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Untitled Article
that it ifl to institutions , not to men , that they must look tor reforms that last beyond the hour ; that their own passions are the real despots they should subdue—' their own reaaqn the true regenerator of abuses . " The Roman populace of the fourteenth century was at the name time ferocious and cowardly . The seat of the Papal
government was removed to Avignon . The great barons held themselves independent of authority and law , and , maintaining fortified castles and foreign mercenaries , were constantly at open war with each other , and united only in oppressing and pillaging the people . Besides these domestic tyrants , and
besides hordes of robbers who infested all the public ways and were frequently in the pay of the barons , a still more formic dable species of freebooters ravaged the land under the name of ' Free Companies , ' who besieged cities and laid the country waste , for the avowed purpose of plunder . Walter de Montreal , one of their most celebrated leaders exercised considerable
influence over the political events of the age . While Venice , Florence , and Milan , were fast advancing in wealth and civi-i lization , Home seemed only to retrograde ; and its people " unblest by hws , unyisited by art , were strangers at once to the chivalry of & warlike , to the graces of a peaceful , people / 7
Jt was with a populace like this , that Rome was suddenly raised to the dignity of a free and well-governed state by the energy of one man ; and it was by the vices and ignorance of that same populace that she was as suddenly plunged again into anarchy and barbarism .
Rienzi , whose genius effected so wonderful though so short * lived a reformation , was the son of obscure parents , living in a despised quarter of the city . They painfully procured for their son the means of a liberal education , He studied history , eloquence , the ancient marbles and manuscripts , and began to ask , " Where are now these Romans ? their virtue , their
justice , their power I Why was I not born in those happy times : lie was relieved from extreme poverty , by obtaining , either through favour or bin own merit , the office of apostolic notary , which , while it gave him a respectable station and the means of sub&isUmcG , made him acquainted with many of the vices and nbiibes of the state . The assassination of a brother , and
the impunity of the iiiurdorertf , contributed to form what soon became the ruling passion of his mind , He wau gifted by nat'ire with extraordinary eloquence , a commanding person , and a noble countenance . lie began to harangue the people , —
to tell them of the ancient glory and freedom of Rome , —&nu to exhibit in various part * of tho city emblematic pictures , all tending to the point of rousing in them th « dtntirt * for liberty . iiy-h aurieti of such effort ** hi siuu'eedftd in awakening thin d / a-* ir «* in them . By dexteroun management he got the church on
Untitled Article
Rienzi 4 ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1836, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2653/page/47/
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