OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE,

venty years™ the seat of the Roman pontiff andthe metropolis of Christendom. By land, bysea, by the Rhone, the position of Avignon wason all sides accessible; the southern provincesof France do not yield to Italy itself; new pa-laces arose for the accommodation of the popeand cardinals; and the arts of luxury were soonattracted by the treasures of the church. Theywere already possessed of the adjacent territory,the Venaissin county,” a populous and fertilespot; and the sovereignty of Avignon was after-wards purchased from the youth and distress ofJane, the first queen of Naples and countess ofProvence , for the inadequate price of fourscorethousand florins . 0 Under the shadow of theFrench monarchy, amidst an obedient people,

m The exile of Avignon is compared by the Italians with Babylonand the Babylonish captivity. Such furious metaphors, more suitableto the ardour of Petrarch than to the judgment of Muratori, are grave-ly refuted in Baluze’s preface. The abbe de Sade is distracted betweenthe love of Petrarch and of his couutry : Yet he modestly pleads thatmany of the local inconveniencies of Avignon are now removed; andmany of the vices against which the poet declaims, had been importedwith the Roman court by the strangers of Italy (tom. i, p. 23-28).

a The comtat Venaissin was ceded to the popes in 1273 by PhilipIII., king of France , after he had inherited the dominions of the countof Thoulouse. Forty years before, the heresy of count Raymond hadgiven them a pretence of seizure, and they derived some obscure claimfrom the eleventh century to some lands citra Rhodanum (Valesii No-titia Galliarum p. 459, 610. Longuerue, Description de la France ,tom. i, p 376-381).

* If a possession of four centuries were not itself a title, such objec-tions might annul the bargain; but the purchase-mouey must be re-funded, for indeed it was paid. Civitatem Avenionem emit .... perejustnodi venditionem pecunia redundantes, &c. (2daVita Clement VI,in Baluz. tom. i, p 272. Muratori, Script, tom. iii, p. ii, p. 565). Theonly temptation for Jane and her second husband was ready money,and without it they could not have returned to the throne of Naples.

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CHAP

LXIX.