sovereigns of Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous CHAP. affinity with a noble race, which, in the revolutions of seven LXIX. hundred years has been often illustrated by merit, and always by fortune, 100 About the end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was composed of an uncle and six brothers, all conspicuous in arms, or in the honours of the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphant car, and hailed in some vain acclamations with the title of Cesar; while John and Stephen were declared marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna, by Nicholas the Fourth, the patron so partial to their family, that he has been delineated in satirical portraits, imprisoned as it were in a hollow pillar.101 After his decease, their haughty behaviour provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of mankind. The two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna were oppressed for a moment by his temporal and spiritual arms.102 He proclaimed a crusade against his personal enemies; their estates were coufiscated; their fortresses on either side of the Tiber were besieged by the troops of St. Peter and those of the rival nobles; and after the ruin of Palestrina or Præneste, their principal seat, the ground was marked with a ploughshare, the emblem of perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed, the six brothers, in disguise and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the hope of deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the French court was their surest asylum; they prompted and di=rected the enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their magnanimity, had they respected the misfortune and courage of the captive tyrant. His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored the honours and possessions of the Colonna; and some estimate may be formed of their wealth by their losses, of their losses by the damages of one hundred thousand gold florins which were granted them against the accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope. All the spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished 103 by his supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii. p. 533,) that a cousin of the emperor Nero escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in Germany. 100 I cannot overlook the Roman triumph or ovation of Marco Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope's galleys at the naval victory of Lepanto (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p. 55, 56. Muret. Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180→→ 190.) 101 Muratori Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 216. 220. 102 Petrarch's attachment to the Colonna, has authorized the abbé de ¡Sade to expatiate on the state of the family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface VIII. the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with the Ursini, &c. (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 98-110. 146-148. 174-176. 222-230. 275-280.) His criticism often rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be now extinct. 103 Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who adhered to the emperor CHAP. prudent successors; and the fortune of the house was more LXIX. firmly established by this transient hurricane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna was signalized in the captivity of Boniface, and long afterward in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the gratitude of the emperor, the pillar in their arms was encircled with a royal crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero superior to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome. Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in peace and war; in his distress, he was an object, not of pity but of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his name and country; and when he was asked, "where is now your fortress?" he laid his hand on his heart, and answered," here." He supported with the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin of his declining age, the ancestors, the character, and the children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in and Ursini. the Roman republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated from Spoleto;104 the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the twelfth century, from some eminent person who is only known as the father of their race. But they were soon distinguished among the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen, the strength of their towers, the honours of the senate and sacred college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third and Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage.105 Their riches may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism; the estates of St. Peter were alienated in their favour by the liberal Celestin; 106 and Nicholas was ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; Frederic I. incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice (Villani, I. v. c. 1 ;) and the last stains of annual excommunication, were purified by Sixtus V. (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and proscription, are often the best titles of ancient nobility. 104 -Vallis te proxima misit Appenninigenæ quâ prata virentia sylvæ Spoletana, metunt armenta greges protervi. Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533,) gives the Ursini a French origin, which may be remotely true. 105 In the metrical life of Celestin V. by the cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.) we find a luminous, and not inelegant passage (l. i. c. 3, p. 203, &c. :) --genuit quem nobilis Ursæ (Ursi ?) Muratori (Dissert. lii. tom. xiii.) observes, that the first Ursini pontificate of Ce- 106 Filii Ursi quondiam Cœlestini papæ nepotes, de bonis ecclesiæ Romanæ ditati (Vit. Innocent III. in Muratori, Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodi gality of Nicholas III. is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would disdain the nephews of a modern pope. feuds. and to invest them with the perpetual office of senators of CHAP. Rome. All that has been observed of the greatness of the LXIX. Colonna, will likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The jealousy of pre-eminence and power Their was the true ground of their quarrel; but as a specious badge of try distinction, the Colonna embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church. The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners; and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. 107 After the retreat of the popes to Avignon, they disputed in arms the vacant republic: and the mischiefs of discord were perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two rival senators. By their private hostilities, the city and country were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with their alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by the sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna.108 His triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce; their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the church door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared senator of Rome during the term of five years. And the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate the wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who laboured to subvert the eternal basis of the marble COLUMN.1 109 107 In his 51st Dissertation on the Italian Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. 108 Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222-230,) has celebrated this victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a Florentine (Giovanni Villani, 1. x. c. 220,) and a Roman (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 533, 534,) are less favourable to their arms. 109 The abbé de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61-66,) has applied the sixth Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto Gentil, &c. to Stephen Colonna the younger. Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi СНАР. CHAPTER LXX. Character and Coronation of Petrarch-Restoration of the Freedom and Government of Rome by the Tribune Rienzi-His Virtues and Vices, his Expulsion and Death-Return of the Popes from Avignon-Great Schism of the West-Reunion of the Latin Church-Last Struggles of Roman Liberty-Statutes of Rome-Final Settlement of the Ecclesiastical State. IN the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch' is the Italian songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of Petrarch, her lyric poetry: and his verse, or at least his name, is repeatJune 19ed by the enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. A. b. 1874, Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and A. D. 1304, July 19. superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned nation: yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies, with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover, I am still less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence has been questioned; for a matron so prolific,3 that she was delivered of eleven legitimate children, while her amorous swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. But in the eyes of Petrarch, and those 4 1 The Memoires sur la Vie de François Petrarque (Amsterdam, 1764. 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.) form a copious, original, and entertaining work, a labour of love, composed from the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and gallantry. In the preface to his first volume, he enumerates and weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have professedly treated of the same subject. 2 The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they should understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed Virgin, or—. See the prefaces to the first and second volumes. 3 Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was married in January 1325 to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he married a second wife within seven months of her death, which happened the 6th of April 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years after Petrarch had seen and loved her. 4 Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum ; from one of these is issued in the tenth degree, the abbe de Sade, the fond and grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire into every circumstance that could affect the history and character of his grandmother. See particularly, tom. i. p. 122-133, notes, p. 7--58, tom. ii. p. 455–495, not. p. 76–82. 5 Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge of his biographer (Memoires, tom. i. p. 340--359.) It was, in truth, the retreat of a hermit, and the moderns are much mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto. of his graver contemporaries, his love was a sin, and Italian CHAP. verse a frivolous amusement. His Latin works of philosophy, LXX. poetry, and eloquence, established his serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over France and Italy : his friends and disciples were multiplied in every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings be now abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man, who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the Augustan age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The academical honours of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of poetry; and the title of poet-laureat, which custom rather than vanity, perpetuates in the English court," was first invented by the Cesars of Germany. In the musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: the belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol, inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard; " and the laurel was endeared to the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress. The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, he enjoyed, and might boast of en 6 Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the xvith century, but without the date of the year. The abbé de Sade calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works; but I much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the bookseller, or the amusement of the public. 7 Consult Selden's Titles of Honour, in his works (vol. iii. p. 457–466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St. Francis received the visit of a poet, qui ab mperatore funerat coronatus et exinde rex versuum dictus. 8 From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been false and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I believe, in the presence of the sovereign. I speak the more freely as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous custom, is while the prince is a man of virtue, and the poet a man of genius. 9 Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit. Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native Athens the glory of first instituting and recommending the αγωνας και τα αθλα μέγισα μη μόνον ταχές και ρωμης, αλλά και λόγων και γιωμες. The example of the Panathenæa was imitated at Delphi: but the Olympic games were ignorant of a musical crown till it was extorted by the vain tyranny of Nero (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat. apud Casaubon ad locum: Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, 1. Ixiii. p. 1032. 1041. Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445. 450.) 10 The Capitoline games (certamen quinquenale, musicum, equestre, gymnicum,) were instituted by Domitian (Sueton. c. 4,) in the year of Christ 86 (Censorin, de Die Natali, c. 18, p. 100, edit. Havercamp,) and were not abolished in the fourth century (Ausonius de Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If the crown were given to superior merit, the exclusion of Statius (Capitolia nostræ inficiata lyræ, Silv. 1. iii. v. 31,) may do honour to the games of the Capitol; but the Latin poets who lived before Domitian, were crowned only in the public opinion. 11 Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant that the laurel was not the Capitoline, but the Delphic, crown (Plin. Hist. Natur. xv. 39. Hist. Critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. i. p. 150-220.) The victors in the Capitol were crowned with a garland of oak leaves. Martial, 1. iv. epigram 54. 12 The pious grandson of Laura has laboured, and not without success, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the censures of the grave and the sneers of the profane (tom. ii. notes, p. 76-82.) |