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At this time
the states of Italy were governed in the following manner: the Romans no longer
elected consuls, but instead of them, and with the same powers, they appointed
one senator, and sometimes more. The league which the cities of Lombardy had
formed against Frederick Barbarossa still continued, and comprehended Milan, Brescia,
Mantua, and the greater number of the cities of Romagna, together with Verona,
Vicenza, Padua, and Trevisa. Those which took part with the emperor, were
Cremona, Bergamo, Parma, Reggio, and Trento. The other cities and fortresses of
Lombardy, Romagna, and the march of Trevisa, favored, according to their
necessities, sometimes one party, sometimes the other.
In the time of
Otho III. there had come into Italy a man called Ezelin, who, remaining in the
country, had a son, and he too had a son named Ezelin. This person, being rich
and powerful, took part with Frederick, who, as we have said, was at enmity
with the pope; Frederick, at the instigation and with the assistance of Ezelin,
took Verona and Mantua, destroyed Vicenza, occupied Padua, routed the army of
the united cities, and then directed his course towards Tuscany. Ezelin, in the
meantime, had subdued the whole of the Trevisian March, but could not prevail
against Ferrara, which was defended by Azone da Este and the forces which the
pope had in Lombardy; and, as the enemy were compelled to withdraw, the pope
gave Ferrara in fee to this Azone, from whom are descended those who now govern
that city. Frederick halted at Pisa, desirous of making himself lord of
Tuscany; but, while endeavoring to discover what friends and foes he had in
that province, he scattered so many seeds of discord as occasioned the ruin of
Italy; for the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines multiplied,—those who
supported the church taking the name of Guelphs, while the followers of the
emperor were called Ghibellines, these names being first heard at Pistoia.
Frederick, marching from Pisa, assailed and wasted the territories of the
church in a variety of ways; so that the pope, having no other remedy, unfurled
against him the banner of the cross, as his predecessor had done against the
Saracens. Frederick, that he might be suddenly abandoned by his people, as
Frederick Barbarossa and others had been, took into his pay a number of
Saracens; and to bind them to him, and establish in Italy a firm bulwark
against the church, without fear of papal maledictions, he gave them Nocera in
the kingdom of Naples, that, having a refuge of their own, they might be placed
in greater security. The pontificate was now occupied by Innocent IV., who,
being in fear of Frederick, went to Genoa, and thence to France, where he
appointed a council to be held at Lyons, where it was the intention of
Frederick to attend, but he was prevented by the rebellion of Parma: and, being
repulsed, he went into Tuscany, and from thence to Sicily, where he died,
leaving his son Conrad in Suabia; and in Puglia, Manfred, whom he had created
duke of Benevento, born of a concubine. Conrad came to take possession of the
kingdom, and having arrived at Naples, died, leaving an infant son named
Corradino, who was then in Germany. On this account Manfred occupied the state,
first as guardian of Corradino, but afterward, causing a report to be
circulated that Corradino had died, made himself king, contrary to the wishes
of both the pope and the Neapolitans, who, however, were obliged to submit.
While these
things were occurring in the kingdom of Naples, many movements took place in
Lombardy between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. The Guelphs were headed by a
legate of the pope; and the Ghibelline party by Ezelin, who possessed nearly
the whole of Lombardy beyond the Po; and, as in the course of the war Padua
rebelled, he put to death twelve thousand of its citizens. But before its close
he himself was slain, in the eightieth year of his age, and all the places he
had held became free. Manfred, king of Naples, continued those enmities against
the church which had been begun by his ancestors, and kept the pope, Urban IV.,
in continual alarm; so that, in order to subdue him, Urban summoned the
crusaders, and went to Perugia to await their arrival. Seeing them few and slow
in their approach, he found that more able assistance was necessary to conquer
Manfred. He therefore sought the favor of France; created Louis of Anjou, the
king’s brother, sovereign of Naples and Sicily, and excited him to come into
Italy to take possession of that kingdom. But before Charles came to Rome the
pope died, and was succeeded by Clement IV., in whose time he arrived at Ostia,
with thirty galleys, and ordered that the rest of his forces should come by
land. During his abode at Rome, the citizens, in order to attach him to them,
made him their senator, and the pope invested him with the kingdom, on
condition that he should pay annually to the church the sum of fifty thousand
ducats; and it was decreed that, from thenceforth, neither Charles nor any
other person, who might be king of Naples, should be emperor also. Charles
marched against Manfred, routed his army, and slew him near Benevento, and then
became sovereign of Sicily and Naples. Corradino, to whom, by his father’s
will, the state belonged, having collected a great force in Germany, marched
into Italy against Charles, with whom he came to an engagement at Tagliacozzo,
was taken prisoner while endeavoring to escape, and being unknown, put to
death.
Italy remained
in repose until the pontificate of Adrian V. Charles, being at Rome and
governing the city by virtue of his office of senator, the pope, unable to
endure his power, withdrew to Viterbo, and solicited the Emperor Rodolph to
come into Italy and assist him. Thus the popes, sometimes in zeal for religion,
at others moved by their own ambition, were continually calling in new parties
and exciting new disturbances. As soon as they had made a prince powerful, they
viewed him with jealousy and sought his ruin; and never allowed another to rule
the country, which, from their own imbecility, they were themselves unable to
govern. Princes were in fear of them; for, fighting or running away, the popes
always obtained the advantage, unless it happened they were entrapped by
deceit, as occurred to Boniface VIII., and some others, who under pretense of
friendship, were ensnared by the emperors. Rodolph did not come into Italy,
being detained by the war in which he was engaged with the king of Bohemia. At
this time Adrian died, and Nicholas III., of the Orsini family, became pontiff.
He was a bold, ambitious man; and being resolved at any event to diminish the
power of Charles, induced the Emperor Rodolph to complain that he had a
governor in Tuscany favorable to the Guelphic faction, who after the death of
Manfred had been replaced by him. Charles yielded to the emperor and withdrew
his governor, and the pope sent one of his nephews, a cardinal, as governor for
the emperor, who, for the honor done him, restored Romagna to the church, which
had been taken from her by his predecessors, and the pope made Bertoldo Orsino
duke of Romagna. As Nicholas now thought himself powerful enough to oppose
Charles, he deprived him of the office of senator, and made a decree that no
one of royal race should ever be a senator in Rome. It was his intention to
deprive Charles of Sicily, and to this end he entered into a secret negotiation
with Peter, king of Aragon, which took effect in the following papacy. He also
had the design of creating two kings out of his family, the one in Lombardy,
the other in Tuscany, whose power would defend the church from the Germans who
might design to come into Italy, and from the French, who were in the kingdom
of Naples and Sicily. But with these thoughts he died. He was the first pope
who openly exhibited his own ambition; and, under pretense of making the church
great, conferred honors and emolument upon his own family. Previous to his time
no mention is made of the nephews or families of any pontiff, but future
history is full of them; nor is there now anything left for them to attempt,
except the effort to make the papacy hereditary. True it is, the princes of
their creating have not long sustained their honors; for the pontiffs, being
generally of very limited existence, did not get their plants properly
established.
To Nicholas
succeeded Martin IV., of French origin, and consequently favorable to the party
of Charles, who sent him assistance against the rebellion of Romagna; and while
they were encamped at Furli, Guido Bonatto, an astrologer, contrived that at an
appointed moment the people should assail the forces of the king, and the plan
succeeding, all the French were taken and slain. About this period was also
carried into effect the plot of Pope Nicholas and Peter, king of Aragon, by
which the Sicilians murdered all the French that were in that island; and Peter
made himself sovereign of it, saying, that it belonged to him in the right of
his wife Gostanza, daughter of Manfred. But Charles, while making warlike
preparations for the recovery of Sicily, died, leaving a son, Charles II., who
was made prisoner in Sicily, and to recover his liberty promised to return to
his prison, if within three years he did not obtain the pope’s consent that the
kings of Aragon should be invested with the kingdom of Sicily.
The Emperor
Rodolph, instead of coming into Italy, gave the empire the advantage of having
done so, by sending an ambassador, with authority to make all those cities free
which would redeem themselves with money. Many purchased their freedom, and
with liberty changed their mode of living. Adolpho of Saxony succeeded to the
empire; and to the papacy, Pietro del Murrone, who took the name of Celestino;
but, being a hermit and full of sanctity, after six months renounced the
pontificate, and Boniface VIII. was elected.
After a time
the French and Germans left Italy, and the country remained wholly in the hands
of the Italians; but Providence ordained that the pope, when these enemies were
withdrawn, should neither establish nor enjoy his authority, and raised two
very powerful families in Rome, the Colonnesi and the Orsini, who with their
arms, and the proximity of their abode, kept the pontificate weak. Boniface
then determined to destroy the Colonnesi, and, besides excommunicating,
endeavored to direct the weapons of the church against them. This, although it
did them some injury, proved more disastrous to the pope; for those arms which
from attachment to the faith performed valiantly against its enemies, as soon
as they were directed against Christians for private ambition, ceased to do the
will of those who wished to wield them. And thus the too eager desire to
gratify themselves, caused the pontiffs by degrees to lose their military
power. Besides what is just related, the pope deprived two cardinals of the
Colonnesi family of their office; and Sciarra, the head of the house, escaping
unknown, was taken by corsairs of Catalonia and put to the oar; but being
afterward recognized at Marseilles, he was sent to Philip, king of France, who
had been excommunicated and deprived of the kingdom. Philip, considering that
in a war against the pontiff he would either be a loser or run great hazards,
had recourse to deception, and simulating a wish to come to terms, secretly
sent Sciarra into Italy, who, having arrived at Anagnia, where his holiness
then resided, assembled a few friends, and in the night took him prisoner. And
although the people of Anagnia set him at liberty shortly after, yet from grief
at the injury he died mad. Boniface was founder of the jubilee in 1300, and
fixed that it should be celebrated at each revolution of one hundred years. In
those times various troubles arose between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions;
and the emperors having abandoned Italy, many places became free, and many were
occupied by tyrants. Pope Benedict restored the scarlet hat to the cardinals of
the Colonnesi family, and reblessed Philip, king of France. He was succeeded by
Clement V., who, being a Frenchman, removed the papal court to Avignon in 1305.
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