The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [2277]
[Footnote 99: Te longinqua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni, says Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders and Juliers acknowledges (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 539) his descent from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:) but the royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that the sceptre in his arms has been confounded with the column. To maintain the Roman origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii. p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in Germany]
[Footnote 100: I cannot overlook the Roman triumph of ovation on Marce Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope's galleys at the naval victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p. 55, 56. Muret. Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180 - 190.)]
[Footnote 101: Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]
[Footnote 102: Petrarch's attachment to the Colonna has authorized the abbe de Sade to expatiate on the state of the family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface VIII., the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with the Ursini, &c., (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 98 - 110, 146 - 148, 174 - 176, 222 - 230, 275 - 280.) His criticism often rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be now extinct.]
[Footnote 103: Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who adhered to the emperor Frederic I. incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last stains of annual excommunication were purified by Sixtus V., (Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and proscription are often the best titles of ancient nobility.]
[Footnote 104: - Vallis te proxima misit, Appenninigenae qua prata virentia sylvae Spoletana metunt armenta gregesque protervi. Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a French origin, which may be remotely true.]
[Footnote 105: In the metrical life of Celestine V. by the cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.,) we find a luminous, and not inelegant, passage, (l. i. c. 3, p. 203 &c.:) -
- genuit quem nobilis Ursae (Ursi?) Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis Fascibus in clero, pompasque experta senatus, Bellorumque manu grandi stipata parentum Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum Papatus iterata tenens.
Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined to read Ursi progenies.]
[Footnote 106: Filii Ursi, quondam Coelestini papae nepotes, de bonis ecclesiae Romanae ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori, Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III. is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would disdain the nephews of a modern pope.]
[Footnote 107: In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines.]
[Footnote 108: Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222 - 230) has celebrated this victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a Florentine (Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a Roman, (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 532 - 534,) are less favorable to their arms.]
[Footnote 109: The abbe de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61 - 66) has applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto Gentil, &c., to Stephen Colonna the younger: Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi Al una gran marmorea colonna Fanno noja sovente e a se danno]
Chapter LXX : Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.
Part I.
Character And Coronation Of Petrarch. - Restoration Of The Freedom And Government Of Rome By The Tribune Rienzi. - His Virtues And Vices, His Expulsion And Death. - Return Of The Popes From Avignon. - Great Schism Of The West. - Reunion Of The Latin Church. - Last Struggles Of Roman Liberty. - Statutes Of Rome. - Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.
In the