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CHAP. 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 *.

His vices

and follies.

While Petrarch indulged these prophetic visions, the Roman hero was fast declining from the meri dian 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 interprising 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 prospe rity, 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 † ; and that as often as they visited the city on foot, a single

See the Epistola Hortatoria de Capessenda Republica, from Petrarch to Nicholas Rienzi, (Opp. p. 535-540.), and the 5th eclogue or pastoral, a perpetual and obscure allegory.

+ 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 ὁμοιεσθαι σχηματί, και πόλη και διαιτη τους επιτυγχάνεσι των πλίτων . . . καταπατείσθαι δεί (a saying of C.

Curio)

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single viator, or beadle, attended the exercise of CHA P. their office. The Gracchi would have frowned or smiled, could they have read the sonorous titles and epithets of their successor, "NICHOLAS, SEVERE 66 AND MERCIFUL; DELIVERER OF ROME; DE"FENDER OF ITALY*; FRIEND OF MANKIND, "AND OF LIBERTY, PEACE, AND JUSTICE; TRIcc BUNE AUGUST." His theatrical pageants had prepared the revolution; 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 t, 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 sattin, lined with fur, and embroidered with gold; the rode 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

Curio) και μη σεμνον είναι τη δέμαρχον όψει . . . . όσω δε μάλλον εκταπείνεται τω σωματι, τοσέτω μάλλον αύξεται τη δυναμε, &c. Rienzi, and Petrarch himself, were incapable perhaps of reading a Greek philosopher; but they might have imbibed the same modest doctrines from their favoarite Latins, Livy and Valerius Maximus.

*I could not express in English the forcible, though barbarous title of Zelator Italiæ, which Rienzi assumed.

Era bell' homo (1. ii. e. 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, (l. iii. c. 18. p. 523.),

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The pomp

of his

knight

hood,

1347,

be

CHAP. 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 trayed the meanness of his birth, and degraded the importance of his office; and the equestrian Tribune was not less odious to the nobles, whom he August 1. adopted, than to the plebeians whom he 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

* 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 buomini. They afterwards received from Robert King of Naples the sword of chivalry, (Hist. Rom. 1. i. c. 2. p. 259.).

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festival of the ensuing day. From the hands of a CHAP. 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 †. We again "summon the two pretenders, Charles of Bohe

mia, and Lewis of Bavaria, who style themselves "Emperors; we likewise summon all the electors

"" of

*All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of Constan, tine (Petrarch, Epist. Famil. 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.).

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. 7076.), with arguments rather of decency than of weight. The Court of Avignon might not chuse to agitate this delicate question.

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"of Germany, to inform us on what pretence "they have usurped the unalienable right of the "Roman people, the ancient and lawful sove"reigns of the empire." 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 fables 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 disand corc- cipline and fear. A subsequent day was appointed for the coronation of Rienzit; 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

nation.

The summons of the two rival Emperors, a monument of freedom and folly, is extant in Hocsemius, (Cerceau, p. 163166.).

It is singular, that the Roman historian should have overlooked this sevenfold cofonation, which is sufficiently proved by internal evidence, and the testimony of Hocsemius, and even of Rienzi, (Cerceau, p. 167-170. 229.).