Nicola Gabrini Rienzi, commonly called Cola di Rienzi, "the last of the Roman tribunes," born in Rome about 1312, assassinated Oct. 8, 1354. He was a notary, but claimed illegitimate descent from the imperial house of Luxemburg, was well educated, of imposing presence, and gifted with extraordinary powers of eloquence. The removal of the papal see to Avignon in 1309 had left Rome a prey to contending factions of nobles, whose houses were fortified castles, and whose armed dependants kept the city in a constant turmoil. On the accession of Clement VI. in 1342, Rienzi was included in the deputation sent to Avignon to urge the pope to return to his see. Petrarch, who headed the deputation, conceived an admiration for Rienzi, to whom he afterward addressed the ode commencing Spirto gentil. The pope showed no disposition to revisit Rome, and Rienzi, despairing of any alleviation of the public calamities through the ecclesiastical power, and eager to lead the people to liberty, proceeded by flattering and deceiving the nobles to disarm their suspicions.

He submitted to various kinds of indignity to advance his end, and imitating Brutus, in his own words, "made himself a simpleton and a stage player, and was by turns serious or silly, cunning, earnest, and timid, as the occasion required." On the day after Ash Wednesday, 1347, he caused a scroll to be affixed to the doors of the church of San Giorgio in Velabro, on which was inscribed: "Ere long Rome will return to her good estate." On the succeeding vigil of Pentecost the people were summoned to repair to the capitol on the following day. Rienzi passed the night in the church of Sant' Angelo, where he heard the thirty masses of the Holy Ghost, by whom he said his acts were inspired, and at 10 in the morning issued forth in complete armor, bare-headed, and surrounded by 25 sworn confederates. By his side was the bishop of Orvieto, the pope's vicar, and he was followed by a guard of 100 men-at-arms. The procession, escorted by shouting multitudes of citizens, ascended the capitol, where the "laws of the good estate" were read to the people, providing for the public security in general.

A guard was established for the protection of the citizens, and of the shipping and commerce on the Tiber; the right of the nobles to keep strongholds within the city was abolished; all places of defence were to be delivered to the delegates of the people; granaries were to be opened; the poor were assured of alms, and the magistrates Were bound to administer justice according to law. The people adopted the constitution by acclamation, and Rienzi, being invested with power to establish the good estate, assumed the title of tribune in the following words: "Nicholas, by the grace of Jesus Christ, the severe and merciful, tribune of freedom, peace, and justice, the deliverer of the Roman republic." The nobles, awed by this sudden revolution, surrendered their fortresses, and gave in their submission. Embassies from Florence, Perugia, Siena, and many other cities of Italy were sent to Rome to congratulate Rienzi on his good work, and to offer substantial assistance; and several powerful Christian sovereigns paid him equal deference.

He himself sent an embassy to the pope to ask his approbation; and as an evidence of his submissive reverence for the papal authority, he associated the bishop of Orvieto in office with him, taking care however that the honor should not be accompanied by any control of the affairs of government. Rienzi strove to augment his importance by processions, pageants, and public spectacles; spared nothing which would minister to his pomp and private luxury; and caused himself and his wife to be waited upon by the lords and ladies of his court. On Aug. 1 he was knighted in the Lateran church, and after the ceremony summoned all potentates, ecclesiastical or secular, who presumed to contest the prerogative of Rome to elect the emperor, to appear in the city at the ensuing Pentecost. On Aug. 15 he caused himself to be crowned in the church of Sta. Maria Maggiore with seven crowns, symbolizing the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, under whose special influence he still claimed to act. His splendid processions gradually palled upon the public taste, and the populace began to murmur at the large expenditures from the public treasury to support the extravagance of their tribune.

The nobles, whom he alternately threatened and caressed, finally banded together, and, having recovered several of their strongholds, appeared in arms before the city. By the imprudence of his enemies he gained a victory as surprising to himself as to others, and more than 20 of the Colonnas, Orsinis, Savellis, and other noble families perished in battle or in flight. Instead of following up his advantage, he allowed his enemies to gather strength while he wasted his time in idle pageantries. The pope declared against him, and the people, alarmed by their rapidly increasing taxes, broke forth into open murmurs, which he was unable to quell, notwithstanding he restricted his extravagance and dropped his most ostentatious titles. At this juncture the freebooting count of Minor-bino entered the city and fortified himself in one of the palaces of the Colonnas, whence he refused to retire when summoned by Rienzi. The latter called the armed citizens to his assistance, and, meeting with no response, solemnly abdicated his power, and took refuge in the castle of Sant' Angelo, Dec. 15, 1347, whence he escaped in the disguise of a monk. He took refuge among the Franciscans in the fastnesses of the southern Apennines, with whom he remained two years and a half as a tertiary of the order.

During the jubilee celebrated in 1350 he is said to have appeared in the disguise of a pilgrim among the multitudes Who flocked to Rome; and soon after, at the instigation, he tells us, of Fra Angelo, an inspired hermit, who informed him that the Father and the Son had ceased to rule in the world, and that the age of the Holy Ghost was at hand, he went to the court of Charles IV. at Prague, and exhorted him, in accordance with the prophecy of Fra Angelo, to undertake the conquest of Italy, in which he assured him none could be of so much service as himself. The emperor, amazed at the ambitious schemes and heretical doctrines of Rienzi, ordered him into custody, and finally sent him a prisoner to the pope at Avignon. A commission of ecclesiastics was appointed to try him, but their labors seem never to have been prosecuted with energy. Meanwhile Rome had returned to its former state of anarchy, and Innocent VI., the successor of Clement, determined, as a means of restoring the papal authority in the city, to send Rienzi thither. In the summer of 1354 he reëntered Rome in the capacity of a senator, by the appointment of Cardinal Al-bornoz, the papal legate. Unwarned by adversity, he returned to his old pomp and luxury, and established an unmitigated tyranny.

He was defied by the refractory Colonnas in their castle of Palestrina, against which he conducted a tedious and expensive but unavailing siege. The execution of Fra Moneale, a well known captain of a free company, from whose family he had received pecuniary assistance, and whose property he appropriated to his own use, filled the citizens with horror; and on his attempting to levy a fresh tax to pay his troops, a popular insurrection burst forth. Rienzi took refuge in the capitol, and, being deserted by his guards, appeared upon a balcony in armor, grasping the standard of the people, but was driven back by a shower of stones. Finally, in the disguise of a doorkeeper, he was arrested and led to the foot of the capitol stairs, where, while in the act of addressing the people, he was run through the body by Cecco del Vecchio, an artisan, and was forthwith despatched by a hundred weapons, his head cut off, and his body treated with shameful indignities. - An important series of letters, addressed by Rienzi to the emperor and the archbishop of Prague after his first fall, and vividly illustrating his character, was discovered by Pelzel, the historian of Bohemia, in the last century, and was in 1841 published in German by Dr. Papencordt, under the title of Cola di Rienzi und seine Zeit (Hamburg and Gotha). Some of them are given in Hobhouse's "Illustrations to Childe Harold." The story of Rienzi forms the groundwork of one of Bulwer's best known novels.