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BOOK III.

AFTER a revolution so sudden and fortunate, it appeared absolutely necessary for Rienzi to seal the success of his enterprise with the Pope's authority. He well knew that in acquainting the conspirators with his being in some sort acknowledged by the Pope, and in affirming to the people that he would not upon any condition but that of the holy father's confirmation have accepted of the charge, he should reap an infinite advantage. This double decoy drew to his party a number of honest men, whom it was dangerous to undeceive, and gave his usurpation an air of lawful authority, which he judged requisite to preserve. One favourable word from Clement VI., or the least sign of his approbation, was sufficient to justify an action which without it could be esteemed no less than open rebellion. Notwithstanding the visible contradiction between his proceeding and his pretended zeal for the service of the church, he had however, at all times, assiduously studied to reconcile them, and affected to do every thing for the ecclesiastical state, while in fact his own interest was the sole object of his thoughts; by these means he not only extenuated his usurpation, but obtained farther the approbation of the very person who ought to have been the most offended at it. He was not the least deceived in his hopes. The deputies charged with his despatches and those of the pope's vicar, whom he had prevailed upon to write in his favour, were so much the better received at Avignon, as a submis

sion so great could not have been well expected on his part. The news of this revolution at Rome was soon dispersed over Europe, and looked upon rather as a sedition that would consume away like a transient fire, than one of those grand combustions which change the face of affairs in a state, and which are in reality eras the most remarkable in history. The court of Avignon had taken the alarm, and was consulting means to redress itself when the deputies from

Rienzi arrived.

The pope was at that time sensible that he alone had occasioned the deputation of the Romans to beseech him to leave Avignon, and that his refusal had partly been the cause of the confusion; that the resentment of the Italians had made them favour Lewis of Bavaria in his attempts against the holy see by their neglect, notwithstanding the repeated assurances they had made of defending him against the` Emperor even to the last drop of their blood. In all appearance this revolution at Rome was the fruit of a discontent of forty-two years' continuance, reckoning from the exaltation of Clement V., first pope of Avignon, on the 5th of June, 1305, to the elevation of Rienzi on the 20th of May, 1347; in which it is remarkable, that the former of these critical days for the Romans was Whitsun-eve, and the latter Whit-Sunday, a circumstance which Rienzi failed not to turn to advantage.

These considerations obliged Clement in so nice an affair to act with deliberation, especially as Rienzi's letters were couched in terms full of zeal for the good of the church, and submission to the vicar of Jesus Christ. He declared therein, that he had nothing in view in what he had done but the establishment of the authority of the holy see, almost annihilated by some particular lords; that the Romans had in a manner forced him to put himself at their head, in order to free Rome from the tyranny she long had groaned under; that without the expectation of his holiness' good will, he would not have joined hands with them, and upon condition of acting in concert with this vicar, whom he had expressly demanded for a joint administrator in the government. In a word, that if his holiness would vouchsafe to confirm him in the administration, he doubted not of

convincing him of the disinterestedness of his intentions, and of his passive obedience to all his commands.

The envoys of Rienzi in their audiences lessened much the submission professed in his letters. Having expatiated on the ability, the wisdom, and the authority of a man who, at the first word of command, had drove from Rome the most ennobled, hitherto regardless, high as it was, of the papal power, they acquainted his holiness that the people of Rome would never suffer any infringement on the authority of Rienzi, who had already given them proofs of his good administration, and who was, as it were, idolised by them; that even Rienzi himself should not leave them at his own pleasure, and that they would compel him to maintain the high post he possessed with so much dignity for the good of his country.

The court of Avignon upon consideration shut their eyes on all that had passed. They commended Rienzi's zeal, and were content with his good intentions; they exhorted him to preserve the favour and protection of the holy father, who, if he approved not of the manner, ratified the election, and confirmed Rienzi and Raymond in the authority and power which the Romans had bestowed on them; they moreover judged it proper to make known that they were acquainted with the whole proceeding," for (said the holy father) such an election could not have been made without our consent, because the Romans soon after our exaltation invested us with the sole power of nominating officers of the city."

While the envoys of Rienzi were negociating for him at Avignon, or rather from the moment they departed, he was meditating upon the means of obtaining a new title, without concerning himself about that which the pope should think fit to confer, and which he wisely foresaw he must be obliged to accept of. He considered that a power granted by the pope would in all probability be loaded with such restrictions, as must most effectually limit the extent of the grand projects he had formed; that, therefore, it highly behoved him to put himself in a condition that would one day enable him to shake off the pope's authority, if he should'

présume either to regulate, diminish, or take away the power he had usurped.

Nothing was more plausible than the title he fixed upon, which was that of tribune of the people. Versed in the Roman history, he knew the extensiveness of that charge in ancient Rome, that from a small beginning the tribunes brought it to a power almost despotic, to which the greatest of the republic, the senate, the consuls were compelled to submit. After the extinction of the republic it appeared of such importance, that the emperors thought themselves not invested with power sufficient, unless they annexed to their dignity the charge of tribune, which afterward became inseparable; a charge which, at its origin was regarded only as the most proper means of securing the liberty of the Romans, yet falling into the hands of the emperors, became the instrument of oppression, and the destruction of that very liberty itself.

Extraordinary as this title appeared, which had long since remained unknown at Rome, it required nothing more than a little fawning upon the people, to call to their remembrance their ancient grandeur, and those happy times wherein the masters of the universe were obliged to make court to the meanest citizens for their suffrages. Rienzi assem

bled the people, and having fed them as usual with his chimerical ideas of the re-establishment of a republic, he told them he had two favours to beg of them, the first was to ratify all that he had done to that time, the banishment of the punishment of the criminals he had executed, the regulations he had made, and the order he had dispersed over the city; the second was to confer upon him a title independent of any other than that which he should receive from the people, and which might happen to stand in need of such a regulation as he at that time required of them.

The people, in a manner enchanted with respect for him, answered his demands with a general applause; they clapped their hands, and with one voice proclaimed their eulogiums on all he had done; they were so little masters of their own reason, and so perfectly devoted to his person, that whatever dignity he requested, they would willingly

have granted; he might doubtless, had he thought fit, been proclaimed king or emperor.

But Rienzi coveted not those august titles, which, far from augmenting, most frequently diminish the power of the possessor: his aim was to obtain an authority more than royal, yet under the name of popularity. He again repeated what he so many times had insinuated to the Romans, that they were a people of all others the least susceptible of oppression, and ought to pay obedience to no other governor than the person they should elect; that, as the insolence of the patricians formerly produced the creation of tribunes to support the rights of the people, the present tyranny of the nobles demanded loudly a similar defence; that the nobles omitted no opportunity of making their efforts to bring them back to the yokes from which the Divine will had, under his ministry, freed them; that, as the name of tribune was so dear to the people, so detestable to the grandees, none but a tribune could repel their attacks; and that he, with that title, should have power sufficient to withstand, like walls of brass, their strongest attempts. He desired, in this new dignity, the copartnership of the pope's vicar, whom he knew would possess the name only of tribune, as he had hitherto done that of governor. When he had finished his harangue, they were both proclaimed tribunes of the people, and, for an addition to their glory, were styled the Deliverers of their Country.

The principal grandees, whom Rienzi had compelled to retire to their country seats, trembled when they found that the power of their enemy, far from losing ground, as they were in hopes of, was daily increasing and improving in grandeur. The new dignity of tribune alarmed them ; they looked upon it as an ill omen; they reproached each other with their blindness in regard to the conduct of the man, who had diverted them with his conceits; they blamed, above all, Stephen Colonna for not foreseeing the evil which he might, at its birth, by sacrificing one wretch, have smothered: they had all, indeed, laughed at the alarms and cautions which they had been advised to take against the sallies of a politic buffoon, who only amused them.

Whether they were wrong or no in not quenching at first

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