CHAP. laid at his feet the keys of the gates, the bridges, LXX. and the fortreffes; of the quarter at leaft beyond His death, A. D. 1378, Election of Urban VI. the Tyber". But this loyal offer was accompanied by a declaration, that they could no longer fuffer the scandal and calamity of his abfence; and that his obftinacy would finally provoke them to revive and affert the primitive right of election. The abbot of mount Caffin had been confulted, whether he would accept the triple crown from the clergy and people: "I am a citizen of "Rome replied that venerable ecclefiaftic, "and my first law is the voice of my country' 63 " 62 64 99 If fuperftition will interpret an untimely death" if the merit of counfels be judged from the event; the heavens may feem to frown on a measure of such apparent reafon and propriety. Gregory the eleventh did not furvive above fourteen months his return to the Vatican; and his decease was followed by the great fchifm of the Weft which diftracted the Latin church above forty years.. The facred college was then compofed of twentytwo cardinals: fix of these had remained at Avignon; eleven Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and four Italians, entered the conclave in the ufual form. Their choice was not yet limited to the purple; and their unanimous votes acquiefced in the archbishop of Bari, a subject of Naples, confpicuous for his zeal and learning, who afcended the throne of St. Peter under the name of Urban the fixth. The epiftle of the facred college affirms his free and regular election; which had been infpired, as ufual, by the holy Ghoft: he was LXX. Sept. 21. adored, invested, and crowned, with the custom- CHA P. ary rights; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome and Avignon, and his ecclefiaftical fupremacy was acknowledged in the Latin world. During feveral weeks, the cardinals attended their new master with the faireft profeffions of attachment and loyalty; till the fummer-heats permitted a decent efcape from the city. But as foon as they were united at Anagni and Fundi, in a place of fecurity, they caft afide the mask, accufed their own falfehood and hypocrify, excommunicated the apoftle and antichrift of Rome, and proceeded to a new election of Robert of Geneva, Clement the feventh, whom they an- Election of nounced to the nations as the true and rightful Clement VII. vicar of Chrift. Their firft choice, an involuntary and illegal act, was annulled by the fear of death and the menaces of the Romans; and their complaint is juftified by the ftrong evidence of probability and fact. The twelve French cardinals, above two-thirds of the votes, were mafters of the election; and whatever might be their provincial jealoufies, it cannot fairly be prefumed that they would have facrificed their right and intereft to a foreign candidate, who would never reftore them to their native country. In the various, and often inconfiftent, narratives", the Thades of popular violence are more darkly or faintly coloured: but the licentioufnefs of the feditious Romans was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and the danger of a fecond emigration. The conclave was intimidated by the shouts, and, LXX. CHA P. 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 univerfal cry; the fame threat was repeated by the twelve bannerets, or chiefs of the quarters, in the form of charitable advice; fome preparations were made for burning the obstinate cardinals; and had they chofen a Tranfalpine fubject, it is probable that they would never have departed alive from the Vatican. The fame constraint impofed the neceffity of diffembling in the eyes of Rome and of the world: the pride and cruelty of Urban prefented a more inevitable danger; and they foon discovered the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, while he heard from an adjacent chamber fix cardinals groaning on the rack. His inflexible zeal, which loudly cenfured 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 an helpless minority in the facred college. For these reasons, and in the hope of repaffing the Alps, they rafhly violated the peace and unity of the church; and the merits of their double choice are yet agitated in the Catholic fchools"?. The vanity, rather than the interest, of the nation determined the court and clergy of France "*. The states of Savoy, Sicily, Cyprus, Arragon, Caftille, Navarre, and Scotland, were inclined by their example and authority to the obedience, 6 LXX. of Clement the feventh, and, after his deceafe, c H A R of Benedict the thirteenth. Rome and the prin cipal ftates of Italy, Germany, Portugal, England", the Low Countries, and the kingdoms of the North, adhered to the prior election of Urban the fixth, who was fucceeded by Boniface the ninth, Innocent the feventh, and Gregory the twelfth. ⚫ A. D. From the banks of the Tyber and the Rhone, Great fchifm the hostile pontiffs encountered each other with of the Weft, the pen and the fword: the civil and ecclefiaftical 1378-1418. order of fociety was disturbed; and the Romans had their full fhare of the mischiefs of which they may be arraigned as the primary authors". They had vainly flattered themfelves with the hope of restoring the feat of the ecclefiaftical monarchy; and of relieving their poverty with the tributes and offerings of the nations; but the feparation of France and Spain diverted the ftream of lucrative devotion; nor could the lofs Calamities of be compenfated by the two jubilees which were crowded into the fpace of ten years. By the avocations of the fchifm, by foreign arms, and popular tumults, Urban the fixth and his three fucceffors were often compelled to interrupt their refidence in the Vatican. The Colonna and Urfini ftill exercised their deadly feuds: 'the bannerets of Rome afferted and abufed the privileges of a republic: the vicars of Christ, who had levied a military force, chaftifed their rebellion with the gibbet, the fword, and the dagger; and, in a friendly conference, eleven deputies of the people Rome. LXX. CHAP. were perfidiously murdered and caft into the ftreet. Since the invafion of Robert the Norman, the Romans had purfued, their domeftic quarrels without the dangerous interpofition of a stranger. But in the diforders of the fchifm, an afpiring neighbour, Ladiflaus king of Naples, alternately fupported and betrayed the pope and the people: by the former, he was declared gonfalonier, or general, of the church, while the latter fubmitted to his choice the nomination of their magiftrates. Befieging 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 garrifon in the caftle of St. Angelo. His arms were fometimes 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 fave the metropolis and the ecclefiaftical state from the ambitious conqueror, who had affumed the title, or at leaft the powers, of king of Rome". Negociations for peace and union, A. D. I have not undertaken the ecclefiaftical history of the fchifm; but Rome, the object of these last chapters, is deeply interested in the difputed fucceffion 1394-1407. of her fovereigns. The firft counfels for the peace and union of Chriftendom arofe from the univerfity of Paris, from the faculty of the Sorbonne, whofe doctors were esteemed, at leaft in the Gallican church, as the most confummate masters of |