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and Sciarra Colonna , of a noble but hostile fa-mily of Rome . The cardinals fled ; the inhabi-tants of Anagni were seduced from their allegi-ance and gratitude; but the dauntless Boniface,unarmed and alone, seated himself in his chair,and awaited, like the conscript fathers of old,the swords of the Gauls. Nogaret , a foreign ad-versary, was content to execute the orders of hismaster: by the domestic enmity of Colonna , hewas insulted with words and blows; and duringa confinement of three days his life was threaten-ed by the hardships which they inflicted on theobstinacy which they provoked. Their strangedelay gave time and courage to the adherents ofthe church, who rescued him from sacrilegiousviolence; but his imperious soul was woundedin a vital part; and Boniface expired at Rome in a frenzy of rage and revenge. His memory isstained with the glaring vices of avarice andpride; nor has the courage of a martyr promo-ted this ecclesiastical champion to the honoursof a saint; a magnanimous sinner (say the chro-nicles of the times), who entered like a fox,reigned like a lion, and died like a dog. Hewas succeeded by Benedict the eleventh, themildest of mankind. Yet he excommunicatedthe impious emissaries of Philip, and devoted thecity and people of Anagni by a tremendouscurse, whose effects are still visible to the eyesof superstition . 1
After his decease, the tedious and equal sus-
* It is difficult to know whether Labat (tom. iv, p. 53-57) be in jestor in earnest, when he supposes that Anagni still feels the weight ofthis curse, and that the corn fields, or vineyards, or olive-trees, are an*Dually blasted by nature, the obsequious handmaid of the popes.
CHAP.
LXIX.