OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 381

nephews, sometimes involved them in these do- chap.mestic feuds. Under the reign of Sixtus the LXX 'fourth, Rome was distracted by the battles andsieges of the rival houses; after the conflagra-tion of his palace, the protonotary Colonna wastortured and beheaded; and Savelli, his cap-tive friend, was murdered on the spot, for re-fusing to join in the acclamations of the victori-ous Ursini/ But the popes no longer trembledin the Vatican : they had strength to command,if they had resolution to claim, the obedience oftheir subjects; and the strangers, who observedthese partial disorders, admired the easy taxesand wise administration of the ecclesiasticalstate.*

The spiritual thunders of the Vatican depend ™ e u f r ° p t h 4 eon the force of opinion; and if that opinion be absolute

1 -.i i dominion

supplanted by reason or passion, the sound may of Rome ,idly waste itself in the air; and the helpless^” ls0fl *priest is exposed to the brutal violence of anoble or a plebeian adversary. But after theirreturn from Avignon , the keys of St. Peter wereguarded by the sword of St. Paul. Rome was

r The disorders of Rome , which were much inflamed by the par-tiality of Sixtus IV. , are exposed in the Diaries of two spectators, Ste-phen Infessura, and an anonymous citizen. See the troubles of theyear 1484, and the death of the protouotary Colonna, in tom. iii, p. ii,p. 1083, 1158.

* Est loute la terre de l’eglise trouble pour cette partialite (desColonnes et des Ursins) come nous dirions Luce et Grammont, ou enHoliande Houc et Caballan ; et qnand ce ne seroit ce dtfferend la terrede l’eglise seroit la plus heureuse habitation pour les sujets, qui soildans tout le inonde (car ils ne payent ni tailies in gueres antics choses),et seroient toujours bien conduits (car toujours les papes sont sageset bien conseill4s); mais tres souvent en advient dc grands et cruelcsmeurtres et piileries.