OK THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

251

CHAP. LXIX.

State of Rome from the twelfth century. — Tem-poral dominion of the popes.—Seditions of thecity.—Political heresy of Arnold of Brescia .—Restoration of the republic.—The senators .—

Pride of the Romans.—Their wars.—Theyare deprived of the election and presence of thepopes, who retire to Avignon. —The jubilee .—

Noble families of Rome.—Feud of the Colonnaand Ursini.

IN the first ages of the decline and fall of the lxix.

Homan empire, our eye is invariably fixed on the ..

royal city, which had given laws to the fairest Evolutionsportion of the globe. We contemplate her for-° f Kom^tunes, at first with admiration, at length with 1500.pity, always with attention; and when that at' .tention is diverted from the capitol to the pro-vinces, they are considered as so many brancheswhich have been successively severed from theimperial trunk. The foundation of a secondRome on the shores of the Bosphorus has com-pelled the historian to follow the successors ofConstantine; and our curiosity has been temptedto visit the most remote countries of Europe andAsia , to explore the causes and the authors ofthe long decay of the Byzantine monarchy. Bythe conquestsof Justinian , we have been recalledto the banks of the Tyber, to the deliverance ofthe ancient metropolis; but that deliverance wasa change, or perhaps an aggravation, of servi-