CHAP. tunes of the tribune were diffused in every country by the strangers who had enjoyed the blessings of his government. LXX. The tribune is respected in Italy, &c. The deliverance of his country inspired Rienzi with a vast, and perhaps visionary, idea of uniting Italy in a great fœderative republic, of which Rome should be the ancient and lawful head, and the free cities and princes the members and associates. His pen was not less eloquent than his tongue; and his numerous epistles were delivered to swift and trusty messengers. On foot, with a white wand in their hand, they traversed the forests and mountains; enjoyed, in the most hostile states, the sacred security of ambassadors; and reported, in the style of flattery or truth, that the highways along their passage were lined with kneeling multitudes, who implored heaven for the success of their undertaking. Could passion have listened to reason; could private interest have yielded to the public welfare; the supreme tribunal and confederate union of the Italian republic might have healed their intestine discord, and closed the Alps against the Barbarians of the North. But the propitious season had elapsed; and if Venice, Florence, Sienna, Perugia, and many inferior cities, offered their lives and fortunes to the good estate, the tyrants of Lombardy and Tuscany must despise, or hate, the plebeian author of a free constitution. From them, however, and from every part of Italy, the tribune received the most friendly and respectful answers: they were followed by the ambassadors of the princes and republics; and in this foreign conflux, on all the occasions of pleasure or business, the low-born notary could assume the familiar or majestic courtesy of a sovereign.29 The most 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 perfidiously strangled by Jane queen of Naples:30 her guilt or innocence was pleaded in a solemn trial at Rome; but after hearing 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 (see Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 27...34. from Clarendon, Warwick, Whitelocke, Waller, &c.). The consciousness of merit and power, will sometimes elevate the manpers to the station. 30 See the causes, circumstances, 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. LXX. and follies. the advocates,31 the tribune adjourned this weighty and in- CHAP. vidious cause, which was soon determined by the sword of the Hungarian. Beyond the Alps, more especially at Avignon, the revolution was the theme of curiosity, wonder, and applause. Petrarch had been the private friend, per- and celebrated by haps the secret counsellor, of Rienzi: his writings breathe Petrarch. the most ardent spirit of patriotism and joy; and all respect for the pope, all gratitude for the Colonna, was lost in the superior duties of a Roman citizen. The poet-laureat of the Capitol maintains the act, applauds the hero, and mingles with some apprehension and advice the most lofty hopes of the permanent and rising greatness of the republic.32 While Petrarch indulged these prophetic visions, the Ro. His vices man 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 vicissitudes of light and obscurity. More eloquent than judicious, more enterprising than resolute, the faculties of Rienzi were not balanced by cool and commanding reason: he magnified in a tenfold proportion the objects of hope and fear; and prudence, which could not have erected, did not presume to fortify, his throne. In the blaze of prosperity, his virtues were insensibly tinctured with the adjacent vices; justice with cruelty, liberality with profusion, and the desire of fame with puerile and ostentatious vanity. He might have learned, that the ancient tribunes, so strong and sacred in the public opinion, were not distinguished in style, habit, or appearance, from an ordinary plebeian; 33 and that as often as they visited the city on foot, 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 potestatis in regno, neglecta vindicta, vir alter susceptis, et excusatio subsequens, necis viri tui te probant fuisse participem et consortem. Jane of Naples, and Mary of Scotland, have a singular conformity. 32 See the Epistola Hortatoria de Capessenda Republica, from Petrarch to Nicholas Rienzi (Opp. p. 535...540), and the fifth eclogue or pastoral, a perpetual and obscure allegory. 33 In his Roman Questions, Plutarch (Opuscul. tom. i. p. 505, 506. edit. Græc. Hen. Steph.) states, on the most constitutional principles, the simple greatness of the tribunes, who were not properly magistrates, but a check on magistracy. It was their duty and interest όμοιεσθαι σχηματι. και τολη και διαιτη τοις επιτυγχάνεσι των πολιτών . . . καταπατείςθαι δει (a saying of C Curio) xat un voy elval on deμapxor ofer όσω δε μάλλον εκταπείνεται το σωματι, τοσέτῳ μαλλον αύξεται τη Suraus, &c. Rienzi, and Petrarch himself, were incapable perhaps of readG G yol. VIII. .... LXX. CHAP. a single viator, or beadle, attended the exercise of their of fice. The Gracchi would have frowned or smiled, could they have read the sonorous titles and epithets of their successor, "NICHOLAS, SEVERE AND MERCIFUL; DELIVERER OF "ROME; DEFENDER OF ITALY; FRIEND OF MANKIND, The pomp of his 34 AND OF LIBERTY, PEACE, AND JUSTICE; TRIBUNE AU"GUST" his theatrical pageants had prepared the revolu tion; but Rienzi abused, in luxury and pride, the political maxim of speaking to the eyes, as well as the understanding, of the multitude. From nature he had received the gift of an handsome person,35 till it was swelled and disfigured by intemperance; and his propensity to laughter was corrected in the magistrate by the affectation of gravity and sternness. He was clothed, at least on public occasions, in a party-coloured robe of velvet or satin, lined with fur, and embroidered with gold: the rod of justice, which he carried in his hand, was a sceptre of polished steel, crowned with a globe and cross of gold, and inclosing a small fragment of the true and holy wood. In his civil and religious processions through the city, he rode on a white steed, the symbol of royalty: the great banner of the republic, a sun with a circle of stars, a dove with an olive branch, was displayed over his head; a shower of gold and silver was scattered among the populace; fifty guards with halberds encompassed his person; a troop of horse preceded his march; and their tymbals and trumpets were of massy silver. The ambition of the honours of chivalry 36 betrayed the meanness of his birth, and degraded the importance of his hood, A.D. office; and the equestrian tribune was not less odious to the 1347, Au knight gust 1. ing a Greek philosopher; but they might have imbibed the same modest doctrines from their favourite Latins, Livy and Valerius Maximus. 34 I could not express in English the forcible, though barbarous, title of Zelator Italiæ, which Rienzi assumed. 35 Era bell'homo (1. ii. c. 1. p. 399). It is remarkable, that the riso sarcastico of the Bracciano edition is wanting in the Roman MS. from which Muratori has given the text. In his second reign, when he is painted almost as a monster, Rienzi travea una ventresca tonna trionfale, a modo de uno Abbate Asiano, or Asinino (1. iii. c. 18. p. 523). 36 Strange as it may seem, this festival was not without a precedent. In the year 1327, two barons, a Colonna, and an Ursini, the usual balance, were created knights by the Roman people: their bath was of rose-water, their beds were decked with royal magnificence, and they were served at St. Maria of Araceli in the Capitol, by the twenty-eight buoni huomini. They afterwards received from Robert king of Naples the sword of chivalry (Hist. Rom, 1. i. c. 2. p. 259). LXX. nobles, whom he adopted, than to the plebeians, whom he CHAP. , deserted. All that yet remained of treasure, or luxury, or art, was exhausted on that solemn day. Rienzi led the procession from the Capitol to the Lateran; the tediousness of the way was relieved with decorations and games; the ecclesiastical, civil, and military, orders, marched under their various banners; the Roman ladies attended his wife; and the ambassadors of Italy might loudly applaud, or secretly deride, the novelty, of the pomp. In the evening, when they had reached the church and palace of Constantine, he thanked and dismissed the numerous assembly, with an invitation to the festival of the ensuing day. From the hands of a venerable knight he received the order of the Holy Ghost; the purification of the bath was a previous ceremony; but in no step of his life did Rienzi excite such scandal and censure as by the profane use of the porphyry vase, in which Constantine (a foolish legend) had been healed of his leprosy by pope Sylvester." With equal presumption the tribune watched or reposed within the consecrated precincts of the baptistery; and the failure of his state-bed was interpreted as an omen of his approaching downfall. At the hour of worship he shewed himself to the returning crowds in a majestic attitude, with a robe of purple, his sword, and gilt spurs; but the holy rites were soon interrupted by his levity and insolence. Rising from his throne, and advancing towards the congregation, he proclaimed in a loud voice: "We summon to our tribunal pope Clement; and command "him to reside in his diocese of Rome : we also summon "the sacred college of cardinals.38 We again summon the "two pretenders, Charles of Bohemia and Lewis of Bava"ria, who style themselves emperors: we likewise summon "all the electors of Germany, to inform us on what pretence "they have usurped the inalienable right of the Roman peo. 37 All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of Constantine (Petrarch, Epist. Fam. vi. 2), and Rienzi justified his own conduct by observing to the court of Avignon, that a vase which had been used by a Pagan, could not be profaned by a pious Christian. Yet this crime is specified in the bull of excommunication (Hocsemius, apud du Cerceau, p. 189, 190). 38 This verbal summons of pope Clement VI. which rests on the authority of the Roman historian and a Vatican MS. is disputed 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 chuse to agitate this delicate question. CHAP. "ple, the ancient and lawful sovereigns of the empire."30 Unsheathing his maiden-sword, he thrice brandished it to the three parts of the world, and thrice repeated the extravagant declaration, " And this too is mine!" The pope's vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, attempted to check this career of folly; but his feeble protest was silenced by martial music; and instead of withdrawing from the assembly, he consented to dine with his brother tribune, at a table which had hitherto been reserved for the supreme pontiff. A banquet, such as the Cæsars had given, was prepared for the Romans. The apartments, porticoes, and courts, of the Lateran were spread with innumerable tables for either sex, and every condition; a stream of wine flowed from the nostrils of Constantine's brazen horse; no complaint, except of the scarcity of water, could be heard; and the licentiousness of the multitude was curbed by discipline and fear. A subsequent day was appointed for the coronation of Rienzi;40 seven crowns of different leaves or metals were successively placed on his head by the most eminent of the Roman clergy; they represented the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; and he still professed to imitate the example of the ancient tribunes. These extraordinary spectacles might deceive or flatter the people; and their own vanity was gratified in the vanity of their leader. But in his private life he soon deviated from the strict rule of frugality and abstinence; and the plebeians, who were awed by the splendour of the nobles, were provoked by the luxury of their equal. His wife, his son, his uncle (a barber in name and profession), exposed the contrast of vulgar manners and princely expense; and without acquiring the majesty, Rienzi degenerated into the vices, of a king. and coronation. Fear and hatred of "Bare A simple citizen describes with pity, or perhaps with the nobles pleasure, the humiliation of the barons of Rome. of Rome. "headed, their hands crossed on their breast, they stood "with downcast looks in the presence of the tribune; and "they trembled, good God how they trembled !" As long 39 The summons of the two rival emperors, a monument of freedom and folly, is extant in Hocsemius (Cerceau, p. 163...166). 40 It is singular, that the Roman historian should have overlooked this sevenfold coronation, which is sufficiently proved by internal evidence, and the testimony of Hocsemius, and even of Rienzi (Cercau, p. 167...170. 229). 41 Puoi se saceva stare dedante a se, mentre sedeva, li baroni tutti in diedi |