Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.—Part

III.

Without drawing his sword, count Pepin restored the aristocracy
and 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 laboring, without effect, to revive the affection
and courage of the Romans. The vision of freedom 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 Florentine historian, by these rapacious
wolves. 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 their good estate. 50

50 (return) [ The troubles of Rome, from the departure to the
return of Rienzi, are related by Matteo Villani (l. ii. c. 47, l.
iii. c. 33, 57, 78) and Thomas Fortifiocca, (l. iii. c. 1—4.) I
have slightly passed over these secondary characters, who
imitated the original tribune.]

After an exile of seven years, the 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 king of Hungary at 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
downfall of tyranny and the kingdom of the Holy Ghost. 51
Whatever had been his hopes, Rienzi 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 rekindled by the sufferings and the
presence, of his friend; and he boldly complains of the times, in
which the savior 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. 52 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.

51 (return) [ These visions, of which the friends and enemies of
Rienzi seem alike ignorant, are surely magnified by the zeal of
Pollistore, a Dominican 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. * Note: So far from having magnified
these visions, Pollistore is more than confirmed by the documents
published by Papencordt. The adoption of all the wild doctrines
of the Fratricelli, the Spirituals, in which, for the time at
least, Rienzi appears to have been in earnest; his magnificent
offers to the emperor, and the whole history of his life, from
his first escape from Rome to his imprisonment at Avignon, are
among the most curious chapters of his eventful life.—M. 1845.]

52 (return) [ 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 (Mémoires, tom. iii. p. 242)
quotes the vith epistle of the xiiith book of Petrarch, but it is
of the royal MS., which he consulted, and not of the ordinary
Basil edition, (p. 920.)]

The succeeding pontificate of Innocent the Sixth opened a new
prospect 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, 53 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 Bohemians, 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 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 abandoned by the prince. The legate
Albornoz, who seemed desirous of his ruin, inflexibly refused all
supplies of men and money; a faithful subject could no longer
presume to touch the revenues of the apostolical chamber; and the
first idea of a tax was the signal of clamor and sedition. Even
his justice was tainted with the guilt or reproach of selfish
cruelty: the most virtuous citizen of Rome was sacrificed to his
jealousy; and in the execution of a public robber, from whose
purse he had been assisted, the magistrate too much forgot, or
too much remembered, the obligations of the debtor. 54 A civil
war exhausted his treasures, and the patience of the city: the
Colonna maintained their hostile station at Palestrina; and his
mercenaries soon despised a leader whose ignorance and fear were
envious of all subordinate merit. In the death, as in the life,
of Rienzi, the hero and the coward were strangely mingled. When
the Capitol was invested by a furious multitude, when he was
basely deserted by his civil and military servants, the intrepid
senator, waving the banner of liberty, presented himself on the
balcony, addressed his eloquence to the various passions of the
Romans, and labored to persuade them, that in the same cause
himself and the republic must either stand or fall. His oration
was interrupted by a volley of imprecations and stones; and after
an arrow had transpierced his hand, he sunk into abject despair,
and fled weeping to the inner chambers, from whence he was let
down by a sheet before the windows of the prison. Destitute of
aid or hope, he was besieged till the evening: the doors of the
Capitol were destroyed with axes and fire; and while the senator
attempted to escape in a plebeian habit, he was discovered and
dragged to the platform of the palace, the fatal scene of his
judgments and executions. A whole hour, without voice or motion,
he stood amidst the multitude half naked and half dead: their
rage was hushed into curiosity and wonder: the last feelings of
reverence and compassion yet struggled in his favor; and they
might have prevailed, if a bold assassin had not plunged a dagger
in his breast. He fell senseless with the first stroke: the
impotent revenge of his enemies inflicted a thousand wounds: and
the senator’s body was abandoned to the dogs, to the Jews, and to
the flames. Posterity will compare the virtues and failings of
this extraordinary man; but in a long period of anarchy and
servitude, the name of Rienzi has often been celebrated as the
deliverer of his country, and the last of the Roman patriots. 55

53 (return) [ 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 reasonably suppose, that his
name, or that of Wolsey, had reached the ears of the Mufti in Don
Sebastian.]

54 (return) [ From Matteo Villani and Fortifiocca, the P. du
Cerçeau (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 be had money in all the banks,—60,000
ducats in Padua alone.]

55 (return) [ The exile, second government, and death of Rienzi,
are minutely related by the anonymous Roman, who appears neither
his friend nor his enemy, (l. iii. c. 12—25.) Petrarch, who loved
the _tribune_, was indifferent to the fate of the _senator_.]

The first and most generous wish of Petrarch was the restoration
of a free republic; but after the exile and death of his plebeian
hero, he turned his eyes 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-laureate; accepted a medal of Augustus; and promised,
without a smile, to imitate the founder of the Roman monarchy. A
false application of the name 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 favor 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. 56

56 (return) [ The hopes and the disappointment of Petrarch are
agreeably described in his own words by the French biographer,
(Mémoires, tom. iii. p. 375—413;) but the deep, though secret,
wound was the coronation of Zanubi, the poet-laureate, by Charles
IV.]

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 fervor
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. 57 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 Rhône, but of the Tyber, 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 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. 58 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 recompense 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 honor: 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. Catharine 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. 59 Yet those celestial
admonitions were supported by some arguments of temporal policy.
The residents of Avignon had been invaded 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. 60 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 Tyber. 61 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 62 from the clergy and people:
“I am a citizen of Rome,” 63 replied that venerable ecclesiastic,
“and my first law is, the voice of my country.” 64

57 (return) [ See, in his accurate and amusing biographer, the
application of Petrarch and Rome to Benedict XII. in the year
1334, (Mémoires, 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. 771) of the last
of these pontiffs. His angry controversy on the respective merits
of France and Italy may be found, Opp. p. 1068—1085.]

58 (return) [

Squalida sed quoniam facies, neglectaque cultû Cæsaries;
multisque malis lassata senectus Eripuit solitam
effigiem: vetus accipe nomen; Roma vocor. (Carm. l. 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, l. vii. p. 811—827 l. ix. epist. i. p. 844—854.)]

59 (return) [ I have not leisure to expatiate on the legends of
St. Bridget or St. Catharine, the last of which might furnish
some amusing stories. Their 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 hominibus, 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. 1224.)]

60 (return) [ This predatory expedition is related by Froissard,
(Chronique, tom. i. p. 230,) and in the life of Du Guesclin,
(Collection Générale des Mémoires Historiques, tom. iv. 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, (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 563—569.)]

61 (return) [ Fleury alleges, from the annals of Odericus
Raynaldus, the original treaty which was signed the 21st of
December, 1376, between Gregory XI. and the Romans, (Hist.
Ecclés. tom. xx. p. 275.)]

62 (return) [ 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 Constantine, or Clovis. The second was added by
Boniface VIII., as the emblem 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., (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 258, 259.)]

63 (return) [ Baluze (Not. ad Pap. Avenion. tom. i. p. 1194,
1195) produces the original evidence which attests the threats of
the Roman ambassadors, and the resignation of the abbot of Mount
Cassin, qui, ultro se offerens, respondit se civem Romanum esse,
et illud velle quod ipsi vellent.]

64 (return) [ 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
Avenionensium, tom. i. p. 363—486) and Muratori, (Script. Rer.
Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613—712.) In the disputes of the
schism, every circumstance was severely, though partially,
scrutinized; more especially in the great inquest, which decided
the obedience of Castile, and to which Baluze, in his notes, so
often and so largely appeals from a MS. volume in the Harley
library, (p. 1281, &c.)]

If superstition will interpret an untimely death, 65 if the merit
of counsels be judged from the event, the heavens may seem to
frown on a measure of such apparent season 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 adored,
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 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 Geneva, 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 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, 66 the shades of popular violence are more darkly or
faintly colored: 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 the hope
of repassing the Alps, they rashly violated the peace and unity
of the church; and the merits of their double choice are yet
agitated in the Catholic schools. 67 The vanity, rather than the
interest, of the nation determined the court and clergy of
France. 68 The states of Savoy, Sicily, Cyprus, Arragon,
Castille, Navarre, and Scotland were inclined by their example
and authority to the obedience of Clement the Seventh, and after
his decease, of Benedict the Thirteenth. Rome and the principal
states of Italy, Germany, Portugal, England, 69 the Low
Countries, and the kingdoms of the North, adhered to the prior
election of Urban the Sixth, who was succeeded by Boniface the
Ninth, Innocent the Seventh, and Gregory the Twelfth.

65 (return) [ Can the death of a good man be esteemed a
punishment by those who believe in the immortality of the soul?
They betray the instability of their faith. Yet as a mere
philosopher, I cannot agree with the Greeks, on oi Jeoi jilousin
apoqnhskei neoV, (Brunck, Poetæ Gnomici, p. 231.) See in
Herodotus (l. i. c. 31) the moral and pleasing tale of the Argive
youths.]

66 (return) [ 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.]

67 (return) [ The ordinal numbers of the popes seems to decide
the question against Clement VII. and Benedict XIII., who are
boldly stigmatized as antipopes by the Italians, while the French
are content with authorities and reasons to plead the cause of
doubt and toleration, (Baluz. in Præfat.) It is singular, or
rather it is not singular, that saints, visions and miracles
should be common to both parties.]

68 (return) [ Baluze strenuously labors (Not. p. 1271—1280) to
justify the pure and pious motives of Charles V. king of France:
he refused to hear the arguments of Urban; but were not the
Urbanists equally deaf to the reasons of Clement, &c.?]

69 (return) [ An epistle, or declamation, in the name of Edward
III., (Baluz. Vit. Pap. Avenion. tom. i. p. 553,) displays the
zeal of the English nation against the Clementines. Nor was their
zeal confined to words: the bishop of Norwich led a crusade of
60,000 bigots beyond sea, (Hume’s History, vol. iii. p. 57, 58.)]

From the banks of the Tyber and the Rhône, the hostile pontiffs
encountered each other with the pen and the sword: the civil and
ecclesiastical order of society was disturbed; and the Romans had
their full share of the mischiefs of which they may be arraigned
as the primary authors. 70 They had vainly flattered themselves
with the hope of restoring the seat of the ecclesiastical
monarchy, and of relieving their poverty with the tributes and
offerings of the nations; but the separation of France and Spain
diverted the stream of lucrative devotion; nor could the loss be
compensated by the two jubilees which were crowded into the space
of ten years. By the avocations of the schism, by foreign arms,
and popular tumults, Urban the Sixth and his three successors
were often compelled to interrupt their residence in the Vatican.
The Colonna and Ursini still exercised their deadly feuds: the
bannerets of Rome asserted and abused the privileges of a
republic: the vicars of Christ, who had levied a military force,
chastised their rebellion with the gibbet, the sword, and the
dagger; and, in a friendly conference, eleven deputies of the
people were perfidiously murdered and cast into the street. Since
the invasion of Robert the Norman, the Romans had pursued their
domestic quarrels without the dangerous interposition of a
stranger. But in the disorders of the schism, an aspiring
neighbor, Ladislaus king of Naples, alternately supported and
betrayed the pope and the people; by the former he was declared
_gonfalonier_, or general, of the church, while the latter
submitted to his choice the nomination of their magistrates.
Besieging Rome by land and water, he thrice entered the gates as
a Barbarian conqueror; profaned the altars, violated the virgins,
pillaged the merchants, performed his devotions at St. Peter’s,
and left a garrison in the castle of St. Angelo. His arms were
sometimes unfortunate, and to a delay of three days he was
indebted for his life and crown: but Ladislaus triumphed in his
turn; and it was only his premature death that could save the
metropolis and the ecclesiastical state from the ambitious
conqueror, who had assumed the title, or at least the powers, of
king of Rome. 71

70 (return) [ Besides the general historians, the Diaries of
Delphinus Gentilia Peter Antonius, and Stephen Infessura, in the
great collection of Muratori, represented the state and
misfortunes of Rome.]

71 (return) [ It is supposed by Giannone (tom. iii. p. 292) that
he styled himself Rex Romæ, a title unknown to the world since
the expulsion of Tarquin. But a nearer inspection has justified
the reading of Rex R_a_mæ, of Rama, an obscure kingdom annexed to
the crown of Hungary.]

I have not undertaken the ecclesiastical history of the schism;
but Rome, the object of these last chapters, is deeply interested
in the disputed succession of her sovereigns. The first counsels
for the peace and union of Christendom arose from the university
of Paris, from the faculty of the Sorbonne, whose doctors were
esteemed, at least in the Gallican church, as the most consummate
masters of theological science. 72 Prudently waiving all
invidious inquiry into the origin and merits of the dispute, they
proposed, as a healing measure, that the two pretenders of Rome
and Avignon should abdicate at the same time, after qualifying
the cardinals of the adverse factions to join in a legitimate
election; and that the nations should _subtract_ 73 their
obedience, if either of the competitor preferred his own interest
to that of the public. At each vacancy, these physicians of the
church deprecated the mischiefs of a hasty choice; but the policy
of the conclave and the ambition of its members were deaf to
reason and entreaties; and whatsoever promises were made, the
pope could never be bound by the oaths of the cardinal. During
fifteen years, the pacific designs of the university were eluded
by the arts of the rival pontiffs, the scruples or passions of
their adherents, and the vicissitudes of French factions, that
ruled the insanity of Charles the Sixth. At length a vigorous
resolution was embraced; and a solemn embassy, of the titular
patriarch of Alexandria, two archbishops, five bishops, five
abbots, three knights, and twenty doctors, was sent to the courts
of Avignon and Rome, to require, in the name of the church and
king, the abdication of the two pretenders, of Peter de Luna, who
styled himself Benedict the Thirteenth, and of Angelo Corrario,
who assumed the name of Gregory the Twelfth. For the ancient
honor of Rome, and the success of their commission, the
ambassadors solicited a conference with the magistrates of the
city, whom they gratified by a positive declaration, that the
most Christian king did not entertain a wish of transporting the
holy see from the Vatican, which he considered as the genuine and
proper seat of the successor of St. Peter. In the name of the
senate and people, an eloquent Roman asserted their desire to
cooperate in the union of the church, deplored the temporal and
spiritual calamities of the long schism, and requested the
protection of France against the arms of the king of Naples. The
answers of Benedict and Gregory were alike edifying and alike
deceitful; and, in evading the demand of their abdication, the
two rivals were animated by a common spirit. They agreed on the
necessity of a previous interview; but the time, the place, and
the manner, could never be ascertained by mutual consent. “If the
one advances,” says a servant of Gregory, “the other retreats;
the one appears an animal fearful of the land, the other a
creature apprehensive of the water. And thus, for a short remnant
of life and power, will these aged priests endanger the peace and
salvation of the Christian world.” 74

72 (return) [ The leading and decisive part which France assumed
in the schism is stated by Peter du Puis in a separate history,
extracted from authentic records, and inserted in the seventh
volume of the last and best edition of his friend Thuanus, (P.
xi. p. 110—184.)]

73 (return) [ Of this measure, John Gerson, a stout doctor, was
the author of the champion. The proceedings of the university of
Paris and the Gallican church were often prompted by his advice,
and are copiously displayed in his theological writings, of which
Le Clerc (Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. x. p. 1—78) has given a
valuable extract. John Gerson acted an important part in the
councils of Pisa and Constance.]

74 (return) [ Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, one of the revivers of
classic learning in Italy, who, after serving many years as
secretary in the Roman court, retired to the honorable office of
chancellor of the republic of Florence, (Fabric. Bibliot. Medii
Ævi, tom. i. p. 290.) Lenfant has given the version of this
curious epistle, (Concile de Pise, tom. i. p. 192—195.)]

The Christian world was at length provoked by their obstinacy and
fraud: they were deserted by their cardinals, who embraced each
other as friends and colleagues; and their revolt was supported
by a numerous assembly of prelates and ambassadors. With equal
justice, the council of Pisa deposed the popes of Rome and
Avignon; the conclave was unanimous in the choice of Alexander
the Fifth, and his vacant seat was soon filled by a similar
election of John the Twenty-third, the most profligate of
mankind. But instead of extinguishing the schism, the rashness of
the French and Italians had given a third pretender to the chair
of St. Peter. Such new claims of the synod and conclave were
disputed; three kings, of Germany, Hungary, and Naples, adhered
to the cause of Gregory the Twelfth; and Benedict the Thirteenth,
himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by the devotion and
patriotism of that powerful nation. The rash proceedings of Pisa
were corrected by the council of Constance; the emperor Sigismond
acted a conspicuous part as the advocate or protector of the
Catholic church; and the number and weight of civil and
ecclesiastical members might seem to constitute the
states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, John the
Twenty-third was the first victim: he fled and was brought back a
prisoner: the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the vicar
of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and
incest; and after subscribing his own condemnation, he expiated
in prison the imprudence of trusting his person to a free city
beyond the Alps. Gregory the Twelfth, whose obedience was reduced
to the narrow precincts of Rimini, descended with more honor from
the throne; and his ambassador convened the session, in which he
renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To vanquish the
obstinacy of Benedict the Thirteenth or his adherents, the
emperor in person undertook a journey from Constance to
Perpignan. The kings of Castile, Arragon, Navarre, and Scotland,
obtained an equal and honorable treaty; with the concurrence of
the Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the council; but the
harmless old man was left in a solitary castle to excommunicate
twice each day the rebel kingdoms which had deserted his cause.
After thus eradicating the remains of the schism, the synod of
Constance proceeded with slow and cautious steps to elect the
sovereign of Rome and the head of the church. On this momentous
occasion, the college of twenty-three cardinals was fortified
with thirty deputies; six of whom were chosen in each of the five
great nations of Christendom,—the Italian, the German, the
French, the Spanish, and the _English_: 75 the interference of
strangers was softened by their generous preference of an Italian
and a Roman; and the hereditary, as well as personal, merit of
Otho Colonna recommended him to the conclave. Rome accepted with
joy and obedience the noblest of her sons; the ecclesiastical
state was defended by his powerful family; and the elevation of
Martin the Fifth is the æra of the restoration and establishment
of the popes in the Vatican. 76

75 (return) [ I cannot overlook this great national cause, which
was vigorously maintained by the English ambassadors against
those of France. The latter contended, that Christendom was
essentially distributed into the four great nations and votes, of
Italy, Germany, France, and Spain, and that the lesser kingdoms
(such as England, Denmark, Portugal, &c.) were comprehended under
one or other of these great divisions. The English asserted, that
the British islands, of which they were the head, should be
considered as a fifth and coördinate nation, with an equal vote;
and every argument of truth or fable was introduced to exalt the
dignity of their country. Including England, Scotland, Wales, the
four kingdoms of Ireland, and the Orkneys, the British Islands
are decorated with eight royal crowns, and discriminated by four
or five languages, English, Welsh, Cornish, Scotch, Irish, &c.
The greater island from north to south measures 800 miles, or 40
days’ journey; and England alone contains 32 counties and 52,000
parish churches, (a bold account!) besides cathedrals, colleges,
priories, and hospitals. They celebrate the mission of St. Joseph
of Arimathea, the birth of Constantine, and the legatine powers
of the two primates, without forgetting the testimony of
Bartholomey de Glanville, (A.D. 1360,) who reckons only four
Christian kingdoms, 1. of Rome, 2. of Constantinople, 3. of
Ireland, which had been transferred to the English monarchs, and
4, of Spain. Our countrymen prevailed in the council, but the
victories of Henry V. added much weight to their arguments. The
adverse pleadings were found at Constance by Sir Robert
Wingfield, ambassador of Henry VIII. to the emperor Maximilian
I., and by him printed in 1517 at Louvain. From a Leipsic MS.
they are more correctly published in the collection of Von der
Hardt, tom. v.; but I have only seen Lenfant’s abstract of these
acts, (Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 447, 453, &c.)]

76 (return) [ The histories of the three successive councils,
Pisa, Constance, and Basil, have been written with a tolerable
degree of candor, industry, and elegance, by a Protestant
minister, M. Lenfant, who retired from France to Berlin. They
form six volumes in quarto; and as Basil is the worst, so
Constance is the best, part of the Collection.]