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emperor or by you-before the Whitsuntide next ensuing I will surrender up all Italy in the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, &c.' peaceable allegiance to the emperor, excepting

and learning, disposed to high ecclesiastical views, well read in the canon-law, and not likely to be favourable to the wild predictions, or to the adventurous schemes of Rienzi; yet to him Rienzi fearlessly addressed a long 'libel,' in which he re-ed hostages, whose heads were to be cut For the accomplishment of this he offerpeated all his charges against the pope, of off if his scheme was not fulfilled within abandoning his spiritual duties, leaving his the prescribed time; and if he failed, he sheep to be torn by wolves, and of divid-promised and vowed to return to prison, ing, rending, and severing the church, the to be dealt with as the emperor might devery body of Christ, by scandals and cide! He repeats that his mission, anschisms. The pope violated every pre: nounced by the prophetic hermit, is to cept of Christian charity, while Rienzi alone maintained no dreamy or insane doctrine, but the pure, true, sound, apostolic and evangelic faith. It was the pope who abandoned Italy to her tyrants, or rather armed those tyrants with his power. Rienzi contrasts his own peaceful, orderly, and just administration with the wild anarchy, thus not merely unsuppressed but encouraged by the pope he asserts his own more powerful protection of the church, his enforcement of sound morals:

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And for these works of love the pastor of the flock calls me a schismatic, a heretic, a diseased sheep, a blasphemer of the church, a man of sacrilege, a deceiver, who deals with unclean spirits kept in the cross of the Lord;* an adulterator of the holy body of Christ; a rebel and a persecutor of the church.

"But whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." As naked I entered into power, so naked I went out of power, the people resisting and lamenting my departure.

prepare the way for the peaceful entrance of the emperor; to bind the tyrants in chains, and the nobles in links of iron :

So that Cæsar, advancing without bloodshed, not with the din of arms and German fury, but with psalteries and sweet-sounding cymbals, may arrive at the feast of the Holy Ghost, and occupy his Jerusalem, a more peaceful and securer Solomon. For I wish this Cæsar, not old, to enter the chamber of my mother, the secretly or as an adulterer, like his ancestor of city of Rome, but gladly and publicly, like a bridegroom! not to be introduced into the chamber of my mother by a single attendant, in disguise and through guarded barriers; not as his ancestor, by Stephen Colonna, by whom he was betrayed and abandoned, but by the whole exulting people. Finally, that the bridegroom shall not find his bride and my mother an humble hostess and handmaid, but a free woman and a queen; and the house of my mother shall not be a tavern, but the church!'

The tribune goes on to relate many of the wonderful interferences of Divine

A little farther on he gives us this piece Providence in his behalf. He alludes to of history :

'We read in the Chronicles that Julius, the first Cæsar, angry at the loss of some battle, was so mad as to raise his sword against his own life; but Octavianus, his grandson, the first Augustus, violently wrested the sword from his hand, and saved Cæsar from his own frantic sword. Cæsar, returning to his senses, immediately adopted Octavianus as his son, whom the Roman people afterwards appointed his successor in the empire. Thus, when I have wrested the frantic sword from his hand, the supreme pontiff, when his madness is passed,

will call me his faithful son.'

He reiterates his magnificent offers to the emperor for the subjugation of Italy:

If on the day of the exaltation of the holy cross I ascend up into Italy, unimpeded by the

We have already had an allusion to an evil spirit which Rienzi was said to consult, called Fiorino, and which he kept in the cross on one of his insignia of office.

the changeable decrees of the pope. Boniface imprisoned and put to death Celestine, whom his successor canonised: Benedict XII. punished his seneschal, and denied him Christian burial; and that same seneschal had been taken up from the shore of the Rhine, and interred with the most splendid funeral rites.

The reply of the archbishop was short and dry. He could not but wonder at his correspondent's protestations of humility, so little in accordance with the magnificent titles which he had assumed as Tribune; or with his assertion that he was under the special guidance of the Holy Ghost. By what authority,' he demands, did Rienzi assert for the Roman people the right of electing the emperor ?? He wondered that Rienzi, instead of the authentic prophecies of the Holy Scriptures, should consult the wild and unauthorised prophets, Methodius and Cyril. The archbishop ends with the words of Gamaliel,-that if the Tri.

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ought: for among men of the world humility
is become a rare virtue: since the days of St.
Francis it has been gradually wearing out, and
seed is not now found upon the earth.'
no one has ventured to sow it again, so that its

bune's schemes are of God they will succeed, however men may oppose them.' There are several more letters from Rienzi to the Archbishop in the same tone and spirit, the Tribune indefatigably urging his cause, and answering the ob- We add one further extract from this jections of the prelate he acknowledges correspondence, because it relates to the that, like Moses and David, he had sinned person of Rienzi, and the imprisonment through pride, and that God had visited to which he was subjected, which does him for his offence; he asserts that he does not ground his great work of love to mankind on the prophecies which he alleges; the work itself is the evidence of its divine sanction, and he was only encouraged in its accomplishment by these inspired visions; he is not the first who has run the danger of being stoned for a good work!—or who has been accused of working good works through the devil!'

not seem to have been wantonly severe. It appears that he was subject to fainting fits; for which he says that, even under the warmer climate of Italy, a fire was a necessary with him-how much more in this cold northerly region! He requests therefore to be indulged with a fire by night as well as by day, and with the visit of a priest, in case his disorder should turn out dangerous. I have endeavoured long enough to mitigate my malady by feigned cheerfulness, which now avails me no longer.'

Finally you conclude that, if my plans are of God, they cannot be prevented by the counsels He also entreats that his of men. By your favour, you tempt God in this, as though you said, if I am acceptable to servants may be clad more warmly at his God I shall be freed from prison by his power. expense. For the rest, I turn to Him, I know that not only I, who am a very great who by the will of the Father was sent sinner, but even the prophets of God, appointed into the world to atone for the sins of by God himself, even in Jerusalem the city of God, were taken and slain. Yet, although that men, to redeem the afflicted, to free the evil was permitted, the authors of that evil captives, to console the afflicted and the were not without sin. But ye perhaps derive mourners, to gather together the dispersglory from my captivity, and expect a reward ed, to heal the contrite hearts, and to from another, not from God. I know, if I had answer for all who suffer wrong and viocome with two or three thousand horsemen, and lence.' with a gift in my hand of a good squadron of cavalry; if I had come to salute the emperor, not as a poor man, but as a very rich one, I should have been received at a banquet, not in a prison; nor would these defenders of the faith, if I had been gorgeous in gold or steel, have entered upon an examination of my belief; no, not even had I created an anti-pope, as did these Roman nobles, who are received on such good terms by the emperor, and promoted by the pope himself.'

He proceeds to inveigh against the vices of the ecclesiastics, which he had rigidly repressed,

Besides this correspondence with the Emperor and the Archbishop of Prague, Dr. Papencordt's collection of original documents contains copies of one or two letters which show that Rienzi still really kept up his connection with leading persons at Rome. There is a copy of a very curious one, addressed to the prophet Fra Angelo. It not merely leaves a strong impression of Rienzi's sincere belief in the strange prophecies of Angelo and the other monkish seers, but enters into some details about his family.

In one passage there is a strange enigmatic allusion to his domestic Luna (Moon) i. e. his wife. We insert the Latin for the benefit of those who can construe it :

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Quam. . . . .inveni juxta prenunciatam à Britannico (sc. Merlino) seriem ab ipsâ bestia furtiva dolosissimè ac nefandissimè maculatam ; quam sine crimine meorum et mei audivi nuper riâ defecisse.' juxta eandem seriem miserabiliter in suâ glo

When, as tribune of Rome, out of my veneration for the holy body of Christ, by rigorous but just punishments I put down their concubines with whom they lived in sin, a cry was raised against me to the pope, that I was an oppressor of the clergy! Oh angel, expected by all just men, by whose glory the earth shall be illumined, come quickly, scatter the clouds. .. A mighty power must be given thee from on high, for thou wilt find, when thou wouldst scatter the clouds, strong and mighty adversaries. Finally, I will in no way put an end to my life, for my soul is prepared The prophecy and its fulfilment seem for everything, and by the blessing of God, instead of being cast down, rejoices rather. And equally obscure. It seems to intimate since I am wont to use strong language, bear that his wife had really been corrupted with me if I have not spoke so humbly as I by some of his enemies among the Ro

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was attended, it is said, by the whole Roman people and the chief men of the cities of Italy, all the people crowding out and eager to see now appeared between two guards, and with the face of him of whose name they had heard so much.'

Petrarch proceeds to state that a commission of three ecclesiastics was immediately appointed to examine what punishment should be inflicted on Rienzi. That he deserved the utmost punishment, the poet declares, for having basely abandoned his enterprise when he had conducted it with so much success-for having betrayed the cause of liberty by not crushing the enemies of liberty when in

'My son, whom I left, if he has not been corrupted by the bad manners of others, chaste, humble, and well-instructed, I pray you to withdraw from the perils of the world into the light, and, since his disposition is like mine, allow him not to drink of the stream which I have drunk. All my books, except those on Theology, (Ecclesiasticos), my arms, and the rest of my property, which are in a place well known to you, let him sell with the assistance of my uncle, and when some one of the brethren shall visit the sepulchre at Jerusalem, let him take the money to complete an oratory, which a certain queen began to build there. If his power. Part of this passage we have the Infidels prevent this, let him divide the money among the priests and the other Christians resident at Jerusalem. My Moon has taken the dress of St. Clara; I would wish both my daughters and my sisters to enter the same religious Order. Let all this be secret to others: to you and to the brethren, farewell.'

During all this time the pope had been in constant communication with the emperor, and demanded the surrender of this Son of Belial,' to be dealt with as a suspected heretic, and a rebel against the holy see. The emperor at last complied

with this demand.

already quoted, as an illustration of the general sentiment of Europe concerning the Tribune. Petrarch's whole letter is a singular mixture of his old admiration, and even affection, for Rienzi, with bitter disappointment at the failure of his magnificent and poetic hopes; not without some wounded vanity, and more timidity, at having associated his own name with one who, however formerly glorious, had sunk to a condition so contemptible. One of the first acts of Rienzi on his arrival at Avignon was to inquire if his old friend and admirer was in the city. 'Per

Rienzi's arrival at Avignon is thus strik-haps,' says Petrarch, 'he supposed that I ingly described in a letter of Petrarch:

There came lately to the court-1 should

could be of service to him; he knew not how totally this was out of my power:

not say came, but was brought as a prisoner perhaps it was only a feeling of our former friendship.'

Nicolas Laurentius, the once formidable tribune of Rome, who, when he might have died in the But, after all, as everything in this exCapitol with so much glory, endured imprison-traordinary man's life seemed destined to ment, first by a Bohemian [the emperor], after- be strange and unexpected, Rienzi owed wards by a Limousin [the Pope Clement VI.] his safety chiefly to the influence of Peso as to make himself, as well as the name and trarch; and of Petrarch, as a poet. He the Republic of Rome, a laughing-stock It is could scarcely look for any sentence but perhaps more generally known than I should wish how much my pen was employed in laud- that of death or perpetual imprisonment. ing and exhorting this man. I loved his virtue, He had few friends and many enemies at I praised his design, I congratulated Italy; I Avignon. He was even denied the aslooked forward to the dominion of the beloved sistance of an advocate. His trial, howcity and the peace of the world..... Some of ever-it does not seem clear for what my epistles are extant, of which I am not altoreason-was not pursued with great actigether ashamed, for I had no gift of prophecy, and I would that he had not pretended to a gift vity. The most dangerous charge, that of prophecy; but at the time I wrote, that of heresy, seems to have dropped quietly which he was doing, and appeared about to do, to the ground. Petrarch began to feel was not only worthy of my praise but that of increasing interest in his fate: he even all mankind. Are these letters, then, to be can- ventured to write to Rome to urge the incelled for one thing alone, because he chose to tercession of the people in his behalf. live basely rather than die with honour? But We translate from Dr. Papencordt, of there is no use in discussing impossibilities: I could not destroy them if I would; they are whose style of composition we have as published, and no longer in my power. But to yet given no fair example, the close of my story. Humble and despicable that man this act in the drama :entered the court, who, throughout the world, had made the wicked tremble, and filled the 'We know not whether the Romans did any good with joyful hope and expectation: he who thing in favour of the tribune. Cola himself

had acknowledged himself guilty of the crimes | anarchy. Sometimes two senators chosimputed to him, and was condemned to death. en out of the nobles-for a short period Nothing, it seemed, could save him from execution or a perpetual and ignominious imprisona popular leader named Cerroni-held the ment, when a movement in his favour began to government. show itself in Avignon. The greatest passion A second tribune had arisen, named for poetry and for poets, prevailed in the papal Baroncelli, who had attempted to found a court and in the whole city. Petrarch applies new republic on the model of that of Flo. the passage in Horace, "Scribimus indocti rence; but the fall of Baroncelli had been doctique poemata," to the whole place, and almost as rapid as his rise. Plague and complains of his melancholy lot in having so many acquaintances who rained poems and let earthquake had visited the city; and, ters upon him every day from all sides: law- though the jubilee had drawn thousands yers, physicians, husbandmen, and builders of pilgrims from all parts of the world, neglected their work to make verses; he was and poured wealth into her bosom, this followed home, and could scarcely set his foot wealth had been but a new object of strife, in the street without being environed with peo-faction and violence. Innocent delegated ple, asking him questions about poetry. As the the affairs of Italy to Cardinal Ægidius Alrumour spread abroad that Rienzi was a celebrated poet, a general clamour arose. that it bornoz, Archbishop of Toledo. Albornoz would be a sin to put to death such a man, who descended into Italy to re-establish the was skilled in that sacred art. Petrarch, indeed, temporal dominion of the popes; he was says that Cola had read all the poets, but he a man of great ability and experience. was not aware that he had written a single Rienzi had been released from prison; poem; yet this report saved the prisoner's life. and the papal court considered that, under He was imprisoned in a tower, and fettered with the judicious guidance of Albornoz, Riena single chain, fastened into the vault of the dun- zi's advice and knowledge of Italy and geon; in other respects kept in honourable custody, and had his meals from the remnants of Rome might be of use to the papal cause. the papal table, which were distributed to the poor. He could pursue his beloved studies: the Bible, and the history of the ancient Romans, particularly the books of Livy, were his companions in his prison, as formerly at the height of his prosperity.'-pp. 259, 260.

Who could have supposed that this man, hardly escaped from death as a dangerous usurper of the papal authority, suspected as a heretic, the assertor of the liberties of Rome, and who had endea voured to incite the emperor to reduce the papal power to the strict limits of spiritual jurisdiction-the writer of those stern and uncompromising invectives against the desertion of Italy by the popes-this unsparing castigator of the vices of the clergy-this heaven-appointed reformer, as he declared, of the church -this harbinger of the new kingdom of the Holy Ghost-should emerge from his prison, to reappear in Italy as the follower of the papal legate, and reassume the supreme government in Rome with the express sanction of the pope. Such, how ever, were the unparalleled vicissitudes in the life of Rienzi. On this last act of his life, the researches of Dr. Papencordt have not furnished much original matter; we hasten therefore to the close. A new pope, Innocent VI., had succeeded to the pontificate; he was the best perhaps, of the prelates who ruled at Avignon. The affairs of Italy called imperatively for his interference. Since the fall of the Tribune, Rome had returned to its miserable

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He seems to have embraced the offer without reluctance. The more immediate object appears to have been to employ him as an opponent to Baroncelli, who had usurped his office and title of tribune. The vice-legate in Rome, Hugo Harpagon, represented that sufferings had no doubt taught Rienzi wisdom, that he had abandoned his old fantastic dreams of innova tion, and might be of service to counteract by his activity and prudence the dominant impiety and evil. He requested that he might be sent to Rome. So,' observes Dr. Papencordt, was the tribune now to share in that work which he had said in one of his addresses to Charles IV. would be much more easy, more safe, and more congenial with his disposition, to reduce distracted Italy to unity and peace in the name of the Holy Mother the Church, rather than in the interests of the Empire.' On the fall of Baroncelli, however, Albornoz, who perhaps had formed a sounder estimate of Rienzi's character, retained him in his own camp. There Rienzi cast the spell of his eloquence over two distinguished youths, Arimboldo, a lawyer, and Brettone, knight, brothers of the celebrated and formidable Fra Morcale, the captain of the great Free Company. Out of the Bible and out of Livy he filled them with lofty notions of the greatness of Rome, and allured them by splendid promises of advancement. They lent him considerable sums of money, and they enabled him to borrow more. He appeared, accompanied

by these youths, and in a magnificent enzi!' His body was treated with the dress, before the legate, and requested most shameful indignities. to be invested in the dignity of senator of There is much good sense in Dr. Papen. Rome. At that time the papal authority cordt's simple expression, that Rienzi in Rome was still unacknowledged by the was an extraordinary rather than a great factious nobles. It seemed a favourable op- man. His vigour of action fell short of portunity; and in the name of the Church his vigour of conception. He was a lofty Albornoz appointed Rienzi senator of idealist. That he could not accomplish Rome. With a few troops Rienzi advan- his glorious visions, his times were partly ced; and in a short time was once more in fault, and partly his own character. As master of the scene of his former power long as his career was brilliant, imagi and glory. But Rienzi had not learned native, theatrical, he played his part with wisdom. The intoxication of power again majesty; and even his magnificence might, bewildered his reason; he returned to his as we observed, not have been impolitic; old pomp, his old luxury. He extorted but when he had to strive with the rough the restoration of his confiscated proper- realities of faction, to act on unimagined ty, and wasted it in idle expenditure. emergencies with vigour and promptitude, He was constantly encircled by his armed his mind seemed to give way-dignus guard; he passed his time in drunken imperii nisi imperâsset. In a warlike banquets. Again called on to show his age, his want of military skill, and even military prowess against the refractory of a soldier's courage, was a fatal defiColonnas, he was again found wanting. ciency. But if in action thus occasionally The stern and equal vigour which had be- pusillanimous, his imaginative resources fore given an imposing majesty to his were inexhaustible. To his visions of powild justice, now seemed to turn to ca- litical freedom, the supremacy of the doprice and wantonness of power. His great minion of Rome, and the independence of measure, by which he seemed determined, Italy, succeeded his religious dreamery, this time at least, to escape the imputa- the predicted kingdom of the Holy Ghost. tion of pusillanimity as shrinking from And we may give him the benefit of supthe extermination of his enemies, was posing that, even in his latter enterprise, tainted with treachery and ingratitude. when an instrument of the ecclesiastical The execution of Fra Morcale, the bro- power, he might honestly conceive himther of the youths to whom he had been self labouring in the only practicable so deeply indebted, revolted rather than scheme for the peace and prosperity of awed the public mind. The second Italy. Dazzling as was the course of government of Rienzi was an unmitigated Rienzi, and awakening all the generous tyranny; and ended by his murder in a sympathies, especially at the commence. popular insurrection. With the cry of Long live the people,' was now mingled 'Death to the tribune, to the traitor Ri

*The Roman biographer, who might appear to have been an eye-witness, describes his splendid attire with the most minute particularity.

ment of his career, even now arresting our attention amid the tumult and confusion of the dark ages in Italy, he bursts upon us, in our youth perhaps, even as he did upon his own age, as a hero and a patriot. And like his own age, and like Petrarch, the voice of that age, we are inclined to revenge, as it were, our disapThe Roman biographer is again our authority. 'Before,' he says, 'he was sober, temperate, ab- pointment at the failure of the hopes stemious; he was now become an inordinate drunk- which he has excited by injustice to the ard. He was always eating confectionery and lofty parts of his character. We do not drinking. It was a terrible thing to be forced to see allow him credit for what he did achieve him-horribile cosa era potere patire de vederlo,' under such adverse circumstances, from they said that in person he was formerly quite meagre, he had become enormously fat (grasso ster- a kind of resentment that he achieved no minatamente); he had a belly like a tun, jovial, more. We depreciate the good, the very like an Asiatic abbot !-habea una ventresca ton- transitory good which he did, because we na, trionfale, a modo de uno abbate Asiano! justly feel that he was not a man who

Another MS. reads abbate Asinino, which decorum

will not allow us to translate. He was full of produced any permanent effect on the shining flesh (carbuncles?) like a peacock. Red, condition or destinies of man, but a fleetand with a long beard, his face was always changing and ephemeral pageant.

His under

ing; his eyes would suddenly kindle like fire. It Of the merits of Dr. Papencordt's work was as changeable as his opinions. standing lightened in fitful flashes like fire-cosi we have not yet spoken. The expres se mutava son intellecto come fuoco. Apud Mu- sions of our praise, we are sorry to say, rator. Antiq. Ital. iii., p. 524. must be mingled with those of regret.

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