Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/823

Rh 1278-1339.] ROME 799 is the sarian. being now overthrown, the tribunitia potestas alone should invite the emperor to make his triumphal entry into the Capitol, and receive his authority from the people of Home. This conception of the Roman power will now be seen to become more and more definite until finding its last expression in Cola di Rienzo. Pope Clement, resigning himself to necessity, acknowledged the new government under the energetic rule of Aiiotti. The latter now joined the Ghibellines of the Campagna against the Orsini and the Neapolitans, subdued Velletri, and gave it a podesta. But then the Gaetani, who were Guelfs, united with the Orsini and the Neapolitans, and, giving battle to the Ghibellines in the Campagna, routed them in such wise as to put an end to the popular government. The nobles forced their way into the city, attacked the Capitol, made Arlotti their prisoner, and re-elected the senators Sciarra Colonna and Francesco Orsini. Close upon these reverses came the death of Henry VII. (24th August 1313) at Buonconvento near Siena, which put an end to the Ghibel- line party in Italy. Thereupon King Robert of Naples, being named senator by the pope, immediately appointed a vicar in Rome. Clement likewise profited by the vacancy of the imperial throne to name the king imperial vicar in Tuscany. And he died on the 20th April 1314, well content to have witnessed the triumphs of the Guelfs in Italy. Affairs took a fresh turn under Pope John XXII. (1316-34). Rome was still ruled by the vicars of King Robert; but, owing to the continued absence of the popes, matters grew daily worse. Trade and industry declined, revenue diminished, the impoverished nobles were exceed- ingly turbulent, deeds of murder and violence occurred on all sides; even by day the streets of the city were unsafe. Hence there was universal discontent. Meanwhile Louis the Bavarian, who in 1314 had been crowned king of the Romans, having overcome his German enemies at Miihl- dorf in 1322, turned against the pope, one of his fiercest opponents. Louis was surrounded by Minorite friars, supporters of the poverty of the church, and consequently enemies to the temporal power. They Avere men of the stamp of William of Occam, Marsilio of Padua, Giovanni Janduno, and other philosophers favourable to the rights of the empire and the people. Accordingly the Italian Ghibellines hailed Louis as they had previously hailed Henry. Even the Roman people were roused to action, and, driving out the representatives and partisans of King Robert, in the spring of 1327, seized on Castle St Angelo, and again established a democratic government. "Nearly all Italy was stirred to new deeds," says G. Villani, "and the Romans rose to arms and organized the people" (bk. x. c. 20). Regardless of the reproofs of the pope, they elected a haughty Ghibelline, Sciarra Colonna, captain of the people and general of the militia, with a council of fifty -two popolani, four to each region. Then, ranged under the standards of the militia, the Romans gave chase to the foes of the republic, and Sciarra, returning victorious, ascended to the Capitol and invited Louis the Bavarian to Rome. The summons was obeyed; on the 7th January 1328 the king was already encamped in the Neronian Fields with five thousand horse and a considerable number of foot soldiers, and, with better fortune than Henry VII., was able to enter the Vatican at once. Encircled by a crowd of heretics, reformers, and Minorite brethren, he convoked a parliament on the Capitol, asking that the imperial crown might be conferred upon him by the people, from whom alone he wished to receive it. And the people proclaimed him their captain, senator, and emperor. On the 17th January his corona- tion took place in St Peter's. But, as he had neither money nor practical sense, his method of taxation and the excesses committed by himself and his over-excited philosophers speedily aroused the popular discontent. His ecclesiastical vicar, Marsilio of Padua, and Giovanni Janduno placarded the walls with insulting manifestoes against the pope, whom the Minorites stigmatized as a heretic and wished to depose. In April Louis twice assembled the parliament in St Peter's Square, and, after obtaining its sanction to several anti-papal edicts, declared John XXII. degraded and deposed as a heretic. This was a very strange and novel spectacle, the more so that, as was speedily proved, the Romans were stirred by no anti-Catholic spirit, no yearning for religious reform. Jacopo Colonna, a canon of the Lateran, was able to make his way into Rome with four masked companions, to publicly read, at the top of his voice and before a great multitude, the excom- munication launched against the emperor by the deposed pope, to traverse the entire city, and to withdraw un- molested to Palestrina. Meanwhile the emperor contented himself with decreeing that henceforth the popes must reside in Rome, that if, when invited, they should fail to come they would be thereby held deposed from the throne. As a logical consequence, proceedings were immediately begun for the election of the new pope, Nicholas V., who on the 12th May was proclaimed by the popular voice in St Peter's Square, and received the imperial sanction. But this ephemeral drama came to an end when the emperor departed with his antipope on the 4th August. This caused the immediate downfall of the democratic Government. Bertoldo Orsini, who had returned to Rome with his Guelfs, and Stefano Colonna were elected senators, and confirmed in the office by Cardinal Giovanni Orsini in the name of the pope. A new parliament cancelled the emperor's edicts, and had them burnt by the public execu- tioner. Later, Nicholas, the antipope, went with a rope about his neck to make submission to John XXII., and Louis promised to disavow and retract all that he had done against the church, provided the sentence of excom- munication were withdrawn. This, however, was re- fused. Never had the empire fallen so low. Meanwhile King Robert was again supreme in Rome, and, being re- elected senator, appointed vicars there as before. Anarchy reigned. The city was torn by factions, and the provinces rebelled against the French representatives of the pope, who, in their ignorance of Italian affairs, were at a loss how to act. And after the election of Benedict XII. (1334-42) con- fusion reached so great a pitch that, on the expiration of Robert's senatorial term, the Romans named thirteen heads of regions to carry on the government with two senators, while the king still sent vicars as before. The people, for the sake of peace, once more granted the supremacy of the senate to the pope, and he nominated two knights of Gubbio, Giacomo di Cante dei Gabrielli and Bosone Novello dei Gabrielli, who were succeeded by two other senators the following year. But in 1339 the Romans Reconst attacked the Capitol, named two senators of their own tution choice, re-established a democratic Government, and sent of the .. ambassadors to Florence to ask for the ordinances of re justice (ordinamenti delta giustizid), by which that city had broken the power of the nobles, and also that a few skilled citizens should lend their help in the reconsti- tution of Rome. Accordingly some Florentines came with the ordinamenti, some portions of which may be recog- nized in the Roman statutes, and, after first rearranging the taxes, elected thirteen priors of the guilds, a gonfa- lonier of justice, and a captain of the people after the Florentine manner. But there was a dissimilarity in the conditions of the two cities. The guilds having little influence in Rome, the projected reform failed, and the pope, who was opposed to it, re-elected the senators.