Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State. Part I.
Character And Coronation Of Petrarch. -- Restoration Of The Freedom And
Government Of Rome By The Tribune Rienzi. -- His Virtues And Vices, His
Expulsion And Death. -- Return Of The Popes From Avignon. -- Great
Schism Of The West. -- Reunion Of The Latin Church. -- Last Struggles Of
Roman Liberty. -- Statutes Of Rome. -- Final Settlement Of The
Ecclesiastical State.
In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch ^1 is the Italian songster
of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds,
or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry; and his verse, or at
least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm, or affectation, of
amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger,
his slight and superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the
judgment of a learned nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the
Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies
with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness
of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of
the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still less
qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a metaphysical
passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence has been questioned;
^2 for a matron so prolific, ^3 that she was delivered of eleven
legitimate children, ^4 while her amorous swain sighed and sung at the
fountain of Vaucluse. ^5 But in the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his
graver contemporaries, his love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous
amusement. His Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence,
established his serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon
over France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in
every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings ^6 be now
abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man, who by
precept and example revived the spirit and study of the Augustan age.
From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The
academical honors of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree
of master or doctor in the art of poetry; ^7 and the title of
poet-laureate, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetuates in the
English court, ^8 was first invented by the Cæsars of Germany. In the
musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: ^9 the
belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed
the emulation of a Latin bard; ^10 and the laurel ^11 was endeared to
the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress. The
value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit;
and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, ^12 he enjoyed,
and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of
the most delicate kind, since he applauds the success of his own labors;
his name was popular; his friends were active; the open or secret
opposition of envy and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of
patient merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to
accept the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of
Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the senate of
Rome and the university of Paris. The learning of a theological school,
and the ignorance of a lawless city, were alike unqualified to bestow
the ideal though immortal wreath which genius may obtain from the free
applause of the public and of posterity: but the candidate dismissed
this troublesome reflection; and after some moments of complacency and
suspense, preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world.
[Footnote 1: The Mémoires sur la Vie de François Pétrarque,
(Amsterdam,
1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a copious, original, and entertaining
work, a labor of love, composed from the accurate study of Petrarch and
his contemporaries; but the hero is too often lost in the general
history of the age, and the author too often languishes in the
affectation of politeness and gallantry. In the preface to his first
volume, he enumerates and weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have
professedly treated of the same subject.]
[Footnote 2: The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth
century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they should
understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed virgin, or
--------. See the prefaces to the first and second volume.]
[Footnote 3: Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was married in
January 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of Avignon, whose
jealousy was not the effect of love, since he married a second wife
within seven months of her death, which happened the 6th of April, 1348,
precisely one-and-twenty years after Petrarch had seen and loved her.]
[Footnote 4: Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these is
issued, in the tenth degree, the abbé de Sade, the fond and grateful
biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most probably suggested
the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire into every circumstance
that could affect the history and character of his grandmother, (see
particularly tom. i. p. 122--133, notes, p. 7--58, tom. ii. p. 455--495
not. p. 76--82.)]
[Footnote 5: Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is
described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge of his
biographer, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 340--359.) It was, in truth, the
retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much mistaken, if they place
Laura and a happy lover in the grotto.]
[Footnote 6: Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the xvith
century, but without the date of the year. The abbé de Sade calls aloud
for a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works; but I much doubt whether it
would redound to the profit of the bookseller, or the amusement of the
public.]
[Footnote 7: Consult Selden's Titles of Honor, in his works, (vol. iii.
-
457--466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St. Francis received the
visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore fuerat coronatus et exinde rex
versuum dictus.]
[Footnote 8: From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been false
and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can produce a
similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in every reign, and at
all events, is bound to furnish twice a year a measure of praise and
verse, such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I believe, in the
presence, of the sovereign. I speak the more freely, as the best time
for abolishing this ridiculous custom is while the prince is a man of
virtue and the poet a man of genius.]
[Footnote 9: Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit.
Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native Athens the glory of first
instituting and recommending the alwnaV -- kai ta aqla megista -- mh
monon tacouV kai rwmhV, alla kai logwn kai gnwmhV. The example of the
Panathenæa was imitated at Delphi; but the Olympic games were ignorant
of a musical crown, till it was extorted by the vain tyranny of Nero,
(Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat. apud Casaubon ad locum; Dion
Cassius, or Xiphilin, l. lxiii. p. 1032, 1041. Potter's Greek
Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445, 450.)]
[Footnote 10: The Capitoline games (certamen quinquenale, musicum,
equestre, gymnicum) were instituted by Domitian (Sueton. c. 4) in the
year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die Natali, c. 18, p. 100, edit.
Havercamp.) and were not abolished in the ivth century, (Ausonius de
Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If the crown were given to superior merit,
the exclusion of Statius (Capitolia nostræ inficiata lyræ, Sylv. l. iii.
-
31) may do honor to the games of the Capitol; but the Latin poets who
lived before Domitian were crowned only in the public opinion.]
[Footnote 11: Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant that the
laurel was not the Capitoline, but the Delphic crown, (Plin. Hist. Natur
-
39. Hist. Critique de la République des Lettres, tom. i. p.
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