the prince of the apostles. But they preached
to the winds, and the same principle that weakened the effect,
must temper the abuse, of the thunders of the Vatican.

26 (return) [ He advised the Romans,

Consiliis armisque sua moderamina summa Arbitrio
tractare suo: nil juris in hâc re Pontifici summo,
modicum concedere regi Suadebat populo. Sic læsâ stultus
utrâque Majestate, reum geminæ se fecerat aulæ.

Nor is the poetry of Gunther different from the prose of Otho.]

27 (return) [ See Baronius (A.D. 1148, No. 38, 39) from the
Vatican MSS. He loudly condemns Arnold (A.D. 1141, No. 3) as the
father of the political heretics, whose influence then hurt him
in France.]

28 (return) [ The English reader may consult the Biographia
Britannica, Adrian IV.; but our own writers have added nothing to
the fame or merits of their countrymen.]

29 (return) [ Besides the historian and poet already quoted, the
last adventures of Arnold are related by the biographer of Adrian
IV. (Muratori. Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 441, 442.)]

The love of ancient freedom has encouraged a belief that as early
as the tenth century, in their first struggles against the Saxon
Othos, the commonwealth was vindicated and restored by the senate
and people of Rome; that two consuls were annually elected among
the nobles, and that ten or twelve plebeian magistrates revived
the name and office of the tribunes of the commons. 30 But this
venerable structure disappears before the light of criticism. In
the darkness of the middle ages, the appellations of senators, of
consuls, of the sons of consuls, may sometimes be discovered. 31
They were bestowed by the emperors, or assumed by the most
powerful citizens, to denote their rank, their honors, 32 and
perhaps the claim of a pure and patrician descent: but they float
on the surface, without a series or a substance, the titles of
men, not the orders of government; 33 and it is only from the
year of Christ one thousand one hundred and forty-four that the
establishment of the senate is dated, as a glorious æra, in the
acts of the city. A new constitution was hastily framed by
private ambition or popular enthusiasm; nor could Rome, in the
twelfth century, produce an antiquary to explain, or a legislator
to restore, the harmony and proportions of the ancient model. The
assembly of a free, of an armed, people, will ever speak in loud
and weighty acclamations. But the regular distribution of the
thirty-five tribes, the nice balance of the wealth and numbers of
the centuries, the debates of the adverse orators, and the slow
operations of votes and ballots, could not easily be adapted by a
blind multitude, ignorant of the arts, and insensible of the
benefits, of legal government. It was proposed by Arnold to
revive and discriminate the equestrian order; but what could be
the motive or measure of such distinction? 34 The pecuniary
qualification of the knights must have been reduced to the
poverty of the times: those times no longer required their civil
functions of judges and farmers of the revenue; and their
primitive duty, their military service on horseback, was more
nobly supplied by feudal tenures and the spirit of chivalry. The
jurisprudence of the republic was useless and unknown: the
nations and families of Italy who lived under the Roman and
Barbaric laws were insensibly mingled in a common mass; and some
faint tradition, some imperfect fragments, preserved the memory
of the Code and Pandects of Justinian. With their liberty the
Romans might doubtless have restored the appellation and office
of consuls; had they not disdained a title so promiscuously
adopted in the Italian cities, that it has finally settled on the
humble station of the agents of commerce in a foreign land. But
the rights of the tribunes, the formidable word that arrested the
public counsels, suppose or must produce a legitimate democracy.
The old patricians were the subjects, the modern barons the
tyrants, of the state; nor would the enemies of peace and order,
who insulted the vicar of Christ, have long respected the unarmed
sanctity of a plebeian magistrate. 35

30 (return) [ Ducange (Gloss. Latinitatis Mediæ et Infimæ Ætatis,
Decarchones, tom. ii. p. 726) gives me a quotation from Blondus,
(Decad. ii. l. ii.:) Duo consules ex nobilitate quotannis
fiebant, qui ad vetustum consulum exemplar summærerum præessent.
And in Sigonius (de Regno Italiæ, l. v. Opp. tom. ii. p. 400) I
read of the consuls and tribunes of the xth century. Both
Blondus, and even Sigonius, too freely copied the classic method
of supplying from reason or fancy the deficiency of records.]

31 (return) [ In the panegyric of Berengarius (Muratori, Script.
Rer. Ital. tom. ii. P. i. p. 408) a Roman is mentioned as
consulis natus in the beginning of the xth century. Muratori
(Dissert. v.) discovers, in the years 952 and 956, Gratianus in
Dei nomine consul et dux, Georgius consul et dux; and in 1015,
Romanus, brother of Gregory VIII., proudly, but vaguely, styles
himself consul et dux et omnium Roma norum senator.]

32 (return) [ As late as the xth century, the Greek emperors
conferred on the dukes of Venice, Naples, Amalphi, &c., the title
of upatoV or consuls, (see Chron. Sagornini, passim;) and the
successors of Charlemagne would not abdicate any of their
prerogative. But in general the names of _consul_ and _senator_,
which may be found among the French and Germans, signify no more
than count and lord, (_Signeur_, Ducange Glossar.) The monkish
writers are often ambitious of fine classic words.]

33 (return) [ The most constitutional form is a diploma of Otho
III., (A. D 998,) consulibus senatûs populique Romani; but the
act is probably spurious. At the coronation of Henry I., A.D.
1014, the historian Dithmar (apud Muratori, Dissert. xxiii.)
describes him, a senatoribus duodecim vallatum, quorum sex rasi
barbâ, alii prolixâ, mystice incedebant cum baculis. The senate
is mentioned in the panegyric of Berengarius, (p. 406.)]

34 (return) [ In ancient Rome the equestrian order was not ranked
with the senate and people as a third branch of the republic till
the consulship of Cicero, who assumes the merit of the
establishment, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 3. Beaufort,
République Romaine, tom. i. p. 144—155.)]

35 (return) [ The republican plan of Arnold of Brescia is thus
stated by Gunther:—

Quin etiam titulos urbis renovare vetustos; Nomine
plebeio secernere nomen equestre, Jura tribunorum,
sanctum reparare senatum, Et senio fessas mutasque
reponere leges. Lapsa ruinosis, et adhuc pendentia muris
Reddere primævo Capitolia prisca nitori.

But of these reformations, some were no more than ideas, others
no more than words.]

In the revolution of the twelfth century, which gave a new
existence and æra to Rome, we may observe the real and important
events that marked or confirmed her political independence. I.
The Capitoline hill, one of her seven eminences, 36 is about four
hundred yards in length, and two hundred in breadth. A flight of
a hundred steps led to the summit of the Tarpeian rock; and far
steeper was the ascent before the declivities had been smoothed
and the precipices filled by the ruins of fallen edifices. From
the earliest ages, the Capitol had been used as a temple in
peace, a fortress in war: after the loss of the city, it
maintained a siege against the victorious Gauls, and the
sanctuary of the empire was occupied, assaulted, and burnt, in
the civil wars of Vitellius and Vespasian. 37 The temples of
Jupiter and his kindred deities had crumbled into dust; their
place was supplied by monasteries and houses; and the solid
walls, the long and shelving porticos, were decayed or ruined by
the lapse of time. It was the first act of the Romans, an act of
freedom, to restore the strength, though not the beauty, of the
Capitol; to fortify the seat of their arms and counsels; and as
often as they ascended the hill, the coldest minds must have
glowed with the remembrance of their ancestors. II. The first
Cæsars had been invested with the exclusive coinage of the gold
and silver; to the senate they abandoned the baser metal of
bronze or copper: 38 the emblems and legends were inscribed on a
more ample field by the genius of flattery; and the prince was
relieved from the care of celebrating his own virtues. The
successors of Diocletian despised even the flattery of the
senate: their royal officers at Rome, and in the provinces,
assumed the sole direction of the mint; and the same prerogative
was inherited by the Gothic kings of Italy, and the long series
of the Greek, the French, and the German dynasties. After an
abdication of eight hundred years, the Roman senate asserted this
honorable and lucrative privilege; which was tacitly renounced by
the popes, from Paschal the Second to the establishment of their
residence beyond the Alps. Some of these republican coins of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries are shown in the cabinets of the
curious. On one of these, a gold medal, Christ is depictured
holding in his left hand a book with this inscription: “The vow
of the Roman senate and people: Rome the capital of the world;”
on the reverse, St. Peter delivering a banner to a kneeling
senator in his cap and gown, with the name and arms of his family
impressed on a shield. 39 III. With the empire, the præfect of
the city had declined to a municipal officer; yet he still
exercised in the last appeal the civil and criminal jurisdiction;
and a drawn sword, which he received from the successors of Otho,
was the mode of his investiture and the emblem of his functions.
40 The dignity was confined to the noble families of Rome: the
choice of the people was ratified by the pope; but a triple oath
of fidelity must have often embarrassed the præfect in the
conflict of adverse duties. 41 A servant, in whom they possessed
but a third share, was dismissed by the independent Romans: in
his place they elected a patrician; but this title, which
Charlemagne had not disdained, was too lofty for a citizen or a
subject; and, after the first fervor of rebellion, they consented
without reluctance to the restoration of the præfect. About fifty
years after this event, Innocent the Third, the most ambitious,
or at least the most fortunate, of the Pontiffs, delivered the
Romans and himself from this badge of foreign dominion: he
invested the præfect with a banner instead of a sword, and
absolved him from all dependence of oaths or service to the
German emperors. 42 In his place an ecclesiastic, a present or
future cardinal, was named by the pope to the civil government of
Rome; but his jurisdiction has been reduced to a narrow compass;
and in the days of freedom, the right or exercise was derived
from the senate and people. IV. After the revival of the senate,
43 the conscript fathers (if I may use the expression) were
invested with the legislative and executive power; but their
views seldom reached beyond the present day; and that day was
most frequently disturbed by violence and tumult. In its utmost
plenitude, the order or assembly consisted of fifty-six senators,
44 the most eminent of whom were distinguished by the title of
counsellors: they were nominated, perhaps annually, by the
people; and a previous choice of their electors, ten persons in
each region, or parish, might afford a basis for a free and
permanent constitution. The popes, who in this tempest submitted
rather to bend than to break, confirmed by treaty the
establishment and privileges of the senate, and expected from
time, peace, and religion, the restoration of their government.
The motives of public and private interest might sometimes draw
from the Romans an occasional and temporary sacrifice of their
claims; and they renewed their oath of allegiance to the
successor of St. Peter and Constantine, the lawful head of the
church and the republic. 45

36 (return) [ After many disputes among the antiquaries of Rome,
it seems determined, that the summit of the Capitoline hill next
the river is strictly the Mons Tarpeius, the Arx; and that on the
other summit, the church and convent of Araceli, the barefoot
friars of St. Francis occupy the temple of Jupiter, (Nardini,
Roma Antica, l. v. c. 11—16. * Note: The authority of Nardini is
now vigorously impugned, and the question of the Arx and the
Temple of Jupiter revived, with new arguments by Niebuhr and his
accomplished follower, M. Bunsen. Roms Beschreibung, vol. iii. p.
12, et seqq.—M.]

37 (return) [ Tacit. Hist. iii. 69, 70.]

38 (return) [ This partition of the noble and baser metals
between the emperor and senate must, however, be adopted, not as
a positive fact, but as the probable opinion of the best
antiquaries, * (see the Science des Medailles of the Père
Joubert, tom. ii. p. 208—211, in the improved and scarce edition
of the Baron de la Bastie. * Note: Dr. Cardwell (Lecture on
Ancient Coins, p. 70, et seq.) assigns convincing reasons in
support of this opinion.—M.]

39 (return) [ In his xxviith dissertation on the Antiquities of
Italy, (tom. ii. p. 559—569,) Muratori exhibits a series of the
senatorian coins, which bore the obscure names of _Affortiati_,
_Infortiati_, _Provisini_, _Paparini_. During this period, all
the popes, without excepting Boniface VIII, abstained from the
right of coining, which was resumed by his successor Benedict
XI., and regularly exercised in the court of Avignon.]

40 (return) [ A German historian, Gerard of Reicherspeg (in
Baluz. Miscell. tom. v. p. 64, apud Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands,
tom. iii. p. 265) thus describes the constitution of Rome in the
xith century: Grandiora urbis et orbis negotia spectant ad
Romanum pontificem itemque ad Romanum Imperatorem, sive illius
vicarium urbis præfectum, qui de suâ dignitate respicit utrumque,
videlicet dominum papam cui facit hominum, et dominum imperatorem
a quo accipit suæ potestatis insigne, scilicet gladium exertum.]

41 (return) [ The words of a contemporary writer (Pandulph.
Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. p. 357, 358) describe the election
and oath of the præfect in 1118, inconsultis patribus.... loca
præfectoria.... Laudes præfectoriæ.... comitiorum applausum....
juraturum populo in ambonem sublevant.... confirmari eum in urbe
præfectum petunt.]

42 (return) [ Urbis præfectum ad ligiam fidelitatem recepit, et
per mantum quod illi donavit de præfecturâ eum publice
investivit, qui usque ad id tempus juramento fidelitatis
imperatori fuit obligatus et ab eo præfecturæ tenuit honorem,
(Gesta Innocent. III. in Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 487.)]

43 (return) [ See Otho Frising. Chron. vii. 31, de Gest.
Frederic. I., l. i. c. 27.]

44 (return) [ Cur countryman, Roger Hoveden, speaks of the
single senators, of the _Capuzzi_ family, &c., quorum temporibus
melius regebatur Roma quam nunc (A.D. 1194) est temporibus lvi.
senatorum, (Ducange, Gloss. tom. vi. p. 191, Senatores.)]

45 (return) [ Muratori (dissert. xlii. tom. iii. p. 785—788) has
published an original treaty: Concordia inter D. nostrum papam
Clementem III. et senatores populi Romani super regalibus et
aliis dignitatibus urbis, &c., anno 44º senatûs. The senate
speaks, and speaks with authority: Reddimus ad præsens....
habebimus.... dabitis presbetria.... jurabimus pacem et
fidelitatem, &c. A chartula de Tenementis Tusculani, dated in the
47th year of the same æra, and confirmed decreto amplissimi
ordinis senatûs, acclamatione P. R. publice Capitolio
consistentis. It is there we find the difference of senatores
consiliarii and simple senators, (Muratori, dissert. xlii. tom.
iii. p. 787—789.)]

The union and vigor of a public council was dissolved in a
lawless city; and the Romans soon adopted a more strong and
simple mode of administration. They condensed the name and
authority of the senate in a single magistrate, or two
colleagues; and as they were changed at the end of a year, or of
six months, the greatness of the trust was compensated by the
shortness of the term. But in this transient reign, the senators
of Rome indulged their avarice and ambition: their justice was
perverted by the interest of their family and faction; and as
they punished only their enemies, they were obeyed only by their
adherents. Anarchy, no longer tempered by the pastoral care of
their bishop, admonished the Romans that they were incapable of
governing themselves; and they sought abroad those blessings
which they were hopeless of finding at home. In the same age, and
from the same motives, most of the Italian republics were
prompted to embrace a measure, which, however strange it may
seem, was adapted to their situation, and productive of the most
salutary effects. 46 They chose, in some foreign but friendly
city, an impartial magistrate of noble birth and unblemished
character, a soldier and a statesman, recommended by the voice of
fame and his country, to whom they delegated for a time the
supreme administration of peace and war. The compact between the
governor and the governed was sealed with oaths and
subscriptions; and the duration of his power, the measure of his
stipend, the nature of their mutual obligations, were defined
with scrupulous precision. They swore to obey him as their lawful
superior: he pledged his faith to unite the indifference of a
stranger with the zeal of a patriot. At his choice, four or six
knights and civilians, his assessors in arms and justice,
attended the _Podesta_, 47 who maintained at his own expense a
decent retinue of servants and horses: his wife, his son, his
brother, who might bias the affections of the judge, were left
behind: during the exercise of his office he was not permitted to
purchase land, to contract an alliance, or even to accept an
invitation in the house of a citizen; nor could he honorably
depart till he had satisfied the complaints that might be urged
against his government.

46 (return) [ Muratori (dissert. xlv. tom. iv. p. 64—92) has
fully explained this mode of government; and the _Occulus
Pastoralis_, which he has given at the end, is a treatise or
sermon on the duties of these foreign magistrates.]

47 (return) [ In the Latin writers, at least of the silver age,
the title of _Potestas_ was transferred from the office to the
magistrate:—

Hujus qui trahitur prætextam sumere mavis; An Fidenarum
Gabiorumque esse _Potestas_. Juvenal. Satir. x. 99.11]