sm. His references to ancient heroes of Rome are always
mingled with invocations to her Christian Saints. The Bible, at that
time little read by the public civilians of Italy, is constantly in
his hands, and his addresses studded with texts. His very garments were
adorned with sacred and mysterious emblems. No doubt, the ceremony of
his Knighthood, which Gibbon ridicules as an act of mere vanity, was but
another of his religious extravagances; for he peculiarly dedicated his
Knighthood to the service of the Santo Spirito; and his bathing in the
vase of Constantine was quite of a piece, not with the vanity of the
Tribune, but with the extravagance of the Fanatic. In fact, they tried
hard to prove him a heretic; but he escaped a charge under the mild
Innocent, which a century or two before, or a century or two afterwards,
would have sufficed to have sent a dozen Rienzis to the stake. I have
dwelt the more upon this point, because, if it be shown that religious
causes operated with those of liberty, we throw a new light upon the
whole of that most extraordinary revolution, and its suddenness is
infinitely less striking. The deep impression Rienzi produced upon that
populace was thus stamped with the spirit of the religious enthusiast
more than that of the classical demagogue. And, as in the time of
Cromwell, the desire for temporal liberty was warmed and coloured by
the presence of a holier and more spiritual fervour:--"The Good Estate"
(Buono Stato) of Rienzi reminds us a little of the Good Cause of General
Cromwell.) In stating the fact, these writers have seemed to think
that excommunication in Rome, in the fourteenth century, produced no
effect!--the effect it did produce I have endeavoured in these pages to
convey.

The causes of the second fall and final murder of Rienzi are equally
misstated by modern narrators. It was from no fault of his--no
injustice, no cruelty, no extravagance--it was not from the execution of
Montreal, nor that of Pandulfo di Guido---it was from a gabelle on
wine and salt that he fell. To preserve Rome from the tyrants it
was necessary to maintain an armed force; to pay the force a tax was
necessary; the tax was imposed--and the multitude joined with the
tyrants, and their cry was, "Perish the traitor who has made the
gabelle!" This was their only charge--this the only crime that their
passions and their fury could cite against him.

The faults of Rienzi are sufficiently visible, and I have n