the pope's vicar, to the office of tribune. It was the boast of Rienzi, that he had delivered the throne and patrimony of St. Peter from a rebellious aristocracy; and Clement the Sixth, who rejoiced in its fall, affected to believe the professions, to applaud the merits, and to confirm the title, of his trusty servant. The speech, perhaps the mind, of the tribune, was inspired with a lively regard for the purity of the faith: he insinuated his claim to a supernatural mission from the Holy Ghost; enforced by a heavy forfeiture the annual duty of confession and communion; and strictly guarded the spiritual as well as temporal welfare of his faithful people. [27] [Footnote 251: Et ego, Deo semper auctore, ipsa die pristinâ (leg. primâ) Tribunatus, quæ quidem dignitas a tempore deflorati Imperii, et per annos Vo et ultra sub tyrannicà occupatione vacavit, ipsos omnes potentes indifferenter Deum at justitiam odientes, a meâ, ymo a Dei facie fugiendo vehementi Spiritu dissipavi, et nullo effuso cruore trementes expuli, sine ictu remanente Romane terre facie renovatâ. Libellus Tribuni ad Cæsarem, p. xxxiv.--M. 1845.] [Footnote 26: In one MS. I read (l. ii. c. 4, p. 409) perfumante quatro _solli_, in another, quatro _florini_, an important variety, since the florin was worth ten Roman _solidi_, (Muratori, dissert. xxviii.) The former reading would give us a population of 25,000, the latter of 250,000 families; and I much fear, that the former is more consistent with the decay of Rome and her territory.] [Footnote 27: Hocsemius, p. 498, apud du Cerçeau, Hist. de Rienzi, p. 194. The fifteen tribunitian laws may be found in the Roman historian (whom for brevity I shall name) Fortifiocca, l. ii. c. 4.] Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.--Part II.