The capture of Semifonte was
soon followed by peace in the Mugello and the destruction of Cambiato, which left Florence for a while tranquillity: her
general success struck forcibly on the neighbouring chiefs and communities and
altered their treatment of both vassals and weaker neighbours; for in her was
always to be found a willing and powerful liberator, not however so much from
sympathy as ambition and national interest.
Thus Montepulciano although legally pronounced to be a Seenese dependency, tendered her allegiance to the
Florentines and engaged never to acknowledge herself as belonging either to the contado or diocese of Siena; to make peace or war at
their bidding and exempt them from all tolls: to offer yearly at the Baptist’s
shrine a waxen torch of five pounds’ weight besides ten silver marks, or fifty
pounds of “good Pisan danari.”
The Counts of Capraia confiding in the strength of
their castles scorned Florentine power and infested both banks of the Arno;
robbing merchants, ill-treating travellers, and committing numberless outrages
on the peasantry: Florence, too proud for such bearding, sent an expedition
against Malborghetto, a walled town on the left bank
of the river opposite to Capraia, with directions if successful to attack the
latter; but this being deemed too hazardous and in order to bridle the counts
of Capraia, a fortress was erected on the hill immediately above, under the
name of “Monte Lupo” as intended to devour the goats of the “Capraia”.
The people of Pistoia having in 1202 taken Monte Murlo from the Counts Guidi then in alliance with Florence,
that fortress was recovered by her assistance; but like the Florentines Pistoia
erected another over against it, which was named Montale, and these chiefs
perceiving the difficulty of maintaining their position sold Monte Murlo to Florence in 1209.
Between Siena and the latter state from their balanced
strength, geographical position, and political objects, discord was continually
engendered: Florence became jealous of Siena’s acquisition of Montalcino, and
fearing that it would be followed by an attempt on Montepulciano resolved
indirectly to foment a war by reviving old disputes about territorial
boundaries, and more openly by laying siege to the Castello di Tornano which Siena was bound by treaty to protect. The
latter however being secretly bent on the acquisition of Montepulciano was
ready to receive any terms that did not interfere with this object, and by
referring their territorial claims to the Podesta and consuls of Poggibonsi, who decided against diem, the Senese avoided
foreign war but kindled such a flame of internal fire that Montepulciano was
nearly forgotten in the long and lasting scenes of civil tumult it occasioned.
After Malborghetto’s destruction and the foundation of Monte Lupo the lords of Capraia paid more
respect to Florence, and towards the end of 1204 resolving to make their peace
deputed Count Guido Borgognone with the oath of
allegiance to that republic. He engaged for himself and the people of Capraia
to pay twenty-six danari annually for each house; to
mako peace and war, except against the emperor, at the command of Florence, and
to resign all their possessions on the left bank of the Arao into her hands as
a pledge of fidelity; for which they were to be supported against every foe,
and Capraia was not to be destroyed without their own consent.
The year 1207 was remarkable at Florence for a
complete change in the form of executive government from that of consuls to a
Podestà, with very extensive authority; its tendency was to spread far beyond
original limits, and ultimately absorb all the ancient consular jurisdiction;
yet the principle of being governed by a stranger unbiassed by local prejudices
and affections was theoretically good and to a great extent beneficial in
practice, but it finally concentrated immense powers in the hands of a single
person which clashing with the equalizing notions of pure democracy did no
service to freedom; it accustomed the people to look up to one supreme hand as
the arbitrator of all their disputes and the judge of all their errors, whether
civil criminal or political; and that hand was armed with almost unlimited
powers which were rarely questioned however despotically exercised.
The civil, criminal, and military authorities were
personified in this high functionary who might usually be seen distributing
justice in every part of the city and contado followed by a splendid court with assistant judges in both branches of the law;
or again leading the citizens and auxiliaries to war in all the military parade
and pomp of majesty. It is true that his powers lasted but a yea ; latterly
only half that period; that he was seldom reappointed and only after long
intervals; that he was forced to stand a severe scrutiny before his departure,
forbidden to bring a kinsman with him to the city of his government, rarely
even his wife; that he was interdicted from mixing familiarly with the citizens
or receiving any attentions from them; but all these precautions annulled
neither the princely character nor despotism of the office: individuals changed
but the dignity remained; and in the turbulence of the many there were still
those who afterwards languished for the authority of one.
The creation of a “Capitano del Popolo” first checked
the Podestà’s power, but as there will be hereafter more to say of both these
offices it is now only necessary to observe that a Podestà was created not only
because the consuls had become partial in the distribution of personal justice
by favouring the party that supported their own election, but also to prevent
dissensions, enmities, and after vengeance on the judge when no longer protected
by official dignity.
A vigorous and impartial execution of the law in fact
required much energy when almost every sentence in criminal and political
cases, if great citizens were involved, made all the armed force of government necessary
to give it life, and occasionally carried destruction to the culprit’s
dwelling: the individual’s cause was always espoused by his friends and kindred
and the government being itself a faction was ever either a partisan, or an
enemy to one party or the other: but this belongs to later times.
The first Podestà after this permanent revival of that
office was Gualfredotto Grasselli of Milan who occupied the episcopal palace the old seat of government in
Matilda’s day, for it was long after that any public palace existed. During
this man’s rule Florence reconciled the Counts Guidi with Pistoia and renewed
her own quarrel with Siena, because availing itself of the general external
tranquillity, and occasional lulls in its own domestic quarrels, that republic
again aimed at the conquest of Montepulciano. Florence was bound by honour,
interest, and her own inclination to assist this place, while Siena confiding
in treaties and the consequent obligation of Florence to aid her in case of
war, had no fears from that quarter; she was therefore indignant not only at
seeing a Florentine army relieve the besieged, but still more so on hearing
that it had surprised and defeated her own troops near Monte Alto, and
destroyed that town. Mutual accusations, open and angry reproaches, and a
breach of the treaty of 1201, confirmed by that of 1208 was the language of
both, and Florence next year ravaged the adverse state up to d the very walls
of its capital. The towns of Rugomagno, Ibipolano,
and many others were ruined, the Senese beaten from the field and forced into
an ignominious Peace by which both Montepulciano and Montalcino were
acknowledged free and independent communities under Florentine protection.
These successes augured favourably for the new
administration and Gualfredotto was re-elected: but
success and popularity are frequently as dangerous to freedom as to individual
character: they are apt to prolong if not perpetuate the authority of one
leader by repeated renewals, until power becomes confirmed and misused and the
man corrupted: the people discover when too late that they have lost their due
influence and must either quietly submit or by struggles and blood restore the
legitimate balance.
The civil contentions in Germany; the Pope’s
partiality for Otho of Saxony; and Philip of Suabia’s consequent excommunication which gave Innocent an opportunity of declaring his
election indecorous and scandalous, have already been noticed; yet fortune did
not forsake the anathematised Ghibeline: Otho driven
from Cologne in 1206 took refuge in England while Philip and the Priest in
despite of all former curses not only became friends but kinsmen by a marriage
between Innocent’s nephew Ricardo and Philip’s daughter, with the Marche of
Ancona and Spoleto as a dower. This was followed by the reconciliation of Otho
and Philip in 1207, and the marriage of another daughter to the former who was
forthwith elected king of the Romans and successor to the imperial crown. But
scarcely hail Philip begun to enjoy some tranquillity when he fell beneath the
dagger of Otho Count Paletine in revenge for some
private injury and was succeeded in 1208 by Otho of Saxony whose recent
marriage gave him some right to the hereditary estates of his father-in-law;
and by at once renouncing all claim to Saxony and Bavaria, of which his father
had been deprived by Barbarossa, he secured the friendship of those who
actually possessed them. A second election as king of the Romans and of Germany
was deemed necessary; an alliance with Pope Innocent followed, much being
promised, as was usual with the German Caesars, in return for the imperial
crown.
Ten years of civil war were thus ended, during which
the Italian states confirmed their own independence and generally enlarged
their dominions: those of the Guelphic faction beheld with pleasure and hoped
much from an emperor attached and related to the church and about to receive
his crown from a friendly pontiff: they were deceived, and soon became aware of
their folly in believing that the political sentiments of the private prince
would not all be absorbed in the more important concerns of the emperor, and
these were ever at variance with the church and Guelphic republics. No lasting
friendship could reasonably be expected because the permanent union of
principles so utterly conflicting as royalty and democracy, is preposterous.
The Italian republics were jealous of any interference with their liberty and
it was the papal interest to sustain this feeling both as a moral barrier
against the Caesars and a physical support of the church. It consequently
became impossible for any pope and emperor long to remain on friendly terms
even though they had no other causes of discord; and from the moment of Otho’s
arrival in Italy he was as much beset by Ghibeline nobles and deputies exclusively attached to the imperial cause as by men of the
opposite party.
After engaging to fulfil all the pope’s demands by
promises which cost little and gained much, Otho purchased his Roman coronation
in 1209. It was almost immediately followed by an affray between the two
nations in which eleven hundred Germans are said to have fallen; this was the
first check to their amicable intercourse: the breach became wider by Otho’s
subsequent refusal to relinquish the inheritance of Countess Matilda with other
royalties which the church pertinaciously claimed and which the emperors easily
admitted but steadily withheld. They separated with a mutual determination to
cede nothing: dispute soon kindled into anger; anger into open war and
excommunication; and Otho’s subsequent loss of the imperial throne completed
the disaster.
Such was ecclesiastical power in those days when
worked by a skilful hand and a pliant conscience; a conscience that could hold
out excommunication as a rampart, a screen behind which all the base and evil
passions might promiscuously associate with the more devout and nobler
sentiments of our nature.
Both exerted themselves to make friends and partisans
in Italy, Otho at first looking for support from the Ghibelines as natural born
imperialists while Innocent confided principally in the Guelphic league of
Tuscany which answered but faintly to his call: his great trust was in the
young king Frederic of Sicily whose guardianship he had accepted with the solo
view of strengthening the church and keeping a prince in his hands that could
be effectually opposed to imperial power, more especially with a prospect of
gaining over all the Ghibelines to the cause of their own natural chieftain.
Completing a long contemplated marriage between his young ward and Constance of
Aragon whose father’s friendship he thus secured together with the countenance
of Philip Augustus mid many German princes; he resolved to have Frederic
elected king of Germany, asserting that he had been hitherto unjustly deprived
of the empire.
Being informed of these events Otho lost no time in
striking an early blow at his young rival’s dominions and in 1210 carried war
into the Sicilian provinces.
After considerable progress he was called away by
fresh troubles in Germany where an anathema published by Siffred Archbishop of Mainz declared that he had forfeited the imperial throne: many
princes thus loosed from their allegiance and corrupted by Philip Augustus
immediately renounced Otho’s authority and leagued against him, so that he was
forced into a hasty evacuation of all the Italian provinces and suddenly
plunged into a war where, besides many other enemies, he found the last and
most formidable in the youthful king of Sicily.
Guelphs and Ghibelines had now changed sides, the
former becoming under a Guelphic emperor the supporters of imperial prerogative
while the latter were apparently metamorphosed into ecclesiastical champions:
these names now came into general use in consequence of those of “church” and
“empire” having changed their leaders; or to speak more dearly; because the
pope now found it convenient to make use of enemies for a season as instruments
to work on the errors of Iris former friends and ruin their chief, his real and
neatest foe; and this object once accomplished the current of faction resumed
its ancient channel .
In despite of some hesitation at this formidable
enterprise, and more wavering on seeing the tears of his young and beautiful
bride, Frederic urged by Philip Augustus and the Ghibelines set forward at
eighteen or twenty years of age on the hazardous enterprise of dethroning a
veteran emperor of Germany. Proceeding to Rome for the Pontiff’s benediction
his somewhat premature and ambitious request for an immediate coronation was
discreetly refused; Innocent was too wary to let slip such patronage without a
solid exchange and wisely hastened Frederic’s departure for Genoa with his own
legate and four galleys; but any further progress was arrested by the Lombard
Guelphs who were all in arms and ready to prevent his passage.
After three months spent in preparations and vain
attempts to proceed he finally arrived at Pavia, where the difficulties opposed
to his safely reaching Cremona seemed more than doubled as both Milan and
Placentia were against him: by the Marquis of Estes aid he however succeeded in
reaching Coire in the Grisons where meeting some German adherents and pushing
rapidly on by Constance he arrived after much peril at Aix la Chapelle and was
immediately acknowledged if not crowned as king of the Romans mid Germany. Otho
meanwhile had been forced to turn his arms against Philip of France by whom he
was defeated with immense loss at Bouvines near Tournay in July 1214, and never
after recovered the ascendant: lingering on in obscurity until 1218 he expired
at the castle of Hartzburg after receiving tardy
absolution by the indulgence of a papal sanction.
Frederic was crowned king of Germany by Siffred in 1215, and at the pope’s command assumed the
cross with a promise to make war in Palestine: this wily pontiff was in no
hurry to confirm the imperial title by a coronation; on the contrary, he
distrusted fortune, and while Otho lived it was vainly demanded by Frederic for
whose young and sprouting ambition the Holy Land was deemed to be a better and
safer nursery. So jealous indeed was Innocent of imperial power even when
wielded by his own fosterchild, “The Priests’ King”
as he was scornfully termed by Otho; that he insisted on that prince’s infant
son being proclaimed monarch of Sicily in order to weaken the tethers hands;
and Frederic was not only forced to abdicate in his favour but moreover engaged
to relinquish the administration of Sicily to Pope Innocent whenever he should
receive the imperial title.
The pope in fact might now have asked anything of
Frederic who still fearful of Otho was much more ready to promise than
afterwards willing to perform; and except as a reiterated assertion of claims
which the church was determined never to give up and the emperors never to
grant; this repeated exaction of empty promises seems as absurd as it was for a
long time useless. Nor does Frederic appear to have been more faithful to his
word in Germany if Italian historians are correct in their statements; for on
the death of Otho he humbled the German branch of Este by depriving his brother
Henry of the Palatinate in despite of a previous agreement to the contrary,
which he observed only while apprehensive of the deceased emperor: by this act
the Guelphs of Germany were left in possession of Brunswick alone which they
still retain, with the important addition of the British Empire.
Innocent III died in 1216 after eighteen years and a
half of successful enterprise : eager for a Holy War and depending principally
on the Pisans and Genoese for shipping, he was in his way to reconcile those
states when death overtook him at Perugia.
Pope Innocent III may be called the establisher of
temporal ecclesiastical sovereignty at the imperial cost: he was one of the
ablest and most glorious of pontiffs, a great politician and a great
jurisconsult, with much skill in the spiritual management of Christendom: he
governed Sicily at will; Rome bowed to a senator devoted to him, and all the
neighbouring cities acknowledged his power: he had a strong following in the
Guelphic states of northern and central Italy, and the March of Ancona; which
might be considered his donation to the house of Este; after the death of Azzo
VI in 1215 was almost ready to become one of his vassals.
For such exploits the Holy See remains his debtor, but
“undefiled religion” and humanity must ever condemn such an institution as the
Inquisition established in 1209; an institution, says Gibbon with well directed
bitterness, “more adapted to confirm than refute the existence of the evil
principle of the Paulicians the belief in which it was principally intended to
destroy”. Nor does he deserve less execration for his crusades against the
Pagans of Livonia and the simple unoffending Albigeois;
or his employment of the sanguinary and fanatical, but sincere and audacious
Saint Dominic, whom as well as the more rational Saint Francis, he bound firmly
to the church by a pretended vision of their being chosen as its peculiar
champions.
As the Albigeois or
Paulicians under the name of “Paterini” appear for a
moment in Florentine history it will not be irrelevant to offer a short account
of a sect so unmercifully persecuted both in Asia and Europe by that implacable
bigotry which, curtained in false Christianity, so raved and dreamed of blood.
“In the profession of Christianity,” says Gibbon, “the
variety of national character may be clearly distinguished: the natives of
Syria and Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy and contemplative devotion: the
wit of the lively and loquacious Greeks was consumed in disputes of
metaphysical theology, while Rome again aspired to the dominion of the world.”
But, according to the same author, from the beginning
of the eighth century to the last ages of the Byzantine Empire the sound of
theological controversy was never heard; all opposition had ceased, and the
Eastern church reposed in peaceful slumbers. Nevertheless about the middle of
the seventh century a branch of the Manicheans, a sect that endeavoured to
reconcile the doctrines of Christ and Zoroaster and was condemned by both
religions, became the great object of persecution in the East and ultimately led
to the reformation of the Western world.
Constantine Sylvanus an obscure individual in the
neighbourhood of Samosata in Syria received a copy of the New Testament from a
deacon who returning from captivity about the year 660 was hospitably
entertained at his house. This gift became his only study and the epistles of
Saint Paul his peculiar recreation: the names of that apostle’s disciples were
assumed by Constantine and his companions and the appellations of the primitive
churches were revived amongst the congregations they established in Armenia and
Cappadocia. From their favourite saint it is supposed that they took the name
of “Paulicians” but they employed themselves in the investigation of
Christianity at its source with a degree of success that will be variously
appreciated by the different persuasions that spring from our Saviour’s pure
and simple
They acknowledged two creative principles in the
universe, an evil and a good; the former of the visible, the latter of the
invisible world: visions, (so rife in that age) were utterly condemned by
Constantine along with most other Manichaean opinions; and he justly complained
that the followers of Christ and Paul should be branded with such an epithet as
“Manichaeism”.
Eternity of spirit and matter was part of their creed,
and a strong line of demarcation was drawn between the Old and New Testaments;
the former being by them attributed to the principle of evil, the latter to the
spirit of beneficence: they could not reconcile the crimes narrated in the
first or the epithets of a “ jealous”, “vengeful”, “ terrible” God, with the
pure mild forgiving, exalted ideas and feelings taught by the last, of his
benevolence, his justice, and perfection; and they accordingly hated it as the
invention of demons.
Images, pictures, relics, and the mediation of saints
were alike excluded from their faith the only rule of which they asserted to be
the simple expressions of gospel.
Believing in the rationality of the Christian
dispensation they fearlessly applied the divine faculty of reason to the study
of scripture while allegory was occasionally brought to the aid of exposition
and implicit belief.
They admitted the spiritual advent of Christ but
denied his incarnation; the crucifixion was to them an unreal representation to
deceive the Jews; the mother of Christ but a simple woman; and men were angels
fallen from pristine glory who would in due time resume their former dignity.
The zealous labours of Constantine produced
corresponding effects; his disciples were recruited from the remnants of
Gnostic heresy, from the Manicheans, the Catholics, and the followers of
Zoroaster in Cappadocia and Pontus, but had no other distinction than their
simple scriptural names or that of “Fellow Pilgrims”; no gradation of rank was
then thought of, and the fervour of honest zeal and a sincere austerity their
most coveted distinction.
Constantine fell a martyr to Greek persecution and was
stoned to death by a weak disciple as the price of his own pardon when his
companions turned shuddering from the deed; as persecution continued their
numbers increased, and in one short reign it is said that a hundred thousand
were sacrificed to the idol of intolerance.
In the ninth century, from 445 to 480, being driven to
desperation they revolted in Armenia and the neighbouring provinces, and,
joining the Saracens, united the Koran the Scripture and the sword, making long
and bloody wars on the Byzantine princes. The Paulicians of Thrace a colony
from those of Armenia successfully repelled persecution, assisted their less
fortunate brethren and gained many proselytes even amongst the savage
Bulgarians.
In the tenth century, favoured by the Emperor Zimices who was pleased with their bravery, they still
flourished; Alexius Comnenus endeavoured to recover them and for a while
succeeded, but they deserted his standard in the Norman war and relapsed into
their former heresy. In the thirteenth century their primate’s residence was on
the confines of Croatia, Bulgaria and Dalmatia, and the congregations of France
and Italy were governed by his deputies: the Bulgarians when first moved by
trade, carried the Paulician doctrines along the valley of the Danube and into
the heart of Bohemia where they sowed good seed for Wickliff, Huss, and Jerome
of Prague. The Armenian Paulicians, availing themselves of the various caliphs’
tolerance of all Christian sects, carried their opinions with their commerce
into Africa, Spain, and finally into Languedoc, a neighbouring province to
Moorish Iberia, where Raymond Count of Toulouse gave them shelter in and about
Albi.
From this centre the doctrines of the Albigeois spread rapidly wherever the Provençal language
was spoken or understood, from Catalonia even to the plains of Lombardy. In
Italy where they met, both from west and east, they were principally
distinguished by the name of “Paterini” or sufferers,
an appropriate term, and became extremely numerous; for the civic spirit of
free cities seems to have been generally unfavourable to persecution, which in
the twelfth century had not properly begun.
At Milan where they appeared about 1176 they were
known by the various denominations of “ Catari”, “Credenti”,
“Gazzari” and “Concorrenti”,
and though, still unpersecuted, were fiercely
preached against by the Archbishop Galdino and his clergy.
The trade and policy of Venice too opened another door
for the entrance of these sectaries, and their doctrines were silently
propagated even in the midst of Rome which they hated for its idolatry and
intolerance.
They were now connected by a certain form of episcopal
and presbyterian government and had various shades of belief amongst themselves
while all agreed in denying that the real body of Christ was on the cross and
in the Eucharist. Their worship was simple and their manners harmless; but from
the first they seem to have been doomed to suffering, and the blood that flowed
in France rose, like the fabled waters of Arethusa, from an eastern source.
In Italy they were comparatively unharmed; but in
Languedoc under the auspices of Innocent III and his instrument the fierce and
implacable Dominic their assemblies disappeared, their disciples fled, and
streams of blood and mangled bodies filled their temples, to vindicate the
pontiff’s pure and exclusive Christianity. Yet their spirit, was not crushed,
it breathed secretly but unspent, and while it emitted bright but untimely
sparks in Wickliff, Huss, and Jerome of Prague, it was silently preparing the
way for a Zwingli, a Calvin and a Luther.
The Paterini ore
supposed to have found their way into Italy in the eleventh century and to
Florence in the twelfth; there about the year 1212, a certain Filippo Paternon was chief of the sect with a numerous following of
powerful citizens.
Their custom was to discourse much and frequently at
their meetings, both men and women; and after the preaching all prostrated
themselves before the bishop who placed his hands successively on each: this
ceremony was called the “Consolation” from which was probably derived their
appellation of “consolati”, Their hierarchy consisted
of four orders, namely, the bishop; the “elder son”; the “younger son”; and the
deacon, who succeeded by the imposition of hands. They increased so rapidly
that Giovanni di Velletri bishop of Florence took some steps to check their
progress aided by local, imperial, and ecclesiastical law, and above all by the
zeal of Dominican and Franciscan monks who with all the vigour and enthusiasm
of young votaries soon began to distinguish themselves in the extirpation of
heresy; the former by preaching and inquisitorial persecution; the latter also
by preaching, but generally united to a more Christian-like example of
gentleness poverty and humility.
Giovanni da Salerno prior of Santa Maria Novella and
two other Dominicans were the greatest obstacles to the propagation of new
religious creeds in Florence until the advent of their great Achilles the Fra
Pietro da Verona, but better known as “San Piero Martire” about the year 1244.
His violent and overbearing eloquence rolling from the pulpit of Santa Maria
Novella inflamed orthodox zeal as much as it irritated heretical sensibility; a
band of defenders rallied about the preacher and a military order was self-created
for his protection. Amongst these was the chronicler Donato Velluti’s ancestor already mentioned, a man of great prowess and skill in arms who lived
one hundred and twenty years and was much distinguished in the religious
conflicts that ensued.
The military attitude taken by this ecclesiastical
champion and his monastic followers produced a similar effect on the Paterini who thus driven to extremities openly defied the
church and dared its preachers: squabbles soon commenced, occasional affrays
and tumults succeeded, and then pitched battles in the streets of Florence
again awakened the echos of her towers and temples.
The tall dark form of Pietro, young ardent and robust, was seen grasping a
red-cross banner and with all the spirit of eloquence leading his mad crusaders
into blood. Two great battles took place, and in both the Paterini were defeated: both spots are still marked by columns; one at the Croce al Trebbio, the other at Santa Felicità,
and the saint’s standard is yet preserved and even occasionally displayed to
refresh the faith of a devout and admiring public. After these two defeats the Paterini gradually diminished and were little heard of in
Florence beyond the middle of the thirteenth century, but the Veronese monk who
was murdered in Lombardy about the year 1252 is said to owe the honours of
martyrdom to the vengeance of these fugitives.
We have already seen that the spirit of political as
well as religious party began to rise as early as 1177, and excepting some
short intervals of uneasy repose, remained in a state of violence until 1182.
From this epoch there are no accounts of actual war within the city until 1215
: but nearly five years of hard fighting between two great factions of
undiminished force was unlikely to be followed by a dead calm except from
exhaustion; or by any oblivion of injury in an age and country where revenge was
a duty, not a crime.
The great power and independence of the newly created
Podestà together with external hostilities, probably assisted in maintaining
peace in a city that prided itself on being founded under the protection and
ascendant of Mars, and therefore doomed by fate to everlasting troubles. Hence Roccuzzo de’ Mozzi is made by Dante to say,
“ Io fui della città, che nel Batista
Cangiò ’l prime Padrone, onde ci per questo
Sempre con l’ arte sua la farà trista.”
Disputes which had so long occupied the attention of
Italy were not without participation in Florence, where the quarrels of church
and empire did not fail to create two adverse opinions, but as yet confined to
words, the prevailing politics being Guelphic and papal, while the opposition
led by Uberti was entirely imperial, were accidental circumstances; but
combined with and as it were grafted on local politics, drew a distinct line
between contending factions and foreboded mischief
In the year 1215 according to an ancient manuscript
published from the Buondelmonti library, Messer Mazzingo Tegrini de’ Mazzinghi invited many Florentines of high rank to dine at his villa near Campi about six
miles from the capital; while still at table the family jester snatched a
trencher of meat from Messer Uberto degli Infangati who nettled at this impertinence expressed his
displeasure in terms so offensive that Messer Oddo Arrighi de’ Fifanti as sharply and unceremoniously rebuked him : upon
this Uberto gave him the lie and Oddo in return dashed a trencher of meat in
his face.
Everything was immediately in confusion; weapons were
soon out, and while the guests started up in disorder young Buondelmonte de’ Buondemonti, the friend and companion of Uberto, severely
wounded Oddo Arrighi.
The party then separated and Oddo called a meeting of
his friends to consider the offence: amongst them were the Counts Gangalandi, the Uberti, Amidei, and Lamberti, who
unanimously decided that the quarrel should be quietly settled by a marriage
between Buondelmonte and Oddo’s niece, the daughter of Messer Lambertuccio di Capo di Ponte, of the Amidei family. This
proposition appears to have been unhesitatingly accepted by the offender’s
family as a day was immediately nominated for the ceremony of plighting his
troth to the destined bride.
During the interim Madonna Aldruda or Gualdrada, wife of Forese de’ Donati sent privately for young Buondelmonte
and thus addressed him. “Unworthy Knight!—What!—Hast thou accepted a wife
through fear of the Fifanti and Uberti? Leave her
that thou hast taken, choose this damsel in her place, and be henceforth a
brave and honoured gentleman”. In so saying she threw open the chamber door and
exposed her daughter to his view: the unexpected apparition of so much beauty, as
it were soliciting his love, had its usual consequence; Buondelmonte’s better reason was overcome, yet he had resolution to answer. “Alas! it is now
too late!” “No” replied Aldruda; thou canst even yet
have her; dare but to take the step and let the consequences rest on my head”—“I
do dare,” returned the fascinated youth, and stepping forward again plighted a
faith no longer his to give.
Early on the tenth of February, the very day appointed
for his original nuptials Buondelmonte passed by the Porta Santa Maria amidst
all the kinsfolk of his first betrothed, who had assembled near the dwellings
of the Amidei to assist at the expected marriage, yet not without certain
misgivings of his faithlessness. With a haughty demeanour he rode forward
through them all, bearing the marriage ring to the lady of his choice and
leaving her of the Amidei with the shame of an aggravated insult by choosing the
same moment for a violation of one contract and the consummation of a second;
for in those days, and for centuries after, the old Roman custom of presenting
a ring long before the marriage ceremony took place was still in use.
Such insults were then impatiently borne; Oddo Arrighi
assembled his kindred in the no longer existing church of “Santa Maria supra
Porta” to settle the mode of resenting this affront, and the moody aspect of
each individual marked the character of the meeting and all the vindictive
feeling of an injured family; there were however some of a more temperate
spirit that suggested personal chastisement or at most the gashing of Buondelmonte’s face as the most reasonable and effectual
retribution. The assembly paused, but Mosca de’ Lamberti starting suddenly
forward exclaimed, “Beat or wound him as ye list, but first prepare your own
graves, for wounds bring equal consequences with death”—“No.—Mete him out his
deserts and let him pay the penalty: but no delay.—Up and be doing.—Cominciamo a fare, chepoi, cosa fatto capo ha”
This turned the scale and Buondelmonte was doomed, but
according to the manners of that age; not in the field which would have been hazardous;
but by the sure though inglorious means of noonday murder; wherefore, at the
very place where the insult was offered; beneath the battlements of the Amidei,
nay under the casement of the deserted maiden, and in his way to a happy
expecting bride, vengeance was prepared by these fierce barons for the perjurer.
On Easter morning 1215, the murderers concealed
themselves within the courts and towers of the Amidei which the young and
heedless bridegroom was sure to pass, and he was soon after seen at a distance
carelessly riding alone across the Ponte Vecchio on a milk-white palfrey
attired in a vest of fine woollen cloth, a white mantle thrown across his
shoulders and the wedding garland on his head. The bridge was passed in
thoughtless gaiety, but scarcely had he reached the time-worn image of the
Roman Mars, the last relic of heathen worship then extant, when the mace of Schiatto degli Uberti felled him
to the ground; and at the base of this grim idol the daggers of Oddo and his
furious kinsmen finished the savage deed: they met him gay and adorned for the
altar and left him with the bridal wreath still dangling from his brow a bloody
and ill-omened sacrifice. The tidings of this murder spread rapidly, and
disordered the whole community of Florence; the people became more and more
excited because both law and custom had awarded due penalties for faithless
men, and death was an unheard of punishment.
Buondelmonte’s corpse was placed on a bier with its head resting in the lap of his
affianced bride, the young and beautiful Donati, who hung like a lily over the
pallid features of her husband; and thus united were they borne through the
streets of Florence. It was the gloomy dawning of a tempestuous day, for in
that bloody moment was unchained the demon of Florentine discord; the names of
Guelph and Ghibeline were then for the first time
assumed by noble and commoner as the cry of faction; and long after the
original cause of enmity had ceased they continued to steep all Italy in blood.
It has been shown that there were already two parties
existing in the commonwealth; but it was not until after this outrage that the
whole community divided under the above appellations, one part siding with the
Buondelmonti who were for the most part Guelphic chiefs and adherents of the
church; the other with the Uberti, leaders of the Ghibelines and partisans of
the Empire. Of seventy-two powerful families mentioned by Malespini,
thirty-nine joined the Buondelmonti’s banner and
thirty-three fought under the colours of their enemies, but many more houses of
distinction took part in the civil war; many afterwards changed sides through
quarrels with their chiefs; many of the Buondelmonti who before were Ghibelines
now became Guelphs; the former were stigmatised with the epithet of “Paterini” and the latter with that of “Traditori”.
Nevertheless an attempt at reconciliation was made in
1239, by marrying Neri Piccolino degli Uberti to the
daughter of Rinieri Zingani de’ Buondelmonti, a lady celebrated for her wisdom beauty and talents. Trusting
to this tie the Uberti and some friends repaired with confidence to visit Bertaldi de’ Buondelmonti of Campi but were treacherously
attacked and beaten back with some bloodshed; this renewed the war with greater
violence and Neri dismissed his wife to her own relations declaring that he
disdained to become the propagator of a traitorous brood from a deceitful
stock. The unfortunate lady was then compelled by her father to marry Count Pannochino de’ Pannochieschi on
whose mercy she threw herself imploring permission to retire into a convent;
for though abandoned by her husband she protested that she was still his wife
and therefore never could belong to another. Her motives were respected, her
prayer generously granted, and she immediately took the veil in the convent of Montecelli.
Immediately after Buondelmonte’s death a low and angry murmur rolled sullenly through the whole Florentine
population and instinctive preparations were everywhere in progress for some
dimly apprehended danger: as yet all was calm, but dark clouds were gathering
around and the echo of distant thunder marked the coming storm. Each house was
armed and fortified; towers were again mounted with warlike engines; Serragli were erected; the shops all closed; the
people in painful doubt, and ancient citizens who remembered the troubles of
other times looked on and trembled. Nor was their apprehension vain; the curse
of Heaven seemed to rest on this devoted city and with but little cessation
during three and thirty years did Florence reek with the blood of her children!
and still they struggled but without any advantage on either side until
Candlemas night of the year 1248 when the Ghibelines drove their adversaries
from Florence and a public act proclaimed them banished men. Thus the young
Donati’s beauty like that of the Grecian Helena was fatal to the happiness of
Florence and well might her poet exclaim,
The house from which proceeded all your wo,
Through that just anger that hath ruin’d ye
And ended all your sometime happy days,
Was honour’d much and all
its consorts too.
O Buondelmontc, in an evil
hour
Did others’ counsel break thy plighted troth !
Many would fain rejoice that now are sad
If God had given thee to Etna’s wave
When cityward thou first didst wend thy way.
But fate decreed to that grey time-worn stone
Which guards the bridge that Florence cuts in twain,
One victim to her last sad hours of peace.
Contemporary Monarchs.—Emperors, Philip King of
Germany, (never crowned at Rome), Otho IV and Frederic II, a rival
Emperor.—Pope Innocent III.—England : King John (died 1216).—France : Philip
Augustus.— Greece: Alexius IV. 1203.—Latin Emperors of Constantinople from 1204
to 1261: Baldwin, Henry II (1206 to 1216).—Leon and Castile : Alphonso IX.
—Aragon: Pedro II.—Scotland: William the Lion, from 1166 to 1214.
