COLONNA
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COLONNA
folonna was one of the main purposes of the Bull " In
?oena Domini". Nevertheless, members of the fam-
ily were quite often appointed by friendly pontiffs to
high offices of Church and State. Rarely were they
without at least one representative in the Sacred Col-
lege, and at one of the most critical jimctures in the
annals of the Church, the election to the papacy of
Cardinal OdoColonna, Martin V, put an end to the dis-
astrous Western Schism. Twice in the course of its
history this powerful house was threatened with anni-
hilation (see Boniface VIII; Alex.4.nder VI), but on
both occasions the restoration of its members was as
speedy as their fall.
The long line of Colonnese cardinals was opened in 1192, when Giovanni the Elder was created Cardinal- Priest of S. Prisca by Celestine III. He was made Bishop of Sabina by Innocent III, and was employed on important legations to Germany, Spain, Sicily, and France. He was the powerful friend of St. Francis, and was largely instrumental in obtauiing from the pope the approval of the Franciscan Rule. He is re- membered at Amalfi for his munificence in building and endowing a spacious hospital. He died at Rome, 1209. Three years later Pope Innocent elevated to the cardinalate a nephew of the cardinal, known as Giovanni the Yovmger, Cardinal-Priest of S. Prassetle. He was sent to the Orient as legate in 1217 and re- turned to Rome in 1222 bringing with him the Pillar of the Scourging, which remains to the present day in the chajiel he built for it in his titular chiu-ch. He also built and endowed two hospitals near the Lateran for the relief of the poor and of pilgrims. In 1240, after a futile attempt to reconcile Pope Gregory IX and Frederick II, the cardinal, as head of his family, together with the other Ghibellines of Rome, went over to the emperor and openly rebelled against the Holy See. He died in 1245. Matthew Paris (ad. an. 1244) describes him as "a vessel filled with pride and insolence; who, as he was the most illustrious and powerful in secular possessions of all the cardinals, was the most efficacious author and fosterer of discord between the emperor and the pope".
As a punishment of their Ghibellinism, no scion of the house was admitted into the Sacred College until 1278, when the magnanimous Orsini pope, Nicholas III, the son of that Matteo Rosso who had razed all the Colonna strongholds in Rome, in token of amnesty elevated to the dignity of the purple Giacomo Colonna with the title of Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata. About ten years later, Honorius IV created Pietro, nephew of Giacomo, Cardinal-Deacon of the Title of S. Eustaehio. These were the two cardinals whose bitter quarrel with Boniface VIII ended so dis- astrously for that pontiff and for the prestige of the medieval papacy. Deposed and degraded in 1297, they were reinstated in their dignities and possessions by Clement V in 1305. Both died at Avignon, Gia- como in 1.318, Pietro in 1326. These unruly cardi- nals continued the deeply religious traditions of their family, foimding and endowing the hospital of S. Giacomo for incurables and the Franciscan convent of S. Silvestro in Capite, in which they deposed the re- mains of the saintly sister of Giacomo, the nun Beata Margarita. Their munificence as patrons of art is at- tested by many masterpieces in the Roman churches, notably Turrita's mosaics in S. Maria Maggiore, pro- nounced by Gregorovius "the finest work of all the mosaic paintings in Rome". The learned Cardinal Egidio Colonna well deserves a special article (see Colonna, Eoinio). One year after Pietro's death, his nephew Giovanni, a son of the noble Senator Stef- ano, whose immediate family remained faithful to the Holy See during the troublous times of Louis the Bavariiui, whilst his kinsman Sciarra, led the schis- matical party, was raised to the cardinalate by John XXII, with the title of S. .\ngelo. He was universally esteemed, especially by men of letters. He wrote the
" Lives of the Roman Pontiffs from St. Peter to Boni-
face VIII". At his death, 1348, his intimate friend,
Petrarch, wrote the beautiful sonnet, "Rotta e I'alta
Colonna". At the beginning of the Great Schism
Urban created two Colonna cardinals, Agapito and
Stefano, but they both died shortly after. Then fol-
fowed Odo Colonna, later Pope Martin V (q. v.), who,
in 1430 bestowed the purple upon his youthful nephew
Prospero. The latter, becoming involved in the re-
bellion of his family against Eugene IV, was deprived
of his benefices and sentenced to perpetual exile, but
was reinstated by Nicholas V, and died in 1463,
lauded by the Humanists as a Mscenas of arts and
letters. In the heated conclave of 1458 it was Pros-
pero Colonna who decided the election of Piccolomini
in the famous words, " I also vote for the Cardinal of
Siena, and make him pope".
Prospero's nephew, Giovanni, was the representa- tive of his family during the pontificates of Si.xtus IV, Innocent VIII, Alexander VI, Pius III, and Julius II. Created Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Aqviiro in his twenty-fourth year by Pope Sixtus, he was committed to the Castle of Sant' Angelo two years later, when that pontiff and the Colonna began their bitter feud. After an imprisonment of over a year, he regained his lib- erty. One cannot feel much sympathy with him in his misfortunes during the pontificate of the Borgia pope, who could not have been elected without his vote. When Alexander VI began his war of extermi- nation against the Roman barons, Colonna, more for- timate than Cardinal Orsini, made his escape and did not return to Rome till the pope had passed away. He himself died in 1508. Although Julius II restored to the Colonna their possessions and dignities, and by the Pax Romana, 1511, put an end to the hereditary feuds of the rival houses, yet, their old-time position of quasi-independence was never again attained. The two secular heads of the family, Prospero andFabrizio, acquired great fame as generals in the armies of the Church and of Charles V. Fabrizio's daughter was the highly gifted Vittoria (q. v.). Prospero's nephew, Pompeo, was chosen to represent the family in the Church. He consented veiy reluctantly, for the sword was more congenial to him than the Bre\aary. He received a large accumulation of benefices, was created cardinal by Leo X, in 1517, and \'ice-chan- cellor by Clement VII. In return, he took the side of the emperor in his quarrel with the pope. On 20 Sept., 1526, took place the onslaught on Rome, and the desecration of St. Peter's and the Vatican, which covers his memory with eternal infamy. He also joined with Constable Bourbon in the capture of Rome, May, 1527; but, horrified by the brutality of the sack of his native city, he did his best to shield his unfortunate countrymen within the walls of the Can- cellaria. The indulgent Clement absolved and rein- stated him three years later. He became viceroy of Naples and died in 1532. The good name of the house was redeemed by the next Colonnese cardinal, Marcan- tonio, who was carefully trained in piety and learning by the Franciscan friar, Felice Peretti, later Sixtus' V. He was created Cardinal-Priest of SS. XII Apostoli, in 1565, closely imitated St. Charles Borromeo in estab- lishing seminaries and restoring discipline, was libra- rian of the Vatican, fostered learning, and was ex- tremely charitable to the poor. Before his death, in 1597, his kinsman Aseanio Colonna was elevated to the purple by Sixtus V in 1,586. .\ltliough he owed his cardinalate largely to the favour of Philip II, yet he did not permit his gratitude to extinguish his jia- triotism. It was his defection from the Sjianish ranks at a critical moment during the conclave of 1592 that defeated the aspirations of Philip's candidate, Cardi- nal Sansevcrina and led to the election of Clement VIII. In his well-known exclamation: "I see that God will not have Sanseverina, neither will Aseanio Colonna", brc^ithes the haughty spirit of his race. He
