Chapter 4.VI. The Celebrated Citation.
The bell of the great Lateran church sounded shrill and loud, as the mighty
multitude, greater even than that of the preceding night, swept on. The
appointed officers made way with difficulty for the barons and ambassadors,
and scarcely were those noble visitors admitted ere the crowd closed in
their ranks, poured headlong into the church, and took the way to the
chapel of Boniface VIII. There, filling every cranny, and blocking up the
entrance, the more fortunate of the press beheld the Tribune surrounded by
the splendid court his genius had collected, and his fortune had subdued.
At length, as the solemn and holy music began to swell through the edifice,
preluding the celebration of the mass, the Tribune stepped forth, and the
hush of the music was increased by the universal and dead silence of the
audience. His height, his air, his countenance, were such as always
command the attention of crowds; and at this time they received every
adjunct from the interest of the occasion, and that peculiar look of intent
yet suppressed fervour, which is, perhaps, the sole gift of the eloquent
that Nature alone can give.
"Be it known," said he, slowly and deliberately, "in virtue of that
authority, power, and jurisdiction, which the Roman people, in general
parliament, have assigned to us, and which the Sovereign Pontiff hath
confirmed, that we, not ungrateful of the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit
- whose soldier we now are - nor of the favour of the Roman people,
declare, that Rome, capital of the world, and base of the Christian church;
and that every City, State, and People of Italy, are henceforth free. By
that freedom, and in the same consecrated authority, we proclaim, that the
election, jurisdiction, and monarchy of the Roman empire appertain to Rome
and Rome's people, and the whole of Italy. We cite, then, and summon
personally, the illustrious princes, Louis Duke of Bavaria, and Charles
king of Bohemia, who would style themselves Emperors of Italy, to appear
before us, or the other magistrates of Rome, to plead and to prove their
claim between this day and the Day of Pentecost. We cite also, and within
the same term, the Duke of Saxony, the Prince of Brandenburg, and whosoever
else, potentate, prince, or prelate, asserts the right of Elector to the
imperial throne - a right that, we find it chronicled from ancient and
immemorial time, appertaineth only to the Roman people - and this in
vindication of our civil liberties, without derogation of the spiritual
power of the Church, the Pontiff, and the Sacred College. Herald, proclaim
the citation, at the greater and more formal length, as written and
intrusted to your hands, without the Lateran."
("Il tutto senza derogare all' autorita della Chiesa, del Papa e del Sacro
Collegio." So concludes this extraordinary citation, this bold and
wonderful assertion of the classic independence of Italy, in the most
feudal time of the fourteenth century. The anonymous biographer of Rienzi
declares that the Tribune cited also the Pope and the Cardinals to reside
in Rome. De Sade powerfully and incontrovertibly refutes this addition to
the daring or the extravagance of Rienzi. Gibbon, however, who has
rendered the rest of the citation in terms more abrupt and discourteous
than he was warranted by any authority, copies the biographer's blunder,
and sneers at De Sade, as using arguments "rather of decency than of
weight." Without wearying the reader with all the arguments of the learned
Abbe, it may be sufficient to give the first two.
1st. All the other contemporaneous historians that have treated of this
event, G. Villani, Hocsemius, the Vatican MSS. and other chroniclers,
relating the citation of the Emperor and Electors, say nothing of that of
the Pope and Cardinals; and the Pope (Clement VI.), in his subsequent
accusations of Rienzi, while very bitter against his citation of the
Emperor, is wholly silent on what would have been to the Pontiff the much
greater offence of citing himself and the Cardinals.)
2. The literal act of this citation, as published formally in the Lateran,
is extant in Hocsemius, (whence is borrowed, though not at all its length,
the speech in the text of our present tale;) and in this document the Pope
and his Cardinals are not named in the summons.
Gibbon's whole account of Rienzi is superficial and unfair. To the cold
and sneering scepticism, which so often deforms the gigantic work of that
great writer, allowing nothing for that sincere and urgent enthusiasm
which, whether of liberty or religion, is the most common parent of daring
action, the great Roman seems but an ambitious and fantastic madman. In
Gibbon's hands what would Cromwell have been? what Vane? what Hampden? The
pedant, Julian, with his dirty person and pompous affectation, was Gibbon's
ideal of a great man.)
As Rienzi concluded this bold proclamation of the liberties of Italy, the
Tuscan ambassadors, and those of some other of the free states, murmured
low approbation. The ambassadors of those States that affected the party
of the Emperor looked at each other in silent amaze and consternation. The
Roman Barons remained with mute lips and downcast eyes; only over the aged
face of Stephen Colonna settled a smile, half of scorn, half of exultation.
But the great mass of the citizens were caught by words that opened so
grand a prospect as the emancipation of all Italy: and their reverence of
the Tribune's power and fortune was almost that due to a supernatural
being; so that they did not pause to calculate the means which were to
correspond with the boast.
While his eye roved over the crowd, the gorgeous assemblage near him, the
devoted throng beyond; - as on his ear boomed the murmur of thousands and
ten thousands, in the space without, from before the Palace of Constantine
(Palace now his own!) sworn to devote life and fortune to his cause; in the
flush of prosperity that yet had known no check; in the zenith of power, as
yet unconscious of reverse, the heart of the Tribune swelled proudly:
visions of mighty fame and limitless dominion, - fame and dominion, once
his beloved Rome's and by him to be restored, rushed before his intoxicated
gaze; and in the delirious and passionate aspirations of the moment, he
turned his sword alternately to the three quarters of the then known globe,
and said, in an abstracted voice, as a man in a dream, "In the right of the
Roman people this too is mine!" ("Questo e mio.")
Low though the voice, the wild boast was heard by all around as distinctly
as if borne to them in thunder. And vain it were to describe the various
sensations it excited; the extravagance would have moved the derision of
his foes, the grief of his friends, but for the manner of the speaker,
which, solemn and commanding, hushed for the moment even reason and hatred
themselves in awe; afterwards remembered and repeated, void of the spell
they had borrowed from the utterer, the words met the cold condemnation of
the well-judging; but at that moment all things seemed possible to the hero
of the people. He spoke as one inspired - they trembled and believed; and,
as rapt from the spectacle, he stood a moment silent, his arm still
extended - his dark dilating eye fixed upon space - his lip parted - his
proud head towering and erect above the herd, - his own enthusiasm kindled
that of the more humble and distant spectators; and there was a deep murmur
begun by one, echoed by the rest, "The Lord is with Italy and Rienzi!"
The Tribune turned, he saw the Pope's Vicar astonished, bewildered, rising
to speak. His sense and foresight returned to him at once, and, resolved
to drown the dangerous disavowal of the Papal authority for this hardihood,
which was ready to burst from Raimond's lips, he motioned quickly to the
musicians, and the solemn and ringing chant of the sacred ceremony
prevented the Bishop of Orvietto all occasion of self-exoneration or reply.
The moment the ceremony was over, Rienzi touched the Bishop, and whispered,
"We will explain this to your liking. You feast with us at the Lateran. -
Your arm." Nor did he leave the good Bishop's arm, nor trust him to other
companionship, until to the stormy sound of horn and trumpet, drum and
cymbal, and amidst such a concourse as might have hailed, on the same spot,
the legendary baptism of Constantine, the Tribune and his nobles entered
the great gates of the Lateran, then the Palace of the World.
Thus ended that remarkable ceremony and that proud challenge of the
Northern Powers, in behalf of the Italian liberties, which, had it been
afterwards successful, would have been deemed a sublime daring; which,
unsuccessful, has been construed by the vulgar into a frantic insolence;
but which, calmly considering all the circumstances that urged on the
Tribune, and all the power that surrounded him, was not, perhaps,
altogether so imprudent as it seemed. And, even accepting that imprudence
in the extremest sense, - by the more penetrating judge of the higher order
of character, it will probably be considered as the magnificent folly of a
bold nature, excited at once by position and prosperity, by religious
credulities, by patriotic aspirings, by scholastic visions too suddenly
transferred from revery to action, beyond that wise and earthward policy
which sharpens the weapon ere it casts the gauntlet.
