The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-14 00:00:00

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STORY OF RIENZO.

Cola di Rienzo, though of obscure birth, soon
signalised himself by his progress in letters, by
his familiarity with all the writers of antiquity, by
his knowledge of the manners and laws of the
Romans, and of the monuments and inscriptions
which still ornamented the capital of the world.
No one possessed, like him, the art of explain-
ing them, and of striking out in his explanations
those traits of grandeur and glory which dis-
tinguish the ancient republic. Born at Rome,
he was a more ardent Roman than republican ;
seeking rather to restore the sovereignty of the
ancient city than the liberty of mankind. He
rejected, with deep indignation, the usurpa-
tions of two barbarians ; the one a German, cal-
ling himself Roman Emperor; the other a
Frenchman, who called himself the pontiff of
Rome. All those who rose to eminence by the
study and example of the ancient Romans, ap-
peared to him bound to labour to bring back
Italy and mankind under the dominion of Rome.
Petrarch had also a religious respect for the
name of Rome ; but living by turns at the
Court of Avignon, or at those of the tyrants
of Lombardy, he had much less elevation
of soul and true enthusiasm than Cola di
Rienzo. The latter was susceptible of all die
emotion which the fine arts give ; and he employed
his own sensibility to act on a susceptible people.
Sometimes at the foot of one of the most admi-
rable monuments of ancient architecture, he ex-
plained its purpose to the crowd, by which he
was always attended ; he made them feel its
beauty, and would take occasion to recal the
grandeur and freedom of ancient Rome, which
still spoke to her children from those colossal
ruins. He would contrast it with the state of
degradation and suffering to which Rome was
then reduced. He sometimes interpreted in the
public places the inscriptions which he dis-
covered ; and would draw forth proofs of the
sovereignty which Rome exercised over the whole
world. Sometimes he displayed in the capitol
allegorical pictures which he had composed, and,
in explaining them, would call upon the Roman
people to quit their state of servitude, and re-
cover what he emphatically called the good state.
. . . The Colonna, Orsini, and Savelli
families, always at war with each other, garri-
soned all the fortresses in Rome with banditti,
their satellites, and at their head made daily at-
tacks in the streets upon each other. Cola di
Rienzo had a classic hatred for these turbulent
nobles ; a hatred which he believed he had in-
herited from the Gracchi. He felt anxious to
be made tribune of the people, in order to de-
liver them from the yoke of the patricians ; and on
the 20th of May, 1347, while the Colonnas had
quitted Rome with a small body of troops, he sum-
moned the people to take possession of the Go-
vernment and of the guard of the city. The
Romans appointed him, with the Bishop of
Orvieto, the Pope's Vicar, or depository
of his
spiritual power, as tribunes. They ascended
the capitol altogether. At first the revolution
seemed accomplished. The power of the name
of Rome ; the joy of men of letters throughout
Europe ; the hatred provoked by the Oman
nobles ; the indifference of the Pope, and his
distance from Rome, favoured this revolution.—
For some weeks it was approved and acknow-
ledged by all Italy. But Cola di Rienzo,
though eloquent, learned, and a poet, was nei-
ther a tatesmau nor a warrior ; lie knew not