DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0236
2'20
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
his chair in the Sorbonne, in Paris) had aroused the
faculties of “ thinking men,” and a vehement admiration
for republican heroes, as well as contempt for the corrup-
tions and laxity of hierarchical morals, had prepared the
Romans to seize any pretext for a revolt. It was not
long in presenting itself. Innocent II., on acquiring his
full and undisturbed Pontifical authority, had endeavoured
to check the petty aggressions which kept the Romans
and the inhabitants of Tivoli at incessant feud. This
sufficed for the excuse of revolt. The Roman prefect,
who, according to circumstances, was sometimes nomi-
nated by the Pope, and at others by the Emperor, was
compelled to leave the city. The administration was re-
modelled under a patrician, who stood at the head of
affairs, and of fifty senators. The decree which
mentions this describes it as “ the first year of the
renewal of the senate.” The republican form of govern-
ment was proclaimed, and the new body politic assumed
rights and privileges heretofore enjoyed solely by the
Popes. The palaces and towers of obnoxious prelates
were destroyed, and their property was dispersed and
pillaged by the mob.
At this critical moment an enthusiastic disciple of
Abelard, and one who possessed no small share of his
persuasive eloquence, enhanced by a life of spotless
austerity, a monk of Brescia, named Arnaldo, was recalled
from Germany (whither he had sought refuge from the
censures of a general council at the Lateran in 1139) to
Rome, and placed in a position of almost absolute power.
Arnaldo was already celebrated in upper Italy by his
revolutionary doctrines, and by his denunciations against
the sloth, corruption, and vices of the hierarchical
orders. He considered the outward forms of religion,
the worship of the cross, the rite of infant baptism, the
sacrifice of the mass, and the offices of prayers for the
dead, as matters of little moment compared to that lofty
spiritual faith and purity, of which he was himself an
example.
He boldly condemned the abuses of the temporal power
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
his chair in the Sorbonne, in Paris) had aroused the
faculties of “ thinking men,” and a vehement admiration
for republican heroes, as well as contempt for the corrup-
tions and laxity of hierarchical morals, had prepared the
Romans to seize any pretext for a revolt. It was not
long in presenting itself. Innocent II., on acquiring his
full and undisturbed Pontifical authority, had endeavoured
to check the petty aggressions which kept the Romans
and the inhabitants of Tivoli at incessant feud. This
sufficed for the excuse of revolt. The Roman prefect,
who, according to circumstances, was sometimes nomi-
nated by the Pope, and at others by the Emperor, was
compelled to leave the city. The administration was re-
modelled under a patrician, who stood at the head of
affairs, and of fifty senators. The decree which
mentions this describes it as “ the first year of the
renewal of the senate.” The republican form of govern-
ment was proclaimed, and the new body politic assumed
rights and privileges heretofore enjoyed solely by the
Popes. The palaces and towers of obnoxious prelates
were destroyed, and their property was dispersed and
pillaged by the mob.
At this critical moment an enthusiastic disciple of
Abelard, and one who possessed no small share of his
persuasive eloquence, enhanced by a life of spotless
austerity, a monk of Brescia, named Arnaldo, was recalled
from Germany (whither he had sought refuge from the
censures of a general council at the Lateran in 1139) to
Rome, and placed in a position of almost absolute power.
Arnaldo was already celebrated in upper Italy by his
revolutionary doctrines, and by his denunciations against
the sloth, corruption, and vices of the hierarchical
orders. He considered the outward forms of religion,
the worship of the cross, the rite of infant baptism, the
sacrifice of the mass, and the offices of prayers for the
dead, as matters of little moment compared to that lofty
spiritual faith and purity, of which he was himself an
example.
He boldly condemned the abuses of the temporal power