e successors of St. Peter had transplanted the luxury,
the pomp, and the vices, of the Imperial City. Secure from the fraud or
violence of a powerful and barbarous nobility, the courtiers of the See
surrendered themselves to a holyday of delight--their repose was devoted
to enjoyment, and Avignon presented, at that day, perhaps the gayest
and most voluptuous society of Europe. The elegance of Clement VI. had
diffused an air of literary refinement over the grosser pleasures of
the place, and the spirit of Petrarch still continued to work its way
through the councils of faction and the orgies of debauch.

Innocent VI. had lately succeeded Clement, and whatever his own claims
to learning, (Matteo Villani (lib. iii. cap. 44) says, that Innocent VI.
had not much pretension to learning. He is reported, however, by other
authorities, cited by Zefirino Re, to have been "eccellente canonista."
He had been a professor in the University of Toulouse.) he, at least,
appreciated knowledge and intellect in others; so that the graceful
pedantry of the time continued to mix itself with the pursuit of
pleasure. The corruption which reigned through the whole place was too
confirmed to yield to the example of Innocent, himself a man of simple
habits and exemplary life. Though, like his predecessor, obedient to the
policy of France, Innocent possessed a hard and an extended ambition.
Deeply concerned for the interests of the Church, he formed the project
of confirming and re-establishing her shaken dominion in Italy; and he
regarded the tyrants of the various states as the principal obstacles
to his ecclesiastical ambition. Nor was this the policy of Innocent
VI. alone. With such exceptions as peculiar circumstances necessarily
occasioned, the Papal See was, upon the whole, friendly to the political
liberties of Italy. The Republics of the Middle Ages grew up under the
shadow of the Church; and there, as elsewhere, it was found, contrary
to a vulgar opinion, that Religion, however prostituted and perverted,
served for the general protection of civil freedom,--raised the lowly,
and resisted the oppressor.

At this period there appeared at Avignon a lady of singular and
matchless beauty. She had come with a slender but well appointed retinue
from Florence, but declared herself of Neapolitan birth; the widow of
a noble of the brilliant court of the unfortunate Jane. Her name was
Cesarini. Arrived at a place where, even in the citadel of Christ