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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35363-8.txt b/35363-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..329978e --- /dev/null +++ b/35363-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13543 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Short History of Italy, by Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Short History of Italy + (476-1900) + +Author: Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +Release Date: February 22, 2011 [EBook #35363] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Carl Hudkins, Jonathan Niehof +(media provider) and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + By Henry D. Sedgwick + + + A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY. With Maps. Crown 8vo, _$2.00 net_. + Postage 17 cents. + + FRANCIS PARKMAN. 16mo, _$1.10 net_. Postage 10 cents. _In + American Men of Letters Series._ + + ESSAYS ON GREAT WRITERS. Crown 8vo, gilt top, _$1.50 net_. + Postage, 13 cents. + + SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. Small 16mo, 65 cents _net_. Postage, 6 + cents. _In Riverside Biographical Series._ + + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + BOSTON AND NEW YORK. + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY + + + + +[Illustration: Map of Italy] + + + + + A SHORT + HISTORY OF ITALY + (476-1900) + + BY + HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + + + + COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + _Published November 1905_ + + + + + TO + + H. D. S., C. D. S., R. M. S., W. E. S., + A. C. S., F. M. S., and T. S. + + _O passi graviora ... + ... forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +This volume is a mere sketch in outline; it makes no pretence to +original investigation, or even to an extended examination of the +voluminous literature which deals with every part of its subject. It is +an attempt to give a correct impression of Italian history as a whole, +and employs details only here and there, and then merely for the sake of +giving greater clearness to the general outline. So brief a narrative is +mainly a work of selection; and perhaps no two persons would agree upon +what to put in and what to leave out. I have laid emphasis upon the +matters of greatest general interest, the Papacy, the Renaissance, and +the Risorgimento; and my special object has been to put in high relief +those achievements which make Italy so charming and so interesting to +the world, and to give what space was possible to the great men to whom +these achievements are due. + + H. D. S. + NEW YORK, October 1, 1905. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST + (476 A. D.) 1 + + II. THE OSTROGOTHS (489-553) 12 + + III. THE LOMBARD INVASION (568) 23 + + IV. THE CHURCH (568-700) 31 + + V. THE COMING OF THE FRANKS (726-768) 40 + + VI. CHARLEMAGNE (768-814) 49 + + VII. FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS I (814-867) 57 + + VIII. THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY (867-962) 67 + + IX. THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY (962-1056) 79 + + X. THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES (1059-1123) 89 + + XI. TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM (1152-1190) 102 + + XII. TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216) 114 + + XIII. ST. FRANCIS (1182-1226) 125 + + XIV. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE (1216-1250) 133 + + XV. THE FALL OF THE MEDIÆVAL PAPACY (1303) 145 + + XVI. LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE (1309-1313) 152 + + XVII. A REVIEW OF THE STATES OF ITALY (about 1300) 161 + + XVIII. THE TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE + RENAISSANCE 175 + + XIX. THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN AFTER THE MIDDLE + AGES (1260-1336) 182 + + XX. THE DESPOTISMS (1250-1350) 192 + + XXI. THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL (1350) 201 + + XXII. THE ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 209 + + XXIII. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (1350-1450) 218 + + XXIV. THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450) 231 + + XXV. THE RENAISSANCE (1450-1492) 242 + + XXVI. THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (1494-1537) 253 + + XXVII. THE PAPAL MONARCHY (1471-1527) 267 + + XXVIII. THE HIGH RENAISSANCE (1499-1521) 281 + + XXIX. ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL (1527-1563) 293 + + XXX. THE CINQUECENTO (16th Century) 304 + + XXXI. A SURVEY OF ITALY (1580-1581) 319 + + XXXII. THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS (1580-1789) 335 + + XXXIII. THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS (1580-1789) 348 + + XXXIV. THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1789-1820) 361 + + XXXV. THE REAWAKENING (1820-1821) 369 + + XXXVI. PERTURBED INACTIVITY (1821-1847) 377 + + XXXVII. TUMULTUOUS YEARS (1848-1849) 386 + + XXXVIII. THE UNITY OF ITALY (1849-1871) 395 + + XXXIX. CONCLUSION (1872-1900) 409 + + + APPENDIX + + I. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF POPES AND EMPERORS 421 + + II. GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI 428 + + III. SKELETON TABLE OF THE KINGS OF THE TWO SICILIES 429 + + IV. LIST OF BOOKS FOR GENERAL READING 430 + + + INDEX 433 + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST (476 A. D.) + + +In the year 476 an unfortunate young man, mocked with the great names of +the founders of the City and of the Empire, Romulus Augustus, nicknamed +Augustulus, was deposed from the throne of the Cæsars by a Barbarian +general in the Imperial service, and the Roman Empire in Italy came to +its end. This act was but the outward sign that the power of Italy was +utterly gone, and that in the West at least the Barbarians were +indisputably conquerors in the long struggle which they had carried on +for centuries with the Roman Empire. + +That Empire, at the period of its greatness, embraced all the countries +around the Mediterranean Sea; it was the political embodiment of the +Mediterranean civilization. In Europe, to the northeast, it reached as +far as the Rhine and the Danube; it included England. Beyond the Rhine +and the Danube dwelt the Barbarians. Europe was thus divided into two +parts, the civilized and the Barbarian: one, a great Latin empire which +rested upon slavery, and was governed by a highly centralized +bureaucracy; the other, a collection of tribes of Teutonic blood, bound +together in a very simple form of society, and essentially democratic in +character. + +The Empire, composed of many races, Etruscan, Ligurian, Iberian, Celtic, +Basque, Greek, Egyptian, and divers others, had been created and +maintained by the military and administrative genius of Rome. Over all +these people Roman law and Roman order prevailed. All enjoyed the _Pax +Romana_. From Cadiz to Milan, from Milan to Byzantium, from Byzantium to +Palmyra, stretched the great Roman roads. Coins, weights, and measures +were everywhere the same. The inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and Europe, +enfranchised by an Imperial edict, were thankful to be Roman citizens. +To this day Roman law, the Romance languages, and the Roman Catholic +Church testify to the vigour and solidity of Roman dominion. The city of +Rome was, and had been for centuries, the head of the world. From east +and west, from north and south, booty, spoils, taxes, tribute had flowed +into Rome. Even after the seat of government had been removed to +Constantinople (A. D. 330), visitors from the new capital were +astounded to behold the Roman temples, baths, amphitheatres, forums, +circuses, and palaces, all glittering with marble and bronze. But the +riches acquired by conquest and tribute had brought seeds of evil with +them. Society was divided into the very rich and the very poor; the +simple laborious life of the freemen of ancient Rome was gone; the +regular occupations of production had been abandoned to serfs and +slaves; moderate incomes and plain living had disappeared. The middle +class had been thrust down to the level of the plebs. In the country the +small proprietors had been reduced to a position little better than +that of the serfs, while the great landlords had got vast tracts of land +into their hands. Nearly half the population were slaves. Taxes had +become heavier and heavier as the exigencies of the Empire grew; great +numbers of officials were maintained, and great mercenary armies. The +rich controlled the government, and shifted almost the whole burden of +taxation from their own shoulders to those of the poor. In the cities, +each imitating Rome so far as it could, had grown up a vicious +unemployed class, living on the distribution of bread which was paid for +out of the public revenues. + +On the farther side of the Rhine and the Danube, in marked contrast with +this society, the Teutonic Barbarians tilled their lands and herded +their flocks. They dwelt in little communities which were banded +together into tribes; and these in turn were united in a sort of loose +confederation, which assumed the semblance of a nation only when under +the necessity of military action, and then the adult male population +constituted the army. Their buildings were of the humblest character, +their clothes rude, their arts primitive; they could neither read nor +write, and their men cared for little besides hunting and fighting. They +were, however, a free, self-respecting, self-governing people, electing +their king, and meeting in one great assembly to enact their laws. On +the Roman borders the Barbarians had become Christians, unfortunately +not Trinitarians, but mere Arians, heretics in the eyes of the orthodox +Catholics; so their Christianity hardly served to smooth their relations +with the Romans. + +The differences between these two divisions of Europe were about as +great as between ourselves and the Don Cossacks. A Roman gentleman +living in Gaul, for example, would have a villa in Auvergne, built high +upon the hills in order to get the breezes and the view. Here was a +bath-house, a fish-pond, separate apartments for the women, a pillared +portico that overlooked a lake, a winter drawing-room, a summer parlour, +etc. In this agreeable place, in his times of leisure, the owner would +stroll about his grounds, play tennis, cultivate his garden, read Virgil +and Claudian, compose epigrams, write letters to his friends in the vein +of Horace's Satires, gossip about the doings at the Imperial court or +talk philosophy. The pleasant, luxurious life of Roman gentlemen was not +very different from luxurious life in America to-day. + +The Barbarians in their native forests were hardly aware of Roman +civilization; and those on the border made a marked contrast with the +Romans. The young kings were superb athletes, sparing at table, and +attentive to their kingly duties. The Barbarian elders admired Roman +civilization, but were "stiff and lumpish in body and mind." The young +men, six feet or more in height, with long, yellow hair, were great +eaters of garlic and indelicate viands; they went about bare-legged, +booted with rough ox-leather, and wore short-sleeved garments of divers +colours, belted tight, with swords dangling at their backs, shields at +side, and battle-axes in their hands. + +It would be a mistake, however, to draw a very sharp line between these +two opposing divisions of Europe. The Teutons were called Barbarians +because they were not Romans, but many of them had been trained in the +Roman armies and had lived in Constantinople, Trier, or Milan, and were +well accustomed to Roman military arts and discipline; in fact, the +Roman army was recruited mainly from among the Barbarians. Roman traders +dealt with them regularly. In one way and another the Barbarians, +especially their leaders, had come under the educating influence of +Roman civilization, and they regarded that civilization with an +amazement and a respect that at times deepened into awe. + +But though a sharp line cannot be drawn, yet at bottom Romans and +Barbarians were far apart. It was impossible that two societies of such +divergent civilization should exist side by side in peace; one must +conquer the other. The struggle between the Empire and its enemies had +been almost continuous since the days of Julius Cæsar, and for several +centuries the Empire had prevailed; but social disintegration within had +proceeded rapidly, and by the beginning of the fifth century the +Empire's doom had come. Rome herself, the original home of empire, lay +"nerveless, dead, unsceptred," open to any takers; and takers came. The +Visigoths, under Alaric, captured the city in 410 and were merciful; the +Vandals, under Genseric, captured it in 455 and were cruel. + +The fall of Rome, which we now see to have been inevitable, came, +however, with a terrible shock to the civilized world. St. Jerome, who +had gone to the wilderness near Bethlehem in order to meditate upon the +prophets, wrote: "My voice is choked and my sobs interrupt the words +which I write; the city is subdued which subdued the world.... Who could +believe that Rome, which was built of the spoils of the whole earth, +would fall, that the city could, at the same time, be the cradle and +grave of her people; that all the coasts of Asia, Egypt, and Africa +should be filled with the slaves and maidens of Rome? That holy +Bethlehem should daily receive, as beggars, men and women who formerly +were conspicuous for their wealth and luxury?"[1] + +The city of Rome had been deemed immortal; it had become almost sacred +from long veneration; and when Rome fell, the Empire in the West had not +a prop to rest upon. Spain was taken by the Suevi and the Visigoths, +Gaul by the Franks, Burgundians, and Alemanni, England by Angles and +Saxons, Africa by the Vandals; and, with the deposition of Romulus +Augustulus, Italy, too, became the prize of a Barbarian general. + +The succeeding period of European history, in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Italy, is the mingling or attempted mingling of the old populations of +the Empire with the Barbarian conquerors. The process had, indeed, as I +have intimated, begun before the fall of the Empire. For several +generations Barbarians had not only been received as colonists and taken +as soldiers, but even whole tribes had been admitted within the Roman +boundaries. Imperial statesmen had realized that the Empire could only +be upheld by an infusion of Barbarian virility, and they had favoured +the process. But assimilation had not taken place, and now that the +Empire had passed into the hands of the Barbarians there were two social +strata,--the rude martial conquerors on top, and the civilized, feeble, +subject race, ten times as numerous, underneath. It was obvious to the +wiser Barbarian chiefs, trained as they were in Roman ways, that if they +were to get stable dominion and civilized government, they must adopt +the complicated Imperial machinery. They saw that unless the Barbarians +learned Roman civilization, they would need hundreds of years to create +any such civilization of their own. This was especially true in Italy. +Odoacer, the general who deposed Romulus Augustulus, well knew that a +state which had its military service all Barbarian and its civil service +all Roman could not stand firm. Barbarian sovereignty needed support, +especially legal support, in the eyes of the subject population. Such +legitimacy could only come from the Empire. Odoacer and other +intelligent Barbarians turned instinctively to Constantinople for +recognition. They did not think that they had overturned or suppressed +the Empire. Nobody thought that there were two Empires, one Eastern and +one Western, one enduring and one destroyed in 476. To the Roman world +the Empire had always been single, had always been a unit. The division +into eastern and western parts had been made for convenience of +administration; the Empire itself had never been divided. Even after the +western countries of Europe had been overrun by the Barbarians, the +Emperor at Constantinople remained the supreme and sole source of +authority and law. The very Barbarians could not free themselves from +this theory, however little heed they paid to it in practice. Odoacer +acknowledged the sovereignty of the Empire without question. He merely +wished to control the civil and military administration in Italy. + +Before beginning a sketch of the attempts to found a permanent Barbarian +government in Italy and to combine Barbarians and Romans in one people, +it is necessary to speak of a rising power which already constituted the +most important element in the situation. The Church was not only the one +vigorous body in Italy, but it had already begun to foreshadow its +future greatness. In the time of Constantine (323-337) and his immediate +successors, the bishops of Rome had no primacy over other bishops, but +they had claims to precedence, which they soon put to good use. Their +city was the cradle and home of Roman dominion. St. Paul had lived and +died there. Above all, as was universally acknowledged, the apostle +Peter had founded their bishopric. Theirs, in an especial sense, was the +Church to which Christ referred when He said to the apostle, "Thou art +Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it." The bishops of Rome also derived immense +advantage from the absence of a temporal prince; whereas their chief +rivals, the patriarchs of Constantinople, were wholly eclipsed by the +presence of the Emperor. The removal of the great offices of government +to Constantinople and the absence of any real civil life, had left Rome +even then a mere ecclesiastical city, and the head of the Church became +the most important personage there. It was so generally acknowledged +that Roman bishops were entitled to that precedence in rank over other +bishops, which Rome enjoyed over other cities, that in 344 an Ecumenical +Council submitted a most important question to the decision of the Roman +See. One hundred years later the great pope, Leo I, merely gave +utterance to the general opinion when he said: "St. Peter and St. Paul +are the Romulus and Remus of the new Rome, as much superior to the old +as truth is to error. If ancient Rome was at the head of the pagan +world, St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, came to teach in the new Rome, +so that from her the light of Christianity should be shed over the +world." + +The Roman Church gathered to herself whatever remained of the +administrative ability of ancient Rome. With acute practical sense she +condemned those subtle doctrines that kept springing up in the East, +late flashes of Greek metaphysics; and though she may have cut herself +off from certain spiritual Neoplatonic thought, and have set her heart +too much upon domination, yet by her very adherence to dogma, by her +very insistence upon uniform law and obedience, by steadfastly +maintaining the purity and the unity of the Faith, she became the great +cohesive force in Europe, and by creating Christendom contributed +immensely to the cause of European civilization. Partly by good fortune, +partly by her success in making her cause prevail, Rome was always +orthodox. She remained staunchly Trinitarian. She fought the Arians, who +believed that the Son, created by the Father, could not be identical +with Him and could not have existed from the beginning. She fought the +Nestorians, who alleged that the Virgin was the mother of Christ only in +so far as He was man. She fought the Monophysites, who denied that +Christ had two distinct natures, human and divine. She fought always +gallantly, and always, or almost always, in the end triumphantly. In +those days ecclesiastical affairs were inseparable from political +affairs; no man dreamed of severing them either in fact or in theory; +the State and the Church were one fabric under a double aspect. The idea +of the State apart from the Church, or the Church apart from the State, +was no more imagined than the Darwinian theory. + +If we now go back to Odoacer, and to his Barbarian successors, we shall +find that in their endeavours to establish an Italian kingdom they were +confronted by a threefold task,--to blend the Barbarian conquerors and +the subject Latins, to establish friendly relations with the Empire, and +to win the confidence and support of the Orthodox Church. In all the +long period of Barbarian dominion, each Barbarian chief in turn had to +face the imminent danger that these three political powers, the subject +people, the Church, and the Empire, should make common cause against +him. The Barbarians, in fact, were always unsuccessful. They never were +able to make Italy into one kingdom. These three enemies were too strong +for them. The inherent difficulties of the situation appear at once on +the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, and give whatever interest there +is to Odoacer's brief career. Over that career, which bridges the years +476 to 489, we need not pause, for Odoacer's attempt to establish a +permanent government over all Italy was so ephemeral, and also so +similar in all essential features to that of the Ostrogoths, his +successors, that an account of their attempt may serve for his as well. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Rome in the Middle Ages_, Gregorovius, vol. i, pp. 167, 168. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OSTROGOTHS (489-553) + + +The Ostrogoths were a fine people; and historians have speculated sadly +on the immense advantage, the vast saving of ills, that would have +accrued to Italy had they succeeded in their attempt to establish a +kingdom. Such a union of strength and vigour with the gifted Italian +nature might well have produced a happy result. But my business is +merely to indicate why and how the attempt failed. + +The Ostrogoths (East Goths), one branch of the great Gothic nation, of +which the Visigoths (West Goths) were the other, immediately prior to +their invasion of Italy inhabited Pannonia (now Austria) on the south +side of the Danube. They were a warlike people, and had given much +trouble to the Eastern Emperors, who had been obliged not only to bestow +upon them territory, but also to pay tribute. The reigning Emperor +eagerly seized the first opportunity to rid himself of them. He +suggested to their king, Theodoric,--hunter, soldier, statesman, a +big-limbed, heroic man, passionate but just,--that he should lead his +people into Italy, conquer Odoacer, and rule as Imperial lieutenant. As +Italy was far pleasanter than Pannonia, Theodoric gladly accepted the +suggestion. + +The Goths, not more than two or three hundred thousand persons all +told, effected their tedious emigration in 488-489. It was an easy +matter to defeat the unstable Odoacer, and the Latins made no +resistance. Theodoric, now master of Italy, both by right of conquest +and by Imperial commission, set himself, in his turn, to the task of +uniting Barbarians and Romans throughout the peninsula under one stable +government. His difficulties were great. In the first place the +immigrating people whom he led, though mainly Goths, were a medley of +various tribes, and constituted an alien army of occupation in the midst +of an unfriendly population, perhaps ten times their number. This Roman +population, which had completely given up the use of arms, and never +took part in any fight more formidable than a riot, was largely urban +and lived in the cities which were scattered over Italy, almost the same +that exist to this day. In the north were Turin, Pavia, Ferrara, Milan, +Bergamo, Verona, Aquileia; on the east coast, Ravenna, Rimini, Ancona; +on the west coast and in the centre, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Perugia, +Spoleto, Rome, Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Amalfi; and in the south, the +old Greek cities. All the ordinary business of life was in Roman hands; +lawyers, physicians, weavers, spinners, carpenters, masons, cobblers, +were Roman. Many of the workmen on great estates were also Roman. The +Goths were primarily men-at-arms, and only exercised such rude crafts as +were required in village communities. The leaders became military +landowners. Naturally each race looked upon the other with suspicion, +dislike, and contempt. It is obvious that there was need of both time +and statesmanship before the two races would understand each other, +share occupations, inter-marry, and feel themselves countrymen. + +Theodoric's policy falls under three heads,--relations with the subject +population, with the Emperor, and with the Church. With the Romans +Theodoric was just and considerate; he limited the division of lands +among his followers, so far as he could, to those lands which Odoacer's +followers had had; he left civil administration chiefly in Roman hands; +he let Romans live under Roman law and Goths under Gothic law. He +employed as his chief counsellor Cassiodorus, a great Roman noble of +wealth and learning; he issued a code compiled from the Imperial codes; +he reduced the taxation. Following the custom of the late Western +Emperors, he dwelt in Ravenna, where _S. Apollinare Nuovo_, _S. +Spirito_, a baptistery, and a mausoleum still testify to his presence. +When the State had been put in order, Theodoric made a royal progress to +Rome (500), where he was welcomed with Imperial honours. He promised to +uphold all the institutions established by Roman Emperors, and showed +himself as much interested in the city as if he had been a Roman. He +provided carefully for the preservation of all the monuments of +antiquity, repaired the walls, the aqueducts, the _cloacae_, and drained +the Pontine Marshes. He spoke of Rome as "the city which is indifferent +to none, since she is foreign to none; the fruitful mother of eloquence, +the spacious temple of every virtue, comprising within herself all the +cherished marvels of the universe, so that it may in truth be said, Rome +is herself one great marvel."[2] He renewed the distribution of bread, +celebrated games in the circus, and treated the Senate with great +distinction. In fact, until his breach with the Church, which turned all +the orthodox population against him, he walked closely in the Imperial +footsteps and was very successful in his relations with the Latin +people. + +Dealings with the Emperor were more difficult. Immediately after his +victory over Odoacer, Theodoric had asked the Emperor for the regalia +(the crown jewels and Imperial vestments) of the West, which had been +sent to Constantinople upon the deposition of Romulus Augustulus. This +embassy had been at first fobbed off, but finally the regalia were sent +him in token of full recognition of his authority. In the mean time +Theodoric's army without waiting for permission from the Emperor had +proclaimed him king; and in practice Theodoric always acted as an +independent king. In theory, however, he accepted the inclusion of Italy +in the Empire as a fundamental principle, and acknowledged that his +position was merely that of ruler of one of the Imperial provinces. The +Emperors, compelled by impotence to acquiesce in Theodoric's lieutenancy +of Italy, wished him in their hearts all possible bad luck, and bided +their time to make trouble for him. But this ill will was concealed +beneath the surface, and for about thirty years his relations with the +Empire, with some interruptions, were amicable enough. + +Before speaking of Theodoric's relations with the Church, which were a +matter of politics, and had to be considered by him on general grounds +of policy, it is necessary to speak of the relations between the Church +and the Emperor, for the latter affected the former. There were always +difficulties, active or latent, between the Roman Church and the Empire. +There was jealousy between old Rome and new Constantinople. There was +misunderstanding between the Latin and Greek mind. There was friction +between Papal and Imperial authority. These troubles will appear more +clearly as we proceed. At this time it is only necessary to say that +during the first thirty years of Theodoric's reign, his period of +success and prosperity, there was discord between Pope and Emperor, a +kind of schism. The Byzantine Emperors, often men of cultivation, living +in the most civilized city of the world, interested themselves in +theology, and liked nothing better than to tinker with the Faith. To +this, also, they were pushed by political needs. Their subjects were +divided into the orthodox and the heterodox; and this diversity of +belief was always a menace to political unity. To heal the breach, the +reigning Emperor devised a scheme of compromise, a _via media_, on which +he hoped all would unite. The Papacy, incensed by this trifling with +orthodoxy, and by the assumption of an Imperial right to interfere in +matters of faith, denounced the compromise. A schism was the +consequence, which lasted until the reign of the Emperor Justin +(518-527), when the crafty statesman who guided Justin's policy, his +nephew, the famous Justinian, effected a reconciliation. For Justinian +already cherished an ambition to win back Italy for the Empire; and he +knew that that could not be done without the support of the Papacy. In +519 a papal embassy bearing the olive branch was warmly welcomed at +Constantinople; both Emperor and nephew condemned the compromise and +accepted the orthodox Catholic faith. Thus the breach was healed. + +During the period of this breach between Empire and Papacy, the Gothic +king had managed his relations with the Church very prudently. Although +an Arian (like all Barbarians except the Franks), he was exceedingly +just to the Catholics. He carefully refrained from taking part in the +domestic affairs of the Church, until he was compelled to do so in the +interest of order. While in Rome he maintained a most correct attitude. +But though he acted with great moderation and only followed Imperial +precedents, the Church resented his interference. Do what Theodoric +would, the Papacy was his natural enemy. It felt instinctively that a +king of Italy must always overshadow the Pope, just as at Constantinople +the Emperor eclipsed the Patriarch, and that only upon condition of +keeping Italy without a strong government within its borders could the +Church attain its full stature. The ecclesiastical power was already +inimical to civil authority. The attitude of the Church toward Theodoric +presaged the history of the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, +and the kingdom of Italy in our day. Nevertheless, until the +reconciliation of Emperor and Pope, Theodoric had no serious trouble. + +About the year 524 the crafty Justinian, strong in his complete +reconciliation with the Papacy, felt the time ripe to set about the +recovery of the lost provinces of the West, and made the first hostile +move. Perhaps, however, it is unjust to assign a purely political motive +to Justinian's action, for in his active Byzantine brain, policy, +theology, law, art, and ambition were curiously blended. An Imperial +edict was issued, persecuting Arians in various ways, and in particular +commanding that all Arian churches throughout the Empire should be +handed over to Catholics. This action of course received the approval of +the Pope, and was most effective in alienating the Arian Goths from the +Catholic Latins. Theodoric, who had been consistently tolerant to +Catholics, was very angry and threatened to retaliate by suppressing the +Catholic ritual throughout Italy. This threat threw the Papacy into +closer alliance with the Emperor, and aggrieved the Latin people. A new +generation had grown up in peace and comparative prosperity under +Theodoric's rule, and, forgetful that for these blessings it was +indebted to the Goths, began to give free play to its Latin prejudices. +Thus the three natural enemies of Gothic rule gradually drew together: +the Empire, from desire to recover Italy; the Papacy, to be rid of a +ruler; and the Latins, out of national prejudice. + +Intrigues were started between Constantinople and some leading men in +Rome. How far the conspiracy went nobody knew. The king was in no mood +to act judicially. Several senators were arrested on the charge of high +treason, tried before partial or irregular tribunals, and put to death. +Of these senators the most famous was Boethius, who stands at the end +of Roman civilization, as Dante stands at the beginning of modern +civilization. The long centuries between the two constitute the Middle +Ages. It is interesting to note that Dante in his desolation after the +death of Beatrice took to console him the book which Boethius wrote in +prison, the "Consolations of Philosophy." + +Boethius came of the most distinguished family in Rome. He and both his +sons had been consuls. He was a student of Plato, Aristotle, and of the +Neoplatonists; he had translated treatises on mathematics from the +Greek, and had written on philosophy and theology. He was an +encyclopedia of knowledge; when a hydraulic watch was wanted, or an +especially magnificent sundial, or a test to detect counterfeit money, +or a musician to be sent to a foreign potentate, he was the man to be +consulted. His "Consolations of Philosophy," which had immense vogue all +through the Middle Ages in every language, furnishes his apology, his +case against Theodoric, and gives the Latin view of the Barbarians. He +says: "The hatred against me was incurred while I was in office, because +I opposed the acts of oppression to which the Romans were subjected. The +greed of the Barbarians for the lands of the Romans, always unpunished, +grew greater day by day; they sought men's lives in order to get their +goods. How often have I protected and defended wretches from the +innumerable calumnies of the Barbarians who wished to devour them."[3] +To this Roman defence must be opposed the statement of a contemporary +historian: "Everything about the Barbarians, even the very smell of +them, was hateful to the Romans; nevertheless it often happened that +they, especially the poor, preferred the oppression of the Barbarians to +that of the Imperial officials. The rich Romans impose taxes but they do +not pay them; they make the poor pay them. And when peradventure the +taxes are diminished the relief goes not to the poor but to the rich; so +that, when it is a matter of paying it concerns the people, and when it +comes to the matter of reducing taxes it is as if the rich were the only +persons taxed at all. Not Franks, Huns, Vandals, nor Goths behave so +shamelessly." + +In spite of trials and executions Theodoric's anger and suspicion +increased; he compelled the Pope to go to Constantinople to ask that the +Arians be treated fairly and the Arian churches restored. The Pope +returned having obtained some favours for the Catholics, but nothing for +the Arians; whereupon Theodoric threw him into prison, and kept him +there till he died (526). He then nominated a successor, who was +promptly elected by the frightened Romans. This high-handed action +stimulated discontent so much that it seemed as if the time for a +Byzantine invasion had come, but Justinian, not having fully spun his +web, delayed. Perhaps he feared Theodoric and wished to wait for his +death. He did not have to wait long. That summer Theodoric died, and +with him Italy's best hopes died too. + +With Theodoric's death ended the possibility of a Gothic monarchy. Even +in his reign a process of deterioration had set in among the young +generation. The decadent civilization of Italy wrought with fatal effect +upon the simple Goths; the luxurious ways, the idle habits, even the +refinements of the Latins, robbed them of their vigour and independence +of character. The conquerors became divided among themselves; some +inclined to the old Gothic traditions, some to the Latin ways. The royal +house affords a conspicuous instance of this deterioration; the boy king +succumbed to debauchery, his mother fell a victim to her Latin +sympathies, and his cousin, last of the royal line, a student of +literature and philosophy, showed himself perfectly incapable of action +and was deposed by his soldiers. Justinian, the spider, had been biding +his opportunity; now it had surely come. The Goths were disintegrated; +the Papacy and Latin people were with him; and his great general, +Belisarius, fresh from the brilliant conquest of the Vandal kingdom in +Africa, was ready for the task. In 535 the war for the reconquest of +Italy began. + +The Goths were confused, divided, and without a leader, whereas +Belisarius was a man of military genius, and his army was composed of +veterans. The issue could not remain long in doubt. Naples, Rome, and +finally Ravenna, fell, and the reconquest would have been complete, but +that Justinian, jealous of a too successful general, recalled +Belisarius. The Goths improved their respite, and their king, Totila, a +very valiant soldier, for a time retrieved their falling fortunes. +Justinian, however, who had a remarkable knowledge of men, appointed +general-in-chief an extraordinary little old man, Narses, who, devoid of +all military experience, had passed his life in the Imperial civil +service. Narses handled his men as if he had been born and bred in a +camp, and, after a comparatively brief campaign in which Totila was +killed, compelled the last remnant of the Gothic army to surrender +(553). + +Thus ended the first attempt to erect a Barbarian kingdom in Italy. Its +failure proved that without the support of the Catholic Church it was +impossible to establish a kingdom of Italy, for the Church controlled +the Latin people, and though these never fought, they had an hundred +ways of helping friends and hindering foes. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] _Rome in the Middle Ages_, Gregorovius, vol. i, p. 296. + +[3] _Le invasioni barbariche_, Villari, pp. 167, 168, translated. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LOMBARD INVASION (568) + + +The Imperial dominion over all Italy had lasted scarce a dozen years +before another Barbarian nation, the Lombards, came and repeated the +experiment in which the Goths had failed. The period of Lombard dominion +lasted two hundred years (568-774). It is rather an uninteresting time; +nevertheless, like most history, it has a dramatic side. It makes a play +for four characters. The Lombards occupy the larger part of the stage, +but the protagonist is the Papacy. The Empire is the third character. +Finally, the Franks come in and dispossess the Lombards. The plot, +though it must spread over several chapters, is simple. + +The scene of the play was pitiful. For nearly twenty years (535-553) +Italy had been one perpetual battlefield; whichever side won, the +unfortunate natives had to lodge and feed a foreign army, and endure all +the insolence of a brutal soldiery. Plague, pestilence, and famine +followed. The ordinary business of life came to a stop. Houses, +churches, aqueducts went to ruin; roads were left unmended, rivers +undiked. Great tracts of fertile land were abandoned. Cattle roamed +without herdsmen, harvests withered up, grapes shrivelled on the vines. +From lack of food came the pest. Mothers abandoned sick babies, sons +left their fathers' bodies unburied. The inhabitants of the cities fared +no better. Rome, for instance, had been captured five times. Before the +war her population had been 250,000; at its close not one tenth was +left. It is said that in one period every living thing deserted the +city, and for forty days the ancient mistress of the world lay like a +city of the dead. With peace came some respite; but the frightful +squeeze of Byzantine taxation was as bad as Barbarian conquest. Italy +sank into ignorance and misery. The Latin inhabitants hardly cared who +their masters were. They never had spirit enough to take arms and fight, +but meekly bowed their heads. Such was the scene on which these three +great actors, the Lombards, the Papacy, and the Empire, played their +parts. It is now time to describe the actors. We give precedence to the +Empire, as is its due. + +This remnant of the Roman Empire, with its capital on the confines of +Europe and Asia, was an anomalous thing. It is a wonder that it +continued to exist at all. In fact, there is no better evidence of the +immense solidity of Roman political organization than the prolonged life +of the Eastern Empire. The countries under its sway, Thrace, Illyria, +Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, had no bond to hold them +together, except common submission to one central authority. By the end +of the sixth century, the Roman Empire was really Greek. The Greek +language was spoken almost exclusively in Constantinople, Latin having +dropped even from official use. Yet the Empire was still regarded as +the Roman Empire, and was looked up to by the young Barbarian kingdoms +of Europe with the respect which they deemed due to the Empire of +Augustus and Trajan. For instance, a king of the Franks addresses the +Emperor thus: "Glorious, pious, perpetual, renowned, triumphant Lord, +ever Augustus, my father Maurice, Imperator," and is content to be +called in return, "Childipert, glorious man, king of the Franks." Yet it +must be remembered that Constantinople at this time was the chief city +of Europe. Greek thought and Greek art lingered there. Justinian had +just built St. Sophia. In fact, Constantinople continued for centuries +to be the most civilized city in the world. + +The Imperial government was an autocracy; all the reins, civil, +military, ecclesiastical, were gathered into the hands of the Emperor. +Its foreign policy was to repel its enemies, Persians to the east, Avars +to the north, Arabs to the south; its domestic policy was to hold its +provinces together and to extort money. The Emperors, many of whom were +able men, usually spent such time as could be spared from questions of +national defence and of finance in the study of theology, for at +Constantinople the problems of government were in great measure +religious. Next to the actual physical needs of life, the main interest +of the people was religion. A statesman who sought to preserve the +Empire whole, of necessity endeavoured to hold together its incohesive +parts by means of religious unity. This political need of religious +unity is the explanation, in the main, of the frequent theological +edicts and enactments. + +The Emperors governed Italy, after the reconquest, by an Imperial +lieutenant, the Exarch, who resided at Ravenna, under a system of +administration preserved in mutilated form from times prior to the fall +of Romulus Augustulus. An attempt was made to keep civil and military +affairs separate, but the pressure of constant war threw all the power +into military hands. The peninsula, or such part of it as remained +Imperial after the Lombard invasion, was divided for administrative and +military purposes into dukedoms and counties, which were governed by +dukes and generals. The Byzantine officials were usually Greeks, bred in +Constantinople and trained in the Imperial system; they regarded +themselves as foreigners, and had neither the will nor the skill to be +of use to Italy. Their public business was to raise money for the +Empire, their private business to raise money for themselves. + +In spite of these oppressions the Latin people preferred the Greeks to +the Lombards, partly because of their common Greco-Roman civilization, +partly because the Empire was still the Roman Empire; and this popular +support stood the Empire in good stead in the long war which it waged +with the Lombards. The Latin people did not fight, but they gave food +and information. The Empire, however, was ill prepared for a contest. +The recall of Narses removed from Italy the last bulwark against +Barbarian invasion. The Imperial army was weak, cities were poorly +garrisoned, fortifications badly constructed; and, but for the control +of the sea which enabled the Empire to hold the towns on the sea-coast, +the whole of Italy would have fallen, like a ripe apple, into the hands +of the invaders. The Empire, in fact, was exhausted by the effort of +reconquest and had neither moral nor material strength to spare from its +home needs. + +The Lombards, if inferior in dignity to the Empire, played a far more +active part in this historic drama. They came originally from the +mysterious North, and after wandering about eastern Europe had at last +settled near the Danube, where part of them were converted to Arian +Christianity. Discontented with their habitation, and pressed by wilder +Barbarians behind them, they were glad to take advantage of the +defenceless condition of Italy. They knew how pleasant a land it was, +for many of them had served as mercenaries under Narses. The whole +nation, with a motley following from various tribes, amounted to about +two or three hundred thousand persons. They crossed the Alps in 568. + +There were many points of difference between these invaders and the +Goths. The Lombards had had little intercourse with the Empire, and were +far less civilized than their predecessors, and far inferior in both +military and administrative capacity. Their leader, Alboin, cannot be +compared in any respect with Theodoric. Moreover, Theodoric came, +nominally at least, as lieutenant of the Emperor, and affected to deem +his sovereignty the continuation of Imperial rule; whereas the Lombards +regarded only the title of the sword and invariably fought the Empire as +an enemy. + +The invaders met little active resistance; if they had had control of +the sea, they would readily have conquered the whole peninsula. They +overran the North and strips of territory down the centre within a few +years, and afterwards gradually spread little by little; but they never +conquered the South, the duchy of Rome, or the Adriatic coast. For the +greater part of the two hundred years during which the Lombard dominion +existed, the map of Italy bore the following aspect: the Empire retained +the little peninsula of Istria; the long strip of coast from the +lowlands of Venetia to Ancona, protected by its maritime cities, +Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Sinigaglia; and the duchy of Rome, which spread +along the Tyrrhene shore from Civita Vecchia to Gaeta; Naples and +Amalfi; the territories of the heel and toe; and also Sicily and +Sardinia. The boundaries were never fixed. Of the Lombard kingdom all +one need remember is that it was a loose confederation of three dozen +duchies; and that of these duchies, Spoleto, a little north of Rome, and +Benevento, a little northeast of Naples, were the most important, as +well as the most detached from the kingdom. In fact, these two were +independent duchies, and rarely if ever took commands from Pavia, the +king's capital, except upon compulsion. + +At the time of the invasion the Lombards were barbarians; and they did +not make rapid progress in civilization. Fond of their native ways, of +hunting and brawling, they were loath to adopt the arts of peace, and +left most forms of craft and industry to the conquered Latins. +Nevertheless, it was impossible to avoid the consequences of daily +contact with a far more developed people, and their manners became more +civilized with each generation. The royal house affords an indication of +the change which was wrought during the two hundred years. Alboin, the +original invader (died 573), killed another Barbarian king, married his +daughter, and forced her to drink from a cup made of her father's skull. +The last Lombard king, Desiderius (died about 780), cultivated the +society of scholars, and his daughter learned by heart "the golden +maxims of philosophy and the gems of poetry." Each advance of the +Lombards in civilization was a gain to the Latins, who, especially in +the country where they worked on farms, were little better than serfs. +The two races drew together slowly. The conversion of the Lombards from +Arian to Catholic Christianity (600-700) diminished the distance between +them. Intermarriage must soon have begun; but not until the conquest by +the Franks does there seem to have been any real blending of the races. + +The most conspicuous trait in the Lombard character was political +incompetence. It would have required but a little steadiness of purpose, +a little political foresight, a little spurt of energy, to conquer +Ravenna, Rome, Naples and the other cities held by the Byzantines, and +make Italy into one kingdom. Failure was due to the weakness of the +central government, which was unable to weld the petty dukedoms +together. This cutting up of Italy into many divisions left deep scars. +Each city, with the territory immediately around it, began to regard +itself as a separate state, with no sense of duty towards a common +country; each cultivated individuality and jealousy of its neighbours, +until these qualities, gradually growing during two hundred years, +presented insuperable difficulties to the formation of an Italian +national kingdom. + +In spite of their political incompetence the Lombards left their mark on +Italy, especially on Lombardy and the regions occupied by the strong +duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. For centuries Lombard blood appears in +men of vigorous character; and Lombard names, softened to suit Italian +ears, linger on among the nobility. In fact, the aristocracy of Italy +from Milan to Naples was mainly Teutonic, and the principal element of +the Teutonic strain was Lombard. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHURCH (568-700) + + +One great political effect of the Lombard conquest was the opportunity +which it gave the Papacy, while Lombard and Byzantine were buffeting +each other, to grow strong and independent. Had Italy remained a Greek +province the Pope would have been a mere provincial bishop, barely +taking ceremonial precedence of the metropolitans of Ravenna, Aquileia, +and Milan; had Italy become a Lombard kingdom, the Pope would have been +a royal appointee; but with the Lombard kings fighting the Byzantine +Exarchs, each side needing papal aid and sometimes bidding for it, the +Pope was enabled to become master of the city and of the duchy of Rome, +and the real head of the Latin people as well as of the Latin clergy. In +fact, the growth of the Roman Catholic Church is the most interesting +development in this period. The Lombards gave it the opportunity to grow +strong and independent, but the power to take advantage of the +opportunity came from within. This power was compact of many elements, +secular and spiritual. From the ills of the world men betook themselves +with southern impulsiveness to things religious; they sought refuge, +order, security in the Church. In the greater interests of life among +the Latins the rising ecclesiastical fabric had no competitor. Paganism +had vanished before Christianity, philosophy before theology. +Literature, art, science had perished. Italy had ceased to be a country. +The ancient Empire of Rome had faded into a far-away memory. The wreck +of the old nobility left the ecclesiastical hierarchy without a rival. +In the midst of the general ruin of Roman civilization the Church stood +stable, offering peace to the timid, comfort to the afflicted, +refinement to the gentle, a home to the homeless, a career to the +ambitious, power to the strong. By a hundred strings the Church drew men +to her; in a hundred modes she sowed the prolific seeds of +ecclesiastical patriotism. She was essentially Roman, and gathered to +herself whatever was left of life and vigour in the Roman people. With a +structure and organization framed on the Imperial pattern, she slowly +assumed in men's minds an Imperial image; and Rome, a provincial town +whose civil magistrates busied themselves with sewers and aqueducts, +again began to inspire men with a strange confidence in a new Imperial +power. + +In addition to the strength derived from her immense moral and spiritual +services, the Church had the support of two potent forces, ignorance and +superstition. The general break-up of the old order had lowered the +common level of knowledge. Everybody was ignorant, everybody was +superstitious. The laws of nature were wholly unknown. Every ill that +happened, whether a man tripped over his threshold, or a thunderbolt hit +his roof, was ascribed to diabolic agencies. The old pagan +personification of natural forces, without its poetry, was revived. The +only help lay in the priest, a kind of magical protector, who with +beads, relics, bones, incense, and incantation defended poor humanity +from the assaults of devils. Thus, while all civil society suffered from +ignorance, while every individual suffered from the awful daily, hourly, +presence of fear, the Church profited by both. + +Beside these intangible resources, the Church, or to speak more +precisely the Papacy, had others of a material kind. For centuries pious +men, especially when death drew near, had made great gifts of land to +the bishops of Rome, until these bishops had become the greatest landed +proprietors in Italy. Most of their estates were in Sicily, but others +were scattered all over Italy, and even in Gaul, Illyria, Sardinia, and +Corsica. In extent they covered as much as eighteen hundred square +miles, and yielded an enormous income. This income enabled the Popes to +maintain churches and monasteries, schools and missionaries, to buy off +raiding armies of Lombards, and also to equip soldiers of their own. +These estates the Church owned as a mere private landlord. During the +Gothic dominion and the restoration of Imperial rule, she had no rights +of sovereignty. But later on, during the disturbed period of border war +between Lombards and Greeks, we find the Popes actually ruling the duchy +of Rome. + +The corner-stone of the great papal power, however, was laid by the +genius of one man, who organized the monastic sentiment of the sixth +century and put it to the support of the Papacy. There had been monks in +Italy long before St. Benedict (480-544), but as civil society +disintegrated, men in ever greater numbers fled from the world, and +sought peace in solitude and in monastic communities. St. Benedict +perceived that the monastic rules and customs derived from the East were +ill suited to the West; so he devised a monastic system, and formulated +his celebrated Rule, which became the pattern for all other monastic +rules in Europe. He founded a monastery at Subiaco, a little village +near Rome, and afterwards the famous abbey on Monte Cassino, a high hill +midway between Rome and Naples, which became the mother of all +Benedictine monasteries and shone like a light in the Dark Ages. +Benedict's ideal was to help men shut themselves off from the +temptations of life and realize, as far as they could, the prayer "Thy +kingdom come ... on earth as it is in Heaven." He ordained community of +property, and required a novitiate. Most strictly he forbade idleness, +and with special insistence exhorted his brethren to till the ground +with their own hands. Intellectual interests followed; and Benedictine +monks became the teachers not only of agriculture, but of handicraft, of +art and learning. His Order spread fast over Italy and Gaul, and in time +over Spain, England, and Germany. Its communities, like the old _castra +romana_, upheld the authority of Rome and enforced her dominion. + +The attractions of the monastic life at Monte Cassino are well set out +in a letter written (after St. Benedict's day) to one of the abbots, by +a man of the world who had once lived there: "Though great spaces +separate me from your company, I am bound to you by a clinging +affection that can never be loosed, nor are these short pages enough to +tell you of the love that torments me all the time for you, for the +superiors and for the brethren. So much so that when I think about those +leisure days spent in holy duties, the pleasant rest in my cell, your +sweet religious affection, and the blessed company of those soldiers of +Christ, bent on holy worship, each brother setting a shining example of +a different virtue, and the gracious talks on the perfections of our +heavenly home, I am overcome, all my strength goes, and I cannot keep +tears from mingling with the sighs that burst from me. Here I go about +among Catholics, men devoted to Christian worship; everybody receives me +well, everybody is kind to me from love of our father Benedict, and for +the sake of your merits; but compared with your monastery the palace is +a prison; compared with the quiet there this life is a tempest."[4] + +What Benedict did for the monastic orders, another great man, St. +Gregory (540-604), did for the Papacy itself. Gregory the Great, the +most commanding figure in the history of Europe between Theodoric and +Charlemagne, was a Roman, made of the same stuff as Scipio and Cato, and +presented the interesting character of a Christian and an antique Roman +combined. Born of a noble Roman family, Gregory was educated in Rome, +and entered the service of the state, in which he rose to the high +office of prefect of the city; but, dissatisfied with civil life, he +abandoned it and became a monk. He wanted to give himself up wholly to +a monastic life, but deemed it his duty to accept office in the papal +service, and filled the distinguished position of papal ambassador (to +use a modern term) at the Imperial court at Constantinople. In 590 he +was elected Pope, half against his will, for he desired to be either a +monk or a missionary; but he felt that the hopes of civilization and the +future of religion lay in the Papacy, and he applied himself with energy +to his new task. This task was as complex and multifarious as possible. +It concerned all Europe, from Sicily to England. Rome itself was in a +deplorable condition, left undefended by the Exarch, and threatened by +the Lombards of Spoleto, who harried the country to the very gates, +murdering some Romans and carrying others off as slaves. Gregory had to +take complete control of the city, military and civil. He wrote: "I do +not know any more whether I now fill the office of priest or of temporal +prince; I must look to our defence and everything else. I am paymaster +of the soldiers." He kept up the courage of the Romans, and tried to +draw spiritual good out of their plight. It was impossible for a +contemporary eye to see that under present wretchedness lay germinating +the seeds of empire; yet Gregory acted as if he beheld them. In spite of +apprehensions of the end of the world he organized the Church to endure +for centuries. Both at home and abroad he displayed a tireless activity. + +Among the foreign events of his pontificate are the conversion of +England by Augustine (597) and the ministry of St. Columbanus (543-615) +among the Franks, Alemanni, and Lombards. It was Gregory who saw the +handsome fairhaired boys from England standing in the market-place and +said, "Non Angli sed angeli." He had the true imperial instinct, and +always encouraged the clergy in distant parts of Europe to visit Rome +and to apply to Rome for counsel and aid. The respect in which he was +held may be inferred from the titles given him by Columbanus: "To the +holy lord and father in Christ, the most comely ornament of the Roman +Church, the most august flower, so to speak, of all this languishing +Europe, the illustrious overseer, to him who is skilled to inquire into +the theory of the Divine causality, I, a mean dove (Columbanus), send +Greeting in Christ." Gregory also maintained close relations with the +clergy in Africa, and received homage from the Spanish bishops, for +Spain had recently been converted from Arianism to Catholicism. He was +by no means content to confine his dealings to the clergy, but was in +frequent correspondence with kings and queens of western Europe, as well +as with the Emperor and Empress in Constantinople. His immense energy +made itself felt everywhere. He made rules for the liturgy; and mass is +still celebrated partly according to his directions. He reformed church +music and founded schools for the Gregorian chant. He administered the +papal revenues, superintending the management of farms, stables, and +orchards. He founded monasteries, he supported hospitals and asylums. + +Benedict and Gregory are the two great figures of this period, and, +though no worthy successor followed for several generations, they did +their work so well that the Papacy, like a great growing oak, continued +to spread its power conspicuously in the eyes of the world, and also, +out of sight, in the hearts and habits of men. + +The relations between the Papacy and the Empire were difficult. The +Popes were subjects of the Emperor. The whole ecclesiastical +organization throughout the Empire was subject to the Imperial will, +just as the civil or military service was. The Papacy did not like this +position of subordination and resented any interference in papal +affairs. Though Odoacer, Theodoric, and Justinian had always asserted +their right to exercise a supervision over papal elections, the Popes +had never acquiesced willingly, and even in those early days showed a +marked disposition to take exclusive control of what they deemed their +own affairs. It might be supposed that the Papacy, mindful of the great +danger of a Lombard conquest of Rome, would have clung to the Empire; +but after the Lombards had become Catholics the gap between the Romans +and the Greco-Oriental Empire was nearly as wide as that between them +and the Lombards. There was a fundamental difference between the Greek +mind, floating over metaphysics and speculative theology, and the Roman +mind, bound to political conceptions and practical ends. A theology +which would satisfy a congregation in St. Sophia would not suit the +worshippers in St. Peter's. The Empire, obliged to adapt theological +niceties to political necessities, favoured any creed of compromise, +which should promote political concord and unity. Rome, with its +despotic, imperial instincts, felt that orthodoxy was its strength, and +maintained an inflexible creed. The two were an ill-yoked pair, and +quarrels were inevitable. + +The relations between the Papacy and the Lombards were more simple. They +varied between war, and friendship real or feigned. In the beginning, +and even, as we have seen, in Gregory's time, there was war; but then +began the conversion of the Lombards to Christianity, and intervals of +peace followed, during which the Lombard king saluted the Pope as "Most +Holy Father," and the Pope replied "My well-beloved Son." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] _Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte_, Ugo Balzani +(translated). + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COMING OF THE FRANKS (726-768) + + +We now come to the separation of the Latin world from the Greek world in +both political and ecclesiastical affairs, and to the reconstruction of +Europe by the alliance of the Franks and the Papacy. The plot continues +to be very simple. The Empire, pressed by dangerous enemies, tried once +more to gain political strength by ecclesiastical legislation; the +effect of this legislation on the Imperial provinces in Italy was to +cause rebellion. The Papacy broke the ties that bound it to the Empire; +then, finding itself defenceless before the Lombards, made an alliance +with the Franks, who invaded Italy and overthrew the Lombards. + +In order to elaborate this plot, we must begin with the great Asiatic +movement of the seventh century; for this movement acted as a cause of +causes to split the Latins from the Greeks, to exalt the Papacy, and to +form the Holy Roman Empire. In one of the tribes of Arabia, without +heralding, appeared a man, who at the age of forty became a religious +prophet, and by the force of genius constructed one of the great +religions of the world. Mohammed's religion worked on the ardent Arabian +temperament like magic, and engendered a fierce passion for conquest and +proselytizing. Tribes cohered, became both a sect and a nation, and +swept like wildfire over the west of Asia and the north of Africa. +Mohammed died in 632, but his successors, the Caliphs, carried on his +work; under the inspiration of the slogan, "Before you is Paradise, +behind you the devil and the fire of hell," they advanced from conquest +to conquest. Cities and provinces were torn from the Empire. Damascus, +Syria, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Rhodes fell in rapid +succession; next Africa, bit by bit. Persia was beaten to her knees. +Sicily was raided. Twice Constantinople had to fight for life. + +Naturally Byzantine statesmen felt that some radical step must be taken, +or all the remnants of the Empire would be reduced to slavery. A +vigorous Emperor, Leo the Isaurian (717-741), took the radical step. It +was necessarily religious, for, in Constantinople, political action +always took a religious complexion. Leo issued a decree forbidding the +use of images in churches and in Christian worship (726). Those in place +he ordered broken. He acted no doubt from high motives, thinking to +ennoble religion and to arouse patriotism; but his people disagreed with +him. In the East riots and civil war broke out. These were suppressed, +but discontent and persistent opposition remained. In Italy also the +excitement was intense. The country had already been irritated by severe +taxation, and when the decree of iconoclasm was published, the +image-loving Italians rose in a body. The Pope, as most hurt in +conscience by the decree, and in pocket by the taxation, was the natural +head of resistance. The Exarch attempted to arrest him, but both Latins +and Lombards rallied to his defence. In some places open revolt broke +out, and a plot was started to set up another Emperor in place of the +wicked iconoclast who polluted the Imperial throne. But the Pope, +Gregory II (715-731), was a prudent man, and was not ready to take a +step which would deprive Rome of its single defence from the Lombards. +He opposed the rebellious plan, but in the matter of maintaining the +images he stood like a rock. His successor, Gregory III (731-741), went +farther, and took decisive action. He convoked a synod, which expelled +every image-breaker from the Church (731). This was tantamount to a +direct excommunication of the Emperor, and a declaration of papal +independence. The Emperor was powerless to compel obedience. Thus began +the great split between the Papacy and the Byzantine Empire, between +western and eastern Europe, between the Latin Church and the Greek. Some +of the western provinces, Calabria, Sicily, and Illyria, which were +practically Greek, remained faithful to the Empire and shared its +fortunes for several hundred years more. Ecclesiastically they were +removed from the jurisdiction of the Popes to that of the Patriarchs of +Constantinople. + +This breach between the Papacy and the Empire led inevitably to an +alliance between the Papacy and the Franks, which is of such great +historical consequence that it must be recounted in some detail. While +the Empire and the Papacy were quarrelling over ecclesiastical matters, +western Europe had been changing. The Frankish kingdom had been +established in what is now Belgium, Holland, and large parts of France +and Germany, and was the one great Christian power in Europe. Therefore, +when the Papacy had cut loose from the Empire and saw itself defenceless +against the Lombards, it had no alternative but to seek help from the +Franks. There were also two special reasons for friendship between the +Franks and the Papacy. First, the Franks, alone of Barbarians, had been +converted to Catholic Christianity. Secondly, in their endeavours to +enlarge their eastern borders, the Franks had been greatly assisted by +the missionaries, who--in the normal course, missionaries, merchants, +soldiers--had prepared the way for Frankish conquest, and had +strengthened the Frankish power when established. These missionaries +were absolutely devoted to the Roman See; they spread papal loyalty +wherever they went, and wrought a strong bond of union between the +Frankish kingdom and the Papacy. This union of sympathy and interest was +an excellent basis for a political union; and the time soon came for +such a development. + +When the iconoclastic revolts occurred in Italy, and the Popes broke +with the Empire, the Lombard kings thought that their opportunity to +conquer all Italy had come. But instead of making one bold campaign +against Rome and the South, they merely laid hands on a few border +cities. The Popes turned with frantic appeals for help to the only power +that could help them, the Franks. Every time the Lombard king made a +hostile move, the Pope cried aloud for aid. For some time the Franks +deemed that the balance of political considerations was against +intervention and refused to take part in Italian affairs. Charles +Martel, mayor of the palace and ruler of the Franks in all but name, +stood firm on the policy of non-interference; but his son and successor, +Pippin the Short, took a different view. Pippin judged that the time had +come to depose the royal Merovingian family and to exalt his own, the +Carlovingian, in its stead. As the Merovingians had reigned for two +hundred and fifty years, the step was revolutionary, and Pippin wished +to strengthen his position by the support of the Papacy. He sent +messengers to the Pope, Zacharias, to ask advice; and the Pope, +according to the chronicler, "in the exercise of his apostolical +authority replied to their question, that it seemed to him better and +more expedient that the man who held power in the kingdom should be +called king and be king, rather than he who falsely bore that name. +Therefore the Pope commanded the king and the people of the Franks, that +Pippin, who was using royal power, should be called king and should be +settled on the throne." The last Merovingian, therefore, was tonsured +and stowed away in a monastery, and Pippin became king of the Franks +(751). Without accepting the monkish chronicler's statement, that the +Pope commanded Pippin to be king, there can be little doubt that the +papal sanction was of very real value to Pippin, and that Pippin let it +appear that he was acting rather in conformity with the Pope's will than +with his own. + +Thus the Pope laid Pippin under a great obligation; it now remained for +Pippin to discharge that obligation. It was not long before the time +came. + +The Lombard king felt that his opportunity was slipping by, and acted +with some vigour. He captured Ravenna and threatened Rome. The Pope +hurried across the Alps. He anointed and crowned Pippin; he likewise +anointed and blessed his son Charles (Charlemagne), and forbade the +Franks under pain of excommunication ever to choose their king from any +other family. These three great favours, the transfer of the royal +title, the coronation rite, and the perpetual confirmation of the +Carlovingian sovereignty, called for a great return. Pippin promised +that the Adriatic provinces, taken by the Lombards from the Byzantines, +should be ceded by the Lombards to the Pope. This promise Pippin +fulfilled. He crossed the Alps, defeated the Lombard king, and forced +him to cede the Exarchate of Ravenna and the five cities below it on the +coast, to the Pope, who thereby became an actual sovereign. Thus Pippin +discharged his obligation to the Papacy. + +This beginning of the Papal monarchy is so important that the theoretic +origin may as well be mentioned here. There was a legend, universally +believed, that an early Pope, Silvester (314-335) healed the Emperor +Constantine of leprosy, and that the Emperor, in gratitude, made a great +grant of territory to the Pope. The fact appears to have been that +Constantine, although not cured of the leprosy, did give to Silvester +the Lateran palace and a plot of ground around it. This little donation +grew in legend like a grain of mustard seed, and served the purpose of +the Roman clergy. No good Roman would have been content with a title +derived from the Lombards or the Franks. In Roman eyes these Barbarians +never had any title to Italian territory; they could give none. The only +possible source of legal title was the Empire. In the gift by +Constantine to Silvester papal adherents had a foundation of fact. That +was enough. It is quite unnecessary to imagine false dealing. People in +those days believed that what they wished true was true. This legend was +accepted and embodied in concrete form in a document known as the +_Donation of Constantine_, which is so important in explaining the +attitude of the Papacy throughout the Middle Ages, that it may be +quoted:-- + +"In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy +Ghost, the Emperor Cæsar Flavius Constantine ... to the most holy and +blessed Father of Fathers, Silvester, bishop of Rome and Pope, and to +all his successors in the seat of St. Peter to the end of the world...." +Here comes, interspersed with snatches of Christian dogma, a rambling +narrative of his leprosy, of the advice of his physicians to bathe in a +font on the Capitol filled with the warm blood of babies; how he +refused, how Peter and Paul appeared in a dream and sent him to +Silvester, how he then abjured paganism, accepted the creed, was +baptized and healed, and how he then recognized that heathen gods were +demons and that Peter and his successors had all power on earth and in +heaven. After this long preamble comes the grant: + +"We, together with all our Satraps and the whole Senate, Nobles and +People ... have thought it desirable that even as St. Peter is on earth +the appointed Vicar of God, so also the Pontiffs his viceregents should +receive from us and from our Empire, power and principality greater than +belongs to us ... and to the extent of our earthly Imperial power we +decree that the Sacrosanct Church of Rome shall be honoured and +venerated, and that higher than our terrestrial throne shall the most +sacred seat of St. Peter be gloriously exalted. + +"Let him who for the time shall be pontiff over the holy Church of Rome +... be sovereign of all the priests in the whole world; and by his +judgment let all things which pertain to the worship of God or the faith +of Christians be regulated.... _We hand over and relinquish our palace, +the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places, and cities of Italy and +the western regions, to the most blessed Pontiff and universal Pope, +Silvester_; and we ordain by our pragmatic constitution that they shall +be governed by him and his successors, and we grant that they shall +remain under the authority of the holy Roman Church."[5] + +The date of this document and many statements in it are anachronisms and +errors. It was composed about the time of Pippin's _Donation_, probably +by somebody connected with the papal chancery, and may be considered to +be a pious forgery representing the facts as the writer deemed they were +or else should be. It was officially referred to for the first time in +777, but did not receive its full celebrity until the eleventh century, +when the relations of the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire became the +centre of European history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] _Italy and her Invaders_, T. Hodgkin, vol. vii, pp. 149-151; _Select +Historical Documents of the Middle Ages_, Ernest F. Henderson, pp. +319-329. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CHARLEMAGNE (768-814) + + +The papal theory embodied in the _Donation of Constantine_ was obviously +crammed with seeds of future strife; for the present, however, the +fortunes of the House of Pippin and of the Papacy were bound together in +amity. The constant accession of strength to the former and of prestige +to the latter made them the central figures of European politics. The +new political form to which their union gave birth slowly shaped itself. +In Italy the first step was to get rid of the Lombards. On the death of +the Lombard King, Aistulf, there were two claimants for the throne. One +of the two, Desiderius, secured the Pope's help by the promise of ceding +more cities, and became king. The Pope, writing to Pippin, says: "Now +that Aistulf, that disciple of the devil, that devourer of Christian +blood is dead; and that by your aid and that of the Franks [a +complimentary phrase, for Pippin seems to have done nothing] he is +succeeded by Desiderius, a most gentle and good man, we pray you to urge +him to continue in the right way." But the "most gentle and good" +Desiderius strayed from the right way, and did not cede the promised +cities. So the Pope besought Pippin to use force; but Pippin thought +that he had done enough, and the Pope was obliged to rest content. +Pippin died in 768. One can imagine the consternation at Rome on +Pippin's death to learn that the dowager queen of the Franks was +arranging a marriage between her son Charlemagne and a daughter of +Desiderius, and another marriage between her daughter and a son of +Desiderius. The Pope wrote in terror that the plan was of the devil, and +forbade it under the pains of everlasting damnation; nevertheless, +Charlemagne married the daughter of Desiderius (770). + +The Pope's anticipations, however, were not justified; the horrible +union of the House of Pippin with the "unspeakable" Lombards came to an +abrupt end. Charlemagne, probably from personal dislike, put away his +wife, and sent her ignominiously back to her father. Desiderius, angry +at the insult, rushed upon his fate; he not only intrigued in Frankish +affairs against Charlemagne, but he also seized many of the cities given +to the Pope by the _Donation of Pippin_. He invaded the duchy of Rome, +and advanced within fifty miles of the city. This time Charlemagne acted +in conformity with the papal entreaties. He crossed the Alps, routed the +Lombard army, captured Pavia, took Desiderius prisoner and assumed the +title of King of the Lombards (773-774). He went on to Rome, and +solemnly confirmed the _Donation of Pippin_, and also made a further +_Donation_. This latter _Donation_, which led to disputes between the +Papacy and Charlemagne's successors, is a matter of great uncertainty. +Subsequent papal advocates claimed that it embraced two thirds of Italy. +Probably Charlemagne only intended to restore to the Papacy its private +property scattered throughout northern and central Italy, which had been +seized by the Lombards. + +Charlemagne, having disposed of the Lombards, continued his conquests; +across the Pyrenees he annexed the Spanish March, in North Germany he +subdued the Saxons and pushed his frontier to the Elbe, to the southeast +he subjugated the country as far as the upper Danube. His monarchy now +included Franks, Celts, Visigoths, Burgundians, Saxons, Lombards, +Romans. How were such widespread territories and such diverse peoples to +be united in permanent union? The far-seeing Papacy, in answer to this +question, propounded the revival of the Roman Empire of the Cæsars. +Reasons were numerous. The Frankish monarchy, with its conquests, in +bulk at least was not unworthy to succeed to Imperial Rome. Throughout +this wide territory there was a great network of ligaments; from Gascony +to Bavaria, from Lombardy to Frisia, divine service was celebrated in +the Latin tongue and with the Roman ritual; bishops, priests, monks, and +missionaries acknowledged their dependence upon the Pope and looked to +Rome, with its holy basilicas and apostolic tradition, as the centre of +Christendom. This Christian unity was a constant argument for political +unity. A second argument was the still vigorous Roman tradition. The +idea of nationality was as yet undeveloped; Europe had known no other +political system than common subjection to the Roman Empire, and all +notions of civilization were of a civilization on the Roman pattern. +When the Roman Empire in the West had decayed, the Church had adopted +the Imperial organization and kept remembrance of the old system fresh +in men's minds. The old Empire, moreover, had early lost the notion of +dependence on the city of Rome, for the seat of government had been set +at Constantinople, at Milan, and at Ravenna; and since the days of the +early Cæsars, it had not been necessary for an Emperor to be a native +Roman. There was no theoretical difficulty to bar a Frank from the +Imperial throne or forbid the seat of government to a Frankish city. In +fact, nobody could conceive of the Empire as other than Roman, and the +Frankish kingdom could only become an empire by becoming the Roman +Empire. + +The Papacy had special reasons for these views. Under the Empire +Christianity had grown up; under the Empire it had obtained power and +dominion, and had become the state religion. The Church might quarrel +with Emperors, but it regarded the Empire--the source of secular law and +order--as its joint tenant in the world. The one represented religious +unity, the other represented civil unity. In addition to these large +arguments, local reasons affected the Papacy. Shortly before the +expulsion of the Lombards from Italy, the lack of a strong government +had been wofully felt. One usurper and then another had been put in St. +Peter's chair in riot and bloodshed. It had become plain as day that the +Papacy of itself, without the support of a potent secular power, was not +able to maintain its dignity, nor even to enforce order in the very city +of Rome. The Papacy could not endure without the Empire. The very +titles which the Frankish kings had gradually received led up to the +Imperial title. Gregory II had called Charles Martel "Patrician," a +vague title of honour held by the Exarchs; Gregory III had offered to +him the titles both of Patrician and of Consul; Stephen II bestowed upon +Pippin the title of Patrician of the Romans; Charlemagne's own titles +were King of the Franks, King of the Lombards, Patrician of the Romans; +and his son had been crowned by the Pope, King of Italy (781). The title +next in order was undoubtedly Emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne himself +was a man of gigantic stature and great strength, indefatigable in +action, and delighting in hunting, swimming, and martial exercise. His +mind also was mighty, restlessly pondering questions of state, of +church, of war, of social improvement. He was the greatest of +Barbarians, cast by Nature in an imperial mould. + +On the other hand there was one conspicuous difficulty in the way of +reviving the Roman Empire; this difficulty was that the Roman Empire +still existed, and that there was a living Emperor, the legitimate +successor of Cæsar Augustus. But that Empire was virtually Greek, and +the Emperor no more like Cæsar Augustus than like Hercules. The city by +the Tiber had as good title to be the Imperial city as her younger rival +by the Bosphorus; the _Roman Republic_ (whatever that ill-defined title +may mean), represented by the Pope, had as fair a claim to elect the +Emperor, as the army and office-holders at Constantinople. In fact, to +Papal and Roman eyes, the rights of Rome were much greater than those of +Constantinople. + +To us, as we look back, nothing seems more natural than that the great +Frankish king, after the conquest of Italy, should have brushed aside +the theoretical difficulty of an existing Roman Empire and assumed the +Imperial title, Emperor of the Romans. History moves more slowly. +Charlemagne was a Frank, accustomed to Frankish usages and ideas; he +hesitated to adopt formally a wholly different conception of sovereignty +and society. His nobles probably agreed with the advice given by Pope +Zacharias to Pippin, that the man who held the power should receive the +corresponding title, but being Franks they thought the dignity of +Frankish king sufficient. So matters stood with nothing between +Charlemagne and the Imperial crown but a theoretic difficulty, and a +certain reluctance. Unexpectedly and in quick succession, events in +Constantinople swept away the theoretic difficulty, and events in Rome +gave the Pope sufficient energy to overcome the reluctance. + +At Constantinople, the dowager Empress blinded and deposed her son the +Emperor (797), and assumed to rule as sole _Augusta_. This wickedness, +and the ancient doctrine that, though a woman might lawfully share the +Imperial throne, she might not reign alone, combined to render plausible +a theory readily adopted in the West, that the Imperial throne had +become vacant. The event in Rome was this. A savage gang of nobles and +ecclesiasts attacked Pope Leo III in the street, beat him, half-blinded +him, cut his tongue, and imprisoned him in a monastery (799). He escaped +and fled to Charlemagne in Germany. His enemies followed and charged him +with various crimes. Charlemagne sent him back to Rome in the company +of some great nobles, who were commissioned to investigate the charges, +and went himself also. There, in St. Peter's basilica, in the presence +of Frankish nobles and Roman ecclesiasts, with Charlemagne presiding, +the Pope took a solemn oath of innocence (December 4, 800). Such an oath +according to the jurisprudence of the time was necessarily followed by +acquittal; and the Pope's innocence necessarily proved the guilt of his +accusers, who were punished. + +Such crimes, east and west, were insufferable. Something had to be done. +Everybody looked to Charlemagne. His position as head of Christendom was +acknowledged even beyond the bounds of western Europe. The Patriarch of +Jerusalem, a subject of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, sent to +Charlemagne the keys of Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner +of the Holy City. Obviously it was time for the Imperial dignity to be +added to Imperial power. + +On Christmas day in the year 800, Charlemagne and a great procession of +Frankish nobles and Roman citizens made their way through the streets of +Rome towards the basilica of St. Peter's, whose gilt bronze roof, taken +from a pagan temple, shone conspicuous on the Vatican hill. They walked +through the Aurelian gate and across the bridge over the Tiber, then +turning to the left, followed the colonnade which extended all the way +from Hadrian's Mausoleum to the atrium of the basilica. There they +mounted the broad flight of marble steps, at the top of which the Pope +and his court awaited the king. Then Pope and king, followed by the +procession, crossed the great atrium paved with white marble, past the +fir-cone fountain and papal tombs, to the central door of the basilica, +which swung its thousand-weight of silver open wide; then, up the long +nave, screened by rows of antique columns from double aisles on either +side, all rich with tapestries of purple and gold, they proceeded with +slow and solemn steps to the tomb of the apostle. Thirteen hundred and +seventy candles in the great candelabrum glowed on the silver floor of +the shrine, and glittered on the gold and silver statues around it. In +the great apse behind the high altar sat the clergy, row upon row, +beneath the Pontiff's throne; above, the Byzantine mosaics looked down +in sad severity. Here Charlemagne knelt at the tomb, and prayed. As he +rose from his knees, the Pope lifted an Imperial crown of gold and +placed it on his head, while all the congregation shouted, "Life and +Victory to Charles, Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peaceful +Emperor!" + +Thus was accomplished that restoration of the Roman Empire, which by its +attempt to combine Teuton and Roman in political union so powerfully +affected the history of mediæval Europe. Charlemagne is reported to have +said that the Imperial coronation took him by surprise. However that may +be, this great enterprise of a Christian Empire must be regarded, in its +final completion, as the joint work of Frankish king and Roman Pope. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS I (814-867) + + +The period from the death of Charlemagne (814) to the coronation of Otto +the Great (962) is a long dismal stretch, tenanted by discord and +ignorance. At the beginning stands the commanding figure of Charlemagne, + + With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear + The weight of mightiest monarchies. + +But his descendants were unequal to their inheritance, and under them +his Empire crumbled away and resolved itself into incipient nations. +That Empire, in theory the restored Roman Empire, was in fact strictly +Teutonic, though buttressed by the Roman Church. Charlemagne deemed +himself head of both Empire and Church. In his eyes the Pope was his +subject, and he legislated, as a matter of course, upon ecclesiastical +affairs. In secular matters he endeavoured to maintain local +administration without detriment to a strong central government. For +this purpose he divided the Empire into three divisions, of which he +made his three sons nominally kings, really his lieutenants. Under these +sons he appointed counts and bishops, as local governors. He maintained +his central authority by means of deputies (_missi dominici_), who +traversed the whole Empire, two by two, a bishop and a count together. +The maintenance of such a political unity, however, required either the +organic strength and momentum of the old Roman Empire, or a breed of +Charlemagnes. On the great Emperor's death the forces of disruption made +themselves felt at once. His son, Louis the Pious, indeed succeeded to +the whole sovereignty of the Empire; but Louis's sons demanded division. +They rebelled; and civil war lasted most of Louis's life. After his +death the sons fought one another, and finally agreed on a division of +the territory, though the Imperial title was kept. One brother took the +territory to the east, destined to become Germany; another, that to the +west, destined to become France; and Lothair, the eldest, who also +received the Imperial title, took Italy and a long, heterogeneous strip +between the territories of his brothers. This division was fatal to the +Empire. On Lothair's death the Imperial crown descended to his son Louis +II (855-875), and afterwards to two other degenerate members of a +degenerate family. The last made himself unendurable and was deposed +(887). With him ended Charlemagne's legitimate male line, and also the +first revival of the Roman Empire. + +This Empire had been a civilizing power. It had supported the Papacy, as +an oak supports the creeper that clings to it; and in its decline and +fall it pulled the Papacy down with it. Without such support the Papacy +could maintain neither dignity abroad nor order at home. This lesson the +Church learned once through the outrages inflicted upon Pope Leo, but +forgot it; and required the experience of a hundred and fifty years to +learn it a second time. In theory Papacy and Empire were co-equal +powers, religious and secular, together carrying on the noble task of +God's government on earth. In practice, as their respective rights and +powers had not been definitely set off, they could not agree; each +wished to be master. The relations between the two constitute the great +axis on which mediæval politics revolve, and for a long time must serve +as the main motive of our story. The contest between them for mastery +resembles a fencing match, in which the Pope thrusts at the Emperor's +crown, the Emperor parries, and lunges back at the papal tiara. For +convenience we divide the match into two bouts, and first take the +Pope's attack. + +At the famous coronation on Christmas day, 800, Charlemagne and Leo +stood side by side, co-labourers in the great task of reconstructing +Europe. But once the coronation over, the two undefined authorities +jostled each other. Charlemagne, to whom government was as much a +religious as a secular matter, though he had accepted his Imperial crown +at the hands of the Pope, did not regard papal participation necessary +for the continuance of the Imperial dignity. At Aachen, 813, he crowned +his son Louis the Pious co-Emperor, without the help of Pope or priest. +This thrust must have carried discomfiture to the banks of the Tiber. +But with Charlemagne's weak successors the astute Papacy scored hit +after hit. Louis the Pious submitted to be recrowned by the Pope, so did +his son, Lothair, and his grandson Louis II; and their two successors +were also crowned by the Pope. This sequence of palpable hits won this +bout and secured for the Papacy beyond dispute the prerogative of +crowning the Emperors. + +If we now turn to that part of the game where Emperor lunged and Pope +parried, we find a more complicated situation. A third player takes a +hand, to the confusion of the game and to the great detriment of the +papal defence. This third player is the Roman people, who believed that +the _Senatus Populusque Romanus_ still possessed their ancient +prerogatives, and had the right to appoint both Emperor and Pope. Their +claim to elect the Emperor was flimsy enough, being merely the memory of +an empty form, and is not of enough consequence to stop for; but their +claim to interfere in the papal election was of the highest importance. +It arose from the anomalous nature of the Papacy. The Pope was bishop of +Rome, and as such his election lay in the hands of the clergy and people +of Rome; he was also the ruler of central Italy, and as such the barons +there were interested in his election; and, in addition, he was head of +all the Christian Churches in the West, and so all western Christendom, +and the Emperor as its temporal lord, was likewise concerned. The fact +was that no definite method of papal election and confirmation had been +settled upon during these disturbed centuries. The original practice had +been for the Roman churches, priests, and laymen together assembled, to +make the election; subsequently the senate, or the army, or the nobles, +had represented the lay body of electors; but whoever represented the +laymen, they and the clergy made the election; which was then submitted +to the Emperor, or his representative, for scrutiny and confirmation. +The submission of the Roman election to the examination of a Byzantine +Emperor had never been acceptable in Rome, and after the breach over +iconoclasm, the practice ceased. Naturally, on the revival of the Roman +Empire in the West, the new Emperors claimed the old Imperial right of +supervision; naturally, also, the papal party resisted the fresh +exercise of the old prerogative. Here was a situation for a scrimmage, +but any clear account of the papal elections in Rome, supposing such +were possible, would be too minute; this narrative must confine itself +to the main passes between the papal party and the Emperors. + +After the death of Charlemagne (no papal election occurred during his +lifetime) several Popes were elected and consecrated without previously +consulting the Emperor. On the other hand, in the next reign the +Imperial deputy made the Romans take oath that no Pope should be +consecrated without the approval of the Emperor. What was done at the +following election is not known, but at the second the Pope was not +consecrated until the Emperor had ratified the proceedings. Thereafter +the Imperial right was acknowledged in theory, though in practice the +elected Pontiffs did not always wait for Imperial confirmation. + +With the fall of the Carlovingian Empire the fencing match ceased for +lack of an Imperial contestant. The score stood thus: each had succeeded +in the attack, the Papacy had won its right to bestow the Imperial +crown, and the Empire had won, though not so definitely, its right to +supervise the election of a Pope. We must now pass to this Imperial +interregnum knowing that when the Empire shall be revived, the match +will begin anew and the combatants, with foils unbated and envenomed, +will fight to a finish. + +The Imperial interregnum, nominally interrupted by one German and +several Italian make-believe Emperors, lasted for three generations; no +Imperial power was exercised from 875 to 962. It is a murky period in +which shadows wander about; but before taking our candle and descending +into the gloom, we will turn to the one bright spot, the career of a +great Pope, Nicholas I (858-867). + +This Pope, in spite of the decadence of the Papacy, won immense prestige +for it by two successful assertions of cosmopolitan authority. The King +of Lorraine, brother to Louis II, the Emperor, wished to put away his +wife and marry another woman. The innocent queen, with the sanction of +the clergy of the kingdom, was divorced and forced to enter a convent; +and, with the consent of his clergy, the king married the other woman. +The wronged queen appealed to the Pope, who sent his legates to +investigate the affair; but the king bribed the legates and succeeded in +getting a decision from the local synod in his favour, although, in +fact, the whole matter had been a shocking scandal. Thereupon the king +sent the archbishops of Cologne and of Trier, the two great +ecclesiastical dignitaries of the kingdom, to announce this verdict of +acquittal. The Pope, "professing," as his enemies said, "to be +imperator of the whole world," seized his opportunity; he espoused the +cause of the innocent queen, annulled the fraudulent proceedings, and +excommunicated and deposed the two archbishops. The king applied to the +Emperor for help, and the Emperor went to Rome, but could obtain no +concession. The Pope stood like a rock. He allied himself with France +and Germany, and threatened to excommunicate the sinning husband and all +his bishops. The king was obliged to submit. The usurping wife was +excommunicated and banished, and the papal legate conducted the divorced +queen back to the royal palace. Thus the Papacy not only established a +great precedent for the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal +power, but also stood conspicuous before the world as the champion of +the weak and oppressed and the defender of morality and justice. + +It would be difficult to overrate the effect of this papal achievement. +It may be that the Papacy stood forth as champion of innocence when +policy coincided with righteousness; but it was the righteousness and +not the policy which gave the Papacy strength. One can imagine, in days +when brutal barons, scattered in strongholds all over the country, were +the normal forms of power and authority, what effect such news had upon +the people. A pilgrim from across the Alps, a peddler, or some poor +vagrant, enters a village huddled at the foot of a hill, on which stands +a great castle where a drunken lord revels with his mistresses, and +recounts to the assembled peasants, serfs, and slaves, how the Holy +Father, in the name of God, had commanded a greater lord, in a greater +castle, to put away his mistress and bring back his wife, and how that +lord had got down on his knees and had done the Holy Father's bidding. + +The second case was the victory of papal authority over the spirit of +nationality in the Church. When the incipient nations of France and +Germany, having separated from the Empire, had begun to be +self-conscious, the spirit of nationality naturally showed itself in +ecclesiastical matters as well as in political matters. There was +obvious likelihood that the nations would govern themselves +ecclesiastically as well as politically. Should they do so, the papal +supremacy would fall just as the Imperial supremacy had fallen, and the +unity of the Church would be shattered just as the Empire had been. Here +was certainly a great danger to the Papacy, and probably a great danger +to Christianity and civilization; at least so Nicholas thought. He +resolved to meet it boldly. His opportunity came when a French (West +Frankish) bishop appealed to Rome against the action of his +metropolitan. The metropolitan objected that there was no precedent for +papal action in such a case; he did not deny that the Pope had certain +appellate functions, but said that if the Pope interfered directly in +the discipline of bishops, the power of the metropolitan would be +impaired. It is needless to say that this argument did not produce the +result that the metropolitan desired. There was nothing the Papacy +wanted more than that its central government should act directly +everywhere, and that all bishops should be dependent upon Rome; that +was the very principle of papal supremacy. The issue would determine +whether the Papacy was to be an autocratic power, or a limited court of +appeal. Nicholas was able to take advantage of the troubled political +situation to enforce direct papal authority, and so added an immense +prerogative to the papal power. + +Apart from this imperial ecclesiastical principle the latter episode is +especially interesting on account of the character of the evidence +produced by the Pope to maintain his position. This evidence consisted +of a new compilation of Church law which appeared somewhat mysteriously +about this time. Theretofore Church law had consisted of a collection of +precepts taken from the Bible, from the early Fathers, from decrees of +Councils, and also of letters, called decretals, written by the bishops +of Rome, but none of these decretals was earlier than the time of +Constantine. The fact, that there were no papal decretals prior to +Constantine, seemed to imply, at least to the sceptically minded, that +papal authority had really begun at the time of Constantine and not at +the time of St. Peter. To the ardent papist such an idea was incredible. +Nicholas now produced a new batch of documents. Among these was the +_Donation of Constantine_, of which I have spoken. Others were papal +decretals, which purported to come from Popes of the third and second +centuries, and to prove that papal jurisdiction over other bishoprics +had been exercised almost as far back as the time of St. Peter. These +new appearing documents placed the Pope not only above kings, but above +metropolitans and provincial synods, and justified Nicholas in acting +directly in the case of the West Frankish bishop, in the King of +Lorraine's matrimonial affairs, and also in assuming to act as +"imperator of the whole world." These documents, known as the _Isidorian +Decretals_, were probably composed by some priest in France, not long +before their use by Nicholas. For six hundred years they were believed +to be genuine, and during that time rendered the Papacy great service by +ranging the sentiment of law throughout Europe (at least until the +revival of Roman law) on the side of the Papacy in its struggle with the +Empire. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY (867-962) + + +These triumphs were due to the brilliant vigour of Pope Nicholas; but +that triumphant position could not last, it was fictitious. The Papacy +needed the support of a strong secular power, and when the Carlovingian +Empire dissolved, it had nothing to rest on, neither genius nor military +force, and fell into deep degradation. + +To illustrate that degradation one episode will suffice; but there must +first be a word of prologue. The Papacy, as has been said, occupied an +anomalous position. From this sprang many troubles. As soon as the +pressure of Imperial authority was removed, the Papacy tended to become +the prize of municipal politics, and different parties in Rome (if the +turbulent mobs may be called so) struggled to get possession of it. One +party, with interests centred on local matters, indifferent to the +greatness of the Papacy and its European character, and willing to have +the Pope a mere local ruler, directed its efforts to getting rid of all +Imperial and foreign control. The opposite party, with conflicting +interests, wished for Imperial control, and constituted a kind of +Imperial party, less from any large views, than in the hope of deriving +advantages from Imperial support. Strife between the two parties was the +normal condition, and often ended in riot and civil war. In this state +of affairs, a certain Pope Formosus (891-896), who belonged to the +Imperial faction, went so far as to invite the German king to come down +to Rome and be crowned Emperor. The king actually came and was crowned, +but accomplished little or nothing, except to arouse bitter hostility in +his enemies. When Formosus died, his successor was elected from the +opposite faction. The new Pope held a synod of cardinals and bishops, +and before them, the highest Christian tribunal in the world, he +summoned, upon the charge of violating the canons of the Church, the +dead Formosus, whose body had lain in its grave, for months. The body +was dug up, dressed in pontifical robes, and propped upon a throne. +Counsel was assigned to it. The accusation was formally read, and the +Pope himself cross-questioned the accused, who was convicted and +deposed. His pontifical acts were pronounced invalid. His robes were +torn from him, the three fingers of the right hand, which in life had +bestowed the episcopal blessing, were hacked off, and the body was +dragged through the streets and flung into the Tiber. + +This incident sheds light on mediæval Rome, and on the character of the +people with whom the Popes had to live. All the Popes, good, bad, and +indifferent, whether they were struggling with the Empire on great +cosmopolitan questions, or were trying to unite Christendom against +Islam, always had to keep watch on the brutal, ignorant, bloody Roman +people, who took no interest in great questions, and were always ready +to rob, burn, and murder with or without a pretext. + +Now that we have brought the Frankish Empire to its dissolution, and the +Papacy to its degradation, we must leave the two wrecks for the moment, +and stop in these dark years at the end of the ninth century to see how +Italy herself has fared. The Italian world was out of joint, +intellectually, morally, politically. There can hardly be said to have +been a government. For a generation the poor, shrunken Empire had been +but a shadow, and when the last Carlovingian died, its parts tumbled +asunder. Local barons ruled everywhere. The Imperial title, which +represented nothing, and conveyed no power, seemed, however, to have +some vital principle of its own, some ghostly virtue; at least sundry +kings and dukes thought so and fought for it; but until the coming of +Otto the Great it remained a shadow. North of the Alps duchies and +provinces united into kingdoms; but the peninsula remained split up into +discordant parts. The valley of the Po was divided into various duchies, +peopled by a mixed race of Latins and Lombards, whom the pressure of the +conquering Franks had welded together. South of the Po lay the Imperial +marquisate of Tuscany. Across the middle of the peninsula stretched the +awkward strip of domain from Ravenna to Rome, inhabited by a race of +comparatively pure Latin blood. This domain, included in the _Donations_ +of Pippin and of Charlemagne, nominally subject to the Papacy under the +suzerainty of the Empire, was really in the possession of petty nobles, +who knew no law except force and craft. South of this so-called papal +domain lay the duchy of Spoleto and the Lombard duchy of Benevento, and +farther south a few principalities, such as Naples, Amalfi, and Salerno, +and finally in the heel and toe of Italy were the last remains of the +Greek Empire. To the northeast, on its islands, lay the little fishing +and trading city, Venice. + +The Italians, as we had better call them now that Barbarian and Latin +blood has well commingled, were in a most unenviable condition. Most of +those who tilled the soil were serfs, and went with the land when it was +sold; some were scarce better than slaves, others were only bound to +render service of certain kinds or on certain days, either with their +own hands or with beasts. Their lot depended on the humours of the +overseers of great estates. Slaves were worse off because they had no +personal rights, but they were always decreasing in number despite a +slave trade, for there was a strong religious sentiment against slavery, +and it was common for dying men to liberate their slaves. In the cities +people were better off, for the artisans were free men, and by banding +together in guilds (which had existed ever since the old Roman days) +secured for themselves a more prosperous condition. But the only +thriving places were the cities of the coast, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, +Amalfi, where trade was already beginning to lay the foundations of +future greatness. + +These glimmerings of commerce were the only lights along the whole +horizon. Everything else seemed to share the blight that had fallen on +the Empire and the Papacy. The clergy, whose duty it was to maintain +learning, failed utterly. Even in the happiest days of the Carlovingian +Empire, Charlemagne had found it necessary to enact blunt rules for +their guidance. "Let the priests, according to the Apostles' advice, +withdraw themselves from revellings and drunkenness; for some of them +are wont to sit up till midnight or later, boozing with their +neighbours; and then these men, who ought to be of a religious and holy +deportment, return to their churches drunken and gorged with food, and +unable to perform the daily and nightly office of praise to God, while +others sink down in a drunken sleep in the place of their revels.... Let +no priest presume to store provisions or hay in the church."[6] +Learning, supposed to be committed to their charge, went out like a +spent candle. Books were almost forgotten, except perhaps here and +there, in Pavia or Verona, where a grammarian still invoked Virgil to +prosper his muse; or where in an episcopal city, like Ravenna, some +chronicler wrote a history of the bishopric. The theory of historic +truth on which these chroniclers acted gives an inkling of the mediæval +attitude towards facts. Father Agnello, a priest of Ravenna, one of +these chroniclers, says himself: "If you, who read this History of our +Bishopric, shall come to a passage and say, 'Why didn't he narrate the +facts about this bishop as he did about his predecessors,' listen to the +reason. I, Andrea Agnello, a humble priest of this holy church of +Ravenna, have written the history of this Bishopric from the time of St. +Apollinaris for eight hundred years and more, because my brethren here +have begged me and compelled me. I have put down whatever I found the +Bishops had undoubtedly done, and whatever I heard from the oldest men +living, but where I could not find any historical account, nor anything +about their lives in any way, then, in order to leave no blanks in the +holy succession of bishops, I have made up the missing lives by the help +of God, through your prayers, and I believe I have said nothing untrue, +because those bishops were pious and pure and charitable and winners of +souls for God."[7] + +The monks were no better than the secular clergy. The monasteries had +grown large, for many men had joined in order to escape military +service, or to obtain personal security, or an easier life, or greater +social consideration; they had also grown rich, for many sinners on +their deathbeds had given large sums, in hope to compound for their +sins. Naturally monastic vows were often broken. Moreover, the little +good that monks and priests did they undid by their encouragement of +superstition. They first frightened the poor peasants out of their wits +by portraying the horrors of hell, and then preached the magical +properties of the sacraments and of saints' bones, until the ordinary +man, feeling himself the sport of superhuman agencies, abandoned all +self-confidence and surrendered himself to priestly control as his sole +hope of safety in this world or the next. + +Oppressed by anarchy, by division, by a degenerate church, by a gross +clergy, and by waxing ignorance, Italy might seem to have had its cup +of evil full. There was but one further ill that could be added, a new +Barbarian invasion. It came. The triumphant Saracens, having overrun +Spain and raided France in the west, having cooped up the Byzantine +Empire in the east, now threatened to plant their victorious banners in +the very heart of Christendom. As early as Charlemagne's last years they +sacked a coast town scarce forty miles from Rome. In 827 they invaded +Sicily, invited by a partisan traitor. Within ten years they had made +themselves masters of almost all the island, except a few strongholds +which managed to hold out for half a century. The beaten Byzantines +retired to the mainland; but they did not get beyond the reach of the +victorious Saracens, who raided all the Italian coast as far as the +Tiber. Troops of marauders hovered round Rome and harried the +country-side, robbing and pillaging at will. One band advanced to the +very gates of the city, and sacked St. Peter's and St. Paul's, both +outside the walls and undefended (846). All the southern provinces were +overrun, half of their towns became Saracen fortresses. It seemed as if +Italy were to undergo the fate of Spain and become a Mohammedan Emirate. + +The danger to Rome roused the country. A Christian league was effected +between the Imperial forces in Italy, the Pope, and the coast cities of +the south,--Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi. Pope Leo himself blessed the +fleet, and the Christians beat the infidels in a great sea-fight not far +from the Tiber's mouth (849). Some of the prisoners were brought to Rome +and set to work on the walls which Pope Leo was building round the +Vatican hill to protect St. Peter's; and Rome, imitating the days of +Scipio Africanus, celebrated another triumph over Africa. The fighting +was kept up all over the south. The Greek Emperor made common cause with +his fellow Christians, and the immediate danger of conquest was +arrested; but throughout this dismal ninth century, and all the tenth, +southern Italy continued to suffer from Saracen marauders. The tales +told of their cruelty are fearful, and match our tales of Indian raids +in the old French-English war. Separate villages and lonely monasteries +suffered most. Some good came out of the evil, however, for the +chroniclers relate how the abbots and their terrified brethren spent +days and nights fasting and in prayer. + +Such was the condition of Italy when the Imperial Carlovingian line came +to an end. The omnipresence of anarchy was a permanent argument for the +need of an Imperial restoration. But the country did not know how to go +to work to restore the Empire. At first various claimants asserted +various titles, and Italian dukes and neighbouring kings fought one +another like bulls, but none were able to establish any stable power. In +the midst of these ineffectual struggles one real effort was made. +Arnulf, king of the Germans, who regarded himself as the true successor +of the great Frankish house and of right Imperial heir, marched down +into Italy at the invitation of Pope Formosus, as we have seen, and +assumed the Imperial crown (896). The expedition was barren of +consequences, but it gives us another glimpse of the anomalous nature of +the Papacy, and the different views entertained of it on the two sides +of the Alps. The German king wished to be Emperor, and felt that an +Imperial coronation at Rome by the Pope was essential. To him and to his +German subjects the papal invitation was of high authority. When he +reached Rome, however, the seat of the Papacy, he found the gates barred +and the walls manned by rebellious citizens, who had locked the Pope in +the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and had seized the government of the city. +Arnulf easily carried the defences by storm and liberated the Pope. The +incident illustrates the contrast between Teutonic respect and Roman +disobedience, and describes the papal situation as it was half the time +throughout the Middle Ages. Honoured and reverenced by the pious +ultramontanes, the Popes were insulted, robbed, imprisoned, and deposed +by their immediate subjects. This local disobedience, or, as it should +be called, Roman republicanism, was often the insignificant cause of +papal actions of far-reaching effect. The Popes were never strong enough +of themselves to suppress these republican sentiments and ambitions; +they needed support from some power, Italian or foreign. As they would +not endure the idea of an Italian kingdom, they adopted the alternative +of calling in a foreign power. This was the constant papal policy. + +Another instance of Roman republicanism, or disobedience (as one +chooses), throws further light on the nature of this thorn in the papal +side. Not long after Arnulf's expedition, two women, Theodora and +Marozia, mother and daughter, played a great part not only in Roman but +also in Italian politics. These two women ruled the city and appointed +the Popes. They were bold, comely, much-marrying women, choosing +eligible husbands almost by force; both were wholly Roman in the +fierceness, vigour, and sensuality of their characters. They were very +capable, and, in part directly, in part through their husbands and +others, exercised control for some thirty years; and when the daughter +disappeared from history, her son, Alberic, took the title, Prince and +Senator of all the Romans, and ruled in her stead. + +Thus the last hope of Italians helping themselves perished; for if the +Papacy was powerless, there was no help elsewhere in Italy. The +usurpation of these viragoes and of Alberic differs in details from the +usurpation of the later republicans, and of the Colonna, Orsini, and +other barons, who shall appear hereafter in papal history, but for +general effect on papal affairs and through them on European affairs, +all these usurpations were very similar. The usurpers, in diverse +characters, represent that third player in the fencing match, who, +though by no means an ally of the Empire, frequently rushed in and +struck up the Pope's guard, and continued to interfere for hundreds of +years, until the Popes of the Renaissance finally established their +temporal power in the city of Rome. + +By the middle of the tenth century the disintegration of Italy had +become so bad that it caused its own cure. It was obvious that something +must be done. The Saracens, strongly established in Sicily, were a +standing menace towards the south. From the north wild bands of +Hungarians burst across the Alps and harried the land in barbaric raids +as far as Rome. Feudal anarchy prevailed everywhere. Monks and clergy +were, to say the least, no help. Even the Papacy, the only stable power, +had become the appanage of a Roman family. There was but one way out of +this chaos. The Roman Empire must be restored. The Latin people never +believed that it was extinct but merely lying latent, requiring some +happy application of might and right to set it going again on its +majestic course. Charlemagne, in his day, had supplied the might. That +might had faded away. Where was its substitute to be found? Pope +Formosus and King Arnulf had already suggested the only possible +answer,--in the eastern portion of the Frankish Empire, the kingdom of +Germany. That kingdom, composed of the great duchies of Bavaria, Swabia, +Franconia, Saxony, and Lorraine, had become tolerably compact; it was +strong at home, and was eager for glory and power abroad. Its ambitious +king, Otto, of the Saxon line, was the man to undertake to follow +Charlemagne's example. It was too late to hope to restore the +Carlovingian Empire in its former boundaries, but with Germany to give +strength and Rome to contribute title, there would be the two necessary +elements for a renewal of the Roman Empire. + +The immediate pretext of Otto's coming down into Italy was highly +romantic. A lovely lady, the widow of one Italian pretender to the +throne of Italy, was pestered with offers of marriage from another +pretender. She refused, and was locked up in a tower by the Lake of +Garda, where memories of Catullus and Lesbia still faintly lingered. She +contrived to escape, and sent piteous messages for help to the great +Otto, then a widower. Discontented factions in the north, and others +suffering from oppression, including the Pope who had been rudely roused +to the need of Imperial support, also sent messengers asking him to +come. Otto came, took Pavia, and acted as King of Italy. He married the +lovely widow, and wished to go to Rome to receive the Imperial crown; +but Alberic, lord of Rome, would not give permission. Otto went back to +Germany and bided his time. In ten years Alberic died leaving a young +son, who, although only seventeen years old, inherited enough of his +father's power to get himself elected Pope, John XII. Pope John, +however, found himself encompassed by powerful enemies both in Rome and +out. He too was obliged to recognize the absolute necessity of Imperial +restoration, and called upon Otto for aid. The German king came, and was +crowned by the Pope, Emperor of the Romans, in St. Peter's basilica, on +the second day of February, 962. This coronation was the beginning of a +new phase in the Roman Empire. In this phase that Empire is known as the +Holy Roman Empire, although it was merely a union of Germany, Italy, and +Burgundy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _Italy and her Invaders_, Hodgkin, vol. viii, p. 289. + +[7] _Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte_, Balzani +(translated). + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY (962-1056) + + +This Roman Empire (it did not receive its full title of Holy Roman +Empire until later) deserved the name Roman because it rested on the +Roman tradition of the political unity of the civilized world. This +tradition, by means of the ecclesiastical unity of Europe, had survived +the Barbarian invasions, had gained strength through Charlemagne's +Empire, and now joined together two nations so fundamentally different +as Germany and Italy. The Germans were big blond men, beer-drinkers, +huge eaters, rough, ill-mannered, arrogant, phlegmatic and brave; the +Italians were little, dark-skinned men, wine-drinkers, lettuce-eaters, +with pleasant manners, gesticulating, excitable, and unwarlike. Their +union affords the strongest testimony to the strength of the Roman +tradition. This ill-assorted pair, married in obedience to the will of +dead generations, could not live together in peace. The theory of a +world conjointly ruled by a supreme secular sovereign and a supreme +ecclesiastical sovereign could not be put into successful practice. The +Empire was German, the Papacy Italian, and by their very natures they +were antagonistic. + +Otto's empire was by no means universal, but its suzerainty was +acknowledged by Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, perhaps by Hungary, +and sometimes by France; and therefore, as eastern Europe was either +Greek or barbarian, Britain an island, and Spain practically Mohammedan, +it sustained fairly well the idea of a universal (_i. e._, European) +empire. The essential parts were Germany to give strength, and Italy to +give title and tradition. In theory the process of royal and Imperial +election and coronation was as follows. The German electors (the greater +nobles), whose number was not limited to seven for two centuries and +more, elected a king, who was crowned with a silver crown at Aachen, +and, by virtue of his coronation, received the title, King of the +Romans. This king then took the iron crown of Lombardy at Pavia, and +became King of Italy; and, when he received the gold Imperial crown from +the Pope at Rome, became Emperor. The election of the son of the late +Emperor to succeed was the custom, but was not obligatory. Germany was +not a strongly centralized state, but was composed of several dukedoms, +which often fell out among themselves. Italy was still less a political +unit. It had no marks of nationality, except its geographical position, +its ancient tradition, and a tardily forming language; but even this +_lingua volgare_, which in Otto's time began to have an Italian sound, +and to touch the degenerate written Latin with an Italian look, did not +prevail throughout the peninsula. In the south Greek was still spoken, +and the Holy Roman Empire never had more than the shadow of a title +south of Benevento till after Barbarossa's time. The Emperor's authority +rested at bottom on the German military power; and as this depended on +the obedience of wayward and jealous dukedoms, it was uncertain and +intermittent. + +The Papacy was far more stable, for fundamentally it was a moral power, +and got its energy from men's consciences. It was far better organized +than the Empire. The ecclesiastical system spread all over Europe, into +every city, village, hamlet, and monastery; countries which reluctantly +acknowledged the suzerainty of the Empire, bowed unquestioningly to +papal rule. Moreover, the power of the Papacy did not merely consist in +spiritual weapons, terrible as the ban of excommunication was in those +days, but also in its ability to raise up enemies against its enemy, and +to put the cloak of piety over war and rebellion. + +The ironical element in the situation was that the Empire itself lifted +the Papacy to the position in which it was able to turn and defy the +Empire, fight it, and finally destroy it. The Emperors, who entertained +no doubts that the Papacy was subject to them, that they were +responsible for its conduct and must secure the election of worthy +Popes, took the Papacy out of the hands of the Roman faction, purified +it, and appointed honest, capable, upright Popes. + +A contemporary account of Otto's dealings with that young scamp, Pope +John XII, who in morals resembled his grandmother, Marozia, gives a good +picture of the nature of the benefits which the Empire conferred on the +Papacy: "While these things were taking place, the constellation of +Cancer, hot from the enkindling rays of Phoebus, kept the Emperor +away from the hills around Rome, but when the constellation of Virgo +returning brought back the pleasant season he went to Rome upon a secret +invitation from the Romans. But why should I say _secret_ when the +greater part of the nobility burst into the Castle of St. Paul and +invited the holy Emperor, and even gave hostages? The citizens received +the holy Emperor and all his men within the city, promised allegiance, +and took an oath that they would never elect a Pope, nor consecrate him, +without the consent and the sanction of the Lord Emperor Otto, Cæsar, +Augustus, and of his son, King Otto. + +"Three days later, at the request of the Roman bishops and people, there +was a great meeting in St. Peter's Church, and with the Emperor sat the +archbishops of Aquileia, Milan, and Ravenna, the archbishop of Saxony +[and many other Italian and German prelates]. When they were seated, and +silence made, the holy Emperor got up and said: 'How fit it would be +that in this distinguished and holy council our lord Pope John should be +present! But since he has refused to be of your company, we ask your +counsel, holy fathers, for you have the same interest as he.' Then the +Roman prelates, cardinals, priests, and deacons, and all the people +cried out: 'We are surprised that your reverend prudence should wish to +make us investigate that which is not hidden from the Iberians, the +Babylonians, nor the Indians. He [the Pope] is no longer one of that +kind, which come in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves; +he rages so openly, does his diabolical misdeeds so manifestly, that we +need not beat about the bush.' The Emperor answered: 'We deem it just +that the accusations should be stated one by one, and after that we will +take counsel together of what we ought to do.' + +"Then Cardinal-priest Peter got up, and testified that he had seen the +Pope celebrate mass without communion. John, bishop of Narni, and John, +cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him ordain a deacon in a +stable, and not at the proper hour. Cardinal-deacon Benedict, with other +priests and deacons, said that they knew that he ordained bishops for +money, and that in the city of Todi he had ordained as bishop a boy ten +years old. They said it was not necessary to go into his sacrileges +because they had seen more such than could be reckoned. They said in +regard to his adulteries.... They said that he had publicly gone +a-hunting; that he had put out the eyes of his spiritual father, +Benedict, who died soon after in consequence; that he had mutilated and +killed John, cardinal-subdeacon; and they testified that he had set +buildings on fire, armed with helmet and breastplate, and girt with a +sword. All, priests and laymen, cried out that he had drunk a toast to +the devil. They said that while playing dice he had invoked the aid of +Jupiter, Venus, and other demons. They declared that he had not +celebrated matins, nor observed the canonical hours, and that he did not +cross himself. + +"When the Emperor had heard all this, he bade me, Liutprand, bishop of +Cremona, interpret to the Romans, because they could not understand his +Saxon. Then he got up and said: 'It often happens, and we believe it +from our experience, that men in great place are slandered by the +envious, for a good man is disliked by bad men just as a bad man is +disliked by good men. And for this reason we entertain some doubts +concerning this accusation against the Pope, which Cardinal-deacon +Benedict has just read and made before you, uncertain whether it springs +from zeal for justice or from envy and impiety. Therefore with the +authority of the dignity granted to me, though unworthy, I beseech you +by that God, whom no man can deceive howsoever he may wish, and by His +holy mother, the Virgin Mary, and by the most precious body of the +prince of the Apostles, in whose Church we now are, that no accusation +be cast at our lord the Pope of faults which he has not committed and +which have not been seen by the most trustworthy men.'" The accusers +affirmed their charges on oath. Then the holy Synod said: "If it please +the holy Emperor let letters be sent to our lord the Pope, bidding him +come and clear himself of these charges." The wary John did not come, +but wrote: "I, Bishop John, servant of the servants of God, to all the +bishops. We have heard that you propose to elect another Pope. If you do +that, I excommunicate you in the name of Almighty God so that you shall +not have the right to ordain anybody, nor to celebrate mass."[8] +Nevertheless, John was deposed and a good Pope put in his stead. + +Otto's successors, one after the other, followed his example, and +treated the Papacy as if it had been a German bishopric. The Emperors, +however, had work to do north of the Alps, and did not spend much time +in Rome, except Otto III, a romantic dreamer, who wished to live there; +and during their absence the turbulent Roman anti-imperial faction used +to seize the Papacy, just as Alberic had done, and put up worthless +Popes. In spite of them the Emperors' Popes raised the Papacy so high +that, as a matter of course, it became the head of the great +ecclesiastical reform movement which swept over Europe in the eleventh +century, and from that movement drew in so much force and energy that it +became the greatest power in Europe, and was enabled finally to +overthrow the Empire. + +This tide of reform arose at Cluny, a little place in Burgundy, and +began as a monastic reform. All over Christendom monasteries had grown +rich and prosperous; many monks had forsaken Benedict's rule, had broken +their vows and lived with wives and children upon revenues intended for +other purposes. Other monks hated this evil conduct, and burning with a +passionate desire to stop it, started a great movement of monastic +reform. The reform was ascetic in character, as a moral emotion in those +days was bound to be. The first reformers gathered at Cluny, about the +beginning of the tenth century. From there disciples went far and wide, +purging old monasteries and founding new. After a time the reformers +passed beyond the early stage of mere moral revolt against godless +living, formed a party, and put forward a creed. The party represented +antagonism to the world, pitted saints against sinners, the Church +against the State. The creed had three tenets. No ecclesiasts should +marry, and married men upon ordination should live apart from their +wives. No bribery, no corrupt bargain, should taint the appointment and +installation of clergy, high or low. No layman should meddle with the +entry of bishops upon their episcopal office. These three tenets roused +bitter opposition. Celibacy of the clergy had been a rule of Church +discipline since early days, and from time to time efforts had been made +to enforce the practice, but it had fallen into general disregard. A +celibate clergy, with no affections or interests nearer or dearer than +the Church, would be a tremendous ecclesiastical force, and far-sighted +Popes always sought to enforce the rule. Necessarily the married clergy +and many clerical bachelors were violent in opposition. The article +against simony nobody openly gainsaid; but many bishops and abbots had +obtained their offices by corrupt practices, and many nobles looked +forward to rich livings and high ecclesiastical places; both classes +opposed a change. The third article, against lay investiture of bishops, +which was to be the cause of deadly war between Empire and Papacy, was a +logical conclusion from the article against simony; for it was hard to +suppose that in the appointment of bishops, kings and princes would +disregard all worldly motives and appoint men solely for the good of +souls. On the other hand, the great bishoprics and abbeys were among the +most important fiefs in a king's gift, and carried with them feudal +privileges of sovereignty, such as rights of coinage, toll, holding +courts, etc.; in short, they were mere secular fiefs with ecclesiastical +prerogatives added. It was natural that the German Emperors should claim +the right to appoint and invest these spiritual barons, and insist that +their episcopal territories should be subject to the same feudal +obligations and the same civic duties as the territories granted to lay +barons. This third article was a direct attack on the civil power. If +all Imperial participation were to be stricken out, and bishops put into +possession of their fiefs solely by the Pope, then vast territories, +estimated to be nearly half the Empire, would be withdrawn from civic +obligations, even from military service, and the Pope, ousting the +Emperor, would become monarch of half the Imperial domains. According to +the canons of the Church, the clergy and the people of the diocese +elected the bishop, and the Church bestowed on him ring and staff, the +signs of episcopal office. The trouble arose over the fief. In feudal +times the kings had enfeoffed bishops with great fiefs in order to +counterbalance the insubordinate secular lords, and because, in +episcopal hands, these fiefs did not become hereditary. When the +reformers took the matter up, they found that in practice the kings did +not wait for a canonical election of episcopal candidates, but invested +their henchmen in return for money or some service which had no savour +of sanctity. The episcopal office, as St. Peter Damian complained, was +got "by flattering the king, studying his inclination, obeying his beck, +applauding every word that fell from his mouth, by acting the parasite +and playing the buffoon." The real difficulty lay in the double nature +of the episcopal office, half ecclesiastical and half feudal; and, like +other great political difficulties, would not yield to a peaceful +solution, until there had been a trial of strength between the +discordant interests. + +The first consequence, however, of the reforming spirit was to ennoble +the whole Church, to purify her members, and animate them with a common +zeal, and to uplift her head, the Papacy. It carried on, in a larger way +and with a greater sweep, the work of ecclesiastical reformation begun +by the intervention of the Emperors in the election of Popes, and gave a +loftier tone to European politics. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] _Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte_, Balzani, p. 123. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES (1059-1123) + + +The struggle over the lay investiture of bishops did not arise at first. +The Papacy was still a dependent bishopric in the gift of the Emperors, +who continued to depose bad Roman Popes and appoint upright Germans. +Popes and Emperors worked together to enforce celibacy among the clergy +and to put down simony. The Emperors could not see, what is evident in +retrospect, that when the spirit of reform should have taken full +possession of the Papacy, then the Papacy would not rest content to be a +German bishopric, but, in obedience to the law which links political +ambition to political vigour, would even aim so high as to try to reduce +the Empire itself to the condition of a papal fief. The spirit of +reform, embodied in a man of genius, did take possession of the Papacy +and the great struggle began. + +Among the crowd that thronged to Cluny eager for a higher life, was a +young Tuscan from Orvieto, Hildebrand by name, of plebeian birth. Small +of stature, vehement in spirit, passionate in feeling and action, he was +confident in himself and yet sensitive to sympathy. This lad became an +eager scholar, but in spite of erudition and fondness for study, he was +essentially a man of action, a born leader of men. "What he taught by +word he proved by example." He believed absolutely in the tenets of the +reformers. He believed with his whole being that the Church was a divine +institution to save men's souls, and he could not endure the idea of +secular powers and worldly influences intermeddling with God's fabric. +His career exhibits the power of a man of genius, who devotes his whole +life to what for him is the highest end, and is able to use human +enthusiasm for good as his implement. + +Hildebrand has been called the Julius Cæsar of the Papacy. He went to +Rome about 1048. From that time papal policy became definite, vigorous, +stamped with an antique Roman stamp; and open conflict with the Empire +was the inevitable result. Hildebrand's first care was to protect the +Papacy from the petty-minded Roman faction; he supported papal +candidates of high character and even secured the appointment of a +German, sagaciously foreseeing that ecclesiastical patriotism would be +stronger than national patriotism. These Popes put Hildebrand's views +into execution. + +Now that the Papacy had been rescued from the Roman faction, the next +step was to free it from the Egyptian bondage of subjection to the +Empire. Hildebrand was ready to strike whenever a fair opportunity +should come. It soon came. The Emperor died, leaving his son Henry IV, a +little boy, his successor on the German throne and heir to the Empire. A +long minority seemed to reveal the hand of Providence. Hildebrand acted. +It had long been obvious that one cause of papal subjection to Roman +faction and Imperial tyrant had been the uncertainty of the electoral +body. Emperors, Roman nobles, and Roman rabble, all had certain historic +electoral rights. Hildebrand resolved to dispossess them all. A synod +was held, which declared that the election of the Pope lay in the hands +of the cardinals (1059). Some right of approval was left to the Roman +people, some right of sanction to the Emperor, but the right of original +election was vested in the cardinals, and this gradually developed into +an absolute and exclusive right of election. This act was an act of +rebellion towards the Empire, a declaration of independence. Hildebrand +said that he strove to make the Church "free, pure, and catholic." This +action made it free. + +It was not to be expected that the Empire would acquiesce tamely in this +rebellion. Imperialists and Romans made common cause against the +clerical rebels. But the height of the conflict was not reached till +Hildebrand himself was elevated to the Papacy (1073), becoming Gregory +VII. He immediately took the offensive. Burning with conviction himself, +he appealed to the general enthusiasm both in the Church and throughout +the Empire for the cause of God; he ruthlessly denounced simony and +proclaimed principles of papal sovereignty absolute and universal. "The +Roman Church was founded by God alone; she never has erred and never +will err, and no man is a Catholic who is not at peace with her. The +Roman bishop alone is universal. He may depose bishops and reinstate +them, he may transfer them from one see to another, he may depose +emperors, and may absolve the subjects of the unjust from their +allegiance. No synod without his consent is general; no episcopal +chapter, no book, canonical without his authority. No man may sit in +judgment on his decrees, but he may judge the decrees of all." Here +certainly was a second Julius Cæsar in ambition. Gregory claimed feudal +supremacy over Bohemia, Russia, Hungary, Spain, Corsica, Sardinia, +Dalmatia, Croatia, Poland, Scandinavia, and England. Such claims were +vague and shadowy; but the claims to interfere between the German king +and the German episcopate and clergy were definite and direct. The +Papacy declared its own supremacy, and the Imperial duty of obedience. + +Gregory had immense moral support at his back, yet moral support would +not have sufficed to protect him from the king's anger. Nor would +Gregory have ventured on so haughty a course, had he not had allies of +another character. These allies were four in number, and require some +description. First in importance come the Normans. For years bands of +Norman warriors, pious folk, had passed through Southern Italy on their +way to the Holy Land. Once a handful had helped a prince of Salerno to +repel a Saracen attack. The prince, so the story goes, delighted with +their valour, begged them to invite their compatriots to come. The +invitation was readily accepted. Bands of gentlemen adventurers came, +fought against Saracens, or Greeks, or the independent dukes and princes +of Southern Italy, first as mercenaries in anybody's pay, and afterwards +on their own account. They soon conquered a domain, and reached out in +all directions. Some drove out the last Byzantines and acquired Southern +Italy; some crossed to Sicily, performed prodigies of valour against the +Saracens, and finally conquered the whole island (1060-90). In their +raids northward they trespassed upon papal territory and came into +collision with the Church. St. Peter's sword was drawn and brandished, +but ineffectually. The Popes then concluded that martial deeds did not +become them; and the Normans, on their part, were pious folk; so +together they formed a happy solution. The Normans had possession of +Southern Italy and Sicily, but merely by right of conquest; they were in +the midst of an alien and far more numerous subject people, and wished +for a legal title. The Popes, unable to acquire actual possession, did +have, thanks to the _Donation of Constantine_, a legal title, derived, +so they claimed, from the original source of legal titles, the Roman +Empire. The mode of agreement was obvious; the Popes conferred Southern +Italy and Sicily as feuds upon their liegemen the Norman chiefs, and +they in return acknowledged the Popes as their lords suzerain. In this +manner, "by the grace of God and St. Peter," the Normans founded the +kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which for centuries after the Norman line +died out continued to acknowledge the overlordship of the Papacy. The +Normans were often disobedient vassals, but they knew that the Empire +regarded them as robbers, and in the wars between Empire and Papacy +remained loyal to their lords the Popes. + +The second papal ally was Countess Matilda (1046-1115), mistress of the +Marquisate of Tuscany and other domains, which stretched from the papal +boundaries up across the Po to Lombardy, and like her mother, her +predecessor in title, a brave, capable, devout woman. As the Normans +were a defence to the Papacy on the south, so these ladies constituted a +bulwark on the north, and often rendered incalculable service to the +Popes of this period. Matilda's devotion to Gregory was boundless. "Like +a second Martha, she ministered unto him, and as Mary hearkened unto +Christ, so did she, attentive and assiduous, hearken to all the words of +the Holy Father." She and her mother make clear one source of papal +strength. They show us the attitude of the women, who, from sentiments +of morality, piety, and superstition, took the religious side of the +quarrel, and did not rest till fathers, brothers, husbands, and lovers +had also espoused it. One act of feminine devotion fixes Matilda in the +memory. Her domains consisted of marquisates, counties, baronies, and +various feudal estates, held as feuds of the Empire, over which on her +death she had no power of disposition, and also of large private +estates, which she was free to give or devise. All these, Imperial feuds +and private estates, she gave or rather attempted to give to the Church. +This _Donation_, the most important since that of Charlemagne, gave +fresh causes of quarrel between Papacy and Empire. The Papacy attempted +to make good its claim to the Imperial feuds; and the Empire, finding it +impossible to discover the boundaries between the two species of +territories, also claimed the whole. + +The third papal ally is to be found in the cities of Lombardy, which had +now become rich and important. In these cities, especially in Milan, +which was easily first commercially and politically, trade had created a +burgher class which already gave evidence of a desire for political +power. In Milan itself there was extreme political instability; +archbishop, nobles, gentry, artisans, and populace were all ready for a +general scrimmage on the slightest provocation. The clergy were numerous +and very rich; sons of noblemen held the fat benefices, and almost all +led irreligious lives and held celibacy in the meanest esteem. Simony +was the rule. In Hildebrand's time the passion for religious reform +swept over the lower classes of the city. A new sect arose, the Patarini +(ragamuffins), a species of Puritans, who took up the cry against +clerical laxity and immorality, and denounced married priests. Religious +excitement set fire to social and economic discontent; populace and +nobles flew to arms; there were riots and civil war. Several eminent +men, close friends of Hildebrand, became popular leaders; and the +contest of people and Patarini against nobles and married clergy became +an episode in the general strife between Papal and Imperial parties. +Similar tumults, caused half by class enmity, half by the passion for +religious reform, took place in other northern cities, Cremona, +Piacenza, Pavia, Padua; on one side was the party of aristocratic +privilege, looking to the Emperor for support; on the other, the party +of the people, looking to the Pope. + +Gregory's fourth ally was the rebellious nobility of Germany. Had +Germany been united and loyal, the German king would easily have been +able to assert his power in Italy; but Germany was disloyal and divided. +Archbishops of the great archbishoprics, dukes of the great duchies, +bishops, counts, and lords, in fact, all the component parts of the +feudal structure of Germany, were jealous of one another; each grudged +the other his possessions, and were in accord only in jealousy of the +royal power. There were always some barons or bishops thankful to have +the Pope's name and the Pope's aid in a rebellious design. These +animosities the Papacy through its thousand hands diligently fomented. + +Ranged against Gregory and his allies were the loyal parts of Germany, +the Imperial adherents in Italy, the married clergy everywhere, and all +whom Gregory's reforms had angered and estranged. At their head was a +dissipated young king, of high spirit, headstrong, ignorant, and +superstitious, who entertained lofty notions of his royal and Imperial +prerogatives. The characters of these two men would have brought them +into collision, even if the irreconcilable natures of Empire and Papacy +had not rendered a clash inevitable. + +Gregory, almost immediately after his elevation to the pontificate, held +a council and denounced simony, marriage of the clergy, and lay +investiture. The king, who believed in the existing system, continued to +exercise what he deemed his royal rights with a view to improving his +political position. Gregory held a second council and utterly forbade +lay investiture. Henry continued to disobey. Then Gregory wrote to him +that he must renounce the claim of investiture, and humbly present +himself in person before the papal presence and beg absolution for his +sins; or, if he should fail to obey, Gregory would excommunicate him. +Henry and his party, now very angry, retorted by holding a German synod, +which charged Gregory with all sorts of offences, moral, ecclesiastical, +and political, absolved both king and bishops from their papal +allegiance, and, finally, deposed the Pope. Henry himself wrote Gregory +this letter:-- + +"Henry, not by usurpation, but by God's holy will. King, to Hildebrand, +no longer Pope, but false monk:-- + +"This greeting you have deserved from the confusion you have caused, for +in every rank of the Church you have brought confusion instead of +honour, a curse instead of a blessing. Out of much I shall say but a +little; you have not only not feared to touch the rulers of the Holy +Church, archbishops, bishops, priests, God's anointed, but as if they +were slaves, you have trampled them down under your feet. By trampling +them down you have got favour from the vulgar mouth. You have decided +that they know nothing, and that you alone know everything, and you have +studied to use your knowledge not to build up but to destroy.... We have +borne all this and have striven to maintain the honour of the Apostolic +See. But you have construed our humility as fear, and for that reason +you have not feared to rise up against our royal power, and have even +dared to threaten that you would take it from us; as if we had received +our kingdom from you, as if kingdom and empire were in your hands and +not in God's. Our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to the kingdom, but +not you to the priesthood. You have mounted by these steps; by +craft--abominable in a monk--you have come into money, by money to +favour, by favour to the sword, by the sword to the seat of peace; and +from the seat of peace you have confounded peace. You have armed +subjects against those over them; you, the unelect, have held our +bishops, elect of God, up to contempt.... Me, even, who though unworthy +am the anointed king, you have touched, and although the holy fathers +have taught that a king may be judged by God only, and for no offence +except deviation from the faith--which God forbid--you have asserted +that I should be deposed; when even Julian the Apostate was left by the +wisdom of the holy fathers to be judged and deposed by God only. That +true Pope, blessed Peter, says: 'Fear God, honour the king.' But you do +not fear God and you dishonour me appointed by Him. And blessed Paul, +who did not spare an angel from heaven who should preach other doctrine, +did not except you, here on earth, who now teach other doctrine. For he +says, 'But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel +unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be +accursed.' You therefore by Paul anathematized, by the judgment of all +our bishops and by mine condemned, come down, leave the apostolic seat +which you have usurped; let another mount the throne of blessed Peter, +who shall not cloak violence with religion, but shall teach the sound +doctrine of blessed Peter. I, Henry, King by God's grace, and all our +bishops, say to you, Down, down, you damned forever."[9] + +To the action of the German synod and to this letter there could be but +one answer. Gregory held a synod, excommunicated the king, and released +his subjects from their allegiance. The Germans rose in rebellion, +taking the excommunication as a ground or perhaps as a pretext; they +held a great council in presence of a papal legate, and decided that +they would renounce their allegiance unless the king obtained +absolution. The king, too weak to cope with the rebels, submitted. He +crossed the Alps with his wife and one or two servants, in midwinter, +and came to the fortress of Canossa, near Parma, a stronghold belonging +to the Countess Matilda, whither Gregory had gone. For three days the +king stood outside the gates, dressed as a penitent, and begged for +leave to present himself before the Pope. At last, owing to the +entreaties of Matilda, the king was admitted. He cast himself upon the +ground before Gregory, who lifted him up and bade him submit to the +ordeal of the eucharist. Gregory took the consecrated wafer and said, +"If I am guilty of the crimes charged against me, may God strike me." He +broke and ate; then turning to Henry, said, "Do thou, my son, as I have +done." The king did not dare to invoke the judgment of God; he humbled +himself, resigned his crown into Gregory's hands, and swore to remain a +private person until he should be judged by a council. He was then +absolved (1077). + +Various events followed this terrible humiliation. The German rebels set +up an anti-king, and the king's men set up an anti-pope, and there was +war and hatred everywhere. The king's energy triumphed for a time; he +even captured Rome, and had it not been for a Norman army, which came to +the Pope's rescue, he would have captured Gregory, too. But, despite +royal triumphs the scene at Canossa had struck the majesty of the Empire +an irretrievable blow; the king of the Germans, Emperor except for a +coronation, had admitted in a most dramatic way, before all Europe, the +inferiority of the temporal to the spiritual power. + +Gregory died in exile at Salerno, Henry died deposed by his rebellious +son; and the question of lay investiture still remained unsettled. More +deeds of violence were done, more oaths broken, more lives taken; at +last an agreement was reached and the long contest closed. Papacy and +Empire made a treaty of peace, known as the Concordat of Worms (1122). +The Emperor renounced all claim to invest bishops with ring and staff, +and recognized the freedom of election and of ordination of the clergy, +thus giving up all claim to appoint bishops and other ecclesiastical +dignitaries. The Pope agreed that the election of bishops should take +place in presence of the Emperor or his representative, and that bishops +should receive their fiefs in a separate ceremony, by touch of the royal +sceptre, in token of holding them from the Empire. This compromise, +which seems absurdly simple, as settled questions often do, was a final +adjustment of the immediate quarrel between Empire and Papacy, but left +the larger matter of mastery still to be fought out. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] _Select Mediæval Documents_, Shailer Mathews, translated. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM (1152-1190) + + +The last chapter dealt with the struggle between the two great mediæval +institutions, the Empire and the Papacy. This deals with the contest +between the Empire, representing the feudal system, and a new social +force, the spirit of trade, represented by the Lombard cities. Naturally +the Papacy joined in the fray and sided with the Lombard cities; and, +before the end, all Italy was divided into two great parties designated +by terms derived from Germany: Guelfs, which indicated those opposed to +the Empire, and Ghibellines, which indicated friends to the Empire. But +the particular issue here fought out was that between feudalism and +trade, and the triumph of trade indicates the close of the Middle Ages. + +The Emperor Frederick I (1152-90) of the great house of Hohenstaufen is +the hero of this period. He was a noble specimen of the knight of the +Middle Ages, such as Sir Walter Scott conceived a knight to be. He had a +bright, open countenance, fair hair, that curled a little on his +forehead, and a red beard (Barbarossa) which impressed the Italian +imagination. Valiant, resolute, energetic, bountiful in almsgiving, +attentive to religious duties, he was a kind friend and a stern enemy. +To his misfortune he was born too late; he belonged to a chivalric +generation out of place in a world which had begun to deem buying and +selling matters of greater consequence than chivalry and crusades. He +thought himself entitled to all the Imperial rights that had been +exercised by the Ottos; and, measuring his own prerogatives by their +standard, resolved to make good the deficiencies of his immediate +predecessors, who for one reason or another had neglected to assert +those prerogatives in their plenitude. Barbarossa's situation may be +compared to that of Charles I of England, who believed himself lawful +heir to all the prerogatives of the Tudors. + +Opposed to these old-fashioned views was the hard-headed spirit of +commercial Italy. Barbarossa's particular enemies were the Lombard +cities, but that was because they were nearest to him. The same +mercantile spirit animated all the cities of the peninsula; in fact, it +pervaded the maritime cities before it pervaded the Lombard cities, and +can best be described by means of a description of them. + +The southern cities bloomed earlier than their northern sisters. Amalfi, +now a little fishing village which clings to the steep slopes of the +Gulf of Salerno, in the eleventh century was an independent republic of +50,000 inhabitants. She traded with Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and Arabia; +she decked her women with the ornaments of the East; she built +monasteries at Jerusalem, also a hospital from which the Knights +Hospitallers of St. John took their name; she gave a maritime code to +the Mediterranean and Ionian seas, and circulated coin of her own +minting throughout the Levant. Salerno, her near neighbour, had already +become famous for her knowledge of medicine, acquired from the Arabs. +The speculations of her physicians upon the medicinal properties of +herbs went all over Europe. She abounded in attractions. Vineyards, +apple orchards, nut trees, flourished round about the city; within there +were handsome palaces; "the women did not lack beauty, nor the men +honesty." The Normans must have found themselves very comfortable. +Naples, Gaeta, and the Greek cities of the heel and toe were also +important and prosperous. But these southern cities were soon outdone by +their sturdier northern rivals, Pisa, Genoa, Venice. + +Pisa, which now lies at the mouth of the Arno like a forsaken mermaid on +the shore, is said to have been a free commune before the year 900. She +traded east and west; she waged wars with the Saracens, drove them from +Sardinia, captured the Balearic Islands (1114), and carried the war into +Africa. Rich with booty and commercial gains, she erected (according to +a traveller's estimate) ten thousand towers within the city walls, +completed her dome-crowned, many-columned, queenly cathedral, and built +the attendant baptistery, within whose marble walls musical notes rise +and fall, circle and swell, as if angels were singing in mid-air. She +received many privileges from the Emperors; her maritime usages were to +be respected; she was to enact her own laws, and to judge her citizens. +No Imperial Marquess was to enter Tuscany until he had received approval +from twelve men of Pisa, to be elected at a public meeting, called +together by the city's bells (1085). She spread her power in the Levant. +Jaffa, Acre, Tripoli, Antioch were in great part under her dominion, and +her factories were scattered along the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor. + +Further to the north, mounting hillward from her curving bay, lay Genoa +the Proud, who for a time was Pisa's ally against the Saracens, and then +became her rival and enemy. Genoa, too, was devoted to commerce and +established settlements in Constantinople, in the Crimea, in Cyprus and +Syria, in Majorca and Tunis. She, too, had obtained from the Empire a +charter of municipal privileges and was a republic, free in all but +name. + +Venice, their greater sister, first rivalled and then surpassed both +Pisa and Genoa. She traces her origin to the men who fled from the +mainland in fear of Attila and sought refuge on the marshy islands of +the coast (452). In later days others fled before the Lombards, and +joined the descendants of the earlier refugees. Here, under the nominal +government of the Eastern Empire, the Venetians gradually developed +strength and independence, and took into their own hands the election of +their Doge (697). The city of the _Rivo Alto_, the Venice of to-day, was +begun about 800. Thirty years later the body of St. Mark the Evangelist +was brought from Alexandria, and the foundations of St. Mark's basilica +were laid over his bones. Politically Venice maintained her allegiance, +shifting and time-serving though it was, true to Constantinople, not +from sentiment, but because Constantinople was the first city in the +world, the centre of art, of luxury, of commerce. Indeed, Venice was +like a daughter or younger sister to Constantinople; all her old +monuments, her mosaics, her sculpture, her marble columns, show her +Byzantine inclinations. She took an active part in the Crusades, +furnished transports and supplies, and mixed religion, war, and commerce +in one profitable whole. + +These maritime cities constantly fought one another; Pisa destroyed +Amalfi, Genoa ruined Pisa, and Venice finally crippled Genoa. The glory +they won was by individual effort; whereas the glory of the Lombard +cities is that they effected a union, tardy indeed and imperfect, but +successful at last in its purpose of enforcing their liberties against +the Imperial claims. These Lombard cities included in their respective +dominions the country round about, and were, in fact, except for a +negligent Imperial control, little independent republics. It has been a +matter of long dispute whether these communes were survivals from old +Roman times, or sprung from the love of independence brought in by the +Teutonic invaders; whatever their origin they virtually began with +trade, rested upon trade, and flourished with trade. This trade, which, +beginning between neighbouring cities, extended northward over the Alps, +was greatly aided by the maritime cities. Ships called for cargoes. The +stimulus imparted by the energy of Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan seamen +to manufactures and transalpine trade was felt in every Lombard city. +For instance, the Venetians, eager to carry a wider range of merchandise +over sea to Alexandria or Jaffa, held fairs in the inland cities, +exposed the wares they had fetched home, and stirred mercantile +industry. A burgher class of traders and artisans grew up. Men met in +the market-place, talked business, considered ways and means, discussed +the conditions of production and exchange, and became a shrewd, capable +class. The moment business expanded beyond the city walls, it bumped +into feudal rights at every corner; at every crossroad it found itself +enmeshed in feudal prerogatives and privileges. Trade could not endure a +system fitted only for a farming community. Trade took men into +politics; and in those days politics meant war. The citizens of Milan, +Pavia, and neighbouring cities were not wholly unused to civic rights, +for they had long had a voice in the election of bishops, and they had +their trade guilds. These rights they enlarged whenever they got a +chance; and chances came frequently in the quarrels between Emperor and +archbishop, or between the greater and lesser nobility. Both sides +wanted their support; and they sold it in exchange for privileges, here +a little, there a little, and obtained many concessions. Finally, after +the burghers had advanced in wealth and social consideration, the petty +nobles made common cause with them; and the two combined succeeded in +forcing the great lords to join also, and make one general civic union. +These great lords, who had been little tyrants in the country +roundabout, were compelled to live within the city walls for part of the +year and be hostages for their own good behaviour, and were thus +converted from enemies into leading citizens. The consequence of these +changes was that the former government by a bishop, which in course of +time had supplanted the old Carlovingian system of government by a +count, was superseded in its turn by a much more popular form of +government. The bishop's authority was narrowly limited, the executive +power was lodged in consuls, two or more, who were elected annually, and +the legislative power was placed in a general council of the burghers +(in Milan not more than fifteen hundred men), and in a small inner +council, which represented the aristocratic element. By Barbarossa's +time the government of the cities had ceased to be feudal, and had +become communal. There was inevitable antagonism between Lombardy and +the Holy Roman Empire. The league of Lombard cities embodied the revolt +of trade against the feudal system, of merchants against uncertain and +excessive taxes, of burghers against foreign princes, in short, general +discontent with an outgrown political system. + +Barbarossa's war with the Lombard cities lasted for twenty-five years, +and for convenience may be divided into two periods,--the period before +the cities had learnt the lesson of union and the period after. So long +as they were divided by mutual distrust and jealousy, Barbarossa was +victorious; when they were united they conquered him. + +Barbarossa made his first expedition across the Alps in answer to +appeals that had been made to him from various parts of Italy. Como and +Lodi complained of Milan; the Popes complained of the insubordinate +Romans, who had set up a republic and were going crazy over an heretical +republican priest, one Arnold of Brescia; the lord of the little city +of Capua complained of the Norman king. Barbarossa, with his lofty +notions of Imperial authority and Imperial duty, gathered together an +army and descended into Italy to settle all troubles. He began by +issuing orders to Milan with regard to her conduct towards Como and +Lodi. Milan shut her gates. The proud city and the proud Emperor were at +swords' points in a moment. A letter from Barbarossa from his camp near +Milan, written to his uncle, Otto of Freysing, briefly narrates the +circumstances: "The Milanese, tricky and proud, came to meet us with a +thousand disloyal excuses and reasons, and offered us great sums of +money if we would grant them sovereignty over Como and Lodi; and +because, without letting ourselves be swayed one jot by their prayers or +by their offers, we marched into their territory, they kept us away from +their rich lands and made us pass three whole days in the midst of a +desert; until at last, against their wish, we pitched our camp one mile +from Milan. Here, after they had refused provisions for which we had +offered to pay, we took possession of one of their finest castles, +defended by five hundred horsemen, and reduced it to ashes; and our +cavalry advanced to the gates of Milan and killed many Milanese and took +many prisoners. Then open war broke out between us. When we crossed the +river Ticino in order to go to Novara, we captured two bridges which +they had fortified with castles, and after the army had crossed, +destroyed them. Then we dismantled three of their fortresses ... and +after we had celebrated Christmas with great merriment, we marched by +way of Vercelli and Turin to the Po; we crossed the river and destroyed +the strong city of Chieri, and burned Asti. This done, we laid siege to +Tortona, most strongly fortified both by art and nature; and on the +third day, having captured the suburbs, we should easily have carried +the citadel, if night and stormy weather had not prevented us. At last, +after many assaults, many killed, and a piteous slaughter of citizens, +we forced the citadel to surrender, not without losing a number of our +men."[10] + +Such vigour as this reduced Milan and her sister cities to obedience. +But Frederick was not content with raids into Italy and spasmodic +punishment administered to this rebellious city or to that; he wished to +have the Imperial rights and authority definitely settled on a permanent +basis; so he convoked a diet on the plain of Roncaglia, not far from +Piacenza, to which he summoned bishops, dukes, marquesses, counts, and +other nobles of the realm, four famous jurists from Bologna, and two +representatives from each of fourteen Lombard cities. Frederick was a +just man; he merely wished his legal rights, and proposed to ascertain +what those rights were. The determination was left to the lawyers. + +By this time lawyers had already begun to play a part in public affairs. +Roman law had never been lost. For centuries it had remained side by +side with the customs of the conquering Barbarians, less as a code of +laws than as the tradition of the subject Latin people; and, when the +needs of quickening civilization required a more elaborate system of law +than custom could supply, there was the Roman law ready for use. It +suddenly leaped into general interest, and rivalled the Church as a +career for young men. St. Bernard complained that the law of Justinian +was ousting the law of God. In 1088 the great law school of Bologna had +been founded. Thither students crowded by thousands; and the opinions of +its jurists were received with the deepest respect. + +At Roncaglia the body of lawyers appointed to determine Imperial rights, +decided, doubtless in accordance with Barbarossa's expectation, in +favour of the Imperial side. The feudal nobles were delighted. The +archbishop of Milan, the recognized head of the Lombard nobility, said +to the Emperor: "Know that every right in the people to make laws has +been granted to you; your will is law, as it is said, _Quod Principi +placuit legis habet vigorem_ [The Emperor's will has the force of law], +since the people have granted to you all authority and sovereignty." In +accordance with the spirit of this principle, the _regalia_, tolls, +taxes, forfeits, and exactions of various kinds, were defined, and the +right to appoint the executive magistrates in the communes adjudged to +the Emperor. In substance the decision of the jurists was the +restoration of the Imperial rights as they had been under the Ottos, +when the communes were in their infancy. + +Frederick's legal triumph was complete, but such a decision could only +be sustained by force. The cities would not accept it; they preferred +war. In the course of one campaign Milan was razed to the ground (1162), +so literally, that Frederick dated his letters _post destructionem +Mediolani_, "after the destruction of Milan." But the cities at last +learned the necessity of union and stood shoulder to shoulder. The +Papacy, too, which had been friendly to the Emperor during the +insurrections in Rome, turned round and joined the cities against him, +and Frederick, in retaliation, set up an anti-pope. Nevertheless, the +glory of defeating the Emperor belongs to the cities, and not to the +Papacy. The decisive battle was fought near Milan on the field of +Legnano (1176). + +The arbitrament of the sword reversed the decision of the lawyers at +Roncaglia. Frederick frankly accepted defeat. A ceremonious conference +was held at Venice. At the portal of St. Mark's, Pope Alexander III, no +unworthy successor to Hildebrand, raised up the kneeling Emperor and +gave him the kiss of peace. Temporary terms were agreed on, and a few +years later the Peace of Constance (1183) definitely closed the war. The +Emperor relinquished all but nominal rights of sovereignty over the +confederate cities. They were to elect their municipal officers, and, +with comparatively unimportant exceptions, to administer justice and +manage their own affairs. Trade had conquered feudalism. The Middle Ages +were near their setting. + +No more of Barbarossa's doings need here be chronicled, except what he +deemed a brilliant stroke of diplomacy, by which he hoped to unite the +crown of the Two Sicilies with the Imperial crown on the head of his +son, Henry, and through him on the heads of a long line of +Hohenstaufens. The Empire had always asserted a claim to Southern Italy, +but its claim had never been made good except during the temporary +occupation of an Imperial army; and since the Normans had established +their kingdom, Southern Italy had not only been lost to the Empire, but +had become the chief prop of the Empire's enemy, the Papacy. If the +Empire could acquire Southern Italy, it would hem in the Papacy both +south and north, and crush it to obedience. Frederick's son Henry was +married to the heiress of the Norman kingdom (1186); and the good +Emperor, happy in the prospect before his Imperial line, but happier in +that he could not foresee truly, took the cross and led his army towards +the Holy Land. He died on the way (1190), leaving behind him a +reputation for honour and chivalry, inferior to none left by the German +Emperors. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] _Storia d'Italia_, Cappelletti, pp. 99, 100. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216) + + +Gregory VII was well named the Julius Cæsar of the Papacy. His great +conception of a sovereign ecclesiastical power, supreme over Europe, was +destined to be realized. For in the fulness of time came Innocent III, +the Augustus Cæsar of the Papacy, who ruled the civilized world of +Europe more after the fashion of the old Roman Emperors than any one, +except Charlemagne, had done. But in the interval between these two +famous Popes, there was a period of reaction in which it looked for a +time as if the Empire would plant the Ghibelline flag on the papal +citadel. The Popes of this period were men of no marked ability, whereas +the young king, Henry VI, had inherited the forceful temper of +Barbarossa as well as his theories of Imperial rights, and displayed +great vigour, energy, and resolution. Despite the opposition of the +Popes, who as feudal suzerains of Sicily were most averse to the +alliance, he had married the heiress of the Norman line, and despite the +fierce opposition of the Sicilians,--part Arabs, part Greeks, with +Italians and Normans mingling in,--he established his authority in the +island. Henry was horribly cruel, but he was efficient. He was King of +Germany, King of Italy, and King of the Two Sicilies, and had compelled +a reluctant Pope to crown him Emperor. He determined to be Emperor in +Italy in fact, and to accomplish what his father had failed to do. He +undertook to check and suppress the communes by reviving the old feudal +system. He reinstated old duchies and counties, and enfeoffed his loyal +Germans. Matters looked black for the Guelfs, when, to their great good +luck, the fiery young Emperor died, leaving an incompetent widow and a +helpless baby (1197). By one of those occurrences, in which Catholics +see more than the hand of chance, in the very year after the Emperor's +death, a man of political talents of the highest order was elected to +the pontifical chair. + +In the days of Pope Alexander III, the great antagonist of Frederick +Barbarossa, a young nobleman, who took holy orders almost in boyhood, +had given early promise of an extraordinary career. This handsome, +eloquent, imperious boy, named Lothair, inherited through his father, +Thrasmund of the Counts of Segni in Latium, the fierce impetuosity of +the Lombards, and through his mother, a Roman lady of high birth (from +whom he took his master traits), the tenacity, the adroitness, the +political genius of the Romans. He was educated at the universities of +Bologna and Paris, where he studied law, theology, and scholastic +philosophy. The stormy period of the struggle between Alexander and +Barbarossa brought character and talents quickly to the front. Before he +was twenty he had distinguished himself, before he was thirty he had +been made a cardinal, and at thirty-seven he was elected Pope. According +to the practice instituted by the deposed scamp, John XII, of taking a +new name, Lothair assumed the title of Innocent III. + +Under the guidance of Innocent III (1198-1216), the Papacy attained the +full meridian of its glory. When this great Pope, lawyer, theologian, +statesman, came to the throne, it was demoralized and weak; before he +died, it had set its yoke on the neck of Europe. For the second time in +history, orders were issued from Rome to the whole civilized world. A +review of his pontificate brings up a panorama of Europe. His task began +in Rome. This little city of churches, monasteries, towers, and ruins, +which took no pride in great papal affairs, had plunged into one of its +fits of republican independence, and, supported by the Emperor, had +ousted the Popes from all control. In the course of a few years, by +intrigue, tact, and civil war, Innocent got into his own hands the +appointment of the senate and of the city governor, and thereby control +of the city. He next turned his attention to the Patrimony of St. Peter, +that central strip from Rome to Ravenna, given or supposed to have been +given by Pippin and Charlemagne to the successors of St. Peter. Here the +impetuous Emperor, Henry VI, had seated his German barons, setting up +fiefs for them, and reëstablishing the feudal system under the Imperial +suzerainty. These German barons were hated by the people. Innocent put +himself at the head of the popular discontent, organized a Guelf, almost +a national, party, and either drove the Germans out, or forced them to +swear allegiance to the Holy See. + +In Tuscany also the Guelfs were successful in breaking up the feudal +restoration. In fact, since the days of Countess Matilda feudalism had +been doomed. The cities had taken advantage of the wars between Papacy +and Empire to secure virtual independence; and on Henry's death, with +the exception of Ghibelline Pisa, they banded together and agreed never +to admit an Imperial governor within their territories. Innocent tried +to bring these cities under papal dominion, but they were too +independent, and he was obliged to rest content with snapping up +scattered portions of Matilda's domains. + +Meantime in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies the Emperor's widow had +died, and left to Innocent's guardianship her little son, Frederick. +Innocent, guardian and suzerain lord, immediately began a struggle with +the feudal nobility, just as in Italy, and, after a long and difficult +contest, asserted the authority of his royal ward. On the termination of +the minority, he handed over the kingdom to Frederick, who, on his part +as King of the Two Sicilies, swore fealty to the Pope. Had it not been +for his honourable and powerful guardian, Frederick probably would have +had no kingdom, and in his oath of fealty he acknowledged his +indebtedness: "Among all the wishes which we carry in the front rank of +our desires, this is the chief, to discharge a grateful obedience, to +show an honourable devotion, and never to be found ungrateful for your +benefits--God forbid--since, next to Divine Grace, to your protection we +are indebted not only for land but also for life." + +In this way Innocent established the Papacy in Italy; sovereign, +suzerain, protector or ally, he was the head of the Italian Guelfs and +practically of Italy. Let us now look abroad. In Constantinople, the +capital of the Greek Empire, Innocent's legate bestowed the Imperial +purple upon an Emperor. An odd whirl of Fortune's wheel brought this to +pass. Innocent had preached a crusade in the hope of recovering the Holy +Land from the infidels, who had succeeded in expelling the Christians. +An army of Frenchmen and Flemings answered his summons. They determined +to avoid the deadly route overland and go by sea, and applied to Venice +for transportation. When they came to pay the bill they did not have the +money, and the Venetians insisted that they should help them recapture +the city of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast, which had once belonged to +Venice but had been lost again. Zara was attacked and taken (1202). One +deflection from the straight path of duty led to another. To Zara came +the son of the Greek Emperor to say that his father had been deposed, +and to beg for help. The Venetians, wishing to wound two commercial +rivals at once, Constantinople and Pisa (for the usurping Emperor +favoured Pisa), used the suppliant as a stalking-horse, and persuaded +the Crusaders once again to divert their immediate purpose and to +restore the deposed Emperor to his throne. Again the Crusaders listened +to temptation, for the Venetians baited their hook with golden promises; +they sailed to Constantinople and restored the wronged Emperor. Matters +did not go smoothly, however. Misunderstanding with the Greeks led to +disagreements, disagreements to quarrels, and quarrels to war. The Latin +Crusaders assaulted Constantinople, carried it by storm, and plundered +houses, palaces, churches, shrines, everything; then, with appetites +whetted by petty spoils, seized the frail Empire itself (1204). They +divided Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, the islands of the Ægean Sea, and all +the remnants of the Roman Empire of the East that they could lay hands +on. Pious Venice came out best; she took coast and island, town and +country, all along from recaptured Zara round by the shores of Dalmatia, +Albania, Peloponnesus, and Thessaly, ending with half of Constantinople +itself. The Marquess of Monferrat became King of Thessalonica, and his +vassal, a Burgundian count, was invested with the lordship of Athens and +Thebes. The Count of Flanders was elected Emperor of a Latin Empire. +Innocent had been very angry with the deflections to Zara and +Constantinople, and had thundered against the polite but inflexible +Venetians. When the evil had been done, however, he made the best of it, +and behaved with dignity and astuteness. He rebuked the Crusaders for +having preferred the things of earth to those of Heaven, and bade them +ask God's pardon for the profanation of holy places; but he admitted the +advantage that would arise from reconciling the Greeks, schismatics +since the days of Leo the Iconoclast, with the Roman See. So his legate +bestowed the purple on a suppliant Emperor in the city of +Constantinople. + +In Germany Innocent also appears as the giver and withholder of crowns. +On the death of Henry VI there was a disputed election. The Hohenstaufen +party, dreading a long minority, passed over the baby Frederick, and +nominated Philip, Henry's brother; the rival party, the German Guelfs, +nominated Otto of Brunswick, a nephew of Richard Coeur-de-lion. Civil +war followed, and both parties appealed to Innocent who, after +deliberation, supported Otto, but exacted a high price. Otto was obliged +to guarantee to the Pope the strip of territory from Rome to Ravenna, +and those portions of Matilda's domains which were not fiefs of the +Empire, also to acknowledge papal suzerainty over the Two Sicilies, and +to promise to conform to the papal will with regard to the leagues of +the Lombard and Tuscan cities. This guarantee of Otto laid the first +real foundation of the Papal States. Hitherto, vague _Donations_ had +given pretexts for claims; but Otto's deed was a definite Imperial +grant, and conveyed an unquestionable title. In spite of Innocent's +support matters went ill for Otto in Germany. Philip's star rose, and +Innocent, to whom the cause of the Papacy was the cause of God and +justified diplomatic conduct, was on the point of shifting to Philip's +side, when in the nick of time Philip was murdered (1208). Otto's claim +was now undisputed. No sooner, however, did he feel the crown secure on +his head than he shifted his ground. Guelf by birth though he was, he +found that he could not be both obedient to the Pope and loyal to his +Imperial duties. He turned into a complete Ghibelline, broke his grant +to the Pope, attempted to restore the feudal system in the papal +territories, and assumed to treat the Two Sicilies as a fief of the +Empire. Innocent, outraged and indignant at this breach of faith, +excommunicated him (1210). Thereupon, as at the time when Gregory VII +excommunicated Henry IV, the German barons rose, deposed Otto, and +summoned young Frederick from Sicily to take the German crown. Innocent +supported Frederick's cause, but exacted the price which he had formerly +exacted from the perjured Otto. Frederick, pressed by present need, and +forgetful of Otto's evil precedent, pledged himself as follows: "We, +Frederick the Second, by Divine favour and mercy, King of the Romans, +ever Augustus, and King of Sicily ... recognizing the grace given to us +by God, we have also before our eyes the immense and innumerable +benefits rendered by you, most dear lord and reverend father, our +protector and benefactor, lord Innocent, by God's grace most venerable +Pontiff; through your benefaction, labour, and guardianship, we have +been brought up, cherished, and advanced, ever since our mother, the +Empress Constance of happy memory, threw us upon your care, almost from +birth. To you, most blessed father, and to all your Catholic successors, +and to the Holy Roman Church, our special mother, we shall discharge all +obedience, honour, and reverence, always with an humble heart and a +devout spirit, as our Catholic predecessors, kings and Emperors, are +known to have done to your predecessors; not a whit from these shall we +take away, rather add, that our devotion may shine the more."[11] +Frederick promised that he would not interfere in the election of +bishops, and that the candidate canonically elected should be installed. +He confirmed the papal title to the Papal States. "I vow, promise, +swear, and take my oath to protect and preserve all the possessions, +honours, and rights of the Roman Church, in good faith, to the best of +my power" (1213). + +From this time forward Frederick advanced from success to success. Otto +was driven into private life, and the Pope's legate put the German crown +on Frederick's head at Aachen (1215). Where Innocent blessed, success +and prosperity followed; where he cursed, death and destruction came. + +Elsewhere the Pope was equally triumphant. All Europe bent under his +imperial decrees. The kings of Portugal, Leon, Castile, and Navarre were +scolded or punished. The King of Aragon went to Rome and swore +allegiance. The Duke of Bohemia was rebuked, the King of Denmark +comforted, the nobles of Iceland warned, the King of Hungary admonished. +Servia, Bulgaria, even remote Armenia, received papal supervision and +paternal care. Philip Augustus of France, at Innocent's command, took +back the wife whom he had repudiated. John of England grovelled on the +ground before him, and yielded up "to our lord the Pope Innocent and his +successors, all our kingdom of England and all our kingdom of Ireland to +be held as a fief of the Holy See"(1213). + +Another triumph of darker hue added to the brilliance of Innocent's +career. In the south of France, in the pleasant places of Provence and +Languedoc, where troubadours praised love and war, and lords and ladies +wandered down primrose paths, the humbler folk got hold of certain +dangerous ideas. They believed that there was a power of evil as well as +a power of good, that Christ was but an emanation from God, that the God +of the Jews was not the real God of Goodness, and, worse than all, that +the Roman Church, with its sacerdotalism, forms, sacraments, and ritual, +was, to say the least, not what it should be. Innocent entertained no +doubts that the Roman Church had been founded by God to maintain His +truth on earth; as a statesman he regarded heresy as we regard treason +and anarchy; as a priest he deemed it sin. He called Simon of Montfort +and other dogs of war from the north and urged them at the quarry. The +heresy was put down in blood. Here appears the black figure of St. +Dominic, encouraging the faithful, rallying the hesitant, and by the +fervour of his belief, by his devotion, by his genius for organization, +more destructive to heresy than the sword of Montfort. + +Thus Innocent sat supreme. He had created a papal kingdom where his +predecessors had asserted impotent claims; he had confirmed the Two +Sicilies in their dependency upon the Holy See; he had put the Papacy at +the head of the Guelf party in Italy, and had made that party almost +national; he had enforced the power of the Church throughout Europe, had +given crowns to the Kings of Aragon and of England, to the Emperors of +Germany and of Constantinople. No such spectacle had been seen since the +reign of Charlemagne; none such was to be seen again till the coming of +Napoleon. The conception of Europe as an ecclesiastical organization had +reached its fullest expression. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] _Select Mediæval Documents_, Mathews, p. 115, translated. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ST. FRANCIS (1182-1226) + + +In spite of the dazzling success achieved by Innocent, matters were not +well with the Church in Italy. Corruption threatened it from within, +heresy from without. Simony was rampant; livings were almost put up at +auction. Innocent asserted that there was no cure but fire and steel. +The prelates of the Roman Curia were "tricky as foxes, proud as bulls, +greedy and insatiable as the Minotaur." The priests were often +shameless; some became usurers to get money for their bastards, others +kept taverns and sold wine. Worship had become a vain repetition of +formulas. The monks were superstitious, many of them disreputable. The +inevitable consequence of this decay in the Church was heresy. Italy was +nearly, if not quite, as badly honeycombed with heretics as Languedoc +had been. The Patarini, whom we remember in Hildebrand's time, now +become a species of heretics, abounded in Milan; other sects sprang up +in towns near by. In Ferrara, Verona, Rimini, Faenza, Treviso, Florence, +Prato, anti-sacerdotal sentiment was very strong. In Viterbo the +heretics were numerous enough to elect their consul. At Piacenza priests +had been driven out, and the city left unshepherded for three years. In +Orvieto there had been grave disorders. In Assisi a heretic had been +elected _podestà_ (governor). + +The great Innocent knitted his brows; he knew well that his noisy +triumphs, which echoed over the Tagus, the Thames, the Rhine, and the +Golden Horn, were of no avail, if heretics sapped and mined the Church +within. It seemed as if the great ecclesiastical fabric, to which he had +given the devotion of a life, was tottering from corner-stone to apex; +when, one day, a cardinal came to him and said, "I have found a most +perfect man, who wishes to live according to the Holy Gospel, and to +observe evangelical perfection in all things. I believe that through him +the Lord intends to reform His Holy Church in all the world." Innocent +was interested, and bade the man be brought before him. This man was +Francis Bernadone, known to us as St. Francis, the leader of a small +band of Umbrian pilgrims from Assisi, who asked permission to follow +literally the example of Jesus Christ. The Pope hesitated. To the +cardinals, men of the world, this young man and his pilgrims were fools +and their faith nonsense. "But," argued a believer, "if you assert that +it is novel, irrational, impossible to observe the perfection of the +Gospel, and to take a vow to do so, are you not guilty of blasphemy +against Christ, the author of the Gospel?" Thinking the matter over, the +Pope dreamed a dream. He beheld the Church of St. John Lateran, the +episcopal church of the bishops of Rome, leaning in ruin and about to +fall, when a monk, poor and mean in appearance, bent under it and +propped it with his back. Innocent awoke and said to himself, "This +Francis is the holy monk by whose help the Church of God shall be lifted +up and stand again." So he said to Francis and his followers, "Go +brethren, God be with you. Preach repentance to all as He shall give you +inspiration. And when Almighty God shall have made you multiply in +numbers and in grace, come back to us, and we will entrust you with +greater things." + +So St. Francis, "true servant of God and faithful follower of Jesus +Christ," went about his ministry with the blessing of the Church. To the +people of Assisi, of Umbria, and afterwards of all Central Italy, his +life was a revelation of Christianity. He imparted the gospel anew, as +fresh as when it had first been given under the Syrian stars. He +embodied peace, gentleness, courtesy, and self-sacrifice. It is not too +much to say that he saved the Catholic Church, and put off the +Protestant Reformation for three hundred years. His example and +influence raised the standard of conduct within the Church; and his +love, his devotion, his insistence on the essential parts of Christ's +teaching, and his dislike of worldly pomps, deprived heresy of all its +weapons. He satisfied the widespread religious hunger better than heresy +did. He was so characteristically Italian, and his ministry throws so +much light on the state of Italy at the opening of the thirteenth +century, that it is worth while to dwell for a few pages on his doings. + +Assisi, built for safety on a hill and protected by great walls and +gates, was a good example of a little mediæval town. In the centre was +the _piazza_, on which fronted a Roman temple to Minerva, haughtily +scornful of its mediæval surroundings. Hard by was the cathedral, where +every baby was taken for baptism. On the tiptop of the hill stood a huge +castle, where the feudal baron dwelt with his ruffianly soldiers and +received his feudal lord, the Emperor, when he stopped at Assisi on his +way to Rome. In Francis's boyhood, the people, aided by Pope Innocent, +had driven out the German count, and had formed themselves into a free +commune, save for their allegiance to the Holy See; but the change was +not all gain. The town was divided into discordant classes; the +nobility, maintained in idleness by the produce of their estates, the +bourgeoisie, engaged in trade (Francis's father was a merchant), the +artisans grouped in guilds, and the serfs, who tilled the fields and +tended the vineyards and olive orchards. Once rid of the German count, +the bourgeoisie endeavoured to rid themselves of the arrogant and idle +nobility. Street war broke out. The nobles fled to Perugia, another +little town perched on a hill some dozen miles across the plain, and +asked for help. Perugia rejoiced in the opportunity. The miseries of a +petty war between two little neighbours need no description. Fields and +vineyards were devastated, olive orchards destroyed, farm-houses burned. +Even in peace the peasants around Assisi lived in constant disquiet, +ready to fling down their mattocks and flee to the protection of the +city walls. + +Within the city the streets were narrow, the houses small. Dirt +abounded. War brought poverty, dirt brought the pest, Crusaders brought +leprosy. At the gates of the town stood lazar-houses, and in remote +spots lepers in the earlier stages of disease gathered together. Yet, +despite war, pest, and leprosy, life in Umbria could never have been +wholly sad. Certainly the sons of the well-to-do enjoyed themselves and +whiled away the time carelessly. Sometimes a great personage stopped on +his Romeward way; sometimes strolling players exhibited their shows on +the _piazza_ before the Temple of Minerva; sometimes a troubadour, +escaped from the persecution in Provence, passed by on his way to +Sicily, and sang his songs to repay hospitality. Many an afternoon and +night the clubs of young gentlemen gave _fêtes champêtres_ and dances. +Francis, as a boy, was gayest of the gay, dancing and piping in the +market-place, fighting in the front rank against the nobles of Perugia, +but when he grew to manhood he could not bear the contrast between mirth +and misery. He sought for some universal joy and found it in the love of +Christ. He gathered about him a scanty band of holy and humble men of +heart, who took the vow of poverty, and devoted themselves to praising +God, comforting the wretched, and tending lepers. The abbot of the +neighbouring Benedictine monastery gave them a little chapel, where St. +Benedict himself had once said mass, which lay in the plain a mile below +the town. This little chapel, named the _Portiuncula_ (the little +portion), which is now covered by the great church of _Santa Maria degli +Angeli_ (St. Mary of the Angels), so called because the songs of angels +were heard there, was the cradle of the Franciscan Order. It was a tiny +building, twenty feet wide and thirty long, with a steep pitched roof, +plain walls, and big, round-arched door, and was sadly dilapidated. St. +Francis and his friends built it up, and it became their church. Round +it they built their huts, and encompassed all with a hedge. Here it was +that St. Clare, the daughter of a nobleman of Assisi, donned the nun's +dress. Here Francis passed the happy years of his life, while as yet his +disciples were few and all were animated by his passionate longing for +self-abnegation. He followed the New Testament literally, +superstitiously one would say were it not that this literal obedience +was accompanied by ineffable peace of heart and joy. He specially +enjoined poverty. A smock, a cord, and sandals were enough for a true +brother. Once a novice begged for permission to own a psalter, and +teased him, but Francis answered: "After you have the psalter you will +covet and long for a breviary; and when you possess a breviary you will +sit on a chair like a great prelate, and say to thy brother, fetch me my +breviary." Nor would he suffer the brethren to take heed for the morrow. +They were only allowed to ask for provisions sufficient for the day. For +he, in the rapture of his love, found infinite pleasure in the literal +fulfillment of every word that had fallen from Christ's lips. Francis +was an orator; he possessed passion, the great source of eloquence, and +stirred prelates and Crusaders as well as peasants and lepers. The world +wished for sympathy and he gave it. He seemed to be sick with the sick, +afflicted with those in affliction, holy with the good; and even sinners +felt him one of themselves. To his disciples he was Jesus come again. +Joy and happiness radiated from him. All the world felt the charm and +beauty of his love of God, and poetry followed him as wild violets +attend the spring. + +Thus Francis, by rubbing off the incrustations of twelve hundred +unchristian years, revealed the poetry of the gospel to an eager world. +One charming trait of his character was his love of animals, especially +of birds. He wished the ox and the ass, companions of the manger, to +share in the Christmas good cheer; and hoped that the Emperor would make +a law that nobody should kill larks or do them any hurt. He was always +very fond of larks and said that their plumage was like a religious +dress. "Wherefore,--according to his disciple, Brother Leo,--it pleased +God that these lowly little birds should give a sign of affection for +him at the hour of his death. On the eve of the Sabbath day after +vespers, just before the night in which he went up to God, a great +multitude of larks flew down over the roof of the house where he lay, +and all flying together wheeled in circles round the roof and singing +sweetly seemed to be praising God." + +His disciples went forth from their headquarters, the _Portiuncula_, +like the Apostles, to preach the gospel, first to the people of Umbria +and Tuscany, then on to Bologna and Verona, and soon over the Alps and +across the seas. The Order had three branches: the begging friars +themselves, tonsured and clad in undyed cloth, with cords about their +waists and sandals on their feet; the sister Clares, shut up in +nunneries, and dressed most simply; and the third order, people who +continued to live in the world, but wished to follow the example of +Christ and his blessed imitator and servant, Francis. The first rule of +the begging friars had been very strict. For Francis the strait gate +that led to eternal life was poverty. Even in his lifetime after his +Order had become popular, there was grumbling and opposition; and after +his death, the literal observance of his wishes was promptly given up. +He would never allow his brethren to own a house or have a church; and +yet within two years after his death the great basilica in Assisi was +begun, dedicated to him, and hurried to magnificent completion. The +Church, which held the doctrine of evangelical poverty fit only for mad +men of genius, laid her heavy hand on the Order, and guided and governed +it as best suited her purposes. But it would be grossly unfair to the +Church to blame her for violating Francis's chief dogma. The total +rejection of property, the total disregard of the morrow, seemed to her, +as they seem to us to-day, doctrines wholly inapplicable to this world +in which we find ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE (1216-1250) + + +The Church seized the Franciscan Order as a man in danger grasps at a +means of safety, and shaped it to her needs; for, in spite of her +brilliant triumphs under Innocent, her needs were great. The Papacy and +the Empire approached their final struggle; both felt instinctively that +the issue must be decisive. Their fundamental incompatibility had been +aggravated by the union of the crowns of Sicily and Germany. Innocent +had been pushed by circumstances into supporting Frederick's claim to +Germany, and though he had striven to prevent the natural consequences +by extorting oaths from Frederick, yet as time went on the danger became +clearer. Under Innocent's successor, Pope Honorius, the Papacy lay like +a cherry between an upper and lower jaw, which watered to close and +crunch it; and this extreme peril is the excuse for the bitterness of +the Popes in the contest which followed. The Papacy fought for its life. + +The contest affected all Italy. Milan and many cities of the valley of +the Po were Guelf; but Pavia and some others were Ghibelline, not that +they loved the Emperor, but hated Milan; Florence and the other Tuscan +cities, except Ghibelline Pisa and Siena, which hated Florence, were +Guelf; Rome was split in two; the Colonna, the Frangipani, and other +great families were generally Ghibelline, though permanent allegiance +was unfashionable, while the Orsini and others were Guelf. The Gray +Friars, who swarmed from the Alps to the Strait of Messina, were +steadfast Guelfs, and even carried their loyalty so far, their enemies +said, as to subordinate religion to political ends. On the other hand, +the aristocracy, which was chiefly of Teutonic descent, held for the +Empire. + +Frederick himself is the central figure of the period. In his lifetime +he excited love and hate to extravagance, and he still excites the +enthusiasm of scholars. His is the most interesting Italian personality +between St. Francis and Dante. I say Italian, for though Frederick +inherited the Hohenstaufen vigour and energy, he got his chief traits +from his Sicilian mother. Poet, lawgiver, soldier, statesman, he was the +wonder of the world, _stupor mundi_, as an English chronicler called +him. Impetuous, terrible, voluptuous, refined, he was a kind of Cæsarian +Byron. In most ways he outstripped contemporary thought; in many ways he +outstripped contemporary sympathy. He was sceptical of the Athanasian +Creed, of communal freedom, and of other things which his Italian +countrymen believed devoutly; while they were sceptical of the divine +right of the Empire, of the blessing of a strong central government, and +of other matters which he believed devoutly. + +Between a stubborn Emperor, a stiff-necked Papacy, and obstinate +communes, relations strained taut. The first break occurred between +Emperor and Papacy. The Popes honestly desired to reconquer Jerusalem, +which had fallen back into infidel hands, and incessantly urged a +crusade; but perhaps at this juncture their zeal was heightened by a +notion that the most effective defensive measure against the Emperor +would be to keep him busy in Palestine. Frederick had solemnly promised +to go. He had also solemnly promised to keep the crowns of Germany and +of the Two Sicilies separate, by putting the latter on his son's head; +but instead of this separation he kept both crowns on his own head, and +secured both for his son as his successor. In spite of this violated +promise, Pope Honorius, a gentle soul, devoutly eager for the crusade, +crowned Frederick Emperor (1220), upon Frederick's renewed promise that +he would start on the crusade within a year. The year passed, then +another and another, and Frederick, with his crowns safe on his head, +did not move a foot towards Jerusalem. The gentle Honorius remonstrated; +Frederick made vows, excuses, protestations, but did not go. Finally the +mild Pope died, and was succeeded by the venerable Cardinal Ugolino, +Gregory IX, (1227-1241). Ugolino was a member of the _Conti_ family of +Latium (so preëminently counts that they took their name from their +title), and a near relation to Innocent III. His indomitable character +proved his kinship. Blameless in private life, a warm friend to St. +Francis, deeply versed in ecclesiastical affairs, he had a benign face +and noble presence; in fact, to quote the gentle Pope Honorius, he was +"a Cedar of Lebanon in the Park of the Church." But, in spite of his +virtue, his training, and his fourscore years, he was a very Hotspur, +fiery, impatient, and headstrong. It was he who had put the crusader's +cross into Frederick's hands and had received his crusader's vow; and +now, having bottled up his wrath during the pontificate of Honorius, he +could brook no further delay. Frederick made ready to go. Ships and men +were gathered at Brindisi, and, in spite of a pestilence which killed +many soldiers, the fleet set sail. A few days later word was brought +that Frederick had put about and disembarked in Italy. + +Gregory was furiously angry, and despatched an encyclical letter to +certain bishops in Frederick's kingdom, which sets forth the papal side +of the matter: "Out in the spacious amplitude of the sea, the little +bark of Peter, placed or rather displaced by whirlwinds and tempests, is +so continuously tossed about by storms and waves, that its pilot and +rowers under the stress of inundating rains can hardly breathe. Four +special tempests shake our ship: the perfidy of infidels, the madness of +tyrants, the insanity of heretics, the perverse fraud of false sons. +There are wars without and fears within, and it frequently happens that +the distressed Church of Christ, while she thinks she cherishes +children, nourishes at her breast fires, serpents, and vipers, who by +poisonous breath, by bite and conflagration, strive to ruin all. Now, in +this time when there is need to destroy monsters of this sort, to rout +hostile armies, to still disturbing tempests, the Apostolic See with +great diligence has cherished a certain child, to wit, the Emperor +Frederick, whom from his mother's womb she received upon her knees, +nursed him at her breasts, carried him on her back, rescued him often +from the hands of them that sought his life, with great pains and cost +studied to educate him until she had brought him to manhood, and led him +to a kingly crown and even to the height of the Imperial dignity, +believing that he would be a rod of defence, and a staff for her old +age." + +The encyclical then proceeds to recount Frederick's promises, his +delays, evasions, excuses, and the false start from Brindisi, and adds, +"Hearken and see if there be any sorrow like the sorrow of your mother +the Apostolic See, so cruelly, so totally deceived by a son whom she had +nursed, in whom she had placed the trust of her hope in this matter. But +we put our hope in the compassion of God that He will show to us a way +by which we shall advance prosperously in this affair, and that He will +point out men, who in purity of heart and with cleanness of hand shall +lead the Christian army. Yet lest, like dumb dogs who cannot bark, we +should seem to defer to man against God, and take no vengeance upon him, +the Emperor Frederick, who has wrought such ruin on God's people. We, +though unwilling, do publicly pronounce him excommunicated, and command +that he be by all completely shunned, and that you and other prelates +who shall hear of this, publicly publish his excommunication. And, if +his contumacy shall demand, more grave proceeding shall be taken." + +This ban of excommunication was published over the world; bishops gave +it out in their dioceses, priests in their parishes; Gray Friars told of +it from Sicily to Scotland. Frederick in answer wrote letters to the +kings of Europe, saying that the Roman Church was so consumed with +avarice and greed, that, not satisfied with her own Church property, she +was not ashamed to disinherit emperors, kings, and princes, and make +them tributary. To the King of England he wrote:-- + +"Of these premises the King of England has an example, for the Church +excommunicated his father, King John, and kept him excommunicated till +he and his kingdom became tributary to her. Likewise all have the +example of many other princes, whose lands and persons she squeezed +under an interdict till she had reduced them to similar servitude. We +pass over her simony, her unheard-of exactions, her open usury, and her +new-fangled tricks, which infect the whole world. We pass over her +speeches, sweeter than honey, smoother than oil,--insatiable +bloodsuckers! They say that the Roman Curia is the Church, our mother +and nurse, when that Curia is the root and origin of all evils. She does +not act like a mother, but like a stepmother. By her fruits which we +know she gives sure proof. + +"Let the famous barons of England think of this. Pope Innocent +instigated them to rise in revolt against King John as a stubborn enemy +of the Church, but after that abnormally celebrated King made obeisance +and, like a woman, delivered up himself and his kingdom to the Roman +Church, that Pope, putting behind him his respect for man and fear of +God, trampled down the nobles, whom he had first supported and pricked +on, and left them exposed to death and disinheritance, so that he, +after the Roman fashion, should gulp down his impudent throat the fatter +morsels. In this way, under the incitement of Roman avarice, England, +fairest of countries, was made a tributary. Behold the ways of the +Romans; behold how they seek to snare all and each, how they get money +by fraud, how they subjugate the free and disturb the peaceable, clad in +sheep's clothing but inwardly ravening wolves. They send legates hither +and thither, to excommunicate, to reprimand, to punish,--not to save the +fruitful seed of God's word, but to extort money, to bind and reap where +they have never sown. + +"Against us also, as He who sees all things knows, they have raged like +bacchantes, wrongfully, saying that we would not cross the sea according +to terms fixed, when much unavoidable and arduous business about the +going, and about the Church and about the Empire, detained us, not +counting sickness. First there were the insolent Sicilian rebels: and it +did not seem to us a good plan nor expedient for Christianity to go to +the Holy Land," etc. And he ended, so the chronicler says, with an +exhortation to all the princes of the world to beware against such +avarice and wickedness, because "_you are concerned when your +neighbour's house is on fire_." + +These letters show the temper on both sides. Outwardly, however, peace +was observed, and Frederick really went on the promised crusade; and, +though in Syria he found Patriarch, Templars, Hospitallers, and +Franciscans all turned against him, he succeeded in making a treaty by +which Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem were ceded to him, and he +crowned himself king in Jerusalem. In the mean time hostilities had +broken out in Italy. Frederick incited the Roman barons to drive the +Pope from Rome, and the Pope preached a crusade against Frederick. But +both sides, having many cares within their respective jurisdictions, at +length made peace, and Frederick was enabled to go back to his +_consuetas delicias_, his wonted delights. + +This phrase, which was used by the Pope, probably contained an innuendo, +for gossip busied itself with Frederick's christianity and morals. He +tolerated Saracens in his kingdom, lived on friendly terms with them, +and preferred them in his army, for they were indifferent to +excommunication; and gossip added that he liked Saracen ladies, hinted +at a harem, and alleged that in Syria he had accepted the present of a +troop of Moslem dancers. Gossip, spread by the glib tongues of mendicant +friars, charged him with saying, "If God had seen my beautiful Sicily, +he would not have chosen that beggarly Palestine for His Kingdom," +"There have been three great impostors who invented religions, and one +of them was crucified." Frederick's real offence in ecclesiastical eyes +was that he wished to subordinate the spiritual to the secular power. It +was natural, however, that pious folk should look askance at a prince +who, while Christendom was fighting Islam, hobnobbed with Mohammedans +and seemed to find them more sympathetic than Christians. + +Frederick's real _consuetæ deliciæ_ were of another kind. In his +Sicilian court we catch the first streaks of the dawn that was destined +to brighten into the day of the Renaissance. He himself was a highly +accomplished man, spoke Italian, German, Arabic, and Greek, and took an +interest in mathematics, philosophy, and in general learning. But poetry +was his favourite pleasure. The Italian language, recently emerged from +dog Latin, had just begun to serve literary uses, and Frederick's court +had the honour of producing the first school of Italian poetry. He, his +sons Manfred and Enzio, his chief counsellor Pier della Vigna, and many +poets and troubadours drawn thither by his fame, so far outstripped the +rest of Italy that all Italian poetry, wherever written, was called +Sicilian. + +Sicily was the most civilized place in Europe, now that Southern France +had been crushed by the Albigensian persecution. The old Greek stock +kept some trace of their inheritance; the Arabs had brought their +culture; the Normans had added chivalric ideas; the Crusades and +commerce had enlarged the intellectual boundaries; and Frederick himself +had extraordinary versatility. Mathematicians from Granada, philosophers +from Alexandria, were as welcome as the troubadours from Provence. +Frederick looked after his own royal estates, managed his stud farm in +Apulia, decided when brood mares should be fed on barley and when kept +to grass. He was a great sportsman, too, and wrote a book on falconry. +He enacted a famous code of laws, far superior in many respects to +existing legislation, which was conceived with the definite plan of +exalting royal authority over feudal prerogatives and communal customs. +He deprived the barons of criminal jurisdiction; forbade private war, +carrying weapons, etc; he limited trial by ordeal so far as he could, +calling it "a species of divination;" he made minute regulations in +matters of business and behaviour, and maintained a paternal authority. + +In fact, Sicily, with its culture, poetry, Moslems, and its unorthodox +king, succeeded to the heretical position of Southern France. The Papacy +felt instinctively that a civilization so happy in the good things of +this world, so lax on many points of morality, so careless of the Roman +ecclesiastical system, was a perpetual menace to it. In the nature of +things, the peace that had been made with Frederick could not last long. + +The breach happened in the North. The Lombard cities revolted. Frederick +marched against them and won a victory (1237). Then was the zenith of +his power; his very triumph was the cause of his undoing. All the Guelfs +of Italy roused themselves for the struggle. The Pope took part, and a +second time excommunicated Frederick, enumerating a score of sins. A +later Pope held a council at Lyons (a place of safety), excommunicated +Frederick again, and deposed him from his Imperial throne (1245). Then +an anti-emperor was set up. Blow on blow fell upon Frederick. He was +terribly routed at Parma, through carelessness. His gallant son Enzio, +the poet, was captured by the Bolognese, who would not release him, +though Frederick offered to put a rim of gold round the walls of their +city. Enzio spent twenty-three years in prison and there died. Pier +della Vigna, who "kept both the keys of Frederick's heart," was +suspected of high treason and condemned to death. Frederick himself died +in 1250, and the Pope shouted for joy at the news, "Be glad ye Heavens, +and let the Earth rejoice!" He had good reason, for the Church had lost +its most dangerous enemy. + +With the death of Frederick the Empire came to its end. The name of Holy +Roman Empire continued till 1806, and from time to time for several +hundred years German kings came down across the Alps to receive the +Imperial crown, but on Frederick's death the old mediæval Empire +practically ceased; and Italy, instead of being an Imperial province, +became a series of independent states. + +The end of the Hohenstaufens themselves reads like the last act of a +bloody Elizabethan tragedy. Within a few years the only survivors among +Frederick's descendants were his lawful heir, a baby, Conradin, and an +illegitimate son, Manfred. Manfred, who had inherited the charm, the +address, the energy and brilliance of his father, succeeded in +establishing himself in the Two Sicilies, at first as regent for his +nephew, and afterwards, for in those troubled times a regency was +precarious, as king in his own right. But the Popes were resolved not to +undergo a repetition of the danger they had experienced from Frederick, +and laid their plans to destroy the last of the "viper's brood," as they +called Frederick's family. They followed the old precedent, set in the +days when the Papacy had been in danger from the Lombards, and invited a +French prince, Charles of Anjou, brother to St. Louis, to come and +depose Manfred, and offered him the crown of the Two Sicilies. The +crafty, capable, deep-scheming Charles accepted, and came amid great +rejoicing among the Guelfs. Rome made him Senator. Florence made him +_podestà_; in fact, all Guelf Italy was at his feet. The Pope proclaimed +a crusade against Manfred, collected tithes and taxes for the holy +purpose, and provided Charles with an army. Manfred was defeated and +killed (1266), and two years later, the valiant Conradin, a lad of +sixteen, who came down in the mad hope of regaining his kingdom, was +also defeated, taken prisoner, and, after a mock trial for treason, put +to death. Thus the Papacy prevented the union of the Two Sicilies with +the Empire, and thus the House of Anjou supplanted the last of the +Hohenstaufens at Palermo and Naples. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FALL OF THE MEDIÆVAL PAPACY (1303) + + +We are now coming out of the Middle Ages, and the dawn of a new era +grows more and more apparent. The Empire, embodiment of an old outworn +theory, has already fallen, and its victorious rival, the Papacy, in so +far as it embodies the mediæval idea of a theocratic supremacy, is +tottering, and it, too, will soon fall before the unsympathetic forces +of a new age. So long as the Papacy stood untouched, it looked as potent +and sovereign, and spoke with as lofty a tone, as in the days of +Innocent; but a hundred years had wrought great changes, and at a push +it tumbled and fell. + +Hints had already been dropped that the dread thunderbolt, the curse of +Rome, which had helped win the proud position of lordship over Europe, +had become mere _brutum fulmen_. Excommunication had been so prodigally +used for political purposes that educated men no longer believed that it +was really the curse of heaven. Moreover, Europe had not been standing +still. The vigorous, compact kingdom of France had come into being, and +flushed with a sense of power and importance, determined to take that +part in European politics which it regarded as its due. In angry +self-confidence the young kingdom confronted the overweening Papacy, +savagely tore off its giant's robe, and laid bare its real weakness. + +Boniface VIII (1294-1303) was the pontiff under whom the papal empire +came to its end. He was a vigorous, energetic, arrogant, eloquent, +handsome man, with a wide knowledge of law, diplomacy, and politics. In +the cathedral at Florence there is a large statue of him, calm and +dignified, almost heroic. He sits with his rochet and tiara on, his +right hand raised with two fingers extended as if blessing,--an unusual +occupation,--and looks far more of this world than of the other. His +contemporary, the Florentine historian, Villani, a Guelf, says: "He was +great-minded and lordly, and coveted much honour, ... and was much +respected and feared for his learning and power. He was very grasping +for money in order to aggrandize the Church and his own relations, +making no shame of gain, for he said that he might do anything with what +belonged to the Church.... He was very learned in books, very wary and +capable, and had great common sense; he had wide knowledge and a good +memory, but was extremely cruel and haughty with his enemies and +adversaries, ... more worldly than befitted his exalted station, and he +did many things displeasing to God." Dante, passionately Ghibelline, +calls Boniface "prince of the new Pharisees" and sends him to hell. + +Boniface's chief enemies, as was usual in the case of a Pope who had +enemies, were Romans. If the Papacy had been able to reduce Rome to real +obedience, its history would have been different. The rebellious +commune and the rebellious barons were constantly on the watch for +favourable opportunities to revolt, or, as they regarded it, to assert +their rights and liberties, and Boniface's first struggle came with the +great House of Colonna. The Colonnas were haughty; he was imperious. +They hinted that he was not legally Pope; he excommunicated them, +proclaimed a crusade, captured and destroyed their fortresses in the +Campagna, and made them deadly enemies. This victory was achieved at a +price thereafter to be paid in full. But for the time Boniface was +triumphant, and seemed, to himself at least, to sit as high as the great +Innocent a hundred years before. + +In the year 1300 he originated the custom, ever since observed, of a +papal jubilee to celebrate the centennial year. For centuries Palestine +had been the destination of pilgrims, and the holy character of Rome had +been passed by, but, now that Palestine was completely lost, Rome +reasserted herself as the pilgrims' city, and crowds again visited the +Roman basilicas. Eager to encourage a practice which he saw would +increase the prestige and the income of the Holy See, Boniface issued +his Bull of Jubilee which promised remission of sins to all pilgrims who +should visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul during the year. + +Pious folk came from everywhere; on an average there were two hundred +thousand at a time. They gave their offerings so generously that, as an +eyewitness says, "Day and night two priests stood beside the altar in +St. Paul's, holding rakes in their hands, raking in the money." It was +noticed, however, that there were no kings or princes in the throng. +That year was the summit of Boniface's prosperity. + +In the mean time the quarrel with France had already begun. The French +king, Philip the Fair, who was the personification of the new lay +spirit, enacted a series of laws against the clergy, and, going counter +to the accepted doctrine of clerical immunity from secular taxation, +levied taxes upon them. This step was portentous. Boniface answered by +absolutely forbidding both taxation and payment of taxes. The King of +France not only persisted in taxation, but also forbade the exportation +of any money from his kingdom, and so deprived the Pope of all his +French revenues. Other angry words and acts followed, and a papal bull +was publicly burnt in Paris. + +Boniface, who had a marked predilection for vehement language, issued a +bull, which deserves to be quoted as it sums up the extreme papal +doctrine and also incidentally reveals how completely he misunderstood +the drift of public opinion. "We are compelled, our faith urging us, to +believe and hold--we do firmly believe and simply confess--that there is +one holy and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither +salvation nor remission of sins.... In this Church there is one Lord, +one faith, one baptism.... Of this one and only Church there is one body +and one head,--not two heads as if it were a monster,--Christ, namely, +and the Vicar of Christ, St. Peter, and the successor of St. Peter.... +We are told by the word of the gospel that in this His fold there are +two swords,--namely, a spiritual and a temporal.... Both swords ... are +in the power of the Church; the one, indeed, to be wielded for the +Church, the other by the Church; the one by the hand of the priest, the +other by the hand of kings and knights, but at the will and sufferance +of the priest. One sword, moreover, ought to be under the other, and the +temporal authority to be subjected to the spiritual.... That the +spiritual exceeds any earthly power in dignity and nobility we ought the +more plainly to confess the more spiritual things excel temporal +ones.... A spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by +no one. This authority, moreover, even though it is given to man, and +exercised through man, is not human but rather divine, being given by +divine lips to Peter and founded on a rock for him and his successors +through Christ Himself; the Lord Himself saying to Peter: 'Whatsoever +thou shalt bind,' etc. Whoever, therefore, resists this power thus +ordained by God, resists the ordination of God. Indeed, we declare, +announce, and define, that it is altogether necessary to salvation for +every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." + +In retort the king, knowing that the country was behind him, convoked +the States-General of the kingdom; which upheld him, charged Boniface +with all sorts of misbehaviour, and called for a general council of the +Church to judge the matters in dispute. + +The crafty king, however, had determined on other means of revenge than +decrees, accusations, and burning bulls; he devised a plot to kidnap +Boniface and fetch him prisoner to France. One William Nogaret, once a +professor of law in a French university, now deep in the king's +counsels, went to Italy, met a vindictive member of the Colonna family, +Sciarra Colonna, and the two arranged the details of the plot. There +were many conspirators, for not only the Colonnas were eager to revenge +themselves, but numerous nobles, dispossessed to make room for the +Pope's relations, were ready to lend a hand. The unsuspecting Boniface, +now an old man of eighty-six years, was at Anagni (a little fortified +town not far from Rome), his native place, but nevertheless honeycombed +with treason; here, from the pulpit of the cathedral where Emperors had +been excommunicated, he proposed to excommunicate the King of France. +Two days before the day set for the excommunication, Nogaret and Sciarra +Colonna, with a troop of soldiers, entered the city which had been +opened by traitors; many of the townsmen ranged themselves under the +French banner. The conspirators broke into the episcopal palace, where +they found the valiant old man seated on a throne, in his pontifical +garments, with the tiara on his head, and a cross in his hand. Sciarra +Colonna dragged him down and would have stabbed him with his dagger but +that Nogaret withheld him by main force. The Pope was made prisoner and +the palace sacked; but in a few days sympathy turned, papal partisans +stormed the palace, rescued Boniface, and carried him to Rome. Here the +Orsini, pretending to befriend him, kept him shut up in the Vatican, +half crazed by fright and fury, till death happily released him (October +11, 1303). Then men remembered an old prophecy uttered concerning him: +"He shall enter like a fox, reign like a lion, and die like a dog." Thus +dramatically the hollowness of papal power was revealed. + +France did not rest content with this insolent act. A year or two later, +a Frenchman of Gascony, the archbishop of Bordeaux, was made Pope by the +French king's influence. This Pope, Clement V (1305-14), never went to +Rome, but took up his abode at Avignon, a little city on the Rhone, not +very far from its mouth. The place was under the overlordship of the +Angevin kings of Naples, but really under the influence of the kings of +France. Here the Papacy stayed for nearly seventy years, practically a +dependency of France. A series of French Popes succeeded one another. +They built on the bank of the Rhone a gigantic fortress, regarded Rome, +the source of their greatness, as a dismal and dangerous out-of-the-way +place, and believed that they had transferred the seat of the Papacy +permanently. This period of exile was regarded by the Italians as a +Babylonish captivity. + +Political degradation was not all. The Roman Curia became a collection +of men of pleasure. The ambitious Popes, even Boniface, had had a touch +of the heroic in them, and erred through pride, arrogance, and hate; but +these Avignonese Popes, though some of them were good men, suffered the +papal court to become a place of amusement, banqueting, and +dissipation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE (1309-1313) + + +After the Papacy had been dragged in servitude to France, the Empire, +like a dying soldier who gets on his feet to shout one shout of triumph +over his enemy's fall, made a last gallant effort to recover life and +strength. The effort was very gallant but very ineffectual, and owes its +chief celebrity to its connection with the great man, who summed up and +reiterated the Imperial creed, somewhat in the same way that Pope +Boniface had summed up and reiterated the papal creed. Both creeds were +dead, but each man believed his fervently, and as Boniface's bulls set +forth the doctrines of Hildebrand and Innocent III, so Dante's treatises +and letters set forth the beliefs of Barbarossa and Frederick II. + +The year of Boniface's jubilee is the year to which Dante assigns his +journey to the abodes of departed spirits, and as the jubilee marked the +close of the mediæval Papacy, so the "Divine Comedy" marks the close of +mediæval theology, and Dante himself stands as the greatest mark at the +boundary between the old world passing away and the modern world coming +in. Giovanni Villani, who was about fifteen years younger, described him +in this way: "He was deeply versed in almost all learning, although he +was a layman; he was a very great poet, a philosopher, and a complete +master of rhetoric in prose and verse as well as in public speech; a +most noble writer, very great in rhyme, with the most beautiful style +that ever was in our language up to his time and since. In his youth he +wrote the book on 'The New Life of Love,' and then when he was in exile +he composed twenty ethical poems and many admirable poems on love; and +he wrote among others three noble epistles; one he sent to the +government of Florence, complaining of his banishment from no fault of +his; another he sent to the Emperor Henry, when he was at the siege of +Brescia, blaming him for his delay, in the tone of a prophet; the third +to the Italian cardinals, during the vacancy after the death of Pope +Clement (V), that they should come to an accord and elect an Italian +Pope; all in Latin, in lofty style, with excellent reasonings and +appeals to authority, which were much praised by men of judgment. This +Dante by reason of his knowledge was somewhat arrogant, haughty, and +disdainful, and, like an ungracious philosopher, he could not talk +easily with unlearned men; but because of his other merits, the learning +and the worth of this great citizen, it seems fitting to give him +perpetual remembrance in this chronicle of mine, notwithstanding that +his noble works left to us in writing bear true testimony to what he was +and confer honourable fame upon our city."[12] + +Dante, by passages in his "Divine Comedy," but more particularly by his +treatise "De Monarchia" (On Universal Empire), enables us to understand +how the Empire could raise its head in Italy sixty years after +Frederick II had died. In Germany after an interregnum, the House of +Hapsburg had mounted the throne, but no one had ventured to cross the +Alps for the Imperial crown. Nevertheless, Dante and the Ghibellines +could not bring themselves to believe that the old familiar institution +had fulfilled its function and was to be cast aside. The conception of +Europe as a group of equal nations had not yet arisen, and Ghibellines +still believed that a Roman Emperor could put down confusion, anarchy, +political chaos, and cure all the ills of Italy. The Ghibellines +believed in the Emperor as Mohammedans believed in Mohammed; if he +should return, exiles (like Dante) would be restored, peace would bloom, +and Rome again become the head of a just and universal empire. Dante, in +the "De Monarchia," first contends that universal empire is necessary to +the well-being of the world; having established that proposition, he +argues that this universal empire rightly belongs to the Roman people, +and proves his point by appeals to Virgil and the New Testament; then he +proceeds to show that the authority of the Empire is derived directly +from God. "Some say," he says, "that Constantine when he was cleansed of +the leprosy by the prayers of Silvester, then Pope, gave the seat of the +Empire, to wit Rome, to the Church, together with many other dignities +appertaining to the Empire. Therefore, they argue, since then no one can +receive those dignities, except he shall receive them from the Church, +to whom they belong.... This proposition I deny; and when they put +forth their proof, I say it proves nothing, because Constantine could +not alienate the dignities of the Empire, nor the Church receive +them.... No man has a right to do things by means of an office entrusted +to him, which go directly counter to that office.... Therefore an +Emperor has no right to divide the Empire ... and the Church in no wise +is able to receive temporal things because the precept expressly forbids +it, as we have it in Matthew 'Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor +brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey,' etc." + +This Ghibelline theory was in flat contradiction to Boniface's theory, +just as the Imperial creed had always contradicted the papal creed. In +Dante's time the two conflicting theories seemed to have become mere +ghosts; when of a sudden the Imperial theory started up in reality. A +new king of the Romans, Henry VII, announced that he was coming into +Italy to take his Imperial crown. The Ghibellines welcomed him with +boundless enthusiasm. Dante, in undeserved exile from Florence, flushed +with the hope of return to his dearly beloved city, wrote a circular +letter to all the princes of Italy:-- + +"Behold now is the acceptable time, in which arise signs of consolation +and peace. For a new day begins to shine, showing the dawn that shall +dissipate the darkness of long calamity. Now the breezes of the East +begin to blow, the lips of heaven redden, and with serenity comfort the +hopes of the peoples. And we who have passed a long night in the desert +shall see the expected joy. + +"Rejoice, O Italy, pitied even by the heathen, now shalt thou be the +envy of the earth, because thy bridegroom, the comfort of the world and +the glory of the people, the most merciful Henry, Divus, Augustus, +Cæsar, hastens to thy espousals. Dry thine eyes, put off the trappings +of woe, O thou Fairest; for he is at hand who shall free thee from the +prison of the ungodly, who shall smite the malignant, and destroy them +with the edge of the sword, and shall give his vineyard to other +husbandmen, who will render the fruits of justice in the time of +harvest." + +The hope that Henry would restore peace and establish order warmed even +the Guelfs; and almost all the Italian cities, excepting stubborn +Florence, sent envoys to greet him as he came to take the Imperial +crown. The French Pope was greatly perplexed as to what to do. On the +one hand, he had begun to wish for an Emperor to subdue the Roman barons +and to be a counterweight to the French king, whom he found too +masterful a protector; on the other hand, he was afraid to displease the +French king, and to do anything that might set the Ghibellines on their +feet again. So he played a double game: he encouraged Henry in the +North, and in the South he strengthened the Angevin King of Naples, the +leader of the Guelfs. Henry VII crossed the Alps in October, 1310. He +was brave, honest, and just; he believed devoutly in his Imperial +mission, desired peace, and wished to be Emperor of Guelf and Ghibelline +alike. At first all went well; many cities opened their gates and +received Imperial vicars; Milan lowered her flags as Henry entered, and +her Guelf archbishop put the iron crown of Lombardy upon his head. But +this happy calm could not last long. Henry was poor, he asked Milan for +a great deal of money, and then demanded, ostensibly as a guard of +honour for his journey to Rome but really as hostages, fifty noblemen +from each of the two parties. The Ghibellines assented: but the Guelfs +suspected treachery and refused; their leaders fled and their houses +were sacked and burned. This was the end of peace. Henry attempted to +enforce obedience. He sacked Cremona, razed her walls to the ground, and +laid siege to Brescia. The horrors of the siege were fearful; the +citizens fought with desperation, but yielded at last to famine and +pestilence. The unfortunate Henry had now been forced into the old +position of German tyrant and Ghibelline party chief; and, instead of +marching directly on Rome, or on rich Florence which was the head and +front of the Guelf cause in the North, he had wasted valuable time in +taking unimportant cities. The Ghibellines were in a fever of +impatience. Dante wrote:-- + +"To the most holy Conqueror, and only lord, our lord Henry, by divine +providence King of the Romans, ever Augustus, your Dante Alighieri, a +Florentine and undeserving exile, and all Tuscans everywhere, who wish +for peace on earth, kiss your feet. + +"For a long time have we wept by the rivers of confusion, and have +incessantly prayed for the protection of a just king, who should ... put +us back in our just rights. When you, successor of Cæsar and Augustus, +crossing the ridges of the Apennines, brought back the venerable +insignia of Rome ... like the sun suddenly uprising, new hope of better +time for Italy shone out. But now men think you delay, or surmise that +you are going back ... and we are constrained by doubt to stand +uncertain and to cry, like John the Baptist, Art thou he that should +come, or do we look for another?... Do you not know, most excellent of +Princes, do you not see from the watch-tower of your exalted height, +where the stinking little fox lurks, safe from the hunters? In truth, +the evil beast does not drink of the headlong Po, nor of your Tiber, +but its wickedness pollutes the rushing waters of the Arno, and the name +of this dire, pernicious creature (do you not know?) is Florence. She is +the viper turned against the breast of its mother; she is the sick sheep +that contaminates the whole herd of her master. Indeed with the +fierceness of a viper she strives to tear her mother; she sharpens the +horns of rebellion against Rome, who made her in her own image and +likeness.... + +"Up, then, break this delay, take confidence from the eyes of the Lord +God of Hosts, in whose sight you act, and lay low this Goliath with the +sling of your wisdom and the stone of your strength; for with his death +the dark night of fear shall cover the camp of the Philistines, and they +shall flee, and Israel shall be set free. And just as now, exiles in +Babylon, we mourn remembering holy Jerusalem, so, then, citizens and at +home, we shall breathe in peace and turn the miseries of confusion into +joy. + +"Written in Tuscany ... fourteen days before the kalends of May, 1311, +in the first year of the coming into Italy of the divine and most happy +Henry." + +Henry did go south, but there were greater obstacles in his way than +Dante imagined. The spirit of the age was against him. It was vain to +try to bring back the past. Florence shut her gates, manned her walls, +sent more money to his enemies, and headed a league of the Guelf cities +in Tuscany and Umbria. Even Rome was half against him. The Ghibelline +nobles received him and took him to their part of the town; but the +Guelfs held St. Peter's, and though there was fierce fighting in the +streets, the Guelfs stood their ground, and Henry was forced to receive +the Imperial crown from the papal legate (the Pope was too prudent to +leave Avignon) in the basilica of St. John Lateran. Here the luckless +Emperor stayed for a time in the midst of ruin, material, political, and +moral. Then he attempted to crush Florence, the ringleader of +disobedience, but her walls were too strong; the impotent Emperor could +do no more than harry the country-side. He fell back upon Ghibelline +Pisa, and set patiently to work to gather together a new army. The +Ghibellines gallantly responded to his call, and Henry actually set +forth on his way to Naples, to punish the House of Anjou and avenge the +Hohenstaufens, but death cut short his lofty plans. He died in a little +town near Siena (1313), and the hopes of Dante and the Ghibellines were +ruined forever. The last flicker of the Empire had gone out. + +Other Emperors, it is true, crossed the Alps, but not as masters. The +connection of Italy with the Holy Roman Empire ends with the death of +the gallant Henry. The mediæval Papacy and the mediæval Empire had +passed away, for the Middle Ages themselves had come to an end. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] _Storia di Firenze_, lib. ix, cap. cxxxv. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A REVIEW OF THE STATES OF ITALY (ABOUT 1300) + + +Now that the two great actors, whose long-drawn quarrel has been the +main thread of Italian history, have made their exits, and left us, as +it were, with a sense of emptiness, it becomes necessary to call the +roll and make a better acquaintance with the lesser _dramatis personæ_, +who step to the front of the stage and carry on the plot of history. The +programme reads as follows:-- + + DRAMATIS PERSONÆ + + The Papacy An absentee. + The Empire A shadow. + The Kingdom of Naples House of Anjou reigning. + The Kingdom of Sicily House of Aragon reigning. + Florence A Guelf democracy. + Siena Ghibelline city. + Pisa Ghibelline city. + Genoa A maritime aristocracy. + Venice A maritime oligarchy. + Milan A Lombard commune. + Savoy A feudal county. + + Guelf cities of Tuscany, communes of Lombardy, + petty marquisates of the northwest, + etc. + +In the South, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies has already been torn in +two. Charles of Anjou, the conqueror of the Hohenstaufens, clever, +shrewd, and capable as he was, had overreached himself. He entertained +great ambitions, and was dreaming of Constantinople and its imperial +crown, when a rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers broke out in +Sicily. The country had been overrun with French office-holders and +French soldiers, and the Sicilians, who regretted the Hohenstaufens, had +reached the utmost limit of endurance. The whole island had become a +powder-box; it was a mere matter of accident where and how the powder +would ignite. A French soldier insulted a woman on her way to church. In +a moment he was killed and his fellow soldiers massacred to a man. +"Death to the French!" resounded over the island, and the infuriated +Sicilians put all to the sword. The revolutionists needed a leader, and, +as the old Norman blood royal still survived in Manfred's daughter, they +invited her husband, King Pedro of Aragon, to be their king. Pedro +accepted, and he and his descendants, the House of Aragon, made good +their claim to the throne of Sicily against all the attempts of the +House of Anjou and of the lords suzerain, the Popes, to oust them. By +this revolution, Sicily was separated from the Kingdom of Naples for +more than a hundred years. + +In the centre of Italy there was great disorder. The lords of the Papal +States remained at Avignon, and attempted to govern their dominions by +legates; but though their sovereignty nominally extended from the +Tyrrhene Sea to the Adriatic, they were impotent to enforce it. There +was no unity; each town was governed separately by a papal legate, by a +powerful baron, or by a communal government. Rome itself, which in the +absence of the Popes had dwindled to a little city of ruins, towers, +churches, vineyards, and vegetable gardens, was in constant disorder. +The towns near by were often faithful to their allegiance, but across +the Apennines the obstinate little cities between the mountains and the +sea were almost always independent. At present there is nothing of +sufficient interest to prevent us from treating Rome as carelessly as +the Popes did, and passing hurriedly through to Florence and the +independent communes of Northern Italy where we must pause. + +Prior to the wars between the Empire and the Papacy feudal institutions +had prevailed there, though with less vigour in Northern Italy than +elsewhere in Europe, and all the land had been divided up into various +fiefs, in which counts and marquesses held sway. During those wars the +cities shook off Imperial dominion and got rid of Imperial rulers, and +began their careers as independent Italian communes. Most of these +cities were of old Roman foundation, but the time of Hildebrand and +Henry IV may be deemed their nativity, as then they first appear in +Italian history as individuals. All these towns were little republics, +each with its own character, but all conforming more or less to a +general type. Within massive walls the city clustered round two main +points, the cathedral, which was flanked by belfry and baptistery, and +the _piazza_ (public square), on which fronted the _Palazzo Pubblico_, +the city hall, where the magistrates had their offices. Round about and +radiating off, houses and palaces, grim and heavy, stood high above the +narrow streets. Scattered here and there scores of private fortresses +raised their great towers thirty yards and more into the air. Street, +palace, tower, all were obviously ready for street warfare, waiting on +tiptoe for the bells to ring. + +The citizens were divided into three classes. The upper class included +the old nobility, the high clergy, the large merchants, the rich +bankers; the middle class included the petty merchants, the tradesfolk, +the master artisans; and below them came the miscellaneous many. In some +cities the nobility, allying itself with the proletariat, held the +political power. But in the more democratic cities, like Florence, the +trades and crafts controlled the government. In Florence there were +seven greater guilds,--judges and notaries, wool-merchants, refiners and +dyers of foreign wool, silk-dealers, money-changers, physicians and +apothecaries, furriers; and fourteen lesser guilds,--butchers, +shoemakers, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, and so on. Every freeman +was obliged to belong to one of the guilds; Dante was enrolled in the +guild of physicians and apothecaries. Trades and crafts descended from +father to son, and each guild was divided into masters, journeymen, and +apprentices. + +In the government, executive, legislative, and judicial powers were +distinguished, but not strictly separated. The executive power was +vested in one man, or in several men, who were assisted by a kind of +privy council. This council superintended various matters of public +concern, such as weights, measures, highways, and fines. There was also +a larger council, to which, as well as to public office generally, only +the enfranchised citizens were eligible. These privileged persons were +never more than a small fraction of the population; in Florence, for +instance, barely three thousand, even in her populous days. Finally, +there was a _parliament_ or assembly of all the free citizens, which met +on the _piazza_, and shouted approval or disapproval to such questions +as were submitted to it. + +In the earlier days the joint executives were called _consuls_. Their +places were not easy. If they were fair to all, they displeased their +own party; if unfair to the opposite party, they were liable to +retaliation. The difficulties of partisanship led to the appointment of +a new officer, the _podestà_. The name and idea came from the governors +put in the Imperial cities by Barbarossa. The _podestà_, who was elected +by the citizens, supplanted the consuls in all their more important +functions; he became the head of both the civil and the military +service, a kind of governor. He was a nobleman, chosen, in the hope of +avoiding local partisanship, from some other Italian city. The citizens, +if Guelf, of course chose a Guelf; if Ghibelline, a Ghibelline. When the +_podestà's_ term of office, which was usually six months or a year, +began, he came to the city bringing two knights, several judges, +councillors, and notaries, a seneschal and attendants, and in the +_piazza_ took his oath of office,--to observe the laws, to do justice, +and to wrong no man. His duties, and often his movements, were +carefully prescribed; sometimes he was not allowed to enter any house in +the city other than the palace prepared for him. At the end of his term +he was obliged to linger for a time, in order to give anybody who might +be aggrieved an opportunity to lodge a complaint against him and obtain +redress. Such was the ordinary form of communal government; but the +constitutions varied in different cities, and in each city shifted every +few years, as class feeling, partisan enmity, or new men suggested +changes. + +The prosperity and power of these communes came from trade, and show how +trade prospered and riches accumulated. Some merchant guilds carried on +a very extensive business. Take the wool guild of Florence. Tuscany +yielded a poor quality of wool, and as it was impossible to weave good +cloth from poor wool, these Florentine merchants imported raw wool from +Tunis, Barbary, Spain, Flanders, and England, wove it into cloth so +deftly that foreigners could not compete with them, and exported it to +the principal markets of Europe. Trade with the North, however, was less +important than trade with the East. Merchandise was carried over the +seas more easily than over the Alps, and in many respects the products +of the East were better and more varied than those of northern Europe. +The Italians loaded the galleys of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa with silken +and woollen stuffs, oil, wine, pitch, tar, and common metals, and +brought back from Alexandria, Constantinople, and the ports of Asia +Minor and Syria, pearls, gold, spices, sugar, Eastern silk, wool and +cotton, goatskins and dyes, and sometimes Eastern slaves. Such a wide +commerce outstripped the capacity of barter and cash, and gave rise to a +system of banking, with its attendant credits and bills of exchange. The +quick-witted Florentines excelled at this business, and great banking +houses, like the Bardi and the Peruzzi, had branches or correspondents +in all the chief cities. + +This large commerce in face of the obstacles that barred its way seems +extraordinary. A city like Florence, for instance, especially in the +earlier days, was greatly hampered by the conditions about her. Outside +her walls, within the radius of a dozen or twenty miles, were castles +manned by arrogant nobles, who made traffic unsafe. They would not +conform to the new economic condition of society except upon compulsion. +Rival cities refused to let Florentine wares pass through their +territories without payment of ruinous tolls. Wars were waged to +moderate these exactions. Or, again, war was necessary to enforce the +rights of Florentine citizens in other cities. Moreover, each city had +its own system of weights and measures, its own coinage; each imposed +customs on all wares entering its gates, in earlier days so much a +cart-load, afterwards a percentage of the value. On all highways, at all +bridges and fords, there were tolls to be paid. From city to city a +merchant had to change his money, until in later times certain coins, +like the Florentine florin, passed current everywhere; and sometimes, on +entering the gates, he was obliged to adopt a distinguishing badge, as, +for instance, according to the usage at Bologna, putting a piece of red +wax on his thumb-nail. These were the fetters placed on trade in time of +peace; but peace itself was transitory and uncertain. Apart from the +wars with the Emperor, the cities periodically fought the feudal +nobility, or one another. Venice made war on Ravenna, Pisa on Lucca, +Vicenza on Treviso, Fano on Pesaro, Verona on Padua, Modena on Bologna, +and the greater cities, like Milan and Florence, on any or all of their +respective neighbours. When a city had no absorbing war abroad, factions +fought at home. Burghers and nobles barricaded the streets, manned the +towers, rang the bells, shot and hacked one another with spasmodic fury. +The burghers generally won. They then banished hundreds of their +adversaries, and made laws against them. In some cities a register was +kept to record the names of the nobles whose democracy was suspected; in +others, as in Lucca, nobles were excluded from all share in the +government, and were not allowed to testify against burghers. In Pisa, +if there was disquiet in the streets, the nobles were obliged to stay +indoors. + +These factions called themselves Guelfs and Ghibellines. At first Guelfs +were the burghers of the communes and partisans of the Papacy, and +Ghibellines partisans of the Empire and the feudal system; but +subsequently the terms merely served to distinguish political parties, +whose platforms, as we should say, shifted with questions of the hour. +Even when these two factions were at peace, they distinguished +themselves by different badges and fashions. The merlons of the Guelf +battlements were square, those of the Ghibelline swallow-tailed. Good +party men wore caps of diverse pattern, did their hair differently, cut +their bread and folded their napkins in different ways. It was enough +that one side should bow, take an oath, harness a horse, in one mode, +for the other side to start a contrary fashion. + +The growth of population, of property, of commerce, however, shows that +history may easily dwell too much upon fighting and war. In these petty +wars and street frays, the numbers engaged were few, and but little +blood was shed. Most of the fighting was a consequence of economic +difficulties. It was the mediæval equivalent of strikes, lock-outs, +boycotts, undersellings, rivalries, riots, and other phenomena of modern +industry. + +The maritime cities were in a very different position from the inland +cities, and had a different history. They enjoyed great advantages for +trade. No feudal barons could bar the sea, and pirates and infidels were +not serious impediments. Greater commercial prosperity, however, begot +more bitter commercial jealousy. Genoa hated Pisa; no Genoese sailor +could endure the cut of a Pisan sail. Both cities had a large trade in +the Levant, and being so near each other became deadly rivals. They +fought spasmodically for years, from the Gulf of Genoa to the Black Sea, +and at last came to the death grapple. The time was unfortunate for +Ghibelline Pisa, as a Guelf league had been attacking her on land. The +decisive battle was fought off the island of Meloria, a few miles from +the mouth of the Arno. The Genoese, who outnumbered the Pisans, won a +great victory, destroyed or captured many galleys, and took ten +thousand prisoners (1284). Pisa never recovered from this blow. Florence +and Lucca took immediate advantage of it to unite with Genoa, and force +Pisa to submit to a Guelf government; and from this time on greedy +Florence, like a hawk, kept her eyes fixed on poor Pisa, impatient for +the time when she should seize her prey. + +Genoa remained a republic, active, eager, impetuous, torn by factions +and subject to many vicissitudes, but lack of space compels us to leave +her and pass on to where "Venice sits in state, throned on her hundred +isles." She, queen of the sea, had even a more lavish portion of +individuality than her sister cities, individual as they all were, and +hardly belonged to Italy, so completely did she hold herself aloof from +the two great interests of mediæval Italy, the Empire and the Papacy. No +cries of Pope's men and king's men, of Guelf and Ghibelline, disturbed +the Grand Canal or the Piazza of St. Mark's; no feudal incumbrances +hampered her mercantile spirit, nor did papal anathemas cause a single +Venetian ship to shift her course. Venice had long remained loyal to +Constantinople, and even after all political dependence had ceased, was, +in character and aspect, more a Constantinople of the West than an +Italian city, a grown-up daughter, more beautiful than her beautiful +mother, who, living her own triumphant and unfilial life, still retained +many of her mother's traits. Untroubled by sentiment, even in the +Crusades, Venice always kept steadily in view her fixed purpose of +increasing her commerce and of securing foreign markets; and this +purpose shaped her political actions, and also, indirectly, the form of +her government. + +Originally the citizens, assembled in public meeting, elected the Doge, +and exercised a right to vote on important political matters; but the +great families soon acquired control, and little by little turned the +government into an oligarchy. The first great step was taken in +Barbarossa's time, just when the Lombard cities were struggling to free +themselves from Imperial dominion. A Great Council of four hundred and +eighty members was established, to which were given the powers of +legislation, appointment, electing the Doge, and filling vacancies in +itself. The franchises of the people were all taken away and the +oligarchy left supreme. This oligarchy of merchant princes, in whom +patriotism, pride of place, and love of gain harmoniously accorded, was +an exceedingly competent body of men. The greatness of Venice was their +greatness, and they pursued it devotedly. Beginning early in life these +patricians were trained for their duties by service in the navy and in +the merchant marine, or by employment in the government of the various +cities, islands, and territories included in the long stretch of +coastwise empire. Knowing that Venice lived by commerce they made every +effort by war, diplomacy, and private enterprise, to extend that +commerce. After the conquest and division of the Eastern Empire (1204) +they became more eager than ever for a monopoly of trade with the +Levant, and inevitably came into deadly rivalry with Genoa, also +passionately eager to hold the gorgeous East in fee. + +The wars with Genoa, destructive though they were for the time being, +were of service to the aristocracy, for they made the Venetians +appreciate the value of a compact governing body; and the aristocracy +took advantage of that appreciation to tighten its hold on the +government. + +Throughout the thirteenth century the Great Council, though it consisted +entirely, or almost entirely, of patricians and elected its own members, +had been open to all classes. Any citizen, however unlikely to be +elected, was eligible. At the close of the century the patricians +secured the enactment of a series of measures, which in substance +divided the citizens into two classes, those whose ancestors had sat in +the Great Council, and those whose ancestors had not, and decreed that +only members of the first class should be eligible. This legislation is +known as the closing of the Great Council. As all those who were +eligible naturally wished to become members, the Council gradually +increased until it finally numbered over fifteen hundred. The patricians +also further curtailed the powers of the Doge, divided the various +functions of government among the main subdivisions of the Council,--the +Senate, the Council of Forty, the Doge's cabinet, and the Council of +Ten,--and gave to the State the definite form of government which it +maintained to its end. + +From Venice we must pass by Milan and the cities of the Po, to where in +the extreme Northwest the Counts of Savoy, perched on the Alps, +maintained a precarious sovereignty over both slopes, with no resources +except the muscles of their mountaineers and the possession of Alpine +passes. Little did the proud maritime cities, Genoa and Venice, the +great inland cities, Milan and Florence, and Rome least of all, suspect +that these poor counts would one day consolidate all the territory from +the foot of the mountains to the Riviera in a compact little kingdom +(Piedmont), and from that as a pedestal, step to still higher honours. +The House of Savoy runs aristocratically back into legend; but about the +year 1000, a certain Humbert of the White Hand, emerging from historic +obscurity, obtained the city of Turin and part of Piedmont, as a +marriage portion for his son, and thereby secured to his house a footing +in Italy (1045). In the course of another century or so these Savoyards +in a succession of Humberts and Amedeos, brave, shrewd, and usually +successful men, extended their dominions by war, by marriage, and by +bargains. They made the most of their position as door-keepers to Italy, +and exacted various privileges from needy Emperors, as the price of +passing the Alps. They fought rival counts, waged innumerable petty +wars, and rightly or wrongly acquired territories which are now parts of +France, Switzerland, and Italy. The succession of counts reads like any +other mediæval genealogy; and their exploits, raids, and sieges viewed +from this cold distance have a somewhat monotonous similarity; but +survival proves the worth and valour of the stock, and when after long +centuries the people of Italy had need of princes, the House of Savoy +was the only noble house that had retained power and respect. It is a +brilliant example of the truth of the saying that those who have been +faithful over a few things shall be masters over many. + +Such were the political divisions of Italy in this transition period +which intervenes between the departing Middle Ages and the incoming +Modern World. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE RENAISSANCE + + +This intervening period--the twilight between the Middle Ages and the +dawn of the Modern World--needs a little further emphasis, from the very +fact that it is a period of transition and sheds light both on the time +before and the time after. On its emotional side it belonged to the +Middle Ages, on its intellectual side it belonged to the Modern World. + +Its religion was essentially mediæval. For instance, a religious wave +arose in Perugia, spread through Italy, and crossed the Alps. Hosts of +penitents, hundreds and thousands, lamenting, praying, scourging +themselves, went from city to city. Men, women, and children, barefoot, +walked by night over the winter's snow, carrying tapers, to find relief +for their emotional frenzy. These Flagellants were like a primitive +Salvation Army, and gave unconscious expression to the profound and +widespread discontent with the Church. Their actions, however, so +clearly exhibited religious mania that governments took alarm; the +hard-headed rulers of Milan erected six hundred gallows on their borders +and threatened to hang every Flagellant who came that way. + +Other forms of religious sentiment were more rational, and expressed +themselves in passionate calls for peace between neighbours and +countrymen. Priests adjured the fighting cities to be friends: "Oh, when +will the day come that Pavia shall say to Milan, Thy people are my +people, and Crema to Cremona, Thy city is my city?" In Genoa, one +morning before daybreak, the church bells rang, and the astonished +citizens, huddling on their clothes, beheld their archbishop, surrounded +by his clergy with lighted candles, making the factional leaders swear +on the bones of St. John Baptist to lay aside their mutual hate. Gregory +X (1271-76) pleaded with the Florentine Guelfs to take back the banished +Ghibellines. "A Ghibelline is a Christian, a citizen, a neighbour; then, +shall these great names, all joined, yield to that one word, Ghibelline? +And shall that single word--an idle term for none know what it +means--have greater power for hate than all those three, which are so +clear and strong, for love and charity? And since you say that you have +taken up this factional strife for the sake of the Popes of Rome, now, +I, Pope of Rome, have taken back to my bosom these prodigal citizens of +yours, however far they may have offended, and putting behind me all +past wrongs, hold them to be my sons."[13] In consequence of Gregory's +passionate entreaty, one hundred and fifty leaders of each party met and +embraced on the sandy flats of the Arno. + +The most famous of these emotional peace-makings was the work of a +Dominican monk of Vicenza. On a great plain just outside Verona, a vast +congregation assembled (a contemporary said 400,000 people), from all +the warring cities far and near, bishops, barons, burghers, artisans, +serfs, women, and children. The monk preached upon the text, "My peace I +give unto you." The great company beat their breasts, wept for +repentance and joy, and embraced one another. Then the friar raised the +crucifix and cried, "Blessed be he who shall keep this peace, and cursed +be he who shall violate it;" and the audience answered "Amen." It is +hardly necessary to say that these emotional peace-makings were soon +followed by martial emotions; freed prisoners were hurried back to +prison, the recalled were banished again, and sword and halberd were +picked up with appetites whetted by abstinence. + +The intellectual side of this period is best represented by the +universities, which had sprung up in many of the North Italian cities in +the preceding century. The term university signified a guild of +students, and possessed many of the characteristics of our colleges. The +university was composed of students and professors, and governed itself. +It owned neither lands nor buildings, and in case of need could shift +its abode with little trouble. The students, at least in a great +university like that of Bologna whither young men flocked by thousands +from all Europe, were divided into two bodies, those from beyond the +Alps and Italians. These two bodies were subdivided into groups +according to their state or city. Each group elected representatives, +and these, together with special electors, elected the rector. This +representative body made a formal treaty with the town authorities, and +secured good terms, because the presence of a university, bringing +money and fame, was of great consequence to the town. The professors +were appointed by the students. At Bologna Roman law was the chief +study, and very famous jurists lectured there. We may remember that +Barbarossa had recourse to Bologna when he was in need of lawyers to +determine his Imperial rights. It was Roman law that attracted the great +concourse of students, for the growing needs of civilization made a +constant demand for men learned in the law; but other branches of +knowledge were also taught, theology, canon law, medicine, and +astrology, as well as the so-called _quadrivium_, music, arithmetic, +geometry, and astronomy. + +The universities, although theology and canon law were taught in them, +distinctly represented the secular side of intellectual life. The +religious, at least the theological side, was represented by the Church, +and more particularly by those philosophers who devoted themselves to +that mixture of theology and philosophy known as scholasticism. The +greatest of them was Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), whose surname is derived +from a little village, Aquino, once existing near Monte Cassino in +Neapolitan territory. Aquinas lectured at various universities. His +great work, "Summa Theologiæ," was a justification of the Roman Catholic +faith by an appeal to the reason and to science as then accepted. He +started on premises laid down by the Church, and justified all the +derivative doctrines by close logic and clear reasoning, as well as by +appeals to the Bible, to Aristotle, then deemed the possessor of all +knowledge, and to the Church fathers. His work is a complete exposition +of God, nature, and man, as conceived by mediæval theology, and is still +taught by the Catholic Church as the true exposition of its doctrines. +The grateful Church canonized him, his treatise being the miracles he +had performed, and named him the Angelic Doctor. Those of us whose minds +have no natural aptitude for scholasticism, find his views on purely +earthly matters much easier to understand, and not uninteresting, as +they throw light on the democratic character of the Church. Speaking of +positive law, Aquinas says that it should consist of "reasonable +commands for the common good, promulgated by him who has charge of the +public weal;" and of kings, that "a prince who makes personal +gratification instead of the general happiness his aim, ceases to be +legitimate, and it is not rebellion to depose him, provided the attempt +shall not cause greater ills than his tyranny;" and, of the nobility, +that "many men make a mistake and deem themselves noble, because they +come of a noble house.... This inherited nobility deserves no envy, +except that noblemen are bound to virtue for shame of being unworthy of +their stocks; true nobility is only of the soul." St. Thomas Aquinas is +also interesting because his theology inspires Dante throughout the +"Divine Comedy." + +These diverse traits, emotional and intellectual, were natural to a +period of transition, when society was passing from an age in which the +chief interests were emotional to one in which the chief interests were +intellectual; and it is interesting to notice that at the same time +social life was passing from a stage of extreme simplicity to one of +comparative luxury. The accumulation of wealth had its effect in every +department of life; it gave people time and opportunity for intellectual +interests, and also for luxury and more delicate needs. The advance in +wealth was very rapid. By the year 1300 men had already begun to blame +the luxurious habits of their time, and to look back to the simplicity +of their grandfathers as to an age of primitive innocence. Dante gives +full expression to these sentiments through the mouth of his ancestor, +Cacciaguida, in the "Paradiso." Others speak in the same way. One of +them, referring to the time of Frederick II, says: "In those times the +manners of the Italians were rude. A man and his wife ate off the same +plate. There were no wooden-handled knives, nor more than one or two +drinking-cups in a house. Candles of wax or tallow were unknown; a +servant held a torch during supper. The clothes of men were of leather +unlined; scarcely any gold or silver was seen on their dress. The common +people ate flesh but three times a week, and kept their cold meat for +supper. Many did not drink wine in summer. A small stock of corn seemed +riches. The portions of women were small; their dress, even after +marriage, was simple. The pride of men was to be well provided with arms +and horses; that of the nobility to have lofty towers, of which all the +cities in Italy were full. But now frugality has been changed for +sumptuousness; everything exquisite is sought after in dress,--gold, +silver, pearls, silks, and rich furs. Foreign wines and rich meats are +required. Hence usury, rapine, fraud, tyranny," etc.[14] + +To us to-day this period of transition, with its mediæval mixture of +commerce, religion, and war, of emotion and logic, of admiration for St. +Augustine and belief in the infallibility of Aristotle, looks extremely +odd. We forget that our generation may be in danger of similar +criticism. Odd or not, this was the state of Italy in the period +preceding that great burst of the arts and intellectual life known as +the Renaissance. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] _Storia degli Italiani_, Cesare Cantù, vol. ii, p. 851 (19). + +[14] _Europe in the Middle Ages_, Hallam, p. 630. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN AFTER THE MIDDLE AGES (1260-1336) + + +Though the beginning of the Modern World manifested itself in every +department of life, political, social, and intellectual, it is best +known to us through the arts, because in them it embodied itself in +permanent forms. Italy suddenly leaped forward, as if she had drained a +beaker of champagne. To explain and illustrate this burst of passion, +the books generally use such phrases as emphasis upon individuality, +imitation of the classic, observation of nature, wider range of +interest, the awakening of spiritual energy, etc. No doubt the phrases +are just, but one must remember that underneath these manifestations of +an eager interest in life, there actually was a larger, happier life, +due in great measure to security, ease, and the accumulation of +property, which set men free from the bondage of continuous daily labour +to satisfy corporal needs. Of that happier life, with its gayety and +luxury, Villani, the historian of Florence, has given us a description. +He himself was a boy at the time. "In the year of Our Lord 1283 the city +of Florence, chiefly on account of the Guelfs who were in power, was +prosperous and at peace, and in a state of great tranquillity, which was +very advantageous to the merchants and artisans. In June, at the Feast +of St. John, in the quarter across the Arno, where the Rossi and their +neighbours were the principal people, the nobility and the rich +organized themselves into a company, and adopted a dress all white, and +chose a master called the Lord of Love. The object of the company was to +have feasts, games, and dances for the ladies and gentlemen of the city, +and other persons of quality. They used to parade the town with trumpets +and other musical instruments, and had great dinners and suppers and all +kinds of jollity. The festivities lasted nearly two months, and were the +finest and most celebrated that were ever held in Florence or all +Tuscany. Gentlemen and troubadours came from far and near, and all were +received and entertained with distinction. And it is worth remembering +that the city and its citizens were better off then than they had ever +been, and this prosperity continued till the division into Burghers and +_Grandi_. There were then in Florence three hundred knights, and there +were many companies of gentlemen and ladies, who morning and evening +kept open table richly spread, and had buffoons in attendance, so that +from Lombardy and all Italy jesters, players, and jugglers came to +Florence, and all were welcome; and whenever a stranger of distinction +passed through the city there was rivalry between the companies to get +him as their guest, and then he was accompanied, on foot or on +horseback, all through the city and the country round, most politely." + +This was the light and careless side of the general awakening of +interest in life, which showed itself in so many nobler forms. + +In literature Dante (1265-1321) is the first great figure. But, owing to +his disproportional importance, we are liable to forget that he has his +orderly place in the revival of poetry and literature which began in the +brilliant court of Frederick II in Sicily. On the destruction of the +Hohenstaufens, the poetic primacy passed to Bologna, where Guido +Guinicelli and others composed poetry in a somewhat learned fashion, as +befitted a university town, and then passed on to Tuscany, and in +particular to Florence, where Dante was preceded by his friend Guido +Cavalcanti. Dante, although distinctly mediæval by his theology, his +appeals to the authority of Virgil and Aristotle, and by his political +views, has the characteristics of the new spiritual energy. He lays +immense stress on individuality, and delineates real life with wonderful +vividness. These traits mark him as belonging to the new world coming in +rather than to the old world going out. + +From the point of view of history, Dante's most marked achievement, +perhaps, was to raise the Tuscan (or more strictly speaking the +Florentine) idiom, from among many competitors, to the dignity of being +the Italian language. This was the consequence of writing the "Divine +Comedy" in Tuscan, instead of in Latin. Dante's Tuscan verses were +recited in the tavern and on the _piazza_, and were greeted with loud +applause by apprentices and artisans, shopmen and tavern-keepers. He +excited the enthusiasm of both educated and ignorant. At that time the +spoken dialects were very numerous. A friend remonstrating with Dante +for writing in an Italian dialect instead of in Latin, said that there +were a thousand. Dante himself in his treatise "On the Vernacular +Speech" enumerates Sicilian, Calabrian, Apulian, Roman, Tuscan, Genoese, +Sardinian, Romagnol, Lombard, Venetian, and others. These dialects of +the provinces were further subdivided among themselves. In Tuscany the +people of Siena spoke one idiom, those of Arezzo another. In Lombardy +the citizens of Ferrara spoke in one way, the citizens of Piacenza in +another. Even in one city, as in Bologna, the dwellers in St. Felix +Street and those in Greater Street did not speak alike. Besides the +difficulties of many dialects, besides the immense prestige of Latin as +the language of learning, of law, of the Church, French appeared as a +possible literary language for Italy. Authors in Florence, Venice, +Siena, and Pisa wrote books in French, "because the French language goes +over the world, and is more delectable to read and to hear than any +other." But Dante made the Florentine tongue immortal, and not only +wrote the "Divine Comedy" in Florentine, but also "The New Life" and +"The Banquet." Prior to his time the divers idioms had stood on an +equality; after his time Tuscan became the language of polite speech and +of literature, the real Italian language, and the others were degraded +to the position of mere dialects. Petrarch and Boccaccio, both +Florentines, also deserve their share of praise. Petrarch's sonnets and +Boccaccio's stories firmly established the primacy to which Dante had +raised the Tuscan idiom. + +The revival of sculpture also began before the middle of the thirteenth +century. Here the great leader is Niccolò Pisano (1206-78?). There has +been a dispute as to his birthplace. Some say he came from Southern +Italy and learned his art there. If this theory is true, Frederick's +kingdom has the honour of having revived sculpture as well as +literature; but it is more likely that Niccolò came from some village in +Tuscany, and early went to Pisa, where he got his designation _Pisano_. +The first certain record of his work is an inscription on the pulpit in +the Baptistery at Pisa, which states that he completed the pulpit in +1260. Pisa was then at the height of her glory, in the happy years +before her fatal conflict with Genoa; she had built the Cathedral, the +Leaning Tower, and the Baptistery, and now wished to beautify them +within. Niccolò's pulpit shows both imitation of the classic and +observation of nature. He had before him bits of ancient sarcophagi, +which had been built into the wall of the Cathedral: his Madonna bears +traces of the Phædra of the sarcophagus, one of his three Wise Men +resembles a young Greek, and his modelling in general has a touch of +classic freedom, dignity, and repose. In his conception of the scenes +Niccolò adhered to ecclesiastical tradition, just as Dante did to +ecclesiastical theology, but in his figures, in the drapery and various +details, his faithfulness to reality is striking, at least when compared +with the Byzantine style theretofore prevailing. The success of this +pulpit was so great that a few years later he was asked to carve another +for the cathedral in Siena. An envoy came on purpose, and in the +Baptistery of Pisa a contract was drawn up in which it was agreed that +Niccolò should go to Siena and stay till the work was done, taking three +assistants, and also his young son Giovanni, at half pay, if he wished. +This contract was made in 1265, the year of Dante's birth. Niccolò also +worked at Bologna, Perugia, Pistoia, probably at Lucca and almost +certainly in many other places. This was the period of the free +development of the communes after the death of Frederick II, and +Niccolò's popularity is proof of widespread prosperity and interest in +art. Niccolò's son Giovanni (1250-1328?) inherited his father's genius; +and his work, especially his masterpiece, a pulpit at Pistoia, shows how +fast art was developing. Giovanni, in his eagerness to express the +animation and passion of life, neglected the classic and went directly +to nature, at least in desire if not in execution. This passionate +interest in life is the very quality that gives Dante's "Inferno" its +intense vividness. These two Pisani founded the great Tuscan school of +sculpture, and influenced both painting and architecture as well. + +Italian architecture at this time does not show one great figure like +Niccolò Pisano, nor does it show a definite beginning of a new period. +On the contrary, throughout the Middle Ages building held its own +surprisingly well in comparison with the other arts. In the days of +Theodoric the Ostrogoth, it carried on the Byzantine tradition at +Ravenna, and for centuries the churches in Rome were built on the old +basilican principle. Over a hundred years before Dante was born, and +before Niccolò carved his pulpit, the Lombard style flourished in +Lombardy, Tuscan Romanesque in Tuscany, and Norman Sicilian in Sicily. +Before the Empire had received its _coup de grâce_ the Gothic style came +down from the North, and its struggle with the Romanesque seemed to +typify the conflict between the German Empire and the Italian people. +Nevertheless, if we confine ourselves to Tuscany, as perhaps is fair in +view of the very great influence of Tuscany on all the arts, there is +one man who stands out conspicuous. Arnolfo di Cambio (1232-1300?) began +life as one of Niccolò's assistants at Pisa, and did so well that he was +included by name in the contract for the pulpit at Siena. In Florence he +built the church of Santa Croce for the Franciscans, designed the +Palazzo Vecchio, and made the first plans for the Duomo; and so left a +deep impress on Florence and through Florence on the world. + +In painting, more than in any other art or department of life, perhaps, +authority had reigned supreme throughout the Middle Ages. The decadent +Greek painters of Constantinople had made a series of rules, which were +as autocratic as the edicts of the Emperors. Every Madonna was painted +in one attitude, with her eyes opening wide in the same way, arms, legs, +and body in the same constrained position, with the same wooden child in +her wooden lap, and the same wooden saints about her. But gradually, +side by side with the art of authority, another style, at first very +simple and primitive, developed. The older style dominated mosaic work, +and as mosaics were most intimately associated with the symbolic +representation of sacred things, it was strongly intrenched behind all +the beliefs and prejudices of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the +revolutionary spirit in Tuscany, for the leaders of the revolution which +threw off the authority of the Middle Ages came from among the free men +of Tuscany, prevailed in painting as well as elsewhere. The last of the +masters who employed the Byzantine manner was Cimabue (1240-1302); yet +Cimabue had a sense of the coming change, and showed a desire to break +through the enveloping shell of Byzantine authority and portray the +grace and beauty of living human beings. However mediæval his manner +seems to us, his contemporaries, eager as the Athenians for new things, +perceived the novelty in it. When he was painting a Madonna for the +Dominican monks in Florence, Charles of Anjou, fresh from his triumph +over Manfred, visited his studio for the honour of a first view, and +crowds pressed about hoping to get a glimpse of the picture. When the +picture was carried through the streets to its destination in the church +of Santa Maria Novella, a great procession followed, as if it were a +hero returned from the wars. Poor Cimabue, however, is seldom mentioned +except as a dull background against which the conquering Giotto stands +in brilliant relief. + +Giotto (1267?-1336) is the master revolutionist of painting. He was a +contemporary of Dante, a few years younger, born at the time when +Niccolò and Giovanni were working at the pulpit in Siena, and Charles +of Anjou was posing as an admirer of the fine arts in Cimabue's studio. +He painted Dante in a fresco on the wall of the Bargello (a palace in +Florence), at least so tradition says; and Dante in the "Divine Comedy" +speaks of him as outstripping the once renowned Cimabue. Giotto was an +ugly little man, of great character and quick wit. Various stories are +told of his repartees. Once, when he was painting for the King of Naples +and working with great diligence, the king, who used to watch him, said, +"Giotto, if I were you, I should not work so hard." "I shouldn't,--if I +were you," retorted Giotto. He studied under Giovanni Pisano, and +learned so much that it has been said that "Giotto is the greatest work +of the Pisani." Giotto was also the successor to Arnolfo as the leading +architect in Florence, and built the Campanile of the Duomo, and, being +likewise a sculptor, modelled some of the bas-reliefs that ornament the +panels of the base. His great art was painting, and especially the +painting of figures. Giotto was in demand to paint frescoes on the walls +of churches and chapels at Florence, Arezzo, Assisi, Padua, Ravenna, +Rome, and Naples; and other painters came from far and near to study +under him. He dominated Italian painting, and his school was the only +school for a hundred years. After the world had adopted Raphael's +frescoes as the type of excellence his fame was dimmed for a time, but +since Mr. Ruskin's enthusiastic admiration it has regained its ancient +lustre. + +These instances of revolution in the arts show that a new intellectual +life had begun, that the Middle Ages had really ended. In fact, the +passing away of the Holy Roman Empire and of the European suzerainty of +the Papacy was merely an episode in the general intellectual +revolution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE DESPOTISMS (1250-1350) + + +Perhaps the quality which strikes us most in this dawn of our Modern +World is its suddenness; Niccolò Pisano gets up, as it were, out of the +ground, Giotto follows Cimabue, Dante is born while Guido Guinicelli is +still a young man. We are amazed and bewildered, and it is not in the +arts alone that the change is so startling. The political structure +shifts with equal quickness, and while we are trying to connect and +coördinate this outburst of art with the democratic triumph of the +communes, the democratic communes disappear under our eyes. At first as +we look we are a little puzzled, for the outward form of the commune +remains unchanged; the _podestà_ is still there, the Great Council and +the inner council are still there, the committees and the sub-committees +superintending and directing the affairs of the commonwealth; but +further observation discloses a lack of spontaneity. The motive power +does not seem the resultant of the debate and argument of numerous +discordant wills, but to proceed from some one definite inner source. +More careful observation shows that these outward committees are but +registering boards that record an inner will, that their members go to +one particular palace to have their minds made up, at first privily, but +soon openly, and at last confessedly and ostentatiously. This is the +regular course. The commune is, as it were, a political chrysalis out of +which a full-blown tyrant bursts. The tyrants were men of capacity, who +gathered the various functions of the government into their own hands, +and by a course of adroitness and fraud, or by a _coup d'état_, reduced +the city to obedience, and then, after having exercised sovereign rights +during their lives, bequeathed the principality to their heirs. The +reason of their success is plain. It was impossible for trade to +flourish, for property to collect its income, for luxury to enjoy +itself, under the political confusion that attended the democratic +endeavours for self-government. The uncertainty in government, law, and +trade, was too high a price to pay for liberty. Men of property, men of +business, men of pleasure, preferred the comparative stability of a +tyranny. + +Before we look at this process in individual states we must eliminate +the exceptions. The kingdom of Sicily under the House of Aragon, and +that of Naples under the House of Anjou, had become, in great measure, +absolute monarchies, for the gifted Emperor Frederick, who was no lover +of democracy, had crushed or circumvented the communal spirit in his +kingdom. The suppression of popular liberties did not result in the +strict enforcement of order in either kingdom, particularly not in +Sicily where feudal anarchy was rampant; but we must leave those +Southerners to their oranges and lemons, to their flowers and azure +skies, to their churches and cloisters, where Romanesque, Byzantine, and +Arab influences met and combined in arch and dome and sculptured +trimming, and go northward to find the main historical current of the +century. + +Florence, too, we must except from the tyrannic system, for a democratic +government prevailed there for many years to come, and also Rome, where +the Papacy prevented Colonna and Orsini from establishing a despotism. + +Verona shall serve as the paradigm for the despotic form of government. +In this ancient city on the banks of the Adige, where the amphitheatre +of Augustus still stood though the churches built by Theodoric the +Ostrogoth had crumbled away, the spirit of material and intellectual +activity had been busily at work. The stately church of San Zeno +(eleventh century), most beautiful of Romanesque churches, coloured with +the hues of early dawn and rich with bronze doors and sculptured front, +stood proudly apart outside the walls; but within, the cathedral had +been begun, and the great Ghibelline tower already lifted its +crenellated top high over the market-place. Rushing through the city the +headlong Adige turned innumerable mill-wheels, and Veronese girls washed +the clothes of the Capulets and Montagues in its waters. Altogether the +city was a very desirable signory. This fact had been discovered in +Frederick's time, and Ezzelino da Romano, one of the Ghibelline nobles +of the North, had made good his power there and distinguished himself by +his cruelty, for which he is still remembered. On his most satisfactory +death, not long after Frederick's, the Scaligers succeeded to the +dominion of the city (1259). These Scaligers were of the best type of +tyrant, especially Can Grande (1311-1329), the fifth in possession of +the signory, who presents the type in its noblest and most attractive +form. Nevertheless, despite his brilliance, his success and +magnificence, his chief renown is as host to the exiled Dante, who in +gratitude for "my first refuge and first hostelry" dedicated the +"Paradiso" to him, and celebrated his carelessness of hardship and of +gold, and his doughty deeds from which even enemies could not withhold +their praise. + +Can Grande, like other despots, had two objects,--to make his signory +secure, and to enlarge it. As he was secure of Verona, he cast his +covetous glances abroad and fixed them on Vicenza, a little town some +thirty miles to the northeast. Vicenza was, so to speak, no longer in +the market, as she had been snapped up by her neighbour, Padua, which +had had the advantage of being less than twenty miles away. But Can +Grande played his cards well, and by help of the Emperor Henry VII, who +appointed him Imperial vicar, got possession of the prize. Padua, a rich +and prosperous Guelf city, with subject towns round about, and a famous +university within, refused to acquiesce in a surrender of Vicenza to a +Ghibelline lord. A long war ensued. The fair fields in the forty miles +between Verona and Padua were laid waste, the poor peasants were dragged +to one city or the other and held for ransom, and the Guelfs in Verona +and the Ghibellines in Padua were persecuted, imprisoned, and tortured. +At last Padua, her signory over, her neighbours lost, her population +fallen away, her citizens fighting among themselves, her nobles +destroying one another in the hope of becoming lords of the city, gave +way and surrendered to Can Grande. Other cities shared Padua's fate, and +Can Grande, by virtue of his conquests as well as of his character, +became one of the chief powers in Italy. Can Grande was brave even to +recklessness, covetous of dominion, steadfast in his political aims, +true to his promises, generous to his enemies. On his death he +bequeathed his signory to his nephew; and his body was buried in the +churchyard of a little Gothic chapel, where stone effigies of armoured +Scaligers on caparisoned steeds surmount Gothic tombs, and the pride of +life and conquest strives to overcrow death. + +The story of the Scaligers must be continued somewhat further, for they +exhibit the phenomenon, so frequent in Northern Italy at this time, of a +despotism that begins in vigour, continues in energy and success, and +then dies down under degenerate heirs to go out at last like a candle. +Can Grande's nephew, Mastino (1329-51),--the family had a fondness for +canine appellations. Great Dog and Mastiff,--began his career with +ability and courage; he conquered Brescia to the west, halfway to Milan, +and Parma, which lies beyond Mantua. These particular acts of aggression +helped his ruin, for Milan and Mantua took alarm and joined a league +against him. But that was not till later. In the days of his prosperity +Mastino was very magnificent. Soldiers, horse and foot, attended him; +his palace was thronged with lords, gentlemen, and buffoons; his stables +were full of chargers and palfreys, his bird-sheds of falcons. At his +court there were innumerable fashionable devices for driving care away, +dancing, singing, jousting; everything was luxurious; men and furniture +were decked with embroidery, cloth of gold, cloth from France, and cloth +from Tartary. When Mastino rode forth all Verona rushed to the windows; +when he was angry all Verona trembled. He was a dark-skinned, bearded +man, with heavy features and a great belly; in later life he ate +grossly, and sank into dissipation. Seldom on a Friday or Saturday, or +even in Lent, would he refrain from meat; and he did not care a rap for +excommunication. He became arrogant and vainglorious. His dissipation +and lack of piety, however, were less direct causes of his fall than his +ambition; he coveted, rumour said, a kingdom of Lombardy or even of all +Italy. But at last he overreached himself in dealing with the +Florentines. They wished to get possession of Lucca, and he undertook to +buy it for them,--it was a fourteenth-century custom to sell a +city,--but when he got possession of Lucca he kept it for himself. The +Florentines declared war, and induced all his rival despots, the +Visconti of Milan, the Gonzaga of Mantua, the Estensi of Ferrara, to +join a league against him. Venice also joined, being indignant with the +Scaligers for levying tolls upon merchandise that went up the Po, and +for interference with the Venetian monopoly of salt. The league was +victorious and forced the Scaligers to hard terms. Venice took the towns +near her, thus acquiring her first territory on the Italian mainland; +the great Paduan family, the Carrara, took back Padua; the Visconti of +Milan took Brescia (1338). The Scaligers were shorn of their power, and +from this time on the house dwindled; assassinations of brother by +brother darkened its close, and at the end of the century it lost Verona +and all. + +What the Scaligers did at Verona other great families were doing +elsewhere. The Gonzaga established themselves in Mantua, the Estensi in +Ferrara, the Bentivogli in Bologna, the da Polenta in Ravenna, the +Malatesta in Rimini, the Montefeltri in Urbino, the Baglioni in Perugia, +and greatest of all the Visconti in Milan. The city of Milan has so +important a place in the history of Italy, that we must pause over the +Visconti. This family succeeded in dispossessing its rivals and in +becoming masters of the city in 1295, about the time that the oligarchy +was clinching its hold on Venice, and the democracy becoming all +powerful in Florence. In fact, one may accept this date as the point at +which Florence, Venice, and Milan start on their upward careers towards +becoming three of the six chief divisions of Italy. Convenience has its +rights, and it is eminently convenient to start the Renaissance, +politically as well as intellectually, in this eager, passionate last +quarter of the thirteenth century. + +The Visconti, however, were not firm in their seats till the gallant +Henry VII, Dante's hope, came down into Italy to revive the Empire. We +have seen that Henry did not revive the Empire, but he did strengthen +Can Grande, his loyal lieutenant in Verona, and also the Visconti, his +loyal friends in Milan. It is pathetic, even now, to think of that +high-aspiring Henry, with his noble, old-fashioned ideas concerning the +Roman Empire and universal brotherhood under the shelter of the Roman +eagle, and of the great Dante fastening all his hopes on those same +old-fashioned ideas, while the crafty lords of Milan and Verona, +laughing in their sleeves, professed the most devout Imperial creed and +feathered their own nests. On the Emperor's death (1313) the Visconti +were firmly seated. The signory descended from one generation to the +next. Their sway was extended over the cities round about, until it +included most of Lombardy. Ambition, growing by what it fed on, aimed at +the cities of Pisa, Bologna, and Genoa. Such plans aroused both jealousy +and fear. The ambition of the Visconti to take Pisa alarmed Florence, +who had marked Pisa as her own; that to take Bologna stirred the +absentee Popes, who went through the old forms of excommunication, +interdict, and crusade; but Genoa, crippled by her wars with Venice, +rent asunder by internal factions, wearily gave herself to Milan, in the +vain hope of winning peace and security. In spite of checks here and +there, the state of Milan became more and more powerful, and the signory +of the Visconti by far the greatest of the tyrannies in Italy. + +There were, of course, many men who attempted to become despots and +failed; and others who succeeded for their lifetimes, but were not able +to make their signories so strong as to become family possessions to be +enjoyed by their heirs after them. Of the latter kind one must be +mentioned. In Lucca Castruccio Castracane (died 1328), a very brilliant +politician and soldier, became so powerful that he reduced to subjection +much of the country round and nearly succeeded in conquering Florence, +with whom he was long at war. Like other successful tyrants he called +himself a Ghibelline, and drew what advantage he could from his +profession of faith, but really only aimed to acquire a principality for +himself. He died in the prime of life (to the great relief of the +Florentines), and left so brilliant a reputation for the qualities which +achieve success by fair means or foul, that two centuries later +Machiavelli held him up as an example for princes to follow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL (1350) + + +We are now well started on the fourteenth century, and it will be well +to glance at the chief Italian states in order to get our bearings. + +Sicily was in a state of hopeless despondency. The island was nominally +subject to the House of Aragon, but its kings were not men of sufficient +character to impose their authority, and the unfortunate kingdom was +beginning to go down hill. The Kingdom of Naples was, for the time +being, much better off, for its king, Robert, grandson of Charles of +Anjou, was a man of unusual gifts and capacity, but he was succeeded by +a foolish, frivolous, light-minded, light-mannered granddaughter, Joan +(1343-81), who brought forty years of trouble to her kingdom, and under +her Naples started rolling down that same incline on which Sicily was +rolling somewhat ahead of her. The failure of Sicily and Naples to take +part in the great career in matters intellectual now opening before +Northern Italy is partly due to the race that populated them, a +miscellaneous mixture of bloods (at least it is customary to explain +unknown causes of success and failure by saying good blood and bad +blood), and partly to the autocratic will of the brilliant Frederick II, +who crushed out independence in his kingdom, and so deprived it of that +communal life which is the only obvious factor, except "good blood," in +the intellectual success of Northern Italy. + +The whole pontifical state, from the fortresses of the Colonna on the +Tiber to the strongholds of the Malatesta in Rimini, was in the vortex +of confusion. + +Florence was well off, for though the foreigners whom she had invited to +be protectors against Castruccio Castracane and others were rather +detrimental than useful, and though there were signs of a new struggle +between the _Grandi_ and the Burghers, her commerce prospered, her +dominion spread over the towns round about, and her luxury grew so fast +that the troubled elders passed all sorts of sumptuary laws to prescribe +what should be worn and what not, by both fashionable and simple. + +In the northwest, now Piedmont, there were, besides the Counts of Savoy, +several struggling claimants who severally asserted titles to their own +and other strips of territory. In the northeast, Venice, which had +acquired a footing on the mainland destined to grow into the province of +Venetia, was prosperous. And between Piedmont and Venice the successful +Visconti of Milan, soon to receive the keys of Genoa, were likewise well +satisfied. The political situation may now be dismissed, and we may turn +to the distinguishing mark of the century, the classical revival. + +The distinction which Italy enjoys as the most famous country in Europe +is due to three ages,--first, the ancient epoch of Augustus Cæsar and +Trajan, when the Roman Empire imposed the _pax romana_ on a grateful +world; second, the mediæval epoch of Hildebrand and Innocent III, when +the Papacy, following its great prototype with unequal steps, imposed +its _pax romana_ on both troubled souls and angry hands; and third, the +epoch of the Renaissance, when Italy took the lead in the intellectual +development of modern Europe. It would be as absurd to subordinate +intellectual life to politics in the period of the Renaissance as it +would be to subordinate the religion of the era of Hildebrand to its +art, or the politics of the Augustan age to its religion. The highest +life of Italy, the life which gives importance to the history of this +coming period, is its intellectual life, and, though we must not forget +politics entirely, we should lay the chief stress on intellectual rather +than on political matters. + +Since the date of the Pisan pulpit, prosperity had increased fast, and +curiosity, the desire to investigate, the wish to know, had grown +lustily. There were still the same two stores of knowledge,--nature and +the classics,--but the first, for many reasons, seemed vague, +intangible, when compared to the second, in which the demi-gods (so they +appeared then) of the ancient world had garnered the rich harvest of +their thoughts. The classical heritage, the record of a higher +civilization, seemed a lay Bible, the revelation of truth, the means of +salvation; and the young generation emerging in the dawn of intellectual +light turned thirstily to this newly found inheritance. The leader of +this pilgrimage to the land flowing with intellectual milk and honey was +Francis Petrarch (1304-74). + +Petrarch was a Florentine, but he lived in exile. His father had been +banished at the same time with Dante, and after a few wandering years +had settled at Avignon. Petrarch studied law at the University of +Bologna and became a confirmed Ghibelline. This item of biography is +important, because it reminds us that Petrarch's passion for the classic +world, though it had its roots in the traditional admiration for Rome, +received strength and justification not only from Latin literature, but +also from the Civil law. Men who grasped the complexity and richness of +the Roman law necessarily admired Roman civilization, and inferred that +all other manifestations of that civilization must be as admirable as +the law, and perhaps less dry. Petrarch found the law dry, but he left +Bologna with a passion for the classic world; and when he went back to +Avignon he met all the most cultivated men of Europe. Learning still +attended the papal court, and Avignon served to make this charming young +scholar of genius known to the world. He flung up the law and devoted +himself to literature. Cicero was his hero. Petrarch was the first of +the humanists, the herald of the Renaissance, and, if we look farther +forward still, the harbinger of the Reformation. Petrarch's importance +was very great because he was not too far ahead of his generation. He +shouted aloud the glory of Rome, of Roman literature and Roman thought, +and the echo resounded throughout Europe. In the year 1341, in Rome, +upon the Capitoline Hill, Petrarch received the crown of laurel, as +scholar and poet, from the Senate and People of Rome. The King of +Naples was his sponsor, and the tyrants of the North applauded. This +ceremony was the conspicuous recognition that a new period was opening +before Italy; and Petrarch's laurel crown may be put beside the Imperial +wreath of Augustus and the tiara of Hildebrand, as the starting-point of +Italy's third great period of triumph. + +After his coronation, Petrarch went about Italy spreading the seeds of +the new enthusiasm. He lived or made visits at Parma, Bologna, Verona, +Florence, Arezzo, Naples, Rome, Milan, Padua, and Venice. He became +tremendously fashionable. The Pope invited him to be papal secretary, +the King of France extended the hospitality of Paris to him, the Emperor +bade him to Prague, the Visconti wanted him at Milan, the Scaligers at +Verona, the Cararresi at Padua, the lord high Seneschal at Naples; the +Florentines asked him to accept a chair in their new university, the +Venetians offered him a house. All this honour ostensibly shown to +Petrarch was really the salutation to the new dawn. + +The strength of this classic revival, though most effective in +literature and the arts, is perhaps still more noticeable in the +political career of another young man of genius who had as passionate a +love of classic Rome as Petrarch himself. Cola di Rienzo (1314-54) was +an imaginative, poetical dreamer, who fed his youth on Livy, Cicero, +Seneca, and delighted to muse on the glories of Julius Cæsar and to +study the antique monuments of Rome. His public career began as envoy on +one of the unsuccessful embassies which used to entreat the Popes to +return to the deserted city. Cola was handsome, eloquent, ardent, a sort +of Don Quixote, and roused the Roman populace to share his dreams and to +believe in the possible restoration of the Senate and People of Rome to +their ancient grandeur. He led the people against the nobility, forced +the riotous barons to submit to his rule as tribune of the people, and +established a government of law in the city; but his ambition flew far +beyond the city walls. He dreamed of the confederation of all Italy +under the lead of Rome. He would have smiled at limiting imitation of +the great days of old to the arts or to literature; he intended to +restore the Roman Republic as it had been in its high and palmy days. +His wild aspirations throw a backward light over the history of the city +of Rome throughout the Middle Ages, and over that republicanism which +played so important a part in the struggle between Empire and Papacy, +and light up the old theories under which the Roman people claimed the +right to elect both Emperor and Pope; just as Boniface's bulls portray +the outworn papal theories, and Dante's "De Monarchia" the dead Imperial +beliefs. + +Cola's first step was to invite all the princes and communes of Italy to +attend a general meeting in Rome; and as all Italy had responded to +Petrarch's appeal in behalf of the classic past, so did she, for the +moment, respond to Cola's appeal. Milan, Genoa, Lucca, Florence, Siena, +and the smaller cities nearer by, answered with apparent sympathy. +Petrarch was mad with delight, and hailed Cola as Camillus, Brutus, +Romulus. For the moment, such was the strength of classical illusion, +the dream seemed to be real. Cola wrote to the Florentines (September, +1347), "We have made all citizens of the states of Holy Italy Roman +citizens, and we admit them to the right of election. The affairs of +Empire have naturally devolved upon the Holy Roman People. We desire to +renew and strengthen the old union with all the principalities and +states of Holy Italy, and to deliver Holy Italy itself from its +condition of abject subjection and to restore it to its old state and to +its ancient glory. We mean to exalt to the position of Emperor some +Italian whom zeal for the union of his race shall stir to high efforts +for Italy."[15] + +Cola's great idea was destined to wait five hundred years for +fulfilment. The time was not ripe, and he himself not a suitable +instrument. His career was brief. He became not only vainglorious but +also very cruel. He grew fat, and lost the charm of youth and novelty. +The nobles and the upper classes of Rome hated him; and when, in need of +money, he increased the taxes, the Roman populace turned upon him, +stormed the Capitol, captured him as he tried to slink away in disguise, +and murdered him on the steps leading down from the palace. His head was +cut off, his body was dragged through the streets and burned, and the +ashes scattered to the winds. + +The mad dream had been, in its nature, evanescent. The classical +heritage was too purely intellectual, too remote from existing needs, to +be able to shape politics. But that fourteen hundred years after the +death of Julius Cæsar, Cola should have been able to establish himself +as Roman tribune on the Capitoline Hill, and to act as if the Republic +of the days of the Gracchi had been but temporarily superseded, shows +the immense influence of Rome over the mediæval imagination, and helps +us to understand the autocratic power of the classical heritage in +shaping and directing the intellectual revolution in Italy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] _Rome in the Middle Ages_, Gregorovius, vol. vi, p. 295, note 1 +(translated). + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY + + +The fourteenth century undoubtedly felt itself emancipated from the +limitations of the Middle Ages, and with justice, so far as the +classical revival was concerned, but it did little or nothing to free +itself from ills that were distinctly of a mediæval character,--plague, +lawlessness, and tyranny. In that respect, the transition from the +Middle Ages to the Modern World was slow and made a striking contrast +with the rapid evolution of art. + +The chief of these ills was the plague. Only in remote places of the +East, if at all, does the scourge of disease now fall as it then did in +the most civilized cities of the world, and it was from the East that +these plagues came, brought by sailors. One blasted Tuscany in 1340, one +Lombardy in 1361; but the worst was the awful Black Death of 1348, which +wrought havoc in various parts of Italy and then swept northward across +the Alps on its destructive path. It was this plague which Boccaccio +describes in the beginning of the "Decameron." It spread like fire among +dry wood which has been sprinkled with oil. At first swellings appeared +the size of an egg or an apple, then black and hard spots; on the third +day came death. Even animals caught the disease. Boccaccio saw two pigs +which had chewed the garment of a plague-stricken man die in +convulsions. Medicine was useless. Some thought the wisest course was to +live on the daintiest food and drink, and never speak of the plague; +others believed in carousing and jollity, and went about from tavern to +tavern seeking diversion, but always keeping sober enough to avoid the +sick. Private houses were deserted and lay open to anybody. Loyalty +disappeared. All who could fled into the country. Thousands fell sick +daily. In place of decent burial, dead bodies were tossed huggermugger +into trenches. Between March and July, Boccaccio says, more than 100,000 +people died within the walls of Florence. + +Florence was not singular. In Siena 80,000 people, three quarters of the +population, died; in Genoa, 40,000; in Pisa, seven out of ten, and so on +in Venice, Rome, Naples, and Sicily. These figures seem incredible; but +Petrarch says: "Posterity will not believe that there ever was a period +in which the world remained almost entirely depopulated, houses empty of +families, cities of inhabitants, the country of peasants. How will the +future believe it, when we ourselves can hardly credit our eyes? We go +outdoors, walk through street after street, and find them full of dead +and dying; when we get home again we find no live thing within the +house, all having perished within the brief interval of absence. Happy +posterity, to whom such calamities will seem imaginings and dreams." +Poor Petrarch! The lovely Laura, of whom he wrote so many perfect +sonnets, died of the Black Death in Avignon. Giovanni Villani, the +historian, died in Florence. This terrible calamity throws into high +relief the great classical impulse, to which the last chapter was +devoted. In earlier times men would have turned to religion and the +Church; but now Petrarch, a most devout Christian, and his disciples +continued to worship Cicero and the heroes of the Augustan age, and to +talk of Cæsar and Pompey, Scylla and Charybdis, as the most important +and interesting of things. + +Another great evil which rivalled the plague as a curse, was the host of +mercenary soldiers who swarmed over Italy like locusts. In the days of +Barbarossa, battles like that of Legnano had been fought between the +train-bands of the communes on one side and the feudal chivalry and +men-at-arms on the other. But since then a great change had come over +the methods of raising soldiers. Under the feudal system the term of +service in the field for the liegemen of the Emperor had been forty +days; but that time was too short for an effective campaign. When the +Emperor wished to cross the Alps and go to Rome in order to receive the +Imperial crown, he was obliged to hire soldiers; and, as years went on +and these Imperial descents became mere adventurous expeditions, the +character of the soldiers degenerated, until in Petrarch's time the +Imperial armies were made up of ruffians recruited anywhere. There were +also other reasons for establishing mercenaries in place of militia. The +despots of Northern Italy did not wish their subjects trained to arms. +The burghers of mercantile cities did not wish to leave their +counting-rooms, nor to have their employees mustered out, so they too +preferred hired soldiers to a native militia. Moreover, warfare had +changed; cavalry needed frequent manoeuvres, bowmen and pikemen +required drill and continuous discipline. Thus the old train-band system +of the communes, under which the militia hurried to their appointed +posts on the ringing of the bells, gave way to the system of mercenary +troops led by soldiers of fortune, _condottieri_, as the Italians call +them. + +These soldiers, who had come down from the North to serve Emperors, or +despots like the Visconti, or perhaps had sailed from Spain to fight +under the House of Aragon in Sicily, as soon as the immediate war was +ended, having been left unpaid or having taken a liking to a trade in +which the labor was congenial, the risk small and booty enormous, +decided not to disband, but to continue to try their luck together. They +sold their services to whatever city or despot would pay them most, or +wandered about in a nomadic fashion, capturing a city if they could, if +not, living on the country-side. One can imagine these rogues among +unwarlike peasants, or in a pleasant little city like Lucca or Cremona. +They were very fickle, fought one another only upon compulsion, and then +most reluctantly and gently, and were very nearly as terrible to their +employers as to their adversaries. They were organized, sometimes very +well, in bands under a general or a council of officers, and had such +names as The Company of St. George, or The Great Company. Some of their +leaders became very famous, like Duke Werner, who proclaimed himself +"Lord of the Great Company, enemy to God, to Pity, and to Mercy." The +most interesting of these leaders, at least for us, is John Hawkwood, an +English adventurer, who began life as a London tailor, but dropped +scissors and needle to enlist for Edward III's French campaign, and +then, seeing fortune smile most sweetly from distraught Italy, crossed +the Alps and led his company all over the peninsula. There is a full +length fresco of him on horseback in the _Duomo_ at Florence, painted in +gratitude for his deeds in life or merely for his death. + +For a hundred years and more these ruffians swaggered about Italy. +Petrarch finds in them one cause the more to hold out his arms toward +the mighty past. He writes in a letter: "Oh, would that you were alive, +Brutus, Great-heart, that I might turn to you. O Manlius--O Great +Pompey--O Julius Cæsar [etc., etc., etc.], O Jesus, Lord of the world, +what has happened? Why do I moan and groan for grief? Oh! a vile handful +of robbers, spewed out of their nasty dens, walks and rides over the +ancient queen of the world, Italy. Christ Jesus, in tears and +supplication I turn to Thee. Oh, if we have abused Thy goodness more +than was right, if we have shown ourselves too proud in Thy aid and +favour, if we have borne ourselves ill towards Thee, well mayst Thou not +permit us to be free; but let not this slaughter, these sacrileges, +these robberies, these deeds of violence, these ravishings of wives and +maidens, find mercy in Thine eyes. Put an end to this evil. To the +wicked who have said in their hearts 'There is no God,' show that Thou +art; and to us however unworthy, show that we are Thy children. O +Almighty Father, help us; in Thee alone we put our hope, and in +supplication we invoke Thy name, weeping and confessing that there is +none who shall fight for us, unless Thou, our Lord, be he." + +This strange mixture of classic enthusiasm and Christian piety, this odd +idea that the triumphant cause of the Roman Republic was due to the +favour of Christ, shows us that Petrarch had not yet got wholly clear of +mediæval beliefs. But, as with Cola di Rienzo, everything Petrarch says +testifies to the power of the Roman tradition. + +A third evil, yet not to be compared with the plague and the +_condottieri_, was the tyranny of the despots. The founders of +despotisms were men of vigour and political capacity, and gave to their +subjects in lieu of liberty greater security and order than they had +enjoyed before. Their descendants, like proverbial heirs, finding hard +work both distasteful and unnecessary, gave themselves up to dissipation +and cruelty; they dropped their ancestors' attitude of leading citizens +and treated the principalities as private property, intended for their +amusement. The Visconti, though they retained their family ability and +force of character longer than most princely houses, shall serve to +illustrate the general dynastic development, more especially as the +history of Milan, which had become the chief power in Italy, will be the +best thread to carry us to the end of the century. + +Towards the middle of the century Archbishop Giovanni Visconti had +become the lord of Milan (1349-54). He was a clever, cultivated man, +interested in letters. He employed scholars to prepare a commentary on +the "Divine Comedy," and by urgent persuasion induced Petrarch to take +up his abode at Milan. On the archbishop's death his three nephews +succeeded jointly to the signory. As one of these three nephews, Bernabò +(1354-85), illustrates the moral degeneracy of the tyrant we will glance +at his habits. Bernabò was addicted to the chase. Nobody else was +allowed to keep a dog, but he kept five thousand. These he billeted on +the citizens of Milan. Every fortnight the masters of his kennels made +their rounds; if the dogs were too thin, a fine was imposed; if dead, a +general confiscation. If a man killed a wild boar or a hare, he was +maimed or hanged, or sometimes, in mercy, merely obliged to eat the +quarry raw. Bernabò was afraid of conspiracies and rebellion. No man +might go out into the street after dark for any cause whatever, under +pain of having a foot cut off. No man might utter the words "Guelf" or +"Ghibelline," under penalty of having his tongue cut out. Once Bernabò +shut up his two secretaries in a cage with a wild boar. On another +occasion a young man who had pulled a policeman's beard was condemned to +pay a small fine, but Bernabò ordered his right hand cut off. The +_podestà_ delayed execution of the sentence, so that the lad's parents +might have time to ask mercy. For this Bernabò caused the lad's two +hands to be cut off and also the _podestà's_ right hand. A sexton who +demanded too much for digging a grave was buried alive side by side +with the dead body. Two monks who came to remonstrate with Bernabò for +his cruelty were burnt alive. Nevertheless, Bernabò protested himself +devout; he fasted, built churches and monasteries. This amiable man had +thirty-two children. His brother, joint heir of the principality, +Galeazzo II, was of the same stuff, except that in place of piety he +substituted an interest in letters; he founded the University of Pavia, +and exchanged figs, flowers, and flattery with Petrarch. Galeazzo's son, +Gian Galeazzo (1378-1402), rose still higher in the world; he gave +300,000 sequins to the King of France, and in return received the king's +daughter in marriage. For a second wife he married his cousin, daughter +of his amiable uncle Bernabò, who thought that this marriage would bind +his nephew to him by bonds of filial affection. Gian Galeazzo however, +by means of a trick, got his father-in-law within his reach, arrested +him, accused him of witchcraft, put him in prison and poisoned him, and +so became sole lord of Milan. This worthy lord converted his +principality into a dukedom and became duke (1395); but as we have +followed the family to the end of the century, and long enough to make +ourselves acquainted with the habits of tyrants, we must leave them. + +Poor Italy suffering from these three evils, plagues, _condottieri_, and +tyrants, naturally sought for a cure, and, with what seems to us a +singular lack of imagination, turned to the old remedies, Emperor and +Pope. From time to time Emperors came into Italy, but the Hapsburgs were +very different from the Hohenstaufens, and their trips to Rome were +mere money-getting excursions. They sold privileges and honours, imposed +what taxes they could collect, and sneaked back to Germany. Obviously +there was no hope from Emperors. Then rose the cry for the return of the +Papacy. Every Italian, however he might hate or despise the Popes, felt +proud that the Papacy was an Italian institution, and believed that +every Pope, good or bad, should live in Rome and sit on his throne at +St. Peter's. Sentiment grew strong, especially among the women; Petrarch +thundered, St. Catherine of Siena pleaded. Moreover, the sharper +argument was urged with great practical effect, that the Papal State +might shake off the papal dominion if the Pontiffs did not look after it +themselves. The Popes began to stir uneasily. The cardinals indeed, +accustomed to the safe city of Avignon, did not care to go to turbulent +Rome, or perhaps, as Petrarch said, they could not bear to leave their +Burgundian wines. But finally Gregory XI (1370-78) raised his courage to +the sticking point. He returned to Rome in 1377, and the Babylonish +Captivity of seventy years ended. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (1350-1450) + + +The return of the Papacy to Rome was an event of importance both for +Italy and the Catholic Church. Had it remained in France, it must have +dwindled and shrunk, like Antæus, kept away from its source of strength. +Nevertheless, the Papacy was no longer what it once had been; it cannot +serve us now as a central channel for the course of Italian history, and +will rank no higher than the first of half-a-dozen little channels, +which we must pursue separately. + +The returning Pope found his territory in greater obedience than he +deserved; for a brilliant Spanish cardinal, Albornoz who had been sent +some time before had reduced almost all the cities to subjection +(1353-67); even Bologna, successfully disputed with the Visconti, +acknowledged papal dominion. But there was neither peace nor +tranquillity. Everywhere turbulence and murmurous threatenings rumbled; +and worse was to come. The very year after the return from the +Babylonish Captivity the _Great Schism_ rent the Church asunder for +forty years. There were two parties in the College of Cardinals, the +French and the Italian, with little love lost between them. The Italians +were in control and elected Urban VI (1378-89), a domineering, cruel, +most unpastoral person, who insulted the foreign cardinals, and so +angered them that they left Rome, declared his election illegal, and +elected one of themselves as Pope in his stead. This anti-pope, attended +by his troop of cardinals, returned to Avignon. Christian Europe divided +in two: some countries recognized Urban, others recognized the +anti-pope. Thus the schism began, and prepared the way for the next +great split of Christian Europe into Catholics and Protestants. There +were now two sources of apostolic succession, two supreme rulers, and +two systems of taxation. Misbehaviour and confusion at the top lowered +the moral tone of the whole Church. The Curia in Rome was scandalously +venal. Indulgences were sold; offices were bestowed for money. Nobody in +Rome respected the Pope, hardly anybody respected the clergy. + +All Christendom felt that reformation was necessary, and that, first of +all, the schism must be closed. Thereupon some outward deference was +paid to public opinion; the Roman Pope went so far as to make ostensible +overtures to his rival at Avignon, and he of Avignon bowed and smiled +most politely in return. Friendly greetings went to and fro, and a +meeting was talked of. It became obvious, however, after a time, that +neither Pope had the slightest intention of abdicating in the other's +favour. Christendom remained insistent, and the two batches of cardinals +took the matter into their own hands. They held a Council at Pisa, which +deposed both Popes, and elected a third (1409), but, as the other two +Popes refused to acknowledge their deposition, matters were worse than +before. The situation recalled the old days when a German Emperor had +come down to Rome and had deposed three rival Popes together. The need +seemed to revive the past. The Emperor Sigismund (1410-37) assumed to +speak as the head of Christendom. He summoned an Ecumenical Council to +meet at the city of Constance, on the Lake of Constance, to judge the +schismatic quarrel and to consider the general state of the Church. +Other troubles besides schism had begun to appear. The failure of Rome +to satisfy the conscience of Europe had borne fruit. Heresy had +appeared. In England, Wyclif (1327-84) had denounced the higher clergy +for greed and arrogance; he had disavowed allegiance to the divided +Papacy, and had opposed the doctrine of transubstantiation. In Bohemia, +Jerome of Prague rejected the temporal jurisdiction of priests, and John +Huss asserted that Constantine had done great wrong when he endowed Pope +Silvester with lands and temporal power. + +Christendom responded to the Emperor's call. Prelates and scholars of +the highest character and standing assembled at Constance (1414). It was +a great occasion, and belongs to the history of Europe. This Council, +the seventeenth Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church (1414-18), +deposed all three Popes, and elected a Roman, of the House of Colonna, +Martin V (1417-31), and so closed the schism and restored unity to the +Church. The more difficult matter of crushing heresy was not so readily +dealt with. The two reformers, Jerome of Prague and John Huss, refused +to recant or modify their views. They were condemned and handed over to +the secular arm for punishment; and the Emperor, heedless of the +safe-conduct he had given, burnt them at the stake (1415-16). + +To follow the proceedings of this interesting Council more fully would +take us too far into papal affairs. It must suffice to say that the +Reformation can be sniffed in the air. Rome had not done its elementary +duties as head of Christendom, and Christendom insisted on a change and +on reform; but Rome was powerful and would not submit. Two parties +appear, the reformers and the papists. The former wished to purify the +Roman Curia and the whole Church, and to give the Papacy a republican +character,--to make the Pope a president, as it were, and the College of +Cardinals a senate. The latter liked the old easy ways and wished the +Pope to be absolute monarch. The papal party by dexterous politics +foiled the plans of the reformers and prevented change of any kind, +although no doubt it acted less from desire to obstruct reform than to +prevent the anti-monarchical party from getting control of the Church +and using the prestige of reform to attack the papal autocracy. From +this time on the papal party consistently pursued this course, and +therefore reformation came not from Rome, but from Germany, and instead +of being a reform from within, came practically as an attack from +without, and caused the permanent schism of the Reformation. We must now +leave the Papacy, which follows its wilful course--via Babylonish +Absenteeism, Schism, and refusal to reform--and steers directly towards +the rocks of the Reformation, and betake ourselves to the other parts of +Italy. + +The Kingdom of Naples would have been badly off at best under its +light-mannered queen, Joan I (1343-81), but it became involved in the +papal schism, and got into a wretched plight. The queen rashly took +sides with the Avignon Pope, and the irascible Roman Pope vowed +vengeance. He set her cousin, Charles, who belonged to the Durazzo +branch of the House of Anjou, on the throne in her stead. The story is a +miserable mixture of treasons, battles, and vulgar crimes. Charles got +possession of the unfortunate queen and strangled her, and he and his +heirs fought her adopted heirs for years. Each side hired mercenaries. +John Hawkwood was there, and other notable leaders. Poor Naples, taxed, +robbed, and ravaged by rival kings, their favourites, and mistresses, +rolled rapidly from bad to worse. Exception must be made in favour of +Charles's son Ladislaus (1390-1414), a bold, enterprising soldier, who +played a part in the affairs of Italy like that of his ancestor, Charles +of Anjou. But he failed in not leaving a son to inherit the crown, and +was succeeded by his sister, another Queen Joan (1414-35), likewise +light-mannered. There is nothing memorable to grace her career, except +the presence of a soldier of fortune, once a Romagnol peasant, Muzio +Attendolo, better known as Attendolo Sforza (strength). His son was +Francesco Sforza, destined to a brilliant career in Milan. The queen did +one thing, however, for which we, who clutch at any unification of +Italian history, must thank her. She adopted, not wholly of her free +will, Alfonso of Aragon, King of Sicily, and so brought about, though +for a few years only, the reunion of the Two Sicilies. + +With regard to Sicily we need say nothing except that the royal House, +which still had a strain of Hohenstaufen-Norman blood, died out, and +that Sicily passed as a marriage portion to the crown of Aragon, and +became a mere appanage of that kingdom (1409). Finally, as I have said, +King Alfonso was adopted as heir to the second Queen Joan, and took part +in the civil wars that devastated Naples. Then began the long struggle +of Spaniard against Frenchman (the Neapolitan House of Anjou was still +French), which was destined to be so disastrous to Italy. Alfonso +conquered and was acknowledged King of the Two Sicilies by his suzerain +the Pope (1443). Thus for a time the Southern Kingdom was united and at +peace. It is a happy moment to leave it and go northward, in the hope of +finding greater moral and intellectual activity, if not greater +tranquillity and order. + +To the northeast, Venice had been growing in power; but with the growth +of her power the number of her enemies and their bitterness towards her +had grown. Her possessions on the mainland, wrested from Verona, brought +her into hostility with Padua; her Adriatic possessions, Istria and +Dalmatia, made her an enemy of Hungary; her coastwise empire and trade +in the Levant made Genoa her deadly rival; and her imperial expansion +entangled her in war after war. Both the war with Padua and that with +Hungary told upon her, but the struggle with Genoa was far worse. During +the last grapple, known as the war of Chioggia (1378-81), Venice was +reduced to narrow straits, and but for her great admirals, Vettor Pisani +and Carlo Zeno, would have been defeated. Genoa never recovered from the +losses she sustained; but Venice regained her strength, and renewed her +conquests on the mainland. She conquered Padua (1404) and strangled the +last heirs of the House of Carrara, though they were prisoners of war; +she seized Verona, and set a price on the heads of the last of the +Scaligers, though they had been her allies. Her chief expansion on the +mainland of Italy was under the Doge Francesco Foscari (1423-57), when +she annexed Bergamo and Brescia, and carried her western boundary to the +river Adda. For the sake of convenience we may divide the life of Venice +into four stages: first, her lusty youth, which closed with the +profligate capture of Constantinople and the piratical dismemberment of +the Byzantine Empire (1204); second, her vigorous prime, which lasted +till she annexed Italian territory, threw in her lot with Italy, and +from being almost an Oriental outsider became an Italian state (1338); +third, her glorious maturity, which continued till the League of +Cambrai, when almost all Europe united to destroy her (1508); and +fourth, her long period of ebbing fortune, during which she slipped +slowly into decrepitude. In the present chapter we deal with the earlier +part of her maturity, when Venice was contesting with Milan for primacy +in power and importance. + +During all this period the oligarchy had been tightening its hold on the +government, and was now absolute and secure. One last attempt had been +made to overthrow it, but had easily been put down. No one knows exactly +what led to the conspiracy, or what was the exact purpose of the +conspirators. The ringleader was the Doge himself, Marino Faliero, one +of the old nobility. The story is that he wished to revenge himself for +a gross insult from a young nobleman, and it seems likely that a +personal quarrel had some connection with a general plot which aimed to +overthrow the oligarchy, and substitute a government of the old nobility +supported by the people. The plot was betrayed. Nine of the conspirators +were hanged from the windows of the Ducal Palace. Faliero's head was cut +off, his portrait in the hall of the Ducal Palace was painted out, and +in the blank space was written: "This is the place of Marino Faliero, +beheaded for his crimes." + +The oligarchy did not fail in its duty to itself, but neither did it +fail in its duty to the state. Commerce was the life of Venice; and the +oligarchy tended it with the utmost care. The famous Venetian arsenal +was the foster-mother of that commerce. There the money-getting ships +were built and equipped: caracks with three decks and great depth of +hold, galleasses with high forecastle and poop, galleys with long rows +of oars and lateen sails, all of different builds to suit the rough +Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, or the safer Adriatic. + +Riches, a firm rule, and the security of an island home, showed visibly +in Venice. Instead of fortresses with massive walls and solid towers, +light, elegant palaces, decked with gay balconies and incrusting +marbles, lined the canals. All revealed tranquillity and prosperity; and +the adoption of Gothic architecture in place of Byzantine, and in +especial the long Gothic arcades of the Ducal Palace (1300-40), +testified how Venice had turned her face from the East to the West. In +contrast with Sicily and Naples, rolling down hill separately or +together, and with the troubled Papal States, Venice appears altogether +happy and successful as she passes from the fourteenth into the +fifteenth century. + +Milan we have brought to the dignity of a dukedom, for which Gian +Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402), the amiable nephew of the too-confiding +Bernabò, paid the price of 100,000 sequins to the fount of honour, the +ultramontane Emperor. This nephew, despite a moral inadequacy in his +family relations, was in many respects an excellent ruler. He reduced +the more burdensome taxes (in one city, it is said, he cut them down +from 12,000 florins to 400), and abolished others altogether. He +corrected abuses, reorganized the administration of justice, and enacted +wise laws. He understood the pride of the Milanese in their city, and +laid the foundations of the great Gothic cathedral on a scale to gratify +that pride; he began the beautiful church of the Cistercian monks, the +_Certosa_, at Pavia; he completed the palace at Pavia, whither he +transported his famous collection of books and an equally famous +collection of holy bones. He had the family ambition, and annexed +Vicenza, Verona, Padua, Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Pisa, and Bologna. +Rumour said that he aspired to a kingdom of Lombardy, and even of all +Italy. But Venice and Florence were too powerful for the success of his +plans. Venice, perhaps, might have regarded herself as still too much +detached from Italy to care to oppose him single-handed; but the doughty +burghers of Florence were zealously democratic and would not endure any +suggestion of foreign dominion. They had fought the Pope, when they +suspected him of designs on their city, and now they organized a league +against Gian Galeazzo. Perhaps it would have been a most fortunate thing +for Italy if the Duke of Milan had been able to consolidate all Italy, +or even all the North, in one kingdom. Centuries of suffering, of +ignominy, of foreign domination might have been avoided; but then, +perhaps, the great intellectual harvest, that gave Italy for the third +time primacy over Europe, would not have attained its full growth. These +are idle speculations, for Gian Galeazzo died in his prime (1402), and +the universal dominion of Milan became an academic question. +Nevertheless, one cannot withhold a sensation of regret. There was +undoubted brilliance in Gian Galeazzo; whatever he did was done royally. +His ambitions were high, planned always on a large scale. His purchases +of the French king's daughter and of the ducal title were splendidly +prodigal. The design of the cathedral was noble and bold. It was an +endeavour to give the Gothic style an Italian character. In this it is +easy to find symbolism. The Gothic style represented the Ghibelline +cause, as well as Teutonic blood and influence, whereas the Italian +represented the Guelf cause and also Latin blood. The high-aspiring Gian +Galeazzo wished to use both Teutonic and Italian elements as the +materials for his kingdom. In view of his intellectual gifts, one +readily slurs over his moral inadequacy, if that term may be applied to +traits which would have done honour to Iago; in fact, prior to Cæsar +Borgia, he was the most distinguished example of the type of +intellectual, murderous Italian, which exercised so powerful an +attraction over the wild fancy of the Elizabethan dramatists. + +Gian Galeazzo's death left his dukedom in a chaotic condition. A widow, +a regent committee, and three boys were left to see the state, built up +with so much care and astuteness, fall away piecemeal into the hands of +the petty despots, who had been dispossessed during the process of +integration. Venice took Verona, Padua, and other cities near by; the +Papacy got back Bologna, Florence managed to secure Pisa. Thus the +dukedom was carved up. The eldest son died soon, leaving behind him a +memory of the pleasure he took in watching mastiffs tear his prisoners +to pieces; but the second son, Filippo Maria (1412-47), inherited his +father's craft and much of his ability. By means of two famous +_condottieri_, Carmagnola, best remembered as the victim of Venetian +anger, and Francesco Sforza, of whom we have heard in the Neapolitan +service, he gradually restored the dukedom very nearly to its boundaries +under his father. Filippo Maria was the last of his race, and we will +leave him, engaged in speculation as to the best political use of his +marriageable daughter Bianca Maria. + +We must pass over the Counts of Savoy, now become dukes (1416), the +marquesses of Monferrat and Saluzzo, and the lords of other petty +territories, and turn our attention to Florence. Florence was always in +a state of struggle, always engaged in exiling, deposing, or in some way +suppressing aristocrats. Forced, in days of peril, to receive foreign +lords as military leaders, she had managed to expel the last of them, +one Walter of Brienne, a clever knave, who bore the odd title of Duke of +Athens, which he had inherited from his grandfather, one of the +gentlemen adventurers who had gone to the East. His father had been +expelled from Athens, and the son was happily driven out of Florence. +The burghers followed up their victory (1343) with new laws against the +aristocrats, and held the government for a generation. Then first +appears the name of Medici. One Salvestro dei Medici, as _Gonfaloniere_ +of Justice, the supreme officer in Florence under the existing +constitution, proposed further laws in favour of the people. The lower +classes, with whetted appetites, wanted more. The mechanics and artisans +of the lower guilds, and more particularly the wool carders and combers +(the _Ciompi_) of the great wool guilds, rose in riot, overturned the +government, and put a wool-carder, Michele di Lando, at the head of the +city (1378). Florence was democratic, but not so democratic as to submit +to the rule of a wool-carder. The rich burghers would not stomach a +plebeian any more than they would a king. A reaction set in, and the +government passed into the very competent hands of an oligarchy of +distinguished citizens. This oligarchy governed well. Its leaders, Maso +degli Albizzi, and Niccolò da Uzzano, acted patriotically and wisely. +They resisted the aggressions of Milan from the north, and of Naples +(under that exceptional king Ladislaus) from the south, and made it +their policy to maintain the balance of power in Italy. Under this +oligarchy began the great development of art, known as the Renaissance, +or, to be more exact in quoting the textbooks, the First or Early +Renaissance. To that subject, which shall give us for a time at least a +centre, and save us from these puzzling political subdivisions, we +joyfully proceed; only remembering that at this period Italy has these +main political divisions,--the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples +(the two temporarily reunited), the Papal States, the city of Florence, +the duchy of Milan, and the city of Venice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450) + + +By Renaissance, new birth, we mean the rapid, many-sided, intellectual +development which started forward in Italy at this time. It was really a +stage in the movement which began a hundred years earlier, but the +textbooks confine the term Renaissance to the period which began at the +opening of the fifteenth century; and just as the first beginning took +place in Florence, so this fresh start, like a stream of energy issuing +at a divine touch, also burst out of the city of Florence. The simplest +way to get an idea of this period, known as the Early Renaissance, will +be to notice a few of the men, leaders in their several spheres, in whom +that energy became incarnate. + +We must not let ourselves think that the Renaissance was a merely +artistic movement. A few men are known to us, and we think of them as +wandering about in artistic isolation, as if they were hermits in a +Thebaid. But, in reality, only a slight fraction of even the deeper +feelings and interests take artistic or literary form; the great +majority are put into life. The celebrated Florentine artists of those +days were merely representative of their fellows; they were surrounded +by crowds of neighbours, all crammed full with ardour for living, for +expression, for discussion, for money-making, for glorifying their +city. In recognition of this fact, and of the great service rendered to +the arts throughout the Renaissance by men who were not artists, but +potent signors of wealth and cultivation, whether merchants, dukes, or +cardinals, I take Cosimo dei Medici (1389-1464) as the first figure in +this brief account of the Early Renaissance. + +Cosimo's father, the richest banker in Italy, and one of the chief +citizens of Florence, had been active in politics, and chief of the +party which was opposed to the ruling oligarchy. Cosimo succeeded to his +father's position, and when the oligarchy fell became the actual head of +the city, though he always affected the rôle of private citizen. His +quick intelligence and his broad cultivation gave him keen sympathy with +the fermenting intellectual life about him, and his great wealth enabled +him to express that sympathy in most substantial ways. He got his first +schooling from a Florentine humanist, and then went abroad, travelled in +Germany and France, and visited the Council of Constance then in +session. After that his attention was devoted to business and to +political affairs. His position in Florence during early manhood was +always precarious, for the sharp-witted Florentines were not easily +hoodwinked and saw whither Cosimo's masterfulness was tending. For a +time he was in exile, but after a tussle he won his place and banished +his enemies. Wealth was his great instrument. He lent and gave lavishly. +In later life he used to say that his chief error had been that he had +not begun to spend money ten years sooner than he did. He was a serious +man, given to intellectual matters, and averse to buffoons and strolling +players, so popular then; by virtue of wide experience in the conduct of +large affairs, of extensive reading, of a retentive memory, and a +natural gift for language, he was both an interesting talker and good +company. He talked literature with men of letters, but he was equally +ready to talk divinity, in which he was well read, or philosophy, or +astrology in which he believed although some men did not. He liked +gardening, and enjoyed going out of town to his country-place; there he +would prune the vines for two hours in the morning, and then go indoors +to read. His connection with the arts of the Renaissance, however, is +our chief concern. He employed the famous architect Michelozzo to build +his palace, now known as Palazzo Riccardi, his villa, and also the +Dominican convent of San Marco. He employed the still more famous +Brunelleschi to rebuild the abbey of Fiesole. He was fond of sculptors, +especially of Donatello, and had statues by the best masters of the day +in his palace. He employed Fra Angelico to paint in the convent of San +Marco, and Benozzo Gozzoli in his private chapel. Benozzo painted a +procession of the Three Wise Men, with Cosimo, his son, and his +grandson, young Lorenzo the Magnificent, riding in their train. Cosimo's +greatest interest, however, was in the humanities. He built several +buildings for libraries in Florence, and one in Venice, and interested +himself greatly in the preservation and increase of the libraries +themselves. For the library in the abbey at Fiesole he employed a man +of letters (Vespasiano da Bisticci, his biographer), who hired +forty-five copyists, and in twenty-two months finished the two hundred +volumes deemed necessary for a good library. His list included the Bible +and concordances and commentaries, beginning with that by Origen; the +works of St. Ignatius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John +Chrysostom, and all the works of the Greek fathers which had been +translated into Latin; St. Cyprian, Tertullian, and the four doctors of +the Latin Church; the mediæval masters St. Bernard, Hugo of St. Victor, +St. Anselm, St. Isidore of Spain; the scholastic philosophers, Albertus +Magnus, Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura; Aristotle, and +commentaries; books of canon law; the Latin prose classics, Livy, Cæsar, +Suetonius, Plutarch, Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, Cicero, +Seneca; the Latin poets, Virgil, Terence, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Plautus; +and "all the other books necessary to a library." One wonders if this +clause includes Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, or whether the humanists +did not regard them as necessary or appropriate to culture. + +Taken altogether Cosimo may stand as an heroic model of the Florentine +burgher, such as one sees in the frescoes of the time, shrewd, prudent, +thoughtful, cautious in plan and prompt in action, interested in the +best things of this world, and in a measure generous, but wholly without +romance, chivalry, or idealism. At the close of his life he used to stay +hours at a time, wrapt in thought, without speaking a word. One of the +women of the house asked him the reason of this. He answered: "When you +have to go out of town, you spend a fortnight all agog to prepare for +going; and now that I have to go from this life to another, doesn't it +seem to you that I have something to think about?" The last book he is +reported by his biographer to have read was the "Ethics" of Aristotle. + +Cosimo was named _Pater Patriæ_, though his real work was the foundation +of the House of the Medici, which ruled in Tuscany for centuries and +mingled its blood with the royalties of Europe; but for us he is the +patron of the arts, the friend of artists, and serves as the central +figure round which to group the men of artistic genius. + +In architecture the greatest name is that of Brunelleschi (1377-1446). +His biography by Vasari opens with these words: "Many men are created by +nature little in person and features, who have their souls so full of +greatness and their hearts so full of the inordinate fury of genius, +that, unless they are at work on things difficult to impossibility, and +unless they finish them to the astonishment of the spectator, they never +give themselves any rest all their lives; and whatever things chance +puts into their hands, no matter how mean and cheap, they bring to worth +and dignity.... Such was Brunelleschi, no less insignificant in person +than Giotto, but of so lofty genius, that it may be said he was endowed +by heaven to give new form to architecture, which for hundreds of years +had gone astray [such was the Renaissance view of the Gothic and +Romanesque]. Moreover, Brunelleschi was adorned with the greatest +virtues; among which was friendship to such a degree, that there never +was a man more kind or more loving than he. His judgment was wholly free +from passion; wherever he saw the worth of another man's merits, he +totally disregarded any advantage to himself or to his friends. He knew +himself; he inspired others with his own noble qualities, and he always +succoured his neighbour in time of need. He declared himself a deadly +enemy of the vices, and a lover of those who practised virtue. He never +wasted time, for he was always busy with his own affairs or with the +affairs of others when they had need of him, and when out walking he +used to stop and see his friends and always lent them a hand." +Brunelleschi was no scholar, but, being a Florentine, he was very fond +of talking, and did not hesitate to take part in conversation with +learned men, especially when the talk ran on Holy Writ, and then, as a +friend said, he talked like a second St. Paul. + +He began life, as most architects did, as a member of the guild of +goldsmiths, and learned to model, but he had a bent towards physics and +mechanics, and developed naturally into an architect. A great event in +his life was a trip to Rome with Donatello; there the two examined all +the classical remains in the city and in the country round about, taking +measurements and learning all they could. + +In Florence besides the abbey of Fiesole, built for Cosimo, Brunelleschi +built the church of San Lorenzo for Cosimo's father, and he designed and +began the lordly Pitti palace across the Arno, but his great +achievement was the dome of the cathedral. The cathedral, first begun by +Arnolfo di Cambio, had been in charge of a succession of famous +architects, and was nearing completion; but the gap at the intersection +of the nave and transepts presented a most difficult architectural +problem. The diameter of this gap was about one hundred and thirty-five +feet, and the height above the ground was about one hundred and +forty-five feet. No such span had been vaulted since the building of the +Pantheon. A public competition for a dome was held in which Brunelleschi +took part. After long discussion, for Florence was "a city where every +one speaks his mind," and after much consideration, Brunelleschi was +chosen architect. His great dome, though no copy of Roman forms, was +thoroughly classic in its simplicity and its spirit, and is the great +achievement of the Early Renaissance in architecture. + +Brunelleschi and his fellow architects, no doubt, wished to revive the +old Roman art, and did so as far as they could, but their problems were +new and their models few, so they were forced, in the main, to follow +their own principles of construction and limit their use of Roman forms +to ornament and detail. Other famous men seconded Brunelleschi; and +Florentine, or at least Tuscan, architects spread the ideas of the new +art. To them is really due the foundation of the various schools of +Renaissance architecture which sprang up in Milan, Venice, Pavia, +Bologna, Rimini, Brescia, Siena, Lucca, Perugia, and in almost every +city of Northern Italy. + +In sculpture, the puissant Donatello (1386-1466) is the greatest +figure. It has been said, that Michelangelo's soul first worked in +Donatello's body or that Donatello's soul lived again in Michelangelo. +Donatello was a realist; he shows classic influence at times, in +technique and in sundry bits of detail, but his instinct was to imitate +what he could see and touch. His vigour, his energy and variety produced +a profound effect on sculpture and also on painting. His earlier works +were statues for the outside of the Campanile and of the church of +Orsanmichele, of which the most famous are that known as _Zuccone_, +Baldhead, and the splendid St. George. Afterwards he modelled a young +David, the first nude bronze since the Romans, and the statue of +Gattamelata at Padua, the first equestrian statue since that of Marcus +Aurelius in Rome. The spectator who examines the collection of +Donatello's works in the Bargello is chiefly struck by his intellectual +power, and by the immense variety of his style, from the simple outline +of the lovely St. Cecilia in low relief, to the passionate dramas carved +in altars and pulpits. + +Donatello was a great friend of Brunelleschi, and Vasari tells this +anecdote about them. Donatello modelled a Crucifix for Santa Croce, and +thinking he had done something unusually good, asked Brunelleschi what +he thought of it. Brunelleschi, with his unswerving artistic rectitude, +answered that Donatello had put a peasant on the cross, and not Jesus +Christ. Donatello, piqued more than he had anticipated, said: "If it +were as easy to model as it is to criticise, my Christ would seem to you +a Christ and not a peasant; but let's see you take a piece of wood and +go and make one." Brunelleschi did so secretly, and when he had at last +finished his Crucifix, asked Donatello to come home and dine with him. +They walked to Brunelleschi's house together, stopping at the market to +buy eggs, cheese, and other things for the dinner. Then Brunelleschi +said, "Donatello, you take these things and go to my house, and I will +come after in a minute or two." So Donatello caught them up in his +apron, went to Brunelleschi's, opened the door, and saw the Crucifix. He +was so dumbfounded that he dropped the dinner on the floor, and when +Brunelleschi, coming in, said, "Why, Donatello, what shall we have for +dinner?" Donatello answered, "For my part I have had my share to-day. If +you want yours, pick it up. No more of that. It is my lot to model +peasants, and yours to model Christs." + +Donatello was also a great friend of Cosimo's, modelled many things for +him, and inspired Cosimo with a taste for collecting antiques. He loved +Cosimo so much that he did whatever he wanted, except when it interfered +with his personal idiosyncrasies. One day Cosimo gave Donatello, who +used to go about in his workman's blouse, a cloak and a fine suit of +clothes, the costume of a gentleman. Donatello wore them for a day or +two, and then said he could not wear them, they were too fashionable. He +was buried, at his own request, near Cosimo, in the church of San +Lorenzo, which Brunelleschi had designed, and he had adorned with his +sculpture. + +Donatello worked in Venice, Mantua, Modena, Ferrara, and Prato, spent +several years in Siena, and nine in Padua, and introduced the +Renaissance into the sculpture of Northern Italy. He was a man of strong +character and poetic spirit, striving in his statues to be true to +nature and to the beautiful, to mingle pagan and Christian notions, +tradition, and freedom. He and his pupils affected the whole plastic art +of Italy. + +In painting, Masaccio (1401-28) stands conspicuous, even among many +painters of rare gifts. Modern critics call him Giotto reincarnate. +Masaccio is an unflattering nickname for Tommaso, and recalls the only +personal trait we know of him. Vasari says: "He was a most absent-minded +person and very casual, like a man who has fixed his will and his whole +mind on art only, and cares little about himself and less about others. +He never wanted to think in any way about the things or the cares of +this world, even of his own clothes, and he never went to get the money +due him from his debtors except when he was in extreme need. Instead of +Thomas, everybody called him Masaccio; not because he was bad, being +good nature itself, but because of his great absent-mindedness. +Nevertheless, he was as affectionate in doing useful and amiable acts +for other people as could possibly be wished." This "marvellous boy" +died at the age of twenty-seven, but left an ineffaceable mark on +Italian painting. Across the Arno, in the ugly church of Santa Maria del +Carmine, is a chapel on the right, in which, mingled with the work of +contemporaries and continuers, are Masaccio's frescoes, figures of St. +Peter and St. John, of a shivering boy, and a few others. Leonardo da +Vinci said: "After Giotto, the art of painting declined again, because +every one imitated the pictures that were already done; thus it went on +till Tommaso of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect +works how those who take for their standard any one but Nature--the +mistress of all masters--weary themselves in vain."[16] In that little +chapel, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and scores of the greatest +painters of Italy have admired, studied, and copied. + +Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio are but the greater names in the fine +arts. Well might Leon Battista Alberti, himself a great architect and +humanist, on return from exile to his native city, say to Brunelleschi: +"I have been accustomed both to wonder and to grieve that so many divine +arts and sciences which we see to have abounded in those most highly +endowed ancients were now lacking and utterly lost ... but since I have +been restored to this our native land that surpasseth all others in her +adornment, I have recognized in many but chiefly in thee, Philip +[Brunelleschi], and in our near friend Donato [Donatello] the sculptor, +and in those others, Nencio [Ghiberti], and Luca [della Robbia], and +Masaccio, genius capable for every praiseworthy work, not inferior to +that of any ancient and famous master in the arts."[17] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] _Leonardo da Vinci_, Richter. + +[17] _Church Building in the Middle Ages_, C. E. Norton, p. 280. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE RENAISSANCE (1450-1492) + + +The last chapter confined itself to the fine arts and omitted the main +element, humanism, which gave volume and impetus to the stream, and, +though not memorable for conspicuous achievements as the fine arts were, +flowed more directly from the classic impulse and produced the greatest +immediate effect. The humanists played a part analogous to that which +men of science play in our own time; they devoted themselves heart and +soul to the classics, as men of science do to Nature. For some time they +had had access to the Latin past through Italy, and now they also found +their way to the far greater classic world of Greece. The one +uninterrupted communication with that world was through Constantinople, +which, like a long, ill-lighted and ill-repaired corridor, led back to +the great pleasure domes of Plato and Homer, and all the wonderland of +Greek literature and thought. Aristotle, indeed, had come by way of the +Arabs, and had long been a lay Bible, but for the other Greek classics +the rising humanism of Italy was indebted to Constantinople. The glowing +young city of Florence lit its torch at the expiring embers of the +imperial city. A few Italians went to Constantinople and learned Greek, +then stray Byzantines came to Italy. The doom which hung over +Constantinople frightened scholars and drove them westward, and the fall +itself (1453) dispersed the last of them. These Greeks brought +invaluable manuscripts and firmly established Hellenic culture in the +kindred soil of Tuscany. In the list of books in Cosimo's library, there +was no mention of any Greek classic except Aristotle; but after the +immigration of Greek scholars all intellectual Florence went mad over +Plato, and Cosimo founded a Platonic Academy. The study of Greek brought +with it examination, comparison, criticism; it brought new knowledge; it +gave new ideas to all the arts, new impulses to the creative +imagination, and general intellectual freedom. Interest in the +humanities became so widespread throughout the peninsula that we get a +feeling of Italian unity stronger than any we have experienced since the +days of Theodoric. + +The importance of the humanists, however, was merely as an intellectual +leaven. They need not be spoken of apart from the general intellectual +movement which expressed itself so much more fully and freely in art +than in any other way. That movement kindled enthusiasm from Lombardy to +Calabria; and Florence still maintained her primacy. All the other +cities of Italy lagged far behind her. We must therefore keep Florence +as our paradigm, only remembering that at her heels a score of cities +toil and pant in artistic eagerness to make themselves as beautiful and +famous as Florence. + +There Cosimo, _Pater Patriæ_, had died in fulness of years and was +succeeded by his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, though not +immediately, for there was a short-lived Piero in between. Lorenzo took +his grandfather's place, became lord of Florence in all but name, and +stood the centre of a brilliant group of artists, sculptors, poets, and +scholars. His reign, for it must be so called, lasted from 1469 to 1492, +a most notable span of time. The mere names of the famous Florentines +would fill pages. A few must be mentioned: Benedetto da Maiano, sculptor +and architect, who carved the beautiful pulpit in Santa Croce, and drew +the designs for the palace-fortress of the Strozzi; Giuliano da San +Gallo, sculptor and architect, who made the plans for Lorenzo's villa at +Poggio a Caiano; Andrea della Robbia, nephew to Luca, and almost his +equal in the tender charm of his blue and white Madonnas; Mino da +Fiesole, who made a bust of Lorenzo's father, and carved in marble the +sweetness of young mothers; Antonio Rossellino, who wrought the famous +tomb for a great Portuguese prelate in the church of San Miniato; Andrea +Verrocchio, who painted the Uffizi Annunciation, so beautiful that it +was long attributed to Leonardo, modelled the lady _dalle belle mani_ in +the Bargello, and the Colleoni at Venice, greatest of equestrian +statues; Benozzo Gozzoli, who painted the three generations of Medici in +the Riccardi palace, and in the Campo Santo at Pisa the enchanting +frescoes which turn the Old Testament into a kind of Arabian Nights; +Antonio Pollaiuolo, sculptor and painter, a leader in the new school of +realism, and notable for the feeling of movement which he conveys; +Filippino Lippi, Lippo Lippi's son, who completed the frescoes in the +chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine left unfinished by Masaccio; +Botticelli, the greatest of all the Florentine painters, except Leonardo +and Michelangelo; Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose frescoes in Santa Maria +Novella tell us more about those shrewd, capable, quick-witted +Florentines than any historian; Pulci, the poet, who wrote "Morgante +Maggiore," a gay epic, which Savonarola thought ought to be burned; +Poliziano, great embodiment of culture, who wrote the first lyrical +tragedy, and led the way towards the opera; Marsilio Ficino, the +philosopher who helped Cosimo found the Platonic Academy; Pico della +Mirandola, the charming scholar, whom Machiavelli called "a man almost +divine." + +Perhaps none of these men were equal to the leaders in the group which +surrounded Cosimo, but they are more interesting to us, and touch our +sympathy more readily. They are nearer to us. The earlier problems in +architecture, sculpture, and painting were more difficult, but they had +been successfully solved; and the fresh problems, which confronted the +younger generation, though less adventurous, were more refined. The sons +have entered into a hard-earned inheritance, and live more freely. They +have more spiritual alertness than their fathers though less vigour, +more sensitiveness to passing moods though less robustness, greater +mastery of technique though less genius for principles. Less great +themselves, they have created greater works. Benedetto's Palazzo Strozzi +is more majestic and splendid than Michelozzo's Palazzo Riccardi; +Verrocchio's statue of Colleoni surpasses Donatello's Gattamelata; +Botticelli's poetry is more interesting, at least to the unlearned, than +Masaccio's puissant drawing. Nevertheless, the greater intimacy of +sympathy and interest which we feel for the later men is not accounted +for by their greater command of their crafts. There is some new element +less readily discovered. We perceive a change of attitude toward life, a +new conception of human existence. The readiest explanation and perhaps +the best, if we do not treat it as completely adequate, lies in the new +Greek thought (or rather Greek thought as the Florentines understood +it), which the humanists contributed to Italian culture; and indeed not +so much in Greek thought itself, as in the impulse it gave to a subtler +and more complicated conception of life. + +Direct Greek influence is most conspicuous in Botticelli. This rare +spirit wandered about half in the world of reality which he ill +understood and depicted badly, and half in a world of fantasy which he +knew better than any other painter. The secret of this world of fantasy, +as he discovered, was motion. If a vision tarries, it becomes touched by +the blight of familiarity, soiled by the comradeship of life. The fairy +spirit of imagination must be ever on the wing. No artist ever let Sweet +Fancy loose as Botticelli did in his two great pictures, The Primavera +(Spring) and The Birth of Venus. In them this Greek influence finds its +fullest direct expression. The glory of dawn, the first unveiled fresh +beauty of the world, which the Greeks saw, Botticelli saw also. But +besides the childlike joy in pure beauty is another, more complicated, +element. Into the rapturous Greek world, beautiful with sensuous charm, +the bewildering idea of a moral order presents itself. On the +countenance of Venus and in the figure of Primavera there is a +wistfulness, as if they had a presentiment that they must leave the +rose-strewn ocean and the magic wood in which they found themselves. The +consequence is a sadness as of beholding an antagonism between two +beautiful things. + +The subtler and more complicated conception of life is best expressed by +Verrocchio, the other master spirit of this generation, who displays in +his paintings and statues the joy he takes in pure beauty, but always +adds some other element. The little boy who hugs a dolphin in the court +of the Palazzo Vecchio is the incarnation of the grace and happiness of +childhood, but he has an impish, Puck-like expression. The young bronze +David, who has just conquered Goliath, has an odd, mischievous +sprightliness. Both statues intimate a sceptical attitude towards the +fine seriousness of life which had marked Puritan Florence of the older +days. His painting of the Annunciation shows a magic background, +beautiful and mystical, with enchanted cities, rivers, mountains, like +the part of Xanadu where Kubla Khan decreed his pleasure dome, or the +strange land where La belle Dame sans Merci left her knight-at-arms +alone and palely loitering. Subtle thoughts play over his statues and +paintings, and he taught his pupil Leonardo that strange and beautiful +fascination of face which expresses one knows not what. The earlier +simplicity of the _quattrocento_ has passed, the artist's attitude to +life has become complicated, although the love of beauty for beauty's +sake remains abundantly. + +The lord of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, the centre and patron of +this glittering ring, is the best exponent of the late _quattrocento_ +taken as a whole. He touched life on every side, public and private, +intellectual and frivolous, religious and cynical, artistic, literary, +philosophical. Lorenzo had a striking, indeed a fascinating, +personality. His figure was strong and lithe, and his face among a +thousand caught the eye. His big jaws, under his lean, furrowed cheeks, +were square and grim. His long irregular nose and curving lips gave him +a somewhat sardonic expression, but his broad forehead was grave and +thoughtful, and "princely counsel" shone in his face. His whole aspect +was full of character and dignity. Every one felt his fascination. He +was a poet and wrote poems of many kinds, grave and gay, some of which +are of acknowledged merit: + + Quant'è bella giovinezza + Che si fugge tuttavia, + Chi vuol essere lieto, sia, + Di doman non v'è certezza.[18] + +He was a scholar, and full of the fashionable admiration for Plato, +though he probably shared the current confusion between Plato's own +thoughts and those of the Alexandrian Neoplatonists. He was a statesman +of foresight and shrewdness, and contributed more than any one else to +preserve the peace of Italy, by maintaining the balance of power among +the greater states. He was also a very charming person, and endeavoured +to make life in Florence a happy mixture of mirth and intellectual +pleasure; and it must be remembered in appreciation of the general +sobriety of his life, that a gifted company of men did all they could to +spoil him. + +Lorenzo was the most remarkable prince of the _quattrocento_, but there +were many others who patronized scholars and artists as generously as +he. Alfonso of Aragon, the king who temporarily united the Two Sicilies, +was devoted to the humanities. He was wont to hear Terence and Virgil +read aloud at dinner, and took Livy with him on his campaigns. But +Naples and Sicily had almost no share in the achievements and glory of +the Italian Renaissance. Lawless, ignorant, poor, unsuccessful, they +responded feebly to the efforts of individuals, who, here and there, +strove to emulate the great Florentines. But in the North all the world +was mad for art, and its princes led the fashion. Federigo da +Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (1422-1482), was the foremost scholar among +soldiers and the foremost soldier among scholars; he gathered together a +noble library, now lodged in the Vatican; he built a palace, unmatched +in Italy; and collected about him artists of all kinds. Yet Federigo was +a soldier by nature as well as by profession, as one may see from the +great portrait of him in the Uffizi, painted by Piero della Francesca. +His strong profile, with firm mouth and big, broken, aquiline nose, +testifies far more forcibly to his character as a warrior than as a +virtuoso. His near neighbour, the tyrant of Pesaro (a little city by the +Adriatic coast), Alessandro Sforza, passed the intervals between his +battles in buying books. Duke Ercole of Ferrara was likewise a patron of +art, and adorned his capital as well as his palaces and villas with all +sorts of beautiful things. The dukes of Milan were somewhat eclipsed, +but only for a time, by their less powerful rivals of Ferrara and +Urbino. The old ducal line of the Visconti had died out with Filippo +Maria, and Francesco Sforza (husband of Filippo's daughter), who +succeeded to the duchy (1450), was busy making good his very defective +title, and had little time to attend to art or letters. Even he kept +humanists in his pay, and continued work on the glorious Certosa of +Pavia. + +Not only princes but private citizens were lovers and patrons of art. In +almost every city of the North--excepting Piedmont--there was some +artist of whom the whole city was proud. Nevertheless, throughout the +reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent Florence continued to be the most +intellectual of Italian cities, as she had been for many generations; +but on Lorenzo's death the primacy in the arts and in matters of the +mind passed from Florence to Rome. By a flattering chance that primacy +seemed to follow the fortunes of a single family. Under Cosimo, Piero, +and Lorenzo dei Medici, the Renaissance may be said to have made +Florence its home; in the later period it found its fullest expression +in Rome, and even there took its name, the Age of Leo, from another +Medici, Lorenzo's son. It was not to Pope Leo, however, but to his +predecessors, that Rome was indebted for preëminence. At the summons of +the Papacy men of genius went to Rome from all Italy, but chiefly from +Florence; and a distinguished Tuscan, almost a Florentine, who went from +Florence to Rome at the culmination of a brilliant career, fairly serves +as the personification of this intellectual migration. Tommaso +Parentucelli, who was born in a little town near Lucca, was educated in +Florence and Bologna. He took holy orders early, and, going back to +Florence, quickly became intimate with the clever set of humanists who +surrounded Cosimo. He was a great student, and won so high a reputation +for learning that it was to him Cosimo applied for advice, when he +wanted the right books for the library at Fiesole. This collection +became famous and was copied both at Rimini and Urbino. Parentucelli was +a very capable and attractive man, and embodied in its best form the +essence of Florentine humanistic culture. His character, talents, and +accomplishments were recognized in the Church; he became bishop, +cardinal, and finally Pope, as Nicholas V (1447-55). + +At Rome Nicholas showed the well-marked characteristics of the +Renaissance. He fostered learning, art, and general culture, not only +because of his interest in them, but because he thought that by their +means he could overcome that rumbling spirit of reform, which was making +trouble in Bohemia and Germany, and that by giving the reformers +intellectual interests he could occupy their minds and quell their +discontent. He entertained lofty imaginings of a Papacy, resting on +learning and culture, housed in a nonpareil city, which should be the +acknowledged and admired head of Christendom. He gathered together +scholars of all kinds, collected a library of five thousand volumes, and +founded the Vatican library. He rebuilt or restored numerous churches +and other buildings in Rome, he began the new Vatican palace, and +planned a new cathedral in place of the old basilica of St. Peter's, to +be the greatest church in Christendom. He brought to Rome architects, +painters, goldsmiths, artists, and artisans of all sorts. With him began +the brilliant period of the Papacy as a secular power devoted to art and +culture, which culminated in what is known as the Age of Leo X. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] + + Oh, how beautiful is youth + Ever hurrying away, + Come, let him who will be gay, + In to-morrow there's no truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (1494-1537) + + +We must now leave the great intellectual progress of the Renaissance on +its way from its home in Florence to its culmination in Rome, and look +over the political condition of the principal divisions of Italy. A +complete change comes during this period, that can only be likened to +the change wrought by the invasions of the Barbarians in ancient times. +In fact, it is a period of fresh invasions by Barbarians, as the +Italians, and not without some justice, still called foreigners. The +year 1494 was the fatal date of the first invasion of the French. From +that year onward there was a series of invasions of French, Austrians, +and Spaniards, until Italy was finally parcelled out according to the +pleasure of the invaders. Before that time Italy was in a peaceful and +prosperous condition. The famous Florentine historian Guicciardini +(1483-1540) thus records the time of his boyhood: "Since the fall of the +Roman Empire Italy had never known such great prosperity, nor had +experienced so desirable a condition as in the year 1490 and the years +just before and after. The country had been brought to profound peace +and tranquillity, agriculture spread over the roughest and most sterile +hills no less than over the most fertile plains, and Italy, subject to +no dominion but her own, abounded in men, merchandise, and wealth. She +was embellished to the utmost by the magnificence of many princes, by +the splendour of many most noble and beautiful cities, by the seat and +majesty of Religion; she was rich in men most apt in public affairs, and +in minds most noble for all sorts of knowledge. She was industrious and +excellent in every art, and, according to the standard of those days, +not without military glory." + +In these happy years, and in the decades that preceded them, Italian +politics was a domestic game between the five principal powers, Papacy, +Naples, Florence, Venice, and Milan, who treated one another's border +cities as stakes. They made leagues and counter-leagues, waged +innumerable little wars, fought bloodless skirmishes, flourished their +swords, blew their trumpets, and made a good deal of commotion; but they +were all Italians, they all knew the rules of the game, however +irregular and complicated those rules might appear to an outsider, and +if there were bloody heads, they were all in the family. With 1494 came +the change. History seemed to turn back a thousand years; the French +poured over the Alps from the northwest, the Imperial soldiers of the +House of Hapsburg from the northeast, and the Spaniards from their +province of Sicily to the south. + + +_Milan, 1466-1535_ + +Our chronicle had better begin with the duchy of Milan. There, on the +death of Francesco Sforza (1466), his son, Galeazzo Maria, succeeded to +the throne. This duke was a typical Italian ruler, brilliant in +display, liberal in giving, harsh in taxing, interested in art and +scholarship, crafty and cruel in politics, and shamelessly dissolute in +private life. Fearful stories of his brutality are told. He was +literally insufferable, and was assassinated (1476). It is interesting +to see the great classical influence, which stimulated the arts and the +humanities, quickening the spirits of young men and giving an antique +lustre to murder. The story goes that a schoolmaster of Milan, who had +drilled his boys in Plutarch, till Plutarch's world seemed to live +again, burst out in his lecture, "Will none among my pupils rise up like +Brutus and Cassius to free his country from this vile yoke and merit +eternal renown?" Three of his pupils, stimulated by private wrongs to +emulate the classical example, murdered the duke in a church. All three +were put to death. The last to die was skewered on iron hooks and cut to +pieces alive. "I know," he said, "that for my wrongdoings I have +deserved these tortures and more besides, could my poor flesh endure +them; but as for the noble act for which I die, that comforts my soul. +Instead of repenting it, were I to live my life ten times again, ten +times again to perish in these tortures, none the less would I +consecrate all my life's blood, and all my might, to that noble +purpose." + +The results of the murder were unimportant. In politics, even more than +in the arts, the classic impulse only affected details. Lodovico Sforza, +nicknamed Il Moro, the late duke's brother, seized the government and +supplanted the lawful heir, his young nephew, in every ducal +prerogative except the title. Lodovico was a brilliant, intellectual +man, devoid of moral sense; and for a time flourished in the full +sunshine of the opening High Renaissance. He patronized Bramante, he +employed familiarly Leonardo da Vinci. But his political talents were +suited to the earlier period of domestic Italian politics. Had he lived +then, his abilities, inherited from both the Sforzas and Visconti, would +have kept him secure on his ducal throne; but he did not understand the +larger forces of European politics. + +Milan being at odds with Naples, and the other Italian powers as usual +either taking part, or biding a more favourable time, Lodovico Sforza +thought it would be a brilliant play, in the little Italian game, to use +a foreign piece to checkmate Naples. He invited the French king, Charles +VIII, who represented the claims of the House of Anjou to the Neapolitan +crown, to come into Italy and take possession of his own. Other Italian +politicians, with no more knowledge of European politics than Lodovico, +joined in the petition. Charles VIII, an ugly little man, of scant +intelligence, strong in a compact and vigorous kingdom, believing that +he could play the part of a Charlemagne, accepted the suggestion with +alacrity, got together an admirable army, and crossed the Alps, in the +memorable year 1494. He received the respects of Lodovico and swept +triumphantly down through Italy. No resistance to speak of was +attempted. Florence made a treaty with him, the Pope was delighted to be +able to do the like, and Naples watched her king run away and the +French march in, with blended indifference and pleasure. This brilliant +success, however, was a mere blaze of straw. The powers of Europe took +alarm, and while the puny Charles was rioting in Naples, made a league, +in which Venice, the Pope, and the double-dealing Sforza joined. Charles +hurried north as fast as he could, and barely escaped across the Alps. +But the episode was full of portent for Italy. The Barbarians had once +again broken through the barrier which nature had set up to protect +Italy; they had rediscovered what a delightful place Italy was; and the +second period of Barbarian invasion had begun. We cannot dally over +Milan. Sforza's treachery overreached itself. The succeeding King of +France, Louis XII, a prince of Orleans, was a grandson of Gian Galeazzo +Visconti's eldest daughter, and had as good a legal title to the +inheritance of the Visconti as his second cousin Lodovico; though in +strictness neither title had any legal value. Revenge lent strength to +Louis's claim. In a few years (1499), the French again descended into +the pleasant plains of Lombardy, captured Milan, took Sforza prisoner, +and locked him up in a French prison for the rest of his life. + +It is useless to follow the shifting ownership of Milan, tossed about in +the great struggle between Francis I of France and the Emperor Charles +V. The Empire espoused the cause of the Sforza heirs and put them back +on the throne. Then France gained the battle of Marignano (1515) and +recovered Milan, but the Empire conquered at Pavia (1525), and finally +won. The male line of the Sforzas became extinct in 1535; and the +dukedom of Milan, though it continued to be a nominal fief of the +Empire, was annexed to the Spanish crown by Charles V (who was King of +Spain as well as Emperor), and passed as a part of the Spanish +inheritance to a line of Spanish kings. The Barbarian occupation of +Milan was destined to last for three hundred years. + + +_Florence, 1492-1537_ + +Now that we have followed Milan into the service of Spanish masters, we +must do a somewhat similar office for Florence. But Florence's liberty +was put out in glory. The politic statesman, Lorenzo dei Medici, whose +sagacity had contributed so much to the pleasant state of Italy prior to +the French invasion, died in 1492. The great period of Florentine +intellectual primacy ended with him, for, though Florence continued to +pour forth genius, that genius no longer was gathered together at home +but emigrated to honour other places. Nevertheless, she again challenges +our admiration; the ancient republican city once more asserted its +preëminence by a burst of moral enthusiasm. Nowhere else in Italy +throughout the Renaissance was such a spectacle seen, and though the +leader, Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98), was a native of Ferrara, yet it +was in Florence, and among Florentines, that he kindled enthusiasm and +ran his brilliant career. Savonarola was the reincarnation of a Hebrew +prophet, a Florentine Habakkuk, passionately sure of the moral +government of God, passionately convinced that the wickedness of Italy +must bring its own punishment and purification. Shortly before +Lorenzo's death he became a distinguished preacher, spoke in the +cathedral, and won the ear of the people. He preached righteousness and +judgment to come. He proclaimed spiritual evils and political +punishments, and foretold that God would stretch forth His hand and send +His avenger to punish Italy. The prophecies were so definite, and fitted +the invasion of Charles VIII so accurately, that Savonarola was hailed +as a prophet. In the excitement over the French invasion Lorenzo's sons +were driven out, the former republican constitution reëstablished, and +Savonarola raised by a burst of popular enthusiasm practically to the +position of guiding and governing the city. The best way to understand +Savonarola's influence is to read a few extracts from the diary of Luca +Landucci, a Florentine apothecary:-- + +"December 14, 1494. On this day Fra Girolamo greatly laboured in the +pulpit that Florence should adopt a good form of government; he has been +preaching in Santa Maria del Fiore [the Duomo] every day, and this day, +Sunday, he preached, and he did not want women but men, and he wanted +the officers of the city, and nobody stayed in the Palace [Palazzo +Vecchio, the City Hall] except the Gonfaloniere and one other; all the +officials in Florence were there, and he preached about matters of +state, that we ought to love and fear God and love the common weal, and +that no man henceforth should wish to hold his head high or wish himself +great. He always inclined to the people's side, and insisted that no +blood should be shed, but that punishment should be made in some other +way; and he preached like this every day.... + +"April, 1495. Fra Girolamo preached and said that the Virgin Mary had +revealed to him how the city of Florence would become richer, more +glorious, and more powerful than she had ever been, but not till after +many troubles; and he spoke all this as if he were a prophet, and most +of the people believed him, especially the better sort who had no +political or partisan passions.... + +"June 17, 1495. The Frate nowadays is held in such esteem and devotion +in Florence that there are many men and women who would obey him +implicitly, if he should say 'walk into the fire.' Many believe him to +be a prophet, and he said so himself.... + +"February 16 [1496], the Carnival. Fra Girolamo preached a few days ago +that the children, instead of foolish pranks, throwing stones, etc., +should collect alms and distribute them to the worthy poor; and, thanks +to divine grace, such a change was wrought, that in place of tomfoolery +the children collected alms for days beforehand, [and to-day six +thousand of them or more, carrying olive branches and singing hymns, +marched to the Duomo where they offered up their alms] so that good +sensible men wept from tenderness and said, 'Truly this new change is +the work of God.' ... I have written this because it is the fact and I +saw it, and I felt the greatest happiness to have my children among +those blessed innocent bands.... + +"August 15, 1496. Fra Girolamo preached in Santa Maria del Fiore [the +Duomo, where great scaffolds had been erected which were filled with +children singing], and there was so much holiness in the church, and it +was so sweet to hear the children sing, above, below, and on every side, +singing so simply and so modestly, that they did not seem like children. +I write this because I was there and saw it and felt so much spiritual +sweetness. In truth the Church was full of angels." + +The friar's political enemies were strong, and the Pope, the very +notable Borgia, Alexander VI, in anger and in fear, excommunicated him, +and bade the Signory of Florence forbid him to preach. There was great +disturbance over this action, and feeling ran to a passionate height. +One of Savonarola's disciples, a foolish Dominican, challenged an +adversary to the ordeal by fire; the challenge was accepted, and on the +appointed day all Florence, in great excitement, flocked to the +_piazza_. The Dominican and his adversary were there, and their +respective partisans, but nothing was done. One delay followed another; +there was nothing but hesitancy, disagreement as to conditions, backing +and filling. The disappointed populace turned on Savonarola. They had +believed him a prophet and expected to see a judgment of God. The Pope +took advantage of this resentment, and demanded his trial. Savonarola +was tried, and tortured. During the torture a confession was extorted +from him, which was undoubtedly pieced out by forgery. Our apothecary +says:-- + +"April 19, 1498. The confession of Fra Girolamo was read before the +Council in the Great Hall, which he had written with his own hand,--he +whom we held to be a prophet,--and he confessed that he was not a +prophet, and had not received from God the things he preached, and he +confessed to many things in the course of his preaching which were the +opposite of what he had given us to understand. I was there to hear the +confession read, and was bewildered and stood astonished and stupefied. +My soul was in pain to see such an edifice tumble to earth because it +all rested on a lie. I expected Florence to be a new Jerusalem from +which should proceed laws, glory, and the example of a good life and to +behold the restoration of the Church, the conversion of the infidels, +and the comfort of good men, and now I behold the opposite,--and I took +the medicine. In Thy will, O God, stand all things." + +Savonarola was condemned to death for heresy; he was hanged, his body +burned, and his ashes flung into the Arno. So ended the one moral effort +of the Italian Renaissance. + +After his death the Republican government endured for a time; but the +Medicean faction was powerful and forced its way back in 1512. Then +Lorenzo's second son, Giovanni (1475-1521), following the steps of +Florentine art and humanism, went to Rome and became Pope Leo X. As +Pope, he was able to strengthen his family in Florence and to extend its +dominion. But Republicanism, quickened by the events then happening in +Rome, flared up once more in 1527; but it was helpless before the +hostile spirit of the time. Another Medici had become Pope, Clement VII, +and the requirements of policy induced the calculating Emperor, Charles +V, to suppress what he deemed a rebellion. Florence made a gallant +defence; Michelangelo strengthened her walls, and the courage of the +defenders threw a dying glory over the city. A great grandson of +Lorenzo, Alessandro dei Medici, was put into power, and married to a +daughter of Charles V. He was succeeded by a distant cousin, Cosimo +(1537), who was honoured by His Holiness the Pope with the title of +Grand Duke of Tuscany. Thus Florentine liberty was extinguished, and the +Medici were established as dukes in name as well as in fact. + + +_The Two Sicilies, 1494-1516_ + +In the south, it will be remembered, Alfonso the Magnanimous, as the +grateful humanists dubbed him, had united Sicily and the mainland; but +on his death (1458) the kingdom fell asunder. Sicily, as a part of the +Kingdom of Aragon, devolved on a legitimate brother, whereas Naples, +claimed as a conquest, was bequeathed to a bastard son, Ferdinand the +Cruel. The two kingdoms followed their respective dynasties for nearly +fifty years, when Sicily came by inheritance to Ferdinand of Aragon. +That crafty and eminently successful monarch, not satisfied with +Castile, Granada, Sicily, and a transatlantic realm, but coveting the +Kingdom of Naples, conspired with Louis XII of France, who now +represented the traditional Angevin claim; the two invaded the coveted +kingdom, and divided it between them (1500-1). Naturally, the rogues +disagreed over the division of the spoils, and fell foul of each other. +The Spaniards were triumphant, and the Kingdom of Naples was annexed to +the crown of Spain. Thus the Two Sicilies were reunited under the +Spanish crown, and on Ferdinand's death (1516) descended to his +grandson, the Emperor Charles V. The unfortunate kingdom remained an +appanage of Spain for two hundred years. + + +_Venice, 1453-1508_ + +In the northeast Venice still led a brilliant career, like a charming +woman who has received some fatal hurt and does not know it, but +instinctively lives more brilliantly than ever. Her fatal hurt was the +conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). At first the only +obvious ill consequence was war. Venice, willy-nilly, stepped into the +place of Constantinople, and became "the bulwark of the West." She waged +war after war with the Turks and maintained her reputation for valour +and resolution, but Turkey was too strong for her, and little by little +stripped her of her long-drawn-out empire of coast and island. A far +worse blow than direct war was the cutting of the great trade routes +with the East, which damaged all the maritime cities of Italy, but +Venice most. Turkey stopped the supplies of Venetian greatness, and +slowly but surely sapped Venetian strength. On the stoppage of the +straight road to Asia, the blocked current of commerce poked about for a +new way, and discovered that it could reach the East by doubling the +Cape of Good Hope. Commerce thus avoided Turkey, but it also abandoned +the Mediterranean, great centre and source of ancient civilization, and +left the maritime cities of Italy stranded, as it were, on the shores +of a forsaken sea. + +This doom, however, was still hidden in the obscurity of the future, and +Venice appeared to be at the height of prosperity. The French +ambassador, Philippe de Commines, called her "the most triumphant city I +have ever seen." The Venetians were a people apart from other Italians; +they never suffered from foreign invasion, or domestic revolt; they +lived in isolation, maintained their own customs and usages, and enjoyed +a sumptuous, opulent life, in proud security. Venice was the richest, +the most comfortable, the best governed city in the world. In military +strength she was commonly reckoned the first power in Italy, with the +Papacy, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Duchy of Milan about equal in +second rank. Venice entertained no suspicion of any seeds of decadence, +and continued her greedy career of annexation on the mainland, with a +haughtiness worthy of ancient Rome. She laid hands on part of Romagna, +and angered the Popes who had a title thereto, which, however imperfect, +was much better than the Venetian title. She provoked the Emperor +Maximilian, of the House of Hapsburg, who claimed Verona as an Imperial +city; and to the west she came into dangerous competition with the +French invaders. These enemies, taking their cue from the piratical +seizure of Naples by the French and Spanish, agreed together to +partition the Venetian territory on the mainland, and invited all the +powers of Europe to join them and take a share of the booty. The +coalition planned a kind of joint-stock piracy. This was the League of +Cambrai (1508), which stripped Venice of all her Italian territory, and +threatened the city herself. The allies, however, fell out among +themselves; and Venice, by biding her opportunity, in the course of time +managed to recover most of her lost territory. Thus, though for a season +the Barbarians brought the haughty city to her knees, she weathered the +storms better than the rest of Italy, and continued to maintain her +independence for three centuries to come. + +The Papacy deserves a chapter to itself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE PAPAL MONARCHY (1471-1527) + + +The Papacy found itself in an exceedingly difficult situation. It had to +adapt an ecclesiastical system, matured in the Middle Ages, to new +political systems, to new knowledge, to new thought, in short, to a new +world. During its struggle with the Empire, the course before it, +however arduous, had been plain, namely, to abase the Emperors; during +its captivity at Avignon, its duty to return to Rome (though individual +Popes were blind or indifferent) likewise had been plain; during the +schism, the one end to be aimed at was union. But now everything was +new, and a new policy had to be devised. There were three matters which +required particular consideration: the demand for reform which came from +across the Alps; the great intellectual awakening of the Renaissance; +and the ambitions of the other Italian powers. For these problems the +solution which the Papacy tried was twofold: to establish a firm +pontifical principality, and to use the new intellectual forces as a +motive power to keep itself at the head of Christendom. By a strong +pontifical principality the Papacy hoped to secure itself against the +covetousness of the other Italian states. By using the new intellectual +forces it hoped to range them on its side, and so to choke, or at least +to overcrow, the ultramontane cry for reform. One need not suppose that +such a plan was consciously thought out in detail from the beginning; +rather it was the course which the Papacy gradually took, partly from +theory, partly under the stress of passing circumstances. + +We remember that the Council of Constance closed the Great Schism, and +sent Martin V (1417-31) back to Rome as sole Pope. His pontificate marks +the end of the old Republican commune, which had made so much trouble +for Popes and Emperors in days past, and therefore marks the first +definite stage in the transformation of the Papacy into a local secular +power. Rome, although she did not deny herself an occasional outbreak in +memory, as it were, of good old days, settled down into a papal city. + +The most interesting part of the papal story is the process that went on +within the Church. The intolerable burden of ecclesiastical taxation, +the growth of heresy, and the degeneration of the clergy, as well as the +Great Schism, had roused Europe to a sense that something must be done, +and Europe attempted the old remedy of Ecumenical Councils. At Constance +the question of general reform had come up, but the papal party had +managed to prevent action. At the next Council, held at Basel, internal +difficulties appeared still more plainly. Party lines were sharply +drawn; the ultramontanes, as before, wished to subject the Popes to the +supremacy of Councils, to substitute an ecclesiastical aristocracy of +bishops in place of a papal monarchy, and, as it were, transfer the +centre of ecclesiastical gravity from Rome across the Alps. Feeling ran +so high that the Council split in two. Part followed the Pope to Italy, +and part stayed in Basel and elected an anti-pope (1439). It looked as +if schism had come again, but the danger passed. The anti-pope resigned; +unity was restored and lasted for seventy years. + +Nicholas V, as we have seen, hoped to maintain the Papacy at the head of +Christendom by means of the new intellectual forces. Such a conception +was purely Italian, and showed plainly enough that the Papacy had ceased +to represent Christendom, had ceased to be the real head of a Universal +Church, and had become a purely Italian institution. While Nicholas and +his successors were thinking of culture and of becoming Italian princes, +the pious ultramontanes, comparatively indifferent to the intellectual +excitement of the Renaissance, were thinking of sin and of the remedy +for sin. The papal Curia was clever, but did not foresee that to +subordinate the old conception of the Papacy as the head of the +religious and ecclesiastical organization of Europe to the new +conception of it as an Italian principality would surely alienate the +Teutonic peoples; it did not foresee that the Renaissance, with its +spirit of examination, investigation, criticism, with its encouragement +of the free play of the human mind, was necessarily preparing the way +for the Reformation. But the Curia perceived the opposite difficulties, +to which we are generally blind, that unless the Papacy did establish +itself as a temporal power, it might well be reduced to another +Babylonish Captivity by a king of Naples, a duke of Milan, or even by +some _condottiere_. And it perceived that other difficulty as well, +that if the Papacy turned against the intellectual movement, the +intellectual movement would, in self-defence, turn against the Papacy. + +The Popes did indeed seek to revive the old rôle of the Papacy in one +respect. They tried to arouse the sentiment of Christendom against the +invading Turks, and to lead a crusade themselves. But the time for such +a course had passed. The kings and princes of Europe were busy with +their own kingdoms and principalities and would not budge; and the +Papacy was obliged to give up the plan. Discouraged by this failure it +naturally turned to the new theory of a little papal kingdom and +vigorously put the theory into practice. The three Popes who +accomplished this task were Francesco della Rovere, Sixtus IV (1471-84), +Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI (1493-1503), and Giuliano della Rovere, +Julius II (1503-13). Their careers must be looked at more closely. + +Sixtus IV was the son of a peasant. Educated by the Franciscans, he +became distinguished as a scholar in theology, philosophy, and +ecclesiastical affairs, and was chosen general of the order. When Pope, +after a last futile attempt to start a crusade, Sixtus openly abandoned +the rôle of Pontiff of Christendom and became an Italian prince. +Energetic and masterful, he set to work to consolidate the loose and +insubordinate papal territories into a compact state. The task was not +easy, and one of the obstacles in his way was lack of men whom he could +trust. It was of little advantage to gather together an army, or to +capture a city, if the papal general or governor found his own +interests opposed to papal interests. Loyalty was held in scant esteem +by Italians of the Renaissance. Sixtus met the difficulty by employing +his nephews. This policy was by no means the beginning of papal +nepotism, but these nephews happened to be young men with marked tastes +for greed, ferocity, and dissipation, and brought the system into +especial notoriety. To one nephew the Pope gave a cardinal's hat, four +bishoprics, an abbey, a patriarchate, as well as free access to the +papal treasury. When this young man had died of dissipation, the post of +chief favourite descended to his brother. For him the Pope procured a +wife from the ducal house of Sforza, and began to carve a dukedom in +Romagna, with the intention of adding slices cut from the neighbouring +states. This young man was arrogant, ignorant, and brutal, with no +interests except ambition and the chase. In due course he was murdered. +Whatever effect nepotism of this character produced across the Alps, it +served certain purposes in Italy. Sixtus made himself feared, and +advanced the project of a papal kingdom to a point where his successors +were able to take it up and complete it. + +Sixtus also pursued Nicholas's plan of making Rome the first city of the +world in art and magnificence. He brought together architects and +artists, and patronized art and literature. But this aspect of the plan +to maintain the Papacy at the head of Christian Europe belongs rather to +the story of the high Renaissance, and must be postponed to the next +chapter. + +We may pass over the next Pope, who was not distinguished except for a +frank recognition of his illegitimate children, and for what then +appeared a whimsical desire to maintain peace, and proceed to the +notorious Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI. It was in Borgia's pontificate +that the French invasion of 1494 took place. This introduction of a new +and terrible element into Italian politics frightened him as well as +other Italian rulers, for he knew that the Papal State would never be +strong enough to resist single-handed such an army as that of Charles +VIII, and he tried to form a union of the Italian powers for common +defence. His policy met little success, especially as he himself, seeing +advantages to be gained from a French alliance, whirled about, granted +to the French king a dispensation for divorce, to the French favourite a +cardinal's hat, and made a separate treaty for himself (1499). Borgia +did no more than any other Italian prince would have done, but he must +bear his share of the responsibility. It was a deliberate sacrifice of +Italian for papal interests. Whether that was justifiable or not is +another matter. The Pope wished to establish a Pontifical State, and +acted in the manner which he thought would be most likely to achieve +success. + +Borgia also followed the example set by Sixtus, and raised his family to +power and rank, partly, of course, from affection, but partly in order +to strengthen the Papacy. His task was to reduce the papal vassals in +the Pontifical States to obedience and so to create a strong central +government. The instrument he employed was his son Cæsar Borgia. This +brilliant young man has won a great reputation, owing in large measure +to Machiavelli's admiration. He was an athletic, handsome, taciturn man, +quick, cunning, and cruel. He began his career in the Church, but at the +time of his father's reconciliation with France, gave up his cardinal's +hat, and was created duke by the French king. Cæsar made an excellent +instrument for rooting out the disobedient vassals of the Papal State. +They were crafty, greedy, and false; he was craftier, greedier, and +falser than they. He dispossessed them with ruthless vigour, and +established himself in their stead. His energy and success were +extraordinary, and frightened other Italian rulers. None knew how far +his ambition might stretch, or how far the Papacy might be able to push +him. The direct military power of the Pontifical State was not very +great and could readily be measured, but the indirect power of the +Papacy as head of the Christian Church was vague and alarming. +Nevertheless, Cæsar's principality, which rested wholly on the Papacy, +fell to pieces when his father died. + +Borgia's attitude towards the arts belongs to the next chapter; but in +respect to them as well as to the Pontifical State, he followed what I +have called the twofold policy of the Popes of the Renaissance. That +policy undoubtedly had its advantages; but it also had its +disadvantages, and these appear more conspicuous in Borgia's pontificate +than in any other. The establishment of papal dominion, as we have seen, +encouraged, if it did not necessitate, nepotism; and nepotism involved +prodigality and dissipation. The Popes used their families to +strengthen their position; and the upstart families, giddy with sudden +wealth and power, misbehaved. The nephews of Sixtus rendered some +service to the Papacy, but they caused scandal. Cæsar Borgia rendered +greater services, and caused still greater scandal. The other branch of +the twofold policy, by a different path, led to the same result. +Patronage of arts and letters involved great expense and encouraged +luxurious tastes; luxury led to idleness, and idleness to vice. The +Roman atmosphere had never been favourable to spiritual life, and now, +surcharged with the classical spirit of the Renaissance, practically +extinguished religion. + +For centuries the Roman Curia had been a butt for the arrows of satire. +The minnesingers of Germany, the troubadours of Provence, had paused in +their amorous ditties to compose bitter gibes against the greed and +luxurious life of the great Roman prelates. Taunts such as this became +household phrases: Curia Romana non quaerit ovem sine lana.[19] Dante +had put priest, prelate, and Pope into hell. Petrarch had written +scathing verses:-- + + Nest of treachery, wherein is hatched + All evil that besets the world to-day, + Slaves to wine, debauch, and gluttony, + + * * * * * + + Well-head of woe, and baiting place of wrath, + School of false thought, temple of heresy, etc. + +One of the best tales in the "Decameron" turns on the conversion of a +Jew, who goes to Rome, sees the conduct of Pope and cardinals, and +becomes convinced that only a Divine Church can support so staggering a +burden. In Borgia's time the Curia outdid itself, and Borgia led the +way. He acknowledged his children, and lavished papal revenues upon +them; he bestowed a cardinal's hat on Alexander Farnese, founder of the +Farnese family, for the sake of Giulia Farnese, his frail sister; he +sanctioned ballets and theatricals of a scandalous nature in the Vatican +palace, and encouraged his sons and his cardinals in a dissolute life. +Vice was not all; the odour of crime infected the air. The Pope's son, +the Duke of Gandia, was murdered, so was his son-in-law, husband of his +daughter Lucrezia. Cardinals died mysteriously. The common voice, +whispering low in Rome and loud elsewhere, ascribed these murders to +Cæsar Borgia. It appeared as if the Pope believed the charges himself. +"Cæsar," he said, "is a good-natured man, but he cannot tolerate +affronts." Lucrezia, too, became the object of the grossest slanders. No +doubt common gossip then, as always, raised a tree of falsehood from a +mustard grain of truth; but credulity accepted every accusation as true. +North of the Alps the simple-minded Germans shuddered and crossed +themselves. Even the Romans were shocked. When the Pope died, no man +would touch his body; it was dragged by a rope fastened to its foot from +the bed to the grave, and there tumbled in. No one doubted that his soul +had gone to hell. + +Alexander VI violated every rule of domestic morality; nevertheless, +Pope Julius II (1503-13) violated the sacred character of priest as +fundamentally, though in a much less repulsive way. Julius, a nephew of +Sixtus IV, was a fiery soldier, a high-aspiring prince, a man of great +qualities, impatient and magnificent. Had he been duke of Milan or King +of Naples, he would have presented a noble figure; but a Pope armed +cap-à-pie, entering a conquered city through the breach battered by his +cannon, was as clear a defiance of the evangelical spirit of the +reformers as the private profligacy of Pope Borgia. + +Julius pursued the twofold policy of the Papacy with greater zeal and +greater success than any of his predecessors. His furious energy +completed the work of making the incohesive states of the Church into a +compact principality; and he is the real founder of the absolute Papal +State, the first real Pope-king. He achieved equal success in the other +branch of the policy, and revelled in the kindred spirit of the High +Renaissance. Julius exalted Rome to the place of first city in the +world; and if the world had asked for art from the Papacy instead of +asking for religion, it would have been abundantly satisfied. But +Germany was thinking of sin, of vice, of simony, of taxation, and was +becoming conscious of an extreme national antipathy to Italian rule; and +when a young German monk, like Martin Luther, went to Rome, instead of +taking pleasure in the architecture, painting, and sculpture that +adorned the city, he was horrified at the lack of religion. + +Julius, however, was entitled to a sense of accomplishment at his death. +He left to his successors a little kingdom in the middle of Italy, and +he had made Rome the centre of the arts. Not till the days of his +successors did the failure of that policy appear. By a kind of poetic +justice the utter failure of art to satisfy the demand for reform, for +purity, for religion, was proved during the pontificates of the two +Medici, Leo X and Clement VII. The Medici had patronized the arts, both +in Florence and in Rome, and the arts repaid the Medici with enjoyment +and renown. But the Medici had done nothing for the spirit of reform; on +the contrary, they had helped crush Savonarola, and the spirit of reform +turned upon them. Germany hoisted the standard of secession during the +pontificate of Leo, and an army of the unfaithful sacked Rome during +that of Clement. + +Leo X was a fat, clever, cultivated man, with no great virtues and no +real vices. "Let us enjoy the Papacy since God has given it to us," is +the sentiment put into his mouth, and serves to characterize his reign. +Bred in his father's intellectual circle, and a member of the luxurious +Roman society, Leo shared the tastes of both. He was a connoisseur of +works of art, and derived genuine æsthetic pleasure from them; he was +also fond of agreeable company, good cookery, the chase, and most forms +of social amusement. His political conduct was not of much real +consequence, as matters had gone too far. In the interminable struggle +between Charles V and Francis I, the Papacy tried to hold a balance of +power, and bargained with both sides; but, as the Spaniards, in +possession of both Milan and Naples, were the stronger, the Papacy +generally found its advantage on that side. As to the larger matter of +the ecclesiastical unity of Christendom there was practically nothing +to be done. The causes which split the Teutonic world from the Latin +were already matured. It was too late to stop the Reformation. Luther +might have been dealt with more shrewdly, but the forces behind him +could not have been kept in check. Leo excommunicated Luther (1520), and +the Imperial Diet at Worms condemned him and his doctrine, but the unity +of the Church was doomed. + +To Leo succeeded his cousin Clement VII, after a brief pontificate by +the last foreign Pope. Clement was incompetent, and failed to realize +the gravity of his situation; neither he nor Rome understood the crisis +they had reached. The prevailing state of mind may be inferred from this +extract from the diary of a young Roman burgher: "I saw this Pope the +first day of May, 1525, come in the morning of the Feast of SS. Philip +and James to the Church of the Holy Apostles, and after celebrating high +mass, remain all day and night in the palace of the Colonna.... That day +it was an old and foolish custom in the Colonna palace (which connects +with the church and has windows looking in it), to throw various kinds +of fowls and animals into the church to the people who were there, all +of the lowest sort. They also put a pig in the middle of the church up +high, and whoever was able to climb up and take it, won it; and on top +of the roof were kegs and pots of water, which they poured on the +persons who climbed up. The amusement of those gentlemen, and of the +rest who looked on, was to see the crowd in a mess, battling, +shrieking, pushing, shoving, like beasts,--a merrymaking not becoming in +a church or any sacred edifice." The diary adds: "Now let people learn +to know the souls of the great and especially of priests, how wicked, +deceitful, and false they are, how full of fraud and knavery."[20] There +were plenty of other facts to prove this conclusion. The merrymaking was +doomed to cease. + +The incompetent Pope was totally at a loss what policy to follow, not +knowing whether it was better to incline towards the Empire or to +France. He shifted at the wrong time, joined a league against the +Empire, then wriggled and shuffled, and so drew upon himself and the +devoted city the punishment due to a long course of wickedness. The +Imperial army, a ruffian host of Germans (many of them Lutherans), +Spaniards, and Italians, under the command of the traitor Bourbon, was +encamped in the north; the unpaid soldiers clamoured for plunder, and +Bourbon led them to Rome, carried the neglected walls by assault, and +put the city to sack. Rome was a little city, with perhaps 90,000 +inhabitants, but rich in the oblations and tribute money of Christendom; +the churches were decked with gold and silver, the palaces stuffed with +precious paintings, tapestries, and ornaments of every kind. Popes, +cardinals, and princes had rivalled one another in accumulations of +works of art and articles of luxury. Though license, profligacy, and +crime had then shut out Rome from the sympathy of the world, it is +impossible to read to-day of the horrors of the sack--men murdered, +mothers, daughters, nuns outraged, old men and priests brutally +insulted, churches and sacred relics defiled--without the sharpest pity. +For eight days the devilish work went on, and but 30,000 inhabitants +were left, so many had fled, or been killed, or made prisoners (1527). + +Terrible was the punishment that Clement witnessed,--Rome sacked, the +liberty of Italy taken away, the Roman Catholic Church rent in two. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] The Roman Curia is not looking for a sheep without wool. + +[20] _The Papacy during the Reformation_, vol. v, Appendix (translated). +M. Creighton. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE HIGH RENAISSANCE (1499-1521) + + +We are now at liberty to return to the great intellectual and artistic +movement that lifted Italy to the primacy in Europe, and reached its +zenith in the period of time to which the last two chapters have been +devoted. This is the culminating period, in which the greatest masters +did their work, and separates the earlier and more experimental stage +that preceded it from the later stage of exaggeration and decadence +which followed. The movement swept all the arts along with it. It +produced the greatest men in literature since Petrarch, the greatest +architects since the Gothic masters of the Ile de France, the greatest +sculptors since Praxiteles, the greatest painters that ever were. + +Italian literature cannot compare with English literature or French in +compass, variety, richness, or delicacy. Indeed, except for Dante, it +would have rather a thin and tinkling sound. Nevertheless, in the High +Renaissance it roused itself brilliantly. Niccolò Machiavelli was the +ablest writer on the policy of government between Aristotle and Burke. +Guicciardini was the first modern historian. Count Baldassare +Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier" is as singularly excellent in its +way as Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Of this book, which portrays +fashionable society at the elegant court of Urbino, Tasso says: "So +long as there shall be princes and courts, so long as ladies and +gentlemen shall meet in society, so long as virtue and courtesy shall +abide in our hearts, the name of Castiglione will be held in honour." +The book purports to be a series of conversations between the duchess +and her guests concerning the proper qualities of a perfect gentleman. +This society, no doubt, is a little affected, stilted, and conceited, +but it is dignified, well-behaved, and high-minded. These people discuss +deportment, athletics, propriety of speech, whether one must keep within +the Tuscan vocabulary of Petrarch and Boccaccio or may make use of the +vernacular spoken elsewhere, whether painting or sculpture is the nobler +art, what a gentleman's dress should be, and so on. The discussion +proceeds to the proper behaviour of a lady, and by natural steps to +love. Bembo, a famous littérateur, here takes the floor, plunges into +Platonic ideas, and argues that the higher love, governed by reason, is +better than lower love, and will lead to contemplation of universal +beauty; but that even this stage of love is imperfect, and the lover +must mount higher still, until his soul, purified by philosophy and +spiritual life, sees the light of angelic beauty and, ravished by the +splendour of that light, becomes intoxicated and beside itself from +passion to lose itself in the light. "Let us, then, direct all the +thoughts and forces of our soul to this most sacred light, which shows +us the way that leads to heaven; and following after it, let us lay +aside the passions wherewith we were clothed at our fall, and by the +stairway that bears the shadow of sensual beauty on its lowest step, +let us mount to the lofty mansion where dwells the heavenly, lovely, and +true beauty, which lies hidden in the inmost secret recesses of God, so +that profane eyes cannot behold it,"[21] etc. This may savour somewhat +too much of Platonic rhetoric, but such feelings were genuine, +emotionally genuine, even if they proved evanescent in practice; they +were familiar to Lorenzo dei Medici and his friends, and to the nobler +spirits throughout Italy, and are as characteristic of the period as its +cruelty, treachery, or sensuality. The effect of such cultivated circles +upon art must have been great; they gave artists encouragement, +sympathy, employment, and by the union of fashion and intelligence +helped educate the taste of a larger public. It must be remembered that +both Bramante and Raphael came from Urbino. + +Poetry, with the delightful spontaneity and capriciousness of Italian +genius, chose Ferrara, the home of the House of Este, to hang its +laurels in. There Matteo Boiardo wrote the "Orlando Innamorato" (Roland +in Love). This poem is an epic of chivalry concerning Charlemagne's +court, and deals seriously, and yet at times ironically, with the +subject of Roland's love for the beautiful Angelica. It was left +unfinished, and Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533) picked up the thread and +carried it on, far more brilliantly and far more ironically, under the +title "Orlando Furioso" (Roland Crazed). Ariosto's poem, which was +immensely popular, was intended to entertain, and it succeeded; its +variety, wit, irony, sarcasm, and levity make it entertaining even now. +Inferior in moral and sensuous beauty to Spenser's "Faerie Queene," it +is far easier to read. Its interest for us lies in the light it sheds on +the intellectual state of educated Italians of the Renaissance, +especially in regard to religion. Biblical allusions, sacred north of +the Alps, are lugged in to give a touch of humour, as, for instance, +where one of the knights, Astolfo, goes on a search for Roland's lost +wits and meets St. John the Evangelist, who drives him to the moon in +Elijah's chariot; or where, in another passage, St. Michael finds that +the goddess of Discord has not obeyed his commands, "the angel seized +her by the hair, kicked and pounded her incessantly, broke a cross over +her head, till Discord embraced the knees of the divine envoy and howled +for mercy." Ariosto, himself, conformed to the rites of the Church. Like +most educated Italians he accepted them as conventional forms, tinged +possibly with supernatural power, and kept ecclesiastical ideas wholly +separate from moral ideas. His sceptical, ironical, Epicurean attitude +towards non-material things is characteristic of the decadence of this +period in which mental activity had outgrown morality. + +Ariosto was a gentleman of birth and position. He spent most of his life +in the service of his princes, the House of Este. In later life he +withdrew from their employment, and lived in his own house, _parva sed +apta_ (small but suitable), to which the literary pious still make +pilgrimages. He wrote the "Orlando Furioso" between 1505 and 1515, and +thereafter devoted most of his leisure to improving and polishing it. +Basking in the sunshine of fashionable admiration, he little suspected +that another man, who had spent his life in mighty feats of +architecture, painting, and sculpture, would in his old age write +sonnets that should be read and reread like a breviary by serious men +and women who passed his own luxurious rhetoric unheeded. Michelangelo's +sonnets (some of which were written to Vittoria Colonna) are the noblest +embodiment of those high ideas of love which came down from Plato to the +philosophers of the Palazzo Medici in Florence and the courtiers at the +ducal palace in Urbino. They are crammed to bursting with passionate +intensity, and in that respect have no equals, even in English. + +In the fine arts the High Renaissance has a score of famous men. Among +them three or four stand head and shoulders above their fellows. Each is +marked by extraordinary individuality of talents, character, and +disposition: Michelangelo by passionate fury--_terribilità_; Raphael by +sweet serenity; Bramante by his even commingling of poise and ardour; +Leonardo by his noble curiosity. + +Of Leonardo, Vasari says: "Sometimes according to the course of nature, +sometimes beyond and above it, the greatest gifts rain down from +heavenly influences upon the bodies of men, and crowd into one +individual beauty, grace, and excellence in such superabundance that to +whatever that man shall turn, his very act is so divine, that, +surpassing the work of all other men, it makes manifest that it is by +the special gift of God, and not by human art. This was true of +Leonardo da Vinci; who, beside a physical beauty beyond all praise, put +an infinite grace into whatever he did, and such was his excellence, +that to whatever difficult things his mind turned he easily solved +them." Leonardo (1452-1519) was a Florentine. He was trained by the +subtle Verrocchio, from whom he learned the smile, if it be a smile, on +the faces of his portraits of women. After leaving Verrocchio's workshop +he went to Lombardy, where he spent sixteen years at the court of Milan. +There he did a hundred different things: he modelled a great equestrian +statue of Francesco Sforza (since destroyed), painted portraits, drew +architectural designs,--for a cupola, a staircase, a bathroom, a +triumphal arch, etc.,--executed hydraulic works, studied the cultivation +of the grape, and played on his silver lyre. In the refectory of a +Dominican monastery he painted his fresco of The Last Supper. One of the +novices, who watched this handsome young painter at work, says that +sometimes he would dash up the scaffold, brush in hand, put a few +touches and hurry down; sometimes he would paint from sunrise to sunset +without stopping even to eat; sometimes he would stand for hours +contemplating the different figures. After Sforza's fall, Leonardo left +Milan, and for a time took service with Cæsar Borgia as military +engineer and architect. He subsequently returned to Florence, and +finally went to France, where he died. + +Little remains of all that Leonardo planned. A half-destroyed fresco, a +few easel pictures, some incomparable drawings, some treatises on his +arts, some apothegms, are enough, however, to justify his fame. One of +his apothegms, _Tu, o Iddio, tutto ci vendi a prezzo di fatica_ (Thou, O +God, sellest us everything at the price of hard work), is but poorly +borne out by his own prodigal portion of genius, which rather supports +Vasari's view that God makes special gifts. Very rarely has any man +received the native endowment of Leonardo da Vinci. + +The greatest architect of the High Renaissance was Bramante of Urbino. +He, like Leonardo, worked in Milan during the resplendent reign of +Lodovico Sforza. There he did much charming work and imposed his +personality on Lombard architecture; but his great reputation was made +in Rome, whither he went, drawn by the great Romeward flow of art, when +the French invasion drove the fine arts from Milan. In Rome, Bramante +became the papal architect. He shares with Raphael and Michelangelo the +honour of making St. Peter's basilica and the Vatican palace what they +are. He also built a little building, whose historical importance is +ludicrously out of proportion to its size, it being as little as St. +Peter's is big. It is a tiny circular temple in the court of a church on +the Janiculum hill across the Tiber. On the ground floor a Doric +colonnade encircles the temple, on the second story a balustrade. A +dome, capped by a lantern, covers the whole. It is the first building +which fully reproduced the style and spirit of antiquity. It set the +fashion for the architecture of the sixteenth century, and determined, +among other indirect and not altogether happy results, the plan of St. +Paul's Cathedral in London and the Capitol in Washington. + +It was not chance which took Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo to +Rome. They went because the papal court, pursuing its policy of +maintaining the Papacy at the head of Christendom by means of culture, +summoned them to come. Rome never produced great artists. She never was +artistic, any more than she had been spiritual. But just as in earlier +times she had drawn spiritual forces to herself and used them, so now +she attracted to herself and used the artistic forces of Italy. She had +been making ready for years; step by step as she had become more +secular, she had also become more artistic, more intellectual. For +seventy years every Pope contributed to this end. Eugenius IV employed +distinguished humanists as his secretaries, and invited the most notable +painters and sculptors to Rome. Nicholas V conceived the splendid scheme +of making Rome the mistress of the world's culture. Pius II, Æneas +Sylvius Piccolomini, was the most eminent man of letters of his age. +Paul II was a virtuoso in objects of art and increased the grandeur of +the papal court. Sixtus IV improved the city, built the Sistine Chapel, +and employed Botticelli, Perugino, Signorelli, Ghirlandaio, and Rosselli +to decorate it. Innocent VIII brought Mantegna from Padua and +Pinturicchio from Perugia to embellish the Vatican palace. Pope Borgia +made Pinturicchio his court painter; and that charming master decorated +the papal apartments in the Vatican with the great bull of the Borgia +crest, and with portraits of the Pope's children and (so Vasari says) of +the lovely Giulia Farnese as the Virgin with the Pope worshipping her. + +Popes and cardinals felt the great movement and many strove to lead it, +but the master figure of the Renaissance at Rome was the fiery Julius +II, whose plans in the arts were even more grandiose than in politics. +He was the centre of this period, as Cosimo and Lorenzo had been in +their generations. Less astute than Cosimo, far less subtle and +accomplished than Lorenzo, he was a much more heroic leader than either. +His hardy, weather-beaten face in Raphael's portrait, with its strong, +well-shaped features, shows his imperious, arrogant, irascible, and yet +noble, nature. This Pontiff brought to Rome the greatest genius of the +Renaissance, Michelangelo, bade him build for him a monumental tomb, +more splendid than any tomb ever built, twelve yards high and +proportionately wide and deep, and decked with two or three score +statues. Such a gigantic monument could not have found room in the old +basilica of St. Peter's, and therefore, as St. Peter's was the proper +place for it, it became necessary to proceed with the larger plans of +Nicholas V. Piecing and patching did not suit Julius. He discussed plans +with his architects Bramante and Giuliano da San Gallo, and then +resolved to pull down the old basilica, founded by Constantine and +Silvester, despite its thousand years of sacred associations, and build +a new church in its place. Bramante's fiery enthusiasm for great designs +matched the Pope's. Satire suggested that in heaven he would say to St. +Peter, "I'll pull down this Paradise of yours and build another, a much +finer and pleasanter place for the blessed saints to live in." He +designed the new church in the form of a Greek cross with a cupola, +proposing, as it were, to lift the dome of the Pantheon on the basilica +of Constantine, an enormous ruin in the Roman Forum. This gigantic plan +befitted the new papal scheme of making Rome the head of Europe and the +Papacy the head of culture. The corner-stone was laid on April 18, 1506, +and the old building was demolished piecemeal, the choir first, the nave +last; and in its place, as demolition proceeded bit by bit, the +cathedral now standing rose, slowly lifting its great bulk in the air, +and finally reached completion and consecration in 1626. The greatest +architects of Italy succeeded one another as masters of the works, +Bramante, Giuliano da San Gallo from Florence, Fra Giocondo from Verona, +Raphael, Antonio da San Gallo the younger, Baldassare Peruzzi from +Siena, and Michelangelo, who, when an old man, took charge and designed +the dome. + +The Vatican was altered according to Bramante's plans in order to make +it a fit abode for the head of cultured Christendom: Michelangelo +painted his frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12); and +Raphael began to paint the _stanza della segnatura_. Raphael, the most +charming figure in the world of art, was equally charming in life. +Vasari says: "Among his exceptional gifts I take notice of one of such +rare excellence that I marvel within myself. Heaven gave him power in +our art to produce an effect most contrary to the humours of us +painters, and it is this: the artists and artisans (I do not refer only +to those of meaner sort, but to those who are ambitious to be +great--and art produces many of this complexion) who worked in his +atelier were so united and had such mutual good-will, that all jealousy +and crossness were extinguished on seeing him, and every mean and +spiteful thought vanished from their minds. Such unity was never seen +before. And this was because they were overcome both by his courtesy and +his art, but more by the genius of his good nature, which was so full of +kindness and overflowing with charity, that not only men, but even the +beasts almost worshipped him." + +At this time, too, classic art, owing to the discovery of antique +statues, had its fullest effect. The Nile, now in the Vatican, had been +found in a Roman garden, the Apollo Belvedere in a vineyard near the +city, and the Laocoön and many others here and there. Of the discovery +of the Laocoön a record remains. "I was at the time a boy in Rome," +wrote Francesco, son of Giuliano da San Gallo, the architect, "when one +day it was announced to the Pope that some excellent statues had been +dug up out of the ground in a grape-patch near the church of Santa Maria +Maggiore. The Pope immediately sent a groom to Giuliano da San Gallo to +tell him to go directly and see what it was. Michelangelo Buonarroti was +often at our house, and at the moment chanced to be there; accordingly +my father invited him to accompany us. I rode behind my father on his +horse, and thus we went over to the place designated. We had scarcely +dismounted and glanced at the figures, when my father cried out, 'It is +the Laocoön of which Pliny speaks!' The labourers immediately began +digging to get the statue out; after having looked at them very +carefully, we went home to supper, talking all the way of +antiquity."[22] + +Thus these various forces--the discovery of antique statues, the passion +for art, the eager Italian intellect, the conception of Rome as the +mistress of culture, the character of Julius II and the genius of +Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael--worked together to cover the Papacy +with a pagan glory in its time of religious need. On the other hand, as +these monumental works required vast sums of money, the sale of +indulgences and the exaction of tribute buzzed on more rapidly than +ever. + +Leo X (1513-21) has given his name to this age of papal culture, but he +was not entitled to the honour; he had the inborn Medicean interest and +enjoyment in intellectual matters, a nice taste, and some delicacy of +perception, but it needs no more than a look at his fat jowl in +Raphael's portrait to see that he could not have been a motive force in +a great period. He stands on an historic eminence as the last Pope to +wield the Italian sceptre over all Europe, the last to send his +tax-collectors from Sicily to England, from Spain to Norway, the last to +enjoy the full heritage of Imperial Rome. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] _Book of the Courtier_, p. 305, translated by L. E. Opdycke. + +[22] _Rome and the Renaissance_, from the French of Julian Klaczko, p. +93. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL (1527-1563) + + +We have now come to the beginning of long centuries of national +degradation, and one has a general sense of passing from a glorious +garden into a series of gas-lit drawing-rooms, somewhat over-decorated, +where naughty princes amuse themselves with bagatelles. We must glance +at the political degradation first. + +The struggle between the Barbarians of France and Spain for mastery in +Italy, of which we spoke in the last political chapter, was practically +decided by the battle of Pavia (1525), in which the French king lost all +but life and honour. France was most reluctant to acquiesce in defeat, +and from time to time marched her troops across the Alps into +unfortunate Piedmont, sometimes of her own notion, and sometimes at the +invitation of an Italian state; but the Spanish grip was too strong to +be shaken off. From this time on Italian politics were determined by the +pleasure of foreign kings. Two treaties between France and Spain, that +of Cambrai (1529) and that of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), embodied the +results of their bargains and their wars. The sum and substance of them +was a practical abandonment by France of her Italian claims, and the map +of Italy was drawn to suit Spain. + +Milan was governed by Spanish governors, Naples and Sicily by Spanish +viceroys. The business of a Spanish viceroy, then as always, was to +raise money. Taxes were oppressive. It was said that in Sicily the royal +officials nibbled, in Naples they ate, and in Milan they devoured. In +addition to regular taxes, special imposts were laid on various +occasions,--when a new king succeeded to the throne, when a royal heir +was born, when war was waged against the Lutherans in Germany or the +pirates in Africa. In the south, where the people were less intelligent +and laborious, oppressive taxation and unwise government caused a +gradual increase of ignorance and poverty, and left as a legacy to the +present day the conditions from which spring the _Mafia_ of Sicily and +the _Camorra_ of Naples. + +In Florence the sagacious Cosimo I (1537-74) ruled with prudence and +severity. He understood that his position depended on his fidelity to +Spain and the Papacy, and acted accordingly. He married a Spanish lady, +Eleanora of Toledo, daughter to the viceroy of Naples, took up his ducal +residence first in the Palazzo Vecchio, where there are many +remembrances of his duchess, and afterwards in the great palace, begun +by Luca Pitti, across the Arno. He reduced Siena, once Florence's +dangerous rival, to subjection, and crushed out the last traces of +republican sentiment in his duchy. He employed Vasari to design the +Uffizi, completed the edifice that holds the Laurentian library, and led +as magnificent a life as a due regard for his purse would allow. In +short, he was what one would expect an unrefined member of the _Casa +Medici_ to be; and when one recollects that his grandmother was a Sforza +of Milan, all expectations based on heredity are amply satisfied. Cosimo +I left a long line of descendants to sit upon his grand-ducal throne. +Their marble effigies at the head of the stairway in the Uffizi tell +their story. The brutal Sforza vigour and the elegant Medicean +astuteness could not save them from sharing in the general degeneracy +that spread like a blight over all Italy. However, one must remember +that they did collect the finest picture gallery in the world and housed +it in the Uffizi and Pitti palaces. + +North of Tuscany the petty duchies of Ferrara, Urbino, Modena, Parma, +and Mantua formed a little ducal coterie, very characteristic of the +next two centuries. The Papacy indeed swallowed up Ferrara (1598) and +Urbino (1631), but the House of Este of Ferrara moved on to Modena, and +remained there till Napoleon's time. In Parma, Pope Paul III (1534-50), +our old acquaintance Alexander Farnese, a careful father as well as a +lucky brother, established his son as duke. This son was bad, and +believed to be worse, so the nobles of Parma murdered him; but his +descendants made good their title, and the little duchy of Parma, with +its palace, its custom-house, its barracks, and its pictures, stepped +forth as one of the petty states of the peninsula, and endured till the +Union of Italy. Genoa and Lucca were permitted to remain republics. + +Up in the northwest we get our first definite notions of Savoy. This +duchy, built up piecemeal, was a composite state, which included a good +deal of Piedmont, and portions of what are now France and Switzerland, +and, unfortunately, lay directly in the way of the French armies on +their marches into Italy. During the wars of Francis I and Charles V, +the Duke of Savoy hopefully attempted to maintain neutrality, and, in +consequence, lost all. France deemed it more convenient to own her line +of march, and annexed Savoy; and for twenty years Piedmont was both +camping-ground and battleground for the contending nations. It looked as +if Savoy would be blotted from the map of Europe; but Duke Emanuele +Filiberto (1553-80), _Iron Head_, an accomplished soldier, had the sense +to take the winning side. He served in the Spanish army, and, in the +Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, as his share secured the restoration of his +duchy. That portion of this duke's policy which concerns us especially +is that he gave Piedmont precedence over his French and Swiss provinces, +established the seat of government at Turin, put the university there +and brought men of letters and science, substituted Italian for Latin in +public documents, and proclaimed himself an Italian prince and Savoy an +Italian state. He gave Savoy the general character which it has always +retained. He checked the priests, built up the army, reformed the law, +converted the old feudal dominion into an absolute autocracy, and +started his dukedom on the course which ultimately enabled it to play +its great part in the liberation of Italy in the nineteenth century. +Emanuele Filiberto is reputed one of Italy's national heroes. + +Venice had already recovered most of the territories on the mainland of +Italy wrenched from her by the League of Cambrai, but in the East the +Turks steadily took away city, island, and province. After a long period +of war, one gallant exploit gilded the fortunes of the losing side. A +league against the Turks was effected between Spain, the Papacy, and +Venice, and the united fleets, under the supreme command of Don John of +Austria, won the renowned sea-fight off Lepanto (1571); but except for +chopping off a goodly number of infidel heads and limbs, little was +accomplished. In this battle a young Spanish soldier, Miguel de +Cervantes, lost an arm. Soon afterwards peace was made on terms hard for +the Venetians, but beneficent in that it was destined to last for +seventy years. + +We now come to the Papacy, and there, in extraordinary contrast to the +degeneration and decay all around, we find militant vigour and energy. +This phenomenon is so remarkable that we must glance back at the perils +through which the Papacy had passed. Ever since the fall of the Empire +(when the political union of Italy and Germany broke in two) disruptive +forces had been at work to break the ecclesiastical union, until at +last, in the pontificate of Leo X, Martin Luther affixed his theses +concerning indulgences to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, +burnt the papal bull, and threw off his allegiance. The North of Europe +followed him. The record of the Papacy had been utter failure and worse. +It had smeared itself from head to foot with simony, nepotism, and vice; +it had cast religion to the winds. No expression of indignation would +have been adequate without the sack of Rome. A statesman might well +have predicted that all Europe would dismember and suppress the Papacy +and adopt a system of national churches. Nevertheless, at the end of the +century the Papacy stood erect and vigorous, shorn indeed of universal +empire, but reëstablished, the Order of Jesus at its right, the Holy +Inquisition at its left, draped in piety by the Council of Trent, and +hobnobbing on even terms with kings. The process which effected this +change is called the Counter-reformation, or the Catholic Reaction. That +process was a happy blending of virtue, bigotry, and policy. Borne +upward and onward by the forces of reform and conservatism, the Modern +Papacy rose triumphant on the ruins of the Papacy of the Renaissance. + +The same spirit that caused the Reformation in the North started the +Catholic Revival in the South. A wave, comparable to the old movement +for Church reform in Hildebrand's time, swept over the Catholic Church, +and lifted the reformers within the Church into power. The South +emulated the North. Catholic zeal rivalled Protestant ardour. Bigotry +followed zeal. Moreover, a reformed Papacy found ready allies. The +logical consequence of Protestantism was personal independence in +religion, and the next logical step was personal independence in +politics. Protestant subjects, more especially where their rulers were +Catholics, tended to become disobedient; and monarchs, who stood for +absolutism and conservatism, found themselves drawn close to an absolute +and conservative Pope. The kings of Spain and the Popes of Rome became +friends and allies. + +Within three years after the sack of Rome, Clement crowned Charles V +with the Imperial crown in Bologna, where, for the last time in Italy, +proclamation was made of a "Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus, Mundi +totius Dominus;" and the Papacy, strengthened at once by its league with +Spain, lifted its head. Further strength came from other sources. The +brilliant young Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, founded the Order of Jesus, +which vowed itself to poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Papacy +(1534). Spain, too, by the moral effect of example, procured the +Inquisition for Italy. From the time of Innocent III, the Dominican +monks had had charge of preserving the purity of the faith and of +punishing heretics, and they had performed this function with what might +appear to a sceptic sufficient zeal, but during the great racial and +religious struggle in Spain which ended in the capture of Granada, more +zeal was deemed necessary and the Spanish Inquisition was established. +Its fame spread far and wide. The Spanish viceroys introduced it in a +modified form in Naples, and Cardinal Caraffa, a zealous reformer, urged +the need of such an institution in Rome. The Holy Office of Rome was +established, and Caraffa put at its head (1542). Heretics were +frightened into conformity or punished; some were driven out of the +country, a few were burned to death. Freedom of thought was vigorously +attacked; and the _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_ was decreed. The great +and growing power of the reformers may be measured by the fact that the +Pope who sanctioned these great bulwarks of the papal system was the +once gay Alexander Farnese, Paul III, whom we otherwise know as a +brother and a father. The culminating exhibition of the power of the +reformers, however, was in the Council of Trent (1545-63). + +Europe had been too long accustomed to the idea of ecclesiastical unity +to sit still without some attempt at reconciliation between the +Catholics and Protestants. It was hoped that a Council would heal all +wounds, smooth all difficulties, and bring back the irrevocable past. +The Popes, however, had come to regard Councils as inimical bodies with +dangerous tendencies towards investigation and with hostile canons, and +were inclined to take the risk of losing the tainted parts of +Christendom altogether, rather than make use of so perilous an +instrument to recover them. But the Emperor, Charles V, was insistent; +his Empire, as well as the Church, was cracked, and in great danger of +breaking in two. The Council was convoked, and met at Trent. The primary +object was reconciliation; but everybody knew that no reconciliation was +possible without radical reforms in the Church, so the papal party +played its cards with exceeding wariness. The Lutherans did not attend, +and the papal party, in order to forestall practical reforms, plunged +into the comparatively safe matter of defining dogma, and defined it in +such a way as to fence out all the Lutheran schismatics. The reformers, +nevertheless, managed to sandwich in between the definitions of dogma +various decrees for the reform of Church discipline. In Catholic theory +an Ecumenical Council acts under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; but +looking at this Council from a purely secular point of view, it is hard +to find other guidance than the quarrelling interests of Pope, bishops, +Emperor, Spaniards, French, and Italians. In fact, the Council was twice +broken up. The first time the Pope, having taken alarm, declared the +Council adjourned to Bologna. The second time the Lutherans, then at war +with the Emperor, swooped down near Trent and frightened the Council +away. It met again, for the third time. All hope of reconciliation with +the Protestants had then passed away, and the Council set to work as a +purely Roman Catholic partisan body. A striking change of attitude +within the Council showed that since the early sessions the reforming +party had won complete control. Paul IV (1555-59), a man of high +character, formerly Cardinal Caraffa, head of the Roman Inquisition, had +promulgated many edicts concerning reforms; and his successor Pius IV, +Giovanni Angelo Medici of Milan (not of the Florentine family) +(1559-66), who was Pope during the final sessions of the Council, +followed his lead. Pius, a clever man who had received a legal training, +instead of wasting efforts in persuading disputatious bishops, first +made diplomatic arrangements with the Catholic sovereigns of Spain, +France, and Austria, and then secured the embodiment of those +arrangements in decrees by the Council. Nothing, however, could have +been accomplished without the reforming spirit within the Church; Pius +removed obstacles in its way and let it have full play. Stern rules were +made against the corrupt practices, which had given Luther his +strength. Canons regulated the conduct of the clergy, the duties of +bishops, the affairs of monasteries and nunneries, and all matters +connected with the great organization of the Roman Church. These reforms +came too late to affect Protestant opinion, but they rallied the +doubting, confirmed the faithful, and gave the Papacy wide-reaching +moral support. The dogmas of the Church were cast in adamant, and +secured the immense advantage of definiteness and fixity. The Council of +Trent remains the principal monument of the Catholic Revival, and that +Revival is certainly the most important event for Italy in the period +immediately following the Renaissance. Pius IV, the clever lawyer, had a +great share in the work of the Council, but his most skilful achievement +was to maintain and confirm the doctrine of the subordination of +Councils to the Papacy. This great stroke, as well as his share in the +reforms, has won for him the title of founder of the Modern Papacy. + +In this manner the Papacy prospered during the very generations in which +the greatness of Italy dwindled away. The fortunes of the two had wholly +parted company. The Papacy, indeed, had made itself an Italian +institution,--never again would it seat a foreigner on the chair of St. +Peter,--but in all other ways it had ceased to have any national +affections. Italy, her genius faded, her vigour faint, not only deprived +of what might have been a great support, but even pushed down and held +under by the help of her own greatest creation, the Church, ceased to be +a country. She had become, in Metternich's famous phrase, a mere +geographical expression, an aggregate of little states, with no tie +between them except that of juxtaposition and of common subservience to +foreigners. If we look at a map drawn at the close of the sixteenth +century, we shall find the following political divisions:-- + + The Duchy of Savoy, + The Spanish province of Lombardy, + The Republic of Venice, + The little Duchy of Parma, under the Farnesi, + The little Duchy of Mantua, under the Gonzaga, + The little Duchy of Modena, under the Este family, + The little Duchy of Urbino, under the della Rovere who had succeeded + to the Montefeltri, + The Republic of Genoa, + The Republic of Lucca, + The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the Medici, + The Papal States, + The Spanish province of Naples, + The Spanish province of Sicily. + +Over them all, Spanish provinces, independent republics, Italian +duchies, and Papal States, falls the shadow cast by the royal standard +of Spain. Next to our consciousness of that dreaded banner, the most +vivid impression which we take away is the contrast between the vigour +of the Papacy and the weakness of Italy, and we draw the necessary +inference that the fortunes of the two not only have wholly parted +company, but also are wholly irreconcilable. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE CINQUECENTO (16TH CENTURY) + + +The _Cinquecento_, as the Italians call the sixteenth century, exhibits +in the arts the same disintegration and decay that we have found in the +political life of Italy. Honesty, independence, genuineness fade away, +and in their stead we find cleverness and effort. The high tide of the +Renaissance was in the pontificate of Julius II, but the flood lingered +on at the full till 1540, and then the ebb began. This is the date which +the famous German scholar and critic, Jakob Burckhardt, assigns as the +limit of the Golden Age; and it is interesting to find how closely it +corresponds with the political dates which marked the establishment of +the new political order in Italy. In 1530 Florence was definitely handed +over to the Medici; in 1535 the duchy of Milan was annexed to Spain; in +1540 the Pope sanctioned the Order of Jesus; in 1542 he established the +Holy Office in Rome; in 1543 he accepted the scheme of an _Index +Librorum Prohibitorum_; and in 1545 the Council of Trent was opened. + +The change from maturity to decay was all-pervasive; yet it was slow, +and a period of excellence and good taste intervened between the High +Renaissance and the Baroque. This process is most clearly marked in +architecture. During the High Renaissance dignity was law, the grand +manner dominated, and charm determined subordinate parts. Domes were +noble, loggias elegant, pilasters decorative, cornices well +proportioned, ceilings splendid. After 1540 indications of decline +appeared; but this fading brilliance was a kind of _götterdämmerung_, +and, though it heralded the Baroque, displayed at times a purity of +detail and a noble restraint worthy of the earlier period. + +Of the architects of this intervening stage the greatest was Giacomo +Barozzi, surnamed Vignola after the little town where he was born in the +province of Modena. He was a man of theories, had great knowledge of +classical architecture, and wrote a manual on the architectural orders +which enjoyed great authority for two centuries and more. He built +various buildings at Bologna, and designed a gigantic palace at Piacenza +for the Farnesi, the ducal children of Alexander Farnese, Paul III, and +nephews of the beautiful Giulia. The art of making gardens, of using +cypress trees, greensward, pools, terraces, and clumps of ilex as joint +partners with stone, brick, and stucco, in one artistic whole, had come +into being in the sixteenth century; and Vignola was one of the masters +of this new art. He designed the Farnese gardens on the Palatine Hill, +since destroyed by time, neglect, subsequent owners, and eager +archæologists. He was an artist of great ideas, and sometimes caught the +grand manner. On the other hand, he also helped to bring on the Baroque. +His famous church at Rome, the Gesù, despite its vast, high-arching +nave, lent itself with fatal facility to a gorgeous hideousness of +decoration, and set the fashion for many imitative Jesuit churches, +which caught the hideous gorgeousness but missed the grandeur of their +exemplar. He had an important part in building the _Villa di Papa +Giulio_ (Pope Julius III), a little outside the city walls, charming in +its grace, its variety, and its succession of arcades, courts, loggias, +balustrades, grotto, terrace, and garden. + +The next in rank, Bartolommeo Ammanati of Florence, may be called the +court architect of Duke Cosimo I. He built two bridges across the Arno, +the Ponte alia Carraia and the Ponte Santa Trinità, finished the main +body of the Pitti Palace, originally designed by Brunelleschi, and +completed the elaborate Boboli garden, the pleasure grounds behind the +palace. He also was drawn to Rome at the behest of villa-building Popes, +and had a share in elaborating the plans of the Villa of Papa Giulio. +Giorgio Vasari, architect, painter, biographer, designed the Uffizi at +Florence, painted many indifferent pictures, and wrote "Lives of the +Painters," a garrulous, discursive, inaccurate, and delightful book. +Galeazzo Alessi of Perugia built the stately, tourist-haunted palaces of +Genoa, once occupied by opulent merchants, and also the gigantic church +of S. Maria degli Angeli, which covers the Portiuncula of St. Francis, +like a bowl turned over a forget-me-not. Jacopo Tatti Sansovino of +Florence was the architect of many noble buildings in Venice. Andrea +Palladio of Vicenza embodied his passionate love of classical +architecture in palaces and churches in his native town and in Venice. +During the revival of classic enthusiasm in the eighteenth century +Palladio became a demi-god. The captivated Goethe, as soon as he arrived +at Vicenza, hurried to see the Palladian palaces. "When we stand face to +face with these buildings, then we first realize their great excellence; +their bulk and massiveness fill the eye, while the lovely harmony of +their proportions, admirable in the advance and retreat of perspective, +brings peace to the spirit." In Venice, he says, "Before all things I +hastened to the Carità.... Alas! scarcely a tenth part of the edifice is +finished. However, even this part is worthy of that heavenly genius.... +One ought to pass whole years in the contemplation of such a work." + +These men and their rivals kept alive the traditions of the great +period; nevertheless, in course of time stiltedness and exaggeration +usurped the place of elegance and force. A servile imitation of Roman +models, an absolute acceptance of classical correctness, prevailed; the +classic orders, especially the Corinthian, spread themselves everywhere; +in one place barren and formal simplicity obtruded itself, in another +pretentious magnificence. After 1580 the transition is complete; the +baroque triumphs; sham tyrannizes, wood and plaster mimic stone, columns +twist themselves awry; monstrous scrolls, heavy mouldings, crazy +statues, gilt deformities, and all the contortions to which stucco and +other cohesive substances will submit, hang and cling everywhere, inside +and out. But this is to anticipate, for the full revel of the Baroque +takes place in the seventeenth century. + +The same degeneration prevailed in sculpture. Michelangelo, in his +statues in the Medicean chapel at Florence, "Night" and "Day," "Evening" +and "Dawn" (1529-34), had achieved the utmost which thought and emotion +could express in marble. They stand, pillars set up by Hercules, at the +end of the noble sculpture of the Renaissance. His successors tried to +imitate him, in vain; they produced bulk, or writhing or distortion. Yet +some men of this period did excellent work: Benvenuto Cellini, delicate +goldsmith, and sculptor of the Florentine Perseus; John of Bologna, who +modelled the Flying Mercury; Taddeo Landini of Florence, who designed +the charming fountain in Rome, in which several boys are boosting +turtles into a basin above; Bandinelli, whose big statues are familiar +in Florence, "a man strangely composed," as Burckhardt says, "of natural +talent, of reminiscence of the old school, and of a false originality +which carried him beyond a disregard of nicety even to grossness." After +these men and a few others, sculpture followed architecture in its +facile descent into the Baroque, and expressed itself in prophets, +saints, and Popes, who stand in swaying and vacillating postures in nave +and aisle, on roof and balustrade. These decadent sculptors strictly +belong to the next century; they are but heralded by the last works of +the Cinquecento. + +In painting, too, the same story is repeated all over Italy. In Florence +after the close of the High Renaissance twilight darkened rapidly. There +are few artists of note except two fashionable portrait painters, +Pontormo and Bronzino, who display the characteristics of the period. +Bronzino's picture of the Descent of Christ into Hades almost justifies +Ruskin's comment, a "heap of cumbrous nothingness and sickening +offensiveness;" on the other hand, Pontormo's decorations in the great +hall of the Medicean Villa at Poggio a Caiano are as graceful, gay, and +charming as can well be imagined. After them in dreary succession come +the decadent painters, who painted figures bigger and bigger in would-be +Michelangelesque attitudes, as may be seen in one of the rooms of the +_Belle Arti_ in Florence. Elsewhere, also, the generation bred under the +great masters faded away,--the sweet Luini of Milan, Leonardo's +follower; the facile Giulio Romano, Raphael's pupil; the beauty-loving +Sodoma of Siena; the romantic Dosso Dossi of Ferrara. These names show +how loath the genius of painting was to leave Italy, but she obeyed +fate; and, at the end of the century, we have the Caracci beginning to +paint in Bologna, and Caravaggio (1569-1609) in Naples. It needs but a +glance at these later pictures to see what a change had come over the +spirit of beauty during the hundred years since Botticelli painted Venus +fresh from the salt sea foam. + +In literature, also, at the opening of the sixteenth century, we had the +historian, Guicciardini; the political writer, Machiavelli; the poet, +Ariosto; the cultivated Castiglione: at the end we have the pathetic +figure of Torquato Tasso (1544-95), who stands drooping, like a symbol +of Italy. Tasso is always inscribed in textbooks as one of the four +greatest Italian poets, and it would be useless and impertinent to +dispute the concordant testimony of many witnesses. Byron apostrophizes +him, "O victor unsurpassed in modern song;" yet one with difficulty +avoids thinking that his sad story has added to the beauty of his poetry +and heightened his reputation. + +Torquato Tasso was the last great genius of the Italian Renaissance, and +stands there facing the oncoming decadence in gifted helplessness; he +had many talents, a noble nature, a melancholy temperament, and a weak +character. In boyhood his religious emotions and his intellectual +faculties were both over-stimulated. His story is a medley of court +favour, success, rivalry, suspicion. His home was Ferrara, but he +wandered about, as a sick person seeks to ease his body by changing +posture. Early forcing and some natural weakness combined to bring too +great a strain upon his mind, which gave way, and the unfortunate man +was put in a madhouse by his patron, the Duke of Ferrara. He was +confined for seven years, but not ill treated. He died in the monastery +of Sant' Onofrio on the Janiculum at Rome, where tourists stop to gaze at +the poor remnant of an oak tree, under whose shade he used to sit. +Carducci, the great poet, says: "Italy's great literature, the living, +national, and at the same time, human literature, with which she +reconciled Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and, in a Roman way, +represented a renewed Europe, ended with Tasso." His sad story is a +fitting epilogue to the Italian Renaissance. + +This general course of ascent, culmination, and decline holds true even +of Venice, except in chronology; for Venice preserved her independence +from the normal Italian experience almost as resolutely in the arts as +in politics. She produced no literature, piqued perhaps because Italy +had taken the Tuscan dialect rather than hers for the national language; +but in the arts, after decay had elsewhere set in, she bloomed in the +fulness of perfection, as late roses blossom when other bushes show +nothing but hips. Of her individual career a few words must be said. + +In architecture and sculpture, the Lombardi, a Venetian family probably +from Lombardy, flourished for nearly a hundred years (1452-1537), and +left their mark on Venice, in tombs and statues, in churches and +palaces. Contemporary with the last generation of Lombardi came the more +gifted Alessandro Leopardi, who completed the great statue of Colleoni +designed by Verrocchio, and gave a new impulse to Venetian sculpture. +While the Tuscan sculptors had been studying Roman remains, the Isles of +Greece had been giving Greek models to their Venetian conquerors, and +Leopardi in particular profited greatly by them. In the sister art the +first famous architect after the Lombardi was the Florentine, Jacopo +Sansovino, who spent most of a long life in Venice, where he built the +Zecca, the Loggetta, the Libreria Vecchia (the Old Library), and also +the Scala d'Oro (the Golden Stairway) of the ducal palace. Sanmicheli, a +military engineer, as well as a builder of palaces, came from Verona to +work in Venice. Palladio (1508-80), of whom we have spoken, came from +Vicenza, and bequeathed his name to the neo-classic style, known as +Palladian. + +In painting first came the famous Bellini family, Jacopo (1400-64?) and +his two sons, Gentile and the more gifted Giovanni, painter of tenderest +Madonnas; after them came Carpaccio, painter of St. Jerome and his lion, +and of St. George and his dragon. Then followed in rapid succession the +most gifted group of painters that ever lived together, all born within +twenty years of one another, as if to prove how prodigally Nature could +endow a petty province that had the luck to please her: Giorgione, from +Castelfranco on the Venetian mainland, of highest fame and disputed +pictures; Titian, of Cadore, noblest of portrait painters; Palma +Vecchio, of Bergamo, creator of the most glorious of animals, the superb +Venetian women; Sebastiano del Piombo, who painted the Fornarina of the +Uffizi Gallery long attributed to Raphael, and deserved his fortune of +being pupil to Giorgione and friend to Michelangelo; Lorenzo Lotto, of +Bergamo, another painter of exquisite women, high-bred men, noble +saints, and poetical angels; Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, inferior +only to Titian; Bonifazio from Verona, painter of patrician luxury; +Paris Bordone, of Treviso, so uncertain in merit, yet at his best so +rich in hue, so tender in sentiment, so admirable in his pictures of +Venetian ceremonial; and at the close, the giant Tintoretto (1512-94) +and Paolo Veronese (1528-88) the glorious: all, though in different +degrees, splendid in colour, voluptuous ministers to the sensuous eye. +This cluster of names serves to show that while elsewhere in Italy art +was dwindling into mannerism and exaggeration, Venice put forth an +extraordinary burst of pictorial magnificence; yet even in Venice at +the end of the century none of the great men were left. + +The reason for this decadence of the arts from their splendour in the +early decades of the century is not easy to assign; no one can say why +genius spurts up in one spot or in one individual, why the brilliant +Italian race should have achieved so many masterpieces and then have +become ineffectual. One can merely notice, whether as a cause or an +accompanying phenomenon, that, with individual exceptions,--no man could +be nobler than Michelangelo,--Italy of the High Renaissance was a great +moral failure. In intellectual achievement the Italians eclipsed the +world; in morality they stumbled about like blind men. This lack of +morality finds its fullest expression, at least its most conspicuous +expression, at the very time of the culmination of the arts. Let me +illustrate. + +The night that the Duke of Gandia, son of Pope Borgia, was murdered in +Rome (1497), a wood-seller, living beside the Tiber, saw several men +come cautiously to the river. They peered about and made a sign to some +one behind. Up came a horseman, with a dead body lying across his +horse's back, head and heels dangling down; the horse was turned rump to +the river, and two men on foot seized the body and flung it into the +water. The wood-seller was asked why he had not reported the fact. He +answered that he had seen some hundred bodies thrown into the river at +that spot, and had never heard any inquiries made. The duke's brother, +Cæsar, was at the time believed to have done the deed, but evidence +fails. + +The same Cæsar Borgia, bearing the somewhat ambitious motto _Aut Cæsar +aut nihil_, energetic, ruthless, vigorous, ingenious, and plausible, +embodied the Italian conception of what a political leader should be; so +much so, that Machiavelli, the greatest of Italian political writers, +cites him as a model. Machiavelli was a patriot, animated by real love +of his country, but he was free from our conceptions of morality, or +perhaps sceptical of Italian virtue, and believed that the achievement +of liberating Italy from foreign tyranny could only be accomplished by +the qualities of an Iago. In the chapter in "The Prince" entitled "In +what manner Princes should keep faith," he says: "How praiseworthy it is +for a Prince to keep faith, to practise integrity and eschew trickery, +everybody knows; nevertheless, within our own lifetime and our own +experience, we know that those Princes have done great things who have +made small account of good faith and have known how to turn men's heads +by means of trickery, and in the end have surpassed those who planted +themselves on loyalty.... Therefore a prudent lord ought not to keep +faith, when keeping faith would make against him, and the reasons which +made him promise are no more. If men were all good this precept would +not be good; but as they are bad and would not keep faith with you, you, +too, ought not to keep faith with them; and a Prince will never lack +legitimate reasons to colour the breach.... I shall even make bold to +say this, that to have certain moral qualities and always observe them +is bad, but to seem to have them is good; as to seem to be pious, +faithful, kind, religious, honest, or even to be so, provided your mind +be so adjusted that, in case of need, you will know how to be the +opposite. For you must know that a Prince, and especially a newly +crowned Prince, cannot do all the things for which men are esteemed +good, for, in order to maintain the state, they are often obliged to act +contrary to humanity, contrary to charity, contrary to religion; +therefore, he must have a mind prompt to veer with the wind and the +fluctuations of fortune; and, as I have said, not to forsake the good, +if may be, but to know how to cleave to evil, if he must." + +Another illustration shall be the life of Pietro Aretino (1492-1557), +born the child of an artist's model in a hospital at Arezzo, who, by wit +and infinite impudence, by toadying, bullying, and blackmail, worked his +way to such a position that he could say, "Without serving courts I have +compelled the great world, dukes, princes, kings, to pay tribute to my +genius." Once a pious lady, the Marchesa di Pesaro, remonstrated with +him upon his life, and bade him mend his ways. He wrote back: "I must +say that I am not less useful to the world, or less pleasing to Jesus, +spending my vigils upon trifles than if I had employed them on works of +piety. But why do I do this? If princes were as devout as I am needy, my +pen would write nothing but _misereres_.... Let us see. I have a friend +named Brucioli, who dedicated his translation of the Bible to the Most +Christian King [of France]. Four years passed and he got no answer. On +the other hand, my comedy, 'The Courtesan,' won a rich necklace from +this same king; so that my Courtesan would have felt tempted to make fun +of the Old Testament, if that were not a trifle unbecoming. Forgive me +lady for the jests I have written, not from malice, but for a +livelihood. All the world does not possess the inspiration of divine +grace. Music and comedy are to us what prayer and preaching are to you. +May Jesus grant you His grace to get for me from Sebastiano di Pesaro +[her husband?] the rest of the money of which I have only received +thirty scudi; for this I am in anticipation your debtor." Of Pietro +Aretino a recent Italian critic says: "His memory is infamous; no +gentleman would mention his name before a lady." Yet, perhaps, we may +doubt if he was peculiarly bad; he possessed the cynical views of +morality current at the time. Aretino made a fortune, received +knighthood from the Pope, nearly obtained a cardinal's hat, and was +painted by Titian. + +The following anecdote is taken from the autobiography of the famous +goldsmith and sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71). He was travelling +on a sort of canal boat on his way from Venice to Florence. "We went to +lodge for the night in an inn on this side of Chioggia, on the left as +we were approaching Ferrara. Our host wished to be paid, according to +his custom, before we went to bed. I told him that in other places it +was the custom to pay in the morning, but he said, 'I wish to be paid, +according to my way, in the evening.' I replied that men who wanted +their own special way would have to make a world to suit their special +way, because in this world that was not the way things were done. The +host answered that I need not vex my wits, for he wished to do according +to his way. My companion was trembling for fear, and poked me to be +quiet lest the host do worse; so we paid him, according to his way, and +went to bed. We had excellent new beds, everything new, spick and span; +in spite of this I did not sleep a wink, thinking all night long what I +could do to revenge myself; first I thought of setting fire to the +house, next of cutting the throats of the four good horses that he had +in his stable; I could see that this would be easy to do, but not how it +would be easy for me and my companion to escape afterwards. At last I +hit on a plan. In the morning I put my companion and all the things into +the canal boat. When the horses were hitched to the rope that pulled the +boat, I said that they must not start the boat till I got back, as I had +left a pair of slippers in my room.... When I got in the room I took my +knife, which was sharp as a razor, and I cut the mattresses on the four +beds to little bits, so that I knew I had done more than fifty scudi +worth of damage." Throughout a delightful autobiography, which we need +not accept too literally, Cellini exhibits a perfectly unmoral +disposition, a mind with no sense of social law and no respect for +anything except Michelangelo and art. + +These four men, Cæsar Borgia, Machiavelli, Aretino, and Cellini, +possessed fortitude, energy, subtlety, and courage, but they showed no +appreciation of the fundamental social virtues, loyalty, trust, +subordination of self to the general good; and for this reason they +enable us to understand why Italy fell like a ripe apple, without +resistance, into the lap of foreigners and lay helpless under Jesuit, +inquisitor, petty duke, and Spanish viceroy, and why freedom to think +and freedom to act faded from art and intellectual life as well as from +political life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +A SURVEY OF ITALY (1580-1581) + + +At the end of the sixteenth century Italy is well under way on a new +stretch of history, which lasted until the nineteenth century. Except +Venice, always individual, and the Papacy, freshly revivified, Italy has +lost all moral force, and become wholly effeminate. In twenty-five years +three hundred and twenty-six volumes of sonnets were published. Her +political life has become what one may call grand-ducal; her religion +formal, superstitious; her literature affected, stilted; her +architecture Baroque; her painting and sculpture steeped in mannerism +and exaggeration. Nevertheless, Italy is Italy, and has her own charm, +her own individuality, her own coquetry. As formerly she lured Barbarian +nations, so now she lures individual Barbarians, and becomes the +roaming-ground of travellers. She seems less a real country than a +theatre, where rococo dukes, cavaliers, and ladies curl their hair and +powder their cheeks. + +For two centuries this artificial existence continued. Its history is +not to be found in the solemn volumes of Cesare Cantù, Carlo Botta, or +other Italian historians, but in the journals of German, French, and +English travellers: for during these centuries Italy was not a country +in either a political or a sentimental sense; it was a place of +recreation for gentlemen on the grand tour, pious folk bound Romeward, +virtuosi seeking classical remains, and elderly statesmen hoping to cure +the gout. The several petty states were so many artificial gardens, +where the peasants wore pretty costumes, the dukes sang prize songs, the +duchesses trilled _tra la la_ in rival endeavour, and the ecclesiastics +trolled out the chorus. It was the Italian opera bouffe on the most +charming stage in the world. The best summary of the history of the +coming century will be a series of extracts from the diary of a +keen-witted French gentleman, travelling for pleasure, Michel de +Montaigne, who, in the company of some friends, spent several months in +Italy (1580-81). They crossed the Alps over the Brenner Pass and went by +way of Trent. Montaigne's diary is sometimes written in the second and +sometimes in the third person. He describes many of the principal +cities. + +VERONA (within the territory of the Republic of Venice). +"Without health certificates which they had got at Trent they could not +have entered the city, although there was no rumour of any danger of +pest; but it is the custom (in order to cheat us of the few pennies they +cost). We went to see the cathedral, where Montaigne deemed the +behaviour of the men at High Mass very peculiar; they chatted even in +the choir of the church, standing up, with their hats on and their backs +turned to the altar, and did not seem to pay any attention to the +service except on the elevation of the Host. There were organs and +violins to accompany the mass.... We went to see the castle and were +shown all over by the lieutenant in charge. The [Venetian] government +keeps sixty soldiers there, rather, according to what they said to +Montaigne, against the people of the city than against foreigners. We +also saw a congregation of monks called the Gesuati of St. Jerome [not +Jesuits]. They are not priests; they neither say mass nor preach; most +of them are ignorant, but they carry on a business of distilling +lemon-flower water, both in Verona and elsewhere. They are dressed in +white, with little white caps, and a dark brown gown over it; +good-looking young men." They visited the Ghetto (Jews' quarter), and +the Roman amphitheatre, which Montaigne thought the noblest building he +had ever seen. + +VICENZA. "It is a big city, a little smaller than Verona, all +full of palaces of the nobility." The fair, which was held twice a year, +was going on upon the parade-ground; booths had been built on purpose, +and no shops in the city were allowed to keep open. In the town there +was another establishment of the Gesuati, selling their perfumes and +also medicines for every ailment. "These monks tell us that they whip +themselves every day; each one has his switch at his post in the +oratory, where they meet at certain hours of the day and pray, but they +have no singing.... The old wine has given out, which vexed me, as it is +not good for me, on account of my colic, to drink the new wines, though +they are very good in their way." From Vicenza they journeyed by a broad +straight road, ditched on either side and raised a little, which ran +through a fertile champaign with mountains in the distance, to +PADUA. The inns here could not be compared with German inns +except that they were cheaper by a third. "The streets narrow and ugly, +not many people, few handsome houses. We went about all the next day and +saw the schools of fencing, dancing, and riding, where there were more +than a hundred French gentlemen together." In fact, young men went in +great numbers, young Frenchmen in particular, to the schools of Padua, +less to acquire a knowledge of books than to acquire the accomplishments +which were then the mode. One of Montaigne's party stopped here and +found good lodging for seven crowns a month, and "he might have lodged a +valet for five crowns more; ordinarily, however, they do not have +valets, only a general servant for the house, or else maids; every one +has a nice bedroom, but fire and lights in the bedroom are extra. The +accommodation was very good, and you can live there very reasonably, and +that, I think, is the reason why many strangers go there to live, even +those who are not students." + +VENICE. Here he dined with the French ambassador "very well;" +among other things "that the ambassador told him this seemed odd, that +he had no social relations whatever with anybody in the city, because +the people were so suspicious that a [Venetian] gentleman who should +speak to him twice would fall under distrust." One is inclined, however, +considering the fate of Milan, to regard a certain distrust of +foreigners as not unnatural. Montaigne thought that the four most +remarkable things about Venice were the situation, the police, the +Piazza of St. Mark's, and the crowds of foreigners. He received as a +gift a little book of "Letters" from a Venetian lady, one of that +celebrated class of Venetian women who were outside the matrimonial pale +yet lived in ostentatious luxury, recognized by the government and by +masculine society. This lady at mid-life had changed her ways and +devoted herself to literature, and hearing of the famous French author, +sent him her book. + +Returning by way of Padua, Montaigne passed the sulphur springs, +frequented in May and August by the fashionable sick, who took mud or +vapour baths and drank the waters. He noted the canals; the system of +irrigation in the plains, where rows of vine-laden trees intersected +fields of wheat; the big, strong, gray oxen; the broad mud flats, once +swamps, which the government was struggling to reclaim. + +ROVIGO, a little town in Venetian territory near the Adige. +"There is as great abundance of meat here as in France, whatever it may +be the custom to say, and though they use no lard for the roast, they do +not take away the savour. The bedrooms, because there is no glass and +they don't shut the windows, are not so clean as in France; the beds are +better made, smoother, and well supplied with mattresses, but they have +nothing but coarse coverings, and they are very sparing of white sheets; +if a man travels alone, or with little style, he won't get any. It is +about as dear as in France, or a little dearer." + +He crossed the Po, as he had crossed the Adige, upon some kind of +pontoon bridge, and went on to + +FERRARA (duchy of Ferrara), where he was delayed on account of +his health certificate. The ducal regulations on this point were very +particular. On the door of every room in the inn was written up, +"Remember the health certificate;" immediately on arrival, names of +travellers were reported to the magistrates. Montaigne found most of the +streets broad and straight, all paved with bricks; there were many +palaces, but few people, and he missed the porticos of Padua, so +convenient against the rain. He _did_ the town, paid his respects to the +duke, saw Tasso in the madhouse, and found the lemon-flower distilling +Gesuates again. + +At BOLOGNA (in the Papal States), a large, fine city, bigger +than Ferrara, and with many more people; he also found young Frenchmen +come to learn riding and fencing. He admired the fine porticos, that +covered almost every sidewalk, the handsome palaces, the buildings of +the _School of Sciences_, the bronze statue of Neptune designed by John +of Bologna, and enjoyed a company of players. "The cost of living was +about the same as at Padua, very reasonable; but the city is less +peaceful in the older quarters, which make debatable land between the +partisans of different nations, on one side always the French, and on +the other the Spaniards, who are there in great numbers." + +This unpeaceful and factional condition was not confined to Bologna, but +spread throughout the Papal States. Even fifty years later a perplexed +visitor to Ravenna wrote: "The city is divided, as you know, into +Guelfs and Ghibellines, so much so that one man won't go to another's +church, and each side has its place in the public square; a tailor who +works for one need not look for employment from the other, and so with +all the trades; they distinguish one faction from the other by the way +they wear their hair, their caps," etc. But these pale shadows of the +great old parties were slight inconveniences compared with the banditti, +who also decked themselves with old names, and, under pretence of +fighting one another, robbed, burnt, pillaged, and murdered with perfect +impartiality. The soldiers and the common people united against these +rascals, but they were too strong to be utterly extirpated. In the Papal +States, one Piccolomini, a member of a famous Sienese family, raided +where he chose, and once led a band of two hundred men within a mile or +two of the walls of Rome. Terms were made with him, for he was under the +protection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and although he confessed to +three hundred and seventy murders within twenty-five years, he was +pardoned and absolved. + +Leaving Bologna, Montaigne hesitated in his choice of roads on account +of brigands, and chose wisely for he was not molested. He crossed the +Apennines by a road, which he says is the first that could be called +bad, and entered the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. One village on the way, +still in papal territory, was famous for the knavery of the innkeepers, +who made wonderful promises till the traveller was safely housed, and +then rendered the scantest performance. At the next village, which was +in Tuscany, rival hosts rode out to meet the traveller, and struggled to +secure him, promising everything. One offered to serve a rabbit for +dinner free, if Montaigne would lodge with him. The party prudently rode +about to all the inns on a tour of inspection, examining food and wine, +and making their bargain before dismounting; the host, however, managed +to put extras on the bill, it being impossible to remember beforehand +every item, wood, candles, linen, hay, etc. + +Next day Montaigne rode out of his way to see Pratolino, the Grand +Duke's famous country place, with its gardens, alleys, wonderful +grottos, all decked with Nereids and Tritons, and fountains of +extravagant baroque designs. From there he went on to + +FLORENCE, which appeared to him smaller than Ferrara. He went +to see the ducal stables, the ducal menagerie, Michelangelo's statues, +Giotto's campanile; and remarked that he had never seen a country with +so few handsome women as Italy. Lodgings were inferior in comfort to +those in France, and the food was far less generous and less well served +than in Germany, where, also, sauces and seasonings were far superior; +the windows were big and always open, for there was no glass, and if the +shutters were shut they excluded light and air as well as wind; the beds +were uncomfortable, the wines too sweet; moreover, Florence was esteemed +the most expensive city in Italy. + +Montaigne dined with the duke, Francesco I (son of Cosimo I), and his +second wife, Bianca Cappello, the famous Venetian, who sat at the head +of the table. She had a pleasant face, was reputed handsome, and seemed +to have been able to keep her husband devoted to her for a long time. +The duke mixed water freely with his wine; she scarcely at all. After a +brief stay, during which he visited gardens and the environs of the +city, which he admired greatly, Montaigne rode southward to + +SIENA. The country was cultivated everywhere and tolerably +fertile, but the road was rough and stony. At Siena he notes the Duomo, +the palaces, the _piazza_, the fountains, and, important point, that +"there are good cellars and fresh;" also, that in Tuscany the city walls +are let go to ruin, while the citadels are carefully fortified and no +one is permitted to go near, showing that the duke feared domestic +insurrection more than foreign attack. He observes "the French are kept +in such affectionate remembrance here by the people of the country, that +at any mention of them tears well up in their eyes, for war itself, with +freedom in some form, seems to them sweeter than the peace which they +enjoy under this tyranny." The French had aided Siena in its brave +struggle for liberty, and a valiant remnant of French and Sienese had +held out till the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), when France +abandoned them to Cosimo dei Medici. + +From Siena he rode southward past Bolsena, Viterbo, and a pleasant +valley surrounded by hills covered with wood, "a commodity somewhat rare +in this country." Incidentally he commends the customs: in good houses +dinner was served at two o'clock and supper at nine; and if there was a +play, it began at six and was over by supper time. "It is a good country +for a lazy fellow for they get up late." + +At ROME he put up for a day at the _Bear_, and then took +lodgings, three good bedrooms, parlour, dining-room, kitchen, and +stable, for twenty crowns a month, the host providing the cook and fire +for the kitchen. "Apartments are ordinarily somewhat better furnished +than in Paris, especially as they have a great deal of gilt leather, +with which the walls of apartments of a certain grade are hung." He +might have hired another apartment for the same price, furnished in silk +and cloth of gold, but he did not think this luxury suitable, and the +rooms were not so convenient. Ancient Rome impressed him immensely, and +the modern city, too; he was astonished by the papal court, the number +of prelates, the crowd of ecclesiasts, by the streets, so full of richly +dressed men, of horses and coaches. + +Making a comparison between freedom in Venice and in Rome, he argued for +Venice, and adduced these reasons: "Item, that in Rome houses were so +insecure, that those who had considerable sums of money were advised to +leave their purses at their bankers, so as not to find their chest +broken open; item, that it was not very safe to go out at night; item, +that, in the very first month of his visit, the General of the +Cordeliers was abruptly dismissed from his post and put in prison, +because in a sermon, which he preached before the Pope [Gregory XIII] +and the cardinals, he had accused prelates of laziness and luxury, but +without going into details, and using (with some asperity of voice) only +perfectly common and current phrases on the subject; item, that his +luggage had been examined on entering the city for the customs, and had +been ransacked down to the smallest article of clothing, whereas in most +of the other cities in Italy the officials had been satisfied with the +mere offer to submit to examination; besides that, they had taken all +the books they found in order to examine them, and took so long about +it, that a man who had something to do might put them down as lost; add +to that, that their rules were so extraordinary that the 'Book of Hours +of Our Lady' fell under their suspicion, because it came from Paris and +not from Rome, and they also kept books, written by some German doctors +against heretics, because in combating them they made mention of their +errors." + +On Christmas day at St. Peter's during mass, Montaigne "was surprised to +see Pope, cardinals, and other prelates, seated almost all through the +mass, talking and conversing together. The ceremony seemed more +magnificent than devotional." He obtained an interview with the Pope, +very ceremonious; and dined with a French cardinal, where the +_benedicite_ and repetitions of grace, very long, were recited +antiphonally by two chaplains. During dinner the Bible was read, and +after the table was cleared, service was held; everything was +exceedingly formal, but the _chef_ does not appear to have equalled +Cardinal Caraffa's _chef_, a culinary enthusiast, with whom Montaigne +had a long talk on sauces, soups, and serving. Montaigne attended the +Carnival sports on the Corso, a festival already at that time more than +a hundred years old, where boys, Jews, old men, horses, asses, and +buffalo ran races; fair ladies, without masks, looked on, and young +cavaliers congregated where the ladies could see them; the ladies were +richly clad, the gentlemen simply; and (Montaigne adds) the appearance +of the dukes, counts, and marquesses was not equal to their titles. + +Montaigne's "Essays" had been submitted to the Master of the Palace, who +examined them with the aid of a French friar, for the Master knew no +French. After a delay they were returned, and the Master left it to +Montaigne's conscience to alter what might seem to be in bad taste, +especially in those points to which the French friar objected; item, +that Montaigne had used the word _Fortune_; item, that he had named +poets who were heretics; item, that he had made an apology for Julian +the Apostate; item, that he had suggested that when a man was saying his +prayers he ought at that moment to be free from any unworthy +inclination; item, that he judged any punishment in excess of death, +cruelty; item, that a child should be educated to do all sorts of +things, etc. Another book belonging to Montaigne, a history of the +Swiss, was confiscated, because the translator was a heretic. + +On Maundy Thursday he saw the Pope come forth on the balcony of St. +Peter's attended by his cardinals. On one side a canon, speaking Latin; +on the other, a cardinal read, in Italian, a long bull which +excommunicated an everlasting list of people, including the Huguenots +and all princes who withheld any portion of the territory of the Church. +At this last article Cardinals Medici and Caraffa laughed heartily. At +night there was a great procession of religious guilds, with twelve +thousand torches, including files of Penitents, who scourged their bare +backs till the blood ran. Montaigne, however, was of opinion that these +Penitents were hired for this purpose. He agreed with the French +ambassador, that the poor people were incomparably more devout in France +than here, but that in Rome the rich, and especially the courtiers, were +more devout than in France. + +From Rome Montaigne made his way northward by SPOLETO, where +there was great alarm caused by a noted brigand. On the way he notes his +food,--salt fish, beans uncooked, artichokes also uncooked, peas, green +almonds, eggs, cheese, wine, and, in little places, olive oil instead of +butter. "You meet monks every now and then who give holy water to +travellers and expect alms in return, and a lot of children who beg and +hold out their beads, promising to say a string of paternosters for the +person who will give them something." + +The Umbrian plain was beautiful and fertile, with grains and fruits in +abundance, the whole country rich beyond description. So, too, had been +the Roman Campagna, but that was not tenanted, for its owners, the Roman +barons, had let it to merchant farmers, who did not maintain peasants +there, but in harvest time hired husbandmen from all over Italy, to the +number of forty thousand, to gather in the crops. From FOLIGNO he turned +to the right and crossed the Apennines just below Assisi, and travelled +toward the Adriatic coast, making a pilgrimage to LORETO, a place like +Lourdes, celebrated for its miracles, and for the "very same little +house in which Jesus Christ was born in Nazareth." Here he found the +people much more religious than elsewhere; even the attendants in the +Church were ready to do anything, and would accept no tips. Thence he +went to ANCONA, SINIGAGLIA, URBINO, where he inspected the famous palace +begun by Federigo da Montefeltro; then back to FLORENCE, once more to +admire the beautiful villas which decked the hills round about, and on +to PRATO and PISTOIA, stagnating little towns, whose civic life had been +crushed out by the Medici. So he rode on through lovely country, where +long lines of little trees, trellised with vines, divided the rich +fields of grain, skirting the hills covered with olive, mulberry, and +chestnut, till he reached LUCCA, which had saved itself from the clutch +of the Medici by clinging to the skirts of Austria. + +Lucca, girdled by fortifications worthy of a most martial ardour, +maintained a comfortable prosperity by the manufacture of silk; but +here, as elsewhere, it was becoming unfashionable to engage in trade, +partly on account of decreasing returns and the general waning of +energy, and partly from Spanish influences. Gentlemen retired from +business, invested their money in landed estates, and were rapidly +tending to become the characters which we find in Goldoni's comedies. + +From Lucca Montaigne went to the BATHS OF LUCCA and took the cure for +near two months. He found the country lovely, but society a little slow; +most of the men were apothecaries. After the cure he made another tour +southward, then back to Lucca for more baths, from there northward, on +the road to Milan, stopping at PONTREMOLI. At the inn in this place, the +dinner began with cheese _alla milanese_, included a dish of olives, +their pits taken out, dressed with oil and vinegar _alla genovese_; on a +bench stood one basin in which all the guests washed their hands in the +same water, _alla pontremolese_. From there he crossed the Apennines, +where the mountaineers, horrid people, charged them most cruel prices, +and went on into the duchy of Parma, where Alessandro Farnese, the great +general, was the reigning duke. At PIACENZA, the King of Spain, out of +his abundant caution, still maintained a Spanish garrison in the castle, +"badly paid as they told me." Thence they proceeded into the duchy of +Milan. + +At PAVIA Montaigne remarks, that from Rome northward the best +inn he had lodged at was the _Post_ at Piacenza, and the worst the +_Falcon_ at Pavia: "You pay extra for wood, and there are no mattresses +on the beds." MILAN was the largest city in Italy, not unlike +Paris, full of merchandise and craftsmen; it lacked the palaces of other +cities, but in size excelled them all, and in throng of people rivalled +Venice. + +From Milan he rode westward, and entered the domains of the Duke of +Savoy, crossing the Sesia near Vercelli, where the duke was building a +fort in such haste, that he aroused the suspicion of his Spanish +neighbours. Thence he went to TURIN. Here the people imitated +French ways, looked up to Paris, usually spoke French, or rather French +words with Italian pronunciation, and altogether seemed very devoted to +France. Montaigne liked Piedmont, finding the inns there better than +elsewhere in Italy. The bread was bad but the wine good, there was +plenty to eat, and the innkeepers were polite. He crossed the Alps over +the Mt. Cenis Pass, half the time on horseback, half the time in a +chaise borne by four porters, and then entered Savoy proper, passing its +capital, Chambéri, crossing the Rhone to the north and then the little +river Ain to the westward, and came to MONTLUEL, the last town +of Savoy, and so on to the Saône, Lyons, and French soil (November, +1581). + +Such was the Italy of the long period from 1580 to 1789, the land of +olives, mulberries, and chestnuts, of fertile fields crossed by +vine-laden trees, of irrigated plains and treeless mountains, of +innkeepers, good, bad, and indifferent, of Spanish garrisons, ducal +citadels, and dare-devil banditti, of begging urchins, perfuming friars, +of gentlemen too genteel to work, of prelates in coaches, of antique +ruins and Renaissance glory, of blue sky and vivacious manners, in +short, almost the Italy that our fathers knew before the perturbations +of 1848. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS (1580-1789) + + +We have now reached a period of comparative stability in which dukes, +viceroys, oligarchs, and Popes sit settled in their respective dominions +with a security that appears a little tame after the whir and uproar of +Barbarian invasion. To be sure, the wars between Spain, France, and +Austria, waged first to abate the over-greatness of the House of +Hapsburg and afterwards that of the House of Bourbon, were often fought +out in the north of Italy; nevertheless, the period of confusion has +passed, and each principality has a consecutive political history, which +runs along for two hundred years. Our best course will be to glance at +the careers of the several states, one by one, until they reach the +tumultuous influences of the French Revolution. Venice, the noblest as +well as the most powerful, deserves to come first. + + +_Venice_ + +Venice still ranked as one of the great powers of Europe; she was sought +as an ally, she took part in European counsels, and bore herself with +resolute dignity and pride. The change that was going on went on so +slowly, and her statesmen were so well trained and so far-sighted, that +her reputation remained intact after the power which had created it had +shrunk and dwindled. In spite of the battle of Lepanto she lost the +island of Cyprus to the Turks, but secured a peace which lasted for two +generations, a surprisingly long time, considering that the two states +were destined to fight each other till both were exhausted. She was less +successful in keeping at peace with her Christian neighbours, and became +embroiled in a celebrated quarrel with the Holy See. + +There was an irritating papal bull which was issued and reissued under +the stimulus of the reinvigorating Counter-Reformation, entitled _In +Coena Domini_ (for the Lord's Supper), usually read on Maundy Thursday. +It was probably the very bull that Montaigne heard read from the balcony +of St. Peter's. This bull asserted papal claims of extreme character, +not unworthy of Boniface VIII, and, in fact, revealed complete +consciousness of renewed youth and vitality. Other states in Italy bowed +and accepted, or pretended to accept, this declaration of papal +authority; but Venice refused to publish the bull. In fact, though +Venice had always professed great respect for the Holy See, she had been +consistently self-willed and opposed to papal pretensions, and likewise +somewhat free-thinking. Moreover, there had been festering disagreements +concerning territory and politics. Venice insisted upon the right to tax +Church property within the state, and to try priests charged with crime +before her lay tribunals. Acting upon the latter right she arrested and +tried two priests guilty of crime. This action traversed the doctrine +laid down in the papal bull. The Pope put Venice under an interdict +(1606). In retaliation the Signory issued a decree of banishment against +all priests and monks who should obey the interdict. Various Orders +quitted the city. The Pope stood firm in his position that "there could +be no true piety without entire submission to the spiritual power." All +Europe looked on, the Protestants backing Venice, the Catholics +supporting the Pope. War was in the air; but the danger of a European +_mêlée_ was too great. The French King, Henry IV, enacted the +peacemaker; and the forces in favour of compromise succeeded in +reëstablishing peace. + +Out of the quarrel one man issued with a noble historic reputation. Fra +Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623) was the last of the great Venetians. In boyhood +he was so precocious a scholar that at eighteen he was made professor of +Positive Theology, and, a little later, of Philosophy and of +Mathematics. Grown up, he became a man of science, the foremost of his +time excepting Francis Bacon. He discovered the valves of the veins, and +also, independently of Harvey, the circulation of the blood. He made +discoveries in optics. He studied heat, light, sound, colour, +pneumatics, the magnetic needle. In astronomy Galileo called him, "_il +mio padre e maestro_--my father and my master." Sir Henry Wotton, the +English ambassador to Venice, said, Fra Paolo is "as expert in the +history of plants as if he had never perused any book but Nature." In +addition to these achievements, he wrote a very celebrated history of +the Council of Trent. At the time of the breach with the Papacy, this +brilliant savant was appointed Theological Counsellor to the Republic, +and was abruptly flung into the confusion and passion of violent +political strife. Deeply patriotic,--his last thought was for Venice, +"_Esto perpetua_, may she live forever,"--he held a brief, as it were, +for his country, and as her advocate argued her cause before all Europe +with brilliant success. + +At this period the Venetian Signory belonged, in spirit at least, to an +international political party which was opposed to Spain and to the +Papacy, and for that reason was favoured by the French, especially when +Henry of Navarre was on the throne. In fact, this quarrel between Venice +and the Papacy may be considered an episode in the great struggle +between the party of European freedom and the tyrannical House of +Hapsburg, seated on the thrones of Spain and Austria, and supported by +the Papacy. + +But Venice was not able to concentrate her attention upon European +affairs. Later in the century war with the Turks was renewed; she was +too weak to resist them single-handed, and, after a struggle which +lasted for twenty-five years, she lost Crete (1669). Not many years +later, having obtained allies, she renewed the war, fought with great +gallantry, and actually conquered the Morea, which, on the conclusion of +hostilities, was ceded to her (1699). This conquest, now best remembered +from the fact that in the attack on Athens a Venetian bomb blew up the +Parthenon, was the last great military exploit of the Venetians, and +within twenty years the Morea was lost again. + +Martial vigour ebbed slowly but surely. During the war of the Spanish +Succession, when, the course of fortune having shifted, Europe combined +to resist the overbearing power of Louis XIV and the House of Bourbon, +Venice remained neutral. Like an old dog which has fought many good +fights in its youth and prime, and now, lame and scarred, maintains a +dignified abstention from canine frays, Venice lay back. In 1718, after +the war with Turkey in which she lost the Morea, she took part in the +treaty between Austria and Turkey. This was her last active diplomatic +intervention in the affairs of Europe. She had lost Cyprus, Crete, the +Morea; and now her province in Italy, bits of Illyria, and some of the +Ionian Islands, alone remained from her old empire. She shut her eyes to +the past, and concentrated her attention on making her beautiful city +"the revel of the earth, the masque of Italy." On the eve of the mighty +upheaval of the French Revolution, her old sea glory flashed up under +her last great admiral, Angelo Emo (1731-92), who cleared the seas of +the Algerine pirates; but it was too late, Venice had run her course, +and the end was at hand. + + +_Spanish Provinces_ + +West of Venetian territory, the unfortunate duchy of Milan fulfilled its +melancholy lot of being the prize possessed by Spain, yet coveted and +fought for by France. Its history takes no special hold upon the memory. +Against a constant background of French ambition (Richelieu, Mazarin, +Louis XIV), the Spanish governors step forward upon the Milanese stage, +levy taxes, scheme how to circumvent the French, and how to extend +Spanish dominion, and then go home, a little richer but without leaving +any definite impression on the page of history except as they have +served to create the scenes depicted in the romantic novel "I Promessi +Sposi." One has a vague idea of ceremony, bows, obeisances, ignorance, +rapacity, and cruelty, but the idea is nebulous, and we need not stop. + +Leaving local affairs aside, we will proceed at once to see how the +titles to Milan and other Spanish provinces in Italy passed from Spain +into other hands. History here acts as an attorney and coldly records +the transfer from one monarch to another. Like lots of land the +provinces of Italy were bartered and granted in consideration of war, +dynastic love, and affection, or for the sake of the political +equilibrium of Europe. The great Powers fell to blows over the +succession to the crown of Spain (1700-14), to the crown of Poland +(1733-35), and other matters in which Italy had no voluntary concern; +and, after years of war, made treaties to reëstablish European +equilibrium by an elaborate system of weights and counterweights. Where +the balances hung unevenly, a province of Italy was thrown in to restore +them to a level. In this way Milan, Parma, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia +were disposed of. All we need do is to remember that in place of +conveyances there were treaties, and in place of offer, counter-offer, +haggling, and bargaining, there were battles, sieges, devastation, and +pillage. + +The records of conveyances in the office of history read as follows:-- + + LOT GRANTOR GRANTEE DATE + + Milan Spain Austria 1713 + + Naples Spain Austria 1713 + " Austria Spanish Bourbons 1738 + + Sicily Spain Savoy 1713 + " Savoy Austria 1720 + " Austria Spanish Bourbons 1738 + + Parma Spanish Bourbons Austria 1738 + " Austria Spanish Bourbons 1748 + + Sardinia Spain Austria 1713 + " Austria Savoy 1720 + +Milan was subject to only one transfer, from Spain to Austria, by the +treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt (1713-14), which closed the war of the +Spanish Succession. Those same treaties took Naples and the island of +Sardinia from Spain and gave them to Austria, and also took Sicily from +Spain and gave it to Savoy. Spain, however, was dissatisfied, and +attempted to recover what she had lost; but a new European coalition +forced her to renounce her claim. In the general pacification after the +war, for the purpose of making a more satisfactory arrangement, Sardinia +was exchanged for Sicily, giving Sardinia to Savoy and Sicily to Austria +(1720). Finally, after the war of the Polish Succession by the Peace of +Vienna (1738), Austria ceded Naples and Sicily to younger sons of the +royal family of Spain, the Spanish Bourbons, on condition that those +provinces should never be united with the crown of Spain, and received +in exchange the little duchy of Parma, which had fallen to a Spanish +Bourbon on the extinction of the Farnesi. But ten years later, at the +close of the war of the Austrian Succession, Austria ceded Parma back +again to other members of the Spanish Bourbon family. + + +_Tuscany_ + +Another paragraph is necessary to complete the Austrification and the +Spanification of Italy. The Medici of Tuscany died out. After the first +Grand Duke, Cosimo, six successors had followed, dwindling away in +incapacity, luxury, and bigotry. The last died in 1737. Then, by virtue +of that general reapportionment after the war of the Polish Succession, +the Grand Duchy was handed over to the Duke of Lorraine, husband of +Maria Theresa, of the House of Hapsburg, Empress of Austria, and became +an appanage of the Austrian Empire, under the rule of the younger sons +of the Imperial house. It is a relief to turn from these Austrian and +Spanish provinces to the two living powers, Savoy and the Papacy. + + +_Savoy_ + +It would be impossible to chronicle here the history of the Savoyard +dukes, who were advanced to the title of Kings of Sardinia after the +acquisition of that island. Savoy lay in the way of the three fighting +nations, France, Spain, and Austria. The plain of Piedmont was an +admirable fighting-ground, and the combatants chose it on all possible +occasions, but it would not be fair to charge the whole blame upon those +three nations. The Dukes of Savoy were ambitious men, full of all sorts +of schemes for increasing their dominions and their personal glory. +Whenever any one of them thought he perceived an opportunity to seize +some neighbouring territory, he caught at it, reckless of collision with +his powerful neighbours. The general upshot was that Savoy lost its old +Swiss provinces and its old French provinces, and that Piedmont became +the head and front of the new Kingdom of Sardinia. Equally important to +Italy was the fact that, while the people of the other Italian provinces +became more and more incapable of bearing arms or of making any real +martial effort, the people of Piedmont gradually became a nation of +soldiers. In devastation, war, and apparent ruin, Piedmontese valour and +Piedmontese character were trained and developed, and Piedmont little by +little came to feel, and likewise to impress upon the other Italian +States, that she, and she alone, was the refuge and hope of whatever +Italian patriotism might still exist. + + +_The Papacy_ + +The Papacy we left at the end of the sixteenth century in the full flood +of revival. The Popes were swept on by the tide. The bold and successful +front opposed to the enemy was supplemented by discipline within. Heresy +was traced and tracked. Inquisitors roamed about, spying what they +might; they frightened the learned from publishing, printers from +printing, and almost all from freedom of talk and thought. Thus traitors +were rooted out. And at the same time faithful soldiers of the Church +were trained and educated. Seminaries for priests of divers nations were +founded in Rome; Jesuit schools were helped everywhere. Sixtus V (Felice +Peretti), 1585-90, was a Pope worthy of the great period. He entertained +a plan to reconquer Egypt, and make the Mediterranean and Red Seas a +high-road for armies and navies that should break up the Ottoman power. +He attacked the banditti of the Papal State, as his predecessors had +attacked the barons, and, for a time at least, suppressed them. He was a +great builder; he completed the dome of St. Peter's, set up the Egyptian +obelisk in the _piazza_ before the cathedral, substituted statues of St. +Peter and St. Paul in place of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius on the tops of +the two great bronze columns that adorn the Foro Trajano and the Piazza +Colonna. He brought fresh water, named after him Acqua Felice, into the +city from over twenty miles away, and gave Rome an aspect worthy of the +capital of the Latin world. He fixed seventy for the number of +cardinals; he revised the Vulgate; and pondered many great designs, for +which, as he said, his strength would have been inadequate, even had he +lived. + +But these Popes of the Revival, who carried into effect the papal +principles of the Council of Trent, vigorous, and in many respects +admirable, as they were, need not detain us, for the history of the +Papacy in this period scarcely belongs to Italy. It has a far wider +reach, and is intimately bound up with the great Catholic, one might say +the great Latin, effort to restore or extend Catholicism and Latin +supremacy throughout the world. In the British Isles, in Scandinavia, in +Poland, in Russia, in Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland, the +Church fought with the old Roman spirit of conquest. Everywhere the +Jesuit fathers went, busy, devoted, heroic. The ardour of St. Francis +Xavier, the self-abnegation of St. Francis de Sales, the passionate +mysticism of St. Theresa, infected and controlled thousands of +disciples. Everywhere were great manifestations of activity. In South +America there were bishops and archbishops, hundreds of monasteries and +innumerable priests. In Mexico there were schools of theology. In India, +thousands and thousands of converts clustered around the city of Goa. In +China and Japan the Jesuits built churches, and converted to +Christianity disciples of Confucius and Buddha. The Church had founded +an empire on which the sun never set. But our business is not with this +great Latin conquest, this great Catholic revival. We must pass on to +the next series of Popes, less memorable for their imitation of Scipio +and Cæsar, than of Lucullus and Crassus. Here we find the names of the +founders of great papal families, so familiar in Rome, not as +missionaries, teachers, or martyrs, but as owners of palaces, villas, +pictures and statues: Borghese (Paul V, 1605-21), the Pope who +quarrelled with the Venetian Republic; Ludovisi (Gregory XV, 1621-23), +in whose pontificate the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (College for +Propagating the Faith) was established; Barberini (Urban VIII, 1623-44), +whose family, famous from the squib "Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecerunt +Barberini," built its palaces out of Roman ruins. During the pontificate +of Barberini, Galileo was brought before the Holy Office, and his +opinion that the earth moved condemned as "absurd, false in philosophy, +and essentially heretical." + +Under his successor Panfili (Innocent X, 1644-55), Catholic Europe +stopped fighting Protestant Europe, and the Thirty Years' War was closed +by the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The Catholic Powers gave over the +attempt to reduce the Protestant States, and acknowledged their +independence. Panfili launched his bull against the treaty, but the +weary world disregarded the old man's curses. After him came Chigi +(Alexander VII, 1655-67), Rospigliosi (Clement IX, 1667-69), Odescalchi +(Innocent XI, 1676-89), whose names mean little to us. + +Long before this time the forces of revivification which had borne +onward and upward the Catholic counter-charge on the Protestant ranks, +had begun to fall away. The great Catholic monarchs of Europe turned +their minds to personal ambitions; the Popes squandered papal revenues +on their own families; the Jesuits loosened their rigid hold on their +once high principles. The period of reform had passed, and the Papacy +settled down into a policy of maintaining the ecclesiastical empire left +to it and of enjoying its little Italian monarchy. In politics it +pursued a shifting course towards Austria, Spain, and France, dictated +rather by passing fears than by wisdom or lofty ambition. At the time of +the close of the war of the Spanish Succession the Papacy was hardly +regarded as a European power. The proof of decline was most visible in +the concessions made by the Papacy to the Catholic sovereigns, by its +forced acquiescence in the repeated attacks on the Jesuits, and finally, +by its bull suppressing, or rather attempting to suppress, the Order +(1773). + +Throughout the eighteenth century the papal part in European affairs was +insignificant; and in Italy the general effects of papal rule were +steadily increasing poverty, superstition, and incompetence. It is a +relief to turn away, knowing that the French Revolution is blowing its +refreshing blasts ahead of us. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS (1580-1789) + + +We should do wrong to leave these centuries to stand solely on their +political record. Even this dreary period has contributed not a little +to the sum of Italy's attractions. After the moral vigour of republican +Florence, after the freshness of the Renaissance and its later grandeur, +after the elegance of the courts of Urbino, Ferrara, and Milan, it +requires time to adjust ourselves to a different standard and to acquire +a relish for this period of dissipated little kings and dukes. But once +familiar with the altered standard of excellence, these centuries, with +their arts, their habits, their idleness, become exceedingly +sympathetic, and lure with peculiar dexterity the idler who seeks +entertainment and the picturesque. Not that there is no serious element +in them, for there is. Italy, though known to us through her lovers as a +woman land, has always happily commingled feminine charm and masculine +strength. Like the Apennines which stretch their grim strength from the +Alps to the toe of the peninsula, virility runs throughout the length of +Italian history, though at times it avoids notice. In this period it is +best represented by science; and we must not omit to mention a few of +the most distinguished scientific thinkers. + +Giordano Bruno (1550-1600) and Campanella (1568-1639) were philosophers +rather than men of science; their philosophy ran counter to the +scholastic philosophy sanctioned by the Church, and they came into +collision with the stern spirit of the Catholic Reaction. Campanella was +persecuted and punished; Bruno was condemned as a heretic and burnt to +death in the city of Rome. Greater than either was Galileo (1564-1642), +whose name is one of the most illustrious in astronomy. He was born at +Pisa, where he was educated in the university. He devoted himself to +study, especially to mathematics, and became a professor. In 1609 he +heard that a Dutchman had made an instrument which in some way by means +of a lens magnified objects. Acting on this hint he constructed a +telescope; and, if not strictly the inventor, he was the first to use +the telescope in astronomy. The next year he made various eventful +discoveries: that there are mountains in the moon, and spots on the sun; +that Venus has phases; that Saturn has an appendage, which later was +proved to be rings; that Jupiter has four satellites, a discovery which +increased the number of heavenly bodies from the mystically sacred seven +(sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) to the +uninspiring eleven. These discoveries persuaded Galileo to adopt the +Copernican theory, and brought him into collision with the Church. Much +has been said about his cruel persecution, but he appears to have +received gentle treatment and to have undergone a merely nominal +imprisonment. Another philosopher, Vico (1668-1744), a Neapolitan, +enjoys a very high reputation in Italy as a thinker. He wrote a +philosophy of history, in which he investigated the laws that govern +human progress, showed that philosophical theories must treat mankind +collectively, and anticipated Comte's theory of the three stages of +social development. + +Science is not the characteristic trait of this period; for that is to +be found in the arts or in the pleasant enervating lassitude of life. In +the grand-ducal atmosphere there is a sense of having browsed on +lotus-flowers. As we glance back on the great centuries, their efforts +look splendid, their high purposes noble, their infinite curiosity +commendable, but we are content to sit in a ducal garden, to listen to +the Tritons spout into the fountains, to sip chocolate, to meditate +sonnets to a partner for the minuet, to gossip about "His Highness and +Contessa B----, who, so that young _milord_, Horry Walpole, says, was +once a ballerina," and to confess our sins to fat, amiable priests. We +enjoy the badinage of the abbés, the ingenious vacuity of the +littérateurs, the cheerful buzz of the café, the daily saunter on the +fashionable promenade, the drive in the park, and all the details of +theatrical make-believe existence. + +As one becomes used to this lotos-laden atmosphere, one gets lenient +impressions of the arts, of their peculiar and characteristic +agreeableness, and rapidly loses one's previous too scornfully classical +attitude. In an earlier chapter we indulged in some high-flown +denunciation of the Baroque in architecture. That was because we were +fresh from the Renaissance. Now that we have eaten of the lotos, we +refrain from comparison and enjoy the arts in their new phases, in and +for themselves. There is hardly an Italian city that would not be poorer +for the absence of the Baroque. Rome, for instance, owes most of its +charm to these decadent generations, to the Villa Medici, the Villa +Borghese, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona. + +A Neapolitan, Bernini (1598-1680), was the master spirit of the best +Baroque, both in architecture and in sculpture. His greatest achievement +is the splendid colonnade which reaches out like two arms from St. +Peter's Church and clasps the sunny _piazza_ in its embrace (1667). +Bernini's statues, his fountains, his decorations and ornaments, make a +good history of the time. They undoubtedly reveal decadence, yet they +are respectfully imitative of the great achievements of the Renaissance, +whereas the works of his numerous disciples are surcharged with +contortion, obvious effort, and strain for effect. There is a maximum of +visible exertion with a minimum of real accomplishment. Details are +multiplied, and ornaments bear little or no relation to the organic +structure of the buildings which they adorn; yet that practice is an +Italian trait, and even in excess has a picturesque merit. The baser +work of this style, exhibited in the vainglorious churches of the +Jesuits, is sometimes called the Jesuit style. After this period of +stormy ornament came a calm in the eighteenth century, façades became +rectilinear, and there was a general subsidence of obvious effort. + +In painting the school of Bologna, led by Lodovico Caracci (1555-1619) +and his nephews, Agostino and the more noted and gifted Annibale, set +the fashion. They endeavoured to combine faithfulness to nature with all +the merits of all their predecessors, and are therefore called the +eclectic school. They remained the cynosure of touring eyes until the +middle of the nineteenth century. Sir Joshua Reynolds admired and +praised them. Some of their disciples were for a long time almost as +famous as Raphael. Domenichino's Last Communion of St. Jerome held a +place of honour in the Vatican Gallery equal to Raphael's +Transfiguration. Guido Reni's Aurora, painted on the ceiling of the +casino in the Rospigliosi palace in Rome, had a tremendous vogue, and +even now tourists, escaped from the critics, admire it privily. +Guercino, Sassoferrato, and also the lachrymose Carlo Dolci are other +celebrated members of the school. Another school, almost equally famous, +was devoted to Naturalism,--imitation of starving old beggars and a +general depiction of want, misery, and squalor. Of these painters the +principal were Caravaggio (1569-1609), a Neapolitan, and his pupil +Ribera, known as _Lo Spagnoletto_, because he was born in Spain. A later +group, the Venetians of the eighteenth century, consisted of Canaletto, +Bellotto, Guardi, and others who painted again and again the idle canals +and pleasure-loving palaces of Venice. The greatest of this group was +Tiepolo (1693-1770), who attained in a measure the grand manner of the +great masters of the sixteenth century. + +In literature, though that also had flashes of seriousness, as in +Filicaia's celebrated sonnet to Italy adapted by Lord Byron,-- + + Italia! O Italia! thou who hast + The fatal gift of beauty-- + +the spirit of the Baroque, in its lightest and pleasantest manner, +expressed itself to the full by means of the Academy of Arcadia. The +unreality of the whole Italian world was concentrated in this Academy, +which soon had branches, imitations, colonies all over the peninsula. It +was founded in Rome (1692) by Gravina, a jurist, Crescimbeni, a priest, +and other dilettanti, for the ennoblement of literature, the +purification of taste, and other meritorious purposes. The members +called themselves Arcadian shepherds and shepherdesses, took pastoral +names, composed sonnets by the bushel, wrote one another's biographies, +and were altogether delightfully silly. Goldoni, the playwright, gives a +glimpse of these littérateurs in the eighteenth century as he observed +them in Pisa. + +One day he passed a garden gate and saw within the garden a crowd of +ladies and gentlemen grouped by an arbour. He was told, "The assembly +which you see is a colony of the Arcadia of Rome, called the Colony of +Alpheus, named after a very celebrated river in Greece, which flowed +through the ancient Pisa in Elis." Goldoni went up to the circle and +listened to a number of gentlemen who recited poems, canzoni, ballads, +sonnets, etc. He observed that the company looked at him as if desirous +to know who he was. Eager to satisfy their curiosity, he asked the +president if a stranger might be permitted to express in poetry the +satisfaction which he experienced in being present on so interesting an +occasion. Goldoni had a sonnet in his head, composed by him in his youth +for some similar festival; he hastily changed a few words to adapt it to +the present occasion, and recited the fourteen lines with the tone and +inflection of voice which set off sentiment and rhyme to the best +advantage. The sonnet had all the appearance of being extemporaneous, +and was very much applauded. Whether the meeting had come to its +appointed end or not he did not know, but everybody got up and crowded +about him. Thereupon he was introduced to a whole troop of Arcadian +shepherds, who welcomed him most heartily. At another meeting the +president, whose proper title was Guardian of the Shepherds, drew a +large packet from his pocket, and presented Goldoni with two documents, +a certificate of his membership in the Arcadia of Rome under the name of +Polisseno (Polixenes), and a legal deed which bestowed upon him the +Fegean Fields in Greece; whereupon the whole assembly saluted him under +the name of Polixenes Fegeus, and embraced him as a fellow shepherd. +Goldoni says that, in spite of the formality of the conveyance, the +Turks never acknowledged his title. + +Mention of the Arcadia and of Goldoni leads to another art, most +characteristic of these two centuries, the player's art. The drama had +never been a success in Italy; Machiavelli and Ariosto wrote comedies, +but they were no better from a dramatic than from an ethical point of +view. After the acknowledged failure of serious comedy, another species +took the field, the "Commedia dell'Arte," and definitely established +itself at about the time of the beginning of the Baroque. In this +species of comedy the dramatis personæ were masked and always +impersonated certain definite characters, and the dialogue was +improvised. These masks were _Pantalone_, our Pantaloon, a Venetian +merchant, who always wore a black robe and scarlet stockings, and spoke +the Venetian dialect; _Il Dottore_, the doctor, a pompous ass from +Bologna; _Arlecchino_, Harlequin, a silly and credulous servant in tight +hose and motley jerkin, and _Brighella_, a quick-witted and knavish +servant, both speaking the patois of Bergamo; _Colombina_, the +soubrette, a pretty maid-servant from Tuscany; _Capitano Spavento_, +Captain Terrible, a fire-eater from Naples, etc. This comedy, +necessarily kept within narrow limits by these characters, was strictly +improvisation, except that the playwright provided a _scenario_, a +skeleton plot. It had great success, and troops of Italian comedians +went all over Europe; but by the eighteenth century it had run its +course and become mere vulgar horseplay, and Goldoni (1707-93), the only +brilliant comic playwright that Italy has produced, gave it a +death-blow. + +Goldoni was a Venetian, and a perfect embodiment of the happy, careless, +amiable, entertaining society of the time. He led a roaming life, going +to Tuscany to learn good Italian, and finally ending his career with +twenty years in Paris. Some of his plays are in the Venetian dialect; +two were written in French. There are more than a hundred, counting +tragedies, interludes, and all. Their virtue is their lightness. They +are made of foam, a delicious dramatic _soufflé_, and in the hands of +accomplished Italian actors, like Eleonora Duse or Ermete Novelli, +retain their charm to this day. They are essential for the history of +the period, with their counts, barons, marquesses, their ladies, their +waiting-maids, their innkeepers, _camerieri_, cobblers, adventurers, and +all their gay mockery of the idle habits of the time. + +It will throw a little more light upon the customs of that day to +mention _cicisbeismo_, an unwritten rule of an artificial and idle +society, which prescribed that a lady should have a _cavaliere +servente_, a gentleman dangling in attendance upon her. Every lady had a +husband, as maidens were not allowed in society, and widows had to +choose between a convent and a second marriage; but the husband could +not wait upon her, for his own duty as _cavaliere servente_ required him +to be in attendance upon somebody else's wife. The duties of the +_cavaliere servente_ were to devote himself solely to his lady, to write +_billets-doux_, compose sonnets to her lapdog, to hand her chocolate at +_conversazioni_, to give her his arm on all occasions, to ride beside +her coach when she was out driving, and so on. In fact, he was required +to do all those little offices, _petits soins_, which a young gentleman +is accustomed to render to the lady whom he is engaged to marry. It was +a state of active flirtation, not only sanctioned but required by +society. It is said that in some cases the _cavaliere servente_ was +agreed upon before marriage, and his name inserted in the marriage +contract. + +Besides Goldoni's comic drama and the "Commedia dell'Arte" this Baroque +Italy gave the world another and far more important gift, the Opera. +Italian genius flared up once more and led the world in music. As far +back as the days of the Council of Trent the reforming spirit of the +Church found its noblest expression in Palestrina's (1524?-94) masses, +but after his death, after the Catholic Revival had lost its deeply +serious feeling, music took another step. Florence, the old home of +genius, was the spot. A group of music lovers, who were full of classic +theories about art, wished to revive antique Greek drama, with its +combination of poetry, music, and dance. They decided that the words +were the chief element, that the music must be subservient to the full +emotional expression of the poetry, must intensify the dramatic +significance of the story. To give effect to their opinion they devised +a method of setting music to declamation, the earliest form of +recitative. They meant to revive the Greek drama, but they produced the +opera. After a few years of work over the new ideas, in 1600, at the +Pitti Palace, an opera was publicly performed in honor of the espousals +of Maria dei Medici and Henry IV of France. This was the first public +performance of a secular opera. Soon afterwards Monteverdi (1567-1643), +a revolutionary genius in the history of music, produced his operas at +Mantua. In 1637 the first public opera house was opened in Venice; +others quickly followed; the opera became a favourite diversion, and +Italian singers carried it to France, Germany, Austria, and England. In +the same year as the performance in the Pitti Palace, a dramatic +oratorio, "The Soul and the Body," was publicly performed in Rome. The +oratorio was greatly developed by Carissimi (1604-74) of the Roman +school, and with him and his successors acquired much stateliness and +beauty. Its influence on the opera, however, was not good, at least if +we adopt the opinion of those Florentine Hellenes and of Wagner, for it +developed music as an independent element, and did not subordinate it to +dramatic action. + +With the exception of this misdevelopment of the opera, all music +evolved brilliantly and well in Italy, and especially in Naples, which +eclipsed all other cities, and showed that she, too, had her individual +genius. Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) wrote a great number of operas +and oratorios, and composed a vast quantity of ecclesiastical music. He +was followed by his son Domenico Scarlatti, by Durante, Leo, and +Jommelli, by Pergolesi, Piccinni, Cimarosa, and Paisiello, who followed +one another, like a flight of singing birds, through the eighteenth +century. The Italian opera, even then, had the characteristics of +subordinating dramatic propriety and all semblance of reality to +_arias_, trills, and vocal exaggeration, but it was not till the +beginning of the nineteenth century--with Rossini, Bellini, +Donizetti--that the Italian opera (if I may venture to adapt a famous +phrase) became melted Baroque. There were other schools of music at +Rome, Bologna, and Venice. It was in Venice that the four famous asylums +for girls, _conservatori_, were turned into music schools, and gave +their name to training schools for musicians all over the world. + +Besides the opera one must note, in mentioning Italian musical genius, +the violin-makers, the Amati of Cremona, the greater Stradivarius +(1644-1737), and other famous makers of Cremona, Brescia, and Venice; +also the organ-builders, the Antignati of Brescia; the great Italian +singers, then as now favourites of the world; as well as the greatest of +libretto-writers, Metastasio. + +Metastasio (1698-1782) had a career that can only be compared to that of +a successful _prima donna_. As a boy he was adopted by the Arcadian +lawyer, Gravina, and brought early to drink of the Pierian spring. After +Gravina's death he spent his money, got into the company of singers and +musicians at Naples, and composed the words of an opera "Dido," while +still a youth of five-and-twenty. "Dido" had immense success, and from +this time on Metastasio poured out play after play in words that went +halfway and more to meet the accompanying music. His renown was +triumphant throughout Europe; he became the pet of lords, ladies, kings, +and Popes. He flitted from court to court, and sipped the honey of +facile success; he serves as the embodiment of the Italian opera, or +rather as a poetical spirit, a kind of baroque nightingale, to chant the +charm, the sentiment, the sweetness, the unreality, of these two +make-believe centuries. + +As we take leave of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (a +somewhat ignoble pair), their architecture, painting, literature, and +music, we must, as in other matters, remember the good and forget the +bad. We must keep in mind the Spanish Steps, which offer at their base +ample room for all the flowers of all the flower-sellers of Rome, then +rise in easy flight, pause, rest, and mount again, tier upon tier, till +the top step stretches out into a terrace, where the pedestrian, glad to +pause, turns and looks back over Rome towards the majestic dome of St. +Peter's. We must remember the Trevi Fountain where gods and nymphs and +waters splash and frolic together, or Guido's Aurora, where Apollo +looses the rein to his heavenly horses as they gallop after Lucifer, +while the straight-backed hours dance divinely alongside. We must recall +the sweet sentiment in Metastasio, the light nothingness of Goldoni, the +merriment of Harlequin and Columbine, the violins of Stradivarius, the +singing of Farinello and Pacchierotti, the melodies of Pergolesi, and +the general pleasantness of an idle, amiable society. Then we want to +join the eighteenth-century travellers,--Addison, Walpole, President de +Brosses, or Goethe,--and we look back with vain regret to that happy +lotos-eating time, and wish it would return again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1789-1820) + + +Now come those great events, most important to Italy, the French +Revolution and the invasion by Napoleon. The storm burst upon a scene of +quiet. Italy was still like a comedy of Goldoni, dukes enjoying taxes +and mistresses, priests accepting oblations and snuff, nobles sipping +chocolate and pocketing rent, while the poor peasants, kept behind the +scenes, sweated and toiled for a bare subsistence. + +Before the Revolution came the premonitory breezes of philosophical +philanthropy wafted across the Alps from the Encyclopedists. As they +affected the various rulers differently, it is necessary to descend to +some particulars. In Piedmont no philosophical philanthropy warmed the +king; he wrapped his cloak tighter about him, and deemed the old ways +good enough. He maintained his court in imitation of Versailles, and +drilled his soldiers in imitation of Frederick the Great. Nobles alone +were employed in the higher ranks of the civil service, nobles alone +were made officers in the army; in return, they were treated like +schoolboys, not allowed to leave a prescribed path without permission. +The clergy had the privileges of the old régime; their tribunals had +sole jurisdiction over priests, and tried to maintain jurisdiction over +the laity for all offences that had a smack of sin. King, nobility, and +clergy clung to the autocracy, and were resolved to maintain it in full +vigour. A rash admirer of Montesquieu wrote a treatise upon +"Constitutional Monarchy," and was put in prison. + +In Lombardy the House of Austria really plunged into reform; it +reorganized the administration, reapportioned taxes, curtailed clerical +privileges, abolished the Inquisition, improved roads, favoured +agriculture, stimulated trade, and encouraged manufacture. New ideas +were broached. Beccaria published his famous book "On Crimes and +Punishments," which began the attack on the atrocious, old penal +cruelties. French philosophy was discussed. The physicist Volta, famous +for his electrical discoveries, occupied a chair in the university at +Pavia. Austrian garrisons indeed were on duty, but Lombardy prospered as +it had not done since the days of the Sforzas. + +In Venice the new ideas did not affect the government. The old system +continued. The Great Council of Patricians sat in conservative +indolence; the ornamental Doge shuffled about, the Senate talked, and +the Council of Ten maintained its petty despotism. Venice was moribund. +Her voice was no more heard in European affairs. Her army had dwindled +to a few undisciplined and inefficient regiments; her arsenal was little +employed. Gayety, luxury, vice, reigned triumphant; all the young blades +of Europe went thither to carouse. + +In Parma the flood of philanthropic reform had flowed strong; the +minister of state, a Frenchman, full of Parisian ideas, had introduced +many beneficial changes, but a new duke, dissipated and devout, slipped +back into the old ways; and its little neighbour, Modena, concentrated +its attention on avoidance of all possible offence to its neighbours. + +In Tuscany, an appanage of Austria, reform bounded along. The Grand +Duke, Leopold I, proposed to destroy every remnant of the Middle Ages; +he attacked the power of the ubiquitous priests, granted free trade in +grain, and equalized taxes,--without discrimination even in favour of +his own estates. He improved the universities of Pisa and Siena, drained +the marshes of the Maremma, and led the way in abolishing torture and +capital punishment; he rendered a public account of the state's +revenues; and, in short, put in practice the advanced philanthropic +ideas on government. + +In the Papal States, on the other hand, mediævalism lay heavy. There was +no commerce, no manufacture, little agriculture. Priests were +everywhere, greedy relations of the Pope almost everywhere. No laymen +were given office. Ancona, a seaport, and Bologna, with its university, +were the only exceptions to general wretchedness. The finances were in +extreme confusion; the offerings of the faithful, the sale of offices, +the multiplication of taxes, did little more than pay interest on the +bonded debts. Rome was a little, unimportant, ecclesiastical city. + +In Naples, however, even the Bourbons felt the fresh breath of +reformation. A reforming minister expelled the Jesuits and tried to +reduce the number of superfluous priests, monks, and nuns, and to root +out the old feudal privileges. In the city itself a goodly company of +men gathered together, cultivated ideas, and followed the lead of the +French philosophers. Poor Sicily, overridden by barons and priests, +lagged behind, a prey to the feudal system, and so unsusceptible to new +ideas that the reforming prime minister could not budge the dead weight +of custom. The people preferred to help one another in their own way, +and resorted to that mysterious society, the _Mafia_. + +Thus was Italy, half philanthropically inclined, half despotically, with +few outward indications of the great awakening of the nineteenth +century. One such indication might have been found in the life and +character of a gentleman of Turin. Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803) was a +kind of antique Roman, a new Brutus, of passionate and lofty nature. He +embodied his ideas of liberty in classic tragedies, which stirred +Italian manhood in those days, but now are extremely tedious to read. He +boldly gave vent to his hatred of foreign oppression, preached freedom, +and appealed to the "future Italian people." His autobiography, somewhat +condensed and expurgated, might be put into Plutarch. He stands in +history, not as a great tragedian, but as the first example of the +rebirth of that antique virility which was to display itself so +brilliantly in the nineteenth century. + +Down into this little world of periwigs and lavender came the French +Revolution. All who had applauded Alfieri's tragedies were delighted, +except Alfieri himself, who hated the French. But the Italian princes +took fright at the democratic volcano, and talked of a general union +against France. Piedmont alone was vigorous enough to take action; she +made a league with Austria (1792). Nothing important happened until +young Napoleon took command of the French army of invasion (1796), and +began to tear "the heart out of Glory." It would be useless to relate in +detail his wonderful career in Italy. He arranged the peninsula as a +housekeeper shifts the furniture in an unsatisfactory room. He took Nice +and Savoy from Piedmont, Lombardy from Austria, formed the little states +south of the Po into a republic, took the temporal power from the Pope, +and set up a Roman Republic. He turned the Kingdom of Naples into a +republic and then back again into a kingdom, first for his brother +Joseph, and then for his general, Murat (1808). He converted Genoa into +the Republic of Liguria. Venice, like old Priam before bloody Pyrrhus, +fell at the whiff and wind of the victor's sword; the Great Council +resigned without a struggle, and the Republic of St. Mark after an +existence of a thousand years came to its end. It was then handed over +to Austria, but after Austerlitz taken back again. In 1805, having +become Emperor, Napoleon turned the northern part of the peninsula into +the Kingdom of Italy, and put the iron crown of Lombardy on his own +head, saying, "God has given it to me, woe to him that touches it." In +1806 he put an end to the Holy Roman Empire, and forced the Emperor, +Francis II, to resign the Imperial crown. + +The old laws of political gravitation ceased to act, and Italy was +moulded and broken and moulded anew, as if creation had begun again. The +revolutionary ideas on which Napoleon's power at first rested had spread +everywhere; liberty, equality, democracy were a part of every man's +stock of familiar thoughts, and the conception of an Italian kingdom, +vaguely associated with the poetic dreams of Dante, Petrarch, +Machiavelli, had become a political fact. Italy was changed forever, the +old Goldoni comedy was gone; Napoleon had given the _coup de grâce_ to +the old régime. + +There was another side to the Napoleonic domination. A multitude of men +had been forcibly enlisted in Napoleon's armies; twenty-six thousand, it +is said, perished in the terrible retreat from Moscow. The French were +arrogant and they were foreigners. Changes had been made too quickly and +with too reckless a disregard for Italian wishes. Nobles and clergy had +been despoiled of privileges, peasants had been confused and bewildered, +the pious had been scandalized by Napoleon's treatment of the Pope; all +these longed for the restoration of the old political divisions and of +the old easy ways. + +After Napoleon's overthrow the Napoleonic states in Italy fell almost +immediately. The viceroy of the Italian kingdom, Napoleon's stepson +Eugène Beauharnais, slunk away; and in the south, after some +vicissitudes, Murat was caught and shot (1815). Kings, dukes, and Pope +came tripping back to their thrones. The Congress of Vienna decided that +the doctrines of the French Revolution were quite wrong, that law, +order, and the principle of legitimacy were bound up together, that +states belonged to their royal families in tail male, and reparcelled +Italy among its petty sovereigns, acting quite as despotically as +Napoleon had done. It gave Venice to Austria, Genoa to Piedmont, and +Parma to Marie Louise, the Austrian wife of Napoleon, for her life, as +she had to be decently provided for. The Dukes of Parma received Lucca +until her death, when they were to return to Parma, and then Lucca was +to be annexed to Tuscany. Metternich, Hardenberg, Castlereagh, +Talleyrand, and their associates complimented one another on the happy +completion of their task, and the Congress broke up. + +In Piedmont the king, loyally welcomed home, put back everything to the +position in which it was before the disturbances; the old dispossessed +nobles were restored to their places in the civil and military service, +and the _carrière ouverte aux talents_ was closed. In Lombardy and +Venice Austrian officials held a tight rein, and a watchful secret +service (_sbirri_) prowled about ready to pounce on plotting youth like +owls upon field mice. In Parma and Modena the eye of the Austrian +government was always peering and peeping. In Tuscany Austrian influence +also was dominant; but the Grand Duke was a gentle, kindly, paternal +person, and his subjects were placidly content, for the old Tuscan fire +had died out, and no Tuscan was so crazy as to dream of revolution or of +a united Italy. In the Papal States the reaction was complete; the +Inquisition was restored, the Jesuits recalled, the civil service +limited to priests. But in Naples the reaction was worst. The +despicable Ferdinand, who dropped his number IV of Naples to become +Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, restored the old régime, and swept away +the autonomy of Sicily, which had had a separate parliament for hundreds +of years, and since 1812 a constitution also. Ferdinand humbly followed +every hint from Austria. The will of Austria was supreme from Venice to +Naples, and behind Austria was the conservative judgment of the ruling +classes of all Europe, still frightened by the Revolution. European +nobles and landowners agreed that the riotous desires of the middle +class and proletariat for political privileges must be crushed down. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE REAWAKENING (1820-1821) + + +Outwardly despotism had been triumphantly reëstablished, and Popes, +princes, and privileged persons in general made a gallant attempt to +pretend that the French Revolution and the Napoleonic upheaval had never +taken place. Nevertheless, the quiet on the surface did not extend +underneath. Inwardly the new ideas and aspirations were fermenting from +Piedmont to Calabria. The _Carbonari_ (Charcoal-burners), a secret +society organized against despotism, plotted for freedom and for +constitutions. Their members were thickest in the Kingdom of Naples, but +spread throughout Italy. The spark necessary to set ablaze this hidden +discontent came from Spain. There a successful rebellion obtained a +constitution. The thrill stirred Naples. A company of soldiers under two +young lieutenants rebelled (1820), many joined them, a general put +himself at their head. The army would not fight them. The insurgents +demanded a constitution, with a parliament, a free press, trials +according to law, etc. The dastardly king was frightened into promises, +but as the insurgents were not content with promises, he granted a +constitution, and solemnly swore to maintain it. These revolutionary +tumults, however, had alarmed the comfortable, conservative ruling +classes and their leaders, the Emperors of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. +An Imperial conference was held at Laybach (1821), and Ferdinand +attended. The new constitution, indeed, forbade him to leave the kingdom +without permission from parliament, but he had obtained leave by +promising to argue in favour of the new régime. Whatever his arguments +were the Holy Alliance disregarded them, and charged Austria with the +duty of restoring despotism in Naples. Austria obeyed. An overpowering +army easily scattered the Neapolitan constitutionalists and put +Ferdinand back. The constitution, parliament, free press, and all the +other obnoxious revolutionary institutions were brushed away, and +Ferdinand, having hung up in church a lamp of gold and silver as an +offset to his perjury, inflicted punishment on the late rebels as fast +as he could. + +Meanwhile the North had felt the thrill. In Lombardy the hawk-eyed +government pounced down on possible conspirators. Silvio Pellico, the +pathetic author of "Le Mie Prigioni" (My Prisons), and his friend +Maroncelli, were arrested and put into prison (1820), there to stay for +ten years. A little later Confalonieri, head of the Milanese nobility, +and a group of gentlemen were seized and sent to prison. They were set +free only in 1836, on the accession of a new Emperor. Some of them, +Castillia, Foresti, and Albinola, then sought refuge in the United +States. I quote from the unpublished diary of an American to show what +kind of men these conspirators were: "Castillia is an Italian, of an +honourable Milanese family. At the age of twenty-three he, with other +noble and brave Italians, lovers of their country, was thrown into the +dungeons of Spielberg (Moravia) by Austrian despots, and there chained +and confined, sometimes in total solitude, enduring the sharpest +privations and basest ignominies for seventeen years. Then on the +accession of a new Emperor they were released and exiled to +America--they were men of superior intelligence and education, +honourable gentlemen, true-hearted, loving men--Castillia possessed all +the virtues that one can name and in their most attractive forms." + +What these gentlemen suffered for love of their country may be read in +"Le Mie Prigioni." Pellico himself was a Christian saint. After years of +solitary confinement he and Maroncelli were put together. Maroncelli had +a tumour on his leg, which grew so painful that whenever it was +necessary to move Pellico helped him. "Sometimes to make the slightest +shift from one position to another cost a quarter of an hour of agony." +The wound was frightful and disgusting. I quote from Pellico: "In that +deplorable condition Maroncelli composed poetry, he sang and talked, and +did everything to deceive me and hide from me a part of his pain. He +could not digest, or sleep; he grew alarmingly thin, and often went out +of his head; and yet, in a few minutes gathered himself together and +cheered me up. What he suffered for nine months is indescribable. +Amputation was necessary; but first the surgeon had to get permission +from Vienna. Maroncelli uttered no cry at the operation, and when he saw +the leg carried off said to the surgeon, 'You have liberated me from an +enemy, and I have no way to thank you.' By the window stood a tumbler +with a rose in it. 'Please give me that rose,' he said to me. I handed +it to him, and he gave it to the old surgeon, saying, 'I have nothing +else to give you in testimony of my gratitude.' The surgeon took the +rose and burst into tears." Such was the character of the men who +plotted for the freedom of Italy. + +The Papal States likewise had been quivering. Lord Byron was in Ravenna +at the time. He enrolled in the _Carbonari_, and sent a thousand louis +to the Neapolitan Constitutional Government with an offer to serve +wherever and in whatever capacity they should desire. His letters and +diary help us to understand the situation. + + BYRON TO MURRAY, HIS PUBLISHER + + November 23, 1820. + + Of the state of things here it would be difficult and not + very prudent to speak at large, the Huns [Austrians] opening + all letters. I wonder if they can read them when they have + opened them; if so they may see in my most legible hand that + I think them damned scoundrels and barbarians, and their + Emperor a fool, and themselves more fools than he; all which + they may send to Vienna for anything I care. They have got + themselves masters of the papal police and are bullying + away, but some day or other they will pay for all; it may + not be very soon because these unhappy Italians have no + consistency among themselves; but I suppose that Providence + will get tired of them at last. + + SAME TO SAME + + December 9. + + I open my letter to tell you a fact which will show the + state of this country better than I can. The commandant of + the troops is now lying dead in my house. He was shot about + two hundred paces from my door.... As nobody could or would + do anything but howl and pray, and as no one would stir a + finger to move him for fear of consequences, I had the + commandant carried upstairs to my own quarters.... Poor + fellow, he was a brave officer but much disliked by the + people. + + EXTRACTS FROM BYRON'S DIARY + + January 6, 1821. + + To-night at the theatre, there being a prince on his throne + in the last scene of the comedy, the audience laughed and + asked him for a constitution. This shows the state of the + public mind here as well as the assassinations. It won't do. + There must be a universal republic, and there ought to be. + + January 7. + + The Count Pietro Gamba took me aside to say that the + Patriots had had notice from Forlì [twenty miles away] that + to-night the government and its party mean to strike a + stroke, that the Cardinal here has had orders to make + several arrests immediately, and that in consequence the + Liberals are arriving and have posted patrols in the + streets, to sound the alarm and give notice to fight. He + asked me "what should be done." I answered, "Fight for it, + rather than be taken in detail;" and offered if any of them + are in immediate apprehension of arrest to receive them in + my house (which is defensible), and to defend them with my + servants and themselves (we have arms and ammunition) as + long as we can, or to try to get them away under cloud of + night. On going home I offered him the pistols which I had + about me. + + January 8. + + Rose and found Count Pietro Gamba in my apartments. Sent + away the servant. He told me that according to the best + information, the government had not issued orders for the + arrests apprehended; and that as yet they are still only in + apprehension. He asked me for some arms of a better sort, + which I gave him. Settled that in case of a row the Liberals + were to assemble here (with me) and that he had given the + word to the others for that purpose. Concerted operations. I + advised them to attack in detail and in different parties, + in different places, though at the same time, so as to + divide the attention of the troops, who though few yet being + disciplined would beat any body of people (not trained) in a + regular fight, unless dispersed in small parties and + distracted with different assaults. Offered to let them + assemble here if they chose. It is a strongish post--narrow + street, commanded from within--and tenable walls.... + + I wonder what figure these Italians will make in a regular + row. I sometimes think that like the Irishman's crooked gun + they will do only for shooting round a corner; at least this + sort of shooting has been the late tenour of their exploits. + And yet there are materials in this people and a noble + energy if well directed. But who is to direct them? No + matter. Out of such times heroes spring. Difficulties are + the hotbed of high spirits and Freedom the mother of the few + virtues incident to human nature. + + January 9. + + They say the King of Naples has declared, by couriers from + Florence, to the Powers (as they call now those wretches + with crowns) that his constitution was compulsive, and that + the Austrian barbarians are placed again on war pay and will + march. Let them,--"they come like sacrifices in their + trim,"--the hounds of hell! Let it be a hope to see their + bones piled like those of the human dogs at Morat, in + Switzerland. + + January 29. + + Met a company of the sect (a kind of Liberal Club) called + the Americani in the forest, and singing with all their + might in Romagnuol "Sem tutti soldat' per la libertà"--(We + are all soldiers for liberty). They cheered me as I passed; + I returned their salute and rode on. This may show the + spirit of Italy at present. + + They say that the Piedmontese have at length risen--ça ira! + +The news from Piedmont was true. Some officers in the army proposed to +demand a constitution from the king and then force him into war with +Austria. They believed that Prince Carlo Alberto, who stood next but one +in succession to the throne, though only a distant cousin of the sonless +king, was in sympathy with them and would act with them. How far they +were justified in this belief is uncertain. The leading conspirators had +an interview with him, and thought they received satisfactory +assurances. In subsequent explanations he denied any such assurances. +Thus encouraged, the garrisons of Alexandria and Turin hoisted the +tricolour of the _Carbonari_, and made their demands. The old king, +Vittorio Emanuele, not knowing what to do, resigned in favour of his +younger brother, Carlo Felice, who was then absent, and appointed Carlo +Alberto regent during the new king's absence. Carlo Alberto, always +infirm of purpose, with doubt and hesitation took the opportunity and +proclaimed a constitution (March, 1821). But the new king, apprised of +this wild act, at once annulled it, and bade Carlo Alberto leave the +country. Poor Carlo Alberto was in a sad dilemma: should he obey his +king and abandon his liberal friends, or cleave to them and be disloyal +to the king? He obeyed and went to Tuscany. An Austrian army aided the +king to suppress the revolt. The liberals escaped as best they could. +Some fled to Spain by way of Genoa, where they were seen by Giuseppe +Mazzini, a lad of sixteen, who thereupon resolved "that one could, and +therefore one must, struggle for the liberty of Italy." + +Thus the revolutionary storms swept by; the _sbirri_ resumed their old +methods of prying and spying, and dukes and kings deemed themselves +secure of their own again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +PERTURBED INACTIVITY (1821-1847) + + +After 1821 followed ten years of outward repose. Times were hard for +lovers of independence, but hope and purpose had been let loose, and in +dark corners, cloaking themselves as best they could, the friends of +freedom groped their way. Openly little was done except by exiles, but +indirect aid came from literature, which followed the romantic movement, +and loudly asserted the revolutionary ideas. There was Ugo Foscolo, the +poet, half Venetian, half Greek, who after the return of the Austrians +refused to take the oath of allegiance and fled to England, giving, as +was said, "to New Italy a new institution, Exile;" Giovanni Berchet, of +Milan, poet and man of letters; Gabriele Rossetti, of the Abruzzi, +father of Dante Rossetti, a poet himself; and many others. By far the +most distinguished was Alessandro Manzoni, a quiet, dignified Milanese +gentleman, who wrote patriotic plays, and the famous romance, "I +Promessi Sposi" (The Plighted Lovers). He cheered and comforted his +compatriots with the thought that in him they possessed a man of letters +whom Europe recognized as the peer of Scott, Byron, and Goethe. Scott +praised "I Promessi Sposi" most generously, and Goethe said, "It +satisfies us like perfectly ripe fruit." + +Greater than Manzoni, though at the time less widely known, was the sad +poet, Giacomo Leopardi, indisputably the greatest Italian poet since +Tasso, and in the judgment of some men to-day, owing perhaps to greater +sympathy with his sentiments, superior to Tasso. Leopardi raised Italian +self-respect, as Manzoni did, by proof that the genius of the race still +lived. He wrote the most patriotic odes since Petrarch. Of these the +poem "To Italy" is perhaps most famous. It begins:-- + + O my country, I see the walls, the arches, + The columns, the statues, the defenceless towers + Of our forefathers, + But the glory I do not see. + +Leopardi's wretchedness, in great measure purely personal, was matched +by that of his country. Austrian soldiers, ducal _sbirri_, and Jesuits +did their best to destroy all vigour, life, and freedom. The press was +stifled; no allusion to freedom was allowed. In a chorus of Bellini's +opera "I Puritani" the word _liberty_ was stricken out by the censor and +_loyalty_ substituted; and a singer who forgot the change was sent to +prison for three days. Things were best in Tuscany and worst in Naples, +where Francis I, a rake, bigot, and coward, practised the utmost +cruelty. After an insurrection in a village, twenty-six heads were cut +off at his command, and exhibited in cages; and once, when a grandmother +besought mercy for her two grandsons who were condemned to death, he +bade her choose one. She chose one; the other was shot, and she went +mad. + +The ten long years of inaction at last passed away, and another wave of +exasperated independence and patriotism swept over the peninsula. The +French Revolution of 1830 was the proximate cause. This time, while +Piedmont and Naples remained quiet, for most of their leaders were in +exile or in prison, Parma, Modena, and the Romagna burst into +insurrection; but the Austrian soldiers marched in, suppressed the +revolt, and reseated duke, duchess, and Pope. The attention of the +world, however, had been called to priestly government in the Romagna, +and the five great Powers,--England, France, Austria, Prussia, and +Russia,--not wishing a hotbed of justifiable revolt on the same +Continent with comfortable and privileged ruling classes, wrote a +collective note to the Pope in which they insisted on certain reforms as +indispensable. The papal Curia made promises, but did nothing, and all +Italy relapsed outwardly into the condition in which she had been during +the ten years of inaction. + +Nevertheless, the forces underneath, plotting and conspiring for +freedom, were stronger than before, and here and there indications of +this growing sentiment cropped out. In 1831, after the ill-fated, +melancholy, distrusting, and distrusted Carlo Alberto had succeeded to +the Kingdom of Sardinia, an anonymous letter addressed to him was spread +broadcast over Italy. This letter bade him choose between two +courses,--either to lead the national movement, or to be basely servile +to Austria. "Bend your back under the German (Austrian) whip and be a +tyrant--But, if as you read these words your mind runs back to that time +when you dared look higher than the lordship of a German fief, and if +you hear within a voice that cries 'You were born for something great,' +oh, obey that voice; it is the voice of genius, of opportunity, that +offers you its hand to mount from century to century as far as +immortality; it is the voice of all Italy, who awaits but one word, one +single word, to make herself all your own. Give her that word. Put +yourself at the head of the nation, and on your banner write Union, +Freedom, Independence. Sire, according to your answer, be sure that +posterity will pronounce you either the first of Italian Men, or the +last of Italian Tyrants. Choose." + +Carlo Alberto, melancholy as Hamlet, for the burden put upon him was +greater than his strength, continued inactive, distrusted, and +distrusting. His only answer was to give sharper orders against +conspirators. The writer of the letter was a young Genoese of grave +countenance, with a sweet mouth and sad, handsome eyes, Giuseppe +Mazzini, aged twenty-six, who had already abandoned law for literature, +and literature for his country. Suspected of being a _Carbonaro_, he had +been arrested and put in prison. His father, having asked the reason, +was told that "his son was a young man of talents, very fond of solitary +walks at night, and habitually silent as to the subject of his +meditations, and that the Sardinian government was not fond of young men +of talents the subject of whose meditations it did not know." In prison +Mazzini became convinced that the true aim of patriots was the unity of +all Italy, and that the means should be the people, not the princes. +After a few months of imprisonment he was banished. It was then that he +wrote the letter. + +In exile he began the task of rousing the Italian people throughout the +peninsula to the need of common effort for a common end. He organized a +secret society, and named it Young Italy. Its purpose was to make Italy +free, united, and republican. The first article of its constitution +read: "This society is instituted for the destruction, now become +indispensable, of all the governments of the peninsula, and for the +union of all Italy in a single state under republican government." The +new society spread rapidly, and was, perhaps, the greatest individual +cause of final success. + +Mazzini was a master conspirator, a very St. Paul of the Risorgimento. +His whole life was a passionate renunciation of all the pleasures and +comforts for which most men live, and a passionate dedication of himself +to his ideals. He is a striking illustration of the saying, The man +whose heart is lifted up within him shall not find the path smooth +before him, but the just shall live by his faith. His ideals soared +higher and higher; not content with hope for Italy, he made plans for +helping all Europe. He became an object of suspicion all over the +Continent, and was driven from country to country, till he finally went +to England, but he never ceased to preach and teach, to urge and +encourage, to plot and counterplot. He believed in sacrifice, both of +himself and of others, and instigated desperate uprisings. One of these, +a wild invasion of Piedmont which came to nothing, is memorable because +among the list of those who were subsequently proscribed for +participation in it was a young seaman, a native of Nice, then a part of +Savoy, Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini himself stayed in England, where the +cruelest accusations were made against him. He endured slander, malice, +poverty, outward failure, still steadfast at his task. He says, "I have +not for an instant thought that unhappiness may influence our actions." +He knew Carlyle, who bore witness in his favour: "I have had the honour +to know Mr. Mazzini for a series of years, and whatever I may think of +his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great +freedom testify that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of +genius and virtue, one of those rare men, numerable unfortunately but as +units in this world, who are worthy to be called martyr souls; who, in +silence, piously in their daily life understand and practise what is +meant by that." + +While Young Italy and the _Carbonari_ worked in secret, literature +continued to carry on the task of arousing enthusiasm for national +achievements and national ideals. The patient piety of Silvio Pellico's +"Le Mie Prigioni" was a most effective denunciation of Austrian tyranny; +the plays of Giovan Battista Niccolini, of Florence, on subjects famous +for Italian patriotism, were stirring appeals against despotism, civil +and ecclesiastical; the romantic novels of Massimo d'Azeglio, of +Piedmont, the patriot painter and statesman, reminded youth of the great +days of old; other novels, passionate and patriotic, by Tommaso Grossi, +of Belluno, and by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, of Leghorn, did +likewise. These romances so pitifully uninteresting to-day did much; +but a book of a different character had in its way a still more +brilliant career. Vincenzo Gioberti, of Turin, began life by taking +orders; he became patriotic, was suspected, imprisoned, exiled; in exile +he studied, taught, and thought. In 1843 he published in Brussels "Il +primato morale e civile degli Italiani" (The Moral and Civil Primacy of +the Italians), a book that rehearsed the old glory of Italy and pointed +out new ways by which that ancient glory might be renewed. Gioberti +advocated a confederation of the Italian States (excluding the Austrian +provinces) with the Pope at its head. The book had tremendous success; +its ideas were accepted and became a party creed; and Gioberti is +entitled to rank as one of the factors in the Risorgimento. Oddly +enough, as it seems to us now, his plan was on the verge of execution. + +At this time Gregory XVI was Pope, a reactionary man, devoted to +ecclesiastical history, and, according to his detractors, to Orvietan +wine. He showed the extreme of papal incapacity for civil +administration; in the papal cities was squalor, in the country +brigandage, in both dense ignorance. But on Gregory's death Cardinal +Mastai-Ferretti, an amiable, smiling, charming, handsome, liberal-minded +cardinal, who had applauded Gioberti, became Pius IX (July, 1846). +Within a month or two Pius granted amnesty to political prisoners, +appointed a commission to study the necessary reforms in his states; +permitted, tacitly at least, liberty of the press; announced a Council +of State to consist of lay members; and authorized the organization of +a civic guard. He was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the peninsula. +Here was Gioberti's ideal Pope. Here was the man to lead the Italian +Guelfs and drive the Barbarians from Italy. + +That the ecclesiastical head of organized conservatism, the great +bulwark of authority, the maintainer of ancient things, should be hailed +as a saviour by men desiring independence, freedom, and war, needs a +word of further explanation. In this period of decadence and servitude, +while Austrian officers played the peacock on every _piazza_ from Milan +to Naples, Italians could remember that an Italian Pope was head of the +greatest corporate body in the world, that tribute was paid into his +treasury from every country in Europe, that kings treated him with +deference, and that from East and West hundreds of servant bishops came +to the foot of his throne. These thoughts, coupled with inapplicable +memories and desperate hopes, led men to regard Pius IX as the +predestined leader of the liberal movement; and shouts of "Hurrah for +Italy, the Pope, and the Constitution!" were heard throughout the +peninsula. + +Hope, too, arose in Piedmont. King Carlo Alberto received Massimo +d'Azeglio in audience (1845), and bade his astonished subject tell his +friends that when the occasion should present itself, his own life, his +sons' lives, his treasure, and his army would all be spent for the +Italian cause. A year later the king withstood Austria in a dispute over +customs; and a little later still, at an agrarian congress a member +rose and read a letter from the king which ended, "If ever God shall +give us grace to be able to undertake a war of independence, no one but +me shall command the army. Oh, what a glorious day will that be when we +shall be able to utter the cry of national independence!" + +Thus encouraged by king and Pope, patriots, from Piedmont to Sicily, +waited in tremulous expectation for the coming of great events. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +TUMULTUOUS YEARS (1848-1849) + + +The period of waiting for coming events was short. The whole Continent +of Europe was straining like a greyhound in its leash; Italy, from end +to end, was on tiptoe with excitement; and the year 1848 came rushing in +with swashbuckler fury. + +In Italy the revolutionary movement began in Palermo. The people +attacked the Bourbon soldiers and drove them out. Their example was +followed throughout the island. Across the channel Naples arose and +demanded a constitution. The frightened king granted it (January 29). In +Piedmont at an assemblage of journalists, the director of a newspaper, +"The Risorgimento," declared that the time appropriate to petitions for +the banishment of the Jesuits and for the institution of a national +guard had passed, and that a constitution should be demanded. The +speaker was a stoutish man of thirty-eight, with a square face under a +high forehead. He wore spectacles, and under his chin a fringe of beard +ran round from ear to ear like a ravelled bonnet string; he looked like +a distinguished and amiable professor, except that there was a pinch to +his nostrils and a compression to his lips which suggested an arrogant +lineage and inherited notions of "Let those take that have the power, +and let them keep that can." In fact, Count Camillo Cavour belonged to +the old Piedmontese aristocracy. As a lad he served in the engineer +corps of the army, then travelled in England (which he admired greatly) +and in France, studying all kinds of social matters, from machinery to +constitutions. On his estates he was a practical farmer, and he took +keen interest in public life. It was at this time that he first became a +man of note. + +The city of Turin took up Cavour's cry, and the king acceded. The Grand +Duke of Tuscany granted a constitution. The Pope was slow to bestir +himself, but the news of revolutionary success in Paris quickened his +gait, and he too granted a constitution. In the Austrian provinces, +Lombardy and Venetia, there were tumults, arrests, cavalry charges, and +martial law; then came news of the revolt in Vienna itself and word that +the scared Emperor promised a constitution. Venice accepted the promise; +but Milan, where a citizen had been killed by the soldiers, broke into +rebellion. Carts, carriages, tables, chairs, pianos, bedsteads, were +heaped up to defend the streets; sixteen hundred and fifty barricades +were erected; men snatched knives, hammers, arquebuses, axes; all took +part,--boys, lads, old men, priests. These were the famous _Five Days_ +of Milan. Every street, every house was a battleground, and Field +Marshal Radetzky, with fourteen thousand men, was driven from the city. +Revolt spread through Lombardy. When the news reached Venice the +citizens rose, forced the Austrian governors to surrender, and +proclaimed anew the Republic of Venice. Daniele Manin was made +president. + +This glorious news, Venice republican, Milan victorious over Radetzky, +flew to Turin. Every liberal went mad with excitement. The centuries of +national humiliation seemed past. Now had come the hour for which +Piedmont had trained and disciplined itself, for which it had hoped and +longed; now should Piedmont uplift Italy and fight its country's battle. +Cavour cried that there was but one possible course,--immediate war with +Austria. A great crowd in tremulous anxiety thronged before the royal +palace. At midnight on March 23, Carlo Alberto stepped out on his +balcony and waved a tricolour scarf. Next day a royal proclamation +stated that the Piedmontese army would march to the aid of Lombardy and +Venice. A shout of joy went up throughout Italy. Modena and Parma cast +out their dukes and sent recruits to help. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, +the Pope, even the King of Naples, compelled by necessity, each sent an +army. The war was a national crusade. + +At first the campaign went well. The Italian allies numbered more than +ninety thousand men; and Carlo Alberto, leading the main body, forced +the Austrians under Radetzky within the quadrilateral made by the strong +fortresses, Verona, Peschiera, Mantua, and Legnano. But the King of +Sardinia was no general; he lacked energy, decision, character. While he +dawdled, not knowing what to do, Radetzky received reinforcements. This +hesitation and delay cooled the first glorious burst of union and +freedom. Pius IX felt doubts; what right had the Vicar of Christ to take +part in war? Were not Austrians and Italians alike in the sight of God? +What had the Universal Church to do with national divisions? And might +not Austria become heretic and secede from the papal rule? He said he +would not fight. So great, however, were the tumults in Rome that he was +forced to face about once again, but his tergiversation gave a fatal +blow to the cause. In Naples the watchful Ferdinand, eager for a +pretext, took advantage of some street riots to dissolve parliament, and +bade his army come home. One general with a few hundred men disobeyed, +but the rest turned back. + +In the north the old jealousies between the Italian States wedged +themselves in and broke the new-made union. Venice, instead of uniting +with Piedmont in a joint political confederation, insisted upon +remaining an independent republic, and Milan hesitated out of jealousy +of Turin. Of these discords and hesitations the octogenarian Radetzky +took advantage. Within thirty days the Tuscan army had been destroyed, +the papal army made prisoners, and Piedmont was left alone to maintain +the Italian cause in the field. In a three days' battle at Custoza (July +23-25) the issue was decided. The beaten Piedmontese were forced to +surrender Milan, and to retreat across the river Ticino into their own +land, and Austria returned triumphant into full possession of her +provinces, except the city of Venice. The little Dukes of Parma and +Modena returned also. + +Elsewhere the current of events ran equally fast. In Sicily Ferdinand +bombarded the revolted city of Messina (hence his nickname Bomba), and +forced it to surrender; and in Naples he made a mock of the +constitution. Rome was in horrid confusion. Pius IX appointed Pellegrino +Rossi prime minister, in hope that his energy and vigour might restore +peace and quiet; but Rossi was murdered on the steps of the +_Cancelleria_. Rioters wandered at will about the city. Shots were fired +near the papal palace on the Quirinal. The Pope, terribly frightened, +fled from the city, and took refuge across the Neapolitan border at +Gaeta. He was besought to return, but would not. The revolutionary +leaders convoked an assembly of Roman citizens to decide what form of +government to adopt, and, though the Pope hurled excommunications at all +who should take part, the radicals met (February 5, 1849), declared the +Temporal Power at an end, and established the Roman Republic. In Tuscany +the republican fire likewise blazed up; the Grand Duke ran after the +Pope to Gaeta, and a provisional government was appointed with a +triumvirate at its head. + +In the north, Piedmont and Austria renewed the war. On March 23, at +Novara, a little town on the Piedmontese side of the Ticino, the +deciding battle was fought. The Austrians were completely victorious. +King Carlo Alberto asked for a truce. Radetzky's terms were so severe +that the king, feeling himself the chief cause of this severity, +resolved to be of no further detriment to his country. He abdicated in +favour of his son, Vittorio Emanuele II, and went into exile, where he +soon died. The young king made peace on harsh terms. + +All rational hope for the Italian cause was at an end, but the +dismembered parts struggled on. The men of Brescia defended themselves +gloriously for days, barricading every alley and making a fort of every +house, but they were overpowered; the Austrian general Haynau inflicted +atrocities that made his name a byword throughout Europe. His own report +says, "I ordered that no prisoner should be taken, but that every person +seized with arms in his hands should be immediately put to death, and +that the houses from which shots came should be burned."[23] In Sicily +the revolutionists resisted in vain, and the king's authority was +reëstablished throughout the island. In Naples all liberals were +shamefully and most cruelly persecuted. In Tuscany the mild-mannered +Tuscans, dismayed at their own radical government, invited the Grand +Duke to return; so he came, bringing Austrian soldiers with him. + +In Rome still more notable events happened. Mazzini, as member of the +revolutionary triumvirate, was at the head of the government. His task +was hard, for the Pope had asked the Catholic Powers to restore him, and +Spain, Naples, Austria, and France, hastened to obey. France interfered +because Louis Napoleon, president of the new republic, wished the +support of the French clerical party; nevertheless, he had to proceed +cautiously in order not to vex the liberals, and pursued a wavering +course. He said he would send an army to defend real liberty, and would +let the Romans decide for themselves what they wanted. The French +soldiers advanced to the walls of Rome (April 29, 1849); the Roman +republicans were naturally suspicious and treated them as enemies. +Skirmishes were fought, and the French constrained to retire. Meanwhile, +an Austrian army came from the north, the Neapolitans from the south, +and the Spaniards landed at the mouth of the Tiber. The French intimated +to the Austrians that this was their affair; the Romans, reinforced by +Garibaldi and his Legion, drove back the Neapolitans; and the Spaniards +retired quietly, thus leaving France to deal with the situation as she +deemed best. French reinforcements arrived, and fighting was begun +again. + +The Italians defended themselves for three weeks; their soldiers, though +brave, were raw, many of them mere volunteers, and ineffectual against +regular troops. As Mazzini was the hero in council, so Garibaldi was the +hero on the field of battle. The last of knight-errants, he was the very +incarnation of Romance and Revolution. Bred to the sea, this Savoyard +from Nice always retained the jaunty, gallant bearing of a mariner. His +countenance (childlike and lionlike),--with its broad, tranquil brow, +benign eye, and resolute mouth,--in youth all sparkling, gradually +changed with care and disillusion, but he still kept the seaman's mien +and the seaman's lightsome eye. He was the beau ideal of a romantic +hero. After his unsuccessful raid into Piedmont he had gone to South +America, where he lived a wild life of guerilla warfare, fighting like a +Paladin on behalf of republican revolutionaries who were struggling for +their freedom. All the time he was training a band of Italian +adventurers, his Legion, so that they should be ready when their country +had need of them. These men rushed to the defence of Rome. Their entry +into the city was most picturesque. The gaunt soldiers, wearing red +shirts and pointed hats topped with plumes, their legs bare, their +beards full-grown, their faces tanned to copper colour, with their long +black hair dangling unkempt, looked like so many Fra Diavolos. At their +head Garibaldi, in his red shirt, with loose kerchief knotted round his +throat, the regular beauty of his noble, leonine face set off by his +waving hair, mounted on a milk-white horse, rode like a demi-god. + +Besides this Legion, troops of volunteers came from all over Italy. The +character of these patriots may be learned from Mazzini's account of the +young Genoese poet Goffredo Mameli, who was killed there. "For me, for +us exiles of twenty years who have grown old in illusions, he was like a +melody of youth, a presentiment of times that we shall not see, in which +the instinct of goodness and sacrifice will dwell unconscious in the +human soul, and will not be, as virtue is in us, the fruit of long and +hard struggles. Of a disposition lovingly yielding, he was only happy +when he could abandon himself to those he loved, as a child in his +mother's caress; and yet Mameli was unshakably firm in what touched the +faith he had embraced. He was handsome, but careless of his appearance, +and sensitive as a woman to the charm of flowers and sweet scents. Such +was he when I knew him first at Milan in 1848, and we loved each other +at once. It was impossible to see him and not love him. Only twenty-two, +he joined the extremes rarely found united, a childlike gentleness and +the energy of a lion, to be revealed, and which was revealed, in supreme +emergencies." + +The defence of Rome was vain. Mazzini escaped by means of an English +passport, and Garibaldi led a handful of men eastward hoping to reach +Venice. The French soldiers marched into the city, and reestablished the +Temporal Power of the Pope. Venice alone remained. Daniele Manin, the +valiant dictator, maintained a stout defence for four months, but +cholera and hunger came to the enemy's aid. On August 24 the city +capitulated, and on the 30th Marshal Radetzky heard the _Te Deum_ of +Austrian gratitude played in St. Mark's. In all Italy, except Piedmont, +the reaction had triumphed; Piedmont alone was left to become the centre +of whatever hopes of independence and unity still existed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] _The Liberation of Italy_, Evelyn M. Cesaresco, p. 144. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE UNITY OF ITALY (1849-1871) + + +After the uprisings of 1848-49, the old tyrannical system prevailed for +eight years and seemed heavier than ever. Liberalism meant suspicion, +disfavour, danger. The liberals were not very numerous and did not agree +among themselves. Some looked for hope to Piedmont, some to England, +some to France. Some were for a republic, some for a confederation, some +for unity; some wished insurrection, others lawful agitation. + +In Naples the king busied himself with putting the liberals in dungeons. +According to the general belief the number of prisoners for political +offences in the Two Sicilies was between fifteen and thirty thousand. +Among them was Baron Carlo Poerio, "a refined and accomplished +gentleman, a respected and blameless character," at one time one of the +ministers of the Crown. It happened that Mr. Gladstone, travelling for +the benefit of a daughter's health, passed several months in Naples at +this time (1850-51). He attended trials of the liberal prisoners, +listened to a "long tissue of palpable lies told by witnesses suborned +by the government," and visited the horrible and filthy prisons. After +his return to England he published his "Letters to the Earl of +Aberdeen." He set forth before the English people "the horrors--amidst +which the government of that country (Naples) is now carried on." He +said that "the present practices of the Government of Naples in +reference to real or supposed political offenders are an outrage upon +religion, upon civilization, upon humanity, and upon decency." He +described the "incessant, systematic, deliberate violation of the law by +the Power appointed to watch over and maintain it." "It is the wholesale +persecution of virtue,--it is the awful profanation of public +religion,--it is the perfect prostitution of the judicial office,--this +is 'The negation of God erected into a system of government.'" He +recounted Poerio's trial at length, and told how Poerio and fifteen +others were confined in a room about thirteen feet long and eight feet +high, in which they slept, always chained two by two. These chains were +never taken off, day or night. He ended by saying, "It is time that +either the veil should be lifted from scenes fitter for hell than earth, +or some considerable mitigation should be voluntarily adopted. I have +undertaken this wearisome and painful task, in the hope of doing +something to diminish a mass of human suffering as huge, I believe, as +acute, to say the least, as any that the eye of Heaven beholds." + +These letters were sent by Lord Palmerston to every government in +Europe, and helped to awaken general European sympathy for the oppressed +liberals of Italy. + +In the Papal States Pius IX put himself wholly in the hands of the +reactionaries and the Jesuits. His government was practically imbecile. +Brigands came and went at will. In Forlimpopoli, for instance, a city of +the Romagna, a famous highwayman and his band appeared on the stage of a +theatre, and made the spectators empty their pockets of their money and +of their front-door keys. In Modena, Parma, and Tuscany the governments +did whatever they deemed would be pleasing to Austria; and in Lombardy +and Venice the Austrians repressed the slightest signs of patriotism. + +In Piedmont alone was there light ahead. The young king was the +embodiment of the best qualities of his race. The statues of him, carved +in the first fury of patriotism, which disfigure many a _piazza_, reveal +only his corpulence, his monstrous mustachios, and the forceful ugliness +of his shrewd face. Victor Emmanuel was a soldier born, of careless +manners, imperious and brusque, yet with a charm of obvious honesty that +won men's hearts and gained for him the title of _il re galantuomo_. He +reminds one of Henry of Navarre, in his dash, his impetuous energy, his +shrewdness, his deserved popularity, and his eternally youthful +readiness to fall in love. After the defeat at Novara (1849) pressure +was put upon him to return to the autocratic system, and, it is said, +Austria offered him easier terms if he would. He had been brought up +with the old ideas of the royal position, but he was statesman enough to +perceive that if Piedmont and the House of Savoy were to lead in the +movement of Italian independence, they must win the confidence of the +liberals; and he had sworn to maintain the constitution. He was always +a man of his word, whatever policy might advise, and answered that he +should be loyal to the constitution. + +Piedmont's history for the next few years is a record of liberal +legislation, as it was then understood. This legislation was especially +directed against antiquated ecclesiastical privileges, with the purpose +of realizing Cavour's principle, "A free Church in a free State." A +little later Cavour was called to the head of the government, and for +ten years, with certain brief exceptions, he remained the chief figure +on the Italian stage. There are diverse judgments on the very diverse +merits of the master-builders of the Italian kingdom; some admire most +Mazzini, the indefatigable conspirator, the dreamy idealist, the nobly +fanatical republican; others, Garibaldi, the man after Petrarch's heart, +the rival of Roland or the Cid; others, Victor Emmanuel, the honourable, +bold, shrewd, resolute king; but all agree that Cavour's brilliant +diplomacy entitles him to rank as one of the world's great statesmen, +and that his work was indispensable to the establishment of the Italian +kingdom. + +This period prior to the war with Austria is Cavour's. He set the +finances of Piedmont on a better basis; he began a series of measures +for the development of her resources; he secured various internal +reforms, but his brilliant achievement was in his foreign policy. He +knew that the Austrians could not be dispossessed without a war, that +Piedmont was not strong enough of herself, and that in order to gain +allies she must get a hearing before Europe. The Crimean War gave +Cavour an opportunity. England and France would have preferred Austria +as an ally, and there was much cautious proceeding; but Austria +hesitated, and Piedmont offered herself. Many Italians deemed the plan +of taking part in a war with which Piedmont had no visible concern a +piece of folly; but Cavour carried his point. The Piedmontese army went, +behaved with credit, and effaced the unfavourable impression left by the +disastrous campaigns of 1848-49. The fruits of the Crimean expedition +were gathered at the Congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour, supported +by England and France, was able to call the attention of the Congress to +the condition of Italy. He pointed to the tyranny of Austria in Lombardy +and Venetia, to the abominable condition of the Papal States, to the +horrible misgovernment in the Two Sicilies; and he pointed to Piedmont +as the bulwark against Austrian preponderance on the one hand, and +against the revolutionary spirit on the other. Nothing definite was +done, but the Italian question had been broached, and Cavour's +participation in the Congress was recognized as a great achievement. + +Piedmont's leadership was helped by rash revolts elsewhere, easily put +down and cruelly punished; and it became plainer and plainer that +through the steady, orderly monarchy of Sardinia deliverance was to +come, if at all, and not through the visionary schemes of Mazzini. The +dark, mysterious plans of Napoleon III now loomed on the horizon. +Relations between him and Cavour became closer. Cavour, no doubt, would +have liked to gain his ends without French aid, but that could not be +done. The only other possible ally, England, would not interfere. In the +summer of 1858 an understanding was reached between him and Napoleon +that in case of Austrian aggression France would aid Piedmont. On +January 1, 1859, Napoleon hinted to the world what had happened; on +January 10, Victor Emmanuel at the opening of the Piedmontese parliament +said that the political situation was not free from perils ahead, "for +while we respect treaties, we cannot disregard the cry of pain which +comes to us from so many parts of Italy." Count Cavour asked for a loan +of 50,000,000 lire. Affairs moved fast. Relations between Piedmont and +Austria were strained taut; but it was essential that Austria should be +the aggressor. Russia and England, in order to prevent war, suggested a +European Congress to consider matters. Napoleon consented; and Cavour, +who knew that freedom for Italy could only be obtained by war, feared +that his chance had gone. There was talk of disarmament, but no +agreement had been reached, when Austria, impatient and arrogant, sent +an ultimatum to Piedmont that she must disarm prior to the Congress. +Victor Emmanuel refused and war was declared. + +The French Emperor crossed the Alps, and in June the allies won the +battles of Magenta and Solferino. The Italians believed that Austria +would now be driven from every foot of Italian soil: when, suddenly, +without consulting Piedmont, Napoleon, for reasons of French policy, +made peace with Austria. The Emperor of Austria ceded Lombardy to +Napoleon, and Napoleon transferred it to Piedmont; and, as a sop to the +spirit of Italian unity, both Emperors agreed to favour the scheme of a +confederation of the Italian States with the Pope at its head, but the +latter plan was left in the air. This was the end of the high hopes of +Italian freedom and unity. Italy had received a slap in the face. Cavour +was furious; he had a stormy interview with his king, and passionately +urged him not to consent, but the king had the good sense to see that he +must. Cavour immediately resigned. + +Meanwhile the war had caused the recall of the Austrian troops south of +the Po, and the patriots had risen in joy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, +the Duke of Modena, the Duchess Regent of Parma, the papal legates of +the Romagna, ran away, and provisional governments were established; but +a permanent political disposition was attended with difficulties. The +states themselves wished to join Piedmont, but the wish was not +unanimous, for many people wanted to preserve local autonomy and their +old historic boundaries. Napoleon favoured his vague confederacy, and a +European Congress supported his view. Indecision reigned, but the cause +of national union triumphed through the vigour of Count Bettino +Ricasoli, a man of iron character, head of the provisional government in +Tuscany. "We must," he wrote, "no longer speak of Piedmont, nor of +Florence, nor of Tuscany; we must speak neither of fusion nor +annexation, but of the union of the Italian people under the +constitutional government of Victor Emmanuel."[24] Certainly the +fugitive dukes could only return by force, and though Continental Europe +approved their return, there was nobody to supply the force. The little +states voted to join Piedmont. Piedmont, however, hesitated, in fear of +European contradiction. Nobody but Cavour could manage the matter, and +he was recalled to office (1860). Cavour appealed to the doctrine of the +popular will to be expressed by a _plebiscite_. France, however, would +only consent upon cession of Savoy and Nice, a measure already talked of +as the price of the French alliance; and in spite of the reluctance of +the king to surrender Savoy, the cradle of his race, the price had to be +paid. The cession was made, and Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the Romagna +were united with the Kingdom of Sardinia under the name of the Kingdom +of Italy (April 15, 1860). + +In the mean time Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, had died, hated +and despised by everybody, and his son Francis II, a weak, ignorant, +bigoted lad, had mounted the throne. He refused a suggestion of Victor +Emmanuel to join in the war against Austria, threw himself into the arms +of the reactionary party, and made an alliance with the Pope. The +discontented liberals took courage at the news from the north. In April, +1860, the revolt began in Palermo, and, though suppressed there, spread. +Two young patriots, Francesco Crispi and Rosalino Pilo, went about +stirring the people to action. Garibaldi was begged to put himself at +the head of the proposed revolution. On the night of May 6, two ships, +the Lombardy and the Piedmont, secretly left Genoa, and took Garibaldi +and a thousand volunteers aboard. This band, known as _i Mille_, is +nearly as famous and as legendary as King Arthur and his Round Table. On +May 11, the ships landed at Marsala. Two Neapolitan cruisers came up, +but two English men-of-war happened to be there also; and the English +captains, under guise of friendly notification to the Neapolitans, took +some action which delayed the latter long enough to let the last +Garibaldians disembark. Once on shore, Garibaldi's volunteers ran to +secure the telegraph office. They arrived just after the operator had +telegraphed that two Piedmontese ships, filled with troops, had come +into the harbour; a Garibaldian was able to add to the message, "I have +made a mistake; they are two merchantmen." The answer came back, +"Idiot." The volunteers marched inland. A provisional government was +organized; Garibaldi was made dictator, and Crispi secretary of state. +The cry was "Italy and Victor Emmanuel!" Garibaldi was joined by +insurgent Sicilians, and, with numbers considerably increased, fought +and defeated the Bourbon army. The story reads like the exploits of +Hector before the Greek trenches. Victory followed victory. Palermo +fell, Milazzo and Messina; then he crossed the straits and invaded +Calabria (August). This marvellous triumph, for there had been thirty +thousand regular troops to oppose Garibaldi, frightened King Francis; he +proclaimed a constitution, appealed to Napoleon, and even to Victor +Emmanuel, for help. It was too late. Garibaldi swept on victorious, and +the king fled from Naples (September 6); the next day Garibaldi marched +in and assumed dictatorship of the kingdom. + +England approved, but Continental Europe looked askance at this +irregular proceeding, and Victor Emmanuel and Cavour began to feel +uneasy, apprehensive lest the Great Powers should intervene in Italian +affairs. It was a difficult situation. Garibaldi was moving on +northward, and proclaimed his intention of going to Rome, regardless of +the French army stationed there, and then to Venice, regardless of the +European treaties that gave Venice to Austria. Besides, the Pope had +collected an army (largely of foreign recruits) to suppress the liberal +movements in Umbria and the Marches, and to give aid to the Neapolitan +king. Here were further opportunities for foreign intervention. +Evidently Cavour must act promptly if he wished Piedmont to continue to +control the national movement. He requested the Pope to dismiss his new +army. The Pope refused. The Piedmontese army crossed the pontifical +border, scattered the papal army, and took possession of all the papal +territory, except the city of Rome and the country immediately about it, +and then marched on across the Neapolitan boundary. Here the Bourbon +army was holding Garibaldi at bay. The arrival of the Piedmontese +determined the issue. A less noble man might have shown resentment at +having another come at the eleventh hour and seize the fruits of +victory, but Garibaldi hailed Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy, refused +the proffered honours and rewards, and went home, a poor man, to the +little island of Caprera. The Two Sicilies and the liberated parts of +the Papal States voted to join the Kingdom of Italy. In February, 1861, +the first Italian parliament was held, and Victor Emmanuel formally +received the title King of Italy. Excepting Rome and Venice, Italy was +free and independent. + +Rome was the more pressing question of the two. A history of twenty-five +hundred years, a profound sentiment, a patriotic, poetic, romantic love, +had inevitably determined that Rome must be the capital of United Italy. +On the other hand, opposed to the Italian national sentiment was the +historic Catholic sentiment, diffused throughout Europe and strongest in +France. The Pope naturally deemed his Italian birth inferior in +obligation to his Catholic position. Moreover, the Temporal Power of the +Popes had endured for more than a thousand years, and since the time of +Julius II the pontifical title had been as good as the title to public +or private property anywhere. Catholics honestly believed that this +political kingdom was necessary to the independence of the Church. How +could the world, they said, believe in papal impartiality if the Papacy +were under the thumb of the Italian government? The difference in point +of view inevitably brought the ardent Papist and the patriotic +Nationalist to mutual injustice. The Italians looked on Pius IX as their +worst enemy; the Roman Curia deemed the Italians robbers. French +sympathy with the Papists, and especially the presence of a French army +in Rome, made the question exceedingly difficult. A special +circumstance aggravated the difficulty. The King of Naples, having taken +refuge in Rome, armed and subsidized gangs of brigands, who raided the +Neapolitan provinces and committed unspeakable outrages. These rascals, +when pursued by the Piedmontese army, crossed the pontifical border and +were safe. This condition was intolerable. + +At this juncture the great statesman who had steadfastly pursued his +policy,--a free Church in a free State,--and never lost hope of a +peaceful solution of the Roman difficulty, died (June 6, 1861). The +priest who shrived him was summoned to Rome, deprived of his parish, +suspended from his office, and sent to finish his days in a remote +monastery; so strongly did the Roman Court feel that Cavour and his +abettors were wicked men. + +Cavour's successors, Ricasoli and Rattazzi, with feebler gait, followed +his policy as best they could; but uncertainty and hesitation prevailed. +The two great questions, Rome and Venice, pressed for solution. The +radicals clamored to have the Italian army march on Rome. Garibaldi's +impatience would not brook further inaction. He left his island home at +Caprera, and betook himself to Sicily, crying, "Rome or Death!" With a +little army of hot-tempered radicals he crossed into Calabria. The +Italian government had no choice. Regular troops met Garibaldi at +Aspromonte, near Reggio, and bade him withdraw; he refused; shots were +fired. Which side fired first is uncertain. Garibaldi was wounded and +made prisoner (August 29, 1862). This indignity to the national hero +roused much hard feeling, but reasonable men perceived that the solution +of the Roman question had to be found in some other way than by a +filibustering expedition against a city held by the troops of a power +with whom the nation was at peace. + +The liberation of Venice came first. Prussia occupied a position in +Germany somewhat similar to that of Piedmont in Italy. Both had somewhat +similar problems. Both felt antagonism to Austria, and also a suspicion +of France. In April, 1866, the two states made an alliance against +Austria, who, fearing the combination, tried to break it by offering to +cede Venetia to Italy if she would abandon the Prussian alliance. Victor +Emmanuel refused, and war began in June. The Italians were beaten both +on land and sea, to their great mortification and chagrin. The crushing +Prussian victory at Sadowa, however, forced Austria to accept the +victor's terms, including the cession of Venice. On November 7 Victor +Emmanuel entered the city. Rome alone was left. + +Garibaldi made another desperate attempt, but was defeated by the French +at Mentana (1867). Not by Italian victories, but in consequence of +Prussian victories, the conquest of Rome was finally effected. The +French were obliged to withdraw their garrison during the +Franco-Prussian War, and then the Italian government, which, to the +shame of ardent patriots, had so long forborne out of obedience to the +will of the French, gave notice to the world that it would annex Rome. +After a useless call upon the Pope for peaceful surrender, Victor +Emmanuel directed his army to march on the city. Real resistance was out +of the question, but Pius IX had decided to yield only to force. On the +20th of September, 1870, a breach was made in the wall near _Porta Pia_, +a few shots were fired, a few score soldiers killed and wounded, and the +Italian army marched in and took possession of the city. A _plebiscite_ +was held, and by a vote of 133,681 to 1507 the city voted to become a +part of Italy. In June, 1871, the seat of government was formally +removed from Florence, and Rome once again, after fifteen hundred years, +became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] _The Union of Italy_, W. J. Stillman, p. 300. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +CONCLUSION (1872-1900) + + +The union of Italy was so triumphant, the efforts which accomplished it +so heroic, and the whole tone of Italian history throughout the +Risorgimento so romantic and noble, that the period since of necessity +looks flat and dull. The Italians themselves had imagined that the union +of Italy would be followed by some career, political, moral, or +intellectual, that would be comparable to the career of ancient Rome. A +reaction was inevitable. No nation could continue at so enthusiastic a +pitch. Moreover, the difficulties before it were great. + +Chief of these difficulties was the persistent hostility of the Papacy. +Pius IX, a kind, lovable, timid man, wholly inadequate to cope with a +revolutionary situation, had passed from his early sympathy with the +liberal movement to the opposite extreme, and hated it with the hatred +of fear. His hatred of liberal ideas may be seen in his conduct with +regard to ecclesiastical matters. He insisted upon the extremest +conservative dogma, as if it were a shield to protect the Papacy, the +papal city, the Papal States, and the whole Catholic world, from all +assaults of Satan and his liberal crew. First he proclaimed the dogma of +the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, next he published the +"Syllabus," which is a condemnation of all those doctrines commonly +embodied in Bills of Rights. Finally, he convoked the Vatican Council +(1869-70), and procured a decree that the Pope is infallible in matters +of faith and morals. This decree gave the death-blow to whatever remains +of republicanism there were in the Church, and established the Pope as +absolute monarch. An Ecumenical Council, representing the Church, had +previously been the infallible head of the Church; now the Pope was +substituted for the Council. + +In this way the Church more and more assumed an attitude of +irreconcilable hostility to the ideas that prevailed among the educated +classes in Italy. After the occupation of Rome by the Italian +government, Pius shut himself up in the Vatican palace and proclaimed +himself a prisoner. He first advised and then commanded Catholics to +stay away from the polls at national elections, and directed his foreign +policy to the end of reëstablishing his Temporal Power. This policy, +judged by the popular belief in the divine right of nationality and of +majorities, is of course wrong; judged by one who regards the interests +of the Church as paramount, it may be defended as an attempt to adhere +to the old ways under which the Catholic Church had played its +extraordinary part in European history. After the occupation of Rome the +Italian government passed the Law of Guarantees (May 10, 1871), which +guaranteed to the Pope an annual subsidy of somewhat more than 3,000,000 +lire a year, and also the personal and diplomatic rights of a sovereign, +such as to maintain his court, to receive ambassadors, to have separate +postal and telegraph service, to keep the Vatican and Lateran palaces, +etc. Pius IX refused to accept the subsidy. + +Another difficulty, which has confronted the government since the union, +has been the discord between the North and South. The northern +provinces, especially Lombardy and Piedmont, have been making progress +in manufactures and in commerce; whereas, on the contrary, the South, +very ignorant and very poor, and devoted to agriculture, wine, grain, +lemons, oranges, etc., without facilities for manufacture and without +capacity for commerce, has made doubtful advance. Special causes have +hindered it. In Sicily, in consequence of long-continued poverty, +ignorance, and misgovernment, the secret societies, known as the +_Mafia_, have overrun great parts of the island. The original cause of +the _Mafia_ was probably self-protection, the lower classes banding +together to save themselves from the oppressions of the upper classes +who clung to the remains of the feudal system. The landowners, for +example, had used their control of the courts to maintain privileges and +injustice. As a natural consequence, members of the _Mafia_ deemed it +ignoble to revenge wrongs by judicial process, and still more ignoble to +give any information to any officers of the government. They settled +their own disputes and righted their own wrongs. With the grant of +suffrage the _Mafia_ became a political power, and only permitted the +election of such candidates as it approved. + +In Naples there was also a power behind the scenes which resembled the +_Mafia_, but in reality was totally distinct and individual. This +Neapolitan power, a legacy from Bourbon times, was the _Camorra_, a +society of criminals or ruffians on the edge of crime, organized for the +purpose of levying tribute by blackmail; it was not unlike the worst +municipal rings in this country, and gained its livelihood from the +vicious, and from politicians who benefited by its support. Both +_Camorra_ and _Mafia_ have been very great obstacles to social progress, +and still exist. + +The North, conscious of a higher standard of civilization, has wished to +educate and reform the South, and also, perhaps, has not been unwilling +to let taxation fall more heavily in proportion upon the agricultural +produce of the South than on the manufactured products of the North. +Resenting this assumption of superiority, and suspicious of unfair +treatment, especially with regard to indirect taxation, the South has +felt itself aggrieved; and so there have been continual misunderstanding +and friction between it and the North. + +In its foreign relations the country has also had hard problems. France +and Italy ceased to be friends. Italy could not forget that the French +had upheld the papal power in Rome, and had defeated Garibaldi at +Mentana; and France was indignant that Italy had not come to her rescue +in 1870. France also was jealous of a rival in the Mediterranean; while +the Italians believed that France favoured a revival of the Temporal +Power. This unfriendliness, fostered by the Italian clericals, +constituted a most disturbing factor in Italy's foreign relations. The +breach was increased by other causes, and Italy in alarm turned to find +friends elsewhere. Austria and Germany, who had already made an +alliance, were glad to have Italy join, as further security for the +peace of Europe against any action by France or Russia. So the three +joined and made the Triple Alliance (1882), which was renewed from time +to time and still exists. This alliance has given Italy ample security +against any attack by France, but has imposed upon her very heavy +military burdens in order to keep her army at a certain standard of +efficiency. + +As time went on the actors of the great age dropped off one by one; +Mazzini in 1872, Victor Emmanuel in 1878, Garibaldi in 1882. It is after +their departure, their noble desires fulfilled, their noble tasks +accomplished, that Italy looks little and inadequate. The parliamentary +struggles have certainly been neither noble nor romantic. After the +occupation of Rome, the Right, the conservative party, under Marco +Minghetti, Quintino Sella, and others, was in power for half a dozen +years, and by means of a burdensome taxation succeeded in making +receipts equal expenses. But taxes and refusal to extend the suffrage +led to its fall from power, and the Left, the progressive party, under +Agostino Depretis, assumed the government. Depretis abolished an +unpopular tax on grinding corn, made primary education compulsory, and +extended the suffrage from 600,000 voters to 2,000,000. After these +reforms the dominant party ceased to have a definite programme. There +was general confusion, known as Transformism. The deputies split up into +little groups under petty leaders and fell to log-rolling. The story is +dreary and unimportant. + +Depretis, who died in 1887, was succeeded by Francesco Crispi, the most +striking political figure since Cavour. Crispi began life as an advocate +at Palermo, and took part as a very young man in the early agitations +for constitutional reforms. He was successful at the bar, and had moved +to Naples to practise before the appellate tribunals there, when the +events that led to the uprisings of '48 began to effervesce. Crispi took +a leading part. After the uprisings had been suppressed, he lived in +exile till the time was ripe to begin again. Then he returned to Sicily +and plotted for the revolution which terminated in Garibaldi's +expedition. He acquired great influence, took his seat in the Italian +parliament, and soon became leader of the radical Left. In spite of +vicissitudes and a not unattacked reputation, he was the chief +parliamentary figure on the death of Depretis, and dominated Italian +politics till 1896. In his youth Crispi had been a follower of Mazzini's +republican theories; later, though still a republican in sympathy, he +announced the opinion that "the Republic would divide us, the Monarchy +unites us," and abandoned his old republican associates. For this reason +among others he incurred the animosity of old friends and allies. + +During the period of his ascendency the subdivision of the deputies into +little groups made government difficult, and for a couple of years he +was out of office. In that interval hard times, adding weight to +republican and socialist propaganda, caused strikes, riots, and +insurrections; and accompanying these disturbances came the "Bank +Scandals." Sundry banks, conspicuously the important Banca Romana, had +been violating the laws which regulated the government of banks, and had +been engaged in most improper dealings with politicians, as, for +instance, lending money to deputies on little or no security. These +scandals, together with the strikes, wrecked the ministry, and the +country called on Crispi, as the one strong man able to take control. He +assumed office in December, 1893, and remained till 1896, when he fell +with equal suddenness. The cause of his fall requires a separate +paragraph. + +About 1870 an Italian steamship company established a coaling station on +the west coast of the Red Sea, and acquired a certain strip of land +which it afterwards ceded to the government (1882). From this beginning +the Italian government advanced, upon one pretext or another, to the +establishment of a colonial dependency. It occupied Massawa, established +the "Colonia Erithrea," and proclaimed a zone of influence along the +east coast of Africa. Various battles were fought with the natives; and +at last the government sent fifteen thousand men to perform some +brilliant exploit for its own political benefit. The Italian troops were +badly handled; they walked into a trap set by the Abyssinians, and +suffered a terrible rout, losing half their numbers (1896). Crispi fell +at once, and the new ministry under Di Rudinì, in spite of cries for +revenge, prudently abandoned the colonial policy, and made peace as best +it could. Italy renounced her protectorate, and contented herself with a +strip of coast by Massawa. Thus ended the scheme of colonial +aggrandizement begun in ignorance and folly. + +The fall of Crispi removed the last interesting figure of the +Risorgimento, and left Italian politics in a confused medley. Since +then, various leaders of no marked ability or individuality have +struggled with the permanent difficulties of Church and State, North and +South, capitalism and socialism, and the shifting difficulties of +foreign relations. All this time is too near to present any definite +pattern to the casual eye. The century closed sadly with the +assassination of King Humbert (1878-1900) by an ignorant workman who +called himself a nihilist. Humbert was not a good ruler, but he had a +kind heart and many pleasant qualities, which endeared him to the +Italian people. He was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III, the +present king. + +The greatest Italian figure of the last decades of the nineteenth +century was not to be found in the service of the State, but of the +Church. In 1810 Gioacchino Pecci was born in Carpineto, a dead little +village perched on a hillside near Anagni, the town where Boniface VIII +was nearly murdered by Sciarra Colonna five hundred years before. His +father, Count Lodovico Pecci, had served in Napoleon's army; his mother +was said to be descended from Cola di Rienzo. The count was the +seigneur of the place, and lived in a somewhat shabby palace which had +seen better days. Gioacchino was educated at a Jesuit school in Rome. He +soon gave evidence of marked ability, and was taken into the papal +service and sent as apostolic delegate to Benevento. Banditti infested +the neighbourhood, and the nobility of the town were little better than +the banditti. Pecci displayed character. He was promoted, and at the age +of thirty-three was sent as papal nuncio to Belgium, with the title of +Archbishop of Damietta, an archbishopric that had been _in partibus +infidelium_ since the days of St. Louis. In Belgium, where liberal ideas +were jostling the old ecclesiastical system, Pecci distinguished himself +for tact and address. From Belgium he went to Perugia as bishop, and +governed the city for thirty-two years, during the trying time in which +(largely at the expense of the Church) Italy was forcing her way to +freedom. In 1860 his authority was overthrown by the Piedmontese +soldiers, and many tales of brutality and wantonness charged upon the +nationalists were brought to his troubled ears, and he unfortunately +received a most unfavourable impression of liberals and liberalism. His +reputation for ability, character, and diplomacy became so well +established, that in the conclave on the death of Pius IX he had no +serious competitor. Leo XIII (1878-1903) was already an old man when he +was elected Pope, and had had the misfortune to receive his education +and training in the narrow school of the old papal régime. Preceded by +an incompetent Pope, he found himself confronted by the wreck of the +Temporal Power, and by a liberalism which was not only triumphant in +Italy, but in nearly all western Europe. He had not far to go to find +thoughtful men who expected to see the Papacy collapse and die. Most +difficult matters in Germany, in Ireland, in France, in the United +States, required delicate and skilful management. It is not too much to +say that Leo raised the Papacy higher in the world's regard than it had +stood for two hundred years. Had he been a younger man, and trained in a +more liberal school, he might, perhaps, have attempted the task of +adjusting ecclesiastical conservatism and tradition to the needs of a +fast changing world. But he was too old. With a few brilliant exceptions +he accepted the conservative policy. He affected to deem himself a +prisoner in the Vatican, and claimed the restoration of the Temporal +Power; he declared Thomas Aquinas the best teacher for the priesthood, +and stood firm on the dogmas of the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, his +was a most impressive personality, and he stands in the long list of +Popes in a rank inferior only to the highest. + +In his old age, as he strolled in the Vatican gardens, meditating Latin +verses, or thinking over his encyclical letters, "On the Condition of +the Working Classes," "On Christian Democracy," "On the Holy Eucharist," +or turning his emaciated, sweet, Voltairean face to the great dome of +St. Peter's, he may well have let his mind wander in peace over the +outside world, for never since Luther cast off his papal allegiance had +the whole Christian world been so united in admiration for a Pope of +Rome. All Christians could say amen to the prayer in his last poem, +"Suprema Leonis Vota:"-- + + Expleat o clemens anxia vota Deus, + + Scilicet ut tandem superis de civibus unus + Divino aeternum lumine et ore fruar.[25] + +We have now reached our goal, the end of the nineteenth century, and if +we look back and contemplate the vicissitudes of Italy, such as no other +nation ever experienced, twice on the throne of Europe, three times +crowned with its crown,--Imperial, Ecclesiastical, Intellectual,--and +resurvey the three centuries during which foreign tyrant and native +priest joined hands to smother and quench the Italian fire, and then +read in detail the heroic acts of the men who sacrificed themselves for +Italian freedom, we shall feel sure that the dull colours of the present +generation are but signs of a time of rest, and that the genius of Italy +lives within and will again enrich the world with deeds of men sprung +from the "gentle Latin blood." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] + + Fulfil, O gracious God, my anxious prayer, + + That, at the last, one among the citizens of Heaven + I may enjoy Thy Light, Thy Face, forever. + + + + +APPENDIX + +I + +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF POPES AND EMPERORS + + + ----------+--------------------------+--------------------------+---------- + Year of | | |Year of + Accession.| Popes. | Emperors. |Accession. + ----------+--------------------------+--------------------------+---------- + A. D. | | | A. D. + 468 |Simplicius |Romulus Augustulus | 475 + 483 |Felix III |Anastasius I[1] | 491 + 492 |Gelasius I | | + 496 |Anastasius II | | + 498 |Symmachus | | + 498 |Laurentius (Anti-pope) | | + 514 |Hormisdas | | + | |Justin I | 518 + 523 |John I | | + 526 |Felix IV | | + | |JUSTINIAN[2] | 527 + 530 |Boniface II | | + 530 |Dioscorus (Anti-pope) | | + 532 |John II | | + 535 |Agapetus I | | + 536 |Silverius | | + 537 |Vigilius | | + 555 |Pelagius I | | + 560 |John III | | + | |Justin II | 565 + 574 |Benedict I | | + 578 |Pelagius II |Tiberius II | 578 + | |Maurice | 582 + 590 |GREGORY I (THE GREAT)[2] | | + | |Phocas | 602 + 604 |Sabinianus | | + 607 |Boniface III | | + 607 |Boniface IV | | + | |HERACLIUS | 610 + 615 |Deusdedit | | + 618 |Boniface V | | + 625 |Honorius I | | + 638 |Severinus | | + 640 |John IV | | + | |Constantine III } | + | |Heracleonas, } | 641 + | |Constans II } | + 642 |Theodorus I | | + 649 |Martin I | | + 654 |Eugenius I | | + 657 |Vitalianus | | + | |Constantine IV (Pogonatus)| 668 + 672 |Adeodatus | | + 676 |Domnus I | | + 678 |Agatho | | + 682 |Leo II | | + 683? |Benedict II | | + 685 |John V |Justinian II | 685 + 685? |Conon | | + 687 |Sergius I | | + 687 |Paschal (Anti-pope) | | + 687 |Theodorus (Anti-pope) | | + | |Leontius | 694 + | |Tiberius Apsimar | 697 + 701 |John VI | | + 705 |John VII |Justinian II restored | 705 + 708 |Sisinnius | | + 708 |Constantine | | + | |Philippicus Bardanes | 711 + | |Anastasius II | 713 + 715 |Gregory II | | + | |Theodosius III | 716 + | |LEO III (THE ISAURIAN) | 718 + 731 |Gregory III | | + 741 |Zacharias |Constantine V (Copronymus)| 741 + 752 |Stephen II | | + 752 |Stephen III | | + 757 |Paul I | | + 768 |Stephen IV | | + 772 |Hadrian I | | + | |Leo IV | 775 + | |Constantine VI | 780 + 795 |LEO III |Deposition of | + | | Constantine VI by Irene | 797 + | |CHARLEMAGNE }Carlovingian| 800 + | | }Line. | + | |Lewis I } | + | | (the Pious)} | 814 + 816 |Stephen IV | } | + 817 |Paschal I | } | + 824 |Eugenius | } | + 827 |Valentinus | } | + 827 |Gregory IV | } | + | |Lothair I } | 840 + 844 |Sergius II | } | + 847 |Leo IV | } | + 855 |Benedict III |Lewis II } | 855 + 855 |Anastasius (Anti-pope) | } | + 858 |NICHOLAS I | } | + 867 |Hadrian II | } | + 872 |John VIII | } | + | |Charles II } | + | | (the Bald) } | 875 + | |Charles III } | + | | (the Fat) } | 881 + 882 |Martin II | | + 884 |Hadrian III | | + 885 |Stephen V | | + 891 |Formosus |Guido }[3] Italians| 891 + | |Lambert } | 894 + 896 |Boniface VI |Arnulf, German | 896 + 896 |Steven VI | | + 897 |Romanus | | + 897 |Theodore II | | + 898 |John IX | | + 900 |Benedict IV | | + | |Lewis III (of Provence) | 901 + 903 |Leo V | | + 903 |Christopher | | + 904 |Sergius III | | + 911 |Anastasius III | | + 913 |Lando | | + 914 |John X | | + | |Berengar, Italian | 915 + 928 |Leo VI | | + 929 |Stephen VII | | + 931 |John XI | | + 936 |Leo VII | | + 939 |Stephen VIII | | + 941 |Martin III | | + 946 |Agapetus II | | + 955 |John XII | | + | |OTTO THE GREAT }Saxon | 962 + 963 |Leo VIII | }Line. | + 964 |Benedict V (Anti-pope?) | } | + 965 |John XIII | } | + 972 |Benedict VI | } | + | |Otto II } | 973 + 974 |Boniface VII (Anti-pope?) | } | + 974 |Domnus II | } | + 974 |Benedict VII | } | + 983 |John XIV | Otto III } | 983 + 985 |John XV | | + 996 |Gregory V | | + 996 |John XVI (Anti-pope) | | + 999 |SILVESTER II | | + | |Henry II (of Bavaria) | 1002 + 1003 |John XVII | | + 1003 |John XVIII | | + 1009 |Sergius IV | | + 1012 |Benedict VIII | | + 1024 |John XIX |Conrad II }Franconian | 1024 + 1033 |Benedict IX | }Line. | + | |HENRY III } | 1039 + 1044 |Silvester (Anti-pope) | } | + 1045? |Gregory VI | } | + 1046 |Clement II | } | + 1048 |Damasus II | } | + 1048 |Leo IX | } | + 1054 |Victor II | } | + | |HENRY IV } | 1056 + 1057 |Stephen IX | } | + 1058 |Benedict X | } | + 1059 |Nicholas II | } | + 1061 |Alexander II | } | + 1073 |GREGORY VII (Hildebrand) | } | + 1080 |Clement (Anti-pope) | } | + 1086 |Victor III | } | + 1087 |Urban II | } | + 1099 |Paschal II | } | + | |Henry V } | 1106 + 1118 |Gelasius II | | + 1118 |Gregory (Anti-pope) | | + 1119 |Calixtus II | | + 1121 |Celestine (Anti-pope) | | + 1124 |Honorius II | | + | |Lothair II (the Saxon) | 1125 + 1130 |Innocent II | | + |(Anacletus, Anti-pope) | | + | | Hohenstaufen| + 1138 |Victor (Anti-pope) |[Conrad III][4] }Line.| 1138 + 1143 |Celestine II | } | + 1144 |Lucius II | } | + 1145 |Eugenius III | } | + | |FREDERICK I } | 1152 + | | (BARBAROSSA) } | + 1153 |Anastasius IV | } | + 1154 |Hadrian IV | } | + 1159 |ALEXANDER III | } | + 1159 |Victor (Anti-pope) | } | + 1164 |Paschal (Anti-pope) | } | + 1168 |Calixtus (Anti-pope) | } | + 1181 |Lucius III | } | + 1185 |Urban III | } | + 1187 |Gregory VIII | } | + 1187 |Clement III | } | + | |HENRY VI } | 1190 + 1191 |Celestine III | {[Philip] } | 1198 + 1198 |INNOCENT III | {Otto IV of Brunswick | + | |Otto IV | 1208 + | |FREDERICK II }Hohenstaufen| 1212 + 1216 |Honorius III | } Line.| + 1227 |GREGORY IX | } | + 1241 |Celestine IV | } | + 1241 |Vacancy | } | + 1243 |Innocent IV | } | + | |[Conrad IV]} } | 1250 + | |[William] } | + 1254 |Alexander IV |Interregnum | 1254 + | |[Richard, Earl of } | + | | Cornwall] } | + | |[Alfonso, King of } | + | | Castile] } | 1257 + 1261 |Urban IV | | + 1265 |Clement IV | | + 1269 |Vacancy | | + 1271 |Gregory X | | + | |[Rudolf I (of Hapsburg)] | 1272 + 1276 |Innocent V | | + 1276 |Hadrian V | | + 1276 |John XXI[5] | | + 1277 |Nicholas III | | + 1281 |Martin IV | | + 1285 |Honorius IV | | + 1289 |Nicholas IV | | + 1292 |Vacancy |[Adolf (of Nassau)] | 1292 + 1294 |Celestine V | | + 1294 |BONIFACE VIII | | + | |[Albert I (of Hapsburg)] | 1298 + 1303 |Benedict XI | | + 1305 |Clement V }Avignon,| | + | }seat of |HENRY VII (of Luxemburg) | 1308 + 1314 |Vacancy }Papacy. |Lewis IV (of Bavaria) | 1314 + 1316 |John XXII } | | + 1334 |Benedict XII } | | + 1342 |Clement VI } | | + 1352 |Innocent VI } |Charles IV (House of | 1347 + 1362 |Urban V } | Luxemburg) | + 1370 |Gregory XI } | | + 1378 |Urban VI, Clement }Great |[Wenzel (House of | 1378 + | VII (Anti-pope) }Schism.| Luxemburg)] | + 1389 |Boniface IX } | | + 1394 |Benedict } | | + | (Anti-pope) } |[Rupert (Count Palatine)] | 1400 + 1404 |Innocent VII } | | + 1406 |Gregory XII } } | | + 1409 |Alexander V } } | | + 1410 |John XXIII } } |Sigismund (House of | + | | Luxemburg) | 1410 + 1417 |Martin V | | + 1431 |Eugene IV | | + | |[Albert II (of Hapsburg)][6] 1438 + 1439 |Felix V (Anti-pope) | | + | |Frederick III | 1440 + |Popes of the Renaissance.}| | + 1447 |NICHOLAS V }| | + 1455 |Calixtus III }| | + 1458 |Pius II }| | + 1464 |Paul II }| | + 1471 |SIXTUS IV }| | + 1484 |Innocent VIII }| | + 1493 |Alexander VI }|[Maximilian I] | 1493 + 1503 |Pius III }| | + 1503 |JULIUS II }| | + 1513 |LEO X }| | + | |CHARLES V | 1519 + 1522 |Hadrian VI | | + 1523 |Clement VII | | + 1534 |Paul III } Council | | + 1550 |Julius III } of Trent.| | + 1555 |Marcellus II } | | + 1555 |Paul IV } | | + | } |[Ferdinand I][7] | 1558 + 1559 |PIUS IV } | | + | |[Maximilian II] | 1564 + 1566 |Pius V | | + 1572 |Gregory XIII | | + | |[Rudolph II] | 1576 + 1585 |SIXTUS V | | + 1590 |Urban VII | | + 1590 |Gregory XIV | | + 1591 |Innocent IX | | + 1592 |Clement VIII | | + 1605 |Leo XI | | + 1605 |Paul V | | + | |[Matthias] | 1612 + | |[Ferdinand II] | 1619 + 1621 |Gregory XV | | + 1623 |Urban VIII | | + | |[Ferdinand III] | 1637 + 1644 |Innocent X | | + 1655 |Alexander VII | | + | |[Leopold I] | 1658 + 1667 |Clement IX | | + 1670 |Clement X | | + 1676 |Innocent XI | | + 1689 |Alexander VIII | | + 1691 |Innocent XII | | + 1700 |Clement XI | | + | |[Joseph I] | 1705 + | |[Charles VI] | 1711 + 1720 |Innocent XIII | | + 1724 |Benedict XIII | | + 1740 |Benedict XIV | | + | |[Charles VII] | 1742 + | |[Francis I, husband of | + | | Maria Theresa] | 1745 + 1758 |Clement XII | | + | |[Joseph II] }House of | 1765 + 1769 |Clement XIII | }Hapsburg | + 1775 |Pius VI | }through | + | |[Leopold II] }Maria | 1790 + | |[Francis II] }Theresa. | 1792 + 1800 |Pius VII | | + | |Abdication of Francis II | 1806 + 1823 |Leo XII | | + 1829 |Pius VIII | | + 1831 |Gregory XVI | | + 1846 |PIUS IX | | + 1878 |LEO XIII | | + 1903 |Pius X | | + ----------+--------------------------+--------------------------+---------- + +1 All the Emperors between Romulus Augustulus and Charlemagne reigned at +Constantinople. + +2 Capitals distinguish the most eminent Popes and Emperors. + +3 Two names bracketed together indicate rival claimants. + +4 Those in brackets never received the Imperial crown. + +5 This Pope skipped No. XX. + +6 From 1438 to 1806, with the exception of Francis I of Lorraine, the +House of Hapsburg was on the Imperial throne. + +7 Ferdinand and his successors took the title Emperor Elect. + + + + +II + +GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI + + Giovanni Bicci, d. 1429. + | + +---------------------------+---------------------------+ + | | + Cosimo, Pater Patriæ, Lorenzo, d. 1440. + d. 1464. | + | Piero Francesco, 1467. + Piero, d. 1469. | + |------------------------------+ | + | | | + Lorenzo the Magnificent, Giuliano, Giovanni, m. Caterina + d. 1492. d. 1478. Sforza, d. 1498. + | | | + +------------------+ | | + | | | | + Piero, d. 1503. Giovanni, Pope Giulio, Pope Clement | + | Leo X, d. 1521. VII, d. 1534. | + | | + Lorenzo, Duke Giovanni, "delle + of Urbino, bande nere," + d. 1519. d. 1526. + | | + +-----------------+ | + | | | + Alessandro, Caterina, m. Henri II Cosimo I, Grand + d. 1537. of France, d. 1589. Duke, d. 1574. + | + +-------------------------+ + | | + Francesco I, d. 1587. Ferdinand I, + m. Joanna of Austria, also d. 1609. + | Bianca Cappello. | + | | + Maria, m. Henri IV Cosimo II, d. 1621. + of France. | + Ferdinand II, d. 1670. + | + Cosimo III, d. 1723. + | + Giovanni Gastone, d. 1737. + + + + +III + +SKELETON TABLE OF THE KINGS OF THE TWO SICILIES[26] + + NAPLES KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES SICILY + + NORMAN CONQUEST, + + last half of eleventh century. + + Roger, d. 1154. + | + +----------------+------------------+ + | | + William the Bad, d. 1166. Constance, d. 1198, + | married + William the Good, d. 1189. Henry VI, Emperor, d. 1197.} + | } + +----------------------------------+ } + | } + Frederick II, Emperor, d. 1250. } + | }Hohenstaufen + +----------------------+ }Line. + | | } + Conrad IV, d. 1254. Manfred, d. 1266. } + | } + Conradin, d. 1268. } + + + FRENCH CONQUEST, 1266. + + Charles of Anjou, 1266-1282. + + SICILIAN VESPERS, 1282. + House of Anjou, 1266-1442. House of Aragon, 1282-1442. + + Alfonso of Aragon, + 1442-1448. + | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | | + House of Aragon, House of Aragon, + illegitimate, legitimate, which, on + 1448-1504. marriage of Ferdinand + of Aragon with Isabella + of Castile, became + House of Spain. + 1448-1504. + + + SPANISH CONQUEST, 1504. + + Ferdinand the Catholic, 1504-1516. + | + Charles V, Emperor, 1516-1556. + | + Spanish Crown, 1556-1713. + + + TREATY OF UTRECHT, 1713. + + Austria, 1713-1720. Savoy, 1713-1720. + + WILL OF QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, 1720. + + Austria, 1720-1738. + + PEACE OF VIENNA, 1738. + + Spanish Bourbons, 1738-1798. + [French invasion, 1798-1802.] + Spanish Bourbons, 1802-1805. + Joseph Bonaparte, 1806-1808. + Joachim Murat, 1808-1815. + Spanish Bourbons: + Ferdinand I,1815-1825. + Francis I, 1825-1830. + Ferdinand II, 1830-1859. + Francis II, 1859-1860. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] When the two kingdoms are united the names of the kings are put in +the middle column, when separate in the side columns respectively. + + + + +IV + +LIST OF BOOKS FOR GENERAL READING + +_For the Middle Ages_ + + Italy and her Invaders Thomas Hodgkin. + + Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon. + + History of Latin Christianity Dean Milman. + + Rome in the Middle Ages (translated + from the German by Mrs. G. W. Hamilon) F. Gregorovius. + + Mediæval Europe Ephraim Emerton. + + Italian Chronicles of the Middle Ages Ugo Balzani. + + Story of the Byzantine Empire C. W. C. Oman. + + History of the Later Roman Empire J. Bury. + + The Holy Roman Empire James Bryce. + + Historical Documents of the Middle Ages Ernest F. Henderson. + + The Papal Monarchy William Barry. + + A History of the Inquisition in the + Middle Ages H. C. Lea. + + An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal + Celibacy in the Christian Church H. C. Lea. + + History of Auricular Confession and + Indulgences in the Latin Church H. C. Lea. + + History of Western Europe J. H. Robinson. + + First Two Centuries of Florence + (translated from the Italian by Linda + Villari) Pasquale Villari. + + Florence, Mediæval Towns Series E. C. Gardner. + + The History of Venice W. Carew Hazlitt. + + A Short History of Venice W. R. Thayer. + + Church Building in the Middle Ages Charles Eliot Norton. + + The Monks of the West from St. Benedict + to St. Bernard (translated from + the French) Montalembert. + + The Classical Heritage of the Middle + Ages H. O. Taylor. + + Life of St. Francis of Assisi (translated + from the French by L. S. Houghton) Paul Sabatier. + + +_For the Renaissance_ + + The Civilization of the Renaissance in + Italy (translated from the German + by S. G. C. Middlemore) Jakob Burckhardt. + + The Cicerone Jakob Burckhardt. + + Renaissance in Italy (The Age of the + Despots, Revival of Learning, Fine + Arts, Literature, Catholic Reaction) John Addington Symonds. + + History of the Italian Republics in the + Middle Ages (translated from the French) S. de Sismondi. + + History of the Popes of Rome (translated + from the German by Sarah Austin) Leopold Ranke. + + The Papacy during the Reformation M. Creighton. + + The Renaissance Cambridge Mod. History. + + History of the Popes from the Close of + the Middle Ages (translated from the + German) L. Pastor. + + The Council of Trent J. A. Froude. + + Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and + Man of Letters Robinson & Rolfe. + + Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, + Sculptors, and Architects (translated + from the Italian by Mrs. Foster) Giorgio Vasari. + + Journal of Montaigne's Travels in Italy. + + +_For the Eighteenth Century_ + + Studies of the Eighteenth Century in + Italy Vernon Lee. + + Goldoni's Memoirs, translated by W. D. Howells. + + Memoirs of Carlo Gozzi J. A. Symonds. + + +_For the Risorgimento_ + + The Liberation of Italy Evelyn M. Cesaresco. + + Italian Characters of the Epoch of + Unification Evelyn M. Cesaresco. + + The Union of Italy (1815-1895) W. J. Stillman. + + Life of Victor Emmanuel II G. S. Godkin. + + The Dawn of Italian Independence W. R. Thayer. + + Modern Italy, 1748-1898 (translated + from the Italian by Alice Vialls) Pietro Orsi. + + + + +INDEX + + + Aachen, 59. + + Abyssinians defeat Italians, 415. + + Agnello, Father, 71, 72. + + Aistulf, 49. + + Alaric, 5. + + Alberic, 76, 78. + + Alberti, Leon Battista, 241. + + Albinola, 370. + + Albizzi, Maso degli, 230. + + Alboin, 27, 29. + + Albornoz, Cardinal, 218. + + Alessi, Galeazzo, 306. + + Alexander VI, Pope (Rodrigo Borgia), and Savonarola, 261; + political course, 272, 273; + private life, 275; + death, 275; + his apartments in Vatican, 288. + + Alexander VII, Pope, 346. + + Alfieri, Vittorio, 364. + + Alfonso, of Aragon, King of Two Sicilies, 223; + interest in humanism, 249; + his death, 262. + + Amalfi, 70, 73, 103. + + Amati, 359. + + Ammanati, 306. + + Angelico, Fra, 233. + + Antignati, 359. + + Apollo Belvedere, 289. + + Aragon, King of, swears allegiance to Innocent III, 122. + + Arcadia, the, 353, 354. + + Arians, 3; + persecuted by Justinian, 18. + + Ariosto, 283-285, 354. + + Aristotle, 19, 178, 235, 242. + + Arnold of Brescia, 109. + + Arnolfo di Cambio, 188. + + Arnulf, Emperor, 74; + enters Rome, 75. + + Arsenal, at Venice, 225. + + Aspromonte, 406. + + Assisi, heretics in, 125; + description of, 127, 128; + basilica of St. Francis, 132; + taken by Milan temporarily, 227. + + Athens, made a Latin fief, 119; + captured by Venice, 338. + + Athens, Duke of, see Walter of Brienne. + + Attendolo, Muzio, see Sforza Attendolo. + + Augustine, in England, 36. + + Augustulus, see Romulus Augustulus. + + Austria, supreme in Italy, 368; + in Holy Alliance, 370; + triumphant in 1848-49, 389, 390; + war with France and Piedmont, 400, 401; + war with Prussia and Italy, 407. + + Avignon, 151; + Petrarch at, 204; + return of Popes to Rome from, 217; + anti-popes of Great Schism at, 219. + + + Babylonish Captivity, 151; + end of, 217, 218. + + Baglioni, in Perugia, 198. + + Bandinelli, 308. + + Banditti, 325. + + Bank scandals, 415. + + Barbarians, their character, 1; + their society, 3; + habits, 4; + intercourse with Rome, 5, 6; + dismember Empire, 6; + their problems in Italy, 10; + described by Boethius, 19; + so-called (foreigners), 253, 257. + + Barbarossa, see Frederick I, Emperor. + + Barberini, see Urban VIII, Pope. + + Baroque, the, 307, 308, 350, 351. + + Barozzi, Giacomo, see Vignola. + + Basel, Council of, 268, 269. + + Beccaria, 362. + + Belisarius, 21. + + Bellini, composer, 358, 378. + + Bellini, Gentile, 312. + + Bellini, Giovanni, 312. + + Bellini, Jacopo, 312. + + Bellotto, 352. + + Bembo, 282, 283. + + Benedetto da Maiano, 244. + + Benedict, see St. Benedict. + + Benevento, 28. + + Bentivoglio, in Bologna, 198. + + Berchet, 377. + + Bergamo, annexed to Venice, 224. + + Bernini, 351. + + Bisticci, Vespasiano da, 234. + + Black Death, see Plague of 1348. + + Boboli garden, 306. + + Boccaccio, 185; + his account of Black Death, 209, 210. + + Boethius, 19. + + Boiardo, Matteo, 283. + + Bologna, jurists of, 110; + university of, 177, 178; + poetry in, 184; + Bentivogli in, 198; + subject to Papacy, 218; + seized by Visconti, 227; + recovered by Papacy, 228; + visited by Montaigne, 324; + school of (painting), 351, 352. + + Boniface VIII, Pope, 146; + his character, 146; + quarrel with the Colonna, 147; + with Philip the Fair, 148; + his papal theories, 148, 149; + outraged, 150; + death, 151. + + Bonifazio, 312. + + Bordone, Paris, 312. + + Borghese, Camillo, see Paul V, Pope. + + Borgia, Cæsar, 272-275; + employs Leonardo, 286; + believed to have murdered his brother, 314; + admired by Machiavelli, 314. + + Borgia, Lucrezia, 275. + + Borgia, Rodrigo, see Alexander VI, Pope. + + Borgia, son to Rodrigo, see Duke of Gandia. + + Botticelli, 245-247, 288. + + Bourbon, High Constable, 279. + + Bourbon, House of, 335, 339. + + Bramante, 256, 283, 285; + in Rome, 287; + designs St. Peter's, 289, 290. + + Brescia, captured by Henry VII, 157; + annexed by Venice, 224; + gallant defence of, 391. + + Brienne, Walter of, Duke of Athens, 229. + + Bronzino, 308, 309. + + Brunelleschi, 233, 235-237; + and Donatello, anecdote of, 238, 239. + + Bruno, Giordano, 349. + + Burckhardt, 304; + on Bandinelli, 308. + + Burgundy, 78. + + Byron, Lord, 372-375. + + Byzantine art, 188, 189. + + + Cacciaguida, 180. + + Cambrai, League of, 224, 265, 266. + + Cambrai, treaty of, 293. + + Camorra, 294, 412. + + Campanella, 349. + + Canaletto, 352. + + Can Grande, see under Scala della. + + Canon law, see Church law. + + Canossa, 99. + + Cappello, Bianca, 327. + + Caracci, the, 309, 352. + + Caraffa, Cardinal, see Paul IV, Pope. + + Caravaggio, 309, 352. + + Carbonari, 369, 382. + + Cardinals, made papal electors, 91. + + Carducci, on Tasso, 310. + + Carissimi, 358. + + Carlo Alberto, 375, 376, 379, 380, 384, 385; + war with Austria, 388; + resigns his crown, 390. + + Carlo Dolci, 352. + + Carlo Felice, 375. + + Carlovingians, the, 44, 57, 58. + + Carlyle, on Mazzini, 382. + + Carmagnola, 228. + + Carnival, Roman, 330. + + Carpaccio, 312. + + Cassiodorus, 14. + + Castiglione, 281-283. + + Castillia, 370. + + Castracane, Castruccio, 200. + + Cateau-Cambrésis, treaty of, 293, 296, 327. + + Catholic Reaction, see Catholic Revival. + + Catholic Revival, 297-302. + + Cavalcanti, 184. + + Cavaliere servente, 356. + + Cavour, 386, 387; + policy of Church and State, 398; + policy in Piedmont, 398; + as to Crimean War, 398, 399; + and Napoleon III, 399, 400; + resigns, 401; + recalled, 402; + interference in Naples, 404; + death, 406. + + Celibacy of clergy, 86. + + Cellini, 308, 316, 317. + + Certosa, at Pavia, 226, 227, 250. + + Cervantes, 297. + + Charlemagne, blessed by Pope, 45; + marriage, 50; + Donation of, 50; + European conquests, 51; + titles, 53; + person and character, 53; + judges Pope, 55; + receives gifts from Caliph, 55; + coronation, 56; + his Empire, 57; + crowns his son, 59. + + Charles of Anjou, 144, 161, 162; + visits Cimabue's studio, 189. + + Charles of Durazzo, 222. + + Charles V, Emperor, struggle with Francis I, 257; + policy in Florence, 262, 263; + marries daughter to Alessandro dei Medici, 263; + inherits Two Sicilies, 264; + crowned Emperor, 299; + and Council of Trent, 300. + + Charles VIII, King of France, 256, 257, 259. + + Charles Martel, 44, 53. + + Chigi, see Alexander VII, Pope. + + Church, the (see also Papacy), causes of its rise, 8; + orthodoxy, 10; + relations with Empire, 16; + during Lombard dominion, 31; + imperial character, 32; + sources of power, 32, 33. + + Church law, 65. + + Cicisbeismo, 356. + + Cimabue, 189. + + Cimarosa, 358. + + Cinquecento, the, 304-318. + + Ciompi, 229. + + Clare, St., see St. Clare. + + Classical revival, 201-208. + + Clement V, Pope, 151; + dealings with Henry VII, 156. + + Clement VII, Pope, 262, 277, 278-280; + crowns Charles V, 299. + + Clement IX, Pope, 346. + + Clergy, in Carlovingian times, 71. + + Cluny, monastic reform of, 85; + its creed, 86; + its effect, 88. + + Cola, di Rienzo, 206-208; + dreams for Rome, 206; + letter to Florentines, 207; + his fall and death, 207. + + Colleoni, statue of, 247, 311. + + Colonia Erithrea, see Colony in Africa. + + Colonna, the, 76; + quarrel with Boniface VIII, 146; + Pope Martin V, 220; + custom in their palace, 277, 278. + + Colonna, Sciarra, 150. + + Colony in Africa, 415. + + Columbanus, St., see St. Columbanus. + + Commedia dell'Arte, 355. + + Commines, Philippe de, on Venice, 265. + + Communes, government of, 163-165; + prosperity of, 166 (see also Lombardy). + + Company, the Great, 212, 213. + + Concordat of Worms, 100. + + Condottieri, 212. + + Confalonieri, 370. + + Conradin, 143, 144. + + Consolations of Philosophy, 19. + + [Constance], wife of Henry VI, 113, 114, 117. + + Constance, Council of, 220, 221, 268. + + Constance, Peace of, 112. + + Constantine, 45; legend of Donation, 46, 47. + + Constantinople, 2, 25; + captured by Crusaders, 118, 119; + by Turks, 242, 243, 264. + + Consuls, 165. + + Conti, family, 135. + + Coronation of Emperors, 80; + last in Italy, 299. + + Cosimo dei Medici, see under Medici. + + Cosimo I, Grand Duke, see under Medici. + + Counter-Reformation, see Catholic Revival. + + Courtier, Book of the, 284, 285. + + Cremona, 95; + sacked by Henry VII, 157. + + Crescimbeni, 353. + + Crete, lost by Venice, 338. + + Crispi, as a young patriot, 402; + with Garibaldi in Sicily, 403; + his career, 414; + in parliament, 414, 415. + + Crown of Lombardy, 80; + assumed by Napoleon I, 365. + + Custoza, battle of, 389. + + + Damian, see St. Peter Damian. + + Dante, 19; + on Boniface VIII, 146; + Divine Comedy, 152; + character, 152, 153; + De Monarchia, 153, 154; + views, 154; + hails Henry VII, 155, 156; + letter to Henry VII, 157-159; + follows Thomas Aquinas, 179; + importance in literature, 184; + effect on Tuscan speech, 184; + on the vernacular, 185; + painted by Giotto, 190; + celebrates Can Grande, 195; + invectives against Roman Curia, 274. + + D'Azeglio, Massimo, 382, 384. + + Decameron, 274. + + Decretals, Isidorian, 66. + + Depretis, 413, 414. + + Desiderius, 29, 49, 50. + + Despotisms, 192-200; + evils of, 214. + + Despots, see Despotisms. + + Di Rudinì, 416. + + Divine Comedy, 184. + + Domenichino, 352. + + Donatello, 237-240. + + Donation of Charlemagne, 50. + + Donation of Constantine, 46-48, 49, 65. + + Donation of Pippin, 45, 47, 50. + + Donizetti, 358. + + Dossi, Dosso, 309. + + Ducal palace, Venice, 226. + + Duomo, Florence, 237. + + Durante, 358. + + + Election of Emperors, 80. + + Election of Popes, 91. + + Emanuele Filiberto, 296. + + Emo, Angelo, 339. + + Empire, the, see the Roman Empire. + + Empire, Eastern, 24; + its policy, 25. + + England, 36. + + Enzio, 141; + capture, 142; + death, 143. + + Este, D', Ercole, duke, 250. + + Este, House of, 198, 282; + move to Modena, 295. + + Estensi, see House of Este. + + Eugenius IV, Pope, 288. + + Exarchs, 26, 36. + + Ezzelino da Romano, 194. + + + Faliero, Marino, 225. + + Farnese, Alessandro, see Paul III, Pope. + + Farnese, Giulia, 275, 288. + + Farnesi, in Parma, 295; + in Piacenza, 305. + + Ferdinand the Catholic, 263; + conquers Naples, 263, 264. + + Ferdinand I, of Two Sicilies, 368, 370. + + Ferdinand II, of Two Sicilies (Bomba), 389, 390; + death, 402. + + Ferrara, 246; + in High Renaissance, 283; + taken by Papacy, 295; + Tasso at, 310; + visited by Montaigne, 324. + + Feudalism, 102. + + Ficino, Marsilio, 245. + + Fiesole, library at, 233, 234, 251. + + Fiesole, Mino da, 244. + + Filicaia, 353. + + Flagellants, 175. + + Flemish painters, 243. + + Florence, Guelf, 133; + denounced by Dante, 158; + shuts out Henry VII, 159; + her guilds, 164; + wool trade, 166; + bankers, 167; + impediments to trade, 167; + receives back Ghibellines, 176; + in 1283, 182, 183; + democratic, 194; + about 1300, 202; + in Black Death, 210; + takes Pisa, 227; + under Duke of Athens, 229; + revolt of Ciompi, 229; + Salvestro dei Medici, 229; + Michele di Lando, 229; + the oligarchy, 230; + in Early Renaissance, 231-241; + interest in Plato, 243; + under Lorenzo, 250; + 1492-1537, 258-263; + under Grand Dukes, 294, 295; + close of Renaissance, 308, 309; + visited by Montaigne, 326, 327. + + Foligno, 332. + + Foresti, 370. + + Formosus, Pope, 68. + + Foscari, Francesco, Doge, 224 + + Foscolo, Ugo, 377. + + France, 58; + bows to Innocent III, 122; + vigorous monarchy, 145; + invades Italy, 253, 254, 255; + claims on Italy, 293; + defeated by Spain, 293; + sends army to Rome, 391, 392, 394; + withdraws garrison from Rome, 407; + relations with Italy, 412, 413. + + Francesca, Piero della, 249. + + Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 326, 327. + + Francis I, King of France, 257. + + Francis I, King of Two Sicilies, 378. + + Francis II, King of Two Sicilies, 402, 404. + + Francis, St., see St. Francis. + + Franciscan Order, 129, 131-133; + Gray Friars, 134. + + Franks, 40; + Kingdom of, 43; + Catholicism of, 43. + + Frederick I, Emperor (Barbarossa), 102; + character, 102; + theory of imperial rights, 103; + wars with Lombard cities, 108; + called to Italy, 108, 109; + war with Milan, 109; + diet at Roncaglia, 111; + defeat at Legnano, 112; + his son's marriage, 113; + death, 113. + + Frederick II, Emperor, 117; + gratitude to Innocent III, 117; + summons to Germany, 121; + pledge to Innocent III, 121, 122; + King of Germany, 122; + character, 134; + promises, 135; + crowned emperor, 135; + at Brindisi, 136; + denounced by Gregory IX, 136, 137; + excommunicated, 137; + letter to King of England, 138, 139; + recovers Jerusalem, 139; + King of Jerusalem, 140; + his habits, 140, 141; + poetry, 141; + war with Lombard cities, 142; + excommunicated again, 142; + defeat, 142; + death, 143; + times of, 180. + + + Galileo, 346, 349. + + Gamba, Pietro, 373, 374. + + Gandia, Duke of (a Borgia), murdered, 312. + + Garibaldi, 382; + in Rome, 392, 393; + escapes, 394, 398; + expedition to Two Sicilies, 402-405; + attempt on Rome, 406; + second attempt, Mentana, 407; + death, 413. + + Genoa, 70; + prosperity, 105; + war with Pisa, 169, 170; + submits temporarily to Milan, 199; + loss in Black Death, 210; + war with Venice, 224; + still a republic, 295; + palaces in, 306; + becomes Republic of Liguria, 365; + given to Kingdom of Sardinia, 367. + + Genseric, 5. + + Germany, 58; + its duchies, 77; + part of Holy Roman Empire, 78; + attitude towards its king, 96; + in time of Innocent III, 120, 121. + + Gesù, church, 305, 306. + + Gesuati, 321. + + Ghibellines, 155; + trouble in Milan, 157; + cause lost, 159; + description of, 168, 169; + described by Gregory X, 176; + fictitious revival of, 325. + + Ghiberti, 241. + + Ghirlandaio, Domenico, 245, 288. + + Gioberti, 383, 384. + + Giocondo, Fra, 290. + + Giorgione, 312. + + Giotto, 189, 190. + + Giulio Romano, 309. + + Gladstone, on conditions in Naples, 395, 396. + + Goethe, admires Palladio, 306, 307; + admires I Promessi Sposi, 377. + + Goldoni, 353-356. + + Gonzaga, the, in Mantua, 198. + + Goths, see Ostrogoths. + + Gozzoli, Benozzo, 233, 244. + + Gravina, 353, 359. + + Great Council of Venice, 171, 172. + + Greek, study of, 242, 243. + + Greek Empire, overthrown by Crusaders, 119. + + Gregory I (the Great), Pope, 35-37. + + Gregory II, Pope, 42, 53. + + Gregory III, Pope, 42, 53. + + Gregory VII, Pope (Hildebrand), 89; + character, 90; + aims, 91; + becomes Pope, 91; + creed, 91, 92; + claims, 92; + allies, 92-96; + denunciation of simony and lay investiture, 96; + attempted deposition by Henry IV, 97; + excommunicates Henry IV, 99; + at Canossa, 99; + his death, 100. + + Gregory IX, Pope (Ugolino), 135; + anger at Frederick II, 136; + letter on Frederick, 135-137; + excommunicates Frederick, 137. + + Gregory X, Pope, describes Ghibellines, 176. + + Gregory XI, Pope, ends Babylonish Captivity, 217. + + Gregory XIII, Pope, 328, 329. + + Gregory XV, Pope, 345. + + Gregory XVI, Pope, 383. + + Grossi, Tommaso, 382. + + Guardi, 352. + + Guelfs, accept Henry VII, 156; + trouble in Milan, 157; + description of, 168, 169; + fictitious revival of, 325. + + Guercino, 352. + + Guerrazzi, F. D., 382. + + Guicciardini, on condition of Italy, 253, 254; + modern historian, 281. + + Guido Reni, 352, 360. + + Guilds, 164. + + Guinicelli, 184. + + + Hapsburg, House of, 335, 338. + + Hawkwood, John, 213, 222. + + Haynau, 391. + + Henry IV, Emperor, 90; + attempts to depose Gregory VII, 97; + his letter to Gregory, 97-99; + at Canossa, 99; + death, 100. + + Henry VI, Emperor, his Sicilian marriage, 113; + character, 114; + his acts, 115. + + Henry VII, Emperor, 150; + welcomed by Dante, 155, 156; + enters Italy, 156; + becomes Ghibelline chief, 157; + receives letter from Dante, 157-159; + death, 159; + effect of, on fortunes of Can Grande and the Visconti, 198. + + Henry IV, King of France (Henry of Navarre), 337, 338, 357. + + Heresy, in Southern France, 123; + in Italy, 125; + in England and Bohemia, 220. + + Hildebrand, see Gregory VII, Pope. + + Hohenstaufens, 102, 113; + their end, 143, 144. + + Holy Alliance, 370. + + Holy Roman Empire, beginning, 78; + its extent, 79, 80; + its power, 81; + attitude toward Papacy, 84, 85, 89; + concordat with Papacy, 100; + death struggle with Papacy, 133; + real end, 143; + last flicker, 152-160; + a shadow, 161; + its petty bargainings, 217; + extinguished by Napoleon, 365. + + Honorius, Pope, 133; + crowns Frederick II, 135; + death, 135. + + Humanists, 242, 244, 245. + + Humbert of the White Hand, 173. + + Humbert, King, 416. + + Hungarians, raids of, 77. + + Huss, John, 220, 221. + + + Iconoclasm, 41, 42. + + Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 299. + + Innocent III, Pope, his education, 115; + doings in Italy, 116; + in Tuscany and Two Sicilies, 117; + at Constantinople, 119; + in Germany, 120; + excommunicates Otto IV, 121; + his doings in Europe, 122; + in England, 122; + Albigensian crusade, 123; + triumph, 123, 124; + recognizes St. Francis, 126, 127; + referred to by Frederick II, 138; + and Dominicans, 299. + + Innocent VIII, Pope, 286. + + Innocent X, Pope, 346. + + Innocent XI, Pope, 346. + + Inquisition, 298, 299. + + Investiture, lay, 86, 87, 89; + settled between Empire and Papacy, 100. + + Italian language, 80; + influenced by Dante, 184; + its dialects, 185. + + Italy, condition of, middle of 6th century, 23, 24; + under Byzantine rule, 26; + on fall of Carlovingian Empire, 69; + its divisions, 69; + condition of people, 70; + degradation, 67-78; + condition under mercenary soldiers, 213, 214; + condition prior to 1494, 252; + during Catholic Revival, 302, 303; + divisions of, at close of 16th century, 304; + place for travellers, 319; + as seen by Montaigne, 320-334; + under Napoleon I, 365, 366; + on Napoleon's fall, 366-368; + unity of, 395-408; + difficulties after unity, 411-413; + relations with France, 412, 413; + Triple Alliance, 413. + + Isidorian Decretals, see Decretals. + + + Jerome, St., see St. Jerome. + + Jerome of Prague, 220, 221. + + Jerusalem, plan for reconquest of, 134; + recovered by Frederick II, 139. + + Jesuit style, 351. + + Jesus, Order of, 299; + suppressed, 347; + restored in Papal States, 367. + + Joan I, Queen of Naples, 222. + + Joan II, Queen of Naples, 222. + + John of Bologna, 308, 324. + + John, Don, of Austria, 295. + + John, King of England, 122, 138. + + John XII, Pope, 78, 81; + his trial, 82-84; + deposition, 84. + + Jommelli, 358. + + Jubilee, first, 147. + + Julius II, Pope, 270, 275-277, 288. + + Justin, Emperor, 16. + + Justinian, Emperor, 16-18. + + + Ladislaus, King of Naples, 222, 230. + + Landini, 308. + + Lando, Michele di, 229. + + Landucci, Luca, diary of, 259-262. + + Laocoön, the, discovery of, 291, 292. + + Lateran palace, 45. + + Legion, Garibaldi's, 393. + + Legnano, battle of, 112. + + Leo (composer), 358. + + Leo, Emperor, the Isaurian, 41. + + Leo I, Pope, the Great, 9. + + Leo III, Pope, 54, 56. + + Leo IV, Pope, 73, 74. + + Leo X, Pope (Medici), 250, 251, 262, 276, 277; + excommunicates Luther, 278; + last of papal overlords of Europe, 292. + + Leo XIII, Pope, 416-419. + + Leonardo, see Vinci, Leonardo da. + + Leopardi, Alessandro (sculptor), 311. + + Leopardi, Giacomo (poet), 378. + + Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 363. + + Lippi, Filippino, 244. + + Lombard cities, see Lombardy and Milan. + + Lombardi (architects and sculptors), 311. + + Lombards, the, 23; + character, 27; + conquests, 28; + civilization, 28, 29; + conversion to Catholicism, 29; + political incompetence, 29; + influence, 30; + attempt to conquer all Italy, 43; + defeated by Pippin, 45; + by Charlemagne, 50. + + Lombardy, espouses Hildebrand's side, 95; + trade, 106; + represented at diet of Roncaglia, 110; + peace with Barbarossa, 112; + condition prior to 1789, 362; + crown of, assumed by Napoleon, 365; + restored to Austria, 367; + condition in 1820-21, 370, 371; + in 1848, 387; + united to Piedmont, 401. + + Lorenzo the Magnificent, see under Medici. + + Loreto, 332. + + Lorraine, King of, 62. + + Lothair, Emperor, 58, 59. + + Lotto, Lorenzo, 312. + + Louis I, Emperor, the Pious, 58, 59. + + Louis II, Emperor, 58, 59, 62, 63. + + Louis XII, King of France, 257; + unites with Spain against Naples, 263. + + Louis Napoleon, see Napoleon III. + + Loyola, Ignatius, 299. + + Lucca, 168; + under Castruccio Castracane, 200; + still a republic, 295; + visited by Montaigne, 332; + on Napoleon's fall, 367. + + Lucca, Bagni di, 333. + + Ludovisi, see Gregory XV, Pope. + + Luini, 309. + + Luther, Martin, 276, 278, 297. + + Lutherans, do not attend Council of Trent, 298. + + Lyons, Council of, 142. + + + Machiavelli, admires Castruccio Castracane, 200; + also Cæsar Borgia, 273; + writes, 281; + description of successful Prince, 314, 315; + comedies, 354. + + Mafia, 294, 364, 411, 412. + + Magenta, battle of, 400. + + Malatesta, in Rimini, 198. + + Mameli, Goffredo, 393, 394. + + Manfred, 141, 143; + defeat and death, 144; + his daughter, 162. + + Manin, Daniele, 388, 394. + + Mantegna, 288. + + Mantua, the Gonzaga in, 198; + duchy, 293; + opera in, 357. + + Manzoni, 377. + + Marignano, 257. + + Maroncelli, 370-372. + + Marozia, 75, 76. + + Martin V, Pope, 220, 268. + + Masaccio, 240, 241. + + Mastai-Ferretti, Cardinal, see Pius IX, Pope. + + Matilda, Countess, 94; + Donation to Papacy, 94. + + Maximilian, Emperor, 265. + + Mazzini, 376; + letter to Carlo Alberto, 379-382; + triumvir in Rome, 391-394, 398; + death, 413. + + Medici, dei, Alessandro, 263. + + Medici, dei, Cosimo, Pater Patriæ, 232; + cultivation, 233; + his tastes, 233; + libraries, 233, 234; + death, 235; + anecdote of, with Donatello, 239; + founds Platonic Academy, 243; + and Nicholas V, 251. + + Medici, dei, Cosimo I, Grand Duke, 263; + marriage, 291; + rule, 294, 295; + descendants, 295; + his architect, 306. + + Medici, dei, Francesco I, Grand Duke, 326, 327. + + Medici, dei, Giovanni, see Leo X, Pope. + + Medici, dei, Giovanni, Angelo (not of Florentine family), see Pius IV, + Pope. + + Medici, dei, Giuliano, see Clement VII, Pope. + + Medici, dei, Lorenzo, the Magnificent, 248-250, 286. + + Medici, dei, Maria, 357. + + Medici, dei, Piero, 244, 249. + + Medici, dei, Salvestro, 229. + + Mentana, battle of, 407. + + Mercenary soldiers, 211-214. + + Merovingians, 44. + + Metastasio, 359, 360. + + Metternich, 367. + + Michelangelo, 263; + sonnets, 285; + goes to Rome, 289; + plans dome of St. Peter's, 290; + at discovery of Laocoön, 299; + statues in Florence, 308. + + Michelozzo, 233. + + Milan, 107; + classes in, 107, 108; + war with Barbarossa, 109; + receives Henry VII, 156; + Visconti in, 198, 199; + acquires Genoa temporarily, 199; + under Gian Galeazzo Visconti, 226; + becomes a dukedom, 226; + cathedral, 226, 227; + loss of dominion on Gian Galeazzo's death, 228; + end of Visconti, 250; + founding of Sforza line, 250; + condition, 1466-1535, 254-258; + captured by French, 257; + by Spanish, 257; + annexed to Spanish crown, 258; + Leonardo there, 286; + Bramante there, 287; + under Spanish governors, 294; + visited by Montaigne, 333; + under Spanish rule, 339, 340; + conveyed to Austria, 341; + Five Days of, 387; + jealous of Turin, 389. + + Mille, i, 403. + + Minghetti, 413. + + Mino, da Fiesole, 244. + + Modena, duchy, 293; + seat of House of Este, 293; + transfers, 341; + reform in, 362; + restoration of old order on Napoleon's fall, 367; + in 1848, 388, 389, 397; + united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, 402. + + Mohammed, 40, 41. + + Monasteries, 34, 72. + + Montaigne, diary of his travels in Italy, 320-334. + + Monte Cassino, 34. + + Montefeltri, in Urbino, 198. + + Montefeltro, Federigo da, 249, 250. + + Monteverdi, 357. + + Montfort, 123. + + Murat, 365, 366. + + + Naples, 21, 70, 73; + House of Aragon reigning, 161; + condition, about 1350, 201; + loss in Black Death, 210; + condition, 1350-1450, 222; + conquered by Alfonso of Aragon, 223; + no share in Renaissance, 249; + passes to illegitimate branch of House of Aragon, 263; + conquered by Spaniards, 263; + annexed to Spanish crown, 264; + under Spanish viceroys, 294; + inquisition in, 299; + conveyed to Austria and then to Spanish Bourbons, 341; + condition, prior to 1789, 363; + given to Joseph Bonaparte and Murat, 365; + revolution of 1820, 369, 370; + cruelty of Francis I, 378; + in 1848, 386; + takes part in war against Austria, 388; + persecution of liberals, 391; + persecution described by Gladstone, 395, 396; + united with Kingdom of Italy, 404, 405. + + Napoleon I, 365, 366. + + Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon), interferes in Rome, 391; + plans of, 399; + agreement with Cavour, 400; + war with Austria, 400; + peace, 400, 401. + + Narses, 22, 26. + + Niccolini, 382. + + Nicholas I, Pope, 62-64. + + Nicholas V, Pope, 251, 252, 269, 288. + + Nogaret, 150. + + Normans, in Southern Italy, 92; + in Sicily, 93; + become liegemen to the Popes, 93. + + Novara, battle of, 390. + + + Odescalchi, see Innocent XI, Pope. + + Odoacer, 7, 10, 11, 13. + + Opera, the, 357, 358. + + Oratorio, the, 358. + + Order of St. Francis, see Franciscan Order. + + Order of Jesus, see Jesus, Order of. + + Orlando Furioso, 283, 284. + + Orlando Innamorato, 283. + + Orsini, the, 76, 150. + + Ostrogoths, 12-22. + + Otto I, Emperor, the Great, 77; + marriage, 78; + crowned Emperor, 78; + his empire, 79, 80; + tries and deposes Pope John XII, 82-84. + + Otto IV, Emperor, 120; + becomes Ghibelline, 120, 121; + excommunicated by Innocent III, 121; + deposition, 122. + + + Padua, 95; + conquered by Venice, 224; + visited by Montaigne, 322. + + Paisiello, 358. + + Palazzo Vecchio, 188; + fountain in, 247; + occupied by Grand Duke, 294. + + Palermo, rising in, 402. + + Palestrina, 357. + + Palladio, 306, 307, 311. + + Palma Vecchio, 312. + + Palmerston, Lord, sends Gladstone's letter to European governments, 396. + + Panfili, see Innocent X, Pope. + + Paolo Veronese, 312. + + Papacy, strengthened by monasticism, 33, 34; + relations with Empire, 38; + with Lombards, 39; + with Franks, 40; + split with Eastern Empire, 42; + Donation of Pippin, 45; + further relations with Franks, 49; + Donation of Charlemagne, 50; + attitude towards Charlemagne, 51; + towards Roman Empire, 52; + local weakness, 52; + supported by Empire, 58; + duel with Empire, 59; + right to crown Emperors, 59, 60; + anomalous nature of, 60; + subjection to Empire, 61; + struggle with Empire, 61, 62; + added prestige, 62; + cosmopolitan ambition, 64; + degradation, 67, 68; + revival of, 79; + character of, in 10th century, 81; + becomes suzerain to Southern Italy, 93; + struggle with Empire over investitures, 89-101; + its triumph, 114-124; + its death grapple with Empire, 133-144; + its decay and fall, 145-151; + Babylonish Captivity, 151; + an absentee, 161; + return to Rome, 217; + and Renaissance, 251; + as head of culture, 252; + its monarchy, 267-280; + in High Renaissance, 288-292; + its revival, 297-302; + a purely Italian institution, 302; + quarrel with Venice, 336, 337; + in 17th and 18th centuries, 343-345; + under Napoleon, 365; + loss of Temporal Power, 407, 408; + attitude towards Italian government, 410, 411; + under Leo XIII, 418. + + Papal Curia, see Roman Curia. + + Papal States, 69; + really founded by Innocent III, 120; + confusion in, during Babylonish Captivity, 162; + about 1350, 202; + reduced to order, 218; + firmly established, 267, 268; + the Papal monarchy, 267-280; + prior to 1789, 363; + in Napoleon's time, 365; + after Napoleon's fall, 367; + in 1848, 390; + in 1849, 391-394; + invaded by Piedmontese army, 404; + votes to join Kingdom of Italy, 405. + + Parentucelli, see Nicholas V, Pope. + + Paris, Congress of, 399. + + Parma, a duchy, 295; + taken by Farnesi, 295; + conveyed to Spanish Bourbons, 341, 342; + prior to 1789, 362, 363; + on Napoleon's overthrow, 367; + insurrection in, 379; + in 1848, 388, 389, 397, 401; + united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, 402. + + Parthenon, blown up, 338. + + Patarini, 95; heretics, 125. + + Paul II, Pope, 288. + + Paul III, Pope (Alessandro Farnese), 275; + in Parma, 295; + a reformer, 300. + + Paul IV, Pope (Caraffa), 299, 301. + + Paul V, Pope, 345. + + Pavia, 28, 50, 95, 107; + Ghibelline, 133. + + Pavia, battle of, 257, 293. + + Peace of Westphalia, 346. + + Pecci, see Leo XIII, Pope. + + Pedro, of Aragon, King of Sicily, 162. + + Pellico Silvio, 370-372. + + Peretti, Felice, see Sixtus V, Pope. + + Pergolesi, 358. + + Perugia, 128; + war with Assisi, 128; + its flagellants, 175; + Baglioni in, 198. + + Perugino, 288. + + Peruzzi, Baldassare, 290. + + Pesaro, 245. + + Pesaro, Marchesa di, and Pietro Aretino, 315, 316. + + Petrarch, 185; + leader of Classical Revival, 203, 204; + coronation of, 204; + great reputation, 205; + enthusiasm for Cola di Rienzo, 206, 207; + on the Black Death, 210; + on mercenary soldiers, 213, 214; + goes to Milan, 215; + invectives against Roman Curia, 274. + + Philip, Imperial claimant, 120. + + Philip, the Fair, King of France, quarrel with Boniface VIII, 148-150. + + Piacenza, 95; + heretics in, 125; + buildings in, 305; + visited by Montaigne, 333. + + Piazza Navona, 351. + + Piccinni, 358. + + Piccolomini, Æneas Sylvius, see Pius II, Pope. + + Pico, della Mirandola, 245. + + Piedmont, becomes important part of duchy of Savoy, 296; + visited by Montaigne, 334; + becomes chief part of duchy of Savoy, 343; + prior to 1789, 361; + takes action against France, 365; + on restoration of king, 367; + uprising in, 375, 376; + in 1848, 386; + war with Austria, 388; + defeated, 389; + also at Novara, 390; + left alone to maintain Italian cause, 394; + the hope of Italy, 397; + in Crimean War, 399; + war with Austria, 400. + + Pier della Vigna, 141, 143. + + Pietro Aretino, 315, 316. + + Pilo, Rosalino, 402. + + Pinturicchio, 288. + + Pippin, King, deposes Merovingians, 44; + crowned by Pope Zacharias, 45; + and the Papacy, 49; + death, 50. + + Pippin, Donation of, 45, 50. + + Pisa, 70; + prosperity of, 104; + Ghibelline, 133; + loyal to Henry VII, 159; + regulations concerning nobles, 168; + war with Genoa, 169; + crushing defeat by Genoa, 170; + baptistery, 186; + loss in Black Death, 210; + seized by Milan, 227; + by Florence, 228; + Campo Santo, 244. + + Pisa, Council of, 219. + + Pisani, Vettor (Venetian admiral), 224. + + Pisano, Giovanni, 187. + + Pisano, Niccolò, 186; + at Siena, 187. + + Pitti Palace, designed by Brunelleschi, 236; + occupied by Cosimo I, 294; + picture gallery in, 295; + opera in, 357. + + Pius II, Pope, Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, 288. + + Pius IV, Pope (Giovanni Angelo Medici), founder of Modern Papacy, 301, + 302. + + Pius IX, Pope, 383, 384; + takes part in war against Austria, 388; + his scruples, 389; + army captured, 389; + flees from Rome, 390; + reactionary, 396; + bad government of, 397; + and Temporal Power, 405; + extreme conservatism, 409, 410; + prisoner in Vatican, 410; + refuses subsidy, 411. + + Plague of 1348 (Black Death), 209-211. + + Plato, 242, 243, 248. + + Platonic Academy, 243. + + Platonic ideas, 282, 283, 285. + + Plutarch, 255. + + Podestà, 165. + + Poerio, Carlo, 395, 396. + + Poetry, in Sicily, 141; + in Bologna and Tuscany, 184. + + Poggio a Caiano, 244, 309. + + Polenta, da, the, in Ravenna, 198. + + Poliziano, 245. + + Pollaiuolo, Antonio, 244. + + Pontormo, 308, 309. + + Pontremoli, 333. + + Popes, see Papacy, Papal States, and individual Popes. + + Pordenone, Giov. Ant. da, 312. + + Portiuncula, 129-131, 306. + + Pratolino, 326. + + Prigioni, Le Mie (of Silvio Pellico), 370-372, 382. + + Prince, The, by Machiavelli, 314, 315. + + Promessi, Sposi, I, by Manzoni, 377. + + Provence, Albigensian crusade, 123. + + Prussia, war with Austria, 407; + with France, 407. + + Pulci, 245. + + + Quadrilateral, the, 388. + + + Radetzky, Field Marshal, 387-390, 394. + + Raphael, 283, 285, 289; + character, 290, 291; + portrait of Julius II, 289; + of Leo X, 292. + + Rattazzi, 406. + + Ravenna, 14, 21, 45, 71; + Byzantine architecture in, 187; + Malatesta in, 198; + Lord Byron in, 372-375. + + Reformation, the, premonitions of, 219-222; + coming of, 297. + + Reformation within the Church, see Catholic Revival. + + Renaissance, 231-251, 281-292. + + Renaissance, Early, 231-241. + + Renaissance, High, 281-292; its close, 304. + + Revolution, French (of 1789), 361, 364. + + Revolution, French (of 1830), 379. + + Ribera, 352. + + Ricasoli, Bettino, 401, 406. + + Riccardi palace, 233, 244. + + Rienzi, see Cola di Rienzo. + + Robbia, della, Andrea, 244. + + Robbia, della, Luca, 241. + + Romagna, the, 379. + + Roman Curia (papal Curia), denounced by Frederick II, 138, 139; + its venality, 219; + policy, 221; + difficulties and cleverness, 269-270; + object of satire and invective, 274, 275; + and art, 288. + + Roman Empire (see also Holy Roman Empire, and Eastern Empire), its + extent, 1; + character, 2; + luxurious life, 4; + unity, 7; + its condition while at Constantinople, 25; + in popular imagination, 51, 52; + relations with Papacy, 59; + its revival by Pope Leo and Charlemagne, 56; + end of Carlovingian revival, 58; + revival by Otto the Great as the Holy Roman Empire, 77, 78. + + Roman gentleman, life of, 4. + + Roman people, antagonism to Papacy, 60; + local politics of, 67; + savageness, 68. + + Rome, its splendour, 2; + fall, 5; + Christian, 9; + Theodoric's visit, 14; + relation to the Empire, 53; + parties in, 133, 134; + no despotism in, 194; + reduced to papal obedience, 268; + sack by Bourbon's army, 279, 280; + in High Renaissance, 288; + visited by Montaigne, 328-331; + compared with Venice as to freedom, 328, 329; + riots in, 390; + Republic declared, 390; + defends itself against French, 391-394; + Roman question, 405; + occupied by Italian troops, 407; + becomes seat of national government, 408. + + Romulus Augustulus, 1. + + Roncaglia, diet of, 110, 111. + + Rospigliosi, see Clement IX, Pope. + + Rosselli, 288. + + Rossellino, Antonio, 244. + + Rossetti, 377. + + Rossi, Pellegrino, murdered, 390. + + Rossini, 358. + + Rovere, della, Francesco, see Sixtus IV, Pope. + + Rovere, della, Giuliano, see Julius II, Pope. + + Rovere, della, family, dukes of Urbino, 303. + + Rovigo, visited by Montaigne, 323. + + Rule of St. Benedict, 34. + + Rule of St. Francis, 132. + + Ruskin on Bronzino, 309. + + + St. Benedict, 33, 34. + + St. Clare, 130. + + St. Columbanus, 36, 37. + + Sta. Croce, church of, 188. + + St. Francis, 125-132. + + St. Francis de Sales, 345. + + St. Francis Xavier, 345. + + St. Jerome on destruction of Rome, 5. + + St. John Lateran, church of, in Innocent's dream, 126; + Henry VII crowned in, 159. + + Sta. Maria degli Angeli, 129, 306. + + Sta. Maria del Carmine, 240, 248. + + St. Paul, basilica of, sacked by Saracens, 73; + in Jubilee of 1300, 147, 148. + + St. Peter, basilica of, described, 55, 56; + sacked by Saracens, 73; + enclosed in walls, 74; + in Jubilee, 147; + held by the Guelfs, 159; + plan to rebuild, 252; + rebuilt, 289, 290; + dome completed, 344; + colonnade, 351. + + St. Peter Damian on lay investiture, 87. + + St. Sophia, church of, 38. + + St. Theresa, 345. + + St. Thomas Aquinas, 178, 179. + + St. Zeno, church of, in Verona, 194. + + Salerno, 70, 92, 104. + + San Gallo, da, Antonio, the younger, 290. + + San Gallo, da, Francesco, account of discovery of Laocoön, 291. + + San Gallo, da, Giuliano, 244, 289, 290, 291. + + Sansovino, Jacopo Tatti, 306, 311. + + Saracens, 40; + conquests of, 41; + in Sicily, 73; + in Italy, 73. + + Sardinia, conveyed to Savoy, 341; + dukes of Savoy become kings of Sardinia, Kingdom of, see Piedmont. + + Sarpi, Paolo, Fra, 337, 338. + + Sassoferrato, 352. + + Savonarola, 248, 258-262. + + Savoy, 172 (see also Piedmont); + its situation and princes, 173; + becomes duchy, 229; + during wars between Francis I and Charles V, 296; + becomes an Italian state, 296; + in 17th and 18th centuries, 343. + + Savoy, House of, 173. + + Scala, della, House of (the Scaligers), 194-198; + burial place of, 196. + + Scala, della, Can Grande, 195, 196; + aided by Henry VII, 198. + + Scala, della, Mastino, 196, 197; + his defeat, 197, 198. + + Scaligers, see Scala della, House of. + + Scarlatti, Alessandro, 358. + + Scarlatti, Domenico, 358. + + Schism, the Great, 218-220. + + Sebastiano del Piombo, 312. + + Segnatura, Stanza della, 290. + + Sella, Quintino, 413. + + Sforza, House of, becomes extinct, 257, 258. + + Sforza, Alessandro, lord of Pesaro, 250. + + Sforza, Attendolo (Muzio Attendolo), 222. + + Sforza, Francesco, 222; + becomes Duke of Milan, 250; + dealings with humanists, 250; + death, 253. + + Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, 254, 255. + + Sforza, Lodovico, il Moro, 255-257, 281. + + Sicilian Vespers, 162. + + Sicily (see also Two Sicilies), practically Greek, 42; + Norman conquest, 93; + under Henry VI, 114; + under Frederick II, 141, 142; + under Charles of Anjou, 161, 162; + Sicilian Vespers, 162; + under House of Aragon, 162; + about 1350, 201; + appanage of Aragon, 223; + no share in Renaissance, 249; + under legitimate branch of House of Aragon, 263; + under Spanish viceroys, 294; + conveyed to Savoy, to Austria, to Spanish Bourbons, 341; + prior to 1789, 364; + loses its autonomy, 368; + in 1848, 386, 390; + revolution put down, 391; + expedition of Garibaldi and Mille, 403. + + Siena, conquered by Florence, 294; + visited by Montaigne, 327. + + Sigismund, Emperor, 220. + + Signorelli, 288. + + Silvester, Pope, legend of, 45-47. + + Simony, movement against, 86. + + Sistine Chapel, 288; + Michelangelo's frescoes, 290. + + Sixtus IV, Pope, 270, 271, 286. + + Sixtus V, Pope, 344. + + Sodoma, 309. + + Solferino, 400. + + Spain, 37; + invasions by, 253, 254; + acquires Milan, 257; + Naples, 263, 264; + predominant in Italy, 276; + secure hold, 293; + government in Milan, 294; + in Naples and Sicily, 294. + + Spanish Steps, the, in Rome, 351, 360. + + Spielberg prison, 371. + + Spoleto, a Lombard duchy, 28, 69; + visited by Montaigne, 331. + + Stradivarius, 359. + + Strozzi palace, in Florence, 244, 245. + + Summa Theologiæ, of Thomas Aquinas, 178. + + + Tasso, Torquato, on the Book of the Courtier, 284; + life, 309, 310; + seen by Montaigne, 324. + + Theodora, 75, 76. + + Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, 12; + victory over Odoacer, 13; + difficulties, 13; + policy, 14; + visit to Rome, 14; + dealings with Empire, 15; + with Church, 17; + breach with Church, 20; + death, 20. + + Thomas Aquinas, see St. Thomas Aquinas. + + Tiepolo, 352. + + Tintoretto, 312. + + Titian, 312. + + Totila, 21, 22. + + Trade, spirit of, 103; + with North and East, 166, 167; + impediments to, 167, 168. + + Trent, Council of, 300-302. + + Trevi, fountain of, 351, 360. + + Turin, 334, 375. + + Turks, capture Constantinople, 264; + conquer parts of Venetian Empire, 297; + wars with Venice, 338, 339. + + Tuscany, 69; + a marquisate, 94; + a Grand Duchy, 303; + visited by Montaigne, 325-327; + passes to Austrian dukes on failure of Medicean line, 342; + prior to 1739, 363; + restoration in, after Napoleon's fall, 367; + takes part in war against Austria, 388; + defeated, 389; + Grand Duke runs away, 390; + returns, 391; + subservient to Austria, 397; + runs away again, 401; + united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, 401, 402. + + Two Sicilies, Kingdom of (see also Sicily and Naples), 93; + under Manfred, 143; + conquered by Charles of Anjou, 144; + absolute monarchy, 193, 194; + united under Alfonso of Aragon, 223; + fall apart on his death, 263; + pass to Charles V, 264; + 1494-1516, 263, 264; + unites with Kingdom of Italy, 405. + + + Uffizi palace, in Florence, 294; + picture gallery, 295. + + Ugolino, see Gregory IX, Pope. + + Universities, 177; + of Bologna, 177, 178. + + Urban VI, Pope, 218. + + Urban VIII, Pope, 346. + + Urbino, 249; + library at, 251; + society in, 282, 283; + absorbed by Papacy, 295; + visited by Montaigne, 332. + + Utrecht, treaty of, 341. + + Uzzano, Niccolò da, 230. + + + Vandals, 5, 21. + + Vasari, on Brunelleschi, 235, 236; + on Donatello, 238, 239; + on Masaccio, 240; + on Leonardo, 285, 286; + on Raphael, 290, 291; + himself, 306. + + Vatican Council, 410. + + Vatican library, 252. + + Vatican palace, 252, 287, 288, 290. + + Venice, 70; + origin, 105; + character, 105, 106; + trade, 106, 107; + Barbarossa and Alexander III at, 112; + Fourth Crusade, 118, 119; + isolation, 170; + government, 171; + patricians, 171; + wars with Genoa, 172; + Great Council, 172; + oligarchy, 172; + about 1350, 202; + growth, 223; + wars with Genoa, 224; + four stages, 224; + oligarchy in control, 225; + tranquillity, 226; + 1453-1508, 264-266; + League of Cambrai, 265, 266; + wars with Turks, 297; + Lepanto, 297; + the Carità, 307; + fine arts, 310-313; + visited by Montaigne, 322, 323; + freedom compared with that in Rome, 328, 329; + 1580-1789, 335-339; + quarrel with Papacy, 336, 337; + wars with Turks, 338, 339; + conquers the Morea, 338; + opera in, 357; + music in, 359; + prior to 1789, 362; + extinction of Republic, 365; + given to Austria, 367; + in 1848, a Republic again, 387, 388; + jealous of Piedmont, 389; + surrenders to Austria, 394; + united to Italy, 407. + + Verona, emotional peace of, 176, 177; + description of, 194; + under Scaligers, 195-198; + seized by Venice, 224; + temporarily under Milan, 227; + taken by Venice, 228; + claimed by empire, 265; + visited by Montaigne, 320. + + Veronese, Paolo, 312. + + Verrocchio, 244, 247; + Leonardo's master, 286. + + Vicenza, conquered by Can Grande, 195, 196; + buildings in, 306, 307; + visited by Goethe, 307; + by Montaigne, 321. + + Vico, 349, 350. + + Victor Emmanuel, see Vittorio Emanuele II. + + Vienna, Congress of, 366, 367. + + Vienna, Peace of, 341. + + Vignola, Giacomo Barozzi da, 305, 306. + + Villa Borghese, 351. + + Villa di Papa Giulio, 306. + + Villa Medici, 351. + + Villani, Giovanni, on Boniface VIII, 146; + on Dante, 152, 153; + on Florence, 182, 183; + death, 211. + + Vinci, Leonardo da, 256, 285-287. + + Visconti, House of, despots of Milan, 198, 199; + aided by Henry VII, 198; + their ambitions, 199; + about 1350, 202; + their despotism, 215, 216; + end of, 250. + + Visconti, Bernabò, 215, 216. + + Visconti, Bianca Maria, 229. + + Visconti, Filippo Maria, 228; death, 250. + + Visconti, Galeazzo II, 216. + + Visconti, Gian Galeazzo, 216; + career, 226; + buildings, 226; + death, 227. + + Visconti, Giovanni (Archbishop), 215. + + Visigoths, 5. + + Vittorio Emanuele I, 375. + + Vittorio Emanuele II, 390; + character, 397, 398; + French alliance and Austrian War, 400, 401; + hailed King of Italy by Garibaldi, 404; + alliance with Prussia, 407; + war with Austria, 407; + enters Venice, 407; + takes possession of Rome, 407, 408; + death, 413. + + Vittorio Emanuele III, 416. + + Volta, 362. + + + War of Polish Succession, 340, 341. + + War of Spanish Succession, 340, 341. + + Werner, duke, 213. + + Worms, diet of, 278. + + Wyclif, 220. + + + Young Italy, 381. + + + Zacharias, Pope, 44. + + Zara, captured by Crusaders, 118. + + Zeno, Carlo, 224. + + + + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the | + | original document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 290 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare | + | Page 296 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare | + | Page 332 Montefeltre changed to Montefeltro | + | Page 350 lotos changed to lotus | + | Page 439 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare | + | Page 441 Pelegrino changed to Pellegrino | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Short History of Italy, by Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY *** + +***** This file should be named 35363-8.txt or 35363-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/6/35363/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Carl Hudkins, Jonathan Niehof +(media provider) and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Short History of Italy + (476-1900) + +Author: Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +Release Date: February 22, 2011 [EBook #35363] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Carl Hudkins, Jonathan Niehof +(media provider) and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="50%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="List" style="border: 1pt black solid;"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" width="100%" style="padding-top: .75em; font-size: 120%;"><b>By Henry D. Sedgwick</b></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">~~~~~~~~~~</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY. With Maps. Crown 8vo, <i>$2.00 net</i>. Postage + 17 cents.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">FRANCIS PARKMAN. 16mo, <i>$1.10 net</i>. Postage 10 cents. <i>In + American Men of Letters Series.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">ESSAYS ON GREAT WRITERS. Crown 8vo, gilt top, <i>$1.50 net</i>. + Postage, 13 cents.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. Small 16mo, 65 cents <i>net</i>. Postage, 6 + cents. <i>In Riverside Biographical Series.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"><br />HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" style="padding-bottom: .75em;"><span class="smcap">Boston and New York.</span></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/frontistn.jpg" width="45%" alt="Map of Italy" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Click image for larger version.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h1>A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY</h1> +<h3>(476-1900)</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.jpg" width="10%" alt="Publisher's Mark" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4> BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br /> + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br /> + The Riverside Press, Cambridge</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK<br /> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED<br /> +<br /> +<i>Published November 1905</i></h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h3>TO<br /> +<br /> +H. D. S., C. D. S., R. M. S., W. E. S.,<br /> +A. C. S., F. M. S., and T. S.</h3> +<br /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 35%;"><i>O passi graviora ...</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 39%;">... <i>forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<br /> + +<p>This volume is a mere sketch in outline; it makes no pretence to +original investigation, or even to an extended examination of the +voluminous literature which deals with every part of its subject. It is +an attempt to give a correct impression of Italian history as a whole, +and employs details only here and there, and then merely for the sake of +giving greater clearness to the general outline. So brief a narrative is +mainly a work of selection; and perhaps no two persons would agree upon +what to put in and what to leave out. I have laid emphasis upon the +matters of greatest general interest, the Papacy, the Renaissance, and +the Risorgimento; and my special object has been to put in high relief +those achievements which make Italy so charming and so interesting to +the world, and to give what space was possible to the great men to whom +these achievements are due.</p> + + +<p class="right">H. D. S.</p> +<p style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><span class="smcap">New York</span>, October 1, 1905.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Taable of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp" style="font-size: 80%;" width="12%">CHAPTER</td> + <td class="tdl" width="83%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" style="font-size: 80%;" width="5%">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">I.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Fall of the Empire in the West + (476 A. D.</span>)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">II.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Ostrogoths (489-553)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">III.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Lombard Invasion (568)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Church (568-700)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">V.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Coming of the Franks (726-768)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Charlemagne (768-814)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">From Charlemagne to Nicholas I (814-867)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Degradation of Italy (867-962)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Revival of the Papacy (962-1056)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">X.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Struggle over Investitures (1059-1123)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Trade against Feudalism (1152-1190)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Triumph of the Papacy (1198-1216)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">St. Francis (1182-1226)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XIV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Fall of the Empire (1216-1250)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Fall of the Mediæval Papacy (1303)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XVI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Last Flicker of the Empire (1309-1313)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XVII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">A Review of the States of Italy (about 1300)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XVIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">XIX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Intellectual Dawn after the Middle Ages (1260-1336)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Despotisms (1250-1350)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Classical Revival (1350)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Ills of the Fourteenth Century</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">A Bird's-Eye View (1350-1450)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXIV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Early Renaissance (1400-1450)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Renaissance (1450-1492)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXVI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Barbarian Invasions (1494-1537)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXVII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Papal Monarchy (1471-1527)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXVIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The High Renaissance (1499-1521)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>XXIX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Italy and the Catholic Revival (1527-1563)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Cinquecento (16th Century)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_304">304</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">A Survey of Italy (1580-1581)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Age of Stagnation, Politics (1580-1789)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_335">335</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Age of Stagnation, the Arts (1580-1789)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_348">348</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXIV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Napoleonic Era (1789-1820)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_361">361</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Reawakening (1820-1821)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXVI.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Perturbed Inactivity (1821-1847)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXVII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Tumultuous Years (1848-1849)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXVIII.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">The Unity of Italy (1849-1871)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_395">395</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXXIX.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Conclusion (1872-1900)</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_409">409</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="3">APPENDIX</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">I.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Chronological Table of Popes and Emperors</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_421">421</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">II.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Genealogy of the Medici</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_428">428</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrtp">III.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">Skeleton Table of the Kings of the Two Sicilies</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_429">429</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl smcap">List of Books for General Reading</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_430">430</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + <td class="tdl">INDEX</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_433">433</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> + +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST (476 A. D.)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In the year 476 an unfortunate young man, mocked with the great names of +the founders of the City and of the Empire, Romulus Augustus, nicknamed +Augustulus, was deposed from the throne of the Cæsars by a Barbarian +general in the Imperial service, and the Roman Empire in Italy came to +its end. This act was but the outward sign that the power of Italy was +utterly gone, and that in the West at least the Barbarians were +indisputably conquerors in the long struggle which they had carried on +for centuries with the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>That Empire, at the period of its greatness, embraced all the countries +around the Mediterranean Sea; it was the political embodiment of the +Mediterranean civilization. In Europe, to the northeast, it reached as +far as the Rhine and the Danube; it included England. Beyond the Rhine +and the Danube dwelt the Barbarians. Europe was thus divided into two +parts, the civilized and the Barbarian: one, a great Latin empire which +rested upon slavery, and was governed by a highly centralized +bureaucracy; the other, a collection of tribes of Teutonic blood, bound +together in a very simple form of society, and essentially democratic in +character.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>The Empire, composed of many races, Etruscan, Ligurian, Iberian, Celtic, +Basque, Greek, Egyptian, and divers others, had been created and +maintained by the military and administrative genius of Rome. Over all +these people Roman law and Roman order prevailed. All enjoyed the <i>Pax +Romana</i>. From Cadiz to Milan, from Milan to Byzantium, from Byzantium to +Palmyra, stretched the great Roman roads. Coins, weights, and measures +were everywhere the same. The inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and Europe, +enfranchised by an Imperial edict, were thankful to be Roman citizens. +To this day Roman law, the Romance languages, and the Roman Catholic +Church testify to the vigour and solidity of Roman dominion. The city of +Rome was, and had been for centuries, the head of the world. From east +and west, from north and south, booty, spoils, taxes, tribute had flowed +into Rome. Even after the seat of government had been removed to +Constantinople (<span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 330), visitors from the new capital were +astounded to behold the Roman temples, baths, amphitheatres, forums, +circuses, and palaces, all glittering with marble and bronze. But the +riches acquired by conquest and tribute had brought seeds of evil with +them. Society was divided into the very rich and the very poor; the +simple laborious life of the freemen of ancient Rome was gone; the +regular occupations of production had been abandoned to serfs and +slaves; moderate incomes and plain living had disappeared. The middle +class had been thrust down to the level of the plebs. In the country the +small proprietors had been reduced to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>a position little better than +that of the serfs, while the great landlords had got vast tracts of land +into their hands. Nearly half the population were slaves. Taxes had +become heavier and heavier as the exigencies of the Empire grew; great +numbers of officials were maintained, and great mercenary armies. The +rich controlled the government, and shifted almost the whole burden of +taxation from their own shoulders to those of the poor. In the cities, +each imitating Rome so far as it could, had grown up a vicious +unemployed class, living on the distribution of bread which was paid for +out of the public revenues.</p> + +<p>On the farther side of the Rhine and the Danube, in marked contrast with +this society, the Teutonic Barbarians tilled their lands and herded +their flocks. They dwelt in little communities which were banded +together into tribes; and these in turn were united in a sort of loose +confederation, which assumed the semblance of a nation only when under +the necessity of military action, and then the adult male population +constituted the army. Their buildings were of the humblest character, +their clothes rude, their arts primitive; they could neither read nor +write, and their men cared for little besides hunting and fighting. They +were, however, a free, self-respecting, self-governing people, electing +their king, and meeting in one great assembly to enact their laws. On +the Roman borders the Barbarians had become Christians, unfortunately +not Trinitarians, but mere Arians, heretics in the eyes of the orthodox +Catholics; so their Christianity hardly served to smooth their relations +with the Romans.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>The differences between these two divisions of Europe were about as +great as between ourselves and the Don Cossacks. A Roman gentleman +living in Gaul, for example, would have a villa in Auvergne, built high +upon the hills in order to get the breezes and the view. Here was a +bath-house, a fish-pond, separate apartments for the women, a pillared +portico that overlooked a lake, a winter drawing-room, a summer parlour, +etc. In this agreeable place, in his times of leisure, the owner would +stroll about his grounds, play tennis, cultivate his garden, read Virgil +and Claudian, compose epigrams, write letters to his friends in the vein +of Horace's Satires, gossip about the doings at the Imperial court or +talk philosophy. The pleasant, luxurious life of Roman gentlemen was not +very different from luxurious life in America to-day.</p> + +<p>The Barbarians in their native forests were hardly aware of Roman +civilization; and those on the border made a marked contrast with the +Romans. The young kings were superb athletes, sparing at table, and +attentive to their kingly duties. The Barbarian elders admired Roman +civilization, but were "stiff and lumpish in body and mind." The young +men, six feet or more in height, with long, yellow hair, were great +eaters of garlic and indelicate viands; they went about bare-legged, +booted with rough ox-leather, and wore short-sleeved garments of divers +colours, belted tight, with swords dangling at their backs, shields at +side, and battle-axes in their hands.</p> + +<p>It would be a mistake, however, to draw a very sharp line between these +two opposing divisions of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>Europe. The Teutons were called Barbarians +because they were not Romans, but many of them had been trained in the +Roman armies and had lived in Constantinople, Trier, or Milan, and were +well accustomed to Roman military arts and discipline; in fact, the +Roman army was recruited mainly from among the Barbarians. Roman traders +dealt with them regularly. In one way and another the Barbarians, +especially their leaders, had come under the educating influence of +Roman civilization, and they regarded that civilization with an +amazement and a respect that at times deepened into awe.</p> + +<p>But though a sharp line cannot be drawn, yet at bottom Romans and +Barbarians were far apart. It was impossible that two societies of such +divergent civilization should exist side by side in peace; one must +conquer the other. The struggle between the Empire and its enemies had +been almost continuous since the days of Julius Cæsar, and for several +centuries the Empire had prevailed; but social disintegration within had +proceeded rapidly, and by the beginning of the fifth century the +Empire's doom had come. Rome herself, the original home of empire, lay +"nerveless, dead, unsceptred," open to any takers; and takers came. The +Visigoths, under Alaric, captured the city in 410 and were merciful; the +Vandals, under Genseric, captured it in 455 and were cruel.</p> + +<p>The fall of Rome, which we now see to have been inevitable, came, +however, with a terrible shock to the civilized world. St. Jerome, who +had gone to the wilderness near Bethlehem in order to meditate upon the +prophets, wrote: "My voice is choked and my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>sobs interrupt the words +which I write; the city is subdued which subdued the world.... Who could +believe that Rome, which was built of the spoils of the whole earth, +would fall, that the city could, at the same time, be the cradle and +grave of her people; that all the coasts of Asia, Egypt, and Africa +should be filled with the slaves and maidens of Rome? That holy +Bethlehem should daily receive, as beggars, men and women who formerly +were conspicuous for their wealth and luxury?"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>The city of Rome had been deemed immortal; it had become almost sacred +from long veneration; and when Rome fell, the Empire in the West had not +a prop to rest upon. Spain was taken by the Suevi and the Visigoths, +Gaul by the Franks, Burgundians, and Alemanni, England by Angles and +Saxons, Africa by the Vandals; and, with the deposition of Romulus +Augustulus, Italy, too, became the prize of a Barbarian general.</p> + +<p>The succeeding period of European history, in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Italy, is the mingling or attempted mingling of the old populations of +the Empire with the Barbarian conquerors. The process had, indeed, as I +have intimated, begun before the fall of the Empire. For several +generations Barbarians had not only been received as colonists and taken +as soldiers, but even whole tribes had been admitted within the Roman +boundaries. Imperial statesmen had realized that the Empire could only +be upheld by an infusion of Barbarian virility, and they had favoured +the process. But assimilation <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>had not taken place, and now that the +Empire had passed into the hands of the Barbarians there were two social +strata,—the rude martial conquerors on top, and the civilized, feeble, +subject race, ten times as numerous, underneath. It was obvious to the +wiser Barbarian chiefs, trained as they were in Roman ways, that if they +were to get stable dominion and civilized government, they must adopt +the complicated Imperial machinery. They saw that unless the Barbarians +learned Roman civilization, they would need hundreds of years to create +any such civilization of their own. This was especially true in Italy. +Odoacer, the general who deposed Romulus Augustulus, well knew that a +state which had its military service all Barbarian and its civil service +all Roman could not stand firm. Barbarian sovereignty needed support, +especially legal support, in the eyes of the subject population. Such +legitimacy could only come from the Empire. Odoacer and other +intelligent Barbarians turned instinctively to Constantinople for +recognition. They did not think that they had overturned or suppressed +the Empire. Nobody thought that there were two Empires, one Eastern and +one Western, one enduring and one destroyed in 476. To the Roman world +the Empire had always been single, had always been a unit. The division +into eastern and western parts had been made for convenience of +administration; the Empire itself had never been divided. Even after the +western countries of Europe had been overrun by the Barbarians, the +Emperor at Constantinople remained the supreme and sole source of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>authority and law. The very Barbarians could not free themselves from +this theory, however little heed they paid to it in practice. Odoacer +acknowledged the sovereignty of the Empire without question. He merely +wished to control the civil and military administration in Italy.</p> + +<p>Before beginning a sketch of the attempts to found a permanent Barbarian +government in Italy and to combine Barbarians and Romans in one people, +it is necessary to speak of a rising power which already constituted the +most important element in the situation. The Church was not only the one +vigorous body in Italy, but it had already begun to foreshadow its +future greatness. In the time of Constantine (323-337) and his immediate +successors, the bishops of Rome had no primacy over other bishops, but +they had claims to precedence, which they soon put to good use. Their +city was the cradle and home of Roman dominion. St. Paul had lived and +died there. Above all, as was universally acknowledged, the apostle +Peter had founded their bishopric. Theirs, in an especial sense, was the +Church to which Christ referred when He said to the apostle, "Thou art +Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it." The bishops of Rome also derived immense +advantage from the absence of a temporal prince; whereas their chief +rivals, the patriarchs of Constantinople, were wholly eclipsed by the +presence of the Emperor. The removal of the great offices of government +to Constantinople and the absence of any real civil life, had left Rome +even then a mere ecclesiastical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>city, and the head of the Church became +the most important personage there. It was so generally acknowledged +that Roman bishops were entitled to that precedence in rank over other +bishops, which Rome enjoyed over other cities, that in 344 an Ecumenical +Council submitted a most important question to the decision of the Roman +See. One hundred years later the great pope, Leo I, merely gave +utterance to the general opinion when he said: "St. Peter and St. Paul +are the Romulus and Remus of the new Rome, as much superior to the old +as truth is to error. If ancient Rome was at the head of the pagan +world, St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, came to teach in the new Rome, +so that from her the light of Christianity should be shed over the +world."</p> + +<p>The Roman Church gathered to herself whatever remained of the +administrative ability of ancient Rome. With acute practical sense she +condemned those subtle doctrines that kept springing up in the East, +late flashes of Greek metaphysics; and though she may have cut herself +off from certain spiritual Neoplatonic thought, and have set her heart +too much upon domination, yet by her very adherence to dogma, by her +very insistence upon uniform law and obedience, by steadfastly +maintaining the purity and the unity of the Faith, she became the great +cohesive force in Europe, and by creating Christendom contributed +immensely to the cause of European civilization. Partly by good fortune, +partly by her success in making her cause prevail, Rome was always +orthodox. She remained staunchly Trinitarian. She fought the Arians, who +believed that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>the Son, created by the Father, could not be identical +with Him and could not have existed from the beginning. She fought the +Nestorians, who alleged that the Virgin was the mother of Christ only in +so far as He was man. She fought the Monophysites, who denied that +Christ had two distinct natures, human and divine. She fought always +gallantly, and always, or almost always, in the end triumphantly. In +those days ecclesiastical affairs were inseparable from political +affairs; no man dreamed of severing them either in fact or in theory; +the State and the Church were one fabric under a double aspect. The idea +of the State apart from the Church, or the Church apart from the State, +was no more imagined than the Darwinian theory.</p> + +<p>If we now go back to Odoacer, and to his Barbarian successors, we shall +find that in their endeavours to establish an Italian kingdom they were +confronted by a threefold task,—to blend the Barbarian conquerors and +the subject Latins, to establish friendly relations with the Empire, and +to win the confidence and support of the Orthodox Church. In all the +long period of Barbarian dominion, each Barbarian chief in turn had to +face the imminent danger that these three political powers, the subject +people, the Church, and the Empire, should make common cause against +him. The Barbarians, in fact, were always unsuccessful. They never were +able to make Italy into one kingdom. These three enemies were too strong +for them. The inherent difficulties of the situation appear at once on +the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, and give whatever interest there +is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>to Odoacer's brief career. Over that career, which bridges the years +476 to 489, we need not pause, for Odoacer's attempt to establish a +permanent government over all Italy was so ephemeral, and also so +similar in all essential features to that of the Ostrogoths, his +successors, that an account of their attempt may serve for his as well.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Rome in the Middle Ages</i>, Gregorovius, vol. i, pp. 167, +168.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE OSTROGOTHS (489-553)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Ostrogoths were a fine people; and historians have speculated sadly +on the immense advantage, the vast saving of ills, that would have +accrued to Italy had they succeeded in their attempt to establish a +kingdom. Such a union of strength and vigour with the gifted Italian +nature might well have produced a happy result. But my business is +merely to indicate why and how the attempt failed.</p> + +<p>The Ostrogoths (East Goths), one branch of the great Gothic nation, of +which the Visigoths (West Goths) were the other, immediately prior to +their invasion of Italy inhabited Pannonia (now Austria) on the south +side of the Danube. They were a warlike people, and had given much +trouble to the Eastern Emperors, who had been obliged not only to bestow +upon them territory, but also to pay tribute. The reigning Emperor +eagerly seized the first opportunity to rid himself of them. He +suggested to their king, Theodoric,—hunter, soldier, statesman, a +big-limbed, heroic man, passionate but just,—that he should lead his +people into Italy, conquer Odoacer, and rule as Imperial lieutenant. As +Italy was far pleasanter than Pannonia, Theodoric gladly accepted the +suggestion.</p> + +<p>The Goths, not more than two or three hundred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>thousand persons all +told, effected their tedious emigration in 488-489. It was an easy +matter to defeat the unstable Odoacer, and the Latins made no +resistance. Theodoric, now master of Italy, both by right of conquest +and by Imperial commission, set himself, in his turn, to the task of +uniting Barbarians and Romans throughout the peninsula under one stable +government. His difficulties were great. In the first place the +immigrating people whom he led, though mainly Goths, were a medley of +various tribes, and constituted an alien army of occupation in the midst +of an unfriendly population, perhaps ten times their number. This Roman +population, which had completely given up the use of arms, and never +took part in any fight more formidable than a riot, was largely urban +and lived in the cities which were scattered over Italy, almost the same +that exist to this day. In the north were Turin, Pavia, Ferrara, Milan, +Bergamo, Verona, Aquileia; on the east coast, Ravenna, Rimini, Ancona; +on the west coast and in the centre, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Perugia, +Spoleto, Rome, Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Amalfi; and in the south, the +old Greek cities. All the ordinary business of life was in Roman hands; +lawyers, physicians, weavers, spinners, carpenters, masons, cobblers, +were Roman. Many of the workmen on great estates were also Roman. The +Goths were primarily men-at-arms, and only exercised such rude crafts as +were required in village communities. The leaders became military +landowners. Naturally each race looked upon the other with suspicion, +dislike, and contempt. It is obvious that there was need of both <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>time +and statesmanship before the two races would understand each other, +share occupations, inter-marry, and feel themselves countrymen.</p> + +<p>Theodoric's policy falls under three heads,—relations with the subject +population, with the Emperor, and with the Church. With the Romans +Theodoric was just and considerate; he limited the division of lands +among his followers, so far as he could, to those lands which Odoacer's +followers had had; he left civil administration chiefly in Roman hands; +he let Romans live under Roman law and Goths under Gothic law. He +employed as his chief counsellor Cassiodorus, a great Roman noble of +wealth and learning; he issued a code compiled from the Imperial codes; +he reduced the taxation. Following the custom of the late Western +Emperors, he dwelt in Ravenna, where <i>S. Apollinare Nuovo, S. Spirito</i>, +a baptistery, and a mausoleum still testify to his presence. When the +State had been put in order, Theodoric made a royal progress to Rome +(500), where he was welcomed with Imperial honours. He promised to +uphold all the institutions established by Roman Emperors, and showed +himself as much interested in the city as if he had been a Roman. He +provided carefully for the preservation of all the monuments of +antiquity, repaired the walls, the aqueducts, the <i>cloacae</i>, and drained +the Pontine Marshes. He spoke of Rome as "the city which is indifferent +to none, since she is foreign to none; the fruitful mother of eloquence, +the spacious temple of every virtue, comprising within herself all the +cherished marvels of the universe, so that it may in truth be said, Rome +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>is herself one great marvel."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> He renewed the distribution of bread, +celebrated games in the circus, and treated the Senate with great +distinction. In fact, until his breach with the Church, which turned all +the orthodox population against him, he walked closely in the Imperial +footsteps and was very successful in his relations with the Latin +people.</p> + +<p>Dealings with the Emperor were more difficult. Immediately after his +victory over Odoacer, Theodoric had asked the Emperor for the regalia +(the crown jewels and Imperial vestments) of the West, which had been +sent to Constantinople upon the deposition of Romulus Augustulus. This +embassy had been at first fobbed off, but finally the regalia were sent +him in token of full recognition of his authority. In the mean time +Theodoric's army without waiting for permission from the Emperor had +proclaimed him king; and in practice Theodoric always acted as an +independent king. In theory, however, he accepted the inclusion of Italy +in the Empire as a fundamental principle, and acknowledged that his +position was merely that of ruler of one of the Imperial provinces. The +Emperors, compelled by impotence to acquiesce in Theodoric's lieutenancy +of Italy, wished him in their hearts all possible bad luck, and bided +their time to make trouble for him. But this ill will was concealed +beneath the surface, and for about thirty years his relations with the +Empire, with some interruptions, were amicable enough.</p> + +<p>Before speaking of Theodoric's relations with the Church, which were a +matter of politics, and had to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>be considered by him on general grounds +of policy, it is necessary to speak of the relations between the Church +and the Emperor, for the latter affected the former. There were always +difficulties, active or latent, between the Roman Church and the Empire. +There was jealousy between old Rome and new Constantinople. There was +misunderstanding between the Latin and Greek mind. There was friction +between Papal and Imperial authority. These troubles will appear more +clearly as we proceed. At this time it is only necessary to say that +during the first thirty years of Theodoric's reign, his period of +success and prosperity, there was discord between Pope and Emperor, a +kind of schism. The Byzantine Emperors, often men of cultivation, living +in the most civilized city of the world, interested themselves in +theology, and liked nothing better than to tinker with the Faith. To +this, also, they were pushed by political needs. Their subjects were +divided into the orthodox and the heterodox; and this diversity of +belief was always a menace to political unity. To heal the breach, the +reigning Emperor devised a scheme of compromise, a <i>via media</i>, on which +he hoped all would unite. The Papacy, incensed by this trifling with +orthodoxy, and by the assumption of an Imperial right to interfere in +matters of faith, denounced the compromise. A schism was the +consequence, which lasted until the reign of the Emperor Justin +(518-527), when the crafty statesman who guided Justin's policy, his +nephew, the famous Justinian, effected a reconciliation. For Justinian +already cherished an ambition to win back <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>Italy for the Empire; and he +knew that that could not be done without the support of the Papacy. In +519 a papal embassy bearing the olive branch was warmly welcomed at +Constantinople; both Emperor and nephew condemned the compromise and +accepted the orthodox Catholic faith. Thus the breach was healed.</p> + +<p>During the period of this breach between Empire and Papacy, the Gothic +king had managed his relations with the Church very prudently. Although +an Arian (like all Barbarians except the Franks), he was exceedingly +just to the Catholics. He carefully refrained from taking part in the +domestic affairs of the Church, until he was compelled to do so in the +interest of order. While in Rome he maintained a most correct attitude. +But though he acted with great moderation and only followed Imperial +precedents, the Church resented his interference. Do what Theodoric +would, the Papacy was his natural enemy. It felt instinctively that a +king of Italy must always overshadow the Pope, just as at Constantinople +the Emperor eclipsed the Patriarch, and that only upon condition of +keeping Italy without a strong government within its borders could the +Church attain its full stature. The ecclesiastical power was already +inimical to civil authority. The attitude of the Church toward Theodoric +presaged the history of the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, +and the kingdom of Italy in our day. Nevertheless, until the +reconciliation of Emperor and Pope, Theodoric had no serious trouble.</p> + +<p>About the year 524 the crafty Justinian, strong <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>in his complete +reconciliation with the Papacy, felt the time ripe to set about the +recovery of the lost provinces of the West, and made the first hostile +move. Perhaps, however, it is unjust to assign a purely political motive +to Justinian's action, for in his active Byzantine brain, policy, +theology, law, art, and ambition were curiously blended. An Imperial +edict was issued, persecuting Arians in various ways, and in particular +commanding that all Arian churches throughout the Empire should be +handed over to Catholics. This action of course received the approval of +the Pope, and was most effective in alienating the Arian Goths from the +Catholic Latins. Theodoric, who had been consistently tolerant to +Catholics, was very angry and threatened to retaliate by suppressing the +Catholic ritual throughout Italy. This threat threw the Papacy into +closer alliance with the Emperor, and aggrieved the Latin people. A new +generation had grown up in peace and comparative prosperity under +Theodoric's rule, and, forgetful that for these blessings it was +indebted to the Goths, began to give free play to its Latin prejudices. +Thus the three natural enemies of Gothic rule gradually drew together: +the Empire, from desire to recover Italy; the Papacy, to be rid of a +ruler; and the Latins, out of national prejudice.</p> + +<p>Intrigues were started between Constantinople and some leading men in +Rome. How far the conspiracy went nobody knew. The king was in no mood +to act judicially. Several senators were arrested on the charge of high +treason, tried before partial or irregular tribunals, and put to death. +Of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>these senators the most famous was Boethius, who stands at the end +of Roman civilization, as Dante stands at the beginning of modern +civilization. The long centuries between the two constitute the Middle +Ages. It is interesting to note that Dante in his desolation after the +death of Beatrice took to console him the book which Boethius wrote in +prison, the "Consolations of Philosophy."</p> + +<p>Boethius came of the most distinguished family in Rome. He and both his +sons had been consuls. He was a student of Plato, Aristotle, and of the +Neoplatonists; he had translated treatises on mathematics from the +Greek, and had written on philosophy and theology. He was an +encyclopedia of knowledge; when a hydraulic watch was wanted, or an +especially magnificent sundial, or a test to detect counterfeit money, +or a musician to be sent to a foreign potentate, he was the man to be +consulted. His "Consolations of Philosophy," which had immense vogue all +through the Middle Ages in every language, furnishes his apology, his +case against Theodoric, and gives the Latin view of the Barbarians. He +says: "The hatred against me was incurred while I was in office, because +I opposed the acts of oppression to which the Romans were subjected. The +greed of the Barbarians for the lands of the Romans, always unpunished, +grew greater day by day; they sought men's lives in order to get their +goods. How often have I protected and defended wretches from the +innumerable calumnies of the Barbarians who wished to devour them."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>To this Roman defence must be opposed the statement of a contemporary +historian: "Everything about the Barbarians, even the very smell of +them, was hateful to the Romans; nevertheless it often happened that +they, especially the poor, preferred the oppression of the Barbarians to +that of the Imperial officials. The rich Romans impose taxes but they do +not pay them; they make the poor pay them. And when peradventure the +taxes are diminished the relief goes not to the poor but to the rich; so +that, when it is a matter of paying it concerns the people, and when it +comes to the matter of reducing taxes it is as if the rich were the only +persons taxed at all. Not Franks, Huns, Vandals, nor Goths behave so +shamelessly."</p> + +<p>In spite of trials and executions Theodoric's anger and suspicion +increased; he compelled the Pope to go to Constantinople to ask that the +Arians be treated fairly and the Arian churches restored. The Pope +returned having obtained some favours for the Catholics, but nothing for +the Arians; whereupon Theodoric threw him into prison, and kept him +there till he died (526). He then nominated a successor, who was +promptly elected by the frightened Romans. This high-handed action +stimulated discontent so much that it seemed as if the time for a +Byzantine invasion had come, but Justinian, not having fully spun his +web, delayed. Perhaps he feared Theodoric and wished to wait for his +death. He did not have to wait long. That summer Theodoric died, and +with him Italy's best hopes died too.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>With Theodoric's death ended the possibility of a Gothic monarchy. Even +in his reign a process of deterioration had set in among the young +generation. The decadent civilization of Italy wrought with fatal effect +upon the simple Goths; the luxurious ways, the idle habits, even the +refinements of the Latins, robbed them of their vigour and independence +of character. The conquerors became divided among themselves; some +inclined to the old Gothic traditions, some to the Latin ways. The royal +house affords a conspicuous instance of this deterioration; the boy king +succumbed to debauchery, his mother fell a victim to her Latin +sympathies, and his cousin, last of the royal line, a student of +literature and philosophy, showed himself perfectly incapable of action +and was deposed by his soldiers. Justinian, the spider, had been biding +his opportunity; now it had surely come. The Goths were disintegrated; +the Papacy and Latin people were with him; and his great general, +Belisarius, fresh from the brilliant conquest of the Vandal kingdom in +Africa, was ready for the task. In 535 the war for the reconquest of +Italy began.</p> + +<p>The Goths were confused, divided, and without a leader, whereas +Belisarius was a man of military genius, and his army was composed of +veterans. The issue could not remain long in doubt. Naples, Rome, and +finally Ravenna, fell, and the reconquest would have been complete, but +that Justinian, jealous of a too successful general, recalled +Belisarius. The Goths improved their respite, and their king, Totila, a +very valiant soldier, for a time retrieved <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>their falling fortunes. +Justinian, however, who had a remarkable knowledge of men, appointed +general-in-chief an extraordinary little old man, Narses, who, devoid of +all military experience, had passed his life in the Imperial civil +service. Narses handled his men as if he had been born and bred in a +camp, and, after a comparatively brief campaign in which Totila was +killed, compelled the last remnant of the Gothic army to surrender +(553).</p> + +<p>Thus ended the first attempt to erect a Barbarian kingdom in Italy. Its +failure proved that without the support of the Catholic Church it was +impossible to establish a kingdom of Italy, for the Church controlled +the Latin people, and though these never fought, they had an hundred +ways of helping friends and hindering foes.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Rome in the Middle Ages</i>, Gregorovius, vol. i, p. 296.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Le invasioni barbariche</i>, Villari, pp. 167, 168, +translated.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE LOMBARD INVASION (568)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Imperial dominion over all Italy had lasted scarce a dozen years +before another Barbarian nation, the Lombards, came and repeated the +experiment in which the Goths had failed. The period of Lombard dominion +lasted two hundred years (568-774). It is rather an uninteresting time; +nevertheless, like most history, it has a dramatic side. It makes a play +for four characters. The Lombards occupy the larger part of the stage, +but the protagonist is the Papacy. The Empire is the third character. +Finally, the Franks come in and dispossess the Lombards. The plot, +though it must spread over several chapters, is simple.</p> + +<p>The scene of the play was pitiful. For nearly twenty years (535-553) +Italy had been one perpetual battlefield; whichever side won, the +unfortunate natives had to lodge and feed a foreign army, and endure all +the insolence of a brutal soldiery. Plague, pestilence, and famine +followed. The ordinary business of life came to a stop. Houses, +churches, aqueducts went to ruin; roads were left unmended, rivers +undiked. Great tracts of fertile land were abandoned. Cattle roamed +without herdsmen, harvests withered up, grapes shrivelled on the vines. +From lack of food came the pest. Mothers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>abandoned sick babies, sons +left their fathers' bodies unburied. The inhabitants of the cities fared +no better. Rome, for instance, had been captured five times. Before the +war her population had been 250,000; at its close not one tenth was +left. It is said that in one period every living thing deserted the +city, and for forty days the ancient mistress of the world lay like a +city of the dead. With peace came some respite; but the frightful +squeeze of Byzantine taxation was as bad as Barbarian conquest. Italy +sank into ignorance and misery. The Latin inhabitants hardly cared who +their masters were. They never had spirit enough to take arms and fight, +but meekly bowed their heads. Such was the scene on which these three +great actors, the Lombards, the Papacy, and the Empire, played their +parts. It is now time to describe the actors. We give precedence to the +Empire, as is its due.</p> + +<p>This remnant of the Roman Empire, with its capital on the confines of +Europe and Asia, was an anomalous thing. It is a wonder that it +continued to exist at all. In fact, there is no better evidence of the +immense solidity of Roman political organization than the prolonged life +of the Eastern Empire. The countries under its sway, Thrace, Illyria, +Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, had no bond to hold them +together, except common submission to one central authority. By the end +of the sixth century, the Roman Empire was really Greek. The Greek +language was spoken almost exclusively in Constantinople, Latin having +dropped even from official use. Yet the Empire was still regarded as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>the Roman Empire, and was looked up to by the young Barbarian kingdoms +of Europe with the respect which they deemed due to the Empire of +Augustus and Trajan. For instance, a king of the Franks addresses the +Emperor thus: "Glorious, pious, perpetual, renowned, triumphant Lord, +ever Augustus, my father Maurice, Imperator," and is content to be +called in return, "Childipert, glorious man, king of the Franks." Yet it +must be remembered that Constantinople at this time was the chief city +of Europe. Greek thought and Greek art lingered there. Justinian had +just built St. Sophia. In fact, Constantinople continued for centuries +to be the most civilized city in the world.</p> + +<p>The Imperial government was an autocracy; all the reins, civil, +military, ecclesiastical, were gathered into the hands of the Emperor. +Its foreign policy was to repel its enemies, Persians to the east, Avars +to the north, Arabs to the south; its domestic policy was to hold its +provinces together and to extort money. The Emperors, many of whom were +able men, usually spent such time as could be spared from questions of +national defence and of finance in the study of theology, for at +Constantinople the problems of government were in great measure +religious. Next to the actual physical needs of life, the main interest +of the people was religion. A statesman who sought to preserve the +Empire whole, of necessity endeavoured to hold together its incohesive +parts by means of religious unity. This political need of religious +unity is the explanation, in the main, of the frequent theological +edicts and enactments.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>The Emperors governed Italy, after the reconquest, by an Imperial +lieutenant, the Exarch, who resided at Ravenna, under a system of +administration preserved in mutilated form from times prior to the fall +of Romulus Augustulus. An attempt was made to keep civil and military +affairs separate, but the pressure of constant war threw all the power +into military hands. The peninsula, or such part of it as remained +Imperial after the Lombard invasion, was divided for administrative and +military purposes into dukedoms and counties, which were governed by +dukes and generals. The Byzantine officials were usually Greeks, bred in +Constantinople and trained in the Imperial system; they regarded +themselves as foreigners, and had neither the will nor the skill to be +of use to Italy. Their public business was to raise money for the +Empire, their private business to raise money for themselves.</p> + +<p>In spite of these oppressions the Latin people preferred the Greeks to +the Lombards, partly because of their common Greco-Roman civilization, +partly because the Empire was still the Roman Empire; and this popular +support stood the Empire in good stead in the long war which it waged +with the Lombards. The Latin people did not fight, but they gave food +and information. The Empire, however, was ill prepared for a contest. +The recall of Narses removed from Italy the last bulwark against +Barbarian invasion. The Imperial army was weak, cities were poorly +garrisoned, fortifications badly constructed; and, but for the control +of the sea which enabled the Empire to hold the towns on the sea-coast, +the whole of Italy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>would have fallen, like a ripe apple, into the hands +of the invaders. The Empire, in fact, was exhausted by the effort of +reconquest and had neither moral nor material strength to spare from its +home needs.</p> + +<p>The Lombards, if inferior in dignity to the Empire, played a far more +active part in this historic drama. They came originally from the +mysterious North, and after wandering about eastern Europe had at last +settled near the Danube, where part of them were converted to Arian +Christianity. Discontented with their habitation, and pressed by wilder +Barbarians behind them, they were glad to take advantage of the +defenceless condition of Italy. They knew how pleasant a land it was, +for many of them had served as mercenaries under Narses. The whole +nation, with a motley following from various tribes, amounted to about +two or three hundred thousand persons. They crossed the Alps in 568.</p> + +<p>There were many points of difference between these invaders and the +Goths. The Lombards had had little intercourse with the Empire, and were +far less civilized than their predecessors, and far inferior in both +military and administrative capacity. Their leader, Alboin, cannot be +compared in any respect with Theodoric. Moreover, Theodoric came, +nominally at least, as lieutenant of the Emperor, and affected to deem +his sovereignty the continuation of Imperial rule; whereas the Lombards +regarded only the title of the sword and invariably fought the Empire as +an enemy.</p> + +<p>The invaders met little active resistance; if they had had control of +the sea, they would readily have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>conquered the whole peninsula. They +overran the North and strips of territory down the centre within a few +years, and afterwards gradually spread little by little; but they never +conquered the South, the duchy of Rome, or the Adriatic coast. For the +greater part of the two hundred years during which the Lombard dominion +existed, the map of Italy bore the following aspect: the Empire retained +the little peninsula of Istria; the long strip of coast from the +lowlands of Venetia to Ancona, protected by its maritime cities, +Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Sinigaglia; and the duchy of Rome, which spread +along the Tyrrhene shore from Civita Vecchia to Gaeta; Naples and +Amalfi; the territories of the heel and toe; and also Sicily and +Sardinia. The boundaries were never fixed. Of the Lombard kingdom all +one need remember is that it was a loose confederation of three dozen +duchies; and that of these duchies, Spoleto, a little north of Rome, and +Benevento, a little northeast of Naples, were the most important, as +well as the most detached from the kingdom. In fact, these two were +independent duchies, and rarely if ever took commands from Pavia, the +king's capital, except upon compulsion.</p> + +<p>At the time of the invasion the Lombards were barbarians; and they did +not make rapid progress in civilization. Fond of their native ways, of +hunting and brawling, they were loath to adopt the arts of peace, and +left most forms of craft and industry to the conquered Latins. +Nevertheless, it was impossible to avoid the consequences of daily +contact with a far more developed people, and their manners <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>became more +civilized with each generation. The royal house affords an indication of +the change which was wrought during the two hundred years. Alboin, the +original invader (died 573), killed another Barbarian king, married his +daughter, and forced her to drink from a cup made of her father's skull. +The last Lombard king, Desiderius (died about 780), cultivated the +society of scholars, and his daughter learned by heart "the golden +maxims of philosophy and the gems of poetry." Each advance of the +Lombards in civilization was a gain to the Latins, who, especially in +the country where they worked on farms, were little better than serfs. +The two races drew together slowly. The conversion of the Lombards from +Arian to Catholic Christianity (600-700) diminished the distance between +them. Intermarriage must soon have begun; but not until the conquest by +the Franks does there seem to have been any real blending of the races.</p> + +<p>The most conspicuous trait in the Lombard character was political +incompetence. It would have required but a little steadiness of purpose, +a little political foresight, a little spurt of energy, to conquer +Ravenna, Rome, Naples and the other cities held by the Byzantines, and +make Italy into one kingdom. Failure was due to the weakness of the +central government, which was unable to weld the petty dukedoms +together. This cutting up of Italy into many divisions left deep scars. +Each city, with the territory immediately around it, began to regard +itself as a separate state, with no sense of duty towards a common +country; each cultivated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>individuality and jealousy of its neighbours, +until these qualities, gradually growing during two hundred years, +presented insuperable difficulties to the formation of an Italian +national kingdom.</p> + +<p>In spite of their political incompetence the Lombards left their mark on +Italy, especially on Lombardy and the regions occupied by the strong +duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. For centuries Lombard blood appears in +men of vigorous character; and Lombard names, softened to suit Italian +ears, linger on among the nobility. In fact, the aristocracy of Italy +from Milan to Naples was mainly Teutonic, and the principal element of +the Teutonic strain was Lombard.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE CHURCH (568-700)</h3> +<br /> + + +<p>One great political effect of the Lombard conquest was the opportunity +which it gave the Papacy, while Lombard and Byzantine were buffeting +each other, to grow strong and independent. Had Italy remained a Greek +province the Pope would have been a mere provincial bishop, barely +taking ceremonial precedence of the metropolitans of Ravenna, Aquileia, +and Milan; had Italy become a Lombard kingdom, the Pope would have been +a royal appointee; but with the Lombard kings fighting the Byzantine +Exarchs, each side needing papal aid and sometimes bidding for it, the +Pope was enabled to become master of the city and of the duchy of Rome, +and the real head of the Latin people as well as of the Latin clergy. In +fact, the growth of the Roman Catholic Church is the most interesting +development in this period. The Lombards gave it the opportunity to grow +strong and independent, but the power to take advantage of the +opportunity came from within. This power was compact of many elements, +secular and spiritual. From the ills of the world men betook themselves +with southern impulsiveness to things religious; they sought refuge, +order, security in the Church. In the greater interests of life among +the Latins the rising ecclesiastical fabric had no competitor. Paganism +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>had vanished before Christianity, philosophy before theology. +Literature, art, science had perished. Italy had ceased to be a country. +The ancient Empire of Rome had faded into a far-away memory. The wreck +of the old nobility left the ecclesiastical hierarchy without a rival. +In the midst of the general ruin of Roman civilization the Church stood +stable, offering peace to the timid, comfort to the afflicted, +refinement to the gentle, a home to the homeless, a career to the +ambitious, power to the strong. By a hundred strings the Church drew men +to her; in a hundred modes she sowed the prolific seeds of +ecclesiastical patriotism. She was essentially Roman, and gathered to +herself whatever was left of life and vigour in the Roman people. With a +structure and organization framed on the Imperial pattern, she slowly +assumed in men's minds an Imperial image; and Rome, a provincial town +whose civil magistrates busied themselves with sewers and aqueducts, +again began to inspire men with a strange confidence in a new Imperial +power.</p> + +<p>In addition to the strength derived from her immense moral and spiritual +services, the Church had the support of two potent forces, ignorance and +superstition. The general break-up of the old order had lowered the +common level of knowledge. Everybody was ignorant, everybody was +superstitious. The laws of nature were wholly unknown. Every ill that +happened, whether a man tripped over his threshold, or a thunderbolt hit +his roof, was ascribed to diabolic agencies. The old pagan +personification of natural forces, without its poetry, was revived. The +only <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>help lay in the priest, a kind of magical protector, who with +beads, relics, bones, incense, and incantation defended poor humanity +from the assaults of devils. Thus, while all civil society suffered from +ignorance, while every individual suffered from the awful daily, hourly, +presence of fear, the Church profited by both.</p> + +<p>Beside these intangible resources, the Church, or to speak more +precisely the Papacy, had others of a material kind. For centuries pious +men, especially when death drew near, had made great gifts of land to +the bishops of Rome, until these bishops had become the greatest landed +proprietors in Italy. Most of their estates were in Sicily, but others +were scattered all over Italy, and even in Gaul, Illyria, Sardinia, and +Corsica. In extent they covered as much as eighteen hundred square +miles, and yielded an enormous income. This income enabled the Popes to +maintain churches and monasteries, schools and missionaries, to buy off +raiding armies of Lombards, and also to equip soldiers of their own. +These estates the Church owned as a mere private landlord. During the +Gothic dominion and the restoration of Imperial rule, she had no rights +of sovereignty. But later on, during the disturbed period of border war +between Lombards and Greeks, we find the Popes actually ruling the duchy +of Rome.</p> + +<p>The corner-stone of the great papal power, however, was laid by the +genius of one man, who organized the monastic sentiment of the sixth +century and put it to the support of the Papacy. There had been monks in +Italy long before St. Benedict (480-544), <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>but as civil society +disintegrated, men in ever greater numbers fled from the world, and +sought peace in solitude and in monastic communities. St. Benedict +perceived that the monastic rules and customs derived from the East were +ill suited to the West; so he devised a monastic system, and formulated +his celebrated Rule, which became the pattern for all other monastic +rules in Europe. He founded a monastery at Subiaco, a little village +near Rome, and afterwards the famous abbey on Monte Cassino, a high hill +midway between Rome and Naples, which became the mother of all +Benedictine monasteries and shone like a light in the Dark Ages. +Benedict's ideal was to help men shut themselves off from the +temptations of life and realize, as far as they could, the prayer "Thy +kingdom come ... on earth as it is in Heaven." He ordained community of +property, and required a novitiate. Most strictly he forbade idleness, +and with special insistence exhorted his brethren to till the ground +with their own hands. Intellectual interests followed; and Benedictine +monks became the teachers not only of agriculture, but of handicraft, of +art and learning. His Order spread fast over Italy and Gaul, and in time +over Spain, England, and Germany. Its communities, like the old <i>castra +romana</i>, upheld the authority of Rome and enforced her dominion.</p> + +<p>The attractions of the monastic life at Monte Cassino are well set out +in a letter written (after St. Benedict's day) to one of the abbots, by +a man of the world who had once lived there: "Though great spaces +separate me from your company, I am <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>bound to you by a clinging +affection that can never be loosed, nor are these short pages enough to +tell you of the love that torments me all the time for you, for the +superiors and for the brethren. So much so that when I think about those +leisure days spent in holy duties, the pleasant rest in my cell, your +sweet religious affection, and the blessed company of those soldiers of +Christ, bent on holy worship, each brother setting a shining example of +a different virtue, and the gracious talks on the perfections of our +heavenly home, I am overcome, all my strength goes, and I cannot keep +tears from mingling with the sighs that burst from me. Here I go about +among Catholics, men devoted to Christian worship; everybody receives me +well, everybody is kind to me from love of our father Benedict, and for +the sake of your merits; but compared with your monastery the palace is +a prison; compared with the quiet there this life is a tempest."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>What Benedict did for the monastic orders, another great man, St. +Gregory (540-604), did for the Papacy itself. Gregory the Great, the +most commanding figure in the history of Europe between Theodoric and +Charlemagne, was a Roman, made of the same stuff as Scipio and Cato, and +presented the interesting character of a Christian and an antique Roman +combined. Born of a noble Roman family, Gregory was educated in Rome, +and entered the service of the state, in which he rose to the high +office of prefect of the city; but, dissatisfied with civil life, he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>abandoned it and became a monk. He wanted to give himself up wholly to +a monastic life, but deemed it his duty to accept office in the papal +service, and filled the distinguished position of papal ambassador (to +use a modern term) at the Imperial court at Constantinople. In 590 he +was elected Pope, half against his will, for he desired to be either a +monk or a missionary; but he felt that the hopes of civilization and the +future of religion lay in the Papacy, and he applied himself with energy +to his new task. This task was as complex and multifarious as possible. +It concerned all Europe, from Sicily to England. Rome itself was in a +deplorable condition, left undefended by the Exarch, and threatened by +the Lombards of Spoleto, who harried the country to the very gates, +murdering some Romans and carrying others off as slaves. Gregory had to +take complete control of the city, military and civil. He wrote: "I do +not know any more whether I now fill the office of priest or of temporal +prince; I must look to our defence and everything else. I am paymaster +of the soldiers." He kept up the courage of the Romans, and tried to +draw spiritual good out of their plight. It was impossible for a +contemporary eye to see that under present wretchedness lay germinating +the seeds of empire; yet Gregory acted as if he beheld them. In spite of +apprehensions of the end of the world he organized the Church to endure +for centuries. Both at home and abroad he displayed a tireless activity.</p> + +<p>Among the foreign events of his pontificate are the conversion of +England by Augustine (597) and the ministry of St. Columbanus (543-615) +among <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>the Franks, Alemanni, and Lombards. It was Gregory who saw the +handsome fairhaired boys from England standing in the market-place and +said, "Non Angli sed angeli." He had the true imperial instinct, and +always encouraged the clergy in distant parts of Europe to visit Rome +and to apply to Rome for counsel and aid. The respect in which he was +held may be inferred from the titles given him by Columbanus: "To the +holy lord and father in Christ, the most comely ornament of the Roman +Church, the most august flower, so to speak, of all this languishing +Europe, the illustrious overseer, to him who is skilled to inquire into +the theory of the Divine causality, I, a mean dove (Columbanus), send +Greeting in Christ." Gregory also maintained close relations with the +clergy in Africa, and received homage from the Spanish bishops, for +Spain had recently been converted from Arianism to Catholicism. He was +by no means content to confine his dealings to the clergy, but was in +frequent correspondence with kings and queens of western Europe, as well +as with the Emperor and Empress in Constantinople. His immense energy +made itself felt everywhere. He made rules for the liturgy; and mass is +still celebrated partly according to his directions. He reformed church +music and founded schools for the Gregorian chant. He administered the +papal revenues, superintending the management of farms, stables, and +orchards. He founded monasteries, he supported hospitals and asylums.</p> + +<p>Benedict and Gregory are the two great figures of this period, and, +though no worthy successor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>followed for several generations, they did +their work so well that the Papacy, like a great growing oak, continued +to spread its power conspicuously in the eyes of the world, and also, +out of sight, in the hearts and habits of men.</p> + +<p>The relations between the Papacy and the Empire were difficult. The +Popes were subjects of the Emperor. The whole ecclesiastical +organization throughout the Empire was subject to the Imperial will, +just as the civil or military service was. The Papacy did not like this +position of subordination and resented any interference in papal +affairs. Though Odoacer, Theodoric, and Justinian had always asserted +their right to exercise a supervision over papal elections, the Popes +had never acquiesced willingly, and even in those early days showed a +marked disposition to take exclusive control of what they deemed their +own affairs. It might be supposed that the Papacy, mindful of the great +danger of a Lombard conquest of Rome, would have clung to the Empire; +but after the Lombards had become Catholics the gap between the Romans +and the Greco-Oriental Empire was nearly as wide as that between them +and the Lombards. There was a fundamental difference between the Greek +mind, floating over metaphysics and speculative theology, and the Roman +mind, bound to political conceptions and practical ends. A theology +which would satisfy a congregation in St. Sophia would not suit the +worshippers in St. Peter's. The Empire, obliged to adapt theological +niceties to political necessities, favoured any creed of compromise, +which should promote political <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>concord and unity. Rome, with its +despotic, imperial instincts, felt that orthodoxy was its strength, and +maintained an inflexible creed. The two were an ill-yoked pair, and +quarrels were inevitable.</p> + +<p>The relations between the Papacy and the Lombards were more simple. They +varied between war, and friendship real or feigned. In the beginning, +and even, as we have seen, in Gregory's time, there was war; but then +began the conversion of the Lombards to Christianity, and intervals of +peace followed, during which the Lombard king saluted the Pope as "Most +Holy Father," and the Pope replied "My well-beloved Son."</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte</i>, Ugo Balzani +(translated).</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE COMING OF THE FRANKS (726-768)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We now come to the separation of the Latin world from the Greek world in +both political and ecclesiastical affairs, and to the reconstruction of +Europe by the alliance of the Franks and the Papacy. The plot continues +to be very simple. The Empire, pressed by dangerous enemies, tried once +more to gain political strength by ecclesiastical legislation; the +effect of this legislation on the Imperial provinces in Italy was to +cause rebellion. The Papacy broke the ties that bound it to the Empire; +then, finding itself defenceless before the Lombards, made an alliance +with the Franks, who invaded Italy and overthrew the Lombards.</p> + +<p>In order to elaborate this plot, we must begin with the great Asiatic +movement of the seventh century; for this movement acted as a cause of +causes to split the Latins from the Greeks, to exalt the Papacy, and to +form the Holy Roman Empire. In one of the tribes of Arabia, without +heralding, appeared a man, who at the age of forty became a religious +prophet, and by the force of genius constructed one of the great +religions of the world. Mohammed's religion worked on the ardent Arabian +temperament like magic, and engendered a fierce passion for conquest and +proselytizing. Tribes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>cohered, became both a sect and a nation, and +swept like wildfire over the west of Asia and the north of Africa. +Mohammed died in 632, but his successors, the Caliphs, carried on his +work; under the inspiration of the slogan, "Before you is Paradise, +behind you the devil and the fire of hell," they advanced from conquest +to conquest. Cities and provinces were torn from the Empire. Damascus, +Syria, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Rhodes fell in rapid +succession; next Africa, bit by bit. Persia was beaten to her knees. +Sicily was raided. Twice Constantinople had to fight for life.</p> + +<p>Naturally Byzantine statesmen felt that some radical step must be taken, +or all the remnants of the Empire would be reduced to slavery. A +vigorous Emperor, Leo the Isaurian (717-741), took the radical step. It +was necessarily religious, for, in Constantinople, political action +always took a religious complexion. Leo issued a decree forbidding the +use of images in churches and in Christian worship (726). Those in place +he ordered broken. He acted no doubt from high motives, thinking to +ennoble religion and to arouse patriotism; but his people disagreed with +him. In the East riots and civil war broke out. These were suppressed, +but discontent and persistent opposition remained. In Italy also the +excitement was intense. The country had already been irritated by severe +taxation, and when the decree of iconoclasm was published, the +image-loving Italians rose in a body. The Pope, as most hurt in +conscience by the decree, and in pocket by the taxation, was the natural +head of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>resistance. The Exarch attempted to arrest him, but both Latins +and Lombards rallied to his defence. In some places open revolt broke +out, and a plot was started to set up another Emperor in place of the +wicked iconoclast who polluted the Imperial throne. But the Pope, +Gregory II (715-731), was a prudent man, and was not ready to take a +step which would deprive Rome of its single defence from the Lombards. +He opposed the rebellious plan, but in the matter of maintaining the +images he stood like a rock. His successor, Gregory III (731-741), went +farther, and took decisive action. He convoked a synod, which expelled +every image-breaker from the Church (731). This was tantamount to a +direct excommunication of the Emperor, and a declaration of papal +independence. The Emperor was powerless to compel obedience. Thus began +the great split between the Papacy and the Byzantine Empire, between +western and eastern Europe, between the Latin Church and the Greek. Some +of the western provinces, Calabria, Sicily, and Illyria, which were +practically Greek, remained faithful to the Empire and shared its +fortunes for several hundred years more. Ecclesiastically they were +removed from the jurisdiction of the Popes to that of the Patriarchs of +Constantinople.</p> + +<p>This breach between the Papacy and the Empire led inevitably to an +alliance between the Papacy and the Franks, which is of such great +historical consequence that it must be recounted in some detail. While +the Empire and the Papacy were quarrelling over ecclesiastical matters, +western Europe had been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>changing. The Frankish kingdom had been +established in what is now Belgium, Holland, and large parts of France +and Germany, and was the one great Christian power in Europe. Therefore, +when the Papacy had cut loose from the Empire and saw itself defenceless +against the Lombards, it had no alternative but to seek help from the +Franks. There were also two special reasons for friendship between the +Franks and the Papacy. First, the Franks, alone of Barbarians, had been +converted to Catholic Christianity. Secondly, in their endeavours to +enlarge their eastern borders, the Franks had been greatly assisted by +the missionaries, who—in the normal course, missionaries, merchants, +soldiers—had prepared the way for Frankish conquest, and had +strengthened the Frankish power when established. These missionaries +were absolutely devoted to the Roman See; they spread papal loyalty +wherever they went, and wrought a strong bond of union between the +Frankish kingdom and the Papacy. This union of sympathy and interest was +an excellent basis for a political union; and the time soon came for +such a development.</p> + +<p>When the iconoclastic revolts occurred in Italy, and the Popes broke +with the Empire, the Lombard kings thought that their opportunity to +conquer all Italy had come. But instead of making one bold campaign +against Rome and the South, they merely laid hands on a few border +cities. The Popes turned with frantic appeals for help to the only power +that could help them, the Franks. Every time the Lombard king made a +hostile move, the Pope cried aloud <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>for aid. For some time the Franks +deemed that the balance of political considerations was against +intervention and refused to take part in Italian affairs. Charles +Martel, mayor of the palace and ruler of the Franks in all but name, +stood firm on the policy of non-interference; but his son and successor, +Pippin the Short, took a different view. Pippin judged that the time had +come to depose the royal Merovingian family and to exalt his own, the +Carlovingian, in its stead. As the Merovingians had reigned for two +hundred and fifty years, the step was revolutionary, and Pippin wished +to strengthen his position by the support of the Papacy. He sent +messengers to the Pope, Zacharias, to ask advice; and the Pope, +according to the chronicler, "in the exercise of his apostolical +authority replied to their question, that it seemed to him better and +more expedient that the man who held power in the kingdom should be +called king and be king, rather than he who falsely bore that name. +Therefore the Pope commanded the king and the people of the Franks, that +Pippin, who was using royal power, should be called king and should be +settled on the throne." The last Merovingian, therefore, was tonsured +and stowed away in a monastery, and Pippin became king of the Franks +(751). Without accepting the monkish chronicler's statement, that the +Pope commanded Pippin to be king, there can be little doubt that the +papal sanction was of very real value to Pippin, and that Pippin let it +appear that he was acting rather in conformity with the Pope's will than +with his own.</p> + +<p>Thus the Pope laid Pippin under a great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>obligation; it now remained for +Pippin to discharge that obligation. It was not long before the time +came.</p> + +<p>The Lombard king felt that his opportunity was slipping by, and acted +with some vigour. He captured Ravenna and threatened Rome. The Pope +hurried across the Alps. He anointed and crowned Pippin; he likewise +anointed and blessed his son Charles (Charlemagne), and forbade the +Franks under pain of excommunication ever to choose their king from any +other family. These three great favours, the transfer of the royal +title, the coronation rite, and the perpetual confirmation of the +Carlovingian sovereignty, called for a great return. Pippin promised +that the Adriatic provinces, taken by the Lombards from the Byzantines, +should be ceded by the Lombards to the Pope. This promise Pippin +fulfilled. He crossed the Alps, defeated the Lombard king, and forced +him to cede the Exarchate of Ravenna and the five cities below it on the +coast, to the Pope, who thereby became an actual sovereign. Thus Pippin +discharged his obligation to the Papacy.</p> + +<p>This beginning of the Papal monarchy is so important that the theoretic +origin may as well be mentioned here. There was a legend, universally +believed, that an early Pope, Silvester (314-335) healed the Emperor +Constantine of leprosy, and that the Emperor, in gratitude, made a great +grant of territory to the Pope. The fact appears to have been that +Constantine, although not cured of the leprosy, did give to Silvester +the Lateran palace and a plot of ground around it. This little donation +grew in legend like a grain of mustard seed, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>served the purpose of +the Roman clergy. No good Roman would have been content with a title +derived from the Lombards or the Franks. In Roman eyes these Barbarians +never had any title to Italian territory; they could give none. The only +possible source of legal title was the Empire. In the gift by +Constantine to Silvester papal adherents had a foundation of fact. That +was enough. It is quite unnecessary to imagine false dealing. People in +those days believed that what they wished true was true. This legend was +accepted and embodied in concrete form in a document known as the +<i>Donation of Constantine</i>, which is so important in explaining the +attitude of the Papacy throughout the Middle Ages, that it may be +quoted:—</p> + +<p>"In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy +Ghost, the Emperor Cæsar Flavius Constantine ... to the most holy and +blessed Father of Fathers, Silvester, bishop of Rome and Pope, and to +all his successors in the seat of St. Peter to the end of the world...." +Here comes, interspersed with snatches of Christian dogma, a rambling +narrative of his leprosy, of the advice of his physicians to bathe in a +font on the Capitol filled with the warm blood of babies; how he +refused, how Peter and Paul appeared in a dream and sent him to +Silvester, how he then abjured paganism, accepted the creed, was +baptized and healed, and how he then recognized that heathen gods were +demons and that Peter and his successors had all power on earth and in +heaven. After this long preamble comes the grant:</p> + +<p>"We, together with all our Satraps and the whole <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>Senate, Nobles and +People ... have thought it desirable that even as St. Peter is on earth +the appointed Vicar of God, so also the Pontiffs his viceregents should +receive from us and from our Empire, power and principality greater than +belongs to us ... and to the extent of our earthly Imperial power we +decree that the Sacrosanct Church of Rome shall be honoured and +venerated, and that higher than our terrestrial throne shall the most +sacred seat of St. Peter be gloriously exalted.</p> + +<p>"Let him who for the time shall be pontiff over the holy Church of Rome +... be sovereign of all the priests in the whole world; and by his +judgment let all things which pertain to the worship of God or the faith +of Christians be regulated.... <i>We hand over and relinquish our palace, +the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places, and cities of Italy and +the western regions, to the most blessed Pontiff and universal Pope, +Silvester</i>; and we ordain by our pragmatic constitution that they shall +be governed by him and his successors, and we grant that they shall +remain under the authority of the holy Roman Church."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>The date of this document and many statements in it are anachronisms and +errors. It was composed about the time of Pippin's <i>Donation</i>, probably +by somebody connected with the papal chancery, and may be considered to +be a pious forgery representing the facts as the writer deemed they were +or else <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>should be. It was officially referred to for the first time in +777, but did not receive its full celebrity until the eleventh century, +when the relations of the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire became the +centre of European history.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Italy and her Invaders</i>, T. Hodgkin, vol. vii, pp. +149-151; <i>Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages</i>, Ernest F. +Henderson, pp. 319-329.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>CHARLEMAGNE (768-814)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The papal theory embodied in the <i>Donation of Constantine</i> was obviously +crammed with seeds of future strife; for the present, however, the +fortunes of the House of Pippin and of the Papacy were bound together in +amity. The constant accession of strength to the former and of prestige +to the latter made them the central figures of European politics. The +new political form to which their union gave birth slowly shaped itself. +In Italy the first step was to get rid of the Lombards. On the death of +the Lombard King, Aistulf, there were two claimants for the throne. One +of the two, Desiderius, secured the Pope's help by the promise of ceding +more cities, and became king. The Pope, writing to Pippin, says: "Now +that Aistulf, that disciple of the devil, that devourer of Christian +blood is dead; and that by your aid and that of the Franks [a +complimentary phrase, for Pippin seems to have done nothing] he is +succeeded by Desiderius, a most gentle and good man, we pray you to urge +him to continue in the right way." But the "most gentle and good" +Desiderius strayed from the right way, and did not cede the promised +cities. So the Pope besought Pippin to use force; but Pippin thought +that he had done enough, and the Pope <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>was obliged to rest content. +Pippin died in 768. One can imagine the consternation at Rome on +Pippin's death to learn that the dowager queen of the Franks was +arranging a marriage between her son Charlemagne and a daughter of +Desiderius, and another marriage between her daughter and a son of +Desiderius. The Pope wrote in terror that the plan was of the devil, and +forbade it under the pains of everlasting damnation; nevertheless, +Charlemagne married the daughter of Desiderius (770).</p> + +<p>The Pope's anticipations, however, were not justified; the horrible +union of the House of Pippin with the "unspeakable" Lombards came to an +abrupt end. Charlemagne, probably from personal dislike, put away his +wife, and sent her ignominiously back to her father. Desiderius, angry +at the insult, rushed upon his fate; he not only intrigued in Frankish +affairs against Charlemagne, but he also seized many of the cities given +to the Pope by the <i>Donation of Pippin</i>. He invaded the duchy of Rome, +and advanced within fifty miles of the city. This time Charlemagne acted +in conformity with the papal entreaties. He crossed the Alps, routed the +Lombard army, captured Pavia, took Desiderius prisoner and assumed the +title of King of the Lombards (773-774). He went on to Rome, and +solemnly confirmed the <i>Donation of Pippin</i>, and also made a further +<i>Donation</i>. This latter <i>Donation</i>, which led to disputes between the +Papacy and Charlemagne's successors, is a matter of great uncertainty. +Subsequent papal advocates claimed that it embraced two thirds of Italy. +Probably Charlemagne only intended to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>restore to the Papacy its private +property scattered throughout northern and central Italy, which had been +seized by the Lombards.</p> + +<p>Charlemagne, having disposed of the Lombards, continued his conquests; +across the Pyrenees he annexed the Spanish March, in North Germany he +subdued the Saxons and pushed his frontier to the Elbe, to the southeast +he subjugated the country as far as the upper Danube. His monarchy now +included Franks, Celts, Visigoths, Burgundians, Saxons, Lombards, +Romans. How were such widespread territories and such diverse peoples to +be united in permanent union? The far-seeing Papacy, in answer to this +question, propounded the revival of the Roman Empire of the Cæsars. +Reasons were numerous. The Frankish monarchy, with its conquests, in +bulk at least was not unworthy to succeed to Imperial Rome. Throughout +this wide territory there was a great network of ligaments; from Gascony +to Bavaria, from Lombardy to Frisia, divine service was celebrated in +the Latin tongue and with the Roman ritual; bishops, priests, monks, and +missionaries acknowledged their dependence upon the Pope and looked to +Rome, with its holy basilicas and apostolic tradition, as the centre of +Christendom. This Christian unity was a constant argument for political +unity. A second argument was the still vigorous Roman tradition. The +idea of nationality was as yet undeveloped; Europe had known no other +political system than common subjection to the Roman Empire, and all +notions of civilization were of a civilization on the Roman pattern. +When the Roman Empire in the West had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>decayed, the Church had adopted +the Imperial organization and kept remembrance of the old system fresh +in men's minds. The old Empire, moreover, had early lost the notion of +dependence on the city of Rome, for the seat of government had been set +at Constantinople, at Milan, and at Ravenna; and since the days of the +early Cæsars, it had not been necessary for an Emperor to be a native +Roman. There was no theoretical difficulty to bar a Frank from the +Imperial throne or forbid the seat of government to a Frankish city. In +fact, nobody could conceive of the Empire as other than Roman, and the +Frankish kingdom could only become an empire by becoming the Roman +Empire.</p> + +<p>The Papacy had special reasons for these views. Under the Empire +Christianity had grown up; under the Empire it had obtained power and +dominion, and had become the state religion. The Church might quarrel +with Emperors, but it regarded the Empire—the source of secular law and +order—as its joint tenant in the world. The one represented religious +unity, the other represented civil unity. In addition to these large +arguments, local reasons affected the Papacy. Shortly before the +expulsion of the Lombards from Italy, the lack of a strong government +had been wofully felt. One usurper and then another had been put in St. +Peter's chair in riot and bloodshed. It had become plain as day that the +Papacy of itself, without the support of a potent secular power, was not +able to maintain its dignity, nor even to enforce order in the very city +of Rome. The Papacy could not endure without the Empire. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>The very +titles which the Frankish kings had gradually received led up to the +Imperial title. Gregory II had called Charles Martel "Patrician," a +vague title of honour held by the Exarchs; Gregory III had offered to +him the titles both of Patrician and of Consul; Stephen II bestowed upon +Pippin the title of Patrician of the Romans; Charlemagne's own titles +were King of the Franks, King of the Lombards, Patrician of the Romans; +and his son had been crowned by the Pope, King of Italy (781). The title +next in order was undoubtedly Emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne himself +was a man of gigantic stature and great strength, indefatigable in +action, and delighting in hunting, swimming, and martial exercise. His +mind also was mighty, restlessly pondering questions of state, of +church, of war, of social improvement. He was the greatest of +Barbarians, cast by Nature in an imperial mould.</p> + +<p>On the other hand there was one conspicuous difficulty in the way of +reviving the Roman Empire; this difficulty was that the Roman Empire +still existed, and that there was a living Emperor, the legitimate +successor of Cæsar Augustus. But that Empire was virtually Greek, and +the Emperor no more like Cæsar Augustus than like Hercules. The city by +the Tiber had as good title to be the Imperial city as her younger rival +by the Bosphorus; the <i>Roman Republic</i> (whatever that ill-defined title +may mean), represented by the Pope, had as fair a claim to elect the +Emperor, as the army and office-holders at Constantinople. In fact, to +Papal and Roman eyes, the rights of Rome were much greater than those of +Constantinople.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>To us, as we look back, nothing seems more natural than that the great +Frankish king, after the conquest of Italy, should have brushed aside +the theoretical difficulty of an existing Roman Empire and assumed the +Imperial title, Emperor of the Romans. History moves more slowly. +Charlemagne was a Frank, accustomed to Frankish usages and ideas; he +hesitated to adopt formally a wholly different conception of sovereignty +and society. His nobles probably agreed with the advice given by Pope +Zacharias to Pippin, that the man who held the power should receive the +corresponding title, but being Franks they thought the dignity of +Frankish king sufficient. So matters stood with nothing between +Charlemagne and the Imperial crown but a theoretic difficulty, and a +certain reluctance. Unexpectedly and in quick succession, events in +Constantinople swept away the theoretic difficulty, and events in Rome +gave the Pope sufficient energy to overcome the reluctance.</p> + +<p>At Constantinople, the dowager Empress blinded and deposed her son the +Emperor (797), and assumed to rule as sole <i>Augusta</i>. This wickedness, +and the ancient doctrine that, though a woman might lawfully share the +Imperial throne, she might not reign alone, combined to render plausible +a theory readily adopted in the West, that the Imperial throne had +become vacant. The event in Rome was this. A savage gang of nobles and +ecclesiasts attacked Pope Leo III in the street, beat him, half-blinded +him, cut his tongue, and imprisoned him in a monastery (799). He escaped +and fled to Charlemagne in Germany. His enemies followed and charged him +with various <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>crimes. Charlemagne sent him back to Rome in the company +of some great nobles, who were commissioned to investigate the charges, +and went himself also. There, in St. Peter's basilica, in the presence +of Frankish nobles and Roman ecclesiasts, with Charlemagne presiding, +the Pope took a solemn oath of innocence (December 4, 800). Such an oath +according to the jurisprudence of the time was necessarily followed by +acquittal; and the Pope's innocence necessarily proved the guilt of his +accusers, who were punished.</p> + +<p>Such crimes, east and west, were insufferable. Something had to be done. +Everybody looked to Charlemagne. His position as head of Christendom was +acknowledged even beyond the bounds of western Europe. The Patriarch of +Jerusalem, a subject of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, sent to +Charlemagne the keys of Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner +of the Holy City. Obviously it was time for the Imperial dignity to be +added to Imperial power.</p> + +<p>On Christmas day in the year 800, Charlemagne and a great procession of +Frankish nobles and Roman citizens made their way through the streets of +Rome towards the basilica of St. Peter's, whose gilt bronze roof, taken +from a pagan temple, shone conspicuous on the Vatican hill. They walked +through the Aurelian gate and across the bridge over the Tiber, then +turning to the left, followed the colonnade which extended all the way +from Hadrian's Mausoleum to the atrium of the basilica. There they +mounted the broad flight of marble steps, at the top of which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the Pope +and his court awaited the king. Then Pope and king, followed by the +procession, crossed the great atrium paved with white marble, past the +fir-cone fountain and papal tombs, to the central door of the basilica, +which swung its thousand-weight of silver open wide; then, up the long +nave, screened by rows of antique columns from double aisles on either +side, all rich with tapestries of purple and gold, they proceeded with +slow and solemn steps to the tomb of the apostle. Thirteen hundred and +seventy candles in the great candelabrum glowed on the silver floor of +the shrine, and glittered on the gold and silver statues around it. In +the great apse behind the high altar sat the clergy, row upon row, +beneath the Pontiff's throne; above, the Byzantine mosaics looked down +in sad severity. Here Charlemagne knelt at the tomb, and prayed. As he +rose from his knees, the Pope lifted an Imperial crown of gold and +placed it on his head, while all the congregation shouted, "Life and +Victory to Charles, Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peaceful +Emperor!"</p> + +<p>Thus was accomplished that restoration of the Roman Empire, which by its +attempt to combine Teuton and Roman in political union so powerfully +affected the history of mediæval Europe. Charlemagne is reported to have +said that the Imperial coronation took him by surprise. However that may +be, this great enterprise of a Christian Empire must be regarded, in its +final completion, as the joint work of Frankish king and Roman Pope.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS I (814-867)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The period from the death of Charlemagne (814) to the coronation of Otto +the Great (962) is a long dismal stretch, tenanted by discord and +ignorance. At the beginning stands the commanding figure of Charlemagne,</p> + +<p class="cen">With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear<br /> +The weight of mightiest monarchies.</p> + +<p>But his descendants were unequal to their inheritance, and under them +his Empire crumbled away and resolved itself into incipient nations. +That Empire, in theory the restored Roman Empire, was in fact strictly +Teutonic, though buttressed by the Roman Church. Charlemagne deemed +himself head of both Empire and Church. In his eyes the Pope was his +subject, and he legislated, as a matter of course, upon ecclesiastical +affairs. In secular matters he endeavoured to maintain local +administration without detriment to a strong central government. For +this purpose he divided the Empire into three divisions, of which he +made his three sons nominally kings, really his lieutenants. Under these +sons he appointed counts and bishops, as local governors. He maintained +his central authority by means of deputies (<i>missi dominici</i>), who +traversed the whole Empire, two by two, a bishop and a count together. +The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>maintenance of such a political unity, however, required either the +organic strength and momentum of the old Roman Empire, or a breed of +Charlemagnes. On the great Emperor's death the forces of disruption made +themselves felt at once. His son, Louis the Pious, indeed succeeded to +the whole sovereignty of the Empire; but Louis's sons demanded division. +They rebelled; and civil war lasted most of Louis's life. After his +death the sons fought one another, and finally agreed on a division of +the territory, though the Imperial title was kept. One brother took the +territory to the east, destined to become Germany; another, that to the +west, destined to become France; and Lothair, the eldest, who also +received the Imperial title, took Italy and a long, heterogeneous strip +between the territories of his brothers. This division was fatal to the +Empire. On Lothair's death the Imperial crown descended to his son Louis +II (855-875), and afterwards to two other degenerate members of a +degenerate family. The last made himself unendurable and was deposed +(887). With him ended Charlemagne's legitimate male line, and also the +first revival of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>This Empire had been a civilizing power. It had supported the Papacy, as +an oak supports the creeper that clings to it; and in its decline and +fall it pulled the Papacy down with it. Without such support the Papacy +could maintain neither dignity abroad nor order at home. This lesson the +Church learned once through the outrages inflicted upon Pope Leo, but +forgot it; and required the experience of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>hundred and fifty years to +learn it a second time. In theory Papacy and Empire were co-equal +powers, religious and secular, together carrying on the noble task of +God's government on earth. In practice, as their respective rights and +powers had not been definitely set off, they could not agree; each +wished to be master. The relations between the two constitute the great +axis on which mediæval politics revolve, and for a long time must serve +as the main motive of our story. The contest between them for mastery +resembles a fencing match, in which the Pope thrusts at the Emperor's +crown, the Emperor parries, and lunges back at the papal tiara. For +convenience we divide the match into two bouts, and first take the +Pope's attack.</p> + +<p>At the famous coronation on Christmas day, 800, Charlemagne and Leo +stood side by side, co-labourers in the great task of reconstructing +Europe. But once the coronation over, the two undefined authorities +jostled each other. Charlemagne, to whom government was as much a +religious as a secular matter, though he had accepted his Imperial crown +at the hands of the Pope, did not regard papal participation necessary +for the continuance of the Imperial dignity. At Aachen, 813, he crowned +his son Louis the Pious co-Emperor, without the help of Pope or priest. +This thrust must have carried discomfiture to the banks of the Tiber. +But with Charlemagne's weak successors the astute Papacy scored hit +after hit. Louis the Pious submitted to be recrowned by the Pope, so did +his son, Lothair, and his grandson Louis II; and their two successors +were also crowned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>by the Pope. This sequence of palpable hits won this +bout and secured for the Papacy beyond dispute the prerogative of +crowning the Emperors.</p> + +<p>If we now turn to that part of the game where Emperor lunged and Pope +parried, we find a more complicated situation. A third player takes a +hand, to the confusion of the game and to the great detriment of the +papal defence. This third player is the Roman people, who believed that +the <i>Senatus Populusque Romanus</i> still possessed their ancient +prerogatives, and had the right to appoint both Emperor and Pope. Their +claim to elect the Emperor was flimsy enough, being merely the memory of +an empty form, and is not of enough consequence to stop for; but their +claim to interfere in the papal election was of the highest importance. +It arose from the anomalous nature of the Papacy. The Pope was bishop of +Rome, and as such his election lay in the hands of the clergy and people +of Rome; he was also the ruler of central Italy, and as such the barons +there were interested in his election; and, in addition, he was head of +all the Christian Churches in the West, and so all western Christendom, +and the Emperor as its temporal lord, was likewise concerned. The fact +was that no definite method of papal election and confirmation had been +settled upon during these disturbed centuries. The original practice had +been for the Roman churches, priests, and laymen together assembled, to +make the election; subsequently the senate, or the army, or the nobles, +had represented the lay body of electors; but whoever represented the +laymen, they and the clergy made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>the election; which was then submitted +to the Emperor, or his representative, for scrutiny and confirmation. +The submission of the Roman election to the examination of a Byzantine +Emperor had never been acceptable in Rome, and after the breach over +iconoclasm, the practice ceased. Naturally, on the revival of the Roman +Empire in the West, the new Emperors claimed the old Imperial right of +supervision; naturally, also, the papal party resisted the fresh +exercise of the old prerogative. Here was a situation for a scrimmage, +but any clear account of the papal elections in Rome, supposing such +were possible, would be too minute; this narrative must confine itself +to the main passes between the papal party and the Emperors.</p> + +<p>After the death of Charlemagne (no papal election occurred during his +lifetime) several Popes were elected and consecrated without previously +consulting the Emperor. On the other hand, in the next reign the +Imperial deputy made the Romans take oath that no Pope should be +consecrated without the approval of the Emperor. What was done at the +following election is not known, but at the second the Pope was not +consecrated until the Emperor had ratified the proceedings. Thereafter +the Imperial right was acknowledged in theory, though in practice the +elected Pontiffs did not always wait for Imperial confirmation.</p> + +<p>With the fall of the Carlovingian Empire the fencing match ceased for +lack of an Imperial contestant. The score stood thus: each had succeeded +in the attack, the Papacy had won its right to bestow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>the Imperial +crown, and the Empire had won, though not so definitely, its right to +supervise the election of a Pope. We must now pass to this Imperial +interregnum knowing that when the Empire shall be revived, the match +will begin anew and the combatants, with foils unbated and envenomed, +will fight to a finish.</p> + +<p>The Imperial interregnum, nominally interrupted by one German and +several Italian make-believe Emperors, lasted for three generations; no +Imperial power was exercised from 875 to 962. It is a murky period in +which shadows wander about; but before taking our candle and descending +into the gloom, we will turn to the one bright spot, the career of a +great Pope, Nicholas I (858-867).</p> + +<p>This Pope, in spite of the decadence of the Papacy, won immense prestige +for it by two successful assertions of cosmopolitan authority. The King +of Lorraine, brother to Louis II, the Emperor, wished to put away his +wife and marry another woman. The innocent queen, with the sanction of +the clergy of the kingdom, was divorced and forced to enter a convent; +and, with the consent of his clergy, the king married the other woman. +The wronged queen appealed to the Pope, who sent his legates to +investigate the affair; but the king bribed the legates and succeeded in +getting a decision from the local synod in his favour, although, in +fact, the whole matter had been a shocking scandal. Thereupon the king +sent the archbishops of Cologne and of Trier, the two great +ecclesiastical dignitaries of the kingdom, to announce this verdict of +acquittal. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>The Pope, "professing," as his enemies said, "to be +imperator of the whole world," seized his opportunity; he espoused the +cause of the innocent queen, annulled the fraudulent proceedings, and +excommunicated and deposed the two archbishops. The king applied to the +Emperor for help, and the Emperor went to Rome, but could obtain no +concession. The Pope stood like a rock. He allied himself with France +and Germany, and threatened to excommunicate the sinning husband and all +his bishops. The king was obliged to submit. The usurping wife was +excommunicated and banished, and the papal legate conducted the divorced +queen back to the royal palace. Thus the Papacy not only established a +great precedent for the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal +power, but also stood conspicuous before the world as the champion of +the weak and oppressed and the defender of morality and justice.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to overrate the effect of this papal achievement. +It may be that the Papacy stood forth as champion of innocence when +policy coincided with righteousness; but it was the righteousness and +not the policy which gave the Papacy strength. One can imagine, in days +when brutal barons, scattered in strongholds all over the country, were +the normal forms of power and authority, what effect such news had upon +the people. A pilgrim from across the Alps, a peddler, or some poor +vagrant, enters a village huddled at the foot of a hill, on which stands +a great castle where a drunken lord revels with his mistresses, and +recounts to the assembled peasants, serfs, and slaves, how the Holy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>Father, in the name of God, had commanded a greater lord, in a greater +castle, to put away his mistress and bring back his wife, and how that +lord had got down on his knees and had done the Holy Father's bidding.</p> + +<p>The second case was the victory of papal authority over the spirit of +nationality in the Church. When the incipient nations of France and +Germany, having separated from the Empire, had begun to be +self-conscious, the spirit of nationality naturally showed itself in +ecclesiastical matters as well as in political matters. There was +obvious likelihood that the nations would govern themselves +ecclesiastically as well as politically. Should they do so, the papal +supremacy would fall just as the Imperial supremacy had fallen, and the +unity of the Church would be shattered just as the Empire had been. Here +was certainly a great danger to the Papacy, and probably a great danger +to Christianity and civilization; at least so Nicholas thought. He +resolved to meet it boldly. His opportunity came when a French (West +Frankish) bishop appealed to Rome against the action of his +metropolitan. The metropolitan objected that there was no precedent for +papal action in such a case; he did not deny that the Pope had certain +appellate functions, but said that if the Pope interfered directly in +the discipline of bishops, the power of the metropolitan would be +impaired. It is needless to say that this argument did not produce the +result that the metropolitan desired. There was nothing the Papacy +wanted more than that its central government should act directly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>everywhere, and that all bishops should be dependent upon Rome; that +was the very principle of papal supremacy. The issue would determine +whether the Papacy was to be an autocratic power, or a limited court of +appeal. Nicholas was able to take advantage of the troubled political +situation to enforce direct papal authority, and so added an immense +prerogative to the papal power.</p> + +<p>Apart from this imperial ecclesiastical principle the latter episode is +especially interesting on account of the character of the evidence +produced by the Pope to maintain his position. This evidence consisted +of a new compilation of Church law which appeared somewhat mysteriously +about this time. Theretofore Church law had consisted of a collection of +precepts taken from the Bible, from the early Fathers, from decrees of +Councils, and also of letters, called decretals, written by the bishops +of Rome, but none of these decretals was earlier than the time of +Constantine. The fact, that there were no papal decretals prior to +Constantine, seemed to imply, at least to the sceptically minded, that +papal authority had really begun at the time of Constantine and not at +the time of St. Peter. To the ardent papist such an idea was incredible. +Nicholas now produced a new batch of documents. Among these was the +<i>Donation of Constantine</i>, of which I have spoken. Others were papal +decretals, which purported to come from Popes of the third and second +centuries, and to prove that papal jurisdiction over other bishoprics +had been exercised almost as far back as the time of St. Peter. These +new appearing documents placed the Pope <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>not only above kings, but above +metropolitans and provincial synods, and justified Nicholas in acting +directly in the case of the West Frankish bishop, in the King of +Lorraine's matrimonial affairs, and also in assuming to act as +"imperator of the whole world." These documents, known as the <i>Isidorian +Decretals</i>, were probably composed by some priest in France, not long +before their use by Nicholas. For six hundred years they were believed +to be genuine, and during that time rendered the Papacy great service by +ranging the sentiment of law throughout Europe (at least until the +revival of Roman law) on the side of the Papacy in its struggle with the +Empire.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY (867-962)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>These triumphs were due to the brilliant vigour of Pope Nicholas; but +that triumphant position could not last, it was fictitious. The Papacy +needed the support of a strong secular power, and when the Carlovingian +Empire dissolved, it had nothing to rest on, neither genius nor military +force, and fell into deep degradation.</p> + +<p>To illustrate that degradation one episode will suffice; but there must +first be a word of prologue. The Papacy, as has been said, occupied an +anomalous position. From this sprang many troubles. As soon as the +pressure of Imperial authority was removed, the Papacy tended to become +the prize of municipal politics, and different parties in Rome (if the +turbulent mobs may be called so) struggled to get possession of it. One +party, with interests centred on local matters, indifferent to the +greatness of the Papacy and its European character, and willing to have +the Pope a mere local ruler, directed its efforts to getting rid of all +Imperial and foreign control. The opposite party, with conflicting +interests, wished for Imperial control, and constituted a kind of +Imperial party, less from any large views, than in the hope of deriving +advantages from Imperial support. Strife between the two parties was the +normal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>condition, and often ended in riot and civil war. In this state +of affairs, a certain Pope Formosus (891-896), who belonged to the +Imperial faction, went so far as to invite the German king to come down +to Rome and be crowned Emperor. The king actually came and was crowned, +but accomplished little or nothing, except to arouse bitter hostility in +his enemies. When Formosus died, his successor was elected from the +opposite faction. The new Pope held a synod of cardinals and bishops, +and before them, the highest Christian tribunal in the world, he +summoned, upon the charge of violating the canons of the Church, the +dead Formosus, whose body had lain in its grave, for months. The body +was dug up, dressed in pontifical robes, and propped upon a throne. +Counsel was assigned to it. The accusation was formally read, and the +Pope himself cross-questioned the accused, who was convicted and +deposed. His pontifical acts were pronounced invalid. His robes were +torn from him, the three fingers of the right hand, which in life had +bestowed the episcopal blessing, were hacked off, and the body was +dragged through the streets and flung into the Tiber.</p> + +<p>This incident sheds light on mediæval Rome, and on the character of the +people with whom the Popes had to live. All the Popes, good, bad, and +indifferent, whether they were struggling with the Empire on great +cosmopolitan questions, or were trying to unite Christendom against +Islam, always had to keep watch on the brutal, ignorant, bloody Roman +people, who took no interest in great questions, and were always ready +to rob, burn, and murder with or without a pretext.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>Now that we have brought the Frankish Empire to its dissolution, and the +Papacy to its degradation, we must leave the two wrecks for the moment, +and stop in these dark years at the end of the ninth century to see how +Italy herself has fared. The Italian world was out of joint, +intellectually, morally, politically. There can hardly be said to have +been a government. For a generation the poor, shrunken Empire had been +but a shadow, and when the last Carlovingian died, its parts tumbled +asunder. Local barons ruled everywhere. The Imperial title, which +represented nothing, and conveyed no power, seemed, however, to have +some vital principle of its own, some ghostly virtue; at least sundry +kings and dukes thought so and fought for it; but until the coming of +Otto the Great it remained a shadow. North of the Alps duchies and +provinces united into kingdoms; but the peninsula remained split up into +discordant parts. The valley of the Po was divided into various duchies, +peopled by a mixed race of Latins and Lombards, whom the pressure of the +conquering Franks had welded together. South of the Po lay the Imperial +marquisate of Tuscany. Across the middle of the peninsula stretched the +awkward strip of domain from Ravenna to Rome, inhabited by a race of +comparatively pure Latin blood. This domain, included in the <i>Donations</i> +of Pippin and of Charlemagne, nominally subject to the Papacy under the +suzerainty of the Empire, was really in the possession of petty nobles, +who knew no law except force and craft. South of this so-called papal +domain lay the duchy of Spoleto and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>Lombard duchy of Benevento, and +farther south a few principalities, such as Naples, Amalfi, and Salerno, +and finally in the heel and toe of Italy were the last remains of the +Greek Empire. To the northeast, on its islands, lay the little fishing +and trading city, Venice.</p> + +<p>The Italians, as we had better call them now that Barbarian and Latin +blood has well commingled, were in a most unenviable condition. Most of +those who tilled the soil were serfs, and went with the land when it was +sold; some were scarce better than slaves, others were only bound to +render service of certain kinds or on certain days, either with their +own hands or with beasts. Their lot depended on the humours of the +overseers of great estates. Slaves were worse off because they had no +personal rights, but they were always decreasing in number despite a +slave trade, for there was a strong religious sentiment against slavery, +and it was common for dying men to liberate their slaves. In the cities +people were better off, for the artisans were free men, and by banding +together in guilds (which had existed ever since the old Roman days) +secured for themselves a more prosperous condition. But the only +thriving places were the cities of the coast, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, +Amalfi, where trade was already beginning to lay the foundations of +future greatness.</p> + +<p>These glimmerings of commerce were the only lights along the whole +horizon. Everything else seemed to share the blight that had fallen on +the Empire and the Papacy. The clergy, whose duty it was to maintain +learning, failed utterly. Even in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>happiest days of the Carlovingian +Empire, Charlemagne had found it necessary to enact blunt rules for +their guidance. "Let the priests, according to the Apostles' advice, +withdraw themselves from revellings and drunkenness; for some of them +are wont to sit up till midnight or later, boozing with their +neighbours; and then these men, who ought to be of a religious and holy +deportment, return to their churches drunken and gorged with food, and +unable to perform the daily and nightly office of praise to God, while +others sink down in a drunken sleep in the place of their revels.... Let +no priest presume to store provisions or hay in the church."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +Learning, supposed to be committed to their charge, went out like a +spent candle. Books were almost forgotten, except perhaps here and +there, in Pavia or Verona, where a grammarian still invoked Virgil to +prosper his muse; or where in an episcopal city, like Ravenna, some +chronicler wrote a history of the bishopric. The theory of historic +truth on which these chroniclers acted gives an inkling of the mediæval +attitude towards facts. Father Agnello, a priest of Ravenna, one of +these chroniclers, says himself: "If you, who read this History of our +Bishopric, shall come to a passage and say, 'Why didn't he narrate the +facts about this bishop as he did about his predecessors,' listen to the +reason. I, Andrea Agnello, a humble priest of this holy church of +Ravenna, have written the history of this Bishopric from the time of St. +Apollinaris for eight hundred years and more, because my brethren here +have begged me and compelled me. I have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>put down whatever I found the +Bishops had undoubtedly done, and whatever I heard from the oldest men +living, but where I could not find any historical account, nor anything +about their lives in any way, then, in order to leave no blanks in the +holy succession of bishops, I have made up the missing lives by the help +of God, through your prayers, and I believe I have said nothing untrue, +because those bishops were pious and pure and charitable and winners of +souls for God."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The monks were no better than the secular clergy. The monasteries had +grown large, for many men had joined in order to escape military +service, or to obtain personal security, or an easier life, or greater +social consideration; they had also grown rich, for many sinners on +their deathbeds had given large sums, in hope to compound for their +sins. Naturally monastic vows were often broken. Moreover, the little +good that monks and priests did they undid by their encouragement of +superstition. They first frightened the poor peasants out of their wits +by portraying the horrors of hell, and then preached the magical +properties of the sacraments and of saints' bones, until the ordinary +man, feeling himself the sport of superhuman agencies, abandoned all +self-confidence and surrendered himself to priestly control as his sole +hope of safety in this world or the next.</p> + +<p>Oppressed by anarchy, by division, by a degenerate church, by a gross +clergy, and by waxing ignorance, Italy might seem to have had its cup +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>of evil full. There was but one further ill that could be added, a new +Barbarian invasion. It came. The triumphant Saracens, having overrun +Spain and raided France in the west, having cooped up the Byzantine +Empire in the east, now threatened to plant their victorious banners in +the very heart of Christendom. As early as Charlemagne's last years they +sacked a coast town scarce forty miles from Rome. In 827 they invaded +Sicily, invited by a partisan traitor. Within ten years they had made +themselves masters of almost all the island, except a few strongholds +which managed to hold out for half a century. The beaten Byzantines +retired to the mainland; but they did not get beyond the reach of the +victorious Saracens, who raided all the Italian coast as far as the +Tiber. Troops of marauders hovered round Rome and harried the +country-side, robbing and pillaging at will. One band advanced to the +very gates of the city, and sacked St. Peter's and St. Paul's, both +outside the walls and undefended (846). All the southern provinces were +overrun, half of their towns became Saracen fortresses. It seemed as if +Italy were to undergo the fate of Spain and become a Mohammedan Emirate.</p> + +<p>The danger to Rome roused the country. A Christian league was effected +between the Imperial forces in Italy, the Pope, and the coast cities of +the south,—Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi. Pope Leo himself blessed the +fleet, and the Christians beat the infidels in a great sea-fight not far +from the Tiber's mouth (849). Some of the prisoners were brought to Rome +and set to work on the walls which Pope <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Leo was building round the +Vatican hill to protect St. Peter's; and Rome, imitating the days of +Scipio Africanus, celebrated another triumph over Africa. The fighting +was kept up all over the south. The Greek Emperor made common cause with +his fellow Christians, and the immediate danger of conquest was +arrested; but throughout this dismal ninth century, and all the tenth, +southern Italy continued to suffer from Saracen marauders. The tales +told of their cruelty are fearful, and match our tales of Indian raids +in the old French-English war. Separate villages and lonely monasteries +suffered most. Some good came out of the evil, however, for the +chroniclers relate how the abbots and their terrified brethren spent +days and nights fasting and in prayer.</p> + +<p>Such was the condition of Italy when the Imperial Carlovingian line came +to an end. The omnipresence of anarchy was a permanent argument for the +need of an Imperial restoration. But the country did not know how to go +to work to restore the Empire. At first various claimants asserted +various titles, and Italian dukes and neighbouring kings fought one +another like bulls, but none were able to establish any stable power. In +the midst of these ineffectual struggles one real effort was made. +Arnulf, king of the Germans, who regarded himself as the true successor +of the great Frankish house and of right Imperial heir, marched down +into Italy at the invitation of Pope Formosus, as we have seen, and +assumed the Imperial crown (896). The expedition was barren of +consequences, but it gives us another glimpse of the anomalous nature of +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>Papacy, and the different views entertained of it on the two sides +of the Alps. The German king wished to be Emperor, and felt that an +Imperial coronation at Rome by the Pope was essential. To him and to his +German subjects the papal invitation was of high authority. When he +reached Rome, however, the seat of the Papacy, he found the gates barred +and the walls manned by rebellious citizens, who had locked the Pope in +the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and had seized the government of the city. +Arnulf easily carried the defences by storm and liberated the Pope. The +incident illustrates the contrast between Teutonic respect and Roman +disobedience, and describes the papal situation as it was half the time +throughout the Middle Ages. Honoured and reverenced by the pious +ultramontanes, the Popes were insulted, robbed, imprisoned, and deposed +by their immediate subjects. This local disobedience, or, as it should +be called, Roman republicanism, was often the insignificant cause of +papal actions of far-reaching effect. The Popes were never strong enough +of themselves to suppress these republican sentiments and ambitions; +they needed support from some power, Italian or foreign. As they would +not endure the idea of an Italian kingdom, they adopted the alternative +of calling in a foreign power. This was the constant papal policy.</p> + +<p>Another instance of Roman republicanism, or disobedience (as one +chooses), throws further light on the nature of this thorn in the papal +side. Not long after Arnulf's expedition, two women, Theodora and +Marozia, mother and daughter, played a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>great part not only in Roman but +also in Italian politics. These two women ruled the city and appointed +the Popes. They were bold, comely, much-marrying women, choosing +eligible husbands almost by force; both were wholly Roman in the +fierceness, vigour, and sensuality of their characters. They were very +capable, and, in part directly, in part through their husbands and +others, exercised control for some thirty years; and when the daughter +disappeared from history, her son, Alberic, took the title, Prince and +Senator of all the Romans, and ruled in her stead.</p> + +<p>Thus the last hope of Italians helping themselves perished; for if the +Papacy was powerless, there was no help elsewhere in Italy. The +usurpation of these viragoes and of Alberic differs in details from the +usurpation of the later republicans, and of the Colonna, Orsini, and +other barons, who shall appear hereafter in papal history, but for +general effect on papal affairs and through them on European affairs, +all these usurpations were very similar. The usurpers, in diverse +characters, represent that third player in the fencing match, who, +though by no means an ally of the Empire, frequently rushed in and +struck up the Pope's guard, and continued to interfere for hundreds of +years, until the Popes of the Renaissance finally established their +temporal power in the city of Rome.</p> + +<p>By the middle of the tenth century the disintegration of Italy had +become so bad that it caused its own cure. It was obvious that something +must be done. The Saracens, strongly established in Sicily, were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>a +standing menace towards the south. From the north wild bands of +Hungarians burst across the Alps and harried the land in barbaric raids +as far as Rome. Feudal anarchy prevailed everywhere. Monks and clergy +were, to say the least, no help. Even the Papacy, the only stable power, +had become the appanage of a Roman family. There was but one way out of +this chaos. The Roman Empire must be restored. The Latin people never +believed that it was extinct but merely lying latent, requiring some +happy application of might and right to set it going again on its +majestic course. Charlemagne, in his day, had supplied the might. That +might had faded away. Where was its substitute to be found? Pope +Formosus and King Arnulf had already suggested the only possible +answer,—in the eastern portion of the Frankish Empire, the kingdom of +Germany. That kingdom, composed of the great duchies of Bavaria, Swabia, +Franconia, Saxony, and Lorraine, had become tolerably compact; it was +strong at home, and was eager for glory and power abroad. Its ambitious +king, Otto, of the Saxon line, was the man to undertake to follow +Charlemagne's example. It was too late to hope to restore the +Carlovingian Empire in its former boundaries, but with Germany to give +strength and Rome to contribute title, there would be the two necessary +elements for a renewal of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>The immediate pretext of Otto's coming down into Italy was highly +romantic. A lovely lady, the widow of one Italian pretender to the +throne of Italy, was pestered with offers of marriage from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>another +pretender. She refused, and was locked up in a tower by the Lake of +Garda, where memories of Catullus and Lesbia still faintly lingered. She +contrived to escape, and sent piteous messages for help to the great +Otto, then a widower. Discontented factions in the north, and others +suffering from oppression, including the Pope who had been rudely roused +to the need of Imperial support, also sent messengers asking him to +come. Otto came, took Pavia, and acted as King of Italy. He married the +lovely widow, and wished to go to Rome to receive the Imperial crown; +but Alberic, lord of Rome, would not give permission. Otto went back to +Germany and bided his time. In ten years Alberic died leaving a young +son, who, although only seventeen years old, inherited enough of his +father's power to get himself elected Pope, John XII. Pope John, +however, found himself encompassed by powerful enemies both in Rome and +out. He too was obliged to recognize the absolute necessity of Imperial +restoration, and called upon Otto for aid. The German king came, and was +crowned by the Pope, Emperor of the Romans, in St. Peter's basilica, on +the second day of February, 962. This coronation was the beginning of a +new phase in the Roman Empire. In this phase that Empire is known as the +Holy Roman Empire, although it was merely a union of Germany, Italy, and +Burgundy.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Italy and her Invaders</i>, Hodgkin, vol. viii, p. 289.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte</i>, Balzani +(translated).</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY (962-1056)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>This Roman Empire (it did not receive its full title of Holy Roman +Empire until later) deserved the name Roman because it rested on the +Roman tradition of the political unity of the civilized world. This +tradition, by means of the ecclesiastical unity of Europe, had survived +the Barbarian invasions, had gained strength through Charlemagne's +Empire, and now joined together two nations so fundamentally different +as Germany and Italy. The Germans were big blond men, beer-drinkers, +huge eaters, rough, ill-mannered, arrogant, phlegmatic and brave; the +Italians were little, dark-skinned men, wine-drinkers, lettuce-eaters, +with pleasant manners, gesticulating, excitable, and unwarlike. Their +union affords the strongest testimony to the strength of the Roman +tradition. This ill-assorted pair, married in obedience to the will of +dead generations, could not live together in peace. The theory of a +world conjointly ruled by a supreme secular sovereign and a supreme +ecclesiastical sovereign could not be put into successful practice. The +Empire was German, the Papacy Italian, and by their very natures they +were antagonistic.</p> + +<p>Otto's empire was by no means universal, but its suzerainty was +acknowledged by Bohemia, Moravia, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>Poland, Denmark, perhaps by Hungary, +and sometimes by France; and therefore, as eastern Europe was either +Greek or barbarian, Britain an island, and Spain practically Mohammedan, +it sustained fairly well the idea of a universal (<i>i. e.</i>, European) +empire. The essential parts were Germany to give strength, and Italy to +give title and tradition. In theory the process of royal and Imperial +election and coronation was as follows. The German electors (the greater +nobles), whose number was not limited to seven for two centuries and +more, elected a king, who was crowned with a silver crown at Aachen, +and, by virtue of his coronation, received the title, King of the +Romans. This king then took the iron crown of Lombardy at Pavia, and +became King of Italy; and, when he received the gold Imperial crown from +the Pope at Rome, became Emperor. The election of the son of the late +Emperor to succeed was the custom, but was not obligatory. Germany was +not a strongly centralized state, but was composed of several dukedoms, +which often fell out among themselves. Italy was still less a political +unit. It had no marks of nationality, except its geographical position, +its ancient tradition, and a tardily forming language; but even this +<i>lingua volgare</i>, which in Otto's time began to have an Italian sound, +and to touch the degenerate written Latin with an Italian look, did not +prevail throughout the peninsula. In the south Greek was still spoken, +and the Holy Roman Empire never had more than the shadow of a title +south of Benevento till after Barbarossa's time. The Emperor's authority +rested at bottom on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>the German military power; and as this depended on +the obedience of wayward and jealous dukedoms, it was uncertain and +intermittent.</p> + +<p>The Papacy was far more stable, for fundamentally it was a moral power, +and got its energy from men's consciences. It was far better organized +than the Empire. The ecclesiastical system spread all over Europe, into +every city, village, hamlet, and monastery; countries which reluctantly +acknowledged the suzerainty of the Empire, bowed unquestioningly to +papal rule. Moreover, the power of the Papacy did not merely consist in +spiritual weapons, terrible as the ban of excommunication was in those +days, but also in its ability to raise up enemies against its enemy, and +to put the cloak of piety over war and rebellion.</p> + +<p>The ironical element in the situation was that the Empire itself lifted +the Papacy to the position in which it was able to turn and defy the +Empire, fight it, and finally destroy it. The Emperors, who entertained +no doubts that the Papacy was subject to them, that they were +responsible for its conduct and must secure the election of worthy +Popes, took the Papacy out of the hands of the Roman faction, purified +it, and appointed honest, capable, upright Popes.</p> + +<p>A contemporary account of Otto's dealings with that young scamp, Pope +John XII, who in morals resembled his grandmother, Marozia, gives a good +picture of the nature of the benefits which the Empire conferred on the +Papacy: "While these things were taking place, the constellation of +Cancer, hot <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>from the enkindling rays of Ph[oe]bus, kept the Emperor +away from the hills around Rome, but when the constellation of Virgo +returning brought back the pleasant season he went to Rome upon a secret +invitation from the Romans. But why should I say <i>secret</i> when the +greater part of the nobility burst into the Castle of St. Paul and +invited the holy Emperor, and even gave hostages? The citizens received +the holy Emperor and all his men within the city, promised allegiance, +and took an oath that they would never elect a Pope, nor consecrate him, +without the consent and the sanction of the Lord Emperor Otto, Cæsar, +Augustus, and of his son, King Otto.</p> + +<p>"Three days later, at the request of the Roman bishops and people, there +was a great meeting in St. Peter's Church, and with the Emperor sat the +archbishops of Aquileia, Milan, and Ravenna, the archbishop of Saxony +[and many other Italian and German prelates]. When they were seated, and +silence made, the holy Emperor got up and said: 'How fit it would be +that in this distinguished and holy council our lord Pope John should be +present! But since he has refused to be of your company, we ask your +counsel, holy fathers, for you have the same interest as he.' Then the +Roman prelates, cardinals, priests, and deacons, and all the people +cried out: 'We are surprised that your reverend prudence should wish to +make us investigate that which is not hidden from the Iberians, the +Babylonians, nor the Indians. He [the Pope] is no longer one of that +kind, which come in sheep's clothing but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>inwardly are ravening wolves; +he rages so openly, does his diabolical misdeeds so manifestly, that we +need not beat about the bush.' The Emperor answered: 'We deem it just +that the accusations should be stated one by one, and after that we will +take counsel together of what we ought to do.'</p> + +<p>"Then Cardinal-priest Peter got up, and testified that he had seen the +Pope celebrate mass without communion. John, bishop of Narni, and John, +cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him ordain a deacon in a +stable, and not at the proper hour. Cardinal-deacon Benedict, with other +priests and deacons, said that they knew that he ordained bishops for +money, and that in the city of Todi he had ordained as bishop a boy ten +years old. They said it was not necessary to go into his sacrileges +because they had seen more such than could be reckoned. They said in +regard to his adulteries.... They said that he had publicly gone +a-hunting; that he had put out the eyes of his spiritual father, +Benedict, who died soon after in consequence; that he had mutilated and +killed John, cardinal-subdeacon; and they testified that he had set +buildings on fire, armed with helmet and breastplate, and girt with a +sword. All, priests and laymen, cried out that he had drunk a toast to +the devil. They said that while playing dice he had invoked the aid of +Jupiter, Venus, and other demons. They declared that he had not +celebrated matins, nor observed the canonical hours, and that he did not +cross himself.</p> + +<p>"When the Emperor had heard all this, he bade me, Liutprand, bishop of +Cremona, interpret to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Romans, because they could not understand his +Saxon. Then he got up and said: 'It often happens, and we believe it +from our experience, that men in great place are slandered by the +envious, for a good man is disliked by bad men just as a bad man is +disliked by good men. And for this reason we entertain some doubts +concerning this accusation against the Pope, which Cardinal-deacon +Benedict has just read and made before you, uncertain whether it springs +from zeal for justice or from envy and impiety. Therefore with the +authority of the dignity granted to me, though unworthy, I beseech you +by that God, whom no man can deceive howsoever he may wish, and by His +holy mother, the Virgin Mary, and by the most precious body of the +prince of the Apostles, in whose Church we now are, that no accusation +be cast at our lord the Pope of faults which he has not committed and +which have not been seen by the most trustworthy men.'" The accusers +affirmed their charges on oath. Then the holy Synod said: "If it please +the holy Emperor let letters be sent to our lord the Pope, bidding him +come and clear himself of these charges." The wary John did not come, +but wrote: "I, Bishop John, servant of the servants of God, to all the +bishops. We have heard that you propose to elect another Pope. If you do +that, I excommunicate you in the name of Almighty God so that you shall +not have the right to ordain anybody, nor to celebrate mass."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +Nevertheless, John was deposed and a good Pope put in his stead.</p> + +<p>Otto's successors, one after the other, followed his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>example, and +treated the Papacy as if it had been a German bishopric. The Emperors, +however, had work to do north of the Alps, and did not spend much time +in Rome, except Otto III, a romantic dreamer, who wished to live there; +and during their absence the turbulent Roman anti-imperial faction used +to seize the Papacy, just as Alberic had done, and put up worthless +Popes. In spite of them the Emperors' Popes raised the Papacy so high +that, as a matter of course, it became the head of the great +ecclesiastical reform movement which swept over Europe in the eleventh +century, and from that movement drew in so much force and energy that it +became the greatest power in Europe, and was enabled finally to +overthrow the Empire.</p> + +<p>This tide of reform arose at Cluny, a little place in Burgundy, and +began as a monastic reform. All over Christendom monasteries had grown +rich and prosperous; many monks had forsaken Benedict's rule, had broken +their vows and lived with wives and children upon revenues intended for +other purposes. Other monks hated this evil conduct, and burning with a +passionate desire to stop it, started a great movement of monastic +reform. The reform was ascetic in character, as a moral emotion in those +days was bound to be. The first reformers gathered at Cluny, about the +beginning of the tenth century. From there disciples went far and wide, +purging old monasteries and founding new. After a time the reformers +passed beyond the early stage of mere moral revolt against godless +living, formed a party, and put forward a creed. The party represented +antagonism <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>to the world, pitted saints against sinners, the Church +against the State. The creed had three tenets. No ecclesiasts should +marry, and married men upon ordination should live apart from their +wives. No bribery, no corrupt bargain, should taint the appointment and +installation of clergy, high or low. No layman should meddle with the +entry of bishops upon their episcopal office. These three tenets roused +bitter opposition. Celibacy of the clergy had been a rule of Church +discipline since early days, and from time to time efforts had been made +to enforce the practice, but it had fallen into general disregard. A +celibate clergy, with no affections or interests nearer or dearer than +the Church, would be a tremendous ecclesiastical force, and far-sighted +Popes always sought to enforce the rule. Necessarily the married clergy +and many clerical bachelors were violent in opposition. The article +against simony nobody openly gainsaid; but many bishops and abbots had +obtained their offices by corrupt practices, and many nobles looked +forward to rich livings and high ecclesiastical places; both classes +opposed a change. The third article, against lay investiture of bishops, +which was to be the cause of deadly war between Empire and Papacy, was a +logical conclusion from the article against simony; for it was hard to +suppose that in the appointment of bishops, kings and princes would +disregard all worldly motives and appoint men solely for the good of +souls. On the other hand, the great bishoprics and abbeys were among the +most important fiefs in a king's gift, and carried with them feudal +privileges of sovereignty, such as rights of coinage, toll, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>holding +courts, etc.; in short, they were mere secular fiefs with ecclesiastical +prerogatives added. It was natural that the German Emperors should claim +the right to appoint and invest these spiritual barons, and insist that +their episcopal territories should be subject to the same feudal +obligations and the same civic duties as the territories granted to lay +barons. This third article was a direct attack on the civil power. If +all Imperial participation were to be stricken out, and bishops put into +possession of their fiefs solely by the Pope, then vast territories, +estimated to be nearly half the Empire, would be withdrawn from civic +obligations, even from military service, and the Pope, ousting the +Emperor, would become monarch of half the Imperial domains. According to +the canons of the Church, the clergy and the people of the diocese +elected the bishop, and the Church bestowed on him ring and staff, the +signs of episcopal office. The trouble arose over the fief. In feudal +times the kings had enfeoffed bishops with great fiefs in order to +counterbalance the insubordinate secular lords, and because, in +episcopal hands, these fiefs did not become hereditary. When the +reformers took the matter up, they found that in practice the kings did +not wait for a canonical election of episcopal candidates, but invested +their henchmen in return for money or some service which had no savour +of sanctity. The episcopal office, as St. Peter Damian complained, was +got "by flattering the king, studying his inclination, obeying his beck, +applauding every word that fell from his mouth, by acting the parasite +and playing the buffoon." The real difficulty lay in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>double nature +of the episcopal office, half ecclesiastical and half feudal; and, like +other great political difficulties, would not yield to a peaceful +solution, until there had been a trial of strength between the +discordant interests.</p> + +<p>The first consequence, however, of the reforming spirit was to ennoble +the whole Church, to purify her members, and animate them with a common +zeal, and to uplift her head, the Papacy. It carried on, in a larger way +and with a greater sweep, the work of ecclesiastical reformation begun +by the intervention of the Emperors in the election of Popes, and gave a +loftier tone to European politics.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte</i>, Balzani, p. +123.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES (1059-1123)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The struggle over the lay investiture of bishops did not arise at first. +The Papacy was still a dependent bishopric in the gift of the Emperors, +who continued to depose bad Roman Popes and appoint upright Germans. +Popes and Emperors worked together to enforce celibacy among the clergy +and to put down simony. The Emperors could not see, what is evident in +retrospect, that when the spirit of reform should have taken full +possession of the Papacy, then the Papacy would not rest content to be a +German bishopric, but, in obedience to the law which links political +ambition to political vigour, would even aim so high as to try to reduce +the Empire itself to the condition of a papal fief. The spirit of +reform, embodied in a man of genius, did take possession of the Papacy +and the great struggle began.</p> + +<p>Among the crowd that thronged to Cluny eager for a higher life, was a +young Tuscan from Orvieto, Hildebrand by name, of plebeian birth. Small +of stature, vehement in spirit, passionate in feeling and action, he was +confident in himself and yet sensitive to sympathy. This lad became an +eager scholar, but in spite of erudition and fondness for study, he was +essentially a man of action, a born leader of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>men. "What he taught by +word he proved by example." He believed absolutely in the tenets of the +reformers. He believed with his whole being that the Church was a divine +institution to save men's souls, and he could not endure the idea of +secular powers and worldly influences intermeddling with God's fabric. +His career exhibits the power of a man of genius, who devotes his whole +life to what for him is the highest end, and is able to use human +enthusiasm for good as his implement.</p> + +<p>Hildebrand has been called the Julius Cæsar of the Papacy. He went to +Rome about 1048. From that time papal policy became definite, vigorous, +stamped with an antique Roman stamp; and open conflict with the Empire +was the inevitable result. Hildebrand's first care was to protect the +Papacy from the petty-minded Roman faction; he supported papal +candidates of high character and even secured the appointment of a +German, sagaciously foreseeing that ecclesiastical patriotism would be +stronger than national patriotism. These Popes put Hildebrand's views +into execution.</p> + +<p>Now that the Papacy had been rescued from the Roman faction, the next +step was to free it from the Egyptian bondage of subjection to the +Empire. Hildebrand was ready to strike whenever a fair opportunity +should come. It soon came. The Emperor died, leaving his son Henry IV, a +little boy, his successor on the German throne and heir to the Empire. A +long minority seemed to reveal the hand of Providence. Hildebrand acted. +It had long been obvious that one cause of papal subjection to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>Roman +faction and Imperial tyrant had been the uncertainty of the electoral +body. Emperors, Roman nobles, and Roman rabble, all had certain historic +electoral rights. Hildebrand resolved to dispossess them all. A synod +was held, which declared that the election of the Pope lay in the hands +of the cardinals (1059). Some right of approval was left to the Roman +people, some right of sanction to the Emperor, but the right of original +election was vested in the cardinals, and this gradually developed into +an absolute and exclusive right of election. This act was an act of +rebellion towards the Empire, a declaration of independence. Hildebrand +said that he strove to make the Church "free, pure, and catholic." This +action made it free.</p> + +<p>It was not to be expected that the Empire would acquiesce tamely in this +rebellion. Imperialists and Romans made common cause against the +clerical rebels. But the height of the conflict was not reached till +Hildebrand himself was elevated to the Papacy (1073), becoming Gregory +VII. He immediately took the offensive. Burning with conviction himself, +he appealed to the general enthusiasm both in the Church and throughout +the Empire for the cause of God; he ruthlessly denounced simony and +proclaimed principles of papal sovereignty absolute and universal. "The +Roman Church was founded by God alone; she never has erred and never +will err, and no man is a Catholic who is not at peace with her. The +Roman bishop alone is universal. He may depose bishops and reinstate +them, he may transfer them from one see to another, he may <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>depose +emperors, and may absolve the subjects of the unjust from their +allegiance. No synod without his consent is general; no episcopal +chapter, no book, canonical without his authority. No man may sit in +judgment on his decrees, but he may judge the decrees of all." Here +certainly was a second Julius Cæsar in ambition. Gregory claimed feudal +supremacy over Bohemia, Russia, Hungary, Spain, Corsica, Sardinia, +Dalmatia, Croatia, Poland, Scandinavia, and England. Such claims were +vague and shadowy; but the claims to interfere between the German king +and the German episcopate and clergy were definite and direct. The +Papacy declared its own supremacy, and the Imperial duty of obedience.</p> + +<p>Gregory had immense moral support at his back, yet moral support would +not have sufficed to protect him from the king's anger. Nor would +Gregory have ventured on so haughty a course, had he not had allies of +another character. These allies were four in number, and require some +description. First in importance come the Normans. For years bands of +Norman warriors, pious folk, had passed through Southern Italy on their +way to the Holy Land. Once a handful had helped a prince of Salerno to +repel a Saracen attack. The prince, so the story goes, delighted with +their valour, begged them to invite their compatriots to come. The +invitation was readily accepted. Bands of gentlemen adventurers came, +fought against Saracens, or Greeks, or the independent dukes and princes +of Southern Italy, first as mercenaries in anybody's pay, and afterwards +on their own account. They soon conquered a domain, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>and reached out in +all directions. Some drove out the last Byzantines and acquired Southern +Italy; some crossed to Sicily, performed prodigies of valour against the +Saracens, and finally conquered the whole island (1060-90). In their +raids northward they trespassed upon papal territory and came into +collision with the Church. St. Peter's sword was drawn and brandished, +but ineffectually. The Popes then concluded that martial deeds did not +become them; and the Normans, on their part, were pious folk; so +together they formed a happy solution. The Normans had possession of +Southern Italy and Sicily, but merely by right of conquest; they were in +the midst of an alien and far more numerous subject people, and wished +for a legal title. The Popes, unable to acquire actual possession, did +have, thanks to the <i>Donation of Constantine</i>, a legal title, derived, +so they claimed, from the original source of legal titles, the Roman +Empire. The mode of agreement was obvious; the Popes conferred Southern +Italy and Sicily as feuds upon their liegemen the Norman chiefs, and +they in return acknowledged the Popes as their lords suzerain. In this +manner, "by the grace of God and St. Peter," the Normans founded the +kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which for centuries after the Norman line +died out continued to acknowledge the overlordship of the Papacy. The +Normans were often disobedient vassals, but they knew that the Empire +regarded them as robbers, and in the wars between Empire and Papacy +remained loyal to their lords the Popes.</p> + +<p>The second papal ally was Countess Matilda <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>(1046-1115), mistress of the +Marquisate of Tuscany and other domains, which stretched from the papal +boundaries up across the Po to Lombardy, and like her mother, her +predecessor in title, a brave, capable, devout woman. As the Normans +were a defence to the Papacy on the south, so these ladies constituted a +bulwark on the north, and often rendered incalculable service to the +Popes of this period. Matilda's devotion to Gregory was boundless. "Like +a second Martha, she ministered unto him, and as Mary hearkened unto +Christ, so did she, attentive and assiduous, hearken to all the words of +the Holy Father." She and her mother make clear one source of papal +strength. They show us the attitude of the women, who, from sentiments +of morality, piety, and superstition, took the religious side of the +quarrel, and did not rest till fathers, brothers, husbands, and lovers +had also espoused it. One act of feminine devotion fixes Matilda in the +memory. Her domains consisted of marquisates, counties, baronies, and +various feudal estates, held as feuds of the Empire, over which on her +death she had no power of disposition, and also of large private +estates, which she was free to give or devise. All these, Imperial feuds +and private estates, she gave or rather attempted to give to the Church. +This <i>Donation</i>, the most important since that of Charlemagne, gave +fresh causes of quarrel between Papacy and Empire. The Papacy attempted +to make good its claim to the Imperial feuds; and the Empire, finding it +impossible to discover the boundaries between the two species of +territories, also claimed the whole.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>The third papal ally is to be found in the cities of Lombardy, which had +now become rich and important. In these cities, especially in Milan, +which was easily first commercially and politically, trade had created a +burgher class which already gave evidence of a desire for political +power. In Milan itself there was extreme political instability; +archbishop, nobles, gentry, artisans, and populace were all ready for a +general scrimmage on the slightest provocation. The clergy were numerous +and very rich; sons of noblemen held the fat benefices, and almost all +led irreligious lives and held celibacy in the meanest esteem. Simony +was the rule. In Hildebrand's time the passion for religious reform +swept over the lower classes of the city. A new sect arose, the Patarini +(ragamuffins), a species of Puritans, who took up the cry against +clerical laxity and immorality, and denounced married priests. Religious +excitement set fire to social and economic discontent; populace and +nobles flew to arms; there were riots and civil war. Several eminent +men, close friends of Hildebrand, became popular leaders; and the +contest of people and Patarini against nobles and married clergy became +an episode in the general strife between Papal and Imperial parties. +Similar tumults, caused half by class enmity, half by the passion for +religious reform, took place in other northern cities, Cremona, +Piacenza, Pavia, Padua; on one side was the party of aristocratic +privilege, looking to the Emperor for support; on the other, the party +of the people, looking to the Pope.</p> + +<p>Gregory's fourth ally was the rebellious nobility <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>of Germany. Had +Germany been united and loyal, the German king would easily have been +able to assert his power in Italy; but Germany was disloyal and divided. +Archbishops of the great archbishoprics, dukes of the great duchies, +bishops, counts, and lords, in fact, all the component parts of the +feudal structure of Germany, were jealous of one another; each grudged +the other his possessions, and were in accord only in jealousy of the +royal power. There were always some barons or bishops thankful to have +the Pope's name and the Pope's aid in a rebellious design. These +animosities the Papacy through its thousand hands diligently fomented.</p> + +<p>Ranged against Gregory and his allies were the loyal parts of Germany, +the Imperial adherents in Italy, the married clergy everywhere, and all +whom Gregory's reforms had angered and estranged. At their head was a +dissipated young king, of high spirit, headstrong, ignorant, and +superstitious, who entertained lofty notions of his royal and Imperial +prerogatives. The characters of these two men would have brought them +into collision, even if the irreconcilable natures of Empire and Papacy +had not rendered a clash inevitable.</p> + +<p>Gregory, almost immediately after his elevation to the pontificate, held +a council and denounced simony, marriage of the clergy, and lay +investiture. The king, who believed in the existing system, continued to +exercise what he deemed his royal rights with a view to improving his +political position. Gregory held a second council and utterly forbade +lay investiture. Henry continued to disobey. Then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>Gregory wrote to him +that he must renounce the claim of investiture, and humbly present +himself in person before the papal presence and beg absolution for his +sins; or, if he should fail to obey, Gregory would excommunicate him. +Henry and his party, now very angry, retorted by holding a German synod, +which charged Gregory with all sorts of offences, moral, ecclesiastical, +and political, absolved both king and bishops from their papal +allegiance, and, finally, deposed the Pope. Henry himself wrote Gregory +this letter:—</p> + +<p>"Henry, not by usurpation, but by God's holy will. King, to Hildebrand, +no longer Pope, but false monk:—</p> + +<p>"This greeting you have deserved from the confusion you have caused, for +in every rank of the Church you have brought confusion instead of +honour, a curse instead of a blessing. Out of much I shall say but a +little; you have not only not feared to touch the rulers of the Holy +Church, archbishops, bishops, priests, God's anointed, but as if they +were slaves, you have trampled them down under your feet. By trampling +them down you have got favour from the vulgar mouth. You have decided +that they know nothing, and that you alone know everything, and you have +studied to use your knowledge not to build up but to destroy.... We have +borne all this and have striven to maintain the honour of the Apostolic +See. But you have construed our humility as fear, and for that reason +you have not feared to rise up against our royal power, and have even +dared to threaten that you would take it from us; as if we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>had received +our kingdom from you, as if kingdom and empire were in your hands and +not in God's. Our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to the kingdom, but +not you to the priesthood. You have mounted by these steps; by +craft—abominable in a monk—you have come into money, by money to +favour, by favour to the sword, by the sword to the seat of peace; and +from the seat of peace you have confounded peace. You have armed +subjects against those over them; you, the unelect, have held our +bishops, elect of God, up to contempt.... Me, even, who though unworthy +am the anointed king, you have touched, and although the holy fathers +have taught that a king may be judged by God only, and for no offence +except deviation from the faith—which God forbid—you have asserted +that I should be deposed; when even Julian the Apostate was left by the +wisdom of the holy fathers to be judged and deposed by God only. That +true Pope, blessed Peter, says: 'Fear God, honour the king.' But you do +not fear God and you dishonour me appointed by Him. And blessed Paul, +who did not spare an angel from heaven who should preach other doctrine, +did not except you, here on earth, who now teach other doctrine. For he +says, 'But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel +unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be +accursed.' You therefore by Paul anathematized, by the judgment of all +our bishops and by mine condemned, come down, leave the apostolic seat +which you have usurped; let another mount the throne of blessed Peter, +who shall not cloak violence with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>religion, but shall teach the sound +doctrine of blessed Peter. I, Henry, King by God's grace, and all our +bishops, say to you, Down, down, you damned forever."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>To the action of the German synod and to this letter there could be but +one answer. Gregory held a synod, excommunicated the king, and released +his subjects from their allegiance. The Germans rose in rebellion, +taking the excommunication as a ground or perhaps as a pretext; they +held a great council in presence of a papal legate, and decided that +they would renounce their allegiance unless the king obtained +absolution. The king, too weak to cope with the rebels, submitted. He +crossed the Alps with his wife and one or two servants, in midwinter, +and came to the fortress of Canossa, near Parma, a stronghold belonging +to the Countess Matilda, whither Gregory had gone. For three days the +king stood outside the gates, dressed as a penitent, and begged for +leave to present himself before the Pope. At last, owing to the +entreaties of Matilda, the king was admitted. He cast himself upon the +ground before Gregory, who lifted him up and bade him submit to the +ordeal of the eucharist. Gregory took the consecrated wafer and said, +"If I am guilty of the crimes charged against me, may God strike me." He +broke and ate; then turning to Henry, said, "Do thou, my son, as I have +done." The king did not dare to invoke the judgment of God; he humbled +himself, resigned his crown into Gregory's hands, and swore to remain a +private person until he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>should be judged by a council. He was then +absolved (1077).</p> + +<p>Various events followed this terrible humiliation. The German rebels set +up an anti-king, and the king's men set up an anti-pope, and there was +war and hatred everywhere. The king's energy triumphed for a time; he +even captured Rome, and had it not been for a Norman army, which came to +the Pope's rescue, he would have captured Gregory, too. But, despite +royal triumphs the scene at Canossa had struck the majesty of the Empire +an irretrievable blow; the king of the Germans, Emperor except for a +coronation, had admitted in a most dramatic way, before all Europe, the +inferiority of the temporal to the spiritual power.</p> + +<p>Gregory died in exile at Salerno, Henry died deposed by his rebellious +son; and the question of lay investiture still remained unsettled. More +deeds of violence were done, more oaths broken, more lives taken; at +last an agreement was reached and the long contest closed. Papacy and +Empire made a treaty of peace, known as the Concordat of Worms (1122). +The Emperor renounced all claim to invest bishops with ring and staff, +and recognized the freedom of election and of ordination of the clergy, +thus giving up all claim to appoint bishops and other ecclesiastical +dignitaries. The Pope agreed that the election of bishops should take +place in presence of the Emperor or his representative, and that bishops +should receive their fiefs in a separate ceremony, by touch of the royal +sceptre, in token of holding them from the Empire. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>This compromise, +which seems absurdly simple, as settled questions often do, was a final +adjustment of the immediate quarrel between Empire and Papacy, but left +the larger matter of mastery still to be fought out.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Select Mediæval Documents</i>, Shailer Mathews, translated.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM (1152-1190)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The last chapter dealt with the struggle between the two great mediæval +institutions, the Empire and the Papacy. This deals with the contest +between the Empire, representing the feudal system, and a new social +force, the spirit of trade, represented by the Lombard cities. Naturally +the Papacy joined in the fray and sided with the Lombard cities; and, +before the end, all Italy was divided into two great parties designated +by terms derived from Germany: Guelfs, which indicated those opposed to +the Empire, and Ghibellines, which indicated friends to the Empire. But +the particular issue here fought out was that between feudalism and +trade, and the triumph of trade indicates the close of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Frederick I (1152-90) of the great house of Hohenstaufen is +the hero of this period. He was a noble specimen of the knight of the +Middle Ages, such as Sir Walter Scott conceived a knight to be. He had a +bright, open countenance, fair hair, that curled a little on his +forehead, and a red beard (Barbarossa) which impressed the Italian +imagination. Valiant, resolute, energetic, bountiful in almsgiving, +attentive to religious duties, he was a kind friend and a stern enemy. +To his misfortune he was born too late; he belonged <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>to a chivalric +generation out of place in a world which had begun to deem buying and +selling matters of greater consequence than chivalry and crusades. He +thought himself entitled to all the Imperial rights that had been +exercised by the Ottos; and, measuring his own prerogatives by their +standard, resolved to make good the deficiencies of his immediate +predecessors, who for one reason or another had neglected to assert +those prerogatives in their plenitude. Barbarossa's situation may be +compared to that of Charles I of England, who believed himself lawful +heir to all the prerogatives of the Tudors.</p> + +<p>Opposed to these old-fashioned views was the hard-headed spirit of +commercial Italy. Barbarossa's particular enemies were the Lombard +cities, but that was because they were nearest to him. The same +mercantile spirit animated all the cities of the peninsula; in fact, it +pervaded the maritime cities before it pervaded the Lombard cities, and +can best be described by means of a description of them.</p> + +<p>The southern cities bloomed earlier than their northern sisters. Amalfi, +now a little fishing village which clings to the steep slopes of the +Gulf of Salerno, in the eleventh century was an independent republic of +50,000 inhabitants. She traded with Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and Arabia; +she decked her women with the ornaments of the East; she built +monasteries at Jerusalem, also a hospital from which the Knights +Hospitallers of St. John took their name; she gave a maritime code to +the Mediterranean and Ionian seas, and circulated coin of her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>own +minting throughout the Levant. Salerno, her near neighbour, had already +become famous for her knowledge of medicine, acquired from the Arabs. +The speculations of her physicians upon the medicinal properties of +herbs went all over Europe. She abounded in attractions. Vineyards, +apple orchards, nut trees, flourished round about the city; within there +were handsome palaces; "the women did not lack beauty, nor the men +honesty." The Normans must have found themselves very comfortable. +Naples, Gaeta, and the Greek cities of the heel and toe were also +important and prosperous. But these southern cities were soon outdone by +their sturdier northern rivals, Pisa, Genoa, Venice.</p> + +<p>Pisa, which now lies at the mouth of the Arno like a forsaken mermaid on +the shore, is said to have been a free commune before the year 900. She +traded east and west; she waged wars with the Saracens, drove them from +Sardinia, captured the Balearic Islands (1114), and carried the war into +Africa. Rich with booty and commercial gains, she erected (according to +a traveller's estimate) ten thousand towers within the city walls, +completed her dome-crowned, many-columned, queenly cathedral, and built +the attendant baptistery, within whose marble walls musical notes rise +and fall, circle and swell, as if angels were singing in mid-air. She +received many privileges from the Emperors; her maritime usages were to +be respected; she was to enact her own laws, and to judge her citizens. +No Imperial Marquess was to enter Tuscany until he had received approval +from twelve men of Pisa, to be elected at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>a public meeting, called +together by the city's bells (1085). She spread her power in the Levant. +Jaffa, Acre, Tripoli, Antioch were in great part under her dominion, and +her factories were scattered along the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor.</p> + +<p>Further to the north, mounting hillward from her curving bay, lay Genoa +the Proud, who for a time was Pisa's ally against the Saracens, and then +became her rival and enemy. Genoa, too, was devoted to commerce and +established settlements in Constantinople, in the Crimea, in Cyprus and +Syria, in Majorca and Tunis. She, too, had obtained from the Empire a +charter of municipal privileges and was a republic, free in all but +name.</p> + +<p>Venice, their greater sister, first rivalled and then surpassed both +Pisa and Genoa. She traces her origin to the men who fled from the +mainland in fear of Attila and sought refuge on the marshy islands of +the coast (452). In later days others fled before the Lombards, and +joined the descendants of the earlier refugees. Here, under the nominal +government of the Eastern Empire, the Venetians gradually developed +strength and independence, and took into their own hands the election of +their Doge (697). The city of the <i>Rivo Alto</i>, the Venice of to-day, was +begun about 800. Thirty years later the body of St. Mark the Evangelist +was brought from Alexandria, and the foundations of St. Mark's basilica +were laid over his bones. Politically Venice maintained her allegiance, +shifting and time-serving though it was, true to Constantinople, not +from sentiment, but because Constantinople was the first city in the +world, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>the centre of art, of luxury, of commerce. Indeed, Venice was +like a daughter or younger sister to Constantinople; all her old +monuments, her mosaics, her sculpture, her marble columns, show her +Byzantine inclinations. She took an active part in the Crusades, +furnished transports and supplies, and mixed religion, war, and commerce +in one profitable whole.</p> + +<p>These maritime cities constantly fought one another; Pisa destroyed +Amalfi, Genoa ruined Pisa, and Venice finally crippled Genoa. The glory +they won was by individual effort; whereas the glory of the Lombard +cities is that they effected a union, tardy indeed and imperfect, but +successful at last in its purpose of enforcing their liberties against +the Imperial claims. These Lombard cities included in their respective +dominions the country round about, and were, in fact, except for a +negligent Imperial control, little independent republics. It has been a +matter of long dispute whether these communes were survivals from old +Roman times, or sprung from the love of independence brought in by the +Teutonic invaders; whatever their origin they virtually began with +trade, rested upon trade, and flourished with trade. This trade, which, +beginning between neighbouring cities, extended northward over the Alps, +was greatly aided by the maritime cities. Ships called for cargoes. The +stimulus imparted by the energy of Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan seamen +to manufactures and transalpine trade was felt in every Lombard city. +For instance, the Venetians, eager to carry a wider range of merchandise +over sea to Alexandria or Jaffa, held fairs in the inland <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>cities, +exposed the wares they had fetched home, and stirred mercantile +industry. A burgher class of traders and artisans grew up. Men met in +the market-place, talked business, considered ways and means, discussed +the conditions of production and exchange, and became a shrewd, capable +class. The moment business expanded beyond the city walls, it bumped +into feudal rights at every corner; at every crossroad it found itself +enmeshed in feudal prerogatives and privileges. Trade could not endure a +system fitted only for a farming community. Trade took men into +politics; and in those days politics meant war. The citizens of Milan, +Pavia, and neighbouring cities were not wholly unused to civic rights, +for they had long had a voice in the election of bishops, and they had +their trade guilds. These rights they enlarged whenever they got a +chance; and chances came frequently in the quarrels between Emperor and +archbishop, or between the greater and lesser nobility. Both sides +wanted their support; and they sold it in exchange for privileges, here +a little, there a little, and obtained many concessions. Finally, after +the burghers had advanced in wealth and social consideration, the petty +nobles made common cause with them; and the two combined succeeded in +forcing the great lords to join also, and make one general civic union. +These great lords, who had been little tyrants in the country +roundabout, were compelled to live within the city walls for part of the +year and be hostages for their own good behaviour, and were thus +converted from enemies into leading citizens. The consequence of these +changes was that the former <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>government by a bishop, which in course of +time had supplanted the old Carlovingian system of government by a +count, was superseded in its turn by a much more popular form of +government. The bishop's authority was narrowly limited, the executive +power was lodged in consuls, two or more, who were elected annually, and +the legislative power was placed in a general council of the burghers +(in Milan not more than fifteen hundred men), and in a small inner +council, which represented the aristocratic element. By Barbarossa's +time the government of the cities had ceased to be feudal, and had +become communal. There was inevitable antagonism between Lombardy and +the Holy Roman Empire. The league of Lombard cities embodied the revolt +of trade against the feudal system, of merchants against uncertain and +excessive taxes, of burghers against foreign princes, in short, general +discontent with an outgrown political system.</p> + +<p>Barbarossa's war with the Lombard cities lasted for twenty-five years, +and for convenience may be divided into two periods,—the period before +the cities had learnt the lesson of union and the period after. So long +as they were divided by mutual distrust and jealousy, Barbarossa was +victorious; when they were united they conquered him.</p> + +<p>Barbarossa made his first expedition across the Alps in answer to +appeals that had been made to him from various parts of Italy. Como and +Lodi complained of Milan; the Popes complained of the insubordinate +Romans, who had set up a republic and were going crazy over an heretical +republican <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>priest, one Arnold of Brescia; the lord of the little city +of Capua complained of the Norman king. Barbarossa, with his lofty +notions of Imperial authority and Imperial duty, gathered together an +army and descended into Italy to settle all troubles. He began by +issuing orders to Milan with regard to her conduct towards Como and +Lodi. Milan shut her gates. The proud city and the proud Emperor were at +swords' points in a moment. A letter from Barbarossa from his camp near +Milan, written to his uncle, Otto of Freysing, briefly narrates the +circumstances: "The Milanese, tricky and proud, came to meet us with a +thousand disloyal excuses and reasons, and offered us great sums of +money if we would grant them sovereignty over Como and Lodi; and +because, without letting ourselves be swayed one jot by their prayers or +by their offers, we marched into their territory, they kept us away from +their rich lands and made us pass three whole days in the midst of a +desert; until at last, against their wish, we pitched our camp one mile +from Milan. Here, after they had refused provisions for which we had +offered to pay, we took possession of one of their finest castles, +defended by five hundred horsemen, and reduced it to ashes; and our +cavalry advanced to the gates of Milan and killed many Milanese and took +many prisoners. Then open war broke out between us. When we crossed the +river Ticino in order to go to Novara, we captured two bridges which +they had fortified with castles, and after the army had crossed, +destroyed them. Then we dismantled three of their fortresses ... and +after we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>had celebrated Christmas with great merriment, we marched by +way of Vercelli and Turin to the Po; we crossed the river and destroyed +the strong city of Chieri, and burned Asti. This done, we laid siege to +Tortona, most strongly fortified both by art and nature; and on the +third day, having captured the suburbs, we should easily have carried +the citadel, if night and stormy weather had not prevented us. At last, +after many assaults, many killed, and a piteous slaughter of citizens, +we forced the citadel to surrender, not without losing a number of our +men."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Such vigour as this reduced Milan and her sister cities to obedience. +But Frederick was not content with raids into Italy and spasmodic +punishment administered to this rebellious city or to that; he wished to +have the Imperial rights and authority definitely settled on a permanent +basis; so he convoked a diet on the plain of Roncaglia, not far from +Piacenza, to which he summoned bishops, dukes, marquesses, counts, and +other nobles of the realm, four famous jurists from Bologna, and two +representatives from each of fourteen Lombard cities. Frederick was a +just man; he merely wished his legal rights, and proposed to ascertain +what those rights were. The determination was left to the lawyers.</p> + +<p>By this time lawyers had already begun to play a part in public affairs. +Roman law had never been lost. For centuries it had remained side by +side with the customs of the conquering Barbarians, less as a code of +laws than as the tradition of the subject <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>Latin people; and, when the +needs of quickening civilization required a more elaborate system of law +than custom could supply, there was the Roman law ready for use. It +suddenly leaped into general interest, and rivalled the Church as a +career for young men. St. Bernard complained that the law of Justinian +was ousting the law of God. In 1088 the great law school of Bologna had +been founded. Thither students crowded by thousands; and the opinions of +its jurists were received with the deepest respect.</p> + +<p>At Roncaglia the body of lawyers appointed to determine Imperial rights, +decided, doubtless in accordance with Barbarossa's expectation, in +favour of the Imperial side. The feudal nobles were delighted. The +archbishop of Milan, the recognized head of the Lombard nobility, said +to the Emperor: "Know that every right in the people to make laws has +been granted to you; your will is law, as it is said, <i>Quod Principi +placuit legis habet vigorem</i> [The Emperor's will has the force of law], +since the people have granted to you all authority and sovereignty." In +accordance with the spirit of this principle, the <i>regalia</i>, tolls, +taxes, forfeits, and exactions of various kinds, were defined, and the +right to appoint the executive magistrates in the communes adjudged to +the Emperor. In substance the decision of the jurists was the +restoration of the Imperial rights as they had been under the Ottos, +when the communes were in their infancy.</p> + +<p>Frederick's legal triumph was complete, but such a decision could only +be sustained by force. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>cities would not accept it; they preferred +war. In the course of one campaign Milan was razed to the ground (1162), +so literally, that Frederick dated his letters <i>post destructionem +Mediolani</i>, "after the destruction of Milan." But the cities at last +learned the necessity of union and stood shoulder to shoulder. The +Papacy, too, which had been friendly to the Emperor during the +insurrections in Rome, turned round and joined the cities against him, +and Frederick, in retaliation, set up an anti-pope. Nevertheless, the +glory of defeating the Emperor belongs to the cities, and not to the +Papacy. The decisive battle was fought near Milan on the field of +Legnano (1176).</p> + +<p>The arbitrament of the sword reversed the decision of the lawyers at +Roncaglia. Frederick frankly accepted defeat. A ceremonious conference +was held at Venice. At the portal of St. Mark's, Pope Alexander III, no +unworthy successor to Hildebrand, raised up the kneeling Emperor and +gave him the kiss of peace. Temporary terms were agreed on, and a few +years later the Peace of Constance (1183) definitely closed the war. The +Emperor relinquished all but nominal rights of sovereignty over the +confederate cities. They were to elect their municipal officers, and, +with comparatively unimportant exceptions, to administer justice and +manage their own affairs. Trade had conquered feudalism. The Middle Ages +were near their setting.</p> + +<p>No more of Barbarossa's doings need here be chronicled, except what he +deemed a brilliant stroke of diplomacy, by which he hoped to unite the +crown of the Two Sicilies with the Imperial crown on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>head of his +son, Henry, and through him on the heads of a long line of +Hohenstaufens. The Empire had always asserted a claim to Southern Italy, +but its claim had never been made good except during the temporary +occupation of an Imperial army; and since the Normans had established +their kingdom, Southern Italy had not only been lost to the Empire, but +had become the chief prop of the Empire's enemy, the Papacy. If the +Empire could acquire Southern Italy, it would hem in the Papacy both +south and north, and crush it to obedience. Frederick's son Henry was +married to the heiress of the Norman kingdom (1186); and the good +Emperor, happy in the prospect before his Imperial line, but happier in +that he could not foresee truly, took the cross and led his army towards +the Holy Land. He died on the way (1190), leaving behind him a +reputation for honour and chivalry, inferior to none left by the German +Emperors.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Storia d'Italia</i>, Cappelletti, pp. 99, 100.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Gregory VII was well named the Julius Cæsar of the Papacy. His great +conception of a sovereign ecclesiastical power, supreme over Europe, was +destined to be realized. For in the fulness of time came Innocent III, +the Augustus Cæsar of the Papacy, who ruled the civilized world of +Europe more after the fashion of the old Roman Emperors than any one, +except Charlemagne, had done. But in the interval between these two +famous Popes, there was a period of reaction in which it looked for a +time as if the Empire would plant the Ghibelline flag on the papal +citadel. The Popes of this period were men of no marked ability, whereas +the young king, Henry VI, had inherited the forceful temper of +Barbarossa as well as his theories of Imperial rights, and displayed +great vigour, energy, and resolution. Despite the opposition of the +Popes, who as feudal suzerains of Sicily were most averse to the +alliance, he had married the heiress of the Norman line, and despite the +fierce opposition of the Sicilians,—part Arabs, part Greeks, with +Italians and Normans mingling in,—he established his authority in the +island. Henry was horribly cruel, but he was efficient. He was King of +Germany, King of Italy, and King of the Two Sicilies, and had compelled +a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>reluctant Pope to crown him Emperor. He determined to be Emperor in +Italy in fact, and to accomplish what his father had failed to do. He +undertook to check and suppress the communes by reviving the old feudal +system. He reinstated old duchies and counties, and enfeoffed his loyal +Germans. Matters looked black for the Guelfs, when, to their great good +luck, the fiery young Emperor died, leaving an incompetent widow and a +helpless baby (1197). By one of those occurrences, in which Catholics +see more than the hand of chance, in the very year after the Emperor's +death, a man of political talents of the highest order was elected to +the pontifical chair.</p> + +<p>In the days of Pope Alexander III, the great antagonist of Frederick +Barbarossa, a young nobleman, who took holy orders almost in boyhood, +had given early promise of an extraordinary career. This handsome, +eloquent, imperious boy, named Lothair, inherited through his father, +Thrasmund of the Counts of Segni in Latium, the fierce impetuosity of +the Lombards, and through his mother, a Roman lady of high birth (from +whom he took his master traits), the tenacity, the adroitness, the +political genius of the Romans. He was educated at the universities of +Bologna and Paris, where he studied law, theology, and scholastic +philosophy. The stormy period of the struggle between Alexander and +Barbarossa brought character and talents quickly to the front. Before he +was twenty he had distinguished himself, before he was thirty he had +been made a cardinal, and at thirty-seven he was elected Pope. According +to the practice instituted by the deposed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>scamp, John XII, of taking a +new name, Lothair assumed the title of Innocent III.</p> + +<p>Under the guidance of Innocent III (1198-1216), the Papacy attained the +full meridian of its glory. When this great Pope, lawyer, theologian, +statesman, came to the throne, it was demoralized and weak; before he +died, it had set its yoke on the neck of Europe. For the second time in +history, orders were issued from Rome to the whole civilized world. A +review of his pontificate brings up a panorama of Europe. His task began +in Rome. This little city of churches, monasteries, towers, and ruins, +which took no pride in great papal affairs, had plunged into one of its +fits of republican independence, and, supported by the Emperor, had +ousted the Popes from all control. In the course of a few years, by +intrigue, tact, and civil war, Innocent got into his own hands the +appointment of the senate and of the city governor, and thereby control +of the city. He next turned his attention to the Patrimony of St. Peter, +that central strip from Rome to Ravenna, given or supposed to have been +given by Pippin and Charlemagne to the successors of St. Peter. Here the +impetuous Emperor, Henry VI, had seated his German barons, setting up +fiefs for them, and reëstablishing the feudal system under the Imperial +suzerainty. These German barons were hated by the people. Innocent put +himself at the head of the popular discontent, organized a Guelf, almost +a national, party, and either drove the Germans out, or forced them to +swear allegiance to the Holy See.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>In Tuscany also the Guelfs were successful in breaking up the feudal +restoration. In fact, since the days of Countess Matilda feudalism had +been doomed. The cities had taken advantage of the wars between Papacy +and Empire to secure virtual independence; and on Henry's death, with +the exception of Ghibelline Pisa, they banded together and agreed never +to admit an Imperial governor within their territories. Innocent tried +to bring these cities under papal dominion, but they were too +independent, and he was obliged to rest content with snapping up +scattered portions of Matilda's domains.</p> + +<p>Meantime in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies the Emperor's widow had +died, and left to Innocent's guardianship her little son, Frederick. +Innocent, guardian and suzerain lord, immediately began a struggle with +the feudal nobility, just as in Italy, and, after a long and difficult +contest, asserted the authority of his royal ward. On the termination of +the minority, he handed over the kingdom to Frederick, who, on his part +as King of the Two Sicilies, swore fealty to the Pope. Had it not been +for his honourable and powerful guardian, Frederick probably would have +had no kingdom, and in his oath of fealty he acknowledged his +indebtedness: "Among all the wishes which we carry in the front rank of +our desires, this is the chief, to discharge a grateful obedience, to +show an honourable devotion, and never to be found ungrateful for your +benefits—God forbid—since, next to Divine Grace, to your protection we +are indebted not only for land but also for life."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>In this way Innocent established the Papacy in Italy; sovereign, +suzerain, protector or ally, he was the head of the Italian Guelfs and +practically of Italy. Let us now look abroad. In Constantinople, the +capital of the Greek Empire, Innocent's legate bestowed the Imperial +purple upon an Emperor. An odd whirl of Fortune's wheel brought this to +pass. Innocent had preached a crusade in the hope of recovering the Holy +Land from the infidels, who had succeeded in expelling the Christians. +An army of Frenchmen and Flemings answered his summons. They determined +to avoid the deadly route overland and go by sea, and applied to Venice +for transportation. When they came to pay the bill they did not have the +money, and the Venetians insisted that they should help them recapture +the city of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast, which had once belonged to +Venice but had been lost again. Zara was attacked and taken (1202). One +deflection from the straight path of duty led to another. To Zara came +the son of the Greek Emperor to say that his father had been deposed, +and to beg for help. The Venetians, wishing to wound two commercial +rivals at once, Constantinople and Pisa (for the usurping Emperor +favoured Pisa), used the suppliant as a stalking-horse, and persuaded +the Crusaders once again to divert their immediate purpose and to +restore the deposed Emperor to his throne. Again the Crusaders listened +to temptation, for the Venetians baited their hook with golden promises; +they sailed to Constantinople and restored the wronged Emperor. Matters +did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>go smoothly, however. Misunderstanding with the Greeks led to +disagreements, disagreements to quarrels, and quarrels to war. The Latin +Crusaders assaulted Constantinople, carried it by storm, and plundered +houses, palaces, churches, shrines, everything; then, with appetites +whetted by petty spoils, seized the frail Empire itself (1204). They +divided Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, the islands of the Ægean Sea, and all +the remnants of the Roman Empire of the East that they could lay hands +on. Pious Venice came out best; she took coast and island, town and +country, all along from recaptured Zara round by the shores of Dalmatia, +Albania, Peloponnesus, and Thessaly, ending with half of Constantinople +itself. The Marquess of Monferrat became King of Thessalonica, and his +vassal, a Burgundian count, was invested with the lordship of Athens and +Thebes. The Count of Flanders was elected Emperor of a Latin Empire. +Innocent had been very angry with the deflections to Zara and +Constantinople, and had thundered against the polite but inflexible +Venetians. When the evil had been done, however, he made the best of it, +and behaved with dignity and astuteness. He rebuked the Crusaders for +having preferred the things of earth to those of Heaven, and bade them +ask God's pardon for the profanation of holy places; but he admitted the +advantage that would arise from reconciling the Greeks, schismatics +since the days of Leo the Iconoclast, with the Roman See. So his legate +bestowed the purple on a suppliant Emperor in the city of +Constantinople.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>In Germany Innocent also appears as the giver and withholder of crowns. +On the death of Henry VI there was a disputed election. The Hohenstaufen +party, dreading a long minority, passed over the baby Frederick, and +nominated Philip, Henry's brother; the rival party, the German Guelfs, +nominated Otto of Brunswick, a nephew of Richard C[oe]ur-de-lion. Civil +war followed, and both parties appealed to Innocent who, after +deliberation, supported Otto, but exacted a high price. Otto was obliged +to guarantee to the Pope the strip of territory from Rome to Ravenna, +and those portions of Matilda's domains which were not fiefs of the +Empire, also to acknowledge papal suzerainty over the Two Sicilies, and +to promise to conform to the papal will with regard to the leagues of +the Lombard and Tuscan cities. This guarantee of Otto laid the first +real foundation of the Papal States. Hitherto, vague <i>Donations</i> had +given pretexts for claims; but Otto's deed was a definite Imperial +grant, and conveyed an unquestionable title. In spite of Innocent's +support matters went ill for Otto in Germany. Philip's star rose, and +Innocent, to whom the cause of the Papacy was the cause of God and +justified diplomatic conduct, was on the point of shifting to Philip's +side, when in the nick of time Philip was murdered (1208). Otto's claim +was now undisputed. No sooner, however, did he feel the crown secure on +his head than he shifted his ground. Guelf by birth though he was, he +found that he could not be both obedient to the Pope and loyal to his +Imperial duties. He turned into a complete Ghibelline, broke <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>his grant +to the Pope, attempted to restore the feudal system in the papal +territories, and assumed to treat the Two Sicilies as a fief of the +Empire. Innocent, outraged and indignant at this breach of faith, +excommunicated him (1210). Thereupon, as at the time when Gregory VII +excommunicated Henry IV, the German barons rose, deposed Otto, and +summoned young Frederick from Sicily to take the German crown. Innocent +supported Frederick's cause, but exacted the price which he had formerly +exacted from the perjured Otto. Frederick, pressed by present need, and +forgetful of Otto's evil precedent, pledged himself as follows: "We, +Frederick the Second, by Divine favour and mercy, King of the Romans, +ever Augustus, and King of Sicily ... recognizing the grace given to us +by God, we have also before our eyes the immense and innumerable +benefits rendered by you, most dear lord and reverend father, our +protector and benefactor, lord Innocent, by God's grace most venerable +Pontiff; through your benefaction, labour, and guardianship, we have +been brought up, cherished, and advanced, ever since our mother, the +Empress Constance of happy memory, threw us upon your care, almost from +birth. To you, most blessed father, and to all your Catholic successors, +and to the Holy Roman Church, our special mother, we shall discharge all +obedience, honour, and reverence, always with an humble heart and a +devout spirit, as our Catholic predecessors, kings and Emperors, are +known to have done to your predecessors; not a whit from these shall we +take away, rather add, that our devotion may shine the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>more."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +Frederick promised that he would not interfere in the election of +bishops, and that the candidate canonically elected should be installed. +He confirmed the papal title to the Papal States. "I vow, promise, +swear, and take my oath to protect and preserve all the possessions, +honours, and rights of the Roman Church, in good faith, to the best of +my power" (1213).</p> + +<p>From this time forward Frederick advanced from success to success. Otto +was driven into private life, and the Pope's legate put the German crown +on Frederick's head at Aachen (1215). Where Innocent blessed, success +and prosperity followed; where he cursed, death and destruction came.</p> + +<p>Elsewhere the Pope was equally triumphant. All Europe bent under his +imperial decrees. The kings of Portugal, Leon, Castile, and Navarre were +scolded or punished. The King of Aragon went to Rome and swore +allegiance. The Duke of Bohemia was rebuked, the King of Denmark +comforted, the nobles of Iceland warned, the King of Hungary admonished. +Servia, Bulgaria, even remote Armenia, received papal supervision and +paternal care. Philip Augustus of France, at Innocent's command, took +back the wife whom he had repudiated. John of England grovelled on the +ground before him, and yielded up "to our lord the Pope Innocent and his +successors, all our kingdom of England and all our kingdom of Ireland to +be held as a fief of the Holy See"(1213).</p> + +<p>Another triumph of darker hue added to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>brilliance of Innocent's +career. In the south of France, in the pleasant places of Provence and +Languedoc, where troubadours praised love and war, and lords and ladies +wandered down primrose paths, the humbler folk got hold of certain +dangerous ideas. They believed that there was a power of evil as well as +a power of good, that Christ was but an emanation from God, that the God +of the Jews was not the real God of Goodness, and, worse than all, that +the Roman Church, with its sacerdotalism, forms, sacraments, and ritual, +was, to say the least, not what it should be. Innocent entertained no +doubts that the Roman Church had been founded by God to maintain His +truth on earth; as a statesman he regarded heresy as we regard treason +and anarchy; as a priest he deemed it sin. He called Simon of Montfort +and other dogs of war from the north and urged them at the quarry. The +heresy was put down in blood. Here appears the black figure of St. +Dominic, encouraging the faithful, rallying the hesitant, and by the +fervour of his belief, by his devotion, by his genius for organization, +more destructive to heresy than the sword of Montfort.</p> + +<p>Thus Innocent sat supreme. He had created a papal kingdom where his +predecessors had asserted impotent claims; he had confirmed the Two +Sicilies in their dependency upon the Holy See; he had put the Papacy at +the head of the Guelf party in Italy, and had made that party almost +national; he had enforced the power of the Church throughout Europe, had +given crowns to the Kings of Aragon and of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>England, to the Emperors of +Germany and of Constantinople. No such spectacle had been seen since the +reign of Charlemagne; none such was to be seen again till the coming of +Napoleon. The conception of Europe as an ecclesiastical organization had +reached its fullest expression.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Select Mediæval Documents</i>, Mathews, p. 115, +translated.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>ST. FRANCIS (1182-1226)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In spite of the dazzling success achieved by Innocent, matters were not +well with the Church in Italy. Corruption threatened it from within, +heresy from without. Simony was rampant; livings were almost put up at +auction. Innocent asserted that there was no cure but fire and steel. +The prelates of the Roman Curia were "tricky as foxes, proud as bulls, +greedy and insatiable as the Minotaur." The priests were often +shameless; some became usurers to get money for their bastards, others +kept taverns and sold wine. Worship had become a vain repetition of +formulas. The monks were superstitious, many of them disreputable. The +inevitable consequence of this decay in the Church was heresy. Italy was +nearly, if not quite, as badly honeycombed with heretics as Languedoc +had been. The Patarini, whom we remember in Hildebrand's time, now +become a species of heretics, abounded in Milan; other sects sprang up +in towns near by. In Ferrara, Verona, Rimini, Faenza, Treviso, Florence, +Prato, anti-sacerdotal sentiment was very strong. In Viterbo the +heretics were numerous enough to elect their consul. At Piacenza priests +had been driven out, and the city left unshepherded for three years. In +Orvieto there had been grave disorders. In Assisi a heretic had been +elected <i>podestà</i> (governor).</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>The great Innocent knitted his brows; he knew well that his noisy +triumphs, which echoed over the Tagus, the Thames, the Rhine, and the +Golden Horn, were of no avail, if heretics sapped and mined the Church +within. It seemed as if the great ecclesiastical fabric, to which he had +given the devotion of a life, was tottering from corner-stone to apex; +when, one day, a cardinal came to him and said, "I have found a most +perfect man, who wishes to live according to the Holy Gospel, and to +observe evangelical perfection in all things. I believe that through him +the Lord intends to reform His Holy Church in all the world." Innocent +was interested, and bade the man be brought before him. This man was +Francis Bernadone, known to us as St. Francis, the leader of a small +band of Umbrian pilgrims from Assisi, who asked permission to follow +literally the example of Jesus Christ. The Pope hesitated. To the +cardinals, men of the world, this young man and his pilgrims were fools +and their faith nonsense. "But," argued a believer, "if you assert that +it is novel, irrational, impossible to observe the perfection of the +Gospel, and to take a vow to do so, are you not guilty of blasphemy +against Christ, the author of the Gospel?" Thinking the matter over, the +Pope dreamed a dream. He beheld the Church of St. John Lateran, the +episcopal church of the bishops of Rome, leaning in ruin and about to +fall, when a monk, poor and mean in appearance, bent under it and +propped it with his back. Innocent awoke and said to himself, "This +Francis is the holy monk by whose help the Church of God shall be lifted +up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>and stand again." So he said to Francis and his followers, "Go +brethren, God be with you. Preach repentance to all as He shall give you +inspiration. And when Almighty God shall have made you multiply in +numbers and in grace, come back to us, and we will entrust you with +greater things."</p> + +<p>So St. Francis, "true servant of God and faithful follower of Jesus +Christ," went about his ministry with the blessing of the Church. To the +people of Assisi, of Umbria, and afterwards of all Central Italy, his +life was a revelation of Christianity. He imparted the gospel anew, as +fresh as when it had first been given under the Syrian stars. He +embodied peace, gentleness, courtesy, and self-sacrifice. It is not too +much to say that he saved the Catholic Church, and put off the +Protestant Reformation for three hundred years. His example and +influence raised the standard of conduct within the Church; and his +love, his devotion, his insistence on the essential parts of Christ's +teaching, and his dislike of worldly pomps, deprived heresy of all its +weapons. He satisfied the widespread religious hunger better than heresy +did. He was so characteristically Italian, and his ministry throws so +much light on the state of Italy at the opening of the thirteenth +century, that it is worth while to dwell for a few pages on his doings.</p> + +<p>Assisi, built for safety on a hill and protected by great walls and +gates, was a good example of a little mediæval town. In the centre was +the <i>piazza</i>, on which fronted a Roman temple to Minerva, haughtily +scornful of its mediæval surroundings. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>Hard by was the cathedral, where +every baby was taken for baptism. On the tiptop of the hill stood a huge +castle, where the feudal baron dwelt with his ruffianly soldiers and +received his feudal lord, the Emperor, when he stopped at Assisi on his +way to Rome. In Francis's boyhood, the people, aided by Pope Innocent, +had driven out the German count, and had formed themselves into a free +commune, save for their allegiance to the Holy See; but the change was +not all gain. The town was divided into discordant classes; the +nobility, maintained in idleness by the produce of their estates, the +bourgeoisie, engaged in trade (Francis's father was a merchant), the +artisans grouped in guilds, and the serfs, who tilled the fields and +tended the vineyards and olive orchards. Once rid of the German count, +the bourgeoisie endeavoured to rid themselves of the arrogant and idle +nobility. Street war broke out. The nobles fled to Perugia, another +little town perched on a hill some dozen miles across the plain, and +asked for help. Perugia rejoiced in the opportunity. The miseries of a +petty war between two little neighbours need no description. Fields and +vineyards were devastated, olive orchards destroyed, farm-houses burned. +Even in peace the peasants around Assisi lived in constant disquiet, +ready to fling down their mattocks and flee to the protection of the +city walls.</p> + +<p>Within the city the streets were narrow, the houses small. Dirt +abounded. War brought poverty, dirt brought the pest, Crusaders brought +leprosy. At the gates of the town stood lazar-houses, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>and in remote +spots lepers in the earlier stages of disease gathered together. Yet, +despite war, pest, and leprosy, life in Umbria could never have been +wholly sad. Certainly the sons of the well-to-do enjoyed themselves and +whiled away the time carelessly. Sometimes a great personage stopped on +his Romeward way; sometimes strolling players exhibited their shows on +the <i>piazza</i> before the Temple of Minerva; sometimes a troubadour, +escaped from the persecution in Provence, passed by on his way to +Sicily, and sang his songs to repay hospitality. Many an afternoon and +night the clubs of young gentlemen gave <i>fêtes champêtres</i> and dances. +Francis, as a boy, was gayest of the gay, dancing and piping in the +market-place, fighting in the front rank against the nobles of Perugia, +but when he grew to manhood he could not bear the contrast between mirth +and misery. He sought for some universal joy and found it in the love of +Christ. He gathered about him a scanty band of holy and humble men of +heart, who took the vow of poverty, and devoted themselves to praising +God, comforting the wretched, and tending lepers. The abbot of the +neighbouring Benedictine monastery gave them a little chapel, where St. +Benedict himself had once said mass, which lay in the plain a mile below +the town. This little chapel, named the <i>Portiuncula</i> (the little +portion), which is now covered by the great church of <i>Santa Maria degli +Angeli</i> (St. Mary of the Angels), so called because the songs of angels +were heard there, was the cradle of the Franciscan Order. It was a tiny +building, twenty feet wide and thirty long, with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>steep pitched roof, +plain walls, and big, round-arched door, and was sadly dilapidated. St. +Francis and his friends built it up, and it became their church. Round +it they built their huts, and encompassed all with a hedge. Here it was +that St. Clare, the daughter of a nobleman of Assisi, donned the nun's +dress. Here Francis passed the happy years of his life, while as yet his +disciples were few and all were animated by his passionate longing for +self-abnegation. He followed the New Testament literally, +superstitiously one would say were it not that this literal obedience +was accompanied by ineffable peace of heart and joy. He specially +enjoined poverty. A smock, a cord, and sandals were enough for a true +brother. Once a novice begged for permission to own a psalter, and +teased him, but Francis answered: "After you have the psalter you will +covet and long for a breviary; and when you possess a breviary you will +sit on a chair like a great prelate, and say to thy brother, fetch me my +breviary." Nor would he suffer the brethren to take heed for the morrow. +They were only allowed to ask for provisions sufficient for the day. For +he, in the rapture of his love, found infinite pleasure in the literal +fulfillment of every word that had fallen from Christ's lips. Francis +was an orator; he possessed passion, the great source of eloquence, and +stirred prelates and Crusaders as well as peasants and lepers. The world +wished for sympathy and he gave it. He seemed to be sick with the sick, +afflicted with those in affliction, holy with the good; and even sinners +felt him one of themselves. To <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>his disciples he was Jesus come again. +Joy and happiness radiated from him. All the world felt the charm and +beauty of his love of God, and poetry followed him as wild violets +attend the spring.</p> + +<p>Thus Francis, by rubbing off the incrustations of twelve hundred +unchristian years, revealed the poetry of the gospel to an eager world. +One charming trait of his character was his love of animals, especially +of birds. He wished the ox and the ass, companions of the manger, to +share in the Christmas good cheer; and hoped that the Emperor would make +a law that nobody should kill larks or do them any hurt. He was always +very fond of larks and said that their plumage was like a religious +dress. "Wherefore,—according to his disciple, Brother Leo,—it pleased +God that these lowly little birds should give a sign of affection for +him at the hour of his death. On the eve of the Sabbath day after +vespers, just before the night in which he went up to God, a great +multitude of larks flew down over the roof of the house where he lay, +and all flying together wheeled in circles round the roof and singing +sweetly seemed to be praising God."</p> + +<p>His disciples went forth from their headquarters, the <i>Portiuncula</i>, +like the Apostles, to preach the gospel, first to the people of Umbria +and Tuscany, then on to Bologna and Verona, and soon over the Alps and +across the seas. The Order had three branches: the begging friars +themselves, tonsured and clad in undyed cloth, with cords about their +waists and sandals on their feet; the sister Clares, shut up in +nunneries, and dressed most simply; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>and the third order, people who +continued to live in the world, but wished to follow the example of +Christ and his blessed imitator and servant, Francis. The first rule of +the begging friars had been very strict. For Francis the strait gate +that led to eternal life was poverty. Even in his lifetime after his +Order had become popular, there was grumbling and opposition; and after +his death, the literal observance of his wishes was promptly given up. +He would never allow his brethren to own a house or have a church; and +yet within two years after his death the great basilica in Assisi was +begun, dedicated to him, and hurried to magnificent completion. The +Church, which held the doctrine of evangelical poverty fit only for mad +men of genius, laid her heavy hand on the Order, and guided and governed +it as best suited her purposes. But it would be grossly unfair to the +Church to blame her for violating Francis's chief dogma. The total +rejection of property, the total disregard of the morrow, seemed to her, +as they seem to us to-day, doctrines wholly inapplicable to this world +in which we find ourselves.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE (1216-1250)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Church seized the Franciscan Order as a man in danger grasps at a +means of safety, and shaped it to her needs; for, in spite of her +brilliant triumphs under Innocent, her needs were great. The Papacy and +the Empire approached their final struggle; both felt instinctively that +the issue must be decisive. Their fundamental incompatibility had been +aggravated by the union of the crowns of Sicily and Germany. Innocent +had been pushed by circumstances into supporting Frederick's claim to +Germany, and though he had striven to prevent the natural consequences +by extorting oaths from Frederick, yet as time went on the danger became +clearer. Under Innocent's successor, Pope Honorius, the Papacy lay like +a cherry between an upper and lower jaw, which watered to close and +crunch it; and this extreme peril is the excuse for the bitterness of +the Popes in the contest which followed. The Papacy fought for its life.</p> + +<p>The contest affected all Italy. Milan and many cities of the valley of +the Po were Guelf; but Pavia and some others were Ghibelline, not that +they loved the Emperor, but hated Milan; Florence and the other Tuscan +cities, except Ghibelline Pisa and Siena, which hated Florence, were +Guelf; Rome was split in two; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>the Colonna, the Frangipani, and other +great families were generally Ghibelline, though permanent allegiance +was unfashionable, while the Orsini and others were Guelf. The Gray +Friars, who swarmed from the Alps to the Strait of Messina, were +steadfast Guelfs, and even carried their loyalty so far, their enemies +said, as to subordinate religion to political ends. On the other hand, +the aristocracy, which was chiefly of Teutonic descent, held for the +Empire.</p> + +<p>Frederick himself is the central figure of the period. In his lifetime +he excited love and hate to extravagance, and he still excites the +enthusiasm of scholars. His is the most interesting Italian personality +between St. Francis and Dante. I say Italian, for though Frederick +inherited the Hohenstaufen vigour and energy, he got his chief traits +from his Sicilian mother. Poet, lawgiver, soldier, statesman, he was the +wonder of the world, <i>stupor mundi</i>, as an English chronicler called +him. Impetuous, terrible, voluptuous, refined, he was a kind of Cæsarian +Byron. In most ways he outstripped contemporary thought; in many ways he +outstripped contemporary sympathy. He was sceptical of the Athanasian +Creed, of communal freedom, and of other things which his Italian +countrymen believed devoutly; while they were sceptical of the divine +right of the Empire, of the blessing of a strong central government, and +of other matters which he believed devoutly.</p> + +<p>Between a stubborn Emperor, a stiff-necked Papacy, and obstinate +communes, relations strained taut. The first break occurred between +Emperor and Papacy. The Popes honestly desired to reconquer Jerusalem, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>which had fallen back into infidel hands, and incessantly urged a +crusade; but perhaps at this juncture their zeal was heightened by a +notion that the most effective defensive measure against the Emperor +would be to keep him busy in Palestine. Frederick had solemnly promised +to go. He had also solemnly promised to keep the crowns of Germany and +of the Two Sicilies separate, by putting the latter on his son's head; +but instead of this separation he kept both crowns on his own head, and +secured both for his son as his successor. In spite of this violated +promise, Pope Honorius, a gentle soul, devoutly eager for the crusade, +crowned Frederick Emperor (1220), upon Frederick's renewed promise that +he would start on the crusade within a year. The year passed, then +another and another, and Frederick, with his crowns safe on his head, +did not move a foot towards Jerusalem. The gentle Honorius remonstrated; +Frederick made vows, excuses, protestations, but did not go. Finally the +mild Pope died, and was succeeded by the venerable Cardinal Ugolino, +Gregory IX, (1227-1241). Ugolino was a member of the <i>Conti</i> family of +Latium (so preëminently counts that they took their name from their +title), and a near relation to Innocent III. His indomitable character +proved his kinship. Blameless in private life, a warm friend to St. +Francis, deeply versed in ecclesiastical affairs, he had a benign face +and noble presence; in fact, to quote the gentle Pope Honorius, he was +"a Cedar of Lebanon in the Park of the Church." But, in spite of his +virtue, his training, and his fourscore years, he was a very Hotspur, +fiery, impatient, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>headstrong. It was he who had put the crusader's +cross into Frederick's hands and had received his crusader's vow; and +now, having bottled up his wrath during the pontificate of Honorius, he +could brook no further delay. Frederick made ready to go. Ships and men +were gathered at Brindisi, and, in spite of a pestilence which killed +many soldiers, the fleet set sail. A few days later word was brought +that Frederick had put about and disembarked in Italy.</p> + +<p>Gregory was furiously angry, and despatched an encyclical letter to +certain bishops in Frederick's kingdom, which sets forth the papal side +of the matter: "Out in the spacious amplitude of the sea, the little +bark of Peter, placed or rather displaced by whirlwinds and tempests, is +so continuously tossed about by storms and waves, that its pilot and +rowers under the stress of inundating rains can hardly breathe. Four +special tempests shake our ship: the perfidy of infidels, the madness of +tyrants, the insanity of heretics, the perverse fraud of false sons. +There are wars without and fears within, and it frequently happens that +the distressed Church of Christ, while she thinks she cherishes +children, nourishes at her breast fires, serpents, and vipers, who by +poisonous breath, by bite and conflagration, strive to ruin all. Now, in +this time when there is need to destroy monsters of this sort, to rout +hostile armies, to still disturbing tempests, the Apostolic See with +great diligence has cherished a certain child, to wit, the Emperor +Frederick, whom from his mother's womb she received upon her knees, +nursed him at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>her breasts, carried him on her back, rescued him often +from the hands of them that sought his life, with great pains and cost +studied to educate him until she had brought him to manhood, and led him +to a kingly crown and even to the height of the Imperial dignity, +believing that he would be a rod of defence, and a staff for her old +age."</p> + +<p>The encyclical then proceeds to recount Frederick's promises, his +delays, evasions, excuses, and the false start from Brindisi, and adds, +"Hearken and see if there be any sorrow like the sorrow of your mother +the Apostolic See, so cruelly, so totally deceived by a son whom she had +nursed, in whom she had placed the trust of her hope in this matter. But +we put our hope in the compassion of God that He will show to us a way +by which we shall advance prosperously in this affair, and that He will +point out men, who in purity of heart and with cleanness of hand shall +lead the Christian army. Yet lest, like dumb dogs who cannot bark, we +should seem to defer to man against God, and take no vengeance upon him, +the Emperor Frederick, who has wrought such ruin on God's people. We, +though unwilling, do publicly pronounce him excommunicated, and command +that he be by all completely shunned, and that you and other prelates +who shall hear of this, publicly publish his excommunication. And, if +his contumacy shall demand, more grave proceeding shall be taken."</p> + +<p>This ban of excommunication was published over the world; bishops gave +it out in their dioceses, priests in their parishes; Gray Friars told of +it from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>Sicily to Scotland. Frederick in answer wrote letters to the +kings of Europe, saying that the Roman Church was so consumed with +avarice and greed, that, not satisfied with her own Church property, she +was not ashamed to disinherit emperors, kings, and princes, and make +them tributary. To the King of England he wrote:—</p> + +<p>"Of these premises the King of England has an example, for the Church +excommunicated his father, King John, and kept him excommunicated till +he and his kingdom became tributary to her. Likewise all have the +example of many other princes, whose lands and persons she squeezed +under an interdict till she had reduced them to similar servitude. We +pass over her simony, her unheard-of exactions, her open usury, and her +new-fangled tricks, which infect the whole world. We pass over her +speeches, sweeter than honey, smoother than oil,—insatiable +bloodsuckers! They say that the Roman Curia is the Church, our mother +and nurse, when that Curia is the root and origin of all evils. She does +not act like a mother, but like a stepmother. By her fruits which we +know she gives sure proof.</p> + +<p>"Let the famous barons of England think of this. Pope Innocent +instigated them to rise in revolt against King John as a stubborn enemy +of the Church, but after that abnormally celebrated King made obeisance +and, like a woman, delivered up himself and his kingdom to the Roman +Church, that Pope, putting behind him his respect for man and fear of +God, trampled down the nobles, whom he had first supported and pricked +on, and left them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>exposed to death and disinheritance, so that he, +after the Roman fashion, should gulp down his impudent throat the fatter +morsels. In this way, under the incitement of Roman avarice, England, +fairest of countries, was made a tributary. Behold the ways of the +Romans; behold how they seek to snare all and each, how they get money +by fraud, how they subjugate the free and disturb the peaceable, clad in +sheep's clothing but inwardly ravening wolves. They send legates hither +and thither, to excommunicate, to reprimand, to punish,—not to save the +fruitful seed of God's word, but to extort money, to bind and reap where +they have never sown.</p> + +<p>"Against us also, as He who sees all things knows, they have raged like +bacchantes, wrongfully, saying that we would not cross the sea according +to terms fixed, when much unavoidable and arduous business about the +going, and about the Church and about the Empire, detained us, not +counting sickness. First there were the insolent Sicilian rebels: and it +did not seem to us a good plan nor expedient for Christianity to go to +the Holy Land," etc. And he ended, so the chronicler says, with an +exhortation to all the princes of the world to beware against such +avarice and wickedness, because "<i>you are concerned when your +neighbour's house is on fire</i>."</p> + +<p>These letters show the temper on both sides. Outwardly, however, peace +was observed, and Frederick really went on the promised crusade; and, +though in Syria he found Patriarch, Templars, Hospitallers, and +Franciscans all turned against him, he succeeded in making a treaty by +which Jerusalem, Nazareth, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>and Bethlehem were ceded to him, and he +crowned himself king in Jerusalem. In the mean time hostilities had +broken out in Italy. Frederick incited the Roman barons to drive the +Pope from Rome, and the Pope preached a crusade against Frederick. But +both sides, having many cares within their respective jurisdictions, at +length made peace, and Frederick was enabled to go back to his +<i>consuetas delicias</i>, his wonted delights.</p> + +<p>This phrase, which was used by the Pope, probably contained an innuendo, +for gossip busied itself with Frederick's christianity and morals. He +tolerated Saracens in his kingdom, lived on friendly terms with them, +and preferred them in his army, for they were indifferent to +excommunication; and gossip added that he liked Saracen ladies, hinted +at a harem, and alleged that in Syria he had accepted the present of a +troop of Moslem dancers. Gossip, spread by the glib tongues of mendicant +friars, charged him with saying, "If God had seen my beautiful Sicily, +he would not have chosen that beggarly Palestine for His Kingdom," +"There have been three great impostors who invented religions, and one +of them was crucified." Frederick's real offence in ecclesiastical eyes +was that he wished to subordinate the spiritual to the secular power. It +was natural, however, that pious folk should look askance at a prince +who, while Christendom was fighting Islam, hobnobbed with Mohammedans +and seemed to find them more sympathetic than Christians.</p> + +<p>Frederick's real <i>consuetæ deliciæ</i> were of another kind. In his +Sicilian court we catch the first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>streaks of the dawn that was destined +to brighten into the day of the Renaissance. He himself was a highly +accomplished man, spoke Italian, German, Arabic, and Greek, and took an +interest in mathematics, philosophy, and in general learning. But poetry +was his favourite pleasure. The Italian language, recently emerged from +dog Latin, had just begun to serve literary uses, and Frederick's court +had the honour of producing the first school of Italian poetry. He, his +sons Manfred and Enzio, his chief counsellor Pier della Vigna, and many +poets and troubadours drawn thither by his fame, so far outstripped the +rest of Italy that all Italian poetry, wherever written, was called +Sicilian.</p> + +<p>Sicily was the most civilized place in Europe, now that Southern France +had been crushed by the Albigensian persecution. The old Greek stock +kept some trace of their inheritance; the Arabs had brought their +culture; the Normans had added chivalric ideas; the Crusades and +commerce had enlarged the intellectual boundaries; and Frederick himself +had extraordinary versatility. Mathematicians from Granada, philosophers +from Alexandria, were as welcome as the troubadours from Provence. +Frederick looked after his own royal estates, managed his stud farm in +Apulia, decided when brood mares should be fed on barley and when kept +to grass. He was a great sportsman, too, and wrote a book on falconry. +He enacted a famous code of laws, far superior in many respects to +existing legislation, which was conceived with the definite plan of +exalting royal authority over feudal prerogatives and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>communal customs. +He deprived the barons of criminal jurisdiction; forbade private war, +carrying weapons, etc; he limited trial by ordeal so far as he could, +calling it "a species of divination;" he made minute regulations in +matters of business and behaviour, and maintained a paternal authority.</p> + +<p>In fact, Sicily, with its culture, poetry, Moslems, and its unorthodox +king, succeeded to the heretical position of Southern France. The Papacy +felt instinctively that a civilization so happy in the good things of +this world, so lax on many points of morality, so careless of the Roman +ecclesiastical system, was a perpetual menace to it. In the nature of +things, the peace that had been made with Frederick could not last long.</p> + +<p>The breach happened in the North. The Lombard cities revolted. Frederick +marched against them and won a victory (1237). Then was the zenith of +his power; his very triumph was the cause of his undoing. All the Guelfs +of Italy roused themselves for the struggle. The Pope took part, and a +second time excommunicated Frederick, enumerating a score of sins. A +later Pope held a council at Lyons (a place of safety), excommunicated +Frederick again, and deposed him from his Imperial throne (1245). Then +an anti-emperor was set up. Blow on blow fell upon Frederick. He was +terribly routed at Parma, through carelessness. His gallant son Enzio, +the poet, was captured by the Bolognese, who would not release him, +though Frederick offered to put a rim of gold round the walls of their +city. Enzio spent twenty-three years in prison and there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>died. Pier +della Vigna, who "kept both the keys of Frederick's heart," was +suspected of high treason and condemned to death. Frederick himself died +in 1250, and the Pope shouted for joy at the news, "Be glad ye Heavens, +and let the Earth rejoice!" He had good reason, for the Church had lost +its most dangerous enemy.</p> + +<p>With the death of Frederick the Empire came to its end. The name of Holy +Roman Empire continued till 1806, and from time to time for several +hundred years German kings came down across the Alps to receive the +Imperial crown, but on Frederick's death the old mediæval Empire +practically ceased; and Italy, instead of being an Imperial province, +became a series of independent states.</p> + +<p>The end of the Hohenstaufens themselves reads like the last act of a +bloody Elizabethan tragedy. Within a few years the only survivors among +Frederick's descendants were his lawful heir, a baby, Conradin, and an +illegitimate son, Manfred. Manfred, who had inherited the charm, the +address, the energy and brilliance of his father, succeeded in +establishing himself in the Two Sicilies, at first as regent for his +nephew, and afterwards, for in those troubled times a regency was +precarious, as king in his own right. But the Popes were resolved not to +undergo a repetition of the danger they had experienced from Frederick, +and laid their plans to destroy the last of the "viper's brood," as they +called Frederick's family. They followed the old precedent, set in the +days when the Papacy had been in danger from the Lombards, and invited a +French prince, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>Charles of Anjou, brother to St. Louis, to come and +depose Manfred, and offered him the crown of the Two Sicilies. The +crafty, capable, deep-scheming Charles accepted, and came amid great +rejoicing among the Guelfs. Rome made him Senator. Florence made him +<i>podestà</i>; in fact, all Guelf Italy was at his feet. The Pope proclaimed +a crusade against Manfred, collected tithes and taxes for the holy +purpose, and provided Charles with an army. Manfred was defeated and +killed (1266), and two years later, the valiant Conradin, a lad of +sixteen, who came down in the mad hope of regaining his kingdom, was +also defeated, taken prisoner, and, after a mock trial for treason, put +to death. Thus the Papacy prevented the union of the Two Sicilies with +the Empire, and thus the House of Anjou supplanted the last of the +Hohenstaufens at Palermo and Naples.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE FALL OF THE MEDIÆVAL PAPACY (1303)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We are now coming out of the Middle Ages, and the dawn of a new era +grows more and more apparent. The Empire, embodiment of an old outworn +theory, has already fallen, and its victorious rival, the Papacy, in so +far as it embodies the mediæval idea of a theocratic supremacy, is +tottering, and it, too, will soon fall before the unsympathetic forces +of a new age. So long as the Papacy stood untouched, it looked as potent +and sovereign, and spoke with as lofty a tone, as in the days of +Innocent; but a hundred years had wrought great changes, and at a push +it tumbled and fell.</p> + +<p>Hints had already been dropped that the dread thunderbolt, the curse of +Rome, which had helped win the proud position of lordship over Europe, +had become mere <i>brutum fulmen</i>. Excommunication had been so prodigally +used for political purposes that educated men no longer believed that it +was really the curse of heaven. Moreover, Europe had not been standing +still. The vigorous, compact kingdom of France had come into being, and +flushed with a sense of power and importance, determined to take that +part in European politics which it regarded as its due. In angry +self-confidence the young kingdom confronted the overweening Papacy, +savagely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>tore off its giant's robe, and laid bare its real weakness.</p> + +<p>Boniface VIII (1294-1303) was the pontiff under whom the papal empire +came to its end. He was a vigorous, energetic, arrogant, eloquent, +handsome man, with a wide knowledge of law, diplomacy, and politics. In +the cathedral at Florence there is a large statue of him, calm and +dignified, almost heroic. He sits with his rochet and tiara on, his +right hand raised with two fingers extended as if blessing,—an unusual +occupation,—and looks far more of this world than of the other. His +contemporary, the Florentine historian, Villani, a Guelf, says: "He was +great-minded and lordly, and coveted much honour, ... and was much +respected and feared for his learning and power. He was very grasping +for money in order to aggrandize the Church and his own relations, +making no shame of gain, for he said that he might do anything with what +belonged to the Church.... He was very learned in books, very wary and +capable, and had great common sense; he had wide knowledge and a good +memory, but was extremely cruel and haughty with his enemies and +adversaries, ... more worldly than befitted his exalted station, and he +did many things displeasing to God." Dante, passionately Ghibelline, +calls Boniface "prince of the new Pharisees" and sends him to hell.</p> + +<p>Boniface's chief enemies, as was usual in the case of a Pope who had +enemies, were Romans. If the Papacy had been able to reduce Rome to real +obedience, its history would have been different. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>rebellious +commune and the rebellious barons were constantly on the watch for +favourable opportunities to revolt, or, as they regarded it, to assert +their rights and liberties, and Boniface's first struggle came with the +great House of Colonna. The Colonnas were haughty; he was imperious. +They hinted that he was not legally Pope; he excommunicated them, +proclaimed a crusade, captured and destroyed their fortresses in the +Campagna, and made them deadly enemies. This victory was achieved at a +price thereafter to be paid in full. But for the time Boniface was +triumphant, and seemed, to himself at least, to sit as high as the great +Innocent a hundred years before.</p> + +<p>In the year 1300 he originated the custom, ever since observed, of a +papal jubilee to celebrate the centennial year. For centuries Palestine +had been the destination of pilgrims, and the holy character of Rome had +been passed by, but, now that Palestine was completely lost, Rome +reasserted herself as the pilgrims' city, and crowds again visited the +Roman basilicas. Eager to encourage a practice which he saw would +increase the prestige and the income of the Holy See, Boniface issued +his Bull of Jubilee which promised remission of sins to all pilgrims who +should visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul during the year.</p> + +<p>Pious folk came from everywhere; on an average there were two hundred +thousand at a time. They gave their offerings so generously that, as an +eyewitness says, "Day and night two priests stood beside the altar in +St. Paul's, holding rakes in their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>hands, raking in the money." It was +noticed, however, that there were no kings or princes in the throng. +That year was the summit of Boniface's prosperity.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the quarrel with France had already begun. The French +king, Philip the Fair, who was the personification of the new lay +spirit, enacted a series of laws against the clergy, and, going counter +to the accepted doctrine of clerical immunity from secular taxation, +levied taxes upon them. This step was portentous. Boniface answered by +absolutely forbidding both taxation and payment of taxes. The King of +France not only persisted in taxation, but also forbade the exportation +of any money from his kingdom, and so deprived the Pope of all his +French revenues. Other angry words and acts followed, and a papal bull +was publicly burnt in Paris.</p> + +<p>Boniface, who had a marked predilection for vehement language, issued a +bull, which deserves to be quoted as it sums up the extreme papal +doctrine and also incidentally reveals how completely he misunderstood +the drift of public opinion. "We are compelled, our faith urging us, to +believe and hold—we do firmly believe and simply confess—that there is +one holy and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither +salvation nor remission of sins.... In this Church there is one Lord, +one faith, one baptism.... Of this one and only Church there is one body +and one head,—not two heads as if it were a monster,—Christ, namely, +and the Vicar of Christ, St. Peter, and the successor of St. Peter.... +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>We are told by the word of the gospel that in this His fold there are +two swords,—namely, a spiritual and a temporal.... Both swords ... are +in the power of the Church; the one, indeed, to be wielded for the +Church, the other by the Church; the one by the hand of the priest, the +other by the hand of kings and knights, but at the will and sufferance +of the priest. One sword, moreover, ought to be under the other, and the +temporal authority to be subjected to the spiritual.... That the +spiritual exceeds any earthly power in dignity and nobility we ought the +more plainly to confess the more spiritual things excel temporal +ones.... A spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by +no one. This authority, moreover, even though it is given to man, and +exercised through man, is not human but rather divine, being given by +divine lips to Peter and founded on a rock for him and his successors +through Christ Himself; the Lord Himself saying to Peter: 'Whatsoever +thou shalt bind,' etc. Whoever, therefore, resists this power thus +ordained by God, resists the ordination of God. Indeed, we declare, +announce, and define, that it is altogether necessary to salvation for +every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."</p> + +<p>In retort the king, knowing that the country was behind him, convoked +the States-General of the kingdom; which upheld him, charged Boniface +with all sorts of misbehaviour, and called for a general council of the +Church to judge the matters in dispute.</p> + +<p>The crafty king, however, had determined on other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>means of revenge than +decrees, accusations, and burning bulls; he devised a plot to kidnap +Boniface and fetch him prisoner to France. One William Nogaret, once a +professor of law in a French university, now deep in the king's +counsels, went to Italy, met a vindictive member of the Colonna family, +Sciarra Colonna, and the two arranged the details of the plot. There +were many conspirators, for not only the Colonnas were eager to revenge +themselves, but numerous nobles, dispossessed to make room for the +Pope's relations, were ready to lend a hand. The unsuspecting Boniface, +now an old man of eighty-six years, was at Anagni (a little fortified +town not far from Rome), his native place, but nevertheless honeycombed +with treason; here, from the pulpit of the cathedral where Emperors had +been excommunicated, he proposed to excommunicate the King of France. +Two days before the day set for the excommunication, Nogaret and Sciarra +Colonna, with a troop of soldiers, entered the city which had been +opened by traitors; many of the townsmen ranged themselves under the +French banner. The conspirators broke into the episcopal palace, where +they found the valiant old man seated on a throne, in his pontifical +garments, with the tiara on his head, and a cross in his hand. Sciarra +Colonna dragged him down and would have stabbed him with his dagger but +that Nogaret withheld him by main force. The Pope was made prisoner and +the palace sacked; but in a few days sympathy turned, papal partisans +stormed the palace, rescued Boniface, and carried him to Rome. Here the +Orsini, pretending to befriend him, kept <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>him shut up in the Vatican, +half crazed by fright and fury, till death happily released him (October +11, 1303). Then men remembered an old prophecy uttered concerning him: +"He shall enter like a fox, reign like a lion, and die like a dog." Thus +dramatically the hollowness of papal power was revealed.</p> + +<p>France did not rest content with this insolent act. A year or two later, +a Frenchman of Gascony, the archbishop of Bordeaux, was made Pope by the +French king's influence. This Pope, Clement V (1305-14), never went to +Rome, but took up his abode at Avignon, a little city on the Rhone, not +very far from its mouth. The place was under the overlordship of the +Angevin kings of Naples, but really under the influence of the kings of +France. Here the Papacy stayed for nearly seventy years, practically a +dependency of France. A series of French Popes succeeded one another. +They built on the bank of the Rhone a gigantic fortress, regarded Rome, +the source of their greatness, as a dismal and dangerous out-of-the-way +place, and believed that they had transferred the seat of the Papacy +permanently. This period of exile was regarded by the Italians as a +Babylonish captivity.</p> + +<p>Political degradation was not all. The Roman Curia became a collection +of men of pleasure. The ambitious Popes, even Boniface, had had a touch +of the heroic in them, and erred through pride, arrogance, and hate; but +these Avignonese Popes, though some of them were good men, suffered the +papal court to become a place of amusement, banqueting, and +dissipation.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE (1309-1313)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>After the Papacy had been dragged in servitude to France, the Empire, +like a dying soldier who gets on his feet to shout one shout of triumph +over his enemy's fall, made a last gallant effort to recover life and +strength. The effort was very gallant but very ineffectual, and owes its +chief celebrity to its connection with the great man, who summed up and +reiterated the Imperial creed, somewhat in the same way that Pope +Boniface had summed up and reiterated the papal creed. Both creeds were +dead, but each man believed his fervently, and as Boniface's bulls set +forth the doctrines of Hildebrand and Innocent III, so Dante's treatises +and letters set forth the beliefs of Barbarossa and Frederick II.</p> + +<p>The year of Boniface's jubilee is the year to which Dante assigns his +journey to the abodes of departed spirits, and as the jubilee marked the +close of the mediæval Papacy, so the "Divine Comedy" marks the close of +mediæval theology, and Dante himself stands as the greatest mark at the +boundary between the old world passing away and the modern world coming +in. Giovanni Villani, who was about fifteen years younger, described him +in this way: "He was deeply versed in almost all learning, although he +was a layman; he was a very great poet, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>a philosopher, and a complete +master of rhetoric in prose and verse as well as in public speech; a +most noble writer, very great in rhyme, with the most beautiful style +that ever was in our language up to his time and since. In his youth he +wrote the book on 'The New Life of Love,' and then when he was in exile +he composed twenty ethical poems and many admirable poems on love; and +he wrote among others three noble epistles; one he sent to the +government of Florence, complaining of his banishment from no fault of +his; another he sent to the Emperor Henry, when he was at the siege of +Brescia, blaming him for his delay, in the tone of a prophet; the third +to the Italian cardinals, during the vacancy after the death of Pope +Clement (V), that they should come to an accord and elect an Italian +Pope; all in Latin, in lofty style, with excellent reasonings and +appeals to authority, which were much praised by men of judgment. This +Dante by reason of his knowledge was somewhat arrogant, haughty, and +disdainful, and, like an ungracious philosopher, he could not talk +easily with unlearned men; but because of his other merits, the learning +and the worth of this great citizen, it seems fitting to give him +perpetual remembrance in this chronicle of mine, notwithstanding that +his noble works left to us in writing bear true testimony to what he was +and confer honourable fame upon our city."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Dante, by passages in his "Divine Comedy," but more particularly by his +treatise "De Monarchia" (On Universal Empire), enables us to understand +how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>the Empire could raise its head in Italy sixty years after +Frederick II had died. In Germany after an interregnum, the House of +Hapsburg had mounted the throne, but no one had ventured to cross the +Alps for the Imperial crown. Nevertheless, Dante and the Ghibellines +could not bring themselves to believe that the old familiar institution +had fulfilled its function and was to be cast aside. The conception of +Europe as a group of equal nations had not yet arisen, and Ghibellines +still believed that a Roman Emperor could put down confusion, anarchy, +political chaos, and cure all the ills of Italy. The Ghibellines +believed in the Emperor as Mohammedans believed in Mohammed; if he +should return, exiles (like Dante) would be restored, peace would bloom, +and Rome again become the head of a just and universal empire. Dante, in +the "De Monarchia," first contends that universal empire is necessary to +the well-being of the world; having established that proposition, he +argues that this universal empire rightly belongs to the Roman people, +and proves his point by appeals to Virgil and the New Testament; then he +proceeds to show that the authority of the Empire is derived directly +from God. "Some say," he says, "that Constantine when he was cleansed of +the leprosy by the prayers of Silvester, then Pope, gave the seat of the +Empire, to wit Rome, to the Church, together with many other dignities +appertaining to the Empire. Therefore, they argue, since then no one can +receive those dignities, except he shall receive them from the Church, +to whom they belong.... This <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>proposition I deny; and when they put +forth their proof, I say it proves nothing, because Constantine could +not alienate the dignities of the Empire, nor the Church receive +them.... No man has a right to do things by means of an office entrusted +to him, which go directly counter to that office.... Therefore an +Emperor has no right to divide the Empire ... and the Church in no wise +is able to receive temporal things because the precept expressly forbids +it, as we have it in Matthew 'Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor +brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey,' etc."</p> + +<p>This Ghibelline theory was in flat contradiction to Boniface's theory, +just as the Imperial creed had always contradicted the papal creed. In +Dante's time the two conflicting theories seemed to have become mere +ghosts; when of a sudden the Imperial theory started up in reality. A +new king of the Romans, Henry VII, announced that he was coming into +Italy to take his Imperial crown. The Ghibellines welcomed him with +boundless enthusiasm. Dante, in undeserved exile from Florence, flushed +with the hope of return to his dearly beloved city, wrote a circular +letter to all the princes of Italy:—</p> + +<p>"Behold now is the acceptable time, in which arise signs of consolation +and peace. For a new day begins to shine, showing the dawn that shall +dissipate the darkness of long calamity. Now the breezes of the East +begin to blow, the lips of heaven redden, and with serenity comfort the +hopes of the peoples. And we who have passed a long night in the desert +shall see the expected joy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>"Rejoice, O Italy, pitied even by the heathen, now shalt thou be the +envy of the earth, because thy bridegroom, the comfort of the world and +the glory of the people, the most merciful Henry, Divus, Augustus, +Cæsar, hastens to thy espousals. Dry thine eyes, put off the trappings +of woe, O thou Fairest; for he is at hand who shall free thee from the +prison of the ungodly, who shall smite the malignant, and destroy them +with the edge of the sword, and shall give his vineyard to other +husbandmen, who will render the fruits of justice in the time of +harvest."</p> + +<p>The hope that Henry would restore peace and establish order warmed even +the Guelfs; and almost all the Italian cities, excepting stubborn +Florence, sent envoys to greet him as he came to take the Imperial +crown. The French Pope was greatly perplexed as to what to do. On the +one hand, he had begun to wish for an Emperor to subdue the Roman barons +and to be a counterweight to the French king, whom he found too +masterful a protector; on the other hand, he was afraid to displease the +French king, and to do anything that might set the Ghibellines on their +feet again. So he played a double game: he encouraged Henry in the +North, and in the South he strengthened the Angevin King of Naples, the +leader of the Guelfs. Henry VII crossed the Alps in October, 1310. He +was brave, honest, and just; he believed devoutly in his Imperial +mission, desired peace, and wished to be Emperor of Guelf and Ghibelline +alike. At first all went well; many cities opened their gates and +received Imperial vicars; Milan lowered her flags as Henry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>entered, and +her Guelf archbishop put the iron crown of Lombardy upon his head. But +this happy calm could not last long. Henry was poor, he asked Milan for +a great deal of money, and then demanded, ostensibly as a guard of +honour for his journey to Rome but really as hostages, fifty noblemen +from each of the two parties. The Ghibellines assented: but the Guelfs +suspected treachery and refused; their leaders fled and their houses +were sacked and burned. This was the end of peace. Henry attempted to +enforce obedience. He sacked Cremona, razed her walls to the ground, and +laid siege to Brescia. The horrors of the siege were fearful; the +citizens fought with desperation, but yielded at last to famine and +pestilence. The unfortunate Henry had now been forced into the old +position of German tyrant and Ghibelline party chief; and, instead of +marching directly on Rome, or on rich Florence which was the head and +front of the Guelf cause in the North, he had wasted valuable time in +taking unimportant cities. The Ghibellines were in a fever of +impatience. Dante wrote:—</p> + +<p>"To the most holy Conqueror, and only lord, our lord Henry, by divine +providence King of the Romans, ever Augustus, your Dante Alighieri, a +Florentine and undeserving exile, and all Tuscans everywhere, who wish +for peace on earth, kiss your feet.</p> + +<p>"For a long time have we wept by the rivers of confusion, and have +incessantly prayed for the protection of a just king, who should ... put +us back in our just rights. When you, successor of Cæsar and Augustus, +crossing the ridges of the Apennines, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>brought back the venerable +insignia of Rome ... like the sun suddenly uprising, new hope of better +time for Italy shone out. But now men think you delay, or surmise that +you are going back ... and we are constrained by doubt to stand +uncertain and to cry, like John the Baptist, Art thou he that should +come, or do we look for another?... Do you not know, most excellent of +Princes, do you not see from the watch-tower of your exalted height, +where the stinking little fox lurks, safe from the hunters? In truth, +the evil beast does not drink of the headlong Po, nor of your Tiber, +but its wickedness pollutes the rushing waters of the Arno, and the name +of this dire, pernicious creature (do you not know?) is Florence. She is +the viper turned against the breast of its mother; she is the sick sheep +that contaminates the whole herd of her master. Indeed with the +fierceness of a viper she strives to tear her mother; she sharpens the +horns of rebellion against Rome, who made her in her own image and +likeness....</p> + +<p>"Up, then, break this delay, take confidence from the eyes of the Lord +God of Hosts, in whose sight you act, and lay low this Goliath with the +sling of your wisdom and the stone of your strength; for with his death +the dark night of fear shall cover the camp of the Philistines, and they +shall flee, and Israel shall be set free. And just as now, exiles in +Babylon, we mourn remembering holy Jerusalem, so, then, citizens and at +home, we shall breathe in peace and turn the miseries of confusion into +joy.</p> + +<p>"Written in Tuscany ... fourteen days before the kalends of May, 1311, +in the first year of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>coming into Italy of the divine and most happy +Henry."</p> + +<p>Henry did go south, but there were greater obstacles in his way than +Dante imagined. The spirit of the age was against him. It was vain to +try to bring back the past. Florence shut her gates, manned her walls, +sent more money to his enemies, and headed a league of the Guelf cities +in Tuscany and Umbria. Even Rome was half against him. The Ghibelline +nobles received him and took him to their part of the town; but the +Guelfs held St. Peter's, and though there was fierce fighting in the +streets, the Guelfs stood their ground, and Henry was forced to receive +the Imperial crown from the papal legate (the Pope was too prudent to +leave Avignon) in the basilica of St. John Lateran. Here the luckless +Emperor stayed for a time in the midst of ruin, material, political, and +moral. Then he attempted to crush Florence, the ringleader of +disobedience, but her walls were too strong; the impotent Emperor could +do no more than harry the country-side. He fell back upon Ghibelline +Pisa, and set patiently to work to gather together a new army. The +Ghibellines gallantly responded to his call, and Henry actually set +forth on his way to Naples, to punish the House of Anjou and avenge the +Hohenstaufens, but death cut short his lofty plans. He died in a little +town near Siena (1313), and the hopes of Dante and the Ghibellines were +ruined forever. The last flicker of the Empire had gone out.</p> + +<p>Other Emperors, it is true, crossed the Alps, but not as masters. The +connection of Italy with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>Holy Roman Empire ends with the death of +the gallant Henry. The mediæval Papacy and the mediæval Empire had +passed away, for the Middle Ages themselves had come to an end.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Storia di Firenze</i>, lib. ix, cap. cxxxv.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>A REVIEW OF THE STATES OF ITALY (ABOUT 1300)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Now that the two great actors, whose long-drawn quarrel has been the +main thread of Italian history, have made their exits, and left us, as +it were, with a sense of emptiness, it becomes necessary to call the +roll and make a better acquaintance with the lesser <i>dramatis personæ</i>, +who step to the front of the stage and carry on the plot of history. The +programme reads as follows:—</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="60%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png 176"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">DRAMATIS PERSONÆ</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="55%">The Papacy</td> + <td class="tdl" width="45%">An absentee.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Empire</td> + <td class="tdl">A shadow.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Kingdom of Naples</td> + <td class="tdl">House of Anjou reigning.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Kingdom of Sicily</td> + <td class="tdl">House of Aragon reigning.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Florence</td> + <td class="tdl">A Guelf democracy.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Siena</td> + <td class="tdl">A Ghibelline city.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Pisa</td> + <td class="tdl">A Ghibelline city.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Genoa</td> + <td class="tdl">A maritime aristocracy.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Venice</td> + <td class="tdl">A maritime oligarchy.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Milan</td> + <td class="tdl">A Lombard commune.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Savoy</td> + <td class="tdl">A feudal county.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Guelf cities of Tuscany, communes of Lombardy, petty + marquisates of the northwest, etc.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>In the South, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies has already been torn in +two. Charles of Anjou, the conqueror of the Hohenstaufens, clever, +shrewd, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>and capable as he was, had overreached himself. He entertained +great ambitions, and was dreaming of Constantinople and its imperial +crown, when a rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers broke out in +Sicily. The country had been overrun with French office-holders and +French soldiers, and the Sicilians, who regretted the Hohenstaufens, had +reached the utmost limit of endurance. The whole island had become a +powder-box; it was a mere matter of accident where and how the powder +would ignite. A French soldier insulted a woman on her way to church. In +a moment he was killed and his fellow soldiers massacred to a man. +"Death to the French!" resounded over the island, and the infuriated +Sicilians put all to the sword. The revolutionists needed a leader, and, +as the old Norman blood royal still survived in Manfred's daughter, they +invited her husband, King Pedro of Aragon, to be their king. Pedro +accepted, and he and his descendants, the House of Aragon, made good +their claim to the throne of Sicily against all the attempts of the +House of Anjou and of the lords suzerain, the Popes, to oust them. By +this revolution, Sicily was separated from the Kingdom of Naples for +more than a hundred years.</p> + +<p>In the centre of Italy there was great disorder. The lords of the Papal +States remained at Avignon, and attempted to govern their dominions by +legates; but though their sovereignty nominally extended from the +Tyrrhene Sea to the Adriatic, they were impotent to enforce it. There +was no unity; each town was governed separately by a papal legate, by a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>powerful baron, or by a communal government. Rome itself, which in the +absence of the Popes had dwindled to a little city of ruins, towers, +churches, vineyards, and vegetable gardens, was in constant disorder. +The towns near by were often faithful to their allegiance, but across +the Apennines the obstinate little cities between the mountains and the +sea were almost always independent. At present there is nothing of +sufficient interest to prevent us from treating Rome as carelessly as +the Popes did, and passing hurriedly through to Florence and the +independent communes of Northern Italy where we must pause.</p> + +<p>Prior to the wars between the Empire and the Papacy feudal institutions +had prevailed there, though with less vigour in Northern Italy than +elsewhere in Europe, and all the land had been divided up into various +fiefs, in which counts and marquesses held sway. During those wars the +cities shook off Imperial dominion and got rid of Imperial rulers, and +began their careers as independent Italian communes. Most of these +cities were of old Roman foundation, but the time of Hildebrand and +Henry IV may be deemed their nativity, as then they first appear in +Italian history as individuals. All these towns were little republics, +each with its own character, but all conforming more or less to a +general type. Within massive walls the city clustered round two main +points, the cathedral, which was flanked by belfry and baptistery, and +the <i>piazza</i> (public square), on which fronted the <i>Palazzo Pubblico</i>, +the city hall, where the magistrates had their offices. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>Round about and +radiating off, houses and palaces, grim and heavy, stood high above the +narrow streets. Scattered here and there scores of private fortresses +raised their great towers thirty yards and more into the air. Street, +palace, tower, all were obviously ready for street warfare, waiting on +tiptoe for the bells to ring.</p> + +<p>The citizens were divided into three classes. The upper class included +the old nobility, the high clergy, the large merchants, the rich +bankers; the middle class included the petty merchants, the tradesfolk, +the master artisans; and below them came the miscellaneous many. In some +cities the nobility, allying itself with the proletariat, held the +political power. But in the more democratic cities, like Florence, the +trades and crafts controlled the government. In Florence there were +seven greater guilds,—judges and notaries, wool-merchants, refiners and +dyers of foreign wool, silk-dealers, money-changers, physicians and +apothecaries, furriers; and fourteen lesser guilds,—butchers, +shoemakers, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, and so on. Every freeman +was obliged to belong to one of the guilds; Dante was enrolled in the +guild of physicians and apothecaries. Trades and crafts descended from +father to son, and each guild was divided into masters, journeymen, and +apprentices.</p> + +<p>In the government, executive, legislative, and judicial powers were +distinguished, but not strictly separated. The executive power was +vested in one man, or in several men, who were assisted by a kind of +privy council. This council superintended various <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>matters of public +concern, such as weights, measures, highways, and fines. There was also +a larger council, to which, as well as to public office generally, only +the enfranchised citizens were eligible. These privileged persons were +never more than a small fraction of the population; in Florence, for +instance, barely three thousand, even in her populous days. Finally, +there was a <i>parliament</i> or assembly of all the free citizens, which met +on the <i>piazza</i>, and shouted approval or disapproval to such questions +as were submitted to it.</p> + +<p>In the earlier days the joint executives were called <i>consuls</i>. Their +places were not easy. If they were fair to all, they displeased their +own party; if unfair to the opposite party, they were liable to +retaliation. The difficulties of partisanship led to the appointment of +a new officer, the <i>podestà</i>. The name and idea came from the governors +put in the Imperial cities by Barbarossa. The <i>podestà</i>, who was elected +by the citizens, supplanted the consuls in all their more important +functions; he became the head of both the civil and the military +service, a kind of governor. He was a nobleman, chosen, in the hope of +avoiding local partisanship, from some other Italian city. The citizens, +if Guelf, of course chose a Guelf; if Ghibelline, a Ghibelline. When the +<i>podestà's</i> term of office, which was usually six months or a year, +began, he came to the city bringing two knights, several judges, +councillors, and notaries, a seneschal and attendants, and in the +<i>piazza</i> took his oath of office,—to observe the laws, to do justice, +and to wrong no man. His duties, and often his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>movements, were +carefully prescribed; sometimes he was not allowed to enter any house in +the city other than the palace prepared for him. At the end of his term +he was obliged to linger for a time, in order to give anybody who might +be aggrieved an opportunity to lodge a complaint against him and obtain +redress. Such was the ordinary form of communal government; but the +constitutions varied in different cities, and in each city shifted every +few years, as class feeling, partisan enmity, or new men suggested +changes.</p> + +<p>The prosperity and power of these communes came from trade, and show how +trade prospered and riches accumulated. Some merchant guilds carried on +a very extensive business. Take the wool guild of Florence. Tuscany +yielded a poor quality of wool, and as it was impossible to weave good +cloth from poor wool, these Florentine merchants imported raw wool from +Tunis, Barbary, Spain, Flanders, and England, wove it into cloth so +deftly that foreigners could not compete with them, and exported it to +the principal markets of Europe. Trade with the North, however, was less +important than trade with the East. Merchandise was carried over the +seas more easily than over the Alps, and in many respects the products +of the East were better and more varied than those of northern Europe. +The Italians loaded the galleys of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa with silken +and woollen stuffs, oil, wine, pitch, tar, and common metals, and +brought back from Alexandria, Constantinople, and the ports of Asia +Minor and Syria, pearls, gold, spices, sugar, Eastern silk, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>wool and +cotton, goatskins and dyes, and sometimes Eastern slaves. Such a wide +commerce outstripped the capacity of barter and cash, and gave rise to a +system of banking, with its attendant credits and bills of exchange. The +quick-witted Florentines excelled at this business, and great banking +houses, like the Bardi and the Peruzzi, had branches or correspondents +in all the chief cities.</p> + +<p>This large commerce in face of the obstacles that barred its way seems +extraordinary. A city like Florence, for instance, especially in the +earlier days, was greatly hampered by the conditions about her. Outside +her walls, within the radius of a dozen or twenty miles, were castles +manned by arrogant nobles, who made traffic unsafe. They would not +conform to the new economic condition of society except upon compulsion. +Rival cities refused to let Florentine wares pass through their +territories without payment of ruinous tolls. Wars were waged to +moderate these exactions. Or, again, war was necessary to enforce the +rights of Florentine citizens in other cities. Moreover, each city had +its own system of weights and measures, its own coinage; each imposed +customs on all wares entering its gates, in earlier days so much a +cart-load, afterwards a percentage of the value. On all highways, at all +bridges and fords, there were tolls to be paid. From city to city a +merchant had to change his money, until in later times certain coins, +like the Florentine florin, passed current everywhere; and sometimes, on +entering the gates, he was obliged to adopt a distinguishing badge, as, +for instance, according to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>usage at Bologna, putting a piece of red +wax on his thumb-nail. These were the fetters placed on trade in time of +peace; but peace itself was transitory and uncertain. Apart from the +wars with the Emperor, the cities periodically fought the feudal +nobility, or one another. Venice made war on Ravenna, Pisa on Lucca, +Vicenza on Treviso, Fano on Pesaro, Verona on Padua, Modena on Bologna, +and the greater cities, like Milan and Florence, on any or all of their +respective neighbours. When a city had no absorbing war abroad, factions +fought at home. Burghers and nobles barricaded the streets, manned the +towers, rang the bells, shot and hacked one another with spasmodic fury. +The burghers generally won. They then banished hundreds of their +adversaries, and made laws against them. In some cities a register was +kept to record the names of the nobles whose democracy was suspected; in +others, as in Lucca, nobles were excluded from all share in the +government, and were not allowed to testify against burghers. In Pisa, +if there was disquiet in the streets, the nobles were obliged to stay +indoors.</p> + +<p>These factions called themselves Guelfs and Ghibellines. At first Guelfs +were the burghers of the communes and partisans of the Papacy, and +Ghibellines partisans of the Empire and the feudal system; but +subsequently the terms merely served to distinguish political parties, +whose platforms, as we should say, shifted with questions of the hour. +Even when these two factions were at peace, they distinguished +themselves by different badges and fashions. The merlons of the Guelf +battlements were square, those of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>the Ghibelline swallow-tailed. Good +party men wore caps of diverse pattern, did their hair differently, cut +their bread and folded their napkins in different ways. It was enough +that one side should bow, take an oath, harness a horse, in one mode, +for the other side to start a contrary fashion.</p> + +<p>The growth of population, of property, of commerce, however, shows that +history may easily dwell too much upon fighting and war. In these petty +wars and street frays, the numbers engaged were few, and but little +blood was shed. Most of the fighting was a consequence of economic +difficulties. It was the mediæval equivalent of strikes, lock-outs, +boycotts, undersellings, rivalries, riots, and other phenomena of modern +industry.</p> + +<p>The maritime cities were in a very different position from the inland +cities, and had a different history. They enjoyed great advantages for +trade. No feudal barons could bar the sea, and pirates and infidels were +not serious impediments. Greater commercial prosperity, however, begot +more bitter commercial jealousy. Genoa hated Pisa; no Genoese sailor +could endure the cut of a Pisan sail. Both cities had a large trade in +the Levant, and being so near each other became deadly rivals. They +fought spasmodically for years, from the Gulf of Genoa to the Black Sea, +and at last came to the death grapple. The time was unfortunate for +Ghibelline Pisa, as a Guelf league had been attacking her on land. The +decisive battle was fought off the island of Meloria, a few miles from +the mouth of the Arno. The Genoese, who outnumbered the Pisans, won a +great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>victory, destroyed or captured many galleys, and took ten +thousand prisoners (1284). Pisa never recovered from this blow. Florence +and Lucca took immediate advantage of it to unite with Genoa, and force +Pisa to submit to a Guelf government; and from this time on greedy +Florence, like a hawk, kept her eyes fixed on poor Pisa, impatient for +the time when she should seize her prey.</p> + +<p>Genoa remained a republic, active, eager, impetuous, torn by factions +and subject to many vicissitudes, but lack of space compels us to leave +her and pass on to where "Venice sits in state, throned on her hundred +isles." She, queen of the sea, had even a more lavish portion of +individuality than her sister cities, individual as they all were, and +hardly belonged to Italy, so completely did she hold herself aloof from +the two great interests of mediæval Italy, the Empire and the Papacy. No +cries of Pope's men and king's men, of Guelf and Ghibelline, disturbed +the Grand Canal or the Piazza of St. Mark's; no feudal incumbrances +hampered her mercantile spirit, nor did papal anathemas cause a single +Venetian ship to shift her course. Venice had long remained loyal to +Constantinople, and even after all political dependence had ceased, was, +in character and aspect, more a Constantinople of the West than an +Italian city, a grown-up daughter, more beautiful than her beautiful +mother, who, living her own triumphant and unfilial life, still retained +many of her mother's traits. Untroubled by sentiment, even in the +Crusades, Venice always kept steadily in view her fixed purpose of +increasing her commerce and of securing foreign <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>markets; and this +purpose shaped her political actions, and also, indirectly, the form of +her government.</p> + +<p>Originally the citizens, assembled in public meeting, elected the Doge, +and exercised a right to vote on important political matters; but the +great families soon acquired control, and little by little turned the +government into an oligarchy. The first great step was taken in +Barbarossa's time, just when the Lombard cities were struggling to free +themselves from Imperial dominion. A Great Council of four hundred and +eighty members was established, to which were given the powers of +legislation, appointment, electing the Doge, and filling vacancies in +itself. The franchises of the people were all taken away and the +oligarchy left supreme. This oligarchy of merchant princes, in whom +patriotism, pride of place, and love of gain harmoniously accorded, was +an exceedingly competent body of men. The greatness of Venice was their +greatness, and they pursued it devotedly. Beginning early in life these +patricians were trained for their duties by service in the navy and in +the merchant marine, or by employment in the government of the various +cities, islands, and territories included in the long stretch of +coastwise empire. Knowing that Venice lived by commerce they made every +effort by war, diplomacy, and private enterprise, to extend that +commerce. After the conquest and division of the Eastern Empire (1204) +they became more eager than ever for a monopoly of trade with the +Levant, and inevitably came into deadly rivalry with Genoa, also +passionately eager to hold the gorgeous East in fee.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>The wars with Genoa, destructive though they were for the time being, +were of service to the aristocracy, for they made the Venetians +appreciate the value of a compact governing body; and the aristocracy +took advantage of that appreciation to tighten its hold on the +government.</p> + +<p>Throughout the thirteenth century the Great Council, though it consisted +entirely, or almost entirely, of patricians and elected its own members, +had been open to all classes. Any citizen, however unlikely to be +elected, was eligible. At the close of the century the patricians +secured the enactment of a series of measures, which in substance +divided the citizens into two classes, those whose ancestors had sat in +the Great Council, and those whose ancestors had not, and decreed that +only members of the first class should be eligible. This legislation is +known as the closing of the Great Council. As all those who were +eligible naturally wished to become members, the Council gradually +increased until it finally numbered over fifteen hundred. The patricians +also further curtailed the powers of the Doge, divided the various +functions of government among the main subdivisions of the Council,—the +Senate, the Council of Forty, the Doge's cabinet, and the Council of +Ten,—and gave to the State the definite form of government which it +maintained to its end.</p> + +<p>From Venice we must pass by Milan and the cities of the Po, to where in +the extreme Northwest the Counts of Savoy, perched on the Alps, +maintained a precarious sovereignty over both slopes, with no resources +except the muscles of their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>mountaineers and the possession of Alpine +passes. Little did the proud maritime cities, Genoa and Venice, the +great inland cities, Milan and Florence, and Rome least of all, suspect +that these poor counts would one day consolidate all the territory from +the foot of the mountains to the Riviera in a compact little kingdom +(Piedmont), and from that as a pedestal, step to still higher honours. +The House of Savoy runs aristocratically back into legend; but about the +year 1000, a certain Humbert of the White Hand, emerging from historic +obscurity, obtained the city of Turin and part of Piedmont, as a +marriage portion for his son, and thereby secured to his house a footing +in Italy (1045). In the course of another century or so these Savoyards +in a succession of Humberts and Amedeos, brave, shrewd, and usually +successful men, extended their dominions by war, by marriage, and by +bargains. They made the most of their position as door-keepers to Italy, +and exacted various privileges from needy Emperors, as the price of +passing the Alps. They fought rival counts, waged innumerable petty +wars, and rightly or wrongly acquired territories which are now parts of +France, Switzerland, and Italy. The succession of counts reads like any +other mediæval genealogy; and their exploits, raids, and sieges viewed +from this cold distance have a somewhat monotonous similarity; but +survival proves the worth and valour of the stock, and when after long +centuries the people of Italy had need of princes, the House of Savoy +was the only noble house that had retained power and respect. It is a +brilliant example of the truth of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>the saying that those who have been +faithful over a few things shall be masters over many.</p> + +<p>Such were the political divisions of Italy in this transition period +which intervenes between the departing Middle Ages and the incoming +Modern World.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE RENAISSANCE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>This intervening period—the twilight between the Middle Ages and the +dawn of the Modern World—needs a little further emphasis, from the very +fact that it is a period of transition and sheds light both on the time +before and the time after. On its emotional side it belonged to the +Middle Ages, on its intellectual side it belonged to the Modern World.</p> + +<p>Its religion was essentially mediæval. For instance, a religious wave +arose in Perugia, spread through Italy, and crossed the Alps. Hosts of +penitents, hundreds and thousands, lamenting, praying, scourging +themselves, went from city to city. Men, women, and children, barefoot, +walked by night over the winter's snow, carrying tapers, to find relief +for their emotional frenzy. These Flagellants were like a primitive +Salvation Army, and gave unconscious expression to the profound and +widespread discontent with the Church. Their actions, however, so +clearly exhibited religious mania that governments took alarm; the +hard-headed rulers of Milan erected six hundred gallows on their borders +and threatened to hang every Flagellant who came that way.</p> + +<p>Other forms of religious sentiment were more rational, and expressed +themselves in passionate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>calls for peace between neighbours and +countrymen. Priests adjured the fighting cities to be friends: "Oh, when +will the day come that Pavia shall say to Milan, Thy people are my +people, and Crema to Cremona, Thy city is my city?" In Genoa, one +morning before daybreak, the church bells rang, and the astonished +citizens, huddling on their clothes, beheld their archbishop, surrounded +by his clergy with lighted candles, making the factional leaders swear +on the bones of St. John Baptist to lay aside their mutual hate. Gregory +X (1271-76) pleaded with the Florentine Guelfs to take back the banished +Ghibellines. "A Ghibelline is a Christian, a citizen, a neighbour; then, +shall these great names, all joined, yield to that one word, Ghibelline? +And shall that single word—an idle term for none know what it +means—have greater power for hate than all those three, which are so +clear and strong, for love and charity? And since you say that you have +taken up this factional strife for the sake of the Popes of Rome, now, +I, Pope of Rome, have taken back to my bosom these prodigal citizens of +yours, however far they may have offended, and putting behind me all +past wrongs, hold them to be my sons."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> In consequence of Gregory's +passionate entreaty, one hundred and fifty leaders of each party met and +embraced on the sandy flats of the Arno.</p> + +<p>The most famous of these emotional peace-makings was the work of a +Dominican monk of Vicenza. On a great plain just outside Verona, a vast +congregation assembled (a contemporary said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>400,000 people), from all +the warring cities far and near, bishops, barons, burghers, artisans, +serfs, women, and children. The monk preached upon the text, "My peace I +give unto you." The great company beat their breasts, wept for +repentance and joy, and embraced one another. Then the friar raised the +crucifix and cried, "Blessed be he who shall keep this peace, and cursed +be he who shall violate it;" and the audience answered "Amen." It is +hardly necessary to say that these emotional peace-makings were soon +followed by martial emotions; freed prisoners were hurried back to +prison, the recalled were banished again, and sword and halberd were +picked up with appetites whetted by abstinence.</p> + +<p>The intellectual side of this period is best represented by the +universities, which had sprung up in many of the North Italian cities in +the preceding century. The term university signified a guild of +students, and possessed many of the characteristics of our colleges. The +university was composed of students and professors, and governed itself. +It owned neither lands nor buildings, and in case of need could shift +its abode with little trouble. The students, at least in a great +university like that of Bologna whither young men flocked by thousands +from all Europe, were divided into two bodies, those from beyond the +Alps and Italians. These two bodies were subdivided into groups +according to their state or city. Each group elected representatives, +and these, together with special electors, elected the rector. This +representative body made a formal treaty with the town authorities, and +secured good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>terms, because the presence of a university, bringing +money and fame, was of great consequence to the town. The professors +were appointed by the students. At Bologna Roman law was the chief +study, and very famous jurists lectured there. We may remember that +Barbarossa had recourse to Bologna when he was in need of lawyers to +determine his Imperial rights. It was Roman law that attracted the great +concourse of students, for the growing needs of civilization made a +constant demand for men learned in the law; but other branches of +knowledge were also taught, theology, canon law, medicine, and +astrology, as well as the so-called <i>quadrivium</i>, music, arithmetic, +geometry, and astronomy.</p> + +<p>The universities, although theology and canon law were taught in them, +distinctly represented the secular side of intellectual life. The +religious, at least the theological side, was represented by the Church, +and more particularly by those philosophers who devoted themselves to +that mixture of theology and philosophy known as scholasticism. The +greatest of them was Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), whose surname is derived +from a little village, Aquino, once existing near Monte Cassino in +Neapolitan territory. Aquinas lectured at various universities. His +great work, "Summa Theologiæ," was a justification of the Roman Catholic +faith by an appeal to the reason and to science as then accepted. He +started on premises laid down by the Church, and justified all the +derivative doctrines by close logic and clear reasoning, as well as by +appeals to the Bible, to Aristotle, then deemed the possessor of all +knowledge, and to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>Church fathers. His work is a complete exposition +of God, nature, and man, as conceived by mediæval theology, and is still +taught by the Catholic Church as the true exposition of its doctrines. +The grateful Church canonized him, his treatise being the miracles he +had performed, and named him the Angelic Doctor. Those of us whose minds +have no natural aptitude for scholasticism, find his views on purely +earthly matters much easier to understand, and not uninteresting, as +they throw light on the democratic character of the Church. Speaking of +positive law, Aquinas says that it should consist of "reasonable +commands for the common good, promulgated by him who has charge of the +public weal;" and of kings, that "a prince who makes personal +gratification instead of the general happiness his aim, ceases to be +legitimate, and it is not rebellion to depose him, provided the attempt +shall not cause greater ills than his tyranny;" and, of the nobility, +that "many men make a mistake and deem themselves noble, because they +come of a noble house.... This inherited nobility deserves no envy, +except that noblemen are bound to virtue for shame of being unworthy of +their stocks; true nobility is only of the soul." St. Thomas Aquinas is +also interesting because his theology inspires Dante throughout the +"Divine Comedy."</p> + +<p>These diverse traits, emotional and intellectual, were natural to a +period of transition, when society was passing from an age in which the +chief interests were emotional to one in which the chief interests were +intellectual; and it is interesting to notice that at the same time +social life was passing from a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>stage of extreme simplicity to one of +comparative luxury. The accumulation of wealth had its effect in every +department of life; it gave people time and opportunity for intellectual +interests, and also for luxury and more delicate needs. The advance in +wealth was very rapid. By the year 1300 men had already begun to blame +the luxurious habits of their time, and to look back to the simplicity +of their grandfathers as to an age of primitive innocence. Dante gives +full expression to these sentiments through the mouth of his ancestor, +Cacciaguida, in the "Paradiso." Others speak in the same way. One of +them, referring to the time of Frederick II, says: "In those times the +manners of the Italians were rude. A man and his wife ate off the same +plate. There were no wooden-handled knives, nor more than one or two +drinking-cups in a house. Candles of wax or tallow were unknown; a +servant held a torch during supper. The clothes of men were of leather +unlined; scarcely any gold or silver was seen on their dress. The common +people ate flesh but three times a week, and kept their cold meat for +supper. Many did not drink wine in summer. A small stock of corn seemed +riches. The portions of women were small; their dress, even after +marriage, was simple. The pride of men was to be well provided with arms +and horses; that of the nobility to have lofty towers, of which all the +cities in Italy were full. But now frugality has been changed for +sumptuousness; everything exquisite is sought after in dress,—gold, +silver, pearls, silks, and rich furs. Foreign wines and rich <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>meats are +required. Hence usury, rapine, fraud, tyranny," etc.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>To us to-day this period of transition, with its mediæval mixture of +commerce, religion, and war, of emotion and logic, of admiration for St. +Augustine and belief in the infallibility of Aristotle, looks extremely +odd. We forget that our generation may be in danger of similar +criticism. Odd or not, this was the state of Italy in the period +preceding that great burst of the arts and intellectual life known as +the Renaissance.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Storia degli Italiani</i>, Cesare Cantù, vol. ii, p. 851 +(19).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Europe in the Middle Ages</i>, Hallam, p. 630.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN AFTER THE MIDDLE AGES<br /> (1260-1336)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Though the beginning of the Modern World manifested itself in every +department of life, political, social, and intellectual, it is best +known to us through the arts, because in them it embodied itself in +permanent forms. Italy suddenly leaped forward, as if she had drained a +beaker of champagne. To explain and illustrate this burst of passion, +the books generally use such phrases as emphasis upon individuality, +imitation of the classic, observation of nature, wider range of +interest, the awakening of spiritual energy, etc. No doubt the phrases +are just, but one must remember that underneath these manifestations of +an eager interest in life, there actually was a larger, happier life, +due in great measure to security, ease, and the accumulation of +property, which set men free from the bondage of continuous daily labour +to satisfy corporal needs. Of that happier life, with its gayety and +luxury, Villani, the historian of Florence, has given us a description. +He himself was a boy at the time. "In the year of Our Lord 1283 the city +of Florence, chiefly on account of the Guelfs who were in power, was +prosperous and at peace, and in a state of great tranquillity, which was +very advantageous to the merchants and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>artisans. In June, at the Feast +of St. John, in the quarter across the Arno, where the Rossi and their +neighbours were the principal people, the nobility and the rich +organized themselves into a company, and adopted a dress all white, and +chose a master called the Lord of Love. The object of the company was to +have feasts, games, and dances for the ladies and gentlemen of the city, +and other persons of quality. They used to parade the town with trumpets +and other musical instruments, and had great dinners and suppers and all +kinds of jollity. The festivities lasted nearly two months, and were the +finest and most celebrated that were ever held in Florence or all +Tuscany. Gentlemen and troubadours came from far and near, and all were +received and entertained with distinction. And it is worth remembering +that the city and its citizens were better off then than they had ever +been, and this prosperity continued till the division into Burghers and +<i>Grandi</i>. There were then in Florence three hundred knights, and there +were many companies of gentlemen and ladies, who morning and evening +kept open table richly spread, and had buffoons in attendance, so that +from Lombardy and all Italy jesters, players, and jugglers came to +Florence, and all were welcome; and whenever a stranger of distinction +passed through the city there was rivalry between the companies to get +him as their guest, and then he was accompanied, on foot or on +horseback, all through the city and the country round, most politely."</p> + +<p>This was the light and careless side of the general <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>awakening of +interest in life, which showed itself in so many nobler forms.</p> + +<p>In literature Dante (1265-1321) is the first great figure. But, owing to +his disproportional importance, we are liable to forget that he has his +orderly place in the revival of poetry and literature which began in the +brilliant court of Frederick II in Sicily. On the destruction of the +Hohenstaufens, the poetic primacy passed to Bologna, where Guido +Guinicelli and others composed poetry in a somewhat learned fashion, as +befitted a university town, and then passed on to Tuscany, and in +particular to Florence, where Dante was preceded by his friend Guido +Cavalcanti. Dante, although distinctly mediæval by his theology, his +appeals to the authority of Virgil and Aristotle, and by his political +views, has the characteristics of the new spiritual energy. He lays +immense stress on individuality, and delineates real life with wonderful +vividness. These traits mark him as belonging to the new world coming in +rather than to the old world going out.</p> + +<p>From the point of view of history, Dante's most marked achievement, +perhaps, was to raise the Tuscan (or more strictly speaking the +Florentine) idiom, from among many competitors, to the dignity of being +the Italian language. This was the consequence of writing the "Divine +Comedy" in Tuscan, instead of in Latin. Dante's Tuscan verses were +recited in the tavern and on the <i>piazza</i>, and were greeted with loud +applause by apprentices and artisans, shopmen and tavern-keepers. He +excited the enthusiasm of both educated and ignorant. At that time the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>spoken dialects were very numerous. A friend remonstrating with Dante +for writing in an Italian dialect instead of in Latin, said that there +were a thousand. Dante himself in his treatise "On the Vernacular +Speech" enumerates Sicilian, Calabrian, Apulian, Roman, Tuscan, Genoese, +Sardinian, Romagnol, Lombard, Venetian, and others. These dialects of +the provinces were further subdivided among themselves. In Tuscany the +people of Siena spoke one idiom, those of Arezzo another. In Lombardy +the citizens of Ferrara spoke in one way, the citizens of Piacenza in +another. Even in one city, as in Bologna, the dwellers in St. Felix +Street and those in Greater Street did not speak alike. Besides the +difficulties of many dialects, besides the immense prestige of Latin as +the language of learning, of law, of the Church, French appeared as a +possible literary language for Italy. Authors in Florence, Venice, +Siena, and Pisa wrote books in French, "because the French language goes +over the world, and is more delectable to read and to hear than any +other." But Dante made the Florentine tongue immortal, and not only +wrote the "Divine Comedy" in Florentine, but also "The New Life" and +"The Banquet." Prior to his time the divers idioms had stood on an +equality; after his time Tuscan became the language of polite speech and +of literature, the real Italian language, and the others were degraded +to the position of mere dialects. Petrarch and Boccaccio, both +Florentines, also deserve their share of praise. Petrarch's sonnets and +Boccaccio's stories firmly established the primacy to which Dante had +raised the Tuscan idiom.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>The revival of sculpture also began before the middle of the thirteenth +century. Here the great leader is Niccolò Pisano (1206-78?). There has +been a dispute as to his birthplace. Some say he came from Southern +Italy and learned his art there. If this theory is true, Frederick's +kingdom has the honour of having revived sculpture as well as +literature; but it is more likely that Niccolò came from some village in +Tuscany, and early went to Pisa, where he got his designation <i>Pisano</i>. +The first certain record of his work is an inscription on the pulpit in +the Baptistery at Pisa, which states that he completed the pulpit in +1260. Pisa was then at the height of her glory, in the happy years +before her fatal conflict with Genoa; she had built the Cathedral, the +Leaning Tower, and the Baptistery, and now wished to beautify them +within. Niccolò's pulpit shows both imitation of the classic and +observation of nature. He had before him bits of ancient sarcophagi, +which had been built into the wall of the Cathedral: his Madonna bears +traces of the Phædra of the sarcophagus, one of his three Wise Men +resembles a young Greek, and his modelling in general has a touch of +classic freedom, dignity, and repose. In his conception of the scenes +Niccolò adhered to ecclesiastical tradition, just as Dante did to +ecclesiastical theology, but in his figures, in the drapery and various +details, his faithfulness to reality is striking, at least when compared +with the Byzantine style theretofore prevailing. The success of this +pulpit was so great that a few years later he was asked to carve another +for the cathedral in Siena. An envoy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>came on purpose, and in the +Baptistery of Pisa a contract was drawn up in which it was agreed that +Niccolò should go to Siena and stay till the work was done, taking three +assistants, and also his young son Giovanni, at half pay, if he wished. +This contract was made in 1265, the year of Dante's birth. Niccolò also +worked at Bologna, Perugia, Pistoia, probably at Lucca and almost +certainly in many other places. This was the period of the free +development of the communes after the death of Frederick II, and +Niccolò's popularity is proof of widespread prosperity and interest in +art. Niccolò's son Giovanni (1250-1328?) inherited his father's genius; +and his work, especially his masterpiece, a pulpit at Pistoia, shows how +fast art was developing. Giovanni, in his eagerness to express the +animation and passion of life, neglected the classic and went directly +to nature, at least in desire if not in execution. This passionate +interest in life is the very quality that gives Dante's "Inferno" its +intense vividness. These two Pisani founded the great Tuscan school of +sculpture, and influenced both painting and architecture as well.</p> + +<p>Italian architecture at this time does not show one great figure like +Niccolò Pisano, nor does it show a definite beginning of a new period. +On the contrary, throughout the Middle Ages building held its own +surprisingly well in comparison with the other arts. In the days of +Theodoric the Ostrogoth, it carried on the Byzantine tradition at +Ravenna, and for centuries the churches in Rome were built on the old +basilican principle. Over a hundred years <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>before Dante was born, and +before Niccolò carved his pulpit, the Lombard style flourished in +Lombardy, Tuscan Romanesque in Tuscany, and Norman Sicilian in Sicily. +Before the Empire had received its <i>coup de grâce</i> the Gothic style came +down from the North, and its struggle with the Romanesque seemed to +typify the conflict between the German Empire and the Italian people. +Nevertheless, if we confine ourselves to Tuscany, as perhaps is fair in +view of the very great influence of Tuscany on all the arts, there is +one man who stands out conspicuous. Arnolfo di Cambio (1232-1300?) began +life as one of Niccolò's assistants at Pisa, and did so well that he was +included by name in the contract for the pulpit at Siena. In Florence he +built the church of Santa Croce for the Franciscans, designed the +Palazzo Vecchio, and made the first plans for the Duomo; and so left a +deep impress on Florence and through Florence on the world.</p> + +<p>In painting, more than in any other art or department of life, perhaps, +authority had reigned supreme throughout the Middle Ages. The decadent +Greek painters of Constantinople had made a series of rules, which were +as autocratic as the edicts of the Emperors. Every Madonna was painted +in one attitude, with her eyes opening wide in the same way, arms, legs, +and body in the same constrained position, with the same wooden child in +her wooden lap, and the same wooden saints about her. But gradually, +side by side with the art of authority, another style, at first very +simple and primitive, developed. The older style dominated mosaic work, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>and as mosaics were most intimately associated with the symbolic +representation of sacred things, it was strongly intrenched behind all +the beliefs and prejudices of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the +revolutionary spirit in Tuscany, for the leaders of the revolution which +threw off the authority of the Middle Ages came from among the free men +of Tuscany, prevailed in painting as well as elsewhere. The last of the +masters who employed the Byzantine manner was Cimabue (1240-1302); yet +Cimabue had a sense of the coming change, and showed a desire to break +through the enveloping shell of Byzantine authority and portray the +grace and beauty of living human beings. However mediæval his manner +seems to us, his contemporaries, eager as the Athenians for new things, +perceived the novelty in it. When he was painting a Madonna for the +Dominican monks in Florence, Charles of Anjou, fresh from his triumph +over Manfred, visited his studio for the honour of a first view, and +crowds pressed about hoping to get a glimpse of the picture. When the +picture was carried through the streets to its destination in the church +of Santa Maria Novella, a great procession followed, as if it were a +hero returned from the wars. Poor Cimabue, however, is seldom mentioned +except as a dull background against which the conquering Giotto stands +in brilliant relief.</p> + +<p>Giotto (1267?-1336) is the master revolutionist of painting. He was a +contemporary of Dante, a few years younger, born at the time when +Niccolò and Giovanni were working at the pulpit in Siena, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>and Charles +of Anjou was posing as an admirer of the fine arts in Cimabue's studio. +He painted Dante in a fresco on the wall of the Bargello (a palace in +Florence), at least so tradition says; and Dante in the "Divine Comedy" +speaks of him as outstripping the once renowned Cimabue. Giotto was an +ugly little man, of great character and quick wit. Various stories are +told of his repartees. Once, when he was painting for the King of Naples +and working with great diligence, the king, who used to watch him, said, +"Giotto, if I were you, I should not work so hard." "I shouldn't,—if I +were you," retorted Giotto. He studied under Giovanni Pisano, and +learned so much that it has been said that "Giotto is the greatest work +of the Pisani." Giotto was also the successor to Arnolfo as the leading +architect in Florence, and built the Campanile of the Duomo, and, being +likewise a sculptor, modelled some of the bas-reliefs that ornament the +panels of the base. His great art was painting, and especially the +painting of figures. Giotto was in demand to paint frescoes on the walls +of churches and chapels at Florence, Arezzo, Assisi, Padua, Ravenna, +Rome, and Naples; and other painters came from far and near to study +under him. He dominated Italian painting, and his school was the only +school for a hundred years. After the world had adopted Raphael's +frescoes as the type of excellence his fame was dimmed for a time, but +since Mr. Ruskin's enthusiastic admiration it has regained its ancient +lustre.</p> + +<p>These instances of revolution in the arts show that a new intellectual +life had begun, that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>Middle Ages had really ended. In fact, the +passing away of the Holy Roman Empire and of the European suzerainty of +the Papacy was merely an episode in the general intellectual +revolution.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THE DESPOTISMS (1250-1350)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Perhaps the quality which strikes us most in this dawn of our Modern +World is its suddenness; Niccolò Pisano gets up, as it were, out of the +ground, Giotto follows Cimabue, Dante is born while Guido Guinicelli is +still a young man. We are amazed and bewildered, and it is not in the +arts alone that the change is so startling. The political structure +shifts with equal quickness, and while we are trying to connect and +coördinate this outburst of art with the democratic triumph of the +communes, the democratic communes disappear under our eyes. At first as +we look we are a little puzzled, for the outward form of the commune +remains unchanged; the <i>podestà</i> is still there, the Great Council and +the inner council are still there, the committees and the sub-committees +superintending and directing the affairs of the commonwealth; but +further observation discloses a lack of spontaneity. The motive power +does not seem the resultant of the debate and argument of numerous +discordant wills, but to proceed from some one definite inner source. +More careful observation shows that these outward committees are but +registering boards that record an inner will, that their members go to +one particular palace to have their minds made up, at first privily, but +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>soon openly, and at last confessedly and ostentatiously. This is the +regular course. The commune is, as it were, a political chrysalis out of +which a full-blown tyrant bursts. The tyrants were men of capacity, who +gathered the various functions of the government into their own hands, +and by a course of adroitness and fraud, or by a <i>coup d'état</i>, reduced +the city to obedience, and then, after having exercised sovereign rights +during their lives, bequeathed the principality to their heirs. The +reason of their success is plain. It was impossible for trade to +flourish, for property to collect its income, for luxury to enjoy +itself, under the political confusion that attended the democratic +endeavours for self-government. The uncertainty in government, law, and +trade, was too high a price to pay for liberty. Men of property, men of +business, men of pleasure, preferred the comparative stability of a +tyranny.</p> + +<p>Before we look at this process in individual states we must eliminate +the exceptions. The kingdom of Sicily under the House of Aragon, and +that of Naples under the House of Anjou, had become, in great measure, +absolute monarchies, for the gifted Emperor Frederick, who was no lover +of democracy, had crushed or circumvented the communal spirit in his +kingdom. The suppression of popular liberties did not result in the +strict enforcement of order in either kingdom, particularly not in +Sicily where feudal anarchy was rampant; but we must leave those +Southerners to their oranges and lemons, to their flowers and azure +skies, to their churches and cloisters, where Romanesque, Byzantine, and +Arab <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>influences met and combined in arch and dome and sculptured +trimming, and go northward to find the main historical current of the +century.</p> + +<p>Florence, too, we must except from the tyrannic system, for a democratic +government prevailed there for many years to come, and also Rome, where +the Papacy prevented Colonna and Orsini from establishing a despotism.</p> + +<p>Verona shall serve as the paradigm for the despotic form of government. +In this ancient city on the banks of the Adige, where the amphitheatre +of Augustus still stood though the churches built by Theodoric the +Ostrogoth had crumbled away, the spirit of material and intellectual +activity had been busily at work. The stately church of San Zeno +(eleventh century), most beautiful of Romanesque churches, coloured with +the hues of early dawn and rich with bronze doors and sculptured front, +stood proudly apart outside the walls; but within, the cathedral had +been begun, and the great Ghibelline tower already lifted its +crenellated top high over the market-place. Rushing through the city the +headlong Adige turned innumerable mill-wheels, and Veronese girls washed +the clothes of the Capulets and Montagues in its waters. Altogether the +city was a very desirable signory. This fact had been discovered in +Frederick's time, and Ezzelino da Romano, one of the Ghibelline nobles +of the North, had made good his power there and distinguished himself by +his cruelty, for which he is still remembered. On his most satisfactory +death, not long after Frederick's, the Scaligers succeeded to the +dominion of the city <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>(1259). These Scaligers were of the best type of +tyrant, especially Can Grande (1311-1329), the fifth in possession of +the signory, who presents the type in its noblest and most attractive +form. Nevertheless, despite his brilliance, his success and +magnificence, his chief renown is as host to the exiled Dante, who in +gratitude for "my first refuge and first hostelry" dedicated the +"Paradiso" to him, and celebrated his carelessness of hardship and of +gold, and his doughty deeds from which even enemies could not withhold +their praise.</p> + +<p>Can Grande, like other despots, had two objects,—to make his signory +secure, and to enlarge it. As he was secure of Verona, he cast his +covetous glances abroad and fixed them on Vicenza, a little town some +thirty miles to the northeast. Vicenza was, so to speak, no longer in +the market, as she had been snapped up by her neighbour, Padua, which +had had the advantage of being less than twenty miles away. But Can +Grande played his cards well, and by help of the Emperor Henry VII, who +appointed him Imperial vicar, got possession of the prize. Padua, a rich +and prosperous Guelf city, with subject towns round about, and a famous +university within, refused to acquiesce in a surrender of Vicenza to a +Ghibelline lord. A long war ensued. The fair fields in the forty miles +between Verona and Padua were laid waste, the poor peasants were dragged +to one city or the other and held for ransom, and the Guelfs in Verona +and the Ghibellines in Padua were persecuted, imprisoned, and tortured. +At last Padua, her signory over, her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>neighbours lost, her population +fallen away, her citizens fighting among themselves, her nobles +destroying one another in the hope of becoming lords of the city, gave +way and surrendered to Can Grande. Other cities shared Padua's fate, and +Can Grande, by virtue of his conquests as well as of his character, +became one of the chief powers in Italy. Can Grande was brave even to +recklessness, covetous of dominion, steadfast in his political aims, +true to his promises, generous to his enemies. On his death he +bequeathed his signory to his nephew; and his body was buried in the +churchyard of a little Gothic chapel, where stone effigies of armoured +Scaligers on caparisoned steeds surmount Gothic tombs, and the pride of +life and conquest strives to overcrow death.</p> + +<p>The story of the Scaligers must be continued somewhat further, for they +exhibit the phenomenon, so frequent in Northern Italy at this time, of a +despotism that begins in vigour, continues in energy and success, and +then dies down under degenerate heirs to go out at last like a candle. +Can Grande's nephew, Mastino (1329-51),—the family had a fondness for +canine appellations. Great Dog and Mastiff,—began his career with +ability and courage; he conquered Brescia to the west, halfway to Milan, +and Parma, which lies beyond Mantua. These particular acts of aggression +helped his ruin, for Milan and Mantua took alarm and joined a league +against him. But that was not till later. In the days of his prosperity +Mastino was very magnificent. Soldiers, horse and foot, attended him; +his palace was thronged with lords, gentlemen, and buffoons; his stables +were full <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>of chargers and palfreys, his bird-sheds of falcons. At his +court there were innumerable fashionable devices for driving care away, +dancing, singing, jousting; everything was luxurious; men and furniture +were decked with embroidery, cloth of gold, cloth from France, and cloth +from Tartary. When Mastino rode forth all Verona rushed to the windows; +when he was angry all Verona trembled. He was a dark-skinned, bearded +man, with heavy features and a great belly; in later life he ate +grossly, and sank into dissipation. Seldom on a Friday or Saturday, or +even in Lent, would he refrain from meat; and he did not care a rap for +excommunication. He became arrogant and vainglorious. His dissipation +and lack of piety, however, were less direct causes of his fall than his +ambition; he coveted, rumour said, a kingdom of Lombardy or even of all +Italy. But at last he overreached himself in dealing with the +Florentines. They wished to get possession of Lucca, and he undertook to +buy it for them,—it was a fourteenth-century custom to sell a +city,—but when he got possession of Lucca he kept it for himself. The +Florentines declared war, and induced all his rival despots, the +Visconti of Milan, the Gonzaga of Mantua, the Estensi of Ferrara, to +join a league against him. Venice also joined, being indignant with the +Scaligers for levying tolls upon merchandise that went up the Po, and +for interference with the Venetian monopoly of salt. The league was +victorious and forced the Scaligers to hard terms. Venice took the towns +near her, thus acquiring her first territory on the Italian mainland; +the great Paduan family, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>the Carrara, took back Padua; the Visconti of +Milan took Brescia (1338). The Scaligers were shorn of their power, and +from this time on the house dwindled; assassinations of brother by +brother darkened its close, and at the end of the century it lost Verona +and all.</p> + +<p>What the Scaligers did at Verona other great families were doing +elsewhere. The Gonzaga established themselves in Mantua, the Estensi in +Ferrara, the Bentivogli in Bologna, the da Polenta in Ravenna, the +Malatesta in Rimini, the Montefeltri in Urbino, the Baglioni in Perugia, +and greatest of all the Visconti in Milan. The city of Milan has so +important a place in the history of Italy, that we must pause over the +Visconti. This family succeeded in dispossessing its rivals and in +becoming masters of the city in 1295, about the time that the oligarchy +was clinching its hold on Venice, and the democracy becoming all +powerful in Florence. In fact, one may accept this date as the point at +which Florence, Venice, and Milan start on their upward careers towards +becoming three of the six chief divisions of Italy. Convenience has its +rights, and it is eminently convenient to start the Renaissance, +politically as well as intellectually, in this eager, passionate last +quarter of the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>The Visconti, however, were not firm in their seats till the gallant +Henry VII, Dante's hope, came down into Italy to revive the Empire. We +have seen that Henry did not revive the Empire, but he did strengthen +Can Grande, his loyal lieutenant in Verona, and also the Visconti, his +loyal friends in Milan. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>It is pathetic, even now, to think of that +high-aspiring Henry, with his noble, old-fashioned ideas concerning the +Roman Empire and universal brotherhood under the shelter of the Roman +eagle, and of the great Dante fastening all his hopes on those same +old-fashioned ideas, while the crafty lords of Milan and Verona, +laughing in their sleeves, professed the most devout Imperial creed and +feathered their own nests. On the Emperor's death (1313) the Visconti +were firmly seated. The signory descended from one generation to the +next. Their sway was extended over the cities round about, until it +included most of Lombardy. Ambition, growing by what it fed on, aimed at +the cities of Pisa, Bologna, and Genoa. Such plans aroused both jealousy +and fear. The ambition of the Visconti to take Pisa alarmed Florence, +who had marked Pisa as her own; that to take Bologna stirred the +absentee Popes, who went through the old forms of excommunication, +interdict, and crusade; but Genoa, crippled by her wars with Venice, +rent asunder by internal factions, wearily gave herself to Milan, in the +vain hope of winning peace and security. In spite of checks here and +there, the state of Milan became more and more powerful, and the signory +of the Visconti by far the greatest of the tyrannies in Italy.</p> + +<p>There were, of course, many men who attempted to become despots and +failed; and others who succeeded for their lifetimes, but were not able +to make their signories so strong as to become family possessions to be +enjoyed by their heirs after them. Of the latter kind one must be +mentioned. In Lucca <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>Castruccio Castracane (died 1328), a very brilliant +politician and soldier, became so powerful that he reduced to subjection +much of the country round and nearly succeeded in conquering Florence, +with whom he was long at war. Like other successful tyrants he called +himself a Ghibelline, and drew what advantage he could from his +profession of faith, but really only aimed to acquire a principality for +himself. He died in the prime of life (to the great relief of the +Florentines), and left so brilliant a reputation for the qualities which +achieve success by fair means or foul, that two centuries later +Machiavelli held him up as an example for princes to follow.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL (1350)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We are now well started on the fourteenth century, and it will be well +to glance at the chief Italian states in order to get our bearings.</p> + +<p>Sicily was in a state of hopeless despondency. The island was nominally +subject to the House of Aragon, but its kings were not men of sufficient +character to impose their authority, and the unfortunate kingdom was +beginning to go down hill. The Kingdom of Naples was, for the time +being, much better off, for its king, Robert, grandson of Charles of +Anjou, was a man of unusual gifts and capacity, but he was succeeded by +a foolish, frivolous, light-minded, light-mannered granddaughter, Joan +(1343-81), who brought forty years of trouble to her kingdom, and under +her Naples started rolling down that same incline on which Sicily was +rolling somewhat ahead of her. The failure of Sicily and Naples to take +part in the great career in matters intellectual now opening before +Northern Italy is partly due to the race that populated them, a +miscellaneous mixture of bloods (at least it is customary to explain +unknown causes of success and failure by saying good blood and bad +blood), and partly to the autocratic will of the brilliant Frederick II, +who crushed out independence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>in his kingdom, and so deprived it of that +communal life which is the only obvious factor, except "good blood," in +the intellectual success of Northern Italy.</p> + +<p>The whole pontifical state, from the fortresses of the Colonna on the +Tiber to the strongholds of the Malatesta in Rimini, was in the vortex +of confusion.</p> + +<p>Florence was well off, for though the foreigners whom she had invited to +be protectors against Castruccio Castracane and others were rather +detrimental than useful, and though there were signs of a new struggle +between the <i>Grandi</i> and the Burghers, her commerce prospered, her +dominion spread over the towns round about, and her luxury grew so fast +that the troubled elders passed all sorts of sumptuary laws to prescribe +what should be worn and what not, by both fashionable and simple.</p> + +<p>In the northwest, now Piedmont, there were, besides the Counts of Savoy, +several struggling claimants who severally asserted titles to their own +and other strips of territory. In the northeast, Venice, which had +acquired a footing on the mainland destined to grow into the province of +Venetia, was prosperous. And between Piedmont and Venice the successful +Visconti of Milan, soon to receive the keys of Genoa, were likewise well +satisfied. The political situation may now be dismissed, and we may turn +to the distinguishing mark of the century, the classical revival.</p> + +<p>The distinction which Italy enjoys as the most famous country in Europe +is due to three ages,—first, the ancient epoch of Augustus Cæsar and +Trajan, when the Roman Empire imposed the <i>pax <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>romana</i> on a grateful +world; second, the mediæval epoch of Hildebrand and Innocent III, when +the Papacy, following its great prototype with unequal steps, imposed +its <i>pax romana</i> on both troubled souls and angry hands; and third, the +epoch of the Renaissance, when Italy took the lead in the intellectual +development of modern Europe. It would be as absurd to subordinate +intellectual life to politics in the period of the Renaissance as it +would be to subordinate the religion of the era of Hildebrand to its +art, or the politics of the Augustan age to its religion. The highest +life of Italy, the life which gives importance to the history of this +coming period, is its intellectual life, and, though we must not forget +politics entirely, we should lay the chief stress on intellectual rather +than on political matters.</p> + +<p>Since the date of the Pisan pulpit, prosperity had increased fast, and +curiosity, the desire to investigate, the wish to know, had grown +lustily. There were still the same two stores of knowledge,—nature and +the classics,—but the first, for many reasons, seemed vague, +intangible, when compared to the second, in which the demi-gods (so they +appeared then) of the ancient world had garnered the rich harvest of +their thoughts. The classical heritage, the record of a higher +civilization, seemed a lay Bible, the revelation of truth, the means of +salvation; and the young generation emerging in the dawn of intellectual +light turned thirstily to this newly found inheritance. The leader of +this pilgrimage to the land flowing with intellectual milk and honey was +Francis Petrarch (1304-74).</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>Petrarch was a Florentine, but he lived in exile. His father had been +banished at the same time with Dante, and after a few wandering years +had settled at Avignon. Petrarch studied law at the University of +Bologna and became a confirmed Ghibelline. This item of biography is +important, because it reminds us that Petrarch's passion for the classic +world, though it had its roots in the traditional admiration for Rome, +received strength and justification not only from Latin literature, but +also from the Civil law. Men who grasped the complexity and richness of +the Roman law necessarily admired Roman civilization, and inferred that +all other manifestations of that civilization must be as admirable as +the law, and perhaps less dry. Petrarch found the law dry, but he left +Bologna with a passion for the classic world; and when he went back to +Avignon he met all the most cultivated men of Europe. Learning still +attended the papal court, and Avignon served to make this charming young +scholar of genius known to the world. He flung up the law and devoted +himself to literature. Cicero was his hero. Petrarch was the first of +the humanists, the herald of the Renaissance, and, if we look farther +forward still, the harbinger of the Reformation. Petrarch's importance +was very great because he was not too far ahead of his generation. He +shouted aloud the glory of Rome, of Roman literature and Roman thought, +and the echo resounded throughout Europe. In the year 1341, in Rome, +upon the Capitoline Hill, Petrarch received the crown of laurel, as +scholar and poet, from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>the Senate and People of Rome. The King of +Naples was his sponsor, and the tyrants of the North applauded. This +ceremony was the conspicuous recognition that a new period was opening +before Italy; and Petrarch's laurel crown may be put beside the Imperial +wreath of Augustus and the tiara of Hildebrand, as the starting-point of +Italy's third great period of triumph.</p> + +<p>After his coronation, Petrarch went about Italy spreading the seeds of +the new enthusiasm. He lived or made visits at Parma, Bologna, Verona, +Florence, Arezzo, Naples, Rome, Milan, Padua, and Venice. He became +tremendously fashionable. The Pope invited him to be papal secretary, +the King of France extended the hospitality of Paris to him, the Emperor +bade him to Prague, the Visconti wanted him at Milan, the Scaligers at +Verona, the Cararresi at Padua, the lord high Seneschal at Naples; the +Florentines asked him to accept a chair in their new university, the +Venetians offered him a house. All this honour ostensibly shown to +Petrarch was really the salutation to the new dawn.</p> + +<p>The strength of this classic revival, though most effective in +literature and the arts, is perhaps still more noticeable in the +political career of another young man of genius who had as passionate a +love of classic Rome as Petrarch himself. Cola di Rienzo (1314-54) was +an imaginative, poetical dreamer, who fed his youth on Livy, Cicero, +Seneca, and delighted to muse on the glories of Julius Cæsar and to +study the antique monuments of Rome. His public career began as envoy on +one of the unsuccessful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>embassies which used to entreat the Popes to +return to the deserted city. Cola was handsome, eloquent, ardent, a sort +of Don Quixote, and roused the Roman populace to share his dreams and to +believe in the possible restoration of the Senate and People of Rome to +their ancient grandeur. He led the people against the nobility, forced +the riotous barons to submit to his rule as tribune of the people, and +established a government of law in the city; but his ambition flew far +beyond the city walls. He dreamed of the confederation of all Italy +under the lead of Rome. He would have smiled at limiting imitation of +the great days of old to the arts or to literature; he intended to +restore the Roman Republic as it had been in its high and palmy days. +His wild aspirations throw a backward light over the history of the city +of Rome throughout the Middle Ages, and over that republicanism which +played so important a part in the struggle between Empire and Papacy, +and light up the old theories under which the Roman people claimed the +right to elect both Emperor and Pope; just as Boniface's bulls portray +the outworn papal theories, and Dante's "De Monarchia" the dead Imperial +beliefs.</p> + +<p>Cola's first step was to invite all the princes and communes of Italy to +attend a general meeting in Rome; and as all Italy had responded to +Petrarch's appeal in behalf of the classic past, so did she, for the +moment, respond to Cola's appeal. Milan, Genoa, Lucca, Florence, Siena, +and the smaller cities nearer by, answered with apparent sympathy. +Petrarch was mad with delight, and hailed Cola as Camillus, Brutus, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>Romulus. For the moment, such was the strength of classical illusion, +the dream seemed to be real. Cola wrote to the Florentines (September, +1347), "We have made all citizens of the states of Holy Italy Roman +citizens, and we admit them to the right of election. The affairs of +Empire have naturally devolved upon the Holy Roman People. We desire to +renew and strengthen the old union with all the principalities and +states of Holy Italy, and to deliver Holy Italy itself from its +condition of abject subjection and to restore it to its old state and to +its ancient glory. We mean to exalt to the position of Emperor some +Italian whom zeal for the union of his race shall stir to high efforts +for Italy."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>Cola's great idea was destined to wait five hundred years for +fulfilment. The time was not ripe, and he himself not a suitable +instrument. His career was brief. He became not only vainglorious but +also very cruel. He grew fat, and lost the charm of youth and novelty. +The nobles and the upper classes of Rome hated him; and when, in need of +money, he increased the taxes, the Roman populace turned upon him, +stormed the Capitol, captured him as he tried to slink away in disguise, +and murdered him on the steps leading down from the palace. His head was +cut off, his body was dragged through the streets and burned, and the +ashes scattered to the winds.</p> + +<p>The mad dream had been, in its nature, evanescent. The classical +heritage was too purely intellectual, too remote from existing needs, to +be able to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>shape politics. But that fourteen hundred years after the +death of Julius Cæsar, Cola should have been able to establish himself +as Roman tribune on the Capitoline Hill, and to act as if the Republic +of the days of the Gracchi had been but temporarily superseded, shows +the immense influence of Rome over the mediæval imagination, and helps +us to understand the autocratic power of the classical heritage in +shaping and directing the intellectual revolution in Italy.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Rome in the Middle Ages</i>, Gregorovius, vol. vi, p. 295, +note 1 (translated).</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The fourteenth century undoubtedly felt itself emancipated from the +limitations of the Middle Ages, and with justice, so far as the +classical revival was concerned, but it did little or nothing to free +itself from ills that were distinctly of a mediæval character,—plague, +lawlessness, and tyranny. In that respect, the transition from the +Middle Ages to the Modern World was slow and made a striking contrast +with the rapid evolution of art.</p> + +<p>The chief of these ills was the plague. Only in remote places of the +East, if at all, does the scourge of disease now fall as it then did in +the most civilized cities of the world, and it was from the East that +these plagues came, brought by sailors. One blasted Tuscany in 1340, one +Lombardy in 1361; but the worst was the awful Black Death of 1348, which +wrought havoc in various parts of Italy and then swept northward across +the Alps on its destructive path. It was this plague which Boccaccio +describes in the beginning of the "Decameron." It spread like fire among +dry wood which has been sprinkled with oil. At first swellings appeared +the size of an egg or an apple, then black and hard spots; on the third +day came death. Even animals caught the disease. Boccaccio saw two pigs +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>which had chewed the garment of a plague-stricken man die in +convulsions. Medicine was useless. Some thought the wisest course was to +live on the daintiest food and drink, and never speak of the plague; +others believed in carousing and jollity, and went about from tavern to +tavern seeking diversion, but always keeping sober enough to avoid the +sick. Private houses were deserted and lay open to anybody. Loyalty +disappeared. All who could fled into the country. Thousands fell sick +daily. In place of decent burial, dead bodies were tossed huggermugger +into trenches. Between March and July, Boccaccio says, more than 100,000 +people died within the walls of Florence.</p> + +<p>Florence was not singular. In Siena 80,000 people, three quarters of the +population, died; in Genoa, 40,000; in Pisa, seven out of ten, and so on +in Venice, Rome, Naples, and Sicily. These figures seem incredible; but +Petrarch says: "Posterity will not believe that there ever was a period +in which the world remained almost entirely depopulated, houses empty of +families, cities of inhabitants, the country of peasants. How will the +future believe it, when we ourselves can hardly credit our eyes? We go +outdoors, walk through street after street, and find them full of dead +and dying; when we get home again we find no live thing within the +house, all having perished within the brief interval of absence. Happy +posterity, to whom such calamities will seem imaginings and dreams." +Poor Petrarch! The lovely Laura, of whom he wrote so many perfect +sonnets, died of the Black Death in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>Avignon. Giovanni Villani, the +historian, died in Florence. This terrible calamity throws into high +relief the great classical impulse, to which the last chapter was +devoted. In earlier times men would have turned to religion and the +Church; but now Petrarch, a most devout Christian, and his disciples +continued to worship Cicero and the heroes of the Augustan age, and to +talk of Cæsar and Pompey, Scylla and Charybdis, as the most important +and interesting of things.</p> + +<p>Another great evil which rivalled the plague as a curse, was the host of +mercenary soldiers who swarmed over Italy like locusts. In the days of +Barbarossa, battles like that of Legnano had been fought between the +train-bands of the communes on one side and the feudal chivalry and +men-at-arms on the other. But since then a great change had come over +the methods of raising soldiers. Under the feudal system the term of +service in the field for the liegemen of the Emperor had been forty +days; but that time was too short for an effective campaign. When the +Emperor wished to cross the Alps and go to Rome in order to receive the +Imperial crown, he was obliged to hire soldiers; and, as years went on +and these Imperial descents became mere adventurous expeditions, the +character of the soldiers degenerated, until in Petrarch's time the +Imperial armies were made up of ruffians recruited anywhere. There were +also other reasons for establishing mercenaries in place of militia. The +despots of Northern Italy did not wish their subjects trained to arms. +The burghers of mercantile cities did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>not wish to leave their +counting-rooms, nor to have their employees mustered out, so they too +preferred hired soldiers to a native militia. Moreover, warfare had +changed; cavalry needed frequent man[oe]uvres, bowmen and pikemen +required drill and continuous discipline. Thus the old train-band system +of the communes, under which the militia hurried to their appointed +posts on the ringing of the bells, gave way to the system of mercenary +troops led by soldiers of fortune, <i>condottieri</i>, as the Italians call +them.</p> + +<p>These soldiers, who had come down from the North to serve Emperors, or +despots like the Visconti, or perhaps had sailed from Spain to fight +under the House of Aragon in Sicily, as soon as the immediate war was +ended, having been left unpaid or having taken a liking to a trade in +which the labor was congenial, the risk small and booty enormous, +decided not to disband, but to continue to try their luck together. They +sold their services to whatever city or despot would pay them most, or +wandered about in a nomadic fashion, capturing a city if they could, if +not, living on the country-side. One can imagine these rogues among +unwarlike peasants, or in a pleasant little city like Lucca or Cremona. +They were very fickle, fought one another only upon compulsion, and then +most reluctantly and gently, and were very nearly as terrible to their +employers as to their adversaries. They were organized, sometimes very +well, in bands under a general or a council of officers, and had such +names as The Company of St. George, or The Great Company. Some of their +leaders became very famous, like <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>Duke Werner, who proclaimed himself +"Lord of the Great Company, enemy to God, to Pity, and to Mercy." The +most interesting of these leaders, at least for us, is John Hawkwood, an +English adventurer, who began life as a London tailor, but dropped +scissors and needle to enlist for Edward III's French campaign, and +then, seeing fortune smile most sweetly from distraught Italy, crossed +the Alps and led his company all over the peninsula. There is a full +length fresco of him on horseback in the <i>Duomo</i> at Florence, painted in +gratitude for his deeds in life or merely for his death.</p> + +<p>For a hundred years and more these ruffians swaggered about Italy. +Petrarch finds in them one cause the more to hold out his arms toward +the mighty past. He writes in a letter: "Oh, would that you were alive, +Brutus, Great-heart, that I might turn to you. O Manlius—O Great +Pompey—O Julius Cæsar [etc., etc., etc.], O Jesus, Lord of the world, +what has happened? Why do I moan and groan for grief? Oh! a vile handful +of robbers, spewed out of their nasty dens, walks and rides over the +ancient queen of the world, Italy. Christ Jesus, in tears and +supplication I turn to Thee. Oh, if we have abused Thy goodness more +than was right, if we have shown ourselves too proud in Thy aid and +favour, if we have borne ourselves ill towards Thee, well mayst Thou not +permit us to be free; but let not this slaughter, these sacrileges, +these robberies, these deeds of violence, these ravishings of wives and +maidens, find mercy in Thine eyes. Put an end to this evil. To the +wicked who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>have said in their hearts 'There is no God,' show that Thou +art; and to us however unworthy, show that we are Thy children. O +Almighty Father, help us; in Thee alone we put our hope, and in +supplication we invoke Thy name, weeping and confessing that there is +none who shall fight for us, unless Thou, our Lord, be he."</p> + +<p>This strange mixture of classic enthusiasm and Christian piety, this odd +idea that the triumphant cause of the Roman Republic was due to the +favour of Christ, shows us that Petrarch had not yet got wholly clear of +mediæval beliefs. But, as with Cola di Rienzo, everything Petrarch says +testifies to the power of the Roman tradition.</p> + +<p>A third evil, yet not to be compared with the plague and the +<i>condottieri</i>, was the tyranny of the despots. The founders of +despotisms were men of vigour and political capacity, and gave to their +subjects in lieu of liberty greater security and order than they had +enjoyed before. Their descendants, like proverbial heirs, finding hard +work both distasteful and unnecessary, gave themselves up to dissipation +and cruelty; they dropped their ancestors' attitude of leading citizens +and treated the principalities as private property, intended for their +amusement. The Visconti, though they retained their family ability and +force of character longer than most princely houses, shall serve to +illustrate the general dynastic development, more especially as the +history of Milan, which had become the chief power in Italy, will be the +best thread to carry us to the end of the century.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>Towards the middle of the century Archbishop Giovanni Visconti had +become the lord of Milan (1349-54). He was a clever, cultivated man, +interested in letters. He employed scholars to prepare a commentary on +the "Divine Comedy," and by urgent persuasion induced Petrarch to take +up his abode at Milan. On the archbishop's death his three nephews +succeeded jointly to the signory. As one of these three nephews, Bernabò +(1354-85), illustrates the moral degeneracy of the tyrant we will glance +at his habits. Bernabò was addicted to the chase. Nobody else was +allowed to keep a dog, but he kept five thousand. These he billeted on +the citizens of Milan. Every fortnight the masters of his kennels made +their rounds; if the dogs were too thin, a fine was imposed; if dead, a +general confiscation. If a man killed a wild boar or a hare, he was +maimed or hanged, or sometimes, in mercy, merely obliged to eat the +quarry raw. Bernabò was afraid of conspiracies and rebellion. No man +might go out into the street after dark for any cause whatever, under +pain of having a foot cut off. No man might utter the words "Guelf" or +"Ghibelline," under penalty of having his tongue cut out. Once Bernabò +shut up his two secretaries in a cage with a wild boar. On another +occasion a young man who had pulled a policeman's beard was condemned to +pay a small fine, but Bernabò ordered his right hand cut off. The +<i>podestà</i> delayed execution of the sentence, so that the lad's parents +might have time to ask mercy. For this Bernabò caused the lad's two +hands to be cut off and also the <i>podestà's</i> right hand. A sexton who +demanded too much for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>digging a grave was buried alive side by side +with the dead body. Two monks who came to remonstrate with Bernabò for +his cruelty were burnt alive. Nevertheless, Bernabò protested himself +devout; he fasted, built churches and monasteries. This amiable man had +thirty-two children. His brother, joint heir of the principality, +Galeazzo II, was of the same stuff, except that in place of piety he +substituted an interest in letters; he founded the University of Pavia, +and exchanged figs, flowers, and flattery with Petrarch. Galeazzo's son, +Gian Galeazzo (1378-1402), rose still higher in the world; he gave +300,000 sequins to the King of France, and in return received the king's +daughter in marriage. For a second wife he married his cousin, daughter +of his amiable uncle Bernabò, who thought that this marriage would bind +his nephew to him by bonds of filial affection. Gian Galeazzo however, +by means of a trick, got his father-in-law within his reach, arrested +him, accused him of witchcraft, put him in prison and poisoned him, and +so became sole lord of Milan. This worthy lord converted his +principality into a dukedom and became duke (1395); but as we have +followed the family to the end of the century, and long enough to make +ourselves acquainted with the habits of tyrants, we must leave them.</p> + +<p>Poor Italy suffering from these three evils, plagues, <i>condottieri</i>, and +tyrants, naturally sought for a cure, and, with what seems to us a +singular lack of imagination, turned to the old remedies, Emperor and +Pope. From time to time Emperors came into Italy, but the Hapsburgs were +very different from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>Hohenstaufens, and their trips to Rome were +mere money-getting excursions. They sold privileges and honours, imposed +what taxes they could collect, and sneaked back to Germany. Obviously +there was no hope from Emperors. Then rose the cry for the return of the +Papacy. Every Italian, however he might hate or despise the Popes, felt +proud that the Papacy was an Italian institution, and believed that +every Pope, good or bad, should live in Rome and sit on his throne at +St. Peter's. Sentiment grew strong, especially among the women; Petrarch +thundered, St. Catherine of Siena pleaded. Moreover, the sharper +argument was urged with great practical effect, that the Papal State +might shake off the papal dominion if the Pontiffs did not look after it +themselves. The Popes began to stir uneasily. The cardinals indeed, +accustomed to the safe city of Avignon, did not care to go to turbulent +Rome, or perhaps, as Petrarch said, they could not bear to leave their +Burgundian wines. But finally Gregory XI (1370-78) raised his courage to +the sticking point. He returned to Rome in 1377, and the Babylonish +Captivity of seventy years ended.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (1350-1450)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The return of the Papacy to Rome was an event of importance both for +Italy and the Catholic Church. Had it remained in France, it must have +dwindled and shrunk, like Antæus, kept away from its source of strength. +Nevertheless, the Papacy was no longer what it once had been; it cannot +serve us now as a central channel for the course of Italian history, and +will rank no higher than the first of half-a-dozen little channels, +which we must pursue separately.</p> + +<p>The returning Pope found his territory in greater obedience than he +deserved; for a brilliant Spanish cardinal, Albornoz who had been sent +some time before had reduced almost all the cities to subjection +(1353-67); even Bologna, successfully disputed with the Visconti, +acknowledged papal dominion. But there was neither peace nor +tranquillity. Everywhere turbulence and murmurous threatenings rumbled; +and worse was to come. The very year after the return from the +Babylonish Captivity the <i>Great Schism</i> rent the Church asunder for +forty years. There were two parties in the College of Cardinals, the +French and the Italian, with little love lost between them. The Italians +were in control and elected Urban VI (1378-89), a domineering, cruel, +most unpastoral person, who insulted the foreign <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>cardinals, and so +angered them that they left Rome, declared his election illegal, and +elected one of themselves as Pope in his stead. This anti-pope, attended +by his troop of cardinals, returned to Avignon. Christian Europe divided +in two: some countries recognized Urban, others recognized the +anti-pope. Thus the schism began, and prepared the way for the next +great split of Christian Europe into Catholics and Protestants. There +were now two sources of apostolic succession, two supreme rulers, and +two systems of taxation. Misbehaviour and confusion at the top lowered +the moral tone of the whole Church. The Curia in Rome was scandalously +venal. Indulgences were sold; offices were bestowed for money. Nobody in +Rome respected the Pope, hardly anybody respected the clergy.</p> + +<p>All Christendom felt that reformation was necessary, and that, first of +all, the schism must be closed. Thereupon some outward deference was +paid to public opinion; the Roman Pope went so far as to make ostensible +overtures to his rival at Avignon, and he of Avignon bowed and smiled +most politely in return. Friendly greetings went to and fro, and a +meeting was talked of. It became obvious, however, after a time, that +neither Pope had the slightest intention of abdicating in the other's +favour. Christendom remained insistent, and the two batches of cardinals +took the matter into their own hands. They held a Council at Pisa, which +deposed both Popes, and elected a third (1409), but, as the other two +Popes refused to acknowledge their deposition, matters were worse than +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>before. The situation recalled the old days when a German Emperor had +come down to Rome and had deposed three rival Popes together. The need +seemed to revive the past. The Emperor Sigismund (1410-37) assumed to +speak as the head of Christendom. He summoned an Ecumenical Council to +meet at the city of Constance, on the Lake of Constance, to judge the +schismatic quarrel and to consider the general state of the Church. +Other troubles besides schism had begun to appear. The failure of Rome +to satisfy the conscience of Europe had borne fruit. Heresy had +appeared. In England, Wyclif (1327-84) had denounced the higher clergy +for greed and arrogance; he had disavowed allegiance to the divided +Papacy, and had opposed the doctrine of transubstantiation. In Bohemia, +Jerome of Prague rejected the temporal jurisdiction of priests, and John +Huss asserted that Constantine had done great wrong when he endowed Pope +Silvester with lands and temporal power.</p> + +<p>Christendom responded to the Emperor's call. Prelates and scholars of +the highest character and standing assembled at Constance (1414). It was +a great occasion, and belongs to the history of Europe. This Council, +the seventeenth Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church (1414-18), +deposed all three Popes, and elected a Roman, of the House of Colonna, +Martin V (1417-31), and so closed the schism and restored unity to the +Church. The more difficult matter of crushing heresy was not so readily +dealt with. The two reformers, Jerome of Prague and John Huss, refused +to recant or modify their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>views. They were condemned and handed over to +the secular arm for punishment; and the Emperor, heedless of the +safe-conduct he had given, burnt them at the stake (1415-16).</p> + +<p>To follow the proceedings of this interesting Council more fully would +take us too far into papal affairs. It must suffice to say that the +Reformation can be sniffed in the air. Rome had not done its elementary +duties as head of Christendom, and Christendom insisted on a change and +on reform; but Rome was powerful and would not submit. Two parties +appear, the reformers and the papists. The former wished to purify the +Roman Curia and the whole Church, and to give the Papacy a republican +character,—to make the Pope a president, as it were, and the College of +Cardinals a senate. The latter liked the old easy ways and wished the +Pope to be absolute monarch. The papal party by dexterous politics +foiled the plans of the reformers and prevented change of any kind, +although no doubt it acted less from desire to obstruct reform than to +prevent the anti-monarchical party from getting control of the Church +and using the prestige of reform to attack the papal autocracy. From +this time on the papal party consistently pursued this course, and +therefore reformation came not from Rome, but from Germany, and instead +of being a reform from within, came practically as an attack from +without, and caused the permanent schism of the Reformation. We must now +leave the Papacy, which follows its wilful course—via Babylonish +Absenteeism, Schism, and refusal to reform—and steers directly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>towards +the rocks of the Reformation, and betake ourselves to the other parts of +Italy.</p> + +<p>The Kingdom of Naples would have been badly off at best under its +light-mannered queen, Joan I (1343-81), but it became involved in the +papal schism, and got into a wretched plight. The queen rashly took +sides with the Avignon Pope, and the irascible Roman Pope vowed +vengeance. He set her cousin, Charles, who belonged to the Durazzo +branch of the House of Anjou, on the throne in her stead. The story is a +miserable mixture of treasons, battles, and vulgar crimes. Charles got +possession of the unfortunate queen and strangled her, and he and his +heirs fought her adopted heirs for years. Each side hired mercenaries. +John Hawkwood was there, and other notable leaders. Poor Naples, taxed, +robbed, and ravaged by rival kings, their favourites, and mistresses, +rolled rapidly from bad to worse. Exception must be made in favour of +Charles's son Ladislaus (1390-1414), a bold, enterprising soldier, who +played a part in the affairs of Italy like that of his ancestor, Charles +of Anjou. But he failed in not leaving a son to inherit the crown, and +was succeeded by his sister, another Queen Joan (1414-35), likewise +light-mannered. There is nothing memorable to grace her career, except +the presence of a soldier of fortune, once a Romagnol peasant, Muzio +Attendolo, better known as Attendolo Sforza (strength). His son was +Francesco Sforza, destined to a brilliant career in Milan. The queen did +one thing, however, for which we, who clutch at any unification of +Italian history, must <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>thank her. She adopted, not wholly of her free +will, Alfonso of Aragon, King of Sicily, and so brought about, though +for a few years only, the reunion of the Two Sicilies.</p> + +<p>With regard to Sicily we need say nothing except that the royal House, +which still had a strain of Hohenstaufen-Norman blood, died out, and +that Sicily passed as a marriage portion to the crown of Aragon, and +became a mere appanage of that kingdom (1409). Finally, as I have said, +King Alfonso was adopted as heir to the second Queen Joan, and took part +in the civil wars that devastated Naples. Then began the long struggle +of Spaniard against Frenchman (the Neapolitan House of Anjou was still +French), which was destined to be so disastrous to Italy. Alfonso +conquered and was acknowledged King of the Two Sicilies by his suzerain +the Pope (1443). Thus for a time the Southern Kingdom was united and at +peace. It is a happy moment to leave it and go northward, in the hope of +finding greater moral and intellectual activity, if not greater +tranquillity and order.</p> + +<p>To the northeast, Venice had been growing in power; but with the growth +of her power the number of her enemies and their bitterness towards her +had grown. Her possessions on the mainland, wrested from Verona, brought +her into hostility with Padua; her Adriatic possessions, Istria and +Dalmatia, made her an enemy of Hungary; her coastwise empire and trade +in the Levant made Genoa her deadly rival; and her imperial expansion +entangled her in war after war. Both the war with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>Padua and that with +Hungary told upon her, but the struggle with Genoa was far worse. During +the last grapple, known as the war of Chioggia (1378-81), Venice was +reduced to narrow straits, and but for her great admirals, Vettor Pisani +and Carlo Zeno, would have been defeated. Genoa never recovered from the +losses she sustained; but Venice regained her strength, and renewed her +conquests on the mainland. She conquered Padua (1404) and strangled the +last heirs of the House of Carrara, though they were prisoners of war; +she seized Verona, and set a price on the heads of the last of the +Scaligers, though they had been her allies. Her chief expansion on the +mainland of Italy was under the Doge Francesco Foscari (1423-57), when +she annexed Bergamo and Brescia, and carried her western boundary to the +river Adda. For the sake of convenience we may divide the life of Venice +into four stages: first, her lusty youth, which closed with the +profligate capture of Constantinople and the piratical dismemberment of +the Byzantine Empire (1204); second, her vigorous prime, which lasted +till she annexed Italian territory, threw in her lot with Italy, and +from being almost an Oriental outsider became an Italian state (1338); +third, her glorious maturity, which continued till the League of +Cambrai, when almost all Europe united to destroy her (1508); and +fourth, her long period of ebbing fortune, during which she slipped +slowly into decrepitude. In the present chapter we deal with the earlier +part of her maturity, when Venice was contesting with Milan for primacy +in power and importance.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>During all this period the oligarchy had been tightening its hold on the +government, and was now absolute and secure. One last attempt had been +made to overthrow it, but had easily been put down. No one knows exactly +what led to the conspiracy, or what was the exact purpose of the +conspirators. The ringleader was the Doge himself, Marino Faliero, one +of the old nobility. The story is that he wished to revenge himself for +a gross insult from a young nobleman, and it seems likely that a +personal quarrel had some connection with a general plot which aimed to +overthrow the oligarchy, and substitute a government of the old nobility +supported by the people. The plot was betrayed. Nine of the conspirators +were hanged from the windows of the Ducal Palace. Faliero's head was cut +off, his portrait in the hall of the Ducal Palace was painted out, and +in the blank space was written: "This is the place of Marino Faliero, +beheaded for his crimes."</p> + +<p>The oligarchy did not fail in its duty to itself, but neither did it +fail in its duty to the state. Commerce was the life of Venice; and the +oligarchy tended it with the utmost care. The famous Venetian arsenal +was the foster-mother of that commerce. There the money-getting ships +were built and equipped: caracks with three decks and great depth of +hold, galleasses with high forecastle and poop, galleys with long rows +of oars and lateen sails, all of different builds to suit the rough +Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, or the safer Adriatic.</p> + +<p>Riches, a firm rule, and the security of an island <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>home, showed visibly +in Venice. Instead of fortresses with massive walls and solid towers, +light, elegant palaces, decked with gay balconies and incrusting +marbles, lined the canals. All revealed tranquillity and prosperity; and +the adoption of Gothic architecture in place of Byzantine, and in +especial the long Gothic arcades of the Ducal Palace (1300-40), +testified how Venice had turned her face from the East to the West. In +contrast with Sicily and Naples, rolling down hill separately or +together, and with the troubled Papal States, Venice appears altogether +happy and successful as she passes from the fourteenth into the +fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>Milan we have brought to the dignity of a dukedom, for which Gian +Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402), the amiable nephew of the too-confiding +Bernabò, paid the price of 100,000 sequins to the fount of honour, the +ultramontane Emperor. This nephew, despite a moral inadequacy in his +family relations, was in many respects an excellent ruler. He reduced +the more burdensome taxes (in one city, it is said, he cut them down +from 12,000 florins to 400), and abolished others altogether. He +corrected abuses, reorganized the administration of justice, and enacted +wise laws. He understood the pride of the Milanese in their city, and +laid the foundations of the great Gothic cathedral on a scale to gratify +that pride; he began the beautiful church of the Cistercian monks, the +<i>Certosa</i>, at Pavia; he completed the palace at Pavia, whither he +transported his famous collection of books and an equally famous +collection of holy bones. He had the family ambition, and annexed +Vicenza, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>Verona, Padua, Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Pisa, and Bologna. +Rumour said that he aspired to a kingdom of Lombardy, and even of all +Italy. But Venice and Florence were too powerful for the success of his +plans. Venice, perhaps, might have regarded herself as still too much +detached from Italy to care to oppose him single-handed; but the doughty +burghers of Florence were zealously democratic and would not endure any +suggestion of foreign dominion. They had fought the Pope, when they +suspected him of designs on their city, and now they organized a league +against Gian Galeazzo. Perhaps it would have been a most fortunate thing +for Italy if the Duke of Milan had been able to consolidate all Italy, +or even all the North, in one kingdom. Centuries of suffering, of +ignominy, of foreign domination might have been avoided; but then, +perhaps, the great intellectual harvest, that gave Italy for the third +time primacy over Europe, would not have attained its full growth. These +are idle speculations, for Gian Galeazzo died in his prime (1402), and +the universal dominion of Milan became an academic question. +Nevertheless, one cannot withhold a sensation of regret. There was +undoubted brilliance in Gian Galeazzo; whatever he did was done royally. +His ambitions were high, planned always on a large scale. His purchases +of the French king's daughter and of the ducal title were splendidly +prodigal. The design of the cathedral was noble and bold. It was an +endeavour to give the Gothic style an Italian character. In this it is +easy to find symbolism. The Gothic style represented the Ghibelline +cause, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>well as Teutonic blood and influence, whereas the Italian +represented the Guelf cause and also Latin blood. The high-aspiring Gian +Galeazzo wished to use both Teutonic and Italian elements as the +materials for his kingdom. In view of his intellectual gifts, one +readily slurs over his moral inadequacy, if that term may be applied to +traits which would have done honour to Iago; in fact, prior to Cæsar +Borgia, he was the most distinguished example of the type of +intellectual, murderous Italian, which exercised so powerful an +attraction over the wild fancy of the Elizabethan dramatists.</p> + +<p>Gian Galeazzo's death left his dukedom in a chaotic condition. A widow, +a regent committee, and three boys were left to see the state, built up +with so much care and astuteness, fall away piecemeal into the hands of +the petty despots, who had been dispossessed during the process of +integration. Venice took Verona, Padua, and other cities near by; the +Papacy got back Bologna, Florence managed to secure Pisa. Thus the +dukedom was carved up. The eldest son died soon, leaving behind him a +memory of the pleasure he took in watching mastiffs tear his prisoners +to pieces; but the second son, Filippo Maria (1412-47), inherited his +father's craft and much of his ability. By means of two famous +<i>condottieri</i>, Carmagnola, best remembered as the victim of Venetian +anger, and Francesco Sforza, of whom we have heard in the Neapolitan +service, he gradually restored the dukedom very nearly to its boundaries +under his father. Filippo Maria was the last of his race, and we will +leave him, engaged in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>speculation as to the best political use of his +marriageable daughter Bianca Maria.</p> + +<p>We must pass over the Counts of Savoy, now become dukes (1416), the +marquesses of Monferrat and Saluzzo, and the lords of other petty +territories, and turn our attention to Florence. Florence was always in +a state of struggle, always engaged in exiling, deposing, or in some way +suppressing aristocrats. Forced, in days of peril, to receive foreign +lords as military leaders, she had managed to expel the last of them, +one Walter of Brienne, a clever knave, who bore the odd title of Duke of +Athens, which he had inherited from his grandfather, one of the +gentlemen adventurers who had gone to the East. His father had been +expelled from Athens, and the son was happily driven out of Florence. +The burghers followed up their victory (1343) with new laws against the +aristocrats, and held the government for a generation. Then first +appears the name of Medici. One Salvestro dei Medici, as <i>Gonfaloniere</i> +of Justice, the supreme officer in Florence under the existing +constitution, proposed further laws in favour of the people. The lower +classes, with whetted appetites, wanted more. The mechanics and artisans +of the lower guilds, and more particularly the wool carders and combers +(the <i>Ciompi</i>) of the great wool guilds, rose in riot, overturned the +government, and put a wool-carder, Michele di Lando, at the head of the +city (1378). Florence was democratic, but not so democratic as to submit +to the rule of a wool-carder. The rich burghers would not stomach a +plebeian any more than they would a king. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>A reaction set in, and the +government passed into the very competent hands of an oligarchy of +distinguished citizens. This oligarchy governed well. Its leaders, Maso +degli Albizzi, and Niccolò da Uzzano, acted patriotically and wisely. +They resisted the aggressions of Milan from the north, and of Naples +(under that exceptional king Ladislaus) from the south, and made it +their policy to maintain the balance of power in Italy. Under this +oligarchy began the great development of art, known as the Renaissance, +or, to be more exact in quoting the textbooks, the First or Early +Renaissance. To that subject, which shall give us for a time at least a +centre, and save us from these puzzling political subdivisions, we +joyfully proceed; only remembering that at this period Italy has these +main political divisions,—the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples +(the two temporarily reunited), the Papal States, the city of Florence, +the duchy of Milan, and the city of Venice.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>By Renaissance, new birth, we mean the rapid, many-sided, intellectual +development which started forward in Italy at this time. It was really a +stage in the movement which began a hundred years earlier, but the +textbooks confine the term Renaissance to the period which began at the +opening of the fifteenth century; and just as the first beginning took +place in Florence, so this fresh start, like a stream of energy issuing +at a divine touch, also burst out of the city of Florence. The simplest +way to get an idea of this period, known as the Early Renaissance, will +be to notice a few of the men, leaders in their several spheres, in whom +that energy became incarnate.</p> + +<p>We must not let ourselves think that the Renaissance was a merely +artistic movement. A few men are known to us, and we think of them as +wandering about in artistic isolation, as if they were hermits in a +Thebaid. But, in reality, only a slight fraction of even the deeper +feelings and interests take artistic or literary form; the great +majority are put into life. The celebrated Florentine artists of those +days were merely representative of their fellows; they were surrounded +by crowds of neighbours, all crammed full with ardour for living, for +expression, for discussion, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>for money-making, for glorifying their +city. In recognition of this fact, and of the great service rendered to +the arts throughout the Renaissance by men who were not artists, but +potent signors of wealth and cultivation, whether merchants, dukes, or +cardinals, I take Cosimo dei Medici (1389-1464) as the first figure in +this brief account of the Early Renaissance.</p> + +<p>Cosimo's father, the richest banker in Italy, and one of the chief +citizens of Florence, had been active in politics, and chief of the +party which was opposed to the ruling oligarchy. Cosimo succeeded to his +father's position, and when the oligarchy fell became the actual head of +the city, though he always affected the rôle of private citizen. His +quick intelligence and his broad cultivation gave him keen sympathy with +the fermenting intellectual life about him, and his great wealth enabled +him to express that sympathy in most substantial ways. He got his first +schooling from a Florentine humanist, and then went abroad, travelled in +Germany and France, and visited the Council of Constance then in +session. After that his attention was devoted to business and to +political affairs. His position in Florence during early manhood was +always precarious, for the sharp-witted Florentines were not easily +hoodwinked and saw whither Cosimo's masterfulness was tending. For a +time he was in exile, but after a tussle he won his place and banished +his enemies. Wealth was his great instrument. He lent and gave lavishly. +In later life he used to say that his chief error had been that he had +not begun to spend money ten years sooner <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>than he did. He was a serious +man, given to intellectual matters, and averse to buffoons and strolling +players, so popular then; by virtue of wide experience in the conduct of +large affairs, of extensive reading, of a retentive memory, and a +natural gift for language, he was both an interesting talker and good +company. He talked literature with men of letters, but he was equally +ready to talk divinity, in which he was well read, or philosophy, or +astrology in which he believed although some men did not. He liked +gardening, and enjoyed going out of town to his country-place; there he +would prune the vines for two hours in the morning, and then go indoors +to read. His connection with the arts of the Renaissance, however, is +our chief concern. He employed the famous architect Michelozzo to build +his palace, now known as Palazzo Riccardi, his villa, and also the +Dominican convent of San Marco. He employed the still more famous +Brunelleschi to rebuild the abbey of Fiesole. He was fond of sculptors, +especially of Donatello, and had statues by the best masters of the day +in his palace. He employed Fra Angelico to paint in the convent of San +Marco, and Benozzo Gozzoli in his private chapel. Benozzo painted a +procession of the Three Wise Men, with Cosimo, his son, and his +grandson, young Lorenzo the Magnificent, riding in their train. Cosimo's +greatest interest, however, was in the humanities. He built several +buildings for libraries in Florence, and one in Venice, and interested +himself greatly in the preservation and increase of the libraries +themselves. For the library in the abbey at Fiesole he employed a man +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>of letters (Vespasiano da Bisticci, his biographer), who hired +forty-five copyists, and in twenty-two months finished the two hundred +volumes deemed necessary for a good library. His list included the Bible +and concordances and commentaries, beginning with that by Origen; the +works of St. Ignatius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John +Chrysostom, and all the works of the Greek fathers which had been +translated into Latin; St. Cyprian, Tertullian, and the four doctors of +the Latin Church; the mediæval masters St. Bernard, Hugo of St. Victor, +St. Anselm, St. Isidore of Spain; the scholastic philosophers, Albertus +Magnus, Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura; Aristotle, and +commentaries; books of canon law; the Latin prose classics, Livy, Cæsar, +Suetonius, Plutarch, Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, Cicero, +Seneca; the Latin poets, Virgil, Terence, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Plautus; +and "all the other books necessary to a library." One wonders if this +clause includes Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, or whether the humanists +did not regard them as necessary or appropriate to culture.</p> + +<p>Taken altogether Cosimo may stand as an heroic model of the Florentine +burgher, such as one sees in the frescoes of the time, shrewd, prudent, +thoughtful, cautious in plan and prompt in action, interested in the +best things of this world, and in a measure generous, but wholly without +romance, chivalry, or idealism. At the close of his life he used to stay +hours at a time, wrapt in thought, without speaking a word. One of the +women of the house asked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>him the reason of this. He answered: "When you +have to go out of town, you spend a fortnight all agog to prepare for +going; and now that I have to go from this life to another, doesn't it +seem to you that I have something to think about?" The last book he is +reported by his biographer to have read was the "Ethics" of Aristotle.</p> + +<p>Cosimo was named <i>Pater Patriæ</i>, though his real work was the foundation +of the House of the Medici, which ruled in Tuscany for centuries and +mingled its blood with the royalties of Europe; but for us he is the +patron of the arts, the friend of artists, and serves as the central +figure round which to group the men of artistic genius.</p> + +<p>In architecture the greatest name is that of Brunelleschi (1377-1446). +His biography by Vasari opens with these words: "Many men are created by +nature little in person and features, who have their souls so full of +greatness and their hearts so full of the inordinate fury of genius, +that, unless they are at work on things difficult to impossibility, and +unless they finish them to the astonishment of the spectator, they never +give themselves any rest all their lives; and whatever things chance +puts into their hands, no matter how mean and cheap, they bring to worth +and dignity.... Such was Brunelleschi, no less insignificant in person +than Giotto, but of so lofty genius, that it may be said he was endowed +by heaven to give new form to architecture, which for hundreds of years +had gone astray [such was the Renaissance view of the Gothic and +Romanesque]. Moreover, Brunelleschi was adorned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>with the greatest +virtues; among which was friendship to such a degree, that there never +was a man more kind or more loving than he. His judgment was wholly free +from passion; wherever he saw the worth of another man's merits, he +totally disregarded any advantage to himself or to his friends. He knew +himself; he inspired others with his own noble qualities, and he always +succoured his neighbour in time of need. He declared himself a deadly +enemy of the vices, and a lover of those who practised virtue. He never +wasted time, for he was always busy with his own affairs or with the +affairs of others when they had need of him, and when out walking he +used to stop and see his friends and always lent them a hand." +Brunelleschi was no scholar, but, being a Florentine, he was very fond +of talking, and did not hesitate to take part in conversation with +learned men, especially when the talk ran on Holy Writ, and then, as a +friend said, he talked like a second St. Paul.</p> + +<p>He began life, as most architects did, as a member of the guild of +goldsmiths, and learned to model, but he had a bent towards physics and +mechanics, and developed naturally into an architect. A great event in +his life was a trip to Rome with Donatello; there the two examined all +the classical remains in the city and in the country round about, taking +measurements and learning all they could.</p> + +<p>In Florence besides the abbey of Fiesole, built for Cosimo, Brunelleschi +built the church of San Lorenzo for Cosimo's father, and he designed and +began the lordly Pitti palace across the Arno, but his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>great +achievement was the dome of the cathedral. The cathedral, first begun by +Arnolfo di Cambio, had been in charge of a succession of famous +architects, and was nearing completion; but the gap at the intersection +of the nave and transepts presented a most difficult architectural +problem. The diameter of this gap was about one hundred and thirty-five +feet, and the height above the ground was about one hundred and +forty-five feet. No such span had been vaulted since the building of the +Pantheon. A public competition for a dome was held in which Brunelleschi +took part. After long discussion, for Florence was "a city where every +one speaks his mind," and after much consideration, Brunelleschi was +chosen architect. His great dome, though no copy of Roman forms, was +thoroughly classic in its simplicity and its spirit, and is the great +achievement of the Early Renaissance in architecture.</p> + +<p>Brunelleschi and his fellow architects, no doubt, wished to revive the +old Roman art, and did so as far as they could, but their problems were +new and their models few, so they were forced, in the main, to follow +their own principles of construction and limit their use of Roman forms +to ornament and detail. Other famous men seconded Brunelleschi; and +Florentine, or at least Tuscan, architects spread the ideas of the new +art. To them is really due the foundation of the various schools of +Renaissance architecture which sprang up in Milan, Venice, Pavia, +Bologna, Rimini, Brescia, Siena, Lucca, Perugia, and in almost every +city of Northern Italy.</p> + +<p>In sculpture, the puissant Donatello (1386-1466) <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>is the greatest +figure. It has been said, that Michelangelo's soul first worked in +Donatello's body or that Donatello's soul lived again in Michelangelo. +Donatello was a realist; he shows classic influence at times, in +technique and in sundry bits of detail, but his instinct was to imitate +what he could see and touch. His vigour, his energy and variety produced +a profound effect on sculpture and also on painting. His earlier works +were statues for the outside of the Campanile and of the church of +Orsanmichele, of which the most famous are that known as <i>Zuccone</i>, +Baldhead, and the splendid St. George. Afterwards he modelled a young +David, the first nude bronze since the Romans, and the statue of +Gattamelata at Padua, the first equestrian statue since that of Marcus +Aurelius in Rome. The spectator who examines the collection of +Donatello's works in the Bargello is chiefly struck by his intellectual +power, and by the immense variety of his style, from the simple outline +of the lovely St. Cecilia in low relief, to the passionate dramas carved +in altars and pulpits.</p> + +<p>Donatello was a great friend of Brunelleschi, and Vasari tells this +anecdote about them. Donatello modelled a Crucifix for Santa Croce, and +thinking he had done something unusually good, asked Brunelleschi what +he thought of it. Brunelleschi, with his unswerving artistic rectitude, +answered that Donatello had put a peasant on the cross, and not Jesus +Christ. Donatello, piqued more than he had anticipated, said: "If it +were as easy to model as it is to criticise, my Christ would seem to you +a Christ and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>not a peasant; but let's see you take a piece of wood and +go and make one." Brunelleschi did so secretly, and when he had at last +finished his Crucifix, asked Donatello to come home and dine with him. +They walked to Brunelleschi's house together, stopping at the market to +buy eggs, cheese, and other things for the dinner. Then Brunelleschi +said, "Donatello, you take these things and go to my house, and I will +come after in a minute or two." So Donatello caught them up in his +apron, went to Brunelleschi's, opened the door, and saw the Crucifix. He +was so dumbfounded that he dropped the dinner on the floor, and when +Brunelleschi, coming in, said, "Why, Donatello, what shall we have for +dinner?" Donatello answered, "For my part I have had my share to-day. If +you want yours, pick it up. No more of that. It is my lot to model +peasants, and yours to model Christs."</p> + +<p>Donatello was also a great friend of Cosimo's, modelled many things for +him, and inspired Cosimo with a taste for collecting antiques. He loved +Cosimo so much that he did whatever he wanted, except when it interfered +with his personal idiosyncrasies. One day Cosimo gave Donatello, who +used to go about in his workman's blouse, a cloak and a fine suit of +clothes, the costume of a gentleman. Donatello wore them for a day or +two, and then said he could not wear them, they were too fashionable. He +was buried, at his own request, near Cosimo, in the church of San +Lorenzo, which Brunelleschi had designed, and he had adorned with his +sculpture.</p> + +<p>Donatello worked in Venice, Mantua, Modena, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>Ferrara, and Prato, spent +several years in Siena, and nine in Padua, and introduced the +Renaissance into the sculpture of Northern Italy. He was a man of strong +character and poetic spirit, striving in his statues to be true to +nature and to the beautiful, to mingle pagan and Christian notions, +tradition, and freedom. He and his pupils affected the whole plastic art +of Italy.</p> + +<p>In painting, Masaccio (1401-28) stands conspicuous, even among many +painters of rare gifts. Modern critics call him Giotto reincarnate. +Masaccio is an unflattering nickname for Tommaso, and recalls the only +personal trait we know of him. Vasari says: "He was a most absent-minded +person and very casual, like a man who has fixed his will and his whole +mind on art only, and cares little about himself and less about others. +He never wanted to think in any way about the things or the cares of +this world, even of his own clothes, and he never went to get the money +due him from his debtors except when he was in extreme need. Instead of +Thomas, everybody called him Masaccio; not because he was bad, being +good nature itself, but because of his great absent-mindedness. +Nevertheless, he was as affectionate in doing useful and amiable acts +for other people as could possibly be wished." This "marvellous boy" +died at the age of twenty-seven, but left an ineffaceable mark on +Italian painting. Across the Arno, in the ugly church of Santa Maria del +Carmine, is a chapel on the right, in which, mingled with the work of +contemporaries and continuers, are Masaccio's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>frescoes, figures of St. +Peter and St. John, of a shivering boy, and a few others. Leonardo da +Vinci said: "After Giotto, the art of painting declined again, because +every one imitated the pictures that were already done; thus it went on +till Tommaso of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect +works how those who take for their standard any one but Nature—the +mistress of all masters—weary themselves in vain."<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> In that little +chapel, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and scores of the greatest +painters of Italy have admired, studied, and copied.</p> + +<p>Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio are but the greater names in the fine +arts. Well might Leon Battista Alberti, himself a great architect and +humanist, on return from exile to his native city, say to Brunelleschi: +"I have been accustomed both to wonder and to grieve that so many divine +arts and sciences which we see to have abounded in those most highly +endowed ancients were now lacking and utterly lost ... but since I have +been restored to this our native land that surpasseth all others in her +adornment, I have recognized in many but chiefly in thee, Philip +[Brunelleschi], and in our near friend Donato [Donatello] the sculptor, +and in those others, Nencio [Ghiberti], and Luca [della Robbia], and +Masaccio, genius capable for every praiseworthy work, not inferior to +that of any ancient and famous master in the arts."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Leonardo da Vinci</i>, Richter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Church Building in the Middle Ages</i>, C. E. Norton, p. +280.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE RENAISSANCE (1450-1492)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The last chapter confined itself to the fine arts and omitted the main +element, humanism, which gave volume and impetus to the stream, and, +though not memorable for conspicuous achievements as the fine arts were, +flowed more directly from the classic impulse and produced the greatest +immediate effect. The humanists played a part analogous to that which +men of science play in our own time; they devoted themselves heart and +soul to the classics, as men of science do to Nature. For some time they +had had access to the Latin past through Italy, and now they also found +their way to the far greater classic world of Greece. The one +uninterrupted communication with that world was through Constantinople, +which, like a long, ill-lighted and ill-repaired corridor, led back to +the great pleasure domes of Plato and Homer, and all the wonderland of +Greek literature and thought. Aristotle, indeed, had come by way of the +Arabs, and had long been a lay Bible, but for the other Greek classics +the rising humanism of Italy was indebted to Constantinople. The glowing +young city of Florence lit its torch at the expiring embers of the +imperial city. A few Italians went to Constantinople and learned Greek, +then stray Byzantines came to Italy. The doom which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>hung over +Constantinople frightened scholars and drove them westward, and the fall +itself (1453) dispersed the last of them. These Greeks brought +invaluable manuscripts and firmly established Hellenic culture in the +kindred soil of Tuscany. In the list of books in Cosimo's library, there +was no mention of any Greek classic except Aristotle; but after the +immigration of Greek scholars all intellectual Florence went mad over +Plato, and Cosimo founded a Platonic Academy. The study of Greek brought +with it examination, comparison, criticism; it brought new knowledge; it +gave new ideas to all the arts, new impulses to the creative +imagination, and general intellectual freedom. Interest in the +humanities became so widespread throughout the peninsula that we get a +feeling of Italian unity stronger than any we have experienced since the +days of Theodoric.</p> + +<p>The importance of the humanists, however, was merely as an intellectual +leaven. They need not be spoken of apart from the general intellectual +movement which expressed itself so much more fully and freely in art +than in any other way. That movement kindled enthusiasm from Lombardy to +Calabria; and Florence still maintained her primacy. All the other +cities of Italy lagged far behind her. We must therefore keep Florence +as our paradigm, only remembering that at her heels a score of cities +toil and pant in artistic eagerness to make themselves as beautiful and +famous as Florence.</p> + +<p>There Cosimo, <i>Pater Patriæ</i>, had died in fulness of years and was +succeeded by his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, though not +immediately, for there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>was a short-lived Piero in between. Lorenzo took +his grandfather's place, became lord of Florence in all but name, and +stood the centre of a brilliant group of artists, sculptors, poets, and +scholars. His reign, for it must be so called, lasted from 1469 to 1492, +a most notable span of time. The mere names of the famous Florentines +would fill pages. A few must be mentioned: Benedetto da Maiano, sculptor +and architect, who carved the beautiful pulpit in Santa Croce, and drew +the designs for the palace-fortress of the Strozzi; Giuliano da San +Gallo, sculptor and architect, who made the plans for Lorenzo's villa at +Poggio a Caiano; Andrea della Robbia, nephew to Luca, and almost his +equal in the tender charm of his blue and white Madonnas; Mino da +Fiesole, who made a bust of Lorenzo's father, and carved in marble the +sweetness of young mothers; Antonio Rossellino, who wrought the famous +tomb for a great Portuguese prelate in the church of San Miniato; Andrea +Verrocchio, who painted the Uffizi Annunciation, so beautiful that it +was long attributed to Leonardo, modelled the lady <i>dalle belle mani</i> in +the Bargello, and the Colleoni at Venice, greatest of equestrian +statues; Benozzo Gozzoli, who painted the three generations of Medici in +the Riccardi palace, and in the Campo Santo at Pisa the enchanting +frescoes which turn the Old Testament into a kind of Arabian Nights; +Antonio Pollaiuolo, sculptor and painter, a leader in the new school of +realism, and notable for the feeling of movement which he conveys; +Filippino Lippi, Lippo Lippi's son, who completed the frescoes in the +chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine left <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>unfinished by Masaccio; +Botticelli, the greatest of all the Florentine painters, except Leonardo +and Michelangelo; Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose frescoes in Santa Maria +Novella tell us more about those shrewd, capable, quick-witted +Florentines than any historian; Pulci, the poet, who wrote "Morgante +Maggiore," a gay epic, which Savonarola thought ought to be burned; +Poliziano, great embodiment of culture, who wrote the first lyrical +tragedy, and led the way towards the opera; Marsilio Ficino, the +philosopher who helped Cosimo found the Platonic Academy; Pico della +Mirandola, the charming scholar, whom Machiavelli called "a man almost +divine."</p> + +<p>Perhaps none of these men were equal to the leaders in the group which +surrounded Cosimo, but they are more interesting to us, and touch our +sympathy more readily. They are nearer to us. The earlier problems in +architecture, sculpture, and painting were more difficult, but they had +been successfully solved; and the fresh problems, which confronted the +younger generation, though less adventurous, were more refined. The sons +have entered into a hard-earned inheritance, and live more freely. They +have more spiritual alertness than their fathers though less vigour, +more sensitiveness to passing moods though less robustness, greater +mastery of technique though less genius for principles. Less great +themselves, they have created greater works. Benedetto's Palazzo Strozzi +is more majestic and splendid than Michelozzo's Palazzo Riccardi; +Verrocchio's statue of Colleoni surpasses Donatello's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>Gattamelata; +Botticelli's poetry is more interesting, at least to the unlearned, than +Masaccio's puissant drawing. Nevertheless, the greater intimacy of +sympathy and interest which we feel for the later men is not accounted +for by their greater command of their crafts. There is some new element +less readily discovered. We perceive a change of attitude toward life, a +new conception of human existence. The readiest explanation and perhaps +the best, if we do not treat it as completely adequate, lies in the new +Greek thought (or rather Greek thought as the Florentines understood +it), which the humanists contributed to Italian culture; and indeed not +so much in Greek thought itself, as in the impulse it gave to a subtler +and more complicated conception of life.</p> + +<p>Direct Greek influence is most conspicuous in Botticelli. This rare +spirit wandered about half in the world of reality which he ill +understood and depicted badly, and half in a world of fantasy which he +knew better than any other painter. The secret of this world of fantasy, +as he discovered, was motion. If a vision tarries, it becomes touched by +the blight of familiarity, soiled by the comradeship of life. The fairy +spirit of imagination must be ever on the wing. No artist ever let Sweet +Fancy loose as Botticelli did in his two great pictures, The Primavera +(Spring) and The Birth of Venus. In them this Greek influence finds its +fullest direct expression. The glory of dawn, the first unveiled fresh +beauty of the world, which the Greeks saw, Botticelli saw also. But +besides the childlike joy in pure beauty is another, more complicated, +element. Into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>the rapturous Greek world, beautiful with sensuous charm, +the bewildering idea of a moral order presents itself. On the +countenance of Venus and in the figure of Primavera there is a +wistfulness, as if they had a presentiment that they must leave the +rose-strewn ocean and the magic wood in which they found themselves. The +consequence is a sadness as of beholding an antagonism between two +beautiful things.</p> + +<p>The subtler and more complicated conception of life is best expressed by +Verrocchio, the other master spirit of this generation, who displays in +his paintings and statues the joy he takes in pure beauty, but always +adds some other element. The little boy who hugs a dolphin in the court +of the Palazzo Vecchio is the incarnation of the grace and happiness of +childhood, but he has an impish, Puck-like expression. The young bronze +David, who has just conquered Goliath, has an odd, mischievous +sprightliness. Both statues intimate a sceptical attitude towards the +fine seriousness of life which had marked Puritan Florence of the older +days. His painting of the Annunciation shows a magic background, +beautiful and mystical, with enchanted cities, rivers, mountains, like +the part of Xanadu where Kubla Khan decreed his pleasure dome, or the +strange land where La belle Dame sans Merci left her knight-at-arms +alone and palely loitering. Subtle thoughts play over his statues and +paintings, and he taught his pupil Leonardo that strange and beautiful +fascination of face which expresses one knows not what. The earlier +simplicity of the <i>quattrocento</i> has passed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>the artist's attitude to +life has become complicated, although the love of beauty for beauty's +sake remains abundantly.</p> + +<p>The lord of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, the centre and patron of +this glittering ring, is the best exponent of the late <i>quattrocento</i> +taken as a whole. He touched life on every side, public and private, +intellectual and frivolous, religious and cynical, artistic, literary, +philosophical. Lorenzo had a striking, indeed a fascinating, +personality. His figure was strong and lithe, and his face among a +thousand caught the eye. His big jaws, under his lean, furrowed cheeks, +were square and grim. His long irregular nose and curving lips gave him +a somewhat sardonic expression, but his broad forehead was grave and +thoughtful, and "princely counsel" shone in his face. His whole aspect +was full of character and dignity. Every one felt his fascination. He +was a poet and wrote poems of many kinds, grave and gay, some of which +are of acknowledged merit:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 35%; margin-right: 20%;"> +Quant'è bella giovinezza<br /> +Che si fugge tuttavia,<br /> +Chi vuol essere lieto, sia,<br /> +Di doman non v'è certezza.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> +</div> + +<p>He was a scholar, and full of the fashionable admiration for Plato, +though he probably shared the current confusion between Plato's own +thoughts and those of the Alexandrian Neoplatonists. He was a statesman +of foresight and shrewdness, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>contributed more than any one else to +preserve the peace of Italy, by maintaining the balance of power among +the greater states. He was also a very charming person, and endeavoured +to make life in Florence a happy mixture of mirth and intellectual +pleasure; and it must be remembered in appreciation of the general +sobriety of his life, that a gifted company of men did all they could to +spoil him.</p> + +<p>Lorenzo was the most remarkable prince of the <i>quattrocento</i>, but there +were many others who patronized scholars and artists as generously as +he. Alfonso of Aragon, the king who temporarily united the Two Sicilies, +was devoted to the humanities. He was wont to hear Terence and Virgil +read aloud at dinner, and took Livy with him on his campaigns. But +Naples and Sicily had almost no share in the achievements and glory of +the Italian Renaissance. Lawless, ignorant, poor, unsuccessful, they +responded feebly to the efforts of individuals, who, here and there, +strove to emulate the great Florentines. But in the North all the world +was mad for art, and its princes led the fashion. Federigo da +Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (1422-1482), was the foremost scholar among +soldiers and the foremost soldier among scholars; he gathered together a +noble library, now lodged in the Vatican; he built a palace, unmatched +in Italy; and collected about him artists of all kinds. Yet Federigo was +a soldier by nature as well as by profession, as one may see from the +great portrait of him in the Uffizi, painted by Piero della Francesca. +His strong profile, with firm mouth and big, broken, aquiline nose, +testifies far more forcibly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>to his character as a warrior than as a +virtuoso. His near neighbour, the tyrant of Pesaro (a little city by the +Adriatic coast), Alessandro Sforza, passed the intervals between his +battles in buying books. Duke Ercole of Ferrara was likewise a patron of +art, and adorned his capital as well as his palaces and villas with all +sorts of beautiful things. The dukes of Milan were somewhat eclipsed, +but only for a time, by their less powerful rivals of Ferrara and +Urbino. The old ducal line of the Visconti had died out with Filippo +Maria, and Francesco Sforza (husband of Filippo's daughter), who +succeeded to the duchy (1450), was busy making good his very defective +title, and had little time to attend to art or letters. Even he kept +humanists in his pay, and continued work on the glorious Certosa of +Pavia.</p> + +<p>Not only princes but private citizens were lovers and patrons of art. In +almost every city of the North—excepting Piedmont—there was some +artist of whom the whole city was proud. Nevertheless, throughout the +reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent Florence continued to be the most +intellectual of Italian cities, as she had been for many generations; +but on Lorenzo's death the primacy in the arts and in matters of the +mind passed from Florence to Rome. By a flattering chance that primacy +seemed to follow the fortunes of a single family. Under Cosimo, Piero, +and Lorenzo dei Medici, the Renaissance may be said to have made +Florence its home; in the later period it found its fullest expression +in Rome, and even there took its name, the Age of Leo, from another +Medici, Lorenzo's son. It was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>not to Pope Leo, however, but to his +predecessors, that Rome was indebted for preëminence. At the summons of +the Papacy men of genius went to Rome from all Italy, but chiefly from +Florence; and a distinguished Tuscan, almost a Florentine, who went from +Florence to Rome at the culmination of a brilliant career, fairly serves +as the personification of this intellectual migration. Tommaso +Parentucelli, who was born in a little town near Lucca, was educated in +Florence and Bologna. He took holy orders early, and, going back to +Florence, quickly became intimate with the clever set of humanists who +surrounded Cosimo. He was a great student, and won so high a reputation +for learning that it was to him Cosimo applied for advice, when he +wanted the right books for the library at Fiesole. This collection +became famous and was copied both at Rimini and Urbino. Parentucelli was +a very capable and attractive man, and embodied in its best form the +essence of Florentine humanistic culture. His character, talents, and +accomplishments were recognized in the Church; he became bishop, +cardinal, and finally Pope, as Nicholas V (1447-55).</p> + +<p>At Rome Nicholas showed the well-marked characteristics of the +Renaissance. He fostered learning, art, and general culture, not only +because of his interest in them, but because he thought that by their +means he could overcome that rumbling spirit of reform, which was making +trouble in Bohemia and Germany, and that by giving the reformers +intellectual interests he could occupy their minds and quell their +discontent. He entertained lofty imaginings <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>of a Papacy, resting on +learning and culture, housed in a nonpareil city, which should be the +acknowledged and admired head of Christendom. He gathered together +scholars of all kinds, collected a library of five thousand volumes, and +founded the Vatican library. He rebuilt or restored numerous churches +and other buildings in Rome, he began the new Vatican palace, and +planned a new cathedral in place of the old basilica of St. Peter's, to +be the greatest church in Christendom. He brought to Rome architects, +painters, goldsmiths, artists, and artisans of all sorts. With him began +the brilliant period of the Papacy as a secular power devoted to art and +culture, which culminated in what is known as the Age of Leo X.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Oh, how beautiful is youth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ever hurrying away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Come, let him who will be gay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In to-morrow there's no truth.</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (1494-1537)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We must now leave the great intellectual progress of the Renaissance on +its way from its home in Florence to its culmination in Rome, and look +over the political condition of the principal divisions of Italy. A +complete change comes during this period, that can only be likened to +the change wrought by the invasions of the Barbarians in ancient times. +In fact, it is a period of fresh invasions by Barbarians, as the +Italians, and not without some justice, still called foreigners. The +year 1494 was the fatal date of the first invasion of the French. From +that year onward there was a series of invasions of French, Austrians, +and Spaniards, until Italy was finally parcelled out according to the +pleasure of the invaders. Before that time Italy was in a peaceful and +prosperous condition. The famous Florentine historian Guicciardini +(1483-1540) thus records the time of his boyhood: "Since the fall of the +Roman Empire Italy had never known such great prosperity, nor had +experienced so desirable a condition as in the year 1490 and the years +just before and after. The country had been brought to profound peace +and tranquillity, agriculture spread over the roughest and most sterile +hills no less than over the most fertile plains, and Italy, subject to +no dominion but her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>own, abounded in men, merchandise, and wealth. She +was embellished to the utmost by the magnificence of many princes, by +the splendour of many most noble and beautiful cities, by the seat and +majesty of Religion; she was rich in men most apt in public affairs, and +in minds most noble for all sorts of knowledge. She was industrious and +excellent in every art, and, according to the standard of those days, +not without military glory."</p> + +<p>In these happy years, and in the decades that preceded them, Italian +politics was a domestic game between the five principal powers, Papacy, +Naples, Florence, Venice, and Milan, who treated one another's border +cities as stakes. They made leagues and counter-leagues, waged +innumerable little wars, fought bloodless skirmishes, flourished their +swords, blew their trumpets, and made a good deal of commotion; but they +were all Italians, they all knew the rules of the game, however +irregular and complicated those rules might appear to an outsider, and +if there were bloody heads, they were all in the family. With 1494 came +the change. History seemed to turn back a thousand years; the French +poured over the Alps from the northwest, the Imperial soldiers of the +House of Hapsburg from the northeast, and the Spaniards from their +province of Sicily to the south.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Milan, 1466-1535</i></p> + +<p>Our chronicle had better begin with the duchy of Milan. There, on the +death of Francesco Sforza (1466), his son, Galeazzo Maria, succeeded to +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>throne. This duke was a typical Italian ruler, brilliant in +display, liberal in giving, harsh in taxing, interested in art and +scholarship, crafty and cruel in politics, and shamelessly dissolute in +private life. Fearful stories of his brutality are told. He was +literally insufferable, and was assassinated (1476). It is interesting +to see the great classical influence, which stimulated the arts and the +humanities, quickening the spirits of young men and giving an antique +lustre to murder. The story goes that a schoolmaster of Milan, who had +drilled his boys in Plutarch, till Plutarch's world seemed to live +again, burst out in his lecture, "Will none among my pupils rise up like +Brutus and Cassius to free his country from this vile yoke and merit +eternal renown?" Three of his pupils, stimulated by private wrongs to +emulate the classical example, murdered the duke in a church. All three +were put to death. The last to die was skewered on iron hooks and cut to +pieces alive. "I know," he said, "that for my wrongdoings I have +deserved these tortures and more besides, could my poor flesh endure +them; but as for the noble act for which I die, that comforts my soul. +Instead of repenting it, were I to live my life ten times again, ten +times again to perish in these tortures, none the less would I +consecrate all my life's blood, and all my might, to that noble +purpose."</p> + +<p>The results of the murder were unimportant. In politics, even more than +in the arts, the classic impulse only affected details. Lodovico Sforza, +nicknamed Il Moro, the late duke's brother, seized the government and +supplanted the lawful heir, his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>young nephew, in every ducal +prerogative except the title. Lodovico was a brilliant, intellectual +man, devoid of moral sense; and for a time flourished in the full +sunshine of the opening High Renaissance. He patronized Bramante, he +employed familiarly Leonardo da Vinci. But his political talents were +suited to the earlier period of domestic Italian politics. Had he lived +then, his abilities, inherited from both the Sforzas and Visconti, would +have kept him secure on his ducal throne; but he did not understand the +larger forces of European politics.</p> + +<p>Milan being at odds with Naples, and the other Italian powers as usual +either taking part, or biding a more favourable time, Lodovico Sforza +thought it would be a brilliant play, in the little Italian game, to use +a foreign piece to checkmate Naples. He invited the French king, Charles +VIII, who represented the claims of the House of Anjou to the Neapolitan +crown, to come into Italy and take possession of his own. Other Italian +politicians, with no more knowledge of European politics than Lodovico, +joined in the petition. Charles VIII, an ugly little man, of scant +intelligence, strong in a compact and vigorous kingdom, believing that +he could play the part of a Charlemagne, accepted the suggestion with +alacrity, got together an admirable army, and crossed the Alps, in the +memorable year 1494. He received the respects of Lodovico and swept +triumphantly down through Italy. No resistance to speak of was +attempted. Florence made a treaty with him, the Pope was delighted to be +able to do the like, and Naples watched her king run away <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>and the +French march in, with blended indifference and pleasure. This brilliant +success, however, was a mere blaze of straw. The powers of Europe took +alarm, and while the puny Charles was rioting in Naples, made a league, +in which Venice, the Pope, and the double-dealing Sforza joined. Charles +hurried north as fast as he could, and barely escaped across the Alps. +But the episode was full of portent for Italy. The Barbarians had once +again broken through the barrier which nature had set up to protect +Italy; they had rediscovered what a delightful place Italy was; and the +second period of Barbarian invasion had begun. We cannot dally over +Milan. Sforza's treachery overreached itself. The succeeding King of +France, Louis XII, a prince of Orleans, was a grandson of Gian Galeazzo +Visconti's eldest daughter, and had as good a legal title to the +inheritance of the Visconti as his second cousin Lodovico; though in +strictness neither title had any legal value. Revenge lent strength to +Louis's claim. In a few years (1499), the French again descended into +the pleasant plains of Lombardy, captured Milan, took Sforza prisoner, +and locked him up in a French prison for the rest of his life.</p> + +<p>It is useless to follow the shifting ownership of Milan, tossed about in +the great struggle between Francis I of France and the Emperor Charles +V. The Empire espoused the cause of the Sforza heirs and put them back +on the throne. Then France gained the battle of Marignano (1515) and +recovered Milan, but the Empire conquered at Pavia (1525), and finally +won. The male line of the Sforzas became <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>extinct in 1535; and the +dukedom of Milan, though it continued to be a nominal fief of the +Empire, was annexed to the Spanish crown by Charles V (who was King of +Spain as well as Emperor), and passed as a part of the Spanish +inheritance to a line of Spanish kings. The Barbarian occupation of +Milan was destined to last for three hundred years.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Florence, 1492-1537</i></p> + +<p>Now that we have followed Milan into the service of Spanish masters, we +must do a somewhat similar office for Florence. But Florence's liberty +was put out in glory. The politic statesman, Lorenzo dei Medici, whose +sagacity had contributed so much to the pleasant state of Italy prior to +the French invasion, died in 1492. The great period of Florentine +intellectual primacy ended with him, for, though Florence continued to +pour forth genius, that genius no longer was gathered together at home +but emigrated to honour other places. Nevertheless, she again challenges +our admiration; the ancient republican city once more asserted its +preëminence by a burst of moral enthusiasm. Nowhere else in Italy +throughout the Renaissance was such a spectacle seen, and though the +leader, Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98), was a native of Ferrara, yet it +was in Florence, and among Florentines, that he kindled enthusiasm and +ran his brilliant career. Savonarola was the reincarnation of a Hebrew +prophet, a Florentine Habakkuk, passionately sure of the moral +government of God, passionately convinced that the wickedness of Italy +must bring its own punishment <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>and purification. Shortly before +Lorenzo's death he became a distinguished preacher, spoke in the +cathedral, and won the ear of the people. He preached righteousness and +judgment to come. He proclaimed spiritual evils and political +punishments, and foretold that God would stretch forth His hand and send +His avenger to punish Italy. The prophecies were so definite, and fitted +the invasion of Charles VIII so accurately, that Savonarola was hailed +as a prophet. In the excitement over the French invasion Lorenzo's sons +were driven out, the former republican constitution reëstablished, and +Savonarola raised by a burst of popular enthusiasm practically to the +position of guiding and governing the city. The best way to understand +Savonarola's influence is to read a few extracts from the diary of Luca +Landucci, a Florentine apothecary:—</p> + +<p>"December 14, 1494. On this day Fra Girolamo greatly laboured in the +pulpit that Florence should adopt a good form of government; he has been +preaching in Santa Maria del Fiore [the Duomo] every day, and this day, +Sunday, he preached, and he did not want women but men, and he wanted +the officers of the city, and nobody stayed in the Palace [Palazzo +Vecchio, the City Hall] except the Gonfaloniere and one other; all the +officials in Florence were there, and he preached about matters of +state, that we ought to love and fear God and love the common weal, and +that no man henceforth should wish to hold his head high or wish himself +great. He always inclined to the people's side, and insisted that no +blood should be shed, but that punishment <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>should be made in some other +way; and he preached like this every day....</p> + +<p>"April, 1495. Fra Girolamo preached and said that the Virgin Mary had +revealed to him how the city of Florence would become richer, more +glorious, and more powerful than she had ever been, but not till after +many troubles; and he spoke all this as if he were a prophet, and most +of the people believed him, especially the better sort who had no +political or partisan passions....</p> + +<p>"June 17, 1495. The Frate nowadays is held in such esteem and devotion +in Florence that there are many men and women who would obey him +implicitly, if he should say 'walk into the fire.' Many believe him to +be a prophet, and he said so himself....</p> + +<p>"February 16 [1496], the Carnival. Fra Girolamo preached a few days ago +that the children, instead of foolish pranks, throwing stones, etc., +should collect alms and distribute them to the worthy poor; and, thanks +to divine grace, such a change was wrought, that in place of tomfoolery +the children collected alms for days beforehand, [and to-day six +thousand of them or more, carrying olive branches and singing hymns, +marched to the Duomo where they offered up their alms] so that good +sensible men wept from tenderness and said, 'Truly this new change is +the work of God.' ... I have written this because it is the fact and I +saw it, and I felt the greatest happiness to have my children among +those blessed innocent bands....</p> + +<p>"August 15, 1496. Fra Girolamo preached in Santa Maria del Fiore [the +Duomo, where great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>scaffolds had been erected which were filled with +children singing], and there was so much holiness in the church, and it +was so sweet to hear the children sing, above, below, and on every side, +singing so simply and so modestly, that they did not seem like children. +I write this because I was there and saw it and felt so much spiritual +sweetness. In truth the Church was full of angels."</p> + +<p>The friar's political enemies were strong, and the Pope, the very +notable Borgia, Alexander VI, in anger and in fear, excommunicated him, +and bade the Signory of Florence forbid him to preach. There was great +disturbance over this action, and feeling ran to a passionate height. +One of Savonarola's disciples, a foolish Dominican, challenged an +adversary to the ordeal by fire; the challenge was accepted, and on the +appointed day all Florence, in great excitement, flocked to the +<i>piazza</i>. The Dominican and his adversary were there, and their +respective partisans, but nothing was done. One delay followed another; +there was nothing but hesitancy, disagreement as to conditions, backing +and filling. The disappointed populace turned on Savonarola. They had +believed him a prophet and expected to see a judgment of God. The Pope +took advantage of this resentment, and demanded his trial. Savonarola +was tried, and tortured. During the torture a confession was extorted +from him, which was undoubtedly pieced out by forgery. Our apothecary +says:—</p> + +<p>"April 19, 1498. The confession of Fra Girolamo was read before the +Council in the Great Hall, which he had written with his own hand,—he +whom we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>held to be a prophet,—and he confessed that he was not a +prophet, and had not received from God the things he preached, and he +confessed to many things in the course of his preaching which were the +opposite of what he had given us to understand. I was there to hear the +confession read, and was bewildered and stood astonished and stupefied. +My soul was in pain to see such an edifice tumble to earth because it +all rested on a lie. I expected Florence to be a new Jerusalem from +which should proceed laws, glory, and the example of a good life and to +behold the restoration of the Church, the conversion of the infidels, +and the comfort of good men, and now I behold the opposite,—and I took +the medicine. In Thy will, O God, stand all things."</p> + +<p>Savonarola was condemned to death for heresy; he was hanged, his body +burned, and his ashes flung into the Arno. So ended the one moral effort +of the Italian Renaissance.</p> + +<p>After his death the Republican government endured for a time; but the +Medicean faction was powerful and forced its way back in 1512. Then +Lorenzo's second son, Giovanni (1475-1521), following the steps of +Florentine art and humanism, went to Rome and became Pope Leo X. As +Pope, he was able to strengthen his family in Florence and to extend its +dominion. But Republicanism, quickened by the events then happening in +Rome, flared up once more in 1527; but it was helpless before the +hostile spirit of the time. Another Medici had become Pope, Clement VII, +and the requirements of policy induced the calculating Emperor, Charles +V, to suppress <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>what he deemed a rebellion. Florence made a gallant +defence; Michelangelo strengthened her walls, and the courage of the +defenders threw a dying glory over the city. A great grandson of +Lorenzo, Alessandro dei Medici, was put into power, and married to a +daughter of Charles V. He was succeeded by a distant cousin, Cosimo +(1537), who was honoured by His Holiness the Pope with the title of +Grand Duke of Tuscany. Thus Florentine liberty was extinguished, and the +Medici were established as dukes in name as well as in fact.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>The Two Sicilies, 1494-1516</i></p> + +<p>In the south, it will be remembered, Alfonso the Magnanimous, as the +grateful humanists dubbed him, had united Sicily and the mainland; but +on his death (1458) the kingdom fell asunder. Sicily, as a part of the +Kingdom of Aragon, devolved on a legitimate brother, whereas Naples, +claimed as a conquest, was bequeathed to a bastard son, Ferdinand the +Cruel. The two kingdoms followed their respective dynasties for nearly +fifty years, when Sicily came by inheritance to Ferdinand of Aragon. +That crafty and eminently successful monarch, not satisfied with +Castile, Granada, Sicily, and a transatlantic realm, but coveting the +Kingdom of Naples, conspired with Louis XII of France, who now +represented the traditional Angevin claim; the two invaded the coveted +kingdom, and divided it between them (1500-1). Naturally, the rogues +disagreed over the division of the spoils, and fell foul of each other. +The Spaniards were triumphant, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>Kingdom of Naples was annexed to +the crown of Spain. Thus the Two Sicilies were reunited under the +Spanish crown, and on Ferdinand's death (1516) descended to his +grandson, the Emperor Charles V. The unfortunate kingdom remained an +appanage of Spain for two hundred years.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Venice, 1453-1508</i></p> + +<p>In the northeast Venice still led a brilliant career, like a charming +woman who has received some fatal hurt and does not know it, but +instinctively lives more brilliantly than ever. Her fatal hurt was the +conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). At first the only +obvious ill consequence was war. Venice, willy-nilly, stepped into the +place of Constantinople, and became "the bulwark of the West." She waged +war after war with the Turks and maintained her reputation for valour +and resolution, but Turkey was too strong for her, and little by little +stripped her of her long-drawn-out empire of coast and island. A far +worse blow than direct war was the cutting of the great trade routes +with the East, which damaged all the maritime cities of Italy, but +Venice most. Turkey stopped the supplies of Venetian greatness, and +slowly but surely sapped Venetian strength. On the stoppage of the +straight road to Asia, the blocked current of commerce poked about for a +new way, and discovered that it could reach the East by doubling the +Cape of Good Hope. Commerce thus avoided Turkey, but it also abandoned +the Mediterranean, great centre and source of ancient civilization, and +left the maritime cities <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>of Italy stranded, as it were, on the shores +of a forsaken sea.</p> + +<p>This doom, however, was still hidden in the obscurity of the future, and +Venice appeared to be at the height of prosperity. The French +ambassador, Philippe de Commines, called her "the most triumphant city I +have ever seen." The Venetians were a people apart from other Italians; +they never suffered from foreign invasion, or domestic revolt; they +lived in isolation, maintained their own customs and usages, and enjoyed +a sumptuous, opulent life, in proud security. Venice was the richest, +the most comfortable, the best governed city in the world. In military +strength she was commonly reckoned the first power in Italy, with the +Papacy, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Duchy of Milan about equal in +second rank. Venice entertained no suspicion of any seeds of decadence, +and continued her greedy career of annexation on the mainland, with a +haughtiness worthy of ancient Rome. She laid hands on part of Romagna, +and angered the Popes who had a title thereto, which, however imperfect, +was much better than the Venetian title. She provoked the Emperor +Maximilian, of the House of Hapsburg, who claimed Verona as an Imperial +city; and to the west she came into dangerous competition with the +French invaders. These enemies, taking their cue from the piratical +seizure of Naples by the French and Spanish, agreed together to +partition the Venetian territory on the mainland, and invited all the +powers of Europe to join them and take a share of the booty. The +coalition planned a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>kind of joint-stock piracy. This was the League of +Cambrai (1508), which stripped Venice of all her Italian territory, and +threatened the city herself. The allies, however, fell out among +themselves; and Venice, by biding her opportunity, in the course of time +managed to recover most of her lost territory. Thus, though for a season +the Barbarians brought the haughty city to her knees, she weathered the +storms better than the rest of Italy, and continued to maintain her +independence for three centuries to come.</p> + +<p>The Papacy deserves a chapter to itself.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>THE PAPAL MONARCHY (1471-1527)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Papacy found itself in an exceedingly difficult situation. It had to +adapt an ecclesiastical system, matured in the Middle Ages, to new +political systems, to new knowledge, to new thought, in short, to a new +world. During its struggle with the Empire, the course before it, +however arduous, had been plain, namely, to abase the Emperors; during +its captivity at Avignon, its duty to return to Rome (though individual +Popes were blind or indifferent) likewise had been plain; during the +schism, the one end to be aimed at was union. But now everything was +new, and a new policy had to be devised. There were three matters which +required particular consideration: the demand for reform which came from +across the Alps; the great intellectual awakening of the Renaissance; +and the ambitions of the other Italian powers. For these problems the +solution which the Papacy tried was twofold: to establish a firm +pontifical principality, and to use the new intellectual forces as a +motive power to keep itself at the head of Christendom. By a strong +pontifical principality the Papacy hoped to secure itself against the +covetousness of the other Italian states. By using the new intellectual +forces it hoped to range them on its side, and so to choke, or at least +to overcrow, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>ultramontane cry for reform. One need not suppose that +such a plan was consciously thought out in detail from the beginning; +rather it was the course which the Papacy gradually took, partly from +theory, partly under the stress of passing circumstances.</p> + +<p>We remember that the Council of Constance closed the Great Schism, and +sent Martin V (1417-31) back to Rome as sole Pope. His pontificate marks +the end of the old Republican commune, which had made so much trouble +for Popes and Emperors in days past, and therefore marks the first +definite stage in the transformation of the Papacy into a local secular +power. Rome, although she did not deny herself an occasional outbreak in +memory, as it were, of good old days, settled down into a papal city.</p> + +<p>The most interesting part of the papal story is the process that went on +within the Church. The intolerable burden of ecclesiastical taxation, +the growth of heresy, and the degeneration of the clergy, as well as the +Great Schism, had roused Europe to a sense that something must be done, +and Europe attempted the old remedy of Ecumenical Councils. At Constance +the question of general reform had come up, but the papal party had +managed to prevent action. At the next Council, held at Basel, internal +difficulties appeared still more plainly. Party lines were sharply +drawn; the ultramontanes, as before, wished to subject the Popes to the +supremacy of Councils, to substitute an ecclesiastical aristocracy of +bishops in place of a papal monarchy, and, as it were, transfer the +centre of ecclesiastical gravity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>from Rome across the Alps. Feeling ran +so high that the Council split in two. Part followed the Pope to Italy, +and part stayed in Basel and elected an anti-pope (1439). It looked as +if schism had come again, but the danger passed. The anti-pope resigned; +unity was restored and lasted for seventy years.</p> + +<p>Nicholas V, as we have seen, hoped to maintain the Papacy at the head of +Christendom by means of the new intellectual forces. Such a conception +was purely Italian, and showed plainly enough that the Papacy had ceased +to represent Christendom, had ceased to be the real head of a Universal +Church, and had become a purely Italian institution. While Nicholas and +his successors were thinking of culture and of becoming Italian princes, +the pious ultramontanes, comparatively indifferent to the intellectual +excitement of the Renaissance, were thinking of sin and of the remedy +for sin. The papal Curia was clever, but did not foresee that to +subordinate the old conception of the Papacy as the head of the +religious and ecclesiastical organization of Europe to the new +conception of it as an Italian principality would surely alienate the +Teutonic peoples; it did not foresee that the Renaissance, with its +spirit of examination, investigation, criticism, with its encouragement +of the free play of the human mind, was necessarily preparing the way +for the Reformation. But the Curia perceived the opposite difficulties, +to which we are generally blind, that unless the Papacy did establish +itself as a temporal power, it might well be reduced to another +Babylonish Captivity by a king of Naples, a duke of Milan, or even by +some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span><i>condottiere</i>. And it perceived that other difficulty as well, +that if the Papacy turned against the intellectual movement, the +intellectual movement would, in self-defence, turn against the Papacy.</p> + +<p>The Popes did indeed seek to revive the old rôle of the Papacy in one +respect. They tried to arouse the sentiment of Christendom against the +invading Turks, and to lead a crusade themselves. But the time for such +a course had passed. The kings and princes of Europe were busy with +their own kingdoms and principalities and would not budge; and the +Papacy was obliged to give up the plan. Discouraged by this failure it +naturally turned to the new theory of a little papal kingdom and +vigorously put the theory into practice. The three Popes who +accomplished this task were Francesco della Rovere, Sixtus IV (1471-84), +Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI (1493-1503), and Giuliano della Rovere, +Julius II (1503-13). Their careers must be looked at more closely.</p> + +<p>Sixtus IV was the son of a peasant. Educated by the Franciscans, he +became distinguished as a scholar in theology, philosophy, and +ecclesiastical affairs, and was chosen general of the order. When Pope, +after a last futile attempt to start a crusade, Sixtus openly abandoned +the rôle of Pontiff of Christendom and became an Italian prince. +Energetic and masterful, he set to work to consolidate the loose and +insubordinate papal territories into a compact state. The task was not +easy, and one of the obstacles in his way was lack of men whom he could +trust. It was of little advantage to gather together an army, or to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>capture a city, if the papal general or governor found his own +interests opposed to papal interests. Loyalty was held in scant esteem +by Italians of the Renaissance. Sixtus met the difficulty by employing +his nephews. This policy was by no means the beginning of papal +nepotism, but these nephews happened to be young men with marked tastes +for greed, ferocity, and dissipation, and brought the system into +especial notoriety. To one nephew the Pope gave a cardinal's hat, four +bishoprics, an abbey, a patriarchate, as well as free access to the +papal treasury. When this young man had died of dissipation, the post of +chief favourite descended to his brother. For him the Pope procured a +wife from the ducal house of Sforza, and began to carve a dukedom in +Romagna, with the intention of adding slices cut from the neighbouring +states. This young man was arrogant, ignorant, and brutal, with no +interests except ambition and the chase. In due course he was murdered. +Whatever effect nepotism of this character produced across the Alps, it +served certain purposes in Italy. Sixtus made himself feared, and +advanced the project of a papal kingdom to a point where his successors +were able to take it up and complete it.</p> + +<p>Sixtus also pursued Nicholas's plan of making Rome the first city of the +world in art and magnificence. He brought together architects and +artists, and patronized art and literature. But this aspect of the plan +to maintain the Papacy at the head of Christian Europe belongs rather to +the story of the high Renaissance, and must be postponed to the next +chapter.</p> + +<p>We may pass over the next Pope, who was not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>distinguished except for a +frank recognition of his illegitimate children, and for what then +appeared a whimsical desire to maintain peace, and proceed to the +notorious Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI. It was in Borgia's pontificate +that the French invasion of 1494 took place. This introduction of a new +and terrible element into Italian politics frightened him as well as +other Italian rulers, for he knew that the Papal State would never be +strong enough to resist single-handed such an army as that of Charles +VIII, and he tried to form a union of the Italian powers for common +defence. His policy met little success, especially as he himself, seeing +advantages to be gained from a French alliance, whirled about, granted +to the French king a dispensation for divorce, to the French favourite a +cardinal's hat, and made a separate treaty for himself (1499). Borgia +did no more than any other Italian prince would have done, but he must +bear his share of the responsibility. It was a deliberate sacrifice of +Italian for papal interests. Whether that was justifiable or not is +another matter. The Pope wished to establish a Pontifical State, and +acted in the manner which he thought would be most likely to achieve +success.</p> + +<p>Borgia also followed the example set by Sixtus, and raised his family to +power and rank, partly, of course, from affection, but partly in order +to strengthen the Papacy. His task was to reduce the papal vassals in +the Pontifical States to obedience and so to create a strong central +government. The instrument he employed was his son Cæsar Borgia. This +brilliant young man has won a great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>reputation, owing in large measure +to Machiavelli's admiration. He was an athletic, handsome, taciturn man, +quick, cunning, and cruel. He began his career in the Church, but at the +time of his father's reconciliation with France, gave up his cardinal's +hat, and was created duke by the French king. Cæsar made an excellent +instrument for rooting out the disobedient vassals of the Papal State. +They were crafty, greedy, and false; he was craftier, greedier, and +falser than they. He dispossessed them with ruthless vigour, and +established himself in their stead. His energy and success were +extraordinary, and frightened other Italian rulers. None knew how far +his ambition might stretch, or how far the Papacy might be able to push +him. The direct military power of the Pontifical State was not very +great and could readily be measured, but the indirect power of the +Papacy as head of the Christian Church was vague and alarming. +Nevertheless, Cæsar's principality, which rested wholly on the Papacy, +fell to pieces when his father died.</p> + +<p>Borgia's attitude towards the arts belongs to the next chapter; but in +respect to them as well as to the Pontifical State, he followed what I +have called the twofold policy of the Popes of the Renaissance. That +policy undoubtedly had its advantages; but it also had its +disadvantages, and these appear more conspicuous in Borgia's pontificate +than in any other. The establishment of papal dominion, as we have seen, +encouraged, if it did not necessitate, nepotism; and nepotism involved +prodigality and dissipation. The Popes used their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>families to +strengthen their position; and the upstart families, giddy with sudden +wealth and power, misbehaved. The nephews of Sixtus rendered some +service to the Papacy, but they caused scandal. Cæsar Borgia rendered +greater services, and caused still greater scandal. The other branch of +the twofold policy, by a different path, led to the same result. +Patronage of arts and letters involved great expense and encouraged +luxurious tastes; luxury led to idleness, and idleness to vice. The +Roman atmosphere had never been favourable to spiritual life, and now, +surcharged with the classical spirit of the Renaissance, practically +extinguished religion.</p> + +<p>For centuries the Roman Curia had been a butt for the arrows of satire. +The minnesingers of Germany, the troubadours of Provence, had paused in +their amorous ditties to compose bitter gibes against the greed and +luxurious life of the great Roman prelates. Taunts such as this became +household phrases: Curia Romana non quaerit ovem sine lana.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Dante +had put priest, prelate, and Pope into hell. Petrarch had written +scathing verses:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 28%; margin-right: 20%;"> +Nest of treachery, wherein is hatched<br /> +All evil that besets the world to-day,<br /> +Slaves to wine, debauch, and gluttony,<br /> +</div> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<div style="margin-left: 28%; margin-right: 20%;"> +Well-head of woe, and baiting place of wrath,<br /> +School of false thought, temple of heresy, etc.<br /> +</div> + +<p>One of the best tales in the "Decameron" turns on the conversion of a +Jew, who goes to Rome, sees the conduct of Pope and cardinals, and +becomes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>convinced that only a Divine Church can support so staggering a +burden. In Borgia's time the Curia outdid itself, and Borgia led the +way. He acknowledged his children, and lavished papal revenues upon +them; he bestowed a cardinal's hat on Alexander Farnese, founder of the +Farnese family, for the sake of Giulia Farnese, his frail sister; he +sanctioned ballets and theatricals of a scandalous nature in the Vatican +palace, and encouraged his sons and his cardinals in a dissolute life. +Vice was not all; the odour of crime infected the air. The Pope's son, +the Duke of Gandia, was murdered, so was his son-in-law, husband of his +daughter Lucrezia. Cardinals died mysteriously. The common voice, +whispering low in Rome and loud elsewhere, ascribed these murders to +Cæsar Borgia. It appeared as if the Pope believed the charges himself. +"Cæsar," he said, "is a good-natured man, but he cannot tolerate +affronts." Lucrezia, too, became the object of the grossest slanders. No +doubt common gossip then, as always, raised a tree of falsehood from a +mustard grain of truth; but credulity accepted every accusation as true. +North of the Alps the simple-minded Germans shuddered and crossed +themselves. Even the Romans were shocked. When the Pope died, no man +would touch his body; it was dragged by a rope fastened to its foot from +the bed to the grave, and there tumbled in. No one doubted that his soul +had gone to hell.</p> + +<p>Alexander VI violated every rule of domestic morality; nevertheless, +Pope Julius II (1503-13) violated the sacred character of priest as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>fundamentally, though in a much less repulsive way. Julius, a nephew of +Sixtus IV, was a fiery soldier, a high-aspiring prince, a man of great +qualities, impatient and magnificent. Had he been duke of Milan or King +of Naples, he would have presented a noble figure; but a Pope armed +cap-à-pie, entering a conquered city through the breach battered by his +cannon, was as clear a defiance of the evangelical spirit of the +reformers as the private profligacy of Pope Borgia.</p> + +<p>Julius pursued the twofold policy of the Papacy with greater zeal and +greater success than any of his predecessors. His furious energy +completed the work of making the incohesive states of the Church into a +compact principality; and he is the real founder of the absolute Papal +State, the first real Pope-king. He achieved equal success in the other +branch of the policy, and revelled in the kindred spirit of the High +Renaissance. Julius exalted Rome to the place of first city in the +world; and if the world had asked for art from the Papacy instead of +asking for religion, it would have been abundantly satisfied. But +Germany was thinking of sin, of vice, of simony, of taxation, and was +becoming conscious of an extreme national antipathy to Italian rule; and +when a young German monk, like Martin Luther, went to Rome, instead of +taking pleasure in the architecture, painting, and sculpture that +adorned the city, he was horrified at the lack of religion.</p> + +<p>Julius, however, was entitled to a sense of accomplishment at his death. +He left to his successors a little kingdom in the middle of Italy, and +he had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>made Rome the centre of the arts. Not till the days of his +successors did the failure of that policy appear. By a kind of poetic +justice the utter failure of art to satisfy the demand for reform, for +purity, for religion, was proved during the pontificates of the two +Medici, Leo X and Clement VII. The Medici had patronized the arts, both +in Florence and in Rome, and the arts repaid the Medici with enjoyment +and renown. But the Medici had done nothing for the spirit of reform; on +the contrary, they had helped crush Savonarola, and the spirit of reform +turned upon them. Germany hoisted the standard of secession during the +pontificate of Leo, and an army of the unfaithful sacked Rome during +that of Clement.</p> + +<p>Leo X was a fat, clever, cultivated man, with no great virtues and no +real vices. "Let us enjoy the Papacy since God has given it to us," is +the sentiment put into his mouth, and serves to characterize his reign. +Bred in his father's intellectual circle, and a member of the luxurious +Roman society, Leo shared the tastes of both. He was a connoisseur of +works of art, and derived genuine æsthetic pleasure from them; he was +also fond of agreeable company, good cookery, the chase, and most forms +of social amusement. His political conduct was not of much real +consequence, as matters had gone too far. In the interminable struggle +between Charles V and Francis I, the Papacy tried to hold a balance of +power, and bargained with both sides; but, as the Spaniards, in +possession of both Milan and Naples, were the stronger, the Papacy +generally found its advantage on that side. As to the larger matter of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>the ecclesiastical unity of Christendom there was practically nothing +to be done. The causes which split the Teutonic world from the Latin +were already matured. It was too late to stop the Reformation. Luther +might have been dealt with more shrewdly, but the forces behind him +could not have been kept in check. Leo excommunicated Luther (1520), and +the Imperial Diet at Worms condemned him and his doctrine, but the unity +of the Church was doomed.</p> + +<p>To Leo succeeded his cousin Clement VII, after a brief pontificate by +the last foreign Pope. Clement was incompetent, and failed to realize +the gravity of his situation; neither he nor Rome understood the crisis +they had reached. The prevailing state of mind may be inferred from this +extract from the diary of a young Roman burgher: "I saw this Pope the +first day of May, 1525, come in the morning of the Feast of SS. Philip +and James to the Church of the Holy Apostles, and after celebrating high +mass, remain all day and night in the palace of the Colonna.... That day +it was an old and foolish custom in the Colonna palace (which connects +with the church and has windows looking in it), to throw various kinds +of fowls and animals into the church to the people who were there, all +of the lowest sort. They also put a pig in the middle of the church up +high, and whoever was able to climb up and take it, won it; and on top +of the roof were kegs and pots of water, which they poured on the +persons who climbed up. The amusement of those gentlemen, and of the +rest who looked on, was to see the crowd in a mess, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>battling, +shrieking, pushing, shoving, like beasts,—a merrymaking not becoming in +a church or any sacred edifice." The diary adds: "Now let people learn +to know the souls of the great and especially of priests, how wicked, +deceitful, and false they are, how full of fraud and knavery."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> There +were plenty of other facts to prove this conclusion. The merrymaking was +doomed to cease.</p> + +<p>The incompetent Pope was totally at a loss what policy to follow, not +knowing whether it was better to incline towards the Empire or to +France. He shifted at the wrong time, joined a league against the +Empire, then wriggled and shuffled, and so drew upon himself and the +devoted city the punishment due to a long course of wickedness. The +Imperial army, a ruffian host of Germans (many of them Lutherans), +Spaniards, and Italians, under the command of the traitor Bourbon, was +encamped in the north; the unpaid soldiers clamoured for plunder, and +Bourbon led them to Rome, carried the neglected walls by assault, and +put the city to sack. Rome was a little city, with perhaps 90,000 +inhabitants, but rich in the oblations and tribute money of Christendom; +the churches were decked with gold and silver, the palaces stuffed with +precious paintings, tapestries, and ornaments of every kind. Popes, +cardinals, and princes had rivalled one another in accumulations of +works of art and articles of luxury. Though license, profligacy, and +crime had then shut out Rome from the sympathy of the world, it is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>impossible to read to-day of the horrors of the sack—men murdered, +mothers, daughters, nuns outraged, old men and priests brutally +insulted, churches and sacred relics defiled—without the sharpest pity. +For eight days the devilish work went on, and but 30,000 inhabitants +were left, so many had fled, or been killed, or made prisoners (1527).</p> + +<p>Terrible was the punishment that Clement witnessed,—Rome sacked, the +liberty of Italy taken away, the Roman Catholic Church rent in two.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The Roman Curia is not looking for a sheep without wool.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>The Papacy during the Reformation</i>, vol. v, Appendix +(translated). M. Creighton.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE HIGH RENAISSANCE (1499-1521)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We are now at liberty to return to the great intellectual and artistic +movement that lifted Italy to the primacy in Europe, and reached its +zenith in the period of time to which the last two chapters have been +devoted. This is the culminating period, in which the greatest masters +did their work, and separates the earlier and more experimental stage +that preceded it from the later stage of exaggeration and decadence +which followed. The movement swept all the arts along with it. It +produced the greatest men in literature since Petrarch, the greatest +architects since the Gothic masters of the Ile de France, the greatest +sculptors since Praxiteles, the greatest painters that ever were.</p> + +<p>Italian literature cannot compare with English literature or French in +compass, variety, richness, or delicacy. Indeed, except for Dante, it +would have rather a thin and tinkling sound. Nevertheless, in the High +Renaissance it roused itself brilliantly. Niccolò Machiavelli was the +ablest writer on the policy of government between Aristotle and Burke. +Guicciardini was the first modern historian. Count Baldassare +Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier" is as singularly excellent in its +way as Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Of this book, which portrays +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>fashionable society at the elegant court of Urbino, Tasso says: "So +long as there shall be princes and courts, so long as ladies and +gentlemen shall meet in society, so long as virtue and courtesy shall +abide in our hearts, the name of Castiglione will be held in honour." +The book purports to be a series of conversations between the duchess +and her guests concerning the proper qualities of a perfect gentleman. +This society, no doubt, is a little affected, stilted, and conceited, +but it is dignified, well-behaved, and high-minded. These people discuss +deportment, athletics, propriety of speech, whether one must keep within +the Tuscan vocabulary of Petrarch and Boccaccio or may make use of the +vernacular spoken elsewhere, whether painting or sculpture is the nobler +art, what a gentleman's dress should be, and so on. The discussion +proceeds to the proper behaviour of a lady, and by natural steps to +love. Bembo, a famous littérateur, here takes the floor, plunges into +Platonic ideas, and argues that the higher love, governed by reason, is +better than lower love, and will lead to contemplation of universal +beauty; but that even this stage of love is imperfect, and the lover +must mount higher still, until his soul, purified by philosophy and +spiritual life, sees the light of angelic beauty and, ravished by the +splendour of that light, becomes intoxicated and beside itself from +passion to lose itself in the light. "Let us, then, direct all the +thoughts and forces of our soul to this most sacred light, which shows +us the way that leads to heaven; and following after it, let us lay +aside the passions wherewith we were clothed at our fall, and by the +stairway <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>that bears the shadow of sensual beauty on its lowest step, +let us mount to the lofty mansion where dwells the heavenly, lovely, and +true beauty, which lies hidden in the inmost secret recesses of God, so +that profane eyes cannot behold it,"<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> etc. This may savour somewhat +too much of Platonic rhetoric, but such feelings were genuine, +emotionally genuine, even if they proved evanescent in practice; they +were familiar to Lorenzo dei Medici and his friends, and to the nobler +spirits throughout Italy, and are as characteristic of the period as its +cruelty, treachery, or sensuality. The effect of such cultivated circles +upon art must have been great; they gave artists encouragement, +sympathy, employment, and by the union of fashion and intelligence +helped educate the taste of a larger public. It must be remembered that +both Bramante and Raphael came from Urbino.</p> + +<p>Poetry, with the delightful spontaneity and capriciousness of Italian +genius, chose Ferrara, the home of the House of Este, to hang its +laurels in. There Matteo Boiardo wrote the "Orlando Innamorato" (Roland +in Love). This poem is an epic of chivalry concerning Charlemagne's +court, and deals seriously, and yet at times ironically, with the +subject of Roland's love for the beautiful Angelica. It was left +unfinished, and Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533) picked up the thread and +carried it on, far more brilliantly and far more ironically, under the +title "Orlando Furioso" (Roland Crazed). Ariosto's poem, which was +immensely popular, was intended to entertain, and it succeeded; its +variety, wit, irony, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>sarcasm, and levity make it entertaining even now. +Inferior in moral and sensuous beauty to Spenser's "Faerie Queene," it +is far easier to read. Its interest for us lies in the light it sheds on +the intellectual state of educated Italians of the Renaissance, +especially in regard to religion. Biblical allusions, sacred north of +the Alps, are lugged in to give a touch of humour, as, for instance, +where one of the knights, Astolfo, goes on a search for Roland's lost +wits and meets St. John the Evangelist, who drives him to the moon in +Elijah's chariot; or where, in another passage, St. Michael finds that +the goddess of Discord has not obeyed his commands, "the angel seized +her by the hair, kicked and pounded her incessantly, broke a cross over +her head, till Discord embraced the knees of the divine envoy and howled +for mercy." Ariosto, himself, conformed to the rites of the Church. Like +most educated Italians he accepted them as conventional forms, tinged +possibly with supernatural power, and kept ecclesiastical ideas wholly +separate from moral ideas. His sceptical, ironical, Epicurean attitude +towards non-material things is characteristic of the decadence of this +period in which mental activity had outgrown morality.</p> + +<p>Ariosto was a gentleman of birth and position. He spent most of his life +in the service of his princes, the House of Este. In later life he +withdrew from their employment, and lived in his own house, <i>parva sed +apta</i> (small but suitable), to which the literary pious still make +pilgrimages. He wrote the "Orlando Furioso" between 1505 and 1515, and +thereafter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>devoted most of his leisure to improving and polishing it. +Basking in the sunshine of fashionable admiration, he little suspected +that another man, who had spent his life in mighty feats of +architecture, painting, and sculpture, would in his old age write +sonnets that should be read and reread like a breviary by serious men +and women who passed his own luxurious rhetoric unheeded. Michelangelo's +sonnets (some of which were written to Vittoria Colonna) are the noblest +embodiment of those high ideas of love which came down from Plato to the +philosophers of the Palazzo Medici in Florence and the courtiers at the +ducal palace in Urbino. They are crammed to bursting with passionate +intensity, and in that respect have no equals, even in English.</p> + +<p>In the fine arts the High Renaissance has a score of famous men. Among +them three or four stand head and shoulders above their fellows. Each is +marked by extraordinary individuality of talents, character, and +disposition: Michelangelo by passionate fury—<i>terribilità</i>; Raphael by +sweet serenity; Bramante by his even commingling of poise and ardour; +Leonardo by his noble curiosity.</p> + +<p>Of Leonardo, Vasari says: "Sometimes according to the course of nature, +sometimes beyond and above it, the greatest gifts rain down from +heavenly influences upon the bodies of men, and crowd into one +individual beauty, grace, and excellence in such superabundance that to +whatever that man shall turn, his very act is so divine, that, +surpassing the work of all other men, it makes manifest that it is by +the special gift of God, and not by human art. This was true of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>Leonardo da Vinci; who, beside a physical beauty beyond all praise, put +an infinite grace into whatever he did, and such was his excellence, +that to whatever difficult things his mind turned he easily solved +them." Leonardo (1452-1519) was a Florentine. He was trained by the +subtle Verrocchio, from whom he learned the smile, if it be a smile, on +the faces of his portraits of women. After leaving Verrocchio's workshop +he went to Lombardy, where he spent sixteen years at the court of Milan. +There he did a hundred different things: he modelled a great equestrian +statue of Francesco Sforza (since destroyed), painted portraits, drew +architectural designs,—for a cupola, a staircase, a bathroom, a +triumphal arch, etc.,—executed hydraulic works, studied the cultivation +of the grape, and played on his silver lyre. In the refectory of a +Dominican monastery he painted his fresco of The Last Supper. One of the +novices, who watched this handsome young painter at work, says that +sometimes he would dash up the scaffold, brush in hand, put a few +touches and hurry down; sometimes he would paint from sunrise to sunset +without stopping even to eat; sometimes he would stand for hours +contemplating the different figures. After Sforza's fall, Leonardo left +Milan, and for a time took service with Cæsar Borgia as military +engineer and architect. He subsequently returned to Florence, and +finally went to France, where he died.</p> + +<p>Little remains of all that Leonardo planned. A half-destroyed fresco, a +few easel pictures, some incomparable drawings, some treatises on his +arts, some apothegms, are enough, however, to justify his fame. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>One of +his apothegms, <i>Tu, o Iddio, tutto ci vendi a prezzo di fatica</i> (Thou, O +God, sellest us everything at the price of hard work), is but poorly +borne out by his own prodigal portion of genius, which rather supports +Vasari's view that God makes special gifts. Very rarely has any man +received the native endowment of Leonardo da Vinci.</p> + +<p>The greatest architect of the High Renaissance was Bramante of Urbino. +He, like Leonardo, worked in Milan during the resplendent reign of +Lodovico Sforza. There he did much charming work and imposed his +personality on Lombard architecture; but his great reputation was made +in Rome, whither he went, drawn by the great Romeward flow of art, when +the French invasion drove the fine arts from Milan. In Rome, Bramante +became the papal architect. He shares with Raphael and Michelangelo the +honour of making St. Peter's basilica and the Vatican palace what they +are. He also built a little building, whose historical importance is +ludicrously out of proportion to its size, it being as little as St. +Peter's is big. It is a tiny circular temple in the court of a church on +the Janiculum hill across the Tiber. On the ground floor a Doric +colonnade encircles the temple, on the second story a balustrade. A +dome, capped by a lantern, covers the whole. It is the first building +which fully reproduced the style and spirit of antiquity. It set the +fashion for the architecture of the sixteenth century, and determined, +among other indirect and not altogether happy results, the plan of St. +Paul's Cathedral in London and the Capitol in Washington.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>It was not chance which took Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo to +Rome. They went because the papal court, pursuing its policy of +maintaining the Papacy at the head of Christendom by means of culture, +summoned them to come. Rome never produced great artists. She never was +artistic, any more than she had been spiritual. But just as in earlier +times she had drawn spiritual forces to herself and used them, so now +she attracted to herself and used the artistic forces of Italy. She had +been making ready for years; step by step as she had become more +secular, she had also become more artistic, more intellectual. For +seventy years every Pope contributed to this end. Eugenius IV employed +distinguished humanists as his secretaries, and invited the most notable +painters and sculptors to Rome. Nicholas V conceived the splendid scheme +of making Rome the mistress of the world's culture. Pius II, Æneas +Sylvius Piccolomini, was the most eminent man of letters of his age. +Paul II was a virtuoso in objects of art and increased the grandeur of +the papal court. Sixtus IV improved the city, built the Sistine Chapel, +and employed Botticelli, Perugino, Signorelli, Ghirlandaio, and Rosselli +to decorate it. Innocent VIII brought Mantegna from Padua and +Pinturicchio from Perugia to embellish the Vatican palace. Pope Borgia +made Pinturicchio his court painter; and that charming master decorated +the papal apartments in the Vatican with the great bull of the Borgia +crest, and with portraits of the Pope's children and (so Vasari says) of +the lovely Giulia Farnese as the Virgin with the Pope worshipping her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>Popes and cardinals felt the great movement and many strove to lead it, +but the master figure of the Renaissance at Rome was the fiery Julius +II, whose plans in the arts were even more grandiose than in politics. +He was the centre of this period, as Cosimo and Lorenzo had been in +their generations. Less astute than Cosimo, far less subtle and +accomplished than Lorenzo, he was a much more heroic leader than either. +His hardy, weather-beaten face in Raphael's portrait, with its strong, +well-shaped features, shows his imperious, arrogant, irascible, and yet +noble, nature. This Pontiff brought to Rome the greatest genius of the +Renaissance, Michelangelo, bade him build for him a monumental tomb, +more splendid than any tomb ever built, twelve yards high and +proportionately wide and deep, and decked with two or three score +statues. Such a gigantic monument could not have found room in the old +basilica of St. Peter's, and therefore, as St. Peter's was the proper +place for it, it became necessary to proceed with the larger plans of +Nicholas V. Piecing and patching did not suit Julius. He discussed plans +with his architects Bramante and Giuliano da San Gallo, and then +resolved to pull down the old basilica, founded by Constantine and +Silvester, despite its thousand years of sacred associations, and build +a new church in its place. Bramante's fiery enthusiasm for great designs +matched the Pope's. Satire suggested that in heaven he would say to St. +Peter, "I'll pull down this Paradise of yours and build another, a much +finer and pleasanter place for the blessed saints to live in." He +designed the new <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>church in the form of a Greek cross with a cupola, +proposing, as it were, to lift the dome of the Pantheon on the basilica +of Constantine, an enormous ruin in the Roman Forum. This gigantic plan +befitted the new papal scheme of making Rome the head of Europe and the +Papacy the head of culture. The corner-stone was laid on April 18, 1506, +and the old building was demolished piecemeal, the choir first, the nave +last; and in its place, as demolition proceeded bit by bit, the +cathedral now standing rose, slowly lifting its great bulk in the air, +and finally reached completion and consecration in 1626. The greatest +architects of Italy succeeded one another as masters of the works, +Bramante, Giuliano da San Gallo from Florence, Fra Giocondo from Verona, +Raphael, Antonio da San Gallo the younger, Baldassare Peruzzi from +Siena, and Michelangelo, who, when an old man, took charge and designed +the dome.</p> + +<p>The Vatican was altered according to Bramante's plans in order to make +it a fit abode for the head of cultured Christendom: Michelangelo +painted his frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12); and +Raphael began to paint the <i>stanza della segnatura</i>. Raphael, the most +charming figure in the world of art, was equally charming in life. +Vasari says: "Among his exceptional gifts I take notice of one of such +rare excellence that I marvel within myself. Heaven gave him power in +our art to produce an effect most contrary to the humours of us +painters, and it is this: the artists and artisans (I do not refer only +to those of meaner sort, but to those who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>are ambitious to be +great—and art produces many of this complexion) who worked in his +atelier were so united and had such mutual good-will, that all jealousy +and crossness were extinguished on seeing him, and every mean and +spiteful thought vanished from their minds. Such unity was never seen +before. And this was because they were overcome both by his courtesy and +his art, but more by the genius of his good nature, which was so full of +kindness and overflowing with charity, that not only men, but even the +beasts almost worshipped him."</p> + +<p>At this time, too, classic art, owing to the discovery of antique +statues, had its fullest effect. The Nile, now in the Vatican, had been +found in a Roman garden, the Apollo Belvedere in a vineyard near the +city, and the Laocoön and many others here and there. Of the discovery +of the Laocoön a record remains. "I was at the time a boy in Rome," +wrote Francesco, son of Giuliano da San Gallo, the architect, "when one +day it was announced to the Pope that some excellent statues had been +dug up out of the ground in a grape-patch near the church of Santa Maria +Maggiore. The Pope immediately sent a groom to Giuliano da San Gallo to +tell him to go directly and see what it was. Michelangelo Buonarroti was +often at our house, and at the moment chanced to be there; accordingly +my father invited him to accompany us. I rode behind my father on his +horse, and thus we went over to the place designated. We had scarcely +dismounted and glanced at the figures, when my father cried out, 'It is +the Laocoön of which Pliny speaks!' The labourers immediately began +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>digging to get the statue out; after having looked at them very +carefully, we went home to supper, talking all the way of +antiquity."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>Thus these various forces—the discovery of antique statues, the passion +for art, the eager Italian intellect, the conception of Rome as the +mistress of culture, the character of Julius II and the genius of +Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael—worked together to cover the Papacy +with a pagan glory in its time of religious need. On the other hand, as +these monumental works required vast sums of money, the sale of +indulgences and the exaction of tribute buzzed on more rapidly than +ever.</p> + +<p>Leo X (1513-21) has given his name to this age of papal culture, but he +was not entitled to the honour; he had the inborn Medicean interest and +enjoyment in intellectual matters, a nice taste, and some delicacy of +perception, but it needs no more than a look at his fat jowl in +Raphael's portrait to see that he could not have been a motive force in +a great period. He stands on an historic eminence as the last Pope to +wield the Italian sceptre over all Europe, the last to send his +tax-collectors from Sicily to England, from Spain to Norway, the last to +enjoy the full heritage of Imperial Rome.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Book of the Courtier</i>, p. 305, translated by L. E. +Opdycke.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Rome and the Renaissance</i>, from the French of Julian +Klaczko, p. 93.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL (1527-1563)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We have now come to the beginning of long centuries of national +degradation, and one has a general sense of passing from a glorious +garden into a series of gas-lit drawing-rooms, somewhat over-decorated, +where naughty princes amuse themselves with bagatelles. We must glance +at the political degradation first.</p> + +<p>The struggle between the Barbarians of France and Spain for mastery in +Italy, of which we spoke in the last political chapter, was practically +decided by the battle of Pavia (1525), in which the French king lost all +but life and honour. France was most reluctant to acquiesce in defeat, +and from time to time marched her troops across the Alps into +unfortunate Piedmont, sometimes of her own notion, and sometimes at the +invitation of an Italian state; but the Spanish grip was too strong to +be shaken off. From this time on Italian politics were determined by the +pleasure of foreign kings. Two treaties between France and Spain, that +of Cambrai (1529) and that of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), embodied the +results of their bargains and their wars. The sum and substance of them +was a practical abandonment by France of her Italian claims, and the map +of Italy was drawn to suit Spain.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>Milan was governed by Spanish governors, Naples and Sicily by Spanish +viceroys. The business of a Spanish viceroy, then as always, was to +raise money. Taxes were oppressive. It was said that in Sicily the royal +officials nibbled, in Naples they ate, and in Milan they devoured. In +addition to regular taxes, special imposts were laid on various +occasions,—when a new king succeeded to the throne, when a royal heir +was born, when war was waged against the Lutherans in Germany or the +pirates in Africa. In the south, where the people were less intelligent +and laborious, oppressive taxation and unwise government caused a +gradual increase of ignorance and poverty, and left as a legacy to the +present day the conditions from which spring the <i>Mafia</i> of Sicily and +the <i>Camorra</i> of Naples.</p> + +<p>In Florence the sagacious Cosimo I (1537-74) ruled with prudence and +severity. He understood that his position depended on his fidelity to +Spain and the Papacy, and acted accordingly. He married a Spanish lady, +Eleanora of Toledo, daughter to the viceroy of Naples, took up his ducal +residence first in the Palazzo Vecchio, where there are many +remembrances of his duchess, and afterwards in the great palace, begun +by Luca Pitti, across the Arno. He reduced Siena, once Florence's +dangerous rival, to subjection, and crushed out the last traces of +republican sentiment in his duchy. He employed Vasari to design the +Uffizi, completed the edifice that holds the Laurentian library, and led +as magnificent a life as a due regard for his purse would allow. In +short, he was what one would expect an unrefined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>member of the <i>Casa +Medici</i> to be; and when one recollects that his grandmother was a Sforza +of Milan, all expectations based on heredity are amply satisfied. Cosimo +I left a long line of descendants to sit upon his grand-ducal throne. +Their marble effigies at the head of the stairway in the Uffizi tell +their story. The brutal Sforza vigour and the elegant Medicean +astuteness could not save them from sharing in the general degeneracy +that spread like a blight over all Italy. However, one must remember +that they did collect the finest picture gallery in the world and housed +it in the Uffizi and Pitti palaces.</p> + +<p>North of Tuscany the petty duchies of Ferrara, Urbino, Modena, Parma, +and Mantua formed a little ducal coterie, very characteristic of the +next two centuries. The Papacy indeed swallowed up Ferrara (1598) and +Urbino (1631), but the House of Este of Ferrara moved on to Modena, and +remained there till Napoleon's time. In Parma, Pope Paul III (1534-50), +our old acquaintance Alexander Farnese, a careful father as well as a +lucky brother, established his son as duke. This son was bad, and +believed to be worse, so the nobles of Parma murdered him; but his +descendants made good their title, and the little duchy of Parma, with +its palace, its custom-house, its barracks, and its pictures, stepped +forth as one of the petty states of the peninsula, and endured till the +Union of Italy. Genoa and Lucca were permitted to remain republics.</p> + +<p>Up in the northwest we get our first definite notions of Savoy. This +duchy, built up piecemeal, was a composite state, which included a good +deal of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>Piedmont, and portions of what are now France and Switzerland, +and, unfortunately, lay directly in the way of the French armies on +their marches into Italy. During the wars of Francis I and Charles V, +the Duke of Savoy hopefully attempted to maintain neutrality, and, in +consequence, lost all. France deemed it more convenient to own her line +of march, and annexed Savoy; and for twenty years Piedmont was both +camping-ground and battleground for the contending nations. It looked as +if Savoy would be blotted from the map of Europe; but Duke Emanuele +Filiberto (1553-80), <i>Iron Head</i>, an accomplished soldier, had the sense +to take the winning side. He served in the Spanish army, and, in the +Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, as his share secured the restoration of his +duchy. That portion of this duke's policy which concerns us especially +is that he gave Piedmont precedence over his French and Swiss provinces, +established the seat of government at Turin, put the university there +and brought men of letters and science, substituted Italian for Latin in +public documents, and proclaimed himself an Italian prince and Savoy an +Italian state. He gave Savoy the general character which it has always +retained. He checked the priests, built up the army, reformed the law, +converted the old feudal dominion into an absolute autocracy, and +started his dukedom on the course which ultimately enabled it to play +its great part in the liberation of Italy in the nineteenth century. +Emanuele Filiberto is reputed one of Italy's national heroes.</p> + +<p>Venice had already recovered most of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>territories on the mainland of +Italy wrenched from her by the League of Cambrai, but in the East the +Turks steadily took away city, island, and province. After a long period +of war, one gallant exploit gilded the fortunes of the losing side. A +league against the Turks was effected between Spain, the Papacy, and +Venice, and the united fleets, under the supreme command of Don John of +Austria, won the renowned sea-fight off Lepanto (1571); but except for +chopping off a goodly number of infidel heads and limbs, little was +accomplished. In this battle a young Spanish soldier, Miguel de +Cervantes, lost an arm. Soon afterwards peace was made on terms hard for +the Venetians, but beneficent in that it was destined to last for +seventy years.</p> + +<p>We now come to the Papacy, and there, in extraordinary contrast to the +degeneration and decay all around, we find militant vigour and energy. +This phenomenon is so remarkable that we must glance back at the perils +through which the Papacy had passed. Ever since the fall of the Empire +(when the political union of Italy and Germany broke in two) disruptive +forces had been at work to break the ecclesiastical union, until at +last, in the pontificate of Leo X, Martin Luther affixed his theses +concerning indulgences to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, +burnt the papal bull, and threw off his allegiance. The North of Europe +followed him. The record of the Papacy had been utter failure and worse. +It had smeared itself from head to foot with simony, nepotism, and vice; +it had cast religion to the winds. No expression of indignation would +have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>been adequate without the sack of Rome. A statesman might well +have predicted that all Europe would dismember and suppress the Papacy +and adopt a system of national churches. Nevertheless, at the end of the +century the Papacy stood erect and vigorous, shorn indeed of universal +empire, but reëstablished, the Order of Jesus at its right, the Holy +Inquisition at its left, draped in piety by the Council of Trent, and +hobnobbing on even terms with kings. The process which effected this +change is called the Counter-reformation, or the Catholic Reaction. That +process was a happy blending of virtue, bigotry, and policy. Borne +upward and onward by the forces of reform and conservatism, the Modern +Papacy rose triumphant on the ruins of the Papacy of the Renaissance.</p> + +<p>The same spirit that caused the Reformation in the North started the +Catholic Revival in the South. A wave, comparable to the old movement +for Church reform in Hildebrand's time, swept over the Catholic Church, +and lifted the reformers within the Church into power. The South +emulated the North. Catholic zeal rivalled Protestant ardour. Bigotry +followed zeal. Moreover, a reformed Papacy found ready allies. The +logical consequence of Protestantism was personal independence in +religion, and the next logical step was personal independence in +politics. Protestant subjects, more especially where their rulers were +Catholics, tended to become disobedient; and monarchs, who stood for +absolutism and conservatism, found themselves drawn close to an absolute +and conservative Pope. The kings of Spain and the Popes of Rome became +friends and allies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>Within three years after the sack of Rome, Clement crowned Charles V +with the Imperial crown in Bologna, where, for the last time in Italy, +proclamation was made of a "Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus, Mundi +totius Dominus;" and the Papacy, strengthened at once by its league with +Spain, lifted its head. Further strength came from other sources. The +brilliant young Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, founded the Order of Jesus, +which vowed itself to poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Papacy +(1534). Spain, too, by the moral effect of example, procured the +Inquisition for Italy. From the time of Innocent III, the Dominican +monks had had charge of preserving the purity of the faith and of +punishing heretics, and they had performed this function with what might +appear to a sceptic sufficient zeal, but during the great racial and +religious struggle in Spain which ended in the capture of Granada, more +zeal was deemed necessary and the Spanish Inquisition was established. +Its fame spread far and wide. The Spanish viceroys introduced it in a +modified form in Naples, and Cardinal Caraffa, a zealous reformer, urged +the need of such an institution in Rome. The Holy Office of Rome was +established, and Caraffa put at its head (1542). Heretics were +frightened into conformity or punished; some were driven out of the +country, a few were burned to death. Freedom of thought was vigorously +attacked; and the <i>Index Librorum Prohibitorum</i> was decreed. The great +and growing power of the reformers may be measured by the fact that the +Pope who sanctioned these great bulwarks <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>of the papal system was the +once gay Alexander Farnese, Paul III, whom we otherwise know as a +brother and a father. The culminating exhibition of the power of the +reformers, however, was in the Council of Trent (1545-63).</p> + +<p>Europe had been too long accustomed to the idea of ecclesiastical unity +to sit still without some attempt at reconciliation between the +Catholics and Protestants. It was hoped that a Council would heal all +wounds, smooth all difficulties, and bring back the irrevocable past. +The Popes, however, had come to regard Councils as inimical bodies with +dangerous tendencies towards investigation and with hostile canons, and +were inclined to take the risk of losing the tainted parts of +Christendom altogether, rather than make use of so perilous an +instrument to recover them. But the Emperor, Charles V, was insistent; +his Empire, as well as the Church, was cracked, and in great danger of +breaking in two. The Council was convoked, and met at Trent. The primary +object was reconciliation; but everybody knew that no reconciliation was +possible without radical reforms in the Church, so the papal party +played its cards with exceeding wariness. The Lutherans did not attend, +and the papal party, in order to forestall practical reforms, plunged +into the comparatively safe matter of defining dogma, and defined it in +such a way as to fence out all the Lutheran schismatics. The reformers, +nevertheless, managed to sandwich in between the definitions of dogma +various decrees for the reform of Church discipline. In Catholic theory +an Ecumenical Council acts under the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>inspiration of the Holy Ghost; but +looking at this Council from a purely secular point of view, it is hard +to find other guidance than the quarrelling interests of Pope, bishops, +Emperor, Spaniards, French, and Italians. In fact, the Council was twice +broken up. The first time the Pope, having taken alarm, declared the +Council adjourned to Bologna. The second time the Lutherans, then at war +with the Emperor, swooped down near Trent and frightened the Council +away. It met again, for the third time. All hope of reconciliation with +the Protestants had then passed away, and the Council set to work as a +purely Roman Catholic partisan body. A striking change of attitude +within the Council showed that since the early sessions the reforming +party had won complete control. Paul IV (1555-59), a man of high +character, formerly Cardinal Caraffa, head of the Roman Inquisition, had +promulgated many edicts concerning reforms; and his successor Pius IV, +Giovanni Angelo Medici of Milan (not of the Florentine family) +(1559-66), who was Pope during the final sessions of the Council, +followed his lead. Pius, a clever man who had received a legal training, +instead of wasting efforts in persuading disputatious bishops, first +made diplomatic arrangements with the Catholic sovereigns of Spain, +France, and Austria, and then secured the embodiment of those +arrangements in decrees by the Council. Nothing, however, could have +been accomplished without the reforming spirit within the Church; Pius +removed obstacles in its way and let it have full play. Stern rules were +made against the corrupt practices, which had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>given Luther his +strength. Canons regulated the conduct of the clergy, the duties of +bishops, the affairs of monasteries and nunneries, and all matters +connected with the great organization of the Roman Church. These reforms +came too late to affect Protestant opinion, but they rallied the +doubting, confirmed the faithful, and gave the Papacy wide-reaching +moral support. The dogmas of the Church were cast in adamant, and +secured the immense advantage of definiteness and fixity. The Council of +Trent remains the principal monument of the Catholic Revival, and that +Revival is certainly the most important event for Italy in the period +immediately following the Renaissance. Pius IV, the clever lawyer, had a +great share in the work of the Council, but his most skilful achievement +was to maintain and confirm the doctrine of the subordination of +Councils to the Papacy. This great stroke, as well as his share in the +reforms, has won for him the title of founder of the Modern Papacy.</p> + +<p>In this manner the Papacy prospered during the very generations in which +the greatness of Italy dwindled away. The fortunes of the two had wholly +parted company. The Papacy, indeed, had made itself an Italian +institution,—never again would it seat a foreigner on the chair of St. +Peter,—but in all other ways it had ceased to have any national +affections. Italy, her genius faded, her vigour faint, not only deprived +of what might have been a great support, but even pushed down and held +under by the help of her own greatest creation, the Church, ceased to be +a country. She had become, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>Metternich's famous phrase, a mere +geographical expression, an aggregate of little states, with no tie +between them except that of juxtaposition and of common subservience to +foreigners. If we look at a map drawn at the close of the sixteenth +century, we shall find the following political divisions:—</p> + +<p class="noin"> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Duchy of Savoy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Spanish province of Lombardy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Republic of Venice,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The little Duchy of Parma, under the Farnesi,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The little Duchy of Mantua, under the Gonzaga,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The little Duchy of Modena, under the Este family,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The little Duchy of Urbino, under the della Rovere</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">who had succeeded to the Montefeltri,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Republic of Genoa,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Republic of Lucca,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the Medici,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Papal States,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Spanish province of Naples,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The Spanish province of Sicily.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Over them all, Spanish provinces, independent republics, Italian +duchies, and Papal States, falls the shadow cast by the royal standard +of Spain. Next to our consciousness of that dreaded banner, the most +vivid impression which we take away is the contrast between the vigour +of the Papacy and the weakness of Italy, and we draw the necessary +inference that the fortunes of the two not only have wholly parted +company, but also are wholly irreconcilable.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>THE CINQUECENTO (<span class="smcap">16th Century</span>)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The <i>Cinquecento</i>, as the Italians call the sixteenth century, exhibits +in the arts the same disintegration and decay that we have found in the +political life of Italy. Honesty, independence, genuineness fade away, +and in their stead we find cleverness and effort. The high tide of the +Renaissance was in the pontificate of Julius II, but the flood lingered +on at the full till 1540, and then the ebb began. This is the date which +the famous German scholar and critic, Jakob Burckhardt, assigns as the +limit of the Golden Age; and it is interesting to find how closely it +corresponds with the political dates which marked the establishment of +the new political order in Italy. In 1530 Florence was definitely handed +over to the Medici; in 1535 the duchy of Milan was annexed to Spain; in +1540 the Pope sanctioned the Order of Jesus; in 1542 he established the +Holy Office in Rome; in 1543 he accepted the scheme of an <i>Index +Librorum Prohibitorum</i>; and in 1545 the Council of Trent was opened.</p> + +<p>The change from maturity to decay was all-pervasive; yet it was slow, +and a period of excellence and good taste intervened between the High +Renaissance and the Baroque. This process is most clearly marked in +architecture. During the High <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>Renaissance dignity was law, the grand +manner dominated, and charm determined subordinate parts. Domes were +noble, loggias elegant, pilasters decorative, cornices well +proportioned, ceilings splendid. After 1540 indications of decline +appeared; but this fading brilliance was a kind of <i>götterdämmerung</i>, +and, though it heralded the Baroque, displayed at times a purity of +detail and a noble restraint worthy of the earlier period.</p> + +<p>Of the architects of this intervening stage the greatest was Giacomo +Barozzi, surnamed Vignola after the little town where he was born in the +province of Modena. He was a man of theories, had great knowledge of +classical architecture, and wrote a manual on the architectural orders +which enjoyed great authority for two centuries and more. He built +various buildings at Bologna, and designed a gigantic palace at Piacenza +for the Farnesi, the ducal children of Alexander Farnese, Paul III, and +nephews of the beautiful Giulia. The art of making gardens, of using +cypress trees, greensward, pools, terraces, and clumps of ilex as joint +partners with stone, brick, and stucco, in one artistic whole, had come +into being in the sixteenth century; and Vignola was one of the masters +of this new art. He designed the Farnese gardens on the Palatine Hill, +since destroyed by time, neglect, subsequent owners, and eager +archæologists. He was an artist of great ideas, and sometimes caught the +grand manner. On the other hand, he also helped to bring on the Baroque. +His famous church at Rome, the Gesù, despite its vast, high-arching +nave, lent itself with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>fatal facility to a gorgeous hideousness of +decoration, and set the fashion for many imitative Jesuit churches, +which caught the hideous gorgeousness but missed the grandeur of their +exemplar. He had an important part in building the <i>Villa di Papa +Giulio</i> (Pope Julius III), a little outside the city walls, charming in +its grace, its variety, and its succession of arcades, courts, loggias, +balustrades, grotto, terrace, and garden.</p> + +<p>The next in rank, Bartolommeo Ammanati of Florence, may be called the +court architect of Duke Cosimo I. He built two bridges across the Arno, +the Ponte alia Carraia and the Ponte Santa Trinità, finished the main +body of the Pitti Palace, originally designed by Brunelleschi, and +completed the elaborate Boboli garden, the pleasure grounds behind the +palace. He also was drawn to Rome at the behest of villa-building Popes, +and had a share in elaborating the plans of the Villa of Papa Giulio. +Giorgio Vasari, architect, painter, biographer, designed the Uffizi at +Florence, painted many indifferent pictures, and wrote "Lives of the +Painters," a garrulous, discursive, inaccurate, and delightful book. +Galeazzo Alessi of Perugia built the stately, tourist-haunted palaces of +Genoa, once occupied by opulent merchants, and also the gigantic church +of S. Maria degli Angeli, which covers the Portiuncula of St. Francis, +like a bowl turned over a forget-me-not. Jacopo Tatti Sansovino of +Florence was the architect of many noble buildings in Venice. Andrea +Palladio of Vicenza embodied his passionate love of classical +architecture in palaces and churches in his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>native town and in Venice. +During the revival of classic enthusiasm in the eighteenth century +Palladio became a demi-god. The captivated Goethe, as soon as he arrived +at Vicenza, hurried to see the Palladian palaces. "When we stand face to +face with these buildings, then we first realize their great excellence; +their bulk and massiveness fill the eye, while the lovely harmony of +their proportions, admirable in the advance and retreat of perspective, +brings peace to the spirit." In Venice, he says, "Before all things I +hastened to the Carità.... Alas! scarcely a tenth part of the edifice is +finished. However, even this part is worthy of that heavenly genius.... +One ought to pass whole years in the contemplation of such a work."</p> + +<p>These men and their rivals kept alive the traditions of the great +period; nevertheless, in course of time stiltedness and exaggeration +usurped the place of elegance and force. A servile imitation of Roman +models, an absolute acceptance of classical correctness, prevailed; the +classic orders, especially the Corinthian, spread themselves everywhere; +in one place barren and formal simplicity obtruded itself, in another +pretentious magnificence. After 1580 the transition is complete; the +baroque triumphs; sham tyrannizes, wood and plaster mimic stone, columns +twist themselves awry; monstrous scrolls, heavy mouldings, crazy +statues, gilt deformities, and all the contortions to which stucco and +other cohesive substances will submit, hang and cling everywhere, inside +and out. But this is to anticipate, for the full revel of the Baroque +takes place in the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>The same degeneration prevailed in sculpture. Michelangelo, in his +statues in the Medicean chapel at Florence, "Night" and "Day," "Evening" +and "Dawn" (1529-34), had achieved the utmost which thought and emotion +could express in marble. They stand, pillars set up by Hercules, at the +end of the noble sculpture of the Renaissance. His successors tried to +imitate him, in vain; they produced bulk, or writhing or distortion. Yet +some men of this period did excellent work: Benvenuto Cellini, delicate +goldsmith, and sculptor of the Florentine Perseus; John of Bologna, who +modelled the Flying Mercury; Taddeo Landini of Florence, who designed +the charming fountain in Rome, in which several boys are boosting +turtles into a basin above; Bandinelli, whose big statues are familiar +in Florence, "a man strangely composed," as Burckhardt says, "of natural +talent, of reminiscence of the old school, and of a false originality +which carried him beyond a disregard of nicety even to grossness." After +these men and a few others, sculpture followed architecture in its +facile descent into the Baroque, and expressed itself in prophets, +saints, and Popes, who stand in swaying and vacillating postures in nave +and aisle, on roof and balustrade. These decadent sculptors strictly +belong to the next century; they are but heralded by the last works of +the Cinquecento.</p> + +<p>In painting, too, the same story is repeated all over Italy. In Florence +after the close of the High Renaissance twilight darkened rapidly. There +are few artists of note except two fashionable portrait painters, +Pontormo and Bronzino, who display the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>characteristics of the period. +Bronzino's picture of the Descent of Christ into Hades almost justifies +Ruskin's comment, a "heap of cumbrous nothingness and sickening +offensiveness;" on the other hand, Pontormo's decorations in the great +hall of the Medicean Villa at Poggio a Caiano are as graceful, gay, and +charming as can well be imagined. After them in dreary succession come +the decadent painters, who painted figures bigger and bigger in would-be +Michelangelesque attitudes, as may be seen in one of the rooms of the +<i>Belle Arti</i> in Florence. Elsewhere, also, the generation bred under the +great masters faded away,—the sweet Luini of Milan, Leonardo's +follower; the facile Giulio Romano, Raphael's pupil; the beauty-loving +Sodoma of Siena; the romantic Dosso Dossi of Ferrara. These names show +how loath the genius of painting was to leave Italy, but she obeyed +fate; and, at the end of the century, we have the Caracci beginning to +paint in Bologna, and Caravaggio (1569-1609) in Naples. It needs but a +glance at these later pictures to see what a change had come over the +spirit of beauty during the hundred years since Botticelli painted Venus +fresh from the salt sea foam.</p> + +<p>In literature, also, at the opening of the sixteenth century, we had the +historian, Guicciardini; the political writer, Machiavelli; the poet, +Ariosto; the cultivated Castiglione: at the end we have the pathetic +figure of Torquato Tasso (1544-95), who stands drooping, like a symbol +of Italy. Tasso is always inscribed in textbooks as one of the four +greatest Italian poets, and it would be useless and impertinent to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>dispute the concordant testimony of many witnesses. Byron apostrophizes +him, "O victor unsurpassed in modern song;" yet one with difficulty +avoids thinking that his sad story has added to the beauty of his poetry +and heightened his reputation.</p> + +<p>Torquato Tasso was the last great genius of the Italian Renaissance, and +stands there facing the oncoming decadence in gifted helplessness; he +had many talents, a noble nature, a melancholy temperament, and a weak +character. In boyhood his religious emotions and his intellectual +faculties were both over-stimulated. His story is a medley of court +favour, success, rivalry, suspicion. His home was Ferrara, but he +wandered about, as a sick person seeks to ease his body by changing +posture. Early forcing and some natural weakness combined to bring too +great a strain upon his mind, which gave way, and the unfortunate man +was put in a madhouse by his patron, the Duke of Ferrara. He was +confined for seven years, but not ill treated. He died in the monastery +of Sant' Onofrio on the Janiculum at Rome, where tourists stop to gaze at +the poor remnant of an oak tree, under whose shade he used to sit. +Carducci, the great poet, says: "Italy's great literature, the living, +national, and at the same time, human literature, with which she +reconciled Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and, in a Roman way, +represented a renewed Europe, ended with Tasso." His sad story is a +fitting epilogue to the Italian Renaissance.</p> + +<p>This general course of ascent, culmination, and decline holds true even +of Venice, except in chronology; for Venice preserved her independence +from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>the normal Italian experience almost as resolutely in the arts as +in politics. She produced no literature, piqued perhaps because Italy +had taken the Tuscan dialect rather than hers for the national language; +but in the arts, after decay had elsewhere set in, she bloomed in the +fulness of perfection, as late roses blossom when other bushes show +nothing but hips. Of her individual career a few words must be said.</p> + +<p>In architecture and sculpture, the Lombardi, a Venetian family probably +from Lombardy, flourished for nearly a hundred years (1452-1537), and +left their mark on Venice, in tombs and statues, in churches and +palaces. Contemporary with the last generation of Lombardi came the more +gifted Alessandro Leopardi, who completed the great statue of Colleoni +designed by Verrocchio, and gave a new impulse to Venetian sculpture. +While the Tuscan sculptors had been studying Roman remains, the Isles of +Greece had been giving Greek models to their Venetian conquerors, and +Leopardi in particular profited greatly by them. In the sister art the +first famous architect after the Lombardi was the Florentine, Jacopo +Sansovino, who spent most of a long life in Venice, where he built the +Zecca, the Loggetta, the Libreria Vecchia (the Old Library), and also +the Scala d'Oro (the Golden Stairway) of the ducal palace. Sanmicheli, a +military engineer, as well as a builder of palaces, came from Verona to +work in Venice. Palladio (1508-80), of whom we have spoken, came from +Vicenza, and bequeathed his name to the neo-classic style, known as +Palladian.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>In painting first came the famous Bellini family, Jacopo (1400-64?) and +his two sons, Gentile and the more gifted Giovanni, painter of tenderest +Madonnas; after them came Carpaccio, painter of St. Jerome and his lion, +and of St. George and his dragon. Then followed in rapid succession the +most gifted group of painters that ever lived together, all born within +twenty years of one another, as if to prove how prodigally Nature could +endow a petty province that had the luck to please her: Giorgione, from +Castelfranco on the Venetian mainland, of highest fame and disputed +pictures; Titian, of Cadore, noblest of portrait painters; Palma +Vecchio, of Bergamo, creator of the most glorious of animals, the superb +Venetian women; Sebastiano del Piombo, who painted the Fornarina of the +Uffizi Gallery long attributed to Raphael, and deserved his fortune of +being pupil to Giorgione and friend to Michelangelo; Lorenzo Lotto, of +Bergamo, another painter of exquisite women, high-bred men, noble +saints, and poetical angels; Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, inferior +only to Titian; Bonifazio from Verona, painter of patrician luxury; +Paris Bordone, of Treviso, so uncertain in merit, yet at his best so +rich in hue, so tender in sentiment, so admirable in his pictures of +Venetian ceremonial; and at the close, the giant Tintoretto (1512-94) +and Paolo Veronese (1528-88) the glorious: all, though in different +degrees, splendid in colour, voluptuous ministers to the sensuous eye. +This cluster of names serves to show that while elsewhere in Italy art +was dwindling into mannerism and exaggeration, Venice put forth an +extraordinary burst <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>of pictorial magnificence; yet even in Venice at +the end of the century none of the great men were left.</p> + +<p>The reason for this decadence of the arts from their splendour in the +early decades of the century is not easy to assign; no one can say why +genius spurts up in one spot or in one individual, why the brilliant +Italian race should have achieved so many masterpieces and then have +become ineffectual. One can merely notice, whether as a cause or an +accompanying phenomenon, that, with individual exceptions,—no man could +be nobler than Michelangelo,—Italy of the High Renaissance was a great +moral failure. In intellectual achievement the Italians eclipsed the +world; in morality they stumbled about like blind men. This lack of +morality finds its fullest expression, at least its most conspicuous +expression, at the very time of the culmination of the arts. Let me +illustrate.</p> + +<p>The night that the Duke of Gandia, son of Pope Borgia, was murdered in +Rome (1497), a wood-seller, living beside the Tiber, saw several men +come cautiously to the river. They peered about and made a sign to some +one behind. Up came a horseman, with a dead body lying across his +horse's back, head and heels dangling down; the horse was turned rump to +the river, and two men on foot seized the body and flung it into the +water. The wood-seller was asked why he had not reported the fact. He +answered that he had seen some hundred bodies thrown into the river at +that spot, and had never heard any inquiries made. The duke's brother, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>Cæsar, was at the time believed to have done the deed, but evidence +fails.</p> + +<p>The same Cæsar Borgia, bearing the somewhat ambitious motto <i>Aut Cæsar +aut nihil</i>, energetic, ruthless, vigorous, ingenious, and plausible, +embodied the Italian conception of what a political leader should be; so +much so, that Machiavelli, the greatest of Italian political writers, +cites him as a model. Machiavelli was a patriot, animated by real love +of his country, but he was free from our conceptions of morality, or +perhaps sceptical of Italian virtue, and believed that the achievement +of liberating Italy from foreign tyranny could only be accomplished by +the qualities of an Iago. In the chapter in "The Prince" entitled "In +what manner Princes should keep faith," he says: "How praiseworthy it is +for a Prince to keep faith, to practise integrity and eschew trickery, +everybody knows; nevertheless, within our own lifetime and our own +experience, we know that those Princes have done great things who have +made small account of good faith and have known how to turn men's heads +by means of trickery, and in the end have surpassed those who planted +themselves on loyalty.... Therefore a prudent lord ought not to keep +faith, when keeping faith would make against him, and the reasons which +made him promise are no more. If men were all good this precept would +not be good; but as they are bad and would not keep faith with you, you, +too, ought not to keep faith with them; and a Prince will never lack +legitimate reasons to colour the breach.... I shall even make bold to +say this, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>that to have certain moral qualities and always observe them +is bad, but to seem to have them is good; as to seem to be pious, +faithful, kind, religious, honest, or even to be so, provided your mind +be so adjusted that, in case of need, you will know how to be the +opposite. For you must know that a Prince, and especially a newly +crowned Prince, cannot do all the things for which men are esteemed +good, for, in order to maintain the state, they are often obliged to act +contrary to humanity, contrary to charity, contrary to religion; +therefore, he must have a mind prompt to veer with the wind and the +fluctuations of fortune; and, as I have said, not to forsake the good, +if may be, but to know how to cleave to evil, if he must."</p> + +<p>Another illustration shall be the life of Pietro Aretino (1492-1557), +born the child of an artist's model in a hospital at Arezzo, who, by wit +and infinite impudence, by toadying, bullying, and blackmail, worked his +way to such a position that he could say, "Without serving courts I have +compelled the great world, dukes, princes, kings, to pay tribute to my +genius." Once a pious lady, the Marchesa di Pesaro, remonstrated with +him upon his life, and bade him mend his ways. He wrote back: "I must +say that I am not less useful to the world, or less pleasing to Jesus, +spending my vigils upon trifles than if I had employed them on works of +piety. But why do I do this? If princes were as devout as I am needy, my +pen would write nothing but <i>misereres</i>.... Let us see. I have a friend +named Brucioli, who dedicated his translation of the Bible to the Most +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>Christian King [of France]. Four years passed and he got no answer. On +the other hand, my comedy, 'The Courtesan,' won a rich necklace from +this same king; so that my Courtesan would have felt tempted to make fun +of the Old Testament, if that were not a trifle unbecoming. Forgive me +lady for the jests I have written, not from malice, but for a +livelihood. All the world does not possess the inspiration of divine +grace. Music and comedy are to us what prayer and preaching are to you. +May Jesus grant you His grace to get for me from Sebastiano di Pesaro +[her husband?] the rest of the money of which I have only received +thirty scudi; for this I am in anticipation your debtor." Of Pietro +Aretino a recent Italian critic says: "His memory is infamous; no +gentleman would mention his name before a lady." Yet, perhaps, we may +doubt if he was peculiarly bad; he possessed the cynical views of +morality current at the time. Aretino made a fortune, received +knighthood from the Pope, nearly obtained a cardinal's hat, and was +painted by Titian.</p> + +<p>The following anecdote is taken from the autobiography of the famous +goldsmith and sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71). He was travelling +on a sort of canal boat on his way from Venice to Florence. "We went to +lodge for the night in an inn on this side of Chioggia, on the left as +we were approaching Ferrara. Our host wished to be paid, according to +his custom, before we went to bed. I told him that in other places it +was the custom to pay in the morning, but he said, 'I wish to be paid, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>according to my way, in the evening.' I replied that men who wanted +their own special way would have to make a world to suit their special +way, because in this world that was not the way things were done. The +host answered that I need not vex my wits, for he wished to do according +to his way. My companion was trembling for fear, and poked me to be +quiet lest the host do worse; so we paid him, according to his way, and +went to bed. We had excellent new beds, everything new, spick and span; +in spite of this I did not sleep a wink, thinking all night long what I +could do to revenge myself; first I thought of setting fire to the +house, next of cutting the throats of the four good horses that he had +in his stable; I could see that this would be easy to do, but not how it +would be easy for me and my companion to escape afterwards. At last I +hit on a plan. In the morning I put my companion and all the things into +the canal boat. When the horses were hitched to the rope that pulled the +boat, I said that they must not start the boat till I got back, as I had +left a pair of slippers in my room.... When I got in the room I took my +knife, which was sharp as a razor, and I cut the mattresses on the four +beds to little bits, so that I knew I had done more than fifty scudi +worth of damage." Throughout a delightful autobiography, which we need +not accept too literally, Cellini exhibits a perfectly unmoral +disposition, a mind with no sense of social law and no respect for +anything except Michelangelo and art.</p> + +<p>These four men, Cæsar Borgia, Machiavelli, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>Aretino, and Cellini, +possessed fortitude, energy, subtlety, and courage, but they showed no +appreciation of the fundamental social virtues, loyalty, trust, +subordination of self to the general good; and for this reason they +enable us to understand why Italy fell like a ripe apple, without +resistance, into the lap of foreigners and lay helpless under Jesuit, +inquisitor, petty duke, and Spanish viceroy, and why freedom to think +and freedom to act faded from art and intellectual life as well as from +political life.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h3>A SURVEY OF ITALY (1580-1581)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>At the end of the sixteenth century Italy is well under way on a new +stretch of history, which lasted until the nineteenth century. Except +Venice, always individual, and the Papacy, freshly revivified, Italy has +lost all moral force, and become wholly effeminate. In twenty-five years +three hundred and twenty-six volumes of sonnets were published. Her +political life has become what one may call grand-ducal; her religion +formal, superstitious; her literature affected, stilted; her +architecture Baroque; her painting and sculpture steeped in mannerism +and exaggeration. Nevertheless, Italy is Italy, and has her own charm, +her own individuality, her own coquetry. As formerly she lured Barbarian +nations, so now she lures individual Barbarians, and becomes the +roaming-ground of travellers. She seems less a real country than a +theatre, where rococo dukes, cavaliers, and ladies curl their hair and +powder their cheeks.</p> + +<p>For two centuries this artificial existence continued. Its history is +not to be found in the solemn volumes of Cesare Cantù, Carlo Botta, or +other Italian historians, but in the journals of German, French, and +English travellers: for during these centuries Italy was not a country +in either a political or a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>sentimental sense; it was a place of +recreation for gentlemen on the grand tour, pious folk bound Romeward, +virtuosi seeking classical remains, and elderly statesmen hoping to cure +the gout. The several petty states were so many artificial gardens, +where the peasants wore pretty costumes, the dukes sang prize songs, the +duchesses trilled <i>tra la la</i> in rival endeavour, and the ecclesiastics +trolled out the chorus. It was the Italian opera bouffe on the most +charming stage in the world. The best summary of the history of the +coming century will be a series of extracts from the diary of a +keen-witted French gentleman, travelling for pleasure, Michel de +Montaigne, who, in the company of some friends, spent several months in +Italy (1580-81). They crossed the Alps over the Brenner Pass and went by +way of Trent. Montaigne's diary is sometimes written in the second and +sometimes in the third person. He describes many of the principal +cities.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Verona</span> (within the territory of the Republic of Venice). +"Without health certificates which they had got at Trent they could not +have entered the city, although there was no rumour of any danger of +pest; but it is the custom (in order to cheat us of the few pennies they +cost). We went to see the cathedral, where Montaigne deemed the +behaviour of the men at High Mass very peculiar; they chatted even in +the choir of the church, standing up, with their hats on and their backs +turned to the altar, and did not seem to pay any attention to the +service except on the elevation of the Host. There were organs and +violins to accompany the mass.... <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>We went to see the castle and were +shown all over by the lieutenant in charge. The [Venetian] government +keeps sixty soldiers there, rather, according to what they said to +Montaigne, against the people of the city than against foreigners. We +also saw a congregation of monks called the Gesuati of St. Jerome [not +Jesuits]. They are not priests; they neither say mass nor preach; most +of them are ignorant, but they carry on a business of distilling +lemon-flower water, both in Verona and elsewhere. They are dressed in +white, with little white caps, and a dark brown gown over it; +good-looking young men." They visited the Ghetto (Jews' quarter), and +the Roman amphitheatre, which Montaigne thought the noblest building he +had ever seen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vicenza.</span> "It is a big city, a little smaller than Verona, all +full of palaces of the nobility." The fair, which was held twice a year, +was going on upon the parade-ground; booths had been built on purpose, +and no shops in the city were allowed to keep open. In the town there +was another establishment of the Gesuati, selling their perfumes and +also medicines for every ailment. "These monks tell us that they whip +themselves every day; each one has his switch at his post in the +oratory, where they meet at certain hours of the day and pray, but they +have no singing.... The old wine has given out, which vexed me, as it is +not good for me, on account of my colic, to drink the new wines, though +they are very good in their way." From Vicenza they journeyed by a broad +straight road, ditched on either side and raised a little, which ran +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>through a fertile champaign with mountains in the distance, to +<span class="smcap">Padua</span>. The inns here could not be compared with German inns +except that they were cheaper by a third. "The streets narrow and ugly, +not many people, few handsome houses. We went about all the next day and +saw the schools of fencing, dancing, and riding, where there were more +than a hundred French gentlemen together." In fact, young men went in +great numbers, young Frenchmen in particular, to the schools of Padua, +less to acquire a knowledge of books than to acquire the accomplishments +which were then the mode. One of Montaigne's party stopped here and +found good lodging for seven crowns a month, and "he might have lodged a +valet for five crowns more; ordinarily, however, they do not have +valets, only a general servant for the house, or else maids; every one +has a nice bedroom, but fire and lights in the bedroom are extra. The +accommodation was very good, and you can live there very reasonably, and +that, I think, is the reason why many strangers go there to live, even +those who are not students."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Venice.</span> Here he dined with the French ambassador "very well;" +among other things "that the ambassador told him this seemed odd, that +he had no social relations whatever with anybody in the city, because +the people were so suspicious that a [Venetian] gentleman who should +speak to him twice would fall under distrust." One is inclined, however, +considering the fate of Milan, to regard a certain distrust of +foreigners as not unnatural. Montaigne thought that the four most +remarkable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>things about Venice were the situation, the police, the +Piazza of St. Mark's, and the crowds of foreigners. He received as a +gift a little book of "Letters" from a Venetian lady, one of that +celebrated class of Venetian women who were outside the matrimonial pale +yet lived in ostentatious luxury, recognized by the government and by +masculine society. This lady at mid-life had changed her ways and +devoted herself to literature, and hearing of the famous French author, +sent him her book.</p> + +<p>Returning by way of Padua, Montaigne passed the sulphur springs, +frequented in May and August by the fashionable sick, who took mud or +vapour baths and drank the waters. He noted the canals; the system of +irrigation in the plains, where rows of vine-laden trees intersected +fields of wheat; the big, strong, gray oxen; the broad mud flats, once +swamps, which the government was struggling to reclaim.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rovigo</span>, a little town in Venetian territory near the Adige. +"There is as great abundance of meat here as in France, whatever it may +be the custom to say, and though they use no lard for the roast, they do +not take away the savour. The bedrooms, because there is no glass and +they don't shut the windows, are not so clean as in France; the beds are +better made, smoother, and well supplied with mattresses, but they have +nothing but coarse coverings, and they are very sparing of white sheets; +if a man travels alone, or with little style, he won't get any. It is +about as dear as in France, or a little dearer."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>He crossed the Po, as he had crossed the Adige, upon some kind of +pontoon bridge, and went on to</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferrara</span> (duchy of Ferrara), where he was delayed on account of +his health certificate. The ducal regulations on this point were very +particular. On the door of every room in the inn was written up, +"Remember the health certificate;" immediately on arrival, names of +travellers were reported to the magistrates. Montaigne found most of the +streets broad and straight, all paved with bricks; there were many +palaces, but few people, and he missed the porticos of Padua, so +convenient against the rain. He <i>did</i> the town, paid his respects to the +duke, saw Tasso in the madhouse, and found the lemon-flower distilling +Gesuates again.</p> + +<p>At <span class="smcap">Bologna</span> (in the Papal States), a large, fine city, bigger +than Ferrara, and with many more people; he also found young Frenchmen +come to learn riding and fencing. He admired the fine porticos, that +covered almost every sidewalk, the handsome palaces, the buildings of +the <i>School of Sciences</i>, the bronze statue of Neptune designed by John +of Bologna, and enjoyed a company of players. "The cost of living was +about the same as at Padua, very reasonable; but the city is less +peaceful in the older quarters, which make debatable land between the +partisans of different nations, on one side always the French, and on +the other the Spaniards, who are there in great numbers."</p> + +<p>This unpeaceful and factional condition was not confined to Bologna, but +spread throughout the Papal States. Even fifty years later a perplexed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>visitor to Ravenna wrote: "The city is divided, as you know, into +Guelfs and Ghibellines, so much so that one man won't go to another's +church, and each side has its place in the public square; a tailor who +works for one need not look for employment from the other, and so with +all the trades; they distinguish one faction from the other by the way +they wear their hair, their caps," etc. But these pale shadows of the +great old parties were slight inconveniences compared with the banditti, +who also decked themselves with old names, and, under pretence of +fighting one another, robbed, burnt, pillaged, and murdered with perfect +impartiality. The soldiers and the common people united against these +rascals, but they were too strong to be utterly extirpated. In the Papal +States, one Piccolomini, a member of a famous Sienese family, raided +where he chose, and once led a band of two hundred men within a mile or +two of the walls of Rome. Terms were made with him, for he was under the +protection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and although he confessed to +three hundred and seventy murders within twenty-five years, he was +pardoned and absolved.</p> + +<p>Leaving Bologna, Montaigne hesitated in his choice of roads on account +of brigands, and chose wisely for he was not molested. He crossed the +Apennines by a road, which he says is the first that could be called +bad, and entered the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. One village on the way, +still in papal territory, was famous for the knavery of the innkeepers, +who made wonderful promises till the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>traveller was safely housed, and +then rendered the scantest performance. At the next village, which was +in Tuscany, rival hosts rode out to meet the traveller, and struggled to +secure him, promising everything. One offered to serve a rabbit for +dinner free, if Montaigne would lodge with him. The party prudently rode +about to all the inns on a tour of inspection, examining food and wine, +and making their bargain before dismounting; the host, however, managed +to put extras on the bill, it being impossible to remember beforehand +every item, wood, candles, linen, hay, etc.</p> + +<p>Next day Montaigne rode out of his way to see Pratolino, the Grand +Duke's famous country place, with its gardens, alleys, wonderful +grottos, all decked with Nereids and Tritons, and fountains of +extravagant baroque designs. From there he went on to</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Florence</span>, which appeared to him smaller than Ferrara. He went +to see the ducal stables, the ducal menagerie, Michelangelo's statues, +Giotto's campanile; and remarked that he had never seen a country with +so few handsome women as Italy. Lodgings were inferior in comfort to +those in France, and the food was far less generous and less well served +than in Germany, where, also, sauces and seasonings were far superior; +the windows were big and always open, for there was no glass, and if the +shutters were shut they excluded light and air as well as wind; the beds +were uncomfortable, the wines too sweet; moreover, Florence was esteemed +the most expensive city in Italy.</p> + +<p>Montaigne dined with the duke, Francesco I (son <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>of Cosimo I), and his +second wife, Bianca Cappello, the famous Venetian, who sat at the head +of the table. She had a pleasant face, was reputed handsome, and seemed +to have been able to keep her husband devoted to her for a long time. +The duke mixed water freely with his wine; she scarcely at all. After a +brief stay, during which he visited gardens and the environs of the +city, which he admired greatly, Montaigne rode southward to</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Siena.</span> The country was cultivated everywhere and tolerably +fertile, but the road was rough and stony. At Siena he notes the Duomo, +the palaces, the <i>piazza</i>, the fountains, and, important point, that +"there are good cellars and fresh;" also, that in Tuscany the city walls +are let go to ruin, while the citadels are carefully fortified and no +one is permitted to go near, showing that the duke feared domestic +insurrection more than foreign attack. He observes "the French are kept +in such affectionate remembrance here by the people of the country, that +at any mention of them tears well up in their eyes, for war itself, with +freedom in some form, seems to them sweeter than the peace which they +enjoy under this tyranny." The French had aided Siena in its brave +struggle for liberty, and a valiant remnant of French and Sienese had +held out till the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), when France +abandoned them to Cosimo dei Medici.</p> + +<p>From Siena he rode southward past Bolsena, Viterbo, and a pleasant +valley surrounded by hills covered with wood, "a commodity somewhat rare +in this country." Incidentally he commends the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>customs: in good houses +dinner was served at two o'clock and supper at nine; and if there was a +play, it began at six and was over by supper time. "It is a good country +for a lazy fellow for they get up late."</p> + +<p>At <span class="smcap">Rome</span> he put up for a day at the <i>Bear</i>, and then took +lodgings, three good bedrooms, parlour, dining-room, kitchen, and +stable, for twenty crowns a month, the host providing the cook and fire +for the kitchen. "Apartments are ordinarily somewhat better furnished +than in Paris, especially as they have a great deal of gilt leather, +with which the walls of apartments of a certain grade are hung." He +might have hired another apartment for the same price, furnished in silk +and cloth of gold, but he did not think this luxury suitable, and the +rooms were not so convenient. Ancient Rome impressed him immensely, and +the modern city, too; he was astonished by the papal court, the number +of prelates, the crowd of ecclesiasts, by the streets, so full of richly +dressed men, of horses and coaches.</p> + +<p>Making a comparison between freedom in Venice and in Rome, he argued for +Venice, and adduced these reasons: "Item, that in Rome houses were so +insecure, that those who had considerable sums of money were advised to +leave their purses at their bankers, so as not to find their chest +broken open; item, that it was not very safe to go out at night; item, +that, in the very first month of his visit, the General of the +Cordeliers was abruptly dismissed from his post and put in prison, +because in a sermon, which he preached before the Pope [Gregory XIII] +and the cardinals, he had accused prelates of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>laziness and luxury, but +without going into details, and using (with some asperity of voice) only +perfectly common and current phrases on the subject; item, that his +luggage had been examined on entering the city for the customs, and had +been ransacked down to the smallest article of clothing, whereas in most +of the other cities in Italy the officials had been satisfied with the +mere offer to submit to examination; besides that, they had taken all +the books they found in order to examine them, and took so long about +it, that a man who had something to do might put them down as lost; add +to that, that their rules were so extraordinary that the 'Book of Hours +of Our Lady' fell under their suspicion, because it came from Paris and +not from Rome, and they also kept books, written by some German doctors +against heretics, because in combating them they made mention of their +errors."</p> + +<p>On Christmas day at St. Peter's during mass, Montaigne "was surprised to +see Pope, cardinals, and other prelates, seated almost all through the +mass, talking and conversing together. The ceremony seemed more +magnificent than devotional." He obtained an interview with the Pope, +very ceremonious; and dined with a French cardinal, where the +<i>benedicite</i> and repetitions of grace, very long, were recited +antiphonally by two chaplains. During dinner the Bible was read, and +after the table was cleared, service was held; everything was +exceedingly formal, but the <i>chef</i> does not appear to have equalled +Cardinal Caraffa's <i>chef</i>, a culinary enthusiast, with whom Montaigne +had a long talk on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>sauces, soups, and serving. Montaigne attended the +Carnival sports on the Corso, a festival already at that time more than +a hundred years old, where boys, Jews, old men, horses, asses, and +buffalo ran races; fair ladies, without masks, looked on, and young +cavaliers congregated where the ladies could see them; the ladies were +richly clad, the gentlemen simply; and (Montaigne adds) the appearance +of the dukes, counts, and marquesses was not equal to their titles.</p> + +<p>Montaigne's "Essays" had been submitted to the Master of the Palace, who +examined them with the aid of a French friar, for the Master knew no +French. After a delay they were returned, and the Master left it to +Montaigne's conscience to alter what might seem to be in bad taste, +especially in those points to which the French friar objected; item, +that Montaigne had used the word <i>Fortune</i>; item, that he had named +poets who were heretics; item, that he had made an apology for Julian +the Apostate; item, that he had suggested that when a man was saying his +prayers he ought at that moment to be free from any unworthy +inclination; item, that he judged any punishment in excess of death, +cruelty; item, that a child should be educated to do all sorts of +things, etc. Another book belonging to Montaigne, a history of the +Swiss, was confiscated, because the translator was a heretic.</p> + +<p>On Maundy Thursday he saw the Pope come forth on the balcony of St. +Peter's attended by his cardinals. On one side a canon, speaking Latin; +on the other, a cardinal read, in Italian, a long bull which +excommunicated an everlasting list of people, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>including the Huguenots +and all princes who withheld any portion of the territory of the Church. +At this last article Cardinals Medici and Caraffa laughed heartily. At +night there was a great procession of religious guilds, with twelve +thousand torches, including files of Penitents, who scourged their bare +backs till the blood ran. Montaigne, however, was of opinion that these +Penitents were hired for this purpose. He agreed with the French +ambassador, that the poor people were incomparably more devout in France +than here, but that in Rome the rich, and especially the courtiers, were +more devout than in France.</p> + +<p>From Rome Montaigne made his way northward by <span class="smcap">Spoleto</span>, where +there was great alarm caused by a noted brigand. On the way he notes his +food,—salt fish, beans uncooked, artichokes also uncooked, peas, green +almonds, eggs, cheese, wine, and, in little places, olive oil instead of +butter. "You meet monks every now and then who give holy water to +travellers and expect alms in return, and a lot of children who beg and +hold out their beads, promising to say a string of paternosters for the +person who will give them something."</p> + +<p>The Umbrian plain was beautiful and fertile, with grains and fruits in +abundance, the whole country rich beyond description. So, too, had been +the Roman Campagna, but that was not tenanted, for its owners, the Roman +barons, had let it to merchant farmers, who did not maintain peasants +there, but in harvest time hired husbandmen from all over Italy, to the +number of forty thousand, to gather <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>in the crops. From <span class="smcap">Foligno</span> +he turned to the right and crossed the Apennines just below Assisi, and +travelled toward the Adriatic coast, making a pilgrimage to +<span class="smcap">Loreto</span>, a place like Lourdes, celebrated for its miracles, and +for the "very same little house in which Jesus Christ was born in +Nazareth." Here he found the people much more religious than elsewhere; +even the attendants in the Church were ready to do anything, and would +accept no tips. Thence he went to <span class="smcap">Ancona</span>, <span class="smcap">Sinigaglia</span>, +<span class="smcap">Urbino</span>, where he inspected the famous palace begun by Federigo +da Montefeltro; then back to <span class="smcap">Florence</span>, once more to admire the +beautiful villas which decked the hills round about, and on to +<span class="smcap">Prato</span> and <span class="smcap">Pistoia</span>, stagnating little towns, whose +civic life had been crushed out by the Medici. So he rode on through +lovely country, where long lines of little trees, trellised with vines, +divided the rich fields of grain, skirting the hills covered with olive, +mulberry, and chestnut, till he reached <span class="smcap">Lucca</span>, which had saved +itself from the clutch of the Medici by clinging to the skirts of +Austria.</p> + +<p>Lucca, girdled by fortifications worthy of a most martial ardour, +maintained a comfortable prosperity by the manufacture of silk; but +here, as elsewhere, it was becoming unfashionable to engage in trade, +partly on account of decreasing returns and the general waning of +energy, and partly from Spanish influences. Gentlemen retired from +business, invested their money in landed estates, and were rapidly +tending to become the characters which we find in Goldoni's comedies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>From Lucca Montaigne went to the <span class="smcap">Baths of Lucca</span> and took the +cure for near two months. He found the country lovely, but society a +little slow; most of the men were apothecaries. After the cure he made +another tour southward, then back to Lucca for more baths, from there +northward, on the road to Milan, stopping at <span class="smcap">Pontremoli</span>. At the +inn in this place, the dinner began with cheese <i>alla milanese</i>, +included a dish of olives, their pits taken out, dressed with oil and +vinegar <i>alla genovese</i>; on a bench stood one basin in which all the +guests washed their hands in the same water, <i>alla pontremolese</i>. From +there he crossed the Apennines, where the mountaineers, horrid people, +charged them most cruel prices, and went on into the duchy of Parma, +where Alessandro Farnese, the great general, was the reigning duke. At +<span class="smcap">Piacenza</span>, the King of Spain, out of his abundant caution, still +maintained a Spanish garrison in the castle, "badly paid as they told +me." Thence they proceeded into the duchy of Milan.</p> + +<p>At <span class="smcap">Pavia</span> Montaigne remarks, that from Rome northward the best +inn he had lodged at was the <i>Post</i> at Piacenza, and the worst the +<i>Falcon</i> at Pavia: "You pay extra for wood, and there are no mattresses +on the beds." <span class="smcap">Milan</span> was the largest city in Italy, not unlike +Paris, full of merchandise and craftsmen; it lacked the palaces of other +cities, but in size excelled them all, and in throng of people rivalled +Venice.</p> + +<p>From Milan he rode westward, and entered the domains of the Duke of +Savoy, crossing the Sesia <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>near Vercelli, where the duke was building a +fort in such haste, that he aroused the suspicion of his Spanish +neighbours. Thence he went to <span class="smcap">Turin</span>. Here the people imitated +French ways, looked up to Paris, usually spoke French, or rather French +words with Italian pronunciation, and altogether seemed very devoted to +France. Montaigne liked Piedmont, finding the inns there better than +elsewhere in Italy. The bread was bad but the wine good, there was +plenty to eat, and the innkeepers were polite. He crossed the Alps over +the Mt. Cenis Pass, half the time on horseback, half the time in a +chaise borne by four porters, and then entered Savoy proper, passing its +capital, Chambéri, crossing the Rhone to the north and then the little +river Ain to the westward, and came to <span class="smcap">Montluel</span>, the last town +of Savoy, and so on to the Saône, Lyons, and French soil (November, +1581).</p> + +<p>Such was the Italy of the long period from 1580 to 1789, the land of +olives, mulberries, and chestnuts, of fertile fields crossed by +vine-laden trees, of irrigated plains and treeless mountains, of +innkeepers, good, bad, and indifferent, of Spanish garrisons, ducal +citadels, and dare-devil banditti, of begging urchins, perfuming friars, +of gentlemen too genteel to work, of prelates in coaches, of antique +ruins and Renaissance glory, of blue sky and vivacious manners, in +short, almost the Italy that our fathers knew before the perturbations +of 1848.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + +<h3>THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS (1580-1789)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We have now reached a period of comparative stability in which dukes, +viceroys, oligarchs, and Popes sit settled in their respective dominions +with a security that appears a little tame after the whir and uproar of +Barbarian invasion. To be sure, the wars between Spain, France, and +Austria, waged first to abate the over-greatness of the House of +Hapsburg and afterwards that of the House of Bourbon, were often fought +out in the north of Italy; nevertheless, the period of confusion has +passed, and each principality has a consecutive political history, which +runs along for two hundred years. Our best course will be to glance at +the careers of the several states, one by one, until they reach the +tumultuous influences of the French Revolution. Venice, the noblest as +well as the most powerful, deserves to come first.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Venice</i></p> + +<p>Venice still ranked as one of the great powers of Europe; she was sought +as an ally, she took part in European counsels, and bore herself with +resolute dignity and pride. The change that was going on went on so +slowly, and her statesmen were so well trained and so far-sighted, that +her reputation remained intact after the power which had created it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>had +shrunk and dwindled. In spite of the battle of Lepanto she lost the +island of Cyprus to the Turks, but secured a peace which lasted for two +generations, a surprisingly long time, considering that the two states +were destined to fight each other till both were exhausted. She was less +successful in keeping at peace with her Christian neighbours, and became +embroiled in a celebrated quarrel with the Holy See.</p> + +<p>There was an irritating papal bull which was issued and reissued under +the stimulus of the reinvigorating Counter-Reformation, entitled <i>In +Coena Domini</i> (for the Lord's Supper), usually read on Maundy Thursday. +It was probably the very bull that Montaigne heard read from the balcony +of St. Peter's. This bull asserted papal claims of extreme character, +not unworthy of Boniface VIII, and, in fact, revealed complete +consciousness of renewed youth and vitality. Other states in Italy bowed +and accepted, or pretended to accept, this declaration of papal +authority; but Venice refused to publish the bull. In fact, though +Venice had always professed great respect for the Holy See, she had been +consistently self-willed and opposed to papal pretensions, and likewise +somewhat free-thinking. Moreover, there had been festering disagreements +concerning territory and politics. Venice insisted upon the right to tax +Church property within the state, and to try priests charged with crime +before her lay tribunals. Acting upon the latter right she arrested and +tried two priests guilty of crime. This action traversed the doctrine +laid down in the papal bull. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>The Pope put Venice under an interdict +(1606). In retaliation the Signory issued a decree of banishment against +all priests and monks who should obey the interdict. Various Orders +quitted the city. The Pope stood firm in his position that "there could +be no true piety without entire submission to the spiritual power." All +Europe looked on, the Protestants backing Venice, the Catholics +supporting the Pope. War was in the air; but the danger of a European +<i>mêlée</i> was too great. The French King, Henry IV, enacted the +peacemaker; and the forces in favour of compromise succeeded in +reëstablishing peace.</p> + +<p>Out of the quarrel one man issued with a noble historic reputation. Fra +Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623) was the last of the great Venetians. In boyhood +he was so precocious a scholar that at eighteen he was made professor of +Positive Theology, and, a little later, of Philosophy and of +Mathematics. Grown up, he became a man of science, the foremost of his +time excepting Francis Bacon. He discovered the valves of the veins, and +also, independently of Harvey, the circulation of the blood. He made +discoveries in optics. He studied heat, light, sound, colour, +pneumatics, the magnetic needle. In astronomy Galileo called him, "<i>il +mio padre e maestro</i>—my father and my master." Sir Henry Wotton, the +English ambassador to Venice, said, Fra Paolo is "as expert in the +history of plants as if he had never perused any book but Nature." In +addition to these achievements, he wrote a very celebrated history of +the Council of Trent. At the time of the breach with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>the Papacy, this +brilliant savant was appointed Theological Counsellor to the Republic, +and was abruptly flung into the confusion and passion of violent +political strife. Deeply patriotic,—his last thought was for Venice, +"<i>Esto perpetua</i>, may she live forever,"—he held a brief, as it were, +for his country, and as her advocate argued her cause before all Europe +with brilliant success.</p> + +<p>At this period the Venetian Signory belonged, in spirit at least, to an +international political party which was opposed to Spain and to the +Papacy, and for that reason was favoured by the French, especially when +Henry of Navarre was on the throne. In fact, this quarrel between Venice +and the Papacy may be considered an episode in the great struggle +between the party of European freedom and the tyrannical House of +Hapsburg, seated on the thrones of Spain and Austria, and supported by +the Papacy.</p> + +<p>But Venice was not able to concentrate her attention upon European +affairs. Later in the century war with the Turks was renewed; she was +too weak to resist them single-handed, and, after a struggle which +lasted for twenty-five years, she lost Crete (1669). Not many years +later, having obtained allies, she renewed the war, fought with great +gallantry, and actually conquered the Morea, which, on the conclusion of +hostilities, was ceded to her (1699). This conquest, now best remembered +from the fact that in the attack on Athens a Venetian bomb blew up the +Parthenon, was the last great military exploit of the Venetians, and +within twenty years the Morea was lost again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>Martial vigour ebbed slowly but surely. During the war of the Spanish +Succession, when, the course of fortune having shifted, Europe combined +to resist the overbearing power of Louis XIV and the House of Bourbon, +Venice remained neutral. Like an old dog which has fought many good +fights in its youth and prime, and now, lame and scarred, maintains a +dignified abstention from canine frays, Venice lay back. In 1718, after +the war with Turkey in which she lost the Morea, she took part in the +treaty between Austria and Turkey. This was her last active diplomatic +intervention in the affairs of Europe. She had lost Cyprus, Crete, the +Morea; and now her province in Italy, bits of Illyria, and some of the +Ionian Islands, alone remained from her old empire. She shut her eyes to +the past, and concentrated her attention on making her beautiful city +"the revel of the earth, the masque of Italy." On the eve of the mighty +upheaval of the French Revolution, her old sea glory flashed up under +her last great admiral, Angelo Emo (1731-92), who cleared the seas of +the Algerine pirates; but it was too late, Venice had run her course, +and the end was at hand.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Spanish Provinces</i></p> + +<p>West of Venetian territory, the unfortunate duchy of Milan fulfilled its +melancholy lot of being the prize possessed by Spain, yet coveted and +fought for by France. Its history takes no special hold upon the memory. +Against a constant background of French ambition (Richelieu, Mazarin, +Louis XIV), <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>the Spanish governors step forward upon the Milanese stage, +levy taxes, scheme how to circumvent the French, and how to extend +Spanish dominion, and then go home, a little richer but without leaving +any definite impression on the page of history except as they have +served to create the scenes depicted in the romantic novel "I Promessi +Sposi." One has a vague idea of ceremony, bows, obeisances, ignorance, +rapacity, and cruelty, but the idea is nebulous, and we need not stop.</p> + +<p>Leaving local affairs aside, we will proceed at once to see how the +titles to Milan and other Spanish provinces in Italy passed from Spain +into other hands. History here acts as an attorney and coldly records +the transfer from one monarch to another. Like lots of land the +provinces of Italy were bartered and granted in consideration of war, +dynastic love, and affection, or for the sake of the political +equilibrium of Europe. The great Powers fell to blows over the +succession to the crown of Spain (1700-14), to the crown of Poland +(1733-35), and other matters in which Italy had no voluntary concern; +and, after years of war, made treaties to reëstablish European +equilibrium by an elaborate system of weights and counterweights. Where +the balances hung unevenly, a province of Italy was thrown in to restore +them to a level. In this way Milan, Parma, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia +were disposed of. All we need do is to remember that in place of +conveyances there were treaties, and in place of offer, counter-offer, +haggling, and bargaining, there were battles, sieges, devastation, and +pillage.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>The records of conveyances in the office of history read as follows:—</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="75%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png 356"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="20%">LOT</td> + <td class="tdl" width="30%">GRANTOR</td> + <td class="tdl" width="30%">GRANTEE</td> + <td class="tdc" width="20%">DATE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Milan</td> + <td class="tdl">Spain</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdc">1713</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Naples</td> + <td class="tdl">Spain</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdc">1713</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Naples</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdl">Spanish Bourbons</td> + <td class="tdc">1738</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sicily</td> + <td class="tdl">Spain</td> + <td class="tdl">Savoy</td> + <td class="tdc">1713</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sicily</td> + <td class="tdl">Savoy</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdc">1720</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sicily</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdl">Spanish Bourbons</td> + <td class="tdc">1738</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Parma</td> + <td class="tdl">Spanish Bourbons</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdc">1738</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Parma</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdl">Spanish Bourbons</td> + <td class="tdc">1748</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sardinia</td> + <td class="tdl">Spain</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdc">1713</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sardinia</td> + <td class="tdl">Austria</td> + <td class="tdl">Savoy</td> + <td class="tdc">1720</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>Milan was subject to only one transfer, from Spain to Austria, by the +treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt (1713-14), which closed the war of the +Spanish Succession. Those same treaties took Naples and the island of +Sardinia from Spain and gave them to Austria, and also took Sicily from +Spain and gave it to Savoy. Spain, however, was dissatisfied, and +attempted to recover what she had lost; but a new European coalition +forced her to renounce her claim. In the general pacification after the +war, for the purpose of making a more satisfactory arrangement, Sardinia +was exchanged for Sicily, giving Sardinia to Savoy and Sicily to Austria +(1720). Finally, after the war of the Polish Succession by the Peace of +Vienna (1738), Austria ceded Naples and Sicily to younger sons of the +royal family of Spain, the Spanish Bourbons, on condition that those +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>provinces should never be united with the crown of Spain, and received +in exchange the little duchy of Parma, which had fallen to a Spanish +Bourbon on the extinction of the Farnesi. But ten years later, at the +close of the war of the Austrian Succession, Austria ceded Parma back +again to other members of the Spanish Bourbon family.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Tuscany</i></p> + +<p>Another paragraph is necessary to complete the Austrification and the +Spanification of Italy. The Medici of Tuscany died out. After the first +Grand Duke, Cosimo, six successors had followed, dwindling away in +incapacity, luxury, and bigotry. The last died in 1737. Then, by virtue +of that general reapportionment after the war of the Polish Succession, +the Grand Duchy was handed over to the Duke of Lorraine, husband of +Maria Theresa, of the House of Hapsburg, Empress of Austria, and became +an appanage of the Austrian Empire, under the rule of the younger sons +of the Imperial house. It is a relief to turn from these Austrian and +Spanish provinces to the two living powers, Savoy and the Papacy.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Savoy</i></p> + +<p>It would be impossible to chronicle here the history of the Savoyard +dukes, who were advanced to the title of Kings of Sardinia after the +acquisition of that island. Savoy lay in the way of the three fighting +nations, France, Spain, and Austria. The plain of Piedmont was an +admirable fighting-ground, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>the combatants chose it on all possible +occasions, but it would not be fair to charge the whole blame upon those +three nations. The Dukes of Savoy were ambitious men, full of all sorts +of schemes for increasing their dominions and their personal glory. +Whenever any one of them thought he perceived an opportunity to seize +some neighbouring territory, he caught at it, reckless of collision with +his powerful neighbours. The general upshot was that Savoy lost its old +Swiss provinces and its old French provinces, and that Piedmont became +the head and front of the new Kingdom of Sardinia. Equally important to +Italy was the fact that, while the people of the other Italian provinces +became more and more incapable of bearing arms or of making any real +martial effort, the people of Piedmont gradually became a nation of +soldiers. In devastation, war, and apparent ruin, Piedmontese valour and +Piedmontese character were trained and developed, and Piedmont little by +little came to feel, and likewise to impress upon the other Italian +States, that she, and she alone, was the refuge and hope of whatever +Italian patriotism might still exist.</p> +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>The Papacy</i></p> + +<p>The Papacy we left at the end of the sixteenth century in the full flood +of revival. The Popes were swept on by the tide. The bold and successful +front opposed to the enemy was supplemented by discipline within. Heresy +was traced and tracked. Inquisitors roamed about, spying what they +might; they frightened the learned from publishing, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>printers from +printing, and almost all from freedom of talk and thought. Thus traitors +were rooted out. And at the same time faithful soldiers of the Church +were trained and educated. Seminaries for priests of divers nations were +founded in Rome; Jesuit schools were helped everywhere. Sixtus V (Felice +Peretti), 1585-90, was a Pope worthy of the great period. He entertained +a plan to reconquer Egypt, and make the Mediterranean and Red Seas a +high-road for armies and navies that should break up the Ottoman power. +He attacked the banditti of the Papal State, as his predecessors had +attacked the barons, and, for a time at least, suppressed them. He was a +great builder; he completed the dome of St. Peter's, set up the Egyptian +obelisk in the <i>piazza</i> before the cathedral, substituted statues of St. +Peter and St. Paul in place of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius on the tops of +the two great bronze columns that adorn the Foro Trajano and the Piazza +Colonna. He brought fresh water, named after him Acqua Felice, into the +city from over twenty miles away, and gave Rome an aspect worthy of the +capital of the Latin world. He fixed seventy for the number of +cardinals; he revised the Vulgate; and pondered many great designs, for +which, as he said, his strength would have been inadequate, even had he +lived.</p> + +<p>But these Popes of the Revival, who carried into effect the papal +principles of the Council of Trent, vigorous, and in many respects +admirable, as they were, need not detain us, for the history of the +Papacy in this period scarcely belongs to Italy. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>has a far wider +reach, and is intimately bound up with the great Catholic, one might say +the great Latin, effort to restore or extend Catholicism and Latin +supremacy throughout the world. In the British Isles, in Scandinavia, in +Poland, in Russia, in Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland, the +Church fought with the old Roman spirit of conquest. Everywhere the +Jesuit fathers went, busy, devoted, heroic. The ardour of St. Francis +Xavier, the self-abnegation of St. Francis de Sales, the passionate +mysticism of St. Theresa, infected and controlled thousands of +disciples. Everywhere were great manifestations of activity. In South +America there were bishops and archbishops, hundreds of monasteries and +innumerable priests. In Mexico there were schools of theology. In India, +thousands and thousands of converts clustered around the city of Goa. In +China and Japan the Jesuits built churches, and converted to +Christianity disciples of Confucius and Buddha. The Church had founded +an empire on which the sun never set. But our business is not with this +great Latin conquest, this great Catholic revival. We must pass on to +the next series of Popes, less memorable for their imitation of Scipio +and Cæsar, than of Lucullus and Crassus. Here we find the names of the +founders of great papal families, so familiar in Rome, not as +missionaries, teachers, or martyrs, but as owners of palaces, villas, +pictures and statues: Borghese (Paul V, 1605-21), the Pope who +quarrelled with the Venetian Republic; Ludovisi (Gregory XV, 1621-23), +in whose pontificate the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (College for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>Propagating the Faith) was established; Barberini (Urban VIII, 1623-44), +whose family, famous from the squib "Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecerunt +Barberini," built its palaces out of Roman ruins. During the pontificate +of Barberini, Galileo was brought before the Holy Office, and his +opinion that the earth moved condemned as "absurd, false in philosophy, +and essentially heretical."</p> + +<p>Under his successor Panfili (Innocent X, 1644-55), Catholic Europe +stopped fighting Protestant Europe, and the Thirty Years' War was closed +by the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The Catholic Powers gave over the +attempt to reduce the Protestant States, and acknowledged their +independence. Panfili launched his bull against the treaty, but the +weary world disregarded the old man's curses. After him came Chigi +(Alexander VII, 1655-67), Rospigliosi (Clement IX, 1667-69), Odescalchi +(Innocent XI, 1676-89), whose names mean little to us.</p> + +<p>Long before this time the forces of revivification which had borne +onward and upward the Catholic counter-charge on the Protestant ranks, +had begun to fall away. The great Catholic monarchs of Europe turned +their minds to personal ambitions; the Popes squandered papal revenues +on their own families; the Jesuits loosened their rigid hold on their +once high principles. The period of reform had passed, and the Papacy +settled down into a policy of maintaining the ecclesiastical empire left +to it and of enjoying its little Italian monarchy. In politics it +pursued a shifting course towards Austria, Spain, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>and France, dictated +rather by passing fears than by wisdom or lofty ambition. At the time of +the close of the war of the Spanish Succession the Papacy was hardly +regarded as a European power. The proof of decline was most visible in +the concessions made by the Papacy to the Catholic sovereigns, by its +forced acquiescence in the repeated attacks on the Jesuits, and finally, +by its bull suppressing, or rather attempting to suppress, the Order +(1773).</p> + +<p>Throughout the eighteenth century the papal part in European affairs was +insignificant; and in Italy the general effects of papal rule were +steadily increasing poverty, superstition, and incompetence. It is a +relief to turn away, knowing that the French Revolution is blowing its +refreshing blasts ahead of us.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS (1580-1789)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>We should do wrong to leave these centuries to stand solely on their +political record. Even this dreary period has contributed not a little +to the sum of Italy's attractions. After the moral vigour of republican +Florence, after the freshness of the Renaissance and its later grandeur, +after the elegance of the courts of Urbino, Ferrara, and Milan, it +requires time to adjust ourselves to a different standard and to acquire +a relish for this period of dissipated little kings and dukes. But once +familiar with the altered standard of excellence, these centuries, with +their arts, their habits, their idleness, become exceedingly +sympathetic, and lure with peculiar dexterity the idler who seeks +entertainment and the picturesque. Not that there is no serious element +in them, for there is. Italy, though known to us through her lovers as a +woman land, has always happily commingled feminine charm and masculine +strength. Like the Apennines which stretch their grim strength from the +Alps to the toe of the peninsula, virility runs throughout the length of +Italian history, though at times it avoids notice. In this period it is +best represented by science; and we must not omit to mention a few of +the most distinguished scientific thinkers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>Giordano Bruno (1550-1600) and Campanella (1568-1639) were philosophers +rather than men of science; their philosophy ran counter to the +scholastic philosophy sanctioned by the Church, and they came into +collision with the stern spirit of the Catholic Reaction. Campanella was +persecuted and punished; Bruno was condemned as a heretic and burnt to +death in the city of Rome. Greater than either was Galileo (1564-1642), +whose name is one of the most illustrious in astronomy. He was born at +Pisa, where he was educated in the university. He devoted himself to +study, especially to mathematics, and became a professor. In 1609 he +heard that a Dutchman had made an instrument which in some way by means +of a lens magnified objects. Acting on this hint he constructed a +telescope; and, if not strictly the inventor, he was the first to use +the telescope in astronomy. The next year he made various eventful +discoveries: that there are mountains in the moon, and spots on the sun; +that Venus has phases; that Saturn has an appendage, which later was +proved to be rings; that Jupiter has four satellites, a discovery which +increased the number of heavenly bodies from the mystically sacred seven +(sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) to the +uninspiring eleven. These discoveries persuaded Galileo to adopt the +Copernican theory, and brought him into collision with the Church. Much +has been said about his cruel persecution, but he appears to have +received gentle treatment and to have undergone a merely nominal +imprisonment. Another philosopher, Vico (1668-1744), a Neapolitan, +enjoys a very high <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>reputation in Italy as a thinker. He wrote a +philosophy of history, in which he investigated the laws that govern +human progress, showed that philosophical theories must treat mankind +collectively, and anticipated Comte's theory of the three stages of +social development.</p> + +<p>Science is not the characteristic trait of this period; for that is to +be found in the arts or in the pleasant enervating lassitude of life. In +the grand-ducal atmosphere there is a sense of having browsed on +lotus-flowers. As we glance back on the great centuries, their efforts +look splendid, their high purposes noble, their infinite curiosity +commendable, but we are content to sit in a ducal garden, to listen to +the Tritons spout into the fountains, to sip chocolate, to meditate +sonnets to a partner for the minuet, to gossip about "His Highness and +Contessa B——, who, so that young <i>milord</i>, Horry Walpole, says, was +once a ballerina," and to confess our sins to fat, amiable priests. We +enjoy the badinage of the abbés, the ingenious vacuity of the +littérateurs, the cheerful buzz of the café, the daily saunter on the +fashionable promenade, the drive in the park, and all the details of +theatrical make-believe existence.</p> + +<p>As one becomes used to this lotos-laden atmosphere, one gets lenient +impressions of the arts, of their peculiar and characteristic +agreeableness, and rapidly loses one's previous too scornfully classical +attitude. In an earlier chapter we indulged in some high-flown +denunciation of the Baroque in architecture. That was because we were +fresh from the Renaissance. Now that we have eaten of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>lotos, we +refrain from comparison and enjoy the arts in their new phases, in and +for themselves. There is hardly an Italian city that would not be poorer +for the absence of the Baroque. Rome, for instance, owes most of its +charm to these decadent generations, to the Villa Medici, the Villa +Borghese, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona.</p> + +<p>A Neapolitan, Bernini (1598-1680), was the master spirit of the best +Baroque, both in architecture and in sculpture. His greatest achievement +is the splendid colonnade which reaches out like two arms from St. +Peter's Church and clasps the sunny <i>piazza</i> in its embrace (1667). +Bernini's statues, his fountains, his decorations and ornaments, make a +good history of the time. They undoubtedly reveal decadence, yet they +are respectfully imitative of the great achievements of the Renaissance, +whereas the works of his numerous disciples are surcharged with +contortion, obvious effort, and strain for effect. There is a maximum of +visible exertion with a minimum of real accomplishment. Details are +multiplied, and ornaments bear little or no relation to the organic +structure of the buildings which they adorn; yet that practice is an +Italian trait, and even in excess has a picturesque merit. The baser +work of this style, exhibited in the vainglorious churches of the +Jesuits, is sometimes called the Jesuit style. After this period of +stormy ornament came a calm in the eighteenth century, façades became +rectilinear, and there was a general subsidence of obvious effort.</p> + +<p>In painting the school of Bologna, led by Lodovico <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>Caracci (1555-1619) +and his nephews, Agostino and the more noted and gifted Annibale, set +the fashion. They endeavoured to combine faithfulness to nature with all +the merits of all their predecessors, and are therefore called the +eclectic school. They remained the cynosure of touring eyes until the +middle of the nineteenth century. Sir Joshua Reynolds admired and +praised them. Some of their disciples were for a long time almost as +famous as Raphael. Domenichino's Last Communion of St. Jerome held a +place of honour in the Vatican Gallery equal to Raphael's +Transfiguration. Guido Reni's Aurora, painted on the ceiling of the +casino in the Rospigliosi palace in Rome, had a tremendous vogue, and +even now tourists, escaped from the critics, admire it privily. +Guercino, Sassoferrato, and also the lachrymose Carlo Dolci are other +celebrated members of the school. Another school, almost equally famous, +was devoted to Naturalism,—imitation of starving old beggars and a +general depiction of want, misery, and squalor. Of these painters the +principal were Caravaggio (1569-1609), a Neapolitan, and his pupil +Ribera, known as <i>Lo Spagnoletto</i>, because he was born in Spain. A later +group, the Venetians of the eighteenth century, consisted of Canaletto, +Bellotto, Guardi, and others who painted again and again the idle canals +and pleasure-loving palaces of Venice. The greatest of this group was +Tiepolo (1693-1770), who attained in a measure the grand manner of the +great masters of the sixteenth century.</p> + +<p>In literature, though that also had flashes of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>seriousness, as in +Filicaia's celebrated sonnet to Italy adapted by Lord Byron,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Italia! O Italia! thou who hast<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The fatal gift of beauty—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the spirit of the Baroque, in its lightest and pleasantest manner, +expressed itself to the full by means of the Academy of Arcadia. The +unreality of the whole Italian world was concentrated in this Academy, +which soon had branches, imitations, colonies all over the peninsula. It +was founded in Rome (1692) by Gravina, a jurist, Crescimbeni, a priest, +and other dilettanti, for the ennoblement of literature, the +purification of taste, and other meritorious purposes. The members +called themselves Arcadian shepherds and shepherdesses, took pastoral +names, composed sonnets by the bushel, wrote one another's biographies, +and were altogether delightfully silly. Goldoni, the playwright, gives a +glimpse of these littérateurs in the eighteenth century as he observed +them in Pisa.</p> + +<p>One day he passed a garden gate and saw within the garden a crowd of +ladies and gentlemen grouped by an arbour. He was told, "The assembly +which you see is a colony of the Arcadia of Rome, called the Colony of +Alpheus, named after a very celebrated river in Greece, which flowed +through the ancient Pisa in Elis." Goldoni went up to the circle and +listened to a number of gentlemen who recited poems, canzoni, ballads, +sonnets, etc. He observed that the company looked at him as if desirous +to know who he was. Eager to satisfy their curiosity, he asked the +president if a stranger might be permitted to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>express in poetry the +satisfaction which he experienced in being present on so interesting an +occasion. Goldoni had a sonnet in his head, composed by him in his youth +for some similar festival; he hastily changed a few words to adapt it to +the present occasion, and recited the fourteen lines with the tone and +inflection of voice which set off sentiment and rhyme to the best +advantage. The sonnet had all the appearance of being extemporaneous, +and was very much applauded. Whether the meeting had come to its +appointed end or not he did not know, but everybody got up and crowded +about him. Thereupon he was introduced to a whole troop of Arcadian +shepherds, who welcomed him most heartily. At another meeting the +president, whose proper title was Guardian of the Shepherds, drew a +large packet from his pocket, and presented Goldoni with two documents, +a certificate of his membership in the Arcadia of Rome under the name of +Polisseno (Polixenes), and a legal deed which bestowed upon him the +Fegean Fields in Greece; whereupon the whole assembly saluted him under +the name of Polixenes Fegeus, and embraced him as a fellow shepherd. +Goldoni says that, in spite of the formality of the conveyance, the +Turks never acknowledged his title.</p> + +<p>Mention of the Arcadia and of Goldoni leads to another art, most +characteristic of these two centuries, the player's art. The drama had +never been a success in Italy; Machiavelli and Ariosto wrote comedies, +but they were no better from a dramatic than from an ethical point of +view. After the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>acknowledged failure of serious comedy, another species +took the field, the "Commedia dell'Arte," and definitely established +itself at about the time of the beginning of the Baroque. In this +species of comedy the dramatis personæ were masked and always +impersonated certain definite characters, and the dialogue was +improvised. These masks were <i>Pantalone</i>, our Pantaloon, a Venetian +merchant, who always wore a black robe and scarlet stockings, and spoke +the Venetian dialect; <i>Il Dottore</i>, the doctor, a pompous ass from +Bologna; <i>Arlecchino</i>, Harlequin, a silly and credulous servant in tight +hose and motley jerkin, and <i>Brighella</i>, a quick-witted and knavish +servant, both speaking the patois of Bergamo; <i>Colombina</i>, the +soubrette, a pretty maid-servant from Tuscany; <i>Capitano Spavento</i>, +Captain Terrible, a fire-eater from Naples, etc. This comedy, +necessarily kept within narrow limits by these characters, was strictly +improvisation, except that the playwright provided a <i>scenario</i>, a +skeleton plot. It had great success, and troops of Italian comedians +went all over Europe; but by the eighteenth century it had run its +course and become mere vulgar horseplay, and Goldoni (1707-93), the only +brilliant comic playwright that Italy has produced, gave it a +death-blow.</p> + +<p>Goldoni was a Venetian, and a perfect embodiment of the happy, careless, +amiable, entertaining society of the time. He led a roaming life, going +to Tuscany to learn good Italian, and finally ending his career with +twenty years in Paris. Some of his plays are in the Venetian dialect; +two were written <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>in French. There are more than a hundred, counting +tragedies, interludes, and all. Their virtue is their lightness. They +are made of foam, a delicious dramatic <i>soufflé</i>, and in the hands of +accomplished Italian actors, like Eleonora Duse or Ermete Novelli, +retain their charm to this day. They are essential for the history of +the period, with their counts, barons, marquesses, their ladies, their +waiting-maids, their innkeepers, <i>camerieri</i>, cobblers, adventurers, and +all their gay mockery of the idle habits of the time.</p> + +<p>It will throw a little more light upon the customs of that day to +mention <i>cicisbeismo</i>, an unwritten rule of an artificial and idle +society, which prescribed that a lady should have a <i>cavaliere +servente</i>, a gentleman dangling in attendance upon her. Every lady had a +husband, as maidens were not allowed in society, and widows had to +choose between a convent and a second marriage; but the husband could +not wait upon her, for his own duty as <i>cavaliere servente</i> required him +to be in attendance upon somebody else's wife. The duties of the +<i>cavaliere servente</i> were to devote himself solely to his lady, to write +<i>billets-doux</i>, compose sonnets to her lapdog, to hand her chocolate at +<i>conversazioni</i>, to give her his arm on all occasions, to ride beside +her coach when she was out driving, and so on. In fact, he was required +to do all those little offices, <i>petits soins</i>, which a young gentleman +is accustomed to render to the lady whom he is engaged to marry. It was +a state of active flirtation, not only sanctioned but required by +society. It is said that in some cases the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span><i>cavaliere servente</i> was +agreed upon before marriage, and his name inserted in the marriage +contract.</p> + +<p>Besides Goldoni's comic drama and the "Commedia dell'Arte" this Baroque +Italy gave the world another and far more important gift, the Opera. +Italian genius flared up once more and led the world in music. As far +back as the days of the Council of Trent the reforming spirit of the +Church found its noblest expression in Palestrina's (1524?-94) masses, +but after his death, after the Catholic Revival had lost its deeply +serious feeling, music took another step. Florence, the old home of +genius, was the spot. A group of music lovers, who were full of classic +theories about art, wished to revive antique Greek drama, with its +combination of poetry, music, and dance. They decided that the words +were the chief element, that the music must be subservient to the full +emotional expression of the poetry, must intensify the dramatic +significance of the story. To give effect to their opinion they devised +a method of setting music to declamation, the earliest form of +recitative. They meant to revive the Greek drama, but they produced the +opera. After a few years of work over the new ideas, in 1600, at the +Pitti Palace, an opera was publicly performed in honor of the espousals +of Maria dei Medici and Henry IV of France. This was the first public +performance of a secular opera. Soon afterwards Monteverdi (1567-1643), +a revolutionary genius in the history of music, produced his operas at +Mantua. In 1637 the first public opera house was opened in Venice; +others quickly followed; the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>opera became a favourite diversion, and +Italian singers carried it to France, Germany, Austria, and England. In +the same year as the performance in the Pitti Palace, a dramatic +oratorio, "The Soul and the Body," was publicly performed in Rome. The +oratorio was greatly developed by Carissimi (1604-74) of the Roman +school, and with him and his successors acquired much stateliness and +beauty. Its influence on the opera, however, was not good, at least if +we adopt the opinion of those Florentine Hellenes and of Wagner, for it +developed music as an independent element, and did not subordinate it to +dramatic action.</p> + +<p>With the exception of this misdevelopment of the opera, all music +evolved brilliantly and well in Italy, and especially in Naples, which +eclipsed all other cities, and showed that she, too, had her individual +genius. Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) wrote a great number of operas +and oratorios, and composed a vast quantity of ecclesiastical music. He +was followed by his son Domenico Scarlatti, by Durante, Leo, and +Jommelli, by Pergolesi, Piccinni, Cimarosa, and Paisiello, who followed +one another, like a flight of singing birds, through the eighteenth +century. The Italian opera, even then, had the characteristics of +subordinating dramatic propriety and all semblance of reality to +<i>arias</i>, trills, and vocal exaggeration, but it was not till the +beginning of the nineteenth century—with Rossini, Bellini, +Donizetti—that the Italian opera (if I may venture to adapt a famous +phrase) became melted Baroque. There were other schools of music <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>at +Rome, Bologna, and Venice. It was in Venice that the four famous asylums +for girls, <i>conservatori</i>, were turned into music schools, and gave +their name to training schools for musicians all over the world.</p> + +<p>Besides the opera one must note, in mentioning Italian musical genius, +the violin-makers, the Amati of Cremona, the greater Stradivarius +(1644-1737), and other famous makers of Cremona, Brescia, and Venice; +also the organ-builders, the Antignati of Brescia; the great Italian +singers, then as now favourites of the world; as well as the greatest of +libretto-writers, Metastasio.</p> + +<p>Metastasio (1698-1782) had a career that can only be compared to that of +a successful <i>prima donna</i>. As a boy he was adopted by the Arcadian +lawyer, Gravina, and brought early to drink of the Pierian spring. After +Gravina's death he spent his money, got into the company of singers and +musicians at Naples, and composed the words of an opera "Dido," while +still a youth of five-and-twenty. "Dido" had immense success, and from +this time on Metastasio poured out play after play in words that went +halfway and more to meet the accompanying music. His renown was +triumphant throughout Europe; he became the pet of lords, ladies, kings, +and Popes. He flitted from court to court, and sipped the honey of +facile success; he serves as the embodiment of the Italian opera, or +rather as a poetical spirit, a kind of baroque nightingale, to chant the +charm, the sentiment, the sweetness, the unreality, of these two +make-believe centuries.</p> + +<p>As we take leave of the Seventeenth and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>Eighteenth Centuries (a +somewhat ignoble pair), their architecture, painting, literature, and +music, we must, as in other matters, remember the good and forget the +bad. We must keep in mind the Spanish Steps, which offer at their base +ample room for all the flowers of all the flower-sellers of Rome, then +rise in easy flight, pause, rest, and mount again, tier upon tier, till +the top step stretches out into a terrace, where the pedestrian, glad to +pause, turns and looks back over Rome towards the majestic dome of St. +Peter's. We must remember the Trevi Fountain where gods and nymphs and +waters splash and frolic together, or Guido's Aurora, where Apollo +looses the rein to his heavenly horses as they gallop after Lucifer, +while the straight-backed hours dance divinely alongside. We must recall +the sweet sentiment in Metastasio, the light nothingness of Goldoni, the +merriment of Harlequin and Columbine, the violins of Stradivarius, the +singing of Farinello and Pacchierotti, the melodies of Pergolesi, and +the general pleasantness of an idle, amiable society. Then we want to +join the eighteenth-century travellers,—Addison, Walpole, President de +Brosses, or Goethe,—and we look back with vain regret to that happy +lotos-eating time, and wish it would return again.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1789-1820)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Now come those great events, most important to Italy, the French +Revolution and the invasion by Napoleon. The storm burst upon a scene of +quiet. Italy was still like a comedy of Goldoni, dukes enjoying taxes +and mistresses, priests accepting oblations and snuff, nobles sipping +chocolate and pocketing rent, while the poor peasants, kept behind the +scenes, sweated and toiled for a bare subsistence.</p> + +<p>Before the Revolution came the premonitory breezes of philosophical +philanthropy wafted across the Alps from the Encyclopedists. As they +affected the various rulers differently, it is necessary to descend to +some particulars. In Piedmont no philosophical philanthropy warmed the +king; he wrapped his cloak tighter about him, and deemed the old ways +good enough. He maintained his court in imitation of Versailles, and +drilled his soldiers in imitation of Frederick the Great. Nobles alone +were employed in the higher ranks of the civil service, nobles alone +were made officers in the army; in return, they were treated like +schoolboys, not allowed to leave a prescribed path without permission. +The clergy had the privileges of the old régime; their tribunals had +sole jurisdiction over priests, and tried to maintain jurisdiction over +the laity for all offences <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>that had a smack of sin. King, nobility, and +clergy clung to the autocracy, and were resolved to maintain it in full +vigour. A rash admirer of Montesquieu wrote a treatise upon +"Constitutional Monarchy," and was put in prison.</p> + +<p>In Lombardy the House of Austria really plunged into reform; it +reorganized the administration, reapportioned taxes, curtailed clerical +privileges, abolished the Inquisition, improved roads, favoured +agriculture, stimulated trade, and encouraged manufacture. New ideas +were broached. Beccaria published his famous book "On Crimes and +Punishments," which began the attack on the atrocious, old penal +cruelties. French philosophy was discussed. The physicist Volta, famous +for his electrical discoveries, occupied a chair in the university at +Pavia. Austrian garrisons indeed were on duty, but Lombardy prospered as +it had not done since the days of the Sforzas.</p> + +<p>In Venice the new ideas did not affect the government. The old system +continued. The Great Council of Patricians sat in conservative +indolence; the ornamental Doge shuffled about, the Senate talked, and +the Council of Ten maintained its petty despotism. Venice was moribund. +Her voice was no more heard in European affairs. Her army had dwindled +to a few undisciplined and inefficient regiments; her arsenal was little +employed. Gayety, luxury, vice, reigned triumphant; all the young blades +of Europe went thither to carouse.</p> + +<p>In Parma the flood of philanthropic reform had flowed strong; the +minister of state, a Frenchman, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>full of Parisian ideas, had introduced +many beneficial changes, but a new duke, dissipated and devout, slipped +back into the old ways; and its little neighbour, Modena, concentrated +its attention on avoidance of all possible offence to its neighbours.</p> + +<p>In Tuscany, an appanage of Austria, reform bounded along. The Grand +Duke, Leopold I, proposed to destroy every remnant of the Middle Ages; +he attacked the power of the ubiquitous priests, granted free trade in +grain, and equalized taxes,—without discrimination even in favour of +his own estates. He improved the universities of Pisa and Siena, drained +the marshes of the Maremma, and led the way in abolishing torture and +capital punishment; he rendered a public account of the state's +revenues; and, in short, put in practice the advanced philanthropic +ideas on government.</p> + +<p>In the Papal States, on the other hand, mediævalism lay heavy. There was +no commerce, no manufacture, little agriculture. Priests were +everywhere, greedy relations of the Pope almost everywhere. No laymen +were given office. Ancona, a seaport, and Bologna, with its university, +were the only exceptions to general wretchedness. The finances were in +extreme confusion; the offerings of the faithful, the sale of offices, +the multiplication of taxes, did little more than pay interest on the +bonded debts. Rome was a little, unimportant, ecclesiastical city.</p> + +<p>In Naples, however, even the Bourbons felt the fresh breath of +reformation. A reforming minister expelled the Jesuits and tried to +reduce the number of superfluous priests, monks, and nuns, and to root +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>out the old feudal privileges. In the city itself a goodly company of +men gathered together, cultivated ideas, and followed the lead of the +French philosophers. Poor Sicily, overridden by barons and priests, +lagged behind, a prey to the feudal system, and so unsusceptible to new +ideas that the reforming prime minister could not budge the dead weight +of custom. The people preferred to help one another in their own way, +and resorted to that mysterious society, the <i>Mafia</i>.</p> + +<p>Thus was Italy, half philanthropically inclined, half despotically, with +few outward indications of the great awakening of the nineteenth +century. One such indication might have been found in the life and +character of a gentleman of Turin. Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803) was a +kind of antique Roman, a new Brutus, of passionate and lofty nature. He +embodied his ideas of liberty in classic tragedies, which stirred +Italian manhood in those days, but now are extremely tedious to read. He +boldly gave vent to his hatred of foreign oppression, preached freedom, +and appealed to the "future Italian people." His autobiography, somewhat +condensed and expurgated, might be put into Plutarch. He stands in +history, not as a great tragedian, but as the first example of the +rebirth of that antique virility which was to display itself so +brilliantly in the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>Down into this little world of periwigs and lavender came the French +Revolution. All who had applauded Alfieri's tragedies were delighted, +except Alfieri himself, who hated the French. But the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>Italian princes +took fright at the democratic volcano, and talked of a general union +against France. Piedmont alone was vigorous enough to take action; she +made a league with Austria (1792). Nothing important happened until +young Napoleon took command of the French army of invasion (1796), and +began to tear "the heart out of Glory." It would be useless to relate in +detail his wonderful career in Italy. He arranged the peninsula as a +housekeeper shifts the furniture in an unsatisfactory room. He took Nice +and Savoy from Piedmont, Lombardy from Austria, formed the little states +south of the Po into a republic, took the temporal power from the Pope, +and set up a Roman Republic. He turned the Kingdom of Naples into a +republic and then back again into a kingdom, first for his brother +Joseph, and then for his general, Murat (1808). He converted Genoa into +the Republic of Liguria. Venice, like old Priam before bloody Pyrrhus, +fell at the whiff and wind of the victor's sword; the Great Council +resigned without a struggle, and the Republic of St. Mark after an +existence of a thousand years came to its end. It was then handed over +to Austria, but after Austerlitz taken back again. In 1805, having +become Emperor, Napoleon turned the northern part of the peninsula into +the Kingdom of Italy, and put the iron crown of Lombardy on his own +head, saying, "God has given it to me, woe to him that touches it." In +1806 he put an end to the Holy Roman Empire, and forced the Emperor, +Francis II, to resign the Imperial crown.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>The old laws of political gravitation ceased to act, and Italy was +moulded and broken and moulded anew, as if creation had begun again. The +revolutionary ideas on which Napoleon's power at first rested had spread +everywhere; liberty, equality, democracy were a part of every man's +stock of familiar thoughts, and the conception of an Italian kingdom, +vaguely associated with the poetic dreams of Dante, Petrarch, +Machiavelli, had become a political fact. Italy was changed forever, the +old Goldoni comedy was gone; Napoleon had given the <i>coup de grâce</i> to +the old régime.</p> + +<p>There was another side to the Napoleonic domination. A multitude of men +had been forcibly enlisted in Napoleon's armies; twenty-six thousand, it +is said, perished in the terrible retreat from Moscow. The French were +arrogant and they were foreigners. Changes had been made too quickly and +with too reckless a disregard for Italian wishes. Nobles and clergy had +been despoiled of privileges, peasants had been confused and bewildered, +the pious had been scandalized by Napoleon's treatment of the Pope; all +these longed for the restoration of the old political divisions and of +the old easy ways.</p> + +<p>After Napoleon's overthrow the Napoleonic states in Italy fell almost +immediately. The viceroy of the Italian kingdom, Napoleon's stepson +Eugène Beauharnais, slunk away; and in the south, after some +vicissitudes, Murat was caught and shot (1815). Kings, dukes, and Pope +came tripping back to their thrones. The Congress of Vienna decided that +the doctrines of the French Revolution were quite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>wrong, that law, +order, and the principle of legitimacy were bound up together, that +states belonged to their royal families in tail male, and reparcelled +Italy among its petty sovereigns, acting quite as despotically as +Napoleon had done. It gave Venice to Austria, Genoa to Piedmont, and +Parma to Marie Louise, the Austrian wife of Napoleon, for her life, as +she had to be decently provided for. The Dukes of Parma received Lucca +until her death, when they were to return to Parma, and then Lucca was +to be annexed to Tuscany. Metternich, Hardenberg, Castlereagh, +Talleyrand, and their associates complimented one another on the happy +completion of their task, and the Congress broke up.</p> + +<p>In Piedmont the king, loyally welcomed home, put back everything to the +position in which it was before the disturbances; the old dispossessed +nobles were restored to their places in the civil and military service, +and the <i>carrière ouverte aux talents</i> was closed. In Lombardy and +Venice Austrian officials held a tight rein, and a watchful secret +service (<i>sbirri</i>) prowled about ready to pounce on plotting youth like +owls upon field mice. In Parma and Modena the eye of the Austrian +government was always peering and peeping. In Tuscany Austrian influence +also was dominant; but the Grand Duke was a gentle, kindly, paternal +person, and his subjects were placidly content, for the old Tuscan fire +had died out, and no Tuscan was so crazy as to dream of revolution or of +a united Italy. In the Papal States the reaction was complete; the +Inquisition was restored, the Jesuits recalled, the civil service +limited to priests. But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>in Naples the reaction was worst. The +despicable Ferdinand, who dropped his number IV of Naples to become +Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, restored the old régime, and swept away +the autonomy of Sicily, which had had a separate parliament for hundreds +of years, and since 1812 a constitution also. Ferdinand humbly followed +every hint from Austria. The will of Austria was supreme from Venice to +Naples, and behind Austria was the conservative judgment of the ruling +classes of all Europe, still frightened by the Revolution. European +nobles and landowners agreed that the riotous desires of the middle +class and proletariat for political privileges must be crushed down.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + +<h3>THE REAWAKENING (1820-1821)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Outwardly despotism had been triumphantly reëstablished, and Popes, +princes, and privileged persons in general made a gallant attempt to +pretend that the French Revolution and the Napoleonic upheaval had never +taken place. Nevertheless, the quiet on the surface did not extend +underneath. Inwardly the new ideas and aspirations were fermenting from +Piedmont to Calabria. The <i>Carbonari</i> (Charcoal-burners), a secret +society organized against despotism, plotted for freedom and for +constitutions. Their members were thickest in the Kingdom of Naples, but +spread throughout Italy. The spark necessary to set ablaze this hidden +discontent came from Spain. There a successful rebellion obtained a +constitution. The thrill stirred Naples. A company of soldiers under two +young lieutenants rebelled (1820), many joined them, a general put +himself at their head. The army would not fight them. The insurgents +demanded a constitution, with a parliament, a free press, trials +according to law, etc. The dastardly king was frightened into promises, +but as the insurgents were not content with promises, he granted a +constitution, and solemnly swore to maintain it. These revolutionary +tumults, however, had alarmed the comfortable, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>conservative ruling +classes and their leaders, the Emperors of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. +An Imperial conference was held at Laybach (1821), and Ferdinand +attended. The new constitution, indeed, forbade him to leave the kingdom +without permission from parliament, but he had obtained leave by +promising to argue in favour of the new régime. Whatever his arguments +were the Holy Alliance disregarded them, and charged Austria with the +duty of restoring despotism in Naples. Austria obeyed. An overpowering +army easily scattered the Neapolitan constitutionalists and put +Ferdinand back. The constitution, parliament, free press, and all the +other obnoxious revolutionary institutions were brushed away, and +Ferdinand, having hung up in church a lamp of gold and silver as an +offset to his perjury, inflicted punishment on the late rebels as fast +as he could.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the North had felt the thrill. In Lombardy the hawk-eyed +government pounced down on possible conspirators. Silvio Pellico, the +pathetic author of "Le Mie Prigioni" (My Prisons), and his friend +Maroncelli, were arrested and put into prison (1820), there to stay for +ten years. A little later Confalonieri, head of the Milanese nobility, +and a group of gentlemen were seized and sent to prison. They were set +free only in 1836, on the accession of a new Emperor. Some of them, +Castillia, Foresti, and Albinola, then sought refuge in the United +States. I quote from the unpublished diary of an American to show what +kind of men these conspirators were: "Castillia is an Italian, of an +honourable Milanese <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>family. At the age of twenty-three he, with other +noble and brave Italians, lovers of their country, was thrown into the +dungeons of Spielberg (Moravia) by Austrian despots, and there chained +and confined, sometimes in total solitude, enduring the sharpest +privations and basest ignominies for seventeen years. Then on the +accession of a new Emperor they were released and exiled to +America—they were men of superior intelligence and education, +honourable gentlemen, true-hearted, loving men—Castillia possessed all +the virtues that one can name and in their most attractive forms."</p> + +<p>What these gentlemen suffered for love of their country may be read in +"Le Mie Prigioni." Pellico himself was a Christian saint. After years of +solitary confinement he and Maroncelli were put together. Maroncelli had +a tumour on his leg, which grew so painful that whenever it was +necessary to move Pellico helped him. "Sometimes to make the slightest +shift from one position to another cost a quarter of an hour of agony." +The wound was frightful and disgusting. I quote from Pellico: "In that +deplorable condition Maroncelli composed poetry, he sang and talked, and +did everything to deceive me and hide from me a part of his pain. He +could not digest, or sleep; he grew alarmingly thin, and often went out +of his head; and yet, in a few minutes gathered himself together and +cheered me up. What he suffered for nine months is indescribable. +Amputation was necessary; but first the surgeon had to get permission +from Vienna. Maroncelli uttered no cry at the operation, and when he saw +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>leg carried off said to the surgeon, 'You have liberated me from an +enemy, and I have no way to thank you.' By the window stood a tumbler +with a rose in it. 'Please give me that rose,' he said to me. I handed +it to him, and he gave it to the old surgeon, saying, 'I have nothing +else to give you in testimony of my gratitude.' The surgeon took the +rose and burst into tears." Such was the character of the men who +plotted for the freedom of Italy.</p> + +<p>The Papal States likewise had been quivering. Lord Byron was in Ravenna +at the time. He enrolled in the <i>Carbonari</i>, and sent a thousand louis +to the Neapolitan Constitutional Government with an offer to serve +wherever and in whatever capacity they should desire. His letters and +diary help us to understand the situation.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cen">BYRON TO MURRAY, HIS PUBLISHER</p> + +<p class="right"> +November 23, 1820.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Of the state of things here it would be difficult and not +very prudent to speak at large, the Huns [Austrians] opening +all letters. I wonder if they can read them when they have +opened them; if so they may see in my most legible hand that +I think them damned scoundrels and barbarians, and their +Emperor a fool, and themselves more fools than he; all which +they may send to Vienna for anything I care. They have got +themselves masters of the papal police and are bullying +away, but some day or other they will pay for all; it may +not be very soon because these unhappy Italians have no +consistency among themselves; but I suppose that Providence +will get tired of them at last.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cen">SAME TO SAME</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> + +<p class="right"> +December 9.<br /> +</p> + +<p>I open my letter to tell you a fact which will show the +state of this country better than I can. The commandant of +the troops is now lying dead in my house. He was shot about +two hundred paces from my door.... As nobody could or would +do anything but howl and pray, and as no one would stir a +finger to move him for fear of consequences, I had the +commandant carried upstairs to my own quarters.... Poor +fellow, he was a brave officer but much disliked by the +people.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="cen">EXTRACTS FROM BYRON'S DIARY</p> + +<p class="right"> +January 6, 1821.<br /> +</p> + +<p>To-night at the theatre, there being a prince on his throne +in the last scene of the comedy, the audience laughed and +asked him for a constitution. This shows the state of the +public mind here as well as the assassinations. It won't do. +There must be a universal republic, and there ought to be.</p> + +<p class="right"> +January 7.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The Count Pietro Gamba took me aside to say that the +Patriots had had notice from Forlì [twenty miles away] that +to-night the government and its party mean to strike a +stroke, that the Cardinal here has had orders to make +several arrests immediately, and that in consequence the +Liberals are arriving and have posted patrols in the +streets, to sound the alarm and give notice to fight. He +asked me "what should be done." I answered, "Fight for it, +rather than be taken in detail;" and offered if any of them +are in immediate apprehension of arrest to receive them in +my house (which is defensible), and to defend them with my +servants and themselves (we have arms and ammunition) as +long as we can, or to try to get them away under <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>cloud of +night. On going home I offered him the pistols which I had +about me.</p> + +<p class="right"> +January 8.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Rose and found Count Pietro Gamba in my apartments. Sent +away the servant. He told me that according to the best +information, the government had not issued orders for the +arrests apprehended; and that as yet they are still only in +apprehension. He asked me for some arms of a better sort, +which I gave him. Settled that in case of a row the Liberals +were to assemble here (with me) and that he had given the +word to the others for that purpose. Concerted operations. I +advised them to attack in detail and in different parties, +in different places, though at the same time, so as to +divide the attention of the troops, who though few yet being +disciplined would beat any body of people (not trained) in a +regular fight, unless dispersed in small parties and +distracted with different assaults. Offered to let them +assemble here if they chose. It is a strongish post—narrow +street, commanded from within—and tenable walls....</p> + +<p>I wonder what figure these Italians will make in a regular +row. I sometimes think that like the Irishman's crooked gun +they will do only for shooting round a corner; at least this +sort of shooting has been the late tenour of their exploits. +And yet there are materials in this people and a noble +energy if well directed. But who is to direct them? No +matter. Out of such times heroes spring. Difficulties are +the hotbed of high spirits and Freedom the mother of the few +virtues incident to human nature.</p> + +<p class="right"> +January 9.<br /> +</p> + +<p>They say the King of Naples has declared, by couriers from +Florence, to the Powers (as they call now those wretches +with crowns) that his constitution was compulsive, and that +the Austrian barbarians are placed again on war pay and will +march. Let them,—"they come like <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>sacrifices in their +trim,"—the hounds of hell! Let it be a hope to see their +bones piled like those of the human dogs at Morat, in +Switzerland.</p> + +<p class="right"> +January 29.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Met a company of the sect (a kind of Liberal Club) called +the Americani in the forest, and singing with all their +might in Romagnuol "Sem tutti soldat' per la libertà"—(We +are all soldiers for liberty). They cheered me as I passed; +I returned their salute and rode on. This may show the +spirit of Italy at present.</p> + +<p>They say that the Piedmontese have at length risen—ça ira!</p></div> + +<p>The news from Piedmont was true. Some officers in the army proposed to +demand a constitution from the king and then force him into war with +Austria. They believed that Prince Carlo Alberto, who stood next but one +in succession to the throne, though only a distant cousin of the sonless +king, was in sympathy with them and would act with them. How far they +were justified in this belief is uncertain. The leading conspirators had +an interview with him, and thought they received satisfactory +assurances. In subsequent explanations he denied any such assurances. +Thus encouraged, the garrisons of Alexandria and Turin hoisted the +tricolour of the <i>Carbonari</i>, and made their demands. The old king, +Vittorio Emanuele, not knowing what to do, resigned in favour of his +younger brother, Carlo Felice, who was then absent, and appointed Carlo +Alberto regent during the new king's absence. Carlo Alberto, always +infirm of purpose, with doubt and hesitation took the opportunity and +proclaimed a constitution (March, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>1821). But the new king, apprised of +this wild act, at once annulled it, and bade Carlo Alberto leave the +country. Poor Carlo Alberto was in a sad dilemma: should he obey his +king and abandon his liberal friends, or cleave to them and be disloyal +to the king? He obeyed and went to Tuscany. An Austrian army aided the +king to suppress the revolt. The liberals escaped as best they could. +Some fled to Spain by way of Genoa, where they were seen by Giuseppe +Mazzini, a lad of sixteen, who thereupon resolved "that one could, and +therefore one must, struggle for the liberty of Italy."</p> + +<p>Thus the revolutionary storms swept by; the <i>sbirri</i> resumed their old +methods of prying and spying, and dukes and kings deemed themselves +secure of their own again.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> + +<h3>PERTURBED INACTIVITY (1821-1847)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>After 1821 followed ten years of outward repose. Times were hard for +lovers of independence, but hope and purpose had been let loose, and in +dark corners, cloaking themselves as best they could, the friends of +freedom groped their way. Openly little was done except by exiles, but +indirect aid came from literature, which followed the romantic movement, +and loudly asserted the revolutionary ideas. There was Ugo Foscolo, the +poet, half Venetian, half Greek, who after the return of the Austrians +refused to take the oath of allegiance and fled to England, giving, as +was said, "to New Italy a new institution, Exile;" Giovanni Berchet, of +Milan, poet and man of letters; Gabriele Rossetti, of the Abruzzi, +father of Dante Rossetti, a poet himself; and many others. By far the +most distinguished was Alessandro Manzoni, a quiet, dignified Milanese +gentleman, who wrote patriotic plays, and the famous romance, "I +Promessi Sposi" (The Plighted Lovers). He cheered and comforted his +compatriots with the thought that in him they possessed a man of letters +whom Europe recognized as the peer of Scott, Byron, and Goethe. Scott +praised "I Promessi Sposi" most generously, and Goethe said, "It +satisfies us like perfectly ripe fruit."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>Greater than Manzoni, though at the time less widely known, was the sad +poet, Giacomo Leopardi, indisputably the greatest Italian poet since +Tasso, and in the judgment of some men to-day, owing perhaps to greater +sympathy with his sentiments, superior to Tasso. Leopardi raised Italian +self-respect, as Manzoni did, by proof that the genius of the race still +lived. He wrote the most patriotic odes since Petrarch. Of these the +poem "To Italy" is perhaps most famous. It begins:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">O my country, I see the walls, the arches,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The columns, the statues, the defenceless towers<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of our forefathers,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But the glory I do not see.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Leopardi's wretchedness, in great measure purely personal, was matched +by that of his country. Austrian soldiers, ducal <i>sbirri</i>, and Jesuits +did their best to destroy all vigour, life, and freedom. The press was +stifled; no allusion to freedom was allowed. In a chorus of Bellini's +opera "I Puritani" the word <i>liberty</i> was stricken out by the censor and +<i>loyalty</i> substituted; and a singer who forgot the change was sent to +prison for three days. Things were best in Tuscany and worst in Naples, +where Francis I, a rake, bigot, and coward, practised the utmost +cruelty. After an insurrection in a village, twenty-six heads were cut +off at his command, and exhibited in cages; and once, when a grandmother +besought mercy for her two grandsons who were condemned to death, he +bade her choose one. She chose one; the other was shot, and she went +mad.</p> + +<p>The ten long years of inaction at last passed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>away, and another wave of +exasperated independence and patriotism swept over the peninsula. The +French Revolution of 1830 was the proximate cause. This time, while +Piedmont and Naples remained quiet, for most of their leaders were in +exile or in prison, Parma, Modena, and the Romagna burst into +insurrection; but the Austrian soldiers marched in, suppressed the +revolt, and reseated duke, duchess, and Pope. The attention of the +world, however, had been called to priestly government in the Romagna, +and the five great Powers,—England, France, Austria, Prussia, and +Russia,—not wishing a hotbed of justifiable revolt on the same +Continent with comfortable and privileged ruling classes, wrote a +collective note to the Pope in which they insisted on certain reforms as +indispensable. The papal Curia made promises, but did nothing, and all +Italy relapsed outwardly into the condition in which she had been during +the ten years of inaction.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the forces underneath, plotting and conspiring for +freedom, were stronger than before, and here and there indications of +this growing sentiment cropped out. In 1831, after the ill-fated, +melancholy, distrusting, and distrusted Carlo Alberto had succeeded to +the Kingdom of Sardinia, an anonymous letter addressed to him was spread +broadcast over Italy. This letter bade him choose between two +courses,—either to lead the national movement, or to be basely servile +to Austria. "Bend your back under the German (Austrian) whip and be a +tyrant—But, if as you read these words your mind runs back to that time +when you dared look <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>higher than the lordship of a German fief, and if +you hear within a voice that cries 'You were born for something great,' +oh, obey that voice; it is the voice of genius, of opportunity, that +offers you its hand to mount from century to century as far as +immortality; it is the voice of all Italy, who awaits but one word, one +single word, to make herself all your own. Give her that word. Put +yourself at the head of the nation, and on your banner write Union, +Freedom, Independence. Sire, according to your answer, be sure that +posterity will pronounce you either the first of Italian Men, or the +last of Italian Tyrants. Choose."</p> + +<p>Carlo Alberto, melancholy as Hamlet, for the burden put upon him was +greater than his strength, continued inactive, distrusted, and +distrusting. His only answer was to give sharper orders against +conspirators. The writer of the letter was a young Genoese of grave +countenance, with a sweet mouth and sad, handsome eyes, Giuseppe +Mazzini, aged twenty-six, who had already abandoned law for literature, +and literature for his country. Suspected of being a <i>Carbonaro</i>, he had +been arrested and put in prison. His father, having asked the reason, +was told that "his son was a young man of talents, very fond of solitary +walks at night, and habitually silent as to the subject of his +meditations, and that the Sardinian government was not fond of young men +of talents the subject of whose meditations it did not know." In prison +Mazzini became convinced that the true aim of patriots was the unity of +all Italy, and that the means should be the people, not the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>princes. +After a few months of imprisonment he was banished. It was then that he +wrote the letter.</p> + +<p>In exile he began the task of rousing the Italian people throughout the +peninsula to the need of common effort for a common end. He organized a +secret society, and named it Young Italy. Its purpose was to make Italy +free, united, and republican. The first article of its constitution +read: "This society is instituted for the destruction, now become +indispensable, of all the governments of the peninsula, and for the +union of all Italy in a single state under republican government." The +new society spread rapidly, and was, perhaps, the greatest individual +cause of final success.</p> + +<p>Mazzini was a master conspirator, a very St. Paul of the Risorgimento. +His whole life was a passionate renunciation of all the pleasures and +comforts for which most men live, and a passionate dedication of himself +to his ideals. He is a striking illustration of the saying, The man +whose heart is lifted up within him shall not find the path smooth +before him, but the just shall live by his faith. His ideals soared +higher and higher; not content with hope for Italy, he made plans for +helping all Europe. He became an object of suspicion all over the +Continent, and was driven from country to country, till he finally went +to England, but he never ceased to preach and teach, to urge and +encourage, to plot and counterplot. He believed in sacrifice, both of +himself and of others, and instigated desperate uprisings. One of these, +a wild invasion of Piedmont which came to nothing, is memorable because +among the list of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>those who were subsequently proscribed for +participation in it was a young seaman, a native of Nice, then a part of +Savoy, Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini himself stayed in England, where the +cruelest accusations were made against him. He endured slander, malice, +poverty, outward failure, still steadfast at his task. He says, "I have +not for an instant thought that unhappiness may influence our actions." +He knew Carlyle, who bore witness in his favour: "I have had the honour +to know Mr. Mazzini for a series of years, and whatever I may think of +his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great +freedom testify that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of +genius and virtue, one of those rare men, numerable unfortunately but as +units in this world, who are worthy to be called martyr souls; who, in +silence, piously in their daily life understand and practise what is +meant by that."</p> + +<p>While Young Italy and the <i>Carbonari</i> worked in secret, literature +continued to carry on the task of arousing enthusiasm for national +achievements and national ideals. The patient piety of Silvio Pellico's +"Le Mie Prigioni" was a most effective denunciation of Austrian tyranny; +the plays of Giovan Battista Niccolini, of Florence, on subjects famous +for Italian patriotism, were stirring appeals against despotism, civil +and ecclesiastical; the romantic novels of Massimo d'Azeglio, of +Piedmont, the patriot painter and statesman, reminded youth of the great +days of old; other novels, passionate and patriotic, by Tommaso Grossi, +of Belluno, and by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, of Leghorn, did +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>likewise. These romances so pitifully uninteresting to-day did much; +but a book of a different character had in its way a still more +brilliant career. Vincenzo Gioberti, of Turin, began life by taking +orders; he became patriotic, was suspected, imprisoned, exiled; in exile +he studied, taught, and thought. In 1843 he published in Brussels "Il +primato morale e civile degli Italiani" (The Moral and Civil Primacy of +the Italians), a book that rehearsed the old glory of Italy and pointed +out new ways by which that ancient glory might be renewed. Gioberti +advocated a confederation of the Italian States (excluding the Austrian +provinces) with the Pope at its head. The book had tremendous success; +its ideas were accepted and became a party creed; and Gioberti is +entitled to rank as one of the factors in the Risorgimento. Oddly +enough, as it seems to us now, his plan was on the verge of execution.</p> + +<p>At this time Gregory XVI was Pope, a reactionary man, devoted to +ecclesiastical history, and, according to his detractors, to Orvietan +wine. He showed the extreme of papal incapacity for civil +administration; in the papal cities was squalor, in the country +brigandage, in both dense ignorance. But on Gregory's death Cardinal +Mastai-Ferretti, an amiable, smiling, charming, handsome, liberal-minded +cardinal, who had applauded Gioberti, became Pius IX (July, 1846). +Within a month or two Pius granted amnesty to political prisoners, +appointed a commission to study the necessary reforms in his states; +permitted, tacitly at least, liberty of the press; announced a Council +of State <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>to consist of lay members; and authorized the organization of +a civic guard. He was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the peninsula. +Here was Gioberti's ideal Pope. Here was the man to lead the Italian +Guelfs and drive the Barbarians from Italy.</p> + +<p>That the ecclesiastical head of organized conservatism, the great +bulwark of authority, the maintainer of ancient things, should be hailed +as a saviour by men desiring independence, freedom, and war, needs a +word of further explanation. In this period of decadence and servitude, +while Austrian officers played the peacock on every <i>piazza</i> from Milan +to Naples, Italians could remember that an Italian Pope was head of the +greatest corporate body in the world, that tribute was paid into his +treasury from every country in Europe, that kings treated him with +deference, and that from East and West hundreds of servant bishops came +to the foot of his throne. These thoughts, coupled with inapplicable +memories and desperate hopes, led men to regard Pius IX as the +predestined leader of the liberal movement; and shouts of "Hurrah for +Italy, the Pope, and the Constitution!" were heard throughout the +peninsula.</p> + +<p>Hope, too, arose in Piedmont. King Carlo Alberto received Massimo +d'Azeglio in audience (1845), and bade his astonished subject tell his +friends that when the occasion should present itself, his own life, his +sons' lives, his treasure, and his army would all be spent for the +Italian cause. A year later the king withstood Austria in a dispute over +customs; and a little later still, at an agrarian congress a member +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>rose and read a letter from the king which ended, "If ever God shall +give us grace to be able to undertake a war of independence, no one but +me shall command the army. Oh, what a glorious day will that be when we +shall be able to utter the cry of national independence!"</p> + +<p>Thus encouraged by king and Pope, patriots, from Piedmont to Sicily, +waited in tremulous expectation for the coming of great events.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> + +<h3>TUMULTUOUS YEARS (1848-1849)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The period of waiting for coming events was short. The whole Continent +of Europe was straining like a greyhound in its leash; Italy, from end +to end, was on tiptoe with excitement; and the year 1848 came rushing in +with swashbuckler fury.</p> + +<p>In Italy the revolutionary movement began in Palermo. The people +attacked the Bourbon soldiers and drove them out. Their example was +followed throughout the island. Across the channel Naples arose and +demanded a constitution. The frightened king granted it (January 29). In +Piedmont at an assemblage of journalists, the director of a newspaper, +"The Risorgimento," declared that the time appropriate to petitions for +the banishment of the Jesuits and for the institution of a national +guard had passed, and that a constitution should be demanded. The +speaker was a stoutish man of thirty-eight, with a square face under a +high forehead. He wore spectacles, and under his chin a fringe of beard +ran round from ear to ear like a ravelled bonnet string; he looked like +a distinguished and amiable professor, except that there was a pinch to +his nostrils and a compression to his lips which suggested an arrogant +lineage and inherited notions of "Let those take that have the power, +and let them keep that can." In fact, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>Count Camillo Cavour belonged to +the old Piedmontese aristocracy. As a lad he served in the engineer +corps of the army, then travelled in England (which he admired greatly) +and in France, studying all kinds of social matters, from machinery to +constitutions. On his estates he was a practical farmer, and he took +keen interest in public life. It was at this time that he first became a +man of note.</p> + +<p>The city of Turin took up Cavour's cry, and the king acceded. The Grand +Duke of Tuscany granted a constitution. The Pope was slow to bestir +himself, but the news of revolutionary success in Paris quickened his +gait, and he too granted a constitution. In the Austrian provinces, +Lombardy and Venetia, there were tumults, arrests, cavalry charges, and +martial law; then came news of the revolt in Vienna itself and word that +the scared Emperor promised a constitution. Venice accepted the promise; +but Milan, where a citizen had been killed by the soldiers, broke into +rebellion. Carts, carriages, tables, chairs, pianos, bedsteads, were +heaped up to defend the streets; sixteen hundred and fifty barricades +were erected; men snatched knives, hammers, arquebuses, axes; all took +part,—boys, lads, old men, priests. These were the famous <i>Five Days</i> +of Milan. Every street, every house was a battleground, and Field +Marshal Radetzky, with fourteen thousand men, was driven from the city. +Revolt spread through Lombardy. When the news reached Venice the +citizens rose, forced the Austrian governors to surrender, and +proclaimed anew the Republic of Venice. Daniele Manin was made +president.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>This glorious news, Venice republican, Milan victorious over Radetzky, +flew to Turin. Every liberal went mad with excitement. The centuries of +national humiliation seemed past. Now had come the hour for which +Piedmont had trained and disciplined itself, for which it had hoped and +longed; now should Piedmont uplift Italy and fight its country's battle. +Cavour cried that there was but one possible course,—immediate war with +Austria. A great crowd in tremulous anxiety thronged before the royal +palace. At midnight on March 23, Carlo Alberto stepped out on his +balcony and waved a tricolour scarf. Next day a royal proclamation +stated that the Piedmontese army would march to the aid of Lombardy and +Venice. A shout of joy went up throughout Italy. Modena and Parma cast +out their dukes and sent recruits to help. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, +the Pope, even the King of Naples, compelled by necessity, each sent an +army. The war was a national crusade.</p> + +<p>At first the campaign went well. The Italian allies numbered more than +ninety thousand men; and Carlo Alberto, leading the main body, forced +the Austrians under Radetzky within the quadrilateral made by the strong +fortresses, Verona, Peschiera, Mantua, and Legnano. But the King of +Sardinia was no general; he lacked energy, decision, character. While he +dawdled, not knowing what to do, Radetzky received reinforcements. This +hesitation and delay cooled the first glorious burst of union and +freedom. Pius IX felt doubts; what right had the Vicar of Christ to take +part in war? Were not Austrians and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>Italians alike in the sight of God? +What had the Universal Church to do with national divisions? And might +not Austria become heretic and secede from the papal rule? He said he +would not fight. So great, however, were the tumults in Rome that he was +forced to face about once again, but his tergiversation gave a fatal +blow to the cause. In Naples the watchful Ferdinand, eager for a +pretext, took advantage of some street riots to dissolve parliament, and +bade his army come home. One general with a few hundred men disobeyed, +but the rest turned back.</p> + +<p>In the north the old jealousies between the Italian States wedged +themselves in and broke the new-made union. Venice, instead of uniting +with Piedmont in a joint political confederation, insisted upon +remaining an independent republic, and Milan hesitated out of jealousy +of Turin. Of these discords and hesitations the octogenarian Radetzky +took advantage. Within thirty days the Tuscan army had been destroyed, +the papal army made prisoners, and Piedmont was left alone to maintain +the Italian cause in the field. In a three days' battle at Custoza (July +23-25) the issue was decided. The beaten Piedmontese were forced to +surrender Milan, and to retreat across the river Ticino into their own +land, and Austria returned triumphant into full possession of her +provinces, except the city of Venice. The little Dukes of Parma and +Modena returned also.</p> + +<p>Elsewhere the current of events ran equally fast. In Sicily Ferdinand +bombarded the revolted city of Messina (hence his nickname Bomba), and +forced it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>to surrender; and in Naples he made a mock of the +constitution. Rome was in horrid confusion. Pius IX appointed Pellegrino +Rossi prime minister, in hope that his energy and vigour might restore +peace and quiet; but Rossi was murdered on the steps of the +<i>Cancelleria</i>. Rioters wandered at will about the city. Shots were fired +near the papal palace on the Quirinal. The Pope, terribly frightened, +fled from the city, and took refuge across the Neapolitan border at +Gaeta. He was besought to return, but would not. The revolutionary +leaders convoked an assembly of Roman citizens to decide what form of +government to adopt, and, though the Pope hurled excommunications at all +who should take part, the radicals met (February 5, 1849), declared the +Temporal Power at an end, and established the Roman Republic. In Tuscany +the republican fire likewise blazed up; the Grand Duke ran after the +Pope to Gaeta, and a provisional government was appointed with a +triumvirate at its head.</p> + +<p>In the north, Piedmont and Austria renewed the war. On March 23, at +Novara, a little town on the Piedmontese side of the Ticino, the +deciding battle was fought. The Austrians were completely victorious. +King Carlo Alberto asked for a truce. Radetzky's terms were so severe +that the king, feeling himself the chief cause of this severity, +resolved to be of no further detriment to his country. He abdicated in +favour of his son, Vittorio Emanuele II, and went into exile, where he +soon died. The young king made peace on harsh terms.</p> + +<p>All rational hope for the Italian cause was at an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>end, but the +dismembered parts struggled on. The men of Brescia defended themselves +gloriously for days, barricading every alley and making a fort of every +house, but they were overpowered; the Austrian general Haynau inflicted +atrocities that made his name a byword throughout Europe. His own report +says, "I ordered that no prisoner should be taken, but that every person +seized with arms in his hands should be immediately put to death, and +that the houses from which shots came should be burned."<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> In Sicily +the revolutionists resisted in vain, and the king's authority was +reëstablished throughout the island. In Naples all liberals were +shamefully and most cruelly persecuted. In Tuscany the mild-mannered +Tuscans, dismayed at their own radical government, invited the Grand +Duke to return; so he came, bringing Austrian soldiers with him.</p> + +<p>In Rome still more notable events happened. Mazzini, as member of the +revolutionary triumvirate, was at the head of the government. His task +was hard, for the Pope had asked the Catholic Powers to restore him, and +Spain, Naples, Austria, and France, hastened to obey. France interfered +because Louis Napoleon, president of the new republic, wished the +support of the French clerical party; nevertheless, he had to proceed +cautiously in order not to vex the liberals, and pursued a wavering +course. He said he would send an army to defend real liberty, and would +let the Romans decide for themselves what they wanted. The French +soldiers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>advanced to the walls of Rome (April 29, 1849); the Roman +republicans were naturally suspicious and treated them as enemies. +Skirmishes were fought, and the French constrained to retire. Meanwhile, +an Austrian army came from the north, the Neapolitans from the south, +and the Spaniards landed at the mouth of the Tiber. The French intimated +to the Austrians that this was their affair; the Romans, reinforced by +Garibaldi and his Legion, drove back the Neapolitans; and the Spaniards +retired quietly, thus leaving France to deal with the situation as she +deemed best. French reinforcements arrived, and fighting was begun +again.</p> + +<p>The Italians defended themselves for three weeks; their soldiers, though +brave, were raw, many of them mere volunteers, and ineffectual against +regular troops. As Mazzini was the hero in council, so Garibaldi was the +hero on the field of battle. The last of knight-errants, he was the very +incarnation of Romance and Revolution. Bred to the sea, this Savoyard +from Nice always retained the jaunty, gallant bearing of a mariner. His +countenance (childlike and lionlike),—with its broad, tranquil brow, +benign eye, and resolute mouth,—in youth all sparkling, gradually +changed with care and disillusion, but he still kept the seaman's mien +and the seaman's lightsome eye. He was the beau ideal of a romantic +hero. After his unsuccessful raid into Piedmont he had gone to South +America, where he lived a wild life of guerilla warfare, fighting like a +Paladin on behalf of republican revolutionaries who were struggling for +their freedom. All the time he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>was training a band of Italian +adventurers, his Legion, so that they should be ready when their country +had need of them. These men rushed to the defence of Rome. Their entry +into the city was most picturesque. The gaunt soldiers, wearing red +shirts and pointed hats topped with plumes, their legs bare, their +beards full-grown, their faces tanned to copper colour, with their long +black hair dangling unkempt, looked like so many Fra Diavolos. At their +head Garibaldi, in his red shirt, with loose kerchief knotted round his +throat, the regular beauty of his noble, leonine face set off by his +waving hair, mounted on a milk-white horse, rode like a demi-god.</p> + +<p>Besides this Legion, troops of volunteers came from all over Italy. The +character of these patriots may be learned from Mazzini's account of the +young Genoese poet Goffredo Mameli, who was killed there. "For me, for +us exiles of twenty years who have grown old in illusions, he was like a +melody of youth, a presentiment of times that we shall not see, in which +the instinct of goodness and sacrifice will dwell unconscious in the +human soul, and will not be, as virtue is in us, the fruit of long and +hard struggles. Of a disposition lovingly yielding, he was only happy +when he could abandon himself to those he loved, as a child in his +mother's caress; and yet Mameli was unshakably firm in what touched the +faith he had embraced. He was handsome, but careless of his appearance, +and sensitive as a woman to the charm of flowers and sweet scents. Such +was he when I knew him first at Milan in 1848, and we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>loved each other +at once. It was impossible to see him and not love him. Only twenty-two, +he joined the extremes rarely found united, a childlike gentleness and +the energy of a lion, to be revealed, and which was revealed, in supreme +emergencies."</p> + +<p>The defence of Rome was vain. Mazzini escaped by means of an English +passport, and Garibaldi led a handful of men eastward hoping to reach +Venice. The French soldiers marched into the city, and reestablished the +Temporal Power of the Pope. Venice alone remained. Daniele Manin, the +valiant dictator, maintained a stout defence for four months, but +cholera and hunger came to the enemy's aid. On August 24 the city +capitulated, and on the 30th Marshal Radetzky heard the <i>Te Deum</i> of +Austrian gratitude played in St. Mark's. In all Italy, except Piedmont, +the reaction had triumphed; Piedmont alone was left to become the centre +of whatever hopes of independence and unity still existed.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>The Liberation of Italy</i>, Evelyn M. Cesaresco, p. 144.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE UNITY OF ITALY (1849-1871)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>After the uprisings of 1848-49, the old tyrannical system prevailed for +eight years and seemed heavier than ever. Liberalism meant suspicion, +disfavour, danger. The liberals were not very numerous and did not agree +among themselves. Some looked for hope to Piedmont, some to England, +some to France. Some were for a republic, some for a confederation, some +for unity; some wished insurrection, others lawful agitation.</p> + +<p>In Naples the king busied himself with putting the liberals in dungeons. +According to the general belief the number of prisoners for political +offences in the Two Sicilies was between fifteen and thirty thousand. +Among them was Baron Carlo Poerio, "a refined and accomplished +gentleman, a respected and blameless character," at one time one of the +ministers of the Crown. It happened that Mr. Gladstone, travelling for +the benefit of a daughter's health, passed several months in Naples at +this time (1850-51). He attended trials of the liberal prisoners, +listened to a "long tissue of palpable lies told by witnesses suborned +by the government," and visited the horrible and filthy prisons. After +his return to England he published his "Letters to the Earl of +Aberdeen." He set forth before the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>English people "the horrors—amidst +which the government of that country (Naples) is now carried on." He +said that "the present practices of the Government of Naples in +reference to real or supposed political offenders are an outrage upon +religion, upon civilization, upon humanity, and upon decency." He +described the "incessant, systematic, deliberate violation of the law by +the Power appointed to watch over and maintain it." "It is the wholesale +persecution of virtue,—it is the awful profanation of public +religion,—it is the perfect prostitution of the judicial office,—this +is 'The negation of God erected into a system of government.'" He +recounted Poerio's trial at length, and told how Poerio and fifteen +others were confined in a room about thirteen feet long and eight feet +high, in which they slept, always chained two by two. These chains were +never taken off, day or night. He ended by saying, "It is time that +either the veil should be lifted from scenes fitter for hell than earth, +or some considerable mitigation should be voluntarily adopted. I have +undertaken this wearisome and painful task, in the hope of doing +something to diminish a mass of human suffering as huge, I believe, as +acute, to say the least, as any that the eye of Heaven beholds."</p> + +<p>These letters were sent by Lord Palmerston to every government in +Europe, and helped to awaken general European sympathy for the oppressed +liberals of Italy.</p> + +<p>In the Papal States Pius IX put himself wholly in the hands of the +reactionaries and the Jesuits. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>His government was practically imbecile. +Brigands came and went at will. In Forlimpopoli, for instance, a city of +the Romagna, a famous highwayman and his band appeared on the stage of a +theatre, and made the spectators empty their pockets of their money and +of their front-door keys. In Modena, Parma, and Tuscany the governments +did whatever they deemed would be pleasing to Austria; and in Lombardy +and Venice the Austrians repressed the slightest signs of patriotism.</p> + +<p>In Piedmont alone was there light ahead. The young king was the +embodiment of the best qualities of his race. The statues of him, carved +in the first fury of patriotism, which disfigure many a <i>piazza</i>, reveal +only his corpulence, his monstrous mustachios, and the forceful ugliness +of his shrewd face. Victor Emmanuel was a soldier born, of careless +manners, imperious and brusque, yet with a charm of obvious honesty that +won men's hearts and gained for him the title of <i>il re galantuomo</i>. He +reminds one of Henry of Navarre, in his dash, his impetuous energy, his +shrewdness, his deserved popularity, and his eternally youthful +readiness to fall in love. After the defeat at Novara (1849) pressure +was put upon him to return to the autocratic system, and, it is said, +Austria offered him easier terms if he would. He had been brought up +with the old ideas of the royal position, but he was statesman enough to +perceive that if Piedmont and the House of Savoy were to lead in the +movement of Italian independence, they must win the confidence of the +liberals; and he had sworn to maintain the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>constitution. He was always +a man of his word, whatever policy might advise, and answered that he +should be loyal to the constitution.</p> + +<p>Piedmont's history for the next few years is a record of liberal +legislation, as it was then understood. This legislation was especially +directed against antiquated ecclesiastical privileges, with the purpose +of realizing Cavour's principle, "A free Church in a free State." A +little later Cavour was called to the head of the government, and for +ten years, with certain brief exceptions, he remained the chief figure +on the Italian stage. There are diverse judgments on the very diverse +merits of the master-builders of the Italian kingdom; some admire most +Mazzini, the indefatigable conspirator, the dreamy idealist, the nobly +fanatical republican; others, Garibaldi, the man after Petrarch's heart, +the rival of Roland or the Cid; others, Victor Emmanuel, the honourable, +bold, shrewd, resolute king; but all agree that Cavour's brilliant +diplomacy entitles him to rank as one of the world's great statesmen, +and that his work was indispensable to the establishment of the Italian +kingdom.</p> + +<p>This period prior to the war with Austria is Cavour's. He set the +finances of Piedmont on a better basis; he began a series of measures +for the development of her resources; he secured various internal +reforms, but his brilliant achievement was in his foreign policy. He +knew that the Austrians could not be dispossessed without a war, that +Piedmont was not strong enough of herself, and that in order to gain +allies she must get a hearing before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>Europe. The Crimean War gave +Cavour an opportunity. England and France would have preferred Austria +as an ally, and there was much cautious proceeding; but Austria +hesitated, and Piedmont offered herself. Many Italians deemed the plan +of taking part in a war with which Piedmont had no visible concern a +piece of folly; but Cavour carried his point. The Piedmontese army went, +behaved with credit, and effaced the unfavourable impression left by the +disastrous campaigns of 1848-49. The fruits of the Crimean expedition +were gathered at the Congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour, supported +by England and France, was able to call the attention of the Congress to +the condition of Italy. He pointed to the tyranny of Austria in Lombardy +and Venetia, to the abominable condition of the Papal States, to the +horrible misgovernment in the Two Sicilies; and he pointed to Piedmont +as the bulwark against Austrian preponderance on the one hand, and +against the revolutionary spirit on the other. Nothing definite was +done, but the Italian question had been broached, and Cavour's +participation in the Congress was recognized as a great achievement.</p> + +<p>Piedmont's leadership was helped by rash revolts elsewhere, easily put +down and cruelly punished; and it became plainer and plainer that +through the steady, orderly monarchy of Sardinia deliverance was to +come, if at all, and not through the visionary schemes of Mazzini. The +dark, mysterious plans of Napoleon III now loomed on the horizon. +Relations between him and Cavour became closer. Cavour, no doubt, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>would +have liked to gain his ends without French aid, but that could not be +done. The only other possible ally, England, would not interfere. In the +summer of 1858 an understanding was reached between him and Napoleon +that in case of Austrian aggression France would aid Piedmont. On +January 1, 1859, Napoleon hinted to the world what had happened; on +January 10, Victor Emmanuel at the opening of the Piedmontese parliament +said that the political situation was not free from perils ahead, "for +while we respect treaties, we cannot disregard the cry of pain which +comes to us from so many parts of Italy." Count Cavour asked for a loan +of 50,000,000 lire. Affairs moved fast. Relations between Piedmont and +Austria were strained taut; but it was essential that Austria should be +the aggressor. Russia and England, in order to prevent war, suggested a +European Congress to consider matters. Napoleon consented; and Cavour, +who knew that freedom for Italy could only be obtained by war, feared +that his chance had gone. There was talk of disarmament, but no +agreement had been reached, when Austria, impatient and arrogant, sent +an ultimatum to Piedmont that she must disarm prior to the Congress. +Victor Emmanuel refused and war was declared.</p> + +<p>The French Emperor crossed the Alps, and in June the allies won the +battles of Magenta and Solferino. The Italians believed that Austria +would now be driven from every foot of Italian soil: when, suddenly, +without consulting Piedmont, Napoleon, for reasons of French policy, +made peace with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>Austria. The Emperor of Austria ceded Lombardy to +Napoleon, and Napoleon transferred it to Piedmont; and, as a sop to the +spirit of Italian unity, both Emperors agreed to favour the scheme of a +confederation of the Italian States with the Pope at its head, but the +latter plan was left in the air. This was the end of the high hopes of +Italian freedom and unity. Italy had received a slap in the face. Cavour +was furious; he had a stormy interview with his king, and passionately +urged him not to consent, but the king had the good sense to see that he +must. Cavour immediately resigned.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the war had caused the recall of the Austrian troops south of +the Po, and the patriots had risen in joy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, +the Duke of Modena, the Duchess Regent of Parma, the papal legates of +the Romagna, ran away, and provisional governments were established; but +a permanent political disposition was attended with difficulties. The +states themselves wished to join Piedmont, but the wish was not +unanimous, for many people wanted to preserve local autonomy and their +old historic boundaries. Napoleon favoured his vague confederacy, and a +European Congress supported his view. Indecision reigned, but the cause +of national union triumphed through the vigour of Count Bettino +Ricasoli, a man of iron character, head of the provisional government in +Tuscany. "We must," he wrote, "no longer speak of Piedmont, nor of +Florence, nor of Tuscany; we must speak neither of fusion nor +annexation, but of the union of the Italian people under the +constitutional government of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>Victor Emmanuel."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Certainly the +fugitive dukes could only return by force, and though Continental Europe +approved their return, there was nobody to supply the force. The little +states voted to join Piedmont. Piedmont, however, hesitated, in fear of +European contradiction. Nobody but Cavour could manage the matter, and +he was recalled to office (1860). Cavour appealed to the doctrine of the +popular will to be expressed by a <i>plebiscite</i>. France, however, would +only consent upon cession of Savoy and Nice, a measure already talked of +as the price of the French alliance; and in spite of the reluctance of +the king to surrender Savoy, the cradle of his race, the price had to be +paid. The cession was made, and Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the Romagna +were united with the Kingdom of Sardinia under the name of the Kingdom +of Italy (April 15, 1860).</p> + +<p>In the mean time Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, had died, hated +and despised by everybody, and his son Francis II, a weak, ignorant, +bigoted lad, had mounted the throne. He refused a suggestion of Victor +Emmanuel to join in the war against Austria, threw himself into the arms +of the reactionary party, and made an alliance with the Pope. The +discontented liberals took courage at the news from the north. In April, +1860, the revolt began in Palermo, and, though suppressed there, spread. +Two young patriots, Francesco Crispi and Rosalino Pilo, went about +stirring the people to action. Garibaldi was begged to put himself at +the head of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>proposed revolution. On the night of May 6, two ships, +the Lombardy and the Piedmont, secretly left Genoa, and took Garibaldi +and a thousand volunteers aboard. This band, known as <i>i Mille</i>, is +nearly as famous and as legendary as King Arthur and his Round Table. On +May 11, the ships landed at Marsala. Two Neapolitan cruisers came up, +but two English men-of-war happened to be there also; and the English +captains, under guise of friendly notification to the Neapolitans, took +some action which delayed the latter long enough to let the last +Garibaldians disembark. Once on shore, Garibaldi's volunteers ran to +secure the telegraph office. They arrived just after the operator had +telegraphed that two Piedmontese ships, filled with troops, had come +into the harbour; a Garibaldian was able to add to the message, "I have +made a mistake; they are two merchantmen." The answer came back, +"Idiot." The volunteers marched inland. A provisional government was +organized; Garibaldi was made dictator, and Crispi secretary of state. +The cry was "Italy and Victor Emmanuel!" Garibaldi was joined by +insurgent Sicilians, and, with numbers considerably increased, fought +and defeated the Bourbon army. The story reads like the exploits of +Hector before the Greek trenches. Victory followed victory. Palermo +fell, Milazzo and Messina; then he crossed the straits and invaded +Calabria (August). This marvellous triumph, for there had been thirty +thousand regular troops to oppose Garibaldi, frightened King Francis; he +proclaimed a constitution, appealed to Napoleon, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>and even to Victor +Emmanuel, for help. It was too late. Garibaldi swept on victorious, and +the king fled from Naples (September 6); the next day Garibaldi marched +in and assumed dictatorship of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>England approved, but Continental Europe looked askance at this +irregular proceeding, and Victor Emmanuel and Cavour began to feel +uneasy, apprehensive lest the Great Powers should intervene in Italian +affairs. It was a difficult situation. Garibaldi was moving on +northward, and proclaimed his intention of going to Rome, regardless of +the French army stationed there, and then to Venice, regardless of the +European treaties that gave Venice to Austria. Besides, the Pope had +collected an army (largely of foreign recruits) to suppress the liberal +movements in Umbria and the Marches, and to give aid to the Neapolitan +king. Here were further opportunities for foreign intervention. +Evidently Cavour must act promptly if he wished Piedmont to continue to +control the national movement. He requested the Pope to dismiss his new +army. The Pope refused. The Piedmontese army crossed the pontifical +border, scattered the papal army, and took possession of all the papal +territory, except the city of Rome and the country immediately about it, +and then marched on across the Neapolitan boundary. Here the Bourbon +army was holding Garibaldi at bay. The arrival of the Piedmontese +determined the issue. A less noble man might have shown resentment at +having another come at the eleventh hour and seize the fruits of +victory, but Garibaldi hailed Victor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>Emmanuel as King of Italy, refused +the proffered honours and rewards, and went home, a poor man, to the +little island of Caprera. The Two Sicilies and the liberated parts of +the Papal States voted to join the Kingdom of Italy. In February, 1861, +the first Italian parliament was held, and Victor Emmanuel formally +received the title King of Italy. Excepting Rome and Venice, Italy was +free and independent.</p> + +<p>Rome was the more pressing question of the two. A history of twenty-five +hundred years, a profound sentiment, a patriotic, poetic, romantic love, +had inevitably determined that Rome must be the capital of United Italy. +On the other hand, opposed to the Italian national sentiment was the +historic Catholic sentiment, diffused throughout Europe and strongest in +France. The Pope naturally deemed his Italian birth inferior in +obligation to his Catholic position. Moreover, the Temporal Power of the +Popes had endured for more than a thousand years, and since the time of +Julius II the pontifical title had been as good as the title to public +or private property anywhere. Catholics honestly believed that this +political kingdom was necessary to the independence of the Church. How +could the world, they said, believe in papal impartiality if the Papacy +were under the thumb of the Italian government? The difference in point +of view inevitably brought the ardent Papist and the patriotic +Nationalist to mutual injustice. The Italians looked on Pius IX as their +worst enemy; the Roman Curia deemed the Italians robbers. French +sympathy with the Papists, and especially the presence of a French army +in Rome, made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span>the question exceedingly difficult. A special +circumstance aggravated the difficulty. The King of Naples, having taken +refuge in Rome, armed and subsidized gangs of brigands, who raided the +Neapolitan provinces and committed unspeakable outrages. These rascals, +when pursued by the Piedmontese army, crossed the pontifical border and +were safe. This condition was intolerable.</p> + +<p>At this juncture the great statesman who had steadfastly pursued his +policy,—a free Church in a free State,—and never lost hope of a +peaceful solution of the Roman difficulty, died (June 6, 1861). The +priest who shrived him was summoned to Rome, deprived of his parish, +suspended from his office, and sent to finish his days in a remote +monastery; so strongly did the Roman Court feel that Cavour and his +abettors were wicked men.</p> + +<p>Cavour's successors, Ricasoli and Rattazzi, with feebler gait, followed +his policy as best they could; but uncertainty and hesitation prevailed. +The two great questions, Rome and Venice, pressed for solution. The +radicals clamored to have the Italian army march on Rome. Garibaldi's +impatience would not brook further inaction. He left his island home at +Caprera, and betook himself to Sicily, crying, "Rome or Death!" With a +little army of hot-tempered radicals he crossed into Calabria. The +Italian government had no choice. Regular troops met Garibaldi at +Aspromonte, near Reggio, and bade him withdraw; he refused; shots were +fired. Which side fired first is uncertain. Garibaldi was wounded and +made prisoner (August 29, 1862). <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span>This indignity to the national hero +roused much hard feeling, but reasonable men perceived that the solution +of the Roman question had to be found in some other way than by a +filibustering expedition against a city held by the troops of a power +with whom the nation was at peace.</p> + +<p>The liberation of Venice came first. Prussia occupied a position in +Germany somewhat similar to that of Piedmont in Italy. Both had somewhat +similar problems. Both felt antagonism to Austria, and also a suspicion +of France. In April, 1866, the two states made an alliance against +Austria, who, fearing the combination, tried to break it by offering to +cede Venetia to Italy if she would abandon the Prussian alliance. Victor +Emmanuel refused, and war began in June. The Italians were beaten both +on land and sea, to their great mortification and chagrin. The crushing +Prussian victory at Sadowa, however, forced Austria to accept the +victor's terms, including the cession of Venice. On November 7 Victor +Emmanuel entered the city. Rome alone was left.</p> + +<p>Garibaldi made another desperate attempt, but was defeated by the French +at Mentana (1867). Not by Italian victories, but in consequence of +Prussian victories, the conquest of Rome was finally effected. The +French were obliged to withdraw their garrison during the +Franco-Prussian War, and then the Italian government, which, to the +shame of ardent patriots, had so long forborne out of obedience to the +will of the French, gave notice to the world that it would annex Rome. +After a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>useless call upon the Pope for peaceful surrender, Victor +Emmanuel directed his army to march on the city. Real resistance was out +of the question, but Pius IX had decided to yield only to force. On the +20th of September, 1870, a breach was made in the wall near <i>Porta Pia</i>, +a few shots were fired, a few score soldiers killed and wounded, and the +Italian army marched in and took possession of the city. A <i>plebiscite</i> +was held, and by a vote of 133,681 to 1507 the city voted to become a +part of Italy. In June, 1871, the seat of government was formally +removed from Florence, and Rome once again, after fifteen hundred years, +became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>The Union of Italy</i>, W. J. Stillman, p. 300.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2> + +<h3>CONCLUSION (1872-1900)</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The union of Italy was so triumphant, the efforts which accomplished it +so heroic, and the whole tone of Italian history throughout the +Risorgimento so romantic and noble, that the period since of necessity +looks flat and dull. The Italians themselves had imagined that the union +of Italy would be followed by some career, political, moral, or +intellectual, that would be comparable to the career of ancient Rome. A +reaction was inevitable. No nation could continue at so enthusiastic a +pitch. Moreover, the difficulties before it were great.</p> + +<p>Chief of these difficulties was the persistent hostility of the Papacy. +Pius IX, a kind, lovable, timid man, wholly inadequate to cope with a +revolutionary situation, had passed from his early sympathy with the +liberal movement to the opposite extreme, and hated it with the hatred +of fear. His hatred of liberal ideas may be seen in his conduct with +regard to ecclesiastical matters. He insisted upon the extremest +conservative dogma, as if it were a shield to protect the Papacy, the +papal city, the Papal States, and the whole Catholic world, from all +assaults of Satan and his liberal crew. First he proclaimed the dogma of +the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, next he published the +"Syllabus," which is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>condemnation of all those doctrines commonly +embodied in Bills of Rights. Finally, he convoked the Vatican Council +(1869-70), and procured a decree that the Pope is infallible in matters +of faith and morals. This decree gave the death-blow to whatever remains +of republicanism there were in the Church, and established the Pope as +absolute monarch. An Ecumenical Council, representing the Church, had +previously been the infallible head of the Church; now the Pope was +substituted for the Council.</p> + +<p>In this way the Church more and more assumed an attitude of +irreconcilable hostility to the ideas that prevailed among the educated +classes in Italy. After the occupation of Rome by the Italian +government, Pius shut himself up in the Vatican palace and proclaimed +himself a prisoner. He first advised and then commanded Catholics to +stay away from the polls at national elections, and directed his foreign +policy to the end of reëstablishing his Temporal Power. This policy, +judged by the popular belief in the divine right of nationality and of +majorities, is of course wrong; judged by one who regards the interests +of the Church as paramount, it may be defended as an attempt to adhere +to the old ways under which the Catholic Church had played its +extraordinary part in European history. After the occupation of Rome the +Italian government passed the Law of Guarantees (May 10, 1871), which +guaranteed to the Pope an annual subsidy of somewhat more than 3,000,000 +lire a year, and also the personal and diplomatic rights of a sovereign, +such as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span>to maintain his court, to receive ambassadors, to have separate +postal and telegraph service, to keep the Vatican and Lateran palaces, +etc. Pius IX refused to accept the subsidy.</p> + +<p>Another difficulty, which has confronted the government since the union, +has been the discord between the North and South. The northern +provinces, especially Lombardy and Piedmont, have been making progress +in manufactures and in commerce; whereas, on the contrary, the South, +very ignorant and very poor, and devoted to agriculture, wine, grain, +lemons, oranges, etc., without facilities for manufacture and without +capacity for commerce, has made doubtful advance. Special causes have +hindered it. In Sicily, in consequence of long-continued poverty, +ignorance, and misgovernment, the secret societies, known as the +<i>Mafia</i>, have overrun great parts of the island. The original cause of +the <i>Mafia</i> was probably self-protection, the lower classes banding +together to save themselves from the oppressions of the upper classes +who clung to the remains of the feudal system. The landowners, for +example, had used their control of the courts to maintain privileges and +injustice. As a natural consequence, members of the <i>Mafia</i> deemed it +ignoble to revenge wrongs by judicial process, and still more ignoble to +give any information to any officers of the government. They settled +their own disputes and righted their own wrongs. With the grant of +suffrage the <i>Mafia</i> became a political power, and only permitted the +election of such candidates as it approved.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>In Naples there was also a power behind the scenes which resembled the +<i>Mafia</i>, but in reality was totally distinct and individual. This +Neapolitan power, a legacy from Bourbon times, was the <i>Camorra</i>, a +society of criminals or ruffians on the edge of crime, organized for the +purpose of levying tribute by blackmail; it was not unlike the worst +municipal rings in this country, and gained its livelihood from the +vicious, and from politicians who benefited by its support. Both +<i>Camorra</i> and <i>Mafia</i> have been very great obstacles to social progress, +and still exist.</p> + +<p>The North, conscious of a higher standard of civilization, has wished to +educate and reform the South, and also, perhaps, has not been unwilling +to let taxation fall more heavily in proportion upon the agricultural +produce of the South than on the manufactured products of the North. +Resenting this assumption of superiority, and suspicious of unfair +treatment, especially with regard to indirect taxation, the South has +felt itself aggrieved; and so there have been continual misunderstanding +and friction between it and the North.</p> + +<p>In its foreign relations the country has also had hard problems. France +and Italy ceased to be friends. Italy could not forget that the French +had upheld the papal power in Rome, and had defeated Garibaldi at +Mentana; and France was indignant that Italy had not come to her rescue +in 1870. France also was jealous of a rival in the Mediterranean; while +the Italians believed that France favoured a revival of the Temporal +Power. This unfriendliness, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>fostered by the Italian clericals, +constituted a most disturbing factor in Italy's foreign relations. The +breach was increased by other causes, and Italy in alarm turned to find +friends elsewhere. Austria and Germany, who had already made an +alliance, were glad to have Italy join, as further security for the +peace of Europe against any action by France or Russia. So the three +joined and made the Triple Alliance (1882), which was renewed from time +to time and still exists. This alliance has given Italy ample security +against any attack by France, but has imposed upon her very heavy +military burdens in order to keep her army at a certain standard of +efficiency.</p> + +<p>As time went on the actors of the great age dropped off one by one; +Mazzini in 1872, Victor Emmanuel in 1878, Garibaldi in 1882. It is after +their departure, their noble desires fulfilled, their noble tasks +accomplished, that Italy looks little and inadequate. The parliamentary +struggles have certainly been neither noble nor romantic. After the +occupation of Rome, the Right, the conservative party, under Marco +Minghetti, Quintino Sella, and others, was in power for half a dozen +years, and by means of a burdensome taxation succeeded in making +receipts equal expenses. But taxes and refusal to extend the suffrage +led to its fall from power, and the Left, the progressive party, under +Agostino Depretis, assumed the government. Depretis abolished an +unpopular tax on grinding corn, made primary education compulsory, and +extended the suffrage from 600,000 voters to 2,000,000. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span>After these +reforms the dominant party ceased to have a definite programme. There +was general confusion, known as Transformism. The deputies split up into +little groups under petty leaders and fell to log-rolling. The story is +dreary and unimportant.</p> + +<p>Depretis, who died in 1887, was succeeded by Francesco Crispi, the most +striking political figure since Cavour. Crispi began life as an advocate +at Palermo, and took part as a very young man in the early agitations +for constitutional reforms. He was successful at the bar, and had moved +to Naples to practise before the appellate tribunals there, when the +events that led to the uprisings of '48 began to effervesce. Crispi took +a leading part. After the uprisings had been suppressed, he lived in +exile till the time was ripe to begin again. Then he returned to Sicily +and plotted for the revolution which terminated in Garibaldi's +expedition. He acquired great influence, took his seat in the Italian +parliament, and soon became leader of the radical Left. In spite of +vicissitudes and a not unattacked reputation, he was the chief +parliamentary figure on the death of Depretis, and dominated Italian +politics till 1896. In his youth Crispi had been a follower of Mazzini's +republican theories; later, though still a republican in sympathy, he +announced the opinion that "the Republic would divide us, the Monarchy +unites us," and abandoned his old republican associates. For this reason +among others he incurred the animosity of old friends and allies.</p> + +<p>During the period of his ascendency the subdivision of the deputies into +little groups made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>government difficult, and for a couple of years he +was out of office. In that interval hard times, adding weight to +republican and socialist propaganda, caused strikes, riots, and +insurrections; and accompanying these disturbances came the "Bank +Scandals." Sundry banks, conspicuously the important Banca Romana, had +been violating the laws which regulated the government of banks, and had +been engaged in most improper dealings with politicians, as, for +instance, lending money to deputies on little or no security. These +scandals, together with the strikes, wrecked the ministry, and the +country called on Crispi, as the one strong man able to take control. He +assumed office in December, 1893, and remained till 1896, when he fell +with equal suddenness. The cause of his fall requires a separate +paragraph.</p> + +<p>About 1870 an Italian steamship company established a coaling station on +the west coast of the Red Sea, and acquired a certain strip of land +which it afterwards ceded to the government (1882). From this beginning +the Italian government advanced, upon one pretext or another, to the +establishment of a colonial dependency. It occupied Massawa, established +the "Colonia Erithrea," and proclaimed a zone of influence along the +east coast of Africa. Various battles were fought with the natives; and +at last the government sent fifteen thousand men to perform some +brilliant exploit for its own political benefit. The Italian troops were +badly handled; they walked into a trap set by the Abyssinians, and +suffered a terrible rout, losing half their numbers (1896). Crispi fell +at once, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>new ministry under Di Rudinì, in spite of cries for +revenge, prudently abandoned the colonial policy, and made peace as best +it could. Italy renounced her protectorate, and contented herself with a +strip of coast by Massawa. Thus ended the scheme of colonial +aggrandizement begun in ignorance and folly.</p> + +<p>The fall of Crispi removed the last interesting figure of the +Risorgimento, and left Italian politics in a confused medley. Since +then, various leaders of no marked ability or individuality have +struggled with the permanent difficulties of Church and State, North and +South, capitalism and socialism, and the shifting difficulties of +foreign relations. All this time is too near to present any definite +pattern to the casual eye. The century closed sadly with the +assassination of King Humbert (1878-1900) by an ignorant workman who +called himself a nihilist. Humbert was not a good ruler, but he had a +kind heart and many pleasant qualities, which endeared him to the +Italian people. He was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III, the +present king.</p> + +<p>The greatest Italian figure of the last decades of the nineteenth +century was not to be found in the service of the State, but of the +Church. In 1810 Gioacchino Pecci was born in Carpineto, a dead little +village perched on a hillside near Anagni, the town where Boniface VIII +was nearly murdered by Sciarra Colonna five hundred years before. His +father, Count Lodovico Pecci, had served in Napoleon's army; his mother +was said to be descended <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>from Cola di Rienzo. The count was the +seigneur of the place, and lived in a somewhat shabby palace which had +seen better days. Gioacchino was educated at a Jesuit school in Rome. He +soon gave evidence of marked ability, and was taken into the papal +service and sent as apostolic delegate to Benevento. Banditti infested +the neighbourhood, and the nobility of the town were little better than +the banditti. Pecci displayed character. He was promoted, and at the age +of thirty-three was sent as papal nuncio to Belgium, with the title of +Archbishop of Damietta, an archbishopric that had been <i>in partibus +infidelium</i> since the days of St. Louis. In Belgium, where liberal ideas +were jostling the old ecclesiastical system, Pecci distinguished himself +for tact and address. From Belgium he went to Perugia as bishop, and +governed the city for thirty-two years, during the trying time in which +(largely at the expense of the Church) Italy was forcing her way to +freedom. In 1860 his authority was overthrown by the Piedmontese +soldiers, and many tales of brutality and wantonness charged upon the +nationalists were brought to his troubled ears, and he unfortunately +received a most unfavourable impression of liberals and liberalism. His +reputation for ability, character, and diplomacy became so well +established, that in the conclave on the death of Pius IX he had no +serious competitor. Leo XIII (1878-1903) was already an old man when he +was elected Pope, and had had the misfortune to receive his education +and training in the narrow school of the old papal régime. Preceded by +an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>incompetent Pope, he found himself confronted by the wreck of the +Temporal Power, and by a liberalism which was not only triumphant in +Italy, but in nearly all western Europe. He had not far to go to find +thoughtful men who expected to see the Papacy collapse and die. Most +difficult matters in Germany, in Ireland, in France, in the United +States, required delicate and skilful management. It is not too much to +say that Leo raised the Papacy higher in the world's regard than it had +stood for two hundred years. Had he been a younger man, and trained in a +more liberal school, he might, perhaps, have attempted the task of +adjusting ecclesiastical conservatism and tradition to the needs of a +fast changing world. But he was too old. With a few brilliant exceptions +he accepted the conservative policy. He affected to deem himself a +prisoner in the Vatican, and claimed the restoration of the Temporal +Power; he declared Thomas Aquinas the best teacher for the priesthood, +and stood firm on the dogmas of the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, his +was a most impressive personality, and he stands in the long list of +Popes in a rank inferior only to the highest.</p> + +<p>In his old age, as he strolled in the Vatican gardens, meditating Latin +verses, or thinking over his encyclical letters, "On the Condition of +the Working Classes," "On Christian Democracy," "On the Holy Eucharist," +or turning his emaciated, sweet, Voltairean face to the great dome of +St. Peter's, he may well have let his mind wander in peace over the +outside world, for never since Luther cast off his papal allegiance had +the whole Christian world <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>been so united in admiration for a Pope of +Rome. All Christians could say amen to the prayer in his last poem, +"Suprema Leonis Vota:"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Expleat o clemens anxia vota Deus,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Scilicet ut tandem superis de civibus unus<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Divino aeternum lumine et ore fruar.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We have now reached our goal, the end of the nineteenth century, and if +we look back and contemplate the vicissitudes of Italy, such as no other +nation ever experienced, twice on the throne of Europe, three times +crowned with its crown,—Imperial, Ecclesiastical, Intellectual,—and +resurvey the three centuries during which foreign tyrant and native +priest joined hands to smother and quench the Italian fire, and then +read in detail the heroic acts of the men who sacrificed themselves for +Italian freedom, we shall feel sure that the dull colours of the present +generation are but signs of a time of rest, and that the genius of Italy +lives within and will again enrich the world with deeds of men sprung +from the "gentle Latin blood."</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fulfil, O gracious God, my anxious prayer,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That, at the last, one among the citizens of Heaven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I may enjoy Thy Light, Thy Face, forever.</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> + +<p class="cen">I</p> + +<p class="cen">CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF POPES AND EMPERORS</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="90%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png 436"> + <tr> + <td class="tdctb" width="8%">Year of Accession.</td> + <td class="tdctlb" width="42%">Popes.</td> + <td class="tdctlb" width="42%">Emperors.</td> + <td class="tdctlb" width="8%">Year of Accession.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">A.D</td> + <td class="tdll"> </td> + <td class="tdll"> </td> + <td class="tdcl">A.D.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 468</td> + <td class="tdllp">Simplicius</td> + <td class="tdllp">Romulus Augustulus</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 475</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 483</td> + <td class="tdllp">Felix III</td> + <td class="tdllp">Anastasius I[1]</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 491</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 492</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gelasius I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 496</td> + <td class="tdllp">Anastasius II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 498</td> + <td class="tdllp">Symmachus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 498</td> + <td class="tdllp">Laurentius (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 514</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hormisdas</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Justin I</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 518</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 523</td> + <td class="tdllp">John I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 526</td> + <td class="tdllp">Felix IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">JUSTINIAN[2]</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 527</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 530</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 530</td> + <td class="tdllp">Dioscorus (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 532</td> + <td class="tdllp">John II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 535</td> + <td class="tdllp">Agapetus I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 536</td> + <td class="tdllp">Silverius</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 537</td> + <td class="tdllp">Vigilius</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 555</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pelagius I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 560</td> + <td class="tdllp">John III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Justin II</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 565</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 574</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 578</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pelagius II</td> + <td class="tdllp">Tiberius II</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 578</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Maurice</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 582</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 590</td> + <td class="tdllp">GREGORY I (THE GREAT)[2]</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Phocas</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 602</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 604</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sabinianus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 607</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 607</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">HERACLIUS</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 610</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 615</td> + <td class="tdllp">Deusdedit</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 618</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 625</td> + <td class="tdllp">Honorius I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 638</td> + <td class="tdllp">Severinus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 640<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span></td> + <td class="tdllp">John IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Constantine III }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Heracleonas, }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 641</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Constans II }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 640</td> + <td class="tdllp">Theodorus I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 649</td> + <td class="tdllp">Martin I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 654</td> + <td class="tdllp">Eugenius I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 657</td> + <td class="tdllp">Vitalianus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Constantine IV (Pogonatus)</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 668</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 672</td> + <td class="tdllp">Adeodatus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 676</td> + <td class="tdllp">Domnus I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 678</td> + <td class="tdllp">Agatho</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 682</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 683?</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 685</td> + <td class="tdllp">John V</td> + <td class="tdllp">Justinian II</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 685</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 685?</td> + <td class="tdllp">Conon</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 687</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sergius I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 687</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paschal (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 687</td> + <td class="tdllp">Theodorus (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Leontius</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 694</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Tiberius Apsimar</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 697</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 701</td> + <td class="tdllp">John VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 705</td> + <td class="tdllp">John VII</td> + <td class="tdllp">Justinian II restored</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 705</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 708</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sisinnius</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 708</td> + <td class="tdllp">Constantine</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Philippicus Bardanes</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 711</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Anastasius II</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 713</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 715</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Theodosius III</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 716</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">LEO III (THE ISAURIAN)</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 718</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 731</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 741</td> + <td class="tdllp">Zacharias</td> + <td class="tdllp">Constantine V (Copronymus)</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 741</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 752</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 752</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 757</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paul I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 768</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 772</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hadrian I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo IV</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 775</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Constantine VI</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 780</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdcz"> 795</td> + <td class="tdllzp">LEO III</td> + <td class="tdllp">Deposition of Constantine VI by Irene</td> + <td class="tdclb"> 797</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">CHARLEMAGNE }Carlovingian</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 800</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Lewis I (the Pious) }Line.</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 814</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 816</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 817</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paschal I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 824</td> + <td class="tdllp">Eugenius</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 827</td> + <td class="tdllp">Valentinus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 827</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Lothair I + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 840</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 844</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sergius II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 847</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 855</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict III</td> + <td class="tdllp">Lewis II + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 855</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 855</td> + <td class="tdllp">Anastasius (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 858</td> + <td class="tdllp">NICHOLAS I</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 867</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hadrian II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 872</td> + <td class="tdllp">John VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Charles II (the Bald)}</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 875</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Charles III (the Fat)}</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 881</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 882</td> + <td class="tdllp">Martin II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 884</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hadrian III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 885</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 891</td> + <td class="tdllp">Formosus</td> + <td class="tdllp">Guido }[3] Italians</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 891</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Lambert }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 894</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 896</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface VI</td> + <td class="tdllp">Arnulf, German</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 896</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 896</td> + <td class="tdllp">Steven VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 897</td> + <td class="tdllp">Romanus</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 897</td> + <td class="tdllp">Theodore II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 898</td> + <td class="tdllp">John IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 900</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Lewis III (of Provence)</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 901</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 903</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 903</td> + <td class="tdllp">Christopher</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 904</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sergius III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 911</td> + <td class="tdllp">Anastasius III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 913</td> + <td class="tdllp">Lando</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 914</td> + <td class="tdllp">John X</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Berengar, Italian</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 915</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 928</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 929</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 931</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 936</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 939</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 941</td> + <td class="tdllp">Martin III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 946</td> + <td class="tdllp">Agapetus II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 955</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"></td> + <td class="tdllp">OTTO THE GREAT }Saxon</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 962</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 963</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }Line.</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 964</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict V (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 965</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 972</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Otto II + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 973</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 974</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface VII (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 974</td> + <td class="tdllp">Domnus II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 974</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 983</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XIV</td> + <td class="tdllp">Otto III + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> 983</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 985</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 996</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 996</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XVI (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 999</td> + <td class="tdllp">SILVESTER II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Henry II (of Bavaria)</td> + <td class="tdcl">1002</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1003</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XVII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1003</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XVIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1009</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sergius IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span></td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1012</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1024</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XIX</td> + <td class="tdllp">Conrad II + }Franconian</td> + <td class="tdcl">1024</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1033</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }Line.</td> + <td class="tdcl"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">HENRY III + }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1039</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1044</td> + <td class="tdllp">Silvester (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> 1045?</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1046</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1048</td> + <td class="tdllp">Damasus II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1048</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1054</td> + <td class="tdllp">Victor II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">HENRY IV }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1056</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1057</td> + <td class="tdllp">Stephen IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1058</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict X</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1059</td> + <td class="tdllp">Nicholas II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1061</td> + <td class="tdllp">Alexander II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1073</td> + <td class="tdllp">GREGORY VII (Hildebrand)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1080</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1086</td> + <td class="tdllp">Victor III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1087</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1099</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paschal II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Henry V + }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1106</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1118</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gelasius II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1118</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1119</td> + <td class="tdllp">Calixtus II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1121</td> + <td class="tdllp">Celestine (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1124</td> + <td class="tdllp">Honorius II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Lothair II (the Saxon)</td> + <td class="tdcl">1125</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1130</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">(Anacletus, Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1138</td> + <td class="tdllp">Victor (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp">[Conrad III][4] }Hohenstaufen</td> + <td class="tdcl">1138</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1143</td> + <td class="tdllp">Celestine II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }Line.</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1144</td> + <td class="tdllp">Lucius II</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1145</td> + <td class="tdllp">Eugenius III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">FREDERICK I }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1152</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> (BARBAROSSA)}</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1153</td> + <td class="tdllp">Anastasius IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1154</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hadrian IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1159</td> + <td class="tdllp">ALEXANDER III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1159</td> + <td class="tdllp">Victor (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1164</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paschal (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1168</td> + <td class="tdllp">Calixtus (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1181</td> + <td class="tdllp">Lucius III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1185</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1187</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1187</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">HENRY VI }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1190</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1191</td> + <td class="tdllp">Celestine III</td> + <td class="tdllp">{ [Philip] + }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1198</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1198</td> + <td class="tdllp">INNOCENT III</td> + <td class="tdllp">{ Otto IV of Brunswick</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Otto IV</td> + <td class="tdcl">1208</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">FREDERICK II }Hohenstaufen</td> + <td class="tdcl">1212</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1216</td> + <td class="tdllp">Honorius III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }Line.</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1227</td> + <td class="tdllp">GREGORY IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1241</td> + <td class="tdllp">Celestine IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1241</td> + <td class="tdllp">Vacancy</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1243</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Conrad IV] } }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1250</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[William] }</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1254</td> + <td class="tdllp">Alexander IV</td> + <td class="tdllp">Interregnum</td> + <td class="tdcl">1254</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Richard, Earl of Cornwall] }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1257</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Alfonso, King of Castile] }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1257</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1261</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1265</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1269</td> + <td class="tdllp">Vacancy</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1271</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory X</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Rudolf I (of Hapsburg)]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1272</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1276</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1276</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hadrian V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1276</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XXI[5]</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1277</td> + <td class="tdllp">Nicholas III</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1281</td> + <td class="tdllp">Martin IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1285</td> + <td class="tdllp">Honorius IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1289</td> + <td class="tdllp">Nicholas IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1292</td> + <td class="tdllp">Vacancy</td> + <td class="tdllp">[Adolf (of Nassau)]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1292</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1294</td> + <td class="tdllp">Celestine V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1294</td> + <td class="tdllp">BONIFACE VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Albert I (of Hapsburg)]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1298</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1303</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict XI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1305</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement V }Avignon,</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }seat of</td> + <td class="tdllp">HENRY VII (of Luxemburg)</td> + <td class="tdcl">1308</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1314</td> + <td class="tdllp">Vacancy }Papacy.</td> + <td class="tdllp">Lewis IV (of Bavaria)</td> + <td class="tdcl">1314</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1316</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XXII }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1334</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict XII }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1342</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement VI }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdllp">Charles IV (House of Luxemburg)</td> + <td class="tdcl">1347</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1352</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent VI }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1362</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban V }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1370</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory XI }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1378</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban VI, Clement VII }Great</td> + <td class="tdllp">[Wenzel (House of Luxemburg)]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1378</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> + (Anti-pope) }Schism</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1389</td> + <td class="tdllp">Boniface IX + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1394</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict (Anti-pope) }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> + + }</td> + <td class="tdllp">[Rupert (Count Palatine)]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1404</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent VII + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1406</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory XII } + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1409</td> + <td class="tdllp">Alexander V } + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1410</td> + <td class="tdllp">John XXIII } + }</td> + <td class="tdllp">Sigismund (House of Luxemburg)</td> + <td class="tdcl">1410</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1417</td> + <td class="tdllp">Martin V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1431</td> + <td class="tdllp">Eugene IV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span></td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Albert II (of Hapsburg)][6]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1438</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1439</td> + <td class="tdllp">Felix V (Anti-pope)</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Frederick III</td> + <td class="tdcl">1440</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1447</td> + <td class="tdllp">NICHOLAS V }Popes</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1455</td> + <td class="tdllp">Calixtus III }of the</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1458</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius II + }Renaissance.</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1464</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paul II + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1471</td> + <td class="tdllp">SIXTUS IV }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1484</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent VIII }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1493</td> + <td class="tdllp">Alexander VI }</td> + <td class="tdllp">[Maximilian I]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1493</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1503</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius III + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"></td> + <td class="tdcl"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1503</td> + <td class="tdllp">JULIUS II }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1513</td> + <td class="tdllp">LEO X + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">CHARLES V</td> + <td class="tdcl">1519</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1522</td> + <td class="tdllp">Hadrian VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1523</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1534</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paul III }Council</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1550</td> + <td class="tdllp">Julius III + }of Trent.</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1555</td> + <td class="tdllp">Marcellus II }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1555</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paul IV + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }</td> + <td class="tdllp">[Ferdinand I][7]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1558</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1559</td> + <td class="tdllp">PIUS IV + }</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Maximilian II]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1564</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1566</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1572</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory XIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Rudolph II]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1576</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1585</td> + <td class="tdllp">SIXTUS V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1590</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1590</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory XIV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1591</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1592</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1605</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo XI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1605</td> + <td class="tdllp">Paul V</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Matthias]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1612</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Ferdinand II]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1619</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1621</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory XV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1623</td> + <td class="tdllp">Urban VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Ferdinand III]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1637</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1644</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent X</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1655</td> + <td class="tdllp">Alexander VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Leopold I]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1658</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1667</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1670</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement X</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1676</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent XI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1689</td> + <td class="tdllp">Alexander VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1691</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent XII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1700</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement XI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Joseph I]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1705</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Charles VI]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1711</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span>1720</td> + <td class="tdllp">Innocent XIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1724</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict XIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1740</td> + <td class="tdllp">Benedict XIV</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Charles VII]</td> + <td class="tdcl">1742</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Francis I, husband of Maria Theresa]</td> + <td class="tdclb">1745</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1758</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement XII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Joseph II] }House of</td> + <td class="tdcl">1765</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1769</td> + <td class="tdllp">Clement XIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }Hapsburg</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1775</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius VI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> + }through</td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Leopold II] }Maria Theresa.</td> + <td class="tdcl">1790</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">[Francis II] }</td> + <td class="tdcl">1792</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1800</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius VII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdllp">Abdication of Francis II</td> + <td class="tdcl">1806</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1823</td> + <td class="tdllp">Leo XII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1829</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius VIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1831</td> + <td class="tdllp">Gregory XVI</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1846</td> + <td class="tdllp">PIUS IX</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1878</td> + <td class="tdllp">LEO XIII</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">1903</td> + <td class="tdllp">Pius X</td> + <td class="tdllp"> </td> + <td class="tdcl"> </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>1 All the Emperors between Romulus Augustulus and Charlemagne reigned at +Constantinople.</p> + +<p>2 Capitals distinguish the most eminent Popes and Emperors.</p> + +<p>3 Two names bracketed together indicate rival claimants.</p> + +<p>4 Those in brackets never received the Imperial crown.</p> + +<p>5 This Pope skipped No. XX.</p> + +<p>6 From 1438 to 1806, with the exception of Francis I of Lorraine, the +House of Hapsburg was on the Imperial throne.</p> + +<p>7 Ferdinand and his successors took the title Emperor Elect.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<p class="cen">II</p> + +<p class="cen">GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png443"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">Giovanni Bicci, d. 1429.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="13%">|</td> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdr" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Cosimo, Pater Patriæ, d. 1464.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Lorenzo, d. 1440.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Piero, d. 1469.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Piero Francesco, 1467.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlz" colspan="4">Lorenzo the Magnificent, d. 1492.</td> + <td class="tdrz" colspan="2">Giuliano, d. 1478.</td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Giovanni, m. Caterina</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Sforza, d. 1498.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Piero, d. 1503.</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Giovanni, Pope</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Giulio, Pope Clement</td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Leo X, d. 1521.</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">VII, d. 1534.</td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Lorenzo, Duke</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Giovanni, "delle</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">of Urbino, d. 1519.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">bande nere," d.1526.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Alessandro,</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Caterina, m. Henri II</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Cosimo I, Grand</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">d. 1537.</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">of France, d. 1589.</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Duke, d. 1574.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"></td> + <td class="tdr" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Francesco I, d. 1587, m. Joanna</td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Ferdinand I, d. 1609.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">of Austria, also Bianca Cappello.</td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Maria, m. Henri IV of France.</td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Cosimo II, d. 1621.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Ferdinand II, d. 1670.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="2">Cosimo III, d. 1723.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">Giovanni Gastone, d. 1737.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<p class="cen">III</p> + +<p class="cen">SKELETON TABLE OF THE KINGS OF THE TWO SICILIES<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png444"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="12%"> </td> + <td class="tdl" width="13%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">NAPLES</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="6">KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES</td> + <td class="tdr">SICILY</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="4">NORMAN CONQUEST,</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="4">last half of eleventh century.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">Roger, d. 1154.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;">|</td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdr" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;">|</td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdl"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">William the Bad, d. 1166.</td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">Constance, d. 1198,</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">married</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">William the Good, d. 1189.</td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">Henry VI, Emperor, d. 1197.</td> + <td class="tdl">}Hohenstaufen</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">}Line.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdr" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">Frederick II, Emperor, d. 1250.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdr" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Conrad IV, d. 1254.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Manfred, d. 1266.</td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Conradin, d. 1268.</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl">}</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">FRENCH CONQUEST, 1266.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">Charles of Anjou, 1266-1282.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="5"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">SICILIAN VESPERS, 1282.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3">House of Anjou, 1266-1442.</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">House of Aragon, 1282-1442.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">Alfonso of Aragon,</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">1442-1448.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="8">|</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">|</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6" style="border-top: .5pt black solid;"> </td> + <td class="tdl">|</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlz" colspan="2">House of Aragon, illegitimate,<br /> 1448-1504.</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">House of Aragon, legitimate, which, on marriage of Ferdinand of + Aragon with Isabella of Castile, became House of Spain.<br /> 1448-1504.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8">SPANISH CONQUEST, 1504.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Ferdinand the Catholic, 1504-1516.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">|</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="5"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Charles V, Emperor, 1516-1556.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr" colspan="3">|</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="5"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Spanish Crown, 1556-1713.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">TREATY OF UTRECHT, 1713.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Austria, 1713-1720.</td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="4"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="4">Savoy, 1713-1720.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">WILL OF QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, 1720.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Austria, 1720-1738.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">PEACE OF VIENNA, 1738.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="8"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Spanish Bourbons, 1738-1798.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">[French invasion, 1798-1802.]</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Spanish Bourbons, 1802-1805.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Joseph Bonaparte, 1806-1808.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Joachim Murat, 1808-1815.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="6">Spanish Bourbons:</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="5">Ferdinand I, 1815-1825.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="5">Francis I, 1825-1830.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="5">Ferdinand II, 1830-1859.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="3"> </td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="5">Francis II, 1859-1860.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> When the two kingdoms are united the names of the kings +are put in the middle column, when separate in the side columns +respectively.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<p class="cen">IV</p> + +<p class="cen">LIST OF BOOKS FOR GENERAL READING</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>For the Middle Ages</i></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="png 445"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="72%">Italy and her Invaders</td> + <td class="tdl" width="28%">Thomas Hodgkin.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</td> + <td class="tdl">Edward Gibbon.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of Latin Christianity</td> + <td class="tdl">Dean Milman.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Rome in the Middle Ages (translated from the German by Mrs. G. W. Hamilton</td> + <td class="tdlz">F. Gregorovius.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Mediæval Europe</td> + <td class="tdl">Ephraim Emerton.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Italian Chronicles of the Middle Ages</td> + <td class="tdl">Ugo Balzani.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Story of the Byzantine Empire</td> + <td class="tdl">C. W. C. Oman.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of the Later Roman Empire</td> + <td class="tdl">J. Bury.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Holy Roman Empire</td> + <td class="tdl">James Bryce.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Historical Documents of the Middle Ages</td> + <td class="tdl">Ernest F. Henderson.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Papal Monarchy</td> + <td class="tdl">William Barry.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages</td> + <td class="tdlz">H. C. Lea.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church</td> + <td class="tdlz">H. D. Lea.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church</td> + <td class="tdlz">H. C. Lea.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of Western Europe</td> + <td class="tdl">J. H. Robinson.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">First Two Centuries of Florence (translated from the Italian by Linda Villari)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Pasquale Villari.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Florence, Mediæval Towns Series</td> + <td class="tdl">E. C. Gardner.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The History of Venice</td> + <td class="tdl">W. Carew Hazlitt.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">A Short History of Venice</td> + <td class="tdl">W. R. Thayer.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Church Building in the Middle Ages</td> + <td class="tdl">Charles Eliot Norton.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard (translated from the + French)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Montalembert.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages</td> + <td class="tdl">H. O. Taylor.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Life of St. Francis of Assisi (translated from the French by L. S. Houghton)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Paul Sabatier.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>For the Renaissance</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (translated from the German by + S. G. C. Middlemore)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Jakob Burckhardt.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Cicerone</td> + <td class="tdl">Jakob Burckhardt.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Renaissance in Italy (The Age of the Despots, Revival of Learning, Fine Arts, + Literature, Catholic Reaction)</td> + <td class="tdlz">John Addington Symonds.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages (translated from the French)</td> + <td class="tdlz">S. de Sismondi.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of the Popes of Rome (translated from the German by Sarah Austin)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Leopold Ranke.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Papacy during the Reformation</td> + <td class="tdl">M. Creighton.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlz">The Renaissance</td> + <td class="tdl">Cambridge Mod. History.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages (translated from the + German)</td> + <td class="tdlz">L. Pastor.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Council of Trent</td> + <td class="tdl">J. A. Froude.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters</td> + <td class="tdl">Robinson & Rolfe.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (translated from + the Italian by Mrs. Foster)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Giorgio Vasari.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Journal of Montaigne's Travels in Italy.</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>For the Eighteenth Century</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy</td> + <td class="tdl">Vernon Lee.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Goldoni's Memoirs, translated by</td> + <td class="tdl">W. D. Howells.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Memoirs of Carlo Gozzi</td> + <td class="tdl">J. A. Symonds.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>For the Risorgimento</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlz">The Liberation of Italy</td> + <td class="tdl">Evelyn M. Cesaresco.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlz">Italian Characters of the Epoch of Unification</td> + <td class="tdl">Evelyn M. Cesaresco.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Union of Italy (1815-1895)</td> + <td class="tdl">W. J. Stillman.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Life of Victor Emmanuel II</td> + <td class="tdl">G. S. Godkin.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Dawn of Italian Independence</td> + <td class="tdl">W. R. Thayer.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Modern Italy, 1748-1898 (translated from the Italian by Alice Vialls)</td> + <td class="tdlz">Pietro Orsi.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + + +<ul><li> Aachen, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + +<li> Abyssinians defeat Italians, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li> + +<li> Agnello, Father, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + +<li> Aistulf, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + +<li> Alaric, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + +<li> Alberic, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + +<li> Alberti, Leon Battista, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li> Albinola, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> Albizzi, Maso degli, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + +<li> Alboin, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + +<li> Albornoz, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + +<li> Alessi, Galeazzo, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Alexander VI, Pope (Rodrigo Borgia), and Savonarola, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> political course, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> + <li> private life, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> + <li> his apartments in Vatican, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Alexander VII, Pope, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li> Alfieri, Vittorio, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li> + +<li> Alfonso, of Aragon, King of Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> interest in humanism, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li> + <li> his death, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Amalfi, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + +<li> Amati, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li> Ammanati, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Angelico, Fra, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> + +<li> Antignati, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li> Apollo Belvedere, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + +<li> Aragon, King of, swears allegiance to Innocent III, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> + +<li> Arcadia, the, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + +<li> Arians, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> persecuted by Justinian, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Ariosto, <a href="#Page_283">283-285</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + +<li> Aristotle, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + +<li> Arnold of Brescia, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> + +<li> Arnolfo di Cambio, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> + +<li> Arnulf, Emperor, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> enters Rome, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Arsenal, at Venice, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + +<li> Aspromonte, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> + +<li> Assisi, heretics in, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> description of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> + <li> basilica of St. Francis, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li> + <li> taken by Milan temporarily, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Athens, made a Latin fief, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> captured by Venice, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Athens, Duke of, see Walter of Brienne.</li> + +<li> Attendolo, Muzio, see Sforza Attendolo.</li> + +<li> Augustine, in England, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li> Augustulus, see Romulus Augustulus.</li> + +<li> Austria, supreme in Italy, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Holy Alliance, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;</li> + <li> triumphant in 1848-49, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> war with France and Piedmont, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</li> + <li> war with Prussia and Italy, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Avignon, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Petrarch at, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> + <li> return of Popes to Rome from, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li> anti-popes of Great Schism at, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + </ul> +<br /> +</li> + + +<li> Babylonish Captivity, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> end of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Baglioni, in Perugia, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li> Bandinelli, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + +<li> Banditti, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + +<li> Bank scandals, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li> + +<li> Barbarians, their character, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> their society, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</li> + <li> habits, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> + <li> intercourse with Rome, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> + <li> dismember Empire, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> + <li> their problems in Italy, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> + <li> described by Boethius, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li> + <li> so-called (foreigners), <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Barbarossa, see Frederick I, Emperor.</li> + +<li> Barberini, see Urban VIII, Pope.</li> + +<li> Baroque, the, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li> Barozzi, Giacomo, see Vignola.</li> + +<li> Basel, Council of, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> + +<li> Beccaria, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> + +<li> Belisarius, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li> Bellini, composer, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> + +<li> Bellini, Gentile, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Bellini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Bellini, Jacopo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Bellotto, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Bembo, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li> Benedetto da Maiano, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Benedict, see St. Benedict.</li> + +<li> Benevento, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> + +<li> Bentivoglio, in Bologna, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li> Berchet, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li> Bergamo, annexed to Venice, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> + +<li> Bernini, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li> Bisticci, Vespasiano da, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + +<li> Black Death, see Plague of 1348.</li> + +<li> Boboli garden, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Boccaccio, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> his account of Black Death, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Boethius, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> + +<li> Boiardo, Matteo, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li> Bologna, jurists of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> university of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li> + <li> poetry in, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> + <li> Bentivogli in, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li> subject to Papacy, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li> + <li> seized by Visconti, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> + <li> recovered by Papacy, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</li> + <li> school of (painting), <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Boniface VIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> + <ul class="nest"> + <li> his character, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> + <li> quarrel with the Colonna, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> + <li> with Philip the Fair, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</li> + <li> his papal theories, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</li> + <li> outraged, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Bonifazio, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Bordone, Paris, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Borghese, Camillo, see Paul V, Pope.</li> + +<li> Borgia, Cæsar, <a href="#Page_272">272-275</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> employs Leonardo, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> + <li> believed to have murdered his brother, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>;</li> + <li> admired by Machiavelli, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Borgia, Lucrezia, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + +<li> Borgia, Rodrigo, see Alexander VI, Pope.</li> + +<li> Borgia, son to Rodrigo, see Duke of Gandia.</li> + +<li> Botticelli, <a href="#Page_245">245-247</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Bourbon, High Constable, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> + +<li> Bourbon, House of, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li> Bramante, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Rome, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li> designs St. Peter's, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Brescia, captured by Henry VII, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> annexed by Venice, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li> gallant defence of, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Brienne, Walter of, Duke of Athens, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li> Bronzino, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Brunelleschi, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235-237</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> and Donatello, anecdote of, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Bruno, Giordano, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> + +<li> Burckhardt, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> on Bandinelli, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Burgundy, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + +<li> Byron, Lord, <a href="#Page_372">372-375</a>.</li> + +<li> Byzantine art, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Cacciaguida, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> + +<li> Cambrai, League of, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> + +<li> Cambrai, treaty of, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> + +<li> Camorra, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> + +<li> Campanella, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> + +<li> Canaletto, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Can Grande, see under Scala della.</li> + +<li> Canon law, see Church law.</li> + +<li> Canossa, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + +<li> Cappello, Bianca, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li> Caracci, the, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Caraffa, Cardinal, see Paul IV, Pope.</li> + +<li> Caravaggio, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Carbonari, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li> Cardinals, made papal electors, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + +<li> Carducci, on Tasso, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> + +<li> Carissimi, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Carlo Alberto, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> war with Austria, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li> resigns his crown, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Carlo Dolci, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Carlo Felice, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li> Carlovingians, the, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + +<li> Carlyle, on Mazzini, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li> Carmagnola, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + +<li> Carnival, Roman, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> + +<li> Carpaccio, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Cassiodorus, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + +<li> Castiglione, <a href="#Page_281">281-283</a>.</li> + +<li> Castillia, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> Castracane, Castruccio, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + +<li> Cateau-Cambrésis, treaty of, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li> Catholic Reaction, see Catholic Revival.</li> + +<li> Catholic Revival, <a href="#Page_297">297-302</a>.</li> + +<li> Cavalcanti, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + +<li> Cavaliere servente, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> + +<li> Cavour, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> policy of Church and State, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</li> + <li> policy in Piedmont, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</li> + <li> as to Crimean War, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</li> + <li> and Napoleon III, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</li> + <li> resigns, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</li> + <li> recalled, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;</li> + <li> interference in Naples, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Celibacy of clergy, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + +<li> Cellini, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> + +<li> Certosa, at Pavia, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li> Cervantes, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> + +<li> Charlemagne, blessed by Pope, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> marriage, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> + <li> Donation of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> + <li> European conquests, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li> titles, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li> + <li> person and character, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li> + <li> judges Pope, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> + <li> receives gifts from Caliph, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> + <li> coronation, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li> + <li> his Empire, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li> crowns his son, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Charles of Anjou, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> visits Cimabue's studio, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Charles of Durazzo, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li> Charles V, Emperor, struggle with Francis I, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> policy in Florence, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li> marries daughter to Alessandro dei Medici, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li> inherits Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li> crowned Emperor, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> + <li> and Council of Trent, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Charles VIII, King of France, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> + +<li> Charles Martel, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li> Chigi, see Alexander VII, Pope.</li> + +<li> Church, the (see also Papacy), causes of its rise, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> orthodoxy, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> + <li> relations with Empire, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> + <li> during Lombard dominion, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li> + <li> imperial character, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> + <li> sources of power, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Church law, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li> Cicisbeismo, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> + +<li> Cimabue, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li> Cimarosa, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Cinquecento, the, <a href="#Page_304">304-318</a>.</li> + +<li> Ciompi, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li> Clare, St., see St. Clare.</li> + +<li> Classical revival, <a href="#Page_201">201-208</a>.</li> + +<li> Clement V, Pope, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> dealings with Henry VII, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Clement VII, Pope, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278-280</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> crowns Charles V, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Clement IX, Pope, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li> Clergy, in Carlovingian times, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> + +<li> Cluny, monastic reform of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> its creed, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> + <li> its effect, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Cola, di Rienzo, <a href="#Page_206">206-208</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> dreams for Rome, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> + <li> letter to Florentines, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> + <li> his fall and death, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Colleoni, statue of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li> Colonia Erithrea, see Colony in Africa.</li> + +<li> Colonna, the, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> quarrel with Boniface VIII, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> + <li> Pope Martin V, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li> + <li> custom in their palace, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Colonna, Sciarra, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li> Colony in Africa, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span></li> + +<li> Columbanus, St., see St. Columbanus.</li> + +<li> Commedia dell'Arte, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> + +<li> Commines, Philippe de, on Venice, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> + +<li> Communes, government of, <a href="#Page_163">163-165</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> prosperity of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a> (see also Lombardy).</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Company, the Great, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + +<li> Concordat of Worms, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + +<li> Condottieri, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + +<li> Confalonieri, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> Conradin, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> + +<li> Consolations of Philosophy, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> + +<li> [Constance], wife of Henry VI, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + +<li> Constance, Council of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + +<li> Constance, Peace of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> + +<li> Constantine, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> legend of Donation, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Constantinople, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> captured by Crusaders, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li> + <li> by Turks, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Consuls, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> + +<li> Conti, family, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> + +<li> Coronation of Emperors, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> last in Italy, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Cosimo dei Medici, see under Medici.</li> + +<li> Cosimo I, Grand Duke, see under Medici.</li> + +<li> Counter-Reformation, see Catholic Revival.</li> + +<li> Courtier, Book of the, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> + +<li> Cremona, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> sacked by Henry VII, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Crescimbeni, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li> Crete, lost by Venice, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li> Crispi, as a young patriot, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> with Garibaldi in Sicily, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;</li> + <li> his career, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</li> + <li> in parliament, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Crown of Lombardy, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> assumed by Napoleon I, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Custoza, battle of, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Damian, see St. Peter Damian.</li> + +<li> Dante, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> on Boniface VIII, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> + <li> Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> + <li> De Monarchia, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li> + <li> views, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li> + <li> hails Henry VII, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li> letter to Henry VII, <a href="#Page_157">157-159</a>;</li> + <li> follows Thomas Aquinas, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> + <li> importance in literature, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> + <li> effect on Tuscan speech, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> + <li> on the vernacular, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> + <li> painted by Giotto, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> + <li> celebrates Can Grande, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li> + <li> invectives against Roman Curia, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> D'Azeglio, Massimo, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li> Decameron, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + +<li> Decretals, Isidorian, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + +<li> Depretis, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li> + +<li> Desiderius, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li> Despotisms, <a href="#Page_192">192-200</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> evils of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Despots, see Despotisms.</li> + +<li> Di Rudinì, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li> + +<li> Divine Comedy, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + +<li> Domenichino, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Donatello, <a href="#Page_237">237-240</a>.</li> + +<li> Donation of Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li> Donation of Constantine, <a href="#Page_46">46-48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li> Donation of Pippin, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li> Donizetti, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Dossi, Dosso, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Ducal palace, Venice, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + +<li> Duomo, Florence, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + +<li> Durante, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Election of Emperors, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> + +<li> Election of Popes, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + +<li> Emanuele Filiberto, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li> + +<li> Emo, Angelo, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li> Empire, the, see the Roman Empire.</li> + +<li> Empire, Eastern, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> its policy, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> England, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li> Enzio, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> capture, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Este, D', Ercole, duke, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li> Este, House of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> move to Modena, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Estensi, see House of Este.</li> + +<li> Eugenius IV, Pope, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Exarchs, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li> Ezzelino da Romano, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Faliero, Marino, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + +<li> Farnese, Alessandro, see Paul III, Pope.</li> + +<li> Farnese, Giulia, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Farnesi, in Parma, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Piacenza, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Ferdinand the Catholic, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> conquers Naples, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Ferdinand I, of Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> Ferdinand II, of Two Sicilies (Bomba), <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Ferrara, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in High Renaissance, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li> + <li> taken by Papacy, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> Tasso at, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Feudalism, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li> Ficino, Marsilio, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li> Fiesole, library at, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +<li> Fiesole, Mino da, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Filicaia, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li> Flagellants, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> + +<li> Flemish painters, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> + +<li> Florence, Guelf, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> denounced by Dante, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> + <li> shuts out Henry VII, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> + <li> her guilds, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> + <li> wool trade, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> + <li> bankers, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li> + <li> impediments to trade, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li> + <li> receives back Ghibellines, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> + <li> in 1283, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li> + <li> democratic, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li> about 1300, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> + <li> in Black Death, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> + <li> takes Pisa, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> + <li> under Duke of Athens, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li> + <li> revolt of Ciompi, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li> + <li> Salvestro dei Medici, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li> + <li> Michele di Lando, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li> + <li> the oligarchy, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li> + <li> in Early Renaissance, <a href="#Page_231">231-241</a>;</li> + <li> interest in Plato, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> + <li> under Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li> 1492-1537, <a href="#Page_258">258-263</a>;</li> + <li> under Grand Dukes, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> close of Renaissance, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Foligno, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> + +<li> Foresti, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> Formosus, Pope, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + +<li> Foscari, Francesco, Doge, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span></li> + +<li> Foscolo, Ugo, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li> France, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> bows to Innocent III, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li> vigorous monarchy, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li> + <li> invades Italy, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li> + <li> claims on Italy, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li> defeated by Spain, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li> sends army to Rome, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</li> + <li> withdraws garrison from Rome, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</li> + <li> relations with Italy, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Francesca, Piero della, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + +<li> Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li> Francis I, King of France, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li> Francis I, King of Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> + +<li> Francis II, King of Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li> Francis, St., see St. Francis.</li> + +<li> Franciscan Order, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131-133</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Gray Friars, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Franks, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Kingdom of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> + <li> Catholicism of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Frederick I, Emperor (Barbarossa), <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li> + <li> theory of imperial rights, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li> wars with Lombard cities, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li> + <li> called to Italy, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> + <li> war with Milan, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> + <li> diet at Roncaglia, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li> + <li> defeat at Legnano, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li> his son's marriage, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Frederick II, Emperor, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> gratitude to Innocent III, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li> summons to Germany, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li> pledge to Innocent III, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li> King of Germany, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li> + <li> promises, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li> + <li> crowned emperor, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li> + <li> at Brindisi, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</li> + <li> denounced by Gregory IX, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li> + <li> excommunicated, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li> + <li> letter to King of England, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li> + <li> recovers Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li> + <li> King of Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li> + <li> his habits, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> + <li> poetry, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> + <li> war with Lombard cities, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li> excommunicated again, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li> defeat, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li> + <li> times of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> + </ul> +<br /> +</li> + + +<li> Galileo, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> + +<li> Gamba, Pietro, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li> + +<li> Gandia, Duke of (a Borgia), murdered, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Garibaldi, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Rome, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;</li> + <li> escapes, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</li> + <li> expedition to Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_402">402-405</a>;</li> + <li> attempt on Rome, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;</li> + <li> second attempt, Mentana, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Genoa, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> prosperity, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> + <li> war with Pisa, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> + <li> submits temporarily to Milan, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> + <li> loss in Black Death, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> + <li> war with Venice, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li> still a republic, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> palaces in, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</li> + <li> becomes Republic of Liguria, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> given to Kingdom of Sardinia, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Genseric, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + +<li> Germany, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> its duchies, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> + <li> part of Holy Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> + <li> attitude towards its king, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> + <li> in time of Innocent III, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Gesù, church, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Gesuati, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> + +<li> Ghibellines, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> trouble in Milan, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li> + <li> cause lost, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> + <li> description of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> + <li> described by Gregory X, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> + <li> fictitious revival of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Ghiberti, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li> Ghirlandaio, Domenico, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Gioberti, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li> Giocondo, Fra, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li> Giorgione, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Giotto, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> + +<li> Giulio Romano, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Gladstone, on conditions in Naples, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> + +<li> Goethe, admires Palladio, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> admires I Promessi Sposi, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Goldoni, <a href="#Page_353">353-356</a>.</li> + +<li> Gonzaga, the, in Mantua, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li> Goths, see Ostrogoths.</li> + +<li> Gozzoli, Benozzo, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Gravina, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li> Great Council of Venice, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> + +<li> Greek, study of, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> + +<li> Greek Empire, overthrown by Crusaders, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory I (the Great), Pope, <a href="#Page_35">35-37</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory II, Pope, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory III, Pope, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory VII, Pope (Hildebrand), <a href="#Page_89">89</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li> + <li> aims, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> + <li> becomes Pope, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> + <li> creed, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li> claims, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li> allies, <a href="#Page_92">92-96</a>;</li> + <li> denunciation of simony and lay investiture, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> + <li> attempted deposition by Henry IV, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li> + <li> excommunicates Henry IV, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> + <li> at Canossa, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> + <li> his death, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Gregory IX, Pope (Ugolino), <a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> anger at Frederick II, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</li> + <li> letter on Frederick, <a href="#Page_135">135-137</a>;</li> + <li> excommunicates Frederick, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Gregory X, Pope, describes Ghibellines, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory XI, Pope, ends Babylonish Captivity, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory XIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory XV, Pope, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li> Gregory XVI, Pope, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li> + +<li> Grossi, Tommaso, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li> Guardi, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Guelfs, accept Henry VII, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> trouble in Milan, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li> + <li> description of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> + <li> fictitious revival of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Guercino, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Guerrazzi, F. D., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li> Guicciardini, on condition of Italy, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> modern historian, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Guido Reni, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + +<li> Guilds, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li> + +<li> Guinicelli, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Hapsburg, House of, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li> Hawkwood, John, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li> Haynau, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + +<li> Henry IV, Emperor, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> attempts to depose Gregory VII, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li> + <li> his letter to Gregory, <a href="#Page_97">97-99</a>;</li> + <li> at Canossa, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Henry VI, Emperor, his Sicilian marriage, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> + <li> his acts, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Henry VII, Emperor, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> welcomed by Dante, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li> enters Italy, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li> becomes Ghibelline chief, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li> + <li> receives letter from Dante, <a href="#Page_157">157-159</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> + <li> effect of, on fortunes of Can Grande and the Visconti, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Henry IV, King of France (Henry of Navarre), <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + +<li> Heresy, in Southern France, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Italy, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li> + <li> in England and Bohemia, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Hildebrand, see Gregory VII, Pope.</li> + +<li> Hohenstaufens, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> their end, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Holy Alliance, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> Holy Roman Empire, beginning, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> its extent, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> + <li> its power, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li> + <li> attitude toward Papacy, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> + <li> concordat with Papacy, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</li> + <li> death struggle with Papacy, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> + <li> real end, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li> + <li> last flicker, <a href="#Page_152">152-160</a>;</li> + <li> a shadow, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> + <li> its petty bargainings, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li> extinguished by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Honorius, Pope, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> crowns Frederick II, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Humanists, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li> Humbert of the White Hand, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> + +<li> Humbert, King, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li> + +<li> Hungarians, raids of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li> Huss, John, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Iconoclasm, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + +<li> Index Librorum Prohibitorum, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li> Innocent III, Pope, his education, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> doings in Italy, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> + <li> in Tuscany and Two Sicilies, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> + <li> at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li> + <li> in Germany, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> + <li> excommunicates Otto IV, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li> his doings in Europe, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li> in England, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li> + <li> Albigensian crusade, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li> + <li> triumph, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li> + <li> recognizes St. Francis, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</li> + <li> referred to by Frederick II, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li> + <li> and Dominicans, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Innocent VIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + +<li> Innocent X, Pope, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li> Innocent XI, Pope, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li> Inquisition, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li> Investiture, lay, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> settled between Empire and Papacy, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Italian language, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> influenced by Dante, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> + <li> its dialects, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Italy, condition of, middle of 6th century, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> under Byzantine rule, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li> + <li> on fall of Carlovingian Empire, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> + <li> its divisions, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> + <li> condition of people, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li> + <li> degradation, <a href="#Page_67">67-78</a>;</li> + <li> condition under mercenary soldiers, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> + <li> condition prior to 1494, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li> + <li> during Catholic Revival, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</li> + <li> divisions of, at close of 16th century, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;</li> + <li> place for travellers, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</li> + <li> as seen by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_320">320-334</a>;</li> + <li> under Napoleon I, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;</li> + <li> on Napoleon's fall, <a href="#Page_366">366-368</a>;</li> + <li> unity of, <a href="#Page_395">395-408</a>;</li> + <li> difficulties after unity, <a href="#Page_411">411-413</a>;</li> + <li> relations with France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</li> + <li> Triple Alliance, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Isidorian Decretals, see Decretals.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Jerome, St., see St. Jerome.</li> + +<li> Jerome of Prague, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li> Jerusalem, plan for reconquest of, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> recovered by Frederick II, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Jesuit style, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li> Jesus, Order of, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> suppressed, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li> + <li> restored in Papal States, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Joan I, Queen of Naples, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li> Joan II, Queen of Naples, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li> John of Bologna, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li> + +<li> John, Don, of Austria, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + +<li> John, King of England, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + +<li> John XII, Pope, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> his trial, <a href="#Page_82">82-84</a>;</li> + <li> deposition, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Jommelli, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Jubilee, first, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li> + +<li> Julius II, Pope, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275-277</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Justin, Emperor, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li> Justinian, Emperor, <a href="#Page_16">16-18</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Ladislaus, King of Naples, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + +<li> Landini, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + +<li> Lando, Michele di, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li> Landucci, Luca, diary of, <a href="#Page_259">259-262</a>.</li> + +<li> Laocoön, the, discovery of, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + +<li> Lateran palace, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + +<li> Legion, Garibaldi's, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li> + +<li> Legnano, battle of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> + +<li> Leo (composer), <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Leo, Emperor, the Isaurian, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + +<li> Leo I, Pope, the Great, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> + +<li> Leo III, Pope, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + +<li> Leo IV, Pope, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + +<li> Leo X, Pope (Medici), <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> excommunicates Luther, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li> + <li> last of papal overlords of Europe, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Leo XIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_416">416-419</a>.</li> + +<li> Leonardo, see Vinci, Leonardo da.</li> + +<li> Leopardi, Alessandro (sculptor), <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li> Leopardi, Giacomo (poet), <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> + +<li> Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li> + +<li> Lippi, Filippino, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Lombard cities, see Lombardy and Milan.</li> + +<li> Lombardi (architects and sculptors), <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li> Lombards, the, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> + <li> conquests, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> + <li> civilization, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> + <li> conversion to Catholicism, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> + <li> political incompetence, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> + <li> influence, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> + <li> attempt to conquer all Italy, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> + <li> defeated by Pippin, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li> by Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Lombardy, espouses Hildebrand's side, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> trade, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li> + <li> represented at diet of Roncaglia, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li> + <li> peace with Barbarossa, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li> condition prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</li> + <li> crown of, assumed by Napoleon, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> restored to Austria, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> condition in 1820-21, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</li> + <li> united to Piedmont, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Lorenzo the Magnificent, see under Medici.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span></li> + +<li> Loreto, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> + +<li> Lorraine, King of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> + +<li> Lothair, Emperor, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + +<li> Lotto, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Louis I, Emperor, the Pious, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + +<li> Louis II, Emperor, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + +<li> Louis XII, King of France, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> unites with Spain against Naples, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Louis Napoleon, see Napoleon III.</li> + +<li> Loyola, Ignatius, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li> Lucca, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> under Castruccio Castracane, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</li> + <li> still a republic, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</li> + <li> on Napoleon's fall, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Lucca, Bagni di, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> + +<li> Ludovisi, see Gregory XV, Pope.</li> + +<li> Luini, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Luther, Martin, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> + +<li> Lutherans, do not attend Council of Trent, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> + +<li> Lyons, Council of, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Machiavelli, admires Castruccio Castracane, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> also Cæsar Borgia, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> + <li> writes, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</li> + <li> description of successful Prince, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;</li> + <li> comedies, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Mafia, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> + +<li> Magenta, battle of, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> + +<li> Malatesta, in Rimini, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li> Mameli, Goffredo, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li> Manfred, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> defeat and death, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li> + <li> his daughter, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Manin, Daniele, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li> Mantegna, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Mantua, the Gonzaga in, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> duchy, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li> opera in, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Manzoni, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li> Marignano, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li> Maroncelli, <a href="#Page_370">370-372</a>.</li> + +<li> Marozia, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li> Martin V, Pope, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + +<li> Masaccio, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li> Mastai-Ferretti, Cardinal, see Pius IX, Pope.</li> + +<li> Matilda, Countess, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Donation to Papacy, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Maximilian, Emperor, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> + +<li> Mazzini, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> letter to Carlo Alberto, <a href="#Page_379">379-382</a>;</li> + <li> triumvir in Rome, <a href="#Page_391">391-394</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Cosimo, Pater Patriæ, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> cultivation, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li> his tastes, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> + <li> libraries, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li> + <li> anecdote of, with Donatello, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> + <li> founds Platonic Academy, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> + <li> and Nicholas V, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Cosimo I, Grand Duke, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> marriage, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li> + <li> rule, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> descendants, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> his architect, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Francesco I, Grand Duke, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Giovanni, see Leo X, Pope.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Giovanni, Angelo (not of Florentine family), see Pius IV, Pope.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Giuliano, see Clement VII, Pope.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Lorenzo, the Magnificent, <a href="#Page_248">248-250</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Maria, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Piero, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + +<li> Medici, dei, Salvestro, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li> Mentana, battle of, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li> + +<li> Mercenary soldiers, <a href="#Page_211">211-214</a>.</li> + +<li> Merovingians, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> + +<li> Metastasio, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + +<li> Metternich, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li> Michelangelo, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> sonnets, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> + <li> goes to Rome, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li> + <li> plans dome of St. Peter's, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> + <li> at discovery of Laocoön, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> + <li> statues in Florence, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Michelozzo, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> + +<li> Milan, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> classes in, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li> + <li> war with Barbarossa, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> + <li> receives Henry VII, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> + <li> Visconti in, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> + <li> acquires Genoa temporarily, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> + <li> under Gian Galeazzo Visconti, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li> + <li> becomes a dukedom, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li> + <li> cathedral, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> + <li> loss of dominion on Gian Galeazzo's death, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> + <li> end of Visconti, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li> founding of Sforza line, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li> condition, 1466-1535, <a href="#Page_254">254-258</a>;</li> + <li> captured by French, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li> by Spanish, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li> annexed to Spanish crown, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> + <li> Leonardo there, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> + <li> Bramante there, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> + <li> under Spanish governors, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</li> + <li> under Spanish rule, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</li> + <li> conveyed to Austria, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;</li> + <li> Five Days of, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</li> + <li> jealous of Turin, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Mille, i, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li> Minghetti, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + +<li> Mino, da Fiesole, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Modena, duchy, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> seat of House of Este, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li> transfers, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;</li> + <li> reform in, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</li> + <li> restoration of old order on Napoleon's fall, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</li> + <li> united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Mohammed, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + +<li> Monasteries, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + +<li> Montaigne, diary of his travels in Italy, <a href="#Page_320">320-334</a>.</li> + +<li> Monte Cassino, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li> Montefeltri, in Urbino, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li> Montefeltro, Federigo da, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li> Monteverdi, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + +<li> Montfort, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + +<li> Murat, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Naples, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> House of Aragon reigning, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> + <li> condition, about 1350, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> + <li> loss in Black Death, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> + <li> condition, 1350-1450, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</li> + <li> conquered by Alfonso of Aragon, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li> no share in Renaissance, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li> + <li> passes to illegitimate branch of House of Aragon, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li> conquered by Spaniards, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li> annexed to Spanish crown, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li> under Spanish viceroys, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li> + <li> inquisition in, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span></li> + <li> conveyed to Austria and then to Spanish Bourbons, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;</li> + <li> condition, prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</li> + <li> given to Joseph Bonaparte and Murat, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> revolution of 1820, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;</li> + <li> cruelty of Francis I, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</li> + <li> takes part in war against Austria, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li> persecution of liberals, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</li> + <li> persecution described by Gladstone, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</li> + <li> united with Kingdom of Italy, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Napoleon I, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> + +<li> Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon), interferes in Rome, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> plans of, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</li> + <li> agreement with Cavour, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</li> + <li> war with Austria, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>;</li> + <li> peace, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Narses, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> + +<li> Niccolini, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li> Nicholas I, Pope, <a href="#Page_62">62-64</a>.</li> + +<li> Nicholas V, Pope, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Nogaret, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li> Normans, in Southern Italy, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Sicily, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li> + <li> become liegemen to the Popes, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Novara, battle of, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Odescalchi, see Innocent XI, Pope.</li> + +<li> Odoacer, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + +<li> Opera, the, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Oratorio, the, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Order of St. Francis, see Franciscan Order.</li> + +<li> Order of Jesus, see Jesus, Order of.</li> + +<li> Orlando Furioso, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> + +<li> Orlando Innamorato, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li> Orsini, the, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li> Ostrogoths, <a href="#Page_12">12-22</a>.</li> + +<li> Otto I, Emperor, the Great, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> marriage, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> + <li> crowned Emperor, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> + <li> his empire, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> + <li> tries and deposes Pope John XII, <a href="#Page_82">82-84</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Otto IV, Emperor, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> becomes Ghibelline, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li> excommunicated by Innocent III, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li> deposition, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> + </ul> +<br /> +</li> + + +<li> Padua, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> conquered by Venice, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Paisiello, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Palazzo Vecchio, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> fountain in, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;</li> + <li> occupied by Grand Duke, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Palermo, rising in, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + +<li> Palestrina, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + +<li> Palladio, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li> Palma Vecchio, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Palmerston, Lord, sends Gladstone's letter to European governments, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> + +<li> Panfili, see Innocent X, Pope.</li> + +<li> Paolo Veronese, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Papacy, strengthened by monasticism, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> relations with Empire, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> + <li> with Lombards, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li> + <li> with Franks, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li> + <li> split with Eastern Empire, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li> + <li> Donation of Pippin, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li> further relations with Franks, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li> + <li> Donation of Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> + <li> attitude towards Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li> towards Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li> local weakness, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li> supported by Empire, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li> duel with Empire, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li> right to crown Emperors, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li> + <li> anomalous nature of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li> + <li> subjection to Empire, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> + <li> struggle with Empire, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li> + <li> added prestige, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li> + <li> cosmopolitan ambition, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> + <li> degradation, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> + <li> revival of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li> character of, in 10th century, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li> + <li> becomes suzerain to Southern Italy, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li> + <li> struggle with Empire over investitures, <a href="#Page_89">89-101</a>;</li> + <li> its triumph, <a href="#Page_114">114-124</a>;</li> + <li> its death grapple with Empire, <a href="#Page_133">133-144</a>;</li> + <li> its decay and fall, <a href="#Page_145">145-151</a>;</li> + <li> Babylonish Captivity, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li> + <li> an absentee, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> + <li> return to Rome, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> + <li> and Renaissance, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> + <li> as head of culture, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li> + <li> its monarchy, <a href="#Page_267">267-280</a>;</li> + <li> in High Renaissance, <a href="#Page_288">288-292</a>;</li> + <li> its revival, <a href="#Page_297">297-302</a>;</li> + <li> a purely Italian institution, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;</li> + <li> quarrel with Venice, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li> + <li> in 17th and 18th centuries, <a href="#Page_343">343-345</a>;</li> + <li> under Napoleon, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> loss of Temporal Power, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;</li> + <li> attitude towards Italian government, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;</li> + <li> under Leo XIII, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Papal Curia, see Roman Curia.</li> + +<li> Papal States, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> really founded by Innocent III, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> + <li> confusion in, during Babylonish Captivity, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> + <li> about 1350, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> + <li> reduced to order, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li> + <li> firmly established, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> + <li> the Papal monarchy, <a href="#Page_267">267-280</a>;</li> + <li> prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</li> + <li> in Napoleon's time, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> after Napoleon's fall, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> in 1849, <a href="#Page_391">391-394</a>;</li> + <li> invaded by Piedmontese army, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</li> + <li> votes to join Kingdom of Italy, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Parentucelli, see Nicholas V, Pope.</li> + +<li> Paris, Congress of, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> + +<li> Parma, a duchy, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> taken by Farnesi, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> conveyed to Spanish Bourbons, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</li> + <li> prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</li> + <li> on Napoleon's overthrow, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> insurrection in, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</li> + <li> united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Parthenon, blown up, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li> Patarini, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; heretics, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + +<li> Paul II, Pope, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Paul III, Pope (Alessandro Farnese), <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Parma, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> a reformer, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Paul IV, Pope (Caraffa), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li> Paul V, Pope, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li> Pavia, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Ghibelline, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pavia, battle of, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> + +<li> Peace of Westphalia, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li> Pecci, see Leo XIII, Pope.</li> + +<li> Pedro, of Aragon, King of Sicily, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li> Pellico Silvio, <a href="#Page_370">370-372</a>.</li> + +<li> Peretti, Felice, see Sixtus V, Pope.</li> + +<li> Pergolesi, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Perugia, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> war with Assisi, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li> + <li> its flagellants, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> + <li> Baglioni in, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Perugino, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Peruzzi, Baldassare, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li> Pesaro, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span></li> + +<li> Pesaro, Marchesa di, and Pietro Aretino, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + +<li> Petrarch, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> leader of Classical Revival, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> + <li> coronation of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> + <li> great reputation, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li> + <li> enthusiasm for Cola di Rienzo, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> + <li> on the Black Death, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> + <li> on mercenary soldiers, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> + <li> goes to Milan, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> + <li> invectives against Roman Curia, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Philip, Imperial claimant, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + +<li> Philip, the Fair, King of France, quarrel with Boniface VIII, <a href="#Page_148">148-150</a>.</li> + +<li> Piacenza, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> heretics in, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li> + <li> buildings in, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Piazza Navona, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li> Piccinni, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Piccolomini, Æneas Sylvius, see Pius II, Pope.</li> + +<li> Pico, della Mirandola, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li> Piedmont, becomes important part of duchy of Savoy, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;</li> + <li> becomes chief part of duchy of Savoy, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</li> + <li> prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;</li> + <li> takes action against France, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> on restoration of king, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> uprising in, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</li> + <li> war with Austria, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li> defeated, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</li> + <li> also at Novara, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> left alone to maintain Italian cause, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</li> + <li> the hope of Italy, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</li> + <li> in Crimean War, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</li> + <li> war with Austria, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pier della Vigna, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li> Pietro Aretino, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + +<li> Pilo, Rosalino, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + +<li> Pinturicchio, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Pippin, King, deposes Merovingians, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> crowned by Pope Zacharias, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li> and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pippin, Donation of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li> Pisa, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> prosperity of, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> + <li> Ghibelline, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> + <li> loyal to Henry VII, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> + <li> regulations concerning nobles, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li> + <li> war with Genoa, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> + <li> crushing defeat by Genoa, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> + <li> baptistery, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> + <li> loss in Black Death, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> + <li> seized by Milan, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> + <li> by Florence, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> + <li> Campo Santo, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pisa, Council of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li> Pisani, Vettor (Venetian admiral), <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> + +<li> Pisano, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li> Pisano, Niccolò, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> at Siena, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pitti Palace, designed by Brunelleschi, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> occupied by Cosimo I, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li> + <li> picture gallery in, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> opera in, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pius II, Pope, Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Pius IV, Pope (Giovanni Angelo Medici), founder of Modern Papacy, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li> Pius IX, Pope, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> takes part in war against Austria, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li> his scruples, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</li> + <li> army captured, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</li> + <li> flees from Rome, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> reactionary, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</li> + <li> bad government of, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</li> + <li> and Temporal Power, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;</li> + <li> extreme conservatism, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</li> + <li> prisoner in Vatican, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;</li> + <li> refuses subsidy, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Plague of 1348 (Black Death), <a href="#Page_209">209-211</a>.</li> + +<li> Plato, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + +<li> Platonic Academy, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> + +<li> Platonic ideas, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> + +<li> Plutarch, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + +<li> Podestà, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> + +<li> Poerio, Carlo, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> + +<li> Poetry, in Sicily, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Bologna and Tuscany, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Poggio a Caiano, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Polenta, da, the, in Ravenna, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li> Poliziano, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li> Pollaiuolo, Antonio, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Pontormo, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Pontremoli, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> + +<li> Popes, see Papacy, Papal States, and individual Popes.</li> + +<li> Pordenone, Giov. Ant. da, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Portiuncula, <a href="#Page_129">129-131</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Pratolino, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> + +<li> Prigioni, Le Mie (of Silvio Pellico), <a href="#Page_370">370-372</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li> Prince, The, by Machiavelli, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> + +<li> Promessi, Sposi, I, by Manzoni, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li> Provence, Albigensian crusade, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + +<li> Prussia, war with Austria, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> with France, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Pulci, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Quadrilateral, the, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Radetzky, Field Marshal, <a href="#Page_387">387-390</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li> Raphael, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li> + <li> portrait of Julius II, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li> + <li> of Leo X, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Rattazzi, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> + +<li> Ravenna, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Byzantine architecture in, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> + <li> Malatesta in, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li> Lord Byron in, <a href="#Page_372">372-375</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Reformation, the, premonitions of, <a href="#Page_219">219-222</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> coming of, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Reformation within the Church, see Catholic Revival.</li> + +<li> Renaissance, <a href="#Page_231">231-251</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281-292</a>.</li> + +<li> Renaissance, Early, <a href="#Page_231">231-241</a>.</li> + +<li> Renaissance, High, <a href="#Page_281">281-292</a>; its close, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> + +<li> Revolution, French (of 1789), <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li> + +<li> Revolution, French (of 1830), <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> + +<li> Ribera, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Ricasoli, Bettino, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> + +<li> Riccardi palace, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Rienzi, see Cola di Rienzo.</li> + +<li> Robbia, della, Andrea, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Robbia, della, Luca, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li> Romagna, the, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> + +<li> Roman Curia (papal Curia), denounced by Frederick II, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> its venality, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</li> + <li> policy, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li> + <li> difficulties and cleverness, <a href="#Page_269">269-270</a>;</li> + <li> object of satire and invective, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> + <li> and art, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Roman Empire (see also Holy Roman Empire, and Eastern Empire), its extent, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li> + <li> luxurious life, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> + <li> unity, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li> + <li> its condition while at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span></li> + <li> in popular imagination, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> + <li> relations with Papacy, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li> its revival by Pope Leo and Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li> + <li> end of Carlovingian revival, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li> + <li> revival by Otto the Great as the Holy Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Roman gentleman, life of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + +<li> Roman people, antagonism to Papacy, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> local politics of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> + <li> savageness, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Rome, its splendour, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> fall, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> + <li> Christian, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> + <li> Theodoric's visit, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li> relation to the Empire, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li> + <li> parties in, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li> + <li> no despotism in, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li> reduced to papal obedience, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> + <li> sack by Bourbon's army, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li> + <li> in High Renaissance, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_328">328-331</a>;</li> + <li> compared with Venice as to freedom, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</li> + <li> riots in, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> Republic declared, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> defends itself against French, <a href="#Page_391">391-394</a>;</li> + <li> Roman question, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;</li> + <li> occupied by Italian troops, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</li> + <li> becomes seat of national government, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Romulus Augustulus, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.</li> + +<li> Roncaglia, diet of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> + +<li> Rospigliosi, see Clement IX, Pope.</li> + +<li> Rosselli, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Rossellino, Antonio, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li> Rossetti, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li> Rossi, Pellegrino, murdered, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + +<li> Rossini, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Rovere, della, Francesco, see Sixtus IV, Pope.</li> + +<li> Rovere, della, Giuliano, see Julius II, Pope.</li> + +<li> Rovere, della, family, dukes of Urbino, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li> + +<li> Rovigo, visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> + +<li> Rule of St. Benedict, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li> Rule of St. Francis, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li> Ruskin on Bronzino, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> St. Benedict, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Clare, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Columbanus, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li> Sta. Croce, church of, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Francis, <a href="#Page_125">125-132</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Francis de Sales, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Francis Xavier, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Jerome on destruction of Rome, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + +<li> St. John Lateran, church of, in Innocent's dream, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Henry VII crowned in, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Sta. Maria degli Angeli, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Sta. Maria del Carmine, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Paul, basilica of, sacked by Saracens, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> in Jubilee of 1300, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> St. Peter, basilica of, described, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> sacked by Saracens, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li> + <li> enclosed in walls, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li> in Jubilee, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> + <li> held by the Guelfs, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> + <li> plan to rebuild, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li> + <li> rebuilt, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> + <li> dome completed, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;</li> + <li> colonnade, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> St. Peter Damian on lay investiture, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Sophia, church of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Theresa, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Thomas Aquinas, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li> + +<li> St. Zeno, church of, in Verona, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + +<li> Salerno, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> + +<li> San Gallo, da, Antonio, the younger, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li> San Gallo, da, Francesco, account of discovery of Laocoön, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + +<li> San Gallo, da, Giuliano, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> + +<li> Sansovino, Jacopo Tatti, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li> Saracens, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> conquests of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li> in Sicily, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li> + <li> in Italy, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Sardinia, conveyed to Savoy, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> dukes of Savoy become kings of Sardinia, Kingdom of, see Piedmont.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Sarpi, Paolo, Fra, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li> Sassoferrato, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Savonarola, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258-262</a>.</li> + +<li> Savoy, <a href="#Page_172">172</a> (see also Piedmont); + <ul class="nest"> + <li> its situation and princes, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</li> + <li> becomes duchy, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li> + <li> during wars between Francis I and Charles V, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li> + <li> becomes an Italian state, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li> + <li> in <a href="#Page_17">17</a>th and <a href="#Page_18">18</a>th centuries, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Savoy, House of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> + +<li> Scala, della, House of (the Scaligers), <a href="#Page_194">194-198</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> burial place of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Scala, della, Can Grande, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> aided by Henry VII, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Scala, della, Mastino, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> his defeat, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Scaligers, see Scala della, House of.</li> + +<li> Scarlatti, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Scarlatti, Domenico, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li> Schism, the Great, <a href="#Page_218">218-220</a>.</li> + +<li> Sebastiano del Piombo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Segnatura, Stanza della, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li> Sella, Quintino, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + +<li> Sforza, House of, becomes extinct, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + +<li> Sforza, Alessandro, lord of Pesaro, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li> Sforza, Attendolo (Muzio Attendolo), <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li> Sforza, Francesco, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> becomes Duke of Milan, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li> dealings with humanists, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + +<li> Sforza, Lodovico, il Moro, <a href="#Page_255">255-257</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + +<li> Sicilian Vespers, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li> Sicily (see also Two Sicilies), practically Greek, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Norman conquest, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li> + <li> under Henry VI, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> + <li> under Frederick II, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li> under Charles of Anjou, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> + <li> Sicilian Vespers, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> + <li> under House of Aragon, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> + <li> about 1350, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> + <li> appanage of Aragon, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li> no share in Renaissance, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li> + <li> under legitimate branch of House of Aragon, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li> under Spanish viceroys, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li> + <li> conveyed to Savoy, to Austria, to Spanish Bourbons, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;</li> + <li> prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;</li> + <li> loses its autonomy, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> revolution put down, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span></li> + <li> expedition of Garibaldi and Mille, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Siena, conquered by Florence, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Sigismund, Emperor, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + +<li> Signorelli, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li> Silvester, Pope, legend of, <a href="#Page_45">45-47</a>.</li> + +<li> Simony, movement against, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + +<li> Sistine Chapel, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Michelangelo's frescoes, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Sixtus IV, Pope, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + +<li> Sixtus V, Pope, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + +<li> Sodoma, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li> Solferino, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> + +<li> Spain, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> invasions by, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</li> + <li> acquires Milan, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li> Naples, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li> predominant in Italy, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li> + <li> secure hold, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li> + <li> government in Milan, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li> + <li> in Naples and Sicily, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Spanish Steps, the, in Rome, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + +<li> Spielberg prison, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> + +<li> Spoleto, a Lombard duchy, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Stradivarius, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li> Strozzi palace, in Florence, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li> Summa Theologiæ, of Thomas Aquinas, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br/><br /></li> + + +<li> Tasso, Torquato, on the Book of the Courtier, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> life, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;</li> + <li> seen by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Theodora, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li> Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> victory over Odoacer, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</li> + <li> difficulties, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</li> + <li> policy, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li> visit to Rome, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li> dealings with Empire, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> + <li> with Church, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> + <li> breach with Church, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Thomas Aquinas, see St. Thomas Aquinas.</li> + +<li> Tiepolo, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li> Tintoretto, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Titian, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Totila, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> + +<li> Trade, spirit of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> with North and East, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li> + <li> impediments to, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Trent, Council of, <a href="#Page_300">300-302</a>.</li> + +<li> Trevi, fountain of, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> + +<li> Turin, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li> Turks, capture Constantinople, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> conquer parts of Venetian Empire, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li> wars with Venice, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Tuscany, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> a marquisate, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li> a Grand Duchy, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_325">325-327</a>;</li> + <li> passes to Austrian dukes on failure of Medicean line, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</li> + <li> prior to 1739, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</li> + <li> restoration in, after Napoleon's fall, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> takes part in war against Austria, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li> defeated, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</li> + <li> Grand Duke runs away, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</li> + <li> returns, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</li> + <li> subservient to Austria, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;</li> + <li> runs away again, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</li> + <li> united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Two Sicilies, Kingdom of (see also Sicily and Naples), <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> under Manfred, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li> + <li> conquered by Charles of Anjou, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li> + <li> absolute monarchy, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li> united under Alfonso of Aragon, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li> fall apart on his death, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> + <li> pass to Charles V, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li> 1494-1516, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li> unites with Kingdom of Italy, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + </ul> +<br /> +</li> + + +<li> Uffizi palace, in Florence, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> picture gallery, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Ugolino, see Gregory IX, Pope.</li> + +<li> Universities, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> of Bologna, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Urban VI, Pope, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + +<li> Urban VIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> + +<li> Urbino, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> library at, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> + <li> society in, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li> + <li> absorbed by Papacy, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Utrecht, treaty of, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li> Uzzano, Niccolò da, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Vandals, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li> Vasari, on Brunelleschi, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> on Donatello, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> + <li> on Masaccio, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> + <li> on Leonardo, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> + <li> on Raphael, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li> + <li> himself, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Vatican Council, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li> + +<li> Vatican library, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + +<li> Vatican palace, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li> Venice, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> origin, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li> + <li> trade, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> + <li> Barbarossa and Alexander III at, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> + <li> Fourth Crusade, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li> + <li> isolation, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> + <li> government, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li> + <li> patricians, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li> + <li> wars with Genoa, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> + <li> Great Council, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> + <li> oligarchy, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> + <li> about 1350, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> + <li> growth, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> + <li> wars with Genoa, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li> four stages, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li> oligarchy in control, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li> + <li> tranquillity, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li> + <li> 1453-1508, <a href="#Page_264">264-266</a>;</li> + <li> League of Cambrai, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li> + <li> wars with Turks, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li> Lepanto, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li> the Carità, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</li> + <li> fine arts, <a href="#Page_310">310-313</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;</li> + <li> freedom compared with that in Rome, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</li> + <li> 1580-1789, <a href="#Page_335">335-339</a>;</li> + <li> quarrel with Papacy, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li> + <li> wars with Turks, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>;</li> + <li> conquers the Morea, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>;</li> + <li> opera in, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>;</li> + <li> music in, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>;</li> + <li> prior to 1789, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</li> + <li> extinction of Republic, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;</li> + <li> given to Austria, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</li> + <li> in 1848, a Republic again, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;</li> + <li> jealous of Piedmont, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;</li> + <li> surrenders to Austria, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;</li> + <li> united to Italy, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Verona, emotional peace of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> description of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li> under Scaligers, <a href="#Page_195">195-198</a>;</li> + <li> seized by Venice, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> + <li> temporarily under Milan, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> + <li> taken by Venice, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> + <li> claimed by empire, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Veronese, Paolo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li> Verrocchio, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> Leonardo's master, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Vicenza, conquered by Can Grande, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> buildings in, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</li> + <li> visited by Goethe, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</li> + <li> by Montaigne, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Vico, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + +<li> Victor Emmanuel, see Vittorio Emanuele II.</li> + +<li> Vienna, Congress of, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span></li> + +<li> Vienna, Peace of, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li> Vignola, Giacomo Barozzi da, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Villa Borghese, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li> Villa di Papa Giulio, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> + +<li> Villa Medici, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li> Villani, Giovanni, on Boniface VIII, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> on Dante, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> + <li> on Florence, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Vinci, Leonardo da, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285-287</a>.</li> + +<li> Visconti, House of, despots of Milan, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> aided by Henry VII, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li> their ambitions, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> + <li> about 1350, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> + <li> their despotism, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> + <li> end of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Visconti, Bernabò, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + +<li> Visconti, Bianca Maria, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li> Visconti, Filippo Maria, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Visconti, Galeazzo II, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + +<li> Visconti, Gian Galeazzo, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> career, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li> + <li> buildings, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Visconti, Giovanni (Archbishop), <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> + +<li> Visigoths, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + +<li> Vittorio Emanuele I, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li> Vittorio Emanuele II, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li> character, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;</li> + <li> French alliance and Austrian War, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;</li> + <li> hailed King of Italy by Garibaldi, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</li> + <li> alliance with Prussia, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</li> + <li> war with Austria, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</li> + <li> enters Venice, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</li> + <li> takes possession of Rome, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;</li> + <li> death, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li> Vittorio Emanuele III, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li> + +<li> Volta, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> War of Polish Succession, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li> War of Spanish Succession, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li> Werner, duke, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + +<li> Worms, diet of, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + +<li> Wyclif, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Young Italy, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li> Zacharias, Pope, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> + +<li> Zara, captured by Crusaders, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li> + +<li> Zeno, Carlo, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> +</ul> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note</p> +<br /> +Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br /> +<br /> +Page 290 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare<br /> +Page 296 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare<br /> +Page 332 Montefeltre changed to Montefeltro<br /> +Page 350 lotos changed to lotus<br /> +Page 439 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare<br /> +Page 441 Pelegrino changed to Pellegrino<br /> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Short History of Italy, by Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY *** + +***** This file should be named 35363-h.htm or 35363-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/6/35363/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Carl Hudkins, Jonathan Niehof +(media provider) and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Short History of Italy + (476-1900) + +Author: Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +Release Date: February 22, 2011 [EBook #35363] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Carl Hudkins, Jonathan Niehof +(media provider) and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + By Henry D. Sedgwick + + + A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY. With Maps. Crown 8vo, _$2.00 net_. + Postage 17 cents. + + FRANCIS PARKMAN. 16mo, _$1.10 net_. Postage 10 cents. _In + American Men of Letters Series._ + + ESSAYS ON GREAT WRITERS. Crown 8vo, gilt top, _$1.50 net_. + Postage, 13 cents. + + SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. Small 16mo, 65 cents _net_. Postage, 6 + cents. _In Riverside Biographical Series._ + + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + BOSTON AND NEW YORK. + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY + + + + +[Illustration: Map of Italy] + + + + + A SHORT + HISTORY OF ITALY + (476-1900) + + BY + HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + + + + COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + _Published November 1905_ + + + + + TO + + H. D. S., C. D. S., R. M. S., W. E. S., + A. C. S., F. M. S., and T. S. + + _O passi graviora ... + ... forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +This volume is a mere sketch in outline; it makes no pretence to +original investigation, or even to an extended examination of the +voluminous literature which deals with every part of its subject. It is +an attempt to give a correct impression of Italian history as a whole, +and employs details only here and there, and then merely for the sake of +giving greater clearness to the general outline. So brief a narrative is +mainly a work of selection; and perhaps no two persons would agree upon +what to put in and what to leave out. I have laid emphasis upon the +matters of greatest general interest, the Papacy, the Renaissance, and +the Risorgimento; and my special object has been to put in high relief +those achievements which make Italy so charming and so interesting to +the world, and to give what space was possible to the great men to whom +these achievements are due. + + H. D. S. + NEW YORK, October 1, 1905. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST + (476 A. D.) 1 + + II. THE OSTROGOTHS (489-553) 12 + + III. THE LOMBARD INVASION (568) 23 + + IV. THE CHURCH (568-700) 31 + + V. THE COMING OF THE FRANKS (726-768) 40 + + VI. CHARLEMAGNE (768-814) 49 + + VII. FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS I (814-867) 57 + + VIII. THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY (867-962) 67 + + IX. THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY (962-1056) 79 + + X. THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES (1059-1123) 89 + + XI. TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM (1152-1190) 102 + + XII. TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216) 114 + + XIII. ST. FRANCIS (1182-1226) 125 + + XIV. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE (1216-1250) 133 + + XV. THE FALL OF THE MEDIAEVAL PAPACY (1303) 145 + + XVI. LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE (1309-1313) 152 + + XVII. A REVIEW OF THE STATES OF ITALY (about 1300) 161 + + XVIII. THE TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE + RENAISSANCE 175 + + XIX. THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN AFTER THE MIDDLE + AGES (1260-1336) 182 + + XX. THE DESPOTISMS (1250-1350) 192 + + XXI. THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL (1350) 201 + + XXII. THE ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 209 + + XXIII. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (1350-1450) 218 + + XXIV. THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450) 231 + + XXV. THE RENAISSANCE (1450-1492) 242 + + XXVI. THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (1494-1537) 253 + + XXVII. THE PAPAL MONARCHY (1471-1527) 267 + + XXVIII. THE HIGH RENAISSANCE (1499-1521) 281 + + XXIX. ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL (1527-1563) 293 + + XXX. THE CINQUECENTO (16th Century) 304 + + XXXI. A SURVEY OF ITALY (1580-1581) 319 + + XXXII. THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS (1580-1789) 335 + + XXXIII. THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS (1580-1789) 348 + + XXXIV. THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1789-1820) 361 + + XXXV. THE REAWAKENING (1820-1821) 369 + + XXXVI. PERTURBED INACTIVITY (1821-1847) 377 + + XXXVII. TUMULTUOUS YEARS (1848-1849) 386 + + XXXVIII. THE UNITY OF ITALY (1849-1871) 395 + + XXXIX. CONCLUSION (1872-1900) 409 + + + APPENDIX + + I. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF POPES AND EMPERORS 421 + + II. GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI 428 + + III. SKELETON TABLE OF THE KINGS OF THE TWO SICILIES 429 + + IV. LIST OF BOOKS FOR GENERAL READING 430 + + + INDEX 433 + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST (476 A. D.) + + +In the year 476 an unfortunate young man, mocked with the great names of +the founders of the City and of the Empire, Romulus Augustus, nicknamed +Augustulus, was deposed from the throne of the Caesars by a Barbarian +general in the Imperial service, and the Roman Empire in Italy came to +its end. This act was but the outward sign that the power of Italy was +utterly gone, and that in the West at least the Barbarians were +indisputably conquerors in the long struggle which they had carried on +for centuries with the Roman Empire. + +That Empire, at the period of its greatness, embraced all the countries +around the Mediterranean Sea; it was the political embodiment of the +Mediterranean civilization. In Europe, to the northeast, it reached as +far as the Rhine and the Danube; it included England. Beyond the Rhine +and the Danube dwelt the Barbarians. Europe was thus divided into two +parts, the civilized and the Barbarian: one, a great Latin empire which +rested upon slavery, and was governed by a highly centralized +bureaucracy; the other, a collection of tribes of Teutonic blood, bound +together in a very simple form of society, and essentially democratic in +character. + +The Empire, composed of many races, Etruscan, Ligurian, Iberian, Celtic, +Basque, Greek, Egyptian, and divers others, had been created and +maintained by the military and administrative genius of Rome. Over all +these people Roman law and Roman order prevailed. All enjoyed the _Pax +Romana_. From Cadiz to Milan, from Milan to Byzantium, from Byzantium to +Palmyra, stretched the great Roman roads. Coins, weights, and measures +were everywhere the same. The inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and Europe, +enfranchised by an Imperial edict, were thankful to be Roman citizens. +To this day Roman law, the Romance languages, and the Roman Catholic +Church testify to the vigour and solidity of Roman dominion. The city of +Rome was, and had been for centuries, the head of the world. From east +and west, from north and south, booty, spoils, taxes, tribute had flowed +into Rome. Even after the seat of government had been removed to +Constantinople (A. D. 330), visitors from the new capital were +astounded to behold the Roman temples, baths, amphitheatres, forums, +circuses, and palaces, all glittering with marble and bronze. But the +riches acquired by conquest and tribute had brought seeds of evil with +them. Society was divided into the very rich and the very poor; the +simple laborious life of the freemen of ancient Rome was gone; the +regular occupations of production had been abandoned to serfs and +slaves; moderate incomes and plain living had disappeared. The middle +class had been thrust down to the level of the plebs. In the country the +small proprietors had been reduced to a position little better than +that of the serfs, while the great landlords had got vast tracts of land +into their hands. Nearly half the population were slaves. Taxes had +become heavier and heavier as the exigencies of the Empire grew; great +numbers of officials were maintained, and great mercenary armies. The +rich controlled the government, and shifted almost the whole burden of +taxation from their own shoulders to those of the poor. In the cities, +each imitating Rome so far as it could, had grown up a vicious +unemployed class, living on the distribution of bread which was paid for +out of the public revenues. + +On the farther side of the Rhine and the Danube, in marked contrast with +this society, the Teutonic Barbarians tilled their lands and herded +their flocks. They dwelt in little communities which were banded +together into tribes; and these in turn were united in a sort of loose +confederation, which assumed the semblance of a nation only when under +the necessity of military action, and then the adult male population +constituted the army. Their buildings were of the humblest character, +their clothes rude, their arts primitive; they could neither read nor +write, and their men cared for little besides hunting and fighting. They +were, however, a free, self-respecting, self-governing people, electing +their king, and meeting in one great assembly to enact their laws. On +the Roman borders the Barbarians had become Christians, unfortunately +not Trinitarians, but mere Arians, heretics in the eyes of the orthodox +Catholics; so their Christianity hardly served to smooth their relations +with the Romans. + +The differences between these two divisions of Europe were about as +great as between ourselves and the Don Cossacks. A Roman gentleman +living in Gaul, for example, would have a villa in Auvergne, built high +upon the hills in order to get the breezes and the view. Here was a +bath-house, a fish-pond, separate apartments for the women, a pillared +portico that overlooked a lake, a winter drawing-room, a summer parlour, +etc. In this agreeable place, in his times of leisure, the owner would +stroll about his grounds, play tennis, cultivate his garden, read Virgil +and Claudian, compose epigrams, write letters to his friends in the vein +of Horace's Satires, gossip about the doings at the Imperial court or +talk philosophy. The pleasant, luxurious life of Roman gentlemen was not +very different from luxurious life in America to-day. + +The Barbarians in their native forests were hardly aware of Roman +civilization; and those on the border made a marked contrast with the +Romans. The young kings were superb athletes, sparing at table, and +attentive to their kingly duties. The Barbarian elders admired Roman +civilization, but were "stiff and lumpish in body and mind." The young +men, six feet or more in height, with long, yellow hair, were great +eaters of garlic and indelicate viands; they went about bare-legged, +booted with rough ox-leather, and wore short-sleeved garments of divers +colours, belted tight, with swords dangling at their backs, shields at +side, and battle-axes in their hands. + +It would be a mistake, however, to draw a very sharp line between these +two opposing divisions of Europe. The Teutons were called Barbarians +because they were not Romans, but many of them had been trained in the +Roman armies and had lived in Constantinople, Trier, or Milan, and were +well accustomed to Roman military arts and discipline; in fact, the +Roman army was recruited mainly from among the Barbarians. Roman traders +dealt with them regularly. In one way and another the Barbarians, +especially their leaders, had come under the educating influence of +Roman civilization, and they regarded that civilization with an +amazement and a respect that at times deepened into awe. + +But though a sharp line cannot be drawn, yet at bottom Romans and +Barbarians were far apart. It was impossible that two societies of such +divergent civilization should exist side by side in peace; one must +conquer the other. The struggle between the Empire and its enemies had +been almost continuous since the days of Julius Caesar, and for several +centuries the Empire had prevailed; but social disintegration within had +proceeded rapidly, and by the beginning of the fifth century the +Empire's doom had come. Rome herself, the original home of empire, lay +"nerveless, dead, unsceptred," open to any takers; and takers came. The +Visigoths, under Alaric, captured the city in 410 and were merciful; the +Vandals, under Genseric, captured it in 455 and were cruel. + +The fall of Rome, which we now see to have been inevitable, came, +however, with a terrible shock to the civilized world. St. Jerome, who +had gone to the wilderness near Bethlehem in order to meditate upon the +prophets, wrote: "My voice is choked and my sobs interrupt the words +which I write; the city is subdued which subdued the world.... Who could +believe that Rome, which was built of the spoils of the whole earth, +would fall, that the city could, at the same time, be the cradle and +grave of her people; that all the coasts of Asia, Egypt, and Africa +should be filled with the slaves and maidens of Rome? That holy +Bethlehem should daily receive, as beggars, men and women who formerly +were conspicuous for their wealth and luxury?"[1] + +The city of Rome had been deemed immortal; it had become almost sacred +from long veneration; and when Rome fell, the Empire in the West had not +a prop to rest upon. Spain was taken by the Suevi and the Visigoths, +Gaul by the Franks, Burgundians, and Alemanni, England by Angles and +Saxons, Africa by the Vandals; and, with the deposition of Romulus +Augustulus, Italy, too, became the prize of a Barbarian general. + +The succeeding period of European history, in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Italy, is the mingling or attempted mingling of the old populations of +the Empire with the Barbarian conquerors. The process had, indeed, as I +have intimated, begun before the fall of the Empire. For several +generations Barbarians had not only been received as colonists and taken +as soldiers, but even whole tribes had been admitted within the Roman +boundaries. Imperial statesmen had realized that the Empire could only +be upheld by an infusion of Barbarian virility, and they had favoured +the process. But assimilation had not taken place, and now that the +Empire had passed into the hands of the Barbarians there were two social +strata,--the rude martial conquerors on top, and the civilized, feeble, +subject race, ten times as numerous, underneath. It was obvious to the +wiser Barbarian chiefs, trained as they were in Roman ways, that if they +were to get stable dominion and civilized government, they must adopt +the complicated Imperial machinery. They saw that unless the Barbarians +learned Roman civilization, they would need hundreds of years to create +any such civilization of their own. This was especially true in Italy. +Odoacer, the general who deposed Romulus Augustulus, well knew that a +state which had its military service all Barbarian and its civil service +all Roman could not stand firm. Barbarian sovereignty needed support, +especially legal support, in the eyes of the subject population. Such +legitimacy could only come from the Empire. Odoacer and other +intelligent Barbarians turned instinctively to Constantinople for +recognition. They did not think that they had overturned or suppressed +the Empire. Nobody thought that there were two Empires, one Eastern and +one Western, one enduring and one destroyed in 476. To the Roman world +the Empire had always been single, had always been a unit. The division +into eastern and western parts had been made for convenience of +administration; the Empire itself had never been divided. Even after the +western countries of Europe had been overrun by the Barbarians, the +Emperor at Constantinople remained the supreme and sole source of +authority and law. The very Barbarians could not free themselves from +this theory, however little heed they paid to it in practice. Odoacer +acknowledged the sovereignty of the Empire without question. He merely +wished to control the civil and military administration in Italy. + +Before beginning a sketch of the attempts to found a permanent Barbarian +government in Italy and to combine Barbarians and Romans in one people, +it is necessary to speak of a rising power which already constituted the +most important element in the situation. The Church was not only the one +vigorous body in Italy, but it had already begun to foreshadow its +future greatness. In the time of Constantine (323-337) and his immediate +successors, the bishops of Rome had no primacy over other bishops, but +they had claims to precedence, which they soon put to good use. Their +city was the cradle and home of Roman dominion. St. Paul had lived and +died there. Above all, as was universally acknowledged, the apostle +Peter had founded their bishopric. Theirs, in an especial sense, was the +Church to which Christ referred when He said to the apostle, "Thou art +Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it." The bishops of Rome also derived immense +advantage from the absence of a temporal prince; whereas their chief +rivals, the patriarchs of Constantinople, were wholly eclipsed by the +presence of the Emperor. The removal of the great offices of government +to Constantinople and the absence of any real civil life, had left Rome +even then a mere ecclesiastical city, and the head of the Church became +the most important personage there. It was so generally acknowledged +that Roman bishops were entitled to that precedence in rank over other +bishops, which Rome enjoyed over other cities, that in 344 an Ecumenical +Council submitted a most important question to the decision of the Roman +See. One hundred years later the great pope, Leo I, merely gave +utterance to the general opinion when he said: "St. Peter and St. Paul +are the Romulus and Remus of the new Rome, as much superior to the old +as truth is to error. If ancient Rome was at the head of the pagan +world, St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, came to teach in the new Rome, +so that from her the light of Christianity should be shed over the +world." + +The Roman Church gathered to herself whatever remained of the +administrative ability of ancient Rome. With acute practical sense she +condemned those subtle doctrines that kept springing up in the East, +late flashes of Greek metaphysics; and though she may have cut herself +off from certain spiritual Neoplatonic thought, and have set her heart +too much upon domination, yet by her very adherence to dogma, by her +very insistence upon uniform law and obedience, by steadfastly +maintaining the purity and the unity of the Faith, she became the great +cohesive force in Europe, and by creating Christendom contributed +immensely to the cause of European civilization. Partly by good fortune, +partly by her success in making her cause prevail, Rome was always +orthodox. She remained staunchly Trinitarian. She fought the Arians, who +believed that the Son, created by the Father, could not be identical +with Him and could not have existed from the beginning. She fought the +Nestorians, who alleged that the Virgin was the mother of Christ only in +so far as He was man. She fought the Monophysites, who denied that +Christ had two distinct natures, human and divine. She fought always +gallantly, and always, or almost always, in the end triumphantly. In +those days ecclesiastical affairs were inseparable from political +affairs; no man dreamed of severing them either in fact or in theory; +the State and the Church were one fabric under a double aspect. The idea +of the State apart from the Church, or the Church apart from the State, +was no more imagined than the Darwinian theory. + +If we now go back to Odoacer, and to his Barbarian successors, we shall +find that in their endeavours to establish an Italian kingdom they were +confronted by a threefold task,--to blend the Barbarian conquerors and +the subject Latins, to establish friendly relations with the Empire, and +to win the confidence and support of the Orthodox Church. In all the +long period of Barbarian dominion, each Barbarian chief in turn had to +face the imminent danger that these three political powers, the subject +people, the Church, and the Empire, should make common cause against +him. The Barbarians, in fact, were always unsuccessful. They never were +able to make Italy into one kingdom. These three enemies were too strong +for them. The inherent difficulties of the situation appear at once on +the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, and give whatever interest there +is to Odoacer's brief career. Over that career, which bridges the years +476 to 489, we need not pause, for Odoacer's attempt to establish a +permanent government over all Italy was so ephemeral, and also so +similar in all essential features to that of the Ostrogoths, his +successors, that an account of their attempt may serve for his as well. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Rome in the Middle Ages_, Gregorovius, vol. i, pp. 167, 168. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OSTROGOTHS (489-553) + + +The Ostrogoths were a fine people; and historians have speculated sadly +on the immense advantage, the vast saving of ills, that would have +accrued to Italy had they succeeded in their attempt to establish a +kingdom. Such a union of strength and vigour with the gifted Italian +nature might well have produced a happy result. But my business is +merely to indicate why and how the attempt failed. + +The Ostrogoths (East Goths), one branch of the great Gothic nation, of +which the Visigoths (West Goths) were the other, immediately prior to +their invasion of Italy inhabited Pannonia (now Austria) on the south +side of the Danube. They were a warlike people, and had given much +trouble to the Eastern Emperors, who had been obliged not only to bestow +upon them territory, but also to pay tribute. The reigning Emperor +eagerly seized the first opportunity to rid himself of them. He +suggested to their king, Theodoric,--hunter, soldier, statesman, a +big-limbed, heroic man, passionate but just,--that he should lead his +people into Italy, conquer Odoacer, and rule as Imperial lieutenant. As +Italy was far pleasanter than Pannonia, Theodoric gladly accepted the +suggestion. + +The Goths, not more than two or three hundred thousand persons all +told, effected their tedious emigration in 488-489. It was an easy +matter to defeat the unstable Odoacer, and the Latins made no +resistance. Theodoric, now master of Italy, both by right of conquest +and by Imperial commission, set himself, in his turn, to the task of +uniting Barbarians and Romans throughout the peninsula under one stable +government. His difficulties were great. In the first place the +immigrating people whom he led, though mainly Goths, were a medley of +various tribes, and constituted an alien army of occupation in the midst +of an unfriendly population, perhaps ten times their number. This Roman +population, which had completely given up the use of arms, and never +took part in any fight more formidable than a riot, was largely urban +and lived in the cities which were scattered over Italy, almost the same +that exist to this day. In the north were Turin, Pavia, Ferrara, Milan, +Bergamo, Verona, Aquileia; on the east coast, Ravenna, Rimini, Ancona; +on the west coast and in the centre, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Perugia, +Spoleto, Rome, Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Amalfi; and in the south, the +old Greek cities. All the ordinary business of life was in Roman hands; +lawyers, physicians, weavers, spinners, carpenters, masons, cobblers, +were Roman. Many of the workmen on great estates were also Roman. The +Goths were primarily men-at-arms, and only exercised such rude crafts as +were required in village communities. The leaders became military +landowners. Naturally each race looked upon the other with suspicion, +dislike, and contempt. It is obvious that there was need of both time +and statesmanship before the two races would understand each other, +share occupations, inter-marry, and feel themselves countrymen. + +Theodoric's policy falls under three heads,--relations with the subject +population, with the Emperor, and with the Church. With the Romans +Theodoric was just and considerate; he limited the division of lands +among his followers, so far as he could, to those lands which Odoacer's +followers had had; he left civil administration chiefly in Roman hands; +he let Romans live under Roman law and Goths under Gothic law. He +employed as his chief counsellor Cassiodorus, a great Roman noble of +wealth and learning; he issued a code compiled from the Imperial codes; +he reduced the taxation. Following the custom of the late Western +Emperors, he dwelt in Ravenna, where _S. Apollinare Nuovo_, _S. +Spirito_, a baptistery, and a mausoleum still testify to his presence. +When the State had been put in order, Theodoric made a royal progress to +Rome (500), where he was welcomed with Imperial honours. He promised to +uphold all the institutions established by Roman Emperors, and showed +himself as much interested in the city as if he had been a Roman. He +provided carefully for the preservation of all the monuments of +antiquity, repaired the walls, the aqueducts, the _cloacae_, and drained +the Pontine Marshes. He spoke of Rome as "the city which is indifferent +to none, since she is foreign to none; the fruitful mother of eloquence, +the spacious temple of every virtue, comprising within herself all the +cherished marvels of the universe, so that it may in truth be said, Rome +is herself one great marvel."[2] He renewed the distribution of bread, +celebrated games in the circus, and treated the Senate with great +distinction. In fact, until his breach with the Church, which turned all +the orthodox population against him, he walked closely in the Imperial +footsteps and was very successful in his relations with the Latin +people. + +Dealings with the Emperor were more difficult. Immediately after his +victory over Odoacer, Theodoric had asked the Emperor for the regalia +(the crown jewels and Imperial vestments) of the West, which had been +sent to Constantinople upon the deposition of Romulus Augustulus. This +embassy had been at first fobbed off, but finally the regalia were sent +him in token of full recognition of his authority. In the mean time +Theodoric's army without waiting for permission from the Emperor had +proclaimed him king; and in practice Theodoric always acted as an +independent king. In theory, however, he accepted the inclusion of Italy +in the Empire as a fundamental principle, and acknowledged that his +position was merely that of ruler of one of the Imperial provinces. The +Emperors, compelled by impotence to acquiesce in Theodoric's lieutenancy +of Italy, wished him in their hearts all possible bad luck, and bided +their time to make trouble for him. But this ill will was concealed +beneath the surface, and for about thirty years his relations with the +Empire, with some interruptions, were amicable enough. + +Before speaking of Theodoric's relations with the Church, which were a +matter of politics, and had to be considered by him on general grounds +of policy, it is necessary to speak of the relations between the Church +and the Emperor, for the latter affected the former. There were always +difficulties, active or latent, between the Roman Church and the Empire. +There was jealousy between old Rome and new Constantinople. There was +misunderstanding between the Latin and Greek mind. There was friction +between Papal and Imperial authority. These troubles will appear more +clearly as we proceed. At this time it is only necessary to say that +during the first thirty years of Theodoric's reign, his period of +success and prosperity, there was discord between Pope and Emperor, a +kind of schism. The Byzantine Emperors, often men of cultivation, living +in the most civilized city of the world, interested themselves in +theology, and liked nothing better than to tinker with the Faith. To +this, also, they were pushed by political needs. Their subjects were +divided into the orthodox and the heterodox; and this diversity of +belief was always a menace to political unity. To heal the breach, the +reigning Emperor devised a scheme of compromise, a _via media_, on which +he hoped all would unite. The Papacy, incensed by this trifling with +orthodoxy, and by the assumption of an Imperial right to interfere in +matters of faith, denounced the compromise. A schism was the +consequence, which lasted until the reign of the Emperor Justin +(518-527), when the crafty statesman who guided Justin's policy, his +nephew, the famous Justinian, effected a reconciliation. For Justinian +already cherished an ambition to win back Italy for the Empire; and he +knew that that could not be done without the support of the Papacy. In +519 a papal embassy bearing the olive branch was warmly welcomed at +Constantinople; both Emperor and nephew condemned the compromise and +accepted the orthodox Catholic faith. Thus the breach was healed. + +During the period of this breach between Empire and Papacy, the Gothic +king had managed his relations with the Church very prudently. Although +an Arian (like all Barbarians except the Franks), he was exceedingly +just to the Catholics. He carefully refrained from taking part in the +domestic affairs of the Church, until he was compelled to do so in the +interest of order. While in Rome he maintained a most correct attitude. +But though he acted with great moderation and only followed Imperial +precedents, the Church resented his interference. Do what Theodoric +would, the Papacy was his natural enemy. It felt instinctively that a +king of Italy must always overshadow the Pope, just as at Constantinople +the Emperor eclipsed the Patriarch, and that only upon condition of +keeping Italy without a strong government within its borders could the +Church attain its full stature. The ecclesiastical power was already +inimical to civil authority. The attitude of the Church toward Theodoric +presaged the history of the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, +and the kingdom of Italy in our day. Nevertheless, until the +reconciliation of Emperor and Pope, Theodoric had no serious trouble. + +About the year 524 the crafty Justinian, strong in his complete +reconciliation with the Papacy, felt the time ripe to set about the +recovery of the lost provinces of the West, and made the first hostile +move. Perhaps, however, it is unjust to assign a purely political motive +to Justinian's action, for in his active Byzantine brain, policy, +theology, law, art, and ambition were curiously blended. An Imperial +edict was issued, persecuting Arians in various ways, and in particular +commanding that all Arian churches throughout the Empire should be +handed over to Catholics. This action of course received the approval of +the Pope, and was most effective in alienating the Arian Goths from the +Catholic Latins. Theodoric, who had been consistently tolerant to +Catholics, was very angry and threatened to retaliate by suppressing the +Catholic ritual throughout Italy. This threat threw the Papacy into +closer alliance with the Emperor, and aggrieved the Latin people. A new +generation had grown up in peace and comparative prosperity under +Theodoric's rule, and, forgetful that for these blessings it was +indebted to the Goths, began to give free play to its Latin prejudices. +Thus the three natural enemies of Gothic rule gradually drew together: +the Empire, from desire to recover Italy; the Papacy, to be rid of a +ruler; and the Latins, out of national prejudice. + +Intrigues were started between Constantinople and some leading men in +Rome. How far the conspiracy went nobody knew. The king was in no mood +to act judicially. Several senators were arrested on the charge of high +treason, tried before partial or irregular tribunals, and put to death. +Of these senators the most famous was Boethius, who stands at the end +of Roman civilization, as Dante stands at the beginning of modern +civilization. The long centuries between the two constitute the Middle +Ages. It is interesting to note that Dante in his desolation after the +death of Beatrice took to console him the book which Boethius wrote in +prison, the "Consolations of Philosophy." + +Boethius came of the most distinguished family in Rome. He and both his +sons had been consuls. He was a student of Plato, Aristotle, and of the +Neoplatonists; he had translated treatises on mathematics from the +Greek, and had written on philosophy and theology. He was an +encyclopedia of knowledge; when a hydraulic watch was wanted, or an +especially magnificent sundial, or a test to detect counterfeit money, +or a musician to be sent to a foreign potentate, he was the man to be +consulted. His "Consolations of Philosophy," which had immense vogue all +through the Middle Ages in every language, furnishes his apology, his +case against Theodoric, and gives the Latin view of the Barbarians. He +says: "The hatred against me was incurred while I was in office, because +I opposed the acts of oppression to which the Romans were subjected. The +greed of the Barbarians for the lands of the Romans, always unpunished, +grew greater day by day; they sought men's lives in order to get their +goods. How often have I protected and defended wretches from the +innumerable calumnies of the Barbarians who wished to devour them."[3] +To this Roman defence must be opposed the statement of a contemporary +historian: "Everything about the Barbarians, even the very smell of +them, was hateful to the Romans; nevertheless it often happened that +they, especially the poor, preferred the oppression of the Barbarians to +that of the Imperial officials. The rich Romans impose taxes but they do +not pay them; they make the poor pay them. And when peradventure the +taxes are diminished the relief goes not to the poor but to the rich; so +that, when it is a matter of paying it concerns the people, and when it +comes to the matter of reducing taxes it is as if the rich were the only +persons taxed at all. Not Franks, Huns, Vandals, nor Goths behave so +shamelessly." + +In spite of trials and executions Theodoric's anger and suspicion +increased; he compelled the Pope to go to Constantinople to ask that the +Arians be treated fairly and the Arian churches restored. The Pope +returned having obtained some favours for the Catholics, but nothing for +the Arians; whereupon Theodoric threw him into prison, and kept him +there till he died (526). He then nominated a successor, who was +promptly elected by the frightened Romans. This high-handed action +stimulated discontent so much that it seemed as if the time for a +Byzantine invasion had come, but Justinian, not having fully spun his +web, delayed. Perhaps he feared Theodoric and wished to wait for his +death. He did not have to wait long. That summer Theodoric died, and +with him Italy's best hopes died too. + +With Theodoric's death ended the possibility of a Gothic monarchy. Even +in his reign a process of deterioration had set in among the young +generation. The decadent civilization of Italy wrought with fatal effect +upon the simple Goths; the luxurious ways, the idle habits, even the +refinements of the Latins, robbed them of their vigour and independence +of character. The conquerors became divided among themselves; some +inclined to the old Gothic traditions, some to the Latin ways. The royal +house affords a conspicuous instance of this deterioration; the boy king +succumbed to debauchery, his mother fell a victim to her Latin +sympathies, and his cousin, last of the royal line, a student of +literature and philosophy, showed himself perfectly incapable of action +and was deposed by his soldiers. Justinian, the spider, had been biding +his opportunity; now it had surely come. The Goths were disintegrated; +the Papacy and Latin people were with him; and his great general, +Belisarius, fresh from the brilliant conquest of the Vandal kingdom in +Africa, was ready for the task. In 535 the war for the reconquest of +Italy began. + +The Goths were confused, divided, and without a leader, whereas +Belisarius was a man of military genius, and his army was composed of +veterans. The issue could not remain long in doubt. Naples, Rome, and +finally Ravenna, fell, and the reconquest would have been complete, but +that Justinian, jealous of a too successful general, recalled +Belisarius. The Goths improved their respite, and their king, Totila, a +very valiant soldier, for a time retrieved their falling fortunes. +Justinian, however, who had a remarkable knowledge of men, appointed +general-in-chief an extraordinary little old man, Narses, who, devoid of +all military experience, had passed his life in the Imperial civil +service. Narses handled his men as if he had been born and bred in a +camp, and, after a comparatively brief campaign in which Totila was +killed, compelled the last remnant of the Gothic army to surrender +(553). + +Thus ended the first attempt to erect a Barbarian kingdom in Italy. Its +failure proved that without the support of the Catholic Church it was +impossible to establish a kingdom of Italy, for the Church controlled +the Latin people, and though these never fought, they had an hundred +ways of helping friends and hindering foes. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] _Rome in the Middle Ages_, Gregorovius, vol. i, p. 296. + +[3] _Le invasioni barbariche_, Villari, pp. 167, 168, translated. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LOMBARD INVASION (568) + + +The Imperial dominion over all Italy had lasted scarce a dozen years +before another Barbarian nation, the Lombards, came and repeated the +experiment in which the Goths had failed. The period of Lombard dominion +lasted two hundred years (568-774). It is rather an uninteresting time; +nevertheless, like most history, it has a dramatic side. It makes a play +for four characters. The Lombards occupy the larger part of the stage, +but the protagonist is the Papacy. The Empire is the third character. +Finally, the Franks come in and dispossess the Lombards. The plot, +though it must spread over several chapters, is simple. + +The scene of the play was pitiful. For nearly twenty years (535-553) +Italy had been one perpetual battlefield; whichever side won, the +unfortunate natives had to lodge and feed a foreign army, and endure all +the insolence of a brutal soldiery. Plague, pestilence, and famine +followed. The ordinary business of life came to a stop. Houses, +churches, aqueducts went to ruin; roads were left unmended, rivers +undiked. Great tracts of fertile land were abandoned. Cattle roamed +without herdsmen, harvests withered up, grapes shrivelled on the vines. +From lack of food came the pest. Mothers abandoned sick babies, sons +left their fathers' bodies unburied. The inhabitants of the cities fared +no better. Rome, for instance, had been captured five times. Before the +war her population had been 250,000; at its close not one tenth was +left. It is said that in one period every living thing deserted the +city, and for forty days the ancient mistress of the world lay like a +city of the dead. With peace came some respite; but the frightful +squeeze of Byzantine taxation was as bad as Barbarian conquest. Italy +sank into ignorance and misery. The Latin inhabitants hardly cared who +their masters were. They never had spirit enough to take arms and fight, +but meekly bowed their heads. Such was the scene on which these three +great actors, the Lombards, the Papacy, and the Empire, played their +parts. It is now time to describe the actors. We give precedence to the +Empire, as is its due. + +This remnant of the Roman Empire, with its capital on the confines of +Europe and Asia, was an anomalous thing. It is a wonder that it +continued to exist at all. In fact, there is no better evidence of the +immense solidity of Roman political organization than the prolonged life +of the Eastern Empire. The countries under its sway, Thrace, Illyria, +Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, had no bond to hold them +together, except common submission to one central authority. By the end +of the sixth century, the Roman Empire was really Greek. The Greek +language was spoken almost exclusively in Constantinople, Latin having +dropped even from official use. Yet the Empire was still regarded as +the Roman Empire, and was looked up to by the young Barbarian kingdoms +of Europe with the respect which they deemed due to the Empire of +Augustus and Trajan. For instance, a king of the Franks addresses the +Emperor thus: "Glorious, pious, perpetual, renowned, triumphant Lord, +ever Augustus, my father Maurice, Imperator," and is content to be +called in return, "Childipert, glorious man, king of the Franks." Yet it +must be remembered that Constantinople at this time was the chief city +of Europe. Greek thought and Greek art lingered there. Justinian had +just built St. Sophia. In fact, Constantinople continued for centuries +to be the most civilized city in the world. + +The Imperial government was an autocracy; all the reins, civil, +military, ecclesiastical, were gathered into the hands of the Emperor. +Its foreign policy was to repel its enemies, Persians to the east, Avars +to the north, Arabs to the south; its domestic policy was to hold its +provinces together and to extort money. The Emperors, many of whom were +able men, usually spent such time as could be spared from questions of +national defence and of finance in the study of theology, for at +Constantinople the problems of government were in great measure +religious. Next to the actual physical needs of life, the main interest +of the people was religion. A statesman who sought to preserve the +Empire whole, of necessity endeavoured to hold together its incohesive +parts by means of religious unity. This political need of religious +unity is the explanation, in the main, of the frequent theological +edicts and enactments. + +The Emperors governed Italy, after the reconquest, by an Imperial +lieutenant, the Exarch, who resided at Ravenna, under a system of +administration preserved in mutilated form from times prior to the fall +of Romulus Augustulus. An attempt was made to keep civil and military +affairs separate, but the pressure of constant war threw all the power +into military hands. The peninsula, or such part of it as remained +Imperial after the Lombard invasion, was divided for administrative and +military purposes into dukedoms and counties, which were governed by +dukes and generals. The Byzantine officials were usually Greeks, bred in +Constantinople and trained in the Imperial system; they regarded +themselves as foreigners, and had neither the will nor the skill to be +of use to Italy. Their public business was to raise money for the +Empire, their private business to raise money for themselves. + +In spite of these oppressions the Latin people preferred the Greeks to +the Lombards, partly because of their common Greco-Roman civilization, +partly because the Empire was still the Roman Empire; and this popular +support stood the Empire in good stead in the long war which it waged +with the Lombards. The Latin people did not fight, but they gave food +and information. The Empire, however, was ill prepared for a contest. +The recall of Narses removed from Italy the last bulwark against +Barbarian invasion. The Imperial army was weak, cities were poorly +garrisoned, fortifications badly constructed; and, but for the control +of the sea which enabled the Empire to hold the towns on the sea-coast, +the whole of Italy would have fallen, like a ripe apple, into the hands +of the invaders. The Empire, in fact, was exhausted by the effort of +reconquest and had neither moral nor material strength to spare from its +home needs. + +The Lombards, if inferior in dignity to the Empire, played a far more +active part in this historic drama. They came originally from the +mysterious North, and after wandering about eastern Europe had at last +settled near the Danube, where part of them were converted to Arian +Christianity. Discontented with their habitation, and pressed by wilder +Barbarians behind them, they were glad to take advantage of the +defenceless condition of Italy. They knew how pleasant a land it was, +for many of them had served as mercenaries under Narses. The whole +nation, with a motley following from various tribes, amounted to about +two or three hundred thousand persons. They crossed the Alps in 568. + +There were many points of difference between these invaders and the +Goths. The Lombards had had little intercourse with the Empire, and were +far less civilized than their predecessors, and far inferior in both +military and administrative capacity. Their leader, Alboin, cannot be +compared in any respect with Theodoric. Moreover, Theodoric came, +nominally at least, as lieutenant of the Emperor, and affected to deem +his sovereignty the continuation of Imperial rule; whereas the Lombards +regarded only the title of the sword and invariably fought the Empire as +an enemy. + +The invaders met little active resistance; if they had had control of +the sea, they would readily have conquered the whole peninsula. They +overran the North and strips of territory down the centre within a few +years, and afterwards gradually spread little by little; but they never +conquered the South, the duchy of Rome, or the Adriatic coast. For the +greater part of the two hundred years during which the Lombard dominion +existed, the map of Italy bore the following aspect: the Empire retained +the little peninsula of Istria; the long strip of coast from the +lowlands of Venetia to Ancona, protected by its maritime cities, +Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Sinigaglia; and the duchy of Rome, which spread +along the Tyrrhene shore from Civita Vecchia to Gaeta; Naples and +Amalfi; the territories of the heel and toe; and also Sicily and +Sardinia. The boundaries were never fixed. Of the Lombard kingdom all +one need remember is that it was a loose confederation of three dozen +duchies; and that of these duchies, Spoleto, a little north of Rome, and +Benevento, a little northeast of Naples, were the most important, as +well as the most detached from the kingdom. In fact, these two were +independent duchies, and rarely if ever took commands from Pavia, the +king's capital, except upon compulsion. + +At the time of the invasion the Lombards were barbarians; and they did +not make rapid progress in civilization. Fond of their native ways, of +hunting and brawling, they were loath to adopt the arts of peace, and +left most forms of craft and industry to the conquered Latins. +Nevertheless, it was impossible to avoid the consequences of daily +contact with a far more developed people, and their manners became more +civilized with each generation. The royal house affords an indication of +the change which was wrought during the two hundred years. Alboin, the +original invader (died 573), killed another Barbarian king, married his +daughter, and forced her to drink from a cup made of her father's skull. +The last Lombard king, Desiderius (died about 780), cultivated the +society of scholars, and his daughter learned by heart "the golden +maxims of philosophy and the gems of poetry." Each advance of the +Lombards in civilization was a gain to the Latins, who, especially in +the country where they worked on farms, were little better than serfs. +The two races drew together slowly. The conversion of the Lombards from +Arian to Catholic Christianity (600-700) diminished the distance between +them. Intermarriage must soon have begun; but not until the conquest by +the Franks does there seem to have been any real blending of the races. + +The most conspicuous trait in the Lombard character was political +incompetence. It would have required but a little steadiness of purpose, +a little political foresight, a little spurt of energy, to conquer +Ravenna, Rome, Naples and the other cities held by the Byzantines, and +make Italy into one kingdom. Failure was due to the weakness of the +central government, which was unable to weld the petty dukedoms +together. This cutting up of Italy into many divisions left deep scars. +Each city, with the territory immediately around it, began to regard +itself as a separate state, with no sense of duty towards a common +country; each cultivated individuality and jealousy of its neighbours, +until these qualities, gradually growing during two hundred years, +presented insuperable difficulties to the formation of an Italian +national kingdom. + +In spite of their political incompetence the Lombards left their mark on +Italy, especially on Lombardy and the regions occupied by the strong +duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. For centuries Lombard blood appears in +men of vigorous character; and Lombard names, softened to suit Italian +ears, linger on among the nobility. In fact, the aristocracy of Italy +from Milan to Naples was mainly Teutonic, and the principal element of +the Teutonic strain was Lombard. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHURCH (568-700) + + +One great political effect of the Lombard conquest was the opportunity +which it gave the Papacy, while Lombard and Byzantine were buffeting +each other, to grow strong and independent. Had Italy remained a Greek +province the Pope would have been a mere provincial bishop, barely +taking ceremonial precedence of the metropolitans of Ravenna, Aquileia, +and Milan; had Italy become a Lombard kingdom, the Pope would have been +a royal appointee; but with the Lombard kings fighting the Byzantine +Exarchs, each side needing papal aid and sometimes bidding for it, the +Pope was enabled to become master of the city and of the duchy of Rome, +and the real head of the Latin people as well as of the Latin clergy. In +fact, the growth of the Roman Catholic Church is the most interesting +development in this period. The Lombards gave it the opportunity to grow +strong and independent, but the power to take advantage of the +opportunity came from within. This power was compact of many elements, +secular and spiritual. From the ills of the world men betook themselves +with southern impulsiveness to things religious; they sought refuge, +order, security in the Church. In the greater interests of life among +the Latins the rising ecclesiastical fabric had no competitor. Paganism +had vanished before Christianity, philosophy before theology. +Literature, art, science had perished. Italy had ceased to be a country. +The ancient Empire of Rome had faded into a far-away memory. The wreck +of the old nobility left the ecclesiastical hierarchy without a rival. +In the midst of the general ruin of Roman civilization the Church stood +stable, offering peace to the timid, comfort to the afflicted, +refinement to the gentle, a home to the homeless, a career to the +ambitious, power to the strong. By a hundred strings the Church drew men +to her; in a hundred modes she sowed the prolific seeds of +ecclesiastical patriotism. She was essentially Roman, and gathered to +herself whatever was left of life and vigour in the Roman people. With a +structure and organization framed on the Imperial pattern, she slowly +assumed in men's minds an Imperial image; and Rome, a provincial town +whose civil magistrates busied themselves with sewers and aqueducts, +again began to inspire men with a strange confidence in a new Imperial +power. + +In addition to the strength derived from her immense moral and spiritual +services, the Church had the support of two potent forces, ignorance and +superstition. The general break-up of the old order had lowered the +common level of knowledge. Everybody was ignorant, everybody was +superstitious. The laws of nature were wholly unknown. Every ill that +happened, whether a man tripped over his threshold, or a thunderbolt hit +his roof, was ascribed to diabolic agencies. The old pagan +personification of natural forces, without its poetry, was revived. The +only help lay in the priest, a kind of magical protector, who with +beads, relics, bones, incense, and incantation defended poor humanity +from the assaults of devils. Thus, while all civil society suffered from +ignorance, while every individual suffered from the awful daily, hourly, +presence of fear, the Church profited by both. + +Beside these intangible resources, the Church, or to speak more +precisely the Papacy, had others of a material kind. For centuries pious +men, especially when death drew near, had made great gifts of land to +the bishops of Rome, until these bishops had become the greatest landed +proprietors in Italy. Most of their estates were in Sicily, but others +were scattered all over Italy, and even in Gaul, Illyria, Sardinia, and +Corsica. In extent they covered as much as eighteen hundred square +miles, and yielded an enormous income. This income enabled the Popes to +maintain churches and monasteries, schools and missionaries, to buy off +raiding armies of Lombards, and also to equip soldiers of their own. +These estates the Church owned as a mere private landlord. During the +Gothic dominion and the restoration of Imperial rule, she had no rights +of sovereignty. But later on, during the disturbed period of border war +between Lombards and Greeks, we find the Popes actually ruling the duchy +of Rome. + +The corner-stone of the great papal power, however, was laid by the +genius of one man, who organized the monastic sentiment of the sixth +century and put it to the support of the Papacy. There had been monks in +Italy long before St. Benedict (480-544), but as civil society +disintegrated, men in ever greater numbers fled from the world, and +sought peace in solitude and in monastic communities. St. Benedict +perceived that the monastic rules and customs derived from the East were +ill suited to the West; so he devised a monastic system, and formulated +his celebrated Rule, which became the pattern for all other monastic +rules in Europe. He founded a monastery at Subiaco, a little village +near Rome, and afterwards the famous abbey on Monte Cassino, a high hill +midway between Rome and Naples, which became the mother of all +Benedictine monasteries and shone like a light in the Dark Ages. +Benedict's ideal was to help men shut themselves off from the +temptations of life and realize, as far as they could, the prayer "Thy +kingdom come ... on earth as it is in Heaven." He ordained community of +property, and required a novitiate. Most strictly he forbade idleness, +and with special insistence exhorted his brethren to till the ground +with their own hands. Intellectual interests followed; and Benedictine +monks became the teachers not only of agriculture, but of handicraft, of +art and learning. His Order spread fast over Italy and Gaul, and in time +over Spain, England, and Germany. Its communities, like the old _castra +romana_, upheld the authority of Rome and enforced her dominion. + +The attractions of the monastic life at Monte Cassino are well set out +in a letter written (after St. Benedict's day) to one of the abbots, by +a man of the world who had once lived there: "Though great spaces +separate me from your company, I am bound to you by a clinging +affection that can never be loosed, nor are these short pages enough to +tell you of the love that torments me all the time for you, for the +superiors and for the brethren. So much so that when I think about those +leisure days spent in holy duties, the pleasant rest in my cell, your +sweet religious affection, and the blessed company of those soldiers of +Christ, bent on holy worship, each brother setting a shining example of +a different virtue, and the gracious talks on the perfections of our +heavenly home, I am overcome, all my strength goes, and I cannot keep +tears from mingling with the sighs that burst from me. Here I go about +among Catholics, men devoted to Christian worship; everybody receives me +well, everybody is kind to me from love of our father Benedict, and for +the sake of your merits; but compared with your monastery the palace is +a prison; compared with the quiet there this life is a tempest."[4] + +What Benedict did for the monastic orders, another great man, St. +Gregory (540-604), did for the Papacy itself. Gregory the Great, the +most commanding figure in the history of Europe between Theodoric and +Charlemagne, was a Roman, made of the same stuff as Scipio and Cato, and +presented the interesting character of a Christian and an antique Roman +combined. Born of a noble Roman family, Gregory was educated in Rome, +and entered the service of the state, in which he rose to the high +office of prefect of the city; but, dissatisfied with civil life, he +abandoned it and became a monk. He wanted to give himself up wholly to +a monastic life, but deemed it his duty to accept office in the papal +service, and filled the distinguished position of papal ambassador (to +use a modern term) at the Imperial court at Constantinople. In 590 he +was elected Pope, half against his will, for he desired to be either a +monk or a missionary; but he felt that the hopes of civilization and the +future of religion lay in the Papacy, and he applied himself with energy +to his new task. This task was as complex and multifarious as possible. +It concerned all Europe, from Sicily to England. Rome itself was in a +deplorable condition, left undefended by the Exarch, and threatened by +the Lombards of Spoleto, who harried the country to the very gates, +murdering some Romans and carrying others off as slaves. Gregory had to +take complete control of the city, military and civil. He wrote: "I do +not know any more whether I now fill the office of priest or of temporal +prince; I must look to our defence and everything else. I am paymaster +of the soldiers." He kept up the courage of the Romans, and tried to +draw spiritual good out of their plight. It was impossible for a +contemporary eye to see that under present wretchedness lay germinating +the seeds of empire; yet Gregory acted as if he beheld them. In spite of +apprehensions of the end of the world he organized the Church to endure +for centuries. Both at home and abroad he displayed a tireless activity. + +Among the foreign events of his pontificate are the conversion of +England by Augustine (597) and the ministry of St. Columbanus (543-615) +among the Franks, Alemanni, and Lombards. It was Gregory who saw the +handsome fairhaired boys from England standing in the market-place and +said, "Non Angli sed angeli." He had the true imperial instinct, and +always encouraged the clergy in distant parts of Europe to visit Rome +and to apply to Rome for counsel and aid. The respect in which he was +held may be inferred from the titles given him by Columbanus: "To the +holy lord and father in Christ, the most comely ornament of the Roman +Church, the most august flower, so to speak, of all this languishing +Europe, the illustrious overseer, to him who is skilled to inquire into +the theory of the Divine causality, I, a mean dove (Columbanus), send +Greeting in Christ." Gregory also maintained close relations with the +clergy in Africa, and received homage from the Spanish bishops, for +Spain had recently been converted from Arianism to Catholicism. He was +by no means content to confine his dealings to the clergy, but was in +frequent correspondence with kings and queens of western Europe, as well +as with the Emperor and Empress in Constantinople. His immense energy +made itself felt everywhere. He made rules for the liturgy; and mass is +still celebrated partly according to his directions. He reformed church +music and founded schools for the Gregorian chant. He administered the +papal revenues, superintending the management of farms, stables, and +orchards. He founded monasteries, he supported hospitals and asylums. + +Benedict and Gregory are the two great figures of this period, and, +though no worthy successor followed for several generations, they did +their work so well that the Papacy, like a great growing oak, continued +to spread its power conspicuously in the eyes of the world, and also, +out of sight, in the hearts and habits of men. + +The relations between the Papacy and the Empire were difficult. The +Popes were subjects of the Emperor. The whole ecclesiastical +organization throughout the Empire was subject to the Imperial will, +just as the civil or military service was. The Papacy did not like this +position of subordination and resented any interference in papal +affairs. Though Odoacer, Theodoric, and Justinian had always asserted +their right to exercise a supervision over papal elections, the Popes +had never acquiesced willingly, and even in those early days showed a +marked disposition to take exclusive control of what they deemed their +own affairs. It might be supposed that the Papacy, mindful of the great +danger of a Lombard conquest of Rome, would have clung to the Empire; +but after the Lombards had become Catholics the gap between the Romans +and the Greco-Oriental Empire was nearly as wide as that between them +and the Lombards. There was a fundamental difference between the Greek +mind, floating over metaphysics and speculative theology, and the Roman +mind, bound to political conceptions and practical ends. A theology +which would satisfy a congregation in St. Sophia would not suit the +worshippers in St. Peter's. The Empire, obliged to adapt theological +niceties to political necessities, favoured any creed of compromise, +which should promote political concord and unity. Rome, with its +despotic, imperial instincts, felt that orthodoxy was its strength, and +maintained an inflexible creed. The two were an ill-yoked pair, and +quarrels were inevitable. + +The relations between the Papacy and the Lombards were more simple. They +varied between war, and friendship real or feigned. In the beginning, +and even, as we have seen, in Gregory's time, there was war; but then +began the conversion of the Lombards to Christianity, and intervals of +peace followed, during which the Lombard king saluted the Pope as "Most +Holy Father," and the Pope replied "My well-beloved Son." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] _Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte_, Ugo Balzani +(translated). + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COMING OF THE FRANKS (726-768) + + +We now come to the separation of the Latin world from the Greek world in +both political and ecclesiastical affairs, and to the reconstruction of +Europe by the alliance of the Franks and the Papacy. The plot continues +to be very simple. The Empire, pressed by dangerous enemies, tried once +more to gain political strength by ecclesiastical legislation; the +effect of this legislation on the Imperial provinces in Italy was to +cause rebellion. The Papacy broke the ties that bound it to the Empire; +then, finding itself defenceless before the Lombards, made an alliance +with the Franks, who invaded Italy and overthrew the Lombards. + +In order to elaborate this plot, we must begin with the great Asiatic +movement of the seventh century; for this movement acted as a cause of +causes to split the Latins from the Greeks, to exalt the Papacy, and to +form the Holy Roman Empire. In one of the tribes of Arabia, without +heralding, appeared a man, who at the age of forty became a religious +prophet, and by the force of genius constructed one of the great +religions of the world. Mohammed's religion worked on the ardent Arabian +temperament like magic, and engendered a fierce passion for conquest and +proselytizing. Tribes cohered, became both a sect and a nation, and +swept like wildfire over the west of Asia and the north of Africa. +Mohammed died in 632, but his successors, the Caliphs, carried on his +work; under the inspiration of the slogan, "Before you is Paradise, +behind you the devil and the fire of hell," they advanced from conquest +to conquest. Cities and provinces were torn from the Empire. Damascus, +Syria, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Rhodes fell in rapid +succession; next Africa, bit by bit. Persia was beaten to her knees. +Sicily was raided. Twice Constantinople had to fight for life. + +Naturally Byzantine statesmen felt that some radical step must be taken, +or all the remnants of the Empire would be reduced to slavery. A +vigorous Emperor, Leo the Isaurian (717-741), took the radical step. It +was necessarily religious, for, in Constantinople, political action +always took a religious complexion. Leo issued a decree forbidding the +use of images in churches and in Christian worship (726). Those in place +he ordered broken. He acted no doubt from high motives, thinking to +ennoble religion and to arouse patriotism; but his people disagreed with +him. In the East riots and civil war broke out. These were suppressed, +but discontent and persistent opposition remained. In Italy also the +excitement was intense. The country had already been irritated by severe +taxation, and when the decree of iconoclasm was published, the +image-loving Italians rose in a body. The Pope, as most hurt in +conscience by the decree, and in pocket by the taxation, was the natural +head of resistance. The Exarch attempted to arrest him, but both Latins +and Lombards rallied to his defence. In some places open revolt broke +out, and a plot was started to set up another Emperor in place of the +wicked iconoclast who polluted the Imperial throne. But the Pope, +Gregory II (715-731), was a prudent man, and was not ready to take a +step which would deprive Rome of its single defence from the Lombards. +He opposed the rebellious plan, but in the matter of maintaining the +images he stood like a rock. His successor, Gregory III (731-741), went +farther, and took decisive action. He convoked a synod, which expelled +every image-breaker from the Church (731). This was tantamount to a +direct excommunication of the Emperor, and a declaration of papal +independence. The Emperor was powerless to compel obedience. Thus began +the great split between the Papacy and the Byzantine Empire, between +western and eastern Europe, between the Latin Church and the Greek. Some +of the western provinces, Calabria, Sicily, and Illyria, which were +practically Greek, remained faithful to the Empire and shared its +fortunes for several hundred years more. Ecclesiastically they were +removed from the jurisdiction of the Popes to that of the Patriarchs of +Constantinople. + +This breach between the Papacy and the Empire led inevitably to an +alliance between the Papacy and the Franks, which is of such great +historical consequence that it must be recounted in some detail. While +the Empire and the Papacy were quarrelling over ecclesiastical matters, +western Europe had been changing. The Frankish kingdom had been +established in what is now Belgium, Holland, and large parts of France +and Germany, and was the one great Christian power in Europe. Therefore, +when the Papacy had cut loose from the Empire and saw itself defenceless +against the Lombards, it had no alternative but to seek help from the +Franks. There were also two special reasons for friendship between the +Franks and the Papacy. First, the Franks, alone of Barbarians, had been +converted to Catholic Christianity. Secondly, in their endeavours to +enlarge their eastern borders, the Franks had been greatly assisted by +the missionaries, who--in the normal course, missionaries, merchants, +soldiers--had prepared the way for Frankish conquest, and had +strengthened the Frankish power when established. These missionaries +were absolutely devoted to the Roman See; they spread papal loyalty +wherever they went, and wrought a strong bond of union between the +Frankish kingdom and the Papacy. This union of sympathy and interest was +an excellent basis for a political union; and the time soon came for +such a development. + +When the iconoclastic revolts occurred in Italy, and the Popes broke +with the Empire, the Lombard kings thought that their opportunity to +conquer all Italy had come. But instead of making one bold campaign +against Rome and the South, they merely laid hands on a few border +cities. The Popes turned with frantic appeals for help to the only power +that could help them, the Franks. Every time the Lombard king made a +hostile move, the Pope cried aloud for aid. For some time the Franks +deemed that the balance of political considerations was against +intervention and refused to take part in Italian affairs. Charles +Martel, mayor of the palace and ruler of the Franks in all but name, +stood firm on the policy of non-interference; but his son and successor, +Pippin the Short, took a different view. Pippin judged that the time had +come to depose the royal Merovingian family and to exalt his own, the +Carlovingian, in its stead. As the Merovingians had reigned for two +hundred and fifty years, the step was revolutionary, and Pippin wished +to strengthen his position by the support of the Papacy. He sent +messengers to the Pope, Zacharias, to ask advice; and the Pope, +according to the chronicler, "in the exercise of his apostolical +authority replied to their question, that it seemed to him better and +more expedient that the man who held power in the kingdom should be +called king and be king, rather than he who falsely bore that name. +Therefore the Pope commanded the king and the people of the Franks, that +Pippin, who was using royal power, should be called king and should be +settled on the throne." The last Merovingian, therefore, was tonsured +and stowed away in a monastery, and Pippin became king of the Franks +(751). Without accepting the monkish chronicler's statement, that the +Pope commanded Pippin to be king, there can be little doubt that the +papal sanction was of very real value to Pippin, and that Pippin let it +appear that he was acting rather in conformity with the Pope's will than +with his own. + +Thus the Pope laid Pippin under a great obligation; it now remained for +Pippin to discharge that obligation. It was not long before the time +came. + +The Lombard king felt that his opportunity was slipping by, and acted +with some vigour. He captured Ravenna and threatened Rome. The Pope +hurried across the Alps. He anointed and crowned Pippin; he likewise +anointed and blessed his son Charles (Charlemagne), and forbade the +Franks under pain of excommunication ever to choose their king from any +other family. These three great favours, the transfer of the royal +title, the coronation rite, and the perpetual confirmation of the +Carlovingian sovereignty, called for a great return. Pippin promised +that the Adriatic provinces, taken by the Lombards from the Byzantines, +should be ceded by the Lombards to the Pope. This promise Pippin +fulfilled. He crossed the Alps, defeated the Lombard king, and forced +him to cede the Exarchate of Ravenna and the five cities below it on the +coast, to the Pope, who thereby became an actual sovereign. Thus Pippin +discharged his obligation to the Papacy. + +This beginning of the Papal monarchy is so important that the theoretic +origin may as well be mentioned here. There was a legend, universally +believed, that an early Pope, Silvester (314-335) healed the Emperor +Constantine of leprosy, and that the Emperor, in gratitude, made a great +grant of territory to the Pope. The fact appears to have been that +Constantine, although not cured of the leprosy, did give to Silvester +the Lateran palace and a plot of ground around it. This little donation +grew in legend like a grain of mustard seed, and served the purpose of +the Roman clergy. No good Roman would have been content with a title +derived from the Lombards or the Franks. In Roman eyes these Barbarians +never had any title to Italian territory; they could give none. The only +possible source of legal title was the Empire. In the gift by +Constantine to Silvester papal adherents had a foundation of fact. That +was enough. It is quite unnecessary to imagine false dealing. People in +those days believed that what they wished true was true. This legend was +accepted and embodied in concrete form in a document known as the +_Donation of Constantine_, which is so important in explaining the +attitude of the Papacy throughout the Middle Ages, that it may be +quoted:-- + +"In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy +Ghost, the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine ... to the most holy and +blessed Father of Fathers, Silvester, bishop of Rome and Pope, and to +all his successors in the seat of St. Peter to the end of the world...." +Here comes, interspersed with snatches of Christian dogma, a rambling +narrative of his leprosy, of the advice of his physicians to bathe in a +font on the Capitol filled with the warm blood of babies; how he +refused, how Peter and Paul appeared in a dream and sent him to +Silvester, how he then abjured paganism, accepted the creed, was +baptized and healed, and how he then recognized that heathen gods were +demons and that Peter and his successors had all power on earth and in +heaven. After this long preamble comes the grant: + +"We, together with all our Satraps and the whole Senate, Nobles and +People ... have thought it desirable that even as St. Peter is on earth +the appointed Vicar of God, so also the Pontiffs his viceregents should +receive from us and from our Empire, power and principality greater than +belongs to us ... and to the extent of our earthly Imperial power we +decree that the Sacrosanct Church of Rome shall be honoured and +venerated, and that higher than our terrestrial throne shall the most +sacred seat of St. Peter be gloriously exalted. + +"Let him who for the time shall be pontiff over the holy Church of Rome +... be sovereign of all the priests in the whole world; and by his +judgment let all things which pertain to the worship of God or the faith +of Christians be regulated.... _We hand over and relinquish our palace, +the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places, and cities of Italy and +the western regions, to the most blessed Pontiff and universal Pope, +Silvester_; and we ordain by our pragmatic constitution that they shall +be governed by him and his successors, and we grant that they shall +remain under the authority of the holy Roman Church."[5] + +The date of this document and many statements in it are anachronisms and +errors. It was composed about the time of Pippin's _Donation_, probably +by somebody connected with the papal chancery, and may be considered to +be a pious forgery representing the facts as the writer deemed they were +or else should be. It was officially referred to for the first time in +777, but did not receive its full celebrity until the eleventh century, +when the relations of the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire became the +centre of European history. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] _Italy and her Invaders_, T. Hodgkin, vol. vii, pp. 149-151; _Select +Historical Documents of the Middle Ages_, Ernest F. Henderson, pp. +319-329. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CHARLEMAGNE (768-814) + + +The papal theory embodied in the _Donation of Constantine_ was obviously +crammed with seeds of future strife; for the present, however, the +fortunes of the House of Pippin and of the Papacy were bound together in +amity. The constant accession of strength to the former and of prestige +to the latter made them the central figures of European politics. The +new political form to which their union gave birth slowly shaped itself. +In Italy the first step was to get rid of the Lombards. On the death of +the Lombard King, Aistulf, there were two claimants for the throne. One +of the two, Desiderius, secured the Pope's help by the promise of ceding +more cities, and became king. The Pope, writing to Pippin, says: "Now +that Aistulf, that disciple of the devil, that devourer of Christian +blood is dead; and that by your aid and that of the Franks [a +complimentary phrase, for Pippin seems to have done nothing] he is +succeeded by Desiderius, a most gentle and good man, we pray you to urge +him to continue in the right way." But the "most gentle and good" +Desiderius strayed from the right way, and did not cede the promised +cities. So the Pope besought Pippin to use force; but Pippin thought +that he had done enough, and the Pope was obliged to rest content. +Pippin died in 768. One can imagine the consternation at Rome on +Pippin's death to learn that the dowager queen of the Franks was +arranging a marriage between her son Charlemagne and a daughter of +Desiderius, and another marriage between her daughter and a son of +Desiderius. The Pope wrote in terror that the plan was of the devil, and +forbade it under the pains of everlasting damnation; nevertheless, +Charlemagne married the daughter of Desiderius (770). + +The Pope's anticipations, however, were not justified; the horrible +union of the House of Pippin with the "unspeakable" Lombards came to an +abrupt end. Charlemagne, probably from personal dislike, put away his +wife, and sent her ignominiously back to her father. Desiderius, angry +at the insult, rushed upon his fate; he not only intrigued in Frankish +affairs against Charlemagne, but he also seized many of the cities given +to the Pope by the _Donation of Pippin_. He invaded the duchy of Rome, +and advanced within fifty miles of the city. This time Charlemagne acted +in conformity with the papal entreaties. He crossed the Alps, routed the +Lombard army, captured Pavia, took Desiderius prisoner and assumed the +title of King of the Lombards (773-774). He went on to Rome, and +solemnly confirmed the _Donation of Pippin_, and also made a further +_Donation_. This latter _Donation_, which led to disputes between the +Papacy and Charlemagne's successors, is a matter of great uncertainty. +Subsequent papal advocates claimed that it embraced two thirds of Italy. +Probably Charlemagne only intended to restore to the Papacy its private +property scattered throughout northern and central Italy, which had been +seized by the Lombards. + +Charlemagne, having disposed of the Lombards, continued his conquests; +across the Pyrenees he annexed the Spanish March, in North Germany he +subdued the Saxons and pushed his frontier to the Elbe, to the southeast +he subjugated the country as far as the upper Danube. His monarchy now +included Franks, Celts, Visigoths, Burgundians, Saxons, Lombards, +Romans. How were such widespread territories and such diverse peoples to +be united in permanent union? The far-seeing Papacy, in answer to this +question, propounded the revival of the Roman Empire of the Caesars. +Reasons were numerous. The Frankish monarchy, with its conquests, in +bulk at least was not unworthy to succeed to Imperial Rome. Throughout +this wide territory there was a great network of ligaments; from Gascony +to Bavaria, from Lombardy to Frisia, divine service was celebrated in +the Latin tongue and with the Roman ritual; bishops, priests, monks, and +missionaries acknowledged their dependence upon the Pope and looked to +Rome, with its holy basilicas and apostolic tradition, as the centre of +Christendom. This Christian unity was a constant argument for political +unity. A second argument was the still vigorous Roman tradition. The +idea of nationality was as yet undeveloped; Europe had known no other +political system than common subjection to the Roman Empire, and all +notions of civilization were of a civilization on the Roman pattern. +When the Roman Empire in the West had decayed, the Church had adopted +the Imperial organization and kept remembrance of the old system fresh +in men's minds. The old Empire, moreover, had early lost the notion of +dependence on the city of Rome, for the seat of government had been set +at Constantinople, at Milan, and at Ravenna; and since the days of the +early Caesars, it had not been necessary for an Emperor to be a native +Roman. There was no theoretical difficulty to bar a Frank from the +Imperial throne or forbid the seat of government to a Frankish city. In +fact, nobody could conceive of the Empire as other than Roman, and the +Frankish kingdom could only become an empire by becoming the Roman +Empire. + +The Papacy had special reasons for these views. Under the Empire +Christianity had grown up; under the Empire it had obtained power and +dominion, and had become the state religion. The Church might quarrel +with Emperors, but it regarded the Empire--the source of secular law and +order--as its joint tenant in the world. The one represented religious +unity, the other represented civil unity. In addition to these large +arguments, local reasons affected the Papacy. Shortly before the +expulsion of the Lombards from Italy, the lack of a strong government +had been wofully felt. One usurper and then another had been put in St. +Peter's chair in riot and bloodshed. It had become plain as day that the +Papacy of itself, without the support of a potent secular power, was not +able to maintain its dignity, nor even to enforce order in the very city +of Rome. The Papacy could not endure without the Empire. The very +titles which the Frankish kings had gradually received led up to the +Imperial title. Gregory II had called Charles Martel "Patrician," a +vague title of honour held by the Exarchs; Gregory III had offered to +him the titles both of Patrician and of Consul; Stephen II bestowed upon +Pippin the title of Patrician of the Romans; Charlemagne's own titles +were King of the Franks, King of the Lombards, Patrician of the Romans; +and his son had been crowned by the Pope, King of Italy (781). The title +next in order was undoubtedly Emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne himself +was a man of gigantic stature and great strength, indefatigable in +action, and delighting in hunting, swimming, and martial exercise. His +mind also was mighty, restlessly pondering questions of state, of +church, of war, of social improvement. He was the greatest of +Barbarians, cast by Nature in an imperial mould. + +On the other hand there was one conspicuous difficulty in the way of +reviving the Roman Empire; this difficulty was that the Roman Empire +still existed, and that there was a living Emperor, the legitimate +successor of Caesar Augustus. But that Empire was virtually Greek, and +the Emperor no more like Caesar Augustus than like Hercules. The city by +the Tiber had as good title to be the Imperial city as her younger rival +by the Bosphorus; the _Roman Republic_ (whatever that ill-defined title +may mean), represented by the Pope, had as fair a claim to elect the +Emperor, as the army and office-holders at Constantinople. In fact, to +Papal and Roman eyes, the rights of Rome were much greater than those of +Constantinople. + +To us, as we look back, nothing seems more natural than that the great +Frankish king, after the conquest of Italy, should have brushed aside +the theoretical difficulty of an existing Roman Empire and assumed the +Imperial title, Emperor of the Romans. History moves more slowly. +Charlemagne was a Frank, accustomed to Frankish usages and ideas; he +hesitated to adopt formally a wholly different conception of sovereignty +and society. His nobles probably agreed with the advice given by Pope +Zacharias to Pippin, that the man who held the power should receive the +corresponding title, but being Franks they thought the dignity of +Frankish king sufficient. So matters stood with nothing between +Charlemagne and the Imperial crown but a theoretic difficulty, and a +certain reluctance. Unexpectedly and in quick succession, events in +Constantinople swept away the theoretic difficulty, and events in Rome +gave the Pope sufficient energy to overcome the reluctance. + +At Constantinople, the dowager Empress blinded and deposed her son the +Emperor (797), and assumed to rule as sole _Augusta_. This wickedness, +and the ancient doctrine that, though a woman might lawfully share the +Imperial throne, she might not reign alone, combined to render plausible +a theory readily adopted in the West, that the Imperial throne had +become vacant. The event in Rome was this. A savage gang of nobles and +ecclesiasts attacked Pope Leo III in the street, beat him, half-blinded +him, cut his tongue, and imprisoned him in a monastery (799). He escaped +and fled to Charlemagne in Germany. His enemies followed and charged him +with various crimes. Charlemagne sent him back to Rome in the company +of some great nobles, who were commissioned to investigate the charges, +and went himself also. There, in St. Peter's basilica, in the presence +of Frankish nobles and Roman ecclesiasts, with Charlemagne presiding, +the Pope took a solemn oath of innocence (December 4, 800). Such an oath +according to the jurisprudence of the time was necessarily followed by +acquittal; and the Pope's innocence necessarily proved the guilt of his +accusers, who were punished. + +Such crimes, east and west, were insufferable. Something had to be done. +Everybody looked to Charlemagne. His position as head of Christendom was +acknowledged even beyond the bounds of western Europe. The Patriarch of +Jerusalem, a subject of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, sent to +Charlemagne the keys of Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner +of the Holy City. Obviously it was time for the Imperial dignity to be +added to Imperial power. + +On Christmas day in the year 800, Charlemagne and a great procession of +Frankish nobles and Roman citizens made their way through the streets of +Rome towards the basilica of St. Peter's, whose gilt bronze roof, taken +from a pagan temple, shone conspicuous on the Vatican hill. They walked +through the Aurelian gate and across the bridge over the Tiber, then +turning to the left, followed the colonnade which extended all the way +from Hadrian's Mausoleum to the atrium of the basilica. There they +mounted the broad flight of marble steps, at the top of which the Pope +and his court awaited the king. Then Pope and king, followed by the +procession, crossed the great atrium paved with white marble, past the +fir-cone fountain and papal tombs, to the central door of the basilica, +which swung its thousand-weight of silver open wide; then, up the long +nave, screened by rows of antique columns from double aisles on either +side, all rich with tapestries of purple and gold, they proceeded with +slow and solemn steps to the tomb of the apostle. Thirteen hundred and +seventy candles in the great candelabrum glowed on the silver floor of +the shrine, and glittered on the gold and silver statues around it. In +the great apse behind the high altar sat the clergy, row upon row, +beneath the Pontiff's throne; above, the Byzantine mosaics looked down +in sad severity. Here Charlemagne knelt at the tomb, and prayed. As he +rose from his knees, the Pope lifted an Imperial crown of gold and +placed it on his head, while all the congregation shouted, "Life and +Victory to Charles, Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peaceful +Emperor!" + +Thus was accomplished that restoration of the Roman Empire, which by its +attempt to combine Teuton and Roman in political union so powerfully +affected the history of mediaeval Europe. Charlemagne is reported to have +said that the Imperial coronation took him by surprise. However that may +be, this great enterprise of a Christian Empire must be regarded, in its +final completion, as the joint work of Frankish king and Roman Pope. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS I (814-867) + + +The period from the death of Charlemagne (814) to the coronation of Otto +the Great (962) is a long dismal stretch, tenanted by discord and +ignorance. At the beginning stands the commanding figure of Charlemagne, + + With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear + The weight of mightiest monarchies. + +But his descendants were unequal to their inheritance, and under them +his Empire crumbled away and resolved itself into incipient nations. +That Empire, in theory the restored Roman Empire, was in fact strictly +Teutonic, though buttressed by the Roman Church. Charlemagne deemed +himself head of both Empire and Church. In his eyes the Pope was his +subject, and he legislated, as a matter of course, upon ecclesiastical +affairs. In secular matters he endeavoured to maintain local +administration without detriment to a strong central government. For +this purpose he divided the Empire into three divisions, of which he +made his three sons nominally kings, really his lieutenants. Under these +sons he appointed counts and bishops, as local governors. He maintained +his central authority by means of deputies (_missi dominici_), who +traversed the whole Empire, two by two, a bishop and a count together. +The maintenance of such a political unity, however, required either the +organic strength and momentum of the old Roman Empire, or a breed of +Charlemagnes. On the great Emperor's death the forces of disruption made +themselves felt at once. His son, Louis the Pious, indeed succeeded to +the whole sovereignty of the Empire; but Louis's sons demanded division. +They rebelled; and civil war lasted most of Louis's life. After his +death the sons fought one another, and finally agreed on a division of +the territory, though the Imperial title was kept. One brother took the +territory to the east, destined to become Germany; another, that to the +west, destined to become France; and Lothair, the eldest, who also +received the Imperial title, took Italy and a long, heterogeneous strip +between the territories of his brothers. This division was fatal to the +Empire. On Lothair's death the Imperial crown descended to his son Louis +II (855-875), and afterwards to two other degenerate members of a +degenerate family. The last made himself unendurable and was deposed +(887). With him ended Charlemagne's legitimate male line, and also the +first revival of the Roman Empire. + +This Empire had been a civilizing power. It had supported the Papacy, as +an oak supports the creeper that clings to it; and in its decline and +fall it pulled the Papacy down with it. Without such support the Papacy +could maintain neither dignity abroad nor order at home. This lesson the +Church learned once through the outrages inflicted upon Pope Leo, but +forgot it; and required the experience of a hundred and fifty years to +learn it a second time. In theory Papacy and Empire were co-equal +powers, religious and secular, together carrying on the noble task of +God's government on earth. In practice, as their respective rights and +powers had not been definitely set off, they could not agree; each +wished to be master. The relations between the two constitute the great +axis on which mediaeval politics revolve, and for a long time must serve +as the main motive of our story. The contest between them for mastery +resembles a fencing match, in which the Pope thrusts at the Emperor's +crown, the Emperor parries, and lunges back at the papal tiara. For +convenience we divide the match into two bouts, and first take the +Pope's attack. + +At the famous coronation on Christmas day, 800, Charlemagne and Leo +stood side by side, co-labourers in the great task of reconstructing +Europe. But once the coronation over, the two undefined authorities +jostled each other. Charlemagne, to whom government was as much a +religious as a secular matter, though he had accepted his Imperial crown +at the hands of the Pope, did not regard papal participation necessary +for the continuance of the Imperial dignity. At Aachen, 813, he crowned +his son Louis the Pious co-Emperor, without the help of Pope or priest. +This thrust must have carried discomfiture to the banks of the Tiber. +But with Charlemagne's weak successors the astute Papacy scored hit +after hit. Louis the Pious submitted to be recrowned by the Pope, so did +his son, Lothair, and his grandson Louis II; and their two successors +were also crowned by the Pope. This sequence of palpable hits won this +bout and secured for the Papacy beyond dispute the prerogative of +crowning the Emperors. + +If we now turn to that part of the game where Emperor lunged and Pope +parried, we find a more complicated situation. A third player takes a +hand, to the confusion of the game and to the great detriment of the +papal defence. This third player is the Roman people, who believed that +the _Senatus Populusque Romanus_ still possessed their ancient +prerogatives, and had the right to appoint both Emperor and Pope. Their +claim to elect the Emperor was flimsy enough, being merely the memory of +an empty form, and is not of enough consequence to stop for; but their +claim to interfere in the papal election was of the highest importance. +It arose from the anomalous nature of the Papacy. The Pope was bishop of +Rome, and as such his election lay in the hands of the clergy and people +of Rome; he was also the ruler of central Italy, and as such the barons +there were interested in his election; and, in addition, he was head of +all the Christian Churches in the West, and so all western Christendom, +and the Emperor as its temporal lord, was likewise concerned. The fact +was that no definite method of papal election and confirmation had been +settled upon during these disturbed centuries. The original practice had +been for the Roman churches, priests, and laymen together assembled, to +make the election; subsequently the senate, or the army, or the nobles, +had represented the lay body of electors; but whoever represented the +laymen, they and the clergy made the election; which was then submitted +to the Emperor, or his representative, for scrutiny and confirmation. +The submission of the Roman election to the examination of a Byzantine +Emperor had never been acceptable in Rome, and after the breach over +iconoclasm, the practice ceased. Naturally, on the revival of the Roman +Empire in the West, the new Emperors claimed the old Imperial right of +supervision; naturally, also, the papal party resisted the fresh +exercise of the old prerogative. Here was a situation for a scrimmage, +but any clear account of the papal elections in Rome, supposing such +were possible, would be too minute; this narrative must confine itself +to the main passes between the papal party and the Emperors. + +After the death of Charlemagne (no papal election occurred during his +lifetime) several Popes were elected and consecrated without previously +consulting the Emperor. On the other hand, in the next reign the +Imperial deputy made the Romans take oath that no Pope should be +consecrated without the approval of the Emperor. What was done at the +following election is not known, but at the second the Pope was not +consecrated until the Emperor had ratified the proceedings. Thereafter +the Imperial right was acknowledged in theory, though in practice the +elected Pontiffs did not always wait for Imperial confirmation. + +With the fall of the Carlovingian Empire the fencing match ceased for +lack of an Imperial contestant. The score stood thus: each had succeeded +in the attack, the Papacy had won its right to bestow the Imperial +crown, and the Empire had won, though not so definitely, its right to +supervise the election of a Pope. We must now pass to this Imperial +interregnum knowing that when the Empire shall be revived, the match +will begin anew and the combatants, with foils unbated and envenomed, +will fight to a finish. + +The Imperial interregnum, nominally interrupted by one German and +several Italian make-believe Emperors, lasted for three generations; no +Imperial power was exercised from 875 to 962. It is a murky period in +which shadows wander about; but before taking our candle and descending +into the gloom, we will turn to the one bright spot, the career of a +great Pope, Nicholas I (858-867). + +This Pope, in spite of the decadence of the Papacy, won immense prestige +for it by two successful assertions of cosmopolitan authority. The King +of Lorraine, brother to Louis II, the Emperor, wished to put away his +wife and marry another woman. The innocent queen, with the sanction of +the clergy of the kingdom, was divorced and forced to enter a convent; +and, with the consent of his clergy, the king married the other woman. +The wronged queen appealed to the Pope, who sent his legates to +investigate the affair; but the king bribed the legates and succeeded in +getting a decision from the local synod in his favour, although, in +fact, the whole matter had been a shocking scandal. Thereupon the king +sent the archbishops of Cologne and of Trier, the two great +ecclesiastical dignitaries of the kingdom, to announce this verdict of +acquittal. The Pope, "professing," as his enemies said, "to be +imperator of the whole world," seized his opportunity; he espoused the +cause of the innocent queen, annulled the fraudulent proceedings, and +excommunicated and deposed the two archbishops. The king applied to the +Emperor for help, and the Emperor went to Rome, but could obtain no +concession. The Pope stood like a rock. He allied himself with France +and Germany, and threatened to excommunicate the sinning husband and all +his bishops. The king was obliged to submit. The usurping wife was +excommunicated and banished, and the papal legate conducted the divorced +queen back to the royal palace. Thus the Papacy not only established a +great precedent for the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal +power, but also stood conspicuous before the world as the champion of +the weak and oppressed and the defender of morality and justice. + +It would be difficult to overrate the effect of this papal achievement. +It may be that the Papacy stood forth as champion of innocence when +policy coincided with righteousness; but it was the righteousness and +not the policy which gave the Papacy strength. One can imagine, in days +when brutal barons, scattered in strongholds all over the country, were +the normal forms of power and authority, what effect such news had upon +the people. A pilgrim from across the Alps, a peddler, or some poor +vagrant, enters a village huddled at the foot of a hill, on which stands +a great castle where a drunken lord revels with his mistresses, and +recounts to the assembled peasants, serfs, and slaves, how the Holy +Father, in the name of God, had commanded a greater lord, in a greater +castle, to put away his mistress and bring back his wife, and how that +lord had got down on his knees and had done the Holy Father's bidding. + +The second case was the victory of papal authority over the spirit of +nationality in the Church. When the incipient nations of France and +Germany, having separated from the Empire, had begun to be +self-conscious, the spirit of nationality naturally showed itself in +ecclesiastical matters as well as in political matters. There was +obvious likelihood that the nations would govern themselves +ecclesiastically as well as politically. Should they do so, the papal +supremacy would fall just as the Imperial supremacy had fallen, and the +unity of the Church would be shattered just as the Empire had been. Here +was certainly a great danger to the Papacy, and probably a great danger +to Christianity and civilization; at least so Nicholas thought. He +resolved to meet it boldly. His opportunity came when a French (West +Frankish) bishop appealed to Rome against the action of his +metropolitan. The metropolitan objected that there was no precedent for +papal action in such a case; he did not deny that the Pope had certain +appellate functions, but said that if the Pope interfered directly in +the discipline of bishops, the power of the metropolitan would be +impaired. It is needless to say that this argument did not produce the +result that the metropolitan desired. There was nothing the Papacy +wanted more than that its central government should act directly +everywhere, and that all bishops should be dependent upon Rome; that +was the very principle of papal supremacy. The issue would determine +whether the Papacy was to be an autocratic power, or a limited court of +appeal. Nicholas was able to take advantage of the troubled political +situation to enforce direct papal authority, and so added an immense +prerogative to the papal power. + +Apart from this imperial ecclesiastical principle the latter episode is +especially interesting on account of the character of the evidence +produced by the Pope to maintain his position. This evidence consisted +of a new compilation of Church law which appeared somewhat mysteriously +about this time. Theretofore Church law had consisted of a collection of +precepts taken from the Bible, from the early Fathers, from decrees of +Councils, and also of letters, called decretals, written by the bishops +of Rome, but none of these decretals was earlier than the time of +Constantine. The fact, that there were no papal decretals prior to +Constantine, seemed to imply, at least to the sceptically minded, that +papal authority had really begun at the time of Constantine and not at +the time of St. Peter. To the ardent papist such an idea was incredible. +Nicholas now produced a new batch of documents. Among these was the +_Donation of Constantine_, of which I have spoken. Others were papal +decretals, which purported to come from Popes of the third and second +centuries, and to prove that papal jurisdiction over other bishoprics +had been exercised almost as far back as the time of St. Peter. These +new appearing documents placed the Pope not only above kings, but above +metropolitans and provincial synods, and justified Nicholas in acting +directly in the case of the West Frankish bishop, in the King of +Lorraine's matrimonial affairs, and also in assuming to act as +"imperator of the whole world." These documents, known as the _Isidorian +Decretals_, were probably composed by some priest in France, not long +before their use by Nicholas. For six hundred years they were believed +to be genuine, and during that time rendered the Papacy great service by +ranging the sentiment of law throughout Europe (at least until the +revival of Roman law) on the side of the Papacy in its struggle with the +Empire. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY (867-962) + + +These triumphs were due to the brilliant vigour of Pope Nicholas; but +that triumphant position could not last, it was fictitious. The Papacy +needed the support of a strong secular power, and when the Carlovingian +Empire dissolved, it had nothing to rest on, neither genius nor military +force, and fell into deep degradation. + +To illustrate that degradation one episode will suffice; but there must +first be a word of prologue. The Papacy, as has been said, occupied an +anomalous position. From this sprang many troubles. As soon as the +pressure of Imperial authority was removed, the Papacy tended to become +the prize of municipal politics, and different parties in Rome (if the +turbulent mobs may be called so) struggled to get possession of it. One +party, with interests centred on local matters, indifferent to the +greatness of the Papacy and its European character, and willing to have +the Pope a mere local ruler, directed its efforts to getting rid of all +Imperial and foreign control. The opposite party, with conflicting +interests, wished for Imperial control, and constituted a kind of +Imperial party, less from any large views, than in the hope of deriving +advantages from Imperial support. Strife between the two parties was the +normal condition, and often ended in riot and civil war. In this state +of affairs, a certain Pope Formosus (891-896), who belonged to the +Imperial faction, went so far as to invite the German king to come down +to Rome and be crowned Emperor. The king actually came and was crowned, +but accomplished little or nothing, except to arouse bitter hostility in +his enemies. When Formosus died, his successor was elected from the +opposite faction. The new Pope held a synod of cardinals and bishops, +and before them, the highest Christian tribunal in the world, he +summoned, upon the charge of violating the canons of the Church, the +dead Formosus, whose body had lain in its grave, for months. The body +was dug up, dressed in pontifical robes, and propped upon a throne. +Counsel was assigned to it. The accusation was formally read, and the +Pope himself cross-questioned the accused, who was convicted and +deposed. His pontifical acts were pronounced invalid. His robes were +torn from him, the three fingers of the right hand, which in life had +bestowed the episcopal blessing, were hacked off, and the body was +dragged through the streets and flung into the Tiber. + +This incident sheds light on mediaeval Rome, and on the character of the +people with whom the Popes had to live. All the Popes, good, bad, and +indifferent, whether they were struggling with the Empire on great +cosmopolitan questions, or were trying to unite Christendom against +Islam, always had to keep watch on the brutal, ignorant, bloody Roman +people, who took no interest in great questions, and were always ready +to rob, burn, and murder with or without a pretext. + +Now that we have brought the Frankish Empire to its dissolution, and the +Papacy to its degradation, we must leave the two wrecks for the moment, +and stop in these dark years at the end of the ninth century to see how +Italy herself has fared. The Italian world was out of joint, +intellectually, morally, politically. There can hardly be said to have +been a government. For a generation the poor, shrunken Empire had been +but a shadow, and when the last Carlovingian died, its parts tumbled +asunder. Local barons ruled everywhere. The Imperial title, which +represented nothing, and conveyed no power, seemed, however, to have +some vital principle of its own, some ghostly virtue; at least sundry +kings and dukes thought so and fought for it; but until the coming of +Otto the Great it remained a shadow. North of the Alps duchies and +provinces united into kingdoms; but the peninsula remained split up into +discordant parts. The valley of the Po was divided into various duchies, +peopled by a mixed race of Latins and Lombards, whom the pressure of the +conquering Franks had welded together. South of the Po lay the Imperial +marquisate of Tuscany. Across the middle of the peninsula stretched the +awkward strip of domain from Ravenna to Rome, inhabited by a race of +comparatively pure Latin blood. This domain, included in the _Donations_ +of Pippin and of Charlemagne, nominally subject to the Papacy under the +suzerainty of the Empire, was really in the possession of petty nobles, +who knew no law except force and craft. South of this so-called papal +domain lay the duchy of Spoleto and the Lombard duchy of Benevento, and +farther south a few principalities, such as Naples, Amalfi, and Salerno, +and finally in the heel and toe of Italy were the last remains of the +Greek Empire. To the northeast, on its islands, lay the little fishing +and trading city, Venice. + +The Italians, as we had better call them now that Barbarian and Latin +blood has well commingled, were in a most unenviable condition. Most of +those who tilled the soil were serfs, and went with the land when it was +sold; some were scarce better than slaves, others were only bound to +render service of certain kinds or on certain days, either with their +own hands or with beasts. Their lot depended on the humours of the +overseers of great estates. Slaves were worse off because they had no +personal rights, but they were always decreasing in number despite a +slave trade, for there was a strong religious sentiment against slavery, +and it was common for dying men to liberate their slaves. In the cities +people were better off, for the artisans were free men, and by banding +together in guilds (which had existed ever since the old Roman days) +secured for themselves a more prosperous condition. But the only +thriving places were the cities of the coast, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, +Amalfi, where trade was already beginning to lay the foundations of +future greatness. + +These glimmerings of commerce were the only lights along the whole +horizon. Everything else seemed to share the blight that had fallen on +the Empire and the Papacy. The clergy, whose duty it was to maintain +learning, failed utterly. Even in the happiest days of the Carlovingian +Empire, Charlemagne had found it necessary to enact blunt rules for +their guidance. "Let the priests, according to the Apostles' advice, +withdraw themselves from revellings and drunkenness; for some of them +are wont to sit up till midnight or later, boozing with their +neighbours; and then these men, who ought to be of a religious and holy +deportment, return to their churches drunken and gorged with food, and +unable to perform the daily and nightly office of praise to God, while +others sink down in a drunken sleep in the place of their revels.... Let +no priest presume to store provisions or hay in the church."[6] +Learning, supposed to be committed to their charge, went out like a +spent candle. Books were almost forgotten, except perhaps here and +there, in Pavia or Verona, where a grammarian still invoked Virgil to +prosper his muse; or where in an episcopal city, like Ravenna, some +chronicler wrote a history of the bishopric. The theory of historic +truth on which these chroniclers acted gives an inkling of the mediaeval +attitude towards facts. Father Agnello, a priest of Ravenna, one of +these chroniclers, says himself: "If you, who read this History of our +Bishopric, shall come to a passage and say, 'Why didn't he narrate the +facts about this bishop as he did about his predecessors,' listen to the +reason. I, Andrea Agnello, a humble priest of this holy church of +Ravenna, have written the history of this Bishopric from the time of St. +Apollinaris for eight hundred years and more, because my brethren here +have begged me and compelled me. I have put down whatever I found the +Bishops had undoubtedly done, and whatever I heard from the oldest men +living, but where I could not find any historical account, nor anything +about their lives in any way, then, in order to leave no blanks in the +holy succession of bishops, I have made up the missing lives by the help +of God, through your prayers, and I believe I have said nothing untrue, +because those bishops were pious and pure and charitable and winners of +souls for God."[7] + +The monks were no better than the secular clergy. The monasteries had +grown large, for many men had joined in order to escape military +service, or to obtain personal security, or an easier life, or greater +social consideration; they had also grown rich, for many sinners on +their deathbeds had given large sums, in hope to compound for their +sins. Naturally monastic vows were often broken. Moreover, the little +good that monks and priests did they undid by their encouragement of +superstition. They first frightened the poor peasants out of their wits +by portraying the horrors of hell, and then preached the magical +properties of the sacraments and of saints' bones, until the ordinary +man, feeling himself the sport of superhuman agencies, abandoned all +self-confidence and surrendered himself to priestly control as his sole +hope of safety in this world or the next. + +Oppressed by anarchy, by division, by a degenerate church, by a gross +clergy, and by waxing ignorance, Italy might seem to have had its cup +of evil full. There was but one further ill that could be added, a new +Barbarian invasion. It came. The triumphant Saracens, having overrun +Spain and raided France in the west, having cooped up the Byzantine +Empire in the east, now threatened to plant their victorious banners in +the very heart of Christendom. As early as Charlemagne's last years they +sacked a coast town scarce forty miles from Rome. In 827 they invaded +Sicily, invited by a partisan traitor. Within ten years they had made +themselves masters of almost all the island, except a few strongholds +which managed to hold out for half a century. The beaten Byzantines +retired to the mainland; but they did not get beyond the reach of the +victorious Saracens, who raided all the Italian coast as far as the +Tiber. Troops of marauders hovered round Rome and harried the +country-side, robbing and pillaging at will. One band advanced to the +very gates of the city, and sacked St. Peter's and St. Paul's, both +outside the walls and undefended (846). All the southern provinces were +overrun, half of their towns became Saracen fortresses. It seemed as if +Italy were to undergo the fate of Spain and become a Mohammedan Emirate. + +The danger to Rome roused the country. A Christian league was effected +between the Imperial forces in Italy, the Pope, and the coast cities of +the south,--Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi. Pope Leo himself blessed the +fleet, and the Christians beat the infidels in a great sea-fight not far +from the Tiber's mouth (849). Some of the prisoners were brought to Rome +and set to work on the walls which Pope Leo was building round the +Vatican hill to protect St. Peter's; and Rome, imitating the days of +Scipio Africanus, celebrated another triumph over Africa. The fighting +was kept up all over the south. The Greek Emperor made common cause with +his fellow Christians, and the immediate danger of conquest was +arrested; but throughout this dismal ninth century, and all the tenth, +southern Italy continued to suffer from Saracen marauders. The tales +told of their cruelty are fearful, and match our tales of Indian raids +in the old French-English war. Separate villages and lonely monasteries +suffered most. Some good came out of the evil, however, for the +chroniclers relate how the abbots and their terrified brethren spent +days and nights fasting and in prayer. + +Such was the condition of Italy when the Imperial Carlovingian line came +to an end. The omnipresence of anarchy was a permanent argument for the +need of an Imperial restoration. But the country did not know how to go +to work to restore the Empire. At first various claimants asserted +various titles, and Italian dukes and neighbouring kings fought one +another like bulls, but none were able to establish any stable power. In +the midst of these ineffectual struggles one real effort was made. +Arnulf, king of the Germans, who regarded himself as the true successor +of the great Frankish house and of right Imperial heir, marched down +into Italy at the invitation of Pope Formosus, as we have seen, and +assumed the Imperial crown (896). The expedition was barren of +consequences, but it gives us another glimpse of the anomalous nature of +the Papacy, and the different views entertained of it on the two sides +of the Alps. The German king wished to be Emperor, and felt that an +Imperial coronation at Rome by the Pope was essential. To him and to his +German subjects the papal invitation was of high authority. When he +reached Rome, however, the seat of the Papacy, he found the gates barred +and the walls manned by rebellious citizens, who had locked the Pope in +the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and had seized the government of the city. +Arnulf easily carried the defences by storm and liberated the Pope. The +incident illustrates the contrast between Teutonic respect and Roman +disobedience, and describes the papal situation as it was half the time +throughout the Middle Ages. Honoured and reverenced by the pious +ultramontanes, the Popes were insulted, robbed, imprisoned, and deposed +by their immediate subjects. This local disobedience, or, as it should +be called, Roman republicanism, was often the insignificant cause of +papal actions of far-reaching effect. The Popes were never strong enough +of themselves to suppress these republican sentiments and ambitions; +they needed support from some power, Italian or foreign. As they would +not endure the idea of an Italian kingdom, they adopted the alternative +of calling in a foreign power. This was the constant papal policy. + +Another instance of Roman republicanism, or disobedience (as one +chooses), throws further light on the nature of this thorn in the papal +side. Not long after Arnulf's expedition, two women, Theodora and +Marozia, mother and daughter, played a great part not only in Roman but +also in Italian politics. These two women ruled the city and appointed +the Popes. They were bold, comely, much-marrying women, choosing +eligible husbands almost by force; both were wholly Roman in the +fierceness, vigour, and sensuality of their characters. They were very +capable, and, in part directly, in part through their husbands and +others, exercised control for some thirty years; and when the daughter +disappeared from history, her son, Alberic, took the title, Prince and +Senator of all the Romans, and ruled in her stead. + +Thus the last hope of Italians helping themselves perished; for if the +Papacy was powerless, there was no help elsewhere in Italy. The +usurpation of these viragoes and of Alberic differs in details from the +usurpation of the later republicans, and of the Colonna, Orsini, and +other barons, who shall appear hereafter in papal history, but for +general effect on papal affairs and through them on European affairs, +all these usurpations were very similar. The usurpers, in diverse +characters, represent that third player in the fencing match, who, +though by no means an ally of the Empire, frequently rushed in and +struck up the Pope's guard, and continued to interfere for hundreds of +years, until the Popes of the Renaissance finally established their +temporal power in the city of Rome. + +By the middle of the tenth century the disintegration of Italy had +become so bad that it caused its own cure. It was obvious that something +must be done. The Saracens, strongly established in Sicily, were a +standing menace towards the south. From the north wild bands of +Hungarians burst across the Alps and harried the land in barbaric raids +as far as Rome. Feudal anarchy prevailed everywhere. Monks and clergy +were, to say the least, no help. Even the Papacy, the only stable power, +had become the appanage of a Roman family. There was but one way out of +this chaos. The Roman Empire must be restored. The Latin people never +believed that it was extinct but merely lying latent, requiring some +happy application of might and right to set it going again on its +majestic course. Charlemagne, in his day, had supplied the might. That +might had faded away. Where was its substitute to be found? Pope +Formosus and King Arnulf had already suggested the only possible +answer,--in the eastern portion of the Frankish Empire, the kingdom of +Germany. That kingdom, composed of the great duchies of Bavaria, Swabia, +Franconia, Saxony, and Lorraine, had become tolerably compact; it was +strong at home, and was eager for glory and power abroad. Its ambitious +king, Otto, of the Saxon line, was the man to undertake to follow +Charlemagne's example. It was too late to hope to restore the +Carlovingian Empire in its former boundaries, but with Germany to give +strength and Rome to contribute title, there would be the two necessary +elements for a renewal of the Roman Empire. + +The immediate pretext of Otto's coming down into Italy was highly +romantic. A lovely lady, the widow of one Italian pretender to the +throne of Italy, was pestered with offers of marriage from another +pretender. She refused, and was locked up in a tower by the Lake of +Garda, where memories of Catullus and Lesbia still faintly lingered. She +contrived to escape, and sent piteous messages for help to the great +Otto, then a widower. Discontented factions in the north, and others +suffering from oppression, including the Pope who had been rudely roused +to the need of Imperial support, also sent messengers asking him to +come. Otto came, took Pavia, and acted as King of Italy. He married the +lovely widow, and wished to go to Rome to receive the Imperial crown; +but Alberic, lord of Rome, would not give permission. Otto went back to +Germany and bided his time. In ten years Alberic died leaving a young +son, who, although only seventeen years old, inherited enough of his +father's power to get himself elected Pope, John XII. Pope John, +however, found himself encompassed by powerful enemies both in Rome and +out. He too was obliged to recognize the absolute necessity of Imperial +restoration, and called upon Otto for aid. The German king came, and was +crowned by the Pope, Emperor of the Romans, in St. Peter's basilica, on +the second day of February, 962. This coronation was the beginning of a +new phase in the Roman Empire. In this phase that Empire is known as the +Holy Roman Empire, although it was merely a union of Germany, Italy, and +Burgundy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _Italy and her Invaders_, Hodgkin, vol. viii, p. 289. + +[7] _Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte_, Balzani +(translated). + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY (962-1056) + + +This Roman Empire (it did not receive its full title of Holy Roman +Empire until later) deserved the name Roman because it rested on the +Roman tradition of the political unity of the civilized world. This +tradition, by means of the ecclesiastical unity of Europe, had survived +the Barbarian invasions, had gained strength through Charlemagne's +Empire, and now joined together two nations so fundamentally different +as Germany and Italy. The Germans were big blond men, beer-drinkers, +huge eaters, rough, ill-mannered, arrogant, phlegmatic and brave; the +Italians were little, dark-skinned men, wine-drinkers, lettuce-eaters, +with pleasant manners, gesticulating, excitable, and unwarlike. Their +union affords the strongest testimony to the strength of the Roman +tradition. This ill-assorted pair, married in obedience to the will of +dead generations, could not live together in peace. The theory of a +world conjointly ruled by a supreme secular sovereign and a supreme +ecclesiastical sovereign could not be put into successful practice. The +Empire was German, the Papacy Italian, and by their very natures they +were antagonistic. + +Otto's empire was by no means universal, but its suzerainty was +acknowledged by Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, perhaps by Hungary, +and sometimes by France; and therefore, as eastern Europe was either +Greek or barbarian, Britain an island, and Spain practically Mohammedan, +it sustained fairly well the idea of a universal (_i. e._, European) +empire. The essential parts were Germany to give strength, and Italy to +give title and tradition. In theory the process of royal and Imperial +election and coronation was as follows. The German electors (the greater +nobles), whose number was not limited to seven for two centuries and +more, elected a king, who was crowned with a silver crown at Aachen, +and, by virtue of his coronation, received the title, King of the +Romans. This king then took the iron crown of Lombardy at Pavia, and +became King of Italy; and, when he received the gold Imperial crown from +the Pope at Rome, became Emperor. The election of the son of the late +Emperor to succeed was the custom, but was not obligatory. Germany was +not a strongly centralized state, but was composed of several dukedoms, +which often fell out among themselves. Italy was still less a political +unit. It had no marks of nationality, except its geographical position, +its ancient tradition, and a tardily forming language; but even this +_lingua volgare_, which in Otto's time began to have an Italian sound, +and to touch the degenerate written Latin with an Italian look, did not +prevail throughout the peninsula. In the south Greek was still spoken, +and the Holy Roman Empire never had more than the shadow of a title +south of Benevento till after Barbarossa's time. The Emperor's authority +rested at bottom on the German military power; and as this depended on +the obedience of wayward and jealous dukedoms, it was uncertain and +intermittent. + +The Papacy was far more stable, for fundamentally it was a moral power, +and got its energy from men's consciences. It was far better organized +than the Empire. The ecclesiastical system spread all over Europe, into +every city, village, hamlet, and monastery; countries which reluctantly +acknowledged the suzerainty of the Empire, bowed unquestioningly to +papal rule. Moreover, the power of the Papacy did not merely consist in +spiritual weapons, terrible as the ban of excommunication was in those +days, but also in its ability to raise up enemies against its enemy, and +to put the cloak of piety over war and rebellion. + +The ironical element in the situation was that the Empire itself lifted +the Papacy to the position in which it was able to turn and defy the +Empire, fight it, and finally destroy it. The Emperors, who entertained +no doubts that the Papacy was subject to them, that they were +responsible for its conduct and must secure the election of worthy +Popes, took the Papacy out of the hands of the Roman faction, purified +it, and appointed honest, capable, upright Popes. + +A contemporary account of Otto's dealings with that young scamp, Pope +John XII, who in morals resembled his grandmother, Marozia, gives a good +picture of the nature of the benefits which the Empire conferred on the +Papacy: "While these things were taking place, the constellation of +Cancer, hot from the enkindling rays of Phoebus, kept the Emperor +away from the hills around Rome, but when the constellation of Virgo +returning brought back the pleasant season he went to Rome upon a secret +invitation from the Romans. But why should I say _secret_ when the +greater part of the nobility burst into the Castle of St. Paul and +invited the holy Emperor, and even gave hostages? The citizens received +the holy Emperor and all his men within the city, promised allegiance, +and took an oath that they would never elect a Pope, nor consecrate him, +without the consent and the sanction of the Lord Emperor Otto, Caesar, +Augustus, and of his son, King Otto. + +"Three days later, at the request of the Roman bishops and people, there +was a great meeting in St. Peter's Church, and with the Emperor sat the +archbishops of Aquileia, Milan, and Ravenna, the archbishop of Saxony +[and many other Italian and German prelates]. When they were seated, and +silence made, the holy Emperor got up and said: 'How fit it would be +that in this distinguished and holy council our lord Pope John should be +present! But since he has refused to be of your company, we ask your +counsel, holy fathers, for you have the same interest as he.' Then the +Roman prelates, cardinals, priests, and deacons, and all the people +cried out: 'We are surprised that your reverend prudence should wish to +make us investigate that which is not hidden from the Iberians, the +Babylonians, nor the Indians. He [the Pope] is no longer one of that +kind, which come in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves; +he rages so openly, does his diabolical misdeeds so manifestly, that we +need not beat about the bush.' The Emperor answered: 'We deem it just +that the accusations should be stated one by one, and after that we will +take counsel together of what we ought to do.' + +"Then Cardinal-priest Peter got up, and testified that he had seen the +Pope celebrate mass without communion. John, bishop of Narni, and John, +cardinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him ordain a deacon in a +stable, and not at the proper hour. Cardinal-deacon Benedict, with other +priests and deacons, said that they knew that he ordained bishops for +money, and that in the city of Todi he had ordained as bishop a boy ten +years old. They said it was not necessary to go into his sacrileges +because they had seen more such than could be reckoned. They said in +regard to his adulteries.... They said that he had publicly gone +a-hunting; that he had put out the eyes of his spiritual father, +Benedict, who died soon after in consequence; that he had mutilated and +killed John, cardinal-subdeacon; and they testified that he had set +buildings on fire, armed with helmet and breastplate, and girt with a +sword. All, priests and laymen, cried out that he had drunk a toast to +the devil. They said that while playing dice he had invoked the aid of +Jupiter, Venus, and other demons. They declared that he had not +celebrated matins, nor observed the canonical hours, and that he did not +cross himself. + +"When the Emperor had heard all this, he bade me, Liutprand, bishop of +Cremona, interpret to the Romans, because they could not understand his +Saxon. Then he got up and said: 'It often happens, and we believe it +from our experience, that men in great place are slandered by the +envious, for a good man is disliked by bad men just as a bad man is +disliked by good men. And for this reason we entertain some doubts +concerning this accusation against the Pope, which Cardinal-deacon +Benedict has just read and made before you, uncertain whether it springs +from zeal for justice or from envy and impiety. Therefore with the +authority of the dignity granted to me, though unworthy, I beseech you +by that God, whom no man can deceive howsoever he may wish, and by His +holy mother, the Virgin Mary, and by the most precious body of the +prince of the Apostles, in whose Church we now are, that no accusation +be cast at our lord the Pope of faults which he has not committed and +which have not been seen by the most trustworthy men.'" The accusers +affirmed their charges on oath. Then the holy Synod said: "If it please +the holy Emperor let letters be sent to our lord the Pope, bidding him +come and clear himself of these charges." The wary John did not come, +but wrote: "I, Bishop John, servant of the servants of God, to all the +bishops. We have heard that you propose to elect another Pope. If you do +that, I excommunicate you in the name of Almighty God so that you shall +not have the right to ordain anybody, nor to celebrate mass."[8] +Nevertheless, John was deposed and a good Pope put in his stead. + +Otto's successors, one after the other, followed his example, and +treated the Papacy as if it had been a German bishopric. The Emperors, +however, had work to do north of the Alps, and did not spend much time +in Rome, except Otto III, a romantic dreamer, who wished to live there; +and during their absence the turbulent Roman anti-imperial faction used +to seize the Papacy, just as Alberic had done, and put up worthless +Popes. In spite of them the Emperors' Popes raised the Papacy so high +that, as a matter of course, it became the head of the great +ecclesiastical reform movement which swept over Europe in the eleventh +century, and from that movement drew in so much force and energy that it +became the greatest power in Europe, and was enabled finally to +overthrow the Empire. + +This tide of reform arose at Cluny, a little place in Burgundy, and +began as a monastic reform. All over Christendom monasteries had grown +rich and prosperous; many monks had forsaken Benedict's rule, had broken +their vows and lived with wives and children upon revenues intended for +other purposes. Other monks hated this evil conduct, and burning with a +passionate desire to stop it, started a great movement of monastic +reform. The reform was ascetic in character, as a moral emotion in those +days was bound to be. The first reformers gathered at Cluny, about the +beginning of the tenth century. From there disciples went far and wide, +purging old monasteries and founding new. After a time the reformers +passed beyond the early stage of mere moral revolt against godless +living, formed a party, and put forward a creed. The party represented +antagonism to the world, pitted saints against sinners, the Church +against the State. The creed had three tenets. No ecclesiasts should +marry, and married men upon ordination should live apart from their +wives. No bribery, no corrupt bargain, should taint the appointment and +installation of clergy, high or low. No layman should meddle with the +entry of bishops upon their episcopal office. These three tenets roused +bitter opposition. Celibacy of the clergy had been a rule of Church +discipline since early days, and from time to time efforts had been made +to enforce the practice, but it had fallen into general disregard. A +celibate clergy, with no affections or interests nearer or dearer than +the Church, would be a tremendous ecclesiastical force, and far-sighted +Popes always sought to enforce the rule. Necessarily the married clergy +and many clerical bachelors were violent in opposition. The article +against simony nobody openly gainsaid; but many bishops and abbots had +obtained their offices by corrupt practices, and many nobles looked +forward to rich livings and high ecclesiastical places; both classes +opposed a change. The third article, against lay investiture of bishops, +which was to be the cause of deadly war between Empire and Papacy, was a +logical conclusion from the article against simony; for it was hard to +suppose that in the appointment of bishops, kings and princes would +disregard all worldly motives and appoint men solely for the good of +souls. On the other hand, the great bishoprics and abbeys were among the +most important fiefs in a king's gift, and carried with them feudal +privileges of sovereignty, such as rights of coinage, toll, holding +courts, etc.; in short, they were mere secular fiefs with ecclesiastical +prerogatives added. It was natural that the German Emperors should claim +the right to appoint and invest these spiritual barons, and insist that +their episcopal territories should be subject to the same feudal +obligations and the same civic duties as the territories granted to lay +barons. This third article was a direct attack on the civil power. If +all Imperial participation were to be stricken out, and bishops put into +possession of their fiefs solely by the Pope, then vast territories, +estimated to be nearly half the Empire, would be withdrawn from civic +obligations, even from military service, and the Pope, ousting the +Emperor, would become monarch of half the Imperial domains. According to +the canons of the Church, the clergy and the people of the diocese +elected the bishop, and the Church bestowed on him ring and staff, the +signs of episcopal office. The trouble arose over the fief. In feudal +times the kings had enfeoffed bishops with great fiefs in order to +counterbalance the insubordinate secular lords, and because, in +episcopal hands, these fiefs did not become hereditary. When the +reformers took the matter up, they found that in practice the kings did +not wait for a canonical election of episcopal candidates, but invested +their henchmen in return for money or some service which had no savour +of sanctity. The episcopal office, as St. Peter Damian complained, was +got "by flattering the king, studying his inclination, obeying his beck, +applauding every word that fell from his mouth, by acting the parasite +and playing the buffoon." The real difficulty lay in the double nature +of the episcopal office, half ecclesiastical and half feudal; and, like +other great political difficulties, would not yield to a peaceful +solution, until there had been a trial of strength between the +discordant interests. + +The first consequence, however, of the reforming spirit was to ennoble +the whole Church, to purify her members, and animate them with a common +zeal, and to uplift her head, the Papacy. It carried on, in a larger way +and with a greater sweep, the work of ecclesiastical reformation begun +by the intervention of the Emperors in the election of Popes, and gave a +loftier tone to European politics. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] _Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte_, Balzani, p. 123. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES (1059-1123) + + +The struggle over the lay investiture of bishops did not arise at first. +The Papacy was still a dependent bishopric in the gift of the Emperors, +who continued to depose bad Roman Popes and appoint upright Germans. +Popes and Emperors worked together to enforce celibacy among the clergy +and to put down simony. The Emperors could not see, what is evident in +retrospect, that when the spirit of reform should have taken full +possession of the Papacy, then the Papacy would not rest content to be a +German bishopric, but, in obedience to the law which links political +ambition to political vigour, would even aim so high as to try to reduce +the Empire itself to the condition of a papal fief. The spirit of +reform, embodied in a man of genius, did take possession of the Papacy +and the great struggle began. + +Among the crowd that thronged to Cluny eager for a higher life, was a +young Tuscan from Orvieto, Hildebrand by name, of plebeian birth. Small +of stature, vehement in spirit, passionate in feeling and action, he was +confident in himself and yet sensitive to sympathy. This lad became an +eager scholar, but in spite of erudition and fondness for study, he was +essentially a man of action, a born leader of men. "What he taught by +word he proved by example." He believed absolutely in the tenets of the +reformers. He believed with his whole being that the Church was a divine +institution to save men's souls, and he could not endure the idea of +secular powers and worldly influences intermeddling with God's fabric. +His career exhibits the power of a man of genius, who devotes his whole +life to what for him is the highest end, and is able to use human +enthusiasm for good as his implement. + +Hildebrand has been called the Julius Caesar of the Papacy. He went to +Rome about 1048. From that time papal policy became definite, vigorous, +stamped with an antique Roman stamp; and open conflict with the Empire +was the inevitable result. Hildebrand's first care was to protect the +Papacy from the petty-minded Roman faction; he supported papal +candidates of high character and even secured the appointment of a +German, sagaciously foreseeing that ecclesiastical patriotism would be +stronger than national patriotism. These Popes put Hildebrand's views +into execution. + +Now that the Papacy had been rescued from the Roman faction, the next +step was to free it from the Egyptian bondage of subjection to the +Empire. Hildebrand was ready to strike whenever a fair opportunity +should come. It soon came. The Emperor died, leaving his son Henry IV, a +little boy, his successor on the German throne and heir to the Empire. A +long minority seemed to reveal the hand of Providence. Hildebrand acted. +It had long been obvious that one cause of papal subjection to Roman +faction and Imperial tyrant had been the uncertainty of the electoral +body. Emperors, Roman nobles, and Roman rabble, all had certain historic +electoral rights. Hildebrand resolved to dispossess them all. A synod +was held, which declared that the election of the Pope lay in the hands +of the cardinals (1059). Some right of approval was left to the Roman +people, some right of sanction to the Emperor, but the right of original +election was vested in the cardinals, and this gradually developed into +an absolute and exclusive right of election. This act was an act of +rebellion towards the Empire, a declaration of independence. Hildebrand +said that he strove to make the Church "free, pure, and catholic." This +action made it free. + +It was not to be expected that the Empire would acquiesce tamely in this +rebellion. Imperialists and Romans made common cause against the +clerical rebels. But the height of the conflict was not reached till +Hildebrand himself was elevated to the Papacy (1073), becoming Gregory +VII. He immediately took the offensive. Burning with conviction himself, +he appealed to the general enthusiasm both in the Church and throughout +the Empire for the cause of God; he ruthlessly denounced simony and +proclaimed principles of papal sovereignty absolute and universal. "The +Roman Church was founded by God alone; she never has erred and never +will err, and no man is a Catholic who is not at peace with her. The +Roman bishop alone is universal. He may depose bishops and reinstate +them, he may transfer them from one see to another, he may depose +emperors, and may absolve the subjects of the unjust from their +allegiance. No synod without his consent is general; no episcopal +chapter, no book, canonical without his authority. No man may sit in +judgment on his decrees, but he may judge the decrees of all." Here +certainly was a second Julius Caesar in ambition. Gregory claimed feudal +supremacy over Bohemia, Russia, Hungary, Spain, Corsica, Sardinia, +Dalmatia, Croatia, Poland, Scandinavia, and England. Such claims were +vague and shadowy; but the claims to interfere between the German king +and the German episcopate and clergy were definite and direct. The +Papacy declared its own supremacy, and the Imperial duty of obedience. + +Gregory had immense moral support at his back, yet moral support would +not have sufficed to protect him from the king's anger. Nor would +Gregory have ventured on so haughty a course, had he not had allies of +another character. These allies were four in number, and require some +description. First in importance come the Normans. For years bands of +Norman warriors, pious folk, had passed through Southern Italy on their +way to the Holy Land. Once a handful had helped a prince of Salerno to +repel a Saracen attack. The prince, so the story goes, delighted with +their valour, begged them to invite their compatriots to come. The +invitation was readily accepted. Bands of gentlemen adventurers came, +fought against Saracens, or Greeks, or the independent dukes and princes +of Southern Italy, first as mercenaries in anybody's pay, and afterwards +on their own account. They soon conquered a domain, and reached out in +all directions. Some drove out the last Byzantines and acquired Southern +Italy; some crossed to Sicily, performed prodigies of valour against the +Saracens, and finally conquered the whole island (1060-90). In their +raids northward they trespassed upon papal territory and came into +collision with the Church. St. Peter's sword was drawn and brandished, +but ineffectually. The Popes then concluded that martial deeds did not +become them; and the Normans, on their part, were pious folk; so +together they formed a happy solution. The Normans had possession of +Southern Italy and Sicily, but merely by right of conquest; they were in +the midst of an alien and far more numerous subject people, and wished +for a legal title. The Popes, unable to acquire actual possession, did +have, thanks to the _Donation of Constantine_, a legal title, derived, +so they claimed, from the original source of legal titles, the Roman +Empire. The mode of agreement was obvious; the Popes conferred Southern +Italy and Sicily as feuds upon their liegemen the Norman chiefs, and +they in return acknowledged the Popes as their lords suzerain. In this +manner, "by the grace of God and St. Peter," the Normans founded the +kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which for centuries after the Norman line +died out continued to acknowledge the overlordship of the Papacy. The +Normans were often disobedient vassals, but they knew that the Empire +regarded them as robbers, and in the wars between Empire and Papacy +remained loyal to their lords the Popes. + +The second papal ally was Countess Matilda (1046-1115), mistress of the +Marquisate of Tuscany and other domains, which stretched from the papal +boundaries up across the Po to Lombardy, and like her mother, her +predecessor in title, a brave, capable, devout woman. As the Normans +were a defence to the Papacy on the south, so these ladies constituted a +bulwark on the north, and often rendered incalculable service to the +Popes of this period. Matilda's devotion to Gregory was boundless. "Like +a second Martha, she ministered unto him, and as Mary hearkened unto +Christ, so did she, attentive and assiduous, hearken to all the words of +the Holy Father." She and her mother make clear one source of papal +strength. They show us the attitude of the women, who, from sentiments +of morality, piety, and superstition, took the religious side of the +quarrel, and did not rest till fathers, brothers, husbands, and lovers +had also espoused it. One act of feminine devotion fixes Matilda in the +memory. Her domains consisted of marquisates, counties, baronies, and +various feudal estates, held as feuds of the Empire, over which on her +death she had no power of disposition, and also of large private +estates, which she was free to give or devise. All these, Imperial feuds +and private estates, she gave or rather attempted to give to the Church. +This _Donation_, the most important since that of Charlemagne, gave +fresh causes of quarrel between Papacy and Empire. The Papacy attempted +to make good its claim to the Imperial feuds; and the Empire, finding it +impossible to discover the boundaries between the two species of +territories, also claimed the whole. + +The third papal ally is to be found in the cities of Lombardy, which had +now become rich and important. In these cities, especially in Milan, +which was easily first commercially and politically, trade had created a +burgher class which already gave evidence of a desire for political +power. In Milan itself there was extreme political instability; +archbishop, nobles, gentry, artisans, and populace were all ready for a +general scrimmage on the slightest provocation. The clergy were numerous +and very rich; sons of noblemen held the fat benefices, and almost all +led irreligious lives and held celibacy in the meanest esteem. Simony +was the rule. In Hildebrand's time the passion for religious reform +swept over the lower classes of the city. A new sect arose, the Patarini +(ragamuffins), a species of Puritans, who took up the cry against +clerical laxity and immorality, and denounced married priests. Religious +excitement set fire to social and economic discontent; populace and +nobles flew to arms; there were riots and civil war. Several eminent +men, close friends of Hildebrand, became popular leaders; and the +contest of people and Patarini against nobles and married clergy became +an episode in the general strife between Papal and Imperial parties. +Similar tumults, caused half by class enmity, half by the passion for +religious reform, took place in other northern cities, Cremona, +Piacenza, Pavia, Padua; on one side was the party of aristocratic +privilege, looking to the Emperor for support; on the other, the party +of the people, looking to the Pope. + +Gregory's fourth ally was the rebellious nobility of Germany. Had +Germany been united and loyal, the German king would easily have been +able to assert his power in Italy; but Germany was disloyal and divided. +Archbishops of the great archbishoprics, dukes of the great duchies, +bishops, counts, and lords, in fact, all the component parts of the +feudal structure of Germany, were jealous of one another; each grudged +the other his possessions, and were in accord only in jealousy of the +royal power. There were always some barons or bishops thankful to have +the Pope's name and the Pope's aid in a rebellious design. These +animosities the Papacy through its thousand hands diligently fomented. + +Ranged against Gregory and his allies were the loyal parts of Germany, +the Imperial adherents in Italy, the married clergy everywhere, and all +whom Gregory's reforms had angered and estranged. At their head was a +dissipated young king, of high spirit, headstrong, ignorant, and +superstitious, who entertained lofty notions of his royal and Imperial +prerogatives. The characters of these two men would have brought them +into collision, even if the irreconcilable natures of Empire and Papacy +had not rendered a clash inevitable. + +Gregory, almost immediately after his elevation to the pontificate, held +a council and denounced simony, marriage of the clergy, and lay +investiture. The king, who believed in the existing system, continued to +exercise what he deemed his royal rights with a view to improving his +political position. Gregory held a second council and utterly forbade +lay investiture. Henry continued to disobey. Then Gregory wrote to him +that he must renounce the claim of investiture, and humbly present +himself in person before the papal presence and beg absolution for his +sins; or, if he should fail to obey, Gregory would excommunicate him. +Henry and his party, now very angry, retorted by holding a German synod, +which charged Gregory with all sorts of offences, moral, ecclesiastical, +and political, absolved both king and bishops from their papal +allegiance, and, finally, deposed the Pope. Henry himself wrote Gregory +this letter:-- + +"Henry, not by usurpation, but by God's holy will. King, to Hildebrand, +no longer Pope, but false monk:-- + +"This greeting you have deserved from the confusion you have caused, for +in every rank of the Church you have brought confusion instead of +honour, a curse instead of a blessing. Out of much I shall say but a +little; you have not only not feared to touch the rulers of the Holy +Church, archbishops, bishops, priests, God's anointed, but as if they +were slaves, you have trampled them down under your feet. By trampling +them down you have got favour from the vulgar mouth. You have decided +that they know nothing, and that you alone know everything, and you have +studied to use your knowledge not to build up but to destroy.... We have +borne all this and have striven to maintain the honour of the Apostolic +See. But you have construed our humility as fear, and for that reason +you have not feared to rise up against our royal power, and have even +dared to threaten that you would take it from us; as if we had received +our kingdom from you, as if kingdom and empire were in your hands and +not in God's. Our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to the kingdom, but +not you to the priesthood. You have mounted by these steps; by +craft--abominable in a monk--you have come into money, by money to +favour, by favour to the sword, by the sword to the seat of peace; and +from the seat of peace you have confounded peace. You have armed +subjects against those over them; you, the unelect, have held our +bishops, elect of God, up to contempt.... Me, even, who though unworthy +am the anointed king, you have touched, and although the holy fathers +have taught that a king may be judged by God only, and for no offence +except deviation from the faith--which God forbid--you have asserted +that I should be deposed; when even Julian the Apostate was left by the +wisdom of the holy fathers to be judged and deposed by God only. That +true Pope, blessed Peter, says: 'Fear God, honour the king.' But you do +not fear God and you dishonour me appointed by Him. And blessed Paul, +who did not spare an angel from heaven who should preach other doctrine, +did not except you, here on earth, who now teach other doctrine. For he +says, 'But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel +unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be +accursed.' You therefore by Paul anathematized, by the judgment of all +our bishops and by mine condemned, come down, leave the apostolic seat +which you have usurped; let another mount the throne of blessed Peter, +who shall not cloak violence with religion, but shall teach the sound +doctrine of blessed Peter. I, Henry, King by God's grace, and all our +bishops, say to you, Down, down, you damned forever."[9] + +To the action of the German synod and to this letter there could be but +one answer. Gregory held a synod, excommunicated the king, and released +his subjects from their allegiance. The Germans rose in rebellion, +taking the excommunication as a ground or perhaps as a pretext; they +held a great council in presence of a papal legate, and decided that +they would renounce their allegiance unless the king obtained +absolution. The king, too weak to cope with the rebels, submitted. He +crossed the Alps with his wife and one or two servants, in midwinter, +and came to the fortress of Canossa, near Parma, a stronghold belonging +to the Countess Matilda, whither Gregory had gone. For three days the +king stood outside the gates, dressed as a penitent, and begged for +leave to present himself before the Pope. At last, owing to the +entreaties of Matilda, the king was admitted. He cast himself upon the +ground before Gregory, who lifted him up and bade him submit to the +ordeal of the eucharist. Gregory took the consecrated wafer and said, +"If I am guilty of the crimes charged against me, may God strike me." He +broke and ate; then turning to Henry, said, "Do thou, my son, as I have +done." The king did not dare to invoke the judgment of God; he humbled +himself, resigned his crown into Gregory's hands, and swore to remain a +private person until he should be judged by a council. He was then +absolved (1077). + +Various events followed this terrible humiliation. The German rebels set +up an anti-king, and the king's men set up an anti-pope, and there was +war and hatred everywhere. The king's energy triumphed for a time; he +even captured Rome, and had it not been for a Norman army, which came to +the Pope's rescue, he would have captured Gregory, too. But, despite +royal triumphs the scene at Canossa had struck the majesty of the Empire +an irretrievable blow; the king of the Germans, Emperor except for a +coronation, had admitted in a most dramatic way, before all Europe, the +inferiority of the temporal to the spiritual power. + +Gregory died in exile at Salerno, Henry died deposed by his rebellious +son; and the question of lay investiture still remained unsettled. More +deeds of violence were done, more oaths broken, more lives taken; at +last an agreement was reached and the long contest closed. Papacy and +Empire made a treaty of peace, known as the Concordat of Worms (1122). +The Emperor renounced all claim to invest bishops with ring and staff, +and recognized the freedom of election and of ordination of the clergy, +thus giving up all claim to appoint bishops and other ecclesiastical +dignitaries. The Pope agreed that the election of bishops should take +place in presence of the Emperor or his representative, and that bishops +should receive their fiefs in a separate ceremony, by touch of the royal +sceptre, in token of holding them from the Empire. This compromise, +which seems absurdly simple, as settled questions often do, was a final +adjustment of the immediate quarrel between Empire and Papacy, but left +the larger matter of mastery still to be fought out. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] _Select Mediaeval Documents_, Shailer Mathews, translated. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM (1152-1190) + + +The last chapter dealt with the struggle between the two great mediaeval +institutions, the Empire and the Papacy. This deals with the contest +between the Empire, representing the feudal system, and a new social +force, the spirit of trade, represented by the Lombard cities. Naturally +the Papacy joined in the fray and sided with the Lombard cities; and, +before the end, all Italy was divided into two great parties designated +by terms derived from Germany: Guelfs, which indicated those opposed to +the Empire, and Ghibellines, which indicated friends to the Empire. But +the particular issue here fought out was that between feudalism and +trade, and the triumph of trade indicates the close of the Middle Ages. + +The Emperor Frederick I (1152-90) of the great house of Hohenstaufen is +the hero of this period. He was a noble specimen of the knight of the +Middle Ages, such as Sir Walter Scott conceived a knight to be. He had a +bright, open countenance, fair hair, that curled a little on his +forehead, and a red beard (Barbarossa) which impressed the Italian +imagination. Valiant, resolute, energetic, bountiful in almsgiving, +attentive to religious duties, he was a kind friend and a stern enemy. +To his misfortune he was born too late; he belonged to a chivalric +generation out of place in a world which had begun to deem buying and +selling matters of greater consequence than chivalry and crusades. He +thought himself entitled to all the Imperial rights that had been +exercised by the Ottos; and, measuring his own prerogatives by their +standard, resolved to make good the deficiencies of his immediate +predecessors, who for one reason or another had neglected to assert +those prerogatives in their plenitude. Barbarossa's situation may be +compared to that of Charles I of England, who believed himself lawful +heir to all the prerogatives of the Tudors. + +Opposed to these old-fashioned views was the hard-headed spirit of +commercial Italy. Barbarossa's particular enemies were the Lombard +cities, but that was because they were nearest to him. The same +mercantile spirit animated all the cities of the peninsula; in fact, it +pervaded the maritime cities before it pervaded the Lombard cities, and +can best be described by means of a description of them. + +The southern cities bloomed earlier than their northern sisters. Amalfi, +now a little fishing village which clings to the steep slopes of the +Gulf of Salerno, in the eleventh century was an independent republic of +50,000 inhabitants. She traded with Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and Arabia; +she decked her women with the ornaments of the East; she built +monasteries at Jerusalem, also a hospital from which the Knights +Hospitallers of St. John took their name; she gave a maritime code to +the Mediterranean and Ionian seas, and circulated coin of her own +minting throughout the Levant. Salerno, her near neighbour, had already +become famous for her knowledge of medicine, acquired from the Arabs. +The speculations of her physicians upon the medicinal properties of +herbs went all over Europe. She abounded in attractions. Vineyards, +apple orchards, nut trees, flourished round about the city; within there +were handsome palaces; "the women did not lack beauty, nor the men +honesty." The Normans must have found themselves very comfortable. +Naples, Gaeta, and the Greek cities of the heel and toe were also +important and prosperous. But these southern cities were soon outdone by +their sturdier northern rivals, Pisa, Genoa, Venice. + +Pisa, which now lies at the mouth of the Arno like a forsaken mermaid on +the shore, is said to have been a free commune before the year 900. She +traded east and west; she waged wars with the Saracens, drove them from +Sardinia, captured the Balearic Islands (1114), and carried the war into +Africa. Rich with booty and commercial gains, she erected (according to +a traveller's estimate) ten thousand towers within the city walls, +completed her dome-crowned, many-columned, queenly cathedral, and built +the attendant baptistery, within whose marble walls musical notes rise +and fall, circle and swell, as if angels were singing in mid-air. She +received many privileges from the Emperors; her maritime usages were to +be respected; she was to enact her own laws, and to judge her citizens. +No Imperial Marquess was to enter Tuscany until he had received approval +from twelve men of Pisa, to be elected at a public meeting, called +together by the city's bells (1085). She spread her power in the Levant. +Jaffa, Acre, Tripoli, Antioch were in great part under her dominion, and +her factories were scattered along the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor. + +Further to the north, mounting hillward from her curving bay, lay Genoa +the Proud, who for a time was Pisa's ally against the Saracens, and then +became her rival and enemy. Genoa, too, was devoted to commerce and +established settlements in Constantinople, in the Crimea, in Cyprus and +Syria, in Majorca and Tunis. She, too, had obtained from the Empire a +charter of municipal privileges and was a republic, free in all but +name. + +Venice, their greater sister, first rivalled and then surpassed both +Pisa and Genoa. She traces her origin to the men who fled from the +mainland in fear of Attila and sought refuge on the marshy islands of +the coast (452). In later days others fled before the Lombards, and +joined the descendants of the earlier refugees. Here, under the nominal +government of the Eastern Empire, the Venetians gradually developed +strength and independence, and took into their own hands the election of +their Doge (697). The city of the _Rivo Alto_, the Venice of to-day, was +begun about 800. Thirty years later the body of St. Mark the Evangelist +was brought from Alexandria, and the foundations of St. Mark's basilica +were laid over his bones. Politically Venice maintained her allegiance, +shifting and time-serving though it was, true to Constantinople, not +from sentiment, but because Constantinople was the first city in the +world, the centre of art, of luxury, of commerce. Indeed, Venice was +like a daughter or younger sister to Constantinople; all her old +monuments, her mosaics, her sculpture, her marble columns, show her +Byzantine inclinations. She took an active part in the Crusades, +furnished transports and supplies, and mixed religion, war, and commerce +in one profitable whole. + +These maritime cities constantly fought one another; Pisa destroyed +Amalfi, Genoa ruined Pisa, and Venice finally crippled Genoa. The glory +they won was by individual effort; whereas the glory of the Lombard +cities is that they effected a union, tardy indeed and imperfect, but +successful at last in its purpose of enforcing their liberties against +the Imperial claims. These Lombard cities included in their respective +dominions the country round about, and were, in fact, except for a +negligent Imperial control, little independent republics. It has been a +matter of long dispute whether these communes were survivals from old +Roman times, or sprung from the love of independence brought in by the +Teutonic invaders; whatever their origin they virtually began with +trade, rested upon trade, and flourished with trade. This trade, which, +beginning between neighbouring cities, extended northward over the Alps, +was greatly aided by the maritime cities. Ships called for cargoes. The +stimulus imparted by the energy of Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan seamen +to manufactures and transalpine trade was felt in every Lombard city. +For instance, the Venetians, eager to carry a wider range of merchandise +over sea to Alexandria or Jaffa, held fairs in the inland cities, +exposed the wares they had fetched home, and stirred mercantile +industry. A burgher class of traders and artisans grew up. Men met in +the market-place, talked business, considered ways and means, discussed +the conditions of production and exchange, and became a shrewd, capable +class. The moment business expanded beyond the city walls, it bumped +into feudal rights at every corner; at every crossroad it found itself +enmeshed in feudal prerogatives and privileges. Trade could not endure a +system fitted only for a farming community. Trade took men into +politics; and in those days politics meant war. The citizens of Milan, +Pavia, and neighbouring cities were not wholly unused to civic rights, +for they had long had a voice in the election of bishops, and they had +their trade guilds. These rights they enlarged whenever they got a +chance; and chances came frequently in the quarrels between Emperor and +archbishop, or between the greater and lesser nobility. Both sides +wanted their support; and they sold it in exchange for privileges, here +a little, there a little, and obtained many concessions. Finally, after +the burghers had advanced in wealth and social consideration, the petty +nobles made common cause with them; and the two combined succeeded in +forcing the great lords to join also, and make one general civic union. +These great lords, who had been little tyrants in the country +roundabout, were compelled to live within the city walls for part of the +year and be hostages for their own good behaviour, and were thus +converted from enemies into leading citizens. The consequence of these +changes was that the former government by a bishop, which in course of +time had supplanted the old Carlovingian system of government by a +count, was superseded in its turn by a much more popular form of +government. The bishop's authority was narrowly limited, the executive +power was lodged in consuls, two or more, who were elected annually, and +the legislative power was placed in a general council of the burghers +(in Milan not more than fifteen hundred men), and in a small inner +council, which represented the aristocratic element. By Barbarossa's +time the government of the cities had ceased to be feudal, and had +become communal. There was inevitable antagonism between Lombardy and +the Holy Roman Empire. The league of Lombard cities embodied the revolt +of trade against the feudal system, of merchants against uncertain and +excessive taxes, of burghers against foreign princes, in short, general +discontent with an outgrown political system. + +Barbarossa's war with the Lombard cities lasted for twenty-five years, +and for convenience may be divided into two periods,--the period before +the cities had learnt the lesson of union and the period after. So long +as they were divided by mutual distrust and jealousy, Barbarossa was +victorious; when they were united they conquered him. + +Barbarossa made his first expedition across the Alps in answer to +appeals that had been made to him from various parts of Italy. Como and +Lodi complained of Milan; the Popes complained of the insubordinate +Romans, who had set up a republic and were going crazy over an heretical +republican priest, one Arnold of Brescia; the lord of the little city +of Capua complained of the Norman king. Barbarossa, with his lofty +notions of Imperial authority and Imperial duty, gathered together an +army and descended into Italy to settle all troubles. He began by +issuing orders to Milan with regard to her conduct towards Como and +Lodi. Milan shut her gates. The proud city and the proud Emperor were at +swords' points in a moment. A letter from Barbarossa from his camp near +Milan, written to his uncle, Otto of Freysing, briefly narrates the +circumstances: "The Milanese, tricky and proud, came to meet us with a +thousand disloyal excuses and reasons, and offered us great sums of +money if we would grant them sovereignty over Como and Lodi; and +because, without letting ourselves be swayed one jot by their prayers or +by their offers, we marched into their territory, they kept us away from +their rich lands and made us pass three whole days in the midst of a +desert; until at last, against their wish, we pitched our camp one mile +from Milan. Here, after they had refused provisions for which we had +offered to pay, we took possession of one of their finest castles, +defended by five hundred horsemen, and reduced it to ashes; and our +cavalry advanced to the gates of Milan and killed many Milanese and took +many prisoners. Then open war broke out between us. When we crossed the +river Ticino in order to go to Novara, we captured two bridges which +they had fortified with castles, and after the army had crossed, +destroyed them. Then we dismantled three of their fortresses ... and +after we had celebrated Christmas with great merriment, we marched by +way of Vercelli and Turin to the Po; we crossed the river and destroyed +the strong city of Chieri, and burned Asti. This done, we laid siege to +Tortona, most strongly fortified both by art and nature; and on the +third day, having captured the suburbs, we should easily have carried +the citadel, if night and stormy weather had not prevented us. At last, +after many assaults, many killed, and a piteous slaughter of citizens, +we forced the citadel to surrender, not without losing a number of our +men."[10] + +Such vigour as this reduced Milan and her sister cities to obedience. +But Frederick was not content with raids into Italy and spasmodic +punishment administered to this rebellious city or to that; he wished to +have the Imperial rights and authority definitely settled on a permanent +basis; so he convoked a diet on the plain of Roncaglia, not far from +Piacenza, to which he summoned bishops, dukes, marquesses, counts, and +other nobles of the realm, four famous jurists from Bologna, and two +representatives from each of fourteen Lombard cities. Frederick was a +just man; he merely wished his legal rights, and proposed to ascertain +what those rights were. The determination was left to the lawyers. + +By this time lawyers had already begun to play a part in public affairs. +Roman law had never been lost. For centuries it had remained side by +side with the customs of the conquering Barbarians, less as a code of +laws than as the tradition of the subject Latin people; and, when the +needs of quickening civilization required a more elaborate system of law +than custom could supply, there was the Roman law ready for use. It +suddenly leaped into general interest, and rivalled the Church as a +career for young men. St. Bernard complained that the law of Justinian +was ousting the law of God. In 1088 the great law school of Bologna had +been founded. Thither students crowded by thousands; and the opinions of +its jurists were received with the deepest respect. + +At Roncaglia the body of lawyers appointed to determine Imperial rights, +decided, doubtless in accordance with Barbarossa's expectation, in +favour of the Imperial side. The feudal nobles were delighted. The +archbishop of Milan, the recognized head of the Lombard nobility, said +to the Emperor: "Know that every right in the people to make laws has +been granted to you; your will is law, as it is said, _Quod Principi +placuit legis habet vigorem_ [The Emperor's will has the force of law], +since the people have granted to you all authority and sovereignty." In +accordance with the spirit of this principle, the _regalia_, tolls, +taxes, forfeits, and exactions of various kinds, were defined, and the +right to appoint the executive magistrates in the communes adjudged to +the Emperor. In substance the decision of the jurists was the +restoration of the Imperial rights as they had been under the Ottos, +when the communes were in their infancy. + +Frederick's legal triumph was complete, but such a decision could only +be sustained by force. The cities would not accept it; they preferred +war. In the course of one campaign Milan was razed to the ground (1162), +so literally, that Frederick dated his letters _post destructionem +Mediolani_, "after the destruction of Milan." But the cities at last +learned the necessity of union and stood shoulder to shoulder. The +Papacy, too, which had been friendly to the Emperor during the +insurrections in Rome, turned round and joined the cities against him, +and Frederick, in retaliation, set up an anti-pope. Nevertheless, the +glory of defeating the Emperor belongs to the cities, and not to the +Papacy. The decisive battle was fought near Milan on the field of +Legnano (1176). + +The arbitrament of the sword reversed the decision of the lawyers at +Roncaglia. Frederick frankly accepted defeat. A ceremonious conference +was held at Venice. At the portal of St. Mark's, Pope Alexander III, no +unworthy successor to Hildebrand, raised up the kneeling Emperor and +gave him the kiss of peace. Temporary terms were agreed on, and a few +years later the Peace of Constance (1183) definitely closed the war. The +Emperor relinquished all but nominal rights of sovereignty over the +confederate cities. They were to elect their municipal officers, and, +with comparatively unimportant exceptions, to administer justice and +manage their own affairs. Trade had conquered feudalism. The Middle Ages +were near their setting. + +No more of Barbarossa's doings need here be chronicled, except what he +deemed a brilliant stroke of diplomacy, by which he hoped to unite the +crown of the Two Sicilies with the Imperial crown on the head of his +son, Henry, and through him on the heads of a long line of +Hohenstaufens. The Empire had always asserted a claim to Southern Italy, +but its claim had never been made good except during the temporary +occupation of an Imperial army; and since the Normans had established +their kingdom, Southern Italy had not only been lost to the Empire, but +had become the chief prop of the Empire's enemy, the Papacy. If the +Empire could acquire Southern Italy, it would hem in the Papacy both +south and north, and crush it to obedience. Frederick's son Henry was +married to the heiress of the Norman kingdom (1186); and the good +Emperor, happy in the prospect before his Imperial line, but happier in +that he could not foresee truly, took the cross and led his army towards +the Holy Land. He died on the way (1190), leaving behind him a +reputation for honour and chivalry, inferior to none left by the German +Emperors. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] _Storia d'Italia_, Cappelletti, pp. 99, 100. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216) + + +Gregory VII was well named the Julius Caesar of the Papacy. His great +conception of a sovereign ecclesiastical power, supreme over Europe, was +destined to be realized. For in the fulness of time came Innocent III, +the Augustus Caesar of the Papacy, who ruled the civilized world of +Europe more after the fashion of the old Roman Emperors than any one, +except Charlemagne, had done. But in the interval between these two +famous Popes, there was a period of reaction in which it looked for a +time as if the Empire would plant the Ghibelline flag on the papal +citadel. The Popes of this period were men of no marked ability, whereas +the young king, Henry VI, had inherited the forceful temper of +Barbarossa as well as his theories of Imperial rights, and displayed +great vigour, energy, and resolution. Despite the opposition of the +Popes, who as feudal suzerains of Sicily were most averse to the +alliance, he had married the heiress of the Norman line, and despite the +fierce opposition of the Sicilians,--part Arabs, part Greeks, with +Italians and Normans mingling in,--he established his authority in the +island. Henry was horribly cruel, but he was efficient. He was King of +Germany, King of Italy, and King of the Two Sicilies, and had compelled +a reluctant Pope to crown him Emperor. He determined to be Emperor in +Italy in fact, and to accomplish what his father had failed to do. He +undertook to check and suppress the communes by reviving the old feudal +system. He reinstated old duchies and counties, and enfeoffed his loyal +Germans. Matters looked black for the Guelfs, when, to their great good +luck, the fiery young Emperor died, leaving an incompetent widow and a +helpless baby (1197). By one of those occurrences, in which Catholics +see more than the hand of chance, in the very year after the Emperor's +death, a man of political talents of the highest order was elected to +the pontifical chair. + +In the days of Pope Alexander III, the great antagonist of Frederick +Barbarossa, a young nobleman, who took holy orders almost in boyhood, +had given early promise of an extraordinary career. This handsome, +eloquent, imperious boy, named Lothair, inherited through his father, +Thrasmund of the Counts of Segni in Latium, the fierce impetuosity of +the Lombards, and through his mother, a Roman lady of high birth (from +whom he took his master traits), the tenacity, the adroitness, the +political genius of the Romans. He was educated at the universities of +Bologna and Paris, where he studied law, theology, and scholastic +philosophy. The stormy period of the struggle between Alexander and +Barbarossa brought character and talents quickly to the front. Before he +was twenty he had distinguished himself, before he was thirty he had +been made a cardinal, and at thirty-seven he was elected Pope. According +to the practice instituted by the deposed scamp, John XII, of taking a +new name, Lothair assumed the title of Innocent III. + +Under the guidance of Innocent III (1198-1216), the Papacy attained the +full meridian of its glory. When this great Pope, lawyer, theologian, +statesman, came to the throne, it was demoralized and weak; before he +died, it had set its yoke on the neck of Europe. For the second time in +history, orders were issued from Rome to the whole civilized world. A +review of his pontificate brings up a panorama of Europe. His task began +in Rome. This little city of churches, monasteries, towers, and ruins, +which took no pride in great papal affairs, had plunged into one of its +fits of republican independence, and, supported by the Emperor, had +ousted the Popes from all control. In the course of a few years, by +intrigue, tact, and civil war, Innocent got into his own hands the +appointment of the senate and of the city governor, and thereby control +of the city. He next turned his attention to the Patrimony of St. Peter, +that central strip from Rome to Ravenna, given or supposed to have been +given by Pippin and Charlemagne to the successors of St. Peter. Here the +impetuous Emperor, Henry VI, had seated his German barons, setting up +fiefs for them, and reestablishing the feudal system under the Imperial +suzerainty. These German barons were hated by the people. Innocent put +himself at the head of the popular discontent, organized a Guelf, almost +a national, party, and either drove the Germans out, or forced them to +swear allegiance to the Holy See. + +In Tuscany also the Guelfs were successful in breaking up the feudal +restoration. In fact, since the days of Countess Matilda feudalism had +been doomed. The cities had taken advantage of the wars between Papacy +and Empire to secure virtual independence; and on Henry's death, with +the exception of Ghibelline Pisa, they banded together and agreed never +to admit an Imperial governor within their territories. Innocent tried +to bring these cities under papal dominion, but they were too +independent, and he was obliged to rest content with snapping up +scattered portions of Matilda's domains. + +Meantime in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies the Emperor's widow had +died, and left to Innocent's guardianship her little son, Frederick. +Innocent, guardian and suzerain lord, immediately began a struggle with +the feudal nobility, just as in Italy, and, after a long and difficult +contest, asserted the authority of his royal ward. On the termination of +the minority, he handed over the kingdom to Frederick, who, on his part +as King of the Two Sicilies, swore fealty to the Pope. Had it not been +for his honourable and powerful guardian, Frederick probably would have +had no kingdom, and in his oath of fealty he acknowledged his +indebtedness: "Among all the wishes which we carry in the front rank of +our desires, this is the chief, to discharge a grateful obedience, to +show an honourable devotion, and never to be found ungrateful for your +benefits--God forbid--since, next to Divine Grace, to your protection we +are indebted not only for land but also for life." + +In this way Innocent established the Papacy in Italy; sovereign, +suzerain, protector or ally, he was the head of the Italian Guelfs and +practically of Italy. Let us now look abroad. In Constantinople, the +capital of the Greek Empire, Innocent's legate bestowed the Imperial +purple upon an Emperor. An odd whirl of Fortune's wheel brought this to +pass. Innocent had preached a crusade in the hope of recovering the Holy +Land from the infidels, who had succeeded in expelling the Christians. +An army of Frenchmen and Flemings answered his summons. They determined +to avoid the deadly route overland and go by sea, and applied to Venice +for transportation. When they came to pay the bill they did not have the +money, and the Venetians insisted that they should help them recapture +the city of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast, which had once belonged to +Venice but had been lost again. Zara was attacked and taken (1202). One +deflection from the straight path of duty led to another. To Zara came +the son of the Greek Emperor to say that his father had been deposed, +and to beg for help. The Venetians, wishing to wound two commercial +rivals at once, Constantinople and Pisa (for the usurping Emperor +favoured Pisa), used the suppliant as a stalking-horse, and persuaded +the Crusaders once again to divert their immediate purpose and to +restore the deposed Emperor to his throne. Again the Crusaders listened +to temptation, for the Venetians baited their hook with golden promises; +they sailed to Constantinople and restored the wronged Emperor. Matters +did not go smoothly, however. Misunderstanding with the Greeks led to +disagreements, disagreements to quarrels, and quarrels to war. The Latin +Crusaders assaulted Constantinople, carried it by storm, and plundered +houses, palaces, churches, shrines, everything; then, with appetites +whetted by petty spoils, seized the frail Empire itself (1204). They +divided Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, the islands of the AEgean Sea, and all +the remnants of the Roman Empire of the East that they could lay hands +on. Pious Venice came out best; she took coast and island, town and +country, all along from recaptured Zara round by the shores of Dalmatia, +Albania, Peloponnesus, and Thessaly, ending with half of Constantinople +itself. The Marquess of Monferrat became King of Thessalonica, and his +vassal, a Burgundian count, was invested with the lordship of Athens and +Thebes. The Count of Flanders was elected Emperor of a Latin Empire. +Innocent had been very angry with the deflections to Zara and +Constantinople, and had thundered against the polite but inflexible +Venetians. When the evil had been done, however, he made the best of it, +and behaved with dignity and astuteness. He rebuked the Crusaders for +having preferred the things of earth to those of Heaven, and bade them +ask God's pardon for the profanation of holy places; but he admitted the +advantage that would arise from reconciling the Greeks, schismatics +since the days of Leo the Iconoclast, with the Roman See. So his legate +bestowed the purple on a suppliant Emperor in the city of +Constantinople. + +In Germany Innocent also appears as the giver and withholder of crowns. +On the death of Henry VI there was a disputed election. The Hohenstaufen +party, dreading a long minority, passed over the baby Frederick, and +nominated Philip, Henry's brother; the rival party, the German Guelfs, +nominated Otto of Brunswick, a nephew of Richard Coeur-de-lion. Civil +war followed, and both parties appealed to Innocent who, after +deliberation, supported Otto, but exacted a high price. Otto was obliged +to guarantee to the Pope the strip of territory from Rome to Ravenna, +and those portions of Matilda's domains which were not fiefs of the +Empire, also to acknowledge papal suzerainty over the Two Sicilies, and +to promise to conform to the papal will with regard to the leagues of +the Lombard and Tuscan cities. This guarantee of Otto laid the first +real foundation of the Papal States. Hitherto, vague _Donations_ had +given pretexts for claims; but Otto's deed was a definite Imperial +grant, and conveyed an unquestionable title. In spite of Innocent's +support matters went ill for Otto in Germany. Philip's star rose, and +Innocent, to whom the cause of the Papacy was the cause of God and +justified diplomatic conduct, was on the point of shifting to Philip's +side, when in the nick of time Philip was murdered (1208). Otto's claim +was now undisputed. No sooner, however, did he feel the crown secure on +his head than he shifted his ground. Guelf by birth though he was, he +found that he could not be both obedient to the Pope and loyal to his +Imperial duties. He turned into a complete Ghibelline, broke his grant +to the Pope, attempted to restore the feudal system in the papal +territories, and assumed to treat the Two Sicilies as a fief of the +Empire. Innocent, outraged and indignant at this breach of faith, +excommunicated him (1210). Thereupon, as at the time when Gregory VII +excommunicated Henry IV, the German barons rose, deposed Otto, and +summoned young Frederick from Sicily to take the German crown. Innocent +supported Frederick's cause, but exacted the price which he had formerly +exacted from the perjured Otto. Frederick, pressed by present need, and +forgetful of Otto's evil precedent, pledged himself as follows: "We, +Frederick the Second, by Divine favour and mercy, King of the Romans, +ever Augustus, and King of Sicily ... recognizing the grace given to us +by God, we have also before our eyes the immense and innumerable +benefits rendered by you, most dear lord and reverend father, our +protector and benefactor, lord Innocent, by God's grace most venerable +Pontiff; through your benefaction, labour, and guardianship, we have +been brought up, cherished, and advanced, ever since our mother, the +Empress Constance of happy memory, threw us upon your care, almost from +birth. To you, most blessed father, and to all your Catholic successors, +and to the Holy Roman Church, our special mother, we shall discharge all +obedience, honour, and reverence, always with an humble heart and a +devout spirit, as our Catholic predecessors, kings and Emperors, are +known to have done to your predecessors; not a whit from these shall we +take away, rather add, that our devotion may shine the more."[11] +Frederick promised that he would not interfere in the election of +bishops, and that the candidate canonically elected should be installed. +He confirmed the papal title to the Papal States. "I vow, promise, +swear, and take my oath to protect and preserve all the possessions, +honours, and rights of the Roman Church, in good faith, to the best of +my power" (1213). + +From this time forward Frederick advanced from success to success. Otto +was driven into private life, and the Pope's legate put the German crown +on Frederick's head at Aachen (1215). Where Innocent blessed, success +and prosperity followed; where he cursed, death and destruction came. + +Elsewhere the Pope was equally triumphant. All Europe bent under his +imperial decrees. The kings of Portugal, Leon, Castile, and Navarre were +scolded or punished. The King of Aragon went to Rome and swore +allegiance. The Duke of Bohemia was rebuked, the King of Denmark +comforted, the nobles of Iceland warned, the King of Hungary admonished. +Servia, Bulgaria, even remote Armenia, received papal supervision and +paternal care. Philip Augustus of France, at Innocent's command, took +back the wife whom he had repudiated. John of England grovelled on the +ground before him, and yielded up "to our lord the Pope Innocent and his +successors, all our kingdom of England and all our kingdom of Ireland to +be held as a fief of the Holy See"(1213). + +Another triumph of darker hue added to the brilliance of Innocent's +career. In the south of France, in the pleasant places of Provence and +Languedoc, where troubadours praised love and war, and lords and ladies +wandered down primrose paths, the humbler folk got hold of certain +dangerous ideas. They believed that there was a power of evil as well as +a power of good, that Christ was but an emanation from God, that the God +of the Jews was not the real God of Goodness, and, worse than all, that +the Roman Church, with its sacerdotalism, forms, sacraments, and ritual, +was, to say the least, not what it should be. Innocent entertained no +doubts that the Roman Church had been founded by God to maintain His +truth on earth; as a statesman he regarded heresy as we regard treason +and anarchy; as a priest he deemed it sin. He called Simon of Montfort +and other dogs of war from the north and urged them at the quarry. The +heresy was put down in blood. Here appears the black figure of St. +Dominic, encouraging the faithful, rallying the hesitant, and by the +fervour of his belief, by his devotion, by his genius for organization, +more destructive to heresy than the sword of Montfort. + +Thus Innocent sat supreme. He had created a papal kingdom where his +predecessors had asserted impotent claims; he had confirmed the Two +Sicilies in their dependency upon the Holy See; he had put the Papacy at +the head of the Guelf party in Italy, and had made that party almost +national; he had enforced the power of the Church throughout Europe, had +given crowns to the Kings of Aragon and of England, to the Emperors of +Germany and of Constantinople. No such spectacle had been seen since the +reign of Charlemagne; none such was to be seen again till the coming of +Napoleon. The conception of Europe as an ecclesiastical organization had +reached its fullest expression. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] _Select Mediaeval Documents_, Mathews, p. 115, translated. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ST. FRANCIS (1182-1226) + + +In spite of the dazzling success achieved by Innocent, matters were not +well with the Church in Italy. Corruption threatened it from within, +heresy from without. Simony was rampant; livings were almost put up at +auction. Innocent asserted that there was no cure but fire and steel. +The prelates of the Roman Curia were "tricky as foxes, proud as bulls, +greedy and insatiable as the Minotaur." The priests were often +shameless; some became usurers to get money for their bastards, others +kept taverns and sold wine. Worship had become a vain repetition of +formulas. The monks were superstitious, many of them disreputable. The +inevitable consequence of this decay in the Church was heresy. Italy was +nearly, if not quite, as badly honeycombed with heretics as Languedoc +had been. The Patarini, whom we remember in Hildebrand's time, now +become a species of heretics, abounded in Milan; other sects sprang up +in towns near by. In Ferrara, Verona, Rimini, Faenza, Treviso, Florence, +Prato, anti-sacerdotal sentiment was very strong. In Viterbo the +heretics were numerous enough to elect their consul. At Piacenza priests +had been driven out, and the city left unshepherded for three years. In +Orvieto there had been grave disorders. In Assisi a heretic had been +elected _podesta_ (governor). + +The great Innocent knitted his brows; he knew well that his noisy +triumphs, which echoed over the Tagus, the Thames, the Rhine, and the +Golden Horn, were of no avail, if heretics sapped and mined the Church +within. It seemed as if the great ecclesiastical fabric, to which he had +given the devotion of a life, was tottering from corner-stone to apex; +when, one day, a cardinal came to him and said, "I have found a most +perfect man, who wishes to live according to the Holy Gospel, and to +observe evangelical perfection in all things. I believe that through him +the Lord intends to reform His Holy Church in all the world." Innocent +was interested, and bade the man be brought before him. This man was +Francis Bernadone, known to us as St. Francis, the leader of a small +band of Umbrian pilgrims from Assisi, who asked permission to follow +literally the example of Jesus Christ. The Pope hesitated. To the +cardinals, men of the world, this young man and his pilgrims were fools +and their faith nonsense. "But," argued a believer, "if you assert that +it is novel, irrational, impossible to observe the perfection of the +Gospel, and to take a vow to do so, are you not guilty of blasphemy +against Christ, the author of the Gospel?" Thinking the matter over, the +Pope dreamed a dream. He beheld the Church of St. John Lateran, the +episcopal church of the bishops of Rome, leaning in ruin and about to +fall, when a monk, poor and mean in appearance, bent under it and +propped it with his back. Innocent awoke and said to himself, "This +Francis is the holy monk by whose help the Church of God shall be lifted +up and stand again." So he said to Francis and his followers, "Go +brethren, God be with you. Preach repentance to all as He shall give you +inspiration. And when Almighty God shall have made you multiply in +numbers and in grace, come back to us, and we will entrust you with +greater things." + +So St. Francis, "true servant of God and faithful follower of Jesus +Christ," went about his ministry with the blessing of the Church. To the +people of Assisi, of Umbria, and afterwards of all Central Italy, his +life was a revelation of Christianity. He imparted the gospel anew, as +fresh as when it had first been given under the Syrian stars. He +embodied peace, gentleness, courtesy, and self-sacrifice. It is not too +much to say that he saved the Catholic Church, and put off the +Protestant Reformation for three hundred years. His example and +influence raised the standard of conduct within the Church; and his +love, his devotion, his insistence on the essential parts of Christ's +teaching, and his dislike of worldly pomps, deprived heresy of all its +weapons. He satisfied the widespread religious hunger better than heresy +did. He was so characteristically Italian, and his ministry throws so +much light on the state of Italy at the opening of the thirteenth +century, that it is worth while to dwell for a few pages on his doings. + +Assisi, built for safety on a hill and protected by great walls and +gates, was a good example of a little mediaeval town. In the centre was +the _piazza_, on which fronted a Roman temple to Minerva, haughtily +scornful of its mediaeval surroundings. Hard by was the cathedral, where +every baby was taken for baptism. On the tiptop of the hill stood a huge +castle, where the feudal baron dwelt with his ruffianly soldiers and +received his feudal lord, the Emperor, when he stopped at Assisi on his +way to Rome. In Francis's boyhood, the people, aided by Pope Innocent, +had driven out the German count, and had formed themselves into a free +commune, save for their allegiance to the Holy See; but the change was +not all gain. The town was divided into discordant classes; the +nobility, maintained in idleness by the produce of their estates, the +bourgeoisie, engaged in trade (Francis's father was a merchant), the +artisans grouped in guilds, and the serfs, who tilled the fields and +tended the vineyards and olive orchards. Once rid of the German count, +the bourgeoisie endeavoured to rid themselves of the arrogant and idle +nobility. Street war broke out. The nobles fled to Perugia, another +little town perched on a hill some dozen miles across the plain, and +asked for help. Perugia rejoiced in the opportunity. The miseries of a +petty war between two little neighbours need no description. Fields and +vineyards were devastated, olive orchards destroyed, farm-houses burned. +Even in peace the peasants around Assisi lived in constant disquiet, +ready to fling down their mattocks and flee to the protection of the +city walls. + +Within the city the streets were narrow, the houses small. Dirt +abounded. War brought poverty, dirt brought the pest, Crusaders brought +leprosy. At the gates of the town stood lazar-houses, and in remote +spots lepers in the earlier stages of disease gathered together. Yet, +despite war, pest, and leprosy, life in Umbria could never have been +wholly sad. Certainly the sons of the well-to-do enjoyed themselves and +whiled away the time carelessly. Sometimes a great personage stopped on +his Romeward way; sometimes strolling players exhibited their shows on +the _piazza_ before the Temple of Minerva; sometimes a troubadour, +escaped from the persecution in Provence, passed by on his way to +Sicily, and sang his songs to repay hospitality. Many an afternoon and +night the clubs of young gentlemen gave _fetes champetres_ and dances. +Francis, as a boy, was gayest of the gay, dancing and piping in the +market-place, fighting in the front rank against the nobles of Perugia, +but when he grew to manhood he could not bear the contrast between mirth +and misery. He sought for some universal joy and found it in the love of +Christ. He gathered about him a scanty band of holy and humble men of +heart, who took the vow of poverty, and devoted themselves to praising +God, comforting the wretched, and tending lepers. The abbot of the +neighbouring Benedictine monastery gave them a little chapel, where St. +Benedict himself had once said mass, which lay in the plain a mile below +the town. This little chapel, named the _Portiuncula_ (the little +portion), which is now covered by the great church of _Santa Maria degli +Angeli_ (St. Mary of the Angels), so called because the songs of angels +were heard there, was the cradle of the Franciscan Order. It was a tiny +building, twenty feet wide and thirty long, with a steep pitched roof, +plain walls, and big, round-arched door, and was sadly dilapidated. St. +Francis and his friends built it up, and it became their church. Round +it they built their huts, and encompassed all with a hedge. Here it was +that St. Clare, the daughter of a nobleman of Assisi, donned the nun's +dress. Here Francis passed the happy years of his life, while as yet his +disciples were few and all were animated by his passionate longing for +self-abnegation. He followed the New Testament literally, +superstitiously one would say were it not that this literal obedience +was accompanied by ineffable peace of heart and joy. He specially +enjoined poverty. A smock, a cord, and sandals were enough for a true +brother. Once a novice begged for permission to own a psalter, and +teased him, but Francis answered: "After you have the psalter you will +covet and long for a breviary; and when you possess a breviary you will +sit on a chair like a great prelate, and say to thy brother, fetch me my +breviary." Nor would he suffer the brethren to take heed for the morrow. +They were only allowed to ask for provisions sufficient for the day. For +he, in the rapture of his love, found infinite pleasure in the literal +fulfillment of every word that had fallen from Christ's lips. Francis +was an orator; he possessed passion, the great source of eloquence, and +stirred prelates and Crusaders as well as peasants and lepers. The world +wished for sympathy and he gave it. He seemed to be sick with the sick, +afflicted with those in affliction, holy with the good; and even sinners +felt him one of themselves. To his disciples he was Jesus come again. +Joy and happiness radiated from him. All the world felt the charm and +beauty of his love of God, and poetry followed him as wild violets +attend the spring. + +Thus Francis, by rubbing off the incrustations of twelve hundred +unchristian years, revealed the poetry of the gospel to an eager world. +One charming trait of his character was his love of animals, especially +of birds. He wished the ox and the ass, companions of the manger, to +share in the Christmas good cheer; and hoped that the Emperor would make +a law that nobody should kill larks or do them any hurt. He was always +very fond of larks and said that their plumage was like a religious +dress. "Wherefore,--according to his disciple, Brother Leo,--it pleased +God that these lowly little birds should give a sign of affection for +him at the hour of his death. On the eve of the Sabbath day after +vespers, just before the night in which he went up to God, a great +multitude of larks flew down over the roof of the house where he lay, +and all flying together wheeled in circles round the roof and singing +sweetly seemed to be praising God." + +His disciples went forth from their headquarters, the _Portiuncula_, +like the Apostles, to preach the gospel, first to the people of Umbria +and Tuscany, then on to Bologna and Verona, and soon over the Alps and +across the seas. The Order had three branches: the begging friars +themselves, tonsured and clad in undyed cloth, with cords about their +waists and sandals on their feet; the sister Clares, shut up in +nunneries, and dressed most simply; and the third order, people who +continued to live in the world, but wished to follow the example of +Christ and his blessed imitator and servant, Francis. The first rule of +the begging friars had been very strict. For Francis the strait gate +that led to eternal life was poverty. Even in his lifetime after his +Order had become popular, there was grumbling and opposition; and after +his death, the literal observance of his wishes was promptly given up. +He would never allow his brethren to own a house or have a church; and +yet within two years after his death the great basilica in Assisi was +begun, dedicated to him, and hurried to magnificent completion. The +Church, which held the doctrine of evangelical poverty fit only for mad +men of genius, laid her heavy hand on the Order, and guided and governed +it as best suited her purposes. But it would be grossly unfair to the +Church to blame her for violating Francis's chief dogma. The total +rejection of property, the total disregard of the morrow, seemed to her, +as they seem to us to-day, doctrines wholly inapplicable to this world +in which we find ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE (1216-1250) + + +The Church seized the Franciscan Order as a man in danger grasps at a +means of safety, and shaped it to her needs; for, in spite of her +brilliant triumphs under Innocent, her needs were great. The Papacy and +the Empire approached their final struggle; both felt instinctively that +the issue must be decisive. Their fundamental incompatibility had been +aggravated by the union of the crowns of Sicily and Germany. Innocent +had been pushed by circumstances into supporting Frederick's claim to +Germany, and though he had striven to prevent the natural consequences +by extorting oaths from Frederick, yet as time went on the danger became +clearer. Under Innocent's successor, Pope Honorius, the Papacy lay like +a cherry between an upper and lower jaw, which watered to close and +crunch it; and this extreme peril is the excuse for the bitterness of +the Popes in the contest which followed. The Papacy fought for its life. + +The contest affected all Italy. Milan and many cities of the valley of +the Po were Guelf; but Pavia and some others were Ghibelline, not that +they loved the Emperor, but hated Milan; Florence and the other Tuscan +cities, except Ghibelline Pisa and Siena, which hated Florence, were +Guelf; Rome was split in two; the Colonna, the Frangipani, and other +great families were generally Ghibelline, though permanent allegiance +was unfashionable, while the Orsini and others were Guelf. The Gray +Friars, who swarmed from the Alps to the Strait of Messina, were +steadfast Guelfs, and even carried their loyalty so far, their enemies +said, as to subordinate religion to political ends. On the other hand, +the aristocracy, which was chiefly of Teutonic descent, held for the +Empire. + +Frederick himself is the central figure of the period. In his lifetime +he excited love and hate to extravagance, and he still excites the +enthusiasm of scholars. His is the most interesting Italian personality +between St. Francis and Dante. I say Italian, for though Frederick +inherited the Hohenstaufen vigour and energy, he got his chief traits +from his Sicilian mother. Poet, lawgiver, soldier, statesman, he was the +wonder of the world, _stupor mundi_, as an English chronicler called +him. Impetuous, terrible, voluptuous, refined, he was a kind of Caesarian +Byron. In most ways he outstripped contemporary thought; in many ways he +outstripped contemporary sympathy. He was sceptical of the Athanasian +Creed, of communal freedom, and of other things which his Italian +countrymen believed devoutly; while they were sceptical of the divine +right of the Empire, of the blessing of a strong central government, and +of other matters which he believed devoutly. + +Between a stubborn Emperor, a stiff-necked Papacy, and obstinate +communes, relations strained taut. The first break occurred between +Emperor and Papacy. The Popes honestly desired to reconquer Jerusalem, +which had fallen back into infidel hands, and incessantly urged a +crusade; but perhaps at this juncture their zeal was heightened by a +notion that the most effective defensive measure against the Emperor +would be to keep him busy in Palestine. Frederick had solemnly promised +to go. He had also solemnly promised to keep the crowns of Germany and +of the Two Sicilies separate, by putting the latter on his son's head; +but instead of this separation he kept both crowns on his own head, and +secured both for his son as his successor. In spite of this violated +promise, Pope Honorius, a gentle soul, devoutly eager for the crusade, +crowned Frederick Emperor (1220), upon Frederick's renewed promise that +he would start on the crusade within a year. The year passed, then +another and another, and Frederick, with his crowns safe on his head, +did not move a foot towards Jerusalem. The gentle Honorius remonstrated; +Frederick made vows, excuses, protestations, but did not go. Finally the +mild Pope died, and was succeeded by the venerable Cardinal Ugolino, +Gregory IX, (1227-1241). Ugolino was a member of the _Conti_ family of +Latium (so preeminently counts that they took their name from their +title), and a near relation to Innocent III. His indomitable character +proved his kinship. Blameless in private life, a warm friend to St. +Francis, deeply versed in ecclesiastical affairs, he had a benign face +and noble presence; in fact, to quote the gentle Pope Honorius, he was +"a Cedar of Lebanon in the Park of the Church." But, in spite of his +virtue, his training, and his fourscore years, he was a very Hotspur, +fiery, impatient, and headstrong. It was he who had put the crusader's +cross into Frederick's hands and had received his crusader's vow; and +now, having bottled up his wrath during the pontificate of Honorius, he +could brook no further delay. Frederick made ready to go. Ships and men +were gathered at Brindisi, and, in spite of a pestilence which killed +many soldiers, the fleet set sail. A few days later word was brought +that Frederick had put about and disembarked in Italy. + +Gregory was furiously angry, and despatched an encyclical letter to +certain bishops in Frederick's kingdom, which sets forth the papal side +of the matter: "Out in the spacious amplitude of the sea, the little +bark of Peter, placed or rather displaced by whirlwinds and tempests, is +so continuously tossed about by storms and waves, that its pilot and +rowers under the stress of inundating rains can hardly breathe. Four +special tempests shake our ship: the perfidy of infidels, the madness of +tyrants, the insanity of heretics, the perverse fraud of false sons. +There are wars without and fears within, and it frequently happens that +the distressed Church of Christ, while she thinks she cherishes +children, nourishes at her breast fires, serpents, and vipers, who by +poisonous breath, by bite and conflagration, strive to ruin all. Now, in +this time when there is need to destroy monsters of this sort, to rout +hostile armies, to still disturbing tempests, the Apostolic See with +great diligence has cherished a certain child, to wit, the Emperor +Frederick, whom from his mother's womb she received upon her knees, +nursed him at her breasts, carried him on her back, rescued him often +from the hands of them that sought his life, with great pains and cost +studied to educate him until she had brought him to manhood, and led him +to a kingly crown and even to the height of the Imperial dignity, +believing that he would be a rod of defence, and a staff for her old +age." + +The encyclical then proceeds to recount Frederick's promises, his +delays, evasions, excuses, and the false start from Brindisi, and adds, +"Hearken and see if there be any sorrow like the sorrow of your mother +the Apostolic See, so cruelly, so totally deceived by a son whom she had +nursed, in whom she had placed the trust of her hope in this matter. But +we put our hope in the compassion of God that He will show to us a way +by which we shall advance prosperously in this affair, and that He will +point out men, who in purity of heart and with cleanness of hand shall +lead the Christian army. Yet lest, like dumb dogs who cannot bark, we +should seem to defer to man against God, and take no vengeance upon him, +the Emperor Frederick, who has wrought such ruin on God's people. We, +though unwilling, do publicly pronounce him excommunicated, and command +that he be by all completely shunned, and that you and other prelates +who shall hear of this, publicly publish his excommunication. And, if +his contumacy shall demand, more grave proceeding shall be taken." + +This ban of excommunication was published over the world; bishops gave +it out in their dioceses, priests in their parishes; Gray Friars told of +it from Sicily to Scotland. Frederick in answer wrote letters to the +kings of Europe, saying that the Roman Church was so consumed with +avarice and greed, that, not satisfied with her own Church property, she +was not ashamed to disinherit emperors, kings, and princes, and make +them tributary. To the King of England he wrote:-- + +"Of these premises the King of England has an example, for the Church +excommunicated his father, King John, and kept him excommunicated till +he and his kingdom became tributary to her. Likewise all have the +example of many other princes, whose lands and persons she squeezed +under an interdict till she had reduced them to similar servitude. We +pass over her simony, her unheard-of exactions, her open usury, and her +new-fangled tricks, which infect the whole world. We pass over her +speeches, sweeter than honey, smoother than oil,--insatiable +bloodsuckers! They say that the Roman Curia is the Church, our mother +and nurse, when that Curia is the root and origin of all evils. She does +not act like a mother, but like a stepmother. By her fruits which we +know she gives sure proof. + +"Let the famous barons of England think of this. Pope Innocent +instigated them to rise in revolt against King John as a stubborn enemy +of the Church, but after that abnormally celebrated King made obeisance +and, like a woman, delivered up himself and his kingdom to the Roman +Church, that Pope, putting behind him his respect for man and fear of +God, trampled down the nobles, whom he had first supported and pricked +on, and left them exposed to death and disinheritance, so that he, +after the Roman fashion, should gulp down his impudent throat the fatter +morsels. In this way, under the incitement of Roman avarice, England, +fairest of countries, was made a tributary. Behold the ways of the +Romans; behold how they seek to snare all and each, how they get money +by fraud, how they subjugate the free and disturb the peaceable, clad in +sheep's clothing but inwardly ravening wolves. They send legates hither +and thither, to excommunicate, to reprimand, to punish,--not to save the +fruitful seed of God's word, but to extort money, to bind and reap where +they have never sown. + +"Against us also, as He who sees all things knows, they have raged like +bacchantes, wrongfully, saying that we would not cross the sea according +to terms fixed, when much unavoidable and arduous business about the +going, and about the Church and about the Empire, detained us, not +counting sickness. First there were the insolent Sicilian rebels: and it +did not seem to us a good plan nor expedient for Christianity to go to +the Holy Land," etc. And he ended, so the chronicler says, with an +exhortation to all the princes of the world to beware against such +avarice and wickedness, because "_you are concerned when your +neighbour's house is on fire_." + +These letters show the temper on both sides. Outwardly, however, peace +was observed, and Frederick really went on the promised crusade; and, +though in Syria he found Patriarch, Templars, Hospitallers, and +Franciscans all turned against him, he succeeded in making a treaty by +which Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem were ceded to him, and he +crowned himself king in Jerusalem. In the mean time hostilities had +broken out in Italy. Frederick incited the Roman barons to drive the +Pope from Rome, and the Pope preached a crusade against Frederick. But +both sides, having many cares within their respective jurisdictions, at +length made peace, and Frederick was enabled to go back to his +_consuetas delicias_, his wonted delights. + +This phrase, which was used by the Pope, probably contained an innuendo, +for gossip busied itself with Frederick's christianity and morals. He +tolerated Saracens in his kingdom, lived on friendly terms with them, +and preferred them in his army, for they were indifferent to +excommunication; and gossip added that he liked Saracen ladies, hinted +at a harem, and alleged that in Syria he had accepted the present of a +troop of Moslem dancers. Gossip, spread by the glib tongues of mendicant +friars, charged him with saying, "If God had seen my beautiful Sicily, +he would not have chosen that beggarly Palestine for His Kingdom," +"There have been three great impostors who invented religions, and one +of them was crucified." Frederick's real offence in ecclesiastical eyes +was that he wished to subordinate the spiritual to the secular power. It +was natural, however, that pious folk should look askance at a prince +who, while Christendom was fighting Islam, hobnobbed with Mohammedans +and seemed to find them more sympathetic than Christians. + +Frederick's real _consuetae deliciae_ were of another kind. In his +Sicilian court we catch the first streaks of the dawn that was destined +to brighten into the day of the Renaissance. He himself was a highly +accomplished man, spoke Italian, German, Arabic, and Greek, and took an +interest in mathematics, philosophy, and in general learning. But poetry +was his favourite pleasure. The Italian language, recently emerged from +dog Latin, had just begun to serve literary uses, and Frederick's court +had the honour of producing the first school of Italian poetry. He, his +sons Manfred and Enzio, his chief counsellor Pier della Vigna, and many +poets and troubadours drawn thither by his fame, so far outstripped the +rest of Italy that all Italian poetry, wherever written, was called +Sicilian. + +Sicily was the most civilized place in Europe, now that Southern France +had been crushed by the Albigensian persecution. The old Greek stock +kept some trace of their inheritance; the Arabs had brought their +culture; the Normans had added chivalric ideas; the Crusades and +commerce had enlarged the intellectual boundaries; and Frederick himself +had extraordinary versatility. Mathematicians from Granada, philosophers +from Alexandria, were as welcome as the troubadours from Provence. +Frederick looked after his own royal estates, managed his stud farm in +Apulia, decided when brood mares should be fed on barley and when kept +to grass. He was a great sportsman, too, and wrote a book on falconry. +He enacted a famous code of laws, far superior in many respects to +existing legislation, which was conceived with the definite plan of +exalting royal authority over feudal prerogatives and communal customs. +He deprived the barons of criminal jurisdiction; forbade private war, +carrying weapons, etc; he limited trial by ordeal so far as he could, +calling it "a species of divination;" he made minute regulations in +matters of business and behaviour, and maintained a paternal authority. + +In fact, Sicily, with its culture, poetry, Moslems, and its unorthodox +king, succeeded to the heretical position of Southern France. The Papacy +felt instinctively that a civilization so happy in the good things of +this world, so lax on many points of morality, so careless of the Roman +ecclesiastical system, was a perpetual menace to it. In the nature of +things, the peace that had been made with Frederick could not last long. + +The breach happened in the North. The Lombard cities revolted. Frederick +marched against them and won a victory (1237). Then was the zenith of +his power; his very triumph was the cause of his undoing. All the Guelfs +of Italy roused themselves for the struggle. The Pope took part, and a +second time excommunicated Frederick, enumerating a score of sins. A +later Pope held a council at Lyons (a place of safety), excommunicated +Frederick again, and deposed him from his Imperial throne (1245). Then +an anti-emperor was set up. Blow on blow fell upon Frederick. He was +terribly routed at Parma, through carelessness. His gallant son Enzio, +the poet, was captured by the Bolognese, who would not release him, +though Frederick offered to put a rim of gold round the walls of their +city. Enzio spent twenty-three years in prison and there died. Pier +della Vigna, who "kept both the keys of Frederick's heart," was +suspected of high treason and condemned to death. Frederick himself died +in 1250, and the Pope shouted for joy at the news, "Be glad ye Heavens, +and let the Earth rejoice!" He had good reason, for the Church had lost +its most dangerous enemy. + +With the death of Frederick the Empire came to its end. The name of Holy +Roman Empire continued till 1806, and from time to time for several +hundred years German kings came down across the Alps to receive the +Imperial crown, but on Frederick's death the old mediaeval Empire +practically ceased; and Italy, instead of being an Imperial province, +became a series of independent states. + +The end of the Hohenstaufens themselves reads like the last act of a +bloody Elizabethan tragedy. Within a few years the only survivors among +Frederick's descendants were his lawful heir, a baby, Conradin, and an +illegitimate son, Manfred. Manfred, who had inherited the charm, the +address, the energy and brilliance of his father, succeeded in +establishing himself in the Two Sicilies, at first as regent for his +nephew, and afterwards, for in those troubled times a regency was +precarious, as king in his own right. But the Popes were resolved not to +undergo a repetition of the danger they had experienced from Frederick, +and laid their plans to destroy the last of the "viper's brood," as they +called Frederick's family. They followed the old precedent, set in the +days when the Papacy had been in danger from the Lombards, and invited a +French prince, Charles of Anjou, brother to St. Louis, to come and +depose Manfred, and offered him the crown of the Two Sicilies. The +crafty, capable, deep-scheming Charles accepted, and came amid great +rejoicing among the Guelfs. Rome made him Senator. Florence made him +_podesta_; in fact, all Guelf Italy was at his feet. The Pope proclaimed +a crusade against Manfred, collected tithes and taxes for the holy +purpose, and provided Charles with an army. Manfred was defeated and +killed (1266), and two years later, the valiant Conradin, a lad of +sixteen, who came down in the mad hope of regaining his kingdom, was +also defeated, taken prisoner, and, after a mock trial for treason, put +to death. Thus the Papacy prevented the union of the Two Sicilies with +the Empire, and thus the House of Anjou supplanted the last of the +Hohenstaufens at Palermo and Naples. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FALL OF THE MEDIAEVAL PAPACY (1303) + + +We are now coming out of the Middle Ages, and the dawn of a new era +grows more and more apparent. The Empire, embodiment of an old outworn +theory, has already fallen, and its victorious rival, the Papacy, in so +far as it embodies the mediaeval idea of a theocratic supremacy, is +tottering, and it, too, will soon fall before the unsympathetic forces +of a new age. So long as the Papacy stood untouched, it looked as potent +and sovereign, and spoke with as lofty a tone, as in the days of +Innocent; but a hundred years had wrought great changes, and at a push +it tumbled and fell. + +Hints had already been dropped that the dread thunderbolt, the curse of +Rome, which had helped win the proud position of lordship over Europe, +had become mere _brutum fulmen_. Excommunication had been so prodigally +used for political purposes that educated men no longer believed that it +was really the curse of heaven. Moreover, Europe had not been standing +still. The vigorous, compact kingdom of France had come into being, and +flushed with a sense of power and importance, determined to take that +part in European politics which it regarded as its due. In angry +self-confidence the young kingdom confronted the overweening Papacy, +savagely tore off its giant's robe, and laid bare its real weakness. + +Boniface VIII (1294-1303) was the pontiff under whom the papal empire +came to its end. He was a vigorous, energetic, arrogant, eloquent, +handsome man, with a wide knowledge of law, diplomacy, and politics. In +the cathedral at Florence there is a large statue of him, calm and +dignified, almost heroic. He sits with his rochet and tiara on, his +right hand raised with two fingers extended as if blessing,--an unusual +occupation,--and looks far more of this world than of the other. His +contemporary, the Florentine historian, Villani, a Guelf, says: "He was +great-minded and lordly, and coveted much honour, ... and was much +respected and feared for his learning and power. He was very grasping +for money in order to aggrandize the Church and his own relations, +making no shame of gain, for he said that he might do anything with what +belonged to the Church.... He was very learned in books, very wary and +capable, and had great common sense; he had wide knowledge and a good +memory, but was extremely cruel and haughty with his enemies and +adversaries, ... more worldly than befitted his exalted station, and he +did many things displeasing to God." Dante, passionately Ghibelline, +calls Boniface "prince of the new Pharisees" and sends him to hell. + +Boniface's chief enemies, as was usual in the case of a Pope who had +enemies, were Romans. If the Papacy had been able to reduce Rome to real +obedience, its history would have been different. The rebellious +commune and the rebellious barons were constantly on the watch for +favourable opportunities to revolt, or, as they regarded it, to assert +their rights and liberties, and Boniface's first struggle came with the +great House of Colonna. The Colonnas were haughty; he was imperious. +They hinted that he was not legally Pope; he excommunicated them, +proclaimed a crusade, captured and destroyed their fortresses in the +Campagna, and made them deadly enemies. This victory was achieved at a +price thereafter to be paid in full. But for the time Boniface was +triumphant, and seemed, to himself at least, to sit as high as the great +Innocent a hundred years before. + +In the year 1300 he originated the custom, ever since observed, of a +papal jubilee to celebrate the centennial year. For centuries Palestine +had been the destination of pilgrims, and the holy character of Rome had +been passed by, but, now that Palestine was completely lost, Rome +reasserted herself as the pilgrims' city, and crowds again visited the +Roman basilicas. Eager to encourage a practice which he saw would +increase the prestige and the income of the Holy See, Boniface issued +his Bull of Jubilee which promised remission of sins to all pilgrims who +should visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul during the year. + +Pious folk came from everywhere; on an average there were two hundred +thousand at a time. They gave their offerings so generously that, as an +eyewitness says, "Day and night two priests stood beside the altar in +St. Paul's, holding rakes in their hands, raking in the money." It was +noticed, however, that there were no kings or princes in the throng. +That year was the summit of Boniface's prosperity. + +In the mean time the quarrel with France had already begun. The French +king, Philip the Fair, who was the personification of the new lay +spirit, enacted a series of laws against the clergy, and, going counter +to the accepted doctrine of clerical immunity from secular taxation, +levied taxes upon them. This step was portentous. Boniface answered by +absolutely forbidding both taxation and payment of taxes. The King of +France not only persisted in taxation, but also forbade the exportation +of any money from his kingdom, and so deprived the Pope of all his +French revenues. Other angry words and acts followed, and a papal bull +was publicly burnt in Paris. + +Boniface, who had a marked predilection for vehement language, issued a +bull, which deserves to be quoted as it sums up the extreme papal +doctrine and also incidentally reveals how completely he misunderstood +the drift of public opinion. "We are compelled, our faith urging us, to +believe and hold--we do firmly believe and simply confess--that there is +one holy and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither +salvation nor remission of sins.... In this Church there is one Lord, +one faith, one baptism.... Of this one and only Church there is one body +and one head,--not two heads as if it were a monster,--Christ, namely, +and the Vicar of Christ, St. Peter, and the successor of St. Peter.... +We are told by the word of the gospel that in this His fold there are +two swords,--namely, a spiritual and a temporal.... Both swords ... are +in the power of the Church; the one, indeed, to be wielded for the +Church, the other by the Church; the one by the hand of the priest, the +other by the hand of kings and knights, but at the will and sufferance +of the priest. One sword, moreover, ought to be under the other, and the +temporal authority to be subjected to the spiritual.... That the +spiritual exceeds any earthly power in dignity and nobility we ought the +more plainly to confess the more spiritual things excel temporal +ones.... A spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by +no one. This authority, moreover, even though it is given to man, and +exercised through man, is not human but rather divine, being given by +divine lips to Peter and founded on a rock for him and his successors +through Christ Himself; the Lord Himself saying to Peter: 'Whatsoever +thou shalt bind,' etc. Whoever, therefore, resists this power thus +ordained by God, resists the ordination of God. Indeed, we declare, +announce, and define, that it is altogether necessary to salvation for +every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." + +In retort the king, knowing that the country was behind him, convoked +the States-General of the kingdom; which upheld him, charged Boniface +with all sorts of misbehaviour, and called for a general council of the +Church to judge the matters in dispute. + +The crafty king, however, had determined on other means of revenge than +decrees, accusations, and burning bulls; he devised a plot to kidnap +Boniface and fetch him prisoner to France. One William Nogaret, once a +professor of law in a French university, now deep in the king's +counsels, went to Italy, met a vindictive member of the Colonna family, +Sciarra Colonna, and the two arranged the details of the plot. There +were many conspirators, for not only the Colonnas were eager to revenge +themselves, but numerous nobles, dispossessed to make room for the +Pope's relations, were ready to lend a hand. The unsuspecting Boniface, +now an old man of eighty-six years, was at Anagni (a little fortified +town not far from Rome), his native place, but nevertheless honeycombed +with treason; here, from the pulpit of the cathedral where Emperors had +been excommunicated, he proposed to excommunicate the King of France. +Two days before the day set for the excommunication, Nogaret and Sciarra +Colonna, with a troop of soldiers, entered the city which had been +opened by traitors; many of the townsmen ranged themselves under the +French banner. The conspirators broke into the episcopal palace, where +they found the valiant old man seated on a throne, in his pontifical +garments, with the tiara on his head, and a cross in his hand. Sciarra +Colonna dragged him down and would have stabbed him with his dagger but +that Nogaret withheld him by main force. The Pope was made prisoner and +the palace sacked; but in a few days sympathy turned, papal partisans +stormed the palace, rescued Boniface, and carried him to Rome. Here the +Orsini, pretending to befriend him, kept him shut up in the Vatican, +half crazed by fright and fury, till death happily released him (October +11, 1303). Then men remembered an old prophecy uttered concerning him: +"He shall enter like a fox, reign like a lion, and die like a dog." Thus +dramatically the hollowness of papal power was revealed. + +France did not rest content with this insolent act. A year or two later, +a Frenchman of Gascony, the archbishop of Bordeaux, was made Pope by the +French king's influence. This Pope, Clement V (1305-14), never went to +Rome, but took up his abode at Avignon, a little city on the Rhone, not +very far from its mouth. The place was under the overlordship of the +Angevin kings of Naples, but really under the influence of the kings of +France. Here the Papacy stayed for nearly seventy years, practically a +dependency of France. A series of French Popes succeeded one another. +They built on the bank of the Rhone a gigantic fortress, regarded Rome, +the source of their greatness, as a dismal and dangerous out-of-the-way +place, and believed that they had transferred the seat of the Papacy +permanently. This period of exile was regarded by the Italians as a +Babylonish captivity. + +Political degradation was not all. The Roman Curia became a collection +of men of pleasure. The ambitious Popes, even Boniface, had had a touch +of the heroic in them, and erred through pride, arrogance, and hate; but +these Avignonese Popes, though some of them were good men, suffered the +papal court to become a place of amusement, banqueting, and +dissipation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE (1309-1313) + + +After the Papacy had been dragged in servitude to France, the Empire, +like a dying soldier who gets on his feet to shout one shout of triumph +over his enemy's fall, made a last gallant effort to recover life and +strength. The effort was very gallant but very ineffectual, and owes its +chief celebrity to its connection with the great man, who summed up and +reiterated the Imperial creed, somewhat in the same way that Pope +Boniface had summed up and reiterated the papal creed. Both creeds were +dead, but each man believed his fervently, and as Boniface's bulls set +forth the doctrines of Hildebrand and Innocent III, so Dante's treatises +and letters set forth the beliefs of Barbarossa and Frederick II. + +The year of Boniface's jubilee is the year to which Dante assigns his +journey to the abodes of departed spirits, and as the jubilee marked the +close of the mediaeval Papacy, so the "Divine Comedy" marks the close of +mediaeval theology, and Dante himself stands as the greatest mark at the +boundary between the old world passing away and the modern world coming +in. Giovanni Villani, who was about fifteen years younger, described him +in this way: "He was deeply versed in almost all learning, although he +was a layman; he was a very great poet, a philosopher, and a complete +master of rhetoric in prose and verse as well as in public speech; a +most noble writer, very great in rhyme, with the most beautiful style +that ever was in our language up to his time and since. In his youth he +wrote the book on 'The New Life of Love,' and then when he was in exile +he composed twenty ethical poems and many admirable poems on love; and +he wrote among others three noble epistles; one he sent to the +government of Florence, complaining of his banishment from no fault of +his; another he sent to the Emperor Henry, when he was at the siege of +Brescia, blaming him for his delay, in the tone of a prophet; the third +to the Italian cardinals, during the vacancy after the death of Pope +Clement (V), that they should come to an accord and elect an Italian +Pope; all in Latin, in lofty style, with excellent reasonings and +appeals to authority, which were much praised by men of judgment. This +Dante by reason of his knowledge was somewhat arrogant, haughty, and +disdainful, and, like an ungracious philosopher, he could not talk +easily with unlearned men; but because of his other merits, the learning +and the worth of this great citizen, it seems fitting to give him +perpetual remembrance in this chronicle of mine, notwithstanding that +his noble works left to us in writing bear true testimony to what he was +and confer honourable fame upon our city."[12] + +Dante, by passages in his "Divine Comedy," but more particularly by his +treatise "De Monarchia" (On Universal Empire), enables us to understand +how the Empire could raise its head in Italy sixty years after +Frederick II had died. In Germany after an interregnum, the House of +Hapsburg had mounted the throne, but no one had ventured to cross the +Alps for the Imperial crown. Nevertheless, Dante and the Ghibellines +could not bring themselves to believe that the old familiar institution +had fulfilled its function and was to be cast aside. The conception of +Europe as a group of equal nations had not yet arisen, and Ghibellines +still believed that a Roman Emperor could put down confusion, anarchy, +political chaos, and cure all the ills of Italy. The Ghibellines +believed in the Emperor as Mohammedans believed in Mohammed; if he +should return, exiles (like Dante) would be restored, peace would bloom, +and Rome again become the head of a just and universal empire. Dante, in +the "De Monarchia," first contends that universal empire is necessary to +the well-being of the world; having established that proposition, he +argues that this universal empire rightly belongs to the Roman people, +and proves his point by appeals to Virgil and the New Testament; then he +proceeds to show that the authority of the Empire is derived directly +from God. "Some say," he says, "that Constantine when he was cleansed of +the leprosy by the prayers of Silvester, then Pope, gave the seat of the +Empire, to wit Rome, to the Church, together with many other dignities +appertaining to the Empire. Therefore, they argue, since then no one can +receive those dignities, except he shall receive them from the Church, +to whom they belong.... This proposition I deny; and when they put +forth their proof, I say it proves nothing, because Constantine could +not alienate the dignities of the Empire, nor the Church receive +them.... No man has a right to do things by means of an office entrusted +to him, which go directly counter to that office.... Therefore an +Emperor has no right to divide the Empire ... and the Church in no wise +is able to receive temporal things because the precept expressly forbids +it, as we have it in Matthew 'Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor +brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey,' etc." + +This Ghibelline theory was in flat contradiction to Boniface's theory, +just as the Imperial creed had always contradicted the papal creed. In +Dante's time the two conflicting theories seemed to have become mere +ghosts; when of a sudden the Imperial theory started up in reality. A +new king of the Romans, Henry VII, announced that he was coming into +Italy to take his Imperial crown. The Ghibellines welcomed him with +boundless enthusiasm. Dante, in undeserved exile from Florence, flushed +with the hope of return to his dearly beloved city, wrote a circular +letter to all the princes of Italy:-- + +"Behold now is the acceptable time, in which arise signs of consolation +and peace. For a new day begins to shine, showing the dawn that shall +dissipate the darkness of long calamity. Now the breezes of the East +begin to blow, the lips of heaven redden, and with serenity comfort the +hopes of the peoples. And we who have passed a long night in the desert +shall see the expected joy. + +"Rejoice, O Italy, pitied even by the heathen, now shalt thou be the +envy of the earth, because thy bridegroom, the comfort of the world and +the glory of the people, the most merciful Henry, Divus, Augustus, +Caesar, hastens to thy espousals. Dry thine eyes, put off the trappings +of woe, O thou Fairest; for he is at hand who shall free thee from the +prison of the ungodly, who shall smite the malignant, and destroy them +with the edge of the sword, and shall give his vineyard to other +husbandmen, who will render the fruits of justice in the time of +harvest." + +The hope that Henry would restore peace and establish order warmed even +the Guelfs; and almost all the Italian cities, excepting stubborn +Florence, sent envoys to greet him as he came to take the Imperial +crown. The French Pope was greatly perplexed as to what to do. On the +one hand, he had begun to wish for an Emperor to subdue the Roman barons +and to be a counterweight to the French king, whom he found too +masterful a protector; on the other hand, he was afraid to displease the +French king, and to do anything that might set the Ghibellines on their +feet again. So he played a double game: he encouraged Henry in the +North, and in the South he strengthened the Angevin King of Naples, the +leader of the Guelfs. Henry VII crossed the Alps in October, 1310. He +was brave, honest, and just; he believed devoutly in his Imperial +mission, desired peace, and wished to be Emperor of Guelf and Ghibelline +alike. At first all went well; many cities opened their gates and +received Imperial vicars; Milan lowered her flags as Henry entered, and +her Guelf archbishop put the iron crown of Lombardy upon his head. But +this happy calm could not last long. Henry was poor, he asked Milan for +a great deal of money, and then demanded, ostensibly as a guard of +honour for his journey to Rome but really as hostages, fifty noblemen +from each of the two parties. The Ghibellines assented: but the Guelfs +suspected treachery and refused; their leaders fled and their houses +were sacked and burned. This was the end of peace. Henry attempted to +enforce obedience. He sacked Cremona, razed her walls to the ground, and +laid siege to Brescia. The horrors of the siege were fearful; the +citizens fought with desperation, but yielded at last to famine and +pestilence. The unfortunate Henry had now been forced into the old +position of German tyrant and Ghibelline party chief; and, instead of +marching directly on Rome, or on rich Florence which was the head and +front of the Guelf cause in the North, he had wasted valuable time in +taking unimportant cities. The Ghibellines were in a fever of +impatience. Dante wrote:-- + +"To the most holy Conqueror, and only lord, our lord Henry, by divine +providence King of the Romans, ever Augustus, your Dante Alighieri, a +Florentine and undeserving exile, and all Tuscans everywhere, who wish +for peace on earth, kiss your feet. + +"For a long time have we wept by the rivers of confusion, and have +incessantly prayed for the protection of a just king, who should ... put +us back in our just rights. When you, successor of Caesar and Augustus, +crossing the ridges of the Apennines, brought back the venerable +insignia of Rome ... like the sun suddenly uprising, new hope of better +time for Italy shone out. But now men think you delay, or surmise that +you are going back ... and we are constrained by doubt to stand +uncertain and to cry, like John the Baptist, Art thou he that should +come, or do we look for another?... Do you not know, most excellent of +Princes, do you not see from the watch-tower of your exalted height, +where the stinking little fox lurks, safe from the hunters? In truth, +the evil beast does not drink of the headlong Po, nor of your Tiber, +but its wickedness pollutes the rushing waters of the Arno, and the name +of this dire, pernicious creature (do you not know?) is Florence. She is +the viper turned against the breast of its mother; she is the sick sheep +that contaminates the whole herd of her master. Indeed with the +fierceness of a viper she strives to tear her mother; she sharpens the +horns of rebellion against Rome, who made her in her own image and +likeness.... + +"Up, then, break this delay, take confidence from the eyes of the Lord +God of Hosts, in whose sight you act, and lay low this Goliath with the +sling of your wisdom and the stone of your strength; for with his death +the dark night of fear shall cover the camp of the Philistines, and they +shall flee, and Israel shall be set free. And just as now, exiles in +Babylon, we mourn remembering holy Jerusalem, so, then, citizens and at +home, we shall breathe in peace and turn the miseries of confusion into +joy. + +"Written in Tuscany ... fourteen days before the kalends of May, 1311, +in the first year of the coming into Italy of the divine and most happy +Henry." + +Henry did go south, but there were greater obstacles in his way than +Dante imagined. The spirit of the age was against him. It was vain to +try to bring back the past. Florence shut her gates, manned her walls, +sent more money to his enemies, and headed a league of the Guelf cities +in Tuscany and Umbria. Even Rome was half against him. The Ghibelline +nobles received him and took him to their part of the town; but the +Guelfs held St. Peter's, and though there was fierce fighting in the +streets, the Guelfs stood their ground, and Henry was forced to receive +the Imperial crown from the papal legate (the Pope was too prudent to +leave Avignon) in the basilica of St. John Lateran. Here the luckless +Emperor stayed for a time in the midst of ruin, material, political, and +moral. Then he attempted to crush Florence, the ringleader of +disobedience, but her walls were too strong; the impotent Emperor could +do no more than harry the country-side. He fell back upon Ghibelline +Pisa, and set patiently to work to gather together a new army. The +Ghibellines gallantly responded to his call, and Henry actually set +forth on his way to Naples, to punish the House of Anjou and avenge the +Hohenstaufens, but death cut short his lofty plans. He died in a little +town near Siena (1313), and the hopes of Dante and the Ghibellines were +ruined forever. The last flicker of the Empire had gone out. + +Other Emperors, it is true, crossed the Alps, but not as masters. The +connection of Italy with the Holy Roman Empire ends with the death of +the gallant Henry. The mediaeval Papacy and the mediaeval Empire had +passed away, for the Middle Ages themselves had come to an end. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] _Storia di Firenze_, lib. ix, cap. cxxxv. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A REVIEW OF THE STATES OF ITALY (ABOUT 1300) + + +Now that the two great actors, whose long-drawn quarrel has been the +main thread of Italian history, have made their exits, and left us, as +it were, with a sense of emptiness, it becomes necessary to call the +roll and make a better acquaintance with the lesser _dramatis personae_, +who step to the front of the stage and carry on the plot of history. The +programme reads as follows:-- + + DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + The Papacy An absentee. + The Empire A shadow. + The Kingdom of Naples House of Anjou reigning. + The Kingdom of Sicily House of Aragon reigning. + Florence A Guelf democracy. + Siena Ghibelline city. + Pisa Ghibelline city. + Genoa A maritime aristocracy. + Venice A maritime oligarchy. + Milan A Lombard commune. + Savoy A feudal county. + + Guelf cities of Tuscany, communes of Lombardy, + petty marquisates of the northwest, + etc. + +In the South, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies has already been torn in +two. Charles of Anjou, the conqueror of the Hohenstaufens, clever, +shrewd, and capable as he was, had overreached himself. He entertained +great ambitions, and was dreaming of Constantinople and its imperial +crown, when a rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers broke out in +Sicily. The country had been overrun with French office-holders and +French soldiers, and the Sicilians, who regretted the Hohenstaufens, had +reached the utmost limit of endurance. The whole island had become a +powder-box; it was a mere matter of accident where and how the powder +would ignite. A French soldier insulted a woman on her way to church. In +a moment he was killed and his fellow soldiers massacred to a man. +"Death to the French!" resounded over the island, and the infuriated +Sicilians put all to the sword. The revolutionists needed a leader, and, +as the old Norman blood royal still survived in Manfred's daughter, they +invited her husband, King Pedro of Aragon, to be their king. Pedro +accepted, and he and his descendants, the House of Aragon, made good +their claim to the throne of Sicily against all the attempts of the +House of Anjou and of the lords suzerain, the Popes, to oust them. By +this revolution, Sicily was separated from the Kingdom of Naples for +more than a hundred years. + +In the centre of Italy there was great disorder. The lords of the Papal +States remained at Avignon, and attempted to govern their dominions by +legates; but though their sovereignty nominally extended from the +Tyrrhene Sea to the Adriatic, they were impotent to enforce it. There +was no unity; each town was governed separately by a papal legate, by a +powerful baron, or by a communal government. Rome itself, which in the +absence of the Popes had dwindled to a little city of ruins, towers, +churches, vineyards, and vegetable gardens, was in constant disorder. +The towns near by were often faithful to their allegiance, but across +the Apennines the obstinate little cities between the mountains and the +sea were almost always independent. At present there is nothing of +sufficient interest to prevent us from treating Rome as carelessly as +the Popes did, and passing hurriedly through to Florence and the +independent communes of Northern Italy where we must pause. + +Prior to the wars between the Empire and the Papacy feudal institutions +had prevailed there, though with less vigour in Northern Italy than +elsewhere in Europe, and all the land had been divided up into various +fiefs, in which counts and marquesses held sway. During those wars the +cities shook off Imperial dominion and got rid of Imperial rulers, and +began their careers as independent Italian communes. Most of these +cities were of old Roman foundation, but the time of Hildebrand and +Henry IV may be deemed their nativity, as then they first appear in +Italian history as individuals. All these towns were little republics, +each with its own character, but all conforming more or less to a +general type. Within massive walls the city clustered round two main +points, the cathedral, which was flanked by belfry and baptistery, and +the _piazza_ (public square), on which fronted the _Palazzo Pubblico_, +the city hall, where the magistrates had their offices. Round about and +radiating off, houses and palaces, grim and heavy, stood high above the +narrow streets. Scattered here and there scores of private fortresses +raised their great towers thirty yards and more into the air. Street, +palace, tower, all were obviously ready for street warfare, waiting on +tiptoe for the bells to ring. + +The citizens were divided into three classes. The upper class included +the old nobility, the high clergy, the large merchants, the rich +bankers; the middle class included the petty merchants, the tradesfolk, +the master artisans; and below them came the miscellaneous many. In some +cities the nobility, allying itself with the proletariat, held the +political power. But in the more democratic cities, like Florence, the +trades and crafts controlled the government. In Florence there were +seven greater guilds,--judges and notaries, wool-merchants, refiners and +dyers of foreign wool, silk-dealers, money-changers, physicians and +apothecaries, furriers; and fourteen lesser guilds,--butchers, +shoemakers, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, and so on. Every freeman +was obliged to belong to one of the guilds; Dante was enrolled in the +guild of physicians and apothecaries. Trades and crafts descended from +father to son, and each guild was divided into masters, journeymen, and +apprentices. + +In the government, executive, legislative, and judicial powers were +distinguished, but not strictly separated. The executive power was +vested in one man, or in several men, who were assisted by a kind of +privy council. This council superintended various matters of public +concern, such as weights, measures, highways, and fines. There was also +a larger council, to which, as well as to public office generally, only +the enfranchised citizens were eligible. These privileged persons were +never more than a small fraction of the population; in Florence, for +instance, barely three thousand, even in her populous days. Finally, +there was a _parliament_ or assembly of all the free citizens, which met +on the _piazza_, and shouted approval or disapproval to such questions +as were submitted to it. + +In the earlier days the joint executives were called _consuls_. Their +places were not easy. If they were fair to all, they displeased their +own party; if unfair to the opposite party, they were liable to +retaliation. The difficulties of partisanship led to the appointment of +a new officer, the _podesta_. The name and idea came from the governors +put in the Imperial cities by Barbarossa. The _podesta_, who was elected +by the citizens, supplanted the consuls in all their more important +functions; he became the head of both the civil and the military +service, a kind of governor. He was a nobleman, chosen, in the hope of +avoiding local partisanship, from some other Italian city. The citizens, +if Guelf, of course chose a Guelf; if Ghibelline, a Ghibelline. When the +_podesta's_ term of office, which was usually six months or a year, +began, he came to the city bringing two knights, several judges, +councillors, and notaries, a seneschal and attendants, and in the +_piazza_ took his oath of office,--to observe the laws, to do justice, +and to wrong no man. His duties, and often his movements, were +carefully prescribed; sometimes he was not allowed to enter any house in +the city other than the palace prepared for him. At the end of his term +he was obliged to linger for a time, in order to give anybody who might +be aggrieved an opportunity to lodge a complaint against him and obtain +redress. Such was the ordinary form of communal government; but the +constitutions varied in different cities, and in each city shifted every +few years, as class feeling, partisan enmity, or new men suggested +changes. + +The prosperity and power of these communes came from trade, and show how +trade prospered and riches accumulated. Some merchant guilds carried on +a very extensive business. Take the wool guild of Florence. Tuscany +yielded a poor quality of wool, and as it was impossible to weave good +cloth from poor wool, these Florentine merchants imported raw wool from +Tunis, Barbary, Spain, Flanders, and England, wove it into cloth so +deftly that foreigners could not compete with them, and exported it to +the principal markets of Europe. Trade with the North, however, was less +important than trade with the East. Merchandise was carried over the +seas more easily than over the Alps, and in many respects the products +of the East were better and more varied than those of northern Europe. +The Italians loaded the galleys of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa with silken +and woollen stuffs, oil, wine, pitch, tar, and common metals, and +brought back from Alexandria, Constantinople, and the ports of Asia +Minor and Syria, pearls, gold, spices, sugar, Eastern silk, wool and +cotton, goatskins and dyes, and sometimes Eastern slaves. Such a wide +commerce outstripped the capacity of barter and cash, and gave rise to a +system of banking, with its attendant credits and bills of exchange. The +quick-witted Florentines excelled at this business, and great banking +houses, like the Bardi and the Peruzzi, had branches or correspondents +in all the chief cities. + +This large commerce in face of the obstacles that barred its way seems +extraordinary. A city like Florence, for instance, especially in the +earlier days, was greatly hampered by the conditions about her. Outside +her walls, within the radius of a dozen or twenty miles, were castles +manned by arrogant nobles, who made traffic unsafe. They would not +conform to the new economic condition of society except upon compulsion. +Rival cities refused to let Florentine wares pass through their +territories without payment of ruinous tolls. Wars were waged to +moderate these exactions. Or, again, war was necessary to enforce the +rights of Florentine citizens in other cities. Moreover, each city had +its own system of weights and measures, its own coinage; each imposed +customs on all wares entering its gates, in earlier days so much a +cart-load, afterwards a percentage of the value. On all highways, at all +bridges and fords, there were tolls to be paid. From city to city a +merchant had to change his money, until in later times certain coins, +like the Florentine florin, passed current everywhere; and sometimes, on +entering the gates, he was obliged to adopt a distinguishing badge, as, +for instance, according to the usage at Bologna, putting a piece of red +wax on his thumb-nail. These were the fetters placed on trade in time of +peace; but peace itself was transitory and uncertain. Apart from the +wars with the Emperor, the cities periodically fought the feudal +nobility, or one another. Venice made war on Ravenna, Pisa on Lucca, +Vicenza on Treviso, Fano on Pesaro, Verona on Padua, Modena on Bologna, +and the greater cities, like Milan and Florence, on any or all of their +respective neighbours. When a city had no absorbing war abroad, factions +fought at home. Burghers and nobles barricaded the streets, manned the +towers, rang the bells, shot and hacked one another with spasmodic fury. +The burghers generally won. They then banished hundreds of their +adversaries, and made laws against them. In some cities a register was +kept to record the names of the nobles whose democracy was suspected; in +others, as in Lucca, nobles were excluded from all share in the +government, and were not allowed to testify against burghers. In Pisa, +if there was disquiet in the streets, the nobles were obliged to stay +indoors. + +These factions called themselves Guelfs and Ghibellines. At first Guelfs +were the burghers of the communes and partisans of the Papacy, and +Ghibellines partisans of the Empire and the feudal system; but +subsequently the terms merely served to distinguish political parties, +whose platforms, as we should say, shifted with questions of the hour. +Even when these two factions were at peace, they distinguished +themselves by different badges and fashions. The merlons of the Guelf +battlements were square, those of the Ghibelline swallow-tailed. Good +party men wore caps of diverse pattern, did their hair differently, cut +their bread and folded their napkins in different ways. It was enough +that one side should bow, take an oath, harness a horse, in one mode, +for the other side to start a contrary fashion. + +The growth of population, of property, of commerce, however, shows that +history may easily dwell too much upon fighting and war. In these petty +wars and street frays, the numbers engaged were few, and but little +blood was shed. Most of the fighting was a consequence of economic +difficulties. It was the mediaeval equivalent of strikes, lock-outs, +boycotts, undersellings, rivalries, riots, and other phenomena of modern +industry. + +The maritime cities were in a very different position from the inland +cities, and had a different history. They enjoyed great advantages for +trade. No feudal barons could bar the sea, and pirates and infidels were +not serious impediments. Greater commercial prosperity, however, begot +more bitter commercial jealousy. Genoa hated Pisa; no Genoese sailor +could endure the cut of a Pisan sail. Both cities had a large trade in +the Levant, and being so near each other became deadly rivals. They +fought spasmodically for years, from the Gulf of Genoa to the Black Sea, +and at last came to the death grapple. The time was unfortunate for +Ghibelline Pisa, as a Guelf league had been attacking her on land. The +decisive battle was fought off the island of Meloria, a few miles from +the mouth of the Arno. The Genoese, who outnumbered the Pisans, won a +great victory, destroyed or captured many galleys, and took ten +thousand prisoners (1284). Pisa never recovered from this blow. Florence +and Lucca took immediate advantage of it to unite with Genoa, and force +Pisa to submit to a Guelf government; and from this time on greedy +Florence, like a hawk, kept her eyes fixed on poor Pisa, impatient for +the time when she should seize her prey. + +Genoa remained a republic, active, eager, impetuous, torn by factions +and subject to many vicissitudes, but lack of space compels us to leave +her and pass on to where "Venice sits in state, throned on her hundred +isles." She, queen of the sea, had even a more lavish portion of +individuality than her sister cities, individual as they all were, and +hardly belonged to Italy, so completely did she hold herself aloof from +the two great interests of mediaeval Italy, the Empire and the Papacy. No +cries of Pope's men and king's men, of Guelf and Ghibelline, disturbed +the Grand Canal or the Piazza of St. Mark's; no feudal incumbrances +hampered her mercantile spirit, nor did papal anathemas cause a single +Venetian ship to shift her course. Venice had long remained loyal to +Constantinople, and even after all political dependence had ceased, was, +in character and aspect, more a Constantinople of the West than an +Italian city, a grown-up daughter, more beautiful than her beautiful +mother, who, living her own triumphant and unfilial life, still retained +many of her mother's traits. Untroubled by sentiment, even in the +Crusades, Venice always kept steadily in view her fixed purpose of +increasing her commerce and of securing foreign markets; and this +purpose shaped her political actions, and also, indirectly, the form of +her government. + +Originally the citizens, assembled in public meeting, elected the Doge, +and exercised a right to vote on important political matters; but the +great families soon acquired control, and little by little turned the +government into an oligarchy. The first great step was taken in +Barbarossa's time, just when the Lombard cities were struggling to free +themselves from Imperial dominion. A Great Council of four hundred and +eighty members was established, to which were given the powers of +legislation, appointment, electing the Doge, and filling vacancies in +itself. The franchises of the people were all taken away and the +oligarchy left supreme. This oligarchy of merchant princes, in whom +patriotism, pride of place, and love of gain harmoniously accorded, was +an exceedingly competent body of men. The greatness of Venice was their +greatness, and they pursued it devotedly. Beginning early in life these +patricians were trained for their duties by service in the navy and in +the merchant marine, or by employment in the government of the various +cities, islands, and territories included in the long stretch of +coastwise empire. Knowing that Venice lived by commerce they made every +effort by war, diplomacy, and private enterprise, to extend that +commerce. After the conquest and division of the Eastern Empire (1204) +they became more eager than ever for a monopoly of trade with the +Levant, and inevitably came into deadly rivalry with Genoa, also +passionately eager to hold the gorgeous East in fee. + +The wars with Genoa, destructive though they were for the time being, +were of service to the aristocracy, for they made the Venetians +appreciate the value of a compact governing body; and the aristocracy +took advantage of that appreciation to tighten its hold on the +government. + +Throughout the thirteenth century the Great Council, though it consisted +entirely, or almost entirely, of patricians and elected its own members, +had been open to all classes. Any citizen, however unlikely to be +elected, was eligible. At the close of the century the patricians +secured the enactment of a series of measures, which in substance +divided the citizens into two classes, those whose ancestors had sat in +the Great Council, and those whose ancestors had not, and decreed that +only members of the first class should be eligible. This legislation is +known as the closing of the Great Council. As all those who were +eligible naturally wished to become members, the Council gradually +increased until it finally numbered over fifteen hundred. The patricians +also further curtailed the powers of the Doge, divided the various +functions of government among the main subdivisions of the Council,--the +Senate, the Council of Forty, the Doge's cabinet, and the Council of +Ten,--and gave to the State the definite form of government which it +maintained to its end. + +From Venice we must pass by Milan and the cities of the Po, to where in +the extreme Northwest the Counts of Savoy, perched on the Alps, +maintained a precarious sovereignty over both slopes, with no resources +except the muscles of their mountaineers and the possession of Alpine +passes. Little did the proud maritime cities, Genoa and Venice, the +great inland cities, Milan and Florence, and Rome least of all, suspect +that these poor counts would one day consolidate all the territory from +the foot of the mountains to the Riviera in a compact little kingdom +(Piedmont), and from that as a pedestal, step to still higher honours. +The House of Savoy runs aristocratically back into legend; but about the +year 1000, a certain Humbert of the White Hand, emerging from historic +obscurity, obtained the city of Turin and part of Piedmont, as a +marriage portion for his son, and thereby secured to his house a footing +in Italy (1045). In the course of another century or so these Savoyards +in a succession of Humberts and Amedeos, brave, shrewd, and usually +successful men, extended their dominions by war, by marriage, and by +bargains. They made the most of their position as door-keepers to Italy, +and exacted various privileges from needy Emperors, as the price of +passing the Alps. They fought rival counts, waged innumerable petty +wars, and rightly or wrongly acquired territories which are now parts of +France, Switzerland, and Italy. The succession of counts reads like any +other mediaeval genealogy; and their exploits, raids, and sieges viewed +from this cold distance have a somewhat monotonous similarity; but +survival proves the worth and valour of the stock, and when after long +centuries the people of Italy had need of princes, the House of Savoy +was the only noble house that had retained power and respect. It is a +brilliant example of the truth of the saying that those who have been +faithful over a few things shall be masters over many. + +Such were the political divisions of Italy in this transition period +which intervenes between the departing Middle Ages and the incoming +Modern World. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE RENAISSANCE + + +This intervening period--the twilight between the Middle Ages and the +dawn of the Modern World--needs a little further emphasis, from the very +fact that it is a period of transition and sheds light both on the time +before and the time after. On its emotional side it belonged to the +Middle Ages, on its intellectual side it belonged to the Modern World. + +Its religion was essentially mediaeval. For instance, a religious wave +arose in Perugia, spread through Italy, and crossed the Alps. Hosts of +penitents, hundreds and thousands, lamenting, praying, scourging +themselves, went from city to city. Men, women, and children, barefoot, +walked by night over the winter's snow, carrying tapers, to find relief +for their emotional frenzy. These Flagellants were like a primitive +Salvation Army, and gave unconscious expression to the profound and +widespread discontent with the Church. Their actions, however, so +clearly exhibited religious mania that governments took alarm; the +hard-headed rulers of Milan erected six hundred gallows on their borders +and threatened to hang every Flagellant who came that way. + +Other forms of religious sentiment were more rational, and expressed +themselves in passionate calls for peace between neighbours and +countrymen. Priests adjured the fighting cities to be friends: "Oh, when +will the day come that Pavia shall say to Milan, Thy people are my +people, and Crema to Cremona, Thy city is my city?" In Genoa, one +morning before daybreak, the church bells rang, and the astonished +citizens, huddling on their clothes, beheld their archbishop, surrounded +by his clergy with lighted candles, making the factional leaders swear +on the bones of St. John Baptist to lay aside their mutual hate. Gregory +X (1271-76) pleaded with the Florentine Guelfs to take back the banished +Ghibellines. "A Ghibelline is a Christian, a citizen, a neighbour; then, +shall these great names, all joined, yield to that one word, Ghibelline? +And shall that single word--an idle term for none know what it +means--have greater power for hate than all those three, which are so +clear and strong, for love and charity? And since you say that you have +taken up this factional strife for the sake of the Popes of Rome, now, +I, Pope of Rome, have taken back to my bosom these prodigal citizens of +yours, however far they may have offended, and putting behind me all +past wrongs, hold them to be my sons."[13] In consequence of Gregory's +passionate entreaty, one hundred and fifty leaders of each party met and +embraced on the sandy flats of the Arno. + +The most famous of these emotional peace-makings was the work of a +Dominican monk of Vicenza. On a great plain just outside Verona, a vast +congregation assembled (a contemporary said 400,000 people), from all +the warring cities far and near, bishops, barons, burghers, artisans, +serfs, women, and children. The monk preached upon the text, "My peace I +give unto you." The great company beat their breasts, wept for +repentance and joy, and embraced one another. Then the friar raised the +crucifix and cried, "Blessed be he who shall keep this peace, and cursed +be he who shall violate it;" and the audience answered "Amen." It is +hardly necessary to say that these emotional peace-makings were soon +followed by martial emotions; freed prisoners were hurried back to +prison, the recalled were banished again, and sword and halberd were +picked up with appetites whetted by abstinence. + +The intellectual side of this period is best represented by the +universities, which had sprung up in many of the North Italian cities in +the preceding century. The term university signified a guild of +students, and possessed many of the characteristics of our colleges. The +university was composed of students and professors, and governed itself. +It owned neither lands nor buildings, and in case of need could shift +its abode with little trouble. The students, at least in a great +university like that of Bologna whither young men flocked by thousands +from all Europe, were divided into two bodies, those from beyond the +Alps and Italians. These two bodies were subdivided into groups +according to their state or city. Each group elected representatives, +and these, together with special electors, elected the rector. This +representative body made a formal treaty with the town authorities, and +secured good terms, because the presence of a university, bringing +money and fame, was of great consequence to the town. The professors +were appointed by the students. At Bologna Roman law was the chief +study, and very famous jurists lectured there. We may remember that +Barbarossa had recourse to Bologna when he was in need of lawyers to +determine his Imperial rights. It was Roman law that attracted the great +concourse of students, for the growing needs of civilization made a +constant demand for men learned in the law; but other branches of +knowledge were also taught, theology, canon law, medicine, and +astrology, as well as the so-called _quadrivium_, music, arithmetic, +geometry, and astronomy. + +The universities, although theology and canon law were taught in them, +distinctly represented the secular side of intellectual life. The +religious, at least the theological side, was represented by the Church, +and more particularly by those philosophers who devoted themselves to +that mixture of theology and philosophy known as scholasticism. The +greatest of them was Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), whose surname is derived +from a little village, Aquino, once existing near Monte Cassino in +Neapolitan territory. Aquinas lectured at various universities. His +great work, "Summa Theologiae," was a justification of the Roman Catholic +faith by an appeal to the reason and to science as then accepted. He +started on premises laid down by the Church, and justified all the +derivative doctrines by close logic and clear reasoning, as well as by +appeals to the Bible, to Aristotle, then deemed the possessor of all +knowledge, and to the Church fathers. His work is a complete exposition +of God, nature, and man, as conceived by mediaeval theology, and is still +taught by the Catholic Church as the true exposition of its doctrines. +The grateful Church canonized him, his treatise being the miracles he +had performed, and named him the Angelic Doctor. Those of us whose minds +have no natural aptitude for scholasticism, find his views on purely +earthly matters much easier to understand, and not uninteresting, as +they throw light on the democratic character of the Church. Speaking of +positive law, Aquinas says that it should consist of "reasonable +commands for the common good, promulgated by him who has charge of the +public weal;" and of kings, that "a prince who makes personal +gratification instead of the general happiness his aim, ceases to be +legitimate, and it is not rebellion to depose him, provided the attempt +shall not cause greater ills than his tyranny;" and, of the nobility, +that "many men make a mistake and deem themselves noble, because they +come of a noble house.... This inherited nobility deserves no envy, +except that noblemen are bound to virtue for shame of being unworthy of +their stocks; true nobility is only of the soul." St. Thomas Aquinas is +also interesting because his theology inspires Dante throughout the +"Divine Comedy." + +These diverse traits, emotional and intellectual, were natural to a +period of transition, when society was passing from an age in which the +chief interests were emotional to one in which the chief interests were +intellectual; and it is interesting to notice that at the same time +social life was passing from a stage of extreme simplicity to one of +comparative luxury. The accumulation of wealth had its effect in every +department of life; it gave people time and opportunity for intellectual +interests, and also for luxury and more delicate needs. The advance in +wealth was very rapid. By the year 1300 men had already begun to blame +the luxurious habits of their time, and to look back to the simplicity +of their grandfathers as to an age of primitive innocence. Dante gives +full expression to these sentiments through the mouth of his ancestor, +Cacciaguida, in the "Paradiso." Others speak in the same way. One of +them, referring to the time of Frederick II, says: "In those times the +manners of the Italians were rude. A man and his wife ate off the same +plate. There were no wooden-handled knives, nor more than one or two +drinking-cups in a house. Candles of wax or tallow were unknown; a +servant held a torch during supper. The clothes of men were of leather +unlined; scarcely any gold or silver was seen on their dress. The common +people ate flesh but three times a week, and kept their cold meat for +supper. Many did not drink wine in summer. A small stock of corn seemed +riches. The portions of women were small; their dress, even after +marriage, was simple. The pride of men was to be well provided with arms +and horses; that of the nobility to have lofty towers, of which all the +cities in Italy were full. But now frugality has been changed for +sumptuousness; everything exquisite is sought after in dress,--gold, +silver, pearls, silks, and rich furs. Foreign wines and rich meats are +required. Hence usury, rapine, fraud, tyranny," etc.[14] + +To us to-day this period of transition, with its mediaeval mixture of +commerce, religion, and war, of emotion and logic, of admiration for St. +Augustine and belief in the infallibility of Aristotle, looks extremely +odd. We forget that our generation may be in danger of similar +criticism. Odd or not, this was the state of Italy in the period +preceding that great burst of the arts and intellectual life known as +the Renaissance. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] _Storia degli Italiani_, Cesare Cantu, vol. ii, p. 851 (19). + +[14] _Europe in the Middle Ages_, Hallam, p. 630. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN AFTER THE MIDDLE AGES (1260-1336) + + +Though the beginning of the Modern World manifested itself in every +department of life, political, social, and intellectual, it is best +known to us through the arts, because in them it embodied itself in +permanent forms. Italy suddenly leaped forward, as if she had drained a +beaker of champagne. To explain and illustrate this burst of passion, +the books generally use such phrases as emphasis upon individuality, +imitation of the classic, observation of nature, wider range of +interest, the awakening of spiritual energy, etc. No doubt the phrases +are just, but one must remember that underneath these manifestations of +an eager interest in life, there actually was a larger, happier life, +due in great measure to security, ease, and the accumulation of +property, which set men free from the bondage of continuous daily labour +to satisfy corporal needs. Of that happier life, with its gayety and +luxury, Villani, the historian of Florence, has given us a description. +He himself was a boy at the time. "In the year of Our Lord 1283 the city +of Florence, chiefly on account of the Guelfs who were in power, was +prosperous and at peace, and in a state of great tranquillity, which was +very advantageous to the merchants and artisans. In June, at the Feast +of St. John, in the quarter across the Arno, where the Rossi and their +neighbours were the principal people, the nobility and the rich +organized themselves into a company, and adopted a dress all white, and +chose a master called the Lord of Love. The object of the company was to +have feasts, games, and dances for the ladies and gentlemen of the city, +and other persons of quality. They used to parade the town with trumpets +and other musical instruments, and had great dinners and suppers and all +kinds of jollity. The festivities lasted nearly two months, and were the +finest and most celebrated that were ever held in Florence or all +Tuscany. Gentlemen and troubadours came from far and near, and all were +received and entertained with distinction. And it is worth remembering +that the city and its citizens were better off then than they had ever +been, and this prosperity continued till the division into Burghers and +_Grandi_. There were then in Florence three hundred knights, and there +were many companies of gentlemen and ladies, who morning and evening +kept open table richly spread, and had buffoons in attendance, so that +from Lombardy and all Italy jesters, players, and jugglers came to +Florence, and all were welcome; and whenever a stranger of distinction +passed through the city there was rivalry between the companies to get +him as their guest, and then he was accompanied, on foot or on +horseback, all through the city and the country round, most politely." + +This was the light and careless side of the general awakening of +interest in life, which showed itself in so many nobler forms. + +In literature Dante (1265-1321) is the first great figure. But, owing to +his disproportional importance, we are liable to forget that he has his +orderly place in the revival of poetry and literature which began in the +brilliant court of Frederick II in Sicily. On the destruction of the +Hohenstaufens, the poetic primacy passed to Bologna, where Guido +Guinicelli and others composed poetry in a somewhat learned fashion, as +befitted a university town, and then passed on to Tuscany, and in +particular to Florence, where Dante was preceded by his friend Guido +Cavalcanti. Dante, although distinctly mediaeval by his theology, his +appeals to the authority of Virgil and Aristotle, and by his political +views, has the characteristics of the new spiritual energy. He lays +immense stress on individuality, and delineates real life with wonderful +vividness. These traits mark him as belonging to the new world coming in +rather than to the old world going out. + +From the point of view of history, Dante's most marked achievement, +perhaps, was to raise the Tuscan (or more strictly speaking the +Florentine) idiom, from among many competitors, to the dignity of being +the Italian language. This was the consequence of writing the "Divine +Comedy" in Tuscan, instead of in Latin. Dante's Tuscan verses were +recited in the tavern and on the _piazza_, and were greeted with loud +applause by apprentices and artisans, shopmen and tavern-keepers. He +excited the enthusiasm of both educated and ignorant. At that time the +spoken dialects were very numerous. A friend remonstrating with Dante +for writing in an Italian dialect instead of in Latin, said that there +were a thousand. Dante himself in his treatise "On the Vernacular +Speech" enumerates Sicilian, Calabrian, Apulian, Roman, Tuscan, Genoese, +Sardinian, Romagnol, Lombard, Venetian, and others. These dialects of +the provinces were further subdivided among themselves. In Tuscany the +people of Siena spoke one idiom, those of Arezzo another. In Lombardy +the citizens of Ferrara spoke in one way, the citizens of Piacenza in +another. Even in one city, as in Bologna, the dwellers in St. Felix +Street and those in Greater Street did not speak alike. Besides the +difficulties of many dialects, besides the immense prestige of Latin as +the language of learning, of law, of the Church, French appeared as a +possible literary language for Italy. Authors in Florence, Venice, +Siena, and Pisa wrote books in French, "because the French language goes +over the world, and is more delectable to read and to hear than any +other." But Dante made the Florentine tongue immortal, and not only +wrote the "Divine Comedy" in Florentine, but also "The New Life" and +"The Banquet." Prior to his time the divers idioms had stood on an +equality; after his time Tuscan became the language of polite speech and +of literature, the real Italian language, and the others were degraded +to the position of mere dialects. Petrarch and Boccaccio, both +Florentines, also deserve their share of praise. Petrarch's sonnets and +Boccaccio's stories firmly established the primacy to which Dante had +raised the Tuscan idiom. + +The revival of sculpture also began before the middle of the thirteenth +century. Here the great leader is Niccolo Pisano (1206-78?). There has +been a dispute as to his birthplace. Some say he came from Southern +Italy and learned his art there. If this theory is true, Frederick's +kingdom has the honour of having revived sculpture as well as +literature; but it is more likely that Niccolo came from some village in +Tuscany, and early went to Pisa, where he got his designation _Pisano_. +The first certain record of his work is an inscription on the pulpit in +the Baptistery at Pisa, which states that he completed the pulpit in +1260. Pisa was then at the height of her glory, in the happy years +before her fatal conflict with Genoa; she had built the Cathedral, the +Leaning Tower, and the Baptistery, and now wished to beautify them +within. Niccolo's pulpit shows both imitation of the classic and +observation of nature. He had before him bits of ancient sarcophagi, +which had been built into the wall of the Cathedral: his Madonna bears +traces of the Phaedra of the sarcophagus, one of his three Wise Men +resembles a young Greek, and his modelling in general has a touch of +classic freedom, dignity, and repose. In his conception of the scenes +Niccolo adhered to ecclesiastical tradition, just as Dante did to +ecclesiastical theology, but in his figures, in the drapery and various +details, his faithfulness to reality is striking, at least when compared +with the Byzantine style theretofore prevailing. The success of this +pulpit was so great that a few years later he was asked to carve another +for the cathedral in Siena. An envoy came on purpose, and in the +Baptistery of Pisa a contract was drawn up in which it was agreed that +Niccolo should go to Siena and stay till the work was done, taking three +assistants, and also his young son Giovanni, at half pay, if he wished. +This contract was made in 1265, the year of Dante's birth. Niccolo also +worked at Bologna, Perugia, Pistoia, probably at Lucca and almost +certainly in many other places. This was the period of the free +development of the communes after the death of Frederick II, and +Niccolo's popularity is proof of widespread prosperity and interest in +art. Niccolo's son Giovanni (1250-1328?) inherited his father's genius; +and his work, especially his masterpiece, a pulpit at Pistoia, shows how +fast art was developing. Giovanni, in his eagerness to express the +animation and passion of life, neglected the classic and went directly +to nature, at least in desire if not in execution. This passionate +interest in life is the very quality that gives Dante's "Inferno" its +intense vividness. These two Pisani founded the great Tuscan school of +sculpture, and influenced both painting and architecture as well. + +Italian architecture at this time does not show one great figure like +Niccolo Pisano, nor does it show a definite beginning of a new period. +On the contrary, throughout the Middle Ages building held its own +surprisingly well in comparison with the other arts. In the days of +Theodoric the Ostrogoth, it carried on the Byzantine tradition at +Ravenna, and for centuries the churches in Rome were built on the old +basilican principle. Over a hundred years before Dante was born, and +before Niccolo carved his pulpit, the Lombard style flourished in +Lombardy, Tuscan Romanesque in Tuscany, and Norman Sicilian in Sicily. +Before the Empire had received its _coup de grace_ the Gothic style came +down from the North, and its struggle with the Romanesque seemed to +typify the conflict between the German Empire and the Italian people. +Nevertheless, if we confine ourselves to Tuscany, as perhaps is fair in +view of the very great influence of Tuscany on all the arts, there is +one man who stands out conspicuous. Arnolfo di Cambio (1232-1300?) began +life as one of Niccolo's assistants at Pisa, and did so well that he was +included by name in the contract for the pulpit at Siena. In Florence he +built the church of Santa Croce for the Franciscans, designed the +Palazzo Vecchio, and made the first plans for the Duomo; and so left a +deep impress on Florence and through Florence on the world. + +In painting, more than in any other art or department of life, perhaps, +authority had reigned supreme throughout the Middle Ages. The decadent +Greek painters of Constantinople had made a series of rules, which were +as autocratic as the edicts of the Emperors. Every Madonna was painted +in one attitude, with her eyes opening wide in the same way, arms, legs, +and body in the same constrained position, with the same wooden child in +her wooden lap, and the same wooden saints about her. But gradually, +side by side with the art of authority, another style, at first very +simple and primitive, developed. The older style dominated mosaic work, +and as mosaics were most intimately associated with the symbolic +representation of sacred things, it was strongly intrenched behind all +the beliefs and prejudices of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the +revolutionary spirit in Tuscany, for the leaders of the revolution which +threw off the authority of the Middle Ages came from among the free men +of Tuscany, prevailed in painting as well as elsewhere. The last of the +masters who employed the Byzantine manner was Cimabue (1240-1302); yet +Cimabue had a sense of the coming change, and showed a desire to break +through the enveloping shell of Byzantine authority and portray the +grace and beauty of living human beings. However mediaeval his manner +seems to us, his contemporaries, eager as the Athenians for new things, +perceived the novelty in it. When he was painting a Madonna for the +Dominican monks in Florence, Charles of Anjou, fresh from his triumph +over Manfred, visited his studio for the honour of a first view, and +crowds pressed about hoping to get a glimpse of the picture. When the +picture was carried through the streets to its destination in the church +of Santa Maria Novella, a great procession followed, as if it were a +hero returned from the wars. Poor Cimabue, however, is seldom mentioned +except as a dull background against which the conquering Giotto stands +in brilliant relief. + +Giotto (1267?-1336) is the master revolutionist of painting. He was a +contemporary of Dante, a few years younger, born at the time when +Niccolo and Giovanni were working at the pulpit in Siena, and Charles +of Anjou was posing as an admirer of the fine arts in Cimabue's studio. +He painted Dante in a fresco on the wall of the Bargello (a palace in +Florence), at least so tradition says; and Dante in the "Divine Comedy" +speaks of him as outstripping the once renowned Cimabue. Giotto was an +ugly little man, of great character and quick wit. Various stories are +told of his repartees. Once, when he was painting for the King of Naples +and working with great diligence, the king, who used to watch him, said, +"Giotto, if I were you, I should not work so hard." "I shouldn't,--if I +were you," retorted Giotto. He studied under Giovanni Pisano, and +learned so much that it has been said that "Giotto is the greatest work +of the Pisani." Giotto was also the successor to Arnolfo as the leading +architect in Florence, and built the Campanile of the Duomo, and, being +likewise a sculptor, modelled some of the bas-reliefs that ornament the +panels of the base. His great art was painting, and especially the +painting of figures. Giotto was in demand to paint frescoes on the walls +of churches and chapels at Florence, Arezzo, Assisi, Padua, Ravenna, +Rome, and Naples; and other painters came from far and near to study +under him. He dominated Italian painting, and his school was the only +school for a hundred years. After the world had adopted Raphael's +frescoes as the type of excellence his fame was dimmed for a time, but +since Mr. Ruskin's enthusiastic admiration it has regained its ancient +lustre. + +These instances of revolution in the arts show that a new intellectual +life had begun, that the Middle Ages had really ended. In fact, the +passing away of the Holy Roman Empire and of the European suzerainty of +the Papacy was merely an episode in the general intellectual +revolution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE DESPOTISMS (1250-1350) + + +Perhaps the quality which strikes us most in this dawn of our Modern +World is its suddenness; Niccolo Pisano gets up, as it were, out of the +ground, Giotto follows Cimabue, Dante is born while Guido Guinicelli is +still a young man. We are amazed and bewildered, and it is not in the +arts alone that the change is so startling. The political structure +shifts with equal quickness, and while we are trying to connect and +coordinate this outburst of art with the democratic triumph of the +communes, the democratic communes disappear under our eyes. At first as +we look we are a little puzzled, for the outward form of the commune +remains unchanged; the _podesta_ is still there, the Great Council and +the inner council are still there, the committees and the sub-committees +superintending and directing the affairs of the commonwealth; but +further observation discloses a lack of spontaneity. The motive power +does not seem the resultant of the debate and argument of numerous +discordant wills, but to proceed from some one definite inner source. +More careful observation shows that these outward committees are but +registering boards that record an inner will, that their members go to +one particular palace to have their minds made up, at first privily, but +soon openly, and at last confessedly and ostentatiously. This is the +regular course. The commune is, as it were, a political chrysalis out of +which a full-blown tyrant bursts. The tyrants were men of capacity, who +gathered the various functions of the government into their own hands, +and by a course of adroitness and fraud, or by a _coup d'etat_, reduced +the city to obedience, and then, after having exercised sovereign rights +during their lives, bequeathed the principality to their heirs. The +reason of their success is plain. It was impossible for trade to +flourish, for property to collect its income, for luxury to enjoy +itself, under the political confusion that attended the democratic +endeavours for self-government. The uncertainty in government, law, and +trade, was too high a price to pay for liberty. Men of property, men of +business, men of pleasure, preferred the comparative stability of a +tyranny. + +Before we look at this process in individual states we must eliminate +the exceptions. The kingdom of Sicily under the House of Aragon, and +that of Naples under the House of Anjou, had become, in great measure, +absolute monarchies, for the gifted Emperor Frederick, who was no lover +of democracy, had crushed or circumvented the communal spirit in his +kingdom. The suppression of popular liberties did not result in the +strict enforcement of order in either kingdom, particularly not in +Sicily where feudal anarchy was rampant; but we must leave those +Southerners to their oranges and lemons, to their flowers and azure +skies, to their churches and cloisters, where Romanesque, Byzantine, and +Arab influences met and combined in arch and dome and sculptured +trimming, and go northward to find the main historical current of the +century. + +Florence, too, we must except from the tyrannic system, for a democratic +government prevailed there for many years to come, and also Rome, where +the Papacy prevented Colonna and Orsini from establishing a despotism. + +Verona shall serve as the paradigm for the despotic form of government. +In this ancient city on the banks of the Adige, where the amphitheatre +of Augustus still stood though the churches built by Theodoric the +Ostrogoth had crumbled away, the spirit of material and intellectual +activity had been busily at work. The stately church of San Zeno +(eleventh century), most beautiful of Romanesque churches, coloured with +the hues of early dawn and rich with bronze doors and sculptured front, +stood proudly apart outside the walls; but within, the cathedral had +been begun, and the great Ghibelline tower already lifted its +crenellated top high over the market-place. Rushing through the city the +headlong Adige turned innumerable mill-wheels, and Veronese girls washed +the clothes of the Capulets and Montagues in its waters. Altogether the +city was a very desirable signory. This fact had been discovered in +Frederick's time, and Ezzelino da Romano, one of the Ghibelline nobles +of the North, had made good his power there and distinguished himself by +his cruelty, for which he is still remembered. On his most satisfactory +death, not long after Frederick's, the Scaligers succeeded to the +dominion of the city (1259). These Scaligers were of the best type of +tyrant, especially Can Grande (1311-1329), the fifth in possession of +the signory, who presents the type in its noblest and most attractive +form. Nevertheless, despite his brilliance, his success and +magnificence, his chief renown is as host to the exiled Dante, who in +gratitude for "my first refuge and first hostelry" dedicated the +"Paradiso" to him, and celebrated his carelessness of hardship and of +gold, and his doughty deeds from which even enemies could not withhold +their praise. + +Can Grande, like other despots, had two objects,--to make his signory +secure, and to enlarge it. As he was secure of Verona, he cast his +covetous glances abroad and fixed them on Vicenza, a little town some +thirty miles to the northeast. Vicenza was, so to speak, no longer in +the market, as she had been snapped up by her neighbour, Padua, which +had had the advantage of being less than twenty miles away. But Can +Grande played his cards well, and by help of the Emperor Henry VII, who +appointed him Imperial vicar, got possession of the prize. Padua, a rich +and prosperous Guelf city, with subject towns round about, and a famous +university within, refused to acquiesce in a surrender of Vicenza to a +Ghibelline lord. A long war ensued. The fair fields in the forty miles +between Verona and Padua were laid waste, the poor peasants were dragged +to one city or the other and held for ransom, and the Guelfs in Verona +and the Ghibellines in Padua were persecuted, imprisoned, and tortured. +At last Padua, her signory over, her neighbours lost, her population +fallen away, her citizens fighting among themselves, her nobles +destroying one another in the hope of becoming lords of the city, gave +way and surrendered to Can Grande. Other cities shared Padua's fate, and +Can Grande, by virtue of his conquests as well as of his character, +became one of the chief powers in Italy. Can Grande was brave even to +recklessness, covetous of dominion, steadfast in his political aims, +true to his promises, generous to his enemies. On his death he +bequeathed his signory to his nephew; and his body was buried in the +churchyard of a little Gothic chapel, where stone effigies of armoured +Scaligers on caparisoned steeds surmount Gothic tombs, and the pride of +life and conquest strives to overcrow death. + +The story of the Scaligers must be continued somewhat further, for they +exhibit the phenomenon, so frequent in Northern Italy at this time, of a +despotism that begins in vigour, continues in energy and success, and +then dies down under degenerate heirs to go out at last like a candle. +Can Grande's nephew, Mastino (1329-51),--the family had a fondness for +canine appellations. Great Dog and Mastiff,--began his career with +ability and courage; he conquered Brescia to the west, halfway to Milan, +and Parma, which lies beyond Mantua. These particular acts of aggression +helped his ruin, for Milan and Mantua took alarm and joined a league +against him. But that was not till later. In the days of his prosperity +Mastino was very magnificent. Soldiers, horse and foot, attended him; +his palace was thronged with lords, gentlemen, and buffoons; his stables +were full of chargers and palfreys, his bird-sheds of falcons. At his +court there were innumerable fashionable devices for driving care away, +dancing, singing, jousting; everything was luxurious; men and furniture +were decked with embroidery, cloth of gold, cloth from France, and cloth +from Tartary. When Mastino rode forth all Verona rushed to the windows; +when he was angry all Verona trembled. He was a dark-skinned, bearded +man, with heavy features and a great belly; in later life he ate +grossly, and sank into dissipation. Seldom on a Friday or Saturday, or +even in Lent, would he refrain from meat; and he did not care a rap for +excommunication. He became arrogant and vainglorious. His dissipation +and lack of piety, however, were less direct causes of his fall than his +ambition; he coveted, rumour said, a kingdom of Lombardy or even of all +Italy. But at last he overreached himself in dealing with the +Florentines. They wished to get possession of Lucca, and he undertook to +buy it for them,--it was a fourteenth-century custom to sell a +city,--but when he got possession of Lucca he kept it for himself. The +Florentines declared war, and induced all his rival despots, the +Visconti of Milan, the Gonzaga of Mantua, the Estensi of Ferrara, to +join a league against him. Venice also joined, being indignant with the +Scaligers for levying tolls upon merchandise that went up the Po, and +for interference with the Venetian monopoly of salt. The league was +victorious and forced the Scaligers to hard terms. Venice took the towns +near her, thus acquiring her first territory on the Italian mainland; +the great Paduan family, the Carrara, took back Padua; the Visconti of +Milan took Brescia (1338). The Scaligers were shorn of their power, and +from this time on the house dwindled; assassinations of brother by +brother darkened its close, and at the end of the century it lost Verona +and all. + +What the Scaligers did at Verona other great families were doing +elsewhere. The Gonzaga established themselves in Mantua, the Estensi in +Ferrara, the Bentivogli in Bologna, the da Polenta in Ravenna, the +Malatesta in Rimini, the Montefeltri in Urbino, the Baglioni in Perugia, +and greatest of all the Visconti in Milan. The city of Milan has so +important a place in the history of Italy, that we must pause over the +Visconti. This family succeeded in dispossessing its rivals and in +becoming masters of the city in 1295, about the time that the oligarchy +was clinching its hold on Venice, and the democracy becoming all +powerful in Florence. In fact, one may accept this date as the point at +which Florence, Venice, and Milan start on their upward careers towards +becoming three of the six chief divisions of Italy. Convenience has its +rights, and it is eminently convenient to start the Renaissance, +politically as well as intellectually, in this eager, passionate last +quarter of the thirteenth century. + +The Visconti, however, were not firm in their seats till the gallant +Henry VII, Dante's hope, came down into Italy to revive the Empire. We +have seen that Henry did not revive the Empire, but he did strengthen +Can Grande, his loyal lieutenant in Verona, and also the Visconti, his +loyal friends in Milan. It is pathetic, even now, to think of that +high-aspiring Henry, with his noble, old-fashioned ideas concerning the +Roman Empire and universal brotherhood under the shelter of the Roman +eagle, and of the great Dante fastening all his hopes on those same +old-fashioned ideas, while the crafty lords of Milan and Verona, +laughing in their sleeves, professed the most devout Imperial creed and +feathered their own nests. On the Emperor's death (1313) the Visconti +were firmly seated. The signory descended from one generation to the +next. Their sway was extended over the cities round about, until it +included most of Lombardy. Ambition, growing by what it fed on, aimed at +the cities of Pisa, Bologna, and Genoa. Such plans aroused both jealousy +and fear. The ambition of the Visconti to take Pisa alarmed Florence, +who had marked Pisa as her own; that to take Bologna stirred the +absentee Popes, who went through the old forms of excommunication, +interdict, and crusade; but Genoa, crippled by her wars with Venice, +rent asunder by internal factions, wearily gave herself to Milan, in the +vain hope of winning peace and security. In spite of checks here and +there, the state of Milan became more and more powerful, and the signory +of the Visconti by far the greatest of the tyrannies in Italy. + +There were, of course, many men who attempted to become despots and +failed; and others who succeeded for their lifetimes, but were not able +to make their signories so strong as to become family possessions to be +enjoyed by their heirs after them. Of the latter kind one must be +mentioned. In Lucca Castruccio Castracane (died 1328), a very brilliant +politician and soldier, became so powerful that he reduced to subjection +much of the country round and nearly succeeded in conquering Florence, +with whom he was long at war. Like other successful tyrants he called +himself a Ghibelline, and drew what advantage he could from his +profession of faith, but really only aimed to acquire a principality for +himself. He died in the prime of life (to the great relief of the +Florentines), and left so brilliant a reputation for the qualities which +achieve success by fair means or foul, that two centuries later +Machiavelli held him up as an example for princes to follow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL (1350) + + +We are now well started on the fourteenth century, and it will be well +to glance at the chief Italian states in order to get our bearings. + +Sicily was in a state of hopeless despondency. The island was nominally +subject to the House of Aragon, but its kings were not men of sufficient +character to impose their authority, and the unfortunate kingdom was +beginning to go down hill. The Kingdom of Naples was, for the time +being, much better off, for its king, Robert, grandson of Charles of +Anjou, was a man of unusual gifts and capacity, but he was succeeded by +a foolish, frivolous, light-minded, light-mannered granddaughter, Joan +(1343-81), who brought forty years of trouble to her kingdom, and under +her Naples started rolling down that same incline on which Sicily was +rolling somewhat ahead of her. The failure of Sicily and Naples to take +part in the great career in matters intellectual now opening before +Northern Italy is partly due to the race that populated them, a +miscellaneous mixture of bloods (at least it is customary to explain +unknown causes of success and failure by saying good blood and bad +blood), and partly to the autocratic will of the brilliant Frederick II, +who crushed out independence in his kingdom, and so deprived it of that +communal life which is the only obvious factor, except "good blood," in +the intellectual success of Northern Italy. + +The whole pontifical state, from the fortresses of the Colonna on the +Tiber to the strongholds of the Malatesta in Rimini, was in the vortex +of confusion. + +Florence was well off, for though the foreigners whom she had invited to +be protectors against Castruccio Castracane and others were rather +detrimental than useful, and though there were signs of a new struggle +between the _Grandi_ and the Burghers, her commerce prospered, her +dominion spread over the towns round about, and her luxury grew so fast +that the troubled elders passed all sorts of sumptuary laws to prescribe +what should be worn and what not, by both fashionable and simple. + +In the northwest, now Piedmont, there were, besides the Counts of Savoy, +several struggling claimants who severally asserted titles to their own +and other strips of territory. In the northeast, Venice, which had +acquired a footing on the mainland destined to grow into the province of +Venetia, was prosperous. And between Piedmont and Venice the successful +Visconti of Milan, soon to receive the keys of Genoa, were likewise well +satisfied. The political situation may now be dismissed, and we may turn +to the distinguishing mark of the century, the classical revival. + +The distinction which Italy enjoys as the most famous country in Europe +is due to three ages,--first, the ancient epoch of Augustus Caesar and +Trajan, when the Roman Empire imposed the _pax romana_ on a grateful +world; second, the mediaeval epoch of Hildebrand and Innocent III, when +the Papacy, following its great prototype with unequal steps, imposed +its _pax romana_ on both troubled souls and angry hands; and third, the +epoch of the Renaissance, when Italy took the lead in the intellectual +development of modern Europe. It would be as absurd to subordinate +intellectual life to politics in the period of the Renaissance as it +would be to subordinate the religion of the era of Hildebrand to its +art, or the politics of the Augustan age to its religion. The highest +life of Italy, the life which gives importance to the history of this +coming period, is its intellectual life, and, though we must not forget +politics entirely, we should lay the chief stress on intellectual rather +than on political matters. + +Since the date of the Pisan pulpit, prosperity had increased fast, and +curiosity, the desire to investigate, the wish to know, had grown +lustily. There were still the same two stores of knowledge,--nature and +the classics,--but the first, for many reasons, seemed vague, +intangible, when compared to the second, in which the demi-gods (so they +appeared then) of the ancient world had garnered the rich harvest of +their thoughts. The classical heritage, the record of a higher +civilization, seemed a lay Bible, the revelation of truth, the means of +salvation; and the young generation emerging in the dawn of intellectual +light turned thirstily to this newly found inheritance. The leader of +this pilgrimage to the land flowing with intellectual milk and honey was +Francis Petrarch (1304-74). + +Petrarch was a Florentine, but he lived in exile. His father had been +banished at the same time with Dante, and after a few wandering years +had settled at Avignon. Petrarch studied law at the University of +Bologna and became a confirmed Ghibelline. This item of biography is +important, because it reminds us that Petrarch's passion for the classic +world, though it had its roots in the traditional admiration for Rome, +received strength and justification not only from Latin literature, but +also from the Civil law. Men who grasped the complexity and richness of +the Roman law necessarily admired Roman civilization, and inferred that +all other manifestations of that civilization must be as admirable as +the law, and perhaps less dry. Petrarch found the law dry, but he left +Bologna with a passion for the classic world; and when he went back to +Avignon he met all the most cultivated men of Europe. Learning still +attended the papal court, and Avignon served to make this charming young +scholar of genius known to the world. He flung up the law and devoted +himself to literature. Cicero was his hero. Petrarch was the first of +the humanists, the herald of the Renaissance, and, if we look farther +forward still, the harbinger of the Reformation. Petrarch's importance +was very great because he was not too far ahead of his generation. He +shouted aloud the glory of Rome, of Roman literature and Roman thought, +and the echo resounded throughout Europe. In the year 1341, in Rome, +upon the Capitoline Hill, Petrarch received the crown of laurel, as +scholar and poet, from the Senate and People of Rome. The King of +Naples was his sponsor, and the tyrants of the North applauded. This +ceremony was the conspicuous recognition that a new period was opening +before Italy; and Petrarch's laurel crown may be put beside the Imperial +wreath of Augustus and the tiara of Hildebrand, as the starting-point of +Italy's third great period of triumph. + +After his coronation, Petrarch went about Italy spreading the seeds of +the new enthusiasm. He lived or made visits at Parma, Bologna, Verona, +Florence, Arezzo, Naples, Rome, Milan, Padua, and Venice. He became +tremendously fashionable. The Pope invited him to be papal secretary, +the King of France extended the hospitality of Paris to him, the Emperor +bade him to Prague, the Visconti wanted him at Milan, the Scaligers at +Verona, the Cararresi at Padua, the lord high Seneschal at Naples; the +Florentines asked him to accept a chair in their new university, the +Venetians offered him a house. All this honour ostensibly shown to +Petrarch was really the salutation to the new dawn. + +The strength of this classic revival, though most effective in +literature and the arts, is perhaps still more noticeable in the +political career of another young man of genius who had as passionate a +love of classic Rome as Petrarch himself. Cola di Rienzo (1314-54) was +an imaginative, poetical dreamer, who fed his youth on Livy, Cicero, +Seneca, and delighted to muse on the glories of Julius Caesar and to +study the antique monuments of Rome. His public career began as envoy on +one of the unsuccessful embassies which used to entreat the Popes to +return to the deserted city. Cola was handsome, eloquent, ardent, a sort +of Don Quixote, and roused the Roman populace to share his dreams and to +believe in the possible restoration of the Senate and People of Rome to +their ancient grandeur. He led the people against the nobility, forced +the riotous barons to submit to his rule as tribune of the people, and +established a government of law in the city; but his ambition flew far +beyond the city walls. He dreamed of the confederation of all Italy +under the lead of Rome. He would have smiled at limiting imitation of +the great days of old to the arts or to literature; he intended to +restore the Roman Republic as it had been in its high and palmy days. +His wild aspirations throw a backward light over the history of the city +of Rome throughout the Middle Ages, and over that republicanism which +played so important a part in the struggle between Empire and Papacy, +and light up the old theories under which the Roman people claimed the +right to elect both Emperor and Pope; just as Boniface's bulls portray +the outworn papal theories, and Dante's "De Monarchia" the dead Imperial +beliefs. + +Cola's first step was to invite all the princes and communes of Italy to +attend a general meeting in Rome; and as all Italy had responded to +Petrarch's appeal in behalf of the classic past, so did she, for the +moment, respond to Cola's appeal. Milan, Genoa, Lucca, Florence, Siena, +and the smaller cities nearer by, answered with apparent sympathy. +Petrarch was mad with delight, and hailed Cola as Camillus, Brutus, +Romulus. For the moment, such was the strength of classical illusion, +the dream seemed to be real. Cola wrote to the Florentines (September, +1347), "We have made all citizens of the states of Holy Italy Roman +citizens, and we admit them to the right of election. The affairs of +Empire have naturally devolved upon the Holy Roman People. We desire to +renew and strengthen the old union with all the principalities and +states of Holy Italy, and to deliver Holy Italy itself from its +condition of abject subjection and to restore it to its old state and to +its ancient glory. We mean to exalt to the position of Emperor some +Italian whom zeal for the union of his race shall stir to high efforts +for Italy."[15] + +Cola's great idea was destined to wait five hundred years for +fulfilment. The time was not ripe, and he himself not a suitable +instrument. His career was brief. He became not only vainglorious but +also very cruel. He grew fat, and lost the charm of youth and novelty. +The nobles and the upper classes of Rome hated him; and when, in need of +money, he increased the taxes, the Roman populace turned upon him, +stormed the Capitol, captured him as he tried to slink away in disguise, +and murdered him on the steps leading down from the palace. His head was +cut off, his body was dragged through the streets and burned, and the +ashes scattered to the winds. + +The mad dream had been, in its nature, evanescent. The classical +heritage was too purely intellectual, too remote from existing needs, to +be able to shape politics. But that fourteen hundred years after the +death of Julius Caesar, Cola should have been able to establish himself +as Roman tribune on the Capitoline Hill, and to act as if the Republic +of the days of the Gracchi had been but temporarily superseded, shows +the immense influence of Rome over the mediaeval imagination, and helps +us to understand the autocratic power of the classical heritage in +shaping and directing the intellectual revolution in Italy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] _Rome in the Middle Ages_, Gregorovius, vol. vi, p. 295, note 1 +(translated). + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY + + +The fourteenth century undoubtedly felt itself emancipated from the +limitations of the Middle Ages, and with justice, so far as the +classical revival was concerned, but it did little or nothing to free +itself from ills that were distinctly of a mediaeval character,--plague, +lawlessness, and tyranny. In that respect, the transition from the +Middle Ages to the Modern World was slow and made a striking contrast +with the rapid evolution of art. + +The chief of these ills was the plague. Only in remote places of the +East, if at all, does the scourge of disease now fall as it then did in +the most civilized cities of the world, and it was from the East that +these plagues came, brought by sailors. One blasted Tuscany in 1340, one +Lombardy in 1361; but the worst was the awful Black Death of 1348, which +wrought havoc in various parts of Italy and then swept northward across +the Alps on its destructive path. It was this plague which Boccaccio +describes in the beginning of the "Decameron." It spread like fire among +dry wood which has been sprinkled with oil. At first swellings appeared +the size of an egg or an apple, then black and hard spots; on the third +day came death. Even animals caught the disease. Boccaccio saw two pigs +which had chewed the garment of a plague-stricken man die in +convulsions. Medicine was useless. Some thought the wisest course was to +live on the daintiest food and drink, and never speak of the plague; +others believed in carousing and jollity, and went about from tavern to +tavern seeking diversion, but always keeping sober enough to avoid the +sick. Private houses were deserted and lay open to anybody. Loyalty +disappeared. All who could fled into the country. Thousands fell sick +daily. In place of decent burial, dead bodies were tossed huggermugger +into trenches. Between March and July, Boccaccio says, more than 100,000 +people died within the walls of Florence. + +Florence was not singular. In Siena 80,000 people, three quarters of the +population, died; in Genoa, 40,000; in Pisa, seven out of ten, and so on +in Venice, Rome, Naples, and Sicily. These figures seem incredible; but +Petrarch says: "Posterity will not believe that there ever was a period +in which the world remained almost entirely depopulated, houses empty of +families, cities of inhabitants, the country of peasants. How will the +future believe it, when we ourselves can hardly credit our eyes? We go +outdoors, walk through street after street, and find them full of dead +and dying; when we get home again we find no live thing within the +house, all having perished within the brief interval of absence. Happy +posterity, to whom such calamities will seem imaginings and dreams." +Poor Petrarch! The lovely Laura, of whom he wrote so many perfect +sonnets, died of the Black Death in Avignon. Giovanni Villani, the +historian, died in Florence. This terrible calamity throws into high +relief the great classical impulse, to which the last chapter was +devoted. In earlier times men would have turned to religion and the +Church; but now Petrarch, a most devout Christian, and his disciples +continued to worship Cicero and the heroes of the Augustan age, and to +talk of Caesar and Pompey, Scylla and Charybdis, as the most important +and interesting of things. + +Another great evil which rivalled the plague as a curse, was the host of +mercenary soldiers who swarmed over Italy like locusts. In the days of +Barbarossa, battles like that of Legnano had been fought between the +train-bands of the communes on one side and the feudal chivalry and +men-at-arms on the other. But since then a great change had come over +the methods of raising soldiers. Under the feudal system the term of +service in the field for the liegemen of the Emperor had been forty +days; but that time was too short for an effective campaign. When the +Emperor wished to cross the Alps and go to Rome in order to receive the +Imperial crown, he was obliged to hire soldiers; and, as years went on +and these Imperial descents became mere adventurous expeditions, the +character of the soldiers degenerated, until in Petrarch's time the +Imperial armies were made up of ruffians recruited anywhere. There were +also other reasons for establishing mercenaries in place of militia. The +despots of Northern Italy did not wish their subjects trained to arms. +The burghers of mercantile cities did not wish to leave their +counting-rooms, nor to have their employees mustered out, so they too +preferred hired soldiers to a native militia. Moreover, warfare had +changed; cavalry needed frequent manoeuvres, bowmen and pikemen +required drill and continuous discipline. Thus the old train-band system +of the communes, under which the militia hurried to their appointed +posts on the ringing of the bells, gave way to the system of mercenary +troops led by soldiers of fortune, _condottieri_, as the Italians call +them. + +These soldiers, who had come down from the North to serve Emperors, or +despots like the Visconti, or perhaps had sailed from Spain to fight +under the House of Aragon in Sicily, as soon as the immediate war was +ended, having been left unpaid or having taken a liking to a trade in +which the labor was congenial, the risk small and booty enormous, +decided not to disband, but to continue to try their luck together. They +sold their services to whatever city or despot would pay them most, or +wandered about in a nomadic fashion, capturing a city if they could, if +not, living on the country-side. One can imagine these rogues among +unwarlike peasants, or in a pleasant little city like Lucca or Cremona. +They were very fickle, fought one another only upon compulsion, and then +most reluctantly and gently, and were very nearly as terrible to their +employers as to their adversaries. They were organized, sometimes very +well, in bands under a general or a council of officers, and had such +names as The Company of St. George, or The Great Company. Some of their +leaders became very famous, like Duke Werner, who proclaimed himself +"Lord of the Great Company, enemy to God, to Pity, and to Mercy." The +most interesting of these leaders, at least for us, is John Hawkwood, an +English adventurer, who began life as a London tailor, but dropped +scissors and needle to enlist for Edward III's French campaign, and +then, seeing fortune smile most sweetly from distraught Italy, crossed +the Alps and led his company all over the peninsula. There is a full +length fresco of him on horseback in the _Duomo_ at Florence, painted in +gratitude for his deeds in life or merely for his death. + +For a hundred years and more these ruffians swaggered about Italy. +Petrarch finds in them one cause the more to hold out his arms toward +the mighty past. He writes in a letter: "Oh, would that you were alive, +Brutus, Great-heart, that I might turn to you. O Manlius--O Great +Pompey--O Julius Caesar [etc., etc., etc.], O Jesus, Lord of the world, +what has happened? Why do I moan and groan for grief? Oh! a vile handful +of robbers, spewed out of their nasty dens, walks and rides over the +ancient queen of the world, Italy. Christ Jesus, in tears and +supplication I turn to Thee. Oh, if we have abused Thy goodness more +than was right, if we have shown ourselves too proud in Thy aid and +favour, if we have borne ourselves ill towards Thee, well mayst Thou not +permit us to be free; but let not this slaughter, these sacrileges, +these robberies, these deeds of violence, these ravishings of wives and +maidens, find mercy in Thine eyes. Put an end to this evil. To the +wicked who have said in their hearts 'There is no God,' show that Thou +art; and to us however unworthy, show that we are Thy children. O +Almighty Father, help us; in Thee alone we put our hope, and in +supplication we invoke Thy name, weeping and confessing that there is +none who shall fight for us, unless Thou, our Lord, be he." + +This strange mixture of classic enthusiasm and Christian piety, this odd +idea that the triumphant cause of the Roman Republic was due to the +favour of Christ, shows us that Petrarch had not yet got wholly clear of +mediaeval beliefs. But, as with Cola di Rienzo, everything Petrarch says +testifies to the power of the Roman tradition. + +A third evil, yet not to be compared with the plague and the +_condottieri_, was the tyranny of the despots. The founders of +despotisms were men of vigour and political capacity, and gave to their +subjects in lieu of liberty greater security and order than they had +enjoyed before. Their descendants, like proverbial heirs, finding hard +work both distasteful and unnecessary, gave themselves up to dissipation +and cruelty; they dropped their ancestors' attitude of leading citizens +and treated the principalities as private property, intended for their +amusement. The Visconti, though they retained their family ability and +force of character longer than most princely houses, shall serve to +illustrate the general dynastic development, more especially as the +history of Milan, which had become the chief power in Italy, will be the +best thread to carry us to the end of the century. + +Towards the middle of the century Archbishop Giovanni Visconti had +become the lord of Milan (1349-54). He was a clever, cultivated man, +interested in letters. He employed scholars to prepare a commentary on +the "Divine Comedy," and by urgent persuasion induced Petrarch to take +up his abode at Milan. On the archbishop's death his three nephews +succeeded jointly to the signory. As one of these three nephews, Bernabo +(1354-85), illustrates the moral degeneracy of the tyrant we will glance +at his habits. Bernabo was addicted to the chase. Nobody else was +allowed to keep a dog, but he kept five thousand. These he billeted on +the citizens of Milan. Every fortnight the masters of his kennels made +their rounds; if the dogs were too thin, a fine was imposed; if dead, a +general confiscation. If a man killed a wild boar or a hare, he was +maimed or hanged, or sometimes, in mercy, merely obliged to eat the +quarry raw. Bernabo was afraid of conspiracies and rebellion. No man +might go out into the street after dark for any cause whatever, under +pain of having a foot cut off. No man might utter the words "Guelf" or +"Ghibelline," under penalty of having his tongue cut out. Once Bernabo +shut up his two secretaries in a cage with a wild boar. On another +occasion a young man who had pulled a policeman's beard was condemned to +pay a small fine, but Bernabo ordered his right hand cut off. The +_podesta_ delayed execution of the sentence, so that the lad's parents +might have time to ask mercy. For this Bernabo caused the lad's two +hands to be cut off and also the _podesta's_ right hand. A sexton who +demanded too much for digging a grave was buried alive side by side +with the dead body. Two monks who came to remonstrate with Bernabo for +his cruelty were burnt alive. Nevertheless, Bernabo protested himself +devout; he fasted, built churches and monasteries. This amiable man had +thirty-two children. His brother, joint heir of the principality, +Galeazzo II, was of the same stuff, except that in place of piety he +substituted an interest in letters; he founded the University of Pavia, +and exchanged figs, flowers, and flattery with Petrarch. Galeazzo's son, +Gian Galeazzo (1378-1402), rose still higher in the world; he gave +300,000 sequins to the King of France, and in return received the king's +daughter in marriage. For a second wife he married his cousin, daughter +of his amiable uncle Bernabo, who thought that this marriage would bind +his nephew to him by bonds of filial affection. Gian Galeazzo however, +by means of a trick, got his father-in-law within his reach, arrested +him, accused him of witchcraft, put him in prison and poisoned him, and +so became sole lord of Milan. This worthy lord converted his +principality into a dukedom and became duke (1395); but as we have +followed the family to the end of the century, and long enough to make +ourselves acquainted with the habits of tyrants, we must leave them. + +Poor Italy suffering from these three evils, plagues, _condottieri_, and +tyrants, naturally sought for a cure, and, with what seems to us a +singular lack of imagination, turned to the old remedies, Emperor and +Pope. From time to time Emperors came into Italy, but the Hapsburgs were +very different from the Hohenstaufens, and their trips to Rome were +mere money-getting excursions. They sold privileges and honours, imposed +what taxes they could collect, and sneaked back to Germany. Obviously +there was no hope from Emperors. Then rose the cry for the return of the +Papacy. Every Italian, however he might hate or despise the Popes, felt +proud that the Papacy was an Italian institution, and believed that +every Pope, good or bad, should live in Rome and sit on his throne at +St. Peter's. Sentiment grew strong, especially among the women; Petrarch +thundered, St. Catherine of Siena pleaded. Moreover, the sharper +argument was urged with great practical effect, that the Papal State +might shake off the papal dominion if the Pontiffs did not look after it +themselves. The Popes began to stir uneasily. The cardinals indeed, +accustomed to the safe city of Avignon, did not care to go to turbulent +Rome, or perhaps, as Petrarch said, they could not bear to leave their +Burgundian wines. But finally Gregory XI (1370-78) raised his courage to +the sticking point. He returned to Rome in 1377, and the Babylonish +Captivity of seventy years ended. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (1350-1450) + + +The return of the Papacy to Rome was an event of importance both for +Italy and the Catholic Church. Had it remained in France, it must have +dwindled and shrunk, like Antaeus, kept away from its source of strength. +Nevertheless, the Papacy was no longer what it once had been; it cannot +serve us now as a central channel for the course of Italian history, and +will rank no higher than the first of half-a-dozen little channels, +which we must pursue separately. + +The returning Pope found his territory in greater obedience than he +deserved; for a brilliant Spanish cardinal, Albornoz who had been sent +some time before had reduced almost all the cities to subjection +(1353-67); even Bologna, successfully disputed with the Visconti, +acknowledged papal dominion. But there was neither peace nor +tranquillity. Everywhere turbulence and murmurous threatenings rumbled; +and worse was to come. The very year after the return from the +Babylonish Captivity the _Great Schism_ rent the Church asunder for +forty years. There were two parties in the College of Cardinals, the +French and the Italian, with little love lost between them. The Italians +were in control and elected Urban VI (1378-89), a domineering, cruel, +most unpastoral person, who insulted the foreign cardinals, and so +angered them that they left Rome, declared his election illegal, and +elected one of themselves as Pope in his stead. This anti-pope, attended +by his troop of cardinals, returned to Avignon. Christian Europe divided +in two: some countries recognized Urban, others recognized the +anti-pope. Thus the schism began, and prepared the way for the next +great split of Christian Europe into Catholics and Protestants. There +were now two sources of apostolic succession, two supreme rulers, and +two systems of taxation. Misbehaviour and confusion at the top lowered +the moral tone of the whole Church. The Curia in Rome was scandalously +venal. Indulgences were sold; offices were bestowed for money. Nobody in +Rome respected the Pope, hardly anybody respected the clergy. + +All Christendom felt that reformation was necessary, and that, first of +all, the schism must be closed. Thereupon some outward deference was +paid to public opinion; the Roman Pope went so far as to make ostensible +overtures to his rival at Avignon, and he of Avignon bowed and smiled +most politely in return. Friendly greetings went to and fro, and a +meeting was talked of. It became obvious, however, after a time, that +neither Pope had the slightest intention of abdicating in the other's +favour. Christendom remained insistent, and the two batches of cardinals +took the matter into their own hands. They held a Council at Pisa, which +deposed both Popes, and elected a third (1409), but, as the other two +Popes refused to acknowledge their deposition, matters were worse than +before. The situation recalled the old days when a German Emperor had +come down to Rome and had deposed three rival Popes together. The need +seemed to revive the past. The Emperor Sigismund (1410-37) assumed to +speak as the head of Christendom. He summoned an Ecumenical Council to +meet at the city of Constance, on the Lake of Constance, to judge the +schismatic quarrel and to consider the general state of the Church. +Other troubles besides schism had begun to appear. The failure of Rome +to satisfy the conscience of Europe had borne fruit. Heresy had +appeared. In England, Wyclif (1327-84) had denounced the higher clergy +for greed and arrogance; he had disavowed allegiance to the divided +Papacy, and had opposed the doctrine of transubstantiation. In Bohemia, +Jerome of Prague rejected the temporal jurisdiction of priests, and John +Huss asserted that Constantine had done great wrong when he endowed Pope +Silvester with lands and temporal power. + +Christendom responded to the Emperor's call. Prelates and scholars of +the highest character and standing assembled at Constance (1414). It was +a great occasion, and belongs to the history of Europe. This Council, +the seventeenth Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church (1414-18), +deposed all three Popes, and elected a Roman, of the House of Colonna, +Martin V (1417-31), and so closed the schism and restored unity to the +Church. The more difficult matter of crushing heresy was not so readily +dealt with. The two reformers, Jerome of Prague and John Huss, refused +to recant or modify their views. They were condemned and handed over to +the secular arm for punishment; and the Emperor, heedless of the +safe-conduct he had given, burnt them at the stake (1415-16). + +To follow the proceedings of this interesting Council more fully would +take us too far into papal affairs. It must suffice to say that the +Reformation can be sniffed in the air. Rome had not done its elementary +duties as head of Christendom, and Christendom insisted on a change and +on reform; but Rome was powerful and would not submit. Two parties +appear, the reformers and the papists. The former wished to purify the +Roman Curia and the whole Church, and to give the Papacy a republican +character,--to make the Pope a president, as it were, and the College of +Cardinals a senate. The latter liked the old easy ways and wished the +Pope to be absolute monarch. The papal party by dexterous politics +foiled the plans of the reformers and prevented change of any kind, +although no doubt it acted less from desire to obstruct reform than to +prevent the anti-monarchical party from getting control of the Church +and using the prestige of reform to attack the papal autocracy. From +this time on the papal party consistently pursued this course, and +therefore reformation came not from Rome, but from Germany, and instead +of being a reform from within, came practically as an attack from +without, and caused the permanent schism of the Reformation. We must now +leave the Papacy, which follows its wilful course--via Babylonish +Absenteeism, Schism, and refusal to reform--and steers directly towards +the rocks of the Reformation, and betake ourselves to the other parts of +Italy. + +The Kingdom of Naples would have been badly off at best under its +light-mannered queen, Joan I (1343-81), but it became involved in the +papal schism, and got into a wretched plight. The queen rashly took +sides with the Avignon Pope, and the irascible Roman Pope vowed +vengeance. He set her cousin, Charles, who belonged to the Durazzo +branch of the House of Anjou, on the throne in her stead. The story is a +miserable mixture of treasons, battles, and vulgar crimes. Charles got +possession of the unfortunate queen and strangled her, and he and his +heirs fought her adopted heirs for years. Each side hired mercenaries. +John Hawkwood was there, and other notable leaders. Poor Naples, taxed, +robbed, and ravaged by rival kings, their favourites, and mistresses, +rolled rapidly from bad to worse. Exception must be made in favour of +Charles's son Ladislaus (1390-1414), a bold, enterprising soldier, who +played a part in the affairs of Italy like that of his ancestor, Charles +of Anjou. But he failed in not leaving a son to inherit the crown, and +was succeeded by his sister, another Queen Joan (1414-35), likewise +light-mannered. There is nothing memorable to grace her career, except +the presence of a soldier of fortune, once a Romagnol peasant, Muzio +Attendolo, better known as Attendolo Sforza (strength). His son was +Francesco Sforza, destined to a brilliant career in Milan. The queen did +one thing, however, for which we, who clutch at any unification of +Italian history, must thank her. She adopted, not wholly of her free +will, Alfonso of Aragon, King of Sicily, and so brought about, though +for a few years only, the reunion of the Two Sicilies. + +With regard to Sicily we need say nothing except that the royal House, +which still had a strain of Hohenstaufen-Norman blood, died out, and +that Sicily passed as a marriage portion to the crown of Aragon, and +became a mere appanage of that kingdom (1409). Finally, as I have said, +King Alfonso was adopted as heir to the second Queen Joan, and took part +in the civil wars that devastated Naples. Then began the long struggle +of Spaniard against Frenchman (the Neapolitan House of Anjou was still +French), which was destined to be so disastrous to Italy. Alfonso +conquered and was acknowledged King of the Two Sicilies by his suzerain +the Pope (1443). Thus for a time the Southern Kingdom was united and at +peace. It is a happy moment to leave it and go northward, in the hope of +finding greater moral and intellectual activity, if not greater +tranquillity and order. + +To the northeast, Venice had been growing in power; but with the growth +of her power the number of her enemies and their bitterness towards her +had grown. Her possessions on the mainland, wrested from Verona, brought +her into hostility with Padua; her Adriatic possessions, Istria and +Dalmatia, made her an enemy of Hungary; her coastwise empire and trade +in the Levant made Genoa her deadly rival; and her imperial expansion +entangled her in war after war. Both the war with Padua and that with +Hungary told upon her, but the struggle with Genoa was far worse. During +the last grapple, known as the war of Chioggia (1378-81), Venice was +reduced to narrow straits, and but for her great admirals, Vettor Pisani +and Carlo Zeno, would have been defeated. Genoa never recovered from the +losses she sustained; but Venice regained her strength, and renewed her +conquests on the mainland. She conquered Padua (1404) and strangled the +last heirs of the House of Carrara, though they were prisoners of war; +she seized Verona, and set a price on the heads of the last of the +Scaligers, though they had been her allies. Her chief expansion on the +mainland of Italy was under the Doge Francesco Foscari (1423-57), when +she annexed Bergamo and Brescia, and carried her western boundary to the +river Adda. For the sake of convenience we may divide the life of Venice +into four stages: first, her lusty youth, which closed with the +profligate capture of Constantinople and the piratical dismemberment of +the Byzantine Empire (1204); second, her vigorous prime, which lasted +till she annexed Italian territory, threw in her lot with Italy, and +from being almost an Oriental outsider became an Italian state (1338); +third, her glorious maturity, which continued till the League of +Cambrai, when almost all Europe united to destroy her (1508); and +fourth, her long period of ebbing fortune, during which she slipped +slowly into decrepitude. In the present chapter we deal with the earlier +part of her maturity, when Venice was contesting with Milan for primacy +in power and importance. + +During all this period the oligarchy had been tightening its hold on the +government, and was now absolute and secure. One last attempt had been +made to overthrow it, but had easily been put down. No one knows exactly +what led to the conspiracy, or what was the exact purpose of the +conspirators. The ringleader was the Doge himself, Marino Faliero, one +of the old nobility. The story is that he wished to revenge himself for +a gross insult from a young nobleman, and it seems likely that a +personal quarrel had some connection with a general plot which aimed to +overthrow the oligarchy, and substitute a government of the old nobility +supported by the people. The plot was betrayed. Nine of the conspirators +were hanged from the windows of the Ducal Palace. Faliero's head was cut +off, his portrait in the hall of the Ducal Palace was painted out, and +in the blank space was written: "This is the place of Marino Faliero, +beheaded for his crimes." + +The oligarchy did not fail in its duty to itself, but neither did it +fail in its duty to the state. Commerce was the life of Venice; and the +oligarchy tended it with the utmost care. The famous Venetian arsenal +was the foster-mother of that commerce. There the money-getting ships +were built and equipped: caracks with three decks and great depth of +hold, galleasses with high forecastle and poop, galleys with long rows +of oars and lateen sails, all of different builds to suit the rough +Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, or the safer Adriatic. + +Riches, a firm rule, and the security of an island home, showed visibly +in Venice. Instead of fortresses with massive walls and solid towers, +light, elegant palaces, decked with gay balconies and incrusting +marbles, lined the canals. All revealed tranquillity and prosperity; and +the adoption of Gothic architecture in place of Byzantine, and in +especial the long Gothic arcades of the Ducal Palace (1300-40), +testified how Venice had turned her face from the East to the West. In +contrast with Sicily and Naples, rolling down hill separately or +together, and with the troubled Papal States, Venice appears altogether +happy and successful as she passes from the fourteenth into the +fifteenth century. + +Milan we have brought to the dignity of a dukedom, for which Gian +Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402), the amiable nephew of the too-confiding +Bernabo, paid the price of 100,000 sequins to the fount of honour, the +ultramontane Emperor. This nephew, despite a moral inadequacy in his +family relations, was in many respects an excellent ruler. He reduced +the more burdensome taxes (in one city, it is said, he cut them down +from 12,000 florins to 400), and abolished others altogether. He +corrected abuses, reorganized the administration of justice, and enacted +wise laws. He understood the pride of the Milanese in their city, and +laid the foundations of the great Gothic cathedral on a scale to gratify +that pride; he began the beautiful church of the Cistercian monks, the +_Certosa_, at Pavia; he completed the palace at Pavia, whither he +transported his famous collection of books and an equally famous +collection of holy bones. He had the family ambition, and annexed +Vicenza, Verona, Padua, Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Pisa, and Bologna. +Rumour said that he aspired to a kingdom of Lombardy, and even of all +Italy. But Venice and Florence were too powerful for the success of his +plans. Venice, perhaps, might have regarded herself as still too much +detached from Italy to care to oppose him single-handed; but the doughty +burghers of Florence were zealously democratic and would not endure any +suggestion of foreign dominion. They had fought the Pope, when they +suspected him of designs on their city, and now they organized a league +against Gian Galeazzo. Perhaps it would have been a most fortunate thing +for Italy if the Duke of Milan had been able to consolidate all Italy, +or even all the North, in one kingdom. Centuries of suffering, of +ignominy, of foreign domination might have been avoided; but then, +perhaps, the great intellectual harvest, that gave Italy for the third +time primacy over Europe, would not have attained its full growth. These +are idle speculations, for Gian Galeazzo died in his prime (1402), and +the universal dominion of Milan became an academic question. +Nevertheless, one cannot withhold a sensation of regret. There was +undoubted brilliance in Gian Galeazzo; whatever he did was done royally. +His ambitions were high, planned always on a large scale. His purchases +of the French king's daughter and of the ducal title were splendidly +prodigal. The design of the cathedral was noble and bold. It was an +endeavour to give the Gothic style an Italian character. In this it is +easy to find symbolism. The Gothic style represented the Ghibelline +cause, as well as Teutonic blood and influence, whereas the Italian +represented the Guelf cause and also Latin blood. The high-aspiring Gian +Galeazzo wished to use both Teutonic and Italian elements as the +materials for his kingdom. In view of his intellectual gifts, one +readily slurs over his moral inadequacy, if that term may be applied to +traits which would have done honour to Iago; in fact, prior to Caesar +Borgia, he was the most distinguished example of the type of +intellectual, murderous Italian, which exercised so powerful an +attraction over the wild fancy of the Elizabethan dramatists. + +Gian Galeazzo's death left his dukedom in a chaotic condition. A widow, +a regent committee, and three boys were left to see the state, built up +with so much care and astuteness, fall away piecemeal into the hands of +the petty despots, who had been dispossessed during the process of +integration. Venice took Verona, Padua, and other cities near by; the +Papacy got back Bologna, Florence managed to secure Pisa. Thus the +dukedom was carved up. The eldest son died soon, leaving behind him a +memory of the pleasure he took in watching mastiffs tear his prisoners +to pieces; but the second son, Filippo Maria (1412-47), inherited his +father's craft and much of his ability. By means of two famous +_condottieri_, Carmagnola, best remembered as the victim of Venetian +anger, and Francesco Sforza, of whom we have heard in the Neapolitan +service, he gradually restored the dukedom very nearly to its boundaries +under his father. Filippo Maria was the last of his race, and we will +leave him, engaged in speculation as to the best political use of his +marriageable daughter Bianca Maria. + +We must pass over the Counts of Savoy, now become dukes (1416), the +marquesses of Monferrat and Saluzzo, and the lords of other petty +territories, and turn our attention to Florence. Florence was always in +a state of struggle, always engaged in exiling, deposing, or in some way +suppressing aristocrats. Forced, in days of peril, to receive foreign +lords as military leaders, she had managed to expel the last of them, +one Walter of Brienne, a clever knave, who bore the odd title of Duke of +Athens, which he had inherited from his grandfather, one of the +gentlemen adventurers who had gone to the East. His father had been +expelled from Athens, and the son was happily driven out of Florence. +The burghers followed up their victory (1343) with new laws against the +aristocrats, and held the government for a generation. Then first +appears the name of Medici. One Salvestro dei Medici, as _Gonfaloniere_ +of Justice, the supreme officer in Florence under the existing +constitution, proposed further laws in favour of the people. The lower +classes, with whetted appetites, wanted more. The mechanics and artisans +of the lower guilds, and more particularly the wool carders and combers +(the _Ciompi_) of the great wool guilds, rose in riot, overturned the +government, and put a wool-carder, Michele di Lando, at the head of the +city (1378). Florence was democratic, but not so democratic as to submit +to the rule of a wool-carder. The rich burghers would not stomach a +plebeian any more than they would a king. A reaction set in, and the +government passed into the very competent hands of an oligarchy of +distinguished citizens. This oligarchy governed well. Its leaders, Maso +degli Albizzi, and Niccolo da Uzzano, acted patriotically and wisely. +They resisted the aggressions of Milan from the north, and of Naples +(under that exceptional king Ladislaus) from the south, and made it +their policy to maintain the balance of power in Italy. Under this +oligarchy began the great development of art, known as the Renaissance, +or, to be more exact in quoting the textbooks, the First or Early +Renaissance. To that subject, which shall give us for a time at least a +centre, and save us from these puzzling political subdivisions, we +joyfully proceed; only remembering that at this period Italy has these +main political divisions,--the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples +(the two temporarily reunited), the Papal States, the city of Florence, +the duchy of Milan, and the city of Venice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450) + + +By Renaissance, new birth, we mean the rapid, many-sided, intellectual +development which started forward in Italy at this time. It was really a +stage in the movement which began a hundred years earlier, but the +textbooks confine the term Renaissance to the period which began at the +opening of the fifteenth century; and just as the first beginning took +place in Florence, so this fresh start, like a stream of energy issuing +at a divine touch, also burst out of the city of Florence. The simplest +way to get an idea of this period, known as the Early Renaissance, will +be to notice a few of the men, leaders in their several spheres, in whom +that energy became incarnate. + +We must not let ourselves think that the Renaissance was a merely +artistic movement. A few men are known to us, and we think of them as +wandering about in artistic isolation, as if they were hermits in a +Thebaid. But, in reality, only a slight fraction of even the deeper +feelings and interests take artistic or literary form; the great +majority are put into life. The celebrated Florentine artists of those +days were merely representative of their fellows; they were surrounded +by crowds of neighbours, all crammed full with ardour for living, for +expression, for discussion, for money-making, for glorifying their +city. In recognition of this fact, and of the great service rendered to +the arts throughout the Renaissance by men who were not artists, but +potent signors of wealth and cultivation, whether merchants, dukes, or +cardinals, I take Cosimo dei Medici (1389-1464) as the first figure in +this brief account of the Early Renaissance. + +Cosimo's father, the richest banker in Italy, and one of the chief +citizens of Florence, had been active in politics, and chief of the +party which was opposed to the ruling oligarchy. Cosimo succeeded to his +father's position, and when the oligarchy fell became the actual head of +the city, though he always affected the role of private citizen. His +quick intelligence and his broad cultivation gave him keen sympathy with +the fermenting intellectual life about him, and his great wealth enabled +him to express that sympathy in most substantial ways. He got his first +schooling from a Florentine humanist, and then went abroad, travelled in +Germany and France, and visited the Council of Constance then in +session. After that his attention was devoted to business and to +political affairs. His position in Florence during early manhood was +always precarious, for the sharp-witted Florentines were not easily +hoodwinked and saw whither Cosimo's masterfulness was tending. For a +time he was in exile, but after a tussle he won his place and banished +his enemies. Wealth was his great instrument. He lent and gave lavishly. +In later life he used to say that his chief error had been that he had +not begun to spend money ten years sooner than he did. He was a serious +man, given to intellectual matters, and averse to buffoons and strolling +players, so popular then; by virtue of wide experience in the conduct of +large affairs, of extensive reading, of a retentive memory, and a +natural gift for language, he was both an interesting talker and good +company. He talked literature with men of letters, but he was equally +ready to talk divinity, in which he was well read, or philosophy, or +astrology in which he believed although some men did not. He liked +gardening, and enjoyed going out of town to his country-place; there he +would prune the vines for two hours in the morning, and then go indoors +to read. His connection with the arts of the Renaissance, however, is +our chief concern. He employed the famous architect Michelozzo to build +his palace, now known as Palazzo Riccardi, his villa, and also the +Dominican convent of San Marco. He employed the still more famous +Brunelleschi to rebuild the abbey of Fiesole. He was fond of sculptors, +especially of Donatello, and had statues by the best masters of the day +in his palace. He employed Fra Angelico to paint in the convent of San +Marco, and Benozzo Gozzoli in his private chapel. Benozzo painted a +procession of the Three Wise Men, with Cosimo, his son, and his +grandson, young Lorenzo the Magnificent, riding in their train. Cosimo's +greatest interest, however, was in the humanities. He built several +buildings for libraries in Florence, and one in Venice, and interested +himself greatly in the preservation and increase of the libraries +themselves. For the library in the abbey at Fiesole he employed a man +of letters (Vespasiano da Bisticci, his biographer), who hired +forty-five copyists, and in twenty-two months finished the two hundred +volumes deemed necessary for a good library. His list included the Bible +and concordances and commentaries, beginning with that by Origen; the +works of St. Ignatius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John +Chrysostom, and all the works of the Greek fathers which had been +translated into Latin; St. Cyprian, Tertullian, and the four doctors of +the Latin Church; the mediaeval masters St. Bernard, Hugo of St. Victor, +St. Anselm, St. Isidore of Spain; the scholastic philosophers, Albertus +Magnus, Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura; Aristotle, and +commentaries; books of canon law; the Latin prose classics, Livy, Caesar, +Suetonius, Plutarch, Sallust, Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, Cicero, +Seneca; the Latin poets, Virgil, Terence, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Plautus; +and "all the other books necessary to a library." One wonders if this +clause includes Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, or whether the humanists +did not regard them as necessary or appropriate to culture. + +Taken altogether Cosimo may stand as an heroic model of the Florentine +burgher, such as one sees in the frescoes of the time, shrewd, prudent, +thoughtful, cautious in plan and prompt in action, interested in the +best things of this world, and in a measure generous, but wholly without +romance, chivalry, or idealism. At the close of his life he used to stay +hours at a time, wrapt in thought, without speaking a word. One of the +women of the house asked him the reason of this. He answered: "When you +have to go out of town, you spend a fortnight all agog to prepare for +going; and now that I have to go from this life to another, doesn't it +seem to you that I have something to think about?" The last book he is +reported by his biographer to have read was the "Ethics" of Aristotle. + +Cosimo was named _Pater Patriae_, though his real work was the foundation +of the House of the Medici, which ruled in Tuscany for centuries and +mingled its blood with the royalties of Europe; but for us he is the +patron of the arts, the friend of artists, and serves as the central +figure round which to group the men of artistic genius. + +In architecture the greatest name is that of Brunelleschi (1377-1446). +His biography by Vasari opens with these words: "Many men are created by +nature little in person and features, who have their souls so full of +greatness and their hearts so full of the inordinate fury of genius, +that, unless they are at work on things difficult to impossibility, and +unless they finish them to the astonishment of the spectator, they never +give themselves any rest all their lives; and whatever things chance +puts into their hands, no matter how mean and cheap, they bring to worth +and dignity.... Such was Brunelleschi, no less insignificant in person +than Giotto, but of so lofty genius, that it may be said he was endowed +by heaven to give new form to architecture, which for hundreds of years +had gone astray [such was the Renaissance view of the Gothic and +Romanesque]. Moreover, Brunelleschi was adorned with the greatest +virtues; among which was friendship to such a degree, that there never +was a man more kind or more loving than he. His judgment was wholly free +from passion; wherever he saw the worth of another man's merits, he +totally disregarded any advantage to himself or to his friends. He knew +himself; he inspired others with his own noble qualities, and he always +succoured his neighbour in time of need. He declared himself a deadly +enemy of the vices, and a lover of those who practised virtue. He never +wasted time, for he was always busy with his own affairs or with the +affairs of others when they had need of him, and when out walking he +used to stop and see his friends and always lent them a hand." +Brunelleschi was no scholar, but, being a Florentine, he was very fond +of talking, and did not hesitate to take part in conversation with +learned men, especially when the talk ran on Holy Writ, and then, as a +friend said, he talked like a second St. Paul. + +He began life, as most architects did, as a member of the guild of +goldsmiths, and learned to model, but he had a bent towards physics and +mechanics, and developed naturally into an architect. A great event in +his life was a trip to Rome with Donatello; there the two examined all +the classical remains in the city and in the country round about, taking +measurements and learning all they could. + +In Florence besides the abbey of Fiesole, built for Cosimo, Brunelleschi +built the church of San Lorenzo for Cosimo's father, and he designed and +began the lordly Pitti palace across the Arno, but his great +achievement was the dome of the cathedral. The cathedral, first begun by +Arnolfo di Cambio, had been in charge of a succession of famous +architects, and was nearing completion; but the gap at the intersection +of the nave and transepts presented a most difficult architectural +problem. The diameter of this gap was about one hundred and thirty-five +feet, and the height above the ground was about one hundred and +forty-five feet. No such span had been vaulted since the building of the +Pantheon. A public competition for a dome was held in which Brunelleschi +took part. After long discussion, for Florence was "a city where every +one speaks his mind," and after much consideration, Brunelleschi was +chosen architect. His great dome, though no copy of Roman forms, was +thoroughly classic in its simplicity and its spirit, and is the great +achievement of the Early Renaissance in architecture. + +Brunelleschi and his fellow architects, no doubt, wished to revive the +old Roman art, and did so as far as they could, but their problems were +new and their models few, so they were forced, in the main, to follow +their own principles of construction and limit their use of Roman forms +to ornament and detail. Other famous men seconded Brunelleschi; and +Florentine, or at least Tuscan, architects spread the ideas of the new +art. To them is really due the foundation of the various schools of +Renaissance architecture which sprang up in Milan, Venice, Pavia, +Bologna, Rimini, Brescia, Siena, Lucca, Perugia, and in almost every +city of Northern Italy. + +In sculpture, the puissant Donatello (1386-1466) is the greatest +figure. It has been said, that Michelangelo's soul first worked in +Donatello's body or that Donatello's soul lived again in Michelangelo. +Donatello was a realist; he shows classic influence at times, in +technique and in sundry bits of detail, but his instinct was to imitate +what he could see and touch. His vigour, his energy and variety produced +a profound effect on sculpture and also on painting. His earlier works +were statues for the outside of the Campanile and of the church of +Orsanmichele, of which the most famous are that known as _Zuccone_, +Baldhead, and the splendid St. George. Afterwards he modelled a young +David, the first nude bronze since the Romans, and the statue of +Gattamelata at Padua, the first equestrian statue since that of Marcus +Aurelius in Rome. The spectator who examines the collection of +Donatello's works in the Bargello is chiefly struck by his intellectual +power, and by the immense variety of his style, from the simple outline +of the lovely St. Cecilia in low relief, to the passionate dramas carved +in altars and pulpits. + +Donatello was a great friend of Brunelleschi, and Vasari tells this +anecdote about them. Donatello modelled a Crucifix for Santa Croce, and +thinking he had done something unusually good, asked Brunelleschi what +he thought of it. Brunelleschi, with his unswerving artistic rectitude, +answered that Donatello had put a peasant on the cross, and not Jesus +Christ. Donatello, piqued more than he had anticipated, said: "If it +were as easy to model as it is to criticise, my Christ would seem to you +a Christ and not a peasant; but let's see you take a piece of wood and +go and make one." Brunelleschi did so secretly, and when he had at last +finished his Crucifix, asked Donatello to come home and dine with him. +They walked to Brunelleschi's house together, stopping at the market to +buy eggs, cheese, and other things for the dinner. Then Brunelleschi +said, "Donatello, you take these things and go to my house, and I will +come after in a minute or two." So Donatello caught them up in his +apron, went to Brunelleschi's, opened the door, and saw the Crucifix. He +was so dumbfounded that he dropped the dinner on the floor, and when +Brunelleschi, coming in, said, "Why, Donatello, what shall we have for +dinner?" Donatello answered, "For my part I have had my share to-day. If +you want yours, pick it up. No more of that. It is my lot to model +peasants, and yours to model Christs." + +Donatello was also a great friend of Cosimo's, modelled many things for +him, and inspired Cosimo with a taste for collecting antiques. He loved +Cosimo so much that he did whatever he wanted, except when it interfered +with his personal idiosyncrasies. One day Cosimo gave Donatello, who +used to go about in his workman's blouse, a cloak and a fine suit of +clothes, the costume of a gentleman. Donatello wore them for a day or +two, and then said he could not wear them, they were too fashionable. He +was buried, at his own request, near Cosimo, in the church of San +Lorenzo, which Brunelleschi had designed, and he had adorned with his +sculpture. + +Donatello worked in Venice, Mantua, Modena, Ferrara, and Prato, spent +several years in Siena, and nine in Padua, and introduced the +Renaissance into the sculpture of Northern Italy. He was a man of strong +character and poetic spirit, striving in his statues to be true to +nature and to the beautiful, to mingle pagan and Christian notions, +tradition, and freedom. He and his pupils affected the whole plastic art +of Italy. + +In painting, Masaccio (1401-28) stands conspicuous, even among many +painters of rare gifts. Modern critics call him Giotto reincarnate. +Masaccio is an unflattering nickname for Tommaso, and recalls the only +personal trait we know of him. Vasari says: "He was a most absent-minded +person and very casual, like a man who has fixed his will and his whole +mind on art only, and cares little about himself and less about others. +He never wanted to think in any way about the things or the cares of +this world, even of his own clothes, and he never went to get the money +due him from his debtors except when he was in extreme need. Instead of +Thomas, everybody called him Masaccio; not because he was bad, being +good nature itself, but because of his great absent-mindedness. +Nevertheless, he was as affectionate in doing useful and amiable acts +for other people as could possibly be wished." This "marvellous boy" +died at the age of twenty-seven, but left an ineffaceable mark on +Italian painting. Across the Arno, in the ugly church of Santa Maria del +Carmine, is a chapel on the right, in which, mingled with the work of +contemporaries and continuers, are Masaccio's frescoes, figures of St. +Peter and St. John, of a shivering boy, and a few others. Leonardo da +Vinci said: "After Giotto, the art of painting declined again, because +every one imitated the pictures that were already done; thus it went on +till Tommaso of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect +works how those who take for their standard any one but Nature--the +mistress of all masters--weary themselves in vain."[16] In that little +chapel, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and scores of the greatest +painters of Italy have admired, studied, and copied. + +Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio are but the greater names in the fine +arts. Well might Leon Battista Alberti, himself a great architect and +humanist, on return from exile to his native city, say to Brunelleschi: +"I have been accustomed both to wonder and to grieve that so many divine +arts and sciences which we see to have abounded in those most highly +endowed ancients were now lacking and utterly lost ... but since I have +been restored to this our native land that surpasseth all others in her +adornment, I have recognized in many but chiefly in thee, Philip +[Brunelleschi], and in our near friend Donato [Donatello] the sculptor, +and in those others, Nencio [Ghiberti], and Luca [della Robbia], and +Masaccio, genius capable for every praiseworthy work, not inferior to +that of any ancient and famous master in the arts."[17] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] _Leonardo da Vinci_, Richter. + +[17] _Church Building in the Middle Ages_, C. E. Norton, p. 280. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE RENAISSANCE (1450-1492) + + +The last chapter confined itself to the fine arts and omitted the main +element, humanism, which gave volume and impetus to the stream, and, +though not memorable for conspicuous achievements as the fine arts were, +flowed more directly from the classic impulse and produced the greatest +immediate effect. The humanists played a part analogous to that which +men of science play in our own time; they devoted themselves heart and +soul to the classics, as men of science do to Nature. For some time they +had had access to the Latin past through Italy, and now they also found +their way to the far greater classic world of Greece. The one +uninterrupted communication with that world was through Constantinople, +which, like a long, ill-lighted and ill-repaired corridor, led back to +the great pleasure domes of Plato and Homer, and all the wonderland of +Greek literature and thought. Aristotle, indeed, had come by way of the +Arabs, and had long been a lay Bible, but for the other Greek classics +the rising humanism of Italy was indebted to Constantinople. The glowing +young city of Florence lit its torch at the expiring embers of the +imperial city. A few Italians went to Constantinople and learned Greek, +then stray Byzantines came to Italy. The doom which hung over +Constantinople frightened scholars and drove them westward, and the fall +itself (1453) dispersed the last of them. These Greeks brought +invaluable manuscripts and firmly established Hellenic culture in the +kindred soil of Tuscany. In the list of books in Cosimo's library, there +was no mention of any Greek classic except Aristotle; but after the +immigration of Greek scholars all intellectual Florence went mad over +Plato, and Cosimo founded a Platonic Academy. The study of Greek brought +with it examination, comparison, criticism; it brought new knowledge; it +gave new ideas to all the arts, new impulses to the creative +imagination, and general intellectual freedom. Interest in the +humanities became so widespread throughout the peninsula that we get a +feeling of Italian unity stronger than any we have experienced since the +days of Theodoric. + +The importance of the humanists, however, was merely as an intellectual +leaven. They need not be spoken of apart from the general intellectual +movement which expressed itself so much more fully and freely in art +than in any other way. That movement kindled enthusiasm from Lombardy to +Calabria; and Florence still maintained her primacy. All the other +cities of Italy lagged far behind her. We must therefore keep Florence +as our paradigm, only remembering that at her heels a score of cities +toil and pant in artistic eagerness to make themselves as beautiful and +famous as Florence. + +There Cosimo, _Pater Patriae_, had died in fulness of years and was +succeeded by his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, though not +immediately, for there was a short-lived Piero in between. Lorenzo took +his grandfather's place, became lord of Florence in all but name, and +stood the centre of a brilliant group of artists, sculptors, poets, and +scholars. His reign, for it must be so called, lasted from 1469 to 1492, +a most notable span of time. The mere names of the famous Florentines +would fill pages. A few must be mentioned: Benedetto da Maiano, sculptor +and architect, who carved the beautiful pulpit in Santa Croce, and drew +the designs for the palace-fortress of the Strozzi; Giuliano da San +Gallo, sculptor and architect, who made the plans for Lorenzo's villa at +Poggio a Caiano; Andrea della Robbia, nephew to Luca, and almost his +equal in the tender charm of his blue and white Madonnas; Mino da +Fiesole, who made a bust of Lorenzo's father, and carved in marble the +sweetness of young mothers; Antonio Rossellino, who wrought the famous +tomb for a great Portuguese prelate in the church of San Miniato; Andrea +Verrocchio, who painted the Uffizi Annunciation, so beautiful that it +was long attributed to Leonardo, modelled the lady _dalle belle mani_ in +the Bargello, and the Colleoni at Venice, greatest of equestrian +statues; Benozzo Gozzoli, who painted the three generations of Medici in +the Riccardi palace, and in the Campo Santo at Pisa the enchanting +frescoes which turn the Old Testament into a kind of Arabian Nights; +Antonio Pollaiuolo, sculptor and painter, a leader in the new school of +realism, and notable for the feeling of movement which he conveys; +Filippino Lippi, Lippo Lippi's son, who completed the frescoes in the +chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine left unfinished by Masaccio; +Botticelli, the greatest of all the Florentine painters, except Leonardo +and Michelangelo; Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose frescoes in Santa Maria +Novella tell us more about those shrewd, capable, quick-witted +Florentines than any historian; Pulci, the poet, who wrote "Morgante +Maggiore," a gay epic, which Savonarola thought ought to be burned; +Poliziano, great embodiment of culture, who wrote the first lyrical +tragedy, and led the way towards the opera; Marsilio Ficino, the +philosopher who helped Cosimo found the Platonic Academy; Pico della +Mirandola, the charming scholar, whom Machiavelli called "a man almost +divine." + +Perhaps none of these men were equal to the leaders in the group which +surrounded Cosimo, but they are more interesting to us, and touch our +sympathy more readily. They are nearer to us. The earlier problems in +architecture, sculpture, and painting were more difficult, but they had +been successfully solved; and the fresh problems, which confronted the +younger generation, though less adventurous, were more refined. The sons +have entered into a hard-earned inheritance, and live more freely. They +have more spiritual alertness than their fathers though less vigour, +more sensitiveness to passing moods though less robustness, greater +mastery of technique though less genius for principles. Less great +themselves, they have created greater works. Benedetto's Palazzo Strozzi +is more majestic and splendid than Michelozzo's Palazzo Riccardi; +Verrocchio's statue of Colleoni surpasses Donatello's Gattamelata; +Botticelli's poetry is more interesting, at least to the unlearned, than +Masaccio's puissant drawing. Nevertheless, the greater intimacy of +sympathy and interest which we feel for the later men is not accounted +for by their greater command of their crafts. There is some new element +less readily discovered. We perceive a change of attitude toward life, a +new conception of human existence. The readiest explanation and perhaps +the best, if we do not treat it as completely adequate, lies in the new +Greek thought (or rather Greek thought as the Florentines understood +it), which the humanists contributed to Italian culture; and indeed not +so much in Greek thought itself, as in the impulse it gave to a subtler +and more complicated conception of life. + +Direct Greek influence is most conspicuous in Botticelli. This rare +spirit wandered about half in the world of reality which he ill +understood and depicted badly, and half in a world of fantasy which he +knew better than any other painter. The secret of this world of fantasy, +as he discovered, was motion. If a vision tarries, it becomes touched by +the blight of familiarity, soiled by the comradeship of life. The fairy +spirit of imagination must be ever on the wing. No artist ever let Sweet +Fancy loose as Botticelli did in his two great pictures, The Primavera +(Spring) and The Birth of Venus. In them this Greek influence finds its +fullest direct expression. The glory of dawn, the first unveiled fresh +beauty of the world, which the Greeks saw, Botticelli saw also. But +besides the childlike joy in pure beauty is another, more complicated, +element. Into the rapturous Greek world, beautiful with sensuous charm, +the bewildering idea of a moral order presents itself. On the +countenance of Venus and in the figure of Primavera there is a +wistfulness, as if they had a presentiment that they must leave the +rose-strewn ocean and the magic wood in which they found themselves. The +consequence is a sadness as of beholding an antagonism between two +beautiful things. + +The subtler and more complicated conception of life is best expressed by +Verrocchio, the other master spirit of this generation, who displays in +his paintings and statues the joy he takes in pure beauty, but always +adds some other element. The little boy who hugs a dolphin in the court +of the Palazzo Vecchio is the incarnation of the grace and happiness of +childhood, but he has an impish, Puck-like expression. The young bronze +David, who has just conquered Goliath, has an odd, mischievous +sprightliness. Both statues intimate a sceptical attitude towards the +fine seriousness of life which had marked Puritan Florence of the older +days. His painting of the Annunciation shows a magic background, +beautiful and mystical, with enchanted cities, rivers, mountains, like +the part of Xanadu where Kubla Khan decreed his pleasure dome, or the +strange land where La belle Dame sans Merci left her knight-at-arms +alone and palely loitering. Subtle thoughts play over his statues and +paintings, and he taught his pupil Leonardo that strange and beautiful +fascination of face which expresses one knows not what. The earlier +simplicity of the _quattrocento_ has passed, the artist's attitude to +life has become complicated, although the love of beauty for beauty's +sake remains abundantly. + +The lord of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, the centre and patron of +this glittering ring, is the best exponent of the late _quattrocento_ +taken as a whole. He touched life on every side, public and private, +intellectual and frivolous, religious and cynical, artistic, literary, +philosophical. Lorenzo had a striking, indeed a fascinating, +personality. His figure was strong and lithe, and his face among a +thousand caught the eye. His big jaws, under his lean, furrowed cheeks, +were square and grim. His long irregular nose and curving lips gave him +a somewhat sardonic expression, but his broad forehead was grave and +thoughtful, and "princely counsel" shone in his face. His whole aspect +was full of character and dignity. Every one felt his fascination. He +was a poet and wrote poems of many kinds, grave and gay, some of which +are of acknowledged merit: + + Quant'e bella giovinezza + Che si fugge tuttavia, + Chi vuol essere lieto, sia, + Di doman non v'e certezza.[18] + +He was a scholar, and full of the fashionable admiration for Plato, +though he probably shared the current confusion between Plato's own +thoughts and those of the Alexandrian Neoplatonists. He was a statesman +of foresight and shrewdness, and contributed more than any one else to +preserve the peace of Italy, by maintaining the balance of power among +the greater states. He was also a very charming person, and endeavoured +to make life in Florence a happy mixture of mirth and intellectual +pleasure; and it must be remembered in appreciation of the general +sobriety of his life, that a gifted company of men did all they could to +spoil him. + +Lorenzo was the most remarkable prince of the _quattrocento_, but there +were many others who patronized scholars and artists as generously as +he. Alfonso of Aragon, the king who temporarily united the Two Sicilies, +was devoted to the humanities. He was wont to hear Terence and Virgil +read aloud at dinner, and took Livy with him on his campaigns. But +Naples and Sicily had almost no share in the achievements and glory of +the Italian Renaissance. Lawless, ignorant, poor, unsuccessful, they +responded feebly to the efforts of individuals, who, here and there, +strove to emulate the great Florentines. But in the North all the world +was mad for art, and its princes led the fashion. Federigo da +Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (1422-1482), was the foremost scholar among +soldiers and the foremost soldier among scholars; he gathered together a +noble library, now lodged in the Vatican; he built a palace, unmatched +in Italy; and collected about him artists of all kinds. Yet Federigo was +a soldier by nature as well as by profession, as one may see from the +great portrait of him in the Uffizi, painted by Piero della Francesca. +His strong profile, with firm mouth and big, broken, aquiline nose, +testifies far more forcibly to his character as a warrior than as a +virtuoso. His near neighbour, the tyrant of Pesaro (a little city by the +Adriatic coast), Alessandro Sforza, passed the intervals between his +battles in buying books. Duke Ercole of Ferrara was likewise a patron of +art, and adorned his capital as well as his palaces and villas with all +sorts of beautiful things. The dukes of Milan were somewhat eclipsed, +but only for a time, by their less powerful rivals of Ferrara and +Urbino. The old ducal line of the Visconti had died out with Filippo +Maria, and Francesco Sforza (husband of Filippo's daughter), who +succeeded to the duchy (1450), was busy making good his very defective +title, and had little time to attend to art or letters. Even he kept +humanists in his pay, and continued work on the glorious Certosa of +Pavia. + +Not only princes but private citizens were lovers and patrons of art. In +almost every city of the North--excepting Piedmont--there was some +artist of whom the whole city was proud. Nevertheless, throughout the +reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent Florence continued to be the most +intellectual of Italian cities, as she had been for many generations; +but on Lorenzo's death the primacy in the arts and in matters of the +mind passed from Florence to Rome. By a flattering chance that primacy +seemed to follow the fortunes of a single family. Under Cosimo, Piero, +and Lorenzo dei Medici, the Renaissance may be said to have made +Florence its home; in the later period it found its fullest expression +in Rome, and even there took its name, the Age of Leo, from another +Medici, Lorenzo's son. It was not to Pope Leo, however, but to his +predecessors, that Rome was indebted for preeminence. At the summons of +the Papacy men of genius went to Rome from all Italy, but chiefly from +Florence; and a distinguished Tuscan, almost a Florentine, who went from +Florence to Rome at the culmination of a brilliant career, fairly serves +as the personification of this intellectual migration. Tommaso +Parentucelli, who was born in a little town near Lucca, was educated in +Florence and Bologna. He took holy orders early, and, going back to +Florence, quickly became intimate with the clever set of humanists who +surrounded Cosimo. He was a great student, and won so high a reputation +for learning that it was to him Cosimo applied for advice, when he +wanted the right books for the library at Fiesole. This collection +became famous and was copied both at Rimini and Urbino. Parentucelli was +a very capable and attractive man, and embodied in its best form the +essence of Florentine humanistic culture. His character, talents, and +accomplishments were recognized in the Church; he became bishop, +cardinal, and finally Pope, as Nicholas V (1447-55). + +At Rome Nicholas showed the well-marked characteristics of the +Renaissance. He fostered learning, art, and general culture, not only +because of his interest in them, but because he thought that by their +means he could overcome that rumbling spirit of reform, which was making +trouble in Bohemia and Germany, and that by giving the reformers +intellectual interests he could occupy their minds and quell their +discontent. He entertained lofty imaginings of a Papacy, resting on +learning and culture, housed in a nonpareil city, which should be the +acknowledged and admired head of Christendom. He gathered together +scholars of all kinds, collected a library of five thousand volumes, and +founded the Vatican library. He rebuilt or restored numerous churches +and other buildings in Rome, he began the new Vatican palace, and +planned a new cathedral in place of the old basilica of St. Peter's, to +be the greatest church in Christendom. He brought to Rome architects, +painters, goldsmiths, artists, and artisans of all sorts. With him began +the brilliant period of the Papacy as a secular power devoted to art and +culture, which culminated in what is known as the Age of Leo X. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] + + Oh, how beautiful is youth + Ever hurrying away, + Come, let him who will be gay, + In to-morrow there's no truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (1494-1537) + + +We must now leave the great intellectual progress of the Renaissance on +its way from its home in Florence to its culmination in Rome, and look +over the political condition of the principal divisions of Italy. A +complete change comes during this period, that can only be likened to +the change wrought by the invasions of the Barbarians in ancient times. +In fact, it is a period of fresh invasions by Barbarians, as the +Italians, and not without some justice, still called foreigners. The +year 1494 was the fatal date of the first invasion of the French. From +that year onward there was a series of invasions of French, Austrians, +and Spaniards, until Italy was finally parcelled out according to the +pleasure of the invaders. Before that time Italy was in a peaceful and +prosperous condition. The famous Florentine historian Guicciardini +(1483-1540) thus records the time of his boyhood: "Since the fall of the +Roman Empire Italy had never known such great prosperity, nor had +experienced so desirable a condition as in the year 1490 and the years +just before and after. The country had been brought to profound peace +and tranquillity, agriculture spread over the roughest and most sterile +hills no less than over the most fertile plains, and Italy, subject to +no dominion but her own, abounded in men, merchandise, and wealth. She +was embellished to the utmost by the magnificence of many princes, by +the splendour of many most noble and beautiful cities, by the seat and +majesty of Religion; she was rich in men most apt in public affairs, and +in minds most noble for all sorts of knowledge. She was industrious and +excellent in every art, and, according to the standard of those days, +not without military glory." + +In these happy years, and in the decades that preceded them, Italian +politics was a domestic game between the five principal powers, Papacy, +Naples, Florence, Venice, and Milan, who treated one another's border +cities as stakes. They made leagues and counter-leagues, waged +innumerable little wars, fought bloodless skirmishes, flourished their +swords, blew their trumpets, and made a good deal of commotion; but they +were all Italians, they all knew the rules of the game, however +irregular and complicated those rules might appear to an outsider, and +if there were bloody heads, they were all in the family. With 1494 came +the change. History seemed to turn back a thousand years; the French +poured over the Alps from the northwest, the Imperial soldiers of the +House of Hapsburg from the northeast, and the Spaniards from their +province of Sicily to the south. + + +_Milan, 1466-1535_ + +Our chronicle had better begin with the duchy of Milan. There, on the +death of Francesco Sforza (1466), his son, Galeazzo Maria, succeeded to +the throne. This duke was a typical Italian ruler, brilliant in +display, liberal in giving, harsh in taxing, interested in art and +scholarship, crafty and cruel in politics, and shamelessly dissolute in +private life. Fearful stories of his brutality are told. He was +literally insufferable, and was assassinated (1476). It is interesting +to see the great classical influence, which stimulated the arts and the +humanities, quickening the spirits of young men and giving an antique +lustre to murder. The story goes that a schoolmaster of Milan, who had +drilled his boys in Plutarch, till Plutarch's world seemed to live +again, burst out in his lecture, "Will none among my pupils rise up like +Brutus and Cassius to free his country from this vile yoke and merit +eternal renown?" Three of his pupils, stimulated by private wrongs to +emulate the classical example, murdered the duke in a church. All three +were put to death. The last to die was skewered on iron hooks and cut to +pieces alive. "I know," he said, "that for my wrongdoings I have +deserved these tortures and more besides, could my poor flesh endure +them; but as for the noble act for which I die, that comforts my soul. +Instead of repenting it, were I to live my life ten times again, ten +times again to perish in these tortures, none the less would I +consecrate all my life's blood, and all my might, to that noble +purpose." + +The results of the murder were unimportant. In politics, even more than +in the arts, the classic impulse only affected details. Lodovico Sforza, +nicknamed Il Moro, the late duke's brother, seized the government and +supplanted the lawful heir, his young nephew, in every ducal +prerogative except the title. Lodovico was a brilliant, intellectual +man, devoid of moral sense; and for a time flourished in the full +sunshine of the opening High Renaissance. He patronized Bramante, he +employed familiarly Leonardo da Vinci. But his political talents were +suited to the earlier period of domestic Italian politics. Had he lived +then, his abilities, inherited from both the Sforzas and Visconti, would +have kept him secure on his ducal throne; but he did not understand the +larger forces of European politics. + +Milan being at odds with Naples, and the other Italian powers as usual +either taking part, or biding a more favourable time, Lodovico Sforza +thought it would be a brilliant play, in the little Italian game, to use +a foreign piece to checkmate Naples. He invited the French king, Charles +VIII, who represented the claims of the House of Anjou to the Neapolitan +crown, to come into Italy and take possession of his own. Other Italian +politicians, with no more knowledge of European politics than Lodovico, +joined in the petition. Charles VIII, an ugly little man, of scant +intelligence, strong in a compact and vigorous kingdom, believing that +he could play the part of a Charlemagne, accepted the suggestion with +alacrity, got together an admirable army, and crossed the Alps, in the +memorable year 1494. He received the respects of Lodovico and swept +triumphantly down through Italy. No resistance to speak of was +attempted. Florence made a treaty with him, the Pope was delighted to be +able to do the like, and Naples watched her king run away and the +French march in, with blended indifference and pleasure. This brilliant +success, however, was a mere blaze of straw. The powers of Europe took +alarm, and while the puny Charles was rioting in Naples, made a league, +in which Venice, the Pope, and the double-dealing Sforza joined. Charles +hurried north as fast as he could, and barely escaped across the Alps. +But the episode was full of portent for Italy. The Barbarians had once +again broken through the barrier which nature had set up to protect +Italy; they had rediscovered what a delightful place Italy was; and the +second period of Barbarian invasion had begun. We cannot dally over +Milan. Sforza's treachery overreached itself. The succeeding King of +France, Louis XII, a prince of Orleans, was a grandson of Gian Galeazzo +Visconti's eldest daughter, and had as good a legal title to the +inheritance of the Visconti as his second cousin Lodovico; though in +strictness neither title had any legal value. Revenge lent strength to +Louis's claim. In a few years (1499), the French again descended into +the pleasant plains of Lombardy, captured Milan, took Sforza prisoner, +and locked him up in a French prison for the rest of his life. + +It is useless to follow the shifting ownership of Milan, tossed about in +the great struggle between Francis I of France and the Emperor Charles +V. The Empire espoused the cause of the Sforza heirs and put them back +on the throne. Then France gained the battle of Marignano (1515) and +recovered Milan, but the Empire conquered at Pavia (1525), and finally +won. The male line of the Sforzas became extinct in 1535; and the +dukedom of Milan, though it continued to be a nominal fief of the +Empire, was annexed to the Spanish crown by Charles V (who was King of +Spain as well as Emperor), and passed as a part of the Spanish +inheritance to a line of Spanish kings. The Barbarian occupation of +Milan was destined to last for three hundred years. + + +_Florence, 1492-1537_ + +Now that we have followed Milan into the service of Spanish masters, we +must do a somewhat similar office for Florence. But Florence's liberty +was put out in glory. The politic statesman, Lorenzo dei Medici, whose +sagacity had contributed so much to the pleasant state of Italy prior to +the French invasion, died in 1492. The great period of Florentine +intellectual primacy ended with him, for, though Florence continued to +pour forth genius, that genius no longer was gathered together at home +but emigrated to honour other places. Nevertheless, she again challenges +our admiration; the ancient republican city once more asserted its +preeminence by a burst of moral enthusiasm. Nowhere else in Italy +throughout the Renaissance was such a spectacle seen, and though the +leader, Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98), was a native of Ferrara, yet it +was in Florence, and among Florentines, that he kindled enthusiasm and +ran his brilliant career. Savonarola was the reincarnation of a Hebrew +prophet, a Florentine Habakkuk, passionately sure of the moral +government of God, passionately convinced that the wickedness of Italy +must bring its own punishment and purification. Shortly before +Lorenzo's death he became a distinguished preacher, spoke in the +cathedral, and won the ear of the people. He preached righteousness and +judgment to come. He proclaimed spiritual evils and political +punishments, and foretold that God would stretch forth His hand and send +His avenger to punish Italy. The prophecies were so definite, and fitted +the invasion of Charles VIII so accurately, that Savonarola was hailed +as a prophet. In the excitement over the French invasion Lorenzo's sons +were driven out, the former republican constitution reestablished, and +Savonarola raised by a burst of popular enthusiasm practically to the +position of guiding and governing the city. The best way to understand +Savonarola's influence is to read a few extracts from the diary of Luca +Landucci, a Florentine apothecary:-- + +"December 14, 1494. On this day Fra Girolamo greatly laboured in the +pulpit that Florence should adopt a good form of government; he has been +preaching in Santa Maria del Fiore [the Duomo] every day, and this day, +Sunday, he preached, and he did not want women but men, and he wanted +the officers of the city, and nobody stayed in the Palace [Palazzo +Vecchio, the City Hall] except the Gonfaloniere and one other; all the +officials in Florence were there, and he preached about matters of +state, that we ought to love and fear God and love the common weal, and +that no man henceforth should wish to hold his head high or wish himself +great. He always inclined to the people's side, and insisted that no +blood should be shed, but that punishment should be made in some other +way; and he preached like this every day.... + +"April, 1495. Fra Girolamo preached and said that the Virgin Mary had +revealed to him how the city of Florence would become richer, more +glorious, and more powerful than she had ever been, but not till after +many troubles; and he spoke all this as if he were a prophet, and most +of the people believed him, especially the better sort who had no +political or partisan passions.... + +"June 17, 1495. The Frate nowadays is held in such esteem and devotion +in Florence that there are many men and women who would obey him +implicitly, if he should say 'walk into the fire.' Many believe him to +be a prophet, and he said so himself.... + +"February 16 [1496], the Carnival. Fra Girolamo preached a few days ago +that the children, instead of foolish pranks, throwing stones, etc., +should collect alms and distribute them to the worthy poor; and, thanks +to divine grace, such a change was wrought, that in place of tomfoolery +the children collected alms for days beforehand, [and to-day six +thousand of them or more, carrying olive branches and singing hymns, +marched to the Duomo where they offered up their alms] so that good +sensible men wept from tenderness and said, 'Truly this new change is +the work of God.' ... I have written this because it is the fact and I +saw it, and I felt the greatest happiness to have my children among +those blessed innocent bands.... + +"August 15, 1496. Fra Girolamo preached in Santa Maria del Fiore [the +Duomo, where great scaffolds had been erected which were filled with +children singing], and there was so much holiness in the church, and it +was so sweet to hear the children sing, above, below, and on every side, +singing so simply and so modestly, that they did not seem like children. +I write this because I was there and saw it and felt so much spiritual +sweetness. In truth the Church was full of angels." + +The friar's political enemies were strong, and the Pope, the very +notable Borgia, Alexander VI, in anger and in fear, excommunicated him, +and bade the Signory of Florence forbid him to preach. There was great +disturbance over this action, and feeling ran to a passionate height. +One of Savonarola's disciples, a foolish Dominican, challenged an +adversary to the ordeal by fire; the challenge was accepted, and on the +appointed day all Florence, in great excitement, flocked to the +_piazza_. The Dominican and his adversary were there, and their +respective partisans, but nothing was done. One delay followed another; +there was nothing but hesitancy, disagreement as to conditions, backing +and filling. The disappointed populace turned on Savonarola. They had +believed him a prophet and expected to see a judgment of God. The Pope +took advantage of this resentment, and demanded his trial. Savonarola +was tried, and tortured. During the torture a confession was extorted +from him, which was undoubtedly pieced out by forgery. Our apothecary +says:-- + +"April 19, 1498. The confession of Fra Girolamo was read before the +Council in the Great Hall, which he had written with his own hand,--he +whom we held to be a prophet,--and he confessed that he was not a +prophet, and had not received from God the things he preached, and he +confessed to many things in the course of his preaching which were the +opposite of what he had given us to understand. I was there to hear the +confession read, and was bewildered and stood astonished and stupefied. +My soul was in pain to see such an edifice tumble to earth because it +all rested on a lie. I expected Florence to be a new Jerusalem from +which should proceed laws, glory, and the example of a good life and to +behold the restoration of the Church, the conversion of the infidels, +and the comfort of good men, and now I behold the opposite,--and I took +the medicine. In Thy will, O God, stand all things." + +Savonarola was condemned to death for heresy; he was hanged, his body +burned, and his ashes flung into the Arno. So ended the one moral effort +of the Italian Renaissance. + +After his death the Republican government endured for a time; but the +Medicean faction was powerful and forced its way back in 1512. Then +Lorenzo's second son, Giovanni (1475-1521), following the steps of +Florentine art and humanism, went to Rome and became Pope Leo X. As +Pope, he was able to strengthen his family in Florence and to extend its +dominion. But Republicanism, quickened by the events then happening in +Rome, flared up once more in 1527; but it was helpless before the +hostile spirit of the time. Another Medici had become Pope, Clement VII, +and the requirements of policy induced the calculating Emperor, Charles +V, to suppress what he deemed a rebellion. Florence made a gallant +defence; Michelangelo strengthened her walls, and the courage of the +defenders threw a dying glory over the city. A great grandson of +Lorenzo, Alessandro dei Medici, was put into power, and married to a +daughter of Charles V. He was succeeded by a distant cousin, Cosimo +(1537), who was honoured by His Holiness the Pope with the title of +Grand Duke of Tuscany. Thus Florentine liberty was extinguished, and the +Medici were established as dukes in name as well as in fact. + + +_The Two Sicilies, 1494-1516_ + +In the south, it will be remembered, Alfonso the Magnanimous, as the +grateful humanists dubbed him, had united Sicily and the mainland; but +on his death (1458) the kingdom fell asunder. Sicily, as a part of the +Kingdom of Aragon, devolved on a legitimate brother, whereas Naples, +claimed as a conquest, was bequeathed to a bastard son, Ferdinand the +Cruel. The two kingdoms followed their respective dynasties for nearly +fifty years, when Sicily came by inheritance to Ferdinand of Aragon. +That crafty and eminently successful monarch, not satisfied with +Castile, Granada, Sicily, and a transatlantic realm, but coveting the +Kingdom of Naples, conspired with Louis XII of France, who now +represented the traditional Angevin claim; the two invaded the coveted +kingdom, and divided it between them (1500-1). Naturally, the rogues +disagreed over the division of the spoils, and fell foul of each other. +The Spaniards were triumphant, and the Kingdom of Naples was annexed to +the crown of Spain. Thus the Two Sicilies were reunited under the +Spanish crown, and on Ferdinand's death (1516) descended to his +grandson, the Emperor Charles V. The unfortunate kingdom remained an +appanage of Spain for two hundred years. + + +_Venice, 1453-1508_ + +In the northeast Venice still led a brilliant career, like a charming +woman who has received some fatal hurt and does not know it, but +instinctively lives more brilliantly than ever. Her fatal hurt was the +conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). At first the only +obvious ill consequence was war. Venice, willy-nilly, stepped into the +place of Constantinople, and became "the bulwark of the West." She waged +war after war with the Turks and maintained her reputation for valour +and resolution, but Turkey was too strong for her, and little by little +stripped her of her long-drawn-out empire of coast and island. A far +worse blow than direct war was the cutting of the great trade routes +with the East, which damaged all the maritime cities of Italy, but +Venice most. Turkey stopped the supplies of Venetian greatness, and +slowly but surely sapped Venetian strength. On the stoppage of the +straight road to Asia, the blocked current of commerce poked about for a +new way, and discovered that it could reach the East by doubling the +Cape of Good Hope. Commerce thus avoided Turkey, but it also abandoned +the Mediterranean, great centre and source of ancient civilization, and +left the maritime cities of Italy stranded, as it were, on the shores +of a forsaken sea. + +This doom, however, was still hidden in the obscurity of the future, and +Venice appeared to be at the height of prosperity. The French +ambassador, Philippe de Commines, called her "the most triumphant city I +have ever seen." The Venetians were a people apart from other Italians; +they never suffered from foreign invasion, or domestic revolt; they +lived in isolation, maintained their own customs and usages, and enjoyed +a sumptuous, opulent life, in proud security. Venice was the richest, +the most comfortable, the best governed city in the world. In military +strength she was commonly reckoned the first power in Italy, with the +Papacy, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Duchy of Milan about equal in +second rank. Venice entertained no suspicion of any seeds of decadence, +and continued her greedy career of annexation on the mainland, with a +haughtiness worthy of ancient Rome. She laid hands on part of Romagna, +and angered the Popes who had a title thereto, which, however imperfect, +was much better than the Venetian title. She provoked the Emperor +Maximilian, of the House of Hapsburg, who claimed Verona as an Imperial +city; and to the west she came into dangerous competition with the +French invaders. These enemies, taking their cue from the piratical +seizure of Naples by the French and Spanish, agreed together to +partition the Venetian territory on the mainland, and invited all the +powers of Europe to join them and take a share of the booty. The +coalition planned a kind of joint-stock piracy. This was the League of +Cambrai (1508), which stripped Venice of all her Italian territory, and +threatened the city herself. The allies, however, fell out among +themselves; and Venice, by biding her opportunity, in the course of time +managed to recover most of her lost territory. Thus, though for a season +the Barbarians brought the haughty city to her knees, she weathered the +storms better than the rest of Italy, and continued to maintain her +independence for three centuries to come. + +The Papacy deserves a chapter to itself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE PAPAL MONARCHY (1471-1527) + + +The Papacy found itself in an exceedingly difficult situation. It had to +adapt an ecclesiastical system, matured in the Middle Ages, to new +political systems, to new knowledge, to new thought, in short, to a new +world. During its struggle with the Empire, the course before it, +however arduous, had been plain, namely, to abase the Emperors; during +its captivity at Avignon, its duty to return to Rome (though individual +Popes were blind or indifferent) likewise had been plain; during the +schism, the one end to be aimed at was union. But now everything was +new, and a new policy had to be devised. There were three matters which +required particular consideration: the demand for reform which came from +across the Alps; the great intellectual awakening of the Renaissance; +and the ambitions of the other Italian powers. For these problems the +solution which the Papacy tried was twofold: to establish a firm +pontifical principality, and to use the new intellectual forces as a +motive power to keep itself at the head of Christendom. By a strong +pontifical principality the Papacy hoped to secure itself against the +covetousness of the other Italian states. By using the new intellectual +forces it hoped to range them on its side, and so to choke, or at least +to overcrow, the ultramontane cry for reform. One need not suppose that +such a plan was consciously thought out in detail from the beginning; +rather it was the course which the Papacy gradually took, partly from +theory, partly under the stress of passing circumstances. + +We remember that the Council of Constance closed the Great Schism, and +sent Martin V (1417-31) back to Rome as sole Pope. His pontificate marks +the end of the old Republican commune, which had made so much trouble +for Popes and Emperors in days past, and therefore marks the first +definite stage in the transformation of the Papacy into a local secular +power. Rome, although she did not deny herself an occasional outbreak in +memory, as it were, of good old days, settled down into a papal city. + +The most interesting part of the papal story is the process that went on +within the Church. The intolerable burden of ecclesiastical taxation, +the growth of heresy, and the degeneration of the clergy, as well as the +Great Schism, had roused Europe to a sense that something must be done, +and Europe attempted the old remedy of Ecumenical Councils. At Constance +the question of general reform had come up, but the papal party had +managed to prevent action. At the next Council, held at Basel, internal +difficulties appeared still more plainly. Party lines were sharply +drawn; the ultramontanes, as before, wished to subject the Popes to the +supremacy of Councils, to substitute an ecclesiastical aristocracy of +bishops in place of a papal monarchy, and, as it were, transfer the +centre of ecclesiastical gravity from Rome across the Alps. Feeling ran +so high that the Council split in two. Part followed the Pope to Italy, +and part stayed in Basel and elected an anti-pope (1439). It looked as +if schism had come again, but the danger passed. The anti-pope resigned; +unity was restored and lasted for seventy years. + +Nicholas V, as we have seen, hoped to maintain the Papacy at the head of +Christendom by means of the new intellectual forces. Such a conception +was purely Italian, and showed plainly enough that the Papacy had ceased +to represent Christendom, had ceased to be the real head of a Universal +Church, and had become a purely Italian institution. While Nicholas and +his successors were thinking of culture and of becoming Italian princes, +the pious ultramontanes, comparatively indifferent to the intellectual +excitement of the Renaissance, were thinking of sin and of the remedy +for sin. The papal Curia was clever, but did not foresee that to +subordinate the old conception of the Papacy as the head of the +religious and ecclesiastical organization of Europe to the new +conception of it as an Italian principality would surely alienate the +Teutonic peoples; it did not foresee that the Renaissance, with its +spirit of examination, investigation, criticism, with its encouragement +of the free play of the human mind, was necessarily preparing the way +for the Reformation. But the Curia perceived the opposite difficulties, +to which we are generally blind, that unless the Papacy did establish +itself as a temporal power, it might well be reduced to another +Babylonish Captivity by a king of Naples, a duke of Milan, or even by +some _condottiere_. And it perceived that other difficulty as well, +that if the Papacy turned against the intellectual movement, the +intellectual movement would, in self-defence, turn against the Papacy. + +The Popes did indeed seek to revive the old role of the Papacy in one +respect. They tried to arouse the sentiment of Christendom against the +invading Turks, and to lead a crusade themselves. But the time for such +a course had passed. The kings and princes of Europe were busy with +their own kingdoms and principalities and would not budge; and the +Papacy was obliged to give up the plan. Discouraged by this failure it +naturally turned to the new theory of a little papal kingdom and +vigorously put the theory into practice. The three Popes who +accomplished this task were Francesco della Rovere, Sixtus IV (1471-84), +Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI (1493-1503), and Giuliano della Rovere, +Julius II (1503-13). Their careers must be looked at more closely. + +Sixtus IV was the son of a peasant. Educated by the Franciscans, he +became distinguished as a scholar in theology, philosophy, and +ecclesiastical affairs, and was chosen general of the order. When Pope, +after a last futile attempt to start a crusade, Sixtus openly abandoned +the role of Pontiff of Christendom and became an Italian prince. +Energetic and masterful, he set to work to consolidate the loose and +insubordinate papal territories into a compact state. The task was not +easy, and one of the obstacles in his way was lack of men whom he could +trust. It was of little advantage to gather together an army, or to +capture a city, if the papal general or governor found his own +interests opposed to papal interests. Loyalty was held in scant esteem +by Italians of the Renaissance. Sixtus met the difficulty by employing +his nephews. This policy was by no means the beginning of papal +nepotism, but these nephews happened to be young men with marked tastes +for greed, ferocity, and dissipation, and brought the system into +especial notoriety. To one nephew the Pope gave a cardinal's hat, four +bishoprics, an abbey, a patriarchate, as well as free access to the +papal treasury. When this young man had died of dissipation, the post of +chief favourite descended to his brother. For him the Pope procured a +wife from the ducal house of Sforza, and began to carve a dukedom in +Romagna, with the intention of adding slices cut from the neighbouring +states. This young man was arrogant, ignorant, and brutal, with no +interests except ambition and the chase. In due course he was murdered. +Whatever effect nepotism of this character produced across the Alps, it +served certain purposes in Italy. Sixtus made himself feared, and +advanced the project of a papal kingdom to a point where his successors +were able to take it up and complete it. + +Sixtus also pursued Nicholas's plan of making Rome the first city of the +world in art and magnificence. He brought together architects and +artists, and patronized art and literature. But this aspect of the plan +to maintain the Papacy at the head of Christian Europe belongs rather to +the story of the high Renaissance, and must be postponed to the next +chapter. + +We may pass over the next Pope, who was not distinguished except for a +frank recognition of his illegitimate children, and for what then +appeared a whimsical desire to maintain peace, and proceed to the +notorious Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI. It was in Borgia's pontificate +that the French invasion of 1494 took place. This introduction of a new +and terrible element into Italian politics frightened him as well as +other Italian rulers, for he knew that the Papal State would never be +strong enough to resist single-handed such an army as that of Charles +VIII, and he tried to form a union of the Italian powers for common +defence. His policy met little success, especially as he himself, seeing +advantages to be gained from a French alliance, whirled about, granted +to the French king a dispensation for divorce, to the French favourite a +cardinal's hat, and made a separate treaty for himself (1499). Borgia +did no more than any other Italian prince would have done, but he must +bear his share of the responsibility. It was a deliberate sacrifice of +Italian for papal interests. Whether that was justifiable or not is +another matter. The Pope wished to establish a Pontifical State, and +acted in the manner which he thought would be most likely to achieve +success. + +Borgia also followed the example set by Sixtus, and raised his family to +power and rank, partly, of course, from affection, but partly in order +to strengthen the Papacy. His task was to reduce the papal vassals in +the Pontifical States to obedience and so to create a strong central +government. The instrument he employed was his son Caesar Borgia. This +brilliant young man has won a great reputation, owing in large measure +to Machiavelli's admiration. He was an athletic, handsome, taciturn man, +quick, cunning, and cruel. He began his career in the Church, but at the +time of his father's reconciliation with France, gave up his cardinal's +hat, and was created duke by the French king. Caesar made an excellent +instrument for rooting out the disobedient vassals of the Papal State. +They were crafty, greedy, and false; he was craftier, greedier, and +falser than they. He dispossessed them with ruthless vigour, and +established himself in their stead. His energy and success were +extraordinary, and frightened other Italian rulers. None knew how far +his ambition might stretch, or how far the Papacy might be able to push +him. The direct military power of the Pontifical State was not very +great and could readily be measured, but the indirect power of the +Papacy as head of the Christian Church was vague and alarming. +Nevertheless, Caesar's principality, which rested wholly on the Papacy, +fell to pieces when his father died. + +Borgia's attitude towards the arts belongs to the next chapter; but in +respect to them as well as to the Pontifical State, he followed what I +have called the twofold policy of the Popes of the Renaissance. That +policy undoubtedly had its advantages; but it also had its +disadvantages, and these appear more conspicuous in Borgia's pontificate +than in any other. The establishment of papal dominion, as we have seen, +encouraged, if it did not necessitate, nepotism; and nepotism involved +prodigality and dissipation. The Popes used their families to +strengthen their position; and the upstart families, giddy with sudden +wealth and power, misbehaved. The nephews of Sixtus rendered some +service to the Papacy, but they caused scandal. Caesar Borgia rendered +greater services, and caused still greater scandal. The other branch of +the twofold policy, by a different path, led to the same result. +Patronage of arts and letters involved great expense and encouraged +luxurious tastes; luxury led to idleness, and idleness to vice. The +Roman atmosphere had never been favourable to spiritual life, and now, +surcharged with the classical spirit of the Renaissance, practically +extinguished religion. + +For centuries the Roman Curia had been a butt for the arrows of satire. +The minnesingers of Germany, the troubadours of Provence, had paused in +their amorous ditties to compose bitter gibes against the greed and +luxurious life of the great Roman prelates. Taunts such as this became +household phrases: Curia Romana non quaerit ovem sine lana.[19] Dante +had put priest, prelate, and Pope into hell. Petrarch had written +scathing verses:-- + + Nest of treachery, wherein is hatched + All evil that besets the world to-day, + Slaves to wine, debauch, and gluttony, + + * * * * * + + Well-head of woe, and baiting place of wrath, + School of false thought, temple of heresy, etc. + +One of the best tales in the "Decameron" turns on the conversion of a +Jew, who goes to Rome, sees the conduct of Pope and cardinals, and +becomes convinced that only a Divine Church can support so staggering a +burden. In Borgia's time the Curia outdid itself, and Borgia led the +way. He acknowledged his children, and lavished papal revenues upon +them; he bestowed a cardinal's hat on Alexander Farnese, founder of the +Farnese family, for the sake of Giulia Farnese, his frail sister; he +sanctioned ballets and theatricals of a scandalous nature in the Vatican +palace, and encouraged his sons and his cardinals in a dissolute life. +Vice was not all; the odour of crime infected the air. The Pope's son, +the Duke of Gandia, was murdered, so was his son-in-law, husband of his +daughter Lucrezia. Cardinals died mysteriously. The common voice, +whispering low in Rome and loud elsewhere, ascribed these murders to +Caesar Borgia. It appeared as if the Pope believed the charges himself. +"Caesar," he said, "is a good-natured man, but he cannot tolerate +affronts." Lucrezia, too, became the object of the grossest slanders. No +doubt common gossip then, as always, raised a tree of falsehood from a +mustard grain of truth; but credulity accepted every accusation as true. +North of the Alps the simple-minded Germans shuddered and crossed +themselves. Even the Romans were shocked. When the Pope died, no man +would touch his body; it was dragged by a rope fastened to its foot from +the bed to the grave, and there tumbled in. No one doubted that his soul +had gone to hell. + +Alexander VI violated every rule of domestic morality; nevertheless, +Pope Julius II (1503-13) violated the sacred character of priest as +fundamentally, though in a much less repulsive way. Julius, a nephew of +Sixtus IV, was a fiery soldier, a high-aspiring prince, a man of great +qualities, impatient and magnificent. Had he been duke of Milan or King +of Naples, he would have presented a noble figure; but a Pope armed +cap-a-pie, entering a conquered city through the breach battered by his +cannon, was as clear a defiance of the evangelical spirit of the +reformers as the private profligacy of Pope Borgia. + +Julius pursued the twofold policy of the Papacy with greater zeal and +greater success than any of his predecessors. His furious energy +completed the work of making the incohesive states of the Church into a +compact principality; and he is the real founder of the absolute Papal +State, the first real Pope-king. He achieved equal success in the other +branch of the policy, and revelled in the kindred spirit of the High +Renaissance. Julius exalted Rome to the place of first city in the +world; and if the world had asked for art from the Papacy instead of +asking for religion, it would have been abundantly satisfied. But +Germany was thinking of sin, of vice, of simony, of taxation, and was +becoming conscious of an extreme national antipathy to Italian rule; and +when a young German monk, like Martin Luther, went to Rome, instead of +taking pleasure in the architecture, painting, and sculpture that +adorned the city, he was horrified at the lack of religion. + +Julius, however, was entitled to a sense of accomplishment at his death. +He left to his successors a little kingdom in the middle of Italy, and +he had made Rome the centre of the arts. Not till the days of his +successors did the failure of that policy appear. By a kind of poetic +justice the utter failure of art to satisfy the demand for reform, for +purity, for religion, was proved during the pontificates of the two +Medici, Leo X and Clement VII. The Medici had patronized the arts, both +in Florence and in Rome, and the arts repaid the Medici with enjoyment +and renown. But the Medici had done nothing for the spirit of reform; on +the contrary, they had helped crush Savonarola, and the spirit of reform +turned upon them. Germany hoisted the standard of secession during the +pontificate of Leo, and an army of the unfaithful sacked Rome during +that of Clement. + +Leo X was a fat, clever, cultivated man, with no great virtues and no +real vices. "Let us enjoy the Papacy since God has given it to us," is +the sentiment put into his mouth, and serves to characterize his reign. +Bred in his father's intellectual circle, and a member of the luxurious +Roman society, Leo shared the tastes of both. He was a connoisseur of +works of art, and derived genuine aesthetic pleasure from them; he was +also fond of agreeable company, good cookery, the chase, and most forms +of social amusement. His political conduct was not of much real +consequence, as matters had gone too far. In the interminable struggle +between Charles V and Francis I, the Papacy tried to hold a balance of +power, and bargained with both sides; but, as the Spaniards, in +possession of both Milan and Naples, were the stronger, the Papacy +generally found its advantage on that side. As to the larger matter of +the ecclesiastical unity of Christendom there was practically nothing +to be done. The causes which split the Teutonic world from the Latin +were already matured. It was too late to stop the Reformation. Luther +might have been dealt with more shrewdly, but the forces behind him +could not have been kept in check. Leo excommunicated Luther (1520), and +the Imperial Diet at Worms condemned him and his doctrine, but the unity +of the Church was doomed. + +To Leo succeeded his cousin Clement VII, after a brief pontificate by +the last foreign Pope. Clement was incompetent, and failed to realize +the gravity of his situation; neither he nor Rome understood the crisis +they had reached. The prevailing state of mind may be inferred from this +extract from the diary of a young Roman burgher: "I saw this Pope the +first day of May, 1525, come in the morning of the Feast of SS. Philip +and James to the Church of the Holy Apostles, and after celebrating high +mass, remain all day and night in the palace of the Colonna.... That day +it was an old and foolish custom in the Colonna palace (which connects +with the church and has windows looking in it), to throw various kinds +of fowls and animals into the church to the people who were there, all +of the lowest sort. They also put a pig in the middle of the church up +high, and whoever was able to climb up and take it, won it; and on top +of the roof were kegs and pots of water, which they poured on the +persons who climbed up. The amusement of those gentlemen, and of the +rest who looked on, was to see the crowd in a mess, battling, +shrieking, pushing, shoving, like beasts,--a merrymaking not becoming in +a church or any sacred edifice." The diary adds: "Now let people learn +to know the souls of the great and especially of priests, how wicked, +deceitful, and false they are, how full of fraud and knavery."[20] There +were plenty of other facts to prove this conclusion. The merrymaking was +doomed to cease. + +The incompetent Pope was totally at a loss what policy to follow, not +knowing whether it was better to incline towards the Empire or to +France. He shifted at the wrong time, joined a league against the +Empire, then wriggled and shuffled, and so drew upon himself and the +devoted city the punishment due to a long course of wickedness. The +Imperial army, a ruffian host of Germans (many of them Lutherans), +Spaniards, and Italians, under the command of the traitor Bourbon, was +encamped in the north; the unpaid soldiers clamoured for plunder, and +Bourbon led them to Rome, carried the neglected walls by assault, and +put the city to sack. Rome was a little city, with perhaps 90,000 +inhabitants, but rich in the oblations and tribute money of Christendom; +the churches were decked with gold and silver, the palaces stuffed with +precious paintings, tapestries, and ornaments of every kind. Popes, +cardinals, and princes had rivalled one another in accumulations of +works of art and articles of luxury. Though license, profligacy, and +crime had then shut out Rome from the sympathy of the world, it is +impossible to read to-day of the horrors of the sack--men murdered, +mothers, daughters, nuns outraged, old men and priests brutally +insulted, churches and sacred relics defiled--without the sharpest pity. +For eight days the devilish work went on, and but 30,000 inhabitants +were left, so many had fled, or been killed, or made prisoners (1527). + +Terrible was the punishment that Clement witnessed,--Rome sacked, the +liberty of Italy taken away, the Roman Catholic Church rent in two. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] The Roman Curia is not looking for a sheep without wool. + +[20] _The Papacy during the Reformation_, vol. v, Appendix (translated). +M. Creighton. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE HIGH RENAISSANCE (1499-1521) + + +We are now at liberty to return to the great intellectual and artistic +movement that lifted Italy to the primacy in Europe, and reached its +zenith in the period of time to which the last two chapters have been +devoted. This is the culminating period, in which the greatest masters +did their work, and separates the earlier and more experimental stage +that preceded it from the later stage of exaggeration and decadence +which followed. The movement swept all the arts along with it. It +produced the greatest men in literature since Petrarch, the greatest +architects since the Gothic masters of the Ile de France, the greatest +sculptors since Praxiteles, the greatest painters that ever were. + +Italian literature cannot compare with English literature or French in +compass, variety, richness, or delicacy. Indeed, except for Dante, it +would have rather a thin and tinkling sound. Nevertheless, in the High +Renaissance it roused itself brilliantly. Niccolo Machiavelli was the +ablest writer on the policy of government between Aristotle and Burke. +Guicciardini was the first modern historian. Count Baldassare +Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier" is as singularly excellent in its +way as Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Of this book, which portrays +fashionable society at the elegant court of Urbino, Tasso says: "So +long as there shall be princes and courts, so long as ladies and +gentlemen shall meet in society, so long as virtue and courtesy shall +abide in our hearts, the name of Castiglione will be held in honour." +The book purports to be a series of conversations between the duchess +and her guests concerning the proper qualities of a perfect gentleman. +This society, no doubt, is a little affected, stilted, and conceited, +but it is dignified, well-behaved, and high-minded. These people discuss +deportment, athletics, propriety of speech, whether one must keep within +the Tuscan vocabulary of Petrarch and Boccaccio or may make use of the +vernacular spoken elsewhere, whether painting or sculpture is the nobler +art, what a gentleman's dress should be, and so on. The discussion +proceeds to the proper behaviour of a lady, and by natural steps to +love. Bembo, a famous litterateur, here takes the floor, plunges into +Platonic ideas, and argues that the higher love, governed by reason, is +better than lower love, and will lead to contemplation of universal +beauty; but that even this stage of love is imperfect, and the lover +must mount higher still, until his soul, purified by philosophy and +spiritual life, sees the light of angelic beauty and, ravished by the +splendour of that light, becomes intoxicated and beside itself from +passion to lose itself in the light. "Let us, then, direct all the +thoughts and forces of our soul to this most sacred light, which shows +us the way that leads to heaven; and following after it, let us lay +aside the passions wherewith we were clothed at our fall, and by the +stairway that bears the shadow of sensual beauty on its lowest step, +let us mount to the lofty mansion where dwells the heavenly, lovely, and +true beauty, which lies hidden in the inmost secret recesses of God, so +that profane eyes cannot behold it,"[21] etc. This may savour somewhat +too much of Platonic rhetoric, but such feelings were genuine, +emotionally genuine, even if they proved evanescent in practice; they +were familiar to Lorenzo dei Medici and his friends, and to the nobler +spirits throughout Italy, and are as characteristic of the period as its +cruelty, treachery, or sensuality. The effect of such cultivated circles +upon art must have been great; they gave artists encouragement, +sympathy, employment, and by the union of fashion and intelligence +helped educate the taste of a larger public. It must be remembered that +both Bramante and Raphael came from Urbino. + +Poetry, with the delightful spontaneity and capriciousness of Italian +genius, chose Ferrara, the home of the House of Este, to hang its +laurels in. There Matteo Boiardo wrote the "Orlando Innamorato" (Roland +in Love). This poem is an epic of chivalry concerning Charlemagne's +court, and deals seriously, and yet at times ironically, with the +subject of Roland's love for the beautiful Angelica. It was left +unfinished, and Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533) picked up the thread and +carried it on, far more brilliantly and far more ironically, under the +title "Orlando Furioso" (Roland Crazed). Ariosto's poem, which was +immensely popular, was intended to entertain, and it succeeded; its +variety, wit, irony, sarcasm, and levity make it entertaining even now. +Inferior in moral and sensuous beauty to Spenser's "Faerie Queene," it +is far easier to read. Its interest for us lies in the light it sheds on +the intellectual state of educated Italians of the Renaissance, +especially in regard to religion. Biblical allusions, sacred north of +the Alps, are lugged in to give a touch of humour, as, for instance, +where one of the knights, Astolfo, goes on a search for Roland's lost +wits and meets St. John the Evangelist, who drives him to the moon in +Elijah's chariot; or where, in another passage, St. Michael finds that +the goddess of Discord has not obeyed his commands, "the angel seized +her by the hair, kicked and pounded her incessantly, broke a cross over +her head, till Discord embraced the knees of the divine envoy and howled +for mercy." Ariosto, himself, conformed to the rites of the Church. Like +most educated Italians he accepted them as conventional forms, tinged +possibly with supernatural power, and kept ecclesiastical ideas wholly +separate from moral ideas. His sceptical, ironical, Epicurean attitude +towards non-material things is characteristic of the decadence of this +period in which mental activity had outgrown morality. + +Ariosto was a gentleman of birth and position. He spent most of his life +in the service of his princes, the House of Este. In later life he +withdrew from their employment, and lived in his own house, _parva sed +apta_ (small but suitable), to which the literary pious still make +pilgrimages. He wrote the "Orlando Furioso" between 1505 and 1515, and +thereafter devoted most of his leisure to improving and polishing it. +Basking in the sunshine of fashionable admiration, he little suspected +that another man, who had spent his life in mighty feats of +architecture, painting, and sculpture, would in his old age write +sonnets that should be read and reread like a breviary by serious men +and women who passed his own luxurious rhetoric unheeded. Michelangelo's +sonnets (some of which were written to Vittoria Colonna) are the noblest +embodiment of those high ideas of love which came down from Plato to the +philosophers of the Palazzo Medici in Florence and the courtiers at the +ducal palace in Urbino. They are crammed to bursting with passionate +intensity, and in that respect have no equals, even in English. + +In the fine arts the High Renaissance has a score of famous men. Among +them three or four stand head and shoulders above their fellows. Each is +marked by extraordinary individuality of talents, character, and +disposition: Michelangelo by passionate fury--_terribilita_; Raphael by +sweet serenity; Bramante by his even commingling of poise and ardour; +Leonardo by his noble curiosity. + +Of Leonardo, Vasari says: "Sometimes according to the course of nature, +sometimes beyond and above it, the greatest gifts rain down from +heavenly influences upon the bodies of men, and crowd into one +individual beauty, grace, and excellence in such superabundance that to +whatever that man shall turn, his very act is so divine, that, +surpassing the work of all other men, it makes manifest that it is by +the special gift of God, and not by human art. This was true of +Leonardo da Vinci; who, beside a physical beauty beyond all praise, put +an infinite grace into whatever he did, and such was his excellence, +that to whatever difficult things his mind turned he easily solved +them." Leonardo (1452-1519) was a Florentine. He was trained by the +subtle Verrocchio, from whom he learned the smile, if it be a smile, on +the faces of his portraits of women. After leaving Verrocchio's workshop +he went to Lombardy, where he spent sixteen years at the court of Milan. +There he did a hundred different things: he modelled a great equestrian +statue of Francesco Sforza (since destroyed), painted portraits, drew +architectural designs,--for a cupola, a staircase, a bathroom, a +triumphal arch, etc.,--executed hydraulic works, studied the cultivation +of the grape, and played on his silver lyre. In the refectory of a +Dominican monastery he painted his fresco of The Last Supper. One of the +novices, who watched this handsome young painter at work, says that +sometimes he would dash up the scaffold, brush in hand, put a few +touches and hurry down; sometimes he would paint from sunrise to sunset +without stopping even to eat; sometimes he would stand for hours +contemplating the different figures. After Sforza's fall, Leonardo left +Milan, and for a time took service with Caesar Borgia as military +engineer and architect. He subsequently returned to Florence, and +finally went to France, where he died. + +Little remains of all that Leonardo planned. A half-destroyed fresco, a +few easel pictures, some incomparable drawings, some treatises on his +arts, some apothegms, are enough, however, to justify his fame. One of +his apothegms, _Tu, o Iddio, tutto ci vendi a prezzo di fatica_ (Thou, O +God, sellest us everything at the price of hard work), is but poorly +borne out by his own prodigal portion of genius, which rather supports +Vasari's view that God makes special gifts. Very rarely has any man +received the native endowment of Leonardo da Vinci. + +The greatest architect of the High Renaissance was Bramante of Urbino. +He, like Leonardo, worked in Milan during the resplendent reign of +Lodovico Sforza. There he did much charming work and imposed his +personality on Lombard architecture; but his great reputation was made +in Rome, whither he went, drawn by the great Romeward flow of art, when +the French invasion drove the fine arts from Milan. In Rome, Bramante +became the papal architect. He shares with Raphael and Michelangelo the +honour of making St. Peter's basilica and the Vatican palace what they +are. He also built a little building, whose historical importance is +ludicrously out of proportion to its size, it being as little as St. +Peter's is big. It is a tiny circular temple in the court of a church on +the Janiculum hill across the Tiber. On the ground floor a Doric +colonnade encircles the temple, on the second story a balustrade. A +dome, capped by a lantern, covers the whole. It is the first building +which fully reproduced the style and spirit of antiquity. It set the +fashion for the architecture of the sixteenth century, and determined, +among other indirect and not altogether happy results, the plan of St. +Paul's Cathedral in London and the Capitol in Washington. + +It was not chance which took Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo to +Rome. They went because the papal court, pursuing its policy of +maintaining the Papacy at the head of Christendom by means of culture, +summoned them to come. Rome never produced great artists. She never was +artistic, any more than she had been spiritual. But just as in earlier +times she had drawn spiritual forces to herself and used them, so now +she attracted to herself and used the artistic forces of Italy. She had +been making ready for years; step by step as she had become more +secular, she had also become more artistic, more intellectual. For +seventy years every Pope contributed to this end. Eugenius IV employed +distinguished humanists as his secretaries, and invited the most notable +painters and sculptors to Rome. Nicholas V conceived the splendid scheme +of making Rome the mistress of the world's culture. Pius II, AEneas +Sylvius Piccolomini, was the most eminent man of letters of his age. +Paul II was a virtuoso in objects of art and increased the grandeur of +the papal court. Sixtus IV improved the city, built the Sistine Chapel, +and employed Botticelli, Perugino, Signorelli, Ghirlandaio, and Rosselli +to decorate it. Innocent VIII brought Mantegna from Padua and +Pinturicchio from Perugia to embellish the Vatican palace. Pope Borgia +made Pinturicchio his court painter; and that charming master decorated +the papal apartments in the Vatican with the great bull of the Borgia +crest, and with portraits of the Pope's children and (so Vasari says) of +the lovely Giulia Farnese as the Virgin with the Pope worshipping her. + +Popes and cardinals felt the great movement and many strove to lead it, +but the master figure of the Renaissance at Rome was the fiery Julius +II, whose plans in the arts were even more grandiose than in politics. +He was the centre of this period, as Cosimo and Lorenzo had been in +their generations. Less astute than Cosimo, far less subtle and +accomplished than Lorenzo, he was a much more heroic leader than either. +His hardy, weather-beaten face in Raphael's portrait, with its strong, +well-shaped features, shows his imperious, arrogant, irascible, and yet +noble, nature. This Pontiff brought to Rome the greatest genius of the +Renaissance, Michelangelo, bade him build for him a monumental tomb, +more splendid than any tomb ever built, twelve yards high and +proportionately wide and deep, and decked with two or three score +statues. Such a gigantic monument could not have found room in the old +basilica of St. Peter's, and therefore, as St. Peter's was the proper +place for it, it became necessary to proceed with the larger plans of +Nicholas V. Piecing and patching did not suit Julius. He discussed plans +with his architects Bramante and Giuliano da San Gallo, and then +resolved to pull down the old basilica, founded by Constantine and +Silvester, despite its thousand years of sacred associations, and build +a new church in its place. Bramante's fiery enthusiasm for great designs +matched the Pope's. Satire suggested that in heaven he would say to St. +Peter, "I'll pull down this Paradise of yours and build another, a much +finer and pleasanter place for the blessed saints to live in." He +designed the new church in the form of a Greek cross with a cupola, +proposing, as it were, to lift the dome of the Pantheon on the basilica +of Constantine, an enormous ruin in the Roman Forum. This gigantic plan +befitted the new papal scheme of making Rome the head of Europe and the +Papacy the head of culture. The corner-stone was laid on April 18, 1506, +and the old building was demolished piecemeal, the choir first, the nave +last; and in its place, as demolition proceeded bit by bit, the +cathedral now standing rose, slowly lifting its great bulk in the air, +and finally reached completion and consecration in 1626. The greatest +architects of Italy succeeded one another as masters of the works, +Bramante, Giuliano da San Gallo from Florence, Fra Giocondo from Verona, +Raphael, Antonio da San Gallo the younger, Baldassare Peruzzi from +Siena, and Michelangelo, who, when an old man, took charge and designed +the dome. + +The Vatican was altered according to Bramante's plans in order to make +it a fit abode for the head of cultured Christendom: Michelangelo +painted his frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12); and +Raphael began to paint the _stanza della segnatura_. Raphael, the most +charming figure in the world of art, was equally charming in life. +Vasari says: "Among his exceptional gifts I take notice of one of such +rare excellence that I marvel within myself. Heaven gave him power in +our art to produce an effect most contrary to the humours of us +painters, and it is this: the artists and artisans (I do not refer only +to those of meaner sort, but to those who are ambitious to be +great--and art produces many of this complexion) who worked in his +atelier were so united and had such mutual good-will, that all jealousy +and crossness were extinguished on seeing him, and every mean and +spiteful thought vanished from their minds. Such unity was never seen +before. And this was because they were overcome both by his courtesy and +his art, but more by the genius of his good nature, which was so full of +kindness and overflowing with charity, that not only men, but even the +beasts almost worshipped him." + +At this time, too, classic art, owing to the discovery of antique +statues, had its fullest effect. The Nile, now in the Vatican, had been +found in a Roman garden, the Apollo Belvedere in a vineyard near the +city, and the Laocoon and many others here and there. Of the discovery +of the Laocoon a record remains. "I was at the time a boy in Rome," +wrote Francesco, son of Giuliano da San Gallo, the architect, "when one +day it was announced to the Pope that some excellent statues had been +dug up out of the ground in a grape-patch near the church of Santa Maria +Maggiore. The Pope immediately sent a groom to Giuliano da San Gallo to +tell him to go directly and see what it was. Michelangelo Buonarroti was +often at our house, and at the moment chanced to be there; accordingly +my father invited him to accompany us. I rode behind my father on his +horse, and thus we went over to the place designated. We had scarcely +dismounted and glanced at the figures, when my father cried out, 'It is +the Laocoon of which Pliny speaks!' The labourers immediately began +digging to get the statue out; after having looked at them very +carefully, we went home to supper, talking all the way of +antiquity."[22] + +Thus these various forces--the discovery of antique statues, the passion +for art, the eager Italian intellect, the conception of Rome as the +mistress of culture, the character of Julius II and the genius of +Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael--worked together to cover the Papacy +with a pagan glory in its time of religious need. On the other hand, as +these monumental works required vast sums of money, the sale of +indulgences and the exaction of tribute buzzed on more rapidly than +ever. + +Leo X (1513-21) has given his name to this age of papal culture, but he +was not entitled to the honour; he had the inborn Medicean interest and +enjoyment in intellectual matters, a nice taste, and some delicacy of +perception, but it needs no more than a look at his fat jowl in +Raphael's portrait to see that he could not have been a motive force in +a great period. He stands on an historic eminence as the last Pope to +wield the Italian sceptre over all Europe, the last to send his +tax-collectors from Sicily to England, from Spain to Norway, the last to +enjoy the full heritage of Imperial Rome. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] _Book of the Courtier_, p. 305, translated by L. E. Opdycke. + +[22] _Rome and the Renaissance_, from the French of Julian Klaczko, p. +93. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL (1527-1563) + + +We have now come to the beginning of long centuries of national +degradation, and one has a general sense of passing from a glorious +garden into a series of gas-lit drawing-rooms, somewhat over-decorated, +where naughty princes amuse themselves with bagatelles. We must glance +at the political degradation first. + +The struggle between the Barbarians of France and Spain for mastery in +Italy, of which we spoke in the last political chapter, was practically +decided by the battle of Pavia (1525), in which the French king lost all +but life and honour. France was most reluctant to acquiesce in defeat, +and from time to time marched her troops across the Alps into +unfortunate Piedmont, sometimes of her own notion, and sometimes at the +invitation of an Italian state; but the Spanish grip was too strong to +be shaken off. From this time on Italian politics were determined by the +pleasure of foreign kings. Two treaties between France and Spain, that +of Cambrai (1529) and that of Cateau-Cambresis (1559), embodied the +results of their bargains and their wars. The sum and substance of them +was a practical abandonment by France of her Italian claims, and the map +of Italy was drawn to suit Spain. + +Milan was governed by Spanish governors, Naples and Sicily by Spanish +viceroys. The business of a Spanish viceroy, then as always, was to +raise money. Taxes were oppressive. It was said that in Sicily the royal +officials nibbled, in Naples they ate, and in Milan they devoured. In +addition to regular taxes, special imposts were laid on various +occasions,--when a new king succeeded to the throne, when a royal heir +was born, when war was waged against the Lutherans in Germany or the +pirates in Africa. In the south, where the people were less intelligent +and laborious, oppressive taxation and unwise government caused a +gradual increase of ignorance and poverty, and left as a legacy to the +present day the conditions from which spring the _Mafia_ of Sicily and +the _Camorra_ of Naples. + +In Florence the sagacious Cosimo I (1537-74) ruled with prudence and +severity. He understood that his position depended on his fidelity to +Spain and the Papacy, and acted accordingly. He married a Spanish lady, +Eleanora of Toledo, daughter to the viceroy of Naples, took up his ducal +residence first in the Palazzo Vecchio, where there are many +remembrances of his duchess, and afterwards in the great palace, begun +by Luca Pitti, across the Arno. He reduced Siena, once Florence's +dangerous rival, to subjection, and crushed out the last traces of +republican sentiment in his duchy. He employed Vasari to design the +Uffizi, completed the edifice that holds the Laurentian library, and led +as magnificent a life as a due regard for his purse would allow. In +short, he was what one would expect an unrefined member of the _Casa +Medici_ to be; and when one recollects that his grandmother was a Sforza +of Milan, all expectations based on heredity are amply satisfied. Cosimo +I left a long line of descendants to sit upon his grand-ducal throne. +Their marble effigies at the head of the stairway in the Uffizi tell +their story. The brutal Sforza vigour and the elegant Medicean +astuteness could not save them from sharing in the general degeneracy +that spread like a blight over all Italy. However, one must remember +that they did collect the finest picture gallery in the world and housed +it in the Uffizi and Pitti palaces. + +North of Tuscany the petty duchies of Ferrara, Urbino, Modena, Parma, +and Mantua formed a little ducal coterie, very characteristic of the +next two centuries. The Papacy indeed swallowed up Ferrara (1598) and +Urbino (1631), but the House of Este of Ferrara moved on to Modena, and +remained there till Napoleon's time. In Parma, Pope Paul III (1534-50), +our old acquaintance Alexander Farnese, a careful father as well as a +lucky brother, established his son as duke. This son was bad, and +believed to be worse, so the nobles of Parma murdered him; but his +descendants made good their title, and the little duchy of Parma, with +its palace, its custom-house, its barracks, and its pictures, stepped +forth as one of the petty states of the peninsula, and endured till the +Union of Italy. Genoa and Lucca were permitted to remain republics. + +Up in the northwest we get our first definite notions of Savoy. This +duchy, built up piecemeal, was a composite state, which included a good +deal of Piedmont, and portions of what are now France and Switzerland, +and, unfortunately, lay directly in the way of the French armies on +their marches into Italy. During the wars of Francis I and Charles V, +the Duke of Savoy hopefully attempted to maintain neutrality, and, in +consequence, lost all. France deemed it more convenient to own her line +of march, and annexed Savoy; and for twenty years Piedmont was both +camping-ground and battleground for the contending nations. It looked as +if Savoy would be blotted from the map of Europe; but Duke Emanuele +Filiberto (1553-80), _Iron Head_, an accomplished soldier, had the sense +to take the winning side. He served in the Spanish army, and, in the +Peace of Cateau-Cambresis, as his share secured the restoration of his +duchy. That portion of this duke's policy which concerns us especially +is that he gave Piedmont precedence over his French and Swiss provinces, +established the seat of government at Turin, put the university there +and brought men of letters and science, substituted Italian for Latin in +public documents, and proclaimed himself an Italian prince and Savoy an +Italian state. He gave Savoy the general character which it has always +retained. He checked the priests, built up the army, reformed the law, +converted the old feudal dominion into an absolute autocracy, and +started his dukedom on the course which ultimately enabled it to play +its great part in the liberation of Italy in the nineteenth century. +Emanuele Filiberto is reputed one of Italy's national heroes. + +Venice had already recovered most of the territories on the mainland of +Italy wrenched from her by the League of Cambrai, but in the East the +Turks steadily took away city, island, and province. After a long period +of war, one gallant exploit gilded the fortunes of the losing side. A +league against the Turks was effected between Spain, the Papacy, and +Venice, and the united fleets, under the supreme command of Don John of +Austria, won the renowned sea-fight off Lepanto (1571); but except for +chopping off a goodly number of infidel heads and limbs, little was +accomplished. In this battle a young Spanish soldier, Miguel de +Cervantes, lost an arm. Soon afterwards peace was made on terms hard for +the Venetians, but beneficent in that it was destined to last for +seventy years. + +We now come to the Papacy, and there, in extraordinary contrast to the +degeneration and decay all around, we find militant vigour and energy. +This phenomenon is so remarkable that we must glance back at the perils +through which the Papacy had passed. Ever since the fall of the Empire +(when the political union of Italy and Germany broke in two) disruptive +forces had been at work to break the ecclesiastical union, until at +last, in the pontificate of Leo X, Martin Luther affixed his theses +concerning indulgences to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, +burnt the papal bull, and threw off his allegiance. The North of Europe +followed him. The record of the Papacy had been utter failure and worse. +It had smeared itself from head to foot with simony, nepotism, and vice; +it had cast religion to the winds. No expression of indignation would +have been adequate without the sack of Rome. A statesman might well +have predicted that all Europe would dismember and suppress the Papacy +and adopt a system of national churches. Nevertheless, at the end of the +century the Papacy stood erect and vigorous, shorn indeed of universal +empire, but reestablished, the Order of Jesus at its right, the Holy +Inquisition at its left, draped in piety by the Council of Trent, and +hobnobbing on even terms with kings. The process which effected this +change is called the Counter-reformation, or the Catholic Reaction. That +process was a happy blending of virtue, bigotry, and policy. Borne +upward and onward by the forces of reform and conservatism, the Modern +Papacy rose triumphant on the ruins of the Papacy of the Renaissance. + +The same spirit that caused the Reformation in the North started the +Catholic Revival in the South. A wave, comparable to the old movement +for Church reform in Hildebrand's time, swept over the Catholic Church, +and lifted the reformers within the Church into power. The South +emulated the North. Catholic zeal rivalled Protestant ardour. Bigotry +followed zeal. Moreover, a reformed Papacy found ready allies. The +logical consequence of Protestantism was personal independence in +religion, and the next logical step was personal independence in +politics. Protestant subjects, more especially where their rulers were +Catholics, tended to become disobedient; and monarchs, who stood for +absolutism and conservatism, found themselves drawn close to an absolute +and conservative Pope. The kings of Spain and the Popes of Rome became +friends and allies. + +Within three years after the sack of Rome, Clement crowned Charles V +with the Imperial crown in Bologna, where, for the last time in Italy, +proclamation was made of a "Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus, Mundi +totius Dominus;" and the Papacy, strengthened at once by its league with +Spain, lifted its head. Further strength came from other sources. The +brilliant young Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, founded the Order of Jesus, +which vowed itself to poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Papacy +(1534). Spain, too, by the moral effect of example, procured the +Inquisition for Italy. From the time of Innocent III, the Dominican +monks had had charge of preserving the purity of the faith and of +punishing heretics, and they had performed this function with what might +appear to a sceptic sufficient zeal, but during the great racial and +religious struggle in Spain which ended in the capture of Granada, more +zeal was deemed necessary and the Spanish Inquisition was established. +Its fame spread far and wide. The Spanish viceroys introduced it in a +modified form in Naples, and Cardinal Caraffa, a zealous reformer, urged +the need of such an institution in Rome. The Holy Office of Rome was +established, and Caraffa put at its head (1542). Heretics were +frightened into conformity or punished; some were driven out of the +country, a few were burned to death. Freedom of thought was vigorously +attacked; and the _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_ was decreed. The great +and growing power of the reformers may be measured by the fact that the +Pope who sanctioned these great bulwarks of the papal system was the +once gay Alexander Farnese, Paul III, whom we otherwise know as a +brother and a father. The culminating exhibition of the power of the +reformers, however, was in the Council of Trent (1545-63). + +Europe had been too long accustomed to the idea of ecclesiastical unity +to sit still without some attempt at reconciliation between the +Catholics and Protestants. It was hoped that a Council would heal all +wounds, smooth all difficulties, and bring back the irrevocable past. +The Popes, however, had come to regard Councils as inimical bodies with +dangerous tendencies towards investigation and with hostile canons, and +were inclined to take the risk of losing the tainted parts of +Christendom altogether, rather than make use of so perilous an +instrument to recover them. But the Emperor, Charles V, was insistent; +his Empire, as well as the Church, was cracked, and in great danger of +breaking in two. The Council was convoked, and met at Trent. The primary +object was reconciliation; but everybody knew that no reconciliation was +possible without radical reforms in the Church, so the papal party +played its cards with exceeding wariness. The Lutherans did not attend, +and the papal party, in order to forestall practical reforms, plunged +into the comparatively safe matter of defining dogma, and defined it in +such a way as to fence out all the Lutheran schismatics. The reformers, +nevertheless, managed to sandwich in between the definitions of dogma +various decrees for the reform of Church discipline. In Catholic theory +an Ecumenical Council acts under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; but +looking at this Council from a purely secular point of view, it is hard +to find other guidance than the quarrelling interests of Pope, bishops, +Emperor, Spaniards, French, and Italians. In fact, the Council was twice +broken up. The first time the Pope, having taken alarm, declared the +Council adjourned to Bologna. The second time the Lutherans, then at war +with the Emperor, swooped down near Trent and frightened the Council +away. It met again, for the third time. All hope of reconciliation with +the Protestants had then passed away, and the Council set to work as a +purely Roman Catholic partisan body. A striking change of attitude +within the Council showed that since the early sessions the reforming +party had won complete control. Paul IV (1555-59), a man of high +character, formerly Cardinal Caraffa, head of the Roman Inquisition, had +promulgated many edicts concerning reforms; and his successor Pius IV, +Giovanni Angelo Medici of Milan (not of the Florentine family) +(1559-66), who was Pope during the final sessions of the Council, +followed his lead. Pius, a clever man who had received a legal training, +instead of wasting efforts in persuading disputatious bishops, first +made diplomatic arrangements with the Catholic sovereigns of Spain, +France, and Austria, and then secured the embodiment of those +arrangements in decrees by the Council. Nothing, however, could have +been accomplished without the reforming spirit within the Church; Pius +removed obstacles in its way and let it have full play. Stern rules were +made against the corrupt practices, which had given Luther his +strength. Canons regulated the conduct of the clergy, the duties of +bishops, the affairs of monasteries and nunneries, and all matters +connected with the great organization of the Roman Church. These reforms +came too late to affect Protestant opinion, but they rallied the +doubting, confirmed the faithful, and gave the Papacy wide-reaching +moral support. The dogmas of the Church were cast in adamant, and +secured the immense advantage of definiteness and fixity. The Council of +Trent remains the principal monument of the Catholic Revival, and that +Revival is certainly the most important event for Italy in the period +immediately following the Renaissance. Pius IV, the clever lawyer, had a +great share in the work of the Council, but his most skilful achievement +was to maintain and confirm the doctrine of the subordination of +Councils to the Papacy. This great stroke, as well as his share in the +reforms, has won for him the title of founder of the Modern Papacy. + +In this manner the Papacy prospered during the very generations in which +the greatness of Italy dwindled away. The fortunes of the two had wholly +parted company. The Papacy, indeed, had made itself an Italian +institution,--never again would it seat a foreigner on the chair of St. +Peter,--but in all other ways it had ceased to have any national +affections. Italy, her genius faded, her vigour faint, not only deprived +of what might have been a great support, but even pushed down and held +under by the help of her own greatest creation, the Church, ceased to be +a country. She had become, in Metternich's famous phrase, a mere +geographical expression, an aggregate of little states, with no tie +between them except that of juxtaposition and of common subservience to +foreigners. If we look at a map drawn at the close of the sixteenth +century, we shall find the following political divisions:-- + + The Duchy of Savoy, + The Spanish province of Lombardy, + The Republic of Venice, + The little Duchy of Parma, under the Farnesi, + The little Duchy of Mantua, under the Gonzaga, + The little Duchy of Modena, under the Este family, + The little Duchy of Urbino, under the della Rovere who had succeeded + to the Montefeltri, + The Republic of Genoa, + The Republic of Lucca, + The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the Medici, + The Papal States, + The Spanish province of Naples, + The Spanish province of Sicily. + +Over them all, Spanish provinces, independent republics, Italian +duchies, and Papal States, falls the shadow cast by the royal standard +of Spain. Next to our consciousness of that dreaded banner, the most +vivid impression which we take away is the contrast between the vigour +of the Papacy and the weakness of Italy, and we draw the necessary +inference that the fortunes of the two not only have wholly parted +company, but also are wholly irreconcilable. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE CINQUECENTO (16TH CENTURY) + + +The _Cinquecento_, as the Italians call the sixteenth century, exhibits +in the arts the same disintegration and decay that we have found in the +political life of Italy. Honesty, independence, genuineness fade away, +and in their stead we find cleverness and effort. The high tide of the +Renaissance was in the pontificate of Julius II, but the flood lingered +on at the full till 1540, and then the ebb began. This is the date which +the famous German scholar and critic, Jakob Burckhardt, assigns as the +limit of the Golden Age; and it is interesting to find how closely it +corresponds with the political dates which marked the establishment of +the new political order in Italy. In 1530 Florence was definitely handed +over to the Medici; in 1535 the duchy of Milan was annexed to Spain; in +1540 the Pope sanctioned the Order of Jesus; in 1542 he established the +Holy Office in Rome; in 1543 he accepted the scheme of an _Index +Librorum Prohibitorum_; and in 1545 the Council of Trent was opened. + +The change from maturity to decay was all-pervasive; yet it was slow, +and a period of excellence and good taste intervened between the High +Renaissance and the Baroque. This process is most clearly marked in +architecture. During the High Renaissance dignity was law, the grand +manner dominated, and charm determined subordinate parts. Domes were +noble, loggias elegant, pilasters decorative, cornices well +proportioned, ceilings splendid. After 1540 indications of decline +appeared; but this fading brilliance was a kind of _goetterdaemmerung_, +and, though it heralded the Baroque, displayed at times a purity of +detail and a noble restraint worthy of the earlier period. + +Of the architects of this intervening stage the greatest was Giacomo +Barozzi, surnamed Vignola after the little town where he was born in the +province of Modena. He was a man of theories, had great knowledge of +classical architecture, and wrote a manual on the architectural orders +which enjoyed great authority for two centuries and more. He built +various buildings at Bologna, and designed a gigantic palace at Piacenza +for the Farnesi, the ducal children of Alexander Farnese, Paul III, and +nephews of the beautiful Giulia. The art of making gardens, of using +cypress trees, greensward, pools, terraces, and clumps of ilex as joint +partners with stone, brick, and stucco, in one artistic whole, had come +into being in the sixteenth century; and Vignola was one of the masters +of this new art. He designed the Farnese gardens on the Palatine Hill, +since destroyed by time, neglect, subsequent owners, and eager +archaeologists. He was an artist of great ideas, and sometimes caught the +grand manner. On the other hand, he also helped to bring on the Baroque. +His famous church at Rome, the Gesu, despite its vast, high-arching +nave, lent itself with fatal facility to a gorgeous hideousness of +decoration, and set the fashion for many imitative Jesuit churches, +which caught the hideous gorgeousness but missed the grandeur of their +exemplar. He had an important part in building the _Villa di Papa +Giulio_ (Pope Julius III), a little outside the city walls, charming in +its grace, its variety, and its succession of arcades, courts, loggias, +balustrades, grotto, terrace, and garden. + +The next in rank, Bartolommeo Ammanati of Florence, may be called the +court architect of Duke Cosimo I. He built two bridges across the Arno, +the Ponte alia Carraia and the Ponte Santa Trinita, finished the main +body of the Pitti Palace, originally designed by Brunelleschi, and +completed the elaborate Boboli garden, the pleasure grounds behind the +palace. He also was drawn to Rome at the behest of villa-building Popes, +and had a share in elaborating the plans of the Villa of Papa Giulio. +Giorgio Vasari, architect, painter, biographer, designed the Uffizi at +Florence, painted many indifferent pictures, and wrote "Lives of the +Painters," a garrulous, discursive, inaccurate, and delightful book. +Galeazzo Alessi of Perugia built the stately, tourist-haunted palaces of +Genoa, once occupied by opulent merchants, and also the gigantic church +of S. Maria degli Angeli, which covers the Portiuncula of St. Francis, +like a bowl turned over a forget-me-not. Jacopo Tatti Sansovino of +Florence was the architect of many noble buildings in Venice. Andrea +Palladio of Vicenza embodied his passionate love of classical +architecture in palaces and churches in his native town and in Venice. +During the revival of classic enthusiasm in the eighteenth century +Palladio became a demi-god. The captivated Goethe, as soon as he arrived +at Vicenza, hurried to see the Palladian palaces. "When we stand face to +face with these buildings, then we first realize their great excellence; +their bulk and massiveness fill the eye, while the lovely harmony of +their proportions, admirable in the advance and retreat of perspective, +brings peace to the spirit." In Venice, he says, "Before all things I +hastened to the Carita.... Alas! scarcely a tenth part of the edifice is +finished. However, even this part is worthy of that heavenly genius.... +One ought to pass whole years in the contemplation of such a work." + +These men and their rivals kept alive the traditions of the great +period; nevertheless, in course of time stiltedness and exaggeration +usurped the place of elegance and force. A servile imitation of Roman +models, an absolute acceptance of classical correctness, prevailed; the +classic orders, especially the Corinthian, spread themselves everywhere; +in one place barren and formal simplicity obtruded itself, in another +pretentious magnificence. After 1580 the transition is complete; the +baroque triumphs; sham tyrannizes, wood and plaster mimic stone, columns +twist themselves awry; monstrous scrolls, heavy mouldings, crazy +statues, gilt deformities, and all the contortions to which stucco and +other cohesive substances will submit, hang and cling everywhere, inside +and out. But this is to anticipate, for the full revel of the Baroque +takes place in the seventeenth century. + +The same degeneration prevailed in sculpture. Michelangelo, in his +statues in the Medicean chapel at Florence, "Night" and "Day," "Evening" +and "Dawn" (1529-34), had achieved the utmost which thought and emotion +could express in marble. They stand, pillars set up by Hercules, at the +end of the noble sculpture of the Renaissance. His successors tried to +imitate him, in vain; they produced bulk, or writhing or distortion. Yet +some men of this period did excellent work: Benvenuto Cellini, delicate +goldsmith, and sculptor of the Florentine Perseus; John of Bologna, who +modelled the Flying Mercury; Taddeo Landini of Florence, who designed +the charming fountain in Rome, in which several boys are boosting +turtles into a basin above; Bandinelli, whose big statues are familiar +in Florence, "a man strangely composed," as Burckhardt says, "of natural +talent, of reminiscence of the old school, and of a false originality +which carried him beyond a disregard of nicety even to grossness." After +these men and a few others, sculpture followed architecture in its +facile descent into the Baroque, and expressed itself in prophets, +saints, and Popes, who stand in swaying and vacillating postures in nave +and aisle, on roof and balustrade. These decadent sculptors strictly +belong to the next century; they are but heralded by the last works of +the Cinquecento. + +In painting, too, the same story is repeated all over Italy. In Florence +after the close of the High Renaissance twilight darkened rapidly. There +are few artists of note except two fashionable portrait painters, +Pontormo and Bronzino, who display the characteristics of the period. +Bronzino's picture of the Descent of Christ into Hades almost justifies +Ruskin's comment, a "heap of cumbrous nothingness and sickening +offensiveness;" on the other hand, Pontormo's decorations in the great +hall of the Medicean Villa at Poggio a Caiano are as graceful, gay, and +charming as can well be imagined. After them in dreary succession come +the decadent painters, who painted figures bigger and bigger in would-be +Michelangelesque attitudes, as may be seen in one of the rooms of the +_Belle Arti_ in Florence. Elsewhere, also, the generation bred under the +great masters faded away,--the sweet Luini of Milan, Leonardo's +follower; the facile Giulio Romano, Raphael's pupil; the beauty-loving +Sodoma of Siena; the romantic Dosso Dossi of Ferrara. These names show +how loath the genius of painting was to leave Italy, but she obeyed +fate; and, at the end of the century, we have the Caracci beginning to +paint in Bologna, and Caravaggio (1569-1609) in Naples. It needs but a +glance at these later pictures to see what a change had come over the +spirit of beauty during the hundred years since Botticelli painted Venus +fresh from the salt sea foam. + +In literature, also, at the opening of the sixteenth century, we had the +historian, Guicciardini; the political writer, Machiavelli; the poet, +Ariosto; the cultivated Castiglione: at the end we have the pathetic +figure of Torquato Tasso (1544-95), who stands drooping, like a symbol +of Italy. Tasso is always inscribed in textbooks as one of the four +greatest Italian poets, and it would be useless and impertinent to +dispute the concordant testimony of many witnesses. Byron apostrophizes +him, "O victor unsurpassed in modern song;" yet one with difficulty +avoids thinking that his sad story has added to the beauty of his poetry +and heightened his reputation. + +Torquato Tasso was the last great genius of the Italian Renaissance, and +stands there facing the oncoming decadence in gifted helplessness; he +had many talents, a noble nature, a melancholy temperament, and a weak +character. In boyhood his religious emotions and his intellectual +faculties were both over-stimulated. His story is a medley of court +favour, success, rivalry, suspicion. His home was Ferrara, but he +wandered about, as a sick person seeks to ease his body by changing +posture. Early forcing and some natural weakness combined to bring too +great a strain upon his mind, which gave way, and the unfortunate man +was put in a madhouse by his patron, the Duke of Ferrara. He was +confined for seven years, but not ill treated. He died in the monastery +of Sant' Onofrio on the Janiculum at Rome, where tourists stop to gaze at +the poor remnant of an oak tree, under whose shade he used to sit. +Carducci, the great poet, says: "Italy's great literature, the living, +national, and at the same time, human literature, with which she +reconciled Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and, in a Roman way, +represented a renewed Europe, ended with Tasso." His sad story is a +fitting epilogue to the Italian Renaissance. + +This general course of ascent, culmination, and decline holds true even +of Venice, except in chronology; for Venice preserved her independence +from the normal Italian experience almost as resolutely in the arts as +in politics. She produced no literature, piqued perhaps because Italy +had taken the Tuscan dialect rather than hers for the national language; +but in the arts, after decay had elsewhere set in, she bloomed in the +fulness of perfection, as late roses blossom when other bushes show +nothing but hips. Of her individual career a few words must be said. + +In architecture and sculpture, the Lombardi, a Venetian family probably +from Lombardy, flourished for nearly a hundred years (1452-1537), and +left their mark on Venice, in tombs and statues, in churches and +palaces. Contemporary with the last generation of Lombardi came the more +gifted Alessandro Leopardi, who completed the great statue of Colleoni +designed by Verrocchio, and gave a new impulse to Venetian sculpture. +While the Tuscan sculptors had been studying Roman remains, the Isles of +Greece had been giving Greek models to their Venetian conquerors, and +Leopardi in particular profited greatly by them. In the sister art the +first famous architect after the Lombardi was the Florentine, Jacopo +Sansovino, who spent most of a long life in Venice, where he built the +Zecca, the Loggetta, the Libreria Vecchia (the Old Library), and also +the Scala d'Oro (the Golden Stairway) of the ducal palace. Sanmicheli, a +military engineer, as well as a builder of palaces, came from Verona to +work in Venice. Palladio (1508-80), of whom we have spoken, came from +Vicenza, and bequeathed his name to the neo-classic style, known as +Palladian. + +In painting first came the famous Bellini family, Jacopo (1400-64?) and +his two sons, Gentile and the more gifted Giovanni, painter of tenderest +Madonnas; after them came Carpaccio, painter of St. Jerome and his lion, +and of St. George and his dragon. Then followed in rapid succession the +most gifted group of painters that ever lived together, all born within +twenty years of one another, as if to prove how prodigally Nature could +endow a petty province that had the luck to please her: Giorgione, from +Castelfranco on the Venetian mainland, of highest fame and disputed +pictures; Titian, of Cadore, noblest of portrait painters; Palma +Vecchio, of Bergamo, creator of the most glorious of animals, the superb +Venetian women; Sebastiano del Piombo, who painted the Fornarina of the +Uffizi Gallery long attributed to Raphael, and deserved his fortune of +being pupil to Giorgione and friend to Michelangelo; Lorenzo Lotto, of +Bergamo, another painter of exquisite women, high-bred men, noble +saints, and poetical angels; Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, inferior +only to Titian; Bonifazio from Verona, painter of patrician luxury; +Paris Bordone, of Treviso, so uncertain in merit, yet at his best so +rich in hue, so tender in sentiment, so admirable in his pictures of +Venetian ceremonial; and at the close, the giant Tintoretto (1512-94) +and Paolo Veronese (1528-88) the glorious: all, though in different +degrees, splendid in colour, voluptuous ministers to the sensuous eye. +This cluster of names serves to show that while elsewhere in Italy art +was dwindling into mannerism and exaggeration, Venice put forth an +extraordinary burst of pictorial magnificence; yet even in Venice at +the end of the century none of the great men were left. + +The reason for this decadence of the arts from their splendour in the +early decades of the century is not easy to assign; no one can say why +genius spurts up in one spot or in one individual, why the brilliant +Italian race should have achieved so many masterpieces and then have +become ineffectual. One can merely notice, whether as a cause or an +accompanying phenomenon, that, with individual exceptions,--no man could +be nobler than Michelangelo,--Italy of the High Renaissance was a great +moral failure. In intellectual achievement the Italians eclipsed the +world; in morality they stumbled about like blind men. This lack of +morality finds its fullest expression, at least its most conspicuous +expression, at the very time of the culmination of the arts. Let me +illustrate. + +The night that the Duke of Gandia, son of Pope Borgia, was murdered in +Rome (1497), a wood-seller, living beside the Tiber, saw several men +come cautiously to the river. They peered about and made a sign to some +one behind. Up came a horseman, with a dead body lying across his +horse's back, head and heels dangling down; the horse was turned rump to +the river, and two men on foot seized the body and flung it into the +water. The wood-seller was asked why he had not reported the fact. He +answered that he had seen some hundred bodies thrown into the river at +that spot, and had never heard any inquiries made. The duke's brother, +Caesar, was at the time believed to have done the deed, but evidence +fails. + +The same Caesar Borgia, bearing the somewhat ambitious motto _Aut Caesar +aut nihil_, energetic, ruthless, vigorous, ingenious, and plausible, +embodied the Italian conception of what a political leader should be; so +much so, that Machiavelli, the greatest of Italian political writers, +cites him as a model. Machiavelli was a patriot, animated by real love +of his country, but he was free from our conceptions of morality, or +perhaps sceptical of Italian virtue, and believed that the achievement +of liberating Italy from foreign tyranny could only be accomplished by +the qualities of an Iago. In the chapter in "The Prince" entitled "In +what manner Princes should keep faith," he says: "How praiseworthy it is +for a Prince to keep faith, to practise integrity and eschew trickery, +everybody knows; nevertheless, within our own lifetime and our own +experience, we know that those Princes have done great things who have +made small account of good faith and have known how to turn men's heads +by means of trickery, and in the end have surpassed those who planted +themselves on loyalty.... Therefore a prudent lord ought not to keep +faith, when keeping faith would make against him, and the reasons which +made him promise are no more. If men were all good this precept would +not be good; but as they are bad and would not keep faith with you, you, +too, ought not to keep faith with them; and a Prince will never lack +legitimate reasons to colour the breach.... I shall even make bold to +say this, that to have certain moral qualities and always observe them +is bad, but to seem to have them is good; as to seem to be pious, +faithful, kind, religious, honest, or even to be so, provided your mind +be so adjusted that, in case of need, you will know how to be the +opposite. For you must know that a Prince, and especially a newly +crowned Prince, cannot do all the things for which men are esteemed +good, for, in order to maintain the state, they are often obliged to act +contrary to humanity, contrary to charity, contrary to religion; +therefore, he must have a mind prompt to veer with the wind and the +fluctuations of fortune; and, as I have said, not to forsake the good, +if may be, but to know how to cleave to evil, if he must." + +Another illustration shall be the life of Pietro Aretino (1492-1557), +born the child of an artist's model in a hospital at Arezzo, who, by wit +and infinite impudence, by toadying, bullying, and blackmail, worked his +way to such a position that he could say, "Without serving courts I have +compelled the great world, dukes, princes, kings, to pay tribute to my +genius." Once a pious lady, the Marchesa di Pesaro, remonstrated with +him upon his life, and bade him mend his ways. He wrote back: "I must +say that I am not less useful to the world, or less pleasing to Jesus, +spending my vigils upon trifles than if I had employed them on works of +piety. But why do I do this? If princes were as devout as I am needy, my +pen would write nothing but _misereres_.... Let us see. I have a friend +named Brucioli, who dedicated his translation of the Bible to the Most +Christian King [of France]. Four years passed and he got no answer. On +the other hand, my comedy, 'The Courtesan,' won a rich necklace from +this same king; so that my Courtesan would have felt tempted to make fun +of the Old Testament, if that were not a trifle unbecoming. Forgive me +lady for the jests I have written, not from malice, but for a +livelihood. All the world does not possess the inspiration of divine +grace. Music and comedy are to us what prayer and preaching are to you. +May Jesus grant you His grace to get for me from Sebastiano di Pesaro +[her husband?] the rest of the money of which I have only received +thirty scudi; for this I am in anticipation your debtor." Of Pietro +Aretino a recent Italian critic says: "His memory is infamous; no +gentleman would mention his name before a lady." Yet, perhaps, we may +doubt if he was peculiarly bad; he possessed the cynical views of +morality current at the time. Aretino made a fortune, received +knighthood from the Pope, nearly obtained a cardinal's hat, and was +painted by Titian. + +The following anecdote is taken from the autobiography of the famous +goldsmith and sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71). He was travelling +on a sort of canal boat on his way from Venice to Florence. "We went to +lodge for the night in an inn on this side of Chioggia, on the left as +we were approaching Ferrara. Our host wished to be paid, according to +his custom, before we went to bed. I told him that in other places it +was the custom to pay in the morning, but he said, 'I wish to be paid, +according to my way, in the evening.' I replied that men who wanted +their own special way would have to make a world to suit their special +way, because in this world that was not the way things were done. The +host answered that I need not vex my wits, for he wished to do according +to his way. My companion was trembling for fear, and poked me to be +quiet lest the host do worse; so we paid him, according to his way, and +went to bed. We had excellent new beds, everything new, spick and span; +in spite of this I did not sleep a wink, thinking all night long what I +could do to revenge myself; first I thought of setting fire to the +house, next of cutting the throats of the four good horses that he had +in his stable; I could see that this would be easy to do, but not how it +would be easy for me and my companion to escape afterwards. At last I +hit on a plan. In the morning I put my companion and all the things into +the canal boat. When the horses were hitched to the rope that pulled the +boat, I said that they must not start the boat till I got back, as I had +left a pair of slippers in my room.... When I got in the room I took my +knife, which was sharp as a razor, and I cut the mattresses on the four +beds to little bits, so that I knew I had done more than fifty scudi +worth of damage." Throughout a delightful autobiography, which we need +not accept too literally, Cellini exhibits a perfectly unmoral +disposition, a mind with no sense of social law and no respect for +anything except Michelangelo and art. + +These four men, Caesar Borgia, Machiavelli, Aretino, and Cellini, +possessed fortitude, energy, subtlety, and courage, but they showed no +appreciation of the fundamental social virtues, loyalty, trust, +subordination of self to the general good; and for this reason they +enable us to understand why Italy fell like a ripe apple, without +resistance, into the lap of foreigners and lay helpless under Jesuit, +inquisitor, petty duke, and Spanish viceroy, and why freedom to think +and freedom to act faded from art and intellectual life as well as from +political life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +A SURVEY OF ITALY (1580-1581) + + +At the end of the sixteenth century Italy is well under way on a new +stretch of history, which lasted until the nineteenth century. Except +Venice, always individual, and the Papacy, freshly revivified, Italy has +lost all moral force, and become wholly effeminate. In twenty-five years +three hundred and twenty-six volumes of sonnets were published. Her +political life has become what one may call grand-ducal; her religion +formal, superstitious; her literature affected, stilted; her +architecture Baroque; her painting and sculpture steeped in mannerism +and exaggeration. Nevertheless, Italy is Italy, and has her own charm, +her own individuality, her own coquetry. As formerly she lured Barbarian +nations, so now she lures individual Barbarians, and becomes the +roaming-ground of travellers. She seems less a real country than a +theatre, where rococo dukes, cavaliers, and ladies curl their hair and +powder their cheeks. + +For two centuries this artificial existence continued. Its history is +not to be found in the solemn volumes of Cesare Cantu, Carlo Botta, or +other Italian historians, but in the journals of German, French, and +English travellers: for during these centuries Italy was not a country +in either a political or a sentimental sense; it was a place of +recreation for gentlemen on the grand tour, pious folk bound Romeward, +virtuosi seeking classical remains, and elderly statesmen hoping to cure +the gout. The several petty states were so many artificial gardens, +where the peasants wore pretty costumes, the dukes sang prize songs, the +duchesses trilled _tra la la_ in rival endeavour, and the ecclesiastics +trolled out the chorus. It was the Italian opera bouffe on the most +charming stage in the world. The best summary of the history of the +coming century will be a series of extracts from the diary of a +keen-witted French gentleman, travelling for pleasure, Michel de +Montaigne, who, in the company of some friends, spent several months in +Italy (1580-81). They crossed the Alps over the Brenner Pass and went by +way of Trent. Montaigne's diary is sometimes written in the second and +sometimes in the third person. He describes many of the principal +cities. + +VERONA (within the territory of the Republic of Venice). +"Without health certificates which they had got at Trent they could not +have entered the city, although there was no rumour of any danger of +pest; but it is the custom (in order to cheat us of the few pennies they +cost). We went to see the cathedral, where Montaigne deemed the +behaviour of the men at High Mass very peculiar; they chatted even in +the choir of the church, standing up, with their hats on and their backs +turned to the altar, and did not seem to pay any attention to the +service except on the elevation of the Host. There were organs and +violins to accompany the mass.... We went to see the castle and were +shown all over by the lieutenant in charge. The [Venetian] government +keeps sixty soldiers there, rather, according to what they said to +Montaigne, against the people of the city than against foreigners. We +also saw a congregation of monks called the Gesuati of St. Jerome [not +Jesuits]. They are not priests; they neither say mass nor preach; most +of them are ignorant, but they carry on a business of distilling +lemon-flower water, both in Verona and elsewhere. They are dressed in +white, with little white caps, and a dark brown gown over it; +good-looking young men." They visited the Ghetto (Jews' quarter), and +the Roman amphitheatre, which Montaigne thought the noblest building he +had ever seen. + +VICENZA. "It is a big city, a little smaller than Verona, all +full of palaces of the nobility." The fair, which was held twice a year, +was going on upon the parade-ground; booths had been built on purpose, +and no shops in the city were allowed to keep open. In the town there +was another establishment of the Gesuati, selling their perfumes and +also medicines for every ailment. "These monks tell us that they whip +themselves every day; each one has his switch at his post in the +oratory, where they meet at certain hours of the day and pray, but they +have no singing.... The old wine has given out, which vexed me, as it is +not good for me, on account of my colic, to drink the new wines, though +they are very good in their way." From Vicenza they journeyed by a broad +straight road, ditched on either side and raised a little, which ran +through a fertile champaign with mountains in the distance, to +PADUA. The inns here could not be compared with German inns +except that they were cheaper by a third. "The streets narrow and ugly, +not many people, few handsome houses. We went about all the next day and +saw the schools of fencing, dancing, and riding, where there were more +than a hundred French gentlemen together." In fact, young men went in +great numbers, young Frenchmen in particular, to the schools of Padua, +less to acquire a knowledge of books than to acquire the accomplishments +which were then the mode. One of Montaigne's party stopped here and +found good lodging for seven crowns a month, and "he might have lodged a +valet for five crowns more; ordinarily, however, they do not have +valets, only a general servant for the house, or else maids; every one +has a nice bedroom, but fire and lights in the bedroom are extra. The +accommodation was very good, and you can live there very reasonably, and +that, I think, is the reason why many strangers go there to live, even +those who are not students." + +VENICE. Here he dined with the French ambassador "very well;" +among other things "that the ambassador told him this seemed odd, that +he had no social relations whatever with anybody in the city, because +the people were so suspicious that a [Venetian] gentleman who should +speak to him twice would fall under distrust." One is inclined, however, +considering the fate of Milan, to regard a certain distrust of +foreigners as not unnatural. Montaigne thought that the four most +remarkable things about Venice were the situation, the police, the +Piazza of St. Mark's, and the crowds of foreigners. He received as a +gift a little book of "Letters" from a Venetian lady, one of that +celebrated class of Venetian women who were outside the matrimonial pale +yet lived in ostentatious luxury, recognized by the government and by +masculine society. This lady at mid-life had changed her ways and +devoted herself to literature, and hearing of the famous French author, +sent him her book. + +Returning by way of Padua, Montaigne passed the sulphur springs, +frequented in May and August by the fashionable sick, who took mud or +vapour baths and drank the waters. He noted the canals; the system of +irrigation in the plains, where rows of vine-laden trees intersected +fields of wheat; the big, strong, gray oxen; the broad mud flats, once +swamps, which the government was struggling to reclaim. + +ROVIGO, a little town in Venetian territory near the Adige. +"There is as great abundance of meat here as in France, whatever it may +be the custom to say, and though they use no lard for the roast, they do +not take away the savour. The bedrooms, because there is no glass and +they don't shut the windows, are not so clean as in France; the beds are +better made, smoother, and well supplied with mattresses, but they have +nothing but coarse coverings, and they are very sparing of white sheets; +if a man travels alone, or with little style, he won't get any. It is +about as dear as in France, or a little dearer." + +He crossed the Po, as he had crossed the Adige, upon some kind of +pontoon bridge, and went on to + +FERRARA (duchy of Ferrara), where he was delayed on account of +his health certificate. The ducal regulations on this point were very +particular. On the door of every room in the inn was written up, +"Remember the health certificate;" immediately on arrival, names of +travellers were reported to the magistrates. Montaigne found most of the +streets broad and straight, all paved with bricks; there were many +palaces, but few people, and he missed the porticos of Padua, so +convenient against the rain. He _did_ the town, paid his respects to the +duke, saw Tasso in the madhouse, and found the lemon-flower distilling +Gesuates again. + +At BOLOGNA (in the Papal States), a large, fine city, bigger +than Ferrara, and with many more people; he also found young Frenchmen +come to learn riding and fencing. He admired the fine porticos, that +covered almost every sidewalk, the handsome palaces, the buildings of +the _School of Sciences_, the bronze statue of Neptune designed by John +of Bologna, and enjoyed a company of players. "The cost of living was +about the same as at Padua, very reasonable; but the city is less +peaceful in the older quarters, which make debatable land between the +partisans of different nations, on one side always the French, and on +the other the Spaniards, who are there in great numbers." + +This unpeaceful and factional condition was not confined to Bologna, but +spread throughout the Papal States. Even fifty years later a perplexed +visitor to Ravenna wrote: "The city is divided, as you know, into +Guelfs and Ghibellines, so much so that one man won't go to another's +church, and each side has its place in the public square; a tailor who +works for one need not look for employment from the other, and so with +all the trades; they distinguish one faction from the other by the way +they wear their hair, their caps," etc. But these pale shadows of the +great old parties were slight inconveniences compared with the banditti, +who also decked themselves with old names, and, under pretence of +fighting one another, robbed, burnt, pillaged, and murdered with perfect +impartiality. The soldiers and the common people united against these +rascals, but they were too strong to be utterly extirpated. In the Papal +States, one Piccolomini, a member of a famous Sienese family, raided +where he chose, and once led a band of two hundred men within a mile or +two of the walls of Rome. Terms were made with him, for he was under the +protection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and although he confessed to +three hundred and seventy murders within twenty-five years, he was +pardoned and absolved. + +Leaving Bologna, Montaigne hesitated in his choice of roads on account +of brigands, and chose wisely for he was not molested. He crossed the +Apennines by a road, which he says is the first that could be called +bad, and entered the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. One village on the way, +still in papal territory, was famous for the knavery of the innkeepers, +who made wonderful promises till the traveller was safely housed, and +then rendered the scantest performance. At the next village, which was +in Tuscany, rival hosts rode out to meet the traveller, and struggled to +secure him, promising everything. One offered to serve a rabbit for +dinner free, if Montaigne would lodge with him. The party prudently rode +about to all the inns on a tour of inspection, examining food and wine, +and making their bargain before dismounting; the host, however, managed +to put extras on the bill, it being impossible to remember beforehand +every item, wood, candles, linen, hay, etc. + +Next day Montaigne rode out of his way to see Pratolino, the Grand +Duke's famous country place, with its gardens, alleys, wonderful +grottos, all decked with Nereids and Tritons, and fountains of +extravagant baroque designs. From there he went on to + +FLORENCE, which appeared to him smaller than Ferrara. He went +to see the ducal stables, the ducal menagerie, Michelangelo's statues, +Giotto's campanile; and remarked that he had never seen a country with +so few handsome women as Italy. Lodgings were inferior in comfort to +those in France, and the food was far less generous and less well served +than in Germany, where, also, sauces and seasonings were far superior; +the windows were big and always open, for there was no glass, and if the +shutters were shut they excluded light and air as well as wind; the beds +were uncomfortable, the wines too sweet; moreover, Florence was esteemed +the most expensive city in Italy. + +Montaigne dined with the duke, Francesco I (son of Cosimo I), and his +second wife, Bianca Cappello, the famous Venetian, who sat at the head +of the table. She had a pleasant face, was reputed handsome, and seemed +to have been able to keep her husband devoted to her for a long time. +The duke mixed water freely with his wine; she scarcely at all. After a +brief stay, during which he visited gardens and the environs of the +city, which he admired greatly, Montaigne rode southward to + +SIENA. The country was cultivated everywhere and tolerably +fertile, but the road was rough and stony. At Siena he notes the Duomo, +the palaces, the _piazza_, the fountains, and, important point, that +"there are good cellars and fresh;" also, that in Tuscany the city walls +are let go to ruin, while the citadels are carefully fortified and no +one is permitted to go near, showing that the duke feared domestic +insurrection more than foreign attack. He observes "the French are kept +in such affectionate remembrance here by the people of the country, that +at any mention of them tears well up in their eyes, for war itself, with +freedom in some form, seems to them sweeter than the peace which they +enjoy under this tyranny." The French had aided Siena in its brave +struggle for liberty, and a valiant remnant of French and Sienese had +held out till the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559), when France +abandoned them to Cosimo dei Medici. + +From Siena he rode southward past Bolsena, Viterbo, and a pleasant +valley surrounded by hills covered with wood, "a commodity somewhat rare +in this country." Incidentally he commends the customs: in good houses +dinner was served at two o'clock and supper at nine; and if there was a +play, it began at six and was over by supper time. "It is a good country +for a lazy fellow for they get up late." + +At ROME he put up for a day at the _Bear_, and then took +lodgings, three good bedrooms, parlour, dining-room, kitchen, and +stable, for twenty crowns a month, the host providing the cook and fire +for the kitchen. "Apartments are ordinarily somewhat better furnished +than in Paris, especially as they have a great deal of gilt leather, +with which the walls of apartments of a certain grade are hung." He +might have hired another apartment for the same price, furnished in silk +and cloth of gold, but he did not think this luxury suitable, and the +rooms were not so convenient. Ancient Rome impressed him immensely, and +the modern city, too; he was astonished by the papal court, the number +of prelates, the crowd of ecclesiasts, by the streets, so full of richly +dressed men, of horses and coaches. + +Making a comparison between freedom in Venice and in Rome, he argued for +Venice, and adduced these reasons: "Item, that in Rome houses were so +insecure, that those who had considerable sums of money were advised to +leave their purses at their bankers, so as not to find their chest +broken open; item, that it was not very safe to go out at night; item, +that, in the very first month of his visit, the General of the +Cordeliers was abruptly dismissed from his post and put in prison, +because in a sermon, which he preached before the Pope [Gregory XIII] +and the cardinals, he had accused prelates of laziness and luxury, but +without going into details, and using (with some asperity of voice) only +perfectly common and current phrases on the subject; item, that his +luggage had been examined on entering the city for the customs, and had +been ransacked down to the smallest article of clothing, whereas in most +of the other cities in Italy the officials had been satisfied with the +mere offer to submit to examination; besides that, they had taken all +the books they found in order to examine them, and took so long about +it, that a man who had something to do might put them down as lost; add +to that, that their rules were so extraordinary that the 'Book of Hours +of Our Lady' fell under their suspicion, because it came from Paris and +not from Rome, and they also kept books, written by some German doctors +against heretics, because in combating them they made mention of their +errors." + +On Christmas day at St. Peter's during mass, Montaigne "was surprised to +see Pope, cardinals, and other prelates, seated almost all through the +mass, talking and conversing together. The ceremony seemed more +magnificent than devotional." He obtained an interview with the Pope, +very ceremonious; and dined with a French cardinal, where the +_benedicite_ and repetitions of grace, very long, were recited +antiphonally by two chaplains. During dinner the Bible was read, and +after the table was cleared, service was held; everything was +exceedingly formal, but the _chef_ does not appear to have equalled +Cardinal Caraffa's _chef_, a culinary enthusiast, with whom Montaigne +had a long talk on sauces, soups, and serving. Montaigne attended the +Carnival sports on the Corso, a festival already at that time more than +a hundred years old, where boys, Jews, old men, horses, asses, and +buffalo ran races; fair ladies, without masks, looked on, and young +cavaliers congregated where the ladies could see them; the ladies were +richly clad, the gentlemen simply; and (Montaigne adds) the appearance +of the dukes, counts, and marquesses was not equal to their titles. + +Montaigne's "Essays" had been submitted to the Master of the Palace, who +examined them with the aid of a French friar, for the Master knew no +French. After a delay they were returned, and the Master left it to +Montaigne's conscience to alter what might seem to be in bad taste, +especially in those points to which the French friar objected; item, +that Montaigne had used the word _Fortune_; item, that he had named +poets who were heretics; item, that he had made an apology for Julian +the Apostate; item, that he had suggested that when a man was saying his +prayers he ought at that moment to be free from any unworthy +inclination; item, that he judged any punishment in excess of death, +cruelty; item, that a child should be educated to do all sorts of +things, etc. Another book belonging to Montaigne, a history of the +Swiss, was confiscated, because the translator was a heretic. + +On Maundy Thursday he saw the Pope come forth on the balcony of St. +Peter's attended by his cardinals. On one side a canon, speaking Latin; +on the other, a cardinal read, in Italian, a long bull which +excommunicated an everlasting list of people, including the Huguenots +and all princes who withheld any portion of the territory of the Church. +At this last article Cardinals Medici and Caraffa laughed heartily. At +night there was a great procession of religious guilds, with twelve +thousand torches, including files of Penitents, who scourged their bare +backs till the blood ran. Montaigne, however, was of opinion that these +Penitents were hired for this purpose. He agreed with the French +ambassador, that the poor people were incomparably more devout in France +than here, but that in Rome the rich, and especially the courtiers, were +more devout than in France. + +From Rome Montaigne made his way northward by SPOLETO, where +there was great alarm caused by a noted brigand. On the way he notes his +food,--salt fish, beans uncooked, artichokes also uncooked, peas, green +almonds, eggs, cheese, wine, and, in little places, olive oil instead of +butter. "You meet monks every now and then who give holy water to +travellers and expect alms in return, and a lot of children who beg and +hold out their beads, promising to say a string of paternosters for the +person who will give them something." + +The Umbrian plain was beautiful and fertile, with grains and fruits in +abundance, the whole country rich beyond description. So, too, had been +the Roman Campagna, but that was not tenanted, for its owners, the Roman +barons, had let it to merchant farmers, who did not maintain peasants +there, but in harvest time hired husbandmen from all over Italy, to the +number of forty thousand, to gather in the crops. From FOLIGNO he turned +to the right and crossed the Apennines just below Assisi, and travelled +toward the Adriatic coast, making a pilgrimage to LORETO, a place like +Lourdes, celebrated for its miracles, and for the "very same little +house in which Jesus Christ was born in Nazareth." Here he found the +people much more religious than elsewhere; even the attendants in the +Church were ready to do anything, and would accept no tips. Thence he +went to ANCONA, SINIGAGLIA, URBINO, where he inspected the famous palace +begun by Federigo da Montefeltro; then back to FLORENCE, once more to +admire the beautiful villas which decked the hills round about, and on +to PRATO and PISTOIA, stagnating little towns, whose civic life had been +crushed out by the Medici. So he rode on through lovely country, where +long lines of little trees, trellised with vines, divided the rich +fields of grain, skirting the hills covered with olive, mulberry, and +chestnut, till he reached LUCCA, which had saved itself from the clutch +of the Medici by clinging to the skirts of Austria. + +Lucca, girdled by fortifications worthy of a most martial ardour, +maintained a comfortable prosperity by the manufacture of silk; but +here, as elsewhere, it was becoming unfashionable to engage in trade, +partly on account of decreasing returns and the general waning of +energy, and partly from Spanish influences. Gentlemen retired from +business, invested their money in landed estates, and were rapidly +tending to become the characters which we find in Goldoni's comedies. + +From Lucca Montaigne went to the BATHS OF LUCCA and took the cure for +near two months. He found the country lovely, but society a little slow; +most of the men were apothecaries. After the cure he made another tour +southward, then back to Lucca for more baths, from there northward, on +the road to Milan, stopping at PONTREMOLI. At the inn in this place, the +dinner began with cheese _alla milanese_, included a dish of olives, +their pits taken out, dressed with oil and vinegar _alla genovese_; on a +bench stood one basin in which all the guests washed their hands in the +same water, _alla pontremolese_. From there he crossed the Apennines, +where the mountaineers, horrid people, charged them most cruel prices, +and went on into the duchy of Parma, where Alessandro Farnese, the great +general, was the reigning duke. At PIACENZA, the King of Spain, out of +his abundant caution, still maintained a Spanish garrison in the castle, +"badly paid as they told me." Thence they proceeded into the duchy of +Milan. + +At PAVIA Montaigne remarks, that from Rome northward the best +inn he had lodged at was the _Post_ at Piacenza, and the worst the +_Falcon_ at Pavia: "You pay extra for wood, and there are no mattresses +on the beds." MILAN was the largest city in Italy, not unlike +Paris, full of merchandise and craftsmen; it lacked the palaces of other +cities, but in size excelled them all, and in throng of people rivalled +Venice. + +From Milan he rode westward, and entered the domains of the Duke of +Savoy, crossing the Sesia near Vercelli, where the duke was building a +fort in such haste, that he aroused the suspicion of his Spanish +neighbours. Thence he went to TURIN. Here the people imitated +French ways, looked up to Paris, usually spoke French, or rather French +words with Italian pronunciation, and altogether seemed very devoted to +France. Montaigne liked Piedmont, finding the inns there better than +elsewhere in Italy. The bread was bad but the wine good, there was +plenty to eat, and the innkeepers were polite. He crossed the Alps over +the Mt. Cenis Pass, half the time on horseback, half the time in a +chaise borne by four porters, and then entered Savoy proper, passing its +capital, Chamberi, crossing the Rhone to the north and then the little +river Ain to the westward, and came to MONTLUEL, the last town +of Savoy, and so on to the Saone, Lyons, and French soil (November, +1581). + +Such was the Italy of the long period from 1580 to 1789, the land of +olives, mulberries, and chestnuts, of fertile fields crossed by +vine-laden trees, of irrigated plains and treeless mountains, of +innkeepers, good, bad, and indifferent, of Spanish garrisons, ducal +citadels, and dare-devil banditti, of begging urchins, perfuming friars, +of gentlemen too genteel to work, of prelates in coaches, of antique +ruins and Renaissance glory, of blue sky and vivacious manners, in +short, almost the Italy that our fathers knew before the perturbations +of 1848. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS (1580-1789) + + +We have now reached a period of comparative stability in which dukes, +viceroys, oligarchs, and Popes sit settled in their respective dominions +with a security that appears a little tame after the whir and uproar of +Barbarian invasion. To be sure, the wars between Spain, France, and +Austria, waged first to abate the over-greatness of the House of +Hapsburg and afterwards that of the House of Bourbon, were often fought +out in the north of Italy; nevertheless, the period of confusion has +passed, and each principality has a consecutive political history, which +runs along for two hundred years. Our best course will be to glance at +the careers of the several states, one by one, until they reach the +tumultuous influences of the French Revolution. Venice, the noblest as +well as the most powerful, deserves to come first. + + +_Venice_ + +Venice still ranked as one of the great powers of Europe; she was sought +as an ally, she took part in European counsels, and bore herself with +resolute dignity and pride. The change that was going on went on so +slowly, and her statesmen were so well trained and so far-sighted, that +her reputation remained intact after the power which had created it had +shrunk and dwindled. In spite of the battle of Lepanto she lost the +island of Cyprus to the Turks, but secured a peace which lasted for two +generations, a surprisingly long time, considering that the two states +were destined to fight each other till both were exhausted. She was less +successful in keeping at peace with her Christian neighbours, and became +embroiled in a celebrated quarrel with the Holy See. + +There was an irritating papal bull which was issued and reissued under +the stimulus of the reinvigorating Counter-Reformation, entitled _In +Coena Domini_ (for the Lord's Supper), usually read on Maundy Thursday. +It was probably the very bull that Montaigne heard read from the balcony +of St. Peter's. This bull asserted papal claims of extreme character, +not unworthy of Boniface VIII, and, in fact, revealed complete +consciousness of renewed youth and vitality. Other states in Italy bowed +and accepted, or pretended to accept, this declaration of papal +authority; but Venice refused to publish the bull. In fact, though +Venice had always professed great respect for the Holy See, she had been +consistently self-willed and opposed to papal pretensions, and likewise +somewhat free-thinking. Moreover, there had been festering disagreements +concerning territory and politics. Venice insisted upon the right to tax +Church property within the state, and to try priests charged with crime +before her lay tribunals. Acting upon the latter right she arrested and +tried two priests guilty of crime. This action traversed the doctrine +laid down in the papal bull. The Pope put Venice under an interdict +(1606). In retaliation the Signory issued a decree of banishment against +all priests and monks who should obey the interdict. Various Orders +quitted the city. The Pope stood firm in his position that "there could +be no true piety without entire submission to the spiritual power." All +Europe looked on, the Protestants backing Venice, the Catholics +supporting the Pope. War was in the air; but the danger of a European +_melee_ was too great. The French King, Henry IV, enacted the +peacemaker; and the forces in favour of compromise succeeded in +reestablishing peace. + +Out of the quarrel one man issued with a noble historic reputation. Fra +Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623) was the last of the great Venetians. In boyhood +he was so precocious a scholar that at eighteen he was made professor of +Positive Theology, and, a little later, of Philosophy and of +Mathematics. Grown up, he became a man of science, the foremost of his +time excepting Francis Bacon. He discovered the valves of the veins, and +also, independently of Harvey, the circulation of the blood. He made +discoveries in optics. He studied heat, light, sound, colour, +pneumatics, the magnetic needle. In astronomy Galileo called him, "_il +mio padre e maestro_--my father and my master." Sir Henry Wotton, the +English ambassador to Venice, said, Fra Paolo is "as expert in the +history of plants as if he had never perused any book but Nature." In +addition to these achievements, he wrote a very celebrated history of +the Council of Trent. At the time of the breach with the Papacy, this +brilliant savant was appointed Theological Counsellor to the Republic, +and was abruptly flung into the confusion and passion of violent +political strife. Deeply patriotic,--his last thought was for Venice, +"_Esto perpetua_, may she live forever,"--he held a brief, as it were, +for his country, and as her advocate argued her cause before all Europe +with brilliant success. + +At this period the Venetian Signory belonged, in spirit at least, to an +international political party which was opposed to Spain and to the +Papacy, and for that reason was favoured by the French, especially when +Henry of Navarre was on the throne. In fact, this quarrel between Venice +and the Papacy may be considered an episode in the great struggle +between the party of European freedom and the tyrannical House of +Hapsburg, seated on the thrones of Spain and Austria, and supported by +the Papacy. + +But Venice was not able to concentrate her attention upon European +affairs. Later in the century war with the Turks was renewed; she was +too weak to resist them single-handed, and, after a struggle which +lasted for twenty-five years, she lost Crete (1669). Not many years +later, having obtained allies, she renewed the war, fought with great +gallantry, and actually conquered the Morea, which, on the conclusion of +hostilities, was ceded to her (1699). This conquest, now best remembered +from the fact that in the attack on Athens a Venetian bomb blew up the +Parthenon, was the last great military exploit of the Venetians, and +within twenty years the Morea was lost again. + +Martial vigour ebbed slowly but surely. During the war of the Spanish +Succession, when, the course of fortune having shifted, Europe combined +to resist the overbearing power of Louis XIV and the House of Bourbon, +Venice remained neutral. Like an old dog which has fought many good +fights in its youth and prime, and now, lame and scarred, maintains a +dignified abstention from canine frays, Venice lay back. In 1718, after +the war with Turkey in which she lost the Morea, she took part in the +treaty between Austria and Turkey. This was her last active diplomatic +intervention in the affairs of Europe. She had lost Cyprus, Crete, the +Morea; and now her province in Italy, bits of Illyria, and some of the +Ionian Islands, alone remained from her old empire. She shut her eyes to +the past, and concentrated her attention on making her beautiful city +"the revel of the earth, the masque of Italy." On the eve of the mighty +upheaval of the French Revolution, her old sea glory flashed up under +her last great admiral, Angelo Emo (1731-92), who cleared the seas of +the Algerine pirates; but it was too late, Venice had run her course, +and the end was at hand. + + +_Spanish Provinces_ + +West of Venetian territory, the unfortunate duchy of Milan fulfilled its +melancholy lot of being the prize possessed by Spain, yet coveted and +fought for by France. Its history takes no special hold upon the memory. +Against a constant background of French ambition (Richelieu, Mazarin, +Louis XIV), the Spanish governors step forward upon the Milanese stage, +levy taxes, scheme how to circumvent the French, and how to extend +Spanish dominion, and then go home, a little richer but without leaving +any definite impression on the page of history except as they have +served to create the scenes depicted in the romantic novel "I Promessi +Sposi." One has a vague idea of ceremony, bows, obeisances, ignorance, +rapacity, and cruelty, but the idea is nebulous, and we need not stop. + +Leaving local affairs aside, we will proceed at once to see how the +titles to Milan and other Spanish provinces in Italy passed from Spain +into other hands. History here acts as an attorney and coldly records +the transfer from one monarch to another. Like lots of land the +provinces of Italy were bartered and granted in consideration of war, +dynastic love, and affection, or for the sake of the political +equilibrium of Europe. The great Powers fell to blows over the +succession to the crown of Spain (1700-14), to the crown of Poland +(1733-35), and other matters in which Italy had no voluntary concern; +and, after years of war, made treaties to reestablish European +equilibrium by an elaborate system of weights and counterweights. Where +the balances hung unevenly, a province of Italy was thrown in to restore +them to a level. In this way Milan, Parma, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia +were disposed of. All we need do is to remember that in place of +conveyances there were treaties, and in place of offer, counter-offer, +haggling, and bargaining, there were battles, sieges, devastation, and +pillage. + +The records of conveyances in the office of history read as follows:-- + + LOT GRANTOR GRANTEE DATE + + Milan Spain Austria 1713 + + Naples Spain Austria 1713 + " Austria Spanish Bourbons 1738 + + Sicily Spain Savoy 1713 + " Savoy Austria 1720 + " Austria Spanish Bourbons 1738 + + Parma Spanish Bourbons Austria 1738 + " Austria Spanish Bourbons 1748 + + Sardinia Spain Austria 1713 + " Austria Savoy 1720 + +Milan was subject to only one transfer, from Spain to Austria, by the +treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt (1713-14), which closed the war of the +Spanish Succession. Those same treaties took Naples and the island of +Sardinia from Spain and gave them to Austria, and also took Sicily from +Spain and gave it to Savoy. Spain, however, was dissatisfied, and +attempted to recover what she had lost; but a new European coalition +forced her to renounce her claim. In the general pacification after the +war, for the purpose of making a more satisfactory arrangement, Sardinia +was exchanged for Sicily, giving Sardinia to Savoy and Sicily to Austria +(1720). Finally, after the war of the Polish Succession by the Peace of +Vienna (1738), Austria ceded Naples and Sicily to younger sons of the +royal family of Spain, the Spanish Bourbons, on condition that those +provinces should never be united with the crown of Spain, and received +in exchange the little duchy of Parma, which had fallen to a Spanish +Bourbon on the extinction of the Farnesi. But ten years later, at the +close of the war of the Austrian Succession, Austria ceded Parma back +again to other members of the Spanish Bourbon family. + + +_Tuscany_ + +Another paragraph is necessary to complete the Austrification and the +Spanification of Italy. The Medici of Tuscany died out. After the first +Grand Duke, Cosimo, six successors had followed, dwindling away in +incapacity, luxury, and bigotry. The last died in 1737. Then, by virtue +of that general reapportionment after the war of the Polish Succession, +the Grand Duchy was handed over to the Duke of Lorraine, husband of +Maria Theresa, of the House of Hapsburg, Empress of Austria, and became +an appanage of the Austrian Empire, under the rule of the younger sons +of the Imperial house. It is a relief to turn from these Austrian and +Spanish provinces to the two living powers, Savoy and the Papacy. + + +_Savoy_ + +It would be impossible to chronicle here the history of the Savoyard +dukes, who were advanced to the title of Kings of Sardinia after the +acquisition of that island. Savoy lay in the way of the three fighting +nations, France, Spain, and Austria. The plain of Piedmont was an +admirable fighting-ground, and the combatants chose it on all possible +occasions, but it would not be fair to charge the whole blame upon those +three nations. The Dukes of Savoy were ambitious men, full of all sorts +of schemes for increasing their dominions and their personal glory. +Whenever any one of them thought he perceived an opportunity to seize +some neighbouring territory, he caught at it, reckless of collision with +his powerful neighbours. The general upshot was that Savoy lost its old +Swiss provinces and its old French provinces, and that Piedmont became +the head and front of the new Kingdom of Sardinia. Equally important to +Italy was the fact that, while the people of the other Italian provinces +became more and more incapable of bearing arms or of making any real +martial effort, the people of Piedmont gradually became a nation of +soldiers. In devastation, war, and apparent ruin, Piedmontese valour and +Piedmontese character were trained and developed, and Piedmont little by +little came to feel, and likewise to impress upon the other Italian +States, that she, and she alone, was the refuge and hope of whatever +Italian patriotism might still exist. + + +_The Papacy_ + +The Papacy we left at the end of the sixteenth century in the full flood +of revival. The Popes were swept on by the tide. The bold and successful +front opposed to the enemy was supplemented by discipline within. Heresy +was traced and tracked. Inquisitors roamed about, spying what they +might; they frightened the learned from publishing, printers from +printing, and almost all from freedom of talk and thought. Thus traitors +were rooted out. And at the same time faithful soldiers of the Church +were trained and educated. Seminaries for priests of divers nations were +founded in Rome; Jesuit schools were helped everywhere. Sixtus V (Felice +Peretti), 1585-90, was a Pope worthy of the great period. He entertained +a plan to reconquer Egypt, and make the Mediterranean and Red Seas a +high-road for armies and navies that should break up the Ottoman power. +He attacked the banditti of the Papal State, as his predecessors had +attacked the barons, and, for a time at least, suppressed them. He was a +great builder; he completed the dome of St. Peter's, set up the Egyptian +obelisk in the _piazza_ before the cathedral, substituted statues of St. +Peter and St. Paul in place of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius on the tops of +the two great bronze columns that adorn the Foro Trajano and the Piazza +Colonna. He brought fresh water, named after him Acqua Felice, into the +city from over twenty miles away, and gave Rome an aspect worthy of the +capital of the Latin world. He fixed seventy for the number of +cardinals; he revised the Vulgate; and pondered many great designs, for +which, as he said, his strength would have been inadequate, even had he +lived. + +But these Popes of the Revival, who carried into effect the papal +principles of the Council of Trent, vigorous, and in many respects +admirable, as they were, need not detain us, for the history of the +Papacy in this period scarcely belongs to Italy. It has a far wider +reach, and is intimately bound up with the great Catholic, one might say +the great Latin, effort to restore or extend Catholicism and Latin +supremacy throughout the world. In the British Isles, in Scandinavia, in +Poland, in Russia, in Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland, the +Church fought with the old Roman spirit of conquest. Everywhere the +Jesuit fathers went, busy, devoted, heroic. The ardour of St. Francis +Xavier, the self-abnegation of St. Francis de Sales, the passionate +mysticism of St. Theresa, infected and controlled thousands of +disciples. Everywhere were great manifestations of activity. In South +America there were bishops and archbishops, hundreds of monasteries and +innumerable priests. In Mexico there were schools of theology. In India, +thousands and thousands of converts clustered around the city of Goa. In +China and Japan the Jesuits built churches, and converted to +Christianity disciples of Confucius and Buddha. The Church had founded +an empire on which the sun never set. But our business is not with this +great Latin conquest, this great Catholic revival. We must pass on to +the next series of Popes, less memorable for their imitation of Scipio +and Caesar, than of Lucullus and Crassus. Here we find the names of the +founders of great papal families, so familiar in Rome, not as +missionaries, teachers, or martyrs, but as owners of palaces, villas, +pictures and statues: Borghese (Paul V, 1605-21), the Pope who +quarrelled with the Venetian Republic; Ludovisi (Gregory XV, 1621-23), +in whose pontificate the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (College for +Propagating the Faith) was established; Barberini (Urban VIII, 1623-44), +whose family, famous from the squib "Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecerunt +Barberini," built its palaces out of Roman ruins. During the pontificate +of Barberini, Galileo was brought before the Holy Office, and his +opinion that the earth moved condemned as "absurd, false in philosophy, +and essentially heretical." + +Under his successor Panfili (Innocent X, 1644-55), Catholic Europe +stopped fighting Protestant Europe, and the Thirty Years' War was closed +by the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The Catholic Powers gave over the +attempt to reduce the Protestant States, and acknowledged their +independence. Panfili launched his bull against the treaty, but the +weary world disregarded the old man's curses. After him came Chigi +(Alexander VII, 1655-67), Rospigliosi (Clement IX, 1667-69), Odescalchi +(Innocent XI, 1676-89), whose names mean little to us. + +Long before this time the forces of revivification which had borne +onward and upward the Catholic counter-charge on the Protestant ranks, +had begun to fall away. The great Catholic monarchs of Europe turned +their minds to personal ambitions; the Popes squandered papal revenues +on their own families; the Jesuits loosened their rigid hold on their +once high principles. The period of reform had passed, and the Papacy +settled down into a policy of maintaining the ecclesiastical empire left +to it and of enjoying its little Italian monarchy. In politics it +pursued a shifting course towards Austria, Spain, and France, dictated +rather by passing fears than by wisdom or lofty ambition. At the time of +the close of the war of the Spanish Succession the Papacy was hardly +regarded as a European power. The proof of decline was most visible in +the concessions made by the Papacy to the Catholic sovereigns, by its +forced acquiescence in the repeated attacks on the Jesuits, and finally, +by its bull suppressing, or rather attempting to suppress, the Order +(1773). + +Throughout the eighteenth century the papal part in European affairs was +insignificant; and in Italy the general effects of papal rule were +steadily increasing poverty, superstition, and incompetence. It is a +relief to turn away, knowing that the French Revolution is blowing its +refreshing blasts ahead of us. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS (1580-1789) + + +We should do wrong to leave these centuries to stand solely on their +political record. Even this dreary period has contributed not a little +to the sum of Italy's attractions. After the moral vigour of republican +Florence, after the freshness of the Renaissance and its later grandeur, +after the elegance of the courts of Urbino, Ferrara, and Milan, it +requires time to adjust ourselves to a different standard and to acquire +a relish for this period of dissipated little kings and dukes. But once +familiar with the altered standard of excellence, these centuries, with +their arts, their habits, their idleness, become exceedingly +sympathetic, and lure with peculiar dexterity the idler who seeks +entertainment and the picturesque. Not that there is no serious element +in them, for there is. Italy, though known to us through her lovers as a +woman land, has always happily commingled feminine charm and masculine +strength. Like the Apennines which stretch their grim strength from the +Alps to the toe of the peninsula, virility runs throughout the length of +Italian history, though at times it avoids notice. In this period it is +best represented by science; and we must not omit to mention a few of +the most distinguished scientific thinkers. + +Giordano Bruno (1550-1600) and Campanella (1568-1639) were philosophers +rather than men of science; their philosophy ran counter to the +scholastic philosophy sanctioned by the Church, and they came into +collision with the stern spirit of the Catholic Reaction. Campanella was +persecuted and punished; Bruno was condemned as a heretic and burnt to +death in the city of Rome. Greater than either was Galileo (1564-1642), +whose name is one of the most illustrious in astronomy. He was born at +Pisa, where he was educated in the university. He devoted himself to +study, especially to mathematics, and became a professor. In 1609 he +heard that a Dutchman had made an instrument which in some way by means +of a lens magnified objects. Acting on this hint he constructed a +telescope; and, if not strictly the inventor, he was the first to use +the telescope in astronomy. The next year he made various eventful +discoveries: that there are mountains in the moon, and spots on the sun; +that Venus has phases; that Saturn has an appendage, which later was +proved to be rings; that Jupiter has four satellites, a discovery which +increased the number of heavenly bodies from the mystically sacred seven +(sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) to the +uninspiring eleven. These discoveries persuaded Galileo to adopt the +Copernican theory, and brought him into collision with the Church. Much +has been said about his cruel persecution, but he appears to have +received gentle treatment and to have undergone a merely nominal +imprisonment. Another philosopher, Vico (1668-1744), a Neapolitan, +enjoys a very high reputation in Italy as a thinker. He wrote a +philosophy of history, in which he investigated the laws that govern +human progress, showed that philosophical theories must treat mankind +collectively, and anticipated Comte's theory of the three stages of +social development. + +Science is not the characteristic trait of this period; for that is to +be found in the arts or in the pleasant enervating lassitude of life. In +the grand-ducal atmosphere there is a sense of having browsed on +lotus-flowers. As we glance back on the great centuries, their efforts +look splendid, their high purposes noble, their infinite curiosity +commendable, but we are content to sit in a ducal garden, to listen to +the Tritons spout into the fountains, to sip chocolate, to meditate +sonnets to a partner for the minuet, to gossip about "His Highness and +Contessa B----, who, so that young _milord_, Horry Walpole, says, was +once a ballerina," and to confess our sins to fat, amiable priests. We +enjoy the badinage of the abbes, the ingenious vacuity of the +litterateurs, the cheerful buzz of the cafe, the daily saunter on the +fashionable promenade, the drive in the park, and all the details of +theatrical make-believe existence. + +As one becomes used to this lotos-laden atmosphere, one gets lenient +impressions of the arts, of their peculiar and characteristic +agreeableness, and rapidly loses one's previous too scornfully classical +attitude. In an earlier chapter we indulged in some high-flown +denunciation of the Baroque in architecture. That was because we were +fresh from the Renaissance. Now that we have eaten of the lotos, we +refrain from comparison and enjoy the arts in their new phases, in and +for themselves. There is hardly an Italian city that would not be poorer +for the absence of the Baroque. Rome, for instance, owes most of its +charm to these decadent generations, to the Villa Medici, the Villa +Borghese, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona. + +A Neapolitan, Bernini (1598-1680), was the master spirit of the best +Baroque, both in architecture and in sculpture. His greatest achievement +is the splendid colonnade which reaches out like two arms from St. +Peter's Church and clasps the sunny _piazza_ in its embrace (1667). +Bernini's statues, his fountains, his decorations and ornaments, make a +good history of the time. They undoubtedly reveal decadence, yet they +are respectfully imitative of the great achievements of the Renaissance, +whereas the works of his numerous disciples are surcharged with +contortion, obvious effort, and strain for effect. There is a maximum of +visible exertion with a minimum of real accomplishment. Details are +multiplied, and ornaments bear little or no relation to the organic +structure of the buildings which they adorn; yet that practice is an +Italian trait, and even in excess has a picturesque merit. The baser +work of this style, exhibited in the vainglorious churches of the +Jesuits, is sometimes called the Jesuit style. After this period of +stormy ornament came a calm in the eighteenth century, facades became +rectilinear, and there was a general subsidence of obvious effort. + +In painting the school of Bologna, led by Lodovico Caracci (1555-1619) +and his nephews, Agostino and the more noted and gifted Annibale, set +the fashion. They endeavoured to combine faithfulness to nature with all +the merits of all their predecessors, and are therefore called the +eclectic school. They remained the cynosure of touring eyes until the +middle of the nineteenth century. Sir Joshua Reynolds admired and +praised them. Some of their disciples were for a long time almost as +famous as Raphael. Domenichino's Last Communion of St. Jerome held a +place of honour in the Vatican Gallery equal to Raphael's +Transfiguration. Guido Reni's Aurora, painted on the ceiling of the +casino in the Rospigliosi palace in Rome, had a tremendous vogue, and +even now tourists, escaped from the critics, admire it privily. +Guercino, Sassoferrato, and also the lachrymose Carlo Dolci are other +celebrated members of the school. Another school, almost equally famous, +was devoted to Naturalism,--imitation of starving old beggars and a +general depiction of want, misery, and squalor. Of these painters the +principal were Caravaggio (1569-1609), a Neapolitan, and his pupil +Ribera, known as _Lo Spagnoletto_, because he was born in Spain. A later +group, the Venetians of the eighteenth century, consisted of Canaletto, +Bellotto, Guardi, and others who painted again and again the idle canals +and pleasure-loving palaces of Venice. The greatest of this group was +Tiepolo (1693-1770), who attained in a measure the grand manner of the +great masters of the sixteenth century. + +In literature, though that also had flashes of seriousness, as in +Filicaia's celebrated sonnet to Italy adapted by Lord Byron,-- + + Italia! O Italia! thou who hast + The fatal gift of beauty-- + +the spirit of the Baroque, in its lightest and pleasantest manner, +expressed itself to the full by means of the Academy of Arcadia. The +unreality of the whole Italian world was concentrated in this Academy, +which soon had branches, imitations, colonies all over the peninsula. It +was founded in Rome (1692) by Gravina, a jurist, Crescimbeni, a priest, +and other dilettanti, for the ennoblement of literature, the +purification of taste, and other meritorious purposes. The members +called themselves Arcadian shepherds and shepherdesses, took pastoral +names, composed sonnets by the bushel, wrote one another's biographies, +and were altogether delightfully silly. Goldoni, the playwright, gives a +glimpse of these litterateurs in the eighteenth century as he observed +them in Pisa. + +One day he passed a garden gate and saw within the garden a crowd of +ladies and gentlemen grouped by an arbour. He was told, "The assembly +which you see is a colony of the Arcadia of Rome, called the Colony of +Alpheus, named after a very celebrated river in Greece, which flowed +through the ancient Pisa in Elis." Goldoni went up to the circle and +listened to a number of gentlemen who recited poems, canzoni, ballads, +sonnets, etc. He observed that the company looked at him as if desirous +to know who he was. Eager to satisfy their curiosity, he asked the +president if a stranger might be permitted to express in poetry the +satisfaction which he experienced in being present on so interesting an +occasion. Goldoni had a sonnet in his head, composed by him in his youth +for some similar festival; he hastily changed a few words to adapt it to +the present occasion, and recited the fourteen lines with the tone and +inflection of voice which set off sentiment and rhyme to the best +advantage. The sonnet had all the appearance of being extemporaneous, +and was very much applauded. Whether the meeting had come to its +appointed end or not he did not know, but everybody got up and crowded +about him. Thereupon he was introduced to a whole troop of Arcadian +shepherds, who welcomed him most heartily. At another meeting the +president, whose proper title was Guardian of the Shepherds, drew a +large packet from his pocket, and presented Goldoni with two documents, +a certificate of his membership in the Arcadia of Rome under the name of +Polisseno (Polixenes), and a legal deed which bestowed upon him the +Fegean Fields in Greece; whereupon the whole assembly saluted him under +the name of Polixenes Fegeus, and embraced him as a fellow shepherd. +Goldoni says that, in spite of the formality of the conveyance, the +Turks never acknowledged his title. + +Mention of the Arcadia and of Goldoni leads to another art, most +characteristic of these two centuries, the player's art. The drama had +never been a success in Italy; Machiavelli and Ariosto wrote comedies, +but they were no better from a dramatic than from an ethical point of +view. After the acknowledged failure of serious comedy, another species +took the field, the "Commedia dell'Arte," and definitely established +itself at about the time of the beginning of the Baroque. In this +species of comedy the dramatis personae were masked and always +impersonated certain definite characters, and the dialogue was +improvised. These masks were _Pantalone_, our Pantaloon, a Venetian +merchant, who always wore a black robe and scarlet stockings, and spoke +the Venetian dialect; _Il Dottore_, the doctor, a pompous ass from +Bologna; _Arlecchino_, Harlequin, a silly and credulous servant in tight +hose and motley jerkin, and _Brighella_, a quick-witted and knavish +servant, both speaking the patois of Bergamo; _Colombina_, the +soubrette, a pretty maid-servant from Tuscany; _Capitano Spavento_, +Captain Terrible, a fire-eater from Naples, etc. This comedy, +necessarily kept within narrow limits by these characters, was strictly +improvisation, except that the playwright provided a _scenario_, a +skeleton plot. It had great success, and troops of Italian comedians +went all over Europe; but by the eighteenth century it had run its +course and become mere vulgar horseplay, and Goldoni (1707-93), the only +brilliant comic playwright that Italy has produced, gave it a +death-blow. + +Goldoni was a Venetian, and a perfect embodiment of the happy, careless, +amiable, entertaining society of the time. He led a roaming life, going +to Tuscany to learn good Italian, and finally ending his career with +twenty years in Paris. Some of his plays are in the Venetian dialect; +two were written in French. There are more than a hundred, counting +tragedies, interludes, and all. Their virtue is their lightness. They +are made of foam, a delicious dramatic _souffle_, and in the hands of +accomplished Italian actors, like Eleonora Duse or Ermete Novelli, +retain their charm to this day. They are essential for the history of +the period, with their counts, barons, marquesses, their ladies, their +waiting-maids, their innkeepers, _camerieri_, cobblers, adventurers, and +all their gay mockery of the idle habits of the time. + +It will throw a little more light upon the customs of that day to +mention _cicisbeismo_, an unwritten rule of an artificial and idle +society, which prescribed that a lady should have a _cavaliere +servente_, a gentleman dangling in attendance upon her. Every lady had a +husband, as maidens were not allowed in society, and widows had to +choose between a convent and a second marriage; but the husband could +not wait upon her, for his own duty as _cavaliere servente_ required him +to be in attendance upon somebody else's wife. The duties of the +_cavaliere servente_ were to devote himself solely to his lady, to write +_billets-doux_, compose sonnets to her lapdog, to hand her chocolate at +_conversazioni_, to give her his arm on all occasions, to ride beside +her coach when she was out driving, and so on. In fact, he was required +to do all those little offices, _petits soins_, which a young gentleman +is accustomed to render to the lady whom he is engaged to marry. It was +a state of active flirtation, not only sanctioned but required by +society. It is said that in some cases the _cavaliere servente_ was +agreed upon before marriage, and his name inserted in the marriage +contract. + +Besides Goldoni's comic drama and the "Commedia dell'Arte" this Baroque +Italy gave the world another and far more important gift, the Opera. +Italian genius flared up once more and led the world in music. As far +back as the days of the Council of Trent the reforming spirit of the +Church found its noblest expression in Palestrina's (1524?-94) masses, +but after his death, after the Catholic Revival had lost its deeply +serious feeling, music took another step. Florence, the old home of +genius, was the spot. A group of music lovers, who were full of classic +theories about art, wished to revive antique Greek drama, with its +combination of poetry, music, and dance. They decided that the words +were the chief element, that the music must be subservient to the full +emotional expression of the poetry, must intensify the dramatic +significance of the story. To give effect to their opinion they devised +a method of setting music to declamation, the earliest form of +recitative. They meant to revive the Greek drama, but they produced the +opera. After a few years of work over the new ideas, in 1600, at the +Pitti Palace, an opera was publicly performed in honor of the espousals +of Maria dei Medici and Henry IV of France. This was the first public +performance of a secular opera. Soon afterwards Monteverdi (1567-1643), +a revolutionary genius in the history of music, produced his operas at +Mantua. In 1637 the first public opera house was opened in Venice; +others quickly followed; the opera became a favourite diversion, and +Italian singers carried it to France, Germany, Austria, and England. In +the same year as the performance in the Pitti Palace, a dramatic +oratorio, "The Soul and the Body," was publicly performed in Rome. The +oratorio was greatly developed by Carissimi (1604-74) of the Roman +school, and with him and his successors acquired much stateliness and +beauty. Its influence on the opera, however, was not good, at least if +we adopt the opinion of those Florentine Hellenes and of Wagner, for it +developed music as an independent element, and did not subordinate it to +dramatic action. + +With the exception of this misdevelopment of the opera, all music +evolved brilliantly and well in Italy, and especially in Naples, which +eclipsed all other cities, and showed that she, too, had her individual +genius. Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) wrote a great number of operas +and oratorios, and composed a vast quantity of ecclesiastical music. He +was followed by his son Domenico Scarlatti, by Durante, Leo, and +Jommelli, by Pergolesi, Piccinni, Cimarosa, and Paisiello, who followed +one another, like a flight of singing birds, through the eighteenth +century. The Italian opera, even then, had the characteristics of +subordinating dramatic propriety and all semblance of reality to +_arias_, trills, and vocal exaggeration, but it was not till the +beginning of the nineteenth century--with Rossini, Bellini, +Donizetti--that the Italian opera (if I may venture to adapt a famous +phrase) became melted Baroque. There were other schools of music at +Rome, Bologna, and Venice. It was in Venice that the four famous asylums +for girls, _conservatori_, were turned into music schools, and gave +their name to training schools for musicians all over the world. + +Besides the opera one must note, in mentioning Italian musical genius, +the violin-makers, the Amati of Cremona, the greater Stradivarius +(1644-1737), and other famous makers of Cremona, Brescia, and Venice; +also the organ-builders, the Antignati of Brescia; the great Italian +singers, then as now favourites of the world; as well as the greatest of +libretto-writers, Metastasio. + +Metastasio (1698-1782) had a career that can only be compared to that of +a successful _prima donna_. As a boy he was adopted by the Arcadian +lawyer, Gravina, and brought early to drink of the Pierian spring. After +Gravina's death he spent his money, got into the company of singers and +musicians at Naples, and composed the words of an opera "Dido," while +still a youth of five-and-twenty. "Dido" had immense success, and from +this time on Metastasio poured out play after play in words that went +halfway and more to meet the accompanying music. His renown was +triumphant throughout Europe; he became the pet of lords, ladies, kings, +and Popes. He flitted from court to court, and sipped the honey of +facile success; he serves as the embodiment of the Italian opera, or +rather as a poetical spirit, a kind of baroque nightingale, to chant the +charm, the sentiment, the sweetness, the unreality, of these two +make-believe centuries. + +As we take leave of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (a +somewhat ignoble pair), their architecture, painting, literature, and +music, we must, as in other matters, remember the good and forget the +bad. We must keep in mind the Spanish Steps, which offer at their base +ample room for all the flowers of all the flower-sellers of Rome, then +rise in easy flight, pause, rest, and mount again, tier upon tier, till +the top step stretches out into a terrace, where the pedestrian, glad to +pause, turns and looks back over Rome towards the majestic dome of St. +Peter's. We must remember the Trevi Fountain where gods and nymphs and +waters splash and frolic together, or Guido's Aurora, where Apollo +looses the rein to his heavenly horses as they gallop after Lucifer, +while the straight-backed hours dance divinely alongside. We must recall +the sweet sentiment in Metastasio, the light nothingness of Goldoni, the +merriment of Harlequin and Columbine, the violins of Stradivarius, the +singing of Farinello and Pacchierotti, the melodies of Pergolesi, and +the general pleasantness of an idle, amiable society. Then we want to +join the eighteenth-century travellers,--Addison, Walpole, President de +Brosses, or Goethe,--and we look back with vain regret to that happy +lotos-eating time, and wish it would return again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1789-1820) + + +Now come those great events, most important to Italy, the French +Revolution and the invasion by Napoleon. The storm burst upon a scene of +quiet. Italy was still like a comedy of Goldoni, dukes enjoying taxes +and mistresses, priests accepting oblations and snuff, nobles sipping +chocolate and pocketing rent, while the poor peasants, kept behind the +scenes, sweated and toiled for a bare subsistence. + +Before the Revolution came the premonitory breezes of philosophical +philanthropy wafted across the Alps from the Encyclopedists. As they +affected the various rulers differently, it is necessary to descend to +some particulars. In Piedmont no philosophical philanthropy warmed the +king; he wrapped his cloak tighter about him, and deemed the old ways +good enough. He maintained his court in imitation of Versailles, and +drilled his soldiers in imitation of Frederick the Great. Nobles alone +were employed in the higher ranks of the civil service, nobles alone +were made officers in the army; in return, they were treated like +schoolboys, not allowed to leave a prescribed path without permission. +The clergy had the privileges of the old regime; their tribunals had +sole jurisdiction over priests, and tried to maintain jurisdiction over +the laity for all offences that had a smack of sin. King, nobility, and +clergy clung to the autocracy, and were resolved to maintain it in full +vigour. A rash admirer of Montesquieu wrote a treatise upon +"Constitutional Monarchy," and was put in prison. + +In Lombardy the House of Austria really plunged into reform; it +reorganized the administration, reapportioned taxes, curtailed clerical +privileges, abolished the Inquisition, improved roads, favoured +agriculture, stimulated trade, and encouraged manufacture. New ideas +were broached. Beccaria published his famous book "On Crimes and +Punishments," which began the attack on the atrocious, old penal +cruelties. French philosophy was discussed. The physicist Volta, famous +for his electrical discoveries, occupied a chair in the university at +Pavia. Austrian garrisons indeed were on duty, but Lombardy prospered as +it had not done since the days of the Sforzas. + +In Venice the new ideas did not affect the government. The old system +continued. The Great Council of Patricians sat in conservative +indolence; the ornamental Doge shuffled about, the Senate talked, and +the Council of Ten maintained its petty despotism. Venice was moribund. +Her voice was no more heard in European affairs. Her army had dwindled +to a few undisciplined and inefficient regiments; her arsenal was little +employed. Gayety, luxury, vice, reigned triumphant; all the young blades +of Europe went thither to carouse. + +In Parma the flood of philanthropic reform had flowed strong; the +minister of state, a Frenchman, full of Parisian ideas, had introduced +many beneficial changes, but a new duke, dissipated and devout, slipped +back into the old ways; and its little neighbour, Modena, concentrated +its attention on avoidance of all possible offence to its neighbours. + +In Tuscany, an appanage of Austria, reform bounded along. The Grand +Duke, Leopold I, proposed to destroy every remnant of the Middle Ages; +he attacked the power of the ubiquitous priests, granted free trade in +grain, and equalized taxes,--without discrimination even in favour of +his own estates. He improved the universities of Pisa and Siena, drained +the marshes of the Maremma, and led the way in abolishing torture and +capital punishment; he rendered a public account of the state's +revenues; and, in short, put in practice the advanced philanthropic +ideas on government. + +In the Papal States, on the other hand, mediaevalism lay heavy. There was +no commerce, no manufacture, little agriculture. Priests were +everywhere, greedy relations of the Pope almost everywhere. No laymen +were given office. Ancona, a seaport, and Bologna, with its university, +were the only exceptions to general wretchedness. The finances were in +extreme confusion; the offerings of the faithful, the sale of offices, +the multiplication of taxes, did little more than pay interest on the +bonded debts. Rome was a little, unimportant, ecclesiastical city. + +In Naples, however, even the Bourbons felt the fresh breath of +reformation. A reforming minister expelled the Jesuits and tried to +reduce the number of superfluous priests, monks, and nuns, and to root +out the old feudal privileges. In the city itself a goodly company of +men gathered together, cultivated ideas, and followed the lead of the +French philosophers. Poor Sicily, overridden by barons and priests, +lagged behind, a prey to the feudal system, and so unsusceptible to new +ideas that the reforming prime minister could not budge the dead weight +of custom. The people preferred to help one another in their own way, +and resorted to that mysterious society, the _Mafia_. + +Thus was Italy, half philanthropically inclined, half despotically, with +few outward indications of the great awakening of the nineteenth +century. One such indication might have been found in the life and +character of a gentleman of Turin. Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803) was a +kind of antique Roman, a new Brutus, of passionate and lofty nature. He +embodied his ideas of liberty in classic tragedies, which stirred +Italian manhood in those days, but now are extremely tedious to read. He +boldly gave vent to his hatred of foreign oppression, preached freedom, +and appealed to the "future Italian people." His autobiography, somewhat +condensed and expurgated, might be put into Plutarch. He stands in +history, not as a great tragedian, but as the first example of the +rebirth of that antique virility which was to display itself so +brilliantly in the nineteenth century. + +Down into this little world of periwigs and lavender came the French +Revolution. All who had applauded Alfieri's tragedies were delighted, +except Alfieri himself, who hated the French. But the Italian princes +took fright at the democratic volcano, and talked of a general union +against France. Piedmont alone was vigorous enough to take action; she +made a league with Austria (1792). Nothing important happened until +young Napoleon took command of the French army of invasion (1796), and +began to tear "the heart out of Glory." It would be useless to relate in +detail his wonderful career in Italy. He arranged the peninsula as a +housekeeper shifts the furniture in an unsatisfactory room. He took Nice +and Savoy from Piedmont, Lombardy from Austria, formed the little states +south of the Po into a republic, took the temporal power from the Pope, +and set up a Roman Republic. He turned the Kingdom of Naples into a +republic and then back again into a kingdom, first for his brother +Joseph, and then for his general, Murat (1808). He converted Genoa into +the Republic of Liguria. Venice, like old Priam before bloody Pyrrhus, +fell at the whiff and wind of the victor's sword; the Great Council +resigned without a struggle, and the Republic of St. Mark after an +existence of a thousand years came to its end. It was then handed over +to Austria, but after Austerlitz taken back again. In 1805, having +become Emperor, Napoleon turned the northern part of the peninsula into +the Kingdom of Italy, and put the iron crown of Lombardy on his own +head, saying, "God has given it to me, woe to him that touches it." In +1806 he put an end to the Holy Roman Empire, and forced the Emperor, +Francis II, to resign the Imperial crown. + +The old laws of political gravitation ceased to act, and Italy was +moulded and broken and moulded anew, as if creation had begun again. The +revolutionary ideas on which Napoleon's power at first rested had spread +everywhere; liberty, equality, democracy were a part of every man's +stock of familiar thoughts, and the conception of an Italian kingdom, +vaguely associated with the poetic dreams of Dante, Petrarch, +Machiavelli, had become a political fact. Italy was changed forever, the +old Goldoni comedy was gone; Napoleon had given the _coup de grace_ to +the old regime. + +There was another side to the Napoleonic domination. A multitude of men +had been forcibly enlisted in Napoleon's armies; twenty-six thousand, it +is said, perished in the terrible retreat from Moscow. The French were +arrogant and they were foreigners. Changes had been made too quickly and +with too reckless a disregard for Italian wishes. Nobles and clergy had +been despoiled of privileges, peasants had been confused and bewildered, +the pious had been scandalized by Napoleon's treatment of the Pope; all +these longed for the restoration of the old political divisions and of +the old easy ways. + +After Napoleon's overthrow the Napoleonic states in Italy fell almost +immediately. The viceroy of the Italian kingdom, Napoleon's stepson +Eugene Beauharnais, slunk away; and in the south, after some +vicissitudes, Murat was caught and shot (1815). Kings, dukes, and Pope +came tripping back to their thrones. The Congress of Vienna decided that +the doctrines of the French Revolution were quite wrong, that law, +order, and the principle of legitimacy were bound up together, that +states belonged to their royal families in tail male, and reparcelled +Italy among its petty sovereigns, acting quite as despotically as +Napoleon had done. It gave Venice to Austria, Genoa to Piedmont, and +Parma to Marie Louise, the Austrian wife of Napoleon, for her life, as +she had to be decently provided for. The Dukes of Parma received Lucca +until her death, when they were to return to Parma, and then Lucca was +to be annexed to Tuscany. Metternich, Hardenberg, Castlereagh, +Talleyrand, and their associates complimented one another on the happy +completion of their task, and the Congress broke up. + +In Piedmont the king, loyally welcomed home, put back everything to the +position in which it was before the disturbances; the old dispossessed +nobles were restored to their places in the civil and military service, +and the _carriere ouverte aux talents_ was closed. In Lombardy and +Venice Austrian officials held a tight rein, and a watchful secret +service (_sbirri_) prowled about ready to pounce on plotting youth like +owls upon field mice. In Parma and Modena the eye of the Austrian +government was always peering and peeping. In Tuscany Austrian influence +also was dominant; but the Grand Duke was a gentle, kindly, paternal +person, and his subjects were placidly content, for the old Tuscan fire +had died out, and no Tuscan was so crazy as to dream of revolution or of +a united Italy. In the Papal States the reaction was complete; the +Inquisition was restored, the Jesuits recalled, the civil service +limited to priests. But in Naples the reaction was worst. The +despicable Ferdinand, who dropped his number IV of Naples to become +Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, restored the old regime, and swept away +the autonomy of Sicily, which had had a separate parliament for hundreds +of years, and since 1812 a constitution also. Ferdinand humbly followed +every hint from Austria. The will of Austria was supreme from Venice to +Naples, and behind Austria was the conservative judgment of the ruling +classes of all Europe, still frightened by the Revolution. European +nobles and landowners agreed that the riotous desires of the middle +class and proletariat for political privileges must be crushed down. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE REAWAKENING (1820-1821) + + +Outwardly despotism had been triumphantly reestablished, and Popes, +princes, and privileged persons in general made a gallant attempt to +pretend that the French Revolution and the Napoleonic upheaval had never +taken place. Nevertheless, the quiet on the surface did not extend +underneath. Inwardly the new ideas and aspirations were fermenting from +Piedmont to Calabria. The _Carbonari_ (Charcoal-burners), a secret +society organized against despotism, plotted for freedom and for +constitutions. Their members were thickest in the Kingdom of Naples, but +spread throughout Italy. The spark necessary to set ablaze this hidden +discontent came from Spain. There a successful rebellion obtained a +constitution. The thrill stirred Naples. A company of soldiers under two +young lieutenants rebelled (1820), many joined them, a general put +himself at their head. The army would not fight them. The insurgents +demanded a constitution, with a parliament, a free press, trials +according to law, etc. The dastardly king was frightened into promises, +but as the insurgents were not content with promises, he granted a +constitution, and solemnly swore to maintain it. These revolutionary +tumults, however, had alarmed the comfortable, conservative ruling +classes and their leaders, the Emperors of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. +An Imperial conference was held at Laybach (1821), and Ferdinand +attended. The new constitution, indeed, forbade him to leave the kingdom +without permission from parliament, but he had obtained leave by +promising to argue in favour of the new regime. Whatever his arguments +were the Holy Alliance disregarded them, and charged Austria with the +duty of restoring despotism in Naples. Austria obeyed. An overpowering +army easily scattered the Neapolitan constitutionalists and put +Ferdinand back. The constitution, parliament, free press, and all the +other obnoxious revolutionary institutions were brushed away, and +Ferdinand, having hung up in church a lamp of gold and silver as an +offset to his perjury, inflicted punishment on the late rebels as fast +as he could. + +Meanwhile the North had felt the thrill. In Lombardy the hawk-eyed +government pounced down on possible conspirators. Silvio Pellico, the +pathetic author of "Le Mie Prigioni" (My Prisons), and his friend +Maroncelli, were arrested and put into prison (1820), there to stay for +ten years. A little later Confalonieri, head of the Milanese nobility, +and a group of gentlemen were seized and sent to prison. They were set +free only in 1836, on the accession of a new Emperor. Some of them, +Castillia, Foresti, and Albinola, then sought refuge in the United +States. I quote from the unpublished diary of an American to show what +kind of men these conspirators were: "Castillia is an Italian, of an +honourable Milanese family. At the age of twenty-three he, with other +noble and brave Italians, lovers of their country, was thrown into the +dungeons of Spielberg (Moravia) by Austrian despots, and there chained +and confined, sometimes in total solitude, enduring the sharpest +privations and basest ignominies for seventeen years. Then on the +accession of a new Emperor they were released and exiled to +America--they were men of superior intelligence and education, +honourable gentlemen, true-hearted, loving men--Castillia possessed all +the virtues that one can name and in their most attractive forms." + +What these gentlemen suffered for love of their country may be read in +"Le Mie Prigioni." Pellico himself was a Christian saint. After years of +solitary confinement he and Maroncelli were put together. Maroncelli had +a tumour on his leg, which grew so painful that whenever it was +necessary to move Pellico helped him. "Sometimes to make the slightest +shift from one position to another cost a quarter of an hour of agony." +The wound was frightful and disgusting. I quote from Pellico: "In that +deplorable condition Maroncelli composed poetry, he sang and talked, and +did everything to deceive me and hide from me a part of his pain. He +could not digest, or sleep; he grew alarmingly thin, and often went out +of his head; and yet, in a few minutes gathered himself together and +cheered me up. What he suffered for nine months is indescribable. +Amputation was necessary; but first the surgeon had to get permission +from Vienna. Maroncelli uttered no cry at the operation, and when he saw +the leg carried off said to the surgeon, 'You have liberated me from an +enemy, and I have no way to thank you.' By the window stood a tumbler +with a rose in it. 'Please give me that rose,' he said to me. I handed +it to him, and he gave it to the old surgeon, saying, 'I have nothing +else to give you in testimony of my gratitude.' The surgeon took the +rose and burst into tears." Such was the character of the men who +plotted for the freedom of Italy. + +The Papal States likewise had been quivering. Lord Byron was in Ravenna +at the time. He enrolled in the _Carbonari_, and sent a thousand louis +to the Neapolitan Constitutional Government with an offer to serve +wherever and in whatever capacity they should desire. His letters and +diary help us to understand the situation. + + BYRON TO MURRAY, HIS PUBLISHER + + November 23, 1820. + + Of the state of things here it would be difficult and not + very prudent to speak at large, the Huns [Austrians] opening + all letters. I wonder if they can read them when they have + opened them; if so they may see in my most legible hand that + I think them damned scoundrels and barbarians, and their + Emperor a fool, and themselves more fools than he; all which + they may send to Vienna for anything I care. They have got + themselves masters of the papal police and are bullying + away, but some day or other they will pay for all; it may + not be very soon because these unhappy Italians have no + consistency among themselves; but I suppose that Providence + will get tired of them at last. + + SAME TO SAME + + December 9. + + I open my letter to tell you a fact which will show the + state of this country better than I can. The commandant of + the troops is now lying dead in my house. He was shot about + two hundred paces from my door.... As nobody could or would + do anything but howl and pray, and as no one would stir a + finger to move him for fear of consequences, I had the + commandant carried upstairs to my own quarters.... Poor + fellow, he was a brave officer but much disliked by the + people. + + EXTRACTS FROM BYRON'S DIARY + + January 6, 1821. + + To-night at the theatre, there being a prince on his throne + in the last scene of the comedy, the audience laughed and + asked him for a constitution. This shows the state of the + public mind here as well as the assassinations. It won't do. + There must be a universal republic, and there ought to be. + + January 7. + + The Count Pietro Gamba took me aside to say that the + Patriots had had notice from Forli [twenty miles away] that + to-night the government and its party mean to strike a + stroke, that the Cardinal here has had orders to make + several arrests immediately, and that in consequence the + Liberals are arriving and have posted patrols in the + streets, to sound the alarm and give notice to fight. He + asked me "what should be done." I answered, "Fight for it, + rather than be taken in detail;" and offered if any of them + are in immediate apprehension of arrest to receive them in + my house (which is defensible), and to defend them with my + servants and themselves (we have arms and ammunition) as + long as we can, or to try to get them away under cloud of + night. On going home I offered him the pistols which I had + about me. + + January 8. + + Rose and found Count Pietro Gamba in my apartments. Sent + away the servant. He told me that according to the best + information, the government had not issued orders for the + arrests apprehended; and that as yet they are still only in + apprehension. He asked me for some arms of a better sort, + which I gave him. Settled that in case of a row the Liberals + were to assemble here (with me) and that he had given the + word to the others for that purpose. Concerted operations. I + advised them to attack in detail and in different parties, + in different places, though at the same time, so as to + divide the attention of the troops, who though few yet being + disciplined would beat any body of people (not trained) in a + regular fight, unless dispersed in small parties and + distracted with different assaults. Offered to let them + assemble here if they chose. It is a strongish post--narrow + street, commanded from within--and tenable walls.... + + I wonder what figure these Italians will make in a regular + row. I sometimes think that like the Irishman's crooked gun + they will do only for shooting round a corner; at least this + sort of shooting has been the late tenour of their exploits. + And yet there are materials in this people and a noble + energy if well directed. But who is to direct them? No + matter. Out of such times heroes spring. Difficulties are + the hotbed of high spirits and Freedom the mother of the few + virtues incident to human nature. + + January 9. + + They say the King of Naples has declared, by couriers from + Florence, to the Powers (as they call now those wretches + with crowns) that his constitution was compulsive, and that + the Austrian barbarians are placed again on war pay and will + march. Let them,--"they come like sacrifices in their + trim,"--the hounds of hell! Let it be a hope to see their + bones piled like those of the human dogs at Morat, in + Switzerland. + + January 29. + + Met a company of the sect (a kind of Liberal Club) called + the Americani in the forest, and singing with all their + might in Romagnuol "Sem tutti soldat' per la liberta"--(We + are all soldiers for liberty). They cheered me as I passed; + I returned their salute and rode on. This may show the + spirit of Italy at present. + + They say that the Piedmontese have at length risen--ca ira! + +The news from Piedmont was true. Some officers in the army proposed to +demand a constitution from the king and then force him into war with +Austria. They believed that Prince Carlo Alberto, who stood next but one +in succession to the throne, though only a distant cousin of the sonless +king, was in sympathy with them and would act with them. How far they +were justified in this belief is uncertain. The leading conspirators had +an interview with him, and thought they received satisfactory +assurances. In subsequent explanations he denied any such assurances. +Thus encouraged, the garrisons of Alexandria and Turin hoisted the +tricolour of the _Carbonari_, and made their demands. The old king, +Vittorio Emanuele, not knowing what to do, resigned in favour of his +younger brother, Carlo Felice, who was then absent, and appointed Carlo +Alberto regent during the new king's absence. Carlo Alberto, always +infirm of purpose, with doubt and hesitation took the opportunity and +proclaimed a constitution (March, 1821). But the new king, apprised of +this wild act, at once annulled it, and bade Carlo Alberto leave the +country. Poor Carlo Alberto was in a sad dilemma: should he obey his +king and abandon his liberal friends, or cleave to them and be disloyal +to the king? He obeyed and went to Tuscany. An Austrian army aided the +king to suppress the revolt. The liberals escaped as best they could. +Some fled to Spain by way of Genoa, where they were seen by Giuseppe +Mazzini, a lad of sixteen, who thereupon resolved "that one could, and +therefore one must, struggle for the liberty of Italy." + +Thus the revolutionary storms swept by; the _sbirri_ resumed their old +methods of prying and spying, and dukes and kings deemed themselves +secure of their own again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +PERTURBED INACTIVITY (1821-1847) + + +After 1821 followed ten years of outward repose. Times were hard for +lovers of independence, but hope and purpose had been let loose, and in +dark corners, cloaking themselves as best they could, the friends of +freedom groped their way. Openly little was done except by exiles, but +indirect aid came from literature, which followed the romantic movement, +and loudly asserted the revolutionary ideas. There was Ugo Foscolo, the +poet, half Venetian, half Greek, who after the return of the Austrians +refused to take the oath of allegiance and fled to England, giving, as +was said, "to New Italy a new institution, Exile;" Giovanni Berchet, of +Milan, poet and man of letters; Gabriele Rossetti, of the Abruzzi, +father of Dante Rossetti, a poet himself; and many others. By far the +most distinguished was Alessandro Manzoni, a quiet, dignified Milanese +gentleman, who wrote patriotic plays, and the famous romance, "I +Promessi Sposi" (The Plighted Lovers). He cheered and comforted his +compatriots with the thought that in him they possessed a man of letters +whom Europe recognized as the peer of Scott, Byron, and Goethe. Scott +praised "I Promessi Sposi" most generously, and Goethe said, "It +satisfies us like perfectly ripe fruit." + +Greater than Manzoni, though at the time less widely known, was the sad +poet, Giacomo Leopardi, indisputably the greatest Italian poet since +Tasso, and in the judgment of some men to-day, owing perhaps to greater +sympathy with his sentiments, superior to Tasso. Leopardi raised Italian +self-respect, as Manzoni did, by proof that the genius of the race still +lived. He wrote the most patriotic odes since Petrarch. Of these the +poem "To Italy" is perhaps most famous. It begins:-- + + O my country, I see the walls, the arches, + The columns, the statues, the defenceless towers + Of our forefathers, + But the glory I do not see. + +Leopardi's wretchedness, in great measure purely personal, was matched +by that of his country. Austrian soldiers, ducal _sbirri_, and Jesuits +did their best to destroy all vigour, life, and freedom. The press was +stifled; no allusion to freedom was allowed. In a chorus of Bellini's +opera "I Puritani" the word _liberty_ was stricken out by the censor and +_loyalty_ substituted; and a singer who forgot the change was sent to +prison for three days. Things were best in Tuscany and worst in Naples, +where Francis I, a rake, bigot, and coward, practised the utmost +cruelty. After an insurrection in a village, twenty-six heads were cut +off at his command, and exhibited in cages; and once, when a grandmother +besought mercy for her two grandsons who were condemned to death, he +bade her choose one. She chose one; the other was shot, and she went +mad. + +The ten long years of inaction at last passed away, and another wave of +exasperated independence and patriotism swept over the peninsula. The +French Revolution of 1830 was the proximate cause. This time, while +Piedmont and Naples remained quiet, for most of their leaders were in +exile or in prison, Parma, Modena, and the Romagna burst into +insurrection; but the Austrian soldiers marched in, suppressed the +revolt, and reseated duke, duchess, and Pope. The attention of the +world, however, had been called to priestly government in the Romagna, +and the five great Powers,--England, France, Austria, Prussia, and +Russia,--not wishing a hotbed of justifiable revolt on the same +Continent with comfortable and privileged ruling classes, wrote a +collective note to the Pope in which they insisted on certain reforms as +indispensable. The papal Curia made promises, but did nothing, and all +Italy relapsed outwardly into the condition in which she had been during +the ten years of inaction. + +Nevertheless, the forces underneath, plotting and conspiring for +freedom, were stronger than before, and here and there indications of +this growing sentiment cropped out. In 1831, after the ill-fated, +melancholy, distrusting, and distrusted Carlo Alberto had succeeded to +the Kingdom of Sardinia, an anonymous letter addressed to him was spread +broadcast over Italy. This letter bade him choose between two +courses,--either to lead the national movement, or to be basely servile +to Austria. "Bend your back under the German (Austrian) whip and be a +tyrant--But, if as you read these words your mind runs back to that time +when you dared look higher than the lordship of a German fief, and if +you hear within a voice that cries 'You were born for something great,' +oh, obey that voice; it is the voice of genius, of opportunity, that +offers you its hand to mount from century to century as far as +immortality; it is the voice of all Italy, who awaits but one word, one +single word, to make herself all your own. Give her that word. Put +yourself at the head of the nation, and on your banner write Union, +Freedom, Independence. Sire, according to your answer, be sure that +posterity will pronounce you either the first of Italian Men, or the +last of Italian Tyrants. Choose." + +Carlo Alberto, melancholy as Hamlet, for the burden put upon him was +greater than his strength, continued inactive, distrusted, and +distrusting. His only answer was to give sharper orders against +conspirators. The writer of the letter was a young Genoese of grave +countenance, with a sweet mouth and sad, handsome eyes, Giuseppe +Mazzini, aged twenty-six, who had already abandoned law for literature, +and literature for his country. Suspected of being a _Carbonaro_, he had +been arrested and put in prison. His father, having asked the reason, +was told that "his son was a young man of talents, very fond of solitary +walks at night, and habitually silent as to the subject of his +meditations, and that the Sardinian government was not fond of young men +of talents the subject of whose meditations it did not know." In prison +Mazzini became convinced that the true aim of patriots was the unity of +all Italy, and that the means should be the people, not the princes. +After a few months of imprisonment he was banished. It was then that he +wrote the letter. + +In exile he began the task of rousing the Italian people throughout the +peninsula to the need of common effort for a common end. He organized a +secret society, and named it Young Italy. Its purpose was to make Italy +free, united, and republican. The first article of its constitution +read: "This society is instituted for the destruction, now become +indispensable, of all the governments of the peninsula, and for the +union of all Italy in a single state under republican government." The +new society spread rapidly, and was, perhaps, the greatest individual +cause of final success. + +Mazzini was a master conspirator, a very St. Paul of the Risorgimento. +His whole life was a passionate renunciation of all the pleasures and +comforts for which most men live, and a passionate dedication of himself +to his ideals. He is a striking illustration of the saying, The man +whose heart is lifted up within him shall not find the path smooth +before him, but the just shall live by his faith. His ideals soared +higher and higher; not content with hope for Italy, he made plans for +helping all Europe. He became an object of suspicion all over the +Continent, and was driven from country to country, till he finally went +to England, but he never ceased to preach and teach, to urge and +encourage, to plot and counterplot. He believed in sacrifice, both of +himself and of others, and instigated desperate uprisings. One of these, +a wild invasion of Piedmont which came to nothing, is memorable because +among the list of those who were subsequently proscribed for +participation in it was a young seaman, a native of Nice, then a part of +Savoy, Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini himself stayed in England, where the +cruelest accusations were made against him. He endured slander, malice, +poverty, outward failure, still steadfast at his task. He says, "I have +not for an instant thought that unhappiness may influence our actions." +He knew Carlyle, who bore witness in his favour: "I have had the honour +to know Mr. Mazzini for a series of years, and whatever I may think of +his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great +freedom testify that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of +genius and virtue, one of those rare men, numerable unfortunately but as +units in this world, who are worthy to be called martyr souls; who, in +silence, piously in their daily life understand and practise what is +meant by that." + +While Young Italy and the _Carbonari_ worked in secret, literature +continued to carry on the task of arousing enthusiasm for national +achievements and national ideals. The patient piety of Silvio Pellico's +"Le Mie Prigioni" was a most effective denunciation of Austrian tyranny; +the plays of Giovan Battista Niccolini, of Florence, on subjects famous +for Italian patriotism, were stirring appeals against despotism, civil +and ecclesiastical; the romantic novels of Massimo d'Azeglio, of +Piedmont, the patriot painter and statesman, reminded youth of the great +days of old; other novels, passionate and patriotic, by Tommaso Grossi, +of Belluno, and by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, of Leghorn, did +likewise. These romances so pitifully uninteresting to-day did much; +but a book of a different character had in its way a still more +brilliant career. Vincenzo Gioberti, of Turin, began life by taking +orders; he became patriotic, was suspected, imprisoned, exiled; in exile +he studied, taught, and thought. In 1843 he published in Brussels "Il +primato morale e civile degli Italiani" (The Moral and Civil Primacy of +the Italians), a book that rehearsed the old glory of Italy and pointed +out new ways by which that ancient glory might be renewed. Gioberti +advocated a confederation of the Italian States (excluding the Austrian +provinces) with the Pope at its head. The book had tremendous success; +its ideas were accepted and became a party creed; and Gioberti is +entitled to rank as one of the factors in the Risorgimento. Oddly +enough, as it seems to us now, his plan was on the verge of execution. + +At this time Gregory XVI was Pope, a reactionary man, devoted to +ecclesiastical history, and, according to his detractors, to Orvietan +wine. He showed the extreme of papal incapacity for civil +administration; in the papal cities was squalor, in the country +brigandage, in both dense ignorance. But on Gregory's death Cardinal +Mastai-Ferretti, an amiable, smiling, charming, handsome, liberal-minded +cardinal, who had applauded Gioberti, became Pius IX (July, 1846). +Within a month or two Pius granted amnesty to political prisoners, +appointed a commission to study the necessary reforms in his states; +permitted, tacitly at least, liberty of the press; announced a Council +of State to consist of lay members; and authorized the organization of +a civic guard. He was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the peninsula. +Here was Gioberti's ideal Pope. Here was the man to lead the Italian +Guelfs and drive the Barbarians from Italy. + +That the ecclesiastical head of organized conservatism, the great +bulwark of authority, the maintainer of ancient things, should be hailed +as a saviour by men desiring independence, freedom, and war, needs a +word of further explanation. In this period of decadence and servitude, +while Austrian officers played the peacock on every _piazza_ from Milan +to Naples, Italians could remember that an Italian Pope was head of the +greatest corporate body in the world, that tribute was paid into his +treasury from every country in Europe, that kings treated him with +deference, and that from East and West hundreds of servant bishops came +to the foot of his throne. These thoughts, coupled with inapplicable +memories and desperate hopes, led men to regard Pius IX as the +predestined leader of the liberal movement; and shouts of "Hurrah for +Italy, the Pope, and the Constitution!" were heard throughout the +peninsula. + +Hope, too, arose in Piedmont. King Carlo Alberto received Massimo +d'Azeglio in audience (1845), and bade his astonished subject tell his +friends that when the occasion should present itself, his own life, his +sons' lives, his treasure, and his army would all be spent for the +Italian cause. A year later the king withstood Austria in a dispute over +customs; and a little later still, at an agrarian congress a member +rose and read a letter from the king which ended, "If ever God shall +give us grace to be able to undertake a war of independence, no one but +me shall command the army. Oh, what a glorious day will that be when we +shall be able to utter the cry of national independence!" + +Thus encouraged by king and Pope, patriots, from Piedmont to Sicily, +waited in tremulous expectation for the coming of great events. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +TUMULTUOUS YEARS (1848-1849) + + +The period of waiting for coming events was short. The whole Continent +of Europe was straining like a greyhound in its leash; Italy, from end +to end, was on tiptoe with excitement; and the year 1848 came rushing in +with swashbuckler fury. + +In Italy the revolutionary movement began in Palermo. The people +attacked the Bourbon soldiers and drove them out. Their example was +followed throughout the island. Across the channel Naples arose and +demanded a constitution. The frightened king granted it (January 29). In +Piedmont at an assemblage of journalists, the director of a newspaper, +"The Risorgimento," declared that the time appropriate to petitions for +the banishment of the Jesuits and for the institution of a national +guard had passed, and that a constitution should be demanded. The +speaker was a stoutish man of thirty-eight, with a square face under a +high forehead. He wore spectacles, and under his chin a fringe of beard +ran round from ear to ear like a ravelled bonnet string; he looked like +a distinguished and amiable professor, except that there was a pinch to +his nostrils and a compression to his lips which suggested an arrogant +lineage and inherited notions of "Let those take that have the power, +and let them keep that can." In fact, Count Camillo Cavour belonged to +the old Piedmontese aristocracy. As a lad he served in the engineer +corps of the army, then travelled in England (which he admired greatly) +and in France, studying all kinds of social matters, from machinery to +constitutions. On his estates he was a practical farmer, and he took +keen interest in public life. It was at this time that he first became a +man of note. + +The city of Turin took up Cavour's cry, and the king acceded. The Grand +Duke of Tuscany granted a constitution. The Pope was slow to bestir +himself, but the news of revolutionary success in Paris quickened his +gait, and he too granted a constitution. In the Austrian provinces, +Lombardy and Venetia, there were tumults, arrests, cavalry charges, and +martial law; then came news of the revolt in Vienna itself and word that +the scared Emperor promised a constitution. Venice accepted the promise; +but Milan, where a citizen had been killed by the soldiers, broke into +rebellion. Carts, carriages, tables, chairs, pianos, bedsteads, were +heaped up to defend the streets; sixteen hundred and fifty barricades +were erected; men snatched knives, hammers, arquebuses, axes; all took +part,--boys, lads, old men, priests. These were the famous _Five Days_ +of Milan. Every street, every house was a battleground, and Field +Marshal Radetzky, with fourteen thousand men, was driven from the city. +Revolt spread through Lombardy. When the news reached Venice the +citizens rose, forced the Austrian governors to surrender, and +proclaimed anew the Republic of Venice. Daniele Manin was made +president. + +This glorious news, Venice republican, Milan victorious over Radetzky, +flew to Turin. Every liberal went mad with excitement. The centuries of +national humiliation seemed past. Now had come the hour for which +Piedmont had trained and disciplined itself, for which it had hoped and +longed; now should Piedmont uplift Italy and fight its country's battle. +Cavour cried that there was but one possible course,--immediate war with +Austria. A great crowd in tremulous anxiety thronged before the royal +palace. At midnight on March 23, Carlo Alberto stepped out on his +balcony and waved a tricolour scarf. Next day a royal proclamation +stated that the Piedmontese army would march to the aid of Lombardy and +Venice. A shout of joy went up throughout Italy. Modena and Parma cast +out their dukes and sent recruits to help. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, +the Pope, even the King of Naples, compelled by necessity, each sent an +army. The war was a national crusade. + +At first the campaign went well. The Italian allies numbered more than +ninety thousand men; and Carlo Alberto, leading the main body, forced +the Austrians under Radetzky within the quadrilateral made by the strong +fortresses, Verona, Peschiera, Mantua, and Legnano. But the King of +Sardinia was no general; he lacked energy, decision, character. While he +dawdled, not knowing what to do, Radetzky received reinforcements. This +hesitation and delay cooled the first glorious burst of union and +freedom. Pius IX felt doubts; what right had the Vicar of Christ to take +part in war? Were not Austrians and Italians alike in the sight of God? +What had the Universal Church to do with national divisions? And might +not Austria become heretic and secede from the papal rule? He said he +would not fight. So great, however, were the tumults in Rome that he was +forced to face about once again, but his tergiversation gave a fatal +blow to the cause. In Naples the watchful Ferdinand, eager for a +pretext, took advantage of some street riots to dissolve parliament, and +bade his army come home. One general with a few hundred men disobeyed, +but the rest turned back. + +In the north the old jealousies between the Italian States wedged +themselves in and broke the new-made union. Venice, instead of uniting +with Piedmont in a joint political confederation, insisted upon +remaining an independent republic, and Milan hesitated out of jealousy +of Turin. Of these discords and hesitations the octogenarian Radetzky +took advantage. Within thirty days the Tuscan army had been destroyed, +the papal army made prisoners, and Piedmont was left alone to maintain +the Italian cause in the field. In a three days' battle at Custoza (July +23-25) the issue was decided. The beaten Piedmontese were forced to +surrender Milan, and to retreat across the river Ticino into their own +land, and Austria returned triumphant into full possession of her +provinces, except the city of Venice. The little Dukes of Parma and +Modena returned also. + +Elsewhere the current of events ran equally fast. In Sicily Ferdinand +bombarded the revolted city of Messina (hence his nickname Bomba), and +forced it to surrender; and in Naples he made a mock of the +constitution. Rome was in horrid confusion. Pius IX appointed Pellegrino +Rossi prime minister, in hope that his energy and vigour might restore +peace and quiet; but Rossi was murdered on the steps of the +_Cancelleria_. Rioters wandered at will about the city. Shots were fired +near the papal palace on the Quirinal. The Pope, terribly frightened, +fled from the city, and took refuge across the Neapolitan border at +Gaeta. He was besought to return, but would not. The revolutionary +leaders convoked an assembly of Roman citizens to decide what form of +government to adopt, and, though the Pope hurled excommunications at all +who should take part, the radicals met (February 5, 1849), declared the +Temporal Power at an end, and established the Roman Republic. In Tuscany +the republican fire likewise blazed up; the Grand Duke ran after the +Pope to Gaeta, and a provisional government was appointed with a +triumvirate at its head. + +In the north, Piedmont and Austria renewed the war. On March 23, at +Novara, a little town on the Piedmontese side of the Ticino, the +deciding battle was fought. The Austrians were completely victorious. +King Carlo Alberto asked for a truce. Radetzky's terms were so severe +that the king, feeling himself the chief cause of this severity, +resolved to be of no further detriment to his country. He abdicated in +favour of his son, Vittorio Emanuele II, and went into exile, where he +soon died. The young king made peace on harsh terms. + +All rational hope for the Italian cause was at an end, but the +dismembered parts struggled on. The men of Brescia defended themselves +gloriously for days, barricading every alley and making a fort of every +house, but they were overpowered; the Austrian general Haynau inflicted +atrocities that made his name a byword throughout Europe. His own report +says, "I ordered that no prisoner should be taken, but that every person +seized with arms in his hands should be immediately put to death, and +that the houses from which shots came should be burned."[23] In Sicily +the revolutionists resisted in vain, and the king's authority was +reestablished throughout the island. In Naples all liberals were +shamefully and most cruelly persecuted. In Tuscany the mild-mannered +Tuscans, dismayed at their own radical government, invited the Grand +Duke to return; so he came, bringing Austrian soldiers with him. + +In Rome still more notable events happened. Mazzini, as member of the +revolutionary triumvirate, was at the head of the government. His task +was hard, for the Pope had asked the Catholic Powers to restore him, and +Spain, Naples, Austria, and France, hastened to obey. France interfered +because Louis Napoleon, president of the new republic, wished the +support of the French clerical party; nevertheless, he had to proceed +cautiously in order not to vex the liberals, and pursued a wavering +course. He said he would send an army to defend real liberty, and would +let the Romans decide for themselves what they wanted. The French +soldiers advanced to the walls of Rome (April 29, 1849); the Roman +republicans were naturally suspicious and treated them as enemies. +Skirmishes were fought, and the French constrained to retire. Meanwhile, +an Austrian army came from the north, the Neapolitans from the south, +and the Spaniards landed at the mouth of the Tiber. The French intimated +to the Austrians that this was their affair; the Romans, reinforced by +Garibaldi and his Legion, drove back the Neapolitans; and the Spaniards +retired quietly, thus leaving France to deal with the situation as she +deemed best. French reinforcements arrived, and fighting was begun +again. + +The Italians defended themselves for three weeks; their soldiers, though +brave, were raw, many of them mere volunteers, and ineffectual against +regular troops. As Mazzini was the hero in council, so Garibaldi was the +hero on the field of battle. The last of knight-errants, he was the very +incarnation of Romance and Revolution. Bred to the sea, this Savoyard +from Nice always retained the jaunty, gallant bearing of a mariner. His +countenance (childlike and lionlike),--with its broad, tranquil brow, +benign eye, and resolute mouth,--in youth all sparkling, gradually +changed with care and disillusion, but he still kept the seaman's mien +and the seaman's lightsome eye. He was the beau ideal of a romantic +hero. After his unsuccessful raid into Piedmont he had gone to South +America, where he lived a wild life of guerilla warfare, fighting like a +Paladin on behalf of republican revolutionaries who were struggling for +their freedom. All the time he was training a band of Italian +adventurers, his Legion, so that they should be ready when their country +had need of them. These men rushed to the defence of Rome. Their entry +into the city was most picturesque. The gaunt soldiers, wearing red +shirts and pointed hats topped with plumes, their legs bare, their +beards full-grown, their faces tanned to copper colour, with their long +black hair dangling unkempt, looked like so many Fra Diavolos. At their +head Garibaldi, in his red shirt, with loose kerchief knotted round his +throat, the regular beauty of his noble, leonine face set off by his +waving hair, mounted on a milk-white horse, rode like a demi-god. + +Besides this Legion, troops of volunteers came from all over Italy. The +character of these patriots may be learned from Mazzini's account of the +young Genoese poet Goffredo Mameli, who was killed there. "For me, for +us exiles of twenty years who have grown old in illusions, he was like a +melody of youth, a presentiment of times that we shall not see, in which +the instinct of goodness and sacrifice will dwell unconscious in the +human soul, and will not be, as virtue is in us, the fruit of long and +hard struggles. Of a disposition lovingly yielding, he was only happy +when he could abandon himself to those he loved, as a child in his +mother's caress; and yet Mameli was unshakably firm in what touched the +faith he had embraced. He was handsome, but careless of his appearance, +and sensitive as a woman to the charm of flowers and sweet scents. Such +was he when I knew him first at Milan in 1848, and we loved each other +at once. It was impossible to see him and not love him. Only twenty-two, +he joined the extremes rarely found united, a childlike gentleness and +the energy of a lion, to be revealed, and which was revealed, in supreme +emergencies." + +The defence of Rome was vain. Mazzini escaped by means of an English +passport, and Garibaldi led a handful of men eastward hoping to reach +Venice. The French soldiers marched into the city, and reestablished the +Temporal Power of the Pope. Venice alone remained. Daniele Manin, the +valiant dictator, maintained a stout defence for four months, but +cholera and hunger came to the enemy's aid. On August 24 the city +capitulated, and on the 30th Marshal Radetzky heard the _Te Deum_ of +Austrian gratitude played in St. Mark's. In all Italy, except Piedmont, +the reaction had triumphed; Piedmont alone was left to become the centre +of whatever hopes of independence and unity still existed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] _The Liberation of Italy_, Evelyn M. Cesaresco, p. 144. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE UNITY OF ITALY (1849-1871) + + +After the uprisings of 1848-49, the old tyrannical system prevailed for +eight years and seemed heavier than ever. Liberalism meant suspicion, +disfavour, danger. The liberals were not very numerous and did not agree +among themselves. Some looked for hope to Piedmont, some to England, +some to France. Some were for a republic, some for a confederation, some +for unity; some wished insurrection, others lawful agitation. + +In Naples the king busied himself with putting the liberals in dungeons. +According to the general belief the number of prisoners for political +offences in the Two Sicilies was between fifteen and thirty thousand. +Among them was Baron Carlo Poerio, "a refined and accomplished +gentleman, a respected and blameless character," at one time one of the +ministers of the Crown. It happened that Mr. Gladstone, travelling for +the benefit of a daughter's health, passed several months in Naples at +this time (1850-51). He attended trials of the liberal prisoners, +listened to a "long tissue of palpable lies told by witnesses suborned +by the government," and visited the horrible and filthy prisons. After +his return to England he published his "Letters to the Earl of +Aberdeen." He set forth before the English people "the horrors--amidst +which the government of that country (Naples) is now carried on." He +said that "the present practices of the Government of Naples in +reference to real or supposed political offenders are an outrage upon +religion, upon civilization, upon humanity, and upon decency." He +described the "incessant, systematic, deliberate violation of the law by +the Power appointed to watch over and maintain it." "It is the wholesale +persecution of virtue,--it is the awful profanation of public +religion,--it is the perfect prostitution of the judicial office,--this +is 'The negation of God erected into a system of government.'" He +recounted Poerio's trial at length, and told how Poerio and fifteen +others were confined in a room about thirteen feet long and eight feet +high, in which they slept, always chained two by two. These chains were +never taken off, day or night. He ended by saying, "It is time that +either the veil should be lifted from scenes fitter for hell than earth, +or some considerable mitigation should be voluntarily adopted. I have +undertaken this wearisome and painful task, in the hope of doing +something to diminish a mass of human suffering as huge, I believe, as +acute, to say the least, as any that the eye of Heaven beholds." + +These letters were sent by Lord Palmerston to every government in +Europe, and helped to awaken general European sympathy for the oppressed +liberals of Italy. + +In the Papal States Pius IX put himself wholly in the hands of the +reactionaries and the Jesuits. His government was practically imbecile. +Brigands came and went at will. In Forlimpopoli, for instance, a city of +the Romagna, a famous highwayman and his band appeared on the stage of a +theatre, and made the spectators empty their pockets of their money and +of their front-door keys. In Modena, Parma, and Tuscany the governments +did whatever they deemed would be pleasing to Austria; and in Lombardy +and Venice the Austrians repressed the slightest signs of patriotism. + +In Piedmont alone was there light ahead. The young king was the +embodiment of the best qualities of his race. The statues of him, carved +in the first fury of patriotism, which disfigure many a _piazza_, reveal +only his corpulence, his monstrous mustachios, and the forceful ugliness +of his shrewd face. Victor Emmanuel was a soldier born, of careless +manners, imperious and brusque, yet with a charm of obvious honesty that +won men's hearts and gained for him the title of _il re galantuomo_. He +reminds one of Henry of Navarre, in his dash, his impetuous energy, his +shrewdness, his deserved popularity, and his eternally youthful +readiness to fall in love. After the defeat at Novara (1849) pressure +was put upon him to return to the autocratic system, and, it is said, +Austria offered him easier terms if he would. He had been brought up +with the old ideas of the royal position, but he was statesman enough to +perceive that if Piedmont and the House of Savoy were to lead in the +movement of Italian independence, they must win the confidence of the +liberals; and he had sworn to maintain the constitution. He was always +a man of his word, whatever policy might advise, and answered that he +should be loyal to the constitution. + +Piedmont's history for the next few years is a record of liberal +legislation, as it was then understood. This legislation was especially +directed against antiquated ecclesiastical privileges, with the purpose +of realizing Cavour's principle, "A free Church in a free State." A +little later Cavour was called to the head of the government, and for +ten years, with certain brief exceptions, he remained the chief figure +on the Italian stage. There are diverse judgments on the very diverse +merits of the master-builders of the Italian kingdom; some admire most +Mazzini, the indefatigable conspirator, the dreamy idealist, the nobly +fanatical republican; others, Garibaldi, the man after Petrarch's heart, +the rival of Roland or the Cid; others, Victor Emmanuel, the honourable, +bold, shrewd, resolute king; but all agree that Cavour's brilliant +diplomacy entitles him to rank as one of the world's great statesmen, +and that his work was indispensable to the establishment of the Italian +kingdom. + +This period prior to the war with Austria is Cavour's. He set the +finances of Piedmont on a better basis; he began a series of measures +for the development of her resources; he secured various internal +reforms, but his brilliant achievement was in his foreign policy. He +knew that the Austrians could not be dispossessed without a war, that +Piedmont was not strong enough of herself, and that in order to gain +allies she must get a hearing before Europe. The Crimean War gave +Cavour an opportunity. England and France would have preferred Austria +as an ally, and there was much cautious proceeding; but Austria +hesitated, and Piedmont offered herself. Many Italians deemed the plan +of taking part in a war with which Piedmont had no visible concern a +piece of folly; but Cavour carried his point. The Piedmontese army went, +behaved with credit, and effaced the unfavourable impression left by the +disastrous campaigns of 1848-49. The fruits of the Crimean expedition +were gathered at the Congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour, supported +by England and France, was able to call the attention of the Congress to +the condition of Italy. He pointed to the tyranny of Austria in Lombardy +and Venetia, to the abominable condition of the Papal States, to the +horrible misgovernment in the Two Sicilies; and he pointed to Piedmont +as the bulwark against Austrian preponderance on the one hand, and +against the revolutionary spirit on the other. Nothing definite was +done, but the Italian question had been broached, and Cavour's +participation in the Congress was recognized as a great achievement. + +Piedmont's leadership was helped by rash revolts elsewhere, easily put +down and cruelly punished; and it became plainer and plainer that +through the steady, orderly monarchy of Sardinia deliverance was to +come, if at all, and not through the visionary schemes of Mazzini. The +dark, mysterious plans of Napoleon III now loomed on the horizon. +Relations between him and Cavour became closer. Cavour, no doubt, would +have liked to gain his ends without French aid, but that could not be +done. The only other possible ally, England, would not interfere. In the +summer of 1858 an understanding was reached between him and Napoleon +that in case of Austrian aggression France would aid Piedmont. On +January 1, 1859, Napoleon hinted to the world what had happened; on +January 10, Victor Emmanuel at the opening of the Piedmontese parliament +said that the political situation was not free from perils ahead, "for +while we respect treaties, we cannot disregard the cry of pain which +comes to us from so many parts of Italy." Count Cavour asked for a loan +of 50,000,000 lire. Affairs moved fast. Relations between Piedmont and +Austria were strained taut; but it was essential that Austria should be +the aggressor. Russia and England, in order to prevent war, suggested a +European Congress to consider matters. Napoleon consented; and Cavour, +who knew that freedom for Italy could only be obtained by war, feared +that his chance had gone. There was talk of disarmament, but no +agreement had been reached, when Austria, impatient and arrogant, sent +an ultimatum to Piedmont that she must disarm prior to the Congress. +Victor Emmanuel refused and war was declared. + +The French Emperor crossed the Alps, and in June the allies won the +battles of Magenta and Solferino. The Italians believed that Austria +would now be driven from every foot of Italian soil: when, suddenly, +without consulting Piedmont, Napoleon, for reasons of French policy, +made peace with Austria. The Emperor of Austria ceded Lombardy to +Napoleon, and Napoleon transferred it to Piedmont; and, as a sop to the +spirit of Italian unity, both Emperors agreed to favour the scheme of a +confederation of the Italian States with the Pope at its head, but the +latter plan was left in the air. This was the end of the high hopes of +Italian freedom and unity. Italy had received a slap in the face. Cavour +was furious; he had a stormy interview with his king, and passionately +urged him not to consent, but the king had the good sense to see that he +must. Cavour immediately resigned. + +Meanwhile the war had caused the recall of the Austrian troops south of +the Po, and the patriots had risen in joy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, +the Duke of Modena, the Duchess Regent of Parma, the papal legates of +the Romagna, ran away, and provisional governments were established; but +a permanent political disposition was attended with difficulties. The +states themselves wished to join Piedmont, but the wish was not +unanimous, for many people wanted to preserve local autonomy and their +old historic boundaries. Napoleon favoured his vague confederacy, and a +European Congress supported his view. Indecision reigned, but the cause +of national union triumphed through the vigour of Count Bettino +Ricasoli, a man of iron character, head of the provisional government in +Tuscany. "We must," he wrote, "no longer speak of Piedmont, nor of +Florence, nor of Tuscany; we must speak neither of fusion nor +annexation, but of the union of the Italian people under the +constitutional government of Victor Emmanuel."[24] Certainly the +fugitive dukes could only return by force, and though Continental Europe +approved their return, there was nobody to supply the force. The little +states voted to join Piedmont. Piedmont, however, hesitated, in fear of +European contradiction. Nobody but Cavour could manage the matter, and +he was recalled to office (1860). Cavour appealed to the doctrine of the +popular will to be expressed by a _plebiscite_. France, however, would +only consent upon cession of Savoy and Nice, a measure already talked of +as the price of the French alliance; and in spite of the reluctance of +the king to surrender Savoy, the cradle of his race, the price had to be +paid. The cession was made, and Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the Romagna +were united with the Kingdom of Sardinia under the name of the Kingdom +of Italy (April 15, 1860). + +In the mean time Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, had died, hated +and despised by everybody, and his son Francis II, a weak, ignorant, +bigoted lad, had mounted the throne. He refused a suggestion of Victor +Emmanuel to join in the war against Austria, threw himself into the arms +of the reactionary party, and made an alliance with the Pope. The +discontented liberals took courage at the news from the north. In April, +1860, the revolt began in Palermo, and, though suppressed there, spread. +Two young patriots, Francesco Crispi and Rosalino Pilo, went about +stirring the people to action. Garibaldi was begged to put himself at +the head of the proposed revolution. On the night of May 6, two ships, +the Lombardy and the Piedmont, secretly left Genoa, and took Garibaldi +and a thousand volunteers aboard. This band, known as _i Mille_, is +nearly as famous and as legendary as King Arthur and his Round Table. On +May 11, the ships landed at Marsala. Two Neapolitan cruisers came up, +but two English men-of-war happened to be there also; and the English +captains, under guise of friendly notification to the Neapolitans, took +some action which delayed the latter long enough to let the last +Garibaldians disembark. Once on shore, Garibaldi's volunteers ran to +secure the telegraph office. They arrived just after the operator had +telegraphed that two Piedmontese ships, filled with troops, had come +into the harbour; a Garibaldian was able to add to the message, "I have +made a mistake; they are two merchantmen." The answer came back, +"Idiot." The volunteers marched inland. A provisional government was +organized; Garibaldi was made dictator, and Crispi secretary of state. +The cry was "Italy and Victor Emmanuel!" Garibaldi was joined by +insurgent Sicilians, and, with numbers considerably increased, fought +and defeated the Bourbon army. The story reads like the exploits of +Hector before the Greek trenches. Victory followed victory. Palermo +fell, Milazzo and Messina; then he crossed the straits and invaded +Calabria (August). This marvellous triumph, for there had been thirty +thousand regular troops to oppose Garibaldi, frightened King Francis; he +proclaimed a constitution, appealed to Napoleon, and even to Victor +Emmanuel, for help. It was too late. Garibaldi swept on victorious, and +the king fled from Naples (September 6); the next day Garibaldi marched +in and assumed dictatorship of the kingdom. + +England approved, but Continental Europe looked askance at this +irregular proceeding, and Victor Emmanuel and Cavour began to feel +uneasy, apprehensive lest the Great Powers should intervene in Italian +affairs. It was a difficult situation. Garibaldi was moving on +northward, and proclaimed his intention of going to Rome, regardless of +the French army stationed there, and then to Venice, regardless of the +European treaties that gave Venice to Austria. Besides, the Pope had +collected an army (largely of foreign recruits) to suppress the liberal +movements in Umbria and the Marches, and to give aid to the Neapolitan +king. Here were further opportunities for foreign intervention. +Evidently Cavour must act promptly if he wished Piedmont to continue to +control the national movement. He requested the Pope to dismiss his new +army. The Pope refused. The Piedmontese army crossed the pontifical +border, scattered the papal army, and took possession of all the papal +territory, except the city of Rome and the country immediately about it, +and then marched on across the Neapolitan boundary. Here the Bourbon +army was holding Garibaldi at bay. The arrival of the Piedmontese +determined the issue. A less noble man might have shown resentment at +having another come at the eleventh hour and seize the fruits of +victory, but Garibaldi hailed Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy, refused +the proffered honours and rewards, and went home, a poor man, to the +little island of Caprera. The Two Sicilies and the liberated parts of +the Papal States voted to join the Kingdom of Italy. In February, 1861, +the first Italian parliament was held, and Victor Emmanuel formally +received the title King of Italy. Excepting Rome and Venice, Italy was +free and independent. + +Rome was the more pressing question of the two. A history of twenty-five +hundred years, a profound sentiment, a patriotic, poetic, romantic love, +had inevitably determined that Rome must be the capital of United Italy. +On the other hand, opposed to the Italian national sentiment was the +historic Catholic sentiment, diffused throughout Europe and strongest in +France. The Pope naturally deemed his Italian birth inferior in +obligation to his Catholic position. Moreover, the Temporal Power of the +Popes had endured for more than a thousand years, and since the time of +Julius II the pontifical title had been as good as the title to public +or private property anywhere. Catholics honestly believed that this +political kingdom was necessary to the independence of the Church. How +could the world, they said, believe in papal impartiality if the Papacy +were under the thumb of the Italian government? The difference in point +of view inevitably brought the ardent Papist and the patriotic +Nationalist to mutual injustice. The Italians looked on Pius IX as their +worst enemy; the Roman Curia deemed the Italians robbers. French +sympathy with the Papists, and especially the presence of a French army +in Rome, made the question exceedingly difficult. A special +circumstance aggravated the difficulty. The King of Naples, having taken +refuge in Rome, armed and subsidized gangs of brigands, who raided the +Neapolitan provinces and committed unspeakable outrages. These rascals, +when pursued by the Piedmontese army, crossed the pontifical border and +were safe. This condition was intolerable. + +At this juncture the great statesman who had steadfastly pursued his +policy,--a free Church in a free State,--and never lost hope of a +peaceful solution of the Roman difficulty, died (June 6, 1861). The +priest who shrived him was summoned to Rome, deprived of his parish, +suspended from his office, and sent to finish his days in a remote +monastery; so strongly did the Roman Court feel that Cavour and his +abettors were wicked men. + +Cavour's successors, Ricasoli and Rattazzi, with feebler gait, followed +his policy as best they could; but uncertainty and hesitation prevailed. +The two great questions, Rome and Venice, pressed for solution. The +radicals clamored to have the Italian army march on Rome. Garibaldi's +impatience would not brook further inaction. He left his island home at +Caprera, and betook himself to Sicily, crying, "Rome or Death!" With a +little army of hot-tempered radicals he crossed into Calabria. The +Italian government had no choice. Regular troops met Garibaldi at +Aspromonte, near Reggio, and bade him withdraw; he refused; shots were +fired. Which side fired first is uncertain. Garibaldi was wounded and +made prisoner (August 29, 1862). This indignity to the national hero +roused much hard feeling, but reasonable men perceived that the solution +of the Roman question had to be found in some other way than by a +filibustering expedition against a city held by the troops of a power +with whom the nation was at peace. + +The liberation of Venice came first. Prussia occupied a position in +Germany somewhat similar to that of Piedmont in Italy. Both had somewhat +similar problems. Both felt antagonism to Austria, and also a suspicion +of France. In April, 1866, the two states made an alliance against +Austria, who, fearing the combination, tried to break it by offering to +cede Venetia to Italy if she would abandon the Prussian alliance. Victor +Emmanuel refused, and war began in June. The Italians were beaten both +on land and sea, to their great mortification and chagrin. The crushing +Prussian victory at Sadowa, however, forced Austria to accept the +victor's terms, including the cession of Venice. On November 7 Victor +Emmanuel entered the city. Rome alone was left. + +Garibaldi made another desperate attempt, but was defeated by the French +at Mentana (1867). Not by Italian victories, but in consequence of +Prussian victories, the conquest of Rome was finally effected. The +French were obliged to withdraw their garrison during the +Franco-Prussian War, and then the Italian government, which, to the +shame of ardent patriots, had so long forborne out of obedience to the +will of the French, gave notice to the world that it would annex Rome. +After a useless call upon the Pope for peaceful surrender, Victor +Emmanuel directed his army to march on the city. Real resistance was out +of the question, but Pius IX had decided to yield only to force. On the +20th of September, 1870, a breach was made in the wall near _Porta Pia_, +a few shots were fired, a few score soldiers killed and wounded, and the +Italian army marched in and took possession of the city. A _plebiscite_ +was held, and by a vote of 133,681 to 1507 the city voted to become a +part of Italy. In June, 1871, the seat of government was formally +removed from Florence, and Rome once again, after fifteen hundred years, +became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] _The Union of Italy_, W. J. Stillman, p. 300. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +CONCLUSION (1872-1900) + + +The union of Italy was so triumphant, the efforts which accomplished it +so heroic, and the whole tone of Italian history throughout the +Risorgimento so romantic and noble, that the period since of necessity +looks flat and dull. The Italians themselves had imagined that the union +of Italy would be followed by some career, political, moral, or +intellectual, that would be comparable to the career of ancient Rome. A +reaction was inevitable. No nation could continue at so enthusiastic a +pitch. Moreover, the difficulties before it were great. + +Chief of these difficulties was the persistent hostility of the Papacy. +Pius IX, a kind, lovable, timid man, wholly inadequate to cope with a +revolutionary situation, had passed from his early sympathy with the +liberal movement to the opposite extreme, and hated it with the hatred +of fear. His hatred of liberal ideas may be seen in his conduct with +regard to ecclesiastical matters. He insisted upon the extremest +conservative dogma, as if it were a shield to protect the Papacy, the +papal city, the Papal States, and the whole Catholic world, from all +assaults of Satan and his liberal crew. First he proclaimed the dogma of +the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, next he published the +"Syllabus," which is a condemnation of all those doctrines commonly +embodied in Bills of Rights. Finally, he convoked the Vatican Council +(1869-70), and procured a decree that the Pope is infallible in matters +of faith and morals. This decree gave the death-blow to whatever remains +of republicanism there were in the Church, and established the Pope as +absolute monarch. An Ecumenical Council, representing the Church, had +previously been the infallible head of the Church; now the Pope was +substituted for the Council. + +In this way the Church more and more assumed an attitude of +irreconcilable hostility to the ideas that prevailed among the educated +classes in Italy. After the occupation of Rome by the Italian +government, Pius shut himself up in the Vatican palace and proclaimed +himself a prisoner. He first advised and then commanded Catholics to +stay away from the polls at national elections, and directed his foreign +policy to the end of reestablishing his Temporal Power. This policy, +judged by the popular belief in the divine right of nationality and of +majorities, is of course wrong; judged by one who regards the interests +of the Church as paramount, it may be defended as an attempt to adhere +to the old ways under which the Catholic Church had played its +extraordinary part in European history. After the occupation of Rome the +Italian government passed the Law of Guarantees (May 10, 1871), which +guaranteed to the Pope an annual subsidy of somewhat more than 3,000,000 +lire a year, and also the personal and diplomatic rights of a sovereign, +such as to maintain his court, to receive ambassadors, to have separate +postal and telegraph service, to keep the Vatican and Lateran palaces, +etc. Pius IX refused to accept the subsidy. + +Another difficulty, which has confronted the government since the union, +has been the discord between the North and South. The northern +provinces, especially Lombardy and Piedmont, have been making progress +in manufactures and in commerce; whereas, on the contrary, the South, +very ignorant and very poor, and devoted to agriculture, wine, grain, +lemons, oranges, etc., without facilities for manufacture and without +capacity for commerce, has made doubtful advance. Special causes have +hindered it. In Sicily, in consequence of long-continued poverty, +ignorance, and misgovernment, the secret societies, known as the +_Mafia_, have overrun great parts of the island. The original cause of +the _Mafia_ was probably self-protection, the lower classes banding +together to save themselves from the oppressions of the upper classes +who clung to the remains of the feudal system. The landowners, for +example, had used their control of the courts to maintain privileges and +injustice. As a natural consequence, members of the _Mafia_ deemed it +ignoble to revenge wrongs by judicial process, and still more ignoble to +give any information to any officers of the government. They settled +their own disputes and righted their own wrongs. With the grant of +suffrage the _Mafia_ became a political power, and only permitted the +election of such candidates as it approved. + +In Naples there was also a power behind the scenes which resembled the +_Mafia_, but in reality was totally distinct and individual. This +Neapolitan power, a legacy from Bourbon times, was the _Camorra_, a +society of criminals or ruffians on the edge of crime, organized for the +purpose of levying tribute by blackmail; it was not unlike the worst +municipal rings in this country, and gained its livelihood from the +vicious, and from politicians who benefited by its support. Both +_Camorra_ and _Mafia_ have been very great obstacles to social progress, +and still exist. + +The North, conscious of a higher standard of civilization, has wished to +educate and reform the South, and also, perhaps, has not been unwilling +to let taxation fall more heavily in proportion upon the agricultural +produce of the South than on the manufactured products of the North. +Resenting this assumption of superiority, and suspicious of unfair +treatment, especially with regard to indirect taxation, the South has +felt itself aggrieved; and so there have been continual misunderstanding +and friction between it and the North. + +In its foreign relations the country has also had hard problems. France +and Italy ceased to be friends. Italy could not forget that the French +had upheld the papal power in Rome, and had defeated Garibaldi at +Mentana; and France was indignant that Italy had not come to her rescue +in 1870. France also was jealous of a rival in the Mediterranean; while +the Italians believed that France favoured a revival of the Temporal +Power. This unfriendliness, fostered by the Italian clericals, +constituted a most disturbing factor in Italy's foreign relations. The +breach was increased by other causes, and Italy in alarm turned to find +friends elsewhere. Austria and Germany, who had already made an +alliance, were glad to have Italy join, as further security for the +peace of Europe against any action by France or Russia. So the three +joined and made the Triple Alliance (1882), which was renewed from time +to time and still exists. This alliance has given Italy ample security +against any attack by France, but has imposed upon her very heavy +military burdens in order to keep her army at a certain standard of +efficiency. + +As time went on the actors of the great age dropped off one by one; +Mazzini in 1872, Victor Emmanuel in 1878, Garibaldi in 1882. It is after +their departure, their noble desires fulfilled, their noble tasks +accomplished, that Italy looks little and inadequate. The parliamentary +struggles have certainly been neither noble nor romantic. After the +occupation of Rome, the Right, the conservative party, under Marco +Minghetti, Quintino Sella, and others, was in power for half a dozen +years, and by means of a burdensome taxation succeeded in making +receipts equal expenses. But taxes and refusal to extend the suffrage +led to its fall from power, and the Left, the progressive party, under +Agostino Depretis, assumed the government. Depretis abolished an +unpopular tax on grinding corn, made primary education compulsory, and +extended the suffrage from 600,000 voters to 2,000,000. After these +reforms the dominant party ceased to have a definite programme. There +was general confusion, known as Transformism. The deputies split up into +little groups under petty leaders and fell to log-rolling. The story is +dreary and unimportant. + +Depretis, who died in 1887, was succeeded by Francesco Crispi, the most +striking political figure since Cavour. Crispi began life as an advocate +at Palermo, and took part as a very young man in the early agitations +for constitutional reforms. He was successful at the bar, and had moved +to Naples to practise before the appellate tribunals there, when the +events that led to the uprisings of '48 began to effervesce. Crispi took +a leading part. After the uprisings had been suppressed, he lived in +exile till the time was ripe to begin again. Then he returned to Sicily +and plotted for the revolution which terminated in Garibaldi's +expedition. He acquired great influence, took his seat in the Italian +parliament, and soon became leader of the radical Left. In spite of +vicissitudes and a not unattacked reputation, he was the chief +parliamentary figure on the death of Depretis, and dominated Italian +politics till 1896. In his youth Crispi had been a follower of Mazzini's +republican theories; later, though still a republican in sympathy, he +announced the opinion that "the Republic would divide us, the Monarchy +unites us," and abandoned his old republican associates. For this reason +among others he incurred the animosity of old friends and allies. + +During the period of his ascendency the subdivision of the deputies into +little groups made government difficult, and for a couple of years he +was out of office. In that interval hard times, adding weight to +republican and socialist propaganda, caused strikes, riots, and +insurrections; and accompanying these disturbances came the "Bank +Scandals." Sundry banks, conspicuously the important Banca Romana, had +been violating the laws which regulated the government of banks, and had +been engaged in most improper dealings with politicians, as, for +instance, lending money to deputies on little or no security. These +scandals, together with the strikes, wrecked the ministry, and the +country called on Crispi, as the one strong man able to take control. He +assumed office in December, 1893, and remained till 1896, when he fell +with equal suddenness. The cause of his fall requires a separate +paragraph. + +About 1870 an Italian steamship company established a coaling station on +the west coast of the Red Sea, and acquired a certain strip of land +which it afterwards ceded to the government (1882). From this beginning +the Italian government advanced, upon one pretext or another, to the +establishment of a colonial dependency. It occupied Massawa, established +the "Colonia Erithrea," and proclaimed a zone of influence along the +east coast of Africa. Various battles were fought with the natives; and +at last the government sent fifteen thousand men to perform some +brilliant exploit for its own political benefit. The Italian troops were +badly handled; they walked into a trap set by the Abyssinians, and +suffered a terrible rout, losing half their numbers (1896). Crispi fell +at once, and the new ministry under Di Rudini, in spite of cries for +revenge, prudently abandoned the colonial policy, and made peace as best +it could. Italy renounced her protectorate, and contented herself with a +strip of coast by Massawa. Thus ended the scheme of colonial +aggrandizement begun in ignorance and folly. + +The fall of Crispi removed the last interesting figure of the +Risorgimento, and left Italian politics in a confused medley. Since +then, various leaders of no marked ability or individuality have +struggled with the permanent difficulties of Church and State, North and +South, capitalism and socialism, and the shifting difficulties of +foreign relations. All this time is too near to present any definite +pattern to the casual eye. The century closed sadly with the +assassination of King Humbert (1878-1900) by an ignorant workman who +called himself a nihilist. Humbert was not a good ruler, but he had a +kind heart and many pleasant qualities, which endeared him to the +Italian people. He was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III, the +present king. + +The greatest Italian figure of the last decades of the nineteenth +century was not to be found in the service of the State, but of the +Church. In 1810 Gioacchino Pecci was born in Carpineto, a dead little +village perched on a hillside near Anagni, the town where Boniface VIII +was nearly murdered by Sciarra Colonna five hundred years before. His +father, Count Lodovico Pecci, had served in Napoleon's army; his mother +was said to be descended from Cola di Rienzo. The count was the +seigneur of the place, and lived in a somewhat shabby palace which had +seen better days. Gioacchino was educated at a Jesuit school in Rome. He +soon gave evidence of marked ability, and was taken into the papal +service and sent as apostolic delegate to Benevento. Banditti infested +the neighbourhood, and the nobility of the town were little better than +the banditti. Pecci displayed character. He was promoted, and at the age +of thirty-three was sent as papal nuncio to Belgium, with the title of +Archbishop of Damietta, an archbishopric that had been _in partibus +infidelium_ since the days of St. Louis. In Belgium, where liberal ideas +were jostling the old ecclesiastical system, Pecci distinguished himself +for tact and address. From Belgium he went to Perugia as bishop, and +governed the city for thirty-two years, during the trying time in which +(largely at the expense of the Church) Italy was forcing her way to +freedom. In 1860 his authority was overthrown by the Piedmontese +soldiers, and many tales of brutality and wantonness charged upon the +nationalists were brought to his troubled ears, and he unfortunately +received a most unfavourable impression of liberals and liberalism. His +reputation for ability, character, and diplomacy became so well +established, that in the conclave on the death of Pius IX he had no +serious competitor. Leo XIII (1878-1903) was already an old man when he +was elected Pope, and had had the misfortune to receive his education +and training in the narrow school of the old papal regime. Preceded by +an incompetent Pope, he found himself confronted by the wreck of the +Temporal Power, and by a liberalism which was not only triumphant in +Italy, but in nearly all western Europe. He had not far to go to find +thoughtful men who expected to see the Papacy collapse and die. Most +difficult matters in Germany, in Ireland, in France, in the United +States, required delicate and skilful management. It is not too much to +say that Leo raised the Papacy higher in the world's regard than it had +stood for two hundred years. Had he been a younger man, and trained in a +more liberal school, he might, perhaps, have attempted the task of +adjusting ecclesiastical conservatism and tradition to the needs of a +fast changing world. But he was too old. With a few brilliant exceptions +he accepted the conservative policy. He affected to deem himself a +prisoner in the Vatican, and claimed the restoration of the Temporal +Power; he declared Thomas Aquinas the best teacher for the priesthood, +and stood firm on the dogmas of the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, his +was a most impressive personality, and he stands in the long list of +Popes in a rank inferior only to the highest. + +In his old age, as he strolled in the Vatican gardens, meditating Latin +verses, or thinking over his encyclical letters, "On the Condition of +the Working Classes," "On Christian Democracy," "On the Holy Eucharist," +or turning his emaciated, sweet, Voltairean face to the great dome of +St. Peter's, he may well have let his mind wander in peace over the +outside world, for never since Luther cast off his papal allegiance had +the whole Christian world been so united in admiration for a Pope of +Rome. All Christians could say amen to the prayer in his last poem, +"Suprema Leonis Vota:"-- + + Expleat o clemens anxia vota Deus, + + Scilicet ut tandem superis de civibus unus + Divino aeternum lumine et ore fruar.[25] + +We have now reached our goal, the end of the nineteenth century, and if +we look back and contemplate the vicissitudes of Italy, such as no other +nation ever experienced, twice on the throne of Europe, three times +crowned with its crown,--Imperial, Ecclesiastical, Intellectual,--and +resurvey the three centuries during which foreign tyrant and native +priest joined hands to smother and quench the Italian fire, and then +read in detail the heroic acts of the men who sacrificed themselves for +Italian freedom, we shall feel sure that the dull colours of the present +generation are but signs of a time of rest, and that the genius of Italy +lives within and will again enrich the world with deeds of men sprung +from the "gentle Latin blood." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] + + Fulfil, O gracious God, my anxious prayer, + + That, at the last, one among the citizens of Heaven + I may enjoy Thy Light, Thy Face, forever. + + + + +APPENDIX + +I + +CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF POPES AND EMPERORS + + + ----------+--------------------------+--------------------------+---------- + Year of | | |Year of + Accession.| Popes. | Emperors. |Accession. + ----------+--------------------------+--------------------------+---------- + A. D. | | | A. D. + 468 |Simplicius |Romulus Augustulus | 475 + 483 |Felix III |Anastasius I[1] | 491 + 492 |Gelasius I | | + 496 |Anastasius II | | + 498 |Symmachus | | + 498 |Laurentius (Anti-pope) | | + 514 |Hormisdas | | + | |Justin I | 518 + 523 |John I | | + 526 |Felix IV | | + | |JUSTINIAN[2] | 527 + 530 |Boniface II | | + 530 |Dioscorus (Anti-pope) | | + 532 |John II | | + 535 |Agapetus I | | + 536 |Silverius | | + 537 |Vigilius | | + 555 |Pelagius I | | + 560 |John III | | + | |Justin II | 565 + 574 |Benedict I | | + 578 |Pelagius II |Tiberius II | 578 + | |Maurice | 582 + 590 |GREGORY I (THE GREAT)[2] | | + | |Phocas | 602 + 604 |Sabinianus | | + 607 |Boniface III | | + 607 |Boniface IV | | + | |HERACLIUS | 610 + 615 |Deusdedit | | + 618 |Boniface V | | + 625 |Honorius I | | + 638 |Severinus | | + 640 |John IV | | + | |Constantine III } | + | |Heracleonas, } | 641 + | |Constans II } | + 642 |Theodorus I | | + 649 |Martin I | | + 654 |Eugenius I | | + 657 |Vitalianus | | + | |Constantine IV (Pogonatus)| 668 + 672 |Adeodatus | | + 676 |Domnus I | | + 678 |Agatho | | + 682 |Leo II | | + 683? |Benedict II | | + 685 |John V |Justinian II | 685 + 685? |Conon | | + 687 |Sergius I | | + 687 |Paschal (Anti-pope) | | + 687 |Theodorus (Anti-pope) | | + | |Leontius | 694 + | |Tiberius Apsimar | 697 + 701 |John VI | | + 705 |John VII |Justinian II restored | 705 + 708 |Sisinnius | | + 708 |Constantine | | + | |Philippicus Bardanes | 711 + | |Anastasius II | 713 + 715 |Gregory II | | + | |Theodosius III | 716 + | |LEO III (THE ISAURIAN) | 718 + 731 |Gregory III | | + 741 |Zacharias |Constantine V (Copronymus)| 741 + 752 |Stephen II | | + 752 |Stephen III | | + 757 |Paul I | | + 768 |Stephen IV | | + 772 |Hadrian I | | + | |Leo IV | 775 + | |Constantine VI | 780 + 795 |LEO III |Deposition of | + | | Constantine VI by Irene | 797 + | |CHARLEMAGNE }Carlovingian| 800 + | | }Line. | + | |Lewis I } | + | | (the Pious)} | 814 + 816 |Stephen IV | } | + 817 |Paschal I | } | + 824 |Eugenius | } | + 827 |Valentinus | } | + 827 |Gregory IV | } | + | |Lothair I } | 840 + 844 |Sergius II | } | + 847 |Leo IV | } | + 855 |Benedict III |Lewis II } | 855 + 855 |Anastasius (Anti-pope) | } | + 858 |NICHOLAS I | } | + 867 |Hadrian II | } | + 872 |John VIII | } | + | |Charles II } | + | | (the Bald) } | 875 + | |Charles III } | + | | (the Fat) } | 881 + 882 |Martin II | | + 884 |Hadrian III | | + 885 |Stephen V | | + 891 |Formosus |Guido }[3] Italians| 891 + | |Lambert } | 894 + 896 |Boniface VI |Arnulf, German | 896 + 896 |Steven VI | | + 897 |Romanus | | + 897 |Theodore II | | + 898 |John IX | | + 900 |Benedict IV | | + | |Lewis III (of Provence) | 901 + 903 |Leo V | | + 903 |Christopher | | + 904 |Sergius III | | + 911 |Anastasius III | | + 913 |Lando | | + 914 |John X | | + | |Berengar, Italian | 915 + 928 |Leo VI | | + 929 |Stephen VII | | + 931 |John XI | | + 936 |Leo VII | | + 939 |Stephen VIII | | + 941 |Martin III | | + 946 |Agapetus II | | + 955 |John XII | | + | |OTTO THE GREAT }Saxon | 962 + 963 |Leo VIII | }Line. | + 964 |Benedict V (Anti-pope?) | } | + 965 |John XIII | } | + 972 |Benedict VI | } | + | |Otto II } | 973 + 974 |Boniface VII (Anti-pope?) | } | + 974 |Domnus II | } | + 974 |Benedict VII | } | + 983 |John XIV | Otto III } | 983 + 985 |John XV | | + 996 |Gregory V | | + 996 |John XVI (Anti-pope) | | + 999 |SILVESTER II | | + | |Henry II (of Bavaria) | 1002 + 1003 |John XVII | | + 1003 |John XVIII | | + 1009 |Sergius IV | | + 1012 |Benedict VIII | | + 1024 |John XIX |Conrad II }Franconian | 1024 + 1033 |Benedict IX | }Line. | + | |HENRY III } | 1039 + 1044 |Silvester (Anti-pope) | } | + 1045? |Gregory VI | } | + 1046 |Clement II | } | + 1048 |Damasus II | } | + 1048 |Leo IX | } | + 1054 |Victor II | } | + | |HENRY IV } | 1056 + 1057 |Stephen IX | } | + 1058 |Benedict X | } | + 1059 |Nicholas II | } | + 1061 |Alexander II | } | + 1073 |GREGORY VII (Hildebrand) | } | + 1080 |Clement (Anti-pope) | } | + 1086 |Victor III | } | + 1087 |Urban II | } | + 1099 |Paschal II | } | + | |Henry V } | 1106 + 1118 |Gelasius II | | + 1118 |Gregory (Anti-pope) | | + 1119 |Calixtus II | | + 1121 |Celestine (Anti-pope) | | + 1124 |Honorius II | | + | |Lothair II (the Saxon) | 1125 + 1130 |Innocent II | | + |(Anacletus, Anti-pope) | | + | | Hohenstaufen| + 1138 |Victor (Anti-pope) |[Conrad III][4] }Line.| 1138 + 1143 |Celestine II | } | + 1144 |Lucius II | } | + 1145 |Eugenius III | } | + | |FREDERICK I } | 1152 + | | (BARBAROSSA) } | + 1153 |Anastasius IV | } | + 1154 |Hadrian IV | } | + 1159 |ALEXANDER III | } | + 1159 |Victor (Anti-pope) | } | + 1164 |Paschal (Anti-pope) | } | + 1168 |Calixtus (Anti-pope) | } | + 1181 |Lucius III | } | + 1185 |Urban III | } | + 1187 |Gregory VIII | } | + 1187 |Clement III | } | + | |HENRY VI } | 1190 + 1191 |Celestine III | {[Philip] } | 1198 + 1198 |INNOCENT III | {Otto IV of Brunswick | + | |Otto IV | 1208 + | |FREDERICK II }Hohenstaufen| 1212 + 1216 |Honorius III | } Line.| + 1227 |GREGORY IX | } | + 1241 |Celestine IV | } | + 1241 |Vacancy | } | + 1243 |Innocent IV | } | + | |[Conrad IV]} } | 1250 + | |[William] } | + 1254 |Alexander IV |Interregnum | 1254 + | |[Richard, Earl of } | + | | Cornwall] } | + | |[Alfonso, King of } | + | | Castile] } | 1257 + 1261 |Urban IV | | + 1265 |Clement IV | | + 1269 |Vacancy | | + 1271 |Gregory X | | + | |[Rudolf I (of Hapsburg)] | 1272 + 1276 |Innocent V | | + 1276 |Hadrian V | | + 1276 |John XXI[5] | | + 1277 |Nicholas III | | + 1281 |Martin IV | | + 1285 |Honorius IV | | + 1289 |Nicholas IV | | + 1292 |Vacancy |[Adolf (of Nassau)] | 1292 + 1294 |Celestine V | | + 1294 |BONIFACE VIII | | + | |[Albert I (of Hapsburg)] | 1298 + 1303 |Benedict XI | | + 1305 |Clement V }Avignon,| | + | }seat of |HENRY VII (of Luxemburg) | 1308 + 1314 |Vacancy }Papacy. |Lewis IV (of Bavaria) | 1314 + 1316 |John XXII } | | + 1334 |Benedict XII } | | + 1342 |Clement VI } | | + 1352 |Innocent VI } |Charles IV (House of | 1347 + 1362 |Urban V } | Luxemburg) | + 1370 |Gregory XI } | | + 1378 |Urban VI, Clement }Great |[Wenzel (House of | 1378 + | VII (Anti-pope) }Schism.| Luxemburg)] | + 1389 |Boniface IX } | | + 1394 |Benedict } | | + | (Anti-pope) } |[Rupert (Count Palatine)] | 1400 + 1404 |Innocent VII } | | + 1406 |Gregory XII } } | | + 1409 |Alexander V } } | | + 1410 |John XXIII } } |Sigismund (House of | + | | Luxemburg) | 1410 + 1417 |Martin V | | + 1431 |Eugene IV | | + | |[Albert II (of Hapsburg)][6] 1438 + 1439 |Felix V (Anti-pope) | | + | |Frederick III | 1440 + |Popes of the Renaissance.}| | + 1447 |NICHOLAS V }| | + 1455 |Calixtus III }| | + 1458 |Pius II }| | + 1464 |Paul II }| | + 1471 |SIXTUS IV }| | + 1484 |Innocent VIII }| | + 1493 |Alexander VI }|[Maximilian I] | 1493 + 1503 |Pius III }| | + 1503 |JULIUS II }| | + 1513 |LEO X }| | + | |CHARLES V | 1519 + 1522 |Hadrian VI | | + 1523 |Clement VII | | + 1534 |Paul III } Council | | + 1550 |Julius III } of Trent.| | + 1555 |Marcellus II } | | + 1555 |Paul IV } | | + | } |[Ferdinand I][7] | 1558 + 1559 |PIUS IV } | | + | |[Maximilian II] | 1564 + 1566 |Pius V | | + 1572 |Gregory XIII | | + | |[Rudolph II] | 1576 + 1585 |SIXTUS V | | + 1590 |Urban VII | | + 1590 |Gregory XIV | | + 1591 |Innocent IX | | + 1592 |Clement VIII | | + 1605 |Leo XI | | + 1605 |Paul V | | + | |[Matthias] | 1612 + | |[Ferdinand II] | 1619 + 1621 |Gregory XV | | + 1623 |Urban VIII | | + | |[Ferdinand III] | 1637 + 1644 |Innocent X | | + 1655 |Alexander VII | | + | |[Leopold I] | 1658 + 1667 |Clement IX | | + 1670 |Clement X | | + 1676 |Innocent XI | | + 1689 |Alexander VIII | | + 1691 |Innocent XII | | + 1700 |Clement XI | | + | |[Joseph I] | 1705 + | |[Charles VI] | 1711 + 1720 |Innocent XIII | | + 1724 |Benedict XIII | | + 1740 |Benedict XIV | | + | |[Charles VII] | 1742 + | |[Francis I, husband of | + | | Maria Theresa] | 1745 + 1758 |Clement XII | | + | |[Joseph II] }House of | 1765 + 1769 |Clement XIII | }Hapsburg | + 1775 |Pius VI | }through | + | |[Leopold II] }Maria | 1790 + | |[Francis II] }Theresa. | 1792 + 1800 |Pius VII | | + | |Abdication of Francis II | 1806 + 1823 |Leo XII | | + 1829 |Pius VIII | | + 1831 |Gregory XVI | | + 1846 |PIUS IX | | + 1878 |LEO XIII | | + 1903 |Pius X | | + ----------+--------------------------+--------------------------+---------- + +1 All the Emperors between Romulus Augustulus and Charlemagne reigned at +Constantinople. + +2 Capitals distinguish the most eminent Popes and Emperors. + +3 Two names bracketed together indicate rival claimants. + +4 Those in brackets never received the Imperial crown. + +5 This Pope skipped No. XX. + +6 From 1438 to 1806, with the exception of Francis I of Lorraine, the +House of Hapsburg was on the Imperial throne. + +7 Ferdinand and his successors took the title Emperor Elect. + + + + +II + +GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI + + Giovanni Bicci, d. 1429. + | + +---------------------------+---------------------------+ + | | + Cosimo, Pater Patriae, Lorenzo, d. 1440. + d. 1464. | + | Piero Francesco, 1467. + Piero, d. 1469. | + |------------------------------+ | + | | | + Lorenzo the Magnificent, Giuliano, Giovanni, m. Caterina + d. 1492. d. 1478. Sforza, d. 1498. + | | | + +------------------+ | | + | | | | + Piero, d. 1503. Giovanni, Pope Giulio, Pope Clement | + | Leo X, d. 1521. VII, d. 1534. | + | | + Lorenzo, Duke Giovanni, "delle + of Urbino, bande nere," + d. 1519. d. 1526. + | | + +-----------------+ | + | | | + Alessandro, Caterina, m. Henri II Cosimo I, Grand + d. 1537. of France, d. 1589. Duke, d. 1574. + | + +-------------------------+ + | | + Francesco I, d. 1587. Ferdinand I, + m. Joanna of Austria, also d. 1609. + | Bianca Cappello. | + | | + Maria, m. Henri IV Cosimo II, d. 1621. + of France. | + Ferdinand II, d. 1670. + | + Cosimo III, d. 1723. + | + Giovanni Gastone, d. 1737. + + + + +III + +SKELETON TABLE OF THE KINGS OF THE TWO SICILIES[26] + + NAPLES KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES SICILY + + NORMAN CONQUEST, + + last half of eleventh century. + + Roger, d. 1154. + | + +----------------+------------------+ + | | + William the Bad, d. 1166. Constance, d. 1198, + | married + William the Good, d. 1189. Henry VI, Emperor, d. 1197.} + | } + +----------------------------------+ } + | } + Frederick II, Emperor, d. 1250. } + | }Hohenstaufen + +----------------------+ }Line. + | | } + Conrad IV, d. 1254. Manfred, d. 1266. } + | } + Conradin, d. 1268. } + + + FRENCH CONQUEST, 1266. + + Charles of Anjou, 1266-1282. + + SICILIAN VESPERS, 1282. + House of Anjou, 1266-1442. House of Aragon, 1282-1442. + + Alfonso of Aragon, + 1442-1448. + | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | | + House of Aragon, House of Aragon, + illegitimate, legitimate, which, on + 1448-1504. marriage of Ferdinand + of Aragon with Isabella + of Castile, became + House of Spain. + 1448-1504. + + + SPANISH CONQUEST, 1504. + + Ferdinand the Catholic, 1504-1516. + | + Charles V, Emperor, 1516-1556. + | + Spanish Crown, 1556-1713. + + + TREATY OF UTRECHT, 1713. + + Austria, 1713-1720. Savoy, 1713-1720. + + WILL OF QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE, 1720. + + Austria, 1720-1738. + + PEACE OF VIENNA, 1738. + + Spanish Bourbons, 1738-1798. + [French invasion, 1798-1802.] + Spanish Bourbons, 1802-1805. + Joseph Bonaparte, 1806-1808. + Joachim Murat, 1808-1815. + Spanish Bourbons: + Ferdinand I,1815-1825. + Francis I, 1825-1830. + Ferdinand II, 1830-1859. + Francis II, 1859-1860. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] When the two kingdoms are united the names of the kings are put in +the middle column, when separate in the side columns respectively. + + + + +IV + +LIST OF BOOKS FOR GENERAL READING + +_For the Middle Ages_ + + Italy and her Invaders Thomas Hodgkin. + + Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon. + + History of Latin Christianity Dean Milman. + + Rome in the Middle Ages (translated + from the German by Mrs. G. W. Hamilon) F. Gregorovius. + + Mediaeval Europe Ephraim Emerton. + + Italian Chronicles of the Middle Ages Ugo Balzani. + + Story of the Byzantine Empire C. W. C. Oman. + + History of the Later Roman Empire J. Bury. + + The Holy Roman Empire James Bryce. + + Historical Documents of the Middle Ages Ernest F. Henderson. + + The Papal Monarchy William Barry. + + A History of the Inquisition in the + Middle Ages H. C. Lea. + + An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal + Celibacy in the Christian Church H. C. Lea. + + History of Auricular Confession and + Indulgences in the Latin Church H. C. Lea. + + History of Western Europe J. H. Robinson. + + First Two Centuries of Florence + (translated from the Italian by Linda + Villari) Pasquale Villari. + + Florence, Mediaeval Towns Series E. C. Gardner. + + The History of Venice W. Carew Hazlitt. + + A Short History of Venice W. R. Thayer. + + Church Building in the Middle Ages Charles Eliot Norton. + + The Monks of the West from St. Benedict + to St. Bernard (translated from + the French) Montalembert. + + The Classical Heritage of the Middle + Ages H. O. Taylor. + + Life of St. Francis of Assisi (translated + from the French by L. S. Houghton) Paul Sabatier. + + +_For the Renaissance_ + + The Civilization of the Renaissance in + Italy (translated from the German + by S. G. C. Middlemore) Jakob Burckhardt. + + The Cicerone Jakob Burckhardt. + + Renaissance in Italy (The Age of the + Despots, Revival of Learning, Fine + Arts, Literature, Catholic Reaction) John Addington Symonds. + + History of the Italian Republics in the + Middle Ages (translated from the French) S. de Sismondi. + + History of the Popes of Rome (translated + from the German by Sarah Austin) Leopold Ranke. + + The Papacy during the Reformation M. Creighton. + + The Renaissance Cambridge Mod. History. + + History of the Popes from the Close of + the Middle Ages (translated from the + German) L. Pastor. + + The Council of Trent J. A. Froude. + + Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and + Man of Letters Robinson & Rolfe. + + Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, + Sculptors, and Architects (translated + from the Italian by Mrs. Foster) Giorgio Vasari. + + Journal of Montaigne's Travels in Italy. + + +_For the Eighteenth Century_ + + Studies of the Eighteenth Century in + Italy Vernon Lee. + + Goldoni's Memoirs, translated by W. D. Howells. + + Memoirs of Carlo Gozzi J. A. Symonds. + + +_For the Risorgimento_ + + The Liberation of Italy Evelyn M. Cesaresco. + + Italian Characters of the Epoch of + Unification Evelyn M. Cesaresco. + + The Union of Italy (1815-1895) W. J. Stillman. + + Life of Victor Emmanuel II G. S. Godkin. + + The Dawn of Italian Independence W. R. Thayer. + + Modern Italy, 1748-1898 (translated + from the Italian by Alice Vialls) Pietro Orsi. + + + + +INDEX + + + Aachen, 59. + + Abyssinians defeat Italians, 415. + + Agnello, Father, 71, 72. + + Aistulf, 49. + + Alaric, 5. + + Alberic, 76, 78. + + Alberti, Leon Battista, 241. + + Albinola, 370. + + Albizzi, Maso degli, 230. + + Alboin, 27, 29. + + Albornoz, Cardinal, 218. + + Alessi, Galeazzo, 306. + + Alexander VI, Pope (Rodrigo Borgia), and Savonarola, 261; + political course, 272, 273; + private life, 275; + death, 275; + his apartments in Vatican, 288. + + Alexander VII, Pope, 346. + + Alfieri, Vittorio, 364. + + Alfonso, of Aragon, King of Two Sicilies, 223; + interest in humanism, 249; + his death, 262. + + Amalfi, 70, 73, 103. + + Amati, 359. + + Ammanati, 306. + + Angelico, Fra, 233. + + Antignati, 359. + + Apollo Belvedere, 289. + + Aragon, King of, swears allegiance to Innocent III, 122. + + Arcadia, the, 353, 354. + + Arians, 3; + persecuted by Justinian, 18. + + Ariosto, 283-285, 354. + + Aristotle, 19, 178, 235, 242. + + Arnold of Brescia, 109. + + Arnolfo di Cambio, 188. + + Arnulf, Emperor, 74; + enters Rome, 75. + + Arsenal, at Venice, 225. + + Aspromonte, 406. + + Assisi, heretics in, 125; + description of, 127, 128; + basilica of St. Francis, 132; + taken by Milan temporarily, 227. + + Athens, made a Latin fief, 119; + captured by Venice, 338. + + Athens, Duke of, see Walter of Brienne. + + Attendolo, Muzio, see Sforza Attendolo. + + Augustine, in England, 36. + + Augustulus, see Romulus Augustulus. + + Austria, supreme in Italy, 368; + in Holy Alliance, 370; + triumphant in 1848-49, 389, 390; + war with France and Piedmont, 400, 401; + war with Prussia and Italy, 407. + + Avignon, 151; + Petrarch at, 204; + return of Popes to Rome from, 217; + anti-popes of Great Schism at, 219. + + + Babylonish Captivity, 151; + end of, 217, 218. + + Baglioni, in Perugia, 198. + + Bandinelli, 308. + + Banditti, 325. + + Bank scandals, 415. + + Barbarians, their character, 1; + their society, 3; + habits, 4; + intercourse with Rome, 5, 6; + dismember Empire, 6; + their problems in Italy, 10; + described by Boethius, 19; + so-called (foreigners), 253, 257. + + Barbarossa, see Frederick I, Emperor. + + Barberini, see Urban VIII, Pope. + + Baroque, the, 307, 308, 350, 351. + + Barozzi, Giacomo, see Vignola. + + Basel, Council of, 268, 269. + + Beccaria, 362. + + Belisarius, 21. + + Bellini, composer, 358, 378. + + Bellini, Gentile, 312. + + Bellini, Giovanni, 312. + + Bellini, Jacopo, 312. + + Bellotto, 352. + + Bembo, 282, 283. + + Benedetto da Maiano, 244. + + Benedict, see St. Benedict. + + Benevento, 28. + + Bentivoglio, in Bologna, 198. + + Berchet, 377. + + Bergamo, annexed to Venice, 224. + + Bernini, 351. + + Bisticci, Vespasiano da, 234. + + Black Death, see Plague of 1348. + + Boboli garden, 306. + + Boccaccio, 185; + his account of Black Death, 209, 210. + + Boethius, 19. + + Boiardo, Matteo, 283. + + Bologna, jurists of, 110; + university of, 177, 178; + poetry in, 184; + Bentivogli in, 198; + subject to Papacy, 218; + seized by Visconti, 227; + recovered by Papacy, 228; + visited by Montaigne, 324; + school of (painting), 351, 352. + + Boniface VIII, Pope, 146; + his character, 146; + quarrel with the Colonna, 147; + with Philip the Fair, 148; + his papal theories, 148, 149; + outraged, 150; + death, 151. + + Bonifazio, 312. + + Bordone, Paris, 312. + + Borghese, Camillo, see Paul V, Pope. + + Borgia, Caesar, 272-275; + employs Leonardo, 286; + believed to have murdered his brother, 314; + admired by Machiavelli, 314. + + Borgia, Lucrezia, 275. + + Borgia, Rodrigo, see Alexander VI, Pope. + + Borgia, son to Rodrigo, see Duke of Gandia. + + Botticelli, 245-247, 288. + + Bourbon, High Constable, 279. + + Bourbon, House of, 335, 339. + + Bramante, 256, 283, 285; + in Rome, 287; + designs St. Peter's, 289, 290. + + Brescia, captured by Henry VII, 157; + annexed by Venice, 224; + gallant defence of, 391. + + Brienne, Walter of, Duke of Athens, 229. + + Bronzino, 308, 309. + + Brunelleschi, 233, 235-237; + and Donatello, anecdote of, 238, 239. + + Bruno, Giordano, 349. + + Burckhardt, 304; + on Bandinelli, 308. + + Burgundy, 78. + + Byron, Lord, 372-375. + + Byzantine art, 188, 189. + + + Cacciaguida, 180. + + Cambrai, League of, 224, 265, 266. + + Cambrai, treaty of, 293. + + Camorra, 294, 412. + + Campanella, 349. + + Canaletto, 352. + + Can Grande, see under Scala della. + + Canon law, see Church law. + + Canossa, 99. + + Cappello, Bianca, 327. + + Caracci, the, 309, 352. + + Caraffa, Cardinal, see Paul IV, Pope. + + Caravaggio, 309, 352. + + Carbonari, 369, 382. + + Cardinals, made papal electors, 91. + + Carducci, on Tasso, 310. + + Carissimi, 358. + + Carlo Alberto, 375, 376, 379, 380, 384, 385; + war with Austria, 388; + resigns his crown, 390. + + Carlo Dolci, 352. + + Carlo Felice, 375. + + Carlovingians, the, 44, 57, 58. + + Carlyle, on Mazzini, 382. + + Carmagnola, 228. + + Carnival, Roman, 330. + + Carpaccio, 312. + + Cassiodorus, 14. + + Castiglione, 281-283. + + Castillia, 370. + + Castracane, Castruccio, 200. + + Cateau-Cambresis, treaty of, 293, 296, 327. + + Catholic Reaction, see Catholic Revival. + + Catholic Revival, 297-302. + + Cavalcanti, 184. + + Cavaliere servente, 356. + + Cavour, 386, 387; + policy of Church and State, 398; + policy in Piedmont, 398; + as to Crimean War, 398, 399; + and Napoleon III, 399, 400; + resigns, 401; + recalled, 402; + interference in Naples, 404; + death, 406. + + Celibacy of clergy, 86. + + Cellini, 308, 316, 317. + + Certosa, at Pavia, 226, 227, 250. + + Cervantes, 297. + + Charlemagne, blessed by Pope, 45; + marriage, 50; + Donation of, 50; + European conquests, 51; + titles, 53; + person and character, 53; + judges Pope, 55; + receives gifts from Caliph, 55; + coronation, 56; + his Empire, 57; + crowns his son, 59. + + Charles of Anjou, 144, 161, 162; + visits Cimabue's studio, 189. + + Charles of Durazzo, 222. + + Charles V, Emperor, struggle with Francis I, 257; + policy in Florence, 262, 263; + marries daughter to Alessandro dei Medici, 263; + inherits Two Sicilies, 264; + crowned Emperor, 299; + and Council of Trent, 300. + + Charles VIII, King of France, 256, 257, 259. + + Charles Martel, 44, 53. + + Chigi, see Alexander VII, Pope. + + Church, the (see also Papacy), causes of its rise, 8; + orthodoxy, 10; + relations with Empire, 16; + during Lombard dominion, 31; + imperial character, 32; + sources of power, 32, 33. + + Church law, 65. + + Cicisbeismo, 356. + + Cimabue, 189. + + Cimarosa, 358. + + Cinquecento, the, 304-318. + + Ciompi, 229. + + Clare, St., see St. Clare. + + Classical revival, 201-208. + + Clement V, Pope, 151; + dealings with Henry VII, 156. + + Clement VII, Pope, 262, 277, 278-280; + crowns Charles V, 299. + + Clement IX, Pope, 346. + + Clergy, in Carlovingian times, 71. + + Cluny, monastic reform of, 85; + its creed, 86; + its effect, 88. + + Cola, di Rienzo, 206-208; + dreams for Rome, 206; + letter to Florentines, 207; + his fall and death, 207. + + Colleoni, statue of, 247, 311. + + Colonia Erithrea, see Colony in Africa. + + Colonna, the, 76; + quarrel with Boniface VIII, 146; + Pope Martin V, 220; + custom in their palace, 277, 278. + + Colonna, Sciarra, 150. + + Colony in Africa, 415. + + Columbanus, St., see St. Columbanus. + + Commedia dell'Arte, 355. + + Commines, Philippe de, on Venice, 265. + + Communes, government of, 163-165; + prosperity of, 166 (see also Lombardy). + + Company, the Great, 212, 213. + + Concordat of Worms, 100. + + Condottieri, 212. + + Confalonieri, 370. + + Conradin, 143, 144. + + Consolations of Philosophy, 19. + + [Constance], wife of Henry VI, 113, 114, 117. + + Constance, Council of, 220, 221, 268. + + Constance, Peace of, 112. + + Constantine, 45; legend of Donation, 46, 47. + + Constantinople, 2, 25; + captured by Crusaders, 118, 119; + by Turks, 242, 243, 264. + + Consuls, 165. + + Conti, family, 135. + + Coronation of Emperors, 80; + last in Italy, 299. + + Cosimo dei Medici, see under Medici. + + Cosimo I, Grand Duke, see under Medici. + + Counter-Reformation, see Catholic Revival. + + Courtier, Book of the, 284, 285. + + Cremona, 95; + sacked by Henry VII, 157. + + Crescimbeni, 353. + + Crete, lost by Venice, 338. + + Crispi, as a young patriot, 402; + with Garibaldi in Sicily, 403; + his career, 414; + in parliament, 414, 415. + + Crown of Lombardy, 80; + assumed by Napoleon I, 365. + + Custoza, battle of, 389. + + + Damian, see St. Peter Damian. + + Dante, 19; + on Boniface VIII, 146; + Divine Comedy, 152; + character, 152, 153; + De Monarchia, 153, 154; + views, 154; + hails Henry VII, 155, 156; + letter to Henry VII, 157-159; + follows Thomas Aquinas, 179; + importance in literature, 184; + effect on Tuscan speech, 184; + on the vernacular, 185; + painted by Giotto, 190; + celebrates Can Grande, 195; + invectives against Roman Curia, 274. + + D'Azeglio, Massimo, 382, 384. + + Decameron, 274. + + Decretals, Isidorian, 66. + + Depretis, 413, 414. + + Desiderius, 29, 49, 50. + + Despotisms, 192-200; + evils of, 214. + + Despots, see Despotisms. + + Di Rudini, 416. + + Divine Comedy, 184. + + Domenichino, 352. + + Donatello, 237-240. + + Donation of Charlemagne, 50. + + Donation of Constantine, 46-48, 49, 65. + + Donation of Pippin, 45, 47, 50. + + Donizetti, 358. + + Dossi, Dosso, 309. + + Ducal palace, Venice, 226. + + Duomo, Florence, 237. + + Durante, 358. + + + Election of Emperors, 80. + + Election of Popes, 91. + + Emanuele Filiberto, 296. + + Emo, Angelo, 339. + + Empire, the, see the Roman Empire. + + Empire, Eastern, 24; + its policy, 25. + + England, 36. + + Enzio, 141; + capture, 142; + death, 143. + + Este, D', Ercole, duke, 250. + + Este, House of, 198, 282; + move to Modena, 295. + + Estensi, see House of Este. + + Eugenius IV, Pope, 288. + + Exarchs, 26, 36. + + Ezzelino da Romano, 194. + + + Faliero, Marino, 225. + + Farnese, Alessandro, see Paul III, Pope. + + Farnese, Giulia, 275, 288. + + Farnesi, in Parma, 295; + in Piacenza, 305. + + Ferdinand the Catholic, 263; + conquers Naples, 263, 264. + + Ferdinand I, of Two Sicilies, 368, 370. + + Ferdinand II, of Two Sicilies (Bomba), 389, 390; + death, 402. + + Ferrara, 246; + in High Renaissance, 283; + taken by Papacy, 295; + Tasso at, 310; + visited by Montaigne, 324. + + Feudalism, 102. + + Ficino, Marsilio, 245. + + Fiesole, library at, 233, 234, 251. + + Fiesole, Mino da, 244. + + Filicaia, 353. + + Flagellants, 175. + + Flemish painters, 243. + + Florence, Guelf, 133; + denounced by Dante, 158; + shuts out Henry VII, 159; + her guilds, 164; + wool trade, 166; + bankers, 167; + impediments to trade, 167; + receives back Ghibellines, 176; + in 1283, 182, 183; + democratic, 194; + about 1300, 202; + in Black Death, 210; + takes Pisa, 227; + under Duke of Athens, 229; + revolt of Ciompi, 229; + Salvestro dei Medici, 229; + Michele di Lando, 229; + the oligarchy, 230; + in Early Renaissance, 231-241; + interest in Plato, 243; + under Lorenzo, 250; + 1492-1537, 258-263; + under Grand Dukes, 294, 295; + close of Renaissance, 308, 309; + visited by Montaigne, 326, 327. + + Foligno, 332. + + Foresti, 370. + + Formosus, Pope, 68. + + Foscari, Francesco, Doge, 224 + + Foscolo, Ugo, 377. + + France, 58; + bows to Innocent III, 122; + vigorous monarchy, 145; + invades Italy, 253, 254, 255; + claims on Italy, 293; + defeated by Spain, 293; + sends army to Rome, 391, 392, 394; + withdraws garrison from Rome, 407; + relations with Italy, 412, 413. + + Francesca, Piero della, 249. + + Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 326, 327. + + Francis I, King of France, 257. + + Francis I, King of Two Sicilies, 378. + + Francis II, King of Two Sicilies, 402, 404. + + Francis, St., see St. Francis. + + Franciscan Order, 129, 131-133; + Gray Friars, 134. + + Franks, 40; + Kingdom of, 43; + Catholicism of, 43. + + Frederick I, Emperor (Barbarossa), 102; + character, 102; + theory of imperial rights, 103; + wars with Lombard cities, 108; + called to Italy, 108, 109; + war with Milan, 109; + diet at Roncaglia, 111; + defeat at Legnano, 112; + his son's marriage, 113; + death, 113. + + Frederick II, Emperor, 117; + gratitude to Innocent III, 117; + summons to Germany, 121; + pledge to Innocent III, 121, 122; + King of Germany, 122; + character, 134; + promises, 135; + crowned emperor, 135; + at Brindisi, 136; + denounced by Gregory IX, 136, 137; + excommunicated, 137; + letter to King of England, 138, 139; + recovers Jerusalem, 139; + King of Jerusalem, 140; + his habits, 140, 141; + poetry, 141; + war with Lombard cities, 142; + excommunicated again, 142; + defeat, 142; + death, 143; + times of, 180. + + + Galileo, 346, 349. + + Gamba, Pietro, 373, 374. + + Gandia, Duke of (a Borgia), murdered, 312. + + Garibaldi, 382; + in Rome, 392, 393; + escapes, 394, 398; + expedition to Two Sicilies, 402-405; + attempt on Rome, 406; + second attempt, Mentana, 407; + death, 413. + + Genoa, 70; + prosperity, 105; + war with Pisa, 169, 170; + submits temporarily to Milan, 199; + loss in Black Death, 210; + war with Venice, 224; + still a republic, 295; + palaces in, 306; + becomes Republic of Liguria, 365; + given to Kingdom of Sardinia, 367. + + Genseric, 5. + + Germany, 58; + its duchies, 77; + part of Holy Roman Empire, 78; + attitude towards its king, 96; + in time of Innocent III, 120, 121. + + Gesu, church, 305, 306. + + Gesuati, 321. + + Ghibellines, 155; + trouble in Milan, 157; + cause lost, 159; + description of, 168, 169; + described by Gregory X, 176; + fictitious revival of, 325. + + Ghiberti, 241. + + Ghirlandaio, Domenico, 245, 288. + + Gioberti, 383, 384. + + Giocondo, Fra, 290. + + Giorgione, 312. + + Giotto, 189, 190. + + Giulio Romano, 309. + + Gladstone, on conditions in Naples, 395, 396. + + Goethe, admires Palladio, 306, 307; + admires I Promessi Sposi, 377. + + Goldoni, 353-356. + + Gonzaga, the, in Mantua, 198. + + Goths, see Ostrogoths. + + Gozzoli, Benozzo, 233, 244. + + Gravina, 353, 359. + + Great Council of Venice, 171, 172. + + Greek, study of, 242, 243. + + Greek Empire, overthrown by Crusaders, 119. + + Gregory I (the Great), Pope, 35-37. + + Gregory II, Pope, 42, 53. + + Gregory III, Pope, 42, 53. + + Gregory VII, Pope (Hildebrand), 89; + character, 90; + aims, 91; + becomes Pope, 91; + creed, 91, 92; + claims, 92; + allies, 92-96; + denunciation of simony and lay investiture, 96; + attempted deposition by Henry IV, 97; + excommunicates Henry IV, 99; + at Canossa, 99; + his death, 100. + + Gregory IX, Pope (Ugolino), 135; + anger at Frederick II, 136; + letter on Frederick, 135-137; + excommunicates Frederick, 137. + + Gregory X, Pope, describes Ghibellines, 176. + + Gregory XI, Pope, ends Babylonish Captivity, 217. + + Gregory XIII, Pope, 328, 329. + + Gregory XV, Pope, 345. + + Gregory XVI, Pope, 383. + + Grossi, Tommaso, 382. + + Guardi, 352. + + Guelfs, accept Henry VII, 156; + trouble in Milan, 157; + description of, 168, 169; + fictitious revival of, 325. + + Guercino, 352. + + Guerrazzi, F. D., 382. + + Guicciardini, on condition of Italy, 253, 254; + modern historian, 281. + + Guido Reni, 352, 360. + + Guilds, 164. + + Guinicelli, 184. + + + Hapsburg, House of, 335, 338. + + Hawkwood, John, 213, 222. + + Haynau, 391. + + Henry IV, Emperor, 90; + attempts to depose Gregory VII, 97; + his letter to Gregory, 97-99; + at Canossa, 99; + death, 100. + + Henry VI, Emperor, his Sicilian marriage, 113; + character, 114; + his acts, 115. + + Henry VII, Emperor, 150; + welcomed by Dante, 155, 156; + enters Italy, 156; + becomes Ghibelline chief, 157; + receives letter from Dante, 157-159; + death, 159; + effect of, on fortunes of Can Grande and the Visconti, 198. + + Henry IV, King of France (Henry of Navarre), 337, 338, 357. + + Heresy, in Southern France, 123; + in Italy, 125; + in England and Bohemia, 220. + + Hildebrand, see Gregory VII, Pope. + + Hohenstaufens, 102, 113; + their end, 143, 144. + + Holy Alliance, 370. + + Holy Roman Empire, beginning, 78; + its extent, 79, 80; + its power, 81; + attitude toward Papacy, 84, 85, 89; + concordat with Papacy, 100; + death struggle with Papacy, 133; + real end, 143; + last flicker, 152-160; + a shadow, 161; + its petty bargainings, 217; + extinguished by Napoleon, 365. + + Honorius, Pope, 133; + crowns Frederick II, 135; + death, 135. + + Humanists, 242, 244, 245. + + Humbert of the White Hand, 173. + + Humbert, King, 416. + + Hungarians, raids of, 77. + + Huss, John, 220, 221. + + + Iconoclasm, 41, 42. + + Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 299. + + Innocent III, Pope, his education, 115; + doings in Italy, 116; + in Tuscany and Two Sicilies, 117; + at Constantinople, 119; + in Germany, 120; + excommunicates Otto IV, 121; + his doings in Europe, 122; + in England, 122; + Albigensian crusade, 123; + triumph, 123, 124; + recognizes St. Francis, 126, 127; + referred to by Frederick II, 138; + and Dominicans, 299. + + Innocent VIII, Pope, 286. + + Innocent X, Pope, 346. + + Innocent XI, Pope, 346. + + Inquisition, 298, 299. + + Investiture, lay, 86, 87, 89; + settled between Empire and Papacy, 100. + + Italian language, 80; + influenced by Dante, 184; + its dialects, 185. + + Italy, condition of, middle of 6th century, 23, 24; + under Byzantine rule, 26; + on fall of Carlovingian Empire, 69; + its divisions, 69; + condition of people, 70; + degradation, 67-78; + condition under mercenary soldiers, 213, 214; + condition prior to 1494, 252; + during Catholic Revival, 302, 303; + divisions of, at close of 16th century, 304; + place for travellers, 319; + as seen by Montaigne, 320-334; + under Napoleon I, 365, 366; + on Napoleon's fall, 366-368; + unity of, 395-408; + difficulties after unity, 411-413; + relations with France, 412, 413; + Triple Alliance, 413. + + Isidorian Decretals, see Decretals. + + + Jerome, St., see St. Jerome. + + Jerome of Prague, 220, 221. + + Jerusalem, plan for reconquest of, 134; + recovered by Frederick II, 139. + + Jesuit style, 351. + + Jesus, Order of, 299; + suppressed, 347; + restored in Papal States, 367. + + Joan I, Queen of Naples, 222. + + Joan II, Queen of Naples, 222. + + John of Bologna, 308, 324. + + John, Don, of Austria, 295. + + John, King of England, 122, 138. + + John XII, Pope, 78, 81; + his trial, 82-84; + deposition, 84. + + Jommelli, 358. + + Jubilee, first, 147. + + Julius II, Pope, 270, 275-277, 288. + + Justin, Emperor, 16. + + Justinian, Emperor, 16-18. + + + Ladislaus, King of Naples, 222, 230. + + Landini, 308. + + Lando, Michele di, 229. + + Landucci, Luca, diary of, 259-262. + + Laocoon, the, discovery of, 291, 292. + + Lateran palace, 45. + + Legion, Garibaldi's, 393. + + Legnano, battle of, 112. + + Leo (composer), 358. + + Leo, Emperor, the Isaurian, 41. + + Leo I, Pope, the Great, 9. + + Leo III, Pope, 54, 56. + + Leo IV, Pope, 73, 74. + + Leo X, Pope (Medici), 250, 251, 262, 276, 277; + excommunicates Luther, 278; + last of papal overlords of Europe, 292. + + Leo XIII, Pope, 416-419. + + Leonardo, see Vinci, Leonardo da. + + Leopardi, Alessandro (sculptor), 311. + + Leopardi, Giacomo (poet), 378. + + Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 363. + + Lippi, Filippino, 244. + + Lombard cities, see Lombardy and Milan. + + Lombardi (architects and sculptors), 311. + + Lombards, the, 23; + character, 27; + conquests, 28; + civilization, 28, 29; + conversion to Catholicism, 29; + political incompetence, 29; + influence, 30; + attempt to conquer all Italy, 43; + defeated by Pippin, 45; + by Charlemagne, 50. + + Lombardy, espouses Hildebrand's side, 95; + trade, 106; + represented at diet of Roncaglia, 110; + peace with Barbarossa, 112; + condition prior to 1789, 362; + crown of, assumed by Napoleon, 365; + restored to Austria, 367; + condition in 1820-21, 370, 371; + in 1848, 387; + united to Piedmont, 401. + + Lorenzo the Magnificent, see under Medici. + + Loreto, 332. + + Lorraine, King of, 62. + + Lothair, Emperor, 58, 59. + + Lotto, Lorenzo, 312. + + Louis I, Emperor, the Pious, 58, 59. + + Louis II, Emperor, 58, 59, 62, 63. + + Louis XII, King of France, 257; + unites with Spain against Naples, 263. + + Louis Napoleon, see Napoleon III. + + Loyola, Ignatius, 299. + + Lucca, 168; + under Castruccio Castracane, 200; + still a republic, 295; + visited by Montaigne, 332; + on Napoleon's fall, 367. + + Lucca, Bagni di, 333. + + Ludovisi, see Gregory XV, Pope. + + Luini, 309. + + Luther, Martin, 276, 278, 297. + + Lutherans, do not attend Council of Trent, 298. + + Lyons, Council of, 142. + + + Machiavelli, admires Castruccio Castracane, 200; + also Caesar Borgia, 273; + writes, 281; + description of successful Prince, 314, 315; + comedies, 354. + + Mafia, 294, 364, 411, 412. + + Magenta, battle of, 400. + + Malatesta, in Rimini, 198. + + Mameli, Goffredo, 393, 394. + + Manfred, 141, 143; + defeat and death, 144; + his daughter, 162. + + Manin, Daniele, 388, 394. + + Mantegna, 288. + + Mantua, the Gonzaga in, 198; + duchy, 293; + opera in, 357. + + Manzoni, 377. + + Marignano, 257. + + Maroncelli, 370-372. + + Marozia, 75, 76. + + Martin V, Pope, 220, 268. + + Masaccio, 240, 241. + + Mastai-Ferretti, Cardinal, see Pius IX, Pope. + + Matilda, Countess, 94; + Donation to Papacy, 94. + + Maximilian, Emperor, 265. + + Mazzini, 376; + letter to Carlo Alberto, 379-382; + triumvir in Rome, 391-394, 398; + death, 413. + + Medici, dei, Alessandro, 263. + + Medici, dei, Cosimo, Pater Patriae, 232; + cultivation, 233; + his tastes, 233; + libraries, 233, 234; + death, 235; + anecdote of, with Donatello, 239; + founds Platonic Academy, 243; + and Nicholas V, 251. + + Medici, dei, Cosimo I, Grand Duke, 263; + marriage, 291; + rule, 294, 295; + descendants, 295; + his architect, 306. + + Medici, dei, Francesco I, Grand Duke, 326, 327. + + Medici, dei, Giovanni, see Leo X, Pope. + + Medici, dei, Giovanni, Angelo (not of Florentine family), see Pius IV, + Pope. + + Medici, dei, Giuliano, see Clement VII, Pope. + + Medici, dei, Lorenzo, the Magnificent, 248-250, 286. + + Medici, dei, Maria, 357. + + Medici, dei, Piero, 244, 249. + + Medici, dei, Salvestro, 229. + + Mentana, battle of, 407. + + Mercenary soldiers, 211-214. + + Merovingians, 44. + + Metastasio, 359, 360. + + Metternich, 367. + + Michelangelo, 263; + sonnets, 285; + goes to Rome, 289; + plans dome of St. Peter's, 290; + at discovery of Laocoon, 299; + statues in Florence, 308. + + Michelozzo, 233. + + Milan, 107; + classes in, 107, 108; + war with Barbarossa, 109; + receives Henry VII, 156; + Visconti in, 198, 199; + acquires Genoa temporarily, 199; + under Gian Galeazzo Visconti, 226; + becomes a dukedom, 226; + cathedral, 226, 227; + loss of dominion on Gian Galeazzo's death, 228; + end of Visconti, 250; + founding of Sforza line, 250; + condition, 1466-1535, 254-258; + captured by French, 257; + by Spanish, 257; + annexed to Spanish crown, 258; + Leonardo there, 286; + Bramante there, 287; + under Spanish governors, 294; + visited by Montaigne, 333; + under Spanish rule, 339, 340; + conveyed to Austria, 341; + Five Days of, 387; + jealous of Turin, 389. + + Mille, i, 403. + + Minghetti, 413. + + Mino, da Fiesole, 244. + + Modena, duchy, 293; + seat of House of Este, 293; + transfers, 341; + reform in, 362; + restoration of old order on Napoleon's fall, 367; + in 1848, 388, 389, 397; + united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, 402. + + Mohammed, 40, 41. + + Monasteries, 34, 72. + + Montaigne, diary of his travels in Italy, 320-334. + + Monte Cassino, 34. + + Montefeltri, in Urbino, 198. + + Montefeltro, Federigo da, 249, 250. + + Monteverdi, 357. + + Montfort, 123. + + Murat, 365, 366. + + + Naples, 21, 70, 73; + House of Aragon reigning, 161; + condition, about 1350, 201; + loss in Black Death, 210; + condition, 1350-1450, 222; + conquered by Alfonso of Aragon, 223; + no share in Renaissance, 249; + passes to illegitimate branch of House of Aragon, 263; + conquered by Spaniards, 263; + annexed to Spanish crown, 264; + under Spanish viceroys, 294; + inquisition in, 299; + conveyed to Austria and then to Spanish Bourbons, 341; + condition, prior to 1789, 363; + given to Joseph Bonaparte and Murat, 365; + revolution of 1820, 369, 370; + cruelty of Francis I, 378; + in 1848, 386; + takes part in war against Austria, 388; + persecution of liberals, 391; + persecution described by Gladstone, 395, 396; + united with Kingdom of Italy, 404, 405. + + Napoleon I, 365, 366. + + Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon), interferes in Rome, 391; + plans of, 399; + agreement with Cavour, 400; + war with Austria, 400; + peace, 400, 401. + + Narses, 22, 26. + + Niccolini, 382. + + Nicholas I, Pope, 62-64. + + Nicholas V, Pope, 251, 252, 269, 288. + + Nogaret, 150. + + Normans, in Southern Italy, 92; + in Sicily, 93; + become liegemen to the Popes, 93. + + Novara, battle of, 390. + + + Odescalchi, see Innocent XI, Pope. + + Odoacer, 7, 10, 11, 13. + + Opera, the, 357, 358. + + Oratorio, the, 358. + + Order of St. Francis, see Franciscan Order. + + Order of Jesus, see Jesus, Order of. + + Orlando Furioso, 283, 284. + + Orlando Innamorato, 283. + + Orsini, the, 76, 150. + + Ostrogoths, 12-22. + + Otto I, Emperor, the Great, 77; + marriage, 78; + crowned Emperor, 78; + his empire, 79, 80; + tries and deposes Pope John XII, 82-84. + + Otto IV, Emperor, 120; + becomes Ghibelline, 120, 121; + excommunicated by Innocent III, 121; + deposition, 122. + + + Padua, 95; + conquered by Venice, 224; + visited by Montaigne, 322. + + Paisiello, 358. + + Palazzo Vecchio, 188; + fountain in, 247; + occupied by Grand Duke, 294. + + Palermo, rising in, 402. + + Palestrina, 357. + + Palladio, 306, 307, 311. + + Palma Vecchio, 312. + + Palmerston, Lord, sends Gladstone's letter to European governments, 396. + + Panfili, see Innocent X, Pope. + + Paolo Veronese, 312. + + Papacy, strengthened by monasticism, 33, 34; + relations with Empire, 38; + with Lombards, 39; + with Franks, 40; + split with Eastern Empire, 42; + Donation of Pippin, 45; + further relations with Franks, 49; + Donation of Charlemagne, 50; + attitude towards Charlemagne, 51; + towards Roman Empire, 52; + local weakness, 52; + supported by Empire, 58; + duel with Empire, 59; + right to crown Emperors, 59, 60; + anomalous nature of, 60; + subjection to Empire, 61; + struggle with Empire, 61, 62; + added prestige, 62; + cosmopolitan ambition, 64; + degradation, 67, 68; + revival of, 79; + character of, in 10th century, 81; + becomes suzerain to Southern Italy, 93; + struggle with Empire over investitures, 89-101; + its triumph, 114-124; + its death grapple with Empire, 133-144; + its decay and fall, 145-151; + Babylonish Captivity, 151; + an absentee, 161; + return to Rome, 217; + and Renaissance, 251; + as head of culture, 252; + its monarchy, 267-280; + in High Renaissance, 288-292; + its revival, 297-302; + a purely Italian institution, 302; + quarrel with Venice, 336, 337; + in 17th and 18th centuries, 343-345; + under Napoleon, 365; + loss of Temporal Power, 407, 408; + attitude towards Italian government, 410, 411; + under Leo XIII, 418. + + Papal Curia, see Roman Curia. + + Papal States, 69; + really founded by Innocent III, 120; + confusion in, during Babylonish Captivity, 162; + about 1350, 202; + reduced to order, 218; + firmly established, 267, 268; + the Papal monarchy, 267-280; + prior to 1789, 363; + in Napoleon's time, 365; + after Napoleon's fall, 367; + in 1848, 390; + in 1849, 391-394; + invaded by Piedmontese army, 404; + votes to join Kingdom of Italy, 405. + + Parentucelli, see Nicholas V, Pope. + + Paris, Congress of, 399. + + Parma, a duchy, 295; + taken by Farnesi, 295; + conveyed to Spanish Bourbons, 341, 342; + prior to 1789, 362, 363; + on Napoleon's overthrow, 367; + insurrection in, 379; + in 1848, 388, 389, 397, 401; + united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, 402. + + Parthenon, blown up, 338. + + Patarini, 95; heretics, 125. + + Paul II, Pope, 288. + + Paul III, Pope (Alessandro Farnese), 275; + in Parma, 295; + a reformer, 300. + + Paul IV, Pope (Caraffa), 299, 301. + + Paul V, Pope, 345. + + Pavia, 28, 50, 95, 107; + Ghibelline, 133. + + Pavia, battle of, 257, 293. + + Peace of Westphalia, 346. + + Pecci, see Leo XIII, Pope. + + Pedro, of Aragon, King of Sicily, 162. + + Pellico Silvio, 370-372. + + Peretti, Felice, see Sixtus V, Pope. + + Pergolesi, 358. + + Perugia, 128; + war with Assisi, 128; + its flagellants, 175; + Baglioni in, 198. + + Perugino, 288. + + Peruzzi, Baldassare, 290. + + Pesaro, 245. + + Pesaro, Marchesa di, and Pietro Aretino, 315, 316. + + Petrarch, 185; + leader of Classical Revival, 203, 204; + coronation of, 204; + great reputation, 205; + enthusiasm for Cola di Rienzo, 206, 207; + on the Black Death, 210; + on mercenary soldiers, 213, 214; + goes to Milan, 215; + invectives against Roman Curia, 274. + + Philip, Imperial claimant, 120. + + Philip, the Fair, King of France, quarrel with Boniface VIII, 148-150. + + Piacenza, 95; + heretics in, 125; + buildings in, 305; + visited by Montaigne, 333. + + Piazza Navona, 351. + + Piccinni, 358. + + Piccolomini, AEneas Sylvius, see Pius II, Pope. + + Pico, della Mirandola, 245. + + Piedmont, becomes important part of duchy of Savoy, 296; + visited by Montaigne, 334; + becomes chief part of duchy of Savoy, 343; + prior to 1789, 361; + takes action against France, 365; + on restoration of king, 367; + uprising in, 375, 376; + in 1848, 386; + war with Austria, 388; + defeated, 389; + also at Novara, 390; + left alone to maintain Italian cause, 394; + the hope of Italy, 397; + in Crimean War, 399; + war with Austria, 400. + + Pier della Vigna, 141, 143. + + Pietro Aretino, 315, 316. + + Pilo, Rosalino, 402. + + Pinturicchio, 288. + + Pippin, King, deposes Merovingians, 44; + crowned by Pope Zacharias, 45; + and the Papacy, 49; + death, 50. + + Pippin, Donation of, 45, 50. + + Pisa, 70; + prosperity of, 104; + Ghibelline, 133; + loyal to Henry VII, 159; + regulations concerning nobles, 168; + war with Genoa, 169; + crushing defeat by Genoa, 170; + baptistery, 186; + loss in Black Death, 210; + seized by Milan, 227; + by Florence, 228; + Campo Santo, 244. + + Pisa, Council of, 219. + + Pisani, Vettor (Venetian admiral), 224. + + Pisano, Giovanni, 187. + + Pisano, Niccolo, 186; + at Siena, 187. + + Pitti Palace, designed by Brunelleschi, 236; + occupied by Cosimo I, 294; + picture gallery in, 295; + opera in, 357. + + Pius II, Pope, AEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, 288. + + Pius IV, Pope (Giovanni Angelo Medici), founder of Modern Papacy, 301, + 302. + + Pius IX, Pope, 383, 384; + takes part in war against Austria, 388; + his scruples, 389; + army captured, 389; + flees from Rome, 390; + reactionary, 396; + bad government of, 397; + and Temporal Power, 405; + extreme conservatism, 409, 410; + prisoner in Vatican, 410; + refuses subsidy, 411. + + Plague of 1348 (Black Death), 209-211. + + Plato, 242, 243, 248. + + Platonic Academy, 243. + + Platonic ideas, 282, 283, 285. + + Plutarch, 255. + + Podesta, 165. + + Poerio, Carlo, 395, 396. + + Poetry, in Sicily, 141; + in Bologna and Tuscany, 184. + + Poggio a Caiano, 244, 309. + + Polenta, da, the, in Ravenna, 198. + + Poliziano, 245. + + Pollaiuolo, Antonio, 244. + + Pontormo, 308, 309. + + Pontremoli, 333. + + Popes, see Papacy, Papal States, and individual Popes. + + Pordenone, Giov. Ant. da, 312. + + Portiuncula, 129-131, 306. + + Pratolino, 326. + + Prigioni, Le Mie (of Silvio Pellico), 370-372, 382. + + Prince, The, by Machiavelli, 314, 315. + + Promessi, Sposi, I, by Manzoni, 377. + + Provence, Albigensian crusade, 123. + + Prussia, war with Austria, 407; + with France, 407. + + Pulci, 245. + + + Quadrilateral, the, 388. + + + Radetzky, Field Marshal, 387-390, 394. + + Raphael, 283, 285, 289; + character, 290, 291; + portrait of Julius II, 289; + of Leo X, 292. + + Rattazzi, 406. + + Ravenna, 14, 21, 45, 71; + Byzantine architecture in, 187; + Malatesta in, 198; + Lord Byron in, 372-375. + + Reformation, the, premonitions of, 219-222; + coming of, 297. + + Reformation within the Church, see Catholic Revival. + + Renaissance, 231-251, 281-292. + + Renaissance, Early, 231-241. + + Renaissance, High, 281-292; its close, 304. + + Revolution, French (of 1789), 361, 364. + + Revolution, French (of 1830), 379. + + Ribera, 352. + + Ricasoli, Bettino, 401, 406. + + Riccardi palace, 233, 244. + + Rienzi, see Cola di Rienzo. + + Robbia, della, Andrea, 244. + + Robbia, della, Luca, 241. + + Romagna, the, 379. + + Roman Curia (papal Curia), denounced by Frederick II, 138, 139; + its venality, 219; + policy, 221; + difficulties and cleverness, 269-270; + object of satire and invective, 274, 275; + and art, 288. + + Roman Empire (see also Holy Roman Empire, and Eastern Empire), its + extent, 1; + character, 2; + luxurious life, 4; + unity, 7; + its condition while at Constantinople, 25; + in popular imagination, 51, 52; + relations with Papacy, 59; + its revival by Pope Leo and Charlemagne, 56; + end of Carlovingian revival, 58; + revival by Otto the Great as the Holy Roman Empire, 77, 78. + + Roman gentleman, life of, 4. + + Roman people, antagonism to Papacy, 60; + local politics of, 67; + savageness, 68. + + Rome, its splendour, 2; + fall, 5; + Christian, 9; + Theodoric's visit, 14; + relation to the Empire, 53; + parties in, 133, 134; + no despotism in, 194; + reduced to papal obedience, 268; + sack by Bourbon's army, 279, 280; + in High Renaissance, 288; + visited by Montaigne, 328-331; + compared with Venice as to freedom, 328, 329; + riots in, 390; + Republic declared, 390; + defends itself against French, 391-394; + Roman question, 405; + occupied by Italian troops, 407; + becomes seat of national government, 408. + + Romulus Augustulus, 1. + + Roncaglia, diet of, 110, 111. + + Rospigliosi, see Clement IX, Pope. + + Rosselli, 288. + + Rossellino, Antonio, 244. + + Rossetti, 377. + + Rossi, Pellegrino, murdered, 390. + + Rossini, 358. + + Rovere, della, Francesco, see Sixtus IV, Pope. + + Rovere, della, Giuliano, see Julius II, Pope. + + Rovere, della, family, dukes of Urbino, 303. + + Rovigo, visited by Montaigne, 323. + + Rule of St. Benedict, 34. + + Rule of St. Francis, 132. + + Ruskin on Bronzino, 309. + + + St. Benedict, 33, 34. + + St. Clare, 130. + + St. Columbanus, 36, 37. + + Sta. Croce, church of, 188. + + St. Francis, 125-132. + + St. Francis de Sales, 345. + + St. Francis Xavier, 345. + + St. Jerome on destruction of Rome, 5. + + St. John Lateran, church of, in Innocent's dream, 126; + Henry VII crowned in, 159. + + Sta. Maria degli Angeli, 129, 306. + + Sta. Maria del Carmine, 240, 248. + + St. Paul, basilica of, sacked by Saracens, 73; + in Jubilee of 1300, 147, 148. + + St. Peter, basilica of, described, 55, 56; + sacked by Saracens, 73; + enclosed in walls, 74; + in Jubilee, 147; + held by the Guelfs, 159; + plan to rebuild, 252; + rebuilt, 289, 290; + dome completed, 344; + colonnade, 351. + + St. Peter Damian on lay investiture, 87. + + St. Sophia, church of, 38. + + St. Theresa, 345. + + St. Thomas Aquinas, 178, 179. + + St. Zeno, church of, in Verona, 194. + + Salerno, 70, 92, 104. + + San Gallo, da, Antonio, the younger, 290. + + San Gallo, da, Francesco, account of discovery of Laocoon, 291. + + San Gallo, da, Giuliano, 244, 289, 290, 291. + + Sansovino, Jacopo Tatti, 306, 311. + + Saracens, 40; + conquests of, 41; + in Sicily, 73; + in Italy, 73. + + Sardinia, conveyed to Savoy, 341; + dukes of Savoy become kings of Sardinia, Kingdom of, see Piedmont. + + Sarpi, Paolo, Fra, 337, 338. + + Sassoferrato, 352. + + Savonarola, 248, 258-262. + + Savoy, 172 (see also Piedmont); + its situation and princes, 173; + becomes duchy, 229; + during wars between Francis I and Charles V, 296; + becomes an Italian state, 296; + in 17th and 18th centuries, 343. + + Savoy, House of, 173. + + Scala, della, House of (the Scaligers), 194-198; + burial place of, 196. + + Scala, della, Can Grande, 195, 196; + aided by Henry VII, 198. + + Scala, della, Mastino, 196, 197; + his defeat, 197, 198. + + Scaligers, see Scala della, House of. + + Scarlatti, Alessandro, 358. + + Scarlatti, Domenico, 358. + + Schism, the Great, 218-220. + + Sebastiano del Piombo, 312. + + Segnatura, Stanza della, 290. + + Sella, Quintino, 413. + + Sforza, House of, becomes extinct, 257, 258. + + Sforza, Alessandro, lord of Pesaro, 250. + + Sforza, Attendolo (Muzio Attendolo), 222. + + Sforza, Francesco, 222; + becomes Duke of Milan, 250; + dealings with humanists, 250; + death, 253. + + Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, 254, 255. + + Sforza, Lodovico, il Moro, 255-257, 281. + + Sicilian Vespers, 162. + + Sicily (see also Two Sicilies), practically Greek, 42; + Norman conquest, 93; + under Henry VI, 114; + under Frederick II, 141, 142; + under Charles of Anjou, 161, 162; + Sicilian Vespers, 162; + under House of Aragon, 162; + about 1350, 201; + appanage of Aragon, 223; + no share in Renaissance, 249; + under legitimate branch of House of Aragon, 263; + under Spanish viceroys, 294; + conveyed to Savoy, to Austria, to Spanish Bourbons, 341; + prior to 1789, 364; + loses its autonomy, 368; + in 1848, 386, 390; + revolution put down, 391; + expedition of Garibaldi and Mille, 403. + + Siena, conquered by Florence, 294; + visited by Montaigne, 327. + + Sigismund, Emperor, 220. + + Signorelli, 288. + + Silvester, Pope, legend of, 45-47. + + Simony, movement against, 86. + + Sistine Chapel, 288; + Michelangelo's frescoes, 290. + + Sixtus IV, Pope, 270, 271, 286. + + Sixtus V, Pope, 344. + + Sodoma, 309. + + Solferino, 400. + + Spain, 37; + invasions by, 253, 254; + acquires Milan, 257; + Naples, 263, 264; + predominant in Italy, 276; + secure hold, 293; + government in Milan, 294; + in Naples and Sicily, 294. + + Spanish Steps, the, in Rome, 351, 360. + + Spielberg prison, 371. + + Spoleto, a Lombard duchy, 28, 69; + visited by Montaigne, 331. + + Stradivarius, 359. + + Strozzi palace, in Florence, 244, 245. + + Summa Theologiae, of Thomas Aquinas, 178. + + + Tasso, Torquato, on the Book of the Courtier, 284; + life, 309, 310; + seen by Montaigne, 324. + + Theodora, 75, 76. + + Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, 12; + victory over Odoacer, 13; + difficulties, 13; + policy, 14; + visit to Rome, 14; + dealings with Empire, 15; + with Church, 17; + breach with Church, 20; + death, 20. + + Thomas Aquinas, see St. Thomas Aquinas. + + Tiepolo, 352. + + Tintoretto, 312. + + Titian, 312. + + Totila, 21, 22. + + Trade, spirit of, 103; + with North and East, 166, 167; + impediments to, 167, 168. + + Trent, Council of, 300-302. + + Trevi, fountain of, 351, 360. + + Turin, 334, 375. + + Turks, capture Constantinople, 264; + conquer parts of Venetian Empire, 297; + wars with Venice, 338, 339. + + Tuscany, 69; + a marquisate, 94; + a Grand Duchy, 303; + visited by Montaigne, 325-327; + passes to Austrian dukes on failure of Medicean line, 342; + prior to 1739, 363; + restoration in, after Napoleon's fall, 367; + takes part in war against Austria, 388; + defeated, 389; + Grand Duke runs away, 390; + returns, 391; + subservient to Austria, 397; + runs away again, 401; + united with Piedmont in Kingdom of Italy, 401, 402. + + Two Sicilies, Kingdom of (see also Sicily and Naples), 93; + under Manfred, 143; + conquered by Charles of Anjou, 144; + absolute monarchy, 193, 194; + united under Alfonso of Aragon, 223; + fall apart on his death, 263; + pass to Charles V, 264; + 1494-1516, 263, 264; + unites with Kingdom of Italy, 405. + + + Uffizi palace, in Florence, 294; + picture gallery, 295. + + Ugolino, see Gregory IX, Pope. + + Universities, 177; + of Bologna, 177, 178. + + Urban VI, Pope, 218. + + Urban VIII, Pope, 346. + + Urbino, 249; + library at, 251; + society in, 282, 283; + absorbed by Papacy, 295; + visited by Montaigne, 332. + + Utrecht, treaty of, 341. + + Uzzano, Niccolo da, 230. + + + Vandals, 5, 21. + + Vasari, on Brunelleschi, 235, 236; + on Donatello, 238, 239; + on Masaccio, 240; + on Leonardo, 285, 286; + on Raphael, 290, 291; + himself, 306. + + Vatican Council, 410. + + Vatican library, 252. + + Vatican palace, 252, 287, 288, 290. + + Venice, 70; + origin, 105; + character, 105, 106; + trade, 106, 107; + Barbarossa and Alexander III at, 112; + Fourth Crusade, 118, 119; + isolation, 170; + government, 171; + patricians, 171; + wars with Genoa, 172; + Great Council, 172; + oligarchy, 172; + about 1350, 202; + growth, 223; + wars with Genoa, 224; + four stages, 224; + oligarchy in control, 225; + tranquillity, 226; + 1453-1508, 264-266; + League of Cambrai, 265, 266; + wars with Turks, 297; + Lepanto, 297; + the Carita, 307; + fine arts, 310-313; + visited by Montaigne, 322, 323; + freedom compared with that in Rome, 328, 329; + 1580-1789, 335-339; + quarrel with Papacy, 336, 337; + wars with Turks, 338, 339; + conquers the Morea, 338; + opera in, 357; + music in, 359; + prior to 1789, 362; + extinction of Republic, 365; + given to Austria, 367; + in 1848, a Republic again, 387, 388; + jealous of Piedmont, 389; + surrenders to Austria, 394; + united to Italy, 407. + + Verona, emotional peace of, 176, 177; + description of, 194; + under Scaligers, 195-198; + seized by Venice, 224; + temporarily under Milan, 227; + taken by Venice, 228; + claimed by empire, 265; + visited by Montaigne, 320. + + Veronese, Paolo, 312. + + Verrocchio, 244, 247; + Leonardo's master, 286. + + Vicenza, conquered by Can Grande, 195, 196; + buildings in, 306, 307; + visited by Goethe, 307; + by Montaigne, 321. + + Vico, 349, 350. + + Victor Emmanuel, see Vittorio Emanuele II. + + Vienna, Congress of, 366, 367. + + Vienna, Peace of, 341. + + Vignola, Giacomo Barozzi da, 305, 306. + + Villa Borghese, 351. + + Villa di Papa Giulio, 306. + + Villa Medici, 351. + + Villani, Giovanni, on Boniface VIII, 146; + on Dante, 152, 153; + on Florence, 182, 183; + death, 211. + + Vinci, Leonardo da, 256, 285-287. + + Visconti, House of, despots of Milan, 198, 199; + aided by Henry VII, 198; + their ambitions, 199; + about 1350, 202; + their despotism, 215, 216; + end of, 250. + + Visconti, Bernabo, 215, 216. + + Visconti, Bianca Maria, 229. + + Visconti, Filippo Maria, 228; death, 250. + + Visconti, Galeazzo II, 216. + + Visconti, Gian Galeazzo, 216; + career, 226; + buildings, 226; + death, 227. + + Visconti, Giovanni (Archbishop), 215. + + Visigoths, 5. + + Vittorio Emanuele I, 375. + + Vittorio Emanuele II, 390; + character, 397, 398; + French alliance and Austrian War, 400, 401; + hailed King of Italy by Garibaldi, 404; + alliance with Prussia, 407; + war with Austria, 407; + enters Venice, 407; + takes possession of Rome, 407, 408; + death, 413. + + Vittorio Emanuele III, 416. + + Volta, 362. + + + War of Polish Succession, 340, 341. + + War of Spanish Succession, 340, 341. + + Werner, duke, 213. + + Worms, diet of, 278. + + Wyclif, 220. + + + Young Italy, 381. + + + Zacharias, Pope, 44. + + Zara, captured by Crusaders, 118. + + Zeno, Carlo, 224. + + + + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the | + | original document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 290 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare | + | Page 296 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare | + | Page 332 Montefeltre changed to Montefeltro | + | Page 350 lotos changed to lotus | + | Page 439 Baldassarre changed to Baldassare | + | Page 441 Pelegrino changed to Pellegrino | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Short History of Italy, by Henry Dwight Sedgwick + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY *** + +***** This file should be named 35363.txt or 35363.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/6/35363/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Carl Hudkins, Jonathan Niehof +(media provider) and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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