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A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
A SHORT
HISTOKY OF ITALY
(476-1900)
BY
HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK
BOSTON \M> NKW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
Cbc OitorrfliDr prrsa, CnmbriDoe
L906
COPVRIOH1 n/>5 H\ RENR1 DWIOH1 BBDOWICK
All. RIORTfl UMRVBD
Publisktd Novtmbtr jqos
TO
H. D. S., C. D. S., R. M. S., W. E. S.,
A. C. S., F. M. S., and T. S.
passi graviova . . .
. . . forsan et ha>c olim meminisse juvabit.
PREFACE
This volume is a mere sketch in outline; it makes
no pretence to original investigation, or even to an
extended examination of the voluminous literature
which deals with every part of its subject. It is
an attempt to give a correct impression of Italian
history as a whole, and employs details only here
and there, and then merely for the sake of giving
greater clearness to the general outline. So hrief a
narrative is mainly a work of selection ; and perhaps
no two persons would agree upon what to put in and
what to leave out. I have laid emphasis upon the
matters of greatest general interest, the Papacy, the
Renaissance, and the Risorgimento ; and my special
ohject has been to put in high relief those achieve-
ments which make Italy so charming and so interest-
ing to the world, and to give what space was possible
to the great men to whom these achievements are due.
II. D. S.
Nkw York, October 1, 1905.
CONTENTS
CHAPTEB FAOB
I. The Fall of the Empire in the West
(476 a. d.) 1
II. The Ostrogoths (489-553) 12
III. The Lombard Invasion (568) ... 23
IV. The Church (568-700) 31
V. The Coming of the Franks (726-768) . . 40
VI. Charlemagne (768-814) 49
VII. From Charlemagne to Nicholas I (814-867) 57
VIII. The Degradation of Italy (867-962) . . 67
IX. The Revival of the Papacy (962-1056) . 79
X. The Struggle over Investitures (1059-1123) 89
XI. Trade against Feudalism (1152-1190) . . 102
XII. Triumph of the Papacy (1198-1216) . . 114
XIII. St. Francis (1182-1226) 125
XIV. The Fall of the Empire (1216-1250) . . 133
XV. The Fall of the Medieval Papacy (1303) 145
XVI. Last Flicker of the Empire (1309-1313) . 152
XVII. A Review of the States of Italy (about 1300) 161
XVIII. The Transition from the Middle Ages to the
Renaissance 175
XIX. The Intellectual Dawn after the Middle
Ages (1260-1336) 182
XX. The Despotisms (1250-1350) . . . .192
XXI. The Classical Revival (1350) ... 201
XXII. Tiik Ills of the Fourteenth Century . . 209
XXIII. A Kikd's-Kye View (1350-1450) ... 218
XXIV. The Early Renaissance (1400-1450) . . 231
XXV. Tim. Kin\I"an<i (1460 L492) ... 242
XXVI. Tin I'.akhakian Invasions (1494-1537) . . 253
XXVII. Tin 1'ai-al Monaim iiy (1471-1627) . . 267
XXVIII. Tm iln.ii Kinai-an. i (1489-1621) ... 281
x CONTENTS
XXIX. Itmyanp rm Catholic Revival (1627 1563) 293
XXX To CnrojUBCKHTO (16th Century) . . . 304
XXXI. A BUBVXT of Italy (1580-1581) . . . 319
XXXII Tin A ai ok Stagnation, Politics (1580-1 789) 336
XXXIII. Tiik Ai;k <>y Stagnation, tiik Arts (1580-
1789) 348
XXXIV. Tiik Napoleonic Era (1789-1820) . . . 361
XXXV. rm Ki awakening (1820-1821) . . . 3<;<>
XXXVI PXBTDBBBO Inactivity (1821 1847) . . 377
XXXVII. Tumultuous Years (1848-1849) ... 386
XXXVIII. Tiik Unity OF Italy (1849-1871) . . . 395
XXXIX COHOXUMOM (1872-1900) .... 109
APPENDIX
I. Chronological Table of Popes and Emperors . 421
II. GENEALOGY OF THE MKOICI 428
III. Skeleton Table of the Kings of tiik. Two Sicilies 429
IV. I.im ok Books for General Reading . . . 430
QTDEX 433
A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
CHAPTER I
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST (476 A. D.)
In the year 476 an unfortunate young man, mocked
with the great names of the founders of the City
and of the Empire, Romulus Augustus, nicknamed
Augustulus, was deposed from the throne of the
Caesars by a Barbarian general in the Imperial ser-
vice, and the Roman Empire in Italy came to its
end. This act was but the outward sign that the
power of Italy was utterly gone, and that in the
West at least the Barbarians were indisputably con-
querors in the long struggle which they had carried
on for centuries with the Roman Empire.
That Empire, at the period of its greatness, em-
braced all the countries around the Mediterranean
Sea ; it was the political embodiment of the Medi-
terranean civilization. In Europe, to the northeast,
it reached as far as the Rhine and the Danube ; it
included England. Beyond the Rhine and the Dan-
ube dwelt the Barbarians. Europe was thus divided
into two parts, the civilized and the Barbarian :
one, a great Latin empire which rested upon slavery,
and was governed by a highly centralized bureau-
cracy ; the other, a collection of tribes of Teutonic
blood, bound together in a very simple form of soci-
ety, and essentially democratic in character.
8 \ SHORT HISTOBY OF ITALY
T| 1( . Empire, composed o£ many races, Etruscan,
Ligurian, Iberian, Celtic Basque, Greek, Egyptian,
and divers others, bad been created and maintained
U the military and administrative genius of Rome.
Over all these people Roman law and Roman or-
der prevailed. All enjoyed the Pax Romana. From
Cadiz to Milan, from Milan to Byzantium, from
Byzantium to Palmyra, stretched the great Roman
roads. Coins, weights, and measures were every-
where the same. The inhabitants of Africa, Asia,
and Europe, enfranchised by an Imperial edict, were
thankful to be Roman citizens. To this day Roman
law, the Romance languages, and the Roman Catb-
olic Church testify to the vigour and solidity of
Roman dominion. The city of Rome was, and had
been for centuries, the head of the world. From
east and west, from north and south, booty, spoils,
i, tribute had Ho wed into Rome. Even after
the seal of government had been removed to Con-
stantinople (a. u. 330), visitors from the new capi-
t il were astounded to behold the Roman temples,
baths, amphitheatres, forums, circuses, and palaces,
all glittering with marble and bronze. But the
riches acquired by conquest and tribute had brought
seeds of evil with them. Society was divided into
the very rich and the very poor; the simple labo-
rious life of the freemen of ancient Rome was gone;
the regular occupations of production had been aban-
doned to serf's and slaves; moderate incomes and
plaio living had disappeared. The middle class had
been thrust down to the level of the plebs. In the
country the small proprietors had been reduced to
FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 3
a position little better than that of the serfs, while
the great landlords had got vast tracts of land into
their hands. Nearly half the population were slaves.
Taxes had become heavier and heavier as the exi-
gencies of the Empire grew ; great numbers of offi-
cials were maintained, and great mercenary armies.
The rich controlled the government, and shifted
almost the whole burden of taxation from their own
shoulders to those of the poor. In the cities, each
imitating Rome so far as it could, had grown up a
vicious unemployed class, living on the distribution
of bread which was paid for out of the public revenues.
On the farther side of the Rhine and the Danube,
in marked contrast with this society, the Teutonic
Barbarians tilled their lands and herded their flocks.
They dwelt in little communities which were banded
together into tribes ; and these in turn were united
in a sort of loose confederation, which assumed the
semblance of a nation only when under the neces-
sity of military action, and then the adult male
population constituted the army. Their buildings
were of the humblest character, their clothes rude,
tlitir arts primitive ; they could neither read nor
write, and their men cared for little besides hunt-
ing and lighting. They were, however, a free, self-
rosp feting, self-governing people, electing their king,
and meeting in one great assembly to enact their
laws. Oil tin- Roman borders the Barbarians had
become Christians, unfortunately not Trinitarians,
but mere Axians, heretics in the eyes of the ortho-
dox Catholics; bo their Christianity hardly served
to smooth their relations with the Romans.
4 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
The differences between these two divisions of
Europe were about as great as between ourselves and
the I > < > 1 1 Cossacks. A Roman gentleman living in
Gaul, for example, would have a villa in Auvergne,
built high upou the hills in order to get the breezes
and the view. Here was a bath-house, a fish-pond,
separate apartments for the women, a pillared por-
tico that overlooked a lake, a winter drawing-room,
a Bummei parlour, etc. In this agreeable place, in
his times of leisure, the ow T ner would stroll about
his grounds, play tennis, cultivate his garden, read
Virgil and Claudian, compose epigrams, write letters
to his Friends in the vein of Horace's Satires, gossip
about the doings at the Imperial court or talk phi-
losophy. The pleasant, luxurious life of Roman gen-
tlemen was not very different from luxurious life in
America to-day.
The Barbarians in their native forests were hardly
aware of Roman civilization ; and those on the border
made a marked contrast with the Romans. The young
kin^s were superb athletes, sparing at table, and at-
tentive to their kingly duties. The Barbarian eld-
ers admired Roman civilization, but w r ere " stiff and
lumpish in body and mind." The young men, six
Peel or more in height, with long, yellow hair, were
great eaters of garlic and indelicate viands; they
went alio ut bare-legged, booted with rough ox-leather,
and wore short-sleeved garments of divers colours,
belted tight, with swords dangling at their backs,
shields at side, and battle-axes in their hands.
Tt would be a mistake, however, to draw a very
sharp line between these two opposing divisions of
FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 5
Europe. The Teutons were called Barbarians because
they were not Romans, but many of them had been
trained in the Roman armies and had lived in Con-
stantinople, Trier, or Milan, and were well accus-
tomed to Roman military arts and discipline ; in fact,
the Roman army was recruited mainly from among
the Barbarians. Roman traders dealt with them
regularly. In one way and another the Barbarians,
especially their leaders, had come under the educating
influence of Roman civilization, and they regarded
that civilization with an amazement and a respect that
at times deepened into awe.
But though a sharp line cannot be drawn, yet at
bottom Romans and Barbarians were far apart. It
was impossible that two societies of such divergent
civilization should exist side by side in peace ; one
must conquer the other. The struggle between the
Empire and its enemies had been almost continuous
since the days of Julius Caesar, and for several cen-
turies the Empire had prevailed ; but social disin-
tegration within had proceeded rapidly, and by the
beginning of the fifth century the Empire's doom
had come. Rome herself, the original home of empire,
It v u nerveless, dead, unsceptred," open to any takers ;
and takers came. The Visigoths, under Alaric, cap-
tured the city in -110 and were merciful ; the Vandals.
nndei Genseric, captured it in 455 and were cruel.
The fall of Rome, which we now see to have been
inevitable, came, however, with a terrible shock to
tin- civilized world. St. Jerome, who had gone to the
irilderneas Dear Bethlehem in order to meditate upon
the prophets, wrote: "My voice is choked and my
A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
sobfl interrupt the words which I write; the city is
subdued which subdued the world. . . . Who could
believe that Rome, which was built of the spoils of
the whole earth, would fall, that the city could, at
the -aim- time, be the cradle and grave of her people;
i hat all the coasts of Asia, Egypt, and Africa should
In- tilled with the slaves and maidens of Rome? That
holy Bethlehem should daily receive, as beggars, men
and women who formerly were conspicuous for their
wealth and luxury? " 1
The < itv of Rome had been deemed immortal; it
had become almost sacred from long veneration ; and
when Rome fell, the Empire in the West had not a
prop to rest upon. Spain was taken by the Suevi and
the Visigoths, Gaul by the Franks, Burgundians, and
Alenianni, England by Angles and Saxons, Africa
1))' the Vandals ; and, with the deposition of Romulus
Augustulus, Italy, too, became the prize of a Bar-
barian general.
The succeeding period of European history, in
Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Italy, is the mingling or
attempted mingling of the old populations of the
Empire with the Barbarian conquerors. The pro-
cess had, indeed, as I have intimated, begun before
the fall of the Empire. For several generations Bar-
barians had not only been received as colonists and
taken as soldiers, but even whole tribes had been
admitted within the Roman boundaries. Imperial
Btatesmeu had realized that the Empire could only
be upheld by an infusion of Barbarian virility, and
they had favoured the process. But assimilation
1 Rome in the Middle Ages, Gregorovius, vol. i, pp. 1(37, 1G8.
FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 7
had not taken place, and now that the Empire had
passed into the hands of the Barbarians there were
two social strata, — the rude martial conquerors on
top, and the civilized, feeble, subject race, ten times
as numerous, underneath. It was obvious to the
wiser Barbarian chiefs, trained as they were in
Roman ways, that if they were to get stable domin-
ion and civilized government, they must adopt the
complicated Imperial machinery. They saw that
unless the Barbarians learned Roman civilization,
they would need hundreds of years to create any
such civilization of their own. This was especially
true in Italy. Odoacer, the general who deposed
Romulus Augustulus, well knew that a state which
had its military service all Barbarian and its civil
service all Roman could not stand firm. Barbarian
sovereignty needed support, especially legal support,
in the eyes of the subject population. Such legiti-
macy could only come from the Empire. Odoacer
and other intelligent Barbarians turned instinctively
to Constantinople for recognition. They did not
think that they had overturned or suppressed the
Empire. Nobody thought that there were two Em-
pires, one Eastern and one Western, one enduring
and one destroyed in 476. To the Roman world
the Empire had always been single, had always been
a unit. The division into eastern and western parts
had been made for convenience of administration :
the Empire itself had never been divided. Even
after tin- western countries of Europe had been
overrun by the Barbarians, the Emperor at Constan-
tinople remained the supreme and sole source of
8 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
authority and law. The very Barbarians could not
free themselves from this theory, however little heed
tin \ paid to it in practice. Odoacer acknowledged
the sovereignty of the Empire without question.
He merely wished to control the civil and military
administration in Italy.
Before beginning a sketch of the attempts to found
a permanent Barbarian government in Italy and to
combine Barbarians and Romans in one people, it is
asary to speak of a rising power which already
constituted the most important element in the situ-
ation. The Church was not only the one vigorous
body in Italy, but it had already begun to fore-
shadow its future greatness. In the time of Constan-
tinc (323 337) and his immediate successors, the
bishops of Home had no primacy over other bishops,
but they had claims to precedence, which they soon
put to good use. Their city was the cradle and home
of Roman dominion. St. Paul had lived and died
there. Above all, as was universally acknowledged,
tlu- apostle Peter had founded their bishopric. Theirs,
in an especial sense, was the Church to which Christ
referred when He said to the apostle, "Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The bishops of Rome also derived immense advan-
Erom the absence of a temporal prince ; whereas
their chief rivals, the patriarchs of Constantinople,
were w holly eclipsed by the presence of the Emperor.
The removal of the great offices of government to
Constantinople and the absence of any real civil
life, had left Rome even then a mere ecclesiastical
FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 9
city, and the head of the Church became the most
important personage there. It was so generally ac-
knowledged that Roman bishops were entitled to
that precedence in rank over other bishops, which
Rome enjoyed over other cities, that in 344 an Ecu-
menical Council submitted a most important question
to the decision of the Roman See. One hundred
years later the great pope, Leo I, merely gave utter-
ance to the general opinion when he said : " St. Peter
and St. Paul are the Romulus and Remus of the new
Rome, as much superior to the old as truth is to
error. If ancient Rome was at the head of the pagan
world, St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, came to teach
in the new Rome, so that from her the light of Chris-
tianity should be shed over the world."
The Roman Church gathered to herself whatever
remained of the administrative ability of ancient
Rome. With acute practical sense she condemned
those subtle doctrines that kept springing up in the
E ist, late flashes of Greek metaphysics ; and though
she may have cut herself off from certain spiritual
Neoplatonic thought, and have set her heart too
much upon domination, yet by her very adherence
to dogma, by her very insistence upon uniform law
and obedience, by steadfastly maintaining the purity
and the unity of the Faith, she became the great
cohesive force in Europe, and by creating Christen-
dom contributed immensely to the cause of Euro-
pean civilization. Partly by good fortune, partly by
h> i Buccess in making her cause prevail, Rome was
always orthodox. She remained Btaunchly Trini-
tarian. She fought the Aiians, who believed that
10 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the Son, created bj the Father, could not be identi-
cal with Him and could not have existed from the
beginning. She Bought the Nestorians, who alleged
that the Virgin was the mother of Christ only in so
far as He was man. She fought the Monophysites,
who denied that Christ had two distinct natures,
human and divine. She fought always gallantly, and
always, or almost always, in the end triumphantly.
In those davs ecclesiastical affairs were inseparable
from political a Hairs ; no man dreamed of severing
them either in fact or in theory; the State and the
Church were one fabric under a double aspect. The
idea of the State apart from the Church, or the
Church apart from the State, was no more imagined
than the Darwinian theory.
If we now go back to Odoacer, and to his Barba-
rian successors, we shall find that in their endeavours
to establish an Italian kingdom they were confronted
by a threefold task, — to blend the Barbarian con-
querors and the subject Latins, to establish friendly
relations with the Empire, and to win the confidence
and support of the Orthodox Church. In all the
long period of Barbarian dominion, each Barbarian
chief in turn had to face the imminent danger that
these three political powers, the subject people, the
Church, and the Empire, should make common cause
against him. The Barbarians, in fact, were always
unsuccessful. They never were able to make Italy
into one kingdom. These three enemies were too
strong for them. The inherent difficulties of the
situation appear at once on the deposition of Rom-
ulus Angustulus, and give whatever interest there is
FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 11
to Odoacer's brief career. Over that career, which
bridges the years 476 to 489, we need not pause,
for Odoacer's attempt to establish a permanent gov-
ernment over all Italy was so ephemeral, and also
so similar in all essential features to that of the
Ostrogoths, his successors, that an account of their
attempt may serve for his as well.
CHAPTER II
THE OSTROGOTHS (489-553)
The Ostrogoths were a fine people; and historians
bave speculated sadly on the immense advantage, the
vast saving of ills, that would have accrued to Italy
had they succeeded in their attempt to establish a
kingdom. Such a union of strength and vigour with
the gifted Italian nature might well have produced
a happy result. But my business is merely to indi-
cate why and how the attempt failed.
The Ostrogoths (East Goths), one branch of the
great Gothic nation, of which the Visigoths (West
Goths) were the other, immediately prior to their
invasion of Italy inhabited Pannonia (now Austria)
on the south side of the Danube. They were a war-
like people, and had given much trouble to the East-
cm Emperors, who had been obliged not only to
bestow upon them territory, but also to pay tribute.
The reigning Emperor eagerly seized the first oppor-
tunity to rid himself of them. He suggested to their
king, Theodoric, — hunter, soldier, statesman, a big-
limbed, heroic man, passionate but just, — that he
should lead his people into Italy, conquer Odoacer,
and rule as Imperial lieutenant. As Italy was far
pleasanter than Pannonia, Theodoric gladly accepted
the suggestion.
The Goths, not more than two or three hundred
THE OSTROGOTHS 13
thousand persons all told, effected their tedious emi-
gration in -iSS— 189. It was an easy matter to defeat
the unstable Odoacer, and the Latins made no resist-
ance. Theodoric, now master of Italy, both by right
of conquest and by Imperial commission, set himself,
in his turn, to the task of uniting Barbarians and
Romans throughout the peninsula under one sta-
ble government. His difficulties were great. In the
first place the immigrating people whom he led,
though mainly Goths, were a medley of various
tribes, and constituted an alien army of occupation
in the midst of an unfriendly population, perhaps
ten times their number. This Roman population,
which had completely given up the use of arms, and
never took part in any fight more formidable than a
riot, was largely urban and lived in the cities which
were scattered over Italy, almost the same that exist
to this day. In the north were Turin, Pavia, Fer-
rara, Milan. Bergamo, Verona, Aquileia ; on the east
coast, Ravenna, Rimini, Ancona ; on the west coast
and in the centre, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Perugia, Spo-
leto, Rome, Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Amain ; and
in the south, the old Greek cities. All the ordinary
business of life was in Roman hands; lawyers, phy-
sicians, weavers, spinners, carpenters, masons, cob-
blers, were Roman. Many of the workmen on great
estates were also Roman. The Goths were primarily
men-at-arms, and only exercised such rude crafts as
were required in village communities. The leaders
became military landowners. Naturally each race
looked upon the other with suspicion, dislike, and
Contempt. It is obvious that there was need of !>«>tli
[4 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
time and statesmanship before the two races would
understand each other, share occupations, inter-
marry, and t'cel themselves countrymen.
Theodoric's policy falls under three heads, — rela-
tions with the subject population, with the Emperor,
and with the Church. With the Romans Theodoric
was just and considerate ; he limited the division of
lands among his followers, so far as he could, to
those lands which Odoacer's followers had had; he
left civil administration chiefly in Roman hands ;
he let Romans live under Roman law and Goths un-
der Gothic law. He employed as his chief counsel-
lor Cassiodorus, a great Roman noble of wealth
and Learning; he issued a code compiled from the
Imperial codes; he reduced the taxation. Following
the custom of the late Western Emperors, he dwelt in
Ravenna, where S. Apollinare Nuovo, S. Sjnrito,^
baptistery, and a mausoleum still testify to his pre-
sence. When the State had been put in order, Theo-
doric made a royal progress to Rome (500), where
he was welcomed with Imperial honours. He promised
to uphold all the institutions established by Roman
Emperors, and showed himself as much interested in
the city as if he had been a Roman. He provided
carefully for the preservation of all the monuments
of antiquity, repaired the walls, the aqueducts, the
cloacae, and drained the Pontine Marshes. He spoke
of Rome as " the city which is indifferent to none,
since she is foreign to none ; the fruitful mother of
eloquence, the spacious temple of every virtue, com-
prising within herself all the cherished marvels of
the universe, so that it may in truth be said, Rome
THE OSTROGOTHS 15
is herself one great marvel." ! He renewed the dis-
tribution of bread, celebrated games in the circus,
and treated the Senate with great distinction. In
fact, until his breach with the Church, which turned
all the orthodox population against him, he walked
closely in the Imperial footsteps and was very suc-
cessful in his relations with the Latin people.
Dealings with the Emperor were more difficult.
Immediately after his victory over Odoacer, Theo-
doric had asked the Emperor for the regalia (the
crown jewels and Imperial vestments) of the West,
which had been sent to Constantinople upon the de-
position of Romulus Augustulus. This embassy had
been at first fobbed off, but finally the regalia were
sent him in token of full recognition of his authority.
In the mean time Theodoric's army without waiting
for permission from the Emperor had proclaimed him
king ; and in practice Theodoric always acted as an
independent king. In theory, however, he accepted
the inclusion of Italy in the Empire as a fundamen-
tal principle, and acknowledged that his position was
merely that of ruler of one of the Imperial provinces.
The Emperors, compelled by impotence to acquiesce
in Theodoric's lieutenancy of Italy, wished him in
their hearts all possible bad luck, and bided their time
to make trouble for him. But this ill will was con-
cealed beneath the surface, and for about thirty
years his relations with the Empire, with some inter-
ruptions, were amicable enough.
Before speaking of Theodoric's relations with the
Church, which were a matter of politics, and had to
1 Rome in the Middle Ages, Grcgorovius, vol. i, p. 'J9T>.
L6 A SHORT BISTORY OF ITALY
be considered by him on general grounds of policy,
it i- necessary to speak of the relations between the
Church and tlic Emperor, for the latter affected the
former. There were always difficulties, active or
latent, between the Roman ('lunch and the Empire.
There was jealousy between old Rome and new
Constantinople. There was misunderstanding be-
tween the Latin and Greek mind. There was fric-
tion between Papal and Imperial authority. These
troubles will appear more clearly as we proceed. At
this time it is only necessary to say that during the
firsl thirty years of Theodoric's reign, his period of
success and prosperity, there was discord between
Pope and Emperor, a kind of schism. The Byzan-
tine Emperors, often men of cultivation, living in
the most civilized city of the world, interested them-
selves in theology, and liked nothing better than
to tinker with the Faith. To this, also, they were
pushed by political needs. Their subjects were di-
vided into the orthodox and the heterodox ; and this
diversity of belief was always a menace to political
unity. To heal the breach, the reigning Emperor
devised a scheme of compromise, a via media, on
which he hoped all would unite. The Papacy, in-
censed by this trifling with orthodoxy, and by the
assumption of an Imperial right to interfere in mat-
ters of faith, denounced the compromise. A schism
was the consequence, which lasted until the reign
of the Emperor Justin (518-527), when the crafty
statesman who guided Justin's policy, his nephew,
the famous Justinian, effected a reconciliation. For
Justinian already cherished an ambition to win back
THE OSTROGOTHS 17
Italy for the Empire ; and he knew that that could
not be done without the support of the Papacy. In
519 a papal embassy bearing the olive branch was
warmly welcomed at Constantinople; both Emperor
and nephew condemned the compromise and accepted
the orthodox Catholic faith. Thus the breach was
healed.
During 1 the period of this breach between Empire
and Papacy, the Gothic king had managed his rela-
tions with the Church very prudently. Although an
Arian (like all Barbarians except the Franks), he was
exceedingly just to the Catholics. He carefully re-
frained from taking part in the domestic affairs of the
Church, until he was compelled to do so in the in-
terest of order. While in Rome he maintained a most
correct attitude. But though he acted with great
moderation and only followed Imperial precedents,
the Church resented his interference. Do what Theo-
doric would, the Papacy was his natural enemy. It
felt instinctively that a king of Italy must always
overshadow the Pope, just as at Constantinople
the Emperor eclipsed the Patriarch, and that only
upon condition of keeping Italy without a strong
government within its borders could the Church at-
tain its full stature. The ecclesiastical power was
already inimical to civil authority. The attitude of
the Church toward Theodoric presaged the history
of the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages,
and the kingdom of Italy in our day. Nevertheless,
until the reconciliation of Emperor and Pope, Theo-
doric had do serious trouble.
About the year 524 the crafty Justinian, strong
L8 \ SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
in bis complete reconciliation with the Papacy, felt
the time ripe to Bet about the recovery of the lost
provinces of the West, and made the first hostile
move. Perhaps, however, it is unjust to assign a
purely political motive to Justinian's action, for in
his active Byzantine brain, policy, theology, law, art,
and ambition were curiously blended. An Imperial
edict was issued, persecuting Arians in various ways,
and in particular commanding that all Arian churches
throughout the Empire should be handed over to
Catholics. This action of course received the ap-
proval of the Pope, and was most effective in alien-
ating the Arian Goths from the Catholic Latins.
Theodoric, who had been consistently tolerant to
Catholics, was very angry and threatened to retali-
ate by suppressing the Catholic ritual throughout
[taly. This threat threw the Papacy into closer al-
liance with the Emperor, and aggrieved the Latin
people. A new generation had grown up in peace
and comparative prosperity under Theodoric's rule,
and. forgetful that for these blessings it was indebted
to the Goths, began to give free play to its Latin
prejudices. Thus the three natural enemies of Gothic
mil' gradually drewtogether : the Empire, from desire
to recover Italy ; the Papacy, to be rid of a ruler;
and the Latins, out of national prejudice.
Intrigues were started between Constantinople
and some leading men in Rome. How far the
conspiracy went nobody knew. The king was in
no mood to act judicially. Several senators were
arrested on the charge of high treason, tried before
partial or irregular tribunals, and put to death. Of
THE OSTROGOTHS 19
these senators the most famous was Boethius, who
stands at the end of Roman civilization, as Dante
stands at the beginning of modern civilization. The
long" centuries between the two constitute the Middle
Ages. It is interesting to note that Dante in his
desolation after the death of Beatrice took to con-
sole him the book which Boethius wrote in prison,
the " Consolations of Philosophy."
Boethius came of the most distinguished family
in Rome. He and both his sons had been consuls.
He was a student of Plato, Aristotle, and of the
Neoplatonists ; he had translated treatises on mathe-
matics from the Greek, and had written on philo-
sophv and theology. He was an encyclopedia of
knowledge ; when a hydraulic watch was wanted,
or an especially magnificent sundial, or a test to
detect counterfeit money, or a musician to be sent
to a foreign potentate, he was the man to be con-
sulted. His " Consolations of Philosophy," which
had immense vogue all through the Middle Ages
in every language, furnishes his apology, his case
against Theodoric, and gives the Latin view of the
Barbarians. He says : " The hatred against me was
incurred while I was in office, because I opposed the
acta of oppression to which the Romans were sub-
jected. Tin- greed of the Barbarians for the lands
of the Romans, always unpunished, grew greater
day by day; they sought men's lives in order to
gel their goods. How often have I protected and
defended wretches from the innumerable calumnies
of the Barbarians who wished to devour them." '
1 /.<? vuxuioni barbariehe, Villari, pp, ic.7, L68, translated.
20 A SHOBT HISTORY OF ITALY
To this Roman defence must be opposed the state-
ment of ;i contemporary historian : " Everything
aboul the Barbarians, even the very smell of them,
was hateful to the Romans; nevertheless it often
happened that they, especially the poor, preferred
the oppression of the Barbarians to that of the
Imperial officials. The rich Romans impose taxes
luit they do not pay them; they make the poor pay
them. And when peradventure the taxes are dimin-
ished the relief goes not to the poor but to the rich;
so that, when it is a matter of paying it concerns the
people, and when it comes to the matter of reducing
taxes it is as if the rich were the only persons taxed
at all. Not Franks, Huns, Vandals, nor Goths be-
have so shamelessly."
In spite of trials and executions Theodoric's an-
ger and suspicion increased ; he compelled the Pope
to go to Constantinople to ask that the Arians
be treated fairly and the Ariau churches restored.
The Pope returned having obtained some favours
for the Catholics, but nothing for the Arians;
whereupon Theodoric threw him into prison, and
kept him there till he died (526). He then nomi-
nated a successor, who was promptly elected by the
frightened Romans. This high-handed action stimu-
lated discontent so much that it seemed as if the
time for a Byzantine invasion had come, but Jus-
tinian, not having fully spun his web, delayed. Per-
haps he feared Theodoric and wished to wait for
his death. He did not have to wait long. That
summer Theodoric died, and with him Italy's best
hopes died too.
THE OSTROGOTHS 21
With Theodoric's death ended the possibility of
a Gothic monarchy. Even in his reign a process of
deterioration had set in among the young genera-
tion. The decadent civilization of Italy wrought
with fatal effect upon the simple Goths ; the luxu-
rious ways, the idle habits, even the refinements
of the Lathis, robbed them of their vigour and in-
dependence of character. The conquerors became
divided among themselves ; some inclined to the
old Gothic traditions, some to the Latin ways. The
royal house affords a conspicuous instance of this
deterioration ; the boy king succumbed to debauch-
ery, his mother fell a victim to her Latin sympathies,
and his cousin, last of the royal line, a student of
literature and philosophy, showed himself perfectly
incapable of action and was deposed by his soldiers.
Justinian, the spider, had been biding his opportu-
nity ; now it had surely come. The Goths were
disintegrated ; the Papacy and Latin people were
with him ; and his great general, Belisarius, fresh
from the brilliant conquest of the Vandal kingdom
in Africa, was ready for the task. In 535 the war
for the reconquest of Italy began.
The Goths were confused, divided, and without
a leader, whereas Belisarius was a man of military
genius, and his army was composed of veterans. The
issue could nol remain long in doubt. Naples, Rome,
and finally Ravenna, fell, and the reconquest would
have been complete, but that Justinian, jealous of
a too Buccessfu] general, recalled Belisarius; The
Goths improved their respite, and then- king,
Totila. a very valiant soldier, £ or a time retrieved
22 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
their Bailing fortunes. Justinian, however, who had
a remarkable knowledge of men, appointed general-
in-chief ail extraordinary little old man, Narses, who,
devoid of all military experience, had passed his
life in the Imperial civil service. Narses handled
his men as it' he had heen horn and bred in a camp,
and, alter a comparatively brief campaign in which
Totila was killed, compelled the last remnant of the
Gothic army to surrender (553).
Thus ended the first attempt to erect a Barbarian
kingdom in Italy. Its failure proved that without
the support of the Catholic Church it was impos-
sible to establish a kingdom of Italy, for the Church
controlled the Latin people, and though these never
fought, they had an hundred ways of helping friends
and hindering foes.
CHAPTER III
THE LOMBARD INVASION (5GS)
The Imperial dominion over all Italy had lasted
scarce a dozen years before another Barbarian nation,
the Lombards, came and repeated the experiment in
which the Goths had failed. The period of Lombard
dominion lasted two hundred years (568-774). It
is rather an uninteresting time; nevertheless, like
most history? it has a dramatic side. It makes a play
for four characters. The Lombards occupy the larger
part of the stage, but the protagonist is the Papacy.
The Empire is the third character. Finally, the
Franks come in and dispossess the Lombards. The
plot, though it must spread over several chapters, is
simple.
The scene of the play was pitiful. For nearly
twenty years (535-553) Italy had been one per-
petual battlefield ; whichever side won, the unfor-
tunate natives had to lodge and feed a foreign
army, and endure all the insolence of a brutal sol-
diery. Plague, pestilence, and famine followed. The
ordinary business of life came to a stop. Houses,
churches, aqueducts went to ruin; roads were left
onmended, rivers undiked. Great tracts of fertile
land were abandoned. Cattle roamed without herds-
men, harvests withered up, grapes shrivelled on the
vines. From lack of food came the pest. Mothers
24 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
abandoned Bict babies, sons left their Bathers' bodies
anbnried. The inhabitants of the cities fared no bet-
ter. Rome, for instance, had beeo captured five times.
Before the war her population had been 250,000;
at its close not one tenth was left. It is said that
in one period every living thing deserted the city,
and for forty days the ancient mistress of the world
lay like a city of the dead. With peace came some
respite ; hut the frightful squeeze of Byzantine tax-
ation A\as as bad as Barbarian conquest. Italy sank
into ignorance and misery. The Latin inhabitants
hardly eared who their masters were. They never
had spirit enough to take arms and fight, but meekly
bowed, their heads. Such was the scene on which
these three great actors, the Lombards, the Papacy,
and the Empire, played their parts. It is now time
to describe the actors. We give precedence to the
Empire, as is its due.
This remnant of the Roman Empire, with its cap-
ital on the confines of Europe and Asia, was an
anomalous thing. It is a wonder that it continued
to exist at all. In fact, there is no better evidence
of the immense solidity of Roman political organ-
ization than the prolonged life of the Eastern Em-
pire. The countries under its sway, Thrace, Illvria,
Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, had no
bond to hold them together, except common sub-
mission to one central authority. By the end of the
sixth century, the Roman Empire was really Greek.
The Greek language was spoken almost exclusively
in Constantinople, Latin having dropped even from
official use. Yet the Empire was still regarded as
THE LOMBARD INVASION 25
the Roman Empire, and was looked up to by the
young Barbarian kingdoms of Europe with the
respect which they deemed due to the Empire of
Augustus and Trajan. For instance, a king of the
Franks addresses the Emperor thus : " Glorious,
pious, perpetual, renowned, triumphant Lord, ever
Augustus, my father Maurice, Imperator," and is
content to be called in return, " Childipert, glori-
ous man, king of the Franks." Yet it must be re-
membered that Constantinople at this time was the
chief city of Europe. Greek thought and Greek art
lingered there. Justinian had just built St. Sophia.
In fact, Constantinople continued for centuries to
be the most civilized city in the world.
The Imperial government was an autocracy ; all
the reins, civil, military, ecclesiastical, were gathered
into the hands of the Emperor. Its foreign policy
was to repel its enemies, Persians to the east, Avars
to the north, Arabs to the south ; its domestic policy
was to hold its provinces together and to extort
money. The Emperors, many of whom were able
men, usually spent such time as could be spared from
questions of national defence and of finance in the
study of theology, for at Constantinople the problems
of government were in great measure religious. Next
to the actual physical needs of life, the main interest
of the people was religion. A statesman who sought to
preserve the Empire whole, of necessity endeavoured
to hold together its incohesive parts by means of
religious unity. This political need of religious unity
is the explanation, in the main, of the frequent theo-
logical edicts and enactments.
26 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
The Emperors governed Italy, after the reconquest,
by an Imperial lieutenant, the Exarch, who resided
at Ravenna, under a system of administration pre-
Berved in mutilated form from times prior to the fall
<>l' Romulus Augustulus. An attempt was made to
keep civil and military affairs separate, but the pres-
sure of constant war threw all the power into military
hands. The peninsula, or such part of it as remained
Imperial after the Lombard invasion, was divided for
administrative and military purposes into dukedoms
and counties, which were governed by dukes and gen-
erals. The Byzantine officials were usually Greeks,
bred in Constantinople and trained in the Imperial
system ; they regarded themselves as foreigners, and
had neither the will nor the skill to be of use to
Italy. Their public business was to raise money for
the Empire, their private business to raise money for
themselves.
In spite of these oppressions the Latin people pre-
ferred the Greeks to the Lombards, partly because of
their common Greco-Roman civilization, partly be-
cause the Empire was still the Roman Empire ; and
this popular support stood the Empire in good stead
in the long war which it waged with the Lombards.
The Latin people did not fight, but they gave food
and information. The Empire, however, was ill pre-
pared for a contest. The recall of Narses removed
from Italy the last bulwark against Barbarian inva-
sion. The Imperial army was weak, cities were poorly
garrisoned, fortifications badly constructed ; and, but
for the control of the sea which enabled the Empire
to hold the towns on the sea-coast, the whole of Italy
THE LOMBARD INVASION 27
would have fallen, like a ripe apple, into the hands
of the invaders. The Empire, in fact, was exhausted
by the effort of reconquest and had neither moral nor
material strength to spare from its home needs.
The Lombards, if inferior in dignity to the Empire,
played a far more active part in this historic drama.
They came originally from the mysterious North, and
after wandering about eastern Europe had at last
settled near the Danube, where part of them were
converted to Arian Christianity. Discontented with
their habitation, and pressed by wilder Barbarians
behind them, they were glad to take advantage of the
defenceless condition of Italy. They knew how plea-
sant a land it was, for many of them had served as
mercenaries under Narses. The whole nation, with
a motley following from various tribes, amounted to
about two or three hundred thousand persons. They
crossed the Alps in 568.
There were many points of difference between
these invaders and the Goths. The Lombards had
had little intercourse with the Empire, and were far
less civilized than their predecessors, and far inferior
in both military and administrative capacity. Their
leader, AJboin, cannot be compared in any respect
with Theodoric Moreover, Theodoric came, nomi-
nally, 'it least, as lieutenant of the Emperor, and affected
to deem his sovereignty the continuation of Imperial
rule; whereas the Lombards regarded only the title
of the sword and invariably fought the Empire as an
enemy.
The invaders met little active resistance ; if they
had had control of the sea, they would readily have
28 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
conquered the whole peninsula. They overran the
Nmtli and strips of territory down the centre within
a i'tw years, and afterwards gradually spread little
by little; but they never conquered the South, the
ducli\ <»1 Rome, or the Adriatic coast. For the
greater part of the two hundred years during which
t he Lombard dominion existed, the map of Italy
bore the following aspect: the Empire retained the
little peninsula of Istria ; the long strip of coast
from the lowlands of Venetia to Ancona, protected
by its maritime cities, Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Sini-
gaglia ; and the duchy of Rome, which spread along
the Tyrrhene shore from Civita Vecchia to Gaeta ;
Naples and Amalfi ; the territories of the heel and
toe; and also Sicily and Sardinia. The boundaries
were never fixed. Of the Lombard kingdom all
one need remember is that it was a loose confeder-
ation of three dozen duchies; and that of these
duchies, Spoleto, a little north of Rome, and Bene-
vento, a little northeast of Naples, were the most
important, as well as the most detached from the
kingdom. In fact, these two were independent
duchies, and rarely if ever took commands from
Pavia, the king's capital, except upon compulsion.
At the time of the invasion the Lombards were
barbarians ; and they did not make rapid progress
in civilization. Fond of their native ways, of hunt-
ing and brawling, they were loath to adopt the arts
of peace, and left most forms of craft and industry
to the conquered Latins. Nevertheless, it was im-
possible to avoid the consequences of daily contact
with a far more developed people, and their manners
THE LOMBARD INVASION 29
became more civilized with each generation. The
royal house affords an indication of the change
which was wrought during the two hundred years.
Alboin, the original invader (died 573), killed an-
other Barbarian king, married his daughter, and
forced her to drink from a cup made of her father's
skull. The last Lombard king, Desiderius (died
about 7S0), cultivated the society of scholars, and
his daughter learned by heart " the golden maxims
of philosophy and the gems of poetry." Each
advance of the Lombards in civilization was a gain
to the Latins, who, especially in the country where
they worked on farms, were little better than serfs.
The two races drew together slowly. The conversion
of the Lombards from Arian to Catholic Christianity
(600-700) diminished the distance between them.
Intermarriage must soon have begun ; but not until
the conquest by the Franks does there seem to have
been any real blending of the races.
The most conspicuous trait in the Lombard char-
acter was political incompetence. It would have
required but a little steadiness of puqiose, a little
political foresight, a little spurt of energy, to con-
quer Ravenna, Rome, Naples and the other cities
held by the Byzantines, and make Italy into one
kingdom. Failure was due to the weakness of the
central government, which was unable to weld the
petty dukedoms together. This cutting up of Italy
into many divisions left deep sears. Each city, with
tin- territory immediately around it, began to regard
itself as a Beparate Btate, with no sense of duty to-
wards a common country; each cultivated indi-
30 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
vidualitv and jealousy of its neighbours, until these
qualities, gradually growing during two hundred
vt.us. presented insuperable difficulties to the for-
mation of an Italian national kingdom.
In spite of their political incompetence the Lom-
bards left their mark on Italy, especially on Lom-
bardy and the regions occupied by the strong duchies
of Spoleto and Benevento. For centuries Lombard
blood appears in men of vigorous character ; and
Lombard names, softened to suit Italian ears, linger
on among the nobility. In fact, the aristocracy of
Italy from Milan to Naples was mainly Teutonic,
and the principal element of the Teutonic strain was
Lombard.
CHAPTER IV
THE CHURCH (56S-700)
Oxe great political effect of the Lombard conquest
was the opportunity which it gave the Papacy, while
Lombard and Byzantine were buffeting each other,
to grow strong and independent. Had Italy remained
a Greek province the Pope would have been a mere
provincial bishop, barely taking ceremonial prece-
dence of the metropolitans of Ravenna, Aquileia, and
Milan ; had Italy become a Lombard kingdom, the
Pope would have been a royal appointee ; but with
the Lombard kings fighting the Byzantine Exarchs,
each side needing papal aid and sometimes bidding
for it, the Pope was enabled to become master of
the city and of the duchy of Rome, and the real head
of the Latin people as well as of the Latin clergy.
In fact, the growth of the Roman Catholic Church
is the most interesting development in this period.
The Lombards gave it the opportunity to grow strong
and independent, but the power to take advantage
of the opportunity came from within. This power
irascompacl of many elements, secular and spiritual.
From the ills of the world men betook themselves
with southern impulsiveness to things religious ; they
Boughl refuge, order, security in the Church. In the
greater interests of life among the Latins the ris-
ing i cclesiastica] Eabric had do competitor. Paganism
32 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
had vanished before Christianity, philosophy before
theology, literature, art, science had perished. Italy
ha«l ceased to he a country. The ancient Empire of
Rome had faded into a far-away memory. The wreck
of the old nobility left the ecclesiastical hierarchy
without a rival. In the midst of the general ruin of
Roman civilization the Church stood stable, offering:
peace to the timid, comfort to the afflicted, refinement
to the gentle, a home to the homeless, a career to the
ambitious, power to the strong. By a hundred strings
the Church drew men to her; in a hundred modes
she sowed the prolific seeds of ecclesiastical patriot-
ism. She was essentially Roman, and gathered to
herself whatever was left of life and vigour in the
Roman people. With a structure and organization
framed on the Imperial pattern, she slowly assumed
in men's minds an Imperial image ; and Rome, a pro-
vincial town whose civil magistrates busied themselves
with sewers and aqueducts, again began to inspire
men with a strange confidence in a new Imperial
power.
In addition to the strength derived from her im-
mense moral and spiritual services, the Church had
the support of two potent forces, ignorance and su-
perstition. The general break-up of the old order had
lowered the common level of knowledge. Everybody
was ignorant, everybody was superstitious. The laws
of nature were wholly unknown. Every ill that
happened, whether a man tripped over his threshold,
or a thunderbolt hit his roof, was ascribed to diabolic
agencies. The old pagan personification of natural
forces, without its poetry, was revived. The only
THE CHURCH 33
help lay in the priest, a kind of magical protector,
who with beads, relics, bones, incense, and incantation
defended poor humanity from the assaults of devils.
Thus, while all civil society suffered from ignorance,
while every individual suffered from the awful daily,
hourly, presence of fear, the Church profited by
both.
Beside these intangible resources, the Church, or
to speak more precisely the Papacy, had others of a
material kind. For centuries pious men, especially
when death drew near, had made great gifts of land
to the bishops of Rome, until these bishops had become
the greatest landed proprietors in Italy. Most of their
estates were in Sicily, but others were scattered all over
Italy, and even in Gaul, Illyria, Sardinia, and Cor-
sica. In extent they covered as much as eighteen
hundred square miles, and yielded an enormous in-
come. This income enabled the Popes to maintain
churches and monasteries, schools and missionaries,
to buy off raiding armies of Lombards, and also to
equip soldiers of their own. These estates the Church
owned as a mere private landlord. During the Gothic
dominion and the restoration of Imperial rule, she
had no rights of sovereignty. But later on, during
the disturbed period of border war between Lom-
bards and Greeks, we find the Popes actually ruling
the duchy of Borne.
The corner-stone of the great papal power, how-
ever, was laid by the genius <»t' one man, who organ-
ized the monastic senthnenl of the sixth century and
put it to the Bupporl of the Papacy. There had Keen
monk-, in Italy long before St. Benedict I \80-54 1 1,
84 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
but as civil .society disintegrated, men in ever greater
numbers fled from the world, and sought peace in
solitude and in monastic communities. St. Benedict
perceived that the monastic rules and customs de-
rived from the East were ill suited to the West ; so
he devised a monastic system, and formulated his
celebrated Rule, which became the pattern for all
other monastic rules in Europe. He founded a
monastery at Subiaco, a little village near Rome,
and afterwards the famous abbey on Monte Cassino,
a high hill midway between Rome and Naples, which
became the mother of all Benedictine monasteries
and shone like a light in the Dark Ages. Benedict's
ideal was to help men shut themselves off' from the
temptations of life and realize, as far as they could,
the prayer " Thy kingdom come ... on earth as it is
in Heaven." He ordained community of property,
and required a novitiate. Most strictly he forbade
idleness, and with special insistence exhorted his
brethren to till the ground with their ow r n hands.
Intellectual interests followed ; and Benedictine
monks became the teachers not only of agriculture,
but of handicraft, of art and learning. His Order
spread fast over Italy and Gaul, and in time over
Spain, England, and Germany. Its . communities,
like the old castra romana, upheld the authority
of Rome and enforced her dominion.
The attractions of the monastic life at Monte
Cassino are well set out in a letter written (after
St. Benedict's day) to one of the abbots, by a man
of the world who had once lived there : " Though
great spaces separate me from your company, I am
THE CHURCH 35
bound to you by a clinging affection that can never
be loosed, nor are these short pages enough to tell
you of the love that torments me all the time for
you, for the superiors and for the brethren. So much
so that when I think about those leisure days spent
in holy duties, the pleasant rest in my cell, your
sweet religious affection, and the blessed company
of those soldiers of Christ, bent on holy worship,
each brother setting a shining example of a differ-
ent virtue, and the gracious talks on the perfections
of our heavenly home, I am overcome, all my strength
goes, and I cannot keep tears from mingling with
the sighs that burst from me. Here I go about
among Catholics, men devoted to Christian worship ;
everybody receives me well, everybody is kind to
me from love of our father Benedict, and for the
sake of your merits ; but compared with your mon-
astery the palace is a prison ; compared with the
quiet there this life is a tempest." 1
What Benedict did for the monastic orders, another
great man, St. Gregory (540-G04) , did for the Papacy
itself. Gregory the Great, the most commanding
figure in the history of Europe between Theodoric
and Charlemagne, was a Roman, made -of the same
stuff as Scipio and Cato, and presented the interest-
ing character of a Christian and an antique Roman
combined. Born of a noble Roman family, Gregory
was educated in Rome, and entered the service of the
state, iii which lie rose to the high office of prefect
of the city; but, dissatisfied with civil life, he aban-
1 Le armache italiane del medio >'vo dexcritte, Ugo Baliani (trans
btod).
3G A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
cloned it and became a monk. He wanted to give him-
self up wholly to a monastic life, but deemed it his
dut\ to accept office in the papal service, and filled the
distinguished position of papal ambassador (to use a
modern term) at the Imperial court at Constantinople.
In 5! K) he was elected Pope, half against his will, for he
desired to be either a monk or a missionary ; but he
felt that the hopes of civilization and the future of re-
ligion lay in the Papacy, and he applied himself with
energy to his new task. This task was as complex and
multifarious as possible. It concerned all Europe, from
Sicily to England. Rome itself was in a deplorable
condition, left undefended by the Exarch, and threat-
ened by the Lombards of Spoleto, who harried the
country to the very gates, murdering some Romans
and carrying others off as slaves. Gregory had to
take complete control of the city, military and civil.
He wrote : " I do not know any more whether I now
fill the office of priest or of temporal prince ; I must
look to our defence and everything else. I am pay-
master of the soldiers." He kept up the courage of
the Romans, and tried to draw spiritual good out of
their plight. It w r as impossible for a contemporary
eye to see that under present wretchedness lay ger-
minating the seeds of empire ; yet Gregory acted as if
he beheld them. In spite of apprehensions of the
end of the world he organized the Church to endure
for centuries. Both at home and abroad he displayed
a tireless activity.
Among the foreign events of his pontificate are
the conversion of England by Augustine (597) and
the ministry of St. Columbanus (543-615) among
THE CHURCH 37
the Franks, Alemanni, and Lombards. It was Gregory
who saw the handsome fairhaired boys from Eng-
land standing in the market-place and said, " Non
Angli sed augeli." He had the true imperial instinct,
and always encouraged the clergy in distant parts
of Europe to visit Rome and to apply to Rome for
counsel and aid. The respect in which he was held
may be inferred from the titles given him by Co-
luinbanus : " To the holy lord and father in Christ,
the most comely ornament of the Roman Church,
the most august flower, so to speak, of all this lan-
guishing Europe, the illustrious overseer, to him who
is skilled to inquire into the theory of the Divine
causality, I, a mean dove (Columbanus), send Greeting
in Christ." Gregory also maintained close relations
with the clergy in Africa, and received homage from
the Spanish bishops, for Spain had recently been
converted from Arianism to Catholicism. He was by
no means content to confine his dealings to the clergy,
but was in frequent correspondence with kings and
queens of western Europe, as well as with the Em-
peror and Empress in Constantinople. His immense
energy made itself felt everywhere. He made rules
for the liturgy ; and mass is still celebrated partly
according to his directions. He reformed church
music and founded schools for the Gregorian chant.
He administered the papal revenues, superintend-
ing the managemenl of farms, stables, and orchards.
lie founded monasteries, he supported hospitals and
asylums.
Benedict and Gregory arc the two great figures
of thifl period, and, though no worthy successor I'ol-
38 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
lowed for Beveral generations, they did their work so
well that tlu' Papacy, like a great growing oak, con-
tinued to Bpread its power conspicuously in the eyes
of the world, and also, out of sight, in the hearts and
habits of men.
The relations between the Papacy and the Empire
were difficult. The Popes were subjects of the Em-
peror. The whole ecclesiastical organization through-
out the Empire was subject to the Imperial will, just
as the civil or military service was. The Papacy did
ma like this position of subordination and resented
any interference in papal affairs. Though Odoacer,
Theodoric, and Justinian had always asserted their
right to exercise a supervision over papal elections,
the Popes had never acquiesced willingly, and even
in those early days showed a marked disposition to
take exclusive control of what they deemed their
own affairs. It might be supposed that the Papacy,
mindful of the great danger of a Lombard conquest
of Rome, would have clung to the Empire ; but
after the Lombards had become Catholics the gap
between the Romans and the Greco-Oriental Empire
was nearly as wide as that between them and the
Lombards. There was a fundamental difference be-
tween the Greek mind, floating over metaphysics
and speculative theology, and the Roman mind,
bound to. political conceptions and practical ends.
A theology which would satisfy a congregation in
St. Sophia would not suit the worshippers in St.
Peter's. The Empire, obliged to adapt theological
niceties to political necessities, favoured any creed
of compromise, which should promote political con-
THE CHURCH 39
cord and unity. Rome, with its despotic, imperial
instincts, felt that orthodoxy was its strength, and
maintained an inflexible creed. The two were an
ill-yoked pair, and quarrels were inevitable.
The relations between the Papacy and the Lom-
bards were more simple. They varied between war,
and friendship real or feigned. In the beginning,
and even, as we have seen, in Gregory's time, there
was war ; but then began the conversion of the Lom-
bards to Christianity, and intervals of peace fol-
lowed, during which the Lombard king saluted the
Pope as "Most Holy Father," and the Pope replied
" My well-beloved Son."
CHAPTER V
THE COMING OF THE FRANKS (726-768)
We now come to the separation of the Latin world
from the Greek world in both political and ecclesias-
tical affairs, and to the reconstruction of Europe by
the alliance of the Franks and the Papacy. The plot
continues to be very simple. The Empire, pressed
by dangerous enemies, tried once more to gain polit-
ical strength by ecclesiastical legislation ; the effect
of this legislation on the Imperial provinces in Italy
was to cause rebellion. The Papacy broke the ties
that bound it to the Empire ; then, finding itself de-
fenceless before the Lombards, made an alliance with
the Franks, who invaded Italy and overthrew the
Lombards.
In order to elaborate this plot, we must begin
with the great Asiatic movement of the seventh
century ; for this movement acted as a cause of
causes to split the Latins from the Greeks, to exalt
the Papacy, and to form the Holy Roman Empire.
In one of the tribes of Arabia, without heralding,
appeared a man, who at the age of forty became a
religions prophet, and by the force of genius con-
structed one of the great religions of the world.
Mohammed's religion worked on the ardent Arabian
temperament like magic, and engendered a fierce
passion for conquest and proselytizing. Tribes co-
THE COMING OF THE FRANKS 41
hered, became both a sect and a nation, and swept
like wildfire over the west of Asia and the north of
Africa. Mohammed died in 632, but his successors,
the Caliphs, carried on his work ; under the inspira-
tion of the slogan, " Before } 7 ou is Paradise, behind
you the devil and the fire of hell," they advanced
from conquest to conquest. Cities and provinces
were torn from the Empire. Damascus, Syria, Jeru-
salem, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Rhodes fell in
rapid succession ; next Africa, bit by bit. Persia
was beaten to her knees. Sicily was raided. Twice
Constantinople had to fight for life.
Naturally Byzantine statesmen felt that some
radical step must be taken, or all the remnants of
the Empire would be reduced to slavery. A vigor-
ous Emperor, Leo the Isaurian (717-741), took the
radical step. It was necessarily religious, for, in
Constantinople, political action always took a re-
ligious complexion. Leo issued a decree forbidding
the use of images in churches and in Christian wor-
ship (726). Those in place he ordered broken. He
acted no doubt from high motives, thinking to en-
noble religion and to arouse patriotism; but his
people disagreed with him. In the East riots and
civil war broke out. These were suppressed, but
discontent and persistent opposition remained. In
Italy also the excitement was intense. The coun-
try had already been irritated by severe taxation,
and when the decree of iconoclasm was published,
the image-loving Italians rose in a body. The Pope,
U mosi hurt in conscience by the decree, and in
pocket by the taxation, was the natural head <>t'
12 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
resistance. The Exarch attempted to arrest him,
luit both Latins and Lombards rallied to his defence.
In BOme places open revolt broke out, and a plot
was started to set up another Emperor in place
of the wicked iconoclast who polluted the Imperial
throne. But the Pope, Gregory II (715-731), was
a prudent man, and was not ready to take a step
which would deprive Rome of its single defence
from the Lombards. He opposed the rebellious
plan, but int the matter of maintaining the images
he stood like a rock. His successor, Gregory III
i 7: 11-741), went farther, and took decisive action.
He convoked a synod, which expelled every image-
breaker from the Church (731). This was tanta-
mount to a direct excommunication of the Emperor,
and a declaration of papal independence. The Em-
peror was powerless to compel obedience. Thus
began the great split between the Papacy and the
Byzantine Empire, between western and eastern
Europe, between the Latin Church and the Greek.
Some of the western provinces, Calabria, Sicily, and
Illyria, which were practically Greek, remained faith-
ful to the Empire and shared its fortunes for several
hundred years more. Ecclesiastically they were re-
moved from the jurisdiction of the Popes to that of
the Patriarchs of Constantinople.
This breach between the Papacy and the Empire
led inevitably to an alliance between the Papacy and
the Franks, which is of such great historical conse-
quence that it must be recounted in some detail.
"\\ bile the Empire and the Papacy were quarrelling
over ecclesiastical matters, western Europe had been
THE COMING OF THE FRANKS 43
changing. The Frankish kingdom had been estab-
lished in what is now Belgium, Holland, and large
parts of France and Germany, and was the one great
Christian power in Europe. Therefore, when the Pa-
pacy had cut loose from the Empire and saw itself
defenceless against the Lombards, it had no alterna-
tive but to seek help from the Franks. There were
also two special reasons for friendship between the
Franks and the Papacy. First, the Franks, alone of
Barbarians, had been converted to Catholic Christian-
ity. Secondly, in their endeavours to enlarge their
eastern borders, the Franks had been greatly assisted
by the missionaries, who — in the normal course,
missionaries, merchants, soldiers — had prepared
the way for Frankish conquest, and had strength-
ened the Frankish power when established. These
missionaries were absolutely devoted to the Roman
See ; they spread papal loyalty wherever they went,
and wrought a strong bond of union between the
Frankish kingdom and the Papacy. This union of
sympathy and interest was an excellent basis for a
political union ; and the time soon came for such a
development.
When the iconoclastic revolts occurred in Italy,
and the Popes broke with the Empire, the Lombard
kings thought that their opportunity to conquer all
Italy had come. But instead of making one bold
campaign against Rome and the South, they merely
laid hands on a few border cities. The Popes turned
with frantic appeals for help to the only powei thai
could help them, tin* Franks. Kvcry time the Lom-
bard king made a hostile move, the Pope cried aloud
44 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
for aid. For some time the Franks deemed that
the balance of political considerations was against
intervention and refused to take part in Italian affairs.
Charles Martel, mayor of the palace and ruler of the
Franks in all hut name, stood firm on the policy of
non-interference ; but his son and successor, Pippin
the Short, took a different view. Pippin judged that
the time had come to depose the royal Merovingian
family and to exalt his own, the Carlovingian, in its
stead. As the Merovingians had reigned for two
hundred and fifty years, the step was revolutionary,
and Pippin washed to strengthen his position by the
support of the Papacy. He sent messengers to the
Pope, Zacharias, to ask advice ; and the Pope, ac-
cording to the chronicler, "in the exercise of his
apostolical authority replied to their question, that
it seemed to him better and more expedient that the
man who held power in the kingdom should be called
king and be king, rather than he who falsely bore
that name. Therefore the Pope commanded the king
and the people of the Franks, that Pippin, who was
using royal power, should be called king and should
be settled on the throne." The last Merovingian,
therefore, was tonsured and stowed away in a mon-
astery, and Pippin became king of the Franks (751).
Without accepting the monkish chronicler's state-
ment, that the Pope commanded Pippin to be king,
there can be little doubt that the papal sanction was
of very real value to Pippin, and that Pippin let it
appear that he was acting rather in conformity with
the Pope's will than with his own.
Thus the Pope laid Pippin under a great obliga-
THE COMING OF THE FRANKS 45
tion ; it now remained for Pippin to discharge that
obligation. It was not long; before the time came.
The Lombard king felt that his opportunity was
slipping- by. and acted with some vigour. He captured
Ravenna and threatened Rome. The Pope hurried
across the Alps. He anointed and crowned Pippin ;
he likewise anointed arid blessed his son Charles
(Charlemagne), and forbade the Franks under pain
of excommunication ever to choose their king from
any other family. These three great favours, the
transfer of the royal title, the coronation rite, and
the perpetual confirmation of the Carlovingian sov-
ereignty, called for a great return. Pippin promised
that the Adriatic provinces, taken by the Lombards
from the Byzantines, should be ceded by the Lom-
bards to the Pope. This promise Pippin fulfilled.
He crossed the Alps, defeated the Lombard king, and
forced him to cede the Exarchate of Ravenna and
the five cities below it on the coast, to the Pope, who
thereby became an actual sovereign. Thus Pippin
discharged his obligation to the Papacy.
This beginning of the Papal monarchy is so
important that the theoretic origin may as well be
mentioned here. There was a legend, universally
believed, that an early Pope, Silvester (314-335)
healed the Emperor Constantine of leprosy, and that
the Emperor, in gratitude, made a great grant of
territory to the Pope. The fact appears to have
been that Constantine, although not cured of the
leprosy, did L;iv<- to Silvester the Lateral) palace ami
a plot of ground around it. This little donation
grew in legend like a grain of mustard seed, ami
46 A SHOET HISTORY OF ITALY
served the purpose of the Roman clergy. No good
Roman would have been content with a title derived
from the Lombards or the Franks. In Roman eyes
these Barbarians never had any title to Italian ter-
ritory ; they could give none. The only possible
source of legal title was the Empire. In the gift by
Constantine to Silvester papal adherents had a foun-
dation of fact. That was enough. It is quite un-
necessary to imagine false dealing. People in those
days believed that what they wished true was true.
This legend was accepted and embodied in concrete
form in a document known as the Donation of
Constantine, which is so important in explaining
the attitude of the Papacy throughout the Middle
Ages, that it may be quoted : —
" In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Emperor Caesar
Flavius Constantine ... to the most holy and
blessed Father of Fathers, Silvester, bishop of Rome
and Pope, and to all his successors in the seat of
St. Peter to the end of the world. . . ." Here comes,
interspersed with snatches of Christian dogma, a
rambling narrative of his leprosy, of the advice of
his physicians to bathe in a font on the Capitol filled
with the warm blood of babies ; how he refused, how
Peter and Paul appeared in a dream and sent him
to Silvester, how he then abjured paganism, accepted
the creed, was baptized and healed, and how he then
recognized that heathen gods were demons and that
Peter and his successors had all power on earth and
in heaven. After this long preamble comes the grant :
" We, together with all our Satraps and the whole
THE COMING OF THE FRANKS 47
Senate, Nobles and People . . . have thought it
desirable that even as St. Peter is on earth the
appointed Vicar of God, so also the Pontiffs his
viceregents should receive from us and from our
Empire, power and principality greater than belongs
to us . . . and to the extent of our earthly Impe-
rial power we decree that the Sacrosanct Church
of Rome shall be honoured and venerated, and that
higher than our terrestrial throne shall the most
sacred seat of St. Peter be gloriously exalted.
" Let him who for the time shall be pontiff over
the holy Church of Rome ... be sovereign of all
the priests in the whole world ; and by his judgment
let all things which pertain to the worship of God or
the faith of Christians be regulated. . . . We hand
over and relinquish our palace, the city of Borne,
i, ml nil the provinces, places, and cities of Italy
awl the icestem regions, to the most blessed Pon-
tiffand universal Pope, Silvester ; and we ordain by
our pragmatic constitution that they shall be gov-
erned by him and his successors, and we grant that
they shall remain under the authority of the holy
Roman Church." 1
The -date of this document and many statements
in it an* anachronisms and errors. It was composed
about the time of Pippin's Donation, probably by
somebody connected with the papal ehancery, and
may be considered to be a pious forgery represent-
ing tli*- facts as the writer deemed they were or else
1 Italy and her Invaders, T. Rodgkin, vol. vii, pp, l r.» 151 ; Se-
• // torietd Jjormn- WiddU Ages, Erneel K. Henderson,
pp. 319 329.
4s A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
should be. It was officially referred to for the first
time in 777, but did not receive its full celebrity
until the eleventh century, when the relations of the
Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire became the
centre of European history.
CHAPTER VI
CHARLEMAGNE (768-814)
The papal theory embodied in the Donation of
Gonstantine was obviously crammed with seeds of
future strife ; for the present, however, the fortuues
of the House of Pippin and of the Papacy were
bound together in amity. The constant accession
of strength to the former and of prestige to the
latter made them the central figures of European
politics. The new political form to which their
union gave birth slowly shaped itself. In Italy the
first step was to get rid of the Lombards. On the
death of the Lombard King, Aistulf, there were
two claimants for the throne. One of the two, De-
siderius, secured the Pope's help by the promise of
ceding more cities, and became king. The Pope,
writing to Pippin, says: "Now that Aistulf, that
disciple of the devil, that devourer of Christian
blood is dead ; and that by your aid and that of the
Franks [a complimentary phrase, for Pippin seems
to have done nothing] he is succeeded by Desiderius,
a most gentle and good man, we pray you to urge
him to continue in the right way." But the "most
gentle and good" Desiderius Btrayed from the right
Way, and < 1 i < 1 not cede the promised cities. So the
Pope besought Pippin to use force ; but Pippin
thought that lie had done enough, and the Tope
50 A SHOET HISTORY OF ITALY
was obliged to rest content. Pippin died in 768.
One can imagine the consternation at Rome on
Pippin's death to learn that the dowager queen of
the Franks was arranging- a marriage between her
son Charlemagne and a daughter of Desiderius, and
another marriage between her daughter and a son of
Desiderius. The Pope wrote in terror that the plan
was of the devil, and forbade it under the pains
of everlasting damnation ; nevertheless, Charlemagne
married the daughter of Desiderius (770).
The Pope's anticipations, however, were not justi-
fied ; the horrible union of the House of Pippin with
the " unspeakable " Lombards came to an abrupt end.
Charlemagne, probably from personal dislike, put
away his wife, and sent her ignominiously back to
her father. Desiderius, angry at the insult, rushed
upon his fate ; he not only intrigued in Frankish
affairs against Charlemagne, but he also seized many
of the cities given to the Pope by the Donation of
Pippin. He invaded the duchy of Rome, and ad-
vanced within fifty miles of the city. This time
Charlemagne acted in conformity with the papal
entreaties. He crossed the Alps, routed the Lombard
armv, captured Pavia, took Desiderius prisoner and
assumed the title of King of the Lombards (773-774) .
He went on to Rome, and solemnly confirmed the
Donation of Pippin, and also made a further Dona-
tion. This latter Donation, which led to disputes
between the Papacy and Charlemagne's successors,
is a matter of great uncertainty. Subsequent papal
advocates claimed that it embraced two thirds of
Italy. Probably Charlemagne only intended to re-
CHARLEMAGNE 51
store to the Papacy its private property scattered
throughout northern and central Italy, which had
been seized by the Lombards.
Charlemagne, having disposed of the Lombards,
continued his conquests ; across the Pyrenees he
annexed the Spanish March, in North Germany he
subdued the Saxons and pushed his frontier to the
Elbe, to the southeast he subjugated the country as
far as the upper Danube. His monarchy now included
Franks, Celts, Visigoths, Burgundians, Saxons, Lom-
bards, Romans. How were such widespread terri-
tories and such diverse peoples to be united in
permanent union ? The far-seeing Papacy, in answer
to this question, propounded the revival of the Roman
Empire of the CaBsars. Reasons were numerous. The
Frankish monarchy, with its conquests, in bulk at
least was not unworthy to succeed to Imperial Rome.
Throughout this wide territory there was a great net-
work of ligaments ; from Gascony to Bavaria, from
Lombardy to Frisia, divine service was celebrated in
the Latin tongue and with the Roman ritual ; bishops,
priests, monks, and missionaries acknowledged their
dependence upon the Pope and looked to Rome, with
its holy basilicas and apostolic tradition, as the centre
of Christendom. This Christian unity was a constant
argument for political unity. A second argument
was tlir stall vigorous Roman tradition. The idea of
nationality was as vei undeveloped ; Europe had
known no other political system than common sub-
jection to the Roman Empire, and all notions of
civilization were of a civilization on the Roman
pattern. When the Roman Empire in the Wesl had
52 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
decayed, the Church had adopted the Imperial organ-
ization and kept remembrance of the old system fresh
in men's minds. The old Empire, moreover, had
early lost the notion of dependence on the city of
Koine, for the seat of government had been set at
Constantinople, at Milan, and at Ravenna ; and since
the days of the early Caesars, it had not been neces-
sary for an Emperor to be a native Roman. There
was no theoretical difficulty to bar a Frank from the
Imperial throne or forbid the seat of government to
a Frankish city. In fact, nobody could conceive of
the Empire as other than Roman, and the Frankish
kingdom could only become an empire by becoming
the Roman Empire.
The Papacy had special reasons for these views.
Under the Empire Christianity had grown up; under
the Empire it had obtained power and dominion,
and had become the state religion. The Church
might quarrel with Emperors, but it regarded the
Empire — the source of secular law and order — as
its joint tenant in the world. The one represented
religious unity, the other represented civil unity.
In addition to these large arguments, local reasons
affected the Papacy. Shortly before the expulsion of
the Lombards from Italy, the lack of a strong govern-
ment had been wofully felt. One usurper and then
another had been put in St. Peter's chair in riot and
bloodshed. It had become plain as day that the
Papacy of itself, without the support of a potent
secular power, was not able to maintain its dignity,
nor even to enforce order in the very city of Rome.
The Papacy could not endure without the Empire.
CHARLEMAGNE 53
The very titles which the Frankisk kings had gradu-
ally received led up to the Imperial title. Gregory II
had called Charles Martel "Patrician," a vague title
of honour held by the Exarchs ; Gregory III had
offered to him the titles both of Patrician and of
Consul ; Stephen II bestowed upon Pippin the title
of Patrician of the Romans ; Charlemagne's own
titles were King of the Franks, King of the Lom-
bards, Patrician of the Romans ; and his son had
been crowned by the Pope, King of Italy (781).
The title next in order was undoubtedly Emperor
of the Romans. Charlemagne himself was a man of
gigantic stature and great strength, indefatigable
in action, and delighting in hunting, swimming, and
martial exercise. His mind also was mighty, rest-
lessly pondering questions of state, of church, of
war, of social improvement. He was the greatest
of Barbarians, cast by Nature in an imperial mould.
On the other hand there was one conspicuous diffi-
culty in the way of reviving the Roman Empire ; this
difficulty was that the Roman Empire still existed,
and that there was a living Emperor, the legitimate suc-
cessor of Caesar Augustus. But that Empire was vir-
tually Greek, and the Emperor no more like Caesar
Augustus than like Hercules. The city by the Tiber
had as good title fco l»e the Imperial city as her younger
rival by the Bosphorus j the Roman Republic (what-
ever that ill-defined title may mean), represented by
the Pope, had as fair a claim to elecl the Emperor, as
the army and office-holders at Constantinople. In
i.n't, to Papal and Roman eyes, the rights of Rome
were much greater than tho.se of Constantinople.
54 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
To us, as we look back, nothing seems more natural
than that the great Frankish king, after the conquest
of Italy, should have brushed aside the theoretical dif-
ficulty of an existing Roman Empire and assumed
the Imperial title, Emperor of the Romans. History
moves more slowly. Charlemagne was a Frank, ac-
customed to Frankish usages and ideas ; he hesitated
to adopt formally a wholly different conception of
sovereignty and society. His nobles probably agreed
with the advice given by Pope Zacharias to Pippin,
that the man who held the power should receive the
corresponding title, but being Franks they thought
the dignity of Frankish king sufficient. So matters
stood with nothing between Charlemagne and the
Imperial crown but a theoretic difficulty, and a cer-
tain reluctance. Unexpectedly and in quick succes-
sion, events in Constantinople swept away the theo-
retic difficulty, and events in Rome gave the Pope
sufficient energy to overcome the reluctance.
At Constantinople, the dowager Empress blinded
and deposed her son the Emperor (797), and assumed
to rule as sole Augusta. This wickedness, and the
ancient doctrine that, though a woman might lawfully
share the Imperial throne, she might not reign alone,
combined to render plausible a theory readily adopted
in the West, that the Imperial throne had become
vacant. The event in Rome was this. A savage gang
of nobles and ecclesiasts attacked Pope Leo III in
the street, beat him, half-blinded him, cut his tongue,
and imprisoned him in a monastery (799). He es-
caped and fled to Charlemagne in Germany. His
enemies followed and charged him with various
CHARLEMAGNE 55
crimes. Charlemagne sent him back to Rome in the
company of some great nobles, who were commis-
sioned to investigate the charges, and went himself
also. There, in St. Peter's basilica, in the presence
of Frankish nobles and Roman ecclesiasts, with
Charlemagne presiding, the Pope took a solemn oath
of innocence (December 4, 800). Such an oath ac-
cording to the jurisprudence of the time was neces-
sarily followed by acquittal ; and the Pope's inno-
cence necessarily proved the guilt of his accusers, who
were punished.
Such crimes, east and west, were insufferable.
Something had to be done. Everybody looked to
Charlemagne. His position as head of Christen-
dom was acknowledged even beyond the bounds of
western Europe. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, a
subject of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, sent to
Charlemagne the keys of Calvary and of the Holy
Sepulchre and the banner of the Holy City. Obvi-
ously it was time for the Imperial dignity to be added
to Imperial power.
On Christinas day in the year 800, Charlemagne
and a great procession of Frankish nobles and Roman
citizens made their way through the streets of Rome
towards the basilica of St. Peter's, whose gilt bronze,
roof, taken from a pagan temple, shone conspicuous
on tlit- Vatican lull. They walked through the Aure-
lian gate ami across the bridge over the Tiber, then
turning to the left, followed the colonnade which
extended all the way from Hadrian's .Mausoleum
to tin; atrium of the basilica. There they mounted
the broad flight of marble steps, at the top of which
56 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the Pope and his court awaited the king. Then Pope
and king, followed by the procession, crossed the
great atrium paved with white marble, past the fir-
cone fountain and papal tombs, to the central door
of the basilica, which swung its thousand-weight of
silver open wide ; then, up the long nave, screened
by rows of antique columns from double aisles on
either side, all rich with tapestries of purple and gold,
they proceeded with slow and solemn steps to the
tomb of the apostle. Thirteen hundred and sev-
enty candles in the great candelabrum glowed on
the silver floor of the shrine, and glittered on the
gold and silver statues around it. In the great apse
behind the high altar sat the clergy, row upon row,
beneath the Pontiff's throne ; above, the Byzantine
mosaics looked down in sad severity. Here Charle-
magne knelt at the tomb, and prayed. As he rose
from his knees, the Pope lifted an Imperial crown
of gold and placed it on his head, while all the
congregation shouted, " Life and Victory to Charles,
Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peaceful
Emperor ! "
Thus was accomplished that restoration of the
Roman Empire, which by its attempt to combine Teu-
ton and Roman in political union so powerfully
affected the history of mediaeval Europe. Charle-
magne is reported to have said that the Imperial
coronation took him by surprise. However that may
be, this great enterprise of a Christian Empire must
be regarded, in its final completion, as the joint work
of Frankish king and Roman Pope.
CHAPTER VII
FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS I (814-867)
The period from the death of Charlemagne (814)
to the coronation of Otto the Great (962) is a long
dismal stretch, tenanted by discord and ignorance.
At the beginning stands the commanding figure of
Charlemagne,
With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies.
But his descendants were unequal to their inherit-
ance, and under them his Empire crumbled away
and resolved itself into incipient nations. That Em-
pire, in theory the restored Roman Empire, was in
fact strictly Teutonic, though buttressed by the Ro-
man Church. Charlemagne deemed himself head of
both Empire and Church. In his eyes the Pope was
his subject, and he legislated, as a matter of course,
upon ecclesiastical affairs. In secular matters he en-
deavoured to maintain local administration without
detriment to a strong central government. For this
purpose he divided the Empire into three divisions, of
which he made his three sons nominally kings, really
his lieutenants. I Inder these sons he appointed counts
and bishops, as local governors. Be maintained his
centra] authority by means of deputies (missi do-
minici), who traversed the whole Empire, two by
two, a bishop and a count together. The mainte-
58 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
nance of such a political unity, however, required
either the organic strength and momentum of the
old Roman Empire, or a breed of Charlemagnes. On
the great Emperor's death the forces of disruption
made themselves felt at once. His son, Louis the
Pious, indeed succeeded to the whole sovereignty
of the Empire; but Louis's sons demanded division.
They rebelled ; and civil war lasted most of Louis's
life. After his death the sons fought one another,
and finally agreed on a division of the territory,
though the Imperial title was kept. One brother
took the territory to the east, destined to become
Germany ; another, that to the west, destined to
become France ; and Lothair, the eldest, who also
received the Imperial title, took Italy and a long
heterogeneous strip between the territories of his
brothers. This division was fatal to the Empire.
On Lothair's death the Imperial crown descended
to his son Louis II (855-875), and afterwards to two
other degenerate members of a degenerate family.
The last made himself unendurable and was deposed
(887). With him ended Charlemagne's legitimate
male line, and also the first revival of the Roman
Empire.
This Empire had been a civilizing power. It had
supported the Papacy, as an oak supports the creeper
that clings to it ; and in its decline and fall it pulled
the Papacy down with it. Without such support the
Papacy could maintain neither dignity abroad nor
order at home. This lesson the Church learned
once through the outrages inflicted upon Pope Leo,
but forgot it ; and required the experience of a
FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS 59
hundred and fifty years to learn it a second time.
In theory Papacy and Empire were co-equal powers,
religious and secular, together carrying on the noble
task of God's government on earth. In practice, as
their respective rights and powers had not been defi-
nitely set off, they could not agree; each wished to
be master. The relations between the two constitute
the great axis on which mediaeval politics revolve,
and for a long time must serve as the main motive
of our story. The contest between them for mastery
resembles a fencing match, in which the Pope thrusts
at the Emperor's crown, the Emperor parries, and
lunges back at the papal tiara. For convenience we
divide the match into two bouts, and first take the
Pope's attack.
At the famous coronation on Christmas day, 800,
Charlemagne and Leo stood side by side, co-labour-
ers in the great task of reconstructing Europe. But
once the coronation over, the two undefined author-
ities jostled each other. Charlemagne, to whom gov-
ernment was as much a religious as a secular mat-
ter, though he had accepted his Imperial crown at
the bands of the Pope, did not regard papal partici-
pation accessary for the continuance of the Imperial
dignity. At Aachen, 813, he crowned his son Louis
the Pious co-Emperor, without the help of Pope or
priest. This thrust must have carried discomfiture
to the banks «»i the Tiber. But with Charlemagne's
weak successors the astute Papacy scored hit after
hit. Louis the Pious submitted to lit- recrowned by
the Pope, bo did his Bon, Lothair, and his grandson
Louis 11 ; and their two successors wvw also now oed
60 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
by the Pope. This sequence of palpable hits won
this bout and secured for the Papacy beyond dis-
pute the prerogative of crowning the Emperors.
If we now turn to that part of the game where
Emperor lunged and Pope parried, we find a more
complicated situation. A third player takes a hand,
to the confusion of the game and to the great detri-
ment of the papal defence. This third player is the
Roman people, who believed that the Senatus Popu-
1 usque llomanns still possessed their ancient pre-
rogatives, and had the right to appoint both Emperor
and Pope. Their claim to elect the Emperor was
flimsy enough, being merely the memory of an empty
form, and is not of enough consequence to stop for ;
but their claim to interfere in the papal election was
of the highest importance. It arose from the anom-
alous nature of the Papacy. The Pope was bishop
of Rome, and as such his election lay in the hands
of the clergy and people of Rome ; he was also the
ruler of central Italy, and as such the barons there
were interested in his election ; and, in addition,
he was head of all the Christian Churches in the
West, and so all western Christendom, and the Em-
peror as its temporal lord, was likewise concerned.
The fact was that no definite method of papal elec-
tion and confirmation had been settled upon during
these disturbed centuries. The original practice had
been for the Roman churches, priests, and laymen
together assembled, to make the election ; subse-
quently the senate, or the army, or the nobles, had
represented the lay body of electors ; but whoever
represented the laymen, they and the clergy made
FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS 61
the election ; which was then submitted to the Em-
peror, or his representative, for scrutiny and confirma-
tion. The submission of the Roman election to the
examination of a Byzantine Emperor had never been
acceptable in Rome, and after the breach over icon-
oclasm, the practice ceased. Naturally, on the re-
vival of the Roman Empire in the West, the new
Emperors claimed the old Imperial right of super-
vision ; naturally, also, the papal party resisted the
fresh exercise of the old prerogative. Here was a
situation for a scrimmage, but any clear account of
the papal elections in Rome, supposing such were
possible, would be too minute ; this narrative must
confine itself to the main passes between the papal
party and the Emperors.
After the death of Charlemagne (no papal elec-
tion occurred during his lifetime) several Popes were
elected and consecrated without previously consulting
the Emperor. On the other hand, in the next reign
the Imperial deputy made the Romans take oath
that no Pope should be consecrated without the ap-
proval of the Emperor. What was done at the fol-
lowing election is not known, but at the second
the Pope was Dot consecrated until the Emperor had
ratified the proceedings. Thereafter the Imperial
right was acknowledged in theory, though in practice
the elected Pontiles did not always wait for Imperial
confirmation.
With the Call of the Carlovingian Empire the
fencing match ceased l'<»r lack of an Imperial Con-
testant. The SCOre Stood thus : each had succeeded
in the attack, the Papacy bad won its right to bestow
62 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the Imperial crown, and the Empire had won, though
not so definitely, its right to supervise the election
of a Pope. We must now pass to this Imperial in-
terregnum knowing- that when the Empire shall be
revived, the match will begin anew, and the combat-
ants, with foils unbated and envenomed, will tight to
a finish.
The Imperial interregnum, nominally interrupted
by one German and several Italian make-believe
Emperors, lasted for three generations ; no Imperial
power was exercised from 875 to 962. It is a murky
period in which shadows wander about ; but before
taking our candle and descending into the gloom, we
will turn to the one bright spot, the career of a
great Pope, Nicholas I (858-867).
This Pope, in spite of the decadence of the Pa-
pacy, won immense prestige for it by two successful
assertions of cosmopolitan authority. The King of
Lorraine, brother to Louis II, the Emperor, wished
to put away his wife and marry another woman.
The innocent queen, with the sanction of the clergy
of the kingdom, was divorced and forced to enter a
convent ; and, with the consent of his clergy, the
king married the other woman. The wronged queen
appealed to the Pope, who sent his legates to in*
vestigate the affair ; but the king bribed the legates
and succeeded in getting a decision from the local
synod in his favour, although, in fact, the whole
matter had been a shocking scandal. Thereupon
the king sent the archbishops of Cologne and of
Trier, the two great ecclesiastical dignitaries of
the kingdom, to announce this verdict of acquittal.
FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS 63
The Pope, " professing," as his enemies said, " to be
imperator of the whole world," seized his opportu-
nity ; he espoused the cause of the innocent queen,
annulled the fraudulent proceedings, and excommu-
nicated and deposed the two archbishops. The king
applied to the Emperor for help, and the Emperor
went to Rome, but could obtain no concession. The
Pope stood like a rock. He allied himself with France
and Germany, and threatened to excommunicate the
sinning husband and all his bishops. The king was
obliged to submit. The usurping wife was excom-
municated and banished, and the papal legate con-
ducted the divorced queen back to the royal palace.
Thus the Papacy not only established a great pre-
cedent for the supremacy of the spiritual over the
temporal power, but also stood conspicuous before
the world as the champion of the weak and oppressed
and the defender of morality and justice.
It would be difficult to overrate the effect of this
papal achievement. It may be that the Papacy stood
forth as champion of innocence when policy coin-
cided with righteousness ; but it was the righteous-
0688 and not the policy which gave the Papacy
strength. One can imagine, in days when brutal
barons, scattered in strongholds all over the country,
were the normal forms of power and authority, what
effect such news had upon the people. A pilgrim
from across the Alps, a peddler, or some poor va-
grant, enters a village hnddled at the fool of a hill,
on which stands a great castle where a drunken lord
revels with his mistresses, and recounts to the as-
sembled peasant-, serf's, and slaves, how the Holy
G4 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Father, in the name of God, had commanded a
greater lord, in a greater castle, to put away his
mistress and bring- back his wife, and how that lord
had got down on his knees and had done the Holy
Father's bidding.
The second case was the victory of papal author-
ity over the spirit of nationality in the Church.
When the incipient nations of France and Germany,
having separated from the Empire, had begun to
be self-conscious, the spirit of nationality naturally
showed itself in ecclesiastical matters as well as in
political matters. There was obvious likelihood that
the nations would govern themselves ecclesiastically
as well as politically. Should they do so, the papal
supremacy would fall just as the Imperial supremacy
had fallen, and the unity of the Church would be
shattered just as the Empire had been. Here was
certainly a great danger to the Papacy, and prob-
ably a great danger to Christianity and civilization ;
at least so Nicholas thought. He resolved to meet
it boldly. His opportunity came when a French
(West Frankish) bishop appealed to Rome against
the action of his metropolitan. The metropolitan
objected that there was no precedent for papal ac-
tion in such a case ; he did not deny that the Pope
had certain appellate functions, but said that if
the Pope interfered directly in the discipline of
bishops, the power of the metropolitan would be
impaired. It is needless to say that this argument
did not produce the result that the metropolitan de-
sired. There was nothing the Papacy wanted more
than that its central government should act directly
FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO NICHOLAS 65
everywhere, and that all bishops should be depen-
dent upon Rome ; that was the very principle of papal
supremacy. The issue would determine whether the
Papacy was to be an autocratic power, or a limited
court of appeal. Nicholas was able to take advan-
tage of the troubled political situation to enforce
direct papal authority, and so added an immense
prerogative to the papal power.
Apart from this imperial ecclesiastical principle
the latter episode is especially interesting on account
of the character of the evidence produced by the Pope
to maintain his position. This evidence consisted
of a new compilation of Church law which appeared
somewhat mysteriously about this time. Thereto-
fore Church law had consisted of a collection of
precepts taken from the Bible, from the early Fa-
thers, from decrees of Councils, and also of letters,
called decretals, written by the bishops of Rome, but
none of these decretals was earlier than the time of
Constantine. The fact, that there were no papal de-
cretals prior to Constantine, seemed to imply, at least
to the sceptically minded, that papal authority had
really begun at the time of Constantine and not at
the time of St. Peter. To the ardent papist such an
idea was incredible. Nicholas now produced a new
batch of documents. Among these was the Dona-
tion of ( 'nisi 1 1 at', in ■, of which I have spoken. Others
were papal decretals, which purported to come from
Popes of the third and BOCOnd rent lines, and to prove
that papal jurisdiction over other bishoprics had been
cised almost as Ear bacu as the time of St. Peter.
These new appearing documents placed the Pope
G<o A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
not only above kings, but above metropolitans and
provincial Bjnods, and justified Nicholas in acting
directly in the case of the West Frankish bishop,
in the King of Lorraine's matrimonial affairs, and
also in assuming to act as " imperator of the whole
world." These documents, known as the IsidoHan
l)i cretals, were probably composed by some priest in
France, not long before their use by Nicholas. For
six hundred years they were believed to be genuine,
and during that time rendered the Papacy great ser-
vice by ranging the sentiment of law throughout Eu-
rope (at least until the revival of Roman law) on
the side of the Papacy in its struggle with the Em-
pire.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY (S6T-9G2)
These triumphs were due to the brilliant vigour of
Pope Nicholas ; but that triumphant position could
not last, it was fictitious. The Papacy needed the
support of a strong secular power, and when the
Carlovingian Empire dissolved, it had nothing to
rest on, neither genius nor military force, and fell
into deep degradation.
To illustrate that degradation one episode will suf-
fice ; but there must first be a word of prologue.
The Papacy, as has been said, occupied an anomalous
position. From this sprang many troubles. As soon
as the pressure of Imperial authority was removed,
the Papacy tended to become the prize of municipal
politics, and different parties in Rome (if the tur-
bulent mobs may be called so) struggled to get
possession of it. One party, with interests centred
on local matters, indifferent to the greatness of the
Papacy and its European character, and willing to
have the Pope a mere local ruler, directed its efforts
to getting rid of all Imperial and foreign control.
The opposite party, with conflicting interests, wished
for [mperial control, and constituted a kind of Em-
poria] party, less from any large views, than in the
hope of deriving advantages from Imperial sup-
port Strife between the two parties was the normal
68 A SHORT HISTOEY OF ITALY
condition, and often ended in riot and civil Avar.
In this state of affairs, a certain Pope Formosus
(S ( .>1 -SIX)), who belonged to the Imperial faction,
went so far as to invite the German king- to come down
to Rome and be crowned Emperor. The king actually
came and was crowned, but accomplished little or no-
thing, except to arouse bitter hostility in his enemies.
When Formosus died, his successor was elected from
the opposite faction. The new Pope held a synod of
cardinals and bishops, and before them, the highest
Christian tribunal in the world, he summoned, upon
the charge of violating the canons of the Church,
the dead Formosus, whose body had lain in its grave
for months. The body was dug up, dressed in pon-
tifical robes, and propped upon a throne. Counsel
was assigned to it. The accusation was formally read,
and the Pope himself cross-questioned the accused,
who was convicted and deposed. His pontifical
acts were pronounced invalid. His robes were torn
from him, the three fingers of the right hand, which
in life had bestowed the episcopal blessing, were
hacked off, and the body was dragged through the
streets and flung into the Tiber.
This incident sheds light on medieval Rome, and
on the character of the people with whom the Popes
had to live. All the Popes, good, bad, and indifferent,
whether they were struggling with the Empire on great
cosmopolitan questions, or were trying to unite Chris-
tendom against Islam, always had to keep watch on
the brutal, ignorant, bloody Roman people, who took
no interest in great questions, and were always ready
to rob, burn, and murder with or without a pretext.
THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY 69
Now that we have brought the Frankish Empire
to its dissolution, and the Papacy to its degradation,
we must leave the two wrecks for the moment, and
stop in these dark years at the end of the ninth
century to see how Italy herself has fared. The Ital-
ian world was out of joint, intellectually, morally,
politically. There can hardly be said to have been
a government. For a generation the poor, shrunken
Empire had been but a shadow 7 , and when the last
Carlovingian died, its parts tumbled asunder. Local
barons ruled everywhere. The Imperial title, which
represented nothing, and conveyed no power, seemed,
however, to have some vital principle of its own,
some ghostly virtue ; at least sundry kings and
dukes thought so and fought for it ; but until the
coming- of Otto the Great it remained a shadow.
North of the Alps duchies and provinces united into
kingdoms ; but the peninsula remained split up into
discordant parts. The valley of the Po was divided
into various duchies, peopled by a mixed race of
Latins and Lombards, whom the pressure of the
conquering Franks had welded together. South of
the Po lay the Imperial marquisate of Tuscany.
Across the middle of the peninsula stretched the
awkward strip of domain from Ravenna to Koine,
inhabited by a race of comparatively pure Latin
blood. This domain, included in the Donations of
Pippin and of Charlemagne, nominally subjecl to the
Papacy under the suzerainty of the Empire, was
really in the possession of petty nobles, who knew
DO law except Force and craft. South of this so-called
papal domain lay the duchy of Spoleto and the Lorn-
70 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
hard duchy of Benevento, and farther south a few
principalities, such as Naples, Amain, and Salerno,
and finally in the heel and toe of Italy were the last
remains of the Greek Empire. To the northeast, on
its islands, lay the little fishing and trading city,
Venice.
The Italians, as we had hetter call them now that
Barbarian and Latin blood has well commingled,
were in a most unenviable condition. Most of those
who tilled the soil were serfs, and went with the land
when it was sold ; some were scarce better than slaves,
others were only bound to render service of certain
kinds or on certain days, either with their own hands
or with beasts. Their lot depended on the humours
of the overseers of great estates. Slaves were worse
off because they had no personal rights, but they
were always decreasing in number despite a slave
trade, for there was a strong religious sentiment
against slavery, and it was common for dying men
to liberate their slaves. In the cities people were
better off, for the artisans were free men, and by
banding together in guilds (which had existed ever
since the old Roman days) secured for themselves
a more prosperous condition. But the only thriving
places were the cities of the coast, Venice, Genoa,
Pisa, Amalfi, where trade was already beginning to
lay the foundations of future greatness.
These glimmerings of commerce were the only
lights along the whole horizon. Everything else
seemed to share the blight that had fallen on the Em-
pire and the Papacy. The clergy, whose duty it was
to maintain learning, failed utterly. Even in the hap-
THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY 71
piest days of the Carlovingian Empire, Charlemagne
had found it necessary to enact blunt rules for their
guidance. " Let the priests, according to the Apos-
tles' advice, withdraw themselves from revellings and
drunkenness ; for some of them are wont to sit up till
midnight or later, boozing with their neighbours ;
and then these men, who ought to be of a religious
and holy deportment, return to their churches
drunken and gorged with food, and unable to perform
the daily and nightly office of praise to God, while
others sink down in a drunken sleep in the place of
their revels. . . . Let no priest presume to store pro-
visions or hay in the church." 1 Learning, supposed
to be committed to their charge, went out like a spent
candle. Books were almost forgotten, except perhaps
here and there, in Pavia or Verona, where a gramma-
rian still invoked Virgil to prosper his muse ; or where
in an episcopal city, like Ravenna, some chronicler
wrote a history of the bishopric. The theory of his-
toric truth on which these chroniclers acted gives
an inkling of the mediaeval attitude towards facts.
Father Agnello, a priest of Ravenna, one of these
chroniclers, Bays himself: "If you, who read this
History of our Bishopric, shall come to a passage and
say, * Why didn't he narrate the facts about this
bishop as lie did about his predecessors,' listen to the
mil I, Andrea Agnello, a humble priest of this
holy church of Ravenna, have written the history of
this Bishopric from the time of St. Apollinaris for
eighl hundred yean and more, because niv brethren
here have begged me and compelled me. I have
1 Italy and At In9adert t Hixlgkin, vol. viii, p. lisy.
72 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
put down whatever I found the Bishops had undoubt-
edly done, and whatever I heard from the oldest men
living, hut where I could not find any historical ac-
count, nor anything about their lives in any way,
then, in order to leave no blanks in the holy succes-
sion of bishops, I have made up the missing lives
by the help of God, through your prayers, and I
believe I have said nothing untrue, because those
bishops were pious and pure and charitable and
winners of souls for God." 1
The monks were no better than the secular clergy.
The monasteries had grown large, for many men
had joined in order to escape military service, or to
obtain personal security, or an easier life, or greater
social consideration ; they had also grown rich, for
many sinners on their deathbeds had given large
sums, in hope to compound for their sins. Naturally
monastic vows were often broken. Moreover, the
little good that monks and priests did they undid
by their encouragement of superstition. They first
frightened the poor peasants out of their wits by
portraying the horrors of hell, and then preached
the magical properties of the sacraments and of
saints' bones, until the ordinary man, feeling him-
self the sport of superhuman agencies, abandoned
all self-confidence and surrendered himself to priestly
control as his sole hope of safety in this world or
the next.
Oppressed by anarchy, by division, by a degen-
erate church, by a gross clergy, and by waxing
ignorance, Italy might seem to have had its cup
1 Le cronache ilalianedel medio evo descritte, Balzani (translated).
THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY 73
of evil full. There -was but one further ill that
could be added, a new Barbarian invasion. It came.
The triumphant Saracens, having overrun Spain and
raided France in the west, having cooped up the
Byzantine Empire in the east, now threatened to
plant their victorious banners in the very heart of
Christendom. As early as Charlemagne's last years
they sacked a coast town scarce forty miles from
Rome. In 827 they invaded Sicily, invited by a
partisan traitor. Within ten years they had made
themselves masters of almost all the island, except
a few strongholds which managed to hold out for
half a century. The beaten Byzantines retired to
the mainland; but they did not get beyond the
reach of the victorious Saracens, who raided all the
Italian coast as far as the Tiber. Troops of ma-
rauders hovered round Rome and harried the coun-
tryside, robbing and pillaging at will. One band
advanced to the very gates of the city, and sacked
St. Peter's and St. Paul's, both outside the walls and
undefended (846). All the southern provinces were
overrun, half of their towns became Saracen for-
tresses. It seemed as if Italy were to undergo the
fate of Spain and become a Mohammedan Km irate.
The danger to Rome roused the country. A
Christian league was effected between the Imperial
forces in Italy, the Pope, and the coast cities of the
Booth, — Naples, Gaeta, and AmalfL Pope Leo him-
self blessed the fleet, and the Christians beat the
infidels in a great sea-fight not far from the Tiber's
mouth (849). Some of the prisoners were brought
to Koine and set to work on the walls which Pope
74 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Leo was building round the Vatican hill to protect
St. Peter's; and Rome, imitating the days of Scipio
African us, celebrated another triumph over Africa.
The fighting was kept up all over the south. The
Greek Emperor made common cause with his fellow
Christians, and the immediate danger of conquest
was arrested; but throughout this dismal ninth cen-
tury, and all the tenth, southern Italy continued to
suffer from Saracen marauders. The tales told of
their cruelty are fearful, and match our tales of In-
dian raids in the old French-English war. Separate
villages and lonely monasteries suffered most. Some
good came out of the evil, however, for the chroni-
clers relate how the abbots and their terrified breth-
ren spent days and nights fasting and in prayer.
Such was the condition of Italy when the Impe-
rial Carlovinffian line came to an end. The omni-
presence of anarchy was a permanent argument for
the need of an Imperial restoration. But the coun-
try did not know how to go to work to restore the
Empire. At first various claimants asserted various
titles, and Italian dukes and neighbouring kings
fought one another like bulls, but none were able to
establish any stable power. In the midst of these
ineffectual struggles one real effort was made. Ar-
nulf, king of the Germans, who regarded himself as
the true successor of the great Frankish house and
of right Imperial heir, marched down into Italy at
the invitation of Pope Formosus, as we have seen,
and assumed the Imperial crown (896). The expe-
dition was barren of consequences, but it gives us
another glimpse of the anomalous nature of the
THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY 75
Papacy, and the different views entertained of it on
the two sides of the Alps. The German king wished
to be Emperor, and felt that an Imperial coronation
at Rome by the Pope was essential. To him and to
his German subjects the papal invitation was of high
authority. When he reached Rome, however, the
seat of the Papacy, he found the gates barred and
the walls manned by rebellious citizens, who had
locked the Pope in the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and
had seized the government of the city. Arnulf
easily carried the defences by storm and liberated
the Pope. The incident illustrates the contrast be-
tween Teutonic respect and Roman disobedience,
and describes the papal situation as it was half the
time throughout the Middle Ages. Honoured and
reverenced by the pious ultramontanes, the Popes
were insulted, robbed, imprisoned, and deposed by
their immediate subjects. This local disobedience,
or, as it should be called, Roman republicanism,
was often the insignificant cause of papal actions
of far-reaching effect. The Popes were never strong
enough of themselves to suppress these republican
sentiments and ambitions ; they needed support from
some power, Italian or foreign. As they would not
endure the idea of an Italian kingdom, they adopted
tin- alternative «»i calling in a foreign power. This
was the constant papal policy.
Another instance of Roman republicanism, or
disobedience (as "in- chooses), throws Further light
on tin? nature of this thorn in the papal side. No1
long alter Arnulfs expedition, two women, Theo-
dora and Marozia. mother and daughter, played a
76 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
great part not only in Roman but also in Italian
politics. These two women ruled the city and ap-
pointed the Popes. They were bold, comely, much-
marrying women, choosing eligible husbands almost
by force ; both were wholly Roman in the fierceness,
vigour, and sensuality of their characters. They were
very capable, and, in part directly, in part through
their husbands and others, exercised control for
some thirty years ; and when the daughter disap-
peared from history, her son, Alberic, took the title,
Prince and Senator of all the Romans, and ruled in
her stead.
Thus the last hope of Italians helping themselves
perished ; for if the Papacy was powerless, there
was no help elsewhere in Italy. The usurpation of
these viragoes and of Alberic differs in details from
the usurpation of the later republicans, and of the
Colon na, Orsini, and other barons, who shall appear
hereafter in papal history, but for general effect on
papal affairs and through them on European affairs,
all these usurpations were very similar. The usurp-
ers, in diverse characters, represent that third player
in the fencing match, who, though by no means an
ally of the Empire, frequently rushed in and struck
up the Pope's guard, and continued to interfere for
hundreds of years, until the Popes of the Renais-
sance finally established their temporal power in the
city of Rome.
By the middle of the tenth century the disintegra-
tion of Italy had become so bad that it caused its own
cure. It was obvious that something must be done.
The Saracens, strongly established in Sicily, were
THE DEGRADATION OF ITALY 77
a standing menace towards the south. From the
north wild bands of Hungarians burst across the
Alps and harried the land in barbaric raids as far
as Rome. Feudal anarchy prevailed everywhere.
Monks and clergy were, to say the least, no help.
Even the Papacy, the only stable power, had be-
come the appanage of a Roman family. There was
but one way out of this chaos. The Roman Empire
must be restored. The Latin people never believed
that it was extinct but merely lying latent, requiring
some happy application of might and right to set it
going again on its majestic course. Charlemagne,
in his day, had supplied the might. That might had
faded away. Where was its substitute to be found?
Pope Formosus and King Arnulf had already sug-
gested the only possible answer, — in the eastern por-
tion of the Frankish Empire, the kingdom of Ger-
many. That kingdom, composed of the great duchies
of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony, and Lorraine,
had become tolerably compact ; it was strong at
home, and was eager for glory and power abroad.
It- ambitious king, Otto, of the Saxon line, was the
man to undertake to follow Charlemagne's example.
It was too late to hope to restore the Carlo vingian
Empire in its former boundaries, but with Germany
to give strength and Rome to contribute title, there
would be the two necessary elements for a renewal
of the Roman Empire.
The immediate pretext of Otto's coming down
into Italv was highly romantic. A lovely lady, the
widow of one Italian pretender to the throne of
Italv. was pestered with offers of marriage from an-
7> A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
other pretender. She refused, and was locked up in
a tower by the Lake of Garda, where memories of
Catullus and Lesbia still faintly lingered. She con-
trived to escape, and sent piteous messages for help
to the great Otto, then a widower. Discontented fac-
tions in the north, and others Buffering from oppres-
sion, including the Pope who had been rudely roused
to the need of Imperial support, also sent messen-
gers asking him to come. Otto came, took Pavia, and
acted as King of Italy. He married the lovely widow,
and wished to go to Rome to receive the Imperial
crown ; but Alberic, lord of Rome, would not give
permission. Otto went back to Germany and bided
his time. In ten years Alberic died leaving a young
son, who, although only seventeen years old, in-
herited enough of his father's power to get himself
elected Pope, John XII. Pope John, however, found
himself encompassed by powerful enemies both in
Rome and out. He too was obliged to recognize
the absolute necessity of Imperial restoration, and
called upon Otto for aid. The German king came,
and was crowned by the Pope, Emperor of the Ro-
mans, in St. Peter's basilica, on the second day of
February, 962. This coronation was the beginning
of a new phase in the Roman Empire. In this phase
that Empire is known as the Holy Roman Empire,
although it was merely a union of Germany, Italy,
and Burgundy.
CHAPTER IX
THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY (962-1056)
This Roman Empire (it did not receive its full title
of Holy Roman Empire until later) deserved the
name Roman because it rested on the Roman tra-
dition of the political unity of the civilized world.
This tradition, by means of the ecclesiastical unity
of Europe, had survived the Barbarian invasions, had
gained strength through Charlemagne's Empire, and
now joined together two nations so fundamentally
different as Germany and Italy. The Germans were
lug blond men, beer-drinkers, huge eaters, rough,
ill-mannered, arrogant, phlegmatic and brave; the
Italians were little, dark-skinned men, wine-drinkers,
lettuce-eaters, with pleasant manners, gesticulating,
excitable, and un warlike. Their union affords the
strongest testimony to the strength of the Roman
tradition. This ill-assorted pair, married in obedi-
ence to the will of dead generations, could not live
together in peace. The theory of a world conjointly
ruled bya BUpreme secular sovereign and a supreme
ecclesiastical sovereign could not be put into success-
ful practice. The Empire was German, the Papacy
Italian, and by their very natures fchey were antago-
nistic.
Otto'fl empire was by no means universal, but its
suzerainty was acknowledged by Bohemia, Moravia,
80 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Poland, Denmark, perhaps by Hungary, and some-
times by France; and therefore, as eastern Europe
was either Greek or barbarian, Britain an island, and
Spain practically Mohammedan, it sustained fairly
well the idea of a universal (i. e., European) empire.
The essential parts were Germany to give strength,
and Italy to give title and tradition. In theory the
process of royal and Imperial election and coronation
was as follows. The German electors (the greater
nobles), whose number was not limited to seven for
two centuries and more, elected a king, who was
crowned with a silver crown at Aachen, and, by
virtue of his coronation, received the title, King of
the Romans. This king then took the iron crown
of Lombardy at Pa via, and became King of Italy ;
and, when he received the gold Imperial crown from
the Pope at Rome, became Emperor. The election
of the son of the late Emperor to succeed was the
custom, but was not obligatory. Germany was not
a strongly centralized state, but was composed of
several dukedoms, which often fell out among them-
selves. Italy was still less a political unit. It had no
marks of nationality, except its geographical posi-
tion, its ancient tradition, and a tardily forming
language ; but even this lingua vol gave, which in
Otto's time began to have an Italian sound, and to
touch the degenerate written Latin with an Italian
look, did not prevail throughout the peninsula. In
the south Greek was still spoken, and the Holy
Roman Empire never had more than the shadow of
a title south of Benevento till after Barbarossa's
time. The Emperor's authority rested at bottom on
THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY 81
the German military power ; and as this depended
on the obedience of wayward and jealous dukedoms,
it was uncertain and intermittent.
The Papacy was far more stable, for fundamen-
tally it was a moral power, and got its energy from
men's consciences. It was far better organized than
the Empire. The ecclesiastical system spread all over
Europe, into every city, village, hamlet, and monas-
tery; countries which reluctantly acknowledged the
suzerainty of the Empire, bowed unquestioningly to
papal rule. Moreover, the power of the Papacy did
not merely consist in spiritual weapons, terrible as
the ban of excommunication was in those days, but
also in its ability to raise up enemies against its
enemy? and to put the cloak of piety over war and
rebellion.
The ironical element in the situation was that the
Empire itself lifted the Papacy to the position in
which it was able to turn and defy the Empire, fight
it, and finally destroy it. The Emperors, who enter-
tained no doubts that the Papacy was subject to
them, that they were responsible for its conduct and
must secure the election of worthy Popes, took the
Papacy out of the hands of the Roman faction,
purified it, and appointed honest, capable, upright
Popes.
A contemporary account of Otto's dealings with
that young scamp, Pope John XII, who in morals
: mbled bis grandmother, Marozia, gives a good
picture of the nature of tin: benefits which the Em-
pire conferred on the Papacy: " While these things
taking place; the constellation of Cancer, hot
82 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
from the enkindling rays of Phoebus, kept the Em-
peror away from the hills around Rome, but when
the constellation of Virgo returning brought back
the pleasant season he went to Rome upon a secret
invitation from the Romans. But why should I say
8< cret when the greater part of the nobility burst
into the Castle of St. Paul and invited the holy
Emperor, and even gave hostages? The citizens
received the holy Emperor and all his men within
the city, promised allegiance, and took an oath that
they would never elect a Pope, nor consecrate him,
without the consent and the sanction of the Lord
Emperor Otto, Caesar, Augustus, and of his son,
King Otto.
" Three days later, at the request of the Roman
bishops and people, there was a great meeting in
St. Peter's Church, and with the Emperor sat the
archbishops of Aquileia, Milan, and Ravenna, the
archbishop of Saxony [and many other Italian and
German prelates]. When they were seated, and
silence made, the holy Emperor got ivp and said :
' How fit it would be that in this distinguished and
holy council our lord Pope John should be present!
But since he has refused to be of your company,
we ask your counsel, holy fathers, for you have the
same interest as he.' Then the Roman prelates,
cardinals, priests, and deacons, and all the people
cried out : ' We are surprised that your reverend
prudence should wish to make us investigate that
which is not hidden from the Iberians, the Babylo-
nians, nor the Indians. He [the Pope] is no longer
one of that kind, which come in sheep's clothing but
THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY 83
inwardly are ravening wolves ; he rages so openly,
does his diabolical misdeeds so manifestly, that we
need not beat about the bush.' The Emperor an-
swered : ' "We deem it just that the accusations
should be stated one by one, and after that we will
take counsel too-ether of what we ousjht to do.'
" Then Cardinal-priest Peter got up, and testified
that he had seen the Pope celebrate mass without
communion. John, bishop of Narni, and John, car-
dinal-deacon, declared that they had seen him ordain
a deacon in a stable, and not at the proper hour.
Cardinal-deacon Benedict, with other priests and dea-
cons, said that they knew that he ordained bishops
for money, and that in the city of Todi he had
ordained as bishop a boy ten years old. They said
it was not necessary to go into his sacrileges because
they had seen more such than could be reckoned.
They said in regard to his adulteries . . . They said
that he had publicly gone a-hunting ; that he had put
out the eyes of his spiritual father, Benedict, who
died soon after in consequence ; that he had mutilated
and killed John, cardinal-subdeacon ; and they tes-
tified that he had set buildings on fire, armed with
helmet and breastplate, and girt with a sword. All,
priests ami laymen, cried out that he had drunk a
toast to the devil. They said that while playing dice
lie had invoked the aid of Jupiter, Venus, and other
demons. Thev declared tli.it he had not celebrated
matins, nor observed the canonical hours, and that
lie did not cross himself.
" When the EmperOI had heard all this, lie bade
me, LiutpramL bishop of Cremona, interpret to the
84 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Romans, because they could not understand his
Saxon. Then he got up and said : ' It often happens,
and we believe it from our experience, that men in
great place are slandered by the envious, for a good
man is disliked by bad men just as a bad man is dis-
liked by good men. And for this reason we enter-
tain some doubts concerning this accusation against
the Pope, which Cardinal-deacon Benedict has just
read and made before you, uncertain whether it
springs from zeal for justice or from envy and im-
piety. Therefore with the authority of the dignity
granted to me, though unworthy, I beseech you by
that God, whom no man can deceive howsoever he
may wish, and by His holy mother, the Virgin Mary,
and by the most precious body of the prince of the
Apostles, in whose Church we now are, that no ac-
cusation be cast at our lord the Pope of faults which
he has not committed and which have not been seen
by the most trustworthy men.' ' The accusers af-
firmed their charges on oath. Then the holy Synod
said : " If it please the holy Emperor let letters be
sent to our lord the Pope, bidding him come and
clear himself of these charges." The wary John did
not come, but wrote : " I, Bishop John, servant of the
servants of God, to all the bishops. We have heard
that you propose to elect another Pope. If you do
that, I excommunicate you in the name of Almighty
God so that you shall not have the right to ordain
anybody, nor to celebrate mass." 1 Nevertheless,
John was deposed and a good Pope put in his stead.
Otto's successors, one after the other, followed his
1 Le cronache italiane del medio evo descritte, Balzaui, p. 123.
THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACT 85
example, and treated the Papacy as if it had been
a German bishopric. The Emperors, however, had
work to do north of the Alps, and did not spend
much time in Rome, except Otto III, a romantic
dreamer, who wished to live there ; and during their
absence the turbulent Roman anti-imperial faction
used to seize the Papacy, just as Alberic had done,
and put up worthless Popes. In spite of them the
Emperors' Popes raised the Papacy so high that, as
a matter of course, it became the head of the great
ecclesiastical reform movement which swept over
Europe in the eleventh century, and from that move-
ment drew in so much force and energy that it
became the greatest power in Europe, and was enabled
finally to overthrow the Empire.
This tide of reform arose at Cluny, a little place
in Burgundy, and began as a monastic reform. All
over Christendom monasteries had grown rich and
prosperous ; many monks had forsaken Benedict's
rule, had broken their vows and lived with wives and
children upon revenues intended for other purposes.
Other monks hated this evil conduct, and burning
with a passionate desire to stop it, started a great
movement of monastic reform. The reform was
ascetic in character, as a moral emotion in those days
was hound to be. The first reformers gathered at
Cluny, about tin* beginning of t In* tenth century.
From there disciples went far and wide, purging old
monasteries and founding new. Alter a time the re-
formers passed beyond theearly stage of mere moral
revolt against godless living, formed a party, and put
forward b meed. The party represented antagonism
86 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
to the world, pitted saints against sinners, the Church
against the State. The creed had three tenets. No
ecclesiasts should marry, and married men upon ordi-
nation should live apart from their wives. No bribery,
no corrupt bargain, should taint the appointment and
installation of clergy, high or low. No layman should
meddle with the entry of bishops upon their episcopal
office. These three tenets roused bitter opposition.
Celibacy of the clergy had been a rule of Church
discipline since early days, and from time to time
efforts had been made to enforce the practice, but it
had fallen into general disregard. A celibate clergy,
with no affections or interests nearer or dearer than
the Church, would be a tremendous ecclesiastical
force, and far-sighted Popes always sought to enforce
the rule. Necessarily the married clergy and many
clerical bachelors were violent in opposition. The
article against simony nobody openly gainsaid ; but
many bishops and abbots had obtained their offices
by corrupt practices, and many nobles looked forward
to rich livings and high ecclesiastical places ; both
classes opposed a change. The third article, against
lav investiture of bishops, which was to be the cause
of deadly war between Empire and Papacy, was a
logical conclusion from the article against simony ;
for it was hard to suppose that in the appointment
of bishops, kings and princes would disregard all
worldly motives and appoint men solely for the good
of souls. On the other hand, the great bishoprics
and abbeys were among the most important fiefs in
a king's gift, and carried with them feudal privileges
of sovereignty, such as rights of coinage, toll, hold-
THE REVIVAL OF THE PAPACY 87
ing courts, etc. ; in short, they were mere secular fiefs
with ecclesiastical prerogatives added. It was natural
that the German Emperors should claim the right to
appoint and invest these spiritual barons, and insist
that their episcopal territories should be subject to
the same feudal obligations and the same civic duties
as the territories granted to lay barons. This third
article was a direct attack on the civil poAver. It' all
Imperial participation were to be stricken out, and
bishops put into possession of their fiefs solely by
the Pope, then vast territories, estimated to be nearly
half the Empire, would be withdrawn from civic obli-
gations, even from military service, and the Pope,
ousting the Emperor, would become monarch of half
the Imperial domains. According to the canons of
the Church, the clergy and the people of the diocese
elected the bishop, and the Church bestowed on him
ring and staff, the signs of episcopal office. The
trouble arose over the fief. In feudal times the kings
had enfeoffed bishops with great fiefs in order to
counterbalance the insubordinate secular lords, and
because, in episcopal hands, these fiefs did not be-
ii uiie hereditary. When the reformers took the mat-
ter up, they found that in practice the kings did not
wait tni' a canonical election of episcopal candidates,
bnt invested their henchmen in return for money or
BOme service which had no savour of sanctity. The
episcopal office, as St. Peter Damian complained,
wssgoi " by flattering the king, studying his inclina-
tion, obeying hi- beck, applauding every word that
fell from his month, hv acting the parasite ami play-
ing tin- buffoon." The real difficulty lay in the
88 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
double nature of the episcopal office, half ecclesi-
astical and half feudal ; and, like other great political
difficulties, would not yield to a peaceful solution,
until there had been a trial of strength between the
discordant interests.
The first consequence, however, of the reforming
spirit was to ennoble the whole Church, to purify her
members, and animate them with a common zeal, and
to uplift her head, the Papacy. It carried on, in a
larger way and with a greater sweep, the work of
ecclesiastical reformation begun by the intervention
of the Emperors in the election of Popes, and gave
a loftier tone to European politics.
CHAPTER X
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES (1059-1123)
The struggle over the lay investiture of bishops did
not arise at first. The Papacy was still a dependent
bishopric in the gift of the Emperors, who continued
to depose bad Roman Popes and appoint upright
Germans. Popes and Emperors worked together to
enforce celibacy among the clergy and to put down
simony. The Emperors could not see, what is evi-
dent in retrospect, that when the spirit of reform
should have taken full possession of the Papacy,
then the Papacy would not rest content to be a Ger-
man bishopric, but, in obedience to the law which
links political ambition to political vigour, would
even aim so high as to try to reduce the Empire
itself to the condition of a papal fief. The spirit
of reform, embodied in a man of genius, did take
possession of the Papacy and the great struggle
be<rim.
Among the crowd that thronged to Cluny eager
for a higher life, was a young Tuscan from Orvieto,
Bildebrand by name, of plebeian birth. Small of
stature, vehement in spirit, passionate in feeling and
action, lie Mas confident in himself and yet sensi-
tive to sympathy. This lad became an eager scholar,
but in spite of erudition and fondness for study, lie
was essentially a man of action, a born leader of
90 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
men. " What he taught by word he proved by ex-
ample." He believed absolutely in the tenets of the
reformers. He believed with his whole being- that
the Church was a divine institution to save men's
souls, and he could not endure the idea of secular
powers and worldly influences intermeddling with
God's fabric. His career exhibits the power of a
man of genius, who devotes his whole life to what
for him is the highest end, and is able to use human
enthusiasm for good as his implement.
Hildebrand has been called the Julius Caesar of
the Papacy. He went to Rome about 1048. From
that time papal policy became definite, vigorous,
stamped with an antique Roman stamp ; and open
conflict with the Empire was the inevitable result.
Hildebrand's first care was to protect the Papacy
from the petty-minded Roman faction ; he supported
papal candidates of high character and even secured
the appointment of a German, sagaciously foreseeing
that ecclesiastical patriotism would be stronger than
national patriotism. These Popes put Hildebrand's
views into execution.
Now that the Papacy had been rescued from the
Roman faction, the next step was to free it from
the Egyptian bondage of subjection to the Empire.
Hildebrand was ready to strike whenever a fair
opportunity should come. It soon came. The Em-
peror died, leaving his son Henry IV, a little boy,
his successor on the German throne and heir to the
Empire. A long minority seemed to reveal the hand
of Providence. Hildebrand acted. It had long been
obvious that one cause of papal subjection to Ro-
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES 91
man faction and Imperial tyrant had been the un-
certainty of the electoral body. Emperors, Roman
nobles, and Roman rabble, all had certain historic
electoral rights. Hildebrand resolved to dispossess
them all. A synod was held, which declared that
the election of the Pope lay in the hands of the
cardinals (1059). Some right of approval was left
to the Roman people, some right of sanction to
the Emperor, but the right of original election was
vested in the cardinals, and this gradually developed
into an absolute and exclusive right of election.
This act was an act of rebellion towards the Empire,
a declaration of independence. Hildebrand said that
he strove to make the Church "free, pure, and cath-
olic." This action made it free.
It was not to be expected that the Empire would
acquiesce tamely in this rebellion. Imperialists and
Romans made common cause against the clerical
rebels. But the height of the conflict was not reached
till Hildebrand himself was elevated to the Papacy
(1073), becoming Gregory VII. He immediately
took- the offensive. Burning; with conviction him-
self, he appealed to the general enthusiasm both
in the Church and throughout the Empire for the
cause of God; he ruthlessly denounced simony and
proclaimed principles of papal sovereignty absolute
and universal. " The Roman Church was founded
by God alone; she never has erred and never will
err, and no man is a Catholic who is not at peace
with her. The Roman bishop alone is universal.
He may depose bishops ami reinstate them, he may
transfer them from one Bee to another, he may de-
92 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
pose emperors, and may absolve the subjects of the
unjust from their allegiance. No synod without his
consent is general ; no episcopal chapter, no book,
canonical without his authority. No man may sit in
judgment on his decrees, but he may judge the de-
crees of all." Here certainly was a second Julius
Caesar in ambition. Gregory claimed feudal suprem-
acy over Bohemia, Russia, Hungary, Spain, Corsica,
Sardinia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Poland, Scandinavia, and
England. Such claims were vague and shadowy ;
but the claims to interfere between the German king
and the German episcopate and clergy were definite
and direct. The Papacy declared its own supremacy,
and the Imperial duty of obedience.
Gregory had immense moral support at his back,
yet moral support would not have sufficed to protect
him from the king's anger. Nor would Gregory have
ventured on so haughty a course, had he not had
allies of another character. These allies were four
in number, and require some description. First in
importance come the Normans. For years bands of
Norman warriors, pious folk, had passed through
Southern Italy on their way to the Holy Land. Once
a handful had helped a prince of Salerno to repel a
Saracen attack. The prince, so the story goes, de-
lighted with their valour, begged them to invite their
compatriots to come. The invitation was readily
accepted. Bands of gentlemen adventurers came,
fought against Saracens, or Greeks, or the inde-
pendent dukes and princes of Southern Italy, first
as mercenaries in anybody's pay, and afterwards on
their own account. They soon conquered a domain,
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES 93
and reached out in all directions. Some drove out
the last Byzantines and acquired Southern Italy ;
some crossed to Sicily, performed prodigies of valour
against the Saracens, and finally conquered the whole
island (1060-90). In their raids northward they
trespassed upon papal territory and came into col-
lision with the Church. St. Peter's sword was drawn
and brandished, but ineffectually. The Popes then
concluded that martial deeds did not become them ;
and the Normans, on their part, were pious folk ; so
together they formed a happy solution. The Nor-
mans had possession of Southern Italy and Sicily,
but merely by right of conquest ; they were in the
midst of an alien and far more numerous subject
people, and wished for a legal title. The Popes, un-
able to acquire actual possession, did have, thanks to
the Donation of Constantine, a legal title, derived,
so they claimed, from the original source of legal
titles, the Roman Empire. The mode of agreement
was obvious; the Popes conferred Southern Italy and
Sicily as feuds upon their liegemen the Norman
chiefs, and they in return acknowledged the Popes
as their lords suzerain. In this manner, " by the
grace of God and St. Peter," the Normans founded
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which for centuries
after the Norman line died out continued to acknow-
ledge the overlordship of the Papacy. The Normans
were often disobedient vassals, but they knew that
the Empire regarded them as robbers, and in the
wars between Empire and Papacy remained loyal to
their lords the Po] •
The second papal ally was Countess Matilda
94 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
(1046-1115), mistress of the Marquisateof Tuscany
and other domains, which stretched from the papa]
boundaries up across the Po to Lombardy, and like
her mother, her predecessor in title, a brave, capable,
devout woman. As the Normans were a defence to
the Papacy on the south, so these ladies constituted
a bulwark on the north, and often rendered incal-
culable service to the Popes of this period. Ma-
tilda's devotion to Gregory was boundless. " Like
a second Martha, she ministered unto him, and as
Mary hearkened unto Christ, so did she, attentive
and assiduous, hearken to all the words of the Holy
Father." She and her mother make clear one source
of papal strength. They show us the attitude of the
women, who, from sentiments of morality, piety, and
superstition, took the religious side of the quarrel,
and did not rest till fathers, brothers, husbands, and
lovers had also espoused it. One act of feminine devo-
tion fixes Matilda in the memory. Her domains con-
sisted of marquisates, counties, baronies, and various
feudal estates, held as feuds of the Empire, over which
on her death she had no power of disposition, and also
of large private estates, which she was free to give
or devise. All these, Imperial feuds and private es-
tates, she gave or rather attempted to give to the
Church. This Donation, the most important since
that of Charlemagne, gave fresh causes of quarrel
between Papacy and Empire. The Papacy attempted
to make good its claim to the Imperial feuds ; and
the Empire, finding it impossible to discover the
boundaries between the two species of territories,
also claimed the whole.
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES 95
The third papal ally is to be found in the cities
of Lombardy, which had now become rich and im-
portant. In these cities, especially in Milan, which
was easily first commercially and politically, trade
had created a burgher class which already gave evi-
dence of a desire for political power. In Milan itself
there was extreme political instability ; archbishop,
nobles, gentry, artisans, and populace were all ready
for a general scrimmage on the slightest provocation.
The clergy were numerous and very rich ; sons of
noblemen held the fat benefices, and almost all led
irreligious lives and held celibacy in the meanest
esteem. Simony was the rule. In Hildebrand's time
the passion for religious reform swept over the lower
classes of the city. A new sect arose, the Patarini
(ragamuffins), a species of Puritans, who took up
the cry against clerical laxity and immorality, and
denounced married priests. Religious excitement set
fire to social and economic discontent ; populace and
nobles flew to arms ; there were riots and civil war.
Several eminent men, close friends of Hildebrand,
me popular leaders; and the contest of people
and Patarini against nobles and married clergy be-
came an episode in the general strife between Papal
and [mperial parties. Similar tumults, caused half
bv class enmity, half l>v the passion for religions re-
form, took place iii other northern cities, Cremona.
Piacenza, Pavia, Padua; on one side was the party
of aristocratic privilege, looking- to the Emperor for
support ; on the other, the party of the people, look-
ing to the Pope.
Gregorv's fourth ally was the rebellious nobility
96 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
of Germany. Had Germany been united and loyal,
the German king would easily have been able to
assert his power in Italy ; but Germany was disloyal
and divided. Archbishops of the great archbishop-
rics, dukes of the great duchies, bishops, counts,
and lords, in fact, all the component parts of the
feudal structure of Germany, were jealous of one
another ; each grudged the other his possessions,
and were in accord only in jealousy of the royal'
power. There were always some barons or bishops
thankful to have the Pope's name and the Pope's aid
in a rebellious design. These animosities the Papacy
through its thousand hands diligently fomented.
Ranged against Gregory and his allies were the
loyal parts of Germany, the Imperial adherents in
Italy, the married clergy everywhere, and all whom
Gregory's reforms had angered and estranged. At
their head was a dissipated young king, of high
spirit, headstrong, ignorant, and superstitious, who
entertained lofty notions of his royal and Imperial
prerogatives. The characters of these two men would
have brought them into collision, even if the irrecon-
cilable natures of Empire and Papacy had not ren-
dered a clash inevitable.
Gregory, almost immediately after his elevation
to the pontificate, held a council and denounced
simony, marriage of the clergy, and lay investiture.
The king, who believed in the existing system,
continued to exercise what he deemed his royal rights
with a view to improving his political position.
Gregory held a second council and utterly forbade
lay investiture. Henry continued to disobey. Then
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES 97
Gregory wrote to him that he must renounce the
claim of investiture, and humbly present himself
in person before the papal presence and beg abso-
lution for his sins ; or, if he should fail to obey,
Gregory would excommunicate him. Henry and his
party, now very angry, retorted by holding a Ger-
man synod, which charged Gregory with all sorts of
offences, moral, ecclesiastical, and political, absolved
both king and bishops from their papal allegiance,
and. finally, deposed the Pope. Henry himself wrote
Gregory this letter : —
" Henry, not by usurpation, but by God's holy
will, King, to Hildebrand, no longer Pope, but false
monk : —
M This greeting you have deserved from the con-
fusion you have caused, for in every rank of the
Church you have brought confusion instead of hon-
our, a curse instead of a blessing. Out of much I shall
say but a little ; you have not only not feared to
touch the rulers of the Holy Church, archbishops,
bishops, priests, God's anointed, but as if they were
si tves, you have trampled them down under your feet.
By trampling them down you have got favour from
the nilgai mouth. You have decided that they know
nothing, and that you alone know everything, and
you have studied to use your knowledge not to build
Up but to <lr>troy. . . . We have borne all this and
have striven to maintain the honour of the Apostolic
Bui you have construed our humiliti as fear,
and for that reason you have not feared to rise up
our royal power, and have even dared to
threaten that you would take it from us; as if we
98 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
had received our kingdom from you, as if kingdom
and empire were in your hands and not in God's.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to the kingdom,
I. in not von t<> the priesthood. You have mounted
h\ these Bteps; by craft — abominahle in a monk
\mi have come into money, by money to favour,
1>\ favour to the sword, by the sword to the seat of
peace, and from the seat of peace you have con-
founded peace. You have armed subjects against
i hose over them ; you, the unelect, have held our
lollops, elect of God, up to contempt. . . . Me, even,
who though unworthy am the anointed king, you
have touched, and although the holy fathers have
taught that a king may be judged by God only,
and for no offence except deviation from the faith
— which God forbid — you have asserted that I
should be deposed; when even Julian the Apostate
was left by the wisdom of the holy fathers to be
judged and deposed by God only.. That true Pope,
blessed Peter, says : ' Fear God, honour the king.' But
you do not fear God and you dishonour me appointed
by Him. And blessed Paul, who did not spare an
angel from heaven who should preach other doctrine,
did not except you, here on earth, who now teach
other doctrine. For he says, ' But though we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed/ You therefore by Paul anathema-
tized, by the judgment of all our bishops and by mine
condemned, come down, leave the apostolic seat which
you have usurped; let another mount the throne of
blessed Peter, who shall not cloak violence with reli-
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES 99
gion, but shall teach the sound doctrine of blessed
Peter. I, Henry, King by God's grace, and all our
bishops, say to you, Down, down, you damned for-
" i
ever.
To the action of the German synod and to this
letter there could be but one answer. Gregory held
a synod, excommunicated the king, and released his
subjects from their allegiance. The Germans rose in
rebellion, taking the excommunication as a ground
or perhaps as a pretext ; they held a great council in
presence of a papal legate, and decided that they
would renounce their allegiance unless the king ob-
tained absolution. The king, too weak to cope with
the rebels, submitted. He crossed the Alps with
his wife and one or two servants, in midwinter,
and came to the fortress of Canossa, near Parma,
a stronghold belonging to the Countess Matilda,
whither Gregory had gone. For three days the king
stood outside the gates, dressed as a penitent, and
begged for leave to present himself before the Pope.
At last, owing to the entreaties of Matilda, the king
was admitted. He cast himself upon the ground be-
fore Gregory, who lifted him up and bade him sub-
mit to the ordeal of the eucharist. Gregory took the
consecrated wafer and said, " If I am guilty of the
crimes charged against me, may God strike me." He
limke and ate; then turning to Henry, said, "Do
thou, my son, as I have done." The king did not
dare to invoke the judgmenl of God ; he humbled
himself, resigned his crown into Gregory's hands,
and swore to remain a private person until he
1 S>lirt Afediccval Documents, Shatter Mathews, translated.
100 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Bhould be judged bj a council. He was then ab-
solved I L077).
Various events followed this terrible humiliation.
The German rebels set up an anti-king, and the
king's men set up an anti-pope, and there was war
and hatred everywhere. The king's energy triumphed
tor a time ; he even captured Rome, and had it not
been for a Norman army, which came to the Pope's
rescue, he would have captured Gregory, too. But,
despite royal triumphs the scene at Canossa had
struck the majesty of the Empire an irretrievable
blow ; the king of the Germans, Emperor except for
a coronation, had admitted in a most dramatic way,
before all Europe, the inferiority of the temporal to
the spiritual power.
Gregory died in exile at Salerno, Henry died de-
posed by his rebellious son ; and the question of
lav investiture still remained unsettled. More deeds
of violence were done, more oaths broken, more
lives taken ; at last an agreement was reached and
the long contest closed. Papacy and Empire made
a treaty of peace, known as the Concordat of
Worms (1122). The Emperor renounced all claim
to invest bishops with ring and staff, and recog-
nized the freedom of election and of ordination
of the clergy, thus giving up all claim to appoint
bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries. The
Pope agreed that the election of bishops should
take place in presence of the Emperor or his repre-
sentative, and that bishops should receive their fiefs
in a separate ceremony, by touch of the royal scep-
tre, in token of holding them from the Empire.
THE STRUGGLE OVER INVESTITURES 101
This compromise, which seems absurdly simple, as
settled questions often do, was a final adjustment of
the immediate quarrel between Empire and Papacy,
but left the larger matter of mastery still to be
fought out.
CHAPTER XI
TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM (1152-1190)
The, last chapter dealt with the struggle between
the two great mediaeval institutions, the Empire and
tlic Papacy. This deals with the contest between the
Empire, representing the feudal system, and a new
social force, the spirit of trade, represented by the
Lombard cities. Naturally the Papacy joined in the
fray and sided with the Lombard cities ; and, before
the end, all Italy was divided into two great parties
designated by terms derived from Germany : Guelfs,
which indicated those opposed to the Empire, and
Ghibellines, which indicated friends to the Empire.
But the particular issue here fought out was that
between feudalism and trade, and the triumph of
trade indicates the close of the Middle Ages.
The Emperor Frederick I (1152-90) of the great
house of Hohenstaufen is the hero of this period.
He was a noble specimen of the knight of the
Middle Ages, such as Sir Walter Scott conceived a
knight to be. He had a bright, open countenance,
fair hair, that curled a little on his forehead, and
a red beard (Barbarossa) which impressed the Ital-
ian imagination. Valiant, resolute, energetic, boun-
tiful in almsgiving, attentive to religious duties,
he was a kind friend and a stern enemy. To
his misfortune he was born too late ; he belonged
TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM 103
to a chivalric generation out of place in a world
which had begun to deem buying and selling mat-
ters of greater consequence than chivalry and cru-
sades. He thought himself entitled to all the Im-
perial rights that had been exercised by the Ottos ;
and, measuring his own prerogatives by their stan-
dard, resolved to make good the deficiencies of
his immediate predecessors, who for one reason or
another had neglected to assert those prerogatives
in their plenitude. Barbarossa's situation may be
compared to that of Charles I of England, who
believed himself lawful heir to all the prerogatives
of the Tudors.
Opposed to these old-fashioned views was the
hard-headed spirit of commercial Italy. Barbarossa's
particular enemies were the Lombard cities, but that
was because they were nearest to him. The same
mercantile spirit animated all the cities of the pen-
insula ; in fact, it pervaded the maritime cities before
it pervaded the Lombard cities, and can best be de-
scribed by means of a description of them.
The southern cities bloomed earlier than their
northern sisters. Amalfl, now a little fishing 1 village
which clings to the steep slopes of the Gulf of Sa-
lerno, in the eleventh century was an independent
republic of 50,000 inhabitants. She traded with
Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and Arabia; she decked her
women with the ornaments of the East; she built
monasteries at Jerusalem, also a hospital from which
the Knights Hospitallers of St. John took their
name; Bhe gave a maritime code to the Mediter-
ranean and Ionian seas, and circulated coin of her
104 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
own minting throughout the Levant. Salerno, her
near neighbour, had already become famous for her
knowledge of medicine, acquired from the Arabs.
The speculations of her physicians upon the medici-
nal properties of herbs went all over Europe. She
abounded in attractions. Vineyards, apple orchards,
nut trees, flourished round about the city ; within
there were handsome palaces; "the women did not
lack beauty, nor the men honesty." The Normans
must have found themselves very comfortable. Na-
ples, Gaeta, and the Greek cities of the heel and
toe were also important and prosperous. But these
southern cities were soon outdone by their sturdier
northern rivals, Pisa, Genoa, Venice.
Pisa, which now lies at the mouth of the Arno
like a forsaken mermaid on the shore, is said to have
been a free commune before the year 900. She
traded east and west ; she waged w r ars with the Sara-
cens, drove them from Sardinia, captured the Bale-
aric Islands (1114), and carried the war into Africa.
Rich with booty and commercial gains, she erected
(according to a traveller's estimate) ten thousand
towers within the city walls, completed her dome-
crowned, many-columned, queenly cathedral, and
built the attendant baptistery, within whose marble
walls musical notes rise and fall, circle and swell,
as if angels were singing in mid-air. She received
many privileges from the Emperors ; her maritime
i's were to be respected; she was to enact her
own laws, and to judge her citizens. No Imperial
Marquess was to enter Tuscany until he had received
approval from twelve men of Pisa, to be elected at
TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM 105
a public meeting, called together by the city's bells
(1085). She spread her power in the Levant. Jaffa,
Acre, Tripoli, Antioch were in great part under her
dominion, and her factories were scattered along: the
coasts of Syria and Asia Minor.
Further to the north, mounting hillward from her
curving bay, lay Genoa the Proud, who for a time
was Pisa's ally against the Saracens, and then be-
came her rival and enemy. Genoa, too, was devoted
to commerce and established settlements in Constan-
tinople, in the Crimea, in Cyprus and Syria, in Ma-
jorca and Tunis. She, too, had obtained from the
Empire a charter of municipal privileges and was a
republic, free in all but name.
Venice, their greater sister, first rivalled and then
surpassed both Pisa and Genoa. She traces her ori-
gin to the men who fled from the mainland in fear
of Attila and sought refuge on the marshy islands of
the coast (452). In later days others fled before the
Lombards, and joined the descendants of the earlier
refugees. Here, under the nominal government of
the Eastern Empire, the Venetians gradually devel-
oped strength and independence, and took into their
own bands the election of their Doge (097). The
city of tin- Rivo Alto, the Venice of to-day, was
begun about 800. Thirty years later the body of
St. Mark the Evangelist was brought from Alexan-
dria, and the foundations of St. Mark's basilica were
laid over bis bones. Politically Venice maintained
her allegiance, shifting and time-serving though it
was, tint- to Constantinople, not from sentiment, but
because Constantinople was the first city in the world,
106 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
tin- centre of art, of luxury, of commerce. Indeed,
Venice was like a daughter or younger sister to
Constantinople ; all her old monuments, her mosaics,
her sculpture, her marble columns, show her Byzantine
inclinations. She took an active part in the Crusades,
furnished transports and supplies, and mixed reli-
gion, war, and commerce in one profitable whole.
These maritime cities constantly fought one an-
other; Pisa destroyed Amalfi, Genoa ruined Pisa,
and Venice finally crippled Genoa. The glory they
won was by individual effort ; whereas the glory of
the Lombard cities is that they effected a union,
tardy indeed and imperfect, but successful at last in
its purpose of enforcing their liberties against the
Imperial claims. These Lombard cities included in
their respective dominions the country round about,
and were, in fact, except for a negligent Imperial
control, little independent republics. It has been
a matter of long dispute whether these communes
were survivals from old Roman times, or sprung
from the love of independence brought in by the
Teutonic invaders; whatever their origin they vir-
tually began with trade, rested upon trade, and flour-
ished with trade. This trade, which, beginning be-
tween neighbouring cities, extended northward over
the Alps, was greatly aided by the maritime cities.
Ships called for cargoes. The stimulus imparted by
the energy of Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan seamen
to manufactures and transalpine trade was felt in
every Lombard city. For instance, the Venetians,
eager to carry a wider range of merchandise over-
sea to Alexandria or Jaffa, held fairs in the inland
TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM 107
cities, exposed the wares they had fetched home, and
stirred mercantile industry. A burgher class of
traders and artisans grew up. Men met in the mar-
ket-place, talked business, considered ways and means,
discussed the conditions of production and exchange,
and became a shrewd, capable class. The moment
business expanded beyond the city walls, it bumped
into feudal rights at every corner ; at every cross-
road it found itself enmeshed in feudal prerogatives
aud privileges. Trade could not endure a system
fitted only for a farming community. Trade took
men into politics ; and in those days politics meant
war. The citizens of Milan, Pavia, and neighbouring
cities were not wholly unused to civic rights, for they
had long had a voice in the election of bishops, and
they had their trade guilds. These rights they en-
larged whenever they got a chance ; and chances
came frequently in the quarrels between Emperor
and archbishop, or between the greater and lesser
nobility. Both sides wanted their support ; and they
sold it in exchange for privileges, here a little, there
a little, and obtained many concessions. Finally, after
the burghers had advanced in wealth and social con-
sideration. the petty nobles made common cause with
tht'in ; and tin- two combined succeeded in forcing the
great lords to join also, and make one general civic
union. These great lords, who had been little tyrants
in the country roundabout, were compelled to live
within the eitv walls tor part of the year and be hos-
3 lor their own good hehaviour, and were thus
converted from enemies into leading citizens. The
Consequence of these changes was that the former
108 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
government by a bishop, which in course of time had
Bupplanted the old Carlovingian system of govern-
ment by a count, was superseded in its turn by
a much more popular form of government. The
bishop's authority was narrowly limited, the execu-
tive power was lodged in consuls, two or more, who
were elected annually, and the legislative power was
placed in a general council of the burghers (in
Milan not more than fifteen hundred men), and in
a small inner council, which represented the aristo-
cratic element. By Barbarossa's time the govern-
ment of the cities had ceased to be feudal, and had
become communal. There was inevitable antago-
nism between Lombardy and the Holy Roman Em-
pire. The league of Lombard cities embodied the
revolt of trade against the feudal system, of mer-
chants against uncertain and excessive taxes, of
burghers against foreign princes, in short, general
discontent with an outgrown political system.
Barbarossa's war with the Lombard cities lasted
for twenty-five years, and for convenience may be
divided into two periods, — the period before the
cities had learnt the lesson of union and the period
after. So long as they were divided by mutual dis-
trust and jealousy, Barbarossa was victorious ; when
they were united they conquered him.
Barbarossa made his first expedition across the
Alps in answer to appeals that had been made to
him from various parts of Italy. Como and Lodi
complained of Milan ; the Popes complained of the
insubordinate Romans, who had set up a republic
and were going crazy over an heretical republican
TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM 109
priest, one Arnold of Brescia ; the lord of the little
city of Capua complained of the Norman king.
Barbarossa, with his lofty notions of Imperial au-
thority and Imperial duty, gathered together an
army and descended into Italy to settle all troubles.
He began by issuing orders to Milan with regard to
her conduct towards Como and Lodi. Milan shut
her gates. The proud city and the proud Emperor
were at swords' points in a moment. A letter from
Barbarossa from his camp near Milan, written to his
uncle, Otto of Freysing, briefly narrates the circum-
stances : " The Milanese, tricky and proud, came to
meet us with a thousand disloyal excuses and rea-
sons, and offered us great sums of money if we
would grant them sovereignty over Como and Lodi ;
and because, without letting ourselves be swayed one
jot by their prayers or by their offers, we marched
into their territory, they kept us away from their
rich lands and made us pass three whole days in the
midst of a desert ; until at last, against their wish,
we pitched our camp one mile from Milan. Here,
after they had refused provisions for which we had
offered to pay, we took possession of one of their
• castles, defended by five hundred horsemen,
and reduced it to ashes; and our cavalry advanced
to the gates of Milan and killed many Milanese and
took many prisoners. Then open war broke out
between OS. Wln-n we crossed the river Ticino in
order to go to Novara, we captured two bridges
which they had fortified With castles, and alter the
army had crossed, destroyed them. Then we dis-
mantled three of their fortresses . . . and after we
110 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
had celebrated Christinas with great merriment, we
marched by way of Vercelli and Turin to the Po ;
we crossed the river and destroyed the strong city
of ( liicii. and burned Asti. This done, we laid siege
to Tort una. most strongly fortified both by art and
nature; and on the third day, having captured the
Buburbs, we should easily have carried the citadel, if
night and stormy weather had not prevented us. At
last, after many assaults, many killed, and a piteous
slaughter of citizens, we forced the citadel to sur-
render, not without losing a number of our men." '
Such vigour as this reduced Milan and her sister
cities to obedience. But Frederick was not content
with raids into Italy and spasmodic punishment
administered to this rebellious city or to that ; he
wished to have the Imperial rights and authority
definitely settled on a permanent basis ; so he con-
voked a diet on the plain of Roncaglia, not far from
Piacenza, to which he summoned bishops, dukes,
marquesses, counts, and other nobles of the realm,
four famous jurists from Bologna, and two repre-
sentatives from each of fourteen Lombard cities.
Frederick was a just -man ; he merely wished his
legal rights, and proposed to ascertain what those
rights were. The determination was left to the law-
yers.
By this time lawyers had already begun to play a
part in public affairs. Roman law had never been
lost. For centuries it had remained side by side with
the customs of the conquering Barbarians, less as
a code of laws than as the tradition of the subject
1 Storia a" Italia, Cappelletti, pp. 99, 100.
TKADE AGAINST FEUDALISM 111
Latin people ; and, when the needs of quickening
civilization required a more elaborate system of law
than custom could supply, there was the Roman
law ready for use. It suddenly leaped into general
interest, and rivalled the Church as a career for
young men. St. Bernard complained that the law
of Justinian was ousting the law of God. In 1088
the great law school of Bologna had been founded.
Thither students crowded by thousands ; and the
opinions of its jurists were received with the deepest
respect.
At Roncaglia the body of lawyers appointed to
determine Imperial rights, decided, doubtless in ac-
cordance with Barbarossa's expectation, in favour
of the Imperial side. The feudal nobles were de-
lighted. The archbishop of Milan, the recognized
head of the Lombard nobility, said to the Emperor :
"Know that every right in the people to make laws
has been granted to you ; your will is law, as it is
said, Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem
[The Emperor's will has the force of law], since the
people have granted to you all authority and sov-
ereignty." In accordance with the spirit of this
principle, the regalia, tolls, taxes, forfeits, and ex-
action^ df various kinds, were defined, and the right
to appoint the executive magistrates in the communes
adjudged to tin- Emperor. In substance the decision
of the jurists was the restoratioD of the Imperial
rights a- they had been under the Ottos, when the
communes were in their infancy.
Fred. -lick's Legal triumph was complete, but Buch
a decision could only be sustained by force. The
112 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
cities would not accept it; they preferred war. In
the course of one campaign Milan was razed to the
ground ( 1 L62), BO literally, that Frederick dated his
letters post d '< structiom m Mediolani, "after the de-
struction of Milan." But the cities at last learned the
necessity of union and stood shoulder to shoulder.
The Papacy, too, which had been friendly to the Em-
peror during- the insurrections in Rome, turned round
and joined the cities against him, and Frederick, in
retaliation, set up an anti-pope. Nevertheless, the
glory of defeating the Emperor belongs to the cities,
and not to the Papacy. The decisive battle was fought
near Milan on the field of Legnano (1176).
The arbitrament of the sword reversed the deci-
sion of the lawyers at Roncaglia. Frederick frankly
accepted defeat. A ceremonious conference was held
at Venice. At the portal of St. Mark's, Pope Alex-
ander III, no unworthy successor to Hildebrand,
raised up the kneeling Emperor and gave him the kiss
of peace. Temporary terms were agreed on, and a
few years later the Peace of Constance (1183) defi-
nitely closed the war. The Emperor relinquished all
but nominal rights of sovereignty over the confed-
erate cities. They were to elect their municipal offi-
cers, and, with comparatively unimportant excep-
tions, to administer justice and manage their own
affairs. Trade had conquered feudalism. The Mid-
dle Ages were near their setting.
No more of Barbarossa's doings need here be
chronicled, except what he deemed a brilliant stroke
of diplomacy, by which he hoped to unite the crown
of the Two Sicilies with the Imperial crown on the
TRADE AGAINST FEUDALISM 113
head of his son, Henry, and through him on the heads
of a long line of Hohenstaufens. The Empire had
always asserted a claim to Southern Italy, but its claim
had never been made good except during the tem-
porary occupation of an Imperial army ; and since
the Normans had established their kinodom, South-
ern Italy had not only been lost to the Empire, but
had become the chief prop of the Empire's enemy,
the Papacy. If the Empire could acquire Southern
Italy, it would hem in the Papacy both south and
north, and crush it to obedience. Frederick's son
Henry was married to the heiress of the Norman
kingdom (1186); and the good Emperor, happy in
the prospect before his Imperial line, but happier in
that he could not foresee truly, took the cross and
led his army towards the Holy Land. He died on
the way (1190), leaving behind him a reputation for
honour and chivalry, inferior to none left by the
German Emperors.
CHAPTER XII
TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY (1198-1216)
Gregory VII was well named the Julius Caesar of
the Papacy. His great conception of a sovereign
ecclesiastica] power, supreme over Europe, was des-
tined to be realized. For in the fulness of time came
Innocent III, the Augustus Caesar of the Papacy,
who ruled the civilized world of Europe more after
the fashion of the old Roman Emperors than any
one, except Charlemagne, had done. But in the in-
terval between these two famous Popes, there was
a period of reaction in which it looked for a time
as if the Empire would plant the Ghibelline flag on
the papal citadel. The Popes of this period were
men of no marked ability, whereas the young king,
Henry VI, had inherited the forceful temper of Bar-
barossa as well as his theories of Imperial rights,
and displayed great vigour, energy, and resolution.
Despite the opposition of the Popes, who as feudal
suzerains of Sicily were most averse to the alliance,
he had married the heiress of the Norman line,
and despite the fierce opposition of the Sicilians, —
part Arabs, part Greeks, with Italians and Nor-
mans mingling in, — he established his authority in
the island. Henry was horribly cruel, but he was
efficient. He was King of Germany, King of Italy,
and King of the Two Sicilies, and had compelled a
TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY 115
reluctant Pope to crown him Emperor. He deter-
mined to be Emperor in Italy in fact, and to accom-
plish what his father had failed to do. He undertook
to check and suppress the communes by reviving
the old feudal system. He reinstated old duchies
and counties, and enfeoffed his loyal Germans. Mat-
ters looked black for the Guelf s, when, to* their great
good luck, the fiery young Emperor died, leaving an
incompetent widow and a helpless baby (1197). By
one of those occurrences, in which Catholics see more
than the hand of chance, in the very year after the
Emperor's death, a man of political talents of the
highest order was elected to the pontifical chair.
In the days of Pope Alexander III, the great
antagonist of Frederick Barbarossa, a young noble-
man, who took holy orders almost in boyhood, had
given early promise of an extraordinary career. This
handsome, eloquent, imperious boy, named Lothair,
inherited through his father, Thrasmund of the
Counts of Segni in Latium, the fierce impetuosity
of the Lombards, and through his mother, a Roman
lady of high birth (from whom he took his mas-
ter traits), the tenacity, the adroitness, the political
genius of the Romans. He was educated at the uni-
versities of Bologna and Paris, where he studied law,
theology, and scholastic philosophy. The stormy
period of the straggle between Alexander and Bar-
barossa brought character- and talents quickly t<> the
front. Before he was twenty he had distinguished
himself, before he was thirty he had been made B
cardinal, and at thirty-seven lie was elected Pope.
According to the practice instituted by the deposed
L16 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
scamp, John XII, of taking a new name, Lothair
assumed fche title of Innocent III.
Under the guidance of Innocent III (1198-1216),
fche Papacy attained the full meridian of its glory.
When this great Pope, lawyer, theologian, states-
man, came to the throne, it was demoralized and
weak ; before he died, it had set its yoke on the
neck of Europe. For the second time in history,
orders were issued from Rome to the whole civilized
world. A review of his pontificate brings up a
panorama of Europe. His task began in Rome.
This little city of churches, monasteries, towers, and
ruins, which took no pride in great papal affairs,
had plunged into one of its fits of republican in-
dependence, and, supported by the Emperor, had
ousted the Popes from all control. In the course of
a few years, by intrigue, tact, and civil war, Inno-
cent got into his own hands the appointment of the
senate and of the city governor, and thereby con-
trol of the city. He next turned his attention to
the Patrimony of St. Peter, that central strip from
Rome to Ravenna, given or supposed to have been
given by Pippin and Charlemagne to the successors
of St. Peter. Here the impetuous Emperor, Henry VI,
had seated his German barons, setting up fiefs for
them, and reestablishing the feudal system under
the Imperial suzerainty. These German barons were
hated by the people. Innocent put himself at the
head of the popular discontent, organized a Guelf,
almost a national, party, and either drove the Ger-
mans out, or forced them to swear allegiance to the
Holy See.
TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY 117
In Tuscany also the Guelfs were successful in
breaking up the feudal restoration. In fact, since
the days of Countess Matilda feudalism had been
doomed. The cities had taken advantage of the
wars between Papacy and Empire to secure virtual
independence ; and on Henry's death, with the ex-
ception of Ghibelline Pisa, they banded together
and agreed never to admit an Imperial governor
within their territories. Innocent tried to bring
these cities under papal dominion, but they were
too independent, and he was obliged to rest content
with snapping up scattered portions of Matilda's do-
mains.
Meantime in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies the
Emperor's widow had died, and left to Innocent's
guardianship her little son, Frederick. Innocent,
guardian and suzerain lord, immediately began a
struggle with the feudal nobility, just as in Italy,
and, after a long and difficult contest, asserted the
authority of his royal ward. On the termination of
the minority, he handed over the kingdom to Fred-
erick, win i. on his part as King of the Two Sicilies,
swore fealty to the Pope. Had it not been for his
honourable and powerful guardian, Frederick prob-
ably would have had no kingdom, and in his oath of
fealty be acknowledged his indebtedness: ''Among
all the wishes which we carry in the front rank of
our desires, this is the chief, to discharge a grateful
obedience, to show an honourable devotion, and never
to he found ungrateful for your benefits — ( J<»d forbid
— since, next to Divine Grace, to your protection
we are indebted not only for land but also for life."
118 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
In this way Innocent established the Papacy in
Italv : BOVereign, suzerain, protector or ally, he was
tin- head of the Italian Guelfs and practically of
Italv. Let us now look abroad. In Constantinople,
the capital of the Greek Empire, Innocent's legate
bestowed the Imperial purple upon an Emperor.
An odd whirl of Fortune's wheel brought this to
pass. Innocent had preached a crusade in the hope
of recovering the Holy Land from the infidels,
who had succeeded in expelling the Christians.
An army of Frenchmen and Flemings answered
his summons. They determined to avoid the deadly
route overland and go by sea, and applied to Ven-
ice for transportation. When they came to pay
the bill they did not have the money, and the
Venetians insisted that they should help them re-
capture the city of Zara, on the Dalmatian coast,
which had once belonged to Venice but had been
lost again. Zara was attacked and taken (1202).
One deflection from the straight path of duty led to
another. To Zara came the son of the Greek Em-
peror to say that his father had been deposed, and
to beg for help. The Venetians, wishing to wound
two commercial rivals at once, Constantinople and
Pisa (for the usurping Emperor favoured Pisa), used
the suppliant as a stalking-horse, and persuaded
the Crusaders once again to divert their immediate
purpose and to restore the deposed Emperor to
his throne. Again the Crusaders listened to temp-
tation, for the Venetians baited their hook with
golden promises; they sailed to Constantinople and
restored the wronged Emperor. Matters did not
TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY 119
go smoothly, however. Misunderstanding with the
Greeks led to disagreements, disagreements to quar-
rels, and quarrels to war. The Latin Crusaders
assaulted Constantinople, carried it by storm, and
plundered houses, palaces, churches, shrines, every-
thing ; then, with appetites whetted by petty spoils,
seized the frail Empire itself (1204). They di-
vided Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, the islands of the
iEgean Sea, and all the remnants of the Roman
Empire of the East that they could lay hands on.
Pious Venice came out best ; she took coast and
island, town and country, all along from recaptured
Zara round by the shores of Dalmatia, Albania,
Peloponnesus, and Thessaly, ending with half of
Constantinople itself. The Marquess of Monferrat
became King of Thessalonica, and his vassal, a Bur-
gundian count, was invested with the lordship of
Athens and Thebes. The Count of Flanders was
elected Emperor of a Latin Empire. Innocent had
been very angry with the deflections to Zara and
Constantinople, and had thundered against the polite
but inflexible Venetians. When the evil had been
done, however, he made the best of it, and behaved
with dignity and astuteness. He rebuked the Cru-
saders for having preferred the things of earth to
those of Heaven, and bade them ask God's pardon
for the profanation of holy places j but he admit-
ted the advantage that would arise from reconciling
the Greeks, schismatics since the days of Leo the
Iconoclast, with the Roman See. So his legate be-
stowed the purple 00 a suppliant Emperor in the
city of ( lonstantinople.
1 120 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
In Germany Innocent also appears as the giver
and withholdei of crowns. On the death of Henry
V I there was a disputed election. The Hohen-
staufen party, dreading a long minority, passed
over the baby Frederick, and nominated Philip,
Henry's brother ; the rival party, the German Gnelfs,
nominated Otto of Brunswick, a nephew of Rich-
ard Cceur-de-lion. Civil war followed, and both par-
ties appealed to Innocent who, after deliberation,
supported Otto, but exacted a high price. Otto was
obliged to guarantee to the Pope the strip of terri-
tory from Rome to Ravenna, and those portions of
Matilda's domains which were not fiefs of the Em-
pire, also to acknowledge papal suzerainty over the
Two Sicilies, and to promise to conform to the
papal will with regard to the leagues of the Lom-
bard and Tuscan cities. This guarantee of Otto laid
the first real foundation of the Papal States. Hith-
erto, vague Donations had given pretexts for claims ;
but Otto's deed was a definite Imperial grant, and
conveyed an unquestionable title. In spite of Inno-
cent's support matters went ill for Otto in Germany.
Philip's star rose, and Innocent, to whom the cause
of the Papacy was the cause of God and justified
diplomatic conduct, was on the point of shifting to
Philip's side, when in the nick of time Philip was
murdered (1208). Otto's claim was now undisputed.
No sooner, however, did he feel the crown secure on
his head than he shifted his ground. Guelf by birth
though he was, he found that he could not be both
obedient to the Pope and loyal to his Imperial du-
ties. He turned into a complete Ghibelline, broke
TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY 121
his grant to the Pope, attempted to restore the
feudal system in the papal territories, and assumed
to treat the Two Sicilies as a fief of the Empire.
Innocent, outraged and indignant at this breach
of faith, excommunicated him (1210). Thereupon,
as at the time when Gregory VII excommunicated
Henry IV, the German barons rose, deposed Otto,
and summoned young Frederick from Sicily to take
the German crown. Innocent supported Frederick's
cause, but exacted the price which he had formerly
exacted from the perjured Otto. Frederick, pressed
by present need, and forgetful of Otto's evil prece-
dent, pledged himself as follows : " We, Frederick the
Second, by Divine favour and mercy, King of the Ro-
mans, ever Augustus, and King of Sicily . . . recog-
nizing the grace given to us by God, we have also
before our eyes the immense and innumerable bene-
fits rendered by you, most dear lord and reverend
father, our protector and benefactor, lord Innocent,
by God's grace most venerable Pontili' ; through
your benefaction, labour, and guardianship, we have
been brought up, cherished, and advanced, ever since
our mother, the Empress Constance of happy mem-
ory, threw us upon your care, almost from birth.
To you, most blessed father, and to all your Catho-
lic successors, and to the Holy Roman Church, our
special mother, we BhaU discharge all obedience,
honour, and reverence, always with an humble heart
and a devout spirit, as our Catholic predecessors,
kings and Emperors, are known to have done to your
predecessors; doI a whit rrom these shall we take
away, rather add, that our devotion may shine the
122 A SHOET HISTORY OF ITALY
more." ' Frederick promised that he would not in-
terfere in the* election of bishops, and thai the can-
didal canonically elected should be installed. He
confirmed the papal title to the Papal States. "I
\o\v. promise, swear, and take my oath to protect
and preserve all the possessions, honours, and rights
of the Roman Church, in good faith, to the best of
my power " (1213).
From this time forward Frederick advanced from
success to success. Otto was driven into private life,
and the Pope's legate put the German crown on
Frederick's head at Aachen (1215). Where Inno-
cent blessed, success and prosperity followed ; Avhere
he cursed, death and destruction came.
Elsewhere the Pope was equally triumphant. All
Europe bent under his imperial decrees. The kings
of Portugal, Leon, Castile, and Navarre were scolded
or punished. The King of Aragon went to Rome
and swore allegiance. The Duke of Bohemia was
rebuked, the King of Denmark comforted, the nobles
of Iceland warned, the King of Hungary admon-
ished. Servia, Bulgaria, even remote Armenia, re-
ceived papal supervision and paternal care. Philip
Augustus of France, at Innocent's command, took
back the wife whom he had repudiated. John of
England grovelled on the ground before him, and
yielded up " to our lord the Pope Innocent and his
successors, all our kingdom of England and all our
kingdom of Ireland to be held as a fief of the Holy
See" (1213).
Another triumph of darker hue added to the bril-
1 Select Mediceval Documents, Mathews, p. 1-16, translated.
TRIUMPH OF THE PAPACY 123
liance of Innocent's career. In the south of France,
in the pleasant places of Provence and Languedoc,
where troubadours praised love and war, and lords
and ladies wandered down primrose paths, the hum-
bler folk got hold of certain dangerous ideas. They
believed that there was a power of evil as well as
a power of good, that Christ was but an emanation
from God, that the God of the Jews was not the real
God of Goodness, and, worse than all, that the Ro-
man Church, with its sacerdotalism, forms, sacra-
ments, and ritual, was, to say the least, not what
it should be. Innocent entertained no doubts that
the Roman Church had been founded by God to
maintain His truth on earth ; as a statesman he re-
garded heresy as we regard treason and anarchy ;
as a priest he deemed it sin. He called Simon of
Montfort and other dogs of war from the north
and urged them at the quarry. The heresy was
put down in blood. Here appears the black figure
of St. Dominic, encouraging the faithful, rally-
ing the hesitant, and by the fervour of his belief,
by his devotion, by his genius for organization,
more destructive to heresy than the sword of
Montfort.
Thu^ Innocent sat supreme. He had created a
papal kingdom where his predecessors had asserted
impotent claims; be had confirmed the Two Sicilies
in their dependency upon the Holy See; be bad put
the Papacy at the head of the Gnelf party in Italy,
and had made that part v almost national; he had
enforced the power of the Church throughout Eu-
rope, had given crowns to the Kings of A.ragon and of
124 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
England, fco fche Emperors of Germany and of Con-
stant inople. No such spectacle had been seen since
tin- reign of Charlemagne j none such was to be
Been again till the coming of Napoleon. The con-
ception of Europe as an ecclesiastical organization
had leached its fullest expression.
CHAPTER XIII
ST. FRANCIS (1182-122G)
In spite of the dazzling success achieved by Innocent,
matters were not well with the Church in Italy. Cor-
ruption threatened it from within, heresy from with-
out. Simony was rampant; livings were almost put
up at auction. Innocent asserted that there was no
cure but fire and steel. The prelates of the Roman
Curia were " tricky as foxes, proud as bulls, greedy and
insatiable as the Minotaur." The priests were often
shameless ; some became usurers to get money for
their bastards, others kept taverns and sold wine. Wor-
ship had become a vain repetition of formulas. The
monks were superstitious, many of them disreputable.
The inevitable consequence of this decay in the Church
was heresy. Italy was nearly, if not quite, as badly
honeycombed with heretics as Languedoc had been.
The Patarini, whom we remember in Hildebrand's
time, now become a species of heretics, abounded in
Milan ; other sects sprang up in towns near by. In
Ferrara, Verona, Rimini, Faenza, Treviso, Florence,
Prato, anti-sacerdotal sentiment was very strong. In
Viterbo tin- heretics \\<av numerous enough to elect
their consul. At Piacenza priests had been driven
out, ami tie- city left anshepherded for three years.
In Orvieto there had been grave disorders. In Assisi
a heretic had been elected podestd (governor).
126 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
The inv.it Innocent knitted his brows; be knew
well that his noisy triumphs, which echoed over the
Tagus, the Thames, the Rhine, and the Golden Horn,
were of DO avail, if heretics sapped and mined the
Church within. It seemed as if the great ecclesiasti-
cal fabric, to which he had given the devotion of a
life, was tottering from corner-stone to apex; when,
one day, a cardinal came to him and said, "I have
found a most perfect man, who wishes to live accord-
ing to the Holy Gospel, and to observe evangelical
perfection in all things. I believe that through him
the Lord intends to reform His Holy Church in all
the world." Innocent was interested, and bade the
man be brought before him. This man was Francis
lit niadone, known to us as St. Francis, the leader
of a small band of Umbrian pilgrims from Assisi,
who asked permission to follow literally the example
of Jesus Christ. The Pope hesitated. To the cardi-
nals, men of the world, this young man and his pil-
grims were fools and their faith nonsense. " But,"
argued a believer, " if you assert that it is novel,
irrational, impossible to observe the perfection of
the Gospel, and to take a vow to do so, are you
not guilty of blasphemy against Christ, the author of
the Gospel?" Thinking the matter over, the Pope
dreamed a dream. He beheld the Church of St.
John Lateran, the episcopal church of the bishops
of Home, leaning in ruin and about to fall, when
a monk, poor and mean in appearance, bent under
it and propped it with his back. Innocent awoke
and said to himself, "This Francis is the holy monk
by whose help the Church of God shall be lifted up
ST. FRANCIS 127
and stand again." So he said to Francis and his
followers, "Go brethren, God be with you. Preach
repentance to all as He shall give you inspiration.
And when Almighty God shall have made you multi-
ply in numbers and in grace, come back to us, and
we will entrust you with greater things."
So St. Francis, " true servant of God and faith-
ful follower of Jesus Christ," went about his minis-
try with the blessing of the Church. To the people
of Assisi, of Umbria, and afterwards of all Central
Italy, his life was a revelation of Christianity. He
imparted the gospel anew, as fresh as when it had
first been given under the Syrian stars. He em-
bodied peace, gentleness, courtesy, and self-sacrifice.
It is not too much to say that he saved the Catholic
Church, and put off the Protestant Reformation for
three hundred years. His example and influence
raised the standard of conduct within the Church ;
and his love, his devotion, his insistence on the
essential parts of Christ's teaching, and his dislike
of worldly pomps, deprived heresy of all its weap-
on**. He satisfied the widespread religious hunger
better than heresy did. He was so characteristically
Italian, and his ministry throws so much light on
the state of Italy at the opening of the thirteenth
century, that it is worth while to dwell for a few
pages on bis doin
Assisi, built for safety on a hill and protected by
great walls ami gates, was a good example of a lit-
tle medieval town. In the centre was the piazza,
on which fronted a Roman temple to Minerva,
haughtily scornful of its medieval surroundings.
128 A SHOKT HISTORY OF ITALY
Hani by was the cathedral, where every bahy was
taken for baptism. On the tiptop of the hill stood
a huge castle, where the feudal baron' dwelt with
his ruffianly soldiers and received his feudal lord,
the Emperor, when he stopped at Assisi on his way
to Rome. In Francis's boyhood, the people, aided
l>\ Pope Innocent, had driven out the German count,
and had formed themselves into a free commune,
Bave for their allegiance to the Holy See ; but the
change was not all gain. The town was divided
into discordant classes ; the nobility, maintained in
idleness by the produce of their estates, the bour-
geoisie, engaged in trade (Francis's father was a
merchant), the artisans grouped in guilds, and the
serfs, who tilled the fields and tended the vineyards
and olive orchards. Once rid of the German count,
the bourgeoisie endeavoured to rid themselves of the
arrogant and idle nobility. Street war broke out.
The nobles fled to Perugia, another little town
perched on a hill some dozen miles across the plain,
and asked for help. Perugia rejoiced in the oppor-
tunity. The miseries of a petty war between two
little neighbours need no description. Fields and
vineyards were devastated, olive orchards destroyed,
farm-houses burned. Even in peace the peasants
around Assisi lived in constant disquiet, ready to
fling down their mattocks and flee to the protection
of the city walls.
Within the city the streets were narrow, the
houses small. Dirt abounded. War brought pov-
erty, dirt brought the pest, Crusaders brought lep-
rosy. At the gates of the town stood lazar-houses,
ST. FRANCIS 129
and in remote spots lepers in the earlier stages of
disease gathered together. Yet, despite war, pest,
and leprosy, life in Unibria could never have been
wholly sad. Certainly the sons of the well-to-do
enjoyed themselves and whiled away the time care-
lessly. Sometimes a great personage stopped on his
Rome ward way ; sometimes strolling players exhib-
ited their shows on the piazza before the Temple
of Minerva ; sometimes a troubadour, escaped from
the persecution in Provence, passed by on his way
to Sicily, and sang his songs to repay hospitality.
Many an afternoon and night the clubs of young
gentlemen gave fetes champ etres and dances. Fran-
cis, as a boy, was gayest of the gay, dancing and
piping in the market-place, fighting in the front rank
against the nobles of Perugia, but when he grew to
manhood he could not bear the contrast between
mirth and misery. He sought for some universal joy
and found it in the love of Christ. He gathered about
him a scanty band of holy and humble men of heart,
who took the vow of poverty, and devoted them-
selves to praising God, comforting the wretched, and
tending lepers. The abbot of the neighbouring Bene-
dictine monastery gave them a little chapel, where
St. Benedict himself had once said mass, which lay
in the plain a mile below the town. This little
chapel, named the Portiuncula (the little portion),
which is now covered by the great church of Santa
Maria ili'jli Angeli (St. Mary of the Angels), so
called because the songs of angels were heard there,
vraa tin- cradle of the Franciscan ( trder. It was a tiny
building, twenty feet wide and thirty long, with a
180 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
steep pitched roof, plain walls, and big, round-arched
door, and was Badly dilapidated. St. Francis and his
friends buill it up, and it became their church. Round
it they built their huts, and encompassed all with
a hedge. Here it was that St. Clare, the daugh-
ter of a nobleman of Assisi, donned the nun's
dress. Here Francis passed the happy years of his
life, while as yet his disciples were few and all were
animated by his passionate longing- for self-abnega-
tion. He followed the New Testament literally, su-
perstitiously one would say were it not that this
literal obedience was accompanied by ineffable peace
of heart and joy. He specially enjoined poverty.
A smock, a cord, and sandals were enough for a true
brother. Once a novice begged for permission to
own a psalter, and teased him, but Francis an-
swered : " After you have the psalter you will
covet and long for a breviary ; and when you pos-
sess a breviary you mil sit on a chair like a great
prelate, and say to thy brother, fetch me my bre-
viary." Nor would he suffer the brethren to take
heed for the morrow. They were only allowed to
ask for provisions sufficient for the day. For he, in
the rapture of his love, found infinite pleasure in
the literal fulfillment of every word that had fallen
from Christ's lips. Francis was an orator ; he pos-
sessed passion, the gTeat source of eloquence, and
stirred prelates and Crusaders as well as peasants
and lepers. The world wished for sympathy and
he gave it. He seemed to be sick with the sick,
afflicted with those in affliction, holy with the good ;
and even sinners felt him one of themselves. To
ST. FRANCIS 131
his disciples he was Jesus come again. Joy and hap-
piness radiated from him. All the world felt the
charm and beauty of his love of God, and poetry
followed him as wild violets attend the spring-.
Thus Francis, by rubbing off the incrustations of
twelve hundred unchristian years, revealed the poetry
of the gospel to an eager world. One charming
trait of his character was his love of animals, espe-
cially of birds. He wished the ox and the ass, com-
panions of the manger, to share in the Christmas
good cheer ; and hoped that the Emperor would
make a law that nobody should kill larks or do them
any hurt. He was always very fond of larks and
said that their plumage was like a religious dress.
••Wherefore, — according to his disciple, Brother
Leo, — it pleased God that these lowly little birds
should give a sign of affection for him at the hour
of his death. On the eve of the Sabbath day after
vespers, just before the night in which he went up
to God, a great multitude of larks Hew down over
the roof of the house where he lay, and all flying
together wheeled in circles round the roof and sin£-
ing sweetly seemed to be praising God."
IIi> disciples went forth from their headquarters,
the PortiunculOy like the Apostles, to preach the
gospel, first to the people of Umbria and Tuscany,
then on to Bologna and Verona, and soon over the
Alps and across the seas. The Order had three
branches: the begging friars themselves, tonsured
and clad in undved cloth, with cords about their
musts and sandals on their feet; the sister Clares,
shut up in nunneries, and dressed most simplv ;
132 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
and the third order, people who continued to live
in the world, but wished to follow the example of
Christ and his blessed imitator and servant, Francis.
The first rule of the begging friars had been very
strict. For Francis the strait gate that led to eter-
nal life was poverty. Even in his lifetime after his
( hrder had become popular, there was grumbling
and opposition ; and after his death, the literal ob-
servance of his wishes was promptly given up. He
would never allow his brethren to own a house or
have a church ; and yet within two years after his
death the great basilica in Assisi was begun, dedi-
cated to him, and hurried to magnificent completion.
The Church, which held the doctrine of evangelical
poverty fit only for mad men of genius, laid her
heavy hand on the Order, and guided and governed
it as best suited her purposes. But it would be
grossly unfair to the Church to blame her for vio-
lating Francis's chief dogma. The total rejection of
property, the total disregard of the morrow, seemed
to her, as they seem to us to-day, doctrines wholly
inapplicable to this world in which we find our-
selves.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE (1216-1250)
The Church seized the Franciscan Order as a man
in danger grasps at a means of safety, and shaped it
to her needs ; for, in spite of her brilliant triumphs
under Innocent, her needs were great. The Papacy
and the Empire approached their final struggle ; both
felt instinctively that the issue must be decisive.
Their fundamental incompatibility had been aggra-
vated by the union of the crowns of Sicily and Ger-
many. Innocent had been pushed by circumstances
into supporting Frederick's claim to Germany, and
though he had striven to prevent the natural conse-
quences by extorting oaths from Frederick, yet as
time went on the danger became clearer. Under
Innocent's successor, Pope Honorius, the Papacy
lay like a cherry between an upper and lower jaw,
which watered to close and crunch it; and this ex-
treme peril is the excuse for the bitterness of the
Popes in the contest which followed. The Papacy
fought for its life.
The contest affected all Italy. Milan and many
cities of the valley of the Po were Guelf ; but Pavia
and some others were Ghibelline, not that they loved
die Emperor, bat hated .Milan ; Florence and the other
Tuscan cities, except ( Jhibellme Pisa and Siena, which
hated Florence, were Guelf; Koine was split in two:
L84 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the Colonna, the Frangipani, and other great families
were generally Ghibelline, though permanent alle-
eriance was unfashionable, while the Orsini and others
were Guelf. The Gray Friars, who swarmed from the
AJps to the Strait of Messina, were steadfast Guelfs,
and even carried their loyalty so far, their enemies
said, as to subordinate religion to political ends. On
the other hand, the aristocracy, which was chiefly of
Teutonic descent, held for the Empire.
Frederick himself is the central figure of the period.
In his lifetime he excited love and hate to extrava-
gance, and he still excites the enthusiasm of scholars.
His is the most interesting Italian personality between
St. Francis and Dante. I say Italian, for though
Frederick inherited the Hohenstaufen vigour and
energy, he got his chief traits from his Sicilian
mother. Poet, lawgiver, soldier, statesman, he was
the wonder of the world, stupor mundi, as an Eng-
lish chronicler called him. Impetuous, terrible, vo-
luptuous, refined, he was a kind of Caesarian Byron.
In most ways he outstripped contemporary thought ;
in many ways he outstripped contemporary sympa-
thy. He was sceptical of the Athanasian Creed, of
communal freedom, and of other things which his
Italian countrymen believed devoutly; while they
were sceptical of the divine right of the Empire, of
the blessing of a strong central government, and of
other matters which he believed devoutly.
Between a stubborn Emperor, a stiff-necked Papacy,
and obstinate communes, relations strained taut. The
first break occurred between Emperor and Papacy.
The Popes honestly desired to reconquer Jerusalem,
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE 135
which had fallen back into infidel hands, and inces-
santly urged a crusade ; but perhaps at this juncture
their zeal was heightened by a notion that the most
effective defensive measure against the Emperor
would be to keep him busy in Palestine. Frederick
had solemnly promised to go. He had also solemnly
promised to keep the crowns of Germany and of the
Two Sicilies separate, by putting the latter on his
son's head ; but instead of this separation he kept
both crowns on his own head, and secured both for
his son as his successor. In spite of this violated pro-
mise, Pope Honorius, a gentle soul, devoutly eager
for the crusade, crowned Frederick Emperor (1220),
upon Frederick's renewed promise that he would
start on the crusade within a year. The year passed,
then another and another, and Frederick, with his
crowns safe on his head, did not move a foot towards
Jerusalem. The gentle Honorius remonstrated; Fred-
erick made vows, excuses, protestations, but did not
go. Finally the mild Pope died, and was succeeded
by the venerable Cardinal Ugolino, Gregory IX,
( 1227— 1241 ). Ugolino was a member of the Conti
family of Latium (so preeminently counts that they
took their name from their title), and a near relation
to [nnocenl III. His indomitable character proved
his kinship. Blameless in private life, a warm friend
to St. Francis, deeply versed in ecclesiastical affairs,
be had a benign nice and noble presence; in fact, to
quote tie- gentle Pope Honorius, he was "a Cedar
of Lebanon in the Park of the Church." But, in
spite of bis virtue, his training, and his fourscore
. he was a very Hotspur, fiery, impatient, and
L86 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
headstrong. It was be who had put the crusader's
oross into Frederick's hands and had received his
crusader's vow ; and now, having bottled up his
wrath daring the pontificate of Honorius, he could
brook no further delay. Frederick made ready to
go. Ships and men were gathered at Brindisi, and,
in spite of a pestilence which killed many soldiers,
the ileet set sail. A few days later word was brought
that Frederick had put about and disembarked in
[taly.
Gregory was furiously angry, and despatched an
encyclical letter to certain bishops in Frederick's
kingdom, which sets forth the papal side of the
matter: "Out in the spacious amplitude of the
sea, the little bark of Peter, placed or rather dis-
placed by whirlwinds and tempests, is so continu-
ously tossed about by storms and waves, that its
pilot and rowers under the stress of inundating rains
can hardly breathe. Four special tempests shake our
ship : the perfidy of infidels, the madness of tyrants,
the insanity of heretics, the perverse fraud of false
sons. There are wars without and fears within, and
it frequently happens that the distressed Church of
Christ, while she thinks she cherishes children, nour-
ishes at her breast fires, serpents, and vipers, who by
poisonous breath, by bite and conflagration, strive
to ruin all. Now, in this time when there is need to
destroy monsters of this sort, to rout hostile armies,
to still disturbing tempests, the Apostolic See with
great diligence has cherished a certain child, to wit,
the Emperor Frederick, whom from his mother's
womb she received upon her knees, nursed him at
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE 137
her breasts, carried him on her back, rescued him
often from the hands of them that sought his life,
with great pains and cost studied to educate him
until she had brought him to manhood, and led him
to a kingly crown and even to the height of the Im-
perial dignity, believing that he would be a rod of
defence, and a staff for her old age."
The encyclical then proceeds to recount Freder-
ick's promises, his delays, evasions, excuses, and the
false start from Brindisi, and adds, " Hearken and see
if there be any sorrow like the sorrow of your mother
the Apostolic See, so cruelly, so totally deceived by
a son whom she had nursed, in whom she had placed
the trust of her hope in this matter. But we put
our hope in the compassion of God that He will
show to us a way by which we shall advance pros-
perously in this affair, and that He will point out
men, who in purity of heart and with cleanness of
hand shall lead the Christian army. Yet lest, like
dumb dogs who cannot bark, we should seem to
defer to man against God, and take no vengeance
upon him, the Emperor Frederick, who has wrought
such ruin on God's people, We, though unwilling,
do publicly pronounce him excommunicated, and
command that he be by all completely shunned, and
that vou and other prelates who shall hear of this,
publicly publish his excommunication. And, if his
Contumacy shall demand, more grave; proceeding
shall be taken."
This ban of excommunication was published over
the world ; bishops gave it out in their dioceses,
priests in their parishes; Gray Friars told of it from
138 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Sicily to Scot la ml. Frederick in answer wrote letters
to the kings of Europe, saying that the Roman
Ch u nli Mas so consumed with avarice and greed,
that, not satisfied with her own Church property,
she was not ashamed to disinherit emperors, kings,
and princes, and make them trihutary. To the King
of England he wrote: —
" Of these premises the King of England has an
example, for the Church excommunicated his father,
King John, and kept him excommunicated till he
and his kingdom hecame trihutary to her. Like-
wise all have the example of many other princes,
whose lands and persons she squeezed under an in-
terdict till she had reduced them to similar servi-
tude. We pass over her simony, her unheard-of ex-
actions, her open usury, and her new-fangled tricks,
which infect the whole world. We pass over her
speeches, sweeter than honey, smoother than oil, —
insatiable bloodsuckers ! They say that the Roman
Curia is the Church, our mother and nurse, when
that Curia is the root and origin of all evils. She
does not act like a mother, but like a stepmother.
By her fruits which we know she gives sure proof.
"Let the famous barons of England think of this.
Pope Innocent instigated them to rise in revolt
against King John as a stubborn enemy of the
Church, but after that abnormally celebrated King-
made obeisance and, like a woman, delivered lip him-
self and his kingdom to the Roman Church, that
Pope, putting behind him his respect for man and
fear of God, trampled down the nobles, whom he
had first supported and pricked on, and left them
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE 139
exposed to death and disinheritance, so that he, af-
ter the Roman fashion, should gulp down his impu-
dent throat the fatter morsels. In this way, under
t'he incitement of Roman avarice, England, fairest of
countries, was made a tributary. Behold the ways
of the Romans ; behold how they seek to snare all
and each, how they get money by fraud, how they
subjugate the free and disturb the peaceable, clad
in sheep's clothing but inwardly ravening wolves.
They send legates hither and thither, to excommu-
nicate, to reprimand, to punish, — not to save the
fruitful seed of God's w r ord, but to extort money, to
bind and reap where they have never sown.
"Against us also, as He who sees all things knows,
they have raged like bacchantes, wrongfully, saying
that we would not cross the sea according to terms
fixed, when much unavoidable and arduous busi-
ness about the going, and about the Church and
about the Empire, detained us, not counting sick-
ness. First there were the insolent Sicilian rebels :
and it did not seem to us a good plan nor expedient
for Christianity to go to the Holy Land," etc. And
he ended, bo the chronicler says, with an exhortation
to all the princes of the world to beware against such
avarice and wickedness, because " you are concerned
when your neighbour's house is on fire."
These letters show the temper on both sides. Out-
wardly, however, peace was observed, and Frederick
really went Oil the promised crusade; and, though
iu Syria be found Patriarchy Templars, Hospitallers,
and Franciscans all turned against him, he succeeded
in making a treaty by which Jerusalem, Nazareth,
140 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
and Bethlehem were ceded to him, and he crowned
himself king in Jerusalem. In the mean time hos-
tility's had broken out in Italy. Frederick incited
the Roman barons to drive the Pope from Rome,
and the Pope preached a crusade against Frederick.
But both sides, having many cares within their re-
spective jurisdictions, at length made peace, and
Frederick was enabled to go back to his consuetas
(It Iwias, his wonted delights.
This phrase, which was used by the Pope, probably
contained an innuendo, for gossip busied itself with
Frederick's Christianity and morals. He tolerated
Saracens in his kingdom, lived on friendly terms
with them, and preferred them in his army, for
they were indifferent to excommunication ; and gos-
sip added that he liked Saracen ladies, hinted at a
harem, and alleged that in Syria he had accepted
the present of a troop of Moslem dancers. Gossip,
spread by the glib tongues of mendicant friars,
charged him with saying, " If God had seen my
beautiful Sicily, he would not have chosen that
beggarly Palestine for His Kingdom," " There have
been three great impostors who invented religions,
and one of them was crucified." Frederick's real
offence in ecclesiastical eyes was that he wished to
subordinate the spiritual to the secular power. It
was natural, however, that pious folk should look
askance at a prince who, while Christendom was fight-
ing Islam, hobnobbed with Mohammedans and seemed
to find them more sympathetic than Christians.
Frederick's real consuetce delicice were of an-
other kind. In his Sicilian court we catch the first
THE FALL OF THE EMPIKE 141
streaks of the dawn that was destined to brighten
into the day of the Renaissance. He himself was a
highly accomplished man, spoke Italian, German,
Arabic, and Greek, and took an interest in mathe-
matics, philosophy, and in general learning. But
poetry was his favourite pleasure. The Italian lan-
guage, recently emerged from dog Latin, had just
begun to serve literary uses, and Frederick's court
had the honour of producing the first school of Ital-
ian poetry. He, his sons Manfred and Enzio, his
chief counsellor Pier della Vigna, and many poets
and troubadours drawn thither by his fame, so far
outstripped the rest of Italy that all Italian poetry,
wherever written, was called Sicilian.
Sicily was the most civilized place in Europe,
now that Southern France had been crushed by
the Albigensian persecution. The old Greek stock
kept some trace of their inheritance ; the Arabs had
brought their culture ; the Normans had added chiv-
alric ideas ; the Crusades and commerce had enlarged
the intellectual boundaries ; and Frederick himself
had extraordinary versatility. Mathematicians from
Granada, philosophers from Alexandria, were as
welcome as the troubadours from Provence. Fred-
erick looked after his own royal estates, managed
his stud farm in Apulia, decided when brood mares
should be fed on barley and when kept to grass. He
was a greaf Bporteman, too, and wrote a book on
falconry. He enacted a famous code of laws, far
Superior in many respects to existing legislation,
which was conceived with the definite plan of exalt-
ing royal authority over feudal prerogatives and
142 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
communal customs. He deprived the barons of
criminal jurisdiction; forbade private war, carrying
weapons, etc.; he limited trial by ordeal so far as he
could, calling it "a species of divination ;" he made
minute regulations in matters of business and behav-
iour, and maintained a paternal authority.
In fact, Sicily, with its culture, poetry, Moslems,
and its unorthodox king, succeeded to the heretical
position of Southern France. The Papacy felt in-
stinctively that a civilization so happy in the good
things of this world, so lax on many points of mo-
rality, so careless of the Roman ecclesiastical sys-
tem, was a perpetual menace to it. In the nature of
things, the peace that had been made with Freder-
ick could not last long.
The breach happened in the North. The Lom-
bard cities revolted. Frederick marched against
them and won a victory (1237). Then was the
zenith of his power; his very triumph was the cause
of his undoing. All the Guelfs of Italy roused them-
selves for the struggle. The Pope took part, and a
second time excommunicated Frederick, enumerat-
ing a score of sins. A later Pope held a council at
Lyons (a place of safety), excommunicated Fred-
erick again, and deposed him from his Imperial
throne (1245). Then an anti-emperor was set up.
Blow on blow fell upon Frederick. He was terribly
routed at Parma, through carelessness. His gallant
son En/io. the poet, was captured by the Bolognese,
who would not release him, though Frederick offered
to put a rim of gold round the walls of their city.
Kn/.io spent twenty-three years in prison and there
THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE 143
died. Pier della Vigna, who " kept both the keys of
Frederick's heart," was suspected of high treason
and condemned to death. Frederick himself died in
1250, and the Pope shouted for joy at the news,
" Be glad ye Heavens, and let the Earth rejoice ! "
He had good reason, for the Church had lost its
most dangerous enemy.
With the death of Frederick the Empire came to
its end. The name of Holy Roman Empire con-
tinued till 1806, and from time to time for several
hundred years German kings came down across the
Alps to receive the Imperial crown, but on Fred-
erick's death the old mediaeval Empire practically
ceased ; and Italy, instead of being an Imperial pro-
vince, became a series of independent states.
The end of the Hohenstaufens themselves reads
like the last act of a bloody Elizabethan tragedy.
Within a few years the only survivors among Fred-
erick's descendants were his lawful heir, a baby,
Conradin, and an illegitimate son, Manfred. Man-
fred, who had inherited the charm, the address, the
energy and brilliance of his father, succeeded in es-
tablishing himself in the Two Sicilies, at first as
regent for bis nephew, and afterwards, for in those
troubled times a regency was precarious, as king in
bifl own right. But the Popes were resolved not to
undergo a repetition of the danger they had expe-
rienced from Frederick, and laid their plans to de-
stroy the last of the " viper's brood," as they called
Frederick's family. They followed the old precedent,
set in the days vrhen the Papacy bad been in danger
from the Lombards, and invited a French prince.
144 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Charles of Anjou, brother to St. Louis, to come and
depose Manfred^ and offered him the crown of the
Two Sicilies. The crafty, capable, deep-scheming
Charles accepted, and came amid great rejoicing
among the Guelfs. Rome made him Senator. Flor-
ence made him podesta ; in fact, all Guelf Italy was
at his feet. The Pope proclaimed a crusade against
Manfred, collected tithes and taxes for the holy
purpose, and provided Charles with an army. Man-
fred was defeated and killed (1266), and two years
later, the valiant Conradin, a lad of sixteen, who
came down in the mad hope of regaining his king-
dom, was also defeated, taken prisoner, and, after a
mock trial for treason, put to death. Thus the Pa-
pacy prevented the union of the Two Sicilies with the
Empire, and thus the House of Anjou supplanted the
last of the Hohenstaufens at Palermo and Naples.
CHAPTER XV
THE FALL OF THE MEDLEVAL PAPACY (1303)
We are now coming out of the Middle Ages, and
the dawn of a new era grows more and more ap-
parent. The Empire, embodiment of an old outworn
theory, has already fallen, and its victorious rival,
the Papacy, in so far as it embodies the mediaeval
idea of a theocratic supremacy, is tottering, and it,
too, will soon fall before the unsympathetic forces
of a new age. So long as the Papacy stood un-
touched, it looked as potent and sovereign, and
spoke with as lofty a tone, as in the days of Inno-
cent ; but a hundred years had wrought great
changes, and at a push it tumbled and fell.
Hints had already been dropped that the dread
thunderbolt, the curse of Rome, which had helped
win the proud position of lordship over Europe, had
become mere brutum fulmen. Excommunication had
been so prodigally used for political purposes that
educated men no longer believed that it was really
the curse of heaven. Moreover, Europe had not
been standing still. The vigorous, compact kingdom
of Fiance had come into being, and flushed with a
sense of power and importance, determined to take
that part in European polities which it regarded as
in due. In angry Belf-confidenee the young king-
dom confronted the overweening Papacy, savagely
146 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
tore off its giant's robe, and laid bare its real -weak-
ness.
Boniface VTJI (1294-1303) was the pontiff under
whom the papal empire came to its end. He was a
vigorous, energetic, arrogant, eloquent, handsome
man, with a wide knowledge of law, diplomacy, and
politics. In the cathedral at Florence there is a
large statue of him, calm and dignified, almost he-
roic. He sits with his rochet and tiara on, his right
hand raised with two fingers extended as if bless-
ing, — an unusual occupation, — and looks far more
of this world than of the other. His contempo-
rary, the Florentine historian, Villain, a Guelf, says:
" He was great-minded and lordly, and coveted much
honour, . . . and was much respected and feared
for his learning and power. He was very grasping
for money in order to aggrandize the Church and
his own relations, making no shame of gain, for he
said that he might do anything with what belonged
to the Church. . . . He was very learned in books,
very wary and capable, and had great common
sense ; he had wide knowledge and a good mem-
ory, but was extremely cruel and haughty with his
enemies and adversaries, . . . more worldly than
befitted his exalted station, and he did many things
displeasing to God." Dante, passionately Ghibelline,
calls Boniface " prince of the new Pharisees " and
sends him to hell.
Boniface's chief enemies, as was usual in the case
of a Pope who had enemies, were Romans. If the
Papacy had been able to reduce Rome to real obe-
dience, its history would have been different. The
FALL OF THE MEDLEVAL PAPACY 147
rebellious commune and the rebellious barons were
constantly on the watch for favourable opportuni-
ties to revolt, or, as they regarded it, to assert
their rights and liberties, and Boniface's first strug-
gle came with the great House of Colonna. The
Colonnas were haughty ; he was imperious. They
hinted that he was not legally Pope ; he excommuni-
cated them, proclaimed a crusade, captured and de-
stroyed their fortresses in the Campagna, and made
them deadly enemies. This victory was achieved at
a price thereafter to be paid in full. But for the
time Boniface was triumphant, and seemed, to him-
self at least, to sit as high as the great Innocent a
hundred years before.
In the year 1300 he originated the custom, ever
since observed, of a papal jubilee to celebrate the
centennial year. For centuries Palestine had been
the destination of pilgrims, and the holy character
of Rome had been passed by, but, now that Pales-
tine was completely lost, Rome reasserted herself as
the pilgrims' city, and crowds again visited the Ro-
man basilicas. Eager to encourage a practice which
he saw would increase the prestige and the income
(if the Holy Sec, Boniface issued his Bull of Jubilee
which promised remission of sins to all pilgrims who
Bhotdd visit tin* basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul
during the year.
Pious folk came from etery where ; on an average
there were two hundred thousand at a time. They
gave theii offerings so generously that, as an eye-
witness Bays, " Day and night two priests stood
beside the altar in St. Paul's, holding rakes in their
L48 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
hands, raking in the money." It was noticed, how-
ever, thai there were no kings or princes in the
throng. That year was the summit of Boniface's
prosperity.
In the mean time the quarrel with France had
already begun. The French king, Philip the Fair,
who was the personification of the new lay spirit,
enacted a series of laws against the clergy, and,
going counter to the accepted doctrine of clerical
immunity from secular taxation, levied taxes upon
them. This step was portentous. Boniface answered
by absolutely forbidding both taxation and payment
of taxes. The King of France not only persisted in
taxation, but also forbade the exportation of any
money from his kingdom, and so deprived the Pope
of all his French revenues. Other angry words and
acts followed, and a papal bull was publicly burnt
in Paris.
Boniface, who had a marked predilection for vehe-
ment language, issued a bull, which deserves to be
quoted as it sums up the extreme papal doctrine and
also incidentally reveals how completely he misunder-
stood the drift of public opinion. " We are com-
pelled, our faith urging us, to believe and hold —
we do firmly believe and simply confess — that there
is one holy and Apostolic Church, outside of which
there is neither salvation nor remission of sins.
... In this Church there is one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. ... Of this one and only Church
there is one body and one head, — not two heads as
if it were a monster, — Christ, namely, and the Vicar
of Christ, St. Peter, and the successor of St. Peter.
FALL OF THE MEDLEVAL PAPACY 149
. . . We are told by the word of the gospel that in
this His fold there are two swords, — namely, a
spiritual and a temporal. . . . Both swords . . . are
in the power of the Church ; the one, indeed, to be
wielded for the Church, the other by the Church ;
the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the
hand of kings and knights, but at the will and suffer-
ance of the priest. One sword, moreover, ought to
be under the other, and the temporal authority to be
subjected to the spiritual. . . . That the spiritual
exceeds any earthly power in dignity and nobility we
ought the more plainly to confess the more spiritual
things excel temporal ones. ... A spiritual man
judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one.
This authority, moreover, even though it is given to
man, and exercised through man, is not human but
rather divine, being given by divine lips to Peter and
founded on a rock for him and his successors through
Christ Himself ; the Lord Himself saying to Peter :
' Whatsoever thou shalt bind,' etc. Whoever, there-
fore, resists this power thus ordained by God, resists
the ordination of God. Indeed, we declare, an-
nounce, and define, that it is altogether necessary
to salvation for every human creature to be subject
to the Roman Pontiff."
In retort the king, knowing that the country was
behind bun, convoked the States-General of the
kingdom; which upheld him, charged Boniface with
all sorts of misbehaviour, and called for a general
council of the Church to judge the matters in die-
pate.
The crafty king, however, had determined on other
l.'.n A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
means of revenge than decrees, accusations, and burn-
ing bulls; he devised a plot to kidnap Boniface and
let eh him prisoner to France. One William Noga-
retj once a professor of law in a French university,
now deep in the king's counsels, went to Italy, met
a vindictive member of the Colonna family, Sciarra
Colon na, and the two arranged the details of the
plot. There were many conspirators, for not only the
Colonnas were eager to revenge themselves, but nu-
merous nobles, dispossessed to make room for the
Pope's relations, were ready to lend a hand. The
unsuspecting Boniface, now an old man of eighty-
six years, was at Anagni (a little fortified town not
far from Rome), his native place, but nevertheless
honeycombed with treason ; here, from the pulpit of
the cathedral where Emperors had been excommu-
nicated, he proposed to excommunicate the King of
France. Two days before the day set for the excom-
munication, Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, with a
troop of soldiers, entered the city which had been
opened by traitors ; many of the townsmen ranged
themselves under the French banner. The conspira-
tors broke into the episcopal palace, where they found
the valiant old man seated on a throne, in his pon-
tifical garments, with the tiara on his head, and
a cross in his hand. Sciarra Colonna dragged him
down and would have stabbed him with his dag-ger
but that Nogaret withheld him by main force. The
Pope was made prisoner and the palace sacked ; but in
a few days sympathy turned, papal partisans stormed
the palace, rescued Boniface, and carried him to Rome.
Here the Orsini, pretending to befriend him, kept
FALL OF THE MEDLEVAL PAPACY 151
him shut up in the Vatican, half crazed by fright
and fury, till death happily released him (October
11, 1303). Then men remembered an old prophecy
uttered concerning* him : " He shall enter like a fox,
reign like a lion, and die like a dog." Thus drama-
tically the hollowness of papal power was revealed.
France did not rest content with this insolent
act. A year or two later, a Frenchman of Gascony,
the archbishop of Bordeaux, was made Pope by
the French king's influence. This Pope, Clement V
(1305-14), never went to Rome, but took up his
abode at Avignon, a little city on the Rhone, not
very far from its mouth. The place was under the
overlordship of the Angevin kings of Naples, but
really under the influence of the kings of France.
Here the Papacy stayed for nearly seventy years,
practically a dependency of France. A series of
French Popes succeeded one another. They built on
the bank of the Rhone a gigantic fortress, regarded
Rome, the source of their greatness, as a dismal
and dangerous out-of-the-way place, and believed that
they had transferred the seat of the Papacy perma-
nently. This period of exile was regarded by the
Italians as a Babylonish captivity.
Political degradation was not all. The Roman
Curia became a collection of men of pleasure. The
ambitious Popes, even Boniface, had had a touch of
the heroic in them, and erred through pride, arro-
gance, and hate ; but these A\ ignonese Popes, though
some of them were good men, suffered the papal
court to become a place of amusement, banqueting,
and dissipation.
CHAPTER XVI
LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE (1300-1313)
After the Papacy had been dragged in servitude to
France, the Empire, like a dying soldier who gets
on his feet to shout one shout of triumph over his
enemy's fall, made a last gallant effort to recover
life and strength. The effort was very gallant but
very ineffectual, and owes its chief celebrity to its
connection with the great man, who summed up and
reiterated the Imperial creed, somewhat in the same
way that Pope Boniface had summed up and reit-
erated the papal creed. Both creeds were dead, but
each man believed his fervently, and as Boniface's
bulls set forth the doctrines of Hildebrand and In-
nocent III, so Dante's treatises and letters set forth
the beliefs of Barbarossa and Frederick II.
The year of Boniface's jubilee is the year to
which Dante assigns his journey to the abodes of
departed spirits, and as the jubilee marked the close
of the mediaeval Papacy, so the " Divine Comedy "
marks the close of mediaeval theology, and Dante
himself stands as the greatest mark at the boundary
between the old world passing away and the modern
world coming in. Giovanni Villani, who was about
fifteen years younger, described him in this way :
" He was deeply versed in almost all learning, al-
though he was a layman ; he was a very great poet,
LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE 153
a philosopher, and a complete master of rhetoric in
prose and verse as well as in public speech ; a most
noble writer, very great in rhyme, with the most
beautiful style that ever was in our language up to
his time and since. In his youth he wrote the book
on ' The New Life of Love,' and then when he was in
exile he composed twenty ethical poems and many ad-
mirable poems on love ; and he wrote among others
three noble epistles ; one he sent to the government
of Florence, complaining of his banishment from
no fault of his ; another he sent to the Emperor
Henry, when he was at the siege of Brescia, blam-
ing him for his delay, in the tone of a prophet ; the
third to the Italian cardinals, during the vacancy
after the death of Pope Clement (V), that they
should come to an accord and elect an Italian Pope ;
all in Litin, in lofty style, with excellent reasonings
and appeals to authority, which were much praised
by men of judgment. This Dante by reason of his
knowledge was somewhat arrogant, haughty, and
disdainful, and, like an ungracious philosopher, he
could not talk easily with unlearned men ; but be-
cause of his other merits, the learning and the worth
of this great citizen, it seems fitting to give him
perpetual remembrance in this chronicle of mine,
notwithstanding that his noble works left to us in
writing bear true testimony to what he was and
confer honourable fame upon our city." '
Dante, by passage! in his " Divine Comedy," but
more particularly by his treatise "De Monarchia "
( On Universal Empire i, enables us to understand how
1 Storia di Firenze, lib. ix, cap. cxxxv.
154 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the Empire could raise its head in Italy sixty years
after Frederick II had died. In Germany after an
interregnum, the House of Hapsburg had mounted
the throne, hut no one had ventured to cross the
Alps for the Imperial crown. Nevertheless, Dante
and the Ghihellines could not bring themselves to
believe that the old familiar institution had fulfilled
its function and was to be cast aside. The concep-
tion of Europe as a group of equal nations had not
yet arisen, and Ghihellines still believed that a Ro-
man Emperor could put down confusion, anarchy,
political chaos, and cure all the ills of Italy. The
Ghihellines believed in the Emperor as Mohamme-
dans believed in Mohammed ; if he should return,
exiles (like Dante) would be restored, peace would
bloom, and Rome again become the head of a just
and universal empire. Dante, in the " De Monar-
chia," first contends that universal empire is neces-
sary to the well-being of the world ; having estab-
lished that proposition, he argues that this universal
empire rightly belongs to the Roman people, and
proves his point by appeals to Virgil and the New
Testament ; then he proceeds to show that the au-
thority of the Empire is derived directly from God.
" Some say," he says, " that Constantine when
he was cleansed of the leprosy by the prayers of
Silvester, then Pope, gave the seat of the Empire,
to wit Rome, to the Church, together with many
other dignities appertaining to the Empire. There-
fore, they argue, since then no one can receive those
dignities, except he shall receive them from the
Church, to whom they belong. . . . This proposi-
LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE 155
tion I deny ; and when they put forth their proof,
I say it proves nothing-, because Constantine could
not alienate the dignities of the Empire, nor the
Church receive them. . . . No man has a right to
do things by means of an office entrusted to him,
which go directly counter to that office. . . . There-
fore an Emperor has no right to divide the Empire
. . . and the Church in no wise is able to receive
temporal things because the precept expressly for-
bids it, as we have it in Matthew l Provide neither
gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip
for your journey,' etc."
This Ghibelline theory was in flat contradiction
to Boniface's theory, just as the Imperial creed had
always contradicted the papal creed. In Dante's
time the two conflicting theories seemed to have be-
come mere ghosts ; when of a sudden the Imperial
theory started up in reality. A new king of the Ro-
mans, Henry VII, announced that he was coming
into Italy to take his Imperial crown. The Ghib-
ellines welcomed him with boundless enthusiasm.
Dante, in undeserved exile from Florence, flushed
with the hope of return to his dearly beloved city,
wrote a circular letter to all the princes of Italy : —
" Behold now is the acceptable time, in which
arise signs of consolation and peace. For a new day
begins to shine, showing tin- dawn that shall dissi-
pate the darkness of long calamity. N<»w tin; breezes
of the East begin to blow, the lips of heaven redden,
and with serenity comfort the hopes of the peoples.
And we who have passed a long night in the desert
shall see tin- expected joy.
150 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
" Rejoice, Italy, pitied even by the heathen, now
shalt thou be the envy of the earth, because thy
bridegroom, the comfort of the world and the glory
of the people, the most merciful Henry, Divus, Au-
gustus, Caesar, hastens to thy espousals. Dry thine
eyes, put off the trappings of woe, thou Fairest ;
for he is at hand who shall free thee from the prison
of the ungodly, who shall smite the malignant, and
destroy them with the edge of the sword, and shall
give his vineyard to other husbandmen, who will ren-
der the fruits of justice in the time of harvest."
The hope that Henry would restore peace and
establish order warmed even the Guelfs ; and almost
all the Italian cities, excepting stubborn Florence,
sent envoys to greet him as he came to take the
Imperial crown. The French Pope was greatly per-
plexed as to what to do. On the one hand, he had
begun to wish for an Emperor to subdue the Roman
barons and to be a counterweight to the French king,
whom he found too masterful a protector ; on the
other hand, he was afraid to displease the French
king, and to do anything that might set the Ghib-
ellines on their feet again. So he played a double
game : he encouraged Henry in the North, and in
the South he strengthened the Angevin King of
Naples, the leader of the Guelfs. Henry VII crossed
the Alps in October, 1310. He was brave, honest,
and just ; he believed devoutly in his Imperial mis-
sion, desired peace, and wished to be Emperor of
Guelf and Ghibelline alike. At first all went well ;
many cities opened their gates and received Impe-
rial vicars; Milan lowered her flags as Henry en-
LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE 157
tered, and her Guelf archbishop put the iron crown
of Lombardy upon his head. But this happy calm
could not last long. Henry was poor, he asked Milan
for a great deal of money, and then demanded, os-
tensibly as a guard of honour for his journey to
Rome but really as hostages, fifty noblemen from
each of the two parties. The Ghibellines assented :
but the Guelfs suspected treachery and refused ;
their leaders fled and their houses were sacked and
burned. This was the end of peace. Henry at-
tempted to enforce obedience. He sacked Cremona,
razed her walls to the ground, and laid siege to
Brescia. The horrors of the siege were fearful ;
the citizens fought with desperation, but yielded
at last to famine and pestilence. The unfortunate
Henry had how been forced into the old position
of German tyrant and Ghibelline party chief ; and,
instead of marching directly on Rome, or on rich
Florence which was the head and front of the Guelf
cause in the North, he had wasted valuable time in
taking unimportant cities. The Ghibellines were in
a fever of impatience. Dante wrote : —
u To the most holy Conqueror, and only lord, our
lord Henry, by divine providence King of the Ro-
mans, ever Augustus, your Dante Alighieri, a Flor-
entine and undeserving exile, and all Tuscans every-
where, who wish for peace on earth, kiss your feet.
" For a long time have we wept by the rivers of
confusion, and have incessantly prayed for the pro-
tection of' a just king, who should . . . put us back
in our just rights. When you, successor of Ciesar
and Augustus, crossing the ridges of the Apennines,
158 A SHOUT HISTORY OF ITALY
brought back the venerable insignia of Rome . . .
like tlif sun suddenly uprising, new hope of better
time for Italy shone out. But now men think you
delay, or surmise that you are going back . . . and
we are constrained by doubt to stand uncertain and
to cry, like John the Baptist, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another? . . . Do you not
know, most excellent of Princes, do you not see
Prom the watch-tower of your exalted height, where
the stinking little fox lurks, safe from the hunters?
In truth, the evil beast does not drink of the head-
long Po, nor of your Tiber, but its wickedness pol-
lutes the rushing waters of the Arno, and the name
of this dire, pernicious creature (do you not know?)
is Florence. She is the viper turned against the
breast of its mother ; she is the sick sheep that con-
taminates the whole herd of her master. Indeed with
the fierceness of a viper she strives to tear her mother ;
she sharpens the horns of rebellion against Rome,
who made her in her own image and likeness. . . .
" Up, then, break this delay, take confidence from
the eyes of the Lord God of Hosts, in whose sight
you act, and lay low this Goliath with the sling of
your wisdom and the stone of your strength ; for
with his death the dark night of fear shall cover the
camp of the Philistines, and they shall flee, and Israel
shall be set free. And just as now, exiles in Baby-
lon, we mourn remembering holy Jerusalem, so, then,
citizens and at home, we shall breathe in peace and
turn the miseries of confusion into joy.
" Written in Tuscany . . . fourteen days before
the kalends of May, 1311, in the first year of the
LAST FLICKER OF THE EMPIRE 159
coming into Italy of the divine and most happy
Henry."
Henry did go south, hut there were greater obsta-
cles in his way than Dante imagined. The spirit of
the age was against him. It was vain to try to bring
back the past. Florence shut her gates, manned her
walls, sent more money to his enemies, and headed
a league of the Guelf cities in Tuscany and Umbria.
Even Rome was half against him. The Ghibelline
nobles received him and took him to their part of
the town; but the Guelfs held St. Peter's, and
though there was fierce fighting in the streets, the
Guelfs stood their ground, and Henry was forced to
receive the Imperial crown from the papal legate
(the Pope was too prudent to leave Avignon) in the
basilica of St. John Lateran. Here the luckless
Emperor stayed for a time in the midst of ruin,
material, political, and moral. Then he attempted
to crush Florence, the ringleader of disobedience,
but her walls were too strong ; the impotent Em-
peror could do no more than harry the country-side.
He fell back upon Ghibelline Pisa, and set patiently
to work to gather together a new army. The Ghib-
ellines gallantly responded to his call, and Henry
actually set forth on his way to Naples, to punish
the House of Anion and avenge the Hohenstaufens,
but death cut short his lofty plans. He died in a
little town near Siena L313), and the hopes of Dante
and the Ghibellines were ruined forever. The last
flicker of the Empire had gone out.
Other Emperors, it is true, crossed the Alps, but
not BS masters. The connection of Italy with the
100 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Holy Roman Empire ends with the death of the gal-
lant Henry. The mediaeval Papacy and the mediaeval
Empire had passed away, for the Middle Ages them-
selves had come to an end.
CHAPTER XVn
A REVIEW OF THE STATES OF ITALY (about 1300)
Now that the two great actors, whose long-drawn
quarrel has been the main thread of Italian history,
have made their exits, and left us, as it were, with a
sense of emptiness, it becomes necessary to call the
roll and make a better acquaintance with the lesser
dramatis personal, who step to the front of the
stage and carry on the plot of history. The pro-
gramme reads as follows : —
DRAMATIS PERSONS
The Papacy An absentee.
The Empire A shadow.
The Kingdom of Naples . House of Anjou reigning.
The Kingdom of Sicily . House of Aragon reigning.
Florence A Guelf democracy.
Siena) _,, ., „.
-p. r Glnbelhne cities.
Genoa A maritime aristocracy.
Venice A maritime oligarchy.
Milan A Lombard commune.
Savoy A feudal county.
Guelf cities of Tuscany, communes of Loni-
bardy, petty marquisates of the northwest,
etc.
In the South, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies
has already been torn in two. Charles of Anjou, the
conqueror of the Hohenatanfena, clever, shrewd,
L62 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
and capable as he was, had overreached himself.
He entertained great ambitions, and was dreaming
of Constantinople and its imperial crown, when
a rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers broke
out in Sicily. The country had been overrun with
French office-holders and French soldiers, and the
Sicilians, who regretted the Hohenstaufens, had
reached the utmost limit of endurance. The whole
island had become a powder-box; it was a mere
matter of accident where and how the powder would
ignite. A French soldier insulted a woman on her
way to church. In a moment he was killed and his
fellow soldiers massacred to a man. " Death to the
French ! " resounded over the island, and the infu-
riated Sicilians put all to the sword. The revolu-
tionists needed a leader, and, as the old Norman
blood royal still survived in Manfred's daughter,
they invited her husband, King Pedro of Aragon, to
be their king. Pedro accepted, and he and his de-
scendants, the House of Aragon, made good their
claim to the throne of Sicily against all the attempts
of the House of Anjou and of the lords suzerain,
the Popes, to oust them. By this revolution, Sicily
was separated from the Kingdom of Naples for more
than a hundred years.
In the centre of Italy there w r as great disorder. The
lords of the Papal States remained at Avignon, and
attempted to govern their dominions by legates ; but
though their sovereignty nominally extended from
tin Tyrrhene Sea to the Adriatic, they were impo-
tent to enforce it. There was no unity ; each town
was governed separately by a papal legate, by a
REVIEW OF THE ITALIAN STATES 163
powerful baron, or by a communal government.
Rome itself, which in the absence of the Popes had
dwindled to a little city of ruins, towers, churches,
vineyards, and vegetable gardens, was in constant
disorder. The towns near by were often faithful to
their allegiance, but across the Apennines the ob-
stinate little cities between the mountains and the
sea were almost always independent. At present
there is nothing of sufficient interest to prevent us
from treating Rome as carelessly as the Popes did,
and passing hurriedly through to Florence and the
independent communes of Northern Italy where we
must pause.
Prior to the wars between the Empire and the Pa-
pacy feudal institutions had prevailed there, though
with less vigour in Northern Italy than elsewhere in
Europe, and all the land had been divided up into
various fiefs, in which counts and marquesses held
sway. During those wars the cities shook off Im-
perial dominion and got rid of Imperial rulers, and
began their careers as independent Italian com-
munes. Most of these cities were of old Roman
foundation, but the time of Hildebrand and Henry
IV may be deemed their nativity, as then they first
appear in Italian history as individuals. All these
towns were little republics, each with its own char-
acter, but all conforming more or less to a general
type. Within massive walls the city clustered round
two main points, the cathedral, which was Hanked
by belfry and baptistery, and the pi OZZQ (public
Square), on which fronted the PaldZZO PtlbbUco,
the city hall, where the magistrates had their offices.
K,4 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Round abotri and radiating off, houses and palaces,
grim and heavy, stood high above the narrow streets.
Scattered here and there scores of private fortresses
raised their great towers thirty yards and more into
the air. Street, palace, tower, all were obviously
ready for street warfare, waiting on tiptoe for the
bells to rinfir.
The citizens were divided into three classes. The
upper class included the old nobility, the high clergy,
the large merchants, the rich bankers ; the middle
class included the petty merchants, the tradesfolk,
the master artisans ; and below them came the mis-
cellaneous many. In some cities the nobility, allying
itself with the proletariat, held the political power.
But in the more democratic cities, like Florence, the
trades and crafts controlled the government. In
Florence there were seven greater guilds, — judges
and notaries, wool-merchants, refiners and dyers of
foreign wool, silk-dealers, money-changers, physi-
cians and apothecaries, furriers ; and fourteen lesser
guilds, — butchers, shoemakers, masons, carpenters,
blacksmiths, and so on. Every freeman was obliged
to belong to one of the guilds ; Dante was enrolled
in the guild of physicians and apothecaries. Trades
and crafts descended from father to son, and each
guild was divided into masters, journeymen, and ap-
prentices.
In the government, executive, legislative, and ju-
dicial powers were distinguished, but not strictly
separated. The executive power was vested in one
man, or in several men, who were assisted by a kind
of privy council. This council superintended various
REVIEW OF THE ITALIAN STATES 165
matters of public concern, such as weights, measures,
highways, and fines. There was also a larger coun-
cil, to which, as well as to public office generally,
only the enfranchised citizens were eligible. These
privileged persons were never more than a small frac-
tion of the population ; in Florence, for instance,
barely three thousand, even in her populous days.
Finally, there was a parliament or assembly of all
the free citizens, which met on the piazza, and shouted
approval or disapproval to such questions as were
submitted to it.
In the earlier days the joint executives were called
consuls. Their places were not easy. If they were
fair to all, they displeased their own party ; if unfair
to the opposite party, they were liable to retaliation.
The difficulties of partisanship led to the appoint-
ment of a new officer, the podeata. The name and
idea came from the governors put in the Imperial
cities by Barbarossa. The podesta, who was elected
by the citizens, supplanted the consuls in all their
more important functions ; he became the head of
both the civil and the military service, a kind of
governor. He was a nobleman, chosen, in the hope
of avoiding local partisanship, from some other
Italian city. The citizens, if Guelf, of course chose
a Guelf; if Ghibelline, a Ghibelline. When the »o-
(ft>sfa.s term of office, which was usually six months
or a year, began, he came to the city bringing two
knights, Beveral judges, councillors, and notaries, a
Benescha] and attendants, and in the piazza took his
oath of office, — to observe the laws, to do justice,
and to wrong no man. His duties, and often his
1GG A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
movements, were carefully prescribed; sometimes
he was Dot allowed to enter any house in the city
other than the palace prepared for him. At the end
of his term he was obliged to linger for a time, in
order to give anybody who might be aggrieved an
opportunity to lodge a complaint against him and
obtain redress. Such was the ordinary form of com-
munal government; but the constitutions varied in
different cities, and in each city shifted every few
years, as class feeling, partisan enmity, or new men
Buersrested changes.
The prosperity and power of these communes came
from trade, and show how trade prospered and riches
accumulated. Some merchant guilds carried on a
very extensive business. Take the wool guild of
Florence. Tuscany yielded a poor quality of wool,
and as it was impossible to weave good cloth from
poor wool, these Florentine merchants imported raw
wool from Tunis, Barbary, Spain, Flanders, and Eng-
land, wove it into cloth so deftly that foreigners
could not compete with them, and exported it to
the principal markets of Europe. Trade with the
North, however, was less important than trade with
the East. Merchandise was carried over the seas
more easily than over the Alps, and in many respects
the products of the East were better and more va-
ried than those of northern Europe. The Italians
loaded the galleys of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa with
silken and woollen stuffs, oil, wine, pitch, tar, and
common metals, and brought back from Alexan-
dria, Constantinople, and the ports of Asia Minor
and Syria, pearls, gold, spices, sugar, Eastern silk,
REVIEW OF THE ITALIAN STATES 167
wool and cotton, goatskins and dyes, and sometimes
Eastern slaves. Such a wide commerce outstripped
the capacity of barter and cash, and gave rise to a
system of banking, with its attendant credits and
bills of exchange. The quick-witted Florentines
excelled at this business, and great banking houses,
like the Bardi and the Peruzzi, had branches or cor-
respondents in all the chief cities.
This large commerce in face of the obstacles that
barred its way seems extraordinary. A city like
Florence, for instance, especially in the earlier days,
was greatly hampered by the conditions about her.
Outside her walls, within the radius of a dozen or
twenty miles, were castles manned by arrogant no-
bles, who made traffic unsafe. They would not con-
form to the new economic condition of society
except upon compulsion. Rival cities refused to
let Florentine wares pass through their territories
without payment of ruinous tolls. Wars were
waged to moderate these exactions. Or, again, war
was necessary to enforce the rights of Florentine
citizens in other cities. Moreover, each city had its
own system of weights and measures, its own coin-
age ; each imposed customs on all wares entering its
gates, in earliei days so much a cart-load, afterwards
a percentage of the value. On all highways, at all
bridges and fords, there were tolls to be paid. From
city to city a merchant had to change his money,
until in later times certain coins, like the Florentine
florin, passed current everywhere; and sometimes, on
entering tie- gates, In- was obliged to adopt a distin-
guishing badge, a-, for instance, according to the
168 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
usage al Bologna, putting a piece of red wax on his
thumb-nail. These were the fetters placed on trade
in time of peace ; but peace itself was transitory and
uncertain. Apart from the wars with the Emperor,
the cities periodically fought the feudal nobility, or
one another. Venice made war on Ravenna, Pisa on
Lucca, Vicenza on Treviso, Fano on Pesaro, Verona
on Padua, Modena on Bologna, and the greater cities,
like Milan and Florence, on any or all of their re-
spective neighbours. When a city had no absorbing
war abroad, factions fought at home. Burghers and
nobles barricaded the streets, manned the towers,
rang the bells, shot and hacked one another with
spasmodic fury. The burghers generally won. They
then banished hundreds of their adversaries, and
made laws against them. In some cities a register
was kept to record the names of the nobles whose
democracy was suspected ; in others, as in Lucca, no-
bles were excluded from all share in the government,
and were not allow r ed to testify against burghers.
In Pisa, if there was disquiet in the streets, the no-
bles were obliged to stay indoors.
These factions called themselves Guelfs and Ghibel-
lines. At first Guelfs were the burghers of the com-
munes and partisans of the Papacy, and Ghibellines
partisans of the Empire and the feudal system ; but
subsequently the terms merely served to distinguish
political parties, whose platforms, as w r e should say,
shifted with questions of the hour. Even when these
two factions were at peace, they distinguished them-
selves by different badges and fashions. The mer-
lons of the Guelf battlements were square, those of
REVIEW OF THE ITALIAN STATES 169
the Ghibelline swallow-tailed. Good party men wore
caps of diverse pattern, did their hair differently,
cut their bread and folded their napkins in different
ways. It was enough that one side should bow, take
an oath, harness a horse, in one mode, for the other
side to start a contrary fashion.
The growth of population, of property, of com-
merce, however, shows that history may easily dwell
too much upon fighting and war. In these petty
wars and street frays, the numbers engaged were
few, and but little blood was shed. Most of the
fighting was a consequence of economic difficulties.
It was the mediaeval equivalent of strikes, lock-outs,
boycotts, undersellings, rivalries, riots, and other phe-
nomena of modern industry.
The maritime cities were in a very different posi-
tion from the inland cities, and had a different his-
tory. They enjoyed great advantages for trade.
No feudal barons could bar the sea, and pirates
and infidels were not serious impediments. Greater
commercial prosperity, however, begot more bitter
commercial jealousy. Genoa hated Pisa; no Geno-
ese Bailor could endure the cut of a Pisan sail. Both
cities had a large trade in the Levant, and being so
near each other became deadly rivals. They fought
spasmodically for years, from the Gulf of Genoa to
the Black Sea, and at last came to the death grapple.
The time was unfortunate Bor Ghibelline Pisa, as a
Gruelf league had been attacking her on land. The
decisive battle was fought off the island of Melo-
ria, a few miles from the month of the Arno. The
Genoesej who outnumbered the Pisansj won a great
170 A SHORT IIISTOKY OF ITALY
victory, destroyed or captured many galleys, and
took ten thousand prisoners (1284). Pisa never re-
covered from this blow. Florence and Lucca took
immediate advantage of it to unite with Genoa, and
force Pisa to submit to a Guelf government ; and
from this time on greedy Florence, like a hawk,
kept her eyes fixed on poor Pisa, impatient for the
time when she should seize her prey.
Genoa remained a republic, active, eager, im-
petuous, torn by factions and subject to many vicis-
situdes, but lack of space compels us to leave her
and pass on to where " Venice sits in state, throned
on her hundred isles." She, queen of the sea, had
even a more lavish portion of individuality than her
sister cities, individual as they all were, and hardly
belonged to Italy, so completely did she hold herself
aloof from the two great interests of mediaeval Italy,
the Empire and the Papacy. No cries of Pope's men
and king's men, of Guelf and Ghibelline, disturbed
the Grand Canal or the Piazza of St. Mark's ; no
feudal incumbrances hampered her mercantile spirit,
nor did papal anathemas cause a single Venetian
ship to shift her course. Venice had long remained
loyal to Constantinople, and even after all political
dependence had ceased, was, in character and aspect,
more a Constantinople of the West than an Italian
city, a grown-up daughter, more beautiful than her
beautiful mother, who, living her own triumphant and
unfUial life, still retained many of her mother's traits.
Untroubled by sentiment, even in the Crusades,
Venice always kept steadily in view her fixed purpose
of increasing her commerce and of securing foreign
REVIEW OF THE ITALIAN STATES 171
markets; and this purpose shaped her political ac-
tions, and also, indirectly, the form of her government.
Originally the citizens, assembled in public meet-
ing, elected the Doge, and exercised a right to vote
on important political matters ; but the great fam-
ilies soon acquired control, and little by little turned
the government into an oligarchy. The first great
step was taken in Barbarossa's time, just when the
Lombard cities were struggling to free themselves
from Imperial dominion. A Great Council of four
hundred and eighty members was established, to
which were given the powers of legislation, appoint-
ment, electing the Doge, and filling vacancies in
itself. The franchises of the people were all taken
away and the oligarchy left supreme. This oligarchy
of merchant princes, in whom patriotism, pride of
place, and love of gain harmoniously accorded, was
an exceedingly competent body of men. The great-
ness of Venice was their greatness, and they pursued
it devotedly. Beginning early in life these patricians
were trained for their duties by service in the navy
and in the merchant marine, or by employment in
the government of the various cities, islands, and
territories included in the long stretch of coastwise
empire. Knowing that Venice lived by commerce
they made every effort by war, diplomacy, and pri-
vate enterprise, to extend thai commerce. After the
conquest and division of the Eastern Empire (1204)
they became more eager than ever for a monopoly
of trade with the Levant, and inevitably came into
deadly rivalry with Genoa, also passionately eager
to bold the gorgeous Easl iii fee.
172 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
The wars with Genoa, destructive though they
were for the time being, were of service to the aris-
tocracy, lor they made the Venetians appreciate the
value of a compact governing body; and the aristo-
cracy took advantage of that appreciation to tighten
its hold on the government.
Throughout the thirteenth century the Great
Council, though it consisted entirely, or almost en-
tirely, of patricians and elected its own members,
had been open to ajl classes. Any citizen, however
unlikely to be elected, was eligible. At the close of
the century the patricians secured the enactment
of a series of measures, which in substance divided
the citizens into two classes, those Avhose ancestors
had sat in the Great Council, and those whose an-
cestors had not, and decreed that only members of
the first class should be eligible. This legislation is
known as the closing of the Great Council. As all
those who were eligible naturally wished to become
members, the Council gradually increased until it
finally numbered over fifteen hundred. The patri-
cians also further curtailed the powers of the Doge,
divided the various functions of government among
the main sub-divisions of the Council, — the Sen-
ate, the Council of Forty, the Doge's cabinet, and the
Council of Ten, — and gave to the State the definite
form of ofovernment which it maintained to its end.
From Venice we must pass by Milan and the
cities of the Po, to where in the extreme Northwest
the Counts of Savoy, perched on the Alps, main-
tained a precarious sovereignty over both slopes,
with no resources except the muscles of their moun-
REVIEW OF THE ITALIAN STATES 173
taineers and the possession of Alpine passes. Little
did the proud maritime cities, Genoa and Venice,
the great inland cities, Milan and Florence, and Rome
least of all, suspect that these poor counts would one
day consolidate all the territory from the foot of
the mountains to the Riviera in a compact little
kingdom (Piedmont), and from that as a pedestal,
step to still higher honours. The House of Savoy
runs aristocratically back into legend ; but about
the year 1000, a certain Humbert of the White
Hand, emerging from historic obscurity, obtained
the city of Turin and part of Piedmont, as a mar-
riage portion for his son, and thereby secured to his
house a footing in Italy (1045). In the course of
another century or so these Savoyards in a succes-
sion of Humberts and Amedeos, brave, shrewd, and
usually successful men, extended their dominions by
war, by marriage, and by bargains. They made the
most of their position as door-keepers to Italy, and
exacted various privileges from needy Emperors, as
the price of passing- the Alps. They fought rival
counts, waged innumerable petty wars, and rightly
Ot wrongly acquired territories which are now parts
of France, Switzerland, and Italy. The succession
of counts reads like any other mediaeval genealogy;
and their exploits, raids, and sieges viewed from this
cold distance have a somewhat monotonous similar-
ity ; hut survival proves the worth and valour of
the stock, and when after long cent uries the people
of Italy had need of princes, the House of Savoy
the onlv Doble house that had retained power
and respect, li IS a luilliant example of the truth of
174 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the saying that those who have been faithful over a
few things shall be masters over many.
Such were the political divisions of Italy in this
transition period which intervenes between the de-
parting Middle Ages and the incoming Modern
World.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE TRANSITION FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE
RENAISSANCE
This intervening" period — the twilight between the
Middle Ages and the dawn of the Modern World
— needs a little further emphasis, from the very fact
that it is a period of transition and sheds light both
on the time before and the time after. On its emo-
tional side it belonged to the Middle Ages, on its
intellectual side it belonged to the Modern World.
Its religion was essentially mediaeval. For in-
stance, a religious wave arose in Perugia, spread
through Italy, and crossed the Alps. Hosts of peni-
tents, hundreds and thousands, lamenting, praying,
scourging themselves, went from city to city. Men,
women, and children, barefoot, walked by night over
the winter's snow r , carrying tapers, to find relief for
their emotional frenzy. These Flagellants were like
;i primitive Salvation Army, and gave unconscious
expression to the profound and widespread discon-
tent with the Church. Their actions, however, so
clearlv exhibited religions mania that governments
took alarm ; the hard-headed rulers of Milan erected
six hundred gallows on their borders and threatened
to hang every Flagellant who came that way.
Other forms of religious sentiment were more
rational, and expressed themselves in passionate
176 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
calls for peace between neighbours and countrymen.
Priests adjured the fighting cities to he friends:
"Oh, when will the day come that Pavia shall sav
to Milan, Thy people are my people, and Crema to
( Jremona, Thy city is my city?" In Genoa, one morn-
ing before daybreak, the church bells rang, and
the astonished citizens, huddling on their clothes,
beheld their archbishop, surrounded by his clergy
with lighted candles, making the factional leaders
swear on the bones of St. John Baptist to lay aside
their mutual hate. Gregory X (1271-70) pleaded
with the Florentine Guelfs to take back the ban-
ished Ghibellines. " A Ghibelline is a Christian, a
citizen, a neighbour; then, shall these great names,
all joined, yield to that one word, Ghibelline? And
shall that single word — an idle term for none know
what it means — have greater power for hate than
all those three, which are so clear and strong, for
love and charity ? And since you say that you have
taken up this factional strife for the sake of the
Popes of Rome, now, I, Pope of Rome, have taken
back to my bosom these prodigal citizens of yours,
however far they may have offended, and putting
behind me all past wrongs, hold them to be my
sons." ' In consequence of Gregory's passionate en-
treaty, one hundred and fifty leaders of each party
met and embraced on the sandy flats of the Arno.
The most famous of these emotional peace-mak-
ings was the work of a Dominican monk of Vi-
cenza. On a great plain just outside Verona, a
vast congregation assembled (a contemporary said
1 Storia degli Italiani, Cesare Cantu, vol. ii, p. 851 (19).
THE PEEIOD OF TRANSITION 177
400,000 people), from all the warring cities far and
near, bishops, barons, burghers, artisans, serfs, wo-
men, and children. The monk preached upon the
text, " My peace I give unto } T ou." The great com-
pany beat their breasts, wept for repentance and
joy, and embraced one another. Then the friar raised
the crucifix and cried, " Blessed be he who shall
keep this peace, and cursed be he who shall vio-
late it ; " and the audience answered " Amen." It is
hardly necessary to say that these emotional peace-
makings were soon followed by martial emotions ;
freed prisoners were hurried back to prison, the re-
called were banished again, and sword and halberd
were picked up with appetites whetted by abstinence.
The intellectual side of this period is best repre-
sented by the universities, which had sprung up in
many of the North Italian cities in the preceding
century. The term university signified a guild of
students, and possessed many of the characteristics
of our colleges. The university was composed of
students and professors, and governed itself. It
owned neither lands nor buildings, and in case of
need could shift its abode with little trouble. The
students, at Least in a great university like that of
Bologna whither young men flocked by thousands
from all Europe, were divided into two bodies,
th086 from beyond the Alps and Italians. These two
bodies were subdivided into groups according t<>
their state or city. Each group elected representa-
tives, and these, together with special electors, elected
the rector. This representative body made a formal
treaty with the town authorities, and secured good
178 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
terms, because the presence of a university, bringing
money and fame, was of great consequence to the
town. The professors were appointed by the stu-
dents. At Bologna Roman law was the chief study,
and very famous jurists lectured there. We may re-
member that Barbarossa had recourse to Bologna
when he was in need of lawyers to determine his Im-
perial rights. It was Roman law that attracted the
great concourse of students, for the growing needs of
civilization made a constant demand for men learned
in the law ; but other branches of knowledge were
also taught, theology, canon law, medicine, and as-
trology, as well as the so-called <jn<i<lrlvium, music,
arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.
The universities, although theology and canon law
were taught in them, distinctly represented the secu-
lar side of intellectual life. The religious, at least the
theological side, was represented by the Church, and
more particularly by those philosophers who devoted
themselves to that mixture of theology and philoso-
phy known as scholasticism. The greatest of them
was Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), whose surname
is derived from a little village, Aquino, once ex-
isting near Monte Cassino in Neapolitan territory.
Aquinas lectured at various universities. His great
work, " Summa TheologiaB," was a justification of the
Roman Catholic faith by an appeal to the reason and
to science as then accepted. He started on premises
laid down by the Church, and justified all the de-
rivative doctrines by close logic and clear reasoning,
as well as by appeals to the Bible, to Aristotle, then
deemed the possessor of all knowledge, and to the
THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 179
Church fathers. His work is a complete exposition
of God, nature, and man, as conceived by mediaeval
theology, and is still taught by the Catholic Church
as the true exposition of its doctrines. The grateful
Church canonized him, his treatise being the miracles
he had performed, and named him the Angelic Doc-
tor. Those of us whose minds have no natural ap-
titude for scholasticism, find his views on purely
earthly matters much easier to understand, and not
uninteresting, as they throw light on the demo-
cratic character of the Church. Speaking of positive
law, Aquinas says that it should consist of " reason-
able commands for the common good, promulgated by
him who has charge of the public weal ; " and of kings,
that " a prince who makes personal gratification in-
stead of the general happiness his aim, ceases to be
legitimate, and it is not rebellion to depose him, pro-
vided the attempt shall not cause greater ills than his
tyranny ; " and, of the nobility, that " many men make
a mistake and deem themselves noble, because they
come of a noble house. . . . This inherited nobility
deserves no envy, except that noblemen are bound to
virtue for shame of being unworthy of their stocks ;
true nobility is only of the soul." St. Thomas Aquinas
is also interesting because his theology inspires Dante
throughout the " Divine Comedy."
These diverse traits, emotional and intellectual,
were natural to a period of transition, when society
was passing from an age in which the chief interests
were emotional to one in which the chief interests
were intellectual; and it is interesting to notice
that at the Bame time BOCial life was passing from a
180 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Btage of extreme simplicity to one of comparative
luxury. The accumulation of wealth had its effect
in every department of life; it gave people time
and opportunity for intellectual interests, and also
for luxury and more delicate needs. The advance
in wealth was very rapid. By the year 1300 men
had already begun to blame the luxurious habits
of their time, and to look back to the simplicity of
their grandfathers as to an age of primitive inno-
cence. Dante gives full expression to these senti-
ments through the mouth of his ancestor, Caccia-
guida, in the " Paradiso." Others speak in the
same way. One of them, referring to the time of
Frederick II, says : " In those times the manners '
of the Italians were rude. A man and his wife ate
off the same plate. There were no wooden-handled
knives, nor more than one or two drinking-eups in
a house. Candles of wax or tallow were unknown ;
a servant held a torch during supper. The clothes
of men were of leather unlined ; scarcely any gold
or silver was seen on their dress. The common
people ate flesh but three times a week, and kept
their cold meat for supper. Many did not drink
wine in summer. A small stock of corn seemed
riches. The portions of women were small ; their
dress, even after marriage, was simple. The pride
of men was to be well provided with arms and
horses ; that of the nobility to have lofty towers, of
which all the cities in Italy were full. But now fru-
gality has been changed for sumptuousness ; every-
thing exquisite is sought after in dress, — gold, silver,
pearls, silks, and rich furs. Foreign wines and rich
THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 181
meats are required. Hence usury, rapine, fraud,
tyranny," etc. 1
To us to-day this period of transition, with its
mediaeval mixture of commerce, religion, and war, of
emotion and logic, of admiration for St. Augustine
and belief in the infallibility of Aristotle, looks ex-
tremely odd. We forget that our generation may be
in danger of similar criticism. Odd or not, this was
the state of Italy in the period preceding that great
burst of the arts and intellectual life known as the
Renaissance.
1 Europe in the Middle Ages, Hallam, p. 630.
CHAPTER XIX
THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN AFTER THE MIDDLE AGES
(1260-1336)
Though the beginning of the Modern World mani-
fested itself in every department of life, political,
social, and intellectual, it is best known to us through
the arts, because in them it embodied itself in per-
manent forms. Italy suddenly leaped forward, as if
she had drained a beaker of champagne. To explain
and illustrate this burst of passion, the books gen-
erally use such phrases as emphasis upon individu-
ality, imitation of the classic, observation of nature,
wider range of interest, the awakening of spiritual
energy, etc. No doubt the phrases are just, but one
must remember that underneath these manifestations
of an eager interest in life, there actually was a
larger, happier life, due in great measure to security,
ease, and the accumulation of property, which set
men free from the bondage of continuous daily
labour to satisfy corporal needs. Of that happier
life, with its gayety and luxury, Villani, the his-
torian of Florence, has given us a description. He
himself was a boy at the time. " In the year of Our
Lord 1283 the city of Florence, chiefly on account
of the Guelfs who were in power, was prosperous
and at peace, and in a state of great tranquillity,
which was very advantageous to the merchants and
THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN 183
artisans. In June, at the Feast of St. John, in the
quarter across the Arno, where the Rossi and their
neighbours were the principal people, the nobility
and the rich organized themselves into a company,
and adopted a dress all white, and chose a master
called the Lord of Love. The object of the company
was to have feasts, games, and dances for the ladies
and gentlemen of the city, and other persons of
quality. They used to parade the town with trum-
pets and other musical instruments, and had great
dinners and suppers and all kinds of jollity. The
festivities lasted nearly two months, and were the
finest and most celebrated that were ever held in
Florence or all Tuscany. Gentlemen and trouba-
dours came from far and near, and all were received
and entertained with distinction. And it is worth
remembering that the city and its citizens were bet-
ter off then than they had ever been, and this pros-
perity continued till the division into Burghers and
Or audi. There were then in Florence three hun-
dred knights, and there were many companies of
gentlemen and ladies, who morning and evening
kept open table richly spread, and had buffoons in
attendance, so that from Lombardy and all Italy
jesters, players, and jugglers came to Florence, and
all wen- welcome ; and whenever a stranger of dis-
tinction passed through the city there was rivalry
between the companies to get him as their guest.
and then he was accompanied, on foot or on horse-
back, all through the city and the country round.
most politely."
This was the light and careless side of the general
184 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
awakening of interest in life, which showed itself in
so many Doblei forms.
In literature Dante (12();~>-L>21) is the first great
figure. But, owing to his disproportional importance,
we are liable to forget that he has his orderly place
in the revival of poetry and literature which began
in the brilliant court of Frederick II in Sicily. On
the destruction of the Hohenstaufens, the poetic pri-
macy passed to Bologna, where Guido Guinicelli and
others composed poetry in a somewhat learned fash-
ion, as befitted a university town, and then passed
on to Tuscany, and in particular to Florence, where
Dante was preceded by his friend Guido Oavalcanti.
Dante, although distinctly mediaeval by his theology,
his appeals to the authority of Virgil and Aristotle,
and by his political views, has the characteristics of
the new spiritual energy. He lays immense stress on
individuality, and delineates real life with wonderful
vividness. These traits mark him as belonging to
the new world coming in rather than to the old
world gfoinof out.
From the point of view of history, Dante's most
marked achievement, perhaps, was to raise the Tus-
can (or more strictly speaking the Florentine) idiom,
from among many competitors, to the dignity of being
the Italian language. This was the consequence of
writing the " Divine Comedy " in Tuscan, instead
of in Latin. Dante's Tuscan verses were recited in
the tavern and on the piazza, and were greeted
with loud applause by apprentices and artisans, shop-
men and tavern-keepers. He excited the enthusiasm
of both educated and ignorant. At that time the
THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN 185
spoken dialects were very numerous. A friend re-
monstrating with Dante for writing- in an Italian
dialect instead of in Latin, said that there were a
thousand. Dante himself in his treatise " On the
Vernacular Speech " enumerates Sicilian, Calabrian,
Apulian, Roman, Tuscan, Genoese, Sardinian, Ro-
magnol, Lombard, Venetian, and others. These dia-
lects of the provinces were further subdivided among
themselves. In Tuscany the people of Siena spoke one
idiom, those of Arezzo another. In Lombardy the
citizens of Ferrara spoke in one way, the citizens of
Piacenza in another. Even in one city, as in Bologna,
the dwellers in St. Felix Street and those in Greater
Street did not speak alike. Besides the difficulties
of many dialects, besides the immense prestige of
Latin as the language jf learning, of law, of the
Church, French appeared as a possible literary lan-
guage for Italy. Authors in Florence, Venice, Siena,
and Pisa wrote books in French," because the French
language jroes over the world, and is more delectable
to read and to hear than any other." But Dante
made the Florentine tongue immortal, and not only
wrote the u Divine Comedy " in Florentine, but also
•• The New Life" and " The Banquet." Prior to his
time the divers idioms had stood on an equality ;
after ln> time Tuscan became the language of polite
Speech and of literature, the real Italian language,
and the others were degraded to the position of mere
dialects. Petrarch and Boccaccio, both Florentines,
also deserve then- share of praise. Petrarch's son-
nets and Boccaccio's stories firmly established the
primacy to which Dante had raised the Tuscan idiom.
186 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
The revival of sculpture also began before the
middle of the thirteenth century. Here the great
leader is Niccolo Pisano (1206-78?). There has
been a dispute as to his birthplace. Some say he
came from Southern Italy and learned his art there.
If this theory is true, Frederick's kingdom has the
honour of having revived sculpture as well as litera-
ture ; but it is more likely that Niccolo came from
some village in Tuscany, and early went to Pisa,
where he got his designation Pisano. The first cer-
tain record of his work is an inscription on the pul-
pit in the Baptistery at Pisa, which states that he
completed the pulpit in 1260. Pisa was then at the
height of her glory, in the happy years before her
fatal conflict with Genoa ; she had built the Cathe-
dral, the Leaning Tower, and the Baptistery, and
now wished to beautify them within. Niccolo's pulpit
shows both imitation of the classic and observation
of nature. He had before him bits of ancient sar-
cophagi, which had been built into the wall of the
Cathedral : his Madonna bears traces of the Phaedra
of the sarcophagus, one of his three Wise Men re-
sembles a young Greek, and his modelling in general
has a touch of classic freedom, dignity, and repose.
In his conception of the scenes Niccolo adhered to
ecclesiastical tradition, just as Dante did to ecclesias-
tical theology, but in his figures, in the drapery and
various details, his faithfulness to reality is striking,
at least when compared with the Byzantine style
theretofore prevailing. The success of this pulpit
was so great that a few years later he was asked to
carve another for the cathedral in Siena. An envoy
THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN 187
came on purpose, and in the Baptistery of Pisa a
contract was drawn up in which it was agreed that
Niccolo should go to Siena and stay till the work
was done, taking three assistants, and also his young
son Giovanni, at half pay, if he wished. This con-
tract was made in 1265, the year of Dante's birth.
Niccolo also worked at Bologna, Perugia, Pistoia,
probably at Lucca and almost certainly in many
other places. This was the period of the free devel-
opment of the communes after the death of Fred-
erick II, and Niccolb's popularity is proof of wide-
spread prosperity and interest in art. Niccolo's son
Giovanni (1250-1328?) inherited his father's gen-
ius; and his work, especially his masterpiece, a pul-
pit at Pistoia, shows how fast art w r as developing.
Giovanni, in his eagerness to express the animation
and passion of life, neglected the classic and went
directly to nature, at least in desire if not in exe-
cution. This passionate interest in life is the very
quality that gives Dante's " Inferno " its intense vivid-
ness. These two Pisani founded the great Tuscan
school of sculpture, and influenced both painting
ami architecture as well.
Italian architecture at this time does not show
one great figure like Niccolo Pisano, nor does it
show a definite beginning of a new period. On the
contrary, throughout the Middle Ages building held
its own Burprisingly well in comparison with the
other arts. In (he days of Theodoric the Ostrogoth,
it carried on the I>\ /.antine tradition at Ravenna,
and for centuries the churches in Rome were limit
on the old basilican principle. Over a hundred years
lss .\ SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
before Dante was born, and before Niccolo carved
his pulpit, the Lombard style flourished in Lom-
bardy, Tuscan Romanesque in Tuscany, and Nor-
man Sicilian in Sicily. Before the Empire had re-
ceived its coup <le grace the Gothic style came down
from the North, and its struggle with the Roman-
esque seemed to typify the conflict between the
German Empire and the Italian people. Neverthe-
less, if we confine ourselves to Tuscany, as perhaps
is fair in view of the very great influence of Tus-
cany on all the arts, there is one man who stands
out conspicuous. Arnolfo di Cambio (1232-1300?)
began lite as one of Niccolo's assistants at Pisa, and
did so well that he was included by name in the
contract for the pulpit at Siena. In Florence he
built the church of Santa Croce for the Franciscans,
designed the Palazzo Vecchio, and made the first
plans for the Duomo ; and so left a deep impress
on Florence and through Florence on the world.
In painting, more than in any other art or depart-
ment of life, perhaps, authority had reigned supreme
throughout the Middle Ages. The decadent Greek
painters of Constantinople had made a series of
rules, which were as autocratic as the edicts of the
Emperors. Every Madonna was painted in one atti-
tude, with her eyes opening wide in the same way,
arms, legs, and body in the same constrained posi-
tion, with the same wooden child in her wooden
lap, and the same wooden saints about her. But
gradually, side by side with the art of authority,
another style, at first very simple and primitive,
developed. The older style dominated mosaic work,
THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN 189
and as mosaics were most intimately associated with
the symbolic representation of sacred things, it was
strongly intrenched behind all the beliefs and pre-
judices of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the re-
volutionary spirit in Tuscany, for the leaders of
the revolution which threw off the authority of the
Middle Ao-es came from among the free men of
Tuscany, prevailed in painting as well as elsewhere.
The last of the masters who employed the Byzantine
manner was Cimabue (1240-1302); yet Cimabue
had a sense of the coming change, and showed a
desire to break through the enveloping shell of
Byzantine authority and portray the grace and
beauty of living human beings. However mediaeval
his manner seems to us, his contemporaries, eager
as the Athenians for new thing's, perceived the
novelty in it. When he was painting a Madonna
for the Dominican monks in Florence, Charles of
Anjou, fresh from his triumph over Manfred, visited
his >tudio for the honour of a first view, and crowds
pressed about hoping to get a glimpse of the picture.
When the picture was carried through the streets to
its destination in the church of Santa Maria Novella,
a great procession followed, as if it were a hero
returned from the wars. Poor Cimabue, however,
Idom mentioned except as a dull background
against which the conquering Giotto stands in bril-
liant relief.
Giotto (1267?— 1336) is the master revolutionist
of painting, lb- was a contemporary of Dante, a
IVw jrean younger, born .it tie- time when Niccolb
and Giovanni irere working a t the pulpit in Siena,
190 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
and Charles of Anjou was posing as an admirer of
the fine arts in Cimabue's studio. He painted Dante
in a fresco on the wall of the Bargello (a palace in
Florence), at least so tradition says; and Dante in
the " Divine Comedy " speaks of him as outstripping
the once renowned Cimabue. Giotto was an ugly
little man, of great character and quick wit. Various
stories are told of his repartees. Once, when he was
painting for the King of Naples and working with
great diligence, the king, who used to watch him,
said, " Giotto, if I were you, I should not work so
hard." "I shouldn't, — if I were you," retorted
Giotto. He studied under Giovanni Pisano, and
learned so much that it has been said that " Giotto
is the greatest work of the Pisani." Giotto was also
the successor to Arnolfo as the leading architect
in Florence, and built the Campanile of the Duomo,
and, being likewise a sculptor, modelled some of the
bas-reliefs that ornament the panels of the base.
His great art was painting, and especially the paint-
ing of figures. Giotto was in demand to paint fres-
coes on the walls of churches and chapels at Flor-
ence, Arezzo, Assisi, Padua, Ravenna, Rome, and
Naples ; and other painters came from far and near
to study under him. He dominated Italian painting,
and his school was the only school for a hundred
years. After the world had adopted Raphael's fres-
coes as the type of excellence his fame was dimmed
for a time, but since Mr. Ruskin's enthusiastic ad-
miration it has regained its ancient lustre.
These instances of revolution in the arts show
that a new intellectual life had begun, that the
THE INTELLECTUAL DAWN 191
Middle Ages had really ended. In fact, the passing
away of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Euro-
pean suzerainty of the Papacy was merely an epi-
sode in the general intellectual revolution.
CHAPTER XX
THE DESPOTISMS (1250-1350)
Perhaps the quality which strikes us most in this
dawn of our Modern World is its suddenness; Nic-
colo Pisano gets up, as it were, out of the ground,
Giotto follows Cimabue, Dante is born while Guido
Guinicelli is still a young man. We are amazed
and bewildered, and it is not in the arts alone that
the change is so startling. The political structure
shifts with equal quickness, and while we are trying
to connect and coordinate this outburst of art with
the democratic triumph of the communes, the demo-
cratic communes disappear under our eyes. At first
as we look we are a little puzzled, for the outward
form of the commune remains unchanged ; the po-
desta is still there, the Great Council and the inner
council are still there, the committees and the sub-
committees superintending and directing the affairs
of the commonwealth ; but further observation dis-
closes a lack of spontaneity. The motive power
does not seem the resultant of the debate and argu-
ment of numerous discordant wills, but to proceed
from some one definite inner source. More careful
observation shows that these outward committees
are but registeringf boards that record an inner
will, that their members go to one particular palace
to have their minds made up, at first privily, but
THE DESPOTISMS 193
soon openly, and at last confessedly and ostenta-
tiously. This is the regular course. The commune
is, as it were, a political chrysalis out of which a
full-blown tyrant bursts. The tyrants were men of
capacity, who gathered the various functions of the
ETOvernment into their own hands, and bv a course
of adroitness and fraud, or by a coup d'etat, reduced
the city to obedience, and then, after having exer-
cised sovereign rights during their lives, bequeathed
the principality to their heirs. The reason of their
success is plain. It was impossible for trade to flour-
ish, for property to collect its income, for luxury
to enjoy itself, under the political confusion that
attended the democratic endeavours for self-gov-
ernment. The uncertainty in government, law, and
trade, was too high a price to pay for liberty. Men
of property, men of business, men of pleasure, pre-
ferred the comparative stability of a tyranny.
Before we look at this process in individual states
we must eliminate the exceptions. The kingdom
of Sicily under the House of Aragon, and that of
Naples under the House of Anjou, had become, in
great measure, absolute monarchies, for the gifted
Emperor Frederick, who was no lover of democracy,
had crushed <>r circumvented the communal spirit
in his kingdom. The suppression of popular liber-
ties did ii< >t resull in the strict enforcemenl of order
in either bdngdorA, particularly not in Sicily where
feudal anarchy was rampant ; but we must leave
those Southerners to their oranges and lemons, to
their flowers and azure skies, to their churches and
cloisters, where Romanesque, Byzantine, and Arab
194 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
influences met and combined in arch and dome and
sculptured trimming, and go northward to find the
main historical current of the century.
Florence, too, we must except from the tyrannic
system, for a democratic government prevailed there
for many years to come, and also Rome, where the
Papacy prevented Colonna and Orsini from estab-
lishing a despotism.
Verona shall serve as the paradigm for the des-
potic form of government. In this ancient city on the
banks of the Adige, where the amphitheatre of Au-
gustus still stood though the churches built by Theo-
doric the Ostrogoth had crumbled away, the spirit
of material and intellectual activity had been busily
at work. The stately church of San Zeno (eleventh
century), most beautiful of Romanesque churches,
coloured with the hues of early dawn and rich with
bronze doors and sculptured front, stood proudly
apart outside the walls ; but within, the cathedral
had been begun, and the great Ghibelline tower al-
ready lifted its crenellated top high over the market-
place. Rushing through the city the headlong Adige
turned innumerable mill-wheels, and Veronese girls
washed the clothes of the Capulets and Montagues
in its waters. Altogether the city was a very de-
sirable signory. This fact had been discovered in
Frederick's time, and Ezzelino da Romano, one of
the Ghibelline nobles of the North, had made good
his power there and distinguished himself by his
cruelty, for which he is still remembered. On his
most satisfactory death, not long after Frederick's,
the Scaligers succeeded to the dominion of the city
THE DESPOTISMS 195
(1259). These Scaligers were of the best type of
tyrant, especially Can Grande (1311-1329), the fifth
in possession of the signory, who presents the type
in its noblest and mos.t attractive form. Neverthe-
less, despite his brilliance, his success and magnifi-
cence, his chief renown is as host to the exiled
Dante, who in gratitude for " my first refuge and
first hostelry " dedicated the " Paradiso " to him,
and celebrated his carelessness of hardship and of
gold, and his doughty deeds from which even ene-
mies could not withhold their praise.
Can Grande, like other despots, had two objects,
— to make his signory secure, and to enlarge it.
As he was secure of Verona, he cast his covetous
glances abroad and fixed them on Vicenza, a little
town some thirty miles to the northeast. Vicenza
was, so to speak, no longer in the market, as she
had been snapped up by her neighbour, Padua,
which had had the advantage of being less than
twenty miles away. But Can Grande played his
cards well, and by help of the Emperor Henry VII,
who appointed him Imperial vicar, got possession
of the prize. Padua, a rich and prosperous Guelf
city, with Bnbject towns round about, and a famous
university within, refused to acquiesce in a surrender
of Vicenza to a Ghibelline lord. A long war en-
sued. The fair fields in the forty miles between Ve-
rona and Padua were laid waste, the poor peasants
were dr;i""ed to one citv or the Other and held for
ransom, and the (Juell's in Verona and the Ghib-
ellinee in Padua were persecuted, imprisoned, and
tortured. Atla>t Padua, her signory over, her neigh-
19G A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
hours lost, her population fallen away, her citizens
fighting among themselves, her nohles destroying
one another in the hope of becoming lords of the city,
gave way and surrendered to Can Grande. Other
cities shared Padua's fate, and Can Grande, by virtue
of his conquests as well as of his character, became
one of the chief powers in Italy. Can Grande was
brave even to recklessness, covetous of dominion,
Bteadfast in his political aims, true to his promises,
generous to his enemies. On his death he bequeathed
his signory to his nephew ; and his body was buried
in the churchyard of a little Gothic chapel, where
stone effigies of armoured Scaligers on caparisoned
steeds surmount Gothic tombs, and the pride of life
and conquest strives to overcrow death.
The story of the Scaligers must be continued some-
what further, for they exhibit the phenomenon, so
frequent in Northern Italy at this time, of a des-
potism that begins in vigour, continues in energy and
success, and then dies down under degenerate heirs
to go out at last like a candle. Can Grande's nephew,
Mastino (1329-51), — the family had a fondness
for canine appellations, Great Dog and Mastiff, — be-
gan his career with ability and courage ; he con-
quered Brescia to the west, halfway to Milan, and
Parma, which lies beyond Mantua. These particular
acts of aggression helped his ruin, for Milan and
Mantua took alarm and joined a league against him.
But that was not till later. In the days of his pros-
perity Mastino was very magnificent. Soldiers, horse
and foot, attended him ; his palace was thronged with
lords, gentlemen, and buffoons; his stables were full
THE DESPOTISMS 197
of chargers and palfreys, his bird-sheds of falcons.
At his court there were innumerable fashionable
devices for driving care away, dancing, singing, joust-
ing ; everything was luxurious ; men and furniture
were decked with embroidery, cloth of gold, cloth
from France, and cloth from Tartary. When Mastino
rode forth all Verona rushed to the windows ; when
he was angry all Verona trembled. He was a dark-
skinned, bearded man, with heavy features and a
great belly ; in later life he ate grossly, and sank into
dissipation. Seldom on a Friday or Saturday, or
even in Lent, would he refrain from meat ; and he
did not care a rap for excommunication. He became
arrogant and vainglorious. His dissipation and lack
of piety, however, were less direct causes of his fall
than his ambition; he coveted, rumour said, a king-
dom of Lombardy or even of all Italy. But at last he
overreached himself in dealing with the Florentines.
They wished to get possession of Lucca, and he
undertook to buy it for them, — it was a fourteenth-
century custom to sell a city, — but when he got
possession of Lucca he kept it for himself. The
Florentines declared war, and induced all his rival
despots, the Visconti of Milan, the Gonzaga of Man-
tua, the Kstensi of Ferrara, to join a league against
him. Venice also joined, being indignant with the
Scaligers for levying tolls upon merchandise th.it
went up the Po, and for interference with the Ve-
iM-tiin monopoly of salt. The league was victorious
and forced the Scaligers to hard terms. Venice took
tin- towns near her, thus acquiring her first territory
on tin- Italian mainland; the great Paduan family,
I'.'* A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the Carrara, took back Padua ; the Visconti of Milan
took Brescia (1338). The Scaligers were shorn of
their power, and from this time on the house dwin-
dled ; assassinations of brother by brother darkened
its close, and at the end of the century it lost Ve-
rona and all.
What the Scaligers did at Verona other great fam-
es o
ilies were doing elsewhere. The Gonzacra established
themselves in Mantua, the Estensi in Ferrara, the Ben-
tivogli in Bologna, the da Polenta in Ravenna, the
Malatesta in Rimini, the Montefeltri in Urbino, the
Baglioni in Perugia, and greatest of all the Vis-
conti in Milan. The city of Milan has so important
a place in the history of Italy, that we must pause
over the Visconti. This family succeeded in dis-
possessing its rivals and in becoming masters of the
city in 1295, about the time that the oligarchy
was clinching its hold on Venice, and the democracy
becoming all powerful in Florence. In fact, one may
accept this date as the point at which Florence, Ven-
ice, and Milan start on their upward careers towards
becoming three of the six chief divisions of Italy.
Convenience has its rights, and it is eminently con-
venient to start the Renaissance, politically as well
as intellectually, in this eager, passionate last quarter
of the thirteenth century.
The Visconti, however, were not firm in their seats
till the gallant Henry VII, Dante's hope, came down
into Italy to revive the Empire. We have seen that
Henry did not revive the Empire, but he did
strengthen Can Grande, his loyal lieutenant in Ve-
rona, and also the Visconti, his loyal friends in Milan.
THE DESPOTISMS 199
It is pathetic, even now, to think of that high-aspir-
ing Henry, with his noble, old-fashioned ideas con-
cerning the Roman Empire and universal brother-
hood under the shelter of the Roman eagle, and of the
great Dante fastening all his hopes on those same old-
fashioned ideas, while the crafty lords of Milan and
Verona, laughing in their sleeves, professed the most
devout Imperial creed and feathered their own nests.
On the Emperor's death (1313) the Visconti were
firmly seated. The signory descended from one gen-
eration to the next. Their sway was extended over the
cities round about, until it included most of Lom-
bard}'. Ambition, growing by what it fed on, aimed
at the cities of Pisa, Bologna, and Genoa. Such plans
aroused both jealousy and fear. The ambition of the
Visconti to take Pisa alarmed Florence, who had
marked Pisa as her own ; that to take Bologna stirred
the absentee Popes, who went through the old forms
of excommunication, interdict, and crusade ; but
Genoa, crippled by her wars with Venice, rent asun-
der by internal factions, wearily gave herself to Milan,
in the vain hope of winning peace and security. In
spite of checks here and there, the state of Milan
became more and more powerful, and the signory of
the \ ixonti by far the greatest of the tvrannies in
Italy.
There wen-, of course, many men who attempted
to become despots and failed ; and others who suc-
ceeded for their lifetimes, bui were not able to make
their Bignories bo Btroog as to become family pos-
Bessions to be enjoyed l»\ their heirs after them. Of
the latter kind one must he mentioned. In Lucca
200 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Castruccio Castracane (died 1328), a very brilliant
politician and soldier, became so powerful that he
reduced to subjection much of the country round
and nearly succeeded in conquering Florence, with
whom he was long at war. Like other successful ty-
rants he called himself a Ghibelline, and drew what
advantage he could from his profession of faith, but
really only aimed to acquire a principality for him-
self. He died in the prime of life ( to the great relief
of the Florentines), and left so brilliant a reputation
for the qualities which achieve success by fair means
or foul, that two centuries later Machiavelli held him
up as an example for princes to follow.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL (1350)
We are now well started on the fourteenth century,
and it will be well to glance at the chief Italian
states in order to get our bearing's.
Sicily was in a state of hopeless despondency.
The island was nominally subject to the House of
Aragon, but its kings were not men of sufficient
character to impose their authority, and the unfor-
tunate kingdom was beginning to go down hill.
The Kingdom of Naples was, for the time being,
much better off, for its king, Robert, grandson
of Charles of Anjou, was a man of unusual gifts
and capacity, but he was succeeded by a foolish,
frivolous, light-minded, light-mannered granddaugh-
ter, Joan (1343-81), who brought forty years of
trouble to her kingdom, and under her Naples
started rolling down that same incline on which
Sicily was rolling somewhat ahead of her. The fail-
ure of Sicily and Naples to take part in the great
career in matters intellectual now opening before
Northern [taly is partly due to the race that popu-
lated them, a miscellaneous mixture <>t' Moods (at
least it is customary to explain unknown causes of
success and failure by saying good blood and bail
blood), and partly to the autocratic will of the bril-
liant Frederick II, who crushed out independence
202 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
in his kingdom, and so deprived it of that communal
life which is the only obvious factor, except "good
blood," in the intellectual success of Northern Italy.
The whole pontifical state, from the fortresses of
the Colonna on the Tiber to the strongholds of the
Malatesta in Rimini, was in the vortex of confusion.
Florence was well off, for though the foreigners
whom she had invited to be protectors against Cas-
truccio Castracane and others were rather detrimen-
tal than useful, and though there were signs of a
© ©
new struggle between the Gfrandi and the Burghers,
&© ©
her commerce prospered, her dominion spread over
the towns round about, and her luxury grew so fast
that the troubled elders passed all sorts of sump-
tuary laws to prescribe what should be worn and
what not, by both fashionable and simple.
In the northwest, now Piedmont, there were, be-
sides the Counts of Savoy, several struggling claim-
ants who severally asserted titles to their own and
other strips of territory. In the northeast, Venice,
which had acquired a footing on the mainland des-
tined to grow into the province of Venetia, was
prosperous. And between Piedmont and Venice the
successful Visconti of Milan, soon to receive the
keys of Genoa, were likewise well satisfied. The
political situation may now be dismissed, and we
may turn to the distinguishing mark of the century,
the classical revival.
The distinction which Italy enjoys as the most
famous country in Europe is due to three ages, —
first, the ancient epoch of Augustus CaBsar and
Trajan, when the Roman Empire imposed the "pax
THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL 203
romana on a grateful world ; second, the mediaeval
epoch of Hildebrand and Innocent III, when the
Papacy, following* its great prototype with unequal
steps, imposed its pax romana on both troubled,
souls and angry hands ; and third, the epoch of the
Renaissance, when Italy took the lead in the intel-
lectual development of modern Europe. It would be
as absurd to subordinate intellectual life to politics
in the period of the Renaissance as it would be to
subordinate the religion of the era of Hildebrand
to its art, or the politics of the Augustan age to its
religion. The highest life of Italy, the life which
gives importance to the history of this coming period,
is its intellectual life, and, though we must not for-
get politics entirely, we should lay the chief stress on
intellectual rather than on political matters.
Since the date of the Pisan pulpit, prosperity had
increased fast, and curiosity, the desire to investi-
gate, the wish to know, had grown lustily. There
were still the same two stores of knowledge, — nature
and the classics, — but the first, for many reasons,
seemed vague, intangible, when compared to the
second, in which the demi-gods (so they appeared
then) of the ancient world had garnered the rich
harvest of their thoughts. The classical heritage,
the record of a higher civilization, seemed a lay
Bible, the revelation of truth, the means of salva-
tion; and the young generation emerging in the
dawn of intellectual light burned thirstily to this
newly found inheritance. The leader of this pil-
grimage to the land flowing with intellectual milk
and honey was Francis Petrarch ( 1304 -71 I.
204 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Petrarch was a Florentine, but he lived in exile.
His father had been banished at the same time with
Dante, and after a few wandering years had settled
at Avignon. Petrarch studied law at the University
of Bologna and became a confirmed Ghibelline.
This item of biography is important, because it re-
minds us that Petrarch's passion for the classic
world, though it had its roots in the traditional
admiration for Rome, received strength and justifi-
cation not only from Latin literature, but also from
the Civil law. Men who grasped the complexity
and richness of the Roman law necessarily admired
Roman civilization, and inferred that all other mani-
festations of that civilization must be as admir-
able as the law, and perhaps less dry. Petrarch
found the law dry, but he left Bologna with a pas-
sion for the classic world ; and when he went back
to Avignon he met all the most cultivated men of
Europe. Learning still attended the papal court,
and Avignon served to make this charming young
scholar of genius known to the world. He flung
up the law and devoted himself to literature.
Cicero was his hero. Petrarch was the first of the
humanists, the herald of the Renaissance, and, if we
look farther forward still, the harbinger of the
Reformation. Petrarch's importance was very great
because he was not too far ahead of his generation.
He shouted aloud the glory of Rome, of Roman
literature and Roman thought, and the echo re-
sounded throughout Europe. In the year 1341,
in Rome, upon the Capitoline Hill, Petrarch re-
ceived the crown of laurel, as scholar and poet, from
THE CLASSICAL KEVIVAL 205
the Senate and People of Rome. The King of Naples
was his sponsor, and the tyrants of the North ap-
plauded. This ceremony was the conspicuous re-
cognition that a new period was opening before
Italy ; and Petrarch's laurel crown may be put be-
side the Imperial wreath of Augustus and the tiara
of Hildebrand, as the starting-point of Italy's third
great period of triumph.
After his coronation, Petrarch went about Italy
spreading the seeds of the new enthusiasm. He
lived or made visits at Parma, Bologna, Verona,
Florence, Arezzo, Naples, Rome, Milan, Padua, and
Venice. He became tremendously fashionable. The
Pope invited him to be papal secretary, the King
of France extended the hospitality of Paris to him,
the Emperor bade him to Prague, the Visconti
wanted him at Milan, the Scaligers at Verona, the
Cararresi at Padua, the lord high Seneschal at
Naples ; the Florentines asked him to accept a chair
in their new university, the Venetians offered him
a house. All this honour ostensibly shown to Pe-
trarch was really the salutation to the new dawn.
The strength of this classic revival, though most
effective in literature and the arts, is perhaps still
more noticeable in the political career of another
young man of genius who had as passionate a love
of classic Rome as Petrarch himself. Cola di Rienzo
(1314-54) was an imaginative, poetical dreamer,
who fed his youth on Livy, Cicero, Seneca, and de-
lighted to muse on the glories of Julius Cesar and
to study the antique monuments of Rome. His pub-
lic career began as envoy on one of the unsuccessful
206 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
embassies which used to entreat the Popes to return
to the deserted city. Cola was handsome, eloquent, ar-
dent, a sort of Don Quixote, and roused the Roman
populace to share his dreams and to believe in the
possible restoration of the Senate and People of Rome
to their ancient grandeur. He led the people against
the nobility, forced the riotous barons to submit to
his rule as tribune of the people, and established a
government of law in the city ; but his ambition flew
far beyond the city walls. He dreamed of the con-
federation of all Italy under the lead of Rome. He
would have smiled at limiting imitation of the great
days of old to the arts or to literature ; he intended
to restore the Roman Republic as it had been in its
high and palmy days. His wild aspirations throw a
backward light over the history of the city of Rome
throughout the Middle Ages, and over that repub-
licanism which played so important a part in the
struggle between Empire and Papacy, and light up
the old theories under which the Roman people
claimed the right to elect both Emperor and Pope ;
just as Boniface's bulls portray the outworn papal
theories, and Dante's " De Monarchia " the dead
Imperial beliefs.
Cola's first step was to invite all the princes and
communes of Italy to attend a general meeting in
Rome ; and as all Italy had responded to Petrarch's
appeal in behalf of the classic past, so did she, for
the moment, respond to Cola's appeal. Milan, Genoa,
Lucca, Florence, Siena, and the smaller cities nearer
by, answered with apparent sympathy. Petrarch was
mad with delight, and hailed Cola as Camillus, Brutus,
THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL 207
Romulus. For the moment, such was the strength of
classical illusion, the dream seemed to be real. Cola
wrote to the Florentines (September, 1347), " We
have made all citizens of the states of Holy Italy-
Roman citizens, and we admit them to the right of
election. The affairs of Empire have naturally de-
volved upon the Holy Roman People. We desire to
renew and strengthen the old union with all the
principalities and states of Holy Italy, and to deliver
Holy Italy itself from its condition of abject sub-
jection and to restore it to its old state and to its
ancient glory. We mean to exalt to the position of
Emperor some Italian whom zeal for the union of
his race shall stir to high efforts for Italy." 1
Cola's great idea was destined to wait five hundred
years for fulfilment. The time was not ripe, and he
himself not a suitable instrument. His career was
brief. He became not only vainglorious but also very
cruel. He grew fat, and lost the charm of youth and
novelty. The nobles and the upper classes of Rome
hated him ; and when, in need of money, he in-
creased the taxes, the Roman populace turned upon
him, stormed the Capitol, captured him as he tried
to slink away in disguise, and murdered him on the
Bteps leading down from the palace. His head was
rut off, bis body was dragged through the streets and
bnrnedj and the ashes scattered to the winds.
The mad dream had been, in its nature, evanes-
cent. The classical heritage was too purely intellec-
tual, too remote from existing needs, to he ahle to
1 Hume in the MiddL Ages, Gngonmni, rol. vi, p. 295, note 1
(translated).
208 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
shape politics. But that fourteen hundred years after
the death of Julius Caesar, Cola should have been able
to establish himself as Roman tribune on the Capi-
toline Hill, and to act as if the Republic of the days
of the Gracchi had been but temporarily superseded,
si io\vs the immense influence of Rome over the me-
diaval imagination, and helps us to understand the
autocratic power of the classical heritage in shaping
and directing the intellectual revolution in Italy.
CHAPTER XXII
THE ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
The fourteenth century undoubtedly felt itself
emancipated from the limitations of the Middle
Ages, and with justice, so far as the classical revival
was concerned, but it did little or nothing to free
itself from ills that were distinctly of a mediaeval
character, — plague, lawlessness, and tyranny. In
that respect, the transition from the Middle Ages to
the Modern World was slow and made a striking
contrast with the rapid evolution of art.
The chief of these ills was the plague. Only in
remote places of the East, if at all, does the scourge
of disease now fall as it then did in the most civi-
lized cities of the world, and it was from the East
that these plagues came, brought by sailors. One
blasted Tuscany in 1340, one Lombardy in 13G1 ;
but the wmst was the awful Black Death of 1348,
which wrought havoc in various parts of Italy and
then swept northward across the Alps On its de-
structive path. It was this plague which Boccaccio
describes in the beginning of the "Decameron." It
spread like fire among dry wood which lias been
Sprinkled with oil. At first swellings appeared the
size of an egg or an apple, then black and hard
Spots; on the third day came death. Kven ani-
mals caught the disease. Boccaccio saw two pigs
210 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
which had chewed the garment of a plague-stricken
man die in convulsions. Medicine was useless. Some
thought the wisest course was to live on the daintiest
food and drink, and never speak of the plague ;
others believed in carousing and jollity, and went
about from tavern to tavern seeking diversion, but
always keeping sober enough to avoid the sick. Pri-
vate houses were deserted and lay open to anybody.
Loyalty disappeared. All who could fled into the
country. Thousands fell sick daily. In place of de-
cent burial, dead bodies were tossed huggermugger
into trenches. Between March and July, Boccaccio
says, more than 100,000 people died within the walls
of Florence.
Florence was not singular. In Siena 80,000
people, three quarters of the population, died ; in
Genoa, 40,000 ; in Pisa, seven out of ten, and so
on in Venice, Rome, Naples, and Sicily. These fig-
ures seem incredible ; but Petrarch says : " Posterity
will not believe that there ever was a period in
which the world remained almost entirely depopu-
lated, houses empty of families, cities of inhabitants,
the country of peasants. How will the future be-
lieve it, when we ourselves can hardly credit our
eyes ? We go outdoors, walk through street after
street, and find them full of dead and dying ; when
we get home again we find no live thing within the
house, all having perished within the brief interval
of absence. Happy posterity, to whom such calami-
ties will seem imasrininers and dreams." Poor Pe-
trarch ! The lovely Laura, of whom he wrote so
many perfect sonnets, died of the Black Death in
ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 211
Avignon. Giovanni Villain, the historian, died in
Florence. This terrible calamity throws into high
relief the great classical impulse, to which the last
chapter was devoted. In earlier times men would
have turned to religion and the Church ; but now
Petrarch, a most devout Christian, and his disciples
continued to worship Cicero and the heroes of the
Augustan age, and to talk of Caesar and Pompey,
Scylla and Charybdis, as the most important and
interesting of thino-s.
Another great evil which rivalled the plague as
a curse, was the host of mercenary soldiers who
swarmed over Italy like locusts. In the days of
Barbarossa, battles like that of Legnano had been
fought between the train-bands of the communes
on one side and the feudal chivalry and men-at-
arms on the other. But since then a great change
had come over the methods of raising 1 soldiers. Un-
der the feudal system the term of service in the field
for the liegemen of the Emperor had been forty
days ; but that time was too short for an effective
campaign. When the Emperor wished to cross
tin Alps and go to Rome in order to receive the
Imperial crown, he was obliged to hire soldiers ;
and, as years went on and these Imperial descents
becalm- mere adventurous expeditions, the character
of tin- soldiers degenerated, until in Petrarch's time
the Imperial armies were made up of ruffians re-
cruited anywhere. There were also other reasons
Cor establishing mercenaries in place of militia. The
despots of Northern Italy did not wish their subjects
trained to arms. The burghers of mercantile cities did
212 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
not wish to leave their counting-rooms, nor to have
their employees mustered out, so they too preferred
hired soldiers to a native militia. Moreover, warfare
had changed ; cavalry needed frequent manoeuvres,
bowmen and pikemen required drill and continuous
discipline. Thus the old train-hand system of the
communes, under which the militia hurried to their
appointed posts on the ringing of the hells, gave way
to the system of mercenary troops led by soldiers
of fortune, condottieri, as the Italians call them.
These soldiers, who had come down from the
North to serve Emperors, or despots like the Vis-
conti, or perhaps had sailed from Spain to fight
under the House of Aragon in Sicily, as soon as the
immediate war was ended, having been left unpaid
or having taken a liking to a trade in which the
labor was congenial, the risk small and booty enor-
mous, decided not to disband, but to continue to try
their luck together. They sold their services to
whatever city or despot would pay them most, or
wandered about in a nomadic fashion, capturing a
city if they could, if not, living on the country-side.
One can imagine these rogues among unwarlike
peasants, or in a pleasant little city like Lucca or
Cremona. They were very fickle, fought one another
only upon compulsion, and then most reluctantly
and gently, and were very nearly as terrible to their
employers as to their adversaries. They were organ-
ized, sometimes very well, in bands under a general
or a council of officers, and had such names as The
Company of St. George, or The Great Company.
Some of their leaders became very famous, like
ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 213
Duke Werner, who proclaimed himself " Lord of
the Great Company, enemy to God, to Pity, and
to Mercy." The most interesting of these leaders,
at least for us, is John Hawkwood, an English ad-
venturer, who began life as a London tailor, but
dropped scissors and needle to enlist for Edward
Ill's French campaign, and then, seeing fortune
smile most sweetly from distraught Italy, crossed
the Alps and led his company all over the penin-
sula. There is a full length fresco of him on horse-
back in the Duomo at Florence, painted in gratitude
for his deeds in life or merely for his death.
For a hundred years and more these ruffians
swaggered about Italy. Petrarch finds in them one
cause the more to hold out his arms toward the
mighty past. He writes in a letter : " Oh, would
that you were alive, Brutus, Great-heart, that I
might turn to you. Manlius — Great Pompey
— Julius Caasar [etc., etc., etc.], Jesus, Lord
of the world, what has happened? Why do I
moan and groan for grief? Oh ! a vile handful of
robbers, spewed out of their nasty dens, walks and
rides over the ancient queen of the world, Italy.
( ' h rist Jesus, in tears and supplication I turn to Thee.
Oh, if we have abused Thy goodness more than was
right, it we have shown ourselves too proud in Thy
aid and favour, if we have borne ourselves ill to-
wards Thee, well mayst Thou not permit us to be
free; but let not this daughter, these sacrileges,
these robberies, these deeds of violence, these rav-
ishings of wives and maidens, find mercy in Thine
eyes. Put an end to this evil. To the wicked who
214 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
have said in their hearts 'There is no God/ show
that Thou art ; and to us however unworthy, show
that we are Thy children. Almighty Father,
help ns ; in Thee alone we put our hope, and in
supplication we invoke Thy name, weeping and con-
fessing that there is none who shall fight for us,
unless Thou, our Lord, be he."
This strange mixture of classic enthusiasm and
Christian piety, this odd idea that the triumphant
cause of the Roman Republic was due to the favour
of Christ, shows us that Petrarch had not yet got
wholly clear of medieval beliefs. But, as with Cola
di Rienzo, everything Petrarch says testifies to the
power of the Roman tradition.
A third evil, yet not to be compared with the
plague and the condottieri, was the tyranny of the
despots. The founders of despotisms were men of
vigour and political capacity, and gave to their sub-
jects in lieu of liberty greater security and order
than they had enjoyed before. Their descendants,
like proverbial heirs, finding hard work both dis-
tasteful and unnecessary, gave themselves up to dis-
sipation and cruelty ; they dropped their ancestors'
attitude of leading citizens and treated the prin-
cipalities as private property, intended for their
amusement. Tne Visconti, though they retained
their family ability and force of character longer
than most princely houses, shall serve to illustrate
the general dynastic development, more especially as
the history of Milan, which had become the chief
power in Italy, will be the best thread to carry us to
the end of the century.
ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 215
Towards the middle of the century Archbishop
Giovanni Visconti had become the lord of Milan
(1349-54). He was a clever, cultivated man, inter-
ested in letters. He employed scholars to prepare a
commentary on the "Divine Comedy," and by urgent
persuasion in'duced Petrarch to take up his abode at
Milan. On the archbishop's death his three nephews
succeeded jointly to the signory. As one of these
three nephews, Bernabo (1354-85), illustrates the
moral degeneracy of the tyrant we will glance at his
habits. Bernabo was addicted to the chase. Nobody
else was allowed to keep a dog, but he kept five thou-
sand. These he billeted on the citizens of Milan.
Every fortnight the masters of his kennels made
their rounds ; if the dogs were too thin, a fine was
imposed; if dead, a general confiscation. If a man
killed a wild boar or a hare, he was maimed or hanged,
or sometimes, in mercy, merely obliged to eat the
quarry raw. Bernabo was afraid of conspiracies and
rebellion. No man might go out into the street after
dark for any cause whatever, under pain of having
a foot cut off. No man might utter the words " Guelf "
or " Ghibelline," under penalty of having his tongue
cut out. Once Bernabo shut up his two secretaries
in a case with a wild boar. On another occasion a
young man who had polled a policeman's beard was
condemned to pay a small fine, but Bernabo ordered
hifl right hand cut oil'. The jfOffrxff) delayed execu-
tion of the sentence, so that the lad's parents might
have time to ask mercy. For this Bernabo caused the
lad's two bands to be cui off and also the podestd's
right hand. A sexton who demanded too much for
21G A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
differing a grave was buried alive side bv side with
the dead body. Two monks who came to remon-
strate with Bernabd for his cruelty were burnt alive.
Nevertheless, Bernabd protested himself devout ; he
fasted, built churches and monasteries. This amiable
man had thirty-two children. His brother, joint heir
of the principality, Galeazzo II, was of the same stuff,
except that in place of piety he substituted an inter-
est in letters; he founded the University of Pavia, and
exchanged figs, flowers, and flattery with Petrarch.
Galeazzo's son, Gian Galeazzo (1378-1402), rose still
higher in the world ; he gave 300,000 sequins to the
King of France, and in return received the king's
daughter in marriage. For a second wife he married
his cousin, daughter of his amiable uncle Bernabo,
who thought that this marriage would bind his
nephew to him by bonds of filial affection. Gian
Galeazzo however, by means of a trick, got his father-
in-law within his reach, arrested him, accused him of
witchcraft, put him in prison and poisoned him, and
so became sole lord of Milan. This worthy lord
converted his principality into a dukedom and be-
came duke (1395) ; but as we have followed the fam-
ily to the end of the century, and long enough to
make ourselves acquainted with the habits of tyrants,
we must leave them.
Poor Italy suffering from these three evils, plagues,
condottieri, and tyrants, naturally sought for a cure,
and, with what seems to us a singular lack of imagi-
nation, turned to the old remedies, Emperor and Pope.
From time to time Emperors came into Italy, but the
Hapsburgs were very different from the Hohenstau-
ILLS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 217
fens, and their trips to Rome were mere money-get-
ting excursions. They sold privileges and honours,
imposed what taxes they coidd collect, and sneaked
back to Germany. Obviously there was no hope from
Emperors. Then rose the cry for the return of the Pa-
pacy. Every Italian, however he might hate or de-
spise the Popes, felt proud that the Papacy was an
Italian institution, and believed that every Pope,
good or bad, should live in Rome and sit on his throne
at St. Peter's. Sentiment grew strong, especially
among the women ; Petrarch thundered, St. Cathe-
rine of Siena pleaded. Moreover, the sharper argu-
ment was urged with great practical effect, that the
Papal State might shake off the papal dominion if
the Pontiffs did not look after it themselves. The
Popes began to stir uneasily. The cardinals indeed,
accustomed to the safe city of Avignon, did not care
to go to turbulent Rome, or perhaps, as Petrarch
said, they could not bear to leave their Burgundian
wines. But finally Gregory XI (1370-78) raised
his courage to the sticking point. He returned to
Rome in 1377, and the Babylonish Captivity of
seventy years ended.
CHAPTER XXIII
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (1350-1450)
The return of the Papacy to Rome was an event of
importance both for Italy and the Catholic Church.
Had it remained in France, it must have dwindled
and shrunk, like Antaeus, kept away from its source
of strength. Nevertheless, the Papacy was no longer
what it once had been ; it cannot serve us now as a
central channel for the course of Italian history, and
will rank no higher than the first of half-a-dozen
little channels, which we must pursue separately.
The returning Pope found his territory in greater
obedience than he deserved ; for a brilliant Spanish
cardinal, Albornoz who had been sent some time
before had reduced almost all the cities to subjection
(1353-67) ; even Bologna, successfully disputed
with the Visconti, acknowledged papal dominion.
But there was neither peace nor tranquillity. Every-
where turbulence and murmurous threatenings rum-
bled ; and worse was to come. The very year after
the return from the Babylonish Captivity the Great
Schism rent the Church asunder for forty years.
There were two parties in the College of Cardinals,
the French and the Italian, with little love lost be-
tween them. The Italians were in control and elected
Urban VI (1378-89), a domineering, cruel, most
unpastoral person, who insulted the foreign cardi-
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 219
nals, and so angered them that they left Rome,
declared his election illegal, and elected one of
themselves as Pope in his stead. This anti-pope,
attended by his troop of cardinals, returned to
Avignon. Christian Europe divided in two : some
countries recognized Urban, others recognized the
anti-pope. Thus the schism began, and prepared
the way for the next great split of Christian Europe
into Catholics and Protestants. There were now
two sources of apostolic succession, two supreme
rulers, and two systems of taxation. Misbehaviour
and confusion at the top lowered the moral tone of
the whole Church. The Curia in Rome was scan-
dalously venal. Indulgences were sold : offices were
bestowed for money. Nobody in Rome respected
the Pope, hardly anybody respected the clergy.
All Christendom felt that reformation was ne-
cessary, and that, first of all, the schism must be
closed. Thereupon some outward deference was
paid to public opinion ; the Roman Pope went so
far as to make ostensible overtures to his rival at
Avignon, and he of Avignon bowed and smiled
most politely in return. Friendly greetings went to
and fro, and a meeting was talked of. It became
obvious, however, after a time, thai neither Pope
had the slightest intention of abdicating in the
other's favour. Christendom remained insistent, and
the two batches of cardinals took the matter into
their own hands. They held b Council at Pisa,
which deposed both Popes, and elected a third
i 1 109), but, as the other two Popes refused to ac-
knowledge their deposition, matters were worse than
220 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
before. The situation recalled the old days when
a German Emperor had come down to Rome and
had deposed three rival Popes together. The need
seemed to revive the past. The Emperor Sigismund
(1410-37) assumed to speak as the head of Chris-
tendom. He summoned an Ecumenical Council to
meet at the city of Constance, on the Lake of Con-
stance, to judge the schismatic quarrel and to consider
the general state of the Church. Other troubles
besides schism had begun to appear. The failure
of Rome to satisfy the conscience of Europe had
borne fruit. Heresy had appeared. In England,
Wyclif (1327-84) had denounced the higher clergy
for greed and arrogance; he had disavowed alle-
giance to the divided Papacy, and had opposed the
doctrine of transubstantiation. In Bohemia, Jerome
of Prague rejected the temporal jurisdiction of
priests, and John Huss asserted that Constantine
had done great wrong when he endowed Pope Sil-
vester with lands and temporal power.
Christendom responded to the Emperor's call.
Prelates and scholars of the highest character and
standing assembled at Constance (1414). It was a
great occasion, and belongs to the history of Eu-
rope. This Council, the seventeenth Ecumenical
Council of the Christian Church (1414-18), deposed
all three Popes, and elected a Roman, of the House
of Colonna, Martin V (1417-31), and so closed the
schism and restored unity to the Church. The more
difficult matter of crushing heresy was not so readily
dealt with. The two reformers, Jerome of Prague
and John Huss, refused to recant or modify their
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 221
views. They were condemned and handed over to
the secular arm for punishment ; and the Emperor,
heedless of the safe-con duct he had given, burnt
them at the stake (1415-16).
To follow the proceedings of this interesting
Council more fully would take us too far into papal
affairs. It must suffice to say that the Reformation
can be sniffed in the air. Rome had not done its
elementary duties as head of Christendom, and
Christendom insisted on a change and on reform ;
but Rome was powerful and would not submit.
Two parties appear, the reformers and the papists.
The former wished to purify the Roman Curia and
the whole Church, and to give the Papacy a repub-
lican character, — to make the Pope a president,
as it were, and the College of Cardinals a senate.
The latter liked the old easy ways and wished the
Pope to be absolute monarch. The papal party by
dexterous politics foiled the plans of the reformers
and prevented change of any kind, although no doubt
it acted less from desire to obstruct reform than to
prevent the anti-monarchical party from getting
control of the Church and using the prestige of re-
form to attack the papal autocracy. From this time
on the papal party consistently pursued this course,
ami therefore reformation came not from Koine, but
from (Jermanv, and instead of being a reform from
within, came practically as an attack from without.
and caused fche permanent schism of the Reforma-
tion. We must now leave the 1'apacv, which follows
it- wilful COUrSI via Pabylonish Ahsenteeism,
Schism, and refusal to reform and steers directly
222 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
towards the rocks of the Reformation, and betake
ourselves to the other parts of Italy.
The Kingdom of Naples would have been badly
off at best under its light-mannered queen, Joan I
(13-43-81), but it became involved in the papal
schism, and got into a wretched plight. The queen
rashly took sides with the Avignon Pope, and the
irascible Roman Pope vowed vengeance. He set
her cousin, Charles, who belonged to the Durazzo
branch of the House of Anjou, on the throne in her
stead. The story is a miserable mixture of treasons,
battles, and vulgar crimes. Charles got possession
of the unfortunate queen and strangled her, and he
and his heirs fought her adopted heirs for years.
Each side hired mercenaries. John Hawkwood
was there, and other notable leaders. Poor Naples,
taxed, robbed, and ravaged by rival kings, their
favourites, and mistresses, rolled rapidly from bad
to worse. Exception must be made in favour of
Charles's son Ladislaus (1390-1414), a bold, enter-
prising soldier, who played a part in the affairs of
Italy like that of his ancestor, Charles of Anjou.
But he failed in not leaving a son to inherit the
crown, and was succeeded by his sister, another
Queen Joan (1414-35), likewise light-mannered.
There is nothing memorable to grace her career,
except the presence of a soldier of fortune, once a
Romagnol peasant, Muzio Attendolo, better known
as Attendolo Sforza (strength). His son was Fran-
cesco Sforza, destined to a brilliant career in Milan.
The queen did one thing, however, for which we,
who clutch at any unification of Italian history, must
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 223
thank her. She adopted, not wholly of her free will,
Alfonso of Aragon, King- of Sicily, and so brought
about, though for a few years only, the reunion of
the Two Sicilies.
With regard to Sicily we need say nothing except
that the royal House, which still had a strain of
Hohenstaufen-Norman blood, died out, and that
Sicily passed as a marriage portion to the crown
of Aragon, and became a mere appanage of that
kingdom (1409). Finally, as I have said, King Al-
fonso was adopted as heir to the second Queen Joan,
and took part in the civil wars that devastated
Naples. Then began the long struggle of Spaniard
against Frenchman (the Neapolitan House of Anjou
was still French), which was destined to be so disas-
trous to Italy. Alfonso conquered and was acknow-
ledged King of the Two Sicilies by his suzerain the
Pope (1443). Thus for a time the Southern Kingdom
was united and at peace. It is a happy moment to
leave it and go northward, in the hope of finding
greater moral and intellectual activity, if not greater
tranquillity and order.
To the northeast, Venice had been growing in
power; but with the growth of her power the
Dumber of her enemies and their bitterness towards
her had grown. Her possessions on the mainland,
wrested Erom Verona, broughl her into hostility
with Padua; her Adriatic possessions, [stria and
Dalmatia, made her an enemy of Hungary; her
coastwise empire and trade in the Levant made
Genoa her deadly rival; and her imperial expansion
entangled her in war after war. Both the war with
224 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Padua and that with Hungary told upon her, but
the struggle with Genoa was far worse. During the
last grapple, known as the war of Chioggia (1378-
81), Venice was reduced to narrow straits, and but
for her great admirals, Vettor Pisani and Carlo
Zeno, would have been defeated. Genoa never re-
covered from the losses she sustained ; but Venice
regained her strength, and renewed her conquests
on the mainland. She conquered Padua (1404) and
strangled the last heirs of the House of Carrara,
though they were prisoners of war ; she seized
Verona, and set a price on the heads of the last of
the Scaligers, though they had been her allies. Her
chief expansion on the mainland of Italy was under
the Doge Francesco Foscari (1423-57), when she
annexed Bergamo and Brescia, and carried her
western boundary to the river Adda. For the sake
of convenience we may divide the life of Venice
into four stages : first, her lusty youth, which closed
with the profligate capture of Constantinople and the
piratical dismemberment of the Byzantine Empire
(1204) ; second, her vigorous prime, which lasted till
she annexed Italian territory, threw in her lot with
Italy, and from being almost an Oriental outsider
became an Italian state (1338) ; third, her glorious
maturity, which continued till the League of Cambrai,
when almost all Europe united to destroy her (1508) ;
and fourth, her long period of ebbing fortune, dur-
ing which she slipped slowly into decrepitude. In
the present chapter we deal with the earlier part
of her maturity, when Venice was contesting with
Milan for primacy in power and importance.
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 225
During all this period the oligarchy had been
tightening its hold on the government, and was
now absolute and secure. One last attempt had
been made to overthrow it, but had easily been put
down. No one knows exactly what led to the con-
spiracy, or what was the exact purpose of the conspir-
ators. The ringleader was the Doge himself, Marino
Faliero, one of the old nobility. The story is that
he wished to revenue himself for a jn-oss insult from
a young nobleman, and it seems likely that a per-
sonal quarrel had some connection with a general
plot which aimed to overthrow the oligarchy, and
substitute a government of the old nobility sup-
ported by the people. The plot was betrayed. Nine
of the conspirators were hanged from the windows
of the Ducal Palace. Faliero's head was cut off, his
portrait in the hall of the Ducal Palace was painted
out, and in the blank space was written : " This is
the place of Marino Faliero, beheaded for his
crimes."
The oligarchy did not fail in its duty to itself,
but neither did it fail in its duty to the state. Com-
merce was the life of Venice ; and the oligarchy
tended it with the utmost care. The famous Vene-
tian arsenal was the foster-mother of thai commerce.
There the money-getting ship^ were built and
equipped: caracks with three decks and great depth
of hold, galleasses with high forecastle and poop,
galleys with long rows of oars and lateen sails, all
of different builds to suit tin; rough Atlantic Ocean,
the .Mediterranean Sea. or the safe]- Adriatic.
Kiche>, a firm rule, and the security of an island
226 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
home, showed visibly in Venice. Instead of for-
tresses with massive walls and solid towers, light,
elegant palaces, decked with gay balconies and in-
crusting marbles, lined the canals. All revealed tran-
quillity and prosperity ; and the adoption of Gothic
architecture in place of Byzantine, and in especial
the long- Gothic arcades of the Ducal Palace (1300-
40), testified how Venice had turned her face from
the East to the West. In contrast with Sicily and
Naples, rolling down hill separately or together, and
with the troubled Papal States, Venice appears alto-
gether happy and successful as she passes from the
fourteenth into the fifteenth century.
Milan we have brought to the dignity of a duke-
dom, for which Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402),
the amiable nephew of the too-confiding Bernabo,
paid the price of 100,000 sequins to the fount of
honour, the ultramontane Emperor. This nephew,
despite a moral inadequacy in his family relations, was
in many respects an excellent ruler. He reduced the
more burdensome taxes (in one city, it is said, he
cut them down from 12,000 florins to 400), and abol-
ished others altogether. He corrected abuses, reor-
ganized the administration of justice, and enacted
wise laws. He understood the pride of the Milanese
in their city, and laid the foundations of the great
Gothic cathedral on a scale to gratify that pride ; he
began the beautiful church of the Cistercian monks,
the Certosa, at Pavia ; he completed the palace at
Pa via, whither he transported his famous collection of
books and an equally famous collection of holy bones.
He had the family ambition, and annexed Vicenza,
A BIKD'S-EYE VIEW 227
Verona, Padua. Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Pisa, and
Bologna. Rumour said that he aspired to a kingdom
of Lombard v. and even of all Italy. But Venice and
Florence were too powerful for the success of his
plans. Venice, perhaps, might have regarded her-
self as still too much detached from Italy to care to
oppose him single-handed ; but the doughty burghers
of Florence were zealously democratic and would not
endure any suggestion of foreign dominion. They
had fought the Pope, when they suspected him of
designs on their city, and now they organized a
league against Gian Galeazzo. Perhaps it would
have been a most fortunate thing for Italy if the
Duke of Milan had been able to consolidate all Italy,
or even all the North, in one kingdom. Centuries
of suffering, of ignominy, of foreign domination
might have been avoided ; but then, perhaps, the
great intellectual harvest, that gave Italy for the third
time primacy over Europe, would not have attained its
full growth. These are idle speculations, for Gian
Galeazzo died in his prime (1402), and the univer-
sal dominion of Milan became an academic ques-
tion. Nevertheless, one cannot withhold a sensation
of regret. There was undoubted brilliance in Gian
Galeazzo; whatever lie did was done royally. His
ambitions were high, planned always on a large
scale. Bis purchases of the French king's daughter
and of the ducal in!.- were Bplendidly prodigal. The
design of tie- cathedral was ooble and bold. It
an endeavour to give the Gothic Btyle an Italian
character. In tlii- it Is easj to find symbolism. The
Gothic Btyle represented the < i 1 1 i I » * • 1 1 i 1 1 * - cause, as
228 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
well as Teutonic blood and influence, whereas the
Italian represented the Guelf cause and also Latin
blood. The high-aspiriog Gian Galeazzo wished to
use both Teutonic and Italian elements as the ma-
terials for his kingdom. In view of his intellec-
tual gifts, one readily slurs over his moral inade-
quacy, if that term may be applied to traits which
would have done honour to Iago ; in fact, prior to
Caesar Borgia, he was the most distinguished example
of the type of intellectual, murderous Italian, which
exercised so powerful an attraction over the wild
fancy of the Elizabethan dramatists.
Gian Galeazzo's death left his dukedom in a cha-
otic condition. A widow, a regent committee, and
three boys were left to see the state, built up with
so much care and astuteness, fall away piecemeal
into the hands of the petty despots, who had been
dispossessed during the process of integration. Ven-
ice took Verona, Padua, and other cities near by ;
the Papacy got back Bologna, Florence managed
to secure Pisa. Thus the dukedom was carved up.
The eldest son died soon, leaving behind him a mem-
ory of the pleasure he took in watching mastiffs tear
his prisoners to pieces ; but the second son, Filippo
Maria (1412-47), inherited his father's craft and
much of his ability. By means of two famous con-
dot fieri, Carmagnola, best remembered as the victim
of Venetian anger, and Francesco Sforza, of whom
we have heard in the Neapolitan service, he grad-
ually restored the dukedom very nearly to its bound-
aries under his father. Filippo Maria was the last
of his race, and we will leave him, engaged in
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 229
speculation as to the best political use of his mar-
riageable daughter Bianca Maria.
We must pass over the Counts of Savoy, now
become dukes ( 1-11(5 1, the marquesses of Monferrat
and Saluzzo, and the lords of other petty territories,
and turn our attention to Florence. Florence was
always in a state of struggle, always engaged in
exiling, deposing, or in some way suppressing aris-
tocrats. Forced, in days of peril, to receive foreign
lords as military leaders, she had managed to expel
the last of them, one Walter of Brienne, a clever
knave, who bore the odd title of Duke of Athens,
which he had inherited from his grandfather, one
of the gentlemen adventurers who had gone to the
East. His father had been expelled from Athens,
and the son was happily driven out of Florence.
The burghers followed up their victory (1343)
with new laws against the aristocrats, and held the
government for a generation. Then first appears
the name of Medici. One Salvestro dei Medici, as
Gonfalonu re of Justice, the supreme officer in Flor-
ence under the existing constitution, proposed fur-
ther laws in favour of the people. The lower classes,
with whetted appetites, wanted more. The mechanics
and artisans of the lower guilds, and more particu-
larly the wool carders and combers (the Oiompi) of
the great wool guilds, r08€ in riot, overturned the
government, andputa wool-^carder, Micheledi Lando,
at the head of the city ( L378). Florence was demo-
cratic, hut not BO democratic as to submit to the rule
of a wool-carder. The rich burghers would not stom-
ach a plebeian any more than thev would a king
230 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
A reaction set in, and the government passed into
the \t i\ competent hands of an oligarchy of distin-
guished citizens. This oligarchy governed well. Its
Leaders, Maso degli Albizzi, and Niccolo da Uzzano,
acted patriotically and wisely. They resisted the
aggressions of Milan from the north, and of Naples
( under that exceptional king Ladislaus) from the
south, and made it their policy to maintain the bal-
ance of power in Italy. Under this oligarchy began
the great development of art, known as the Renais-
sance, or, to be more exact in quoting the textbooks,
the First or Early Renaissance. To that subject,
which shall give us for a time at least a centre, and
save us from these puzzling political subdivisions,
we joyfully proceed ; only remembering that at this
period Italy has these main political divisions, —
the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples (the
two temporarily reunited), the Papal States, the city
of Florence, the duchy of Milan, and the city of
Venice.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (1400-1450)
By Renaissance, new birth, we mean the rapid,
many-sided, intellectual development which started
forward in Italy at this time. It was really a stage in
the movement which began a hundred years earlier,
but the textbooks confine the term Renaissance to
the period which began at the opening of the fif-
teenth century ; and just as the first beginning
took place in Florence, so this fresh start, like a
stream of energy issuing at a divine touch, also
burst out of the city of Florence. The simplest way
to get an idea of this period, known as the Early
Renaissance, will be to notice a few of the men, lead-
ers in their several spheres, in whom that energy
became incarnate.
We must not let ourselves think that the Renais-
sance was a merely artistic movement. A few men
are known to us. and we think of them as wandering
about in artistic isolation, as if they were hermits iu
a Thebaid. But, in reality, only a Blight traction of
even the deeper feelings and interests take artistic
or literary form ; the great majority are put into life.
The celebrated Florentine artists of tints.- days were
merely representative of their fellows; they wen- sur-
rounded by crowde of neighbours, all crammed full
with ardour for living, for expression, for discussion,
232 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
for money-making, for glorifying their city. In re-
cognition of this fact, and of the great service ren-
dered to the arts throughout the Renaissance by
men who were not artists, but potent signors of
wealth and cultivation, whether merchants, dukes,
or cardinals, I take Cosimo dei Medici (1389-1464)
as the first figure in this brief account of the Early
Renaissance.
Cosimo's father, the richest banker in Italy, and
one of the chief citizens of Florence, had been
active in politics, and chief of the party which was
opposed to the ruling oligarchy. Cosimo succeeded
to his father's position, and when the oligarchy fell
became the actual head of the city, though he always
affected the role of private citizen. His quick in-
telligence and his broad cultivation gave him keen
sympathy with the fermenting intellectual life about
him, and his great wealth enabled him to express that
sympathy in most substantial ways. He got his first
schooling from a Florentine humanist, and then went
abroad, travelled in Germany and France, and visited
the Council of Constance then in session. After that
his attention was devoted to business and to political
affairs. His position in Florence during early man-
hood was always precarious, for the sharp-witted
Florentines were not easily hoodwinked and saw
whither Cosimo's masterfulness was tending. For
a time he was in exile, but after a tussle he won his
place and banished his enemies. Wealth w r as his great
instrument. He lent and gave lavishly. In later life
he used to say that his chief error had been that he
had not begun to spend money ten years sooner
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 233
than he did. He was a serious man, given to intel-
lectual matters, and averse to buffoons and strolling
players, so popular then ; by virtue of wide expe-
rience in the conduct of large affairs, of extensive
reading, of a retentive memory, and a natural gift
for lan&ruase, he was both an interesting talker and
good company. He talked literature with men of
letters, but he was equally ready to talk divinity, in
which he was well read, or philosophy, or astrology
in which he believed although some men did not.
He liked gardening, and enjoyed going out of town
to his country-place ; there he would prune the vines
for two hours in the morning, and then go indoors
to read. His connection with the arts of the Renais-
sance, however, is our chief concern. He employed
the famous architect Michelozzo to build his palace,
now known as Palazzo Riccardi, his villa, and also the
Dominican convent of San Marco. He employed the
still more famous Brunelleschi to rebuild the abbey
of Fiesole. He was fond of sculptors, especially of
Donatello, and had statues by the best masters of the
day in his palace. He employed Fra Angelico to
paint in the convent of San Marco, and Benozzo
Grozzoli in his private chapel. Benozzo painted a
procession of the Three Wise Men, with Cosimo, his
BOD, and his grandson, young Lorenzo the Magnifi-
cent, riding in their train. Cosimo's greatest interest,
however, was in the humanities. Be built several
buildings for libraries in Florence, and one in Venice,
and interested himself greatly in the preservation
and increase of the libraries themselves. For the
library in the abbey at Fiesole he employed a man
234 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
of letters (Vespasiano da Bisticci, his biographer),
who hired forty-five copyists, and in twenty-two
months finished the two hundred volumes deemed
necessary for a good library. His list included the
Bible and concordances and commentaries, beginning
with that by Origen ; the works of St. Ignatius, St.
Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom,
and all the works of the Greek fathers which had
been translated into Latin ; St. Cyprian, Tertullian,
and the four doctors of the Latin Church ; the
mediaeval masters St. Bernard, Hugo of St. Victor,
St. Anselm, St. Isidore of Spain ; the scholastic
philosophers, Albertus Magnus, Alexander of Hales,
Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura; Aristotle, and com-
mentaries ; books of canon law ; the Latin prose
classics, Livy, Caesar, Suetonius, Plutarch, Sallust,
Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, Cicero, Seneca;
the Latin poets, Virgil, Terence, Ovid, Lucan, Sta-
tius, Plautus ; and " all the other books necessary
to a library." One wonders if this clause includes
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, or whether the hu-
manists did not regard them as necessary or appro-
priate to culture.
Taken altogether Cosimo may stand as an heroic
model of the Florentine burgher, such as one sees in
the frescoes of the time, shrewd, prudent, thought-
ful, cautious in plan and prompt in action, interested
in the best things of this world, and in a measure
generous, but wholly without romance, chivalry, or
idealism. At the close of his life he used to stay
hours at a time, wrapt in thought, without speak-
ing a word. One of the women of the house asked
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 235
him the reason of this. He answered : " When you
have to go out of town, you spend a fortnight all
agog to prepare for going ; and now that I have to
go from this life to another, does n't it seem to you
that I have something to think about ? " The last
book he is reported by his biographer to have read
was the " Ethics " of Aristotle.
Cosimo was named Pater Patrice, though his real
work was the foundation of the House of the Me-
dici, which ruled in Tuscany for centuries and min-
gled its blood with the royalties of Europe ; but for
us he is the patron of the arts, the friend of artists,
and serves as the central figure round which to
group the men of artistic genius.
In architecture the greatest name is that of Bru-
nelleschi (1377-1-446). His biography by Vasari
opens with these words : " Many men are created by
nature little in person and features, who have their
souls so full of greatness and their hearts so full
of the inordinate fury of genius, that, unless they
are at work on things difficult to impossibility,
and unless they finish them to the astonishment of
the spectator, they never give themselves any rest
all tlnir lives; and whatever things chance puts into
their hands, HO matter how mean and cheap, they
bring to worth and dignify. . . . Such was Brunel-
leschi, no less insignificant in person than Giotto,
but of so lofty genius, thai it may be Baid he was
endowed by beaven to give new form to architec-
ture, which for hundreds of years bad gone astray
[such was the Renaissance rie* of the Gothic and
Romanesque]. Moreover, Brunelleschj was adorned
•S.w> A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
with the greatest virtues ; among 1 which was friend-
ship to such a degree, that there never was a man
more kind or more loving than he. His judgment
was wholly free from passion ; wherever he saw the
worth of another man's merits, he totally disre-
garded any advantage to himself or to his friends.
He knew himself ; he inspired others with his own
noble qualities, and he always succoured his neigh-
bour in time of need. He declared himself a deadly
enemy of the vices, and a lover of those who prac-
tised virtue. He never wasted time, for he was
always busy with his own affairs or with the affairs
of others when they had need of him, and when out
walking he used to stop and see his friends and
always lent them a hand." Brunelleschi was no
scholar, but, being a Florentine, he was very fond
of talking, and did not hesitate to take part in con-
versation with learned men, especially when the talk
ran on Holy Writ, and then, as a friend said, he
talked like a second St. Paul.
He began life, as most architects did, as a mem-
ber of the guild of goldsmiths, and learned to model,
but he had a bent towards physics and mechanics,
and developed naturally into an architect. A great
event in his life was a trip to Rome with Donatello ;
there the two examined all the classical remains in
the city and in the country round about, taking
measurements and learning all they could.
In Florence besides the abbey of Fiesole, built for
Cosimo, Brunelleschi built the church of San Lo-
renzo for Cosimo's father, and he designed and be-
gan the lordly Pitti palace across the Arno, but his
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 237
great achievement was the dome of the cathedral.
The cathedral, first begun by Arnolfo di Cambio,
had been in charge of a succession of famous archi-
tects, and was nearing completion; but the gap at
the intersection of the nave and transepts presented
a most difficult architectural problem. The diametei
of this gap was about one hundred and thirty-five
feet, and the height above the ground was a I tout
one hundred and forty-five feet. No such span had
been vaulted since the building of the Pantheon.
A public competition for a dome was held in which
Brunelleschi took part. After long discussion, for
Florence was " a city where every one speaks his
mind,'' and after much consideration, Brunelleschi
was chosen architect. His great dome, though no
copy of Roman forms, was thoroughly classic in its
simplicity and its spirit, and is the great achieve-
ment of the Early Renaissance in architecture.
Brunelleschi and his fellow architects, no doubt,
wished to revive the old Roman art, and did so as
far as they could, but their problems were new and
their models few, so they were forced, in the main,
to follow their own principles of construction and
limit their use of Roman tonus to ornament and
detail. Other famous men seconded Brunelleschi j
and Florentine, or at Least Tuscan, architects Bpread
the ideas of the new art. To them is really due the
foundation of the various schools of Renaissance
architecture which Bprang up in .Milan. Venice, Pa-
via. Bologna, Rimini, Brescia, Siena. Lucca. Peru-
gia, and in almost even <it\ of Northern Italy.
In sculpture, the puissanl Donatello (1386-1466)
238 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
is the greatest figure. It has been said, that Michel-
angelo's soul first worked in Donatello's body or
that Donatello's soul lived again in Michelangelo.
Donatello was a realist ; he shows classic influence
at times, in technique and in sundry bits of detail,
but his instinct was to imitate what he could see and
touch. His vigour, his energy and variety produced
a profound effect on sculpture and also on painting.
His earlier works were statues for the outside of the
Campanile and of the church of Orsanmichele, of
which the most famous are that known as Zuccone,
Baldhead, and the splendid St. George. After-
wards he modelled a young David, the first nude
bronze since the Romans, and the statue of Gatta-
melata at Padua, the first equestrian statue since
that of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The spectator
who examines the collection of Donatello's works
in the Bargello is chiefly struck by his intellectual
power, and by the immense variety of his style,
from the simple outline of the lovely St. Cecilia in
low relief, to the passionate dramas carved in altars
and pulpits.
Donatello was a great friend of Brunelleschi, and
Vasari tells this anecdote about them. Donatello
modelled a Crucifix for Santa Croce, and thinking
he had done something unusually good, asked Bru-
nelleschi what he thought of it. Brunelleschi, with
his unswerving artistic rectitude, answered that Dona-
tello had put a peasant on the cross, and not Jesus
Christ. Donatello, piqued more than he had antici-
pated, said : " If it were as easy to model as it is to
criticise, my Christ would seem to you a Christ and
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 239
not a peasant ; but let 's see you take a piece of
wood and go and make one." Brunelleschi did so
secretly, and when he had at last finished his Cruci-
fix, asked Donatello to come home and dine with
him. Tlu-y walked to Brunelleschi's house tog-ether.
stopping at the market to buy eggs, cheese, and
other things for the dinner. Then Brunelleschi
said, " Donatello, you take these things and go to
my lion.se, and I will come after in a minute or two."
So Donatello caught them up in his apron, went
to Brunelleschi's, opened the door, and saw the
Crucifix. He was so dumbfounded that he dropped
the dinner on the floor, and when Brunelleschi,
coming in, said, " Why, Donatello, what shall we
have for dinner?" Donatello answered, "For my
part I have had my share to-day. If you want
yours, pick it up. No more of that. It is my lot to
model peasants, and yours to model Christs."
Donatello was also a great friend of Cosimo's,
inn. Idled many thin-- for him, and inspired Cosimo
with a taste tor collecting antiques. He loved Co-
simo BO much that lie did whatever he wanted, except
when it interfered with his personal idiosyncrasies.
One day Cosimo gave Donatello. who used to go
about in his workman's blouse, a cloak and a line suit
of clothes, the Costume of a gentleman. Donatello
wore them for a day or two. and then said he could
not wear them, they Were too fashiona hie. lie was
buried, al hi- own request, near ( losimo, in the church
of San Lorenzo, which Brunelleschi had designed,
and he had adorned with his sculpture.
Donatello worked in Venice, Mantua, Moden.i.
240 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Fcnaia, ami Prato, spent several years in Siena, and
nine in Padua, and introduced the Renaissance into
the sculpture of Northern Italy. He was a man of
strong character and poetic spirit, striving in his
statues to be true to nature and to the beautiful, to
mingle pagan and Christian notions, tradition, and
freedom. He and his pupils affected the whole
plastic art of Italy.
In painting, Masaccio (1401-28) stands con-
spicuous, even among many painters of rare gifts.
Modern critics call him Giotto reincarnate. Masaccio
is an unflattering nickname for Tommaso, and re-
calls the only personal trait we know of him. Vasari
says : " He was a most absent-minded person and
very casual, like a man who has fixed his will and his
whole mind on art only, and cares little about him-
self and less about others. He never wanted to
think in any way about the things or the cares of
this world, even of his own clothes, and he never
went to get the money due him from his debtors
except when he was in extreme need. Instead of
Thomas, everybody called him Masaccio ; not be-
cause he was bad, being good nature itself, but
because of his great absent-mindedness. Neverthe-
less, he was as affectionate in doing useful and
amiable acts for other people as could possibly be
wished." This " marvellous boy " died at the age
of twenty-seven, but left an ineffaceable mark on
Italian painting. Across the Arno, in the ugly
church of Santa Maria del Carmine, is a chapel
on the right, in which, mingled with the work of
contemporaries and continuers, are Masaccio's fres-
THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 241
coes, figures of St. Peter and St. John, of a shiv-
ering boy, and a few others. Leonardo da Vinci
said : " After Giotto, the art of painting declined
again, because every one imitated the pictures that
were already done ; thus it went on till Tommaso of
Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his per-
fect works how those who take for their standard
any one but Nature — the mistress of all masters —
weary themselves in vain." 1 In that little chapel,
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and scores of the
greatest painters of Italy have admired, studied, and
copied.
Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio are but the
greater names in the fine arts. Well might Leon
Battista Alberti, himself a great architect and hu-
manist, on return from exile to his native city, say
to Brunelleschi : " I have been accustomed both to
wonder and to grieve that so many divine arts and
sciences which we see to have abounded in those
most highly endowed ancients were now Lacking and
utterly lost . r . but since I have been restored to
this our native land that surpasseth all others in her
adornment, I have recognized in many bul chiefly
in thee. I'lnlip [Brunelleschi], and in our near friend
Donato [ I kmatello] the Bcnlptor, ami in those others,
Nencio [Ghiberti], and Luca [della Robbia], and
Ida iccio, genius capable for ever} praiseworthy
work, not inferior to that of anyancienl and famous
master in the arl
1 Leonardo da Vinci, EUohter.
* Church Building t .' He Ayes, V. I. Norton, p. 280.
CHAPTER XXV
THE RENAISSANCE (1450-1492)
The last chapter confined itself to the fine arts and
omitted the main element, humanism, which gave
volume and impetus to the stream, and, though not
memorable for conspicuous achievements as the fine
arts were, flowed more directly from the classic im-
pulse and produced the greatest immediate effect.
The humanists played a part analogous to that
which men of science play in our own time ; they de-
voted themselves heart and soul to the classics, as
men of science do to Nature. For some time they
had had access to the Latin past through Italy, and
now they also found their way to the far greater
classic world of Greece. The one uninterrupted com-
munication with that world was through Constanti-
nople, which, like a long, ill-lighted and ill-repaired
corridor, led back to the great pleasure domes of
Plato and Homer, and all the wonderland of Greek
literature and thought. Aristotle, indeed, had come
by way of the Arabs, and had long been a lay Bible,
but for the other Greek classics the rising humanism
of Italy was indebted to Constantinople. The glow-
ing young city of Florence lit its torch at the ex-
piring embers of the imperial city. A few Italians
went to Constantinople and learned Greek, then
stray Byzantines came to Italy. The doom which
THE RENAISSANCE 24:>,
hung over Constantinople frightened scholars and
drove them westward, and the fall itself (1453) dis-
persed the last of them. These Greeks brought in-
valuable manuscripts and firmly established Hellenic
culture in the kindred soil of Tuscany. In the list
of books in Cosimo's library, there was no mention
of any Greek classic except Aristotle; but after the
immigration of Greek scholars all intellectual Flor-
ence went mad over Plato, and Cosimo founded a
Platonic Academy. The study of Greek brought
with it examination, comparison, criticism ; it brought
new knowledge ; it gave new ideas to all the arts, new
impulses to the creative imagination, and general
intellectual freedom. Interest in the humanities be-
came so widespread throughout the peninsula that
we get a feeling of Italian unity stronger than any
we have experienced since the days of Theodoric.
The importance of the humanists, however, was
merely as an intellectual leaven. They need not be
spoken of apart from the general intellectual move-
ment which expressed itself so much more fully and
freely in art than in any other way. That movement
kindled enthusiasm from Lombardy to Calabria; and
Florence still maintained her primacy. All the other
cities of Italy lagged far behind her. We must there-
fore keep Florence as our paradigm, only remember-
ing that at her heels a score of cities toil and pant in
artistic eagerness to make themselves as beautiful
and famous as Florence.
There Cosimo, Pater Patria, had died in fulness
of years and wbb Bucceeded by his grandson. Lorenzo
the Magnificent, though not immediately, for there
244 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
uas a short-lived Piero in between. Lorenzo took his
grandfather's place, became lord of Florence in all
but name, and stood the centre of a brilliant group
of artists, sculptors, poets, and scholars. His reign,
for it must be so called, lasted from 14G9 to 1492,
a most notable span of time. The mere names of the
famous Florentines would fill pages. A few must be
mentioned : Benedetto da Maiano, sculptor and archi-
tect, who carved the beautiful pulpit in Santa Croce,
and drew the designs for the palace-fortress of the
Strozzi ; Giuliano da San Gallo, sculptor and archi-
tect, who made the plans for Lorenzo's villa at Poggio
a Caiano ; Andrea della Robbia, nephew to Luca, and
almost his equal in the tender charm of his blue and
white Madonnas ; Mino da Fiesole, who made a bust of
Lorenzo's father, and carved in marble the sweetness
of young mothers; Antonio Rossellino, who wrought
the famous tomb for a great Portuguese prelate in
the church of San Miniato; Andrea Verrocchio, who
painted the Uffizi Annunciation, so beautiful that it
was long attributed to Leonardo, modelled the lady
dalle belle menu in the Bargello, and the Colleoni
at Venice, greatest of equestrian statues ; Benozzo
Gozzoli, who painted the three generations of Me-
dici in the Riccardi palace, and in the Campo Santo
at Pisa the enchanting frescoes which turn the Old
Testament into a kind of Arabian Nights ; An-
tonio Pollaiuolo, sculptor and painter, a leader in
the new school of realism, and notable for the feel-
ing of movement which he conveys ; Filippino Lippi,
Lippo Lippi's son, who completed the frescoes in
the chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine left unfin-
THE RENAISSANCE 245
ished by Masaccio ; Botticelli, the greatest of all
the Florentine painters, except Leonardo and Mi-
chelangelo ; Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose frescoes
in Santa Maria Novella tell us more about those
shrewd, capable, quick-witted Florentines than any
historian ; Pulci, the poet, who wrote " Morgante
Maggiore," a gay epic, which Savonarola thought
ought to be burned ; Poliziano, great embodiment of
culture, who wrote the first lyrical tragedy, and led
the way towards the opera ; Marsilio Ficino, the
philosopher who helped Cosimo found the Pla-
tonic Academy ; Pico della Mirandola, the charming
scholar, whom Machiavelli called " a man almost
divine."
Perhaps none of these men were equal to the lead-
ers in the group which surrounded Cosimo, but they
are more interesting to us, and touch our sympathy
more readily. They are nearer to us. The earlier
problems in architecture, sculpture, and painting
were more difficult, but they had been successfully
solved; and the fresh problems, which confronted
the younger generation, though less adventurous,
were more refined. The sons have entered into a
hard-earned inheritance, and live more freely. They
have more spiritual alertness than their fathers
though less rigour, more sensitiveness to passing
moods though less robustness, greater mastery of
technique though less genius Cor principles. Less
great themselves, they have created greater works.
Benedetto's Palazzo Strozzi is more majestic and
splendid than ftficheloZZo's Palazzo Kiceardi; Yeinx-
ohio's statue of Colleoni surpasses Donatello's (Jatta-
240 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
melata ; Botticelli's poetry is more interesting, at
least to the unlearned, than Masaccio's puissant
thawing. Nevertheless, the greater intimacy of sym-
pathy and interest which we feel for the later men
is not accounted for by their greater command of
their crafts. There is some new element less readily
discovered. We perceive a change of attitude toward
life, a new conception of human existence. The
readiest explanation and perhaps the best, if we do
not treat it as completely adequate, lies in the new
Greek thought (or rather Greek thought as the
Florentines understood it), which the humanists con-
tributed to Italian culture ; and indeed not so much
in Greek thought itself, as in the impulse it gave to
a subtler and more complicated conception of life.
Direct Greek influence is most conspicuous in
Botticelli. This rare spirit wandered about half in
the world of reality which he ill understood and
depicted badly, and half in a world of fantasy which
he knew better than any other painter. The secret
of this world of fantasy, as he discovered, was mo-
tion. If a vision tarries, it becomes touched by the
blight of familiarity, soiled by the comradeship of
life. The fairy spirit of imagination must be ever on
the wing. No artist ever let Sweet Fancy loose as
Botticelli did in his two great pictures, The Prima-
vera (Spring) and The Birth of Venus. In them
this Greek influence finds its fullest direct expres-
sion. The glory of dawn, the first unveiled fresh
beauty of the world, which the Greeks saw, Botti-
celli saw also. But besides the childlike joy in pure
beauty is another, more complicated, element. Into
THE RENAISSANCE 247
the rapturous Greek world, beautiful with sensuous
charm, the bewildering idea of a mora] order pre-
sents itself. On the countenance of Venus and in
the figure o£ Primavera there is a wistf ulness, as if
they had a presentiment that they must leave the
rose-strewn ocean and the magic wood in which
they found themselves. The consequence is a sad-
ness as of beholding an antagonism between two
beautiful things.
The subtler and more complicated conception of
life is best expressed by Verrocchio, the other mas-
ter spirit of this generation, who displays in his paint-
ings and statues the joy he takes in pure beauty, but
always adds some other element. The little boy who
hugs a dolphin in the court of the Palazzo Vecchio
is the incarnation of the grace and happiness of
childhood, but he has an impish, Puck-like expres-
sion. The young bronze David, who has just con-
quered Goliath, has an odd, mischievous sprightliness.
Both statues intimate a sceptical attitude towards
the fine seriousness of life which had marked Puritan
Florence of the older days. His painting of the
Annunciation shows a magic background, beautiful
and mystical, with enchanted cities, rivers, moun-
tains, like tie- part of Xanadfi where KuUa Khan
decreed his pleasure dome, or the strange land where
La belle Dame Bans Aferci left her knight-at-arma
alone and palely loitering. Subtle thoughts play
over his statues and paintings, and he taught his
pupil Leonardo that Btrange and beautiful fascina-
tion of Eace which expresses one know-, n..t wh.it.
The earlier simplicity of the (jiinHrmu nh> has passed,
248 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the artist's attitude to life has become complicated,
although the love of beauty for beauty's sake remains
abundantly.
The lord of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, the
centre and patron of this glittering ring, is the best
exponent of the late quattrocento taken as a whole.
He touched life on every side, public and private,
intellectual and frivolous, religious and cynical, artis-
tic, literary, philosophical. Lorenzo had a strik-
ing, indeed a fascinating, personality. His figure
was strong and lithe, and his face among a thou-
sand caught the eye. His big jaws, under his lean,
furrowed cheeks, were square and grim. His long
irregular nose and curving lips gave him a some-
what sardonic expression, but his broad forehead
was grave and thoughtful, and " princely counsel "
shone in his face. His whole aspect was full of char-
acter and dignity. Every one felt his fascination.
He was a poet and wrote poems of many kinds, grave
and gay, some of which are of acknowledged merit :
Quant'e bella giovinezza
Che si fugge tuttavia,
Chi vuol essere lieto, sia,
Di doman non v'e certezza. 1
He was a scholar, and full of the fashionable ad-
miration for Plato, though he probably shared the
current confusion between Plato's own thoughts
and those of the Alexandrian Neoplatonists. He
was a statesman of foresight and shrewdness, and
1 Oh, how beautiful is youth
Ever hurrying away,
Come, let him who will be gay,
In to-morrow there 's no truth.
THE RENAISSANCE 249
contributed more than any one else to preserve the
peace of Italy, by maintaining the balance of power
among the greater states. He was also a very charm-
ing person, and endeavoured to make life in Flor-
ence a happy mixture of mirth and intellectual
pleasure; and it must be remembered in apprecia-
tion of the general sobriety of his life, that a gifted
company of men did all they could to spoil him.
Lorenzo was the most remarkable prince of the
quattrocento, but there were many others who pa-
tronized scholars and artists as generously as he.
Alfonso of Aragon, the king who temporarily united
the Two Sicilies, was devoted to the humanities. He
was wont to hear Terence and Virgil read aloud at
dinner, and took Livy with him on his campaigns.
But Naples and Sicily had almost no share in the
achievements and glory of the Italian Renaissance.
Lawless, ignorant, poor, unsuccessful, they responded
feebly to the efforts of individuals, who, here and
there, strove to emulate the great Florentines. But
in the North all the world was mad for art, and
its princes led the fashion. Federigo da Montet'el-
fcrOj Duke of Urbino ( 142'2-1 1S2i, was the foremost
Bcholai among soldiers and the foremost soldier
among scholars ; be gathered together a noble library,
now lodged in the Vatican ; be built a palace, un-
matched in Italy-, and collected about him artists of
all kinds. Yet Federigo vraa a soldier by nature as
well as by prof ession, as one may see from the great
portrait of him in the llli/.i, painted by Piero della
Branceaca. 11^ itrong profile, with firm mouth and
big, broken, aquiline nose, testifies Ear more Forcibly
250 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
to his character as a warrior than as a virtuoso. His
near neighbour, the tyrant of Pesaro (a little city by
the Adriatic coast), Alessandro Sforza, passed the
intervals between his battles in buying books. Duke
Ercole of Ferrara was likewise a patron of art, and
adorned his capital as well as his palaces and villas
with all sorts of beautiful things. The dukes of
Milan were somewhat eclipsed, but only for a time,
by their less powerful rivals of Ferrara and Urbino.
The old ducal line of the, Visconti had died out with
Filippo Maria, and Francesco Sforza (husband of
Filippo's daughter), who succeeded to the duchy
(1450), was busy making good his very defective
title, and had little time to attend to art or letters.
Even he kept humanists in his pay, and continued
work on the glorious Certosa of Pavia.
Not only princes but private citizens were lovers
and patrons of art. In almost every city of the North
— excepting Piedmont — there was some artist of
whom the whole city was proud. Nevertheless,
throughout the reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent
Florence continued to be the most intellectual of
Italian cities, as she had been for many genera-
tions ; but on Lorenzo's death the primacy in the
arts and in matters of the mind passed from Flor-
ence to Rome. By a flattering chance that primacy
seemed to follow the fortunes of a single family.
Under Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo dei Medici, the
Renaissance may be said to have made Florence its
home ; in the later period it found its fullest expres-
sion in Rome, and even there took its name, the Age
of Leo, from another Medici, Lorenzo's sou. It was
THE RENAISSANCE 251
not to Pope Leo, however, but to his predecessors,
that Rome was indebted for preeminence. At the
summons of the Papacy men of genius went to
Rome from all Italy, but chiefly from Florence ;
and a distinguished Tuscan, almost a Florentine, who
went from Florence to Rome at the culmination of a
brilliant career, fairly serves as the personification of
this intellectual migration. Tommaso Parentucelli,
who was born in a little town near Lucca, was educated
in Florence and Bologna. He took holy orders early,
and, going" back to Florence, quickly became intimate
with the clever set of humanists who surrounded
Cosimo. He was a great student, and won so high
a reputation for learning that it was to him Cosimo
applied for advice, when he wanted the right books
for the library at Fiesole. This collection became
famous and was copied both at Rimini and l' rhino.
Parentucelli was a very capable and attractive man.
and embodied in its best form the essence of Flor-
entine humanistic culture. His character, talents,
and accomplishments were recognized in the ( Ihurch ;
he became bishop, cardinal, and finally Pope, as
Nicholas V (1447-55).
At Rome Nicholas showed the well-marked char-
acteristics of the Renaissance, lie fostered learning,
art, ami general culture, not only because of his in-
terest in them, hut because In- thought that by their
means he could overcome that rumbling .spirit of
reform, which was making trouble in Bohemia ami
Germany, and thai by giving tin- reformers intellec-
tual interests he could occupj thru- minds ami quell
their discontent. He entertained lofty imaginings
252 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
of a Papacy, resting on learning and culture, housed
in a nonpareil city, which should be the acknow-
ledged and admired head of Christendom. He gath-
ered together scholars of all kinds, collected a library
of five thousand volumes, and founded the Vatican
library. He rebuilt or restored numerous churches
and other buildings in Rome, he began the new Vat-
ican palace, and planned a new cathedral in place
of the old basilica of St. Peter's, to be the greatest
church in Christendom. He brought to Rome archi-
tects, painters, goldsmiths, artists, and artisans of all
sorts. With him began the brilliant period of the
Papacy as a secular power devoted to art and cul-
ture, which culminated in what is known as the Age
of Leo X.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (1404-1537)
We must now leave the great intellectual progress of
the Renaissance on its way from its home in Florence
to its culmination in Rome, and look over the politi-
cal condition of the principal divisions of Italy. A
complete change comes during this period, that can
only be likened to the change wrought by the inva-
sions of the Barbarians in ancient times. In fact, it
is a period of fresh invasions by Barbarians, as the
Italians, and not without some justice, still called
foreigners. The year 1494 was the fatal date of the
first invasion of the French. From that year onward
there was a series of invasions of French, Austrians,
and Spaniards, until Italy was finally parcelled out
according to the pleasure of the invaders. Before
that time Italy was in a peaceful and prosperous
condition. The famous Florentine historian Guic-
ciardini (1483-1540) thus records the time of his
boyhood: "Since the fall of the Roman Empire
Italy had never known such great prosperity, nor
had experienced bo desirable a condition as in the
vear 1 L90and the years just before and after. The
country had been brought to profound peace and
tranquillity, agriculture spread over the roughest
and most Bterile bills no less than over the most fer-
tile plains, and Italv, subject to no dominion but her
254 A SIIOKT HISTORY OF ITALY
own, abounded in men, merchandise, and wealth. She
was embellished to the utmost by the magnificence
of many princes, by the splendour of many most
noble and beautiful cities, by the seat and majesty
of Religion ; she was rich in men most apt in public
affairs, and in minds most noble for all sorts of know-
ledge. She was industrious and excellent in every
art, and, according to the standard of those days,
not without military glory."
In these happy years, and in the decades that pre-
ceded them, Italian politics was a domestic game
between the five principal powers, Papacy, Naples,
Florence, Venice, and Milan, who treated one an-
other's border cities as stakes. They made leagues
and counter-leagues, waged innumerable little wars,
fought bloodless skirmishes, flourished their swords,
blew their trumpets, and made a good deal of com-
motion ; but they were all Italians, they all knew
the rules of the game, however irregular and com-
plicated those rules might appear to an outsider, and
if there were bloody heads, they were all in the fam-
ily. With 1494 came the change. History seemed
to turn back a thousand years ; the French poured
over the Alps from the northwest, the Imperial
soldiers of the House of Hapsburg from the north-
east, and the Spaniards from their province of Sicily
to the south.
Milan, U66-1535
Our chronicle had better begin with the duchy
of Milan. There, on the death of Francesco Sforza
(1406), his son, Galeazzo Maria, succeeded to the
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 255
throne. This duke was a typical Italian ruler, bril-
liant in display, liberal in giving, harsh in taxing,
interested in art and scholarship, crafty and cruel
in politics, and shamelessly dissolute in private life.
Fearful stories of his brutality are told. He was lit-
erally insufferable, and was assassinated (1476). It
is interesting to see the great classical influence,
which stimulated the arts and the humanities, quick-
ening the spirits of young men and giving an antique
lustre to murder. The story goes that a schoolmaster
of Milan, who had drilled his boys in Plutarch, till
Plutarch's world seemed to live again, burst out in
his lecture, " Will none among my pupils rise up like
Brutus and Cassius to free his country from this
vile yoke and merit eternal renown?" Three of his
pupils, stimulated by private wrongs to emulate the
classical example, murdered the duke in a church.
All three were put to death. The last to die was
skewered on iron hooks and cut to pieces alive. "I
know," he said, "that for my wrongdoings I have
deserved these tortures and more besides, could my
poor flesh endure them ; but as for the noble act
for which I die, that comforts my soul. Instead of
repenting it, were I to live my lib 1 ten times again,
ten times again to perish in these tortures. Done the
trould I consecrate all my life's blood, and all
inv might, to that ooble purpo
The results of the murder were unimportant. In
politics, even more than in the arts, the classic im-
pulse only affected details. Lodovico Sforza, nick-
named il Morn, the late duke's brother. Beized the
government and Supplanted the lawful heir, his
256 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
young nephew, in every ducal prerogative except
the title. Lodovico was a brilliant, intellectual man,
devoid of moral sense; and for a time flourished in
the full sunshine of the opening High Renaissance.
He patronized Bramante, he employed familiarly
Leonardo da Vinci. But his political talents were
suited to the earlier period of domestic Italian poli-
tics. Had he lived then, his abilities, inherited from
both the Sforzas and Visconti, would have kept him
secure on his ducal throne ; but he did not under-
stand the larger forces of European politics.
Milan being at odds with Naples, and the other
Italian powers as usual either taking part, or biding
a more favourable time, Lodovico Sforza thought it
would be a brilliant play, in the little Italian game,
to use a foreign piece to checkmate Naples. He in-
vited the French king, Charles VIII, who repre-
sented the claims of the House of Anjou to the
Neapolitan crown, to come into Italy and take pos-
session of his own. Other Italian politicians, with
no more knowledge of European politics than Lodo-
vico, joined in the petition. Charles VIII, an ugly
little man, of scant intelligence, strong in a compact
and vigorous kingdom, believing that he could play
the part of a Charlemagne, accepted the suggestion
with alacrity, got together an admirable army, and
crossed the Alps, in the memorable year 1494. He
received the respects of Lodovico and swept tri-
umphantly down through Italy. No resistance to
speak of was attempted. Florence made a treaty
with him, the Pope was delighted to be able to do
the like, and Naples watched her king run away
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 257
and the French march in, with blended indifference
and pleasure. This brilliant success, however, was a
mere blaze of straw. The powers of Europe took
alarm, and while the puny Charles was rioting in
Naples, made a league, in which Venice, the Pope,
and the double-dealing Sforza joined. Charles hur-
ried north as fast as he could, and barely escaped
across the Alps. But the episode was full of portent
for Italy. The Barbarians had once again broken
through the barrier which nature had set up to
protect Italy ; they had rediscovered what a delight-
ful place Italy was ; and the second period of Bar-
barian invasion had begun. We cannot dally over
Milan. Sforza's treachery overreached itself. The
succeeding King of France, Louis XII, a prince of
Orleans, was a grandson of Gian Galeazzo Visconti's
eldest daughter, and had as good a legal title to the
inheritance of the Visconti as his second cousin Lo-
dovico ; though in strictness neither title had any
legal value. Revenge lent strength to Louis's claim.
In a few years (1499), the French again descended
into the pleasant plains of Lombardy. captured Milan,
took Sforza prisoner, and locked him up in a French
prison for the rest of his life.
It i^ useless to follow the shifting ownership of
Milan, tossed about in the great Btruggle between
Francis I of France and the Emperor Charles V.
The Empire espoused the cause of the Sforza heirs
and put them bach on the tin-one. Then France
rained the battle of Marignano | 1515) and recovered
Milan, hut the Empire conquered a1 Pavia L525 .
and finally won. The male line of the Sforzas became
258 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
extinct in L535 ; and the dukedom of Milan, though
it continued to be a nominal fief of the Empire,
was annexed to the Spanish crown by Charles V
(who was King of Spain as well as Emperor), and
passed as a part of the Spanish inheritance to a line
of Spanish kings. The Barbarian occupation of
Milan was destined to last for three hundred years.
Florence, U92-1537
Now that we have followed Milan into the service
of Spanish masters, we must do a somewhat similar
office for Florence. But Florence's liberty was put
out in glory. The politic statesman, Lorenzo dei
Medici, whose sagacity had contributed so much to
the pleasant state of Italy prior to the French inva-
sion, died in 1492. The great period of Florentine
intellectual primacy ended with him, for, though
Florence continued to pour forth genius, that genius
no longer was "fathered together at home but emi-
grated to honour other places. Nevertheless, she
again challenges our admiration ; the ancient re-
publican city once more asserted its preeminence
by a burst of moral enthusiasm. Nowhere else in
Italy throughout the Renaissance was such a spec-
tacle seen, and though the leader, Girolamo Savona-
rola (1452-98), was a native of Ferrara, yet it was
in Florence, and among Florentines, that he kindled
enthusiasm and ran his brilliant career. Savonarola
was the reincarnation of a Hebrew prophet, a Flor-
entine Habakkuk, passionately sure of the moral
government of God, passionately convinced that the
wickedness of Italy must bring its own punishment
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 259
and purification. Shortly before Lorenzo's death he
became a distinguished preacher, spoke in the ca-
thedral, and won the ear of the people. He preached
righteousness and judgment to come. He proclaimed
spiritual evils and political punishments, and foretold
that God would stretch forth His hand and send His
avenger to punish Italy. The prophecies were so
definite, and fitted the invasion of Charles VIII so
accurately, that Savonarola was hailed as a prophet.
In the excitement over the French invasion Loren-
zo's sons were driven out, the former republican
constitution reestablished, and Savonarola raised by
a burst of popular enthusiasm practically to the
position of guiding and governing the city. The
best way to understand Savonarola's influence is to
read a few extracts from the diary of Luca Lan-
ducci, a Florentine apothecary : —
" December 14, 1494. On this day Fra Girolamo
greatly laboured in the pulpit that Florence should
adopt a good form of government ; he has been
preaching in Santa Maria del Fiore [the Duomo]
every day, and this day, Sunday, he preached, and
he did not want women but men, and he wanted the
officers of the city, and nobody stayed in the Palace
[Palazzo Vecchio, the City Hall] except the Gon-
Ealoniere and one other; all the officials in Florence
were there, and he preached about matters of slate.
that we ought to love and fear God and love the
common weal, and tli.it no man henceforth should
wish to hold lii- head high or wish himself great.
lb- alwavs inclined to the people's side, and insisted
that no blood should be shed, but that punishment
260 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
should be made in some other way; and he preached
like this every day. . . .
" April, 1495. Fra Girolamo preached and said
that the Virgin Mary had revealed to him how the
city of Florence would become richer, more glorious,
and more powerful than she had ever been, but not
till after many troubles ; and he spoke all this as if
he were a prophet, and most of the people believed
him, especially the better sort who had no political
or partisan passions. . . .
"June 17, 1-495. The Frate nowadays is held in
such esteem and devotion in Florence that there are
many men and women who would obey him impli-
cit lv, if he should say ' walk into the fire.' Many be-
lieve him to be a prophet, and he said so himself. . . .
"February 16 [1496], the Carnival. Fra Giro-
lamo preached a few days ago that the children,
instead of foolish pranks, throwing stones, etc.,
should collect alms and distribute them to the worthy
poor; and, thanks to divine grace, such a change
was wrought, that in place of tomfoolery the chil-
dren collected alms for days beforehand, [and to-
day six thousand of them or more, carrying olive
branches and singing hymns, marched to the Duomo
where they offered up their alms] so that good sen-
sible men wept from tenderness and said, * Truly this
new change is the work of God.' ... I have written
this because it is the fact and I saw it, and I felt the
greatest happiness to have my children among those
blessed innocent bands. . . .
" August 15, 1496. Fra Girolamo preached in
Santa Maria del Fiore [the Duomo, where great
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 261
scaffolds had been erected which were filled with
children singing-], and there was so much holiness
in the church, and it was so sweet to hear the chil-
dren sing, above, below, and on every side, singing
so simply and so modestly, that they did not seem
like children. I write this because I was there and
saw it and felt so much spiritual sweetness. In truth
the Church was full of angels."
The friar's political enemies were strong, and the
Pope, the very notable Borgia, Alexander VI, in
anger and in fear, excommunicated him, and bade
the Signory of Florence forbid him to preach. There
was great disturbance over this action, and feeling
ran to a passionate height. One of Savonarola's
disciples, a foolish Dominican, challenged an adver-
sary to the ordeal by fire; the challenge was ac-
cepted, and on the appointed day all Florence, in
great excitement, flocked to the piazza. The Domin-
ican and his adversary were there, and their respec-
tive partisans, but nothing was done. One delay
followed another ; there was nothing but hesitancy,
disagreement as to conditions, backing and rilling.
The disappointed populace turned on Savonarola.
They had believed him a prophet and expected to see
a judgment of God. The Pope took advantage of
thi> resentment, and demanded his trial. Savonarola
was tried, and tortured. During the torture a con-
fession was extorted Erom him, which was undoubt-
edly pieced out by forgery. Our apothecary says: —
•• April 1'.'. 1 t98. The confession «>l* Pra Girdlamo
read before the Council in the Greal Hall, which
lie had written with his own hand, — he whom we
262 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
beld bo be a prophet, — and he confessed that he was
not a prophet, and had not received from God the
things he preached, and he confessed to many things
in the course of his preaching which were the op-
posite of what he had given us to understand. I
was there to hear the confession read, and was be-
wildered and stood astonished and stupefied. My
soul was in pain to see such an edifice tumble to
earth because it all rested on a lie. I expected
Florence to be a new Jerusalem from which should
proceed laws, glory, and the example of a good life
and to behold the restoration of the Church, the
conversion of the infidels, and the comfort of good
men, and now I behold the opposite, — and I took the
medicine. In Thy will, God, stand all things."
Savonarola was condemned to death for heresy ;
he was hanged, his body burned, and his ashes flung
into the Arno. So ended the one moral effort of
the Italian Renaissance.
After his death the Republican government en-
dured for a time ; but the Medicean faction was
powerful and forced its way back in 1512. Then
Lorenzo's second son, Giovanni (1475-1521), follow-
ing the steps of Florentine art and humanism, went
to Rome and became Pope Leo X. As Pope, he was
able to strengthen his family in Florence and to ex-
tend its dominion. But Republicanism, quickened by
the events then happening in Rome, flared up once
more in 1527 ; but it was helpless before the hostile
spirit of the time. Another Medici had become Pope,
Clement VII, and the requirements of policy induced
the calculating Emperor, Charles V, to suppress
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 263
■what he deemed a rebellion. Florence made a <nil-
lant defence ; Michelangelo strengthened her walls,
and the courage of the defenders threw a dying
glory over the city. A great grandson of Lorenzo,
Alessandro dei Medici, was put into power, and
married to a daughter of Charles V. He was sue-
ceeded by a distant cousin, Cosimo (1537), who was
honoured by His Holiness the Pope with the title of
Grand Duke of Tuscany. Thus Florentine liberty
was extinguished, and the Medici were established
as dukes in name as well as in fact.
The Two Sicilies, 1494-1516
In the south, it will be remembered, Alfonso the
Magnanimous, as the grateful humanists dubbed
him, had united Sicily and the mainland ; but on
his death (1-158) the kingdom fell asunder. Sicily,
as a part of the Kingdom of Aragon, devolved on
a legitimate brother, whereas Naples, claimed as a
conquest, was bequeathed to a bastard son, Ferdi-
nand the Cruel. The two kingdoms followed their
respective dynasties for nearly fifty years, when
Sicily came by inheritance to Ferdinand of Aragon.
That crafty and eminently successful monarch, not
satisfied with Castile, Granada, Sicily, and a transat-
lantic realm, but coveting the Kingdom of Naples,
conspired with Louis XII of France, who now re-
presented the traditional Angevin claim; the two
invaded the coveted kingdom, and divided it between
them (1500 L). Naturally, the rogues disagreed
over the division of the Bpoils, and fell foul of each
other. The Spaniards were triumphant, and the
2G4 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Kingdom of Naples was annexed to the crown of
Spain. Thus the Two Sicilies were reunited under
the Spanish crown, and on Ferdinand's death ( 1516)
descended to his grandson, the Emperor Charles V.
The unfortunate kingdom remained an appanage of
Spain for two hundred years.
Venice, 1453-1508
In the northeast Venice still led a brilliant career,
like a charming woman who has received some
fatal hurt and does not know it, but instinctively
lives more brilliantly than ever. Her fatal hurt was
the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453).
At first the only obvious ill consequence was war.
Venice, willy-nilly, stepped into the place of Con-
stantinople, and became "the bulwark of the West."
She waged war after war with the Turks and main-
tained her reputation for valour and resolution, but
Turkey was too strong for her, and little by little
stripped her of her long-drawn-out empire of coast
and island. A far worse blow than direct war was
the cutting of the great trade routes with the East,
which damaged all the maritime cities of Italy, but
Venice most. Turkey stopped the supplies of Ve-
netian greatness, and slowly but surely sapped Ve-
netian strength. On the stoppage of the straight
road to Asia, the blocked current of commerce poked
about for a new way, and discovered that it could
reach the East by doubling the Cape of Good Hope.
Commerce thus avoided Turkey, but it also aban-
doned the Mediterranean, great centre and source
of ancient civilization, and left the maritime cities
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 265
of Italy stranded, as it were, on the shores of a for-
saken sea.
This doom, however, was still hidden in the ob-
scurity of the future, and Venice appeared to be at
the height of prosperity. The French ambassador,
Philippe de Commines, called her " the most tri-
umphant city I have ever seen." The Venetians
were a people apart from other Italians ; they never
suffered from foreign invasion, or domestic revolt ;
they lived in isolation, maintained their own cus-
toms and usages, and enjoyed a sumptuous, opulent
life, in proud security. Venice was the richest, the
most comfortable, the best governed city in the
world. In military strength she was commonly
reckoned the first power in Italy, with the Papacy,
the Kingdom of Naples, and the Duchy of Milan
about equal in second rank. Venice entertained no
suspicion of any seeds of decadence, and continued
her greedy career of annexation on the mainland.
with a haughtiness worthy of ancient Rome. She
laid hands on part of Romagna, and angered the
Popes who had a title thereto, which, however imper-
fect, was much better than the Venetian title. She
provoked the Emperor Maximilian, of the House of
Hapsburg. who claimed Verona as an Imperial cil\ :
and to tin- west -lie came into dangerous competi-
tion with the French invaders. These enemies, tak-
ing their cue from the piratical Beizureof Naples by
the French and Spanish, agreed together to par-
tition the Venetian territory on the mainland, and
invited all the powers of Europe to join them and
take a share of the booty. The coalition planned a
266 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
kind of joint-stock piracy. This was the League of
Cambrai (1508), which stripped Venice of all her
Italian territory, and threatened the city herself. The
allies, however, fell out among themselves ; and
Venice, by biding her opportunity, in the course of
time managed to recover most of her lost territory.
Thus, though for a season the Barbarians brought
the haughty city to her knees, she weathered the
storms better than the rest of Italy, and continued
to maintain her independence for three centuries to
come.
The Papacy deserves a chapter to itself.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE PAPAL MONARCHY (1471-1527)
The Papacy found itself in an exceedingly difficult
situation. It had to adapt an ecclesiastical system,
matured in the Middle Ages, to new political sys-
tems, to new knowledge, to new thought, in short,
to a new world. During its struggle with the Em-
pire, the course before it, however arduous, had been
plain, namely, to abase the Emperors; during its cap-
tivity at Avignon, its duty to return to Rome (though
individual Popes were blind or indifferent) likewise
had been plain ; during the schism, the one end to
be aimed at was union. But now everything was new,
and a new policy had to be devised. There were
three matters which required particular considera-
tion : the demand for reform which came from across
tin- Alps; the great intellectual awakening of the
Renaissance; and the ambitions of the other Italian
power-. For these problems the solution which the
Papacy tried was twofold : to establish a linn pon-
tifical principality, and to use the new intellectual
forces as a motive power to keep itself at the head
of Christendom, By a strong pontifical principality
the Papacy hoped to secure itself against the covet-
OnsneSfl of the other Italian states. By using the
new intellectual fore.-, it hoped to range them on its
side, and so to choke, or at least to overcrow, the
268 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
ultramontane cry for reform. One need not suppose
that such a plan was consciously thought out in de-
tail from the beginning ; rather it was the course
which the Papacy gradually took, partly from the-
ory, partly under the stress of passing circumstances.
We remember that the Council of Constance closed
the Great Schism, and sent Martin V (1417-31)
back to Rome as sole Pope. His pontificate marks
the end of the old Republican commune, which
had made so much trouble for Popes and Emper-
ors in days past, and therefore marks the first
definite stage in the transformation of the Papacy
into a local secular power. Rome, although she did
not deny herself an occasional outbreak in mem-
ory, as it were, of good old days, settled down into
a papal city.
The most interesting part of the papal story is
the process that went on within the Church. The
intolerable burden of ecclesiastical taxation, the
growth of heresy , # and the degeneration of the clergy,
as well as the Great Schism, had roused Europe to
a sense that something must be done, and Europe
attempted the old remedy of Ecumenical Councils.
At Constance the question of general reform had
come up, but the papal party had managed to pre-
vent action. At the next Council, held at Basel,
internal difficulties appeared still more plainly. Party
lines were sharply drawn ; the ultramontanes, as be-
fore, wished to subject the Popes to the supremacy
of Councils, to substitute an ecclesiastical aristocracy
of bishops in place of a papal monarchy, and, as
it were, transfer the centre of ecclesiastical gravity
THE PAPAL MONARCHY 269
from Rome across the Alps. Feeling ran so high
that the Council split in two. Part followed the Pope
to Italy, and part stayed in Basel and elected an anti-
pope (1439). It looked as if schism had come again,
but the danger passed. The anti-pope resigned ;
unity was restored and lasted for seventy years.
Nicholas V, as we have seen, hoped to maintain
the Papacy at the head of Christendom by means of
the new intellectual forces. Such a conception was
purely Italian, and showed plainly enough that the
Papacy had ceased to represent Christendom, had
ceased to be the real head of a Universal Church,
and had become a purely Italian institution. While
Nicholas and his successors were thinking of culture
and of becoming Italian princes, the pious ultra-
montanes, comparatively indifferent to the intellec-
tual excitement of the Renaissance, were thinking
of sin and of the remedy for sin. The papal Curia
was clever, but did not foresee that to subordinate
the old conception of the Papacy as the head of the
religious and ecclesiastical organization of Europe
to the new conception of it as an Italian principality
would surely alienate the Teutonic peoples ; it did
not foresee that the Renaissance, with it s spirit of
examination, investigation, criticism, with its encour-
agemenl of the free play of the human mind, was
nee»"^aril\ preparing the way for the Reformation,
lint the Curia perceived the opposite difficulties, to
which we are generally blind, thai unless the Papacy
did establish itself as a temporal power, it might
well be reduced to another Babylonish Captivity by
a king of Naples, a duke of Milan, or even by some
270 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
COndottiere. And it perceived that other difficulty
as well, that if the Papacy turned against the intel-
lectual movement, the intellectual movement would,
in self-defence, turn against the Papacy.
The Popes did indeed seek to revive the old role
of the Papacy in one respect. They tried to arouse
the sentiment of Christendom against the invading
Turks, and to lead a crusade themselves. But the
time for such a course had passed. The kings and
princes of Europe were busy with their own king-
doms and principalities and would not badge ; and
the Papacy was obliged to give up the plan. Dis-
couraged by this failure it naturally turned to the
new theory of a little papal kingdom and vigorously
put the theory into practice. The three Popes who
accomplished this task were Francesco della Rovere,
Sixtus IV (1471-84), Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI
(1493-1503), and Giuliano della Rovere, Julius II
(1503-13). Their careers must be looked at more
closely.
Sixtus IV was the son of a peasant. Educated by
the Franciscans, he became distinguished as a scholar
in theology, philosophy, and ecclesiastical affairs, and
was chosen general of the order. When Pope, after
a last futile attempt to start a crusade, Sixtus openly
abandoned the role of Pontiff of Christendom and
became an Italian prince. Energetic and masterful,
he set to work to consolidate the loose and insubor-
dinate papal territories into a compact state. The
task was not easy, and one of the obstacles in his way
was lack of men whom he could trust. It was of
little advantage to gather together an army, or to
THE PAPAL MONARCHY 271
capture a city, if the papal general or governor found
his own interests opposed to papal interests. Loy-
alty was held in scant esteem by Italians of the Re-
naissance. Sixtus met the difficulty by employing
his nephews. This policy was by no means the be-
ginning of papal nepotism, but these nephews hap-
pened to be young men with marked tastes for greed,
ferocity, and dissipation, and brought the system into
especial notoriety. To one nephew the Pope gave a
cardinal's hat, four bishoprics, an abbey, a patriarch-
ate, as well as free access to the papal treasury.
When this young man had died of dissipation, the
post of chief favourite descended to his brother. For
him the Pope procured a wife from the ducal house of
Sforza, and began to carve a dukedom in Romagna,
w r ith the intention of adding slices cut from the neigh-
bouring states. This young man was arrogant, igno-
rant, and brutal, with no interests except ambition
and the chase. In due course he was murdered.
Whatever effect nepotism of this character produced
across the Alps, it served certain purposes in Italy.
Sixtus made himself feared, and advanced the project
of a papal kingdom to a point where his successors
wen- able to take it up and complete it.
Sixtus also pursued Nicholas's plan of making
Rome the firs! city of the world in art and magnifi-
cence. He brought together architects and artists, and
patronized art and literature. Bui this aspect of the
plan to maintain the Papacy at the head of Christian
Europe belongs rathei to the ston of the high Re-
naissance, and mus1 he postponed to the next chapter.
We i j i ; i \ pass over the nexl Pope, who was not dis-
272 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
(anguished except for a frank recognition of his ille-
gitimate children, and for what then appeared a
whimsical desire to maintain peace, and proceed to
the notorious RodrigO Borgia, Alexander VI. It was
in Borgia's pontificate that the French invasion of
1494 took place. This introduction of a new and
terrible element into Italian politics frightened him
as well as other Italian rulers, for he knew that the
Papal State would never be strong enough to resist
single-handed such an army as that of Charles VIII,
and he tried to form a union of the Italian powers
for common defence. His policy met little suc-
cess, especially as he himself, seeing advantages to
be gained from a French alliance, whirled about,
granted to the French king a dispensation for di-
vorce, to the French favourite a cardinal's hat, and
made a separate treaty for himself (1499). Borgia
did no more than any other Italian prince would have
done, but he must bear his share of the responsibil-
ity. It was a deliberate sacrifice of Italian for papal
interests. Whether that was justifiable or not is an-
other matter. The Pope wished to establish a Pontif-
ical State, and acted in the manner which he thought
would be most likely to achieve success.
Borgia also followed the example set by Sixtus,
and raised his family to power and rank, partly,
of course, from affection, but partly in order to
strengthen the Papacy. His task was to reduce the
papal vassals in the Pontifical States to obedience
and so to create a strong central government. The
instrument he employed was his son Caesar Borgia.
This brilliant young man has won a great reputa-
THE PAPAL MONARCHY 273
tion, owing in large measure to Machiavelli's admi-
ration. He was an athletic, handsome, taciturn man,
quick, cunning, and cruel. He began his career in
the Church, but at the time of his father's reconcili-
ation with France, gave up his cardinal's hat, and
was created duke by the French king. Csesar made
an excellent instrument for rooting out the disobe-
dient vassals of the Papal State. They were crafty.
greedy, and false ; he was craftier, greedier, and
falser than they. He dispossessed them with ruthless
vigour, and established himself in their stead. His
energy and success were extraordinary, and fright-
ened other Italian rulers. None knew how far his
ambition might stretch, or how far the Papacy might
be able to push him. The direct military power of
the Pontifical State was not very great and could
readily be measured, but the indirect power of the
Papacy as head of the Christian Church was vague
and alarming. Nevertheless, Caesar's principality,
which rested wholly on the Papacy, fell to pieces
when his father died.
Borgia's attitude towards the arts belongs to tin-
next chapter; but in respect to them as well as
to the Pontifical State, he followed what I have
called the twofold policy of the Popes of the Re-
naissance. That policy undoubtedly had its advan-
; but it also had its disadvantages, and these
appear more conspicuous in Borgia's pontificate
than in any other. The establishment of papal do-
minion, as we have seen, encouraged, if it did not
necessitate, nepotism; and nepotism involved prodi-
gality and dissipation. The Popes used their fami-
274 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
lies to strengthen their position ; and the upstart
families, giddy with sudden wealth and power, mis-
behaved. The nephews of Sixtus rendered some
service to the Papacy, but they caused scandal.
Caesar Borgia rendered greater services, and caused
still greater scandal. The other branch of the two-
fold policy, by a different path, led to the same
result. Patronage of arts and letters involved great
expense and encouraged luxurious tastes ; luxury
led to idleness, and idleness to vice. The Roman
atmosphere had never been favourable to spiritual
life, and now, surcharged with the classical spirit of
the Renaissance, practically extinguished religion.
For centuries the Roman Curia had been a butt
for the arrows of satire. The minnesingers of Ger-
many, the troubadours of Provence, had paused in
their amorous ditties to compose bitter gibes against
the greed and luxurious life of the great Roman pre-
lates. Taunts such as this became household phrases :
Curia Romana non quaerit ovem sine lana. 1 Dante
had put priest, prelate, and Pope into hell. Petrarch
had written scathing verses : —
Nest of treachery, wherein is hatched
All evil that besets the world to-day,
Slaves to wine, debauch, and gluttony,
Well-head of woe, and baiting place of wrath,
School of false thought, temple of heresy, etc.
One of the best tales in the " Decameron" turns on
the conversion of a Jew, who goes to Rome, sees
the conduct of Pope and cardinals, and becomes
1 The Roman Curia is not looking for a sheep without wool.
THE PAPAL MONARCHY 275
convinced that only a Divine Church can support
so staggering a burden. In Borgia's time the Curia
outdid itself, and Borgia led the way. He acknow-
ledged his children, and lavished papal revenues
upon them ; he bestowed a cardinal's hat on Alex-
ander Farnese, founder of the Farnese family, for
the sake of Giulia Farnese, his frail sister; he sanc-
tioned ballets and theatricals of a scandalous nature
in the Vatican palace, and encouraged his sons and
his cardinals in a dissolute life. Vice was not all ;
the odour of crime infected the air. The Pope's son,
the Duke of Gandia, was murdered, so was his son-
in-law, husband of his daughter Lucrezia. Cardinals
died mysteriously. The common voice, whispering
low in Rome and loud elsewhere, ascribed these
murders to Caesar Borgia. It appeared as if the
Pope believed the charges himself. " Caesar," he
said, " is a good-natured man, but he cannot toler-
ate affronts." Lucrezia, too, became the object of
the grossest slanders. No doubt common gossip
then, as always, raised a tree of falsehood from a
mustard grain of truth ; but credulity accepted every
accusation as true. North of the Alps the simple-
minded Germans shuddered and crossed themselves.
Even the Romans were shocked. When the Pope
died, no man would touch his body ; it was dragged
by a rope fastened to its loot from the bed to the
grave, and there tumbled in. No. one doubted that
bis soul had gone to hell.
Alexander VI violated every rule of domestic
morality; nevertheless, Pope Julius II (1603-13)
violated the sacred character of priest as fundamen*
276 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
tally, though in a much less repulsive way. Julius,
a nephew of Sixtus IV, was a fiery soldier, a bigh-
aspiring prince, a man of great qualities, impatient
and magnificent. Had he been duke of Milan or
King of Naples, he would have presented a noble
figure ; but a Pope armed cap-a-pie, entering a con-
quered city through the breach battered by his can-
non, was as clear a defiance of the evangelical spirit
of the reformers as the private profligacy of Pope
Bonria.
Julius pursued the twofold policy of the Papacy
with greater zeal and greater success than any of his
predecessors. His furious energy completed the work
of making; the incohesive states of the Church into
a compact principality ; and he is the real founder
of the absolute Papal State, the first real Pope-king.
He achieved equal success in the other branch of
the policy, and revelled in the kindred spirit of the
Hiffh Renaissance. Julius exalted Rome to the
place of first city in the world; and if the world
had asked for art from the Papacy instead of ask-
ing for religion, it would have been abundantly
satisfied. But Germany was thinking of sin, of vice,
of simony, of taxation, and was becoming conscious
of an extreme national antipathy to Italian rule ;
and when a young German monk, like Martin
Luther, went to Rome, instead of taking pleasure in
the architecture, painting, and sculpture that adorned
the city, he was horrified at the lack of religion.
Julius, however, was entitled to a sense of ac-
complishment at his death. He left to his successors
a little kingdom in the middle of Italy, and he had
THE PAPAL MONARCHY 277
made Rome the centre of the arts. Not till the days
of his successors did the failure of that policy appear.
By a kind of poetic justice the utter failure of art
to satisfy the demand for reform, for purity, for re-
ligion, was proved during the pontificates of the two
Medici, Leo X and Clement VII. The Medici had
patronized the arts, both in Florence and in Rome,
and the arts repaid the Medici with enjoyment and
renown. But the Medici had done nothing for the
spirit of reform ; on the contrary, they had helped
crush Savonarola, and the spirit of reform turned
upon them. Germany hoisted the standard of seces-
sion during the pontificate of Leo, and an army of
the unfaithful sacked Rome during' that of Clement.
Leo X was a fat, clever, cultivated man, with no
great virtues and no real vices. " Let us enjoy the
Papacy since God has given it to us," is the senti-
ment put into his mouth, and serves to characterize
his reign. Bred in his father's intellectual circle,
and a member of the luxurious Roman society, Leo
shared the tastes of both. He was a connoisseur of
works of art, and derived genuine aesthetic pleasure
from them ; he was also fond of agreeable com-
pany. good cookery, the chase, and most forms of
Bocial amusement. His political conduct was not of
much real consequence, as matters had gone too Ear.
In the interminable struggle between Charles V and
Francis I. the Papacy tried to hold a balance of
power, and bargained with both sides: but. as the
Spaniards, in possession of both Milan and Naples,
wen- the stronger, the Papacy generally found its
advantage On that side. As to the larger matter of
27s a SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the ecclesiastical unity of Christendom there was
practically nothing' to be done. -The causes which
split the Teutonic world from the Latin were al-
ready matured. It was too late to stop the Reforma-
tion. Luther might have been dealt with more
shrewdly, but the forces behind him could not have
been kept in check. Leo excommunicated Luther
( 1520), and the Imperial Diet at Worms condemned
him and his doctrine, but the unity of the Church
was doomed.
To Leo succeeded his cousin Clement VII, after a
brief pontificate by the last foreign Pope. Clement
was incompetent, and failed to realize the gravity of
his situation ; neither he nor Rome understood the
crisis they had reached. The prevailing state of
mind may be inferred from this extract from the
diary of a young Roman burgher : " I saw this Pope
the first day of May, 1525, come in the morning of
the Feast of SS. Philip and James to the Church of
the Holy Apostles, and after celebrating high mass, re-
main all day and night in the palace of the Colonna.
. . . That day it was an old and foolish custom in
the Colonna palace (which connects with the church
and has windows looking in it), to throw various
kinds of fowls and animals into the church to the
people who were there, all of the lowest sort. They
also put a pig in the middle of the church up high,
and whoever was able to climb up and take it, won
it ; and on top of the roof were kegs and pots of
water, which they poured on the persons who climbed
up. The amusement of those gentlemen, and of the
rest who looked on, was to see the crowd in a mess,
THE PAPAL MONARCHY 279
battling, shrieking-, pushing, shoving, like beasts, —
a merry-making not becoming in a church or anv
sacred edifice." The diary adds: "Now let people
learn to know the souls of the great and especially
of priests, how wicked, deceitful, and false they are,
how full of fraud and knavery." ' There were plenty
of other facts to prove this conclusion. The merry-
making was doomed to cease.
The incompetent Pope was totally at a loss what
policy to follow, not knowing whether it was better
to incline towards the Empire or to France. He
shifted at the wrong time, joined a league against
the Empire, then wriggled and shuffled, and so
drew upon himself and the devoted city the punish-
ment due to a long course of wickedness. The Im-
perial army, a ruffian host of Germans (many of
them Lutherans), Spaniards, and Italians, under the
command of the traitor Bourbon, was encamped in
the north; the unpaid soldiers clamoured for plun-
der, and Bourbon led them to Rome, carried the
neglected walls by assault, and put the city to sack.
Rome was a little city, with perhaps 90,000 inhabit-
ants, but rich in the oblations and tribute monej of
Christendom; the churches were decked with gold
and silver, the palaces stalled with precious paint-
ings, tapestries, and ornaments of every kind. Popes,
cardinals, and princes had rivalled one another in
accumulations of works of art and articles of luxury.
Though license, profligacy, and crime had then shut
out Koine from the Bympathy of the world, it is im-
1 TKp Papacy during the Reformation, roL \, Appendis (tru*.
lated |. ML Cn ighfem.
280 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
possible to read to-day of the horrors of the sack —
men murdered, mothers, daughters, nuns outraged,
old men and priests brutally insulted, churches and
sacred relics defiled — without the sharpest pity.
For eight days the devilish work went on, and but
30,000 inhabitants were left, so many had fled, or
been killed, or made prisoners (1527).
Terrible was the punishment that Clement wit-
nessed, — Rome sacked, the liberty of Italy taken
away, the Roman Catholic Church rent in two.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE (1499-1521)
We are now at liberty to return to the great intel-
lectual and artistic movement that lifted Italy to
the primacy in Europe, and reached its zenith in the
period of time to which the last two chapters have
been devoted. This is the culminating period, in
which the greatest masters did their work, and sep-
arates the earlier and more experimental stage that
preceded it from the later stage of exaggeration and
decadence which followed. The movement swept all
the arts along with it. It produced the greatest men
in literature since Petrarch, the greatest architects
since the Gothic masters of the He de France, the
greatest sculptors since Praxiteles, the greatest paint-
ers that ever were.
Italian literature cannot compare with English
literature or French in compass, variety, richness, or
delicacy. Indeed, except for Dante, it would have
rather a thin and tinkling sound. Nevertheless, in
the High Renaissance it roused itself brilliantly.
Nice. In Machiavelli was the ablest writer on the
policy of government between Aristotle and Burke.
Gnicciardini was the first modern historian. Count
Baldassarre Castiglione's " Booh of the Courtier" is
i- singularly excellent in its way as Boswell'a " Life
of Johnson*" Of tins book.whiob portrays fashion-
282 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
able society at the elegant court of Urbino, Tassosays:
" So long a.s there shall be princes and courts, so long
as ladies and gentlemen shall meet in society, so
long as virtue and courtesy shall abide in our hearts,
the name of Castiglione will be held in honour."
The book purports to be a series of conversations
between the duchess and her guests concerning the
proper qualities of a perfect gentleman. This society,
no doubt, is a little affected, stilted, and conceited,
but it is dignified, well-behaved, and high-minded.
These people discuss deportment, athletics, propri-
ety of speech, whether one must keep within the Tus-
can vocabulary of Petrarch and Boccaccio or may
make use of the vernacular spoken elsewhere, whether
painting or sculpture is the nobler art, what a gen-
tleman's dress should be, and so on. The discussion
proceeds to the proper behaviour of a lady, and by
natural steps to love. Bembo, a famous litterateur,
here takes the floor, plunges into Platonic ideas, and
argues that the higher love, governed by reason, is
better than lower love, and will lead to contemplation
of universal beauty ; but that even this stage of love
is imperfect, and the lover must mount higher still,
until his soul, purified by philosophy and spiritual
life, sees the light of angelic beauty and, ravished
by the splendour of that light, becomes intoxicated
and beside itself from passion to lose itself in the
light. " Let us, then, direct all the thoughts and
forces of our soul to this most sacred light, which
shows us the way that leads to heaven ; and follow-
ing after it, let us lay aside the passions wherewith
we were clothed at our fall, and by the stairway
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE 283
that bears the shadow of sensual beauty on its low-
est step, let us mount to the lofty mansion where
dwells the heavenly, lovely, and true beauty, which
lies hidden in the inmost secret recesses of God, so
that profane eyes cannot behold it," 1 etc. This may
savour somewhat too much of Platonic rhetoric,
but such feelings were genuine, emotionally genuine,
even if they proved evanescent in practice ; they were
familiar to Lorenzo dei Medici and his friends, and
to the nobler spirits throughout Italy, and are as
characteristic of the period as its cruelty, treachery,
or sensuality. The effect of such cultivated circles
upon art must have been great; they gave artists
encouragement, sympathy, employment, and by the
union of fashion and intelligence helped educate
the taste of a larger public. It must be remembered
that both Bramante and Raphael came from U rhino.
Poetry, with the delightful spontaneity and capri-
ciousness of Italian genius, chose Ferrara, the home
of the House of Este, to hang its laurels in. There
Matteo Boiardo wrote the "Orlando Innamorato"
(Roland in Love). This poem is an epic of chivalry
concerning Charlemagne's court, and deals Berioualy,
and yet at times ironically, with the suliject of
Roland's love for the beautiful Angelica. It was
left unfinished, and Lodovico Ariosto (1474— 1533)
picked Dp the thread and carried it on, far more
brilliantly and Ear more ironically, under the title
" < Orlando Furioso" | Roland ( 'razed I. Axiosto's poem,
which was immensely popular, was intended to en-
tertain, and it BUCCeeded; its variety, wit. irony,
i Bool ■ ' At Courtier, p 806| translated by L. E. Opdyakti
284 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
sarcasm, and levity make it entertaining even now.
[nferior in moral and sensuous beauty to Spenser's
" Faerie Queene," it is far easier to read. Its interest
for us lies in the li<rht it sheds on the intellectual
state of educated Italians of the Renaissance, espe-
cially in regard to religion. Biblical allusions, sa-
cred north of the Alps, are lugged in to give a
touch of humour, as, for instance, where one of the
knights, Astolfo, goes on a search for Roland's lost
wits and meets St. John the Evangelist, who drives
him to the moon in Elijah's chariot ; or where, in
another passage, St. Michael finds that the goddess
of Discord has not obeyed his commands, " the
angel seized her by the hair, kicked and pounded
her incessantly, broke a cross over her head, till
Discord embraced the knees of the divine envoy
and howled for mercy." Ariosto, himself, conformed
to the rites of the Church. Like most educated
Italians he accepted them as conventional forms,
tinged possibly with supernatural power, and kept
ecclesiastical ideas wholly separate from moral ideas.
His sceptical, ironical, Epicurean attitude towards
non-material things is characteristic of the deca-
dence of this period in which mental activity had
outgrown morality.
Ariosto was a gentleman of birth and position. He
spent most of his life in the service of his princes,
the House of Este. In later life he withdrew from
their employment, and lived in his own house, parva
sed apta (small but suitable), to which the literary
pious still make pilgrimages. He wrote the " Orlando
Furioso " between 1505 and 1515, and thereafter de-
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE 285
voted most of his leisure to improving and polishing
it. Basking in the sunshine of fashionable admira-
tion, he little suspected that another man, who had
spent his life in mighty feats of architecture, paint-
ing, and sculpture, would in his old age write sonnets
that should be read and reread like a breviary by
serious men and women who passed his own luxuri-
ous rhetoric unheeded. Michelangelo's sonnets (some
of which were written to Vittoria Colonna) are the
noblest embodiment of those high ideas of love which
came down from Plato to the philosophers of the
Palazzo Medici in Florence and the courtiers at the
ducal palace in Urbino. They are crammed to burst-
ing with passionate intensity, and in that respect have
no equals, even in English.
In the fine arts the High Renaissance has a score
of famous men. Among them three or four stand
head and shoulders above their fellows. Each is
marked by extraordinary individuality of talents,
character, and disposition : Michelangelo by passion-
ate furv — terribUitd ; Raphael by sweet serenity;
Bramante by his even commingling of poise and ar-
dour : Leonardo by his noble curiosity.
Of Leonardo. V a sari says : " Sometimes according
to the course of nature, sometimes beyond and above
it. tlif crreatesl gifts rain down from heavenly influ-
ences upon the bodies of men, ami crowd into one
individual beauty, grace, and excellence in Buch Buper-
ahundance thai to whatever that man shall turn, his
very ad is so divine, that, surpassing tlm work of all
otliei-men.it makes manifest that it is by die special
"-in of God, and not by human art. This was true of
28G A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Leonardo da Vinci ; who, beside a physical beauty
beyond all praise, put an infinite grace into whatever
he did, and such was his excellence, that to what-
ever difficult things his mind turned he easily solved
them." Leonardo (1452-1519) was a Florentine. He
was trained by the subtle Verrocchio, from whom he
learned the smile, if it be a smile, on the faces of his
portraits of women. After leaving Verrocchio's work-
shop he went to Lombardy, where he spent sixteen
years at the court of Milan. There he did a hundred
different things: he modelled a great equestrian
statue of Francesco Sforza (since destroyed), painted
portraits, drew architectural designs, — for a cupola,
a staircase, a bathroom, a triumphal arch, etc., —
executed hydraulic works, studied the cultivation of
the grape, and played on his silver lyre. In the re-
fectory of a Dominican monastery he painted his
fresco of The Last Supper. One of the novices, who
watched this handsome young painter at work, says
that sometimes he would dash up the scaffold, brush
in hand, put a few touches and hurry down ; some-
times he would paint from sunrise to sunset without
stopping even to eat ; sometimes he would stand for
hours contemplating the different figures. After
Sforza's fall, Leonardo left Milan, and for a time took
service with Csesar Borgia as military engineer and
architect. He subsequently returned to Florence,
and finally went to France, where he died.
Little remains of all that Leonardo planned. A
half-destroyed fresco, a few easel pictures, some in-
comparable drawings, some treatises on his arts, some
apothegms, are enough, however, to justify his fame.
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE 287
One of his apothegms, 7V, o Iddio, tutto ci r> ndi
a prezzo di fatiica (Thou, God, sellest us every-
thing* at the price of har<l work), is but poorly borne
out by his own prodigal portion of genius, which
rather supports Vasari's view that God makes special
gifts. Very rarely has any man received the native
endowment of Leonardo da Vinci.
The greatest architect of the High Renaissance
was Bramante of Urbino. He, like Leonardo, worked
in Milan during the resplendent reign of Lodo-
vico Sforza. There he did much charming work and
imposed his personality on Lombard architecture ;
but his great reputation was made in Rome, whither
he went, drawn by the great Romeward flow of
art, when the French invasion drove the fine arts
from Milan. In Rome, Bramante became the papal
architect. He shares with Raphael and Michelangelo
the honour of making St. Peter's basilica and the
Vatican palace what they are. He also built a little
building, whose historical importance is ludicrously
out of proportion to its size, it being as little as St.
Peters is big. It is a tiny circular temple in tin- court
of a church on the Janiculum hill across the Tiber.
( )u the ground floor a Doric colonnade encircles the
temple, on the second story a balustrade. A dome.
capped by a lantern, covers the whole. It is the first
building which fully reproduced the style and spirit
of antiquity. It Bel the fashion for the architecture
of the sixteenth century, and determined, among
other indirect and not altogether happy results, the
plan of St. Paul's Cathedral in London and the
Capitol in Washington.
•Jvs A SHOUT HISTORY OF ITALY
It was not chance which took Bramante, Raphael,
and Michelangelo to Rome. They went because the
papal court, pursuing its policy of maintaining the
Papacy at the head of Christendom by means of cul-
ture, summoned them to come. Rome never produced
great artists. She never was artistic, any more than
she had been spiritual. But just as in earlier times
she had draw r n spiritual forces to herself and used
them, so now she attracted to herself and used the
artistic forces of Italy. She had been making ready
for years ; step by step as she had become more
secular, she had also become more artistic, more in-
tellectual. For seventy years every Pope contributed
to this end. Eugenius IV employed distinguished
humanists as his secretaries, and invited the most
notable painters and sculptors to Rome. Nicholas V
conceived the splendid scheme of making Rome the
mistress of the world's culture. Pius II, iEneas
Sylvius Piccolomini, was the most eminent man of
letters of his age. Paul II was a virtuoso in objects
of art and increased the grandeur of the papal court.
Sixtus IV improved the city, built the Sistine Chapel,
and employed Botticelli, Perugino, Signorelli, Ghir-
landaio, and Rosselli to decorate it. Innocent VIII
brought Mantegna from Padua and Pinturicchio
from Perugia to embellish the Vatican palace. Pope
Borgia made Pinturicchio his court painter; and that
charming master decorated the papal apartments in
the Vatican w r ith the great bull of the Borgia crest,
and with portraits of the Pope's children and (so
Vasari says) of the lovely Giulia Farnese as the Vir-
gin with the Pope worshipping her.
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE 289
Popes and cardinals felt the great movement and
many strove to lead it, but the master figure of the
Renaissance at Rome was the fiery Julius II, whose
plans in the arts were even more grandiose than in
politics. He was the centre of this period, as Cosimo
and Lorenzo had been in their generations. Less
astute than Cosimo, far less subtle and accomplished
than Lorenzo, he was a much more heroic leader than
either. His hardy, weather-beaten face in Raphael's
portrait, with its strong, well-shaped features, shows
his imperious, arrogant, irascible, and yet noble,
nature. This Pontiff brought to Rome the greatest
genius of the Renaissance, Michelangelo, bade him
build for him a monumental tomb, more splendid
than any tomb ever built, twelve yards high and
proportionately wide and deep, and decked with
two or three score statues. Such a gigantic monu-
ment could not have found room in the old basilica
of St. Peter's, and therefore, as St. Peter's was the
proper place for it, it became necessary to proceed
with the larger plans of Nicholas V. Piecing and
patching did not suit Julius. He discussed plans
with his architects Bramante and Giuliano da San
Gallo, and then resolved to pull down the old basil-
ica, founded by Oonstantine ami Silvester, despite
its thousand years of Bacred associations, and build
a new church in its place. Bramante's fierj enthusi-
asm for greal designs matched the Pope's. Satire
suggested that in heaven he would sai to St. Peter,
"I'll pull down this Paradise of yours and build
another, a much liner and pleasantei place for the
blessed saints to live in." He designed the new
290 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
church in the form of a Greek cross with a cupola,
proposing, as it were, to lift the dome of the Pan-
theon on the basilica of Constantine, an enormous
in in in the Roman Forum. This gigantic plan be-
fitted the new papal scheme of making Rome the
head of Europe and the Papacy the head of culture.
The corner-stone was laid on April 18, 150G, and the
old building was demolished piecemeal, the choir
first, the nave last ; and in its place, as demolition
proceeded bit by bit, the cathedral now standing rose,
slowly lifting its great bulk in the air, and finally
reached completion and consecration in 1G2G. The
greatest architects of Italy succeeded one another
as masters of the works, Bramante, Giuliano da San
Gallo from Florence, Fra Giocondo from Verona,
Raphael, Antonio da San Gallo the younger, Bal-
dassarre Peruzzi from Siena, and Michelangelo, who,
when an old man, took charge and designed the
dome.
The Vatican was altered according to Bramante's
plans in order to make it a fit abode for the head of
cultured Christendom : Michelangelo painted his fres-
coes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12) ;
and Raphael began to paint the stanza della segna-
tura. Raphael, the most charming figure in the
world of art, was equally charming in life. Vasari
says : " Among his exceptional gifts I take notice of
one of such rare excellence that I marvel within my-
self. Heaven gave him power in our art to produce
an effect most contrary to the humours of us paint-
ers, and it is this : the artists and artisans (I do not
refer only to those of meaner sort, but to those who
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE 291
are ambitious to be great — and art produces many
of this complexion) who worked in his atelier were
so united and had such mutual good-will, that all
jealousy and crossness were extinguished on seeing
him, and every mean and spiteful thought vanished
from their minds. Such unity was never seen before.
And this was because they were overcome both by
his courtesy and his art, but more by the genius of
his good nature, which was so full of kindness and
overflowing with charity, that not only men, but
even the beasts almost worshipped him."
At this time, too, classic art, owing to the discov-
ery of antique statues, had its fullest effect. The
Nile, now in the Vatican, had been found in a Roman
garden, the Apollo Belvedere in a vineyard near the
city, and the Laocoon and many others here and
there. Of the discovery of the Laocoon a record re-
mains. "I was at the time a boy in Rome," wrote
Francesco, son of Giuliano da San Gallo, the archi-
tect, '* when one day it was announced to the Pope
that some excellent statues had been dug up out of
the ground in a grape-patch near the church of Santa
Maria Maggiore. The Pope immediately sent a groom
to Giuliano da San Gallo to tell him to go directly
and Bee what it was. Michelangelo Buonarroti was
often .it our house, and at the moment chanced to be
there: accordingly my father invited him to accom-
pany ii--. I roil.- behind my lather on liis horse, and
thus we went over to the place designated. We had
scarcely dismounted and glanced at the figures, when
my father cried out, 'It i> the LaoCOOO of which
Pliny Bpeaks I ' The labourers immediately began
292 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
digging to get the statue out; after having looked
at them very carefully, we went home to supper, talk-
ing all the way of antiquity." l
Thus these various forces — the discovery of an-
tique statues, the passion for art, the eager Italian
intellect, the conception of Rome as the mistress of
culture, the character of Julius II and the genius of
Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael — worked to-
gether to cover the Papacy with a pagan glory in its
time of religious need. On the other hand, as these
monumental works required vast sums of money, the
sale of indulgences and the exaction of tribute buzzed
on more rapidly than ever.
Leo X (1513-21) has given his name to this age
of papal culture, but he was not entitled to the hon-
our ; he had the inborn Medicean interest and en-
joyment in intellectual matters, a nice taste, and some
delicacy of perception, but it needs no more than a
look at his fat jowl in Raphael's portrait to see that
he could not have been a motive force in a great
period. He stands on an historic eminence as the
last Pope to wield the Italian sceptre over all Europe,
the last to send his tax-collectors from Sicily to Eng-
land, from Spain to Norway, the last to enjoy the full
heritage of Imperial Rome.
1 Rome and the Renaissance, from the French of Julian Klaczko,
p. 93.
CHAPTER XXIX
ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL (1527-1563)
AVe have now come to the beo;innin<r of loner cen-
tnries of national degradation, and one has a general
sense of passing from a glorious garden into a series
of gas-lit drawing-rooms, somewhat over-decorated,
where naughty princes amuse themselves with baga-
telles. We must glance at the political degradation
first.
The struggle between the Barbarians of France
and Spain for mastery in Italy, of which we spoke
in the last political chapter, was practically decided
by the battle of Pavia (1525), in which the French
king lost all but life and honour. France was most
reluctant to acquiesce in defeat, and from time to
time marched her troops across the Alps into unfor-
tunate Piedmont, sometimes of her own notion, and
sometimes at the invitation of an Italian state; but
the Spanish grip was too strong to be shaken off.
From this time on Italian politics were determined
by the pleasure of foreign longs. Two treaties be-
tween Frame and Spain, that of Camhrai (1529)
and that of Cateau-Cambresis | L559), embodied the
results of their bargains and their wars. The sum
and substance of them was a practical abandonment
by France <it her Italian claims, and the map of Italy
was drawn to suit Spain.
294 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Milan was governed by Spanish governors, Naples
and Sicily by Spanish viceroys. The business of a
Spanish viceroy, then as always, was to raise money-
Taxes were oppressive. It was said that in Sicily
the royal officials nibbled, in Naples they ate, and in
Milan they devoured. In addition to regular taxes,
special imposts were laid on various occasions, —
when a new king succeeded to the throne, when a
royal heir was born, when war was waged against
the Lutherans in Germany or the pirates in Africa.
In the south, where the people were less intelligent
and laborious, oppressive taxation and unwise gov-
ernment caused a gradual increase of ignorance and
poverty, and left as a legacy to the present day the
conditions from which spring the Mafia of Sicily and
the Oamorra of Naples.
In Florence the sagacious Cosimo I (1537-74)
ruled with prudence and severity. He understood
that his position depended on his fidelity to Spain
and the Papacy, and acted accordingly. He married
a Spanish lady, Eleanora of Toledo, daughter to the
viceroy of Naples, took up his ducal residence first
in the Palazzo Vecchio, where there are many re-
membrances of his duchess, and afterwards in the
great palace, begun by Luca Pitti, across the Arno.
He reduced Siena, once Florence's dangerous rival,
to subjection, and crushed out the last traces of
republican sentiment in his duchy. He employed
Vasari to design the Uffizi, completed the edifice that
holds the Laurentian library, and led as magnificent
a life as a due regard for his purse would allow. In
short, he was what one would expect an unrefined
ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL 295
member of the Casa Mi did to be ; and when one
recollects that his grandmother, was a Sforza of
Milan, all expectations based on heredity are amply
satisfied. Cosimo I left a long line of descendants
to sit upon his grand-ducal throne. Their marble
effigies at the head of the stairway in the Uffizi tell
their story. The brutal Sforza vigour and the ele-
gant Medicean astuteness could not save them from
sharing in the general degeneracy that spread like
a blight over all Italy. However, one must remem-
ber that they did collect the finest picture gallery in
the world and housed it in the Uffizi and Pitti palaces.
North of Tuscany the petty duchies of Ferrara,
Urbino, Modena, Parma, and Mantua formed a little
ducal coterie, very characteristic of the next two
centuries. The Papacy indeed swallowed up Ferrara
(1598) and Urbino (1631), but the House of Este
of Ferrara moved on to Modena, and remained there
till Napoleon's time. In Parma, Pope Paul 111(1534-
50), our old acquaintance Alexander Farnese, a care-
ful father as well as a lucky brother, established
his son as duke. This son was bad, and believed to
be worse, so the nobles of Parma murdered him ;
but hifl descendants made good their title, ami the
little duchy of Parma, with its palace, its custom-
house, its barracks, and its pictures, stepped forth as
one of the petty Btates of the peninsula, and endured
till the Onion of Italy. (Jenoa and Lucca were per-
mitted to remain republics.
I p in the northwest we gei OUT first definite iin-
tions of Savoy. This duchy, buili up piecemeal, was
a composite state, winch Included a good deal of
296 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Piedmont, and portions of what are now France and
Switzerland, and, unfortunately, lay directly in the
way of the French armies on their marches into
Italy. During the wars of Francis I and Charles V,
the Duke of Savoy hopefully attempted to maintain
neutrality, and, in consequence, lost all. France
deemed it more convenient to own her line of march,
and annexed Savoy ; and for twenty years Piedmont
was both camping-ground and battle-ground for the
contending nations. It looked as if Savoy would be
blotted from the map of Europe ; but Duke Eman-
uele Filiberto (1553-80), Iron Head, an accomplished
soldier, had the sense to take the winning side. He
served in the Spanish army, and, in the Peace of
Cateau-Cambresis, as his share secured the resto-
ration of his duchy. That portion of this duke's
policy which concerns us especially is that he gave
Piedmont precedence over his French and Swiss
provinces, established the seat of government at
Turin, put the university there and brought men of
letters and science, substituted Italian for Latin in
public documents, and proclaimed himself an Italian
prince and Savoy an Italian state. He gave Savoy
the general character which it has always retained.
He checked the priests, built up the army, reformed
the law, converted the old feudal dominion into an
absolute autocracy, and started his dukedom on the
course which ultimately enabled it to play its great
part in the liberation of Italy in the nineteenth cen-
tury. Emanuele Filiberto is reputed one of Italy's
national heroes.
Venice had already recovered most of the territo-
ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL 297
ries on the mainland of Italy wrenched from her by
the League of Cainbrai, but in the Easl the Turks
steadily took away city, island, and province. After
a long period of war, one gallant exploit gilded the
fortunes of the losing side. A league against the
Turks was effected between Spain, the Papacy, and
Venice, and the united fleets, under the supreme com-
mand of Don John of Austria, won the renowned
sea-fight off Lepanto (1571) ; but except for chop-
ping off a goodly number of infidel heads and limbs,
little was accomplished. In this battle a young Span-
ish soldier, Miguel de Cervantes, lost an arm. Soon
afterwards peace was made on terms hard for the
Venetians, but beneficent in that it was destined to
last for seventy years.
We now come to the Papacy, and there, in ex-
traordinary contrast to the degeneration and decay
all around, we find militant vigour and energy. This
phenomenon is so remarkable that we must glance
back at the perils through which the Papacy had
passed. Ever since the fall of the Empire (when the
political union of Italy and Germany broke in two)
disruptive forces had been at work to break the
ecclesiastical union, until at last, in the pontificate
of Leo X, Martin Luther affixed his theses con-
cerning indulgences to the door of the ( lastle ( Ihurch
at Wittenberg, I mint the papal bull, and threw off his
allegiance. The North of Europe followed him. The
record of the Papacy had been utter failure and
worse. It had Bmeared itself from head to foot with
simony, nepotism, and ncej it had cast religion to
the winds. No expression of indignation would have
298 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
been adequate without the sack of Rome. A states-
man might well have predicted that all Europe would
dismember and suppress the Papacy and adopt a
system of national churches. Nevertheless, at the end
of the century the Papacy stood erect and vigorous,
shorn indeed of universal empire, but reestablished,
the Order of Jesus at its right, the Holy Inquisition
at its left, draped in piety by the Council of Trent,
and hobnobbing on even terms with kings. The pro-
cess which effected this change is called the Counter-
reformation, or the Catholic Reaction. That process
was a happy blending of virtue, bigotry, and policy.
Borne upward and onward by the forces of reform
and conservatism, the Modern Papacy rose triumphant
on the ruins of the Papacy of the Renaissance.
The same spirit that caused the Reformation in the
North started the Catholic Revival in the South. A
wave, comparable to the old movement for Church
reform in Hildebrand's time, swept over the Catholic
Church, and lifted the reformers within the Church
into power. The South emulated the North. Catholic
zeal rivalled Protestant ardour. Bigotry followed
zeal. Moreover, a reformed Papacy found ready al-
lies. The logical consequence of Protestantism was
personal independence in religion, and the next logi-
cal step was personal independence in politics. Pro-
testant subjects, more especially where their rulers
were Catholics, tended to become disobedient ; and
monarchs, who stood for absolutism and conserva-
tism, found themselves drawn close to an absolute
and conservative Pope. The kings of Spain and the
Popes of Rome became friends and allies.
ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL 299
Within three years after the sack of Rome, Clement
crowned Charles V with the Imperial crown in Bo-
logna, where, for the last time in Italy, proclamation
was made of a u Roinanorinn Imperatoi semper Au-
gustus, Mundi totius Dominus ; " and the Papacy,
strengthened at once by its league with Spain,
lifted its bead. Further strength came from other
sources. The brilliant young Spaniard, Ignatius Loy-
ola, founded the Order of Jesus, which vowed itself to
poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Papacy (153-1).
Spain, too, by the moral effect of example, procured
the Inquisition for Italy. From the time of Innocent
III, the Dominican monks had had charge of pre-
serving the purity of the faith and of punishing her-
etics, and they had performed this function with what
might appear to a sceptic sufficient zeal, but during
the great racial and religious struggle in Spain which
ended in the capture of Granada, more zeal was
deemed necessary and the Spanish Inquisition was
established. Its fame spread far and wide. The Span-
ish viceroys introduced it in a modified form in Na-
ples, and Cardinal Carail'a, a zealous reformer, urged
the need of Buch an institution in Rome. The Holy
Office of Rome was established, and ('alalia put at its
head L542 . Heretics were frightened into conform-
ity <>r punished ; some were driven <»nt of the coun-
try, a few were burned to death. Freedom of thought
was vigorously attacked; and the Index Librorum
Prohibitorum was decreed. The great and growing
power of the reformers may be measured by the Eacl
that the Pope who sanctioned these great bulwarks
300 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
of the papal system was the once gay Alexander
Farnese, Paul III, whom we otherwise know as a
brother and a father. The culminating exhibition
of the power of the reformers, however, was in the
Council of Trent (1545-63).
Europe had been too long accustomed to the idea
of ecclesiastical unity to sit still without some attempt
at reconciliation between the Catholics and Protes-
tants. It was hoped that a Council would heal all
wounds, smooth all difficulties, and bring back the
irrevocable past. The Popes, however, had come to
regard Councils as inimical bodies with dangerous
tendencies towards investigation and with hostile
canons, and were inclined to take the risk of losing
the tainted parts of Christendom altogether, rather
than make use of so perilous an instrument to recover
them. But the Emperor, Charles V, was insistent ;
his Empire, as well as the Church, was cracked, and
in great danger of breaking in two. The Council
was convoked, and met at Trent. The primary
object was reconciliation ; but everybody knew that
no reconciliation was possible without radical re-
forms in the Church, so the papal party played its
cards w r ith exceeding wariness. The Lutherans did
not attend, and the papal party, in order to fore-
stall practical reforms, plunged into the compara-
tively safe matter of defining dogma, and defined
it in such a way as to fence out all the Lutheran
schismatics. The reformers, nevertheless, managed to
sandwich in between the definitions of dogma vari-
ous decrees for the reform of Church discipline. In
Catholic theory an Ecumenical Council acts under the
ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL 301
inspiration of the Holy Ghost ; but looking- at this
Council from a purely secular point of view, it is hard
to find other guidance than the quarrelling interests
of Pope, bishops, Emperor, Spaniards, French, and
Italians. In fact, the Council was twice broken up.
The first time the Pope, having taken alarm, declared
the Council adjourned to Bologna. The second time
the Lutherans, then at war with the Emperor,
swooped down near Trent and frightened the Coun-
cil away- It met again, for the third time. All hope
of reconciliation with the Protestants had then passed
away, and the Council set to work as a purely Roman
Catholic partisan body. A striking change of atti-
tude within the Council showed that since the earl\
sessions the reforming party had won complete con-
trol. Paul IV (1555-59), a man of high character,
formerly Cardinal Caraffa, head of the Roman In-
quisition, had promulgated many edicts concerning
reforms ; and his successor Pius IV, Giovanni Angelo
Medici of Milan (not of the Florentine family)
(1559-66) 3 who was Pope during the final sessions
of the Council, followed his lead. Pins, a clever
man who had received a legal training, instead of
wasting efforts in persuading disputatious bishops,
first made diplomatic arrangements with the Cath-
olic sovereigns of Spain, France, and Austria, and
then seemed the embodiment of those arrangements
in decrees b] the Council. Nothing, however, could
have been accomplished without the reforming
spirit within the Church; I'ms removed obstacles
in its wa\ and let it have lull play. Stern rules
were made against tie- corrupt practices, which had
302 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
given Luther his strength. Canons regulated the
conduct of the clergy, the duties of bishops, the
affairs of monasteries and nunneries, and all matters
connected with the great organization of the Roman
Church. These reforms came too late to affect Pro-
testant opinion, but they rallied the doubting, con-
firmed the faithful, and gave the Papacy wide-reach-
ing moral support. The dogmas of the Church were
cast in adamant, and secured the immense advantage
of definiteness and fixity. The Council of Trent
remains the principal monument of the Catholic
Revival, and that Revival is certainly the most im-
portant event for Italy in the period immediately
following the Renaissance. Pius IV, the clever law-
yer, had a great share in the work of the Council,
but his most skilful achievement was to maintain
and confirm the doctrine of the subordination of
Councils to the Papacy. This great stroke, as well
as his share in the reforms, has won for him the
title of founder of the Modern Papacy.
In this manner the Papacy prospered during the
very generations in which the greatness of Italy
dwindled away. The fortunes of the two had wholly
parted company. The Papacy, indeed, had made
itself an Italian institution, — never again would it
seat a foreigner on the chair of St. Peter, — but in
all other ways it had ceased to have any national
affections. Italy, her genius faded, her vigour faint,
not only deprived of what might have been a great
support, but even pushed down and held under by
the help of her own greatest creation, the Church,
ceased to be a country. She had become, in Metter-
ITALY AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL 303
nidi's famous phrase, a mere geographical expres-
sion, an aggregate of little states, with no tie
between them except that of juxtaposition and of
common subservience to foreigners. If we look at a
map drawn at the close of the sixteenth century,
we shall rind the following political divisions : —
The Duchy of Savoy,
The Spanish province of Lombardy,
The Republic of Venice,
The little Duchy of Parma, under the Farnesi,
The little Duchy of Mantua, under the Gonzaga,
The little Duchy of Modena, under the Este fain-
The little Duchy of Urbino, under the della Ro-
vere who had succeeded to the Montefeltri,
The Republic of Genoa,
The Republic of Lucca,
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the Medici,
The Papal States,
The Spanish province of Naples,
The Spanish province of Sicily.
Over them all, Spanish provinces, independent re-
publics, Italian duchies, and Papal States, falls the
shadow cast by the royal standard of Spain. Next
to our consciousness of that dreaded banner, the
most vivid impression which we take away is the
contrast between the rigour of tin- Papacy and the
weakness of Italv, and we draw the necessary in-
ference that the fortunes of the two not only have
wholly parted company, hut also arc wholly irrecon-
cilable.
CHAPTER XXX
THE CINQUECENTO (16th Centuky)
The Cinqnecento, as the Italians call the sixteenth
century, exhibits in the arts the same disintegration
and decay that we have found in the political life
of Italy. Honesty, independence, genuineness fade
away, and in their stead we find cleverness and
effort. The hijrh tide of the Renaissance was in
the pontificate of Julius II, but the flood lingered
on at the full till 1540, and then the ebb began.
This is the date which the famous German scholar
and critic, Jakob Burckhardt, assigns as the limit of
the Golden Age ; and it is interesting to find how
closely it corresponds with the political dates which
marked the establishment of the new political order
in Italy. In 1530 Florence was definitely handed
over to the Medici ; in 1535 the duchy of Milan
was annexed to Spain ; in 1540 the Pope sanctioned
the Order of Jesus ; in 1542 he established the Holy
Office in Rome ; in 1543 he accepted the scheme of
an Index Librorum Prohibitorum ; and in 1545
the Council of Trent was opened.
The change from maturity to decay was all-per-
vasive ; yet it was slow, and a period of excellence
and good taste intervened between the High Re-
naissance and the Baroque. This process is most
clearly marked in architecture. During the High
THE CIXQUECENTO 305
Renaissance dignity was law, the grand manner
dominated, and charm determined subordinate parts.
Domes were noble, loggias elegant, pilasters decora-
tive, cornices well proportioned, ceilings splendid.
After 15-10 indications of decline appeared ; but this
fading brilliance was a kind of (/<>(/< rddmrm rung,
and, though it heralded the Baroque, displayed at
times a purity of detail and a noble restraint worthy
of the earlier period.
Of the architects of this intervening stage the
greatest was Giacomo Barozzi, surnamed Yignola
after the little town where he was born in the prov-
ince of Modena. He was a man of theories, had
great knowledge of classical architecture, and wrote
a manual on the architectural orders which enjoyed
great authority for two centuries and more. He
built various buildings at Bologna, and designed a
gigantic palace at Piacenza for the Farnesi, the
ducal children of Alexander Farnese, Paul III. and
nephews of the beautiful Giulia. The art of making
gardens, of using cypress trees, greensward, pools,
terraces, and clumps of ilex as joint partners with
stone, brick, and stucco, in one artistic whole, had
come into being in the sixteenth century ; and Vig*
nola was one of the masters of this new art. Be de-
signed the Farnese gardens on the Palatine Hill,
since destroyed by time, neglect, subsequent owners,
and eager archsBOlogistS. He was an artist of great
ideas, and sometimes caught the grand manner. ( Mi
the other hand, he also helped to bring on the Ba-
roque. Bis famous church at Home, the Gesu, de-
spite its vast, high-arching nave, lent itself with
30G A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
fatal facility to a gorgeous hideousness of decora-
tion, and set the fashion for many imitative Jesuit
churches, which caught the hideous gorgeousness
but missed the grandeur of their exemplar. He had
an important part in building the Villa di Papa
Gfiulio (Pope Julius III), a little outside the city
walls, charming in its grace, its variety, and its suc-
cession of arcades, courts, loggias, balustrades, grotto,
terrace, and garden.
The next in rank, Bartolommeo Ammanati of
Florence, may be called the court architect of Duke
Cosimo I. He built two bridges across the Arno,
the Ponte alia Carraia and the Ponte Santa Trinita,
finished the main body of the Pitti Palace, origi-
nally designed by Brunelleschi, and completed the
elaborate Boboli garden, the pleasure grounds be-
hind the palace. He also was drawn to Rome at the
behest of villa-building Popes, and had a share in
elaborating the plans of the Villa of Papa Giulio.
Giorgio Vasari, architect, painter, biographer, de-
signed the Uffizi at Florence, painted many indiffer-
ent pictures, and wrote " Lives of the Painters,"
a garrulous, discursive, inaccurate, and delightful
book. Galeazzo Alessi of Perugia built the stately,
tourist-haunted palaces of Genoa, once occupied by
opulent merchants, and also the gigantic church of
S. Maria degli Angeli, which covers the Portiuncula
of St. Francis, like a bowl turned over a forget-me-
not. Jacopo Tatti Sansovino of Florence was the
architect of many noble buildings in Venice. Andrea
Palladio of Vicenza embodied his passionate love of
classical architecture in palaces and churches in his
THE CIXQUECENTO 307
native town and in Venice. During the revival of
classic enthusiasm in the eighteenth century Palladio
became a demi-god. The captivated Goethe, as soon
as he arrived at Vicenza. hurried to see the Palla-
dian palaces. " When we stand face to face with
these building's, then we first realize their great ex-
cellence; their bulk and massiveness iill the eye,
while the lovely harmony of their proportions, ad-
mirable in the advance and retreat of perspective,
brings peace to the spirit." In Venice, he says,
" Before all things I hastened to the Carita . . .
Alas ! scarcely a tenth part of the edifice is finished.
However, even this part is worthy of that heavenly
genius. . . . One ought to pass whole years in the
contemplation of such a work."
These men and their rivals kept alive the tradi-
tions of the great period; nevertheless, in course of
time Btiltedness and exaggeration usurped the place
of elegance and force. A servile imitation of Roman
models, an absolute acceptance of classical correct-
ness, prevailed; the classic orders, especially the Co-
rinthian, spread themselves everywhere; in one place
barren ami formal simplicity obtruded itself, in an-
other pretentious magnificence. After 1580 the tran-
sition is complete j the baroque triumphs ; .sham tyr-
annizes, wood ami plaster mimic stone, columns tu igj
themselves awryj monstrous scrolls, heavy mould-
ings, crazy statues, gilt deformities, and all the con-
tortions tu which Btuccoand othercohesive Bubstances
will Bubmit, bang and cling everywhere, inside and
out. Bat this is to anticipate, for the lull revel of the
Baroque takes place in the seventeenth century,
808 A SHOET HISTORY OF ITALY
The same degeneration prevailed in sculpture.
Michelangelo, in his statues in the Medicean chapel
at Florence, " Night " and " Day," " Evening " and
"Dawn" (1529-34), had achieved the utmost which
thought and emotion could express in marble. They
stand, pillars set up by Hercules, at the end of the
noble sculpture of the Renaissance. His successors
tried to imitate him, in vain ; they produced bulk, or
writhing or distortion. Yet some men of this period
did excellent work : Benvenuto Cellini, delicate gold-
smith, and sculptor of the Florentine Perseus ; John
of Bologna, who modelled the Flying Mercury ; Tad-
deo Landini of Florence, who designed the charming
fountain in Rome, in which several boys are boost-
ing turtles into a basin above ; Bandinelli, whose big
statues are familiar in Florence, "a man strangely
composed," as Burckhardt says, " of natural talent,
of reminiscence of the old school, and of a false origi-
nality which carried him beyond a disregard of nicety
even to grossness." After these men and a few others,
sculpture followed architecture in its facile descent
into the Baroque, and expressed itself in prophets,
saints, and Popes, who stand in swaying and vacil-
lating postures in nave and aisle, on roof and balus-
trade. These decadent sculptors strictly belong to
the next century ; they are but heralded by the last
works of the Cinquecento.
In painting, too, the same story is repeated all
over Italy. In Florence after the close of the High
Renaissance twilight darkened rapidly. There are
few artists of note except two fashionable portrait
painters, Pontormo and Bronzino, who display the
THE CIXQUECENTO 309
characteristics of the period. Bronzino's picture of
the Descent of Christ into Hades almost justifies
Buskin's comment, a " heap of cumbrous nothingness
and sickening oifensiveness ; " on the other hand,
Pontormo's decorations in the o - reat hall of the
Medicean Villa at Poggio a Caiano are as graceful,
gay, and charming as can well be imagined. After
them in dreary succession come the decadent painters,
who painted figures bigger and bigger in would-be
Michelangelesque attitudes, as may be seen in one
of the rooms of the Belle Art I in Florence. Else-
where, also, the generation bred under the great mas-
ters faded away, — the sweet Luini of Milan, Leo-
nardo's follower; the facile Giulio Romano, Raphael's
pupil ; the beauty-loving Sodoma of Siena ; the ro-
mantic Dosso Dossi of Ferrara. These names show
how loath the genius of painting was to leave Italy,
but she obeyed fate; and, at the end of tin- cen-
tury, we have the Caracci beginning to paint in
Bologna, and Caravaggio (1569-1609) in Naples.
It needs but a glance at these later pictures to see
what a change had come over the Bpiril of beauty
during the hundred years since Botticelli painted
Venus fresh from the salt sea foam.
In literature, also, at the opening of the sixteenth
century, we had the historian, Guicciardini ; the po-
litical writer, Maehiavelh ; the poet, A riosto ; the cul-
tivated Castiglione: at die end we have the pathetic
figure of Torquato Tasso (1544 95), who Btands
drooping, like a symbol of Italy. Tasso is always in-
scribed in text-hooks as one of the four greatest Ital-
ian poet-, ami it would he useless and impertinent to
310 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
dispute the concordant testimony of many witnesses.
Byron apostrophizes him, " victor unsurpassed in
modern BODg ; " yet one with difficulty avoids think-
ing that his sad story has added to the beauty of his
poetry and heightened his reputation.
Torquato Tasso was the last great genius of the Ital-
ian Renaissance, and stands there facing the oncom-
ing decadence in gifted helplessness; he had many
talents, a noble nature, a melancholy temperament,
and a weak character. In boyhood his religious
emotions and his intellectual faculties were both over-
stimulated. His story is a medley of court favour,
success, rivalry, suspicion. His home was Ferrara,
but he wandered about, as a sick person seeks to
ease his body by changing posture. Early forcing
and some natural weakness combined to bring too
great a strain upon his mind, which gave way, and
the unfortunate man was put in a madhouse by his
patron, the Duke of Ferrara. He was confined for
seven years, but not ill treated. He died in the mon-
astery of Sant' Onofrio on the Janiculum at Rome,
where tourists stop to gaze at the poor remnant of
an oak tree, under whose shade he used to sit. Car-
ducci, the great poet, says : " Italy's great literature,
the living, national, and at the same time, human
literature, with which she reconciled Antiquity and
the Middle Ages, and, in a Roman way, represented
a renewed Europe, ended with Tasso." His sad
story is a fitting epilogue to the Italian Renaissance.
This general course of ascent, culmination, and
decline holds true even of Venice, except in chrono-
logy ; for Venice preserved her independence from
THE CINQUECEXTO 311
the normal Italian experience almost as resolutely
in the arts as in politics. She produced no liter-
ature, piqued perhaps because Italy had taken the
Tuscan dialect rather than hers for the national
language ; but in the arts, after decay had elsewhere
set in, she bloomed in the fulness of perfection, as
late roses blossom when other bushes show nothing:
but hips. Of her individual career a few words must
be said.
In architecture and sculpture, the Lombardi, a
Venetian family probably from Lombardy, nour-
ished for nearly a hundred years (1452-1537), and
left their mark on Venice, in tombs and statues,
in churches and palaces. Contemporary with the
last generation of Lombardi came the more gifted
Alessandro Leopardi, who completed the great
statue of Colleoni designed by Verrocchio, and gave
a new impulse to Venetian sculpture. While the
Tuscan sculptors had been studying Roman re-
mains, the Isles of Greece had been giving Greek
models to their Venetian conquerors, and Leopard]
in particular profited greatly by them. In the sister
art the first famous architect after the Lombardi was
the Florentine, Jacopo Sansovino, who spent most
of a long life m Venice, where be built the Zecca,
the Loggetta, the Libreria Veeehia i the ( )ld Library ),
and also the Scalad" Oro (the Golden Stairway
the ducal palace. Sanmicheli,a military engineer, as
well BS B builder of palaces, came from Verona to
work in Venice. Palladio (1508 80), of whom ire
have spoken, came from V icenza, and bequeathed bis
name to the Deo-classio Btyle, known as Palladia!!.
312 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
In painting first came the famous Bellini fam-
ily, Jacopo 1 1400-64:?) and his two sons, Gentile
and the more gifted Giovanni, painter of tenderest
Madonnas ; after them came Carpaccio, painter of
St. Jerome and his lion, and of St. George and his
dragon. Then followed in rapid succession the most
gifted group of painters that ever lived together, all
born within twenty years of one another, as if to
prove how prodigally Nature could endow a petty
province that had the luck to please her : Giorgione,
from Castelfranco on the Venetian mainland, of
highest fame and disputed pictures ; Titian, of Ca-
dore, noblest of portrait painters ; Palma Vecchio,
of Bergamo, creator of the most glorious of animals,
the superb Venetian women ; Sebastiano del Piombo,
who painted the Fornarina of the Uffizi Gallery long
attributed to Raphael, and deserved his fortune of
being pupil to Giorgione and friend to Michelan-
gelo ; Lorenzo Lotto, of Bergamo, another painter
of exquisite women, high-bred men, noble saints, and
poetical angels ; Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone, in-
ferior only to Titian ; Bonifazio from Verona, painter
of patrician luxury; Paris Bordone, of Treviso, so
uncertain in merit, yet at his best so rich in hue, so
tender in sentiment, so admirable in his pictures of
Venetian ceremonial ; and at the close, the giant Tin-
toretto (1512-94) and Paolo Veronese (1528-88) the
glorious : all, though in different degrees, splendid
in colour, voluptuous ministers to the sensuous eye.
This cluster of names serves to show that while else-
where in Italy art was dwindling into mannerism and
exaggeration, Venice put forth an extraordinary burst
THE CIXQUECENTO 313
of pictorial magnificence; yet even in Venice at
the end of the century none of the great men were
left.
The reason for this decadence of the arts from
their splendour in the early decades of the century
is not easy to assign; no one can say whj genius
spurts up in one spot or in one individual, why the
brilliant Italian race should have achieved BO many
masterpieces and then have become ineffectual.
One can merely notice, whether as a cause or an
accompanying phenomenon, that, with individual
exceptions, — no man could be nobler than Michel-
angelo, — Italy of the High Renaissance was a great
moral failure. In intellectual achievement the Italians
eclipsed the world ; in morality they stumbled about
like blind men. This lack of morality finds its
fullest expression, at least its most conspicuous ex-
pression, at the very time of the culmination of the
arts. Let me illustrate.
The night that the Duke of Gandia, son of Pope
Borgia, was murdered in Rome (1497), a wood-
seller, living beside the Tiber, saw several men come
cautiously to the river. They peered about and made
a Bign to some one behind. Dp came a horseman,
with a dead body Lying across his horse's back, head
and heels dangling down; the horse was tuned
rump to the river, and two men <>n foot Beized the
body and Hung it into the water. The wood-seller
was asked why he had uot reported the fact. He
answered that he had seen some hundred bodies
thrown into the river at that spot, and had never
heard any inquiries made. The duke's brother.
314 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Csesar, was at the time believed to have done the
deed, but evidence fails.
The same Caesar Borgia, bearing the somewhat
ambitious motto Aut Ccesar out nihil, energetic,
ruthless, vigorous, ingenious, and plausible, embodied
the Italian conception of what a political leader
should be ; so much so, that Machiavelli, the great-
est of Italian political writers, cites him as a model.
Machiavelli was a patriot, animated by real love of
his country, but he was free from our conceptions
of morality, or perhaps sceptical of Italian virtue,
and believed that the achievement of liberating Italy
from foreign tyranny could only be accomplished
by the qualities of an Iago. In the chapter in " The
Prince" entitled " In what manner Princes should
keep faith," he says : " How praiseworthy it is for
a Prince to keep faith, to practise integrity and
eschew trickery, everybody knows ; nevertheless,
within our own lifetime and our own experience, we
know that those Princes have done great things
who have made small account of good faith and
have known how to turn men's heads by means of
trickery, and in the end have surpassed those who
planted themselves on loyalty. . . . Therefore a
prudent lord ought not to keep faith, when keep-
ing faith would make against him, and the reasons
which made him promise are no more. If men were
all good this precept would not be good ; but as
they are bad and would not keep faith with you,
you, too, ought not to keep faith with them ; and a
Prince will never lack legitimate reasons to colour
the breach. ... I shall even make bold to say this,
THE CIXQUECEMO 315
that to have certain moral qualities and always ob-
serve them is bad, but to seem to have them is good ;
as to seem to be pious, faithful, kind, religious,
honest, or even to be so, provided your mind be so
adjusted that, in case of need, you will know how
to be the opposite. For you must know that a
Prince, and especially a newly crowned Prince, can-
not do all the things for which men are esteemed
good, for, in order to maintain the state they are
often obliged to act contrary to humanity, contrary
to charity, contrary to religion ; therefore, he must
have a mind prompt to veer with the wind and the
fluctuations of fortune ; and, as I have said, not
to forsake the good, if may be, but to know how to
cleave to evil, if he must."
Another illustration shall be the life of Pietro
Aretino (1492—1557), born the child of an artist's
model in a hospital at Arezzo, who, by wit and in-
finite impudence, by toadying, bullying, and black-
mail, worked his way to such a position that he
could say, " Without serving courts 1 have compelled
the great world, dukes, princes, kings, to pay tribute
to my genius." Once a pious lady, the Marchess di
Pesaro, remonstrated with him upon his life, ami bade
him mend his ways. He wrote hack: " I must say
that I am not less useful to the world, or Less pleasing
to Jesus, spending my vigils upon trifles than it 1
had employed them on works of piety. Bui why do
I do this? II' princes were as devoul as I am needy,
my pen would write nothing but misereres. . . .
Lei ii> Bee. I have a friend named Brucioli, who
dedicated his translation of the Bible to the Mo8l
310 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Christian King - [of France]. Four years passed and
he got no answer. On the other hand, my comedy,
1 The Courtesan,' Avon a rich necklace from this
same king ; so that my Courtesan would have felt
tempted to make fun of the Old Testament, if that
were not a trifle unbecoming. Forgive me lady for
the jests I have written, not from malice, but for a
livelihood. All the world does not possess the
inspiration of divine grace. Music and comedy are
to us what prayer and preaching are to you. May
Jesus grant you His grace to get for me from
Sebastiano di Pesaro [her husband ?] the rest of
the money of which I have only received thirty
scudi ; for this I am in anticipation your debtor."
Of Pietro Aretino a recent Italian critic says : " His
memory is infamous ; no gentleman would mention
his name before a lady." Yet, perhaps, we may
doubt if he was peculiarly bad ; he possessed the
cynical views of morality current at the time. Are-
tino made a fortune, received knighthood from the
Pope, nearly obtained a cardinal's hat, and was
painted by Titian.
The following anecdote is taken from the auto-
biography of the famous goldsmith and sculptor,
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71). He was travelling
on a sort of canal boat on his way from Venice to
Florence. "We went to lodge for the night in an
inn on this side of Chioggia, on the left as we were
approaching Ferrara. Our host wished to be paid,
according to his custom, before we went to bed.
I told him that in other places it was the custom to
pay in the morning, but he said, ' I wish to be paid,
THE CINQUECENTO 317
according to my way, in the evening.' I replied that
men who wanted their own special way would have
to make a world to snit their special way, because
in this world that was not the way things were
done. The host answered that I need not vex my
wits, for he wished to do according to his way. M\
companion was trembling for fear, and poked me to
be quiet lest the host do worse ; so we paid him,
according to his way, and went to bed. We had
excellent new beds, everything new, spick and
span ; in spite of this I did not sleep a wink,
thinking all night long what I could do to revenge
myself ; first I thought of setting fire to the house,
next of cutting the throats of the four jrood horses
that he had in his stable ; I could see that this
would be easy to do, but not how it would be easy
for me and my companion to escape afterwards.
At last I hit on a plan. In the morning I put my
companion and all the things into the canal boat.
When the horses were hitched to the rope that
pulled the boat, I said that they must not start the
boat till I got back, as I had left a pair of shippers
in my room. . . . When I got in the room I took
my knife, which was sharp as a razor, and I cut the
mattresses on the four beds to little bits, so that I
knew I had done more than fifty Bcudi worth of
damage." Throughout a delightful autobiography,
which we need not accept too literally, Cellini «\-
hibits a perfectly unmoral disposition, a mind with no
sense of social law ami no reaped for anything ex-
cept Michelangelo and art.
These four men, Csssai Borgia, Machiavelli,
818 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Aretino, and Cellini, possessed fortitude, energy,
subtlety, and courage, but they showed no appre-
ciation of the fundamental social virtues, loyalty,
trust, subordination of self to the general good ;
and for this reason they enable us to understand
why Italy fell like a ripe apple, without resistance,
into the lap of foreigners and lay helpless under
Jesuit, inquisitor, petty duke, and Spanish viceroy,
and why freedom to think and freedom to act faded
from art and intellectual life as well as from po-
litical life.
CHAPTER XXXI
A SURVEY OF ITALY (1680-1681)
At the end of the sixteenth century Italy is well
under way on a new stretch of history, which Lasted
until the nineteenth century. Except Venice, always
individual, and the Papacy, freshly revivified, Italy
has lost all moral force, and become wholly effem-
inate. In twenty-five years three hundred and
twenty-six volumes of sonnets were published. Her
political life has become what one may call grand-
dncal; her religion formal, superstitious ; her liter-
ature affected, stilted; her architecture Baroque \ her
painting and sculpture steeped in mannerism and
exaggeration. Nevertheless, Italy is Italy, and
has her own charm, her own individuality, her own
coquetry. A- formerly she lured Barbarian nations,
bo now she lures individual Barbarians, and becomes
the roaming-ground oi travellers. She seems l<
real country than a theatre, where roCOCO dukes,
cavalier^, and ladies curl their hair and powder their
cheeks.
For two centuries this artificial existence continued.
its biston is not to he found m the solemn volumes
of O I mtii. Carlo Botta, Or Other Italian his-
torians, hut in the journals of German, French, and
English travellers: for during these centuries [tah
was not a country in either a political or a sentimen-
320 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
tal sense ; it was a place of recreation for gentlemen
on the grand tour, pious folk bound Romeward, vir-
tuosi seeking classical remains, and elderly statesmen
hoping to cure the gout. The several petty states
were so many artificial gardens, where the peasants
wore pretty costumes, the dukes sang prize songs, the
duchesses trilled tra la la in rival endeavour, and the
ecclesiastics trolled out the chorus. It was the Ital-
ian opera boufie on the most charming stage in the
world. The best summary of the history of the com-
ing century will be a series of extracts from the diary
of a keen-witted French gentleman, travelling for
pleasure, Michel de Montaigne, who, in the company
of some friends, spent several months in Italy
(1580-81). They crossed the Alps over the Brenner
Pass and went by way of Trent. Montaigne's diary
is sometimes written in the second and sometimes
in the third person. He describes many of the prin-
cipal cities.
Verona (within the territory of the Republic of
Venice). "Without health certificates which they
had got at Trent they could not have entered the city,
although there was no rumour of any danger of
pest ; but it is the custom (in order to cheat us of
the few pennies they cost). We went to see the
cathedral, where Montaigne deemed the behaviour of
the men at High Mass very peculiar ; they chatted
even in the choir of the church, standing up, with
their hats on and their backs turned to the altar,
and did not seem to pay any attention to the ser-
vice except on the elevation of the Host. There
were organs and violins to accompany the mass.
A SURVEY OF ITALY 321
. . . We went to see the castle and -were shown
all over by the lieutenant in charge. The [Vene-
tian] government keeps sixty soldiers there, rather,
according- to what they said to Montaigne, against
the people of the city than against foreigners. We
also saw a congregation of monks called the Gesuati
of St. Jerome [not Jesuits]. They are not priests:
they neither say mass nor preach; most of them are
ignorant, but they carry on a business of distilling
lemon-flower water, both in Verona and elsewhere.
They are dressed in white, with little white caps,
and a dark brown gown over it ; good-looking young
men." They visited the Ghetto (Jews' quarter), ami
the Roman amphitheatre, which Montaigne thought
the noblest building he had ever seen.
Vicenza. " It is a big city, a little smaller than
Verona, all full of palaces of the nobility." The
fair, which was held twice a year, was going on
upon the parade-ground ; booths had been built on
purpose, and no simps in the city were allowed to
keep open. In the town there was another estab-
lishment <>f the Gesuati, selling their perfumes and
also medicines for every ailment. "These monks
tell us that they whip themselves every <la\ ; each
one has his switch at his post in the oratory,
where they meet at certain bonis of the day and
pray, bul they have no singing. . . . The old wine
has |riv6I] out. which vexed nie, as it is nut good for
me, on account of my colic, to drink the oev wines,
though they are vt-i\ good in their way." Prom
Vicenza they journeyed by a broad straight road.
ditched on either side and raised a little, which ran
822 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
through a fertile champaign with mountains in the
distance, to Padua. The inns here could not be
compared with German inns except that they were
cheaper by a third. " The streets narrow and ugly,
not many people, few handsome houses. We went
about all the next day and saw the schools of fen-
cing, dancing, and riding, where there were more
than a hundred French gentlemen together." In
fact, young men went in great numbers, young
Frenchmen in particular, to the schools of Padua, less
to acquire a knowledge of books than to acquire the
accomplishments which were then the mode. One
of Montaigne's party stopped here and found good
lodging for seven crowns a month, and " he might
have lodged a valet for five crowns more ; ordina-
rily, however, they do not have valets, only a gen-
eral servant for the house, or else maids ; every one
has a nice bedroom, but fire and lights in the bed-
room are extra. The accommodation was very good,
and you can live there very reasonably, and that, I
think, is the reason why many strangers go there
to live, even those who are not students."
Venice. Here he dined with the French am-
bassador " very well ; " among other things " that
the ambassador told him this seemed odd, that he
had no social relations whatever with anybody in
the city, because the people were so suspicious that
a [Venetian] gentleman who should speak to him
twice would fall under distrust." One is inclined,
however, considering the fate of Milan, to regard
a certain distrust of foreigners as not unnatural.
Montaigne thought that the four most remarkable
A SURVEY OF ITALY 323
things about Venice were the situation, the police,
the Piazza of St. Mark's, and the crowds of for-
eigners. He received as a gift a little book of
"Letters" from a Venetian lady, one of that cele-
brated class of Venetian women who were outside
the matrimonial pale yet lived in ostentatious lux-
urv. recognized by the government and by mas-
culine society. This lady at mid-life had changed
her ways and devoted herself to literature, and
hearing of the famous French author, sent him her
book.
Returning by way of Padua, Montaigne passed
the sulphur springs, frequented in May and August
by the fashionable sick, who took mud or vapour
baths and drank the waters. He noted the canals ;
the system of irrigation in the plains, where rows of
vine-laden trees intersected fields of wheal ; the big,
strong, gray oxen ; the broad mud flats, once swamps,
which the government was struggling to reclaim.
Rovigo, a little town in Venetian territory near
the Adige. "There is as great abundance of meat
here as in Fiance, whatever it may be the custom
to sav. and though they use no lard for the roast.
they do not take away the savour. The bedrooms,
because there is no glass and they don't shut the
Windows, are not so clean as in France; the beds
are better made, smoother, and well supplied with
mattresses, hut they have nothing but coarse cov-
ering-, and they are very Sparing "1' white she.N ;
if a man travels alone, or with little Btyle, he won't
get any. It is about as dear as in Prance, or a little
dearer."
324 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Hr crossed the Po, as he had crossed the Adige,
upon some kind of pontoon bridge, and went on to
Ferrara (duchy of Ferrara), where he was
delayed on account of his health certificate. The
ducal regulations on this point were very particular.
On the door of every room in the inn was written
up, " Remember the health certificate ; " immedi-
ately on arrival, names of travellers were reported
to the magistrates. Montaigne found most of the
streets broad and straight, all paved with bricks ;
there were many palaces, but few people, and he
missed the porticos of Padua, so convenient against
the rain. He did the town, paid his respects to the
duke, saw Tasso in the mad-house, and found the
lemon-flower distilling Gesuates again.
At Bologna (in the Papal States), a large, fine
city, bigger than Ferrara, and with many more peo-
ple ; he also found young Frenchmen come to learn
riding and fencing. He admired the fine porticos,
that covered almost every sidewalk, the handsome
palaces, the buildings of the School of Sciences,
the bronze statue of Neptune designed by John of
Bologna, and enjoyed a company of players. " The
cost of living was about the same as at Padua, very
reasonable ; but the city is less peaceful in the older
quarters, which make debatable land between the
partisans of different nations, on one side always
the French, and on the other the Spaniards, who are
there in great numbers."
This unpeaceful and factional condition was not
confined to Bologna, but spread throughout the
Papal States. Even fifty years later a perplexed
A SURVEY OF ITALY
visitor to Ravenna wrote: "The city is divided, as
yon know, into Guelfs and Ghibellines, so much so
that one man won't go to another's church, ami
each side has its place in the public square; a tailor
who works for one need not look tor employment
from the other, ami so with all the trades; they
distinguish one faction from tin- other by the way
they wear their hair, their caps," ete. But these
pale shadows of the great old parties were slight
inconveniences compared with the banditti, who
also decked themselves with old names, and. under
pretence of fighting one another, robbed, burnt, pil-
laged, and murdered with perfect impartiality. The
soldiers and the common people united against these
rascals, but they were too strong to be utterly ex-
tirpated. In the Papal States, one Piccolomini, a
member of a famous Sienese family, raided where
he chose, and once led a band of two hundred men
within a mile or two of the walls of Koine. Terms
were made with him, for he was under the protec-
tion of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and although
he confessed to three hundred and seventy murders
within twenty-five years, he was pardoned and ab-
solved.
Leaving Bologna, Montaigne hesitated in his
choice of roads on account of brigands, and chose
wisely for he was not molested. lie crossed the
Apennines 1>\ a road, which he Bays i-> the fire! that
COuld be called bad. and entered the (iiand I>ilch\
of Tuscany. One village on the way, still in papal
territory) was famous for the knaverj of the inn-
keepers, who made wonderful promises till the
320 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
traveller was safely housed, and then rendered the
Bcantest performance. At the next village, which
was in Tuscany, rival hosts rode out to meet the
traveller, and struggled to secure him, promising
everything. One ottered to serve a rabbit for din-
ner free, if Montaigne would lodge with him. The
party prudently rode about to all the inns on a tour
of inspection, examining food and wine, and making
their bargain before dismounting; the host, how-
ever, managed to put extras on the bill, it being im-
possible to remember beforehand every item, wood,
candles, linen, hay, etc.
Next day Montaigne rode out of his way to see
Pratolino, the Grand Duke's famous country place,
with its gardens, alleys, wonderful grottos, all decked
with Nereids and Tritons, and fountains of extrava-
gant baroque designs. From there he went on to
Florence, which appeared to him smaller than
Ferrara. He went to see the ducal stables, the ducal
menagerie, Michelangelo's statues, Giotto's cam-
panile ; and remarked that he had never seen a
country with so few handsome women as Italy.
Lodging's were inferior in comfort to those in France,
and the food was far less generous and less well
served than in Germany, where, also, sauces and
seasonings were far superior ; the windows were
big and always open, for there was no glass, and if
the shutters were shut they excluded light and air
as well as wind ; the beds were uncomfortable, the
wines too sweet ; moreover, Florence was esteemed
the most expensive city in Italy.
Montaigne dined with the duke, Francesco I (son
A SURVEY OF ITALY
of Cosimo I), and his second wife, Bianca Cappello,
the famous Venetian, who sat at the head of the
table. She had a pleasant face, was reputed hand-
some, and seemed to have been able to keep her
husband devoted to her for a long time. The duke
mixed water freely with his wine; she scarcely at
all. After a brief stay, during which he risited
gardens and the environs of the city, which he ad-
mired greatly, Montaigne rode southward to
Siena. The country was cultivated everywhere
and tolerablv fertile, but the road was rouffh and
stony. At Siena he notes the Duomo, the palaces,
the piazza, the fountains, and, important point, that
"there are good cellars and fresh;" also, that in
Tuscany the city walls are let go to ruin, while the
citadels are carefully fortified and no one is per-
mitted to go near, showing that the duke feared
domestic insurrection more than foreign attack.
Be observes "the French are kept in Bucb affection-
ate remembrance here l>v the people of the country,
that at any mention of them tears well up in their
eyes, for war itself, with freedom in some form, seems
to them sweeter than the peace which they enjoy
under this tyranny." The French had aided Siena
in its brave Btruerele for liberty, and a valianl rem-
uant of French and Sieiiese had held oul till the
Peace of Cateau-Cambreeifl (1559), when France
abandoned them t<» Cosimo dei Medici,
From Siena he rode southward past Bolsena,
Viterbo, and a pleasant valley surrounded bj bills
red with wood, "a c oodity sum. -what rare
in t hi.-, country." Incidentally be commends the
328 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
customs : in good houses dinner was served at two
o'clock and supper at nine ; and if there was a play,
it began at six and was over by supper time. " It is
a good country for a lazy fellow for they get up late."
At Rome he put up for a day at the Bear, and
then took lodgings, three good bedrooms, parlour,
dining-room, kitchen, and stable, for twenty crowns
a month, the host providing the cook and fire for
the kitchen. " Apartments are ordinarily somewhat
better furnished than in Paris, especially as they
have a great deal of gilt leather, witli which the
walls of apartments of a certain grade are hung."
He might have hired another apartment for the
same price, furnished in silk and cloth of gold, but
he did not think this luxury suitable, and the rooms
were not so convenient. Ancient Rome impressed
him immensely, and the modern city, too ; he was
astonished by the papal court, the number of pre-
lates, the crowd of ecclesiasts, by the streets, so full
of richly dressed men, of horses and coaches.
Making a comparison between freedom in Venice
and in Rome, he argued for Venice, and adduced
these reasons : " Item, that in Rome houses were so
insecure, that those who had considerable sums of
money were advised to leave their purses at their
bankers, so as not to find their chest broken open ;
item, that it was not very safe to go out at night ;
item, that, in the very first month of his visit, the
General of the Cordeliers was abruptly dismissed
from his post and put in prison, because in a sermon,
which he preached before the Pope [Gregory XIII]
and the cardinals, he had accused prelates of lazi-
A SURVEY OF ITALY
ness and luxury, but without going into details, and
using (with some asperity of voice) only perfectly
common and current phrases on the subject ; item,
that his luggage had beeD examined en entering
the city for the customs, and hail been ransacked
down to the smallest article of clothing, whereas in
most of the other cities in Italy the officials had
been satisfied with the mere offer to snlunit to ex-
amination ; besides that, they had taken all the
books they found in order to examine them, and
look so long about it, that a man who had some-
thing to do might put them down as lost ; add to
that, that their rules were so extraordinary that the
'Book of Hours of Our Lady' fell under their sus-
picion, because it came from Paris and not from
Bome, and they also kept books, written by some
German doctors against heretics, because in combat-
ing them they made mention of their errors."
On Christmas day at St. Peter's during mass,
Montaigne "was surprised to see Pope, cardinals, and
other prelates, seated almost all through the mass,
talking and conversing together. The ceremony
seemed more magnificent than devotional." He ob-
tained an interview with the Pope, very ceremoni-
ous; and dined with a French cardinal, where the
benediciti and repetitions of grace, verj long, were
recited antiphonally by two chaplains. During din-
ner the Bible was read, and after the table was
cleared, Bervice was In Id: everything was exceed-
ingly Formal, bui the chef does not appear to bave
equalled Cardinal Caraffa's chef . a culinary enthu-
siast, with whom Montaigne bad a long tall; on
330 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
sauces, soups, and serving. Montaigne attended the
(ai nival sports on the Corso, a festival already at
that time more than a hundred years old, where boys,
Jews, old men, horses, asses, and buffalo ran races;
fair ladies, without masks, looked on, and young cav-
aliers congregated where the ladies could see them;
the ladies were richly clad, the gentlemen simply ;
and (Montaigne adds) the appearance of the dukes,
counts, and marquesses was not equal to their titles.
Montaigne's "Essays" had been submitted to the
Master of the Palace, who examined them with the
aid of a French friar, for the Master knew no
French. After a delay they were returned, and the
Master left it to Montaigne's conscience to alter
what might seem to be in bad taste, especially in
those points to which the French friar objected ;
item, that Montaigne had used the word Fortune ;
item, that he had named poets who were heretics ;
item, that he had made an apology for Julian the
Apostate ; item, that he had suggested that when a
man was saying his prayers he ought at that moment
to be free from any unworthy inclination ; item,
that he judged any punishment in excess of death,
cruelty ; item, that a child should be educated to
do all sorts of things, etc. Another book belonging
to Montaigne, a history of the Swiss, was confis-
cated, because the translator was a heretic.
On Maundy Thursday he saw the Pope come
forth on the balcony of St. Peter's attended by his
cardinals. On one side a canon, speaking Latin ; on
the other, a cardinal read, in Italian, a long bull which
excommunicated an everlasting list of people, in-
A SURVEY OF ITALY 331
dueling the Huguenots and all princes who withheld
any portion of the territory of the Church. At this
last article Cardinals Medici and Caraffa laughed
heartily. At night there was a great procession «>t'
religious guilds, with twelve thousand torches, in-
cluding files of Penitents, who scourged their bare
backs till the blood ran. .Montaigne, however, was
of opinion that these Penitents were hired for
this purpose. He agreed with the French ambas-
sador, that the poor people were incomparably more
devout in France than here, but that in Rome the
rich, and especially the courtiers, were more devout
than in France.
From Rome Montaigne made his way northward
by Spoleto, where there was great alarm caused
by a noted brigand. On the way he notes his food,
— salt fish, beans uncooked, artichokes also un-
cooked, peas, green almonds, eggs, cheese, wine, and,
in little places, (dive oil instead of butter. " You
meet monks every now and then who give holy
water to travellers and expect alms in return, and a
lot of children who beg and hold out their beads,
promising to Bay a string of paternosters lor the
person who will give them something.
The I'mbrian plain was beautiful and fertile, with
grains ami i'mits in abundance, the whole country
rich beyond description. So, too, bad been the
Roman Campagna, but that was not tenanted, for
its owners, the Roman barons, had let n to mer-
chant farmers, who did not maintain peasants there,
but in harvest time hired husbandmen from all over
Italy, to the Dumber of fortj thousand, t<> gather
332 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
in the crops. From Foligno he turned to the right
and crossed the Apennines just below Assisi, and
travelled toward the Adriatic coast, making a pil-
grimage to Loreto, a place like Lourdes, celebrated
for its miracles, and for the "very same little house
in which Jesus Christ was born in Nazareth." Here
he found the people much more religions than else-
where ; even the attendants in the Church were
ready to do anything, and would accept no tips.
Thence he went to Ancona, Sinigaglia, Urbino,
where he inspected the famous palace begun by
Federigo da Montefeltre ; then back to Florence,
once more to admire the beautiful villas which
decked the hills round about, and on to Prato and
Pistoia, stagnating little towns, whose civic life had
been crushed out by the Medici. So he rode on
through lovely country, where long lines of little
trees, trellised with vines, divided the rich fields of
grain, skirting the hills covered with olive, mul-
berry, and chestnut, till he reached Lucca, which
had saved itself from the clutch of the Medici by
clingfino- to the skirts of Austria.
Lucca, girdled by fortifications worthy of a most
martial ardour, maintained a comfortable prosperity
by the manufacture of silk; but here, as elsewhere,
it was becoming unfashionable to engage in trade,
partly on account of decreasing returns and the
general waning of energy, and partly from Spanish
influences. Gentlemen retired from business, in-
vested their money in landed estates, and were rapidly
tending to become the characters which we find in
Goldoni's comedies.
A SURVEY OF ITALY 333
From Lucca Montaigne went to the Baths oi
Lucca and took the cure for Dear two months. He
found the country lovely, l>nt society a little slow ;
most of the men were apothecaries. After the euro
he made another tour southward, then back to
Lucca for more baths, from there northward, on
the road to -Milan, stopping at PONTBEMOLI. At
the inn in this place, the dinner began with cheese
alia milanese, included a dish of olives, their pits
taken out, dressed with oil and vinegar alia </>//<>-
vese ; on a bench stood one basin in which all the
guests washed their hands in the same water, (ilht
pontremolese. From there he crossed the Apen-
nines, where the mountaineers, horrid people, charged
them most cruel prices, and went on into the duchy
of Parma, where Alessandro Farnese, the greal gen-
eral, was the reigning duke. At Piaoenza, the King
of Spain, out of his abundant caution, still main-
tained a Spanish garrison in the castle, "hadly paid
as they told me." Thence they proceeded into the
duchy of Milan.
At 1'wiv Montaigne remarks, that from Rome
northward the best inn he had lodged :it was the
P08t at Piacenza, and the worst the WalcOfk at
Pa via: " You pay extra for wood, and there are no
mat: a the beds." Mnw was the largest city
in Italy, not unlike Paris, full of merchandise and
craftsmen : it larked the palaces of other cities, but
in gize «•'.! .||cd them all, and in throng of people
rivalled Venice.
From Milan he rode westward, and entered the
domains of the Duke of SaVOJ, QTOSsing the S<
334 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
near Vercelli, where the duke was building a fort
in such haste, that he aroused the suspicion of his
Spanish neighbours. Thence he went to Turin.
Here the people imitated French ways, looked up to
Paris, usually spoke French, or rather French words
with Italian pronunciation, and altogether seemed
very devoted to France. Montaigne liked Pied-
mont, finding the inns there better than elsewhere
in Italy. The bread was bad but the wine good,
there was plenty to eat, and the innkeepers were
polite. He crossed the Alps over the Mt. Cenis
Pass, half the time on horseback, half the time in
a chaise borne by four porters, and then entered
Savoy proper, passing its capital, Chamberi, crossing
the Rhone to the north and then the little river
Ain to the westward, and came to Montluel, the
last town of Savoy, and so on to the Saone, Lyons,
and French soil (November, 1581).
Such was the Italy of the long period from 1580
to 1789, the land of olives, mulberries, and chest-
nuts, of fertile fields crossed by vine-laden trees, of
irrigated plains and treeless mountains, of inn-
keepers, good, bad, and indifferent, of Spanish gar-
risons, ducal citadels, and dare-devil banditti, of
begging urchins, perfuming friars, of gentlemen
too genteel to work, of prelates in coaches, of
antique ruins and Renaissance glory, of blue sky
and vivacious manners, in short, almost the Italy
that our fathers knew before the perturbations of
1848.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS (15S0-
We have now reached a period of comparative sta-
bility in which dukes, viceroys, oligarchs, and Popes
sit settled in their respective dominions with a secu-
rity that appears a little tame after the whir and up-
roar of Barbarian invasion. To be sure, the wars
between Spain, France, and Austria, waged first to
abate the over-greatness of the House of Hapsburg
and afterwards that of the House of Bourbon, were
often fought out in the north of Italy; neverthe-
less, the period of confusion has passed, and each
principality has a consecutive political historv. w liich
runs along for two hundred years. Our best course
will be to glance at the careers of the several states,
one by one, until they reach the tumultuous influ-
ences of the French Revolution. Venice, the noblest
as well as the most powerful, deserves to come first.
Venice -.till ranked as one of the great powers of
Europe; -he was sought as an ally, she took part in
European counsels, and bore berself with resolute
dignity and pride. The change that was going on
went on xi slowly, and her statesmen wme so well
trained ami BO Ear-Sighted, that her reputation re-
mained intact alter the power which had Created it
330 A SIIOKT HISTORY OF ITALY
bad shrunk and dwindled. In spite of the battle of
Lepanto she lost the island of Cyprus to the Turks.
but secured a peace which lasted for two genera-
tions, a surprisingly long time, considering that the
two states were destined to fight each other till both
were exhausted. She was less successful in keeping
at peace with her Christian neighbours, and became
embroiled in a celebrated quarrel with the Holy
See.
There was an irritating papal bull which was
issued and reissued under the stimulus of the rein-
visroratine Counter-Reformation, entitled In Coena
Domini (for the Lord's Supper), usually read on
Maundy Thursday. It was probably the very bull
that Montaigne heard read from the balcony of St.
Peter's. This bull asserted papal claims of extreme
character, not unworthy of Boniface VIII, and, in
fact, revealed complete consciousness of renewed
youth and vitality. Other states in Italy bowed and
accepted, or pretended to accept, this declaration of
papal authority ; but Venice refused to publish the
bull. In fact, though Venice had always professed
great respect for the Holy See, she had been consist-
ently self-willed and opposed to papal pretensions,
and likewise somewhat free-thinking. Moreover,
there had been festering disagreements concern-
ing territory and politics. Venice insisted upon the
right to tax Church property w r ithin the state, and
to try priests charged with crime before her lay
tribunals. Acting upon the latter right she arrested
and tried two priests guilty of crime. This action
traversed the doctrine laid down in the papal bull.
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS 337
The Pope put Venice under an interdict L606). In
retaliation the Signory issued a decree of banish-
ment against all priests and monks who Bhould obey
the interdict. Various Orders quitted the city. The
Pope stood firm in his position that "there could
he no true piety without entire submission to the
spiritual power." All Europe looked on, the Pro-
testants backing Venice, the Catholics supporting
the Pope. War was in the air; hut the danger of a
European ///</,'< was too great. The French King,
Henry 1\ . enacted the peacemaker; and the forces
in favour of compromise succeeded in reestablishing
peace.
Out of the quarrel one man issued with a noble
historic reputation. Fra Paolo Sarpi (1552— 1623)
was the last of the great Venetians. In boyhood
he was so precocious a scholar thai at eighteen he
was made professor of Positive Theology, and. a
little later, of Philosophy and of Mathematics. ( rrown
up. he became a man of Bcii nee, the foremost of his
time excepting Francis Bacon. Be discovered the
valves of the veins, and also, independently of II. n-
\t-\. the circulation of the blood. He made discover-
ies in Optics. He studied heat, light, sound, colour,
pneumatics, the magnetic oeedle. In astronomy Gal-
ileo called him, t( U mio padn < maestro — m\ father
and my master.'" Mr i I . n r\ Wotton, tin- English
ambassador to Venice, said, Fra Paolo is w aa expert
in tin- history of plants as if lie had never perused
an\ Look hut Nature." [n addition to these achieve-
ments, lie wrote a \ny celebrated li i^t « .i \ of the
Council of Trent. At the time of the breach with
338 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
tlic I'apacv, this brilliant savant was appointed Theo-
logical Counsellor to the Republic, and was abruptly
flung into the confusion and passion of violent politi-
cal strife. Deeply patriotic, — his last thought was
for Venice, " Esto perpetua, may she live forever,"
— he held a brief, as it were, for his country, and as
her advocate argued her cause before all Europe
with brilliant success.
At this period the Venetian Signory belonged, in
spirit at least, to an international political party which
was opposed to Spain and to the Papacy, and for
that reason was favoured by the French, especially
when Henry of Navarre was on the throne. In
fact, this quarrel between Venice and the Papacy
may be considered an episode in the great struggle
between the party of European freedom and the
tyrannical House of Hapsburg, seated on the thrones
of Spain and Austria, and supported by the Papacy.
But Venice was not able to concentrate her at-
tention upon European affairs. Later in the cen-
tury war with the Turks was renewed ; she was
too weak to resist them single-handed, and, after a
struggle which lasted for twenty-five years, she lost
Crete (1669). Not many years later, having obtained
allies, she renewed the war, fought with great gal-
lantry, and actually conquered the Morea, which,
on the conclusion of hostilities, was ceded to her
(1699). This conquest, now best remembered from
the fact that in the attack on Athens a Venetian
bomb blew up the Parthenon, was the last great
military exploit of the Venetians, and within twenty
years the Morea was lost again.
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS 339
Martial vigour ebbed slowly but surely. Daring
the war of the Spanish Succession, when, the course
of fortune having shifted, Europe combined to re-
sist the overbearing power of Louis XIV and the
House of Bourbon, Venice remained neutral. Like
an old dog which lias fought many good fights in
it^ youth and prime, and now, lame and BCarred,
maintains a dignified abstention from canine frays,
Venice lay back. In 1718, alter the war with
Turkey in which she lost the Morea, she took part
in the treaty between Austria and Turkey. This
was her last active diplomatic intervention in the
affairs of Europe. She had lost Cyprus, Crete, the
Morea; and now her province in Italy, bits of Illyria,
and some of the Ionian Islands, alone remained from
her old empire. She shut her eyes to the past, and
concentrated her attention on making her beautiful
city ''the revel of the earth, the masque of Etaly."
On the eve of the mighty upheaval of the French
Revolution, her old sea glory dashed up under her
last greal admiral. Angclo Lino (1731—92), who
cleared the seas of tin- Algerine pirates; but it was
too late, Venice had run hei Course, and the end
a hand.
Spanish Provinces
Wesl of Venetian territory , the unfortunate duchy
of Milan Fulfilled its melancholy lot of being the
prize possessed l>\ Spain, \ « t coveted ami foughl
for 1»\ France, [ts bistory takes no special hold
upon the memory. Against a constant background
of French ambition I Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis X I \ .
340 A SHOET HISTORY OF ITALY
the Spanish governors step forward upon the Milan-
ese stage, levy taxes, scheme how to circumvent the
French, and how to extend Spanish dominion, and
then go home, a little richer but without leaving any
definite impression on the page of history except as
they have served to create the scenes depicted in the
romantic novel " I Promessi Sposi." One has a vague
idea of ceremony, bows, obeisances, ignorance, ra-
pacity, and cruelty, but the idea is nebulous, and we
need not stop.
Leaving local affairs aside, we will proceed at
once to see how the titles to Milan and other Span-
ish provinces in Italy passed from Spain into other
hands. History here acts as an attorney and coldly
records the transfer from one monarch to another.
Like lots of land the provinces of Italy were bar-
tered and granted in consideration of war, dynastic
love, and affection, or for the sake of the political
equilibrium of Europe. The great Powers fell to
blows over the succession to the crown of Spain
(1700-14), to the crown of Poland (1733-35),
and other matters in which Italy had no voluntary
concern ; and, after years of war, made treaties to
reestablish European equilibrium by an elaborate
system of weights and counterweights. Where the
balances hung unevenly, a province of Italy was
thrown in to restore them to a level. In this way
Milan, Parma, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia were dis-
posed of. All we need do is to remember that in
place of conveyances there were treaties, and in place
of offer, counter-offer, haggling, and bargaining,
there were battles, sieges, devastation, and pillage.
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS 341
The records of conveyances in the office of his-
tory read as follows : —
LOT
Milan
Naples
«
Sicily
u
M
Parma
Sardinia
GRANTOR
Spain
Spain
Austria
Spain
Savoy
Austria
ORANTKK
Austria
I'ATK
1713
Austria 1 7 1 .'"i
Spanish Bourbons L738
Sav..y 1713
Austria 1720
Spanish Bourbons 1 738
Spanish Bourhons Austria L738
Austria Spanish Bourbons 17 IS
Spain
Austria
Austria
Savoy
1713
1720
Milan was subject to only one transfer, from Spain
to Austria, by the treaties of Utrecht and Rastadl
(1713-14), which closed the war of the Spanish
Succession. Those same treaties toot Naples and tin-
island <if Sardinia from Spain and gave them to
Austria, and also took Sicily from Spain and gave it
to Savoy. Spain, however, was dissatisfied, and at-
tempted to recover what Bhe had lost; but a new
Europeaii coalitioo forced her to renounce her claim.
In tin- general pacification after the war, lot- the
purpose of making a more satisfactory arrangement,
Sardinia was exchanged for Sicily, giving Sardinia
to Savoy and Sicily to Austria I L720). Finally, after
the war of the Polish Succession bi the Peac<
Vienna L738 . Austria ceded Naples and Sicily to
younger tout of the royal Eamilj of Spain, the
Spanish BourDOM, on condition that those pro
842 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
vinces should never be united with the crown of
Spain, and received in exchange the little duchy of
Parma, which had fallen to a Spanish Bourbon on
the extinction of the Farnesi. But ten years later,
at the close of the war of the Austrian Succession,
Austria ceded Parma back again to other members
of the Spanish Bourbon family.
Tuscany
Another paragraph is necessary to complete the
Austrification and the Spanification of Italy. The
Medici of Tuscany died out. After the first Grand
Duke, Cosimo, six successors had followed, dwindling
away in incapacity, luxury, and bigotry. The last
died in 1737. Then, by virtue of that general reap-
portionment after the war of the Polish Succession,
the Grand Duchy was handed over to the Duke of
Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa, of the House
of Hapsburg, Empress of Austria, and became an
appanage of the Austrian Empire, under the rule
of the younger sons of the Imperial house. It is a
relief to turn from these Austrian and Spanish
provinces to the two living powers, Savoy and the
Papacy.
Savoy
It would be impossible to chronicle here the his-
tory of the Savoyard dukes, who were advanced to
the title of Kings of Sardinia after the acquisition of
that island. Savoy lay in the way of the three fight-
ing nations, France, Spain, and Austria. The plain
of Piedmont was an admirable fighting-ground, and
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITK -
the combatants chose it on all possible occasions,
but it would not be fair to charge the whole blame
upon those three nations. The Dukes ft' Savoy were
ambitious men, full of all sorts of schemes tor in-
creasing their dominions and their personal glory.
\\ henever any one of them thought he perceived an
opportunity to seize some neighbouring territory, he
caught at it, reckless of collision with his powerful
neighbours. The general upshot was that Savoy lost
its old Swiss provinces and its old French provinces,
and that Piedmont became the head and front of
the new Kingdom of Sardinia. Equally important
to Italy was the fact that, while the people of the
other Italian provinces became more and more inca-
pable of bearing arms or of making any real martial
effort, the people of Piedmont gradually became a
nation of soldiers. In devastation, war. and appar-
ent ruin, Piedmontese valour and Piedmontese char-
acter were trained and developed, and Piedmont
little by little came to feel, and likewise t<» impress
upon the other Italian States, that she. and she
alone, was the refuge and hope of whatever Italian
patriotism might still exist.
Papacy
The Papacy we left at the end of the sixteenth
century in the full flood of revival. The Popes were
swept on by the tide. The bold and successful front
opposed to tin- enemy was supplemented by disci-
pline within. Heresy was traced and tracked. In-
qnisitors roamed about, spying what they might;
the) frightened the- learned from publishing, prin-
344 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
ters from printing, and almost all from freedom of
talk and thought. Thus traitors were rooted out.
And at the same time faithful soldiers of the Church
were trained and educated. Seminaries for priests
of divers nations were founded in Rome ; Jesuit
schools were helped everywhere. Sixtus V (Felice
Peretti), 1585-90, was a Pope worthy of the great
period. He entertained a plan to reconquer Egypt,
and make the Mediterranean and Red Seas a high-
road for armies and navies that should break up
the Ottoman power. He attacked the banditti of the
Papal State, as his predecessors had attacked the
barons, and, for a time at least, suppressed them.
He was a great builder ; he completed the dome
of St. Peter's, set up the Egyptian obelisk in the
piazza before the cathedral, substituted statues of
St. Peter and St. Paul in place of Trajan and Mar-
cus Aurelius on the tops of the two great bronze
columns that adorn the Foro Trajano and the Piazza
Colonna. He brought fresh water, named after him
Acqua Felice, into the city from over twenty miles
away, and gave Rome an aspect worthy of the capi-
tal of the Latin world. He fixed seventy for the
number of cardinals; he revised the Vulgate; and
pondered many great designs, for which, as he said,
his strength would have been inadequate, even had
he lived.
But these Popes of the Revival, who carried into
effect the papal principles of the Council of Trent,
vigorous, and in many respects admirable, as they
were, need not detain us, for the history of the
Papacy in this period scarcely belongs to Italy. It
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS 345
has a far wider reach, ami is intimately bound up
with the great Catholic, one might Bay the great
Latin, effort to restore or extend Catholicism and
Latin supremacy throughout the world. In the Brit-
ish Isles, in Scandinavia, in Poland, in Russia, in ( i.r-
lnanv, Austria, Prance, and Switzerland, the Church
fought with the old Roman spirit of conquest.
Everywhere the Jesuit fathers went, busy, devoted,
heroic. The ardour of St. Francis Xavier. the self-
abnegation of St. Francis de Sales, the passionate
mysticism of St. Theresa, infected and controlled
thousands of disciples. Everywhere weir great
manifestations of activity. In South America there
were bishops and archbishops, hundreds of monas-
teries and innumerable priests. In Mexico there
were schools of theology. In India, thousands and
thousands of converts clustered around the city of
( roa. In ( liina and Japan the Jesuits built churches,
and converted to Christianity disciples of Confucius
and Buddha. The Church had founded an empire
on which the sun never set. But our business is cot
with this great Latin conquest, this great Catholic
revival. We must pass on to the next series of
Popes, less memorable for their imitation of Scipio
ami CsBSar, than of LuCulluS and CraSSUB. Here we
find tin- Dames of the founders of great papal fami-
lies, bo familiar in Rome, not as missionaries, teachers,
or martyrs, hut as owners of palaces, rillas, pictures
and Btatues: Borghese (Paul V. 1605-21), the Pope
who quarrelled with the Venetian Republic; Ludo-
vi-i (Gregory XV, L621 23 . in whose pontificate
the ( \,i,. de Propaganda Fide (( lollege for
34G A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Propagating the Faith) was established; Barberini
(Urban VIII, 1623—44), whose family, famous
from the squib "Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecerunt
Barberini/' built its palaces out of Roman ruins.
During the pontificate of Barberini, Galileo was
brought before the Holy Office, and his opinion
that the earth moved condemned as "absurd, false
in philosophy, and essentially heretical."
Under his successor Panfili (Innocent X, 1644-
55), Catholic Europe stopped fighting Protestant
Europe, and the Thirty Years' War was closed by
the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The Catholic
Powers gave over the attempt to reduce the Protes-
tant States, and acknowledged their independence.
Panfili launched his bull against the treaty, but
the weary world disregarded the old man's curses.
After him came Chigi (Alexander VII, 1655-67),
Rospigliosi (Clement IX, 1667-69), Odescalchi (In-
nocent XI, 1676-89), whose names mean little
to us.
Lon<r before this time the forces of revivification
which had borne onward and upward the Catholic
counter-charge on the Protestant ranks, had begun to
fall away. The great Catholic monarchs of Europe
turned their minds to personal ambitions ; the Popes
squandered papal revenues on their own families ;
the Jesuits loosened their rigid hold on their once
high principles. The period of reform had passed,
and the Papacy settled down into a policy of main-
taining the ecclesiastical empire left to it and of
enjoying its little Italian monarchy. In politics it
pursued a shifting course towards Austria, Spain,
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, POLITICS 347
and France, dictated rather by passing fears than
by wisdom or lofty ambition. At the time of the
close of the war of the Spanish Succession tin-
Papacy was hardly regarded as a European power.
The proof of decline was most visible in the con-
cessions made by the Papacy to the Catholic sover-
eigns, by its forced acquiescence in the repeated
attacks on the Jesuits, and finally, by its Lull sup-
pressing, or rather attempting to suppress, the Order
1773).
Throughout the eighteenth century the papal
part in European affairs was insignificant ; and in
Italy the general effects of papal rule were steadily
increasing poverty, superstition, and incompetence.
It is a relief to turn away, knowing that the French
Revolution is blowing its refreshing blasts ahead
of u^.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS (1580-1789)
We should do wrong to leave these centuries to
stand solely on their political record. Even this
dreary period has contributed not a little to the sum
of Italy's attractions. After the moral vigour of re-
publican Florence, after the freshness of the Renais-
sance and its later grandeur, after the elegance of
the courts of Urbino, Ferrara, and Milan, it requires
time to adjust ourselves to a different standard and
to acquire a relish for this period of dissipated little
kings and dukes. But once familiar with the altered
standard of excellence, these centuries, with their
arts, their habits, their idleness, become exceedingly
sympathetic, and lure with peculiar dexterity the
idler who seeks entertainment and the picturesque.
Not that there is no serious element in them, for
there is. Italy, though known to us through her lov-
ers as a woman land, has always happily commingled
feminine charm and masculine strength. Like the
Apennines which stretch their grim strength from
the Alps to the toe of the peninsula, virility runs
throughout the length of Italian history, though
at times it avoids notice. In this period it is best
represented by science ; and we must not omit to
mention a few of the most distinguished scientific
thinkers.
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE AKT>
Giordano Bruno (1550-1600) and Campanella
(1568-1639) were philosophers rather than men of
science ; their philosophy ran counter to the scholas-
tic philosophy sanctioned by the Church, and they
came into collision with the stern spirit of the Cath-
olic Reaction. Campanella was persecuted and pun-
ished ; Bruno was condemned as a heretic and burnt
to death in the city of Rome. Greater than either
was Galileo (1564—1642), whose Dame is one of the
most illustrious in astronomy. Be was born at Pisa,
where he was educated in the university. He de-
voted himself to study, especially to mathematics,
and became a professor. In 1609 he heard that a
Dutchman had made an instrument which in some
way by means of a lens magnified objects. Acting
on this hint he constructed a telescope; and, it' not
strictly the inventor, he was the Hist to use the tele-
scope in astronomy. The next year he made various
eventful discoveries : thai there are mountains in the
moon, and spots on the sun ; that Venus has phases ;
that Saturn has an appendage, which later was proi ed
to be rings; that Jupiter has four satellites, a dis-
covery which increased the number of heavenly
bodies from the mystically sacred seven (sun, moon,
Mercury, A enus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) to the un-
inspiring eleven. The-,- d 18C01 'Ties j >ei siudtd < ialileO
to adopt the Copernican theory, and brought him
into collision with the Church. Much has been said
about hi> cruel persecution, bnt he appears to have
received gentle treatment and to have undergone a
merely nominal imprisonment. Another philosopher,
Vieo 1668 17 11 .i Neapolitan, enjoys a eery high
350 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
reputation in Italy as a thinker. He wrote a philoso-
phy of history, in which he investigated the laws
that govern human progress, showed that philo-
sophical theories must treat mankind collectively,
and anticipated Comte's theory of the three stages
of social development.
Science is not the characteristic trait of this period ;
for that is to be found in the arts or in the pleasant
enervating lassitude of life. In the grand-ducal at-
mosphere there is a sense of having browsed on lotos-
flowers. As we glance back on the great centuries,
their efforts look splendid, their high purposes noble,
their infinite curiosity commendable, but we are con-
tent to sit in a ducal garden, to listen to the Tritons
spout into the fountains, to sip chocolate, to meditate
sonnets to a partner for the minuet, to gossip about
" His Highness and Contessa B , who, so that
young milord, Horry Walpole, says, w r as once a balle-
rina," and to confess our sins to fat, amiable priests.
We enjoy the badinage of the abbes, the ingenious
vacuity of the litterateurs, the cheerful buzz of the
cafe, the daily saunter on the fashionable promenade,
the drive in the park, and all the details of theatrical
make-believe existence.
As one becomes used to this lotos-laden atmos-
phere, one gets lenient impressions of the arts, of
their peculiar and characteristic agreeableness, and
rapidly loses one's previous too scornfully classical
attitude. In an earlier chapter we indulged in
some high-flown denunciation of the Baroque in
architecture. That was because we were fresh from
the Renaissance. Now that we have eaten of the
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS 351
lotus, we refrain from comparison and cnj.iv the arts
in their new phases, in ami for themselves. There is
hardly an Italian city that would not he poorer for
the absence of the Baroque, Rome, for Instance,
owes mosl of it^ charm to these decadent generations,
to the Villa Medici, the Villa Borghese, the Span-
ish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona.
A Neapolitan. Bernini \ L598-1680 . was the mas-
ter spirit of the best Baroque, both in architecture
and in sculpture. His greatest achievement is the
splendid colonnade which reaches out like two arms
from St. Peter's Church and clasps the sunny /<
in its embrace (1667). Bernini's statues, his foun-
tains, his decorations and ornaments, make a good
history of the time. They undoubtedly reveal de-
cadence, yet they are respectfully imitative of the
great achievements of the Renaissance, whereas the
works of his numerous disciples are surcharged with
contortion, obvious effort, and strain Eor effect.
There is a maximum of visible exertion with a
minimum of real accomplishment. Details are mul-
tiplied, and ornaments hear little or no relation to
the organic structure of the buildings winch they
adorn ; \»-t that practice is an Italian trait. ;nid e\eii
in excess has a picturesque merit. The baser work
of this Btyle, exhibited in the vainglorious churches
of the Jesuits, is sometimes called the Jesuit Btyle.
After this period of Btormjj ornament cone a calm
in the eighteenth century, facades became recti-
linear, and there was a general subsidence of obvious
effort.
In naint lie' the school of Bologna, led by Lodovico
352 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Caracci (1555-1619) and his nephews, Agostino and
the more noted and gifted Annibale, set the fash-
ion. They endeavoured to com 1 tine faithfulness to
nature with all the merits of all their predecessors,
and are therefore called the eclectic school. They
remained the cynosure of touring eyes until the
middle of the nineteenth century. Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds admired and praised them. Some of their dis-
ciples were for a long time almost as famous as
Raphael. Domenichino's Last Communion of St.
Jerome held a place of honour in the Vatican Gal-
lery equal to Raphael's Transfiguration. Guido
Reni's Aurora, painted on the ceiling of the casino
in the Rospigliosi palace in Rome, had a tremendous
vogue, and even now tourists, escaped from the crit-
ics, admire it privily. Guercino, Sassoferrato, and
also the lachrymose Carlo Dolci are other celebrated
members of the school. Another school, almost
equally famous, was devoted to Naturalism, — imita-
tion of starving old beggars and a general depiction
of want, misery, and squalor. Of these painters
the principal were Caravaggio (1569-1609), a Nea-
politan, and his pupil Ribera, known as Lo Spay no-
letto, because he was born in Spain. A later group,
the Venetians of the eighteenth century, consisted
of Canaletto, Bellotto, Guardi, and others who painted
again and again the idle canals and pleasure-loving
palaces of Venice. The greatest of this group was
Tiepolo (1693-1770), who attained in a measure the
grand manner of the great masters of the sixteenth
century.
In literature, though that also had flashes of seri-
THE AGE OF STAGNATION. THE A B 1 'S 353
ousness, as in Filicaia'a celebrated Bonnet to Italy
adapted by Lord Byron, —
Italia ! ( ) Italia ! thou who ha.-t
The fatal gift of beauty —
the spirit of the Baroque, in its lightest and plea-
Bantest manner, expressed itself to the full 1»\ means
of the Academy of Arcadia. The unreality of the
whole Italian world was concentrated iii this Acad-
emy, which soon had branches, imitations, colonies all
over the peninsula. It was founded in Rome ( \i'>\>-)
by Gravina. a jurist, Crescimbeni, a priest, ami other
dilettanti, for the ennoblement of literature, the pu-
rification of taste, and other meritorious purposes.
The members called themselves Arcadian shepherds
and shepherdesses, took pastoral names, composed
sonnet by the bushel, wrote one another's biogra-
phies, and were altogether delightfully ally. Got
doni, the playwright, gives a glimpse of these Littera-
teurs in the eighteenth centurj as lie observed them
in Pisa.
One day In- passed a garden gate and saw within
the garden i crowd of ladies ami gentlemen grouped
by an arbour. Be was told, "The assembly which
vou see is a colony of the Arcadia of Home, called
the Colony of Aipheus, named altera \er\ celebrated
river iii Greece, which flowed through the ancient
Pisa in Ellis." Goldoni went up to the circle and lis-
tened to a Dumber of gentlemen who recited poems,
canzoni, ballad-, sonnets, etc. lie observed that the
company looked at him as u desirous to know who
In- pas. Eager to Batisfj their curiosity, he asked
the presidenl if a stranger mighl be permitted t«»
354 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
express in poetry the satisfaction which he experi-
enced in being present on so interesting an occa-
sion. Goldoni had a sonnet in his head, composed
by him in his youth for some similar festival ; he
hastily changed a few words to adapt it to the pre-
sent occasion, and recited the fourteen lines with
the tone and inflection of voice which set off senti-
ment and rhyme to the best advantage. The sonnet
had all the appearance of being extemporaneous, and
was very much applauded. Whether the meeting
had come to its appointed end or not he did not
know, but everybody got up and crowded about him.
Thereupon he was introduced to a whole troop of
Arcadian shepherds, who welcomed him most heart-
ily. At another meeting the president, whose proper
title was Guardian of the Shepherds, drew a large
packet from his pocket, and presented Goldoni with
two documents, a certificate of his membership in
the Arcadia of Rome under the name of Polisseno
(Polixenes), and a legal deed which bestowed upon
him the Fegean Fields in Greece ; whereupon the
whole assembly saluted him under the name of Po-
lixenes Fegeus, and embraced him as a fellow shep-
herd. Goldoni says that, in spite of the formality
of the conveyance, the Turks never acknowledged
his title.
Mention of the Arcadia and of Goldoni leads to
another art, most characteristic of these two centu-
ries, the player's art. The drama had never been
a success in Italy ; Machiavelli and Ariosto wrote
comedies, but they were no better from a dramatic
than from an ethical point of view. After the
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS 355
acknowledged failure of serious comedy, another spe-
cies took the field, the "Commedia delT Arte," and
definitely established itself at about the time of
the beginning of the Baroque. In this species of
comedy the dramatis persoiue were masked and al-
ways impersonated certain definite characters, and
the dialogue was improvised. These masks were
Pantalone, our Pantaloon, a Venetian merchant,
who always wore a black robe and scarlet stockings,
and spoke the Venetian dialect ; // l)i>lti,r> , the do. -
tor, a pompous ass from Bologna ; ArlecchinOj Har-
lequin, a silly and credulous servant in tight hose
and motley jerkin, and Brighella, a quick-witted
and knavish servant, both speaking the patois of
Bergamo; Colomhina, the soubrette, a pretty maid-
servant from Tuscany; Capltano Spavento, Captain
Terrible, a fire-eater from Naples, etc. This comedy,
necessarily kept within narrow limits by these charac-
ters, was strictly improvisation, except that the play-
wright provided a scenario, a skeleton plot. It had
great success, and troops of Italian comedians went
all over Europe; but by the eighteenth century it
had run its course and become mere nilgai horse-
play, and Goldoni (1707-i^>), the only brilliant comic
playwright that Italy has produced, gave it a death-
blow.
Goldoni was a Venetian, and a perfect embodi-
ment of the happy, careless, amiable, entertaining
Society of the tune. He led a ro.iming lite, going to
Tuscany to learo good Italian, and finally ending
his career with twenty years in I'aris. Some of his
plays are in the Venetian dialect; two were written
356 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
in French. There are more than a hundred, count-
ing tragedies, interludes, and all. Their virtue is
their lightness. They are made of foam, a delicious
dramatic souffle, and in the hands of accomplished
Italian actors, like Eleonora Duse or Ermete Novelli,
retain their charm to this day. They are essential
for the history of the period, with their counts,
barons, marquesses, their ladies, their waiting-maids,
their innkeepers, camerieri, cobblers, adventurers,
and all their gay mockery of the idle habits of the
time.
It will throw a little more light upon the customs
of that day to mention cicisbeismo, an unwritten
ride of an artificial and idle society, which prescribed
that a lady should have a cavaliere servente, a gen-
tleman dangling in attendance upon her. Every
lady had a husband, as maidens were not allowed in
society, and widows had to choose between a con-
vent and a second marriage ; but the husband could
not wait upon her, for his own duty as cavaliere
servente required him to be in attendance upon
somebody else's wife. The duties of the cavaliere
servente were to devote himself solely to his lady,
to write billets-doux, compose sonnets to her lapdog,
to hand her chocolate at conversazioni, to give her
his arm on all occasions, to ride beside her coach
when she was out driving, and so on. In fact, he
was required to do all those little offices, jietits soins,
which a young gentleman is accustomed to render
to the lady whom he is engaged to marry. It was a
state of active flirtation, not only sanctioned but re-
quired by society. It is said that in some cases the
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS 357
eacaliere servente was agreed upon before marriage,
and his name inserted in the marriage contract.
Besides Goldoni's comic drama and the u Corn-
media dell' Arte" this Baroque Italy gave the world
another and far more important gift, the Opera.
Italian genius flared up once more and led the world
in music. As far back as the days of the Council
of Trent the reforming spirit of the Church found
its noblest expression in Palestrina's (1524?— 94)
masses, but after his death, after the Catholic Re-
vival had lost its deeply serious feeling, music took
another step. Florence, the old home of genius, was
the spot. A group of music lovers, who were full
of classic theories about art, w r ished to revive an-
tique Greek drama, with its combination of poetry,
music, and dance. They decided that the words
were the chief element, that the music must be sub-
servient to the full emotional expression of the
poetry, must intensify the dramatic significance of
the story. To give effect to their opinion they de-
viled a method of setting music to declamation, the
earliest form of recitative. They meant to revive
the Greek drama, but they produced the opera.
After a few years of work over the new ideas, in
1600, at the Pitti Palace, an opera was publicly
performed in honor of the espousals of Maria dei
Medici and Henry IV of France. This was tin- first
public performance of a secular opera. Soon after-
wards Monteverdi (1567 L643), a revolutionary
genius in the history of music, produced Ion operas
at Mantua. In L637 the lir.st public Opera house
was opened in Venice ■. others quickly followed ; the
358 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
opera became a favourite diversion, and Italian sing-
ers carried it to France, Germany, Austria, and Eng-
land. In the same year as the performance in the
Pitti Palace, a dramatic oratorio, " The Sonl and the
Body," was publicly performed in Rome. The ora-
torio was greatly developed by Carissimi (1604-
74) of the Roman school, and with him and his
successors acquired much stateliness and beauty.
Its influence on the opera, however, was not good,
at least if we adopt the opinion of those Florentine
Hellenes and of Wagner, for it developed music as
an independent element, and did not subordinate it
to dramatic action.
With the exception of this misdevelopment of
the opera, all music evolved brilliantly and well in
Italy, and especially in Naples, which eclipsed all
other cities, and showed that she, too, had her in-
dividual genius. Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725)
wrote a great number of operas and oratorios, and
composed a vast quantity of ecclesiastical music.
He was followed by his son Domenico Scarlatti,
by Durante, Leo, and Jommelli, by Pergolesi, Pic-
cinni, Cimarosa, and Paisiello, who followed one
another, like a flight of singing birds, through the
eighteenth century. The Italian opera, even then,
had the characteristics of subordinating dramatic
propriety and all semblance of reality to arias,
trills, and vocal exaggeration, but it was not till
the beginning of the nineteenth century — with Ros-
sini, Bellini, Donizetti — that the Italian opera (if
I may venture to adapt a famous phrase) became
melted Baroque. There were other schools of music
THE AGE OF STAGNATION, THE ARTS 359
at Rome, Bologna, and Venice. It was in Venice
that the four famous asylums for girls, con8< roatori,
were turned into music schools, and gave their name
to training schools for musicians all over the world.
Besides the opera one must note, in mentioning
Italian musical genius, the violin-makers, the Amati
of Cremona, the greater Stradivarius (1644-1737 ),
and other famous makers of Cremona, Brescia, and
Venice ; also the organ-builders, the Antignati of
Brescia ; the great Italian singers, then as now fa-
vourites of the world ; as well as the greatest of
libretto-writers, Metastasio.
Metastasio (1698-1782) had a career that can
only be compared to that of a successful prima
donna. As a boy he was adopted by the Arcadian
lawyer, Gravina, and brought early to drink of the
Pierian spring. After Gravina's death he spent his
money, got into the company of singers and mu-
sicians at Naples, and composed the words of an
opera " Dido," while still a youth of five-and-twenty.
"Dido" had immense success, and from this time
on Metastasio poured out play after play in words
that went halfway and more to meet the accompany-
ing mumc. His renown was triumphant throughout
Europe; he became the pet of lords, ladies, kings.
and Popes. He flitted from court to court, and
sipped the honey of facile success ; he serves as
the embodiment of tin- Italian opera, or rather as
a poetical spirit, a kind of baroque nightingale, to
chant the charm, the sentiment, tin- sweetness, the
unreality, of these two make-believe centuries.
As we take leave of tin- Seventeenth and Eight-
360 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
eenth Centuries (a somewhat ignoble pair), their
architecture, painting - , literature, and music, we must,
as in other matters, remember the good and forget
the bad. We must keep in mind the Spanish Steps,
which offer at their base ample room for all the
flowers of all the flower-sellers of Rome, then rise
in easy flight, pause, rest, and mount again, tier upon
tier, till the top step stretches out into a terrace,
where the pedestrian, glad to pause, turns and looks
back over Rome towards the majestic dome of St.
Peter's. We must remember the Trevi Fountain where
gods and nymphs and waters splash and frolic to-
gether, or Guido's Aurora, where Apollo looses the
rein to his heavenly horses as they gallop after Luci-
fer, while the straight-backed hours dance divinely
alongside. We must recall the sweet sentiment in
Metastasio, the light nothingness of Goldoni, the
merriment of Harlequin and Columbine, the violins
of Stradivarius, the singing of Farinello and Pac-
chierotti, the melodies of Pergolesi, and the general
pleasantness of an idle, amiable society. Then we
want to join the eighteenth-century travellers, —
Addison, Walpole, President de Brosses, or Goethe,
— and we look back with vain regret to that happy
lotos-eating time, and wish it would return again.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1789-1880)
Now come those great events, most important to Italy,
the French Revolution and the invasion by Napo-
leon. The storm burst upon a scene of quiet. Italy
was still like a comedy of Goldoni, dukes enjoying
taxes and mistresses, priests accepting oblations and
snuff, nobles sipping chocolate and pocketing rent,
while the poor peasants, kept behind the scenes,
sweated and toiled for a bare subsistence.
Before the Revolution came the premonitory
breezes of philosophical philanthropy wafted across
the Alps from the Encyclopedists. As they affected
the various rulers differently, it is necessary to de-
scend to some particulars. In Piedmont no philo-
sophical philanthropy warmed the king ; he wrapped
his cloak tighter about him. and deemed the old
ways good enough. He maintained his court in
imitation of Versailles, and drilled his soldiers in im-
itation of Frederick the Great. Nobles alone were
employed in the higher ranks of the civil Bervice,
cobles alone were made officers in the army; in re-
turn, they were treated like schoolboys, not allowed
to leave a prescribed path without permission. The
clergy had the privileges of the Old regime; their tri-
bunals had sole jurisdiction over priests, and tried t«»
maintain jurisdiction over the laitv for all offences
362 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
that had a smack of sin. King, nobility, and clergy
clung to the autocracy, and were resolved to maintain
it in full vigour. A rash admirer of Montesquieu
wrote a treatise upon "Constitutional Monarchy,"
and was put in prison.
In Lombardy the House of Austria really plunged
into reform; it reorganized the administration, reap-
portioned taxes, curtailed clerical privileges, abol-
ished the Inquisition, improved roads, favoured
agriculture, stimulated trade, and encouraged man-
ufacture. New ideas were broached. Beccaria pub-
lished his famous book "On Crimes and Punish-
ments," which began the attack on the atrocious, old
penal cruelties. French philosophy was discussed.
The physicist Volta, famous for his electrical dis-
coveries, occupied a chair in the university at Pavia.
Austrian garrisons indeed were on duty, but Lom-
bardy prospered as it had not done since the days of
the Sforzas.
In Venice the new ideas did not affect the gov-
ernment. The old system continued. The Great
Council of Patricians sat in conservative indolence ;
the ornamental Doge shuffled about, the Senate
talked, and the Council of Ten maintained its
petty despotism. Venice was moribund. Her voice
was no more heard in European affairs. Her army
had dwindled to a few undisciplined and inefficient
regiments; her arsenal was little employed. Gayety,
luxury, vice, reigned triumphant ; all the young
blades of Europe went thither to carouse.
In Parma the flood of philanthropic reform had
flowed strong; the minister of state, a Frenchman,
THE NAPOLEONIC ERA 363
full of Parisian ideas, had introduced many benefi-
cial changes, but a new duke, dissipated and devout,
slipped back into the old ways ; and its little neigh-
bour, Modena, concentrated its attention on avoid-
ance of all possible offence to its neighbours.
In Tuscany, an appanage of Austria, reform
bounded along. The Grand Duke, Leopold I, pro-
posed to destroy every remnant of the Middle Ages ;
he attacked the power of the ubiquitous priests,
granted free trade in grain, and equalized taxes, —
without discrimination even in favour of his own es-
tates. He improved the universities of Pisa and
Siena, drained the marshes of the Maremma, and led
the way in abolishing torture and capital punish-
ment ; he rendered a public account of the state's
revenues ; and, in short, put in practice the advanced
philanthropic ideas on government.
In the Papal States, on the other hand, medieval-
ism lay heavy. There was no commerce, no manu-
facture, little agriculture. Priests were everywhere,
greedy relations of the Pope almost everywhere.
No laymen were given office. Ancona, a seaport, and
Bologna, with its university, were the only exceptions
to general wretchedness. The finances were in ex-
treme confusion; the offerings of the faithful, the
sale of offices, tin- multiplication of taxes, did little
more than pay interest on the bonded debts. Rome
i little, unimportant, ecclesiastica] city.
In Naples, however, even the Bourbons felt the
fresh breath <>i reformation. A reforming minister
expelled the Jesuits and tried to reduce the number
of superfluous priests, monks, and nuns, and to rool
364 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
out the old feudal privileges. In the city itself
a goodly company of men gathered together, culti-
vated ideas, and followed the lead of the French
philosophers. Poor Sicily, overridden by barons and
priests, lagged behind, a prey to the feudal system,
and so unsusceptible to new ideas that the reform-
ing prime minister could not budge the dead weight
of custom. The people preferred to help one another
in their own way, and resorted to that mysterious
society, the Mafia.
Thus was Italy, half philanthropically inclined,
half despotically, with few outward indications of
the great awakening of the nineteenth century.
One such indication might have been found in the
life and character of a gentleman of Turin. Vittorio
Alfieri (1749-1803) was a kind of antique Roman,
a new Brutus, of passionate and lofty nature. He
embodied his ideas of liberty in classic tragedies,
which stirred Italian manhood in those days, but now
are extremely tedious to read. He boldly gave vent
to his hatred of foreign oppression, preached free-
dom, and appealed to the " future Italian people."
His autobiography, somewhat condensed and expur-
gated, might be put into Plutarch. He stands in
history, not as a great tragedian, but as the first
example of the rebirth of that antique virility which
was to display itself so brilliantly in the nineteenth
century.
Down into this little world of periwigs and laven-
der came the French Revolution. All who had ap-
plauded Alfieri's tragedies were delighted, except
Alfieri himself, who hated the French. But the
THE NAPOLEONIC ERA 365
Italian princes took fright at the democratic vol-
cano, and talked of a general union against France.
Piedmont alone was vigorous enough to take action ;
she made a league with Austria (IT'.I'J). Nothing-
important happened until young Napoleon took
command of the French army of invasion (17* Mi),
and began to tear " the heart out of Glory." It
would be useless to relate in detail his wonderful
career in Italy. He arranged the peninsula as a
housekeeper shifts the furniture in an unsatisfactory
room. He took Nice and Savoy from Piedmont,
Lombardv from Austria, formed the little states
south of the Po into a republic, took the temporal
power from the Pope, and set up a Roman Republic.
He turned the Kingdom of Naples into a republic
and then back again into a kingdom, first for his
brother Joseph, and then for his general, Marat
(1808). He converted Genoa into the Republic of
Liguria. Venice, like old Priam before bloody
Pyrrhus, fell at the whiff ami wind of the victor's
sword; tin- (neat Council resigned without a strug-
gle, and the Republic of St. Mark after an exist-
ence of a thousand years came to its end. It was
then handed over to Austria, but after Austerlitz
taken back again. In 180i>, having become Em-
peror, Napoleon turned the northern part of the
peninsula into the Kingdom of Italv, and put the
iron crown of Lombards' on his own head, saving,
"(Jod has given it to me, woe to him thai touches
it." In 1806 he put an end to the Holy Roman
Empire, and forced the Emperor, Francis II, to re-
sign the Imperial crown.
366 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
The old laws of political gravitation ceased to
act, and Italy was moulded and broken and moulded
anew, as if creation had begun again. The revolu-
tionary ideas on which Napoleon's power at first
rested had spread everywhere ; liberty, equality,
democracy were a part of every man's stock of
familiar thoughts, and the conception of an Italian
kingdom, vaguely associated with the poetic dreams
of Dante, Petrarch, Machiavelli, had become a polit-
ical fact. Italy was changed forever, the old Goldoni
comedy was gone ; Napoleon had given the coup dc
grace to the old regime.
There was another side to the Napoleonic domi-
nation. A multitude of men had been forcibly en-
listed in Napoleon's armies ; twenty-six thousand, it
is said, perished in the terrible retreat from Moscow.
The French were arrogant and they were foreigners.
Changes had been made too quickly and with too
reckless a disregard for Italian wishes. Nobles and
clergy had been despoiled of privileges, peasants had
been confused and bewildered, the pious had been
scandalized by Napoleon's treatment of the Pope ;
all these longed for the restoration of the old politi-
cal divisions and of the old easy ways.
After Napoleon's overthrow the Napoleonic states
in Italy fell almost immediately. The viceroy of the
Italian kingdom, Napoleon's stepson Eugene Beau-
harnais, slunk away ; and in the south, after some
vicissitudes, Murat was caught and shot (1815).
Kings, dukes, and Pope came tripping back to their
thrones. The Congress of Vienna decided that the
doctrines of the French Revolution were quite
THE NAPOLEONIC ERA 367
wrong, that law, order, and the principle of legiti-
macy were bound up together, that states belonged
to their royal families in tail male, and reparcelled
Italy among its petty sovereigns, acting quite as
despotically as Napoleon had done. It gave Venice
to Austria, Genoa to Piedmont, and Parma to Marie
Louise, the Austrian wife of Napoleon, for her life,
as she had to be decently provided for. The Dukes
of Parma received Lucca until her death, when they
were to return to Parma, and then Lucca was to be
annexed to Tuscany. Metternich, Hardenberg, Cas-
tlereagh, Talleyrand, and their associates compli-
mented one another on the happy completion of
their task, and the Congress broke up.
In Piedmont the king, loyally welcomed home,
put back everything to the position in which it was
before the disturbances ; the old dispossessed nobles
were restored to their places in the civil and military
service, and the carriere ouverte aux talents was
closed. In Lombardy and Venice Austrian officials
held a tight rein, and a watchful secret service (sbifn)
prowled aboat ready to pounce on plotting youth
like owls upon field mice. In Parma and Modena
the eye of the Austrian government was always
peering and peeping. In Tuscany Austrian Influence
also was dominant ; but the Grand Duke was a gentle,
kindly, paternal person, and his subjects were placidly
content, for the old Tuscan lire had died out, and
no Tuscan was so orazy as to dream of revolution or
of a united Italy. In tin; Papal States the reaction
was complete ; tin- Inquisition was restored, the Jes-
uits recalled, the ciyil service limited to priests. Hut
368 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
in Naples the reaction was worst. The despicable
Ferdinand, who dropped his number IV of Naples
to become Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, restored
the old regime, and swept away the autonomy of
Sicily, which had had a separate parliament for hun-
dreds of years, and since 1812 a constitution also.
Ferdinand humbly followed every hint from Austria.
The will of Austria was supreme from Venice to
Naples, and behind Austria was the conservative
judgment of the ruling classes of all Europe, still
frightened by the Revolution. European nobles and
landowners agreed that the riotous desires of the
middle class and proletariat for political privileges
must be crushed down.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE REAWAKENING (1820-1S21)
Outwardly despotism had been triumphantly rees-
tablished, and Popes, princes, and privileged per-
sons in general made a gallant attempt to pretend
that the French Revolution and the Napoleonic
upheaval had never taken place. Nevertheless, the
quiet on the surface did not extend underneath.
Inwardly the new ideas and aspirations were fer-
menting from Piedmont to Calabria. The Carbo-
nari (Charcoal-burners), a secret society organized
against despotism, plotted for freedom and for con-
stitutions. Their members were thickest in the
Kingdom of Naples, but spread throughout Italy.
The spark necessary to set ablaze this hidden dis-
content came from Spain. There a successful re-
bellion obtained a constitution. The thrill stirred
Naples. A company of soldiers under two young
lieutenants rebelled (1820), many joined them, a
general put himself at their head. The army would
not fi"ht them. The insurgents demanded a consti-
tution, with a parliament, a free press, trials accord-
ing to law, etc. The dastardly king was rriffhtened
into promises, bul as the insurgents were not con-
tent with promises, he granted a constitution, and
solemnly swore to maintain it. These revolutionary
tumults, however, had alarmed the comfortable,
370 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
conservative ruling classes and their leaders, the
Emperors of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. An Im-
perial conference was held at Laybach (1821), and
Ferdinand attended. The new constitution, indeed,
forbade him to leave the kingdom without per-
mission from parliament, but he had obtained leave
by promising to argue in favour of the new regime.
Whatever his arguments were the Holy Alliance
disregarded them, and charged Austria with the duty
of restoring despotism in Naples. Austria obeyed.
An overpowering army easily scattered the Neapoli-
tan constitutionalists and put Ferdinand back. The
constitution, parliament, free press, and all the other
obnoxious revolutionary institutions were brushed
away, and Ferdinand, having hung up in church a
lamp of gold and silver as an offset to his perjury,
inflicted punishment on the late rebels as fast as he
could.
Meanwhile the North had felt the thrill. In Lom-
bardy the hawk-eyed government pounced down on
possible conspirators. Silvio Pellico, the pathetic
author of " Le Mie Prigioni " (My Prisons), and his
friend Maroncelli, were arrested and put into prison
(1820), there to stay for ten years. A little later
Confalonieri, head of the Milanese nobility, and a
group of gentlemen were seized and sent to prison.
They were set free only in 1836, on the accession of
a new Emperor. Some of them, Castillia, Foresti, and
Albinola, then sought refuge in the United States.
I quote from the unpublished diary of an American
to show what kind of men these conspirators were:
" Castillia is an Italian, of an honourable Milanese
THE REAWAKENING 371
family. At the age of twenty-three he, with other
noble and brave Italians, lovers of their country, was
thrown into the dungeons of Spielberg (Moravia)
by Austrian despots, and there chained and confined,
sometimes in total solitude, enduring the Bharpesl
privations and basest ignominies for seventeen years.
Then on the accession of a new Emperor they were
released and exiled to America — they were men of
superior intelligence and education, honourable gen-
tlemen, true-hearted, loving men — Castillia possessed
all the virtues that one can name and in their most
attractive forms."
What these gentlemen suffered for love of their
country may be read in " Le Mie Prigioni." Pellico
himself was a Christian saint. After years of solitary
confinement he and Maroncelli were put together.
Maroncelli had a tumour on his leg, which grew so
painful that whenever it was necessary to move
Pellico helped him. " Sometimes to make the slight-
est Bhifi from one position to another cost a quarter
of an hour of agony." The wound was frightful
and disgusting. I quote from Pellico: " In that de-
plorable condition Maroncelli composed poetry, he
sang and talked, and did everything t<> deceive me
and hide from me a pari of his pain. He Could not
digest, "i- Bleep; lie grew alarmingly thin, and
often went out dl' his head J and yet, in a lew niin-
iin •> gathered himself together ami cheered me up.
What he Buffered lor nine months is indescribable.
Amputation was necessary; hut first the Burgeon
had to gel permission from Vienna Maroncelli ut-
; no cry at tin- operation, and when he saw the
372 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
leg carried off said to the surgeon, ' You have liber-
ated me from an enemy, and I have no way to thank
you.' By the window stood a tumbler with a rose in
it. * Please give me that rose/ he said to me. I
handed it to him, and he gave it to the old sur-
geon, saying, ' I have nothing else to give you
in testimony of my gratitude.' The surgeon took
the rose and burst into tears." Such was the char-
acter of the men who plotted for the freedom of
Italy.
The Papal States likewise had been quivering.
Lord Byron was in Ravenna at the time. He en-
rolled in the Carbonari, and sent a thousand louis
to the Neapolitan Constitutional Government with
an offer to serve wherever and in whatever capacity
they should desire. His letters and diary help us to
understand the situation.
BYRON TO MURRAY, HIS PUBLISHER
November 23, 1820.
Of the state of things here it would be difficult and not
very prudent to speak at large, the Huns [Austrians] open-
ing all letters. I wonder if they can read them when
they have opened them ; if so they may see in my most
legible hand that I think them damned scoundrels and
barbarians, and their Emperor a fool, and themselves
more fools than he ; all which they may send to Vienna
for anything I care. They have got themselves masters of
the papal police and are bullying away, but some day or
other they will pay for all ; it may not be very soon be-
cause these unhappy Italians have no consistency among
themselves ; but I suppose that Providence will get tired
of them at last.
THE REAWAKENING 373
SAME TO SAME
December 9.
I open my letter to tell you a fact which will show the
state of this country better than I can. The commandant
of the troops is now lying dead in my house. I !•• was shot
about two hundred paces from my door. ... As nobody
could or would do anything but howl and pray, and as no
one would stir a finger to move him for fear of conse-
quences, I had the commandant carried upstairs t<> my
own quarters. . . . Poor fellow, he was a brave officer
but much disliked by the people.
EXTRACTS FROM BYRON'S DIARY
January 6, 1821.
To-night at the theatre, there being a prince on his
throne in the last scene of the comedy, the audience
laughed and asked him for a constitution. This shows tin
state of the public mind here as well as the assassinations.
It won't do. There must be a universal republic, and there
ought to be.
January 7.
The Count Pietro Gamba took me aside to Bay that the
Patriots had bad notice from Forli [twenty miles awaj
that to-night the government and its party mean to strike
a stroke, that the Cardinal here has had Olden to make
several arrests immediately, and that in consequence the
Liberals are arriving and have posted patrols in the streets,
to sound tin- alarm ami give notice to fight. He asked me
"what should be done/' I answered, M Fight for it, rather
than betaken in detail;" and offered if any of them are
in immediate apprehension of arrest to receive them in my
house (which is defensible}, and to defend them with my
tnti and themselves ( we have arms and ammunition )
as long SS ITS ''an. or to try to get thrm away under
374 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
cloud of night. On going home I offered him the pistols
which 1 had about me.
January 8.
Rose and found Count Pietro Gamba in my apartments.
Sent away the servant. He told me that according to the
best information, the government had not issued orders
for the arrests apprehended ; and that as yet they are still
only in apprehension. He asked me for some arms of a
better sort, which I gave him. Settled that in case of a
row the Liberals were to assemble here (with me) and that
he had given the word to the others for that purpose.
Concerted operations. I advised them to attack in detail
and in different parties, in different places, though at the
Bame time, so as to divide the attention of the troops, who
though few yet being disciplined would beat any body of
people (not trained) in a regular fight, unless dispersed
in small parties and distracted with different assaults.
Offered to let them assemble here if they chose. It is a
strongish post — narrow street, commanded from within
— and tenable walls. . . .
I wonder what figure these Italians will make in a
regular row. I sometimes think that like the Irishman's
crooked gun they will do only for shooting round a cor-
ner : at least this sort of shooting has been the late tenour
of their exploits. And yet there are materials in this
people and a noble energy if well directed. But who is to
direct them 9 No matter. Out of such times heroes spring.
Difficulties are the hotbed of high spirits and Freedom
the mother of the few virtues incident to human nature.
January 9.
They say the King of Naples has declared, by couriers
from Florence, to the Powers (as they call now those
wretches with crowns) that his constitution was compul-
sive, and that the Austrian barbarians are placed again on
war pay and will march. Let them, — " they come like
THE REAWAKENING 375
sacrifices in their trim," — the hounds of hell ! Let it be a
hope to see their bones piled like those of the human dogs
at Morat. in Switzerland.
January 20.
Met a company of the sect (a kind of Liberal Club)
called the American] in the forest, and singing with
all their might in Romagnuol " Sem tut ti soldat' per la
liberta " — (We are all soldiers for liberty ). They cheered
me as I passed ; I returned their salute and rode on. This
may show the spirit of Italy at present.
They say that the Piedmontese have at length risen —
ca ira !
The news from Piedmont was true. Some officers
in the army proposed to demand a constitution
from the king and then force him into war with
Austria. They believed that Prince Carlo Alberto,
who stood next but one in succession to the throne,
though only a distant cousin of the soilless king.
was in sympathy with them and would act with them.
How far they were justified in this belief is uncer-
tain. The Leading conspirators bad an interview with
him, and thought they received satisfactory assur-
ances. In subsequent explanations he denied any
such assurances. Thus encouraged, the garrisons of
Alexandria and Turin hoisted the tricolour <d' the
Carbonari, and made their demands. The old king,
Yittorio Kuiaiiiiele. not knowing what to do. resigned
in favour of his younger brother, Carlo Felice, who
was then absent, and appointed Carlo Alberto regent
during the new king's absence. Carlo Alberto, always
infirm of purpose, with doubt and hesitation took the
opportunity and proclaimed a constitution (March,
376 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
1821). But the new king, apprised of this wild act,
at once annulled it, and bade Carlo Alberto leave the
country. Poor Carlo Alberto was in a sad dilemma :
should he obey his king and abandon his liberal
friends, or cleave to them and be disloyal to the
king? He obeyed and went to Tuscany. An Aus-
trian army aided the king to suppress the revolt.
.The liberals escaped as best they could. Some fled
to Spain by way of Genoa, where they were seen
by Giuseppe Mazzini, a lad of sixteen, who there-
upon resolved " that one could, and therefore one
must, struggle for the liberty of Italy."
Thus the revolutionary storms swept by ; the
sbinn resumed their old methods of prying and
spying, and dukes and kings deemed themselves
secure of their own again.
CHAPTER XXXVI
PERTURBED INACTIVITY (1821-1S47)
After 1821 followed ten years of outward repose.
Times were hard for lovers of independence, but
hope and purpose had been let loose, and in dark
corners, cloaking themselves as best they could, the
friends of freedom groped their way. Openly little
was done except by exiles, but indirect aid came
from literature, which followed the romantic move-
ment, and loudly asserted the revolutionary ideas.
There was Ugo Foscolo, the poet, half Venetian,
half Greek, who after the return of the Austrians
refused to take the oath of allegiance and Hed to
England, giving, aa was said, "to New Italy a new
institution, Exile;" Giovanni Berchet, of Milan,
poet and man of letters; Gabriele Rossetti, of the
Abruzzi, father of Dante Rossetti, a poet himself;
and many others. By far the most distinguished
was Alessandro Manzoni, a quiet, dignified Milanese
gentleman, who wrote patriotic plays, and the famous
romance,"] Promessi Sposi" (The Plighted Lot*
He cheered and comforted bis compatriots
with the thought that in him they possessed a man
of letters whom Burope recognized as the peer of
Scott, Byron, and Goethe. Scott praised >% I I'ro-
messi >|>o»i " most generously, ami Goethe said. " It
natisfiea at like perfectly ripe fruit."
378 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Greater than Manzoni, though at the time less
widely known, was the sad poet, Giacomo Leopardi,
indisputably the greatest Italian poet since Tasso,
and in the judgment of some men to-day, owing
perhaps to greater sympathy with his sentiments,
superior to Tasso. Leopardi raised Italian self-re-
spect, as Manzoni did, by proof that the genius of
the race still lived. He wrote the most patriotic
odes since Petrarch. Of these the poem " To Italy"
is perhaps most famous. It begins : —
O my country, I see the walls, the arches,
The columns, the statues, the defenceless towers
Of our forefathers,
But the glory I do not see.
Leopardi's wretchedness, in great measure purely
personal, was matched by that of his country.
Austrian soldiers, ducal sbirri, and Jesuits did
their best to destroy all vigour, life, and freedom.
The press was stifled ; no allusion to freedom was
allowed. In a chorus of Bellini's opera " I Puritani "
the word liberty was stricken out by the censor and
loyalty substituted ; and a singer who forgot the
change was sent to prison for three days. Things
were best in Tuscany and worst in Naples, where
Francis I, a rake, bigot, and coward, practised the
utmost cruelty. After an insurrection in a village,
twenty-six heads were cut off at his command, and
exhibited in cages ; and once, when a grandmother
besought mercy for her two grandsons who were
condemned to death, he bade her choose one. She
chose one ; the other was shot, and she went mad.
The ten long years of inaction at last passed
PERTURBED INACTIVITY 379
away, and another wave of exasperated indepen-
dence and patriotism swept over the peninsula.
The French Revolution of 1830 was the proximate
cause. This time, while Piedmont and Naples re-
mained quiet, for most of their Leaders were in
exile or in prison, Parma, Modena. and the Romagna
burst into insurrection ; but the Austrian soldiers
marched in, suppressed the revolt, and reseated
duke, duchess, and Pope. The attention of the world,
however, had been called to priestly government in
the Romagna, and the five great Powers, — England,
France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, — not wishing
a hotbed of justifiable revolt on the same Continent
with comfortable and privileged ruling classes, wrote
a collective note to the Pope in which they insisted
on certain reforms as indispensable. The papal
Curia made promises, but did nothing, and all Italy
relapsed outwardly into the condition in which she
had been during the ten years of inaction.
Nevertheless, the forces underneath, plotting and
(■•inspiring for Freedom, were stronger than before,
and here and there indications of this growing sen-
timent cropped ont. In 1831, after the ill-fated,
melancholy, distrusting, and distrusted ( larlo Alberto
had Bucceeded t<> the Kingdom of Sardinia, an
anonymous letter addressed to him was spread
broadcast over Italy. This letter bade him choose
between two courses, — either to lead the national
movement, or to be basely servile to Austria. u Bend
vonr bach under the German (Austrian) whip and
be a tyrant — But, if as jrou read these words your
mind runs back to that time when \<>u dared look
380 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
higher than the lordship of a German fief, and if
you hear within a voice that cries ' You were born
for something great,' oh, obey that voice ; it is the
voice of genius, of opportunity, that offers you its
hand to mount from century to century as far as im-
mortality ; it is the voice of all Italy, who awaits
but one word, one single word, to make herself all
your own. Give her that word. Put yourself at the
head of the nation, and on your banner write Union,
Freedom, Independence. Sire, according to your
answer, be sure that posterity will pronounce you
either the first of Italian Men, or the last of Italian
Tyrants. Choose."
Carlo Alberto, melancholy as Hamlet, for the bur-
den put upon him was greater than his strength,
continued inactive, distrusted, and distrusting. His
only answer was to give sharper orders against con-
spirators. The writer of the letter was a young Gen-
oese of grave countenance, with a sweet mouth and
sad, handsome eyes, Giuseppe Mazzini, aged twenty-
six, who had already abandoned law for literature,
and literature for his country. Suspected of being a
Carbonaro, he had been arrested and put in prison.
His father, having asked the reason, was told that
" his son was a young man of talents, very fond of
solitary walks at night, and habitually silent as to
the subject of his meditations, and that the Sar-
dinian government was not fond of young men of
talents the subject of whose meditations it did not
know." In prison Mazzini became convinced that
the true aim of patriots was the unity of all Italy,
and that the means should be the people, not the
PERTURBED INACTIVITY 381
princes. After a few months of imprisonment he
was banished. It was then that he wrote the letter.
In exile he began the task of rousing the Italian
people throughout the peninsula to the need of
common effort for a common end. He organized a
secret society, and named it Young Italy. Its pur-
pose was to make Italy free, united, and republican.
The first article of its constitution read : " This
society is instituted for the destruction, now become
indispensable, of all the governments of the penin-
sula, and for the union of all Italy in a single state
under republican government." The new society
spread rapidly, and was, perhaps, the greatest in-
dividual cause of final success.
Mazzini was a master conspirator, a very St. Paul
of the Risorgimento. His whole life was a passion-
ate renunciation of all the pleasures and comforts
for which most men live, and a passionate dedication
of himself to his ideals. He is a striking illustration
of the saying, The man whose heart is lifted up
within him shall not find the path smooth before
him, but the just shall live by his faith. His ideals
soared higher and higher ; not content with hope
for Italy. In- made plans for helping all Europe. He
mean object of BUBpicion all over the Continent,
and was driven from country to country, till he finally
went to England, but he never ceased t<> preach and
teach, to urge and encourage, to plol and counter-
plot. He believed in sacrifice, both of himself and
of others, and Instigated desperate uprisings. One
of these, a wild invasion of Piedmonl Vfhioh eanie
to nothing, is memorable because among the li
382 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
those who were subsequently proscribed for partici-
pation in it was a young seaman, a native of Nice,
then a part of Savoy, Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini
himself stayed in England, where the crudest accu-
sations were made against him. He endured slander,
malice, poverty, outward failure, still steadfast at
his task. He says, " I have not for an instant thought
that unhappiness may influence our actions." He
knew Carlyle, who bore witness in his favour: "I have
had the honour to know Mr. Mazzini for a series of
years, and whatever I may think of his practical
insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great
freedom testify that he, if I have ever seen one such,
is a man of genius and virtue, one of those rare
men, numerable unfortunately but as units in this
w r orld, who are worthy to be called martyr souls ;
who, in silence, piously in their daily life understand
and practise what is meant by that."
While Young Italy and the Carbonari worked in
secret, literature continued to carry on the task of
arousing enthusiasm for national achievements and
national ideals. The patient piety of Silvio Pelli-
co's " Le Mie Prigioni " was a most effective denun-
ciation of Austrian tyranny ; the plays of Giovan
Battista Niccolini, of Florence, on subjects famous
for Italian patriotism, were stirring appeals against
despotism, civil and ecclesiastical ; the romantic
novels of Massimo d' Azeglio, of Piedmont, the
patriot painter and statesman, reminded youth of
the great days of old ; other novels, passionate and
patriotic, by Tommaso Grossi, of Belluno, and by
Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, of Leghorn, did like-
PERTURBED INACTIVITY 383
wise. These romances so pitifully uninteresting to-
day did much ; but a book of a different character
had in its way a still more brilliant career. Vincenzo
Gioberti, of Turin, began life by taking orders; he
became patriotic, was Buspected, imprisoned, exiled;
in exile he studied, taught, and thought. In L843
he published in Brussels " II primato morale e
civile degli Italiani" (The Mora] and Civil Pri-
macy of the Italians), a book that rehearsed the old
glory of Italy and pointed out new ways bj which
that ancient glory might lie renewed. Gioberti ad-
vocated a confederation of the Italian States
eluding the Austrian provinces) with the Pope at its
head. The book had tremendous success; its ideas
were accepted and became a party creed; and Gio-
berti is entitled to rank as one of the factors in the
Risorgimento. Oddly enough, as it seems to us now,
his plan was on the verge of execution.
At this time Gregory XVI was Pope, a reaction-
ary man, devoted to ecclesiastical history, and, ac-
cording to his detractors, to Orvietan wine. He
showed the extreme of papal incapacity for civil
administration ; in the papal cities was Boualor, in
the country brigandage, in both dense ignorance.
But on 'hviiia's death Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti,
an amiable, Bmiling, charming, handsome, liberal-
minded cardinal^ who had applauded Gioberti, be-
came I'iux IX (July, L846). Within a month or
two I'in^ granted amnesty to political prisoners, ap-
pointed a commission to Btudy the accessary re-
forms in his states; permitted, tacitlj at least,
liberty of the press; announced a Council ol State
384 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
to consist of lay members; and authorized the or-
ganization of a civic guard. Pie was hailed with
enthusiasm throughout the peninsula. Here was
Gioberti's ideal Pope. Here was the man to lead the
Italian Guelfs and drive the Barbarians from Italy.
That the ecclesiastical head of organized conserv-
atism, the great bulwark of authority, the main-
tainer of ancient things, should be hailed as a saviour
by men desiring independence, freedom, and war,
needs a word of further explanation. In this period
of decadence and servitude, while Austrian officers
played the peacock on every piazza from Milan to
Naples, Italians could remember that an Italian Pope
was head of the greatest corporate body in the world,
that tribute was paid into his treasury from every
country in Europe, that kings treated him with
deference, and that from East and West hundreds
of servant bishops came to the foot of his throne.
These thoughts, coupled with inapplicable mem-
ories and desperate hopes, led men to regard Pius
IX as the predestined leader of the liberal move-
ment ; and shouts of " Hurrah for Italy, the Pope,
and the Constitution ! " were heard throughout the
peninsula.
Hope, too, arose in Piedmont. King Carlo Alberto
received Massimo d' Azeglio in audience (1845), and
bade his astonished subject tell his friends that when
the occasion should present itself, his own life, his
sons' lives, his treasure, and his army w r ould all be
spent for the Italian cause. A year later the king
withstood Austria in a dispute over customs ; and
a little later still, at an agrarian congress a member
PERTURBED INACTIVITY 385
rose and read a letter from the kino- which ended,
" If ever God shall <rive ns grace to be able to on-
dertake a war of independence, no one but me shall
command the army. Oh, what a glorious day will
that be when we shall be able to utter the cij of
national independence ! "
Thus encouraged by king and Pope patriots,
from Piedmont to Sicily, waited in tremulous expec-
tation for the cominc: of sjreat events.
CHAPTER XXXVII
TUMULTUOUS YEARS (1848-1849)
The period of waiting for coming events was short.
The whole Continent of Europe was straining like a
greyhound in its leash ; Italy, from end to end, was
on tiptoe with excitement ; and the year 1848 came
rushing in with swashbuckler fury.
In Italy the revolutionary movement began in
Palermo. The people attacked the Bourbon soldiers
and drove them out. Their example was followed
throughout the island. Across the channel Naples
arose and demanded a constitution. The frightened
king granted it (January 29). In Piedmont at an
assemblage of journalists, the director of a news-
paper, " The Risorgimento," declared that the time
appropriate to petitions for the banishment of the
Jesuits and for the institution of a national guard had
passed, and that a constitution should be demanded.
The speaker was a stoutish man of thirty-eight, with
a square face under a high forehead. He wore spec-
tacles, and under his chin a fringe of beard ran round
from ear to ear like a ravelled bonnet string ; he
looked like a distinguished and amiable professor,
except that there was a pinch to his nostrils and a
compression to his lips which suggested an arrogant
lineage and inherited notions of " Let those take that
have the pow r er, and let them keep that can." In fact,
TUMULTUOUS YEARS 387
Count Camillo Cavour belonged to the old Pied-
montese aristocracy. As a lad he served in the
engineer corps of the army, then travelled in Eng-
land (which he admired greatly) and in France,
studying - all kinds of social matters, from machinery
to constitutions. On his estates he was a practical
farmer, and he took keen interest in public life. It
was at this time that he first became a man of note.
The city of Turin took up Cavour's cry, and the
king acceded. The Grand Duke of Tuscany granted
a constitution. The Pope was slow to bestir him-
self, but the news of revolutionary success in Pans
quickened his gait, and he too granted a constitu-
tion. In the Austrian provinces, Lombardy and
Venetia, there were tumults, arrests, cavalry charges,
and martial law ; then came news of the revolt in
Vienna itself and word that the scared Emperor
promised a constitution. Venice accepted the pro-
mise ; but Milan, where a citizen had been killed
by the soldiers, broke into rebellion. Carts, car-
riages, tables, chairs, pianos, bedsteads, were heaped
up to defend the streets; sixteen hundred and fifty
barricades wen- erected; men snatched knives, ham-
mers, arquebuses, axes j all took part, boys, lads,
old men, priests. These were the famous Five Days
of .Milan. Every street, every house was a battle-
ground, and Field Marshal Radetzky, with fourteen
thousand men. was driven from the city. Revolt
spread through Lombardy. When the news reached
Venice the citizens rose, forced the Austrian govern-
on to surrender, and proclaimed anew the Republic
of Venice. Daniels Manin was made president.
388 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
This glorious news, Venice republican, Milan vic-
torious over Radetzky, flew to Turin. Every liberal
went mad with excitement. The centuries of na-
tional humiliation seemed past. Now had come the
hour for which Piedmont had trained and disciplined
itself, for which it had hoped and longed ; now
should Piedmont uplift Italy and fight its country's
battle. Cavour cried that there was but one possible
course, — immediate war with Austria. A great
crowd in tremulous anxiety thronged before the royal
palace. At midnight on March 23, Carlo Alberto
stepped out on his balcony and waved a tricolour
scarf. Next day a royal proclamation stated that the
Piedmontese army would march to the aid of Lom-
bardy and Venice. A shout of joy went up through-
out Italy. Modena and Parma cast out their dukes
and sent recruits to help. The Grand Duke of Tus-
cany, the Pope, even the King of Naples, compelled
by necessity, each sent an army. The war was a
national crusade.
At first the campaign went well. The Italian allies
numbered more than ninety thousand men; and Carlo
Alberto, leading the main body, forced the Austrians
under Radetzky within the quadrilateral made by
the strong fortresses, Verona, Peschiera, Mantua, and
Legnano. But the King of Sardinia was no gen-
eral; he lacked energy, decision, character. While
he dawdled, not knowing what to do, Radetzky re-
ceived reinforcements. This hesitation and delay
cooled the first glorious burst of union and freedom.
Pius IX felt doubts ; what right had the Vicar of
Christ to take part in war? Were not Austrians and
TUMULTUOUS YEARS 389
Italians alike in the sight of God? What had the
Universal Church to do with national divisions?
And might not Austria become heretic and Becede
from the papal rule? He said he would not fight
So great, however, were the tumults in Rome that
he was forced to face about once again, but his ter-
giversation gave a fatal blow to the cause. In Naples
the watchful Ferdinand, eager for a pretext, took
advantage of some street riots to dissolve parlia-
ment, and bade his army come home. One general
with a few hundred men disobeyed, but the rest
turned back.
In the north the old jealousies between the Ital-
ian States wedged themselves in and broke the new-
made union. Venice, instead of uniting with Pied-
mont in a joint political confederation, insisted upon
remaining an independent republic, and Milan hesi-
tated out of jealousy of Turin. Of these discords
and hesitations the octogenarian Radetzky took ad-
vantage. Within thirty days the Tuscan army had
been destroyed, tin- papal army made prisoners, and
Piedmont was left alone to maintain the Italian cause
in the field. In a three days' battle at CustOZa(Julv
23—25 i ilif issue was decided. The beaten Pied-
montese were forced to Burrendei Milan, ami to
retreat aCTOSfl the river TicinO into their own land.
and Austria returned triumphant into full possession
<.f hei provinces, except the city of Venice. Tin-
little Dukefl of Parma and Afodena returned also.
Elsewhere tin- current of events ran equally fast.
In Sicily Ferdinand bombarded the revolted <it\ of
Messina hence his nickname Bomba), and forced it
390 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
to surrender ; and in Naples he made a mock of
the constitution. Rome was in horrid confusion.
Pius IX appointed Pellegrino Rossi prime minister,
in hope that his energy and vigour might restore
peace and quiet ; but Rossi was murdered on the
steps of the Cancelleria. Rioters wandered at will
about the city. Shots were fired near the papal pal-
ace on the Quirinal. The Pope, terribly frightened,
fled from the city, and took refuge across the Nea-
politan border at Gaeta. He was besought to return,
but would not. The revolutionary leaders convoked
an assembly of Roman citizens to decide what form of
government to adopt, and, though the Pope hurled
excommunications at all who should take part, the
radicals met (February 5, 1849), declared the Tem-
poral Power at an end, and established the Roman
Republic. In Tuscany the republican fire likewise
blazed up; the Grand Duke ran after the Pope to
Gaeta, and a provisional government was appointed
with a triumvirate at its head.
In the north, Piedmont and Austria renewed the
war. On March 23, at Novara, a little town on the
Piedmontese side of the Ticino, the deciding battle
was fought. The Austrians were completely victori-
ous. Kinof Carlo Alberto asked for a truce. Radet-
zky's terms were so severe that the king, feeling
himself the chief cause of this severity, resolved to
be of no further detriment to his country. He abdi-
cated in favour of his son, Vittorio Emanuele II,
and went into exile, where he soon died. The young
king made peace on harsh terms.
All rational hope for the Italian cause was at an
TUMULTUOUS YEARS 391
end, but the dismembered parts straggled on. The
men of Brescia defended themselves gloriously for
days, barricading every alley and making a fori
of every house, but they were overpowered ; the
Austrian general Havnau inflicted atrocities that
made his name a byword throughout Europe. His
own report says, " I ordered that no prisoner should
be taken, but that every person seized with arms in
his hands should be immediately put to death, and
that the houses from which shots came should he
burned." ' In Sicily the revolutionists resisted in
vain, and the king's authority was reestablished
throughout the island. In Naples all liberals were
shamefully and most cruelly persecuted. In Tuscan v
the mild-mannered Tuscans, dismayed at their own
radical government, invited the Grand Duke to re-
turn ; so he came, bringing Austrian soldiers with
him.
In Rome still more notable events happened.
Ma/./.ini, as member of the revolutionary triumvi-
rate, was at the head of the government. His task
was hard, for the Pope had asked the Catholic
Power- to restore him. ami Spain, Naples. Austria.
aid France, hastened to obey. France interfered
because Louis Napoleon, president of the new re-
public, wished the support of the French clerical
party; nevertheless, he had to proceed cautiously in
order not to \e\ the liherals. and pursued a wavering
course. He said he would send an army to defend
real liberty, and would let the Romans decide for
themselves whal they wanted. The French soldiers
1 Tht Liberatu n M C< w •• p 144.
392 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
advanced to the walls of Rome (April 29, 1849) ;
the Roman republicans were naturally suspicious
and treated them as enemies. Skirmishes were
fought, and the French constrained to retire. Mean-
while, an Austrian army came from the north, the
Neapolitans from the south, and the Spaniards
landed at the mouth of the Tiber. The French in-
timated to the Austrians that this was their affair ;
the Romans, reinforced by Garibaldi and his Legion,
drove back the Neapolitans ; and the Spaniards re-
tired quietly, thus leaving France to deal with the
situation as she deemed best. French reinforce-
ments arrived, and fighting was begun again.
The Italians defended themselves for three weeks;
their soldiers, though brave, were raw, many of them
mere volunteers, and ineffectual against regular
troops. As Mazzini was the hero in council, so Gari-
baldi was the hero on the field of battle. The last
of knight-errants,he was the very incarnation of Ro-
mance and Revolution. Bred to the sea, this Savoy-
ard from Nice always retained the jaunty, gallant
bearing of a mariner. His countenance (childlike
and lionlike), — with its broad, tranquil brow, be-
nign eye, and resolute mouth, — in youth all spar-
kling, gradually changed with care and disillusion,
but he still kept the seaman's mien and the sea-
man's lightsome eye. He was the beau ideal of a
romantic hero. After his unsuccessful raid into
Piedmont he had gone to South America, where he
lived a wild life of guerilla warfare, fighting like a
Paladin on behalf of republican revolutionaries who
were struggling for their freedom. All the time he
TUMULTUOUS YEARS 393
was training a hand of Italian adventurers, his
Legion, so that they should he ready when their
country had need of them. These men rushed to
the defence of Kome. Their entry into the city was
most picturesque. The gaunt soldiers, wearing red
shirts and pointed hats topped with plumes, their
legs bare, their beards full-grown, their faces tanned
to copper colour, with their long black hair dan-
gling unkempt, looked like so many Fra Diavolos.
At their head Garibaldi, in his red shirt, with loose
kerchief knotted round his throat, the regular beauty
of his noble, leonine face set off by his waving hair,
mounted on a milk-white horse, rode like a demi-
god.
Besides this Legion, troops of volunteers came
from all over Italy. The character of these patriots
may be learned from Mazzini's account of the young
Genoese poet Goffredo Mameli. who was killed
there. ''For me. for us exiles <>f twenty years who
bave grown old in illusions, he was like a melody
<>f youth, a presentiment of times that we shall not
Bee, in which the instinct of goodness and sacrifice
will dwell unconscious in the human sold, and will
not be. as virtue is in us. the fruit of long and hard
struggles. Of a disposition lovingly yielding, he was
Only happy when he could abandon himself t" those
he loved, afl a child in his mother's caress; and yet
Mameli was uiishakably linn iu what touched the
faith he had embraced. He was handsome, hut care
■ f his appearance, and sensitive as a woman to
the charm of flowers and sweet scents. Such was
he when I knew him first at Milan in 1848, and we
304 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
loved each other at once. It was impossible to see
him and not love him. Only twenty-two, he joined
the extremes rarely found united, a childlike gentle-
ness and the energy of a lion, to be revealed, and
which was revealed, in supreme emergencies."
The defence of Rome was vain. Mazzini escaped
by means of an English passport, and Garibaldi led
a handful of men eastward hoping to reach Venice.
The French soldiers marched into the city, and re-
established the Temporal Power of the Pope. Venice
alone remained. Daniele Manin, the valiant dictator,
maintained a stout defence for four months, but
cholera and hunger came to the enemy's aid. On
August 24 the city capitulated, and on the 30th
Marshal Radetzky heard the Te Deum of Austrian
gratitude played in St. Mark's. In all Italy, except
Piedmont, the reaction had triumphed ; Piedmont
alone was left to become the centre of whatever
hopes of independence and unity still existed.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE UNITY OF ITALY (1S49-1S71)
After the uprisings of 1848-49, the old tyran-
nical system prevailed for eight years and Beemed
heavier than ever. Liberalism meant suspicion, dis-
favour, danger. The liberals were not very numer-
ous and did not a^ree among themselves. Some
looked for hope to Piedmont, some to England,
some to France. Some were for a republic, sonic
for a confederation, some for unity ; some wished
insurrection, others lawful agitation.
In Naples the king busied himself with putting
the liberals in dungeons. According to the general
belief the number of prisoners for political offences
in the Two Sicilies was between fifteen and thirty
thousand. Among them was Baron Carlo Poerio,
"a refined and accomplished gentleman, a respected
and blameless character," at one time one of the
ministers of the Crown. It happened that Mr.
Gladstone, travelling for the benefit of a daugh-
ter's health, passed Beveral months in Naples at this
time I L850 51). Be attended (rials of the liberal
prisoners, listened to a " long tissue of palpable lies
told by witnesses Buborned by the government,"
and visited the horrible and filthy prisons. Alter
bis return to England he published bis "Letters to
the Karl of Aberdeen." lie let forth before the
396 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
English people " the horrors — amidst which the
government of that country (Naples) is now carried
mi." He said that "the present practices of the
Government of Naples in reference to real or sup-
posed political offenders are an outrage upon re-
ligion, upon civilization, upon humanity, and upon
decency." He described the " incessant, systematic
deliberate violation of the law by the Power ap-
pointed to watch over and maintain it." " It is the
wholesale persecution of virtue, — it is the awful
profanation of public religion, — it is the perfect
prostitution of the judicial office, — this is 'The
negation of God erected into a system of govern-
ment.' " He recounted Poerio's trial at length, and
told how Poerio and fifteen others were confined
in a room about thirteen feet long and eight feet
high, in which they slept, always chained two by
two. These chains were never taken off, day or
night. He ended by saying, " It is time that either
the veil should be lifted from scenes fitter for hell
than earth, or some considerable mitigation should
be voluntarily adopted. I have undertaken this
wearisome and painful task, in the hope of doing
something- to diminish a mass of human suffering as
huge, I believe, as acute, to say the least, as any
that the eye of Heaven beholds."
These letters were sent by Lord Palmerston to
every government in Europe, and helped to awaken
general European sympathy for the oppressed lib-
erals of Italy.
In the Papal States Pius IX put himself wholly
in the hands of the reactionaries and the Jesuits.
THE UNITY OF ITALY
His government was practically imbecile. Brigands
came and went at will. In Forlimpopoli, for in-
stance, a city of the Romagna, a famous highwayman
and liis band appeared on the stage of a theatre,
and made the spectators empty their pockets of their
money and of their front-door keys. In Modena.
Parma, and Tuscany the governments did whatever
they deemed would he pleasing to Austria: and in
Lombardy and Venice the Anstrians repressed the
slightest signs of patriotism.
In Piedmont alone was there light ahead. The
young kinn" was the embodiment of the best quali-
ties of his race. The statues of him. carved in the
first fury of patriotism, which disfigure many a
piazza, reveal only his corpulence, liis monstrous
mustachios, and the forceful ugliness of his shrewd
face. Victor Emmanuel was a soldier horn, of i ne-
less manners, imperious and brusque, vet with a
charm of obvious honesty that won men's hearts
and gained for him the title of il r< galantuomo.
He reminds one of Henry of Navarre, in his dash,
his impetuous energy, his shrewdness, his deserved
popularity) and his eternally youthful readiness to
fall in love. After the defeat at Novar.i L849
pressure was put upon him to return to tin- auto-
cratic system, ami. it is said, Austria offered him
er terms if he would. He had been brought up
with the old ideas of tlie royal position, hut he was
statesman enough t<> perceive that if Piedmont ami
tli,- Bouse of Savoy were to lead in the movement
of Italian independence, they must win the confidence
of the liherals j and he had sworn to maintain the
398 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
constitution. He was always a man of his word,
whatever policy might advise, and answered that he
should be loyal to the constitution.
Piedmont's history for the next few years is a re-
cord of liberal legislation, as it was then understood.
This legislation was especially directed against anti-
quated ecclesiastical privileges, with the purpose of
realizing Cavour's principle, " A free Church in a
free State." A little later Cavour was called to the
head of the government, and for ten years, with
certain brief exceptions, he remained the chief figure
on the Italian stage. There are diverse judgments
on the very diverse merits of the master-builders of
the Italian kingdom; some admire most Mazzini,
the indefatigable conspirator, the dreamy idealist, the
nobly fanatical republican ; others, Garibaldi, the
man after Petrarch's heart, the rival of Roland or
the Cid; others, Victor Emmanuel, the honourable,
bold, shrewd, resolute king ; but all agree that
Cavour's brilliant diplomacy entitles him to rank as
one of the world's great statesmen, and that his
work was indispensable to the establishment of the
Italian kingdom.
This period prior to the war with Austria is
Cavour's. He set the finances of Piedmont on a
better basis ; he began a series of measures for the
development of her resources ; he secured various
internal reforms, but his brilliant achievement was
in his foreign policy. He knew that the Austrians
could not be dispossessed without a war, that Pied-
mont was not strong enough of herself, and that in
order to gain allies she must get a hearing before
THE UNITY OF ITALY 399
Europe. The Crimean War gave Cavour an opportu-
nity. England and France would have preferred
Austria as an ally, and there was much cautious
proceeding; but Austria hesitated, and Piedmont
offered herself. Many Italians deemed the plan of
taking part in a war with which Piedmont had no
visible concern a piece of folly ; butCavour carried his
point. The Piednionte.se army went, behaved with
credit, and effaced the unfavourable impression
Left by the disastrous campaigns of L848 1!'. The
fruits of the Crimean expedition were gathered at
the Congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour, sup-
ported by England and France, was aide to call t In-
attention of the Congress to the condition of Italy .
He pointed to the tyranny of Austria in Lom hardy
and Yenetia. to the abominable condition of the Papal
States, to the horrible misgovernment in the Two
Sicilies; and he pointed to Piedmont as the bulwark
against Austrian preponderance on the one hand, and
against the revolutionary spirit on the other. No-
thing definite was done, but the [talian question
had been broached, and Cavour'a participation in
the Congress was recognized as a great achieve-
ment.
Piedmont's Leadership was helped by rash revolts
elsewhere, easily put down and cruelly punished ; and
it became plainer and plainer that through the steady,
orderly monarch) of Sardinia deliverance was to
come, if at all, and not through the i isionarj Bchemea
of Ma/./.ini. The dark, mysterious plans of Napoleon
111 now loomed mi the horizon. Relations between
him and Cavour became closer. Cavour. no doubt,
400 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
would liave liked to gain his ends without French
aid, hut that could not he done. The only other pos-
sible ally, England, would not interfere. In the sum-
mer of 1858 an understanding was reached hetween
him and Napoleon that in case of Austrian aggres-
sion France would aid Piedmont. On January 1,
1859, Napoleon hinted to the world what had hap-
pened ; on January 10, Victor Emmanuel at the
opening of the Piedmontese parliament said that the
political situation was not free from perils ahead,
" for while we respect treaties, we cannot disregard
the cry of pain which comes to us from so many
parts of Italy." Count Cavour asked for a loan of
50,000,000 lire. Affairs moved fast. Relations he-
tween Piedmont and Austria were strained taut ; but
it was essential that Austria should be the aggressor.
Russia and England, in order to prevent war, sug-
gested a European Congress to consider matters.
Napoleon consented ; and Cavour, who knew that
freedom for Italy could only be obtained by war,
feared that his chance had gone. There was talk of
disarmament, but no agreement had been reached,
when Austria, impatient and arrogant, sent an ulti-
matum to Piedmont that she must disarm prior to
the Congress. Victor Emmanuel refused and war
was declared.
The French Emperor crossed the Alps, and in
June the allies won the battles of Magenta and
Solferino. The Italians believed that Austria would
now be driven from every foot of Italian soil :
when, suddenly, without consulting Piedmont, Napo-
leon, for reasons of French policy, made peace with
THE UNITY OF ITALY 4c I
Austria. The Emperor of Austria ceded Lombardy
to Napoleon, and Napoleon transferred it to Pied-
mont; and, as a sop to the spirit of Italian unity,
both Emperors agreed to favour the scheme of a con-
federation of the Italian States with the Pope at its
head, but the latter plan was left in the air. This
was the end of the high hopes of Italian freedom
and unity. Italy had received a slap in the face.
Cavonr was furious; he had a Btormj interview with
his king, and passionately urged him not to consent,
but the king had the good sense to see thai he must.
Cavonr immediately resigned.
Meanwhile the war had caused the recall of the
Austrian troops south of the Po, and the patriots
had risen in joy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, the
Duke of Modena, the Duchess Regent of Parma, the
papal legates of the Romagna, ran away, and pro-
visional governments were established ; but a perma-
nent political disposition was attended with difficul-
ties. The states themselves wished to join Piedmont,
but the wish was not unanimous, for many people
wanted to preserve local autonomy and their old
historic boundaries. Napoleon favoured his vague
confederacy, and a European Congress supported
his new. Indecision reigned, but the cause of na-
tional union triumphed through the rigour of Count
Bettino Ricasoli, a man of iron character, head of
the provisional government in Tuscany. "We must,"
he wrote, " no longer speak of Piedmont, nor of
Florence, nor of Tuscan) ; wemusi Bpeah neither of
fn>ion aor annexation, but of the union of the Ital-
ian people under the constitutional government oi
402 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
Victor Emmanuel." ' Certainly the fugitive dukes
could only return by force, and though Continental
Europe approved their return, there was nobody to
supply the force. The little states voted to join
Piedmont. Piedmont, however, hesitated, in fear of
European contradiction. Nobody but Cavour could
manage the matter, and he was recalled to office
(1860). Cavour appealed to the doctrine of the
popular will to be expressed by a plebiscite. France,
however, would only consent upon cession of Savoy
and Nice, a measure already talked of as the price
of the French alliance ; and in spite of the reluctance
of the king to surrender Savoy, the cradle of his
race, the price had to be paid. The cession was
made, and Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the Ro-
magna were united with the Kingdom of Sardinia
under the name of the Kingdom of Italy (April 15,
I860).
In the mean time Ferdinand II, King of the Two
Sicilies, had died, hated and despised by everybody,
and his son Francis II, a weak, ignorant, bigoted
lad, had mounted the throne. He refused a sugges-
tion of Victor Emmanuel to join in the war against
Austria, threw himself into the arms of the reaction-
ary party, and made an alliance with the Pope. The
discontented liberals took courage at the news from
the north. In April, 1860, the revolt began in Pa-
lermo, and, though suppressed there, spread. Two
young patriots, Francesco Crispi and Rosalino Pilo,
went about stirring the people to action. Garibaldi
was begged to put himself at the head of the pro-
1 The Union of Italy, W. J. Stillroan, p. 300.
THE UNITY OF ITALY
posed revolution. On the night of May 6, two
ships, the Lombard v and the Piedmont. secretly
left Genoa, and took Garibaldi and a thousand vol-
unteers aboard. This band, known as i Milk, is
nearlv as famous and as legendary as King Ar-
thur and his Round Table. On May 11. the ships
landed at Marsala. Two Neapolitan cruisers came
up, but two English men-of-war happened to be
there also; and the English captains, under guise of
friendly notification to the Neapolitans, took Borne
action which delayed the latter long enough to let
the last Garibaldians disembark. Once on shore.
Garibaldi's volunteers ran to secure the telegraph
office. They arrived just after the operator had tel-
egraphed that two Piedmontese ships, filled with
troops, had come into the harbour; a Garibaldian
was able to add to the message, " I have made a
mistake; they are two merchantmen." The answer
came back, " Idiot." The volunteers marched in-
land. A provisional government was organized ;
Garibaldi was made dictator, and Crispi secretary
of state. The cry was •• Italy and Victor Kniman-
uel ! " Garibaldi was joined by insurgent Sicilians,
and, with numbers considerably increased, fought
and defeated the Bourbon army. The storj reads
like the exploits of I lector before the Greet trenches.
Victory followed victory. Palermo fell, M1L1//.0 and
M. ina; then he crossed the straits and invaded
Calabria (August). This marvellous triumph, Pot
there had been thirty thousand regular troop
oppose Garibaldi, frightened King Francis; he
proclaimed a constitution, appealed to Napoleon,
404 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
and even to Victor Emmanuel, for help. It was too
late. Garibaldi swept on victorious, and the king
tied from Naples (September G) ; the next day Gari-
baldi marched in and assumed dictatorship of the
kingdom.
England approved, but Continental Europe looked
askance at this irregular proceeding, and Victor
Emmanuel and Cavour began to feel uneasy, apprehen-
sive lest the Great Powers should intervene in Ital-
ian affairs. It was a difficult situation. Garibaldi was
moving on northward, and proclaimed his intention
of going to Rome, regardless of the French army
stationed there, and then to Venice, regardless of
the European treaties that gave Venice to Austria.
Besides, the Pope had collected an army (largely of
foreign recruits) to suppress the liberal movements
in Umbria and the Marches, and to give aid to the
Neapolitan king. Here were further opportunities
for foreign intervention. Evidently Cavour must
act promptly if he wished Piedmont to continue to
control the national movement. He requested the
Pope to dismiss his new army. The Pope refused.
The Piedmontese army crossed the pontifical border,
scattered the papal army, and took possession of all
the papal territory, except the city of Rome and the
country immediately about it, and then marched on
across the Neapolitan boundary. Here the Bourbon
army was holding Garibaldi at bay. The arrival
of the Piedmontese determined the issue. A less
noble man might have shown resentment at having
another come at the eleventh hour and seize the
fruits of victory, but Garibaldi hailed Victor Em-
THE UNITY OF ITALY 405
manuel as King of Italy, refused the profl
honours and rewards, ami went home, apooi man, to
the little island of Caprera. The Two Sicilies and
the liberated parts of the Papal States voted to join
the Kingdom of Italy. In February, 1861, the first
Italian parliament was held, ami Victor Emmanuel
formally received the title King of Italy. Excepting
Rome and Venice, Italy was tree and independent
Rome was the more pressing question of the two.
A history of twenty-five hundred years, a profound
sentiment, a patriotic, poetic, romantic love, had in-
evitably determined that Rome must lie the capital
of United Italy. On the other hand, opposed to tin-
Italian national sentiment was the historic Catholic
sentiment, diffused throughout Europe and strongest
in France. The Pope naturally deemed his Italian
birth inferior in obligation to his Catholic position.
Moreover, the Temporal Power of the Pojhs bad
endured for more than a thousand years, and since
the time of Julius II the pontifical title had been
as good as the title to public or private propei t\
anywhere. Cat holies honestly believed that this po-
litical kingdom was necessary to the independence
of the Church. How COuld the World. the\ said, be-
lieve in papal impartiality if the Papacy were under
the thumb of the Italian government '.' Tin- difference
in point of view inevitably brought the ardent Pa-
pist and the patriotic Nationalist to mutual injua
tiee. The Italians looked mi I'm IX M their worst
enemy; the Koiiian Curia deemed the Italians rob-
ber-. French sympathy with the Papists, ami esp<
cially the pr< I a French army in Rome, made
400 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
the question exceedingly difficult. A special circum-
stance aggravated the difficulty. The King- of Na-
ples, having taken refuge in Rome, armed and
subsidized gangs of brigands, who raided the Nea-
politan provinces and committed unspeakable out-
rages. These rascals, when pursued by the Pied-
montese army, crossed the pontifical border and were
safe. This condition was intolerable.
At this juncture the great statesman who had
steadfastly pursued his policy, — a free Church in
a free State, — and never lost hope of a peaceful
solution of the Roman difficulty, died (June 6,
1861). The priest who shrived him was summoned
to Rome, deprived of his parish, suspended from his
office, and sent to finish his days in a remote mon-
astery ; so strongly did the Roman Court feel that
Cavour and his abettors were wicked men.
Cavour's successors, Ricasoli and Rattazzi, with
feebler gait, followed his policy as best they could ;
but uncertainty and hesitation prevailed. The two
great questions, Rome and Venice, pressed for so-
lution. The radicals clamored to have the Italian
army march on Rome. Garibaldi's impatience would
not brook further inaction. He left his island home
at Caprera, and betook himself to Sicily, crying,
" Rome or Death ! " With a little army of hot-
tempered radicals he crossed into Calabria. The
Italian government had no choice. Regular troops
met Garibaldi at Aspromonte, near Reggio, and
bade him withdraw ; he refused ; shots were fired.
Which side fired first is uncertain. Garibaldi was
wounded and made prisoner (August 29, 1862).
THE UNITY OF ITALY 407
This indignity to the national hero roused much
hard feeling, bat reasonable men perceived that the
solution of the Roman question had to be Found
in some other way than by a filibustering expedi-
tion against a city held by the troops of a power
with whom the nation was at peace.
The liberation of Venice came first. Prussia oc-
cupied a position in Germany somewhat similar to
that of Piedmont in Italy. Both had somewhat simi-
lar problems. Both felt antagonism to Austria, and
also a suspicion of France. In April, 1866, the two
states made an alliance against Austria, who, fearing
the combination, tried to break it by offering to n-i\<-
Venetia to Italy if she would abandon the Prussian
alliance. \ ictor Emmanuel refused, and war began
in June. The Italians were beaten both on land
and sea, to their great mortification and chagrin.
The crushing Prussian victory at Sadowa, how-
ever. Forced Austria to accept the victor's terms,
including the cession of Venice. <>n November 7
Victor Emmanuel entered the city. Rome alone was
left.
Garibaldi made another desperate attempt, but
was defeated l>\ the French at Montana l v, '7 .
Not by Italian victories, but in consequence of Prus-
sian victories, the conquest of Rome was finalh
effected. The French were obliged to withdraw
their garrison during the Franco-Prussian War, and
then th<' Italian government, winch, to the Bhame
of ardent patriot-, had bo long torbor it of
obedience to the will of the French, gave notice to
the world thai it would annex Home. Aft<
408 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
less call upon the Pope for peaceful surrender, Victor
Emmanuel directed his army to march on the city.
Real resistance was out of the question, but Pius IX
had decided to yield only to force. On the 20th of
September, 1870, a breach was made in the wall near
Porta JPia, a few shots were fired, a few score sol-
diers killed and wounded, and the Italian army
marched in and took possession of the city. A
plebiscite was held, and by a vote of 133,081 to
1507 the city voted to become a part of Italy. In
June, 1871, the seat of government was formally
removed from Florence, and Rome once again, after
fifteen hundred years, became the capital of the
Kingdom of Italy.
CHAPTER XXXIX
CONCLUSION (1872-1000)
The union of Italy was so triumphant, the efforts
which accomplished it bo heroic, and the whole tone
of Italian history throughout the E&isorgimento BO
romantic and noble, that the period since of neces-
sity looks flat and dull. The Italians themselves had
imagined that the union of Italy would be followed
by some career, political, moral, or intellectual, that
would be comparable to the career of ancient Koine.
A reaction was inevitable. No nation could continue
at so enthusiastic a pitch. Moreover, the difficulties
before it were great.
Chief of these difficulties was the persistent bos-
tilitv of the Papacy. Tins IX. a kind, lovable, timid
man. wholly inadequate to cope with a revolutionary
situation, had paS8ed from his early sympathy With
the liberal movement to the opposite extreme, and
hated it with the hatred of fear. His hatred of lib-
eral ideas may be sen in his condud with regard
to ecclesiastical matters. He insisted upon tin- ex-
tremes! conservative dogma, as if it weir a shield to
protect the Papacy, the papal city, the Papal States.
and the whole Catholic world, from all BSBaull
! and his liberal crew. Fust he proclaimed the
dogma of tin- [mmaculate Conception of the \ irgin
Mary, nexl In- published the " Syllabus," which is a
410 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
condemnation of all those doctrines commonly em-
bodied in Bills of Rights. Finally, he convoked the
Vatican Council (1809-70), and procured a decree
that the Pope is infallible in matters of faith and
morals. This decree gave the death-blow to what-
ever remains of republicanism there were in the
Church, and established the Pope as absolute mon-
arch. An Ecumenical Council, representing the
Church, had previously been the infallible head of
the Church ; now the Pope was substituted for the
Council.
In this way the Church more and more assumed
an attitude of irreconcilable hostility to the ideas
that prevailed among the educated classes in Italy.
After the occupation of Rome by the Italian gov-
ernment, Pius shut himself up in the Vatican palace
and proclaimed himself a prisoner. He first advised
and then commanded Catholics to stay away from
the polls at national elections, and directed his for-
eign policy to the end of reestablishing his Temporal
Power. This policy, judged by the popular belief
in the divine right of nationality and of majorities,
is of course wrong; judged by one who regards the
interests of the Church as paramount, it may be de-
fended as an attempt to adhere to the old ways
under which the Catholic Church had played its
extraordinary part in European history. After the
occupation of Rome the Italian government passed
the Law of Guarantees (May 10, 1871), which guar-
anteed to the Pope an annual subsidy of somewhat
more than 3,000,000 lire a year, and also the per-
sonal and diplomatic rights of a sovereign, such as
CONCLUSION 411
to maintain his court, to receive ambassadors, to have
separate postal and telegraph service, to keep the
Vatican and Lateran palaces, etc. Pius IX refused
to accept the subsidy.
Another difficulty, which has confronted the
government since the union, has been the discord
between the North and South. The northern pro-
vinces, especially Lombardy and Piedmont, have
been making progress in manufactures and in com-
merce; whereas, on the contrary, the South, very
ignorant and very poor, and devoted to agriculture,
wine, grain, lemons, oranges, etc., without facilities
for manufacture and without capacity for commerce,
has made doubtful advance. Special causes have
hindered it. In Sicily, in consequence of long-con-
tinued poverty, ignorance, and misgovernment, the
secret societies, known as the Mafia, have overrun
great parts of the island. The original cause of
the Mafia was probably self-protection, the lower
classes banding together to save themselves from
the oppressions of the upper classes who clung to
the remains of the feudal Bystem. The landowners,
for example, had used their control of the courts to
maintain privileges and injustice. As a natural con-
sequence, members of the Mafia deemed it igno-
ble to revenge wrongs by judicial process, and still
more ignoble to give any information to any officers
of the government. They settled their own disputes
and righted their own wrongs. With the grant of
suffrage the Mafa became a political power, and
only permitted the election of Buch candidates as w
approved.
412 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
In Naples there was also a power behind the
scenes which resembled the Mafia, but in reality
was totally distinct and individual. This Neapolitan
power, a legacy from Bourbon times, was the Ca-
ntor ra, a society of criminals or ruffians on the edge
of crime, organized for the purpose of levying tribute
by blackmail ; it was not unlike the worst munici-
pal rings in this country, and gained its livelihood
from the vicious, and from politicians who benefited
by its support. Both Camorra and Mafia have
been very great obstacles to social progress, and
still exist.
The North, conscious of a higher standard of
civilization, has wished to educate and reform the
South, and also, perhaps, has not been unwilling to
let taxation fall more heavily in proportion upon
the agricultural produce of the South than on the
manufactured products of the North. Resenting
this assumption of superiority, and suspicious of
unfair treatment, especially with regard to indirect
taxation, the South has felt itself aggrieved ; and so
there have been continual misunderstanding and
friction between it and the North.
In its foreign relations the country has also had
hard problems. France and Italy ceased to be friends.
Italy could not forget that the French had upheld
the papal power in Rome, and had defeated Gari-
baldi at Men tana ; and France was indignant that
Italy had not come to her rescue in 1870. France
also was jealous of a rival in the Mediterranean ;
while the Italians believed that France favoured a re-
vival of the Temporal Power. This unfriendliness,
CONCLUSION 413
fostered by the Italian clericals, constituted a most
disturbing factor in Italy's foreign relations. The
breach was increased by other causes, and Italy
in alarm turned to find friends elsewhere. Austria
and Germany, who had already made an alliance,
were glad to have Italy join, as further security for
the peace of Europe against any action by France
or RiiNsia. So the three joined and made the Triple
Alliance (1882 1, which was renewed from time to
time and still exists. This alliance has given Italy
ample security against any attack by France, but
has imposed upon her very heavy military burdens
in order to keep her army at a certain standard of
efficiency.
As time went on the actors of the great age
dropped off one by one; Mazzini in 1872, Victor
Emmanuel in 1878, Garibaldi in 1882. It is after
their departure, their noble desires fulfilled, their
noble tasks accomplished, that Italy looks little and
inadequate. The parliamentary struggles have cer-
tainly been neither noble nor romantic. After the
occupation of Home, the Right, the conservative
party, under Marco Minghetti, Quintino Sella, and
others, was in power for half a dozen years, and
by means of a burdensome taxation succeeded in
making receipts equal expenses. lint taxes and re-
fusal to extend the Mill'rage led to its fall from
power, and the Left, the progressive party, under
Agostino Depretis, assumed the government. De-
pretlS abolished an unpopular tax on grinding corn,
made primary education compulsory, and extended
the Buffrage from 600,000 voters to 2,000,000.
414 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
After these reforms the dominant party ceased to
have a definite programme. There was general con-
fusion, known as Transformism. The deputies split
up into little groups under petty leaders and fell to
log-rolling. The story is dreary and unimportant.
Depretis, who died in 1887, was succeeded by
Francesco Crispi, the most striking political figure
since Cavour. Crispi began life as an advocate at
Palermo, and took part as a very young man in the
early agitations for constitutional reforms. He was
successful at the bar, and had moved to Naples to
practise before the appellate tribunals there, when
the events that led to the uprisings of '48 began to
effervesce. Crispi took a leading part. After the
uprisings had been suppressed, he lived in exile till
the time was ripe to begin again. Then he returned
to Sicily and plotted for the revolution which termi-
nated in Garibaldi's expedition. He acquired great
influence, took his seat in the Italian parliament,
and soon became leader of the radical Left. In spite
of vicissitudes and a not unattacked reputation, he
was the chief parliamentary figure on the death of
Depretis, and dominated Italian politics till 1896.
In his youth Crispi had been a follower of Mazzini's
republican theories; later, though still a republi-
can in sympathy, he announced the opinion that
" the Republic would divide us, the Monarchy unites
us," and abandoned his old republican associates.
For this reason among others he incurred the ani-
mosity of old friends and allies.
During the period of his ascendency the subdivi-
sion of the deputies into little groups made govern-
CONCLUSION 415
ment difficult, and for a couple of years lie was out of
office. In that interval hard times, adding weight to
republican and socialist propaganda, caused strikes-,
riots, and insurrections ; and accompanying these
disturbances came the "Bank Scandals." Sundry
banks, conspicuously the important Banca Koniana,
had been violating the laws which regulated the
government of banks, and had been engaged in
most improper dealings with politicians, as, for
instance, lending money to deputies on little or no
security. These scandals, together with the strikes,
wrecked the ministry, and the country called on
Crispi, as the one strong man able to take control.
He assumed office in December, 1893, and remained
till 1896, when he fell with equal suddenness. The
cause of his fall requires a separate paragraph.
About 1870 an Italian steamship company es-
tablished a coaling station on the west coast of
the Red Sea, and acquired a certain strip of land
which it afterwards ceded to the government (1882).
From this beginning the Italian government ad-
vancedj upon one pretext or another, to the estab-
lishment of a colonial dependency. It occupied
M established the " Colonia Erithrea," and
proclaimed a zone <>i influence along the east coast
of Africa. Various battles were fought with the
natives; and at last the government sent fifteen
thousand men to perform some brilliant exploit for
its own political benefit. The Italian troops were
badly handled; they walked into a trap set by the
A.by8sinianS] and Buffered a terrible rout, losing half
their numbers L896 . Crispi l«'ll at once, and the
416 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
new ministry under Di Rudini, in spite of cries for
revenge, prudently abandoned the colonial policy,
and made peace as best it could. Italy renounced
her protectorate, and contented herself with a strip
of coast by Massawa. Thus ended the scheme of
colonial aggrandizement begun in ignorance and
Bo O O
folly.
The fall of Crispi removed the last interesting
figure of the Risorgimento, and left Italian poli-
tics in a confused medley. Since then, various
leaders of no marked ability or individuality have
struggled with the permanent difficulties of Church
and State, North and South, capitalism and social-
ism, and the shifting difficulties of foreign relations.
All this time is too near to present any definite
pattern to the casual eye. The century closed sadly
with the assassination of King Humbert (1878-
1900) by an ignorant workman who called himself
a nihilist. Humbert was not a good ruler, but he
had a kind heart and many pleasant qualities, which
endeared him to the Italian people. He was suc-
ceeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III, the present
king.
The greatest Italian figure of the last decades of
the nineteenth century was not to be found in the
service of the State, but of the Church. In 1810
Gioacchino Pecci was born in Carpineto, a dead
little village perched on a hillside near Anagni, the
town where Boniface VIII was nearly murdered by
Sciarra Colonna five hundred years before. His
father, Count Lodovico Pecci, had served in Napo-
leon's army ; his mother was said to be descended
CONCLUSION 417
from Cola di Rienzo. The count was the seigneur
of the place, and lived in a somewhat shabby pal-
ace which had seen better days. Gioacchino was
educated at a Jesuit school in Rome. He soon gave
evidence of marked ability, and was taken into the
papal Bervice and sent as apostolic delegate to Bene-
vento. Banditti infested the neighbourhood, and the
nobility of the town were little better than the ban-
ditti. Pecci displayed character. He was promoted,
and at the age of thirty-three was sent as papal
nuncio to Belgium, with the title of Archbishop
of Damietta, an archbishopric that had been in
partibus infidt Hum since the days of St. Louis. In
Belgium, where liberal ideas were jostling the old
ecclesiastical system, Pecci distinguished himself
for tact and address. From Belgium he went to
Perugia as bishop, and governed the city for thirty-
two years, during the trying time in which (largely
at the expense of the Church) Italy was forcing
her way to freedom. In 1860 his authority was
overthrown by the Piedmontese soldiers, and many
tales of brutality and wantonness charged upon
the nationalists were brought to his troubled ens,
an<l In- unfortunately received a most unfavour-
able impression <»1 liberals and liberalism. His repu-
tation tor ability, character, and diplomacy became
bo well established, that in the conclave on the
death of Pius IX he had qo scriou^ competitor.
XIII 1878 L903 was already an old man w hen
he was elected Pope, and hail had the misfortune to
receive In- education and training in the narrow
school of the old papal regime. Preceded bv an
418 A SHORT HISTORY OF ITALY
incompetent Pope, he found himself confronted by
the wreck of the Temporal Power, and by a liberal-
ism which was not only triumphant in Italy, but in
nearly all western Europe. He had not far to go to
find thoughtful men who expected to see the Papacy
eollapse and die. Most difficult matters in Germany,
in Ireland, in France, in the United States, required
delicate and skilful management. It is not too
much to say that Leo raised the Papacy higher in
the world's regard than it had stood for two hundred
years. Had he been a younger man, and trained in
a more liberal school, he might, perhaps, have at-
tempted the task of adjusting ecclesiastical conserv-
atism and tradition to the needs of a fast changing
world. But he was too old. With a few brilliant
exceptions he accepted the conservative policy. He
affected to deem himself a prisoner in the Vatican,
and claimed the restoration of the Temporal Pow r er ;
he declared Thomas Aquinas the best teacher for
the priesthood, and stood firm on the dogmas of
the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, his was a most
impressive personality, and he stands in the long list
of Popes in a rank inferior only to the highest.
In his old age, as he strolled in the Vatican gar-
dens, meditating Latin verses, or thinking over his
encyclical letters, " On the Condition of the Work-
ing Classes," " On Christian Democracy," " On the
Holy Eucharist," or turning his emaciated, sweet,
Voltairean face to the great dome of St. Peter's, he
may well have let his mind wander in peace over
the outside world, for never since Luther cast off
his papal allegiance had the whole Christian world
CONCLUSION 419
been so united in admiration for a Pope of Rome.
All Christians could say a men to the prayer in his
last poem, " Suprema Leonis Vota : " —
Expleat o clemena anxia vota Deus,
Scilicet ut tandem raperia de civiboa unus
Divino aeternom LamiDe et ore Eraar. 1
We have now reached our goal, the end of the
nineteenth century, and if we look hack and con-
template the vicissitudes of Italy, such as no other
nation ever experienced, twice on the throne of
Europe, three times crowned with its crown, —
Imperial, Ecclesiastical, Intellectual, — and resurvey
the three centuries daring which foreign tyrant ami
native priest joined hands to smother and quench the
Italian fire, and then read in detail the heroic acts
of the men who sacrificed themselves for Italian
freedom, we shall feel sure that the dull colours of
the present generation are but signs of a time of
rest, and that the genius of Italy lives within and
will again enrich the world with deeds of men
Bpning from the "gentle Latin blood."
1 Fulfil, () gracious God, my anxious prayer,
That, '. "Mi- among tin- citizens "f Heaven
I may enjoy Thy Light, Thy Face, forever.
APPENDIX
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF POPES AND EMPERORS
°1
*1
c o
Popes.
Emperors.
A
^
A.D.
A. D.
468
Romulus Aneustulus ....
478
483
Felix in
491
492
Gebisius l
4!h;
Anastamus ii
498
Symiiiaelius
498
Lam .-in ins (Anti-pope)
514
I Iiu inisdas
John i
618
BBS
Felix iv
JUSTINIAN ■
627
530
Bonifjic- ii
■
Diosoonu i Anti-pope)
John ii
Aeapetna i
Silverina
Vigilins
ius I
660
John in
666
674
did i
678
590
GREGORY I II IK
GREA1 -
602
Sabiniamu
Bonifatw m
Boniface rv
IIEUACLIUS
610
I edit
618
■ ice V
•
I [oDOl HIH I
IIII1H
1 All tbi K.n.|Hr..m between Roriiulim Auifiihliilu* aii'l Charlm. >.
■taniiiH>|.l>-.
* c»i>u.ii» dMfafHkh th<- bob! rii.imiit PvpM and BBtpafem
422
APPENDIX
T I
o.2
si
Popes.
Emperors.
u
£ :
tS s
<
<
640
John IV
Constantino m j
G41
Ileracleonas, Constans n 1 '
642
Thi>odorus I
649
Martin i
664
Gugenins i
657
Vitalianna
Constantine IV (Pogonatus)
(568
672
Adeodatus
676
1 )i)iimus l
678
Agatho
682
Leo ii
683?
Benedict II
tis:.
Conon
C85
686?
687
Sergins i
687
Paschal (Anti-pope)
687
Theodorus (Anti-pope)
()04
697
701
John vi
71 6
Justinian n restored ....
706
708
Sisinnins
708
Coustantine
Philippicus Bardanes ....
711
Gregory u
713
715
Theodosius ill
716
LEO III (THE ISAURIAN) .
718
731
Gregory ill
741
Constantine v (Copronynius) .
741
752
Stephen n
752
Stephen hi
7.">7
Paul I
768
Stephen iv
772
Hadrian i
LEO III
775
780
795
Deposition of Constantine vi
7! 17
CHARLEMAGNE. .
800
Lewis i (the Pious) . .
£
814
816
Stephen iv
s
817
Paschal I
J
824
Ejogenins
a
827
Valentinus
'Si
827
Gregory iv
840
844
Sergius 11
T.
847
Leo iv
x.-,.-,
855
APPENDIX
423
o.2
o.2
Popea.
Emperors.
j 1
»l
i -
<
856
Anastasras Ami-pope)
M« SOLAS 1
Hadrian 11
872
John vin
Charlea d the Bald
Charles m (the Fat 1 . .
878
881
Martin II
384
Hadrian in
385
Stephen v
891
Gnido 1 . T . ,,
Lambert \ Itahans • • • •
891
896
Boniface vi
Stephen \ i
Arnulf, German
m h ;
-
Kniiianils
Theodore ii
>'.»
John l.x
900
}'•■ W < 1 ic-t IV
Lewis in (of Provence) . . .
\H)\
903
1
( Ihristophez
!MU
Sergina in
911
Anaataaius in
913
Lando
'.Ml
John x
928
Leo vi
929
Stephen vn
931
John xi
Leo vn
Stephen vm
941
Martin in
946
Agapetna n
John xii
OTTO THE GREAT .
962
Leo vm
1 ;. n. did 9 Ant L-pop
e
John xin
=
972
Benediel vi
3
Otto ii
=
973
Boniface vn( Anti-po]
H
•'71
I )nlnnil- II
■
J.
Benedict vn
Otto in
"Vi
John xv
■ y v
John x vi Anti-p
SILVESTER 11
Bear) \» . . . .
1009
John xvn
1003
.J..I1I1 XVIII
' Twoi
I l.r»rki-t.-l tOgtllMC iii'ln\iti- rn.il . 1 lunata
424
APPENDIX
a
Popes.
Emperors.
81
(HO
■sj
L009
Sergius i v
1012
Benedict viu
1024
1024
1033
Benedict IX
HENRY III
1039
1044
Mlvester (Anti-pope)
10451
Gregory VI
1046
1 'lenient II
1048
Damasus u
9
1048
Leo ix
.3
1054
Victor ii
>-3
HENRY 17 ... .
a
2
1056
1067
Stephen ix
"3
1068
Benedict x
o
a
1069
Nicholas n
a
■
lOtil
Alexander n
1073
GREGORY VU (Hilde-
brand)
1080
Clement (Anti-pope)
1086
Victor in
1087
Urban u
1099
Paschal u
1106
Ills
Gelasius n
1118
Gregory (Anti-pope)
111!)
Calixtus II
112]
Celestine (Anti-pope)
1124
Honoriua ii
Lothair ii (the Saxon)
1125
1130
Innocent n
(Anacletus, Anti-pope)
1138
Victor (Anti-pope) . . .
1138
1143
Celestine 11
1144
Lucius li
1145
Eugenius ill
FREDERICK I
a$
(BARBAROSSA) . .
S
1152
1153
Anastasius iv
3
1154
Hadrian IV
a
1169
ALEXANDER IH
a
■3
1169
Victor (Anti-pope)
11(14
Paschal (Anti-pope)
3
1168
Calixtus (Anti-pope)
s
1181
Lucius m
3
1185
Urban m
w
1187
11S7
Gregory viu
(lenient HI
HENRY VI
1190
1191
Celestine in
([Philip]
/ Otto iv of Brunswick
1198
1198
INNOCENT III ....
. .
1208
1 Those in brackets never received the Imperial crown.
APPENDIX
425
. 1 —
_ z
o o
_ =
1 -
1 1
Pope*.
F.mperora.
■<
*3
FREDERICK 11
a .
1212
1216
Honorius ill
i -
1227
1241
GREGORY IX
Celestinc iv
1J41
Y.o aiuy
•
z ~
1249
lllllo. • lit IV
[Conrad iv] j . . .
Williaml J
m**
1250
1254
Alexander iv
[Richard, Earl of \
1264
( 'urn wall]
[Alfonso, King of j ' '
• •
1257
Castile] >
1261
Urban iv
1265
Clement iv
1269
Vacant y
1271
Gregory x
[Rudolf i (of Hapsburg)]
1272
1276
[nnooent v
1276
Ha.liian V
1276
John XXl !
1277 Nicholas m
1281 Martin IV
1288 HiiimriuB iv
Nicholas iv
,.*,.
1294
ine v
1294
BONIFA" E Vin
[Albert i (of Hapshvrg ,
1298
1303
Benedict xi
( Element v
■M
Z
HENRY VII (of Luxem him
1308
1314
\':i<- -nicy
~ >'.
Lewis iv (of Bavaria' . .
1314
1816
John xxii
i j
1334
Benedict xn
*■ c '«
' Lament vi
§(C
1362 Innocent vi
u
(liaih s IV i House of Lux. m-
I 'il.au \
■ \ I ;
>
1 .17
<
i :-
| VI. < 1. 111. lit VII
\V. n/. 1 II. ,u-. ..f I.n\. i
All!
Bonifaee ix
j
Benediet Anti-pope)
/
Rupert (Count Palatine |
1400
1404
Inn..i BBt VII
i
1406
iv XII |
[40g
inder v /
.loliti XXIII ) J
C
1410
mund !!■ dm of I.ux.'in-
HIT
Man in v
1410
11 1
Eugene iv
Tim I'ope »kipp«xl V a
426
APPENDIX
«. c
a
° 2
c.2
Popes.
Emperors.
i\
<
<
[Albert n (of Ilapsburg)] 1 . .
1438
1 189
Felix v (Anti-pope)
1440
HIT
NICHOLAS V
1455
Calixtus in
1 l.-.s
Pill* |[
J5 i
14m
Paul ii
*■ a
1171
SIXTUS IV
. c a?
IIS)
Innocenl vni
00 "3
1493
Alexander vi
p.3
14<»3
1603
Pius in
£h —
1503
JULIUS II
1513
LEOX
1519
1522
Hadrian VI
1523
Clement vn
1534
Paul IJI
■H
1550
Julius III
.
1556
Marcellns n
~ a
1 555
Paul IV
1558
1559
PIUS IV
o
1564
1566
Pius v
1572
Gregory xm
[Rudolf ii ]
1576
1585
SIXTUS V
L590
Urban vn
1590
Gregory xiv
l.V.H
Innocent IX
1592
Clement vm
1605
Leo xi
1605
Paul v
[Matthias]
1612
1619
ir>2i
Gregory xv
1623
Urban VIII
1637
1644
Innocent x
1655
Alexander vn
1658
1667
Clement ix
1670
Clement x
1676
Innocent XI
1689
Alexander VIII
1601
Innocent xn
1700
Clement XI
1705
1711
1 From 1438 to 1806, with the exception of Francis I of Lorraine, the House of Haps-
burg was on the Imperial throne.
* Ferdinand and his successors took the title Emperor Elect.
APPENDIX
427
c
a
°"3
-
t- i
Pope*.
Eniperore.
|1
*l
15
1720
llllliu -t'llt XIII
1724
Benedict xm
17-10
Benedict xiv
[Francia i. nuaband of Blaria
1 7 1J
1743
17S8
Clement xn
Joa* pi
1788
1789
Clement xm
1 House nt' 1 1 :ips_
177.-.
Pius vi
1 burg through
[Leopold u] M.u la Ther< sa.
1790
Fraiuis ll J '
1792
1800
Pius vn
Alxliiatiun of Francis n . .
1806
Leo xn
1829
Rua vin
1831
< ir. gory xvi
1846
rns i.\
1878
LEO X 1 1 1
1903
Pius x
428
APPENDIX
II
GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI
Giovanni Bicci, d. 1429.
I
Cosimo, Pater Patriae, d. 14G4.
Piero, d. 14C9.
I
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
I d. 1482.
1
Piero, d. 1503.
I
Lorenzo, Duke
of Urbino,
d. 1519.
I
Alessandro,
d. 1537.
Giovanni, Pope
Leo X, d. 1521.
Giuliano, d. 1478.
Giulio, Pope Clement
VII, d. 1534.
Caterina, m. Henri II
of France, d. 1589.
Lorenzo, d. 1440.
Piero Francesco, 1467.
Giovanni, m. Caterina
Sforza, d. 1498.
Giovanni, "delle
bande nere,"
d. 1526.
Cosimo I, Grand
Duke, d. 1574.
Francesco I, d. 1587.
m. Joanna of Austria, also
Bianca Cappello.
Maria, m. Henri IV
of France.
Ferdinand I,
d. 1609.
Cosimo II, d. 1621.
I
Ferdinand II, d. 1670.
Cosimo III, d. 1723.
Giovanni Gastone, d. 1737.
APPENDIX
429
ni
SKELETON TABLE OF THK KINGS <>F THE TWO SICII.Il-
NAPLES KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES SICILY
BTORMAB COHQD1 31
last half of eleventh oau lur j .
Roger, d. 1154.
William the Bad, d. 11GC.
I
William the Good, d. 11 S9.
Constance, d. 1198,
marrir.l
Henry VI, Emperor, d. 1107.
Frederick II, Emperor, d. 1260.
Conrad IV, d. 1254.
I
Manfred, d. 1266.
Conradin, d. 1268.
FRENCH CONQUEST. 1266.
Charles of Anjou, 1266-1282.
SICILIAN VESPERS, 1282.
House Of Anjou, 1266-1442. House of Aragon, 1
Alfonso of Aragon,
1442- 144S.
House of Aragon,
illegitimate,
14-1-1504.
SPANISH CONQUEST, 1S04.
Ferdinand the Catholic, 1504-1516.
House of Aragon,
legitimate, which, on
marriage of Ferdinand
of Anson with i*u
bella of Ca«til.'. !«■•
camo House of Spain,
1448-1504.
Austria, 1713-1720.
Charles V, Emperor, 1S16
Spanih). I 1713.
TREATY <»F UTRECHT, 1713.
Savoy, 1713-1720.
WILL 01 QUADBUPLI ALLIANCE, l.
Auntria, 1720
PKA01 01 Ml NN \. 173*.
S|.ain»ii BombOBi
1798 1802. |
K|«iiix)i Bourbona,
I h Bonaparte,
i
Fran. i. I. I
„..| II 183
Frai
1 Whi-n tlii two kingdoms are united the oamet "I the Wing* aro put lu th* mi -Llln
roiumu. wfcm wpmte ii' 1 "'y-
430 APPENDIX
IV
LIST OF BOOKS FOR GENERAL READING
For the Middle Ages
Italy ami her Invaders Thomas Hodgkin.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon.
History of Latin Christianity .... Dean Milman.
Koine in the Middle Ages (translated
from the German by Mrs. G. \Y.
Hamilton) F. Gregorovius.
Mediaeval Europe Ephraim Emerton.
Italian Chronicles of the Middle Ages • Ugo Balzani.
Story of the Byzantine Empire . . . C. W. C. Oman.
History of the Later Roman Empire . J. Bury.
The Holy Roman Empire James Bryce.
Historical Documents of the Middle
Ages Ernest F. Henderson.
The Papal Monarchy William Barry.
A History of the Inquisition in the Mid-
dle Ages H. C. Lea.
An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Cel-
ihacy in the Christian Church . . H. C. Lea.
History of Auricular Confession and In-
dulgences in the Latin Church . . . H. C. Lea.
History of Western Europe .... J. H. Robinson.
First Two Centuries of Florence (trans-
lated from the Italian by Linda Villari) Pasquale Villari.
Florence, Mediaeval Towns Series . . E. C. Gardner.
The History of Venice W. Carew Hazlitt.
A Short History of Venice W. R. Thayer.
Church Building in the Middle Ages . Charles Eliot Norton.
The Monks of the West from St. Bene-
dict to St. Bernard (translated from
the French) Montalembert.
The Classical Heritage of the Middle
Ages H. O. Taylor.
Life of St. Francis of Assisi (translated
from the French by L. S. Houghton) Paul Sabatier.
APPENDIX 431
For On Rerurixsanee
The Civilization of the Renaissance in
Italy (translated from the German
by S. G. C. Middlemore) Jakob Bnrekhardt.
The Cicerone Jakob Bnrekhardt.
Renaissance in Italy (The Age of the
Despots, Revival of Learning, Pine
Arts, Literature, Catholic Reaction) . .John Addington Symonds.
History of the Italian Republics in the
Middle Ages (translated from the
French) S. de Sismondi.
History of the Popes of Rome (trans-
lated from the German by Sarah
Austin) Leopold Ranke.
The Papacy during the Reformation . M. Creighton.
The Renaissance Cambridge Mod. History.
History of the ropes from the Close of
the Middle Ages (translated from the
I rerman ) L. Pastor.
The Council of Trent I. A. Fronde.
Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and
Man of Letters Robinson & Rolfe.
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters.
Sculptors, and Architects (translated
from tbe [talian by Mrs. Foster) . . Giorgio Vasari.
Journal of Montaigne's Travels in Italy.
For the Eighteenth ( '< ntury
Studies of the Eighteenth Century in
Italy Vernon I •
Goldoni's Memoirs, translated by . . W. D. Howells.
Memoirs of Carlo Gozzi F. A. Symonds.
For tic Ruorguat nto
The liberation of Italy EvelynM Cesareaoo
Italian Cbaxaeten of tbe Bpoob of Qui-
Dcation Evelyn M. (
nioa of Pal | 1815 1886) • • • W. J. still.na...
Life of Yietor Emmanuel D .... G. 8. Godkin.
The Dawn of Italian I ndepi mb-nec . \V P Thaver.
Modem Ftaly, IT! instated
from the Italian by Alice Viall Pii trc
INDEX
Aachf.v, 5P.
Abyssinians defeat Italians, 415.
AgneDo, Father, 71, 72.
Aistnlf. 49,
Alarie, 5.
Alberic, 76,
Alberti, Leon Battista, ML
Albinola. 370.
Albizzi, Maso degli, 230.
Alboin, 27, -".'.
Albornoz, Cardinal, 918.
Alessi, < laleazzo, 30C.
Alexander VI, Pope (Bodrigo Bor-
gia i. and Savonarola, 261; political
course. 272, 278; private life, 276;
death, 276; his apartments In Vati-
can. .
Alexander VII, Pope, 34C.
Alfleri, Vlttorio,
Alfonso, of A rag King of Two Si-
Interest in humanism,
949; tns death, 262,
AiuaM, 7". 73, 103.
Aniati.
Aminanati, 306.
\
Antiguati,
Apollo Belvi
. King of, swears allegiance to
Innocent III, 122,
I I
ted bj Justinian, 18.
Aristotle, 19,
Arnold of Bl
Arnolfo dl Camhio, 188.
Arniilf, Emperor, ti , enters Koine, 7:..
AspromonU
be re tics Id, I
127, 1-- : basilica ol Bl 1
u by Milan temporal lly, ."-'7.
made a Latin del, 1 1
tured by \ •
Athens. Duke of, see Walter of Brienne.
Attcndolo, '•: . Alt' :.
dolo.
Augustine, in England,
LStUlUS,
n llo|>
Alllai imphant li
li witii Krai
mont, 400, 401 j war with Prussia and
Italy, 407.
Avignon, 161; Petrarch at, 204; return
ol Popes to B from. 217 ; anti-
popes of Great Behism at. 219.
Babylonish captivity, 151 ; end of, 217,
218.
Bagllonl, in Perugia, 1 •-.
Bandlnetil,
Banditti
Bank scandal
Barbarians, their character, 1 ; their
society. 3; habits, 4; intercourse
with Home, 6. 6; dismember Empire,
8; their problems In Italy, 10; de-
scribed by Boetnlus, 19; so-called
!'•:. ,267.
Barbaros8a,see Frederick 1. Emperor.
Barberinl, see 1 rban VlII, Pope,
Baroque, thi ,861.
Barozzl, Glacomo, Bee Vignola.
Basel, Council of, 91
Beccai is
Bellsarlus, 91.
Bellini, composer, .158,378.
Bellini, Gentile, 812.
Bellini. Giovanni, 812.
Bellini, Jacopo
Bellotto
Belli!
Benedetto da Maiai
llct, see st. Benedict
Benevei
BentlvogUo, In Bologna, 1 -
Berchet,
Bergamo anuexed to \ enlce,
Bernn.
. Vespaslano da,
Black Heath, see Plague ol 1
BoboU gardei
B ac account of Black
!i. 209. 210.
Boethlu
lo, Matt.-...
Bologna, Jurists of, m>; unh
Of, 1 ■ Bent!
rogll In, 1 l to Papacy,
|cc\
ered b) Pa| > M011
. . uting),
434
INDEX
Boniface VIII, Pope. L46; Ms char-
acter, i W ; quarrel « i 1 1 1 the Colonna,
1 1: ; with Philip tin' Fair, us; his
papal theories, 148, 149; outraged,
160: death, 161.
Bonifazio. 815.
Bordone, Paris. 812.
Borghese, Camillo, Bee I'aul v. Pope.
Borgia, Caesar, 272 276: employs Leo-
nardo, -'si; ; believed tci have mur-
dered ids brother, 814; admired by
Machiavelli, 31 i.
Borgia, Lucrezla, 276.
Borgia, Kodrigo, see Alexander VI,
Pope.
Borgia, son to Kodrigo, see Duke of
Gandia.
Botticelli, 246 'JIT, 288.
Bourbon, High Constable, 279.
Bourbon, House of, :;:;."■, 33!>.
Bramante, 266, 283,285; in Rome, 287;
designs st. Peter's, 289, 290.
Brescia, captured by Henry VII, 157;
annexed by Venice, 224; gallant de-
fence of, 391.
Hrienne, Walter of, Duke of Athens,
229.
Bronzino, 308, 309.
Brunelleschi, 233,236-237; and Dona-
tello, anecdote of. 238, 239.
Bruno, Giordano, 349.
Burckhardt, 304 ; on Bandinelli, 308.
Burgundy, Ts.
Byron, Lord. 372-376.
Byzantine art, 188, 189.
Cacciaguida, 180.
Cambrai, League of, 224, 265, 266.
Cambrai, treaty of, 293.
Camorra, 204,412.
Caropanella, 349.
Canalctto, 362.
Can Grande, see under Seala della.
Canon law, see Church law.
Canossa, 99.
Cappello, Bianca, 327.
Caracci, tlie, 309, 352.
(alalia. Cardinal, see Paul IV, Pope.
Caravagglo, 309, 352.
Carbonari, 369,382.
Cardinals, made papal electors, 91.
Carducci, on Tasso, 310.
Carissimi, 358.
Carlo Alberto, 375, 376, 379. 380, 384,
385 ; war with Austria, 388 ; resigns
his crown, 390.
Carlo Dolci, 352.
carlo Felice, 375.
Carlovinglans, the, 44, 57,58.
Carlyle, mi Mazzini, 382.
Carmagnola. 228.
Carnival. Roman, 330.
Carpaccio, 312.
Cassiodorus, u.
Cast iglione, 281-283.
Castlllia, 370.
Castracane, Castruccio, 200.
Cateau-Cambresis, treaty of, 293, 296,
827.
Catholic Reaction, see Catholic Be
vival.
Catholic Revival, 297-802.
Cavalcanti, 184.
Cavaliere Bervente, 866.
Cavour, 886, 887 : policy of Church and
stab-. 898 : policy In Piedmont, 898 :
as to Crimean War, 898, 899; and
Napoleon 111,899,400; resigns, 401;
recalled, 402; interference in Naples.
404 ; death, 406.
Celibacy of clergy, 86.
Cellini, 808, 316,817.
Certosa, at Pavia, 226,227,250.
Cervantes, 297.
Charlemagne, blessed by Pope, 16;
marriage, alt; Donation of. Mi; Euro-
pean c ruests, 51 i titles, :,:;■ per-
son and character, 63 ; judges Pope,
66 ; receives gifts from * !aliph, a. r > \
coronal Ion, 66 ; his Empire, :<'• .
crowns his son, 59.
Charles of Anjou, Ml, 161, 162; visits
Clmabue's studio. 189.
Charles of Durazzo, 222.
Charles V, Emperor, struggle with
Francis l, 267 ; policy in Florence,
262,263; marries daughter to Ales-
Bandrodel Medici, 263; Inherits Two
Sicilies, 264 ; crowned Emperor, 299;
and Council of Trent, 300.
Charles VI I Living of Prance, 256, 257,
269.
Charles Martel, 44, 53.
Chigi, see Alexander VII, Pope.
Church, the (see also Papacy;, causes
Of its rise, 8; orthodoxy, 10; rela-
tions with Empire, 16 ; during Lom-
bard dominion, 31 ; imperial charac-
ter, 32 ; sources of power, 32, 33.
Church law, 65.
Cieisbeismo, 356.
Cimabue, 189.
Cimarosa, 358.
Cinquecento, the, 304-318.
Ciompi, 229.
Clare, St., see St. Clare.
Classical revival. 201-208.
(lenient V, 1'ope, 161; dealings with
Henry VlL 166.
Clement VII, Pope, 262, 277, 278-280;
crowns Charles V, 299.
Clement IX, Pope, 346.
Clergy, in Carlovingian times, 71.
Cluiiv, monastic reform of, 85; its
creed, si; ; its effect, sx.
Cola, di Rienzo, 206-208; dreams for
Rome, 206; letter to Florentines,
•JOT; his fall and death. 207.
Colleoni, statue of, 247, 311.
Colonia Erithrea, see ( lolony in Africa.
Colonna, the. 76; quarrel with Boni-
face VII I, 146; Pope Martin V, 220 ;
custom in their palace, 277, 278.
Colonna, Sciarra. 150.
INDEX
435
Colony in Africa, 415.
Columbanus, B 3 Oolumbanua
Commedia tieir Arti
Commlnes, Ptullppede,on Ven
Oomm imem ot
prosperity of, 188 see also Lorn,
ban
Company, the Great, SIS,
Concordat "f Worn •
CondottierL
Confalonlei
Conradin, 143, 144.
Consolations of Philosophy, 19.
[Constance], wife of Henry VI, 118,
114, 11T.
• luncll of, 220,231,268.
:. 112,
of Donation,
46, 47.
Constantino; ; tared byCro-
i, 118, 119; by Tnrk>. 242,243,
Consuls
Conti. family, 135.
itton of hmperors, 80; last In
Italy,
mder MedlcL
Cosl I. tirand Duke, see under
iici.
Coiintrr-Heformation, see Catholic Re-
vival.
Courtier, Book of I
Cremoi Henry VII .
rritieni. 353.
<\ 338.
young patriot. 402 ; with
-
414 ; in parliament, 414. 415,
Crown of Lombardy, k "; assuo
.189.
Damlai imlaa
VIII, i ;•
harscter, 162,
• rtews,
Henrj \ I I follows
Thomas Aquinas, i7'.«; Importance
In llteratun
h. 184 , on the rernacul
I lee imen '
i
i ■
i - of, 214.
: i
!
: i
■ magne, 50.
Donation of Constant'
Donation <>f Pippin, 4:.. 47,50.
Ducal palace, Venta
Duomo, Ptoreuee, .
Durante, 3 3.
Election of Bmpen
:i ol Popes, 'i
Kmanuele Flliberto, 298.
Empire, the, see the Roman Empire.
Empire, Eastern, 24 ; us policy, m,
England
1 ii; capture, it: , death, 143.
1 1 '. Ercole, duke, S
Bate, House of. 198,282; move to Mo-
deiia.
Estensl, n Bous
Kugenius I V. Popt
Buellno da Romano, 184
Pallero, .Marino,
Alessandro, see Pan! ill,
1'ope.
Parnese, Oiulla, 271
Parnesl, in Parma, 290 ; in Pta
Perdinand tin- Catholic, 263 ; eonquera
Naples, 263, 264.
Perdinand 1, of Two 5
370.
Perdinand II, of Two 8 • - B< mba),
M ; death, •
Perrara, 246; in High Renaissance,
• iken by I'm 1 .1 j 1 ..^soat,
810; risited by Montaigne,
1
Picino, Maralllo,
library at. z ... 284, S81
• . Mlno da
Flllcala
mis. 175,
Flemish painters,
Florence, Guelf. 1. :; . denounced by
shuts out Hem \ VII,
• r i_- 1 1 i 1 . l - . 164 . w..,.| trai
bankers, 167 ; impediments to trade,
■
m 12*
about in Black Death.
210 , ' I 'ike of
Alheit t ..| ( lompl, 228;
•1 hele dl
In Putl :
■
■
. :• 1 b] MOO
1
i
436
INDEX
Foscarl, Francesco, Doge, 224.
Fosoolo, 1 go, 377.
France, 68; bowa to Innocent III,
122; vigorous monarchy, 146; Invades
Italy, 263, -'.'4. 266 ; claims on Italy,
293; defeated by Spain. 20:;; sends
army to Rome, 891, 892,894; with-
draws garrison from Rome, -to? ; re-
lations with Italy. 412, 413.
Franceses, Plero della, 249.
Francesco I . < • rami Duke of Tuscany,
328, 327.
Francis 1. King of France, 267.
Francis 1. Ring of Two Sicilies, 378.
Francis II. King of Two Sicilies, 402,
104.
Francis, St., see St. Francis.
Franciscan Order, 129, 131-133; Gray
Friars, 134.
Franks. 40 ; Kingdom of, 43; Catholi-
cism of. 4:;.
Frederick I. Emperor (Rarbarossa),
102: character, 102; theory of im-
perial rights. 103; wars with Lom-
bard cities, 108 ; called to Italy, 108,
109; war with Milan. 109; diet at
Roncaglia, ill; defeat at Legnano,
112; his son's marriage, 113; death,
113.
Frederick II, Emperor, 117 ; gratitude
to Innocent III, 117; summons to
Germany, 121; pledge to Innocent
III, 121, 122; King of Germany.
122; character, 134; promises, 135;
crowned emperor, 135; at Brindisi,
136 ; denounced by Gregory IX, 136,
137; excommunicated, 137; letter to
King of England, 138, 139; recovers
Jerusalem. 139 ; King of Jerusalem,
140; his habits, 140,141 ; poetry, 141;
war with Lombard cities, 142; ex-
communicated again, 142; defeat,
142 ; death, 143; times of, 180.
Galileo, 346, 349.
Gamba, Pietro,373, 374.
Gandia, Duke of (a Borgia), murdered,
312.
Garibaldi, 882; in Rome, 392, 393 ; es-
capes, 394, 398 ; expedition to Two
Sicilies, 402-405; attempt on Rome,
406; second attempt, Mentana, 407 ;
death, 413.
Genoa, 70; prosperity, 106; war with
Pisa, 169, 170 ; submits temporarily
t" Milan, 199; loss in Black Death,
2lo; war with Venice, 224; still a
republic. 295; palaces in, 306; be-
comes Republic of Liguria, 365;
given to Kingdom of Sardinia, 367.
Genseric, 5.
Germany. 68 ; its duchies, 77 ; part of
Holy Roman Empire, 78; attitude
towards its king, 96; in time of In-
nocent III, 120, 121.
Gesii, church, 305, 306.
Gesuati, 321.
Ghibellines.ir,:. : trouble in Milan, 157;
cause lost. 169; description of. 168,
169: described by Gregory X, 176;
fictitious ;e\ i\al of, 326.
Ghibertl, 241.
Ghlrlandalo, Domenico, 245, 288.
Giobertl, 888, 884.
Giocondo, Fra, 290.
Giorglone, 312.
Giotto, 189, 190.
Giulio Romano, 309.
Gladstone, on conditions In Naples,
395, 896.
Goethe, admires Palladlo, 306, 307;
admires 1 Promessi Sposl, 877.
GoldonI, 368 866.
Gonzaga, the, in Mantua, 198.
( loths, see 1 Ktrogoths.
Gozzoli, Benozzo, 233, 244.
Cravina. :;:>:;, 869.
Great Council of Venice, 171, 172.
Greek, study of, 242, '-'4.:.
Greek Empire, overthrown by Cru-
saders, 119.
Gregory 1 (the Great), Pope, 35-37.
Gregory 1 1. Pope, 42, ."•■':.
Gregory ill. Pope, 42, ">::.
Gregory VII, Pope 1 Hildebrand), 89;
character, on : aims. 91; becomes
Pope, 01; creed, 91, 01', claim-. 92j
allies, 92-96 ; denunciation of simony
and lay investiture, 96: attempted
deposition by Henry IV, 97 ; excom-
municates Henry IV, 99; at Canossa,
99; his death. 100.
Gregory IX, Pope (Ugolino), 135; an-
ger at Frederick II, 136; letter on
Frederick, 135-137 : excommunicates
Frederick, 137.
Gregory X, Pope, describes Ghibel-
lines, 176.
Gregory XI, Pope, ends Babylonish
Captivity, 217.
Gregory XIII, Pope, 328, 329.
Gregory XV. Pope, 345.
Gregory XVI, Pope, 383.
Grossi. Tommaso, 382.
Guardi, 352.
Guelfs, accept Henry VII. 156 ; trouble
in Milan, 157; description of, 168,
169; fictitious revival of, 325.
Guercino, 352.
Guerrazzi. F. D., 382.
Guicciardini, on condition of Italy.
253, 254 ; modern historian, 281.
Guido Reni, 352, 360.
Guilds, 164.
Guinicelli, 184.
Hapsburg, House of, 335, 338.
Hawkwood, John, 213, 222.
Haynan, 391.
Henry IV, Emperor, 90; attempts to
depose Gregory VII, 97; his letter
to Cregorv, 97-99; at Canossa, 99;
death, inn.
Henry VI, Emperor, his Sicilian mar-
INDEX
437
riage, 113; character, 114; his acts,
li"..
Henrv VII, Emperor, 150; welcomed
by Dante, 166, 156 ; enters Italy, 166 ;
tdbelllne chief, 161 1 re-
- letter from Dante, I
death, 169: effect of, on fortune- of
I , ramie and the VlSCODtl, 198.
Henry IV. King of France (.Henry of
Nav.s:
. in Southern France, 138; in
Italy, 126; iii England and Bohemia,
Hildebrand, - f VII, Pope.
Hohenstaufens, 102, 113; their end,
Hi. 144.
Holy Alllanot
Holy Soman Empire, beginning, 78;
Its power, Bl . atti-
tude toward Pap
oordat with Papacy, 100; death strug-
gle with Papacy, 138; real end, 143;
last dicker, 162-160; a shadow. 161;
it- petty bargainings, 217;
tied by Napoleon,
is, Pope 133; crowns Fred-
erick 1!. 135; death, I
Humanists, 242, .44. 246-
Humbert of the White Hand, 173.
Humbert, King, 416.
Hungarians, raids of, ".
. John, 220,221.
Iconoclasm, 41, 42.
Index Librorum Prohibltoruni
[nnocenl in. Pope, his education, 116:
doings In Italy, 116; In Tuscany and
Two Sicilies, 117 ; at Constantinople,
119; In Germany, 120 : exeommunl-
- Otto IV. 121 : his doings In
I >; iii England, 122; Ali.i-
U) crusade, 123; triumph, 123,
i _■ i ; St. Francis, I
. I I
Innocent VIII, I
[nnocenl X, Pop*
I li l>< lit \l. POD*
[nqulsltloi
i
plre and Pa
Qflnenced by
its dialect -
tlon of, middl.- ol 6tl ii
• irlovlngian Empire,
condition of
tlon prl^r U> l < ■
durlnic Catholic I
entury,
•
fall
Ocultles a!l«-r unit). 411 U
a itli France, 412, 413 ; Triple
Alliance. ,
Isldoriao Decretals, see Decretal*
jeroo uie.
Jerome ol Prague
Jerusalem, plan for reconquesl of, 134
ivered by Frederick [I, I
.leslllt -t\ le,
■ irder of, 299 ; supi
restored In Papal Stat< -
Joan I. Queen oi Napl< -
Joan 1 1. Queen of Napl< -
John of Bologna, :
John. Don, ol Austria, I
John, King of England, 122, I
John XII, Pope, 78,81 . his trial,
deposition, B4
Jolllllielll.
Jubilee, Brst, iit.
Julius ii. Pope, r,288.
Justin. Emperor, 16.
Justinian, EmperOl
LadlslaUS, King Of Naples, 222, 230.
I.auilin
Lando, Michele dl. 229.
Landucci, Luca, diary ol
i.ao. ii. the, discover)
Lateran pala
Legion, Garibaldi's
Legnano, battle of, 112,
i.e. i (composei
Leo, Emperor, the [saurian, 41.
Le • i Pope, the Great, 9.
i • i III, Pope, 64,
Leo [V, Pope,
Leo X, Pope Medici),
(communicates Luther,
278; last of papal overlords
Tope.
Leo Mil. Pope, IK it.
Leonardo, m oai do da
Leopardi, alessandru i sculptoi
Leopard I, Glacoi poel
Leopold I, Grand Duke ol rusoany,
Llppi, Pilippino,
Lombard cities, see Lombardy and
Milan.
Lombardl (architects and sculptors),
Lombards, the, 23 ; character, 27 ; i
quests, .'- . cl\ i.
■
Incompete , '29 . Influence,
tempt to conquvi all ltal\. ■
: by 1'lppl ' harle.
magi ■
Lombard)', ■ Hildebrand •<
■ le,| .,t
■i.-aulia, 11"
■
: nl. Wl.
438
INDEX
Lorenzo the Magnificent, see under
Medici.
Loreto,
Lorraine, King of, 62.
Lothair, Emperor, 58, 59,
Lotto, Lorenzo, 812.
Louis I, Emperor, the Pious, 68, 59.
Louis il. Emperor, 58, 59, 62, 63,
Louis XII, King of Prance, 257; unites
with Spain against Naples, 263,
Louis Napoleon, see Napoleon ill.
Loyola, Ignatius, 299.
Lucca, li;s; under Castniceio Castra-
cane, 200 ■. still a republic,296; visited
l>y Montaigne, 332: on Napoleon's
fall, 367.
Lucca, BagnJ di, 333.
Ludovisi, see Gregory XV, Pope.
Luini, 309.
Luther, Martin, 276, 278, 297.
Lutherans, do not attend Council of
Trent, 298.
Lyons, Council of, 142.
Machiavelli, admires Castniceio Cas-
tracane, 200; also Caesar Borgia, 273;
writes, 28J i description of successful
Prince, 314, 315 ; comedies, 354.
Mafia, '_".i4, 364,411, 412.
Magenta, battle of, 400,
Malatesta, in Rimini, 198.
Mameli, Goffredo, 393, 394.
Manfred, lit. 14.: ; defeat and death,
144; his daughter, 162.
Manin, Daniele, ass, 394.
Mantegna, 288.
Mantua, the Gonzaga in, 198; duchy,
293 ; opera in, 357.
Manzoni, :;77.
Marignano, 257.
Maroncelll, 370-372.
Marozia, 7. r >, 76.
Martin V, Pope, 220, 268.
Masaccio, 240, 241.
Mastai-Ferretti, Cardinal, see Pius IX,
Pope.
Matilda, Countess, 94 ; Donation to Pa-
pacy, 94.
Maximilian, Emperor, 265.
Mazzini, 376; letter to Carlo Alberto.
379-382; triumvir in Rome, 391-394,
398 ; death, 413.
Medici, dei, Alessandro, 263.
Medici, dei, < 'osinio, Pater Patriae, 232 ;
cultivation, 233; his tastes, 233; li-
braries, 233, 234; death, 235; anec-
dote of, with Donatello, 239 : founds
Platonic Academy, 243; and Nicho-
las V, 251.
Medici, dei, Cosimo I, Grand Duke,
•:t;:;- marriage, 291 ; rule, 294,296; de-
scendants. -Jiif) ; his architect, 306.
Medici, dei, Francesco I, Grand Duke,
326, 327.
Medici, dei, Giovanni, see Leo X,
Pope.
Medici, dei, Giovanni, Angelo (not of
Florentine family), see Pius IV,
Pope.
Medici, dei, Ciuliano, see Clement
Vll. Pope.
Medici, dei. Lorenzo, the Magnificent,
248 '-'.M', 286.
Medici, dei, Maria, 357.
Medici, dei, Piero, 244, 249.
Medici, del, Salvestro, 229.
Mentana, battle of, 4117.
Mercenary soldiers, 211-214.
Merovingians, .| |.
Metastaslo, 369, 360.
Metternich, 367.
Michelangelo, 263 ; s ets, 285; goes
to Koine, 'jsii : plans dome of St. Pe-
ter's, 290 ; at discovery of LaocoOn,
299 ; statues in Florence, :;os.
Michelozzo, 233.
Milan, 107; classes In, 107, 108; war
witli Barbarossa, 109: receives BLenry
VI 1, 166; Visconti In, 198, 199; ac-
quires Genoa temporarily, 199; un-
der Gla n Galeazzo Visconti, 226; be-
comes a dukedom, 'J'Jt; ; cathedral,
226,227; loss of dominion on Gian
Galeazzo' B death, 228; end of Vis-
conti, 250; founding of Sforza line,
260; condition, 1 166 1535, 2
captured by French, 257; by span-
isb, 267; annexed to Spanish crown,
■_'.". s ; Leonardo there, 2S6; Hramante
there, 'JK7 ; under Spanish governors,
294; visited by Montaigne, 833 ; un-
der Spanish rule, 339, 340 ; conveyed
to Austria, 341 ; Five Days of, 387 ;
jealous of Turin, 389.
Mille, i,403.
Minghetti, 413.
Mino, da Fiesole, 244.
Modena, duchy, 293 ; seat of House of
Este, 293; transfers, 341 ; reform in,
362; restoration of old order on Na-
poleon's fall, 367; in 1848, 888, 389,
397; united with Piedmont in King-
dom of Italy, 402.
Mohammed, 40, 41.
Monasteries, 34, 72.
Montaigmvdiary of his travels in Italy,
320-334.
Monte Casslno, 34.
Montefeitri, in Drbino, 198.
Montefeltro, Federigo da, 249, 250.
Monteverdi, 357.
Montfort, 123.
Murat, 365, 366.
Naples, 21, 70, 73; House of Aragon
reigning, 161 ; condition, about 1360,
201; loss in Black Death, 210; con-
dition, 1360- 1460, 222; conquered by
Alfonso of Aragon, 223; no share in
Renaissance, 249; passes to illegiti-
mate branch of House of Aragon,
263; conquered by Spaniards, 263;
annexed to Spanish crown, 264 ; un-
der Spanish viceroys, 294 ; iuquisi-
INDEX
439
Hon in. 299; conveyed to Austria
and then to Spanish Bourbons, a,
condition, prior to 178
to Joseph Bonaparte and Murat,
revolution ol 18
cruelty "f Fran.-;- I. 878: In 1848,
- part in war against Aus-
tria, iution of liberals,
ition described by Glad-
stone, 395, 396; united with Kingdom
Of Italy, 404, 406.
Napoleon i
Napoleon 1 1 1 ipoleon), Inter-
• in Rome, 391 ; plan- i
ment with Cavour, nx<: war
with Austria, 400; peaoe, 400, 401.
'■
Niccolli
Nicholas 1. Pope, •
Nichol 1, 288.
t, 150.
Normans, In Bouthern Italy. 92; In
Sicily, 93; bat te liegemen to the
Popes
Novaia. battle of, 390.
' in. Bee innocent \ 1. Pope.
Odoacer, :. 10, 11, 13.
Opera, the, .
Oratorio, tbi
Order - aclscan
order.
Order • ■• 1, < (rder of.
Orlando Fill
Orlando [nnamoral
Orsinl, the, 71
• i '
Otto 1, Emperor, the Great, 77 : mar.
rowned Emperor, ts ■ his
empii and deposes
Pope John \ 1 1
Otto IN'. 1 mperor, 120; becomes <;iii-
belllne, i-'". 121 : excommunicated
by Innocent ill, i-'i ; dep
122.
Padua, 96 conquered bj Ven
: '
Palslell
1 Vecchlo, 1"-. fountain in.
G
10, 1 ising h
.
Pallad
Palma Vecchlo,
Palmerston, Lord, sends Gladstone's
letter t.. European governments,
Panflli, nt X, Pope.
itlons with I
with I. on
IiMtiat ! Pippin, Ifi further rela
< li.-w :■
Charlemagne, 61 ; towards Roman
Empire, 62; local weakness
: ted by Empire, 68 . duel with
Empire, 59; right to crown Emper-
anomalous nature of,
injection to Empire, 61 1 strug-
gle with Empire, 61, 62; added pres-
tige, t..: ; cosmopolitan ambition,
64; degradation, 67, 68; revival of,
79; character of, In 10th centurj . Bl .
becomes suzerain to Southern Italy,
il niggle w Ith Empire over In-
vestitures, 89 ioi; us triumph, 114-
124 : its death grapple with Empire,
• i ; it- decay and fall. it:. 161 ;
Babylonish Captivity, 151 ; an ab-
sentee, 161; return to Rome, -i: ;
and Renaissance, 261 ; as head of
culture, 262; its monarchy, .•
In High Renaissance, .■
\ival. . purely Italian in-
stitution, 302 ; quarrel with \
n ; in tTtli and isth centuries,
• . under Napoh 366 ; loss of
Temporal Power, 107, W8; attitude
towards Italian government, 410,
411 . under I XIII. 418.
Papal Cm la, see Roman Curia.
Papal States, 69; really founded by
innocent III, 120 ; confusion in, dur-
ing Babylonish Captivity, 162; about
102; reduced to ordi
firmly established, 267, 268 ; tin- Pa-
pal monarch] . 267 280 . prloi I
1 Napol i*s time, St • . after
Napoleon's fall, 867 i In 1848
in 1849 Invaded bj
11 tese army, mm ; votes to Join
Mill of Hal-
Parentucelli, see Nicholas \ . Pope.
I'aris, Congress ,.1
Puma, a duchy, 296 , taken I
tiesi, 296 . conveyed t.> Bpanlsh Bour-
bons, 341. 342; prior 1.. ! .
on Napoleon's overthrow, .:r.7; In-
surrectlon In, 379 ; In I
■ 11 ; unite, 1 with Piedmont In
dom ol italj
Parthenon, blown up
Patarlnl
Paul 1 1, I'op'
Paul ill. Pope Uessandro Parnese),
1 , :iihi.
Paul i\ . Pope C trail 1
Paul v, Pope
. Ghlbelllni
Pavla, liatth 1
• Westpha
Pee,-,, tee l ... \ 11 1. 1 ■
I
pelllco
III! ;. \ P
128; Iti
Bagllonl in
I'erugln
I'ituzzI, Bald ■
440
INDEX
Pesaro, 246.
Pesaro, Marchess di, and Pletro Axe-
t ii>«>. SIS, .'iU'>.
Petrarch, 185; leader of Classical Re-
vlval, 208, 204; coronation of, 204;
sreal reputation, 206 ; enthusiasm
for Cols <li Rienzo, 206,207; on the
Black l teatb, 210 1 <>n mercenary boI-
dlers, 213, 214: goes t<> Milan, 216;
Invecl Ives against Roman Curia, 274.
Philip, Imperial claimant, 120.
Philip, the Fair, King of Prance, quar-
rel with Boniface x, ill, 148-160.
Placenza, 06; heretics In, 126; build-
ings in, 305; visited by Montaigne,
S83.
Piazza Navona, 351.
Plccinni, 368.
Piccolomini, .Fneas Sylvius, see Pius
H. Pope.
Pico, dells Mlrandola, 245.
Piedmont, becomea Important part
of duchy of Savoy, 296; visited by
Montaigne, 834 ; becomes chief part
of duchy of Savoy, 343; prior to
1789, 361 ; takes action against
Prance, 3C5; on restoration of kin*.',
307; uprising iu, 376, 370 : In 1848, 386;
war with Austria, 388; defeated,
389; alsoal Novara, 390; left alone
to maintain Italian cause. 304; the
hope of Italy, 397; in Crimean Mar,
399 ; war with Austria, 400.
Pier della Vigna, 141. 143.
Pletro Aretino, 316, 316.
Pilo, Rosalino, 402.
Plnturlccbio, 288.
Pippin, King, deposes Merovingians,
44; crowned by Pope Zacharias, 46 ;
and the Papacy. 49; death, 50.
Pippin. Donation of, 45, 50.
Pisa, 70 ; prosperity of, 104 ; Ghibelline,
133; loyal to Henry VII, 169; regula-
tions concerning nobles, 168; war
with Genoa, 169 ; crushing defeal by
Genoa. 170 ; baptistery, 186 ; loss iu
Black Death, 210; seized by Milan,
227; by Florence, 228 ; CaiupoSantn.
244.
Pisa, Council of, 219.
Pisani, Vettor (Venetian admiral), 224.
Pisano, Giovanni, 1st.
Pisa mi, Nlccolb, lsc; at Siena, 187.
Pitti l'alace, designed by Brunelleschi,
236; occupied by Cosimo I, 294 ; pic-
ture gallery in. 295; opera in, 357.
Pius II, Pope, .Eneas Sylvius Picco-
lomini 288.
Pius IV, Pope (Giovanni Angelo Me-
dici), founder of Modern Papacy,
301, 302.
Pius IX , Pope, 383, 3S4 ; takes part In
war against Austria, 388; his scru-
pies, 889; army captured, 389; flees
friim Borne, 390; reactionary, 396;
bad government of, 397 ; and Tem-
poral Power, 405 ; extreme conserv-
Stlsm, 109, 410 ; prisoner in Vatican,
410 . refuses Biibsidy. 411.
Plague Of 1348 I Black Death), 209-211.
Plato, 242, 243, 248.
Platonic Academy, 248.
Platonic Ideas, 282, 288, 285.
Plutarch, 266.
Podesta, 166.
Poerio, Carlo, 396, 386,
Poetry, in Sicily, 141; in Bologna and
Tuscan), 1st.
Poggio a Caiano, 244, 809,
Polenta, da, the, in Ravenna, 198.
Polizlano, 246.
PollaluolO, Antonio, 244.
Pontormo, 308, 809.
Poutremoli, 833.
Popes, see Papacy, Papal States, and
individual Popes.
Pordenone, Giov. Ant. da, 312.
Portiuncula, 129 181, 806,
Pratollno, 326.
Prigioni, I.e Mie (of Silvio Pellico),
'. 382.
Prince, The, by Madiiavelli, 314,315.
Promessi, Sposi, I, by Manzonl, .177.
Provence, Alblgenslan crusade, 123.
Prussia, war with Austria, 407 ; with
Prance, 407.
Pu lei, 245.
Quadrilateral, the, 388.
Radetzky, Field Marshal, 387-390, 394.
Raphael, 283, 286, 289; character, 290,
291; portrait of Julius II, 289; of
I.eo X, 292.
Rattaz/.i, 406.
Ravenna, 14, 21, 45, 71 ; Byzantine
architecture in, 187; Malatests in.
198; Lord Pyron in, 372-375.
Reformation, the, premonitions of,
219-222; Coming of, 297.
Reformation within the Church, see
Catholic Revival.
Renaissance. 231 261, 281-292.
Renaissance, Early, 231-211.
Renaissance, High, 281-292 ; its close,
304.
Revolution, French (of 1789), 361, 364.
Revolution, French (of 1830), 379.
Ribera, 362.
Ricasoli. Bettino, 401, 406.
Rlccardi palace, 233, 244.
Rienzl, see Coladi Rienzo.
Robbia, della. Andrea, 244.
Robbia, della, Luca, 241.
Romagna, the, 379.
Roman Curia (papal Curia), denounced
by Frederick II, 138,139; its venal-
ity, 219; policy, 221; difficulties and
cleverness, 269 270; object of satire
and Invective, 274,276; and art, 288.
Rinnan Empire (see also Holy Roman
Empire, and Eastern Empire), its
extent, 1; character, 2; luxurious
life, 4; unity, 7 ; its condition while
INDEX
441
at Constantinople, 86; in popular
Imagination, 51, 52; relatioi •
Papacy, 59; its revival by Pope Leo
ana Charlemagne, 56 ; end ol Carlo-
vinidan revival, 58; revival by »>tto
the Great as the Holy Roman Em-
pire, :;. 78.
Roman gentleman, lift- of, 4.
Roman people, antagonism to Papacy,
60 ; local politics of,67 . sava;
Rome, Its splendour,!; rail, 5; Chris-
tian. 9; TheodoriCa visit. U; relation
to the Empire, 53: parties in. 183.
1S4; ii" despotism in, 194; reduced
to papal obedience, 268 ; sa.-u by
Bourbon's army, 279,280; in lli^ii
Renaissance, 288; visited by Mon-
taigni - • ompared \\ itb Ven-
is to freedom, 328, :;■-".'; riots In,
Republic declared, 390; defends
Itself against French, 391 . 04 . Ro-
man question, 405 ; occupied by Ital
Ian troops, 4n: ; becomes Beat of
national government, 468,
Romulus Augustulus, l.
Roncaglia, diet of, 110, ni.
ment 1 X, Pope.
:
! no, Antonio. J44.
! tl, 377.
. Pelegrino, murdered, 390.
I
Rovere, della, Francesco, see Sixtus
iv. Pope.
i della, Giuliano, see dulius II,
, della, family, dukes of Urblno,
. o, visited by Montaigne, 828,
ljnli- of St Francis
ltuskin on Bronxin
ai
St. Clan
St. Columbanus, ■-■
■f, 188.
st. Prai
St. Fran
St. Pra
Bt . I" tin I.at'-ian, cbUTCb of, in In
uoeent's dream, 126 . Henrj \ 1 1
■
I
losed m
held by
dome con
ii.i.u. on lay investiture,
St. Sophia, church of , 38.
St Theresa, l
St. Thomas Aquinas. 178, 178.
st. /.ciio. ohurcb of, in Verona, iw.
Salerno, TO, 82, 1"4.
San Gallo, tia, Antonio, the younger,
San Gallo, da. Francesco, account oi
ivery ol Laocoon, 28L
San Gallo, da, Giuliano, 944, U
281
Sansovino, Jaeopo Tattl, 806, Bit
Baraceus, 40; conquests of, 41 ; In Bt
oily, 78; in Italy,
Sardinia, conveyed to Mini, 841j
dukes of sa\o_\ become kiu^s of
.1. Klngdo I dmont
Sarpl, Paolo, 1
Sassoferrato,
Savonarola, 248, 25£
Savoy, it'.' (see also piedmont); its
situation and princes, 173; becomes
duchy, 229; during wars between
Francis I and Charles V. 286; I"-.
COmes an Italian State, 286 ; m 17th
and 18th centuries
Sa\ oy, House of, i;.-..
Bcala della, House of (the Scallgers),
184 188 : burial place ol
seala della. Can Grande, 186, l%;
aided bj Henrj \ 1 1
Bcala, della, Mastino, 186, 187 ; ins de-
feat, 187, I
Scale della, House of.
Scarlatti. A.lessandr<
Scarlatti, Domenico
Schism, tic Great 218 220.
tlano dd Plombo, 312.
Begnatura, Stanza della,
--•■Hi. Qu Ql
sfor/a, House of, i omea extinoti
Bforza, AJessandro, lord of Peaaro,
Bforza, Attendolo (Muzio Attendolo),
Bforza. Frani ecomea i>uke
ol Milan, 250; dealings with human-
ists, 250 . death,
sfor/a, Galeazzo Man...
Bforza, Lodov ii Moro, .
Sicilian Vespers, I
practi-
cal I j • Noi man conquest
under Heurj VI, ti i . under
I Ick II. 141,142; undei Charles
of Anjou, Ii an \ espors,
inder House ol dragon, 16 ,
al I
gon, .'.' . no sIih i nance.
• tn.it.- branoli of
ii under Span-
ish « • -I i"
Ii Hour-
I -,
>
4-42
INDEX
revolution put down, 881; expedi-
tion of Garibaldi and Mllle, tos.
sit-iia, conquered by Florence) 294;
visited bj Montaigne, 327.
Blgismund, Emperor, 220.
Signorelli, 288.
Silvester, Pope, legend of, tr>-47.
Slutony, movement against, 86.
Bistine Chapel, 288; Michelangelo's
Frescoes, 290.
Blxtus IV, Pope, 270, 271,286.
Slxtus \ . Pope, 844.
Bodoma, 309.
Solferlno, 400.
Spain. 37; invasions by, 268, 264; ac-
quires Milan, 267; Naples, 268, 264 ;
predominant in Italy, 276; secure
Bold, 293; governmenl In Milan,
294 : in Naples and Sicily, 294.
Spanish Steps, the, in Koine, 351, 300.
Spielberg prison, 371.
Spoleto, a Lombard duchy, 28, 69; vis-
ited by Montaigne, 331.
Stradivarlus, 359.
Strozzl palaee. in Florence, 2 ti. 246.
Summa Theologian, of Thomas Aqui-
nas, 178.
lasso, Torquato, on the Book of the
Courtier. 284 ; life, 309, 310 ; seen by
Montaigne, 324.
Theodora, 75,7(5.
Tbeodoric, the Ostrogoth, 12; victory
over Odoacer, 13; difficulties, 13;
policy, 14 ; visit to Rome, 14 ; deal-
ings with Empire, 16; with Church,
17; breach with Church, 20; death.
20.
Thomas Aquinas, see St. Thomas
Aquinas.
Tiepolo, 352.
Tintoretto, 312.
Titian, 312.
Totila. 21, 22.
Trade, spirit of, 103 ; with North and
East, 166, 167 ; impediments to,
167, 168.
Trent, Council of, 300-302.
Trevi, fountain of, 351, 360.
Turin, 334, 375.
Turks, capture Constantinople, 264 ;
conquer parts of Venetian Empire,
297; wars with Venice, 338, 339.
Tuscany, 69; a marquisate, '.'4; a
Grand Duchy, 303 ; visited by Mon-
taigne, 326-327 ; passes to Austrian
dukes on failure of Medicean line,
342; prior to 17.19, 363; restoration
in, after Napoleon's fall, 367; takes
part in war against Austria, 388 ;
defeated, 389; (J rand Duke runs
away. 390 ; returns, 391 ; subservient
t'> Austria, 397; runs away again,
401 ; united with Piedmont in King-
dom of Italy, 401, 402.
Two Sicilies, Kingdom of (see also
Sicily and Naples), 93; under Man-
fred, 143; conquered by Charles of
Anjou, 144; absolute monarchy.
198, 194 ; united under AlfonSO 01
AragOn,22S ; fall apart on his death,
268 ; paSS to Charles \ , 264 : 1 I'.'l
1616,268, 264; unites with Kingdom
Of Italy, 406.
Uftl/.i palaee, in Florence, 294 ; picture
gallery, 296.
UgOllUO. see Gregory IX, Pope.
Universities, itt ; of Bologna, itt, its.
Urban VI. Pope, 218.
Urban VIII, Pope. 346.
Urblno, 249; library at, 261; society
In, 282, 283; absorbed by Papacy,
296; visited by Montaigne, 332.
Utrecht, treaty of, 341.
Uzzano, Niccolo da, 230.
Vandals, 6, 21.
Vasarl, on Brunellcschi, 235, 236; on
Donatello, 238, 239; on Masaccio,
240; on Leonardo, 2X5. 2X6; on Raph-
ael, 290, 291 ; himself, 806.
Vatican council, 410.
Vatican library, 262.
Vatican palace, 262,287,288,290.
Venice, 70; origin, 106; character, 106,
106; trade, 106, 107; Barbarossa and
Alexander ill at, 112; Fourth Cru-
sade, us, mi | isolation, 17o ; govern-
ment, 171 ; patricians, 171 ; wars with
Genoa, 172; Greal Council, 172; olt
garchy, 172; aboni 1360,202; growth,
223; wars with Genoa, 224; four
stages, 224; oligarchy in control,
226; tranquillity, 226; 1453-1508,264-
266; League of Cambrai, 266, 266;
wars with Turks, 2:17 ; Lepanto, 297 ;
the Carita, 307; fine arts. 310-313;
visited by Montaigne, 322, 323 : free-
dom compared with that in Rome,
328, 329; 1580-1789, 335-339; quarrel
with Papacy, 336, 337; wars with
Turks, 338, 339 ; conquers the Morea,
338; opera in, 357; music in, 359;
prior to 1789,362; extinction of Re-
public, 365; given to Austria, 367;
In 1848, a Republic again, 387, 388 ;
jealous of Piedmont, 389; surrenders
to Austria, 394 ; united to Italy, 407.
Verona, emotional peace of, 17c. 177;
description of, 194; under Sealigers,
195-198; seized by Venice, 224; tem-
porarily under Milan, 227; taken by
Venice, 228; claimed by empire, 265;
visited by Montaigne, 320.
Veronese, Paolo, 312.
Verrocchio, 244, 247; Leonardo's mas-
ter, 286.
Vieenza, conquered by Can Grande,
195, 196; buildings In, 306, 307 ; \ isited
by Goethe, ;io7; bv Montaigne, 321.
Vico, 349, 360.
Victor Kmmanuel, see Vittorio Eman-
uele IL
INDEX
44:i
Vienna, Congress of, 3C.e>, 367.
Vienna, Peace of, ML
Vignola, Glacomo Barozzl da, 305, 306.
Villa 1'..
Villa di Papa Gluli<
Villa Medici,
Villani. Giovanni, on Boniface \ 111.
146 : mi Dante, 152, 153 ; on Florence,
182. 183; death, ju.
Vinci, Leonardo da, 256, 280 281
\ - ;:, Souse "f. despots Oi Milan,
198, 199 . aided by Henrj VII, 198;
tiioir ambitions, 199; about i
tlieir despotism, 215, 216; end <>f,
260.
\ - Bernabo, 215,
\ - mti, Bianca Maria,
•;, Pilippo Maria, 228; death,
v - ionti, Galeazzo II, 216,
•;. Gian Galeazzo, 216 . career,
. buildings, 226 ; death. 227.
Visconti, Giovanni (Archbishop), 216.
Visigoths, r >.
Bmanuele i.
Vittorio Bmanuele [1,390; character,
:>:•':, 398 . French alliauce aud Aua
trian War, 400. 401 . hailed King ol
ltah i.y Garibaldi, MM; alliance
with Prussia, 407 ; war with Austria,
Dters \ enlce, 407 . takes pos
i ol Rome, 407,408 . death, 413
Vittorio Emanuele ill, 416.
Volta,
-
Bpani8b Success
Werner, <iuk<\ 213.
Worms, .li.-i of, 278,
Wycllf, s:<k
X*0DHg ltah
Zai'harias, Pope, 11.
Zara, captured bj Crusaders, 118
Zeno, Carlo, 224.
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