THE DECLINE AND FALL

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chap, the importance of his office: and the equestriantribune was not less odious to the nobles, whomThe pomp he adopted, than to the plebeians, whom he de-knight- serted. All that yet remained of treasure, ora°°d 1347 luxury, or art, was exhausted on that solemnAu g-i; day. Rienzi led the procession from the capi-tol to the Lateran ; the tediousness of the waywas relieved with decorations and games; theecclesiastical, civil, and military orders marchedunder their various banners; the Roman ladiesattended his wife; and the ambassadors of Italy might loudly applaud, or secretly deride, thenovelty of the pomp. In the evening, when theybad reached the church and palace of Constan-tine, he thanked and dismissed the numerousassembly, with an invitation to the festival of theensuing day. From the hands of a venerableknight he received the order of the Holy Ghost;the purification of the bath was a previous cere-mony; but in no step of bis life did Rienzi ex-cite such scandal and censure as by the profaneuse of the porphyry vase, in which Constantine(a foolish legend) had been healed of his leprosyby pope Sylvester . 0 With equal presumptionthe tribune watched or reposed within the con-secrated precincts of the baptistery; and thefailure of his state-bed was interpreted as anomen of his approaching downfall. At the

• All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of Constantine(Petrarch , Epist. Famil. vi, 2), and Rienzi justified his own conductby observing to the court of Avignon , that a vase which had beenused by a pagan, could not be profaned by a pious Christian. Yetthis crime is specified in the bull of excommunication (Hocsemius apudditCer^eau, p. 189, 190).