The Italian Republics

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

FROM A.D. 1085 To A.D. 1266

THE papal church was now becoming the great power which for centuries was to overshadow Italy and all En rope. The genius of Hildebrand, an obscure monk of Tr* cany, combined its energies, and guided them in the career of conquest. In the cloistered solitude of his study he devised his plan for the subjugation of the world to the papal throne. The election of the popes was vested in the cardinals. The clergy were detached from human society by the law of celibacy. The pope was declared to be God's vicegerent, incapable of erring, and above all human law. In the face of the most violent opposition, he accomplished all his plans. The power of the pope over the popular mind became so extraordinary, that no king could hold his crown in opposition to the will of the holy father. Inauguration by his hand became aL essential title to the crown.

The German emperor Conrad, who succeeded Henry H. hastened to Rome, to receive the diadem from the hands of the pontiff. Being engaged in distant wars, he could devote but little attention to Italy, and for many years the peninsula presented an aspect of anarchy. Nobles, bishops, and citizens struggled against each other in bloody warfare. In the year A. D. 1073 Hildebrand was chosen pope, with the title of Gregory the Y U During the long minority of the emperor Henry IV., of Germany, the sagacity of Hildebrand had been diligently employed in pushing the papal encroachments. Never did a more imperial mind dwell in a fleshly tabernacle. The pope and the emperor soon found themselves in collision, each claiming the supremacy. The quarrel arose upon the right of investiture, or in other words, whether bishops and dukes were to consider themselves as vassals of the pope or the emperor. Hostile messages were sent to and fro, until the pope had the arrogance to summon the emperor to appear before him in Rome. The indignant sovereign assembled a council of prelates and other vassals at Worms, and declared Gregory no longer to be worthy 'to be recognized as pope Gregory, in retaliation, excommunicated Henry, released his subjects from the oath of allegiance, and prohibited them, under pain of eternal damnation from supporting the emperor, or in any way ministering to his wants.

The people were so overawed by the terrors of this decree, that they at once abandoned their sovereign ; and he was left utterly ruined and helpless. Under the dictation of the pope the princes met at Oppenheim, to choose another emperor. Henry IV., in dismay and despair, crossed the Alps, in the dead of winter, to throw himself at the feet of the offended pontiff and implore forgiveness. Gregory was then at the castle-of Canossa, near Reggio, in the domain of Matilda, the opulent and powerful countess of Tuscany, who was, with an he enthusiasm of her glowing soul, devoted to the papacy.

For three days, in mid-winter, the abject monarch stood a suppliant at the portal of the castle before hé could be admitted. Barefooted, bareheaded, and clothed in a woolen shirt, he was compelled to wait, that the world might witness his humiliation. At length the haughty pontiff condescended to grant absolution to the penitent. The reconciliation which ensued was far from cordial, and Henry, mortified and exasperated, returned to his realms, watching for an opportunity more successfully to resume the strife. Soon the ecclesiastical censure was renewed, and the emperor was again deposed. In the meantime Henry IV. had strengthened his cause, and the pope's bull had lost somewhat of its terror. Both partie now prepared for war.

Matilda, the celebrated countess of Tuscany, and some other Italian feudatories, placed their troops at the service of Gregory. Henry led an army into Italy; the papal troops were routed ; Gregory was deposed, and Guibert, archbishop cf Ravenna, was raised to the papacy by the sword of the emperor. The grateful pontiff placed the imperial crown, with the blessing of the church, upon the brow of the conqueror. Gregory VII. sought refuge among the Normans of Naples.

The Neapolitans, led by the holy father, whom the emperor had deposed, marched against Rome. Henry IV. retreated. They captured the city and surrendered it to military license, fire and the sword. Gregory reinstated, but still humiliated, believing himself no longer secure in Rome, retired to Naples, where he remained in virtual exile until he died, with his last breath hurling an anathema against his unrelenting foe, the emperor. His successors, Victor III., Urban IT., and Paschal II. continued the conflict, aided by the amazonian energies of the Countess Matilda. Henry was driven out of Italy, and, dethroned by his own son, Henry V., died a broken hearted old man, in the extreme of destitution and misery.

For fifteen years the struggle continued between Henry V and the Roman pontiffs. At length they entered into a corn promise, the pope resigning the temporal, and the emperor the spiritual prerogatives of investitures. During this long war of sixty-three years, a series of republics had been gradually springing up in northern Italy. The great cities had become the centers of these republics, and the old feudal nobility had gradually passed away. The civil war had rendered it necessary that walls should be reared around the towns. The sound of an alarm-bell assembled all the men, capable of bearing arms, in the great square, and this meeting for deliberation, was called a parliament. Two consuls, and a common council, submitted questions to the decision of the parliament. While most of these northern free cities confessed a vague allegiance to the German emperor, others, as Venice, Ravenna, Rome, Naples, and Genoa, still remained nominally under the sway of the eastern empire. Almost the only indications of the existence of the imperial power which now remained, was that the name of the emperor was affixed to the municipal acts, and his effigy was stamped upon the coin. The democratic cities of Lombardy possessed but little of the spirit of true democracy. The stronger were ever eager to domineer over the weaker. Milan crushed Lodi and scattered its citizens into villages, trampling upon all their rights. The Lodise, after years of oppression, appealed to the emperor Frederic for help.

Glad of this opportunity to strengthen his power in Italy, the emperor with a small but vigorous and efficient army crossed the Alps, and, advancing through the Trentine valley, entered the plains of Lombardy. Here petitioners crowded around him, imploring protection from the haughty, tyrannical, aristocratic democracy of Milan. In a cruel march of desolation and plunder the emperor ravished the country. Many cities were in alliance with the Milanese, while others espoused the cause of the emperor. Notwithstanding the strength of the imperial army, the walls of Milan were so substantial, and the preparations for defense so ample, that the first movements of Frederic were against the allied cities. Tumi, Vercelli, Asti, and Tortona, after bloody battles and protracted sieges, fell into his hands. The valiant little city of Tortona for two months defied the emperor.

The emperor was provided with the most powerful machines of war then in use. With the balistae of the ancients, he threw such masses of rock into the city, that three men were crushed by the fall of a single piece. But famine at length compelled to capitulation, and Tortona was razed to the ground. Frederic, having demolished or subdued most of the cities in the alliance with Milan, entered Pavia, and there received the celebrated iron crown of Lombardy ;—the iron of which it was wrought, was said to be one of the spikes which had pierced our Saviour, and was deemed far more precious than gold. He then advanced to Rome, that he might receive his imperial crown from pope Adrian IV. The pope was now so powerful, and it was deemed so essential to the perpetuity of any reign that the coronation should be hallowed by the blessing of the pontiff, that the haughty Frederic condescended to do homage to his spiritual lord, by holding his stirrup while he descended from his mule. It was not until after this act of humiliation that the pope would confer upon him the kiss of peace. Having been crowned at Rome, the emperor returned to Germany, after an absence of one year, without even venturing to approach the walls of Milan.

The Milanese and Frederic made new preparations for the prosecution of the war. The influence of Milan was so great that the whole of Lombardy was combining against the emperor. With a hundred thousand infantry and fifteen thou-sand cavalry, Frederic commenced his march again through the passes of the Alps, and, with this immense force, invested the city. Massive walls of vast circuit surrounded the city, and the bulwarks were protected by a broad and deep fosse. Battering rams and balistae were here of but little avail, and famine was manifestly the all-availing foe, which could alone bring the city to a capitulation. By this cruel enemy the Milanese were subdued. History can express no sympathy for them. They deserved to be trampled upon by the powefful, for they themselves most unscrupulously had been trampling upon the weak.

The treaty was more favorable than the tyrannic Milanese had any right to expect from the tyrant of Germany. A large ransom was extorted ; they built a palace for the emperor, and took the oath of allegiance to him ; and they were allowed a certain degree of independence in the regulation of their municipal affairs. Frederic paid but little regard to his treaty ; and encroachment followed encroachment as he endeavored to reduce all of Lombardy into entire submission. The mangled worm turned against the foot that crushed it. With horrible ferocity Frederic took vengeance. This cruelty roused new energies of despair. For two years the Milanese, with their allied cities, fought the emperor, struggling through and over the smoldering ruins of Lombardy. Crema was demolished. The harvests were destroyed, the fields devastated, and at length, after scenes of misery which no pen can describe, Milan fell.

For three weeks the emperor brooded over his vengeance, while the Milanese waited trembling in suspense. He then ordered every man, woman, and child immediately to leave the city. The sick, the dying, the newly born, all were to go. Not one was to be left behind. With his army of one hundred and fifteen thousand men, the emperor entered the deserted streets. The city was then surrendered to the troops for plunder. For several days they worked diligently on wresting from it every thing they deemed of value. Then the order was issued for the utter demolition of the city and all its defenses. For six days this immense army toiled in this work of destruction, and rested on the seventh day, their efforts being effectually accomplished. Milan was a heap of ruins, and all her children were scattered, in misery and beggary, over the plains. Awful was this doom. It was the name which Milan had inflicted upon Lodi. Aristocratie tyrants can do nothing worse than democratic tyrants are, capable of doing.

Lombardy was now submissive in her chains and ber misery. But slaves will ever rise in insurrection. A con spiracy was formed, organizing the famous Lombard League. The leading cities of Lombardy combined, taking advantage of the moment when the arms of the emperor were employed in the siege of Rome, as he endeavored to force upon the church an anti-pope in the place of Alexander III. Pestilence was breathed upon his army, and it perished in the Campania. The emperor was thus compelled to a disgraceful retreat beyond the Alps. Harassed by the cares of his vast empire, six years elapsed before the emperor could lead another army into the plains of Lombardy. In the spring of 1176, the peals of the imperial bugles were heard, as the gleam of the silken banners were again seen winding through the defiles of the Alps. Milan, in the meantime, having been rebuilt, and, with the other cities of Lombardy, had made vigorous preparation for the conflict.

The hostile armies met on the plain of :Legnano, about fifteen miles from Milan. What was called religious enthusiasm inspired the Milanese with fiend-like ferocity. The banner of the cross was borne on a sacred car called the carrocio, in memory of the ark of the covenant which guided the Israelites to conquest. Imploring the aid of St. Ambrose, the canonized archbishop of Milan, and of St. Peter, and having taken a solemn vow, upon the sacraments of the Lord's Supper, that they would conquer or perish, they rushed, regardless of wounds and death, upon the imperial squadrons, and trampled them in the dust. For eight miles the plain was covered with the slaughter of the fugitives.

The imperial army was so utterly overthrown and dispersed, that for some time the fate of the emperor was uncertain. Three days after the battle he appeared in Pavia, alone, and in the disguise in which he had escaped from the horrible scene of carnage. Pavia, the imperial head-quarters, and governed by the imperial troops, had not thrown off the yoke of German subjection. For twenty-two years Frederic had been struggling against the independence of Lombardy. With seven armies he had swept their doomed territory, inflicting atrocities the recital of which sickens humanity. The fatal battle of Legnano left him for a time powerless, and he was compelled to assent to a truce for six years. At the expiration of this truce, in the year 1183, by the peace of Constance, the comparative independence of Lombardy was secured ; a general supremacy of dignity rather than of power being con-ceded to the emperor.

Southern Italy was still in a state of nominal subjection to the eastern, or Greek empire, whose sovereigns resided at Constantinople. There were many intrigues, and some battles between the Grecian and the German emperors for dominion over these coveted realms. Years of obscurity, confusion and petty wars rolled on in which nothing occurred worthy of being recorded. Sicily was in the power of the infidel Saracens, and their piratic craft infested all the neighboring seas, often making devastating inroads upon the land. The natural history of the lion, the tiger, and the leopard, is but a record of doverlike mildness, when compared with the natural history or man. His reign upon earth has been but the demoniac infliction of blood and woe.

"'Tis dangerous to rouse the lion,
Deadly to cross the tiger's path,
But the most terrible of terrors,
Is man himself, in his wild wrath."

Early in the tenth century the Normans established themselves in France. Embracing nominal Christianity, they were inspired with zeal to visit the shrines of saints and martyrs in Palestine. Traversing France and Italy they embarked for the Holy Land. They thus became acquainted with the fertile soil, and the luxurious clime of southern Italy. The effeminacy of the inhabitants invited invasion. The old Norman barons, steel clad, and followed by retainers armed to the teeth, commenced emigrating. Their numbers rapidly in-creased, and they began to accumulate near Naples. The Greek emperor undertook to rescue Sicily from the infidel Saracens, and enlisted in his army three hundred of these steel sinewed Norman cavaliers. They fought fiercely and success-fully, but, dissatisfied with the division of the spoil, they formed a conspiracy to wrest the whole of southern Italy from the dominion of the Greeks. With an army of but seven hundred horse and five hundred foot, they commenced the bold enterprise. They soon were in entire possession of Apulia, a province about the size of the state of Massachusetts, now belonging to the kingdom of Naples. This beautiful province was divided among twelve Norman counts, whose fiefs formed a feudal republic. One of their number, William of the Iron Arm, was invested with a general supremacy to lead them to battle.

Pope Leo IX., alarmed by their encroachments, raised an army for their destruction. Germans, Greeks, and Lombards were assembled beneath the sacred banner, and the pope in person was so forgetful of his office as to lead the host. These scenes occurred anterior to the events we have been describing in Lombardy.

Reënforcements from France hastened to the camp of William, and the Norman and the papal troops met in battle. The troops of the pontiff were utterly routed, and Leo himself fell into the hands of his enemies. But religion, degenerating into superstition, leads men to the strangest freaks. These devout, blood-stained warriors, true children of the church, prostrated themselves before their holy captive, and implored absolution for the guilt of defending them-selves against him. The simple hearted ecclesiastic, not only pardoned them, and granted them the full possession of the lands they had conquered, as a fief of the holy see, but, in accordance with ecclesiastical morality in that age, conferred upon them the investiture of all the lands they might subsequently conquer in southern Italy. The pope and the warriors thus took leave of each other, exceedingly good friends, and pledged to mutual assistance.

Slowly and surely the Normans advanced, until they had conquered all the country which now constitutes the kingdom of Naples. Thirty years of carnage and misery was the price paid for this conquest. The realm was divided into two duchies, Calabria and Apulia. Sicily was attached to them .as a fief, under the rule of one who possessed the title of great Count. At length Roger II., collecting in his hands the united powers of duke of Apulia and Calabria, and great count of Sicily, ambitiously attained the kingly crown, by papal investiture. Naples became the capital of the kingdom. The force of habit and of institutions is such that for six hundred years the kingdom of Naples acknowledged the superiority of the popedom.

The Venetian republic was making rapid strides in wealth and power. It, however, fought its way to opulence and renown through innumerable petty yet bloody battles, with surrounding foes. Venice had entered into the Lombard league against the emperor Frederic, but still she never hesitated to violate her pledge when it seemed for her interest so so do, even joining the emperor to destroy her sister city, Ancona, hoping thus to crush a rival in the commerce of the Adriatic. The dukes or doges of Venice, through ebbs and floods of fortune, through defeats and victories, were grades ally making accessions to their domains. The doges were nominated in a general assembly of the citizens. This often gave rise to very bitter and tumultuous factions. So jealous were the people lest there should be the claim of hereditary right to the dukedom, that it became a fundamental paw of the state, that the reigning doge should sever associate a son in the government. The doge was also associated with a council, who were to coôperate with him in all important measures. At length, as the republic increased, a sort of legislature, composed of four hundred and eighty delegates, was organized ; while a smaller counsel assisted the doge in measures requiring special or secret despatch.

This Venetian constitution prepared the republic for ;a very brilliant career, of political and commercial grandeur All Europe was soon engaged in the wars of the crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land from the infidels. The same influences which organized the powerful republics of Lombardy and Venice, also soon constituted many others, such as Pisa, Genoa, and Tuscany. The maritime republics became vastly enriched by the crusades,—transporting troops to Palestine and conveying back the valuable products of eastern climes. Venice alone, employed two hundred vessels in this business. But a very fierce and disgraceful spirit of rivalry prevailed between the republics of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa, and they were almost constantly engaged in implacable warfare. Their boasted love of liberty, was liberty to trample upon the rights of others. They wished to have no masters, but to be masters. Such love of liberty, liberty for ones-self and oppression for others deserves, and has ever encountered divine indignation.

The Italian character, at this age of the world, presents few attractive features. We have been accustomed to applaud their indomitable love of liberty. But haughty, revengeful, and domineering, the Italian grasped power only to wield it for his own selfish purposes, and he was ever ready to crush any one who stood in the way of his own advancement. Every city was the foe of every other city, and they could never unite, save when driven together by a common enemy. The old conflict between the aristocratic and plebeian orders raged with unabated virulence. Religion degenerated into mere ecclesiasticism, having but little influence over political or social evils. Heresy was a deadly crime. Wrong and outrage were venial offences with which the church did not stoop to intermeddle.

About this time the afflictive intelligence reached Europe, that Jerusalem had fallen before the power of the " great and mighty Saladin." The emperor Frederic roused all his energies for a new crusade. Leading in person his armies, he was drowned in crossing a swollen stream in Armenia. Henry VI. succeeded to the imperial crown of Italy and Germany. His sway over Italy, as we have shown, was very indefinite, being nominal rather than real. Henry was a ferocious monster, whose only virtue was a sort of bull-dog courage. Tancred, of the Norman line, was now upon the throne of Naples and Sicily. Henry led an army for the conquest of Naples, to compel the recognition there of his imperial power ; but he utterly failed.

Quite suddenly Tancred died in the flower of his age, leaving the throne to his widow and child. The savage emperor again pounced upon Naples, took both mother and child captive, tore out the eyes of the poor boy, and sent both him and his mother to the dungeons of a prison. He then plundered the whole kingdom remorselessly, and punished with great severity all the nobles who had fought for Tancred. Some were hanged, some burned alive, and others had their eyes plucked out. In the siege of a castle, God, in mercy, caused the monster to be stricken down. An instinctive sense of justice leads one to rejoice in the divine declaration, " After death cometh the judgment."

With no recognition of the fraternity of man, all Italy continued convulsed with internal feuds, the oppressed of to-day being the oppressors of to-morrow. The republics, internally, were agitated by contending factions ; while hostile fleets and armies were incessantly meeting in the shock of war. The antagonistic nobles reared their castles of massive stone, strengthened with towers, capable of repelling assault and enduring siege. Huge gates of iron defended the entrance, while armed retainers, by day and by night, patrolled the solid walls. In the interior there was constructed a still more impregnable tower, called the donjon., or keep, to which, in the last extremity, the lord could retreat with his followers. These old Feudal castles were as gloomy as prisons, and imagination can hardly conceive of a more unattractive existence than that which must have been passed within their walls. The horrors of an assault must have been almost welcome, as a relief from the dreary monotony.

The death of the emperor Henry VI. left a minor, Frederic II., hereditary heir of the imperial throne. At the same time pope Innocent III., an exceedingly energetic and ambitious man of thirty-seven, was raised to the tiara. Under his administration the ecclesiastical pretensions of the papacy soared to a stupendous height. He devised the plan of seizing upon a state in the heart of Italy, that the spiritual prerogatives of the pope might be sustained by temporal power. With consummate ability he accomplished his plans, wielding such dominion over all the temporal powers of Europe, that every monarch trembled before him. He founded the two orders of Franciscan and Dominican friars, whose especial mission it was to extirpate heresy, and to repress all spirit of inquiry, and all activity of mind.

Innocent III. also organized the inquisition, intrusting its fearful powers to the Dominicans. He addressed his orders to the sovereigns of Europe with as much arrogance as if they had been merely his body servants. He formed a league of a large number of the Italian cities, called the Guelphic league, to favor the pretensions of the pontiff, in opposition to another league called the Ghibelline, in favor of the emperor. His intrigues were innumerable to place upon the throne of the German empire a prince who would be entirely submissive to his will. Innocent retained his scepter, ever gory with the blood of heretics, for eighteen years, when he passed to the tribunal of the King of kings—he the murderer of thousands—he whose edicts have filled whole provinces with wailing and woe.

Pope Honorius III., who succeeded Innocent, refused to crown Frederic II., upon attaining his majority, until he took an oath that he would undertake the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Saracens. The kingdom of Naples was in a state of horrible anarchy, and Frederic led his armies to chastise the insurgents. He reared in Naples a magnificent palace, established a university, and greatly embellished the beautiful capital. Luxuriating in the pleasures of that delightful clime, the emperor forgot his vow to fight his way over the sands of Syria, for the rescue of the Holy City. Goaded by the reproaches of the pope, he made reluctant and inefficient preparations for the campaign, ever postponing energetic action, until Honorius died. Gregory IX., who succeeded, was so enraged by the dilatoriness of the emperor, that he thundered a bull of excommunication against him.

This act of energy accomplished its purpose. The emperor, imploring pardon, sailed for Palestine, and, landing at Jean d'Acre, commenced operations. But the pope, astounded and horror stricken, that a guilty wretch, who already by a bill of excommunication was handed over to the dominion of satan, should have the presumption to enter upon so holy an enterprise, reiterated his fulminations with renewed intenseness. He even preached a crusade against Frederic, and sent an army to ravage his Italian kingdom of Naples. Frederic, perhaps, receiving a new impulse from these assaults, pressed forward, reconquered Jerusalem, and placed the crown upon his own brow. He then returned to Europe. The emperor and the pope, both fearing and detesting each other, concluded a hollow reconciliation.

Years rolled on, when Henry, son of Frederic II., instigated by the pope, revolted against his father. The energetic monarch crushed the rebellion, sent his son into imprisonment for life, ravaged the plains of Lombardy, which had sympa thized in the treason of the prince, with fire and sword, and reestablished his power. The pope again excommunicated Frederic, and directed a crusade against him as the enemy of the church. The emperor, in retaliation, put every one to death whom he found wearing the symbol of the cross. The pope summoned a council. The emperor sent a fleet to arrest the French bishops on their voyage. Genoa joined the pope; Pisa the emperor. The hostile squadrons met near the island of Melona. The imperial party were the victors. Immense treasure, in specie, fell into their hands ; and the captive prelates were conveyed to Pisa, heavily loaded with chains forged from silver. The pontiff died of chagrin ; but the rancor of his spirit lived in his successor, Innocent IV. Secretly he re-paired to Genoa, thence to France, and summoned at Lyons a general council of bishops from France, Spain, and Italy. One hundred and forty met; and with all the pageantry and solemnities of ecclesiastical power, declared that the emperor had forfeited all his dignities, and that his subjects were absolved from their oaths of allegiance.

This was the most pompous act of excommunication the church had ever issued. It paralyzed the arm of Frederic. For five years he struggled unavailingly against the adverse fortune, in which these anathemas involved him, till in the silence of the tomb he found refuge from the scenes of a tumultuous life, such as few mortals have experienced.

Innocent IV., sheltered at Lyons, welcomed, with indecent rejoicings, the tidings of the death of Frederic II. He returned to Rome, through Lombardy, visiting most of the Guelph cities, where he was received with great rejoicing. The Ghibelline cities, which had espoused the imperial cause, were in consternation, and breathlessly awaited their doom. But Conrad IV. the son and successor of Frederic II., hastened to Italy, to revive their drooping courage. The pope declared that the kingdom of Naples, by the deposition of Frederic II. had reverted to the papacy. War was of course the result. Different cities espoused different sides. There were burnings, plundering, carnage, outrage in every form, misery of every aspect. The imperial army at length prevailed. Affairs were thus when Conrad IV. died in the year 1254, leaving an infant son.

The hopes of the pope revived. The holy father raised an army and marched into the Neapolitan provinces, and forced all the barons to take the oath of allegiance to the holy see. Just then death's arrow cleft the air and quivered in the heart of Innocent IV. There was a sable hearse, nodding plumes, waxen tapers, processions of ecclesiastics in all the imposing robes of the church, chants, and requiems,—and Innocent IV., in the darkness and silence of the tomb, was left to be forgotten, while the insane strife of pride and ambition raged in the sunlight, without any check.

Rome was but a den of robbers. The populace were ignorant, fanatical, and blood-thirsty ; the aristocracy, both ecclesiastical and temporal, were haughty and licentious. The monuments of ancient grandeur were converted by the barons into fortified castles, from whence they emerged for war or plunder, often filling the streets of the city with feuds, rapine, and bloodshed. The pope had exerted a little restraint; but his removal to Lyons, where he resided for five years, left the city to excesses which became absolutely intolerable. The citizens, in their despair, sent for a Balognese noble, the celebrated Brancaleone, and invested him with almost dictatorial power. Energetically and nobly he accomplished his mission. At the head of the citizens he attacked the fortresses of the infamous nobles, who had set at defiance all the authority o civil law. One hundred and forty of these citadels, withi the walls, were battered down, the assailants Laving first hanged their occupants on their own walls. This salutary severity worked quite a reform in the Roman pandemonium.

In the Lombard republics, the conflict between the aristocracy and the people increased in intensity, until in a fierce civil war the people triumphed, and placed one of their partisans at the head of the government, which now retained only the empty forms of a republic. It was still one of the principal objects of the papacy to wrest Naples from the emperor. Upon the death of Alexander IV. his successor, pope Urban IV. offered the crown of Naples to the powerful French count Charles, of Anjou and Provence, if he would take the oath of allegiance to the pope, and aid in the conquest of the kingdom. Charles accepted the terms with alacrity. Accompanied by a thousand cavaliers, with well tempered coats of mail, composed of a double net work of iron rings—with helmets, gorgets, cuirasses, brassets, and cuishes of solid steel, he sailed from Marseilles to Rome. His powerful army advanced by land, cutting its route through Lombardy.

While these movements were in progress Urban IV. died, and Clement IV. succeeded to the tiara. By him Charles, of Anjou, was solemnly crowned, in the church of the Lateran, in Rome, king of the Two Sicilies. He then Advanced to conquer and take possession of his kingdom. An illustrious general, Manfred, was then in the supreme command of the imperial forces, and virtually king. The hostile forces met on the plains of Grandella. The battle was fierce. But Manfred was slain, his army dispersed, and the kingdom submitted to the victor. In accordance with the ferocity of the times, the principal adherents of Manfred were slain ; his wife and children were sent to a prison, where they lingered through all the remaining years of their wretched lives ; and the whole country in the vicinity of the battle was surrendered to the soldiers for pillage, and for the indulgence in any license passion might instigate.

Two years after this battle the emperor, Conradin, then but nineteen years of age, crossed the Alps from Germany, with an army, to recover his lost kingdom of Naples. Triumphantly he traversed northern and central Italy, and entered the frontiers of the Neapolitan kingdom The young warrior was outgeneraled by the veteran chieftain ; his troops were out to pieces, and the young emperor, who had not yet attained his twentieth year, was taken captive and infamously executed. As he stood upon the scaffold and bowed his neck to the executioner, he exclaimed :

" O, my mother ! dreadful will be the grief that awaits thee for my fate"

Florence had attained the first rank among Italian cities. With sunny skies, a pure and salubrious clime, and surrounded with a graceful amphitheater of hills, covered with vineyards and olive grounds, then was no other spot in beautiful Italy which surpassed it in loveliness. Commerce and agriculture had filled the city with a vast population and immense wealth. The Florentine cloths for three hundred years remained unrivaled in Europe. There were two noble families in Florence of immense wealth and power. The chief of the one noble house, that of Buondelmonti, a young man of great elegance and corresponding vanity, was affianced to a daughter of the other house, that of Uberti. But at length he abandoned her for another beauty. The indignant friends of the forsaken one, in revenge, murdered the gallant at mid-day, as, in a gala dress, on a milk-white steed, he was riding through the streets. The city was divided, and all Florence was embroiled in the deadly quarrel. The Buondelmonti party were attached to the church, and all the Guelph party rallied around them. The Uberti family were partisans of the emperor, and were warmly sustained by the Ghibellines. For thirty-three years this deadly feud continued with incessant scenes of blood-shed. At length the Ghibelline nobles, aided by some German cavalry, drove the Guelphs from the city, and seizing the government threw themselves under imperial protection.

The people, crushed by aristocratic insolence, in less than two years rose in an insurrection, and revolutionized the government, and the influence of the pope again became domi Rant. It was at this time that the celebrated Florentine coin called the florin, which attained such celebrity during the middle ages, was issued from the mint. The Ghibellines appealed to the Sicilies, then under the emperor, to aid them. The two armies met before the gates of Sienna, and the Florentine Guelphs, though arrayed in a force of thirty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, were routed with dreadful slaughter. The Guelph nobles fled, and Florence surrendered to the Ghibellines. The city was held in subjection by, a strong force of foreign lancers garrisoned within its walls.

The exiled Guelphs joined Charles of Anjou, as under the banners of the pope he marched to the conquest of Sicily. After the successful termination of this enterprise, aided by Charles, they marched upon Florence, drove out the Ghibellines, and reestablished themselves there. Such was the condition of all Italy, generation after generation. The rush of armies, the blaze of conflagration, and blood-stained fields of battle, every where meet the eye. Now one party is victorious and now the other ; and both are equally worthless. The aristocrat tramples upon the democrat; and the democrat takes vengeance by trampling still more fiercely upon the weak, whom his strong arm can crush. Imperial Germany smites metropolitan Milan. And metropolitan Milan, springing up from the blow, smites poor little Lodi. Aristocracy has been the curse of our globe, and history proves that this vice has existed with just as much venom in the heart of the plebeian as in the heart of the patrician.