bishops, five bishops, five abbots, three knights, and twenty doctors, was sent to the courts of Avignon and Rome, to require, in the name of the church and king, the abdication of the two pretenders, of Peter de Luna, who styled himself Benedict the Thirteenth, and of Angelo Corrario, who assumed the name of Gregory the Twelfth. For the ancient honour of Rome, and the success of their commission, the ambassadors solicited a conference with the magistrates of the city, whom they gratified by a positive declaration, that the Most Christian king did not entertain a wish of transporting the holy see from the Vatican, which he considered as the genuine and proper seat of the successor of St. Peter. In the name of the senate and people, an eloquent Roman asserted their desire to co-operate in the union of the Church, deplored the temporal and spiritual calamities of the long schism, and requested the protection of France against the arms of the king of Naples. The answers of Benedict and Gregory were alike edifying and alike deceitful; and, in evading the demand of their abdication, the two rivals were animated by a common spirit. They agreed on the necessity of a previous interview, but the time, the place, and the manner, could never be ascertained by mutual consent. "If the one advances (says a servant of Gregory) the other retreats; the one appears an animal fearful of the land, the other a creature apprehensive of the water. And thus, for a short remnant of life and power, will these aged priests endanger the peace and salvation of the Christian world.*

The Christian world was at length provoked by their obstinacy and fraud; they were deserted by their cardinals, who embraced each other as friends and colleagues; and their revolt was supported by a numerous assembly of prelates and ambassadors. With equal justice, the council of Pisa deposed the popes of Rome and Avignon; the conclave was unanimous in the choice of Alexander the Fifth, and his vacant seat was soon filled by a similar election of

* Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, one of the revivers of classic learning in Italy, who, after serving many years as secretary in the Roman court, retired to the honourable office of chancellor of the republic of Florence. (Fabric. Bibliot. medii Evi, tom. i. p. 290.) Lenfant has given the version of this curious epistle. (Concile de Piso, tom. i p. 192-195.)

John the Twenty-third, the most profligate of mankind. But, instead of extinguishing the schism, the rashness of the French and Italians had given a third pretender to the chair of St. Peter. Such new claims of the synod and conclave were disputed: three kings, of Germany, Hungary, and Naples, adhered to the cause of Gregory the Twelfth; and Benedict the Thirteenth, himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by the devotion and patriotism of that powerful nation. The rash proceedings of Pisa were cor rected by the Council of Constance; the emperor Sigismond acted a conspicuous part as the advocate or protector of the Catholic Church; and the number and weight of civil and ecclesiastical members might seem to constitute the states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, John the Twenty-third was the first victim; he fled, and was brought back a prisoner, the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest; and after subscribing his own condemnation, he expiated in prison the imprudence of trusting his person to a free city beyond the Alps. Gregory the Twelfth, whose obedience was reduced to the narrow precincts of Rimini, descended with more honour from the throne, and his ambassador convened the session, in which he renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To vanquish the obstinacy of Benedict the Thirteenth, or his adherents, the emperor in person undertook a journey from Constance to Perpignan. The kings of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Scotland, obtained an equal and honourable treaty; with the concurrence of the Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the council; but the harmless old man was left in a solitary castle to excommunicate twice each day the rebel kingdoms which had deserted his cause. After thus eradicating the remains of the schism, the synod of Constance proceeded, with slow and cautious steps, to elect the sovereign of Rome and the head of the church. On this momentous occasion, the college of twentythree cardinals was fortified with thirty deputies; six of whom were chosen in each of the five great nations of Christendom, the Italian, the German, the French, the Spanish, and the English: the interference of strangers was softened by

▸ I cannot overlook this great national cause, which was vigorously

their generous preference of an Italian and a Roman; and the hereditary, as well as personal, merit of Othe Colonna recommended him to the conclave. Rome accepted with joy and obedience the noblest of her sons; the ecclesiastical State was defended by his powerful family, and the elevation of Martin the Fifth is the era of the restoration and establishment of the popes in the Vatican.*

The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been exercised near three hundred years by the senate, was first resumed by Martin the Fifth,t and his image and

maintained by the English ambassadors against those of France. The latter contended, that Christendom was essentially distributed into the four great nations and votes, of Italy, Germany, France, and Spain; and that the lesser kingdoms (such as England, Denmark, Portugal, &c.) were comprehended under one or other of these great divisions. The English asserted, that the British islands, of which they were the head, should be considered as a fifth and co-ordinate nation, with an equal vote; and every argument of truth or fable was introduced to exalt the dignity of their country. Including England, Scotland, Wales, the four kingdoms of Ireland, and the Orkneys, the British islands, are decorated with eight royal crowns, and discriminated by four or five languages, English, Welsh, Cornish, Scotch, Irish, &c. The greater island from north to south measures eight húndred miles, or forty days' journey; and England alone contains thirty-two counties, and fifty-two thousand parish churches (a bold account!) besides cathedrals, colleges, priories, and hospitals. They celebrate the mission of St. Joseph of Arimathea, the birth of Con stantine, and the legatine powers of the two primates, without forget. ting the testimony of Bartholomy de Glanville (A.D. 1360), who reckons only four Christian kingdoms, 1. of Rome, 2. of Constantinople, 3. of Ireland, which had been transferred to the English monarchs, and 4. of Spain. Our countrymen prevailed in the council, but the victories of Henry V. added much weight to their arguments. The adverse pleadings were found at Constance, by Sir Robert Wingfield, ambassador from Henry VIII. to the emperor Maximilian I. and by him printed in 1517, at Louvain. From a Leipsic MS. they are more correctly published in the collection of Von der Hardt, tom. v.; but I have only seen Lenfant's abstract of these acts. (Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 447. 453, &c.) The histories of the

three successive councils, Pisa, Constance, and Basil, have been written with a tolerable degree of candour, industry, and elegance, by a Protestant minister, M. Lenfant, who retired from France to Berlin. They form six volumes in quarto; and as Basil is the worst, so Constance is the best part of the collection.

+ See the twenty-seventh dissertation of the antiquities of Muratori, and the first Instruction of the Science des Médailles of the Père Joubert and the Baron de la Bastio. The Medallic History of Martin V. and his successors, has been composed by two monks, Moulinet a

superscription introduce the series of the Papal medals. Of his two immediate successors, Eugenius the Fourth was the last pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman people,* and Nicholas the Fifth, the last who was importuned by the presence of a Roman einperor.t I. The conflict of Eugenius with the fathers of Basil, and the weight or apprehension of a new excise, emboldened and provoked the Romans to usurp the temporal government of the city. They rose in arms, selected seven governors of the republic, and a constable of the Capitol; imprisoned the pope's nephew; besieged his person in the palace; and shot volleys of arrows into his bark as he escaped down the Tiber in the habit of a monk. But he still possessed in the Castle of St. Angelo a faithful garrison, and a train of artillery; their batteries incessantly thundered on the city, and a bullet more dexterously pointed broke down the barricade of the bridge, and scattered with a single shot the heroes of the republic. Their constancy was exhausted by a rebellion of five months. Under the tyranny of the Ghibeline nobles, the wisest patriots regretted the dominion of the Church; and their repentance was unanimous and effectual. The troops of St. Peter again occupied the Capitol; the magistrates departed to their homes; the most guilty were executed or exiled; and the legate, at the head of two thousand foot and four thousand horse, was saluted as the father of the city. The synods of Ferrara and Florence, the fear or resentment of Eugenius, prolonged his absence; he was received by a submissive people; but the pontiff understood from the acclamations of his triumphal entry, that to secure their loyalty and his own repose, he must grant without delay the abolition of the odious excise. II. Rome was restored, adorned, and enlightened, by the peaceful reign of Nicholas the Fifth. In the midst of these Frenchman, and Bonanni an Italian; but I understand that the first part of the series is restored from more recent coins.

Besides the lives of Eugenius IV. (Rerum. Italic. tom. iii. p. 1, 869, and tom. xxv. p. 256) the Diaries of Paul Petroni and Stephen Infessura, are the best original evidence for the revolt of the Romans against Eugenius IV. The former, who lived at the time and on the spot, speaks the language of a citizen, equally afraid of priestly and popular tyranny. The coronation of Frederic III. is described by Lenfant (Concile de Basle, tom. ii. p. 276-288) frʊm Eneas Sylvius, a spectator and actor in that splendid scene.

laudable occupations, the pope was alarmed by the approach of Frederic the Third of Austria; though his fears could not be justified by the character or the power of the imperial candidate. After drawing his military force to the metropolis, and imposing the best security of oaths and treaties, Nicholas received with a smiling countenance the faithful advocate and vassal of the church. So tame were the times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his coronation was accomplished with order and harmony; but the superfluous honour was so disgraceful to an independent nation, that his successors have excused themselves from the toilsome pilgrimage to the Vatican; and rest their imperial title on the choice of the electors of Germany.

A citizen has remarked with pride and pleasure, that the king of the Romans, after passing with a slight salute the cardinals and prelates who met him at the gate, distinguished the dress and person of the senator of Rome; and in this last farewell, the pageants of the empire and the republic were clasped in a friendly embrace. According to the laws of Rome, her first magistrate was required to be a doctor of laws, an alien, of a place at least forty miles from the city; with whose inhabitants he must not be connected in the third canonical degree of blood or alliance. The election was annual; a severe scrutiny was instituted into the conduct of the departing senator; nor could he be recalled to the same office till after the expiration of two years. A liberal salary of three thousand florins was assigned for his expense and reward; and his public appearance represented the majesty of the republic. His robes were of gold brocade or crimson velvet, or in the summer season of a lighter silk;

* The oath of fidelity imposed on the emperor by the pope is recorded and sanctified in the Clementines (1. 2, tit. 9); and Æneas Sylvius, who objects to this new demand, could not foresee that in a few years he should ascend the throne, aud imbibe the maxims, of Boniface VIII. + Lo senatore di Roma, vestito di brocarto con quella beretta, e con quelle maniche et ornamenti di pelle, co' quali va alle feste di Testaccio e Nagone, might escape the eye of Eneas Sylvius, but he is viewed with admiration and compla cency by the Roman citizen. (Diario di Stephano Infessura, p. 1133.)

See in the Statutes of Rome, the senator and three judges (1. 1, c. 3-14), the conservators (l. 1, c. 15-17; 1. 3, c. 4), the caporioni 1, c. 18; 1. 3, c. 8), the secret council (1. 3, c. 2), the common council (1. 3, c. 3). The title of feuds, defiances, acts of violence, &c. is spread through many a chapter (c. 14-40) of the second book.