The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [2269]
[Footnote 70: See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro concilio, in the Sexts of the Canon Law, (l. i. tit. 6, c. 3,) a supplement to the Decretals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated at Rome in 1298, and addressed in all the universities of Europe.]
[Footnote 71: The genius of Cardinal de Retz had a right to paint a conclave, (of 1665,) in which he was a spectator and an actor, (Memoires, tom. iv. p. 15 - 57;) but I am at a loss to appreciate the knowledge or authority of an anonymous Italian, whose history (Conclavi de' Pontifici Romani, in 4to. 1667) has been continued since the reign of Alexander VII. The accidental form of the work furnishes a lesson, though not an antidote, to ambition. From a labyrinth of intrigues, we emerge to the adoration of the successful candidate; but the next page opens with his funeral.]
[Footnote 72: The expressions of Cardinal de Retz are positive and picturesque: On y vecut toujours ensemble avec le meme respect, et la meme civilite que l'on observe dans le cabinet des rois, avec la meme politesse qu'on avoit dans la cour de Henri III., avec la meme familiarite que l'on voit dans les colleges; avec la meme modestie, qui se remarque dans les noviciats; et avec la meme charite, du moins en apparence, qui pourroit otre entre des freres parfaitement unis.]
[Footnote 73: Richiesti per bando (says John Villani) sanatori di Roma, e 52 del popolo, et capitani de' 25, e consoli, (consoli?) et 13 buone huomini, uno per rione. Our knowledge is too imperfect to pronounce how much of this constitution was temporary, and how much ordinary and permanent. Yet it is faintly illustrated by the ancient statutes of Rome.]
[Footnote 74: Villani (l. x. c. 68 - 71, in Muratori, Script. tom. xiii. p. 641 - 645) relates this law, and the whole transaction, with much less abhorrence than the prudent Muratori.
Any one conversant with the darker ages must have observed how much the sense (I mean the nonsense) of superstition is fluctuating and inconsistent.]
[Footnote 75: In the first volume of the Popes of Avignon, see the second original Life of John XXII. p. 142 - 145, the confession of the antipope p. 145 - 152, and the laborious notes of Baluze, p. 714, 715.]
Had the election been always held in the Vatican, the rights of the senate and people would not have been violated with impunity. But the Romans forgot, and were forgotten. in the absence of the successors of Gregory the Seventh, who did not keep as a divine precept their ordinary residence in the city and diocese. The care of that diocese was less important than the government of the universal church; nor could the popes delight in a city in which their authority was always opposed, and their person was often endangered. From the persecution of the emperors, and the wars of Italy, they escaped beyond the Alps into the hospitable bosom of France; from the tumults of Rome they prudently withdrew to live and die in the more tranquil stations of Anagni, Perugia, Viterbo, and the adjacent cities. When the flock was offended or impoverished by the absence of the shepherd, they were recalled by a stern admonition, that St. Peter had fixed his chair, not in an obscure village, but in the capital of the world; by a ferocious menace, that the Romans would march in arms to destroy the place and people that should dare to afford them a retreat. They returned with timorous obedience; and were saluted with the account of a heavy debt, of all the losses which their desertion had occasioned, the hire of lodgings, the sale of provisions, and the various expenses of servants and strangers who attended the court. ^76 After a short interval of peace, and perhaps of authority, they were again banished by new tumults, and again summoned by the imperious or respectful invitation of the senate. In these occasional retreats, the exiles and fugitives of the Vatican were seldom long, or far, distant from the metropolis;