THE DECLINE AND FALL

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chap, they prompted and directed the enterprise of

lxdc phiJip. anc j [ should praise their magnanimity,had they respected the misfortune and courageof the captive tyrant His civil acts were an-nulled by the Roman people, who restored thehonours and possessions of the Colonna ; andsome estimate may be formed of their wealth bytheir losses, of their losses by the damages of onehundred thousand gold florins which were grant-ed them against the accomplices and heirs ofthe deceased pope. All the spiritual censuresand disqualifications were abolished 1 by his pru-dent successors; and the fortune of the housewas more firmly established by this transienthurricane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna was signalised in the captivity of Boniface, andlong afterwards in the coronation of Lewis ofBavaria ; and by the gratitude of the emperor,the pillar in their arms was encircled with a royalcrown. But the first of the family in fame andmerit was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as an hero superior to hisown times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome .Persecution and exile displayed to the nationshis abilities in peace and war; in his distress hewas an object, not of pity but of reverence; theaspect of danger provoked him to avow his nameand country: and when he was asked, “where“ is now your fortress?” he laid his hand on hisheart, and answered, “ here.” He supported

I Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who adhered to the em-peror Frederic I, incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice (ViL•ani, I. v, e i); and the last stains of annual excommonication werepurified by Sixtus V (Vita di Sisto v, tom. iii, p. 416). Treason, sacri-lege, proscription, are often the best titles of ancient nobility.