Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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423--432.) The fact must in some degree be true; yet I could wish that
it had been coolly related, before it was turned into a reproach against
the antipope.]
[Footnote 95: Muratori has given two dissertations (xli. and xlii.) to
the names, surnames, and families of Italy. Some nobles, who glory in
their domestic fables, may be offended with his firm and temperate
criticism; yet surely some ounces of pure gold are of more value than
many pounds of base metal.]
[Footnote 96: The cardinal of St. George, in his poetical, or rather
metrical history of the election and coronation of Boniface VIII.,
(Muratori Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 641, &c.,) describes the
state and families of Rome at the coronation of Boniface VIII., (A.D.
1295.)
Interea titulis redimiti sanguine et armis
Illustresque viri Romanâ a stirpe trahentes
Nomen in emeritos tantæ virtutis honores
Insulerant sese medios festumque colebant
Aurata fulgente togâ, sociante catervâ.
Ex ipsis devota domus præstantis ab Ursâ
Ecclesiæ, vultumque gerens demissius altum
Festa Columna jocis, necnon Sabellia mitis;
Stephanides senior, Comites, Annibalica proles,
Præfectusque urbis magnum sine viribus nomen.
-
ii. c. 5, 100, p. 647, 648.)
The ancient statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 59, p. 174, 175) distinguish
eleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear in concilio communi,
before the senator, that they would not harbor or protect any
malefactors, outlaws, &c. -- a feeble security!]
But among, perhaps above, the peers and princes of the city, I
distinguish the rival houses of Colonna and Ursini, whose private story
is an essential part of the annals of modern Rome. I. The name and arms
of Colonna ^97 have been the theme of much doubtful etymology; nor have
the orators and antiquarians overlooked either Trajan's pillar, or the
columns of Hercules, or the pillar of Christ's flagellation, or the
luminous column that guided the Israelites in the desert. Their first
historical appearance in the year eleven hundred and four attests the
power and antiquity, while it explains the simple meaning, of the name.
By the usurpation of Cavæ, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal the
Second; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of Rome the hereditary
fiefs of Zagarola and Colonna; and the latter of these towns was
probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the relic of a villa or temple.
^98 They likewise possessed one moiety of the neighboring city of
Tusculum, a strong presumption of their descent from the counts of
Tusculum, who in the tenth century were the tyrants of the apostolic
see. According to their own and the public opinion, the primitive and
remote source was derived from the banks of the Rhine; ^99 and the
sovereigns of Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity
with a noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred years has
been often illustrated by merit and always by fortune. ^100 About the
end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was composed of
an uncle and six bothers, all conspicuous in arms, or in the honors of
the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator of Rome, introduced to
the Capitol in a triumphal car, and hailed in some vain acclamations
with the title of Cæsar; while John and Stephen were declared marquis of
Ancona and count of Romagna, by Nicholas the Fourth, a patron so partial
to their family, that he has been delineated in satirical portraits,
imprisoned as it were in a hollow pillar. ^101 After his decease their
haughty behavior provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of
mankind. The two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the
election of Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna were oppressed for a
moment by his temporal and spiritual arms. ^102 He proclaimed a crusade
against his personal enemies; their estates were confiscated; their
fortresses on either side of the Tyber were besieged by the troops of
St. Peter and those of the rival nobles; and after the ruin of
Palestrina or Præneste, their principal seat, the ground was marked with
a ploughshare, the emblem of perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished,
proscribed, the six brothers, in disguise and danger, wandered over
Europe without renouncing the hope of deliverance and revenge. In this
double hope, the French court was their surest asylum; they prompted and
directed the enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their
magnanimity, had they respected the misfortune and courage of the
captive tyrant. His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who
restored the honors and possessions of the Colonna; and some estimate
may be formed of their wealth by their losses, of their losses by the
damages of one hundred thousand gold florins which were granted them
against the accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope. All the
spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished ^103 by his
prudent successors; and the fortune of the house was more firmly
established by this transient hurricane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna
was signalized in the captivity of Boniface, and long afterwards in the
coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the gratitude of the emperor, the
pillar in their arms was encircled with a royal crown. But the first of
the family in fame and merit was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved
and esteemed as a hero superior to his own times, and not unworthy of
ancient Rome. Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his
abilities in peace and war; in his distress he was an object, not of
pity, but of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his
name and country; and when he was asked, "Where is now your fortress?"
he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, "Here." He supported with
the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin of his
declining age, the ancestors, the character, and the children of Stephen
Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman republic, and at the court of
Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated from Spoleto; ^104 the sons of Ursus,
as they are styled in the twelfth century, from some eminent person, who
is only known as the father of their race. But they were soon
distinguished among the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of
their kinsmen, the strength of their towers, the honors of the senate
and sacred college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third
and Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage. ^105 Their riches may
be accused as an early abuse of nepotism: the estates of St. Peter were
alienated in their favor by the liberal Celestin; ^106 and Nicholas was
ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance of monarchs; to found
new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and to invest them with the
perpetual office of senators of Rome. All that has been observed of the
greatness of the Colonna will likewise redeemed to the glory of the
Ursini, their constant and equal antagonists in the long hereditary
feud, which distracted above two hundred and fifty years the
ecclesiastical state. The jealously of preeminence and power was the
true ground of their quarrel; but as a specious badge of distinction,
the Colonna embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire;
the Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church.
The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners; and the
two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the origin and nature of
the dispute were long since forgotten. ^107 After the retreat of the
popes to Avignon they disputed in arms the vacant republic; and the
mischiefs of discord were perpetuated by the wretched compromise of
electing each year two rival senators. By their private hostilities the
city and country were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined
with their alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by
the sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was surprised
and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna. ^108 His triumph is stained
with the reproach of violating the truce; their defeat was basely
avenged by the assassination, before the church door, of an innocent boy
and his two servants. Yet the victorious Colonna, with an annual
colleague, was declared senator of Rome during the term of five years.
And the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the
generous youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and
Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate the
wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who labored to subvert the
eternal basis of the marble column. ^109
[Footnote 97: It is pity that the Colonna themselves have not favored
the world with a complete and critical history of their illustrious
house. I adhere to Muratori, (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii. p. 647, 648.)]
[Footnote 98: Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. in Muratori, Script.
Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 335. The family has still great possessions in
the Campagna of Rome; but they have alienated to the Rospigliosi this
original fief of Colonna, (Eschinard, p. 258, 259.)]
[Footnote 99:
Te longinqua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni,
says Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders and Juliers acknowledges
(Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 539) his descent
from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:) but the royal author of
the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that the sceptre in his arms has
been confounded with the column. To maintain the Roman origin of the
Colonna, it was ingeniously supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the
Script. Ital. tom. xii. p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero
escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in Germany.]
[Footnote 100: I cannot overlook the Roman triumph of ovation on Marce
Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope's galleys at the naval
victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p. 55, 56. Muret.
Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180--190.)]
[Footnote 101: Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]
[Footnote 102: Petrarch's attachment to the Colonna has authorized the
abbé de Sade to expatiate on the state of the family in the fourteenth
century, the persecution of Boniface VIII., the character of Stephen and
his sons, their quarrels with the Ursini, &c., (Mémoires sur
Pétrarque,
tom. i. p. 98--110, 146--148, 174--176, 222--230, 275--280.) His
criticism often rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors
of the less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be
now extinct.]
[Footnote 103: Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who adhered to
the emperor Frederic I. incapable of holding any ecclesiastical
benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last stains of annual
excommunication were purified by Sixtus V., (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii.
-
416.) Treason, sacrilege, and proscription are often the best titles
of ancient nobility.]
[Footnote 104:
-------- Vallis te proxima misit,
Appenninigenæ qua prata virentia sylvæ
Spoletana metunt armenta gregesque protervi.
Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a French
origin, which may be remotely true.]
[Footnote 105: In the metrical life of Celestine V. by the cardinal of
St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.,) we find a luminous,
and not inelegant, passage, (l. i. c. 3, p. 203 &c.:) --
-------- genuit quem nobilis Ursæ (Ursi?)
Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis
Fascibus in clero, pompasque experta senatûs,
Bellorumque manû grandi stipata parentum
Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum
Papatûs iterata tenens.
Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first Ursini
pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined to read Ursi
progenies.]
[Footnote 106: Filii Ursi, quondam Clestini papæ nepotes, de bonis
ecclesiæ Romanæ ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori, Script. tom.
-
P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III. is more conspicuous
in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would disdain the nephews of a
modern pope.]
[Footnote 107: In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian
Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and
Ghibelines.]
[Footnote 108: Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222--230) has celebrated this
victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a Florentine
(Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a Roman, (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p.
532--534,) are less favorable to their arms.]
[Footnote 109: The abbé de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61--66) has applied
the vith Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto Gentil, &c., to Stephen Colonna the
younger:
Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi
Al una gran marmorea colexna
Fanno noja sovente e à se danno. 11]
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