LXIX. CHAP. of the house of Swabia, they were banished beyond the Alps; and their last coronations betrayed the impotence and poverty of the Teutonic Cæsars.61 Wars of the Ro mans Under the reign of Adrian, when the empire extended from the Euphrates to the ocean, from mount Atlas to the against the Grampian hills, a fanciful historian62 amused the Romans with the picture of their infant wars. " There was a time,” says Florus," when Tibur and Præneste, our summer re neighbour ing cities. 66 treats, were, the objects of hostile vows in the Capitol, "when we dreaded the shades of the Arician groves, when we could triumph without a blush over the nameless vil"lages of the Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli could "afford a title not unworthy of a victorious general.” The pride of his contemporaries was gratified by the contrast of the past and the present: they would have been humbled by the prospect of futurity; by the prediction, that after a thousand years, Rome, despoiled of empire and contracted to her primæval limits, would renew the same hostilities, on the same ground which was then decorated with her villas and gardens. The adjacent territory on either side of the Tyber was always claimed, and sometimes possessed, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the barons assumed a lawless independence, and the cities too faithfully copied the revolt and discord of the metropolis. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Romans incessantly laboured to reduce or destroy the contumacious vassals of the church and senate; and if their headstrong and selfish ambition was moderated Ave decus orbis ave! victus tibi destinor, ave! Ergo triumphorum urbs potes memor esse priorum Ne si dee tacere (I now use the Italian Dissertations, tom. i. p. 444.) che nell' 61 The decline of the Imperial arms and authority in Italy, is related with impartial learning in the Annals of Muratori (tom. x, xi, xii); and the reader may compare his narrative with the Histoire des Allemands (tom. iii, iv), by Schmidt, who has deserved the esteem of his countrymen. 62 Tibur nunc suburbanum, et æstivæ Præneste delicia, nuncupatis in Capitolio votis petebantur. The whole passage of Florus (1. i. c. 11.) may be read with pleasure, and has deserved the praise of a man of genius (Oeuvres de Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 634, 635. quarto edition). by the pope, he often encouraged their zeal by the alliance CHAP. of his spiritual arms. Their warfare was that of the first LXIX. consuls and dictators, who were taken from the plough. They assembled in arms at the foot of the Capitol; sallied from the gates, plundered or burnt the harvests of their neighbours, engaged in tumultuary conflict, and returned home after an expedition of fifteen or twenty days. Their sieges were tedious and unskilful: in the use of victory, they indulged the meaner passions of jealousy and revenge; and instead of adopting the valour, they trampled on the misfortunes, of their adversaries. The captives, in their shirts, with a rope round their necks, solicited their pardon: the fortifications and even the buildings of the rival cities were demolished, and the inhabitants were scattered in the adjacent villages. It was thus that the seats of the cardinal • bishops, Porto, Ostia, Albanum, Tusculum, Præneste, and Tibur or Tivoli, were successively overthrown by the ferocious hostility of the Romans.63 Of these, Porto and Ostia, the two keys of the Tyber, are still vacant and desolate : the marshy and unwholesome banks are peopled with herds of buffalos, and the river is lost to every purpose of navigation and trade. The hills which afford a shady retirement from the autumnal heats, have again smiled with the blessings of peace: Frescati has arisen near the ruins of Tusculum: Tibur or Tivoli has resumed the honours of a city," and the meaner towns of Albano and Palestrina are decorated with the villas of the cardinals and princes of Rome. In the work of destruction, the ambition of the Romans was often checked and repulsed by the neighbouring cities and their allies: in the first siege of Tibur, they were driven from their camp; and the battles of Tusculum 66 (and Viter 63 Ne a feritate Romanorum, sicut fuerant Hostienses, Portuenses, Tusculanenses, Albanenses, Labicenses, et nuper Tiburtini destruerentur (Matthew Paris, p. 757). These events are marked in the Annals and Index (the xviiith volume) of Muratori. 64 For the state or ruin of these suburban cities, the banks of the Tyber, &c. see the lively picture of the P. Labat (Voyage en Espagne et en Italie), who had long resided in the neighbourhood of Rome; and the more accurate description of which P. Eschinard (Roma, 1750, in octavo) has added to the topographical map of Cingolani. 65 Labat (torn. iii. p. 233.) mentions a recent decree of the Roman government, which has severely mortified the pride and poverty of Tivoli : in civitate Tiburtina non viviture civiliter. 66 I depart from my usual method, of quoting only by the date the Annals of Muratori, in consideration of the critical balance in which he has weighed A. D. 1167. Viterbo, A. D. 1234. CHAP. bo might be compared in their relative state to the memoLXIX. rable fields of Thrasymene and Canna. In the first of these Battle of petty wars, thirty thousand Romans were overthrown by a Tusculum, thousand German horse, whom Frederic Barbarossa had detached to the relief of Tusculum; and if we number the slain at three, the prisoners at two, thousand, we shall embrace the most authentic and moderate account. Sixty-eight years afterward they marched against Viterbo in the ecclesiastical state with the whole force of the city; by a rare coBattle of alition, the Teutonic eagle was blended, in the adverse banners, with the keys of St. Peter; and the pope's auxiliaries were commanded by a count of Thoulouse and a bishop of Winchester. The Romans were discomfited with shame and slaughter; but the English prelate must have indulged the vanity of a pilgrim, if he multiplied their numbers to one hundred, and their loss in the field to thirty, thousand men. Had the policy of the senate and the discipline of the legions been restored with the Capitol, the divided condition of Italy would have offered the fairest opportunity of a second conquest. But in arms, the modern Romans were not above and in arts, they were far below, the common level of the neighbouring republics. Nor was their warlike spirit of any long continuance; after some irregular sallies, it subsided in the national apathy, in the neglect of military institutions, and in the disgraceful and dangerous use of foreign merce The elec popes. naries. Ambition is a weed of quick and early vegetation in the tion of the vineyard of Christ. Under the first Christian princes, the chair of St. Peter was disputed by the votes, the venality, the violence, of a popular election: the sanctuaries of Rome were polluted with blood; and, from the third to the twelfth century, the church was distracted by the mischief of frequent schisms. As long as the final appeal was determined by the civil magistrate, these mischiefs were transient and local: the merits were tried by equity or favour; nor could the unsuccessful competitor long disturb the triumph of his rival. But after the emperors had been divested of their nine contemporary writers who mention the battle of Tusculum (tom. x. p. 42...44). 67 Matthew Paris, p. 345. This bishop of Winchester was Peter de Rupibus, who occupied the see thirty-two years (A. D. 1206...1238), and is des cribed by the English historian, as a soldier and a statesman (p. 178. 399). prerogatives, after a maxim had been established, that the CHAP. vicar of Christ is amenable to no earthly tribunal, each va- LXIX. cancy of the holy see might involve Christendom in controversy and war. The claims of the cardinals and inferior clergy, of the nobles and people, were vague and litigious: the freedom of choice was over-ruled by the tumults of a city that no longer owned or obeyed a superior. On the decease of a pope, two factions proceeded, in different churches, to a double election: the number and weight of votes, the priority of time, the merit of the candidates, might balance each other: the most respectable of the clergy were divided; and the distant princes, who bowed before the spiritual throne, could not distinguish the spurious, from the legitimate, idol. The emperors were often the authors of the schism, from the political motive of opposing a friendly to an hostile pontiff; and each of the competitors was reduced to suffer the insults of his enemies, who were not awed by conscience: and to purchase the support of his adherents, who were instigated by avarice or ambition. A Right of peaceful and perpetual succession was ascertained by Alex- nals estabander the third,68 who finally abolished the tumultuary votes lished by of the clergy and people, and defined the right of election in the sole college of cardinals. The three orders of bishops, A.D. 1179. priests, and deacons, were assimilated to each other by this important privilege: the parochial clergy of Rome obtained the first rank in the hierarchy; they were indifferently chosen among the nations of Christendom; and the possession of the richest benefices, of the most important bishoprics, was not incompatible with their title and office. The senators of the Catholic church, the coadjutors and legates of the supreme pontiff, were robed in purple, the symbol of martyrdom or royalty; they claimed a proud equality with kings; and their dignity was enhanced by the smallness of their number, which, till the reign of Leo the tenth, seldom 68 See Mosheim, Institut. Histor. Ecclesiast. p. 401.403. Alexander himself had nearly been the victim of a contested election; and the doubtful merits of Innocent had only preponderated by the weight of genius and learning which St. Bernard cast into the scale (see his life and writings). 69 The origin, titles, importance, dress, precedency, &c. of the Roman cardinals, are very ably discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1262...1287); but their purple is now much faded. The sacred college was raised to the definite number of seventy-two, to represent, under his vicar, the disciples of Christ. the cardi Alexander III. LXIX. of the con A.D.1274. CHAP. exceeded twenty, or twenty-five, persons. By this wise regulation, all doubt and scandal were removed, and the root of schism was so effectually destroyed, that in a period of six hundred years a double choice has only once divided the unity of the sacred college. But as the concurrence of two thirds of the votes had been made necessary, the election was often delayed by the private interest and passions of the cardinals; and while they prolonged their independent reign, the Christian world was left destitute of an head. Institution A vacancy of almost three years had preceded the elevation clave by of Gregory the tenth, who resolved to prevent the future Gregory X. abuse; and his bull, after some opposition, has been consecrated in the code of the canon law.70 Nine days are allowed for the obsequies of the deceased pope, and the arrival of the absent cardinals: on the tenth, they are imprisoned, each with one domestic, in a common apartment or conclave, without any separation of walls or curtains; a small window is reserved for the introduction of necessaries: but the door is locked on both sides, and guarded by the magistrates of the city, to seclude them from all correspondence with the world. If the election be not consummated in three days, the luxury of their table is contracted to a single dish at dinner and supper; and after the eighth day, they are reduced to a scanty allowance of bread, water, and wine. During the vacancy of the holy see, the cardinals are prohibited from touching the revenues, or assuming, unless in some rare emergency, the government of the church: all agreements and promises among the electors are formally annulled; and their integrity is fortified by their solemn oath and the prayers of the Catholics. Some articles of inconvenient or superfluous rigour have been gradually relaxed, but the principle of confinement is vigorous and entire: they are still urged by the personal motives of health and freedom, to accelerate the moment of their deliverance; and the improvement of ballot or secret votes has wrapt the struggles of the conclave" in the silky veil of charity and polite 70 See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro concilio, in the Sexte of the Canon Law (1. i. tit. 6. c. 3), a supplement to the Decretals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated at Rome in 1298, and addressed to all the universities of Europe. 71 The genius of cardinal de Retz had a right to paint a conclave (of 1655), in which he was a spectator and an actor (Memoires, tom.iv. p. 15...57): but |