"The Pope time that his aid must be speedy and strong. had made a league with the King of Sicily, whom, in return for large succours to enable him to defy the Emperor, he had invested in all the insignia of royalty. Even in Rome the Pope, the Frangipani, the Sicilians, all the nobles, even the family of Peter Leonis, except their leader Giordano, had conspired to prevent them, the Roman people, from bestowing on Conrad the imperial crown. In order that this army might reach Rome in safety, they had restored the Milvian bridge; but without instant haste all might be lost." the midst of these tumults Innocent died, closing a Pontificate of fourteen years. Death of Innocent II. Sept. 23, 1143. Sept. 26. In The successor of Innocent was Guido di Castello, the cardinal of S. Mario, the scholar of Abélard, the protector of Arnold. He was elected, from what motive or through what interest does not appear, yet by the unanimous suffrage of the cardinals and amidst the acclamations of the people." He took the name of Cœlestine II. Caelestine II. The only act of Cœlestine was one of gentleness and peace; he received the ambassadors of Louis VII, King of France, pronounced his benediction on the kingdom, and so repealed the Interdict with which Innocent had rewarded the faithful services of his early patron and almost humble vassal. Even the turbulence of the people was overawed; they might seem to await in anxious expectation how far the protector of Arnold might favour his resumption of the Roman liberties. These hopes were disappointed by the death of Cœlestine March 8, after a pontificate of less than six months. On Lucius II. the accession of Lucius II., a Bolognese by birth, 1144. "The Life of Cœlestine is at issue with his own letters. The Life asserts that the people were absolutely excluded from all share in the election. Cœlestine writes: "Clero et populo acclamante, partim et expetente."-Epist. ad Petr. Venerab. ▾ The interdict related to the election to the archbishopric of Bourges. The king, according to usage, named a candidate to the chapter. The Pope commanded the obsequious chapter to elect Peter de la Chatre, nephew to the Chancellor of the Roman Church. Even Louis was provoked to wrath; he swore that X 393 March 12. Dec. 28. the republic boldly assumed the ideal form imagined by Arnold of Brescia. The senate and the people assembled in the Capitol, elected a Patrician, Giordano, the descendant of Peter Leonis. They announced to the Pope their submission to his spiritual authority, but to his spiritual authority alone. They declared that the Pope and the clergy must content themselves from that time with the tithes and oblations of the people; that all the temporalities, the royalties, and rights of sovereignty fell to the temporal power, and that power was the Patrician. They proceeded to make themselves masters of the city, attacked and levelled to the ground many of the fortress palaces of the cardinals and the nobles. The Pope, after some months, wrote an urgent letter to the Emperor Conrad to claim his protection against his rebellious subjects. To the appeal of the Romans, calling him to the sovereignty, Conrad, spell-bound perhaps by the authority of Bernard, however tempting the occasion might be, paid no attention; even if more inclined to the cause of the Pope, he had no time for interference. Pope Lucius had recourse to more immediate means of defence. He armed the pontifical party, and that party comprehended all the nobles: it had become a contest of the oligarchy and the democracy. He placed himself at their head, obtained, it should seem, some success," but in an attempt to storm the Capitol in the front of his soldiers, he was Feb. 25, 1145. mortally wounded with a stone. To have slain Lucius II. a Pope afflicted the Romans with no remorse. The papal party felt no shame at the unseemly death of a Pope who had fallen in actual war for the defence of his temporal power; republican Rome no compunction at the fall of her enemy. Yet the death of Lucius seems to have extinguished for a time the ambition of the cardinals. Instead of rival Popes contending for advancement, Pope and Anti-pope in eager haste to array themselves in the tiara, This appears from the words of Otho Freisingen: "Senatoribus, quos ante instituerant, patricium adjiciunt." Otho Freisingen, vii. 31. What place did this leave for the Emperor? I conceive, therefore, that the letter to the Emperor belongs to the pontificate of Death of Innocent, where I have placed it. "Ad jus patricii sui reposcunt.”— Otho Freisingen, loc. cit. This was pure Arnoldism. 2 "Senatum abrogare coegit."- Cardin. Arragon. in Vita Lucii. Eugenius III. all seemed to shrink from the perilous dignity. They drew forth from the cloister of the Cistercian monks the Abbot, Bernard of Pisa, a devout man, but obscure and of simplicity, it was supposed, bordering on imbecility. His sole recommendation was that he was a Cistercian, a friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, of Bernard the tried foe of Abélard and of Arnold of Brescia, Bernard through whom alone they could hope for the speedy succour of the Transalpine sovereigns. "In electing you," says Bernard himself, "they made me Pope, not you." The saint's letter of congratulation is in a tone of mingled superiority and deference, in which the deference is formal, the superiority manifest. To the conclave Bernard remonstrated against the cruelty, almost the impiety, of dragging a man dead to the world back into the peril and turmoil of worldly affairs. He spoke almost with contempt of the rude character of Eugenius III. "Is this a man to gird on the sword and to execute vengeance on the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with links of iron?" (Such at present appeared to Bernard the office of Christ's representative on earth!) "How will a man with the innocence and simplicity of a child cope with affairs which require the strength of a giant?" Bernard was for once mistaken in his estimate of human character. Eugenius III. belied all expectations by the unsuspected vigour of his conduct. He was compelled, indeed, at first to bow before the storm: on the third day after his election he left Rome to receive his consecration in the monastery of Farfa. Arnold in Arnold of Brescia at the head of a large force of Swiss mountaineers who had imbibed his doctrines, was Rome. now in Rome. His eloquence brought over the larger part of the nobles to the popular side; even some of the clergy were infected by his doctrines. The republic, under his influence, affected to resume the constitution of elder Rome. The office of prefect was abolished, the Patrician a "Aiunt non vos esse papam, sed me."-Epist. 237, 8. b Epist. 236. He calls him " pan traxit et Roman cum multitudine venit."-Fasti Corbeicures. See Muller, Schweitzer's Geschichte, i. 409, u. 277. Juizz CHAP. VI. S. BERNARD. 395 Giordano established in full authority. They pretended to create anew patrician families, an equestrian order; the name and rights of tribunes of the people were to balance the power of the Senate; the laws of the commonwealth were re-enacted. Nor were they forgetful of more substantial provisions for their power. The Capitol was rebuilt and fortified; even the church of St. Peter was sacrilegiously turned into a castle. The Patrician took possession of the Vatican, imposed taxes, and exacted tribute by violence from the pilgrims. Rome began again to speak of her sovereignty over the world. On the expulsion of Eugenius, the indefatigable Bernard addressed a letter to the Roman people in his usual tone of haughty apology for his interference; a protest of his own insignificance while he was dictating to nations and kings. He mingles what he means for gentle persuasion with the language of awful menace. "Not only will the powers of earth, but the martyrs of heaven fight against a rebellious people." In one part, he dexterously inquires how far they themselves had become richer by the plunder of the churches. It was as the religious capital of the world that Rome was great and wealthy; they were cutting off all their real glory and riches by ceasing to be the city of St. Peter. In another letter, he called on the Emperor Conrad to punish this accursed and tumultuous people. But Eugenius owed to his own intrepid energy and conduct at least a temporary success. He launched Eugenius rehis sentence of excommunication against the rebel covers Rome. Patrician Rome was too much accustomed to such thunders to regard them. He appealed to more effective arms, the implacable hatred and jealousy of the neighbouring cities. Tivoli was always ready to take arms against Rome, (Innocent II. had foreseen the danger of dismantling this check on Rome,) other cities sent their troops; Eugenius was in person at Civita Castellana, Narni, Viterbo, where he took up his residence. The proud republic was compelled to capitulate. The Patrician abdicated his short-lived dignity; the Prefect resumed d "Quin etiam titulos urbis renovare vetustos, Patricios recreare viros, priscosque Quirites, Et senio fessas, mutasque reponere leges; e Epist. 242, 243. Gunther. f his functions; the Senate was permitted to exist, but shorn of its power. A general amnesty was granted to all concerned in the late commotions. Some of the Roman nobles, the great family of the Frangipani, out of rivalry perhaps to the Peter Leonis, had remained faithful to the Pope. Eugenius returned to Rome, and celebrated Christmas with. pomp at least sufficient to give an appearance of popularity to his resumption of authority: he was attended by some of the nobles, and all the clergy. A.D. 1145 1146. But without the walls of Rome, at the head of a hostile army, the Pope was an object of awe; within the city with only his Roman partisans, he was powerless. He might compel Rome to abandon her republican constitution, he could not her hatred of Tivoli. Under this black standard rallied all her adversaries: only on the condition of his treachery to Tivoli, which had befriended him in his hour of necessity, would Rome continue to obey him. Eugenius flies. He left the city in disgust; he retired first to Viterbo, then to Sienna; eventually, after the delay of a year, beyond the Alps. Arnold and Arnold's republic resumed uncontested possession of the capital of Christendom. March 23, 1146. Beyond the Alps the Cistercian Pontiff sank into the satellite of the great Cistercian ruler of ChrisIn France. tendom. The Pope maintained the state, the authority was with St. Bernard. Three subjects, before the arrival of Eugenius in France, had occupied the indefatigable thoughts of Bernard. The two first display his all-grasping command of the mind of Christendom; but it was the last which so completely absorbed his soul, that succours to the Pope struggling against his rebellious subjects, the sovereignty of Rome, might seem beneath his regard. The The Abbot of Clairvaux was involved in a disputed Bernard and election to the Archbishopric of York. narrow corporate spirit of his order betrayed him into great and crying injustice to William, the elected William of York. In the few fragments of the historians we trace the influence, but little of the personal history of Arnold. We know not whether he remained in Rome during the short triumph of Eugenius. He was at Vercelli, March 3, 1147; at Clugny, 20; at Dijon, 30. |