$Unique_ID{how01796}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part IV.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{tom
footnote
rome
ii
et
st
three
city
de
roman}
$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Part IV.

     The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been exercised near
three hundred years by the senate, was first resumed by Martin the Fifth, ^77
and his image and superscription introduce the series of the papal medals. Of
his two immediate successors, Eugenius the Fourth was the last pope expelled
by the tumults of the Roman people, ^78 and Nicholas the Fifth, the last who
was importuned by the presence of a Roman emperor. ^79 I. The conflict of
Eugenius with the fathers of Basil, and the weight or apprehension of a new
excise, emboldened and provoked the Romans to usurp the temporal government of
the city.  They rose in arms, elected seven governors of the republic, and a
constable of the Capitol; imprisoned the pope's nephew; besieged his person in
the palace; and shot volleys of arrows into his bark as he escaped down the
Tyber in the habit of a monk.  But he still possessed in the castle of St.
Angelo a faithful garrison and a train of artillery: their batteries
incessantly thundered on the city, and a bullet more dexterously pointed broke
down the barricade of the bridge, and scattered with a single shot the heroes
of the republic.  Their constancy was exhausted by a rebellion of five months.
Under the tyranny of the Ghibeline nobles, the wisest patriots regretted the
dominion of the church; and their repentance was unanimous and effectual.  The
troops of St. Peter again occupied the Capitol; the magistrates departed to
their homes; the most guilty were executed or exiled; and the legate, at the
head of two thousand foot and four thousand horse, was saluted as the father
of the city.  The synods of Ferrara and Florence, the fear or resentment of
Eugenius, prolonged his absence: he was received by a submissive people; but
the pontiff understood from the acclamations of his triumphal entry, that to
secure their loyalty and his own repose, he must grant without delay the
abolition of the odious excise.  II. Rome was restored, adorned, and
enlightened, by the peaceful reign of Nicholas the Fifth.  In the midst of
these laudable occupations, the pope was alarmed by the approach of Frederic
the Third of Austria; though his fears could not be justified by the character
or the power of the Imperial candidate.  After drawing his military force to
the metropolis, and imposing the best security of oaths ^80 and treaties,
Nicholas received with a smiling countenance the faithful advocate and vassal
of the church.  So tame were the times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the
pomp of his coronation was accomplished with order and harmony: but the
superfluous honor was so disgraceful to an independent nation, that his
successors have excused themselves from the toilsome pilgrimage to the
Vatican; and rest their Imperial title on the choice of the electors of
Germany.

[Footnote 77: See the xxviith Dissertation of the Antiquities of Muratori, and
the 1st Instruction of the Science des Medailles of the Pere Joubert and the
Baron de la Bastie.  The Metallic History of Martin V. and his successors has
been composed by two monks, Moulinet, a Frenchman, and Bonanni, an Italian:
but I understand, that the first part of the series is restored from more
recent coins.]

[Footnote 78: Besides the Lives of Eugenius IV., (Rerum Italic. tom. iii. P.
i. p. 869, and tom. xxv. p. 256,) the Diaries of Paul Petroni and Stephen
Infessura are the best original evidence for the revolt of the Romans against
Eugenius IV.  The former, who lived at the time and on the spot, speaks the
language of a citizen, equally afraid of priestly and popular tyranny.]

[Footnote 79: The coronation of Frederic III. is described by Lenfant,
(Concile de Basle, tom. ii. p. 276 - 288,) from Aeneas Sylvius, a spectator
and actor in that splendid scene.]

[Footnote 80: The oath of fidelity imposed on the emperor by the pope is
recorded and sanctified in the Clementines, (l. ii. tit. ix.;) and Aeneas
Sylvius, who objects to this new demand, could not foresee, that in a few
years he should ascend the throne, and imbibe the maxims, of Boniface VIII.] A
citizen has remarked, with pride and pleasure, that the king of the Romans,
after passing with a slight salute the cardinals and prelates who met him at
the gate, distinguished the dress and person of the senator of Rome; and in
this last farewell, the pageants of the empire and the republic were clasped
in a friendly embrace. ^81 According to the laws of Rome, ^82 her first
magistrate was required to be a doctor of laws, an alien, of a place at least
forty miles from the city; with whose inhabitants he must not be connected in
the third canonical degree of blood or alliance.  The election was annual: a
severe scrutiny was instituted into the conduct of the departing senator; nor
could he be recalled to the same office till after the expiration of two
years.  A liberal salary of three thousand florins was assigned for his
expense and reward; and his public appearance represented the majesty of the
republic.  His robes were of gold brocade or crimson velvet, or in the summer
season of a lighter silk: he bore in his hand an ivory sceptre; the sound of
trumpets announced his approach; and his solemn steps were preceded at least
by four lictors or attendants, whose red wands were enveloped with bands or
streamers of the golden color or livery of the city.  His oath in the Capitol
proclaims his right and duty to observe and assert the laws, to control the
proud, to protect the poor, and to exercise justice and mercy within the
extent of his jurisdiction.  In these useful functions he was assisted by
three learned strangers; the two collaterals, and the judge of criminal
appeals: their frequent trials of robberies, rapes, and murders, are attested
by the laws; and the weakness of these laws connives at the licentiousness of
private feuds and armed associations for mutual defence.  But the senator was
confined to the administration of justice: the Capitol, the treasury, and the
government of the city and its territory, were intrusted to the three
conservators, who were changed four times in each year: the militia of the
thirteen regions assembled under the banners of their respective chiefs, or
caporioni; and the first of these was distinguished by the name and dignity of
the prior.  The popular legislature consisted of the secret and the common
councils of the Romans.  The former was composed of the magistrates and their
immediate predecessors, with some fiscal and legal officers, and three classes
of thirteen, twenty-six, and forty, counsellors: amounting in the whole to
about one hundred and twenty persons.  In the common council all male citizens
had a right to vote; and the value of their privilege was enhanced by the care
with which any foreigners were prevented from usurping the title and character
of Romans. The tumult of a democracy was checked by wise and jealous
precautions: except the magistrates, none could propose a question; none were
permitted to speak, except from an open pulpit or tribunal; all disorderly
acclamations were suppressed; the sense of the majority was decided by a
secret ballot; and their decrees were promulgated in the venerable name of the
Roman senate and people.  It would not be easy to assign a period in which
this theory of government has been reduced to accurate and constant practice,
since the establishment of order has been gradually connected with the decay
of liberty.  But in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty the ancient
statutes were collected, methodized in three books, and adapted to present
use, under the pontificate, and with the approbation, of Gregory the
Thirteenth: ^83 this civil and criminal code is the modern law of the city;
and, if the popular assemblies have been abolished, a foreign senator, with
the three conservators, still resides in the palace of the Capitol. ^84 The
policy of the Caesars has been repeated by the popes; and the bishop of Rome
affected to maintain the form of a republic, while he reigned with the
absolute powers of a temporal, as well as a spiritual, monarch.

[Footnote 81: Lo senatore di Roma, vestito di brocarto con quella beretta, e
con quelle maniche, et ornamenti di pelle, co' quali va alle feste di
Testaccio e Nagone, might escape the eye of Aeneas Sylvius, but he is viewed
with admiration and complacency by the Roman citizen, (Diario di Stephano
Infessura, p. 1133.)]

[Footnote 82: See, in the statutes of Rome, the senator and three judges, (l.
i. c. 3 - 14,) the conservators, (l. i. c. 15, 16, 17, l. iii. c. 4,) the
caporioni (l. i. c. 18, l. iii. c. 8,) the secret council, (l. iii. c. 2,) the
common council, (l. iii. c. 3.) The title of feuds, defiances, acts of
violence, &c., is spread through many a chapter (c. 14 - 40) of the second
book.]

[Footnote 83: Statuta almoe Urbis Romoe Auctoritate S. D. N. Gregorii XIII
Pont. Max. a Senatu Populoque Rom. reformata et edita.  Romoe, 1580, in folio.
The obsolete, repugnant statutes of antiquity were confounded in five books,
and Lucas Paetus, a lawyer and antiquarian, was appointed to act as the modern
Tribonian.  Yet I regret the old code, with the rugged crust of freedom and
barbarism.]

[Footnote 84: In my time (1765) and in M. Grosley's, (Observations sur
l'Italie torn. ii. p. 361,) the senator of Rome was M. Bielke, a noble Swede
and a proselyte to the Catholic faith.  The pope's right to appoint the
senator and the conservator is implied, rather than affirmed, in the
statutes.]

     It is an obvious truth, that the times must be suited to extraordinary
characters, and that the genius of Cromwell or Retz might now expire in
obscurity.  The political enthusiasm of Rienzi had exalted him to a throne;
the same enthusiasm, in the next century, conducted his imitator to the
gallows.  The birth of Stephen Porcaro was noble, his reputation spotless: his
tongue was armed with eloquence, his mind was enlightened with learning; and
he aspired, beyond the aim of vulgar ambition, to free his country and
immortalize his name.  The dominion of priests is most odious to a liberal
spirit: every scruple was removed by the recent knowledge of the fable and
forgery of Constantine's donation; Petrarch was now the oracle of the
Italians; and as often as Porcaro revolved the ode which describes the patriot
and hero of Rome, he applied to himself the visions of the prophetic bard.
His first trial of the popular feelings was at the funeral of Eugenius the
Fourth: in an elaborate speech he called the Romans to liberty and arms; and
they listened with apparent pleasure, till Porcaro was interrupted and
answered by a grave advocate, who pleaded for the church and state.  By every
law the seditious orator was guilty of treason; but the benevolence of the new
pontiff, who viewed his character with pity and esteem, attempted by an
honorable office to convert the patriot into a friend.  The inflexible Roman
returned from Anagni with an increase of reputation and zeal; and, on the
first opportunity, the games of the place Navona, he tried to inflame the
casual dispute of some boys and mechanics into a general rising of the people.
Yet the humane Nicholas was still averse to accept the forfeit of his life;
and the traitor was removed from the scene of temptation to Bologna, with a
liberal allowance for his support, and the easy obligation of presenting
himself each day before the governor of the city.  But Porcaro had learned
from the younger Brutus, that with tyrants no faith or gratitude should be
observed: the exile declaimed against the arbitrary sentence; a party and a
conspiracy were gradually formed: his nephew, a daring youth, assembled a band
of volunteers; and on the appointed evening a feast was prepared at his house
for the friends of the republic.  Their leader, who had escaped from Bologna,
appeared among them in a robe of purple and gold: his voice, his countenance,
his gestures, bespoke the man who had devoted his life or death to the
glorious cause.  In a studied oration, he expiated on the motives and the
means of their enterprise; the name and liberties of Rome; the sloth and pride
of their ecclesiastical tyrants; the active or passive consent of their
fellow-citizens; three hundred soldiers, and four hundred exiles, long
exercised in arms or in wrongs; the license of revenge to edge their swords,
and a million of ducats to reward their victory.  It would be easy, (he said,)
on the next day, the festival of the Epiphany, to seize the pope and his
cardinals, before the doors, or at the altar, of St. Peter's; to lead them in
chains under the walls of St. Angelo; to extort by the threat of their instant
death a surrender of the castle; to ascend the vacant Capitol; to ring the
alarm bell; and to restore in a popular assembly the ancient republic of Rome.
While he triumphed, he was already betrayed. The senator, with a strong guard,
invested the house: the nephew of Porcaro cut his way through the crowd; but
the unfortunate Stephen was drawn from a chest, lamenting that his enemies had
anticipated by three hours the execution of his design.  After such manifest
and repeated guilt, even the mercy of Nicholas was silent.  Porcaro, and nine
of his accomplices, were hanged without the benefit of the sacraments; and,
amidst the fears and invectives of the papal court, the Romans pitied, and
almost applauded, these martyrs of their country. ^85 But their applause was
mute, their pity ineffectual, their liberty forever extinct; and, if they have
since risen in a vacancy of the throne or a scarcity of bread, such accidental
tumults may be found in the bosom of the most abject servitude.

[Footnote 85: Besides the curious, though concise, narrative of Machiavel,
(Istoria Florentina, l. vi. Opere, tom. i. p. 210, 211, edit. Londra, 1747, in
4to.) the Porcarian conspiracy is related in the Diary of Stephen Infessura,
(Rer. Ital. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1134, 1135,) and in a separate tract by Leo
Baptista Alberti, (Rer. Ital. tom. xxv. p. 609 - 614.) It is amusing to
compare the style and sentiments of the courtier and citizen. Facinus profecto
quo .... neque periculo horribilius, neque audacia detestabilius, neque
crudelitate tetrius, a quoquam perditissimo uspiam excogitatum sit ....
Perdette la vita quell' huomo da bene, e amatore dello bene e liberta di
Roma.]

     But the independence of the nobles, which was fomented by discord,
survived the freedom of the commons, which must be founded in union.  A
privilege of rapine and oppression was long maintained by the barons of Rome;
their houses were a fortress and a sanctuary: and the ferocious train of
banditti and criminals whom they protected from the law repaid the hospitality
with the service of their swords and daggers.  The private interest of the
pontiffs, or their nephews, sometimes involved them in these domestic feuds.
Under the reign of Sixtus the Fourth, Rome was distracted by the battles and
sieges of the rival houses: after the conflagration of his palace, the
prothonotary Colonna was tortured and beheaded; and Savelli, his captive
friend, was murdered on the spot, for refusing to join in the acclamations of
the victorious Ursini. ^86 But the popes no longer trembled in the Vatican:
they had strength to command, if they had resolution to claim, the obedience
of their subjects; and the strangers, who observed these partial disorders,
admired the easy taxes and wise administration of the ecclesiastical state.
^87

[Footnote 86: The disorders of Rome, which were much inflamed by the
partiality of Sixtus IV. are exposed in the Diaries of two spectators, Stephen
Infessura, and an anonymous citizen.  See the troubles of the year 1484, and
the death of the prothonotary Colonna, in tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1083, 1158.]

[Footnote 87: Est toute la terre de l'eglise troublee pour cette partialite
(des Colonnes et des Ursins) come nous dirions Luce et Grammont, ou en
Hollande Houc et Caballan; et quand ce ne seroit ce differend la terre de
l'eglise seroit la plus heureuse habitation pour les sujets qui soit dans
toute le monde (car ils ne payent ni tailles ni gueres autres choses,) et
seroient toujours bien conduits, (car toujours les papes sont sages et bien
consellies;) mais tres souvent en advient de grands et cruels meurtres et
pilleries.]

     The spiritual thunders of the Vatican depend on the force of opinion; and
if that opinion be supplanted by reason or passion, the sound may idly waste
itself in the air; and the helpless priest is exposed to the brutal violence
of a noble or a plebeian adversary.  But after their return from Avignon, the
keys of St. Peter were guarded by the sword of St. Paul.  Rome was commanded
by an impregnable citadel: the use of cannon is a powerful engine against
popular seditions: a regular force of cavalry and infantry was enlisted under
the banners of the pope: his ample revenues supplied the resources of war:
and, from the extent of his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city
an army of hostile neighbors and loyal subjects. ^88 Since the union of the
duchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the
Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the banks of
the Po; and as early as the sixteenth century, the greater part of that
spacious and fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal
sovereignty of the Roman pontiffs.  Their claims were readily deduced from the
genuine, or fabulous, donations of the darker ages: the successive steps of
their final settlement would engage us too far in the transactions of Italy,
and even of Europe; the crimes of Alexander the Sixth, the martial operations
of Julius the Second, and the liberal policy of Leo the Tenth, a theme which
has been adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the times. ^89 In
the first period of their conquests, till the expedition of Charles the
Eighth, the popes might successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and
states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to their own.  But as
soon as the monarchs of France, Germany and Spain, contended with gigantic
arms for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with art the deficiency of
strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and treaties, their aspiring
views, and the immortal hope of chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps.  The
nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the soldiers of the North
and West, who were united under the standard of Charles the Fifth: the feeble
and fluctuating policy of Clement the Seventh exposed his person and dominions
to the conqueror; and Rome was abandoned seven months to a lawless army, more
cruel and rapacious than the Goths and Vandals. ^90 After this severe lesson,
the popes contracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed the
character of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities,
except in a hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish sultan
were armed at the same time against the kingdom of Naples. ^91 The French and
Germans at length withdrew from the field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily,
Sardinia, and the sea-coast of Tuscany, were firmly possessed by the
Spaniards; and it became their interest to maintain the peace and dependence
of Italy, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle of the
sixteenth to the opening of the eighteenth century.  The Vatican was swayed
and protected by the religious policy of the Catholic king: his prejudice and
interest disposed him in every dispute to support the prince against the
people; and instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum, which they
obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the enemies of
law, were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle of despotism.  The long
habits of obedience and education subdued the turbulent spirit of the nobles
and commons of Rome.  The barons forgot the arms and factions of their
ancestors, and insensibly became the servants of luxury and government.
Instead of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce of their
estates was consumed in the private expenses which multiply the pleasures, and
diminish the power, of the lord. ^92 The Colonna and Ursini vied with each
other in the decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique
splendor was rivalled or surpassed by the sudden opulence of the papal
families.  In Rome the voice of freedom and discord is no longer heard; and,
instead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant lake reflects the image
of idleness and servitude.

[Footnote 88: By the oeconomy of Sixtus V. the revenue of the ecclesiastical
state was raised to two millions and a half of Roman crowns, (Vita, tom. ii.
p. 291 - 296;) and so regular was the military establishment, that in one
month Clement VIII. could invade the duchy of Ferrara with three thousand
horse and twenty thousand foot, (tom. iii. p. 64) Since that time (A.D. 1597)
the papal arms are happily rusted: but the revenue must have gained some
nominal increase.

     Note: On the financial measures of Sixtus V. see Ranke, Dio Romischen
Papste, i. p. 459. - M.]

[Footnote 89: More especially by Guicciardini and Machiavel; in the general
history of the former, in the Florentine history, the Prince, and the
political discourses of the latter.  These, with their worthy successors, Fra
Paolo and Davila, were justly esteemed the first historians of modern
languages, till, in the present age, Scotland arose, to dispute the prize with
Italy herself.]

[Footnote 90: In the history of the Gothic siege, I have compared the
Barbarians with the subjects of Charles V., (vol. iii. p. 289, 290;) an
anticipation, which, like that of the Tartar conquests, I indulged with the
less scruple, as I could scarcely hope to reach the conclusion of my work.]

[Footnote 91: The ambitious and feeble hostilities of the Caraffa pope, Paul
IV. may be seen in Thuanus (l. xvi. - xviii.) and Giannone, (tom. iv p. 149 -
163.) Those Catholic bigots, Philip II. and the duke of Alva, presumed to
separate the Roman prince from the vicar of Christ, yet the holy character,
which would have sanctified his victory was decently applied to protect his
defeat.

     Note: But compare Ranke, Die Romischen Papste, i. p. 289. - M]

[Footnote 92: This gradual change of manners and expense is admirably
explained by Dr. Adam Smith, (Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 495 - 504,) who
proves, perhaps too severely, that the most salutary effects have flowed from
the meanest and most selfish causes.]

     A Christian, a philosopher, ^93 and a patriot, will be equally
scandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and the local majesty of
Rome, the remembrance of her consuls and triumphs, may seem to imbitter the
sense, and aggravate the shame, of her slavery.  If we calmly weigh the merits
and defects of the ecclesiastical government, it may be praised in its present
state, as a mild, decent, and tranquil system, exempt from the dangers of a
minority, the sallies of youth, the expenses of luxury, and the calamities of
war.  But these advantages are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a
septennial, election of a sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country;
the reign of a young statesman of threescore, in the decline of his life and
abilities, without hope to accomplish, and without children to inherit, the
labors of his transitory reign.  The successful candidate is drawn from the
church, and even the convent; from the mode of education and life the most
adverse to reason, humanity, and freedom.  In the trammels of servile faith,
he has learned to believe because it is absurd, to revere all that is
contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the esteem of a rational
being; to punish error as a crime, to reward mortification and celibacy as the
first of virtues; to place the saints of the calendar ^94 above the heroes of
Rome and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal, or the crucifix, as
more useful instruments than the plough or the loom.  In the office of nuncio,
or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the
primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners: from study and experience
he may suspect the mystery of his profession; but the sacerdotal artist will
imbibe some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates.  The genius of Sixtus
the Fifth ^95 burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister.  In a reign of
five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane
sanctuaries of Rome, ^96 formed a naval and military force, restored and
emulated the monuments of antiquity, and after a liberal use and large
increase of the revenue, left five millions of crowns in the castle of St.
Angelo.  But his justice was sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted
by the ambition of conquest: after his decease the abuses revived; the
treasure was dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new taxes and
the venality of offices; and, after his death, his statue was demolished by an
ungrateful, or an injured, people. ^97 The wild and original character of
Sixtus the Fifth stands alone in the series of the pontiffs; the maxims and
effects of their temporal government may be collected from the positive and
comparative view of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the
wealth and population, of the ecclesiastical state.  For myself, it is my wish
to depart in charity with all mankind, nor am I willing, in these last
moments, to offend even the pope and clergy of Rome. ^98

[Footnote 93: Mr. Hume (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 389) too hastily conclude
that if the civil and ecclesiastical powers be united in the same person, it
is of little moment whether he be styled prince or prelate since the temporal
character will always predominate.]

[Footnote 94: A Protestant may disdain the unworthy preference of St. Francis
or St. Dominic, but he will not rashly condemn the zeal or judgment of Sixtus
V., who placed the statues of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul on the
vacant columns of Trajan and Antonine.]

[Footnote 95: A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti, has given the Vita di
Sisto-Quinto, (Amstel. 1721, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) a copious and amusing work,
but which does not command our absolute confidence.  Yet the character of the
man, and the principal facts, are supported by the annals of Spondanus and
Muratori, (A.D. 1585 - 1590,) and the contemporary history of the great
Thuanus, (l. lxxxii. c. 1, 2, l. lxxxiv c. 10, l. c. c. 8.)

     Note: The industry of M. Ranke has discovered the document, a kind of
scandalous chronicle of the time, from which Leti wrought up his amusing
romances.  See also M. Ranke's observations on the Life of Sixtus. by
Tempesti, b. iii. p. 317, 324. - M.]

[Footnote 96: These privileged places, the quartieri or franchises, were
adopted from the Roman nobles by the foreign ministers.  Julius II. had once
abolished the abominandum et detestandum franchitiarum hujusmodi nomen: and
after Sixtus V. they again revived.  I cannot discern either the justice or
magnanimity of Louis XIV., who, in 1687, sent his ambassador, the marquis de
Lavardin, to Rome, with an armed force of a thousand officers, guards, and
domestics, to maintain this iniquitous claim, and insult Pope Innocent XI. in
the heart of his capital, (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 260 - 278. Muratori,
Annali d'Italia, tom. xv. p. 494 - 496, and Voltaire, Siccle de Louis XIV.
tom. i. c. 14, p. 58, 59.)]

[Footnote 97: This outrage produced a decree, which was inscribed on marble,
and placed in the Capitol.  It is expressed in a style of manly simplicity and
freedom: Si quis, sive privatus, sive magistratum gerens de collocanda vivo
pontifici statua mentionem facere ausit, legitimo S. P. Q. R. decreto in
perpetuum infamis et publicorum munerum expers esto.  MDXC. mense Augusto,
(Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 469.) I believe that this decree is still
observed, and I know that every monarch who deserves a statue should himself
impose the prohibition.]

[Footnote 98: The histories of the church, Italy, and Christendom, have
contributed to the chapter which I now conclude.  In the original Lives of the
Popes, we often discover the city and republic of Rome: and the events of the
xivth and xvth centuries are preserved in the rude and domestic chronicles
which I have carefully inspected, and shall recapitulate in the order of time.

     1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium Roman.  A.D.
1328, in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. xii. p. 525.  N. B.
The credit of this fragment is somewhat hurt by a singular interpolation, in
which the author relates his own death at the age of 115 years.

     2. Fragmenta Historiae Romanae (vulgo Thomas Fortifioccae) in Romana
Dialecto vulgari, (A.D. 1327 - 1354, in Muratori, Antiquitat. Medii Aevi
Italiae, tom. iii. p. 247 - 548;) the authentic groundwork of the history of
Rienzi.

     3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1370 - 1410,) in the Rerum
Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846. 4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom, (A.D.
1404 - 1417,) tom. xxiv. p. 699.

     5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana, (A.D. 1433 - 1446,) tom.
xxiv. p. 1101.

     6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1472 - 1484,) tom. xxiii p.
81.

     7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romae, (A.D. 1481 - 1492,) tom. iii. P. ii. p.
1069.

     8. Infessurae (Stephani) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1294, or 1378 - 1494,)
tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109.

     9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario Joh.  Burcardi,
(A.D. 1492 - 1503,) edita a Godefr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Hanover, 697, in 4to.
The large and valuable Journal of Burcard might be completed from the MSS. in
different libraries of Italy and France, (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de
l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xvii. p. 597 - 606.)

Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the
Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy.  His
country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works on that
subject: 1. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, (A.D. 500 - 1500,) quorum potissima
pars nunc primum in lucem prodit, &c., xxviii. vols. in folio, Milan, 1723 -
1738, 1751.  A volume of chronological and alphabetical tables is still
wanting as a key to this great work, which is yet in a disorderly and
defective state.  2. Antiquitates Italiae Medii Aevi, vi. vols. in folio,
Milan, 1738 - 1743, in lxxv. curious dissertations, on the manners,
government, religion, &c., of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large
supplement of charters, chronicles, &c.  3. Dissertazioni sopra le Antiquita
Italiane, iii. vols. in 4to., Milano, 1751, a free version by the author,
which may be quoted with the same confidence as the Latin text of the
Antiquities.  Annali d' Italia, xviii. vols. in octavo, Milan, 1753 - 1756, a
dry, though accurate and useful, abridgment of the history of Italy, from the
birth of Christ to the middle of the xviiith century.  5. Dell' Antichita
Estense ed Italiane, ii. vols, in folio, Modena, 1717, 1740.  In the history
of this illustrious race, the parent of our Brunswick kings, the critic is not
seduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the subject.  In all his works,
Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who aspires above
the prejudices of a Catholic priest.  He was born in the year 1672, and died
in the year 1750, after passing near 60 years in the libraries of Milan and
Modena, (Vita del Proposto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and
successor Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori Venezia, 1756 m 4to.)]