Emanuele Celesia

“ When I heard of the insurrection in my native city I was more dead than alive; and if the shedding of my blood or giving my life could repair the misfortune, your excellencies may be sure I would not shrink from the sacrifice. I have an intense sorrow of heart that one of my house should have attempted revolution, and especially a revolt against the authority of that prince who has always protected and benefited our family and to whom I hope always to be a good servant. Being most innocent in this conspiracy, I pray your excellencies to receive and hold me as a good son of the Republic. ”

“ He did not wish the office of Doge; but being the minister of Charles V. in Italy and the lord of the Main, it did not become him to descend to an office of less rank. The magnanimity of his own heart and the temper of his fellow citizens alike forbade him to assume the supreme power of a prince in Genoa. That was probably destined in his mind for Gianettino, and only the Fieschi conspiracy saved us from that fate. If Doria had wielded his sword and shed his blood for Italy as he did for foreign masters, he might perhaps have saved us three centuries of humiliation. ”

“ Andrea Doria had finally extinguished in Genoa the popular conspiracies for liberty, and on the ruins of the Guelph Fieschi house had firmly planted the Spanish tyranny. Still, in every corner of the Peninsula, the people, not yet corrupted by the servility of the great, cherished the memory of better days, and scarcely concealed their antipathy to Spain. The sword of Doria—which is still sacriligiously suspended over the high altar of the church of San Matteo—was once more stained with the blood of the people. ”

“ Those who have written about it, without studying the character of the times, rather as romancers than historians, have transmitted us a fable that he sought the supreme control of the Republic; but he sought no other end than to bring back the government to its ancient principles. Revolution in Genoa never aimed at enslaving the people. In those centuries we had foreign generals and ministers among us, but never absolute rulers; and if these ministers attempted tyranny, they paid for their audacity with their blood, like Opizzino d’Alzate, or were expelled, like Trivulzio and others. ”

“ As Boccanegra was the father of our popular liberty so Doria was its executioner. He wrested the government from the hands of the people, and committed it to those of the nobles. He momentarily silenced, but did not destroy, the rage of parties. By depressing the populace, he cut the nerves of the Republic; he gave us independence in name, but he destroyed the franchises of the citizens. A great historian has justly said, that the liberties given us by Andrea Doria are ridiculous; the future will accept that as the final decision of history. ”

“ But this atrocious design against the liberties of the republic is denied by all the historians of the period. Even the writers most partial to the Dorias tell us that Gianluigi rejected the temptation to assassinate Gianettino under the shadow of the crucifix, though he was convinced that he could find no better opportunity of crushing his rival at a single blow.
The count abhorred bloodshed. In fact but little was spilled in all the fierce civil commotions of Genoa. These revolutions resemble wars of adventurers which have no other aim than to capture the enemy. ”

“ The age of Leo X., in painting whose meretricious splendours, our historians have rivalled each other, was one of the most unfortunate in the history of Italy. Let others call the age of Valentine and Charles V. the age of gold; Raphael, Titian, and Michael Angelo cannot make us forget Leyva, Baglioni, and the barbarians who overran Italy, bringing in plague, famine, and intestine war. Swiss and French in Lombardy, French and Spaniards in Naples, Swiss and Germans in Venetia rendered every region desolate and every government despotic. ”

“ The flower of the Genoese nobility came to congratulate the spouses at their residence in Vialata.
Two powerful families possessed the magnificent hill of Carignano, the Fieschi, and the Sauli. Each family had there a splendid palace. During the minority of Gianluigi, silence had reigned in his, while that of the Sauli had been greatly enlarged and embellished.
The Sauli were new nobles belonging to the popular party, like the Fieschi, Farnari, Promontori and Giustiniani; yet few of the nobility, old or new, equalled them in wealth and gentility of blood. ”

“ The people of Germany, always restless under the yoke of ancient Rome, were rising against the Papal power, which had taken the place of the ancient empire. At the voice of Luther laying bare the festering diseases of the Roman court, the learned of Italy were moved. The Pope comprehended that there was no other means of extirpating the seeds of reform which had already sprung up in Italy but to ally himself with catholic Spain: she was in the zenith of her glory. ”

“ The very example of Doria proved the nature of French sympathy for Italy. Doria had learned too well that Francis desired to reduce the importance of Genoa by removing Savona from her jurisdiction, and making the latter the capital of Liguria. The count, said he, has the means of full success. Raise the cry of popular liberty, and thousands of swords will be uplifted for the cause. Let Gianluigi dare to proclaim liberty to these oppressed multitudes. Let him dare to announce himself as their liberator. When Cæsar fell, Pompey was not declared a rebel, but the saviour of Rome. ”

“ It is time that history should be relieved from the tyranny of eloquent but mendacious tongues, and many powerful ones should be deposed from ill-gotten thrones. It is time to ask of many who have been called heroes what use they made of their swords and how they served Italy, and to concede—the supreme right of misfortune—a tardy tribute of regret to one who fell victim to a high and generous purpose. ”

“ These powerful families, still beloved by the people, would never consent to submit the government to the control of a species of prince—a thing they have for centuries resisted with their blood—so that the efforts of the count will not enhance his personal grandeur, but only promote the interests of rival families; the name of Fieschi will become a reproach, distrusted by the nobles, despised by the people and hated by Cæsar. ”

“ Foreign rule was hateful to the Genoese, but above all that of France. Francis occupied by home politics, embarrassed in Lombardy and in Naples, would not bestow a thought on Genoa if he did not hope to acquire his lost power over her. The nobility are in power and hate revolution, and even the plebeians would oppose a new order of things unless proposed by a noble. The people are unwilling to obey men without high rank, accustomed not to yield even to the nobles without desperate necessity,—and, stimulated by recent events, they would demand full control of the government. ”

“ According to our belief, a single idea directed the movements of the Peninsula in the first part of the sixteenth century—the thought common to all the people of emancipating the country from that foreign power which was corrupting the national character, literature, and art. Classic and courtly history has found in these stormy years only local and isolated conspiracies; few writers, we might almost say none, have heard, in these risings of peoples crushed under the ambitions of the great, the mighty groan of a dying nation not yet resigned to her terrible fate. ”

“ The Doge and the senators, the Genoese cardinals Doria and Cybo, Lord Bishop Matera, envoy of the Pope, and the ministers of other nations went to pay him homage.
We shall not dwell on the sumptuous reception of Phillip by the nobility, or the splendour which Doria displayed with his open court and princely banquets for the Spanish barons. The luxury of the decorations, the richness of the furniture, the splendour of the carpets and service of every kind and the wealth sunk in the banquets of that palace were then the marvel of Italy. ”

“ Verrina was the soul of every movement. He knew all the arts of ingratiating himself with the plebeians, and winning their sympathies to the cause of his master. He began to allude in guarded phrases to the necessity of a revolution in the interest of popular government; and at the same time contrived to have many vassals of the count enrolled in the permanent militia of the Republic. Many artisans and mechanics to whom he gave presents, promised him the service of their arms to rescue by force a castle of the count from some Florentine merchants, who, he said, had seized it for debts. ”

“ You know, Cornelio, the outrage which Della Torre has committed against our sister Claudia, and I believe that if you have the spirit which belongs to your blood you will arrange with Simone to take such vengeance as the case requires. I have prepared two galleys, manned by twenty well-armed and brave men each. Set sail. Three hours before dawn you will be in Chiavari. There, without any delay, you will assail the house of Della Torre, and if you tear him into a thousand pieces you will give him that reward which his crime merits. ”

“ Then a larger number of Italians than now were bewildered by the legal or historical claim set up for a dead Empire and a Christian Church founded upon force, and in their bewilderment went over to their enemies. But below all this, a brave people struck manful blows for their salvation, and when they fell were suffocated with the terrible doctrine that Italy does not belong to herself. The statement of Count Persigny was and is, in its political significance, when applied to Italian politics, exactly like a declaration that London does not belong to England or Paris to France. ”

“ The money of the great seduced them to abandon truth and the people without whom genius is neither great nor productive. Pleasure for courtiers was their only aim. The country was dying, but no voice sang the hymn of death; no one gave history those pages of heroism which save the dignity of vanquished nations. On the contrary, Giovio with unblushing brow eulogized his golden pen; Casa sang in honour of the Charles V. whom he had once satirized. Alamanni apologized to the emperor for his famous verse saying that it is the poet’s office to lie, and Cellini himself could write:—“I work for pay.” ”

“ The illustrious Doge and magnificent Governors and Procurators of the most serene Republic of Genoa.
“Every state is governed by two things which are divine principles, reward and punishment, the first encouraging the good to honest living and love of country and the second withholding the bad from treason and insurrection. If the reward of well-doing be taken away the motives for patriotism cease to exist and if criminals are not punished the ill-disposed are encouraged to continuance in disobedience when new occasions are presented them. ”

“ Caress the tyrant and then kill him. Your dagger is sharper than the eyes of his satellites. Audacity and courage are everything. He who falters for an instant is undone. Every means is just which leads to success.”
Gianluigi held these maxims and he could not lay them aside without freeing himself from the age in which he lived. It was natural, therefore, that with his noble intention of destroying the empire of the Dorias he should use every instrument which seemed adapted to his purpose. ”

“ Italy, sore wounded, did not die at once. Latin virtue and civilization were so tenacious of life, that whereas nations usually grow barbarous with the loss of liberty, Italy, trodden by foreign and domestic tyrannies, preserved a remnant of her culture, and, though barren of political genius, adorned her sunset with the splendours of science and art. ”

“ In both Republics, the people were bowed down by the insolence of the great. They were deprived of all share in the government, and corrupt ambition had unbounded sway. In Liguria, Andrea Doria had completed the triumph of the party of the nobles and imperialists and the ruin of popular liberty. Though he forbore to assume a princely title, he was a true king in authority, his nephew aspired to regal honours, and every popular right was trampled down by the Spanish power. ”

“ The beginnings of our civilization were born of industrial arts. The marines artisans, and [129] tradesmen formed the only army of the Republic when it made war on feudatories and compelled them to swear allegiance to the commune. These brave plebeians—to-day operatives, to-morrow soldiers, not more masters of the shuttle and the oar than of the sword, tempestuous in character but fervent in faith—created in Genoa fruitful industries and immense social power ”