Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/830

ROME [HISTORY. His successor Nicholas V. (1447-55) was a scholar solely devoted to the patronage of literati and artists. During his reign there was a fresh attempt to restore the republic, but it was rather prompted by literary and classical enthusiasm than by any genuine patriotic ardour. Political passions and interests had ceased to exist. The conspiracy was headed by Stefano Porcari, a man of the =7 of people, who claimed to be descended from Cato. He had ao . once been captain of the people in Florence, and was made podesta of Bologna by Eugenius IV. He was a caricature of Cola di Kienzo, and extravagantly proud of his Latin speeches in honour of ancient republican liberty. The admiration of antiquity was then at its height, and Porcari found many enthusiastic hearers. Directly after the death of Eugenius IV. he made a first and unsuccessful attempt to proclaim the republic. Nevertheless Nicholas V., with the same indulgence for scholars that had prompted him to pardon Valla for denying the temporal power of the papacy and laughing to scorn the pretended donation of Constan- tino, freely pardoned Porcari and named him podesta of Anagni. He filled this office with credit, but on his return to Rome again began to play the agitator, and was banished to Bologna with a pension from the pope. Nicholas V. had conferred all the state offices upon priests and abbots, and had erected numerous fortresses. Hence there were many malcontents in Rome, in communication with Porcari at Bologna, and ready to join in his plot. Arms were collected, and on the day fixed he presented himself to his fellow-conspirators adorned with rich robes and a gold chain, and harangued them in Latin on the duty of freeing their country from the yoke of the priests. His design was to set fire to the Vatican on the 6th January 1453, the feast of the Epiphany ; he and his followers were to seize the pope, the cardinals, and Castle St Angelo. But Nicholas received timely warning ; the conspirators' house was surrounded ; and Porcari himself was seized while trying to escape, confined in Castle St Angelo, and put to death with nine of his companions on the 9th January. Others shortly suffered the same fate. Under Calixtus III. and Pius II. affairs went on quietly enough, but Paul II. (1464-71) had a somewhat troubled reign. Yet he was a skilled politician. He re- ordered the finances and the courts of justice, punished crime with severity, was an energetic foe to the Malatesta of Rimini, put an end to the oppression exercised in Rome by the wealthy and arrogant house of Anguillara, and kept the people in good humour with continual festivities. But and this was a grave defect at that period he extended no favour to learning, and, by driving many scholars from the curia to make room for his own kins- men, brought a storm about his ears. At that time the house of Pomponio Leto was the rendezvous of learned men and the seat of the Roman Academy. Leto was an enthusiast of antiquity ; and, as the members of the Academy all assumed old Latin names, they were suspected of a design to re-establish paganism and the republican )f government. It is certain that they all inveighed against a g the pope ; and, as the latter was no man of half measures, on during the carnival of 1468 he suddenly imprisoned twenty ,j on Academicians, and even subjected a few of them to torture. Pomponio Leto, although absent in Venice, was also n arrested and tried ; but he exculpated himself, craved for- ^ giveness, and was set at liberty. His friends were also re- leased, for the charge of conspiracy proved to be unfounded. Certain members of the Academy, and notably Platina in his Lives of the Popes, afterwards revenged themselves by stigmatizing Paul II. as the persecutor of philosophy and letters. But he was no more a persecutor than a patron of learning ; he was a politician, the author of some useful reforms, and solely intent on the consolidation of his absolute power. Among his reforms may be classed the revision of the Roman statutes in 1469, for the purpose of destroying the substance while preserving the form of the old Roman legislation, and entirely stripping it of all political significance. In fact the pope's will was now absolute, and even in criminal cases he could trample unhindered on the common law. There was still a senator of Rome, whose nomination was entirely in the hands of the pope, still three conser- vators, the heads of the rioni, and an elected council of twenty-six citizens. Now and then also a shadowy semblance of a popular assembly was held to cast dust in the eyes of the public, but even this was not for long. All these officials, together with the judges of the Capitol, retained various attributes of different kinds. They administered justice and gave sentence. There were numerous tribunals all with undefined modes of procedure, so that it was very difficult for the citizens to ascertain in which court justice should be sought. But in last resort there was always the supreme decision of the pope. Thus matters remained to the time of the French Revolution. For the completion of this system a final blow had to be dealt to the aristocracy, whose power had been increased by nepotism ; and it was dealt by bloodshed under the three following popes Sixtus IV. (1471-84), Innocent VIII. (1484-92), and Alexander VI. (1492-1503) each of whom was worse than his predecessor. The first, by means of his nephews, continued the slaughter of the Colonna, sending an army against them, devastating their estates at Marino, and beheading the protonotary Lorenzo Colonna. Innocent VIII. was confronted by the power of the Orsini, who so greatly endangered his life by their disturbances in the city that he was only saved by an alliance with Naples. Neither peace nor order could be lastingly established until these arrogant barons were overthrown. This task was accomplished by the worst of the three pontiffs, Alexander VI. All know how the mas- sacre of the Orsini was compassed, almost simultaneously, by the pope in Rome and his equally iniquitous son, Caesar Borgia, at Sinigaglia (1502). This pair dealt the last blow to the Roman aristocracy and the tyrants of Romagna, and thus the temporal dominion of the papacy was finally assured. The republic was now at an end ; it had shrivelled to a civil municipality. Its institutions, deprived of all practical value, lingered on like ghosts of the past, subject from century to century to unimportant changes. The his- tory of Rome is henceforth absorbed in that of the papacy. Nevertheless the republic twice attempted to rise from p st- its grave, and on the second occasion gave proofs of heroism mediae? worthy of its past. It was first resuscitated in February Rome> 1798, by the influence of the French Revolution, and the French constitution of the year III. was rapidly imitated. Rome had again two councils the tribunate and the senate, with five consuls constituting the executive power. But in the following year, owing to the military reverses of the French, the government of the popes was restored until 1809, when Napoleon I. annexed to his empire the States of the Church. Rome was then governed by a con- sulta straordinaria a special commission with the muni- cipal and provincial institutions of France. In 1814 the papal government was again reinstated, and the old institutions, somewhat modified on the French system, were recalled to life. Pius IX. (1846-77) tried to intro- duce fresh reforms, and to improve and simplify the old machinery of state ; but the advancing tide of the Italian revolution of 1848 drove him from Rome ; the republic was once more proclaimed, and had a brief but glorious existence. Its programme was dictated by Joseph Mazzini, who with Saffi and Armellini formed the triumvirate at the head of the Government. United Italy was to be a