Then the pope appointed King Robert of Naples as senator. Affairs took a fresh turn under Pope John XXII. Rome was still ruled by the vicars of King Robert ; but, owing to the continued absence of the pope, matters grew daily worse. Trade and industry declined, revenue diminished, the impover ished nobles were exceedingly turbulent, deeds of murder and violence occurred on all sides ; even by day the streets of the city were unsafe. Hence there was universal discontent. Accord ingly the Italian Ghibellines hailed Louis the Bavarian as they had previously hailed Henry. The Roman people were roused to action, and, driving out the representatives and partisans of King Robert, in the spring of 1327 seized on the castle of St. Angelo and again established a democratic government. Regard less of the reproofs of the pope, they elected a haughty Ghibelline, Sciarra Colonna, captain of the people and general of the militia, with a council of 52 popolani, four to each region. Then ranged under the standards of the militia, the Romans gave chase to the foes of the republic, and Sciarra, returning victorious, ascended to the capitol, and invited Louis the Bavarian to Rome.
Encircled by a crowd of heretics, reformers and Minorite brethren, Louis convoked a parliament on the capitol, asking that the imperial crown might be conferred upon him by the people, from whom alone he wished to receive it. And the people proclaimed him their captain, senator and emperor. On Jan. 17, his coronation took place in St. Peter's. But, as he had neither money nor practical sense, his method of taxation and the ex cesses committed by himself and his over-excited philosophers speedily aroused the popular discontent. His ecclesiastical vicar, Marsilius of Padua, and John Janduno placarded the walls with insulting manifestos against the pope, whom the Minorites stigma tized as a heretic and wished to depose. The emperor decreed that henceforth the popes must reside in Rome—that if, when invited, they should fail to come they would be thereby held deposed from the throne. As a logical consequence, proceedings were immediately begun for the election of a new pope, Nicholas V., who on May 12 was proclaimed by the popular voice in St. Peter's square, and received the imperial sanction. But this ephemeral drama came to an end when the emperor departed with his anti-pope on Aug. 4. This caused the immediate downfall of the democratic government. A new parliament cancelled the emperor's edicts, and had them burnt by the public executioner. Meanwhile King Robert was again supreme in Rome, and being re-elected senator appointed vicars there as before. Anarchy reigned.
After the election of Benedict XII. (1334-42) confusion reached so great a pitch that, on the expiration of Robert's sena torial term, the Romans named 13 heads of regions to carry on the government with two senators, while the king still sent vicars as before. The people, for the sake of peace, once more granted
the supremacy of the senate to the pope, and he nominated two senators. But in 1339 the Romans attacked the capitol, named two senators of their own choice, re-established a democratic govern ment, and sent ambassadors to Florence to ask for the ordinances of justice by which that city had broken the power of the nobles. and also that a few skilled citizens should lend their help in the reconstitution of Rome. Accordingly some Florentines came with the ordinamenti, some portions of which may be recognized in the Roman statutes, and, after first rearranging the taxes, elected 13 priors of the gilds, a gonfalonier of justice, and a captain of the people after the Florentine manner. But there was a dissimilarity in the conditions of the two cities. The gilds having little influ ence in Rome, the projected reform failed, and the pope, who was opposed to it, re-elected the senators. Thereupon public dis content swelled. Another revolution in Rome re-estabiished the government of the 13 elders and the two senators.
Cola di Rienzi.—The people, anxious to show their intention of respecting the papal authority, had despatched to Avignon as ambassador of the republic, in 1343, Cola di Rienzi (q.v.), who begged the pope to return to Rome, to allow the city to celebrate a jubilee every so years, and then, as a personal request, asked to be nominated notary to the urban chamber. The pope con sented to everything, and Rienzi communicated this good news to Rome in an emphatically worded epistle. After Easter, in 1344, he returned to Rome and found that the city was a prey to the nobles. He secretly built up a party of conspirators and in May 1347 convoked a parliament of the people and obtained its sanc tion for the following proposals: that all pending lawsuits should be at once decided; that justice should be equally administered to all; that every region should equip ioo foot soldiers and 25 horse; that the dues and taxes should be rearranged ; that the forts, bridges, and gates of the city should be held by the rector of the people instead of by the nobility; and that granaries should be opened for public use. On the same day, amid general homage and applause, Rienzi was proclaimed head of the republic, with the title of tribune and liberator of the Holy Roman Republic, "by authority of the most merciful Lord Jesus Christ." The nobles withdrew scoffing but alarmed. Rienzi engaged a body guard of 'co men, and assumed the command of the 1,300 infan try and 390 light horse; he abolished the office of senator, retained the Thirteen and the general and special councils, and set the administration on a new footing. These measures and the prompt submission of the other cities of the State brought an instant increase of revenue to Rome.