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impulses of the age, was showy and theatri- racter. Rienzi states, that having entertained cal; at this period, at least, wanting in that some suspicion of dangerous designs among depth and fervour which spreads by its con- the nobles against himself and the people, tagion, and hurries away its partisans with it pleased God (!) that they fell into the unthinking obedience of veneration. his hands.' (He seized them by treaFrom the first, the papal court watched the chery.) His suspicions being confirmed, he proceedings of Rienzi with suspicious jealousy. adopted an innocent artifice to reconcile them There was a cold reserve in their approba- not only with himself, but with God! 'I tion, and an evident determination not to procured them the inestimable blessing of commit themselves too far. As his power making a very decent confession!!' The increased, these suspicions darkened; the confessor, ignorant of the Tribune's merciful influence of his enemies at Avignon became intentions, prepared them for death! It hapmore formidable. And when the courtiers of pened that just at that time the bell was tollthe papal chamber, and the clergy, especially ing for the assembling of the parliament. the French clergy, who preferred the easy The nobles, supposing it to be the knell of and luxurious life at Avignon to a disturbed death for their execution, made their conand dangerous residence at Rome (perhaps fession with the profoundest penitence and with a severe republican censorship aspiring sorrow. In the Assembly of the People to regulate their morals)-when they had Rienzi not only justified the nobles, but strong grounds for supposing that the Tribune loaded them with praises. This letter, we would refuse obedience to any pope who must remember, was addressed to an Orsini, should not fix his throne in Rome, the in- archdeacon of Liege, nearly related, no doubt, trigues became more active, and the tone and to some of the imprisoned nobles, and inactions of the papal representative less tended to be submitted to the Pope. Rienzi, friendly to the Tribune. Petrarch, who however, must have strangely deluded himknew Avignon well, speaks of the poison of self to conceive that he could impose upon deep hatred which had infected the souls of the pope and his cardinals by this assertion the courtiers, and says they looked with the of religious solicitude for the captive nobles. darkest jealousy on the prosperity and fame But, if on this great occasion he had indeed of Rome and Italy. The nobles of Rome some loftier aspirations after generosity and had likewise powerful relations at Avignon, especially the Cardinal Colonna, who brought against Rienzi dangerous charges, not less dangerous because untrue, of heresy, and even of unlawful and magical arts.

mercy, which he marred partly by his treachery and partly by his theatrical display, they were utterly unsuited to his age. He obtained no credit for sparing his enemies, either from his enemies themselves or from Power had intoxicated Rienzi; but it had the world. The former remembered only not inspired him with that daring reckless- that he had steeped them to the lips in huness of mind which often accompanies the miliation, and brooded over vengeance; both intoxication of power. In the height of his ascribed his abstaining from blood to mere pride he began to betray pusillanimity. He timidity. The voice of the times speaks in had the courage to contrive but not to exe- Petrarch. The gentle and high-souled poet cute. He could condescend to treachery to betrays his unfeigned astonishment that bring his enemies into his power, but hesi- Rienzi could be so weak, that, when his enetated to crush them when beneath his feet. mies were at his feet, he not merely spared His own version of the seizure of the nobles their lives (that his clemency might perhaps (at least the version which he sent abroad) have done), but left such public parricides has formed one of the authentic documents the ability to become again dangerous enein the former biographies of the Tribune. It mies of the state.* was translated by Du Cerceau from Hocse- Nor did the character of Rienzi rise with mius; and it is of this letter that Gibbon his danger during the subsequent insurrection observes, that it displays in genuine colours of the nobles. He wanted military skill, the mixture of the knave and the madman.'t and even the courage of a soldier. He was No document, certainly, could be more irre- pitifully depressed by adversity, and immoconcilable with a lofty view of Rienzi's cha- derately elated by success. The defeat of

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His sprinkling his son Lorenzo with the cardinal, appalled at the demeanour of Rienwater which was turbid with the blood of zi, and the martial music which pealed around his enemies, and saluting him as 'Knight of him, could not utter a word. Rienzi turned the Victory,' was an outburst of pride and his back contemptuously, and returned to his vengeance, revolting to his most ardent ad- camp. Hereupon, in a letter to his 'beloved mirers. sons, the Roman people' (printed by Pelzel, According to his own account, Rienzi had but not by Dr. Papencordt), the pope exhaled dark and inward presentiments of his ap- his whole wrath against the Tribune. He proaching fall. The prophecy of the coro- was denounced under all those awful ap nation-day recurred in all its boding terrors to pellations which were perpetually thundered his mind; for the same Fra Gulielmo had by the popes against their enemies. He was foretold the death of the Colonnas by his 'a Belshazzar, the wild ass in Job, a Lucifer, hand, and by the judgment of God. This a forerunner of Antichrist, a man of sin, a prophecy Rienzi had communicated to many son of perdition, a son of the devil, full of persons; and when the four chiefs of that fraud and falsehood, and like the beast in the family fell under the walls of Rome, the Revelations, over whose head was written people believed in a divine revelation. His Blasphemy. He had insulted the Holy Ca enemies asserted that the Tribune kept an unclean spirit, who foretold future events, in the cross of his sceptre; and these unlawful dealings with devils were denounced to the pope.

tholic and Universal Church, by declaring that the church and state of Rome were one, and fallen into other errors against the Catholic faith, and incurred the suspicion of heresy and schism.'

After the triumph over the Colonnas, RiWhen I had obtained the victory,' proceeds enzi's pride had become even more offensive, Rienzi, and in the opinion of men my power and his magnificence insulted the poverty might seem fixed on the most solid foundation,

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my greatness of mind sank away, and a sudden and necessities of the people. pusillanimity came over me so frequently, that obliged to impose taxes; the gabelle on salt I awoke at night, and cried out that the armed was raised. He had neglected to pursue his enemy was breaking into my palace. And al- advantage against the nobles; they still kept though what I say may appear ludicrous, the many of the strongholds near Rome, and cut night-bird, called the owl, took the place of the off the supplies of corn and other provisions dove on the pinnacle of the palace, and, though from the city. The barons of his party were constantly scared away by my domestics, as constantly flew back, and for twelve nights kept rapidly estranged; the people were no lonme without sleep by its lamentable hootings; ger under the magic of his spell. His ball and thus he whom the fury of the Roman no- of audience was vacant; the allied cities bles, and the array of his armed enemies, could seemed to waver in their fidelity. Rienzi not alarm, now shuddered at visions and the began too late to attempt moderation. He screams of night-birds. Weakened, therefore, endeavoured to associate the pope's vicar, by want of sleep, and these constant terrors, I was no longer fit to bear arms, or to give audi- the Bishop of Orvieto, with his power. He ence to the people.' softened his magnificent appellations, and retained only the modest title of Tribunus AuTo this prostration of mind he attributes gustus. Amongst an assembly of clergy and his hasty abandonment of his power. But of the people, after the solemn chaunting of there were other causes. The pope had many psalms, and the hymn Thine, O Lord, at length declared against him in the strong- is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,' est terms. During the last period of his he suspended before the altar of the Virgin power, Rienzi had given strong grounds for his silver crown, his iron sceptre and orb of the suspicion that he intended to assume the justice, and the rest of the insignia of the empire. He had asserted the choice of the tribunate. This, he says, he did amid the emperor to be in the Roman people; but in astonishment and the tears of his friends. his liberal condescension he had offered a All was in vain; Pepin, Palatine of Altashare in this great privilege to the people of mura and Count of Minorbino, marched into Italy. The bathing in the vase of Constan- the city, and occupied one of the palaces of tine was not forgotten. When the papal the Colonnas with an armed force. legate, Bertrand de Deux, appeared in Rome bell rang in vain from the Capitol to to condemn his proceedings, to depose him summon the adherents of Rienzi; and he from his power, he returned from his camp, felt that his hour was come. He might, near Marino, and confronted the legate clad he adds, easily have resisted the sedition in the Dalmatica, the imperial mantle worn excited by Count Pepin, but he was deat the coronation of the emperors, which he termined to shed no more blood. In anoth had taken from the sacristy of St. Peter. The er public assembly he solemnly abdicated

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his power, and departed, notwithstanding, he commenced or about to commence. says, the reluctance and the lamentations of kingdom of sin had lasted from Adam to the people. It may well be believed that Christ; that of the priesthood had been estabafter his departure, under the reinstated lished by Christ; that of the Holy Ghost was tyranny of the nobles, the government of yet to come, or had but partially begun—to Rienzi was remembered with regret. But wit, the kingdom of monachism in all its auswhen the robber chief, whom he had sum-terest superiority to the world, its seclusion, moned before his tribunal, first entered Rome, its union with God by the Holy Spirit. They fortified the quarter of the Colonna, and de- had attained a perfect spirituality, entirely dified the power of the Tribune, Rienzi had in vested of all worldly possessions, detached vain sounded the tocsin; the people assem- from all worldly ties, altogether unoccupied bled not under his banner. Even with the by worldly concerns. * Rienzi describes, with handful of troops which he could collect the simple fervonr of admiration, their calm, around him, a man of courage and vigour and holy and austere life. Oh life,' he exmight perhaps have suppressed the invasion; claims, which anticipates immortality! oh but all his energy was gone: he who had angelic life, which the friends of Satan alone protested so often, says his Roman biographer, could disturb! and these men, with this evan. that he would lay down his life for the liber- gelical poverty of spirit, are persecuted by the ties of the people, did not show the courage pope and the inquisition.' of a child. His enemies were astonished at their easy victory; for three days the barons without the city did not venture to approach the walls. Rienzi remained undisturbed in the castle of St. Angelo: he made one effort to work on the people by his old arts; he had an angel painted on the walls of the Magdalen Church, with the arms of Rome, and a cross surmounted with a dove; and (in allusion to the well-known passage in the Psalms) trampling on an asp, a basilisk, a lion, and a dragon. Mischievous boys smeared the picture with mud; Rienzi, in the disguise of a monk, saw it in this state, ordered a lamp to be kept burning before it for a year, as if to intimate his triumphant return at that time, and then fled from Rome.

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It is difficult to decide whether Rienzi was really possessed with this contagious enthusi asm (at one time he seriously contemplated a pilgrimage to Jerusalem), or whether the anti-papal, we should rather perhaps say the Ghibelline, tendency of these opinions woke again that impulse, which some may call ambition, others a noble devotion for the independence of Italy. But in his retirement on Monte Majella he brooded over these schemes; he listened, as he said, to those inspiriting prophecies which might be the subtle and la tent yearning of personal vengeance against the pope; but, if he were really touched by the infectious spirit of the fanaticism which haunted these regions, might disguise them. selves to him as the hopes as well of a reliThe retreat of Rienzi was among the wild gious reformer as of a Roman patriot. They glens of the Apennines, which border on the were days in which the minds of men had been kingdom of Naples, among the hermits of the prepared for some awful change. The years order of St. Francis, who dwelt in their soli- 1348 and 1349' (observes Dr. Papencordt) tary cells in the sides of the mountains. 'were fearful times throughout the west, from These were called the Spirituals, and the plague, earthquakes, and terrific natural apFraticelli. They adhered to the rules of their pearances; Flagellants and other fanatics founder in their severest austerity. They had risen in great numbers. The year 1350, had been formed into a separate order by on the other hand, that of the jubilee, had Peter del Morrone, afterwards Pope Celestine excited all minds, and elevated them from V., and called themselves the Poor Hermits earthly to higher considerations.', It was in of Celestine; the order had been annulled by the year of the jubilee that Rienzi conceived Boniface VIII., but still subsisted, never com- and abandoned his scheme of pilgrimage to pletely re-united to the great Franciscan bro- the Holy Land. After entering Rome in therhood. These hermits were men of the disguise, apparently very early in that year, strongest enthusiasm, men of vision and pro- in order to obtain the indulgence granted at phecy. The predictions of the Abbot Joachim de Flore were their delight, and the bold interpretations of the Apocalypse by John Olivi. We have no space to enter into the peculiar opinions of this by no means uninfluential fraternity. It is enough to say that enough. Their adversaries objected that our Lord they were profoundly hostile to the temporal and his apostles had a purse. Yes,' they rejoinauthority of the pope, and that they generally believed in some great religious revolution to St. Peter.'

the jubilee, the Tribune suddenly appeared at Prague before the Emperor Charles IV. The account of Rienzi's appearance in Prague, in

One of their scriptural arguments is curious

ed, but it was intrusted to Judas. Had it been in

tended for our example, it would have been given

the Italian of Polistore (Muratori, Script. Ital., | dress to the emperor he thus relates the vol. xxiv., p. 819), to which Dr. Papencordt motives and the object of his mission:only alludes, is so dramatic, and therefore so entirely in character with Rienzi, that we insert it :

'After I had passed a year and a half in a mendicant habit amid the Apennines of the kingdom of Apulia, I was accosted by a certain brother named Angelo, calling himself the her'During this year, in the month of August, mit of Mount Volcanus, and to whom many there came into Germany, to the city of Prague, other hermits, it was said, paid the highest vea man in strange dress. He stopped at the neration. He addressed me by my name, and house of a Florentine apothecary, and asked this astonished me, for my name had been conhim to present him to my Lord Charles, elected cealed from all the rest; and he said that I had emperor by the Church of Rome, as he wished dwelt long enough in idleness, at least for the to communicate something to his honour and present, in the desert. It behoved me rather to advantage. This man, presented to the afore- labour for the general good than for my own. said emperor, addressed him in these words: He disclosed to me that my dwelling had been "There dwells in Mongibello a hermit, called made known to him by divine revelation; and Brother Angelo, who has chosen two ambassa- he added, that God was now looking to that dors. The one he has sent to the pope in Avig- universal reformation which had been foretold non, the other to you the emperor. I am he, O by many spiritual men, and this chiefly through emperor, who am sent to you." The emperor that for the many sins of the times he had althe prayers and influence of the glorious Virgin; ordered him to deliver his embassage. Then that man began to speak in the following man- ready sent a great mortality and earthquakes, ner:-"Know ye, sire and emperor, that the but that he was meditating a more appalling aforesaid Brother Angelo sends me to say to scourge on account of the unrighteous pastors you, that up to this time the Father has reigned and the people. With this scourge he had dein this world, and God his Son. The power is signed, before the advent of St. Francis, to chas now taken from him and given to the Holy, Church; but through the urgent prayers of the tise and terribly to wound (sagittare) the Ghost, who shall reign for the time to come.' The emperor, hearing that he thus separated two saints, St. Dominic and St. Francis, who, and set apart the Father and the Son from the preaching in the spirit of Enoch and Elias, have Holy Ghost, said, "Are you the man that I sup- hitherto sustained the falling church, the judg pose you are?" And he answered, "Whom do ment of God had been prorogued to the present you suppose me to be ?" The emperor said, "I time. But since, he said, there is now "not one suppose that you are the Tribune of Rome;" that doeth good, no not one;" and the very and this the emperor supposed, having heard of elect' [meaning probably the Mendicant orders] the heresies of the Tribune. And he answered, 'do not retain the primitive virtues for the sup"Of a truth I am he who was Tribune, and port of the church-God for these reasons has have been driven from Rome." Then the em- prepared and is preparing vengeance. New and peror sent immediately for the archbishop of great events will shortly take place, particularTreves, and two other bishops, and the ambas-ly for the reformation of the church to its state sadors of the king of Scotland, and many other of primitive holiness; with a general peace not ambassadors and doctors. And the emperor only among Christians, but among Christians caused him to repeat in the presence of these and Saracens, whom the grace of the Holy distinguished men what he had said in secret to Ghost shall enlighten under one Shepherd to the emperor. And he said that the messenger come. And he declared that the day was at who had gone to the pope at Avignon would hand when the times of the Holy Ghost should say to him the same things, and that the pope commence, in which God should be made known would cause him to be burnt for these to men. sayings, and the third day he would rise again by the power of the Holy Ghost: for which cause the people of Avignon would rush to arms, and slay the pope and the cardinals; and then an Italian pope would be created, who would remove the court from Avignon and restore it to Rome. "Which pope will send for you, O emperor! and for me, who will be one with the aforesaid pope; who will crown you with the crown of gold of the kingdom of Sicily, of Calabria, and Apulia; and will crown me with the crown of silver, making me king of Rome and of all Italy." The archbishops hearing these fables, departed, saying that he was a foolish heretic, and caused the Tribune to write all he had said with his own hand.'

It is now in our power to correct and illustrate the statement of the historian from Rienzi's own writings. In his ad

Further, that for the accomplishment of this spiritual purpose a holy man was chosen of God, and was to be made known to all men by divine revelation, who, with the elect emper or, should in many ways reform the earth, the pastors of the church being cut off from the su perfluity of all temporal and fleeting pleasures.'

Being questioned, he subjoined— that a certain person under a certain pastor of the church having been put to death, or being dead (mortificatus vel mortuus), should rise again on the fourth day, at whose voice there should be great terror and rout among the pas tors of the church, and even the supreme pontiff should be in great personal danger. And that then that same angelic pastor should sup port the falling church of God, as St. Francis and out of the ecclesiastical treasures should be did before; and should reform the whole church; built a great temple of God, dedicated to the Holy Ghost, which should be called Jerusalem,

into which the infidels should come to worship. I scorned-would that he had ever done so! And he advised me to labour without delay in the vain glory of the world; he despisurging the Roman emperor, (the hundredth of ed riches; he had no wish but in poverty the line of Augustus!) and in aiding him as his

vine law in Leviticus.'

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forerunner by my counsel and assistance, for the to establish justice, to deliver the people city of Rome was speedily to be adorned with from the spoilers and tyrants of Italy. the papal and imperial diadem, since the fortyBut arms I love, arms I seek and will years were expired in which the ark of God had seek, for without arms there is no justice.' removed out of Jerusalem on account of the sins Who knows,' he proceeds,' whether God of men. It would be acceptable, he said, to the of his divine providence did not intend Most High if it should return to its proper dwellme as the precursor of the imperial auing during the year of the jubilee, which had been recently proclaimed according to the di- thority, as the Baptist of Christ?' For this reason, he intimates, he may have been regenerated in the font of ConstanRienzi adds, that when from doubt, and, tine, and his baptism may have been deas he says, from some remains of his old signed to wash away the stains which adarrogance, he hesitated to present him- hered to the imperial authority. He exself before the emperor, Fra Angelo show- horts the emperor to arise and gird on his ed him other prophecies of spiritual men sword, a sword which it became not the (those of the abbot Joachim, no doubt, supreme pontiff to assume. He concludes and Cyril and Merlin), part of which he by earnestly entreating his imperial maknew to have been fulfilled. Considering jesty not rashly to repudiate his humble that his delay would be contumacious to- assistance; above all, not to delay his ocwards God, he then undertook the jour-cupation of the city of Rome till his adney, and now exhorted the emperor to versaries had got possession of the salt accomplish that peacefully and without tax, and other profits of the jubilee, which bloodshed, which on former occasions had amounted to a hundred million of florins, been a cause of desolation to Rome and a sum strictly belonging to the imperial to Italy. No one, he said, could be of so treasury, and sufficient to defray the exgreat service as himself in this great penses of an expedition into Italy. work, for his return was eagerly and anxiously expected by Rome and by all Italy. He offered his son as a hostage-he was prepared to sacrifice his Isaac, his only begotten son, for the welfare of the people. He asked no favour, but that his government should receive the imperial sanction- for every Roman ruler in temporal affairs is an adulterer, who, when the empire is not vacant, shall assume without imperial licence the office of a ruler.' Such was Rienzi's first address to the emperor. It was heard by Charles with courtesy, but, as might be supposed, with astonishment. At a second interview his language appeared to the emperor so dangerous, and to touch so close on heresy, that he was committed to safe custody, under the guardianship of the archbishop of Prague; and intelligence was sent to the pope of his imprisonment. From his prison he wrote another address to the emperor, in which he entered at much greater length into his former exploits and his future views. He began by protesting that he was not actuated by any fantastic or delusive spirit; that he was compelled by God to approach the imperial presence; he had no ambition; he

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The answer of the emperor was by no means encouraging to the magnificent schemes of the Tribune. It was a grave homily upon humility and charity. It repudiated altogether the design of overthrowing the papal power, and protested against the doctrine of a new effusion of the Holy Ghost. As to the story of Rienzi's imperial descent, he leaves that to God, and reminds the Tribune that we are all children of Adam, and all return to dust. Finally, he urges him to dismiss his fantastic views and earthly ambition; no longer to be stiff-necked and stony. hearted to God, but with a humble and contrite spirit to put on the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith.

Baffled in his attempts to work on the personal ambition of the emperor, Rienzi had recourse to his two most influential counsellors, John of Neumark, afterwards his chancellor, and Ernest of Parbubitz, archbishop of Prague. John of Neumark professed a love of letters, and Rienzi addressed to him a brief epistle, on which he lavished all his flowers of eloquence. It is impossible to conceive anything in worse taste. John of Neumark repaid him in the same coin. Rienzi had been committed to the custody of the Archbishop of Prague, as suspected of heresy. The archbishop was a prelate of distinction

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