Rienzi by Edward Bulwer-lytton — Read

Years had passed away, and the death of the Roman boy, amidst more noble / and less excusable slaughter, was soon forgotten, -- forgotten almost / by the parents of the slain, in the growing fame and fortunes of their / eldest son, -- forgotten and forgiven never by that son himself. / But, between that prologue of blood, and the political drama which / ensues, -- between the fading interest, as it were, of a dream, and the / more busy, actual, and continuous excitements of sterner life, -- this may / be the most fitting time to place before the reader a short and rapid / outline of the state and circumstances of that city in which the / principal scenes of this story are laid; -- an outline necessary, perhaps, / to many, for a full comprehension of the motives of the actors, and the / vicissitudes of the plot.

Despite the miscellaneous and mongrel tribes that had forced their / settlements in the City of the Caesars, the Roman population retained / an inordinate notion of their own supremacy over the rest of the world; / and, degenerated from the iron virtues of the Republic, possessed all / the insolent and unruly turbulence which characterised the Plebs of the / ancient Forum. Amongst a ferocious, yet not a brave populace, the / nobles supported themselves less as sagacious tyrants than as relentless / banditti. The popes had struggled in vain against these stubborn and / stern patricians. Their state derided, their command defied, their / persons publicly outraged, the pontiff-sovereigns of the rest of Europe / resided, at the Vatican, as prisoners under terror of execution. / When, thirty-eight years before the date of the events we are about to / witness, a Frenchman, under the name of Clement V., had ascended the / chair of St. Peter, the new pope, with more prudence than valour, had / deserted Rome for the tranquil retreat of Avignon; and the luxurious / town of a foreign province became the court of the Roman pontiff, and / the throne of the Christian Church.