LXIX. 102 CHA P. fome vain acclamations with the title of Cæfar; while John and Stephen were declared marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna, by Nicholas the fourth, a patron fo partial to their family, that he has been delineated in fatirical portraits, im prifoned as it were in a hollow pillar ". 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 oppreffed for a moment by his temporal and spiritual arms ***. He proclaimed a crufade against his perfonal enemies; their eftates were confifcated; their fortreffes on either fide of the Tyber were befieged by the troops of St. Peter and thofe of the rival nobles; and after the ruin of Palestrina or Prænefte, their principal feat, the ground was marked with a ploughfhare, the emblem of perpetual defolation. Degraded, banished, profcribed, the fix brothers, in difguife and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the hope of deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the French court was their fureft afylum: they prompted and directed the enterprize of Philip; and I fhould praise their magnanimity, had they refpected the misfortune and courage of the captive tyrant. His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored the honours and poffeffions of the Colonna; and fome estimate may be formed of their wealth by their loffes, of their loffes by the damages of one hundred thoufand gold florins 103 LXIX. which were granted them against the accomplices CHA P. and heirs of the deceafed pope. All the fpiritual cenfures and difqualifications were abolished "*' by his prudent fucceffors; and the fortune of the houfe was more firmly eftablifhed by this tranfient hurricane. The boldnefs of Sciarra Colonna was fignalized in the captivity of Boniface; and long afterwards in the coronation of Lewis, of Bavaria; and by the gratitude of the emperor, the pillar in their arms was encircled with a roy. al crown. But the first of the family in fame. and merit was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as an hero fuperior to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome. Perfecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in peace and war; in his diftrefs, he was an object, not of pity, but of reverence; the afpect of danger provoked him to avow his name and country: and, when he was asked, "where "is now your fortrefs?" he laid his hand on his heart, and anfwered, "here." He fupported with the fame virtue the return of profperity; and, till the ruin of his declining age, the, anceftors, the character, and the children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The and Urfini Urfini migrated from Spoleto ***; the sons of Ursus, as they are ftyled in the twelfth century, from fome eminent perfon who is only known as the father of their race. But they were foon diftinguished among the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinfmen, the ftrength LXIX. 196 CHA P. of their towers, the honours of the fenate and facred college, and the elevation of two popes, Celeftin the third and Nicholas the third, of their name and lineage 15. Their riches may be accufed as an early abuse of nepotism: the estates of St. Peter were alienated in their favour by the liberal Celestin ; and Nicholas was ambitious for their fake to folicit the alliance of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and to inveft them with the perpetual office of fenators of Rome. All that has been observed of the greatnefs of the Colonna, will likewife redound to the glory of the Urfini, their conftant and equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted above two hundred and fifty years the ecclefiaftical state. Their here. The jealoufy of pre-eminence and power was the true ground of their quarrel; but as a fpecious badge of distinction, the Colonna embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the Urfini efpoufed the title of Guelphs and the caufe of the church. The eagle and the keys were difplayed in their adverfe banners; and the two factions of Italy moft furioufly raged when the origin and nature of the difpute were long fince forgotten After the retreat of the popes to Avignon, they difputed in arms the vacant republic: and the mischiefs of difcord were perpetuated by the wretched compromife of electing each year two rival fenators. By their private hoftilities, the city and country were defolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with their ditary feuds. IC7 LXIX. alternate fuccefs. But none of either family had c A P. fallen by the fword, till the moft renowned champion of the Urfini was furprised and flain by the younger Stephen Colonna 10. His triumph is ftained with the reproach of violating the truce; their defeat was bafely avenged by the affaffination, before the church door, of an innocent boy and his two fervants. Yet the victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared fenator of Rome during the term of five years. And the mufe of Petrarch infpired, a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous youth, the fon of his venerable hero, would reftore Rome and Italy to their priftine glory; that his juftice would extirpate the wolves and lions, the ferpents and bears, who laboured to fubvert the eternal bafis of the mar ble COLUMN I 09. CHAP. LXX. CHAP. LXX. Petrarch, A. D. 1304, June 19 A. D. 1374, Character and Coronation of Petrarch. Reftoration of the Freedom and Government of Rome by the Tribune Rienzi, His Virtues and Vices, his Expulfion and Death. Return of the Popes Great Schifm of the West. - Laft Struggles Statutes of Rome. Settlement of the Ecclefiaftical State. Final In the apprehenfion of Modern times, Petrarch is the Italian fongfter of Laura and Love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry: and his verfe, or at least his name, is repeated by the enthufiafm, or affectation, of amorous fenfibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his flight and fuperficial knowledge fhould humbly acquiefce in the judgment of a learned nation: yet I may hope or prefume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of fonnets and elegies, with the fublime compofitions of their epic mufe, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Taffo, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover, I am ftill lefs qualified |