Raphael and the Villa Farnesina, Tr. by M. Healy

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. ROME IN THE DAYS OF EAPHAEL. EFORE we consider the character of Agostino Chigi, it will be well to make some general remarks on the Eternal City, its position and fortunes, at the time of the Italian Renaissance. In modern Rome there have always been two cities, as it were?one, pontifical Rome, capital of the Catholic world; the other, which might be called the city of the Romans. Now that the temporal power has disappeared, the division is clearly defined. Papal Rome is confined to the little conclave of the Vatican; the Rome of the Romans, now the Rome of Italy, comprises all the rest. Three centuries ago this was not the case. Pontifical Rome, besides the Borgo, took in all the Trastevere; the Tiber seemed to form the natural limit of the two cities. The Pope, indeed, was the uncontested master of the Eternal City on both sides of the river. His power extended over the States of the Church, Saint Peter's patrimony, much enlarged since the days of Pepin le Bref. The Pope in each province had his prefects, who were political agents as well as religious functionaries; he alone commanded, he alone administered his domains. But one must not always believe the appearance of things. It is well to remember that by the side of the official power there is the real power. Nowhere in the world, perhaps, was the Pope less obeyed than in the States of the Church; and the reason, of this was in the constitution of Papacy itself. As long as the Bishop of Rome, prince of the apostles and successor to Saint Peter, was chosen by public suffrage, Rome and Papacy were synonymous terms. But soon another mode of election, due to the organisation of the Church herself, came into use. The Pope was no longer elected by the Romans; he was named by the college of the porpor...