272 the decline and fall

chap, of faith, that the metropolisof the catholic church

LXIX . 1

is exempt from the penalties of excommunicationand interdict. Their bishops might argue, thatthe supreme jurisdiction, which they exercisedover kings and nations, more especially embracedthe city and diocese of the prince of the apos-tles. But they preached to the winds, and thesame principle that weakened the effect, musttemper the abuse, of the thunders of the Vatican.Restore- The love of ancient freedom has encouraged asenate, belief, that as early as the tenth century, in theira.u. 1144. £ ( . st struggles against the Saxon Othos, the com-monwealth was vindicated and restored by thesenate and people of Rome; that two consulswere annually elected among the nobles, andthat ten or twelve plebeian magistrates revivedthe name and office of the tribunes of the com-mons . 8 But this venerable structure disappearsbefore the light of criticism. In the darknessof the middle ages, the appellations of senators,of consuls, of the sons of consuls, may sometimesbe discovered . 11 They were bestowed by theemperors, or assumed by the most powerful ci •

* Ducange (Gloss. Latinitatis mediae et infimae Aitatis, Deearehonei,tom ii, p. 726) gives me a quotation from Blondus (decad. ii, 1. ii).Duo consules ex nobilitate quotannis fiebant, qui ad vetnstum consu-lum exemplar summae rerum praessent. And in Sigonius (de RegnoItalioe, 1. vi, opp. tom. ii, p. 400) I read of the consuls and tribunes ofthe tenth century. Both Blondus, and even Sigonius, too freely copiedthe classic method of supplying, from reason or fancy, the deficiency ofrecords.

1 In the panegyric of Berengarius (Mnraton, Script. Rer. Ital. tom.ii,p. i, p.408)a Romanis mentioned as consulis natus in the beginningof the tenth century. Muratori (dissert, v) discovers, in the years952 and 956, Gratianus in Dei nomine consul et dux, Georgius consulet dux; and in 1015, Romanus, brother of Gregory VIII, proudly, butvaguely, stiles himself consul et dux et omnium Romanorum senator.