'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piangeVedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:"Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"'Purgatorio, canto vi.[295]Purgatorio, canto vii.[296]Inferno, canto xxxiv.[297]Not that the doctors of the civil law were necessarily political partisans of the Emperors. Savigny says that there were on the contrary more Guelfs than Ghibelines among the jurists of Bologna.—Roman Law in the Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 80.[298]Cf. Palgrave,Normandy and England, vol. ii. (of Otto and Adelheid). TheOrdo Romanustalks of a'Camera Iuliæ'in the Lateran palace, reserved for the Empress.[299]See notes toChron. Casin.in Muratori,S. R. I.iv. 515.[300]Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des Reichs.[301]Novellæ Constitutiones.[302]Marquard Freher. The question whether the seven electors vote assingulior as acollegium, is solved by shewing that they have stepped into the place of the senate and people of Rome, whose duty it was to choose the Emperor, though (it is naïvely added) the soldiers sometimes usurped it.—Peter de Andlo,De Imperio Romano.[303]Thus Charles, in a capitulary added to a revised edition of the Lombard law issued inA.D.801, says,'Anno consulatus nostri primo.'So Otto III calls himself'Consul Senatus populique Romani.'[304]Francis II, the last Emperor, was one hundred and twentieth from Augustus. Some chroniclers call Otto the Great Otto II, counting in Salvius Otho, the successor of Galba.[305]Seep. 45andnote to p. 143.[306]Nürnberg herself was not of Roman foundation. But this makes the imitation all the more curious. The fashion even passed from the cities to rural communities like some of the Swiss cantons. Thus we find'Senatus populusque Uronensis.'[307]See Palgrave,Normandy and England, i. p. 379.[308]Æneas Sylvius,De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani.[309]Thus some civilians held Constantine's Donation null; but the canonists, we are told, were clear as to its legality.[310]'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus et principibus, qui negant se esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut rex Franciæ, Angliæ, et similes. Si enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum universalem, licet ab illo universali domino se subtrahant ex privilegio vel ex præscriptione vel consimili, non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, per ea quæ dicta sunt. Et per hoc omnes gentes quæ obediunt S. matri ecclesiæ sunt de populo Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum et monarcham totius orbis, esset hæreticus, quia diceret contra determinationem ecclesiæ et textum S. evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit edictum a Cæsare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis." Ita et recognovit Christus Imperatorem ut dominum.'—Bartolus,Commentary on the Pandects, xlviii. i. 24;De Captivis et postliminio reversis.[311]Peter de Andlo,multis locis(see esp. cap. viii.), and other writings of the time. Cf. Dante's letter to Henry VII:'Romanorum potestas nec metis Italiæ nec tricornis Siciliæ margine coarctatur. Nam etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique, tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. Scriptum est enim"Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar,Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."'So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth century, declares it to be a mortal sin to resist the Empire, as the power ordained of God.[312]Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II),De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani. Cf. Gerlach Buxtorff,Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam.[313]It has hitherto been the common opinion that theDe Monarchiawas written in the view of Henry's expedition. But latterly weighty reasons have been advanced for believing that its date must be placed some years later.[314]Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the Areopagite.[315]Quoting Aristotle'sPolitics.[316]'Non enim cives propter consules nec gens propter regem, sed e converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem.'[317]'Reges et principes in hoc unico concordantes, ut adversentur Domino suo et uncto suo Romano Principi,'having quoted'Quare fremuerunt gentes.'[318]Especially in the opportune death of Alexander the Great.[319]Cic.,De Off., ii.'Ita ut illud patrocinium orbis terrarum potius quam imperium poterat nominari.'[320]'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non fuit adeo punitum.'[321]There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. Heineccius,De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum sigillis), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of Pope Innocent III.The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is one which mediæval writers are very fond of. It seems to have originated with Gregory VII.[322]Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can rightfully demand.[323]Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6:τὸν δὲ φάναι, ὡς οὐχ ἑκὼν τάδε ἐπιχειρεῖ, ἀλλά τις συνεχῶς ἐνοχλῶν αὐτὸν βιάζεται, καὶ ἐπιτάττει τὴν Ῥώμην πορθεῖν.[324]See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz,M. G. H., iv., evidently compiled soon after his death.[325]Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in Rome:—'In præsens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... præsentia vero, mirum dictu, nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt reliquiæ quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero domitum miror. Vale.'[326]The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new character is one which mediæval writers delight to illustrate. InAppendix, Note D, there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), written in the beginning of the twelfth century.[327]In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius,Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear.[328]Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans.[329]The series of papal coins is interrupted (with one or two slight exceptions) fromA.D.984 (not long after the time of Alberic) toA.D.1304. In their place we meet with various coins struck by the municipal authorities, some of which bear on the obverse the head of the Apostle Peter, with the legend Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse the head of the Apostle Paul, legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius,ut supra.[330]Rienzi called himself Augustus as well as tribune;'tribuno Augusto de Roma.'(He pretended, or his friends pretended for him—it was at any rate believed—that he was an illegitimate son of the Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He cited, on his appointment, the Pope and cardinals to appear before the people of Rome and give an account of their conduct; and after them the Emperor.'Ancora citao lo Bavaro (Lewis the Fourth). Puoi citao li elettori de lo imperio in Alemagna, e disse "Voglio vedere che rascione haco nella elettione," che trovasse scritto che passato alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva a li Romani.'—Vita di Cola di Rienzi, c. xxvi (written by a contemporary). I give the spelling as it stands in Muratori's edition.[331]The Germans called this hill, which is the highest in or near Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful group of stone-pines upon its brow, Mons Gaudii; the origin of the Italian name, Monte Mario, is not known, unless it be, as some think, a corruption of Mons Malus.It was on this hill that Otto the Third hanged Crescentius and his followers.[332]I quote this from theOrdo Romanusas it stands in Muratori's third Dissertation in theAntiquitates Italiæ medii ævi.[333]Great stress was laid on one part of the procedure,—the holding by the Emperor of the Pope's stirrup for him to mount, and the leading of his palfrey for some distance. Frederick Barbarossa's omission of this mark of respect when Pope Hadrian IV met him on his way to Rome, had nearly caused a breach between the two potentates, Hadrian absolutely refusing the kiss of peace until Frederick should have gone through the form, which he was at last forced to do in a somewhat ignominious way.[334]A remarkable speech of expostulation made by Otto III to the Roman people (after one of their revolts) from the tower of his house on the Aventine has been preserved to us. It begins thus:'Vosne estis mei Romani? Propter vos quidem meam patriam, propinquos quoque reliqui; amore vestro Saxones et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem meum, proieci; vos in remotas partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo patres vestri cum orbem ditione premerent numquam pedem posuerunt; scilicet ut nomen vestrum et gloriam ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios adoptavi: vos cunctis prætuli.'—Vita S. Bernwardi; in Pertz,M. G. H., t. iv.(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to have been derived.)[335]The Leonine city, so called from Pope Leo IV, lay between the Vatican and St. Peter's and the river.[336]It would seem that Otto was deceived, and that in reality they are the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola.[337]The only other of the Teutonic Emperors buried in Italy were, so far as I know, Lewis the Second (whose tomb, with an inscription commemorating his exploits, is built into the wall of the north aisle of the famous church of S. Ambrose at Milan), Henry the Sixth and Frederick the Second, who lie at Palermo, Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, and Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus may be seen in the Campo Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous for her zeal on the imperial side.Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, three or four at Prague, two at Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one at Quedlinburg, two at Munich, and most of the later ones at Vienna.[338]Seenote s, p. 178.[339]Seep. 117.[340]These highly curious frescoes are in the chapel of St. Sylvester attached to the very ancient church of Quattro Santi on the Cœlian hill, and are supposed to have been executed in the time of Pope Innocent III. They represent scenes in the life of the Saint, more particularly the making of the famous donation to him by Constantine, who submissively holds the bridle of his palfrey.[341]The last imperial coronation, that of Charles the Fifth, took place in the church of St. Petronius at Bologna, Pope Clement VII being unwilling to receive Charles in Rome. It is a grand church, but the choir, where the ceremony took place, seems to have been 'restored,' that is to say modernized, since Charles' time.[342]The name of Cenci is a very old one at Rome: it is supposed to be an abbreviation of Crescentius. We hear in the eleventh century of a certain Cencius, who on one occasion made Gregory VII prisoner.[343]Thus in the church of San Lorenzo without the walls there are several pointed windows, now bricked up; and similar ones may be seen in the church of Ara Cœli on the summit of the Capitol. So in the apse of St. John Lateran there are three or four windows of Gothic form: and in its cloister, as well as in that of St. Paul without the walls, a great deal of beautiful Lombard work. The elegant porch of the church of Sant' Antonio Abate is Lombard. In the apse of the church of San Giovanni e Paolo on the Cœlian hill there is an external arcade exactly like those of the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these the only instances.The ruined chapel attached to the fortress of the Caetani family—the family to which Boniface the Eighth belonged, and whose head is now the first of the Roman nobility—is a pretty little building, more like northern Gothic than anything within the walls of Rome. It stands upon the Appian Way, opposite the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, which the Caetani used as a stronghold.[344]A good deal of the mischief done by Robert Guiscard, from which the parts of the city lying beyond the Coliseum towards the river and St. John Lateran never recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic troops in his service. Saracen pirates are said to have once before sacked Rome. Genseric was not a heathen, but he was a furious Arian, which, as far as respect to the churches of the orthodox went, was nearly the same thing. He is supposed to have carried off the seven-branched candlestick and other vessels of the Temple, which Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome.[345]We are told that one cause of the ferocity of the German part of the army of Charles was their anger at the ruinous condition of the imperial palace.[346]Under the influence, partly of this anti-pagan spirit, partly of his own restless vanity, partly of a passion to be doing something, Pope Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of mischief in the way of destroying or spoiling the monuments of antiquity.[347]These campaniles are generally supposed to date from the ninth and tenth centuries. I am informed, however, by Mr. J. H. Parker, of Oxford, whose antiquarian skill is well known, that he is led to believe by an examination of their mouldings that few or none, unless it be that of San Prassede, are older than the twelfth century.This of course applies only to the existing buildings. The type of tower may be, and indeed no doubt is, older.Somewhat similar towers may be observed in many parts of the Italian Alps, especially in the wonderful mountain land north of Venice, where such towers are of all dates from the eleventh or twelfth down to the nineteenth century, the ancient type having in these remote valleys been adhered to because the builder had no other models before him. In the valley of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile in course of erection, precisely similar to others in the neighbouring villages some eight centuries old.The very curious round towers of Ravenna, some four or five of which are still standing, seem to have originally had similar windows, though these have been all, or nearly all, stopped up. The Roman towers are all square.[348]The Palatine hill seems to have been then, as it is for the most part now, a waste of stupendous ruins. In the great imperial palace upon its northern and eastern sides was the residence of an official of the Eastern court in the beginning of the eighth century. In the time of Charles, some seventy years later, this palace was no longer habitable.[349]Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica form.[350]It was thus that most of the earlier Teutonic Emperors, and notably Charles and Otto, professed to have obtained the crown; although practically it was partly a matter of conquest and partly of private arrangement with the Pope. In later times, the seven Germanic princes were recognized as the legally qualified electoral body, but their appearance on the stage was a result of the confusion of the German kingdom with the Roman Empire, and in strictness they had nothing to do with the Roman crown at all. The right to bestow it could only—on principle—belong to some Roman authority, and those who felt the difficulty were driven to suppose a formal cession of their privilege by the Roman people to the seven electors. Seep. 227supra: and cf. Matthew Villani (iv. 77),'Il popolo Romano, non da se, ma la chiesa per lui, concedette la elezione degli Imperadori a sette principi della Magna.'[351]That which Dante, Arnold of Brescia, and the rest really have in common with the modern Italian 'party of movement' is their hostility to the temporal power of the Popes.[352]See Dean Stanley'sLectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Lecture II.[353]It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend.[354]The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible.[355]'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'—M. Villani, iv. 77.Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of mediævals in such matters:—'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa—e questi son dinominati Guelfi; cioè, guardatori di fè. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cioè, guidatori di battaglie.'[356]'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'—Æneas Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide.[357]See Ægidi,Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden; a book which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on the inner nature of the Empire.[358]The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of that family must be dated.[359]Reichsregiment.[360]Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred thereby the hatred of the nobles.[361]The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign,i. e.non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were called by any form of the name Welsh.[362]The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb inA.D.1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in Goethe'sWahrheit und Dichtung. Aachen, though it remained and indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call them. As early asA.D.1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of the Frankish name, and called themselves'reges Franciæ,'instead of 'reges Franciæ occidentalis.'—Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud Schardium,Sylloge Tractatuum.[363]Erwählter Kaiser. SeeAppendix, Note C.[364]Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome.[365]But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away.[366]The latter does not occur, even in English books, till comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase'Empereur d'Almayne'may be found in very early French writers.[367]See Moser,Römische Kayser; Goldast's and other collections of imperial edicts and proclamations.[368]The so-called'Wahlcapitulation.'[369]The electors long refused to elect Charles, dreading his great hereditary power, and were at last induced to do so only by their overmastering fear of the Turks.[370]Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem to have wanted that sort of genial heartiness which, apt as it is to be stifled by education in the purple, has nevertheless been possessed by several other royal lines, greatly contributing to their vitality; as for instance by more than one prince of the houses of Brunswick and Hohenzollern.[371]See this brought out with great force in the very interesting work of Padre Tosti,Prolegomeni alla Storia Universale della Chiesa, from which I quote one passage, which bears directly on the matter in hand:'Il grido della riforma clericale aveva un eco terribile in tutta la compagnia civile dei popoli: essa percuoteva le cime del laicale potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la gerarchia sociale. Se l'imperadore Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza non avesse fiutate queste consequenze nella eresia di Hus e di Girolamo di Praga, forse non avrebbe con tanto zelo mandati alle fiamme que' novatori. Rotto da Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al Papa ed ai preti in fatti di religione, avvenne che anche quello che sommetteva il vassallo al barone, il barone al imperadore si allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; e se prima contristato della prepotenza di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva al successore di San Pietro, ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli commesse Fra Martino le chiavi del regno dei Cieli.'—vol. ii. pp. 398, 9.[372]It was not till the end of the eleventh century that transubstantiation was definitely established as a dogma.[373]See the passages quoted innote m, p. 98; andnote g, p. 110.[374]Henry VIII of England when he rebelled against the Pope called himself King of Ireland (his predecessors had used only the title'Dominus Hiberniæ') without asking the Emperor's permission, in order to shew that he repudiated the temporal as well as the spiritual dominion of Rome.So the Statute of Appeals is careful to deny and reject the authority of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, no doubt, the Emperor as well as the Pope.[375]Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619.[376]De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico.[377]Even then the Roman pontiffs had lapsed into that scolding, anile tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of Hildebrand, or the stern precision of Innocent III) which is now seldom absent from their public utterances. Pope Innocent the Tenth pronounces the provisions of the treaty,'ipso iure nulla, irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque et effectu vacua, omnino fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.'In spite of which they were observed.This bull may be found in vol. xvii. of theBullarium. It bears date Nov. 20th,A.D.1648.[378]The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) continued, with frequent and long interruptions, to sit while the Empire lasted. But its slowness and formality passed that of any other legal body the world has yet seen, and it had no power to enforce its sentences. The Aulic council was little more efficient, and was generally disliked as the tool of imperial intrigue.[379]The'matricula'specifying the quota of each state to the imperial army could not be any longer employed.[380]Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs.[381]Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in 1713.[382]Quoted by Ludwig Haüsser,Deutsche Geschichte.[383]The distinction is well expressed by the German'Reich'and'Kaiserthum,'to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond.[384]So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles V's successor should be chosen from some other.—Moser,Römische Kayser. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family.[385]In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he would become Emperor.[386]Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The'exacta æqualitas'conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic.[387]'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.With unexpected legions bursts away,And sees defenceless realms receive his sway....The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloomOf hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'Johnson,Vanity of Human Wishes.[388]The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (Vitriarius Illustratus), writing early in the eighteenth century:—1. The great power of Austria.2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor.3. The majority of Catholics among the electors.4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances.5. Her moderation.6. The memory of benefits conferred by her.7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from the blood of former Cæsars.8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were deprived of the crown.9. Her own eagerness to have it.[389]The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and shook it.[390]'You are in your own house: be the master.'[391]Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them.[392]Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those who practised in the Kammergericht.[393]Cf. Pütter,Historical Developement of the Political Constitution of the German Empire, vol. iii.[394]Frederick the Great said of the Diet,'Es ist ein Schattenbild, eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen sich beschäftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.'[395]Cf. Haüsser,Deutsche Geschichte; Introduction.[396]Quoted by Haüsser.[397]Rotteck and Welcker,Staats Lexikon, s. v.'Deutsches Reich.'[398]Deutschlands Erwartungen vom Fürstenbunde, quoted in theStaats Lexikon.[399]Wahrheit und Dichtung, book i. TheRömer Saalis still one of the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any merit as works of art.[400]Jordanis Chronica, ap. Schardium,Sylloge Tractatuum.[401]In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date 10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words,'Mes descendans conserveront longtemps ce trône, le premier de l'univers.'Answering a deputation from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811,'La Providence, qui a voulu que je rétablisse le trône de Charlemagne, vous a fait naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes anséatiques, dans le sein de l'Empire.'—Œuvres de Napoléon, tom. v. p. 521.'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je réunis la couronne de France à celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire confine avec l'Orient.'(Quoted by Lanfrey,Vie de Napoleon, iii. 417.)'Votre Sainteté est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.'(Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.)'Dites bien,'says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis Charlemagne, leur Empereur[of the Papal Court]que je dois être traité de même. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le réduirai à la même condition qu'il était avant Charlemagne.'(Lanfrey,Vie de Napoleon, iii. 420.)[402]Napoleon said on one occasion,'Je n'ai pas succédé a Louis Quatorze, mais à Charlemagne.'—Bourrienne,Vie de Napoléon, iv. In 1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made for his own coronation;—(Bourrienne,ut supra.) Somewhat in the same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to incite his subjects to the conquest of England.[403]'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interêts(of political order and the spiritual authority of the Pope)qu'en annulant les donations des Empereurs Français, mes predecesseurs, et en réunissant les états romains à la France.'—Proclamation issued in 1809:Œuvres, iv.[404]SeeAppendix, Note C.[405]Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul,'Carissime in Christo Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt nobis tuæ voluntatis studia erga nos, utquotiescunqueope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.'—Quoted by Ægidi.[406]Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in theCodex Carolinus, and the following preamble to the Concordat ofA.D.1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from theBullarium Romanum), and mark the changes of a thousand years.'Gubernium reipublicæ [Gallicæ] recognoscit religionem Catholicam Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium Gallicæ reipublicæ profitetur.'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore præstolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublicæ consules.'[407]Cf. Heeren,Political System, vol. iii. 273.[408]He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the mediæval orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been mentioned.[409]Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the phrase he once used,'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.'[410]Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria'(erwählter Römischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich).[411]This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in Koch'sTraités(continued by Schöll), vol. viii., and Meyer'sCorpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ, vol. i. It has every appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place'Der nämliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren Interessen Deutschlands übereinstimmend gezeigt haben.'The phrase 'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' 'body of German states' (Staatskörper), and so forth. This Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick.[412]Histoire des Traités, vol. viii. The original may be found in Meyer'sCorpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ, vol. i. p. 70. It is a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name of, &c., &c.[413]Koch (Schöll),Histoire des Traités, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; Haüsser,Deutsche Geschichte, vol. iv.[414]Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides.[415]'Les états d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien federatif.'—Histoire des Traités, xi. p. 257.[416]The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown.[417][Since the above was written (inA.D.1865) sudden and momentous changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an united German people,—united for the time, at least, by the folly of the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we see passing.][418]See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the object of the expedition to Mexico.[419]One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons.[420]I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power claiming a more than spiritual authority.[421]'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam cœlum. Non enim propter cœlum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam cœlum.'From the tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter.[422]Von Raumer,Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, v.[423]Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire.[424]Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht,Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit; and Rotteck and Welcker'sStaats Lexikon. The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration.[425]See especially Von Sybel,Die Deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk.[426]Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the feudal law of land.[427]Mommsen,Römische Geschichte, iii.sub. fin.[428]Waitz (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte) says that the phrase'semper Augustus'may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but not in official documents.[429]There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire people had begun to fancy that 'erwählter' did not mean 'elect,' but 'elective.' Cf.note m, p. 362.[430]These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or Gallicized Franks (Francigenæ), which having been for some time'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,'grew at last to be simply'regnum Franciæ,'the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire.[431]It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine documents of the early Empire. Goldast'sCollections, for instance, are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Pütter, and in the host of writers to whom they refer.[432]We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament.[433]Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss Confederation.[434]Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine Empire.[435]Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the example.[436]Seenote d, p. 270.
'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piangeVedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:"Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"'Purgatorio, canto vi.
'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piangeVedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:"Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"'Purgatorio, canto vi.
'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piangeVedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:"Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"'Purgatorio, canto vi.
'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piange
Vedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:
"Cesare mio, perchè non m' accompagne?"'
Purgatorio, canto vi.
[295]Purgatorio, canto vii.
[296]Inferno, canto xxxiv.
[297]Not that the doctors of the civil law were necessarily political partisans of the Emperors. Savigny says that there were on the contrary more Guelfs than Ghibelines among the jurists of Bologna.—Roman Law in the Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 80.
[298]Cf. Palgrave,Normandy and England, vol. ii. (of Otto and Adelheid). TheOrdo Romanustalks of a'Camera Iuliæ'in the Lateran palace, reserved for the Empress.
[299]See notes toChron. Casin.in Muratori,S. R. I.iv. 515.
[300]Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des Reichs.
[301]Novellæ Constitutiones.
[302]Marquard Freher. The question whether the seven electors vote assingulior as acollegium, is solved by shewing that they have stepped into the place of the senate and people of Rome, whose duty it was to choose the Emperor, though (it is naïvely added) the soldiers sometimes usurped it.—Peter de Andlo,De Imperio Romano.
[303]Thus Charles, in a capitulary added to a revised edition of the Lombard law issued inA.D.801, says,'Anno consulatus nostri primo.'So Otto III calls himself'Consul Senatus populique Romani.'
[304]Francis II, the last Emperor, was one hundred and twentieth from Augustus. Some chroniclers call Otto the Great Otto II, counting in Salvius Otho, the successor of Galba.
[305]Seep. 45andnote to p. 143.
[306]Nürnberg herself was not of Roman foundation. But this makes the imitation all the more curious. The fashion even passed from the cities to rural communities like some of the Swiss cantons. Thus we find'Senatus populusque Uronensis.'
[307]See Palgrave,Normandy and England, i. p. 379.
[308]Æneas Sylvius,De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani.
[309]Thus some civilians held Constantine's Donation null; but the canonists, we are told, were clear as to its legality.
[310]'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus et principibus, qui negant se esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut rex Franciæ, Angliæ, et similes. Si enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum universalem, licet ab illo universali domino se subtrahant ex privilegio vel ex præscriptione vel consimili, non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, per ea quæ dicta sunt. Et per hoc omnes gentes quæ obediunt S. matri ecclesiæ sunt de populo Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum et monarcham totius orbis, esset hæreticus, quia diceret contra determinationem ecclesiæ et textum S. evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit edictum a Cæsare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis." Ita et recognovit Christus Imperatorem ut dominum.'—Bartolus,Commentary on the Pandects, xlviii. i. 24;De Captivis et postliminio reversis.
[311]Peter de Andlo,multis locis(see esp. cap. viii.), and other writings of the time. Cf. Dante's letter to Henry VII:'Romanorum potestas nec metis Italiæ nec tricornis Siciliæ margine coarctatur. Nam etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique, tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. Scriptum est enim
"Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar,Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."'
"Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar,Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."'
"Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar,Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."'
"Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Cæsar,
Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris."'
So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth century, declares it to be a mortal sin to resist the Empire, as the power ordained of God.
[312]Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II),De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani. Cf. Gerlach Buxtorff,Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam.
[313]It has hitherto been the common opinion that theDe Monarchiawas written in the view of Henry's expedition. But latterly weighty reasons have been advanced for believing that its date must be placed some years later.
[314]Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the Areopagite.
[315]Quoting Aristotle'sPolitics.
[316]'Non enim cives propter consules nec gens propter regem, sed e converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem.'
[317]'Reges et principes in hoc unico concordantes, ut adversentur Domino suo et uncto suo Romano Principi,'having quoted'Quare fremuerunt gentes.'
[318]Especially in the opportune death of Alexander the Great.
[319]Cic.,De Off., ii.'Ita ut illud patrocinium orbis terrarum potius quam imperium poterat nominari.'
[320]'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non fuit adeo punitum.'
[321]There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. Heineccius,De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum sigillis), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of Pope Innocent III.
The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is one which mediæval writers are very fond of. It seems to have originated with Gregory VII.
[322]Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can rightfully demand.
[323]Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6:τὸν δὲ φάναι, ὡς οὐχ ἑκὼν τάδε ἐπιχειρεῖ, ἀλλά τις συνεχῶς ἐνοχλῶν αὐτὸν βιάζεται, καὶ ἐπιτάττει τὴν Ῥώμην πορθεῖν.
[324]See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz,M. G. H., iv., evidently compiled soon after his death.
[325]Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in Rome:—'In præsens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... præsentia vero, mirum dictu, nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt reliquiæ quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero domitum miror. Vale.'
[326]The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new character is one which mediæval writers delight to illustrate. InAppendix, Note D, there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), written in the beginning of the twelfth century.
[327]In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius,Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear.
[328]Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans.
[329]The series of papal coins is interrupted (with one or two slight exceptions) fromA.D.984 (not long after the time of Alberic) toA.D.1304. In their place we meet with various coins struck by the municipal authorities, some of which bear on the obverse the head of the Apostle Peter, with the legend Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse the head of the Apostle Paul, legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius,ut supra.
[330]Rienzi called himself Augustus as well as tribune;'tribuno Augusto de Roma.'(He pretended, or his friends pretended for him—it was at any rate believed—that he was an illegitimate son of the Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He cited, on his appointment, the Pope and cardinals to appear before the people of Rome and give an account of their conduct; and after them the Emperor.'Ancora citao lo Bavaro (Lewis the Fourth). Puoi citao li elettori de lo imperio in Alemagna, e disse "Voglio vedere che rascione haco nella elettione," che trovasse scritto che passato alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva a li Romani.'—Vita di Cola di Rienzi, c. xxvi (written by a contemporary). I give the spelling as it stands in Muratori's edition.
[331]The Germans called this hill, which is the highest in or near Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful group of stone-pines upon its brow, Mons Gaudii; the origin of the Italian name, Monte Mario, is not known, unless it be, as some think, a corruption of Mons Malus.
It was on this hill that Otto the Third hanged Crescentius and his followers.
[332]I quote this from theOrdo Romanusas it stands in Muratori's third Dissertation in theAntiquitates Italiæ medii ævi.
[333]Great stress was laid on one part of the procedure,—the holding by the Emperor of the Pope's stirrup for him to mount, and the leading of his palfrey for some distance. Frederick Barbarossa's omission of this mark of respect when Pope Hadrian IV met him on his way to Rome, had nearly caused a breach between the two potentates, Hadrian absolutely refusing the kiss of peace until Frederick should have gone through the form, which he was at last forced to do in a somewhat ignominious way.
[334]A remarkable speech of expostulation made by Otto III to the Roman people (after one of their revolts) from the tower of his house on the Aventine has been preserved to us. It begins thus:'Vosne estis mei Romani? Propter vos quidem meam patriam, propinquos quoque reliqui; amore vestro Saxones et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem meum, proieci; vos in remotas partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo patres vestri cum orbem ditione premerent numquam pedem posuerunt; scilicet ut nomen vestrum et gloriam ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios adoptavi: vos cunctis prætuli.'—Vita S. Bernwardi; in Pertz,M. G. H., t. iv.
(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to have been derived.)
[335]The Leonine city, so called from Pope Leo IV, lay between the Vatican and St. Peter's and the river.
[336]It would seem that Otto was deceived, and that in reality they are the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola.
[337]The only other of the Teutonic Emperors buried in Italy were, so far as I know, Lewis the Second (whose tomb, with an inscription commemorating his exploits, is built into the wall of the north aisle of the famous church of S. Ambrose at Milan), Henry the Sixth and Frederick the Second, who lie at Palermo, Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, and Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus may be seen in the Campo Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous for her zeal on the imperial side.
Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, three or four at Prague, two at Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one at Quedlinburg, two at Munich, and most of the later ones at Vienna.
[338]Seenote s, p. 178.
[339]Seep. 117.
[340]These highly curious frescoes are in the chapel of St. Sylvester attached to the very ancient church of Quattro Santi on the Cœlian hill, and are supposed to have been executed in the time of Pope Innocent III. They represent scenes in the life of the Saint, more particularly the making of the famous donation to him by Constantine, who submissively holds the bridle of his palfrey.
[341]The last imperial coronation, that of Charles the Fifth, took place in the church of St. Petronius at Bologna, Pope Clement VII being unwilling to receive Charles in Rome. It is a grand church, but the choir, where the ceremony took place, seems to have been 'restored,' that is to say modernized, since Charles' time.
[342]The name of Cenci is a very old one at Rome: it is supposed to be an abbreviation of Crescentius. We hear in the eleventh century of a certain Cencius, who on one occasion made Gregory VII prisoner.
[343]Thus in the church of San Lorenzo without the walls there are several pointed windows, now bricked up; and similar ones may be seen in the church of Ara Cœli on the summit of the Capitol. So in the apse of St. John Lateran there are three or four windows of Gothic form: and in its cloister, as well as in that of St. Paul without the walls, a great deal of beautiful Lombard work. The elegant porch of the church of Sant' Antonio Abate is Lombard. In the apse of the church of San Giovanni e Paolo on the Cœlian hill there is an external arcade exactly like those of the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these the only instances.
The ruined chapel attached to the fortress of the Caetani family—the family to which Boniface the Eighth belonged, and whose head is now the first of the Roman nobility—is a pretty little building, more like northern Gothic than anything within the walls of Rome. It stands upon the Appian Way, opposite the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, which the Caetani used as a stronghold.
[344]A good deal of the mischief done by Robert Guiscard, from which the parts of the city lying beyond the Coliseum towards the river and St. John Lateran never recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic troops in his service. Saracen pirates are said to have once before sacked Rome. Genseric was not a heathen, but he was a furious Arian, which, as far as respect to the churches of the orthodox went, was nearly the same thing. He is supposed to have carried off the seven-branched candlestick and other vessels of the Temple, which Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome.
[345]We are told that one cause of the ferocity of the German part of the army of Charles was their anger at the ruinous condition of the imperial palace.
[346]Under the influence, partly of this anti-pagan spirit, partly of his own restless vanity, partly of a passion to be doing something, Pope Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of mischief in the way of destroying or spoiling the monuments of antiquity.
[347]These campaniles are generally supposed to date from the ninth and tenth centuries. I am informed, however, by Mr. J. H. Parker, of Oxford, whose antiquarian skill is well known, that he is led to believe by an examination of their mouldings that few or none, unless it be that of San Prassede, are older than the twelfth century.
This of course applies only to the existing buildings. The type of tower may be, and indeed no doubt is, older.
Somewhat similar towers may be observed in many parts of the Italian Alps, especially in the wonderful mountain land north of Venice, where such towers are of all dates from the eleventh or twelfth down to the nineteenth century, the ancient type having in these remote valleys been adhered to because the builder had no other models before him. In the valley of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile in course of erection, precisely similar to others in the neighbouring villages some eight centuries old.
The very curious round towers of Ravenna, some four or five of which are still standing, seem to have originally had similar windows, though these have been all, or nearly all, stopped up. The Roman towers are all square.
[348]The Palatine hill seems to have been then, as it is for the most part now, a waste of stupendous ruins. In the great imperial palace upon its northern and eastern sides was the residence of an official of the Eastern court in the beginning of the eighth century. In the time of Charles, some seventy years later, this palace was no longer habitable.
[349]Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica form.
[350]It was thus that most of the earlier Teutonic Emperors, and notably Charles and Otto, professed to have obtained the crown; although practically it was partly a matter of conquest and partly of private arrangement with the Pope. In later times, the seven Germanic princes were recognized as the legally qualified electoral body, but their appearance on the stage was a result of the confusion of the German kingdom with the Roman Empire, and in strictness they had nothing to do with the Roman crown at all. The right to bestow it could only—on principle—belong to some Roman authority, and those who felt the difficulty were driven to suppose a formal cession of their privilege by the Roman people to the seven electors. Seep. 227supra: and cf. Matthew Villani (iv. 77),'Il popolo Romano, non da se, ma la chiesa per lui, concedette la elezione degli Imperadori a sette principi della Magna.'
[351]That which Dante, Arnold of Brescia, and the rest really have in common with the modern Italian 'party of movement' is their hostility to the temporal power of the Popes.
[352]See Dean Stanley'sLectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Lecture II.
[353]It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend.
[354]The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible.
[355]'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'—M. Villani, iv. 77.
Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of mediævals in such matters:—'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa—e questi son dinominati Guelfi; cioè, guardatori di fè. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cioè, guidatori di battaglie.'
[356]'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'—Æneas Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide.
[357]See Ægidi,Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden; a book which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on the inner nature of the Empire.
[358]The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of that family must be dated.
[359]Reichsregiment.
[360]Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred thereby the hatred of the nobles.
[361]The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign,i. e.non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were called by any form of the name Welsh.
[362]The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb inA.D.1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in Goethe'sWahrheit und Dichtung. Aachen, though it remained and indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call them. As early asA.D.1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of the Frankish name, and called themselves'reges Franciæ,'instead of 'reges Franciæ occidentalis.'—Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud Schardium,Sylloge Tractatuum.
[363]Erwählter Kaiser. SeeAppendix, Note C.
[364]Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome.
[365]But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away.
[366]The latter does not occur, even in English books, till comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase'Empereur d'Almayne'may be found in very early French writers.
[367]See Moser,Römische Kayser; Goldast's and other collections of imperial edicts and proclamations.
[368]The so-called'Wahlcapitulation.'
[369]The electors long refused to elect Charles, dreading his great hereditary power, and were at last induced to do so only by their overmastering fear of the Turks.
[370]Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem to have wanted that sort of genial heartiness which, apt as it is to be stifled by education in the purple, has nevertheless been possessed by several other royal lines, greatly contributing to their vitality; as for instance by more than one prince of the houses of Brunswick and Hohenzollern.
[371]See this brought out with great force in the very interesting work of Padre Tosti,Prolegomeni alla Storia Universale della Chiesa, from which I quote one passage, which bears directly on the matter in hand:'Il grido della riforma clericale aveva un eco terribile in tutta la compagnia civile dei popoli: essa percuoteva le cime del laicale potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la gerarchia sociale. Se l'imperadore Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza non avesse fiutate queste consequenze nella eresia di Hus e di Girolamo di Praga, forse non avrebbe con tanto zelo mandati alle fiamme que' novatori. Rotto da Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al Papa ed ai preti in fatti di religione, avvenne che anche quello che sommetteva il vassallo al barone, il barone al imperadore si allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; e se prima contristato della prepotenza di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva al successore di San Pietro, ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli commesse Fra Martino le chiavi del regno dei Cieli.'—vol. ii. pp. 398, 9.
[372]It was not till the end of the eleventh century that transubstantiation was definitely established as a dogma.
[373]See the passages quoted innote m, p. 98; andnote g, p. 110.
[374]Henry VIII of England when he rebelled against the Pope called himself King of Ireland (his predecessors had used only the title'Dominus Hiberniæ') without asking the Emperor's permission, in order to shew that he repudiated the temporal as well as the spiritual dominion of Rome.
So the Statute of Appeals is careful to deny and reject the authority of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, no doubt, the Emperor as well as the Pope.
[375]Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619.
[376]De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico.
[377]Even then the Roman pontiffs had lapsed into that scolding, anile tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of Hildebrand, or the stern precision of Innocent III) which is now seldom absent from their public utterances. Pope Innocent the Tenth pronounces the provisions of the treaty,'ipso iure nulla, irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque et effectu vacua, omnino fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.'In spite of which they were observed.
This bull may be found in vol. xvii. of theBullarium. It bears date Nov. 20th,A.D.1648.
[378]The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) continued, with frequent and long interruptions, to sit while the Empire lasted. But its slowness and formality passed that of any other legal body the world has yet seen, and it had no power to enforce its sentences. The Aulic council was little more efficient, and was generally disliked as the tool of imperial intrigue.
[379]The'matricula'specifying the quota of each state to the imperial army could not be any longer employed.
[380]Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs.
[381]Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in 1713.
[382]Quoted by Ludwig Haüsser,Deutsche Geschichte.
[383]The distinction is well expressed by the German'Reich'and'Kaiserthum,'to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond.
[384]So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles V's successor should be chosen from some other.—Moser,Römische Kayser. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family.
[385]In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he would become Emperor.
[386]Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The'exacta æqualitas'conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic.
[387]
'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.With unexpected legions bursts away,And sees defenceless realms receive his sway....The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloomOf hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'Johnson,Vanity of Human Wishes.
'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.With unexpected legions bursts away,And sees defenceless realms receive his sway....The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloomOf hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'Johnson,Vanity of Human Wishes.
'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.With unexpected legions bursts away,And sees defenceless realms receive his sway....The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloomOf hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'Johnson,Vanity of Human Wishes.
'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,
Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.
With unexpected legions bursts away,
And sees defenceless realms receive his sway....
The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom
Of hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;
His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,
And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'
Johnson,Vanity of Human Wishes.
[388]The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (Vitriarius Illustratus), writing early in the eighteenth century:—
[389]The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and shook it.
[390]'You are in your own house: be the master.'
[391]Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them.
[392]Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those who practised in the Kammergericht.
[393]Cf. Pütter,Historical Developement of the Political Constitution of the German Empire, vol. iii.
[394]Frederick the Great said of the Diet,'Es ist ein Schattenbild, eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen sich beschäftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.'
[395]Cf. Haüsser,Deutsche Geschichte; Introduction.
[396]Quoted by Haüsser.
[397]Rotteck and Welcker,Staats Lexikon, s. v.'Deutsches Reich.'
[398]Deutschlands Erwartungen vom Fürstenbunde, quoted in theStaats Lexikon.
[399]Wahrheit und Dichtung, book i. TheRömer Saalis still one of the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any merit as works of art.
[400]Jordanis Chronica, ap. Schardium,Sylloge Tractatuum.
[401]In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date 10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words,'Mes descendans conserveront longtemps ce trône, le premier de l'univers.'Answering a deputation from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811,'La Providence, qui a voulu que je rétablisse le trône de Charlemagne, vous a fait naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes anséatiques, dans le sein de l'Empire.'—Œuvres de Napoléon, tom. v. p. 521.
'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je réunis la couronne de France à celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire confine avec l'Orient.'(Quoted by Lanfrey,Vie de Napoleon, iii. 417.)
'Votre Sainteté est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.'(Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.)
'Dites bien,'says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis Charlemagne, leur Empereur[of the Papal Court]que je dois être traité de même. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le réduirai à la même condition qu'il était avant Charlemagne.'(Lanfrey,Vie de Napoleon, iii. 420.)
[402]Napoleon said on one occasion,'Je n'ai pas succédé a Louis Quatorze, mais à Charlemagne.'—Bourrienne,Vie de Napoléon, iv. In 1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made for his own coronation;—(Bourrienne,ut supra.) Somewhat in the same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to incite his subjects to the conquest of England.
[403]'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interêts(of political order and the spiritual authority of the Pope)qu'en annulant les donations des Empereurs Français, mes predecesseurs, et en réunissant les états romains à la France.'—Proclamation issued in 1809:Œuvres, iv.
[404]SeeAppendix, Note C.
[405]Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul,'Carissime in Christo Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt nobis tuæ voluntatis studia erga nos, utquotiescunqueope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.'—Quoted by Ægidi.
[406]Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in theCodex Carolinus, and the following preamble to the Concordat ofA.D.1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from theBullarium Romanum), and mark the changes of a thousand years.
'Gubernium reipublicæ [Gallicæ] recognoscit religionem Catholicam Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium Gallicæ reipublicæ profitetur.
'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore præstolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublicæ consules.'
[407]Cf. Heeren,Political System, vol. iii. 273.
[408]He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the mediæval orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been mentioned.
[409]Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the phrase he once used,'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.'
[410]Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria'(erwählter Römischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich).
[411]This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in Koch'sTraités(continued by Schöll), vol. viii., and Meyer'sCorpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ, vol. i. It has every appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place'Der nämliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren Interessen Deutschlands übereinstimmend gezeigt haben.'The phrase 'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' 'body of German states' (Staatskörper), and so forth. This Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick.
[412]Histoire des Traités, vol. viii. The original may be found in Meyer'sCorpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ, vol. i. p. 70. It is a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name of, &c., &c.
[413]Koch (Schöll),Histoire des Traités, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; Haüsser,Deutsche Geschichte, vol. iv.
[414]Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides.
[415]'Les états d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien federatif.'—Histoire des Traités, xi. p. 257.
[416]The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown.
[417][Since the above was written (inA.D.1865) sudden and momentous changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an united German people,—united for the time, at least, by the folly of the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we see passing.]
[418]See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the object of the expedition to Mexico.
[419]One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons.
[420]I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power claiming a more than spiritual authority.
[421]'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam cœlum. Non enim propter cœlum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam cœlum.'From the tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter.
[422]Von Raumer,Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, v.
[423]Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire.
[424]Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht,Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit; and Rotteck and Welcker'sStaats Lexikon. The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration.
[425]See especially Von Sybel,Die Deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk.
[426]Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the feudal law of land.
[427]Mommsen,Römische Geschichte, iii.sub. fin.
[428]Waitz (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte) says that the phrase'semper Augustus'may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but not in official documents.
[429]There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire people had begun to fancy that 'erwählter' did not mean 'elect,' but 'elective.' Cf.note m, p. 362.
[430]These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or Gallicized Franks (Francigenæ), which having been for some time'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,'grew at last to be simply'regnum Franciæ,'the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire.
[431]It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine documents of the early Empire. Goldast'sCollections, for instance, are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Pütter, and in the host of writers to whom they refer.
[432]We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament.
[433]Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss Confederation.
[434]Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine Empire.
[435]Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the example.
[436]Seenote d, p. 270.