The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60

[Footnote 126: The origin and progress of the title of cardinal
may be found in Themassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p.
1261 - 1298,) Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. vi.
Dissert. lxi. p. 159 - 182,) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist.
Eccles. p. 345 - 347,) who accurately remarks the form and
changes of the election. The cardinal-bishops so highly exalted
by Peter Damianus, are sunk to a level with the rest of the
sacred college.]

[Footnote 127: Firmiter jurantes, nunquam se papam electuros aut
audinaturos, praeter consensum et electionem Othonis et filii
sui. (Liutprand, l. vi. c. 6, p. 472.) This important concession
may either supply or confirm the decree of the clergy and people
of Rome, so fiercely rejected by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori,
(A.D. 964,) and so well defended and explained by St. Marc,
(Abrege, tom. ii. p. 808 - 816, tom. iv. p. 1167 - 1185.) Consult
the historical critic, and the Annals of Muratori, for for the
election and confirmation of each pope.]

[Footnote 128: The oppression and vices of the Roman church, in
the xth century, are strongly painted in the history and legation
of Liutprand, (see p. 440, 450, 471 - 476, 479, &c.;) and it is
whimsical enough to observe Muratori tempering the invectives of
Baronius against the popes. But these popes had been chosen, not
by the cardinals, but by lay-patrons.]

[Footnote 129: The time of Pope Joan (papissa Joanna) is placed
somewhat earlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of
her imaginary reign are forcibly inserted between Leo IV. and
Benedict III. But the contemporary Anastasius indissolubly links
the death of Leo and the elevation of Benedict, (illico, mox, p.
247;) and the accurate chronology of Pagi, Muratori, and
Leibnitz, fixes both events to the year 857.]

[Footnote 130: The advocates for Pope Joan produce one hundred
and fifty witnesses, or rather echoes, of the xivth, xvth, and
xvith centuries. They bear testimony against themselves and the
legend, by multiplying the proof that so curious a story must
have been repeated by writers of every description to whom it was
known. On those of the ixth and xth centuries, the recent event
would have flashed with a double force. Would Photius have
spared such a reproach? Could Liutprand have missed such
scandal? It is scarcely worth while to discuss the various
readings of Martinus Polonus, Sigeber of Gamblours, or even
Marianus Scotus; but a most palpable forgery is the passage of
Pope Joan, which has been foisted into some Mss. and editions of
the Roman Anastasius.]

[Footnote 131: As false, it deserves that name; but I would not
pronounce it incredible. Suppose a famous French chevalier of
our own times to have been born in Italy, and educated in the
church, instead of the army: her merit or fortune might have
raised her to St. Peter's chair; her amours would have been
natural: her delivery in the streets unlucky, but not
improbable.]

[Footnote 132: Till the reformation the tale was repeated and
believed without offence: and Joan's female statue long occupied
her place among the popes in the cathedral of Sienna, (Pagi,
Critica, tom. iii. p. 624 - 626.) She has been annihilated by two
learned Protestants, Blondel and Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique,
Papesse, Polonus, Blondel;) but their brethren were scandalized
by this equitable and generous criticism. Spanheim and Lenfant
attempt to save this poor engine of controversy, and even Mosheim
condescends to cherish some doubt and suspicion, (p. 289.)]

[Footnote *: John XI. was the son of her husband Alberic, not of
her lover, Pope Sergius III., as Muratori has distinctly proved,
Ann. ad ann. 911, tom. p. 268. Her grandson Octavian, otherwise
called John XII., was pope; but a great-grandson cannot be
discovered in any of the succeeding popes; nor does our historian
himself, in his subsequent narration, (p. 202,) seem to know of
one. Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe Harold, p. 309. - M.]

[Footnote 133: Lateranense palatium ... prostibulum meretricum
... Testis omnium gentium, praeterquam Romanorum, absentia
mulierum, quae sanctorum apostolorum limina orandi gratia timent
visere, cum nonnullas ante dies paucos, hunc audierint
conjugatas, viduas, virgines vi oppressisse, (Liutprand, Hist. l.
vi. c. 6, p. 471. See the whole affair of John XII., p. 471 -
476.)]

[Footnote 134: A new example of the mischief of equivocation is
the beneficium (Ducange, tom. i. p. 617, &c.,) which the pope
conferred on the emperor Frederic I., since the Latin word may
signify either a legal fief, or a simple favor, an obligation,
(we want the word bienfait.) (See Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands,
tom. iii. p. 393 - 408. Pfeffel, Abrege Chronologique, tom. i.
p. 229, 296, 317, 324, 420, 430, 500, 505, 509, &c.)]

In the revival of the empire of empire of Rome, neither the
bishop nor the people could bestow on Charlemagne or Otho the
provinces which were lost, as they had been won, by the chance of
arms. But the Romans were free to choose a master for
themselves; and the powers which had been delegated to the
patrician, were irrevocably granted to the French and Saxon
emperors of the West. The broken records of the times ^135
preserve some remembrance of their palace, their mint, their
tribunal, their edicts, and the sword of justice, which, as late
as the thirteenth century, was derived from Caesar to the
praefect of the city. ^136 Between the arts of the popes and the
violence of the people, this supremacy was crushed and
annihilated. Content with the titles of emperor and Augustus,
the successors of Charlemagne neglected to assert this local
jurisdiction. In the hour of prosperity, their ambition was
diverted by more alluring objects; and in the decay and division
of the empire, they were oppressed by the defence of their
hereditary provinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy, the famous
Marozia invited one of the usurpers to assume the character of
her third husband; and Hugh, king of Burgundy was introduced by
her faction into the mole of Hadrian or Castle of St. Angelo,
which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Her
son by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend at
the nuptial banquet; but his reluctant and ungraceful service was
chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow was productive
of a revolution. "Romans," exclaimed the youth, "once you were
the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject
of your slaves. They now reign, these voracious and brutal
savages, and my injury is the commencement of your servitude."
^137 The alarum bell rang to arms in every quarter of the city:
the Burgundians retreated with haste and shame; Marozia was
imprisoned by her victorious son, and his brother, Pope John XI.,
was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual functions. With the
title of prince, Alberic possessed above twenty years the
government of Rome; and he is said to have gratified the popular
prejudice, by restoring the office, or at least the title, of
consuls and tribunes. His son and heir Octavian assumed, with
the pontificate, the name of John XII.: like his predecessor, he
was provoked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer for the
church and republic; and the services of Otho were rewarded with
the Imperial dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans
were impatient, the festival of the coronation was disturbed by
the secret conflict of prerogative and freedom, and Otho
commanded his sword-bearer not to stir from his person, lest he
should be assaulted and murdered at the foot of the altar. ^138
Before he repassed the Alps, the emperor chastised the revolt of
the people and the ingratitude of John XII. The pope was
degraded in a synod; the praefect was mounted on an ass, whipped
through the city, and cast into a dungeon; thirteen of the most
guilty were hanged, others were mutilated or banished; and this
severe process was justified by the ancient laws of Theodosius
and Justinian. The voice of fame has accused the second Otho of a
perfidious and bloody act, the massacre of the senators, whom he
had invited to his table under the fair semblance of hospitality
and friendship. ^139 In the minority of his son Otho the Third,
Rome made a bold attempt to shake off the Saxon yoke, and the
consul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. From the
condition of a subject and an exile, he twice rose to the command
of the city, oppressed, expelled, and created the popes, and
formed a conspiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek
emperors. ^* In the fortress of St. Angelo, he maintained an
obstinate siege, till the unfortunate consul was betrayed by a
promise of safety: his body was suspended on a gibbet, and his
head was exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a reverse
of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, was besieged three
days, without food, in his palace; and a disgraceful escape saved
him from the justice or fury of the Romans. The senator Ptolemy
was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius
enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a
poison which she administered to her Imperial lover. It was the
design of Otho the Third to abandon the ruder countries of the
North, to erect his throne in Italy, and to revive the
institutions of the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once
in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tyber, to receive
their crown in the Vatican. ^140 Their absence was contemptible,
their presence odious and formidable. They descended from the
Alps, at the head of their barbarians, who were strangers and
enemies to the country; and their transient visit was a scene of
tumult and bloodshed. ^141 A faint remembrance of their ancestors
still tormented the Romans; and they beheld with pious
indignation the succession of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and
Bohemians, who usurped the purple and prerogatives of the
Caesars.

[Footnote 135: For the history of the emperors in Rome and Italy,
see Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, Opp. tom. ii., with the Notes of
Saxius, and the Annals of Muratori, who might refer more
distinctly to the authors of his great collection.]

[Footnote 136: See the Dissertations of Le Blanc at the end of
his treatise des Monnoyes de France, in which he produces some
Roman coins of the French emperors.]

[Footnote 137: Romanorum aliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones,
Romanis imperent? .... Romanae urbis dignitas ad tantam est
stultitiam ducta, ut meretricum etiam imperio pareat?
(Liutprand, l. iii. c. 12, p. 450.) Sigonius (l. vi. p. 400)
positively affirms the renovation of the consulship; but in the
old writers Albericus is more frequently styled princeps
Romanorum.]

[Footnote 138: Ditmar, p. 354, apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 439.]

[Footnote 139: This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse in
the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo, (Script. Ital. tom. vii. p.
436, 437,) who flourished towards the end of the xiith century,
(Fabricius Bibliot. Latin. Med. et Infimi Aevi, tom. iii. p. 69,
edit. Mansi;) but his evidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is
reasonably suspected by Muratori (Annali, tom. viii. p. 177.)]

[Footnote *: The Marquis Maffei's gallery contained a medal with
Imp. Caes August. P. P. Crescentius. Hence Hobhouse infers that
he affected the empire. Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe Harold,
p. 252. - M.]

[Footnote 140: The coronation of the emperor, and some original
ceremonies of the xth century are preserved in the Panegyric on
Berengarius, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 405 - 414,)
illustrated by the Notes of Hadrian Valesius and Leibnitz.
Sigonius has related the whole process of the Roman expedition,
in good Latin, but with some errors of time and fact, (l. vii. p.
441 - 446.)]

[Footnote 141: In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad II.
Muratori takes leave to observe - doveano ben essere allora,
indisciplinati, Barbari, e bestials Tedeschi. Annal. tom. viii.
p. 368.]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.

Part VI.

There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason
than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations,
in opposition to their inclination and interest. A torrent of
Barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extensive empire must
be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression; in the
centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in
resources; a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts;
fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion; a regular
administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplined army
to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. Far
different was the situation of the German Caesars, who were
ambitious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial
estates were stretched along the Rhine, or scattered in the
provinces; but this ample domain was alienated by the imprudence
or distress of successive princes; and their revenue, from minute
and vexatious prerogative, was scarcely sufficient for the
maintenance of their household. Their troops were formed by the
legal or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, who passed
the Alps with reluctance, assumed the license of rapine and
disorder, and capriciously deserted before the end of the
campaign. Whole armies were swept away by the pestilential
influence of the climate: the survivors brought back the bones of
their princes and nobles, ^142 and the effects of their own
intemperance were often imputed to the treachery and malice of
the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the calamities of the
Barbarians. This irregular tyranny might contend on equal terms
with the petty tyrants of Italy; nor can the people, or the
reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekindled the
flame of industry and freedom; and the generous example was at
length imitated by the republics of Tuscany. ^* In the Italian
cities a municipal government had never been totally abolished;
and their first privileges were granted by the favor and policy
of the emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian barrier
against the independence of the nobles. But their rapid
progress, the daily extension of their power and pretensions,
were founded on the numbers and spirit of these rising
communities. ^143 Each city filled the measure of her diocese or
district: the jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the
marquises and counts, was banished from the land; and the
proudest nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their
solitary castles, and to embrace the more honorable character of
freemen and magistrates. The legislative authority was inherent
in the general assembly; but the executive powers were intrusted
to three consuls, annually chosen from the three orders of
captains, valvassors, ^144 and commons, into which the republic
was divided. Under the protection of equal law, the labors of
agriculture and commerce were gradually revived; but the martial
spirit of the Lombards was nourished by the presence of danger;
and as often as the bell was rung, or the standard ^145 erected,
the gates of the city poured forth a numerous and intrepid band,
whose zeal in their own cause was soon guided by the use and
discipline of arms. At the foot of these popular ramparts, the
pride of the Caesars was overthrown; and the invincible genius of
liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, the greatest princes of
the middle age; the first, superior perhaps in military prowess;
the second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer
accomplishments of peace and learning.

[Footnote 142: After boiling away the flesh. The caldrons for
that purpose were a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and
a German who was using it for his brother, promised it to a
friend, after it should have been employed for himself, (Schmidt,
tom. iii. p. 423, 424.) The same author observes that the whole
Saxon line was extinguished in Italy, (tom. ii. p. 440.)]

[Footnote *: Compare Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques
Italiannes. Hallam Middle Ages. Raumer, Geschichte der
Hohenstauffen. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts, vol.
iii. p. 19 with the authors quoted. - M.]

[Footnote 143: Otho, bishop of Frisingen, has left an important
passage on the Italian cities, (l. ii. c. 13, in Script. Ital.
tom. vi. p. 707 - 710: ) and the rise, progress, and government
of these republics are perfectly illustrated by Muratori,
(Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. iv. dissert xlv. - lii. p. 1
- 675. Annal. tom. viii. ix. x.)]

[Footnote 144: For these titles, see Selden, (Titles of Honor,
vol. iii. part 1 p. 488.) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. ii. p.
140, tom. vi. p. 776,) and St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique, tom.
ii. p. 719.)]

[Footnote 145: The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a
standard planted on a car or wagon, drawn by a team of oxen,
(Ducange, tom. ii. p. 194, 195. Muratori Antiquitat tom. ii. dis.
xxvi. p. 489 - 493.)]

Ambitious of restoring the splendor of the purple, Frederic
the First invaded the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a
statesman, the valor of a soldier, and the cruelty of a tyrant.
The recent discovery of the Pandects had renewed a science most
favorable to despotism; and his venal advocates proclaimed the
emperor the absolute master of the lives and properties of his
subjects. His royal prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were
acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia; and the revenue of Italy
was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of silver, ^146 which were
multiplied to an indefinite demand by the rapine of the fiscal
officers. The obstinate cities were reduced by the terror or the
force of his arms: his captives were delivered to the
executioner, or shot from his military engines; and. after the
siege and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that stately
capital were razed to the ground, three hundred hostages were
sent into Germany, and the inhabitants were dispersed in four
villages, under the yoke of the inflexible conqueror. ^147 But
Milan soon rose from her ashes; and the league of Lombardy was
cemented by distress: their cause was espoused by Venice, Pope
Alexander the Third, and the Greek emperor: the fabric of
oppression was overturned in a day; and in the treaty of
Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some reservations, the
freedom of four-and-twenty cities. His grandson contended with
their vigor and maturity; but Frederic the Second ^148 was
endowed with some personal and peculiar advantages. His birth
and education recommended him to the Italians; and in the
implacable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were
attached to the emperor, while the Guelfs displayed the banner of
liberty and the church. The court of Rome had slumbered, when
his father Henry the Sixth was permitted to unite with the empire
the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily; and from these hereditary
realms the son derived an ample and ready supply of troops and
treasure. Yet Frederic the Second was finally oppressed by the
arms of the Lombards and the thunders of the Vatican: his kingdom
was given to a stranger, and the last of his family was beheaded
at Naples on a public scaffold. During sixty years, no emperor
appeared in Italy, and the name was remembered only by the
ignominious sale of the last relics of sovereignty.

[Footnote 146: Gunther Ligurinus, l. viii. 584, et seq., apud
Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 399.]

[Footnote 147: Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petram,
(Burcard. de Excidio Mediolani, Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 917.)
This volume of Muratori contains the originals of the history of
Frederic the First, which must be compared with due regard to the
circumstances and prejudices of each German or Lombard writer.

Note: Von Raumer has traced the fortunes of the Swabian
house in one of the ablest historical works of modern times. He
may be compared with the spirited and independent Sismondi. - M.]

[Footnote 148: For the history of Frederic II. and the house of
Swabia at Naples, see Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. ii. l. xiv.
- xix.]

The Barbarian conquerors of the West were pleased to
decorate their chief with the title of emperor; but it was not
their design to invest him with the despotism of Constantine and
Justinian. The persons of the Germans were free, their conquests
were their own, and their national character was animated by a
spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of the new or the
ancient Rome. It would have been a vain and dangerous attempt to
impose a monarch on the armed freemen, who were impatient of a
magistrate; on the bold, who refused to obey; on the powerful,
who aspired to command. The empire of Charlemagne and Otho was
distributed among the dukes of the nations or provinces, the
counts of the smaller districts, and the margraves of the marches
or frontiers, who all united the civil and military authority as
it had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Caesars.
The Roman governors, who, for the most part, were soldiers of
fortune, seduced their mercenary legions, assumed the Imperial
purple, and either failed or succeeded in their revolt, without
wounding the power and unity of government. If the dukes,
margraves, and counts of Germany, were less audacious in their
claims, the consequences of their success were more lasting and
pernicious to the state. Instead of aiming at the supreme rank,
they silently labored to establish and appropriate their
provincial independence. Their ambition was seconded by the
weight of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and
support, the common interest of the subordinate nobility, the
change of princes and families, the minorities of Otho the Third
and Henry the Fourth, the ambition of the popes, and the vain
pursuit of the fugitive crowns of Italy and Rome. All the
attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction were gradually
usurped by the commanders of the provinces; the right of peace
and war, of life and death, of coinage and taxation, of foreign
alliance and domestic economy. Whatever had been seized by
violence, was ratified by favor or distress, was granted as the
price of a doubtful vote or a voluntary service; whatever had
been granted to one could not, without injury, be denied to his
successor or equal; and every act of local or temporary
possession was insensibly moulded into the constitution of the
Germanic kingdom. In every province, the visible presence of the
duke or count was interposed between the throne and the nobles;
the subjects of the law became the vassals of a private chief;
and the standard which he received from his sovereign, was often
raised against him in the field. The temporal power of the
clergy was cherished and exalted by the superstition or policy of
the Carlovingian and Saxon dynasties, who blindly depended on
their moderation and fidelity; and the bishoprics of Germany were
made equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and
population, to the most ample states of the military order. As
long as the emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing on
every vacancy these ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their
cause was maintained by the gratitude or ambition of their
friends and favorites. But in the quarrel of the investitures,
they were deprived of their influence over the episcopal
chapters; the freedom of election was restored, and the sovereign
was reduced, by a solemn mockery, to his first prayers, the
recommendation, once in his reign, to a single prebend in each
church. The secular governors, instead of being recalled at the
will of a superior, could be degraded only by the sentence of
their peers. In the first age of the monarchy, the appointment
of the son to the duchy or county of his father, was solicited as
a favor; it was gradually obtained as a custom, and extorted as a
right: the lineal succession was often extended to the collateral
or female branches; the states of the empire (their popular, and
at length their legal, appellation) were divided and alienated by
testament and sale; and all idea of a public trust was lost in
that of a private and perpetual inheritance. The emperor could
not even be enriched by the casualties of forfeiture and
extinction: within the term of a year, he was obliged to dispose
of the vacant fief; and, in the choice of the candidate, it was
his duty to consult either the general or the provincial diet.

After the death of Frederic the Second, Germany was left a
monster with a hundred heads. A crowd of princes and prelates
disputed the ruins of the empire: the lords of innumerable
castles were less prone to obey, than to imitate, their
superiors; and, according to the measure of their strength, their
incessant hostilities received the names of conquest or robbery.
Such anarchy was the inevitable consequence of the laws and
manners of Europe; and the kingdoms of France and Italy were
shivered into fragments by the violence of the same tempest. But
the Italian cities and the French vassals were divided and
destroyed, while the union of the Germans has produced, under the
name of an empire, a great system of a federative republic. In
the frequent and at last the perpetual institution of diets, a
national spirit was kept alive, and the powers of a common
legislature are still exercised by the three branches or colleges
of the electors, the princes, and the free and Imperial cities of
Germany. I. Seven of the most powerful feudatories were
permitted to assume, with a distinguished name and rank, the
exclusive privilege of choosing the Roman emperor; and these
electors were the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the
margrave of Brandenburgh, the count palatine of the Rhine, and
the three archbishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II.
The college of princes and prelates purged themselves of a
promiscuous multitude: they reduced to four representative votes
the long series of independent counts, and excluded the nobles or
equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets,
had appeared on horseback in the field of election. III. The
pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and the mitre, wisely
adopted the commons as the third branch of the legislature, and,
in the progress of society, they were introduced about the same
aera into the national assemblies of France England, and Germany.