262

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, without connection or design, would be tedious

LXIX °

_and disgusting; and I shall content myself with

some events of the twelfth century, which repre-sent the state of the popes and the city. OnPaschal ii. Holy Thursday, while Paschal officiated beforeins the altar, he was interrupted by the clamours ofthe multitude, who in periously demanded theconfirmation of a favourite magistrate. His si-lence exasperated their fury: his pious refusalto mingle the affairs of earth and heaven was en-countered with menaces and oaths, that heshould be the cause and the witness of the pub-lic ruin. During the festival of Easter , whilethe bishop and the clergy, barefoot and in pro-cession, visited the tombs of the martyrs, theyM ere twice assaulted, at the bridge of St. Angelo,and before the capitol, with vollies of stones anddarts. The houses of his adherents were level-led with the ground: Paschal escaped with dif-ficulty and danger: he levied an army in the pa.trimony of St. Peter; and his last days were em-bittered by suffering and inflicting the calamitiescivil war. The scenes that followed the elec-1119. tion of his successor, Gelasius the second, werestill more scandalous to the church and city.Cencio Frangipani, 0 a potent and factious baron,

and excellent guide. He uses, and indeed quotes, with the freedom ofa master, his great Collection of the Italian Historians, in 28 volumes;and as that treasure is in ray library, 1 have thought it an amusement,if not a duty, to consult the originals.

* 1 cannot refrain from transcribing the high-coloured words ofPandulphus Pisanus (p. 384): Hoc audiens iniinicus pacis atquc tur-bator jam fatus Centius Frajapane, more draconis immanissimi sibi-lates, et ab intis pectoribus trahens longa suspiria, aecinctus retrogladio sine more cucurrit, valvas ac fores confregit. Ecclesiam furi-

buudus