Description

"The three bodies, covered with golden mantles were carried into Santa Maria by the friars into the chapel of Colonna. The countesses came with a multitude of women, tearing their hair to weep and mourn over the dead, over the bodies of Stefano, Janni, and Pietro de Agabito. The tribune had them driven away and refused any honor or obsequies, saying, ‘If they provoke me any further I shall have these three cursed corpses thrown into the pit of the hanged men, since they are perjurers and do not deserve to be buried.’ The corpses were then carried to the Church of San Silvestro and buried by the nuns without lament.” The Life of Cola di Rienzo, Ch. 35, p.87-88.

Santa Maria in Aracoeli was completed in the 12th century. It was originally called Santa Maria Capitolio, but was renamed later when it gained the relics of St. Helen, Emperor Constantine’s mother. The church also houses minor relics from the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The 12th-century legend is that the church is built on the place where Tiburtine Sibyl prophesied the coming of Christ to Augustus.

When the papacy was in Avignon, baronial families held most of the power in Rome, because they had the land and men to defend themselves. The Colonna, Savelli, and Orsini families controlled much of the land in the area we have termed today as “Cola’s Rome” at this time. Cola di Rienzo despised the baronial families because he thought that their leadership was motivated by self-interest, and that Rome had fallen into a state of disarray because the “tyrants” did nothing to manage the city affairs.

Cola’s main mission was to rid Rome of the baronial families and restore civil government. In order to do this, Cola had to first convince the Romans that Rome was in decay and that they should affirm his argument for the powers of the Senate and civic government. Then he had to punish and/or murder the barons, in order to assert his dominance. Santa Maria Aracoeli was one place where he asserted power over the barons. Cola di Rienzo refused to let the Colonna countesses bury their male family members in the family chapel after Cola had murdered them.

To understand in larger context why it was such a blow to the Colonna family that Cola refused to let them bury their dead in their family chapel, we need to understand the significance of family chapels at this time. This was a very holy and important church for the people of Rome, and it was the renowned burial site of families who ruled Rome in the 14th century. The chapels are much taller than the aisles of the church. This is because chapels functioned similarly to towers, in that the taller the chapel was, the more powerful the family. The Colonna family had to display their wealth and power, so when they secured the rights to build a family mausoleum, they excavated the wall so they could make their chapel taller than the others. The Colonna chapel is also directly across from the aracoelli, which was the best position in the church because it was the closest to the holy relic. Chapels took on the role of displaying power because they had a much greater chance of survival than towers, which were continuously destroyed by enemies. The family chapels were more stable because they were protected by the friars, and in the minds of Christians, by the Virgin and God.When Cola di Rienzo refused to let the Colonna countesses bury their dead in the church, he was in essence refusing the dead their proper resting place in the afterlife. This brought distress to the living Colonnas, because this was their responsibility. Ironically, Cola di Rienzo met his own death very close to this church.

Creator

Anna Gergely (2019)

Coverage

1300s

Source

Bolgia, Claudia. “Ostentation, Power, and Family Competition in Late-Medieval Rome: The Earliest Chapels at S. Maria In Aracoeli.” Aspects of Power and Authority in the Middle Ages, volume 14, (2007): 73-105

Ghisalberti, Alberto Maria, and John Wright. The Life of Cola Di Rienzo. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1975.